of thy sinnes in sackcloth and ashes wouldst have sought for forgivenesse at mee thy Redeemer But now they are hid from thine eyes Which latter part of the verse like the Serpent carries the sting in its Taile For it was the consideration of that indeed which caused all these bitter teares namely because their day was past it was hid from their eyes But I am called backe by the words of an Expositor Domine saith hee entring into a Dialogue with Christ te rogo cur inquis quod illi te non noverunt Lord what dost thou meane to say they did not know thee Did not the Multitude carry Palmes in their hands as ensignes of thy victory which thou shouldst obtaine over sinne death and hell meet thee in the way Did they not spread their garments before thee Did they not call thee with an unanimous consent The King of Israel the sonne of David crying Hosanna Hosanna in the Highest blessed be the King who commeth in the Name of the Lord. What answer Christ himselfe would have given him we doe not know conjecture we may and first thus As for those people who met him in the way with Palmes in their hands as upon this day which from thence by the institution of the Church still retaines the name of Palme Sunday with Palmes I say in their hands and exclamations of great joy which there are called a Multitude Alas what were they in comparison of the whole City but as a drop to the Bucket besides that multitude was but of the common ignorant sort of the people few of the Rulers or Pharisees were there and such as were there were so farre from joyning with them in that joyfull confession that they call to Christ to rebuke the multitude ver 39. Master rebuke thy Disciples But Christ who bore the nature and infirmities of them all did thirst after the salvation of them all Again he who is the searcher of the reines and heart did peradventure discover that however their outsides did flatter him using a great deale of faire Ceremony and religious Complement yet for all that many of their hearts were farre enough from him Hee perceived for ought wee know some amongst that multitude such is the levity and inconstancy of the people who for all their Hosannas now drawen to it it may be for companies sake or else for the novelty and strangenesse of the thing were afterwards as lowd in the other voice Crucifige crucifige His blood be upon us and upon our children And therefore well might he say they did not know him They doe not know Christ truely neither will Christ know them at the last day who are onely worshippers of him in outward Ceremony and not in the Heart The outward Ceremonies of the Church the carrying of Palmes in our hands i. the adorning of the House of the Lord with comely ornaments is good novimus wee confesse it The spreading of our garments in the way our worshipping and crying Hosanna bowing at the blessed Name of Jesus is comely holy befitting and reverent Quis enim potest negare but as the Poet to proud Fabulla Sed dum te nimium Fabulla landas Nec dives neque bella neque puella es But should there bee too much stirre kept about these things as is objected to us and the service of the inward man in the mean time neglected they would be in the esteeme of God neither comely reverent nor holy For hee is more pleased with the worship of the heart then with all the outward pompe of their Feasts and new Moones But this discourse is not altogether so fitting for the times wee live in Alas there are not such multitudes of us now who are found meeting our blessed Saviour with Palmes in our hands worshipping and crying Hosanna spreading our garments upon the Asse and in the way and yet for all this although the number bee but small compared unto the multitude of the mockers but live the gleaning after a Vintage yet see if our new Pharisies be not as busie now as ever the old ones were about Christ crying Master rebuke thy Disciples and saying with Judas who was a Thiefe and carried the Bag Wherefore serves all this wast To what purpose are all these Palmes and branches of Trees all this worshipping and crying Hosanna in the Highest These garments spread in the way all this outward Ornament and Ceremony It followes in the verse Hadst thou but knowne at the least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes Yee observe here that Jerusalem had her day of Peace shee had her time of mercy and grace offered her And ye may observe also that Jerusalem did neglect this proffered grace it was hid from her eyes Who was it that hid it from her eyes Why certainly our Saviour Christ will prove the best Interpreter of himselfe Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets Mat. 23.37 and stonest them who are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thee together as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings but yee would not He doth not say but yee could not but yee would not Surely the fault was their owne They had a day and the Sunne shone clearely over their heads but they hoodwinkt themselves shut out the light and would not see But I perceive this sea of teares is now proved a depth of doctrine wherein the Leviathan may sport himselfe and all this while wee have but stood upon the shore and viewed onely the troubled surface of this deepe Nor dare I adventure any farther into it The Well is deepe O Lord and I have nothing wherewith to draw Let those who have lines and plummets fit for the undertaking of such a worke sound and dive to the bottome of this deepe I will content my selfe with St. Peter to take a journey to Christ upon the face of the Sea onely to walke with him upon the waves and if I chance to sinke I will pray with him and say Lord save me I perish THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH SERMONS PREACHED Upon the two first Sundayes in Advent CANT 2.8 It is the voyce of my beloved behold he comes leaping upon the mountaines and skipping over the hills THe Church in her pious care and wisdome hath instituted no great Feast through the whole yeere but shee hath both appointed to it dayes of preparation and dayes of attendance The solemne time of Lent that prepares us for the great feast of Easter which being come wee see it accompanied for the greater state with two attendant Holy dayes so likewise Whitsunday is prepared unto us by Rogation weeke and wayted upon also when it is come by its two Holy dayes which follow it And this great and high Festivall of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour which now drawes neere upon us as it hath its twelve dayes of Attendance so it hath foure Sundayes of preparation which are called
the setting of it apart for Gods Worship was like the Possessions of Anaâ—ias and Saphyra in the fifth of the Acts which PETER tels them were theyr owne whilst it remained at the 4 verse appertained it not unto thee and after it was sold was it not in thine owne power The possession of that men was his owne and he might have done what ever he had pleas'd with it before but when he had separated it from a Common use and intended it for God it was no more his owne neyther was it lawfull for him then to doe what he pleas'd with it So it is with our Churches before they were built or before they were dedicated wee might have done what we would or with the ground or with the Houses we might then have sitten heere with our Hats upon our heads wee might have made them sleeping roomes we might have come hither to have talked or to have sate and mused upon secular affaires an houre or two as I feare some doe thou might'st then have come hither as many women doe to see who weares the newest fashion'd lace to discover who has the neatest dresse or the best gowne in the Parish All these things and more whilst this place was thine own thou might'st have done here supposing these things lawfull in themselves to bee done thou might'st have sold Doves or exchang'd money heere while this place was thine owne But the Dedication has set Gods marke upon it so that now thou canst not doe these things in this place without manifest Sacriledge and I dare bee bold to pronounce him a Church-robber who shall dare to come into Gods house without reverence Two men went up into the Temple Let the Mathematicians dreame as they please That all the Lines drawne from the Center to the Circumference are of equall length Divinitie has her Demonstrations as well as the Mathematicks and as true too and shee tells us that the Temple stands upon the higher ground This is one of her Aphorismes and I challenge all Geometry or Ouranometry to disapprove it Thou art nearer Heaven when thou art in a Church then when thou art in any other place They went up into the Temple and they went up to pray and they did both well in doing this too for my House sayes the Lord shall bee called the House of Prayer We doe not reade in any place that it is called the House of Preaching but the House of Prayer for that is the chiefe use of these Houses and we doe then honour God the most when wee pray to him Preaching is a holy institution of the Lords but there be degrees in Holinesse Prayer is a more holy institution wee must not then goe up into the Temple as many doe onely to preach ot to heare Sermons with a contempt and scorne of the Common-Prayers of the Church but we must goe up also to Pray Preaching now adayes is made an Idoll of amongst many who are growne to be all Eare no Heart no Hand no Lap whilst Praying and I sigh to thinke it which is the chiefest part of Gods Worship and Honour is if not altogether yet too much neglected In the Name of God although yee will not allow Prayer as yee ought the Preheminence yet at the least let Praying and Preaching like two Tâ—in Sisters lovingly goe hand in hand 〈◊〉 But I know I shall be answered that they doe not contemne Prayer but that they pray and that in the Church too as much as any There is indeed â—tâ—â—e thing which they call Prayers like the twâ— halfe Moones in a Parenthesis compassing in 〈◊〉 Sermons at both ends the comparison I acknowledge is too unfortunate for many of their Sermons doe too truely square with a Parenthesis whose nature is such that it may as well bee left out as put in and no harme done And it is possible I confesse that they may in these their extemporary and tedious discourses before and after their Sermons understand what they say themselves but what profit shall the Congregation receive who are downe upon their knees before God How shall they understand or how shall their Spirits joyne with thine when they know not what it is that thou art about to say It is as much as if thou shouldst pray in an unknowne Language and how shall Hee then who fills the roome of the ignorant say Amen unto thy Prayers Whereas if thou wouldst pray according to the command of the Rubricke and Canon the people then might know what thou wouldst say and so joyne in devotion with thee But the Spirit must not be limited they say and therefore wee must not be bound to observe a set forme when wee pray No Then downe with all Lawes and Discipline for the Spirit must not bee limited Does not our Saviour limit thy Spirit when hee bids thee pray thus Our Father which art in Heaven c. For where there is an injunction to doe a thing thus there must needs be a not thus implyed and where there is a thus and a not thus of necessity there must bee a limitation But if this Argument were of any force at all it would make against themselves For they who will but marke the carriage of this sort of people shall observe a kinde of coldnesse and fastidious way wardnesse hanging upon them while the Holy Prayers of the Church are in motion but as soone as ever theyr Ministers begin to vent theyr owne bold presumptuous and confused Raptures enough to strike a terrour into a Godly man to behold how confidently unprepar'd they come to discourse with theyr Maker as if their Soules were taking leave of theyr bodies and nothing but Heaven and it's joyes were in theyr eyes each part of them seemes to be in contention which shall overcome in expressions of devotion their hands are lifted up their knees bended which before were stiffe their eyes fixt upon them while they pray all their members disposing themselves into postures of zeale And let mee now aske them but one question In this devout carriage of the body which I durst not finde fault with were it charitas ordinata a rectified zeale doe they â—oyne with theyr Minister as they call him and â—ruly or else at that time has every one a particular Prayer of his owne The latter sure they will not grant for then they fall into grosse absurdities but it will satisfie mee if they confesse the former for then I am sure their Spirits are limited Eyther they pray the same Prayer with their Minister or else they pray another that they pray â—…ther they will not acknowledge if the same then certainly their Spirits are bounded in that as well as if they pray'd with him in the Prayers of the Church But this is but a Cavill Alas We know too well both the Originall and into of these tedious disorderly and unprofitable Prayers They are not of such Antiquitie but there be some yet living who can remember both
thou art first bound as farre as thou canst to search out the Truth to receive thy informations attentively and seriously before thou goest out and then laying all by-respects a side to deliver thy conscience clearely and plainely For it is you who have a great stroake in making this Veile of Equity which is to cover the Face of the Magistrate He can but examine the Witnesses heare the testimonies inquests and arguings and afterwards give you an Information of all this T is you who are Vitae necis tam potentes Causarum in whose power the life and death of Causes doe chiefly consist The Magistrate or Iudge like the hand in a dyall may often times poynt to the wrong houre and yet no fault in him but in some of the wheeles which are out of Frame For it is his part to proceed and give sentence secundum probata tantum according to the Testimonies and Allegations onely 4. The next in order is the Councellor or Pleader and these is the Iudge upon the Bench is called a God may in some sort be called little Gods too But I wish I could not call a great part of this Tribe too truly the deities of Nilus the Gods of the Aegyptians Garlick and Onyons whose chiefest vertues are to force teares from the Eyes of theyr votaries O Sanctas Gentes quibus nascuntur in hortis Numina But I forgot my selfe I should have left out the first part of the verse for such are the abhominable corruptions which many of them use now adayes that we may call them the holyest and the happiest Nations who have no such Gods at all grow in their Gardens I do not speake against all mistake me not there be honest and worthy Lawyers amongst us Nor doe I go about any way to disparage the calling For the true use of it is honourable being to defend the oppressed to maintaine or else recover the right of such as have beene troden downe by theyr too potent Adversaries Put when Rhetorick I wrong the Science I must not call it so rheumaticke and obstreperous noise goes about to make the guilty innocent and the innocent guilty to Carusse ore the Blackamoore and to prove the Leopard to have no spots when a little bold wild and Sophisticate language is able to make head against Truth and overcome it and the cause Ad mensuram pulmonis Advocati aut Hares aut non flourisheth or languisheth according to the strength of the Advocates lungs and boldnesse or rather to the depth of the Clients purse and opennesse I doe not onely accuse these times this disease was ever rise amongst the ancient Romanes nay it has beene in use ever since Iupiter had a beard In Saturnes raigne peradventure it was otherwise Aut sub Iove nondum barbato But the Antiquity of it proves not the lawfulnesse yee have a saying in the Law Nullum tempus occurrit Regi No custome can prescribe against the King and by the favour of Law this is as true in Divinity no prescription against GOD the King of Heaven and Earth Hee brings but a weake argument who concludes what ought to be from what has beene Such a colour Murder might have for it selfe who is able to derive its pedigree as farre as Cain It is to no purpose for mee to lay open the sacred thirst of Gold that is in these men I might as well tell yee that there is a Sun or a Heaven which we all aknowledge nor can I hope if I should repeate it to be heard the Masculine delicious and charming harmony which the gold makes in the Bag I know would out-musicke me would sound sweetlier and lowder in theyr eares then all that I could utter The second branch of St. PAVLS distinction of Tongues would out-cry the first the Tongue of Angels would bee lowder then the Tongue of Men. But yet for the discharge of my duty I must let such men know but surely this is a very fruitfull place for controversie I see few of them at Church if they had nothing to doe it is likely they would be here who make the sacred place of Iustice no better then the Stage of a Mountebanke having received their Fee who leave the cause many times where peradventure the whole estate of the Clyent lyes at stake and fall upon theyr Brother pleader or upon the person of the man whose cause is in hand or upon the cloaths and behaviour of some of the witnesses or parties hunting after crude and indigested impertinances which walke like apparitions or ghosts in the shape of Iests thereby as I suppose to catch the easie care of the circumstant Iurer or Country Gentleman who will reserve them for his holy-day reports amongst his admiring neighbours that however these Musitians of Pythagoras these Angels who play upon the Spheares may for a time delight them and they may dance after theyr musick too yet at the latter end they shall have but a harsh close they shall end in a discord 5 And so for the Officer who by bribes taken in secret is corrupted to foyst in or take out what he please let him know also that there is an other which is a generall Assizes to come hereafter when he shall be put out of his office when the Bookes of his owne conscience shall be layd open before that great Iudge the Lord of Heaven and earth in which booke there shal be no enterlining no blotting out no putting in but all his actions shall appeare faire and in a full Character All these five sorts of men have a hand in the framing and making this Veyle which is to be put upon the Face of the Civill Magistrate but yet not altogether so but that the Iudge has the overseeing of this theyr Worke. If hee perceives that the Accuser brings materials unfitting and which will not conduce to the making of the Covering of Equitie he may so canvase the businesse eyther by examination or if that will not doe by delay so that at the last the Truth may bee found out For he does ill purchase to himselfe the title of a man of Expedition and Dispatch who hastens causes and ends them before they be ripe If he findes a palpable malice and confederacie in the Witnesse who is here in the second ranke of workmen it is in his power I take it for my want of experience in these matters will not suffer mee to be confident to deny him his Oath If hee perceives ignorance supinitie and negligence in the Iurer he may impannell new ones If Sophistry Cavelling or Meram Superbientem lasciviam verborum an unnecessary trifling and wantonnesse of of words in the Advocate his wisedome sharpe insight and experience peradventure hee himselfe once being a Pleader and so knowing the way of them the better may looke through that Veyle of forc'd language and view the realities and after those direct his sentence If in his Officer he finds Bribery and Corruption as the best Princes and Magistrates in the world sometimes cannot bee without bad Officers 't is in his power to rectifie that too But these things yee know better farre I confesse then I am able to direct yee yet it is not a bare knowledge of them that will benefit yee in the last day but Happy are yee if yee doe them It it not the knowledge that swims above in the braine but that which sinkes downe into the heart takes root in the affections and brings forth fruit in actions that will then profit thee For to whom much is given of him much shal be required not onely the Principall which was trusted to the understanding and Theorye but also the interest which is expected from the Practick part There is another kinde of Veyle too which is to be put upon the Face of MOSES which is the same that our Hieroglyphicks in the embleme put before the Face of Iustice whom they picture out by a woman having a Covering before her eyes and a payre of ballance in her hand and this is to denote unto us the impartiality that should be in a judge he should be blinded not his understanding for that cannot be too quick-sighted but to show us that there should be no respect of persons in him Exod. 23.3 Thou shalt not countenance no not a poore man in his Cause And if not a poore mâ—n much lesse does it become him to put off his Veyle that his Eyes may let in the greatnesse the favour the Friendship of the rich and potent For if the person of any man should be accepted certainly in all equity it is the person of the Poore but yee see here is a strict command against this Doe therefore all things as beeing assured that you your selves one day shall be ungodded againe for he who has sayd yee are Gods has also sayd that yee shall dye like men For the time shall come when a poore Vrne shall hold your Ashes all that little all which shall remaine of your voluminous greatnesse when that Eternall Iustice shall poize the ballance with an equall hand wicked AHAB shall then answer for NABOTHS Vineyard and IEZEBELL for the bloud of the Prophets Have but this therefore in your mindes and the God of all Iustice and mercy direct your actions labour to goe up into the Mountaine with MOSES and consult with the Lord 1 Be just and righteous let your faces reflect those cornua lucis those beams of light yee shall there receive from God and with MOSES your faces shall shine amongst the people yee shall be honour'd and reverenc'd ride on then and good lucke have yee with your honour and having past a glorious life here below the end of the Text shall be the end of your dayes Yee shall goe up againe and speake with God where your discourse shall never be interrupted so long as there is Eternity For if with MOSES yee live in the Mountaine and converse with GOD that is be imploy'd in his service and doe Iustice yee shall also with MOSES at the length heare that invitation of GOD to him in the 32. of Deutr. 50. verse Goe up into the Mountaine and dye yee shall depart this life in the favour of the Highest FINIS