Mankind and say to the Sea Give back and to the Winds Restore though the Summon'd Members lye Scatter'd in several Shires and Countreys yet Bone as was say'd shall return to it's Fellow-bone each Vein shall Glide along the Old Channel The right Foot shall not Miss its way and Run to the Left the Right Eye shall not mistake its own place but be Lighted the Way to the Right Socket In a word not an Hair of our head shall be Lost or Misplac'd but when God shall Renew the Face of This Earth and Set forth a Second Edition of Mankind all our Limbs those Loose and Dispersed Leaves shall be Carefully sought out and bound up together so that we shall Come forth the same Volume though in a much Exacter Print and Clearer Letter The Glory of the Second Temple shall be farre greater than the Glory of the First provided it prove indeed to be Such a Faire Temple and not a Filthy Prison which the following Judgment shall soon determine And so I pass on to the Third Proposition viz. That Prop. 3. after the Death and Rising again of all men then comes the Judgment imply'd in these words And the Books were Opened Wherein according to the method proposed we are first to consider the Universality of this Judgment He saw the Dead i. e. All the dead stand before God c. Here I shall Endeavour not to be so Impertinent as to trouble you with those Intricate enquiries concerning the Time and Place of Judgment the Form and habit of the Judge the manner of Citation the Method 1 Forma illa it Judex quâ tit sub Juâ—ce Illa Iu â—cabit quae Iu cata est Aug. of particular Trials the Execution of the General Sentence c. These things and what else of the like nature I shall either wholly omit or else if it fall in my way to make some little reflections upon any of them I shall doe it very sparingly and tread as Lightly as he does that passes over an unsound piece of Earth that shakes and trembles under him Thus much I take for granted that although some say it was the occasion of Cain's and Abel's quarrel whether there were such a thing as a Judgement to come or no yet that shall be no matter of Dispute among us but without further stay to prove That I may freely proceed to the Universality of the said Judgment which now we are to consider If the Judges have past Sentence upon Socrates Nature has past Sentence upon those Judges and in that Circumâ—â—ance respect we are all a company of condemned Creatures as well as Socrates We must all appear before the Cor. 5. 10. Iudgment seat of Christ c. and then as God said to Abraham when he had brought him abroad Look now towards Heaven and tell the Stars c. I may say to you since God has also brought you Abroad Look ye now toward the Earth tell the Grass that is ready for the Sythe or the Corne ye have seen almost ripe for the Sickle and consider ye of the worlds great Harvest What All that have been All that now are All that ever shall be must all and every one Appear O what Throne will be able to hold that Judge What Benches will be enough for those Assessors even even those infinite numbers of Saints and Angels which he brings along with him what Dungeon is deep enough to contain the already condemned Devils or what Bar will be big enough to hold the now Arraigned Prisoners Some speak of the Valley of Iehoshaphat as the most convenient place being near unto Mount Olivet where Christ Ascended and whereabouts it is expected he should also descend again according to the Collection they make from that passage This same Iesus Act. 1. 11. shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him goe into heaven But for that supposing as some think the better sort shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the Aire and so not at all trouble that Valley yet as to the Wicked alone and their numbers what was spoken of Samaria may likewise be said of this Valley Surely the dust thereof will not suffice for every self-condemned Soul to take an handful and stop his own 1 King 20. 1 Mouth withall when he appears in a guilty silence before his Judge No wonder An heaven of heavens cannot contain an 1 King 8. 2 infinitely Blessed God when a Hell of Hells is little enough to hold a company of his accursed Creatures and if the Gaol be so well fill'd the Bar must be sadly Throng'd For however many Angells they say may rest in one Point as that Legion in one man yet raised Bodies sure shall not lose their former Dimensions so as one of them may be Unconfinedly in any place or many of them crowded uncircumscribedly into one Place Then reckoning from the First Adam to the last Son of Adam could we but consider what those Slaughter-Weapons of War Famine Plagues and Pestilential diseases have done and shall yet do not to speak of the daily work of common Mortality still kept a going did we but cast up what Hecatombs have been offered up to Earthquakes Fires and Floods viz. an entire Countrey swallowed at one morsell by an Earthquake many Lebanons have not been sufficient for one of these burnt Sacrifices whole Mountains of men suddainly carried into the Depths of the Sea and there drowned forever Beside those many other Besoms of Destruction all mankind but Eight persons was at once we know Swept off the Common stage by one deluge And if the Flames have often Practised upon Lesser Parcells and thereby given us some cast as it were of their consuming-skill aforehand against the great burning at the last day neither have the Waters been wanting by frequent and violent Inundations to let us know they have not quite forgotten their Former over-flowings So for all those that are already Come Gone in these Wayes all those that are now a Going and Every One that is yet for to Come and Goe for All these at once to Appear in the Same Place and fall under One and the Same Prospect we must needs say S. John here was mightily assisted with Those Divine Opticks The Lesser could not Shrowd themselves under the Greater so as to Escape him the Greater cannot Over-shadow the Lesser so as to Hinder him Habes Tu literas meas Ego Tuas ante Tribunal â—ypr Ep. 69 Christi Utraeque recitabuntur the True Catholick and the Perverse Schismatick the Church-Governour and the Church-Despiser shall both stand before Christ's Tribunal where it will be Impartially sifted what Letters either of them have Brought in their Bosomes Which leads me to the Second Circumstance considerable in this Judgment viz. the Impartiality thereof contain'd in those words Small and Great I saw the Dead Small and Great Stand c. The Great as well
hand and that I hope without much violence He shall be like a tree planted c. From the third General our Spiritual Fructifying we shall take notice first of the Proportion secondly of the Propriety thirdly of the Tempestivity thereof After all these plantings and waterings somewhat it must yield worthy the name of Fruit and this his own fruit and that in his own Season Lastly we should exhort all to those never-withering ornaments and unfading Flourishings of a holy Christian Conversation and so conclude We begin with the First our Implanting and there first consider the Supernaturalness of the thing 'T was the practice of Rufus an old Philosopher alwaies Arrian Epict. to begin with some Apotrepticall discourses to his Scholars still disswading them from Philosophy using that as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ingenuous and dis-ingenious amongst them The same method must we use even with our best-natur'd Disciples though we need not much Dehort them from Philosophy yet from vanity and folly anger and pride c. from all those sins which have gotten the early possession of their Souls we must dehort them For as it was with Christ at his coming in the Flesh The Inne was full of other Company so is it still with his coming in the Spirit he finds the Soul full of Ignorance full of averseness and perversness yea so full of all manner of wickedness that untill he makes it himself There is no Room for him in the Inne Luc 2. 7. And this has so universall a vote in Antiquity that concerning the Preparatives for the first Reception of grace Aquinas himself resolves it Nemo potest per Aquin. 1 a. 2 ae Iu. 109. a. 6. Seipsum praeparari c. No one without the help of grace can of himself prepare himself to receive grace Grace is a plant that grows not on every ground and where it does grow it grows not of it self but must be Engraffed and that by the Hand the Right Hand of God Almighty The Vineyard which thy own Right hand hath planted Psal 80. 15. So that planted Psal 80. 15. it must be and this also by the High hand of Heaven else the Richest Soyl in nature will never yield it Nature is productive of the man but somewhat else above nature must give the Fiat to the Christian Therefore in the office of Baptism our Church exhorts us to pray that God would grant to these Children that thing which by nature they cannot have For after nature's planting we must be transplanted into some Fresh Mould of Grace else we can never prosper to any perfection And so we have it in Isa 5. 1 2. Though it be a choice vine and a choice plot of ground A vineyard in a Isa 5. 1. very fruitfull hill yet the vine grows not of it self upon it No but first God must Fence it and pick it and plant it too then and not till then he expects to receive some good Grapes from it Verse 2. Grace indeed may be engraffed upon the stock of Parentage Advanc'd by Education and good examples but it grows not naturally upon any the Best stumps in nature For the Kernel of the best fruit if from a Crab-stock some say brings forth nothing but a Crab-tree because the best stocks have still somewhat of a Natural Crabbishness within them and so it is with the best of men 'T is true we read in the worlds beginning of the Earth bringing forth Trees and Trees bringing forth fruit after their kind before the Sun and Moon were in Being and so without the Ayd of any of those Prolifick Influences of Heaven But yet we find an Almighty Dixit went before that fructifying even that Word of God which was far more warming and more working than ten thousand Suns or Moons And God said Let the earth bring forth Grass and fruit Trees c. Gen. 1. 1◠To this purpose it is that the Church i. e. every Gracious Soul is resembled to an Orchard a Garden an enclosed Garden 't is not the Lord's wast-ground Can. 4. 12 13. or a large Common where Nature wildly sprouts up at her own pleasure No though the Grass Herbs and Trees of themselves grow out of the ground yet when Moses speaks of Paradise a Type of the Church he comes with another distinct expression and sayes The Lord God Planted a Garden Eastward Gen. 2. 8. c. which Garden as beforesaid was a peculiar Figure of the Church of Christ And as it is with the fruits of the Earth some she Nurses her self at home as those which come of Kernells and such are good for nothing but stocks and stocks if not Engraffed are fit for little else but the Flames Others again she Nurses not her self Immediately but puts them forth to Nurse as Graffs and the like and yet the fruit that comes of a Graff is far more pleasant than that which comes of a Kernel Sir Fr. Bacon's Nat. Hist for all natures care in Nursing it her self because as that Learned man observes the nourishment which feeds the Graff receives some little chewing and preparing from the stock whereas the other comes altogether Crudely from the cold Earth and so must needs render the fruit more Raw harsh and unkind than the former So is it with all mankind those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Nature undertakes to Nurse her self as Heathens c. who know no other nourishment but what flowes immediately from those Fontinels of Nature Others again are set forth and sent abroad to Nurse such as are Engraffed into other stocks and live at some distance from the Bosom of their own Mother Such are all true Christians whose Souls are as weaned Children whose nourishment comes not from Raw Earth but from the Stock of the Cross from Scriptures Sacraments Faith in Christs blood and such other heavenly conveyances which God has appointed to purify and prepare our feeding for us And therefore whereas the Former are like the Prophets Naughty figs so bad they cannot be Eaten Jer. 24 2. these Later are like the fruit of the Vine which Glads the heart of God and man and has this one distinct property the Earlier it is taken the more Tastfull and Pleasant it is Which brings us to the second thing proposed i. e. the earliness of the Time which now comes to be spoken of Secondly He shall be planted i. e. tender and young before it be too deeply Rooted in that other Soile wherein it grows by nature For Christianity is not a mere Implanting but a kind of Transplanting whereby the Soul is taken out of Natures Nursery and Removed into the Orchard and Paradise of Grace Now we know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is past into a Proverb for its perilousness There 's no stirring of an Old Tree if you do as you shall have much adoe after all
the stubborn sullen old Trunk dyes in the removal Isa 60. 21. Thus we find the Church is styled of God not the full grown Tree but the Branch of my Planting and to let us know what kind of Branch it is and how it comes to Thrive so well there he tells us in the 22 v. A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation c. These thousands and Ten thousands this strong and mighty Nation of Christians all sure we are most of all arose from these small ones these little ones these little little ones or the least of small ones as the doubling of the words may their force in Hebr. do's imply These are they who in great multitudes Follow the Rev. 14. 4. Lamb wherever he goes These have Fill'd up the Companies of Saints These have Recruited and Compleated the Armies of Martyrs ever since the first footing of Christianity most of the Churches Additions have been made up of These Little ones whereas your Great ones those that choose the time of full-grown Christians for their implanting have never since the time aforesaid come in any such considerable numbers nor are they ever likely to doe so For if we look upon the present Face of that way though 't is confess'd much wash'd of late smooth'd over and made Fineish in comparison of those ugly Outlandish looks which at first it began withall however they may seem to have got the start of others in some flashes of Zeal and Knowledge with some little shewes of Outward Holiness yet it may be feared that Ambition and Self-Love Perversness and Disobedience Fierceness and Scornfulness Implacableness and Unpeaceableness yea Robbing and Murdering of men rather than fail to make Sacrifice and Burnt-Offerings for God I say all these and more such as these if lay'd in the other Ballance I doubt will weigh down all those Light flashes and Insubstantial shewes of a welpersonated Piety which seem to Stuffe and Fill up the other Scale But if any still be otherwise minded God I hope will in his time reveal this unto them To our business a business of Religion though sometimes necessarily folded up in these Garden-figures wherein whatever Improprieties have been or may be met withall I beg your pardon as being a profess'd stranger to those kind of studies For the Earliness of our Admission the subject now in hand let us consider our being Christians is not only a Planting or Transplanting both which bespeak the young and yielding Tenderness of the thing so planted or transplanted but it also supposes a sacred kind of Engraffing as our Church teaches us to say of Baptized Children They are Graffed into the body of Christ's Congregation Which Engraffing may be signified by the Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text as well as Implanting yea if that Rule be true that your choicest Fruit-trees are still Engraffed the Psalmist here speaking of a Fruit-bearing tree and that of the best sort it must needs presuppose this Engraffing and be thus resolved viz. That this blessed big-grown Tree in the Text here before us was at first but a little tender Twig graffed into such a Stock as was Planted by the Rivers of Waters c. And if so then it must be a little one indeed for I think men don 't usually Engraffe your Thick truncheon-Trees or your Tall full-grown Branches but your lesser younger Springs of a span-long according to that other Rule which I am told of that the least Twig that grow's on the Trees top and looks Easterly and first sees the Morning-Sun such a one qualified with all these combinations of Early circumstances is absolutely the best for that purpose all which does secretly insinuate the Earliness of our Spiritual Engraffing And as this Early-Engraffing was here thus prefigur'd by our Prophet so was it uninterruptedly practised down along all the Primitive times For this even that of Tertullian Quid festinat innocens aetas c. His nice questioning why it should be so contains a solid Proof that indeed it was so I will say no more of the Earliness of the time but whereas the Lord hath spoken by the mouth of his servant David Those that be planted in the house of Psal 92. 13. the Lord shall flourish in c. Let us only turn that Promise into a Prayer and beg of God that those who have been thus planted in Gods House may not hereafter unroot and dance after the Pipe of any Orpheus whatever but still flourish in the Courts of that same House where at first they were planted Which brings me to the third thing proposed The Advantage of the place in these words By the Rivers of Waters He shall be like a Tree c. 3. As for the Hebrew here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it be best rendred by Divisiones as some Decursus as others or Rivos Aquarum Rivers of Waters as ours translate it we shall not Dive too Daringly nor be Curious in the Enquiry but content our selves to be like the Tree we speak of Secus non Intus stand by the Banks not Plunge into the Bottome of these Waters If Scriptures and Sacraments with the unwearied workings and strivings of Gods blessed Spirit if the former and later Rain of his preventing and assisting Graces together with the continual droppings of all his Ordinances I say if all these may pass for Rivers of Waters as the Word of God does frequently so call them surely then our standing is so advantageous and comfortable that blessed be God we have not wanted any of those Waters However we have been to God he has not been a Wilderness to us Rivers of such waters Running through every street Theophrastus cites it for an old saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ib 8. de Plant. 't is the Season not the Soyle the Heavens not the Earth that produces plenty and abundance as it is in the 65 Psal v. 9 10. Thou enrichest the earth Thou providest for it Thou waterest the Rigdes Thou softenest and settlest the Furrows yet for all that if the heavens Plow and do all for us 't is not without the Earth's Heifer using and blessing the means and a great matter it is when that Heifer is Tractable and Towardly I mean when the Earth is kind and good-natured I will hear the Heaven the Heaven shall hear the Earth â—os 2. 21. c. but then as the Heavens have an Eare to hear so the Earth must have a Tongue to speak which if like Davids It cleaves to the Roof of the mouth and be Parch'd and Dry'd up for want of Moisture so that the Lord doe's not Water it from his Chambers above nor yet from his Cellars below sure the Mower will nere fill his hand with That Harvest nor he that bindes up the sheaves his bosome To prevent which droughts and Barrennesses in spiritual concerns the God of heaven is never wanting the
of Implements In like manner we doubt not but God knows how to make use of the Warping Infirmities of his Saints and the Down-right Deformities of Sinners Those Crooked pieces may serve in an Arch or Vault which will not doe well in an Upright building yea the most Crooked Logs that are will be useful to Burn and bad Timber they say may yet make good Fewell Though some have wish'd to be no higher than Door-keepers and well if some others were so high as Door-sills in God's House yet for all that every Christian should Reach at Christ's promise and strive to be a Pillar in the House of God whose straight Top as it Exactly Poynts upward from Earth to Heaven so should our Eyes and Hearts be ever toward the Lord from whom cometh our Salvation 'T is observ'd by the Philosopher-de animalibus that whereas all Beasts in the closing of their eyes begin with the letting down of the upper eye-lid and so first lose the sight of heaven and all objects above But on the contrary Birds begin first to draw up the lower-lid and so by degrees grow dark to the Earth while the Upper part of the Eye has still some little Glimpses of Heaven For our parts let us be rather like the Birds of Heaven than the Beasts of Earth those beasts that perish Let us begin to Draw up the nether-lid provided the upper part of the Souls Eye be still uncover'd and Fixt above no matter though we grow dimme and darke unto all these dirty concernments here below Straight is the gate saith Christ and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life You may walk at large in Iat 7. 13. a Wide way and a broad Gate will admit of broad shoulders But we must strive to enter in at the strait Gate where none can enter but straight Souls nor they neither without striving The Hill of God is an High hill No Coming thither without Climing only here is the difference Men too oft make use of Crooked wayes and winding Circles as to Climb Hills so by degrees to Clamber up to Riches and Honours those Mountains of this world whereas none but the upright Walker comes none but the straight Walk brings directly to Gods Holy Mountain Let 's all Labour to be Straight and Upright Christians that 's the First 2. For the Second Having dispatch'd the Straightness I have therein Impli'd also the Strongness of this Tree which was the second Commendable property proposed unto you For as it is in nature the upright posture is the strongest posture And so in Art which imitates nature your straightest Tower stands the surest whereas on the other side Bowing and Tottering go both together Psal 62. 3. God has joynd them who can sever them And this we often see in your leaning buildings their own weight Confederates with the wind to their Down-fall The same rule also viz. that the uprightest is the surest posture holds good in Divinity He that walketh uprightly walketh surely and so in Philosophy Linea Recta est Firmissima your Prov. 10 9. Firmest bodies are made up of Direct lines insomuch that you would wonder what a load they say will lye upon a straight Needle whereas the least warping or bending presently betrays it to the mercy of its burthen To this purpose it is when the Prophet would set forth the Firm footing of God's servants in this or in the other life He thus expresseth it We are Risen Psal 20. 8. and stand upright whereas the wicked whose Souls grow Crooked by their Carnal pursuits and reliances set forth in those words Some put their trust in Chariots Vers 7. c. such trusts bring as it were the leaning and bowing of this Spiritual building what follow 's but this There are they brought down and fallen For further illustration of this we need not stir beyond the Root of this Tree here before us concerning which it is said that in a strong Tree the Root must look directly downward for if there be any Crooked up-turnings considerable the Tree will prove weak and improsperous The like we may say of many amongst our selves whereas we have perhaps a little loftily turned upward in some new toyes and Notions had we grown downward directly downward in all lowliness and humble mindedness sure we should not have had so many ill-grounded and slight Rooted Christians as it is at this day amongst us Let 's all labour to be Luke 13. 6. strong Christians that 's the second Third Property is an united Compactedness In a Vineyard where all should be Vines what makes the Fig-tree there No wonder 't is a barren one consider Luc. 13. 6. saith Christ the Fowles of the Ayre and the Lillies Mat. 6. 26 c of the Field c. As Christ send 's us to Birds and flowers to learn an holy Carelesness so he may send us to Stocks and Trees to take out a Lesson of Union and Compactedness As in the Tree there 's the same ground the same root the same stock the same Sap Body Bark and all so for us Christians do we not grow upon the same Ground of Faith Are we not Rooted in the same Brotherly Love and Charity Graffed into the same stock of Christianity nourisht with the same Sap of Scriptures and Sacraments One body of wholsome Doctrines that contains all the necessary juice of a Christian Soul One Bark of a Religious worship and Service through which the said juice is conveid to the supply and nourishment of every the meanest member For as it is said in the Art of Engraffing you must not Ruffle nor raise the Bark but the young Graff must be perfectly joined to the Old stock So the prudence of our Superiors in order to this perfect Juncture and Closure with the Church hath thought fit that even in these Externalls of Gods worship there should be an uniforme and compleat accordance amongst us For if but the Bark be once Raised the Tree will hardly ever Thrive and prosper Therefore God grant we may all be United and Compacted Christians That 's the third Fourth Is Fruitfulness Who plant's Vineyard â— Cor. 9. 7. and does not eat of the fruit thereof The Church has been at so great pains in Planting I have been at some small pains in Watering You I am sure have been at much Patience in attending Fit it is we should now Tast what Fruit may grow upon this our new plantation Come my Beloved Le ts get up Early to Can. 7. 11 12. the Vineyards See if the Vine flourish c. Trees if they be not good for Fruit they may be for Timber if not for Timber they may serve for shade and some are good for nothing else but shade and yet even those as I told you may be as good as any for the Fire so that the worst you see are good for something though better it were that such who are only good in
as the Small it seems they all 2 Circumstance must Stand before God And if S. John sees them all here in the same posture of poor and wretched Prisoners GOD no doubt beholds them all with the same Eye of a Just and Impartial Judge There is not a Chaire afforded for the Ease of a Prisoner of quality while the Poor man his Fellow-Prisoner bears upon his Legs till he grows to the ground he stands on No they all stand before God The Athenians had a liberty to question their chiefest Magistrates though not in yet after their Office And the Egyptians they sate upon the Carcases of Diod. Sic. their greatest Commanders Here the Books were all Indifferently Opened and the Volume-Accounts of the Greatest were read and duely Stated as well as the Smaller Papers of the Meanest person were produced Books they say are the Uprightest Iudges and the most Faithful Counsellours which whatever men may doe understand nothing of any Personal Distinctions or Favourable Indulgencies unto any in which regard the Text here makes use of them in the setting forth of this Judgment The Great mans Charge wrote in Court-hand or Characters is not charily folded up with a Seal of Favour clapt upon it or a clasp of Gold while the lesser bills of a mean person drawn at length are laid open to publick View so that he that runs may read them No but the Books of all as they were equally view'd by the same Eye so were they exactly Wrote and Impartially opened by the same hand of Justice I have heard of one who was content to have his Picture drawn on condition he might hold his Finger over the Wart he had upon his face while it was a drawing Too many such Imperfect Pieces we meet withall even from those Pencils which should draw Justice to the Life while the Soft Finger of affection is suffered to cover the deformities of the Foulest matters But when God once to shame our deficiencies undertakes to give us this exact draught of Judgment he will put by the Kindness of the Finger The narrow covering thereof must be removed in that day and Blemishes as well as Beauties all must be naked before him with whom we have then to do If as some are of opinion the renew'd Heavens â—ixa â—runâ— omâ—ia quae nunc â—â—ventur ad â—â—rvitium hoâ—inum Ansel and all the luminaries thereof shall then leave off their rolling and be still It may give us somewhat to conceive of that unmoved stillness there will be in the Lord of Heaven and steadiness in the Father of those Lights even in the Unchangeable God who shall not suffer the least sway of Affection or shadow of Turning Look not on his Countenance nor the Heighth of his Sam 16. 7. stature for I have refused him saith the Lord concerning Eliab where also we have the reason of that refusal For the Lord seeth not as man seeth c. â—bid On the other side when God had said By me Princes rule as doubtless they doe and Nobles and all â—rov 8. 16. â— 17. Iudges of the Earth it follows at the 17th vers I love them that love me 'T is not provided they be Nobles or Iudges or the like before spoken of but them indifferently who ere they are I love them that love me Justice may well be allow'd to Wear when in some regards she is a pair of Balances he that weighs with them indeed distinguisheth of the worth but the Balances themselves make no Difference in the weight of Gold or Lead And as it is in Weights so is it in Measures the same I think may serve as well for Silks as Sackcloths In both which we have the Resemblance of an Even-handed and Unbyassed Justice Thus God himself sets an Equal Rate upon the Atonement of all Souls The Rich shall not give more the Exod. 30. 15. Poor shall not give less than half a Shekell For as the Heavens keep an Equi-distance from the Earth however they seem yet they doe not stoop to Kiss the Tops of the Loftiest Mountains nor doe they quite Disdain and look aloof off from the Lower Valleys So it is with the GOD of Heaven He is no Respecter of persons but in every nation and of every Act. 10. 34 Condition He that fears him is accepted of Him If he does draw nigh to the humble 't is the Grace and not the Man that bowes him and Inclines him If He does behold the proud afarre off 't is the Sin and not the Psal 138. 6. Soul that estranges Him Whatever Others may think I doe not believe we shall all Rise in the same stature but Rise we must and the Lofty-siz'd man jutt's no nearer to Him nor doe those of Lower Measures sink at all the further from Him The Sun-beams can assoon reach the depths of the most Depressed Hollows as the heights of the most Exalted Mountains Nil apud Deum Magnum est quod vel à Minimo dari S. Anselm nequeat the greatest Present to God may be offered by the meanest Hand In the acceptance whereof He looks not at the Fine Glove the Rich Perfume or the Gold Ring upon the Finger but only The Cleanness of the Hand in His Eye-sight Psal 18. 24. Pharaoh's Butler and Baker the Heads of Both are Lifted up though to a Several kind of Advancement Gen. 40. 20. yet not for the Diversity of their Dreams the Gayest and Best things in this World are little better but according to the Difference of their demerits Ioseph and Agag must both be brought out of Prison but for several purposes and designations Ioseph shaves and shifts himself but Agag appears in delicate apparel Gen. 41. 14. Both come forth with their Rayment chang'd yet the One to be Advanc'd to the Throne the Other to be Hewn in pieces Now as the Eye of Pharaoh did not at all respect the shaved Face or the change of Rayment in the Promotion of Ioseph neither did the Sword of Samuel give any regard to those delicacyes of Habit in the Execution of Agag So shall it fare with all mankind in that Day Iosephs and Agags Slaves and Princes the exalted Butler and the condemned Baker rising men and declining men we are all Deaths Captives and at the Last day must all be brought forth of our several Prisons and change our Garments though in order to designs and purposes very farre distant one from another Some like Ioseph to be Exalted unto Thrones in Heaven Others like Agag to be Cut in pieces for those Infernal Cauldrons Some with the Baker to be made meat for those Hellish Fowles to Feed upon while Others are Preferr'd to be Cup-bearers to the Great King To tast again of the pure Blood of the Gen. â—0 19. Grape and Drink it anew with Christ in his kingdome Matth. 26. â— And all this not according to Honour Wealth Wit or any
yet not a blow is struck but where 't is fully ripe for Execution and then as we tear not off a Nayle no nor Pluck up an Hair without Pain no more should the Vilest Excrement of a Kingdome the most wretched Miscreant that is perish without Pity After the flood GOD can smell a sweet Savour Gen. 8. 21. amidst a World of carkasses that were spread like Dung upon the face of the Earth but yet that Savour Arises not from the Reaking of the Bodies but the burning of the Altar And should the sword of Justice be never so much bath'd in Blood yet 't is not the Carkasses Ibid. 20. of the dead which smell well with God but the holy burnings of the Living such as alwayes warmed S. Pauls bosome who is not to say destroyed but offended and 2 Cor. 11. 2 I burn not If the Heavens will not the Earth must weep because they will not the Tears of a compassionate Judge may in a sacred manner * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Hammond out of Basil shame the dry Eyes of Heaven so that God can't chuse but make them * Then there had been a long time oâ— Drou 1â— Weep with them that Weep and melt in showres with them that melt in Teares Ita feri non ut se sed ut te sentiat mori so to strike that he may feel his own death that 's the part of cruel Tyrants but so to strike as if we our selves felt it that 's the part of good Iudges who as you came with so we hope you come like the * Yesterday's Thunder-Showre Thunder and â—ain at the â—udges inâ—â—ming not without a mixture of Majesty and Mercy But I see my self irrecoverably lost in this one leaf of Mercy what then will become of you your great Patience at present and your weighty Affaires now following all I doubt would be lost should we adventure upon the Turning over of the other leaves of these Books which in regard I perceive them of themselves most willingly opening at a Psalm of Mercy I shall here Fold down the Leaf for your more ready Finding and so at last close up the Books where First I found them open So much for the Text. An Address to the JVDGES WE have done Preaching and now must betake our selves to down-right Begging Indeed it falls out at such times as These that the Poor CLERGIE have this Advantage afforded them to become Publick Beggers And although our Honourable PARLIAMENT in their pious Care and Wisdome have Hedg'd up our Way with Thorns from all kind of Tumultuous Petitions yet here They have left us a Gap open and a faire passage to Touch the Top of The Royall Sceptre by our humble Approaches to You My Lords by whom That Sceptre is so Truly Represented Therefore Your patience and the Preacher having been Wrestling now This Hour We cannot yet let You Goe unless You Bless us with the grant of these particulars which so much concern the Honour of That Sceptre In order whereunto the First thing we beg and the Last we would be denied is that the Lord's Day may be more Religiously Observ'd and His Publick Worship more Devoutly Frequented 'T is sad to think that those who should alwayes be Ready for CHRIST'S Coming You know the Motto GALLUS SUPER TUBAM should never be more Unready then when we are chiefly to expect him as we should do on that day Heretofore Abuses of this nature were like the Pestilence that Walks in darkness Psal 91. 6. Betimes in the Morning or Late in the Evening but now Carts and Waggons c. are become daemonia Meridiana Destructions that Waste and reproach our Religion at Noon-day That condemnation must needs be grievous when Rebells shall rise up in Judgment against good Subjects Next we pray that all Perjuries Frauds Subornations c. which should not be named amongst Christian men may not be Impenally practised in Christian Courts That nothing be done through Strife or Revenge c. and that all lingring and Vexatious Suits be effectually prevented That the Poor be not oppressed in his Cause nor the face of any accepted against what is right That the sober and peaceable Learned and Loyal Clergie may still be Encouraged That the People those yet unsetled Souls be no longer poysoned for our * Sea-monsters â— Lam. 4. 3. â—uid lamias â—si Hereticos â—â—pâ—llat humaâ—am faciem sed â—eluina corda â—stantes qui â—nc Mammam â—udant cùm â—rorem liberé â—aedicant â—reg in loc still Draw out their Breasts and in secret Suckle their Young ones but the best Milk they can give is poyson Lastly that all Sedition with the close Seminaries thereof may if possible be Repressed Love Peace Order with all that is true Godliness be heartily Promoted that so the God of Love Peace and Order in all things may be Magnified through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit c. THE END