godly men have declared this lothnesse to dye Beloved waigh Life and Death one against another and the balance will be even Throw the glory of God into either balance and that turnes the scale S. Paul could not tell which to wish Life or Death There the balance was even Then comes in the glory of God the addition of his soule to that Quire that spend all their time eternity it selfe only in glorifying God and that turnes the scale and then he comes to his Cupio dissolvi To desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ But then he puts in more of the same waight in the other scale he sees that it advances Gods glory more for him to stay and labour in the building of Gods Kingdome here and so adde more soules then his owne to that state then only to enjoy that Kingdome in himself and that turnes the scale againe and so he is content to live These Saints of God then when they deprecate death and complain of the approaches of death they are at that time in a charitable extasie abstracted and withdrawne from the consideration of that particular happinesse which they in themselves might haye in heaven and they are transported and swallowed up with this sorrow that the Church here and gods kingdome upon earth should lack those meanes of advancement or assistance which God by their service was pleased to afford to his Church Whether they were good Kings good Priests or good Prophets the Church lost by their death and therefore they deprecated that death Esay 38.18 and desired to live The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee But the living the living he shall praise thee as I doe this day sayes Hezekias He was affected with an apprehension of a future barrennesse after his death and a want of propagation of Gods truth I shall not see the Lord even the Lord sayes he He had assurance that he should see the Lord in Heaven when by death he was come thither But sayes he I shall not see him in the land of the living Well even in the land of the living even in the land of life it selfe he was to see him if by death he were to see him in Heaven But this is the losse that he laments this is the misery that he deplores with so much holy passion I shall behold man no more with the Inhabitants of the world Howsoever I shall enjoy God my selfe yet I shall be no longer a meanes an instrument of the propagation of Gods truth amongst others And till we come to that joy which the heart cannot conceive it is I thinke the greatest joy that the soule of man is capable of in this life especially where a man hath been any occasion of sinne to others to assist the salvation of others And even that consideration that he shall be able to doe Gods cause no more good here may make a good man loath to die Quid facies magno nomini tuo Jos 7.9 sayes Ioshuah in his prayer to God if the Canaanites come in and destroy us and blaspheme thee What wilt thou do unto thy mighty Name What wilt thou doe unto thy glorious Church said the Saints of God in those Deprecations if thou take those men out of the world whom thou hadst chosen enabled qualified for the edification sustentation propagation of that Church In a word David considers not here what men doe or doe not in the next world but he considers onely that in this world he was bound to propagate Gods Truth and that that he could not doe if God tooke him away by death Consider then this horrour and detestation and deprecation of death in those Saints of the old Testament with relation to their particular and then it must be Quia promissiones obscurae Because Moses had conveyed to those men all Gods future blessings all the joy and glory of Heaven onely in the types of earthly things and said little of the state of the soule after this life And therefore the promises belonging to the godly after this life were not so cleere then not so well manifested to them not so well fixt in them as that they could in contemplation of them step easily or deliver themselves confidently into the jawes of death he that is not fully satisfied of the next world makes shift to be content with this and he that cannot reach or does not feele that will be glad to keepe his hold upon this Consider their horrour and â—etestation and deprecation of death not with relation to themselves but to Gods Church and then it will be Quia operarii pauci Because God had a great harvest in hand and few labourers in it they were loath to be taken from the worke And these Reasons might at least by way of excuse and extenuation in those times of darknesse prevaile somewhat in their behalfe They saw not whither they went and therefore were loath to goe and they were loath to goe because they saw not how Gods Church would subsist when they were gone But in these times of ours when Almighty God hath given an abundant remedy to both these their excuses will not be appliable to us We have a full cleernesse of the state of the soule after this life not onely above those of the old Law but above those of the Primitive Christian Church which in some hundreds of yeares came not to a cleere understanding in that point whether the soule were immortall by nature or but by preservation whether the soule could not die or onely should not die Or because that perchance may be without any constant cleernesse yet that was not cleere to them which concernes our case neerer whether the soule came to a present fruition of the sight of God after death or no. But God having afforded us cleernesse in that and then blest our times with an established Church and plenty of able work-men for the present and plenty of Schooles and competency of endowments in Universities for the establishing of our hopes and assurances for the future since we have both the promise of Heaven after and the promise that the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against the Church here Since we can neither say Promissiones obseurae That Heaven hangs in a Cloud nor say Operarii pauci That dangers hang over the Church it is much more inexcusable in us now then it was in any of them then to be loath to die or to be too passionate in that reason of the deprecation Quia non in morte Because in death there is no remembrance of thee c. Which words being taken literally may fill our meditation and exalt our devotion thus If in death there be no remembrance of God if this remembrance perish in death certainly it decayes in the neernesse to death If there be a possession in death there is an approach in age And therefore Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth
very hearts for only such shall see God Omnis meridies diluculum habuit as the same Father continues this Meditation The brightest non had a faint twi-light and break of day The sight of God which we shall have in heaven must have a Diluculum a break of day here If we will see his face there we must see it in some beames here And to that purpose Visus per omnes sensus recurrit as S. Augustine hath collected out of severall places of Scripture Every sense is called sight for there is Odora vide and Gusta vide Taste and See how sweet and Smell and See what a savour of life the Lord is Apoc. 1.12 Luke 24.39 So S. Iohn turned about To see a voice There Hearing was Sight And so our Saviour Christ sayes Palpate videte and there Feeling is Seeing All things concur to this Seeing and therefore in all the works of your senses and in all your other faculties See ye the Lord Heare him in his word and so see him Speak to him in your prayers and so see him Touch him in his Sacrament and so see him Present holy and religious actions unto him and so see him Davids heart was towards Absalon 2 Sam. 14. sayes that Story Ioab saw that and as every man will be forward to further persons growing in favour for so it should be done to him whom the King will honour Ioah plotted and effected Absalons return but yet Absalon saw not the Kings face in two yeares Beloved in Christ Jesus the heart of your gracious God is set upon you and we his servants have told you so and brought you thus neare him into his Court into his house into the Church but yet we cannot get you to see his face to come to that tendernesse of conscience as to remember and consider that all your most secret actions are done in his sight and his presence Caesars face and Caesars inscription you can see The face of the Prince in his coyne you can rise before the Sun to see and sit up till mid-night to see but if you do not see the face of God upon every piece of that mony too all that mony is counterfeit If Christ have not brought that fish to the hook Mat. 17.25 that brings the mony in the mouth as he did to Peter that mony is ill fished for If nourishing of suits and love of contention amongst others for your own gain have brought it 〈◊〉 12.14 〈◊〉 24.3 it is out of the way of that counsell Follow peace with all men and holinesse without which no man shall see God This is the generation of them that seeke him that seek thy face O Iacob Innocens manibus mundus corde either such an innocence as never fouled the hands or such an innocency as hath washed them cleane againe such an innocency as hath kept you from corrupt getting or such an innocency as hath restored us by restoring that which was corruptly got It is testified of Solomon 1 King 10.24 That he exceeded all the Kings of the Earth for Wisedome and for Riches and all the Earth sought the face of Solomon A greater then Solomon is here for Wisedome and Riches your wisedome is foolishnesse and your riches beggery if you see not the face of this Solomon If either you have studied or practised or judged when his back is towards you that is if you have not done all as in his presence You are in his presence now goe not out of it when you goe from hence Amor rerum terrenarum viscus pennarum spiritualium August God hath given you the wings of Doves and the eyes of Eagles to see him now in this place If in returning from this place you returne to your former wayes of pleasure or profit this is a breaking of those Doves wings and a cieling of those Eagles eyes Coge cor tuum cogitare divina compelle urge sayes that Father Here in the Church thou canst not chuse but see God and raise thy heart towards him But when thou art returned to thy severall distractions that vanities shall pull thine eyes and obtrectation and libellous defamation of others shall pull thine eares and profit shall pull thy hands then Coge compelle urge force and compell thy heart and presse even in that thrust of tentations to see God What God is in his Essence or what our sight of the Essence of God shall be in the next world dispute not too curiously determine nor too peremptorily Cogitans de Deo si finivisti Deus non est is excellently said by S. Augustine If thou begin to think what the Essence of God is and canst bring that thought to an end thou hast mistaken it whensoever thou canst say Deus est this is God or God is this non est Deus that is not God God is not that for he is more infinitely more then that But non potes dicere Deus est thou art not able to say This is God God is this Saltem dicas hoc Deus non est Be able to say This is not God God is not this The belly is not God Mammon is not God Mauzzim the God of Forces Oppression is not God Belphegor Licentiousnesse is not God Howsoever God sees me to my confusion yet I doe not see God when I am sacrificing to these which are not Gods Let us begin at that which is nearest us within us purenesse of heart and from thence receive the testimony of Gods Privy Seale the impression of his Spirit that we are Blessed and that leads us to the Great Seale the full fruition of all we shall see God there where he shall make us drink of the Rivers of his pleasures There is fulnesse plenty Psal 36.8 but lest it should be a Feast of one day or of a few as it is said they are rivers so it is added with thee is the Fountaine of life An abundant river to convay and a perpetuall spring to feed and continue that river And then wherein appeares all this In this for in thy light we shall see light In seeing God we shall see all that concernes us and see it alwayes No night to determine that day no cloud to overcast it We end all with S. Augustines devout exclamation Deus bone qui erunt illi oculi Glorious God what kinde of eyes shall they be Quam decori quam sereni How bright eyes and how well set Quam valentes quam constantes How strong eyes and how durable Quid arbitremur quid aestimemus quid loquemur What quality what value what name shall we give to those eyes Occurrunt verba quotidiana sordidata vilissimis rebus I would say something of the beauty and glory of these eyes and can finde no words but such as I my selfe have mis-used in lower things Our best expressing of it is to expresse a desire to come to it for there onely we
he gave them the holy Ghost in stead of Scriptures But to us who are weaker hee hath given both The holy Ghost in the Scriptures and if we neglect either we have neither If we trust to a private spirit and call that the holy Ghost without Scripture or to the Scriptures without the holy Ghost that is without him there where he hath promised to be in his Ordinance in his Church we have not the seale of that Promise the holy Ghost Finde then that promise in your holy love and sober studie of the Scriptures and finde the performance the fruits thereof in your conversation and then you have an Autumne better then any worldly Spring A vintage a gathering of those blessed fruits Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meckenesse temperance where by the way these are not called severally the fruits of the Spirit as though they were so many severall fruits which might be had one without another but collectively all together they are called the fruit It is not Love alone nor Joy alone no nor Faith alone that is the fruit of the holy Ghost Love but not love alone but that love when betweene the holy Ghost and you you can joy in that love and not repent it Joy but not joy alone but that joy when betweene the holy Ghost and you you can finde peace in that joy that you be not the sadder after for having beene so merry before this these these and all the rest together are the fruit of the holy Ghost and therefore labour to have them all or you lacke all And then lastly as we pursuing Gods Ordinance have beene able to say to you Accipite Spiritum sanctum Behold the holy Ghost in your selves behold he appeared to you when he moved you to come hither behold he appeared to you as often as he hath opened the window of the Arke your hearts to take in this Dove this houre so we may say unto you as we say in the Schoole There is an infusion of the holy Ghost liquor is infused into a vessell if that vessell hold it though it doe but cover the bottome and no more The holy Ghost is infused into you if he have made any entry if he cover any part if he have taken hold of any corrupt affection There is also a diffusion of the holy Ghost Liquor is diffused into a vessell when it fils all the parts of the vessell and leaves no emptinesse no driness The holy Ghost is diffused into you if he overspread you and possesse you all and rectifie all your perversnesses But then in the Schoole we have also an effusion of the holy Ghost And liquor is effused then when it so fils the vessell as that that overflowes to the benefit of them who will participate thereof Receive therefore the holy Ghost so as that the holy Ghost may overflow flow from your example to the edification of others That you may go home and say to your children receive ye the holy Ghost in the Spirit of contentment and acquiescence and thankfulnesse to God and me in that portion that I can leave you And say to your servants receive ye the holy Ghost in the spirit of obedience and fidelity And say to your neigh bours receive ye the holy Ghost in the spirit of peace and quiemesse And say to your Creditors receive ye the holy Ghost in the spirit of patience and tendernesse and compassion and for bearing And to your debtors receive ye the holy Ghost in the spirit of industry and labour in your calling You see Preaching it selfe even the Preaching of Christ himselfe had beene lost if the holy Ghost had not brought all those things to their remembrance And if the holy Ghost do bring these things which we preach to your remembrance you are also made fishers of men and Apostles and as the Prophet speaks Salvatores mundi Obad. 1.21 men that assist the salvation of the world by the best way of preaching an exemplar life and holy convesation Amen SERMON XXX Preached upon Whitsunday Part of the Gospell of the Day JOHN 14.20 At that day shall ye know That I am in my Father and you in me and I in you THe two Volumes of the Scriptures are justly and properly called two Testaments for they are Testatio Mentis The attestation the declaration of the will and pleasure of God how it pleased him to be served under the Law and how in the state of the Gospell But to speake according to the ordinary acceptation of the word the Testament that is The last Will of Christ Jesus is this speech this declaration of his to his Apostles of which this text is a part For it was spoken as at his Death-bed his last Supper And it was before his Agony in the garden so that if we should consider him as a meere man there was no inordinatenesse no irregularity in his affection It was testified with sufficient witnesses and it was sealed in blood in the Institution of the Sacrament By this Wil then as a rich and abundant Ver. 3. and liberall Testator having given them so great a Legacy as a place in the kingdome of heaven yet he adds a codicill he gives more he gives them the evidence by which they should maintain their right to that kingdome that is the testimony of the Spirit The Comforter the Holy Ghost whom he promises to send to them Ver. 16. And still more and more abundant he promises them that that assurance of their right shall not be taken from them till he himself return again to give them an everlasting possession That he may receive us unto himself and that where he is we may also be The main Legacy Ver. 3. the body of the gift is before That which is given in this Text is part of that evidence by which it appeares to us that we have right and by which that right is maintained and that is knowledge that knowledge which we have of our interest in God and his kingdome here At that day ye shall know c. And in the giving of this we shall consider first the Legacy it self this knowledge Cognoscetis Ye shall know And secondly the time when this Legacy grows due to us In illo die At that day ye shall know And thirdly how much of this treasure is devised to us what portion of this heavenly knowledge is bequeathed to us and that is in three great summes in three great mysteries First ye shall know the mystery of the Trinity of distinct persons in the Godhead Ego in patre That I am in my Father And then the mystery of the Incarnation of God who took our flesh Vos in me That you are in me And lastly the mystery and working of our Redemption in our Sanctification Ego in vobis That Christ by his Spirit the Holy Ghost is in us Nequitia animae ignoratio
himselfe but not for a Ransome not for a Satisfaction but onely for a lively example thereby to incline us to suffer for Gods glory and for the edification of one another If we call him Dominum A Lord we call him Messiam Vnctum Regem anointed with the oyle of gladnesse by the Holy Ghost to bee a cheerefull conquerour of the world and the grave and sin and hell and anointed in his owne blood to be a Lord in the administration of that Church which he hath so purchased This is to say that Jesus is a Lord To professe that he is a person so qualified in his being composed of God and Man that he was able to give sufficient for the whole world and did give it and so is Lord of it When we say Iesus est That Jesus is There we confesse his eternity and therein Dominus The Lord. his Godhead when we say Iesus Dominus that he is a Lord therein we confesse a dominion which he hath purchased And when we say Iesum Dominum so as that we professe him to be the Lord Then we confesse a vigilancy a superintendency a residence and a permanency of Christ in his Dominion in his Church to the worlds end If he be the Lord in his Church there is no other that rules with him there is no other that rules for him The temporall Magistrate is not so Lord as that Christ and he are Collegues or fellow-Consuls that if he command against Christ he should be as soone obeyed as Christ for a Magistrate is a Lord and Christ is the Lord a Magistrate is a Lord to us but Christ is the Lord to him and to us and to all None rules with him none rules for him Christ needs no Vicar he is no non-resident He is nearer to all particular Churches at Gods right hand then the Bishop of Rome at his left Direct lines direct beames does alwaies warme better and produce their effects more powerfully then oblique beames doe The influence of Christ Jesus directly from Heaven upon the Church hath a truer operation then the oblique and collaterall reflections from Rome Christ is not so far off by being above the Clouds as the Bishop of Rome is by being beyond the Hils Dicimus Dominum Iesum we say that Jesus is the Lord and we refuse all power upon earth that will be Lord with him as though he needed a Coadjutor or Lord for him as though he were absent from us To conclude this second part To say that Iesus is the Lord is to confesse him to bee God from everlasting and to have beene made man in the fulnesse of time and to governe still that Church which he hath purchased with his blood and that therefore hee lookes that we direct all our particular actions to his glory For this voice wherein thou saiest Dominus Iesus The Lord Iesus must be as the voyce of the Seraphim in Esay Esay 6.2 thrice repeated Sanctus sanctus sanctus Holy holy holy our hearts must say it and our tongue and our hands too or else we have not said it For when a man will make Jesus his companion and be sometimes with him and sometimes with the world and not direct all things principally towards him when he will make Jesus his servant that is proceed in all things upon the strength of his outward profession upon the colour and pretence and advantage of Religion and devotion would this man be thought to have said Iesum Dominum Luke 6.46 That Iesus is the Lord Why call ye me Lord Lord and doe not the things I speake to you saies Christ Christ places a tongue in the hands Actions speake and Omni tuba clarior per opera Demonstratio sayes S. Chrysostome There is not onely a tongue but a Trumpet in every good worke When Christ sees a disposition in his hearers to doe according unto their professing Iohn 13.14 then only he gives allowance to that that they say Dicitis me Dominum bene dicitis You call me Lord and you doe well in doing so doe ye therefore as I have done to you To call him Lord is to contemplate his Kingdome of power to feele his Kingdome of grace to wish his Kingdome of glory It is not a Domine usque quò Iohn 11.21 Lord how long before the Consummation come as though we were weary of our warfare It not a Domine si fuisses Lord if thou hadst beene here our brother had not died as Martha said of Lazarus as though as soon as we suffer any worldly calamity we should thinke Christ to be absent from us in his power or in his care of us It is not a Domine vis mandemus Luke 9.54 Lord wilt thou that we command fire from Heaven to consume these Samaritans as though we would serve the Lord no longer then he would revenge his owne and our quarrel for that we may come to our last part to that fiery question of the Apostles Christ answered You know not of what spirit you are It is not the Spirit of God it is not the Holy Ghost which makes you call Jesus the Lord onely to serve your own ends and purposes and No man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost For this Part 3 Part. Difficultas we proposed onely two Considerations first that this But excluding all meanes but one that one must therefore necessarily be difficult and secondly that that But admitting one meanes that one must therefore necessarily be possible so that there is a difficulty but yet a possibility in having this working by the Holy Ghost For the first of those hereticall words of Fanstus the Manichaean That in the Trinity the Father dwelt In illa luce inaccessibili In that light which none can attaine to And the Son of God dwelt in this created light whose fountaine and roote is the Planet of the Sun And the Holy Ghost dwelt in the Aire and other parts illumined by the Sun we may make this good use that for the knowledge of the Holy Ghost wee have not so present so evident light in reason as for the knowledge of the other blessed Persons of the glorious Trinity For for the Son because he assumed our nature and lived and dyed with us we conceive certaine bodily impressions and notions of him and then naturally and necessarily as soon as we heare of a Son we conceive a Father too But the knowledge of the Holy Ghost is not so evident neither doe we bend our thoughts upon the consideration of the Holy Ghost so much as we ought to doe The Arians enwrapped him in double clouds of darknesse when they called him Creaturam Creaturae That Christ himselfe from whom say they the Holy Ghost had his Creation was but a Creature and not God and so the Holy Ghost the Creature of a Creature And Maximus ille Gigas as Saint Bernard cals Plato That Giant in all kinde of
Malediction not physick but poyson As it is in another Psalme Increpasti periit Thou hast rebuked them and they perished Psal 9.6 In these cases there is a working of the holy Ghost and that as the holy Ghost is a Comforter for it is a comfort to them for whose deliverances God executes these judgements upon others that they are executed but we consider a rebuke a reproofe that ministers comfort even to them upon whom it fals and so in that sense we shall see that this Comforter reproves the world in all those significations of the world which wee named before As the world is the whole frame of the world God hath put into it a reproofe Mundus magnus a rebuke lest it should seem eternall which is a sensible decay and age in the whole frame of the world and every piece thereof The seasons of the yeare irregular and distempered the Sun fainter and languishing men lesse in stature and shorter-lived No addition but only every yeare new sorts new species of wormes and flies and sicknesses which argue more and more putrefaction of which they are engendred And the Angels of heaven which did so familiarly converse with men in the beginning of the world though they may not be doubted to perform to us still their ministeriall assistances yet they seem so far to have deserted this world as that they do not appeare to us as they did to those our Fathers S. Cyprian observed this in his time when writing to Demetrianus Cyprian who imputed all those calamities which afflicted the world then to the impiety of the Christians who would not joyne with them in the worship of their gods Cyprian went no farther for the cause of these calamities but Ad senescentem mundum To the age and impotency of the whole world And therefore sayes he Imputent senes Christianis quòd minùs valeant in senectutem Old men were best accuse Christians that they are more sickly in their age then they were in their youth Is the fault in our religion or in their decay Canos in pueris videmus nec aetas in senectute desinit sed incipit à senectute We see gray haires in children and we do not die old and yet we are borne old Lest the world as the world signifies the whole frame of the world should glorifie it selfe or flatter and abuse us with an opinion of eternity we may admit usefully though we do not conclude peremptorily this observation to be true that there is a reproofe a rebuke born in it a sensible decay and mortality of the whole world But is this a reproofe agreeable to our Text A reproofe that carries comfort with it Consolatio Rom. 8.19 Comfort to the world it selfe that it is not eternall Truly it is As S. Paul hath most pathetically expressed it The creature that is the world is in anearnest expectation The creature waiteth The whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain Therefore the creature that is the world receives a perfect comfort in being delivered at last and an inchoative comfort in knowing now that it shall be delivered From what From subjection to vanity Ver. 20. 21. from the bondage of corruption That whereas the world is now subject to mutability and corruption at the Resurrection it shall no longer be so but in that measure and in that degree which it is capable of Ver. 21. It shall enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God that is be as free from corruption or change in that state wherein it shall be glorified Esay 30.26 2 Pet. 3.13 as the Saints shall be in the glory of their state for The light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold And there shall be new heavens and new earth Which is a state that this world could not attaine to if it were eternally to last in that condition in which it is now a condition subject to vanity impotency corruption and therefore there is a comfort in this reproofe even to this world That it is not eternall This world is the happier for that As the world Mundus homines Mat. 18.7 in a second sense signifies all the men of the world so it is Wo unto the world because of offences There is a reproofe born in every man which reproofe is an uncontrollable sense and an unresistible remorse and chiding of himselfe inwardly when he is about to sin and a horrour of the Majesty of God whom when he is alone he is forced and forced by himselfe to feare and to beleeve though he would fain make the world beleeve that he did not beleeve in God but lived at peace and subsisted of himselfe without being beholding to God For as in nature heavy things will ascend and light descend rather then admit a vacuity so in religion the devill will get into Gods roome rather then the heart of man shall be without the opinion of God There is no Atheist They that oppose the true do yet worship a false god and hee that sayes there is no God doth for all that set up some God to himselfe Every man hath this reproofe borne in him that he doth ill that he offends a God that he breaks a law when he sins Consolatio And this reproofe is a reproofe within our Text for it hath this comfort with it That howsoever some men labour to overcome the naturall tendernesse of the conscience and so triumph over their own ruine and rejoyce when they can sleep and wake again without any noise in their conscience or sense of sin yet in truth this candle cannot be blowne out this remorse cannot be overcome But were it not a greater comfort to me if I could overcome it No. For though this remorse which is but a naturall impression and common to all men be not grace yet this remorse which is the naturall reproofe of the soule is that that grace works upon Grace doth not ordinarily work upon the stifnesse of the soule upon the silence upon the frowardnesse upon the aversnesse of the soule but when the soule is soupled and mellowed and feels this reproofe this remorse in it self that reproofe that remorse becomes as the matter and grace enters as the form that becomes the body and grace becomes the soule and that is the comfort of this naturall reproofe of the world that is of every man First that it will not be quenched in it selfe and then that ordinarily it induces a nobler light then it selfe which is effectuall and true Repentance As the world in a third sense Mundus mali Heb. 11.7 2 Pet. 2.5 signifies only the wicked world so it is Noah in preparing an Ark condemned the world And so God spared not the old world That world the world of the wicked suffer many reproofes many rebukes in their hearts which they will not discover because they
holinesse of life and fast and pray and submit my selfe to discreet and medicinall mortifications for the subduing of my body any man will say this is Papisticall Papists doe this it is a blessed Protestation and no man is the lesse a Protestant nor the worse a Protestant for making it Men and brethren I am a Papist that is I will fast and pray as much as any Papist and enable my selfe for the service of my God as seriously as sedulously as laboriously as any Papist So if when I startle and am affected at a blasphemous oath as at a wound upon my Saviour if when I avoyd the conversation of those men that prophane the Lords day any other will say to me This is Puritanicall Puritans do this It is a blessed Protestation and no man is the lesse a Protestant nor the worse a Protestant for making it Men and Brethren I am a Puritan that is I wil endeavour to be pure as my Father in heaven is pure as far as any Puritan Now of these Pharisees who were by these means so popular Sadducaei the numbers were very great The Sadduces who also were of an exemplary holinesse in some things but in many and important things of different opinions even in matter of Religion from all other men were not so many in number but they were men of better quality and place in the State then for the most part the Pharisees were And as they were more potent and able to do more mischiefe so had they more declared themselves to be bent against the Apostles then the Pharisees had done In the fourth Chapter of this Booke Ver. 1. The Priests and the Sadduces no mention of Pharisees came upon Peter and Iohn being grieved that they preached thorough Iesus the resurrection of the dead And so againe Act. 5.17 The high Priest rose up and all they that were with him which is sayes that Text expresly the sect of the Sadduces and were filled with indignation And some collect out of a place in Eusebius that this Ananias who was high Priest at this time and had declared his ill affection to S. Paul as you heard before was a Sadduce But I thinke those words of Eusebius will not beare at least not enforce that nor be well applied to this Ananias Howsoever S. Paul had just cause to come to this protestation I am a Pharisee and in so doing he can be obnoxious to nothing if he be as safe in his other protestation all is well for the hope and resurrection of the dead am I called in question consider we that It is true that he was not at this time called in question Resurrectio Act. 21.23 directly and expresly for the Resurrection you may see where he was apprehended that it was for teaching against that people and against that law and against that Temple So that he was endited upon pretense of sedition and prophanation of the Temple And therefore when S. Paul sayes here I am called in question for preaching the Resurrection he means this If I had not preached the Resurrection I should never have been called in question nor should be if I would forbeare preaching the Resurrection No man persecutes me no man appeares against me but onely they that deny the Resurrection The Sadduces did deny it The Pharisees did beleeve it and therefore this was a likely and a lawfull way to divide them and to gaine time with such a purpose so far as David had when he prayed O Lord Psal 55.9 divide their tongues For it is not alwayes unlawfull to sowe discord and to kindle dissention amongst men for men may agree too well to ill purposes So have yee then seen That though it be not safe to conclude S. Paul or any holy man did this therefore I may do it which was our first part yet in this which S. Paul did here there was nothing that may not be justified in him and imitated by us which was our second part Remains onely the third which is the accommodation of this to our present times and the appropriation thereof to our selves and making it our own case The world is full of Sadduces and Pharisees and the true Church of God arraigned by both The Sadduces were the greater men the Pharisees were the greater number 3 Part. Sadducaei so they are still The Sadduces denied the Resurrection and Angels and Spirits So they do still For those Sadduces whom we consider now in this part are meere carnall men men that have not onely no Spirit of God in them but no soule no spirit of their owne meere Atheists And this Carnality this Atheisme this Sadducisme is seene in some Countries to prevaile most upon great persons the Sadduces were great persons upon persons that abound in the possessions and offices and honours of this world for they that have most of this world for the most part think least of the next These are our present Sadduces Pharisaei and then the Pharisee hath his name from Pharas which is Division Separation But Calvin derives the name not inconveniently from Pharash which is Exposition Explication We embrace both extractions and acceptations of the word both Separation and Exposition for the Pharisee whom we consider now in this part is he that is separated from us there it is Pharas separation and separated by following private Expositions there it is Pharash Exposition with a contempt of all Antiquity and not only an undervaluation but a detestation of all opinions but his owne and his whom he hath set up for his Idol And as the Sadduce our great and worldly man is all carnall all body and beleeves no spirit so our Pharisee is so superspirituall as that he beleeves that is considers no body He imagines such a Purification such an Angelification such a Deification in this life as though the heavenly Jerusalem were descended already or that God had given man but that one commandement Love God above all and not a second too Love thy neighbour as thy selfe Our Sadduces will have all body our Pharisees all soule and God hath made us of both and given us offices proper to each Now of both these Duplex Sadducaus the present Sadduce the carnall Atheist and the present Pharisee the Separatist that overvalues himself and bids us stand farther off there are two kinds For for the Atheist there is Davids Atheist and S. Pauls Atheist Davids that ascribes all to nature Psal 14.2 and sayes in his heart There is no God That will call no sudden death nor extraordinary punishment upon any enormous sinner a judgement of God nor any such deliverance of his servants a miracle from God but all is Nature or all is Accident and would have been so though there had been no God This is Natures Sadduce Davids Atheist And then S. Pauls Atheist is he who though he doe beleeve in God yet doth not beleeve God in
his devotion and present recourse to him some from both together God and himselfe joyntly which is an acknowledgement that God works not alone in heaven nor man lives not alone upon earth but there is a Conversation and a Correspondence and a Commerce betweene God and Man and Conditions and Contracts and Covenants and Stipulations betweene them and so a mutuall interest in one another From God himselfe alone David raises a reason v. 4. Propter misericordiam O save me for thy mercies sake for of the mercy of God there is no precedent there is no concurrent reason there is no reason of the mercy of God but the mercy of God from God and himself together he raises a reason v. 5. Quia non in morte For in death there is no remembrance of thee Destroy me not for if I die Quid facies magno nomini tuo as Ioshuah speaks what will become of thy glory of that glory which thou shouldest receive from my service in this world if thou take me out of this world But then as he begun in reasons arising from himself and out of the sense of his owne humiliation under the hand of God for so hee does v. 2. Quia infirmus Have mercy upon me because I am weake and cannot subsist without that mercy And Quiaturbata ossa his bones were vexed Habet anima ossa sua sayes S. Basil The soule hath bones as well as the body The bones of the soule are the strongest faculties and best operations of the soule and his best and strongest actions were but questionable actions disputable and suspitious actions And Turbata anima all his faculties even in their very roote his very soul was sore vexed v. 3. As I say hee began with reasons of that kinde arising from himselfe so he returnes and ends with the same humiliation in the reasons arising from himselfe too Quia laboravi in gemitu I am weary with my groaning all the night make I my bed to swimme c. As our Saviour Christ entred into the house to his Disciples Iohn 20.28 Ianuis clausis when the doores were shut so God enters into us too Ianuis clausis when our eyes have not opened their doores in any reall penitent teares when our mouthes have not opened their doores in any verball prayers God sees and he heares the inclinations of the heart S. Bernard notes well upon those words of Christ John 11. at the raising of Lazarus Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me That at that time when Christ gave thanks to God for having heard him he had said nothing to his Father but God had heard his heart Since God does so even to us he will much more heare us as David when we make outward declarations too because that outward declaration conduces more to his glory in the edification of his servants therefore David comes to that declaratory protestation Quia labor avi in gemitu I am weary with my groaning c. In which words Divisio we shall consider Quid factum and Quid faciendum What David did and what we are to doe for David after he had thrown himselfe upon the mercy of God after he had confessed and prayed and done the spirituall parts of repentance he afflicts his body besides And so ought we likewise to doe if we will be partakers of Davids example And therefore we may doe well to consider Quid faciendum How this Example of David bindes us how these groanings and waterings of his bed with teares and other Mortifications assumed after repentance and reconciliation to God lay an obligation upon us But this is our part Quid faciendum what is to be done by us First Quid factum what David did and truly he did much first gemuit he came to greane to sigh to outward declarations of inward heavinesse And Laberauit in gemits He laboured he travelled in that passion and as the word imports and as our later Translation hath it he was wearied tired with it so farre that as it is in the first Translation he faimed he languished with it First he sighed and sighed so and groaned and groaned so passionately vehemently and then openly exemplarily and he was not ashamed of it for he came to weeping though he knew it would be thought childish And that in that abundance Natare feci and Liqueseci lectum He watred his bed dissolved his bed made his bed to swimme surrounded his bed with teares And more he macerated his bed with that brine And then he continued this affliction It was not a sudden passion a flash of remorse but he continued it till his eye was consumed by reason of that anguish and despite and indignation as our diverse Translations vary the expressing thereof so long as night and day lasted so long as that he was waxen old under it and when this great affliction should have brought him safely into harbour that he might have rested securely at last his enemies that triumphed over him gave him new occasions of miserie his eyes were consumed and waxed old because of his enemies that is because he was still amongst enemies that triumphed over him Be pleased to take another Edition another Impression of these particulars A naturall mans Morall constancy will hold out against outward declarations of griefe yet David came to that he groaned A groane a sigh may breake out and the heart be at the more ease for that But Laboravit they grew upon him and the more he groaned and the more he sighed the more he had an inclination and not onely that but cause to doe so for he found that his sorrow was to be sorrowed for and his repentance to be repented there were such imperfections in all Therefore he suffered thus till he was wearied till he fainted with groaning and sighing And then this winde does not blow over the raine he weeps and weeps the more violently and the more continually extreames that seldome meet violence and lasting but in his case they did All this all night and all this all this while not amongst friends to pity him and condole with him but amongst enemies to affront him and deride him So that here are all the ingredients all the elements of misery Sorrow of heart that admits no disguise but flowes into outward declarations and such declarations as create no compassion but triumph in the enemy I am weary with my groaning c. To proceed then to the particulars in our first Part Quid factum What David did 1 Part. Gemit first Gemit He comes to sigh to groane to an outward declaration of a sense of Gods indignation upon him till he had perfected his repentance She sighed Lament and turned backward was Jerusalems misery To sigh and turne backward to repent and relapse is a wofull Condition But to sigh and turne forward to turne upon God and to pursue this sorrow for our sins then in such sighes The Spirit
thy strength and thy labors in Then when the dishes upon thy table are doubled and thy cup overflows and the hungry and thirsty soules of the poore doe not onely feed upon the crums under thy table and lick up the overflowings of thy cup but divide dishes with thee and enter into the midst of thy Bolls Then when thou hast temporall blessings that is Gods silver and his grace to use those blessings well that is Gods gold then is the best time of finding the Lord for then he looks upon thee in the Sun-shine and then thy thankfull acknowledgement of former blessings is the most effectuall prayer thou canst make for the continuance and enlargement of them In a word then is a fit time of finding God Nunc. whensoever thy conscience tells thee he calls to thee for a rectified conscience is the word of God If that speake to thee now this minute now is thy time of finding God That Now that I named then that minute is past but God affords thee another Now he speaks againe he speaks still and if thy conscience tell thee that he speaks to thee now is that time This word of God thy conscience will present unto thee but that one condition which Moses presented to Gods people and that is That thou seeke the Lordwith all thy heart and all thy soule It is a kinde of denying the Infinitenesse of God to serve him by pieces and ragges God is not Infinite to me if I thinke a discontinued service will serve him It is a kinde of denying the Unity of God to joyne other gods Pleasure or Profit with him He is not One God to me if I joyne other Associates and Assistants to him Saints or Angels It is a kinde of diffidence in Christ as though I were not sure that he would stand in the favour of God still as though I were afraid that there might rise a new favorite in heaven to whom it might concerne me to apply me selfe If I make the balance so eaven as to serve God and Mammon if I make a complementall visit of God at his house upon Sunday and then plot with the other faction the World the Flesh and the Devill all the weeke after Jor. 9.13 The Lord promised a power of seeking and an infallibility of finding but still with this totall condition Ye shall seeke mee and ye shall finde me because ye shall seek mee with all your heart This he promised for the future that he would doe This he testified for the house of Iudah 2 Chro. 15.15 that he had done Iudah sought him with a whole desire and he was found of them and the Lord gave them rest round about And the Lord shall give you rest round about rest in your bodies and rest in your estates rest in your good name with others and rest in your consciences in your selves rest in your getting and rest in your injoying that you have got if you seeke him with a whole heart and to seek him with a whole heart is not by honest industry to seeke nothing else for God weares good cloathes silk and soft raiment in his religious servants in Courts as well as Cammels haire in Iohn Baptist in the Wildernesse and God manifests himselfe to man as well in the splendor of Princes in Courts as in the austerity of Iohn Baptist in the Wildernesse but to seeke God with the whole heart is to seeke nothing with that Primary and Radicall and Fundamentall affection as God To seek nothing for it selfe but God not to seeke world things in excesse because I hope if I had them I should glorifie God in them but first to finde established in my selfe a zealous desire to glorifie God and then a modest desire of meanes to be able to doe it And for this every one that is holy shall pray unto thee in a time when thou maist be found And so we have done with our first Part and the foure pieces that constitute that The Person Omnis sanctus Every godly man that is Sanctificatus and Sanctificandus Hee that is godly enough to pray and prayes that he may be more godly And the Object of prayer Ad te God alone for God alone can heare and God alone can give And then the Subject of prayer Hoc This this which David expresses forgivenesse of the punishment and of the iniquity of fin In which respect that David proposes and specificates the subject of prayer wee are fairely directed rather to accustome our selves to those prayers which are recommended to us by the Church then to extemporall prayers of others or of our owne effusion And lastly the Time of finding God that is Then when we seeke him with a whole heart seeke him as Principal and then receive temporall things as accessory and conducible to his glory Thus much hath fallen into the first Part the duty of Prayer A little remaines to be said of the benefit here assured Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him Taking these waters 2. Part. Hâ—â—r Aquae either Distributively to every one that is godly or Collectively as S. Hierome does to the whole Church the use will be all one The Holy Ghost who is a direct worker upon the soule and conscience of man but a Metaphoricall and Figurative expresser on himselfe to the reason and understanding of man abounds in no Metophor more then in calling Tribulations Waters particularly He would bring in waters upon Tyrus Eâ—â—k 26.3 Hosâ—â— 5. And He would poure out his wrath upon his enemies like waters Neither doth he onely intimate temporall but spirituall afflictions too in the name of Waters And as S. Hierome understands this whole place of the Church Hieron August collectively so S. Augustine understands these waters to be Varia Doctrinae those diverse opinions that disquiet and trouble the Church And though the Church of God were built upon a hill and compassed and environed and fenced with the blood of him that built it and defended and guarded by the vigilancy of the Apostles yet into this Jerusalem did these waters breake even in the Apostles time as we see by those severall those manifold those contradictory Heresies that sprung up them Christ and his Apostles had carried two Waters about his Church The water of Baptisme that is Limen Ecclesiae and Ianua Sacramentorum Argust The first Ferry by which we passe into the Church and by this Water came three thousand and five thousand at once to the Church upon particular Sermons of S. Peter And then Christ gave another Water by which they came to another Ablution to Absolution from actuall fins the water of contrite teares and repentance which he had promised before Eâ—â—k 24.35 I will poure cleane water upon you and you shall be cleane And by this water came Peter himselfe when his faith had failed And by this water came Mary Magdalen when her life had
temporall blessings to men upon whom he hath not set his heart And then in the 27. Verse he sayes Therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee If he had onely found it in the Liturgy and in the manner of the Service of that Church to which hee came with an ill will and against his heart he would not have prayed that prayer nay he would not have come to that Church Psal 35.11 40.10 For though David place a great joy in that That he can come to praise God in the Congregation and in the great Congregation And though David seeme even to determine Gods presence in the Church for he multiplies that expostulation that adprecation many times When shall I come in conspectum tuum into thy presence And Restore me O Lord conspectui tuo to thy presence Hee was not right not in the right way if he came not to Church yet there is a case in which David glories in though as hee saith there In corde meo abscondi eloquium tuum Psal 119.11 Thy word have I hidden locked up in my heart Though in another in many other places he rejoyce in that I have not hid thy righteousnesse in my heart Psal 40.10 I have not concealed thy truth from the great Congregation yet here he glories in his Abscondi I have hid it Which as both S. Hilary and S. Ambrose referre it to a discreet and seasonable suppressing of the mysteries of Religion and not to cast pearles before swine may also inferre this Instruction That a man were better serve God at home though not in so right a way if he thinke it right then to come hither against his heart and conscience Not but that there is better meanes of receiving good here then at home in private prayer though made the right way But his end in comming is not to make this meanes his way to that good And therefore his very being here though hee be thereby in the right way because it comes not from an upright heart as it is a greater danger to us who are deluded by their hypocriticall conformity so is it a greater sinne to them who come so against their conscience David prayes thus Psal 119.19 Incola sum ne abscondas I am a stranger hide not thy commandements from mee Let me not be a stranger at Church at thy Service And so it behooves us to pray too That those Doores and those Books may alwayes bee open unto us But yet I will say with David too Abscondam eloquium where I am a stranger and in a place of strange and superstitious worship I will hide my religion so farre as not to communicate with others in a service against my heart It is not safe for us to trust our selves at a superstitious Service though curiosity or company or dependency upon others draw us thither neither is it safe to trust all that come hither if their hearts be not here For the Retribution of our Text that is Thanks and Praise belongs onely to them who are Right and Right of heart and to them it is made due and infallible by this promise from God and made universall Omnes All the upright in heart shall glory How often God admits into his owne Name Omnes this addition of Universality Omne All as though he would be knowne by that especially He is Omnipotent There he can doe All He is Omniscient There he can know All Hee is Omnipresent There he can direct All. Neither doth God extend himselfe to all that he may gather from all but that he may gather all and all might meet in him and enjoy him So God is all Center as that hee looks to all and so all circumference as that hee embraces all The Sunne works upon things that he sees not as Mynes in the wombe of the earth and so works the lesse perfectly God sees all and works upon all and desires perfection in all There is no one word so often in the Bible as this Omne All. Neither hath God spread the word more liberally upon all the lines of this Booke then he hath his gracious purposes upon all the soules of men And therefore to withdraw Gods generall goodnesse out of his generall propositions That he would have all repent That he came to save all is to contract and abridge God himselfe in his most extensive Attribute or Denotation that is his Mercy And as there is a curse laid upon them that take away any part any proposition out of this Booke so may there be a curse or an ill affection and countenance and suspicion from God that presses any of his generall propositions to a narrower and lesse gracious sense then God meant in it It were as easily beleeved that God lookes towards no man as that there should be any man in whom he sees that is considers no sin that he lookes not towards I could as easily doubt of the universall providence of God as of the universall mercy of God if man continued not in rebellion and in opposition If I can say by way of confession and accusing my selfe Lord my wayes have not beene right nor my heart right there is yet mercy for mee But to them who have studied and accustomed themselves to this uprightnesse of heart there is mercy in that exaltation mercy in the nature of a Reward of a Retribution And this Retribution expressed here in this word Glory constitutes our second Part All the upright in heart shall Glory This Retribution is expressed in the Originall in the word Halal And Halal 2 Part. Laus to those Translators that made up our Booke of Common Prayer presented the signification of Gladnesse for so it is there They shall be glad So it did to the Translators that came after for there it is They shall rejoyce And to our last Translators it seemed to signifie Glory They shall Glory say they But the first Translation of all into our Language which was long before any of these three cals it Praise and puts it in the Passive All men of rightfull heart shall be praised He followed S. Hierom who reads it so and interprets it so in the Passive Laudabuntur They shall be praised And so truly Iithhalelu in the Original beares it nay requires it which is not of a praise that they shall give to God but of a praise that they shall receive for having served God with an upright heart not that they shall praise God in doing so but that godly men shall praise them for having done so All this will grow naturally out of the roote for the roote of this word is Lucere Splendere To shine out in the eyes of men and to create in them a holy and a reverentiall admiration as it was Iohn Baptists praise That he was A burning and a shining Lampe Properly it is by a good and a holy exemplary life to occasion others to set
no inconvenience averts Christ and his Spirit from his sweet and gracious and comfortable visitations But yet this that is called here The Sea of Galile was not properly a Sea but according to the phrase of the Hebrews who call all great meetings of waters by that one name A Sea this which was indeed a lake of fresh water is called a Sea From the roote of Mount Libanus spring two Rivers Jor and Dan and those two meeting together joyning their waters joyne their names too and make that famous river Jordan a name so composed as perchance our River is Thamesis of Thame and Isis And this River Jordan falling into this flat makes this Lake of sixteene miles long and some sixe in breadth Which Lake being famous for fish though of ordinary kinds yet of an extraordinary taste and relish and then of extraordinary kinds too not found in other waters and famous because divers famous Cities did engirt it and become as a garland to it Capernaum and Chorazim and Bethsaida and Tiberias and Magdalo all celebrated in the Scriptures was yet much more famous for the often recourse which our Saviour who was of that Countrey made to it For this was the Sea where he amazed Peter with that great draught of fishes that brought him to say Exi à me Domine Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinfull man Luk. 5.8 This was the Sea where himselfe walked upon the waters Matt. 14.25.8.23 And where he rebuked the tempest And where he manifested his Almighty power many times And by this Lake this Sea dwelt Andrew and Peter and using the commodity of the place lived upon fishing in this Lake and in that act our Saviour found them and called them to his service Why them Why fishers First Christ having a greater a fairer Jerusalem to build then Davids was Cur Piscatores a greater Kingdome to establish then Juda's was a greater Temple to build then Solomons was having a greater work to raise yet he begun upon a lesse ground Hee is come from his twelve Tribes that afforded armies in swarmes to twelve persons twelve Apostles from his Iuda and Levi the foundations of State and Church to an Andrew and a Peter fisher-men sea-men and these men accustomed to that various and tempestuous Element to the Sea lesse capable of Offices of civility and sociablenesse then other men yet must be employed in religious offices to gather all Nations to one houshold of the faithfull and to constitute a Communion of Saints They were Sea-men fisher-men unlearned and indocil Why did Christ take them Not that thereby there was any scandall given or just occasion of that calumny of Iulian the Apostat That Christ found it easie to seduce and draw to his Sect such poore ignorant men as they were for Christ did receive persons eminent in learning Saul was so and of authority in the State Nicodemus was so and of wealth and ability Zacheus was so and so was Ioseph of Arimatliea But first he chose such men that when the world had considered their beginning their insufficiency then and how unproper they were for such an employment and yet seene that great work so farre and so fast advanced by so weake instruments they might ascribe all power to him and ever after come to him cheerfully upon any invitation how weake men soever he should send to them because hee had done so much by so weak instruments before To make his work in all ages after prosper the better he proceeded thus at first And then hee chose such men for another reason too To shew that how insufficient soever he received them yet he received them into such a Schoole such an University as should deliver them back into his Church made fit by him for the service thereof Christ needed not mans sufficiency he took insufficient men Christ excuses no mans insufficiency he made them sufficient His purpose then was that the worke should be ascribed to the Workman Nequid Instrumentis August not to the Instrument To himselfe not to them Nec quaesivit per Oratorem piscatorem He sent not out Orators Rhetoricians strong or faire-spoken men to work upon these fisher-men Sed de piscatore lucratus est Imperatorem By these fisher-men hee hath reduced all those Kings and Emperours and States which have embraced the Christian Religion these thousand and six hundred yeares When Samuel was sent with that generall Commission 1 Sam. 16.6 to anoint a sonne of Ishai King without any more particular instructions when hee came and Eliab was presented unto him Surely sayes Samuel 1 Sam. 30. noting the goodlinesse of his personage this is the Lords Anointed But the Lord said unto Samuel Looke not on his countenance nor the height of his stature for I have refused him for as it followeth there from Gods mouth God seeth not as man setth Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord beholdeth the heart And so David in apparance lesse likely was chosen But if the Lords arme be not shortned let no man impute weaknesse to the Instrument For so when David himselfe was appointed by God to pursue the Amalekites the Amalekites that had burnt Ziklag and done such spoile upon Gods people as that the people began to speak of stoning David from whom they looked for defence Ver 6. when David had no kind of intelligence no ground to settle a conjecture upon which way he must pursue the Amalekites and yet pursue them he must in the way he findes a poore young fellow a famished sicke young man derelicted of his Master and left for dead in the march and by the meanes and conduct of this wretch David recovers the enemy recovers the spoile recovers his honour and the love of his people If the Lords arme bee not shortned let no man impute weaknesse to his Instrument But yet God will alwayes have so much weaknesse appeare in the Instrument as that their strength shall not be thought to be their owne When Pete and Iohn preached in the streets Acts 4.13 The people marvelled sayes the Text why for they had understood that they were unlearned But beholding also the man that was healed standing by they had nothing to say sayes that story The insufficiency of the Instrument makes a man wonder naturally but the accomplishing of some great worke brings them to a necessary acknowledgement of a greater power working in that weake Instrument For if those Apostles that preached Acts 8.10 had beene as learned men as Simon Magus as they did in him This man is the great power of God not that he had but that he was the power of God the people would have rested in the admiration of those persons and proceeded no farther It was their working of supernaturall things that convinced the world For all Pauls learning though hee were very learned never brought any of the Conjurers to burne his bookes or to renounce
build the Church in Peter and Andrew brethren The principall fraternity and brotherhood that God respects is spirituall Brethren in the profession of the same true Religion But Peter and Andrew whom he called here to the true Religion and so gave them that second fraternity and brotherhood which is spirituall were naturall brethren before And that God loves that a naturall a secular a civill fraternity and a spirituall fraternity should be joyned together when those that professe the same Religion should desire to contract their alliances in marrying their Children and to have their other dealings in the world as much as they can with men that professe the same true Religion that they do That so not medling nor disputing the proceedings of States who in some cases go by other rules then private men do we doe not make it an equall an indifferent thing whether we marry our selves or our children or make our bargaines or our conversation with persons of a different Religion when as our Adversaries amongst us will not goe to a Lawyer nor call a Physitian no nor scarce a Taylor or other Tradesman of another Religion then their owne if they can possibly avoid it God saw a better likelihood of avoyding Schisme and dissention when those whom hee called to a new spirituall brotherhood in one Religion were naturall brothers too and tied in civill bands as well as spirituall And as Christ began so he proceeded Non cognati for the persons whom he called were Catechisticall instructive persons persons from whose very persons we receive instruction The next whom he called which is in the next verse were two too and brethren too Iohn and Iames but yet his owne kinsmen in the flesh But as he chose two together to avoid singularity and two brethren to avoid Schisme so he preferred two strangers before his own kindred to avoid partiality and respect of persons Certainly every man is bound to do good to those that are neare him by nature The obligation of doing good to others lies for the most part thus Let us do good to all men Gal. 6.10 but especially unto them which are of the houshold of the faithfull They of our owne Religion are of the Quorum Now when all are so of the houshold of the faithfull of our owne Religion the obligation looks home and lie thus He that provideth not for his own denieth the faith 1 Tim. 5.8 and is worse then an Infidel Christ would therefore leave no example nor justification of that perverse distemper to leave his kindred out nor of their disposition who had rather buy new friends at any rate then relieve or cherish the old But yet when Christ knew how far his stock would reach that no liberality howsoever placed could exhaust that but that he was able to provide for all he would leave no example nor justification of that perverse distemper to heape up preferments upon our owne kindred without any consideration how Gods glory might be more advanced by doing good to others too But finding in these men a fit disposition to be good labourers in his harvest and to agree in the service of the Church as they did in the band of nature he calls Peter and Andrew otherwise strangers before he called his Consins Iames and Iohn These Circumstances we proposed to be considered in these persons before Continuò sequuti and at their being called The first after their calling is their chearfull readinesse in obeying Continuò sequuti They were bid follow and forthwith they followed Which present obedience of theirs is exalted in this that this was freshly upon the imprisonment of Iohn Baptist whose Disciple Andrew had been And it might easily have deterred and averted a man in his case to consider that it was well for him that he was got out of Iohn Baptists schoole and company before that storme the displeasure of the state fell upon him and that it behoved him to be wary to apply himselfe to any such new Master as might draw him into as much trouble which Christs service was very like to doe But the contemplation of future persecutions that may fall the example of persecutions past that have falne the apprehension of imminent persecutions that are now falling the sense of present persecutions that are now upon us retard not those upon whom the love of Christ Jesus works effectually They followed for all that And they followed when there was no more perswasion used to them no more words said to them but Sequere me Follow me And therefore how easie soever Iulian the Apostate might make it for Christ to work upon so weake men as these were yet to worke upon any men by so weake means onely by one Sequere me Follow me and no more cannot be thought easie The way of Rhetorique in working upon weake men is first to trouble the understanding to displace and discompose and disorder the judgement to smother and bury in it or to empty it of former apprehensions and opinions and to shake that beliefe with which it had possessed it self before and then when it is thus melted to powre it into new molds when it is thus mollified to stamp and imprint new formes new images new opinions in it But here in our case there was none of this fire none of this practise none of this battery of eloquence none of this verball violence onely a bare Sequere me Follow me and they followed No eloquence enclined them no terrors declined them No dangers withdrew them no preferment drew them they knew Christ and his kindred and his means August they loved him himselfe and not any thing they expected from him Minùs te amat qui aliquid tuum amat quod non propter te amat That man loves thee but a little that begins his love at that which thou hast and not at thy selfe It is a weake love that is divided between Christ and the world especially if God come after the world as many times he does even in them who thinke they love him well that first they love the riches of this world and then they love God that gave them But that is a false Method in this art of love The true is radically to love God for himselfe and other things for his sake so far as he may receive glory in our having and using them This Peter and Andrew declared abundantly Relictia retibus they did as much as they were bid they were bid follow and they followed but it seemes they did more they were not bid leave their nets and yet they left their nets and followed him But for this they did not no man can doe more in the service of God then is enjoyned him commanded him There is no supererogation no making of God beholden to us no bringing of God into our debt Every man is commanded to love God with all his heart and all his power and a heart above a
119.136 Rivers of waters ran 161. E. 135.7 He causeth the vapours 264. B. 136.4 Facit mirabilia magna 215. C. 139.21 Doe not I hate them 99. C. 145.15 The eyes of all wait 684. D. 146.3 Put not your trust in Princes 483. A. PROVERBS 11.13 The fruit of the righteous 84. A. 12.23 A wise man concealeth 565. C. 13.22 The wealth of the sinner c. 83. C. 14.23 He shall have hope 83. D. 17.6 The glory of children 84. A. 25.16 Fill not thy selfe with honey 63. E. ECCLES 10.10 If the iron be blunt we must 356. C. 10.20 Those that have wings 92. D. 38.9 Myson in thy sicknesse c. 110. C. CANTICLES 1.8 O thou fairest among women 119. E. 2.15 Take us the little Foxes for they devoure the Vine 117. A. 782. B. 4.12 My Sister my Spouse is a garden en closed 515. C. 8.6 Set me as a seal on thy heart 456. D. ESAY 7.13 Is it a small thing to weary men 15. A. 9.6 A childe is given to us a Son is borne to us 86. C. 9.6 Counsellor The mighty God 6. B. 14.12 How art thou faln from heaven 187. B. 18.1 Wo to the land shadowing with wings 671. B. 27.7 Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote him 505. D. 36.21 They held their peace and 410. B. 38.2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed 251. D. 40.15 As a drop upon the Bucket 64. D. 40.31 They that waite upon the Lord shall renew their strength 637. C. 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him but 181. A. 55.8 My thoughts are not your 25. B. 58.11 Thou shalt be a spring of water 660. D. 60.1 Arise shine for thy light is come 188. E. JEREMIAH 1.10 Behold I have this day 734. B. 5.1 Run to and fro through the streets of 422. A. 18.2 Arise and goe downe 147. B. LAMENTATIONS 1.2 She weepeth continually in the night 540. A. 2.19 Poure out thy heart like water 591. D. 2.10 Women eat their children of a span long 146. D. 215. D. 4.8 My skin cleaves to my bones 519. B. EZECHIEL 9.4 Set a mark upon the foreheads 537. E. 16.29 Thou hast multiplied thy fornications c. 24. C. 44.2 This gate shall be shut c. 22. E. HOSEA 14.2 Take unto you words and turn 578. C. MICAH 2.13 The breaker is gone up before 181. B. HABAKKUK 2.4 The just shall live c. 79. C. 2.18 What good can an Idol or c 117. D. HAGGAI 2.9 The glory of the later house c. 30. D. ECCLUS 7.36 Remember the end and 371. B. 38.1 Honour a Physitian with 187. B. 38.15 He that sinneth before his 187. B. MATTHEVV 1.25 Till she brought forth her Son 22. E. 5.48 Be yee perfect as your Father in heaven is 823. A. 5.23 If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and 33. C. 7.19 He taught them as one 690. E. 9.2 My sonne be of good cheare 343. C. 10.39 He that finds his life 150. C. 16.24 He that will follow me let 732. C. 16.28 There be some standing here 259. A. 19.28 In the regeneration 181. A. 20.23 It is not mine to give 761. E. 21.44 He that falls upon this stone 665. B. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the Winter 580. B. 28.19 Goe and teach all Nations 47. B. MARKE 9.24 Lord I beleeve 669. C. LUKE 1.28 Blessed art thou amongst women 18. C. 4.23 Physitian heale thy selfe 420. B. 4.32 They were astonished at his 691. A. 7.29 The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected 366. D. 12.32 Feare not little flock for c. 45. C. 228. B. JOHN 1.3 4. All things were made by him 667. E. 1.16 Grace for grace 310. E. 1.9 He was that light c. 78. B. 345. C. 1.16 Of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace 4. C. 2.4 Woman what have I to doe with thee 23. D. 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you the houre 150. E. 5.17 My Father worketh 240. A. 5.39 Search the Scriptures 339. B. 8.11 Sin no more 110. A. 9.10 I am the doore 752. D. 10.3 His sheep heare his voice 66. D. 10.11 The good shepheard giveth his life for the sheepe 63. A. 19.29 They put it upon Hyssop 646. A. 20.16 Touch me not for 821. D. ACTS 1.22 There was a necessity of one 180. C. 17.11 The Bereans searched the c. 472. E. 20.22 I goe bound in the Spirit 473. C. ROMANS 6.21 What fruit had yee then 65. D. 8.15 Whereby we cry Abba Father 27. D. 8.21 The creature it selfe also shall be delivered from the bondage c. 9. D. 8.23 Our selves have the first fruits 293. B. 1 CORINTHIANS 1.20 God hath made the wisedome of this world foolishnesse 180. B. 6.3 We shall judge the Angels 235. A. 6.20 Yee are bought with a price 26. D. 10.13 No tentation shall befall us but 789. B. 15.8 As of one borne out of due 460. D. 15.3 Christ dyed for our sins 397. B. 15.28 God shall be all in all 231. B. 15.29 For the dead 56. D. 2 CORINTHIANS 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves 118. A. 12.7 A thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan 526. E. 527. A. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee 527. D. EPHESIANS 1.10 That God might gather in one 9. D. 2.12 Without Christ without God 71. C. 3.19 That they are filled with all the 4. C. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest 188. E. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible 105. A. PHILIPPIANS 4.8 If there be any vertue 681. A. COLOSSIANS 3.5 Mortifie your members 151. B. 1 THESSALONIANS 4.7 God hath not called us to c. 117. E. 5.25 I pray God your spirit 335. E. 1 TIM 2.1 I exhort you that supplications and prayers c. 510. D. TITUS 2.14 Christ gave himselfe for us 77. C. HEBREVVES 4.12 The Word of God pierces c. 335. D. 517. B. 4.12 A two edged sword 139. B. 11.35 Others were tortured c. 150. C. 13.22 I beseech you brethren suffer 610. D. JAMES 1.17 The Father of lights 385. B. 5.3 Your gold and your silver c. 81. B. 5.11 You have seene the end c. 399. A. 1 PETER 2.5 Built of lively stones 35. A. 2 PETER 1.19 We have also a more sure word of prophecie 59. E. 1 JOHN 3.2 Now we are the sonnes of God 120. C. 5.16 There is a sin unto death 348. E. REVELATION 3.14 Thus saith Amen 53. A. 12.4 The Dragons taile drew the 240. E. 12.7 Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon 146. E. 17.2 The great Whore sitteth upon 310. B. 22.11 He that is holy 594. D. ⧠The Table of such Authors as are either cited illustrated or refelled in this BOOKE A ABulensis 7. A. B. 50. A. 314. D. 763. C. Aerius 781. B. Alcazar 184. B. Alvarez 693. C. Alexander Alensis 379. D. 603. C. Alcoranum 379. C. 744. C. Ambrosius 18. A. 24. A. 38. A. 88. A. 105. D. 106. A. 110. E. 262. D.
capable of his Mercies and his Retributions as here in this Text he names onely those who are Recti corde The upright in heart They shall be considered rewarded The disposition that God proposes here in those persons Recti whom he considers is Rectitude Uprightnesse and Directnesse God hath given Man that forme in nature much more in grace that he should be upright and looke up and contemplate Heaven and God there And therefore to bend downwards upon the earth to fix our breast our heart to the earth to lick the dust of the earth with the Serpent to inhere upon the profits and pleasures of the earth and to make that which God intended for our way and our rise to heaven the blessings of this world the way to hell this is a manifest Declination from this Uprightnesse from this Rectitude Nay to goe so far towards the love of the earth as to be in love with the grave to be impatient of the calamities of this life and murmur at Gods detaining us in this prison to sinke into a sordid melancholy or irreligious dejection of spirit this is also a Declination from this Rectitude this Uprightnesse So is it too to decline towards the left hand to Modifications and Temporisings in matter or forme of Religion and to thinke all indifferent all one or to decline towards the right hand in an over-vehement zeale To pardon no errors to abate nothing of heresie if a man beleeve not all and just all that we beleeve To abate nothing of Reprobation if a man live not just as we live this is also a Diversion a Deviation a Deflection a Defection from this Rectitude this Uprightnesse For the word of this Text Iashar signifies Rectitudinem and Planiciem It signifies a direct way for the Devils way was Circular Compassing the Earth But the Angels way to heaven upon Iacobs ladder was a straight a direct way And then it signifies as a direct and straight so a plaine a smooth an even way a way that hath been beaten into a path before a way that the Fathers and the Church have walked in before and not a discovery made by our curiosity or our confidence in venturing from our selves or embracing from others new doctrines and opinions The persons then whom God proposes here to be partakers of his Retributions Recti Corde are first Recti that is both Direct men and Plaine men and then recti corde this qualification this straightnesse and smoothnesse must be in the heart All the upright in heart shall have it Upon this earth a man cannot possibly make one step in a straight and a direct line The earth it selfe being round every step wee make upon it must necessarily bee a segment an arch of a circle But yet though no piece of a circle be a straight line yet if we take any piece nay if wee take the whole circle there is no corner no angle in any piece in any intire circle A perfectt rectitude we cannot have in any wayes in this world In every Calling there are some inevitable tentations But though wee cannot make up our circle of a straight line that is impossible to humane frailty yet wee may passe on without angles and corners that is without disguises in our Religion and without the love of craft and falsehood and circumvention in our civill actions A Compasse is a necessary thing in a Ship and the helpe of that Compasse brings the Ship home safe and yet that Compasse hath some variations it doth not looke directly North Neither is that starre which we call the North-pole or by which we know the North-pole the very Pole it selfe but we call it so and we make our uses of it and our conclusions by it as if it were so because it is the neerest starre to that Pole He that comes as neere uprightnesse as infirmities admit is an upright man though he have some obliquities To God himselfe we may alwayes go in a direct line a straight a perpendicular line For God is verticall to me over my head now and verticall now to them that are in the East and West-Indies To our Antipodes to them that are under our feet God is verticall over their heads then when he is over ours To come to God there is a straight line for every man every where But this we doe not if we come not with our heart Praebe mihi fili cor tuum saith God Pro. 23.26 My sonne give me thy heart Was hee his sonne and had hee not his heart That may very well bee There is a filiation without the heart not such a filiation as shall ever make him partaker of the inheritance but yet a filiation The associating our selves to the sonnes of God in an outward profession of Religion makes us so farre the sonnes of God as that the judgement of man cannot and the judgement of God doth not distinguish them Iob 1.6 Because then when the sonnes of God stood in his presence Satan stood amongst the sons of God God doth not disavow him God doth not excommunicate him God makes his use of him and yet God knew his heart was farre from him So when God was in Councell with his Angels about Ahabs going up to Ramoth Gilead 1 King 22.22 A spirit came forth and offered his service and God refuses not his service but employes him though hee knew his heart to be farre from him So no doubt many times they to whom God hath committed supreme government and they who receive beames of this power by subordination and delegation from them they see Satan amongst the sonnes of God hypocrites and impiously disposed men come into these places of holy convocation and they suffer them nay they employ them nay they preferre them and yet they know their hearts are farre from them but as long as they stand amongst the sonnes of God that is appeare and conforme themselves in the outward acts of Religion they are not disavowed they are not ejected by us here they are not But howsoever wee date our Excommunications against them but from an overt act and apparant disobedience yet in the Records of heaven they shall meet an Excommunication and a conviction of Recusancy that shall beare date from that day when they came first to Church with that purpose to delude the Congregation to elude the lawes in that behalfe provided to advance their treacherous designes by such disguises or upon what other collaterall and indirect occasion soever men come to this place for though they bee in the right way when they are here at Church yet because they are not upright in heart therefore that right way brings not them to the right end And that is it which David lookes upon in God and desires that God should looke upon in him 2 Sam. 7.21 According to thine owne heart saith David to God hast thou done all these great things unto us For sometimes God doth give