and defiled both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soon after they were made There 's opprobrium ab origine Thence all slanderers may count their Pedigree For the devil infusing this venom into those Giants enflamed them to the scaling of Joves Throne or if not that we will believe the Scripture that if Nimrod the mighty light upon a rout of Populorum such babling and bawling sots as he found in Shinar all of one lip Gen. 11.1 they in their wicked conspiracy so it is called Wisd 10.5 would soon be at it for a City and Tower unperishable Make it of Brick incombustible and for drowning they 'l take order with the Almighty for the top shall reach to Heaven 9. So deduce Opprobrium from the old Dragon to a Serpentine Cadmean Nimrodian race of Giants mixt of Populorum and Maximorum too And what shamefull work will they make a mad work indeed even a world of wickedness time to look to the Circumference For if these have all one language concur in voting for a new frame and have a mind to be towring aloft nothing will stay them but Sidera feriam ero sicut Altissimus then that 's reaching Heaven right but the wrong way for they are not at Heaven yet Such a piece of work in hand and they bragged of a mountain-birth But Quid exit You know who blasted the business by a consusion first and a diffusion and dispersion afterwards and observe the just recompence the Sentence ex ore tuo Nequam Their babling to marr their building their own tongues to make them to fall fall out and fall off no longer able to stand to their great work because unable to understand one another 10. But for all that sundring at Babel soderd again we find them in the Text. This Generation of Nimrod Belus let him be and these right sons of Belial for no yoak will hold them for observe this confluence of Omnium Populorum Maximorum and find Jusque datum sceleri ex plebiscitis Senatus consultis seelera exercentur all exceeded When mens hands are once at liberty no King in Jsrael why then every man doth what seems good in his own eyes and so here when their tongue 's once loose the Lords anointed shall be reproacht The Lord himself blasphem'd And what Lord shall controul them so floats the ship without an Helm so flings the horse without a Bridle and so their tongues run madding through the world far worse so that the Apostle St. James cries it thrice Fire Fire Fire How great a mischief comes of this Fire setting on fire the the course of nature and is set on fire of Hell thirher still it brings us you see this untuly evil full of deadly and divelish poison all contract in this Malady all concentered in opprobrium 11. But be this poison of Populorum never so noxious and those that ejaculate never so mighty What are these all to the Almighty these Maximi to him Christ is opt max. Shall Jehovab suffer by such a Typhoeus or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be liable to such aspersion No Inimici tui Domine shall not be able to do this violence to thy anointed David nor move a tongue to infest the meanest of thy servants This is indeed the point under tryal for all this seems asserted in holy Scripture 1. First Servi are servati They should indeed be sure to be pelted and dusted and stoned from this Center painted with infamous spots and tokens of this plague in their bosom but for Jehovah here a good Domine that hath chosen and though not quite taken them out of this present evil world yet as good for they use it as if they used it not their Conversation is in Heaven and themselves within three steps In Eph. 2. He hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus And is not that high and aloof far and free from Opprobrium 2. Next is David the Lords anointed his body secured in the Sepulchre and this Monster is no Hyena Pascitur in vivis His immortal part is mounted not on Doves but Angels wings and past the clouds and storms of Populorum here hath met those acclamations on mount Zion and made one of that innumerable company the general Assembly and Church of the first-born among the Spirits of just men made perfect and in a Kingdom that cannot be moved all this in Heb. 12.22 23. So David himself is free body and soul from the strife of tongues and left above this world of wickedness 3. Much more is Davids Lord advanced set on the right hand of his Father all his enemies made his foot-stool far above all Principalities and Powers and at his coronation all knees have bowed and all tongues confessed that Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father 4. And for God the Father What can Opprobrium do to him The Lord is King be the people never so impatient the earth never so unquiet God that is very high exalted higher then the highest far aboue all Gods above all men sure out of their reach 't is he too that can still the raging of the waves and the madness of the people If the Fremuerunt be never so loud against the Lord and against his anointed He that sits in Heaven shall laugh The Lord shall have them in derision And now where is Davids Petition What is become of our Circumserence Servi Christus Domini Jehovah all free from Opprobrium nay never a one of all these for all this begin with the highest first and if this Monster set on Jehovah flie in his face he will sure spare none of the rest 1. And we need not go far for proof they corrupt others and speak of wicked Blasphemy their talking is against the most high they blasphem thee dayly saith David even weeping ripe that God would not redress and repress those Blasphemies We need go but to this very Text Remember it O Lord thy enemies have blasphemed thee we need not so much Alas We cannot stop our ears against words cloathed in death and jeasts flumine dignos and those execrable Oaths and Perjuries for which the land mourns spent in despight of God and of his Prophets flying roul full of plagues against such Swearers who yet roul on and roul out their hours in hellish Blasphemies as if they practised here against their coming thither No wonder then if earthly Gods put up and bosome many and mighty reproaches and abuses when it is here upon Record and evidence too much every where of this Crimen laesae Majestatis as high as Heaven 2. Next for Christ Jesus Pursue his story but from his Baptism for all the opening of Heaven and the Doves descent and his Fathers attestation coming among his own How did they receive him Not as the Lord Messiah but as a Messiah in
and the winter house Solomons house in Jerusalem and that in the Green and that in the forest of Libanon 1 King 7. And if many houses for a man for a King What for the King oâ— Kings Why the Scripture besides this in the Text mentions very many houses of the Lord a multiplicity a Zodiack of houses for the Sun of Righteousness for our Lord and Master Christ Jesus both to receive our service and to do us service in them all c. 1. First Mundi machina the Universe the whole round world with many fair and goodly rooms 2. then that named Habitaculum ejus sacrum Heaven his dwelling place the new Jerusalem of miraculous Structure past Amphions or Apollo's fingring The work of thy fingers saith David yet he speaks it only of this rough cast out-building stuck with stars which though a glorious sight yet is but the cover or shell of this great hollow Egg wherein as in a perfect Vivary full of Cages and Parks and ponds he hath ark't and housed together us and all inferiour Creatures But of his higher Palace His Empyreal in most court imperial for his Saints and Angels the Apostle calls it an House not made with hands but as he is light and his robe is so cloaths himself with light so is the house Light inaccessible Domine bonum est Let us dwell here No more go down from this mount but 3. we must descend as he vouchsafed to do to the womb of the Virgin Sol in Virgine sometime it s one of his houses in the Zodiack and now the Son of Righteousness was there there was God hid and housed for a time nay Gemini in virgine not in a Nestorian but in a sober sence and to crie up the Miracle such as never was God and Man together though in two natures yet in one person remaining what he was yet taking and made what he was not There was a right vivary indeed when the Lord of Glory blessed for ever took lise blood of the blessed Virgin our Lady O what a Store-house Treasure house Jewel house was that that confined that reserved such a Rarity What a strange new earthly heaven for God to dwell and dress himself in and yet behold without breaking that house forth he comes and brings a fourth house on his back another new house of his own making still though assisted in the nchoation yet terminated in his person 4. he only of the blessed Trinity wearing that garment they all wrought upon which creando assumpsit sumendo creavit non extra sed in persona sua which rayment was a body real not phantastick as Marcion that eldest child of Satan so Polycarpus called him and the Marichees imagined For then is all our faith imaginary too if no true conception then nor birth nor death nor resurrection true then is our preaching and your believing vain This destroyes all but we have not so learned Christ if we have been taught as the Truth is in Jesus We have learned that our Lord here took our very nature and true flesh woven with sinews a clay-house moated round about like one of ours that is compast with all mans infirmities sin except but very man of the substance of his mother No substance out of God or new caelestial or sidereal or Elementary matter as Valentinus thought A body then like ours yet in this unlike that in ipso articulo in the very moment of Conception it was proved entire and perfect in all the parts and endued with a rational soul at once which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saâ—tb Damascen the very extract of all novelty when that invisible and incommunicable verity by the Spirit took a soul and by the soul a body saith both Damascen and St. Cyprian when not by any addition or aggregation of Parts by degrees and leisurely sed uno conâ—extu the whole figure and frame of the body set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the mighty work of Gods holy Spirit faith St. Austin and the School into which though a flow of manifold Graces from the divine nature of Wisdom Power Glory yet in the two natures united we preserve those adverbs all of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is without Mutation Confusion Division Separation as the Council of Chalcedon against Eutyches Corpus aptasti it is in the Psalm Never so fitted for an house For in this house dwels the fulness of the God-head bodily that is not by a simple Inhabitation nor Assistance or Habitude or Dignity or that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willing consent or what they call Equality of honor or Nuncupation or Beneplacitum only None of all these will serve but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Union or Unition rather hypostatical In this house dwelt our Lord many years submitting to clouds and waves of Our Infirmities and in this house new-raised from ruine and made glorious this blessed Eagle flew Cage and all This holy Inhabiter of Eternity ascended house and all to his Holy Habitation in Heaven and is there enthroned on the right hand of his heavenly Father 5. But while he was an infant Lord in the hand of his blessed Virgin Mother here he dwelt a while in his Cradle-house the stable-cratch then the Palace of a great King at the sign of the Star in Bethlehem then the right house of Bread Panis Angelorum The true Bread-house and true Head-house though low and little of all his greater Houses his famous Churches after at those great Cities of Jerusalem Caesarea Antioch and in good time their sister Rome her self their little Sister earst that had no brests but since ovationed for Mater Domina as if Domus Cultus Dominus himself had been born and upbrought there ab Origine 6. But stay a while Let us observe Dominus Domus yet better and we shall find him returned from AEgypt abiding at Nazareth and Capernaum and Jerusalem but commonly in the dwelling houses and banqueting houses of his Converts 7. Let these then if I staied too long at the former serve briefly for two Removes of our Lord. And because the Sea of Tiberias is near at hand we may safely walk with him on the water or see him take ship or hear him preach from thence and then a Ship is more then Domus 't is Domus Domini the house of the Lord then indeed 8. From the Press of people he was fain to hide himself in that house But no house must hide or hold him long Over the brook Cedron there was a Garden and oft he resorted thither and thence betrayed was brought from house to house to Annas house and Caiphas to Pilats's Judgement-hall to Heroa's and back again to Pilate's so to his Cross and never rested till the noble Joseph laid him in his Garden-house in a new Sepulchre where never man lay yet that the common house and lodging of mankind the Grave 9. There Kings and Counsellors of the
From motions regular about his Poles Shall even deadly sins in disaray Keep off our minds from his Diurnal sway Under the Law made he his resting place And chose the cutse to leave us under Grace But still to morals tied our hearts and hands Scorn not his easie yoak nor break his bands Without those Grates all fire of vertue cools None lawless thus but Devils Popes and Fools An Hymn on Trinity Sunday 1625. Tuned according to S. Bernards Cur mundus militat c. SIDesideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus agere gratias O pater Luminum pater illius Qui pater noster est tibi filius Per quem Coelestia singula feceris Quicum fundamina terrae conjeceris Quorum mens agitat molem mirabilis Atque operarius est ineffabilis OTRINE rejici quanquam sim meritus Me tamen refici dignare spiritus Re visas obsecro sol semper oriens In Lutum recidens Cor meum moriens Vt quae refulserit exinde Puritas Sit illi salus sancta securitas Heu sines animam hac in putredine Mundani pulveris omni dulcedine Supernae Gratiae privatam degere Quam nutu facili possis protegere Si Desideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus reddere gratias Ad Iesum Redemptorem Tu qui Serpentis caput contuderis Qui Preces Lachrymas sanguinem fuderis Orcum post tumulum qui penetraveris Et mortis Dominum morte prostraveris Et super nubium tractus ascenderis Ac modis milites mille defenderis Labimur labimur Heu dicto citiùs Jesu suavissime ni sis propitius Menteis irradians faveris lumine Ac labes diluens cruoris flumine Et sancti spiritus accendens flamine Nos incredibili leves solamine Si Desideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus habere gratias On the Holy SACRAMENT LOrd to thy flesh and blood when I repair Where dreadfull joyes and pleasing tremblings are Then most I relish most it doth me good When my soul faints and pines and dies for food Did my sins murder thee To make that plain Thy pierc'd-dead-living body bleeds again Flow sad sweet drops what diffring things you do Reveal my sins and seal my pardon too A Psalm for Christmass day morning 1 FAirest of morning Lights appear Thou blest and gaudy day On whom was born our Saviour dear Make haste and csme away 2 See See our pensive breasts do pant Like gasping Land we lie Thy holy Dews our souls do want We faint we pine we die 3 Let from the skies a joyfull Rain Like Mel or Manna fall Whose searching drops our sins may drain And quench our sorrows all 4 This day prevents his day of Doom His mercy now is nigh The mighty God of love is come The day-spring from on high 5. Behold the great Creator makes Himself an house of clay A Robe of Virgin flesh he takes Which he will wear for ay 6 Heark heark the wise Eternal Word Like a weak Infant cries In form of servant is the Lord And God in Cradle lies 7 This wonder struck the world amaz'd It shook the stary frame Squadrons of spirits stood and gaz'd Then down in Troops they came 8 Glad Shepherds ran to view this sight A quire of Angels sings And Eastern Sages with delight Adore this King of Kings 9 Bis. Joyn then all hearts that are not stone And all our voices prove To celebrate this holy One The God of Peace and Love PRAYER and PRAISE TO work strong lines and wreath a Crown of Baies For Jesus Brows Take servent Prayer and Praise 1. That runs and flows and bears a deeper sense Then winding Verse or ratling Eloquence It rises first and breaks through hearts of stone But not till Aarons rod be struck thereon Cleft with Remorse then climbs through weeping eyes With silver feet transcending far the skies To wash his feet whose purple drops divine Will turn this water into Angels wine 2. This made of words which are but vapor pent In forge of flesh by panting bellows sent To mix with mother Air yet this to me Shall both a blessing and an honor be Saith God who cals those things as if they were Which are not so or do not so appear To us And look how sweet it strikes the sense When vernal winds inspire their Influence On flowery Meads so thanks like Incense rise And Heavan takes praise as perfum'd sacrifice A Psalm for Sunday Nights 1 COme Ravisht souls with high Delight In sweet immortal Verse To crown the day and welcome night Jehovahs praise Reherse 2 O sing the Glories of our Lord His Grace and Truth resound And his stupendious acts Record Whose mercies have no bound 3 He made the All informing Light And hosts of Angles fair 'T is he with shadows cloaths the night He clouds or clears the Air. 4 Those restless skies with stars enchaste He on firm hindges set The wave embraced earth he plac'd His hanging Cabinet 5 Wherein for us all things comply Which he hath so decreed That each in order faithfully Shall evermore proceed 6 We in his Sommer sun-shine stand And by his favour grow We gather what his bounteous hand Is pleased to bestow 7 When he contracts his brow we mourn And all our strength is vain To former dust in death we turn Till he inspire again 8. Then to this mighty Lord give praise And all our voices prove The Glory of his name to raise The God of Peace and Love The Christians Reply to Christs Venite POssum good Lord by thee inclinal Volo sometimes with ease I find Nolo yet runs so in mind Male still makes me lag behind PRIDE will fall but Grace to the Humble 1. THis fall Fell Lucifer first tries Who endlong fell never to rise Woman the next then man and all Proud flesh from them have caught the fall 2. From this foul falling sickness shall The fall of one recover all Mankind that medcin'd by his Spirit His best of Graces shall inherit Whereby he still in it doth fall Upon his humble servants all His conjugal Prayer Domestick GOD infinitely Great and Good Purge all our sins by Jesus blood From serpentine three deadly foes The Gardens of our souls enclose That Spirit which Grace and Truth affords Rule all our actions thoughts and words Our hearts into his Temples raise Our tongues loud Organs of his praise Lord make our selves and Race throughout Pure humble sober chast devout Loyal and gratefull wise and just On thee and industrie to trust Blest with a low but glad estate In food and Rayment moderate Nor rich of poor to be en ied Nor poor to be by rich supplied Give freedom Order Health and Peace Then in thy favour to decease When Nature here by Grace prepar'd May look for Glory afterward Vpon a Bible presented to a young Lady the Lady Kath. C. 1624. THE world is Gods large Book wherein we learn Him in his glass of wonders to discern But
in due season to such souls as are weary And first to clear up that misty Objection of ignorance Know for a certain that salvation's no matter of wit but as St. Austin in that known speech of his The faithful soul is safe in the sim plicity of his believing and not in the vivacity of understanding and as Nazâ—anzene hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nothing could be more unequal then that our faith and so the way to salvation should be a thing only incident to learned bra ns Remember thy belief is like thy love he that commanâ—'s both gives both and having given a first spark blows it to a flame and if smal and weak yet if right and hearty good enough The best schollar of them all hath no better a Receipt then thou and God will firm thy Reed to support thee all the way to Heaven and as for dejection and aptness to despair I will take again that Cup of consolation in hand and strive to brew it so as it may relish on the palate of the weakest Christian and afford him a complacency at least an allay to all thought of impossibity or difficulty wont to prevail with such as taste themselves and consider not the puâ—ssance of Vitis and Racemus the power of God For our errour proceeds both wayes not knowing the Scriptures or not observing the power of God My Ingredients shall be but two and taken from two Comparisons 1. First compare this act of Regeneration with the worlds Creation there for the consolation of the darker and weaker spirit we find it vain to enquire what was before the frame so it is not clear what shall be after the dissolution so in Recreation what goes before of the destinating is a Depth and what the state of glory shall be is not clear it appears not yet what we shal be 1 Joh. 3. But this appears the Grace of God appears and his free act is evident in both The creature can contribute nothing at first and then though a double cover on the earth of darkness and the deep yet that released by his power infinite and then having removed the waters also by virtue of his Producat he made the land appear and suddenly disappear invested in a robe of numerous plants and flowers Just so in this work of thy new birth Darkness is first all over thee and t is Gods method first darkness and then light Our imaginations dark and our foolish heart full of darkness and all that men can do in that state of nature deeds and works of darkness But then comes oriens ex alto with his marvellous Light till the day dawn and Day-star rise in our hearts Those hearts that were all dark before all was a Chaos till light pin'd to the Sun stream'd to remotest angles And so it was with that Apostle St. Thomas deepsy cover'd in infidelity till the powerful light let in through his sense upon his soul Then see how soon he sees and startles up and fervently rises in that cry of Domine Deus my Lord and my God! and the spirit speaks the same comfort evidently to all Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light for he hath it and he is it He is the true Light in both those main properties of Light First Light makes things discernable in night great stones and blocks So to blind nature gross sins lie undiscovered till Light of Grace infuse a tenderness and scrupulosity and a discretion and ability both to observe the surprizes of and ask pardon for the least offences Then secondly The other Property of Light Irradiation it not shews alone but beautifies and gnilds and enamels where it lights so doth that Grace of Gratum faciens His embracing Grace upon thy soul rendring it gracious and precious in the eyes of thy heavenly Father Lastly I forget not that second Cover of the deep That inland Gulf of Corruption inborn and bred up with us respecting which we all must crie with David de profundis Out of the deeps But then remember one deep calls upon another There is a deep of Mercy answers the depth of all our misery and to top this Consolation if the waves of ungodliness make us afraid and roar horribly or after a sense of Mercy and Forgiveness we fear the reflux and revalescency of our prevailing sins upon us Remember his bow is in the clouds his gracious promise in his holy Word to make his Power perfect in weakness and he hath given to the Sea a Law and said to wickedness Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here stay thy proud waves 2. Our secondingredient is from Resemblance of our Saviours incarnation First In Virgo his birth of a pure Virgin Mary so is thine of a pure heavenly Grace distilled from God without mans contribution or assistance When the Angel came to salute her when Christ came to Nicodemus one with tidings of her conceiving the Son of God the other with strange news of a man being born again and so become the Son of God both wondred alike both ask in effect the self same question How can these things be How can a man be born again and take notice the answer is the same to both for there is no other The holy Ghost shall come upon thee the Power of the most High shall do this in an act of as great freed om as the blowing of the wind so is every one that is born of the Spirit A second considerable comfort is that of infinite distance God the simplest essence to stoop and marry with mans body of all other the most compounded substance This hindred not the day-spring from on high to visit us why then dismaid to look down upon our own spirit wherein is summamalitia when we know in his sacred spirit there is summa bonitas and for all the distance and for all the deadness of our souls womb to conceive a thought that is holy of our selves yet he descends that Spirit which is the Comforter and applies unto us in an union so high and heavenly as all words forsake us in the expression Thirdly Another Consolation yet in plenè administravit when God descended to us but staid at her Full of Grace not abhorring to be there enclosed who yet fills and even then filled Heaven and earth wherein then and before and since he fully hath the administrations so it must be no dismay to thy own soul that God descends and shines into many others having abundance of spirit and of such a diffusive Power as the Sun which though received whole in the light and graces here yet shines elsewhere and think if a word spoken by us can pass to a whole audience and if our discursive Spirit can so suddainly shoot and subtilly pass to things distant and manifold What Energie is in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Power in his Spirit differenced from ours both
in essence and properties And as lending thus his light to others averts no beam from us by reason of his full administration so nor the opacity nor incapacity of our Spirit can uneffectuate his power but that as our knowledge from a meer vacuity and brutish ignorance he brings up and raises to angel-like perfection so he can encrease and multiply that grain of precious faith to such a tree as shall lift up its Crown and reach the stars and apprehend and receive him there who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith and Salvation Lastly Fix on what the school calls Convenientius for a surplusage to make this Cup oâ— Consolation brim-full and run over God was tied to no necessity absolute of sending his Son He could have saved us some other way yet this was so convenient that they dare think that if a man had not faln yet Christ had been incarnate for the demonstration of two things Gods infinite Power and Bounty His Power was not manisest so fully in Creation because no infinite Act and his bounteous and boundless love in it self apt for Communion had not yet come near enough to his beloved Creature in that our first Off-spring and universal Derive of being his generation Then a Christ Convenientius for man too more steadily to â—asten and anchor on Christ by faith and hope more to enlarge his knowledge in the proclaim of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here the Dignity to which sinfull flesh is exalted and thereby more enflame his love saltem redamare to relove him that so loved us in Christ Now observe in this second Edition of Grace and Mercy in this great work of the holy Ghost all these are reprinted and sealed in good assurance by the evidence and earnest and testimony which it gives to the bargain of thy salvation And to conclude this point As Christ was not sent till the fulness of time not presently after the fall a sense and discovery of sins power must precede ere we find our need of his powerful blood and man first sent to reason and to the Law under School-masters to bring us to Christ so the Spirit of Grace falls down in infinite Power and in strictest Union and yet performs the work in measure and by degrees which it could do by one Ransack and Destruction of all sin and infirmitie at once But for convenience and fit appliance to the Receiver it proceeds leisurely to fill our narrow vessels and stays that very season till the water be troubled mans heart made ready by remorse when he perceives himself sinking and is at it with Save Lord we perish and all this that the excellency of the power might be and might be felt and acknowledged to be of God and not of us By this time if you be content to taste this Cup so brewed I yet have no Power so to minister it not alone It must be mingled with both the former and if so it please you I shall be bold upon your Patience to urge and press the health of all three together AND first For conveniency in relation to our common Lord whose Cup it is The world hath her Cup of pleasure and she of Babylon hers of Fornication and what swilling in of these Even Kings of the earth drunk And shall we startle or scruple at this Cup of Christ What! Sit at my right hand in Glory and shame to taste a little shame and bitterness of a Cross and Cup which I have born and drunk off before you Remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the bottom what if it should make you sweat and pant in getting off this health Do but think how oft you have enforced your selves to take down those healths falsly so called and suffer then the word of exhortation which presses you down upon your knees to beg this pledge at the hand of your Soveraign Lord and Maker as his servant did Pota me Domine torrente voluptatis saith Austin for so you shall find it in the end though you should be compelled for Christs sake and the Gospels to drink it blood warm and in a fiery tryal So much the sweeter by his Grace and Power seasoning it who by his own example hath so begun it to us Secondly A Convenience in reference to our selves This Cup must down or else another that is worse and there is but another and that is in the hand of the Lord too wherein the wine is red and it is full mixt and the wicked of the earth must drink and wring out the dregs of Gods wrath If we would scape that drench and bane of soul and body which but begins the torment of those damned Spirits who must for ever drink it burning hot in a lake of fire and brimstone Resolve and speedily to taste and consider how gracious and sweet his offered Mercies are in Christ and if we would shun that Cup of his vengeance which runs out for the seirceness take then to day while it is called to day and while we are called to day this Cup of his Mercy which runs over for the sulness 2. As thus for Conveniency so is this Recipe to be prest on all for necessity absolute Wo to me if I do not preach or preach it dully or lazily and wo unto you if you receive it not as the unum necessarium For shall we need any more Receipts What would be given for a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Elixar a Cathâ—â—con to cure all diseases of the body and beside renue and preserve health youth beauty and restore them still fairer and fresher then before Such a Merchant might have all the Lords and Ladies and all the Kings of the earth his Clients and Patients Alas Is our soul and inward beauty less precious Why Here it is that will cure all sinfull distempers Restore thy soul her native Candor and sweetness and ingenuity making thee young and lustie as an Eagle Make all their eyes that be of a right aerie able by a lively faith to look up and contemplate that sun where the body of that light is there will the Eagles be gathered together and that body is here 'T is the very Vitis and Vitals and the Corps of my Text. Let me not lose you then Be gathered still in the continuance of your gracious and patient Attentions For now the last way I am to urge this health for necessity respective on those first that deny the Lord that bought them either directly as the Arrian and Socinian do or indirectly yet desperately would undermine our faith and sap out of the corner stone on which all relies by ruining some other parts of the building These boast themselves the rational discoursers of the age such as Saint Paul means in that question Where is the Disputer of this world For these dare dispute openly against the Creation related by Moses and justified by Christ and quarrel the souls immortality and the bodies resurrection which
Division and Confusion These are the winds Euroclydon and Boreas and his brethren that lift up the waves of popular Tumults and none but Jehovah can still this Tempest 14. Especially if Maximi mingle in the mass of Populorum and run with them to the same excess of riot in Opprobrium which God forbid True Nobles and great ones worthy the name of the Worthies of Israel will consider the base alloy to be ingloriously harded with vulgar spirits and wise men will not easily be blown up or hurried away with every wind of Doctrine but be and do like those nobler Bereans that is search if those things men preach be so or no. They will read and believe the Scripture which tels them that the Lords anointed who raised them to be Majores Maximi made them suscipere magìs maximè The fountain of all honour is ordained of God to be Caput Head over all the Tribes in the Old and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supream in the new Testament â—ud so set on the Throne and in the place of God that the Kings enemie is Gods enemie Every Opprobrium cast at him reviles Jehovah here renâ—ers the Rebuker of David a Blasphemer of the Lord. And therefore for the Lords sake since â—o parting him and Caesar every Maximus will â—arn what every Minimus every Christian that hath a soul as Saint Paul saith most learn that 〈◊〉 to be as Jehovah made them subject and that or conscience sake to God conscience of sinning against God blaspheming God and the King go together and the sin is done against Heaven and that Father there which is committed against Paâ—â—rem patriae here To cut a lap from the Kings to be made honest Davids heart smite him and those hearts are but dull and heavy stuff that can endure Detraction to disrobe or expose to disgrace the spiritual Fathers of the Church and especially that Father whom in Oaths and Prayers we stile next and immediately under God over all persons 15. Thus are we something onward to a remedy if either Populus would be reclaimed or Maximi disclaim their associaton but if neither our next Remedy is here explicite Gest are in sinu that is Patience Gods own remedy he is patient and he is provoked every day and Christus Domini bids us Learn of him and Christus Domini David did so in the case of Shimei Let him alone it may be the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day and so servi Domini enform us St Paul and St. James You have need of Patience and let patience have her perfect work Take the Prophets for examples of suffering affliction and of Patience so this Medicine is Catholicon and hath Gods Probatum affixt The patient abiding of the week shall not perish for ever 16. The last Remedy is in Recordare benedictum which make a whole prayer and first 1. Prayer in general it is the invention of Gods people from the beginning Tents and Iron-works from Cain and His but Invocation from Enos and his royal Progeny and God would have it so Ever since he kept house on earth it must be called an House of Prayer for all Nations all that would be of the houshold of faith and fellowship of the Saints If that honour then this work which pleases God above incense and doth him more honour then all burnt Sacrifice But what good to his servants all the good our hearts can desire for would we do Wonders drie up Seas cleave Rocks stop the Sun or the Lions rage quench the violence of fire subdue Armies Kingdoms or over-power created and increated Nature bind down the hands of God himself Prayer hath done this and more with that Prayer of Bow the heavens and come down the Church of God brought down that Jesus at whose name we bow who bows the Spirit of God to us into us and fills us full of Grace and Truth of Faith and Hope and Love and Joy and all those Graces which serve to bring us in Grace and to reconcile us though sinners and enemies to the Father through the Son as he proclaims the Peace himself In quo acquiesco 2. Secondly Here is Christus Domini at prayer Iexhort that first of all Prayers and Supplications be made for Kings that 's well but I shew you amore excellent way Kings to make Prayers Supplications for themselves an appeal lies to and here from for Caesar too at this Throne of Grace before this Mercy seat of God who is the only Ruler of Princes And in this Davids zeal exemplary I was glad saith he when they said unto me Let us go up to the house of God Our feet shall stand in thy Gates O Jerusalem And in trouble and trouble of enemies let others seek what remedy take what course they please but I take my self nay I give my self unto Prayer 3. Thirdly Prayer in distress the proper Remedy because God erected the Court of Requests in Heaven for the grievances of his Houshold This the pool with several Porches and Parishes where if we wait in right season we may be cured be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never so noisom what disease soever it be Should the enemies of Christus Domini conspire and continue to drie up that oyl of heavenly Power which pours it self from the head for the preservation of the members or the state it self grow sick of a Tympany or false conception or shake and totter with the palsie or we have just cause to complain in the Church and pray God to deliver u from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is I think such as regard no Topicks fetch their Arguments from no common place of old Reason or Religion evil and absurd men 2 Thess 3.2 O yet here 's our refuge The weapons of our Militia are our our Prayers to him that cals upon us to call upon him in time of trouble and he will deliver us 4. Fourthly Speciaily Prayer is prevalent in this particular textual disease and malady of Opprobrium Our Litany with Libora nos Domine is the best Ditany to throw off this arrow to return and repay and requite it into their bosom that annoy us is but Lutum luto purgare No though it be a case which nearly concerns us and an offence of an high nature yet our best way is to remove it to the highest court of audience in Heaven before the Judge of all the world where we have advocatum Regium and the darling and favorite of that court to plead our cause which is his own and who took this course himself reviled not again but commited it to him that judges righteously The Apostle indeed Eph. 6. arms and prepares the Souldier of Christ with an Helmet and a shield a sword too of the Spirit and fits him with an whole Armoury beaten our in Heaven for him But how concludes he praying always with all
earth build desolate places for themselves lie still and are at rest saith Job but so did not he we know better then so what he did I believe The third day he rose again and ascended into Heaven and at that house we have toucht already but yet from none of these houses not that eternal house of our Lord comes any comfort to us till that Spirit of the Lord the Comforter come from him to us to dwell in us so putting us all into one houshold of Faith the common faith and making us all the habitation of God by the Spirit 10. And to make fit this house this Lord the blessed Carpenter was put to work it out of the rough and troubled to take to break down a Partition-wall whose more then Alpine rockiness no Hannibal but he could conquer and no fire no liquor but his heart blood could penetrate Nothing but his living-dead body raise this dead living frame of Saints built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into an holy Temple in the Lord Eph. 2.20 21. There 's right Dominicum every way The house of the Lord In the Lord On the Lord By the Lord. This house then in no case to be left out nor we left out of it you know who would allow us no room in their Inn at the Popes head and by that device exclude us out of the Church which is called a great house 2 Tim. 2. and the foundation stands sure but sure it stands not all upon the cloudy Apennine This is just like private Mass that 's proper Communion a right Bull to pin down Universal in a particular corner as if to thrust twenty royal Courts into one Room like that people wise in their own conceit that to make sure of Conquest pinned and riveted the Goddess Victory to their City wals So these Reckoners go to it stilo novo the Romane Computation this and it is a good confession their fat Bishop Spalatâ— makes in all their names Ecclesians Catholicam nobiscum esse vel cogitamus vel cogimus They would fain think so and fain force us to think so but we are not much to trouble our selves at their Cogitamus God knows the thoughts of men to be but vain and the divisions of Reuben were from great thoughs of heart but from their Cogimus Libera nos Domine He hath and doth and will deliver us if we embrace our Creed and by vertue thereof belong to this house of the Catholick Church 11. Nay we our selves our souls and bodies are his Church and Temple which house we are 1 Cor. 6. wherein God remains under our roof gracing even the houses of his Saints bodies while they stand and faln watches over their Atoms while the spirits return to him and will recollect and raise them up in far greater State and Glory So that Mors shall not be ultima not the last line strectht upon this building but a linea yet more ultimate reaching from Earth to Heaven And so with much ado having so many houses to call at by the way which very calling yet hath done us some service and may do us more we are come Christo auspice to this very house in the Text and seen in a quarter of an hour this Sun pass through all those houses to this which is the last in our Zodiack The Temple which David prepared and Solomon built for the service of the Lord and in which house God hath a propriety stiled therefore by way of Excellency The house of the Lord. 12. Where the first service we can do for Domus Dominus both is to wake them meet with and meet for one another For is there not a mighty discrepance betwixt them the Temple a stately piece the Joy of the whole earth Par domus haec coelo But you know what follows will not serve his turn though as God by his Eternity transcendently and supereminently comprehends all time so by his immensity all places And Dominus here though true of Christ as we heard and may hear more anon is Jehovah and he dwell in Temples Temples plural if set altogether made with hands Heaven of Heavens cannot What house can contain him then What house will you build for me no house Lord to comprehend thee who art God incomprehensible but for thy name and an house for thy worship and service that may comprehend us But what matter if no such houses at all neither on this Mount nor yet at Jerusalem but right service in Spirit and Truth So say some haunted perchance with a worldly and dangerous spirit we deny not our best sacrifice on the heartaltar best worship in Spirit Yet if God were undelighted with a set local Worship why would the Scripture mention Hannahs motion 1 Sam. 2. And another Anna the Prophetess residing in the Temple why our Saviour dayly in the Temple and Synagogues and his Apostles Peter the chief and John the beloved of Jesus ascending at the hour of prayer Or would the Spirit of God have put it into the heart of David a man after Gods own heart to prepare him service in a Temple or his Prophet in his name so cry out upon this deserting this house of God and bring his double action of Wast vain Wast on our own ceiled houses and laying wast this house of God My house lie wast Hgg. 1. so the propriety held then and if we follow it to the spring-head we find indeed Cultus Domini before Domus Abel sacrificed and in Enos time they invocated Immolation and Invocation both in the beginning of Genesis but go on and you come to a place framed before you go out of Exodus and even in Genesis we have Noahs and Abrahams Altars and Jacobs Bethel But to clear this at once only that in Deut. 12. The reason why Cultus was not set in order because no proper Domus for this Dominus ver 8. Now you serve me as you lâ—â—â— hievery man what is right in his own eyes and why no Reformation v. 9. you are not yet come to the rest and inheritance which the Lord your God gives you but when you go over Jordan a better order then then there shall be a place which the Lord shall chuse to cause his name to dwell there So far is Dominus from dis-avowing Domus that he ordains both Domus Cultus and therefore let them remain all there as we find them here in order Cultus Domus Domini Do you not find too every precious stone and string appointed to Moses by pattern in the Mount and David had the Platform of the Temple in writing 1 Chron. 28.19 And Dominus then took possession of Domus his Glory appeared before the Tabernacle and filled the Temple at Solomons dedication yea he made his Residence in both took up his seat in the Tabernacle his Mercy seat too wherein
Dominus and then qua Servus 1. As Dominus For we may ask Pharoahs question but not with Pharoahs mind Whois the Lord and nothing but Jehovah will answer that in excellency which takes in all the three persons of the glorious Trinity but yet as we are forbidden by the Christian verity to say there be three but one Lord so observing both old and new Testament the second person by joynt assent of both the other is made made both Lord and Christ Lord every way Lord by Creation 〈◊〉 him were all things made Lord by preservation The Government upon his shoulder who is the mighty Lord and all things upheld by him who is the mighty word Lord by Redemption too The Lord our Righteousness made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.20 So to him all Power and Dominion is given in Heaven and Earth and at his exaltation his Coronation confirmed The homage of knees and tongues That Jesus is the Lord is was and is to come yesterday to day and the same for ever so goes our hope He shall come to judge so begins our Christian Creed In Jesus Christ our Lord so end our prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord so every Christian with St. Thomas makes a glad profession My Lord and my God If our eyes be not held that we shall not know him if once out of weakness we be made strong in the Lord if once out of darkness we be made light in the Lord if anointed with the eye-salve of the Sanctuary we then in him in whom the eye of Judas the worlds eye the Jews eye could see no beauty in that Worm they trod and spit upon that slave they scourged that Malefactor they crucified shall clearly find to our everlasting comfort both a gracious man and a glorious God breaking through all those clouds darting majestick raies contracting all our sight and uniting and fixing all our eyes on that only lovely Object who after all the Eclipses and shadows of the earth and hell gone over him shines forth in perfect beauty crowned with the Sun and under his feet a Moon with deaths pale head and a red Dragon upòn his thigh his name inscribed Dominus Dominorum Men and Brethren what shall we do What manner of men ought we to be in holiness and fear What think you Is not our obedience due in reason a reasonable service to this Lord above others Other Lords have ruled over us Satan and our vices have been Lords of Misrule But there goes vertue still out of this Dominus and vertue there is in Dominus a magnetick intrinsique vertue to draw even Ironhearts to his service Stands not Dominus over Domus here and so over every Church and Chappel like the herald star to beckon us to invite all that are wise to salvation O come let us worship and fall down before the Lord. Down O down with every high thing and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Jesus our Lord This qua Dominus 2. And then qua servus still more reasonable service if such a Dominus stoop to Servus strange if all those houses you heard of prove our houses another while and he 'l do us service in them all first in the great house of the round world it is so both in the Mechaniks and Oeconomicks In the beginning of his book we find him as a Carpenter at work by the week making partitions measuring and figuring with his Elements in square and skies in circle stricking up Lights and pinning them to the body of the Sun then mixing other mysteries of Gardiner and Painter limming to the life his pieces this our Lords doing all Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation the work of thy hands Heb. 1.10 And for whose sake so fair a frame for Birds or Beasts the Heathen could tell you no 〈◊〉 Sanctius his Man made Lord to name his vassals at his pleasure and when God gives him possession the very word is Dominamini all at his service So in Occonomy as built so all upheld for us Habendum Tenendum by his Manu-tenency kept in repair from crumbling out to Atoms and not an empty house that would do us no service but herein by 10000 hidden providential quils distils and works out food and rayment by whole loads saith David Psal 68. and changes fresh every morning saith Jeremie Lam. 3.22 And therein descending past Offices of Stateâ—eward Treasurer Chamberlane to the meanest of Baker Cook and Butler with his bottles of Heaven clouds droping fatness finest wheat and liquor of the Grape so low in this great Domus is this greatest Dominus diminisht doing his servants all these Services 2. Secondly As Terram dedit so Coelum dabit His upper house shall be ours after one life that but a span long 'T is his by nature ours by conquest we come in with the Conqueror therefore we look at it still in hope as Travellers going home that abiding City whose Builder and Maker he is and where he is still at work for us preparing a place many Mansions Crescit sub principe Coelum where he keeps possession for us in our name and in our nature and whence he sends to us continually his holy Angels to serve us and thence will come with all those Angels to fetch us up to his last supper and there again serve us himself while we sit down with Abraham Jsaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven 3. Thirdly In the womb of the blessed Virgin he was an humble servant abased himself in not abhorring that whereon we dare not stay our trembling thoughts so many minutes as he endured it moneths and this service only for us for us men and for our salvation he was incarnate to burn out our stains and corrosive the leprosie of our nature For he by the holy Ghost which at first moving on the Chaos created a world of beauty being there conceived was thereby filled with Grace in out Nature which Grace in our measure was from him to be spread and shed in our hearts by the same holy Ghost which is given us Rom. 5. So was he our servant there and Factor for us and therefore stript of all that might unfit him for that Ministry 4. In the fourth house of our flesh he comes lowly with love I come to do service in the form of a servant to minister to serve the curt of souls and bodies too See the great Arch-Prelate Primate of Heaven and Earth Lord and Bishop of our souls whose Sea is from sea to sea and from the River to the worlds end to whom we may give all Bellarmines fifteen great names and all too little is yet content and that not in jest but in Deed and in Truth with servus servorum Domini who though he served his foes for a mocking-stock and never was man so shamefully served yet despising the shame he served out his time and counted it his
who by his beams currents it out and delivers it over to all others 'T is in him universally and totally not now Light and now Darkness and exemplarily For all Light uniformly and causally prae-exists in him as in the simple and supernatural cause of all Lastly In him is Light in all the Powers of Light Expansion Renovation Nutrition Conciliation and in this power he vouchsafes it us though thus to make it ours it cost him more then making Light at first then he spake the Word only but here he suffered Multa tulit Sudavit alsit But blessed be the Lord God of Israel he hath raised a mighty Salvation for us in him Two ways as we are in Domino by Justification and then as Dominus in nobis by Sanctifications See already for our comfort Darkness of the first Adam taken off by a double Light in the Second Plus addidit medicina Christi ad salutem quam infirmitas detraxit sanitati saith St. Ambrose on the 12. cap. of the second of the Coriuthians And St. Paul agrees the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gift of free Grace far to exceed the loss Rom. 5. and calls this dealing of our Saviour The exceeding Riches of his Grace Eph. 2.5 Call it the Miracle and the grand Mysterie no words will reach it Call it the Height it s above all the Depth there is no founding it nor Length nor Breadth imaginable by our weak spirits can span it Call it the Incomprehensibleness Numen the Deity of his Mercy to restore Light and Ability that we might have Life and have it more abundantly 1. A Sun and a Moon for day and night it is so Justification a Sun a prime a Spring original purity absolute in him and we in it and under the imputed Raies thereof our whole persons made bright and gâ—â—tious and acceptable Adam was brave in his native Integrity but this above humane perfection the Righteousness of God preserved too by him that it may never be lost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now that is nor man nor Devils able to take them out of his hands those that are thus made Lux in Domino that is justified by faith working by love This is that white Robe which as it hath no spot so it will admit no mixture in the Act and Energie of justifying Our merits wrought up with his are like Musk and Ambergreece in a Perfume faith Gomesius a Papist and thinks he makes a fine composition but is it not rather an odious comparison Yea we are to renounce all those devices of Congruity Configuration Conformity c. if supposed to contain any vertue in themselves toward the Act of Justification only that true Hercules sailing in the frail vessel of his flesh comes to unrivet us from the Caucasus of despair to which mankind was fastened by a knot inexplicable and inextricable God is just and man unrighteous a sinner and must die and for sin is in darkness and shall not see Light Christ Jesus stoops to untie this knot denies the Minor makes the sinner righteous justifies the ungodly makes Darkness Light in Domino and then there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus 2. The second Light is Sanctification and that 's the striking the raies not upon us only but into us The first is in him only and ours by imputation God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself pleases himself in that but this second is inherent Righteousness in our hearts called Holiness without which we shall never see nor please God You will say these are high and glorious sounds and these Graces with their distinct or united natures and times have exercised the wits of men but since they are Donatives in the hand of our heavenly Father How are these things made over to us Clear that passage make this part of your discourse this Point of Divinity lightsom to our Capacities Tell us how shall these things be So said the blessed Virgin to the Angel when she was to conceive Christ in her body and for this Conception this Perception of the Lord in thy soul the same Answer must serve The holy Ghost shall come upon thee The Power of the most high can do this by his Spirit and how oft is that repeated Habitat he dwells in us by his Spirit and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his that 's the surest mark and a man cannot say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit which is therefore called the finger and hand of God the vertue and Power of Christ who tells us in Joh. 14. I will not leave you Orphans I will come to you there 's his visitation and abide with you there 's his Residence and erecting of a Court and adds I will be your Teacher Comforter Remembrancer and all these in his Spirit who is all these to us these are his Offices and operations And must not he needs have Heaven at hand that hath the God of Heaven in his heart John lean'd upon his bosom but Christ rests in thy bosom by his Spirit opening thy dim eyes and opening them twice saith St. Austin giving a double Light in the Lord First to see thy sin and guiltiness and blenching at the horror thereof opens them again to see thy Saviour in his blood and the Spirit of his Grace But all this I have said you will say still is meer speculation But tell us what heavenly Magick or Mastick can combine or which way shall these two spirits meet How Gods Spirit and mans comes thus to match and marry in Domino Quae ferramenta qui vectes said the curious Enquirers into the Creation And have not we some as curions in this Reparation States have their Arcana Imperii their Ragioni di stato which is Jus Dominationis and every Trade is called a Mysterie But God must shew us all the jointures and Inlay of his Work and Will Take heed of pressing into Light lest we be opprest with the Glory Poor man What discernest thou in the workings of those Spirits that are but Creatures and vassals to the Creator yet have their methods Eph. 6. Inventions Circumventions and are exalted above thy reach in high places have the vantage ground of Pigmee mankind Nay What seest thou of thy own spirit Who saw it come in or go forth In the Air we all breath in the wind that fans that air which are but a little kin to spirits what do we understand yet God is so indulgent to our nature and weakness as to take in for us auxiliary Light of comparison for the clearing of that which in the downright act is indeprehensible Here 's a stir indeed saith the poor blind-born man in Joh. 9. With what and how which way Well! I cannot tell you all but one thing I am sure of I was blind born blind and now I see And our Saviour John 3. Thou bearest the sound of wind and
to the three Inducements first Quia Filii because you are Children to Dominus here So it is not improper if we take the Light here for Christ the second person for he being the Wisdom of God is his Son from all Eternity and yet a joint-Parent as Eve is Adams daughter and yet trne mother of all that call him Father Walking then is our filial obedience in Faith in Fear in Love as dutifull Children else the Heathen will shame the Christian with his Morals and our Religion in the Practicks is but moral vertue explicated There is by it no third part added to our soul and body The Dr. of Heaven tels us he came adimplere to fill up the Law by supply where it was too narrow in the precepts And therefore the explication and enlargement being his it should excite and enlarge our obedience specially considering whom we call Father the same is our Lord here And shall the Creatutes shame us The Sun will stand still or back his fierie steeds as in the time of Joshuab and Ezekiah the stormy Winds and Tempests fulfilling his Word And is it enough for us to take that name into our mouths to crie only Lord Lord. Cuiresnomini subject a negatur nomine illuditur saith Tertullian And take heed saith the Apostle God is not that is God will not be mocked If Children then be ye followers of God as dear Children And this puts us in mind of our Fathers presence and of our due observance in this place a subject to a proclamation though it be but to fill his head will use a reverent gesture A Son will address and prepare for his Fathers presence especially if then and there to ask his blessing more if he be to hear his Fathers Will read and opened in what 〈◊〉 concerns his Portion most of all will be hearâ—en attentively if the Father he then to pass the Inâ—eritance No so graceless child as will be then and there disorderly or that at parting thence will preâ—ently fall fowle and revile his Father All this might â—e particularly applied but I dare not ask some â—earers how they prepared themselves for this place â—â—st night or this morning in Word and Deed. 〈◊〉 would we had no cause to fear what they will reâ—urn to say and do as soon as gone from hence from â—he presence of him in his Ordinance whom there â—hey called Father and pretended they came to â—â—ave his blessing as we all ought to do quia Filii 2 A second pully or Incentive to our duty is Etiâ—msi Though but children Let not the name dismay Best of all if we feel our selves to be but children For there are the same steps of Seducement in humane and Divine Learnings Men cannot abide to be children we all affect a Magisterium A Christian course is like a line drawn through but drawn with a trembling hand 'T is a salvation wrought but but wrought with fear and trembling And a â—hild will crie and yet follow if led by a stronger hand and we are in the Lords hand here In domino Remember then who leads who bids us follow He leads the way that is the way that makes the way for us and opens an access not by his Fathers acceptation only but his own intrinsique Vertue Power Office We are weak but that weakness inâ—ites his Might and Mercy thy weakness is from â—â—ture which hath her stint and measure but thy strength in Domino who as he possesses so distributes infinitely As in Creation when he had made he left not things to themselves There is a maâ—â— tenency else all would crumble back into their Atoms So in this Recreation Dominus suppoâ—â— manum rude and poor Lumps of our selves no seet no wings but born on his Eagles wings as on a seatherbed we are soft and secure and kept aloft faâ— and free from danger 'T is hard for weakness and child-hood to bear a yoak But his bearing with us and his Spirit assisting us makes the yoak easie and the burden light 'T is the saying of the sons of Beltal His wayes are alwayes grievous Hearken to our Apostle Our conversation is in Heaven Maria ibi non erat ubi erat Children of Light are where they would be It is but three steps with Gods help saith he and he saith it to these Ephesians cap. 2. ver 5. He hath quickned us with Christ raised us with him and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus So sure of possession if we be his Children so sure to hear that voice meet us from the clouds Come ye Children of my Father c. 3. Lastly As Children of Light using the Light for direction and example and this exemplary Light is double First The Suns course is imitable And Secondly The Sun of Righteonsness is our highest and chiefeit Pattern For the first Look how David dresses the Sun Psal 19. In a Tabernacle and presents him as a Bride-groom coming out of his Chamber and as a Gyant rejoycing to run his course So may we find St. Paul in this and the like places sets forth a Son of God a child of Light embraved like another Mordecay O far beyond all Fayorites of the highest Kings or Potentates in a Robe of Righteousness In Domino and in the inner man not outward splend or with Introsum turpis made bright and pure from sin by Sanctification of the Spirit proceeding to a darling and confounding beauty of Holiness shining in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and the more for their perverseness by an Antiperistasis Learning of the Sun which is not retrograde for winds or clouds nor weary of his luminous operations after so many thousand years of Circuit sets him not down but moves still in a circular in a coelestial and communicable motion which motion if any dare traduce and call it a Pad-way ot dispute it into terms of false inconstant or serpentine as they use the Sun let the Persian or the Indian adore or curse so let the unclean worldings or churlish hel-hounds bark the child of Light will like the Sun cut a clear passage through all and smiling rise from out the liquid snares and jaws of gyant clouds unhurt uncaught and like a Sun-beam saith Seneca though forced to shine on dung hils converse with base and wicked company yet comes off untainted Et hoeret origini suae still cleaves inseparably to the first spring of Light There is yet a second observation in the race of the Sun he is tropickt and kept to his Zodiack and Ecliptick line and so are we confined Gods Will and Word are circle-wise put about us as Popilius served Antiochus and God hath set out the boundures of our walk which we must not pass When the Sun perceives the Tropick he will advance no further so what ever full evidence of Gods revealed Will restrains where his prohibition lies there 's the Barrier Then better walking in a fiery furnace
invest us with a Light yet inaccessible will also place another Crown of Glory inaccessible And so in the allusion the contemplation of those joyes that go before the entrance into our Masters Joy and those that follow after in fruition will easily stir and fire our souls to cry or sing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this son of David Blessed be he that comes thus in the name of the Lord and is the Lord that comes thus from the Father and God Totius of all consolation anointed to his great Office and Design of binding up the broken hearted by the Holy Ghost the Comforter Luke 1. and is himself by way of Excellency stil'd the consolation of Israel And thus this first glad priviledge of Gods fearful and faithful servant is refin'd and wrought up to perfection from this Mine in Malachy the last of the Prophets to that Mine of St. John the last and liveliest of the Evangelists or rather that Mine of our Lords own discovery in Iohn 17.10 Thine they are and all mine are thine and thine are mine Mine But who is he All our comfort even now was complicated and conserv'd in Dominus Exercituum And is he so That stile indeed wears out in the New Testament but is abundantly recompenc'd in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The only Potentate the Lord of Life and Glory Most of all in that name above all names which all tongues must confess and at which all knees should bow that sweet and powerful that gracious and glorious Name of Jesus a Saviour and able to save to the utmost in whom all fulness dwels and in whose hand is all power in heaven and earth And had not their eyes been held down and the Jews hearts vaild over they would have perceived and received him for the true Messiah in this very notion and nature of a Lord of Hosts For in him were all their Moses's Joshuales all their Captains and Saviours their Baraks and Gideons and Sampsons and Davids and Macchabees all reviv'd and restor'd to the world But they knew not the manner of their King and to mistake a King may be a world of misery nor of his Kingdom nor the force of his Artillery in the dreadful Canon and Ordinance of his Word Spirit Nor that the Scepter of his new Law should prove the Iron Rod to break and subdue both men and Devils They considered not his stupendious Miracles proving him the Lord of Hosts in commanding over the whole frame of Heaven and Earth and Seas and all the host of them and bowing whole created nature to his obedience To rebuke tempestuous winds roaring waves as a Nurse her child with Peace and be still nay suspend and silence and deprive Devils of their possessions with a word To lay his command on Death it self and force him to let go his hold after four dayes seisure in the grave Will Iews or Jewish hearts attend my voice that would not hear the thunder of those Miracles But for support of the true Catholick faith and for the consummation of all our consolation King and people Christ Jesus is become our Dominus Exercituum Christo auspice regno regnabo too and his bloody Cross a braver badge then that of Castor and Pollux This is polleus lux ipsa For is it not he alone destroyes our raging lusts and nails them to his cross and he alone that ' gainst a world of opposition and all the opposition of this evil world cryes to his host be of good comfort I have overcome the world He alone that came to dissolve destroy the works the strong holds of Satan and to vanquish powers and Principalities in high places that had the vantage ground over us He that breaks in on death and sin and hell and like a Conquerer in the triumphal Chariot of his Cross made a shew of them openly and as Triumphers us'd to do when he ascended up on high and led captivity captive he gave gifts unto men But yet more to prove him the Lord of Hosts by being more then that name can imply for this Name is observed to be too yong for the ancient of Dayes that is a Name taken up since and from the Creation A Name indeed that draws and scatters on us all we can look for from our Maker and Preserver But all his powers and mercies are resolved and melted into this Name of Christ Jesus Without Christ without God sayes the Apostle in the world we are but meer pieces of the masse nay far worse is our condition born children of wrath and in state of enimies and so the Lord of Hosts is against us and all the hosts of Heaven and spirits of Hell and all the creatures and our selves against our selves And when there was no Name under heaven to save and deliver us from present and wrath to come then came this Prince of peace and became our Peace pledg'd himself for us gave his life a Ransome so making peace So prevailing over the Lord of Hosts binding his Almighty hands and God content to accept terms of peace may we not say so Came not that Voyce from Heaven This is my beloved Son in quo acquiesco in whom I am at peace with all the world If all this prove him not a Lord of Hosts he will one day to the further consolation of all that love his appearing appear to the consternation of all his Despisers in flaming fire to render vengeance And as in the dayes of his flesh then unglorified and compast about with all mans infirmities he could have been encompast with more then twelve Legions of Angels so then he will meet those two Hosts those droves and flocks of sheep and goats with another Army of his Saints and Angels from Heaven with whom we shall be caught up to meet that Lord in the ayr and so shall be ever with the Lord. If we desire yet higher to raise this Crown of consummate consolation in Christ I will come to Visions and Revelations I will open that of St. Steven Acts 7.56 I see heaven opened and the son of man set on the right hand of God which place being further opened by St. John makes us see him on a Throne of Glory covered with light as with a garment under his feet Deaths pale head and a red Dragon and all his enemies about him stand the Armies of his Angels and of mankind a greater number then any man can number of all Nations Languages On his thigh that Name written Rex Regum Dominus Dominorum The Elders casting down their Crowns adore him that has many Crowns upon his head And we may safely add this Title to those Crowns of Dominus Exercituum and rejoyce to think how those Crowns are encinctur'd and enchas'd with precious stones for the twelve Tribes of Israel and with manifold unions of God and man of grace and glory for the consolation of the Gentiles also thereby fully made perfect
wisdom is This Foundation of Fear The fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom And there God begins here and we must follow his method Look back into the former words and you shall find the qualification of his servants Those that he allows for his and will one day reserve as his jewels are they that in perilous and corrupt times do fear before him and think upon his name They there is an Emphasis to be placed on them They and none but they shall be mine Three things we may touch in this observation First God requires this qualification Secondly we are to enquire after it in our selves Thirdly to comfort our selves in Gods Grace and Mercy in this Appropriation that both this Amulet is tyed to a mans own bosome and also all consolation in God grounded upon his Fear First God will have such as are capable of this Description here no talk of comfort without this qualification when St. Peter sayes God is no accepter of persons Act. 10.34 that word is but a regarder of Faces and refers only to that distinction which he had newly learnt of God to be no longer an imbarment a wall of partition that is the difference of Jew and Gentile A Jew was now of no more advantage no better accepted then any other nation but in the next verse he assures himself and his hearers and us and all that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that fears God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 's the man by way of Excellency That man that fears him shall not need to fear his being accepted of him and so God is an accepter of persons a curious Decipherer an exact culler out of such as shall be his servants takes no mans word Veneris commendat epistola Marti that 's usual among men a great mans or a great womans letter and we esteem it of weight that poor addition of a proper of an handsom man But God sees not as man sees sayes Samuel at the sight of many proper men looks not on the outward appearance but what we ballance least is of most value with him Honesty Religion an heart indued with a holy fear of God And then though it is said his thoughts are not as mans thoughts yet he tells us here that man only that finds God in his own heart is a man after Gods own heart and he that so thinks upon Gods name God will so think upon him that he will hear him hearken to him and set him down in the Book of his Remembrance in the former verse and in this verse of my Text he will own him make him up one day for his jewel and spare him as a man spares his own son that serves him So that all this cry and trail of Blessings before and in and after the text depend upon they belong to and listen after that which is past of Fear and Devotion For it were not fit that any person unqualified should have so large so excellent a portion as this which embraces which contains all that the soul can receive here or hereafter For God changes not their tenure not his very term of mine at that last and dreadful and joyful day of Judgement But then it shall be made evident in the eys and a truth enforced upon the hearts of all such souffers at Religion as are mentioned in cap. 1. ver 13. The wisdom of all such prophane contemners of Devotion as say it is in vain to serve God and what profit c. at ver 14. shall be blasted and confounded and then you shall discern sayes the 18. ver then you shall find a difference betwixt the Righteous and the wicked between him that serves God and him that serves him not But in mean time those glorious and these gracious Speranda fruenda are all incorporate in these Agenda here God will have such a field for his seed such trees to graft upon such Materials to raise his Temple Otherwise as no earthly Prince how gracious soever will hear and hearken to and put such a servant down in his book of Remembrance as shall apparently forget his duty to him so God hath testified abundantly that on Israels defection he will neglect his own Property Propriety his own choice of his chosen Israel they even They shall be the generation of his wrath Ier 7.29 liable to that fierce wrath of that God who is a consuming fire a generation of his wrath fuel of his wrath till their end here and of his endless wrath hereafter As it is one way upon Repentance he blots out all their sins from his Remembrance so from his Remembrance he blots out all the Promises of this book upon their contempt Forgets then what he had said of his first-born and rebuâ—ing even kings for their sakes his dear Child for whom his bowels were troubled the Signet on his hand tender as the apple of his eye heires by Promise All all evacuated because all subconditione of applying their hearts to the Covenant and that Covenant is here establisht and renewed with us in these terms of fearing the Lord and thinking on his Name This is our first particular in this Foundation of comfort to look to our qualification because God admits none but of this temper The second by way of application to every single brest is to search and examine our selves whether we have this blessed Fear and holy thoughtfulness and so can thence fairly argue and prove our own being Gods own our peculiar priviledge of being Gods peculiar For first this may be known for the Spirit of God is not in his servants spiritual men as the foul spirit by possession or obsession in a Pythonisse or such as are his sensless utensils and perceive not the power that transports them feel not the operation of their Mover and thence it is that we have so frequent Monitories which were vain and useless if it could not be done of prove your selves try the spirits know you not that Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates And indeed though a man will find or fain to find a Dictamny a medicine made of wine and noise and company to throw off the Arrow and some men think it probatum that there is in this sense a sword-cure that is there is an easie way to heal up any wound that the sword of the Spirit the word of God in the Ministry of his servant can make it is but sleighting the Preacher or allowing him for a blunt or bold fellow and the Sermon a dull or a dry piece yet such a man knows he does but dissemble in all this and withold the truth of God in unrighteousness bemisting and darkening his own conscience or else that Cassandra that Prophet in his own bosom if she might be heard would make him wiser teach him better and clearer then the most illustrious Divines that is the best that is the plainest Teachers For that incorrupt and incorruptible
the Land and State whereof we are a part God hath performed his office of a Visitor over us both wayes In Mercy Thus long preserving us and extending peace over us as a flood even then when it hath been a Sea a red Sea of blood and ruine round about us Visiting us in his vigilancy and defeating our enemies blasted attempts in 88 in the Powder-Treason Giving us strange and miraculous deliverances amongst them not the least the bringing back our present Royal Soveraign from the hand and land of his enemies How many other wayes hath this holy Watcher from his Circle and Seat of Heaven visited us and kept us under his wings of gracious Providence And if he had not would not our foes by this have rooted out our name from under Heaven and the name of English Protestants been no more in remembrance for wanted there either Might or Malice in them hoping and projecting oft to have made our land like Sodom clouds of Pitch and heaps of Ashes But the snare harh been hitherto still broken and we yet delivered by his gracious and mercifull visitation That second way of visiting in Judgement the Lord hath also of late begun to trie among us by that plague which swept away so many thousands and by the loud and dreadfull sound of War in Neighbour-countries that have really tasted and actually endured all that Prophetical description The noise of weapons rowling of Garments in blood spoiling their houses ravishing their wives and Virgins and breaking their Children in pieces before their eyes And these things befaln such as deserve from us a tender and dear respect we being wounded through their sides or if these accidents beyond the water will not waken us God hath his way in the Sea saith the Scripture and we might have markt his dealing with us there for a long time being able to do no good there and our enemies able to do us much mischief from thence God hath his way in the earth and under it and we have felt him there sensibly perceived his mighty hand from thence in the ayr he hath his path too and walks upon the wings of the wind and there he caus'd those rotten vapours to blend themselves into a pestilent defluxion and pour their virulence on the earth And if we take into consideration the present bravery of the enemy abroad and our home-divisions our great boughs beating one against another no man that is not extreamly stupid but will easily find that God is angry with his people and that our sins deserve the hastening of the last Judgement in the other Element of violent fire And then what manner of men ought we to be saith the Apostle in holy conversation How watch pray and strive to answer him respectively to these Visitations But alas for his merciful visitation have we been responsible so much as in thankfulness O no it is our national sin Secure ingratitude wherein we sleep and dream away our lives without remembrance of that gracious God qui nobis hac otia fecit who hath so preserved us And to his Summons and Warning-pieces of his angry Visitation have we return'd our repentance or our obedience and doing good I look't for that saith God by his Prophets that 's his aym in striking I lookt for righteousness but behold a cry a loud and fearful cry compos'd of all our crying sins together and the cry continued and enforct to such an height that we cannot hear his voyce crying to us nor he in Heaven hear the cry of his peoples prayers it is so drown'd and swallowed up in this Tumultus peccatorum What then shall we do Every man search into his own soul and drag thence his most beloved sin and sacrifice it as an offering acceptable to God before that last and dreadful visitation here spoken of in the text specially such oppressors as are threatned with his coming in Mal. 3.5 And such deadly drunkards as the Age produces now who were warn'd by our Saviour with a special Caveat Take heed lest your hearts be over come with surfetting and drunkenness and so that day come upon you unawares But I am to touch upon a pair of sins here coupled in this chapter and to which my Text hath speciall Relation and this I call the second Application and my return to speak of the coherence which I promised The first is Adultery for of that is mention made before from the 9. to the 13. verse implying the hainous and dangerous nature of this sin as one of those which we shall find most unanswerable at the day of Judgement Every Heathen Author hath some impression of this Tacitus in his Poem reckons amongst fires and slaughters great Adulteries as a plague and cause of plagues Horace hoc fonte derivata clades c. What might be added of the defilement disgrace infection and danger to the Agents their posterity the whole land In populum patriamque fluxit with such a flow as brought the flood on the old world to rince and loak it clean from this pollution and brought Gehennam e Coelo Hell out of Heaven upon the Sodomites and therefore caused David to call and cry for all the streams the whole Ocean according to the multitude of thy mercies Psal 5. One place of Scripture may stand for all the rest that 1 Thess 4.3 Whereas if God had required nothing else or at least Sanctification did mainly consist in this so he speaks enforceingly This is the Will of God even your Sanctification that you should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know to possess his Vessell in Sanctification and Honor not in lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God We find by this what is the Will of God and what then shall men do What shall they answer him First Every man cite himself in foro in the consistory of his own conscience then convicted for who is free in all when our Saviour extends this sin even to a lustfull eye to flie and avoid it and for our own strength is weakness to pray for assistance of the Holy Ghost to over-shadow us and learn from Examples of holy Men to answer this tentation Josephs answer Shall I do this wickedness and sin against God Saint Pauls answer 1 Cor. 6. Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid The second sin to which the words of my Text have immediate reference is Rigor and Cruelty to Inferiors Why is this such a matter May I not use my servant at my pleasure No It seems so by Jobs Question here and yet in his time servante were slaves but even a little but even one degres above beasts the Masters being Owners and having power of life and death and no doubt but these slaves as amongst the Turks at this day felt and endured inhumane and cruel usage in the world We read of a number of insolent examples among the
to himself And when I hear his servants Job and David put that Query What is man they both put it to God himself to answer and in those very answers which they make by Gods own inspirations we find and know still that man cannot be found and known and that there are corners and Incognita's in this Microcosm that are not laid out fully in any Chart but left only to the discovery of him that is the searcher of hearts But yet for our present purpose and suddain apprehension of man I will turn you but to two books if I do that for there is much reason I 'le be brief if for nothing else yet a little to quit and recompence my former being too long And the first book shall be this of the Creation this very book of Genesis and but one place in the book Chapter 2. verse 7. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into him into his Nostrils the breath of life and man became a living foul Soire we say is per causas and here they are at least here we may ground our selves upon the ground-work of all that is in our bodies All that gentle noble royal blood in mens veins and all the matter of the Merchants of the Divines of the Councellors or Courtiers or States-mens very brains all our pride and honor if we be proud of any materials in blood or brain or face or hand or foot we may soon find all our pride and honor in the dust with a double mention and Inculcatiou of Dust and dust upon all mankind God at first beats down all Supremacies still amongst men in compare with God all right or wrong Honorable and so all right or wrong Reverend too Here we have ventured at this instant to make an Assembly of our selves in the presence of God and in the Courts of his own house male and female with differing faces differing out-sides too or cloathed in Purple and fine linnen with hanging on of Gold or costly Array or clad in skins of beasts over our own hides and with girdles of skins as John the Baptist but yet with far more differing insides full of youthfull or wanton fires some and some with fierce and cruel or treacherous and bloody thoughts some perchance willing Hearers and some glad only to be here at this time if for nothing else yet out of an hope to catch something from the Preacher if he should be so silly as to flow into distempered and partial Invectives and anon sad to find their malice deluded Nay we may well suppose that some Papist may drop in upon us now or Separatist at other times afford his company and sneak into the Church to hear what News and then hit his very heart against this supposition But I will enlarge my self in a comprehensive Note for all this Audience whatsoere we are what use soever ye mean to make of the Preacher and the Sermon being both plain homely stuff and will serve perchance at dinner to fill out discourse and help to hold comparisons However God deprehend us now or apply himself to us here or we to him and his Vicegerent in our affections or intentions good or bad Once however we differ yet one primordial and finall sentence is past upon us all one Law gone out and over all mankind that arrests and enwraps takes in all Prince and people and layes up all together Dust thou art be sure and as sure to dust thou shalt return Every son of man like the first from the earth earthy A good touch this is by the way to humble us even in our most exalted imaginations 16. And though we hearken to the rest of mans Description with more alacrity which tells us so man became a living soul yet if thou do not become that soul but spoil'd it in the wearing nay if that soul serve thee only for salt to keep thy flesh from putrefaction if that soul become not a new soul though man be a living soul yet better he had had neither soul nor life unless the new man the second Adam the Lord from heaven heavenly become the life of thy soul and thou lead a new life by the power of the Son of God if the quickening Grace of his mighty Spirit if the same hand of the Lord God here that formed do not reform thee We talk of Reformation and Reformation in State and Church I am not able to look to those things of my self but I am able by Gods gracious assistance to look to this reformation of my self And certainly as families make towns and they make Common-wealths and Churches so private and particular persons are the roots and springs of all and their several Reformations are the roots and springs of all Reformation too But yet as in Reforming States I doubt not but Statesmen and the most stately of them had need to be instant in prayer to God or else without his blessing all may prove but a shock and conflict of wits nay worse for Bella horrida Bella may ensue except he bless unless the Lord God keep us Builders and Watchmen shall do all in vain So is it manifest in the reforming of our souls for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works Eph. 2.10 And this discerning the work of God in his own brest is that other book to which I would refer man for discovery of himself The book of conscience it is which lies open and layes man open to himself if he read there and find digitum Dei the Hand-writing of God both of Law and Gospel in his heart ingrav'd in that Table then it is another a second book of Genesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new beginning of new Light struck up and a new Birth of a new world of Beauty and harmony struck from his old chaos of corrupt Nature and a new Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The book of his Regeneration Gods spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is the child of God and a Volume a tome a piece of Gods works nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2 10. A Poem a masterpiece of Gods own workmanship in Christ Jesus Reformed review'd view'd and corrected by the Author and purged from infinite errors is in Lucem editus Reprinted and comes forth into the Light multò auctior locupletior that is Emendatior in this new and second Edition But how shall I know this Indeed that Question is turned into a tormenting scruple by some evil Informers but the knowledge is easie to them that will observe the alteration Even as we know an A B C from a Testament by the contents and augmentation And even as certainly and as sensibly as I find my self past Genesis when I am in Exodus For this Genesis doth ever resolve into an Exodus that is a going out of Aegypt in a Deliverance evidenced to his soul from the thraldom of sin and tyranny
our self-guiltiness Quae in alto quaeris intus in visceribus haerent Thou O man saith the Apostle that condemnest another dost the same things thy self or if not the self same as bad or worse Thou abhorrest a sin it may be some sin thou dost not practise some sin will not yield thee any profit or no surther profit some sin will do thee no pleasure now Thou abhorrest Idols or thou dost not commit Adultery but thou committest Sacrilege Is there not a Vbi tu for thee Will there not be a calling to Judgement one day for that and then where art thou And so against all fig-leaves against all pretences and excuses here 's nothing in this Vbi in this place but bare and naked Tu. Thou mayest condemn the Serpents envy and thy wive solicitation thou mayst as well lay thy gluttony unto the Cook or to thy friend inviting thee God singles out his Dear and shoots this ungaged arrow deep into our several brests but yet such wounds from his hand are better then the kisses of an enemy All flattering all false inflations of the Serpent will but make us Pharisees With Lord I am not like other men But such a touch of this would take out that venom make us all strike on our proper bosoms and every man answer God Where art thou with Lord Here I am But Lord be mercifull to me a sinner and so Lord be mercifull to us all miserable sinners Be mercifull O Lord to us not for ours but for his sake who was made sin for us the second Adam that bore all our sins in his body on the Tree even Jesns Christ the Righteons to whom c. S. D. G. THE THIRD SERMON ON THIS TEXT GEN 3.9 The Lord God called unto the man and said Adam where art thou THIS is now the third Entrance on this Entrance of Gods Judgement upon man after his Lapse which is the first of all the three pieces of Divinity And this Third this our new consideration of this Judgement and Gods Method in proceeding may open by his assistance another door of utterance and so we may make another and another Method of proceeding with this or any other Text of Scripture For as there is little reason for that Painter who uses to inscribe his pieces to bind all other Work-men to his device So though it is impossible for any man dividing the Truth aright and speaking out of the pure Word of God things consentaneous thereunto for instruction of Gods people to avoid Doctrine or for any but grraceless Hearers not to suffer the Word of Exhortation of Reproof of Consolation to have a gracious use in their hearts and hands for Religion should be hearted first and handed after in their Understanding first and then in their Life and Conversation Yet I never found in the Sermons of the Lord Jesus himself nor in those of his Apostles nor in their Successors the Primitive Fathers of the first well-formed Churches nor in those of the now deformed Church of Rome nor in those of the first Reformed Churches that they confin'd themselves much less bound over all others on pain of sin or absurdity to one and such only form and way of Teaching which beside the violence offered to mens spirits is to my Understanding a kind of Restraint put upon the free Spirit of that God which works all in all yet deals by a diversity of gifts and distributes in variety of those gifts to every mans necessity and Capacity So that in this for the Divine that rule of the Moralist will hold Nullius addictus c. tied to none nor ever to a mans own Methode witness this attempt of mine in this farther process upon this very Text as it includes a Judgement and the Method of that Judgement These are now our two and all our parts 1. For the first When the story hath told us of Man and Womans Disobedience it shews us after their sin their shame for that 's the first born issue of sin Now they saw and knew themselves every way outwardly and inwardly in bodies and souls naked despoil'd and destitute They run from God and would hide themselves then both from him and themselves Arguments ever of guilty minds fore casting cruel things and then enters the Text with Judgement but what is here begun spreads as far as v. 20. before the sentence be ended 2. Whence the point of Doctrine on easie Inference may be that our Judgement shall certainly overtake and come upon us Hath the Senate condemned me to die saith he Why so Hath Nature condemned them to die too So hath God called me to sit and judge other men perchance those other men might better sit upon me and peradventure they shall yet ere I die If that be unexampled it is not impossible but it is impossible to escape the Judgement of God There is a Prevision of that and of the Conflagration and of the Consternation which shall be then all as old as the visions of Daniel chap. 9. verse 9. When the Thrones were cast down and the Antient of days did sit A fiery stream issued and came forth before him Thousands of thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books were opened And another vision of that as new and as late as the last piece of all Gods Revealed Will to men in Rev. 20.11 12 13. verses I saw a white Throne saith St. John and him that sat thereon from whose face the earth and the heaven fied away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and the sea gave up his dead and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works And these proofs these large allegations from the old and new Testament we may use instead of larger reasons for if those reasons men speak so much of rise clearly from the fountain Truth of Gods eternal Word they are worthy of some higher and nobler names then Reasons but if not taken from clear Scripture Grounds or if they flow from other principles then to the clearing of divine Truth what reasons are they Two things only then I would gladly print on every soul and from this double vision which opens and closes up this Instruction 1. Put you first in mind of St. Pauls Caveat Rom. 14.10 where the Doctrine is not to judge Not to set at nought our Brother and this is made the reason We shall all stand before the Judgement-seat of Christ and every one of us give account of himself to God 2. The other is St. Judes Induction remembring us of Gods constant course preceding in destruction