flesh a withering dying arm avail us shadow us to day and leave us to morrow raise us up now and within a while let us fall into the dust and at last fall down and perish with us Man is weak and dieth man given up the ghost and where is he where is I will not say Alexander or Caesar but where is Moses that led his people through the red sea where are his lawes where is David S. Peter speaks it freely that he was both dead and buried and that his Sepulchre was with them unto that day but the son of David is ascended into Heaven is our Priest for ever and lives for evermore And this title of eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire adorns his burning feet is engraven on his sword may be read in his countenance and platted in his crown and doth well become his power his wisdome his justice his goodnesse for that which is not eternall is next to nothing what power it that which sinks what wisdome is that which failes what riches are they that erish what mercy is that which is as the morning dew which soon falls and is as soon exhaled and dryed up again Vertue were nothing Religion were nothing Faith it self were nothing but in reference to eternity Heaven were nothing if it were not eternall Eternity is that which makes every thing something which makes every thing better than it is and addes lustre to light it self I live evermore gives life unto all things Eternity is a fathomlesse ocean and it carries with it powâ—r and wisdome and goodnesse and an efficacious activity a gracious and benevolent power a wise and provident goodness for if he live for evermore then is he independent if he be independent then is he most powerfull and if he be most powerfull then is he blessed and if be blessed then is good He is powerfull but good good but wise and these Goodnesse and Care and Wisdome and a diligent care for us meet in him who lives for evermore and works on us for our eternall salvation And first as he lives for evermore so he intercedes for us for evermore and he can no more leave to intercede for us than he can to be Christ for his Priesthood must faile before his Intercession because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably inherent in him St. Paul joyns them together his sitting at the right hand of God and his interceding of us Rom. 8.34 so that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God where he looks down upon us is present with us and prepares a place for us his Wounds are still open his Merits are still vocall his Sufferings are still importunate his everlasting presenting of himself before his Father is an everlasting prayer Jesus at the right hand of the father more powerfull than the full vials the incense the prayers the grones the sighs the roarings of all the Saints that have been or shall be to the end of the world and if he sate not there if he interceded not they were but noise nay they were sins but his intercession sanctifies them and offers them up and by him they are powerfull and by this power the sighs the breathing the desires of mortall fading men ascend the highest heavens and draw down eternity And this is a part of his Priestly office which he began here on earth and continues for us makes it compleat holds it up to the end of the world Again this title of eternity is annexed to his Regality and is a flower of his Crown not set in any but his Thou art a King for ever cannot be said to any mortall Did he not live for evermore he could not threaten eternall death nor promise everlasting life for no mortall power can rage for ever but passeth as lands do from one Lord to another lyes heavy on them and at last sinks to the ground with them all nor can the hand that must wither and fall off reach forth a never-failing reward Infinitude cannot be the issue and product of that which is finite and bounded within a determined period And this might open a wide and effectuall door unto sin and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Vertue and Piety which is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood that the perseverance in it requires no lesse a power than that which Eternity brings along with it to draw it on How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People what joy and delight would fill them did not the thought of a future and endless estate pierce sometimes through them and so make some vent to let it out when the evill that hangs over them is but a cloud which will soon vanish few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter Post mortem nihil est Ipsaque mors nihil there is nothing after death and death it self is nothing sets up a chair for the Atheist to sit at ease in from whence he looks down upon those who are such fools as to be vertuous and smiles to see them toil and sweat in such rugged and unpleasing wayes carried on with a fear on the one side and a hope on the other of that which will never be And indeed how weary and how soon weary would men be of doing good if there were not a lasting recompence if they were not half perswaded for a ful perswasion is but rare that there were something laid up in everlasting habitations Honour Repute and Advantage these may bring forth a Hypocrite these may bind on the phylacteries on a Pharisee but nothing can raise up a Saint but eternity nor can that which fleeteth and passeth away build us up in a holy faith and then there would be no such ship as Faith which might feare a wreck 2 Tim. 1.19 no such anchor as Hope our faith were vain our hope were also vain and we were left to be tossed up and down on the waves of uncertainty having no haven to thrust into but that which is as turbulent uncertain as the sea it self and with it ebbs and flowes and at last will ebb into nothing But vivo in aeternum I live for evermore derives an eternity to that which in it self is fading makes our actions which end in the doing of them and are gone and past eternall our words which are but wind eternall and our thoughts which perish with us eternall for we shall meet them again and feel the effect of them to all eternity It makes Hell eternall that we may flie from it and Heaven eternall that we may presse towards it and take it by violence Christs living for ever eternizeth his threatnings and makes them terrible his promises and makes them perswasive and eloquent eternizeth our faith and hope eternizeth all that is praise-worthy that they may be as a passe or letters commendatory to
and Hell is Hell Virtue is Virtue and vice is vice to the Understanding nor can it appeare otherwise for in these we cannot be deceived what Reason can that be which teacheth us to Act against Reason Esau knew well enough that it was a sinne to kill his Brother but his Reason taught him to expect his Fathers Funerall Ahab knew it was a crying sinne to take Naboths Vineyard from him by violence and therefore hee would have paid down money for it and his painted Queene knew as much but that the best way to take possession of his Vineyard was to dispossess him of his life and the surest way to that was to make him a Blasphemer that was the effect and product of Reason and Discourse which is the best servant when the Will is Right and the worst when shee is irregular Reason may seek out many Inventions for Evill and shee may discover many helps and Advantages to promote that which is good she may draw out the method which leads to both find out opportunities bring in Encouragements and Provocations to both but Reason never yet call'd Evill good or Good evill 2 Thess 3.2 for then it is not Reason the Apostle hath joyn'd both together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they be wicked they are unreasonable and absur'd for they doe that which Reason abhorres and condemnes at the first presentment So that the will you see is origo boni mali is the prinipall cause of Good and Evill That I will not understand when I cannot but understand is from the will that the Judge is blind when he sees well enough what is just and what is unjust is not from the Bribe but the Will That my feare shakes me my Anger enflames me my Love Transports me my sorrow casts me downe and my joy makes me mad That my Reason is Instrumentall and Active against it self That my Passions rage and are unruly is from my will which being fastened to its Object drawes all the Powers of the Soul after it And therefore if the will Turne all these will Turne with it Turne to their proper offices and Functions The Understanding will be all Light and the Affections will be all Peace for the proper Act of every Faculty is its Peace when the Understanding contemplates that Truth which perfects it it rests upon it and dwells there as upon a holy Hill But when it busies it self in those which hold no proportion with it as the gathering of Wealth the raysing of a Name the finding out pleasures when it is a Steward and Purveyor for the Sense it is restlesse and unquiet now finds out this way anon another and by by disapproves them both and contradicts it self in every motion When our Affections are levell'd on that Affectiones ordinatae sunt virtutes Gers for which they were given us they lose their name and wee call them Virtues but when they fly out after every impertinent Object they fly out in infinitum and are never at their end and rest place Love on the things of this VVorld and what a troublesome Tumultuous Passion is it tiring it self with its own Hast and wasting and consuming it selfe with its owne Heat but place it on Piety and there it is as in its Heaven and the more it spends of it self the more it is increased Let your Anger kindle against an Enemy and it is a Fury that Torments two at once but derive it and lay it on your sin and there it sits as a Magistrate on a Tribunall to worke your Peace That sorrow which wee cast away upon Temporall losses is a Disease which must be cured by Time but our sorrow for sinne is a Cure it self is a second Baptisme washes away the Causes of that Evill and dyes with it and rises up againe in Comfort That joy which is rays'd out of Riches and Pleasure is rais'd as a Meteor out of dung and is whiffed up and downe by every winde and Breath but if it follow the Health and Harmony the good Constitution of the Soule it is as cleare and pure and constant as the Heavens themselves and may be carried about in a lasting and continued Gyre but is still the same And this Turne the Affections will have if the will Turne then they Turne their face another way from Bethaven to Bethel from Ebal to Garazin from the Mount of Curses to the Holy Hill We cannot Think that in this our Turne the Powers of the Soul are pull'd to pieces that our Affections are plucked up by the roots That our Love is Annihilated our Anger destroyed our Zeal quencht By my Turne I am not dissolved but better built I have new Affections and yet the same now dead and impotent to evill but vigorous and active in Good my steps are altered not my Feet my Affections cut off the Character is chang'd but not the Book That sorrow which covered my face for the losse of my Friend is now a Thicker and Darker cloud about it because of my sinne That hope which stoop'd so low as the Earth as the mortall and fading vanities of the world is now on the wing raising it selfe as high as Heaven That Zeale which drove Saint Paul upon the very pricks to persecute the Church did after lead him to the block to be crown'd with Martyrdome If the Will be Turned that is captivated and subdued to that Will of God which is the Rule of all our Actions it becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Shop and Work-house of Virtuous and Religious Actions and the Understanding and Affections are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow-workers with it ready to forward and Compleat the Turne Saint Bernard tells us that nothing doth Burne in Hell but our will and 't is as true Nothing doth reigne in Heaven but the will In it are the wells of Salvation and in it are the waters of Bitterness in it is Tophet and in it is Paradise Aug. Hom. 8. Totum habet qui bonam habet voluntatem saith Austin he hath runne through all the Hardship and Exercises of Repentance who hath not changed his opinion or improv'd his knowledge but alter'd his will for the Turne of the will supposeth the rest but the rest doe not necessitate this when this is wrought all is done that is The Soul is enlightened purged renewed hath its Regeneration and new Creation in a word when the Will is turn'd the soul is saved The Old man is a New Creature and this New Creature changes no more but holds up the Turne till he be Turn'd to Dust and raysed againe and then made like unto the Angels THE SIXTH SERMON PART II. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes c. This Turn is a Turn of the whole man of his understanding his affections nay of his senses of the eye and the ear from vanity of the tast from forbidden fruit of the touch from that which it must not handle a
are but as one day so in the case we now speak of a thousand a million a world of men are with him but as one man and when the Lord Chief Justice of Heaven and Earth shall sit to do judgement upon sinners what Caligula once wantonly wished to the people of Rome all the world before him have but as it were one neck and if it please him by that jus pleni Dominii by that full power and Dominion he hath over his creature A Platone dicitur Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide Plutarch quaest convival l. 8. q. 2. He may as he welneer did in the Deluge strike it off at a blow His judgements are past finding out and therefore not to be questioned He is the great Geometrician of the World which made all things in number weight and measure and hath infinitely surpast all human inventions whatsoever and therefore we cannot do him less honour then Hiero King of Sicily did to Archimede the great Mathematician for when he saw the Engins which he made and the marvellous effects which they did produce he caused it to be proclaimed that whatsoever Archimede did after affirme how improbable soever it might seem yet should not once be called into question but be received and entertained as a truth Let the course of things be carried on as it will let death passe over the door of the Egyptian and smite the Israelite let Gods Thunder misse the house of Dagon and shiver his own Tabernacle yet God is just and true and every man a liar that dares but ask the question why doth He this Look over the whole Book of Job and you shall see how Job and his Friends are tost up and down on this great deep For it being put to the question why Job was thus fearfully handled his Friends ground themselves upon this conclusion that all affliction is for sin and so lay folly and hypocrisie to his charge and tell him roundly that the judgement of God had now found him out though he had been a close irrigular and with some art and cunning hid himself from the eye of the World but Job on the contrary as stoutly pleads and defends his innocencie his justice his liberality and could not attain to the sight of the cause for which Gods hand was so heavy on him why should his Friends urge him any more Job 30.32 or persecute him as God they dispute in vain for in their answers he sees nothing but lies At last when the controversie could have no issue C. 21.34 Deus è machina God himself comes down from Heaven and by asking one question puts an end to the rest Job 38.2 who is this that darkneth Counsel with words without knowledge condemns Iob and his Friends of ignorance and weaknesse in that they made so bold and dangerous attempt as to seek out a cause or call his judgement into question 2. It may be we may save the labor that we need not move the question or seek any reason at all for in these common calamities which befall a people it may be God doth provide for the Righteous and deliver him though we perceive it not Some examples in Scripture make this very probable the old World is not drowned till Noah be stript and in the Ark the shower of fire falls not on Sodom till Lot be escaped Daniel and his fellows though they go away into captivity with rebellious Judah yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respects in the Land into which they go and which was a kinde of leading captivity captive they had favour and were intreated as friends by their enemies who had invaded and spoiled them And may not God be the same upon the like occasions How many millions of righteous persons have been thus delivered whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded some things of no great worth are very famous in the world when many things of better worth lie altogether buried in obscurity caruerunt quia vale sacro because they found none who could or would transmit them to posterity Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona no doubt but before and since millions have made the like escapes though their memory lies rak'd up and buried in oblivion But then suppose the righteous do taste of the same cup of bitternesse with the wicked yet it hath not the same taste and relish to them both for calamity is not alwayes a whip Calamitas non est poena militia est minus Foe lix nor doth God alwayes punish them whom he delivers over to the sword to lose my goods or life is one thing and to be punisht another it is against the course of Gods providence and justice that innocency should come under the lash Gen 28.23 shall not the Judge of all the earth do right yes he shall and without any breach of his justice take away that breath of life which he breathed into our Nostrils though we had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression for he may do what he will with his own and take away our goods or lives from us when and how he pleaseth because he is Lord over them and we have nothing which we received not from his hands God is not alwayes angry when he strikes nor is every blow we feel given by God the avenger for he may strike as a Father and therefore these evils change their complexions and very natures with the subject upon whom they are wrought they are and have the blacknesse of darknesse in the one but are as Angels and messengers of light to the other and may lead the righteous through the valley of death into the land of the living when the wicked are hewen down by the sword to be fuel for the fire What though they both be joyned together in the same punishment as a Martyr and a Thief in the same chain August de civitate Dei l. 1. c. 8. yet manet dissimilitudo passorum in similitudine passionum though the penalties may seem alike yet the difference is great betwixt the patients though the world perhaps cannot distinguish them and death it self which is a key to open the gates of Hell to the one may be no the other what the Rabbles conceive it would have been to Adam had he not fallen but osculum pacis a kisse of peace a gentle and loving dismission into a better state to conclude this then a people a chosen people a people chosen out of this choice Gods servants and friends may be smitten Josiah may fall in the battle Daniel may be lead into Captivity John Baptist may lose his head and yet we may hold up our inscription Dominus est it is the Lord. And now let us but glance upon the inscription and so passe to the third particular and the first sight of it may strike a terror into us and make us afraid of those sins which bring these general judgements upon
him Non pareo Deo sed assentior ex antmo illum non quia necesse est sequor saith the Heathen Sencca I do not onely obey God and do what he would have me but I am of his minde and whatsoever is done in Heaven and earth is done as I would have it The world is never out of frame with me I see nothing but order and Harmony no disturbance no crossnes in the course of things for that wisdome which is the worker of all things is more moving them any mâ—…on Wisd 7. and passeth and goeth through them all reacheth from one end to another mightily and draws every motion and action of men to that end in which if we could see them we should wonder and cry out so so thus we would have it The stubornest knee may be made to bow and Obedience may be constrained Balaam obeyed God but it was against his will but the true Israelite doth it with joy and readinesse and though it be a blow counts it as a favour For he that gave it hath taught him an art Psal 115.3 to make it so Goa doth whatsoever he will in Heaven and in Earth saith the Psalmist God wills it and doth it and when â—is done our will must bow before it and we must say with old Ele Faciat quod bonum in oculis let him do what he will Take the will of God in those several wayes the Scripture and the light of reason hath discovered it to us and in every kinde we must subscribe and vvhat he doth vve must vvill and vvhat he vvill suffer must seem good in our eyes and there is voluntas naturalis inclinationis aesiderti that desire and inclination which naturally was in him to work and wish the good of his Creature which is the proper and natural effect of his goodnesse for he Created us for our good and his Glory and there is another will voluntas Pâ—aecâ—pti the Law and Ordinance vvhich he hath laid upon his Creature vvhich is every vvhere in Scripture called his will for as he Ordained his Creature for good so he made known unto it the means by vvhich it should attain to that good for vvhich it vvas at first Ordained Now vve cannot but yeeld in these for can therebe any Question made vvhether vve vvil set a fiat and subscribe to our ovvn good It is strange that any man should be unwilling that God should love him unwilling to be happy or loath that way which so great love hath designed to bring him to this end The number is but few of those that do this will but t is the voice of the whole Christian World that this will should be done But there is yet further as we may observe voluntas accasionata a secondary and Consequent will in God not natural but occasioned and to which he is in a manner constrained The severity of God the miseries and afflictions of this life induration of will-ful and stubborn sinners eternal paines laid up in the World to come are the effects of this occasioned will Besides this there is voluntas permissionis his permissive will by which he doth give way so far as he thinks good to the intents and actions of evil men He doth not command them He doth not secretly suggest them nor doth he incline the Agents to them nor incline the Philistines to invade that Land which is none of theirs but by his infinite praescience foreseeing all actions and events possible determines for reasons best known to himself to give way to such actions which he saw would be done if he gave way and to these two we cannot but yeeld unlesse we will deny him to be God for if we beleeve him just or wise we cannot but say Fiat let him do what he will let him be angry and let him carry on his anger in what wayes and by what means he please He is our Father O Foelicem cui Deus dignatur irasci Teâ—tul and loves us and if we vvill be enemies to our selves he doth but an act of Justice and of mercy if he use the rod vvhat though he give line to vvicked men to do that vvhich his soul hates to suffer that to be done vvhich he forbids He permits all the evil that is done in the World if he did not permit it it could not be done and if he did not permit evil Obedience vvere but a name for vvhat praise is it not to do that vvhich I cannot do vvhatsoever evil he suffers his Wisdome is alvvayes present vvith him for he is Wisdome it self and can dravv that evil vvhich he but suffers to be done and make it serve to the Advancement of that good vvhich he vvill do he vvill make it as the hand of justice to punish offendors and execute his vvill and make it as his rod or Discipline to teach sinners in the way if vve could once subdue our vvills to that vvill of his vvhich is visible in his precepts if vve could ansvver love vvith love and love him and keep his Commandments vve should have no such aversnesse from the other tvvo no such dislike if he do vvhat he is forced to do or permit that to be done which he hath condemned already If we do whatsoever he commands us and be his friends what is it to us though he binde the sweet influences of the Pleiades Job 38.31 Deut. 28.3 Job 38.38 or loose the bonds of Orion though he make the Heavens as brasse and the Earth as iron though the clods cleave fast together and the clouds distil not upon them what is it to us if he beat down his own Temples when the tower of Babel reacheth up to Heaven if the black darknesse be in Goshen and the Egyptians have light if fools sport and triumph in their folly and the whip be laid on the back of the innocent what is it to us how or where he casts about his Hail-stones and coals of fire Si Fractus illabatur Orbis Impavidos ferient ruinae Horat. â—d In all these sad and dismal events in these judgements which fall crosse with our judgement and as the eye of flesh looks upon them to the minde of God himself in all these perplexities these riddles of providence the friend of God is still his friend and favours nay applauds whatsoever he doth or is pleased to suffer to be done which he would not suffer did not his Justice and Wisdome require it which is able to make the most crooked paths straight to fill every valley and level every mountain to work good out of evil and so make all those seeming extuberancies that which to us seem'd disorder and confusion that which our ignorance wondered at smooth and plain and even at the last Dominus est it is the Lord when that word is heard let every mouth be stopt or let it declare his Glory amongst the Nations and his wonders among the people at
which is no service but the glorious liberty of the sons of God then thou art in him thou mayest assure thy self thy residence thy abode thy dwelling is in Christ Thirdly If we dwell in Christ we shall rely and depend on him as on our tutelary God and Protector and so we may be said to dwell in him indeed as in a house which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Civilian our fort and Sanctuary commune perfugium saith Tull. our common place of refuge and what is our hope whither should we fly but to him I am thine save me saith David because I am thine because I have none in Heaven but thee and on earth desire none besides thee Thou art my House my Castle my Fortresse and Defence thou art my Hope to the ends of the World thou art my Christ And this is a principal mark of a true Christian of a man dwelling in Christ that he wholy flings himself into his Protection that he here sixeth his hope and doth not busie himself to finde any shelter but here for as the full perswasion of the Almighty power of God was the first rise to Religion the fountain from which all worship whether true or false did flow for without this persuasion there could be none at all and we finde this relying on his power not onely rewarded but magnified in Scripture Heb. 11. so the acknowledgement of Gods wonderful power in Christ by which he is able to make good his rich and glorious promises to subdue his and our enemies and do abundantly above all that we can conceive to work joy out of sorrow peace out of trouble order out of confusion life out of death is the foundation the pillar the life of all Christianity and if we build not upon this if we abide not if we dwell not here we shall not finde a hole to hide our heads For man such is out condition even when he maketh his nest on high when he thinks he can never be moved when he exalteth himself as God is a weak indigent insufficient creature subject to every blast and breath subject to misery as well as to passion subject to his own and subject to other mens passions when he is at his highest pitch shaken with his own fear and pursued with other mens malice rising soaring up aloft and then failing sinking and ready to fall and when he falls looking about for help and succour when he is diminished and brought low by evil and sorrows he seeks for some refuge some hole some Sanctuary to flie to as the sieman speaks of the Conies they are a generation not strong and therefore have their Burrows to hide themselves in Prov. 30. Now by this you may know you dwell in Christ if when the tempest come you are ready to run under his wing and think of no house no shelter no protection but his Talk what we will of Faith if we doe not Trust and rely on him we doe not believe in him For what is faith but as our Amen to all his promises our subscription to his Wisdom and power and goodnesse and here we fix our tabernacle and will abide till the storm be overpast Beleeve in him and not trust in him you may say as well the Jews did love him when they nayled him to his Crosse Why are you fearful Matt. 8.26 Oh ye of little faith said Christ to his Disciples that faith was little indeed which would let in fear when Christ the wisdom of the Father and mighty power of God was in the ship little lesse then a grain of mustardseed which is the least of seeds so little that what Christ calls here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little faith he plainly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelief Matt. 17.20 the faith of this World the weak and cowardly faith of this world which speaks of principalities and powers speaks swelling words and at the sight of a cloud which is not so big as a mans hand strikes in and is not seen but leaves us groaning under every burden for to such a faith every light affliction is so leaves us to complaints and despaire or to those inventions which will plunge us in greater evils then those we either suffer or fear The unbeleeving man he that dwells not in Christ hath either no place to fly to or else that he flyes to is as full of molestation and torment as that which he did fly from he flies to himself from himself he flies to his wit and that befools him he flies to his strength and that overthrows him he flies to his friend and he failes him he asks himself counsel and mistrusts it asks his friend Counsel and is afraid of it he flies to a reed for a staff to impotency and folly and hath not what he lookt for when he hath what he lookt for is ever seeking ease and never at rest and when these evils without him stir up a worse evil within him a confiscience which calls his sins to remembrance what a perplext distracted thing is he what shifts what evasions doth he catch at her runs from room to room from excuse to excuse from comfort to comfort he flutters and flies to and fro as the Raven and would rest though it were on the outside of the Ark. This is the condition of those who are not in Christ but he that dwelleth in him that abideth in him knoweth not what fear is because he is in him in whom all the treasuries of Wisdom and power are hid and so hath ever his protection above him knows not what danger is for wisdom it self conducts him knows not what an enemy is for power guards him what misery is for he lives in the Region of happinesse he that dwells in him dwells in his armory cannot fear what man what devil Eph. 7. what sin can do unto him because he is in his armory abides in him safely as in a Sanctuary as under his wing I know whom I have trusted saith Saint Paul not the world not my friends 2 Tim 1,12 not my riches not my self for not onely the world and riches and friends are a thin shelter to keep off a storm but I know nothing in my self to uphold my self but I know whom I have trusted my Christ my King my Governour and Counsellor who hath taken me under his roof who cannot denie himself but in these evil dayes in that great day will be my patron my defence my protection And thus doth the true Christian dwell and abide in Christ 1. admiring his majesty 2. Loving his command and 3. by depending wholy upon his protection these three fill up our first part our first proposition that some act is required on our parts here exprest by dwelling in him 2. part We passe now to our second that something is also done by Christ in us some virtue proceeds from him which is here called dwelling in us There goes forth virtue
should start out of his Sphere if I lose not the sight of that brightness which should direct me in my way to blisse what were it to me if I were necessitated to Beggary so I be not a predestinate Bankrupt in the City of the Lord Let him doe what he will in Heaven and in earth Let the Sun goe back let the Starres lose their light let the Wheele of Nature move in a contrary way Let the pillars of the world be shaken Let him doe what he will It concerns us not further then that we say Amen so be it for we must give him leave who made the world to govern it If all other Events and Actions were necessary we might well sit down and lay our hands upon our mouth But here 't is est de totâ possessione we speak not of Riches and Poverty or faire weather and tempests but of Everlasting life and everlasting Damnation and to entitle God either directly or indirectly to the sinnes and death of wicked men so to lay the Scene that it shall appeare though mask'd and vail'd with limitations and distinctions and though they be not positive yet leave such Premises out of which this conclusion may easily be drawne is a high reproach to Gods Infinite Goodnesse a Blasphemy however men wipe their mouthes after it of the greatest magnitude not to speak the worst it is to stand up and contradict him to his face and when he swears he would not have us die to proclame it to all the world that there be Thousands whom he hath killed already and destroyed before they were and so Decreed to doe that from all Eternity which in Time he swore he would not doe I speak not this to rake the Ashes of any of those who are dead who either maintained or favoured this Opinion nor to stirr the Choler of any man living who may love this Child for the Fathers sake but for the honor of God and his everlasting goodnesse which I conceive to be strangely violated by this Doctrine of Efficacious permission or by that shift and evasion of a positive efficiency joyn'd as it is said inseparably with this permission of sinne which is so farre from colouring it over or giving any lovelinesse to it that it renders it more horrid and deformed and is the louder blasphemy of the two which clothes as it were a Devil with Light which yet breaks through it and rages as much as if he had been in his owne shape Permission is a faire word and bodes no harm but yet it breathes forth that poysonous exhalation which kills us for but to be permitted to sinne is to be a child appointed to death The Ancients especially the Athenians did account some words ominous and therefore they never us'd to speak them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prison they called the House The Hangman Helladius apud Photium the Common Officer and the like and the Romanes would not once mention Death or say their friend was dead but Humanitùs illi Accidit we may render it in the Scripture Phrase He is gone the way of all flesh what their fancy lead them to Religion should perswade us to think that some words there be which we should be afraid to mention when we speake of God Excitacion to sinne Inclination Induration Reprobation as they are used are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-boading words but yet we must not with the Heathen onely change the language and meane the same thing and call it Permission when our whole Discourse drives this way to bring it forward and set it up for a flat and Absolute Compulsion for this is but to plough the wind to make a way which â—…oses of it self as soone as it is made this is not to Teach men but to amaze them Sermo per deflexus anfractus veritarem poâ—rus quâ—…il quam ostendit saith Hilary when men broach these contradictions to known and common Principles when they make these Meanders these windings and turnings in their Discourses they make it also apparent that they are still in their search and have not yet found out the Truth Let us therefore Fontem à Capite fâ—dere as neere as we can lay open the ground of this mistake and Error and we shall find it to be an error as great as this and hath the same tast and relish with the fountaine from whence it flowed For they who make Gods will which is but permissive Effective at the very mention of Gods will Think of that absolute will of his which cannot be resisted by which he made the Heavens and the earth and so acknowledge no will of God but that which is absolute and effective as if that will of his by which he would have us doe something were the same with that by which he will doe something himself and so in effect make not onely the Conversion but the Induration of a sinner the worke of his Omnipotency But were not men blind to all objects but those they delight to look on they might easily discerne a great difference and that Gods will is broken every Day His Natural Desire which is his will to save mankind is that fulfilled if it were there could be no Hell at all His command that is his will what moment is there wherein that is not resisted we are those Divells which kindle that fire which he made not for us we are those sonnes of Anak those Gyant-like fighters against Heaven which break his Commands with as great ease as Samson dip his Threads of Towe We are like those Leviathans which break the bounds which he hath set us that esteem Iron as straw with whom his Threatnings which he darts at us are accounted as stubble and can we who so often break his will say That his will is alwayes fulfilled For againe we must not imagine That all things that are done in the world are the worke of his hand or the effect of that Power by which he brings mighty things to passe nor can we so much forget God and his Goodness as to imagine that upon every Action of man he hath set a Dixit factum est he spake the word and it was done he commanded and it became Necessary for some Actions there be which God doth neither absolutely will nor powerfully resist but in his Wisedome permitteth to be done which otherwise could not be done but by his permission nor doth this will of permission fall crosse with any other will of his not with his absolute will for he absolutely permitteth them not with his primary and Naturall will for though by his Naturall will he would bring men to happinesse though he forbid sinne though he detest it as that which is most contrary to his very nature and which makes men Divels and Enemies to him yet he may Justly permit it and the reason is plaine For man is not as
himself out of the snare of the Devill maternus ei non deest assectus she is still a Mother even to such Children her shops of spirituall comfort lie open there you may buy Wine and Milk Indulgences and Absolution but not without money or money-worth be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will There is Physick there are Cordialls to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a Schoole of Virtue then a Sanctuary for Offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to conveigh their Merits to us on Earth wee cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them downe in Pardons and Indulgences but yet though we cannot finde this power the re which is a Power to doe nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my Brother yet I may beare for him Gal. 6.2 even portare onus fratris beare my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my Death nor profit in my Dust yet there may be in my memory of my good Counsel my Advice my Example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae Consult Cass c. de Relig. 5. saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints and though my Death cannot satisfy for him yet it may Catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever and by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in Turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry Hand and a narrow Heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant wavering mind we cure the palsie for we can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of Lyes For as there is an Invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves which union though the Eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appeare and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which doe attend this union which are as so many Hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigor into the whole body so must the members also annoynt each other with this Oyle of Gladnesse Each member must be Active and Industrious to expresse that Virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his owne but every man anothers Wealth saith the Apostle not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more naturall to man or who is neerer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his owne but as it may bring advantage and promote the Good of others not presse forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not goe to Heaven but saving some with feare and pulling others out of the fire Ep. Iud. 23. and gathering up as many as his Wisedome and care and zeal towards God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane Societies and those Politick Bodies which men build up to themselves for their Peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non Convenit that is a most unnecessary superfluous part or Member for which the whole is not the better ut in sermone literae saith Austin as letters in a word or Sentence so men are Elementa Civitatis the principles and parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republique and he that endeavours not the advancement of the whole is a Letter too much fitt to be expung'd and blotted out but in the Church whose maker and Builder is God it is required in the highest degree especially in those transactions which may enlarge the Circuit and glory of it here every man must be his own and under Christ his Brothers Saviour for as between these two Cities so between the happinesse of the one and the happinesse of the other there is no Comparison As therefore every Bishop in the former Ages called himself Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae a Bishop of the Catholick Church although he had Jurisdiction but over one Diocesse so the care and Piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive Operation is as Catholick as the Church every soul he meets with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul in saving a soul from Death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit or ascend the Chaire I may be eyes unto him Numb 10.31 as it was said of Hobab I may take him from his Error and put him into the way of truth if he feare I may scatter it If he grieve I may wipe off his Teares If he presume I may teach him to feare and if he despaire I may lift him up to a lively Hope that neither feare nor grief neither Presumption nor despaire swallow him up thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sinne and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by his friendly communication transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so runne hand in hand from the Chambers of Death And thus farr we dare extend the Communion of Saints place it in a House a Family a society of men called and gathered together by Christ raise it to the participation of the Priviledges and Charters granted by Christ calling us to the same faith leading us by the same rule filling us with the same Grace endowing us with severall Gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in thoe Offices and Duties which Christianity makes common and God hath registred in his Church which is the Pillar of Truth where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Feares and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these Helpes and Advantages of God above ready to Help us of men like unto our selves prest out as auxiliaries to succour and relieve us of Precepts to guide us of Promises to encourage us of Heaven even opening it self to recerve us then to die is to die as fools die to suffer their hands to be bound and their feet put in fetters and to open their Breast to the sword for to die alone is not so grievous not so imputable as to die in such Company
it the Idea and platform of a Church a Mornarchy is the best form of Government saith the Philosopher and therefore say they at Rome the fittest for the Church Judges are set up to determine controversies in the Common-wealth and by this pattern they erect a Tribunal for a Judge in matters of faith Temporal felicity and peace is the desire of the whole earth hence they have made it a note and mark of the Church of Christ like the wanton Painter in Pliny who drew the picture of a Goddesse in the shape and likenes of his Paramour and thought that was best and fittest which he best likt From hence it is from our too much familiarity with the world from our daily parlies with vanity from our wanton Hospitality and free reception of it into our thoughts and the delight we take in such a guest we are deceived and lose all the strength of our judgement not able to distinguish between Heaven and earth or discern that one differeth from the other in glory and being thus blinded having this vail drawn before our face we are very apt to take the Church and the world to be alike miscere Deum saeculum to mingle God and the world together and place our selves betwixt them and so make vanity it self our companion in our way to happinesse From hence it is that when we see the sword and persecution to rage against the professors of the Gospel we think that not onely the Glory is departed but the light of Israel is quite put out that when a kingdom is shaken and wasted the gates of Hell hath prevailed against the Church as groundlesse a conceit well neer as if we should take the description of Heaven in the Revelation to be true in the letter and think that it is a City of pure Gold that the foundations of the walls are adorned with precious stones that every gate is pearl and the streets shine like Glasse And therefore in the third place let us cast down these imaginations these bubbles of winde and aire The third blown up by the flesh the worser part which doth soonest bring on a persecution and soonest fear it and let us in the place of these build up a royal fort build our selves up in our holy faith and so fit and prepare our selves against the fiery trial For as amongst the Heathen those Ceremonies were called Mysteries which were precedaneous and went before the Mysteries Clem. Alex l. 1. strom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he may be said to fight who doth but flourish and arms and fits himself for the battle so the blessed spirit every where calls upon those who are born of him to watch and pray and stand upon their guard Ephe. 6.11 to put on the whole armour of God that when the devil assaults them in a storm of persecution they may be able to stand in time of peace to prepare for war to look upon the sword before hand to behold the glittering of it all its terrour and take it up and handle it and then by the wisdom which the spirit teacheth dispute it out of its force and terrour saying within themselves This can but kill the body which is every day in killing it self living and dying building up it self which is next to ruine but if I faint and fall under it I lose my soul which God breathed into me and then made as immortal as himself and whilest I fly from the edge of the sword my backsliding carries me into the pitt of destruction Thus by a familiar conversing with it before the blow In pace labore incommodis bellum pati discunt in armis deambulando campum decurrendo fossam metrendo c. Tert. ad Marry res c. 3. by opposing our Hopes of Happiness to the smart and Death it may bring by setting up Life against Death and Eternity against a moment we may abate its force and violence and so conquer before we fight This is our military Discipline this is our Spirituall exercise our Martyrdome before Martyrdome This bindes the sacrifice with cords to the Hornes of the Altar and makes it ready to be offered up This prepares us for Warre that we may have peace peace before we fight whilst we rest on the Authority In militaris disciplinae sinu rutela serenus beatae pacis status acquiescit Val. Max. l. 7. c. 3. and command of our Emperor and in his strength for we may doe all Things in Christ that strengthneth us and then peace everlasting Peace the reward and Crown of victory Every day to a Christian Souldier is Dies Praeliaris a day of Battell in which he makes some assault or other and gaines advantage on the adversary for however the day may be faire and no cloud appeare yet the sentence is gone out All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution 2 Tim 3.12 What shall all be torne on the rack and bruis'd on the wheel shall all be sacrific'd shall all be Martyrs yes all shall be Martyrs though many of them lose not a drop of blood Habet pax suos Martyres for there is a kinde of Martyrdome in Peace for he that thus prepares and fitts himself he that by an assiduous mortifying of himself which indeed is in some degree to Deify himself builds up in himself this firme resolution to leave all to suffer all for the name of Christ and the Gospel he suffers before he suffers he suffers though he never suffers there wanting nothing to compleat it but an Ismael but the Tyrant and the Executioner he cannot but be willing to leave the world who is gone out of it already Be ye therefore ready for in an Houre when you think not Matt. 24.44 the Son of man the Captain of your Salvation may come and put you into the lists though the trumpet sound not to battell yet Bellum status est nomen qui potest etiam esse cum operationes ejus non exerit Grot. de Jure belli pacis is it not peace And if you ask mee how you shall make ready and address your selves what preparation is required I may say it is no more then this To love the Truth which you professe to make it your guide your Counsellour your Oracle whilst the light shines upon your head when that sayes Go to Goe and when it sayes Do this to doe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil de Humil. to exercise your soules unto Godliness and so incorporate as it were and make it Consubstantiall with them leave and imprint them there in an Indeleble Character For if you thus display and manifest it in every Action of your life if you thus fasten it to your soul and make it a part of it in time of peace you will not then part with it at a blast at the mock of an Ismael or the breath of
we beleeve that he shall Judge the world and we read that the Father hath committed this Judgement to the Son John 5.22 take him as God or take him as man he is our Lord Cum Dominus dicitur unus agnoscitur for there is but one faith and but one Lord so that Christ may well say you call me Lord and Master 1. Cor. 6.20 Colos 2.15 and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure Redemptionis by the redemption having bought us with a price and so jure belli by way of Conquest by treading our enemies under our feet and taking us out of slavery and bondage And that we may not think that Christ laid down his power with his life or that he is gone from us never to come again we will a little consider the nature of his Dominion and behold him there from whence he must come to judge the quick and the dead and the Prophet David hath pointed out to him sitting at the right hand of God where we should ever behold him Psal 110.1 and fix our thoughts our eye of faith upon him in this our watch The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand Psal 110. till I make thy enemies thy footstool which speech is Metaphorical and we cannot draw it to any other sense then that on which the intent of the speaker did levell it which reacht no further then this to shew that his own kingdom was nothing in comparison of Christs which was of another Non exparabolis materias comment mur sed exmaterijs parabolas interpretamur Tert. de puducir c. 8. and higher nature as Tertul. spake of parables we do not draw conclusions and Doctrines out of Metaphors but we expound the Metaphor by the Doctrine which is taught and the scope of the teacher nor must we admit of any interpretation which notwithstanding the Metaphor might yeeld which is not consonant and agreeable to the Doctrine and analogie of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher we can neither bring a Metaphor into a definition nor can we build an argument upon it we may say of Metaphors as Christ spake of the voice from heaven they are used in Scripture for our sakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 5. Top. c 2. for likenesse and proportions sake and serve to present Intellectual objects to the eye and make that light which we have of things familiar to us a help and medium by which we may more clearly see those which are removed and stand at greater distance For he cannot be said to sit there at the right hand of God from the position and site of his body we cannot entertain so grosse an Imagination and Saint Stephen tells us Acts. 7. he saw him standing at the right hand of God but it may declare his victory his triumph and rest as it were from his labour secundum consuetudinem nostram illi consessus offertur qui victor adveniens Honoris gratia promeretur ut sedeat it is borrowed saith Saint Ambrose from our customary speech by which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorious service and so Christ having spoiled the adversarie by his death having lead captivity captive and put the Prince of Darknesse in chaines at his return with these spoiles hears from his Father Sede ad dextram sit now down at my right hand Nor doth his right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sits For Christ himself tells the high Priest That they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God Mar◠14.12 and coming in the clouds of heaven which if it be litterally understood we must needs conceive him coming and sitting at the same time All agree it is a Metaphor and some interpret it of that supremacy he hath above the Creature for so he is described sitting at the right hand of God in Heavenly places Eph. 1.20,21 far above all principalities and powers and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the World to come Some have conceived that by this honour of sitting at the right hand of God not onely an equality with God is implyed but something more Equal to the Father as touching his God-head Ath. Cr. not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equall in all things but because in respect of the exercise and execution of his royal office he hath as it were this dignity to sit in his royal seat as Lord and Governour of his Church for the Father is said as I told you to commit all judgement to the Son Tertul de pudicit c. 9. But we may say with Tertul. malo in scripturis forte minus sapere quam contra we had rather understand lesse in Scripture then amisse rather be wary then venture too far and wade till we sink and that will prove the best interpretation of Scripture which we draw out of Scripture it self and then Saint Paul hath interpreted it to our hands for where as the Prophet David Tells us the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaks more expresly Oportet eum regnare 1 Cor. 15. he must reign till he hath put down all his enemies under his feet Heb. 8.1 and in the Epistle to the Hebrews we have such an high Priest that sits at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the Heavens that is we have such an high Priest which is also a Lord and king of Majesty and power to command and govern us who hath absolute authority over things in Heaven and things in earth over all the souls and bodyes of men and may prescribe them Laws reward the obedient and punish offenders either in this world or the next or in both for though he were a Lord and King even in his cratch and on his crosse yet now his Dominion and kingly power was most manifest and he commands his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the World and speaks not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyns Repentance and amendment of life to all the Nations of the earth which were now all under his Dominion Thus saith Christ himself it is written and thus it behoved him to suffer and to rise again that Repentance and remission of sin Luk. 24.47 might be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all Nations and his Dominion is not subordinate but absolute he commands not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but as Solomons King he is Rex Alkum a King against whom there is no rising up And now that it may appear that he is not for ever thus to sit at the right hand of God but there sits
earth and he is therefore absent and in a manner lies hid that this eye might finde him out For faith is a kinde of prospective or optick Instrument by which we see things afar off as if they were neer at hand things that are not yet as if they were turns venturus est into the present tense behold Christ not onely sitting at the right hand of God but as now already descending with a shout With this eye of faith I see new Heavens and a new earth a new face of every thing I see what a nothing that is which mortals sweat and fight for what a nothing the world is for I see it on fire I see righteousnesse peace and order constancy duration even whilst I walk in this shop of vanities this World of wickednesse this Chaos and confusion this seat of change I see honesty pittied scorn'd baffled honesty lifted up on high far above reproach or injury I see injustice powerful all conquering Triumphant injustice trembling before this Lord arraigned condemned flung down into the lowest pit there to be whipt with many stripes I see now the wisdom of men made foolishnesse and the foolishnesse of God wiser then men I see that restored which I saw lost I see the eye that was bored out in its prace again I see the plowed back with no furrow on it I see Herod in prison and John Baptist with his head on I see my goods restored before I lose them and I am in heaven before the blow is given in blisse when every eye doth pitty me and what is now left for the boasting Tyrant to do what can he take from me that is worth a thought what can he strip me of but that which I have laid down and left already behinde me will he have my goods the treasurie where they are kept is out of his reach will he take from me my good name T is written in the book of life or will he take my life my life he cannot For 't is hid with Christ in God This is sancta impudentia Fidei the holy boldnesse and confidence of faith to break through flesh and blood all difficulties whatsoever to draw down Heaven to earth and if the object be invisible to make it visible if it be at distance to make it present if the Lord say he will come to faith he is come already This operation faith will have if it be not dull'd and deaded by our sensuality for what faith is that which is not accompanied with these high apprehensions and resolutions equal to them what faith is that which leaves us weary of the truth and ashamed of our profession what faith is that which we are so ready at every frown to renounce shall I call that faith which cannot strike the Timbrel out of our hands nor the strumpet out of our armes That shews Christ coming to the Covetous yet leaves him digging in the earth to the ambitious and cannot stop him in his mount to the hypocrite and cannot strike off his mask to the Polititian and cannot make him wise unto Salvation that cannot make us displease our selves that cannot make us love our selves not awe an eye not binde a hand not silence a word not stifle a thought but leaves us with as little power and activity as they who have been dead long agoe although the venturus est the Doctrine of Christs second Advent sound as loud as the Trump shall do at the last day faith shall we call this or a weak and faint perswasion or a dream or an Echo from an hollow heart which when all the World proclaimes it venturus est he will come resounds it back again into the world a faith which can speak but not walk or work a faith which may dwell in the heart of an Hypocrite a murderer a Devil for all this he may beleeve or at least professe and yet be that liar that Antichrist which denies Jesus to be the Lord or that he ever came in the flesh or will come again to judge both the quick and the dead Secondly As it casts an Aspect upon our Faith so it doth upon hope which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of our Faith saith Clemens Alexand. Paedag. 1. Tertul. advers Gnostic c. 6. without which it will grow faint and pale and languish oportet habere aliquem spei cumulum saith Tertul. and therefore this addition of Hope to Faith is necessary for if we had all Faith and had not hope this Faith would profit us nothing and faith without Hope may be in Hell as well as on the earth Beleeve who does not or at least say so but how many expect his coming how many are saved Heb. 10. the Apostle speaks of a fearfull looking for of Judgement indeed they who hope not for it who doe but talke of it and are unwilling to beleeve themselves may be said to look for it because they ought to doe it and his coming is as certain as if they did Truly and properly they cannot be said to expect it for how should that he in their expectation which is not so much as in their thought Hope will not raise it selfe upon every Faith nor is that Faith which the most of the world most depend on a fitt Basis for hope to build upon even he that despaires beleeves or else he could not despair for who will droop for fear of that veniet of that judgement which he is so willing to perswade himself will never come Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us that we should glory in Faith an Hope and make them the subjects of our Songs and rejoycing when our Faith is but such a one as is Dead and our hope at last will make us ashamed when our Faith is the same which is in hell and our Hope will leave us with the Devil and his Angels a Faith worse then Infidelity and a hope more dangerous then despair a Faith when we doe not beleeve and a Hope when there is great reason wee should despaire and which will serve onely to adde to the number of our stripes yet this is the Faith this is the hope of the Hypocrite of the Formall Christian These are thy gods oh Israel 3. And therefore in the last place that we may joyne these two together Faith and Hope we must draw in that excellent gift of Charity which is Copulatrix virtus saith Cyprian the uniting coupling Virtue not onely of men but of these two Theologicall Virtues which will not meet together but in Love or if they do with so little truth and reality that they will rather disadvantage then help us for where Virtue is not the name is but an Accusation I told you before that hope doth Suppose Faith For we cannot hope for that which we doe not beleeve yet Faith such as it may be may shew it self and speak proud words when Charity is Thrust out of Doores and many there
up and fix that Error with which it cannot stand long Saint Paul saw it well enough though the Galatians did not If you be circumcised Christ profiteth you nothing That is is to you as if there were no Christ at all For if the false Apostles had flatly denyed Christ the Galatians would have been as ready as Saint Paul to have Cut them off because they had received the Gospel but joyning and presenting the Law with Christ they did deceive and please them well who began in the Spirit and did acknowledge him but would not renounce the Law propter metum Judaeorunt for feare of their Brethren the Jews Now these men-pleasers these Crows which devour not dead Dictum Diogenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen Deipnos l. 6. c. 17. but living men are from an Evill Egge and Beginning are bred and hatcht in the dung in the love of this world and are so proud and fond of their Originall that it is their labour their Religion and main designe of their life to bring the Truth Religion and Christ himself in subjection under it and to this end are very fruitfull to bring forth those mishapen issues which savour of the earth and corruption and have onely the name of Christ fastned to them as a badge to commend them bring them to that end for which they had a being which is to gaine the world in the Name but in despight of Christ And these are they who as Saint Peter speaks make merchandize of mens souls 2. Pet. 2.3 nummularii sacerdotes as Cyprian calls them Doctors of the Mint who love the Image of Caesar more then of God and had rather see the one in a piece of Gold then the other renew'd and stampt in a mortall man and this Image they carry along with them whither soever they goe and it is as their Holy Ghost to inspire them for most of the Doctrines they Teach savour of that mint and the same stamp is on them both The same face of Mammon which is in their Heart is visible also in their Doctrine H s 4. â— Thus Hosea complain'd of the false Prophets in his Time peccata populi mci come derunt They cat up the sinne of the People that is by pleasing them they have consented to their sinne and from hence reaped gaine for flatterry is a livelyhood or they did not seriously reprehend the sinnes of the People that they might reeive more sacrifices on which they might feed some render it Levabant animum suum ad peccata populi they lifted up their soule anhelabant they even panted after their sinne desired that they might sinne that they might make advantage and so made them evill to make themselves Rich. For from hence from hence from that for which we cannot find a name nor have a Thought bad enough from a desire to be rich breaks forth that mark of a slave our desire to please Saint Paul hath made a window into their breasts that we may see them with the same hand coyning their Dectrine and Money Rom. 16.18 They that are such serve not the Lord Jesus but their own Belly and by good words and fâ—…re Speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple Serpents they are to Deceive and the Curse of the serpent is upon them upon their belly they goe and they eat Dust all the dayes of their life For a wonderfull Thing it is to see how the love of the world will Transforme men into any shape sometimes to fawne like a Dog sometimes to rage like a Lion and then to lurke like a Fox how like the Charity of the Gospel it makes them to beare all Things beleeve all Things endure all T hings Contumelias in quaestn habere et injuriis pasci to count Contumelies gain and to feed and feed sweetly on Injuries to speak what they doe not think to like what they condemn to mortify themselves to eye and cringe and bow and fall to the ground which is a kind of Mortification more then they will doe for Christ who brings Poverty disgrace and contempt and hath no reward but that which is laid up for the future This brought Plato the great Philosopher a ship-board to sayle to Dionysius his Court Naz. Or. 3. and there laid him down at his feet this made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Nazianz. speaks prefer a Halfe-peny before his goods This was the evill Spirit in the mouth of those lying prophers which did prevaile with Ahab to goe up and fall at Ramoth Gilead This makes men speak not with mens Persons but with their Fartunes not with thye sinner but with the rich and Noble man and this Spirit is abroad still and perswades some into their Graves and some into Hell rayses every storme and every Tempest and makes that desolation which we see upon the Earth Val. Max. l. 4. c. 3. We read that Aristippus found Diogenes washing his Herbs and Roots his daily food and in a kind of pitty or scorne told him That if he would flatter Dionysius he need not eat these nor tye himself to such course fare but Diogenes replies like a Philosopher and returns his saying upon him Si tu ista esse velles Dionysio non adulareris If thou couldest content thy self and feed on these thou wouldst never be so base as to flatter Dionysius And certainly if we could with the Lyrick be content with Nature for our purveyour and look for no supply but from her Hand Having Food and Raiment as Saint Paul speaks could we be there with content did we not enlarge our desires as Hell and send our hopes afarr off did we not love the world and the things of this world we should not thus debase and annihilate our selves as being men our selves to make our selves the shadows of others in their morning to rise with them at their noone and highest to come up and close with them and then at their night fall out and leave them in the dark we should not mould and fitt our best part to their worst our Reason to their lust nor make our fancy the Elaboratory to work out such Essaies which may please and destroy them we should not foment the Anger of the Revenger to consume him nor help the Covetous to bury himself alive nor the Ambitious to break his Neck nor the Schismatick to rend the Seamlesse coat of Christ nor the seditious to swim to Hell in a River of Blood but we should bind the Revengers Hands break the Misers I dols bring down the Ambitious to the Dust make up those rents which Faction hath made and confine the Seditious to his own sphere and Place for who would favour or uphold such Monsters as these but for pay and salary In a word If every man did hate the World every man would love his Brother If every man did keep himself unspotted of the World every man would be his Brothers Keeper when the
and that compasse wherein God hath bound and circumscribed us the 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all unactivenesse and supine negligence in our own place and station And the 3. and last makes it a necessary study and brings it under a command sicut praecepimus vobis you must do it as I have commanded you Or because to be quiet is here proposed as matter of study we will consider 1. the object or thing it self in which our study must be seen and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet and peaceable behaviour 2. the act which requires the intention of our mind thoughtfulnesse and a diligent luctation and contention with our selves we must make it our study 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ambitious of it Thirdly the method we must use we must meddle with our own businesse and work with our hands And last of all the warrant of this method I have commanded it and of these we shall speak in their order Ut operam detis that you study to be quiet c. And first to be quiet is nothing else but to be peaceable to keep our selves in an even and constant temper to settle and compose our affections that they carry us not in a violent and unwarranted motion against those with whom we live though they speak what we are unwilling to hear and do what we would not behold though their thoughts be not as our thoughts nor their wayes as our wayes though they be contrary to us That there be as S. Paul speaks no schisme in the body 1 Cor. 11.25 but that the members may have the same care one of another That we doe not start out of the Orb wherein we are fixt and then set it on fire because we think it moves disorderly but that we look on all with a charitable and Evangelicall eye not pale because others are rich not sick for our neighbours vineyard not sullen because others are cheerfull not angry because others are weak not clouded with envy and malice because others in some respects out-shine us but as S. Paul speaks leading a quiet and peaceable life in all Godlinesse and Honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 for the Gospel of Christ hath left us no other eye but that of charity to look abroad with that this peace of Christ may rule in our hearts 3 Coloss 15. to the which also we are called in one body may rule in our hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit as judge there for so the word signifies being in its native propriety spoken of the Judge in the Olympick games Let peace rule in your hearts let it have this office let it be the onely judge to set an end to all Controversies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand in the midst between two contrary sides and draw them together and make them one to be a Mediator between the offence that is given and the smart that is felt to command our patience against rhe injury to awake the one to conquer and annihilate the other and so bury it in oblivion for ever And that we may better understand it we must sever it from that which is like it for likenesse is the mother of error from whence it is that there be so many lovers of peace and so little of it in the world that when ambition and covertousnesse harrass the earth when there be warrs and rumours of warrs when the kings of the earth rise up when the people are as mad as the Sea when it rageth when the world is on fire yet there is not one that will be convinced or perswade himself that he ever raised one spark to kindle it It was a just and grave complaint of Saint Hierom non reddimus unicuique rei suum vocabulum we are guilty of a dangerous misnomer and do not give every thing its proper name and think we study quietnesse when we are most bent to war and ready to beat up the drumme Alii Dominationem pacem appellant some call tyranny peace and nothing else and think there is no peace unlesse every man understand and obey their beck unlesse all hands subscribe to their unwarrantable demands quiet they are and peaceable men when like a tempest they drive down all before them to him that tyrannizeth in the common-wealth he is rebell that is not a parasite and to him that Lords it in the Church he that bows not to every decree of his as if God himself had made it is an heretick a schismatick an Anathema then this peace and not till then when every look and word when every lye of theirs is a law Others call even disobedience it self peace and are never quiet but with their quod volumus sanctum est but when they are let loose to do what they please are filii pacis the the children of peace when they digg her bowells out as the Donatists in Saint Aust who were the greatest peace-breakers in the world yet had nothing so much in their mouths as the sweet name of peace and how is she wounded by those who stand up in her defence we call that peace which hath nothing of it but the name and that too but of our own giving and esteeme our selves as quiet and peaceable men when we are rather asleep then settled rather senselesse and dead then delighting our selves in those actions which are proper to us in that motion which tends to rest rather still and silent then quiet bound up as it were with a frost till the next thaw the next faire weather and opportunity as faire and then we spread abroad and run out beyond our limit and bounds nor can we be conteined or kept in them Again others there be such as Tacitus speaks of who are solâ socordiâ innocentes who are very quiet and still and do little hurt by reason of a dull and heavy disposition and therefore saith Tully do removere se à publicis negotiis step aside and remove themselves out of the publick wayes withdraw themselves out of the company and almost out of the number of men who do no harme because they will do nothing whose greatest happinesse is nihil agere nihil esse Honestum pacis nomen segni otio imposuit Tacit. de Turpiliano Annali 14. to do nothing and to be nothing whose soules are as heavy and unactive as those lumps of flesh their bodyes and so raise no thoughts but such which lye levell with their present condition and reach not so high as to take in the publick interest who know not what to think and so care not how unevenly or disorderly the course of things is carried along so it be not long of them being as much afraid of action as others are weary and sick of rest as unwilling to put forth a hand to support a shaking and falling commonwealth as others are active and nimble to pull it down Nay some there are of so tender and soft disposition ut non possint in
it is planted it will shoot forth and grow up and raise it self far above the love of the world above covetousnesse and envy and malice and fraud which first disquiet and rack that breast in which they are and then breath forth that venom which blasts the world and troubles and provokes those which are neere us sometimes gnashing the teeth which eats and consumes us sometimes breathing forth hailestones and coales of fire which fly back in our faces and destroy us sometimes laying of snares in which our selves are caught for envy is the rottennesse of the bones saith Solomon and anger killeth the foolish and the Bread of deceit though it be sweet at first yet it shall fill the mouth with gravell nemo non in seipsum priùs peccat saith Austine no man disturbs the peace of another but he breaks his own first no man repines at his brothers good but he makes it his own evil and his vice is his executioner no man breaths forth malice but it ecchoes back upon him no man goes beyond his brother but hath outstript himself and the Psalmist tells us that evill shall bunt the violent man to destruction But when this plant this peace is deeply rooted in us it spreads its branches abroad over all over all crosse events over all injuries over all errors and miscarriages over envy malice deceit and violence and shadows them that they are not seen or not seen in that horror which may shake it spreads it self over the poore and relieves them over the malicious and melts him over the injurious man and forgives him over the violent man and overcomes him by standing the shock keeps it self to its roote is fixt and fastened there and when this wind blows when this raine falls when all these beat upon it when the tempest is loudest is ever the same is peace still And this is the work of the Gospel the summe of all the end of all that it teacheth to work this quietnesse and peace in us that we may raise it up in others that this peace may beget and propagate it self in those who are enemies to it that the kid may feed with the wolf and the Lamb with the Leopard so long as the moone endureth that there may be no deceit no envy no violence no invasion no going out no complaining in our streets This is the Evangelicall virtue this is peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of propriety every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting heathens Tert. Apol. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this that they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weaknesse and unprofitablenesse of the law could not reach nor could the Jews bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket or the philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soule to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquillity and quietnesse which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terror that is in it humane reason was too weake 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 exalt and perfect our reason the Philosophers cryed down anger yet gave way to revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice The language of the law was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old you shall love your neighbour Math. 6. and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an humility more bending a patience more constant a meeknesse more suffering a quietnesse more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more cleerly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law for is not eternity of blisse a stronger motive then the basket or glory or temporall enjoyments is not heaven more attractive then the earth under the Law this peace and quietnesse was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schooles of Philosophers it was but a fancy the peace and quietnesse they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis non de Fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian Tertull. de Animax 1. out of an industrious affected endurance of every evill that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evill of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remaine it self untoucht unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect this was the businesse of the prince of peace who came into the world but not with drumme and colours but with a rattle rather not with noise Tertull. cont Judaeus but like rain into the mowen grasse not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee and with no sword but that of the spirit who made good that prophesie of the Prophet Micah that swords should be turned into plow-shares and speares into pruning hookes Micah 4.3 that all the bitternesse and malice of the heart should be turned into the love and study of modesty and peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own figtree and gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor feare it nor disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the earth might be a temporall paradise a type representation of that which is eternall For this he came into the world and brought power enough with him to performe it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good and when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the prophesy
and Scepters And therefore Dionysius Longinus falling upon the story of the Creation makes that expression of Moses Dionys Long. de sublimi genere orat Sect. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let there be light and there wus light Let there be earth and there was earth the highest and most sublime that the art or thought of man could reach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thus the Majesty of God is best set forth He no sooner speaks but it is done Nor can it be otherwise for as he is a Lord and hath an absolute and uncontroulable will so this will is attended by his infinite power which is inseparable from it And you may find them both joyned together Acts 4.28 All things are done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever his hand and his counsel determined to do for because he can do all things therefore he brings to passe whatsoever he will and his hand and power hath here the first place because all counsel falls to the ground if power be not as a pillar and supporter to uphold it What is the strength of a strong man if there be a stronger then he to bind and disarm him what is it to conceive something in the womb of the mind to shape and form and fashion it to bring it even to the doore of life if there be no strength to bring it forth what is my will if it be defeated Libera volunt as in nullum habe imperium praeterquam in se Hlerocles apud Phor. Bibliot 394. Thus it falls out with dust and ashes with man whose will is free when his hands are bound who may propose miracles but can do nothing who may will the dissolution of the world when he hath not power to kill a fly or the least gnat that lights upon him But Gods power is infinite nor can any thing in heaven or earth limit it but his will which doth regulate and restrain it which otherwise must needs have a larger flow If he cut off or shut up or gather together who can hinder him Job 11.10 The voice of the Lord that is his power for his word is power is full of Majesty it breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon and maketh them skip like a calf It hath set a tabernacle for the Sun he bids it run its race and commands it to stand still he doth whatsoever he will in heaven or in earth I need not here enlarge my self Every work to his is a miracle every miracle is eloquent to declare his power Every thing that hath breath speaketh it and that which hath neither breath nor life speaketh it that which hath voice speaketh it and that which is dumb speaks it Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night shewes knowledge There is no speech nor language Apul. de muâ—lo where their voice is not heard Psal 19.23 The power of this Lord is the proper language of the whole world Non ut ait ille silere melius est sed vel parùm dicere It is not good to be silent nay we cannot be silent but yet 't is not good to speak too much of the power of this Lord because we cannot speak enough nor can any finite understanding comprehend it Now by this power 1. God created man and breathed into him a living soul made him as it were wax fit to receive the impressions of a deity made him a subject capable of a Law I am fearfully and wonderfully made saith David Psal 139. marvellously made excellently made set apart selected culled out as it is Psal 4.4 from all the other creatures of the earth to walk with God and be perfect My members were curiously wrought drawn as with a needle for so the word there signifies embroidered with all variety as with divers colours every part being made instrumentall either to the keeping or breaking of the Divine Law I am as it were built and set up on purpose to hearken what that power which thus set me up will require of me In a word It is he that made us not we our selves and made us to this end to his glory to be united to himself to bowe under his power to be conformed to his will and so to gain a title to that happinesse and which is ready to meet them that runne unto it by doing what he requires at their hands 2 ly By this power as he creates so he continues him and protects him doth not leave him as an artificer doth his work to the injuries of time to last or perish as the strength of the materialls is of which it consists but as by his power he made him so by the same power he upholds and preserves him that in this life he may move and presse forward to a better he moves in him and moves with him that in this span of time he may make a way to eternity He giveth to all Acts 17.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath but in a more eminent manner to man to whom he hath communicated part of his power and given him dominion over himself and other creatures He is not far from every one of us v. 27. he is neere us with us within us He hath made the small and the great and careth for all alike Wisd 6.7 Sceleratis sol exoritur saith Seneca his Sun riseth upon the evil and the good saith our Saviour Math. 5.45 His power moves in the hand that smites his brother and in the hand that lifts him out of the dust moves in the Tyrant which walks in his palace and with that poore man who grinds at the mill By it Uzzahs hand was stretched out to uphold the Ark and by it he was smitten and dyed Dâ—us Salus est perseverantion earum quas effecerit rerum Apul. ibid. It moves in the eye that is open to vanity and in the eye that is shut up by covenant All the creatures all men all motions and actions of men are in manutentia Divina My times are in thy hand saith David Psal 31.15 and in this sense the Schooles tell us that the creation of man and his conservation are but one continued act that we may say of every creature so long as it is so long God creates it because creation respects the being of the creature as made out of nothing and conservation the being of the same creature as continually quickned and upheld that it fall not back again into that nothing out of which it was made for his power is the Being of the creature and the withdrawing of it is its annihilation The heavens and the earth are by the word of God are established by his power and when he will no longer uphold them all shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with heat It is no more but the withdrawing of his power and the world is at an end Now in the next place from this Ocean of his power naturally issues forth his power of
nor any other spring of spirituall motion but the will of his Lord. And therefore as he is the Lord over all so are his Laws over all Laws as to him every knee must bowe so to his Laws all the Laws of men must yield and give place which are no further Laws or can lay any tye or obligation but as they are drawn from his and wait upon them and are subservient to them common reason will tell us and to that the Apostles Peter and John appeal when the rulers of the Jews commanded them to speak no more in the name of Christ Act. 4.18,19 whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then to God judge you for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard and we cannot but be obedient for the Lord requires it When Creon the Tyrant in Euripides ask'd Antigone how she dared to bury her brother Polynices when he had enacted a Law to the contrary her answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that this was not Jupiters Law and that she buried her brother in obedience to a Law more ancient then that of the Tyrants even to the Law of nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this Law was not of yesterday but eternall and I ought not for feare of any man to break the Law of God and nature And what better answer can a Christian make to all unlawfull commands either of those we love or of those we feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God hath not enacted these I see more of the claw of the devil then finger of God in these these are Novellae institutionis but of yesterday the breathings and dictates it may be of Lust and Covetousnesse of Pride and Ambition and I must not consider what man what this man this Lord or this Potentate but what the Lord of Lords and King of Kings requires at my hands when his Laws are publisht all others must be silent or as little hearkened to as if they were as when the Sun appeares the starrs are not seen nor seen at any time but with that light which they borrow from it For again as he is Lord Paramount and hath an absolute will so his will is attended with Power with that Power which made thee and he did not make thee a man that thou shouldest make thy self a beast of burden to couch under every load which the hand of a Pharisee will be ready to lay upon thee He did not make thee capable of a Law that thou shouldest keep the Laws of the flesh or of men he did not publish his will that upon this or that pretence thou shouldest resist it that the feare of a frown and the love of the world should be stronger and prevaile with thee more then his will For if thou wilt not do what he requires he will not do what thou expectest but leave thee to thy choice to those new Lords and Masters under the same wrath and curse to walk delicately along with them to that vengeance which will fall upon the heads of those who will not hearken to this Lord. For thirdly by the same power he preserves and protects thee which all power that is over us doth not for then the theef may be said to protect him he robs the strong man may be said to protect him he binds the oppressor him whom he hath eaten up and Cain to have protected Abel when he knockt out his brains But the Power of God is a saving and preserving power and under the shadow of his wing we shall be safe and to this end he spreads his wing over us he guides and holds us up that we may walk before him in all obedience in the land of the living who bowing to his will against our lust anon against our Ambition against all those machinations and temptations which presse upon us to break his will even whilst we are under his wing What should a wanton what should an oppressor a man of Belial do under his wing And yet we see many times they play and revell it in the shadow when they that do his will are beaten with the tempest and yet are safer there then they are in their Paradise are the miracles of his Providence to be manifested at last to all the world 'T is true The wicked are in some sort under his wing for he upholds and continues them prolongs their daies and if an eye of flesh may judge they are the greatest favourites of this Lord and if the world were heaven they were the onely Saints But the spirituall man judgeth all things and to his eye they are but a sad and ruefull spectacle as condemned men led with musick to execution for he preserves and protects them no otherwise then he doth serpents and vipers and beasts of prey he upholds them no otherwise then he doth the earth and the devils and hell it self which he preserves for them as he reserves them for it as Saint Jude speaks in his Epistle v. 5. and then as Abraham said to the rich man Son Remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things so shall this Lord to these to a Cain to a Nimrod an Ahab an Pharisee a Hypocrite Remember you were under my wing under my protection and remember what you did there how you beat your fellow-servants how you stripped one dispossessed another killed a third how even then when you were under my wing when I upheld and preserved you you said in your hearts there was no God This is a fearefull and hideous change like the fall of Lucifer onely he fell from heaven indeed these from an Imaginary one a heaven built up with a thought but both fall into the same place O then since he made us since in him we live and move and have our being let us live unto this Lord let our motion be regular and let us be what he would have us be let it be our wisdome to follow him in those waies which his infinite wisdome hath drawn out for us let our love be the echo of his love this wisdom is from above and this love is kindled from the coal of a cherubin is a fire from heaven kindled in our hearts and it will lick up all fluid and unbounded desires in us Let us remember that he hath endowed us with faculty and ability to do what he requires that he hath committed and entrusted this unto us for this end that he doth now as it were Manu suâ tenere debitores that he hath us in his power obliged and bound fast unto him by this his gift as by an instrument or bond 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Apostles word Rom. 3.3 and it is the very word which the Civilians use he hath committed an entrusted his commandments and requires something of us and as he that entrusts his money doth not lost the propriety of it no more doth God of
buried in oblivion and darknesse never to be seen or known of any for what glory can it be to be well seen in these arts of Legerdemain what praise is it to be that which I cannot heare from others with patience an unjust deceitfull and dishonest man for to conclude this it is far worse to do unjustly then to be reproch'd for doing so far worse to be dishonest then to be called by that name far worse to be a theef or a Traytor then to be hanged for it for between the evil of action and the evil of passion there is no comparison the evil of passion may have a good end it may be medicinall and cure the sinner if not set an end to his wickednesse but the evil of action hath no end but damnation no wages but death and that too hath no end for it will be eternall Thus have we seen Justice or Honesty in its full shape and beauty fastned upon its proper pillars the Law of Nature and the Law of the God of nature let us now see by way of Application with what eye and favour the world of men and the world of Christians have lookt upon it whether they have not relied more on those pillars of smoke and aire their private fancy and private interest then these pillars of marble which God himself hath set up which are firm and strong and might beare them up to build upon them that Justice which would raise them up above the dying and killing glories of this world to that which is everlasting in the highest heavens and so conclude And first the complaint is old that Justice and Honesty hath since left the earth or rather is drove out of it to speak truth when her Territories were largest when she stretcht the curtains of her habitation to the furthest she did but angustè habitare she took up but little roo me and her retinue was but small she never yet could tithe the children of men and it had been well if she had taken in one of an hundred It were even a labour to shew the divers arts and inventions of men which they made use of to work out their way to honour Ad haec simplicem hâ—ctâ—nus vivendi rationâ—m excogit â—tis mâ—nsuris poâ—deribus immutavit pristinamque sinceritaâ—…m generositatâ—m ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam dâ—pravavit Joseph Antiq. ludaic l. 1. c. 3. Sen. de Benef. l. 7. c. 10. and the riches of this world Cain is blamed by Josephus for first finding out Weights and Measures which was a tacite and silent accusation that that age was corrupt in which so much caution was necessary Quid foenus kalendarium saith Seneca what are interest and the kalendar and your count-books but names extra naturam posita found out quite besides and beyond the intention of nature what are your bills and obligations and indentures but as so many Libels wherein you professe to the world that you dare not trust one another and that you believe men cannot be honest unlesse they be bound plus annulis quà m animis creditis your seal-rings are a better assurance then your Faiths And how do too many sell themselves but not for bread how in all sorts and conditions of men have some used their power others their wit pro lege publica instead of a publick Law and have entitled themselves the just possessors of that estate into which they have wrought themselves with hands of oppression robbery and deceit It hath been an old reproch which hath been laid upon Common-wealths that they did set common honesty to sale The Athenians had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tribute out of the stews and we are told that Christians have so it Rome may yet be thought to be in Christendome Look into the Civil Law Codice de Spect. Scen. Lenonibus of theatricall shews stage-playes and bawdes and you shall find that even from hence from these loathsome and nasty dunghills of corruption Emperours Common-wealths have sucked gain Mathematicians Juglers Fortunetellers Theeves and which the Father could not tell whether he should grieve or blush at Inter hos Christiani vectigales Tert. Apoâ—o◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. Art 2. Rhet. Fâ—st Verb. uxor Tacitus amongst this rabble Christians also were brought in as Tributary This was exacted from poor men from statues from dead-men from very Urine and to the Emperour it was a sweet smelling savour In one age they did Uxorium pendere pay a summe of money for not being married in another etiam Matrimonia obnoxia they who were married were liable to this exaction quocunque modo rem Gain was welcome at what gate or postern soever it came in so soon did they forget they were men so little did they regard the Law of nature And it were to be wished that this evil had stayed here that this art of unjust and unlawfull acquisition had been onely known in the tents of Kedar but by degrees it stole in and found entertainment in the Church of God and Christians forgetting their profession quae nil nisi justum suadet which should be known by justice and equity and the contempt of the world began to think stolen waters sweet and to feed greedily on the bread of deceit and violence For as the Pharisees did teach their children to say to their Father and Mother Corban which is not a curse as some have imagined for the Pharisees were too wise to be so openly wicked as to teach men to curse their parents to have done this had been to forfeit their Phylacteries but it was their craft and policy an art to fill their treasurie and therefore they taught children who were offended with their parents to consecrate their wealth to the Treasury that so they might defeat that other Law which bound them to supply their parents in want and distresse so even within the pale of the Church there were found men whose Phylacteries were as broad as theirs who by holy fraud did take into their hands the possessions of the earth and at last laid claim unto the whole world and that upon the score of Religion taught men to redeeme their ill-spent time with a piece of silver for what were else the prayers for the dead as they were used in the Church of Rome but the price of mens souls For the very thought of the power and efficacy of them drove men to a more supine and negligent conversation to weary themselves in the wayes of wickednesse having such a pillow to sleep on for what need they be diligent to make their election sure whilest they live who are fully perswaded that this may be done by proxy for them when they are dead This is truly the Pharisees Corban to teach men to rob their parents to endanger their soules by religion that so their treasuries may be full and so to make that monumentum sceleris a lasting monument of
in their dialect and language Accolae sumus peregrini we are strangers and Pilgrimes on the earth And so we passe from the person I King David and come to take a neerer view of his condition and quality I am a stranger on the earth We passe now from the King to the stranger and Pilgrime and yet we cannot passe from the one to the other for they are ever together for there is so neer a conjunction between them that though the one appeare in glory the other in dishonour the one sits on a Throne the other lyes in the dust yet they can never be put asunder nor separated the one from the other for he that is a King is but a Pilgrime and he that is a stranger was born and designed unto a Kingdome and a greater Kingdome then Davids was Thou hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reigne upon the earth This is the song of Pilgrimes and they sing it to the Lamb in the fifth of the Revelation v. 10. The Kingdome of heaven is taken by violence and the violent take it by force Mat. 11.12 And these violent men are such as are Pilgrims and strangers to that place they travell endure many a storm many a fall and bruise in their way so that the immediate way to be a King is first to be a stranger in the earth Now that Man is naturally a stranger on the earth we have the Word of God written and the Word of God within us we have both the holy Scripture and right Reason to instruct us both these are as the voice of God and by these he speaks unto us and calls us by our name when he calls us strangers And first in the Old Testament the life of Man is every where almost term'd a pilgrimage so Jacob in the 47. of Genesis when Pharaoh asked him How long he hath lived in his answer doth as it were correct his language The dayes saith he not of my life but of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years So that in the language of Jacob Life and Pilgrimage are all one The same is the language of the New Testament Whilst we are in the flesh Peregrinamur à Domino saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5.6 we are absent we are travellers we are wanderers from God but we are returning to him on our way pressing forward to our home And though we make haste out of the world yet as S. Bernard observes some savour some taste something that is from the earth earthy we shall carry about with us till we come to our journeys end Not onely they are strangers who with the Prodigall take their journey into a far countrey and cleave to every vanity there but they who are shaking them off every day yet look more then they should and like more then they should and are not yet made perfect Not onely they are strangers from God who are Aliens from the house of Israel but they who with the Patriarchs in the 11. to the Heb. confesse themselves strangers in the land which is allotted them and look for a City whose Foundation and Builder is God It is the observation of S. Hierome in his Epistle to Dardanus That the Saints in Scripture were no where called Inhabitatores terrae the inhabitants of the earth There is a woe saith he denounced against sinners in the eighth of the Revelation and under that name vae habitatoribus terrae woe to the Inhabitants of the earth And Saint Austin almost speaks the same where he puts this difference and distinction between them that the righteous can onely be said esse in Tabernaculo carnis to be in this tabernacle of the flesh to be there as the Angels are said by the schoolmen to be in uno loco quòd non sint in alio to be in one place because they are not in another but to be circumscribed no where and they are onely said to be on the earth because they are not yet in heaven but neverthelesse have their conversation there but the wicked do habitare in Tabernaculo carnis do dwell on earth and have their residence in it and may passe into a worse but never into a better place and these though they will not be strangers to it yet are strangers on the earth and passe away from that to which their soul was knit on which they fixed their hope and glutted their desires and raised their joy which was their heaven they passe away and fall from it and shall see it no more This then is the voice and language of Scripture and in the second place this even common reason may teach us which is the voice of God and is our God upon earth and should be in his stead and place to command and regulate us here and if we were not first lost in our selves if we were not strangers to our selves we should not seek for a place of rest in that world whose fashion every day changeth and which must at last with its work be burnt with fire For do we not see by this common light that the mind of man is a thing of infinite capacity and utterly insatiable and here on earth never receives full content content is that which all men have desired but never yet any did attain but still as one desire is satisfied another riseth and when we have all that we desired we will have more now we would have but this and when we have it it is nothing for our measures are enlarged by being filled Are you learned enough nay but there be yet more conclusions to be tried Are you ever wise enough If but once you be deceived you will complain that a thousand things which might have been observed have past your sight But are you ever rich enough The fool in the Gospel was not till his soul was fetched away nor Dives till he was in hell Nay are you not most miserably poor when you are most abundantly rich do you not want most when you have most or was ever your heart so much set on riches as when they did increase or hath the Ambitious any highest place any verticall point one world was not enough for Alexander and had there been as many as those Atomes of which Democritus made it up he would have wished after more Our appetite comes by eating and our desires are made keen and earnest by enjoying majora cupere ex his discimus the obtaining of something doth but prompt us to desire more And now to draw this to our present purpose If the things of this world be not able to satisfie us if never man yet found full content if nothing on earth can allay this infinite hunger of the soul which certainly was not imprinted in us in vain If we cannot find it here though we should double and treble Methusalems age If we cannot find it in the world though we should live to the end of it we cannot
reacht it forth and not burden it with our own fancies and speculations with new conclusions forced out of the light to obscure and darken it for when this burden is upon it it must needs weigh according as the hand is that poyseth it And what necessity is there to ask whether it consist in one or more acts so I do assure my self that it is the greatest blessing that God ever let fall upon the children of men or whether it be perfected in the pardoning of our sinnes or the imputation of universall obedience or by the active and passive obedience of Christ when 't is plain that the act of justification is the act of the judge and this cannot so much concern us as the benefit it self which is the greatest that can be given I am sure not so much as the duty which must fit us for the act It were to be wisht that men would speak of the acts of God in his own language and not seek out divers inventions which do not edifie but many times shake and rend the Church in pieces and lay the truth it self open to reproch which had triumphed gloriously over errour had men contended not for their own inferences and deductions but for that common faith which was once delivered to the Saints And as in justification so in the point of faith by which we are justified what Profit is it busily to enquire whether the nature of faith consists in an obsequious assent or in appropriating to our selves the grace and mercy of God or in the meer fiduciall apprehension and application of the merits of Christ whether it be an instrument or a condition whether a living faith justifies or whether it justifies as a living faith what will this add to me what haire to my stature when I may settle and rest upon this which every eye must needs see that the faith by which I am justified must not be a dead faith but a faith working by charity which is the language of faith and demonstrates her to be alive My sheep heare my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil they heare and obey and never dispute or ask questions they taste and not trouble and mud that cleare water of life It is enough for us to be justified it is enough for us to be saved which we may be by pressing forward in the way which is smooth and plain and not running out into the mazes and Labyrinths of disputes where we too oft lose ourselves in our search and dispute away our faith talk of faith and the power of it and be worse then infidels of justification and please our selves in unrighteousnesse of Christs active obedience and be to every good work reprobate of his passive obedience and deny him when we should suffer for him of the inconsistency of faith and good works in our justification and set them at as great a distance in our lives and conversations and because they do not help to justify us think they have no concurrence at all in the work of our salvation For we are well assured of the one and contend for it and too many are too confident of the other There is indeed a kind of intemperance in most of us a wild and irregular desire to make things more or lesse then they are and remove them well-neer out of sight by our additions and defalkations and few there are who can be content with the truth and settle and rest in it as it appeares in that nakednesse and simplicity in which it was first brought forth but are ever drawing out conclusions of their own spinning out and weaving speculations thin unsuitable unfit to be be worn which yet they glory in and defend with more heat and Animosity then they do that truth which is necessary and by it self sufficient without this additionall art For these are creatures of our own shaped out in our fancy and drest up by us with all the accuratenesse and curiosity of diligence that we fall at last in love with them and apply our selves to them with that closenesse and adherency which dulls and takes off the edge of our affection to that which is most necessary and so leaves that neglected and last in our thoughts which is the main as we read of Euphranor the painter Val. Max. 8.12 who having strecht his fancy and spent the force of his imagination in drawing Neptune to the life could not raise his after and wearied thoughts to the setting forth the majesty of Jupiter for when we are so lively and overactive in that which is either impertinent or not so considerable nor much materiall to that which is indeed most materiall we commonly dream or are rather dead to those performances which the wisdome of God hath bound us to as the fittest and most proportioned to that end for which we were made And these I conceive are most necessary which are necessary to the work we have to do and will infallibly bring us to the end of our faith and hopes Others which our wits have hammered and wrought out of them may be peradventure of some use to those who are watchfull over them to keep them in a pliablenesse and subserviencie to that which is plain and received of all but may prove dangerous and fatall to others who have not that skill to manage them but favour them so much as to give them line and sufferance to carry them beyond their limit and then shut them up in themselves where they are lost to that truth which should save them which they leave behind them out of their eye and remembrance whilest they are busie in the pursuit of that which they overtake with danger and without which the Apostles of Christ and many thousands before them have attained their end and are now in blisse Certainly it would be more safe for us and more worthy our calling to be diligent and sincere in that which is plainly revealed to believe and in the strength and power of that faith to crucify our flesh with the Affections and lusts Hic labor hoc opus est then to be drawing out of Schemes and measuring out the actions and operations of God safer far to make our selves fit to be justified then too curiously to study the manner how it is wrought in which study we are many times more subtle then wise in a word to make our selves capable of favour and mercy for then the work is done and the Application made for all Gods promises are yea and Amen and fall close with the performance of the duty and as to apply them to our selves is our comfort and joy our heaven upon earth so to be able and fit to apply them is the work and labour of our faith and love whilest we abide in the flesh But besides these points of doctrine vvhich are but inferences and deductions made by men whereof some are easie and naturall and hold correspondence and affinity with
peaceable meanes to bring them back bewaile our own ingratitude which raised up that power which took them from us and was the greatest strength they had and so presse forward in that open and known way which no power can block up in that obedience to the Gospel which the sword cannot reach which no violence can hinder For this alone can restore us to the favour of God and restore to us those advantages which we first abused then lost and now seek carefully as Esau did the blessing with teares In a word these helps which we would have and cannot alwaies have we may yet alwaies have in our remembrance and affection but we must not so seek after them as to drive down all before us and the Gospel it self in our motion and adventure towards them but fix our eye and desires upon that heaven which is presented to us in the way and in those divine rules of life from which no power on earth can absolve and disengage us and for the neglect of which no necessity can be brought in as an Apologie and thus blesse God in all things even in those which are gone from us and cleave fast to that which is most essentiall and necessary to the end which is out of reach and danger and which the power of darknesse it self cannot take away Third and now I am come to the foot of my account and to this all that I have to say is but what I can but say for this preface is swolne beyond that compasse which my first thoughts drew out and it is this that as I was carefull to presse those doctrines which I conceived to be most necessary so I did it without any affectation unlesse it were of plainnesse and perspicuity of which indeed I was most ambitious as knowing that the Majesty of divine truths is best seen in the stole and gravity of a matron and most times quite lost in the studied gaietry and light colours of a wanton I could have wished for the happinesse of Isidor the Philosopher of whom it vvas said that he spake not words but the very substance and essences of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasc in excerptis Photi God CCXLII. that I might have displayed the glory and happinesse which is alwayes before true Piety and pointed out to Piety as with a finger shewing how it works towards it till they both meet and are made one in eternity And this I did endeavour though I come short of it to draw our in so plain and lively a character that he that runs might read it that the sight of it might ravish the Beholder and force him to a love of that which so visibly draws towards that end which hath no end even the vision of that God which is blessed for evermore We speak saith S. Paul the wisdome of God in a Mystery the hidden wisdome and the Gospel is the revelation of that Mystery Rom. 16.25 and if it be revealed it is no longer hidden if it be known as far as it is known it is not a Mystery and if it were yet a hidden Mystery it could not concern us because that can have no influence upon our will which yields no light at all to our understanding which is as a Counsellour to the will and should convey the light unto it The light is no more light to me then darknesse it self when 't is put under a bushel and Mysteries when they are hidden are to us as nothing I know now no Mysteries in Divinity for it is agreed on all hands that whatsoever is necessary to the end is perspicuous and naked to the understanding I may say Mysticall Divinity is an art of teaching nothing of moving and standing still of striving forward and winning no ground an art of filling men with thin and empty speculations in which they are lifted up aloft to strange sights and apparitions as they say witches are and as they themselves think when they do but dream sometimes it is made a vail to cover something which we would not have seen and we call that the Mysticall sense of Scripture which is none at all For men are too ready to draw a vail again over that which is now made manifest to obscure that which cannot be too plain nor made plainer then it is Quaerunt quod nusquam est inveniunt tamen the seek Pennae acumen dividitur in uo in toto corpore servata unitate credo propter mysterium Isid Orig. l. 6. c. 14. for that which is no where to be found and yet they find it out but as he found Juno vvho imbraced a cloud Whatsoever they see is a mysterie and yet they see it as Isidore found out a mysterie The Old and New Testament in the nose and cleft of a pen. I knovv there be in Scripture and frequently in the Nevv Testament many Metaphoricall expressions from Bread from Fire and Water from Sovving and Planting Quint. l. 8. instit c. 6. from Generation Adoption and the like vvhich vvere used not to make mysteries but to open them signandis rebus sub oculos subjiciendis to set a mark upon things and to declare and unfold them to the very eye that so they might enter vvith more light and ease into the mind vvhich as the Jevvish Rabbies vvere vvont to say vvas to find out the lost pearle vvith a candle of an half-peny and vvith these common and familiar resemblances to dive into the Cisterne of Truth and dravv it out Christ vvho came dovvn to teach us vvas the light of the World and vvhat he taught vvas as open as the Day to all but to those vvho loved darknesse more then light and it will shine in its full strength to all that will look up upon it to the end of the World Nor could it be his will who came to save us that his saving Truth should be shewn by half and dark lights or that Divines who call themselves his Ministers should be like those Philosophers who did Philosophiam ad syllabas vocare Senec. Epist LXXII as Seneca complains who drew Philosophy down to words and syllables so that at last it was shut up and lost in phrases and second notions and termes of Art which brought little improvement to the better part and made men rather Talkative then Wise For we may observe that the same noysome and pestilent wind which so withered Philosophy till it was shrunk up into a name being nothing but a body of words hath blown also upon Divinity and blasted that which was ordained to be the very life of our souls vvhich vvas more pure and plain when mens lives vvere so but is now sullied vvith much handling made much unlike it self dawbed over vvith glosses as vvith untempered morter vvrought out into Questions beat out into Distinctions and is made an Art vvhich is the Wisdome of God to Salvation The Schoolmen did feaze and draw it out and then made
us made like unto God exalted by his Humiliation raysed by his descent magnified by his minoration Candidati Angelorum lifted up on high to a sacred emulation of an Angelicall estate with songs of joy and Triumph we remember it and it is the joy of this Feast fratres Domini the Brethren of Christ Thus with a mutual aspect Christs humility looks upon the exaltation of our Nature and our exaltation looks back again upon Christ and as a well made picture lookes upon him that looks upon it so Christ drawn forth in the similitude of our flesh looks upon us whilst we with joy and Gratitude have our eyes set upon him They answer each other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and are parallels Christ made like unto men and again men made like unto him so like that they are his Brethren Christ made like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things will fill up the office of a Redeemer and men made like unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things which may be required at the hands of those who are Redeemed his obedience lifted him up to the crosse and ours must lift us after him and be carried on by his to the End of the world And as we find it in Relatives they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of Convertency in these Terms Christ and his Brethren Christ like unto his Brethren and these Brethren like unto Christ Christ is ours and we are Christs saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. and Christ Gods And in the last place the modification the Debuit It behoved him carries our thoughts to those two common Heads or places the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Convenience and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Necessitie of it and these two in Civil Acts are one for what becomes us to doe we must doe and t is necessary we should doe it what should be done is done and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians because the law supposeth obedience Impossibilitas juris which is the Complement and perfection of the law and this Debuit looks equally on both both on Christ and his Brethren if in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto his Brethren which is the benefit Heaven and Earth will conclude men and Angels will inferre Debemus that it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ which is the Duty My Text then is divided equally between these two Termes Christ and his Brethren That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is First his Divine 2. his Humane Nature 3. the union of them both for 1. we cannot but make a stand and enquire quis ille who he was who ought to doe this and in the 2. place enquire of his Humane nature For we find him here flesh of our flesh and Bone of our Bone Assimilatum made like unto us what can we say more Our Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things and then will follow the union of them both exprest in this passive fieri in this his assimilation and the Assumption of our Nature which all fill us with admiration but the last rayseth it yet higher and should rayse our love to follow him in his Obedience quod debuit that it behoved him that the dispensation of so wonderfull and Catholique a benefit must be Translated tanquam ex officio as a matter of Duty The end of all is the end of all Our salvation the end of our Creation the end of our Redemption the end of this assimilation and the last end of all the glory of God which sets an oportet upon Man as well as upon Christ and then his Brethren and he will dwell together in unity Onely here is the difference our obligation is the easiest t is but this to be bound and obliged with Christ to set our hands to that bond which he hath sealed with his Bloud no heavy Debet to be like unto him and by his condescension so low to us to raise our selves neerer to him by a holy and diligent imitation of his obedience which will make up our last part and serve for application And in the first place we aske with the Prophet quis ille who is he that cometh who is he that must be made like unto us what is done and who did it of so neere a relation that we can hardly abstract the one from the other and if one eye be leveld on the fact the other commonly is fixed on the hand that did it Magnis negotiis ut magnis Comediis edecumati apponuntur actores Great Burdens require equall strength to beare them matters of moment are not for men of weak abilities and slight performance nor every Actor for all parts To lead Captivity Captive to bring prisoners to Glory to destroy Death to shut up the gates and mouth of Hell these are Magnalia wonderfull things not within the sphere of common Activity We see here many sonnes there were to be brought unto Glory at the 10. v. but in the way there stood sinne to Intercept us the feare of Death to Enthrall us and the Divell ready to devour us and we what were we Rottennesse our mother and wormes our Brethren lay us in the ballance lighter then vanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men fallen below the condition of men lame and impotent not able to move one step in these wayes of Glory living Dead men quis novus Hercules who will now stand up for us who will be our Captaine we may well demand quis ille who he is Some Angel we may think sent from Heaven or some great Prophet No inquest is made in this Epistle neither the Angels nor Moses returned The Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise Glorious Creatures indeed they are Caelestiall spirits but yet Ministring spirits in all purity serving the God of purity saith Naz not fit to intercede but ready at his Beck o Nazianz. Orat. 43. with wings indeed but not with Healing under them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but second lights too weak to enlighten so great a Darknesse their light is their Obedience and their fairest Elogium Ye Angels that doe his will they were but finite Agents and so not able to make good an infinite losse they are in their own Nature mutable and so not fit agents to settle them who were more mutable more subject to change then they not able to change our vile bodies much lesse able to change our soules which are as immortall as they but are lodgd in a Tabernacle of Flesh which will fall of it self and cannot be raised againe but by his power whom the Angels worship In prison we were and Cui Angelorum written on the doore miserable Captives so deplorably lost that the whole Hierarchie of Angels could not help us And if not the Angels not Moses sure though he were neerest to God and saw as much of his Majesty as Mortality was able to bear
Humility the exinanition of the Son of God could raise us And we may observe in the 7th of Esay God bids Ahaz ask a sign not onely è coelo from Heaven but è terra from the earth beneath è profundis from the lowest depth quia utrumque copulavit it is S. Basils note upon that place because at the Union of the Godhead with our Nature there was a neere Conjunction with Heaven and Earth A sign from Heaven is a great Grace but we would have a sign from earth too and here we have it Factus similis he was made like unto his Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God amongst Men a God on the Earth is a signe indeed And therefore in the next place as he is Deus de patre God of his Father so he is Homo de matre Man of his Mother the Son of God and the Son of Mary Will you have a sign here it is a signe to be adored and a sign to be wondred at and a sign to be spoken against saith old Simeon a sign è profundis we may say from the deep abyss of his mercy Ecce expectat nasci sua membra quae fecit Behold the Heavens are the work of his fingers yet he suffered himself to be fashioned in the womb of a Virgin took of Man what he abounds with to be Born and Dye digested into members knit together with sinewes built up with bones covered with our flesh inveloped with skin raised up to the perfect similitude nay drawn down to the low condition of his Creature he would be any thing but sin to redeem him from Sin and save him and descend so low as the Grave and as Hell it self to raise him to a capability and hope of Heaven and Immortality Mira 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wonderfull condescention a wonderfull fall from his Throne to the Womb from his dwelling place on high to dwell in the Flesh from his Angels Gloria in Excelsis Glory be to God on high to the Shepherds vidimus in praesepi we have seen him in the Cratch from the Seraphins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Holy Holy to the Jewes bitter Sarcasme Come down from the Crosse from riding on the Cherubin to the hanging on the Tet Mirabilis descensus this was a wonderfull descent nor could we think God could do it but that we know he can do more than we can think Where was that hand that made and fashioned us that meated the Heavens and measured out the Waters that weighed the Mountains in scales where was that voyce which thundered from Heaven that mighty voyce which broke the Cedars of Libanus where was that God that was from everlasting Doe we not stand at gaze and put on wonder Doe we not tremble to say it and yet to say it as we should is Salvation Latuit in Humilitate majestas That Majesty lay hid in Humility that Power was in Frailty That Hand in the Crotch and in the Clouts that Voyce in an Infant not able to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Naz. Nazianz. orat 38. The God of Spirits was incarnate he that was invisible was seen he that could not be touched handled we have seen with our eyes we have heard him our hands have handled him saith S. John He that was from everlasting had a beginning he that was the Son of God Factus similis made the Son of Man like unto his Brethren We cannot put on too much caution and reverence when we speak of God De Deo vel seriò loqui periculosum ne fortè Deo indigna loquamur Our tongue will be as the pen of a ready writer and run too fast if feare do not hold it and it is very dangerous to speak of that Majesty which is at such an infinite distance from us that it is far safer to adore than discourse of it the Christian world hath been too daring and bold with him to speak of him what they please and then to teach him to speak to make a language of their owne and say it is his although the words be such as were never heard from Heaven nor can be found in the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ If we be his Disciples when we speak to him or of him let us use his own words for then he will better understand us and we shall better understand one another for when we set up a Mint of our own and take to our selves the royalty of coynage whatsoever we work out we send abroad as current though the character and stamp present more of our own Image than his when we will be over-witty commonly we are over-seen God is made like unto Men if the words were not his we should not dare to speak them but this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the submission and minoration of Christ and if he will descend so low if he will take our likeness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he takes it in good part Naz. 16. â—b and is well pleased to learn these words from us because they are his own Like a man a man of sorrowes a worm and no man a despised rejected man he will have us call him so he hath put it into our Creed and counts it no disparagement He set a time for it and when the Appointed time came he was made like unto us and all Generations may speak it to his glory to the end of the world Before he appeared darkly wrapped up in Types veyled in Dreames beheld in Visions that he appeares in the likenesse of our Flesh that he appeares and speaks and suffers in our Flesh is the high prerogative of the Gospel And here he publisheth himself in every way of representation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Image or likenesse in the forme of a servant our very picture a living picture a picture drawn out to life indeed such a picture as one man is of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Comparison for how hath he spread and dilated himself by a world of comparisons He is a Shepherd to guide and feed us a Captaine to leade us a Prophet to teach us he is a Priest and he is the Sacrifice for us he is Bread to strengthen us he is a vine to refresh us he is a Lamb that we may be meek he is a Lyon that we may be valiant he is a Worm that we may be patient he is a Doore to let us in and the way through which we passe into life he is any thing that will make us like him sinne and error and the Devil hath not appeared in more shapes to deceive and destroy us then Christ hath to save us Lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his exemplary virtues and those raised to such a high pitch of perfection that neither the cursed Heretiques nor the miscreant Turk nor the Devil himself could reach and blemish it never was righteousnesse in his verticall point but in him where it
of all the full streame of his Blessings issuing out with his blood with him we have all things The Division Or because it is a work of infinite love we will call it scalam amoris the scale or ladder of love and then the steps the parts considerable will be these 1. The person delivered Tradidit proprium Filium he delivered his own Son 2. The delivery and manner of it tradidit non pepercit he delivered and spared him not 3. The persons for whom pro nobis omnibus for us all And these will in the last place the end of all the end of his Delivery the end of all his Sufferings and make us bold to challenge the Devil and all the world and ask the question quomodo non how shall he not with him give us all things Qui tradidit proprium filium Who delivered his own Son He spared not but delivered his Son Tradidit proprium filium his own Son and this though we make it the first step yet indeed it is the top of the ladder and the highest pitch of his love from which the light of his countenance shines upon us and shewes us that he loved us as his own Son nay more than his own Son and in this his manifestation of his love is rather a Father to us than to him de suo periclitatur ut nos lucretur saith the Father to gain us he is willing in a manner to be himself at a losse and to win us from slavery endanger his own quasi orbitatis haurit doborem he will spoyle and rob himself to enrich us and to make us his children deliver up his own Naz. or 38. A strange contemplation it is and Nazianzen shuts it up in admiration counsels us to sit down and reverence it with silence For can God delight to make his own Son a Sacrifice who would not suffer Abraham to doe his command and offer up his or might he not have taken an Angel for his Son as he did a Ramme for Isaac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what reason can be given for this his Delivery Here the object is so radiant that it confounds the sense and we scarce can see it when we look upon it his love at such an height that our contemplation cannot reach it and though in plain terms we are told that it was done yet we are slow of heart to believe it and therefore Photinus adopted a Son Arrius created one horruit Marcion Marcion was afraid of the very thought Deliver up he might an adopted Son some excellent creature or a phantasme but started back and would not come neer to subscribe that he delivered up his own Son His own Son in their Divinity was a Son by Creation or a Son by Adoption or a Son in Appearance which is not a Son But this groundlesse and indiscreet care of Gods Honour was a great sin against it and S. Ambrose observes that they who denied this for fear were far worse and more injurious to Christian Religion than they who denied it for stomack this pretence of his Honour more dangerous than perversenesse and pertinacy for when pride or vain-glory or ambition shape and polish an Errour it is as soon discovered as the hands that wrought it but when a shew of love and piety and zeale paint and commend it and send it abroad in this glory uncautelous and ignorant men are soon taken with it never doubt but yield and are quickly deceived and count it their Duty and Religion to be so But why should we fear where no fear is why should we fear to disparage him when he is so well pleased to humble himself why should we be wiser than God why should we offend and scandalize Christ as Peter did Be this far from the Lord from the Son of God that is let God forbid that which he will have done why should we check his Wisdome or be troubled at his Love when God will deliver him to talk of improbability or incongruity or impossibility is to speak against God If he will deliver him his will be done and he that rests in Gods will doth best acknowledge his Majesty It was his will to deliver him and this cleares all doubts and beats down every imagination that exalteth it self against it If he will do it we have but one word left us for answer Amen let it be done he hath wisdome and power to attend his will and who are we that darken counsel with words without knowledge when we fall down at his foot-stoole and acknowledge his infinite power when we say He onely can do wondrous works when we in all humility acknowledge that he can do more than we can think that he can uphold us when we are ready to fall enrich us in poverty strengthen us in weaknesse supply us with all necessary meanes and encouragements in this our race when we preach it on the house tops that he can tread down all our enemies under our feet and bind Satan in chains when we believe and rely on it that he is able to immortalize our flesh to raise us out of the dust and set us in heavenly places we think we have raised our magnificats to the highest and indeed a Christian need not set his Songs and Hallelujahs to a higher note but yet we do not rise so high nor so fully expresse him as when we give him an absolute will He doth what he will in Heaven and in Earth non vox hominem sonat This can belong to none but the highest to God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and this makes him Lord paramount and commander of all For even his omnipotency seems to submit and vayle to his will and is commanded by it for many things he doth not doe not because he cannot Dei posse velle est Tâ—râ—…l advers Praxeam c.x. non posse nolle saith Tertull he can do what he will and what he will not do we may say he cannot do quod voluit potuit ostendit but what he would do he could did what his Son his own Son his beloved Son as infinite and omnipotent as himself shall he be delivered yes tradidit illum he delivered him because he would quia voluit his will is that which opens the windowes of heaven and shuts them again that binds and looses that plants and roots up that made the world and will destroy it his will it was that humbled his Son and his will it was that glorified him He might not have done it not have delivered him he might without the least impairing of his Justice have kept him in his bosome never shewed him to the world but as he begatus again of the word of Truth so he delivered up his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia voluit because he would For as in the Creation God might have made man as he made the other creatures by his dixit by his word
forsake him when he hung upon the Crosse did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in paenam saith Leo. By the counsell of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should adde to his Punishment that his Knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happinesse his Misery that there should not onely be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Mirrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Mirrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could sin do and can we love it This could the love and the wrath of God do his love to his Creature and his wrath against sin And what a delivery what a desertion is this which did not deprive him of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light what a strange delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves what misery equall to that which makes Strength a Tormenter Knowledge a Vexation and makes Joy Glory a Persecution There now hangs his sacred Body on the Cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jewes who pierced him for whom he prayes Tantam patienteam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproch of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrowes not onely which he then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall found and he shall come again in Glory The last delivery was of his soul which was indeed traditio an yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father he prevents the spear and the hand of the Executioner Tert. A pol. and gives up the Ghost What should I say or where should I end who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth opens her mouth and the Grave hers and yields up her dead the veyl of the Temple rends asunder the Earth trembles and the rocks are cleft but neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this wisdom and love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of men or Angels are able to express it The most powerfull Eloquence is the Threnody of a broken heart for there his death speaks it self and the vertue and power of it reflects back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love Tradidit pro nobis For us sinners passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calvarie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World was nailed to the Crosse and being thus lifted up upon his Crosse he looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looks upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us which is one ascent more and brings in the persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all Now this pro nobis that he should be delivered for us is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest for if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask our selves the question why for us why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortall Spirits we as the Grasse withered before we grow yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell and chained them up in everlasting darknesse 2 Pet. 2.4 We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us no it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meere compassion of our wants With them he deales in rigour and relents not with us in favour and mercy and seeks after us and layes hold on us when we were gone from him as far as sin and disobedience could carry us out of his reach It was his love it was his will to doe so and in this we might rest but Divines will tell us that man was a ritter object of mercy than they quia levius est alienâ mente peccare quam propriâ because the Angels sin was more spontaneous De Angelis quibusdam suâ sponte corruptis corruptio◠gens Daemonum evasit Tert. Apol. c. 22. wrought in them by themselves man had importunam arhorem that flattering and importuning Tree and that subtill and seducing Serpent to urge and sway him from his obedience Man had a Tempter the Angels were both the temptation and tempters to themselves Man took in Death by looking abroad but the Angels by reflecting upon themselves gazed so long upon their own Beauty till they saw it changed into horrour and deformity and the offence is more pardonable where the motive is ab extrinseco from some outward assoile than where it grows up of it self Besides the Angels did not all fall but the whole lump of mankind was leavend with the same leaven and pity it may seem that so noble a Creature made up after Gods own Image should be utterly lost These reasons with others we may admit though they may seem rather to be conjectures than reasons and we have not much light in Scripture to give them a fairer appearance but the Scripture is plain that he took not the Angels Heb. 2.16 he did not lay his hands upon them to redeem them to liberty and strike off their Bonds and we must goe out of the world to find out the reason and seek
some but to withdraw it selfe from others as shut out and hid from the light and force of it or having any Title to it long before ever they saw the sunne And thus they shorten the hand of God when it is stretched out to all bound his love which is profferred to all stint the bloud of Christ which gusheth out upon all and circumcise his mercy which is a large cloak saith Bernard large enough to cover all and the reason is no better then the position quod vis esse charum effice ut sit rarum to make salvation more precious and estimable it must be rare Then 't is most glorious when t is a peculiar when t is entayld on a few why should the love of God be a common thing I answer why should it not be common since he is pleased to have it so why should he cast away so many to endeare a few and can there be any glory in that priviledge which is writ with the bloud of so many millions why should it not be common since he would have it not onely common but communicated to all and expresses himself as one grieved and troubled and angry because it is not so why should we feare Gods love should be cast away by being proferd to many His love of friendship and complacency to those whom he calls his Friends cannot be lost but is as eternall as himself it assists and upholds them and will crown them everlastingly Nor is his generall love of good will and affection lost though it be lost for it is ever with him even when the wicked are in hell Plus est bonitas Dei quam beneficentia Christs bloud is ever in the Flow though there be but few that take the Tide and are carried along with it Gods goodnesse is larger then his Beneficence he doth not doe what good he can or rather he doth not doe what good he would because we fall back and will not receive it we will not suffer him to be good we will not suffer him to be mercifull we will not suffer him to save us This is the condemnation of the world John 3 19. that light came into the world and men loved darknesse more then light Apâ—l Flor. 1. The Philosopher will tell us of the Indians ad nascentem solem siti sunt tamen in corpore color noctis est they live at the very rising of the sunne yet their Bodies are black and swarthy and resemble the night so many there be who live in the very Region of light where the Beames fall upon them hot and pure and are darted at their very eyes and yet remaine the Children of darknesse Facit infidelitas multorum ut Christus non pro omnibus moriatur qui pro omnibus mortuus est saith Saint Ambrose Christ was deliverd for all is a true proposition it is Infidelity alone that can make it Hereticall and yet t is true still though to him that believes not it is of no more use then if it were false he was delivered for thee but thou wilt not receive it his passion is absolute but thou art impenitent he dyed for Judas who betrayed him but will not save Judas that despaired and hang'd himself Infidelity and impenitency are the worst Restrictives which limit and draw down to particulars a proposition so profitably generall and bound so saving a universall that contract and sink all into a few To conclude this Christs hanging on the Crosse looks upon all but all doe dot cast an eye and look up in faith upon him he was deliver'd to deliver all but all will not be deliver'd Omnis natura nostra in Christi hypostasi invixit Our whole nature was united in Christs person not the persons of a few but our whole nature and our whole nature is of compasse large enough to take in all and in that common nature of man he offered up himself on the Crosse for the sinne of all that he might tollere peccatum mundi take away the sinne of the world destroy the very species and being of it which though it be not done cannot be imputed to any scantnesse or deficiency of virtue in his bloud which is of power to purge out sinne wheresoere it is if the heart that fosters it be ready and willing to receive and apply it And in this common nature of man not from Abraham or David but from the first man Adam himself as Saint Luke carryes up his Genealogy did Christ offer up himself upon the Crosse and in this common nature he presents himself before his Father and now God looks upon Christ and mankind as our eye doth upon light and colours which cannot be seen without light before this light came into the world we were covered over with darknesse and deformity and God could not look upon us but in anger but through this common light we may be seen and be beloved we may be seen with pleasure for as he was delighted in his Sonne so in him he is well pleasd in those sonnes which he shall bring with him to glory but it we will fully withdraw our selves from this light then doth his soule hate us Christ is the brightnesse of his Glory light enough for God to look through upon a thousand worlds multiplyed a thousand times and if we doe not hide our selves from it hide our selves in the cavernes of Earth in the world If we doe not drown our selves in the bottome of the Sea in the deluge of our lusts if we doe not bury our selves alive in stubborne impenitency if we doe not stop up all the passages of our soules if we doe not still love darknesse and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and Affection he will look upon us as his purchase and he that deliver'd him for us will with him give us all things which is the end of all the end of this his being delivered and offers it self to our consideration in the last place The end With him he gives all things He delivered he sent he gave him for all these expressions we find to make him a Gift He is the desire and he is the riches of all Nations so that as whatsoever we do we must do so whatsoever we have we receive in his name The name of Jesus saith S. Peter of the impotent man Actâ— 3. hath made this man strong by his name we are justified by his name we are sanctified and by his name we shall enter into glory with him we have all things for in him are all the treasuries of Riches and Wisdome we may think of all the Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them but these come not within the compasse nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow that it is wrought in our eye and not in the cloud
and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our fancy have no worth nor price but what our lusts and desires set upon them luxuria his pretium fecit 't is our luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My covetousnesse makes that which is but earth a God my ambition makes that which is but aire as heaven and my wantonnesse walks in the midst of pleasures as in a Paradise there is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction there are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a King in his tub when great Alexander was but a Slave in the world which he conquered how many heroick persons lie in chains whilest folly and basenesse walk at large and no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out riches and the things of this world from the summe for with Christ they are something and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away for it is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift by his power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing for if wee look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the rich mans bosom In the night there is no difference to the eye between a Pearl and a Pibble-stone between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulnesse of riches and the glory of affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or glory where it is not to be found but when the light of Christs countenance shines upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulnesse in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compasse large enough to take in the whole world but then it is the world transformed altered the world conquered by Faith the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christs for there is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation for the earth is the Lords and he hath given it to the sons of men and there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to his glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it he did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places such a Messias did the Jewes look for and such a Messias doe some Christians worse than the Jewes frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they fancy themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile and they are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore every ship every house every Lordship is theirs and indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of Heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember in 2 Corinth 4.4 S. Paul calls the Divel the God of this world and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world for as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the Crosse for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape for thus they conceive him giving gifts unto men not spirituall but temporall not the Graces of the Spirit Humility Meeknesse and Contentednesse but Silver and Gold dividing Inheritances removing of Land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheths land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth and thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth that all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ a Doctrine which brings with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and gives men power to defraud or spoyle whom they please and to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his charter larger than it is and in the Gospel we finde none of such an extent which may reach to every man to every corner of the earth which may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in for Christ never drew any such conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings but when labour and industry have brought them in sets a seal imprints a blessing on them sanctifies them unto us by the Word and by Prayer and so makes them ours our servants to minister unto and our friends to promote and lift us forward into everlasting habitations Our Charter is large enough and we need not interline it with those Glosses which the Flesh and the love of the World will soon suggest with Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was delivered we have his commands which are the pledges of his love for he gave us them that he might give us more that he might give us a Crown we have his promises of immortality and eternall life Faciet hoc nam qui promisit est potens he shall do it for he is able to perform it with him every word shall stand he hath given us faith for that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive them and hope to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us that is scarce looked upon as a gift but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us and he hath given us his Spirit fills us
form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this this is a true and reall an efficacious working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ his power when he had raised himself which as he is is everlasting and it worketh still to the end of the world perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti that which he wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he means to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now ego vivo I live is as loud to raise our hope as the last trump will be to raise our bodies and how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour ego vivo Christ life derives its vertue and influence on both on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power which is fitted to a soul which hath both understanding and will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made we do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel to perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be for it will to be done whether we will or no but to awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be renewed and raised in the inward man to die to sin and be alive to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept and though this life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed yet a necessary and a law lies upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner there will be a change in both as the flesh at the second so the soul at this first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata must be spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata if I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but his having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst corruption is our Father and the worm our Mother and Sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the world whilest it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it selfe Death hath dominion over us for let us call the world what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christs life we shall rise fairly not with a Mouth which is a Sepulchre but with a Tongue which is our Glory not with a withered hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding Eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient eare not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our life saith the Apostle Colos 3.3 is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it there by a continuall meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practicall application of his glorious Resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the mineralls of the earth in the love of the world he is the Prince of the world and is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idlenesse we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self but when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings when we do per Christum Deum colere worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands then the life of Christ is made manifest in our mortall flesh 2 Cor. 2.4 then we have put off the old man and in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertul. speaks candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead but of the living We see now what vertue and power there is in this vivo Vivo in aeternum I live for evermore in the life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as eternity it self for as he lives so behold he lives for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever Heb. 7.16 being made not after the law of a carnall Commandement after that law which was given to men that one should succeed another but after the power of an endlesse life the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life that cannot be dissolved that cannot part from the body And thus as he lives for evermore so whatsoever issues from him is like himself everlasting the beams as lasting as the light his Word endureth for ever his Law is eternall his Intercession eternall his Punishments eternall and his Reward eternall Not a word which can fall to the ground like ours who fall after it and within a while breath out our souls as we do our words and speak no more Not lawes which are framed and set to the times and alter and change as they do and at last end with them but which shall stand fast for ever aeterae ab aeterno eternall as he is eternall he hath spoken this once and he will speak no more not an Intercession which may be silenced with power but imprinted in him and inseparable from him and so never ceasing an Intercession which omnipotency it self cannot withstand and his punishment not transitory which time may mitigate or take away but an everlasting worm not a Reward which may be snatched out of our hands but lasting as the Heavens nay as Christ himself and they who would contract and shrink it up in the one and so make a temporary perishing everlastingness which shall last as long as it lasts do stretch beyond their line which may reach the right hand as well as the left and put an end of the Reward as they would do to the Punishment for of the one as well as of the other it is said that it shall be everlasting all that flowes from him is like himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever And such an High Priest it became us to have who was to live for ever for what should we do with a mortall Saviour or what can a mortall Saviour do for us what could an arm of
ever but Christ living infuseth life into us that the bonds of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place for it is impossible it should hold them and you may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell for how can light dewll in darknesse how can purity mix with stench how can beauty stay with horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and to be both true yet this is such a contradiction which unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Heaven and earth may passe away but Christ lives for evermore and the power and vertue of his life is as everlasting as everlastingnesse it self And againe There was a pale Horse Rev. 6.8 and his name that sate on him was death and he had power to kill with the sword with hunger and with the beasts of the Earth but now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger and sling us down to rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour to be the Death of death it self Death was a king of terrors and the Feare of death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 brought us into servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures lesse delightfull and our virtues more tedious then they are made us tremble and shrink from those Heroique undertakings for the truth of God but now they in whom Christ lives and moves and hath his Being as in his own dare look upon him in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertull and are ready to meet him in his most dreadfull march with all his Army of Diseases racks and Tortures and as man before he sinned knew not what Death meant and Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so doe they with death and having that Image restored in them are secure and feare it not for what can this Tyrant take from them Their life that is hid with Christ in God It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keys in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing that troubled S. Austin to define what it is we call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as Omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses the law of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate this law by which we are bound over unto death because it is soprofitable and advantageous to us it was threatned it is now a promise or the way unto it for death it is that lets us in that which was promis'd it was an end of all it is now the beginning of all it was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it we may say it is the first point and moment of our After-eternity for t is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them for we live or rather labour and fight and strive with the world and with life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and presse forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our soules and we from our miseries and Tempâ—…tions and this living everliving Christ gathers us together again breaths life and eternity unto us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the maine Articles of our faith 1. Christs death 2. his life 3. his eternall life and last of all his power of the keys his Dominion over hell and death we will but in a word fit the Ecce the behold in the Text to every part of it and set the seale to it Amen and so conclude And first we place the Ecce the behold on his death he suffer'd and dyed that he might learne to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and rayse thee from both and wilt thou learne nothing from his compassion wilt thou not by him and by thy own sinnes and miseries which drew from him teares of Bloud learne to pitty thy self wilt thou still rejoyce in that iniquity which troubled his spirit which shed his bloud which he was willing should gush out of his heart so it might melt thine and work but this in thee to pitty thy self we talk of a first Conversion and a second and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to blisse if we could once have compassion on our selves the work were done and when were you converted or how were you converted were no such hard questions to be answer'd for I may be sure I am converted if I be sure that I truly pitty my self shall Christ onely have compassion on thy soule But then again shall he shed his bloud for his Church that it may be one with him and at unity in it self and canst thou not drop a teare when thou seest this his body thus rent in pieces as it is at this day when thou seest the world the love of the world break in and make such havock in the Church oh 't is a sad contemplation will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem Secondly let us look upon him living and not take our eye from off him to fill and feed and delight it with the vanities of this world with that which hath neither life nor spirit with that which is so neer to nothing with that which is but an Idol Behold he liveth that which thou so dotest on hath no life nor can it prolong thy life a moment who would not cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills and then what madnesse is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all shall Christ present himself alive to us and for us and shall we lay hold of corruption rottennesse and when heaven opens it self to receive us run from it into a charnell-house and so into hell it self But then in the third place Behold he lives for evermore and let not us bound and imprison our thoughts
way and through all the surges of this present world brings us to the presence of God who is truth is self a truth which leads us to our Originall to the Rock out of which we were hewen and brings us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself an Art to cast down all Babells all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our soules powre them out upon variety of unlawfull objects which deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Time 1.10 for whatsoever the prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of immortality was but darknesse in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth luxury place on wealth and riches what horror on nakednesse and poverty How doth a jewell glitter in my eyes and what a slurr is there upon virtue what Glory doth the pomp of the world present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath righteousnesse How is God thrust out and every Idol every vanity made a God but the truth here which the spirit teacheth discovers all pulls off the vayle shewes us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived shewes us vanity in riches folly in honour death and destruction in the pomp of this world makes poverty a blessing and misery happinesse and death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and man where he should be at his footstoole bowing before him which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a truth of power to unite us to our God that brings with it the knowledge of Christ the wisdome of God which presents those precepts and doctrines which lead to happinesse a truth that goes along with us in all our wayes waits on us on our bed of sicknesse leaves us not at our death but followes us and will rise again with us unto judgement and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate For if we make it our friend here it shall then look lovely on us and speak good things for us but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this truth to them that love it but to those who will not learne shall be Tribulation and anguish the Sun turn'd into Bloud the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the Trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of the heart acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this truth which the spirit teacheth according saith Saint Paul to my Gospel Rom. 2.16 The large extent of this lesson This is the lesson The spirit teacheth truth let us now see the extent of it which is large and universall for the spirit doth not teach us by halves doth not teach some truths and conceal others but teacheth all truth makes his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous and full of saving knowledge For saving knowledge is all indeed that truth which brings me to my end is all and there is nothing more to be known I desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 here his desire hath a Non ultra this truth is all this joyns heaven and earth together God and man mortality and immortality misery and happiness in one drawes us neer unto God and makes us one with him This is the Spirits lesson Commentum Divinitatis the invention of the divine Spirit as faith is called the gift of God not onely because it is given to every believer and too many are too willing to stay till it be given but because this spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith And as he first found it out so he teacheth it and leaves out nothing not a tittle not an Iota which may serve to compleat perfect this Divine Science In the book of God are all our members written All the members yea and all the faculties of our soul and in his Gospel his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off which limit the understanding to the knowledg of God which bind the will to obedience and moderate confine our Affections level our hope fix our joy stint our sorrow which frame our speech compose our gesture fashion our Apparel set and methodize our outward behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious and what should I more say for the time would faile me to mention them all In a word then this truth which the spirit teacheth is fitted to the whole man fitted to every member of the body to every faculty of the soule fitted to us in every condition in every relation it will reign with thee it will serve with thee it will manage thy riches it will comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee and sit down with thee on the dunghill it will pray with thee it will fast with thee it will labour with thee it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee it will govern a Church it will order thy Family it will raise a kingdome within thee it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abrahams bosome and set a crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more or what need more than that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to blessednesse and there is but one Truth and that is it which the Spirit teacheth and this runs the whole compass of it directs us not onely ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not onely to that which is the end but to the means to every step and passage and approch to every help and advantage towards it and so unites us to this one God gives us right to this one Heaven and brings us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this truth which the spirit hath plainly taught 't is true but then for the most part they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make cases sometimes raised by weakness sometimes by wilfulness sometimes even by sin it self which
reignes in our mortall bodies and to such this lesson of the Spirit is as an Ax to cut them off But be their Originall what it will if this truth reach them not or if they bear no Analogy or affinity with that which the Spirit hath taught nor depend upon it by any evident and necessary consequence they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which concern us because we are assured that he hath led us into all truth that is necessary Some things indeed there are which are indifferent in themselves quae lex nec vetat nec jubet which this Spirit neither commands not forbids but are made necessary by reason of some circumstance of time or place or quality or persons for that which is necessary in it self is alwayes necessary and yet are in their own nature indifferent still veritas ad omnia occurrit this truth which is the spirits lesson reacheth even these and containes a rule certain and infallible to guide us in them if we become not lawes unto our selves and fling it by to wit the rules of Charity and Christian prudence to which if we give heed it is impossible we should miscarry It is the love of our selves the love of the world not charity or spirituall wisdome which make this noyse abroad which rend the Church in pieces and work this desolation on the earth it is the want of conscience the neglect of conscience in the common and known wayes of our duty which have raised so many needless cases of conscience which if men had not hearkened to their lusts had never shewn their head had been what indeed they are nothing the acts of charity are manifest 1 Cor. 13. She suffereth long even injuries and errours but doth not rise up against that which was set up to enlarge and improve her Charity is not rash to beat down every thing that had its first rise and beginning from Charity is not puffed up swells not against a harmless yea and an usefull constitution though it be of man Doth not behave it self unseemly layes not a necessity upon us of not doing that which lawful authority even then styles an indifferent thing when it commands it to be done Charity seeketh not her own treads not the publique peace under foot to procure her own Charity is not provoked checks not at every feather nor startles at that monster which is a creation of our own Charity thinketh no evil doth not see a Serpent under every leaf nor Idolatry in every bow of Devotion if we were charitable we could not but be peaceable if that which is the main of the Spirits lesson did govern mens actions there would be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege sed liberâ charitate saith Austin Charity is free to do suffer many things which the Spirit doth not expresly command and yet doth command in generall when it commands and enjoyns obedience to Authority which hath no larger circuit to walk and shew it self in than in things in themselves indifferent which it may enioyn for orders sake and the advantage of those things which are necessary which are already under a higher and more binding law than any Potentate or Monarch of the earth can make The acts I say of Charity are manifest but those of Christian prudence are not particularly designed Prudentia respicit ad siagularia because that eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences and circumstances and it depends upon those things which are without us whereas Charity is an act of the will and here if we would be our selves or rather if we would not be our selves but be free from by-respects and unwarrantable ends if we would divest our selves of all hopes or feares of those things which may either shake or raise our estates we cannot be to seek For how easy is it to a disengaged and willing mind to apply a generall precept to particular actions especially if Charity fill our hearts which is the bond of perfection and the end and complement of the Law which indeed is our spirituall wisdome In a word in these cases when we goe to consult with our reason we cannot erre if we leave not Charity behind us or if we should erre our charity would have such an influence upon our errour that it should trouble none but our selves for Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things And this is the extent of the Spirits lesson and if in other truths more subtill than necessary we are to seek it matters not for we need not seek them for it is no sin not to know that which I cannot know it is no sin to be no wiser than God hath made me or what need our curiosity rove abroad when that which is all and alone concerns us lies in so narrow a compasse In absoluto facili aeternitas Hil. de Trin. saith Hilary the way to heaven may seem rough and troublesome but it is an easy way easy to find out though not so easy at our first onset to walk in and yet to those that tread and trace it often as delightfull as Paradise it self See God hath shut up Eternity within the compasse of two words Believe and Repent which is a full and just commentary on the Spirits lesson the summe of all that he taught lay your foundation right and then build upon it because God loved you in Christ do you love him in Christ love him and keep his commandements than which no other way could have been found out to draw you neer unto God Believe and Repent this is all Oh wicked abomination whence art thou come to cover the earth with deceit with malice what defyance what contentention what gall and bitternesse amongst Christians and yet this is all Believe and Repent The pen the tongue the sword these are the weapons of our warfare What ink what blood hath been spilt in the cause of Religion how many Innocents defamed how many Saints anathematized how many millions cut down with the sword yet this is all Believe and Repent We hear the noyse of the whip and the ratling of the wheeles and the prancing of the horses the horseman lifteth up his bright speare and his glittering sword Nah. 3.2,3 Every part of Christendome almost is a stage of war and the pretence is written in their banners you may see it waving in the aire for God and Religion and this is all Believe and Repent Who would once think the pillars of the earth should be thus shaken that the world should be turned into a worse Chaos than that out of which it was made that there should be such wars and fightings amongst Christians for that which is shut up and brought unto us in these two words Believe and Repent for all the truth which is necessary which will be sufficient to lift us to our
mens unruly lust to pace it more delicately to its end they that magnifie Gods will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God By their fruits you shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cob-web-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spirituall men sweating and toyling for the flesh these spirits digging in the mineralls and making haste to be rich for though Gloria Patri Glory be to God on High he the Prologue to the Play for what doth an hypocrite but play yet the whole drift the businesse of every Scene and Act is to draw and conclude all in this From hence we have our gain The Angel or the Spirit speaks first and is the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make up the Epilogue Date manus why should not every man clap his hands surely such Roscii such nimble cunning actors deserve a plaudite By their fruits you shall know them what spirit soever they have it is not of God for nothing more contrary to the flesh than this spirit and therefore he cannot lead this way nor can he teach any thing that may flatter or countenance it there is nothing more against his nature than this fire may descend and the earth may be removed out of its place nature may change her course at the word and beck of the God of nature but this is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his spirit breath any doctrine forth which savours of the world of the flesh or corruption and therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be the effects and products of the blessed spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnall ends and temporall respects for sure the spirit can never beat a bargain for the world and the truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchase When I see a man rowl his eys compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world when I hear him loud in Prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquity of the times when I see him startle at a misplaced word as if it were a thunder-bolt when I heare him cry as loud for a reformation as the Idolatrous Priests did upon Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven but then after all this extaticall devotion after all this zeal and in the midst of all this noyse wherein I see him stoop like the vultur and flie like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self Oh Lucifer son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self sure I am the spirit of truth looks upward moves upward directs upward to those things which are above and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung So then we see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by this doctrine of the Spirits leading is not unavoidable it is not necessary though I mistake and take the Divel for an Angel of light that the holy Ghost should be put to silence though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up on the same gulph In the third of the first of Samuel Samuel runs to Eli when the voice was Gods but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth though there be many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one and though there be many false Teachers come into the world yet the spirit of God is a spirit of Truth ducet nos and he shall lead us into all truth And that we may follow as he leads we must observe the wayes in which he moves for as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of peace Luk. 1.79 so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wayes of truth and in those wayes the spirit will lead us I may be in viis iniquitatis in the wayes of wickednesse in the wayes of the Gentiles and prophane men in viis meis in my own wayes in those wayes which my fancy and lust hath chalked out on that pinacle and height where my ambition hath placed me in that mine and pit where my coverousnesse hath buried me alive and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem from the truth and in these he leads us not How can he learn poverty of spirit who hath no God but Mammon and knows no sin but poverty How can he be brought down to obedience and humility who with diotrephes in S. John loves to have preheminence and thinks himself nothing till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoulders how can he hearken to the truth who studies lies and doe we now wonder why we are not taught the truth where the Spirit keeps open school there is no wonder at all the reason why we are not taught is because we will not learn Ambition soars to the highest seat and the Spirit directs us to the ground to the lowest place the love of the world doth fill our barns and the Spirit points to the bellies of the poore as the better and safer garners my private factious humour tramples under foot obedience to superiours because I my self would be the highest and challenge that as my peculiar which I deny to others but this spirit prescribes order Doth Montanus lead about silly women and prophesy doth he call his dreames revelations Eusebius tells us that the Spirit which led him about was nothing else but an inseparable desire of precedency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 21. Tert. coat Valent c. 4. Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many crimes as gods Tertullian informes us that he hoped for a Bishoprick but fell from those hopes and was disappointed by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome and his many sufferings for the truth Doth Arrius deny the divinity of the Son read Theodoret and he will shew you Alexander in the chaire before him Theod. l. 1. c. 2. Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Presbyter the reason was he was denied himself and could not be one so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven whose first wish was to be God and whose next was that there were no God at all From hence these stirres and tumults in the Church of Christ from hence these storms and tempests which blow and beat in her face from hence these distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion that it is a matter of some danger but to mention it which made Nazianzen in some passion as it may seem cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
30 makes as one with him makes us as Christ speaks his brother and sister and mother This is our affinity this is our honour this is in a manner our Divinity on earth For God and man saith Synesius have but this one onely thing common to them both and that is Heb. 13.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do good To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased This then may well go for one part or limb of Religion And in the next place as in the visitation of the fatherlesse and widows all charity to our Brother is implyed so all charity to our selves is shut up in this other in keeping our selves unspotted of the world And this phrase in keeping our selves is very significant and that its weight for those spots which so defile us and make us such Leopards are not so much from the world as from our selves as a cheat is not onely from the cunning of the Impostor but from the want of wisdom and experience in him that is deceived 't is Ignorance that promotes the cheat that draws the power and faculty into Act makes him that hath a subtle wit injurious and t is an evil heart that makes the world contagious for wisdom prevents a cheat and watchfulnesse a spot This world in it self hath nothing in it that can defile us for God saw all that he made was good Tertul. despectaculis c. 2. and it was very good but Nihil non est Dei quod Deum offendit there is nothing by which we offend God but is from God that beauty which kindles lust is his gift that gold which hath made that desolation upon the earth was the work of his hands he gives us the bread we surfet on he filleth the cup that intoxicates us the world is the Lords and all that therein is but yet this world bespots us not because 't is his who cannot behold much lesse could make any unclean thing We must therefore search out another world and you need not travell far 1 ep 2.16 for you may stay at home and finde it in your selves S. John hath made the discovery for you in his first Epistle where he draws the map of it and divides it to our hands into three provinces or parts the first the lust of the flesh where unlawfull pleasures sport themselves secondly the lust of the eyes where covetousnesse builds her an house thirdly and the pride of life which whets a sword for the Revenger erects a throne for the Ambitious raiseth up a triumphant Arch for the vain-glorious this is the world saith S. John even a world of wickednesse this inverteth the whole course of Nature makes the wheel of the Creation move disorderly this world within us makes that world without us an enemy makes beauty deceitfull wine a mocker riches a snare works that into sinne out of which we might have made a key to open the gates of Heaven drops its poyson under every leaf upon every object and by its mixture with the world ingenders that serpent which spets the poyson back again upon us and not onely bespots James 1.15 and defiles but stings us to death for when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and when sinne is finished it defiles a man and leave those spots behinde it which deface him and gives him a thousand severall shapes the Schools call it maculam peccati the blot and stain of sinne which is of no positive reality but a deprivation and defect of beauty in the soul and varies as shadows do according to the diversity of those bodies that cast it We see then that there is a world within us as well as without us and when these two are in conjunction when our lust joyns it self to the things of this world as the prodigall is said to do to a master in a farr countrey then follows pollution and deformity and as many spots as there be sins which are as many as the hairs of our head Beauty brings in deformity riches poverty plenty brings leanness into the soul and therefore to conclude this to keep our hearts with diligence and to keep our selves unspotted of the world is a main and principall part of our Religion and will keep us members of Christ and parts of the Church when prophanenesse and coverousnesse which is Idolatry shall have laid her discipline her honor in the dust A man of tender bowels and a pure heart is as the Church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against him By this we imitate that God we worship we draw neer unto him as neer as flesh and mortality will permit our escaping the spots and pollutions of this world makes us followers of that God who marks every spot we have and is not touched sees us in our blood and pollution and is not defiled beholds all the wickednesse in the world and yet remains the same for ever even goodnesse and purity it self this makes us partakers as Saint Peter speaks of the Divine nature in a word 2 Pet. 1.4 to be in the world and tread it under our feet to be in Sodom and to be a Lot on the hills of the robbers and do no wrong to be in the midst of snares and not be taken to be in Paradise Import and see the Apple pleasant to the sight to be compast about with glorious objects of delight and pleasures and not to Taste or Touch or Handle is the neerest assimilation that Dust and Ashes that mortall man can have to his Creator I may well then call these two the Essentiall parts of Religion Antigoni Imaginem â—…otegenes obliquam fecit ut quod corpore deerat picturae potius deesse videretur tantumque eam partem oslendit quam toram poterat ostendere Plin. Nat. Hist l. 35. c. 11. of which as you have taken a short severall view so be pleased to observe also their mutuall dependance and necessary connexion for if either be wanting you spoil the whole peece for neither will my charity to my brother entitle me to Religion if I be an enemy to my self nor my abstaining from evil Canonize me a saint if my goodnesse be not diffusive on others and if we draw out in our selves the picture of Religion but with one of these we do but like the painter who to flatter Antigonus because he had but one eye Drew but the half face For first to visit the Fatherlesse and widdows i. e. to be plenteous in good works ista sunt quasi incunabula pietatis saith Gregory Augustin these are the very beginings and nurcery of the love of God and there is no surer and readier step to the love of God whom we have not seen then by the love of our Brethren whom we see Gregor Tunc ad alta charitas mirabiliter surgit cum ad ima proximorum se misericorditer attrahit Then our charity begins to improve itself
ex alto Deus rerum arbiter men see us who see but our face but God also is a spectator and He knoweth the Heart Take that zeal which consumes not our selves but others about us this fire is not from Heaven nor was it kindled by the Father of lights that hand which is so ready to take a Brother by the throat was never guided by the Author of our Religion who is our Father That tongue which is full of Bitterness and reviling was never toucht by a Cherubin but set on fire of Hell These are not Religions Coram Deo Patre before God and the Father but this Religion to do good and abstain from evil ex alto origine ducit acknowledgeth no author but the God of Heaven hath God and the Father to bear witness to it was foreshewed by the Prophets chundered out by the Apostles and Christ himself who was the Author and Finisher of our Faith and Religion And this may serve The Application first to make us in love with this Religion because it hath such a founder as God the Father who is wisdom it self and can neither be deceived nor deceive us Ye men and Brethren and whosoever among you feareth God to you is this word of salvation sent Acts 13.26 sent to you from Heaven from God and the Father in other things you are very curious and ever desire to receive them from the best hands what a present is a picture of Apelles making or a statue of Lysippus not the watch you wear but you would have it from the best Artificer and shall our curiosity spend it self on vanities and leave us careless and indifferent in the choice of that which must make our way to eternity of bliss shall we make darkness our pavilion round about us and please our selves in error when Heaven bows and opens it self to receive us and shall we worship our own imaginations and not hearken what God and the Father shall say what a shame is it when God from Heaven points with his finger to the rule Haec est this is it that we should frame a Religion to our selves that every mans fancy and humour or which is the height of impiety every mans sin should be his Lawgiver that when there can be but one there should be so many Religions Arbitrary Religions such as we are pleased to have because they smile upon us and flatter and bolster up our irregular desires a Hearing Religion and a Talking Religion and a Trading Religion a Religion that shall visit the Widow and Orphan but rather to devour then refresh them Behold and look no farther God the Father hath made a Religion which is pure and undefiled to our hands and therefore as Seneca counsels Polybius when thou wouldst forget all other things Cogita Caesarem entertain Caesar in thy thoughts so that we may forget all other sublimary worldly I may say Hellish Religions let us think of this Religion whose Author and Founder is God whose wisdom is infinite whose power uncontrolable whose authority unquestionable for talk what we will of authority the authority of man is like himself and can but binde the man and that the frailest and earthliest part of him only God is Rex mentium the King of our mindes and no authority in Heaven or in Earth can binde or loose a Soule but his who first breathed it into man Come then let us worship and fall down before God the Father the maker both of us and our Religion Again in the second place if Saint James be Canonical and Authentick if this be true Religion then it will make up an answer sufficient to stop the mouth of those of the Romish party who are very busie to demand at our hands a catalogue of Fundamentals and where our Church was before the dayes of Reformation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Proverb These and such like they put up unto us as Archytas did his rattles into childrens hands to keep them from doing mischief that being busie and taken up with these we may have less leisure to pull down her Idols or discover her shame Do they aske what truths are Fundamental Faith supposed as it is here they are charity to our selves and others nihil ultra scire est omnia scire to know this is to know all we need to know for it is not sufficient to know that which is sufficient to make us happy but Tert. de praescript if nothing will satisfie them but a Catalogue of particulars Habent Mosen Prophetas they have Moses and the Prophets they have the Apostles and if they finde them not there in vain shall they seek for them at our hands they may if they please seek them there and then number them out as they do their Prayers by Beads and present them by Tale but if they will yet know what is Fundamental in our conceit and what not they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw them out with both hands for first let them observe what points they are in which we agree with their Church and if they be in Scripture let them set them down if they please as Fundamental in our account and on the other hand let them mark in what points we refuse Communion with them and they cannot but Think that we esteem those points for no Fundamentals And again do they who measure Religion rather by the pomp and state it carries with it then the power and majesty of the Author whose command alone made it Religion ask us where our Religion was in the dayes before there was a withdrawing from the Communion with that Church we may answer it was here in the Text for haec est this is it and if they further question us where it was professed we need give no other reply then this it was profest where it was profest if it were not protest in any place yet was it true Religion for the truth depends not on the profession of it nor is it less truth if none receive it but profest it was even amongst them in the midst of them round about them but wheresoever it were Haec erat this was it this was true Religion before God and the Father to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep our selves unspotted of the World To conclude then Conclus 3. Men and Brethren are these things so and is this only true Religion to doe good and abstain from evil what a busie noise then doth the world make for Religion when it offers it self and falls so low offers it self to the meanest understanding the narrowest capacity and throws it self into the embraces of any that will love it Littus Hyla Hyla Omne sonabat Religion is the talke of the whole world it is preach't on the house tops and it is cryed up in the streets we are loud for it and smother it in that noise we write for it and leave it dead
command deliver up his own Ordinance what deliver up his strength into Captivity and his Glorie into the enemies hands yes even here Dominus est it is the Lord. God did it because he suffered it to be done did it tanquam dormiens as one asleep withdrew himself when he awakes then he will lift up his hand and it shall fall upon the Philistine and bruise him to pieces then it shall be his power and irresistible Arm now it is but his connivence and permission What the rage of the Persecutor what the Philistine what the Devil doth God is said to do and in many places of Scripture it is called his will â— quia volens permittit because he willingly permits it for should he interpose his power it could never be done 2. Because he foretels and threatens it and binds it with an Oath as he doth here which he would never do if he meant to hinder it Lastly Though he will not the thing it self as murder and Sacriledge and the Profanation of his Ark yet notwithstanding some good will of God is accomplished by it For even in the most horrid Execution some good will of God may be accomplisht he delivers up Christ to be Crucified but his will was to save the World and he that was willing his Son should suffer yet hated the Jew and for that very fact made their house desolate he found them in the gall of bitternesse and left them so to do his will when they brake it the malice was their own and God suffered them to breath it forth but the issue and event was an Act of Gods will of his wisdom and power And thus he delivers up the Ark but it was to preserve it as Agesilaus abrogated the Laws of Lâ—curgus that he might establish them ut semper essent aliquanâ—o non fuerunt Valer. Max. l. 7. c. 2 saith the Historian they were laid aside awhile that they might remain and be in force for ever so God suffers his Ark to be lead into Captivity that it might conquer first Dagon and then the Israelite strike off his hypocrisy and work and fashion him to the will of God of whom the Ark was but a representation suffered it to be removed for a time that it might be restored again both to its place and dignity For we may observe in these Israelites what if we could be impartial we may soon discover in our selves in the use of those helps which God hath graciously afforded us They both honoured and dishonored the Ark gave it too high an esteem and yet undervalued it they called it their God and made it their Idol A strange contradiction yet so visible in the course and progresse of carnal worshippers that he that sees them in their race would think they ran two contrary wayes at once were very Religious and very profane at once did invade Heaven with violence and yet drive furiously to the lowest pit And first we have just reason to imagine that when the Ark was taken up upon the Levites shoulders and they sang let God arise which was the set and constant form they spake not by metaphor but as if indeed they had their God on their shoulders for in the fourth Chapter when Israel was smitten at the 2. ver let us bring say they the Ark of the Covenant at the third The Ark is brought out and now victory is certain for when it cometh amongst us it willsave us say they But as Epictetus once taught his Scholars that they should so behave themselves that they might be an Ornament to the Arts and not the Arts unto them so the integrity of the Jew should have been a defence to the Ark and not the Ark made use of to stand up for a prophane impenitent Israelite For what a wile and sophisme of Satan is this to perswade a polluted sinful soul that when he hath scornfully rejected the substance that piety which should make him strong in the Lord at the last in the time of Danger and the furious approach of the enemy a shadow should stand forth and fight for him that when he had broken the Law and Testimonies not regarded the Oracles forget all the Mercies of God and robd him of his glory that then I say the shell the Ark the Shittim wood should be as the great power of God to maintain his cause certainly if this be not a wile of the Devil I know no snare he hath that can catch us if this be not to deceive our selves I shall think there is no such thing as error in the World But again in the second place and on the contrary as they did Deificare Arcam as the father speaks even deifie the Ark attribute more unto it then God ever gave it or was willing it should have so they did also depretiare vilifie and set it at naught called it their strength their glory their God but imployed it in baser offices then ever the Heathen did their gods who called upon them to teach them to steal and deceive Not long since their Priests committed rapes at the door of the Tabernacle Pulcra laverna Da mihi fallere c. Hor. and now they expect the Ark should help those prophane miscreants who had so polluted it Oh the Ark the Ark the glory of God that is able to becalm and slumber a Tempest to binde the hands of the Almighty that he shall not strike to scatter an Army to make kings to fly to crown a sinful Nation with victory to bring back an adulterer Lanreate a Ravisher with the spoiles of a Philistine that shall be a buckler a protection to defend them who but now defiled it that shall be their God which they made their Abomination bring forth the Ark and then what are these uncircumcised Philistines God heard this saith the Psalmist Psal 78.59 and was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel and seeing that all the cry was for the Ark no thought for the statutes and Testemonies which lay shut up in the Ark and oblivion together seeing the signe of his presence had quite shut him out of whose presence it was a signe seeing it so much honored so much debased so sanctified and so polluted he delivers up the people and the Ark together into the Philistines hands that they might learn more from the Ark in the Temple of Dagon then they did when it stood in their own Tabernacle learn the right use of it now which they had so fouly abused when they enjoyed it in a word strikes off their embroydery that they might learn to be more glorious within I remember there is a constitution in the Imperial Law st seudatarius rem Feuae c. if he that holdeth in see farm useth contrary to the will and intent of the Lord redit a Dâ—menum it presently returns into the Lords power And we may observe that the great Emperour of Heaven and earth proceeds after the same
that word let every knee bow both of things in Heaven and things in earth let men and angels say Amen his will be done Dominus est It is the Lord it is the antecedent and the most natural consequent or conclusion that can be drawn from it is this of old Eli the High Priest Faciat quod bonum in oculis let him do what seemeth him good To conclude then when we are thus wrought and fashioned to his hand and will thus meek and yeelding to his Scepter when we follow him in all his wayes and not question but obey his Providence which is the bridle of the World and fit for no hands but his when with old Eli here we joyn our Faciat with his fecit and are willing he should do whatsoever is done when the Lord thunders from Heaven and shoots his arrows abroad when we can look upon them sticking in our own sides Psa 19. and say thus thus it should be Judicia Domini vera the Judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether then we have the spirit of God and we have the wil of God and these arrows will be to us as Jonathans were to David as signes and warning to fly from some danger neer at hand that those evils we suffer may work that patience which may make us Cooperarios Dei as Tertullian spake of Job fellow workers with God Tertul. De patient and joyn us with him in the conquest of those temptations which they bring along with them that our patience may beget experience how weak and fraile we are when we are moved and guided by our own will and this experience Hope which being founded on the promises of the God of truth can neither deceive us nor make us ashamed a hope that our Ark will return and God will restore to us all those helps and advantages which he shall think necessary for us in this our warfare He that hath the will of God hath this hope built upon his power and wisdom which alwayes accompanies his will he that hath the will of God hath what he will hath power and wisdom in the strength of which we shall be able to lift up our heads in the midst of all the busie noyse the World shall make be stedfast and immovable when the tempest is loudest and when our sun shall be darkned and the stars fall from Heaven when there shall be Sects and divisions and great perplexity when our Ark shall be taken and the glory depart from Israel look upon all with an eye of Charity or as Erasmus speaks with an Evangelical eye and walk on in a constant course of piety and contention with those infirmities which so easily beset us beating down sin in our selves though we cannot destroy errour in our brethren and so becomes as Nazianzen once spake of his people of Nazianzum like the Ark of Noah and by this our spiritual Wisdom escape that deluge and Inundation of Contention which hath neer overflovved and swallowed up the whole Christian World and so walk upon these floods and waves Christ himself going before till vve rest upon our Ararat our holy Hill that new Jerusalem that City of peace where there will be no envie no debate no Sects no Divisions no contentions no wars no rumor of wars but love and peace and unity and joy and unconceivable bliss for evermore THE THIRD SERMON COLLOSS 26. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him NOthing more familiar in Scripture then to compare a Christian mans life to a walke and Christianity to a way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to the way which they call Heresy so worship I the God of my Fathers saith Saint Paul Acts. 24.14 and the resemblane fitteth very well For as they who travell in the way meet with variety of Objects it may be a plant or Flower saith Saint Basil it may be a Serpent In Psal 2. or a Lyon objects to delight them and objects to terrify them all to retard and deteine them to stay them longer from their journeys end so in the course of Religion in our way to happiness every step is with danger our pathes are ensnared an our Progresse intangled if a plant or Flower Prov. 22.13 the pomp and glory of the world stay us not yet there is Leo in via a Lion in the way difficulties 2 Cor. 7.5 which we must struggle with and there are Feares in the way fightings without and Terrors Intur causus ambulamus saith Austin we walk in the midst of ruine where every object may prove a Temptation and every Temptation an overthrow nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidor with our ruine about us not onely the way but our feet be slippery Wee need not goe farre for instance for every man may find one in himself but we will take this which Saint Paul hath put into our hands of the Colossians the occasion of my Text and of them Saint Paul professes in this Epistle That they had made a fair onset in Christianity that they were forward in their way he beholds them with joy and rejoyceth to see them walk to see their order and their stedfast Faith in Christ in the verse before my Text but withall perceiving some uneven steps and dangerous swarvings and declinations from the will of Christ and those wayes which his Wisedome drew out in the Gospel he calls loud upon them and at once commends and instructs them armes them against those false Teachers who by their mixtures and additions had made it another Gospel commends them for their choice of their way and directs them how to walk In the way they were but there was Philosophus in viâ Vâ—s 8. at the Eighth the Philosopher in their way with his subtilties to spoile and rob them and then the word is Nen o vos depraedetur let no man make a spoile of you draw you by force out of the way by the vaine deceit of Philosophicall speculations And there was Angelus in viâ an Angel in the way with his glorious excellencies to amaze them v. 18. and here the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man defraud you of your reward of that I berty which Christ hath granted you which makes a fair and open way to you without the mediation of Angels Last of all There was Lex in viâ there was the Law in the way with her shadows and ceremonies to deteine them and there word is nemo vos judicet Let no man judge or condemn you of a Holyday or new Moone or the Sabbath Day v. 16. Harken not to the Philosopher but to him in whom dwelleth all the Fulnesse of the God-head bodily v. 9. and that wisedome which the Holy Ghost teacheth Bow not to an Angel but to him who is head of all Principality and Power v. 10. And look not unto the Law which is but a shadow but to the Body the
for companies sake This the Apostle may seeme either to have seen or been afraid of either to have had it in his eye or in his jealousie and therefore strives to remove or to prevent it for it is farre the lesser evill not to know his Name then thus to receive him an unhappy ignorance finding some mercy even in judgement of which a fruitlesse and ungratefull knowledge is not capable And in this sense we may take it but if we look forward and consider the many cautions the Apostle puts up against Philosopy Traditions of men and the Law of Ceremonies I see not but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil peregrinum audite Oecum in loc here may be an Adverb of similitude and likenesse and then the sense will runne thus walk in him in that manner you have received him as he was presented and delivered to you by me or as S. Iude interprets it vers 3. as he was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once for all unto the Saints Sicut edocti estis v. 7. otherwise we receive him not or receive something else for Christ or something more or something lesse then Christ And as the danger is great if we receive him not so is it no lesse if we receive him not in his owne shape in his full Beauty Perfection in which he hath been pleased to present himself unto us in his Gospel The grand error and mistake of the world is in the manner of receiving him For as in respect of his Person we find that the Christians in former Ages could not agree in the manner of receiving Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 26. but some would receive him after this manner some after another some a created Christ others a half Christ some through a conduit-pipe others lesse visible then a Type in an aeriall and fantasticall body a Christ and not a Christ a Christ divided and a Christ contracted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Naz. and many Christs indeed as good none at all So in the practicall part in respect of his Doctrine we often erre and dangerously in the receiving him we say Anathema to the Arrians Manichees and Anabaptists and let them passe with the censure of the Church upon them but how we do receive him If we will hearken to our selves our consciences will tell us with his curly locks and spicy cheeks with his Flaggons and his Apples as he is said to be described in the Canticles to save sinners but not to command them with Gospel and Mercy as much as he wil but not with any law a Physitian that should heal us without a Prescript a King without a Scepter a Sonne that will be kist we like that well but not be angry Some receive him without the Law not onely taking away the rigor of it but abolishing it quite removing it out of our sight not onely as a Covenant but as a Rule of life to guide and govern us and then the Christian is a Libertine some receive him with the Law of works and make them not onely a condition required of a justifi'd Person but a part and helping cause of justifying a sinner and taking off the guilt which is the work of Mercy alone and then the Christian is in part a Jew some receive him in the very shape the Jews expected him with Drum and colours and then the Christian is a man of blood Some receive him in the shape of Elias driving out all that oppose him from the Land of the Living and then the Christian is a consuming fire Some receive him not as a sacrifice for sinne but as an Abettor and Countenancer of those foule Enormities which nayl'd him to his Crosse and then the Christian is a man of Belial The ambitious receive him and with him Honor and the highest place The wanton gallant receives him and with him all the vanities of the world a poore naked Christ with silk and purple and delicious fare The Covetous receive him and with him Mammon and so walke in a shadow till he fall into the grave which in this is like him That it will not be satisfyed or say It is enough In a word the Papist impropriates him the Schismatique divides him the Heretick trades with him The Ambitious scorne him The Covetous sells him the Oppressor whips him The mocker spits in his face The Libertine crucifies him againe most receive him but most of all that most are enemies to the Crosse of Christ And therefore in these latitudes and deviations inter tot humanos errores when there are so many errors and mistakes it will be necessary to have an eye to the sicut to the rule that we neither exceed nor come short Scriptura non fallit si se Homo non sallat Aug. de urbis exerdie saith Aust the word received the rule cannot deceive a man if a man deceive not himself first and then suborne and force in the rule to make good the cheat It is a well of living water if we do not stop it as the Philistines did Isaac's wells and then fill it with Dust Gen. 26.15 with earthy glosses consult with flesh and blood and make that an Interpreter one of a Thousand It is a glasse and will shew thee the colour the full proportion of every step and motion if thou look stedfastly upon it and not goe away and forget and then look upon others in their walke or make they own fancy a glasse like that which Pliny said did hang in the Temple of Smyrna in which thou mayst see every thing but thy selfe It is the Word of God Psal 60.56 Figurant verba mea ut qui ceram premendo figurat digitis is illam premendo quasi dolore afficit who cannot lye his Oracle His voice from heaven to thee walking here on the Earth and it will direct thy steps and make thy pathes streight if thou doe not dolorem verbo afferre as David complains of his enemies bring grief unto it wrest and wreath and shape and figure it by violence fit it to thy Action and make light it self beare witness to a work of darknesse make that place of Scripture plead for thee which in plaine termes hath given sentence against thee and coâ—…mned thee as a Malefactor Ad omnia occurrit veritas the Rule will help us at all losses in our way if we do not chuse and delight to wander and call error it self Truth because it gives us of that forbidden fruit which is pleasant to our eye and tast or which our humour or fancy or Lust have markt out as our chiefest happiness for these are the best and most Authentique Interpreters of this world These are the Doctors in our Israel How readest thou that 's the rule not how thinkest thou how wishest thou how wouldest thou have it and we must walke sicut accepimus as we have received This is set up against all other
they concern'd us not can see Majesty in a lump of flesh in those that cannot save themselves sooner then in him we call our Saviour But then canst thou discover Majesty in him now Majesty in his discipline Wisdom in the foolishnesse of Preaching his power in weaknesse now in this life when he is whipt and spit upon and crucified again when he lies cover'd over with disgraces and contumelies when his Precepts are dragged in Triumph after flesh and blood and whatsoever it dictates when for one Hosanna he hath a thousand crucifige's for one formal Hypocritical acknowledgement a thousand spears in his sides when the truth is what we will make it the Gospel esteemed no more then a fable and Christ himself if we look into mens lives the most disesteemed thing in the World when thou seeâ—st him in this cloud in this disfiguration in this Golgotha where is thy faith what eyes hast thou doth he not still appear a worm and no man a man of sorrows when thou seest him thus is there any forme that thou shouldest desire him Or dost thou even now see his Glory as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God 1 Joh. 1.14 Colos 2. doth he now appear to thee as the head of all principality and power canst thou see him in that naked Lazar that persecuted forlorn imprisoned Saint doth his majesty shine through the vanities of this World and make them loathsome through they labour of Charity and make it easie through persecution and make it joyful in the midst of rage and derision of fury and contumely is he still to thee the King of glory then thou dwellest in him even in the beauty of holinesse 2. Secondly if we dwell in him we shall be under his Command For they who command us do in a manner take us into themselves do possess and compasse bound and keep us in on every side and if we dwell in him we shall be within his reach and power not have our excursions and run from him into the streets and high-wayes again into Bethaven a house of vanity I say we shall be under his command we shall be his possession his propriety For man is a little world I may say he is a little common-wealth Ter. de Resurrect carn c. 40. Tertullian calls him Fibulam vtriusque substantiae the clasp or button which ties together his divers substances and natures the soul and the body the flesh and the spirit and these two are contrary one to the other saith Saint Paul are carried divers wayes the flesh to that which pleaseth it and the spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as delightful nor irksome but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the Beauty and perfection of the soul Gal. 5.15 These lust and struggle one against the other and man is the field the Theater where this battle is fought and one part or other still prevails Many times nay most times God help us the flesh with her sophistry prevailes with the will to joyn with her against the spirit and then sin takes the chair the place of Christ himself and sets us hard and heavy tasks sets us to make brick but allows us no straw bids us please and content our selve but affords us no means to work it out See how Mammon condemns one to the mines to dig for Metals and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how lust fetters another with a look with the glance of an eye binds him with a kisse Rom. 11.12 a kiss that will at last bite like a Cockatrice see how self love drives us on as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword thus sin doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercise its force and power Lord it and King it reign in our mortal bodies Again sometimes and why but sometimes but sometimes the will sanctified and upheld and encouraged by the spirit of Christ takes the spirits part determines for it against the flesh chuseth any thing which the spirit commends though it be compaâ—st about with terrours and fearful apparitions though it be irksome and contrary to the flesh and then we depose Mamman crucifie the flesh deny our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate our selves from our selves Math. 16 24 from our wilfulnesse and stubbornnesse and Animosities and so place Christ in his throne reinstate our selves into his house his family Eph. 3. into his kingdom that Christ may be all in all And thus it is whilst this fighting and contention last in us which will be as long as we last in our mortal bodies something or other will lay hold on us will have command over us for there is no such aequi librium in a Christian mans life no time when the scales are so even or when he hangs as Solomon is pictured between Heaven and Hell but one side or other still prevailes either we walk after the flesh when that is most potent or after the spirit when that carries us along in our way against the sollicitations and allurements of the flesh one of them is alwayes uppermost It will therefore concern us to take a strict account of our selves impartially to consider to which part our will inclines most whether it be hurried away by the flesh or lead sweetly and powerfully on by the spirit to weigh it well which of these bears most sway in our hearts whether we had rather be led by the spirit or obey the flesh in the lusts thereof whether we had rather dwell in the world with all its pomp and pageantry in a Mâ—hometical Paradise of all sensuall delights or dwell with Christ though it be with persecutions Suppose the devil should make an overture to thee as he did once to our Saviour of all the Kingdoms of the world and the flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee honour and power all that a heart of flesh would leap at in those Kingdoms and on the other side the spirit thy conscience enlightned should check thee and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that death and destruction are in these kingdoms vail'd and drest up with Titles of honour in purple and state that in this terrestrial Paradise thou shalt meet with a fiery sword the wrath of God and from this imaginary painted heaven be thrown into Hell it self Here now is thy tryal here thou art put to thy choice if thy heart can now say I will have none of these if thou canst say to thy flesh what hast thou to do with me who gave thee authority who made thee a Ruler over me if thou canst say to the spirit thou art instead of God to me if thou canst say with thy Saviour avoid Satan I know no power in Heaven or in earth no dominion but Christs then thou art in his house in his service
〈◊〉 a reason invincible unanswerable For this very expostulation is an Evidence faire and plaine enough that he would not have us die and then 't is as plaine That if we die we have killed and destroyed our selves against his will Of these two then in their order and first of the exhortation and Duty in which we shall passe by these steps or degrees 1. Look up upon the Author consider whose exhortation it is 2ly The Duty itself and in the last place pugnacem calorem that lively and forcible heat of Iteration and Ingemination Convertimini Convertimini Turne ye Turne ye the very life and soul of Exhortation Turne ye Turne ye saith the Lord. And first we aske Quis who is he that is thus urgent and earnest and as we read it is Ezekiel the Prophet and of Prophets Saint Peter tells us that they spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 1.21 as they were moved by the Spirit of God and they received the word non auribus sed animis not by the hearing of the eare but by inspiration and immediate Revelation by a divine Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Isai vis 1. and impression made in their soules so that this Exhortation to Repentance will prove to be an Oracle from Heaven to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Divine and Celestiall remedy to be the prescript of Wisedome it self and to have been written with the finger of God And indeed we shal find that this duty of Turning the true nature of Repentance was never taught in the School of Nature never found in its true effigies and Image in all its lines and Dimensions in the books of the Heathen The Aristotelians had their Expiations the Platonicks their purgations The Pithagoreans their Erinnys but not in relation to God or his Divine Goodnesse and Providence Tert. de poenit Et à ratione ejus tantum absuit quantum à rationus autore and were as farre to seek of the true reason and Nature of Repentance as they were of the God of reason himself many usefull lessons they have given us and some imperfect descriptions of it but those did rise no higher then the spring from whence they did flow from the Treasure of Nature and therefore could not lift them up to the sight of that peace and rest which is eternall They were as waters to refresh them and they that tasted deepest of them had most ease and by living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the directions of Nature gain'd that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Peace and composedness of minde which they call'd their Happinesse and was all they could attain to Tully and Cato had not such divided distracted souls as Cataline and Cethegus Seneca and hadnot those ictus laniatus Aristot l. 1. Eth. c. 13. those Gashes and Rents in his heart as Nero had even their Dreames were more sweet and pleasant then those of other men as being the resultancies and Eccho's of those virtuous Actions which they drew out in themselves by no other hand then that of Nature which lookt not beyond that frailty which she might easily discover in her self and so measur'd out their happinesse but by the Span by this present life or if she did see a glimpse and faint shew of a future estate she did but see and guesse at it and knew no more Reason it self did Teach them thus much that sin was unreasonable Tert. de poenit Nature it self had set a mark upon it omne malum aut timore aut pudore suffudit had either struck vice pale or died it in a blush did either loose their joynts or change their Countenance and put them in mind of their deviation from her rules by the shame of the fact and the feare they had to be taken in it which two made up that fraenum naturae that bridle of Nature to give them a checque and Turne but not unto the Lord. For were there ther Heaven nor Hell neither reward nor punishment yet whilst we carry about with us this ligh tof Reason sinne must needs have a soule face being so unlike unto Reason and if we would suffer her to come in to rescue when our loose affections are so violent we should not receive so many foiles as we doe a naturâ sequitur ut meliora probantes Quint. l. 6. c. 6. peiorum poeniteat Not to sinne to forsake sinne Nature it self teacheth but Nature never pointed out to this board this planck of Repentance to bring a shipwrackt soul to that haven of rest which is like it self and for which it was made Immortall Turne ye turne ye is dictum Domini a Doctrine which came down from Heaven and was brought down from thence by him who brought life and Immortality to light For it was impossible that it should ever have fallen within the conceit of any reasonable creature to set down and determine what satisfaction was to be made for an offence committed against a God of Infinite Majesty what fit recompence could God receive from the hand of Dust and Ashes what way could they find out to redeem themselves who were sold under sinne Ten thousand Worlds were too little to pay downe for the least of those sinnes which we drink down as an Oxe doth water The Occan would not wash off the least spot that defiles us all the beasts of the Mountains will not make a sacrifice spiritus fractus sacrificia Dei Psal 51. Naz Or. 3. other Sacrifices have been the Inventions of men of the Chaldeans and Cyprians and but occasionally and upon a kind of Necessity providently enjoyn'd by God but a relenting Turning Heart Naz. Or. 15. is his Sacrifice nay his Sacrifices instar omnium worth all the Sacrifices in the world his owne Invention his own Injunction his owne dictum his own command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath but one Sacrifice and that is the sacrifice of purgation a clensed purged Contrite heart a new Creature For when the Inventions of men were at a stand when discourse and reason were posed and cold make no progresse at all in the wayes of Happinesse not so farre as to see our want and need of it when the Earth was barren and could not bring forth this feed of Repentance Deus eam sevit saith Tert. Lib. de poenit God himself sow'd it in the world made it publici juris known to all the world That he would accept of a Turne of true Repentance as the onely means to wash away the guilt of sinne and reconcile the Creature to his Maker so that as Theodoret called the Redemption of mankind the fairest and most eminent part of Gods Providence and Wisdome so may we too give Repentance a Place and share as without which the former in respect of any benefit which can arise to us is frust rate of no effect Quod fieri posse Cicero non putavit
Crucified his death for sinne with our Death to it his Resurrection with our Justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away He shed his blood to melt our Hearts and he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose againe for our Justification and to gaine Authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our convertimini our Turne is the best Commentary on the consummatum est it is Finished for that his last Breath breathed it into the world we may say It is wrapt up in the Inscription Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes for in him even when he hung upon the Crosse were all the Treasuries of Wisdome and Knowledge hid 2 Coloss 3. In him Justice and Mercy are at Peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seale our Pardon we were in our Blood and her voice was Live we were miserable and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowells yearn'd but then Justice held up the Sword ready to latch in our sides God loves his Creature whom he made but hates the sinner whom he could not make and he must and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevail'd Mercy had been but as the morning Dew and soon vaâ—…sh'd before this raging heat and if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory his hatred of sinne and fearfull menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and had portended nothing Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. had been void and of no effect If he had been extreme to marke what is done amisse men had sinned more and more because there could be no hope of Pardon and if his Mercy had seal'd an absolute Pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their Evill wayes because there could be no feare of punishment And therefore his wisedome drew them together and reconciled them both in Christs propitiatory Sacrifice and our Duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the Guilt the other from the Dominion of sinne and so both are satisfy'd Justice layes downe the sword and Mercy shines in perfection of Beauty God hates sinne but he sees it condemned in the flesh of his Sonne and fought against by every member he hath sees it punisht in him and sees it every day punisht in every repentant sinner that Turnes from his evill wayes beholds the Sacrifice on the Cross and beholds the Sacrifice of a broken Heart and for the sweet savour of the one accepts the other and is at rest his death for sinne procures our Pardon and our death to sinne sues it out Christ suffers for sinne we turne from it his satisfaction at once wipes out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees Tert. de anima c. 1. destroyes sinne it self Haec est sapientia de scholâ caeli This is the method of Heaven this is that Wisedome which is from above Thus it takes away the sinnes of the world And now wisedome is compleat Justice is satisfyed and Mercy triumphs God is glorified man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Tert de poenit c. 8. Heus tu peccator bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tert. Take comfort sinnner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy returne what musick there is in a Turne which begins on earth but reaches up and fills the highest Heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed Image on which God delights to look for there he beholds his wisedome his Justice his mercy and what wonders they have wrought Behold the shepherd of our souls see what lies upon his shoulders you would think a poor Sheep that was lost nay but he leads sinne and Death and the Devill in Triumph and thou mayst see the very brightnesse of his Glory the fairest and most expresse Image of these Three his most glorious Attributes which are not onely visible but speake unto us to follow this heavenly Method His wisedome instructs us his Iustice calls upon us and Mercy Eloquent mercy bespeaks us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us To Turne à viis malis from our evill wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance for it hath these Three Gods Wisedome and Iustice and Mercy to seale and ratify it to make it Authentique The 2. part Turn ye Turn ye We come now to the dictum it self and it being Gods and it being Gods we must well weigh and ponder it and we shall find it comprehends the Duty of Repentance in its full latitude For as sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore and conversio ad creaturam and aversion and Turning from God and an inordinate conversion and application of the soul to the Creature so by our Repentance we doe referre pedem start back and alter our course worke and withdraw our selves a viis malis from evill waies and Turne to the Lord by cleaving to his Lawes which are the minde of the Lord and having our feet enlarged run the way of his Commandements We see a streight line drawne out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further and further you draw it the weaker and weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bow'd and brought back againe towards its first point Eccles 7.20 The Wise man will tell us That God at first made man upright that is simple and single and syncere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many Inventions mingled himself and Ingendered with Divers extravagant Conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines now drawne out to that object now to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh and sometimes on the world now on Idolatry and anon on Oppression and so at a sad Distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his Center and therefore God seeing him gone so farr seeing him weak and feeble wound and Turned about by the Activity of the Devill and sway of the Flesh and not willing to loose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as the Instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistencie in his former and proper place to draw him back from those Objects in which he was lost and so carry him on forward to the Rock out of which he was hewed whilst he is yet in viis malis in his evill wayes all is out of Tune and Order for the Devil who doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. de poenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon repentance and boldness and senlessness upon sinne but Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our Turne we see the danger we plaid
is an Argument against us That wee deserve to heare it no more We are willing that what we speake should stand not a word not a syllable not one tittle must fall to the ground If wee speak to our servant and say Goe he must goe and if we say doe this he must doe it nunc Now dicto citiùs as soon as it is spoke A deliberative pausing Obedience Obedience in the Future Tense to say he will doe it when he pleases strips him of his Livery and Thrusts him out of doores And shall man who is Dust and Ashes feek a convenient time to Turne from his Evill wayes shall our now be when we please shall one morrow Thrust on another and that a Third shall we demurr and delay till we are ready to be thrust into our graves or which will follow into Hell if the Lord saies Turne ye Turne ye there can be no other time no other now but now All other nows and opportunities as our dayes are in his hands and he may close and shut them up if he please and not open them to give thee another Domini non servi negotium agitur the business is the Lords and not the servants and yet the businesse is ours too but the Time is in his Hands and not in ours Now then Turne ye now the word sounds and Eccho's in your eares Againe now now thou hast any good Thought any Thought that hath any relish of Salvation For that thought if it be not the voice Deus ad homines imoquod proprius est in homines venit Sen. Ep. 73. Job 33.16 is the whisper of the Lord but it speaks as plain as his Thunder If it be a good thought it is from him who is the fountain of all good and he speaks to thee by it as he did to the Prophets by Visions and Dreames In a Dreame in a Vision of the Night I may say In a Thought he openeth the eares of men and sealeth their Instruction And why should he speake once and twice and we perceive it not why should the Devil who seeeks to devour us prevail with us more then our God that would save us why should an evill thought arise in our hearts and swell and grow and be powerfull to roule the Eye to lift up the head to stretch out the Hand to make our feet like Hinds feet in the wayes of Death and a holy Thought a good intention which is as it were the breath of the Lord be stopped and checked and slighted and at last be chased away into the land of Oblivion why should a good thought arise and vanish and leave no impression behind it and an evill thought increase and multiply shake the powers of the Soul command the will and every faculty of the mind every part of the body and at last bring forth a Cain and Esau a Herod a Pharisee a profane Person an Adulterer a Murderer why should we so soon devest our selves of the one and morari stay and dwell and fool it in the other sport our selves as in a place of pleasure a Seraglio a Paradise For let us but give the same friendly Entertainment to the Good as we do to the bad let us but as joyfully imbrace the one as we doe the other let us be as speculative men in the wayes of God as we are in our own and then we shall make Hast and not delay to Turne unto him We talke much of the Grace of God and we do but talke of it It is in all mouthes in some it is but a sound in others it is scarse sense in most it is but a loud but faint acknowledgement of its power when it hath no power at all to move us an acknowledgement of what God can doe when we are resolv'd he shall work nothing in us we commend it and resist it pray for it and refuse it Behold the Grace of God hath appeared to all men appeared in the Doctrine of the Gospel and appeares in those good Thoughts which are the proper Issue of t hat doctrine and are begot by this word of Truth and when the heart sends them forth she sends them as Messengers of Grace to invite us and draw us out of our evill wayes and if the Devil can raise such a Babel upon an evill Thought why may not God raise up a Temple unto himself upon a Good I appeal to your selves and shall desire you to ask your selves the question How often have you enjoyed such Gracious ravishing thoughts How often have you felt the good motions of the Spirit How oft have you heard a voice behind you say Doe this how many checques how many inward Rebukes have you had in your Evill wayes how oft have these thoughts followed and pursued you in the wayes of Evill and made them lesse pleasing what a dampe have they cast upon your delight what a Thorne have they been in your flesh even when it was wanton How oft are you so composed and by assed by these Heavenly Insinuations that heart and hand are ready to joyne together as partners in the Turne How oft would you and yet will not Turne How oft are you the Preachers and tell your selves Vanity of Vanity all is Vanity and that there is no true rest but in God I speak to those who have any feeling and presage of a future Estate any Tast of the Powers of the world to come for too many we see have not I speake this to our shame Now is the Time Now is the Now. nunc nunc properandus acri Fingendus sine fine rotâ Now thou must turne the wheel about and frame and fashion thy self into a vessel of Honor consecrate unto the Lord makeup a Child of God the new Creature Now nourish and make much of these good Motions good inclinations wrought in us either by the Word of God or the rod of God They are fallen upon us and entred into us but how long they will stay how long we shall enjoy them we cannot tell a smile from the World a Dart from Satan if we take not heed if we be not tender of them may chase them away This is the time this is the Now for at another time being fallen from this Heaven our Cogitations may be from the earth earthly such grosse and durty thoughts which will not melt but harden in the Sun Our Faculties may be corrupt our Understandings dull and heavy our wills froward and perverse that we shall neither will that which is Good or so will it that we shall not have strength to bring forth not be able to draw it into Act If we approve or look towards it we shall soon start back as from an Enemy as from that which suits not with our present disposition but is distastfull to it tanquam fas non sit as if it were some unlawfull thing as we read of the Sybarite who was growne so extreamly dainty that he would
holy Ghost then Si non in timore Domini tenueris te instanter if thou keep not thy self diligently in the Fear of the Lord in the Fear of his displeasure his wrath and in the fear of the last account this house this Temple will soon be overthrown For as the Temple in the first of Ezra the Scribe Ecclus. 27.3 was said to be built in great joy and great mourning that they could not discerne the shout of joy for the noise of weeping So our spiritual building is rais'd Inter Apocr cap. 5. ver 64 65. and supported with great hope and great feare and it may be sometimes we shall not discerne which is greatest our feare or our hope but when we are strong then are we weak when we are rich then are we poore when we hope then we feare and our weakness upholds our strength our poverty preserves our wealth and our Feare tempers our hope that our strength overthrow us not that our riches beggar us not that our hope overwhelme us not quantò magis crescimus tanto magis timemus the more we increase in Virtue the more we Feare Thus manente Timore stat aedificium whilst this Butteresse this Foundation of Feare lasts the house stands Thus we work out our Salvation with Feare and Trembling To conclude then I speak not this to dead in any soule any of those Comforts which faith or Love or Hope have begotten in them or to choke and stifle any fruit or effect of the Spirit of love No I pray with S. Paul that your love may abound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1.9 yet more and more but as it follows there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Knowledge and in all Judgement that you may discerne things that differ one from another a Phansy from a Reality a flash of Love from the pure flame of love a notion of Faith from a true Faith and hope from presumption For how many sin how few think of punishment how many offend God and yet call themselves his 〈◊〉 how many are willfull in their disobedience and yet perâ—…â—…ory in their hope how many runne on in their evill wayes 〈◊〉 leave seare behinde them which never overtakes them but is furthest off when they are neerest to their journeys end and within a step of the Tribunal For that which made them sinfull makes them senseless and they easily subborn false comforts the â—…knes of the flesh which they never resisted and the Mercy of God which they ever abused to chace away all fear and so they depart we say in peace but are lost for ever Curtius de Alexand. For as the Historian observes of men in place and Authority Cum se fortunae permittunt etiam naturam dediscunt when they rely wholly upon their greatness and Authority they lose their very Nature and turne Savage and quite forget that they are men in like manner it befalls these spiritualized men who build up to themselves a pillar of assurance and leane and rest themselves upon it they lose their nature and reason and forget to feare or be disconsolate and become like those whom the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because their boast was they did not feare a Thunder-bolt Feare not them that can kill the body saith our Saviour whom doe they feare else who hath beleeved our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed That arme which breaketh the Cedars of Libanus in peeces That Arme which onely doth wondrous works is ever lifted up and we sport and walk delicately under it when we tremble and Couch under that which is as ready to wither as to strike Behold Dust and Ashes invested with Power Behold man who is of as neere kin to the worme and Corruption as our selves and see how he aws us and bounds us and keeps us in on every side If he say Do this we doe it Subscribe to that as a Truth which we know to be false make our yea nay and our nay yea renounce our understandings and enslave our wills change our Religion as we do our clothes and fit them to the Times and Fashion pull down resolutions cancell Oathes be votaries to day and breake to morrow surrender up our soules and bodies Deliver up our Conscience in the midst of all its Cryings and Gain-sayings and lay it down at the foot of a fading transitory Power which breathes it self forth as the wind whilst it seeks to destroy which threatens strikes and then is no more When this Lion roares every man is afraid is transelemented unnaturalized unman'd is made wax to receive any impression from a mighty but mortall hand and shall not the God of heaven and earth who can dash all this Power to nothing deserve our feare shall we be so familiar with him as to contemne him so love him as to hate him shall a shadow a vapor awe us and shall we stand out against Omnipotency and Eternity it self shall sense brutish sense prevaile with us more then our Reason or Faith and shall we crosse the method of God make it our Wisedome to feare man and count it a sin to feare God who is only to be feared this were to be wiser then Wisedom it self which is the greatest folly in the World I have brought you therefore to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this School of feare set up the Moriemini shewd you a Deaths-Head to discipline and Catechise you that you may not die but live and Turne from your evill wayes and Turne unto him who hath the keyes of hell and of Death who as he is a Saviour so is he also a Judge and hath made Feare one Ingredient in his Physick not onely to purge us but to keep us in a healthfull Temper and Constitution And to this Promptuor Moral if not the danger of our soules yet the noise of those who love us not may awake us Stapleton a Learned man but a malitious Fugitive layes it as a charge against the Preachers of the Reformed Churches that they are copious and large in setting forth the Mercies of God but they passe over Graviora Evangelit the harsher but most necessary passages of the Gospel suspenso pede lightly and as it were on their Tiptoes and goe softly as if they were afraid to awake their hearers That we are mere solifidians and rely upon a reed a hollow and an empty faith Bellarmine is loud that we doe per contemplationem volare hover as it were on the wings of Contemplation and hope to goe to heaven in a Dreame Pamelius in his notes upon Tertullian is bold upon it That the Primitive Church did Anathematize us in the Marcionists and Gnostiques and if they were Hereticks then we are so And what shall we now say Recrimination is rather an objection then an Answer and it will be against all rules of Logick to conclude our selves Good because they are worse or that we have no
sorry if we die He looks down upon us calls after us he exhorts and rebukes and even weepes over us as our Saviour did over Jerusalem and if we die we cannot think that he that is life it self should kill us If we must die why doth he yet complaine why doth he expostulate for if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us how can a desire or command breath in those coasts which the power of an absolute will hath laid waste already if he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the Contrary that his Decree be not void and of no effect otherwise to passe sentence an irrevocable sentence of Death and then bid us live is to look for liberty and freedome in Necessity for a sufficient effect from an unsufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a Dead man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcasse and bid it walk Indeed by some this why will you die is made but sancta simulatio but a kind of holy dissimulation so that God with them sets up man as a marke and then sticks his deadly arrows in his sides and after askes him why he will die And why may he not saith one with the same liberty Damne a soul as a Hunter kills a Deere a bloody instance as if an immortall soul which Christ set at a greater rate then the World it self nay then his own most pretious Blood were in his sight of no more valew then a Beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy mens souls for delight and pleasure Thus though they dare not call God the Author of sinne for who is so sinfull that could hear and not Anathematize it yet others and those no children in understanding think it a Conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloody premises and they are more encouraged by those ill-boding words which have dropt from their quills For say some vocat ut induret He calls them to no other end but that he may harden them he hardens them that he may destroy them He exhorts them to turn that they may not Turn◠He asks them why they will die that they may run on in their evill wayes even upon Death it self when they break his command they fulfill his will and 't is his pleasure they should sinne 't is his pleasure they should die and when he calls upon them not to sinne when he asks them why they will die he doth but Dissemble for they are dead already Horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous Decree of Reprobation And now tell me If we admit of this What 's become of the expostulation what use is there of the obtestation why doth he yet ask why will ye Die I called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason unanswerable but if this Fancy this Interpretation take place it is no reason at all why will ye die the Answer is ready and what other answer can a poore praecondemned soul make Domine Deus tu nosti Lord God thou knowest Thou condemnest us before thou mad'st us Thou didst Destroy us before we were and if we die Even so Good Lord For it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur it is our Destiny or rather Est deus in nobis not a stoicall fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistible Arme hath destroyed us and so the expostulation is answered and the Quare mortemini is nothing else but mortui estis why will ye die that 's the Text the Glosse is you are dead already But in the Second place That this expostulation is true and Hearty may be seen in the very Nature of God who is Truth it self who hath but one property and Quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness and therefore cannot bid us live when he intends to kill us For consider God before man had fallen from him by sin and disobedience and we shall see nothing but the works of his Goodnesse and Love The heavens were the workes of his Fingers Basil Hem. in Famem sicci◠he created Angels and men he spake the word and all was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil what necessity was there that he should thus break forth into Action who compell'd him who perswaded him who was his Counsellor He was All-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. non quasi Indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus it was not out of any indigencie or Defect in himself that he made Adam after his Image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could millions of Worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made or Seraphin or Cherubin he gain'd not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athena Legatio pro Christianis said Aristotle for there could be no Accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagor as calls it as an Instrument to make him Musick Did he cloth the Lilies and dresse up Nature in various colours to delight himself or could he not reigne without man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerfull and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would for he might both will and not will the Creation of all Things without any change of his will but it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into Action will you know the cause saith the Sceptique why he made world Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quam cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vaine then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing and were it not for his Goodnesse we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All-sufficient 1 Tim. 1.11 and Blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the Heaven and the Earth though there had neither been Angel or man to worship him but he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertul. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur Tert. adv Marcion l. 2. si agatur Goodness is an Active and restlesse quality and it is not when it is Idle it cannot containe it self in it self and by his Goodness he made man made him for his Glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to Heaven made him a living soul ut in vitâ hac compararet vitam that in this short and Transitory life he might fit himself for an Abiding City and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of Himself God is good nor can any evill proceed from him if he frowne we first move him
And these his Precepts are defluxions from him the proper issue of his naturall and primitive desire of that generall Love of good-will which he did beare to his Creature and the only way to draw on that love of Friendship that neerer Relation by which we are one with him and he with us by which he calls us his Children and we cry Abba Father his first will ordain'd us for good his second will was publisht and set up as a light to bring us to that good for which we were made and created But we are told there is in God voluntas permissionis a permissive will or a will of permission and indeed some have made great use of this woâ—d permission and have made it of the same necessitating power and efficacy with that by which God made the Heavens and the Earth for we find it in Terminis in their writings positâ peccati permissione necesse est ut peccatum eveniat that upon the permission of sinne it must necessarily follow that sinne must be committed They call it permission but before they winde up their Discourses the word I know not by what Logick or Grammar hath more significations put upon it then God or nature ever gave it Tert. in vit Agr. Romani ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant say the Ancient Britons in Tacitus The Romanes where by Fire and Sword they lay the Land waste and Turne all to a Wildernesse call it Peace so here the word is permission but currente rotâ whilst they are hot and busy in their work at last it is Excitation stirring up Inclining hardning permittere is no lesse then Impellere permission is Compulsion by their Chymistry they are able to extract all this out of this one word and more as That God will have that done which he forbids us to doe God doth not will what he tells us he doth will That some are cast asleep from all eternity that they may be Hardned and all this with them is but permission And to make this Good we are told That God hath on purpose created some men with an intent to permit them to fall into sin and this at first sight is a faire Proposition that carries Truth written in the very forehead but indeed it is deceitfull upon the weights one thing is said and another meant God hath created some and why some and not all for no doubt the condition of Creation is the same in all And why with a purpose to permit them to fall into sinne did he not also create them with a purpose that they should walk in his Commandements Certainly both and rather the last then the former for God indeed permits sinne but withall forbids it but he permits nay he commands us to doe his will Permission lookes upon both both upon sinne and upon Obedience on the one side it meets with a check on the other with a Command That we may not doe what is but permitted and Forbidden and that we may yeeld ready Obedience to that which is not permitted onely but commanded It was a Custome amongst the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to number and cast up their Accounts with their fingers Naz. Or. 3. as we do by Figures and Counters whence Orontes the Persian was wont to say Eundem digitum nunc Decem millia nunc unum ostendere that the same finger with some alteration and change did now signifie Ten thousand and in another posture and motion but one The same use some men have made of this word permission which they did of their fingers In its true sense and naturall place it can signifie no more then this A purpose of God not to Intercede by his Omnipotency and hinder the committing of those sinnes which if he permitted not could not once have a being but men have learnt so to place it that it shall stand for Ten Thousand for Inclination and excitation and induration and all these Fearfull expressions which leave men chain'd and Fetter'd with an Inevitable necessity of sinning and so make that which in God is but merely permission infallibly effective and so damne men with gentler Language and in a soster phrase he permits them That he doth that he must doe but their meaning is His absolute will is that they should die and let them shift as they please and wind and Turne themselves to slip out of reach after all Defalcations and substractions they can make it will arise neere to this Summe which I am almost afraid to give you That God is willing we should die For to this purpose they bring in also Gods Providence To this purpose I should have said To none at all For though God rule the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Law of Providence as Nazianz. calls it though he disposeth and ordereth all things and all actions of men yet he layes not any Law of Necessity upon all things Aquin. priâ—… part q. 22. Some effects he hath fitted with necessary causes that they may infallibly fall out saith Aquinas and to other effects which in their owne nature are contingent he hath applyed Contingent Causes so that that shall fall out Necessarily which his Providence hath so disposed of and that Contingently which he hath left in a Contingency and both these in the nature of things necessary and Contingent are within the verge and rule of his Providence and he alters them not but extrà ordinem when he would doe some extraordinary worke when he would work a Miracle The Sunne knoweth his seasons and the Moon its going down and this in a constant and unchangeable course but yet he commanded the Sunne to stand still in Gibeon Josh 10.12 and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon But then I think all Events are not as necessary as the change of the Moon or the setting of the Sunne for all have not so necessary causes unlesse you will say to walk or stand to be rich or poore to fall in battell or to conquer are as necessary effects as Darknesse when the Sun sets or Light when it riseth in our Horison And this indeed may bring in a new kind of Predestination to walke or stand to Riches and Poverty to Victory and Captivity as well as to Everlasting life and everlasting perdition But posito sed non concesso Let us suppose it though we grant it not That the Providence of God hath laid a Necessity upon such Events as these yet it doth not certainly upon those Actions which concerne our everlasting welfare which either raise us up to heaven or cast us downe to destruction It were not much material at least a good Christian might think so whether we sit or walke whether he predetermine that we be rich or poor that we Conquer or be overcome what is it to me though the Sun stand still if my feet be at Liberty to runne the wayes of Gods Commandements what is it to me if the Moon
to die because they will not Turne I will give you a remarkable instance and out of Mr. Calvin Quintinus Cont. Libertin And yet his own followers use the â—am words bring the same Lexis and Apply them as the Libertines did vide Piscat Aphorismos the Father of the Libertines as Calvin himself calls him as he rides in company by the way lights upon a man slaine and lying in his goare and one asking who did this bloody deed he readily replies I am he that did it if thou desire to know it and art thou such a Villaine saith the party againe to doe such an Act I did it not my self saith he but it was God that did it And being askt againe whether we may impute to God those hainous sinnes which in Justice he will and doth so severely punish So it is said he Thou didst it and I did it and God did it for what thou or I do God doth and what God doth that thou and I do for we are in him and he in us he worketh in us he worketh all in all Quintanus is long since dead but his error dyed not with him Fataliter constiâ—utam est quando quantâ—perè unusquisque nostrum pietatem colere vel non colere 〈◊〉 Piscator ad â—uplicat Vorstij p. 2â—8 for it is the policy of our common Enemy to remove our Eye as farre as he can from the Command and he cannot set it at a greater distance then by fixing it on Eternity that so whilst we think upon the Decree we may quite forget the Command and never fly from Death because for ought we know we are kill'd already never doe our Duty because God doth whatsoever he will in Heaven and in Earth never strive to be better then wee are because God is all in All. Let us then walk on in a middle way and neither flatter nor afflict our selves with the thought of what God may doe or what he hath done from all Eternity let us not busy our selves in the fruitlesse study of the Book of Life which no man in Heaven or in Earth is able to open and look into but only the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah Revel 5.3,5 in that Book saith Saint Basil Comment in 10. c. Isai no names are written but of them that Repent Let us not seek what God Decrees which we cannot find out but hearken to what he Commands which is nigh us even in our mouthes The Book of Life is shut and sealed up but he hath opened many other Books to us and bids us sit downe and read them The Book of his Works of which the Creatures are the leaves and the Characters the Goodnesse and Power and Glory of God and the Book of his Words the Book of the Generation of JESVS CHRIST to be known and read of all men and if these Words be written in thy Heart thy name is also written in the Book of Life And the Book of thy Conscience for the information of which all the Books in the world were made and if thou read and study this with care and diligence and an impartiall eye and then find there no Bill or Indictment against thee then thou maist have confidence towards God that he never past any Decree or Sentence of Death against thee and that thou art ordained to Life This is the true method of a Christian mans studies not to look too stedfastly backward upon Aeternity but to look down upon our selves and ponder and direct our paths and then look forward to eternity of Blisse For Conclusion we read of the Philosopher Thales that lifting up his eyes to observe the Course of the Starres he fell into the water which gave the occasion to a Damsell called Thressa of an ingenious and bitter scoffe That he who was so busy to see what was done in Heaven could not observe what was even before his feet and it is as true of them who are so bold and forward in the Contemplation of Gods Eternall Decree many times they fall dangerously into those Errours which swallow them up they are too bold with God and so negligent of themselves Talke more what he does or hath done or may doe then do what they should are so much in Heaven and to so little purpose that they lose it But the Apostles method is sure to use diligence to make our Election sure and so read the Decree in our Obedience and syncere conversation and if we can perswade our selves that our Names are written in the Book of Life yet so to behave our selves so to work on with Feare and Trembling as if it were yet to be done as it was told the Philosopher that he might have seen the figure of the Starres in the water but could not see the water in the starres All the knowledge we can gaine of the Decree is from our selves it is written in heaven and the Characters we read it by on Earth are Faith and Repentance if we beleeve and repent then God speaks to us from heaven and tells us we shall not die If we be dead to sinne and alive to Righteousnesse we are enrolled and our names are written in the book of Life here here alone is the Decree legible and if our eye faile not in the one it cannot be deceived in the other If we love Christ and keep his Commandements we are in the number of Elect and were chosen from all Eternity Be not then cast downe and dejected in thy self with what God hath done or may do by his absolute Power for thou maist build upon it He never saved an Impenitent nor will ever cast away a Repentant sinner Behold he calls to thee now by his Prophet Quare morieris Why wilt thou die didst thou ever heare from him or from any Prophet a morieris that thou shalt die or a Mortuus es that thou art dead already Thou hast his Prayers his intreaties and besseechings Expandit manus he spreads forth his hands all the day long Thou hast his wishes Oh that thou wert wise so wise as to look upon the moriemini to consider thy last end Thou hast his Covenant Deut. 23.29 which he sware to our fore-fathers Abraham and his seed for ever His Comminations his obtesTations his expostulations thou mayest read but didst thou ever read the book of life Look on the moriemini look on the deaths head in the Text look not into the book of life thou hast other care that lies upon thee thou hast other businesse to do thou hast an understanding to adorn a will to watch over affections to bridle the flesh to crucifie temptations to struggle with the devil to encounter Think then of thy duty not of the decree and the syncere performance of the duty will seal the decree and seal thee up to the day of redemption It is a good rule which Martin Luther gives us Dimitte Scripturam ubi obscura est tene ubi certa
Novatian de cib Judacicis and those Birds of prey ut Israelitae murdareatur pecora culpatasunt to sanctifie and cleanse his people he blames the Beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and laies a Blemish upon his other Creatures to keep them underfiled and for to keep our Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies 1 a. 1 ae which he ordeined for that end ne vacaret Idololatriae servire saith Aquin. that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from men and they might learn from beasts to Turn from their evil ways Isal 5.4 and God might well cry out Quid facerem quod non fecerim what could I have done that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Quare c. why will ye die Oh House O house of Israel But to passe from the Synagogue to the Church which excells merito fidei et majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happinesse of Gods people was to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty which lets usnot loose in our own evil wayes but makes us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish and here Why will ye die if it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter Sarcasme as bitter as death it self It is here improved and drove home a minori ad majus by the Apostle himself for if that which should be abolisht was glorious 2 Cor. 3 11. much more shall that which remaines whose fruit is everlasling be glorious And again If they escaped not who resused him who spake on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel Acts. 7.38 how shall not we escape if we turn away from him who spake from Heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. Colos 2.20.21 the whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the Armory of God ubi mille clipei armatura fortium where are a thousand Bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off death the helmet of Salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith to quench all the Fiery Darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6. And as it is a House Eph. 3.5 so is it a Familie of Christ of whom all the Family of heaven and earth is named who is M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the Houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Familie by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the Tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which makes the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles some Pastors some Prophets some Teachers Eph. 4. there be some to be Taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which makes up the integrity of the parts and then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and and knit together by every joynt by the bond of charity which is the coupling and uniting vertue as Prosper calls it by the unity of faith by their agreement in holinesse having one faith one Baptisme one Lord and at last every string being toucht in its right place begets a harmony which is delightful both to heaven and earth For when I name the Church I doe not meane the stones and building some indeed would bring it downe to this to stand for nothing but the walls but I suppose a subordination of parts which was never yet questioned in the Church but by those who would make it as invisible as their Charity Not the foot to see and the eye to walke and the Tongue to heare and the Eare to speake not all Apostles not all Prophets not all Teachers but as the Apostle sayes it shall be at the Resurrection Every man in his own Order Naz. Or. 25. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is our security and safe-guard in a rout every man is a Child of Death every throat open to the Knife but when an Army is drawn out by Art and skill all hands are active for the Victory Inequality indeed of persons is the ground of disunion and discord but Order draws and works advantage out of Inequality it self when every man keeps his station the common Souldier hath his Interest in the victory as well as the Commander and when wee walke orderly every man in his owne place wee walk hand in Hand to Heaven and Happinesse together For further yet In the Church of God there is not onely a union an Order but as it is in our Creed a Communion ef parts The glorious Angels as ministring Spirits are sent to guard us and no doubt doe many and great services for us though we perceive it not The blessed Saints departed though we may not pray for them yet may pray for us though we heare it not and though the Church be scattered in its Members through all the parts of the world yet their hearts meet in the same God Every man prayes for himself and every man prayes for every man Quodest Omnium esi singulorum that which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongs unto the whole For though we cannot speak in those high Termes of the Church as the Church of Rome doth of her self yet we cannot but blesse God and count it a great favour and priviledge that we are filii Ecclesiae as the Father speaks Children of the Church think of our selves as in a place of safety and advantage where we may find protection against Death it self Wee cannot speak loud with the Cardinal si Catholicus quisquam labitur in peccatum and Bellarm praefar ad Controv If a Catholique fall into a sinne suppose it Theft or Adultery yet in that Church he walketh not in Darkness but may see many helps to salvation by which he may soon quit
excludes all stoicall fate all necessity of sinning or dying there is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or binde us over to death so that if we die it is in our volo in our will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason quia volumus because we will die We have now brought you to the very Cell and Den of death where this monster was framed and fashioned where 't was first conceived brought forth and nurst up I have discovered to you the Original and beginnings of sin whose natural issue is death and shut it up in one word the will that which hath so troubled and amuzed men in all the ages of the Church to finde out That which some have sought in Heaven in the bosom of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked Hell and made the devil the Author of it who is but a perswader a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the fancy alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to binde men much lesse the Gods themselves as 't is said what many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to finde out opening the windows of Heaven to finde it there running to and fro about the universe to finde it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own Breasts in our own heart the will the womb that conceives this Monster this Viper which eats through it and Destroyes the Mother in the Birth For that which is the beginning of Action is the beginning of sinne and that which is the beginning of sinne is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit Hilar. in Ps 118. saith Hilary there is nothing in man Nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death and In homine quic-quid est sibi nocet there is nothing in man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and Instrument of sinne That which hurts him may help him That which Circumspection and Diligence may make an Antidote neglect and Carelesness may Turn into Poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as goodness so sinne is the work of our will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither Good nor Evill I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse saith GOD by his Servant Moses I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and cursing Deut. 30.19 and what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own Hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sinne Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weake Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of Dying For the Qeustion or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law why are you weake or why are you Dead for Reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisedome of God will stand up to defend them but the Question is Why Will ye die for which there can bee no other Reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will for upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a Temple of the Lord or into that Tower of Babel and Confusion which God will Destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our Folly and madness so full of Contradictions is a wilfull sinner that though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of Death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion Tert. Apol. c. 1. That he was ever willing to Die nolumus nostrum quia malum Agnoscimus we will not call sinne ours because we know it Evill and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself 'T is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is Comfort sounds every where but we are deafe and cannot heare it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fetter'd and can make no use of it There is Balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our naturall weakness of our want of Grace and Assistance when we might know the Danger we are in we plead Ignorance when we willingly yeeld our Members servants to sinne we have learnt to say we did not doe it plenâ voluntate with a full Consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the faire Glosse of a good Intention and meaning we complaine of our Bodies and of our Souls as if the Wisedome of God had fail'd in our Creation we would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we might be good we will be evill And these Webbs a sick and unsanctify'd Fancy will soon spin out These are Receipts and Antidotes of our own Tempering devis'd and made use of against the Gnawings of Conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience begins to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and to put it to silence wee carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostoms time bound the coines of Alexander the Great or some part of Saint Johns Gospel to ease them of the Headach for by these Receits and spells we more envenom our souls and draw neerer to Death by Thinking to fly from it and are ten-fold more the Servants of Satan because we are willing to doe him service but not willing to weare his Livery and thus excusando exprobramus our Apologies defame us our false Comforts destroy us and wee condemn our selves with an Excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to passe we will take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from these First from our Naturall weakness Secondly from the Deficiency of Grace for neither can our Naturall weakness Betray nor can there be such a want of Grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much Power as to force the will and so there will be no Necessity of Dying either in respect of our Naturall weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his Grace and then in the second place that neither Ignorance of our duty nor regret or reluctancie of Conscience nor any pretence or good Intention can make sin lesse sinfull or our Death lesse voluntary and so bring Death to their Doores who have sought it out who have called it to them who are Confederate with it and are worthy to bee partakers thereof And Why Will you
afraid of Gods wrath as they are of poverty and the frown of a mortal this pretense of want of knowledge would be soon removed and quite taken out of the way For now the Grace of God hath appeared unto all men and commanded all men every where to repent and turn from their evil wayes What Apologie can the oppressor have when wisdom it self hath sounded in his ears and told him Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self for even flesh and blood would soon conclude that no man will oppresse himself What can the Revenger plead after that thunder vengeance is mine what can the covetous pretend when he hears Go sell all and give to the poor what can the seditious say when he is plainly told he that resists shall receive damnation can any man misse his way where there is much light to direct him when he brought a great part of his Lesson along with him into the world which he may run and read and understand How can he there erre dangerously where the Truth is fastned to a pillar where there is such a Mercury to shew him his way And therefore in the second place if we be ignorant it is because we will be ignorant and if we could open a window into the breasts of men we should soon perceive a hot contention between their knowledge and their lusts struggling together like the twins in Rebeccahs womb till at last their lust supplants their knowledge and gains the preheminence nolunt intellgere ne cogantur facere saith Austin they will not understand their duty lest that may draw upon them an obligation to do it nor will see their errour because they have no mind to forsake it for their knowledge points towards life but not to be attained to but by sweat and blood which their lust loathes and trembles at and therefore this knowledge is too wonderful for them nay t is as the gall of bitterness unto them and as Neros mother would not suffer him to study Philosophy quia impetaruro contraria Suet. Nero. c. 25. because it prescribes many moral virtues as Sincerity Modesty and Frugality which sort not well with the crown and must needs fall crosse with those actions in which Policy and Necessity many times engage the Monarchs of the Earth so do these look upon the truth as a thing contrary to them as checking their pride bridling their malice bounding their ambition chiding their injustice threatning their Tyranny and so study to unlearn suppresse and silence it and will not hear it speak to them any more but set up a lie first the childe then the Parasite of their lusts and enthrone it in its place to reign over them and guide them in all their wayes I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles tells us that he observed many cast down and very sad and dejected upon the knowledge of the truth not so much for this that it did shew them the danger they were in and withall an open and effectual door to escape but that it choaked the passages and stopped up the way to their old Asylum and Sanctuary of ignorance For truth is not onely a light but a fire to scorch and burn us not onely a direction but a Satyre and teacheth us to denie ungodly lusts and if we obey not it censures and condemns us This ignorance then cannot excuse our sin or make our death lesse voluntary because our lust hath taken the place of knowledge and dictates for it and we grope at noon-day and will not see those sins which though they be works of darknesse yet are as visible as the light it self Rebellion is not therefore no sin because it comes gravely towards us in the habit of zeal and religion Prophaness is not excusable because Fanatick persons count Reverence Superstition Deceit is not warrantable because I hold it as a positive truth that the wicked have title to the things of this world and my Phantastick lusts have drawn out another conclusion where there was no medium no premises to be found that I am a righteous person then follows a conclusion as wilde as that that I may rob and spoil him But these are but bella Tectoriola but artificial Daubings and the weakest eye may see through them and discover a monster and as Tully in one of his Books de Finibus tells us that those Philosophers who would not plainly say that pleasure was their summum bonum or chiefest Happinesse but vacuity of sorrow and trouble did vicinitate versari bordered and came neer to that which they first called it so the world hath found out divers names to colour and commend their soulest sins but bring them to the trial and they must needs mean one and the same thing and that zeal and Rebellion Devotion and Prophainess taking from the wicked and down-right Cosenage are at no greater distance then these two a Fiend and a Devil but that the Devil is then worst when he takes the name of an Angel of light The truth is plain enough but the Prince of this world hath so blinded them that they will not see it For their lusts which laid their Conscience asleep hath taken the chaire and prescribes for it and drives them on to do that which was never done nor seen Judg. 19.30 to tread all Laws of God and man under feet and make their strength the Law of unrighteousness I know not whether we may call this ignorance or no It is too good a name for it and nothing but our Charity can make it so or grace it so much if it be ignorance it is a proud puffing majestick insolent ignorance the Jewish Rabbies might well say Error Doctrinae reputatur pro superbiâ Maimonid more Henoch p. 3. 41. this ignorance is nothing but pride or the issue of it even of that pride which threw Lucifer down from Heaven and raiseth men here upon earth to fling them down after him But in the last place to conclude this if this ignorance be not affected or rather forced and made a pillow to sleep on yet if it proceed onely from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that non-attention that supine negligence to keep it out yet in matters which concern life and death we are as much bound to know the means how as to strive to attain the one and escape the other for what I ought to do I ought to know Pet Aerod de Reb. Judicat de Fide Relig. c. 5. Idem The Jews have a saying Delinquit propheta qui à prophetâ decipitur 't is a great fault in a Prophet to be deceived though by another Prophet The Civilians imperitia medicorum dolo comparatur Ignorance in a Physitian is a kinde of cheat and a bloody cheat Plin. N. Hist for the ignorant Physitian negotiatur animas hominum saith old Cato in Pliny doth Trade and deceive men out of their lives when they most trust in
one thing is seen and another Thing done where the Christian suffers and Rejoyces is east downe and promoted falls by the sword to rise to Eternity where Glory lies hid in Disgrace Advantage in losse Increase in Diminution and life in Death Ecclesia in attonito a Church shining in the midst of all the blackness and darkness and Terrors of the world For again As when Common-wealths are in their best estate and flourish every man fits under his own Vine and Figtree every one walkes in his owne Calling The Schollar studies the Merchant Trafficks the Tradesman sells The Husbandman Tills and Ploughs the Ground so the time of persecution to the True Church to that Body which is made up of those who are borne after the spirit is a Day of Salvation 1 Tim. 6.22 a Day to work in her Calling for hereunto you were called saith the Apostle where she sits under the shadow of Gods wings where she studies patience and Christian Resolution where she ploughs up the Fallow ground and sowes the seeds of Righteousnesse where she Trafficks for the rich Pearle and buyes it with her blood where every Member Acts in its proper place by the virtue and to the Honour of the Head But this you may say is True if we take the Church as Invisible made up of sheep onely as a Collection of Saints To speak truly Charity builds up no other Church for all she beholds are either so or in a possibility of having that Honor though the Eye of Faith can see but a small number to make up that Body But take the Church under what Notion you please yet it will be easy to observe that Persecution may enlarge her Territories Increase her number and make her more visible then she was when the weather was faire and no cloud or Darkness hung over her that when her branches were lopt off she spread the more That when her members were dispers'd there were more gathered to her when they were drove about the world they carried that sweet smelling favour about them which drew in multitudes to follow them That in their flight they begat many Children unto Christ insomuch Crudelitas vestra illecebra est Sectae Tert. Ap. c. L. saith Saint Hierom That una vox totius mundi Christus Christ was become the Language of the whole world Plures efficimur quoties metimur when Christians are drove about the world and when they are drove out of the World they multiply so that we may conclude That so farre are all the Graces and beauty of the Church from raising any Priviledge to exempt her from persecution that they are rather Occasions and Provocations to raise one and make Persecution it self a Priviledge For in the last place As it was then so is it now And he doth not say It may be so or It is by Chance but Ita est so it is by the Providence of God Providentia ratio ordinis rerum ad Fiem Aquin. which consists and is seen in the well Ordering and bringing of every Motion and Action of man to a right End which commonly runnes in a contrary Course to that which Flesh and blood Humane Infirmity would find out Eternity and mortality Majesty and Dust and Ashes wisedome and Ignorance steere not the same course nor are they bound to the same point My wayes are not your wayes Is 55.8 nor my thoughts yours saith God by his Prophet to a foolish Nation who in extremity of folly would be wiser then God Mine are not as yours not such uncertaine such vaine such contradictory and deceitfull Thoughts but as farre removed from yours as Heaven is from the Earth And as he hath made the Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil as a vaile of his Divine Majesty so in all his proceedings and Operations upon man Deus tum maximè magnus cum homini pusiltus tum maximè optimus cum homini non bonus Tert. l. 2. adv Marcion c. 2. he is Deus sub velo a God under a vaile Hidden but yet seene In a dark Character but read not toucht but felt Mercifull when he seems angry Just when in outward appearance he favours Oppression then shadowing us under his wing when we think he Thunders against us The same yesterday in the calme and to day in the storme then raising his Church as high as Heaven when we tremble and imagine he hath opened the Gates of Hell to devour her whilst we stand at distance and gaze and wonder at his Counsells and dispositions and understand them not Were flesh and blood to build a Church we should draw our lines out in a pleasant place It should not be as a House subject to the winds and weather but some house of pleasure a Seraglio a Royall Palace It should not be in Egypt or Babylon but in the Fortunate Ilands or in Paradise Our Lily should be set farre enough from the Thornes For we would goe to Heaven without any Ifs or And 's without any buts or difficulties we would be eased but not weary we would be saved but not beleeve or beleeve but not suffer we would heare God but not in the Whirlwind Enter into his Kingdome but not with Tribulation That is would have God neither provident nor Just nor Wise that is which is a sad Interpretation would have no God at all But Gods method is best and is drawne out by his manifold Wisedome Eph. 3.10 nor could it possibly be otherwise Honorem operis fructus excusat For that is Method and Order with him which we take to be confusion and that which we call persecution is his Art his way of making of Saints de perverso auxiliatur raysing us by those evills Tertul. Scorpiac c. 5. we labour under and as in his manifold Wisedome he redeemed mankind so the manner and method of working out our Salvation is from the same Wisedome and Providence which as it set an Oportet upon Christ to suffer for us so it set an Oportet upon the Church to have a Fellowship in his Sufferings Act. 14.22 We must through many Afflictions be consecrated be made perfect and so enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Nor Indeed Take us as we are polluted and uncleane could we enter any other way not enter into the New Heavens but purg'd and refin'd and transform'd by these into a new Creature Cured by diseases heal'd by Bruises rais'd by our Fall and made more spirituall by the contradiction of those who are borne after the flesh more Isaacs then before for the many Ismaels so that it is not onely agreeable to the wisedome of God but convenient to the weaknesse of man God could not save us we could not be saved any other way Oportet we must go this way Nay Datum est Philip. 1.29 it is a Gift It is given not onely to beleeve but to suffer a Gift for which heaven it self is Given and it is a
onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of Laws when the Subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and Crowne them with Glory and Honor for ever Here 's no weaknesse no Infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crowne and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in Chaines and his subjects free free from the feare of Hell or Temptations of the Devill the World or the flesh and though there be an end yet he reignes still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was Though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaines a Lord and King for Evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God His right and Power of Government his Laws just and Holy and wise the virtue and Power the largeness and the duration of his Government a sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the comming of this Lord for they that long to meet him in the Clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right Hand of God Look upon him then sitting in Majesty and Power and think you now saw him moving towards you and were now descending with a shout for his very sitting there should be to us as his comming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great Day Look upon him and think not that he there sits Idle but beholds the Children of men those that wait for him and those that Think not of him and he will come down with a shout not fall as a Timber-logge for every Frogg every wanton sinner to leap upon and croake about but come as a Lord with a Reward in one hand and a Vengeance in the other Oh 't is farre better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his Power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Lawes and write them in your hearts for the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consists not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them for obedience is the best seal and Ratification of a Law He is Lord from all eternity and cannot be divested of his royal office yet he counts his kingdom most compleat when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold he commands threatens beseeches calls upon us again and again and the beseechings of Lords are commands preces armatae armed prayers backt with power and therefore next consider the vertue and power of his dominion and bow before him do what he commands with fear and trembling let this power walk along with thee in all thy wayes when thou art giving an almes let it strike the trumpet out of thy hand when thou fastest let it be in capite jejunii let it begin and end it when thou art strugling with a tentation let it drive thee on that thou faint not and fall back and do the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 when thou art adding vertue to vertue let it be before they eyes that thou mayest double thy diligence and make it up compleat in every circumstance and when thou thinkest of evil let it joyn with that thought that thou mayest hate the very appearance of it and chace it away why should dust ashes more awe thee then Omnipotency why should thy eye be stronger then thy faith not onely the frown but the look of thy Superior composeth and models thee puts thee into any fashion or form thou wilt go or run or sit down thou wilt venture thy body would that were all nay thou wilt venture thy soul do any thing be any thing what his beck doth but intimate but thy faith is fearlesse as bold as blind and will venture on on the point of the sword fears what man not what this Lord can do to him fears him more that sits on the bench than him that sits at the right hand of God If we did beleeve as we professe we could not but more lay it to our hearts even lay it so as to break them for who can stand up when he is angry let us next view the largenesse and compasse of his Dominion which takes in all that will come and reacheth those who refuse to come and is not contracted in its compasse if none should come and why shouldest thou turn a Saviour into a destroyer why should'st thou die in thy Physitians armes with thy cordials about thee why shouldest thou behold him as a Lord 'till he be angry he caleth all inviteth all that come why should Publicans and sinners enter and thy disobedience shut thee out Lastly consider the duration of his Dominion which shall not end but with the world nor end then when it doth end for the vertue of it shall reach to all eternity and then think that under this Lord thou must either be eternally happy or eternally miserable and let not a flattering but a fading world thy rebellious and traiterous flesh let not the father of lies a gilded temptation an apparition a vain shadow thrust thee on his left hand for both at his right and left there is power which works to all eternity The second his Advent or coming Venit he will come And now we have walkt about this Sion and told the towers thereof shewed you Christs territories and Dominion the nature of his laws the vertue and power the largenesse and compasse the duration of his kingdom we must in the next place consider his Advent his coming consider him as now coming for we cannot imagine as was said before that he sat there idle like Epicurus his God nec sibi facessens negotium nec alteri not regarding what is done below but like true Prometheus governing and disposing the state of times and actions of men M. Sen. Contr. Divinum numen etiam qua non apparet rebus humanis intervenit his power insinuates it self and even works there where it doth not appear Though he be in heaven yet he can work at this distance for he fills the heaven and the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beholdeth all things he heareth all things he speaks to thee and he speaks in thee he hears thee when thou speakest and he hears thee when thou speakest not in his book are
be who have subscribed to the venturus est that the Lord will come who have little reason to hope for his coming How many beleeve hee will come and bring his reward with him and yet strike off their own Charriot wheels and drive but heavily towards it how many beleeve there is a Judge to come and wish there were none Faith Saving Faith Hope Hope that will not make ashamed cannot dwell in the heart till Charity hath taken up a roome but when she is diffusa in cordibus shed and spread abroad in our Hearts then they are in Conjunction and meet together and kisse each other Faith is a Foundation and on it our love raiseth it self as high as heaven in all the severall branches and parts of it Because I beleeve I love and when my love is reall and perfect my hope springs up and blooms and flourishes my Faith sees the object my Love imbraceth it and the means unto it and my Hope layes hold of it and even takes possession of it And therefore this venturus est This coming of the Lord is a Threat and not a promise if they meet not If Faith work not by Love and both together raise not a Hope venturus est he will come is a Thunder-bolt And thus as it lookes upon Faith and Hope so it calls for our Charity For whether we will or no whether we beleeve or no whether we hope or no veniet he will certainly come but when we love him then we love also his appearance and his coming and our Love is a subscription to his Promise 2 Tim. 4.8 by which we truly Testify our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to his Promise That he will come we eccho it back againe unto him Even so come Lord Jesus For that of Faith may be in a manner forc'd That of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come upon me as an Enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the Chair of the Scornfull or lie in the bed of Lust or am wallowing in the mire or weltring in my own blood or washing my feet in the blood of my Brethren for can any condemned person hope for the day of Execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improv'd his Talent and brought my self to that Temper and Constitution that I am of the same mind with this Lord and partaker of his divine Nature then Faith openeth and displayeth her self and Hope towreth up as high as the right Hand of God and would bring him down never at rest never at an end but panting after him till he doe come crying out with the soules under the Altar How long Lord How long How long is the very breathing and language of Hope Then Substantia mea apud te Psal 62.5 as the vulgar reads that of the Psalmist my expectation my substance my being is with the Lord and I doe not onely subscribe to the veniet to his coming because he hath Decreed and resolved upon it but because I can make an hearty Acknowledgement that the will of the Lord is just and good and I assent not of Necessity but of a willing mind and I am not onely willing but long for it and as he Testifies these Things and confirmes this Article of his coming with this last word etiam venio surely I come so shall I be able truely to Answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly The End of his Coming And now venturus est the Lord will come and you may see the Necessity of his coming in the End of his coming for qualis Dominus talis adventus as his Dominion is such is his Coming his Kingdome spirituall and his coming to punish sinne and reward Obedience to make us either Prisoners in Darkness or Kings and Priests to reigne with him and offer up spirituall Sacrifices for evermore He comes not to answer the Disciples question to restore the Kingdom to Israel for his Kingdome is not such a one as they dreamt of nor to place the Mother of Zebedees Children the one at his right Hand and the other at his left nor to bring the Lawyer to his Table to eat bread with him in his Kingdome These carnall conceits might suite well with the Synagogue which lookt upon nothing but the Basket and yet to bring in this Error the Jews as they killed the Prophets so must they also abolish their Prophecies which speak plainely of a King of no shape or beauty Esai 53.2 Zech. 9.9 Isa 9.6 of his first coming in lowlinesse and poverty of a Prince of Peace and not of warr of the Increase of whose Government there shall be no end Nor doth he come to lead the Chiliast the Dreamer of a Thousand yeares of Temporall Happiness on Earth into a Mahometicall Paradise of all Corporall Contentments That after the Resurrection the Elect and even a Reprobate may think or callhim self so may reigne with Christ a thousand years in all state and Pomp and in the Affluence of all those Pleasures which this Lord hath taught them to renounce A conceit which ill becomes Christians who must look for a better and more enduring substance who are strangers and Pilgrims Heb. 10.34 Heb. 11.13 and not Kings on earth whose Conversation is in heaven and whose whole life must be a going out of the World why should we be commanded and that upon paine of eternall separation from this our Lord to weane our selves from the World and every thing in the World if the same Lord Think these flatteries of our worser part these pleasures which we must loath a fitt and proportionable reward for the labour of our Faith and Charity which is done in the Inward man can he forbid us to touch and Tast these Things and then glut us with them because we did not Touch them and can it now change its Nature and be made a Recompence of those Virtues which were as the wings on which we did fly away and so kept our selves untoucht unspotted of this Evill But they urge Scripture for it and so they soon may for it is soon misunderstood soon misapplyed It is written they say in the 20. of the Revel at the 6. v. that the Saints shall reign with Christ a thousand yeers shall reign with Christ is evidence faire enough to raise those spirits which are too high or rather too low already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no sooner is the word read but the crown is on To let passe the divers interpretations of that place some making the number to be definite some to be indefinite some beginning the thousand yeers with the persecution of Christ and ending it in Antichrist others beginning it with the reign of Constantine when Christianity did most flourish and ending it at the first rising of the
Ottoman Empire some beginning it at the yeer 73. and drawing it on to conclude in the yeer 1073. when Hildebrand began to Tyrannize in the Church To let passe these since no man is able to reconcile them we can not but wonder that so grosse an errour should spread so far in the first and best times of the Church as to finde entertainment with so many but lesse wonder that it is reviv'd and foster'd by so many in ours who have lesse learning but more art to misinterpret and wrest the Scriptures â—o their own Damnation For what can they finde in this text to make them kings no more then many of them can finde in themselves to make them Saints And here is no mention of all the Saints but of Martyrs alone who were beheaded for the witnesse of Jesus v. 4. But we may say of this book of the Revelation as Aristotle spake of his books of Physick that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is publisht and not publisht publisht but not for every man to fasten what sense he please upon it though we cannot deny but some few of latter times and so few as but enough to make up a number have by their multiplicity of reading and subtil diligence of observation and by a dextrous comparing those particulars which are registred in story with those things which are but darkly revealed or plainly revealed to Saint John but not so plain to us have raised us such probabilities that we may look up them with favour and satisfaction 'till we see some fairer evidence appear some more happy conjectures brought forth which may impair and lessen hat credit which as yet for ought that hath been seen they well deserve But this is not every mans work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every mans eye is not so quick and piercing to see at such distance and we see since so many men have taken the courage and been bold to play the interpreters of their dark Prophesies they have shaped out what fancies they please and instead of unfolding Revelations have presented vs with nothing but dreams as so many divers moralls to one fable and fo for two witnesses we have a cloud for one Beast almost as many as be in the Forrest and for one Antichrist every man that displeaseth us But let men interpret the thousand yeers how they please Our Saviour calls it an errour an errour that strikes at the very heart of Christianity which promiseth no riches nor power nor pleasure but that which is proportioned to those vertues and spiritual duties of which it consists For in the Resurrection neither do they marry Wives nor are married we may adde neither are there high nor love neither rich nor poor but all are one in Christ Jesus and his words are plain enough Quaedam sic digna revinci ne gravitate adorentur Tert. adv Valentin John 18. my Kingdom is not of this World I should scarce have vouchsafed to mention an errour so grosse and which carries absurdity in the very face of it but that we have seen this monster drest up and brought abroad and magnified in this latter age and in our own times which as they abound with iniquity so they do with errors which to study to confute were to honor them too much who make their â—…ual appetite a key to open Revelations and to please and satisfie that are well content here to build their Tabernacle and stay on earth a thousand yeers amongst those pleasing objects which our Religion bids us to contemn and to be so long absent from that joy and peace which is past understanding Their Heaven is as their vertues are ful of drosse earth and but a poor and imperfect resemblance of that which is so indeed and their conceit as carnal as themselves which Christianity and even common reason abhors For look upon them and you shall behold them full of debate envy malice covetousnesse ambition minding earthly things and so fancy a reward like unto themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like embraceth like as mire is more pleasing to swine then the waters of Jordan and it is no wonder to hear them so loud and earnest for riches and pleasure and a temporal Kingdom who have so weak a title to and so little hope of any other But God forbid that our Lord should come and flesh and blood prescribe the manner for then in how many several shapes must he appear in he must come to the covetous and fill his cofers to the wanton and build him a Seraglio to the ambitious and crown him no his advent shal be like himself he shal come in power majesty in a form answerable to his Laws Government and as al things were gatherd together in him Eph. 1.10,22 which are in Heaven and which are in earth and God hath put all things under his feet so he shall come unto all to Angels to the Creature to men And 1. he may well be said to come unto the Angels For he is the head of all Principalitie and Power colos 2.10 as at his first coming he confirmed them in their happy estate of obedience which we beleeve as probable though we have no plain evidence of Scripture for it so at his second he shall more fully shew that to them that which they desired to look into 1 Pet. 1.17 as Saint Peter speaks give them a clearer vision of God and increase the joy of the good as he shall the torments of evil Angels For if they sang for joy at his Birth what Hosannas and Hallelujahs will they sound forth when they attend him with a shout if they were so taken with his humility how will they be ravisht with his Glory and if there by joy in Heaven for one sinner that repents how will that joy be exalted when those repentant sinners shall be made like unto the Angels when they shall be of the same Quire and sing the same song glory and honour to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to this Lord for Evermore Secondly he comes unto the Creatures to redeem them from bondage for the desire of the Creature is for this day of his coming Rom. 8.19,22 for even the whole Creation groaneth with us also but when he comes they shall be reformed into a better estate 2 Pet. 3.13 there shall be new Heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse Now the Creature is subjecta vanitati subject to vanity not onely to change and mutability but to be instrumental to evil purposes to rush into the battle with us to run upon the Angels sword to be our drudges and our Parasites to be the hire of a whore and the price of blood They groan as it were and travaile in pain under these abuses and therefore desire to be deliverd not out of any rational desire but a natural inclination which is in every thing to preserve it self in its best
condition To these Dominus veniet the Lord will come and his coming is called the consummation of all things that which makes all things perfect and restores every thing to its proper and natural condition The creature shall have its rest the earth shall be no more wounded with our plowshares nor the bowels of it digg'd up with the mattock there shall be no forbidden fruit to be tasted no pleasant waters to be stolen no Manna to surfet on no Crowns to fight for no wedge of gold to be a prey no beauty to be a snare Dominus veniet the Lord will come and deliver his Creature from this bondage perfect and consummate all and at once set an end both to the world and vanity Lastly Dominus venit the Lord will come to men both good and evil he shall come in his glory Math. 25.31,32 and he shall gather all Nations and separate the one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from his goats and by this make good his Justice and manifest his providence in the end for his Justice is that which when the world is out of order establisheth the pillars thereof for sin is an injury to the whole Creation and inverts that order which the Wisdom of God had first set up in the World My Adultery defileth my body my oppression grindeth the poor my malice vexes my brother my craft removes the Land-mark my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the vniverse disturb and violate that order which wisdom it self first establisht and therefore the Lord comes to bring every thing back to its proper place to make all the wayes of his Providence consonant and agreeable to themselves to Crown the Repentant Sinner that recover'd his place and bind and setter the stubborn and obstinate offendor who could not be wrought upon by promises or by Threats to move in his own sphere Dominus veniet the Lord will come to shew what light he can strike out of Darkness what Harmony he can work out of the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed body of sinne for sinne is a foul deformity in Nature and therefore he comes in judgement to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the Grace and Beauty of the whole where the punishment of sinne may wipe out the disorder of sinne where every thing is plac'd as it should be and every man sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1.25 Gers to his proper place nec pulchrius in coelo Angelus quant in Gehennâ Diabolus Heaven is a fit and proper place for an Angel of light for the Children of God and Hell is as fit and proper for the Devil and his Angels Now the wayes of men are crooâ—ed Intricate and their Actions carried on with that contrariety and contradiction that to quit and help himself out of them and take himself off from that Amazement Duos Ponticus deos tanquam duas Symplegadas naufragii sui adsert quem negare non potuit i.e. creatorem i. e. nostrum quem procare non poteâ—it i. e suum Tert c. 1. adv Marcion Marcion ran dangerously upon the greatest Blasphemy and brought in two Principles one of Good and another of Evill that is two Gods but when he shall come and lay Judgement to the line all things will be even and equall and the Heretick shall see that there is but one now all is jarring discord and confusion when he comes he makes an everlasting Harmony he will draw every thing to its right and proper end restore Order and beauty to his work fill up those breaches which sinne hath made and manifest his wisedome and Providence which here are lookt upon as hidden mysteries in a word to make his Glory shine out of Darkness as he did light when the earth was without forme That the Lord may be all in all Here in this world all lyes as in a night in darkness in a Chaos or confusion and we see neither what our selves nor others are we see indeed as we are seen see others as they see us with no other Eyes but those which the Prince of this world hath blinded Our Judgement is not the Result of our Reason but is rais'd from by and vile respects If it be a friend we are friends to his vice and study Apologies for it If it be an enemy we are Angry with his virtue and abuse our witts to disgrace it If he be in Power our eyes dazle and we see a God come downe to us in the shape of a man and worship this Meteor though exhaled and raised from the dung with as great Reverence and Ceremony as the Persians did the Sunne what he speaks is an Oracle and what he doth is an Example and the Coward the Mammonist or the Beast gives sentence in stead of the man which is lost and buried in these If he be small and of no repute in the world he is condemned already though he have reason enough to see the Folly of his Judges and with pitty can null the Censure which they passe If he be of our Faction we call him as the Manichees did the chiefest of their Sect one of the Elect but if his Charity will not suffer him to be of any we cast him out and count him a Reprobate The whole world is a Theatre or rather a Court of corrupt Judges which judge themselves one another but never judge righteous Judgement for as we Judge of others so we do of our selves Judicio favor officit our self-love puts out the eye of our Reason or rather diverts it from that which is good and imployes it in finding out many Inventions to set up Evill in its place as the Prophet Esay speaks wee feed on Ashes a deceived Heart hath Turned us aside Isa 44.20 that we cannot deliver our soul and say is there not a lie in our Right Hand Thus he that sows but sparingly is Liberall He that loves the world is not Covetous He whose eyes are full of the Adultress is chast He that sets up an Image and falls down before it is not an Idolater he that drinks down blood as an Oxe doth water is not a Murderer He that doth the works of his Father the Devill is a Saint Multa injustè fieri possunt quae nemo possit reprehendere Cic. de Finibus 93. Many things we see in the world most unjustly done which we call righteousnesse because no man can commence a suit against us or call us into question and we doubt not of Heaven if we fall not from our cause or be cast as they speak in Westminster Hall If Omri'â— statutes be kept we soon perswade our selves that the power of this Lord will not reach us and if our names hold faire amongst men we are too ready to tell our selves That they are written also in the Book of Life This is
foule a shape to me before that Title was written in his forehead for I consider more what he is then what he is called and thousands are now with Christ in heaven who yet never knew this his great Adversary on earth and why should I desire to know the time when Christ will come when no other command lies upon me but his to watch and prepare my self for his coming when all that I can know or concerns me is drawn up within the compasse of this one word watch which should be as the center and all other truths drawn from it as so many lines to bear up the circumference of constant and a continued watch Christ tells us he will come Hoc satis est dixisse Deo and this is enough for him to tell us and for us to know he tells us that we cannot know it that the Angels cannot know it that the Son of man himself knows it not that it cannot be known that 't is not fit to be known and yet we would know it some there have been who pretended they knew it by the secret Revelation of the spirit though it were a lying spirit or a wanton fancy that spake within them For men are never more quick of belief then when they tell themselves a lie and yet the Apostle exhorts the Thessalonians that they would not be shaken in minde 2 Thes 2.2 nor troubled neither by spirit nor word nor by letter as from him as that the day of Christ is at hand others call in tradition others finde out a Mystery in the number of 7. and so have taken the full age of the world which is to end say they after 6. hundred yeers and this they finde not onely in the six moneths the Ark floated on the waters and its rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh in Moses coming out of the cloud and the walls of Jericho falling down the seventh day but in the seven vials and the seven Trumpets in the Revelation such time and leisure hear men found perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum to Divine by numbers by their art and skill to digg the aire and finde pretious metal there where men of common apprehensions can finde no such treasure inter irrita exercere ingenia to catch at Attomes and shadows and spend their time to no purpose For curiosity is a hard task-master sets us to make brick but allows us no straw sets us to tread the water and to walk upon the wind put us to work but in the dark and we work as the spirits are said to do in Minerals they seem to digg and cleanse and sever Metals but when men come they finde nothing is done It is a good rule in husbandry and such rules old Cato called oracles imbecillior esse debet ager Columel quam Agricola the Farm must not be too great for the Husband-man but what he may be well able to manure and dresse and the reason is good quia si fundus praevaleat colliditur Dominus because if he prevail not if he cannot mannage it he must needs be at great losse and it is so in the speculations and works of the minde those inquiries are most fruitful and yeeld a more plentiful increase which we are able to bring unto the end which is truely to resolve our selves thus it is as a little plot of ground well tilled will yeeld a fairer crop and harvest then many Acres which we cannot husband for the understanding doth not more foully miscarry when it it is deceived with false appearances and sophismes then when it looks upon and would apprehend unnecessary and unprofitable objects and such as are set out of sight res frugi est sapientia spiritual wisdom is a frugal and thirsty thing sparing of her time which she doth not wantonly waste to purchase all knowledge whatsoever but that which may adorn and beautifie the minde which was made to receive vertue and wisdom and God himself to know that which profits not is next to ignorance but to be ambitious of impertinent speculations carries with it the reproach of folly Basil Hem. 29 ad vâ—calumn S. Trin. what is it then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks to seek with such diligence for that which is past finding out And 1. the knowledg of the houre of his coming is most impertinent and concerns us not non est nosirum nosse tempora It is not for us to know the times as our dayes so the times are in his hands and he disposeth and dispenseth them as it pleaseth him fits a time to every thing which all the wisdom of the world cannot doe Thou wouldest know when he would take the yoke from off thy neck 't is not for thee to know that which concerns thee is to possesse thy soul with patience which will make thy yoke easie Thou wouldst know when he will break the teeth of the ungodly and wrest the sword out of the hand of them that delight in blood it is not for thee to know thy task is to learn to suffer and rejoyce and to make a blessing of Persecution Thou wouldst know when the world shall be dissolved why shouldst thou desire to know it thy labour must be to dissolve the body of sin and set an end and period to thy transgressions Thou wouldest know what hour this Lord will come It is not for thee to know but to work in this thy hour and be ready and prepared for hsi coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present the present time that is thine and thou must fill it up with thy obedience that which is to come of what aspect so ever it be thou must onely look upon and consider as an help and advantage to thee in thy work Dominus venturus the Lord will come speaks no more to me then this to labour and sweat in his vineyard 'till he come All the daies of my appointed time will I wait saith Job Job 14.14 There is a time and an appointed time and appointed by a God of eternity and I do not study to calculate or finde out the last minute of it but expectabo I will wait which is but a syllable but of a large and spreading signification and takes in the whole duty of man For what is the life of a Christian but the expectation the waiting for the coming of the Lord David indeed desires to know his end and the measure of his dayes Psal 39.4 but he doth not mean so to calculate them as Arithmeticians do and to know a certain and determin'd number of them not so to number them as to tell them at his fingers ends and say This will be the last but himself interprets himself and hath well explained his own meaning in the last words Let me know the measure of my dayes that I may know how sraile I am know not exactly how many but how few they be let me so measure them
with feare and reverence he will remember us and draw neerer to us in these outward elements then superstition can feigne him beyond the fiction of transubstantiation and abundantly satisfy us with the fatnesse of his house feed us though not with his flesh yet with himself and move in us that we may grow up in him In a word He will remember us in heaven more truly then we can remember him on earth and distill his grace and blessings on us be ever with us and fill our hearts with rejoycing which will be a faire pledg of that solid pure and everlasting joy in the Highest Heavens And Lord remember us thus now thou art in thy kingdome HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE THE NINETEENTH SERMON 1 THES 4.11 And that you study to be quiet and to doe your own businesse and to work with your own hands as we have commanded you THe summe of religion Christianity is to do the will of God and this is the will of God even our Sanctification at the 3. v. of this chapter This is the whole duty of man and we may say of it as the Father doth of the Lords prayer quantum substringitur verbis Tertull. de orat tantum diffunditur sensibus though it be contracted and comprized in a word yet it poures forth it self in a Sea of matter and sense For this holinesse unto which God hath called us is but one virtue but of a large extent and compasse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but one virtue but is divided into many and stands as Queen in the midst of the circle and crown of all the graces and claimes an interest in them all hath patience to wait on her compassion to reach out her hand longanimity to sustain and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this placability of mind and contentation in our own portion and lot to uphold her and keep her in an equall poyse and temper ever like unto her self that we may be holy in our faith and holy in our conversation with men without which though our faith could remove mountains yet we were not holy Tot ramos porrigit tot venas diffundit so rich is the substance of holinesse so many branches doth she reach forth so many veines doth she spread into and indeed all those virtues which commend us to God are as the branches and veins and Holinesse the bloud and juice to make them live I doe not intend to compare them one with the other because all are necessary and the neglect of any one doth frustrate all the rest and the Wise-man hath forbid us to ask Why this is better then that for every one of them in his due time and place is necessary It hath been the great mistake and fault of those who professe Christianity to shrink up its veines and lop off its branches contenting themselves with a partiall holinesse some have placed it in a sigh or sad look and calld it repentance others in the tongue and hand and calld it zeale others in the heart in a good intention and called it piety others have made it verbum adbreviatum a short word indeed and called it faith few have been solicitous and carefull to preserve it in integritate totâ solidâ solid and entire but vaunt and boast themselves as great proficients in Holinesse and yet never study to be quiet have little peace with others yet are at peace with themselves are very religious and very profane are very religious and very turbulent have the tongues of Angels but no hand at all to do their own businesse and to work in their calling And therefore we may observe that the Apostle in every Epistle almost takes paines to give a full and exact enumeration of every duty of our lives that the man of God may be perfect to every good work teacheth us not onely those domesticke and immanent vertues if I may so call them which are advantageous to our selves alone as faith and hope and the like which justifie that person onely in whom they dwell but emanant publick and omiliticall vertues of common conversation which are for the edification and good of others as patience meeknesse liberality and love of quietnesse and peace my faith saves none but my self my hope cannot raise my brother from despaire yet my faith is holy Jude 20. saith Saint Jude and my hope is a branch and vein of holinesse and issues from it But my patience my meeknesse my bounty my love and study of quietnesse and peace sibi parciores foris totae sunt Ambros exercise their act and empty themselves on others these link and unite men together in the bond of love in which they are one and move together as one build up one anothers faith cherish one anothers hope pardon one anothers injuries beare one anothers burden and so in this bond in this mutuall reciprocall discharge of all the duties and offices of holinesse are carried together to the same place of rest So that to holinesse of life more is required then to believe or hope or poure forth our soules or rather our words before God t is true this is the will of God but we must go farther even to perfection and love the brethren and study to be quiet for this also is the will of God and our Sanctification What is a sigh if my murmuring drown it what is my devotion if my impatience disturb it what is my faith if my malice make me worse then an infidell what are my prayers if the spirit of unquietnesse scatter them will we indeed please God and walk as we ought we must then as S. Peter exhorts adde to our faith virtue to our virtue knowledge to knowledge patience to patience brotherly kindnesse and to brotherly kindnesse love 2 Pet. 1.5.6 v. or as Saint Paul here commands not onely abstain from fornication from those vices which the worst of men are ready to fling a stone at but those gallant and heroick vices which shew themselves openly before the Sun and the people who look favourably and friendly on them and cry them up for zeale and religion even from all animosity and turbulent behaviour we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must study to be quiet and be ambitious of it Thus our Apostle bespeaks the Thessalonians we beseech you brethren that you increase more and more and in the words of my text that you study to be quiet and do your own businesse and work with your own hands as we have commanded you In which words first a duty is proposed study to be quiet 2 ly the meanes promoting this duty are prescribed or causae producentes and conservantes the causes which bring it forward and hold it up laid down the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do our own businesse the 2. to work with our own hands the first shuts out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all pragmaticall curiosity and stretching beyond our line
concernes us not though what we do may be in it self lawfull and most expedient to be done yet we make that act a sin in us which is another mans duty and so shipwrack at that point to which another was bound perish in the doing of that for which he shall perish for not doing it The best excuse that we can take up is that we did honesta mente peccare that we did that which is evil as we say for the best that we did sin and offend God with a good intention and pious mind which Glosse may be fitted to the greatest sin and is the fairest Chariot the Devil hath to carry us to hell If we would be particular the instances in this kind would be but too many For such Agents the Enemy of the Truth hath alwayes had in all the Ages of the Church who have unseasonably disturbed the publique peace and their own whose businesse it was and sure it could be none of their own to teach Pastors to Govern and Divines how to Preach every day to make a new coat for the Church to hammer and shape out a new form and discipline as if nothing could be done well because they stood not by and had a hand in the doing it and so make her not so faire but certainly as changeable as the moone One sect dislikes this and another that and a third quarrels at them both and every one of them if their own fancy had been set up and establisht by another hand would have kickt it down For this humour is restlesse and endlesse and for want of matter will at last feed on him that nourisheth it as it was in that experiment of the Egyptians in Epiphanius who filled a bag with serpents and when afterwards they opened it found that the greatest had eat up the rest and half of it self we may well say of them as Gregory the great doth illos alienorum actuum sagax cogitatio devastat they so busie their thoughts upon other mens actions that they have none left for their own which being sent abroad into the world leave a devastation a wildernesse at home which fly to every mark which is set up but that which their calling and Religion directs them to aim at whose whole life and imployment is to do other mens businesse and sleep in their own It is not safe neither for Church nor common-wealth that such busie-bodies should walk in matters so far above their sphere and compasse nor is it fit that Phaeton should sit too long in the chaire for if these turbulent domineering spirits prevaile if the mercy and providence of God prevent it not the whole course of nature will be set on fire or else dislocated and perverted and the foot shall stand where the hand doth the eare shall speak and the tongue heare and the foot see all shall be Prophets all Teachers I might say all shall be kings and I might add all will be atheists If then we will study peace or desire to be quiet in our place let RELIGION guide us which hath drawn out to our hands the most exact method and most proportion'd to that end or let us follow the method of nature it self and in the course of nature thus we see it The heavens are stretcht forth as a canopy to compasse the Aire the Aire moves about the earth the earth keeps its Center and is immoveable the Sun knoweth his season and the Moon her going down the Starres start not from their spheres Heavy bodies ascend not nor doe the light goe downwards but all the parts of the Universe are tyed and linkt together by that law of providence and order that they may subsist And so it is both in Church and Common-wealth we are not in Termino we cannot be quiet and rest but in our own place and function what should a Starre doe in the earth or a strone in the firmament what should an inferior step into a superiours seat and set himself above those who are over him in the Lord which I am sure is to be out of his place where he cannot move but disorderly If men would but fill their own they would have but little leisure to step into another mans place or to be so much fooles as to set their foot within their neighbours doores Thucidides For the Historian hath observed it that those men who neglect their private affaires are ever very busie in examining publick proceedings well skil'd in every mans duty but their own Who fitter to change the face of a Common-wealth Julius Caesar before the civil war said it of himself Quà m multis indigeo ut nihil habeam then he that was so far indebted that he dared not to shew his own who wanted so much that he might be worth nothing who more ready to shake and dissolve a state then he that hath wasted his own with riotous living who will sooner be a traytor then a bankrupt I might here urge and presse this duty which confines every man to his own businesse 1 à decoro from the grace and beseemingnesse of it for what garment can fit us better then our own what businesse more naturall to us then our own what motion more gracefull then in our own our own place best becomes us and we are riculous and monstrous in any other Apelles with an aule in his hand or the cobler with his pencill Midas with asses eares or an asse in purple Nero with his fiddle or a fidler with a crown Commodus in his artifex quae stationis imperatoriae non erant c. Ael Lampridius Comodus making of glasses a good dancer and a sword-plaier or a glasseman and a dauncer giving laws a tradesman in the pulpit or a divine with the meteyard in his hand the Lord in his servants frock and the servant on his footcloth are objects of that nature that they command our finger and our smile and the first and easiest censure we passe on them is our laughter and it were happy for common-wealths if they deserved no worse But they are not onely ridiculous but ominous and prodigious and appeare like comets threatning and ushering in some plague or war some strange alteration in Church or Common-wealth whereas our own place be it what it will doth not onely conserve but become and adorn us and our regular motion in it is a faire prophesie of peace to our selves and all that are about us and though it be the lowest we may be honorable in it as Themistocles once said being chosen into a meane office that he would so mannage it as to make it of as great repute in Athens as the highest 2 ly ab utili from the advantage it brings quod enim decet ferè prodest saith Quintilian for that which becomes us Quint. instit l. x. 1. commonly doth also further and promote us we usually say our plough goes forward and when the plough goes and is ours
commends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archytas his rattle as a profitable invention for being put into the hands of children Aristot l. 8. Polit. c. 6. it keeps them from breaking vessells of use and so this restlesse humor is made lesse hurtfull by diversion And such a course God and nature may seeme to have taken with us not to dull this activity in us but to limit and confine it and as he hath distributed to every man a gift so he hath allotted to every man a Calling answerable to that gift that every man being bound to one may have the lesse scope and liberty to rove and make an incursion upon another mans calling This is a Primordiall Law of as great antiquity as the first man Adam That we must work with our hands For God will not every day work miracles for us and send us as he did the Israelites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks food without the labour of plowing and sowing Every Dew will not bring us Manna nor every rock yeeld us water No In sudore vultûs tui In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread was a Command as well as a Curse and God hath so ordain'd it that by fulfilling the Command we may turn the Curse into a Blessing We are not now in Paradise but as our first Father after he had forfeited it mundo dati quasi metallo as Tertull. l. de pallio speaks condemned to the world as to the mines to labour and dig and so find that treasure we seek for As heaven so the earth is the Lords and he hath given them both to the Sonnes of men the food of our soules and the food of our bodies are his gift and he gives them when he reveals and prescribes the meanes how we shall procure them for the one he hath given us faculty and will for the other strength and appetite neither will the heavens how themselves down to take us in nor the things of this world fall into our bosome when we sit still and lay no more out for them then a wish Ps 81.10 Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it and the opening of our mouth is our Prayer our Endeavour our working with our hands and then his blessings fall down and fill it Labour and industry is a thing so pleasing to God tht he hath even bound a blessing to it which never leaves it but is carried along with it wheresoever it is even in the meer naturall and heathen man be the man what he will it is almost impossible that diligence should not thrive for a blessing goes along with it as the light doth with the Sun which may be shadowed or eclip'sd by the cloudinesse of the times or by some crosse accident but can never be quite put out In a word labour is the price of his gifts and when we pay it down by a kind of commutative justice he brings them in and puts them into our hands Ut operemini manibus that you work with your hands which words take in all manuall trades and handycrafts which are for use and necessity all lawfull trades for even theeves and robbers and Juglers Tertull. de Idololat c. 5. and cheaters and forgers of writings do work not with their feet saith Tertullian but with their hands and he brings in his exception against Painters and Statuaries and Engravers but no further then he doth against Schoolmasters and Merchants who bring in frankincense in that respect onely as they sacrifice their sweat and their labour and are subservient and ministeriall either to lust or Idolatry Diligentia tua numen illorum est Idem c. 6. de Idololat for the diligence saith he of the Statuary is the divinity of the Idol and we may say those many unnecessary Arts and trades which are now held up with credit and repute in the world because it will still be world were at first the Daughters and are now become the nurses of our luxury and lust luxury begat them and they send our luxury in triumph through the Streets were Tertullian whose zeale waxt so hot even against a purpleseller to passe now through our great city with power and authority Tot sunt artium venae quot hominum concuprscentiae Tertull. de Idol c. 8. 1 Tim. 6.8 how many shops would be shut up or rather how many would there be left open for it is not easie to number those Arts and Crafts which had they never been professed we might have had Food and Raiment with which we Christians above all the generations of men should be content But it is not for me to determine which are necessary and which are not but to leave it to the magistrate there be Arts and trades enough besides these vide Plutarch vit Lycurgi to exercise our wit our strength our hands and such as Lycurgus might have admitted into his Common-wealth whose prudence and care it was to shut out all that was unnecessary the first that required the labour of the hands was tillage and husbandry for Antiquis temporibus nemo Rusticari nescivit faith Ischomachus in Columel Columel l. 11. c. 1. In the first age no man was ignorant of this Art and the learned have observed that the originall of humane Laws which were the preservers of peace the boundaries to keep every man in his own place was from tillage and the first division of grounds whence Ceres who is first said to have devised and taught the sowing of Corn as she is call'd Frugifera the goddesse of plenty so is she termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the maker of Laws and in honor of her the Athenians celebrated those feasts which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mactant lectas de more bidentes Legiferae Cereri Virgil They did sacrifice to Ceres the Law-maker These men never heard of the curse in Paradise yet by the very light of nature they saw the necessity of labour the necessity did I say nay the dignity and honor of it for man was made and built up to this end saith Aristotle ad intelligendum agendum to understand and to work and what more unworthy a man who is made an active creature then to bury himself alive in sloth and idlenesse to be like Saint Pauls wanton widow dead whilest he lives to be a more unprofitable lump then the earth to live and shew so little sign of life whereas the ground receiveth rain sendeth back its leafe and grasse what can be more unbeseeming then to have feet and not to go to to have hands and not to use them and therefore that of the Apostle Let not him that laboureth not eat is not onely true because Saint Paul spake it but Saint Paul spake it because it is true a Dictate not onely of the spirit but of nature it self Man is borne unto labour saith Job it is naturall to him as naturall as for the
ever was came not to destroy but to perfect nature not to blot out those common notions which we brought into the world with us but to make them more legible to improve them and so make them his Law and if we look upon them as not belonging to us we our selves cannot belong to the covenant of grace for even these duties are weaved in and made a part of the covenant and if we break the one we break the other and not onely if we believe not but if we live not peaceably if we stretch beyond our line if we labour not in our calling we shall not enter into his rest For these also are his Laws and these doth our blessed Apostle teach and command And to conclude such a power hath Christ left in his Church conferred it first on his Apostles and those who were to succeed and supply their place who were to speak after them in the person and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we will not dispute now what power it is it is sufficient to say it is not an Earthly but a Heavenly Power derived from Christ himself the Fountain and originall of all power whatsoever As Christs kingdom is not of this world so is not this power of that nature as to stand in need of an Army of Souldiers to defend and hold it up but is like to the object and matter it works upon spirituall a power to command to remember every man of his duty in the Church or Common-wealth for the Church and Common-wealth are two distinct but not contrary things and both powers were ordained to uphold and defend each other the civill power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civill power and both should concur in this that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godlinesse and honesty Our commission is from heaven and we need no other power then his that sealed it and the virtue and Divinity of it shall then be made manifest when all earthly power shall cease and even Kings and they who did what they list shall tremble before it We see that power which is exercised here on earth though the glory of it dazle an eye of flesh yet sits heavy upon them who weare it we see it tortures them that delight in it eats up them that feed on 't eats up it self and driving all before it at last falls it self to the ground and falls as a milstone upon him that hath it and bruiseth him to pieces It is not such a power but I may be bold to say though it be lookt upon laught at despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes sets it up on high and sometimes makes it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end for to publish our masters will to command in his name is all and though the command prove to some the savour of death unto death yet the power is still the same and doth never faile and if men were what they professe themselves Christians if they had any taste of the powers of the world to come they would more tremble at this then at the other be more afraid of a just reproof then a whip of an excommunication then a sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which comes in fire and tempest to devour us for his favour or his wrath ever accompanies this power which draws his love neerer to them that obey it and poures forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then look upon the command and honor the Apostle that brings it for the commands sake for his sake whose power and command it is A power there is proper and peculiar to them who are called to it and if the name of power may move envy for we see men fret at that which was ordeined for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of power beare so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much materiall whether you call it so or no whether we speak in the imperative mood hoc fac do this upon your perill or onely positively point as with the finger this is to be done we will be any thing do any thing be as low as you please so we may raise you above the vanities of the world above that wantonnesse which stormes at that which was ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our power and the command of Christ differ not so much but the one includes and upholds the other and if you did but once love the command you would never boggle at the name of power but blesse and honour him that brings it Oh that men were wise but so wise as not to be wiser then God as not to choose and fall in love with their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to preferre their own mazes and Labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by lust and fancy before those even and unerring paths found out by an infinite wisdome and discovered to us by a mercy as infinite oh that we could once work out and conquer the hardship of a command and then see the beauty of it and to what glory it leads us we should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle and look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessell as upon heaven it self oh that we were once spirituall then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from the Heaven Heavenly then should we be as quiet as the Heavens which are ever moving and ever at rest because ever in their own place then should we be as the Angels of Heaven who envy not one another malice not one another trouble not one another but every Angel knows his office and moves in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readynesse of those blessed spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and haste to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery In aword then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evill eye should look towards him no malice blast him no injury assault him no bold intrusion unsettle him but we should all rejoyce together the poore with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all blesse one another help one another guard one another and so in the name of the prince of peace walk peaceably together every one moving in his own place till we reach that peace which yet we do not understand but shall then fully enjoy to all Eternity The One and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MICAH v. 6. Wherewith shall I come
not 2ly Manifested and pointed out to as with a finger Indicavit tibi God by his Prophet hath shewed it 3ly Publisht and promulged as a law What doth the Lord require of thee and lastly charactered and drawne out in its principall parts 1. Justice and Honesty 2ly Mercy and Liberality 3ly Humility and sincerity of mind which is the Beauty and Glory of the rest and commends tem makes our Justice and Mercy shine in the full beauty of Holinesse when we are this and do this as with or Before the Lord. He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. These be the particulars we begin with the first That Piety and True Religion is here Termed Good in it self and for it self in opposition to the sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law And first the Sacrifices and Ceremonious part of Gods worshp were good but ex instituto because God for some reason was pleased to institute and ordain them otherwise in themselves they were neither good nor evil They were before they were enjoyned and men offered them up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Respons ad orthod in operib Justini martyris ad Interrog 83. not in reference to any command but out of a voluntary zeal and affection to the honour of God which they exprest and shewed forth in this especiall act in devoting that unto him which was with them of highest esteem as more due to the Giver of all things then to them for whose use they were given God did not command but did accept them for the zeal and affection of them who offered them up and he tells them so himselfe I speake not to your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning Burnt-offerings or sacrifice But this thing I commanded them saying Obey my voyce Jerem. 7.22,23 Secondly when they were commanded they were commanded not for any reall goodnesse there was naturally in them for what are Blood and smoke to the God of spirits but brought in for that good effect which the wisdome of God could work out of them which had nothing of Good in them nor which might commend them but the end for which they were ordained And therefore he commanded them not as desireable in themselves but by way of condescension submitting himself as it were to the present infirmity and condition of the Jews who were so strongly affected to this kind of worship Populum pronum Idololatriae ejusmodi officiis religioni suae voluit astringere saith Tertullian God put this command Tertullâ—…d v. Marcion l. 2. as it were a bridle into their mouths who were too prone to run out beyond their limits and that they might not offer unto Idols he confines and tyes them up to do it to him alone And so they were good but ex comparatione but by being compared with something that was worse If they will sacrifice it is better they sacrifice to God then to Devils better do this then worse better do that which had it not been commanded had been neither good nor evil then that which is absolutely evil better do that which God can beare with then that which he hates better they should be under the restraint and managing of an Indulgent hand then that they should run into those abominations which a Father cannot pardon and which will make a loving and tender God a consuming fire Thus they are Good being compared with something that is worse and being put into the scales together are valuable because they outweigh them Et quale est Bonum quod mali comparatio commendat saith Tertullian what good is that which were not so if the evil which it shuts out and with which it is compared did not commend it 3. That which is good in it self and its own nature is alwaies so piety and true Religion is older then the world for it is a part and beame of that wisdome which was with God from Everlasting and it shines forth from one end of the world to the other hath the same splendor and brightnesse when the fashion of the world changeth every day and binds alike all the men in the world and ends not but with it and in its effects continues when that shall be dissolved even to all eternity as it was breathed from God and flows from his eternall law so it is alwaies the same and remaines the same till it end in glory For this there is no consummatum est there is no end The vaile of the temple is rent in twaine the temple it self is buried in ruine and not a stone left upon a stone every Altar is throwne down the sacrifices and Ceremonies abolisht but quicquid condidit virtus coelum est That which is truely good is as lasting as the heavens heaven and earth may passe away but not one tittle of this good shall fall to the ground 4. These Ceremonies were confined to time and place you observe dayes and moneths saith the Apostle Gal. 4. yea and you obseve places too you say That Jerusalem is the place saith the woman of Samaria to our Saviour John 4. but that which is truely good and in it self is of that nature that time and place have no power or influence on it either to shrink it up and contract it or to bound or circumscribe it or to put a period to it and cut it off It is never out of season never out of its place Every day is the good mans holiday and his sacrifice may be offered up at any time It stayes not for the new moone or Sabbath day but is res omnium horarum may shew and display it self at any day in every houre of that day and every minute of that houre Ever yay every houre every minute is the good mans Sabbath and rest And as it is not tied to time no more is it to place All the ends of the world shall remember the Lord saith the Psalmist and this good in the Text may be set up in any part of it The Church is the place and the Market is the place and the Prison may be the place piet as in plate is sibi secretum facit Religion may build it self an oratory a chappel in the midst of the streets nay in a stews in Sodom it self for there Lot was and 't is the greatest commendation to be good amongst the worst Last of all This Ceremonious part of Religion was many times omitted many times dispensed with but this good which is here shewn admits no dispensation Circumcision was dispensed with sacrifice was dispensed with the Sabbath was dispencsed with but the true service of God was ever in force who ever was dispensed with in a morall and positive law who ever had this indulgence granted him to defraud or oppresse his brother to be cruell and unmercifull to him or to walk contrary to his God who ever was unjust on earth by a grant and prerogative from heaven Aliud
so resembles that God which breathed it into us For as Lactantius said God is not hungry that you need set him meat nor thirsty that you should poure out drink unto him he is not in the dark that you need light up candles And what is beauty what is the wedg of gold to the soul The one is from the earth earthy the other is from the Lord of heaven The world is the Lords and the world is the soules and all that therein is and to behold the creature and in the world as in a book to study and find out the Creator to contemplate his majesty his goodnesse his wisdome and to discover that happinesse which is prepared for it to behold the heavens the works of Gods hand and purchase a place there to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim This is the proper act of the soul for which it was made this this alone was proportioned to it And herein consists the excellency and very essence of Religion and the Good which is here shewed us in exalting the soul in drawing it back from mixing with the creature and in bringing it into subjection under God the first and onely good in uniting it to its proper object in making that which was the breath of God breath nothing but God the soul being as the matter and this Good here that is piety and religion the form the soul being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so Plato calls matter the receptacle of this Good as the matter is of the form and never right and of a persect being till it receive it this good being as the seed and the soul the ground Math. 13. the matrix and the womb and there is a kind of sympathy between this good this immortall seed and the heart and mind of man as there is between seed and the womb of the earth for the soul no sooner sees it unclouded unvailed not disguised and made terrible by the intervention of things not truely good but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the bridegroome in the Canticles with its eye and beauty Heaven is a faire sight even in their eyes who tend to destruction so that there is a kind of neernesse and alliance between this good and those notions and principles which God imprinted in us at the first And therefore even nature it self had a glimpse a weak imperfect sight of this good and saw a further mark to aime at then this world in this span of time could set up Tertull. 2. de Finib whence Tully calls man a mortall God and Seneca tells us That by that which is best in man we go before other creatures Sen. ep 76. In homine quid optimumâ—ratio hac antecedit animalia deos sequitur but follow to joyne with that which is truely good by which we may be carried along to the fountain of good even God himself For again as this good here that is piety and religion beare a sympathy and correspondence with the mind of man so hath the soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative quality a power to shape and fashion it and by the sweet influence and kindly aspect of Gods quickening grace to bring forth something of the same nature some heavenly creature the new man which is made up in holinesse and righteousnesse in Justice and mercy and humility which are the good in the text the beauty of which may beget and raise up that violence in us which may break open the gates of heaven beget a congregation of Saints of just and honest men a numerous posterity to Abraham of hospitall and mercifull men and an army of martyrs which shall in all humility lay down their lives for his sake that gave them and forsake all to joyne and adhere to this Good And now in the second place as it is fitted and proportioned to the soul of man so is it to every soul of man to all sorts and conditions of men it is fitted to the Jew and to the Gentile to the bond and to the free to the rich and to the poore to the scribe and to the Idiot to the young and to the aged no man so much a Jew no man such a bored slave no man such a Lazar none so dull and slow of understanding no such Barzillai which may not receive it Freedom and slavery circumcision and uncircumcision riches and poverty quicknesse and slownesse of understanding in respect of this Good of Piety and Religion are all alike Religion is no peculiar but the most common the most communicative thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Law the Prophets Naz. Orat. 26. the Oracles Grace Faith Hope and Charity these saith Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ib. are common to all as common as the Sunne are the goods and possessions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of the mightiest or the wisest but of those who are willing to receive them Nor were there any thing more unjust then our Faith and Religion saith he if it were entail'd onely on some few if God whose Property whose Nature it is to doe Good should dispense that Good most sparingly which doth most please him if he should shut it up as he doth Gold and other Metals in the bowels of the earth and seale a patent but to some few to find and dig it out if it should be left as the things of this world are in the uncertain and inequal hand of Chance or looking alike on all should withdraw and hide it self from the most or be unatchievable not to be attained to by some when it is bound up as it were in the bosome of others No the most excellent things are most common and offered and presented to all nothing is so common as this good and when other things fly from us and as we follow after them remove themselves farther off and mock our endeavours this is alwaies neere us shines upon us invites and solicits us to take it for our guide which will lead us in a certain and unerring course through the false shews and deceitfulnesse of this world through blacknesse and darknesse to the end for which we were made This Good is every mans good that will as Aquinas is said to have replyed to his sister when she askt him how she might be saved si velis if you are willing you may every covetous person is not rich every ambitious man hath not the highest place every student is not a great clerk but piety opens the gate to every man that knocks and he that will enters in and takes possession of her Fastidiosior est scientia quà m virtus paucorum est ut literati sint omnium ut bonì That which is best is most accessable and when other things Petrarch l. 7. Re. Fam. op 17. knowledge and wealth and honor are coy and keep a distance and when we have them are desultorious and ready in the midst of
it to name it is not to embrace it for all these may be in a man who hath the price in his hand but hath no heart to buy it and as the Philosopher said of those who were punisht after death in their carcasses Relicto cadavere abijt reus the body was left behind but the guilty person the Parricide was departed and gone So here is a lump of flesh but the man is gone nay dead and buried covered over with outward formalities with words and fancy This is not the man in the text and then no marvell if he cannot see this great sight The 3. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Improbity of manners a mind immerst and drowned in all the filth and pollution of the world evil affected Acts 14.2 Corrupt Arislotle Eth. 6.5 Mâ—gnis sceleribus inâ—a naturae intereunt Sen. Cont. 2 Tim. 3.8 for wickednesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher and doth corrupt the very principles of nature and make that Candle as Solomon calls it which God hath lighted up in our hearts burn but dimly and as we read when the earth was without forme and void darknesse was upon the face of the deep so when the perturbations of our mind interpose themselves as the earth there is straight a darknesse over the soul An Evil eye cannot behold that which is good An eye full of Adulteries cannot discover the beauty of chastity A lustfull eye cannot see justice a Lofty eye can neither look upon mercy nor humility The love of honor makes the judgment follow it to that pitch and height which it hath set and markt out The love of money will glosse that blessing which our Saviour hath annext to poverty of spirit My factious humor will strike at the very life and heart of religion in the name of religion and God himself and destroy Christianity for the love of Christ Resist not the power In one age 't is glossed bound in with limitations and exceptions or rather let loose to run along with men of turbulent spirits against it self in another when the wind is turned 't is a plain text and needs no interpreter Bid the angry gallant bowe to his enemy he will count you a fool Bid the covetous sell all that he hath he will think you none of the wisest and pitty or scorn you Bid the wanton forsake that strumpet which he calls his mistresse and he will send you a challenge and for attempting to help him out of that deep ditch Prov. 23.27 will send you to your grave We may talk what we please of Marcion and Manes of hereticks and the devil as interpolators and corrupters of Scripture but it is the wickednesse of mens hearts that have cut and mangled it and made it what we please made it joyn and comply with that which it forbids and severely threatens Now to conclude this in the midst of so many passions and perturbations in the throng of so many vices and ill humors in this Chaos and confusion where is the man There is a body left behind inutile pondus an unweildly and unprofitable outside of a man the garment the picture or rather the shadow of a man and we may say of him as Jacob did when he saw Josephs coat It is my sonnes cout but evil beasts have devoured him Gen. 37.33 Here is the shape the garment the outside of a man but the man without doubt is rent in pieces distracted and torn asunder by the perturbations of his mind corrupted annihilated unmanned by his vices and there is nothing left but his coat his body his carcasse and the name of a man This is not the man and then no marvell if he do not see this great sight In his day whilest he was a man his reason not clouded his understanding not darkned in this his day it was shewed to him and it was faire and radiant but now all is night about him and 't is hid from his eye for if it be hid it is hid to them that perish to them that will perish 2 Cor. 4.3 He hath shewed thee O man The Good invites the man and the man cannot but look upon that which is Good Draw then thy soul out of prison take the man out of his grave draw him out of these clouds of sloth of passion of Prejudice and this good here Piety and Religion will be as the sunne when it shineth in its strength For conclusion then let us cleave fast to this good and uphold it in its native and proper purity against all externall rites Conclusion and empty formalities and in the next place against all the pomp of the world against that which we call good when it makes us evil I am almost ashamed to name this or make the comparison For what is wealth to righteousnesse what is policy to religion what is earth to heaven but I know not how men have been so vain as to attempt to draw them together and to shut up the world in this good or rather this good in the world to call down God from heaven not onely to partake of our flesh but our infirmities and sinnes and draw down that which is truely good and make it an assistant and auxiliary to that which is truely evil For how do mens countenance nay how doth their religion alter as they see or heare how the world doth go Now they are of this faction and then of that and anon of a third Now Protestants anon Brownists anon Papists anon but I cannot number the many religions and the no-religions but wheresoever they fasten they see it and say it is Good so that as it was observed of the Romans that before the corruption and decay of manners they would not entertain a servant or officer but of a perfect and goodly shape but afterwards when luxury and riot had prevailed and was in credit with them they diligently sought out and counted it a kind of elegancy and state to take into their retinue dwarfs and monsters and men of a prodigious appearance ludibria naturae those errors and mockeries of nature So hath it allso fallen out with Religion at the first â—ise and dawning of it men did lay hold on that faith alone which was once delivered to the saints and went about doing good but when this light had passed more degrees men began to play the wantons in it and to seek out divers inventions and this Good the doctrine of faith was made to give way to those sick and loathsome humors which did pollute and defile it and instead of following that which was shewed they set up something of their own to follow and countenance them in whatsoever they should undertake and then did look upon it alone and please and delight themselves in it although it was as different from the true pattern which was first shewed as a monster is from a man of perfect shape as Quintilian speaks of some professors of his art
shewed thee O man what is good and wilt thou not believe him fath is the substance of things not seen and though they be not seen yet they are evident the Meanes evident and the End as evident as the Meanes In our sad and sober thoughts when we talk like speculative men as evident as what is open to the eye But such an evidence we have which a covetous man would soon lay hold on for a title to a faire inheritance and the ambitious for an assignment of some great place for if such a record had been transmitted to posterity if the Scripture which conveighs this Good had entailed some rich Mannor or Lordship upon them it should have then found an easie belief and been Gospel a sure word of prophecy unquestionable undoubtable like the decrees of the Medes and Persians which must stand fast for ever and cannot be altered for too many there be who had rather have their names in a good leaf then in the book of life and this is the reason why we are so ignorant of that which is good indeed and so great clerks in that which is calted good but by the worst why we are so dull and indocile in apprehending that wisdome which is from above and so wise and witty to our own damnation why we do but darkly see this Good which is so plainly shewed unto us What shall we say then nay what saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest in sloth and idlenesse thou that sleepest in a tempest in the midst of thy unruly and turbulent passions arise from the grave and sepulchre wherein thy sloth hath intomb'd thee arise from the dead from that nasty charnel-house of rotten bones where so many vitious habits have shut thee up break up thy monument cast aside every weight and every sinne that presseth down and rise up and be but a man improve thy reason to thy best advantage and this Good shall shine upon thee with all its beames and brightnesse and Christ shall give thee light if not to see things to come to satisfy thy curiosity yet to see things to come which shall fill thy soul as with marrow and fatnesse if not to know the uncertain yet certain wayes of Gods providence yet to know the certain and infallible way to blisse if not to know things too high for thee yet to know that which shall exalt thee to heavenly places in Christ Jesus He hath shewn thee O man what is Good doest thou see it doest thou believe it thou shalt see greater things then these thou shalt see what thou doest believe enjoy what thou doest but hope for thou shalt see God who hath shewed thee this Good that thou mightest see him thou shalt then have a more exact knowledg of his wayes and providence a fuller taste of his love and goodnesse a clearer sight of his beauty and majesty and with all his Angels and all his Saints behold his glory for evermore Thus much of this Good as it is an object to be lookt on we shall in the next place consider it as a Law Quid requirit what doth the Lord require HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Three and Twentieth SERMON PART III. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly c. HE hath shewed thee O man what is good what it is thou wert made for even that which is fitted and proportioned to thy soul that which is lovely and amiable and so a fit object to look on that which will fill and satisfy the soul and turn the greatest evil the world can lay as a stone of offence in our way into good and raise it self upon it to its highest pitch of glory and this he hath made plain and manifest drawn out in so visible a character that thou mayest run and read it And thus far we have already brought you We must yet lead you further even to the foot of mount Sinai what doth the Lord require of thee which is as the publication of it and making it a law For with the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the Trumpet and the voice of words this voice was heard I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord It is the Prophets Warrant or Commission I the Lord have spoken it is a seal to the Law By this every word shall stand by this every Law is of force It is a word of power and command and authority for he that can doe what he will may also require what he will in heaven or in earth So then If he be the Lord he may require it and in this one word in this Monosyllable all power in heaven and in earth is contained For in calling him Lord he assignes unto him an absolute will which must be the rule of our will and of all the actions which are the effects and works of our will and issue from it as from their first principle and mover And this his will is attended 1. with Power 2. with Wisdome 3. with Love 1. By his power he made us 2. he protects and preserves us and from this issues his legislative power 3. as by his Wisdome he made us so by the same wisdome he gives us such a Law which shall sweetly and certainly lead us to that End for which he made us And last of all his Love it is to the work of his own hands thus to lead us And all these are shut up in this one word Lord. And let us view and consider these and so look upon them as to draw down their influence and vertue into our souls which may work that obedience in us which this Lord requires and will reward And 1. Quid requirit Dominus what doth the Lord require It is the Lord requires it and I need not trouble you with a recitall of those places of Scripture where God is called the Lord. For if the Scripture be as the Heaven this is a Star of the greatest magnitude and spreads its beams of Majesty and power in the eyes of all men and to require is the very form of a Law I will I require if power speak It is a law It will be more apposite and agreeable to our purpose that we may the more willingly embrace and entertain this Good which is publisht as a law to look upon this word Lord as it expresses the Majesty and greatnesse of God for he is therefore said to be the Lord because he is omnipotent and can do all things that he will He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen a vast and boundlesse Ocean of essence and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boundlesse and infinite sea of power Take the highest pitch of Dominion and Lordship that our imagination can reach yet it falls short of his who is Lord of Lords to whom all earthly Majesty must vaile and at whose feet all Princes lay down their Crowns
commit but costs us deare what more painfull then Anger what more perplext and tormenting then Revenge what more intangled then Lust what can more disquiet us then Ambition what more fearefull then Cruelty what sooner disturbed then pride nay further yet how doth one sinne incroche and trespasse upon another I fling off my Pleasure and Honor to make way to my Revenge I deny my Lust to further my Ambition and rob my Covetousnesse to satisfie my Lust and forbeare one sinne to commit another and so do but versuram facere borrow of one sinne to lay it out on another binding and loosing my self as my corruption leads me but never at ease Tell me which is easier saith the Father to search for wealth in the bowells of the earth nay in the bowells of the poore by oppression then to sit down content with thy own night and day to study the world or to embrace Frugality to oppresse every man or to relieve the oppressed to be busie in the Market or to be quiet at home to take other mens goods or to give my own to be full of businesse for others or to have no businesse but for my soul to be solicitous for that which cannot be done or to have no other care but to do what God requires To do this will cost us no sweat nor labour we need not go a Pilgrimage or take any long journey it will not cost us money nor enage us to our friends we need not saile for it nor plough for it nor fight for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Chrysostome if thou beest willing Chrysost orat de ira obedience hath its work and consummation if thou wilt Arist l. 4 Eth. c. 3. thou art Just Mercifull and Humble As Aristotle spake of his Magnanimous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to a resolved Christian nothing is great Liber rectus animus omtia subjiciens sin se nuili Sen. cp ult nothing is difficult 'T is not to dig in the Mineralls or labour in chaines 't is not to cleave wood or draw water with the Gibeonites but thy lines are fallen unto thee in a faire place 't is but to do Justly love Mercy c. Lastly it is not onely easie but sweet and pleasant to do what God requires For Obedience is the onely spring from whence these waters of comfort flow it is an everlasting foundation on which alone joy and peace will settle and rest For what place canst thou find what other foundation on which thou mayst build up a true and lasting joy wilt thou look on all the works which thy hands have wrought wilt thou prove thy heart with mirth and gather together all that is desireable and say here it will lye All that joy will soon be exhausted and will draw it self dry That pleasure is but like that beast of the Apothecary to whom Julian the Pelagian likens Saint Austin Non sum similis pâ—arm â—copolae utâ—d t is qui promit tebat Bestiam quae seipsam com sset August Cont. Iul. Pelag. l. 3. c. 21. which he promised his patient of great virtue which before the morning was come had eaten up himself But the doing what God requires our conformity to his will is the onely basis upon which such a superstructure will rise and towre up as high as heaven for it hath the will and power of God to uphold and perpetuate it against all those stormes and tempests which are sent out of the devils treasury to blast or imbitter it Do you take this for a speculation and no more Indeed it is the sin and the punishment of the men of this world to take those truths which most concern them for speculations for the groundlesse conceptions of thoughtfull men for school subtilties rather then realities Mammon and the world have the preeminence in all things and spirituall ravishments and heaven it self are but ingens fabula magnum mendacium as a tedious ly or a long tale that is told And there is no reason of this but their disobedience for would they put it to the triall deny themselves and cleave to the Lord and do what he desires there would then be no need of any Artist or Theologue to demonstrate it or fill their mouth with arguments to convince them of the truth of that which would so fill their souls Of all the Saints and Martyrs of God that did put it to the triall did we ever read that any did complain that they had lost their labour but upon a certain knowledge and sense of this truth betook themselves cheerfully to the hardship of mortification renounced the world and laid down their lives poured out their blood for that truth which paid them back again with interest even with fulnesse of joy Let us then hearken what this Lord will say and answer him in every duty which he requires and he will answer us again and appeare in glory and make the terrours and flatteries of the world the object not of our feare and amazement but contempt and the displeasing and worser side of our obedience our Crown and Glory the most delightfull thing in the world for to conclude this why are we afraid why should we tremble at the commands of God why should their sound be so terrible in our eares The Lord requires nothing of us but that which first is possible to rouse us up to attempt it secondly which is easie to comfort and nourish our hopes and thirdly which is pleasant and delightfull to do to woe and invite and even flatter us to obedience and to draw us after him with the cords of men And what doth he require but to do justly and love mercy c. We have now taken a view of the substance of these words The Application and Conclusion and we have looked upon them in the form and manner in which they lye what doth the Lord require let us now draw them neerer to us for to this end they are sharpned into an interrogation that as darts they might pierce through our souls and so open our eyes to see and our eares to hearken to the wonders of his Law And first this word Lord is a word of force and efficacy and strikes a reverence in us and remembers us of our duty and allegiance for if he be the Lord then hath he an absolute will a will which must be a rule to regulate our wills by his Jubeo and his vete by his commands and prohibitions by removing our wills from unlawfull objects and confining them to that which may improve and perfect them from that which is pleasing but hurtfull to his Laws and commands which are first distastfull and then fill them with joy unspeakable And this is the true mark and character of a servant of God to be then willing when in a manner he is unwilling to be strong when the flesh is weak to have no will of his own
with patience to beare any that is offered quis illic sicarius quis manticularius quis sacrilegus what Christian saith he is a murderer or a theef or a sacrilegious person or will he steal thy coat who by his profession is bound to give thee his and his cloak also It was a common saying amongst them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius was a just Good man certainly there was but one fault in him and that was that he was a Christian When the souldiers askt Iohn the Baptist what shall we do he returned an answer which did not disarme them but bound their hands from violence and wrong Do no violence Accuse no man falsly and be content with your wages The Publicans were odious even to a proverb yet he vouchsafeth them an answer Exact no more then is appointed you Luk. 3.13 will you heare our Saviour from the mount and there you cannot but observe that most of those precepts delivered there tend to Honesty and Sincerity of conversation with men Blessed are the mercifull Blessed are the peace-makers Be not angry Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay which short precept leaves no roome for fraud and deceit for that which is called Dolus malus when our yea is nay and our nay yea one thing is said and another meant one thing is pretended and another done The Apostles are frequent in urging this duty for Christianity was so far from disanulling those precepts of morality and mutuall conversation which the Philosophers by the light of nature delivered and transmitted to posterity that the ancient Christians as learned Grotius observes Grot. Prolegom ad l. de Jure bell pacis though they were not devoted to any one Sect of them yet observing that as there was no Sect which had found out all truth so also there was not one of them which had not discovered-some did take the pains to collect and gather into a body what was here and there diffused and scattred in their severall writings and did think this a faire commentary on the Practick part of the Gospel and a sufficient expression of that discipline which Christians by their very title and profession were bound to observe you may read them in the Philosophers but they are the precepts of Christ And this is the true face of Christianity For no other foundation can any man lay then that which is laid Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 3.11 See Serm. 20. Now every foundation should bear something not wood and hay and stubble but gold and silver and precious stones Fraud and Violence and Injustice cannot lye upon that foundation which is laid in Truth in Mercy in Justice nor upon that Saviour who knew no guile who had this Elogium from his very enemies That he had done all things well and that there was no fault to be found in him No upon this foundation you must lay such materialls which are like unto it Innocency and Truth and Righteousnesse which that they may grow up and flourish amongst the sons of men he watered them with his Bloud which was shed for the Oppressor that he might be mercifull for the Dissembler that he might speak truth for the Deceitfull person that he might be just in all his wayes and righteous in all his dealings for the violent person that he might doe no more wrong and if it have not this effect it is his blood still but not to save us but to be upon us to our condemnation For 't is strange that Christs blood should produce nothing but a speculative a fancied and an usurped faith a faith which should keep those evils in life which he dyed to take away a faith which should suffer those sinnes and irregularities to grow and grow bold and passe in triumph which he came to root out of the earth and to banish out of the world Faith is the substance the expectation of a future and better condition but we do not use to expect a thing and have no eye upon the meanes of attaining it Can we expect to fly without wings or go a journey without feet no more can we hope ever to enter those heavens wherein dwelleth righteousnesse if we have no other conduct but faith faith so poorely and miserably attended with fraud deceit injustice and violence For who shall dwell in the holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousnesse and speaketh the truth in his heart He that doth no evil to his neighbour that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not Psal 15. 'T is strange then that there should be so many oppressors in the world and so many Saints that so many should forfeit their honesty and yet count their election sure that they who are like enough to do as the Jews did Crucifie Christ if he were on the earth should yet hope to be saved by his blood For if you should ask me what the true property of a Christian were faith alway supposed which is the ground and foundation of all I could not find any virtue which doth more fairly decipher or more fully expresse him then sincerity and uprightnesse of conversation which saith Chymachus Scal Pâ—rad graâ— 1. is virtus sine varietate a virtue which is ever like unto it self and makes us so which doth not look divers waies at once both towards Samaria and Hierusalem doth not professe a benefit when it studies ruine cloth hatred with a smile and a purpose to deceive with fair language and large promises nor make up words of butter which at last prove to be very swords but it is like the Topaz si polis obscuras if you polish it you obscure and darken it but if you leave it as nature presents it it casts the brighter lustre And if you ask me the embleme of a Christian our Saviour hath already given one the Dove whose Feathers are silver white not speckled as a bird of divers colours but whose eyes are single and direct not leering as a fox nor looking diverse waies animal simplex non felle amarum non morstb us saevum saith Cyprian an innocent and harmelesse bird no bird of prey without gall not cruell to fight having no talons to lay hold on the prey so far from doing wrong that he knows not how to do it For as Quintilian observes Quint. l. 1. Instit c. 14. de Grammat off Inter virtutes Grammatici est nescire quaedam That it is to be summ'd up amongst the virtues of a Grammarian to be ignorant of some particular nice impertinences so is it a part of a Christians integrity and simplicity not to be acquainted with the wiles and devises and stratagems of the world to be a non proficient in the Devils Politicks to heare the language of the children of this world as a strange tongue and understand it not not to know what cannot make him better and may make him worse not to know that which we may wish
their craft and policy which should have been specimen pietatis an example and expression of piety this was to cheat them into charity and liberality which should be free and voluntary with false hopes It was the saying of Martin Luther Papatus est robusta venatio Romani episcopi that Popery was nothing else but a close senting and following of gain and hunting after the riches and Pomp of the world for if men will not give or yield up their estates either Policy shall betray or Power like a whirlwind snatch them away When Peters keyes are too weak Julius the second flings them into the River â—iber with this Christian resolution to try what Pauls sword could do We may say with the wise man that this is an evil disease under the sunne a disease which did not onely envenome that politick estate which is nothing else but a disease but did spread some part of its poyson and Malignity amongst those who may seem to have been sent down from heaven to purge it out We cannot but magnifie the name of God for this blessed reformation of the Church and blesse their memories which were the Instruments but yet some there be who have thought it a just complaint that at least some of those who did beare a name with the best did not so much seek Gods honor as their own and the improvement of their estate and enlargment of their Territories more then the advancement of piety and so to recover her drew more blood from her then was necessary Excessit medicina modum nimiumque sequuta est Quâ morbi duxere manus Lucan I will here passe no censure upon it and yet one would think Jupiters cloak would sit best on his own shoulders but yet we may have leave to look back and bewaile it and at least wish that the hand which was so active to cure it had not made so deep an incision as to leave no blood That there had been some other way found out to restore her to her health and soundnesse then that which at first made her poore and at last nothing But this is but our wish and not our censure and we may spend our affection there where we may not venture our judgment The tree which grew up and was strong whose leaves were fair and fruit much whose height seemed to reach to heaven and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth whose boughs spread even to the envy of her who sits as a Queen amongst the nations is now hewen down and scarce a stump of the roots left in the earth so that we may wish for that which we can never hope and yet we might have observed some of those who cryed down with it down with it to the ground even those who first laid the axe to the root of the tree sad and heavy and angry as Haman was when he waited on Mordecai now clad with that honor which his ambition had prophesied and decreed to himself much troubled that they gathered so little fruit from the branches when the tree was fallen But to proceed This contagion hath spread it self well-neere over the face of all Christendome where most men count that lawfull purchase which they can lay hold on much like Vibius in Tacitus l. 4. Hist pecunia ingenio inter claros magis quam bonos more famous for their worldly providence and wealth then their honesty What should I speak of theeves that are dragged to the Bar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gâ—ll. l. 11. Nâ—ct Attic. c. 18. the Greek proverb tells us there be theeves that keep holiday and old Cato in Gellius that those who steal from private men are fed with the bread of affliction held in misery and Irons but Fures publici in auro purpura but your publick theeves do glitter in purple and gold and none dare say Black is their eye as the word is for feare of losing their own There have been Laws made against those who dig down walls by night who sell adulterate and mixt corn who suppresse and hoord their corn to sell it dearer whom Basil calls the Hucksters and Factors of the common calamity Lex Metellâ— extat Fulloâ—nbus dicta adâ—ò omnia m jorâ—lus curae f. eâ—c Plin. N.Q. 35.13 Laws against Impostors and cheaters and the authority of the Magistrate hath influence upon men of what calling or quality soever In the Common-wealth of Rome there was a Law to regulate Fullers and in ours a Parliamentary Statute that Cord-wainers should look to their sowing threads and that their wax should be well tempered but what Law can restrain them who can deale with the Law as Alexander did with the Gordian knot cut it asunder with their sword Cicâ—…r Bruâ— sive de claris Orat. I meane can defeat and baffle the Law by their power and wealth or those who as Tully spake of a certain Orator are Lubrici incomprehensibles so slippery that the Law cannot lay hold on them so cunning that they can deceive the eyes of the Sun and Justice it self and rob the poore even at nooneday who can make up the ruines of their estate which the dye or strumpet hath wasted with the teares of the widow and fatherlesse and then think with that Emperour Nunquam se prosperiori alâ—â usos that they never threw a more fortunate cast in their life yet such we have in the world and they call themselves Christians We must draw towards a conclusion Thus have we shaken both the pillars of Justice Nature and Grace and put behind our backs the lessons of the one and precepts of the other that we may run with lesse regret and controll to that forbidden tree which we delight to look on Nature is swallowed up in victory by the love of the world buried and raked up in the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the Pride of life and then on this foundation of innocency we build in blood on this ground of Justice we set up oppression nay which is yet worse Nature is swallowed up in victory by Grace it self the Decalogue is lost in our Creed Honesty in Faith for a strange conceit is now crept into the world that how regardlesse soever we be of those seeds of Goodnesse how forgetfull soever of that which nature dictates to us yet if we can heare of honesty talk of honesty and cast some of our Gall and Bitternesse upon that Injustice which is to us as sweet as honey we may be good Christians enough and the onely religious men in the world And as the ancients in time of Superstition did appropriate Religion to that kind of life which did least expresse it and men were then said Ingredi Religionem to enter into Religion when they went into a Monastery and put on a Monks coule so there are a generation of men amongst us who talk of nothing more then Religion as if it must needs
live and dye with them and yet do onely take her mantle and vizor and in it walk on the whole course of their life here beating their fellow servants here defaming one and defrauding another and defaming him that they may defraud him they sharply inveigh against and lash the iniquities of the time they are severe Justiciaries and chastise all but themselves Ausonii Cupido Crucisixus as the wanton women in Ausonius did crucify Cupid on the wall sibi ignoscunt plectunt Deum they know well enough how to pardon themselves for fraud for lying for false weights and measures for covetousnesse and malice and the whole body of their Religion is made up in this to fling disgrace upon the name of dishonesty and so punish it but in a picture For conclusion then to avoid these rocks at which so many have been cast away and lost Let us first look up upon this light of nature and walk honestly as in the day and not after those blind guides the love of our selves and the glory of the world which will lead us on pleasantly for a while and at last slip from us and leave us in the dark there to lament and curse the folly of our waies For Riches and Honour and Pleasure are not naturall unto us but adventitious and accidentall and that which is naturall should be prevalent against all that is accidentall Accidentali praevalâ—t naturale c. 3. ff de Tutelis say the Civilians This Relation by Nature should be strong against all forraign Circumstances whatsoever And therefore it is but a busie folly a studious kind of iniquity to come and frame distinctions which may wipe out this relation and so leave us at loose with line enough to run out unto a liberty and priviledge of encroching on others by fraud or violence As the Persians in Xenophon taught their children that they might lye or not lye with a distinction lye loudly to their enemies so they remember to speak truth to their friends deceive a stranger and not an acquaintance and I feare we have too many such Persisians in this our Island and if they do not utter and dictate it yet their hearts speak it and their hands speake it and their practice proclaimes it to the whole world He is a stranger he is an enemy of another Religion of another Faction I may make what advantage I can upon him undermine and blow him up and thus the man the image of God the brother is quite lost And what is the issue of this Diabolicall coynage even the same which Xenophon there observed to be of the Persian education Their children saith he soone forgot the distinction and grew up at last to be so bold as to lye to their best friends And so it is with them who find it an easier thing to call themselves Religious then to make themselves honest who first begin with these proviso's and distinctions to practice injustice and with so much gravity and demurenesse to deceive their brethren and to be dishonest by a rule at last they fall down to an universall and promiscuous iniquity Friends brother they of the same family they of the same Sect and faction all are the same with them when they look for advantage no respect of persons when they look for Balaams wages every man then is a stranger an enemy or as strangely used as if he were and this is to put out the light of nature and so to go a whoring after our own inventions which once kindled by the love of this world are those false lights which lead us into that darknesse which Saint John speaks of He that thus handleth his brother 1 Iohn 2.19 walketh in darknesse and knoweth not whither he goeth because darknesse hath blinded his eyes that he cannot see a man in a man nor a brother in a brother a man in the same shape and built up of the same materialls a man of the same passions with himself And therefore by this light of Nature let us check and condemn our selves when any gall of bitternesse riseth in our hearts and allay or rather root it out with this consideration That it is most inhumane and unnaturall that we cannot nourish it in our breast and not fall from the honour of our Creation and leave off to be men How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer and cut down to the ground Es 14.12 and how art thou fallen O man whosoever thou art that doest unjustly that takest from another that which is his either by violence or deceit How art thou fallen from heaven for on earth there is no other heaven but that which Justice and Charity make How art thou fallen to hell it self nay to be an hell a place for these foul spirits malice and fraud to reign and riot in and to torment others and thy self How art thou fallen from conversing with Angels to wallow in blood from the glory of thy Creation to burning fire and blacknesse and darknesse and tempest O what a shame is it That a man thus created thus Elemented and composed should delight in fraud in violence and oppression should feed on that bread not which his father who made him did put into his hands but which craft did purloine or violence snatch from the hands of others who were not so wise or so strong as himself That this creature of love made by love and made to be Sociable should be as hot as a fiery furnace sending forth nothing but sulphur and stench That this honourable Creature should be a beast nay a devil to ensnare to accuse to deceive and destroy his brethren This is a sad aggravation but if the light of Nature be too dimme and cannot lead us out of the world and those winding and crooked paths which the love of it makes in it every day let us in the last place look up upon that clearer light that light which did spring from on high and hath visited us why should not our friends be more powerfull with us then our enemies why should not Grace be stronger then a temptation why should not the rich and glorious promises of the Gospel be more eloquent and perswasive then the solicitations of the flesh which is every moment drawing neerer to the dust or of the world which changeth every day and shall at last be burnt with fire why should they not have the power to purge and clense us from all unrighteousnesse why should we chuse rather to be raised and enrich'd here for a span of time by craft and power then to be crowned by Justice and Integrity for ever For this is the end for which this great light hath shined to lighten every man that is in the world that they may walk in the paths of righteousnesse It is a light that leads unto blisse but it will not go before an oppressor a theef an Impostor a Tyrant to lead them to it because they delight
other names for them Chalcidem homines Cymindim Dii vocant and he speaks of a certain bird so when we call that ours which our net hath taken in our wit and industry hath brought in unto us we speak after the manner of men we speak the language of the world in the Dialect of Mammon but when we call them ours and make them ours for the use and benefit of others we do à Christo discere disciplinam as Tertullian speaks we speak in the language of our Saviour in that phrase and sense which God and the Holy Saints do ever take them Did I say It was the language of men It is the language of the two daughters of the Horse-leach of Covetousnesse and Ambition Prov. 36.14,16 Sanguis Daemonis pabulum Tertull. Apol. c. 22. Give Give alwaies taking in never emptying themselves It is the Dialect of that generation whose Teeth are swords and their Jaw-teeth as knives to devoure the poore of the earth It is the voice of Luxury and riot which must be fed as devils are with the blood of others who like that Behemoth can drink up rivers of blood It is the language of the Devil himself who is no helper but a destroyer The language of Nature is more mild and gentle Tull. l. 1. Oss misericordiâ nihil est naturae hominis accommodatius saith Tully There is nothing more suitable with the nature of man then mercy and a desire to do good to others for when thou seest a man thou beholdest thy self as in a glasse in him thou beholdest thy self now cheerfull and anon drooping now standing and anon sinking now in purple and anon naked now full and anon hungry thou seest thy self in the weaknesse in the mutability in the mortality of thy condition and his present necessities are but a lesson an argument which plainly demonstrate and to thy very eye what thou or any other man may be and withall a silent and powerfull appeale to thy mercy a secret beseeching thee I might say a Legal requiring thee to do unto him as thou wouldst be done to in the like case which thou art as liable to as he to be of the same mind which thou wilt be certainly when with this Lazar thou lyest at the gates of another But if this light of Nature be not bright enough Errat olim isâ—a â—…ntentiâ— vâ—mo 〈◊〉 nasâ—iâ—ur moriturus sihi Tert. de pall c. 5. yet by the light of Scripture by the light of the Gospel we may easily discerne the truth of this parallel For the Servant of God the true Christian is born again not for himself alone but for all those who are parts of the same building and members of the same body If one member suffer all the members suffer with it Rom. 12.20 And this makes not onely all the riches but withall all the miseries all the necessities all the afflictions of our brethren Ours And what a Celestiall Harmony doth mercy make which puts those who are at liberty in bonds with the prisoners which makes the rich lye down with the poore the strong sympathize with the weak what a Harmony is that which riseth out of such discords when the joyfull heart weeps with them that weep and the sorrowful Spirit rejoyceth with them that rejoyce when all men are of the same mind one with another the rich naked with the poore and the poore abounding with the rich the whole Church imprisoned in one man and every man comforting his bondage with the peace and prosperity of the whole This is an Harmony indeed but I fear I may say it is like the Harmony of the spheres which was never heard or at least we have more reason then we would to believe that there is scarce any such musick in our dayes But thus it should be and this musick Mercy doth make I know the waies of God are past finding out and the reasons of his judgements saith Basil are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are as Jewels fit to be hid and reserved in the Treasuries of God alone and are understood onely by that Wisdome which sends them abroad yet if you ask why one is born a servant and another free why one grinds at the mill and another sits on the throne why one lyes at the gates whilest another feasts in his Palace I may with confidence give you this for one This God doth to exercise the patience and humility of the one and to stir up and awake the mercy of the other The rich and poore meet together the Lord is the maker of them both saith Solomon Prov. 22.2 not that his immediate hand made them rich and poore poured down with his left hand riches into the bosome of the one and withdrew it from the other and so left him naked For this is not manifest For God forbid that we should have such a conceit of God that he should fill the usurers bags or enlarge the territories of the wicked nor can we say that every poore man was predestinated to beggery nor make it good that he hath thus discerned and distinguished them for we know Luxury and Idlenesse clothes many with rags and Industry gathers much and Craft and Power more but he was the maker of them both They were both the work of his hands and from his hands they were the same though now the fashion of the world hath brought in a disparity between them and God saith the Father did make both poore and rich ut in pauperibus divitum misericordiam probaret that he might make the want of the poore as a touchstone to try the mercy of the rich For no doubt he could send the Ravens to feed them he could send Angels to feed them he could let down all manner of flesh in a sheet as he did to Peter his providence is never at a stand but can find out waies which we cannot think of but Christ hath so ordered it That though we cannot have him yet the poore and miserable we shall alwaies have with us ut locupletem aliena inopia ditaret that what all the world cannot anothers poverty may do that is enrich and blesseâ—s tu neminem praetereas ne is quem praeteris Christus sit and let thy mercy saith Austin passe by none lest it passe by Christ himself This he put into the Covenant which he made with us when he was on the earth and sealed it with his blood and now he looks that we should make it good and to that end presents and offers himself unto us in these and even bowes before us to the end of the world And certainly it is strange that we should thus stand out with him and deny him that which is his by Covenant that we should lock up all from him who opened his heart and let out his blood for us but so it is the vice we delight in makes that virtue which is contrary to it a punishment and when we love
within him In a word to love Mercy is to be in Heaven every man according as he purposeth in his heart let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerfull giver such a mercy is Gods Almoner here on earth and he loves and blesseth it follows it with his providence and his infinite Mercy shall crown it That gift which the Love of Mercy offereth up is onely fit to be laid up in the Treasury of the Almighty And now I have set before you Mercy in its full beauty in all its glory Conclusion you have seen her spreading her raies I might shew you her building of Hospitalls visiting the sick giving eyes to the blind raising of Temples pittying the stones breathing forth Oracles making the ignorant wise the sorrowfull merry leading the wandring man into his way I might have shewed you her sealing of Pardons but we could not shew you all these are the miracles of Mercy and they are wrought by the power of Christ in us and by us but by his power the fairest spectacle in the world Let us then look upon it and love it what is mercy when you need it is it not as the opening of the heavens unto you and shall it then bea punishment and hell unto you when your afflicted brethren call for it Is it so glorious abroad and shall it be of so foul an aspect as not to be thought worthy of entertainment at home shall it be a Jewel in every Cabinet but your own hearts Behold and lift up your eyes and you shall see objects enough for your Mercy to shine on If ever one depth called upon another the depth of calamity for the depth of our compassion if ever our bowells should move and sound now now is the time I remember that Chrysologus observes that God did on purpose lay Lazarus at the rich mans Gate quasi pietatis conflatorium as a forge to melt his stony heart Lazarus had as many mouthes to speak and move him to compassion as he had ulcers and wounds and how many such forges hath God set before us how many mouthes to beseech us how many wounds wide open which speak loud for our pity how many fires to melt us shall I shew you an ulcerous Lazar They are obvious to our eye we shall have them alwaies with us saith our Saviour and we have them almost in every place Shall I shew you men Stript and wounded and left half dead that may be seen in our lives as well as in the high waies between Jericho and Jerusalem Shall I shew you the teares drilling down the cheeks of the orphans and widdows shall I call you to heare the cry of the hire kept back by fraud or violence for that cryes to you for compassion as oppression doth to God for vengeance and it is a kind of oppression to deny it them Have you no compassion all ye that passe by and every day behold such sad spectacles as these shall I shew you Christ put again to open shame whipt and scorned and crucified and that which cannot be done to him in his person laid upon his Church shall I shew you him now upon the crosse and have you no regard all you that passe by shall I shew you the Church miserably torn in pieces shall I shew you Religion I would I could shew you such a sight for scarce so much as her forme is left what can I shew or what can move us when neither our own misery nor the common misery nor sinne nor death nor hell it self will move us If we were either good Men or good Citizens or good Christians our hearts would melt and gush forth at our eyes in Rivers of water If we were truly affected with peace we should be troubled at war If we did love the City we should mourn over it if we did delight in the prosperity of Israel her affliction would wound us if Religion were our care her decay would be our sorrow for that which we love and delight in must needs leave a mournfull heart behind it when it withdraws it self But private interest makes us regardlesse of the common and we do not pity Religion because we do not pitty our own soules but drink deep of the pleasures of this world enlarge our Territories fill our barnes make haste to be rich when our soul is ready to be taken from us and nothing but a rotten mouldring wall a body of flesh which will soon fall to the ground between us and hell I may well take off your eye from these sad and wofull spectacles it had been enough but to have shewn you Mercy for she is a cloud of witnesses a cloud of Arguments for her self and if we would but look upon her as we should there need no other Orator I beseech you look into your Lease look into your Covenant that Conveyance by which blisse and immortality are made over to you and you shall find that you hold all by this you hold it from the King of Kings and your quit-rent your acknowledgement for his great Mercy is your Mercy to others pay it down or you have made a forfeiture of all if you be Mercilesse all that labour as 't is called of charity is lost your loud profession your forced gravity your burning zeal your faith also is vain and you are yet in your sinnes For what are all these without Mercy but words and names and there is no name by which we can be saved but the name of Jesus Christ and all these Devotion Confession Abstinence Zeal Severity of life are as it were the letters of his name and I am sure Mercy is one and of a faire character and if we expunge and blot it out it is not his name Why boast we of our zeal without mercy it is a consuming fire 'T is true he that is not zealous doth not love but if my love be counterfeit what a false fire is my zeal and one mark of true zeal is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 14. if it be kept within its bounds and mercy is the best watch we can set over it to confine and keep it in The Church of Christ is not placed under the Torrid Zone that these cooler and more temperate vertues may not dwell there if you will have your zeal burn kindly Ignis zeli ardere debet oleo misericordiae Aquâ—… de Eruditione princip l. 1. c. 15 16. it must not be set on fire by any earthy matter but from Heaven where is the Mercy-seat and which is the seat of Mercy if you will be burning lamps you must poure in oleum misericordiae the oyl of mercy as Bernard speaks if this oyl faile you will rather be Beacons then Lamps to put all round about you in Arms as we have seen in Germany and other places Men and Brethren I may speak to you of the Patriarch David who is dead and buried and though we
have not his Sepulchre yet we have the memory of his mercifulness remaining with us to this day and I ask Had not he zeal Yes and so hot and intensive that it did consume him Psal 119.139 and yet but three verses before Rivers of water ran down his eyes and this heat and this moisture had one and the same cause because they kept not thy law in the one because they forgat thy word in the other which is the very same We much mistake if we doe not think there may be a weeping as well as a burning zeal And indeed zeal is never more amiable never moves with more Decorum nay with more advantage both to our selves and others then when Mercy sends it running down the cheeks We cannot better conclude then with that usefull advice of GBernard Bern. 46. S. in Cant. Zelus absque misericordia minùs utilis plerumque etiam perniciosus c. Zeal without mercy is alwaies unprofitable and most commonly dangerous and therefore we must pour in this oyl of mercy quae zelum supprimat spiritum temperet which may moderate our zeal and becalm and temper ourspirit which may otherwise hurry us away to the trouble of others and ruine of our selves which it cannot doe if Mercy be our Assessor To conclude Let us therefore cast off every weight let us empty our selves fling out all worldly lusts out of our hearts and make roome for mercy Let us receive it naturalize it consubstantiate it as the Greek Fathers speak with our selves that we may think nothing breathe nothing doe nothing but mercy That mercy may be as an Intelligence to keep us in a constant and perpetuall motion of doing good That it may be true and sincere and sweeter to us then the honey or honey-comb and so be our Heaven upon Earth whilst we are here that peace may be upon us and mercy even upon all those who love mercy who are indeed the true Israel of God The last branch is our humble walking with God and that we shall lay hold on in our next HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Six and Twentieth SERMON PART VI. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God WE have already gathered fruit from two of the Branches of this Tree of Life This Good which God by his Prophet hath shewed us in the Text we have seen Justice run down as waters and righteousnesse as a mighty streame as the Prophet speaks we have seen Mercy dropping as the dew on the tender herbs and rain upon the grasse We have beheld Justice filling the hand and Mercy opening it Justice fitting and preparing the hand to give and Mercy stretching it forth to clothe the naked and fill the hungry with good things Justice gathering and Mercy scattering Justice bringing in the seed and Mercy sowing it in a word Justice making it ours and Mercy alienating it and making it his whosoever he be that wants it We must now lay hold on the third which shadows both the rest from those blasts which may wither them Those stormes and temptations which may shake and bruise them from Covetousnesse Ambition Pride Self-love Self-deceit Hypocrisy which turne Justice into gall and worme-wood and eat out the very bowells of Mercy For our reverent and humble deportment with God is the mother of all good counsel the guard and defence of all holy duties and the mistris of innocency By this the Just and Mercifull man lives and moves and hath his being his whole life is an humble deportment with God every motion of his is humility I may say his very essence is humility for he gathers not he scatters not but as in his eye and sight When he fills his garners and when he empties them he doth it as under that all-seeing eye which sees not onely what he doth but what he thinks In this the Christian moves walks with or before his God not opening his eyes but to see the wonders of his Laws not opening his mouth but in Hallelujahs not opening his eares but to his voice not opening his hand but in his name not giving his Almes but as in the presence of his Father which seeth in secret and so doing what he requires with feare and trembling This spreads and diffuseth it self through every veine and branch through every part and duty of his life When he sits in judgement humility gives the sentence when he trafficks humility makes the bargain when he casts his bread upon the waters his hand is guided by humility when he bowes and falls down before his God humility conceives the prayer when he fasts humility is in Capite Iejunii and begins the fast when he exhorts humility breaths it forth when he instructs humility dictates when he corrects humility makes the rod whatsoever he doth he does as before or under or with the Lord humility is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all in all In a word Singularum virtutum proprii actus say the Schooles virtues both morall and Theologicall like the celestiall Orbs have their peculiar motion proceeding from their distinct Habits and Formes but humility is the intelligence which keeps and perpetuates that motion as those orbs are said to have their motion held up and regulated by some assistent forme without And now being here required to walk humbly with our God It will not be impertinent to give you the picture of humility in little to shew you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 summarily and in brief what it is and so we may better see in what this our walking humbly consists And indeed we look upon humility as we do upon a picture mirantur omnes divinam formam sed ut simulachrum fabre politum mirantur omnes as Apuleius speaks of his Psyche Every man doth much admire it as a beautifull piece but it is as men admire a well-wrought statue or picture every man likes it but which was the lot of his Psyche no man loves it no man wooes it no man desires to take her to his wife Yet it will not be amisse to give you a short view of her And the Orator will tell us Virtutis laus omnis in actione consistit Every vertue is commended by its proper act and operation and is then actually when it works Temperance doth bind the appetite liberality open the hand modesty compose the countenance valour guard the heart and work out its contrary out of the mind and Humility every thing that riseth up every swelling and tumour of the soule which are called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12.20 puffings up for riches or learning or beauty or strength or eloquence or virtue or any thing which we admire our selves for elations and lifting up of the mind above it self the stretching of it beyond its measure 2 Cor. 10.14 setting it up against
blesse him and do our duties As I was with Moses so will I be with thee saith God to Joshuah Joshuah 5. Then God is with us when he strengthneth our hands when he shadows us under his wing when he poureth forth his graces upon us and then we walk with him when we bowe before him use all the faculties of our soules and move every member of our bodies as his and as in his sight when we devote our selves to him alone when our eye looks upon him as the eye of the handmaid on the eye of her mistress and by a strict and sincere obedience we follow him in all those waies which he hath appointed for us This I take to be the meaning of the words we shall draw all within the compasse of these considerations first That God hath an all-seeing eye That he sees all ad Nudum as the Schooles speak naked as they are surveys our Actions heares our words and searcheth the very inwards of the heart secondly That truly to believe this is the best preservative of the other two the best meanes to establish Justice and uphold Mercy in us to keep us in an even and unerring course of obedience for will any man offend his God in his very eye And in the third place we shall discover and point out those who do not thus walk with God but walk in the haughtinesse and deceitfulnesse of their hearts as if God had neither eye to see nor eare to heare nor hand to punish them that we may mark and avoid them and this shall serve for use and application What doth God require to walk humbly with thy God And first That we may walk humbly with our God this must be laid as a foundation to build upon as the primum movens as the which first sets us a walking and puts us into this carefull and humble posture That God is present every where and seeth and knoweth all things And here we must not make too curious and bold a disquisition concerning the manner how God is present every where and how he seeth all things It is enough for us to believe he doth so and not to seek to know that which he never told us and which indeed he cannot tell us because we cannot apprehend it for how can we receive that knowledge of which we are not capable we read That he filleth the earth and the heaven Jer. 23.24 That heaven is his Throne and the earth his footstoole Is 66.1 That he is higher then heaven and deeper then hell and longer then the earth and broader then the sea Job 11.7,8,9 That he is not far from every one of us That in him we live and move and have our being Acts 17.27,28 That his understanding is infinite Psal 147.5 That there is no creature which is not manifest in his sight that all things are naked to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 open as the entrailes of a beast cut down in the back for sacrifice Heb. 4.13 That he looks down from heaven on the children of men Psal 142. That his eyes are open upon all their waies That neither they nor their Imquity are hid from his face hoc satis est dixisse Deo and this is enough for God to tell us and this is enough for us to know I dare be bold to say saith Saint Augustine Forsitan nec ipse Johannes dicit de Deo ut est Saint John was as an eagle and flew aloft to a higher pitch then the rest but could not soare so high as to bring us down a full relation and tell us what God is This is a message which no man can bring nor no man can heare He was a man inspired from God himself if he had not been inspired he could have said but little and being a man he could say no more They that walk in valleys and in low places see not much more ground then they tread they that are in deep wells see onely that part of the world which is over their heads but he that is on the top of some exceeding high mountain sees all the levell even the whole country which is about him So it stands betwixt us mortalls and our incomprehensible God we that live in this world are confined as it were into a valley or pit we see no more then the bounds which are set us will give us leave and that which our scant and narrow wisdome and providence foresees when the eye thereof is cleerest is ful of uncertainty as depending upon causes which may not work or if they do by the intervening of some crosse accident may faile But God who is that supreme and sublime light and by reason of his wonderfull nature so high exalted as from some exceeding high mountain sees all men at once all Actions all Casualties present and to come and with one cast of his eye measures them all This we are told and 't is enough for us that God hath told us so much that he is in heaven and yet not confined to that place that he is every where though we do not know how that he sees all things knows all things that he is Just and wise and Omnipotent and here we may walk with safety for the ground is firm under us upon this we may build up our selves in our Holy Faith upon this we may build up our Love which alwaies eyes him our honour to him which ever bowes before him our patience which beares every burden as if we saw him laying it on our feare to which every place is as mount Sinai where it trembles before him our hope which layes hold on him as if he were present in all the hardship we undergoe our obedience which alwaies works as in his eye to venture further is to venture as Peter did upon the Sea where we are sure to sink nor will Christ reach out his hand to help us but we shall be swallowed up in that depth which hath no bottome and be lost in that which is past finding out for this is the just punishment of our bold and too forward curiosity It works on busily and presseth forward with great earnestnesse to see it self defeated loseth that which it might grasp and findeth nothing It is enough for us to see the back parts of God that is as much as he is pleased to shew us and the want of this moderation hath occasioned many grosse errours in the Church of Christ for what can curiosity bring forth but monsters The Anomaei thought God as comprehensible as themselves and indeed upon a slender stock of knowledge we grow wanton and talk of God as we do of one another and no marvel that they who know not themselves should be so ignorant of God as to think to comprehend him Against these Saint Chrysostom wrote The Manichees confined him to a place and these Saint Austin confutes Others took upon them to qualifie and reforme this speech God is in every place
by changing the preposition In into Cum God is with every place Others conclude that the essence of God is most properly in heaven others have shut him up there and excluded his presence from this lower world The heaven they will tell you is his Throne but then is not the earth also his footstoole why may he not then be in earth as well as in heaven For the Argument is the very same nor must we conceive of God as we do of great Potentates whom we do not entertain in a Cottage but in a Palace nor can his Majesty gather soyl by intermingling it self with the things of the earth a most carnall conceit for the very Poet will tell us Tangere tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res That nothing but a body can be touch'd much lesse defiled We cannot think the Angel impaired his beauty by being in prison with Peter or in the den with Daniel unlesse we will say he was scorch't in the furnace when the three men did not so much as smell of the fire The heavens themselves are unclean in his sight saith Job c. 15. yet he remains saith the Father pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a most wonderfull exuberance beyond all Hyperbole No pitch can defile him no sinne pollute him No deformity on earth can sully his beauty Our cursed oathes do even blast his name yet his name is the same the Holy of Holyes his eyes beheld us weltring in our blood yet they are ten thousand times brighter then the sunne and therefore he is truly called Actus primus an act or essence as free from contagion as composition We take perfection from him he receives no imperfection from us he sits in heaven yet his Majesty is not increased he walks on the earth yet his Majesty is not diminished he rides on the wings of the wind yet his Majesty and glory is still the same He is in darknesse makes darknesse a Pavillion round about him yet is light it self he is in our corrupt hearts yet is purity it self Nusquam est ubique est he is no where because no place can contain him he is every where because no body no place no substance whatsoever can exclude him And as he is present with us and about our paths so he sees and knows every motion and action of ours Our inclinations our thoughts when they are risen whilest they were arising before there was either object or opportunity to raise them or any temptation to draw them up He sees our habits our vices and virtues before we ventured on that action which did lead the way and begin them I know him saith God of Abraham Gen. 18.19 and that he will do Justice and Judgement He knows our dispositions And found some good thing in Jeroboams child 1 Kings 14.13 He sees all our actions long before they are done our thoughts before they are conceived our deliberations before we ask counsel and our counsels before they are fixt Of what large extent were many of the prophesies how many yeares how many crosse actions how many contingencies what numberlesse swarms of thoughts inconsistent and not understood and yet concurrent and introductory to that which was foretold came between the prophesie and the fullfilling of it yet God saw through all these and saw all these and how they were working to that end of which he was pleased to give the prophets a sight The prophet Daniel foretells the succession of the Monarchies the division of Alexanders kingdomes the ruine of the Jews and that so plainly that Prophyry a great enemy to the Christians to disgrace and put it off said That it was a discourse much like Lycophrons Cassandra written after the things were done and so publisht to caiol and deceive the people who are soon pleased so soon taken with a cheat Malè nôrunt Deum qui non putant illum posse quod non putant Tert. de Resurr Carn c. 38. saith Tertullian They have but little knowledge of God who do not think that he can do yea and doth know and see what they cannot think For he that made the eye shall not he see He that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know Psal 94.9,10 He that fashioneth the heart shall not he consider all our works Psal 33.15 He sees us when we fall down before him he sees us when we harden our faces and he sees us in our teares and he sees us in our blood and yet he remaines yesterday and to day and the same for ever For as it is an argument of his infinite perfection to understand all things so is it of his Judiciary and infinite power to see and know and observe those motions those offers those inclinations which are against his Law and by which we are said to fight against him I may know Adultery and yet be chast I may see malice and debate in the City and yet be peaceable I may heare blasphemy and yet tremble at Gods name For sinne doth not pollute as it is in the understanding but in the will not as it is known but as it is embraced and not by any physicall but a morall contagion which first infects the will alone If the bare knowledge of evil could pollute then he that makes himself an Eunuch for the kingdome of heaven may be an Adulterer and the Judge that sits to condemn the sinne may be a Parricide God then may be present every where and this is the poorest exception that can be made against it I have waved you see that more subtile and intricate disputes and there be too many for men are never weary of doing nothing that which hath been spoken is as plain as necessary and no man can take it as a thing out of his sphere and reach Let us passe to that which we proposed in the second place and for which we proposed this of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God For the consideration of this is the best preservative of Mercy and Pillar to uphold Justice Septum Legis a fence a hedge set about the Law that no unclean beast be so bold to break in and come so neer as to touch it The Prophet David makes this use of it Psal 139.7 Quò ibo à spiritu whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I fly from thy presence If I go into heaven thou art there If I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shalt thou find me out Now nothing can be more forcible to make us walk reverently and humbly with our God then a firm perswasion that God walks with us that he sees and observes us that whatever we do or think lyes open to the view and survey of that all-seeing eye For secresie is the nurse of sinne that is done often which is done without witnesse and done with more delight in
be that seale it up and seare it as Saint Paul speaks as with a hot Iron If it speake to us we are deafe if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul beat and wound it more and more multi famam pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny the loudest noise our conscience can make is not heard but the censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we heare it and we tremble we are led like fooles with melody to the stocks what others say is our motion and turnes us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we heare it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of conscience is defraud not your brother nay but we will over-reach him the voice of conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self nay but we will oppresse him the voice of conscience is Love Mercy nay but we will love our selves what we speak to our selves our selves soon make hereticall How Ambitious are we to be accounted Just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it what a sin is uncleannesse in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet with what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death he whips the theef and hangs the murderer and indeed whips and hangs himself by a Proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we owe to our selves are of any great force to prevaile with us to order our steps aright walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give eare to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusuall That there is little hope that it will compleat and perfect our walk and make us Just and Mercifull men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God and to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion that whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he makes is infinitely and incomparably more cleare and certain then that which we make by our sences that we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts that thou seest not the birds fly in the ayre so distinctly as he sees thy thoughts fly about the world to those severall objects which we have set up for our delight that he sees and observes that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Yet neverthelesse though being as we are in the flesh and so led by sence were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That he did but see us as man sees us or were this as evident to our faith as that is to our sence we should be more watchfull over our selves more wary of the divels snares and baits then we commonly are magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary Hil. in Psal 178. for there is a necessity laid upon us of feare and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe That he now stands by as a witnesse who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly beleived Glorious things are spoken of faith we call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask is ours so would to God it were nay would for many of us we did but believe that he is present with us and sees what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but would run from as from serpents as from the divel himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and Power were so neer And now in the last place Let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion doe walk on in the haughtinesse of their hearts and neither bowe to the Laws of God or men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerfull Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Many walk saith Saint Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the presumptuous sinner walks not with God who hath first hardened his heart and then his face as Adamant whose very countenance doth witnesse against him who declares his sins as Sodome and hides them not and they who first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself first lose their reason in their lusts and then their modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil who doe that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain who first make shipwrack of a good conscience and then with the swelling salies of Impudence hasten to that point and haven which their boundlesse lusts have made choice of as we should doe to eternall happinesse per calcatum patrem as Saint Jerome speaks over Father and Mother over all Relations and Religion it self forsake all these not for Christs sake and the Gospel but for Mammon and the world What foule pollutions that grinding and cruell oppressions what open profanenesse have there been in the world and we may ask wit the Prophet Ieremiah cap. 8.12 Confusi sunt Were they ashamed when they committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed neither could they have any shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.18 for the hardnesse and blindnesse of their heart For in sin and by sin they at last grow familiar in sin clothe themselves with it as with a robe of Honour bring it forth into open view
shall meet with flattering objects and loath them with terrorus contemn them use the world as if he used it not in poverty yet not poor in affliction but not distrest in many a storm and passe through and rejoyce in it living in the world and yet dead in the world and so make his way through the valley and shadow of death to his journeyes end to that rest which remaines for the people of God who are but Strangers and Pilgrimes upon earth This is the best supply and for this the Prophet puts up his petition in the words of my text I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy commandments from mee They are the words of the Kingly Prophet and in the thirty ninth Psalme he hath the very same Hold not thy peace at my teares for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my Fathers were and in them he presents unto us his state and condition and in his own of all mankind Menander fecit Andriam Perinthiam one man is the map of all mankind and he that knows one knows them all David was and then all men are but accolae inquilini and howsoever their Pomp and Glory may dazle the eyes of men yet if we will define them aright and set them out as they are they are but strangers and Pilgrimes upon earth So that we have here first a doctrine declaring what we are we are but strangers upon earth that 's our condition he that is least in it is so and he that hath most and is Lord of it is no more secondly the use or inference hide not thy commandments from me For he that hath one eye upon his frailty and defects will have another upon a supply he that knows himself a stranger will desire a guide Or you have our character we are Accolae strangers and our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or viaticum our provision in our way the commandments of God Or if you please you may consider first the person I King David secondly his quality and condition a King and yet a stranger on the earth and these two draw together into one the two most different states of the world a powerfull Prince and a poor Pilgrime him that sits on the Throne and him that grinds at the mill the crowned head and that head which hath not a hole to hide it self And thirdly the reason why the Holy Ghost to teach us our condition doth make choice of a King out of which we shall raise this doctrine which is but a Paraphrase of the text first that man by nature is but a stranger to the world secondly that he is to make himself so And that you may I must hold out to you your viaticum your provision the commandments of God and shew you of what use they have been to you in this your peregrination and pilgrimage I am a stranger in the earth c. And first we must look on the person that speaks and we may peradventure wonder that he speaks it that he who was as a God upon the earth and one of those whom God himselfe calleth so should yet speak in the low and humble language of a Lazar and count himself a stranger We may well think the character doth but ill befit him It may seem rather to be the speech of some one of the Rechabites who by their Father Jonadab were forbad to build houses to sow seed to plant vineyards or to have any but all their lives to live in Tents Jer. 35.6,7 Or of some of the Essenes a Sect amongst the Jews who left the City and betook themselves to Fields and Mountains Plin. Nat. Hist l. 6.17 Gens aeterna in qua tamen nemo nascitur said Pliny of them a lasting Nation in which notwithstanding none were born for they begat Sectaries and not Children or of some of them of whom the Apostle speaks Heb. 11. that wandred in desarts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth or of some Asceticall Monk devoted and shut up in some cloyster or of some Anchoret shut up between two walls This speech had well befitted one of these and had Demosthenes or Tully been to draw the character of a stranger upon earth they would have brought him out of the streets or high-wayes out of some Cell or Prison with all the marks about him but their imagination would have passed by the Palaces of Princes as yeelding nothing of him For a King is but a nick-name but a soloecisme if he be not at home in every place But the holy Ghost regards not this Rhetorick observes not this art which indeed is made up but by the eye his method is è chola Coeli drawn out by that wisdome which formed and fashioned us and knows whereof and what we are made and that which flesh and blood counts a soloecisme with him is the most exact propriety of language what with us is lookt upon as that which is against the rules of art with him is most regular I may say truth is the spirits art and those words which convey it are the best Elegancies and thus to commend this lesson to us he makes choice of a person to an eye of flesh most unlikely as Elias in the book of Kings takes water to kindle the fire upon the Lords Altar A King on the earth and a stranger on the earth non benè convenient and will hardly be coupled together in the same proposition For how can they be strangers on earth who are the onely Lords and proprietaries of it Kings are Domini rerum temporumque are Lords of the times and of all affaires and they carry all before them this shall be the manner of the King saith Samuel 1.7 He shall take your sonnes and your daughters and make them his servants He shall take your fields and your vineyards and turn them to his own use A King the very name strikes a terrour in us and puts out of the best eye we have our reason that we cannot discern between the King and the Man nor the man and the stranger that we judge of him by what he is Si libet licet His will is his Law and what he doth is just or he will make it so for who dares say what doest thou And yet this King this God is but a stranger take him in his zenith take all his broad-blown glories his swelling titles his over-spreading power and all are drawn together and shrunk up in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accola whatsoever he is whatsoever he appeares he is but a stranger Behold here the Kingly Prophet makes it his profession layes by the title of a King as guilty of a Misnomer and calls himself a Pilgrime and as in the darknesse of Popery he that vowed a Pilgrimage either to our Lady or some Saint to Rome or to Jerusalem did present himself before the Altar and then receive his Scrip and Staff So am I
could abide with or would abide with him but was still as a passenger and stranger on the earth Now to give you a second reason why the spirit of God makes choice of a King to preach this lesson as he chuseth the best and most experienced masters so doth he condescend and indulge to our infirmity and appoints the fittest for us and those of whom we will soonest learn whose first question commonly is who is the Preacher who deliver up our judgements to our affections and converse rather with mens fortunes then their persons and make use of no other rule in our censure of what is done or said then the man himself that did or spake it if honour or power or wealth have made the man great in our eyes then whatsoever he speaks is an Oracle though it be the doctrine of devils and have the same Father which all other lyes have Truth doth seldome goe down with us unlesse it be presented in the cup in which we love to divine and prophesie There was a poor wise man found saith Solomon that delivered the City by his wisdome Eccles 9.15 but none remembred or considered this poor wise man For poverty is a cloud and casts a darknesse over that which is begot of light sullies every perfection that is in us hides it from an eye of flesh which cannot see wisdome and poverty together in one man whereas folly it self shall go for wisdome and carry away that applause which is due to it if it dwell in the heart or issue from the mouth of a purple and gallant fool ut sumus sic judicamus as we are so we judge and it is not our reason which concludes but our sence and affection If we love beauty every painted wanton is as the Queen of Sheba and may ask Solomon a question If riches Dives with us will be a better Evangelist then Saint Luke If our eyes dazle at Majesty Herods royall apparrell will be a more eloquent orator then he that speaks and the people shall give a shout and cry the voice of God and not of man Doe but ask your selves the question doth not affection to the person beget admiration in you and admiration commend whatsoever he sayes and gild over errour and sinne it self and make them current do not your hopes or feares or love make up every opinion in you and build you up in your most unholy faith Is not the Coward or the Dotard or the Worldling in your Creed and profession do you not measure out one another as you do a tree by the bulk and trunk and count him best who is most worth Is not this the compasse by which you steere the bond of your peace Is not this the cement of all your friendship doth not this outward respect serene or cloud your countenance and as the wind the state of things change make you to day the dearest friends and to morrow the deadliest enemies can you think ill of them you gain by or speak ill of them you fear or can he be evil who is powerfull or dare you be more wise then he that hath thirty legions We may say this is a great evil under the sunne but it is the property of the blessed spirit to work good out of evil to teach us to remember what we are by those who so soon make us forget what we are to make use of riches which we dote on of power which we tremble at of that glory which we have in Admiration to instruct us to the knowledge of our condition and to put us in mind of our mortality and frailty by Kings whom we count as Gods Behold a King from his Throne proclaimes it to his subjects and all the world That his power is but as a shadow cast from a mortall his glory but his garment which he cannot weare long and his riches but the embroidery which will be as soon worn out And when we have gaz'd and fallen down and worshipt and are thus lost in our own thoughts if we could take away the filme from our eye which the world hath drawn over it and see every thing in its nature and substance as it is we should behold in all these raies of glorie and power and wealth nothing but David the stranger So that we see Kings who are our nursing Fathers are become our School-masters to teach us For we see the ignorant and foolish men perish and they dye as fooles dye not remembred nor thought on as if nothing fell to the ground but their folly The begger dyes but what is that to the rich who cannot see him carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome the righteous also perish and no man layes it to heart I but Kings of the earth fall and cannot fall but with observation but they fall as a star are soon mist in their orbe and soon forgot But then living Kings make their Throne a Pulpit and preach from thence and publish to the world their own fraile and fading condition measure out their life by a span and prophesie the end of it call their life a Pilgrimage and shall we not hearken what the Lord God doth say by such royall Prophets shall their power make us beasts of burden to carry it whithersoever their beck shall direct us and shall not their doctrine and example perswade us that we are men travelling men hasting to another country behold then here David a Prophet and a King made and set up an ensample to us and if David be a stranger upon the earth we can draw no other conclusion then this then certainly much more we If David and all his Fathers If pious Kings and bloody Tyrants If good and bad found no settled estate no abiding place here why should we be so foolish and ignorant as to turmoile or sport and delight our selves under the expectation of it If Kings be pulled down from their Thrones and fall to the dust we have reason to cast up our accounts and reckon upon it that we are gliding and passing nay posting and flying as so many shadows and that our removall is at hand For these things happened to them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition They prophesied to us and they spake to us I may say they died to us and to all that shall follow them to the last man that shall stand upon the earth When Adam had lived nine hundred and thirty yeares he dyed lead the way to his posterity not that they should live so long but that they should surely dye to every sonne of his till the coming of the second and last Adam Abraham a stranger and Moses a stranger and David a stranger that we might look back upon them and see our condition And when Patriarchs and Prophets when Kings preach not onely living but dying not onely dying but dead we shall not onely dye but dye in our sinnes if we take not out the lesson and learn to speak
love For he that looks upon the commandments and keeps them hath the will of God and he that hath his will hath all that wisdome can find out or power bring to passe hath Gods providence and almightinesse his companions his guides his protection in his way and the world the pomp and vanity of it can no more prevaile against him then it can against God himself but where God is there shall this stranger be also when passing through all these he shall come to his journeys end For first that we may make some use of this and so conclude this our conformity to the will of God in keeping his commandments will make us observe a Decorum and being strangers in the earth to behave our selves as strangers in it for necessities sake give a perfunctory and slight salute not look upon it as a friend not to trust it not to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God as Saint Paul exhorteth 1 Tim. 17. but to suspect and be jealous of every thing in it Theophr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we use to be of every man we meet in a strange place and as plain country-men who are ignorant of coines suspect and try every piece they see and though it be current yet feare it may be counterfeit So to say within our selves this beauty which smiles may bite as a cockatrice this wine which looks red may be a mocker these riches may be my last receit this strength may ruine me this wit may befool me that which makes me great in my own eyes that for which I flatter and worship my self and tread all others with scorn under my feet may make me the least in the Kingdom of heaven nay quite shut me out this beauty may bring deformity into my soul this wine may be as the Manichees called Fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darknesse and these riches may begger me and my Perfections undoe me Far better is it for a stranger to be cautelous and wary then too venturous and fool-hardy better for him to feare where no feare is then to be ready to meet and embrace every toy and trifle that smiles and kils Now by this we arme our selves against all casualties and misfortunes which is more then all the conveyances and devises of the Law more then the providence of the wisest can do For what can fall out by chance to him who is ever under the wing of the almighty or what can be lose who hath denied all unto himself and himself too in every aspect and relation to the world This is our provision and this is our security he that will be secure must learn to be a stranger he that will lose nothing must learn to have nothing and then as our obedience to Gods will doth keep us in a decorum so it teacheth us by looking on the world with an eye of jealousie to make it our friend a friend of Mammon and a friend of a temptation for so we make that which was dangerous beneficiall unto us and rise up as high as heaven upon that which might have been our ruine by looking upon it with the suspicious and jealous eye of a stranger Secondly It supplies us with armes and strengthens us against all afflictions which may beat upon us all miseries which befall us all contumelies which may affront us in our way for what are all these poor sprinklings these weak breathings of wind and aire to us when we remember we are but strangers in the world The world knows us not because it knows not God as Saint John tells us 1 Ep. 3.1 peregrini deorsùm cives sursùm strangers here below but Citizens above What can they who are so unlike to the world who contemn the world expect lesse here there will be Shimeis to revile us Zedekiahs to smite us on the cheek oppressors to grind us and Tyrants to rob and spoile us when they please and if we will have them our friends we must make our selves like them and go to hell along with them but the commandments of God are an Antidote against all these For these evils cannot trouble us if we make use of the right remedy which is no where to be found but in Christ in whom all the treasuries of wisdome are hid But one errour of our lives it is and a great one to mistake the remedy of evils nec tam morbis laboramus quà m remediis nor doth our disease and malady so much molest us as the remedies themselves The poor man thinks there is no other remedy for poverty but riches the revenger cannot purge his gall and bitternesse but with the blood of his enemy the sick is quieted with nothing but with health but indeed these are not remedies answerable to the nature and operation of these severall diseases for the poor man may become rich and be poorer then before the revenger may draw blood and be more enraged then before the sick man may be restored to health and be worse then before the will of God is the truest and most soveraign physick and his will is that we estrange our selves from the world that our hearts be fixed on him and on those pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore And then there will be no such things as Poverty or Injuries or Sicknesse or at least they will not appeare so to us which is all one nay which is more for now they are not what they are unto us nor do we see that horrour in them which they that dwell in the world do but as Saint Paul speaks when we are poor then we are rich when we are weak then we are strong when we are in disgrace then we are honourable when we are persecuted then we are happy when we are sick then we are best in health and even see our journeys end Nihil imperitius impatientia Impatience which ever accompanies the neglect of Gods commands is the most ignorant unskilfull inexperienced the most ungodly thing in the world For these complaints in poverty this impatience of injuries this murmuring in our sicknesse are ill signes that we love the pleasures of the world more then the will of God that we see more glory in a piece of earth then virtue that we are more afraid of a disgrace then of sin that we bowe with more devotion and affection to the world then to God and so cannot make this glorious confession with our Kingly Prophet that we are Accolae and peregrini strangers and pilgrims upon the earth Thirdly our conformity to the will of God is a precious Antidote against the feare of death the feare of death why we were delivered from that when Christ took part with us of flesh and blood Heb. 2.14 and through death destroyed him who had the power of death the devil why should any mortall now feare to dye It is most true Christ dyed and by his death shook the powers of
in his hand For the state and face of things may be such as may warrant Demosthenes wish and choice and make it more commendable in exilium ire quà m tribunal to go into banishment then to ascend the tribunal for he best deserves honour who can in wisdome withdraw himself he can best manage power who knows when to lay it down Bring him now from the publick stage of honour to his private house and there you might have seen him walking as David speaks in the midst of his house in innocency and with a perfect heart as an Angel or intelligence moving in his own sphere and carrying on every thing in it with that order and Decorum which is the glory of a stranger whose moving in it is but a going out of it to render an account of every act and motion you might have beheld him looking with a settled and immoveable eye of love on his wife walking hand in hand with her for forty foure yeares and walking with her as his fellow-traveller with that love which might bring both at last to the same place of rest You might behold him looking on his children with an eye of care as well as of affection initiating them into the same fellowship of pilgrims and on his servants not as on slaves Quid Servus Amicus humilis but as his humble and inferiour friends as Seneca calls them and as his fellow-pilgrims too and thus he was Domesticus Magistratus a Domestick Magistrate a lover and example of that truth which Socrates taught that they who are good Fathers of their family will make the best and wisest Magistrates they who can manage their own cock-boat may be fit at last to sit at the stern of the common-wealth for a private family is a type and representation of it nay saith Eusebius in the life of Constantine of the Church it self I confesse I knew but in his evening when he was neer his journeys end and then too but at some distance but even then I could discover in him that sweetnesse of disposition that courteous affabibility which Saint Paul commends as virtues but have lost that name with Hypocrites with proud and supercilious men who make it a great part of their Religion to pardon none but themselves and then think that they have put off the old man when they have put off all humanity In these Omilitick vertues I could discern a fair proficiency in this reverend Knight and what my knowledg could not reach was abundantly supplied and brought unto me by the joynt testimony of those who knew him and by a testimony which commends him to heaven and God himself the mouthes of the poor which he so often filled Thus did he walk on as a stranger comforting and supporting his fellow-Pilgrims and reaching forth his charity to them as a staffe Thus he exprest himself living and thus he hath exprest himself in his last Will which is voluntas ultra mortem the Will the Mandate the Language of a Dead man Speculum morum saith Pliny the Glasse wherein you may see the Charity that is the Face the Image of a Pilgrim by which he hath bequeathed a Legacy of Comfort and Supply a plain acknowledgement that he was but a stranger on the earth to every Prison and to many Parishes within this City and remembers them who are in bonds as one who himself was in the body and sometimes a prisoner as they I know in this world it is a hard thing Justum esse sine infamia to be good and not to heare ill expedit enim malis neminem esse bonum for evil men make it their work to deface every faire image of virtue and then think well of themselves when they have made all as evil as themselves but it was this our honoured brothers happinesse to find no accuser but himself I may truly say I never yet heard any but report hath given him an honourable passe the voice of the poor was He was full of good works the voice of the City he was a good Magistrate the voice of his equalls he was a true friend the voice of all that I have heard he was a just man and then our charity will soon conclude he was a good Christian for he lived and died a son of the Church of the reformed and according to the way which some call Heresy some Superstition so worshipped he the God of his Fathers And now he is gone to his long home and the mourners go about the streets He is gone to the grave in a full age when that was well neer expired which is but Labour and sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril speaks grown in wisdom and grace which is a fairer testimony of age then the gray haires or fourscore yeares his body must return to the dust and his soul is return'd to God that gave it and being dead he yet speaketh speaketh by his Charity to the Poore speaketh by his faire example to his Brethren of the City to honour and reverence their Conscience more then their Purse vitamque impendere vero and to be ready to resign all even life it self for the truth he speaks to his friends and he speaks to his relict his virtuous and reverend Lady once partner of his cares and joyes his fellow-travellour and to his children who are now on their way and following a pace after him weep not for me why should you weep I have laid by my Staff my Scrip my provision and am at my journeys end at rest I have left you in a valley in a busie tumultuous world but the same hand the same provision the same obedience to Gods commands will guide you also and promote you to the same place where we shall rest and rejoyce together for evermore There let us leave him in his eternall rest with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob with all the Patriarchs and prophets and Apostles all his fellow-Pilgrims and strangers in the Kingdom of Heaven FINIS By the forced absence of the Author from the Presse besides many points mistaken these Errata have escaped which the Reader is desired to amend as he finds them PAg. 4. l. 12. r. Transacted p. 12. l. 23. r. riddle p. 25. l. 7.5 These will bring in p. 26. l. 39. r. not because he cannot but because he will not p. 27. l. 13. r. bought mortall pag. 33. marg Eulalia p. 39. l. 10. not p. 65. l. 14. cast himself into hell p. 83. ult this noise when PAg. 10. l. 5. for that hath p. 13. l. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. l. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14. l. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. marg Tit. for Tim. ibid. l. 7. in them p. 16. c. 6. entered p. 17. l. 21. Sublunary p. 23. l. 39. be the cause p. 24. l. 25. founded on p. 35. l. 40. beautifying p. 45. l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 54. l. 30. for and are p. 58. l. 27. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 19. affectuall p. 75. l. 9. about p. 78. marg for Deus Duos p. 89. l. 30. breath of fooles p. 89. l. 32. abfuerunt p. 99. l. 8. of the object p. 100. l. 27. for innocence justice p. 104. l. 27. start back ibid. l. 30. intention ibid. l. 33. shunk p. 108. l. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 118. l. 27. victo viâ for victoriâ p. 121. l. 4. worn out with p. 122. l. 7. steame p. 125. l. 32. maintaining some errours p. 126. l. 35. that which was p. 136. l. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. l. 42. measured out p. 137. l. 25. Adde that which is done often with that which is done alwaies p. 161. l. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 192. l. 18. aegris p. 168. l. 33. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 178. l. 13. adde many times makes us speak what otherwise we would not p. 207. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 208. l. 25. r. shines p. 228. l. 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 230. l. 16. r. the memory p. 241. l. 5. r. lifts us p. 242. l. 37. r. over that p. 244. l. 5. r. non exercere p. 240. l. 25. r. not his mercies p. 250. l. 13. r. to file and hammer them p. 251. l. 39. r. of their faith ibid. l. 43. r. and now this heartlesse p. 252. l. 25. r. but then p. 253. l. 6. r. God will do p. 260. l. 9. r. reviled p. 264. l. 1. r. usurp p. 266. l. 18. r. disarme death p. 283. l. 23. r. Salviguardium ibid. l. 34. Dele The third inference p. 300. l. 33. r. Petrus Damiani p. 304. l. 44. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 306. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 307. l. 41. r. faceremus p. 325. l. 30. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 331. l. 24. r. wasting ourselves p. 337. l. 46. r. For want of this p. 338. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 343. l. 9. r. the love of that p. 344. l. 3. r. sound p. 345. l. 3. r. as the occasion of sinne p. 350. l. 10. r. define them p. 351. l. 30. r. see in them p. 353. l. 37. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 354. l. 14. r. if he be p. 359. l. 20. r. and last of all p. 362. l. r. r. make us feel p. 363. l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 364. l. 14. adde which when we cannot fill up c. ibid. l. 41. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 368. l. 34. r. tune p. 370. l. 41. r. sticks it in them p. 373. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 374. l. ult r. Cynick p. 403. l. 3. r. is this faith p. 427. l. 37. r. kicking p. 447. l. 13. r. ◠p. 478. l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 521. l. 11. r. now bowing p. 537. l. 3. r. they leave a soul p. 574. l. 33. r. seen in our cities p. 619. l. 22. r. to be removed
joyned with it which might produce such an effect and what need of any such Decree or Action to make them disobedient who refuse to hearken to their Father or to harden them whose sinne was now great before the Lord But we must conclude these two within the 34000. that were slain And now C 2.17 the delivering up the people in such a number to the sword may seem to prejudice and call in question the Justice of God what His people His own people cull'd out of the Nations of the earth must these fall by the sword of these Aliens these enemies to God that know not his Name shall not the Judge of all the earth do right yes he will for even in this Dominus est It is the Lord. For as the Lord once said to his people Es L. 1. where is the bill of your mothers divorcement whom I have put away so here he may ask were is that Bill and obligation which I made to protect you if there be any brought forth we shall finde it rather like a Bill of sale then the conveyance of an absolute Gist on the one side God promiseth something on his behalf on the other there is something required on ours Read the Covenant and contract between them they had his promise to be their God and they were the sons of promise Gal. 4. but then these promises were conditionall and in every conditionall promise there is an obligation and command I will be their God that is his promise and they shall be my people that 's their duty and if these meet not the promise is void and of none effect There is not a more true and naturall glosse upon this promise than that of Azariah in the Chronicles 2 Chron 15.2 Hear you men of Asa of all Judah and Benjamin The Lord is with you whilst you are with him and if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you both must go together or both are lost for if they will be his people then his promise is firm being found in the eternall essence of God and so as constant and immutable as Himselfe but if they break his commandment and put it from them Then to be their God were not to be their God then to make good his promises were to vilisy and debauch them This were liberalitarem ejus mutare in servitutem Tertul. to turn his liberality into slavery prodigally to pour the Pretious oyl of his goodnesse into a vessell that could not hold it to protect and countenance a man of Belial because he bears the name of an Israelite And therefore in the 27. of Isaiah at the 11. verse where God upbraids his people of folly he presently cancells the bill and puts them out of his protection Therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them he that sramed them will shew them no favour what though they be the people which he hath purchased yet he will take no care of his own purchase though they be his possession he will give them up he will not do what he promised and yet be Truth it self for if they do not their Duty he did not promise Though he made them though he formed them yet he will not own them but forsake and abhor his own work he will surrender them up and deliver them to Destruction Even here upon the forehead of a desolate and rejected Israelite we may set up this Inscription Dominus est It is the Lord. And now if we look up upon the Inscription Dorrinus est It is the Lord we may read and interpret it without a Guide and learn not to Trifle with God because he is our Lord not to mock him with our Hypocrisy and force in our profession to countenance our Sin to be worse then Philistines because we are Israelites to be his Enemies because we call our selves Gods people to be worse then Turks or Jews because we are Christians Oh the Happy times of the Infant Church when the Pagan could finde nothing amongst the Christians to accuse but their Name and then what Times are These when you can scarce see any thing commendable in the Christian but the Name you may call it if you please the dotage or blindnesse of the Church for the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord The Israelite the Israelite The Christian the Christian the Protestant the Protestant This is the Musick with which most use to drive away the evil Spirit all sad and melancholy thoughts from their hearts but indeed saith Basil the Devil doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth daunce and leap for joy to hear it when he hears not withal the noise of our groanings of our prayers of our good works nor the Harmony of a well tuned and well composed life to go up to Heaven along with it Oh what pitty is it that God should place us in Paradice in a place of pleasure and safety and we forfeit it that he should measure out unto us as it were by the line a goodly Heritage and we pluck up our own hedges and lay our selves open to every Wild-Beast that he should make us his people and we force him to be our Enemy in a word that our Inheritance should begger us our security betray us and our royal prerogative undo us and further we carry not this consideration 2. We passe to the second particular and in the second place in so great a number as 34000 I may say in the whole Common-wealth of Israel for a Common-wealth may suffer in a far less Number we cannot doubt but some there were that fearred the Lord and shall there be as the Wise-man speaks 2 Eccle. 14. Horat. Gen. 18.23 the same event to the righteous and the wicked to the clean and him that sacrificeth not will God Incesto addere integrum will he destroy saith Abraham the righteous with the sinner This indeed is the depth of God and a great part of the world have been troubled at the very sight of it but yet if we behold it with that light which Scripture holds forth we shall finde it is not so unfordable but we shall make some passage through it For I if we could not make answer or render any reason yet this ought not to prejudice or call in question the justice of it especially with us men who are of Dull and slow understandings and when we have wearied our selves in searching out causes of natural things yet after all our sweat and oyle cannot attain so far as to know why the grasse which is under our feet is green rather then purple or of any other colour and therefore far below those Supernaturals and most unfit to search out those causes which God may seem to have lockt up in his own Brest God is the lord of all the earth Psal 90.4 and as the Prophet tells us a thousand years in his sight
like Rivers receives every day encrease and every day diminution and is not the same to Day which it was yesterday yet is it corpus aggregatum a collected Body which is not made up at once in every part but receives its parts successively She is Terrible as an Army with Banners as it is said of the Spouse in the Canticles and in an Army you know the Van may lodge there to night where the Rere commeth not till the Morning So it is with the Church it hath alwayes its parts yet hath alwayes parts to be added so we read Acts 2. and the last verse That the Lord added daily that is successively such as should be saved Quantum iniquitatis grassatur tantum abest regnum Dei quod secum affert plenam re â—itudinem saith the Father Christ is come and yet is still a coming whilst there are Heresies and Schismes in the Church whilst the one undermineth the Bulwarks without and the other raises a Mutiny within whilst the Divell rageth and men sinne there be yet some to be gathered to his Sheep-fold and though in respect of his Power he be already come yet for his Elects sake he will not execute it yet And this is the very reason which Justine Martyr gives of the proroguing and delay of his comming and why the Consummation and end of all things is not yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mankinds sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the seed of Christians which is yet to be propagated for by his eternall Wisdome he fore-sees That many there be who will beleeve and turne to him by Repentance and some that bee not even many who are yet unborn in his second Apologie for the Christians For the promise is made to you and to your children saith Saint Peter natis natorum qui nascentur ab illis and to all that are afar off Acts 2.39 even as many as the Lord God shall call for how many thousands are not yet who shall be Saints for their sakes it is that the Lord doth not consume the world with fire that he doth not come to judge the world that wicked men are permitted to revell on the earth and the devil to rage that he suffers that which he abhors suffers injustice to move its armes at large and spread it self like a green bay tree and leaves innocency bound in chaines that he suffers men to break his commands to question his providence to doubt of his being and essence that we see this disorder and confusion the world in a manner dissolved before its end but when that number is full a number which we know not or if we did cannot know when he will fill it up when that is compleat then time shall be no more then Lo he comes and will purge the world of Heresie and Schisme will appear in that Majesty that the Athiests shall confesse he is God and see all those crooked wayes in which his providence seemed to walk made even and strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonur to his Majesty to mannage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every haire of our head and observe the Sparrow that falls from the house top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresy and Schisme prophanesse and Atheisme sin and death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Crosse and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finisht his victory and triumph compleat and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense Coloss 2.15 Triumph and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more THE FIFTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Dominus venturus The Lord will come Nescitis quâ horâ You know not what hour PART II. WEE have already beheld the person our Lord and we have placed him on his Tribunal as a judge for the Father hath committed the judgement to the Son you have seen his Dominion in his Laws which were fitted and proportioned to it as his Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousnesse so his Laws are just no man no Devil can question them we approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience gives us is an approbation You have seen the vertue and power of his dominion for what is regal right without regal power what is a Lord without a sword or what is a sword if he cannot manage it what is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he comes upon him but our Lord Es 9.6 as he is called wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large compasse and circuit of his Dominion no place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him Luk. 1.33 and over them that put him to open shame and last of all the durability or rather the eternity of it for of his Dominion there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary and take the words going before he shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain for as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign as his Priesthood so his Dominion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never passe away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversus settled in his place but upon his return Dominus venturus the Lord will come it is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of eshcacie and vertue First to awake and stir up our faith Secondly to raise our hope and Thirdly to inflame our charity It is an object for our faith to look on for our hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace And first it offers it self to our faith for ideo Deus alscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon