such good-good-works which may become Newness of Life as that we have any thing of Abomination or defilement about us for the keeping us out the last v. of the last Chap. of this Book And therefore however for the work of our Justification God may say unto us as to the two Blind-men Matth. 9.29 According to your Faith be it unto you yet if now upon this foundation of our whatever Faith we shall be so far from building up the Gold or Silver Superstruction of Pious and Religious works as that we shall lay on nothing but the Hay and Stubble of all manner of vanities yea Impieties and Enormities so far shall such a Faith be from saving us that most woful must our condition needs appear when we shall all come to stand up before God to receive our sentence either of Acquital or condemnation according to our works Every Mans works shall be made manifest saith Saint Paul for the Fire shall try every mans works of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 where by Fire will we hear St. Augustin and diverse others of the Antients We are to understand either the Fire of all manner of Temptations and Tribulations and Persecutions which as Fire are to try and prove sound Doctrin and reduce to nothing the Hay and Stubble of Humane Invention When the Lord shall wash away the filth of the Daughter of Sion by the Spirit of judgement and Fire saith the Prophet Isa. 4.4 or the Fire of the Holy Ghost He shall Baptize saith the Baptist with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Matth. 3.11 or our Saviours appearance at this Day of Judgement either for the brightness of his Presence Who is the true Light that lightneth every one that commeth into the world Iohn 1.9 or for his consumptive quality that as is the same Psalmists Prediction Mat. 3. â—2 is to burn up the Chaffe with unquenchable Fire So that then finde we in our selves some ability for the bearing of Tribulations and Persecutions Some eminent graces of Gods Spirit Some Light of Illumination of our understandings for the discerning of those things that are Excellent Some consumption of the Hay and Stubble of all manner of Corruptions within us Upon these and no other Terms just reason shall we have to conclude that we are truly justified by Faith in the free Grace of Christ and so shall be counted worthy to stand before this Son of Man as himself speaketh Luke 21.36 Let then the Light of our Faith so shine before Men that they seeing our goods works may thereby be induced yea enforced to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Let not our Lean Profession of Faith devour and swallow up the Fat of all manner of good works amongst us But let the Pomegranats of all manner of Fruits of Gods Spirit every where appear in the Coat of our Christianity as well as the Bels of our loud Profession of Faith Let Faith which commeth by hearing be as Mary conversant about one thing the Hearing of the word whilst the other as Martha is careful for many things the entertaining of Christ in all his needy Members Let Faith sing the Plain-song and Good-works the descant for the making up of a Melodious Harmony in the Ears of the Highest Let Faith and good works in every of us prove as Rachel and Leah fruitful for the building up of the House of our Christian Profession That so being Justified by Faith and having good works for the Justifying of this Faith of ours in the End of our Days we may receive the End of our Hopes the Salvation of our Souls when this great God of Heaven and Earth shall judge the Dead Small and Great out of those things that are written in the Books according to their works And thus far shall it serve to have examined the equal Proceedings of the Court which clearly appeareth in that the Dead Small and Great shall without any further distinction or discrimination be thus as you see Judged I shall only give you a short glimpse of the infallible certainty of all that which is irrefragably evident in that our Divine Evangelist professeth himself to have been {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an Eye-witness of all I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The Poets word it is Segnius irritant Animos The objects of Hearing make not so sudden an impression upon the Ear as those of seeing do upon the Eye And the reason hereof given by the Phylosopher cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant for that those things we see saith he come to the Eye {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in a direct Line but the things we Hear to the Ear {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} oblickly and as we say on every side Had our Apostle by Hear-say only by Tradition from others acquainted us with the Dead Small and Great standing up in this wise before God and yet this same Evangelist of our Ears conceiveth but even such a Relation to be Edged with Authority sufficient what we have heard saith he declare we to you in the 1. of his 1. Epistle and 5. the less strange might it seem did we appear to distrust the Relation not only for that our Age to palpably aboundeth with Lies much more then Truth but for that much more the greatest part of us that have led the Lives of Infidels would gladly cry down this Christian Truth rather for a Fabled Romancee then a Divine Oracle Sed cum certissimus Index Eplicuit presens oculus quem Fabula nescit But now what the greatest Sceptick can in the least measure question the Truth of this Report which so Authentick an Author as this our Evangelist reporteth himself to have seen and this by so unquestioned away as this of Revelation I saw and that with mine own Eyes and that by so unerring Evidence as Revelation the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Indeed I am not Ignorant that there are Revelations that may to justly be stooped to draw in the same Yoak with Dreams Hearken not to your Prophets is the Lords own word to the King of Sidon of Tyre of Moab and Ammon nor to your Diviners nor Dreamers Ier. 27.9 Every even the meanest of us hath for a long time as the Corinthians of old in the 1. of those Epistles 14. and 26. hath a Revelation an Interpretation of his own Of every of which therefore far greater reason shall we have to Quaere then those Philosophers sometimes of our Apostle Acts 17.18 what will this Babbler say But when we meet with a Testificemur quod vidimus as from this our Evangelist Iohn 3.11 we Testifie that which we have seen and that no Prophesie of Scripture is of Private Interpretation but Holy Men of God spake still as they were moved by God 2 Pet. 1.20 that Sceptick must needs be concluded to be above measure Sceptical that shall distrust the Credit of such a Relation I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Let it then be the careful Provision and Circumspection of every one of us that his dreadful sight of the Dead Small and Great standing up before a most impartial Judge and of the Books made up of three volumns in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion the second â—is Day-book of two whereof the first is that of our own Conscience the second of his Remembrance the third his Book of Records and this of a twofold Nature the one wherein the Church Registreth those for his Sons that by an outward Profession of their Faith are received into her Bosome notwithstanding that many of them afterwards prove gross Impostours and Hypocrites the other that immutable Fore-knowledge whereby from Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of Time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and ordained to be Heirs of Everlasting Life let this spectacle I say what the Lord sometimes to his People of the Book of the Law Ioshua 1.8 depart never out of our Mouths but meditate we therein Day and Night And let it be the Hing of the same Care of ours to consider that we shall be saved or condemned not by the Leaves or Blossoms of faire Shews or Semblances but by the Fruits of Good-works And then having laboured as much as in us lieth to conform us to his Example that is the Resurrection and the Life when he which is this Life of ours shall appear just reason shall we have to become confident that we shall also appear with him in Glory with the Lustre of which Appearance in thy good time O Lord irradiate every one us for thy Mercies sake c. FINIS
as the time of Harvest to make a separation between them The one of them is as a Mass of Gold and Dross blended together the other as a Fire to distinguish and divide them asunder The Letter of the former may scarce be of a visible impression the Character of the latter is indeleble Be our names never so fairly written in the former they may yet afterwards be obliterated but once Recorded in the latter they can never possibly be Blotted out I cannot stand here at large to exagitate the Malepert Humours as of those Chymick Spirits that will needs be preproperously drawing the Elixir and Quintessence of a Church out of a Church whereinto none shall be received but Saints of their own Canonization Qui vult ante egressos Angelos c. saith St. Greg. They that will be separating the Reprobate from amongst the Righteous before it shall please the Lord to send forth his Angels to that purpose he neither understandeth the Scriptures nor his own Bounds or Limits so neither of those Finde or rather Make-faults that will needs be Quarrelling with the Paper of this Book as if it were not able to bear Ink certainly not to preserve the Letters of those Names fair that are therein Registred Exegi Monumentum AEre perennius No Monument of Brass so Retentive as the Paper no Characters therein engraven so Lasting as the Letters of this Book Which therefore that they be not Blurred or Sullyed by any bold or prophane Hand that may prematurely offer at the opening of this Book are to be kept close and Shut up until the Day of our Common standing up both Small and Great before God And yet this Book which this Great Judge hath designed not to be locked up within his Archives only but there laid up and that clasped yea Sealed yea and that with no less then seven Seals in the 5. of this Book and 1. for the Concealment of the Contents from the discovery of the most Curious piercing and Searching Eye there want not yet uncommissioned Inquisitors that will not only be breaking open but will be therein Impudently Enrolling and Cancelling what Names they please In the 12. of Daniel where the Prophet heareth of a Time and Times and half a Time for which the wonders foretold him shall â—ast he presently groweth Inquisitive O my Lord saith he what shall be the end of these things But the Answer he receiveth is no less Sharp then Short Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed and Sealed up until the time of the End When we hear of a Book wherein this Great Judge of Heaven and Earth hath Registred the Names of his chosen ones we presently with the Prophet have an Itch in our Fingers for the searching of the Records Yea and not only so but a restless pain in our Tongues They stretch forth their Mouth unto the Heavens saith the Kingly Prophet and their Tongue walketh through the Earth Psal. 73.9 until we have published and proclaimed yea not seldom fained and fabled the Contents We Saints of the last Edition and our own Canonization have our Names only written in this Book and have therefore exclusively Title not for the future only to Heaven but to Earth for the present Whereas all the men of the World besides are left out as Reprobates and so divested of all manner of Interest whether in Temporal or Eternal Inheritance Which distinction yet either for Number or Names of Persons much more may in no wise be expected shall come to any Mans Cognizance until the Dead Small and Great Arising to stand up before God this Book with the others come to be Opened Certainly this Book is yet so fast shut up and Sealed until the last Day that whoever he be that shall arrogate to himself a Faculty of the Knowledge of the Contents and in the mean time much more assume a Power of publishing the Names therein recorded of such an one and that with modesty shall I have reason to say that he speaketh without Book And now then how well will it become us in this Case {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to bewise unto Sobriety Mollia sunt Parvis Prata terenda Rotis to be wary how we adventure upon the Plowing up of Deep Lands with slight and slender Carriages Certainly it will be wisdome as Charity enough in every one of us to look to one There is none so lawful none so useful a Scrutiny as leaving others to Stand or Fall to their own Master to make a diligent enquiry every one of us for our Particular Names whether they be Enrolled in this Book or no And in this Scrutiny this Enquiry in no wise can we better satisfie our selves then I say not by breaking open the Seals of this Book but by looking into the other books whereof each we are to look upon but as an Index to this See we that our Conversations be as far as Humane Frailty shall enable us with a Capacity composed unto the Dictates of the Law of Nature the Law from Sinai the Law from Sion being such in one word as in the word of the Apostle Phil. 1.27 may become the chief of these Books the Glorious Gospel of Christ See we every one that in the Book of our Conscience and the Book of Gods Remembrance the Blots of all our sins whatsoever may as in a Table-Book appear written Spunged out by the precious waters of unfained Repentance be now henceforth be all over written with the fair Characters of Righteousness and Holiness And then shall we not need to distrust but that we shall appear clear when we shall come to be Judged out of those things which shall appear written in these Books according to our works Which might fitly bring me to the survey of the two last remaining Particulars the Equal Proceedings of the Court and the Infallible certainty of all but for that their but Cursory view would take up more time then for the present can be well afforded leaving them for a competent Argument which may well take up our next Days entire Perusal beseech we the Almighty in the mean time to grant that the words we have this Day heard with our outward Ears c. The Third SERMON Apoc. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great c. Iohn 5.27 And shall come forth those that have done Good to the Resurrection of Life and those that have done Evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Justine Martyr Quemadmodum omnibus Corporibus à Deo procreatis hoc insitum est ut Vmbram habeant sic Deum quoque qui Iustitia praeditus est tum iis qui virtutem sibi colendam proposuernut tum iis qui vitium amplexari maluerint pro cujusque Merito Praemia Poenasque tribuere consentaneum est Apoc. 20.12 I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God and the Books were opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of Life and
the Dead were Iudged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works A Sight have you had as of the Prisoners to be Arraigned the Dead Small and Great of the Judge to pass sentence which though for the Judgement of Principal Authority it shall be every Person in the Trinity for which cause we finde this Day Signally stiled Gods Day 2 Pet. 3.12 Looking for saith he and hastening unto the Day of God yet for the Judgement of Promulging and Pronouncing of sentence it shall be the second Person in that Trinity and that in regard of his Humane Nature The Father saith our Apost. hath given Power to the Son to execute Iudgement because he is the Son of Man Iohn 5.27 So of the Evidence to be given in Recorded in Books and those three principals whereof the first is Gods Statute-Book made up of three Tomes in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion the second his Day-book made up of two whereof the first is of that our own Conscience the second of Gods Remembrance the last his Book of Records and that you have seen to be of a two-fold nature the one that wherein the Church Registreth those for the Sons of God that by an outward Confession of their Faith are received into her Bosome notwithstanding that not a few of them prove afterward Impostours and Hypocrites the other that of his Eternal Fore-knowledge whereby from all Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and Ordained to be Heirs of Eternal Life The Equal Proceedings of the Court and the Infallible certainty of all remain only for the present to be discussed And first are we to examine the equal Proceedings of the Court whose impartial Judge shall Examine the whole World upon the works whether Good or Evil they have done And the Dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works It is the Lords own word to his People Isa. 55.8 My wayes are not as your wayes And this difference of wayes between him and them the same Lord no less justly then precisely may you hear Contesting with them in point of Equity Ezech. 18.29 Are not my wayes Equal saith he and yours Vnequal Betwixt Heaven and Earth there is not so great a Distance as there is Difference between God and more then a good many Men in the exercise of Judiciary Power The Law which the Civilians say is Sanctio Iusta Iubens Honesta Prohibensque Contraria a Just Constitution commanding things that are Honest and Forbidding the Contrary is in the Court of Heaven reputed the only straight Rule whereunto the subjects of that court are to conform their works ways for their Deviation and Declination from its Rectitude are only punishable For which cause our Evangelists description of sin is that it is the Transgression of the Law in the 1. of his Epistle the 3. Chapter and 4. V. And therefore that word of that other Apostle just reason that it obtain with us the Credit of an Oracle Rom. 4.15 where there is no Law there is no Transgression So that then that word of that other Apostle yet 2. Pet. 1.19 for the word of Prophesie our parts it shall be to conceive directed unto every one of us for the Law that we shall do well to take heed thereunto as unto a Light that shineth in a Dark Place No otherwise then you may observe some careful Mariner for the better guidance of his Ship in a Dark Night to heed a Light which from some Eminent watch-towr may discover it self The Conduct of which Light therefore whose Beams every one of us may clearly discern as the Pilot his Light from the Tower darting out from Heaven upon him for the better steering him a course through the surges of this world shall he not heed no marvel if Straying from the right Path of Justice he wander in Darkness and in the shadow of Death The Proceedings of too too many a Man that assumeth unto himself a Power to Execute Justice not seldome runneth a clean contrary Bias to this They say as those in the Wiseman Wisd. 2.11 Our will is the Law of Iustice And therefore take unto themselves a liberty of Proscribing Imprisoning Condemning yea Executing too whom they please though guiltless of the Transgression of any Law Nor shall the Law be the Rule whereby to examine the work of supposed Dilinquents but their causeles fears and Jealousies shall make Delinquents whomsoever they shall please Whilst themselves in the mean time notwithstanding that they are dipped in as deep a Dye of villany as the blackest Fiends of Hell must yet have Precedence of all the Apostles nay the Virgin Mary her self in Saintship as long as did Saul with an Image in stead of David 1 Sam. 19.13 they can impose upon the purblinde World with empty Shadows and semblances in stead of the true and real Body of Religion and what AEschines sometimes objected to Demosthenes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} can New-dip Extortion Oppression Perjury Tyranny Sacriledge Murther yea very Atheisme with the fair and specious Names of Reformation Beloved As this Great Judge is far from being so Sophistical as to impose upon us with a Fallacy of Non causa pro Causa and so not so Rigid as to Condemn us without the least transgression of any of his Laws so neither may we conceive him to be so Facile and Easie as that he shall be wone to accept of a bare Shew and Profession of Saint-Ship for a perfect observation of this Law of his That Rule of this great Judge By their Fruits you shall know them Mat. 7.16 holdeth as true for all manner false Pretenders as Prophets They are the Fruits of good works only and not the Leaves or Blossoms of vain Ostentation or Profession that shall Acquit or condemn us at the last Day And the Dead were Iudged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works But how The Dead to be Judged according to their works Durus est hic Sermo this is an hard saying and who may abide it What hope of Salvation then shall the most Righteous have to entertain Yea and then as is St. Peters passionate Quaere in the 1. of his Epistle Chapter 4.18 Where shall the Vngodly and the Sinners appear So that then well may David Holy David deprecate this manner of Trial before God Psal. 143.2 Enter not into Iudgement with thy Servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no Man living be Iustified He that hath found no stedfastness in his Servants but hath charged his very Angels with Folly how much more then Man which dwelleth in an House of Clay whose Foundation is in the Dust Alas As the Priest
in the old law was to make an atonement for the Holy offerings of the People that they might be accepted Exod. 28.38 never may the best of our Services without some Atonement and Expiation hope to be sped of Acceptance at his Hands in whose Eyes the Stars are not clear Iob 25.5 but is of Purer Eyes then to behold any Iniquity Hab. 1.13 And then if in our best Dresses we may not hope to appear Acceptable in our worst how Abominable must we needs appear in his sight And therefore St. Aug. word to the Lord cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant Vae etiam laudabili vitae Hominum si remota Misericordia discutias eam Woe to our most laudable course of Life saith he if thou O Lord without the Spectacle of Mercy shall be pleased to look upon it Nay this way of work-trial the whole Stream of the Divine Pen-men seemeth every where to cross setting up Grace and Faith not in competition only with but in a direct opposition unto works in the work of our Salvation and so in this Day of Trial we conclude saith St. Paul Dogmatically that a Man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law Rom. 2.28 There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace saith the same Apostle in the 11. of the same Epistle 5. and 6. and if by Grace then is it no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace And if by Grace and Faith we are to look for Justification then how is it that according to our works we shall be Judged It will not be so difficult a Task perhaps upon a full discussion of the whole matter to reconcile this so much seemingly jarring Triumvirate as at first sight may appear Grace is the first yea Principal Impulsive cause of our Justification Being Iustified freely by his Grace saith the same Apostle Rom. 3.24 faith the instrumental for the laying hold of this grace in Christ The righteousnes of God saith the same Apostle in the 22. of the same Chapter by the Faith of Jesus is upon all them that Believe Good works are for the present to every one of us as at this last Day they shall be in the Presence of the whole world Sole but sufficient Evidence that we by Faith apprehend this unspeakable Grace and Mercy in Christ And therefore the same Apostle may you observe to be so far from opposing of either of these to other that Ephes. 2.8 you may see him Coupling Grace and Faith By Grace saith he are you saved through Faith Nay 1 Tim. 1.14 both Grace and Faith and good works together The Grace of our Lord was exceeding Abundant with Faith and Love the sourse of all Good works in Christ Jesus The lively Emblem and Representation of all three may you clearly discover in the Eye of a Man The Light we know is the only Object this Eye contemplateth And the Eye the sole Organ for the Contemplation of this Light And yet little comfort shall there be found by any Man in this object of Light nor will this Organ of the Eye be of any use if by any means it shall be divorced from the other Members of the Body To the Eye Light cannot be more welcome then is the Grace and Mercy of God that bringeth Salvation to the soul You are kept saith St. Peter by the Power of God unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Salvation the clearest Evidence as of the Mercy so Power of God And Faith the only means for the sealing up unto us this Evidence And yet shall Faith though of this Intuitive and Obsignative Efficacy as the Eye from the other Members be divided and separated from all other Gifts and Graces of the soul as Humility Meekness Temperance Patience it shall appear no better then Dead For Faith without works is Dead alone Iam. 2.17 Briefly by the Grace of God I am what I am you know is our Apostles word of himself 1 Cor. 15.10 whatever we may have in us whether of the Seeds of Faith or the Fruits of good works may in no wise be Pimarily ascribed to any cause but the Grace of God So that then for that both for the best Plerophory of our Faith we shall have too just reason to cry out as that Father of the Daemoniaque Mark 9.24 Lord I Believe help mine unbelief and for our choisest works for that they are so far from holding any the least conformity unto the Rule of Gods Law sadly to bemoan our selves before him as doth the Royal Prophet Psal. 130.3 If thou Lord wilt be extream to mark what is done amiss who may abide it Nay for that we cannot conceive the least hope of Salvation by our best works without borrowing much out of the inexhaustible Treasury not of Gods gracious Interpretation only but his Imputation of his Son Merits unto us Christ was made sin for us saith our Apostle that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 who seeth not how more then suffient ground there will be for our saying one to another what Zorobabel sometimes of the stone of the great Mountain Zach. 4.7 Grace unto it Grace unto it And for those two Faith and Good-works thus genuinely and equally springing from the same Root the grace of God far be it from us from becomming such Boutifeaus and Incendiaries as to blow and kindle the Coals of any Division between them which without the least prejudice or disgust nay without the extream prejudice of the destruction of our souls cannot be set or kept at the least distance Indeed without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 And yet never shall Faith be able to please God without the Observation of his Commandements It is Faith that apprehendeth the Merits of Christ Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5.1 And yet Opera mea testantur de me as our Saviour sometimes of himself Iohn 5.36 They are good works that must justifie our Faith for true and sincere Faith as the Kings Daughter Psal. 45.14 cannot but appear gratious and amiable in her Heavenly Fathers Eyes yet may she not be brought into his Presence until she appear in her Raiment of Needle-work and the Virgins of all other spiritual Graces for the keeping her Company V. 15. and 16. Faith like one part of a pair of Compasses must still center in the free grace of God through Christ But then must Love like the other be moving about the Circumference of the relief of our distressed Brethrens necessities So that then for our Faith however possibly we may conceive of it as our Apostle sometimes of his Faith of Miracles Heb. 11.33 34. that it is of force to subdue Kingdoms stop the Mouths of Lions quench the violence of Fire yet may we not fancy that it shall be able to open the Gates of the Kingdome of Heaven as long as we are so far destitute of