determination just and necessary But sure when God hath put other needs in my making and hath provided supplies for them those also are as just and necessary objects of desire while they are with and under him But yet he that had brought all his affections into Davids frame might well say he desired nothing upon Earth besides nothing with God for he had weaned his very Flesh and all the craving appetites of Sense from their own objects and had fix'd them upon God in all their strength and vigour My Soul saith he thirsteth for thee elsewhere my Soul gaspeth unto thee even as a thirsty Land and my flesh also longeth after thee Psalm lxiii 1. How My Soul thirsteth for thee with thee indeed is the Well of Life But Thirst is an Appetite gasping a consequent defailance and impatience of the Body to both which the Soul is a meer stranger as it is also to the ways by which the Body does desire â—or the Soul is drawn by moral engagements by persuasions and motives there is place for deliberation and Choice in her Desires she can demur in her pursuits divert her Inclinations and quench a Desire with a Consideration but the Flesh pursues in a more impulsive manner is drawn and spurr'd on by such impetuous propensions as are founded in matter You can no more persuade a thirsty Palate not to thirst than you can woo a falling Stone to stay its hast or invite it to turn aside from its direction to the Center Yea but the Soul also exerts it self in all these appetites of flesh and matter and with all their violence when it looks on God when we have once had a taste or when indeed we but discern our needs of him whether our Temporal or Spiritual those of the Soul or Flesh all the desires of both then fly at him and with a tendency most close and uncontrollable then nothing besides him For all the appetites of Body croud into the Soul that they may catch at God that Thirsts and Gaspes And the Soul does put on the violent impetuous agitations of the Bodies Appetites My Soul thirsteth for thee and my Flesh also longeth after thee What Longing is whether an Appetite or Passion of the Flesh or Mind whose signatures are more express 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 practice 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 happiness 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 Angels now how can this man desire any thing on Earth besides the 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 Souls thirst for God he can furnish drink for a Soul the Blood of God But yet while this Soul sojourns in this earthly Tabernacle the man will still want other supplies 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 annex'd by Promise Matth vi 33. it is for such to be sollicitous 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 lies 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 then I need desire nothing besides him But yet Necessities will crave Hunger
Scripture and I know that learned men have arts by obscure places to confound the plainest just as the Philosopher did motion Neither am I so perverse and singular not to think that universal practise and profession of the Church does much assure and confirm explications of Scriptures whether obscure or plain But this I say that the diversities of explication come as I now said from the diversity of principles or rather prejudices and that this only is the cause of it I thus demonstrate First in the Socinian who interprets all those Scriptures which the Catholic world hath still apply'd to the Divinity and satisfaction of Christ that I name no more points otherwise then the Church did alway and I affirm he does it not because he thinks the words do favor his interpretation but because his principle requires it namely this To admit nothing into his faith but what agrees with that which he counts reason which in a Socinians faith is judg of all points in the last resort And I mean reason upon natural principles and thus I prove it Socinus speaking of Christ's satisfaction says the word is not in Scripture yet if it were there very often I would not believe it because it does not consist with right reason that is with the arguments that he had brought against it drawn from human principles And therefore he there adds those things which 't is apparent cannot be i. e. that appear such to him who judges by the principles of natural reason which yet cannot judg of supernatural and infinite beings tho the Holy Scripture does expresly say they are yet must not be admitted idcirco sacra verba in alium sensum quam ipsa sonant per inusitatos etiam tropos quandoque explicantur and for this reason we make use of even unusual tropes strain'd figures to explain the words of Holy writ to other senses then the words themselves import And so he therefore serves that great variety of words by which the Scripture does express Christs suffering for our sins in our stead as our sacrifice against the universal notions of those words not only which the Church of Christ but which the Jews and which the heathen world had of them And when his reason told him that Christ could not be God one with his Father that he was so far from having any being from eternity as that he was not at all till he had a being from the Blessed Virgin Therefore when the Scripture saies directly I and the Father are one he must strain it to this meaning are of one mind we agree in one altho St John avert that by distinguishing those two expressly Yea worse when to prove that Christ had a being e're the world was made we urge from the first Chap. to the Hebr. what St Paul produces from the Psalms and does apply to him most particularly Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the Heavens are the works of thine hands they shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as does a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail They explain it thus that God by Christ will at last destroy these Heavens and this Earth and change them according to that saying in the Psalms which altho the Apostle produce at length as it stood there both concerning the Creation and destruction of the world yet he intended only to apply this last to Christ. And tho he say as well of the same Lord Thou Lord in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands as thou shalt change them yet he meant no more but that this change God would effect by Christ. It is not possible that the text can give any the least countenance to this interpretation The different explication of this Scripture does not come from the obscurity of any words in it for in the Psalm they and we understand the same words in the same sense exactly therefore that we differ here is not from any thing in the words quoted but is wholly from the Principle And we may not wonder for the plain sense will not sute with their Hypothesis There are no other that are instanc'd in as differing from us in points of faith but the Romanist I know not whether they account those differences to be in things necessary to salvation If that be true that they allow for what cause they know best some that are reconcil'd to their Church to communicate with ours that is join in our worship and by doing so own the profession of our faith in distinction to that of others or at least espouse the scandal of the owning it Then one would think they must account that there is nothing in our worship don that is unlawful nor omitted that is necessary nor any thing Heretical profest at least that there 's no scandal in the owning that profession For if there were they did allow them only to profess and act gross sin which certainly they would not do So that poor Protestants when they are pleas'd to give leave may be no Heretics and therefore there is nothing of it self in that profession faulty But yet on the other side since we see they call us Heretics and when they have no power over us damn us to Hell fires and when they have had power damn'd us to the fire and fagot also sure they think the differences to be in things necessary But yet the account is easy how not the obscurity of Scripture but a Principle or prejudice does cause this For we are bound in conscience to grant they believe their own Principles Now 't is a Principle with them that their Church cannot erre and therefore that their present faith and consequent depending practice was their faith and practice alwaies That it may appear so they must seek for countenance from Scripture and if any thing there seem to thwart their faith or practice they must smooth and disguise it that it may look friendly And 't is most certain if the Scripture should be never so express against them whilst they think it is not possible that they can err they cannot think it possible Scripture can mean what it pretends to speak 'T were easy to make instances As first for invocation of the Saints departed which with them is a point of faith Bellar. and Cochleus produce that of the Psalms I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help Psalm 121. 1. and altho the text directs that looking up expressly to the Lord that made heaven and earth v. 2. and tho it be a Principle with them that on those everlasting hills there were no Saints in Davids time that could be invocated they were all in limbo then they say yet as I said they would have
next Enter thou into thy chambers Whence we did observe that in times of storm and calamity the onely way to withdraw our selves from the violences of discontents and troubles is to retire to Praiers and Closet exercises of Devotion If I should go to prove this I might read you the whole book of Psalms the Psalter being but Davids Liturgy in time of sadness the service and the refreshments of his sorrows To tell you that he says In my trouble I will go call upon the Lord Psal. 18. 6. and when I was in trouble I called upon the Lord Psal. 120. 1. or again for the love that I bear unto them they take now my contrary part but I give my self unto praier Psal. 109. 4. this would be to no purpose for the whole book is but doing this And indeed to do it is the best counsel God himself do's give 't is that he do's invite us to in such a discourse come my people enter And for the comforts of it I shall enclose them in the application which shall pass by that strange mistake that is in some men who seek to quench the sorrows of calamity by the entertainments of sin to divert sad thoughts by vicious company to refresh themselves with the jollities of iniquity to choak the remembrance of their afflictions with riot and drown it in excesses Alas 't is not go abroad unto the open lodgings of intemperance and to the Inns of pleasure but come and enter thou into thy chambers And secondly it shall omit that very near as great mistake of them who in times of impending calamity busy themselves with the cares of the world whose hearts are then especially set on thriving and they immerse themselves in the wayes of gain looking on that as the thing that is to be their great security and that they shall provide against all sad events by that Strange that in the time of pungent troubles when they are encompassed with misery to run into the thorns and briars as our Savior calls them should be our onely hopeful refuge and retiring place that men should be then most griping after that the cares of keeping which and the fears of loosing it are the onely great things that make calamity grievous He who then makes himself Master of possessions gives pledges to Affliction Shall I then put my self further out into the world when Gods discretion bids me enter thou into thy chambers But thirdly I apply directly to the calamitous however destitute and unhappy When thou art brought at once low enough for pity but so unhappy as to be scorn'd ruin'd and contemn'd too come here and pour out thy soul into the bosom of him who thou art sure will not refuse thee nor turn away his face from thee but stands here to invite thee with all the compellations of love Here thou mayst lay open thy case to him that had so much kindness to thee as to die for thee and mingle thy own tears with the bloud of God that was shed for thee To have any friend whom to impart thy griefs to is in good measure to unlade and emty thy self of them thou hast here the most faithful bosom of thy Savior whom thou mayst behold in the same postures of affliction that thou thy self art in out of affection to thee and suffering for thee in Agonies of one and the other sweating as much with heats of love to thee as of pain for thee hanging down his head upon the cross with languishments of kindness and of weakness and his arms stretch'd into the posture of receiving thee to his embraces and his side open'd not onely to shed bloud and water for thee but to receive thy tears and give thee passage to his very heart Come then my People come to me if thy sad expectations be like plummets at thy heart and weigh it down yet lift up thy heart together with thy hands in assur'd confidence that that kindness which did thus express it self will never fail thee If notwithstanding this the pressure make thy thoughts to sink and thy soul to grovel let it be but a bowing down in submission to my will who certainly know what is best for thee come then and give thy self up into my hands as into the hands of a faithful Redeemer Now the devout soul doing so by often betaking himself to God upon these occasions becomes acquainted with his Maker and in all discontents he will strait run to his Acquaintance there to disburden himself and in all fears thither he hasts for shelter with the very same complacencies that our Savior says the young one does to the wings of the hen at the approach of danger there the soul nestles and is hugely pleas'd with the apprehensions of its comfortable warm security By frequent converses of this kind and other practices of Devotion and Meditations on the mercies of his providence and his protecting kindnesses besides the glories of his Preparations towards his future Estate the soul mounts up to great degrees of confidence and familiaritie with God and God does use when a heart does thus ply and follow him and become intimate with him to reveal himself also to that heart in the midst of his devotions when he is conversing with the Lord he will breathe into him the inspirations of Heaven and with soft whispers speak peace close to his heart break in upon him with flashes of joy warm him with gleams of comfort which ravish the soul with delight in the emploiment Hence grow strange intercourses betwixt them the Lord pours in of his Holy Spirit that bond and ligament of God and the soul that maintains perpetual commerce between them they do nothing but close and mingle as it were till the heart mount up to those extasies that we read of in devout persons that entertain themselves to miracle in the enjoyment of those Contemplations which these exercises do afford them The heart then melts no longer in the tears and sorrows of affliction but with the dissolvings of love when thro excess of complacency in God and in his joys the soul hath a kind of impotency of Spirit so as it cannot contain it self within it self but as a liquid thing hath its overflowings and is poured out into the bosom of the beloved and by an outgoing faints from it self into an union with the Object of its affections And the Soul that by the practices of Devotion is brought to be thus affected hath not onely fulfill'd the counsel of the Text retir'd into his chambers but is also brought into Gods chambers so the Spouse in the Canticles expresses c. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his chambers and c. 2. 4. He brought me into his banquetting house and his banner over me was love and in c. 3. 10. she describ'd the bed-chamber whether she was brought the midst whereof was pav'd with love and all this means but the entertainments of devout Contemplations And Christ in
to this rencounter of the object of its strong affections no rest but in the labors that work towards it no calm but in those violences And much of this there must be in Religion where the heart is set upon the hopes of it on heaven He must be eager in it as the covetous is on his gains the proud man on his pomps the pleasurist on his sports the Epicure on his excesses It is not possible a man should have no heart to that on which his heart is set He therefore that hath set his heart on heaven must be religious and holy and so it is concluded that the liberal-minded must needs be so The progress of which proof is this he whose heart is in heaven his conversation will be there his life will be Christian and holy he whose treasure is in heaven his heart is in heaven he that hath taken off his heart from the world and out of liberality of heart gives alms he laies his treasure up in heaven and then it is concluded that he is religious And this now may apply it self without my help to press it to you Ah my Brethren chuse and strive towards a vertue that will help you to all the rest that will calm and moderate your affections to this world and the dying follies of it and that will draw your hearts to heaven and set them on the world to come Who would not labor for one disposition of mind that comes with such a train of pieties that hath all Christianity in its attendance and brings all into the soul with it Who would not give alms if by doing so he give himself a shole of vertue to whom is this man bountiful but to himself indeed Here is a ground for men to beg after the fashion of Lombardy Be good to your self Sir and bestow an alms upon me for he indeed is good unto himself who what he gives laies up in heaven as a treasure for eternity and at the same time entertains the disposition to all piety in his heart receives all vertue into him I sahll not need to call in accessory proofs fetch in auxiliary motives tell you that works of charity are called good works in Scripture and the liberal man good So Rom. 5. 7. the good man signifies and Tit. 2. 5. where the women are commanded to be good it is merciful so works of mercy are call'd good works Acts. 9. 36. doing good Matt. 12. 12. Heb. 13. 16. good fruits James 3. 17. So to work good signifies Gal. 6. 9. and every good work 2 Cor. 9. 8. is works of mercy as if he did engross all goodness and that same vertue did fulfil the title Nay I tell you more that the merciful man and the perfect man are but two words for the same person Matt. 5. 48. Luke 6. 36. all Christianity is so sure appendant to this disposition of the heart when it is in the soul I tell you not when it is now and then in the actions that this alone is perfectness 't is entire lacking nothing And then here is a clear account why at the last great trial nothing should come upon account but charity that is the only thing the Judg takes cognizance of at the day of final doom When I was hungry ye gave me meat the words of everlasting Judgment pass only in relation to this nothing but charity do's come into that sentence for all the rest is implied in this and where the heart is liberal the whole life will be Christian this is an evidence will pass at God's Assise stand before the Searcher of the heart and reins And therefore it may well be a sign to us and make proof that this grace in the heart bounty of mind is a great evidence of a truly Christian heart the second Proposition Blessed Savior thou that wert all bounty to us that didst emty thy self to enrich us and didst chuse rather to die thy self than not relieve us when we were sick to everlasting death give us grace to be like-minded shed into our hearts this disposition of soul that will make us so remember thee a disposition that will make our affections even and moderate to things of this earth which by teaching us to part with wealth contentedly will work us out of the world and teach us not to be enamoured on the advantages of wealth not to be passionate for pomps or pleasures or for any superfluities which wealth procures which will set our hearts in heaven and lay up treasures for us there which if it rob us of the pomps and the magnificences of this world will give us for them pomps of piety the whole train of vertues a long attendance of graces if it deprives us of some heights or some excess of pleasures it will recompence with the satisfactions of relieving Christ in his members here and reigning with him hereafter in Kingdom SERMON XXII THE LIGHT OF THE BODY is the Eye Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evill thy whole body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness PHILOSOPHY do's say that all vertues are so annext and tied together that it is not possible for any man to have any one truly and compleat but he must needs have all they are like pearls upon the necklace from which if any violence pull one the string is broke and all are shatter'd and disorder'd And S. James saith c. 2. 10. Whosoever shall offend in one point is guilty of all and sure the vertue of the Text makes good both these Positions if liberality of heart be that one point he that excludes it from his Soul shuts out the rest at once All the graces are as train to that leading vertue are its such close attendants that they must needs have the same fate and either dwell together in the heart or all together be thrust thence for if thine eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if thine eie be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness An envious discontent uncharitable mind makes the whole life un-Christian and he that do's offend in that one point must needs be guilty of all and if Charity that bond of perfectness in S. Paul that tie of graces that do's unite them to it self and with each other if that be there all graces must be there and liberality of heart makes the life Christian for if thine eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light But I am now to shew you that bounty in the heart is a great Sign of a true Christian heart that that person who not out of easiness or modesty of constitution not knowing how to deny when he is askt nor out of inconsideration or vanity bestows an alms or else when importunities
Riotous that Eats to eat eats to hunger and provoke not satisfie how will he content himself there where their happiness is they shall neither hunger nor thirst or the Incendiaries that love to set all on fire what should they do there where there are no flames but such as kindle Seraphins so that flesh and blood not only shall not but cannot enjoy the Kingdom of God And why then should they long after or think of it Nay I would this unhappy Age and an unlucky axiome of Aristotles did not convince that they do think there are no such things Sensual pleasures are corruptive of Principles saith he and indeed where Damnation is the conclusion 't is a much quieter and more easie thing for Men of Wit and Understanding to deny the Principles than granting them to lie under the torture of being liable to such an inference they therefore that resolve to love this Life and all the sinful pleasures of it at the next step resolve there is no other Life And now this pamper'd and puft Flesh is got into the Psalmists Chair the Chair of Scorners and 't is one of the Luxuries of their life to scoff at them who are so foolish as to be Religious and to deny their flesh its present appetites and pleasures on such thin after-hopes here their Wit also is an Epicure and feasts and triumphs dictates and professes in that Chair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Chair of Pestilences as the LXX translate and very truly for such men shed a Sphere of Contagion about them and their Discourses are effluvia of the Plague and the breath of Pestilence But how to get Flesh down out of this Chair that 's the difficulty yet that my Text will tell us for all this progress of the Flesh is trasht and checkt by Sufferings for He that hath suffered hath ceast from Sin Which how I will briefly shew The Fleshes first Art was by immersing it self in the full Lawful use of Pleasures and by consequence in the immoderate to prevail with the Soul to find a gust in them and from a continued enjoyment to conclude them necessary and so from the importunities of a perpetual temper and an accustomed satisfaction to think of nothing else in this life Now it is plain Affliction made this Art unpracticable for that it did do so was every 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 always 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 i. 5 6. But he that mortifies sometimes that does acquaint even his most innocent desires with a denial 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 bowels 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 acquaint 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 Fiery 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 darkness 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 â—â—ke 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 dimness of Anguish we might see more than by Vision and truly 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 beatifical 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 ix 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
House and Land to Land till he become the Lord of his Horison 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 Adam 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 snares fire and brimstone thence and this is all the Sinner's portion Psalm xi All that I am like to get unless I have a person that will attribute 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 lies 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 Heaven 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. viii 34. a Master of Requests one that will not onely hand in my Petitions get access 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. iv 14. 16. For though my supplications have not strength nor ardour that can mount them into Heaven and are too impure however wash'd in my repenting Tears to draw nigh to the Lord yet being put into the High Priests Censor with the Altar coals to give them holy flame and wrap'd up in his Cloud and Smoak of Incense that will cover all the failings of my Prayers they may get access into his Ears and his Compassions Indeed how can they choose when Christ does joyn his Intercessions for my requests will go where the High Priests do go he carries them now He himself doth sit at the right hand of God The intercessions that are made for me are made upon the Throne and therefore cannot be repuls'd from thence and such desires command and they create effects But should my Prayers fail and should God hide himself from my Petitions withdraw himself and hide his face from them although they be even before his face Yet Secondly I have an Advocate there too 1 John ii 1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins one that not onely pleads for me but brings the satisfaction of my Forfeiture in his hands makes the just value plead appears there with his Blood and proves a recompence 'T is Jesus Christ the righteous Advocate that does propitiate and atone son what he pleads for purchase what he begs 'T is true that poor Worm saith he hath provok'd thee often Lord but thou didst smite the Man that is thy fellow for it Behold my Hands and look into my Sides see there thy Recompence wilt thou refuse that Satisfaction thy self didst contrive and thy beloved Son did make why did a Person of the blessed Trinity descend from Heaven and Divinity to be made Sin and be a Curse but to Redeem him from the Curse and Sin and to entitle him again to the possession of Heaven and God Why was I Crucified but that thou might'st be aton'd and he be pardon'd Thus he solicites for us there presents himself in our stead as our Attorney He was not a publique Person onely on the Cross but he is so at the right hand of God as he was there our Representative and bore our sins so he is here our Representative and bears our wants was there our Proxey to the Wrath of God is here our Proxey to his Mercies and Compassions He looks upon himself as in our case whose Cause and Persons he supplies and so is prompted to desire and beg for our poor sakes and he looks upon us as on himself and so obtains as for his own beloved sake pleads as our selves and then as to himself he does decree Sentence and grant For Thirdly I have there a Judg and this is he who sits at the right hand of God to Judg the quick and dead I might have said a Saviour for he was exalted to a Saviour to give Remission of Sins But my Judg is as kind a word For however there be some will cry for Rocks and Hills to hide them from his Face yet this they are afraid of is the Face but of the Lamb Apoc. vi 16. And it is strange that they who can look upon Hell and charge Fiends in a sin should tremble at a Lamb and fly him so But to the Faithful and sincere endeavouring Christian though be sins as his Advocate is his propitiation so his Judg is his Sacrifice is that Lamb that does take away the sins of the World is his â—in-offering his expiation onely remov'd off from the Altar to the Judgment-Seat indeed the Mercy-Seat the Throne of his Atonement and his Absolution Where his Judg notwithstanding that his Forseit shall Decree Possession to him Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Lastly we have our first fruits for so S. Paul does call our Saviour and then in whatsoever sense that which is done to the first Fruits is applicable to the Harvest all this being hallowed in their Consecration in that sense we our selves are raised to the right hand of God together with this our First Fruits And now O Lord whom have I in Heaven but thee I have my self in pledg and earnest there And then they that rather than have these Interests these Heavenly possessions in present will have onely desires here on Earth are certainly of a preverse and Reprobate choice Sure it would make Consideration sick to think of the comparison betwixt the after-expectations of a Pious man and those things which our worldly persons call present Enjoyments how for the little spangles of their pride they are so taken with its rustling Pomp they reject Glory that can never wither fade or sully forfeit the being cloath'd upon with Immortality How they lose all that everlasting Heaven means for little
things that go by in a Whirl-wind come in storm and so they pass away refuse inmortal Hallelujahs for a Song cast away solid Joys and an Eternal weight of Blessedness for froth for the shadow of smoak Perchance this may be said for them the nearness of the object does impose upon them they choose something in present rather than dry future hopes But then when that advantage to lies on the other side their Choice hath no Temptation when the Pious mans possessions are in hand the others onely in desire in view indeed they may be he does catch at and pursue them still But the hinder Wheel of the Chariot that presses and with larger turns and rowlings hastens after may as soon hope to undertake the first as that man reach a satisfaction still it removes and he does onely heat his appetite in posting after it onely get more desire Now 't is prodigious that these great Men of Sense should be men of such Faith and Expectation as to trust and hope in things that have so constantly so daily mock'd their confidences and desires yet be not onely Infidels to all Gods blessed preparations which they have nor reason nor Experience against but also have no sense nor relish of himself in present Not taste nor see how gracious the Lord is 'T is said that the desires of Earthly sensual things do make the greatest part of the Torments of Hell Now though this Doctrine be false and pernicious yet 't is plain that Torment must attend strong passions and most infinite desires which are radicated in the Sinner's heart and which he carries hence and cannot there deposite and to which yet satisfactions are impossible against his knowledg to be mad to have what he knows all the World cannot make it possible for him to have this tears his Soul Affections these that may be said in some sense to fulfil some of the expressions of the Torments of that place their Envy makes the gnashing of their Teeth and their Desires are their Vultures Thus Tantalâ—s's riotous hunger that does gnaw his bowels is his Worm that never dies and his intemperate thirst his everlasting burnings and his Water that he cannot reach or taste of is his Lake of 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 an touch neither for his uses so that the Worlds delights are very like the miseries 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-denial 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 annex'd 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 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 Goodness 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. The Seventh SERMON Preached at WHITE-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 ways much less 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 ask'd 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 Apparel 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 Cross his coming as a Priest The Third is when he comes to visit for Iniquity coming
it self in the sackcloth and neglected rudenesses 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 Families 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 ways that lead to this place of Torment prevail with them to join 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 says Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven Matth. xviii 10. Which one expounds if we neglect to do what is 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 Custom that will ruin it eternally and when he shall bring against us an instance out of Hell here and the kindnesses of one among the Devils shall come in Judgment against us where we see the Rich Man thought not of his own condemnation so much he thought of the averting that of his Brethren We might suppose a man in his condition could not consider any thing but his own Tortures O yes to preserve others from them yet when the man in Hell does so the men on Earth do think of nothing more than to entice others into them And is it not a strange Age then when to tempt is the onely mode of kindness and men do scarcely know how to express themselves civil to their Friends but by pressing them to sin and so be sick with them as if this were the gentile use of Societies to season Youth into good Company and bring the Fashionable Vices into their acquaintance And 't is well if they stay there it happens so that Parts and Wit Faculties and Acquisitions do ingratiate men into these treacherous kindnesses and qualifie them for the desires and friendships of such persons as entertain them by softning them into loosness and then into prophaneness debauch their manners and then their Principles teach them to sport themselves with Vice and then with Holy things and after with Religion it self which is a greater Luxury than that their Riots treat their Appetites withal the Luxury of Wit And thus they educate them into Atheism and these familiar Devils are call'd Acquaintances and Friends And indeed the Companions in sin a man would think should be dear Friends such as pour an heart into one another in their common Cups shed Souls in their Lusts are friends to one another even in ruin and love to their own Condemnation are kind beyond the Altar-flames even to those everlasting fires such communications certainly cement affections so that nothing can divide them And let them do so but Lord send me the kindness of Hell rather one that will be a friend like this man in his Torments that with unsatisfied cares minded the reformation of his Friends Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent which brings me to the Choice the second thing If a Ghost should indeed appear to any of us in the midst of our Commissions it would certainly hurry us from our Enjoyments and there are no such ties unions by which the advantages of sin do hold us fix'd and jointed to them but the shake and tremble we should then be in would loosen and dissolve them all and make us uncling from them if we may believe discourses that tell us such a sight is able to startle a man however he be fix'd by his most close Devotions for what the Jews were wont to say we shall die because we have seen an Angel of the Lord from Heaven most men do fear if they should see the Spirit of a dead man from the Earth Indeed the affrights which men do usually conceive at the meer apprehension of such an Apparition do probably arise from a surprise in being minded hastily of such a state for which they are not then prepared so as they would wish or hope to be to which they think that is a Call for we shall die said the Jews But not to ask the reason of this now but find the reason why our Rich Man thinks when Moses and the Prophets cannot make a man repent such a Ghost should We have it in ver 28 they do but discourse to us but one from the dead could testifie he could bear witness that it is so as they say speak his own sight and knowledg and therefore though they hear not Moses and the Prophets yet if one went unto them from the dead they will repent For First One from the Dead could testifie that when we die we do not cease to be and he would make appear that our departing hence is not annihilation and so would dash the hopes of Epicures such as I was and I may fear they are who as they live like Beasts do think to die so too and who are rational in this alone that they desire to be but Animal And all the rest of men whether worldly or sensual that enclose their desires and enjoyments within this life and above all the Atheist that dares not look beyond it all these would be convinc'd by such an evidence Indeed this would take away the main encouragement of all ungodliness which upon little reasonings how thin soever that there 's no life after this does quicken and secure it self Wisd. 2. and therefore every Sect of men that did prescribe Morality did teach an after life nothing was more believ'd among the Heathen Their Tribunal below where three most
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 you 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 Worldliness 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 The Thirteenth SERMON Preached at 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 encourage 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 useful 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 that do resist the happy issue which the Text here promiseth First of the first Though no man can be tempted so as to be foil'd by the temptation but he that is drawn away by his own Lust an enticed James i. 14. and all the blandishments of this World all the wiles and artifices of the Prince and God of it the Devil are not able to betray one into sin till his own Lust conceive that sin and bring it forth Man must be taken first in his own Nets and fall into that pit himself hath digged before he can become the Devil's prey Yet Satan hath so great an hand in this affair that the Tempter is his Name and Office Matth. iv 3. And the War which is now before us is so purely his that we are said to fight not against flesh and blood those nests and fortresses of our own Lusts but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this World against spiritual wickednesses in high places that is against the Enemy here in the Text the Devil Now to bring about his ends upon us he hath several means The first that I shall name is Infidelity With this he began in Paradise and succeeded by it for he had no sooner told the Woman that she should non surely die and so made her doubt of not believe and consequently nor fear that which God had threatned but she took of the forbidden fruit and she did eat and gave it to her Husband too and he did eat Now if a Serpent siding with her inclination could so quickly stagger and quite overthrow her Faith if she because she sees and likes a pleasing Object can in meer defiance of her own assured Conviction when the Revelation look'd her in the face and God himself was scarce gone out of sight straight give credit to a Snake that comes and confidently gives the lye to God her Maker offers her no proof at all of what he says but onely flatters her desires with promises and expectations of the knows not what Ye shall not die but ye shall be as Gods if in spite of Knowledg she turn Infidel so soon and easily 'T is no great wonder if that Serpent do at this distance from Revelation prevail on men whose conversation being most with Sense their satisfactions also consequently gratifying of their Sense they do not willingly assent to any thing but that which brings immediate evidence and attestation of the Senses which the Objects of our Faith do not especially if it give check to and restrain those satisfactions as those do on such men I say that do not care noâ— use in things that are against their mind to apply the Understanding close and strongly to reflect on those considerations which should move assent and work belief Considerations which I dare affirm if with sincerity adverted to if there be no improbity within to trash their efficacy no sensual inclination cherish'd that must hinder their admittance as not being able to endure to lodg in the same breast with those persuasions would make disbelief appear not onely most imprudent but a thing next to impossible But in those that give themselves no leisure have no will thus to advert 't is not strange if through Satans arts in things of this remote kind they have onely languid opinions which sink quickly into doubts and by degrees into flat Infidelity S. Paul does fetch the rise of unbelief of Charistianity from hence 2 Cor. iv 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this World hath blinded their minds That is if the Christian Doctrine do not appear to be the truth of God to any 't is to obstinate persons onely whom the Devil hath besotted so with the advantages and pleasures of this World that their affections to these will not let the other be admitted For The Carnal prejudice can cast a mist before the mind or that a bright an glittering Temptation of this World may dazle it so as that it cannot see that which is most illustriously visible we have this demonstration Those Works which Christ and his Apostles wrought which made the whole World that was Heathen then so many Millions of such distant Nations as could never meet together to conspire an universal change in their Religions made them yet agree to lay aside their dear gods and their dearer vices and do that to embrace a Crucified Deity a God put to a vile ignominious death as one worse than the worst of men and a Religion that was as much hated counted as accursed as that God of it He and Doctrine crucified alike and a Religion too that had as great severities in its Commands
and ears and wings and these of strange prodigious dimensions neither tells us which of these is proper and which figure Here if Reason that can prove God cannot be a Body and cannot endure his God should be a monster shall be called in to pass sentence they that make Philosophy interpret Holy Writ in this case and give the last resort to Reason do no more usurp or trespass on Religion then they that make use of Authors or a Dictionary judge of the sense of any Greek or Hebrew word in Scripture But notwithstanding this we may not think the mysteries of Faith are to be measured by the Rules of natural Reason so to stand or fall as they approve themselves to its discourse or Principles for though it be impossible that any Revelation can contradict right Reason truth cannot be inconsistent with truth yet it is very possible God can reveal those truths which we have neither faculties analogal nor Principles or notions proportioned to nor any natural ways of judging or examining And if those faculties which are not capable of cognisance will judge and judge of things removed from all our notices such as Spiritual Infinite Eternal being is and do it by principles gathered from the information of our Sences and by analogy with things of another kind corporeal finite things that are about us reason need not be informed how liable such judgments must be to mistakes and how that which we call repugnancy in one may have no place in the other Here therefore to submit ourunderstandings and believe is but modest justice and to receive as Children what our Heavenly Father says And therefore they that will presume to comprehend what ere they are commanded to believe and those that will believe nothing but what they are able to comprehend are alike insolent if not pernicious 'T is true God by the Gospel hath revealed and brought to light many things which before appeared onely as he himself did in the Temple in a Cloud namely concerning the Divine nature Persons Properties and the Eternal being and the Incarnation of his Son but still as God himself is said to do these also dwell in Light that no man can approach unto Which he that will 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 brightness 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 brightness of Gods glory and trace out the lineaments by which that everlasting Father did impress 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 Christs Satisfaction saith for my part if it were not onely once but 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 injunctions 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 Naâ—ash 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 a rich 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 truly 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
a discourse and it hath filled so many that there is nothing left unsaid or to be said against as to the main And they that pick some little sayings seeming against this order out of those Ancients which were themselves of it and wrote much expresly for it and think by those means to confute it do the same thing with that Romanist who tore some little shreds that look as if they favour'd some opinions of the Romanists out of the Books of Protestants most of which were directly writ against the Church of Rome and putting those together went about by them to convince the world there never were any such things as Protestants but they that did profess to be so were all Papists But I will say no more then my Text hath done which evidences it not a separation only of Degree but Order by a new Ceremony and commissionating to new powers If I would stay on words 't is expressed here by one that speaks very great distances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate which does in Scripture word the distances that the censures of the Church do make Luke 6. 22. and still in the Greek Liturgies when absolution is given 't is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to free them from all curse and separation as if to pass into the bounds of this uncall'd were such a thing as to leap over the Censures of the Church over the Line of Excommunication and to break through this wall of separation were to break through Anathema's and Curses Yea 't is used to express the distance betwixt the Lord's two hands his right hand and his left at the day of Doom Mat. 25. 32. betwixt which hands there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most insuperable gulf But these I shall urge Indeed the Fathers of the Church have been in these last days counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate in the severest sense cast out as the dung of the Earth and the calling it self was under reprobation as if it separated only to the left hand of God But so it was with their Predecessours in the Text Saint Paul says of himself and the rest of his Order that they were counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the filth of the World and the off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4. 13. and as if they were 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 we 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 will 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 while you were accounted so you did but follow them that went before in Sufferings as well as Office and to do so was part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work that they were separated to which 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 persent Concernment and First Saint Paul's work was to Preach the Gospel and we find him doing it from this time forward to his End The high Priest of the Jews was called the Angel of the Lord of Hosts of which name an Heathen does give this account that he was call'd so because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel or the Messenger of Gods Commands so Diodorus Siculus And Malachy gives the same reason Mal. 2. 7. he was 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 we hear the word from them we have it as it were 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 was to be first revealed to all the World and by continual inculcating secur'd against the depravations which all the malice of the Devil and the World sought to infuse and the unskilfulness of infant Christians did make them apt to entetrain But now we are all confirm'd Christians Yet truly the time is now 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 will feed the Lambs with sincere milk not chaf'd and heated with commotion and busie restless Faction not embitter'd with overflowings of a too-ful gall not sour'd with eager sharpnesses of a malicious or a dissatisfied mind not impoisoned with the foul tinctures of a scandalous life nor the Corrosive infusions of Schismatical 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 work was praying for and blessing them This does begin and close every Epistle that he asserts of himself constantly and 't is well known the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts of those times inspir'd for this Work Now thus our Angels also are Angels of Incense the High Priests Office in especial Those that did daily Minister performd a service of Incense too that did accompany the prayers of the people and sent them up in perfume but the High Priests Incense was part of the Expiation and was the Cloud that cover'd the transgressions of the people when he came with them all about him before the Mercy-seat And they who shall consider that the prayer of Moses Now Moses and Aaron were among the Priests Psal. 99. 6. and He was the chief Priest did withhold the Arm of God when it was 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 fain avoid and says Let me alone that I may destroy them Exod. 32. 10. If thou wilt 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 who shall consider also that his prayer did maintain a breach against the Lord when he had made one and was 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 will certainly desire the Prayers and
them with them to that Sacrament set them at Christs table as it were to feed on that body which they crucified make them imbrue their hands in that blood which they shed And this is the return they make to that blood shed for them They bring them and their vows against them both together to the Altar and they leave their vows there but they take their Sins back with them and serve them still Now does eternal ruin look so lovely to us as that we will break thro all oaths to get at it Is 't worth the while to be at once false to God and our own blessedness Do vows so straiten us that we cannot endure the obligations to be happy In Gods name be at last more true to your own Souls consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding A SERMON OF THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY in being the best SACRIFICE Matth. 9. 13. Go yee and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice THE words are part of a reply of our Saviors to a cavilling question of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing him converse familiarly accept the friendship of an invitation sit and eat with open noted Sinners and which was as bad a name amongst them Publicans ask his Disciples why they and their Master do what they know was forbidden and unlawful To whom having answer'd that he did converse with them only in order to their cure now a Physitian that goes to visit his sick Patients is not therefore blam'd for going to them because they are sick he further justifies himself by an account of Gods own mind and dealing set down in the Scripture of whose meaning if they had not taken notice hitherto he bids them now go learn it For God tells them by his Prophet Hosea that he prefers acts of mercy doing good to others before any Ceremonies of his Worship tho himself ordain'd them whether Sacrifices or whatever others For I will says he have mercy and not sacrifice Therefore Christ did but comply with Gods own will when he accepted of an invitation from such sinners merely to have the better opportunity to invite them to repentance and to heaven and in doing so did but preferr the acts of highest mercy in the world the doing everlasting blessed good to souls before obedience to such ritual precepts as forbad converse with the unclean and sinful I need not here observe that the negation is but comparative and means I will not have Sacrifice but Mercy rather yea I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice where I cannot have both or that by Sacrifice also is meant all Ceremonies of Gods Worship altho instituted by himself and those not taken by themselves and merely external Acts and void of the inward zeal and devotion that should spirit them but taken in their best states yet God will have works of Mercy rather And that doctrine is it seems worth learning and attending to for so in the text there is besides the proposition it self I will have mercy and not sacrifice also the insinuation of its usefulness in those words go and learn what that means I shall not break these into other parts but raise some Propositions for the subjects of my discourse And First since God compares two sorts of things here in the text and says he will have or is pleas'd with one and not the other which other yet 't is plain that he was pleas'd with and would have for he commanded them 't is evident he does imply that as these call'd here Sacrifices were grateful to him as they were obedience to his precepts so the other therefore which he does prefer to those they must be good and acceptable to him in themselves not only as they are commanded Some actions therefore have an intrinsic honesty are of themselves in their own nature morally good and well-pleasing to God as some also are the contrary 2dly Of all that are so in that manner good those of Mercy are in an especial manner such I will have mercy 3dly Of all acts of mercy those are best and most well-pleasing in Gods sight which are employ'd in reducing Sinners from their evil ways those were such our Savior is here pleading for And 4thly 'T is onely the opportunity and the design and hope of doing good to Sinners by reforming them that can make familiar converse with them excusable and lawful I mean where no duty of a relation do's oblige to it Christ himself had no other plea to justify his eating with them but that he intended it as a mercy to them as his opportunity to call them to repentance All these we see flow naturally from the words First some actions have an intrinsic honesty are of themselves in their own nature morally good and well-pleasing to God as some are the contrary When I say they have an intrinsic honesty and are in nature good I mean the rule of them is intrinsic and essential to the agent is indeed his nature and by consequence their goodness is as universal and eternal as that nature Now it is a doctrine that hath had Advocates as ancient as the great Carneades and the Sect of the Pyrrhonians that in nature antecedent to all laws and constitutions there is no rule of unjust or just good or evil honest or dishonest and that nothing of it self is one or other but as our concerns or interests do make it to our selves to prosecute which is the only inclination and the only rule that nature gives us or else as the public interests incline superior powers to prescribe them whom it is our interest also to obey Accordingly we find â—this saying in Thucydides that to them that are in power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing is unreasonable that is useful And the Athenians being stronger tell the Melii that by rules of human reason things are just in that degree that they are necessary And then as necessities and interests do chance to vary good and just must change into their contrary and as different countries and persons cannot but have opposite rules and mesures of necessity and usefulness so they must of just and honest thus the laws of Vertue serve like Almanacks but for such a latitude and a different elevation of the Pole quite alters them and makes them good for nothing A pleasant sort of good and honest this which any wall or dike that divides Provinces or Countries can give boundaries lines and rules to so as that it shall be vertue and right on one side vice and error on the other as if those principles of good and evil which seem planted in us and the world calls natural were nothing else but prejudices taken in from early conversation as dogs learn they say the skill of chase And it were great pity if this age which so much needs the patronage of such a principle to give countenance to their licentious practices had not also found out some that
things laid to his charge some against God himself as prophanation of his temple v. 6. he was accus'd of being also pestilent a mover of sedition v. 5. to all which he answers in my text that he was so far from prophaness in Religion and his duty towards God and from sedition in the State that he did exercise himself in this alone in laboring to have a conscience void of offence in all things by God or his Governors commanded And this president of our Apostle every one that hears me knows the true sons of this Church always follow'd both in doctrine and in practice even to the Martyrdom not onely of their persons families but of the Church it self Not like those holy Church-men who account themselves exemt no subjects to the secular powers nor those others who withdrawing their obedience in all things which they do not like do seem to own no powers but themselves are Subject onely to their own minds Now he that does thus exercise himself always which is the onely thing that I have left to speak to is in that state of Christian perfection which the Travellers to Heaven while they are upon the way can arrive at for that must needs be a good life which is regulated by a good conscience for if a conscience do its part do neither err nor doubt but is tender in all in a word if it inform truly in all duty and thou doest accordingly thou doest all thy duty therefore all good life is call'd by the name of a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19. and plainer Hebr. 13. 18. We trust we have a good conscience willing in all things to live honestly sincere endeavors to obey in every thing a conscience that is right in every thing not boggling with it accepting the persons of duty being very consciencious in some things but taking liberty in others and being so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always not by fits having onely Paroxysmes of Religion now and then very consciencious otherwise loose enough but to be so in all respect and at all times this was the sum of all St Pauls endeavor he had no stricter aims this was the height of his Religion this his exercise Yet why should I call it his exercise when it is his enjoiment 't is his ante past of heaven it self The applauds of an honest undeceiving heart that is conscious to it self of this in earnest they shed comforts into every state of life beyond all that the earth can give they shed the peace of God that passeth understanding If my conscience be clear let my condition be never so overcast I live in shine let them be troubled with afflictions or with sad expectations who understand no delights but carnalities whose souls are married to some little comforts of this world adversity indeed sweeps all their joys away at once but he that understands the comforts of a good conscience and knows where to find them and who hath a treasure of them in his breast will soon be able to allay the other sadnesses What can I want if I have a continual feast and such is a good conscience let all the world look black upon me as long as I have light within me and in that light can see a pleasantness upon Gods face Yea it is this indeed must make prosperity contentful when to the candle of the Lord the light of his countenance also does add its shine when I have no ill remembrances either as to the possession or to the enjoiment when my heart assures me I did neither get it ill nor use it ill 't was truly Gods gift to me and I strive to make it an instrument of my service to him This is transfigur'd prosperity but without this for all the hurry of mens pleasures something will now and then rejolt worse than surfets and come up bitterer than the gall of ejected riots and they shall find their great provisions are but variety of nauseousness onely plentiful vexation and a jolly restlesness while they are here and then when they but think of going hence O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives at rest in his possessions to the man that hath nothing to molest him hath hath prosperity in all things and if he have the sting of conscience to imbitter it which will be sure to stir at such a time alas how unconceivable a sadness must then dwell upon that soul that can think nothing kinder to it self than hell But he that can at such a time say with Hezekiah Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walk'd before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have don that which is good in thy sight then if God do not send a message of fifteen years yet he will add to him an everlastingness of years of joy if his days do no return nor the Sun mount back again to give him a more full noon light he shall be taken to the fountain of eternal light Oh let me have that light that will enlighten the sad approaches of the dark grave that when I am going to make my house in a black lonely desolate hole of earth will be like the day spring of immortality like the dawn of heaven and such glimpses will break in thro a clear conscience 'T was that which made the Martyrs run to the fires of execution as to fires triumph and they look'd upon their flames as on Elijah's chariot's flames that flew upwards not with hast to their own Sphere but the Sphere of Martyr's Heaven and whose brightness did prelude and expire into Glory SERMON VI. Of the Blessedness of Mourners Matt. 5. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted THE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shecina say the Jewish Doctors will not rest upon a sad person that is God will not be especially with him nor will his holy Spirit keep him company that is a solitary Mourner and indeed we often find in Scripture that when the Prophets would invite Gods Spirit down upon they did heighten themselves with mirth but now saith Elisha bring me a Minstrel and it came to pass while the Minstrel plai'd the hand of the Lord came upon him And he said thus saith the Lord 2 Kings 3. 15. as if the Music had inspir'd him and his soul was tun'd into Enthusiasme and so also 1 Sam. 10. 5. thou shalt meet a company of Prophets coming down from the high place with a Psaltery and a Tabret and a Pipe and a Harp before them and they shall prophecy and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee Yea and as God would not dwell with them so neither would he let them keep him company they were not to appear before him sad Deut. 12. 7. And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God and ye shall rejoyce and therefore God hath no worse expressions for unclean Sacrifices than the bread of Mourners Hos.
bliss which to conceive is to be as God and to enjoy is to be one with him And O thou Blessed Jesu the eternal Lord of all those comforts be favourable unto us thy servants that turn to thee with weeping and with mourning that do with hearty bewailing for our hardness desire thee to teach our souls with some compunction for those iniquities that did put thee to death and would ruin us to break our rocky hearts that they may stream out tears for those our sins which shed thy bloud and would cast us into eternal wailings and as thou hast humbled us into the dust and prostrated our very souls unto the ground to grant unto us to sit down in that dust and to bewail our own demerits which our very ruin can neither equal nor amend O suffer us not to be so obdurate as to prove unmoveable by all thy pressures insensible of our own miseries and sufferings and such as amidst the pains of sin do still retain the malice and the obstinacy and then at last by these thy methods and our greifs recover us from the follies of our lives close our eyes and withdraw our affections from the temting lightnesses and vanities of our conversations and fix our thoughts and appetites upon thy serious comforts those heavenly refreshments after so much sadness that we being reckon'd amongst them whom thou dost chasten put into the number of thy mourners whose share of sorrows are dispenc't in this life may have title to the inheritance of Sons the joys of blessedness and the portion of eternal consolations in the land of everlasting pleasures with thee the Lamb that wert slain and art therefore worthy to receive all honor power praise might majesty and dominion with the Father and the Holy Ghost now and for evermore SERMON VII OF THE CLEANSING POWER Of Christian HOPE 1 John 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure HOPE is of all others the most active passion setting all the rest of them and the whole man on work for who would ever do or desire any thing if he did not hope for some good by it It is this hope alone that employs all the men and all the professions of the world it is the wings of the Desires and Actions carrying them thro the greatest difficulties with courage and alacrity with Confidence and an unwearied Constancy Ad bonas spes pertinax animus est Never will a man leave so long as he does hope and of all hopes that of the Christian should be the most active because it aims at the highest good in comparison of which all other good things are but shadows For what are the pleasures of earth to the things of God not worthy to be the expressions no nor the foils of them Now we see the greater the hopes the more active men are in the pursuit of them for who is there that will take so much pains for a Cottage as for a Crown And is it not then a wonder that of all Hopes yet this Hope of Heaven should be the least effectual in the minds of men and of all pleasures those of God should least invite and least imploy us For what one is there that does not with more eager and constant industry pursue the hopes of profit or the hopes of pleasure than he does the hopes of Immortality and of Blessedness How few are there that do not spend more time and more endeavors take more and longer pains in their Sports than in their Religion which could not certainly be if they had not surer and greater hopes of joy from their sports than from Heaven for the greater hope would certainly set them the more on work No Heaven is a thing of no tast carries no profit no pleasure in the meaning of it for if it did it would employ them in the gaining of it and every one that had this hope would purify himself as he is pure Matth. 5. 8. If the inheritance of the Kingdom of God were as some were upon earth entail'd so that do they what they will they could not be put by it there were then some reason not to wonder wherefore we see men live in the broad way to Hell and yet then hope to come to Heaven and certainly nothing but such a perswasion as that can possibly lull men into such a wretchless security as they are possest with in a thing of this eternal consequence For if we should examin them the most sinful wretch of them all hath hopes to be sav'd yea he would not be able to stand under the burden and the horror of his own killing thoughts if he should but once despair of that so that hope he will and yet if he believe one jot of Scripture it is impossible for him to hope it For that bids him not be deceiv'd neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor theeves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God So that he dares not not hope and yet if he do but ask himself he knows he cannot hope and what then makes him do it Certainly the opinion that such and such the inheritance is entail'd upon and be they what they will they shall have Heaven But alas they are mistaken in the nature of the inheritance we may read of many that were cast off and the Heir must be a servant as long as he is a child if he do not obey no hopes of his arriving at his inheritance when he is come to age St John here will dash all those vain hopes and will tell them as they cannot justly hope for none such as they can be possest of that inheritance and therefore 't is to no purpose for them to hope it So also that they do not indeed hope for if they did ever expect to arrive at Heaven they would not run on in a course that leads a clean contrary way The Apostle here propounds five Arguments to exhort them to the study of Piety to press after Holiness and to leave off their courses of sin I shall name them backwards First in the tenth verse if we be Christians we not onely will not but cannot sin Yea secondly we are indeed Children of the Devil if we do v. 8. Neither thirdly have we any Communion with Christ possibly or interest in his Righteousness v. 6 7. Nay fourthly they destroy the very end of Christ's coming into the world v. 5. Lastly in the front of all these neither can they hope to enjoy any of those glorious promises that God hath made to his Children those of giving them glory and immortality For he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure In the handling of these words I shall shew you what it is to purify himself Secondly what kind of purity he is to strive after as he is pure Thirdly what the
and if God himself knew the best way to keep off his Indignation from us then here it is for he prescribes Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast Before I do divide the Text I shall tell you in what sense I interpret those words Enter thou into thy chamber and shut the doors about thee which if it be not according to the immediat and literal importance of them is yet such as is justified by a parallel place of Scripture dictated by our Savior himself and will afford us most wholesom observations I take them in the sense they have Matt. 6. 6. But thou when thou praiest enter into thy chamber and shut thy door so that here they will be the form of prescribing praier in dangerous and sad times when if thou look unto the earth thou shalt behold nothing but trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish why then lift up thine eyes to Heaven go to thy Praiers in times of change when thou knowest not which way to betake thy self go to the Closet of thy devotions take off thy thoughts from these sad objects here below and fix them on the comforts of Religion divert thy thoughts from the occasions of discontent and employ them in meditations upon God in converses with him in contemplations of his Promises and joys in one word spend thy time in Praiers and Devotions That 's the sense the parts are 1. A perswading invitation come my people wherein are the persons invited my people secondly the invitation come 2. Here is that they are invited to set down by way of counsel and that hath several branches 1. Enter thou into thy chambers 2. Shut thy doors about thee 3. Hide thy self with the duration of it as it were for a little moment and secondly the end of this and all the rest that the Indignation may pass over them until the Indignation be overpast In the handling of them I shall take this course first from the first general I shall speak somwhat of the persons invited that have this compellation my people and giving you some reasons of it From the second I shall observe that in times of storm or any sadness the onely way to withdraw our selves from the violences of discontents and troubles is to retire to praiers and the onely comfort then is in the Closet-exercises of Devotion 3. From the next part hide thy self that Praiers are in sad daies the onely great security and the devotion-chamber a sure hiding place from Indignation 4. From the duration that the sorrows of the afflictions which God does suffer to fall upon his own devout People they last but for a little moment 5. From the last there is none of Gods Indignation in them all that overpasses them First of the compellation my People come my People Now God may speak to those here for two reasons first to shew us that in the times of storm and of the breakings out of indignation God invites none to courses of security puts none upon ways of safety do's not take care of any but those that are his People and those in whom his People are concern'd as Kings who are the nursing Fathers of his Church as for others let them take their own courses look to themselves but come ye come my People My People is a word that includes relation and wherein it do's consist you will find from the correlative set together with it in the very making of the Covenant I will be their God and they shall be my People they who take God to be their Lord and assume to become his obedient liege People such have indeed a right and title to his Protections to provide for and take care of them it is his office he undertook it in his Covenant and not to do it were to renounce his compact which he bound himself to with an Oath which 't is impossible for him to do But as for others they have no plea to these Can Rebels claim protection and such who renounce relations that put themselves off from being his People expect that he should look after and take care of them be their Guardian and Security The different condition of these two sorts of People in relation to Gods caring for them in time of judgment you will find Mal 3. 16 17 18. In the times of undisturb'd abundance and of full prosperity when the God of this World is good to them that serve him when the Lord lets men alone and the ungodly thrive then indeed his protections are not much regarded but wickedness wealth seem the strongest security but when God sends his Indignation abroad and when his Judgments sweep away those confidences then this will be a comfortable consideration come what will come I have one that hath writ me in his note-book in his Book of Remembrance to put him in mind that he is to provide for me and when the most florishing ungodly shall be stript of all his hopes and trusts no least relief from them nor can he look for any from the Lord God hath not so much as directions for him here he hath no part not in his perswasions is not invited to his Counâ—els then have I one that will make me up amongst his Jewels have the same cares of me as of his peculiar precious treasures and calls me to security Come my People Or secondly my People to let us see what arts of invitation God does use to perswade us to take good counsel he gives us all the compellations of kindness and speaks us as fair as possibly not to do him a courtesy but to be kind to our selves In other places when he hath no design upon them then he cries to Moses thou and thy People Exod. 32. 7. but when he would do good unto us when he would entice us to be safe then come my People So he does elsewhere use all the titles of love and cloths his invitations with the wordings of our most known Courtships that that which useth to prevail with us may do his work upon us So in the Canticles 5. 2. Open to me my love my dove my spouse my undefiled and the whole book is but the Arts of Divine wooing Strange that the heavenly Bridegroom must court so much to be receiv'd by his Spouse Good God! that thou must be forc'd to give us good words to prevail with us to be good unto our selves that we must be sooth'd temted and flatter'd into preservations and mercies that we should refuse remedy and Antidote unless it be guilded that to lie hid in times of Judgment and to escape Indignation is not motive enough to us but we must be woo'd to do so safety it self must speak us fair or we will none of it and God must flatter us into the places of security Come my People enter into thy chambers the
crop your harvest and when God shall send forth his Reapers the Angels if they can find no returns of all God's cultivating you but all his husbandry his seedness and his pains too have bin lost upon you no increase but onely barreness your end is to be burnt or onely tares they are to be cast into a furnace of fire where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matt. 13. 42. And in like manner by the Parable of fruit trees John Baptist Bring forth fruits meet for repentance for the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire And David describing his blessed man Psalm 1. does it first by shewing he does not bring forth ill fruit But neither will that serve turn to hear and meditate and talk of the word of God and not to do it It is the very same thing as a wilderness upon the water side a dead barren tree upon the River's bank No his man is like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that brings forth his fruit in due season We are God's Vineyard Isaiah 5. and he tells us there what pains he hath bestow'd upon us v. 2. He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vines c. v. 4. What could have bin don more to my Vineyard that I have not don unto it Now if we do not bring forth grapes Go to saith God v. 5 6. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedg thereof and it shall be eaten up break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down And I will lay it wast it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it Yea God did not onely lay wast his Vineyard in that Isaiah 5. because it brought forth sower and wild fruit but our Savior in the Gospel curst a Fig-tree because it brought forth no fruit And indeed that barren Fig-tree was the onely thing upon the earth that ever Christ did curse all his Miracles were mercies but that An unfruitful Christian is such a thing a Savior hath no mercy for a mere negative virtue hath so little claim to Heaven that it cannot escape the curse of a Jesus And shall we apply this first to the conviction of their opinions who think if they lie under no gross customs if they be not tainted with any foul commissions they are then in a safe condition What if they forgive no wrong why they will do none and so who shall lay any thing to their charge Pardon they will not any minute offence because they avoid the wanting it from others and they will not hate nor malice tho they cannot have the bowels of of love no fellowship of Christian kindness they have no foul unclean heats nor no devout ones no ardencies of lust nor yet of zeal so they do not blaspheme God by daily oaths make no matter of worshipping him by daily Praiers and if his holy name be not in their execrations 't is well enough tho he be not in their Petitions No tho they go a little further and besides their doing no gross ills have great Professions of Religion they have all the leaves and foliage of a Christian they make a fair shell of Piety take abundance of pains to do all those things that are to stile them great Professors plenty of hearing and abundance of talking but no doing if you search the leaves you find no fruit no constant tenor of good works in every kind of Christian duty these are but too obvious stratagems of Satan and our deceitful hearts to make us satisfy our selves either with our condition tho our Piety look no further than to do no ill and the positive part of Religion be altogether unregarded by us or tho we have no more of it but the Profession O my Brethren as to these last remember that the curst Fig-tree had leaves had fair shew enough to bait our Savior's hunger and promise him refreshment and temt him out of the way to it and to the other hath God autority onely to forbid can he command nothing from us Are we content onely to abstain from something for his sake but will not do any thing for his nor Heaven's sake Is not his Worship as dear to him as our lusts are hurtful to him and hath he not as much reason to require that we should be devout and holy as that we should not be profance and filthy Can all his mercies all his rewards neither procure nor deserve more of us than onely not to serve the Devil Surely my Beloved both these sorts of Christians shall find that in the catalogue of sins to be accounted for omissions shall be reckon'd when our Savior comes to pass his sentence at the dreadful day of Judgment See the tenor of it Go ye cursed for when I was hungry ye gave me no meat 'T is not ye shall be damn'd because ye stript me and because ye starved me but because ye did not relieve me And 't is so in the other not bringing forth fruit not doing fills up the sentence of final malediction But the sadder conviction of this is for the practice of those that are nothing but commissions whose vice is positive men that cleanse themselves from holiness and go on daily perfecting filthiness If the man Matt. 25. that received the one Talent and laid it up safe in a Napkin and did no ill with yet because he did no good was therefore cast into utter darkness whither think you had he bin cast if he had made that Talent the instrument of his sin if like the Prodigal he had spent it upon harlots or upon excesses And whither shall they be doom'd who do so If it be not enough to abstain from sin what will become of them that do little else but act it If not to do pass sentence how will to commit condemn and if the half righteous shall not be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear If the tree with leaves that was green in foliage be curst shall not the dry and rotten one be burnt Alas for these men what a long stage of duty have they to go thro if they do intend in this life ever to be better who have not yet set forth have entred upon any part who have not cast off the works of darkness which yet when they have don they have but half they must put on the armor of light such too as will shine they must be fruitful and exemplary And this second quality is indeed the great design of this Text which hath more force in it than that of a single command for the verse is a conclusion following upon the three former He tells them that they are Salt
St Paul to such a one was that Saint crucified for thee that he should be more concerned for and more sensible of thy condition and that thou shouldest have a greater confidence of his good will than of his that did and suffer'd all that for thee that he might be merciful and faithful toucht with thy necessities that I mention not the rest of those qualifications that do make one fit to be relied upon 'T is to be fear'd such persons do not know well whom they have believ'd But I pass them There are that trust their being here to Policy and Prudence to their own contrivances that is trust to themselves and give credit onely to what interest or their ambition suggests and accordingly design ends and devise means weave plots spread their nets abroad with cords and lay snares and do all this with that confidence of success as if they did believe they were fulfilling Prophecies and mov'd by the directions of Heaven for many times they seem to do this in the fear of God and in subserviency to Religion but whatever fair pretences some of them may have to wash or color their intentions God you may be sure hath no hand there in those designs where his Commandments are broken Where you discern either as to particulars treachery or fraud or falseness undermining and supplanting to serve interests or pride or malice or revenge or as to publick interverting justice and the due course of Laws or mutiny sedition raising discontents and making breaches 't is not he on whom they have believ'd And did they but consider what they see perpetually how false interests are and how unstable high place how this tumbles men down headlong those change daily and altho men thrive so that they wash their steps with butter they are only so much more in slippery places where God also leaves them somtimes overturns them suddenly Or did they consider who the great Patrons of interest and ambition are Mammon the fomenter and encourager of almost all the mischiefs upon Earth and Lucifer that was discontent in Heaven had ambition to be greater there too mutinied and stirred sedition up against God and got by it to be chief of Devils onely Prince of Hell Did these designers but reflect on these things they would know then whom they have believ'd a deceitful world a false glistering light that mocks them and a treacherous malicious Devil that hath bin a Liar and a Murderer from the beginning I might ask the sensual person whether he that hearkens to the cravings of the one or other of his inclinations and is so perswaded overcome by their insinuations that whenever any of his appetites is high he thinks there is no joy that is like the satisfaction of that appetite and is mad till he have it yet hath found himself betraied fool'd cheated every time he serv'd it but still courts and embraces the false treacherous mischief and will not be disenchanted whether he considers whom he hath believ'd whether he knows that he lets his horse ride him and is guided animated by and believes the beast Once more whether he knows whom he hath believ'd that ownes being an Infidel any one of those that with great seeming gravity or wit and railery declares dissatisfaction at the proof of those things which the world for many hundred years continued so convinc'd of that they chose to die rather than say that they did not believe them when as for them good Souls they think they can believe nothing but upon demonstration yet if a man consider but the men themselves the method and the means of their conviction into that their unbelief he would find that themselves are always vicious and that they examin little but converse much and keep company with them that in the heat and confidence of drink and vice swear 't is impossible those things can be and rally them that give heed to or profess them and then themselves give easy credit to this and their own inclinations that would have them all impossible for it is their concern they are eternally unhappy if they be not so that we know whom they have believ'd their debaucht company and their evil inclinations and these stupid Infidels are the most credulous we see on the least grounds of any in the world It is not my emploiment at this time to make comparison betwixt the one and others grounds the several motives of belief and infidelity 't is plain Christ Judg'd the arguments and grounds of faith were so sufficient that he positively gives his charge thus Go and preach the Gospel to the whole world he that believeth is sav'd and he that believeth not is damn'd And if his threats are as inviolable as his promises 't will be but ill knowing him whom we would not believe the conviction will be very fatal when their unbelief will become vision And this gives me yet occasion to ask what temtation Sinners can have not to believe to be willing to come in to Christ and be sav'd They cannot chuse but see all others whom they have believ'd betraied them and will fail them all their satisfactions must go out their expectations die and perish and why will ye not take up here then why will ye die for ever Is your case think you desperate and have you gon too far to be receiv'd if you should turn Why our Saint here the person of the Text declares he was the chief of Sinners that obtain'd mercy for encouragement to all that would believe and turn and if you did but know whom he believ'd you must know one that went to meet the Prodigal in his return when he was yet far off that sought the lost sheep while he straied and ran away still till he found him and when he was gon so far that he could not return he carried him And will you neither be invited into life nor carried into it Why will ye die Can ye not help it Have your inclinations and customs think you so prevail'd upon you that to leave them looks impossible Then 't is plain you know not whom you have believ'd Is any thing impossible for him that is Almighty whose grace is sufficient Or can he command too hard things who enables to perform what he commands who as St Paul saith worketh in us both to will and to do if we will suffer him He never praied and tried in earnest watched endeavor'd and comported with God's workings that complains thus You cannot but believe indeed they are too hard while you hearken to the cravings of your lusts your customs and your inclinations but why will you believe them still Why will you die Is it not in fine worth while to strive against it but e'en go on with the stream abandon all consideration of concern for that life Indeed if that which God thought worth the concern of all his Attributes the contrivance of his Wisdom the assistances of his Almightiness the
not our age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar were now gon to a strange Religion and so they thro my hypocrisy and desire to live a little time should be deceived by me 'T is said the Prince of Conde gave this answer to King Charles the IX of France who told him he must make his option either of going to Mass or death or to perpetual prison for the first by God's help he would never chuse it in the other he submitted to his pleasure but that God would certainly dispose of them as it seem'd good to him On the other side we have an instance Chilon one of the wise men of Greece who whatsoever his last aim was here his end was to live justly and according to right reason who upon his death-bed told his friends it was not then a time for him to flatter deceive himself his thoughts did not suggest unto him any thing he had don in his whole life that troubled him but one that when he with two others was to sit in judgement on a man that was his great friend who had broke the Law so heinously that it was necessary to condemn him looking out for some means that might save his virtue and his friend too he resolv'd on this that since the suffrages were given so that none could know what sentence any one Judg in particular pronounc'd he perswaded his Companions to absolve him and himself condemn'd him thinking thus he salv'd his duty both as Judg and Friend but when he came to die he thought 't was wicked and perfidious to draw others in to do that which he held not just for him to do he was not true to his own end but was diverted by the calls of friendship to serve other and in that he found his Wisdom fail'd him and his Conscience condemn'd him So that we have seen the Rule exemplified in all kinds Now by this Rule we may make experiment both of the truth of what our Savior here pronounces and mens wisdom also of what kind it is what the aim is whether of this World or of the other and which of the pursuers are the truer to their end and so wiser There is scarce any one profession dignity or place of power nor indeed condition or state of life but is adapted so that it may serve ends either of the Child of this World or the Child of Light and contribute either to the advantages of this life or of that which is to come To take a view of one or two of them the man that gets into authority and place may have for his end to serve God and his Country if he intend it for an opportunity truly and indifferently to administer justice to the punishment of wickedness and vice and to the maintenance of God's true Religion and virtue by such Sons of restraint as the Scripture calls them vice may be discountenanc'd goodness cherish'd till judgement run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream and the Nation be taught to live in peace and honesty or he may intend to serve himself to gratify his pride or his ambition by getting into place and power that so he may be over others and his person more regarded and his will observ'd and himself be more uncontrolable in his words and actions may be vices or to gratify his covetous desires if in the perquisites of his place he find an opportunity for bribes a power to sell justice or what 's worse impunity of wickedness an office where men may buy off their duties yea their crimes and punishments at least a place of doing something like this as they find occasion Now whereas Authority finds good men often modest in the use of it as to its true ends of Religion and Justice power will scarce give them countenance and courage for its executions 't is uneasy or they are sollicited or aw'd and they look off at least they seldom put themselves upon it as upon the prosecution of a thing they mainly aim at or they seldom persevere so on the other side in order to the other ends men struggle for them buy the opportunities of selling give bribes that they may have power to receive them use all arts to compass offices to serve their worldly end with This is more notorious if the Office be Ecclesiastical the true end of whose Ministry is to gather Christ's Sheep that yet go astray to carry on the Salvation of those Souls which God hath purchas'd with his own bloud to preserve his Children from Eternal Hell to be applying to the wounds and the distempers of the body of Christ to prepare his Spouse for the marriage of the Lamb to be Dispensers and Stewards of his means of Grace and Glory in fine Fellow-workers with him to the Everlasting blessedness of those that are committed to their charge and who is sufficient for and does not tremble at these things to all which yet they do solemnly in express words dedicate themselves and their faithful endeavors and are consecrated to it by the Holy Spirit Or the end of this Ministry may be to advance themselves to reap the profits to receive the fleece enjoy the honors no great care appearing of those other dreadful obligations or concern that looks proportionable to them and if men will purchase this charge too as some say we may be sure they do not buy the duty or those fearful obligations and much less the Holy Spirit or his graces but 't is somwhat else they bargain for which they break thro oaths to come at some other end they aim at 2. As for states of life I must be endless should I enter into them to name but that which God himself did institute and first before all others which he made to be the complement of the felicities of Paradise to be mutual support in every state of life give all the comforts of society with innocence to preserve from vice in the most dangerous and fatal instances and so assist in the recovery of lost Paradise to fill earth so as by their good education it might people Heaven and repair its loss of faln Angels But some also may intend no more by it than dowry or to serve the needs or interests of families and to raise them for as for other satisfactions they intend to make them to themselves much otherwise and design not this at all a bar to any do not look upon it as God meant it for a remedy because they would not be preserv'd from the transgression onely they purpose to have such posterity it may be as the Law will suffer to inherit what their vices leave and their arts can secure from Creditors Yet truly since men learnt to disbelieve or not regard their own immortality and then learn not to care for living after they are gon hence in a good name it is not strange if they esteem not living
Orator Men have their shifts of conscience as of clothes their dress is carefuller and their rules stricter much abroad in public then when at home or out of sight As for the conscience of compliance many do not only do things which they have dislike to out of compliance but satisfy themselves because they do them with reluctancy against their inclination to avoid the being singular or offensive For the mode too Men learn to interpret God's laws also by the practice of the age live and judge by imitation and example The man's conscience tho it boggle at first sight of dangerous uncomely liberties yet conversation with them as it takes away the horror of them so he thinks it do's the danger and ill influence And as fashion makes all dresses to be mode and not look uncomely so the custom of these things makes them seem indifferent A Conscience also for the interests of a Profession as in trade for example and in Corporations of it it thinks their combinations for the better keeping up the Company fair and honest and therewithal make tricks and exactions lawful And in single traders such another principle makes Princes Laws be broken their dues stoln without any check of Conscience and I verily believe that many think these are not inconsistent with a good mind I might have instanc'd in other professions particularly in that which satisfies it self in the defending manifestly wrongful and in right causes in protracting suits to mens great molestation and the ruin of just rights But in truth this is paltry trifling with religion having false weights and mesures of what 's lawful and unlawful things that God abhors and indeed these frauds will in the end return upon their authors and the unhappy artist will most certainly deceive his own soul. For he never can arrive at life whom he that is the way do's not lead thither Christ and his rules only can introduce us into the mansions of Eternity 'T is true there may be doubts somtimes about the way of duty for 't is that I speak to in applying general rules for circumstances may perplex vary cases obligations seem to clash and quarrel so that one may be uncertain which to follow what means he should take to attain his great end 2. Now in case of such uncertainty as to the means the Child of this world do's observe a Rule of Prudence better then the Christian for he takes advice For who intends to purchase an inheritance but he goes to Counsel and if there be the least appearance of uncertainty in the Title spares no charge to have it searcht and to be sure The least indisposition drives the man that aims at life to his Physician In every difficulty of a voiage where there 's any apprehension of a shelf or rock the Merchant and the Master will consult the Pilot. But in the voiage towards heaven how many make shipwrack of a good conscience because they will not commit themselves to any conduct How often do they shake their Title to God's inheritance because they will not take advice of him at whose mouth God commanded they should seek the Law And who do's go to the Physician of Souls to prevent death Eternal I do not say men should betake themselves to a director in each action of their lives For who goes to a Doctor to know whether he should eat stones or poison or who asks a Lawyer whether he should keep or burn his evidences Now for the most part what I ought to do what to forbear is every jot as clear as those except where circumstances trouble or else seeming cross obligations a muse our judgment and then for a man not to ask direction in his way to heaven is unanswerable folly in a man that will inquire the way to the next village 't is nothing but a wretchless stupid carelesness in the Eternal interests of his own Soul When he that takes the best directions he can get with this sincere intent that he may not transgress may quiet his own mind in this that he hath don his utmost faithfully towards duty and in doing that with our good God shall be interpreted to have don his duty if he also faithfully pursue the means directed the 3d. property of Wisdom which does set the man upon the use of those means which he must attain his end by the last thing I am to speak too Now as to this I must confess the Child of this world wiser and give up the cause Whoever does resolvedly intend his profit pleasure honor or whatever state in this life 't is the business of his parts his study and his whole life to pursue it and it is so while the appetite of any carnal end is eager in him Anger hate revenge c. And I cannot say it is so with the Christian as to his end But the worldly man besides the zeal in using all means in pursuit of his end he observs two Rules that wisdom dictates with more carefulness 1. Be circumspect then wary both prescrib'd us by St. Paul Ephes. 5. 15. See that ye walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumspectly not as fools but wise as we translate it and the Vulgar caute warily with caution Now the first of these two Circumspection signifies the looking every way about him to discern or if he can foresee whatever may obstruct him in his progress give him any hindrance in whatever shape it is likely to attemt it whether it do threaten with inconvenience or do flatter with the deceitful appearances of being useful come with treachery or open opposition as a false Friend or a known Enemy and the other Caution sets him upon all the care he can make use of to avoi'd or rid himself of such impediments of what kind soever Now t is evident the man of this world in whatever occupation trade profession or place he may be from the lowest to the highest who proposes any one thing to himself and does not live ex tempore and follow ends and objects as the boy 's do Crows but hath at least some one design so far as he does so looks round him that he may shun every thing that would defeat divert or but disturb him in it and endeavors to move every stone which he may stumble at in his pursuit whatever may be an impediment to his attainments Now the Child of Light hath warning given him by the wise man also My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy soul for temtation There are those that will attemt to break his progress in pursuit of any such designment His enemy the Devil like a roaring Lyon his false friend the Flesh and a third that will assault him under both appearances the World somtimes by reproches taunts and insolent scorn by turning piety and virtue into raillery discouraging men from the pursuit somtimes by vexatious molesting injuring oppressing good men that they think will bear it making
instruments of thy delight thy Dogs it may be or thy Hawks but feed poor Christians but feed the members of thy Savior to see when with a great deal thou canst hardly furnish one room well much less of it do's furnish such poor laboring families furniture of a very comfortable prospect it will be at that day I am sure when all the other satisfactions of thy eies are dead or else dissolving in a floud of fire then to behold those works which thy estate did help thee to perform for they shall follow thee to Heaven Rev. 14. 13. and to see that Christ upon the Throne whom in his members thou hast oft reliev'd an object that will comfort such a single eie with everlasting light And so I pass to the second terms to be expounded Light and Darkness 1. Light in Scripture do's often signify Prosperity as Darkness do's the contrary I need not cite much Scripture for it Psalm 18. 28. For thou wilt light my canlde the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness Job 21. 17. How often is the candle of the wicked put out and how oft cometh their destruction upon them God distributeth sorrows in his anger to them Isaiah c. 5. 30. do's express times of affliction thus and if one look unto the earth behold darkness and distress and the light is darkned in the heavens thereof So chap. 8. 22. Behold trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish Now if it mean thus here then the sense is a single eie fills the body full of light Charity makes a man prosperous in all his actions but if the eie be evil the body shall be full of darkness he that either to furnish coffers pride or pleasures or excesses do's retrench from bounty however he advance these for a while yet before long God will cut off the opportunities of these he that will not put a good portion of what he hath to good uses the time will come when either he or his however well provided for shall not have for their own uses if their eie be so evil as not to let their candle shed a light to any other but themselves God will put out their canlde and uncharitableness shall bring adversity upon them or upon their families and if the verse mean thus then it agrees with Solomon's Aphorism Prov. 11. 24. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth there is that withholdeth more than is meet and it tendeth to penury But to this I have spoke already now I shall only say this is a doctrine that we need not only trust on Christ for the truth of a very Turk believes it and not the Gospel only but the Alcoran affirms it saying that which they lay out of their wealth in the way of God in pious charitable uses is like a grain that brings forth seven stalks Blessed harvest of Charity increase more than an hundred fold and I will add but one place of Scripture to it which saies over the Text in larger and more glorious words Isaiah 58. 7 8 10 11. To deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon-day and the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in droughts and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a water'd garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not The expressions seem to grow upon the Prophet first he saies Thy light shall break forth as the morning by little slow degrees of increasing light which peeps out first in a dawn and so grows into day and so shall thy prosperity which dawns and brightens by degrees as thou drawest out reliefs but he corrects these words and thinks this is not blessing quick enough for this vertue whose return shall be more eminent conspicuous and notable thy light saies he shall rise in obscurity shall have no creeping twilight for to usher it but they very night shall break into Sun-shine and in the midst of hopeless affliction the face of joy and gladness shall rise upon thee Yea more as if the rising light were but weak and too faint for his meaning Thy darkness shall be as the noon-day strong and hot brightness shall break in upon thy occasions of sadness which shall both cherish and enlighten thee thaw every thing that did sit cold about thine heart and make all pleasant shine about thee But where I pray you are the Luminaries that are to shed this Noon The Prophet hath them here thy Righteousness that is in Scripture dialect thy Alms shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward Light express'd not only in terms of overflowing blessedness but terms of guard and strength Light he shall have here that shall be glory to him and shall be fortification to him the glory of the Lord shall be his reward as if the charitable man did also dwell in Light that were inaccessible who is so guarded as to have righteousness in his van for his avantguard and the glory of the Lord of hosts and victories for his rere-defence which means in plain words this that the Lord will make the righteousness of such a man appear and will do good and glorious things for him in this life And then let others please themselves to have their wealth break out in shining pomps of bravery about them or flow in streams of plenty and of delicacy or of pleasure alas the spring of these will quickly fail If any scorching weather come any fiery trial any persecution yea any daies of adversity the wealth will go out that is to furnish them or if there do not come such daies yet the too full streams will drain the fountain and there will be no spring to feed the current yea or however in a while these streams must grow unpleasant and they will choak the soul that swims in them but the charitable man the man that deals his bread and draws out his soul to the hungry in relief while he hath the means and in compassion and assistance while he hath not whatever fail the fountain of the glory of the Lord cannot be exhausted he will have righteousness and glory still about him the comfortable streams of which are of another relish than those carnal worldly delights which wealth provides or else can give of a more blessed goust the inextinguishable shine of which is surely far more cherishing and gladsom than the gauds of vanity or fading pleasures The brightness of God's glory cannot die cannot be
tincture thence and tasts of the palce from whence it came there is a kind of unsanctifiedness in wealth which must be purg'd away Our Savior do's imply this when he saies all things shall be clean to thee intimating that without some such course be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all our possessions are unclean to us and S. Paul saies expresly of meat it must be sanctified Now saies he the way to cleanse thy meats and so for all thy wealth is to give up part of thy meat to God by the now Christian way of sacrificing Alms this the truest way of blessing a meal by engaging God a guest to it who brings his blessings alwaies with him and he hath still a share in that meal that the poor partake in This course is of so great importance to be taken in every sort of our wealth that holy Job presses an imprecation on himself if he have not don so Job 31. 16 17 18 19 20 22 23. If I have withheld the poor from their desire or have caused the eies of the widow to fail or have eaten my morsel my self alone and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof for from my youth he was brought up with me as with a father and I have guided her from my mother's womb if I have seen any perish for want of clothing or any poor without covering if his loins have not blessed me and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep then let my arm from my shoulder-blade and mine arm be broken from the bone for destruction from God was a terror to me and by reason of his highness I could not endure So that Alms makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all our possessions all our moderate enjoiments clean if sanctifies them to our use But secondly which is mre to our design their second reason is animum ab avaritiae sordibus purgat it do's draw off the heart from worldly mindedness and by that means from all unclean carnalities but to not mistake me Brethren that a few tho perhaps noble acts of charity will necessarily take a man off from all vice he may perchance be willing in some good humor to part with some wealth that will not part with a lust or an ill custome and his profuse and inconsiderate bounty may come in amongst his prodigalities and be his vice so far it will be from lceasing him from vice But the thing is this he that hath thus far conquer'd his heart and unwrapt is out of the intanglements of riches that he is perfectly dispos'd in mind not once but by a constant course to dedicate a good portion of what he hath for those compassionate uses and is very well pleas'd to look upon such a share as not his own but set aside and consecrated 't is certain that if this be hearty he that can resolve to part with such a part of income for those uses must also resolve to part with all worldly or carnal advantages of that income such things as it procur'd him and he cannot have without it If I will cut off so much from my estate on that good consideration then I must cut off such degrees of superfluity I must abate such and such pomps and vanities I must retrench excesses and I must part with heights of pleasures for these are virtually resolv'd in the other I cannot have these if I give away the foment the thing that is to feed and preserve them these therefore I dispos'd of with that part of my revenue nor shall I think them fit to vie with those necessities that beg or Christ his sake nay with those wants of Christ himself that begs in those poor mens request and needs nor shall I for such things draw back or grudg my charities I can much easier want some portions of those contents than see so many souls want necessaries compassion strikes me deeper than those satisfactions and finds me much more pliant and more sensible Lo here a man already brought within the mediocrities of vertue there too where vertue finds the greatest oppositions of temtation those of intemperance and pride and pleasure in all these he is moderate and calm merely by vertue of his bountiful-mindedness and if he be not so 't is certain that the person is not free-hearted unless it be unto his sins or the companions of them For if he love his pride and heights and honors and all those pomps that are to serve them and his emulations or love the superfluities of riots or love immoderate delights 't is certain he loves wealth implicity altho he take no notice of it and he is covetous in his heart tho he do's not discover it because he cannot but desire passionately that which is to furnish his eager desires and love immoderately that without which he knows if he consider what he do's he cannot have that whicih he loves immoderately and if he do resolve to serve those still and yet do give away 't is out of inconsiderateness not from bounty he is not liberal but rash and careless will not weigh how the wealth serves the other ends but still resolving upon thees not minding what he do's disposeth of the other No he tha is truly compassionate and liberal resolves to deprive himself of somewhat to relieve others wants that is to say if he consider what he do's and if he do not 't is not liberality of heart to deny himself some of the advantages of his estate for to consideration those and his estate are all the same pomps profits and pleasures to sustain those that need and he that do's so he hath plainly brought himself into the bounds of all vertues and for the rest that concern men 't is sure he that is so fully dispos'd in heart as to deny himself his own advantages merely to do good to others cannot be inclin'd to do ill to others for his own advantage these inclinations cannot dwell together so that in one word this bounty of heart ingages into all Morality he will be humble sober contented in himself and live righteously and justly with other men 'T is such a leading quality that merely by vertue of that disposition of mind when it is seated there in earnest the other parts of that which we call honesty come in And then for all Religion and Piety if he that out of obedience to God and compassion to the afflicted have brought his heart to such a pass that he can draw out his soul to the needy 't is certain that in doing so he laies up treasures in heaven v. 20. and by the verse that follows he that laies his treasure there he sets his heart there also and he whose heart is set on heaven I shall not fear to pronounce of him his actions will drive him thitherwards with all religious violence Do but think with your selves how you pursue the things you hearts are set upon in earnest what out-goings of soul you have
do's beg it but he who out of real compassion to the wants of others and hearty sense of their calamities and out of sincere obedience to God resolves with himself to deny himself such and such advantages of his condition to such a good proportion of what God hath bestow'd upon him purposes in his heart to set aside such a portion from his own uses knowing and considering that by so doing he do's part with such and such satisfactions which did accrue to him by that wealth yet will do it for the relief of others necessities that their souls may be comforted and they may praise God in his behalf This person hath in himself a great evidence of an heart truly and sincerely wrought upon by the Gospel and wrought over into the realities of Christianity I shall prove this to you and tho I know there be many vertues which seem to have no connexion with liberality and many inclinations in the heart which bounty hath no direct influence upon several evil tendencies of soul which it hath no formal opposition to that it should thrust them out of the heart yet that such a complexion of mind doe's either directly or by consequence so oppose them as not to endure them in the heart I shall very briefly shew you in gross and by retail And first that in gross that is a sign of a true Christian heart see Col. 3. 12. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness it seems that bowels of compassion and bounty is a sign of being such full Christians that the Apostle takes in all words to compleat the Character and do's it in words of a beloved sense and let men take them in what sense they please they do my work whether as persons chosen out before all time it seems then to be liberal is a sign of that and they will have very little reason to conclude themselves elected an eternity before they were who now they are and are call'd and taught by God do not find this disposition in their hearts or to take them in their naked meaning be liberal as being God's choice and pretious ones so it signifies elect pretious 1 Pet. 2. 6 and in other Scripture elect is the choicest best such as are priz'd and valued by God as the elect of God holy such as have his sanctifying Spirit poured out upon them and such are beloved by him as choice and pretious things are alwaies dear to us Now then to be compassionate and bountiful is to be as thus and liberality of heart is one mark of Election and Holiness and they that have it are as God's choice sanctified dear ones Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of compassion and bounty 2. As it is a sign of our being the Elect of God and the Inhabitation of the Holy Spirit so it is also a sign of our being like minded with Christ. S. Paul do's urge his example as a motive to the Corinthians liberality Ep. 2. c. 8. v. 9. For ye know the grace or charity of our Lord Jesus Christ that being rich yet for your sakes became poor that ye thro his poverty might be rich and therefore for us to do so is to follow his example and to have our hearts set to it is to be like minded and truly that is to be Christian enough If that a person of the God-head emtied bimself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 7. exhausted himself of Divinity to relieve us if the God of all the pleasures of the earth and the joies of heaven became the Man of sorrows to rescue us if that the Lord of everlasting blessedness made himself Prince of sufferings and calamities to ransom us if this be a temtation to the inclinations of our heart to set us upon going to do likewise in some low weak mesure after the rates of our abilities then to do so considerately to deprive my self of some advantages to exhaust somewhat for the sakes of those that want is to have the like mind in us that was in Christ Jesus our Lord but because this may possibly evince us to be like-minded only in one thing therefore 3. In particular he that is thus minded hath a great evidence of his having overcome the World a wide and a vast conquest for my Brethren 't is not only he that is a slave to mony whose heart and actions do importunately pursue the waies of getting or of hoarding that whom the world overcomes but he is a slave to the world whose mind is impotently set upon any of the advantages of this world the man whose heart do's in too great a proportion either of time or whatsoever else pursue any thing which this World is to furnish with that man's heart is entangled in the pursuit and it is fetter'd to the World which is his motive and pretence for that too eager inclination And therefore in our Baptism when we renounce the World we do not only bid defiance to the love of mony but we renounce the Pomps and vanities of this wicked World whatsoever either too great pleasure or height excess or ostentation or pride that this World ministers unto Now then when a man do's not only now and then give little to them that ask and beg of him for so it go's away in such small instances as will not evidence either much consideration of it or any great work wrought upon him as to not loving of the World but in devout retirements resolves to deny himself in such a proportion and cut off such a part 't is certain he do's cut off such degrees either of pomp or vanity or plenties or whatsoever other thing that part of his estate did serve Now he that can do this resolvedly in his soul not out of any heat but from deliberate purpose of heart 't is certain he hath to so great a degree disentangled himself from the snares of the pleasures or other advantages of this World he hath unloosed their fascinations and weakned all their sorceries 't is clear he hath so far withdrawn his heart from the degrees of whatsoever he did love that this World serv'd him in that he resolves none of them shall engage him to their superfluities for to prevent that he cuts off their foment the streams of those contents they shall not overflow his soul for he will turn the spring and make the current run another way 'T is evident he hath so torn all beloved earthly satisfactions from the embraces of his heart as that he will not feed them not with his own estate if he cannot also to a vertuous degree feed the poor he hath so far turn'd out the love of pleasures or of pomps or whatsoever as that he willingly do's part with those degrees of them cannot be retain'd together with his liberality And such a heart sure is without the vicious degree of worldly contents for vicious inclinations to
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 â—â—ke 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 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 The Second SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL October 20. 1661. PSALM LXXIII 1. Truly 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 says 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 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 dweling in Sion And so much knowledg 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 judg themselves Christs chosen Flock boast Covenants and Alliances with God although they violate all those Relations they yet trust those will secure them For why the being of such a Party and Persuasion is the signature and Amulet that will preserve them in Gods favour the charm through which he will not see Iniquity in Jacob nor perversness in Israel Lastly If we that were the distinctive Character of Israel that of a Ransom'd Purchas'd People for sure our Rescues rise unto the number and the rate of those which brought the Sons of Jacob from the House of Bondage if we as they presume and furfeit upon goodness and think these gifts of God too are without Repentance beliâ—â—â— our being his Redeemed his Church conceit our Orthodox Profession as once we thought our righteous Cause should do will shield us from the danger of our Enemies and of our Vices too and neither let our Foes nor our selves ruin us with such my Text and my intentions prepare to meet lest we should fill the Parallel and as we equal Israel in our Deliverances and imitate their practices we do transcribe the fatal Pattern too in the most full resemblance and repletion of an entire excision for although God be truly loving to his Church yet the ungodly does his soul abhor however in a signal manner he be good to Israel yet this his kindness does confine it self to such as are of a clean heart The words need not much explication By Israel is meant the Church of God and by his goodness to it all his external mercies also and protections as the Psalm evinces and by such as are of a clean heart those that to the profession of Religion and Holiness of outward conversation do add internal purity and sincerity for some trnaslate it such as are of a clean heart some such as are trueâ—hearted and sincere And it signifies both The words thus explicated give me these Subjects of Discourse First a general Proposition Truly God is good to Israel to his Church Secondly an assignation of Conditions under which that general Proposition holds All are not Israel that are of Israel it holds only in such as are of a clean heart And in this we have first a quality appropriate to the Church Cleanness Secondly with its subject the Heart and there I shall enquire why that alone is mention'd whether the cleanness of the Heart suffice and having answered that shall proceed Thirdly to consider them together in both the given senses as they mean a sincere heart and a pure undefiled heart In each of which Considerations because the latter part of my Text is a limitation of the former shewing where that general Proposition is of force where it is not I shall as I proceed view all the several guilts opposed to either notion of Cleanness and see how far each of them does remoye from any interest in the Lords goodness to his Church which is the natural Application of each part and shall be mine 1. Truly God is good to Israel his Church And sure this Proposition is evident to us by its own light to whom God proved his goodness to astonishment by exercising it to Miracle while he at once wrought Prodigies of kindness and Conviction to which we have only this proof to add That God hath been so plentiful in Bounties that we are weary of every mention of them and have so furfeited on Goodness that we do nauseate the acknowledgment So that his kindness in sustaining his Compassions does vie with that which did effect them who as he will not be provok'd not to be good by such prodigious unthankfulness so neither will he by the most exasperating use of his Favours God did complain of Israel Thou hast taken thy fair Jewels of my Gold and my Silver which I had given thee and madest to thy self Images My meat also which I gave thee my fine Flour mine Oyl and Honey wherewith I fed thee and hast even set it before them for a sweet savour And if men now do offer things in which God hath the same propriety to baser Idols to their Vices if they do sauce his meat which he hath given them to sacrifice to Luxury take his silver and gold to serve in the Idolatry of Covetousness and use his Jewels to dress Images also for foulest adorations If Atheism grow against Miracle and Goodness too and men do most deny God now when he hath given greatest evidences of his kind Providence I know not by what argument encouraged unless his in the Poet Factum quod se dum negat hoc videt beatum because they see they fare best now though
Bones Psal. Cix 17 18 19. And truly amongst those things which we did Curse there are that will fulfill all that most literally the Riots of thy gaudy bravery that make thee gripe extort spend thy own Wealth and other mens undo thy self and Creditors be sordid and in Debt meerly to furnish trappings to dress thy self for others eyes and may be sins these bring a Curse to cover thee as does thy Garment yea and they gird it to thee The draughts of thy Intemperance carry the malediction down into the Bowels like Water yea like the Wine into the very Spirits There is another of them too that will conveigh the Curse like Oil into the Bones till it eat out the marrow and leave nothing but it self to dwell within them yea till it putrefie the Bones till it prevent the Grave and Judgment too while the living Sinner invades the rottenness of the one and torments of the other and then the Lents and abstinencies that the sin prescribes shall be observed exactly onely to qualifie them for more sin and condemnation may be at the best but to recover them from what it hath inflicted when â—et alas they are too soft and tender the Lord knows to endure any â—rities to work out their Repentance and Atonement and yet sure â—se the Sinner does go through have nothing to commend them which these others do not much more abound with If those are not grievous to thee because they are so wholesom and though it be a miserable thing to go through all their painful squalid methods yet how disgustful soever by the benefit of their Cure they excuse their offensiveness and ingratiate the present injury they do the Flesh by the succeeding health they help thee to and by the Death they do secure thee from Why sure to omit that the other have all these advantages none have so calm and so establish'd health as the abstemious and continent and their mind is still serene their temper never clouded but besides this the Christians bitter Potions do purge away that sickness that would end in Death eternal his fastings starve that worm that otherwise would gnaw the Soul immortally his weepings quench the everlasting burnings yea there is chearful Pleasure in the 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 drench'd in tears the Holy Ghost the Comforter does move upon those waters and breaths Life and Salvation into them and he who is the Vnction pours Oil into those wounds of the Spirit and we are never nearer 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 weight of Glory To which c. The Fourth SERMON Preached at WHITE-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 enjoy'd is but like Jewels in the Cabinet useless 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 bosom 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 bosom so safe as that where friendship lodges take Gods Opinion in the case Deut. xiii 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosom 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 near 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 Wilderness 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 bitterness 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 dearness 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 less 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
other Resolutions thou seest the things that men with so much care and sin provide to make their lives delightful here although success answer their care are vain and helpless things and life it self as vain and I must die and drop from Heaven and therefore be thou sure to take a care their treacherous comforts do not make me die into the everlasting want of them and of all comforts The Artificial pleasures of the Palate whether in meats or drinks forc'd tasts that do at once satisfie and provoke the Appetite will rellish ill when I begin to swallow down my spittle but sure I am I am invited to the Supper of the Lamb to drink new Wine with Christ in my Father's Kingdom The fatted Calf is dressing for my Entertainment and shall I choose to be a while a Glutton with the Swine rather than the eternal Guest of my Father's Table and Bosom and refuse these for a few sick Excesses which would end in qualms and gall and vomits if there were no guilt to rejolt too and which will kindle a perpetual Feaver The Honours and the Glories of this Life will lose their shine when I am going to make my Bed in the Dark in a black lonely desolate hole of Earth my Gayeties must die when I must say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister And if there were pride or ambition in them their Worm will never die that Pride will make me fall as low as Lucifer that Glory will go out into utter darkness and that Ambition change my Honour into everlasting Shame Envy and Torment But sure I am that there are Glorious Robes and Thrones and Scepters in God's Promises and let thy gayety my Soul be in the Robe of Immortality the Throne of thy Ambition that of Glory When I shall lie tortur'd or languishing in my last Bed Palaces and Possessions will no more relieve me than the Landskip of them in the Hangings can do it And if there were Covetousness Bribery Sacriledg or Injustice in them I shall be carried out of these and have no other Habitation assigned me but with the Devil and his Angels shall inherit and possess nothing but the Almighty's Indignation for ever But in my Father's House are many Mansions Places prepared for me and an Inheritance as wide as Heaven as Endless 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 die where there is Life fulness of Joy Pleasures for Evermore To which c. The Sixth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL PSALM LXXIII v. 25. 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 onely 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 express'd 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 always 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 only 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 John ii 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 Covetousness 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 lest 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
is such nor rob the Altar to give it excesses take Consecrated things to make a cursed Carcass 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 Riots 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 adays 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 covetousness 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 only 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 Atheism have faith enough to do the work in good degree for certainly there 's none of them but does believe but he shall die 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 clouded in a darkness such as does begin the desolateness of the Grave if you draw the Curtain to his Faith it sees a languishing sad Corps which nothing in the VVorld can help or ease forethrowded 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 of men and shall have nothing else of all his VVealth and Pomp To see all this is no great monstrous difficulty for his Faith Now though while he is in his prosperity and health and the VVorld serves every of his desires and if I should tell him all his superfluities all that is beyond a meer convenience are but empty things meer shadows of delight that onely mock his fancy should I tell him that the silver furnitures of his Tables and those more wealthy shining ones those in his Cabinet and the Silken ones of his Rooms and the more exquisite pieces of rich Art which people must have skill to understand the pomp of must have been the Disciples of the Pensil to discern how they do serve Pride tell him these are phantasms onely dreams of Pomp advantages no where but in imagination I shall not persuade him but he will despise me But then if he will ask his Faith how all these will look to him in the state which is now before his thoughts what his opinion of them will be then he knows he may as well go to his Pictures now and entertain his Mirth and Luxuries with them and hearken to their painted sounds and dine upon the images of Feasts as hope in that sad hour from all his Wealth to find coment or ease though his hand sweat under the weight of Winter Jewels they will not heal one aking joint His Plate the greatest Riot of his Table will not make one morsel tast savory yea more he knows that then all the worldly uses of these superfluities such as satisfying curiosity and emulation and the estimation of the World to be the talk of people and the like these will appear most evidently to be insipid things meer conceits of delights things of which there can be no real enjoyment or advantage any time And if it then appear evidently that in themselves they are so then they are so always and a constant Contemplation of that time will make them always seem so So that a Faith that cannot see into another VVorld that will but look through this must needs take off our hearts from the entanglements of those advantages when it appears how small a thing can dash them all so as that we cannot enjoy them while we have them and that the enjoyment of them while we do is but imaginary And really when we consider how unquiet and disturb'd a thing Man is except he raise himself above the Power of all these how till the Mind escape out of the whirl and circuit of the Worlds allurements it cannot but be in perpetual agitations at every ebb or flow of things without there is a tide within of swelling or sinking affections every change abroad does make a change of thoughts and of designs cross Accidents have cross Passions and I am as much an Universe of various thwarting contradictious affections as the World is of motions How the Beasts are free serene and quiet Creatures in comparison for they not understanding many Objects consequently have few inclinations and their satisfactions very obvious whereas the Comprehensive mind of Man that looks into a world of things and out of them creates a world of temptations finds out varieties of Pleasures or of Profits and then starts as many eager affections in himself to pursue them his copious understanding does but procure him various Lusts and his Reason does but make him sagacious in searching out occasions of disquiet Nor is it possible it should be otherwise for while my inclinations are chain'd to those external movements and my slavish mind attends upon those inclinations I must needs suffer as many servitudes as the world hath changes of temptation And then putting these two Considerations together how unsatisfying and how uneasie too it is to be engaged in the Advantages of this World which are meerly Dreams of good things that disturb our rest and make our sleep unquiet with the working of Imagination yet do but delude the Appetite and we find we have had nothing when we awake sure if I thought there were no other World yet would I not be greedy after the great things of this when 't is more easie far to want them here would I indulge my self the sensuality of a Contented mind the luxury of an Ataraxy of an indifference as to all these things of being quiet and untroubled by not having them free from the hurry and disorder of them The Moralists did so account it certainly when they call'd this living according to our Nature as if all the other were a Violence upon us and upon the same ground they accounted it not hard to overcome the Allurements of this World it was onely not to
all that does pretend to God or Vertue in him Where 't is thus let no man flatter or persuade himself he does what he would not when it is plain he does impetuously will the doing it Let him not think that he allows not but hates that which he does when it is certain in that moment that he does commit not to allow that which he does resolve and pitch upon and chuse to hate what with complacency he acts or to do that unwillingly which he is wrought on by his own Concupiscence to do and by his inward incitations by the mutiny of his own affections which the Devil raises and when it is the meer height and prevailency of his appetite that does make him do it as it must be where there is reluctancy before he do it his desires and affections there are evidently too strong for him or at last to hate the doing that which 't is his too much love to that makes him do are all impossibilities the same things as to will against the will desire against appetite But do but keep thy self sincerely and in truth from being willing and thou must be safe For God expects no more but that we should not voluntarily yield to our undoing He hath furnish'd us with his own compleat Armour for no farther uses of a War but to encourage us to stand Take unto you the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil And again Put ye on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand There is no need to do more than this not to be willing and consent to fall for no man can be beaten down but he that will fall It were very easie for me to prescribe you how to fortifie against those Engines of the Devils battery which I produced to you But that I may not stay upon particulars directing those whom he prevails upon through want of Imployment to find out honest occasions not to be idle and sure it is the most unhappy thing in the World for any man to be necessitated to be vicious by his having nothing else to do and because while the World accounts it a Pedantick thing to be brought up by Rules and under Discipline he cannot learn how to imploy himself to his advantage to pass by these I say the universal strength against this Enemy is Faith Your adversary the Devil like a roaring Lion goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the Faith And that not onely as it frustrates all that he attempts by means of Infidelity but it also quenches 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 less 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 blessedness 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 far richer hopes laid up there in that other World for those that do deny themselves the sinful profits 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 soism of the Land if any such there were for others covetous Cruelty could get little else but only 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 Abyss 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 vanquish'd 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 Covetousness and Ambition do cast up 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 Fly from you And yet it cannot be denied 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. xii 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 assaults 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 â—aith 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 denied but that the Devil does prevail sometimes by importunacy and by continuance of Temptation so that Resistance is not always a Repulse at least not such an one as to make
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mind earthly things the fourth sort in whicâ— all their wisdom lies Which two last sorts of Enemies I shall attaque together The Cross of Christ amongst its other ends was set to be an instrument whereby the World is to be Crucified to us and we unto the World to be the means whereby we are enabled to prevail upon and overcome our worldly lusts and inclinations and to sleight yea and detest all the temptations of its Wealth Delights and Heights when they attempt to draw us into sin or take us off from Duty Now to this it works by these three steps First shewing us the Author and the finisher of our Faith nailed himself to that Cross his joints rack'd on it his whole Body strip'd and nothing else but Vinegar and bitter potions allow'd his thirst and thus convincing us that if we will be his Disciples we must take up his Cross and follow him at leastwise we must have preparedness of mind to take it up when ever it is fix'd to Duty to renounce all profits honours and delights of this World that are not consistent with our Christian profession This is the Doctrine of the Cross of Christ it being otherwise impossible to to be the Disciples of a Crucified Master And when this great Captain of our Salvation was himself consecrated by his sufferings and had for his Standard his own Body lifted up upon the Cross we that are listed under him and with that very badg the Cross too crucis Consecranei Votaries and fellow Soldiers of that Order if we shall avoid our Duty when it is attended with a Cross or straitned any ways and the provisions of this World are cut off from it and betake our selves rather to the contents of Earth we do not onely shamefully fly from our Colours Fugitive and Cowards Poltrons in the Spiritual Warfare but are Renegadoes false and traytours to our selves too such as basely ran away not onely from our Officer but from Salvation which he is the Captain of and which we cannot possibly attain except we be resolv'd to follow him and charge through whatsoever disadvantages to attend Religion vanquishing all those temptations with which the World assaults us in our course to Duty Thus the Cross 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 Cross 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 â—urther with his Life affirming that he was the Son of God no '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 days 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 days 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 Bloud and Water that flowed from his wounded side upon Cross which did assure his Death is justly said to bear witness 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 Baptism or the testimony which he gave by Miracle for there are three that bear witness 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 Lazarus's empty Monument and walking Grave-cloaths were not better evidence than this Cross of Christ. 4. Once more this Cross 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 desireable in this World rather than to fail of those joys 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 evermore to be thrown down from every height on Earth if so I may ascent 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 joys that were set before him choosing to endure the Cross 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 for 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 Cross meer folly to give up themselves to the belief and the obedience of a man that was most infamously Crucified 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 Cross of Christ as it would Crucifie 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 taste 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 lie 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 boundless cares are very vain and foolish upon several accounts for common sense as well as Scripture does assure us 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 excess and sickness better but the other serves my Appetite as well the one may drown my Vertue but the other quenches thirst alike And every days experience also does convince us that the least cross accident pain or affliction on our persons or some other that is seated near our hearts or the least vexation or cross passion will so sowr all those advantages that we cannot possibly enjoy them while we have them sickness makes the richest plenty only a more nauseous trouble a more costly loathing then the poorest Soul that is in health is that great rich mans envy And there 's no man also but does see so far into futurity as to satisfie himself that he shall die 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 helpless 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 lies imbrued in Blood hath no inheritance there at all is fetter'd confin'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 bloud should be as natural to us as to the Child yet if we thus press forward to the other birth to be delivered into immortality of joys 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 only 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 die And if it be the truth then 't is always 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 bowels that yearn after them and cling to them and instead of those embrace a Cross 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 means appropriate to those ends And now the enmity betwixt the Cross of Christ and the wisdom of the World appears first their designs are most directly opposite the cross designs to take us up from earth and from its satisfactions which have also thorns and bryars in them that Earths Curse things that pierce and wound as fatally as the Nails and Thorns and other cruelties of Christ's Cross and to lift us towards Heaven to direct our hearts and our affections thither as our harbingers to take possession for us of those joys the Cross did purchase for us but no Cross 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 Cross of Christ are positive that we must renounce all earthly satisfactions when they cannot be enjoyed without trangressing Christ's Commands and imbrace Duty even when it executes it self upon us But Thirdly there 's no enmity so fatal to the Cross 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 Cross which does so contradict their wisdom as meer madness and the Cross 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 scoffs 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 onely fit for burthen to bear what they magnifie a Cross and scorns No persecutions are so mortal as those that Murther 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 poison 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 Than they that cloath their Christianity in fools Coat that so it may be laugh'd to death go out in ignominy and into contempt If to sport with things of sacred and Eternal consequence were to be forgiven yet to do it with the Cross 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 punish'd yet the Sinner pardoned Thus to play and sin upon those dire expresses of Gods indignation against sin are things of such a sad and dangerous concern that S. Paul could not give a caution against them but with tears For many walk 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 Cross 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 cries and tears yea when his whole body wept tears as of bloud to deprecate it and yet he cryed more dreadfully when he did suffer it The Nails that bor'd his Hands the Spear that pierc'd his Heart and made out-lets for his Bloud 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 only but his most Almighty attributes were engag'd against him Gods Holiness 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 liable Now that God might appear to hate it at the rate of its deservings it was very necessary that it should be punish'd 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 Cross 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 wilful 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 forsake 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 Cross the Altar And the humbled Sinner that repents for notwithstanding satisfaction God will not accept a Sinner that goes on by all those Agonies his holiness would not be justified 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 Cross lay hold upon the Altar here 's my Sacrifice on which my fins 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 Bloud also his Bloud to wash me in and that Bloud is within the Vail too now and that my Offering taken from the Cross 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 Cross. Now that men should be Enemies to this and when they are forfeit to eternal Ruine hate that which is to redeem the forfeiture that they should trample on the Cross 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 spoil and slaughter of their Sacrifice hostilely spill upon the ground that Bloud that was appointed for their Bloud upon the Altar for their blood of sprinkling and was to appear in Heaven for them If men resolve to be on terms of Duel 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 chuse 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
Cross must not be accounted to them but upon conditions which they are not able to perform they are required to master all their wicked Customs their untam'd appetites and setled habits to keep under their Concupiscence to calm their inclinations and their passions Now on such severe articles friendship with the Cross they think is too hard bought But therefore Secondly the Cross was the consideration upon which Grace is oâ—â—er'd us whereby we are enabled to perform all this thâ— 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 Bloud he shed upon the Cross it is the Fountain 't is the Ocean of all Grace And if temptations storm thee lay hold on that Cross 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 Cross 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 purchas'd for him and for which he hath receiv'd the price And then that men should be Enemies of the Cross which is their Magazine of strength against their Enemies As men that do resist the having Grace lest 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 lest with them they should be able to encounter sin and overcome it Thus wilfully to run against and charge their Anchor of Salvation to poison 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 Cross 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 compliance He sent his Son to move us to be reconciled as if he did acknowledg us the offended party and as if he meant to give us satisfaction in his Blood he dies upon the Cross to effect that Reconciliation When our Saviour would magnifie 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 died for us only out of hopes to make us friends Love strong as doath indeed that brought him to the Grave who could not die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affection violent as Hell that brought God to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made him descend to Hell For so low he stoop'd thus he humbled himself to persuade 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 Cross 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 Cross and because our Saviour spoiled 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 Wâ—◠〈…〉 for this O blessed Saviour that thou didst pray against thy Cup 〈◊〉 earnestly because of Man's ingrateful 〈◊〉 to itâ— because thâ—â—â—ast to 〈◊〉 God Almighties Indignation in it and the Siâ—â—ers hatred for it because it was the Cup of the Lords 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 squeezed into it all the dâ—egs of his Wrath and 〈…〉 into it and when the one will make thee drink it up the 〈…〉 it in thy face was it not because thou wert to take a Cross up which thou couldst not bear the Torments of and 〈◊〉 will not endure the blessings of but most despitefully treads down that 〈…〉 thou art sinking under it laden with their weight this is alas a state so sad that neither S. Paul's 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 storyed 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 says 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 happiness to behold and Gommand so many Nations and so Powerful 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 truly 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 Army of the Enemies of the Cross 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 reflection 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
preys upon that it may keep alive and nourish torment to eternity or how each man 's 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 Resurrection 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 ask how these men dare presume that if there be a God who hath declar'd that he will bring such things to pass 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 beams 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 to 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 the discoveries of the Earth assure himself our constant Navigations which perswade us 't is a Globe inhabited on both sides bring home from the Indies nothing else but false relations and that indeed there are no Indies I need not urge how Christianity approves it self even to the reasoning of the sober part of mankind and the morality of it had the suffrage of the World before it self appeared For while the evidence stands good if the matter of fact be true the Doctrine must be true and the commands obey'd and to use such arguings to resell such matter of fact is just like that which Zeno did attempt namely by subtilties to prove it was impossible there could be any motion while another did disturb his Lecture by his motion up and down the Schools it is the same thing as to take a bowl to cut with or the vessels of the Danaid's to carry water in For such reasonings are alike improper for that work And indeed these arguings are not the exceptions of reason but the struglings of mens vices against Religion And it must be impossible so many Thousands would give up their Bodies rather then their Bibles to the fire in Dioclesian's days because it is a book which they can find no other pleasure in but that of railling it or helping them with subjects to be prophane upon It must be false that Christ did feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 small fishes 'till 12 baskets full of broken pieces did remain yet not so much because they know not how their eating could nourish the victuals so and make it grow as because they are angry with the worker of the miracle who forbids and upbraids the excesses of their luxury which can easily and does daily consume the price of that that would suffice 5000 without miracle on 5 single persons and all that when 't is drest according to the modern mode of eating well dissolved turned into juyces and exalted into the Elixir of the Epicure shall leave alas no broken pieces for the Alms-basket This is the quarrel this does make the miracle impossible And yet methinks upon the same account they should allow that at a feast he turned so many pots of water into wine because that seems to gratifie the thirsts of their intemperance In fine we do not live as men prepared or willing to be called to an account of all our doings therefore we have no mind to rise again to give it When we are thus minded it is not hard to meet with difficulties that encourage the opinion that we shall not rise Which difficulties when we look into we cannot find how it is possible we can be raised and 't is easie then to think we cannot that it is impossible especially when it is our will and interest to think so and then it must be false whatever is in Scripture that we shall These are the processes of those that reason against Christianity such the grounds that they dispute upon But their reasons are but Sophisms of lust and interest which will guild and paint whatever they are much in love with and it is no wonder they find colours for it and can think them reasons for they always did so against present evident conviction When Moses by his miracles endeavoured to let Pharaoh know who was the Lord and to persuade him to let Israel go while God permitted the Magicians to counterfeit those miracles it lookt like reasonable indeed that Pharaoh should not be convinced but when they could not immitate but did confess the finger of the Lord and themselves suffered those plagues which they could not either conjure up or down then if Pharaoh will not be persuaded 't is plain nothing but his interest not the wonders which were brought by the Magicians were the reasons that prevailed with him for those were not reasons against more and greater miracles yet they were effectual with him to the destruction of himself and his nation Again when they who knew the mighty works Christ did and were forewarned by him of false Christs and false Prophets that would come with signs and lying wonders God allowing Sathan leave to struggle at his last gasp and to make a blaze when he was to fall from heaven as lightning but far beneath the glory of his onely begotten Son when they who knew both these chose yet to follow a Barchocab a false falling Meteor who came indeed with greater shew and not with such strict mortifying Doctrines nor onely with the thin encouragement of after-expectations as Christ did for he gave them hopes of present temporal enjoyments but he did no wonder besides spitting fire S. Jerome says
Angels met us in to Worship and God dwelt in to bless us there the place appointed for the Divinest Mysteries of our Redemption for the Celebration of Christ's 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 polute 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 Saviour's Character a Devil Have I not chosen Twelve and one of you is 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 fully shine it may irradiate dung-hills but they do not defile it you may Eclipse a Star but cannot spot it you may put oâ— the light you cannot stain it 'T is a word 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 stars in Christ's right hand they do come neer and mix their light with his and they of all men must be pure and holy whom the spirit calls to that place as he does all whom 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. v. 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 was baptiz'd in the first Martyr-blood and breath'd out threatnings so that nothing but thunder could out-voice him and at last was born as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an untimely birth aborting through those wounds which his own hands had made in the Church and making himself a birth with ripping up her bowels yet this Abortive prov'd the strongest birth and 't was a Miscarriage into the chiefest Apostle As he began the after-sufferings of Christ in Stephen so he fulfill'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made up all that was behind in himself being in deaths more than those he inflicted The sound of his preaching was louder than that at his Conversion out-voic'd the thunder for this went out into all lands as if himself alone meant to execute the whole Commission Preach the Gospel to every creature which he did almost not only preaching to those places where Christ was not named without the other Apostles line but even where the rest imploy'd themselves he wrought as much as they in Asia as Saint John at Antioch as Peter yea and at Rome too having as much to do in their foundation If I had said more I could have brought the Popes own Seal for evidence where not only both are but Saint Paul hath the right hand And truly if they had had the luck to think at first of founding all their pretensions on Saint Paul his care of all the Churches would have born them out as well as feed my Lambs does now But these considerations I pass though they would give a Man that hath done mischief in the Church a pattern for the measures of his future Service to the Church The thing I shall concern my self in is the solemn separation here of those who were before separated to the work of the Gospel Barnabas sent by the Church of Jerusalem to Antioch Act. 11. 22. and Paul not only separated from his Mothers womb Gal. 1. 15. but chosen by express Revelation and by the laying on of Ananias's hands that so he might receive the Holy Ghost qualified to Preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and to Kings In which work both of them had for some years â—ercised themselves Yet here is a new consecration and they are taken up to a condition more separate and distinct from what they were before And all those vast advantages in which these persons did excell the one of Faith and fulness of the Holy Ghost the other besides those of express and immediate mission from Heaven and the most strange success their labours had been blest with all these I say did not qualifie them to assume these powers which the Holy Ghost commands another separation to enstall them in And 't was this 〈◊〉 that call'd Paul to be an Apostle Rom. 1. 1. as from this time he is always call'd Paul not sooner Nor do we find any least footsteps of their being Apostles before though Barnabas were sent to Antioch yet he does not undertake what Peter and John did at Samaria in the very same case for they confirm and give the Holy Ghost Act. 8. 15 37. but Barnabas does nothing but Exhort Act. 11. 23. and he and Paul together Preacht the Word abroad but we find nothing else they enterpriz'd but from this time they exercise Jurisdiction settle Churches and ordain them Elders in the Churches Ch. 14. 22 23. and as it does appear singly deriv'd these powers to others to be exercised by them singly To Titus most expresly Tit. 1. 5. the like also to Timothy with all the other Acts of Jurisdiction of which their Epistles are the Records particularly that of Censures which Paul himself had inflicted on offenders in the Churches he had planted Powers these which by such steps and by degrees of separation an Apostle himself receives and does not execute 'till he ascend the highest that which they have a new solemnity ordain'd from Heaven to enstate them in by a new laying on of hands and the holy Ghost himself commanding separate The separateness of this highest order in the Church is a doctrine handed down to us both by the writings of all Ages and the practices two things which as they scarcely do concur in such a visible degree in any other things in our Religion so also when they do concur they make and secure tradition beyond all contradiction give it sufficient infallibility and truly he that does refuse the evidence which such tradition gives to all the motives of believing Christianity if he be not a Socinian he must be an Enthusiast and can receive his Religion only from Revelation Now the matter of fact of this tradition is a subject for Volumes not for
in He becomes something without a body and above the Earth who for a preparative must be taken up to Paradise and call'd from all commerce and all intelligence with his own body Saint Paul was call'd from Heaven to preach the Gospel but he was 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 who are not qualified are not call'd I shall only 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 Founder and God of your Order I the Lord have call'd thee and I will hold thine hand and I will keep thee Isai. 42. 6. And when he said of Cyrus I have call'd him he said also be shall make his way prosperous Isai. 48. 15. And so he shall be the way what it will for thus he said to Jacob I have called thee when thou goest through the Water 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 when the Apostles were scarce safe within their Ship they were so toss'd with waves and fears yet if our Lord will 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 went down and walked on the water safely As if the swelling billows did only lift themselves to meet his steps and raise him up from sinking And when his own doubts which alone could were neer drowning him and he but call'd the Lord immediately he stretched out his hand and caught him He answers his call if we answer ours if we obey when he says come then will he come and save when we call to him And so Peter receiv'd no hurt but a rebuke O thou of little faith why didst thou doubt couldst thou imagin I would not sustein thee in the doing what I bid thee do In answering my call But why seek we experience of so old a date There is a more encouraging miracle in these late calls themselves Had God sustein'd the Order in its Offices and dignities amidst those waves that rack'd the Church of late it had been prodigy of undeserved Compassion to our Nation But whenas all was sunk to bid the Sea give up what it had swallowed and consumed this is more than to catch a sinking Peter or to save a falling Church The work of Resurrection is emphatically call'd the working of God's mighty power and does out-sound that of his ordinary conservation And truly 't was almost as easie to imagination how the scattered Atomes of mens dust should order themselves and reunite and close into one flesh as that the parcels of our Discipline and Service that were lost in such a wild confusion and the Offices buried in the rubbish of the demolisht Churches should rise again in so much order and beauty Stantia non poterant tect a probare Deum This calling of the Spirit is like that when the Spirit moved upon the face of the abyss and call'd all things out of their no-seeds there or like the call of the last Trump Thus by the miraculous mercies of these calls God hath provided for our hopes and warranted our faith of his protections yet he hath also sent us more security hath given us a Constantine if his own be not a greater Name and more deserving of the Church for which it is well known to some he did contrive and order when he could neither plot nor hope for his own Kingdom and did with passion labour a succession in your Order when he did not know how to lay designs for the Succession of himself or any of his Fathers house to his own Crown and Dignity Nor is the secular arm all your security God himself hath set yet more guards about his consecrated ones he hath severe things for the violaters of them Moses the meekest man upon the Earth that in his life was never angry but once at the rebellious seems very passionate in calling Vengeance on those that stir against these holy Offices Smite through the loins of all that rise against them and of them that hate them that they rise not again The loins we know are the nest of posterity so that strike through the loins is stab the succession destroy at once all the posterity of them that would cut off this Tribe and hinder its Succession Nor was this Legal Spirit Gospel is as severe Those in Saint Jude that despise these Governours that do as Corah and his Complices did who gathered themselves against Moses and Aaron and said You take too much upon you ye Sons of Levi since all the Congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord words these that we are well acquainted with and which it seems St. Jude looks on as sins under the Gospel these perish in the gainsaying of Core whom God would not prepare for punishment by death but he and his accomplices went quick into it He would not let them stay to dye but the Lord made a new thing to shew his detestation of this sin and the Earth swallow'd it in the Commission and all that were alli'd and appertain'd to them that had an hand in it And truly they may well expect strange recompences who do attempt so strange a Sacrilege as to pull stars out of Christ's own right hand From whence we have his word that no man shall be able to pluck any but if they shine thence on their Orbs below and convert many to righteousness their light shall blaze out into glory and they shall ever dwell at his right hand To which right hand He that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus that great Shepherd and Bishop of the Sheep and set him there He also bring you our Pastors and us your flock with you and set us with his sheep on his right hand To whom with the same Jesus and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all blessing honour glory and power from henceforth for ever Amen A SERMON PREACHED AT HAMPTON-COURT ON The Twenty Ninth of May 1662. Being the Anniversary of His Sacred Majesties Most happy Return BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. and Chaplain to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by John Playford in the Year 1683. TO THE Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of CLARENDEN Lord high Chancellour of England and Chancellour of the University of Oxford My LORD TO vouch your Lordships commands for the publishing this Discourse I might
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 Atheism destroy Profaneness 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 kindness to them we have no allowance No sins can make it lawful 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 not sort of men nor any man whom it is lawful 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 universal he makes his Clouds drop fatness 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 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 grateful the wicked and ungrateful too The Sun does not Collect his Rays and shed more day to gild the gaudy and gay person whose Cloaths and Jewels will reflect his light return him as much almost as he sends and vie brightness with him than he does to the poor dark sordid rags 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 Cretures of sense and perception do not yet discriminate their Lords but with that same indifference serve all The Oxe knows his Owner and the Ass his Master not his Religion not his Vertues and then as there is something in man as man which God is kind to somthing in man as man for which the Creatures serve so there is somthing 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 kindness 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 indeed for if he Curse thee thou must bless and must do good to him which hates thee which are the particular expresses to 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 wish 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 venom 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 Romanist 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 paroxysm of a passion whensoever a man is seiz'd by an affection with violence as they in Hell are always 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 returns 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 Cursing 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
For them it is very necessary for persecution or despightful usage offending God as by a disobedience to his precept so also by the sufferings it does inflict on man to forgive or require which that man hath right God does not use to put the injur'd person by this right or by its paramont Authority assume to pardon the mans part of the wrong but does retain the sin till that either in deed or desire do satisfied for or remitted there being 'till then an obstruction to Gods forgiveness for 'till then the man hath not repented but when the fufferer does pray for him in doing so he pleads that that obstruction is remov'd that his part is remitted and so leaves no bar in the way to that pardon which he begs for him of God and which that bar being gone the Lord is us'd to grant with all advantage the prayers of our Martyr in the seventh of the Acts are a demonstration to which the Fathers say the Church did owe not only her deliverance from all the violent intentions of Saul but all that Christianity which St. Paul planted the dying voice of that petition Lord lay not this sin to their charge was answered by that voyce from Heaven which converted Saul in his career of fury One prayer for a persecutor puts an end to persecution si Stephanus non or asset Ecclesia non habuiesset Paulum Jobs miserable comforters whose visits prov'd afflictions to him could not a tone themselves to God by their burnt offerings but Job must pray for them 42. Chr. 8. seven Bullocks and seven Rams cannot expiate but one petition from the sufferer will do it for him I will accept saith God and he accepted him not for them only but for himself for the Lord turned the Captivity of Job when he prayed for them vers 10. These intercessions speed sooner then direct supplications and such a petition is heard to our selves when 't is made for others And reason good for such requests lay the condition of our 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 yet made him live yet to endure more stoning 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 osculo pacis though by the most violent death and he lies down in a perpetual rest and peace that thus lies 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 wafred And now we are at the top of Christ's Mount the highest and the steepest point of christianity which view with that â—o which our Martyrs Spirit did ascend For it makes perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect it sets our heads within 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 not almost wholly disappear and vanish Something 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 christened 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 Staves 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 knows 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 rare 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 bur 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 tenacious of them than 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 affronts 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