tryal of that fire which will prove whether they are Gold or Stubble or else dispure them so calmly as neither peace be disturbed nor charity destroyed according si non sententiis saltem animis if not in opinion yet in love and affection And for these regards and many more indeed any but that of imputation is justly termed his Righteousness the Righteousness of God It is that Image of the Father the chief lineaments of that similitude of God wherein we were at the first formed and whereunto we are still created Created unto good works that we might walk in them Eph. ii 10. It is the end and purpose of the Sons Redemption That we being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives The intent and effect of the Spirits vocation for we are called not to uncleanness but to holiness and that not outwardly only by the word but inwardly by the power of the Holy Ghost cleansing from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit that he may purge unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works yea it is I say not the form that doth justify in it self but the quality that only can qualifie for justification and entitle unto it as it is taken for remission of sins in Christ. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right unto the tree of life Revel xxii That tree of life is Christ in whom without Righteousness no Man hath any right who came by water and blood saith the same St. John elsewhere first cleansing and then pardoning For as he doth sanctifie as well as justifie so I take it he doth first sanctifie before he justifie and no longer justifie than he doth sanctifie Lastly it is the direct and unavoidable means though not merit of glorification without holiness no man shall see God nor any enter into the Kingdom of God So many ways is it the Righteousness of God and so many ways no less necessary for Man as being indeed All in All the fulness of the Law the full effect of the Gospel the substance of Gods revealed will in both This is the will of God even your sanctification But what then becomes of Faith for this seems to be altogether work Is that nothing unto the way that leads unto the Kingdome Surely yes much every way but yet without Righteousness not any thing For Faith is not opposite to Righteousness but a part of it the very fountain or root from whence it is immediately derived For true Faith is ever that of the Heart not of the Brain and with the heart man believeth unto righteousness It is neither Faith nor Works apart and severed that can do us good but Fides operans a working faith faith working by love and love is the fulfilling of the law saith the Apostle This is that active Faith so much magnified in the xi to the Hebrews by the power whereof those Worthies there of whom the world was nor worthy besides many other great things especially wrought righteousness and gained the promises v. 33. And to these and the like Worthies it is that that Angel points in the Revel Hi sunt These are they that keep the Commandments of God and the faith of Iesus To shew that none keep his faith as they should that do not keep his Commandments Revel xiv 12. Indeed it is the keeping not the believing of the Faith that is available I have kept the faith saith St. Paul henceforth is laid up for me Corona Justitiae a Crown of righteousness Faith kept is Righteousness and such faithful righteousness only it is that shall be crowned at last Righteousness therefore the only way unto the Kingdom and so by all those that would come thither of all things else and in all regards most especially to be sought for with their best strength and utmost endeavour For it is not quaerite but primum quaerite not seek only but seek ye first The last point but must be briefly handled though indeed it hath two points As First hath a double signification for it either respects time or earnestness of intention And in both regards for time and intention of travel we are to seek and first to seek the righteousness of God if we desire to enter the Kingdom of God The actions of Piety and Righteousness are the highest and noblest operations of the Soul and therefore of more worth They run cross and counter to the bent of our corrupt affections and so of more difficulty than may be lightly and easily archieved Indeed facilis descensus averni it is a descent down the hill the swing of our own corruptions can carry us headlong thither but the way of life is on high said King Solomon Virtue must upwards and hale the heavy body after it climb Hills and craggy Mountains hic labor hoc opus this is not without sweat and difficulty But notwithstanding all difficulties virtus aut inveniet aut faciet viam The spirit of God by the power of that almighty faith to which all things are possible will and must break through them all To do good and suffer evil to deny our selveâ— and take up the Cross to â—ubdue lusts and root out affections and the like till it come to that point these are justitiae culmina the heights and steps of righteousness and up we must though like Ionathan and his Armoâ—bearer we creep on all four hands and knees for it on the knees of humble and fervent prayer but using the hands too faithful and diligent endeavour And therefore it is not every cold and careless seeking that will be sufficient The way is narrow and the gate strait contendite intrare strive saith our Saviour for many shall seek seek negligently and shall not be able to enter Nay more than strive and struggle too I press hard saith the Apostle for the price of the high calling which is in Christ Iesus He well knew that though no Man be Crowned unless he strive for it yet that every striving doth not presently gain the Crown nisi legitimè certaverit unless he strive as he ought And therefore he fought not as those that beat the air but as he that means to conquer for even this Kingdom is not gained but by conquest The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force In this point we need not fear offending in excess Modus amandi Deum est sine modo amare the measure of loving God is to love him without measure In opinions indeed and disputes that have their extreams moderation may be good and commendable disputants in heat and passion supposing they are never far enough asunder till both be equally sundred from the truth and then in this case to halt as they say between two opinions may be to walk most uprightly but no such here to halt between two Masters between God and Mammon God and
in both and how short we have been of that due Reverence and regard those Sacred Mysteries require Shall I ask you then for so he must do that will examine what time you have taken from your earthly affairs to bestow on this holy imployment nay ask but your own hearts and they will quickly answer you for have you afforded your selves I say not a month or a week but a day or two or some hours of them to call your Souls to a strict account to strip your hearts of worldly cares and vanities and recal your wandering thoughts to those severe and serious cogitations as may become your own sanctification and the high and holy institution of your Saviour Consider well whether with David you have entred into the Chambers of your own bosoms and faithfully communed with your own Souls whether you have tryed out your hearts and reins and your spirit hath made diligent search as he both did and requires Observe heedfully whether casting off all masks and visors of Hypocrisy all Fig-leaves of diminution and excuse how thou hast exposed thy self and thy Soul naked unto the view of thy searching Conscience whether thy mortified heart beginning to thaw with remorse hath freely opened her pleits and folds wherein she hid her iniquity and presented thee with her sins in their true shape that thou mightest as truly detest and abhor them If it be so it is well if not take heed labour and strive weep cry pray do not cease be not satisfied till it be so for then it will never be right thy preparation will lack of his due and thy examination will be lame But I examine this examination no farther It is a secret act known only to their own reins and the searcher of them to whom therefore I remit it and pass on to the qualities and vertues wherewith you are to prepare and wherein I may more freely examine and evict your Souls as having outward and sensible effects whereby they may be judged And the first of these to omit knowledge whereof we have spoken sufficiently already is Faith but here examination thou thinkest altogether needless for thou art most sure and certain thou believest Yet what if one should tell thee thou didst not believe like enough thou wouldst tell him againâ— thou dost not believe him in that for thou wilt still say thou knowest nothing better than that thou believest why and I know it too and know more that the very Devils believe and tremble which is something farther and their Faith peradventure something better than thine who believest and dost not tremble which yet thou well mightest didst thou understand thy self or believe in God aright and as thou oughtest But the truth is most mens Faith as we shewed but now of the understanding follows their affections believing little more than what they desire Should a Man preach and maintain that the goods of this world ought not to be ingrossed into private and particular hands but that all things as it was in the primitive Church amongst Christians should be common who think you would believe this soonest the Rich or the Poor The Poor indeed would quickly embrace it because beneficient to them but the Rich that should be losers by it would hardly or never assent In like manner should we urge that precept under the Law that money should be lent freely to our brethren that want and not be put out to interest or inforce that Divine Precept of the Gospel to lend and look for nothing again Matth. vi the poor Creditor you may be sure will entertain this for his relief but the griping â—surer is deaf on that side and can easily find out shifts and distinctions to avoid his own inconvenience Search now and examine thy self narrowly and see if thy Faith doth not deal thus with God in the chief Articles of it scarce ever believing any thing but what it likes The object of Divine Faith is the word of God wherein besides Histories the chief things it proposeth to believe are but three Precepts Comminations and Promises Precepts of duty Comminations of punishments and Promises of reward to the observers or neglecters of them And all those equally to be assented unto because delivered by the word of the same God otherwise thy Faith is defective and maimed See then and consider truly whether thou dost adhere unto the one as to the other whether thy Faith doth not rest only upon the promises neglecting the duties and yet slighting the threatnings against those that neglect them The promises of Mercy indeed are sweet and comfortable who doth not willingly and gladly believe them but comminations and duties are terrible and troublesome and few will give them faithful entertainment That Christ suffered on the Cross and shed his blood for the sins of the whole world and every mans in particular is a pleasant and grateful Doctrine how doth our Faith hug and embrace it as if there were nothing else to be believed But should we once thunder out that of St. Paul That notwithstanding this blood no Lyer no Drunkard no Adulterer no covetous or unclean Person shall enter into the Kingdom of God here our Faith is at a stand and will be sure either not to believe it or never to acknowledge that themselves are such Again blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin saith David yea marry blessed be that tongue for ever I believe it with all my heart nay read a little farther and in whose spirit there is no guile how now why dost thou stagger pish 't is impossible this seems to have crept into the Text no body knows how St. Paul when he cited it left it out and weare not bound to believe it or any thing else we cannot away with There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus saith St. Paul a gracious promise and aâ—very cordial to the Soul every Man is ready to lay hold of it before it be out of his mouth but to whom doth it appertain To them as it follows which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit This is a severe duty on our part and a very corrosive to the flesh which will hardly be brought in subjection to the law of God and therefore will not easily believe it should or possibly may be Thus thy fruitless and preposterous Faith is ever strong to lay hold on the promises though weak and of no power to work obedience to the commands or believe the judgments denounced against disobeyers For didst thou so truly thy belief would teach thee to tremble for which cause I told thee thy Faith which in this case is only a carnal confidence falls short of that which the Scripture tells us is found in Devils that believe and tremble Nay if we search and examine a little farther we shall find thy Faith failing even in the very promises For though in spiritual promises that concern mercy and remission of
sins now or the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter thou art more than faithful even foolishly presumptuous yet in the promises which pertain unto this life we are all for the most part though Christians in profession yet in truth and practice gross and palpable Infidels Thou beginnest thy Creed with I believe in God the Father Almighty wherein thou dost acknowledge him thy Father and therefore willing Almighty and therefore able to relieve and succour thee in all thy wants and distresses but from the teeth outwards for let want or distress approach though but afar off how art thou presently perplexed what anxious and heart-breaking care doth instantly vex and discâ—ciate thy very Soul how are thy thoughts lost and distracted this way and that and every way searching and bending thy will upon all humane helps and succours that may be imagined with such fear and distrust as if there were no God in Heaven or providence of his upon earth Tell him how of his Father Almighty that knows whereof he shall need and will not fail if he first seek his kingdom and the righteousness thereof to add and supply all other things that are necessary and you shall give him as much comfort as if you had cast water in his Shooes He is clear out of his belief now and Pater noster too when if you shew him the plain Text in Mat. Take no care that is no anxious and solicitous care what you shall eat or wherewith you shall be cloathed or in David do good and verily thou shalt be fed he will sooner laugh at their promises than believe them Nay which is strange a Man whom God hath well blest that hath 〈◊〉 want within ken nor likely to have any yet scrapes and scratches on every side as if poverty were coming on him like an armed Man as Solomon speaks who if urged to relieve the necessities of his poor Brother without a small piece of Silver though the King intreat and the King of Heaven command and his Ministers perswade yet it may not be wrâ—ng from him He can presently cast doubts who knows whether himself or his Children may not live to want Shew him the promises of God in the Scripture assuring the contrary that it shall be a means to prosper and multiply the rest tell him that of the Wiseman Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days thou shalt find it or that of another be that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord yet nothing can move him which manifestly argues either he doth not believe God when he says it or at least not believe he is a good paymaster yet this Man thinks he hath Faith nay many of them are so far from relieving as they can find in their hearts to oppress and grind those that are poor enough already and as if they conceived that honest courses and Gods blessing on them were too weak means to provide sufficiently for themselves and Children they can shift and shark project and undermine screw themselves into testaments and deceive trusts buy over their Brothers head that imploys them for himself and use all their wits and fraudulent devices to compass an estate and root their possession in it for ever madly supposing to establish their Generations by those ways for which God never fails as he every where threatens to weed them or their posterity out of the Inheritance so purchased it being his glory ever to destroy the wisdom of the wise and to ruine the house built in fraud or on the ruines of others For the hope of the wicked saith Job is as the spiders web cunningly spun out with a great deal of labour all night and suddenly swept away in the morning What Faith then is there in this or indeed what is it else but a wild branch of meer Gentilism and infidelity if not absolute Atheism For did he truly believe God or his comminations it were not possible one that loves his Children so well could run so direct a course to destroy them But assuredly he doth not believe and whatsoever we pretend yet for the most part we secretly say in our hearts with that Fool in the Psalm if not there is no God yet at least there is no knowledge in the most high or else with those wicked ones in Job tush God careth not circa cardines coeli perambulat his walk is about the hinges of Heaven he doth not trouble himself to behold or regard the things upon Earth Do not suppose I wrong you search your own Consciences truly and I believe the best of you all will find even this infidelity lurking in them For wert thou absolutely assured in thy Soul of the omniscience and omnipresence of the Lord didst thou faithfully believe that he is every where and beholdeth every action and operation of thine though never so secret that he is about thy path and about thy bed and spyeth out all thy wayes and seeth thy thoughts more clearly than thou thy self how were it possible for thee in his presence and under those eyes so often and deeply to dissemble with thy Brother with thine own heart and with God himself Couldst thou imagine a window in thy bosome and thy Neighbour permitted now and then when thou dreamest not of it to look in upon thy impure and fraudulent thoughts and see how thy cogitations are busied how would thy Soul shame and blush to be taken tardy in such base and unworthy imployments which yet thou canst freely exercise and continue without any trouble or interruption at all though God himself and his pure eyes behold them whereunto thy breast is transparent as glass and more open than the air what doth this shew but that thou believest it not for to believe his presence truly and so much contemn it is meerly impossible It is beyond imagination to conceive were thy Faith firm in this point how it possibly can be that the sight of God and his holy Angels should not deter thee not only from thinking but from acting those secret works of darkness which the coming in but of a little child can utterly interrupt and hinder Of necessity thou must be driven to confess either that thy Faith is asleep and thou dost not believe it or thy reverence utterly dead that thou esteemest of a child more than thy Maker Assuredly could we fortify our perswasions but in this one Article of Faith and strongly apprehend the truth of it nothing could be of greater power to purge our hearts and our hands too from all evil and uncleanness Thus if thou carefully examine thy faith by the effects and judge of it as thou shouldst by thine actions for the tree is known by her fruit thou wilt easily find notwithstanding thy former conceipt of thy self how full of infidelity thy false heart is and how little thou believest either threats or precepts or promises or providence or any thing else sincerely and as thou shouldest Well therefore it would
too as well as any man but bring them to the Commandments to the corporal works either of Charity to the distressed or of bounty for the publick honour and worship of that God whom they pretend to fear and then they leave you This they begin to doubt whether it may be any part of their duty or no But however the soul of the old and outward man may be immortal though severed from the body yet is it not so with the new man Sever the fear of God from the observance of his Commandments and it will instantly cease to be fear As St. John of love so may we say of this fear that includes it He that saith he feareth God and keeps not his Commandments is a liar Again observe the Commandments but not in the true fear of God and it will be not observance but dissimulation A Liar this of all Liars whose hypocrisy can make the very spirit of wickedness to inform and actuate the comely limbs and members of true holiness A prodigious conjunction and therefore a Monster detestable both to God and man It is but right then and as it should be that these two here make but one whole conclusion one whole duty one whole matter one whole man They may be distinguished they may not be divided God hath joined them together and let no man seek to put them asunder but he that fears God let him keep his Commandments also Keep his Commandments durus est hic sermo this is an hard saying and the world sure will be hardly brought to this part of the conclusion yea it were something well if those that seem purest amongst us did not conclude clean contrary That the Commandments were not given to be kept yea that there is no possibility for any man though under the state of grace at any time or in any action to keep without violation even the least Commandment But two things there are that seem especially to deceive men in this point First an erroneous opinion that a spiritual action cannot be good so long as it may be bettered as having so much of sin as it wants of absolute perfection which they suppose the Law under the high terms of eternal death doth require at every mans hands But this is apparently mistaken for evident it is that the Law under the penalty enforceth only essential goodness not so that which is gradual otherwise the holy Angels may now sin in Heaven for they excel one another as in nature so in their zeal and operations yea he that is holier than the Angels Christ himself would be endangered of whom the Scriptures do plainly affirm that he prayed at one time more earnestly than at another And rightly for goodness is not seated in puncto in any precise nick or indivisible Center but hath its just latitude and is capable of degrees of comparison in the Concrete bonus melior optimus So Priscian will instruct them with this opinion not admitting it hath false Latin in it and false Divinity both at once This the first The Second thing is another supposal too and little less erroneous than the former That in every good and divine action the flesh lusting against the spirit doth by that malignant influence corrupt and vitiate even with sin the whole operation But what if the lusting flesh do not always move and in every action What if when it moves it doth not yet enter into composition with that act that subdues and quells it as indeed it doth not what if the vertue of such conquering acts be the greater by the opposition as indeed it is ever the more excellent by how much it breaks through stronger resistance according to that of our Saviour virtus mea in infirmitate perficitur Lastly what if every act of lust it self be not in true propriety a Sin As if it be meerly natural great Clerks conceive it is not because sin is ever voluntary and moral They take it for a true Rule â—Lex datur non appetitui sed voluntati and so they conceive our Saviour doth interpret it when he makes not every one whose flesh lusteth but him only that lusteth in his heart that is with his will to be an Adulterer St. Paul they suppose follows his Masters interpretation and though no man doth define lust more than he yet he doth it with caution as the sin not of the person a subject properly not capable of sin but of the flesh I know that in me but with correction that is in my flesh there is no good thing It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me And that we take it not for such a sin as transgresseth the Law he is bold to say that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in those that walk not after the flesh not that have no carnal motions but after the Spirit St. Austin therefore they conceive said well that when the appetite doth lust but the will doth not like it is as when Eve had eaten but not Adam And as we sinned at the first not in Eve but in Adam so is it still for unless Adam eat as well as Eve the will consent as well as the appetite water the fall is not finished The lusts therefore and appetites of Nature if they arise immediately out of the Body and be not raised by our unhappy fancy which the Will sets on work or by some act or custom of Sin which the Will hath already wrought they are not in their opinion sinful unless we will make God the Author of Sin who is the creator of nature and natural appetites yea and Christ too the subject of sin that was not without a natural inclination directly opposite to the known will of God otherwise he could never have said as he doth not my will but thy will be done No doubt but by the lustings of the flesh humane frailties and imperfections more than enough may and do too often cleave like moles and stains unto the divinest actions of the most spiritual men but a mole of frailty is one thing and the corruption of mortal-sin another One thing claudicare in via to go on though halting sometimes and interfering in the way to Heaven and another to cross out of it run counter directly towards Hell And therefore from such surreptitious and involuntary defects to conclude that no man can love God with all his heart clean contrary to the testimonies of the Scripture That the just man falleth seven times a day to wit into sin though that Scripture intend no such matter that all his righteousness is but a defiled rag and the divinest action in the eye of the Law but a mortal and deadly Sin is an exaggeration that doth but rack and tenter a truth until it burst into two errors and dangerous ones both in Gods regard and mans As if men were bound unto meer impossibilities and God that hard man in the Gospel reaping where
and all other the sordid Factors that truck and traffick between them truss't up on an instant in a third fardle and as nasty as any of the other All indeed and many more the like fit Faggots and Fuel for those devouring but not consuming flames Their time is come and thither they must to receive the just recompence of their ways for that is the end of Christs coming who now comes for general Retribution and due reward unto all Et tunc reddet unicuique c. And then shall he reward c. The Then here was omitted in the division but may not be so in our discourse for there seems to be an Emphasis a strong Accent on it on this particle of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then he shall render unto every man according to his works And sure it is something well yet a comfortable hearing to those that have clear bosoms that yet there is a Then in store a time that will come at last when every one shall receive a reward according to his works Here on earth the Babel of confusion where all things are mixed and blended togetherâ— no mans works can well be discerned or judged of by the reward he receiveth The reward of the righteous sometimes happens to the wicked saith Solomon and the reward of the wicked is sometimes given to the righteous No man can know either good or evil by all that is before him Some rare examples indeed there now and then fall out when evil men are filled with their own devices and made to eat the fruits of their own planting As I have done saith Adonibezeck unto others so God hath requiâ—ed me and so he requites many more hangs them up sometimes like Haman on their own Gallows or buries them in the pit which themselves have digged This God sometimes doth that we may know his providence sleepeth not even for the present Yet this he doth but seldom saith St. Augustine that we may consider there is a day of judgement to come and the nearer that day approacheth the more rare and seldom are exhibited such remarkable examples The indignation of the Almighty that was wont in former Ages to follow notorious wickedness at the heels with as notable and exemplary revenge now in these latter times the day of final accounts draws nigh on seems to slacken the pace and come leisurely after at a distance God inhibiting as it were the inferiour Courts of his Justice upon earth against the approach of the great day of his general visitation in the Clouds In the mean time because it is mans day this he permits men for the most part unto themselves steers the line of his providence suffers them to run on at pleasure in their own courses and men thus permitted to themselves are oftentimes sure but ill Judges and worse rewarders of their brethren For the malevolent and malignant world prone to calumniate the noblest actions doth usually reward men not according to their works but it s own malignancy It is not judgment but fancy and faction that now adays gives a sutable censure on all mens ways and actions But it is little material for benefacere male audire Regium est That of the Poet is most true and will be ever virtutem praesentem odimus envy never fails to attend on present vertue urit enim fulgore suo and the more eminent it is the more it provokes unto envy but yet that which follows is true also sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi future times when it is gone will do it right and reward it with honour But however if they do not yet it is but fit that virtue should be put to the true Test and give proof of her sincerity Every man can easily pursue those attempts that are seconded with vulgar applause but to go on with courage though met in the face and followed at the heels with storms of reproaches and unsavory calumniations in this case non se subducere nimbo not to decline those showers run to every bush for shelter but to bear up manfully notwithstanding into the very eye of the wind and weather Hoc demum est pietas hoc quoque fortis amor this is virtue indeed true and approved love unto God and goodness removed utterly from the danger of those by-respects of Pride and vain-glory the cruel Widwifes of Egypt appointed by the infernal Pharaoh to stifle and smother the Children of the Israelites in the very day of their birth No matter therefore how it goes here with men that judge secundùm faciem according to appearance as St. John speaks or rather sometimes without any appearance at all That which is the stay and solid comfort of every man is within him in his own bosome where he is assured his work is with his God that judgeth righteous judgment and will have his time at last to make all things manifest and reveal the secrets of all hearts when smotherâ—d righteousness shall break forth as the light and just dealing as the noon day For as Solomon rightly he that ponders the heart doth consider it and he that keepeth thy Soul doth know it and he it is that shall reward every man according to his works In the mean time that of the Apostle is seasonable Patientes estote fraâ—res usque in adventum dominis be ye patient â—â—til the coming of the Lord for when he doth come then every mans works shall appear and then indeed he will reward every man according to his works But what is not the reward given until then not until the coming of the Lord A reward sure there is even in the present life but it lies secret in the Conscience a greater reward unto the separated Soul after death yet the fulness of reward I conceive though I contend with no man not until the day of resurrection In the mean time the departed Soul lives it doth not die to be raised again like the body as the Socinian would have it nor yet sleep out the time in a Tâ—ance as others affirm but this is certain the Soulâ— of the righteous are in the hand of God so saith the Wise man yea more they are thus far blessed that die in the Lord far they rest from their labours so saith the Spirit nay farther yet they are in refrigerio in a joyful freshing with Abraham so saith the Paâ—able of Laâ—â—â—â—â—â— yea in a Paradise of delight so saith Christ unto the good Thief upon the Cross. And therefore where-ever they are be the place what or where it will Abrahams bosom or Paradise or under the Altar there they are undoubtedly where the glory of Chirst shines unto then and on them with full assurance of the like glory shortly to be rewealed and wherre with themselves shall be indeâ—ssibly invested In the presentation and contemplation whereof miâ—abili quadam volupt ate afficiunt up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their affections saith Gregory Nazianzeâ— even 〈◊〉 with marvellous
so the clashing of Truth and Errour indeed truth and truth errour and errour being silenced Righteousness and peace may meet and kiss each other the more freely And that sure will be found the right and best way too at the last For most assuredly when all contestations are terminated when all these Sophismes and subtilties of the Schools Subtilitates ultramundanae plusquam Chrysippeae Subtilties as he said beyond the Moon and such as Chrysippus never dreamt on shall vanish into air leave and forsake us utterly it will be righteousness only that shall do us good in the end this righteousness of God and our faithful endeavour in it that shall be able to give peace and comfort to the Soul in death and through death lead and light it into immortality and life No way in the world no Righteousness thither but this only the good way the way which the Prophet Samuel long since discovered I will shew you the good and the right way fear the Lord and serve him in truth and consider how great things he hath done for you A good and a right and therefore a right good way Not that every way which is good is presently right some may have the zeal of God but not according to knowledge but than undoubtedly it cannot be right unless it be good Whatsoever way it be if it cross or part with goodness it will in the same place certainly part with verity where it leaves rightousness we may be sure it leaves truth the true Doctrine being always as the Apostle testifies of it Doctrinâ— secundum pietatem a doctrine according unto piety I Tim. So Rectum est index sui obliqui That which is right doth both discover it self and other things that are crooked But be the doctrine never so right and righteous yet if the man be not so to what purpose is it Had he all truth and were endued with the knowledge of all mysteries yet if he detain that truth in unrighteousness it should profit him nothing but to augment that wrath of God which saith the Apostle is already revealed from Heaven against him When on the other side did he know nothing else nothing but Christ and him crucified as St. Paul desired to know no more yet walking faithfully in that path of Righteousness which he hath taught and â—rodden out before him his ignorance of other controvertible truths or suspension either I think would hurt him but little For Righteousness naturally doth lead into truth and unless men did first forsake it they could hardly run into dangerous errour For were not the Soul depraved with unrighteous lusts and the judgment of the mind perverted by corrupt affections it could not easily resist apparent truth or not discern manifest falshood But when the will gives it self over to be ruled by the appetite no marvel if the intellect naturally subject unto the willâ— be as easily wrapt in errour Ambition and Avarice and desire of sinning with sting of Conscience having once seized upon the Scribes and Pharisees of old what strange leaven were they soon brought to mingle with the bread of life And how mightily have the same affections since wrought in many more Hence as from the Trojan Horse so many impious but profitable deceits and devices have issued forth upon ignorant people on the one side dispensing with them for their own sins and dispensing to them other mens merits the imaginary treasure of the Church that the Church might be filled with real Hence what strange positions and unto Piety most dangerous have been formed on the other side establishing justification even in the loss of sanctification presumptuously cloathing themselves and their disciples with the righteousness of another even then when they are wilfully unrighteous in themselves And so not content upon repentance to be justified by imputation but have found out even then whilst they sin an imputative indeed a meer putative sanctification that by this means amidst the works of darkness in the paradise of conceit they may still remain Children of light But be not deceived saith St. John he that doth righteousness is righteous All which though spisse and palpable hallucinatious on both parts yet so long as the eye is not single as our Saviour speaks but blear'd with mists of profits and pleasures they may not easily be deceived less easily redressed in either They may term themselves as they please but so long as impure desires are seated in the Soul nothing shall be able to tie them to the purity of that truth which opposeth or withhold them from contending for such falshoods as sute with those desires Itching ears and lusts in the spirits neither will nor can endure sound Doctrine saith the Apostle But rather than fail will raise up unto themselves Teachers after their own lusts and at their own charge raise preserments for them too that so their hired tongues may tickle their ears when they itch smooth or smother their sins In this case who shall prevail or what shall give Men light if in favour of their evil ways they love darkness more than light It is only the search and study of Righteousness that can bring us into the way of truth and dissolve errours and their controversies by taking away their causes by removing those gross and earthly affections that like Foggs at noon darken and benight the judgment The pure and cleansed heart shall see God saith our Saviour see him perfectly hereafter see of him and his truth more clearly in the present as he doth elsewhere assure us If any man doth the will of my Father he shall know of my doctrine But besides the nature of Righteousness leading into truth the protection and providence divine seems specially to assist and direct it The very secrets of the Lord saith King David are upon them that fear him who himself having respect unto the Commandment became wiser than his Teachers But however secrets yet light enough sure shall ever spring up unto the righteous who have undoubted interest in the promise of that Comforter which unto the worlds end shall lead into all truth all that is necessary for the leading of them when this world ends into the glory of a better yea and teach them mildness in truths of less consequence for the present For did we follow righteousness and not pride and passion we should easily learn to enter on mysteries warily and to maintain our opinions soberly And when the strife is peradventure but about a crackt pane in the Window or a loose tyle in the Roof as he said well not to raise such stirs and outcryes as if the Foundation were presently endangered It is only the judgment which Righteousness hath cleared from perturbations that can discern the necessity of points and direct our prosecution accordingly instructing us not to call every problematical question by the name of necessary and infallible truth but agreeing in fundamentals either to leave superedifications to the
deserve thy frequent cogitations and prayers and tears to consider and bewail it thoroughly crying out with him in the Gospel Lord I believe help my unbelief And never think it helped till thou findest it reforming thy affections and lusts not led and ruled by them till thou perceivest it working powerfully in all the thoughts of thy heart and actions of thy hands and the whole course of thy life For this is the true test and tryal and to these marks our Saviour himself sends thee to make full proof of it These are the signs saith he that shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them and when they lay their hands on the sâ—â—k they shall be healed If those signs follow not thy Faith it is vain and thou art yet in thy sins But thou wilt say the time of Miracles is past and these days require them not Neither do I require them as then neither then and in those times were they common unto all Believers But the saying of our Saviour is universal and in the spiritual sence is ever true that these signs follow them and all them that unâ—â—ignedly believe For every Man naturally hath Devils enough within him to be thrown forth and unless thy Faith have power and virtue enough to dispossess and cast out the impure spirits of luxury and avarice of envy wrath malice and hypocrisie and the like foul Fiends wherewith our nature is full unless it be able to give thee a new tongue and a new language and cleansing thy mouth of all oaths and blasphemies of slanders and reproaches of deceit and scurrility can teach thee to speak the words of sobriety and sanctity and of truth every Man unto his Neighbour unless it can embolden thee to take up Serpents to receive and lovingly embrace thy mortal enemies and make treacle of them too drinking up all the deadly venome which their poysoned stomachs can disgorge against thee not only without hurt but even as thy physick that so lifting up pure and innocent hands upon them with prayers and benedictions though they revile and curse they may yet at length be won from it and cured of the malice wherewith they were sick and others also by thy example of their several diseases who seeing thy good works may glorify thy Father which is in Heaven Until I say thy Faith hath power to work these things unless our Saviours signs be false it is never current and effectual If you say these things are too high and hard for us we cannot attain unto them you do withal say and confess that you do not truly believe For true Faith is not dead or droâ—zy but powerful and operative working even wonders unto flesh and blood which St. Paul proves by a full cloud of witnesses in the 11. to the Hebâ— producing a whole Catalogue of the antient Wâ—â—thies who all through Faith aspiring to the promises were mighty and marvellous in their actions overthrowing Kingdoms working righteousness and doing such great things as we cannot consider without admiration And whence all this but because their Faith was stirring and active not lazy and languishing like ours which is only a Carkass of belief without any soul of life and vigor in it otherwise we should soon find in our selves what the same Author elsewhere affirms that nothing is available like Faith when it is working working by love which is ever impatient and restless till it attains what it desires Who then or what power is able to resist it not the power of the whole world this is it that overcometh the world even your faith John v. 3. no nor the power of any thing else credenti omnia sunt possibilia to him that believes all things are possible saith our Saviour And therefore if ever these things be impossible to thee if thy Faâ—th be so weak that it cannot dispossess thee of thy wicked spirits and work those spiritual miracles on thy Soul it is a greater miracle if ever it save thy Soul For true Faith purifies the heart and cleanseth the very reins and is assuredly dead if it do not work powerful effects within us If of unclean and covetous of malitious envious and deceitful persons it doth not make us pure and temperate mild and merciful upright and just in our actions it is unprofitable and shall never justify with God In whose account whatsoever you think none are taken for believers any farther than they are practisers of his word He that says he knows God and hateth his brother is a lyer saith St. John and sure he that says he believes in God and yet forsaketh not his sins lyes as loudly and doth but abuse his own Soul vainly dreaming of Faith when he hath but the shadow of it without truth or substance and will be found at last but in that poor Mans case who dreamt all night of treasure and in the morning when he awoke was not worth a farthing With that Church in the Revelation they have a name that they live and conceit they are rich whenas there it is said they are blind and poor and naked and miserable and shall so understand themselves in the end for however now we please our selves for a while with the vain opinion of our imaginary Faith yet when we have slept our sleep and dreamt our dreams in the morning when we shall all awake from our graves and come unto Judgment it will be found far otherwise than we conceived When the son of man cometh saith our Saviour himself shall he sind faith upon the earth surely yes such as ours for the most part is Faith enough such a speculative fancy that floats only in the brain never affecting the heart such a presumptuous confidence that can seize on mercies neglecting commands lay hold on the passion and death of a Saviour but neither obey his precepts nor imitate his life of such Faith we doubt the Christian world will be then and now is full as it can hold he shall every where find it But of that true and real Faith rooting out sinful affections of that high and mighty Faith inthroned in the very heart of the Soul and from thence commanding all the powers and faculties which it hath of that prevalent and victorious Faith conquering Sin and Satan and treading under foot the glory and vanity of the whole world of this solid and substantial Faith which only deserveth the name of Faith and he only looks for of this he shall then find but little in the world as indeed there is very little now Some scattered sparks of it only there are in a few of our bosoms but raked up in a great deal of embers and if we take not heed like enough to be stifled ere we are aware O preserve and collect them carefully blow upon them with thy
most admiration is begotten only with a look by mere aspect and intuition as the Fathers speak and the Scriptures intimate and therefore who shall declare These and many other the like high and inexplicable mysteries of this wonderful generation the Apostle seems not to express but to shadow as well as he might when he terms him the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his Person Heb. i. 3. For though these words cannot reach home to the thing yet others more apt and significant may not be found For brightness is ever coeval with the thing that is bright if bright in it self the brightness of the Sun is neither before nor after but fully as ancient as that Sun that begat it and so begat it as it doth not cease still to beget it For it is not produced once for all but is generated perpetually and generated not of two but of one only who can communicate it to other things and yet lose none of it himself Excellently therefore the brightness of his glory and as fully the express image of his person to shew as far as may be shown the manner of his generation by sight and intuition For the images which we behold when we look on our selves in a glass are of all others the most exact and perfect Now God himself is his own mirrour wherein beholding and comprehending himself he produceth the most express and absolute image of himself So that the Divine intellect of the Father reflecting inwards and fully conceiving his own perfection doth at once both conceive and bring forth his own and only Son the substantial and essential picture of himself And therefore no thought here of Mother or Matrimony nor imperfection or inquination but he is begotten after a pure clean chast high and sublime manner as the beam from the Sun as the image from the glass as being the brightness of his Fathers glory and the ingraven Character of his person Though neither of these can fully express it for it is wonderful and therefore to our ears cannot be uttered it is singular and therefore hath no example for how should the imperfect Creature every way square with the absolute perfection of the Creatour And therefore let us adore in Soul and believe it in heart but lay our hand on our lips and not think to utter it in words whereof when we have spoken yea and thought all that we can we must shut up all with the Prophets Admiration who shall declare And this shall suffice for the non-declaration of his Divine birth and generation we now pass on to his humane the subject of this days Solemnity and therefore the chief theam of this hours discourse but a theam every way beset also with so many Pearls of highest admiration as we may well say of it as of the other Quis enarrabit Nay in some things it may seem something stranger than his other generation For that God should be born of God though we can no way apprehend it yet in reason it carries some Correspondence and proportion But that God should be born again and born of a woman hath such an infinite disparity that unless it had been foreshewn by such illustrious prophecies and confirmed by so many and great miracles it had exceeded not only reason but even all belief Well therefore did S. Paul term it a mystery and a great mystery and great too without controversie without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. iii. God in the flesh a great mystery indeed yea how many great mysteries are there in it The Antient of days is become a swadled Child and he who was the Son of God without a Mother now made the Son of a woman without a Father a woman that is at once both a Mother and a Maid conceiving and bearing a Son and yet a Virgin in and after both conception and birth Nay more the Mother of her own Maker and so the daughter of her Son as he the Son of his own daughter No marvel therefore that at this admirable birth of his he had marvail and admiration it self given him for his name for his first To us a Child is born and to us a Son is given the principality shall be upon his shoulders and you shall call his name Wonderful Isa. ix wonderful and full of wonders as in other things so especially in his birth and generation and therefore Quis enarrabit Wise Solomon having with all his skill and diligence searched into the depths and profundities of Nature after all his travel could find out no new thing under the Sun but that you may know a greater than Solomon is here our Saviour this day together with himself brought many new things you see into the world which the Sun never saw before nor ever shall see again A new birth new man new person new Heavens new Earth a new Creation for all had need of renewing and all things in him are made new Ecce nova jam facta sunt omnia behold all things are become new saith the Apostle All things but wretched men that regarding it not grew old in their Sins but shall receive a punishment hereafter that shall never grow old in it self because it shall never be ended And therefore Quis Yet that we may declare it as far as we can or at least declare how far it is above all declaration we will in their order briefly touch upon these circumstances of his birth and generation Who it is that is born of whom and in what manner and where he was born For there is newness and strangeness in them all not fully to be declarable And first who or what he is that is born And what is he an ordinary man as we our selves are one of the rout one of the vulgar A Man indeed he was and when he was at the lowest and worst Pilate could term him so ecce homo behold the Man but yet no ordinary Man he was a King too and a King born where is he that is born king of the Jews say the Wisemen of the East Nay no petty King no King of the Jews alone he shall have the Nations too for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possessions saith God in the Psalm And therefore an universal Monarch And yet higher for I will make him my first-born higher than the Kings of the earth higher indeed even the high God that is King both of Heaven and Earth and therefore his name shall be called Wonderful and mighty counsellor and Deus fortâ—s the strong God pater aeternus the everlasting Father saith my Prophet in the place but now quoted And it is worth the observing in the beginning of the verse A child is born and a son is given towards the end this weak child is the mighty God this young Son is the everlasting Father for the Son of God is our
Non sic in opere tuo domine non sic in commixtione tua not so in thy work O Lord not so in thy commixtion here the living and the dead dwell both together The body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life Here then are the high consolations of a Christian against death briefly comprised and they are three That his death is neither total nor final but his life is perpetual His death is not total it is only of the body for the spirit lives it is not final for the spirit is not said only to live but that it is life and that in two respects first because it shall give life again unto the body and that secondly an everlasting life and therefore it is not barely the spirit shall live but in the abstract the spirit is life So you may perceive the reason why the Apostle varies his manner of speech he said not the body is death as he says the spirit is life neither saith he the spirit is alive as he said the body is dead but the body is dead and the spirit is life the body is dead and not death because it shall live again and the spirit is not alive but life because by the virtue of the spirit it is that it shall live and live for ever The spirit c. So our life is perpetuate our death but short and not total Amidst these comforts what hath death in it that shall greatly trouble or distress the faithful Soul why should it not stand erect in the midst of all the panick terrors thereof so long as there is begun in us a life which no death shall ever be able to extinguish Albeit death invade the natural and vital powers of our bodies and suppress them one after another yea though at the length he break in upon this lodging of clay and demolish it to the ground yet the inner Man and spiritual that dwells in the body shall escape with his life The Tabernacle is cast down that 's the most our enemy can do but he who dwells in it removes unto a better The dissolving of the body to him is but the breaking up of the prison wherein he hath been so long detained that he may thenceforth be delivered into a glorious liberty For as the Bird escapes out of the snare of the Fowler so the Soul in death mounts up and flies away wiâ— joy into the rest of her Maker The Apostle knew this well and therefore desired to be dissolved that he might be with Christ. As in the battle between our Saviour and Satan Satans head was bruised but he did no more than tread on our Saviours heel so shall it be in the conflict of all his members with Satan by the power of our Lord Jesus we shall be more than conquerors For the God of peace shall tread him under our feet Rom. xvi While he is there let him nibble about the feet it is no great matter yet 't is all he can do and let him do it Manducet terram meam dentem carni infigat let him bite the dust saith Ambrose it was his original curse let him eat that part of me which is earth let him bruise my body all this is still but to tread upon my heel my comfort is there is a seed of immortal life in my Soul which no power of the enemy is able to approach much less to overcome and extinguish for the spirit doth not only live but is life life eternal The spirit is life c. But yet that we may more fully understand to whom these consolations belong and what spirits they are that can live in death and injoy the comforts of life when their bodies can live no longer it is added because of righteousness The spirit is life because of righteousness or for righteousness sake The righteous then these are they to whom it belongs these only are the holy Spirits that shall revive in the midst of life and live in death as they died while they lived whilst the body lived they died unto sin and when the body dies they shall live unto God For as the life of the Soul is the comfort of the heart so the spirit of righteousness is the life of the Soul And therefore deceive not thy self in a matter of such moment in the business of thine everlasting welfare but be most assured that so far forth thou dost live as thou art sanctified and no farther As health is to the body so is holiness to the spirit A body without health falls out of one pain into another till it die and a Soul without holiness is polluted with one lust after another till it perish eternally As the Moon hath light more or less as it is in aspect with the Sun so the Soul enjoys life less or more as it is turned or averted to or from the Lord of life whose righteousness only can give life as this life peace and joy unto the Soul Miserable are those wicked ones that want both they are as St. Jude speaks bis mortui twice dead that is dead both in body and Soul Their Souls indeed do live and shall live eternally a natural life but there is a life of Grace as well as of Nature by the one the Soul lives for ever by the other it lives for ever in happiness This life they do not they shall not ever live and as for the natural the Spirit of God accounts that but a death whilst they live in the body he saith they are dead in sins and when they go out of the body though they live yet he calls their life and justly an eternal death Immortality seems to be added rather to their sorrow than to their Souls Since their Souls are only kept immortal that their punishment might be everlasting It is true that so long as Men enjoy this natural life in health of body and prosperity of fortune the loss that comes by want of the spiritual life is not so safely discerned no more than the defects of a ruinous house are known in time of fair weather but when the storm of affliction when the tempest of death shall come pouring down upon him then the decaies and breaches will manifest themselves How woful then must his condition needs be that hath now no other life but a natural and must now part with that and he knows not whither In this estate he cannot but die either uncertain of comfort or rather most certain of Condemnation And therefore it is not much to be marvelled they are so loth to think or so much as to hear of that final and fatal time O death how bitter is thy remembrance unto such saith the Wiseman How doth the only apprehension thereof even chill the blood in his veins kill the very marrow in his bones Belshazzar's doom is no sooner written upon the wall but the joints of his loins are loosed and his knees smite one against