that end THEREFORE St. Paul though he was execrated of his own Countrymen because he forsook Moses to follow Christ yet shewed more dexterity in refuting their prejudices and more tenderness to their Souls then any other Apostle and particularly Rom. 9. 1 2 3. he expresses himself thus I say the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great sorrow and heaviness in my heart For I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsmen according to the flesh c. Where whatever he mean by the expression of being accursed from Christ he certainly describes the deepest compassion that a mortal breast is capable of and that he had a sense of this towards his Brethren he confirms by the most solemn Oath that can be made I need not here add because I have touched that before that such persons are also filled usually with the greatest zeal of God's glory whom they have formerly dishonoured and the greatest indignation against sin by which they have been abused and think themselves obliged to a double diligence by the consideration of their former dis-service of all which St. Paul is also an example 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured more abundantly then all the rest c. But I observe IN the second place such persons as have been formerly notorious for a course of wickedness and now are become sincerely good and vertuous are a standing reproof of the folly of sin nay I may call them the very credential letters of vertue and convincing arguments of the necessity of conversion such as strangely awaken men to consider their own station IT was a very good plea that the Platonist makes for Vertue in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That the ways of vertue are more pleasant to a good man then the ways of sin and licentiousness are to an evil and vicious man and therefore more amiable and better in themselves appears saith he by this that several men who have tasted all the pleasures of sin forsake it and come over to vertue but there is scarce an instance to be found of the man that had well experimented the delights of vertue that ever could be drawn off from it or find in his heart to fall back to his former course But to see a man that had ran into all excess of riot to tack about to a quite contrary course from a drunkard to become sober from lascivious to become chaste and modest from a covetous person to become charitable from prophaneness to set himself to reade and study the Scripture and from cursing and blaspheming to bless and pray and this change to be wrought in health and strength without the check of a sick-bed or the dreadfull apprehensions of approaching death I say this spectacle cannot but be a most convincing argument of the necessity of repentance to all such as are yet in the gall of bitterness and under the bonds of iniquity LASTLY to say no more such persons so changed as aforesaid are standing monuments of the divine mercy and of the powers of the Gospel and irrefragable arguments of the possibility of recovering the greatest sinners if they be not wanting to themselves or rather if they do not chuse their own destruction For they proclaim aloud the greatness of the divine goodness the largeness of his heart the openness of his arms and they upbraid the sinner of folly of madness of cruelty to himself if yet he persevere It is said Miltiades Trophies would not suffer Themistocles to sleep and Caesar's thoughts continually upbraided him with the great exploits Alexander had effected in a few years But when a sinner shall observe such a man that was as foolish as himself to become wise and sober one that ran in the same race and was as near the pit of Hell as he escaped and himself still upon the brink of it when I say he shall consider that such a man that had all the temptations pretences excuses examples and every other instance of debauchment that himself hath to find just reason to break through those obstacles and by the mercy of God to be saved and as a fire-brand plucked out of the fire certainly if any thing in the world can move him this must make him look about him IN the 16. Chapter of this Gospel our Saviour introduces a certain rich man in Hell interceding with Abraham that Lazarus might be sent from the dead to preach repentance to his five Brethren supposing that though they would not hearken to Moses and the Prophets yet such a spectacle and so certain intelligence from the infernal regions must needs rouze them Father Abraham denied his request and God doth not use to gratify such curiosity But indeed if a man consider well it is almost the same thing when God affords us an example of a man that was dead in trespasses and sins and under the very torments of Hell in his Conscience but now redeemed and recovered by the grace of God and sends him to preach repentance to us And I think I may say in this case as the afore mentioned Simplicius said of the discourses of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The man that is incorrigible under such a powerfull remedy there is nothing but the very torments of the damned can work upon him And so much also for that point § IV. WE have now seen severally the three Ornaments the Father puts upon his returning Son and the favours God bestows upon a sincere Convert represented by the Best Robe a Ring on his Hand Shoes on his Feet Let us now take a view of them altogether let us I say make a stand a little and see the Son in all his new attire I mean let us suppose all these favours of God bestowed upon some pardoned sinner and then take notice what a brave and excellent person such a man will be IT was a noble character which the Historian gives of Marcus Cato homo virtuti simillimus per omnia diis quà m hominibus propior qui nunquam rectè fecit ut facere videretur sed quia aliter facere non potuit Cato saith he was vertue drawn to the life and the resemblance was so exact that it was hard to say whether vertue animated Cato or Cato gave subsistence and visibility to vertue nay such was the unshaken greatness of his mind and the purity of his life that he seemed more to participate of divine perfection then of humane frailty for he was both so far above all temptations of doing evil and also free from the allay of mean ends and designs in doing good that it seemed a kind of necessity of nature in him to doe well This was bravely said had it not been somewhat too Romantick But the man we are speaking of under the aforesaid qualifications must as much out go Cato as he out-stripped other
were easy to bring abundance of egregious instances hereof such as Justin Martyr St. Austin and others but to what I have said already I will only subjoin two or three Scriptural observations And the first shall be what David saith of himself Psal 119. vers 59. I thought upon my ways and turned my feet to thy precepts In the next place I cannot but take notice in the story of Isaac Gen. 24. 63. the Scripture saith of him He went out into the fields to meditate in the evening The LXX render it he went out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to talk with himself to entertain discourse with his own heart and for the convenience of doing this he chose the solitude of the Fields and the cool and quiet of the Evening And by this practice the Holy Ghost characterizes him as though a young man yet beginning to be both a wise and a pious person Nor is it to be omitted which is recorded of Ahab 1. King 21. 27. That when God threatned him with the utter extirpation of his family for his wickedness he put on Sackcloth sprinkled himself with Ashes and especially amongst the rest he walked softly that is although he did not heartily repent yet he knew well how to dissemble the doing it and acted the part of a penitent in that serious and considerative posture I will conclude this point with a passage of the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 31. Vers 18 19. the words are these I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Surely after I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth A memorable Scripture very full and apposite to my present purpose and withall so pathetick as that it is almost match for this Parable of our Saviour we have before us The reflection upon both which together lead me IN the second place to observe the occasion or what it was which put the Prodigal into a considerative temper and that was the pressure of his wants whilest wind and tide favoured him and his affaris were prosperous he made no reflections nor struck sail to any thing but now the tide forsaking him he is becalmed and then considers In like manner § III. IT is usually some affliction or other which first awakens habitual sinners into consideration and the rudiments of piety and religion Or as serious considerativeness begins conversion so commonly some sharp affliction or other begins that seriousness It cannot be doubted but that the most easy and most frequently successfull way of begetting a sense of God and of piety in the minds of men is by holy education in their youth whilest their hearts are tender and tractable not prejudiced by actual ingagements not confirmed by example nor hardened by long custome and practice and when the grace of God anticipates the Devil and prevents all his enterprises and perhaps if we look over the state of mankind we shall find amongst those that are sincerely good the number of those that have become so after a long course of sin to be very small in comparison We may also allow it for truth which is made a common maxime that ingenuous minds are most wrought upon by obligation and favour that the strongest efforts are those which are made by kindness and goodness that this latter method will melt and dissolve such as would be broken in pieces by violence But this prejudices not the business in hand for we speak of such as have lost their ingenuity old hardened sinners who must first be broken by the hammer of affliction before they will dissolve by the benign warmth of mercy and kindness These last indeed carry on the work and make a perfect change but fear and pain usually begins it But I will not stick to grant that perhaps it may fall out that some old sinner may have been reclaimed by the reading of a good book hearing a serious Sermon or by the grave admonition of a faithfull Friend without any pressing affliction to prepare him for it or as it were extort it from him Notwithstanding I verily believe if an estimate could be taken the instances of this kind would be found to be exceeding rare We find Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar humbled by adversity and their stiff Necks submitted to those acknowledgements of God's power and sovereignty which no kindness or mercy would bring them to And Manasses comes out a true convert a new man out of the furnace of affliction And David himself confesses of himself That before he was afflicted he went astray but thereby he had learnt to keep God's Commandments Psal 119. vers 67. But the whole Scripture affords no one instance that I know of of such a person as we speak of cured by any other method then this And for the whole Nation of the Jews God himself saith thus Hos 5. 15. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their transgression and seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early q. d. I will not only afflict my people but I will leave them under the pressure thereof and by this rack as it were extort from them a confession of my sovereignty and their own guilt for I have found by long trial that nothing else will work upon a stiff-necked generation but in their affliction I am sure they will earnestly and instantly seek after me IT was not the peculiar jealousy of Fabius concerning the Romane State which made him say Se secunda magìs quà m adversa timere That their danger was greater lest they should become rash and confident by some slight successes then that their spirits should be broken by a disaster For all men that understand themselves and value their safety above their pleasure find they have reason more to suspect the soft charm of ease peace and plenty then the rough attacks of adversity Because amongst other things a constant and stiff gale of prosperity carries men with too full sail to be checkt or controuled by counsel it presents them with too many and great temptations to be easily resisted ministers to their confident presumption that either they are good enough already because they have so many arguments of the divine favour or at least that he overlooks their miscarriages And Conscience is either out-faced or hath been so often silenced and baffled that it dares scarce mutter till the apprehension of some great danger or misery authorize and provoke it but then it recovers its speech and tells its errand TO this purpose we have a famous instance in the Brethren of Joseph Gen. 37. They prompted by envy had maliciously plotted the death or at least the perpetual servitude of their Brother and proceeded so far in it that to
his Holy Spirit as aforesaid because upon many accounts there was then extraordinary necessity for it and also the Spirit then given was so plainly miraculous and gave such proof of it self that there could be no suspicion of cheat in the case yet forasmuch as both these things fail now viz. both the occasion and the discrimination they think it safer to reject all such pretensions then admitting them to lay open a way for so much cheating and imposture as may be reasonably expected when there is no certain way of detecting it NOW therefore if in the first place I can give a plain account how it may come to pass that such men as are supposed in the first objection may be destitute of such advantages of the Holy Spirit as we have asserted to be the tokens of his residence and then secondly if I shew also how to prevent all imposture by distinguishing the operations of the Spirit from fancy and other allusions then both the objections will be answered and the Reader will not be offended with the digression § III. AND to dispatch all briefly I begin with the first to which I say That as it is not usual with God to precipitate or prevent the course of natural causes but to blesse and succeed them in their due and proper order so neither in his especial providence or in the acts of his grace doth he delight to work per saltum but gradually according to the condition of the subject and its fitness to receive his impressions accordingly though he be always ready to bestow his Spirit with all the comforts and advantages thereof yet he expects and requires all due qualifications and preparations before he confer it Now there are these three especial qualifications for the reception of the Holy Ghost in the sense we speak of 1. AS I have intimated already That a man be not only purged from grosser pollutions and begin to have a love of holiness but that he be singularly pure so as at least not to admit of any voluntary transgression and especially be above all sensuality of what kind soever It is observable in that sad miscarriage of David which we have often had occasion to refer to that it made him justly fear and therefore earnestly pray Psal 51. that God would not thereupon take his Holy Spirit from him and the Apostle when he is earnestly persuading the Ephesians Not to grieve the Holy Spirit whereby they were seald to the day of redemption solemnly warns them in the verse before That no corrupt or obscene and filthy communication proceed out of their mouths as that which would assuredly argue their hearts to be no temple for the Holy Ghost and again in the verse after the aforesaid exhortation he with the same earnestness gives them caution against all bitterness and wrath and clamour c. as intimating that those also defiled the Soul and made it incapable of receiving the blessed Spirit To which purpose the Jews have a common saying Super animum turbidum non requiescit Spiritus Sanctus That the Spirit of God requires a sedate even temper as his quiet habitation 2. THE Spirit of God requires a lovely sweet and benign frame of Spirit and abhors that Hypochondriack sourness and austerity which yet some place a great deal of Religion in when men will be always sighing and complaining and peevishly refuse consolation Jonah confidently told God he did well to be angry and so these men seem to think they please God by grieving his Spirit frowardly or at least phantastically resisting his consolations But it is a mighty mistake to think the Spirit of God will comfort men whether they will or no he requires a persuadeable counsellable temper and such a disposition as will work with him for to make a black melancholist comfortable immediately is not to be done but by a phrenzy or a miracle and for this last we are not to expect it now at God's hands nay even the Prophet Elisha when he desired to call up the Spirit of Prophecy called for an Harp that he might put his mind in tune and dispose himself to become the instrument of the Spirit of God and so it is here an harmonious Soul added to the former qualification invites down the Spirit of God Especially if 3. IN the third place there be servent prayer joined herewith for since God expects we should make our acknowledgments of him and demonstrate he value we have of the mercy we seek by the importunity of our addresses to him even then when we address our selves to him for common favours with much less reason can we expect that he should bestow this great boon upon us unless it be sought by ardent and instant prayer so our Saviour hath told us Luk. 11. 13. that though he have a fatherly affection to give all good things to us yet it is upon condition that we ask him And St. James hath further explained to us the manner of asking Chap. 1. 6 7. that it must be in faith without wavering i. e. neither as doubtfull of God's goodness nor as if we were indifferent whether he granted our request or not for saith he Let not such a man think that he shall receive any thing at the hand of the Lord. NOW forasmuch as the comfortable portion of the Holy Spirit is not intailed upon all the Children which God receives to grace and pardon but that all these qualifications are pre-required since it is also evident that some who perhaps may passionately desire it yet have an unhappy temper that unfits them for the entertainment of this heavenly Guest and many others that have some good measure of sincerity which God will mercifully accept in order to eternal life are not yet raised to such a measure of holiness as to be capable of this favour at the present It cannot seem strange that such should remain strangers to this most happy priviledge nor can it yet be reasonable that their want of experience of it should be any argument that there is no such thing to be expected § IV. BUT then for the other difficultie viz. how to distinguish the moti on of God's Spirit from either the impressions of Sathan or the results of a man 's own temper and constitution I answer there are these properties of the Holy Spirit which if they be attended to and laid together will infallibly distinguish it from any other motion and secure us from all illusion 1. THE Spirit of God never moves any man but in an action or course warrantable by the word of God for since the Holy Scripture is given for a rule of our actions and as such confirmed in the most ample manner by the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit should notoriously contradict it self if it should contradict that INDEED in former Ages whilst the mind of God was not intierly delivered and consigned in holy Writ there were frequent intimations of his pleasure by the
resolution and that practice so much more on the other from a man's practice we may ordinarily pronounce of his resolutions and from that certainly calculate his meditations But to the point in hand I saith the Prodigal have delayed too long already I may consider and make resolutions and yet sit and starve it must be doing must rescue me from my misery So he arose and so doth the true Penitent BUT these things are not to be passed over thus superficially therefore we will handle them particularly And accordingly § II. I Begin with the first viz. Consideration or Deliberation By which I mean not a mopish and ineffective dozinesse when men seem to think profoundly but apprehend nothing at all distinctly their understandings being amused and baffled with a new and strange prospect as if looking back upon their former miscarriages had with Lot's Wife transformed them into a Pillar of Salt Much lesse do I mean a solemn austerity of temper and rigid fixation of spirits as if men had forgone all touches of humanity and were become a kind of walking Ghosts Both these are passions of the body not motions of the mind and if they are not counterfeit tend more to desperation then conversion and there is danger lest such men are falling from a vicious phrenzy as we not long since called it to a strictly literal and more incurable madnesse BUT by Consideration so far as concerns the business in hand I understand nothing more nor less but a manly and a serious application of our minds to take a just and impartial view of our selves and of all such things as most concern us to the end that we may govern our determinations and carriage accordingly For the fuller apprehension of this we are to remember what I have in part intimated before that the mind of man hath these four priviledges 1. IT hath not only a perceptive power of such things as are present which is common to the inferiour and animal faculties but hath a large sphere of cognizance recalling things past and having a solicitude and forethought of things to come 2. THE rational powers of the Soul are not meerly passive as the inferiour are which only take notice of such images of things in transitu and glance as are reflected upon them from the Senses but these can fix themselves and their objects can hold the images of things steddy and stay and arrest their own motions towards them 3. THE mind of man doth not take so superficial a view of things as to discern only the pleasantness or unpleasantness of them wherein natural good and evil consists but is able to discern and pronounce of an higher and more exquisite beauty or deformity excellency or turpitude from the relation to God to the community to the nature of our own Souls and to the time to come wherein consists that which we call moral good and evil And this is that rational sense or relish the Criterion or standard of the Soul I formerly spoke of LASTLY the Soul is able also to reflect upon it self to measure its own motions and its own state by the standard aforesaid and so becomes aware of and corrects its own errours for the time past and takes better aim for the time to come NOW the exercising of these several capacities of the Soul is that which we mean by Consideration Namely then a man considers when in the first place he suffers not himself to be carried away with the prejudice of Sense nor confines his thoughts to such things as are thereby presented to him but inlarges his prospect looks round about him takes one thing with another and embraces in his mind the whole nature tendency and all the circumstances of things This is well intimated by the Latines in either of these words Contemplari and Considerare which seem to allude to Astronomical Calculations wherein men ought not ad pauca respicere to confine their observations to some one appearance but to look round about them to survey the whole Orb and salve all the Phaenomena Thus a man considers morally that observes his own actions that recollects what hath befallen himself or other men upon so doing and forecasts what may befall him or them hereafter AGAIN when a man lives not extempore but premeditates nor suffers himself to be overborn either by the presence and importunity of sensual objects or by the solicitation and hurry of passions but checks his own carrier and gives himself leisure calmly and maturely to understand the just nature of things defixes his thoughts and suspends his determination till he see plain reason to incline him this way or that this is a considerative man Especially when a man takes not things in the gross as if all were alike trivial or alike momentous nor suffers himself to be led along by common custome opinion and example that takes not the price of things from publick fame but appeals to and estimates all things by the just standard of reason and accordingly governs his desires and prosecutions the man I say that distinguishes and makes a discrimination betwixt one thing and another that goes not by tale and number but by weight and proof is justly esteemed a thinking and serious person For so the Greek words used in this case import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to confer compare and distinguish as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to state the matter to cast up accounts and so also the Latine word deliberare which Festus derives from libra as deciding the matter by the scale in like manner examinare to observe quà lanx exeat which way the scale turns LASTLY when a man turns his eyes inward studies himself makes himself his theam and comments upon himself and his own actions hath his eyes in his head minding his own way having propounded a destined mark and aim of his actions keeps it constantly in his eye and shapes his course accordingly not like the fool in the Proverbs of Solomon that hath his eyes roving and in the ends of the earth This is that the Hebrews express by the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay to heart or in the other phrase of the Psalmist Psal 4. 4. To commune with ones own heart This is that which we mean by considerativeness or in other words the working of Conscience and the discharge of both its offices AND by such kind of consideration as this doth the grace of God and his holy Spirit begin the work of conversion and herein do the first strictures and essays of piety discover themselves It was wont to be said by the Platonists that knowledge is nothing but remembrance and that all the discovery of truth which we in this state are able with all our labour and diligence to make is but a revival and recovery of those Idea's of things we had in a former state and which now became obscure and confused by our being immersed in matter and body But let that
called thy Son I deserve to be utterly abandoned excluded your care and cast out of your thoughts as I cast my self out of your family And so the Penitent I am so far Lord from deserving thy favour or eternal life that I deserve not the least Crum from thy Table less then the least of all thy mercies Nay I acknowledge I have deserved to goe with sorrow to my grave and to undergo the dreadfullest viols of thy wrath IT is very remarkable that the Prodigal doth not only thus condemn himself whilest he anxiously stands expecting his doom from his Father but even then when his Father had expressed compassion to him had ran to meet him and kissed him for so vers 21. we find him repeating his own condemnation in the same words as before And in like manner we observe the Apostle St. Paul after he had obtained pardon and the great favour of Apostleship to be continually ripping up his former sins and condemning himself for them as if the wound bled afresh as often as it was touched THUS the Penitent always judges and condemns himself that he may not be judged of the Lord. By severity towards himself he recommends himself to the Divine Mercy for as Tertullian expresses it In quantum non peperceris tibi in tantum Deus tibi parcet If we like Phineas stand up and execute judgement the Plague will be stayed He that anticipates the day of Judgment by erecting a private but impartial Tribunal prevents the dreadfullness of that day In short if we be just God will be mercifull and therefore when the Penitent hath been accuser witness and judge against himself he may then with hopes of success become 4. IN the fourth place Intercessour for himself also and deprecate the divine displeasure and implore his favour So the Son doth here make me as one of thy hired servants q. d. Let me not be utterly cast out of thy Family but have at least this instance of thy favour that I may still retain some relation to thee And so the Penitent now that he hath received his sentence of condemnation within himself sues out his pardon O take not my confession meerly as an argument of my guilt but as an evidence of my contrition Break not the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax 'T is thy prerogative O Lord to pardon and what pleasure is there in my blood Will the Lord be angry for ever will his jealousy burn like fire O consider my frame remember I am but dust and ashes call to mind thy mercies of old thou art God and not man and as much as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are thy mercies above the mercies of a man Turn thy face away from my sins and blot out all my transgressions Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit in me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Give me the comfort of thy help again and stablish me with thy free Spirit c. Psal 51. 9 10 11 12. SAINT Cyprian reports it to have been the Custome of the Primitive Penitents out of their quick and pricking sense of sin and the more effectually to recommend themselves to the mercies of God and the favour of his Church earnestly to implore the Martyrs that in the midst of their sufferings and sharpest agonies they would remember them in their prayers thinking such affectionate intercession of those that poured out their blood and requests together must needs be available both with God and man But the Penitent addresses himself also to a higher and more prevalent Advocate who adds the incense of his own sacrifice to the prayers of men and makes them come up as sweet odours before the Almighty and who is exalted at God's right hand to this end that he may give success to the prayers of such contrite persons To which adde that not only the deep apprehensions of guilt and of danger which such a person we now speak of is under must needs mkee him ardent and importunate and to cry mightily to God but also the Scripture assures us that the Holy Ghost is wont to assist such with sighs and groans which are unutterable § II. NOW for the acceptableness of this penitent confession of which we are speaking Although it be certain that our heavenly Father takes no delight in the pityfull moans in the tears and lamentations of his Creatures and most true that he is not to be wrought upon by addresses and complemental forms by the accent of men's voice by the rhetorick of tears nor any thing of that nature because he is not subject to passions as men are yet having demonstrated already in the former Chapter that the Divine Majesty hath no restraint upon him but what himself pleases and that all his actions towards his Creatures are so subject to his wisedom that when-ever there is just cause for mercy he can shew it notwithstanding the unchangeableness of his Nature the rigour of his Laws or the demand of his Justice If now we also make it appear from his own mouth and from those discoveries which he hath been pleased to make of himself that the aforesaid humble and contrite addresses are agreeable to the designs of his wisedom and therefore required by him as the conditions of pardon then there can be no doubt but that they will in their kind be as acceptable to his Divine Majesty and as successfull on the part of the sinner as the penitent Son's submission was with his earthly Parent AND this will be easily evident if we consider that whereas the evil of sin lies principally in the dishonour it reflects upon the divine perfections such penitential acknowledgments as we have described do in great measure repair that injury and do right to all the Divine Attributes as we will instance in particular 1. SIN is an invasion of God's Authority and Sovereignty over us inasmuch as he that willfully breaks any Law of God proclaims himself sui Juris or Lawless and saith with those in the Gospel we will not have this Lord to rule over us Now penitent acknowledgment though it cannot recall the act which is past yet it revokes and retracts the affront and settles God's authority again 2. SIN is an impeachment of God's wisedom justice and goodness at once for he that allows himself in the commission of a sin lays an imputation upon God as if he had either not foreseen what liberty was fit to be allowed to his Creatures or had not ordered the frame and constitution of things with that decency and benignity that mankind could comfortably acquiesce in without temptation to intrench upon that for his own necessary accommodation Now on the contrary confession takes shame and folly and unreasonableness to our selves and justifies the wisedom and equity of all God's constitutions In this sense we may take that expression Luk. 7. 29. The Publicans justified God
he observe the most weak and imperfect essays of the new birth or as the Apostle expresses it when Christ is beginning to be formed in men I saw thee saith our Saviour to Nathanael S. Joh. 1. 48. when thou wast under the fig-tree when thou wast reasoning about me whether I was the Messias or not I was privy to that conflict of thy thoughts between the report of the miracles wrought by me and the prejudicate opinion concerning the supposed place of my nativity I was not so much offended with thy objections as pleased with thy sincerity in that thou didst diligently inquire honestly debate and proceed to resolution upon rational satisfaction Most apposite to this purpose is that passage of the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 31. vers 18 19 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth And after he had thus passionately described the first kindlings of repentance in the hearts of the people of Israel he then introduces God taking notice and expressing his compassions in the next words Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. By all which we see that God despiseth not the day of small things NOW the consideration of this affords mighty incouragement to sinners to begin their motion to God-ward who would not put himself upon the way when the first attempt of returning shall be taken notice of If a man do but consider if he doe but pray if but breathe and pant after God there is a gracious eye upon him it is not altogether lost labour Nay saith our Saviour A cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose its reward And if such mean performances pass not unrewarded much less doth any thing of good escape God's notice and observation And upon the same consideration there is great reason of caution and that men take heed of discouraging any though never so small hopes of good and buddings of reformation in others for seeing God takes notice of beginnings he must needs be offended with those that obstruct them and will be sure severely to resent it Let therefore those that scoff at prayer and devotion as preciseness at seriousness and self-reflection as melancholy degeneracy of spirit that either press men forward into the same excess of riot with themselves and labour to divert or stifle all workings of Conscience by the means of sensual entertainments or treat those with contumely who boggle at their extravagancies and begin to take up and reform let all such I say consider well what they doe when God's eye is upon such beginings of good lest they be found fighters against God And let all that have any sense of goodness themselves or but so much as a reverence of God's all-seeing eye think it becomes them to incourage such beginnings to indeavour to kindle such sparks and blow them up into a flame of love to God and goodness to which purpose I take liberty to apply a passage of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 65. vers 8. Thus saith the Lord as the new wine is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for there is a blessing in it q. d. The wise Master of the Vineyard especially in an unfruitfull time takes special notice of those few Grapes in a cluster that have good juice in them and will neither permit them to be carelesly crushed with the hand nor cast away amongst refuse So will the God of Israel do by his Vineyard the House of Israel he will take notice of the few that are good in the midst of a bad generation and not destroy all together And in like manner he will not despise the first essays of emergency from former vice and wickedness But thus I am led to the second parallel § III. 2. The Father as soon as he saw his Son had compassion so hath God to mankind especially when he sees them on their way homeward He had always good will towards them as they were his Creatures made in his own image designed for his service and for the enjoyment of himself and upon all these accounts hath a propension to do them good But so long as any man continues in a course of rebellion against him all the issues and expressions of this good will are obstructed which nevertheless as soon as ever he begins to relent and come to himself break out again and discover themselves For as the Psalmist tells us Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psal 103. 13. NOT that we are to imagine the Divine Majesty to be subject to the weakness of humane passion in a strict and proper sense so as to feel any pain or trouble upon the account of his concern for mankind for that the spirituality of his nature the perfection of his understanding and his self-sufficiency will by no means admit of But he is pleased in Holy Scripture to represent himself after that manner to the intent that we may be incouraged to hope and to indeavour since we are assured that he is not a meer spectator of the conflicts and agonies of a Penitent but hath a real inclination to do him good and would by no means have him perish To this purpose Ezek. 33. 11. he swears As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel What greater passion can any Father express towards his beloved Son then God here condescends to and what greater assurance can God give of his earnestness and reality then that of an Oath by himself WHILEST men are at the worst the divine goodness finds out some arguments of pity for he considers he made them fallible Creatures that he gave them not the bright and piercing intellects of Angels he joyned matter and spirit together in their composition by means whereof there is a continual contest between sense and reason a constant dispute betwixt bonum utile and jucundum that their transgression is not like that of Devils who sinned proprio motu without a tempter he knows the power of example the prejudices of education the long follies of Child-hood and therefore as I have shewed before is not implacable towards mankind whilest the state of life and this world lasts But when he takes notice that any man begins to
the Sun of his countenance and favour to shine alike upon the vicious and the vertuous him that feareth him and him that feareth him not And therefore he requires of all those sinners that hope to recover his favour that they have not only a serious sense of and hearty remorse for their sins but actual reformation of their evil ways at least so far as they have opportunity in which consists that repentance which we carefully described under the second part of this Parable Notwithstanding it is true also that he accepts beginnings and pardons as soon as the conversion is true and real and before those vital principles of grace attain their full maturity and perfection Wherefore being both an holy and a mercifull God as his benignity on the one hand prompts him to receive such into mercy who have sincere though weak beginnings of the divine life so on the other hand the purity and perfection of his nature puts him upon requiring fuller measures of conformity to himself in those he makes the objects of his mercy and favour then what for the present he accepts of in consequence of which it is that having as we have shewed received the penitent to pardon he then proceeds to make him a vessel of honour fit for his use by conferring upon him further degrees of sanctification i. e. putting upon him the best robe AGREEABLY to which sense speak these following Scriptures Jo. 15. 2. Every branch in me that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bear more fruit Ephes 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light And again Phil. 1. 6. He that hath begun a good work in you will also perform or perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it till the day of Jesus Christ All which Scriptures plainly intimate thus much that some measures of sincere sanctification goe before justification the full accomplishment of which is by the grace of God to be gradually attained afterwards IT was amongst the well known Paradoxes of the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all vertues were equal and that all goodness consisted in puncto in a very point which notion Seneca confirms and explains thus That as there is but one truth for that nothing can be more then true and therefore no one thing can be truer then another that is true so saith he there is but one rectitude of humane actions vertue consists in a certain proportion which whatsoever exactly observes not is not vertue And agreeably hereto Plutarch reports the saying of Aristo of Chios that there could be but one vertue which therefore he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the health of the mind But notwithstanding all these sayings of that stubborn Sect and whatever else may be pretended by such as tread in their steps there is without doubt a great deal of difference between what God will mercifully accept and what he may and doth righteously require between those lower degrees of grace that may be sincere and find acceptance for the present and that generous state of holiness which God designs to bring men to by the methods of the Gospel or to follow their Metaphor as there is a vast difference betwixt Athletick health and that proper for a student so is there no less between the strength of a new convert and the attainment of an old stable and well exercised Christian and consequently allowing the sincerity of the former there is still room for further improvements and this fuller sanctification which we here understand by the Best Robe FOR the clearer eviction of which both because it may be of use to comfort beginners for the present and also to cure their sloth and security for the future I subjoin these three particulars to lay open the difference betwixt the usual stature of beginners and the highest attainments of great proficients in Religion § III. 1. WHEN a sinner is newly converted from his evil ways although the change be very sincere and such as in time will draw after it an universal reformation yet usually it expresses it self at first by a remarkable zeal against the most gross and notorious miscarriages which such a person hath been liable to and doth not presently amend all the lesser deviations of his life partly because perhaps he doth not yet discern them and partly because it is possible he hath yet so much to doe of the former kind as to employ all his intention and power for the present The new birth is frequently in the Scripture represented by the natural and in nothing doth the resemblance hold more true then in this viz. as in nature there is not a perfect man formed at first with all his members and in his just dimensions but only a salient particle a little fountain of life that bubbles up and by degrees displays it self in all the curious lines of humane shape so here in the works of grace there is a vital principle a divine particle that in its first essays draws only a heart or some of the great viscera of the new man but being lively and vigorous in process of time displays it self in all the functions of holy life They therefore that talk of an instantaneous conversion in such sort as to imagine that a man dead in trespasses and sins should presently start up sound and perfect and without so much as his grave-cloaths about him neither understand themselves nor have any experience of the orderly and almost insensible progress of the divine grace IT is true in every regenerate person there is from the very beginning a resolution against all sin a detestation of and declared hostility against all the works of the Devil but the war is not finished as soon as it is proclaimed or commenced He that fights against Principalities and Powers must war a great while and perhaps have the fortune of the Romans who were said Praelio saepe bello nunquam superati they get ground daily upon the whole though sometimes defeated in particular designs there is no decretorian battel nor is the business decided upon a push it is sincerely done to conquer our beloved lusts and greater enormities though yet some smaller infirmities be not vanquished so long as they are honestly resolved against for it is well and wisely done first to break the head and main body of the enemy and then it will be easy to glean up the straglers If once the principal disease be remedied the symptoms will by degrees be out-grown and most men of that rank I am speaking of find it a great while before they come to have nothing to doe but to conquer wandring thoughts imperfect duties and beginnings of evil BESIDES it is very considerable that sins are not only contrary to vertue but to each other and as it is usual with wise Princes against a powerfull enemy to associate not only their friends and ancient Allies but also those they do not
address of the Holy Spirit which we are considering of these are only the motions or visits which he vouchsafes to make pendente lite or whilst it is yet undetermined to whom men will ultimately belong That therefore which we are concerned about is the peculiar priviledge of very good men such as have cherished the motions entertained the visits and complied with the intimations of the Holy Spirit and when it is come to that from thenceforth he doth not visit them in transitu only or call upon them but resides and inhabits with them and becomes as it were a constant principle a Soul of their Souls in short they are the temples of the Holy Ghost THIS I take to be that which our Saviour means Jo. 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him and that also of St. John in the name of our Saviour Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock which phrase signifies the previous and more ordinary motions of his grace And if any man open to me i. e. if men attend to my admonitions and invitations and break off their custom of sin which barrs the door of their Souls against me then I will come in and sup with him c. i. e. then I will be a familiar guest or inhabitant with him and this is both interpreted and confirmed by St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you i. e. being sanctified and made fit for the residence of that heavenly Guest he hath taken possession of you as his house and temple and more expresly yet by St. John 1 Ep. 3 24. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth with us by his Spirit which he hath given us § II. NOW this inhabitation or residence of the Holy Spirit is called a Seal and men are said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit because as seals use to denote propriety so God hereby marks out as it were such men for his own i. e. as those that he hath a peculiar concern about those that have an interest in him and he in them and this is of wonderfull comfort and advantage especially in these four respects 1. THE Spirit thus inhabiting men gives them a title not only to God's care and providence but to an inheritance of Sons to a participation of that unspeakable felicity wherewith himself is eternally happy and glorious So the Apostle concludes in the forementioned place Eph. 1. 13 14. After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the time of the purchased possession q. d. We are hereby assured of Heaven and glory hereafter though we are not yet in possession of it or this is the pledge of our adoption upon which the inheritance is intailed Hence it is that the same Apostle Rom. 8. 11. makes this an assured argument of our resurrection But if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you q. d. You cannot lie under the power of death and the bonds of the grave but God will assert you to life and immortality because you have a principle of life the Holy Spirit in you which will as surely revive you as it raised Jesus from the dead for by his residence in you you are marked out as belonging to God and thereby he hath taken possession of you for himself WHEN God owned the Tabernacle amongst the Jews built by Moses and after that the Temple built by Solomon and solemnly dedicated to him for his House or Palace wherein to dwell amongst that people it pleased him as it were to take livery and seisin by the cloud which on the behalf of the Divine Majesty hovered over them and was therefore not improperly called by the Jews the Shekinah or dwelling presence and God was said to dwell between the Cherubims because there this symbol of the divine presence subsisted And as in the Christian Church all those miracles which the primitive Christians were inabled to perform were principally to assure their minds that God owned them and although they were destitute of humane help and persecuted both by Jews and Gentiles yet God was with them in which respect the Holy Ghost is called the Comforter so often by our Saviour I say in those miraculous effusions of the Holy Spirit the cloud as it were sate over the mercy-seat in the Christian Church which was now departed from the Temple of the Jews and denoted the collection of believers both of Jews and Gentiles united under Christ Jesus to be now God's peculiar houshold and family So also to all holy men in all Ages God is present by his Spirit by which they become Temples of the Holy Ghost upon which the Apostle pronounces peremptorily Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Which I understand in this sense q. d. He is not arrived at the excellent state of Christianity that hath not experience of the residence of God's Holy Spirit in him ONLY this is to be remembred that this residence of the Holy Spirit in good men which we speak of is not to be judged of by miraculous effects nor are such to be expected now because those were proper only for the first Ages when whilst the Church was under persecuting Emperors and in its infancy God thought fit by such prodigious displays of his power and presence to make all the world see his concern for it and that as I said before he had taken possession of it but ordinarily and especially in the case of private Christians the presence of the Spirit with them discovers it self by such effects as these following For 2. THE Spirit of God though he doth not work miracles now yet doth he not meerly take up his residence in the hearts of holy men but actuates them prompts them forward in all good actions helps and strengthens them in their duty and inflames their resolution and zeal in all brave and generous enterprizes in respect of which we are said to be lead by the Spirit to live and walk in the Spirit Which is not so to be understood as if what good was done the Spirit did it for men nor much less as if he hurried men on whensoever they did well and so for defect of such motion were liable to bear the blame of their irregularities when they did evil for as on the one side he never moves but to that which is certainly good and agreeable to the standing rules of Scripture and natural reason so neither on the other hand when he incites to any such thing doth he overpower
men but he raises and actuates their native powers removes impediments cures their sloth and in short concurring with them helps their infirmities with which agrees that forementioned observation of Cicero Nunquam vir magnus sine afflatu divino That there never was a brave Hero nor any admirable performance without divineinfluence 3. THE Holy Spirit residing in the Souls of good men is also a spirit of confirmation settling and establishing their Souls against revolt and apostasy and giving a kind of angelical stedfastness to them that ill examples shall not draw them aside nor temptation prevail upon them neither insinuations of false doctrine stagger them nor prosperity and the blandishments of the world debauch them nor afflictions and persecutions shake their constancy for they are now built upon a rock and though the rains descend and the waves rise and the winds blow they stand immovable or as St. John expresses it Rev. 3. 12. they having overcome and obtained the reward of being under the conduct of this Holy Spirit are now made pillars of the temple of God and shall goe no more out To which add that of St. Peter 1 Ep. 1. 5. They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kept in Garison by the power of God through faith unto salvation 4. BESIDES all which in the last place it is usual with the Holy Spirit to fill the hearts of those holy men he inhabits with inexpressible joy giving them the foretasts of the blessedness which they expect to enjoy hereafter insomuch that they do not altogether live by faith which is their usual viaticum but in some measure by sense also having a present glimpse of their future happiness by means whereof they rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory they exult triumph and applaud themselves in their interest in God and their glorious portion with him THE Holy Spirit carries men as God did Moses up to Mount Pisgah to take a view of the good Land of promise and affords them the prelibations of Heaven the very relish of which blessedness upon their spirits puts them into a kind of ecstasy that they fell not the troubles and vexations which may assault them from below they triumph over mortality it self and wish and long to die when like St. Stephen they see Heaven opened and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God their face like his shines like that of Angels and a glory incircles them they seem to hear the blessed Quire of Angels and are ready to join in the Allelujah in short their Soul raises it self and would fain take wing and fly thither presently THIS I think is that which is figuratively but excellently set forth by our Saviour in his Epistle to the Church of Pergamos Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna Manna was called Angels food and as the Jews observe it applied it self to every man's palate and had that relish which every man desired which admirably expresses the joys of Heaven which are for the present the entertainment of Angels and when men come to enjoy them shall fill all their powers and leave no desire unsatisfied And it is called hidden manna because as saith the Apostle it doth not yet appear what we shall be however it seems some taste and anticipations of this shall those have in the mean time who overcome But that which I principally intend is the next words And I will give him a white stone with a new name written upon it which no man knows but he that receiveth it This passage some take to be an allusion to the custom at Athens and some other Greek Common-wealths where in capitall causes especially the Citizens gave their Suffrages by White and Black Stones and when the number of White Stones was greatest the person at the Bar was absolved or acquitted And thus the white stone in the Text should in the mystical sense import justification and pardon of sin But this comes not up to the design of the place and there is another custome which fits it better and most probably was here alluded to by our Saviour viz. it was in use that those which conquered at the Olympick Games had a token or ticket given them expressing their names and specifying the reward they were to have for their atchievements In conformity to which our Saviour here seems to promise to those who acquit themselves manfully and bravely in the conflict or race of Christianity that they shall receive an inward and invisible pledge and assurance of the glorious rewards in the other world which can be nothing else but this which we are speaking of namely the comforts of the Holy Ghost THIS is now the second Boon which our Heavenly Father bestows upon the Son he receives and is a very great and glorious one This is the admirable effect of our Saviour's ascension into Heaven the accomplishment of his promise and the supply of his own presence to his servants till he take them up to himself This is the glory of Christian Religion that whensoever it is vigorously pursued it yields this present advantage besides whatever is in reversion And this is the mightiest incouragement to men to be generously good AND although things of this nature partly because they are meerly divine favours not naturally due to men and so cannot be proved by reason partly also being in their own nature invisible and transacted in secret cannot be understood by the generality of men who have no part nor lot in this matter but are apt to be looked upon as dreams and phansies if not vain-glorious pretences and forgeries yet that this we have been speaking of is a great reality there can be no doubt unless we will reject both the testimony of God and the experience of the best of men so that it may justly seem either unnecessary or fruitless to add any thing to what hath been already said on this point NOTWITHSTANDING because I observe that there are two things which prejudice the minds of a great many men in this business I will indeavour briefly to remove them and then pass on THE first is grounded upon an observation that several good men have experience of no such matter i. e. they are neither sensible of such a residence of the Holy Ghost in them nor of any such ravishing comforts as are pretended to accompany such a glorious Guest and therefore they are apt to suspect either all is phansy or at best that it is only some great rarity not the common portion of God's Children AGAIN they observe that not only many good men are without pretences to the Spirit but many evil men lay claim to it and therewith frequently cheat themselves and besides countenance their evil designs by it and under that pretence do a great deal the more mischief in the world Therefore though they do not doubt but that God might think fit at the first planting of the Gospel to give
spirit of Prophecy to supply that defect and several special directions given upon emergencies but then also it is to be observed that such extraordinary interpositions were attended with miraculous circumstances and thereby brought their credentials along with them and gave assurance of their divine authority but now those miraculous attestations being ceased as well as the reason of them whatsoever pretends to God and is contrary to the Holy Scripture is an illusion of the Devil To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Rule it is because there is no light in them Isa 8. 20. SECONDLY the motions of the Holy Spirit particularly in comforting the hearts of holy men are rational and accountable and consequently of that are also even and constant It is very ordinary for some men to be sometimes marvellously cast down they know not for what and then raised up again they know not how and this they ignorantly call the accessions and recesses of the Holy Spirit or a Plerophory and a state of desertion Whilst there is nothing to alter the case no change in themselves neither of apostasy from God nor of improvement in piety yet their state of mind is altered as if God changed and not themselves BUT it is quite otherwise with the Holy Spirit that never causlesly withdraws from men it never grieves those who have not first grieved it nor doth it arbitrarily give joy and consolation to the minds of men but upon just ground and foundations when there is a root and cause of it within in their own Consciences So Erasmus well observes upon that passage of the Apostle Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt intelligas saith he geminum esse testimonium duorum Spirituum nostri Dei c. The Spirit doth not comfort against the sense of our Consciences but concurrs with and confirms the testimony of our own spirit so that we may see and understand and can give account of our own joys And consequently of this these comforts are not flashy and uncertain but stable and certain like those effects that proceed from known and certain causes The joy of such men is not a blaze like a meteor but as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. But on the contrary those that have their ebbings and flowings their sudden and unaccountable dejections and their as sudden ecstasies and transports very unworthily impute these motions to the Holy Spirit which are only fits of the body and the several disguises of hypochondriack passions THIRDLY the Spirit of God in all its impressions upon men is gentle sedate and governable puts not men into a rage nor disorders their reason but is manageable by it submits to all decorum and complies with all decency of circumstances This is that which is thought by the best Interpreters to be the meaning of that remarkable passage of the Apostle to the Corinthians 1 Ep. Chap. 14. vers 29 30 32 33. Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the rest judge If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace For the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the authour of confusion but of peace c. i. e. saith the Learned Dr. H. Hammond even in those effusions of the Holy Ghost and in the exercise of those extraordinary gifts you may observe method and order For the afflations or inspirations of the Prophets here spoken of may be ruled by the Prophets i. e. by them that have them these Christian gifts being not like the afflations of evil spirits which put men into ecstasies c. for the Spirit of God is not a violent ecstatical impetuous but a soft quiet spirit c. And if it was so in those extraordinary impulses in the primitive times much more must it needs be so now when all those miraculous and prodigious circumstances are ceased as I said before Therefore wherever men pretending to the Spirit are raving and furious and pervert all order and government or wheresoever such persons shall under such pretences thrust themselves into the Ministry or put the Magistrate out of office shall take upon them to be reformers of the world revile authority run upon desperate attempts or in short whereever there is a raging whirlwind instead of a still soft voice God is not there but either the Devil or at least a Phrenzy And so much for that CHAP. IV. Of the great honour God doth to a true Penitent putting him into his service and the peculiar usefullness of such a person THE CONTENTS § I. The great trust God reposes in those he pardons and their obligations to faithfullness and activity in his service § II. Several ways whereby all good men may be usefull towards the conversion of others without taking upon them to be publick Preachers and their incouragements thereunto § III. The peculiar aptness of Converts from an evil life to be serviceable to God in the reclaiming of others § IV. The Character of an accomplisht Christian according to all the ornaments forementioned § I. WE come now to the third Ornament which the Father invests his returned Son with He puts Shoes on his Feet which were the habit not of Slaves but of Free-men as we have noted before but what is the mystical sense of this passage or what favour on God's part towards penitent sinners is hereby denoted is not altogether so easy to resolve upon St. Chrysostom and Theophylact understand hereby the Grace of God which defends the Convert from the temptations of the Devil Put Shoes on his feet saith the former that the old Serpent may not find him naked so as to wound his heel and that he may be able to tread upon the serpent's head and have no disturbance in running the way of God's commandments But St. Jerom and St. Austin apprehend that hereby is signified the honour that is put upon eminent Converts to be employed by God as usefull instruments of propagating his Gospell and of drawing in others from the evill of their ways to submission and obedience To this purpose St. Jerom applies that circumstance of the Passeover that it was to be eaten with staves in their hands and shoes on their feet as well as with bitter herbs as if the mystical reach of that injunction was to teach us that a man delivered by the mighty power of God's grace out of Aegypt the state of servility to sin and Satan should not only solemnize the memorial of God's mercy with a sorrowfull and bitter reflection upon his former folly and misery but stand as in procinctu ready to run on God's errand and to call in others to him And indeed this same Metaphor is used in that very sense according to the judgment of the best interpreters Eph. 6. 16.
yet when we say and that truely of him that he made all things for himself and his own glory the meaning is that he takes delight in the reflection of his own image and feels his own perfections reverberated upon him from his Creatures BUT there is no necessity we should goe so far since all I am concerned in at present is sufficiently manifest namely that the happiness of men in the Kingdom of Heaven could not be compleat and full without the advantage of that blessed society which there they shall enjoy and that added to the forementioned ingredients raises it to the highest pitch of felicity that we can apprehend or imagine FOR in the first place there we shall enjoy the glorious presence of the Divine Majesty without consternation or affrightment whilst men are in this world it is not only impossible for weak eyes to behold so bright a glory but every approach of him strikes them with terrour When God had appeared to Jacob in a vision only it filled him with great apprehensions of so august a Majesty and he breaks out Gen. 28. 17. How dreadfull is this place c. And the Prophet I saiah when he saw a stately scene of the Divine Glory cries out Woe is me I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Isa 6. 5. For besides that the very glory of such displays of the Divinity were wont to be very wonderfull and surprizing the consideration also of what men had deserved at God's hands and the reflection upon their own miscarriages made all such appearances very formidable and suspicious to them But now in Heaven we shall see him and live he will not oppress us with his Majesty nor confound us with his Glory there shall be no guilt to affright us nor object to amaze us he will either fortify and sharpen our sight or submit himself to our capacity and shine out in all sweetness delight and complacency towards us NOW this must needs afford unspeakable felicity for in enjoying him we enjoy all things forasmuch as all that is any where good and delectable did flow from him and is to be found in him as in its source and original All that can charess our powers that can ravish our hearts all that is good all that is lovely and desirable are here in their greatest perfection and compendiously to be enjoyed So the Psalmist Psal 16. 11. In thy presence there is fullness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore AGAIN we shall there also enjoy the society of the blessed Jesus we shall see him as he is and behold his glory and be with him for ever What a ravishment was it to the Disciples and what an ecstasy did it put them into when he appeared again to them after his Resurrection he had promised them he would do so and they had reason to believe him having seen the miracles he had wrought already and the wonderfull attestations to his divine power notwithstanding when they saw with what malice the Jews persecuted him and with what success that they stigmatized his reputation insulted over his person derided his doctrine and put him to death which he had now for some time lien under the power of their hearts mis-gave them and they began now to mistrust they should never see him again who they had hoped should have redeemed Israel However they resolve to see what is become of him and between hopes and fears they come to his Sepulchre on the third day but with more of the latter then the former as appears by the spices they brought with them to imbalm him as if they resolved his memorial should be precious with them though they never saw him more Thither being come they find the Watch dismayed and fled the Sepulchre open the Grave-cloaths laid in order all which somewhat revived them and besides they see an Angel standing at the door telling them that he was indeed risen from the dead this more incourages them but when himself appears to them as they were going pensive into Galilee and convinces them that it was indeed he by entertaining them with the same discourses he used to have with them by eating with them and by shewing to Thomas especially his Hands and his Feet and all the Characters of the same person THEN what joy were they in Lord how were they transported how do they wonder at their own stupidity and incredulity hitherto and admire their own felicity now But when at the last day after many hundred years interruption of his bodily appearance nay when those good men that have not seen but have believed that have lived to him denied themselves been persecuted have died for him shall see him in glory shall behold that image of perfect goodness and loveliness shall injoy him that died for them that purchased them by his bloud that opened Heaven to them shall hear him say Come ye blessed of my Father receive a Kingdom prepared for you c. You who have imitated me in holiness and followed me in my sufferings you who have not been discouraged by the meanness of my first appearance nor the long expectation of my second coming whose love and resolution for me was not baffled by the contempt of the world debauched by the examples of men nor abated by the pretended difficulty of my institutions you shall now see my glory be like me rejoice with me live with me and never be separated from me more It is in vain for me to goe about to express the transcendency of this joy which no tongue can utter nor any pen can describe we can think a great deal more then we can speak but we shall then feel what we cannot now conceive when every face shall shine with chearfullness every eye sparkle with joy every heart overflow with gladness and every mouth be filled with Allelujah and the whole Quire sing together the new song the song of Moses and of the Lamb. BUT this is not all yet for in Heaven holy men shall not only enjoy the presence of their Lord but the comfortable society of all his train the glorious host of Angels these as they have condescended to minister to men in this world and diligently to imploy themselves for the protection of good men and for the recovering of evil men to God and for the raising them from the dead and presenting them before God in Heaven so having now successfully finished all that ministry shall now wellcome them to glory rejoice with them and entertain them in friendly and familiar conversation those great and wise and holy Spirits shall recount to them all the wonders of divine providence past which they have been imployed in discover to them all the secrets of the other world and as Praecentors goe before and guide them in all the joys and triumphs of that blessed Kingdom AND lastly holy men shall rejoice in the happy society of one
such persons were in and partly the honour and happiness of such an entertainment would compell them to come in Upon this account God propounds not only pardon of sin but all the forementioned inestimable benefits to repenting sinners as well as to those just men that need no repentance AND although it be certain that God hath neither such need of men's service as to oblige him to resort to these great inducements and it be also very true that there are but a small number of those that make up the Quire in glory who upon such motives were converted from extream debauchery yet such is the graciousness of the good Shepherd that he carries the lost Sheep home on his Shoulders rejoicing and such is the goodness of God that he sticks not at this price for the redemption of any one Soul Besides it is to be considered that as we noted from the Historian formerly Difficile est in tot humanis erroribus solâ innocentiâ vivere that though no good Subject will voluntarily transgress the laws of his Country and fall into the displeasure of the Prince yet the most wary and inoffensive person that is most secure of his own integrity would desire to live under such a government where there was room for mercy and pardon if he should offend and the best of men are so sensible of the power of temptation and the slipperiness of their station as well as conscious of their own sincerity that they are marvellously comforted and incouraged by this admirable grace and goodness of God to sinners AND whereas the fear of Hell may be thought sufficient both to reclaim sinners from their evil ways and to preserve good men from apostasy we shall find upon due consideration that fear let it be of what object it will is neither so lasting a principle nor so potent and effective a motive as hope for this last raises generosity inflames the mind spirits all the powers despises or glories in difficulty and therefore all wise men imploy this Engine especially in all great enterprizes and indeavour to make men's hopes greater then their fears and so order the matter that those they employ may have a prospect of so great a good by success in their attempts as shall outweigh all their apprehensions of difficulty or danger in the atchievement And this will be the more remarkable if we observe in that famous encounter of David with Goliah the Giant of Gath that although there was doubtless some extraordinary impulse upon David's heart to undertake that business yet the holy Text intimates that he listned to the discourses of the people and was inflamed by the general assurance was given him of a mighty and glorious reward to him that should effect it Since therefore the proposition of great and glorious hopes is so necessary not only to draw men off from the present allurements of sin and to dissolve the charms of sense which habituate sinners are bound in but also to comfort and incourage even good men themselves and to ingage both the one and the other in a generous course of vertue the Divine Majesty considering he hath to do with men and resolving to deal with them agreeably to their natures thinks it as well becoming his wisedom as his goodness not only to proclaim impunity to his rebels upon their submission but to assure them of the highest favours and preferments in the Court of Heaven 2. SECONDLY the extream difficulty and consequently the wonderfull rarity of examples of great sinners recovered to sincere piety makes such happy accidents deserve to be solemnized with the greater joy and triumph St. Gregory Nazianzen making an oration in commemoration of St. Cyprian as well reports his flagitious life before his conversion to Christianity as his admirable vertues and piety afterwards and makes the former a shadow to heighten and set off the latter For saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is nothing so great a matter to maintain the Character of a good man when a man hath once attained to it as to begin a whole new course of piety for now the one is but to be like a man's self and to pursue a custom or habit but the other requires a vertuous choice and a manly resolution able to bear down former habits and therefore there are but few examples of the one but many of the other INDEED it is an unspeakable advantage to be early ingaged in the ways of vertue for then by reason of the easiness of doing good which is consequent of custom a man seems to be under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine fate a peculiar predestination to happiness and therefore if it be well considered there is nothing in all a man's whole life that he hath greater reason to thank God for then that good providence of his which takes hold of our tender years and forms them to a sense of Religion for hereby sin is made dreadfull to our Consciences and upon the matter vertue is as easy as vice and the narrow way to Heaven as ready to our feet as the broad way of destruction But on the other side Revocare gradus hic labor hoc opus to reduce an old dislocation is very painfull to put off the old man to change customs to cast out Satan out of his old possession must be very difficult and require a very brave and generous resolution AND although to omnipotent power all things are alike easy yet forasmuch as God not only speaks after the manner of men but also proceeds ordinarily by the course of natural causes and doth not supersede their activity but assist them proportionably to their natures it must needs notwithstanding the divine grace be a very difficult thing to recover an old and deplored sinner in whom all the powers of the mind are enfeebled the sense of Conscience stupified and the very Synteresis and natural notions of the Soul are corrupted and consequently a through reformation of such a person is like to life from the grave and must needs draw after it not only the eyes and admiration of men but also the vexation of Hell and make the Devil rage as disappointed of the prey he thought himself sure of but especially must produce joy in Heaven and amongst the holy Angels IT can indeed be no surprizal to Almighty God who foreknows all things from the beginning and is as far from admiration as from mutability of passions both which proceed from shortness of understanding nor to our Lord Jesus Christ now in glory for we see that whilst he was upon earth he knew when vertue-proceeded from him to cure the woman of her inveterate distemper But whereas men are wont to make some passionate expressions of their resentment of every new and admirable event God thinks fit also in such an extraordinary recovery as this we are speaking of to set up a monument crowning him that overcomes the aforesaid difficulties with immortal glory