former favour shewed to him threw aside the coat and came before him clad onely in his own usuall garments whom when the Emperour saw being extremely angry with him caused him to lose his head and life at once Whether this were true or no I know not neither will I enquire onely thus much it may teach us that we having with Pilate crucified Christ with our sinnes and sinfull course of life there is no hope for us ever to appear before God with comfort except we have on us the robes of Christs righteousnesse and be found in him not having our own righteousnesse Expression VIII How Gods Child may be known from others that are not so by his words and language A Father lying on his death-bed called unto him three children which he kept and told them that onely one of them was his sonne and that the other two were onely brought up by him and to him that was his sonne he gave all his goods But which of these was his naturall sonne he would not in any wise declare When he was dead every one of the three children pleaded that he was his son and therefore that the goods were his The matter at last was brought before a Judge he did what he could to end the controversy between them but being not able by any means to doe it he took this course with them He caused the dead corps of the Father to be set up against a tree and commanded the 3 sons each of them to take a bow and arrowes and to shoot at their Fathers dead corps thus set up to see who could shoot nearest to his heart Whereupon two of them took the bow and arrows and did shoot as they were willed and hit the body in severall places but the third was angry with them for thus shooting and when it came to his turn he out of a naturall affection of a child to a father refused and could by no means be perswaded to shoot The which when the Judge saw he gave this Sentence That surely the two first who had thus shot at their father were none of his sonnes but the third only which had refused to doe it and that therefore he should have the goods The like triall may be made to know who are Gods Children for they that use to blaspheme the holy name of God and to shoot that his name thorow with horrible and fearfull oaths as it is the fashion of too too many to doe certainly they cannot be so continuing the children of God neither will he another day so judge them to be nor any of those goods which he hath reserved in Heaven for those that love and fear him to belong unto them but being the Children of the Devill must with him be cast into that everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels Expression IX That whosoever hopes for the Kingdome of Glory hereafter in Heaven must make his entrance into the Kingdome of Grace whilest he lives here on earth FOr as amongst the Romanes Honour had a Temple and Virtue had a Temple but these Temples were so built and situate that none could come into the Temple of Honour but he must first passe through the Temple of Virtue So there is a Kingdome of Grace in this life wherein God reigns by his Word and Spirit in the hearts of his Children and there is a Kingdome of Glory in the life to come wherein they shall reign with him for ever in Heaven but God hath so ordered and disposed of these two Kingdomes that none shall enter into the Kingdome of Glory hereafter that doth not make his entrance into the Kingdome of Grace here Expression X. That there is no standing at a stay in the way of Godlinesse FOr man in his going towards Heaven is like a boat that is rowing against the stream or tide the which will go forward as long as the watermen ply the oares but let them but once withdraw their hands from the oares the stream or tide will presently carry the boat backward So 't is with man in his going towards Heaven for he goeth allwaies against the stream against the stream of his own corruptions against the stream of the Devils temptations and against the stream of the worlds sollicitations and therefore if he ply not God continually by his prayers and use all other good means to set himself forward in Grace and goodnesse the stream of his own corrupt affections if there were nothing else would carry him backward and make him worse than he was before Expression XI How we may know whether we belong to Gods Kingdome or the Devils IN the History of Scotland there is mention made of a Controversy between Scotland and Ireland for a certain Island that lay betwixt both Kingdomes to which of them it did belong and that after much a doe and great contestation for it they put it to the determination of a certain Frenchman who concluded and umpiered the controversy thus That there should be put a living Snake into it and if it did there live and thrive the Island should belong to Scotland but if it did not live and thrive there then it should belong to Ireland because it is said that no venimous creature will live there In like manner there is a great controversy between God and the Devill about the little Isle of Man the heart of Man whose it should be and to whose Kingdome Heaven or Hell it should belong â—nd there can be no better way to decide the controversy than to doe as the Frenchman did to try whether wicked and envenomed thoughts doe live and thrive therein or no for if they doe 't is a true sign that our hearts belong not as yet to God and his Kingdome but to the Devill and his for a sanctified heart which is Gods will be ever crucifying mortifying and killing all such vile lusts and sinfull affections and thoughts and the faith that is in it will purge and purify and cleanse it from them Expression XII That those whom Christ hath redeemed by his bloud he doth allso in some measure sanctifie by his Spirit FOr as in the naturall body of man the spirit ever goeth with the bloud there being in every part thereof an arterie to carry the spirit where there is a vein to carry the bloud so it is with Christ his Bloud and his Spirit go allwaies together so that his Bloud doth never cleanse any man from the guilt of sinne whom his Spirit doth not in some measure sanctifie and free from the power and dominion of sin Expression XIII That there will be sin in us as long as we live in this world FOr it is with man as it was with the house wherein was the fretting and spreading leprosie mentioned Levit. 14. 41 c. for though that house might be scraped round about and much rubbish and corrupt materials be removed yet the leprosie did not
a So doe these the family by this ungodly contention Expression LXXXV That the doubtings which a Christian finds in his heart must not discourage him from going to God for comfort and salvation FOr it is with Gods Child as it was with the Lepers in the famine of Samaria 2 Chron. 30. 19. 2 King 7. 34. The Syrians they knew had food and Samaria had none and therefore they resolved to venture abroad yet this they did not without much doubting and distrust because the Syrians whom they should meet with were their enemies Howsoever this resolution over-ruled them because in their present estate they were suâ—e to perish in the other there was room for hope and a possibility of living and that carried them to Hesters resolution Hest. 4. 16. If we perish we perish So Gods Child knowing that God is plenteous in power and mercy and so likely to save him and that he himself is void of all help and hope tending that way doth therefore resolve to renounce and leave himself and his own waies and to betake himself to God and though he cannot chuse but look upon him as one that is become his enemy for his sins and therefore may fear to be rejected yet because in respect of his sin there is a certainty to perish and in respect of the infinite mercy that is in God there is a possibility not to perish therefore upon this re resolves to adventure to go unto God in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ and if he must perish he will not reject himself but will cast himself upon the infinite mercy of God in Christ and then if he perish he perisheth Expression LXXXVI That where men are stiffe and stubborn and will not yeild one to another in things fitting and reasonable there is little hope of peace at least of a durable peace betwixt them IT is a common Proverb amongst the Italians That hard with hard never makes a good wall by which is signified that as stones cobbled up one upon another without morter to combine them make but a tottering wall that may easily be shaken but if there be morter betwixt them yeilding to the hardnesse of the stones it makes the whole like a solid continued body able to endure the greatest opposition So those that be at variance if they shall both of them be as stiffe as stones which will not yeild by any means one to another in any thing but both continuing fast froward hasty and resolute in their opinions have little hope ever to be reconciled or if a peace be made betwixt them that ever it will hold long Expression LXXXVII That he that cannot read may yet spell so much of the God-head in the Book of Nature that it will leave him without excuse Rom. 1. 20. ANd this Divine Du Bartas translated into English thus pithily and prettily expresseth The World 's a School where in a generall story God allwaies reads dumb Lectures of his glory Yea saith he The World 's a Book in Folio printed all With Gods great works in letters Capitall Each Creature is a page and each effect A fair Character void of all defect Therein our fingers feel our nostrils smell Our palats tast his virtues that excell He shew'd is to our eies talks to our ears In the order'd motions of the spangled sphears And yet for all this how many be there that cannot or will not learn this lesson And this the same Divine Poet taxeth prettily thus But as young truants toying in the schools Instead of learning learn to play the fools We gaze but on the babies and the cover The gaudy flowers and edges gilded over And never further for our lesson look Within the valume of this various Book I adde And therefore if we be well whipt for it Let 's thank our selves and after learn more wit Expression LXXXVIII That in the Godhead there be three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and all three but one God THis is a Divine Truth more certainly to be received by faith than to be conceived by reason for it is the most mysterious of all the mysteries contained in the Bible Our formerly mentioned Divine Poet speaks thus of it In Sacred sheets of either Testament 'T is hard to find an higher Argument More deep to sound more busy to discusse More usefull known unknown more dangerous But yet as difficult as the thing is Divines both Antient Modern have in their Writings brought many similitudes and resemblances to expresse it by Amongst them all this is one of the clearest viz. The light of the Sun the light of the Moon and the light of the Air all which are for nature and substance one and the same light and yet are they notwithstanding three distinct lights too for the light of the Sun is of it self and from no other the light of the Moon is from the Sun and the light of the Air is from them both So the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are all one simple and undivided God-head but yet three distinct Persons the Father having the foundation of personall subsistence from himself and from no other the Son from the Father of whom he is eternally begotten and the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son from both which he eternally proceedeth Expression LXXXIX How much some Hearers have their Preachers person in admiration ZAnchius reports how that a Frenchman in Geneva protested That if Saint Paul and Calvin should preach both at the same time he would leave Paul to go to hear Calvin God grant that we have no such hearers in these daies Expression XC That small sinnes may be reigning sinnes FOr we know there are Reguli as well as Reges Kings of Cities and narrow Territories as well as Emperours over vast Provinces And a small sinne committed with a high hand with more security presumption and customarinesse than others will more wast the Conscience than a farre greater out of infirmitie or sudden surprizall as as a small stone thrown with a strong arm will doe more hurt than another that is far greater if it be but gently laid on or sent forth with a fainter impression And who knoweth not that Ships doe oftentimes miscarry upon sands as well as upon rockâ— Expression XCI That privy and secret sins which never break forth into light may be reigning sins IT was a great part of the state and pride of the Persian Kings that they were seldome seen by their Subjects in publique And the Kingdome of China at this day is very vast and potent all though it communicate but little with other people So our secret sins such as privy pride hypocrisie self-justification malitious projects against the Word and Worship of God c. which lye stifled within may be most powerfull when they are least discovered Expression XCII That sins of Ignorance may be reigning sins FOr it is
fareth it with many Sermons and other heavenly instructions of Gods Ministers they are so little regard and so little use is made of them by many that hear them for the present that they seem to freez in the cold hearts and ears of their hearers but many times upon their death-beds and sometimes too before when the hand of God is in any grievous manner upon them or theirs there cometh such a thaw in their Consciences by means of the fire of Gods wrath that those Sermons and those other holy instructions so much slighted heretofore are now remembred and made use of for their terrour and discomfort Expression LXV That when Gods Holy Spirit by his quickning and sanctifying Grace enters into the heart of man it brings life and holinesse not to one onely part but to all at once FOr Grace comes into the soul of man like light into the air which before dark is in all parts at once illuminated or as heat into cold water that spreads it self through the whole substance or as the soul into the body of Lazarus or the Shâ—namites child not by degrees but all at once infused and giving life to every part So is our new man born at once though he grow by degrees that is the soul in our conversion is at once re-invested with the Image of God in all its faculties so that though the actions of Grace doe not presently appear in each one yet the habit the seed the root of all divine virtues is firmly re-implanted in them and by the strength of this Grace given they are constantly disposed to all sanctified operations Expression LXVI That the actuall operations of Grace appear not perfectly nor equally in every part of a regenerated Christian FOr the case is not alltogether alike in our new as in out naturall birth here all parts are nourished alike and grow proportionably unto full perfection if the body be healthy and of good temper But in the birth of the new Creature it is otherwise he is crazy and sickly from the very womb and first conception infirmity and corruption hangs upon every joint and limb of him so that allthough there be life in every part yet every part thrives not equally nor is alike active in its operations It 's with him as with infants that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Syderati or as we say planetstrucken taken with some ill air in whom some parts grow wearish and withered whilest others grow strong and lusty all grow and have life but those more slowly and weakly which diversity makes the body somewhat deformed though not monstrous So in Grace every faculty is quickned with spitituall life and strength and yet one may have a more free exercise of this gratious power than another which may be hindered and kept under through some stopping of the Spirit some ill humour unpurged some corrupt custome company or example inclining it another way And this appears by manifest experience for who doth not see that one and the same man may be eminent in some one or few graces which in others may attain but to a very mediocrity Expression LXVII That it is an unwise and no safe course for any man to put off his repentance till his old age or death-bed WEre not that Carrier a fool that being to go a far and a foul journey and having choice of strong and lusty horses would lay the greatest and heaviest pack upon a poor weak sickly decrepit and lame horse which is scarce able well to bear himself and suffer the other that are strong and lusty to go empty or lightly loaden And is not that man as errand a fool that will lay the heavy load of repentance a load that the strongest and lustiest will find heavy enough to bear in his best health if it be born as it should be and as God expecteth upon his old and decrepit age or upon his sick weak and even dying body neither of which are well able to bear and endure the infirmities miseries pangs and pains that doe accompany themselves and suffer his youth and stronger age wherein he hath both health and strength and is free from all such encumbrances to be empty and void of such penitentiall thoughts Expression LXVIII That Gods favours and his many and manifold blessings bestowed upon us should oblige us rather to serve God than his enemy the Devill FOr make it thine own case Thou takest some poor desolate fatherlesse child into thine house and bringest him up and providest all necessaries for him Or thou takest into thy family and entertainest a servant and givest him meat drink apparell wages countenance house and harbour and what else he can desire for his being or well being in thy service wouldst thou now take it well if either this child or servant whom thou hast so much favoured and done so much for should reject thee thou still out of thy love continuing his means and maintenance and all thy former favours and go and ingratiate himself with thy mortall enemy and serve him And canst thou then think that God who hath done infinitely more for thee than ever thou didst or wert able to doe for this child or this servant should take it well at thy hands if after all these his favours conferred on thee thou shouldst leave him and his service and go and serve him who is the professed enemy of God yea and his deadly and mortall enemy the Devill Expression LXIX How dangerous a thing it is to mock and scoffe at Gods judgements ANd hereof we have a fearfull example related by Master Perkins Upon a time saith he not far from Cambridge one being with his Companion drinking in an Alehouse on the Lords day when he was ready to depart thence there began a fearfull storm with very great lightning and thunder whereupon his fellow earnestly intreated him to stay a while longer to see whether it would cease but the man mocking and jesting at the thunder said as the report was That this was nothing but a knave Cooper knocking on his tubs and therfore come what would he would go and so went on his journey but before he was come half a mile from the house the same hand of the Lord which before he had mocked in a crack of thunder struck him about the girdle steed so as he fell suddenly down dead Expression LXX That Gods Child cannot be silent in the wrongs of God his Father HErodotus reports that when King Croesus was assaulted in the sight of his dumb Son the force of nature wrought so powerfully in him that it unloosed the strings of his tongue and he cried out O Villain kill not the King The truth of the Story I leave to be defended by the Authors of it but this I am sure of that scarcely any outward action more clears our inward grace of Adoption arguing us indeed to be the Sonnes of God than when we
prick a point a moment yea a lesse than all these in comparison of death nothing Expression C. That death is unavoidable SAint Austin prettily expresseth this thus The Verb morior saith he which in Latine signifieth to dye could never yet be declined by any Grammarian by the same rule that other Verbs be declined by which whether it have so fallen out by humane ignorance or divine providence may teach us saith he this lesson That though we may by some means or other decline and avoid other things that may hurt us in some cases yet we can in a no case decline death but first or last it will seize on us And the same b Father hath another witty expression of it thus All other things which belong unto us saith he whether they be good or evill are uncertain onely death is certain For when a child is conceived we can say but thus perhaps he shall be born perhaps he shall be abortive Again when he is born all that we can say is but this perhaps he shall live till he come to mans estate perhaps he shall dye before Again when he comes to mans estate all that we can say is but this perhaps he shall marry perhaps he shall not perhaps he shall have children perhaps he shall have none perhaps he shall be rich perhaps not perhaps he shall be honourable perhaps not perhaps he shall live till he be old perhaps not and so he goes on with many other perhaps to the like purpose But when all is said saith he Can any man say the like of his death Fortè morietur fortè non morietur Perhaps he shall dye perhaps he shall not dye No a none can say so of this For it is appointed unto all men once to dye Heb. 9. 27. HUMANE EXPRESSIONS OF DIVINE TRUTHS The second Century Expression I. That seeing God is our father we need not to be dishearted in our distempers and damps of prayer FOr suppose the dearest son of the lovingst Father should lie grievously sick and out of the extremity of anguish should cry out and complain unto him that he is so full of pain in every part that he knows not which way to turn himself or what to do and thereupon should intreat him of all loves to touch him tenderly to lay him softly to asswage if it may be his pain and to give him ease How ready think you would such a father be with all tenderness and care to put to his helping hand in such a ruefull case But yet if this child should grow sicker and weaker so that he could not speak at all but onely look his father in the face with Watry eyes and moan himself unto him with sighs and groans and other dumb expressions of his increased pain and desire to speak would not this yet strike deeper into the fathers heart pierce and melt it with more feeling pangs of compassion and make his bowels yern within him with an addition of extraordinary dearness and eare to do him good Even just so and much more too will our heavenly father be affected and deal with us in hearing helping and shewing mercy when all our strength of prayer is gon and we can but onely look up to him with our eyes and ply him with our groans and sighs Expression II. That seeing God is our father we need not to be disheartned if we cannot pray so fluently and eloquently as others can FOr is not a father more delighted with the stammering and stuâ—tering as it were with the inarticulate and imperfect talk of his own little child when it first begins to speak than with the exactest eloquence of the most famous Oratour upon earth So surely is our heavenly father better pleased with the broken interrupted passages and periods of prayer in an upright heart heartily grieved that he can do no better nor offer up a more lively hearty and orderly sacrifice than with the excellently composed fine-phrased and most methodicall petitions of the learnedst pharisie and self-conceited zelot in the world Expression III. That seeing God is our father we need not to be disheartned at the faintness of our faith and fear of letting go our hold of God WHen we see a father holding a little child in his arms is the child think we safe by his own or by the fathers hold It clapseth about the father with his little weak hands as well as it can but the strength of its safety is in the fathers arms Nay and many times the father holds the faster when he perceives the child to have left its hold Just so stands the case betwixt God and us we are tyed as it were unto God our Father by a double bond 1. Of his Spirit 2. Of our faith We lay hold on him by faith and he on us by his Spirit Now our infant-like and weak faith many times lets go to our seeming our hold of him and therefore presently we think all our hold of him is gon and begin to cry out we are undone we perish and there is no hope any more in God for us But we are herein deceived for though we have let go our hold of God by faith yet hath he not let goe his hold of us by his Spirit but rather holds us the faster to himself thereby the Devill nor all the powers of darknesse being able to take us out of his hands Expression III. That seeing God is our Father we need not to be disheartned at our failings of new obedience FOr the case is here allso as it is between a father and his son A father hath a son whom he sets about some work and the son improves the utmost of his skill strength and endeavour to doe it according as his father would have it done but when he hath done all that he can he sees that he comes farre short of what he himself desired and his father expected and therefore weeps and takes on and is much troubled that he can do it no better to give his father contentment Now what man is there whose heart is warmed with the tenderness of a fathers affection that would not be ready to pardon and pass by all the defects and failings in this kind And shall God our heavenly father think we shew less mercy and pardon to his children when they are willing to do what he enjoyns them and be heartily sorry that they can do it no better No surely it cannot be Expression IV. That seeing God is our father we need not to be disheartned if he to our seeming do sometimes hide his face from us A Father solacing himself with his litle child and delighting in his pretty and pleasing behaviour is wont sometimes to step aside into a corner or behind a door of purpose to quicken yet more his childs love to him and his longing after him and to try the impaciency and eagerness of his affection
In the mean time he hears it cry run about and call upon him and yet he stirres not but forbears to appear and all this not for want of love and compassion to his child which the more it takes on the more abounds in him towards it but that it may the more dearly prize his presence when it again enjoyes it and they may the more merily meet and rejoice the more in one the others company And so deals our heavenly father with us he sometimes hides his face from us and withdraws his quickning and refreshing presence for a time not for want of love but to put more life and heat into our affections towards him and to cause us to relish iâ— more sweetly when we have it again to preserve it more carefully to enjoy it more thankfully and to shun more watchfully whatsoever might again bereave us of it Expression V. That seeing God is our father we need not to be disheartned if he in times of triall seem to leave us to our selves FOr we sometimes see a father setting down his little one upon its feet to try its strength and whether it be able to stand alone by its self or no but withall he holds his armes on both sides of it to uphold it if he see it incline either way and to preserve it from hurt And in like manner we may assure our selves that God our heavenly father takes care of us with infinitely more tenderness to uphold and preserve us in all trialls either by outward afflictions or inward temptations Expression VI That seeing God is our Father we need not to be disheartned in the sense of our unworthinesse IF any child might have despaired ever to have regained his fathers love upon the sight and sense of his own unworthinesse Absalom might have been that child For would any father love such a son as had defiled his bed such a son as sought his fathers Kingdome and life And yet one such father we meet with viz. good David who though his son did not submit did not crave pardon did still continue in arms against him yet commands that no harm be done him 2 Sam. 18. 5. Yea and when he heard of his death did ever father so take on for the death of a child as he did crying O Absalom my son my son Absalom would God I had died for thee And if there be so much affection to be found in a naturall father towards so ungracious and every way so underserving a child what then may we expect at the hands of God our heavenly father whose love as farre exceedeth ours as the heavens are above the earth though we are every way unworthy of any such love from him Expression VII That God being our father we need not to be disheartned when we cannot do what he commands as well as others of his children FOr suppose a father should call unto him in hast two of his children one of three years old another of thirteen they both make all the hast they can but the elder makes much more speed and yet the litle one comes wadling as fast as it can and if it had more strength it would have matched the other Now would not the father think you accept of the younghst utmost endeavour according to its strength as well as of the elders faster gate being stronger I am sure he would and that with more tenderness too and taking it in his armes to encourage it And so certainly will our heavenly father deal with us in the like case about our spirituall state being true hearted and heartily grieving praying and endeavouring to doe better Expression VIII That God being our Father we need not to be overmuch distracted with the carking care for the things of this life A Little Child dwelling at home under his Fathers wing taketh no thought for any thing not for meat not for apparell nor for any other necessaries but relieth wholly upon his fathers carefull providing for him so that when he wants any thing to him he presently resorts and never looks further And shall the Child of an earthly Father be so void of carking care for the things of this life because he hath a Father to provide all needfull things for him And shall the Child of God forget that he hath a Father in Heaven who is infinitely more able and willing to doe the like for him Expression IX That all that bear the name of Gods servants are not his servants indeed WE would all be thought to be Gods servants but when we are looked into we shall be found to fail in a principall part of service For why We will be said to be his servants but we will doe our own work and so are rather his retainers than his meniall servants For retainers we know are willing to belong to such a Nobleman or Gentleman but yet it is but for their own private advantage for their countenance or for the avoiding of some other charges but in the mean time they would have their own liberty to follow their own businesse to live at their own home to come and go at their own pleasure c. And such servants generally men would be to the Lord willing they be to shrowd themselves under that name because they think that in the end it will go well with such and it may be allso they think it a disgrace to be said to be of no religion yet for all that they are loth to be tied they desire to be free still and to be at their own disposing serving God now and then and that perhaps out of formality more than conscience when their own occasions will give leave Expression X. How Christs birth differs from the birth of others THe Scriptures tell us how that man comes four waies into the world 1. By the help of man and woman so all are usually born 2. Without any man or woman and so the first man was created 3. Of a man without a woman and so was Eve made 4. Of a woman without a man and so was Christ born Expression XI How many waies a man may forswear himself THere be three waies saith Lombard out of Augustine by which a man may forswear himself 1. When he swears that which is false and he knows it to be false 2. When he swears that which is true but he thought it to be false 3. When he doth swear that which is false but he held it to be true The two first kinds are abominable but the third in the Court of Conscience saith one is no sin because a man may swear that which is false and yet not swear falsely Expression XII How this word Amen is used in Scripture THis word Amen is taken in Scripture three waies 1. Nominaliter as a noun and so 't is as much as true or truth and so 't is taken in the end of every one of the four Gospels and in other