sprinkled upon the Posts was the Israelites as the scarlet thread in the window was Rahabs for with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth man confesseth to salvation The Latines call the roofe of the mouth Coelum Heaven and the lower part Solum palati the ground of the palate The most mens speech is altogether of earth as though they had no heaven in their mouth they dash all their words against the earth like the fish in the Gospel either dumbe or nothing but gold in their mouth It is cleane contrary with S. Pauls Christian who not content to be a silent and dumbe spectatour of heaven like the fish so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to suffer the conceptions of his minde to die there like abortive birthes smothered in the wombe but labours to bring them to the light and deliver them to others that they may also partake of his sweetnesse and so dividing himselfe betweene solitarinesse and company meditation and communication thoughts and speech that one may make the other profitable the one being begunne and inducted into the soule by the Spirit and the other having instructed others in the way of godlinesse as the Father hath it See in the last place his operation for what is his whole life but an Angels worke a continuall attendance upon God The Church is as the Father stiles it an heaven upon earth the presence Chamber of the great King how often doth hee waite there with what devotion like David according to Saint Austins Glosse I will goe into the house of the Lord as a stone in his building saith the Father like Christ himselfe his parents sought him in vaine in cognatione carnis among his kindred but found him imployed in domo Patris in his Fathers house The Sabbath is the Lords day our rest and employment then a short abridgement of the long story of eternitie is seasonable how truely doth Hee call this Day his delight how cheerefully doth he welcome in Hee commeth forth of his chamber like a Bridegroome and rejoyceth as a Gyant to runne his race like the Jew that was wont to put on his best apparell to expect the approach of this day and hasten it forward wooing with these words Veni sponsa mea Come my Spouse like the Spouse in the Canticles rather untill the day breake and the shadowes flee away I will get me to the mountaines of Myrrhe and to the hill of Frankincense he hath espoused his soule to the beauty of holinesse in these blessed ordinances and therefore his eyes will prevent the morning watch that hee may adorne and prepare himselfe be times and meete these solemnities with the sweete perfume and incence of meditation and prayer Prayer and the rest of the works of Piety are the Ladder to Heaven how often may you see him like the Angels in Iacobs vision ascending and descending by this It is a received maxime in Philosophy that Oratio is Quantitas discreta but it is a certaine truth in Divinitie that Oratio debet esse Quantitas continua according to that of the Apostle Pray continually Too much discretion in the world hath brought too little devotion and unjustly censured the heate of devotion for want of discretion But 't is not either the virulence of the tongue or violence that can make a Christian intermit this course The Angel that strove with Iacob said Let me goe for the morning approacheth forsooth afraid as the Rabbins would have it that if he were deteined any longer he should incurâ—e some censure of irregularity or be injoyned some pennance for tardinesse at his Mattins But a Christian saith indeede to his deare sinnes Let me goe sollicitous to prevent all intanglements to shake of all impediments which might hazard the least interruption of his sweet intercourse with God in prayer And to make no more particular instances the heavenly Hierarchies of Angels are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be heires of salvation or is not this the very trade and occupation of a Christian the magnificence of Piolomaeus Philadelphus I suppose gave originall to the phrase in which all noble and magnificent workes are called opera Philadelphia I dare say a Christian esteemes that his most honorable imployment when he may provoke the glory of God in the good of his brethren especially in the matter of heaven and salvation these are his opera Philadelphia workes of Charity For he holds the common truth in Philosophy the most proper worke of a living creature is to beget one in his owne likenesse to be a certaine truth in Divinitie the most specificall and characteristicall act of a living Christian is at least to endeavour to beget another in his owne likenesse to draw many to God and therefore that which Plato said divinely was the end of marriage that when out race shall be ended and we must â—radere Lampada give up our borrowed light wee may have those that may rise up in our place that may stand up in stead to serve God that the fire of his Altar may never goe out this may be truely said the end of all his commerce and converse with others Neither is he thus in these great things of the Law only but as carefull in the lesse men will not lightly lose the least ends of Gold the least Commandement observed brings a great reward and the least sinne cannot bee committed without great danger even the secret lusts and motions of the heart which cannot bee discerned for sinne otherwise when motes and atomes in the tenth Commandement as it were in the Sun-beames the point of the speare pierced our Saviours side so did the prickes of the thornes wound his sacred head and therefore though counterfeit Christians make no bones of lesser sinnes make no conscience of lesser duties like Pharoahs Magicians whose art could not reach to make such things as were lesse then a Barly-Corne and therefore failing in the production of Lice were forced to acknowledge the finger of God as the Rabbins give the reason yet a currant Christian is the same in great and lesse matters in both like himselfe if not like God himselfe of whom Austin elegantly he is so great an Artisan in great matters as that hee is not lesser in the smallest He did all with the same care and by the same rule the Iewes have a Law which enjoynes them to take up any paper which they see lying on the ground and the reason is lest happily the Name of God be written in the paper and ignorantly troden under foote the Christian is free from such superstitious curiositie yet full of religious care observes every title in Gods Word least unawares hee might dishonour the name of God and trample upon any of the least of his Commandements and therefore he hath respect to this in all his wayes this is the
to bid a point of Time to buy a Circle a Crowne of eternitie especially seeing we cannot but know it better then the heathen Philosopher did that pronounced all that resolved it Vnlesse I had beene admitted to partake of these it had beene no great matter to be borne unlesse wee get a part of heaven it was not worth the while for us that wee are borne Fourthly Necessitie double of ours times and place First Times for send your meditations abroad as Noah did the Dove out of the Arke and they will finde no place to rest but returne and tell you of an universall deluge of affliction which hath well nigh overwhelmed the Church of God unlesse as the Duke of Alva told the King of France who asked him whether he had observed the late great Eclipse no said he I have so much to doe upon earth that I have no leasure to behold the heaven so wee are so busied in the world that we thinke not on Gods kingdome or be so rude and barbarous to thinke the state of the Church is nothing to us abroad while we at home feele nothing But what if our selves be in more danger the more secure we are Have we any priviledge above our neighbours May not God justly take away his Gospel and his mercies from those that abuse them I read it observed in the Scriptures that when the Israelites came to eate of the fruites of the land de frugibus terrae the Manna ceased If Hony be thy friend doe not swallow all saith the Arabick proverbe Let us take heed we abuse not the gentlenesse of God toward us lest if we grow earthly minded God take away his heavenly Manna the richer the Wine is the sowrer is the Vineger saith the German and c if his love hath beene so unspeakeable towards us his hatred of our lewdnesse will be infinite like himselfe being voyd of limits and bounds saith a father and how shall we prevent our owne danger or relieve the miseries of our brethren When Ierusalem was taken there was heard they say a voice from heaven Migremus Let us depart hence let us doe so betake our selves to God to Heaven for helpe in these dangerous times an heavenly conversation lest Gods judgements sease upon us as the Souldier slew Archimedes while he was drawing lines in the dust so busily First Be zealous for Religion A Lacedaemonian woman delivered her sonne going to the warre his fathers Buckler with this mothers blessing either let me see thee bring this backe to me my sonne with life and victory or let me see thee brought back againe upon this dead with honour either fight victoriously or die valiantly The Serpent say they if he be so invironed that hee must of necessitle passe thorough one of them will sooner adventure upon the flame or fire then the shadow of the Poplar Tree Let us resolve either to live with the Gospel or dye for the Gospel and the faith of our Fathers the Buckler that defended them from all dangers and let us feare more the black shaddow of Roman superstition then the bright flames of a Marian persecution There is a prophesie reported in Telesphorus that Antichrist shall never overcome Venice nor Paris nor the royall city of London But we have a more certaine word and let us take heed we be not luke-warme in Religion lest God spue us out of his mouth Secondly be zealous in Religion To this end let us then practise First Serious repentance and sincere reformation If the booke of the Law chance to fall upon the ground the Iewes custome is presently to proclaime a fast why should not wee doe so who have let the Law of God fall to the ground many times and trample upon it too by disobedience I have heard sometime that one of the wisest Statesmen that ever sate at the sterne of this Kingdome had this verse written upon his Study dore Anglica Gens est optima flens pissima ridens The English nation is most healthfull when it swimmes in teares and more dangerous to fall into a sicknesse when it overflowes with laughter The truth whereof our late experience hath confirmed In the Plague what shewes of devotion what faire promises but some have well observed a double fault in our nation concerning the state of their bodies which may be better applyed to the state of their minds that the English are not sicke soone enough and they are well too soone to correct both which let mee give but one word of advice Let our repentance be swift and currant lest Gods decree outrun it and let our fasts be according to an old Canon which defines their continuance even untill the starres appeare in the Firmament and let us humble our selves betimes before the decree come forth and let us goe thorough still with the worke when it is begunne and resolve with Iacob I will not let thee goe untill thou blesse me Secondly Let us be servent and earnest in Prayer The Jewes have a blasphemous fable that our Saviour found out the right pronounciation of the name of God the Tetragrammaton and that wrought all his miracles but the right invocation of the name of God will indeede worke miracles and doe wee thinke much to aske and have There was one at Rome offered the booke of the Sibyls to sale entire and whole a rare monument but set a round price which the King would not adventure upon then burning the halfe of the bookes and doubling the price of the whole for the remainder he made a second offer and that was also refused hee made no more adoe but burnt againe the halfe of the halfe and doubled againe the whole price of the whole and so once more he offered the reliques the third time and then the King at last bethought himselfe and bought Beloved God offers us now his Gospell his sonne with peace and prosperity all blessings are as it were let downe from heaven to us in the sheet which Peter saw and that at no great price our prayers onely if wee make nice and dainty to purchase these blessings when the Lord is so willing to make sale I feare the time will come when wee would be content to bid teares and sweate and blood and our very soules for the least part of them and yet may goe without Let us pray earnestly then for our selves for our brethren let us not thinke much to weepe for them that bleede for Christ The Iewes have a saying that since the destruction of the Temple of Ierusalem the doores of Prayer have beene shut but the doore of teares was never shut a sonne of teares cannot perish Let us knocke at that doone Our place and Calling It is one of Ieremiahs Lamentations that they that are brought in scarlet should embrace the dung and the Lapwing is made an Hieroglyphicke of infelicitie because it hath as a Coronet upon the
Card and Compasse without this as there be few men that can draw a streight line or a circle without a Rule or compasse none can leade their life aright or make streight steps to heaven with this they may for as while one line of the Compasse is firmely fastned upon the Card the other goes steadily the true circuit So while the mind of man is fixed upon the Word by contemplation and observes it he may keepe his life and actions within compasse and run safely the way of Gods Commandements A man may huddle up a mud-wall a banke of earth in haste of that which comes next to hand saith the moralist but 't were madnesse to attempt to build a Palace a Temple without choice stones without line and levels Now a Christian by a holy life labours to build himselfe up a Palace for the great King a Temple for the living God and therefore thinkes hee can never be choice enough of the stuffe or workemanship whereas any rubbish trash or any slovenly slubbering over is good enough for another use Socrates was said to have cald Philosophy downe from heaven to earth so doth he draw the practise of Divinitie even to his earthly and domesticall and daily affaires and by this heavenly course rather then he should not bee in heaven makes his house wherein he walkes before God in the uprightnesse of his heart and sinceritie be it never so meane a Cottage a very heaven as Chrysostome speakes To conclude this That which the Ruffians in Seneca scoffe at in the sober young man is true of him in a sense more divine hee so workes so recreates him selfe so sups so drinkes so speakes so lives as one that is to give a just account to his heavenly Father wherein hee would not faile or bee taken tripping for all the world and in a word he passeth his life in this world as in a royall Temple which God hath built for his owne service the world is a sacred Temple to those that study perfection the moralist acknowledgeth appointing man his Priest every day of whose life is marked in the Calender of truth for an holy day upon which all other worke is unlawfull this onely we must labour that we may serve our course and keepe our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or turnes so faithfully in the Temple of vertue here that through it we may assuredly passe and be preferred to the Temple of honour which God hath prepared for us in heaven to which God hath framed it so there is no accesse but by the former as it was also signified at Rome in the two Temples which were so contrived and so called Secondly conformit as felicitatis A Christian is an heaven by a conformitie of happinesse which is so great that the Father calls it an heaven before we come to heaven not without reason There be two things indeede that make a broad difference sinne and misery which we are subject to here but shall be from hereafter and yet these two deprive us rather of the degree than of the truth of the perfection rather than of the possession of happinesse The present tense in Grammer is accompanied with the imperfect the future with the plusquam perfectum and such is the condition of our present and future happinesse our future is more then perfect our present is imperfect indeed but yet true happinesse Misery may eclipse it here perhaps but cannot extinguish it they may kill me said a Philosopher to the Tyrants but they cannot hurt me they may take away my head but they cannot take away my crowne saith the Christian and divinely Tertullian the thigh feeles not the paine in the sinew when the soule is in heaven the heire of heavenly joyes may passe through the vaile of teares and goe mourning all the day going weeping all the way scattering his precious seede with his teares but you know the saying an Heires teares are laughter under his mourning cloathes Sinne is infinitely the worse of the two and yet sinne doth not separate us from Christ it drives us closer to him rather and he cannot bee farre from heaven that is so neare Christ c For where Christ is there is heaven saith the Father Sinne doth not separate us from God who reconciled in Christ beholds us not as a Judge guiltie malefactours but as a father weake children and he is not farre from heaven that is so neare God for where the King is there is the Court is our common saying sinne doth not separate us from the communion of the holy Spirit who dwells in us and makes us living Temples of God and what difference I pray betweene the Temple of God and Heaven To end this in a word a Christian is in this world like Adam in Paradise which as some imagine was situate above the clouds and therefore not defaced in the universall Deluge of waters in the Paradise I say of a good conscience the Garden of God which is situate above the clouds of all misery where the Tree of Life is continually watered with the Torrent of pleasure which never leaves running till it ends his course in his Ocean of Eternitie Such is the Conversation of a Christian in Heaven but is Ours such That was the second Point we propounded 2. I am afraid that some may say after this character of a Christian as Linacer when he had heard our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount Either this is not Gospell or we are not Christians our Saviour asked who toucht him then when the multitude pressed about him many throng about Christ in profession and a forme of godlinesse but few touch him to draw any vertue from him and power of godlinesse many beare the name of Christians b to their judgement and condemnation not to their salvation and remedy as the Father speakes to whom we may say as Alexander did to a souldier who was called Alexander by his name but played the coward egregiously either fight better either live better or else presume not to usurpe the glorious name many flie to that of the Jewes The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord and thinke to take Sanctuary and save themselves there from all danger as the Jewes fable that Og the King of Bashan escaped in the floud by riding astride upon the Arke without though they never enter as if they thought with Martius that they could not possibly be condemned within sight of the Capitoll the Temple For to point at these in a word are there not many Prophane persons whose conversation is in Hell like the Demoniacke in the Gospell whose abode was in the graves and how farre are they from hell thinke you who will goe rather to an Alehouse Whorehouse Playhouse then to the House of God Vbi fuisti Where hast thou beene apud Inferos in Hell saith Erasmus merrily comparing Tipling Cellars to Hell Her feete goe downe to death her
steppes take hold of Hell saith Salomon of the Harlot to leave a Sermon to goe to a Play is to forsake the Church of God to betake ones selfe to the Synagogue of Satan to fall from Heaven to Hell And what are they who doe nothing else all their life but warre against heaven more properly than the barbarous Scythians who thought they did it valiantly when they shot their arrowes against heaven which fell upon their owne pates the true Antipodes of God and all goodnesse that by a new found Art of memory never remember the Name of God that made them but in their oathes and blasphemies and by a new found Art of forgetfulnesse seeme to have forgotten their owne name as they say Messala did that they are called Christians that rather than faile of sinning with mutuall emulation like unhappie boyes strive who shall goe furthest in the dirt they thinke it a foule shame to be ashamed of sinne and their ambition is who shall be most famous for infamy The Jewes observe that the same word diversly pronounced Bethsheba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shibboleth signifies the well of Oath and Bethsaba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibboleth the well of plentie I am sure for Oathes the Land mournes of which there is such store as if men by an easie mistake of the point used to draw and drop oathes as it were out of the well of plentie But I shall shew you greater abominations then these it is the Apostles exhortation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow peace and holinesse without which no man shall see God the word indeede is ambiguous and signifies sometime to follow and sometime to persecute the Apostle delivers this with the right hand and would have us follow and pursue holinesse as it were withdrawing our selves from earth and retiring to heaven and that apace for feare we overtake them not but many take this with the left hand and running upon a wrong sent follow neither peace nor holinesse but breake the peace by proclayming open warre and persecuting holinesse without which no man shall see God the tongue is set on fire on hell and they set their mouths against heaven and blaspheme the Saints Good Lord that ever the reformed Church should verifie that which the Poet wrote once of Rome Omnia cùm licet non liceat esse pium When it is lawfull to bee all things but to be piously disposed and these times to be the prophesie of the morall Philosopher when Honour is attributed to vice Gideon received those for his Souldiers that bowed not the knee to drink but lapt like a Dog and Iephta made that the tryall of life or death if they could pronounce Shibboleth and is not now swearing a sufficient pasport for entertainement in the world and drunkennesse as good as letters of Commendation for preferment he that is so precise hee cannot kneele to Bacchus and carouse it so hee that lispes at an oath Sibboleth and cannot thunder them out thicke and threefold with a full mouth Shibboleth dismisse him for a coward he is an Ephramite and as he was wont to doe note him in your Calendar for a Priscillianist a Puritan but they that can do both and with a grace he is a brave lad a true trojan a Gileadite For those two for the most part are companions in evill Simeon and Levi as though wine sprung out of the earth from the blood of the Gyants that fought against the Gods as they in Plutarch imagined so it armes the Tongue against God all his Saints whose persons because they are out of reach they rend and teare their names Poore blind men that offer violence to the Saints as Sampson laid hand upon the Pillars to plucke the house upon their owne heads For this I feare will be the end of this sport and I would to God onely the Princes of the Philistims as indeede they doe sate and laught at this the Poets say Iupiter never throwes his thunderbolt but when the Furies wrest it out of his hand I feare these Furies will draw Gods judgements upon us I know not what vaine hopes like false guides which set a man out of the way beare us in hand that we may goe by sinne and hell to holinesse and shut our eyes against the light of the Gospell and yet at last come to heaven the way indeede to hell is easie for as Bias scoffed the dead goe thither blindfold with their eyes closed but let no man thinke any life will bring a man to heaven as though Christ sent blood out of his side to redeeme us and not water also to purge his redeemed and wash them from their sinnes As though those whom the divell drives headlong to hell as once hee did the Gadarens hogs into the deepe had any reason to conceive they were mounting to the pinacle of the Temple to some high place in heaven who if there were as many heavens as there be dayes in the yeare as the Basilidians foolishly dreamed are not like to come to the lowest point of the lowest without more then ordinary repentance Secondly wordlings whose conversation is in earth who degenerate so far from all noble thoughts that they had rather be Terrae filii sonnes of the earth then heires of heaven which deface the Image of the heavenly Father stamped in the soule not in their coines with continuall rubbing against the earth Wormes and no men that doe not walke upright to heaven but crawle upon the earth the seede of the Serpent inheriting his curse to creepe upon their belly and licke the dust and like that better then the choice delicates the foode of Angels like the Israelites of whom Tertullian whose pallats rellish Garlick or an Onion of the Aegyptian earth better than the Angelicall viands of heaven whom the earth hathwholly swallowed up as once it did Corah who lulled asleepe with the flattering blandishment and faire entertainement they meete with in the world are nayled to the earth as Sisera was by Iael and will not so much as lift their eyes to heaven unlesse it be as the moralist observes that Hogs doe who goe nodling downe and rooting in the earth all their life and never looke upward till being ready to be kild they are laid flat upon their backe and forced so those men are all their life scraping in the dunghill and never thinke upon God or heaven till wrastling with the pangs of death they are even overcome and laid flat upon their backe then they that were prone to earthly cares like Martha like the woman in the Gospel that had a spirit of infirmitie and was bowed downeward and carelesse and supine to all heavenly things are forced to thinke of heaven but perhaps can brook them little better then Cerberus did the light at which he startled and strugled so when Hercules had brought him so farre that he had well nigh twitcht him downe backe againe
THE HEAVENLY CONVERSATION AND THE NATVRALL MANS CONDITION In two Treatises By IOHN STOVGHTON Doctor in Divinitie sometimes Fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge and late Preacher of Gods Word in Alderman-bury London Printed at London by T. G. for John Bellamie and Ralph Smith and are to be sold at the three Golden Lyons TO THE RIGHT Honorable HENRY Earle of Holland and Baron of Kensington chiefe Gentleman of his Majesties Bedchamber chiefe Justice and Justice in Eyre of all his Majesties Forests Chases Parkes and Warrens on this side Trent Chancellor of the Vniversitie of Cambridge Constable of the royall Castle of Windsor one of his Majesties most Honorable privie Conncell and Knight of the most noble order of the Gaâ—ter Right Honorable A Debtor I acknowledge my selfe unto the Church of God by calling a speciall ingagement lieth upon me both of trust and promise to serve the Church in this way in bringing towards the furtherance of the building of it that which hath beene squared and framed to my hand by a wise Master builder who hath showed himselfe approved unto God a workeman that needeth not to be ashamed This I doe here humbly present unto your Honours protection I may perhaps from some incurre the censure of too much boldnesse in using your Honours name but your courtesie and sweet affabilitie springing from your native gentelnesse of disposition doth secure me and the rather since I present this unto your Honour not in my owne name but in the name and behalfe of the Widdow who though she may claime the priviledge of her Sex from appearing in Print herselfe yet shee is desirous that the living and lasting Monuments of her deare husband should be brought forth for the good of Gods Church under the patronage and protection of your Honour to whom the Author was every way so much oblieged now I have no reason to doubt but that as your Honour was pleased to take the Reverend and learned Author into the protection of your noble family for you will bee pleased to countenance these his owne legitimate children which are now sent abroad as Orphans deprived of their father Their owne worth cannot but gaine them esteeme but I know your Honour will prize them the more for their fathers sake who whilest hee was alive did secure your Honour by his Prayers which he did daily offer up to God not pro forma as a legall and dead ceremony but pro Anima as a spirituall and lively sacrifice in the behalfe of your honour and happinesse and now that he is dead yet speaketh in these and those other Sermons of his which beare your honours name If you be pleased to patronize countenance and peruse them they will reflect much brightnesse upon your noblenesse as they receive splendour from it Thus under your Honours protection I doe present them unto the world humbly craving the priviledge of your pardon for my boldnesse and heartily beseeching the Lord to mak you still and still to doe worthily in Israel and to inrich your Honour more and more with grace here and glory hereafter Your Honours humbly devoted in all duty and observance A. B. To the Christian Reader GIve mee leave with thy acceptation to doe the office of a Timothy in bringing to thee the Parchmonts lest behind by that worthy man of God Doctor Iohn Stoughton These should have attended a larger Volumne but other of his Sermons having gotten the start of them and being left alone they are now presented to thee in this little Manuell They were left written with his owne hand and Preached in one of the Schooles of the Prophets and so fitted for a learned Auditorie That which did sway with me in the Publishing of these and rhose other Sermons of his that are already brought forth into publike view next to the desire of the publike good was the feare of wrong that both the Church and Authour might sustaine by the publishing of more imperfect Coppies Those private and imperfect Coppies which passed from hand to hand did runne the hazzard of a surreptitious Edition I clearely saw for some of them and had just cause to suspect it in the rest that if I would not publish them others would they falling into the hands of some mercinary persons whose boldnesse is such as that it is not restrained eirher by the good of the Church or credit of the Author whilst they looke no higher than their owne private gaine which is all their godlinesse though many times their immaginary gaine proves their reall losse What is here presented to thee is intirely the Authors owne without adding the least tittle to them least my Addition should detract from them They are now published for the ingenious Readers benefit and not the Critickes censure and are recommended not to a bare reading but to thy practise The blessing of these labours I commend to him that alone must give the increase and the God of Heaven give a rich blessing to them for thy soules good Thine in the Lord A. B. A Methodicall Analysis of the chiefe heads handled in this Treatise on Phil. 3. 20. 1. TExt 1 Dependance of the words they looke backe 1 As part of a collation to the immediatly precedent verses 2. As a ground of illation to the 17. verse 2. The sence of them The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be rendred 1 Our city 2 Our municipall state and degres 3. Our politique bent and aime 4 Our politicall and civill administration 5. Our carriage and behaviour as citizens 1 Observation The conversation of a Christian is in heaven 1 There is explained what it is and how a Christian hath his conversation in heaven 1 In affection 2 In indeavours expressed in much 1 Alacrety 2 Diligence 3 Resolution 3 In act by a double Analogy and conformity with heaven 1 Conformity of sanctitie which appeares in his 1 Heavenly meditations 2 Divine communications 3 Conscionable operations expressed in his obedience 1 In the great things of the Law such as are 1 Delight in Gods Day 2 Exercise of Prayer and other workes of Piety 3 Helping forward the salvation of others 2 In the lesser things expressed in 1 Doing all 1 With the same care 2 By the same rule 2 Drawing the practise of Divinity to his earthly Domesticall and dayly affaires II Conformitie of felicitie Two things make a difference betwixt a Christians happinesse here and hereafter Misâ—y Sin yet these doe rather deprive us of the 1. Degree than truth 2. Perfection than possession 1. Misery may 1. Eclipse but not 2. Extinguish it 2. Sin doth not 1. Seperate us from Christ but 2. Drives us closer unto him II. Here is examined whether the life of ordinary Christians be according to this Rule Many beare the name of Christ and yet doe not answer it as 1. Prophane persons whose conversation is in Hell 2. Worldlings whose conversation is in the earth 3. Hypocrites whose conversion is betwixt heaven
to hell if the hand and the chaine that held him had not beene the stronger or as the noble King Richard the first of the name who when the rest of the Princes and Gallants travailing in the Holy Land where they then warred were come to the foote of an hill from whence they might view Jerusalem the holy Citie then possessed by Saracens without hope of recovery for the present and therefore put Spurs to their Horses every one in a youthfull contention who should be the first and have the maidenhead of that prospect Hee puld downe his Beaver over his eyes and would not gratifie them with the vaine pleasure of so sad a spectacle for God forbid said he that I should be hold that Citie though I could which though I would I know not how to rescue so is it but cold comfort to such to thinke of heaven whose life gives so weake evidence for their Title to it whose possibilities are so remote upon I know not what reversion after such and such and such a thing done which they finde then too late that they are not likely to have either space or grace or place to doe Foolish men that lay the greatest burthen upon the weakest horse and leave that one thing which is necessary to their bed when they are fit to doe nothing God called to them to hasten in their life to day if yee will heare my voyce harden not your hearts then they were loath to forsake their sweete sins as Lot to goe out of Sodome till the Angel pluckt him out then they answer coldly as Austin reports of himselfe Give Lord but not yet then they devise a thousand shifts to delay let Salomon bid them remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth they are ready to say to thinke at least as the Devills to our Saviour Art thou come to torment us before our time Whereas they are afraid if they should beginne too soone in Religion they might be Saints and happie before their time but when death comes they change their note their pulse then beates quicke and faint a dangerous symptome of Death O Lord make speede to heare us O Lord make haste to helpe us Then in haste the Minister the Sacrament their prayers then Lord have mercy upon me and so like Gallants that have lost their time in the Alehouse to make amends ride all upon the spurre suriously right Jehues march ready to overrunne the sober traveller so these runne upon the speede at last and thinke to be at heaven before those who have travelled soberly thitherward all their life but what if God should answer their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not yet time in their life with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at their death what if God should say to him as the Crabbe in the Fable to the Serpent when hee had given him his deaths wound for his crooked conditions and then saw him stretch himselfe out streight At oportuit sic vixisse It is too late now you should have lived so What if the sword of Gods Iustice seaze upon him that flies so to the Sanctuary of his Mercy as Joab was slaine even at the hornes of the Altar May not a man receive unworthily not discerning the Lords body by the eye of faith for according to the Father this is the food of Eagles not of Dawes and so eate damnation to himselfe for in this case it is not meate but a knife or sword saith Cyprian The Emperour was poysoned in the Hostie and at last a man may die notwithstanding the Sacrament as the Israelites in the Wildernesse died with Manna in their mouthes Basilides the Emperour of Russia refused a Coelestiall Globe of gold wherein the cunning Artificer as it were in emulation of God had curiously framed a modell of heaven nothing was wanting of the number of the spheares or of the life of the motion which was sent unto him as a rare present from the German Emperour for said he I doe not meane to busie my selfe in the contemplation of heaven and in the meane time did lose the possession of the earth as the German Emperours doe daily to these Turkes it may be wisely and a mâ—id laught at her master Thales the great Astronomer who gazing on the Starres on a sudden fell into a ditch 〈◊〉 thinke justly and the Iew is little pittled who let goe the helme of the ship which he steered at the first approach of the Sabbath and so suffered shipwracke for ought I know deservedly For our Conversation must he in Heaven indeede but it is not a Iacobs staffe but a Iacobs ladder will bring us thither we must behold the heaven but wee may hold the helme also and guide our course the better as Pilots doe we may looke to our estate and walke in the labours of our calling with diligence and if wee doe this with conscience every day is a Sabbath as Clemens speakes what then is to be done as Basil in a like case Let not all thy delight befor earth but minde also heaven so here we must not be all for the world nothing for heaven Suffer not the world to take up the best roomes in the heart while Christ by that meanes is shuffled into the stable but as the Aethiopian Indges in all their meetings reserve the highest seat empty for God so doe you seeke the kingdome of Heaven in the first place e That house is happy where wordly Martha complaines of heavenly-minded Mary saith the Father Happy is that soule which is so tempered that though it run betweene both yet the by as is alway drawing toward heaven that abounds so much in expressions of love that way that the world may have cause to be jealous and complaine of some neglect that feares not the feare of the worlding that if he should follow holinesse toofast he should not be able to live by the trade like the Athenians who in the Consulation whether they should admit Alexander the Great into their Calender and Canonize him for a God which he sued for at first were very zealous against his impious ambition but were soone cold upon the poliâ—icke suggestion of a crafty companion who put them in minde of the power of Alexander and wished them to consider lest while they stood so much for Heaven they were likely to lose earth so these had rather forgoe heavenly than undergoe any hazard af the losse of earthly thinga but the Christian not so but resolves Viderit utilitas let the world looke to that let the world goe as it will I will doe according to the command of my Saviour and build upon his Promise Seeke the Kingdome of God and all these things shall he cast upon you Hypocrites whose conversation is betweene heaven and earth like Erasmus as the Papists paint him like the flying Angel in the Revelation which in the Parable of the Sheepe seeke out
head and yet feedes upon the worst of excrements it is a pittifull thing that any child of God redeemed and washed in the blood of Christ should bedable his scarlet Robe in the stinking puddle of the world but most lamentable it is that the fowles of the heaven by the inchantments of the world should be metamorphoz'd into the beasts of the earth that they should degenenerate so low whom God hath advanced so high as to be his Ambassadours and more to be Kings and Priests to him in a more peculiar manner I will be sanctified in those that come neere Mee saith God himselfe The soules of priests must be purer than the Sun-beames saith Chrysostome when I am lifted up saith our Saviour I will draw many after me The Minister is not like to draw many thither unlesse himselfe be first lifted up to heaven Let us then leave the plough as Elisha did to follow Eliah leave the nets as the Disciples did to follow our Saviour cast off the cares of the world that we may be free for the Lords Worke. They say Swallowes will lade and clogge their wings with dirt that with it they may build theis neasts and Falconers doe this with their Hawkes sometime clippe◠their wings Ierre in the phrase to impe out their traines I wish many did not so spend their excellent wits and parts which as with wings they might flie to heaven by doing Gods faithfull service in his Church to nothing but that they may heape thicke clay together and sit warme in their nests at home or goe sooping in a silken coat and Ruffe with a goodly traine after them in the streete they doe not remember it seemes that the Peacocke hath the more painted plumes gayer traine and yet the Eagle is the Queene of Birds they say because shee flies nearest heaven Divines contend earnestly that Tythes are due by the Law of God and I blame them not but then methinks they should not contend so earnestly that the Sabbath is observed by the law of man lest the world thinke they play fast and loose fast for themselves and loose for God when they would have the people tyed to their pay and would not themselves be tyed to their paines to muzzle the truth in silence is to bury gold under ground is most true in our case and a fearefull crime you know it is in the Parable to bury the Lords Talent in a Napkin it is our duty to plant with Instruction to water with teares of Repentance and nourish by Examples as Austin excellently to preach in season and out of season Inveniat me stantem Christus praedicantem said a worthy Bishop of ours I pray God that when Christ comes to judgement he may find me standing and preaching Beatus servus Blessed is the servant whom his master when he comes shall finde so doing Let us then draw others to heaven by diligence in preaching and goe to heaven by holinesse of life methinkes Austin is affectuall the unlearned arise and take heaven by violence and shall wee perish with all our Learning who if we seeke not heaven in the first place are like of all other to lie lowest in Hell But better I goe like a Candle so that I leave a sweete farewell though all you burne day-light I will rather therefore put my selfe upon your wisedome and end hastily then presume upon your patience and not seasonably FINIS THE NATVRALL MANS CONDITION OR THE ENMITY OF THE NATVRALL MAN TO GOD. AND THE ENMITY OF GOD To the Naturall Man By IOHN STOVGHTON Doctor in Divinitie and Late Preacher of Gods Word in Aldermanbury LONDON Printed at London by T. G. for John Bellamie and Ralph Smith and are to be sold at the three Golden Lyons neere the Royall Exchange 1640 THE NATVRALL Mans Condition 2 Cor. 5. 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be yee reconciled to God I Have made choise of this place of Scripture to make the groundwork of my Discourse In which to let passe the former part which hath beene handled in another place in another manner and to another purpose I come to the latter part Wee pray you in Christs stead or in Christs name be ye reconciled to God wherein three principall parts may bee observed First The condition of man by nature and this is but implyed in the word Reconciled and may be thus expressed Every man by nature is an enemy of God for reconciliation imports so much Secondly the dutie of man in this condition if he will escape the misery of it The onely way is to reconcile himselfe to God Thirdly The office of the Minister who must urge man to the performance of this dutie we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God I might adde something concerning the first estate of man in integritie for the terme of Reconciling supposeth first an agreement secondly a falling out and then thirdly the restitution from the latter jarring to the former agreement but because that is not so necessary for my scope I will rather omit it But in the second point it will not be amisse to distinguish two things for more perspicuitie First the medicine in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly the application in the maine duty he ye reconciled And then in recompense of this increase I will leave out the third point altogether concerning the office of the Minister as not so pertinent to my scope so shall there remaine in the words still three points First the misery of man who is by nature the enemy of God Secondly the remedy of that misery which is Christ our mediator Thirdly the fruite of that remedy our reconciliation with God The first point which I shall onely insist on is this That we are by nature enemies of God For the further explication of which I suppose the meaning of the Tearmes as facil and easie and conceived by every one in this place to be this The first word We or Man which is the Subject of the Proposition to be generally understood in the utmost extent of the nature of meere man The sonnes of the mighty and the men of the earth as the Psalmist terms thē by way of disparagement Filii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and filii Enos filii viri filii hominis be they but filii Adam the sonnes of Adam descended from him All men are by nature Gods enemies The second word by nature the qualification of the Subject not by force of the principles of nature qua homines but by participation of corruption superadded to this nature qua tales not by nature as primitive and created by God but by nature as derived corrupt from Adam All men came out of his loines by naturall generation before supernaturall regeneration the stocke of Adam being not transplanted into Christ the second Adam All men are thus by
gnashing of teeth Nomina vel ipso pene tremenda sono that I may not tell you of that banne of Proscription that bill of Divorce by vertue of which they shall be separated from God and cast out of his blessed presence for evermore Excommunicated as Adam was out of Paradice and banished for ever out of Heaven from the beatificall vision of God from beholding of Christ Iesus from the society and Quire of Saints and Angels which sing perpetuall Hallelujahs to the Lord and to the Lambe that sits upon the throne while they goe cursed into everlasting fire which was prepared for the Devill and his Angels in a word into everlasting condemnation O Eternitas as he cries out O Eternitas in bonis infinitum bonum in malis infinitum malum I list not to play the Rhetoritian upon the consideration of Eternity But which of you can think upon it and weigh those words inserted for Ever without horror and astonishment And now perhaps if you could but repeate those words sometimes with your selves tormented for ever and so often as you were about to be angry with God to sinne against him as he counselled Augustus to repeate the Alphabet when he was angry if you could rehearse that for ever you would take heed how you ever sinned Dives thought his brethren would beleeve if some were sent from hell to tell them the torments of the place and to take heede that they neere come there Beleeve ye Moses and the Prophets beleeve the Law and threatnings of God Beleeve an humbled Christian for he comes from hell scorched with the flames of Gods wrath and beleeve me that these argue Gods hatred against sinne his enmity to sinners And thus much of the first things I propounded in generall to illustrate the wrath of God against sinne from the nature and severall kindes of punishment which a sinner doth incurre Secondly the second thing was as you may remember the consideration of some remarkeable particulars First let the first be of the Angels The Angels for one sinne as most thinke and it is probable The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their owne habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darkenesse unto the judgement of the great day Iude 6. The excellency of their nature which bare that Image of God with the nearest resemblance and are therefore called the Sonnes of God in a singular manner their multitude the good that might have come from their preservation their service and praysing of God the evill which was like to follow upon the contrary the fall of man their eternall blasphemies could not move God to compassion but if Angels sinne even Angels shall smart for it And now as it is Iob 4. 18. Behold he put no trust in his servants and his Angels he charged with folly How much lesse on them which dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which are crushed before the mouth that you may learne from hence how great the hatred of God is to sinne Secondly for I must but name those things that remaine Looke upon the first sin of man our forefather w 〈…〉 though some ignorantly have thought it so small that they called in question God justice in punishing it and the proud Pope blasphemously concluded that if God were so angry for an Apple then he might be justly much more for a Peacocke which he missed at his table yet how hath God shewed his detestation of sinne in that in that for it man was deprived of that glorious Image of God in which he was created and cast out of Paradise contracting also that guilt of eternall condemnation and lying under the curse of God the slavery of sinne the tyranny of the devill and not himselfe onely but with his 100000. of soules that were in his loynes even all his posterity Thirdly a third may be the Universall deluge wherein God the God of mercy without mercy or compassion to man of what condition or sexe or age soever to beasts to plants to any creature the workemanship of his owne hands swept away all and defaced the beauty of the world reducing all to the first Chaos When the Earth was without forme and void and darkenesse was upon the face of the deepe rather then not to revenge himselfe upon his enemies the sinfull men of those times As though he had blotted that out of his titles which he saith of himselfe Exod. 34. 6. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities and transgression and sinne And now tooke up that Emperours Motto Fiat Iustitia pereat mundus A Fourth may be the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha with fire and brimstone from heaven which before are said to have beene like the Garden of Eden the Paradise of God and perhappes the fruits like the tree of Life but now is famous for the dead sea which will admit of no living thing and the fruit of Sodom or apples are said to be nothing but dust or ashes and of these as the Apostle Peter reasons 2 Pet. 2. 4. If God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them downe into hell and delivered them into the chaines of darkenesse to be reserved unto judgement and spared not the old world but saved Noah the eight person the Preacher of righteousnesse bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodome and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly Then as he inferres The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of Iudgement to be punished Then say I you see how God sheweth himselfe an enemy to sinners I might tell you of the strange plagues of Egypt and above all the lamentable destruction and dispersion of Gods owne peculiar people the Iewes and their calamities which they have undergone the ten Tribes for more then two thousand yeares the two for almost 1600. so great as one of their owne Rabbins concludes from thence that their Messiah must needs be come and they must needs suffer so much for killing him and so also the Apostle Paul Rom. 11. 22. Behold the severity of God in their fall And I might adde something of the last conflagration of the world when by reason of the filthinesse of this latter age of the world it shall be so that it cannot be washed with water as the old world was God shall waste it with fire When the heavens shall passe away with a great noyse and the elements shall melt with fervent heate the earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3. 10. but I will passe to the third and but name that neither Thirdly the third thing then in which we may behold the wrath of God and hatred against sinne is one singular example which have both
acceptions of misery that it is onely in penall evill and includes not sinne yet there must be a concurrence of both for First it is impossible that there should be any misery properly where there is not sinne nay it is sinne that makes the thing which is but a naturall evill in it selfe to be a mortall evill to the sinner Secondly as there is required both an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to happinesse so contrary to misery nay as well doing is the principall in Happinesse so is doing evill in misery rather than suffering evill to speake then a little of both There is none of us but would defie any that should say that we are Gods enemies to be haters of him and would account him a most profligate and forlorne wretch that should professe himselfe to be so even that little sparke of conscience left in corrupt nature shines in the midst of darkenesse and discovers so much that that must needs be a miserable estate to be so farre forsaken and would not every one be ready to say to the Preacher that tells him such a thing as Hazael told to the Prophet that foretold him of his cruelty Am I a dogge that I should doe this thing But you have heard that every naturall man is an enemy to God many wayes and labours to doe him all the mischiefe he can in displeasing him in disobeying in dishonouring and as much as lies in him in dethroning him and setting up another in his place even the world the lusts of his owne flesh the devill the basest things the most bitter enemies of God that are and imployes their mind and soule and strength to advance their kingdome bring that cursednesse home to themselves and make much of it but to lay out unto you the vilenesse of the naturall man in this respect consider some sew circumstances in it more distinctly and to omit that filthinesse with which itdefiles the nature of man and many other I will name but two first the universality there is scarce any so bad almost but hee mislikes some that are given to other vices than himselfe or more and thinkes himselfe some body in that he is not so bad as he but if there were one that were infected with all vices in the highest degree how would they which are bad enough themselves deplore his case as lamentable and blesse themselves an hundreth times that they are not so and I pray tell me what sin is there which is not included in this to be an enemy to God What would such an one sticke to commit But I passe from this Secondly The iniquity for First there is no reason for this hatred of God as the Apostle Paul speakes 2 Cor. 7. 2. Receive us we have wronged no man we have corrupted no man wee have defrauded no man might not the Lord challenge entertainement in our hearts and best affections by the same reason nay doth he not expostulate the matter with the Israelites Iere. 2. 5. to this purpose Thus saith the Lord what iniquitie have your fathers found in me that they are gone farre from me and have walked after vanity and are become vaine if the Lord should make use of his Prerogative yet shall the clay say to the Potter what dost thou yet he never doth so But it were well if this were all but Secondly there is great reason to the contrary why wee should love God and you may conceive that especially three-fold First for that excellencie that is in God how doth beauty intice the amorous and gold the covetous and honour the ambitious every thing that hath but any luster of good in it breeds in us a lust to have it the least appearance of it is a loadstone of our affections and is attractive and how comes it to passe that the Ocean of goodnesse and beautie that is in God doth not draw us to him nay rather drives us from him for then this to say truth is the height of our misery that we are sofar from loving God that wee loath him for his goodnesse this is the ground of the quarrell betweene us as I shewed in handling the Point before and who doth not detest in his heart such a perverse nature and hold it accursed but this is not all yet for Secondly God is not onely good in himselfe for if he were so and withall averse from us and cruell to us there were sistence of love though even in this case wee should say with Iob though he kill mee yet will I trust in him yet will I love him but it is not so for God is also good to us and may say too as our Saviour once to the Iewes many good workes have I done among you and for which of them doe you stone me I have created you of nothing partly and partly worse almost than nothing the dust of the earth and that according to mine owne Image I sustaine and support you In me you live and move and have your being I have made you Lords of the creatures all doe service to you even my glorious Angels have I made ministring spirits for your good not a day passes in which you receive not from me a thousand remembrances of Love a thousand love tokens both positive and primitive graces provision of good and preservation from evill I have sent my beloved Sonne out of my bosome to die for you so did I love the world and when you had cast me off how often have I offered conditions of peace and how often would I have gathered you as an hen gathereth her young under her wings and ye would not Would ye have any more yet Behold I even I beseech you I have made heaven and earth that touch the Mountaines and they smoke the Earth and it trembles I beseech you by my Ministers to be reconciled All this have I done and much more if you were not your owne enemies in being my enemies O ye Sonnes of men and for which of my good workes doe you stone me for which of them doe you hate me O ungratefull Children Is this your kindnesse to your friend to your benefactor to your Creator Heare O Heaven and harken O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Isai 1. 2. Perhaps that which hath been said will make you to see something into the misery of a mans naturall estate and like it something the worse For who is most ready to condemne an ungratefull wretch and they are such in such measure as you see but this is not all neither for Thirdly God beside his essentiall goodnesse and his actuall graciousnesse to us may allure us to love or at least scare us from hatred by his infinite greatnesse and Power Who would not feare thee O