within a span and when immortality is offer'd affect no other life but that which is a vapour Let us not rayse that swarme of thoughts which must perish Colos 3.3 but build up those works upon our everliving Saviour which may follow us follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of eternity Doth our Saviour live for evermore and shall we have no spirit in us but that which delights to walk about the earth and is content to vanish with it Eternity is a powerfull motive to those who never have such pensive thoughts as when they remember their frailty and are sick even of health it self and in a manner dead with life when they consider it as that blessing which shall have an end Eternity is in our desire though it be beyond our apprehension what he said of time is truer of eternity if you doe not ask what it is we know but if you ask we are not able to answer and resolve you or tell you what it is when we call it an infinite duration we doe but give it another name two words for one a short Paraphrase but we doe not define what it is And indeed our first conceptions of it are the fairest for when they are doubled and redoubled they are lost in themselves and the further they extend themselves the more weary they are and at greater losse in every proffer and must end and rest at last in this poore unsatisfying thought that we cannot think what it is Yet there is in us a wild presage an unhandsome acknowledgment of it for we fancy it in those objects which vanish out of sight whilst we look upon them we set it up in every desire for our desires never have an end Every purpose of ours every action we doe is Aeternitati sacrum and we doe it to eternity we look upon riches as if they had no wings and think our habitations shall endure for ever we look upon honour as if it were not Aire but some Angel confirm'd a thing bound up in eternity we look upon beauty and it is our heaven and we are fixt and dwell on it as if it would never shrivel nor be gathered together as a scroule and so in a manner make mortality it self eternall And therefore since our desires doe so far enlarge themselves and our thoughts doe so multiply that they never have an end since we look after that which we cannot see and reach after that which we cannot graspe God hath set up that for an object to look on which is eternall indeed in the highest Heavens and as he hath made us in his own image so in Christ who came to renew it in us he hath shewed us a more excellent way unto it taught us to work out eternity even in this world in this common shop of change to work it out of that in which it is not which is neer to nothing which shall be nothing to work it out of riches by not trusting them out of honour by contemning it out of the pleasures of this world by loathing them out of the flesh by crucifying it out of the world by overcoming it and out of the Divell himself by treading him under our feet For this is to be in Christ and to be in Christ is to be for evermore Christ is the eternall Sonne of God and he was dead and lives and lives for evermore that we may dye and live for evermore and not onely attaine to the Resurrection of the dead but to eternity Last of all let us look upon the keys in his hand and knock hard that he may open to us and deliver our soule from hell and make our grave not a prison but a Bed to rise from to eternall life or if we be still shut in we our selves have turn'd the key against our selves for Christ is ready with his keyes to open to us and we have our keys too our key of knowledge to discerne between Life and Death and our key of Repentance and when we use these Christ is ready to put his even into our hands and will derive a power unto us mortalls unto us sinners over hell and death And then in the last place we shall be able to set on the Seal the Amen be confirmed in the certainty of his Resurrection and power by which we may raise those thoughts and promote those actions which may look beyond our threescore yeares and ten through all successive generations to immortality and that glory which shall never have an end This is to shew and publish our faith by our works as S. James speaks this is from the heart to believe it as S. Paul for he that thus believes it from the heart cannot but be obedient to the Gospel unless we can imagine there could be any man that should so hate himself as thus deliberately to cast himself into and to run from happinesse when it appeares in so much glory He cannot say Amen to life who kills himself for that which leaves as soul in the grave is not faith but fancy when we are told that honour cometh towards us that some golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that content and pleasure will ever be neer and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemes to make its approch towards us is as uncertain as uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaves a noysome and unsavoury scent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more but when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox fancibus haeret we can scarce say Amen so be it To the world and pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Hell to eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our assurance together so to study the death and life the eternall life and the power of our Saviour that we may be such proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to meet the Resurrection Phil. 3.11 to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousnesse sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty that Hand which touched the Lords Anointed and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory that Eare which hearkned to his voice shall heare nothing but Hallebujahs and the musick of Angels and that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everliving
pleasing but deceitfull contemplation of faith he speaks no other language but do this and exalts charity to the higher place that their vain boasting of faith might not be heard for faith saith he hath no tongue nay no life without her and thus in appearance he takes from the one to establish the other and sets up a throne for charity not without some shew and semblance of prejudice to faith For last of all to give you one reason more Faith indeed is naturally productive of good works For what madnesse is it to see the way to eternity of blisse and not to walk in it Each article of our Creed points out as with â—e finger to some vertue to be wrought out in the minde and publisht in the outward man If I beleeve that Christ is God it will follow I must worship him If he died for sinne the consequence is plain enough we must die to it If he so loved vs the Apostle concludes we must love one another charity is the proper effect of faith and upon faith and charity we build up our hope if we beleeve the promises and perform the condition if we beleeve him that loved us and love him and keep his commandments we are in heaven already But yet we may observe that the corruption of our hearts findes somthing in faith it self to abate and weaken her force and power and to take off her activity and so makes the very object of faith an encouragement to evil and which is a sad speculation the mercy of God a kinde of temptation to sinne Mercy is a pretious oyntment and mercy breaks our head mercy blots out sin and mercy revives it mercy is our hope and mercy is made our confusion we should sin no more but we sin more and more because his mercy endureth for ever we turn the grace of God into wantonness and make this Queen of his glorious attributes to wait on our lust of a Covering a purging a Healing a saving I tremble to speak it we make it a damning mercy for had we not abused it had we not relied upon it too much had we not laid upon it all our uncleannesse our impenitency and wilfull obstinacy in sinne it would have upheld us and lifted us up as high as Heaven but our bold presumption layes hold of it and it flings us off and we fall from it into the bottomlesse pit This then we may take for a sufficient reason why our Apostle puts not faith into his description of Pure Religion and in the next place as he doth not mention faith so he passeth by in silence rather then forgets those other excellent duties of prayer and hearing the word For these two whatsoever high esteem we put upon them howsoever we magnifie them till they are nothing till our selves are worse than nothing worse than the beasts that perish yet are they not the end and their end is perdition who make them so and think that to aske a blessing is to have it when they put it from them or to hear of God is to love him to hear of that happinesse which he hath laid up is to be in Paradise The perfection of the creature saith the Philosopher is ad naturae suae sinem pervenire to attain to the end for which he was made and the end of the Christian is to be like unto Christ that where he is He may be also that is his end that is his perfection Now to draw this home these two to Hear and to Pray do not make us like unto him but are sufficient means to renew the image of God in us that so we may resemble him they are not the haven to which we are bound but are as prosperous and advantagious windes to carry us to it Quod per se bonum est semper est bonum that which is good in it self and for it self is alwayes good as true piety true Religion but those duties which tend to it have their reward or punishment as they reach or misse of that end what is hearing if it beget not obedience what are prayers if they be but the calves of our lips Oh 't is a sad question to be ask't when we shall see Christians full of malice and deceit Have they not heard they have heard that malice shall destroy the wicked that deceit is an abomination that oppression shall eat them up yet will be such monsters as if they never heard oh 't is a sad expostulation to the wicked Have they not heard and as sad a return may be made to our prayers we may stretch out our hands and God may hide his eyes from us we may make many prayers and he not hear we may lift up our hands and vocie unto Heaven and our minde stay below wallowing in the mire of foul pollutions mixt and ingendering with the vanities of the world for as we may fast to strife and debate so we may pray to strife and debate as there may be a politick Fast so our prayer may have more in it of craft than devotion we may make it a trade a craft an occupation and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoutly labor and holdout not to take the kingdom of Heaven but to devour widows houses make this Key of the Gates of Heaven a picklock to open Chests and so debase it to these vile offices which is a sin cujus non audeo dicere nomen for which I have no name bad enough to give it and what is Prayer then what are the means if we rest in them as in the end what are they if we draw and force them to a bad end what are they if we make no use of them at all or make this sad and fatall use of them if our Prayers bring down a curse our hearing flatter us in our disobedience if we Hear and Pray and Perish These two and what else of this nature have their worth and efficacy from Religion from charity to our selves others which are as the two wings on which our prayers ascend and mount to the presence of God to bring down a blessing from thence These sanctifie our fasts these open the ears of the deaf that hearing they may hear and understand These consecrate our Pulpets and are the best panegyricks on our Sermons and make them indeed the word of God powerfull in operation and without these our prayers are but babling and the Sermons which we hear but so many libels against us or as so many knells and sad indications that they that hear them are condemned and dead already For again to visit the fatherlesse and widows in affliction that is to be full of good works and to renounce and abstain from the pleasures of the world for those pleasures we dote on those riches we sweat for are those that bespot us is a far harder task then to say a hundred pater no sters or to continue our prayers as Saint Paul did his preaching
and power from him from his promises and from his precepts from his life and from his passion and death from what he did and from what he suffered as there did to the woman which touched the hem of his garment that healed her bloody issue a power by which he sweetly and secretly and powerfully characterizeth our hearts and writes his minde in our minds and so takes possession of them and draws them into him self in the eighth to the Rom. 11. v. the Apostle tells us he dwelleth in us by his spirit and that we are led by the spirit in the whole course of our life in the second to the Ephes the last v. we are said to be the habitation of God through the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his tabernacle his temple which he consecrates and sets apart to his own use and service there is no doubt a power comes from him but I am almost afraid to say it there having been such ill use made of it For though it become already for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation yet is it still expected expected indeed rather then hoped for for when it doth come we shut the door and set up our will against it and then look faintly after it and perswade our selves it will come at last once for all There is power in his preceâ—ts for our reason subscribes and signes them for true there is power in his promises they shine in glory Rom. 1.16 these are the power of Christ to every one that beleeveth and how can we be Christians if we beleeve not but this is his ordinary power which like the Sun in commune profertur is shewn on all at once There yet goes a more immediate power and virtue from him John 3. â— we denie it not which like the winde works wonderful effects but we see not whence it cometh nor whither it goes neither the beginning nor the end of it which is in another World For the operations of the spirit by reason they are of another condition then any other thought or working in us whatsoever are very difficult and obscure as Scotus observes upon the prologue to the sentences for the manner not to be perceived no not by that soul wherein they are wrought profuisse deprehendas quomodo prefuerunt non deprehendes as Seneca in another case that they have wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which they wrought are impossible to be brought to demonstration But though we cannot discerne the maner of his working yet we may observe that in his actions and operations on the soul of man he holds the course even of natural agents in this respect that they strive to bring in their similitude and likenesse into those things on which they work by a kinde of force driving out one contrary with another to make way for their own form so Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac Jacob and every creature according to its own kinde as Plato said of Sacrates wise sayings that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of his minde so resembling him that you might see all Socrates in them So it is with Christ where he dwells he worketh by his spirit something like unto himself he alters the whole frame of the heart 2 Cor. 10. drives out all that is contrary to him all imaginations which axalt themselves against him never leaves purging and fashioning us Cal. 4. till a new creature like himself till Christ be fully formed in us So it is with every one in whom Christ dwelleth And this he doth by the power of his spirit 1. By quickning our knowledge by shewing us the riches of his Gospel his Beauty and Majesty the glory and order of his house and that with that convincing evidence that we are forced to fall down and worship by filling our soul with the glory of it as God filled the tabernacle with his Exod. 40. that all the powers and saculties of the soul are ravisnt with the sight and come willingly as the Psalmist speaks fall down willingly before him by moving our soul as our soul doth our body that when he sayes go we go and when he sayes do this we do it and so it is in every one in whom Christ dwelleth Secondly he dwells in us by quickning and enlivening our faith so dwells in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 that we are rooted and grounded in love for we read of a dead faith Jâ—m 2.20 which moves no more in the wayes of righteousnesse then a dead man sealed up in his grave and if the Son of man should come he would finde enough of this faith in the World For from hence from this that our faith is not enlivened that the Gospel is not throughly beleeved but faintly received cam formidine contrarit with fear or rather a hope that the contrary is true from hence proceed all the errours of our lives from hence ariseth that irregularity those contradictions those inconsequences in the lives of men even from hence that we have faith but so as we should have the World we have it as if we had it not and so use it as if we used it not or which is worse abuse it not beleeve and be saved but beleeve and be damned and we are vain men saith Saint James if we think otherwise if we think that a dead faith can work any thing or any thing but death but when it is quickned and made a working faith when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith then it works wonders Heb. 11.33 2 Cor. 2,11 for we read of its valour that it subdues kingdoms and stoppeth the mouthes of Lions we read of its policy that it discovers the devils enterprises or devices of its medicinal vertue that it purifieth the heart and we read too furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of faith stealing virtue from Christ and taking Heaven by violence and such a wonderful power it hath in that soul in which Christ dwelleth it worketh out our corruption and stampeth his image upon us it worketh obedience in us which is called the obedience of faith that is that obedience Rom. 1.5 which is due to faith and to which faith naturally tendeth and would bring us to it if we did not dull and dead and hinder it And 1. he worketh in us a universal and equal obedience for if he dwell in us every room is his For there are saith Parisiensis particulares voluntates particular wills or rather particular inclinations and dispositions to this virtue and not to another to be liberal and not temperate sober but not chasT to fast and hear and pray but not to do acts of mercy which are virtues but in appearance and proceed from rotten unsound principles from a false spring but not from Christ and so make up a spiritual Hermaphrodite a good speaker and a bad live a Jew and a Christian Deus in
be who have subscribed to the venturus est that the Lord will come who have little reason to hope for his coming How many beleeve hee will come and bring his reward with him and yet strike off their own Charriot wheels and drive but heavily towards it how many beleeve there is a Judge to come and wish there were none Faith Saving Faith Hope Hope that will not make ashamed cannot dwell in the heart till Charity hath taken up a roome but when she is diffusa in cordibus shed and spread abroad in our Hearts then they are in Conjunction and meet together and kisse each other Faith is a Foundation and on it our love raiseth it self as high as heaven in all the severall branches and parts of it Because I beleeve I love and when my love is reall and perfect my hope springs up and blooms and flourishes my Faith sees the object my Love imbraceth it and the means unto it and my Hope layes hold of it and even takes possession of it And therefore this venturus est This coming of the Lord is a Threat and not a promise if they meet not If Faith work not by Love and both together raise not a Hope venturus est he will come is a Thunder-bolt And thus as it lookes upon Faith and Hope so it calls for our Charity For whether we will or no whether we beleeve or no whether we hope or no veniet he will certainly come but when we love him then we love also his appearance and his coming and our Love is a subscription to his Promise 2 Tim. 4.8 by which we truly Testify our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to his Promise That he will come we eccho it back againe unto him Even so come Lord Jesus For that of Faith may be in a manner forc'd That of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come upon me as an Enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the Chair of the Scornfull or lie in the bed of Lust or am wallowing in the mire or weltring in my own blood or washing my feet in the blood of my Brethren for can any condemned person hope for the day of Execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improv'd his Talent and brought my self to that Temper and Constitution that I am of the same mind with this Lord and partaker of his divine Nature then Faith openeth and displayeth her self and Hope towreth up as high as the right Hand of God and would bring him down never at rest never at an end but panting after him till he doe come crying out with the soules under the Altar How long Lord How long How long is the very breathing and language of Hope Then Substantia mea apud te Psal 62.5 as the vulgar reads that of the Psalmist my expectation my substance my being is with the Lord and I doe not onely subscribe to the veniet to his coming because he hath Decreed and resolved upon it but because I can make an hearty Acknowledgement that the will of the Lord is just and good and I assent not of Necessity but of a willing mind and I am not onely willing but long for it and as he Testifies these Things and confirmes this Article of his coming with this last word etiam venio surely I come so shall I be able truely to Answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly The End of his Coming And now venturus est the Lord will come and you may see the Necessity of his coming in the End of his coming for qualis Dominus talis adventus as his Dominion is such is his Coming his Kingdome spirituall and his coming to punish sinne and reward Obedience to make us either Prisoners in Darkness or Kings and Priests to reigne with him and offer up spirituall Sacrifices for evermore He comes not to answer the Disciples question to restore the Kingdom to Israel for his Kingdome is not such a one as they dreamt of nor to place the Mother of Zebedees Children the one at his right Hand and the other at his left nor to bring the Lawyer to his Table to eat bread with him in his Kingdome These carnall conceits might suite well with the Synagogue which lookt upon nothing but the Basket and yet to bring in this Error the Jews as they killed the Prophets so must they also abolish their Prophecies which speak plainely of a King of no shape or beauty Esai 53.2 Zech. 9.9 Isa 9.6 of his first coming in lowlinesse and poverty of a Prince of Peace and not of warr of the Increase of whose Government there shall be no end Nor doth he come to lead the Chiliast the Dreamer of a Thousand yeares of Temporall Happiness on Earth into a Mahometicall Paradise of all Corporall Contentments That after the Resurrection the Elect and even a Reprobate may think or callhim self so may reigne with Christ a thousand years in all state and Pomp and in the Affluence of all those Pleasures which this Lord hath taught them to renounce A conceit which ill becomes Christians who must look for a better and more enduring substance who are strangers and Pilgrims Heb. 10.34 Heb. 11.13 and not Kings on earth whose Conversation is in heaven and whose whole life must be a going out of the World why should we be commanded and that upon paine of eternall separation from this our Lord to weane our selves from the World and every thing in the World if the same Lord Think these flatteries of our worser part these pleasures which we must loath a fitt and proportionable reward for the labour of our Faith and Charity which is done in the Inward man can he forbid us to touch and Tast these Things and then glut us with them because we did not Touch them and can it now change its Nature and be made a Recompence of those Virtues which were as the wings on which we did fly away and so kept our selves untoucht unspotted of this Evill But they urge Scripture for it and so they soon may for it is soon misunderstood soon misapplyed It is written they say in the 20. of the Revel at the 6. v. that the Saints shall reign with Christ a thousand yeers shall reign with Christ is evidence faire enough to raise those spirits which are too high or rather too low already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no sooner is the word read but the crown is on To let passe the divers interpretations of that place some making the number to be definite some to be indefinite some beginning the thousand yeers with the persecution of Christ and ending it in Antichrist others beginning it with the reign of Constantine when Christianity did most flourish and ending it at the first rising of the
the true cause in the bosome of the Father nay in the bowels of his Son and there see the cause why he was delivered for us written in his Heart it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.4 the love of God to mankind and what was in mankind but enmity and hostility sinne and deformity which are no proper motives to draw on his love and yet he loved us and hated sinne and made haste to deliver us from it Dilexisti me domine plusquam te quando mori voluisti pro me saith Aust Lord when thou dyedst for me thou madest it manifest that my soule was dearer to thee then thy self such a high esteeme did he set upon a Soule which we scarce honour with a thought but so live as if we had none For us men then and For us Sinners was he delivered the Prophet Esay speaks it and he could not speake it so properly of any but him He was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our Iniquities So that he was delivered up not onely to the crosse E◠53. and shame but to our sinnes which nayled him to the crosse which crucified him not onely in his Humility but in his glory now he sits at the right hand of God and puts him to shame to the end of the world Falsò de Judaeis querimur why complain we of the Jewes malice or Judas's treason of Pilates injustice we we alone are they who crucifyed the Lord of life Our Treachery was the Judas which betrayed him Our malice the Jew which accused him our perjury the false witnesse against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him our pride scorned him our envy grinned at him our luxury spet upon him our covetousnesse sold him our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings prickt with his Thornes our sores launced with his speare and the whole Body of sinne stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life Tradidit pro nobis he delivered him up for us sinners no sinne there is which his bloud will not wash away but finall impenitency which is not so much a sinne as the sealing up of the body of sinne when the measure is full pro nobis for us sinners for us for us the progeny of an arch-traytor and as great traytors as he take us at our worst if we repent he was delivered for us and if we do not repent yet he may be said to be delivered for us for he was delivered for us to that end that we might repent Pro nobis Pro nobis omnibus so us all for us men and for us sinners he was deliver'd pro infirmis for us when we were without strength pro impiis for us when we were ungodly pro peccatoribus for sinners Rom. 5.6,7 for so we were consider'd in this great work of our Redemption and thus high are we gone on this scale and ladder of love There is one step more pro nobis omnibus he was deliver'd for us all all not consider'd as elect or reprobate but as men as smners for that name will take in all for all have sinned And here we are taught to make a stand and not to touch too hastily and yet the way is plaine and easie pro omnibus for all this some will not touch and yet they doe touch and presse it with that violence that they presse it almost into nothing make the world not the world and whosoever not whosoever but some certaine men and turne all into a few deduct whom they please out of all people Nations and Languages and out of Christendome it self and leave some few with Christ upon the Crosse whose persons he beares whom they call the elect and meane themselves sic Deus dilexit mundum so God loved the world that is the Elect say they John 3.16 they are the world where t is hard to find them for they are called out of it and the best light we have which is of Scripture discovers them not unto us in that place and if the Elect be this world which God so loved then they are such Elect which may not believe and such elect as may perish and whom God will have perish if they doe not believe T is true none have benefit of Christs death but the Elect but from hence it doth not follow that no other might have had theirs is the kingdome of heaven but are not they shut out now who might have made it theirs God saith Saint Peter would not that any should perish 2 Pet. 3.8 and God is the Saviour of all men saith Saint Paul but especially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 all if they believe and repent and those who are obedient to the Gospel because they doe the bloud of Christ is powred forth on the Believer and with it he sprinkles his heart and is saved the wicked trample it under their foot and perish That the bloud of Christ is sufficient to wash away the sinnes of the world nay of a thousand worlds that Christ paid down a ransome of so infinite a value that it might redeeme all that are or possibly might be under that Captivity that none are actually redeemed but they who make him their Captaine and doe as he commands that is believe and repent or to speak in their own language none are saved but the elect In this all agree in this they are Brethren and why should they fall out when both hold up the priviledge of the believer and leave the rod of the stubborne Impenitent to fall upon him The death of Christ is not applyed to all say some It is not for all say others the virtue of Christs meritorious passion is not made use of by all say some it was never intended that it should say others and the event is the same for if it be not made use of and applyed it is as if it were not as if it had never been obtain'd onely the unbeliever is left under the greater condemnation who turned away from Christ who spake unto him not onely from heaven but from his crosse and refused that grace which was offer'd him which could not befall him if there had never been any such overture made for how can he refuse that which never concern'd him how can he forfeit that pardon which was never seal'd how can he despise that spirit of grace which never breathed towards him They who are so tender and jealous of Christs bloud that no drop must fall but where they direct it doe but veritatem veritate concutere undermine and shake one truth with another set up the particular love of God to believers to overthrow his generall love to Mankind confound the virtue of Christs passion with the effect and draw them together within the same narrow compasse bring it under a Decree that it can save no more then it doth because it hath its bounds set hitherto it shall go and no further and was ordained to quicken
and Attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot which was the Garment of the High Priest and his was an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 7.24 and he had a golden Girdle or Belt as a King v. 13. for he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loynes and Faithfulnesse he girdle of his reines Es 11.5 His head and his haires were white as wooll v. 14. and as white as snow his Judgement pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth even as waters are when no wind troubles them His eys as a flame of fire piercing the inward man searching the secrets of the heart nor is there any action word or thought which is not manifest in his sight His feet like unto fine brasse sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy his voyce as many waters v. 15. declaring his fathers will with power and authority sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world and last of all out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword v. 16. not onely dividing asunder the soul and the spirit but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortall eye his Countenance was as the Sun shining in his strength and now of him who walks in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large Robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power who is clothed with Justice whose Wisdom pierceth even into darknesse it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayes its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confesse with Peter This is Christ the Sonne of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the desire of the Nations the glory of his Father can Beauty it self appeare in such a shape of Terrour shall we draw out a mercifull Redeemer with a warriours Belt with eyes of Fire with feet of Brasse with a voyce of Terrour with a sharp two-edged Sword in his mouth Yes such a High Priest became us who is not onely mercifull but just not onely meek but powerfull not onely fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darknesse of Humility but with the shining robes of Majesty who can dye and can live again and live for evermore who suffered himself to be judged and condemned and shall judge and condemne the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and bids him shake off this feare for he is terrible to none but those who make him so to Hereticks and Hypocrites and Persecutors of his Church to those who would have him neither wise nor just nor powerfull non accepimus iratum sed fecimus he is not angry till we force him 't is rather our sins that turn back again upon us as furies than his wrath that makes him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all Sweetnesse all Grace all Salvation and upon these as upon St. John he layes his right hand quickens and rouzeth them up Feare not neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brasse nor my mighty voice nor my two-edged sword for my Wisdom shall guide you my power shall defend you my Majesty shall uphold you and my Mercy shall crown you Fear not I am the first and the last more humble than any more powerfull than any scorned whipped crucified and now highly exalted and Lord of all the world I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore c. Which words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lords Prayer breviarium Evangelii the breviary or summe of the whole Gospel or with Austin symbolnm abbreviatum the Epitome and abridgement of our Creed and such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable unalterable rule of Faith and then The articles or parts will be these 1. The Death of Christ I was dead 2. The Resurrection of Christ with the effect and power of it I am he that liveth 3. The duration and continuance of his life which is to all eternity I live for evermore 4. Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And these 1. Are ushered in with an Ecce Behold that we may consider it 2. Sealed ratified with an Amen that we may believe it That there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaks an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God I am he that liveth and was dead And of the death of Christ we spake the last day Par 1. we shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection consider it as past for it is fui mortuus I was dead and in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour which he drew out in his blood which must sprinkle those who are to be saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam Luke 24.25 Heb. 2.20 from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Christ and his Church are in computations but one person he ought to suffer and we ought to suffer they suffer in him and he in hem to the end of the world nor is any other method either answerable to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indelible characters nor to our mortall and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed must be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up quicquid Deo convenit Tetuil homini prodest that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us that which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head there is an oportet set upon both he ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again And first it cannot consist with the wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and we live as we please and the reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Divel for those who will be his vassals that he should foile him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this
of the Pharisees believe in him we might ask Did any of his Disciples believe in him Christ himself calls them Fools and slow of heart to believe what the Prophets had foretold their Feare had sullied the evidence that they could not see it the Text sayes they forsook him and fled And the reason of this is plain For though faith be an act of the understanding yet it depends upon the will and men are incredulous not for want of those meanes which may raise a faith but for want of will to follow that light which leads unto it do not believe because they will not and so bear themselves strongly upon opinion preconceived beyond the strength of all evidence whatsoever when our affections and lusts are high and stand out against it the evidence is put by and forgot and the object which calls for our eye and faith begins to disappear and vanish and at last is nothing quot voluntates tot fides so many wills Hilary so many Creeds for there is no man that believes more than he will To make this good we may appeale to men of the slendrest observation least experience we may appeale to our very eye which cannot but see those uncertain and uneven motions in which men are carried on in the course of their life For what else is that that turnes us about like the hand of a Diall from one point to another from one perswasion to a contrary How comes it to pass that I now embrace what anon I tremble at what is the reason that our Belief shifts so many Scenes and presents it self in so many severall shapes now in the indifferency of a Laodicaean anon in the violence of a Zelot now in the gaudiness of Superstition anon in the proud scornful slovenry of factious Profaneness that they make so painfull a peregrination through so many modes and forms of Religion and at last end in Atheist what reason is there there can be none but this the prevalency and victory of our sensitive part over our reason and the mutability yea and stubbornesse of our will which cleaves to that which it will soon forsake but is strongly set against the truth which brings with it the fairest evidence but not so pleasing to the sense This is it which makes so many impressions in the mind Self-love and the love of the world these frame our Creeds these plant and build these root and pull down build up a Faith and then beat it to the ground and then set up another in its place A double-minded man saith S. James is unstable in all his wayes Remember 2 Tim. 2.8 saith S. Paul that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised up from the dead according to my Gospel that is a sure foundation for our faith to build on and there we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fair and certain pledges of it which are as a Commentary upon ego vivo I live or as so many beams of light to make it open and manifest to every eye which give up so fair an evidence that the malice of the Jew cannot avoid it Let them say his Disciples stole him away whilest their stout watchmen slept what stole him away and whilest they slept it is a dream and yet it is not a dream it is a studied lye and doth so little shake that it confirmes our faith so transparent that through it we may behold more clearly the face of truth which never shines brighter than when a lye is drawn before it to vaile and shadow it He is not here he is risen if an Angel had not spoken it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the clothes so diligently wrapt up the Grave it self did speak it and where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote a lye they help to confute it id negant quod ostendunt they deny what they affirm and malice it self is made an argument for the truth For it we have a better verdict given by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 12.15 We have a cloud of witnesses five hundred brethren at once who would not make themselves the Fathers of a lye to propagate that Gospel which either makes our yea yea and nay nay or damnes us nor did they publish it to raise themselves in wealth and honour for that teacheth them to contemn them and makes poverty a beatitude and shewes them a sword and persecution which they were sure to meet with and did afterwards in the prosecution of their office and publication of that faith nor could they take any delight in such a lye which would gather so many clouds over their heads and would at last dissolve in that bitternesse which would make life it self a punishment and at last take it away and how could they hope that men would ever believe that which themselves knew to be a lie These witnesses then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are many and beyond exception We have the blood too the testimony of the Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance or that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done for now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased multiplied it we see him in his word we see him through the blood of Martyrs we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen alive secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeats it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Austins let it passe for his sake when the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bignesse of a stone but our infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appears as visible as a mountain Vivo Vivo that is vivifico I give life saith Christ I am alive there is more in this vivo than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he liveth is as much as he giveth life there is virtue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls shall raise them nay he hath done it already conresuscitati we are risen together with him and we live with him for we cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own Grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this vivo it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christs living breathes life into us and in his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca and this is such a one an eternall pattern for ours Plato's Idea or common
powerfull Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant c. HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN 16.13 Howbeit when He the spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all truth WHen the spirit of truth is come c. and behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memoriall of his coming a memoriall of that miraculous and unusuall sound that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as he came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen heard so he comes though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not it a mighty wind yet he rattles our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our souls are shaken no fire appears yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the Holy Ghost descends both as an Instructer and a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing not drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth When He the spirit of truth is come c. In which words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzen speaks or rather the promise of his coming and appearance and if we well weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40. For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Es 11.2 and I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christs Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirits for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christs Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirits Advent to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us Captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it for we may soon see that the one will little availe without the other Christs Birth his Death and Passion Chists glorious Resurrection but a story in Archivis good newes sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him Phil. 3.10 and the vertue and power of his Resurrection and make us conformable to his death This is the summe of these words and in this we shall passe by these steps or degrees First carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirits Advent the miracle of this day cùm venerit when the spirit of truth comes in a sound to awake them in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Secondly consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his person the demonstrative pronoune ille when he shall come 2. Nomen naturae a name expressing his nature he is a spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose spirit it is In the second we shall find Nomen officii a name of office and administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way for so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be their leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a strait and even course in the way And in this great office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the lesson he teacheth it is Truth Secondly the large extent of this lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he leads into all truth Thirdly The method and manner of his discipline which will neerly concern us to take notice of it is ductus a gentle and effectuall leading he drives us not he drawes us not by violence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word here he takes as it were by the hand and guides and leads us into all truth Cùm venerit ille spiritus veritatis When He the spirit of truth c. And first though we are told by some that where the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to fo there we are to understand the person of the Holy Ghost yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille when he the spirit of truth shall come he shall lead you which points out to a distinct person For if with Sabellius he had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts or some effect of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He designes a certain person and ille he in Christs mouth a distinct person from himself Besides we are taught in the Schools Actiones sunt suppositorum actions and operations are of persons now in this verse Christ sayes that he shall lead them and before he shall reprove the world and in the precedent chapter he shall testifie of me which are proper and peculiar operations of the blessed Spirit and bring him in a distinct person from the Father and the Son And therefore S. Augustine rests upon this dark and generall expression The Holy Ghost communicates both of the Father and the Son is something of them both whatsoever we may call it whether we call him the Consubstantiall and Coeternall communion and friendship of the Father and the Son or with Gerson and others of the Schools Nexum Amorosum the Essentiall Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations in which if we speak not in the Spirits language we may sooner lose than profit our selves and speak more than we should whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough It will be safer walking below amongst those observations which as they are more familiar and easy so are they more usefull and take what oare we can find with ease than to dig deeper in this dark mine where if we walk not warily we may meet with poysonous fogs and damps instead of treasure We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the Spirit of Truth for divers
is an Argument against us That wee deserve to heare it no more We are willing that what we speake should stand not a word not a syllable not one tittle must fall to the ground If wee speak to our servant and say Goe he must goe and if we say doe this he must doe it nunc Now dicto citiùs as soon as it is spoke A deliberative pausing Obedience Obedience in the Future Tense to say he will doe it when he pleases strips him of his Livery and Thrusts him out of doores And shall man who is Dust and Ashes feek a convenient time to Turne from his Evill wayes shall our now be when we please shall one morrow Thrust on another and that a Third shall we demurr and delay till we are ready to be thrust into our graves or which will follow into Hell if the Lord saies Turne ye Turne ye there can be no other time no other now but now All other nows and opportunities as our dayes are in his hands and he may close and shut them up if he please and not open them to give thee another Domini non servi negotium agitur the business is the Lords and not the servants and yet the businesse is ours too but the Time is in his Hands and not in ours Now then Turne ye now the word sounds and Eccho's in your eares Againe now now thou hast any good Thought any Thought that hath any relish of Salvation For that thought if it be not the voice Deus ad homines imoquod proprius est in homines venit Sen. Ep. 73. Job 33.16 is the whisper of the Lord but it speaks as plain as his Thunder If it be a good thought it is from him who is the fountain of all good and he speaks to thee by it as he did to the Prophets by Visions and Dreames In a Dreame in a Vision of the Night I may say In a Thought he openeth the eares of men and sealeth their Instruction And why should he speake once and twice and we perceive it not why should the Devil who seeeks to devour us prevail with us more then our God that would save us why should an evill thought arise in our hearts and swell and grow and be powerfull to roule the Eye to lift up the head to stretch out the Hand to make our feet like Hinds feet in the wayes of Death and a holy Thought a good intention which is as it were the breath of the Lord be stopped and checked and slighted and at last be chased away into the land of Oblivion why should a good thought arise and vanish and leave no impression behind it and an evill thought increase and multiply shake the powers of the Soul command the will and every faculty of the mind every part of the body and at last bring forth a Cain and Esau a Herod a Pharisee a profane Person an Adulterer a Murderer why should we so soon devest our selves of the one and morari stay and dwell and fool it in the other sport our selves as in a place of pleasure a Seraglio a Paradise For let us but give the same friendly Entertainment to the Good as we do to the bad let us but as joyfully imbrace the one as we doe the other let us be as speculative men in the wayes of God as we are in our own and then we shall make Hast and not delay to Turne unto him We talke much of the Grace of God and we do but talke of it It is in all mouthes in some it is but a sound in others it is scarse sense in most it is but a loud but faint acknowledgement of its power when it hath no power at all to move us an acknowledgement of what God can doe when we are resolv'd he shall work nothing in us we commend it and resist it pray for it and refuse it Behold the Grace of God hath appeared to all men appeared in the Doctrine of the Gospel and appeares in those good Thoughts which are the proper Issue of t hat doctrine and are begot by this word of Truth and when the heart sends them forth she sends them as Messengers of Grace to invite us and draw us out of our evill wayes and if the Devil can raise such a Babel upon an evill Thought why may not God raise up a Temple unto himself upon a Good I appeal to your selves and shall desire you to ask your selves the question How often have you enjoyed such Gracious ravishing thoughts How often have you felt the good motions of the Spirit How oft have you heard a voice behind you say Doe this how many checques how many inward Rebukes have you had in your Evill wayes how oft have these thoughts followed and pursued you in the wayes of Evill and made them lesse pleasing what a dampe have they cast upon your delight what a Thorne have they been in your flesh even when it was wanton How oft are you so composed and by assed by these Heavenly Insinuations that heart and hand are ready to joyne together as partners in the Turne How oft would you and yet will not Turne How oft are you the Preachers and tell your selves Vanity of Vanity all is Vanity and that there is no true rest but in God I speak to those who have any feeling and presage of a future Estate any Tast of the Powers of the world to come for too many we see have not I speake this to our shame Now is the Time Now is the Now. nunc nunc properandus acri Fingendus sine fine rotâ Now thou must turne the wheel about and frame and fashion thy self into a vessel of Honor consecrate unto the Lord makeup a Child of God the new Creature Now nourish and make much of these good Motions good inclinations wrought in us either by the Word of God or the rod of God They are fallen upon us and entred into us but how long they will stay how long we shall enjoy them we cannot tell a smile from the World a Dart from Satan if we take not heed if we be not tender of them may chase them away This is the time this is the Now for at another time being fallen from this Heaven our Cogitations may be from the earth earthly such grosse and durty thoughts which will not melt but harden in the Sun Our Faculties may be corrupt our Understandings dull and heavy our wills froward and perverse that we shall neither will that which is Good or so will it that we shall not have strength to bring forth not be able to draw it into Act If we approve or look towards it we shall soon start back as from an Enemy as from that which suits not with our present disposition but is distastfull to it tanquam fas non sit as if it were some unlawfull thing as we read of the Sybarite who was growne so extreamly dainty that he would
onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of Laws when the Subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and Crowne them with Glory and Honor for ever Here 's no weaknesse no Infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crowne and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in Chaines and his subjects free free from the feare of Hell or Temptations of the Devill the World or the flesh and though there be an end yet he reignes still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was Though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaines a Lord and King for Evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God His right and Power of Government his Laws just and Holy and wise the virtue and Power the largeness and the duration of his Government a sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the comming of this Lord for they that long to meet him in the Clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right Hand of God Look upon him then sitting in Majesty and Power and think you now saw him moving towards you and were now descending with a shout for his very sitting there should be to us as his comming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great Day Look upon him and think not that he there sits Idle but beholds the Children of men those that wait for him and those that Think not of him and he will come down with a shout not fall as a Timber-logge for every Frogg every wanton sinner to leap upon and croake about but come as a Lord with a Reward in one hand and a Vengeance in the other Oh 't is farre better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his Power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Lawes and write them in your hearts for the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consists not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them for obedience is the best seal and Ratification of a Law He is Lord from all eternity and cannot be divested of his royal office yet he counts his kingdom most compleat when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold he commands threatens beseeches calls upon us again and again and the beseechings of Lords are commands preces armatae armed prayers backt with power and therefore next consider the vertue and power of his dominion and bow before him do what he commands with fear and trembling let this power walk along with thee in all thy wayes when thou art giving an almes let it strike the trumpet out of thy hand when thou fastest let it be in capite jejunii let it begin and end it when thou art strugling with a tentation let it drive thee on that thou faint not and fall back and do the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 when thou art adding vertue to vertue let it be before they eyes that thou mayest double thy diligence and make it up compleat in every circumstance and when thou thinkest of evil let it joyn with that thought that thou mayest hate the very appearance of it and chace it away why should dust ashes more awe thee then Omnipotency why should thy eye be stronger then thy faith not onely the frown but the look of thy Superior composeth and models thee puts thee into any fashion or form thou wilt go or run or sit down thou wilt venture thy body would that were all nay thou wilt venture thy soul do any thing be any thing what his beck doth but intimate but thy faith is fearlesse as bold as blind and will venture on on the point of the sword fears what man not what this Lord can do to him fears him more that sits on the bench than him that sits at the right hand of God If we did beleeve as we professe we could not but more lay it to our hearts even lay it so as to break them for who can stand up when he is angry let us next view the largenesse and compasse of his Dominion which takes in all that will come and reacheth those who refuse to come and is not contracted in its compasse if none should come and why shouldest thou turn a Saviour into a destroyer why should'st thou die in thy Physitians armes with thy cordials about thee why shouldest thou behold him as a Lord 'till he be angry he caleth all inviteth all that come why should Publicans and sinners enter and thy disobedience shut thee out Lastly consider the duration of his Dominion which shall not end but with the world nor end then when it doth end for the vertue of it shall reach to all eternity and then think that under this Lord thou must either be eternally happy or eternally miserable and let not a flattering but a fading world thy rebellious and traiterous flesh let not the father of lies a gilded temptation an apparition a vain shadow thrust thee on his left hand for both at his right and left there is power which works to all eternity The second his Advent or coming Venit he will come And now we have walkt about this Sion and told the towers thereof shewed you Christs territories and Dominion the nature of his laws the vertue and power the largenesse and compasse the duration of his kingdom we must in the next place consider his Advent his coming consider him as now coming for we cannot imagine as was said before that he sat there idle like Epicurus his God nec sibi facessens negotium nec alteri not regarding what is done below but like true Prometheus governing and disposing the state of times and actions of men M. Sen. Contr. Divinum numen etiam qua non apparet rebus humanis intervenit his power insinuates it self and even works there where it doth not appear Though he be in heaven yet he can work at this distance for he fills the heaven and the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beholdeth all things he heareth all things he speaks to thee and he speaks in thee he hears thee when thou speakest and he hears thee when thou speakest not in his book are
gift and the heart also and before he comes to the Altar makes the worshipper himself a sacrifice Love doth not stay at the porch but enters the Holy of Holyes doth not stay in the beginnings but hasteth to the end doth not contract the duty but extends it to the utmost doth not draw pictures but men doth not sacrifice the beast onely but offers and consumes us binds us wholly to the work forceth and constrains us never lets us rest till we have fulfilled the will of him that commands Improves sacrifice to obedience hearing to practice fasting to humility and repentance Love may begin but never ends in ceremony And this is the reason why Religion hath so many professors and so few friends so many salutes and so many contempts flung upon her why she is so much spoke of as the bird of Jupiter that eagle which must carry us to heaven but hath no more regard then the sparrow on the house top or the owle in the desart why it is so much talkt of and so little practiced for men do not love it but because it carries a kind of majesty and beauty along with it and strikes every eye that beholds it because men speak well of her in the gates and we cannot but speak well of her whilest we are men therefore we are willing to give her a salute in the midst of all those horrid and hellish offices which are set up against her we give her a bowe and let her passe by as if her shadow could cure us or we lay hold on the skirts of her garment touch and kisse them are loud and busie in the performance of the easiest part of it bind the sacrifice with cords to the hornes of the Altar but not our lusts and irregular desires but let them fly to every object every vanity which is to sacrifice a beast to God and our selves to the devil 2. These formall worshippers do not onely not love the command but they do it for the love of something else They love oppression and blood and injustice better then sacrifice and all this heat and busie industry at the Altar proceeds not from that love which should be kindled and diffused in the heart but as the unruly tongue is set on fire by hel hath no other originall then an ungrounded and unwarranted love of those profitable and honorable evils which we have set up as our mark but cannot so fairely reach to if we stand in open defiance to all Religion And therefore when that will not joyne with us but looks a contrary way to that to which we are pressing forward with so much eagernesse we content our selves with some part of it with the weakest with the poorest and beggerlyest part of it and make use of it to go along with us and countenance and secure us in the doing of that which is opposite to it and with which it cannot subsist and so well and feelingly we act our parts that we take our selves to be great favourites and in high grace with him whose laws we break and so procure some rest and ease from those continuall clamors which our guiltinesse would otherwise raise within us and walk on with delight and boasting and through this seeming feigned paradise post on securely to the gates of death In what triumphant measures doth a Pharisee go from the Altar what a harmelesse thing is a cheat after a Sermon what a sweet morsell is a widdows house after Long Prayers what a piece of Justice is oppression after a fast After so much Ceremony the blood of Abel himself of the justest man alive hath no voice For in the 3. place These outward performances this formality in Religion have the same spring and motive with our greatest and foulest sinnes The same cause produceth them the same considerations promote them and they are carried to their end on the same wings of our carnall desires Do you not wonder that I should say The formality and outward presentments of our devotion may have the same beginnings with our sinnes may have their birth from the same womb That they draw the same breasts and like twins are born and nurst and grow up together doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter No It cannot but both these are salt and brinish our sacrifice as ill smelling as our oppression our fast as displeasing as our sacriledge and our hearing and Prayers cry as loud for vengenace as our oppression We sacrifice that we may oppresse We fasT that we may spoile our God Ezek. 16.44 and we pray that we may devour our brethren Like Mother Like Daughter saith the Prophet Ezekiel They have the same evil beginning and they are both evil Ambition was the cause of Absoloms Rebellion and Ambition sent him to Hebron to pay his vow 2 Sam. 15. Covetousnesse made Ahab and Jezebel murderers and Covetousnesse proclaimed their fast 1 King 21. Lust made Shechem the sonne of Hamor a Ravisher and lust made him a Proselyte and Circumcised him Gen. 34. Covetousnesse made the Pharisee a Ravening wolf and Covetousnesse clothed him in a lambs skin Covetousnesse made his Corban and Covetousnesse did disfigure his face and placed him praying in the Synagogues and the corner of the streets Ex his causam accipiunt quibus probantur saith Tertullian They have both the same cause for the same motives arise and shew them both The same reason makes the same man both devout and wicked both abstemious and greedy both meek and bloody a seeming Saint and a raging Devil a Lamb to the eye and a Roaring lion Scit enim Diabolus alios continentiâ alios libidine occidere saith the same Father The devil hath an art to destroy us with the appearance of virtue assoone as with the poyson of sin For in the fourth place This formality in Religion stands in no opposition with him or his designes but rather advances his kingdome and enlarges his dominion For how many Sacrificers how many attentive hearers how many Beadsmen how many Professors are his vassalls how many call upon God Abba Father who are his children how many openly renounce him and yet love his wiles Ex malitia ingenium habet Tertull. de Idololat delight in his craft which is his malice how many never think themselves at liberty but when they are in his snare and doth not a faire pretence make the fact fouler doth not sacrifice raise the voice of our oppression that it cryes louder doth not a forme of Godlinesse make sin yet more finfull when we talk of heaven and love the world are we not then most earthly most sensuall most divelish is the divel ever more divel then when he is transformed into an Angel of light And therefore the divel himself is a great promoter of this art of pargetting painting and makes use of that which we call Religion to make men more wicked loves this foule and monstrous
beggerly Elements hath in the fulnesse of time found admittance and harbour in the breasts of Christians uneer that perfect Law of Liberty in which the grace of God hath appeared unto all men I am unwilling to make the parallel it carries with it some probability that some of them had that grosse conceit of God that he fed on the flesh of bulls and drunk the blood of goates for God himself stands up and denies it in the fiftieth Psalme will I eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goates If I be hungry I will not tell thee if there were not such conceit why doth God thus expostulate And is there no symptome no indication of this disease in us do we not believe that God delights in these pageants and formalities That he better likes the devotion of the ear then of the heart do we not measure out our devotion rather by the many Sermons which we have heard then the many almes we have given or which is better the many evill thoughts which we have stifled the many unruly desires we have supprest the many passions we have subdued the many temptations which we have conquered Hath not this been our Arithmetick to cast uup our accounts not by the many good deeds we have done which may stand for figures or numbers but by the many reproches we have given to the times the many bitter Censures we have past upon men better then our selves the many Sermons we have heard which many times God knowes are no better then Cyphers and by themselves signifie no more Do we not please our selves with these thoughts and lift our selves up into the third heaven Do we not think that God is well pleased with these thoughts Do we not believe they are sacrifices of a sweet-smelling favour unto him And what is this lesse then to think that God will eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goates nay may it not seeme far worse to think that God is fed and delighted with our formalities which are but lyes and that he is in love with our hypocrisie I may be bold to say as grosse an error and as opposite to the wisdome of God as the other It is truely said multa non illicita vitiat animus That the mind and intention of man may draw an obliquity on those actions which in themselves are lawfull nay multa mandata vitiat It may make that unlawfull which is commanded O! 't is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God but how fearefull is it to have his hand fall upon us when we stan dat his Altar to see him frown and hear him thunder when we worship him in anger to question us when we are doing our duty What a dart would it be to pierce our soules through and through if God should now send a Prophet to us to tell us That our frequenting the Church and comming to his Table are distastfull to him That our fasts are not such as he hath chosen and that he hates them as much as he doth our oppression and cruelty to which they may be as the prologue that he will have none of the one because he will have none of the other and yet if we terminate Religion in these outward formalities or make them waite upon our lusts to bring them with more smoothnesse with more state and pomp and applause to their end to that which they look so earnestly upon if we thus appear before him he that shall tell us as much of our hearing and fasting and frequenting the Church shall be as a true Prophet as Micah the Morasthite was And now to conclude If you ask me wherewith shall you come before the Lord and bowe your selves before the most High Look further into the Text and there you have a full and compleat directory Do Justly Love Mercy and walk humbly with your God with these you may approach his Courts and appeare at his Altar In aram dei Justitia imponitur saith Lactantius Justice and mercy and sincerity are the best and fittest sacrifices for the Altar of God Lactanâ— de vere cultu l 6. c. 24. which is the heart of man an Altar that must not be polluted with blood Hoc qui exhibet toties sacrificat quoties bonum aliquid aut pium facit The man that is just and mercifull doth sacrifice as oft as he doth any just and mercifull act Come then and appeare before him and offer up these nor need you feare that ridiculous and ungodly imputation which presents you to the world under the name of meere morall men Beare it as your Crown of Rejoycing It is stigma Jesus Christi a mark of Christ Jesus and none will lay it upon you as a defect but they who are not patient of any losse but of their honesty who have learnt an art to joyne together in one the Saint and the deceiver who can draw down heave to them with a thought and yet supplant and overreath their brother as cunningly as the devil doth them Bonus vir Caius Seius Tertull. Apolog. Caius Seius is a good man his onely fault is that he is a Christian would the heathen say He is a good morall man but he is not of the Elect that is one of our Faction saith one Christian of another I much wonder how long a good morall man hath been such a monster What is the decalogue but an abridgement of morality what is Christs Sermon on the mount but an improvement of that and shall civil and honest conversation be the marke of a reprobate Shall nature bring forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius Just and Honest men and shall Grace and the Gospel of Christ bring forth nothing but zanies but plaiers and actors of Religion but Pharisees and hypocrites or was the new creature the Christian raised up to thrust the morall man out of the world Must all be election and regeneration Must all Religion be carried along in phrases and words and noise and must Justice and Mercy be exposed as monsters and flung out into a land of oblivion Or how can they be elect and regenerate who are not just and mercifull No the morall man that keeps the commandments is not far from the kingdome of God and he that is a Christian and builds up his morality Justice and Mercy upon his faith in Christ he that keeps a good conscience and doth to others what he would that others should do unto him shall enter in and have a mansion there when these speculative and Seraphick Hypocrites who decree for God and preordain there a place for themselves shall be shut out of doores Come then and appeare before him with these with Innocence and Integrity and Mercifulnesse Wash your hands in Innocency and compasse his Altar For Christ hath made us Priests unto his Father Rev. 1.6 there is our Ordination To offer up spirituall sacrifice 1 Pet. 2.5 there is our