divinae deducatur injustitia est sordet in districtione judicis quod in aestimatione fulget operantis Gregory drives to the head Our very righteousnesse if it bee scanned by the rule of divine justice will prove injustice and that will appeare foule and sordid in the strict scanning of the Judge which shineth and seemeth most beautifull in the eye of the worker Fiftly a meritorious worke must hold some good correspondency and equivalence with the reward ours doe not so for if wee might offer to put any worke in the ballance certainely our sufferings for Christs sake but these are too light yea so farre too light e Rom. 8.18 that they are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall bee revealed in us Upon this anvile Saint f In ep ad Col. Hom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in psal 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome formeth a steele weapon No man sheweth such a conversation of life that hee may bee worthy of the kingdome but this is wholly of the gift of God and although wee should doe innumerable good◠deeds it is of Gods pity and mercy that wee are heard although we should come to the very top of vertue it is of mercy that wee are saved And g Ansel de mensurat crucis Si homo mille annis serviret Deo ferventissimè non mereretur ex condigno dimidium diei esse in coelo Anselme steepeth it in oyle If a man should serve God most devoutly a thousand yeeres hee should not deserve to be halfe a day in heaven What have our adversaries to say to these things what doth the learned Cardinall whose name breathes * Bella Arma Minae Warres Armes and Threats here hee turnes Penelope texit telam retexit hee does and undoes hee sewes and ravels after many large books written for merit in the end Quae dederat repetit funemque reducit hee dasheth all with his pen at once saying Tutissimum est it is the safest way to place all our confidence onely in Gods mercy that is to renounce all merit Now in a case so neerely concerning our eternall happinesse or misery hee that will not take the safest course needs not to bee confuted but either to bee pittied for his folly or cured of his frenzie To conclude this point of difference the conclusion of all things is neere at hand well may men argue with men here below the matter of merit but as St. h Ep 29. Cum rex justus sederet in throno suo quis gloriabitur se mundum habere cor quae igitur spes veniae nisi misericordia superexultet justitiam Austine feelingly speaketh of this point When the righteous judge from whose face heaven and earth fled away shall sit upon his throne who will then dare say my heart is cleane nay what hope for any man to be saved if mercy at that day get not the upper hand of justice I need plead no more for this Dabo in my text if it plead not for us at that day wee shall never eat of the Manna promised but it shall bee for ever hidden from us I will give To eat The sight of Manna which the Psalmist calleth Angels food especially of the hidden Manna which by Gods appointment was reserved in a golden pot had beene a singular favour but the taste thereof is a farre greater The contemplation of celestiall objects is delightfull but the fruition of them much more Even of earthly beauties the sight is not so great contentment as the enjoying neither is any man so affected with delight at the view of a rich cabinet of jewels as at the receiving any one of them for his own Now so it is in celestial treasures delights through Gods bounty abundant goodnesse unto us we own what we see we taste what we touch and we feel what we believed and we possesse what we have heard and our heart entreth into those joyes in heaven which never entred into the heart of man on earth In which respect the Psalmist breaketh out into that passionate invitation i Psal 34.8 O taste and see how gracious the Lord is and S. Paul into that fervent prayer k Phil. 1.9 And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Saint l Confes l. 6. c. 10. Te lucem vocem cibum amplexum interioris hominis mei c. ubi fulget animae quod non capit locus ubi sonat quod non rapit tempus ubi olet quod non spargit flatus ubi sapit quod non minuit edacitas ubi haeret quod non divellit satietas Austine in that heavenly meditation O let mee enjoy thee the light the sound the food the love and embracement of my inward man thou art light to the eye musicke to the eare sweet meats to the taste and most delightfull embracings to the touch of my soule in thee that shineth to my soule which no place comprehendeth and that soundeth which no time measureth or snatcheth away and that smelleth which no blast dissipateth and that relisheth which no feeding upon diminisheth and that adhereth which no satiety can plucke away When therefore the ancients define celestiall happinesse to be the beatificall vision of God grounding themselves especially upon these texts of scripture m Mat. 5.8 Psal 27.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and seeke his face evermore My heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seeke and n Psal 17.15 I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse And o 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glasse darkely but then face to face wee are to understand these speeches by a figure called Synecdoche wherein a part is put for the whole for certainely there is a heaven in the will and in the affections as well as in the understanding God hath enriched the soule with many faculties and in all of them hath kindled manifold desires the heat whereof though it may bee allayed for a time with the delights and comforts which this life affordeth yet it can never bee quenched but by himselfe who made the hearth and kindled these fires in it As the contemplation of God is the understandings happinesse so the adhering to him is the wils the recounting of his blessings the memories the embracing him the affections and generally the fruition of him in all parts and faculties the felicity of the whole man To apply this observation to the words in my text When the dispensers of the mysteries of salvation open the scriptures they set before us heavenly treasure they point unto and shew us the golden pots of Manna but when by the hand of faith we receive Gods promises and are enriched by the graces of the spirit then we
high condition that all other owe dutie and thankfull service to them and they to him alone Thankes are not thankes-worthy if they flote onely in the mouth for a time and spring not continually from the heart That gratitude is gratefull and acceptable to God and men whose root is in the heart and blossomes in the tongue and fruits in the hands whose root is love and blossomes praises and fruits good works The root in the heart cannot be seene of any but God the blossomes in the lips are blowne away with a breath but the fruits in the hands are more lasting Wherefore Noah was not contented after he and his family were saved from the deluge to offer up a sweet smelling sacrifice of thankes-giving upon the Altar of his heart but he leaveth behind him an Altar of stone Jacob an house to God Joshua a Trophey Solomon a Temple the Centurion a Synagogue Veronica a statue of brasse Constantine many Churches and Hospitals Paula a magnificent Monasterie at Bethlehem where our Lord was borne The Heathen after they had escaped shipwracke hung up their f Horat. od Me tabula sacer votiva paries indicabit humida suspendisse vestimenta Maris deo votivas tabulas to Neptune After victorie besides supplications per omnia pulvinaria deorum they put garlands upon the Images of their gods and left the chiefe spoyles taken in warre in the Temple of Mars The Jewes by the commandement of God reserved a golden pot of Manna in the Arke in memorie of that Manna which fell in the Wildernesse In a thankfull acknowledgement of the deliverance of their first borne in Egypt they offered every first borne to God and to eternize the memoriall of their passage out of Egypt and freedome from servitude they altered their Calendar and made that moneth in which God by Moses delivered them out of the house of bondage the g Exod. 12.2 beginning of their moneths Application According to which religious presidents our gracious King being as upon this day pulled out of the paw first of the Beare and then of the Lion and his seven clawes hath erected a lasting living and which is more a speaking monument of his thankfulnesse to God by appointing the feast we now keepe to preserve from oblivion his Majesties wonderfull preservation on this day from imminent destruction When a motion was made in the Senate of dedicating a statue of massie gold to the honour of h Tacit. annal l. 2. Illae verae sunt Statuae quae in hominum mentibus collocantur Germanicus Tiberius the Emperor opposed it but upon a very plausible pretence that Images of brasse and gold are subject to many casualties they may be stolne away they may be defaced and battered foule indignities and scorns be put upon them Those are the true Statues of vertue and Altars of fame which are set up in mens mindes such Altars hath our Soveraigne erected in the hearts of all his loving subjects upon which wee offer this day throughout all his dominions the sacrifice of praise and thankes-giving for his Majesties marvellous deliverance unparalleld in our age i Psal 19.2 Dies ad diem eructat sei monem nox ad noctem annunciat scientiam One day shall tell another and one night shall proclaime it to another what great things the Lord did upon this day for his Annointed whereat we rejoyce How was his Majestie wrapt over and over in the snares of death when under colour of taking a Seminarie Priest as he was made beleeve newly arrived with a pot full of golden seeds to sow rebellion and treason in his Kingdome he was led by Alexander Ruthwen through so many chambers into that study which was a long time before appointed for the stage whereon to act that bloudie tragedie whose catastrophe was as happy to the King and Kingdome as dismall and fatall to the principall Actors If ever study might be rightly termed according to the Latine name armarium this was it for it was not musaeum but campus Martius not a students treasurie but a traitors armorie here he findeth but two Authors and they should both have beene Actors In stead of the gold which was promised here he seeth Iron and steele and no strange coyne as he was borne in hand but his own I meane the crosse daggers not stamped on metall but readie to be driven into his sacred breast and sheathed in his bowels Well might the King here cry upon k Philo de legat Alex. Ubi cessat humanum auxilium ibi adest divinum Philo as Croesus did upon * Herod clio Solon when hee stood on the pile to be burned and the fire was kindled at the bottome O Philo Philo I finde thy words to be gospell though thou wert an unbeleeving Jew Mans extreamest necessitie is Gods chiefest opportunitie then commeth helpe from heaven when the earth is at a stand and man at his wits end What hope was here from man whence could the King expect any helpe being unarmed unattended unguarded betweene two Traitors as Christ betweene two theeves with the point of a dagger at his heart in that darke roome Whence or how should there breake in any light of comfort from any the least chinke Where should his hope cast anchor Upon his servants and traine But besides many doores lockes bolts and barres betweene them and his Majestie most of them by the Earle Gowry upon a false alarum were sent out of doores to post after him in the field Upon the Traitor himselfe But his respectlesse and barbarous carriage his desperate speeches his execrable oathes his bloudie lookes his sparkling eyes and glistering poynard drawne threatned nothing put present death Upon himselfe But alas he had no weapon defensive or offensive and now the signe was at the heart I meane the daggers point at his breast O the dread of sacred Majestie O the bulwarke of innocencie O the power of eloquence O the force of conscience which though they could not blunt the point of the Traitoâ— dagger yet they dulled the edge of his malice for a time When a scholar of St. l Ruffin in hist John the Evangelist mis-led by ill company had turned to a Ruffian and common hackster and robber by the high way and drew at his master upon a word only spoken to him by St. John he relents flings away his weapon falls downe upon his knees craveth pardon with teares and promiseth for ever to abandon his wicked course of life So powerfull is the ministerie of the word and mighty in operation so reverend is the calling of the dispencers of Gods mysteries that the naming only of a dead Preacher Mr. Rollock preserved for a time the life of our Soveraigne Ruthwen cannot endure to heare that the soule of Master Rollock should accuse him before Christs tribunall for defiling the doctrine of the Gospel which he taught him by the bloud spilt by him of the
And by o Luk. 1.68 69 74. Zachary in his Hymne Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up an horne of salvation for us in the house of his servant David That we being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare And by St. Paul p Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage againe to feare And by q Luke 12.32 Christ himselfe Feare not little flocke for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome This latter feare because it excludeth confidence in God is excluded it selfe but the former not onely standeth with certainty of perseverance in grace but mightily supporteth it For even for this end God promiseth to put that feare in the hearts of all true believers that r Jer. 32.40 they may not fall away from him Whereupon Tertullian acutely inferreth playing upon the double sense of the Latine word securus * De cult Jerâ—n Qui secutus est non est solicitus qui est solicitus potest esse secutus Hee that is secure that is carelesse of the meanes of his salvation is not solicitous or watchfull but hee that is solicitous or watchfull may bee secure that is free from all feare of unavoidable danger The last objection which our adversaries make against the doctrine delivered is taken out of the worme-eaten evidence of the ancient Pelagians as wee may see in Saint Å¿ Ep. ad August Dicunt lapsis curam resurgendi adunt sanctis occasionem teporis offerri eo quod electi nulla negligentiâ possint excidere Hage conference p. 12. c. Prosper They viz. the Pelagians upbraid that all care of rising out of sinne is taken away from those that are lapsed that to holy men is ministred an occasion of slacknesse in their devotion or lukewarmnesse inasmuch as the Elect according to our doctrine cannot fall away by any negligence howsoever they behave themselves that consequently this doctrine taketh away all praiers obsecrations obtestations exercise of mortification care of the means of renewing our covenant with God and watchfulnesse over all our wayes But wee answer with the ancient t Aug. de correp grat Prosp resp ad obâ—ect Vincent Fathers that the certainty of the end no way derogateth from the necessity of the means of salvation which on Gods part are admonitions threatnings promises commands counsels punishments and rewards on our part continuall prayer watchfulnesse progresse in godlinesse unfained desire of and earnest striving for perfection After Christ prayed for S. Peters faith that u Luk. 22.32 I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not it might not faile Peter was assured of his perseverance yet Christ commandeth him with the rest * Mar. 14.37.38 Christ saith to Peter Simon sleepest thou couldst not thou watch with mee one houre watch pray lest yee enter into temptation to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation watchfulnesse therefore and assurance are not incompatible None ever had greater assurance of their salvation than the Apostles after Christ cheared their hearts x Luk. 10.20 In this rejoice not that spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven yet our Saviour admonisheth them to y Luk. 12.35 stand with their loynes girt about and their lights burning and to take heed to themselves z Lâ—k 21.34 lest at any time their hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse and cares of this life and so that day come upon them at unawares Questionlesse after Christ had given to Saint * Act. 27.24 Paul the life of all them that were in the ship with him hee was assured of their safe arrivall yet when the shipmen were about to flye out of the ship under colour as though they would have cast anchor Paul said to the Centurion and to the souldiers except these abide in the ship you cannot bee saved None may otherwise receive or apply to themselves the promises of grace and remission of sinnes than they are tendred to them in holy Scripture but in them they are propounded unto all upon condition of repentance faith holinesse of life new obedience and perseverance in it to the end To beleeve therefore the remission of sinnes and to bee assured of Gods favour notwithstanding wee hold on our sinfull courses is not spirituall confidence but carnall presumption Assurance of salvation is an effect of a lively faith which a Gal. 5.6 worketh by love and consequently all that have it the more they are assured of Gods love to them in Christ the more their hearts are enflamed with love towards God and their neighbour also for Gods sake the more zealous they will bee of his glory the more thankefull for his mercy the more desirous to please him the more fearfull to offend him the more carefull to obey him the more wounded with godly sorrow for their incurring his displeasure and the more ready to turne unto him by unfained repentance Admit what they so much clamour against us for that the adopted sonnes of God are in no feare or distrust that their heavenly Father will disinherite them yet neither may they nor can they presume hereupon wilfully to provoke him because they know that hee hath many sharpe roddes to chasten them with besides as temporall plagues painefull sicknesse irrecoverable losses terrours of conscience and spirituall desertion To conclude the certainty of our beliefe that wee shall undoubtedly arrive at the celestiall Canaan is no reason why we should flacke but rather mend our pace thither Thus having wiped out the spots and blots which the ancient and latter Pelagians have fast upon the white stone we shall more easily be able to discerne the characters engraven in it and read The new name Wee receive many new things from our Saviour 1 A b Mat. 26.28 new Testament signed with his blood 2 In this new Testament a new c Heb. 8.8 Covenant 3 In this new Covenant a new d Joh. 13.34 Commandement 4 To obey this new Commandement a new e Ezek. 36.26 heart 5 And answerable to this new Heart new f Mar. 16.17 Tongues 6 And consonant to these new Tongues new g Apoc. 14.3 Songs Behold h Apoc. 21.5 I make all things new a new i 2 Pet. 3.13 heaven and a new earth and a new k Apoc. 21.2 city and in it new l Eph. 4.24 inhabitants to whom the Spirit here promiseth a m 2 Cor. 5.17 new name upon which the Interpreters have many new conceits Alcazar the Jesuite whose profound head the Pope lately graced with a Cardinals hat in his prolixe commentaries upon the Apocalyps falling upon the words of my text will needs have this new name to be some derivative from Jesus as Jesuitae or Jesuati or the like For this name Jesus as out
Thou shalt plant vineyards and dresse them but shalt neither drinke of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worme shall eate them Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts but thou shalt not annoint thy selfe with the oyle for thine olive shall cast his fruit Hereunto if we adde the infinite armies of plagues and judgements mustered in this chapter against Gods enemies we cannot but subscribe to the Prophets conclusion Non est pax impio there is no l Esay 48.22 57.21 peace to the wicked saith my God there is no fruit of sinne for it is the vine of m Deut. 32.32 33. Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah the grapes thereof are the grapes of gall their clusters are bitter Their wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes Would yee know all the miseries that sinne hath brought into the world reckon then all that are or ever were in the world For they are all concomitants effects or punishments of sinne Sinne cast the Angels from Heaven into Hell thrust man out of Paradise drowned the old world burnt Sodome and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone ruinated the greatest Monarchies destroyed the ancientest Cities and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches and shall wee looke for better fruit of it But this interrogatory of the Apostle What fruit had yee seemeth to mee rather to aime at the particular endammagement and detriments of sinne which every soule that committeth it sustaineth within it selfe whereof many have been already recounted yet the greater part is behind among whom this is not the least that it blindeth the eyes of the mind and infatuateth the sinner Whereupon Saint Austines observation is If a theefe or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes every body would say that it was the judgement of God upon him Oculum cordis amisit ei pepercisse putatur Deus behold God hath taken away the sight of his soules eyes and doest thou thinke that hee spareth him or letteth him goe n Cic. de Arusp respons Oculorum caecitas ad mentem translata est unpunished What greater losse to a noble mind than of libertie which is forfeited by sinne Sinne enthralleth our soule to our body and our body and soule to the Divell If captivitie of the body be so grievous a calamity what may wee judge of the captivitie of the soule If wee so disdaine to be slaves to men how much more should wee to bee vassals to beastly lusts To speake nothing of peace of conscience which crying sinnes disturbe and divine motions which worldly cares choake and heavenly comforts which earthly pleasures deprive us of and sanctifying graces which impure thoughts and sinfull desires diminish to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses by that which hath been already delivered all that are not besotted by sin and blind-folded by Sathan may see great reason for this question of the Apostle What fruit had yee A question which the proudest and most scornfull sinners who have them in derision that make conscience of unlawfull gaine shall propound unto themselves one day and checke their owne folly therewith as we reade in the booke of o Wisd 5.8 Wisedome What hath pride availed us or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us Then shall they change their mindes when they cannot their estates and sigh for griefe of heart and say within themselves looking up to Heaven and seeing the felicity of the righteous crowned with eternall glory Ibid. Ver. 4 5 6 7. This is hee whom wee sometimes had in derision and in a parable of reproach Wee fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour But now how is hee accounted among the children of God and what a portion hath hee among the Saints Therefore wee have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined upon us We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse and have gone through many dangerous pathes and the way of the Lord wee have not knowne Howbeit two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seeme to make great gaine of sinne the covetous and the ambitious the former is indebted to his extortion oppression and usury for his wealth the other to his glozing dissembling undermining perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honour and advancement in the Court of Princes The spirit of the former hath been conjured downe heretofore by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or mony by unjust and indirect meanes putteth it into a broken bagge and that his mony shall perish with him unlesse hee breake off his sinne by repentance and make friends of unrighteous Mammon I come to the Politicians who correct or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul Godlinesse is great gaine thus a shew of godlinesse is great gaine of whom I would demand what shew of reason they have for this their politicke aphorisme If they beleeve there is a God that judgeth the earth they cannot but thinke that hee will take most grievous vengeance on such as goe about to roote out the feare of God out of mens hearts and make Religion a masque and God himselfe an Image the sacred Story a fable Hell a bug-beare and the joyes of Heaven pleasant phantasies If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them shall not God much more hate the hypocrite who doubleth with his Maker maketh shew of honouring and serving him when hee indeed neither honoureth nor serveth him at all Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and accordingly it shall receive double punishment When our Saviour threateneth the most hainous transgressours that they shall have their p Mat. 24.51 portion with hypocrites hee implyeth that the condition of none in Hell is lesse tolerable than of the hypocrite The q Psal 14.1 foole hath said in his heart there is no God and even in that hee shewed himselfe the more foole in that hee said it in his heart supposing that none should heare it there whereas God heareth the word in the heart before it bee uttered in the tongue and what though other know it not sith hee whom hee wrongeth who is best able to revenge it knoweth it But to wound the Politician with his owne sword If a shew and appearance of Religion is not onely profitable but necessary in politicke respects shall not Religion it selfe be much more Can there bee a like vertue or power in the shadow or image as in the body it selfe If the grapes painted by Zeuxis allured the Birds to pecke at them would not the Birds sooner have flowne at them had they been true grapes All the wit of these sublimated spirits wherewith they entangle the honest simplicity of others cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes If it bee a bad thing to bee good why doe they seem so If
them What Christ speaketh of riches may be said of the rest If honours if promotions if all sorts of worldly comforts abound to us let us not set our hearts on them let us neither accept the greatest preferments with his curse nor repine at the greatest afflictions with his love As Fabritius told Pyrrhus who one day tempted him with gold and the next day sought to terrefie him with an Elephant which before he had never seen Yesterday I was no whit moved with your gold nor to day with your beast So let neither abundance transport us nor wants dismay us neither prosperity exalt us nor adversity deject us but both incite us to blesse God In prosperity to praise his bounty and in adversity his justice and in both his provident care over us And the Lord of his infinite mercy informe us by his Word of the true estimate of the things of this life that we neither over-value earthly blessings nor under-value crosses and afflictions that we be neither lifted up with the one nor depressed with the other but alwayes even ballanced with his love And because the bitter cup of trembling cannot passe but first or last we must all drinke it let us beseech him to sweeten it unto us and strengthen us with cordialls of comfort that we faint not under his rod but endure with patience what he inflicteth in love and overcome with courage what he suffered for love that following his obedience and bearing his crosse we may enter his Kingdome and weare his Crowne Cui c. THE LOT OF THE GODLY THE XLVIII SERMON APOC. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. I Have discovered unto you in the opening of this Text foure springs of the rivers of Paradise for the comfort and refreshing of all that are heavie laden and wearied in their travell to the celestiall Canaan and often scorched with the heat of heart-burning sorrowes and griefe The first arising from the authour of afflictions The second from the nature of afflictions The third from the subject of afflictions The fourth from the end of afflictions 1. God sendeth afflictions I. 2. Afflictions are chastenings chasten 3. Chastenings are the lot of all his children as many 4. All his children thus chastened are beloved as I love 1. God hath a hand in the scourging his children I. Let us therefore 1. Submit under his mighty hand in patience 2. Lay our hand on our mouth in silence 3. Lift up our hands to him and in prayer turne to him that smiteth us 2. All our sufferings are chastenings of our heavenly Father for our amendment Let us therefore 1. Be instructed by them 2. Take comfort in them 3. Be thankfull for them 3. Chastenings are the lot of all Gods children therefore let 1. None repine at them 2. All looke and prepare for them 4. God striketh his children not in anger but in love therefore let us 1. Seeke to be of the number of his children 2. Embrace his love 3. In like manner chasten those whom we love The water of the two former springs we have tasted heretofore let us now draw out of the third which is so great and spacious that all Gods children may bathe in it together As many God scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth not exempting his best beloved and only begotten Sonne For the * Esay 53.5 chastisement of our peace was laid upon him he was chastened for our sinnes but wee for our amendment In every part of Gods floore there is some chaffe affliction is the fanne to cleanse it in all the gold of the Sanctuary there is some drosse affliction is the fire that purgeth it in all the branches of the true Vine there are some superfluous stems affliction is the pruning knife to cut them off in all the members of the mysticall body there are some peccant humours affliction is the pill to purge them We are all too greedy of the sweet milke of worldly pleasures therefore God weaneth us from them by annointing the teat with wormwood When the Angel in the a Apoc. 14.17 Apocalypse had recorded all the troubles and calamities and miseries that should fall in the last times he closeth up all with this epiphonema Here is the patience of the Saints as if the Saints were to beare them all who certainly beare the greater part For besides common evills in which most men if not all have their part though usually Benjamins portion is the greatest I meane losse of goods decease of friends captivity banishment imprisonment sicknesse and death there are many heavie crosses laid upon the Saints of God which the children of the world never see and much lesse feele the weight of them Many have written learnedly of the divers sorts and formes of materiall crosses wherewith the bodies of Gods children have been tortured by persecuting Tyrants but none yet hath or as I am perswaded can describe the spirituall crosses wherewith many of them have been and are daily martyred in minde I will set five before you and let every one adde his owne particular crosse unto them they are 1. Derision 2. Indignation 3. Compassion 4. Spirituall desertions 5. Godly sorrow 1. Derision for as Ismael derided Isaac and as Michol scoffed at David so they that are b Gal. 4.29 borne of the flesh mocke at them that are borne of the spirit and this scorne and derision so grievously afflicted many of Gods children that it is called in Scripture c Heb. 11.36 persecution and a great triall Others had triall of cruell mockings and as he that was borne of the flesh persecuted him that was borne of the spirit so it is now 2. Indignation at the prosperity of the wicked which was a great eye-sore as wee heard before to d Job 21.7 8 9.10.11 12 13. Job e Psal 73.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12. David and f Jer. 12.2 Jeremy 3 Compassion for the miseries of Gods chosen 2 Cor. 11.28 29. 4 The state of spirituall desertion when God seemeth for a time to withdraw the comforts of the Spirit from them Psal 22.1 2. 5 Godly sorrow when they are cast downe to the ground with the weight of their sinne and have a quicke sense and feeling of the displeasure of their heavenly Father The three former scourges draw many teares from their eyes but the two latter life-blood from their hearts and if God stayed not his hand and in the depth of their sorrowes refreshed them with comforts they could not but be swallowed up in the gulfe of despaire For the more a man feareth God and is sensible of his love the more tender hee is to beare his wrath and the tenderer hee is the arrowes of God pierce deeper and sticke faster in the soule which none can plucke out but hee that shot them g Ovid. de trist l 1. Qui vulnera fecit Solus Achilleo tollere more potest The reprobate
gurmandizeth the bait which before he had vomited up Beloved is God bound to help us up as often as we fall carelesly and wilfully What if hee let us lye as a prey for the Divell who runneth about like a Lion seeking whom hee may devoure Can we promise our selves a continuall supply of grace if wee still turne it into wantonnesse Will he beleeve our sighes and teares which have so oft proved false embassadours of our hearts Wee see by the fearfull judgements of Ananias and Sapphira how dangerous a thing it is to lye to the Spirit of God what doe we else when we daily professe in our prayers that we are heartily sorry for our sinnes that we loath and detest our vicious courses that the remembrance of all our former transgressions is grievous unto us and the burthen of them is intolerable whereas our deeds testifie to the world that we are so farre from loathing our former filthinesse that we hunger and thirst after it so farre from hearty repentance that our heart is set and our affections wholly bent to follow wickednesse with greedinesse Let us not deceive our owne soules Beloved God we cannot so many sinnes as we willingly commit after our humble confession and seeming contrition so many evidences we give against our selves that we are dissembling hypocrites and not sincere penitents for this is the touchstone of true repentance it a plangere commissa ut non committas plangenda so to bewaile that we have committed that we commit not that we have bewailed I before compared this life to a sea and now I may not unfitly most of the fish in it either to the Scolopendra of which before or to the Crab which either standeth still or swimmeth backward Doe we dreame as Nebuchadnezzar did of an image with an head of gold and armes of silver and thighes of brasse and legges of earth and clay Doe we not see many that are gold and silver in their childhood and youth precious vessels of grace brasse and iron in their riper yeeres and no better than earth and clay in their old age The * Plin. lib. 8. c. 16. Aristoteles tradit Leaenam primo soetu 5. catulos ac per annos singulos uno minus ab uno sterilescere Lionesse in the naturall story which at the first bringeth forth five young ones and after fewer by one in a short time becommeth quite barren But because I have spoken at large of the dangerous antecedent heare I beseech you a word of the dreadfull consequent All his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not bee mentioned Would it not vexe a Scrivener after he had spent many dayes and much paines upon a large Patent or Lease to make such a blot at the last word that he should be forced to write it all againe yet so it is that as one foule blot or dash with a pen defaceth a whole writing so one soule and enormous crime dasheth and obliterateth the fairest copy of a vertuous life it razeth out all the golden characters of divine graces imprinted in our soules All our fastings and prayers all our sighing and mourning for our sinnes all our exercises of piety all our deeds of charity all our sufferings for righteousnesse all the good thoughts we have ever conceived all the good words we have ever uttered all the good workes we have ever performed in a word all our righteousnesse is lost at the very instant when we resolve to turne from it As one drop of inke coloureth a whole glasse of cleere water so one sinfull and shamefull action staineth all our former life yet this is not the worst for it followeth In his transgression that he hath committed and in the sinne that he hath sinned in them hee shall dye Doth God threaten this judgement onely doth hee not execute it upon presumptuous transgressours When Balthazar tooke a peece of the plate of the Sanctuary to quaffe in it behold presently a a Dan. 5.5 hand writing his doome upon the wall and in the transgression that hee had committed and in the sinne that hee had sinned in it hee dyed Korah Dathan and Abiram had no sooner opened their mouth against Moses than the b Num. 16.32 earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up quicke and in the trespasse which they had trespassed and in the sinne which they had sinned in it they dyed Ananias and Sapphira had no sooner told a lye to Saint Peter and stood to it but they were c Act. 5.5 10. strucke downe to the ground and in the trespasse that they trespassed and in the sinne that they sinned in it they dyed Herod had scarce made an end of his oration to the people and received their applause crying The voice of God and not of man when the Angel made d Act. 12.22 23. an end of him and in the trespasse which hee trespassed and in the sinne that he sinned in it bee dyed Oh that our blasphemous swearers and bloudy murderers and uncleane adulterers and sacrilegious Church-robbers when the Divell edges them on to any impiety or villany would cast but this rub in their way What if God should take mee in the manner and strike mee in the very act I am about and cast mee into the deep dungeon of Hell there to be tormented with the Divell and his angels for evermore Doe I not provoke him to it Doe I not dare him Hath hee not threatened as much Hath hee not done as much Nonne cuivis contingere potest quod cuiquam potest that which is ones case may it not be any ones case Yea but they will say God is mercifull Hee is so else the most righteous upon earth would despaire a thousand times but not to those that continually abuse his long-suffering and presume upon his mercy If there be e Deut. 29.19 20. among you saith God by Moses a root that beareth gall and wormwood and it come to passe that when hee heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkennesse to thirst the Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall lye upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven Yea but God promiseth pardon at all times to the penitent But where doth he promise at all times grace to repent Be it that God would tender us his grace at what houre wee please which is presumption in us to hope for yet the longer we deferre the applying of the remedy the more painfull and dangerous the cure will be In the conversive proposition concerning our conversion to God I admit of the convertens viz. True repentance is never too late so they will take along with them the conversa viz. that late repentance is seldome
her husband on the sudden loseth him which I call God to witnesse saith x Orig. in Cant. Conspicit Sponsa Sponsum qui conspectus statim abscessit frequenter hoc in toto carmine facit quod nisi quis patiatur non potest intelligere saepe Deus est testis Sponsum mihi adventate conspexi mecum esse subitò recedentem invenire non potui Origen I my selfe have sensible experience in my meditations upon this book And who of us in his private devotions findeth not the like Sometimes in our divine conceptions contemplations and prayers we are as it were on float sometimes on the sudden at an ebbe sometimes wee are carried with full saile sometimes we sticke as it were in the haven The use we are to make hereof is when we heare the gales of the Spirit rise to hoise up our sailes to listen to the sound when we first heare it because it will be soon blown over to cherish the sparkes of grace because if they be not cherished they will soone dye There came a sound Death entred in at the windowes that is the eyes saith Origen but life at the eares z Gal. 1.8 For the just shall live by faith and faith commeth by hearing The sound is not without the wind for the Spirit ordinarily accompanieth the preaching of the Word neither is the wind without the sound Away then with Anabaptisticall Enthustiasts try the spirits whether they be of God or no by the Word of God To the y Esay 8.20 Law and to the testimony saith the Prophet Esay If they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them And if we saith the Apostle or an Angel from heaven preach unto you any other Gospel than what ye have received that is saith St. * Aug. contr lit Petil. l. 3. c. 6. Praeterquam quod in Scripturis legalibus Evangelicis accepistis Anathema sit Austine than what is contained in the Propheticall and Apostolicall writings let him be accursed From heaven This circumstance affordeth us a threefold doctrine 1. That the Spirit hath a dependance on the Son and proceedeth from him for the Spirit descended not till after the Son ascended who both commanded his Disciples to stay at Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father which yee have a Act. 1.4 heard saith he from mee and promised after his departure to send the b John 15.26 When the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father Act. 1.5 Yee shall be baptized with the holy Ghost not many dayes hence spirit and accordingly sent him ten dayes after his ascension with the sound of a mighty wind in the likenesse of fiery cloven tongues 2. That the Gospel is of divine authority As the Law came from heaven so the Gospel and so long as we preach Gods word ye still heare sonum de coelo a sound from heaven Thus c Lactan. instit l. 3. c. 30. Ecce vox de coelo veritatem docens sole ipso clarius lumen ostendens Lactantius concludes in the end of his third booke of divine institutions How long shall we stay saith he till Socrates will know any thing or Anaxagoras find light in darknesse or Democritus draw up the truth from the bottome of a deep Well or Empedocles enlarge the narrow pathes of his senses or Arcesilas and Carneades according to their sceptick doctrine see feele or perceive any thing Behold a voice from heaven teaching us the truth and discovering unto us a light brighter than the sunne 3. That the doctrine of the Gospel is not earthly but of a heavenly nature that it teacheth us to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation that it mortifieth our fleshly lusts stifleth ambitious desires raiseth our mind from the earth and maketh us heavenly in our thoughts heavenly in our affections heavenly in our hopes and desires For albeit there are excellent morall and politicke precepts in it directing us to manage our earthly affaires yet the maine scope and principall end thereof is to bring the Kingdome of heaven unto us by grace and us into it by glory This a meer sound cannot doe therefore it is added As of a rushing mighty wind This blast or wind is a sacred symbole of the Spirit and there is such a manifold resemblance between them that the same word in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine spiritus signifieth both what so like as wind to the Spirit 1. As the wind bloweth where it d John 3.8 listeth so the Spirit inspireth whom he pleaseth 2. As wee feele the wind and heare it yet see it not so wee heare of the Spirit in the word and feele him in our hearts yet see him not 3. As breath commeth from the heat of our bowells so the third person as the Schooles determine proceedeth from the heat of love in the Father and the Son 4. As the wind purgeth the floore and cleanseth the aire so the Spirit purifieth the heart 5. As in a hot summers day nothing so refresheth a traveller as a coole blast of wind so in the heat of persecutions and heart burning sorrow of afflictions nothing so refresheth the soule as the comfort of the Spirit who is therefore stiled Paracletus the Comforter 6. As the wind in an instant blowes downe the strongest towers and highest trees so the Spirit overthrowes the strongest holds of Sathan and humbleth the haughtiest spirit 7. As the wind blowing upon a garden carrieth a sweet smell to all parts whither it goeth so the Spirit bloweth upon and openeth the flowers of Paradise and diffuseth the savour of life unto life through the whole Church 8. As the wind driveth the ship through the waves of the sea carrieth it to land so the gales of Gods Spirit carrie us through the troublesome waves of this world and bring us into the haven where wee would bee Cui cum Patre Filio sit laus c. THE MYSTERIE OF THE FIERY CLOVEN TONGUES THE LXV SERMON ACTS 2.3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them AMong the golden rules of a Cael. Rodig lib. antiq lect Nunquam de Deo sine lumine loquendum Pythagoras so much admired by antiquity this was one that we ought not to speake of God without light the meaning of which precept was not that we ought not to pray to God or speake of him in the night or the darke but that the nature of God is dark to us and that we may not presume to speak thereof without some divine light from heaven Nothing may be confidently or safely spoken of him which hath not been spoken by him In which regard b Salv. de gubern lib. 1. Tanta est Majestatis sacrae tam tremenda reverentia ut non solùm illa quae
Joh. 6.10 11 12 13. multiplyed the loaves and fishes hee gave this sensible and undeniable proofe of the truth of this miracle both by saturitie in the stomacks of the people and by substantiall remnants thereof in the baskets When they were filled saith the Evangelist hee said to his disciples Gather the fragments that remaine that nothing be lost Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above to them that had eaten Cloven tongues The holy Ghost which now first appeared in the likenesse of tongues moved the tongues of all the Prophets that have spoken since the world began For the l 2 Pet. 1.21 prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Of all the parts of the body God especially requireth two the heart the tongue the heart whereby m Rom. 10.10 man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and the tongue whereby he maketh confession unto salvation the heart to love God the tongue to praise him Out of which consideration the Heathen as Plutarch observeth dedicated the Peach-tree to the Deitie because the fruit thereof resembleth the heart of man and the leafe his tongue And to teach us that the principall use of our tongue is to sound out the praises of our maker the Hebrew calleth the tongue Cobod that is glory as My heart was glad n Psal 16.9 30.13 57.9 Buxtorph Epit radic and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my tongue also Hebrew my glory also rejoyceth They who glorifie not God with their tongue may be truly said to have no tongue in the Hebrew language and verily they deserve no tongues who make them not silver trumpets to sound out the glory of God And if such forfeit their tongues how much more doe they who whet them against God and his truth whose mouths are full of cursing and bitternesse direfull imprecations and blasphemous oathes These have fierie tongues but not kindled from heaven but rather as S. o Chap. 3.6 James speaketh set on fire of hell and their tongues also are cloven by schisme faction and contention not as these in my text for a mysticall signification Cloven Some by cloven understand linguas bifidas two-forked tongues and they will have them to be an embleme of discretion and serpentine wisdome others linguas dissectas slit tongues like the tongues of such birds as are taught to speake and these conceive them to have beene an embleme of eloquence For such kinde of tongues p Hieroglyph l. 33. Pierius affirmeth that the Heathen offered in sacrifice to Mercurie their god of eloquence and they made them after a sort fierie by casting them into the fire ad expurgandas perperam dictorum labes to purge out the drosse of vain discourses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tongues parted at the top but joyned at the roote and they represented saith q In Act. Quia in proximo debebant dividi in omnes terras Gorrhan the dispersion of the Apostles which after ensued into all countries These tongues were not of fire but As it were of fire The matter of which these tongues consisted was not grosse and earthly but aeriall or rather heavenly like the fire which r Exod. 3.2 Moses saw in the bush for as that so this had the light but not the burning heat of fire It is not said of fires in the plurall but of fire in the singular number because as the silver trumpets were made all of one piece so these twelve tongues were made of one fierie matter to illustrate the diversitie of gifts proceeding from the same spirit And it sate Sitting in the proper sense is a bodily gesture and agreeth not to tongues or fire yet because it is a gesture of permanencie or continuance the word is generally used in the originall for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ſ Chrys in Act. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to abide or reside and so it may expresse unto us the continuance of these gifts of the Spirit in the Apostles and may put us in minde of our dutie which is to sit to our preaching and continue in the labours of the ministrie Give t 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15. attendance saith the Apostle to reading to exhortation to doctrine Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecie with the laying on of the hands of the presbyterie Meditate upon these things give thy selfe wholly to them that thy profiting may appeare to all Upon each of them Whether these tongues entred into the mouths of the Apostles as Amphilochius writeth of S. Basil or rested upon their heads as S. Cyril imagined whence some derive the custome of u Lorinus in Act. c. 2. imposition of hands upon the heads of those who are consecrated Bishops or ordained Priests it is not evident out of the text but this is certaine and evident that it sate upon each of them It sate not upon Peter onely but upon the rest as well as him S. Chrysostome saith upon the * Chrys in act c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hundred and twentie that were assembled in that upper roome those who say least affirme that it rested upon all the Apostles For howsoever the Papists take all occasions to advance S. Peter above the rest of the Apostles that the Roman See might be advanced through him as Hortensius the Oratour extolled eloquence to the skies that hee might bee lifted up thither with her yet the Scripture giveth him no preheminence here or elsewhere for Christ delivereth the keyes of heaven with the power of binding and loosing into all x Matt. 18.18 Whatsoever ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever yee loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven of their hands he breathes vpon them all John 20.21 22. and sendeth them with as full commission as his Father sent him All their names shine in the y Apoc. 21.14 foundation and gates of the heavenly Jerusalem and here in my text fierie cloven tongues sate upon each of them And there appeared unto them c. As in the Sacrament of Christs body so in these symbols of the spirit we are to consider two things 1. The signes or outward elements 2. The thing signified by them Of the signes yee have heard heretofore hold out I beseech you your religious attention to the remainder of the time and yee shall heare in briefe of the thing signified by them Miracles for the most part in holy Scripture are significant the cloudie pillar signified the obscure knowledge of Christ under the Law the pillar of fire the brighter knowledge of him in the Gospell the renting of the veile at the death of our Saviour the opening of the way to the Sanctum Sanctorum into which our high
in the children of his love than the mutuall love of his children one to another n Mat. 23.8 Ye are all brethren love therefore as brethren be pitifull be courteous not rendering evill for evill nor railing for railing but contrariwise o 1 Pet 3.8 9. blessing knowing that yee are thereunto called that yee should inherit a blessing As beames of the same sunne let us meet in the center of light as rivelets of the same spring joyne in the source of grace as sprigs on the same root or twins on the same stalke sticke alwaies together Such was the love of the Saints of God in old time that their hearts were knit one to the other yea which is more All the beleevers had but p Acts 4.32 The multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart of one soule one heart But such love is not now to be found in our bookes much lesse in our conversations we hardly beleeve there can be such love in beleevers we seem not to be of their race wee seem rather to be descended many of us from Coelius who could not be quiet if he were not in quarrells who was angry if he were not provoked to anger whose motto was Dic aliquid ut duo simus Say or doe something that we may be two or from Sylla of whom Valerius Maximus writeth that it was a great question whether he or his malice first expired for he died railing and railed dying or of Eteocles and Polynices who as they warred all their life so after a sort they expressed their discord and dissention after their death for at their funerals the flame of the dead corpses parted asunder when they were burned When the Son of man commeth shall hee find q Luke 18.8 faith on the earth saith our Saviour I feare we may demand rather shall he find charity on the earth All the true family of love may seem to be extinct for the greater part of men as if they had been baptized in the waters of strife from the font to their tomb-stone are in continuall frettings vexings quarrells schisme and faction Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti But let these Salamanders which live perpetually in the fire of contention take heed lest without speedy repentance they be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone forever If r Mat. 5.9 blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God cursed are all make-bates for they shall be called the children of the wicked one If the fruits of ſ Jam. 3.18 righteousnesse are sowne in peace of them that make peace certainly the fruits of iniquity are sowne in contention by them that stirre up strife and contention If they that sow t Pro. 6.16 19. These sixe things doth the Lord hate yea seven are abomination unto him a false witnesse that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren discord among brethren are an abomination to the Lord they that plant love and set concord are his chiefe delight What u Cic. tusc 1. Optimum non nasci proximum quà m citissimè mori Silenus spake of the life of man The best thing was not to be borne the next to dye as soone as might be may bee fitly applyed to all quarrells and contentions among Christian brethren it is the happiest thing of all that such dissentions never see light the next is if they arise and come into the Christian world that they dye suddenly after their birth at the most let them be but like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 small creatures Aristotle speaketh of whose life exceedeth not a summers day Let not the * Ephes 4.26 sun goe down upon our wrath How can we long be at odds and distance if we consider that we are all brethren by both sides For as we call one God our Father so we acknowledge one Church our Mother wee have all sucked the same breasts the Old and New Testaments we are all bred up in the same schoole the schoole of the crosse we are all fed at the same table the Lords board we are all incorporated into one society the communion of Saints and made joynt-heires with our elder brother Christ Jesus of one Kingdome in Heaven If these and the like considerations cannot knit our hearts together in love which is the bond of perfection the Heathen shall rise up in judgement and condemne us x Mart. epig. lib. 1. Si Lucane tibi vel si tibi Tulle darentur Qualia Ledaei fata Lacones habent c. Martial writeth of two brothers between whom there was never any contention but this who should die one for the other Nobilis haec esset pietatis rixa duobus Quod pro fratre mori vellet uterque prior The speech also of Pollux to Castor his brother is remarkable y Mart. epig. lib. 1. Vive tuo frater tempore vive meo I cannot let passe Antiochus who when he heard that his brother Seleuchus who had been up in armes against him died at Galata commanded all the Court to mourne for him but when afterwards hee was more certainly enformed that he was alive and levied a great army against him he commanded all his Commanders and chiefe Captaines to sacrifice to their gods crown themselves with garlands for joy that his brother was alive But above all z Plut. de fraterno amore Euclid shewed in himselfe the true symptomes of brotherly affection who when his brother in his rage made a rash vow Let me not live if I be not revenged of my brother Euclid turnes the speech the contrary way Nay let me not live if I be not reconciled to my brother let me not live if we be not made as good friends as ever before Shall nature be stronger than grace bonds of flesh tie surer than the bonds of the spirit one tie knit hearts together faster than many The a Cic. offic l. 1. Oratour saith Omnes omnium charitates patria complectitur but we may say more truly Omnes omnium charitates Christus complectitur all bonds of love friendship affinity and consanguinity all neernesse and dearnesse all that can make increase or continue love is in Christ Jesus into whose spirit we are all baptized into whose body we are incorporated who in his love sacrificed himselfe to his Fathers justice for us who giveth his body and bloud to us in this sacrament to nourish Christian love in us For therefore we all eate of one bread that we may be made one bread therefore wee are made partakers of his naturall body that wee may be all made one mysticall body and all quickned with one spirit that spirit which raised up our head Christ Jesus from the dead Cui cum Patre c. THE PERPLEXED SOULES QUAERE A Sermon preached on the third Sunday in Lent THE LXIX SERMON ACTS 2.37 What shall we doe THe words of the
ad rustic Eloquentiae torcularia non verborum pampinis sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent For in these the presses of eloquence abound with leaves of words and luxuriant stemmes of extravagant wit but in it with spirituall senses and divine sentences as it were the juice and bloud of the ripest grapes of the Vine of Engeddi It is a point of wisedome in man who hath but little to make it goe as farre as he can and so thriftily instill it in his workes as Nature doth her influences in simples a great quantity whereof is often distilled to extract one drop of pure quintessence whereas on the contrary no plant of Paradise no branch of a plant no flower of a branch no leafe of a flower but affordeth great plenty of the water of life more precious than any quintessence that Art can force out of Nature The finers of gold Chrysost tom 5. homil 37. as golden mouth St. Chrysostome teacheth us deale not only with wedges ingots and massie pieces of gold but with the smallest portions thereof And the Apothecaries make singular use in divers confections even of the dust of gold When Alexander the great managed his affaires in Judea those whom he imployed to gather the most precious oyle of a Plin. l. 12. nat hist c. 25. Succus è plaga manat quem Opobalsamum vocant suavitatis eximiae sed tenui gutta Alexandro magnores ibi gerente toto dic aestivo unam concham impleri justum erat Opobalsamum thought a whole Summers day well spent in filling a small shell taking it as it fell drop by drop from the twigge And if a skilfull Jeweller will not grind out a small spot or cloud out of a rich stone though it somewhat dimme the bright lustre thereof because the substance is so precious shall we lose or sleightly passe by any Iota or tittle of the Booke of God which shall out-last the large volumes of the heavens for * Mat. 5.18 heaven earth shall passe away but no one Iota or tittle of the Word of God shall passe The Jewish Rabines say that great mountaines hang upon the smallest Jods in the Bible And St. b Chrys in Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome will not endure a devout Christian to let goe any syllable in the Scripture no nor pricke or point without observation Surely if God so carefully preserve the smallest parcels of Scripture he would have us religiously observe them Else if wee content our selves with a generall handling of the Word of life how shall wee satisfie the Apostles precept of rightly dividing the Word of God * 2. Tim. 2.15 Shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth The word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dichotomizing the Apostle tyeth no man to a precise Ramisticall method yet is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly cutting or dividing the Word of truth which cannot be done if any sensible part be omitted be it but a conjunctive particle as this Till in my Text which standeth like an hinge in the midst of the sentence turning the meaning divers wayes If it hath reference to the death and resurrection of our Saviour as Cajetan Avendanus conceive it hath in which he brought forth judgement unto victory by condemning the world conquering both death hell then the meaning of the whole is this He shall not strive nor cry c. he shall not offer any violence to his enemies by word or deed although he could as easily destroy them as a man may breake a reed already bruised or tread out the smoaking week of a light ready to goe out of it selfe yet he will not use this power but contrariwise carry himselfe most meekly towards them and by his mildnesse and patience both condemn their fury and conquer their obstinacy If it looke farther forward to the destruction of the City and Temple and the overthrow of the whole Jewish Nation as Theophylact and Musculus imagine expounding Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory till he execute judgement upon them that judged him and fully be revenged of them by the sword of the Romans then the meaning of the whole is Hee shall not breake the bruised reed of the Jewish Nation till by the victory of the Romans he shall execute judgement upon that Nation nor shall he quench the smoaking flaxe of the Aaronicall Priesthood till forty veeres after his death the City of Jerusalem shall bee sacked and the Temple burned downe to the ground and by the propagation of the Gospel and prevailing thereof in all places the dimme light of the Ceremoniall Law be quite extinguished But if the word Untill carry us so farre as the last Judgement to which St. Jerome St. Hilary c Guilliand comment in Mat. Qui diebus carnis suae visus est humilis benignus doctor aderit aliquando Jude◠utetur potentiá absolutâ damnavit hostes suos Guilliandus and many other learned Expositors referre it then the whole beareth this tune See you Jesus now in the forme of a servant how humble and meeke he is so farre from killing and subduing his bloud-thirsty enemies by forcible meanes that hee will not strive with them so farre from lifting up his hand against them that hee will not lift up his voice Hee will not cry nor shall his voice bee heard in the streets complaining against them so farre from wounding the spirit Cic. Catil prim Quos ferro vulnerare oportebat nondum voce vulnerat or hurting the bodies of any men that hee will not breake a bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe The time shall come when you shall see this meek Lambe turned into a fierce Lion He who cryed not upon earth shall thunder from heaven He who came now to suffer in meeknesse shall hereafter come in power to conquer Hee who came in humility to bee judged shall come in Majesty to judge both quicke and dead Hee who came by water and bloud by water to wash our sinnes and by bloud to quench the fire of his Fathers wrath shall one day come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all that beleeve not the Gospel He who in all his life never brake a bruised reed a Beza in Mat. c. 12. Tum rebellia corda confringet non jam clemens humilis sed severus majestate verendus shall after his death and resurrection when he commeth to Judgement if not before rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell Hee who here never quenched the smoaking flaxe hee shall hereafter put out the greater lights of the world He shall darken the Sunne and turne the Moone into bloud and shake the powers of heaven and foundations of the earth and the hearts of men and behold he commeth with the clouds and all eyes shall see
overthrow of the Jewish Nation by Vespasian and his sonne Titus Others deferre the accomplishment of this prophecy till the dreadfull day of the Worlds doome when by the shrill sound of the Archangels Trumpet all the dead shall bee awaked and the son of man shall march out of Heaven with millions of Angels to his Judgement seat in the clouds where hee shall sit upon the life and death of mankinde That day saith Saint d August l. 20. de civitate Dei Ille dies judicii propriè dicitur eo quod nullus erit ibi imperitae querelae locus Cur injustus ille sit foelix cur justus ille infoelix Austin may bee rightly called a Day of Judgement because then there shall bee no place left for those usuall exceptions against the judgements of God and the course of his providence on earth viz. Why is this just man unhappy and why is that unjust man happy Why is this profane man in honour and that godly man in disgrace Why doth this wicked man prosper in his evill wayes and that righteous man faile in his holy attempts Nay why for a like fact doth some man receive the guerdon of a crowne and another of a e Juvenal Satyr Sceleris pretium ille crucem tulit hic diadema crosse or gibbet the one of a halter the other of a chaine of gold These and the like murmurs against the justice of the Judge of all flesh shall bee hushed and all men shall say in the words of the f Psal 58.11 Psalmist Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth And then Christ may bee said properly to bring or send forth judgement when hee revealeth the secrets of all hearts displayeth all mens consciences and declareth the circumstances of all actions whereby all mens judgements may bee rightly informed in the proceedings of the Almighty and all men may see the justice of God in those his most secret and hidden judgements at which the wisest on earth are astonished and dare not looke into them lest they should bee swallowed up in the depth of them I speake of those judgements of God which Saint g August lo. sup cit Dies declarabit ubi hoc quoque manifestabitur quà m justo Dei judicio fiat ut nunc tam multa ac penè omnia justa Dei judicia sensus mentemque mortalium fugiant cum tamen in hac repiorum fidem non lateat justum esse quod latet Austin termeth Occuliè justa and justè occulta Secretly just and justly secret so they are now but at the day of Judgement they shall bee manifestly just and justly manifest then it shall appeare not onely that the most secret judgements of God are just but also that there was just cause why they should bee secret or kept hidden till that day Lastly then Christ may bee said properly to bring forth judgement unto victory because hee shall first conquer all his enemies and then judge and sentence them to everlasting torments Of which dreadfull Judgement ensuing upon the glorious Victory of the Prince of peace over the great Whore and the false Prophet and the Divell that deceiveth them all from which the Archangel shall sound a retreat by blowing the last trump and summoning all that have slept in the dust to arise out of their graves and come to judgement I need not to adde any thing more in this Religious and Christian auditory Wherefore I will fill up the small remainder of the time with some briefe observations upon the ruine and utter desolation of the Jewish Nation who even to this day wandring like Vagabonds in all countries and made slaves not only to Christians but to Moores Turkes and other Infidels rue the crucifying of the Lord of life and the spilling of the innocent bloud of the immaculate Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World As according to the custome of our country Quarter-Sessions are held in Cities and Shire-townes before the generall Assises so Christ a little more than forty yeeres after his death at Jerusalem and ascension into Heaven held a Quarter-Sessions in Jerusalem for that country and people after which hee shall certainly keep a generall Assises for the whole world when the sinnes of all Nations shall be ripe for the Angels sickle Some of the wisest of the Jewish Rabbins entring into a serious consideration of this last and greatest calamity that ever befell that people together with the continuance thereof more than 1500. yeeres and casting with themselves what sinne might countervaile so heavie a judgement in the end have growne to this resolution that surely it could be no other than the spilling of the Messias bloud which cryed for this vengeance from heaven against them And verily if you observe all the circumstances of times persons and places together with the maner and means of their punishments and lay them to the particulars of Christs sufferings in and from that Nation you shall see this point as cleerly set before your eyes as if these words were written in letters of bloud upon the sacked walls of Jerusalem Messiah his Judgement and Victory over the Jewes 1. Mocking repaid 1. Not full sixe yeeres after our Lords passion most of those indignities and disgraces which the Jewes put upon him were returned backe to themselves by Flaccus and the Citizens of Alexandria who scurrilously mocked their King Agrippa in his returne from Rome by investing a mad man called Carabbas with Princely robes putting a reed in his hand for a Scepter saluting him Haile King of the Jewes Note here the Jewes mocking of Christ repaid unto themselves yet this was not all 2 Whipping repaid The Alexandrians were not content thus scornfully to deride the King of the Jewes they proceeded farther to make a daily sport of scourging many of the Nobility even to death and that which Philo setteth a Tragicall accent upon at their solemnest Feast Note here the Jewes whipping and scourging Christ upon the solemne Feast of Passover repaid unto them 3. Spitting repaid 3. And howsoever their noble and discreet Embassadour Philo made many remonstrances to the Emperour Caligula of these unsufferable wrongs offered to their Nation yet that Emperour because the Jewes had refused to set up his Image in the Temple was so farre from relieving them or respecting him according to the quality he bare that he spurned him with his foot and spit on his face Note here the Jewes spitting on Christ repaid them 4. The Jewes refusing Christ to be their King to flatter the Romane Caesar reveneâ—d on them by Caesar himself 4. In conclusion the Emperour sent him away with such disgrace and discontent that hee turning to his country-men said Bee of good cheare Sirs for God himselfe must needs right us now sith his Vicegerent from whom wee expected justice doth so much wrong us and contrary
of the virgin conceived Christ quicke and accordingly brought him forth alive the wombe of the earth conceived him dead but brought him forth quicke uteri nova forma concepit mortuum parit vivum As we may behold the feature of a mans face either in the countenance it selfe or in a glasse set before it or in a picture drawne by it so wee may contemplate the resurrection either in the prophecies and types of the old law as in glasses or in the hystory of the new as it were in the face it selfe or in our spirituall resurrection from dead workes as in the picture A glasse sheweth the lineaments and proportion of a man but at a distance so wee may see Christ in the predictions visions and figures of the Old Testament as so many glasses but at a distance according to the words of that Seer c Num. 24.17 I shall see him but not neare So Hosea saw him insulting over death and hell and menacing them d Hos 13.14 O death I will bee thy death so Esay saw him risen from the dead and speaking to him sayd e Es 26.19 Thy dead shall live with my body shall they rise awake and sing ye that sit in dust So David in the Spirit saw the day of the resurrection and exceedingly rejoiced at it saying f Psal 16.9 my heart was glad my glory rejoyced my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soule in hell nor suffer thy holy One to see corruption So Adam saw him conquering death and triumphing over him that had the power of death to wit the Divell though more obscurely because at the farthest distance in the promise g Gen. 3.15 it shall breake thy head and thou shalt breake his heele the death and resurrection of Christ are mystically involved As the Poets fabled that Achilles after his Mother Thetis held him by the heele and dipt the rest of his body into the sea could bee hurt in no part but his heele so in a divine sense it may bee said of our Saviour that hee could be wounded by Sathan no where but in his heele that is in the lowest part of his humane nature his flesh This the serpent stung at his death but in his resurrection hee bruised the head thereof The Devill saith h Greg. Nyssen de resurrect ser 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nyssen in his sermon upon the resurrection going about to catch was caught for catching at the bait of Christs flesh hee was caught fast himselfe and wounded by the hooke of his divine nature Besides these predictions and promises wee have in the Old Testament the figure of our Lords resurrection in Adam a type in the scape goat a signe or embleme in Jonas and a vision in Ezekiel The figure may bee thus expounded As Adam rose out of his dead sleepe in which Eve was formed out of his ribbe so Christ after his slumber of death on the crosse in which his spouse the Church was formed out of his side as hath beene said awoke againe The type may bee thus exemplified as the scape-goate came neere to death being within the cast of a lot to it and yet avoiding it was presented alive to God to make an attonement so Christ who seemed to have beene conquered by death and swallowed up of the grave lying there three dayes and three nights yet escaped it and was presented on Easter day to his Father alive to make an attonement for all his brethren To the embleme of Jonas Christ himselfe giveth the word or Motto i Mat. 12.40 As Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the whales belly so shall the sonne of man be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth After three dayes Jonas came out of the bowels of the whale Christ out of the heart of the earth The vision of Ezekiel is so cleare that he that runneth may see in it a praeludium of the resurrection k Ezek 37.7 8 9 10. The Prophet saw in a valley a number of dry bones moving one to the other and suddenly they were tyed with sinewes and covered with flesh and the winde breathed into them the breath of life and they stood up like an army Wee have viewed the resurrection in the prophecies and figures of the Old Testament as so many severall glasses let us now contemplate it in the history of the New as it were in the face it selfe 1 Early in the morning while it was yet darke the Angel removed the stone that so Mary and the Apostles might looke into the sepulchre and unlesse the angell of the covenant remove the stone from our hearts wee can never looke into Christs sepulchre with an eye of faith nor undoubtedly beleeve the resurrection 2 Peter and John made hast to the sepulchre but they stayed not there Mary abideth there shee therefore seeth a vision of Angels the one standing at the head the other at the feet where Jesus had lyen either to signifie that the Angels of God attend as well on Christs feet the lowest members of his mysticall body as on his head that is the chiefest in the Church or that the angels smell a sweet savour from our workes of charity and therefore the one sate at the head the other at the feete where Mary had annointed our Lord. 3 A third Angell whereof mention is made in the Gospell of Saint l Mar. 16.5 Marke sitting on the right side appeared like a young man to signifie that in the resurrection our age shall bee renewed and our bodies shall bee in their full strenghth and vigor his rayment shined like lightning to represent the clarity and splendour of our bodies that after death shall be made conformable to Christs glorious body 4 Mary Magdalene hath the honour first to see our Saviour and to bee the first Preacher of the resurrection to the everlasting comfort of all true Penitents and as by the woman death came first so the first newes of life from death was brought by a woman 5 Till Christ called Mary by name shee knew him not but supposed him to have beene the Gardiner who indeed is the Planter of the celestiall Paradise neither can we know Christ till by a speciall and particular vocation hee make himselfe knowne to us 6 Christ appeared first to single witnesses as Mary apart and Peter apart and James apart then to double Cleophas and that other disciple afterwards to the eleven Apostles and last of all to more than 500. brethren at once If Maries testimony might bee excepted at because shee was but a woman what can they say to Saint Peter what to Saint James to whom Christ vouchsafed to shew himselfe in particular If they except against them as single witnesses what will they say to Cleophas and Saint Luke two contests of one and the selfe same apparition If their paucity be cavelled at what will they say to the
to the capacity of their nature and consequently all may truely and properly bee said to live how then is life appropriated to God and God by this attribute living distinguished not onely from fained deities which were no creatures but also from creatures which are not God I grant that other creatures live and that truely and properly For the Angels live in heaven the Birds in the ayre the Fishes in the sea Men and Beasts in the earth the Divell and damned ghosts in hell but none of them live the life of God their life differeth as much from his as their nature from his 1 His life is his nature their 's the operation of their nature the life of Angels is their contemplation of Divels is their torment of Men is their action of Beasts their sâ—â—e and motion of Plants their growth in briefe Hee is life they are but living 2 His life is his owne he liveth of himselfe and by himselfe and in himselfe their life is borrowed from him as all light is from the sunne 3 His life is infinite without beginning or ending their life is finite and had a beginning and most of them shall have an end and all might if he had so pleased 4 His life is entire altogether and perfect their 's imperfect growing by additioâ— of dayes to dayes and yeeres to yeeres 5 His liâ—e is immutable their 's mutable and subject to many alterations and changâ—s To drâ—w towards an end you heare what You are not prophane or common houses but the Temple not the Temple of Divels but of God yeâ— the living God marke I beseech you what will ensue upon it Use 1 If the â—â—â—thfull are the Temple of the holy Ghost to robbe or spoile any of them must needs bee sacriledge in the highest degree To assault and set open Gods house what is it but after a sort to offer violence to God himsâ—â—fe and commit a worse burglary than that which our lawes condemne â—â—th death 2 If 〈◊〉 Saints of God are the Sanctuaries of the most High what need they 〈◊〉 â—he ungodly pursue them fearefully to flye and basely to seeke to 〈◊〉 person for sâ—ccour oâ— place for refuge They carry a sanctuary about 〈…〉 of their bodies Why should they take sanctuary who are 〈…〉 sâ—nctuâ—ry oftentimes to save the greatest offenders from God◠〈◊〉 Such a sanctuary was Noah to the old world Lot to 〈…〉 Saint John to those that were in the house Saint 〈…〉 were in the shippe with him So soone as Noah left the 〈…〉 entrâ—â—â— into the Arke the world was drowned so soone as Lot lets God 〈◊〉 and â—led 〈◊〉 Zoar Sodome was burned with fire and brimstone from heaven so soone as Saint John left the bath where he met Cerinthus the Hereticke and got out of the house the house fell downe so soon as the Christians were safe at Pella out of Jerusalem Jerusalem was destroyed The house of Obed-Edom was blessed for having the Arke in it and thrice happy are those houses which have many of these Temples in them 3 If Gods chosen are his most holy Temple they must not admit Idolaters into their communion nor profane persons into their houses for this were to set open the Church of Christ to Belial and to entertaine Gods enemies in his owne house 4 Are our bodies and soules the Temple and our faculties and members the Chappels of the holy Ghost how holy then ought wee to be in our inward and outward man how pure in our soules and cleane in our bodies What a horrible and abominable thing were it for a man to doe any notorious villany or commit any filthinesse in the Church upon the Communion Table the savage Gothes and barbarous Infidels would not doe so wickedly Can we possibly beleeve that we are the Temple of the living God if wee bee so dissolute and impure and profane as some are Know wee not that so oft as wee sweare vainly and use curses and execrations wee profane Gods Temple so oft as wee draw bloud of our brother wee pollute it so oft as wee corrupt him wee destroy it so oft as wee defile our bodies with fornication or our soules with Idolatry wee commit filthinesse and practise wickednesse in the Temple of God in the presence of God even under his eye Men and brethren in this case what shall we doe for who hath not in some kinde or other polluted Gods holy Temple his soule and body Lactantius giveth us the best counsell that may bee d Lact. de ira Dei c. ult Mundemus hoc Templum Let us cleanse and purifie this Temple which wee have defiled You will say How is this to be done Gorrham answereth you out of the Law 1 The pavement according to the rites prescribed by Moses was to be broken up and all dead mens bones cast out let us in like manner breake up the ground of the heart and cast all dead workes out of our consciences 2 It was to bee swept all over and washed let us in like manner wash our inward Temples with tears and cleanse them with hearty repentance and godly sorrow for our sinnes 3 It was to be sprinkled with bloud let us in like manner through faith sprinkle our consciences with the bloud of the Lambe 4 It was to bee perfumed with sweet odours and incense let us in like manner perfume our inward Temple with zealous prayers and sighes for our sinnes When God shall see his Temple thus purified his house thus prepared for him hee will returne into it and dwell in it againe and take delight in it and enrich it daily more and more I will locke up the gates of this Temple with the golden Key of * Lact. l. de ira Dei c. ult Sit Deus in nobis non in templo sed in corde consecratus mundemus hoc templum quod non fumo nec pulvere sed malis cogitationibus sordidatur quod non cereis ardentibus sed claritate luce sapientiae illuminatur in quo si Deum semper crediderimus habere praesentem cujus divinitati secreta mentis pateant ita vivamus ut propitium semper habeamus nunquam vereamurs iratum Lactantius Let God bee consecrated or set up by us not in the Temple but in our hearts and let us carefully cleanse this Temple which is soyled and blacked not with smoake and dust but with impure thoughts and earthly desires which is not enlightned with burning tapers but with the light and brightnesse of wisdome in which if wee beleeve that God is continually present to the beames of whose divine eyes the inmost Closets of all hearts lye open let us so live that wee may ever enjoy his favour and never feare his wrath Gracious Lord who hast placed thy Tabernacle in the midst of us in our hearts consecrate them wee beseech thee for holy Temples unto thee sprinkle them with thy bloud cleanse them by thy grace enlighten them with thy
must all appeare before his tribunall which is so certaine a thing to come to passe that Saint y Apoc. 20.12 13. John in a vision saw it as present And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the bookes were opened and they were judged according to the things wrote in those bookes Now for the terrour of that day I tremble almost to rehearse how it is described in holy Scriptures by S. z Apoc. 20.11 John I saw a great white throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and by Saint * 1 Pet. 4.17 Peter The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God and if it begin there what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel and if the righteous shall scarce bee saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appeare It is hard to say whether the antecedents are more direfull or the concomitants more dolefull or the consequents more dreadfull The antecedents are formidable The a Mat. 24.29 Sunne shall be darkened and the Moone shall be turned into bloud and the starres shall fall from the skies and the powers of heaven shall bee shâ—â—â—â— b Luk. 21.25 26. In the earth shall be distresse of Nations and perplexity and the sea and tâ—â— waters shall roare and mens hearts shall faile them for feare and for looking after those things that are comming on the earth The concomitants are lamentable Behold he c Apoc. 1.7 commeth in the clouds and all eyes shall see him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him And yet the consequeâ—â— are more fearfull than either the antecedants or concomitants For the bookes of all mens consciences shall be spread abroad and every man shall answer for all the d Eccles 12.14 workes that he hath done nay for every e Mat. 12.36 word he hath spoken nay for every thought purpose and intent of the heart For when the Lord commeth he will bring to light the f 1 Cor. 4.5 hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart Having set up a faire light I will now take away some blockes and râ—â—â— that lye in the way of my discourse The first is that God executeth judgement in this world and therefore Salvianus hath written a booke Deâ—â—â—â—â— senti Dei judicio of Gods providence over his Church and present judgement Doth hee not open his treasures to the righteous and poure downe the vialls of his wrath upon the wicked in this life Doth not Saint Paul affirme that those that beleeve are g Rom. 5.1 justified already And Saint John that those that beleeve not are condemned h John 3.18 already What place then remaines for a future tryall Secondly immediately upon our death our soule is carried either by good Angels into Abrahams bosome or by evill into the dungeon of hell what then need they come to the generall assizes who have received their doome at the quarter sessions Thirdly if all mens consciences shall bee ripped up and all their secret sinnes be discovered in the face of the Sunne at the day of judgement that day cannot be but dreadfull to the most righteous man on earth yet Christ saith to his Disciples i Luke 21.28 When these things come to passe lift you up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh and they in this regard long for his second comming and pray continually Come Lord k Apoc. 22.20 Jesu come quickly The first rubbe is thus removed though Gods judgements overtake some yet not all in this life For the afflictions of the godly and the prosperity of the wicked were a great eye-sore to l Psal 73.12 David and m Jerem. 5.28 Jeremy Moreover God hath rewards both temporall and eternall the former he dispenceth in this life the later in that which is to come Hee that beleeveth is justified already before God and in the sense of his owne conscience for he hath peace with God And in like manner hee that beleeveth not is condemned already in Gods decree and hee hath received also the sentence of condemnation within himselfe as a fellon is hanged in the law and may know what his sentence shall be before it bee executed or pronounced against him This hindreth not but that the publike sentence shall passe upon both at the last day for eternall salvation or damnation The second is thus removed Immediately upon death every soule knoweth what shee is to trust to but this it not knowne to the world Besides the body must bee rewarded or punished as well as the soule therefore partly to cleare the justice of God in the sight of men and Angels partly to render to the body and soule that have been partners in evill and good their entire recompence after the private session at our death God hath appointed a publike assizes at the day of judgement The third rubbe is thus taken away The day of judgement is both terrible and comfortable to the godly terrible in the beginning comfortable in the end terrible in the accusation by Sathan comfortable in the defence by Christ our Advocate terrible in the examination but comfortable in the sentence Yea but their sores are laid open and they are fowle their debts are exhibited and they are very many their rents in their conscience are shewed and they are great It is true their sores are laid open but annointed with Balsamum their debts are exhibited but with a faire acquittance signed with Christs bloud their rents in their conscience are seene but mended and filled up with jewels of grace It is farre otherwise with the wicked their sores appeare without any salve their debts appeare but no acquittance their rent in their conscience appeareth and remaineth as wide as ever it was being never made up or mended by repentance therefore they cry n Apoc. 6.16 to the mountaines fall on us and to the hills cover us from the presence of the Lord and from the wrath of the Lambe This point of doctrine is not more evident in the proofe than profitable in the use which is threefold 1. To comfort the innocent 2. To terrifie the secure 3. To instruct all First to comfort the innocent For many that have walked sincerely before God have been censured for hypocrites many innocents have been falsly condemned many just men have suffered for righteousnesse sake and many faithfull Christians have been adjudged to mercilesse flames for their most holy profession To all these the day of judgement will bee the brightest day that ever shone on them For then their innocency shall break out as the light and their righteous dealing as the noone day then they shall have the hand of their false accusers and judge their Judges then they shall see him for whom they have stood all their life time and strived even to bloud Every losse they have sustained for his
sake shall bee then their gaine every disgrace their honour for every teare they have shed they shall receive a pearle for every blew stripe a saphir for every green wound an emerald for every drop of bloud a ruby to bee set in their crowne of glory Secondly it serveth much for the terrour of the wicked who goe on confidently in their lewd courses and proceed from evill to worse adding drunkennesse to thirst let these know that o Rom. 2.5 they heape wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God and that as the farther backe the axe is fetched the heavier is the stroake so the longer their punishment is deferred the heavier in the end it will fall upon them Let them who feare not to doe wrong but carry their sinne with a high hand bearing themselves upon their wealth or some potent friend at Court know that they shall be brought to Christs barre ore tenus and that none upon earth shall be able to rescue them Let them who lay snares in the darke and looke for their prey in the twi-light and say in their hearts no eye seeth us know that God hath p Apoc. 1.14 eyes like a flaming fire enlightening the darkest corners of the inmost roomes and that hee q Psal 50.21 will reprove them and set their sinnes in order before their eyes and that what they commit in secret and would not for a world that any witnesses should be by shall bee brought to an open examination before men and Angels Thirdly to instruct all so to live that they may not feare to come before the face of God so to cleare their accounts here that they need not to dread their examination there To this use the holy Ghost pointeth r 2 Pet. 4.11 12 14. Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought yee to be in all holy conversation how diligent that wee may bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse When Alcibiades came to visit Å¿ Eras Apoph Atqui inquit potius quemadmodum rationem non redderes laborares Pericles and found him very busie about his accounts Why saith he doest thou thus trouble thy selfe in seeking to make up thy accounts thou shouldest rather use a meanes to put it off and thinke of a course to free thee from this care and take order that thou shouldest never bee called to an account I doubt not but that many Treasurers and Stewards of great Princes make good use of this advice and by friends and mony so bring it about that they are never brought to an account If wee have any such thought wee deceive our selves there is no dodging with God no delay no not for a moment when hee sendeth his Pursuivant for us from the high Court of Starre-chamber in Heaven as he in Saint Gregories dayes found by woefull experience who being summoned by death approaching to bring in his accounts before they were ready cryed out pitifully Inducias vel ad horam O reprivall but for a day truce but for an houre respite but for a minute but could not obtaine it but was suddenly posted away to the judgement seat of Christ and who of us knoweth whether he shall be the next to whom God will send a messenger to bring him before him to render an account of his Stewardship saying to him in the words of my Text Redde rationem dispensationis tuae Give an account Of thy Stewardship Thy. I know not how it commeth to passe that most men now a dayes are sicke of Saint Peters disease when Christ telleth them of their duty or fore-sheweth them their end they are inquisitive about others saying t John 21.21 What shall this man doe There are divers kindes of Stewards some of powers some of wealth some of knowledge some of the Word and Sacraments Kings dominions and Bishops diocesses and Lords lands and Rich mens mony and Clerkes writings and Merchants trades and Tradesmens shops and Husbandmens ploughes are their Stewardship of which they must give an account and yet few there are that minde their owne account to their Master for that wherewith they are trusted but every man looketh to anothers The Ploughman censureth the Tradesman the Tradesman the Merchant the Merchant the country Gentleman the country Gentleman the Courtier and all the Ministers of God as if to impeach others were to cleare themselves At the audit day they will finde that it will little availe them to say I am no tot quot I am no joyner of house to house or land to land I am no usurer oppressor or extortioner like other men when it will be replyed unto them but thou art like the Pharisee a deep dissembler a counterfeit saint a secret hypocrite a slanderous backbiter a busie-body an uncharitable censurer a streigner of a gnat in others when thy selfe eatest many a flye nay swallowest many a camell u Plut. tract de curiosit Plutarch rightly observeth that they who delight to gad abroad for the most part have smoaky nasty or dankish houses or at least ill rule no content at home so when men range abroad and play the spies and scouts and pry into other mens actions it is a signe that they have a foule house at home and ill rule in their owne conscience Wherefore * Stella in Luc. Observa etiam diligenter quod hic non dicit dominus Redde rationem villicationis alienae vel redde rationem villicationis alterius sed villicationis tuae pro priae enim vitae tuae factorumque tuorum non alienorum redditurus es rationem Deo unusquisque enim redditurus est de propriâ—s factis rationem Stella according to his name Starre well illustrateth this Text Give an account of thy Stewardship not of any other mans Pry not into his life set not his actions upon the racke reade not a lecture upon his manners but meditate and comment upon the booke of thine owne conscience that thou mayest make even reckonings there It is an uncivill part to over-looke other mens papers especially bills of account which no way concerne us yet there are those that take to themselves a liberty to looke into and examine the bookes of other mens conscience not being able to reade a letter in their owne herein resembling the crocodile which seeth nothing in the water which is his chiefest place of aboad yet is very quicke and sharpe sighted on the land out of his owne element to doe mischiefe I will undertake that any man shall have worke enough to cast up his owne accounts if hee looke into every particular for which hee is to reckon every stray thought every idle word every inconsiderate action sudden passion God is not herein like unto many great personages who seldome or never call their Stewards to an account or if they call them they looke over their bookes and bills but sleightly taking the
thing so much as their tiring In summe they spend all their time in a manner in beautifying and adorning their body to please their lovers but in comparison none at all in beautifying and adorning their soules to please their Maker and Husband Christ Jesus Of these Saint m James 5.5 James long ago gave us the character They live in pleasure in the earth and waxe wanton and are fatted for the day of slaughter I spare to rehearse other lavishing out of time lest the rehearsing thereof might seeme worthy to bee numbred among the idle expences thereof And now it is time to set the foot to the account of my meditations on this Scripture The Conclusion and draw neere to that which we all every day draw neerer unto an end The * 1 Pet. 4.7 end of all things is at hand be sober therefore watch unto prayer The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the workes thereof shall be burned up This great Doomes-day cannot bee farre off as wee see by the fearfull fore-runners thereof howsoever the day of our death which may be called little doomes-day will soon overtake us peradventure before the Sunne yet set or this glasse be runne Wherefore I beseech you all that heare mee this day in the feare of God by occasion of the summons in my Text to enter into a more strict examination of your life than ever heretofore bring out all your thoughts words deeds projects councels and designes and lay them to the rule of Gods Law and if they swerve never so little from it reforme and amend them recount how you have bestowed the blessings of this life how you have imployed the gifts of nature how you have increased your talents of grace wherein the Church or Common-wealth hath been the better by you consider how you have carried your selves abroad in the world how at home in your private families but how especially in the closet of your owne heart You know out of the Gospel that a mans n Mat. 12.44 house may be swept and garnished that is his outward conversation civill and faire and yet harbour seven uncleane spirits within If lust and covetousnesse and pride and envie and malice and rancour and deceit and hypocrisie like so many serpents lye under the ground gnawing at the root of the tree be the leaves of your profession never so broad and seem the fruits of your actions never so faire the vine is the vine of Sodome and the grape the grape of Gomorrah There is nothing so easie as to put a fresh colour upon a rotten post and to set a faire glosse upon the fowlest matters to pretend conscience for most unconscionable proceedings and make religion it selfe a maske to hide the deformity of most irreligious practices But when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened and the intents and purposes of all our actions manifested and the most hidden workes of darknesse brought to light As it is to bee hoped that many that are infinitely wronged in the rash censures of men shall be justified in the sight of God and his Angels so it is to be feared that very many whom the world justifieth and canonizeth also for Saints shall be condemned at Christs barre and have their portion with hypocrites in hell there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Wherefore sith we shall all one day come to such a publike such an impartiall such a particular tryall of all that we have done in the body either good or evill let us looke more narrowly to all our wayes and see that they be streight and even 1. Let us search our heart with all diligence let us look into all the corners thereof and see there lurke no wickednesse nor filthinesse nor hypocrisie there let us looke to our thoughts that they be pure to our desires that they be lawfull to our affections that they be regular to our passions that they be moderate to our ends that they be good to our purposes that they be honest to our intentions that they be sincere to our resolutions that they be well grounded and firme 2. Next let us take our tongue to examination and weigh all our words in the ballance of the Sanctuary and try whether they have not been light and idle but grave and profitable not crafty and deceitfull but simple and plaine not false and lying but true and faithfull not outragious but sober not filthy but modest not prophane but holy not censorious but charitable not scurrilous but ponderous not insolent but lowly and courteous not any way offensive and unsavoury but such as might o Ephes 4.29 minister grace to the hearers 3. Lastly let us lay our hands upon our handy workes and examine our outward acts and deeds 1. Whether they have been alwayes justifiable in generall by the Law of God that is either commanded by it or at least warranted in it 2. Whether they have been and are conformable to the orders of the Church and lawes of the Land For wee must obey lawfull authority for conscience sake in all things that are not repugnant to the divine Law as Bernard piously resolveth saying Thou must yeeld obedience to him as to God who is in the place of God in those things that are not against God 3. Whether they have been agreeable to our particular calling For some things are justifiable by the Law of God and man in men of one state and calling which are hainous sinnes in another as we see in the cases of Uzza and Uzziah 4. Whether they have been answerable to our inward purposes intentions and dispositions For though they are otherwise lawfull and agreeable yet if they goe against the haire if they are done with grudging and repining and not heartily they are neither acceptable to God nor man 5. Whether they have been all things considered most expedient For as many things are profitable and expedient that are not lawfull so some things are lawfull that are not p 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawfull unto me but all things are not expedient expedient and because they are not expedient if necessity beare them not out they become by consequent unlawfull For we are not onely bound to eschew all the evill we know but also at all times to doe the best good wee can else wee fulfill not the commandement of loving God with all our heart and all our soule and all our strength To summe up all I have discoursed unto you first of the Stewardship of the things of this life secondly of the account of this Stewardship thirdly of the time of this account The Stewardship most large the account most strict the time most uncertaine After the explication of these points in the application I arraigned foure Stewards before you first the sacred
of the 81. Psalme If Israel would have walked in my waies c. that is if you will yeeld to mee and acknowledge mee for your Lord and accept of my lawes I will take the protection of you against all your bodily and ghostly enemies I will secure you from all danger enrich you with grace give you all the contentment you desire upon earth and preferre you to a crowne of glory in heaven Can you desire fairer conditions than these know yee who it is that tendereth them he is your Lord and Maker who need not condition with you that which hee meekly craves he could powerfully force you unto hee sueth for that by entreaty which hee may challenge by right all that hee requireth on our part is but our bounden duty and his desire is that we should bind him to us for doing that service which wee are bound to doe Was there ever such a creditour heard of that would come in bonds for his owne debt and become a debtour to his debtour Saint r Aug l 5. confes c. 9. Dignaris quoniam in seculum misericordia tua est iis quibus omnia debita dimittis promissionibus tuis debitor fieri Austin could not hold when he fell upon this meditation but breaketh out into a passion Thou vouchsafest O Lord by thy promises to become debtour to them to whom thou remittest all debts What happinesse what honour is it to have Almighty God come in bonds to us I beseech you thinke what they deserve who set light by so great a favour and refuse such love Application Now God maketh as it were love to us and in dolefull Sonnets complaines of our unkindnesse O that my people would have hearkened to my voice c. To which his amorous expostulations if wee now turne a deafe eare the time will come when wee shall take up the words of God in our owne persons and with hearts griefe and sorrow say O that we had hearkened to the Lord O that we had walked in his wayes then should we have seen the felicity of his chosen and rejoyced with the joy of his people and gloried with his inheritance but now wee behold nothing but the misery of his enemies and are confounded with the shame of reprobates and suffer the torments of the damned and shall till wee have satisfied to the utmost farthing Now God wooeth us with deepest protestations of love and largest promises of celestiall graces which if we make light of it will one day fall heavie upon us The sweetest wine corrupteth into the sharpest vinegar and the most fragrant oyntments if they putrefie exhale most pestilent savours and greatest love if it be wronged turneth into the greatest hatred Now God as a lover passionately wooeth us but if wee sleighten him and despise his kinde offers he will change his note and turne his wooe into a woe as we heare ſ Hos 7.13 Woe be unto them for they have fled away from mee destruction shall be unto them because they have rebelled against mee though I have redeemed them yet they have spoken lyes against mee After the clearest flash of lightening followeth the terriblest clap of thunder in like maner after Gods mercy in Scripture hath for a long time lightened most clearly shewed it selfe to any people or nation his justice thundereth out most dreadfull threats For example after Gods familiar disputation with his Vineyard t Esay 5.1 2 3 4. My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and hee fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine-presse therein and he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wilde grapes And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem men of Judah judge I pray you between me my Vineyard what could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done c. mark the fearfull conclusion Verse 5. I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof it shall he eaten up I will breake downe the wall thereof and it shall be troden downe And what ensued upon our Saviours teares over Jerusalem which would not sinke into their stony hearts but the bloudy tragedy which was acted upon them 40. yeeres after by the Romans who spared neither the annointed head of the Priest nor the hoary head of the aged nor the weaker sexe of women nor the tender age of infants but put all to the sword sacked the walls rifled the houses burned the Temple downe to the ground and left not one stone upon another O that wee were wise then wee would understand and observe the method of Gods proceedings and in the ruine of Gods people if wee repent not consider our later end O that they were Wise The Philosophers distinguish wisedome into Observ 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sapience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prudence Sapience they define to be the knowledge of all divine humane things so farre as they fall within the scantling of mans reason Prudence they restraine to the ordering of humane affaires and this they divide into 1. Private 2. Publike and this they subdivide into 1. Civill 2. Military Military prudence maketh a wise souldier civill a wise statesman domesticke a wise housholder and sapience a wise contemplative and morall prudence in generall a wise practick man The rules of this wisedome are to be taken from the precepts of Philosophy discourses of Policy the apophthegmes stratagems sentences and examples of those whom the world hath cryed up for Sages but this is not the wisedome which Moses here requireth in Gods people and passionately complaineth of the want of it but a wisedome of a higher nature or to speake more properly a wisedome above nature a wisedome which descendeth from the Father of lights which directeth us so to order and governe our short life here that thereby we may gaine eternity hereafter so to worship and serve God in Christ in this world that we may reigne with him in the world to come The infallible rules of this wisedome are to be fetched onely from the inspired Oracles of God extant in the Old and New Testament the chiefe whereof are these 1. To receive and entertaine the doctrine of salvation Rules of spirituall wisedome which is the wisedome of God in a mystery confuting the errours and convincing the folly of all worldly wise men 2. To deny our selves and our carnall wisedome and reason and bring every thought in obedience to the Gospel 3. To account our selves strangers and pilgrimes here upon earth and so to use this world as though wee used it not 4. To know that we are not Lords of our lands wealth and goods but only Stewards to account for them and therefore so to dispense and distribute them that we make friends of unrighteous Mammon that when it faileth
the flames of fire are the conquerers c Pareus in Apoc Corporaliter victi sunt spiritualitèr vicerunt dum in verá Christi fide ad mortem us◠perstiterunt Paraeus expoundeth this riddle The servants of Christ who seale the truth with their blood are in their bodies mastered but in their soules undaunted and much more unconquered whilest notwithstanding all the tortures and torments which the malice of man or devill can put them to they persist in the profession of the true faith unto death For this is the d 1 Joh. 5.4 victory of the world even our faith In that famous battell at Leuctrum where the Thebans got a signall victory but their Captaine Epaminondas his deaths wound Plutarch writeth of him that he demanded whether his buckler had beene taken by the enemy and when hee understood that it was safe and that they had not laid hands on it hee died most willingly and cheerefully Such is the resolution of a valiant souldier of Christ Jesus when hee is wounded even unto death hee hath an eye to his shield of faith and finding that out of the enemies danger his soule marcheth out of this world singing Saint Pauls triumphant ditty e 2 Tim. 4.7.8 I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is layd up for me a crowne of righteousnesse To cleare the summe which I have beene all this while in casting Christian victory is a prerogative of the regenerate purchased unto them by Christs death and resurrection whereby in all conflicts and temptations they hold out to the end and in the end overcome on earth and after triumph in heaven First it is a prerogative of the regenerate for none but those that are f 1 Joh. 5.4 borne of God overcome the world Secondly this prerogative is purchased unto them by Christ and therefore the Apostle ascribeth the glory of it to his grace g 1 Cor. 15.57 Thankes bee unto God who giveth us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thirdly this victory is not in one kinde of fight but in all whether Satan the world or the Devill assault us whether they lay at our understanding by sophisticall arguments or at our will by sinfull perswasions or at our senses by unlawfull delights whether our profession bee oppugned by heresie or our unity by schisme or our zeale by worldly policy or our temperance by abundance or our confidence in God by wants or our constancy by persecution or our watchfulnesse by carnall security or our perseverance by continuall batteries of temptations in all wee are more than conquerours through him that loved us h Rom. 8.35.36.37 What or who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword as it is written For thy sake wee are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours c. Obser 6 None can overcome who fighteth not valiantly none can fight valiantly unlesse they be trained up in Martiall affaires and provided of good and fit armour both for offence and defence this spirituall armour is got by instant and constant prayer and reading and meditating on Gods word and wee put it on by due application of what wee read and heare and wee use it by the exercise of those divine vertues above mentioned from whence the severall pieces of our armour take their names Moreover that a man may conquer his enemie three things are most requisite 1 Exasperation 2 Courage 3 Constancy Exasperation setteth him on Courage giveth him strength and Constancy holdeth out to the end Exasperation is necessary because anger as Aristotle teacheth is the goad or spurre of fortitude neither indeed can any man maintaine a hot fight in cold blood And this is the cause why wee are so often put to the worst in our spirituall conflicts because wee fight like her in the Poet Tanquam quae vincere nollet wee fight not in earnest against our corruptions but either in shew onely dallying or faintly without any earnest desire of revenge Saint i Aug. confess l. 8. c. 7. In exordio adolescentiae petieram chastitatem sed timebam ne me nimis citò audiret citò sanaret à morbo concupiscentiae quem malebam expleri quam extingui Austine before his thorough conversion prayed against fleshly lusts but as he confesseth with great anguish sorrow of heart for his insincerity so aukwardly against his will that secretly hee desired that his lust should rather be accomplished than extinguished As it was then with him so it is with too many that take upon them the profession of Christians and would thinke it foule scorne to bee taken for other than true converts When the voluptuous person offereth a formall prayer to God to extinguish the impure flame of lust rising out of the cindars of originall sinne Satan setteth before his fancy the picture of his beautifull Mistresse and as the Calor ambiens or outward heat in a body disposed to putrefaction draweth out the naturall heat so this impure heat of lust draweth out all the spirituall heat of devotion and so his faint prayer against sinne is turned into sinne In like manner while the covetous man prayeth against that base affection in his soule which ever desireth that wherewith it is never k Aristophan in Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sen. ep 15. Si quid in his esset solidi aliquando implerent nunc haurientium sitim concitant Horat. carm l. 2. od 2. Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops nec sitim pellit nisi causa morbi fugerit venis aquosus albocorpore languor satisfied Mammon representeth unto him the rising up of his heapes and swelling of his bagges by his use-mony whereby his heart is tickled and so his prayer also turneth into sinne Thus all sinners that are not brought to a perfect hatred and detestation of their bosome sinne even whilest they pray against the forbidden fruit hold it under their tongue and their carnall delights suffocate their godly sorrow Spirituall courage is most necessary that is confidence in God and in the power of his might This confidence is the immediate effect of a lively faith which S. John calleth l 1 Joh. 5 4. the victory of the world When Christ bad Peter come to him walking on the sea upon the rising of a storme Peters faith began to faile and no sooner his heart sanke in his body but his feete also sanke in the water even so when any storme of persecution ariseth for the word when wee see our selves encompassed on every side with dangers and terrours and our faith faileth wee presently sinke in despaire if Christ stretch not out his hand presently to support us and establish our heart in his promises 3 Thirdly constant perseverance is most needfull for though all vertues runne in
to strike when he is provoked in that he will awake his sword He who is here stiled Lord of hostes is elsewhere named the Father of mercy and by his attributes set downe in Exod. 34. ver 6 7. it appeareth that he is nine to two more inclineable to mercy than to justice But because from this hope of mercy many are apt to promise themselves impunity putting ever from them the evill day I hold it more needfull at this present to shew his haste and readinesse to execute vengeance upon such who presume too farre upon his long suffering and goodnesse There is a generation of men described by David in the 10. Psalme ver 11. that say in their heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it And by Solomon k Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against their evill workes is not executed speedily therefore their heart is fully set in them to doe evill Ut sit magna tamen certè lenta ira deorum est To these St. Peter hath answered long agoe l 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slacke as some men count slacknesse but is long suffering to us-ward that is the Elect whose conversion he graciously expecteth When their number is accomplished and the sinnes of the Reprobate which now looke white shall turne yellow and grow full ripe he will awake his sword to wound the heads of his enemies and his stay in the meane time is but to fetch his arme the further backe that be may give the sorer stroke and to draw his arrow to the head that hee may wound the deeper For this cause the ancient heathen attributed to God leaden feet but iron hands quia tarditatem vindictae gravitate compensat m Tacit. annal l. 1. In Haterium statim invectus est at Scaurum cui implacabiltus irascebatur silentio transmisit Tacitus noteth it of Tiberius Caesar that being displeased with Q. Haterius and Scaurus but not equally he fell foule presently upon Haterius with whom hee was lesse angry but said not a word to Scaurus for the present against whom he conceived irreconcileable haired so God when he is a little offended at some slips of the godly hee awaketh his sword presently but layes it downe againe after hee hath smote gently with it n Bernard in Cant. Ser. 42. Hic punit ut illic pareat supra omnem miserationem est ira ista but to the wicked hee giveth line enough that they may play with the hooke and swallow it deepe downe with the baite Hic punit ut illic seviat supra omnem iram est miseratio ista But praised be the Lord of hostes who to ransome us hath found a man to wreake his wrath and turne his sword upon his shepheard It is noted of o Xiphilin in vit Trajan Trajane that he would cut his richest robes in pieces to make rags for his souldiers wounds I shall now propose unto you a man that to bind up your bleeding wounds hath suffered himselfe to be cut in pieces under the furie of this waking sword Awake O sword Against my shepheard O magne Pastor animarum saith Bonaventure pasce animam meam ut pascatur meliùs fac ut ipse pascam Christ is a mighty shepheard but yet of a little flocke which was first pent within the walls of Eden and thence turned out wandred on the earth till the flood at the deluge tooke ship and landed in Armenia from thence removed to Canaan and from Cannaan to Egypt and from Egypt backe againe towards Canaan and after foure hundred yeeres stragling in a strange land wandred fortie yeares in the wildernesse and at last was folded in Judaea In all which crossings and turnings and wandrings he never ceased to feed and fodder them to give us his substitutes as well an example by his practice as a rule by his precept to feed feed and feed Alimento verbo exemplo quid est amas me Nisi quaeris in Ecclesia non tua sed mea saith St. Austine nisi testimonium perhibeat conscientia quod plus me ames quam tua quam tuos quam te nequicquam suscipias curam hanc But if thy conscience assure thee that thou lovest Christ in such sort then feed thou his flocke as well with integrity of life as puritie of doctrine learne as well facere dicenda as dicere facienda that is as Saint Jerome aptly expresseth it verba vertere in opera Thou must have engraven on thy breast as well Thummim as Urim and there must hang as well Pomegranates about thy garment as golden bells The Popish Writers say that a shepheard should have three things a scrip a hooke and a whistle but for their owne parts they are so greedy on the scrip and busie with the hooke that they forget the whistle give over their studie and preaching ac si tum victuri essent sine curâ cum pervenirent ad curam making account that all their care is past when they are got into a cure But the shepheard we speake of was the good shepheard who fed his flocke day and night and layd downe his life for it he is the universall shepheard ita curat omnes oves ut singulas He is here called Gods shepheard because his dispensation is from him or because he is the beloved of God and that divine shepheard which p Com. in Evan. Ardeus thus excellently describeth Educens è lacu miseriae conducens per viam gratiae perducens ad pascua gloriae and shall the sword of the Lord be against this shepheard The case is different betweene him and David there it was quid meruerunt oves here it is quid meruit Pastor For he was candidus and rubicundus candidus innocentiâ and rubicundus passione sine maculâ criminis sine rugâ erroris Had the sword beene awaked against the wolfe it had beene mercy against the sheepe is had beene justice but to awake against this good shepheard seemeth to bee hard measure The case is resolved by Daniel The Messias shall be slaine but not for himselfe God hath layd upon him the iniquity of us all O ineffabilis mysterii dispositio peccat impius patitur justus meretur malus patitur bonus quod committit homo sustinet Deus Here then you see the first and maine cause of the shepheards slaughter your sinnes It is in vaine to shift it off on Judas or Pilat and most impious to lay it upon the Lord of hostes For solum peccatum homicida est so that I may bring it home to the bosome of every one of you in the words of Nathan Tu es homo Thou art the man that hast slaine this shepheard O consider this yee that forget God doe not so wickedly as to commit a second murder upon this good shepheard crucifie not againe the Lord of life every reviling speech to your neighbour is a whip on his side every traducing
Evangelii and Clemens Alexandrinus his Stromata but also in the divinely inspired writings of St. Paul 4 Fourthly I observe that it is said borders of gold with studs or spangs of silver not borders of gold and silver much lesse borders of silver with studs of gold the borders of gold were not made to set out the studs of silver but contrariwise the studs of silver to beautifie and illustrate the borders of gold We must not apply divinity to art but art to divinity lest we deservedly incurre the censure of St. q Basil ep 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil upon some preachers in his dayes They preach art and wit and not Christ crucified We must not make our Scripture texts serve to vent our secular learning but contrariwise modestly and moderately use secular learning to explicate and r Sanctius in hunc locum Concionatores ars talis esse debet ut auri nitorem non obscuret sed accendat quod in monili praestant argentei vermiculi illustrate texts of Scripture sentences of Fathers and other Authors may be scattered in Sermons as spangs of silver about the Spouse her border the border must not be made of them A faire ſ Quintil. inst orat Ut affert lumen clavus purpurae loco insertus ita certè neminem deceat intexta pluribus notis vestis jewell in the hat or pendants at the eare or a chaine of gold or strings of pearle about the necke become the parts well but to bee all hung about with foure hundred distinct jewels as Lollia Paulina was and not onely to bore the eares with rings but also to dig holes in the cheekes chinne and lips and there sticke pretious stones after the manner of the t Bertius Geograph Peruvians were vaine folly if not madnesse I have done with our taske I come now to yours Although it properly appertaines to our skilfull Bezaleels and Aholiabs to make borders and chaines for the Spouse yet you are to contribute at least to the making of them it is your duty to bring into her wardrobe jewels of gold and jewels of silver and jewels of raiment It is not enough to love God with your strength you must honour him also with your substance It is not onely required that you communicate with your Pastors in the Word and Sacraments but also that you communicate to him that teacheth u Gal. 6.6 in all good things you have not well acquitted you of your devotion when you have given Christ your eares you must farther give eare-rings to his Spouse it will not excuse you to write Christ his words in the palmes of your hands if you make not bracelets for her armes you have not done all when you have bowed your necke to his yoake you must farther decke her necke with chaines there is something more required of you than to put on the Lord Jesus you must cloathe his Queene in a vesture of gold Where can you better bestow your wealth than upon the Church which receiveth of you glasse but returneth you pearle receiveth from you carnall things returneth to you spirituall receiveth from you common bread returneth to you sacramentall receiveth from you covers of shame returneth to you robes of glorie in a word receiveth from you earthly trash returneth to you heavenly treasure When God commanded the people to bring x Exod. 35.5 offerings to the Lord they brought them in so freely that there needed a Proclamation to restraine their bounty And Livie reporteth of the Romans that when the Tribunes complained that they wanted gold in the treasurie to offer to Apollo the Matrons of Rome plucked off their bracelets chaines and rings and gave them unto the Priests to supply that defect And who knoweth not that our Forefathers in the dayes of ignorance placed all Religion in a manner in building religious Houses and setting them forth most gorgeously O let not the Jewes exceed us Christians let not Heresie Idolatry and Superstition out-strip true Religion in sacred bounty If their devotion needed bridles let not ours need spurres If they built Temples upon the ruines of private families let not us build private houses upon the ruine of Temples If they turned the Instruments of luxury into ornaments of piety let not us turne ornaments of piety into instruments of luxury As nothing is better given than to God so nothing is worse taken than from his Church Will God thinke you enrich them who spoyle him will he build their houses who pull downe his will he increase their store who robbe his wardrobe will hee clothe them with his long white robe who strip his Spouse of her attire and comely ornaments Nay rather as Aeneas though before he had purposed with himselfe to spare the life of Turnus yet when hee espyed Pallas girdle about him Et y Virg. Aenid notis fulserunt cingula bullis he changed his minde and turned the point of his sword to his heart saying Tun ' hinc spoliis indute meorum eripiêre mihi so our blessed Redeemer when hee seeth his Priests garments upon sacrilegious persons and the chaines and borders of his dearest Spouse upon their minions neckes will say Tun ' hinc spoliis indute meorum eripiêre mihi shalt thou escape judgement who hast robb'd mee thy Judge shall I spare thee whom I finde with mine owne goods about thee shalt thou get out of my hands who quaffest like Belshazzar in the bowles of my Sanctuary and bravest it in my Spouse attire Now as the speciall operations of the soule reflect upon themselves and as definition defines and division divides and order digesteth so also repetition may and ought to repeat it selfe For the close of all then I will recapitulate my recapitulation and rehearse my selfe as I have done the foure Preachers Of this parcell of Scripture Faciemus c. I have made a threefold explication and likewise a threefold application the first explication was of the rich attire of Solomons Queene the second of the glorious types of the Jewish Church under the Law the third of the rich endowments large borders and flourishing estate of the Church under the Gospel My application was first to the Clergy secondly to the Laity thirdly to this present exercise The friends that here promise to adorne the Spouse with rich borders I compared to the foure Preachers their Sermons to the foure borders both in respect of the matter and the forme their matter was Scripture doctrine like pure gold their forme exquisite art beautifying their Scripture doctrine with variety of humane learning and sentences of the ancient Fathers like spangles or studs of silver In the borders of Solomons Queene there was the representation of a Dove whence they are called Torim which z Brightman in Cant. some translate Turtures aureas and their preaching was not in the inticing words of mans wisedome but in the evidence of the spirit which descended in the likenesse
an ornament to beautifie us well may we like the Church of Sardis have a name that we live but we are dead we are in the gall of bitternesse and the burden of sinne hath pressed us downe to the bottomlesse pit which is now ready to shut her mouth upon us O then let us cr◠out of the depth abyssus abyssum invocet let the depth of our misery implore the depth of his bottomlesse mercy and behold the Angel of peace is at hand for now and never before are we fit subjects for this good Samaritan to worke upon Come unto mee all that are heavie laden The Spirit of God is upon mee to preach health to those that are broken in heart liberty to the captives and to them that mourne beauty for ashes and the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse whence you see that none are admitted into Christs Hospitall but lame sicke and distressed wretches for whom hee hath received grace above measure that where sinne appeared above measure sinfull grace might appeare without measure pitifull Wilt thou then have thy wounds healed open them Wilt thou that I raise thee up to heaven deject thy selfe downe to hell Ille laudabilior qui humilior justior qui sibi abjectior Use 2 As this may serve to rebuke such Seers as labour not to discover the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of Jerusalem but sow pillowes under mens elbowes and dawbe up with untempered mortar the breach of sinne in our soules Use 3 so may it lesson all hearers as patiently to abide the sharpe wine of the Law as the supple oyle of the Gospel as well the shepheards rod of correction as his staffe of comfort in a word to endure Bezaliel and Aholiab to cut off the rough and ragged knobs as they desire to be smooth timber in that building wherein Christ Jesus is the corner-stone poenitentia istius temporis dolor medicinalis est poenitentia illius temporis dolor poenalis est now our sorrow for our sinnes will prove a repentance not to be repented of then shall our sorrow be remedilesse our repentance fruitlesse our misery endlesse Wherefore I say with Bernard Illius Doctoris vocem libenter audio qui non sibi plausum sed mihi planctum moveat I like him that will set the worme of conscience on gnawing while there is time to choake it rodat putredinem ut codendo consumat ipse pariter consumatur In the meane time let this bee our comfort that God will not suffer the sting of conscience too much to torment us but with the oyle of his grace will mitigate the rage of the paine and heale the festred sore which it hath made with the plaister of his owne bloud And I will ease you Thus farre you have traversed the wildernesse of Sin tired out in that desart and languishing in that dry land and shadow of death now behold gaudium in fine sed sine fine Happy your departure out of Egypt and blessed your travell and obedience you are now to drinke of the comfortable waters that issue out of the spirituall rocke in Horeb Christ Jesus and to refresh your wearied limbes and tired soules therewith I will ease you Doctr. 4 I. Man cannot for man is a sinner and a sinner cannot be a Saviour Angels cannot for man in Angels nature cannot bee punished God cannot for he is impassible Saints neither may nor can for they need a Saviour but I will For I am man and in your nature can dye I am God and by any infinite merits can satisfie and so by my means Gods mercy and justice may stand together righteousnesse and peace may kisse each other Thus that faith may looke out of the earth to embrace you the day-springing from on high hath visited you Thrice blessed then must poore hunger-bit and distressed soules bee who have not a churlish Nabal with power wanting will nor a King of Samaria with will wanting power but Elshaddai a God all-sufficient to relieve and satisfie them and for his will no Assuerus so ready to cheare up a dolefull Hester as he a drouping soule no Joseph so ready to sustaine his father in famine and death as he is ready with pitty to save a soule from death Noli fugere Adam quia nobiscum est Deus Who shall lay any thing to our charge sith it is God that doth justifie Pleasant and sweet were the waters of Meribah to the thirstie Israelites of Aenochore to Sampsons fainting spirits gratefull the newes of life to sicke Hezekiah but our Saviours Epiphonema thy sinnes are forgiven thee goe in peace is mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde The strings of my tongue cannot be so loosened that I may expresse the extasie of joy which every sin-burdened soule feeleth whether in the body or out of the body shee cannot tell in that by assurance of faith shee can say My Justifier is with mee who being Emmanuel God with us is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man with God one with God in will and power and wholly for us in power and will Use 1 Woe worth then all such as forsaking the fountaine of living water dig to themselves broken pits of their owne merits Saints intercession and the Churches treasurie Is there no balme in Gilead to cure us no God in Israel to help us Si verax Deus qui promittit mendax utique homo qui diffidit saith St. Bernard For I demand Doe they distrust his power All power is given him in heaven and in earth Matth. 28.18 Doe they doubt his will Behold he saith Come unto me before we offer our selves and I will ease you not do my best or endeavour it is no presumption to beleeve Christ on his word and rest on it with full assurance Use 2 Againe can none say but Christ I will ease you How hopelesse then is their travell how endlesse their paine who seeke for hearts-ease in any garden but the Paradise of God or hope for contentment in any transitorie object the world affordeth To see Asses feed upon thistles for grapes were enough to move the spleene of an Agelastus they have a faire shew like flowers but pricke in the mouth Alas what anguish and horrour must there needs be Cum domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu Miscetur when their consciences like Sauls evill spirit haunteth and vexeth them at the heart when they brave it out in the face and what is their foolish laughter among their boone associates but the cracking of thornes under a pot suddenly extinguished and turned into ashes and mourning Well may they like the heathenish Romans of old have their gods of feare and terrour but sure they can have none of ease comfort or quiet O let not our soule enter into their secrets but let our peace be still as it is in God and the repose of our troubled conscience in our Saviours love who was made a curse for us that
We can pray to none other but God whatsoever is to be wished for Caesar as he is a man or a Prince I cannot begge it of any other than of him from whom I know I shall receive what I aske because he alone can performe it and I his servant depend upon none but him But what stand I upon the testimonies of two or three Fathers the whole Synod of f Theod. com in 2. ad Colos Synodus Laodicea lege prohibuit ne praecarentur Angelos ubi agit de oratoriis Michaelis eos perstringit qui dicebant oportere per Angelos divinam sibi benevolentiam conciliare Laodicea condemneth the superstitious errour of some who taught that we ought to use Angels as mediatours between God and us and to pray unto them And for Saints who have no more commission to solicit our busines in heaven than Angels howsoever it pleased the ancient Church to make honourable mention of them in their publike Service as we doe of the blessed Virgin the Archangel the Apostles Evangelists yet S. g Aug. l. 22. de civit Dei c. 10. Martyres suo loco ordine nominantur non tamen à Sacerdote qui sacrificat invocantur Austin cleareth the Christians of those times from any kind of invocation The Martyrs saith he in their place and ranke are named yet not called upon by the Priest who offereth the sacrifice Invocation is the highest branch of divine worship and they who bow downe to and call upon Saints consequently put Saints in Gods room beleeve in them Quomodo enim invocabunt in quos non credunt How h Rom. 10.14 shall they call on them on whom they have not beleeved They who call upon Saints deceased hope for any benefit by such prayers must be perswaded that the Saints are present in all places to heare their prayers and receive their petitions and that they understand particularly all their affaires and are privie to the very secrets of their hearts and is not this to make gods of Saints i Mart. epigr. Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus non facit ille deos qui rogat ille facit Yea but say our Romish adversaries had you a suit to the King you would make a friend at Court employ some in favour with his Majesty to solicit your affaires why take ye not the like course in your businesse of greater importance in the Court of Heaven We answer First because God himselfe checketh such carnall imaginations and overthroweth the ground of all such arguments by his holy Prophet saying k Esay 55.8 My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your waies my waies Therefore we are brought to the presence of kings saith S. l Amb. in ep ad Rom. c. 1. Itur ad reges per tribunos comites quia homo utique rex est ad Deum quem nihil latet promerendum suffragatore non est opus sed mente devotâ Ambrose by lords officers because the king is a man all cannot have immediate access unto him neither will he take it well that all sorts of people at all times should presse upon him but it is not so with God he calleth all m Mat. 11.28 Come unto mee all that labour c. unto him calls upon all to n Psal 50.15 Call upon mee in the day of trouble and I will heare c. call upon him promiseth help o Joel 2.32 Whosoever shall call upon the Name c. salvation to all that shall so do neither need we any spokes-man saith he to him save a devout and religious mind Secondly admit the proportion to hold between the King of Heaven and earthly Princes yet the reason holdeth not for if the King appoint a certain officer to take all supplications and exhibit all petitions unto him hee will not take it well if we use any other but so it is in our present case God hath appointed us a p John 14 3. Whatsoever ye shall aske in my Name â—hat will I doe Ver. 6. I am the way the truth and the life no man commeth to the Father but by mee Mediator not only of redemption but also of q Rom. 8.34 Which maketh request for us incercession who is not only r Hebr. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that comâ— unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them able but most willing to preferre all our suits procure a gracious answer for us for we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin let us therfore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Wee know not whether Saints heare us or rather we know they heare us not Esay 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not If they heare us we know not whether God will heare them for us but wee know that our Saviour heareth us and that God alwaies heareth him when he prayeth for us John 11.42 I know that thou hearest mee alwaies Yet our Saint-invocators have one refuge to flye unto and they hold it a very safe one We call upon the living say they to pray for us why may we not be so far indebted to the Saints departed who the further they are from us the neerer they are to God If it be no wrong to Christs intercession to desire the prayers of our friends in this life neither can it be any derogation to his Mediatourship to call upon Saints deceased Of this argument Å¿ Bellar de sanct beatit l. 1. c. 19. Bellarmine as much braggeth as Peleus of his sword Profectò istud argumentum haeretici nunquam solvere potuerunt the heretickes saith he were never able to untie this argument I beleeve him because there is no knot at all in it For First we do not properly invocate any man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we call to them to assist us with their prayers we call not upon them as putting any confidence in them When at parting we usually coÌ„mend our selves to our friends and desire them to commend us to God in their prayers we require of them a duty of Christian charity we do them therein no honour much lesse performe any religious service to them as the Church of Rome doth to Saints deceased Secondly when wee pray them to pray for us wee make this request to them as co-adjutors to joyn with us in the duty of praier not as mediators to use their favour with God or plead their merits as Papists do in their Letanies adjuring God as it were by the faith of Confessors constancy of Martyrs chastity of virgins abstinence of monks merits of all Saints Thirdly God commandeth the living to have
a fellow-feeling of one anothers miseries and to t 2 Cor 1.11 Phil. 1.4 Câ—lâ—s 4.3 2 Thes 3.1 Heb. 13.18 James 5.16 pray one for another but he no where layeth such an injunction upon the dead to pray for us or upon us to pray to them Fourthly we have many presidents in Scripture of the faithfull who have earnestly besought their brethren to remember them in their u Phil. 1.19 Gal. 4.3 2 Thes 3.1 Philem. 22. Heb. 13.18 prayers but among all the songs of Moses psalmes of David complaints of Jeremy and prayers of Prophets and Apostles you shall not find any one directed to any Saint departed from the first of Genesis to the last Verse of the Apocalypse there is no precept for the invocation of Saints no example of it no promise unto it Fifthly lastly we entreat not any man living to pray for us but either by word of mouth when he is present with us or by some friend who wee know will acquaint him with our desire or by letters when we have sure meanes to conveigh them to him whereby hee may understand how the case standeth with us what that is in particular for which we desire his prayers All which reasons faile in the invocation of Saints deceased for wee have no messengers to send to them nor means to conveigh letters to the place where they are neither are they within hearing neither can we be any way assured that they either know our necessities or are privie to the secrets of our heart For the Mathematicall glasse which some of the Schoolmen have set in heaven wherein they say the Saints in heaven see all things done upon earth to wit in God who seeth all things it hath bin long since beat into pieces for I demand Is this essence of God a necessary glasse or a voluntary that is Do they see all things in it or such things only as it pleaseth him to present to their view if they see all things their knowledge must needs be infinite as Gods is they must needs comprehend in it all things past present future yea the thoughts of the heart which God peculiarly x Apoc. 2.23 I am he that searcheth the heart and reines assumeth to himself yea the day of Judgment which our Saviour assureth us no man knoweth not the y Mat. 24.36 Angels in heaven nor the son of z Mar. 13.32 But of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels that are in heaven neither the Son but the Father man as man If they see only such things as God is pleased to reveale unto them how may he that prayeth unto them be assured that God wil reveale unto them either his wants in particular or his prayers how can he pray unto them in faith who hath no word of faith whereby hee may be assured either that God revealeth his prayers to them or that God will accept their prayers for him Certainly there was no such chrystal instrument as Papists dream of to discover unto Saints departed the whole earth all things that are in it in the time of Abraham Isaac or Josiah for St. Austin in his book de a Cap. 13. Si parentes non intersunt qui sunt alii mortuorum qui noverunt quid agamus quid ve patiamur ibi sunt spiritus defunctorum ubi non vidunt quaecunque aguntur aut evenâ—unt in istâ vitâ hominibus curâ pro mortuis out of the second book of Kings the 63. of Esay concludeth that sith kings see not the evils which befal their people after their death sith parents are ignorant of their children without doubt the Saints departed have no intelligence how things pass after their death here upon earth So far is it froÌ„ being a branch of their happines to know the passages of human affaires here that S. b Jerom. in epitaph Nepot Foelix Nepo ianus qui haec non audit non videt Jerom maketh it a part of their happines that they are altogether ignorant of them happy Nepotian who neither heareth nor seeth any of those things which would vexe his righteous soule do cause us who see hear them often to water our plants By this which hath bin said any whose judgements are not fore-stalled may perceive the impiety of that part of Romish piety which concerneth invocation of Saints it is not only needless fruitless but also superstitious most sacrilegious for it robbeth God of a speciall part of his honour and wrongeth Christ in his office of mediatour When he holdeth out his golden scepter unto us calleth to us saying Come unto me come by me I am the way shal we run to any other to bring us to him shall we seek a way to the way shall we use mediatours to our mediatour this were to lay a like imputation upon our Redeemer to that which S. c De civit Dei l. 1. Interpres deorum eget interprete sors ipsa referenda est ad sortes Austin casteth upon the heathen Apollo the interpreter of the gods needeth an interpreter we are to cast lots upon the lot it selfe Let it not seem burthensome unto you my deare brethren that I speak much in behalf of him who alone speaketh in behalf of us all we cannot do our Redeemer a worser affront we cannot offer our mediatour a greater wrong than to goe from him whom God hath appointed our perpetuall advocate intercessor imploy Saints in our suites to God as if they were in greater grace with the Father or they were better affected to us than he Have we the like experience of their love as we have of his did they pawn their lives for us have they ransomed us with their bloud will he refuse us who gave us himselfe will he not powre out hearty prayers for us who powred out his heart bloud for us will he spare breath in our cause who breathed out his soule for us shall we forsake the fountain of living water and draw out of broken cisternes that can hold no water shall we run from the source to the conduit for the water of life from the sun to the beam for light of knowledge from the head to the members for the life of grace from the king to the vassall for a crowne of glory But I made choice of this Scripture rather to stirre up your devotion than to beat down Popish superstition therfore I leave arguments of confutation set to motives of perswasion Look how the Opal presenteth to the eye the beautifull colours of almost all precious stones so the graces vertues perfections of all natures shine in the face of God to draw our love to him among which two most kindle our affection vertue and beauty nothing so lovely as vertue which is the beauty of the mind beauty which is the chief grace and vertue of the body To give vertue her due
doe your eyes melt into penitent teares then are you quickned by the Spirit of grace then have you sense and life in you then have your eyes been annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit then stand ye recti in curiâ But on the contrary Are ye tickled with the remembrance of your former follies can ye thinke of them without remorse can ye speake of them without shame can ye glory in them and your heart not smite you then in vaine doe ye flatter your selves with the name of Professours ye falsly arrogate to your selves the title of Sonnes of God ye know not what regeneration or the new creature meaneth the sunne of righteousnesse never shone upon you but ye are still frozen in the dregges of your sinnes Wherefore examine your owne hearts and consciences take a view of your whole life past runne over in your mindes the vanity of your childhood the lusts of your youth the audacious attempts of your riper yeeres and the covetousnesse frowardnesse worldlinesse and distrustfulnesse of your old age call your selves to an account for your unlawfull gaming and sporting your immoderate drinking your Lords day breaking your lascivious dancing your chambering and wantonnesse and if the remembrance of these your former sinnes be loathsome unto you if the sent of them in the nostrils of your soule be like a stinking fume exhaled from the finke of originall corruption then have your senses been purged then have you smelt the savour of life But on the contrary if the cogitation of these things be delightfull unto you if the traversing these thoughts in your mind blow the coales of your former lusts if the Sodome of your unregenerate estate seem to you as a Paradise of pleasure then certainly yee were never redeemed from the corruption of the world yee never felt the pangs and throes of a new birth your understanding was never enlightened nor your will reformed Hee that can take delight to play at the hole of the Cockatrice or behold the shining colour of the Snake was never stung by them but the truly regenerate Christian who hath bin grievously stung by the fiery Serpent the Divell and by fixing his eyes upon the brazen Serpent Christ Jesus hath bin cured dares not come nigh the Serpents hole much lesse gaze upon his azure head and forked tongue 2. If the experience of the unfruitfulnesse and shamefulnesse of sinne be a speciall meanes to restraine Gods children from it certainly the recounting of their former wayes and the survey of the whole course of their life cannot but be a profitable exercise for them It was the practice of Solomon who beheld all the workes of his hands and the delights of his life and passeth this censure upon them o Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities all is but vanity and vexation of spirit It was the practice of David p Psal 51.3 I know mine owne iniquity and my sinne is ever before mee It was the practice of Saint Austine who a little before his death caused the q Possid in vit August Penitentiall Psalmes to be written about his bed which hee looking upon out of a bitter remembrance of his sinnes continually wept giving not over long before he gave up the ghost Mee thinkes I heare you say we have buried those sinnes in oblivion long agoe and we hope God hath done so put not these stinking weeds to our noses but gather us a posie of the sweet flowers of Paradise the promises of God in Christ Jesus in which there is a savour of life and we will smell unto it I had rather do so but the other are more proper and fitter for many of you for those whose senses are overcome with over-sweet oyntments can by no better meanes recover their smell than by strong and unpleasant savours and therefore in the country of Arabia where almost all trees are savoury and frankincense and myrrhe are common fire wood r Plin. nat hist l. 12. c. 17. E Syriâ revehunt Stycacem acri odore ejus in focis abigente suorum fastidium Styrax as Pliny writeth is sold at a deare rate though it bee a wood of an unpleasant smell because experience proveth it to bee a present meanes to recover their smell who before had lost it Beloved brethren we all that have lived in the pleasures of sinne have our senses stuffed and debilitated if not overcome and the best remedy against this malady will be the smelling to Styrax the unsavoury and unpleasing smell of our former corruptions Let the covetous man recall to mind his care in getting his anxiety in keeping his sorrow in losing that which nature hath put under his feet how to increase his heapes he hath not onely taken from others but robbed his owne belly and backe Let the Glutton thinke of the loathsomnesse of his sinne which subjecteth him to divers diseases and maketh him a burthen to himselfe the Drunkard his drowning of his reason distempering of his body and exposing himselfe to the laughter and scorne of all men the Adulterer the corruption of his owne body the transgressing the covenant of God the wronging and provoking his neighbour the staine of his owne reputation the rottennesse of his bones and besides all this the heavie wrath of God for his sinnes and feare of hell fire due to him for them I know no man willingly remembreth that whereof he is ashamed and therefore no exercise of Christianity more tedious and irksome than this because it withdraweth the mind from pleasant and delightfull objects to behold her own deformity yet none more necessary none more profitable And though it begins in sorrow yet it ends in joy for even this is an exceeding delight to the soule to find a change in her selfe and an alteration in her affections it is pleasant unto her that shee now distasteth the forbidden fruit and shee rejoyceth that shee can be heartily sorry for her sinnes And God as ſ Cypr. de card op Cyprian saith sweetly wipeth away these teares from the soule Ut magis ploret gaudeat fletibus that shee may weep the more and take pleasure in her weeping For after we have pricked our hearts with the sting of conscience for our grievous sinnes after they bleed with compunction after we have powred out our soules with sighes and groanes into the bosome of our Redeemer his heart will melt within him and his repentings will roll together hee will bind up our wounds and shew his wounds to his Father then shall we see the frownes of an angry Judge turned into the smiles of a loving Father the crimson colour of our sins into the whitenesse of wooll our mourning weed into a wedding garment our sighes and sobs into exultation of spirit and the fearfull cloud which before overcast our minds into a cleare skie into peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost the true taste and beginning of the joyes of heaven To which the Lord
Law were under the curse for it is written saith he i Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every man that confirmeth not all things that are written in the Law to doe them Now there is no commandement which is not written in the booke of the Law to which whosoever k Deut. 4.2 addeth is accursed To these plaine and evident passages of Scripture may bee adjoyned three like unto them The l Ezek. 18.4 Rom. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.56 soule that sinneth shall dye The wages of sinne is death and The sting of death is sinne These pregnant testimonies the Cardinall endeavoureth to elude with these and the like glosses The soule that sinneth that is mortally shall dye and the wages of sinne that is of mortall sinne is death and the sting of death is sinne that is deadly sinne With as good colour of reason in all Texts of Scriptures wherein we are deterred from sinne he might interpose this his glosse and say eschue evill that is all deadly evill flye sinne that is mortall sinne and consequently deny that veniall sinnes are any where forbidden But as when wee reade in the common or civill law these and the like titles the punishment of felony murder treason fimony sacriledge we understand the law of all crimes of the same kind so in like manner when the Apostle saith indefinitely the wages of sinne is death we are to understand him of every sin for Non est distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit we must not distinguish where the law distinguisheth not For he that so doth addeth to the law or taketh from it and thereby incurreth the curse pronounced by the law-giver And though other Texts of Scriptures might brooke the like restriction yet not those above alledged For what is the meaning of this phrase Death is the wages of sin but that sinne deserveth death which is all one as to say that sinne is mortall Now adde hereunto Bellarmines glosse The wages of sinne that is mortall sinne is death and the soule that sinneth that is that sinneth mortally shall dye and the propositions will prove meere tautologies as if the Prophet had said The soule that sinneth a sinne unto death shall dye and the Apostle sinne that deserveth death deserveth death What is it to deprave the meaning of the Holy Ghost if this be not especially considering that the Prophet Ezekiel in the selfe same chapter ver 31. declareth his meaning to be of sinne in generall without any restriction or limitation Cast away from you all your transgressions and make you a new heart so iniquity shall not be your destruction Here ye see no means to avoid death but by casting away all transgressions for sith the Law requireth m Jam. 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law yet offendeth in one point is guilty of all entire obedience he that violateth any one commandement is liable to the punishment of the breach of the whole Law To smother this cleare light of truth it is strange to see what smoaky distinctions the adversaries have devised of peccatum simpliciter and secundùm quid and peccatum contra Legem and praeter Legem sinnes against the Law and besides the Law Veniall sinnes say they are besides the Law not against the Law Are not they besides themselves that so distinguish For let them answer punctually Doth the Law of God forbid those they call veniall sinnes or not If not then are they no sinnes or the Law is not perfect in that it meeteth not with all enormities and transgressions If the Law forbiddeth them then are they against the Law For sinne saith Saint John is the n 1 John 3 4. transgression of the Law If then veniall escapes are sinnes they must needs be violations of the Law and so not onely praeter besides but contra Legem against it The Law as Christ expoundeth it Matthew the fifth forbiddeth a rash word a wanton looke nay unadvised passion and what lesser sinnes can be thought than sinnes of thought therefore saith o Moral p. 1. l. 4. Azorius the Jesuit we must say that veniall sinne is against the Law as Cajetan Durand and Vega taught we must say so unlesse we will reject the definition of sinne given by Saint Austine and generally received by the Schooles dictum factum vel concupitum contra Legem aeternam that sinne is a thought word or deed against the eternall Law unlesse wee will contradict the ancient Fathers by name Saint p Greg. l. 8. in Job In praesenti mortem carnis patior tamen adhuc de futuro judicio graviorem morte destructionis tuae sententiam pertimesco quantâlibet enim justiciâ polleant nequaquam sibi ad innocentiam vel electi sufficiunt si in judicio districtè judicentur Gregory In the morning if thou seeke mee thou shalt not finde mee Now I sleep in dust that is in this present I suffer the death of the flesh and yet in the future judgement I feare the sentence of damnation more grievous than death for the Elect themselves how righteous soever they are will not be found innocent if God deale with them according to strict justice And Saint q Ep. 14. Omne quod loquimur aut de latâ aut de anguttâ viâ est si cum paucis subtilem quandam semitam invenimus ad vitam tendimus si multorum comitamur viam secundum Domini sententiam imus ad mortem Jerome Whatsoever we doe whatsoever we speake either belongs to the broad way or to the narrow if with a few we find out a narrow path we tend toward life if we keep company with many in the great road we goe to death And in his second r Lib. 2. cont Pel. c. 4. Quis nostrûm potest huic vitio non subjacere cum etiam pro otioso verbo reddituri simus rationem in judicio si ita sermonis injuria atque interdum jocus judicio coucilioque gehennae ignibus delegantur quid merebitur turpium rerum appetitio booke against the Pelagians where rehearsing the words of our Saviour He that is unadvisedly angry with his brother shall bee in danger of judgement thus reflecteth upon himselfe and his brethren Which of us can be free from this vice If unadvised anger and a contumelious word and sometimes a jest bringeth a man in danger of judgement councell and hell fire what doe impure desires and other more grievous sinnes deserve And Saint ſ Chrys com in Mat. 5. Mirantur multi hominem qui fratrem levem aut fatuum appellaverit sempiternae morti condemnari cum tertio quoque verbo alti alus id dicere soleamus Chrysostome who thus quavereth upon the same note Many are startled when they heare that he shall be condemned to eternall death who calleth his brother giddy-braine or foole sith nothing is so common among us wee hardly speake three words in disputing with any man but we breake
swallowed up with desparation the other are ravished with * Jam. 1.2 exceeding joy they are x Rom. 8.37 more than conquerors in all these things through him that loveth them and therefore they more than rejoice y Rom. 5 3 4 5 For they glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto them Upon this answer after much agitation Saint Austine settled his judgement when hee saw much Christian bloud mingled with the heathen in divers parts of Italy spilt by the Gothes z L. 1. c. 8. de Civ D i. Manâ— dissimilitudo pâ—siotum in similitudine pâ—ssionum licet sub tormento non est idem virtus vitium Nam sicut sub uno ignâ— aurum rutilâ—t pâ—lâ—a tumat sub eadem tribulà stipulae comminuuntur frumenta purganâ—ur nec idâ—o oleum cum amnicâ consunditur quia eodem 〈◊〉 pondere â—xprimitur c. Tantum interâ—st non quâ—liâ— sed quâ—lis quoque patiatur Notwithstanding the likenesse of the sufferings of both there remaines yet a great dissimilitude in the sufferers and even in the same torments vertue and vice may bee distinguished in the same fire the gold shineth the chaffe smoaketh under the same flaâ—le the corne is purged the stubble bruised under the same presse the oyle is powred into vessels the foame spilt By all which we see that perpetuall felicity with security is a most fearfull judgement of God and that seasonable afflictions with comforts to sweeten them grace to beare them strength to overcome them wisdome to make use of them are speciall favours of Gods chosen Now the Lord of his infinite mercy who scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth receive us whom he scourgeth he who chasteneth whom he loveth love us whom he chasteneth he who correcteth us for our profit teach us to profit by his corrections sanctifie all crosses and afflictions unto us uphold us in them carry us through them purge us by them and crowne us after them Cui c. THE SWEET SPRING OF THE WATERS OF MARAH THE L. SERMON Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. SAint a Cyp. de bon patient De patientiâ loquuturus fratres dilectissimi utilitates ejus commoda praedicaturus unde potiùs incipiam quam quod nunc quoque ad audientiam vestram video patientiam esse necessariam ut nec hoc ipsum quod auditis discitis sine patientiâ sacere possitis Ciprian having proposed to his auditory bonum patientiae the good of bearing for his theame reckoneth if I may so speak upon the stocke and maketh his advantage of the very duty and service they were at that time to performe to God in affording to the Minister of his word their religious attention and Christian patience Being to treat of patience saith hee dearly beloved and to recount the sundry commodities that by it accrew to the sanctified soule whence shall I rather take my beginning than from the necessity of this vertue to the holy exercise wee are now at which cannot bee performed as it ought without the concurrence of your patience with the divine assistance and my labour I cannot speake profitably to you in commendation of patience except you heare me with patience Mutato nomine de me Fabula narratur This godly fathers case hath bin yet is mine who am to entreat your patience to treat yet once more of patience in your hearing if the handling often the same argument and pressing the like motives to patience hath seemed wearisom tedious unto you I may hence gather with that father an argument for patience without which ye cannot endure the least affliction no not of the eare But if the repeating and inculcating the like doctrine and arguments were not burdensome unto you I may safely presume upon your patience to seale up my text and perfect my meditations upon so necessary profitable a subject b Sen. ep Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur We cannot hear too much of that which we can never learne enough Sorrowes and disturbances are very many and worke strongly upon our fraile nature but spirituall medicines of the soules maladies and comforts worke but weakely therefore it is wisedome to take as many of them as we can If they who are subject to swouning and generally all that are carefull of their bodily health will have cordiall waters in readinesse at hand that they may not be to seeke in time of need how much more ought all Christians who are still either in feare or in danger of conflicts with troubles and vexations be provided of store of spirituall comforts the rather because they serve as well to moderate their prosperity as to mitigate their afflictions For the same meditations which some way sweeten the brine of affliction that it be not too salt and quicke sauce the pleasures of prosperity that they be not too sweet and luscious What stronger levers to raise up a drouping soule than these in my Text that afflictions proceed from God in love and fall upon all his dearest children for their good Againe what stronger clubs to beate downe pride and insolencie in all such as abound in earthly comforts and know no end of their wealth and keepe under the minde that it be not too much lifted up with temporall blessings than these inferences from this Scripture that God chasteneth with afflictions and pampers not up with pleasures all such as he beareth a speciall affection unto Therefore may they thus well reason with themselves For all our honour and wealth we are in no better nay perhaps we are in far worse estate than the poorest and miserablest creature upon earth that hath run thorough or is in the midst of all calamities God chasteneth him in love for his amendment but he hath no care of us he lets us run riot in sin that poore wretch hath now his paiment ours is to come we know not how soone he hath his paine here with Lazarus but we take out our pleasures with Dives therefore may it be just with God to change his paine into pleasures but our pleasures into everlasting paines Better weep in Christs schoole than sport at the Divels games better to want all things and to have Gods love than to have all things else and want it If it had not beene better Moses would never have chosen to suffer afflictions with the servants of God c Heb. 11.15 rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season These uses alone if there were no more to be made of this soveraigne parcell of Scripture sufficiently recompence our labour in decocting the spirits and drawing this oyle of comfort out of it but the more we trie and apply
to the cast of a Die for a matter of naught a toy a trifle a jussle a taking of the wall an affront a word Doe wee make so small reckoning of that which cost our Saviour his dearest hearts bloud 2. If Judges all those who sit upon life and death did enter into a serious consideration thereof they would not so easily as sometimes they doe cast away a thing that is so precious much lesse receive the price of bloud For if it be accounted and that deservedly a sinne of a deep die to buy and sell things dedicated to the service of God what punishment doe they deserve who buy and sell the living image of God It is reported of Augustus that he never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh and of Titus the Emperour that hee willingly accepted of the Priests office that hee might never have his hand dipped in bloud and of Nero that when he was to set his hand to a capitall sentence he wished that he could not write Utinam literas nescirem therefore let those Judges think what answer they will make at Christs Tribunall who are so farre from Christian compassion and hearts griefe and sorrow when they are forced to cut off a member of Christ by the sword of justice that they sport themselves and breake jests and most inhumanely insult upon the poore prisoner whose necke lyeth at the stake If any sinne against our neighbour leave a deep staine in our conscience it is the bloudy sinne of cruelty Other sinnes may be hushed in the conscience and rocked asleep with a song of Gods mercy but this is reckoned in holy Scripture among those ſ Gen. 4.10 crying sins that never will be quiet till they have awaked Gods revenging justice This is a crimson sinne and I pray God it cleave not to their consciences who wear the scarlet robe If there be any such Judges I leave them to their Judge and briefly come to you Right Honourable c. with the short exhortation of the Apostle Put you on the t Colos 3.12 bowells of mercy and compassion and if ever the life of your brethren be in your hands make speciall reckoning of it in no wise rashly cast it away let it not goe out of your hands unlesse the law and justice violently wrest and extort it from you Assure your selves that it is a farre more honourable thing and will gaine you greater love and favour with God and reputation with men to u Cicer. pro Quint. de Aquil Mavult commemorare se cùm perdere potuerat pepercisse quà m cùm parcere potuerat perdidisse save a man whom yee might have cast away than to cast him away under any pretence whom yee might have saved 4. If a malefactour arraigned at the barre of justice should perceive by any speech gesture signe or token an inclination in the Judge to mercy how would he worke upon this advantage what suit what meanes would he make for his life how would he importune all his friends to intreat for him how would he fall down upon his knees beseech the Judge for the mercies of God to be good unto him Hoe all ye that have guilty consciences and are privie to your selves of many capitall crimes though peradventure no other can appeach you behold the Judge of all flesh makes an overture of mercy he bewrayeth more than a propension or inclination he discovereth a desire to save you why doe ye not make meanes unto him why do ye not appeale from the barre of his justice to his throne of grace why doe ye not flye from him as he is a terrible Judge to him as he is a mercifull Father Though by nature ye are the sonnes of wrath yet by grace ye are the adopted sonnes of the Father of mercy and God of all consolation who stretcheth out his armes all the day long unto us Let us turne to him yea though it be at the last houre of our death and he will turne to us let us repent us of our sinnes and he will repent him of his judgements let us retract our errours and he will reverse his sentence let us wash away our sinnes with our teares and he will blot out our sentence with his Sonnes bloud When * Dan. 5.5 Belshazzar saw the hand-writing against him on the wall his heart mis-gave him all his joynts trembled and his knees smote one against the other Beloved Christians there is a x Colos 2.14 hand-writing of ordinances against us all and if we see or minde it not it writeth more terrible things against us What shall wee doe to be rid of this feare Is there any means under heaven to take out the writing of God against us Yes beloved teares of repentance with faith in Christs blood maketh that aqua fortis that will fetch out even the hand-writing of God against us The Prophet recordeth it for a miraculous accident that the sun went back many degrees in the Dyall of y Esa 38.8 Ahaz Beloved our fervent prayers and penitent tears will work a greater miracle than this they will bring back again the z Mal. 4.2 Sun of righteousnesse after he is set in our soules God cannot sin Angels cannot repent onely man that sinneth is capable of repentance and shall wee not embrace that vertue which is onely ours Other vertues are remedies against speciall maladies of the soule as humility against pride hope against despaire courage against feare chastity against lust meeknesse against wrath faith against diffidence charity against covetousnesse but repentance is a soveraigne remedy against all the maladies of the minde Other vertues have their seasons as patience in adversity temperance in prosperity almes-deeds when our brothers necessity calleth upon our charity fasting when wee afflict our soules in time of plague or any other judgement of God but repentance is alwayes in season either for our grosser sinnes or for failing in our best actions if for no other cause yet wee are to repent for the insincerity and imperfection of our repentance I will end this my exhortation as the Prophet doth this chapter * Ezek. 18.30.31 Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your ruine Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you new hearts and new spirits for why will yee die O ye house of Israel saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live yee O Lord who desirest not that wee should die in our sinnes but our sinnes in us mortifie our fleshly members by the power of thy Sonnes death and renew us in the spirit of our mindes by the vertue of his resurrection that wee may die daily to the world but live to heaven die to sinne but live to righteousnesse die to our selves but live to thee Thou by the Prophet professest thy desire of our conversion say but the word and wee shall bee converted
and this queere I leave it and insist rather upon those that follow the first whereof is the consideration of the time or rather duration of this infirmity in the people How long They that are sound in their limbes may by a small straine or blow upon their legs halt for a while but sure long to halt is a signe of some dangerous spraine or rupture now this people as it should seeme halted in this manner at least three yeeres The strongest and soundest Christian sometimes halteth in his minde betweene two opinions nay which is worse betweene religion and superstition faith and diffidence hope and despaire but hee halts not long Christ by his word and spirit cureth him As in our bodies so in our soules we have some distempers doubts suddenly arise in our minds as sparks out of the fire which yet are quenched in their very ascending and appeare not at all after the breath of Gods spirit hath kindled a flame of truth in our understanding Heresies and morall vices are like quagmires wee may slightly passe over them without any great danger but the longer we stand upon them the deeper wee sinke and if wee bee not drowned over head and eares in them yet we scape not without much mire and dirt Hereof e Confess lib. 3. c. 11. Novem ferme anni sunt quibus ego in illo limo profundi tenebris falsitatis cum saepius surgere conarer gravius alliderer volutatus sum S. Augustine had lamentable experience during the space of many yeeres in which he stucke fast in the heresie of the Manichees Had I but saith he slipt onely into the errour of the Manichees and soone got out of it my case had beene lesse fearefull and dangerous but God knowes that for almost nine yeares I wallowed in that mud the more I strived to get out the faster I stucke in Beloved if wee have not beene so happy as to keepe out of the walke of the ungodly yet let us bee sure not to stand in the way of sinners much lesse sit in the seat of the scornefull if wee are not so pure and cleane as we desire at least let us not with Moab settle upon the lees of our corruption if wee ever have halted as Jacob did yet let us not long halt with the Israelites whom here Elijah reproveth saying How long Halt yee It may be and is very likely that many of the Israelites ran to Baals groves and altars and yet they were liable to this reproofe of Elijah For though we run never so fast in a wrong way we doe no better than halt before God Better halt saith S. Austine in the way than run out of the way This people did neither they neither ran out of the way nor limped in the way but halted betweene two wayes and missed both Betweene two opinions Had they beene in the right way yet halting in it the night might have overtaken them before they came to the period of their journey but now being put out of their way and moving so slowly as they did though the Sun should haue stood still as it did in the valley of Ajalon they were sure never to arrive in any time to the place where they would be Yet had they beene in any way perhaps in a long time it would have brought them though not home yet to some baiting place but now being betweene two waies their case was most desperate yet this is the case of those whom the world admireth for men of a deep reach discreet carriage they are forsooth none of your Simon Zelotes Ahab shall never accuse them as hee doth here Elijah for troubling Israel with their religion they keepe it close enough whatsoever they beleeve in private if at least they beleeve any thing they in publike wil be sure to take the note from the Srate either fully consort with it or as least strike so soft a stroake that they will make no jarre in the musick Besides other demonstrations of the folly of these men their very inconstancy and unsettlednesse convinceth them of it for mutability and often changing even in civill affaires that are most subject to change is an argument of weaknesse but inconstancie in religion which is alwayes constant in the same is a note of extreme folly Whence it is that the spirit of God taxeth this vice under that name as Oh yee foolish Galatians who hath bewitchâ—d you Are yee so foolish f Chap. 3.1 3 4. having begun in the Spirit are yee now made perfect in the flesh Have yee suffered so many things in vaine And g Ephes 4.14 Be not like children tossed to and fro and carried about with everie wind of doctrine If religion be not only the foundation of Kingdomes and Common-wealths but also of everie mans private estate what greater folly or rather madnesse can there be than to build all the h Matth. 7.26 securitie of our present and hope of our future well-fare upon a sandie foundation He that heareth my words and doth them not is likened to a foolish man which buildeth his house upon the sand All the covenants betweene God and us of all that we hold from his bountie are with a condition of our service and fealtie which sith a man unsettled in religion neither doth nor ever can performe hee can have no assurance of any thing that hee possesseth no content in prosperitie no comfort in adversitie no right to the blessings of this life no hope of the blessednesse of the life to come what religion soever gaine heaven he is sure to lose it Whether the Lord be God or Baal be God neither of them will entertaine such halting servitours Were he not worthy to be begged for a foole that after much cautiousnesse and reservednesse would make his bargaine so that he were sure to sit downe with the losse such matches maketh the worldly-wise man howsoever the world goe whether the true or the false religion prevaile in the State while hee continueth resolved of neither hee is sure to lose the pearle which the rich merchant sold all that he had to buy What shall I speak of inward wars and conflicts in his conscience Now he hath strong inducements to embrace the Gospel shortly after meeting with a cunning Jesuit he is perswaded by him that he is an Enfant perdue out of all hope of salvation if he be not reconciled to the Roman Church the next day falling aboord with the brethren of the separation he beginneth to thinke the Brownists the onely pure and refined Christians for all other Christians if we beleeve them build upon the foundation hay and stubble but they gold silver and precious stones When he is out of these skirmishes and at leisure to commune with his owne heart his conscience chargeth him with Atheisme indifferencie in religion and hollow-hearted neutralitie Adde we hereunto the judgement of all understanding men who esteeme such as
Sacrament of our Lords body and bloud wee shall feele the effects of both in us viz. more light in our understanding more warmth in our affections more fervour in our devotions more comfort in our afflictions more strength in temptations more growth in grace more settled peace of conscience and unspeakable joy in the holy Ghost To whom with the Father and the Sonne bee ascribed c. THE SYMBOLE OF THE SPIRIT THE LXIV SERMON ACTS 2.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting SAint Luke in the precedent verse giveth us the name in this the ground of the solemne feast we are now come to celebrate with such religious rites as our Church hath prescribed according to the presidents of the first and best ages The name is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feast of the fiftieth day from Easter the ground thereof the miraculous apparition and if I may so speake the Epiphany of the holy Spirit in the sound of a mighty rushing wind the light of fiery cloven tongues shining on the heads of the Apostles who stayed at Jerusalem according to our Lords command in expectation of the promise of the holy Ghost which was fulfilled then in their eyes and now in our eares and I hope also in our hearts After God the Father had manifested himselfe by the worlds creation and the workes of nature and God the Sonne by his incarnation and the workes of grace it was most convenient that in the third place the third person should manifest himselfe as he did this day by visible descension and workes of wonder Before in the third of Matthew at the Epiphany of our Saviour the Spirit appeared in the likenesse of a dove but here as yee heare in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues to teach us that we ought to be like doves without gall in prosecution of injury done to our selves but like Seraphins all fire in vindicating Gods honour This morall interpretation Saint a Greg. tert pas Omnes quos implet columbae simplicitate mansuetos igne zeli ardentes exhibet Et ib. Intus arsit ignibus amoris foras accensus est zelo severitatis causam populi apud Deum lachrymis causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegabat c. Gregory makes of these mysticall apparitions All whom the spirit fills he maketh meeke by the simplicity of doves and yet burning with the fire of zeale Just of this temper was Moses who took somewhat of the dove from the spirit and somewhat of the fire For being warme within with the fire of love and kindling without with the zeale of severity he pleaded the cause of the people before God with teares but the cause of God before the people with swords Sed sufficit diei suum opus sufficient for the day will be the worke thereof sufficient for this audience will be the interpretation of the sound the mysticall exposition of the wind which filled the house where the Apostles sate will fill up this time And lest my meditations upon this wind should passe away like wind I will fasten upon two points of speciall observation 1. The object vehement the sound of a mighty rushing wind 2. The effect correspondent filled the whole house Each part is accompanied with circumstances 1. With the circumstance of 1. The manner suddenly 2. The sourse or terminus à quo from heaven 2. With the circumstance of 1. The place the house where 2. The persons they 3. Their posture were sitting 1. Hearken suddenly there came on the sudden 2. To what a sound 3. From whence from heaven 4. What manner of sound as of a mighty rushing wind 5. Where filling the roome where they were sitting That suddenly when they were all quiet there should come a sound or noise and that from heaven and that such a vehement sound as of a mighty rushing wind and that it should fill the whole roome where they were and no place else seemes to mee a kind of sequence of miracles Every word in this Text is like a cocke which being turned yeeldeth abundance of the water of life of which we shall taste hereafter I observe first in generall that the Spirit presented himselfe both to the eyes and to the eares of the Apostles to the eares in a noise like a trumpet to proclaime him to the eyes in the shape of tongues like lights to shew him Next I observe that as there were two sacred signes of Christs body 1. Bread 2. Wine so there are two symboles and if I may so speake sacraments of the Spirit 1. Wind 2. Fire Behold the correspondency between them the spirit is of a nobler and more celestiall nature than a body in like manner the elements of wind and fire come neerer the nature of heaven than bread and wine which are of a more materiall and earthly nature And as the elements sort with the mysteries they represent so also with our senses to which they are presented For the grosser and more materiall elements bread and wine are exhibited to our grosser and more carnall senses the taste and touch but the subtiler and lesse materiall wind and fire to our subtiler and more spirituall senses the eyes and eares Of the holy formes of bread and wine their significancie and efficacy I have heretofore discoursed at large at this present by the assistance of the holy Spirit I will spend my breath upon the sacred wind in my Text and hereafter when God shall touch my tongue with a fiery coale from his Altar explicate the mystery of the fiery cloven tongues After the nature and number of the symboles their order in the third place commeth to be considered first the Apostles heare a sound and then they see the fiery cloven tongues And answerable hereunto in the fourth verse we reade that they were filled with the holy Ghost and then they began to speake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance For b Mat. 12.34 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh With the c Rom. 10.10 heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and then with the tongue he confesseth unto salvation My d Psal 45.1 heart saith David is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer first the heart enditeth and then the tongue writeth They who stay not at Jerusalem till they are endued with power from above and receive the promise of the Father but presently will open their mouthes and try to loosen the strings of their fiery tongues I meane they who continue not in the schooles of the Prophets till they have learned the languages and arts and have used the ordinary meanes to obtaine the gifts and graces of the holy Spirit and yet will open their mouthes in the Pulpit and exercise the gift of their tongues doe but fill the eares of their auditors with a
accounts and cleere them a holy tenth of the yeere to be offered to him the sacred Eve and Vigils to the great feast of our Chrisâ—â—an passover Your humbling your bodies by watching and fasting your souâ—es by weeping and mourning your rending your hearts with sighes the resolving your eyes into teares your continuall prostration before the throne of grace offering up prayers with strong cryes are at this time not only kind fruits of your devotion speciall exercises of your mortification necessary parts of contrition but also testimonies of obedience to the Law and duties of conformity to Christs sufferings and of preparation to our most publique and solemne Communions at Easter To pricke you on forward in this most necessarie dutie of pricking your hearts with godly sorrow for your sinnes I have made choyce of this verse wherein the Evangelist S. Luke relateth the effects of S. Peters Sermon in all his auditours 1. Inward impression they were pricked in heart 2. Outward expression men and brethren what shall we doe What Eupolis sometimes spake of Pericles that after his oration made to the people of Athens d Cic. de clar orat In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit he left certaine needles and stings in their mindes may be more truly affirmed of this Sermon of the Apostle which when the Jewes heard they were pricked at heart and not able to endure the paine cry out men and brethren what shall we doe The ancient painters to set forth the power of eloquence drew e Bodin l. 4. de rep c. 7. Majores Herculem Celticum senem effingebant ex cujus ore catenarum maxima vis ad aures infinitae multitudinis perveniret c. Hercules Celticus with an infinite number of chaines comming out of his mouth and reaching to the eares of great multitudes much after which manner S. Luke describeth S. Peter in my text with his words as it were so many golden chaines fastened first upon the eares and after upon the hearts of three thousand and drawing them up at once in the drag-net of the Gospell Now our blessed Saviour made good his promise to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt catch live men and this accesse of soules to the Church and happie successe in his ministeriall function seemeth to have beene fore-shewed to him by that great draught of fish taken after Christs resurrection the draught was an f John 21.11 hundred fiftie and three great fishes and for all there were so many yet saith the text the net was not broken The truth alwayes exceedeth the type for here were three thousand great and small taken and yet the net was not broken there was no schisme nor rupture thereby for all the converts were of one minde they were all affected with the same malady they feele the same paine at the heart and seeke for ease and help at the hands of the same Physitians Peter and the rest of the Apostles saying Men and brethren what shall we doe Now when they heard these things they were pricked Why what touched them so neere no doubt those words g Ver. 23 24. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine whom God hath raised up having loosened the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it This could not but touch the quickest veines in their heart that they should be the death of the Lord of life that they should slay their Messiah that they should destroy the Saviour of the world Of all sinnes murder cryeth the loudest in the eares of God and men of all murders the murder of an onely begotten sonne most enrageth a loving father and extimulateth him unto revenge in what wofull case then might they well suppose themselves to be who after S. Peter had opened their eyes saw that their hands 〈◊〉 beene deepe in the bloud of the Sonne of God Now their blasphemous words which they spake against him are sharp swords wounding deeply their soules the thornes wherewith they pricked his head and the nailes wherewith they pierced his hands and feet pricked and pierced their very heart They were pricked in heart That is they were pierced tho row with sorrow they tooke on most grievously Here lest wee mistake phrases of like sound though not of like sense we must distinguish of spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Rom. 11.8 a spirit of compunction reproved in the unbeleeving Jewes and compunction of spirit or of the heart here noted by S. Luke the former phrase signifieth slumber stupiditie or obstinacie in sinne this latter hearty sorrow for it the former is a malady for the most part incurable the latter is the cure of all our spirituall maladies Now godly sorrow is termed compunction of the heart for three reasons as i Lorin in Act. c. 2. Dicitur dolor de peccato admisso quod est compunctio vel quia aperitur cordis apostema vel quia vulneratur cor amore Dei vel quia daemon dolore invidiâ sauciatur Lorinus conceiveth 1. Because thereby the corruption of the heart is discovered as an aposteme is opened by the pricke of a sharp instrument 2. Because thereby like the Spouse in the Canticles wee become sicke of love as the least pricke at the heart causeth a present fit of sicknesse 3. Because thereby the Divell is as it were wounded with indignation and envie When they heard these things they were pricked in heart when they were pricked in heart They said As the stroakes in musicke answer the notes that are prickt in the rules so the words of the mouth answer k Cic. 3. de Ora. Totum corpus hominis omnes ejus vultus omnesque voces ut nervi infidibus ita sonant à motu quoque animi sint pulsae to the motions and affections of the heart The Anatomists teach that the heart tongue hang upon one string And hence it is that as in a clocke or watch when the first wheele is moved the hammer striketh so when the heart is moved with any passion or perturbation the hammer beats upon the bell and the mouth soundeth as we heard from David l Psal 45.1 My heart is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer And from S. Paul m Rom. 10.10 With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation And from our Saviour n Luke 6.45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Many among us complaine that they are tongue-tied that when they are at their private devotions their words sticke
the left that they may be charmed both by the word and by the voyce of reason it selfe Christ saith his house is an house of prayer but where spake hee this spake he it not in the Temple and were not these very words part of a sermon which hee preached to the buyers and sellers there Hee hath but little skill in the language of Canaan who knoweth not that prayer and invocation of Gods name is in Scripture by a Synecdoche taken for the whole f Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.13 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved c. worship of God yet admit that our Saviour should in that place take prayers strictly for that part of Gods worship which consisteth in lifting up our hands to preferre our petitions and supplications unto him S. Paul furnisheth us with a direct answer to this objection even by those questions he propoundeth g Rom. 10.14 How then shall they call on him on whom they have not beleveed how shall they beleeve on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher As there is no powerfull preaching without prayer to God for a blessing upon it so no good prayer without preaching to direct both in the matter and forme and to enflame our hearts with zeale There being three parts of prayer humble confession confident invocation and hearty thanksgiving how can they make a full confession of their sinnes who learne not what are sinnes from the mouth of the Preacher How can they bee humbled in such sort as they ought before whom the Preacher out of the word setteth not God his terrible name glorious Majestie all-seeing eye infinite purity strict justice fierce wrath against sin together with man his vilenesse wretchednesse sinfulnesse wants and infirmities How can they call upon God with confidence who are not perswaded out of the Word by the Preacher of God his love to man mercie and long-suffering gratious promises omnipotent goodnesse as also of Christ his perfect obedience plenary satisfaction and perpetuall intercession How can they recount Gods blessings both spirituall and temporall who never have beene told them by the Preacher Yea but they will say they know enough of these things nihil est dictum quod non sit dictum prius This very objection of theirs bewrayes their ignorance and want of knowledge in divine things For were they rightly instructed as they ought to be they could not but know that the Scripture is like a plentifull mine in which the deeper we digge the veine of heavenly truthes proves still the richer they would know that all the Saints of God in all ages have complained of and confessed their ignorance and continually praied with David Doce me viam statutorum tuorum O teach me the way of thy statutes and open mine eyes that I may see the wonderfull things of thy law Lastly that it is the duty of every good Christian to h Ambros de Offic. l. 1. Et quantumvis quisque profecerit nemo est qui doceri non queat donec vivit improve his talent of wisedome and spirituall understanding to i 1 Tim. 4.15 meditate on those things he readeth and heareth that his profiting may appeare unto all and to k 2 Pet. 3.18 grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Admit they should learne no new thing in divers Sermons yet will not this any way excuse their neglect of this duty of hearing neither ought it to be any cause at all to keepe them from Sermons because instruction of ignorance is not the onely end of preaching there are many others as to glorifie God to countenance the ministerie of his word by their presence to encourage others to the diligent and constant hearing of the word by their example who perhaps may more need instruction than themselves to testifie their obedience to Gods ordinance who commandeth all his servants as well to heare him when he speaketh to them in his Word as to speake unto him in their prayers to have religious affections stirred up in them sometimes hope sometimes feare sometimes godly sorrow sometimes spirituall joy alwayes zeale for Gods glorie fervour in their devotion and watchfulnesse over all their wayes to be put in minde of those things which indeed they knew before but either forgot or made as little use of them as if they had never knowne them to be awaked out of their spirituall lethargie to be admonished of divers dangers they are like to incurre to be convinced of divers errours which they count to be none till the powerfull ministry of the Word hath demonstrated them to be such to reprove them of the sins they daily commit as well of ignorance as against their conscience and to pricke their hearts deep with godly compunction that with weeping eyes and bleeding hearts they may seek to God in time for pardon Lastly to prepare them to performe all religious duties in a better maner that they may for the future receive more comfort in their private devotions and more benefit by the publike ministry of the Word and Sacraments The grand enemie of our soules partly by immediate suggestions and thoughts ingested into our mindes and partly by the mouthes or pennes of Atheists Infidels Heretickes and Schismatickes layeth new batteries against our most holy faith and is it not then most needfull to learne from the most able and experienced Souldiers of Christ how to beat them off and fortifie against them And if their memorie be so brittle and pertuse as they pretend that it will hold nothing there is a greater necessitie for them to heare oftener than others that the frequent inculcation of the same doctrine may imprint that in their mindes which others receive by the first hearing And to answer them in their owne metaphor albeit the bucket be so full of holes that all the water they take up in it runneth out yet certainely the often dipping it into the Well and filling it with water will make it moister than otherwise it would have beene And so I passe from the eare marke of Christs sheepe to the marke in their heart They were pricked in heart This pricke in the heart may be considered two manner of wayes 1 In a reference to the cause and so it is an effect 2 In a reference to the subject and so it is an affection If wee consider it as an effect it sheweth unto us the efficacie of Gods Word in the mind of the hearers which is far greater than any force of humane art or eloquence Art and humane eloquence may move affection but it is the powerfull preaching of the Word only that can remove corruption as we read Lex Jehovae convertens animas l Psal 19.7 The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The word of man my tickle the eare but it is the word of God onely which pricketh deepe the heart
after the act of sinne is committed there is felt in all that have not seared consciences remorse sorrow feare and shame sorrow for the losse of Gods favour the jewels of his grace the comforts of the Spirit feare for the guilt of sinne and shame for the filthinesse and turpitude thereof Of these three consisteth compunction which y In verbo compunct Compunctio est humilitas mentis cum lachrymis veniens de recordatione peccati timore judicii S. Isidore defineth to be a dejection of the minde with teares caused by the remembrance of sinne and feare of judgement By z Ex Aquinate in supplement Humilitas mentis inter spem timorem annihilans peccatum nam ut vermis qui nascitur in ligno lignum exest ita dolor ex peccato peccatum ipsum absumit S. Gregorie thus A dejection of the mind full of anxietie betweene feare and hope annihilating or destroying sinne For as the worme which breedeth in the wood consumeth it so saith St Chrysostome the sorrow which ariseth from sinne consumeth and destroyeth it Pia proles hoc ipso quod devoret matrem An happie issue in this onely that it eateth out the heart of the parent Thus I have pricked you out to use the phrase of the Musitians a lesson of compunction which though it be a sad pavin to the outward man yet it is a merrie galliard to the inward The physicke which kindly worketh and maketh the patient heart-sicke for the present yet much comforteth him out of assured hope that the present pain will bring future ease help The smarting plaister is the most wholsome such is that I have spread by the amplification of my Text and now I am to lay it to by the application thereof If compunction of the heart be the true marke of a penitent let the eye of our soule look into our heart and see whether we can find it there If we find it we may take comfort in it if we find it not we may be sure we are no true converts There is no vertue in the physick if it paine us not no force in the plaister if it smart not the dis-located bone is not brought to his place if we felt no pain in the setting it As the colours and shapes which are burnt in glass cannot be obliterated unless the glass be broken all to pieces so neither can the ougly shapes of vices images of Sathan be razed out of the soule unlesse the heart be broken with true contrition Spices when they are bruised and pownded in a mortar yeeld a most fragrant smell O then let us bruise our hearts with true contrition Tertul. de poenitent Miserum est securi cauterio exuri pulvoris alicujus mordacitate cruciari attamen quae per insuaviem medentur emolumento curationis offensam sui excusant praesentem injuriam supervenientis utilitatis gratia commendat that our zealous meditations may be like fragrant spices in the nostrils of God If the Jewes were pricked in heart at the remembrance of Christs suffering if their hearts bled for once crucifying the Lord of life how much more ought ours for crucifying him daily O thinke upon this dearly beloved seriously both in the day and in the night and let it make your beds to swim with teares As often as ye sweare by the wounds of Christ ye teare them wider as often as ye belch out blasphemy against God ye spit upon your Saviours face as often as ye distemper your selves with strong wines ye give him vinegar to drink as often as ye grieve the holy spirit ye pricke his very heart as often as yee unworthily receive the sacrament ye tread his bloud under your feet Me thinks I hear you sobbing and sighing out the words of the Jewes in my Text If these things are so if those sins are so hainous and grievous which we have made so light of Men and brethren what shall we doe I answer you in the words of Saint Peter following Repent and be baptized every one of you not in the font of sweet water in the Church but in the salt water of your teares let your a Cypr. de laps Alto vulneri diligens longa medicina ne desit poenitentia crimine minor non sit sorrow be answerable to your sinfull pleasures and bring forth fruits meet for repentance The wound is deep thrust the tent to the bottome of it your sins have been many and grievous let your teares bee abundant and your sighes many Yee have had a long time of sinning give not over presently your exercises of mortification hold on your strict abstinence your devout prayers your frequent watchings your humble confessions and sad meditations the whole time which the Church hath prescribed you by your sorrow here prevent eternall b Tertul. de poenit Fletu fletum temporali afflictione aeterna supplicia expungite in quantum non peperceritis vobis in tantum vobis parcet Deus lamentations and woe by your remorse of conscience here prevent weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter by your temporall affliction in this world prevent eternall malediction and endlesse torments of body and soule in hell the lesse you spare your selves in this kind God will spare you so much the more and so much the sooner and easier be reconciled unto you To whom c. CHRISTIAN BROTHER-HOOD A Sermon preached on the second Sunday in Lent THE LXVIII SERMON ACTS 2.37 And they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren MAny of the ancients write that S. Luke was an excellent limmer and drew the blessed Virgin to the life how true it is that he tooke the picture of the mother of God I know not for the first relaters were Apocryphall writers but sure I am in this text as a table hee setteth forth the children of God in their colours and describeth them by their proper marks which are three 1. In the eare 2. In the heart 3. In the hand 1. The eare-marke is carefull attention when they heard 2. The heart-marke is deepe compunction they were pricked in heart 3. The hand-marke is sollicitous action Men and brethren what shall we doe Wee have already viewed the eares of these converts and found them bored thorow for the perpetuall service of God and hung with the jewels of the Gospel next we searched into their hearts and found them pierced with sorrow for being some way accessarie at least by consent to the death of the Lord of life and now wee are to looke to their hands and see what they will doe or rather what they will not bee willing to doe to make their peace with God and wash away the guilt of spilling his Sonnes bloud Men and brethren what shall we doe Ye heare men and brethren in this close of the verse 1. A courteous compellation which savoureth of 1. Humanity Men. Now they hold
wise saith a Eccles 12.11 Solomon the mirrour of wisedome are like to goades and to nailes fastned by the masters of the assemblies which are given from one shepheard Marke I beseech you what he saith and the Lord give you a right understanding in all things hee saith not verba sapientum sunt calamistri but stimuli not b Salvianus de prov l. 1. cap. 1. lenocinia sed remedia not sweet powders but medicines not crisping pins to curle the lockes or set the haires in equipage but like goades piercing through the thicke skinne and like nailes pricking the live flesh yea the very heart roote and drawing from thence teares sanguinem animae the c Aug. Serm. de temp Lachrymae sanguis animae blood of the wounded soule Such were the words of Saint Peter in this Sermon wherewith he tickleth not the eares of the Jewes with numerous elocution but pricked their hearts with godly compunction Which effects of his divine and soule-ravishing eloquence Saint Luke punctually noteth as Mr d In. Act. c. 2. Concionis fructum refert Lucas ut scramus non modo in linguâ—rum varietate exâ—rtam fuisse spiritus sancti virtutem sed in eorum etiam cordibus qui credebant Calvin judiciously hath observed that we might not thinke that the holy Ghost which came downe upon the Apostles in the likenesse of fierie tongues and enabled them to speake divers languages which they had never learned resided in the tongue but descended lower into the heart and wrought there a wonderfull alteration of stony making them fleshie of obdurate relenting of obstinate yeelding of frozen melting Tully doth but flatter his mistresse eloquence in proclaiming her flexanimam Queene regent of the affections of the mind That style is due to the power of the word and the grace of the spirit which boweth and bendeth frameth and moldeth the heart at pleasure It is the sword e Heb. 4.12 of the spirit which is mightie in operation carnem mortificat Deo in sacrificium offert killeth the flesh in us and sacrificeth it unto God It is the point of this sword which openeth the Aposteme of corrupt nature and letteth out all the impure matter of lust and luxurie by pricking the quickest veines in the heart Wherefore that wanton and crank dame who blushed not to professe that she was more moved at a play than at a Sermon either by that profane speech of hers bewrayed that she played at Sermons never fastened her eares to the Preacher that he might fasten his goads and nailes in her heart or f Mercenar phys dilucid obscus dict Aristot intus apparens prohibuit extraneum the evill spirit had before taken up her heart as he did a like gallants in Rome who as g Li. despectac Tertullian writeth when he was adjured by a Saint of God and demanded how hee durst seize upon any that professed the Christian faith answered In meo reperi I caught her in my owne ground I found her at the Theater she came within my walke and therefore I tooke her as a lawfull prize or lastly shee never came prepared to the hearing of the Word as she ought she never laid her heart asoake in teares to make it tender she never prayed to God to direct the penknife in the hand of the spirituall Chirurgian to pricke the right veine by a seasonable reprehension like to this of Saint Peters in my text which when the Jewes heard They were pricked in heart c. See saith Saint h Chrys in Act. Homil. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysostome what meeknesse is and how it pierceth the heart deeper than rigour and severitie of reproofe It is not the storme of haile and raine that ratleth upon the tiles and maketh such a noise but the still kinde shower that sinketh deepe into the earth the soft drops pierce the hard stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Surgeon who intends to pricke a veine deepe first stroakes the flesh and gently rubbeth it to make the veine swell He that maketh an incision in the body of a patient that hath tough and hard flesh putteth him to little or no paine at all but if hee mollifie the flesh first and then apply his sharpe instrument unto it the party shrinketh at it even so saith the skilfull Surgeon of the mind sores If we would doe good upon our patients wee must first make the heart tender and then pricke it now that which mollifieth the heart and maketh it tender is not rage nor heate of passion nor vehement accusation much lesse bitter taunts and reproaches but the i Gal. 6.1 spirit of meeknesse in which Saint Peter sought to restore his countrimen the Jews For though they had murdered his and our Lord and Master and much injured his fellow servants the Apostles yet he speaketh unto them as a father or a carefull master he telleth them indeed of their fault yet aggravateth it not that he might not drive them to desperate courses but excusing it by their ignorance he offereth them grace and pardon upon very easie termes that grieving for their sinnes of a deeper die they would looke upon him by faith whom they had pierced and with wicked hands nailed to a tree By which sweet insinuation though he brought them not so farre as to justifying faith and repentance unto life yet they came on a good way for they were pricked with remorse for that they had done and they expresse a desire to make amends if it might be and referre themselves to the Apostles farther direction and instruction saying Men and brethren What shall we doe I may say of this question as Tully of Brutus his k Cic. famil epist laconicall epistle quà m multa quà m paucis how much in how little but two words in the l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originall yet issuing from three affections feare sorrow and hope 1 Feare saith What shall we doe to flie from the wrath to come 2 Sorrow saith What shall we doe to undoe that we have done 3 Hope saith What shall we doe to purchase a pardon for our bloudy mindes if not hands and to obtaine the promise that you tell us is made to us and to our children First of these words as they are a question of feare The tree of forbidden sinne beareth three fruits and all bitter 1 Guilt 2 Losse 3 Turpitude And these fruits breed in the stomacke of the soule three maladies 1 Shame 2 Sorrow 3 Feare 1 The turpitude in it or deformity breedeth shame 2 The losse by it breedeth hearts-griefe and sorrow 3 The guilt of it breedeth terrours and feares Peradventure some man may be found so armed with proofe of impudencie that he cannot be wounded with shame and wee see many so intoxicated with the present delight of sinne and so insensible of the losse by it that they take no griefe or thought
for it But I never yet read or heard of any that sinned with a high hand but his owne heart smote him with feare For where sinne is of a deepe die not washed out with penitent teares there is guilt where guilt is there must needs be an expectation of condigne punishment and where this expectation is continuall feare The sinners conscience tells him that his fact is unjust and God is just and therefore in justice will give injustice his just reward either in this life or in that which is to come As Antipho through a disease in his eye thought that he had his owne Image alwayes before him so he that hath charged his conscience with any abominable or very foule and bloudy crime seeth alwayes before him the ougly image of his sinne and hideous shape of his deserved punishment Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae m Cic pro Rose Amer. these are the ghosts that haunt wicked men these are the furies that follow them with torches and scorch them with flashes of hell fire these suffer them not non modo sine cura quiescere sed ne spirare quidem sine metu these make them flie when no man pursueth them cry when no man smiteth-them quake when no man threatneth them languish in a cold sweat when no fit is upon them n Juvenal sat 17. frigidamens est Criminibus tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ When o Cic. ib. Sua quemque fraus suus terror maxime vexar suum quemque scâ—lus agitat suae malâ— cogitationes consâ—ientiaeque animi terrent they are alone and quiet out of all other noise they heare their sinne cry for vengeance At which huy and cry they are so startled that though many be sometimes free from the cause of their feare yet they are never free from feare of danger Every shadow they take for a man every man for a spie every spie for an accuser As in a fever the greater the fit is the more vehement the shaking so the more horrid the sinne is the more horrible the dread The sinne of the Jewes in giving consent to the saving of a murderer and the murther of the Saviour is beyond comparison and therefore their feare beyond measure As a child that hath committed some great fault and expecteth to bee fleaed for it cryeth to his master What shall I doe Or a passenger suddenly benighted when he perceiveth that he is riding downe a steepe rocke cryeth to all within hearing Oh what shall I doe Or a patient that is in a desperate case feeleth unsufferable paine and apprehendeth no meanes of ease cryeth to his physician What shall I doe Or a seafaring man in a storme in the night when he heareth the water roare and feareth every moment to be swallowed up in the sea cryeth to the Pilot What shall we doe In this perplexitie in this fright in this agonie are the Jewes in my text and from hence is this speech of distracted men What shall we doe This their feare ought to strike a terrour in us all who have our part in their guilt for we by our sinnes have and doe provoke the Father grieve the Spirit and even crucifie againe the Sonne how can wee then but feare when we heare Gods threats against sinne when we see daily his judgements upon sinne when wee remember our Saviours sufferings to satisfie Gods justice for sinne How dare we draw iniquity with cords and sinne with cart-ropes How dare we kicke against the pricks How dare we make a covenant with death and league with hell How dare wee hatch the cockatrice egge How dare wee lie at the mouth of the Lions den Let no man say in his heart when he plotteth wickednesse or committeth filthinesse in the darke no eye seeth mee and therefore what need I feare for hee that hath eyes like a flame of fire pierceth the thickest darknesse and discovereth every hidden roome in thy house and corner in thy heart hee seeth thee in secret and will reward thee openly if thou by smiting thine owne heart prevent not his blowes as the Jewes did in my text saying What shall we doe This interrogation riseth from three springs or heads 1 Feare of punishment 2 Sorrow for sinne 3 Hope of pardon A man in feare driven to an exigent being now at his wits end saith with himselfe What shall I doe likewise a man overwhelmed with cares and ready to be drowned in sorrow as hee is sinking cries Oh! what shall I doe or what will become of mee The fruit of sin is sweete in the mouth but bitter in the stomacke like poison given in a sugred cup it goeth downe sweetly but it kindleth a fire in the bowels it tickleth the heart in the beginning but it prickes it in the end it is pleasure in doing it is sorrow when it is done Saint Bernard speaketh feelingly Sinne after it is perpetrated leaves in the soule a sad farewell amara foeda vestigia where the divell hath set his foote there remaines after he is gone a foule print and a stinking sent Though the sinner use all meanes to dead the flesh of his heart though he make it as hard as flint or the nether milstone yet conscience writeth in it as with the point of a Diamond this sentence of the eternall Judge of quick and dead p Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth They that stabbed Caesar afterwards turned the point of the same dagger upon themselves so it is certaine that no man by sin grieveth Gods Spirit but he woundeth himselfe with sorrow If the sprayning a veine or dis-locating a bone or putting a member out of joynt or distempering the bloud be a pain to the body how much more is the distorting the will the disordering the affections the quenching the light of reason by sinne a torment to the soule There is no man that hath not lost his senses but hath sense of great losses what losse comparable to the losse of Gods favour and love the comforts of the spirit and the treasures of his grace Though a sinner should gaine the whole world by his sinne yet would hee be a loser for at the present he hazzardeth and without mature repentance he loseth his owne soule To speake nothing of losse of time by idlenesse of wit by drunkennesse of strength by incontinencie of health by intemperancie of estate by prodigality of credit and reputation by lewdnesse and dishonestie besides the guilt of sinne and losse by it there is great folly in it which vexeth the mind and discontenteth the spirit of a man his thoughts perpetually accusing him in this manner This thou mightest have done and here thou befooledst thy selfe and thou hast brought trouble and shame upon thee thou mayst thanke thy selfe for all the mischiefes that have befalne thee Yea but ye may object Are sinne and sorrow such individuall companions is there no sorrow but for sinne
as he he taught blessed are they that mourne and he wept himselfe sanctifying thereby tears and assuring all godly mourners here of comforts hereafter z Gor. in Luc. c. 19. Christus quater flevit 1. in nativitate Sap. 7. Primam vocem nobis similem emisit plorans 2. In Lazari suscitatione Joh. 11. Lacrymatus est Jesus 3. in hac solenni processione flevit super eam 4. in passione Heb. 5. Haec sunt quatuor flumina quae de Paradiso prodierunt Gen. 2. ad totius mundi 1. ablutionem 2. refrigerationem 3. foecundationem 4. potationem Gorrhan observed that Christ shed teares foure times first at his birth next in the raising of Lazarus a third time in his surveigh of Jerusalem and a fourth time on the crosse and these foure saith he are spiritually the foure rivers of Paradise which serve 1. to purge 2. to coole and refresh 3. to water and make fruitfull 4. to quench the thirst of the world of beleevers Notwithstanding I find in the Gospel but two leaves onely wet with our Saviours teares Joh. 11. and here It is likely he cried at his birth after the manner of other children and it is certaine that hee offered up prayers upon the crosse with strong cries yet we reade not of any teares shed by him but here on Mount Olivet and at Lazarus his grave and both teares were teares of compassion and both also funerall teares There he wept for the death of Lazarus and here for the finall period and if I may so speake funerals of Jerusalem to be solemnized with desolation and exceeding great mourning like that of Hadradrimmon in the valley of Megiddo within a few yeeres after his passion It was the manner of the Prophets when they fore-told the calamities that were to fall upon any people or nation to expresse them as well by signes as by words to make a deeper impression in their hearers Ahiah * 1 Kings 11.30 cut Jeroboams cloake Jeremy breaketh his a Jer. 19.10 bottle Ezekiel b Ezek. 5.1 shaveth his beard Agabus c Act. 21.11 bindeth himselfe In like manner Christ prophesying the finall overthrow of the City and Temple representeth the great sorrow mourning and lamentation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by his owne teares Theodoret yeeldeth another reason Alii flent ex passione Christus ex compassione Others weep saith he out of passion Christ out of compassion Ut ostenderet qualia haberet erga ingrates viscera to shew what bowels hee had toward the ungratefull though they least deserve teares who have no sense at all of their owne misery yet they most of all need them It grieveth mee saith S. d Cypr. de laps Plango quia te non plangis Cyprian that thou grievest not for thy selfe mine eyes are wet because thine are alwaies dry I have little comfort because there is little or no hope of grace in thee Ea fletus majoris causa est cùm rideant qui flere debeant wee have the greater cause to mourne when they laugh who ought to weep Jerusalem was now in a fit of frenzy shee laughed and feasted and revelled even now when shee was neere utter ruine and confusion and this more opened the salt springs in our Saviours eyes hee shed teares the more abundantly by reason of the carnall security obstinacy and senslesse stupidity of the Jewes his Countrimen and especially the inhabitants of Jerusalem who killed the Prophets and stoned them who were sent unto them to fore-warne them of Gods fearefull judgements hanging over their heads I told you before that this was a wet step and many here have slipt For this objection offereth it self to every mans conceit Was not Christ God and consequently omnipotent could not he have prevented their finall overthrow could not hee have given those Jewes beleeving and relenting hearts could he not have converted them all miraculously by a vision from heaven as hee did St. Paul who before that powerfull change wrought in him was as much enraged against the professours of the Gospel as any of these nay more Did not Christ foresee and decree the destruction of Jerusalem how then doth he bemoane it with teares e Calv. harm in evang Sicut è coelo descendit Christus carne humanâ indutus ut divinae salutis testis esset minister vere humanos induit affectus quatenus susceptae functioni intererat quatenus datus erat huic populo minister in salutem pro officii sui ratione illius exitium deploravit Deus erat fateor sed quoties oportuit doctoris officio fungi quievit ac se quodammodo abscondidit deitas Calvin reacheth us a hand to helpe us off of this wet knoll As saith he Christ descended from heaven clad with humane flesh that he might bee a witnesse and minister of divine salvation he truly put upon him also humane affections so far as it was requisite for the discharge of his function therefore as being sent as a minister for the salvation of that people in the faithfull execution of his office hee forewarned them of their danger and bewailed their overthrow which could not but ensue upon their obstinacy and impenitency Hee was God I acknowledge and most certainly fore-saw what would befall the City according to his eternall decree but whilest hee performed the office of a teacher the deity rested as it were and hid it selfe That yee may take faster hold upon this stay which this learned Interpreter reacheth unto you ye are to consider Christ three manner of waies 1. As God 2. As man 3. As Mediatour betweene God and man As God he most justly sentenced that bloody City to utter ruine and desolation as man he could not but bee touched with griefe and sorrow for those heavie judgements which hung over the city and people they taking no course at all to prevent or avert them as Mediatour betwixt God and man he might and ought ex officio both bewaile what hee fore-told and fore-tell what hee now bewailed and that most seriously For pro quibus nunc lachrymas postea effudit sanguinem for hee shed his bloud for those for whom he now shed teares and it was their owne fault that this death was not effectuall to them for their redemption and salvation An all-sufficient remedy was tendered unto them but they would none of it and even this also as it aggravated their sinne and consequently their punishment so it increased their spirituall Physicians griefe and drew more teares from his eyes Utinam Domine ut verbum caro factum est sic cor meum carneum fiat Oh that as the word was made flesh so my heart were made fleshly and tender to receive a deep impression of my brethrens griefe Such a heart was Jeremies which evaporated into these sighes f Jer. 9.1 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes fountaines of teares that I might weep day and night for the slaine of