whose signatures are more expresse indeed upon the Flesh than those of any other yet whose impulses are so quick and so surprizing as they were Spirit I shall not now enquire but sure if the Flesh long it should be for some carnal object for that is proportion'd to it Flesh and the Creature use to close indeed and they imbibe each other as if they knew to fill and satisfie each other yea some there are that have brought down their Souls to the propensions of Flesh have given to their very Spirits an infusion of carnality for they mind onely fleshly things But by the rates of David's practise it should seem the pious man does the just contrary sublimes his Flesh into a Soul drains all the carnal Appetites out of it weans it from all its own desires and teacheth it those of the Spirit onely makes it long for God Now he whose flesh is defaecated thus and as it were inur'd to the condition which it shall put on when it awakes from its corruption as if it were already in that place whose happinesse and desires have no use of Body and were in that state where their Bodies neither hunger or thirst for these he hath translated from his flesh 't is his Soul onely thirsts and that for God As if he were indeed like Angells now how can this man desire any thing on Earth besides thee Lord who is and does already what they are and do in Heaven where we have nothing but thee But notwithstanding this exalted temper though we should arrive at this Seraphick constitution of desires and though God hath now made himself to us the proper object of these appetites for since God struck the Rock for us which Rock was Christ since the true Bread came down from Heaven if our Flesh long for God there is a satisfaction ready he hath made his Flesh be meat indeed if our Soul thirsts for God he can furnish drink for a Soul the Blood of God But yet while this Soul so journs in this earthly tabernacle the man will still want other supplyes and may be not desire them or can he choose indeed For they that tell us stories of some men whose hungers and thirsts after God as they devour'd all other desires in them so also gave themselves no other satisfaction but panem Dominum that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supersubstantial daily Bread the Lord these men I say would find it hard to make out how bare Species could nourish and sustain a bodily life Yea Christ himself when he was upon the Earth did hunger and although it was his meat to do his Father's Will yet when he was an hungered Angels came and ministred unto him and then may not our earthly needs desire something besides him That while we are upon the Earth all those necessities are in our constitution is certain but that we need not desire for them or any thing besides Him is as certain Because to them that desire him all these things shall be added they are annext by Promise Matt. 6. 33. it is for such to be solicitous who would have something they must have alone something that cannot come along with God But if I be assur'd that all my needs shall be supply'd in him I need desire nothing besides him now this Promise he must perform for he that when he put Man in a state of Immortality in Paradise provided him a Tree of Life that might for ever furnish and sustain him For that Age also that he does design a man a being for his Service here upon the Earth he must allow him necessaries for his being and his Service otherwise he can nor serve nor be And then if they be certain what need he desire them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostome These are not objects for our careful wishes but our trusts and confidences we may assure our selves of these if we have him these are his Appendages and then why should I put them with him into my Devotions when my Soul lyes gasping towards God in Prayer my desires seizing on his Blessednesses to take them off from him and to make my desires turn aside to little earthly things and fix them there is to affront not my God onely but my Prayer too and when these things are sure seems to betray a mind too Earthly and too apprehensive of these needs Surely I were most strangely necessitous or strangely greedy if both God and that which shall be added to him were not enough for me More wretched or else more unsatisfied than Hell if the Almighty were not sufficient for me if he be my provision than I need desire nothing besides him But yet Necessities will crave Hunger does croak aloud Thirst makes the insensate Earth to gasp as if with open mouth it gap'd not onely to receive but begg Gods showers and God expects to be intreated for these things He feeds but those young Ravens that do call upon him and the young Lions roar to him and seek their meat at God The Eyes of all things wait on him for that yea this our Psalmist in this very Psalm desires other things and Christ himself hath put into his little Summary these needs and these desires Give us this day our daily bread and my Text does but regulate not exclude these desires if we shall read it in the old Translation there is none upon Earth that I desire in comparison of thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There 's none or nothing that I desire or delight in equally with thee like thee so we translate the same word v. 5. I shall not doubt to begg what my needs crave But if God and any the most signal earthly advantage stand in competion and I cannot have one with the other his Providence or his Commands have made them inconsistent that I will not desire with him then he shall be my Choyce alone Rather Obedience and my God than any satisfaction how desirable soever This is the Touchstone of a Pious mans desires 't is not unusual for inclinations to things below more to possesse our thoughts employ our faculties than any other and we are far more sensible of their impressions more busie in the pursuit and more tender in our cares of them But if upon contest betwixt God and our Inclinations upon debate betwixt a Pleasure and Command we can decree for God and for Obedience pass Sentence with the Precept we are safe here the desire is not inordinate 'T is a known instance and you may have seen a tender Mother spending almost her whole time in caressing her little Infant you would think she had Eyes for no uses but to view it and that she had her Arms and Breasts but to embrace and suckle it to whom these are so wholly given up as if they had no part for any other as the Husband had no share in her entertains and caresses of whom are far more
ones complaint it rob'd them of the immoderate and even of the lawful use of Pleasures it took off those customary Delights by which the mind was habituated and glued to them by not allowing them and made them so far from being necessary that they were not acquirable Thus by denying us even the Lawful use of them it stabs the Flesh in its first onset Indeed it does that for us which every man in every state of life in his most plentiful prosperity must sometimes do for himself that is Deny himself what he desires and might enjoy without offence Which he that does not do but constantly gives his Appetite every sort and degree of lawful thing it asks does teach it to crave on and be importunate and insolent and not endure to be resisted when it did alwayes find him to be so obsequious to it If David never checkt Adonijah did not at any time displease him saying Why hast thou done so he easily takes confidence to say I will be King and step into the Throne 1 Kings 1. 5. 6. But he that mortifies sometimes that does acquaint even his most innocent desires with a denyal how can unlawful ones assault him For can my Appetite hope to betray me into superfluities who have taught my self not to wish for necessaries Will he be tempted with Excesses or hearken to the invitations of Luxury that will not hear his bowells when they croak for bread Or he gape for intemperate satisfactions who will not let thirst call but shuts his mouth against it Why should he covet more that hath learnt to give away and want that which he hath Now Sufferings inflict this temper on us and acquaints us with the necessity of all this and in a while with the liking of it teach us Content without Lawful Delights yea by degrees make that content appear better than an assured enjoyment for were I offered the choice either of an uninterrupted Health or of a certain Cure in all Diseases sure I had rather never need a Potion than drink Antidote and Health it self And even so the lawful good things of this life are at the best but Remedies and Reliefs never good but upon supposition Therefore while Affliction taught us to want it hath destroyed this art of the Flesh. As for the Second Then the lulling asleep all sense or thoughts of any Life hereafter neither minding the fear of one or hopes of the other Affliction surely met with this too For Sufferings bring both the hereafters to remembrance the Sad one while every Punishment was an Essay and tast of that which is prepared for those that live after the Flesh and the more insupportable our Firey Tryal was the more it caution'd us to beware of that Fire which is never quenched And for the other Life surely when our Condition was such that if we lookt unto the Earth behold nothing but Darkness and dimness of Anguish and darknesse as of the shadow of Death we could not choose but turn away our Eyes and lift them up to Heaven When the Soul is thrown down by Oppression it mounts by a resiliency and with the force of pressure is crush'd Upwards or if the Load be heavy so as to make it grovel and lie prostrate it is but prest into the posture of Devotion When she 's disseised of all turn'd out of every possession then she begins to think of an abiding City and eternal Mansions For the Soul that is restless when it sees nothing here below to stay upon but all is hurried from her roams about for some hold to rest on and being able in that case to find nothing but God there she does grasp and cling and when the storms splits all enjoyments and devours Friends which make enjoyments comfortable all perish in one wrack then she sees she must catch at him that sits above the Water-Floods I told you out of Job Affliction did discover better than Revelation and in the dimnesse of Anguish we might see more than by Vision and truely of two Visions which our Saviour gave to his most intimate Apostles Peter James and John the one of Glory on Mount Tabor the other of Sufferings in Gethsemane shewing in the one Heaven and Himself transfigured a glimpse of beatificall vision and in the other Hell transfigured and a sad Scene of all its Agonies he thought this a more concerning sight for when they fell asleep at both at his Transfiguration Luke 9. 32. Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep yet he does not rouse them up to behold his Glory when they did awake indeed they saw a glimpse of it but straight a Cloud did overshadow it verse 34. But at his Passion he bids them Watch with him Mat. 28. 38. and when he findeth them asleep he sayes What could ye not watch with me one hour v. 40. and bids them watch again v. 41. and comes again a third time and upbraids their drowsiness v. 45. So much more necessary vvas it to behold his Agonies than to see his Felicities Glory does not discover or invite to Heaven so much as Sufferings drive to it and we are more concerned to take a view of that Garden in Gethsemane than that of Paradise and the going down from the Mount of Olives does more advantage us in climbing the Eternal hills than all Mount Tabors height Nor do Afflictions onely drive us toward heaven but they beget an hope of it Knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience Patience Experience and Experience Hope Rom. 5. 3. 4. And I will give them the Valley of Achor for a door of Hope Hos. 2. 14. As if Dispaire opprest them into Hope and that low troublous Valley opened into the highest Firmament Now he that rides at Anchor of this Hope though his Anchor lye buryed under Waves yet those rouling Hills of Sea swell'd by storms of Affliction and raised too by his Tears do without Hyperbole mount him to Heaven He that hath entertained these Expectations in earnest how will he slight temptations here below What will he not sacrifice to Christs Command See Abraham that did but hope for Canaan and that far off too to be possest by the Posterity of his Son Isaack yet when God commands him to flay Isaack before he had any posterity and so to dash all his own Promises and quite cut off the very motive to Abrahams Obedience yet he hopes and obeys even to a contradiction Does both against hope And had we but the shadow of his hope as he had but the shadow of our promises how would we sacrifice a sin at his Command and think a Fleshly lust a good exchange for the hope of Heaven which Tribulation worketh and he that had suffered in the Flesh would certainly cease from sin And now my last work is to view our own Concern in this and surely that must be all Exultation and Triumph and this not so much that our sufferings are ceast as that our
sleight and not so pressing But should it come to this pinch once that she must straight resolve to part with one of these however close her Arms would grasp her Child to rescue him to force whom thence were like the tearing of her bowells from her yet would she give those bowells to redeem her bosom guest the husband would be the Choyce so that although the other inclinations were more expressive these are the stronger and the better setled So it may happen we may be more sensibly affected to some dear things here below our thoughts and Eyes and our embraces cling and fasten more to these but if it come to this that we must leave one break with the Duty or the Passion if we resolve however not to part with God but lay hold there and let the other go then our affections are not only regular when we desire nothing in comparison with him but our desires are enjoyments seize and take possession of him and we have him So my Text implies here Whom have I in Heaven but thee importing that we have him Which brings me to the other parts that yet remain to be discourst of Three things are here to be considered 1. That Heaven is the place of Possessions in opposition to this Land of Desires 2. That God is the possession there 3. That the Pious man hath this possession in present The first of these is so much common place I shall not stay upon it those onely qualities that make this World to be a Land of Desires have no place there to wit the instability and emptinesse of all things in it he that lays hold on them does but grasp Mercury which the more he clasps the more he forces it to slip away and he retains onely the soyle and the defilement of it like Lightning which but passes by stayes not to cherish onely dazels and it may be scorches So the shine of Earthly glorys startles the mind amuses us inflames desires of them and goes out But then above the tenure is Eternity and that assures immutability yea if it be nunc stans an indivisible Infinity of permanent duration whose every poynt does coexist to every poynt a perfect and entire possession all at once of an interminable life that never can be all possest then nothing can passe by us or cease from us but we shall alwayes every moment have what we shall have in every any moment Our enjoyment also being like him that we enjoy all in the whole and all in every part being not onely endlesse in the mass but every moment of it is immortal And then there can be nothing but enjoyment no place for desire there where there is nothing absent where all past and all futurity is alwayes present and where also the Infinite and all sufficient God is the Possession which is my next Proposition and that God himself affirms Gen. 15. 1. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Yea this he hath present possession of which my third Proposition and my Text asserts in saying Whom have I in Heaven but thee importing thee I have The things we call most our possessions here both personal and real are our portions and inheritances Now David claims God under both these dues Thou art my portion O Lord and the lot of mine Inheritance as other men maintain themselves by these so I live upon thee And that we may not think that God is such but in Reversion those are present possessions which men reap the uses of in present to themselves Now what is there of God the Pious man hath not the present uses off His Eyes are over him and his Ears are open to his Prayers watch to attend each motion of his heart and underneath him are the everlasting Arms to carry and sustain him his right hand wears him as his signet and his left hand pours down Blessings on him his wings are spread for him to nestle in that warm security and hide him in the shadow of his bowels sound and turn within him with compassion over him and himself is about his Bed and about all his paths not so much to spy out his wayes as to preserve him in them all and he waits that he may be gracious In a word all the Securitys that Gods Preserving Mercies signifie the watches of his Providence the Blessings that fulfil his Attributes of goodnesse all are exerted upon his occasions are made the present objects and the satisfactions of his nearest senses and he may taste and see how gracious God is And then give me O Lord seizin of this the Pious man's Estate I shall not envy other mens possessions though one lay House to House and Land to Land till he become the Lord of his Horizon and his Eyes cannot travel out of his Demesne For notwithstanding that we may have known ill Courses or ill Accidents consume all this or Force throw him out of all and that great Lord have no House but a Goal nor Land enough to make a Grave But sure I am that I shall be provided for in all necessities unless there happen such a one for which there 's no relief in God nor can I be disseis'd they must void Heaven e're they can disfurnish me For thee I have in Heaven But yet though chance nor violence cannot put me out yet I may forfeit this Possession too for sin will separate betwixt me and my God cast me out of his presence and enjoyments as sure as it did Adaâ— out of Paradise And then alas if I had none but him in Heaven he is now become my Adversary holds possession against me as he did that of Paradise with flames so he does Rain sâ—ares fire and brimstone thence and this is all the Sinner's portion Psal. 11. All that I am like to get unless I have a person that will arbitrate the cause or mediate there is no hopes of a recovery for me if I have none in Heaven but thee Now here my last Consideration will come in If while my Soul lyes grovling under fearful Apprehensions of its Forfeiture casting about for help and finding none upon the Earth if it look upwards and enquire Whom have I in Heauen have I none there but my offended Adversary God it may resolve it self with comfort he hath other interests there For First I have an Intercessor there Rom. 8. 34. a Master of Requests one that will not onely hand in my Petitions get accesse for my Prayers and my tears to God but will make them effectual For saith S. Paul Seeing we have a great High Priest that 's passed into the Heavens let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace in time of need Heb. 4. 14. 16. For though my supplications have not strength nor ardour that can mount them into Heaven and are too impure however washt in my repenting Tears
fire without Metaphor So that desire alone without its satisfaction is so much of Hell and yet this is the worldly sensual mans estate exactly here on Earth for he hath nothing but desires and lusts and his condition is not easier at all for how is Tantalus more wretched than a Midas or than any covetous wretch who in the midst of affluence and heaps hungers as much as Midas did for meat and for Gold too and can touch neither for his uses so that the Worlds delights are very like the miserys of Hell and men with so much eager and impatient pursuit do but anticipate their torments and invade Damnation here And if the case be so sure there is no great self-denyal in our Psalmist here when he resolves to desire nothing upon Earth in comparison of his God 'T is no such glorious conquest of my Appetite to make it not pursue a present Hell and an eternal one annext to it before a Saviour Yet the world does so Some there are that desire Money rather and although when Judas did so this desire could not bear it self but cast all back again and though it did disgorge it burst him too the Sin it self supply'd the Law and his guilt was his Execution Yet this will not terrifie men will do the like betray a Master and a Saviour and a God onely not for so little money peradventure Others when the Lord paid his own Blood for their Redemption yet if their wrath thirsts for his Blood that does offend them their revenge makes their Enemies the sweeter blood though their own Soul bleed to death in his stream To others the deservings of the partner of an unclean moment are much greater than all that the Lord Jesus knew to merit at their hands or purchase for them And it is no wonder they are so ungrateful to their Saviour when they are so barbarous to themselves as to choose not to have present Divine Possessions rather than not suffer the vengeance of their own Appetites choose meerly to desire here though that be to do what they do in Hell rather than have in Heaven O thou my Soul if thou wilt needs desire propose at least some satisfaction to thy Appetite do not covet onely needs thirst for a feaver and desire meerly to inflame desire and Torments But seek there where all thy wants will find an infinite happy supply even in thy Saviour covet the riches of his Grace and Goodnesse thirst for the fountain opened for transgression for the waters of the well of Life desire him that is the desire of all Nations yet why should we desire even him when we have him in Heaven and we have nothing upon Earth left to desire but that God who hath exalted him unto his Kingdom in Heaven would in his due time exalt us also to the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before To whom c. SERMON VII VVHITE-HALL Third Wednesday in LENT 1663 4. MARK I. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. I Shall not break this single short Command asunder into Parts but shall instead of doing that observe three Advents of our Saviour in this Life before that last to Judgment For each of which as it must concern us there must be preparation made by us In pressing which I do not mean to urge you to do that which none but God can do It is not in man to direct his own wayes much lesse the Lords The very preparations of the Heart are from Him Therefore supposing the preventings of his Graces I shall subjoyn that the Comporting with those graces the using of his strengths to the rooting out of our selves all aversation to Virtue and all love of Vice and planting other inclinations even Resolutions of good life is the onely thing that can make way for Christ and for his benefits Now of those Advents the First was when he came Commission'd by God to reveal his Will to propose the Gospel to our belief the coming of Christ as a Prophet which particularly is intended in the Text. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is written prepare ye the way of the Lord. The Second was that coming which the Prophet Isay did foresee and in the astonishment of Vision askt Who is this that comes from Edom with dy'd garments from Bozrah travelling in the greatness of his Strength Why is he red in his Apparrel and his garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat And it was the prospect of him when he came to tread the Wine press of the Wrath of God to Sacrifice himself for us upon the Crosse his coming as a Priest The Third is when he comes to visit for Iniquity coming coercively as a King with his Iron Rod to execute his threats on the rebellious those that will not have him reign over them This coming also was considered in my Text for in the parallel place of S. Matth. it is said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand for this is he of whom it was spoken by the Prophet Esaias saying the Voyce of one crying in the Wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord. For each of these in order I shall shew you what prepares his way beginning with the first His coming as a Prophet appearing in the World to reveal his Father's Will the Gospel Now the Preparative for this Appearance is discovered easily we find both in this Chapter and the parallel places that John came to make way for it by the Baptism and Preaching of Repentance and it was Prophecied of him that he should go before him in the Spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the Fathers with the Children and the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just to the minding of just things so to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. 17. And this is a preparative so necessary that the Nation of the Jewes affirm it is meerly for the want of this that he does yet deferr his coming And though the appointed time for it be past yet because of their sinfulnesse and impenitence he does not appear adding If Israel Repent but one day presently the Messias cometh And it is thus far true that though it hindred not his coming yet it hindred his receiving although it did not make him stay it made him be refus'd I may lay all down in this Proposition Where there is not the preparation of Repentance where there are not inclinations and desires for Virtue if Christ come with the glad tidings of the Gospel He is sure to be rejected his Religion disbeliev'd If the Word of the Son of God might be taken in his own case this would be soon evinc't for when He came unto his own they were so far from preparing his way that they received him not but did reject and would not entertain him as one sent from God of all this he onely
the dead Secondly That one Lazarus and he First One out of Abraham's Bosom Secondly One that had seen him also in his Torments and could testifie of them v. 27. Thirdly We have here these fancied hopes all dash't in Abraham's answer And he said unto him if they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead First of the first the Charitable careful contrivances this Rich man in Hell had for his Brethren upon Earth Nay Father Abraham c. It is commonly reported of men who know themselves infected by the Plague that they desire to infect as many others as they can they contrive to spread the Contagion and love society of Ruin and we are sure it is so in that Plague of the Soul Sin This humour did not content it self to debauch Heaven and unpeople Paradise but all the Ages of the world make up its Triumph and every sin that ever was and misery that shall be is its issue Lucifer's pride would have a train of Angels and Mankind to wait upon him in destruction And in such an attendance though to his everlasting cost he does still pride himself he feeds upon that envy that devours him and cheers himself with adding fewel to his flames that do torment him and upon this account enjoyes his own Agonies and God's Indignation And then it is no wonder if his Agents upon Earth enjoy the sport and if the Devil does not more please himself to see his Dominions enlarg'd and the business of Hell go forward than wicked men do in having others become like themselves as if they did derive to themselves and possess the pleasure as they do the guilt of those whom they draw in and the delight like the sin were all in all and all in every part of the whole Company that joyn in wickedness But it should seem 't is otherwise with the Sinners in Hell Our Rich man here when he saw his own estate remedilesse so vast a gulf betwixt him and the Bosom of Comfort that not the least drop of refreshment no not the hopes nor wishes of it could passe thence to him but Torment sealed upon him by an irreversible Decree he begins then to contrive for his Brethren how their falling into the like estate with him might be prevented v. 27 28. Nor satisfied with this when Abraham replyes they are provided well enough they have Moses and the Prophets the one Preaching the Law to them whose Rules they have made as familiar to them as their dresse they put on daily Gods Commandments and their duty make his Precepts their frontlets and their wristbands And the other the Prophets are Commissioned from God to lay before their eyes the issue of transgression give them a vision of the Judgments that await their sins and come to them burdned with the fore-knowledge of the sinners expectations so that except they will resolve to choose destruction wilfully to assault their own perdition there is no fear they should come thither those tell them as much as any from the dead can do Ah! but thinks he all those methods I had yet I am here and then let them have one other for as now after this little tast of Torments were I to live again I should most certainly avoid this place and lead another kind of life than that which does expire into this Tophet So if one went to tell them how it is with me sure then they would repent and not come hither therefore I pray thee send Nay Father Abraham c. I cannot here assent to Cardinal Cajetan's account that all this earnestnesse was onely pride in our Rich man and a desire to have the glory of his Family advance'd which as he laboured to raise here by Wealth so now finding by sad experience that was but a weak foundation to build a lasting House upon and that all the shine of it was but false treacherous light such as did end in flame with him and having made discovery of other greater glorys that Abraham and Lazarus possest he would have his Family as high and bright as they and this their Repentance which he took such care for was but in order to that exaltation If it were so truly it is the first pride I ever read of that would content it self with no meaner a dress than the Robes of Immortality and was ambitious of the Throne of Glory I have heard I confesse of a proud lowlinesse where the humility is but the manage and the art of being lofty is onely assum'd condescention whereby men but descend to be extol'd and stoop to take advantage for their mount But never heard of any pride that aimed to raise it self by the humiliations of Repentance that laid its groundwork in that dust and ashes cloath'd it self in the sackcloth and neglected rudnesses of a pious penitent sorrow The prides of this side Hell are of a different garb I 'm sure if theirs be such if they design by those just means to settle the inheritance of Heaven in their familys sure the vices of Hell may be fit patterns for our Religious performances and 't were to be desired that all Christians had this mans ardencies and flames in their affections to their houses Yet neither can I from this one particular instance draw any general proposition concerning the kindness of that place to sinners upon Earth although all those that make this History not Parable would give me colour for it But waving that since Christ hath so framed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a relation of such words as they would have spoke had they spoke on this occasion I shall take that as ground enough to apply it to the conviction of those who are so far from these Charitable designs to the Souls of others that they contrive nothing more than how to have the company of their friends in those wayes that lead to this place of Torment prevail with them to joyn in sinning and shew a vice how to insinuate into them The kindnesses of our man here in the flames were divine God-like Charities compared to these Our Saviour sayes Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do alwayes behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 18. 10. Which one expounds if we neglect to do what shall be in our power to preserve the meanest Christians from vice and sleight their sinning their Tutelary Angels that have continual recourse to God and are high in his favour will make complaints of us in their behalf at least they will if we offend them and any action of ours prove an occasion of their sins And if a favourite of Heaven shall accuse us to the Lord for that Then how will he complain of us when we tempt when he shall have to say against us that we have ensnared and drawn such a Soul into a
'T is true we are prity well reveng'd on them for setting us Examples so reproachful to us calling their Heroick Actions splendida peccata onely beauteous sins and well-fac'd wickednesses and we have a reason for it because they never heard of Christ whose Name and Merit 't is most certain is the onely thing that can give value and acceptance to mens best performances While on the other side we Christians comfort and secure our selves in our transgressions from this Child and from his Name But if this Child were set to raise us up from sin and to establish stronger arguments for a good life than the Heathen ever heard of more especial Divine engagements to vertue then if their Vertues were because they never heard of these engagements to them sins what censure will be past upon their Actions that know all those engagements and despise them a sharper certainly unlesse to defie knowledge and provoke against all Divine obligations all that God could lay shall prove more tollerable than to labour to obey without them without knowing why 'T is true they had not heard it may be of that Name than which there is no other Name under Heaven given unto men whereby they may be saved Yet they endeavoured in some measure to do that which He that owns that Name and wrought the Covenant of those Salvations does require We know that Name and have it call'd upon us and know too that be that names that Name that calls himself a Christian owns the being a retainer to the Holy Jesus must depart from iniquity otherwise it is no Name of Salvation to him yet we never mind the doing that and then which hath the better Plea the Heathen's sure were better though he were not vertuous And if so give me leave to tell you how not onely this Child but this Resurrection too is for our fall In the first Chapter to the Romans we shall find those Heathens when they did neglect to follow the direction of that Light within them by which they were able to discover in some measure the invisible things of God when they did no longer care to retain God in their knowledge then they quickly left off to be Men And when they ceast to hearken to their Reason they soon fell into a reprobate sense What was it else to change God into stocks and stones and Worship into most abominable wickednesse to make the Vilest creatures Deities and the foulest actions Religion to turn a disease into a God and a sin into Devotion a stupidity which nothing else but Gods desertion and reasons too could have betrayed them to and made them guilty of And then if by how much greater Light and means we have resisted we shall be proportionably more vile in the consequents of doing so keep at equal rates of distance from those Heathens that the aggravations of our guilt stand at from theirs Whether alas are we like to fall 'T is an amazing reflection one would tremble to consider how the Christian World does seem to hasten into that condition which S. Paul does there decipher You would think that Chapter were our Character But that we have reason to expect we shall fall lower into much more vile affections then those Heathens did as having fall'n down from a greater height then they Consider whether men do not declare they like not to retain God in their thoughts when they endeavour to dispute and to deride him too out of the World 'T is true they have not set up any sins or monsters in their Temples yet as they did But if they can empty them of God and Christ and their Religion and make room we may imagine easily whose Votaries they will be that live as if they thought themselves unhappy that they had not liv'd in those good Pagan dayes when they might have sinned with devotion been most wickedly Religious and most God-like in unchastities and other Villanies I dare say none of our fine Gentlemen or our great Wits would have been Atheists or irreligious then Think whether those are not already in that reprobate sense S Paul does speak of who have cast off all discriminating notions of good or evil who say in their hearts and affirm openly there are none such in truth and nature It would appear they were if we should try by those effects verse 29 30 31. or by that essential signature 32 vers they not onely commit such things but have pleasure in them that do them which because they cannot have from those commissions when they do not commit them therefore their debauched minds must be satisfied there is no evil in those doings and must reap the pleasure onely of such satisfactions That is have the satisfactions and pleasures onely of a Reprobate sense In fine because I dare not prosecute the Character Men sink so fast as if they were resolv'd to fall as far below Humanity as this Child did below his Divinity O do not you thus break Decrees frustrate and overthrow the everlasting Counsel of Gods will for good to you He set ordain'd this Child for your rising again Do not throw your selves down into Ruin in despite of his Predestinations He hath carried up your nature into Heaven plac'd Flesh in an union with Divinity set it there at the Right hand of God in Glory Do not you debase and drag it down again to Earth and Hell by Worldlynesse and Carnal sensuality Make appear this Child hath rais'd you up already made a Resurrection of your Souls and your affections they converse and trade in Heaven And that you do not degenerate from that nature of yours that is there Then this Child who is Himself the Resurrection and the Life will raise up your Bodies too and make them like his glorious Body by the working of his mighty Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Blessing Power and Praise Dominion and Glory for Evermore SERMON XIII WHITE-HALL Novemb. 17. 1667. St. JAMES IV. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you THese Words are easily resolved into two parts The first a Duty and the second to incourage the performance an assurance of an happy issue in the doing it The First the Duty in these words Resist the Devil the happy issue in those other he will flee from you For the more practical and usefull handling of these parts I shall endeavour to do these three things 1. View the Enemy we are to resist the Devil see his Strengths and what are his chief Engines his main Instruments of Battery whereby he shakes and does endeavour to demolish the whole frame of Vertue in mens lives shatters and throws down all Religious holy Resolutions and subjects men to himself and Sin 2. See what we are to do in opposition to all this and how and by what means we must resist 3. Prove to them
needs gaze and pry too near to must be dazled into blindness and be only so much more in the dark But he that proudly does conceit his little spark of Reason can bear up with that Divinity of brightnesse and enlighten him to look through all those inaccessible discoveries with Lucifers assuming he hath reason to expect his fall The one of these that will needs clear all mysteries the other will take them all away the one that with his Pencil will presume to figure him who is the brightnesse of Gods glory and trace out the lineaments by which that everlasting Father did impresse the character and express Image of his person on him and the other that with a bold hand dashes out the Person from the Nature the one that will untie the knots of the Hypostatick union and the other that will cut them and the union too asunder the one that will needs prove by Reason whatsoever is in Scripture and the other that speaking of Christ satisfaction saith for my part if it were not onely once 〈◊〉 oftentimes set down in holy Scripture yet would not I therefore believe it because forsooth it was against his reasonings Neither the one or other of these sure receive revelation as a little Child not like young Samuel Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth But these as all extravagance is wont are profited into much worse The one that would be proving making reasons for the mysteries often God knows framed only shadows and the other by their light of Reason being able to dispel and make those shadows vanish that so easie victory encouraged them to frame reasons against and to attaque the Mysteries themselves and then others finding there was something that was taken to be Reason not agreeing with some chief heads of Religion as they had been still received took occasion thence to conclude against the whole Religion and by scruples at some Articles taught themselves to dispute all the Creed and now a difficulty in one Doctrine makes the rest suspected and regarded onely as things made to amuse and the unusual wording of a Command is thought ground enough to turn all Christian duty into Raillery For instance If Christ intending by prescribing patience to teach men how to escape not onely from the guilt and present torture that a Spirit which will needs return each sleight offence is subject to but also from the future and eternal recompences of revenge shall in phrasing his in junctions but bid them turn the other cheek no Gentleman can be of his Religion and that is cause enough I hope not only to renounce but scorn it If in meer compassion meaning only to make virtue easie by advising us against the snares and the occasions of Vice he word his counsel in prescriptions to pull out the right eye cut off the right hand His Religion is a much worse Tyranny then the Covenant Nahash offered to the men of Jabesh Gilead and they think themselves as much concern'd to make parties against it In fine if that he might at once instruct us how to pull up the root of all evil he forbid us to lay up treasures upon the Earth and tell us that our treasures should be laid up in Heaven and say it is impossible for arich man to enter into heaven here they cry out mainly he supposeth us and treats us just as Children This Command requires indeed that they who do receive it should be Children whom we use to cheat of gold by the same methods telling them it is not good for them at present that it shall be laid up for them and therefore when Religion does attempt to deal with men so 't is concluded it designs to cozen them as they think it does indeed and is a cheat and all that minister about it are meer fourbes And truely if we rackt the Consciences of dying men and if so be they would give so much to this Cloyster or that Order promised them remission of their sins and worse than Judas sold the purchase of Christs Blood at those base rates and betrayed the Redemption so on Gods name let them so account us but if we do attempt on nothing but mens vices and would onely steal their Souls from Hell and cheat them into piety and blessedness these we hope are very unreproachful frauds But alas to talk to them of these after things of Heaven and Hell is altogether as much liable to their contempt as the commands are If we tell them of a Resurrection to Judgment and of everlasting fire to punish wicked men because their reason cannot comprehend how flame can hurt a Soul or for the Body how devouring fire can repair the food it preys upon that it may keep alive and nourish torment to eternity or how each mans peculiar dust that is digested into several mens being and so become no one mans peculiar when it shall be also blended with the ashes of the Universe can be singled out and parted to its proper owner when there are so many own it because their reason cannot comprehend all this therefore Scriptures lake of fire must be no more then the Poets Acheron and Resuâ—rection was fram'd as the apparition of a Ghost is wont to do to fright men meerly and however 't is attested Christ did never rise but all is fable Thus from such premises as these our rational disputing men conclude And here I shall not aske how these men dare presume that if there be a God who hath declar'd that he will bring such things to passe yet he must be unable to affect them if they cannot comprehend the manner how he does them or be confident they can look through those h leams that come out of his hand in which the hiding of his Power is But this I shall say to our men of reason theirs is the most unreasonable way of arguing in the world to dispute against plain matters of fact the being and the Works of such and such so many ages since and witnessed by a greater testimony then the world can shew for any other thing And ever since appearing in their visible and vast effects as the Conversion Suffering Faith of the whole Earth almost Now to attempt the confutation of such matter of fact by reasonings drawn from difficulties in some things which those men are witnessed to have deliver'd or to conclude that there can never have been any such persons in the world because they cannot understand all that those persons taught or possibly because they can take some occasions to buffoone on what they taught is most ridiculous Thus History must have been false and several known places not have been because the story hath been turn'd into Burlesque Thus he that with the Ancients cannot comprehend how it is possible that there should be Antipodes or the earth can be any thing but a plain flat otherwise he thinks the inhabitants must fall down to Heaven may as rationally despise all
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4. 13. and as if they vvere called only to ruine and consecrated for a sacrifice he says the Lord hath set us forth as men appointed to death vers 9. Indeed since God hath pleased to own you as his Churches Angels vve are not troubled if some have counted you as the off-scouring of the Earth while we know Angels do relate to Heaven and let them consider how they vvill reprobate those to the left hand of God whom Christ calls stars in his right hand and he is at the right hand of his Father and vvhile you were accounted so you did but follow them that vvent before in sufferings as vvell as office and to do so vvas part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work that they vvere separated to vvhich is the next part For the work I shall but run this over and reflect upon it as I pass according as it is of present Concernment and First Saint Paul's vvork vvas to preach the Gospel and vve find him doing it from this time forward to his End The high Priest of the Jeâ—s vvas called the Angel of the Lord of Hoasts of which name an Heathen does give this account that he was call'd so because he vvas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel or the Messenger of Gods commands so Diodorus Siculus And Malachy gives the same reason Mal. 2. 7 he vvas the Substitute to him upon Mount Sinai and gave the Law also only without the thunder Our Governours succeed into the Name they are the Churches Angels and when vve hear the word from them we have it as it vvere from Heaven again and we receive our Law too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the disposition of Angels Indeed the Case now is not like Saint Paul's the Gospel then vvas to be first revealed to all the World and by continual inculcating secur'd against the depravations vvhich all the malice of the Devil and the World sought to infuse and the unskilfulness of infant Christians did make them apt to entertain But now vve are all confirm'd Christians Yet truly the time is novv such as did give occasion for Saint Paul's charge to Timothy 2 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. a time wherein they will not indure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers He therefore that is in Timothy's place must heap up Reproofs and Exhortations or he must heap good sound dispensers of them Such as vvill feed the Lembs vvith sincere milk not chafd and heated vvith commotion and busie restless faction not embitter'd vvith the overflovvings of a too-ful gall not sour'd vvith eager sharpnesses of a malicious or a dissatisfied mind not impoisoned vvith the foul tinctures of a scandalous life nor the Corrosive infusions of Schismatâ—â—al and turbulent opinions He that caters thus for his flock and provides such as by doctrine and by practice do instruct them to live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty He like the Angel on Mount Sinai gives the Law to a Nation together preaches to his whole Diocess at once Continually The second vvork vvas praying for and blessing them This does begin and close every Epistle that he asserts of himself constantly and 't is vvell knoâ—vn the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts of those times inspir'd for this VVork Now thus our Angels also are Angels of Incense The High Priests Office in especial Those that did daily Minister perform'd a service of Incense too that did accompany the prayers of the people and sent them up in perfume but the High Priests Incense vvas part of the Expiation and vvas the cloud that cover'd the transgressions of the people vvhen he came vvith them all about him before the Mercy-seat And they vvho snall consider that the prayer of Moses Now Moses and Aaron vvere among the Priests Psal. 99. 6. and He was the chief Priest did vvithhold the arm of God vvhen it vvas stretcht forth in fury to destroy and did commit a violence upon the Lord such as he could not grapple with but seems to deprecate and vvould fain avoid and sayes Let me alone that I may destroy them Exod. 32. 10. If thou vvilt permit me my fury shall prevail upon them saith the Arabick but if thou pray it cannot therefore let go thy prayer saith the Chald and let me alone And they vvho shall consider also that His prayer did maintain a breach against the Lord when He had made one and vvas coming to enter in a storm of indignation then this made head against him and repuls't him Psal. 106. 23. They that consider these effects vvill certainly desire the Prayers and Benedictions of those Gods chiefest Officers of blessing those that are consecrated to bless in the Name of the Lord and vvill have them in love for this works sake Their Third vvork is Government vvhich may be some do look upon as priviledge and not as work the exspectation and delight of their ambitions and not the fear and burthen of their shoulders But ambition may as rationally fly at Miracles as Government and as hopefully gape after diversity of Tongues as at presiding in the Church the power of each did come alike from Heaven and were the mere gifts of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor 12. 18. It was so in the Law when God went to divid part of Moses burthen of Government amongst the Lxx he came down and took of the Spirit that was upon him and gave it to the Lxx Num. 11. 25. A work this that may have reason to supersede much of that which I first mentioned For notwithstanding all Saint Paul's assistances of Spirit he does reckon that care that came upon him daily from the Churches amongst his persecutions and it sumâ—es up his Catalogue of sufferings 2 Cor. 11. Such various Necessities there are by vvhich Government is distracted and knows not how to temper it self to them For sometimes it must condescend Paul notwithstanding Apostotical decrees made in full Council that abrogated Circumcision as the Holy Ghost had declared it void before yet is fain to comport so far with the violent humours of a party as to Circumcise Timothy at the very same time when he delivered those decrees to the Churches to keep Act. 16. 3 4. yet afterwards vvhen Circumcision vvas lookt on as Engagement to the whole Law and to grant them that one thing vvas but to teach them to ask more and to be able to deny them nothing then he suffers not Titus to be circumcised nor gave place to them by submission no not for an hour Gal. 2. 3 5. Thus the Spirit of Government is sometimes a Spirit of meekness does its vvork by soft yieldings and breaks the Adamant vvith Cusâ—ions which Anvils vvould not do I he Ocean vvith daily billows and tides helpt on vvith storms of violence and hurried by tempests
him without fear that we would do it in holinesse and Righteousness before him And if he would restore his opportunities of Worship how we would use them Thus we did labour to tempt God and draw him in to have compassion and this was Ephraims Imagination just I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself saith the Prophet as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned turn my Captivity and I will turn my life But this was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke that did not like the straitness and pressure of it and would promise any thing to get it off thought it more easie to reform than bear Affliction But is this hopeful think you The Souldiers of Lyons that would ravish Death and break into the Grave for Lust it may be would have been modest and retired from the fair Palaces that are prepared to tempt and entertain that vice Cold and insensible of all those heats that Health and Beauty kindle but remember it was the taking off Gods Hand that hardned Pharaohs heart and a release from punishment was his Reprobation And as for those that were humbled under the Rod and when God had retrencht from their enjoyments did put restraints upon themselves gave over sinning I have a word of Caution for them that they examine well and take a care it be a ceasing from fin like that in the Text a dying to it that they no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men For if this Old Man be onely cold and stiff not mortified by the calm and sunshine of peace likely to be warm'd into a recovery if thou owe all thy Innocence to thy Pressure wert onely plunder'd of thy sins and thy Vertue and Poverty hand in hand as they were born so they will dye together thy Vices and Revenues come in at once What is this but to invite new Desolations which God in kindness must send to take away the opportunities and foments of our ruining sins 't is true when God has wrought such most astonishing miracles of mercy for us when he did make Calamity contribute to our Happinesse when we were Shipwrackt to the Haven and the Shore when rains did advance us and we fell upwards it is an hopeful argument God would not do such mighty works on purpose to undo them we have good ground of confidence that he will preserve his own mercies and will not throw away the issues of his goodness in which his bounty hath so great an interest and share But yet if we debauch Salvation and make it serve our undoing if we order these opportunities of mercy so that they onely help us to fill up the measure of our sins if we teach Gods long suffering onely to work out our eternal sufferings these Mercies will prove very cruel to us and far from giving any colour for our hopes When the Prodigal was received into his Fathers house and arms had a Ring put on him and the fatted Calf killed for him if he should strait have invited the companions of his former riot to that fatted Calf and joyn'd his Harlot to him with that Ring he had deserved then to be disinheritated both from his Fathers house and pitty who would have had no farther entertainment nor no bowells for him To prevent such a fate let us make no relapses but quite cease from sin which if we do not do a little Logick will draw an unhappy inference from this Text if he that hath suffered hath ceast from sin then he that hath not ceast from sinning hath not suffered and then what is all this that we have felt and so layn under what is it if it be not suffering If this be but preparative then what is the full potion the Cup of Indignation when all his Violls shall be poured into it If such have been the beginnings of sufferings what shall the issues be If the morning dew of the day of punishment have been so full of blood what shall the Storm and Tempest be the deluge and inundation of Fury Take heed of making God relapse 't is in your power to prevent it your Reformation will be his preservative and Antidote That is the way to keep all whole to settle Government and Religion both at once to establish the Kings Throne and Christs For notwithstanding mens pretensions these Thrones are not at all inconsistent For that there must be no King but Christ that there cannot be a Kingdome here of this world because there is a Kingdome that is not of this world is such another Argument as that there cannot be an Earth because there is an Heaven Indeed if we fulfill my Text then we shall reconcile these Kingdoms and bring down Heaven into us for that 's a state where there is neither sin nor suffering where there shall be no tears because no guilt to merit them and no calamity to make them Now Reformation does work this here in some degree and afterwards our comforts that are checker'd with some sufferings and our piety which is soiled with spots shall change into Immortal and unsullied Glories to the Throne of which Glories he prepare us all Who washt us from our sins in his own Blood and by his sufferings hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father to whom be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen SERMON II. VVHITE-HALL October 20. 1661. PSALM LXXIII 1. Truely God is good to Israel even to such as are of a Clean Heart ' T was a false Confidence the Jews did nourish That they should dwell securely in their Land notwithstanding their provocations because the Worship and the House of God was in it They did but trust on lying words the Prophet sayes when they did trust upon The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord As if the Temple were a Sanctuary for those that did profane it and the horns of the Altar would secure them when 't was the blood upon the Altar call'd for Vengeance Nor was that after-plea of theirs more valid We are the chosen Israel of God We have Abraham to our Father As if when by their works they had adopted to themselves another Parent were of their Father the Devil they could claim any but their present Fathers interest or have the blessings of forsaken Abraham Now if it be no otherwise with us but because in our Judah God is known his Name great in our Israel with us in Salem that is in peace he hath his Tabernacle now and his dwelling in Sion And so much knowledge such pretences to the Name of God and to his Worship are not with other Nations nor have they such advantages to know his Law If as each party of us does assume these Priviledges to it self so each do also rest in them although their Lives answer not these advantages If while they judge themselves Christs chosen Flock boast Covenants and
midst of these severities when God breaks in in Comforts into them The Glory of the Lord appears in that Cloud too that is upon the penitent sad heart when he is drencht in tears the Holy Ghost the Comforter does move upon those waters and breaths Life and Salvation into them and he who is the Unction pours Oyle into those wounds of the Spirit and we are never neerer Heaven than when we are thus prostrate in the lowest dust and when our Belly cleaveth unto the ground in humble penitence then we are at the very Throne of Grace And this our light Afflicting of the Soul which is but for a moment does work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory To which c. SERMON IV. VVHITE-HALL October 12. 1662. JOHN XV. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I Command you THe words are a conditional Assertion of Christ's concerning his Apostles and in them all Christians And they do easily divide themselves into two parts The First is a positive part wherein there is a state of great and Blessed advantage which they are declared to be in present possession of In these words Ye are my friends In which there are two things that make up that advantage 1. a Relation 2. the Person related to Friends and My friends The Second is a Conditional part wherein there are the terms upon which that possession is made over and which preserve the Right and Title to them in these words If ye do whatsoever I command you in which there are two things required as Conditions I. Obedience If ye do what I command you II. That Obedience Universal If ye do whatsoever I command you The first thing that offers it self to our consideration is the Relation Friends It is a known common-place truth that a Friend is the most useful thing that is in whatsoever state we are It is the Soul of life and of content If I be in prosperity We know abundance not injoy'd is but like Jewells in the Cabinet uselesse while they are there It is indeed nothing but the opinion of Prosperity But 't is not possible to enjoy abundance otherwise than by communicating it a man possesseth plenty onely in his Friends and hath fruition of it meerly by bestowing it If I be in adversity to have a person whom I may intrust a trouble to whose bosome is as open and as faithful to me as 't is to his own thoughts to which I may commit a swelling secret this is in a good measure to unlade and to pour out my sorrow from me thus I divide my grievances which would be insupportable if I did not disburthen my self of some part of them Now there is no bosome so safe as that where friendship lodges take God's opinion in the case Deut. 13. 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosome or thy Friend that is as thine own Soul This is the highest step in the Gradation And there is all the reason in the world for though Parent and Child are as neer one to other as any thing can be to part of it self Husband and Wife are but two different names of the same one yet these may become bitter and unkind A Parent may grow cross or a Child refractory a Mother may be like the Ostrich in the Wildernesse throw off her bowels with her burthen and an ungracious Son is constant pangs and travail to his Mother his whole life gives her after-throws which are most deadly Dislikes also may rest within the Marriage-Bed and lay their heads upon two wedded Pillows but none of these unkindnesses can untie the Relation that ends not where the bitternesse begins he is a Parent still though froward and a Child though stubborn but a true Friend can be nothing but kind it does include a deerness in its essence which is so inseparable from it that they begin and end together A man may be an Husband without loving but cannot be a lover that is a Friend without loving And sure to have no one friend in this Life no one that is concerned in any of my interests or me my self none that hath any cares or so much as good wishes for me is a state of a most uncomfortable prospect The Plague that keeps Friends at a distance from me while I live out of the sphere of my infection and after gives me Death hath yet lesse of Malignity than this that leaves me the Compassions the Prayers all the solitary comforts all indeed but the outward entertainments of my Friends that though it shut the Door against all company yet puts a Lord have Mercy on the Door But this I now described hath none of that hath no good wishes nothing else but hate is worse than a perpetual Pestilence Yet neither is this state so comfortlesse in respect of this life as not to have a Friend in the concernments of the Life to come none that hath so much kindnesse for my Soul as every man hath for his Enemies Beast which if he see fallen in a Ditch he will at least give notice that it may be helpt out thence No one that when a sin like to that Falling sickness in the Gospel and it is such indeed without a Parable is casting me into the Water quenching my parts my Reason and the Immortal spark within me or throwing me into the Fire raising Lascivious heats within which after will break out into Hell fires none yet that will stretch out his hand to catch me or to pull me out None that does care to see me perish-to Eternity or that values my Soul which yet did cost the Blood of God at a word speaking This is to be like Dives in the Flames to whom they would not lend the help of the tip of a finger or give the kindness of a drop of Water I am as it were on the other side the Gulfe already Here is the use of Friendship the only noble one that 's worthy of that blessed quality When I have one that will be an assistant Conscience to me who when that within me sleeps or is benummed will watch over my actions will testifie them to my Face will be as faithful to me as the Conscience should be hold a Glasse to my Soul shew me the stains and the proud tumours the foul Ulcers that are there and then will fret and rub or prick lance and corrode to cure those tumours and do off those spots such an one is a familiar Angel Guardian is truely of that blessed Heavenly rank and onely lesse than the Friend in the Text the Person related to and my next part My Friends There are three things from which men use to take the measures of a Friend First From the good things he bestows on them He that thinks to keep friendship alive onely with air that gives good words but parts with nothing that entertains onely
Indignation for ever But in my Father's House are many Mansions Places prepared for me and an Inheritance as wide as Heaven as Endlesse and Incorruptible as Eternity and God Himself And sure if I may choose there I will live where there is neither Will nor possibility to dye where there is Life fulness of Joy Pleasures for Evermore To which c. SERMON VI. VVHITE-HALL PSALM LXXIII 25. v. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee MY Text is the result of the Pious man's Audit the foot of the account in summing up his whole that he hath either in Possession or Desire and instead of nice Division of the Words I shall observe in them these Subjects of Discourse First the different tenure or condition of Estates in the two different Countreys we relate to this here is a Land only of desires the other is a place of enjoyments Have in Heaven Desire on Earth Yea Secondly Though our estate here in this Earth be present and that other seem removed far off yet the possessions of that are present and in hand but the most native satisfactions of the Earth are still at distance onely the object of our aims and expectations I have now I have in Heaven on the Earth I but desire Thirdly Here is the matter of both these desires and enjoyments to the Pious man No Person or no thing for so it bears also but God There is nothing upon Earth that I desire besides thee And as to Heaven the negation is exprest emphatically by a Question Whom have I in Heaven but thee Yet least this Question should look like an Expostulation and he that asks it seem unsatisfied with his portion we will therefore Lastly see the Importance of it to the Christian since our Saviour is gone up into Heaven see whom the Christian hath there And if the Psalmist could find none but God and David if he were the Author could not see the Son of David there yet since Christ is set at the Right hand of God the Christians present Interest in Heaven is such that looking with contempt on all that worldly men applaud themselves in the enjoyment of rejecting all but thee O Christ he justly triumphs in resolving of this question to himself and being satisfied in having thee he does renounce even the desiring any thing but thee Of these in their order beginning here on Earth where our tenure even of earthly things is but desire this World does give no satisfactions in hand but still they are onely the objects of our Expectations and wishes When God hath given Man an erect Countenance Eyes that do naturally look towards him and the very frame of him is such that Heaven is his constant object it were no wonder if his looks and thoughts were alwayes there since both the duty and necessity of that does seem imprest upon him in his making and to desire things above is as it were the Law in his members But when he swims in delicacies here upon the Earth is immerst in the plenties of all kinds that these should give him nothing but desires of themselves that the delights should not be present to him but he should still pursue and need that which he is encompast with that while with open mouth and in a most intemperate current he swills down the pleasures yet his open mouth should gape onely with thirst and he be sensible of nothing but the want of these is strange even to astonishment Yet such it seems the nature of them is When S. John would enumerate all that is in the World the particular that he gives in is thus 1 Joh. 2. 16. All that is in the world the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life He does not say the objects of these Lusts that are to serve and satisfie them for there 's no such thing as satisfaction but onely lust and if we make enquiry into the particulars we shall find it To begin with that of the Eyes Covetousnesse or the love of Money 'T is evident that where an object is not useful to the faculty it cannot satisfie for satisfaction is fulfilling of our needs and uses but money is not useful to the sight nor indeed does it prove useful to or serve any of the Covetous mans occasions or faculties rather the contrary in every kind he does bereave himself of good because he hath it He is in agonies of trouble and sollicitude least he should need and not have that which when he hath acquir'd he will still need and will not have enjoyment of Nor is it possible it should be otherwise for since there is no natural original or cause of this his Appetite for 't is not emptiness that makes him hungry who is more ravenous the more full he is whose most empty bowells shrink and cling together as having learnt not to expect repast while his baggs and desires stretch and are enlarged by being stuff'd Nor is it fear of future want that makes him eager to provide so for why should he be so unsatisfied in his providing against want that will want more the more he is provided And since as there is no natural cause so there is also no natural measure for this Appetite of his for Natures measure is our reall uses of the object But this man heaps up useful things that he does never mean to use Since therefore it hath neither bound nor cause in Nature 't is monstrous and must needs be an unlimited lust uncapable of satisfaction And all this man's Wealth does purchase nothing for him but desires and is not the content but the Lust of his Eye And the same reasoning will conclude the next the Pride of life which is the Lust of a Sense as wholly unconcern'd in all the Pomps and garnishes of Pride as the Eye is in Wealth 't is a Lust of the Eare all is but the man's passion to hear himself his trappings or condition commended The Learned man that 's proud does think of no return for all his toyles and watches all the present racks and tortures of his mind and all the after-ones that he does pull upon his body but to be spoken well of He fasts mortifies and denies himself more than the Covetous man can do meerly to fill himself with wind he reconciles the Babel of all Languages and Sciences too in his own head but for a word onely to hear an Euge and this with such sollicitude that if the breath of mens Applause should fail him he would straight expire as if his Soul breath'd onely at his Ear. If my pride lyes in gayeties all Natures Wardrobe must be rifled the beauties of the Universe defloured the Art and Sweat too of all Nations employed to attire my person or to dress my Room rather indeed to dress the tongues and furnish out the talk of other persons who must entertain mine ears with
Crucified as it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on the Tree So also he does look upon his Standard as the instrument of Execution to the VVorld on which it must be Crucified unto him and so it is He is so taken off from finding any stirring delights in the glories of it that he accounts it a dead thing that hath no more attraits than a Carcasse yea he does look upon this World as on a detestable and accursed thing as it was indeed whose Thorns and Briars do not onely scratch and tear and do it most when we embrace it most but also are a Refuge for the cursed Serpent to lurk in and add his Stings to their sharps that Devil Serpent that was doom'd into it and is alwayes in it and then most when it is most Paradise Now he that hath thus us'd the World he that hath nail'd it to the Crosse of Christ hath overcome the World Should we now cast an eye at once upon our selves and that which hath been thus deduc't tracing all back again then First it would appear so evident that I were vain if I should stay to prove that those which have such desires to any of the profits heights or pomps or any dear thing else whatever of this World as that they are impatient if they miscarry in them and full of strange complacencies if they do answer their desires these have not overcome the World to any such degree For had I overcome and Crucified it sure I should not be so affectionate as to desire court and pursue what I had Executed I should as soon adore the Paintings of my Enemies Tomb embrace and make love to his Carcasse And were I Crucified to it had I but one Thorn of my Saviour's Crown struck through my head but one Nail in my Foot of those that nayled him to his Tree were my Soul fastned to a Crosse how were it possible I should run gadding after the gay follies of the World hasty in my desires of it Nor could I be impatient if the World do not answer my desires and expectations disquieted and discompos'd if I be disappointed when any thing in it is not subservient to my heights and I misse of those respects I lookt for were the World vanquisht Crucified to me should I look for services from my dead Enemy whom I had slain or be troubled if the person on the Crosse did not do fitting reverences to me or be impatient if I had not respects and the Attendances of Pomp from one upon the Gibbet or if I were Crucified to it certainly these heats would not warm the dead these are none of the troubles of an Executed person when he is rackt upon that instrument of Death he is not grieved because the Nayles were not of Silver the Spears head not bright or the Crosse was not hung with Arras And suppose it were sure I were very weak if I should please my self with that and let Such poor contents thrust out all the just sadness of my Sentence and demerit And yet it is as strange to find delights in having any of the Worlds advantages and pride my self in the possession if I be Crucified to it But much lesse is it Crucified to them that will do actions of injustice for the sake of any of the pomps or profits of the VVorld there are that grind and screw and rack all that they have to deal with others that deceive and rob in Vizours plunder in the disguises of fair words and of false arts Some that dresse their Pomps in none of their own trappings such as they never mean to have a right to because they never mean to satisfie for them if they can avoid it they furnish the grandeur of their own condition with the goods of others which they never care to make their own by any recompence at least not in such wayes and seasons as the needs of those that own'd them and the rules of Justice do require they cramme and sauce their Dishes with the vital Blood indeed of those who starve for want of and who own all that which does provide them their excesses Now would a man do this to entertain and feed and dresse the Carcasse of his vanquisht his dead Enemy would he be so vain so guilty to provide to deck the Crosse on which he Crucified his Foe least of all would he retrench from the proportions of Charity or Piety deny the calls of Mercy and compassion or Religion for his profits sake or to furnish out the trains of Pomp take the Lords portion to serve the dead World with If it were overcome and Crucified they would not feed it with hallowed things and the Poor's portion is such nor rob the Altar to give it excesses take Consecrated things to make a cursed Carcasse gay and proud strip Christ's Body starve their Saviour so He does interpret to deny a portion to the naked and hungry to make pomps and Ryots for an Executed World In any of these cases he is far from being overcome And if so the Second Proposition will apply it self to such and must conclude they have no Faith for if they had that were a victory and however goodly they pretend they are but Infidels But it may be they will boldly own the Consequence for now adayes it is not gentile to believe any thing of Christ's Religion And sure 't is for the Reputation of the gallantry and courage of our love unto this World that when the covetousnesse of the Gadarenes would not suffer Christ in their Coasts and for their Swines sake drove him out when that of Judas would not let him be upon the Earth but for thirty Silver pieces did betray him up to Death that of this Age proceeds and will not let him be in Heaven neither but it scoffs him thence and his Faith from the Earth And because they like this VVorld so well they will not suffer there should be any other It is not my part to Combat these I undertook onely to shew a way to overcome the World if they will not use it let them enjoy their Bondage And yet without all doubt these candidates of Infidelity and Atheisme have faith enough to do the work in good degree for certainly ther 's none of them but does believe but he shall dye and it is easie for his Faith to look through that thin vapour which our life is stiled by to the end of that small span and there see a Bed though gay now and soft as the sleep and sins it entertains then with the Curtains close the gayety all clowded in a darknesse such as does begin the desolatenesse of the Grave if you draw the Curtain to his Faith it sees a languishing sad Corps which nothing in the world can help or ease foreshrowded in his own dead hue himself preluding to his winding-sheet in which within a little while he shall be cast from the society and sight
else to do and because while the world accounts it a Pedantick thing to be brought up by Rules and under discipline he cannbe learn how to imploy himself to his advantage to passe by these I say the universal strength against this Enemy is Faith Tour adversary the Devil like a roaring Lion goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast 〈◊〉 the Faith And that not onely as it frustrates all that the attempts by means of Infidelity but it also quenchis all his fiery darts whatsoever bright Temptation he presents to draw us from our Duty or whatever fiery trial he makes use of to affright and martyr with For the man whose Faith does give him evidence and eye-sight of those blessed Promises eye hath not seen and gives substance present solid being to his after-hopes and whose heart hath swallowed down those happy expectations which have never entred in the heart of man to comprehend what is there that can tempt or fright him from his station To make all that which Satan gave the prospect of prevail on such a Soul the Kingdoms of the Earth must out-vie Gods Kingdom and their Gauds out shine his Glory and the twinkling of an eye seem longer than Eternity For nothing lesse than these will serve his turn all these are in his expectations Or what can fright the man whose heart is set above the sphere of terrours who knows calamity how great soever can inflict but a more sudden and more glorious blessednesse upon him and the most despiteful cruel usage can but persecute him into Heaven 'T is easie to demonstrate that a Faith and Expectation of the things on Earth built upon weaker grounds than any man may have for his belief of things above hath charg'd much greater hazards overcome more difficulties than the Devil does assault us with For sure none is so Sceptical but he will grant that we have firmer grounds to think there is another World in Heaven than Columbus if he were the first Discoverer had to think there was another Earth and that there are for richer hopes laid up there in that other World for those that do deny themselves the sinful profies and the jollities of this and force them from their inclinations than those Sea-men could expect who first adventur'd with him thither For they could not think to gain much for themselves but onely to take seisin of the Land if any such there were for others covetous Cruelty could get little else but onely richer Graves and to lie buried in their yellow Earth Nor are we assaulted in our voyage with such hazards as they knew they must encounter with the path of Vertue and the way to Heaven is not so beset with difficulties as theirs was when they must cut it out themselves through an unknown new World of Ocean where they could see nothing else but swelling gaping Death from an Abysse of which they were but weakly guarded and removed few inches onely And as if the dangerousest shipwrecks were on shore they found a Land more savage and more monstrous than that Sea Yet all this they vanquisht for such slender hopes and upon so uncertain a belief A weak Faith therefore can do mighty works greater than any that we stand in need of to encounter with our Enemy It can remove these mountains too the golden ones that Covetousnesse and Ambition do east ùp Yea more it can remove the Devil also for if you resist him stedfast in the Faith he flies which is the happy issue and my last part Resist the Devil and he will Flie from you And yet it cannot be denyed but that sometimes when the messenger of Satan comes to buffet though S. Paul resist him with the strength of Prayer which when Moses managed he was able to prevail on God himself and the Lord articled with him that he might be let alone yet he could not beat off this assailant 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. When God either for prevention as 't was there v. 7. or for exercising or illustrating of Graces or some other of his blessed ends gives a man up to the affaults of Satan he is often pleased to continue the temptation long but in that case he does never fail to send assistances and aids enough against it My grace is sufficient for thee saith he to S. Paul there And when he will have us tempted for his uses if we be not failing to our selves he does prevent our being overcome so that there is no danger in those Trials from their stay But yet it must not be denyed but that the Devil does prevail sometimes by importunacy and by continuance of Temptation so that Resistance is not alwayes a Repulse at least not such an one as to make him draw off and flie It is not strange to find him fiding with a natural Inclination with the bent of Constitution still presenting Objects laying Opportunities throwing in Examples and all sorts of Invitation alwayes pressing so that when a man hath strugled long he does grow weary of the service not enduring to be thus upon his guard perpetually watching a weak heart which strong inclinations busie Devils do lay fiege to and so growing slack and carelesse he is presently surprised Or else despairing that he shall be alwayes able to hold out lays hold upon a tempting opportunity and yields by the most unreasonable and basest cowardise that can be yields for fear of yielding lest he should not hold out he will not but gives up and puts himself into that very Mischief which he would avoid meerly for fear of coming into it For which fear there is no reason neither For 't is not here as in our other Sieges where if it be close continuance most reduce men to necessity of yielding Strengths and Amunitions will decay Provisions fail and if the Enemy cannot their own Hunger will break through their Walls and make avenues for Conquest time alone will take them but in these Spiritual Sieges one Repulse inables for another and the more we have resisted the Temptation is not onely so much flatter and more weak and baffled but the inward Man is stronger Victory does give new forces and is sure to get in fresh and still sufficient supplies For God giveth more grace saith S. James And they shall have abundance saith our Saviour So that where the Devil after several repulses still comes on with fresh assaults we may be sure he does discern there is some treacherous inclination that sides with him And although the man refuse himself the satisfaction of the sin the Devil sees he hath a mind to it his refusals are but faint not hearty though he seem afraid to come within the quarters of the Vice he keeps it may be correspondence with the incentives to it entertains the opportunities plays with the objects or at best he does not fortifie against him Now this gives the Tempter hopes and invites his
with which the World assaults us in our course of Duty Thus the Crosse of Christ first shews us the necessity we have to renounce and Crucifie the World But to encourage and enable us to do so it does also shew us Secondly the certainty of a good issue in the doing it assures us that those who deny themselves forbidden satisfactions here that will be vertuous maugre all the baits and threats of Earth will embrace duty when it is laden with a Cross although so heavy as to crush out life and kill the body assures us that those lose not but exchange their lives shall save their Souls and that there is another World wherein their losses shall be made up to them and repaired with all advantage To the truth of this the Crosse of Christ is a most pregnant and infallible testimony For as by multitudes of Miracles Christ sought to satisfie the world that he was sent from God to promise all this and justified his Power to perform it by experiment raising some up from the dead so when they said he did his Miracles by Beelzebub he justified it further with his Life affirming that he was the Son of God now 't is impossible but he must know whether he were or no and consequently sent and able to do all he promised and resolv'd to do it also for our more assurance in himself that he would raise himself up from the dead within three dayes and saying this when he was sure he should be Crucified for saying so and sure that if he did not do according to his words he must within three dayes appear a meer Impostor to the world and his Religion never be receiv'd Now 't is impossible for him that must needs know whether all this were true or no to give a greater testimony to it than his Life For this that Blood and Water that flowed from his wounded side upon the Crosse which did assure his Death is justly said to bear witnesse to his being the Son of God and consequently to the truth of all this equal to the testimony of the Spirit whether that which the Spirit gave when he came from Heaven down upon him in his Baptisme or the testimony which he gave by Miracle for there are three that bear witnesse upon Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood Thus by his Death Christ did bring Life and Immortality to light his choosing to lay down his own life for asserting of the truth of all this was as great an argument to prove it as his raising others from the dead and Lazarusâ—â— empty Monument and walking grave-cloathes were not better evidence than this Crosse of Christ. 3. Once more this Crosse not onely proves the certainty of a future state but does demonstrate the advantage of it and assures us that it is infinitely much more eligible to have our portion in the life to come than in this life That to part with every thing that is desirable in this World rather than to fail of those joyes that are laid up in the other that to be poor here or to be a spoyl to renounce or to disperse my wealth that so I may lay up treasures for my self in Heaven and may be rich to God never to taste any one of these puddle transient delights rather than to be put from that right hand where there are pleasures for ever more to be thrown down from every height on Earth if so I may ascend those everlasting Hills and mount Sion that is above that this is beyond all proportion the wisest course it does demonstrate since it shews us him who is the Son of God who did create all these advantages of Earth and prepare those in Heaven and does therefore know them both Who also is the Wisdom of the Father and does therefore know to value them yet for the joyes that were set before him choosing to endure the Crosse and despising the shame On that Beam he weigh'd them and by that his choice declar'd the Pomps of this World far too light that exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that the whole Earth was but as the dust upon the Ballance and despis'd it and to make us do so is both the Design and direct influence of the Cross of Christ. But as at first the Wise men of this World did count the Preaching of the Crosse meer folly to give up themselves to the belief and the obedience of a man that was most infamously Crucifyed and for the sake of such an one to renounce all the satisfactions suffer all the dire things of this Life and in lieu of all this onely expect some after Blessednesses and Salvations from a man that they thought could not save himself seemed to them most ridiculous So truly it does still appear so to the carnal reasonings of that sort of men who have the same objections to the Crosse of Christ as it would crucify the World to them and them to it as it would strip them of all present rich contents and give them certain evils with some promises of after good things which they have no tast for nor assurance of Now this being in their account folly then the contrary to this they must think wisdom as it is indeed the Wisdom of this World which Wisdom since it does design no further than this World and hath no higher ends than Earth and its Felicities it must needs put men upon minding the acquist and the enjoyment of these Earthly things for that is onely to pursue and to atchieve their ends to catch at and lay hold on their felicity and accordingly we see it does immerse them wholly in those cares So that it is no wonder if their God and Religion can get no attendance from them it being most impossible they should when Mammon hath engaged them in the superstitious services of Idolatry and when they sacrifice their whole selves to pleasure and make their bodies the burnt offerings of their Lusts and when Ambition even while it makes them stretch and climb and mount causes them also to fall low prostrate make their temper nature stoop lye down to every humour and to every vice they think themselves concern'd to court and please And though a man would think these so great boundlesse cares are very vain and foolish upon several accounts for common sense as well as Scripture does assure 〈◊〉 that this life and the Contents of it do not consist in the abundance of the things that we possess that it is all one whether my draught come out of a small Bottle or an Hogshead 〈◊〉 the one of these indeed may serve excesse and sicknesse better but the other serves my appetite as well the one may drown my Vertue but the other quenches thirst alike And every dayes experience also does convince us that the least crosse accident pain or affliction on our persons or some other that is seated neer our hearts or the least
vexation or crosse passion will so sowre all those advantages that we cannot possibly enjoy them while we have them sickness makes the richest plenty onely a more nauseous trouble a more costly loathing then the poorest Soul that is in health is that great rich mans envy And ther 's no man also but does see so far into futurity as to satisfie himself that he shall dye and then the shadow of death will cloud and put out all these glories And universal reason also does tell every man that to deny himself or want his present satisfactions of this helplesse dying kind and suffer present evils is in prudence to be chosen for avoiding of a future evil or atchieving of a good to come which do transcend those other infinitely and to all Eternity continue Sure as no man pities the poor Infant in the Womb because he lyes imbrued in Blood hath no inheritance there at all is fetter'd coffin'd as it were in that dark cell if he be to be born to an Estate to live a full age here in gaiety of mind and health of body in Reputation and all plenty of delights we never are concern'd or troubled at his other nine months dungeon So if this life be to the next as the Womb is to this and if our hopes be no more on the Earth than in the Belly and we have no inheritance or abiding place here as we had not there although the waters of affliction and to be in our blood should be as naturall to us as to the Child yet if we thus presse forward to the other birth to be delivered into immortality of joyes this state were not to be lamented but endeavoured for with all our powers Lastly the same reason does assure us that if those futurities which are most certain were but onely possible yet to part with every thing and suffer any thing here to prevent miscarriage in relation to those two Eternities is certainly the safest course and then by consequence the wisest And this does appear a truth to all men when they go to dye And if it be the truth then 't is alwayes so Yet notwithstanding all this he that minds these earthly things whose heart is set upon them whose desires the World serves provides to satisfie every imagination of delight His heart is so intangled in affections to them and in prejudices for them and hath so imbib'd the impressions of them that he hath no taste for any other and by consequence no satisfying notions of them And if he hath not then it is not possible that he should really and from his heart out of conviction and inward sense value these beyond the earthly ones and it is plain we see he does not and if he do not to deprive himself of all the sweet contentments of his life and tear out his own bowells that yearn after them and cling to them and instead of those embrace a Crosse and do this for things which he cannot value more and counts uncertain he must needs think a mad folly Consequently to contrive and seize the present to the best most plentiful advantage is the wisest course and therefore they that by whatever arts do thrive advance themselves live high and in delights they are Wise men because they do attain their ends by meanes appropriate to those ends And now the enmity betwixt the Crosse of Christ and the wisdom of the World appears first their designs are most directly opposite the crosse designs to take us up from earth and from its satisfactions which have also thorns and bryars in them that Eartbs Curse things that pierce and wound as fatally as the Nayles and Thorns and other cruelties of Christ's Crosse and to lift us towards Heaven to direct our hearts and our affections thither as our harbingers to take possession for us of those joyes the Crosse did purchase for us but no crosse can ever trouble But the Wisdom of this World designs to lay out all its cares and its contrivances within this World minds nothing else but earthly things and does not lift an eye or thought to any other Secondly their Principles wage war For earthly good things being the design the main end of this worldly wisdom consequently that does justifie all courses without which men cannot gain those ends by which they do though they be never so unlawful by the Rules of that which we call Vertue and Religion it does justifie I say all such as prudent But the Principles of the Doctrines of the Crosse of Christ are positive that we must renounce all earthly satisfactions when they cannot be injoyed without transgressing Christs Commands and imbrace duty even when it executes it self upon us But Thirdly there 's no enmity so fatal to the Crosse of Christ as is the practice of those men who minding Earthly things and all their wisdom lying as to them they therefore think themselves concern'd to represent the Doctrines of the Crosse which does so contradict their wisdom as meer madnesse and the Crosse it self as the ensign of folly And accordingly they do treat it en ridicul and make the proper Doctrines of it the strict duties of Religion matter for their jests and bitter scofâ—s They character religion as a worship that befits a God whose shape the Primitive persecutors painted Christ in Deus Onochaetes as if Christianity were proper Homage onely to an Asses person as Tertullian words it And the votaries transform'd by this their service and made like the God they worship were what they were call'd then Asinarii creatures only fit for burden to bear what they magnify a Crosse and scorns No persecutions are so mortall as those that Murder the reputation of a thing or person not so much because when that is fallen once then they cannot hope to stand as because those murder after death and poyson memory killing to immortality They were much more kind to Religion and more innocent that cloath'd the Christians in the skins of Bears and Tygers that so they might be worried into Martyrdom Then they that cloath their Christianity in a fools Coat that so it may be laught to death go out in ignomâ—ny and into contempt If to sport with things of sacred and Eternal consequence were to be forgiven yet to do it with the crosse of Christ Thus to set that out as foolishness which is the greatest mystery the Divine wisdom hath contriv'd to make mercy and truth meet together righteousness and peace kiss each other to make sin be punisht yet the sinner pardoned Thus to play and sin upon those dire expresses of Gods indignation against sin are things of such 〈◊〉 and dangerous concern that S. Paul could not give a caution against them but with tears For many walke saith he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping c. Which calls me to my last consideration Indeed the crosse of Christ does represent Almighty God in so
severe a shape and gives the lineaments of so fierce displeasures against sin as do exceed all comprehension There was a passion in Christs Prayer to prevent his passion when he deprecated it with strong cryes and tears yea when his whole body wept tears as of blood to deprecate it and yet he cryed more dreadfully when he did suffer it The nayles that bor'd his hands the spear that pierc't his heart and made out-letts for his blood and Spirits did not wound him as that sting of death and torments sin did which made out-lets for God to forsake him and which drove away the Lord that was himself out of him Neither did his God forsake him onely but his most Almighty attributes were engag'd against him Gods Holinesse and Justice were resolv'd to make Christ an example of the sad demerit of Iniquity and his hatred of it Demerit so great as was valuable with the everlasting punishment of the World fal'n Angels and fal'n Men for to that did it make them lyable Now that God might appear to hate it at the rate of its deservings it was very necessary that it should be punisht if not by the execution of that sentence on Mankind as on the Devils yet by something that might be proportionable to it so to let us see the measures God abhors it by to what degrees the Lord is just and holy by those torments torments answerable to those attributes Now truly when we do reflect on this we cannot wonder if the Sinner be an enemy to the Crosse and hate the prospect of it which does give him such a perfect copy of his expectations when our Saviours draught which he so trembled at shall be the everlasting portion of his Cup For if God did so plague the imputation of Iniquity how will he torment the willful and impenitent commission of it But then when we consider those torments were the satisfaction for the sins of man methinks the sinner should be otherwise affected to them Christ by bearing the Cross gave God such satisfaction as did move him in consideration thereof to dispence with that strict Law which having broken we were forfeit to eternal death and to publish an act of grace whereby he does admit all to pardon of sins past and to a right to everlasting Life that will believe on him for sake their sins and live true Christians He there appears the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World for that he does as being a Lamb slain then he was our Sacrifice and that Crosse the Altar And the humbled sinner that repents for notwithstanding satisfaction God will not acept a Sinner that goes on by all those Agonies his holynesse would not be justifyed if when he had forsaken and tormented his own Son for taking sin upon him he should yet receive into his favour and his Heaven sinners that will not let go but will retain their sins but the penitent may plead this expiation Lo here I poor Soul prostrate at the footstool of the Crosse lay hold upon the Altar here 's my Sacrifice on which my sins are to be charg'd and not on me although so foul I am I cannot pour out tears sufficient to cleanse me yet behold Lord and see if there ever were any Sorrow like the sorrow of thy Son wherewith thou didst afflict him for these sins of mine And here is Blood also his Blood to wash me in and that Blood is within the Vaile too now and that my offering taken from the Crosse up to thy Throne thou hast accepted it and canst not refuse it now my Advocate does plead it and claims for me the advantage of the Crosse. Now that men should be Enemies to this and when they are forseit to eternal Ruine hate that which is to redeem the forfeiture that they should trample on the Crosse whereon their satisfactions were wrought tread down the Altar which they have but to lay hold on and be safe wage war with beat off and pursue a Lamb that Lamb of God that comes to take away their sins and make a spoyl and slaughter of their Sacrifice hostilely spill upon the ground that Blood that was appoynted for their Blood upon the Altar for their blood of sprinkling and was to appear in Heaven for them It men resolve to be on terms of Duell with their God and scorn that Satisfaction shall be made for them by any other way than by defiance and although their God do make the satisfactions for them to himself yet not endure it but choose quarrel rather this is so perverse and fatal an hostility as no tears are sufficient to bewail But possibly men sleight these satisfactions because some terms are put upon them which they know not how to comport with the merits of the Crosse must not be accounted to them but upon conditions which they are not able to perform they are required to master all their wicked Customes their untam'd appetites and settled habits to keep under their Concupiscence to calm their inclinations and their passions Now on such severe articles friendship with the Crosse they think is too hard bought But therefore Secondly that Crosse was the consideration upon which Grace is offer'd us whereby we are enabled to perform all this the power to will and strength to do all necessary aids from Heaven are granted to us as Christ merited them for us by his Sufferings and that Blood he shed upon the Crosse it is the Fountain 't is the Ocean of all grace And if temptations storm thee lay hold on that Crosse it is the Anchor of Salvation thou hast hold on tell thy God although thou art not able to resist and stand thou hast the price of strength that which did purchase it was paid down for thee on the Crosse and is at his right hand he hath it give me therefore grace for it let me have the value of that Blood the Blood of God in spiritual succours which may make me able to resist thy Enemies and do thy will Now God will never be unjust to deny any man those aids that were so dearly purchast for him and for which he hath receiv'd the price And then that men should be Enemies of the Crosse which is their Magazine of strength against their Enemies As men that do resist the having grace least it should change their inclinations as men that will not be impowered against Vice but will oppose the Aids of Heaven fight against the succours that are given them and destroy their own forces least with them they should be able to encounter sin and overcome it Thus wilfully to run against and charge their Anchor of Salvation to poyson to themselves the Fountain the whole Ocean of their graces is the state of them onely that do resolve and that had rather perish Once more on that Crosse was wrought a reconciliation betwixt God and Man and that upon such terms of honour to us Men
that God does seem to condescend as far in this his Treaty as in coming down from Godhead into Flesh there is Exinanition in his yieldings and complyance He sent his Son to move us to be reconciled as if he did acknowledge us the offended party and as if he meant to give us satisfaction in his Blood he dyes upon the Crosse to effect that reconciliation When our Saviour would magnify a love he thus expresses it Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend But behold here is greater love for Christ commended his love to us in that when we were Enemies he dyed for us onely out of hopes to make us friends Love strong as death indeed that brought him to the grave who could not dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affection violent as Hell that brought God to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made him descend to Hell For so low he stoopt thus he humbled himself to perswade us to be reconcil'd and to prevail with us to be at peace with God And is a Reconciliation with the Lord so hateful to us that we will be Enemies to the Crosse that works it are we so assur'd of worsting God Almighty that we will resist whatever makes towards a peace with him are the sinners expectations so tempting do we look for such advantage from the Covenant we have made with Death and the agreement we are at with Hell that we will have the League defensive and offensive will be foes to their foes and will have War with God because he is their Enemy are we thus resolv'd to be reveng'd upon the Triumphs of the Crosse and because our Saviour spoyled Principalities and Powers triumphing over them on it therefore set our selves against that Trophee of his Victories over our friends the Devil and his Fiends is the love of Christ so injurious to us that we will be Enemies to the Expresses of it and when his affection threw him down so low for our sakes humbled him to Hell to beg and to procure our friendship will we go to trample on him there rather than not go thither and rather than we will not be for ever there Was it not for this O blessed Saviour that thou didst pray against thy Cup so earnestly because of Man's ingrateful enmity to it because thou wast to suffer God Almightys Indignation in it and the Sinners hatred for it because it was the Cup of the Lords fury and Man 's also God squeezed into it all the dregs of his Wrath and man scornfully spits into it and when the one will make thee drink it up the other throws it in thy face was it not because thou wert to take a Crosse up which thou couldst not bear the Torments of and Man will not endure the Blessings of but most despitefully treads down that Cross while thou art sinking under it laden with their weight This is alas a state so sad that neither S. Pauls tears nor Christ's Blood hath sufficient compassion for And yet though one wept the other dyed for them these men have neither tears nor pitty for themselves Yet one would think this were a subject worthy of them 'T is storied of Xerxes that when he took a view of his vast Army which he went to Conquer Greece with an Army such as the Sun never saw and it could scarce see that which the Historian sayes did Coelo minitari tenebras as it cover'd and drank up the Sea and took up and devour'd the Earth so it did seem to darken Heaven too An Army which consisted saith Herodotus when muster'd at Thermopylae of Five Millions two hundred eighty three thousand two hundred and twenty Men besides Laundresses Harlots and Horses and it had Twelve hundred Gallies for Sea fight besides Twenty hundred Ships for carriage when upon this view he had for a while gloryed in his happinesse to behold and Command so many Nations and so Powerfull a Fleet and Army notwithstanding on a sudden he burst into Tears on this Consideration that in one Hundred years there should not one survive of that great marvellous multitude And truely through his folly in one hundred weeks scarce any one but was the prey of Enemies and Death and Infamy But 't is a sadder Contemplation to reflect on the far greater Armie of the Enemies of the Crosse who if they do not end that quarrel will in fewer years be all dead and in Hell I know not whether such a sad reflexion called out S. Paul's Tears but sure I am it does deserve their own And there is nothing will avail in their behalf without their tears It may be tears are piteous things for such brave Sinners But then what will these insulting Enemies of the Cross do when they shall see that Sign of the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven When this Crosse shall usher in the great Assize When they shall look on him that they have pierced and Crucified upon it And when that Crucified offended Enemy shall come there to be their Judge That takes himself to be offended much more in his kindnesse than his Person and will judge this more severely that we would not let his Crosse and Passion do us any good than that we Crucified him on it Let us then be caution'd in the fear of God to be no longer Enemies to that which is to reconcile our Judge to us If we have his Friendship on the Crosse we may be sure to have it on the Judgment Seat He that on the Crosse parted with Godhead and with Life for us will on the Bench adjudge us that Inheritance which his Crosse did purchase for us He sits there to pronounce Happinesse upon all faithful sincere Christians to proclaim Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you To which c. SERMON XV. WHITE-HALL Novemb. 15. 1668. MARKE X. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child he shall not enter therein THE Kingdom of God especially as it concerns the forepart of the Text signifies nothing else but that of the Messiah or in one word Christianity and that both as to the profession and the practise the Doctrine and the life of it For so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which Theophylact expounds the words the Preaching of the Doctrine is it self called the Kingdom of God by our Saviour Mat. 21. 42. 'T is not delivering of a message onely in weak empty words 't is Jurisdiction and exercise of Soveraignty And the Commission that authoriz'd to it was the delegation of the Powers of Omnipotence All Power saith our Lord is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth and which the Syriack adds in that place also as my Father sent me so send I you go ye therefore and teach all Nations teaching them to observe whatsoever I have Commanded you As if this were
distinct every one cannot beat up the Corner or be a pillar and foundation-stone much less can every one place it self in the Ephod assume to be one of the Vrim and the Thummim-stones and there break out in Oracles and give responses and every rubbish stone set it self in the Mitre and shine in the head ornaments as if it were one of the precious stones of Sion In fine to speak now out of Metaphor not only the transactions of the Text which is a precedent for men to commission such and such but also all Scripture rules direct a Choice and where there is Election there is also dereliction and both evince a separation And if all the Nations in the World have had their distinct Officers for Religion and as it were to signalize the separateness of their function in many Nations they did live apart from Men The Priests had their adyta as well as the Deities dark solitary Groves were made choice of not so much for the God as for his Officers retirement so that every appearance of him also was a Vision and the Priest was reveal'd as well as the Oracle and all this at the first to make a kind of sacred Pomp for the solemnity of awfulness though afterwards it often prov'd but opportunity for foul performances And if to this uniform practice of the World Gods attestation be set who order'd it in his own government not that as a Levitical or Iewish administration but it was practised amongst his own from the beginning and vvhen dominions vvere but greater families there vvere still distinct persons for the imployments of Religion that vvas the office and the priviledge of the first-born Esau vvas call'd profane for selling that birth-right of his And the vvord in the Text here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate is the same vvhich God does vvord the sanctifying the first-born for him with Exod. 13. 2. 'twere easy to deduce all this out of all ancient Jewish Records And vvhen the practice ever since hath been the same in Christs Religion after all this sure nothing else but absolute defection of the Notions of Mankind and blotting out all the impressions of Vniversal Nature and Vniversal Religion or else an absolute Command from Heaven could alter this Establishment from vvhich command vve are so far that 't is the Holy Ghost himself that said expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate Now this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Separateness in Function does infer upon us a separateness in Life and Conversation and they who are thus set apart from the VVorld must keep themselves unspotted from the VVorld To separate and Consecrate are but two vvords for the same thing Separate three Cities is the Command in Deut. 19. 2. and they sanctified three Iosh. 20. 7. Our Offices assume them both and all are holy Orders Now separate and pure are both so primitive and so essential notions of holy that truly I cannot determine vvhich of them is original and vvhich secondary Our Consecration does challenge both and as vve vvill be separate in our calling so vve must be separate in our lives not conforming our selves to the VVorld for I have chosen you out of the VVorld saith Christ. A torrent licence of an Age must not carry us along an Universal Custome of the World must be no precedent and can be no excuse for us to do vvhat is irregular We are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate and that the world does such things is no more a plea for us to do so than that because the world is Common ground therefore the Church is so too fit to be put to all the uses of the field or of vvorse places Were it a reasonable argument because I see that the vvhole Countrey 's till'd vvhy should I not break up the holy places and plow the Temple Why so vve are enclos'd for God and separated for the uses of Religion and to preserve our selves pure for them Our Saviour says that the Community of Christians is a City upon an Hill and then sure the consecrated Persons are the Temples of that City the separate places of it and then as they are most in fight the Church is ordinarily the most visible building so truly he that sees one of them it should be as if he saw an open Church where there is nothing else but holy duty as if his life were Liturgy publick Service and Worship of God Hath your zeal never rose at least your indignation at the profane fury of this age which never made a stop in violation of things sacred when to its heap of other Sacriledges it added most contemptuous defilements of God's Houses making the place that Angels met us in to vvorship and God dwelt in to bless us there the place appointed for the Divinest Mysteries of our Redemption for the Celebration of Christs Agonies for the Commemoration of the blessed Sacrifice the place for nothing but Christ's Blood then to become the place of a most odious and insolent uncleanness If I had worded this more aggravatingly it had been only to infer that then to see a consecrated person to pollute himself with those black foulnesses that made Hell and made Fiends is sure a sadder and a more unhappy spectacle If an Apostle become wicked he is in our Saviours Character a Devil have I not chosen Twelve and one of you it a Devil Yea if the good Saint Peter do become a scandal tempt to that which is not good Get thee behind me Satan Christ calls his nearest Officers Stars Emblems of a great separateness those that teach them how far their Conversation should be remov'd from Earth for they are of another Orbe Heaven is the Region of Stars But they are Emblems of a greater purity there 's nothing in the World so clean as light 't is not possible so much as to sully shine it may irradiate dung-hills but they do not defile it you may eclipse a Star but cannot spot it you may put out the light you cannot stain it 'T is a vvord for God's purity only his light is glory and as his holiness is so separate that it is incommunicable so his Light is inaccessible Yet sure they that are starres in Christs right hand they do come neer and mix their light with his and they of all men must be pure and holy vvhom the spirit calls to that place as he does all vvhom he calls to that separation that he did Barnabas and Saul the Persons and the next Part Separate me Barnabas and Saul I intend not to make particular reflections upon these persons although the Character of Barnabas be registred the 11. Chap. ver 24. He was a good man full of Faith and of the Holy Ghost and the good influence that that had upon the people follows and much people was added to the Church And as for Saul though he began the Christian persecution and vvas
does excommunicate them only in desire And again 2 Cor. 10. 6. and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfil'd It becomes therefore every one that hath good VVill for Sion to labour to fulfill his own obedience that so the Church may be empower'd to use Christ's Method for reforming of the rest And they that vvill not do so must know they shall not only answer for their sins but for refusing to be sav'd from them that they resist all medicine as men resolv'd that nothing shall be done towards their Cure as men that rather choose to perish and prefer destruction And for the seasons and degrees of putting this work into Execution Wisdom must be implor'd from that Spirit of VVisdom that calls unto this work The last Part VVhereunto I have called them The Nature of the calling of the Holy Ghost is a Subject that would bear a full discourse But waving those pretensions which Necessity and inward incitation do make to be the Calls of the Holy Ghost I shall positively set down that the call of God and of the Holy Ghost to any VVork or Office for I enquire not of his calling to a priviledge or state of favour is his giving abilities and gifts qualifying for that VVork or Office he call immediate when the gifts were so but mediate and ordinary when the abilities are given in his blessing on our ordinary labours 'T is so in every sort of things Exod. 31. 2. See I have call'd Bezaleel and I have fill'd him vvith the Spirit of God in VVisdome and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of VVorkmanship to devise cunning vvorks and to vvork in all manner of VVorkmanship and behold I have given him Aholiab and in the hearts of all that are vvise hearted I have put Vvisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee And he repeats the same again Chap. 35. 30. adding that he hath put in his heart that he may teach both He and Aholiab so that giving this skill to vvork and teach is nam'd Gods calling So in another case the Lord does say of Cyrus I have call'd him Esay 48. 15. vvhich he explains in the 49. I have holden him by my right hand to subdue Nations before him to loose the loyns of Kings I have girded him So vvhen Isaiah saith the Lord hath call'd me from the VVomb or rather sayes that of our Saviour Isa. 49. 1. he tells you how ver 5. he form'd me and prepared me from the VVomb to be his servant to bring Jacob to him And throughout the New Testament as his Call to a priviledge is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace in allowing such a state of favour so his calls to a Work are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts enabling for it The Gifts of these Apostles by vvhich they vvere enabled for their Office and vvhich made up their call are set down those of Barnabas in the fore-cited 11 Act. He was a good man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost and Paul's call vvas a little Extraordinary If vve look into times vve shall find reason to believe those revelations in 2 Cor. 12. vvere given to Paul a little before this consecration of him in the Text. That Epistle vvas vvrit saith Baronius in the second year of Nero and this separation vvas in the second of Claudius as may be gathered also in some measure from the famine mention'd in the 28. verse of the 11. chap. betwixt these two vvere fourteen years now saith Saint Paul vvhen he vvrote that he had his revelation somewhat above 14. years before a little therefore before this solemnity Here vvas a call indeed call'd up to the third heaven to receive instructions for his Office and for ought he did know call'd out of his own body too that he might be the fitter for it whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knows verse 2. and that again verse 3. They vvhom Gods Spirit qualifies for Consecration to separate to these diviner Offices may be stil'd Angels well vvhen they are call'd from all regards or notices of any body that belongs to them their gifts and graces set them above the consideration of flesh In the entertainment of these qualifications the Soul is swallowed up so that it cannot take cognizance whether it have a body of its own and is not sensible of that deer partner of it self it is so onely sensible of this Employment 'T is not for an Apostle or for his Successor to think of things below vvith much complacency When these have all their uses all their glories on they but make pomp to dress the body vvhich an Apostle does not designe for nor knowes vvhether he be concern'd at all in He becomes something without a body and above the Earth vvho for a preparative must be taken up to Paradise and call'd from all commerce and all intelligence with his own body Saint Paul vvas call'd from Heaven to preach the Gospel but he vvas call'd to Heaven to qualifie him for this higher separation to an Apostle and Church Governour And now you see your calling Holy Fathers and to pass by such obvious unconcerning observations as at first sight follow that those vvho are not qualified are not call'd I shall onely take notice hence of the counter-part of this call the charge God takes upon him when he calls to this charge and that is he owns and will protect whom himself calls 'T was that he promised to the Pounder and â—od of your Order I the Lord have call'd thee and I will hold thine hand and I will keep thee Isaâ— 42. 6. And vvhen he said of Cyrus I have call'd him he said also he shall make his way prosperous Isai. 48. 15. And so he shall be the vvay vvhat it vvill for thus he said to Jacob I have called thee when thou goest through the VVater I am with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee Isai. 43. 1 2. There was Experience of all this in one of the chief Princes of your Order vvhen the Apostles vvere scarce safe within their ship they vvere so toss'd with vvaves and fears yet if our Lord vvill call him Peter is confident he shall be safe even in the sea Lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the Water saith he and the Lord did but call him and he vvent down and walked on the vvater safely as if the swelling billows did only lift themselves to meet his steps and raise him up from sinking And vvhen his own doubts vvhich alone could vvere neer drowning him and he but call'd the Lord immediately he stretched out his hand and caught him He answers his call if vve answer ours if we obey vvhen he sayes come then vvill he come and save vvhen vve call to him And so Peter receiv'd no hurt but a rebuke O thou of little
for the pleasures of that Earth despise his Heaven Yea the whole order of things does teach us this the Creatures do service to the whole kind they acknowledge the man and not the Countrey-man and Friend but alike the rich and poor the good and gratefull the wicked and ungratefull too The Sun does not collect his Rays and shed more day to guild the gaudy and gay person whose Cloaths and Jewels will reflect his light return him as much almost as he sends and vie brightnesse with him then he does to the poor dark sordid raggs that even damp his beams he sheds the same unpall'd Day even on those men that draw such streams of bloud as with their mists endeavour to put out or stain his shine the Ayr gives breath to them that putrifie it as well as those that send it out a Perfume Yea the Creatures of sense and perception do not yet discriminate their Lords but with that same indifference serve all the Oxe knows his Owner and the Asse his Master not his Religion nor his Vertues and then as there is something in man as man which God is kind to something in man as man for which the Creatures serve so there is something in man as he is man which we must love and consequently we must love every man And till thou hast found one so much a Monster that no Creature will fear or obey and such a one as God will shew no kindnesse to at all will not let his Sun shine or his Rain rain upon but while as others are in Goshen sets him in the storm and dark of Egypt till then I say thou hast not found a person whom thou mayst not love no though he be thine enemy in mind and thought in deed for if he Curse thee thou must bless and must do good to him which hates thee which are the particular expresses of the love in the Text the first of which is Bless them that Curse you BLess being here oppos'd to Curse must signifie wish well to them that wish you evil though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also do import speak well of as that is oppos'd to railing 1 Pet. 3. 9. not rendring railing for railing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but contrariwise Blessing And both are the duty of this place which does intend that all sorts of loving words should be the Christians returns to the offences of the tongue whether by Curse or contumely And truly when I do consider how the other way the rendring like for like and giving him that does with or speak evil as good language as he brings is so far from all shadow of compensation that there is really a loss of honour in those dismal imprecating words the anger that does belch them out does swell and stretch and rack the passion blushes at it self the malice drinks those spirits up which it lurks in and the envy that Snake sucks all the blood away leaves nothing but its own pale venim in the stead In a word the very Essence of impatience is vexation and fret and then that men should call that recompence for suffering which is it self a present agony and hath no prospect of any after-good that they should satisfie themselves in that does make that bold assertion of the Râ—manist who says that those in Hell do will and love their being there not strange at all for indeed there is one and the same reason of both that in the paroxysme of a passion whensoever a man is seiz'd by an affection with violence as they in Hell are alwayes and those that speak evil are for the present He does for that time love cherish and pursue the affection and in good earnest if so be that men can please themselves in the extreme impatience of a fruitless choler it looks like demonstration that the damn'd may please themselves in their damnation as to that part of it that which tears the Soul the rage of its own passions when they are loose and unmuzzel'd and the more because we have good reason to believe theirs are the very passions we are now upon Envy and Hate and Shame and they do vent themselves in the same manner too in Blasphemy and Curses and differ nothing but that their's are endless and then let such men please themselves in the returnes of calumny and imprecations we will allow them the delights of Hell in doing so and they do tast those very onely satisfactions that the fiends do in their torments and much good may they do them 'T is true then what the Psalmist says that he who thus delights in Carsing it shall enter into his bowels like water and like oyl into his bones like pleasure and refreshment like water to allay his passionate heats and oyl to make him chearful after his vexation for so indeed the venting of his Curses seems to do but alas if to powre them out do make them enter into him into his bowels and his bones his most substantial parts and his most necessary inwards if it leave nothing there but Curse poysâ—n instead of marrow in the bones and in the bowels fiery indignation for water if this be the effect then if you do resolve not to obey the Text and will not love your Enemy yet for your own sakes out of self-love do not execute your Enemies ill wishes on your selves and in meer spite to him make all his maledictions come to pass upon you but that blessing may not be far from you Bless them that Curse you do good to them that hate you the next part Do good If to do good mean onely those acts of charity that are under general prâ—cept relâ—eve necessities help in needs and the like then it is plain anothers hate to me takes not away my obligation unless it take away his wants and the wrongs he hath done me do not render me not bound to succour him unless it put him in a state that needs no succour For if thâ—ne Enemy hunger thou must feed him if he thirst give him drink Rom. 12. 20 Yea though his hatred be to thy Religion Do good to all the Scripture says and the Father porrig at manum Jupiter accipiet If the heathen Idols that have mouths indeed but as they cannot speak so neither can they eat if they I say could hunger and did ask I would feed them and I would give their God that is the Devil if he wanted But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie do kindness and favours be good as that means bountiful and full of courtesies and grace be more then merciful by rule and general command which the Gospel calls righteous and truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Tim. 3. 1. does mean a work of excellency in a state of virtue without precept and if it be so here too enmity seems to have advantage above friendship in the Gospel and brings kindness under an obligation graces and favours that in their
pardon before God making evidence of our performance and they cry for we forgive and so call for pardon And to encourage this procedure our Saviour before he did commend his own spirit into the hand of his Father he commended his Executioners to the mercies of his Father Our Martyr did not so indeed but first pray'd for himself Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7. 59. but though Heaven opening he saw that Jesus standing at the right hand of God as ready to receive it yet his spirit would not leave his body so it made him live yet to endure more stoneing from his persecutors for whom he had not pray'd yet but when he once fell on his knees not beaten down by their storm but his Charity and pray'd Lord lay not this sin to their charge when he had said so he fell asleep v. 60. his spirit taken hence as it were â—sculo pacis though by the most violent death and he lyes down in a perpetual rest and peace that thus lyes down in love These are requests to breath out a soul into Heaven in and Heaven it self did open to receive that soul that came so wafted And now we are at the top of Christ's Mount the highest and the steepest point of Christianity which vies with that to which our Martyrs Spirit did ascend for it makes perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect it sets our heads within in those higher and untroubled Regions wherein there are no Meteor-fires the flame of Passion cannot wing it thither for he that is above the power of injury discontent cannot look up to him it is with him as in the upper Orbs where there is only harmony and shine all is Peace and Love the state of Heaven it self Now as it does happen to them that look down from great heights every Object below is dwarf'd and if the distance of the Prospect be as great as that from Heaven to Earth they tell us this whole Globe would be but like a spot all being swallowed in it self so if from this great height of duty we should look down upon the world of Christianity would it noâ— almost wholly disappear and vanish some thing like a dark spot of it you may perchance behold stain'd and discolour'd with the Blood of Christians which their constant quarrels shed some it may be dye that Blood in colours of Religion their animosity is Christned zeal they kill only for Sacrifice thus they interpret and fulfill Christs precepts this they call holy love as if Christ when he bid his Disciples take no Slaves with them meant they should carry Swords as if the love he had commanded we should have for them that are in errour if our enemies be so indeed were but to murder them forsooth out of their errours Next for the kindnesses that Christians do to those that hate them or have disoblig'd them they are God knowes so little that no perspective can shew them from this height we are upon and yet 't is not for want of light we cannot see them 't is very rate men do those things in the dark for if they do not blazon them themselves the enemy whom they oblige must do it The distance also is too great to hear the prayers that are made for those that treat men with despiteful usage perhaps it is because they are put up in secret but then what means the yelling of those curses That ill language that is banded to and fro While none will be behind in the returns of these how far soever we are off like Thunder these are heard and thence you may behold them also tearing Christs wounds wider to mouth their swelling passion we may see their anger redden with his Blood and themselves spitting out that Blood by imprecations at the face of him that did provoke them we may see them raking Hell to word these prayers sending themselves thither in wishes that they may express them with more horrour The Hatreds and Revenges which men act on them that have offended them hates that seldom ever dye till themselves do which the Frost of the Grave onely cools yea many times they are rak'd up and keep their heat in the ashes live in the grave and are as long liv'd as the families which for the most part is more careful and renacious of them then of their Inheritance The executions of these are often writ in characters legible at utmost distance in this Mount of the Lord they may be seen but where now are the Christians of my Text and of this day There 's no appearance of them in the face of the whole Globe of our Profession nay worse it is scarce possible they should appear the duties of loving enemies of returning affroâ—ts with kindnesses these are banisht thence other virtues are practic'd down but these are scorn'd and quarrel'd down 'T is become a base thing and not to be endur'd to be a Christian in these instances See pride and passions swoln up to an height which Christ's Mount cannot reach and which he must not level by his precepts for since he was not pleas'd to consider how inconsistent in this last age of the World his rules would be with those of honour and in making his Laws â—ook no care of the reputation of a Gentleman 't is fit his Laws should give way to the constitutions of some Hectors and he must â—ear the violation of them and all this must be reasonable too Good God! what prodigy of age is this when Christ the Loâ—d cannot be competent to judge either of right of honour â— of reason When to be like God and to be perfect as our Father â— Heaven is perfect is to be most sordid and unworthy of a Gentlâ—â—an and in the name of God these men that are too great for vâ—â—ue that brave out Religion and will needs give rules to God â—hat rank do they intend to stand in at Gods Judgment seat on â—e last day Lord God! grant us to stand among the meek on that â—â—nd with the Sheep and those that are too poor in spirit to defy their â—nemies and thy commands for however the meek maketh himseâ—â— a prey and is so far from enjoying the promise of inheriting the â—â—th that the virtue is scarce allow'd to sojourn in the earth as â—it had breath'd it's last in this our Martyrs prayer took it's flight with his spirit and those stones that slew him were the Monâ—â—ent of loving enemies of praying for those that persecure an murder and such Charity were not to be found among us any more yet sure I am these charitable persons shall enjoy the friendship and the glories of That Lover that did Bless Do goodâ—â— Pray and Dye for Enemies and these meek men shall reign with the Laâ—b who was slain and is worthy to receive power and riches and wiâ—dom and strength and honour and glory and blessing all which be ascribed to him and to the Father
wrong From his own eyes this Love too like that in the Poets cannot see yea covers all that is not fit for light suffers onely the graces to be naked near him and not to name all which you may find there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 7. believeth all things however incompatible to love and to be wise have been accounted yet this Love is 8. James his Wisdome that came down from Heaven Cap. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to inâ—erpret any thing to the most favourable sense and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easie to be persuaded still believes the best and where it cannot yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hopes the best Affection while it lives cannot despair for then it must deposite its desires which are onely the warmth of Love and till it die cool not but if all do not answer hopes yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does wait for it is not discourag'd with relapses and the repetitions of injuries but still expects and suffers all the contradictions of spite and wrong Now if all these acts and the many other there are essential to Love and all be under Obligation and S. Paul says there they are so much Duty that without these performances all Faith and all Graces profit nothing the preaching Rhetorick of men and Angels would be nothing else but tinkling and working Miracles but shewing tricks It follows then these acts must necessarily have a certain object there must be some body that we are bound to love thus and if that Object be our Neighbour as that is most sure 't is clear my Neighbours injury or hate or enmity to me cannot take off nor yet diminish in the least that obligation I have to all those acts but I must love him though he be mine enemy in every of those instances For it is plain his having wrong'd me does not make him cease to be my Neighbour nay more that enâ—ity does formally dispose and quallifie my Neighbour for the object of my love and many of its acts cannot relate but to a man that injures me it must be in respect to provocations that love is said to cool into such a temper as is not easily provokt For men are not provokt with kindnesses I cannot suffer any thing but wrong nor suffer long except there be continuation and frequency of wrongs Nor is it possible I should forgive unlesse it be offences done against me And so for divers of the rest Now it were strange the Enemy should supersede the obligation of that Duty which cannot be a Duty but in order to an Enemy that injury should give me a release from doing that which I can never have cause or occasion to do but in the case of injury that I should have leave not to obey the Command for that meer reason which alone makes it possible to obey it and which alone makes the Command whereas indeed because I must needs love in these expresses therefore he must needs be my Enemy whom I must love But if he be without all provocation very unjustly so if his hate be his sin so that he hath offended God too in it may I not then espouse Gods quarrel thus farre not to love his Enemy if I must mine own not to love the injurious the sinner Vice certainly is the most hatefull thing that is and therefore it must needs render the subject not to be belov'd accordingly 't is said that the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike hatefull unto God Wisd. 14. 9. and David does comply with God in this Psalm 139. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate Thee yea I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies And when I reflect on mine under this Noâ—on or if mine be such as set themselves against Religion and the peace and quietnesse of the Church am I bound to love them if so then I may be allow'd to do it with a little regret sure But yet if we consider how these in the Text are designated by that Appropriation your enemies which means those that hate you my Disciples those that in the last words of my Text will persecute you even for your being mine and yet those they are bid to love we may conclude in the next place we may not hate our enemies as Sinners nor yet does enmity with God his Church or his Religion qualifie a person for our aversation or mischiefs I except here Apostacy and utter obduration in it a state that incapacitates for mercy and by consequence for love and kindnesse There is a sin which S. John would not say that we should pray for and the Church thought that there was such a sinner Julian but as to lesse degrees they that are suppos'd to persecute Disciples and in doing so persecute Christ himself may well be granted sinners enemies to God and Christianity but yet says he I say unto you love these your enemies Tertullian understood this so and writing to the Governour of Carthage who threatned all the Christians of that Province with Excision that he might persuade him from his purpose thus began his Proposals We do not write as fearing for our selves or dreading any thing that we are like to suffer for we did enter our Religion on the condition of suffering we covenanted to endure and staked our lives when we began our profession but 't is for you we fear for you our enemies whom our Religion does command us to love and to do good to And though we must hate Vice and do our best to root out Infidelity and Atheisme destroy Profanenesse irreligion and Heresie and Schism these are fit objects for the zeals of Hate and for the feavers of our Passion and if our enemies be such we may meetly endeavour they may have appropriate restraints yet not to exercise the acts of Charity and kindnesse to them we have no allowance no sins can make it lawfull for us to ruine or not to do good to the Sinners In fine the onely persons that the Jews pretended to have ground to hate were Enemies and enemies indeed to their Religion the Idolatrous Gentile-world therefore that being now forbid to us there is no sort of men nor any man whom it is lawfull for a Christian not to love and all the reasons urg'd here by our Saviour do prove that all mankind whether good or bad is the object of a Christians love because God does good to all his methods of Mercies are universall he makes his Clouds drop fatnesse even upon them that consume the encrease on their Lusts and sacrifice it to their Riots making their belly be their God he gives abundance of his good things unto those that love them onely as they advantage Vanity and Sin and that turn Gods store into provision for Vice and for Destruction He gives gold to them that make gold their Idol and bestows large portions of earth on them that are Children of Hell and them who