Rom. 12. 11. 3. Zeal is that which carries our Devotions up to Heaven As Wings to a Fowl Wheels to a Chariot Sails to a Ship so is Zeal to the Soul of Man Without Zeal our Devotions can no more ascend than Vapours from a Still without fire put under it Prayer if it be fervent availeth much but a cold Sute will never get to Heaven In brief Zeal is the Chariot wherein our Alms our Offerings and all the good works we do are brought before the Throne of God in Heaven No Sacrifice in the Law could be offered without fire no more in the Gospel is any Service rightly performed without Zeal Be zealous therefore lest all thy works all thy endeavours be else unprofitable Rouze up thy dull and heavy Spirit serve God with earnestness and fervency and pray unto him that he would send us this fire from his Altar which is in Heaven whereby all our Sacrifices may become acceptable and pleasing unto him AND thus I come to the next thing in my Text Repentance Be zealous and repent Repentance is the changing of our course from the old way of Sin unto the new way of Righteousness or more briefly A changing of the course of sin for the course of Righteousness It is called also Conversion Turning and Returning unto God This matter would ask a long discourse but I will describe it briefly in five degrees which are as five steps in a Ladder by which we ascend up to Heaven 1. The first step is the Sight of Sin and the punishment due unto it for how can the Soul be possessed with fear and sorrow except he Understanding do first apprehend the danger for that which the Eye sees not the Heart rues not If Satan can keep sin from the Eye he will easily keep sorrow from the Heart It is impossible for a man to repent of his wickedness except the reflect and say What have I done The serious Penitent must be like the wary Factor he must retire himself look into his Books and turn over the leaves of his life he must consider the expence of his Time the employment of his Talent the debt of his Sin and the strictness of his Account 2. And so he shall ascend unto the next step which is Sorrow for sin For he that seriously considers how he hath grieved the Spirit of God and endangered his own Soul by his sins cannot but have his Spirit grieved with remorse The Sacrifices of God are a contrite Spirit Neither must we sorrow only but look unto the quality of our Sorrow that it be Godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the quantity of it that it be Great We must fit the plaister to the wound and proportion our sorrow to our Sins He that with Peter hath sinned heinously or with Mary Magdalen frequently must with them weep bitterly and abundantly 3. The Third step of this Ladder is the Loathing of sin A Surfiet of Meats how dainty and delicate soever will afterwards make them loathsome He that hath taken his fill of sin and committed iniquity with greediness and is sensible of his supersinity or abundance of naughtiness and hath a great Sorrow for it he will the more loath his sins though they have been never so full of delight Yea it will make him loath himself and cry out in a mournful manner with S. Paul Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 4. The fourth step is the leaving off Sin For as Amnon hating Tamar shut her out of doors So he that loaths and hates his Sins the sight the thought the remembrance of them will be grievous unto him and he will labour by all good means to expel them For true Repentance must be the consuming of sin To what purpose doth the Physician evacuate ill humors if the Patient still distempers himself with ill diet What shall it avail a man to endure the launcing searching and tenting of a wound if he stay not for the cure So in vain also is the Sight of sin and the Sorrow for and Loathing of Sin if the works of darkness still remain and the Soul is impatient of a through-cure And therefore as Amnon not only put out his loathed Sister but bolted the door after her as it is said in the forequoted place So must we keep out our sins with the Bolts of Resolution and Circumspection Noah pitched the Ark within and without Gen. 6. 14. So to keep out the waters and a Christian must be watchful to secure all his Senses External and Internal to keep out sin 5. The Fifth and last step is the Cleaving unto God with full purpose of heart to walk before him in newness of life All the former Degrees of Repentance were for the putting off of the Old man this is for the putting on of the New For ubi Emendatio nulla Poenitentia necessariò vana saith Tertullian de Poenit. c. 2. Where there is no Reformation there the Repentance must needs be vain and fruitless for as he goes on caret fructu suo eui eam Deus sevit i. e. hominis saluti it hath not its fruit unto holiness nor the end everlasting life Rom. 6. 22. And thus have I let you see briefly What Repentance is Will you have me say any more to make you to affect it as earnestly as I hope by this time you understand it clearly Know then that this is that which opens Heaven and leads into Paradise This is that Ladder without which no man can climb thither and therefore as S. Austin saith Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam Let us change our life here if we look for the Life of Glory hereafter Let us leave the old way of sin for the new way of righteousness and to apply all to my Text Let us change our course of Lukewarmness for a course of fervency in God's service our dull and drowsie Devotions for a course of Zeal Be zealous and Repent AND thus I come to the Third thing I propounded namely the Connexion and dependance of these latter words Be zealous therefore and Repent upon the former As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Many things might be here observed but I will name but one which is this That Repentance is the means to avoid and prevent God's Iudgments For as Tertullian in his de Poenitentia observes * Qui poenam per judicium destinavit idem veniam per poenitentiam spospondit He that hath decreed to punish by Iustice hath promised to grant pardon by Repentance And so we read in Ieremy 18. 7. When I shall speak saith the Lord there concerning a Nation or Kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from evil I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them And in Ezekiel 18. Repent and turn
from this ancient Terumah of Thanksgiving and Prayer which I will briefly point at and so make an end 1. This Offering of the Fathers was before the Consecration the Mass is after 2. This was of bare and naked Bread and Wine the Mass of the Body and Bloud of Christ. 3. This was an Heave-offering of Praise and Prayer the Mass is an Offering of Expiation or a price of redemption for the quick and dead 4. This was an act of all the Faithful but the Mass is of the Priest alone DISCOURSE LII REVEL 3. 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Be zealous therefore and repent THESE words are part of one of the Seven Epistles sent by Christ unto the Seven Churches in Asia namely an Exhortation unto the Church of Laodicea whose disease was Lukewarmness and want of Fervency in the matter of Religion and that accompanied with Security arising from presumption of Gods love through the abundance of his outward blessings bestowed upon them vers 17. That therefore which they abused as an Argument why they might be secure as being God's darling and so much beloved in my Text is retorted unto them as an Argument of fear of some Chastisement near unto them and even hanging over their heads For those whom God loveth he chastiseth Certain therefore it was that they should erelong feel the Scourge of God unless they should timely rouze themselves out of their lazy devotions out of the hateful and dangerous temper of Lukewarmness unless they should blow up the fire of Zeal to love and worship God with all earnestness and fervency in sum unless they would amend that grievous fault by Repentance for As many as I love saith Christ I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent It belongs not much to our purpose to enquire Whether those seven Epistles concern historically and literally only the Churches here named or Whether they were intended for Types of Churches or Ages of the Church afterwards to come It shall be sufficient to say That if we consider their Number being Seven which is a number of revolution of Times and therefore in this Book the Seals Trumpets and Vials also are seven or if we consider the choice of the Holy Ghost in that he taketh neither all no nor the most famous Churches then in the world as Antioch Alexandria Rome and many other and such no doubt as had need of instruction as well as those here named if these things be well considered it will seem that these Seven Churches besides their Literal respect were intended and it may be chiefly to be as Patterns and Types of the several Ages of the Catholick Church from the beginning thereof unto the end of the World that so these Seven Churches should Prophetically sample unto us a sevenfold Temper and Constitution of the whole Church according to the several Ages thereof answering the Pattern of the Churches named here For as in the course of Man's life diversity of ages hath diverse manners and conditions so was it to be with the Church of Christ Yea and as some Diseases are in regard of predominancy proper unto some men and not to others so is it with the Church All of these with their praises if good and remedies if evil are pourtrayed in these Seven Epistles unto the Seven Churches Nay not only the whole Church but even particular Churches have their Ages Manners and Conditions answerable unto the whole Body They have likewise their Infancy Youth Virility and old age with their several Constitutions Conditions and Diseases The first age and spring-time of both like unto Ephesus full of patience labour tolerancy and zeal The last and old age like unto Laodicea in abundance of all external things Lukewarm and neither hot nor cold That which the Poet saies of the disposition of old men Nullus Senex veneratur Iovem being more true of Churches as they grow old their zeal grows cold also So that in this regard my Text will not be unseasonable if the Times wherein we live be either the Last times as most men think or near upon the Last as no man will deny Howsoever since no Condition Temper or Disease is so proper to any one Age but that it is found sometime more or less in all So may this of Lukewarmness be with us what time soever of our age it be and therefore no question but we may in Laodicea as in a lively Example clearly read our own state and learn wisdom Without any longer Preface therefore I come unto the Words themselves which contain First God's rule Those whom he loves he rebukes and chastens Secondly Our and his Churches duty We must be zealous and repent Lastly The Connexion of these two Because those whom God loves he will rebuke and chasten for their sin especially Lukewarmness We must therefore be zealous and repent To begin with the first God's rule As many as I love I rebuke and chasten The words need no great explanation the two last I rebuke and chasten are rendred for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I rebuke notes a reproving and convincing by Argument the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I chasten notes such a correction as Fathers give their children not to hurt them but to amend them which we use to call a discipling a punishment of discipline intended ad correctionem non ad destructionem So that the meaning is Those whom I love if after I have long reproved them and convinced them of sin by my Word and Ministers all be but in vain then I use to chastise them with my rod to afflict them with some scourge of my discipline even as a Father doth the child whom he loveth Come we therefore to the Observations these words afford us The first whereof is That God chastises his children out of love and for their good For all the actions of God towards those he loves must needs be out of love and whatsoever he doth out of love must be for the good of those he loveth Indeed men for want of wisdom often do out of love that which hurts as the Proverb is they kill with kindness But with God it is otherwise He wants not skill to know what is best for his beloved as men do and therefore as certain it is that his chastisements shall end with our profit as we are sure they spring from our sins The ignorance of this point makes many to err and with the friends of Iob to judge amiss of God's love and hate towards men But we must know that God hath two sorts of arrows Arrows of judgment and Arrows of mercy the first he shoots against those he hates Psal. 7. 13. Ps. 144. 6. the other he shoots at his own even those whom he loves and therewith he wounds them that he may cure them and such as these may apply to themselves the words of the Spouse in the
from all your transgressions for why will ye die O ye house of Israel namely that death wherewith God threatned them if they should continue in their sins they might prevent by returning to him by repentance And so saith God to Ieremy in chap. 26. 2 3. Speak all the words that I command thee to speak unto them If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings Lo here If we repent us of our Sins God will also repent him of his Iudgments that is he will not send them Thus when the Ninevites repented in Sackcloth and ashes it is said Ionah 3. 10. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil may and God repented of that is he brought not upon them the evil that he had said he would do unto them And so if Laodicea in my Text should leave her Lukewarmness God who would have chastised her because he loved her would yet withhold her chastisements because she repented Would we then avoid the Iudgments of God hanging over our heads Let us not then defer our Repentance Would we not have the flaming fire of God's wrath and vengeance to consume us Let us repent of our Lukewarmness and get this sacred Fire of Zeal the only means to preserve us Be zealous therefore and repent DISCOURSE LIII 1 Ep. IOHN 2. 3. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments MAN that is born of a woman saith Iob is of short continuance and full of trouble Nay our days are not so few but they are also as full of sorrow full of unquietness and discontent no hour is without no estate is free from him that sitteth upon the glorious throne unto him that is beneath in the earth and ashes from him that is clothed in silk and wears a crown even unto him that is clothed in simple raiment He that had attained the highest pitch of worldly felicity King Solomon who was great and encreased above all that were before him in Ierusalem whose eyes had whatsoever they desired who withheld not his heart from any joy yet when he had considered all he could see no good thing under the Sun nothing wherein he could find true hearts-content but cryed out Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of Spirit All things are full of Labour man cannot utter it Yea Pleasure it self is linkt with pain and sorrow Extrema gaudii semper occupat luctus In vain then do men take up their rest where they have not long to stay in vain do they seek for comfort in those things where no true comfort can be found There is but one thing in the world that can make this miserable life happy unto us and that is so to demean our selves while we live here as that we may be assured of the Life to come This is that will make us not to feel the sorrows and troubles of this life This is that will make us with ease to swallow the bitter pills of Death it self when we can say with Iob I know or I am sure that my Redeemer liveth and that these eyes shall see him though worms consume this body of mine But the greatest part of men think no such Assurance can be had and therefore think it but labour lost to seek after it Others on the contrary are too credulous assuring themselves of God's savour and of eternal life without any proof or trial of their Assurance whether it be true or no. That both these sorts of men may see what a dangerous Error they are in let them peruse but this one Epistle of S. Iohn and out of the whole Epistle let them consider with me a while the Verse which I have read let them hear what the Spirit saith by the beloved Apostle of the Lord By this we do know or come to be assured that we know him if we keep his Commandments The first part of these words tells us of an Assurance to be gotten and lest we might deceive our selves the other part tells us what that is whereby we come to be assured and whereby we may prove insallibly whether our Assurance which we have conceived be good or no viz. If we keep his Commandments By this we do know or we are sure so the former Translation and it comes all to one that we know him if we keep his Commandments In the first part of these words all is plain and there is nothing hard to be understood but only what is meant by this Knowing of Christ what manner of Knowledge this should be which is here spoken of For there are diverse kinds of knowing Christ. There is a Knowledge which the very Devils have the Devils saith S. Iames believe also and tremble and in Luke 4. 34. we read that the Devil said unto Christ I know thee who thou art the holy one of God and in verse 41. that other Devils also came out of many whom they possessed crying out and saying Thou art Christ the Son of God but Christ rebuked them and would not suffer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say that they knew him to be Christ. There is a Knowledge likewise which the wicked may have but it is like unto the Knowledge which Devils have For the wicked may know Christ to be the Son of God they may know he died upon the Cross for the sins of men they may know that he is gone up into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of his Father in glory everlasting but alas this Knowledge if they have no more than it will not profit them at all it will never stand them in stead but rather make them more inexcusable at the Day of Iudgment But the Knowledge which the Text speaks of it is the Knowledge of the Faithful yea it is the Knowledge of Faith yea it is Faith it self For this Knowledge of Christ is to know him to be our Christ to know him to be our Redeemer to know him to be the Propitiation for our sins as well as for the sins of other men This you see is Faith it self and this is the Knowledge here meant as you may easily see further if you do but read the words going next before my Text where our Apostle saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins and then come the words of my Text And hereby we know or we are sure that we know him that is Hereby we know him to be as was said before our Advocate our Propitiation all this we are sure we know he is to us if that we keep his Commandments If therefore Faith be a Knowledge If to believe in Christ to be know Christ how then can Faith and Ignorance stand together how can an ignorant