prescribes his iourney From Faith to vertue from vertue to knowledge from knowledge to temperance from temperance to patience c. till hee comes to enter into the euerlasting Kingdome of our Lord Iesus Christ. Hence we see there is somwhat more hope of a vicious person that hath a good vnderstanding then of an vtterly darke and blind soule though he walkes vpon zealous feete Let them knovv that they will come to heauen without eyes when the wicked come out of hell without feet Which lets vs see the kind loue of the Popish Clergie to their people and how vnfainedly they desire their going to Heauen when they pluck out their eyes send them thither So they may grope for it as the Sodomites did for the dore of Lots house That which they call the Mother of Deuotion Ignorance Augustine calls Pessimā matrem the worst Mother Pessimae matris Ignorantiae pessimae itidem duae filiae sunt scilicet falfitas et Dubietas illa miserior ista miser abilior illa perniciosior ista molestior There are two euill daughters of the most euill Mother Ignorance Falshood and Doubting the former is more miserable the latter more pityable that more pernicious this more troublesome Let them that plead so impetuously their Religion authenticall from the Fathers not cum Patribus reijci◅r read the opinion of a great Father concerning a maine point of their doctrine Ignorance Chrysostome saies Praecedit scientiae virtutis c◅ltum knowledge of vertue must euer goe before deuotion For no man can earnestly affect the good he knowes not and the euill whereof he is ignorant hee feares not So that true loue to good and hatred to euill cannot occurre to a heart nescient of them both For Scientia conscientiam dirigit conscientia scientiam perficit Knowledge rectifies conscience so well as conscience perfits knowledge Con must euer be in composition and so kindly vniting knowledge to deuotion there ariseth Conscience If they allow not then their people eyes they may as well lame their feet and so send them like the Syrian band in stead of Dothan to Samaria They say This is not the way to heauen nor is this the Citie of life follow me I will bring you to the man Iesus Christ whom yee seeke But he led them to Samaria 2. This reprehends a common fashion of many Auditors When the Preacher beginnes to analyse his Text and to open the points of doctrine to informe the vnderstanding they lend him very cold attention That part of the Sermon is spent in slumber as if it concern'd vs not But when he comes to apply his conclusions and to driue home the vse of his inferences by application then they beginne to rouse vp themselues and lend an eare of diligence As if they had onely need to haue their hearts warmed and not to haue their minds warned enlightned with knowledge But alas no eyes no saluation Your affections are stirred in vaine without a precedent illumination of your soules You must know to doe before you can doe what you know And indeed hee that attends onely to exhortation and not to instruction seemes to build more vpon mans zeale then Gods Word Both doe well together attend to the Doctrine and suffer also the Word of exhortation that you may haue both cleare eyes and sound feete those which God hath ioyned together let no man put asunder I come from the Situation to the Qualification Of this spirituall eye enlightned For this blessing the Apostle prayes to the Father of lights from whom comes euery good and perfect gift from him and from him onely comes this grace of Illumination Mans mind is not onely darke but darknesse till the Spirit of knowledge light on him and lighten him Though Zedekiah was in Nebuchadnezzars Court that great Monarch newly deliuerd of his monstrous ambition to whom all the glories and pleasures of the world came a gossiping yet hee saw none of this pompe and magnificence his eyes vvere wanting So blind Samson among the merry Philistins saw none of their rich apparrell costly cheere and glorious triumphs When the naturall man comes into the Temple among the Cōgregation of Gods Saints his soule is not delighted with their prayers praises psalmes and seruice he sees no comfort no pleasure no content in their actions True he doth not hee cannot for his vnderstanding is not inlightned to see the hope of their calling and the glorious riches which the Spirit of grace and consolation sheds into them Hee sees no whit into the awfull Maiestie of God filling all with his glorious presence and ruling all euents with his prouidence euen disposing euill to his glory Nothing of the beautie mercy pitie of his Sauiour sitting at the right hand of his Father not his Highnesse being in heauen nor yet his Nighnesse to his brethren on earth Nothing of Mount Sion the Citie of the liuing God the celestiall Ierusalem not of the company of innumerable Angels nor of the generall assembly and company of the first borne which are written in Heauen not of God the Iudge of all nor of the spirits of iust men made perfect nor of Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament nor the bloud of sprinkling that speaks better things then that of Abel What more then a world of happinesse doth this mans eye not see Hereupon wee call a meere foole a naturall The worldlings haue esteemed and misnamed Christians Gods fooles but wee know them the fooles of the world The greatest Philosopher is but a sot to the weakest Christian therefore Philosophy vnbaptized vvith grace is said to be monoculate to haue but one eye and that is of naturall Reason a left eye of the soule But the Christian hath two eyes the left eye of Reason whereby he may see into the secrets of nature as farre as the Philosopher and the right eye of faith which the other wanting cannot conceiue the mystery of godlinesse This mysterie to him is but like a high candle to a blind man God onely then must giue Salomon wisedome and to his Father a knowledge aboue his Teachers If any of you lacke wisedome let him aske of God The first Character our forefathers taught vs was Christs Crosse. Our first spelling lesson In the Name of the Father c. To teach vs that euen all humane knowledge much more diuine is deriued from Gods fountaine There are two reasons why we must all begge of God for our selues as Paul did for his Ephesians this grace of Illumination 1. Our spirituall blindnesse came vpon vs by Gods iust curse for our sinnes As the Philistins put out Samsons eyes for his many mischiefes done them so GOD on farre greater cause blinded Adam and his perpetuall issue He had pure and good knowledge but because his ambition was appetere prohibitum to desire that was forbidden his punishment was perdere concessum to lose that hee had
teares he that payes not this tribute of raine shall want the sun-shine of mercy The subsidies of our mouthes are our praises Tibi omne os confitebitur Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise The subsidies of our eares are attention to his word Mary sate at Iesus feete and heard his word The subsidies of our heads are meditations of his power iustice mercy truth The blessed man doth meditate in the Law of the Lord day and night This reduceth Christianity to practice a rare habite and yet it is as possible to be good without it as to swallow and neuer chew the cudde A Sermon without consequent meditation may come to be remembred againe in hell The subsidies of our knees are geniculations I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Steuen kneeled downe prayed c. If our knees be too stout to pay this tribute heauen gate will be too low for our entrance The subsidies of our hands are almes to the poore the due paiment of this interest shall blesse and increase the principall Giue and it shall bee giuen you To the King wee pay Fifteenes to God Tenths these he hath separated to himselfe The honest Pharise could say Tyth and be rich the dishonest Christian sayes Tyth and bee poore But what men get by this detinie shall be their fatall destiny they shall leaue the gold behind them but carry the guilt with them to euerlasting fire Robbe not this Citie militant lest God turne you from the City triumphant Of the liuing God This hath beene an ancient attribute to God liuing and it is added heere partly for distinction partly for demonstration First it distinguisheth the owner of this Citie from other titular gods For there bee gods many and lords many The name of gods hath beene giuen to men to Idols to lusts Homines Dij mortales Idola dij mortui Libidines dij mortiferi Men are gods dying Idols dead lusts deadly There are 1. Dij deputati reputed and deputed gods such are Magistrates and Princes I haue said Yee are gods but these are mortall gods ye shall die like men You haue your life from this liuing GOD both the life of nature common with others and the life of power superiour to others The powers that be are ordained of God Pilate receiued that power from God whereby hee vniustly condemned the Sonne of God Thou couldest haue no power against me except it were giuen thee from aboue Wee must giue to those gods obedience eyther actiue or passiue actiue when they command well passiue though they command ill Otherwise we incurre damnation for obstinate disobeying as themselues haue damnation for vniust commanding These are momentany gods as men are Kings on the stage till the play is done 2. Dij fictitij fayned gods as Mars the god of warre Neptune the god of the sea c. They were strange gods that ran a whoring after women made way to their lusts if not by flattery by bloud Scarce ranker villany in the Deuils then was found in those gods This the Philosophers obiected against Paul that he was a setter forth of strange gods The superstitious Lystrians tooke Paul and Barnabas for such gods Dij descenderunt the gods are come downe to vs in the likenesse of men But Paul vers 15. points them to the liuing GOD that made heauen and earth Those fayned gods are confounded by this liuing GOD. 3. Dij manufacti gods made with mens hands Idols but these are dead gods Yea not onely dead but nothing An Idol is nothing in the world It is true that they haue matter and forme the gold brasse wood or stone whereof they are made be substances they haue something in esse naturae nothing in esse vitae they haue stuffe but no life in them They haue eyes and see not there is no breath in their mouthes S. Paul commends in the Thessalonians this happy conuersion from dead idols to the liuing God O that it were as easie to confute Idolaters as it is to confound Idols Res hominis conculcat talem Deum No Idol is so great a god but the foote of man can kicke it downe 4. Dij vsurpantes vsurping gods deuils So Paul calls Satan the god of this world Of the whole world What is then left for God Not so he is Deus improborum not elementorum God of the wicked not of the frame of the world The Prince of this world is already iudged A goodly god that is already iudged The God of peace shall tread Satan vnder your feet Not you but God shall tread him down to your comfort vnder your feet Therefore give no place to the Deuill for there is no place for the Deuill but where it is giuen him 5. Dij sensuales sensuall gods Some make their belly their god and delicate cheare his sacrifices Meates for the belly and the belly for meates but God shall destroy both it and them Others make gold and siluer their gods worse then Pagan Idolatrie they had gods of corne and of wine But These idols of siluer and of gold which they made for themselues to worship they shall one day castaway with malediction Some make their wife a goddesse dote vpon her with the extremest Idolatry a faire coloured peece of clay hath more worship then the Lord of heauen To some their Patron is a god they more quake at his frowne then at all the curses in the Bible These are not onely dead but deadly gods For demonstration the owner of this City is the liuing God both formaliter in himselfe and effectiuè to others who onely hath immortality Onely Are not Angels and mens soules immortall But God giues to them this immortality onely he hath it in himselfe Therefore hee is called the liuing God and the God of life there be three degrees of life all giuen by this liuing God 1. Vniuersall which consists of sense and motion of this the beasts participate Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created 2. Rationall a life proper to man not to other earthly creatures 3. Supernaturall which belongs onely to the faithfull Christ himselfe is this life in vs. Now liue not I but Christ liueth in mee Haec vita reponitur deponitur nunquam This life is laid vp but neuer lost The world sees it not because it is hid with Christ in God We now feele it liue by it But when Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we appeare with him in glory Behold here with comfort the master wee serue the liuing God Riches is a flying Master it hasts away with the wings of an Eagle Honour is a dying master it brings a man to the sepulcher and then goes backe with the Heralds Pleasure is a spilling Master Wo to them that laugh for they
supplementum de genere humano integritas illus ciuitatis expectat what definite number of mankind must concurre to the perfection of that heauenly Citie Man is circumscribed in place knowledge and mortality Angels are circumscribed in place and knowledge not in mortality God is not circumscribed in eyther place knowledge or mortality Man knoweth much Angels know more onely God knoweth all 3. Their Power Christ suffering himselfe to be apprehended said hee could command more then twelue Legions of Angels Whereupon one notes the mightinesse of his rescue for euery Angell is stronger then a Legion of men They are said to excell in strength Blesse the Lord â—…e his Angels that excest in strength Mighty Angels The Lord Iesus shall be reuealed from heauen with his mighty Angels Mighty but His the originall hath it the Angels of his mighty power Innumerable first borne of Aegypt were slaine by one Angell An hundred eighty fiue thousand Assyrians smitten by one Angell 2. Sam. 24. Seuenty thousand killed by one Angell Therefore they are called Potestates Powers Powerfull in themselues but how mighty when they are strengthened by the Almighty This is wonderfull comfort to vs they are not weake that fight for vs. Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his angels but preuailed not The Deuill hath a raging malice but no preuailing power One Angell is too hard for many deuils But against the power of Angels it is obiected that a man preuailed against an Angell Iacob had power ouer the Angoll and preuailed Some had a sottish opinion that this Angell was the Deuill in Esau's likenesse and that by the power of a good Angell Iacob ouercame Now lest hee should ascribe the victory to himselfe and his owne strength the Angell smote him on the thigh so that hee halted But there is no mention made saue of one Angel he that wrastled with him was the same that blessed him he that blessed him was the same that touched him a good Angell for an euill would neuer haue blessed him But indeed this Angell was the Sonne of God 1. Because he blessed him God blesseth not Angels 2. It is said Gen. 32. 28. that he preuayled with GOD and verse 30. that hee saw God face to face therefore it was God not an Angell Whether it were God or an Angell you may see the power of faith that it can preuail with mighty Angels with almighty God Hee that wrastled with Iacob gaue him power to ouercome Seipso fortior est so God is stronger then himselfe Hee could not preuaile because he would not he disposeth his power according to his will not his will according to his power Haste thee to Zoar for I cannot doe any thing till thou bee come thither Let mee alone that I may consume them As if Lot and Moses could hinder God Faith Prayer are manicles to his hands vvhereunto he giues victorie against himselfe 4. Their dignity consists in two things In respect of their Place and of their Grace 1. For their abode it is in heauen Euill Angels dwell belowe they are cast downe into hell good aboue The Angels doe behold the face of my Father in heauen They are heauenly Courtiers and heauenly Quiristers eternally singing Ichouahs praise 2. In respect of their Grace so that they are called the Angels of GOD and are farre more excellent then man It is true that the Sonne of God dignified mans nature more then theirs For he tooke not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Timet Angelus adorari ab humana natura quam videt in Deo sublimaâ—…am The Angels refuse to be worshipped of mans nature which they see GOD himselfe hath accepted But though he tooke not their nature yet he dignified their office for he is often called by the name of Angel The Angel that redeemed mee sayes aged Israel the onely redeeming Angel is Christ. The Angel that went with the Campe of Israel is called ver 24. The Lord. Paul sayes expresly it was Christ. 1. Cor. 10. 4. 9. He is called Angelus foederis the Angel of the Couenant I saw an Angel hauing the key of the bottomlesse pit and he bound Satan but onely Christ can bind Satan and hath the keyes of death and hell Thus Christ hath accepted the name of Angels yet hee tooke not on him the nature of Angels but of man no more then the Angels tooke on them the nature of man vvhen they appeared in an humane shape 5. Their distinction Gregory collects from the Scriptures Nouem Angelorum ordines nine seuerall orders of Angels Angels Archangels Vertues Powers Principalities Dominations Thrones Cherubim and Seraphim We grant indeed that there be certaine distinctions degrees in the Quire of Heauen but whether distinguished by nature gifts or offices none can determine The Papists plead much for the Princedome of Michael aboue all other Angels Their ground is Reuel 12. 7. Michael his Angels fought c. Bellarmine affirmes that euer since the fall of Lucifer Michael is head of the glorious Angels and the Rhemists collect from that place the reason why Michael is ordinarily painted fighting with a Dragon But the foolish Painter so well as wise Bellarmine can tell vs how Michael came to be chose in Lucifers roome Iude saith the wicked Angels that left their habitation are reserued in chaines of darknesse but hee tells vs not that such as did not fall are preferred to higher places but rather coÌ„tinue still in their first estate and dignitie Indeed Iude calls Michael an Archangel and Daniel Vnum de principibus one of the principall Angels but it can neuer be proued that he was is or shall be Monarch or head of all Angels Themselues say that the greatest Angel is vsed in the greatest Embassage but Gabriel not Michael was sent for the contracting of that sacred match betweene the GOD of Heauen and the blessed Virgin Therefore Gabriel not Michael should be supreme both in naturall graces and supernaturall prerogatiues Indeed Christ is the Michael there mentioned for the blessed Angels cannot be said to be any other Michaels Angels then Christ. So August Bulling Marlor Perhaps in the vision Michael an host of Angels appeared to Iohn but they represented Christ and his members Christus est Ecclesiae suae Promachus Angeli eius Symachi It is against the principles of holy beliefe to ascribe this victory to Michael or any other Angel whatsoeuer They ouercame Satan by the bloud of the Lambe not by Michael or any Angel 6. Their ministerie from hence some of the Fathers say the Angels tooke their names So Gregor Angeli vocabulum nomen est officij non naturae Angel is a name of office not of nature The Inhabitants of that celestiall Country are alwaies Spirits but cannot alwaies be called Angels Tunc solùm sunt Angeli quando
This is not to be vnderstood of offence onely giuen to the Ministers of the Church but to signifie that a woman throwing off the vaile of modestie and token of subiection to her husband doth make euen the Angels of heauen witnesses of her dissolute contumacie The Angels are present with thee when all men on the earth are absent from thee I aske thee when thou pollutest the marriage bed attemptest an homicide plottest a treason forgest a vvriting wouldest thou then haue the Angels present with thee or absent from thee If thou desirest them present why dost thou offend them by thy turpitudes If absent thy protectors are gone and the diuels would easily confound thee Nonfacias coram Angelis Dei yea coram Deo Angelorum Do not that thing before the Angels of God yea before the GOD of Angels vvhich thou wouldest shame to doe in the sight and presence of an earthly man Yet let vs marke here by the way that albeit the Angels deserue our reuerence yet they desire not our adoration Indeed the euill Angels request it it was a speciall boone which the Diuell begd of Christ to fall downe worship him But the good refuse it See thou doe it not for I am thy fellow seruant saith the Angell to kneeling Iohn As we vsually come too short in our due reuerence to the Angels so the Papists goe too farre in vndue adoration They haue a set prayer for it Angele Dei Custos mei me tibi commissum lege superâ—…a semper rege custodi guberna This sacrilegious honour those holy spirits refuse they take no charge of such superstitious soules Accipiunt commissum non arripiâ—…nt inconcessum Honorandi non adorandi sunt Angeli Let them be honored but not adored Loue and reuerence the Angels onely worship God and Iesus Christ. 3. This declares to vs the excellent company that is in heauen Were the place lesse noble and maiesticall yet the company it affords is able to make the soule right blessed We are loth to leaue this earth for the societie of some friends in whom we delight yet wee are all subiect to mutuall dislikes Besides the meeting of those good friends againe in heauen there be also glorious Angels There is nothing in them but is amiable admirable nothing in possibilitie of changing our pleasures There thou shalt see and conuerse with those ancient Worthies Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Fathers of the Primitiue times all of them out-shining the starres where our loue shall be as eternall as is our glory There wee shall liue familiarly in the sight of those Angels whom now we receiue good from and see not Yea there is the fountaine of all felicity that Sauiour of ours whose grace onely brings vs to the blessed vision of the whole Trinitie Neither can there be a higher happinesse then the eternall fruition of Iesus Christ. Let this teach vs all to blesse our God that hath thus aduanced vs. Man is corporeall dust O that this clay of ours should come to dwel with those incorporeal spirits We shal be as the Angels of God in heauen Sicut non ipsi like Angels though not Angels in nature Communicatione spei non speciei we haue now a communion of hope with them hereafter of glory To this place O thou Creator of men Angels bring vs through Iesus Christ. To the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in Heauen Our Apostle hath spoken of the Churches glory typically and topically now he describes it materially First the Essence of it what it is The Church Secondly the Propertie of it what kind of Church it is Generall or Catholike Thirdly what are the parts of it of whom it consists Of the first borne written in Heauen The Church This word is taken in diuerse significations For the materiall Temple 1. Cor. 11. 18. When ye come together in the Church I heare there are diuisions among you For the faithfull domestikes of one Familie 1. Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla salute you vvith the Church that is in their house For the professors of one Prouince The Church of Corinth of Ephesus c. For some famous company of Beleeuers gathered together in one place 1. Cor. 14. 4. He that prophecieth edifies the Church For an Ecclesiasticall Senate or Synode Mat. 18. 17. If he shall neglect to heare them Dic Ecclesiae tell it vnto the Church For the whole number of the Elect. Mat. 16. 18. Vpon this Rocke I will build my Church Acts 5. 11. Great feare came vpon all the Church 1. Tim. 3. 15. Which is the Church of the liuing GOD the pillar and ground of truth Here first let me premise three circumstances concerning the Church 1. Though it be a Generall Assembly yet it is but one There be threescore Queenes and fourescore Concubines and Virgins without number but my Doue my vndefiled is but one shee is the onely one of her Mother Indeed there be two parts of this One Church Triumphant in Heauen and Militant on Earth The Triumphant part is a company of Iustified spirits triumphing ouer the flesh vvorld and diuell spirits I say for bodies are not yet ascended They haue two happy priuiledges 1. To reioyce in the conquest ouer sinne and death the most righteous man liuing is in praelio in a continuall warfare But so are the other for Saint Iohn saith There was warre in Heauen This must be vnderstood of heauen on earth vvhere there is no truce with Satan Pax cum Deo bellum cum diabolo We haue peace with God but on this condition that warre with the diuell Therefore so runne the promises Uincenti dabitur To him that ouercomes shall be giuen Palmes to shew that they had been warriours are now conquerours 1. To praise God continually and to sing Amen Blessing and glory thankesgiuing and honour be vnto God for euer and euer The militant part is a company of men liuing vnder the crosse and desiring to be with Christ. They suffer and this is their way to glory through much tribulation entring into the kingdome of God They desire dissolution being willing rather to be absent from the body and to bee present with the Lord not simply and absolutely desiring death but first that they might leaue sinning and so cease to displease God and then to come neerer to their blessed Sauiour whose loue hath rauished their hearts Now this militant Church may haue many parts as the Ocean sea is but one yet distinguished according to the Regions vpon which it lies So there is the Spanish Ocean the English Ocean the German Ocean There is a Church in England a Church in France a Church in Germany yet there is but one militant Church Multa Ecclesiae vna Ecclesia saith S. Augustine One Sunne many beames one Kingdome many shires one tree many branches 2. We must note that Christ is the alone head of his
outside it seemed so glorious that he desired him to open it No it was sealed by the Councell Then saith the sonne tell me if my name be there the father replyes the names are secreted to the Senate The son studying how he might get some satisfaction desired him to deliuer the merits of those inscribed Souldiers The father relates to him their noble atchieuements and worthy actions of valour wherewith they had eternized their names Such are written and none but such must be written in this booke The sonne consulting with his owne heart that he had no such trophies to shew but had spent his time in courting Ladies rather then encountring Knights that he was better for a dance then a march that he knew no drumme but the tabret no courage but to be drunke Hereupon he presently retyr'd himselfe repented entred into a combate with his owne affections subdued them became temperate continent valiant vertuous VVhen the Souldiers came to receiue their wreathes he steps in to challenge one for himselfe Being asked vpon vvhat title he answered If honours be giuen to Conquerers I haue gotten the most noble conquest of all Wherein These haue subdued strange foes but I haue conquered my selfe and indeed this is iudged the greatest victory The application is familiar thou desirest to know whose names are written in blessednes it shall not be told thee This or that indiuiduall person but generally thus men so qualified faithfull in Christ and to Christ obedient to the truth and for the truth that haue subiected their owne affections and resigned themselues to the guidance of the heauenly will these men haue made noble conquests and shall haue Princely Crownes find in thy selfe this sanctimony and thou hast a sure testimonie thou art written in heauen But all men challenge this they beleeue and obey and doe good deeds and therefore some to be sure of putting in themselues constantly affirme all men are written But infinite numbers vvill be deceiued at the last For if there were vniuersall inscription there should follow vniuerfall Election if vniuersall election then vniuersall saluation If the former vvere true then vvere not election any such name If the latter to vvhat purpose did God make hell God so loued the world that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne What that all should be saued no but that Whosoeuer beleeues might haue euerlasting life Not all for he that takes all cannot be said to chuse Let this stirre vs vp to get security that our names are vvritten there Benefits common to all as light of the Sunne dewes of heauen are little regarded but quae rarissima carissima things hard to come by are much set by Because God doth not giue riches to all men but isti multum illi paruum huic nullum much to one little to another none at all to a third hereupon men debase themselues to moiling slaues yea to earth-rooting beasts to get them For the race of this vvorld vvhere onel the first obtaines the goale gets the money all trusse vp their loynes run apace none vvill be hindmost For heauen vvhere all that runne well shall speed well and haue for their prize a Crowne of righteousnesse men are so courteous they will giue another leaue to goe before them But let thy grace in this life witnesse thy hope of glory in the life to come To God the Iudge of all We haue considered the Citizens let vs now looke vpon the glorious maiesty of the King that gouerns them Where first let vs obserue in generall that there shall be a day of Iudgement otherwise to vvhat purpose is there a Iudge If there were no such scoffers as to say Where is the promise of his comming For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation this obseruation might vvell haue bin spared The reason to proue it is deriued from the iustice and goodnesse of God It is a iust thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you And to you who are troubled rest with vs vvhen the Lord Iesus shall bee reuealed from heauen vvith his mighty Angels This for the honour of the faithfull and for the horrour of reprobates Here the good man findes the sharpest misery the euill man sweetest felicity therefore it is iust that there should be a time of changing turnes and places The wicked shall be a ransome for the righteous and the transgressour for the vpright The rich mans table stood full of delicates Lazarus lackes crummes therefore they must change states Hee is comforted and thou art tormented There is a time to get and a time to lose Woe to you that laugh for you shall mourne Blessed are you that mourne for you shall reioyce God shall giue the one Fletum pro risâ—… the other Risum pro fletu wiping away all teares from their eyes Reioyce thou irrefragably dissolute follow the lusts of thy owne heart but remember for all these things thou must come into iudgement It is a deere penniworth to buy the merry madnesse of one houre vvith ages of pangs infinite and eternall If there were no iudgement how should God be iust But the righteous shall see the vengeance So that a man shall say Uerily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a God that iudgeth the earth otherwise vvhere is our hope For if in this life onely we haue hope in Christ we of all men are most miserable But it is obiected 1. That the whole vvorld consists of belieuers or vnbeleeuers now there is no last iudgement for eyther of these none for belieuers for He that belieueth hath euerlasting life and shall not come into iudgement None for vnbeleeuers for He that beleeueth not is condemned already I answere first for the latter the vnbelieuer is condemned already in effect three wayes 1. By the purpose of God who did foresee and appoint his condemnation as a punishment for his sinne and execution of his Iustice. 2. By the vvord of God where his condemnation is set downe 3. By his owne conscience vvhich euery houre doth iudge and condemne him Yet all this hinders not but that he may also passe the iudgement of Christ at that generall Assises vvhich is the manifestation and completion of that inchoate iudgement To the former I answere it is not said The beleeuer shall not come into iudgement but he shall not come into condemnation For we must all appeare before the iudgement seate of Christ euen the very faithfull absoluendicausa that Christ may publikely acquit them 2. That Conscience is a sufficient iudge what needes more I answere properly Conscientia testis non iudex the Conscience is a witnesse rather then a iudge Indeed it hath a great office heere and so it shall-haue there It is felt now but then more sensibly Now many are so borne away with the precipices and streames of
the Eeues that vve may feast on the Holy-dayes let vs here abstaine from the table of sinne that wee may heereafter banket in the Kingdome of Heauen This is matter of comfort to vs heere the world condemns the godly therefore they shall haue a time of absoluing When that Generall Session comes then looke vp and lift vp your heads for your redemption draweth nye There is no mercy to be had in this vvorld for the wicked themselues are accusers witnesses iudges but at that day a poore mans case will be heard Therefore the poore committeth himselfe vnto thee for thou art the helper of the fatherlesse Christ vvill take the cause into his own hand The soules vnder the Altar cry with a loud voyce How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not iudge and auenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Yes it is fit euery one should haue a day of hearing This is theirs that shall be ours The righteous shall reioyce when hee seeth the vengeance Reioyce yes they haue no charity to vs on earth vve must haue no charity to them in hell 2. The Commendation followes the calling Mat. 25. 35. For I was hungry and ye gaue me meate I was thirsty and ye gaue mee drinke c. Christ witnesseth their faith from the effects they brought foorth fruits of mercy Thus it is euident that not according to the internall habite of faith and charity but according to the externall acts proceeding from them is the reward bestowed Christ before iustified them by their faith apprehending his merits now hee iustifies them by testimony of that faith arising from their vvorkes The point Christ insists in is their workes of mercy which are sixe visito poto cibo redimo tego colligo fratres Giuing them meat drinke harbour clothing visitation in sicknesse redemption from bondage Where obserue that the maine point Christ will scanne at the last is the point of mercy Not how wise nor how learned nor how iust but how mercifull Ambr. Now if a Scholler standing for preferment knew directly that one question vvherein hee should be opposed he would study a full and ready answer to it We all know that one and maine question wherein Christ vvill examine vs vvhat vvorkes of mercy haue we done if we haue gotten no demonstration of mercy vve are vvorthily condemned Now their mercy is commended partly in respect of the obiect and partly in respect of the act For the obiect it is done to Christ happy mercy that is done to the Lord Iesus it shall neuer passe vnrewarded Ioash forgot the kindnesse of Iehoiada but the King of heauen will remember all the good done vnto him Sayes that good malefactor Lord remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome I will not forget thee answeres Iesus To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise I was hungry and ye fedme I and me saith Christ. In regard of the act the thing they distribute and contribute is not bare vvords but actuall mercies food clothing c. This is the effect of a true faith not a verball but a reall working faith A faith not like that the Psalmist seemes to mention though in another sense I belieued ideo locutus sum and therefore I spake but such as the Apostle speakes of I belieued ideo operatus sum and therefore I wrought a faith working by loue It is easie to mistake Saint Paul Rom. 14. 22. Hast thou faith haue it to thy selfe before God vnlesse vve expound him by S. Iames Iam. 2. 18. Hast thou faith shew thy faith by thy workes If vve vvill be the children of Abraham who is the Father of them that belieue wee must bee so by Sara vvho is the mother of them that obey They that vvill be trees of righteousnesse in Gods garden must not bee like the fig-tree in the Gospell that had onely leaues no fruit but like the tree that brings forth her fruit in due season Or like Aarons rod that of a dead sticke hauing life and sappe put into it presently bare Almonds fruit no leaues spoken of Some giue words enow contrary to Moses who was a man of few vvords The Papists vvill rather loose a penny then a Paternoster these vvill giue ten Paternosters before one penny They giue the words of Nepthali pleasant words but no meate As if the poore were like Ephraim fed with the wind Or as if their word were verbum Domini the word of God that men might liue by it Salomon sayes Wisedome is good with an inheritance so good counsell is good vvith an almes If a famished man begge bread of thee and thou onely fallest to instruct his soule but deniest food to his body hee may reply as Hushai said to Absolon of Achitophels counsell The counsell that Achitophel hath giuen is good but not at this time Martial demands of Caius a small piece of siluer Quod vel donanti non graue Caius blamed him for his idle profession of Poetry counselled him to study the Lavv that vvould enrich him To him Martial Quod peto da mihi tu non peto consilium Giue me that I aske thee I doe not aske thee counsell Many are like S. Peters fish it had money in the mouth but not a hand to giue it Or like Diues his dogs they can licke a poore man vvith their tongues else giue him no reliefe Diogenes a witty begger would vsually walke in a place where earthen Statues were erected in honour of some that died for their country To them he would pray to them reach out his hand bow and beg being asked the reason he answered Nihil aliud quà m repulsam meditor I thinke of nothing but a repulse and deniall Wee haue many such liuing Statues meere Idols that haue mouthes and speake not eyes and pity not hands and giue not the poore are sure of nothing but a repulse 3. The reply or question vpon this commendation made by the Saints Math. 25. 37. Then shall the righteous answere him Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fedde thee or thirstie and gaue thee drinke c. This is no deniall of that truth Christ hath auouched But 1. to magnifie Christs mercy who takes these workes as done to himselfe which are done for his sake Let no couetous Churle plead he wants subiects vpon whom to exercise his mercy Pauper vbique iacet which way can he walke and not behold one hungry another thirsty c 2. To testifie their humilitie that albeit these things are true yet they acknowledge no merite in them they haue not done so much of these as they ought Besides they might haue an after-consideration of their sinnes past which valued with their good works they find one to out-weigh a thousand The Papists ostent their merits on earth the Saints dare not doe so euen ready for heauen but cast downe their crownes before the Throne saying
the Church by vsurpations to exact interests and forfets these be nothing So the mony might not be put into the Treasury that might hire Iudas to betray his master The tenne brethren were so iust as to returne the mony in their sackes yet stucke not to sell their brother Ioseph Some are iust in great things not in small As the other straine at a gnat and swallow a camell so these are like the nette that takes the great fishes and le ts goe thâ—… little frie. Wantonnesse is no fault with them if it extend not to adultery They sticke not to sweare so long as they sweare not to a lie Maliciously to hate or peeuishly to quarrell is triuiall if they proceede not to blowes and bloud So long as they are not drunke swallow downe wine and spare not De minimis non curat Lex the Law takes no notice of small faults But indeed Eadem ratio rotunditatis there is the same respect of roundnesse in a penny that is in a platter though not of largenes To steal the bridle as to steale the horse is Tam though not Tantum such a sin though not so great a sinne Thou sayest minimum est minimum est it is little it is little Sed in minimo fidelem esse magnum est to bee faithfull in a little is a great vertue Whosoeuer shall breake one of these least commandements hee shall be called least in the kingdome of heauen Erit minimus that is Nullus he shall be least in heauen that is he shall not be there at all But well done good seruant Because thou hast beene faithfull in a very little haue thou authority ouer tenne Cities Benè vtere paruo fruere magno the iust dispensation of a little shall bring thee to be intrusted with much Whether great or small wee must be iust if we looke euer to raigne with these iust spirits Ad societatem iustorum non admittuntur nisi iusti I wonder what place the defrauder expects that wraps vp his conscience in a bundle of stuffes and sweares it away The buyer thinkes he is iust and hee is iust cousoned no more The Vsurer would storme and stare as if had seene a spirit if hee were taxed for vniust Presently he consults his Scriptures his bonds and his Priest his Scriuener and there the one sweares the other shewes in blacke and white that he takes but ten in the hundred Is he then vniust Yes Thou hast taken vsury and increase and hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion Hee takes hire for that should be freely lent is not this vniust Besides the people curse it and they curse not but for iniustice I haue neyther lent on vsurie nor men haue lent me on vsury yet euery one doth curse me Insinuating that if a man lend vpon vsury it is no wonder if the people curse him Where must the Lay-Parson sit that fattes himselfe with the Tyth-graine will not giue the poore Minister the straw Is this iust He takes the tenth of his neighbours profits and neuer so much as reades him an Homelie for it is this iust Hee layes sactilegious hands on Gods sanctified things and neuer askes him leaue is this iust Where shall the Engrosser appeare that hoords vp commodities bought with ready mony and when he vents them makes the poore pay treble vsury for it is this iust What shall become of that vnspeakeably rich Transporter who carries out men and money to the impouerishing of the Land and brings home gawdes and puppets fitte for no bodies vse but prides Surely as heauen is for Iust spirits so there is some other place for the vniust Know ye not that the vniust shall not inherite the kingdome of God If not Gods kingdome then the kingdome of darkenes downewards hell I do not say that euery vniust deed throwes a soule thither Iniustum esse damnat non iniustè semel agere to be vniust is damnable not one thing vniustly done the habite not the act But for others Qui iniustè dominantur iâ—…stè damnantur They haue vniustly liued but they shall bee iustly condemned Made perfect This is a passiue quality non qui se perficiunt sed qui perficiuntur not such as haue made themselues perfect but are made perfect The other property is actiuely expressed Iust it is not said Iustified not that they made themselues iust but that Christs righteousnesse hath iustified them so both they are and are reputed iust But here passiuely Perfected which plainely shewes that all is from God for omne maius includit minus If onely Christ make them perfect then only Christ doth make them â—…ust For it is nothing so difficult for a iust man to become perfect as for an euill man to become iust As it is easier for a man healed and directed the way to come to the goale then for him that lies lame in darknesse Qui dedit ingressum must also dare progressum conficere perficere to make and to make vp to doe and to perfect are both the workes of God Wee could neuer be iust vnlesse Christ iustifie vs neuer come to perfection vnlesse he perfect vs. He that begun this good work must also finish it Made perfect In heauen are none but the perfect Talis sedes expectat talem sessorem such a house requires such an inhabitant On earth there is a kind of Perfection all the faithfull are perfectly iustified but not perfectly sanctified The reprobates are perfectè imperfecti the godly imperfectè perfecti those perfectly imperfect these imperfectly perfect They are so perfect that they are acquitted in Christ and there remaines no iudgement for them but onely a declaration of their pardon Iustification admits no latitude in it nec magis nec minus for none can be more then iust But the perfection of sanctity is wrought by degrees non plenam induimus perfectionem donec totam exuimus infectionem all the staines of our infection must first be cleansed and quite washed away before this full perfection be giuen vs. Christs bloud doth now wholly take from vs the guiltinesse of sin not wholly the pollution of sinne that blessednesse is reserued only for heauen Let vs therefore be perficientes going and growing vp that at last we may be Perfecti made perfecti This is not wrought on a sodain a child doth not presently become a man Euen the Lord Iesus had his time of growing and can any member grow faster then the Head Indeed the malefactor on the crosse shot vp in an houre but this was miraculous and God seldome workes by such miracles God neyther sends Angels from heauen nor the dead from hell to giue warning to men vpon earth If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neyther will they bee perswaded though one rose from the dead But repentance hath the promise of a Qandocunque whensoeuer a sinner repents c. I will not limit Gods infinite mercy but onely
childe their massacres They goe they run thy stride they ride ouer vs. The language of their lippes is that which Babylon spake concerning Ierusalem Downe with it downe with it euen to the ground Rase it rase it euen to the foundation thereof Desolation sits in their eyes and shootes out through those fiery windowes the burning glances of waste hauocke ruine till they turne a land into solitude into a Desart and habitation for their fellow-beasts and their worse selues O vnmercifull men that should be to men kinde as God but are more ragingly noxious then wolues They haue lost the nature let them also lose the name of men Uix repperit vnum Talibus è multis hominem consultus Apollo But it is euer true Optimi corruptio pessima The fairest flowers putrified stinke worse then weedes euen an Angell falling became a Deuill and man debauched striues to come as neere this Deuill as he can They should put their hands vnder our falling heads and lift vs vp but they kicke vs downe and ride ouer vs. Ouer our heads This notes their bloudinesse vnpacifiable but by our slaughters The pressing racking or breaking of our inferiour limbes contents not their malice they must wound the most sensible and vitall part our heads The Lord be blessed that hath now freed vs from these bloudie ridings and sent vs peace with Truth Yet can wee not be forgetful of the past calamities in this Land nor insensible of the present in other places The time vvas when the Bonners and butchers rode ouer the faces of Gods Saints and madefied the earth with their blouds euery drop whereof begot a new beleeuer When they martyred the liuing with the dead burnt the impotent wife with the husband who is content to die with him with whom she may not liue yea reioycing to go together to their Sauior When they threw the new-born yea scarce-borne infant dropping out of the mothers belly into the mothers flames whom if they had been Christians they would first haue Christned if not cherished This was a fiery zeale indeed set on flame with the fire of hell They loue fire still they were then for fagots they are now for powder If these be Catholikes there are no Canibals They were then mounted on horses of authority now they ride on the wings of policy Our comfort is that though all these whether persecutors of our faith or oppressors of our life ride ouer our particular heads yet we haue all one Head whom they cannot touch They may massacre this corporall life and spoyle the locall seate of it whether in head or heart but our spirituall life which lies and liues in our Head Iesus Christ they cannot reach No hellish stratagems nor combined outrages no humane powers nor diuellish principalities can touch that life for it is hid with Christ in God Indeed this Head doth not onely take their blowes as meant at him but he euen suffers with vs. Saul why persecutest thou me Saul strikes on earth Christ Iesus suffers in heauen There is more liuely sense in the Head then in other members of the body Let but the toe ake and the head manifests by the countenance a sensible greefe The body of the Church cannot suffer without the sense of our blessed Head Thus saith Paul The sufferings of Christ abound in vs. These afflictions are the showres that follow the great storme of his passion Wee fill vp that which is behinde of the affliction of Christ in our flesh Wee must be content for him as hee was for vs to weep and groane and bleed and dye that we may raigne If wee sow not in teares how shall we look to reape in ioy how shall we shine like starres in heauen if we go not through this fierie tryall or land at the hauen of blisse if wee passe not the waues of this troublesome water You see the Riders but you wil say What is this to vs we haue no such riders Yes many too many euen so many as we haue Oppressors eyther by tongue or hand Shall I name some of them The malicious slanderer is a perillous Rider and hee rides like death vpon a pale horse Enuie Thus were the Pharises mounted when they rode ouer Christ euen the Head of our heads If Iesus will not be a Pharise they will naile him to the Crosse. These venemous Cantharides light vpon Gods fairest flowers and striue either to blast them with their contumelious breaths or to tread them vnder their malicious feete The griping Vsurer is a pestilent Rider and hee is mounted on a heauy Iade Mammon or loue of money Euery step of this beast wounds to the heart and quasheth out the life-bloud O that this sordid beast of vsury with all his ponderous and vnweldy trappings bils obligations pawnes morgages were throwne into a fire temporall that the riders conuerted soule might bee saued from the fire eternall If any Alcibiades had authority and will to kindle such a fire in England as was once at Athens I beleeue that no teares would be shed to quench it but the musike of our peace would sound merrily to it and the rather because there would be no more grones to mollifie it The destructiue depopulator is another pestiferous Rider He is a light Horseman he can leape hedges and ditches and therefore makes them in the midst of plaine fields He loues to ride in his owne ground and for this purpose expelleth all neighbors Though Salomon sayes that the King is serued by the field that is tilled ye hee as if he were wiser then Salomon promiseth to serue him better with grasse Hee posteth after the poore and hunts them out of his Lordship He rides from towne to town from village to village from land to land from house to house à doloso fur to ad publicum latrocinium and neuer rests till he hath rid to the Deuill And there is a fourth Rider gallops after him amaine as if hee had sworne not to be hindmost the oppressing Landlord and hee rides vpon a horse that hath no pace but racking for that is the Masters delight racking of rents and he hath two Lacquays or Pages run by him Fines and Carriages Thus ascended attended twice a yeare at least he rides ouer the heads and hearts of the poore Tenants that they can no more grow in wealth then corne can that is scattered in the high way for they as that are continually ouer-ridden by their mercilesse Landlords Let these riders take heede lest the curses of the poore stumble their horses and breake their neckes The churlish Cormorant is a mischicuous Rider hee sits on a black Iade Couetousnesse and rides onely from market to market to buy vp graine when hee hath store to sell and so hatcheth vp dearth in a yere of plenty Our Land is too full of these riders they repine complaine of the vnseasonablenesse of the weather of the barrennesse
yet the heart must hold The wretchednesse is it cannot burst Poena gehennales torquent non extorquent puniunt non finiunt corpora It is called by Augustine Mors sine morte sinis sine fine defectus sine defectu But some will say Your Text speakes of Proportion how can eternall vengeance bee proportionable to a momentany offence Yes first an infinite God is offended and a finite man is the offender Because he cannot be capable of an infinite wrath at once he must haue it in eternity the short dimensions of his Essence must haue a long extention of his punishment what wants in place must be supplied in time Christ indeed suffered enough in a short time because he was infinite man cannot doe so and therefore must be for euer in suffering Secondly he that delights in sinne desires it may alwayes continue and velle peccatum est peccatum so that an infinite desire must needs haue an infinite punishment Qui moritur sine poenitentia si semper viueret semper peccaret He that dies without repentance if he should euer liue would euer sinne So Gregor It is Gods iust iudgement Vt nunquam mortuâ—…s careâ—…t supplicio qui nunquam vâ—…uus voluit carere peccato That he dead should haue eternall punishment who liuing would haue beene eternally wicked Vt nullus detur inâ—…quo terminus vltionis qui quamdâ—… valuiâ—… habere noluit terminum criminis That no end should be allowed to his vengeance that would haue allowed himselfe no end of wickednes As the good man if he should euer liue would euer doe well If thou wilt therefore offend in aeterno tuo God must punish iâ—… aeterno suo Thy iniustice would put no date to thy sins Gods Iustice shall set no date to thy sufferings Thus ye haue plowed wickednesse and ye haue reaped iniquity You see the wickeds Seeding and Haruest God keepe vs from sowing such seed that we may neuer reape such a crop The godly haue also their Seeding and their Hâ—…uest All their sowing may be distinguished Into Pietie towards God Charity towards men For Pietie They sowe in Faith and God will blesse that Seede it shall grow vp to heauen for it is sowne in the side of Iesus Christ who is in heauen He that beleeueth on God there is the seed shall haue euerlasting life there is the Haruest Qui credit quod non videt videbit quod credit Hee that beleeues what he doth not see there 's the Seed shall one day see what he hath beleeued there is the Haruest They sow in obedience this is also a blessed Seed that will not faile to prosper wheresoeuer it is cast If ye keep my Commandements there 's the Seed ye shall abide in my Loue there 's the Haruest Rom. 6. Ye are the seruants to God and haue your fruite vnto holinesse there 's the sowing and the end euerlasting life there 's the Reaping Obedientia in terris regnabit in coelis He that serues God on earth and sowes the seed of Obedience shall in heauen reape the haruest of a kingdome They sowe in Repentance and this seed must needes grow vp to blessednesse Psalm 126. They that sowe in teares shall reape in ioy Hee that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed there 's the sowing shall doubtles come againe with reioycing bringing his sheaues with him there 's the Haruest Many Saints haue now reaped this croppe in heauen that sowed their seed in teares Dauid Marie Magdalen Peter as if they had made the Prouerbe No comming to heauen with dry eyes Thus nature and God differ in their proceedings To haue a good crop on earth we desire a faire Seed-time but heere a wet time of sowing shall bring the best Haruest in the Barne of heauen Blessed are they that mourne there 's the seeding for they shall be comforted there 's the Haruest Lastly they sowe in renouncing of the world and adherence to Christ and they reape a great Haruest Behold saith Peter to Christ we haue forsaken all and followed thee there 's the Seeding What shall wee haue therefore what You shall sit on twelue thrones iudging the â—…vvelue tribes of Israel all that you haue lost shall bee centupled to you and you shall inherit euerlasting life ther 's the Haruest Sow to your selues in righteousnesse and reape in mercy For Charitie He that sowes this seed shall be sure of a plentifull crop Whosoeuer shall giue to drinke to one of these little ones a cup of cold water onely a little refreshing in the name of a Disciple verily I say vnto you he shall in no wise lose his reward But if he that giueth a little shall be thus recompenced then He that soweth bountifully shall reape bountifully Therefore sparse abroad with a full hand like a Seeds-man in a broad field without feare Doth any thinke he shall lose by his charitie No worldling when he sowes his seed thinkes hee shall lose his seed he hopes for amendment at haruest Darest thou trust the ground and not God Sure God is a better pay-master then the earth Grace doth giue a larger recompence then nature Below thou may est receiue forty graines for one but in heauen by the promise of Christ a hundreth fold a measure heapen and shaken and thrust together and yet running ouer Blessed is he that considereth the poore there 's the Seeding the Lord shall deliuer him in the time of trouble there 's the Haruest Is this all No Math. 25. Ye fedde me when I was hungry and gaue me drinke thirsty comforted me in misery there 's the sowing Veni beati Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you there 's the Haruest I shut vp this point with the Apostles Blessing Now hee that ministreth seede to the sower both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousnesse God send you a good Haruest I conclude Whatsoeuer a man soweth that shall he also reape O that this Text might be true vpon all vs at this time The Lord hath sowne the seede of his Gospell O that he might reape your soules to his glory But shall we hope for that which the Prophets found not I haue laboured in vaine I haue spent my strength for nought saith Esay Nor the Apostles I haue fished all night and caught nothing saith Peter No nor Christ himselfe who spake as neuer man spake Yet himselfe telleth vs Math. 13. that of foure sorts of ground wherein the seed was sowne three were barren and returned no fruit Alas how much seed is sowne among thornes rockes and high-way grounds you come to receiue this seed but it fructifies not You bring forth hedge-fruit like the Heathen scarce so good We heare often and as often forget Yet still Beloued this Text shall be true God hath sowne and he will reape sowne his
sowsed in a deluge and then after Noahs sacrifice is said to Smell a sauour of rest For this cause they had their Altar of Incense and God commanded a Perfume to be made to him The Lord said to Moses Take vnto thee sweet spices Stacte and Onicha and Galbanum with pure frankincense and thou shalt make it a Perfume pure and holy Both signified that we all stunke by nature and are onely perfumed by the Incense of Christs prayers and righteousnes 2. It is offensiue to his Tasting I looked after all my paines and kindnesse for good grapes and the Vine brought forth wilde grapes When hee comes to taste the vintage of our sinnes they are sowre grapes Yee turne iudgment into wormwood Iustice is pleasant vnto the Lord but iniurie bitter as wormewood So the Iewes serued Christ in stead of wine they gaue him vineger to drink He turned their water into wine they turne his wine into vineger Good workes of faith and obedience are that best wine which we should giue our Beloued that goeth downe sweetly causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak But euill deeds are sowre to his palate 3. It is offensiue to his Feeling so sharp that the Speare Thornes Whips and Nailes were blunt to it Our iniquities were so heauy to his sense that he plaines himselfe burdened vnder them as a Cart is pressed with sheaues The Lord of heauen lay groueling on the earth and as if he were cast into a furnace of his Fathers wrath sweating drops of bloud They are so harsh still to his feeling that he challengeth Saul for wounding himselfe Why strikest thou me Saul strikes at Damascus Iesus Christ suffers in heauen 4. It is offensiue to his Hearing The cry of Sodome and Gomorrah is great because their sinne is very grieuous Our dissensions and quarrels are as iarring in Gods eares as if diuers distracted Musicians should play vpon diuers bad Instrument so many seuerall tunes at one time The confusion of sinnes brought the confusion of languages Gods eare could not endure the distraction of their harts therefore their owne eares shall not distinguish the dissonance of their voyces The cry of bloud and oppression makes so grieuous a noyse to heauen that vengeance must onely quiet it Our murmurings our oathes blasphemies slanders are like the croking of frogs howling of dogs and hissing of serpents in Gods hearing 5. It is offensiue to his Seeing Though thou vvash thee with Nitre yet thine iniquity is marked before me saith the Lord. Our oppressions are like running vlcers our adulteries as most sordid and filthy things The Prophet compares it to the most feculent defilement lothsome turpitude that can be vttered Thou art of purer eyes then to behold euill and canst not looke on iniquity O let vs abhorre that filthinesse which will turne the face of God from vs. Neyther are they displeasing onely to his senses but grieuous to his minde Is it a small thing for you to grieue men but you will grieue God also It is dangerous to anger him that can anger all the veines of our hearts It was the Prophet Esay's complaint of Israel They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Yea they are offensiue to his very soule Your new Moones and appointed feasts my soule hateth This he protesteth against recidiuation Heb. 10. 38. If any man draw back my soule shal haue no pleasure in him This is an emphaticall speech and an argument of Gods hearty detestation The wicked and him that loueth violence his soule hateth Therefore he is said to bend his Soule to reuenge Shall not my soule be auenged on such a nation as this 2. Sowre to the Angels for if they reioyce at our conuersion then they grieue at our peruersion How sowre is that sinne which brings griefe vnto the thresholds of ioy They blush at our falls reioyce at our integrity Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth for them who shall be the heyres of saluation Let vs then feast them with integrity not with the leauen of iniquity 3. Sowre to the Saints the Church is our Mother and shee laments to see any childe of her wombe auerse from goodnes Therefore as a louing Mother whose husband was slaine for the safety of her selfe children if she sees any childe transgresse the rules and breake her husbands Testament she tels them of their Fathers kindnesse she describes his deadly wounds and gastly lookes and to make their facts more odious shee sheweth some garment of his embrued with bloud So the Church often offers to our considerations how Christ her deare Loue and Lord was betrayed condemned crucified tels vs our sinnes haue done this that they were the Iudas betraying the Herod mocking the Pilate condemning the Longinus wounding the band of Iewes re-crucifying Christ. Now as Dâ—…do adiur'd departing Aeneas Per ego te has lacrymas c. Per si quid vnquam Dulce fuit nobis horum miserere laborum So our Mother intreats vs yet intreating is too low a phrase for a Mother per talem cruorem per tantum amorem by so precious bloud and by so gracious loue to sinne no more at least to abhor such precipices of sinne and forbeare as it were to choake him with such cursed Leauens 4. Sowre to the sinner himselfe for it euer leaues behinde it a sting of conscience It may taste pleasing and palatable at first but Leuen is not sowrer at last Perhaps our iudgements may be out of taste as men in feuers or Satan that crafty Apothecary hath mingled the potion cunningly yet though saporem amisit venenum retinet poyson is poyson though it come in a golden cup. Esaus pottage went downe merrily but the losse of his birth-right was a bitter farewell Whatsoeuer seruice sin doth vs it shewes vs but an ill-fauoured tricke at the last It brings vs to the dore of Terror and then bids vs shift for our selues It is like Lysimachus his draught of cold water that refreshes him for a moment and captiues him for euer By Salomons rule vexation is intailed to vanity A hedgehogge must dwell in Babylon a pricking Conscience in a prophane brest Thy way anâ—… thy doings haue procured these things vnto thee this is thy wickednes because it is bitter because it reacheth vnto thine heart Salomon hath the like promotion Reioyce O young man in thy youth c. but know that for all these things God will bring thee into iudgement The verse begins with pleasure but ends with terror Sinne will be sowre at the last The Allegory thus opened the speciall treasure or Instruction remaines yet to bee drawne out Wee perceiue what the Leuen signifies and what the Lumpe Now wee must consider the relation betwixt modicum and totum a little Leuen and the whole lumpe A little Leauen leueneth the whole lumpe A little sinne infecteth a great
shall manumit and set free our soules from the prison of the body there shal be a second meeting Many haue come from east from west farre remote in place and haue met with Abraham and Isaac and the holy Patriarches which liued long before them in this world in the kingdome of heauen So already in Mount Sion are the Spirits of iust men made perfect The purer part is then glorified and meets with the triumphant Church in blisse This meeting exceeds the former in comfort 1. In respect that our miseries are past our conflict is ended teares are wiped from our eyes The very release from calamitie is not a litle felicitie So Austin meditates of this place negatiuely Non est ibi mors non luctus c. There is no death nor dearth no pining nor repining no sorrow nor sadnes neither teares nor feares defect nor lothing No glory is had on earth without grudging emulation in this place there is no enuie Non erit aliqua inuidia disparis claritatis quum regnabit in omnibus vnitas charitatis None sâ—…all malice anothers glorious clearnesse when in all shall be one gratious dearenesse God shall then giue rest to our desires In our first meeting we haue Desiderium quietis in this second Quietem desiderij Here we haue a desire of rest there we shall haue rest of desire 2. In regard that we shall see God behold him whose glory filleth all in all This is great happinesse for in his presence is the fullnesse of ioy at his right hand are pleasures for euer We shall not only meete with the spirits of iust men made perfect but also with him that made them iust and perfect Iesus the mediatour of the new couenant euen God himselfe 3 Our last meeting which is called the Generall assembly and Church of the first borne written in heauen is the great meeting at the end of the world When our re-vnited bodies soules shall possesse perfect glory and raigne with our Sauiour for euer When as no mountayne or rocke shall shelter the wicked from doome terrour so no corruption detayne one bone or dust of vs from glory We shal be caught vp together in the cloudes to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shall we be euer with the Lord. Who We. There is a time when the elect shall meete in one vniuersalitie Though now weare scattered all ouer the broad face of the earth dispersed and distressed yet we shall meet There is now a Communion of Saints 1. As of all the members with the Head all haue interest in Christ. For he is not a garden flower priuate to few but the Rose of Sharon and the Lillie of the valleys common to the reach of all faythfull hands So Iude calls this our common saluation 2. So of one member with another euen of the Church triumphant with this militant They sing Hosanna's for vs we Halleluia's for them they pray to God for vs we prayse God for them For the excellent graces they had on earth and for their present glory in heauen We meete now in our affections to solace one another and serue our God there is a mutuall sympathie betweene the parts If one member suffer all suffer with it But this meeting shal be voyd of passion and therfore needlesse of compassion though loue shall remaine for euer This Instruction is full of comfort We part here with our parents children kinred friends death breakes off our societie yet there shall be a day of meeting Comfort one another with these wordes Hast thou lost a wife brother child you shall one day meete though not with a carnall distinction of sexe or corrupt relation which earth afforded No man carries earth to heauen with him the same body but transfigured purified glorified There shall be loue hereafter not the offals of it A wife shall be knowne not as a wife there is no marriage but the Lambes Thou shalt reioyce in thy glorified brother not as thy brother according to the flesh but as glorified It is enough that this meeting shall affoord more ioy then we haue knowledge to expresse This giues thee consolation dying with griefe thou leauest those thou dearely louest Yet first thou art going to one whose loue is greater then Ionathans that gaue his life to redeeme thee And well pondering the matter thou art content to forsake all to desire a dissolution that thou mayest be with Christ. Yet this is not all thou shalt againe meet those whom thou now departest from and that with greater ioy then thou hast left in present sorow This comforts vs all if it be a pleasure for friends to meet on earth where Satan is still scattering his troubles of dissention what is it to meete in heauen where our peace is free from distraction from destruction where if there be any memorie of past things meminisse iunabit it shall rather delight vs to thinke of the miseries gone and without feare of returning It is some delight to the merchant to sitte by a quiet fire and discourse the escaped perills of wrackes and stormes Remoue then your eyes from this earth whether you be rich for whom it is more hard or poore for whom it is easier and know it is better liuing in heauen together then on earth together So then run your race that in the end you may meet with this blessed societie the Congregation of Saints in glory We yea All we In this world we must neuer looke to see an vniuersall Church but at that generall day we shall All meete In heauen there are none but good in hell none but bad on earth both good and bad mingled together I confesse that the Church militant is the Suburbes of heauen yea called the Kingdome of heauen because the King of heauen gouernes it by his celestiall lawes but still it is but heauen vpon earth In Gods floore there is chaffe mixed with the wheat in his field cockle with corne in his net rubbish with fish in his house vessells of wrath with those of honour The Church is like the moone somtimes increasing somtimes decreasing but when it is at the full not without some spottes Now this mixture of the vngodly is suffred for two causes either that themselues may be conuerted or that others by them may be excercised Omnis malus aut ideo viuit vt corrigatur aut ideo vt per illum bonus excerceatur 1. For their owne emendation that they may be conuerted to embrace that good which they haue hated So Saul a persecutor becomes Paul a professor Mary Magdalen turpissima meretrix fit sanctissima mulier a putrified sinner a purified Saint Zacheus that had made many rich men poore will now make many poore men rich when he had payed euery man his owne and that now he iudged their owne which he had fraudulently got from them Behold halfe my goods
his arrand is to the Court He is the maggot of pride begot out of corruption and lookes in an office as the Ape did when hee had got on the robes of a Senator 2. Their flatterie or trecherie they embrace whiles they sting They lie in 〈◊〉 greene grasse and vnder sweet flowers that they may wound the suspectlesse passenger Here I will couple the Serpent with the Flatterer a humane beast and of the two the more dangerous And that fitly for they write of a Serpent whose sting hath such force that it makes a man die laughing So the flaâ—…erer tickles a man to death Therefore his teares are called Crocodile lacrimae the Crocodiles teares When hâ—… weeps he wounds Euery frowne he makes giues his Patron a vomite and euery candle of commendation a purge His Church is the Kitchin his tongue is his Cater his yong Lord his God whom at once he worships and worreys When he hath gotten a lease he doth no longer feare his master nay more he feares not God 3. Their ingratitude they kill those that nourished them And here I ranke with Serpents those prodigies of nature vnthankfull persons Seneca sayes they are worse Venenum quâ—…d serpentes in alienam perniciâ—…m proferunt fine sâ—… continent Noâ—… ita vitium ingrâ—…itudinis continetur The poyson which a Serpent casts out to the danger of another he retaines without his owne But the vice of ingratitude cannot be so smoothered Let vs hate this sinne not onely for others sake but most for our owne 4. Their voracitie they kill more then they can eate And here they would be commended to the Ingrossers who hoord more then they can spend that the poore might stâ—…ue for lacke of bread Such a man if he be not 〈◊〉 a Serpent a Deuill then man makes his Almanacke his Bible if it prognosticate raine on Swithiâ—…s day he loues and beleeues it beyond the Scripture Nothing in the whole Bible pleaseth him but the storie of Pharaohs dreame where the seauen leane Kine did eate vp the seauen fat ones Hee could wish that dreame to be true euery yeare so hee might haue graine enough to sell. He cryes out in his heart for a deare yeare and yet he is neuer without a deare yeare in his belly Salomon sayes the people shall curse him and I am sure God will not blesse him but hee feares neither of these so much as a cheape yeare 5. Their hostilitie and murderous minds they destroy all to multiplie their owne kind And for this I wil bring the depopulator to shake hands with serpents For he cannot abide neighbours If any man dwels in the Towne besides himselfe how should he doe for elbow roome There are too many of these Serpents in England I would they were all exild to the wildernes where they might haue roome enough and none to trouble them except of their owne generation Serpents They complaine eagerly against our negligence in discouering new parts of the world but their meaning is to rid this land of Inhabitants They haue done their best or rather their worst when as in my memorie from one towne in one day were driuen out aboue threescore soules harbourlesse succourlesse exposd to the bleake ayre and vnmercifull world besides those that could prouide for themselues But the Lord of heauen sees this the clamours of many poore debters in the Dungeon of many poore labourers in the field of many poore neighbours crying and dying in the streetes haue entred the â—…ares of the Lord of hoasts he will iudge it Thou hast seene it for thou beholdest mischiefe and spite to requite it the poore committeth himselfe vnto thee thou art the helper of the fâ—…herlesse 6. Lastly their enâ—…itie against Man whom they should reuerence which we sorely found and cannot but thinke of quotiâ—…s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…picati pâ—…i as often as we remember that â—…ieapple Aeliaâ—…s and Plâ—…e report that when a serpent hath killed a man he can neuer more couer himselfe in the earth but wanders vp and downe like a forlorne thing the earth disdaining to receiue into her bowels a man murtherer The male doth not acknowledge the â—…ale nor the female the male that hath done such a deed Since therefore they rebell against Man whom they should honour let me yoke with them Traytours Seminaries and Renegates that refuse allegiance to their Lieges Soâ—…algnes Will they say 〈◊〉 Prince may loose Ius regni the right of his kingdome per 〈◊〉 regnandi by raigning with iniustice 〈◊〉 and so they are absolued of their obedience But how haps it that the Scripture neuer knew this distinction Saul though guiltie of all sinnes against the first Table yet exsolo 〈◊〉 â—…is châ—…ctere might not bee deposed but Dauid cals him Christum Doâ—… the Lords Annointed If the Prince be an offender must they punish Who gaue them that authoritie No â—…cit 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 quòd Deum expectâ—… 〈◊〉 It is enoâ—…gh for him that he looke for God to bee his Iudge O but when the Popes excommunication thundâ—…rs it is no sinne to decrowne Kings So super stâ—…tiously they follow the Pope that they forsake Christ and will not giue Câ—…sar his due They are the fire brands and bustuaries of Kingdomes Serpents hidden in Ladies and Gentlewomens chambers in a word long spoones for traytors to feed with the Deuill You see also now Quid 〈◊〉 There is poyson in Serpents now told you leaue that there is Wisedome to be learned from Serpents before shewed you studie that Euery vice you nourish is a venemous stinging serpent in your owne bosomes If you will haue hope of heauen expell those Serpents I haue read of a contention betweene Scotland and Ireland about a little Iland either chalenging it theirs It was put to the decision of a French-man who caused to be put into the Iland liuing Serpents Arbitrating it thus that if those Serpents liued and prospered there the ground was Scotlands if they died Irelands If those serpentine sinnes lusts and lewdnes liue â—…d thriue in your hearts Satan will chalenge you for his dominion If they perish and die through mortification and by reason of the pure aire of Gods holy Spirit in you the Lord seales you vp for his owne inheritance I haue giuen you the Raines at large let me giue but one pull at the Curbe and you shall goe The Cohibition is Be harmelesse as Doues In Doues there be some things to be eschewed many things to be commeÌ„ded one thing to be followed The Doue is a timorous and faint hearted creature Ephrâ—… is like a silly Doue without heart Be not ye so In Doues there are many things commendable but I will but name them regarding the limits of both my Text and Time 1. Beautie By that name Christ prayseth the beauty of his Spouse Thou art fayre my Lâ—…e my Doue c. Thou â—…ast Doues 〈◊〉 within thy lâ—…kes And the Church prayseth her Sauiour His eyes are as
euen to them that beleeue on his Name By one offering hee hath perfected for euer them that are sanctified This is sure comfort to vs though hee dyed almost 1600. yeares agoe his bloud is not yet dry his wounds are as fresh to doe vs good as they were to those Saints that beheld them bleeding on the Crosse. The vertue of his merits is not abated though many thousand hands of Faith haue taken large portions out of his treasurie The riuer of his Grace which makes glad the citie of God runnes ouer the bankes though infinite soules haue drunke heartie draughts and satisfied their thirst But because we cannot apprehend this for our selues of our selues therefore he hath promised to send vs the Spirit of truth who will dwell with vs and applie this to vs. for euer Thus you haue seene the first Triplicitie how he is the Same Obiectiuely in his Word Now he is Subiunctiuely in his Power the Same and that Yesterday for he made the world To day for he gouerns the world For euer for he shall iudge the world Yesterday in the Creation All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made By him were all things created that are in heauen and that are in earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him All things euen the great and faire booke of the world of three so large leaues Coelum Solum Salum Heauen Earth and Sea The Prophet cals him the Everlasting Father Daniel Auntient of dayes Salomon sayes that the Lord possessed him in the beginning of his way before his workes of old So himselfe told the vnbeleeuing Iewes Before Abraham was I am We owe then our selues to Christ for our creation but how much more for our redemption Si totum me debeo pro ine facto quid addam iam pro me refecto In primo opere me mihi dedit in secundo se mihi dedit If I owe him my whole selfe for making me what haue I left to pay him for redeeming me In the first worke he gaue my selfe to me in the second he gaue himselfe to me By a double right we owe him our selues we are worthy of a double punishment if we giue him not his owne To day in the Gouerning Hee vpholdeth all things by the word of his power Hee is Paterfamilias and disposeth all thinges in this vniuerse with greater care and pâ—…ence then any house-holder can menage the buâ—…nesse of his priuate familie Hee leaues it not as the Carpenter hauing built the frame of a house to others to perfect it but lookes to it himselfe His Creation and Prouidence is like the Mother and the Nurse the one produceth the other preserueth His creation was a short prouidence his prouidence a perpetuall creation The one sets vp the frame of the house the other keepes it in reparation Neither is this a disparagement to the Maiestie of God as the vaine Epicures imagined curare minima to regard the least things but rather an honour curare infinita to regard all things Neither doth this extend onely to naturall things chained together by a regular order of succession but euen to casuall and contingent things Oftentimes cùm aliud volumus aliud agimus the euent crosseth our purpose Which must content vs though it fall out otherwise then we purposed because God purposed as it is falne out It is enough that the thing attaine the owne end though it misse ours that Gods will be done though ours be crossed But let me say Hath God care of foâ—…les and flowers and will he not care for you his owne Image Yea let me goe further Hath God care of the wicked Doth he powre downe the happie influences of heauen on the vniust mans ground And shall the faithfull want his blessing Doth hee prouide for the Sonnes of Beliall and shall his owne children lacke He may giue meate and rayment to the rest but his bountie to Beniamin shall exceed If Mâ—…b his Wash-pot tast of his benefites then Iudah the signet on his finger cannot bee forgotten The King gouernes all the Subiects in his Dominions but his seruants that waite in his Court partake of his most Princely fauours God heales the sores of the very wicked but if it be told him Lord hee whom thou louest is sicke 〈◊〉 enough hee shall bee healed The wicked may hâ—…â—…utward blessings without inward and that is Esau's pottage without his Birth-right but the elect haue inward blessings though they want outward and that is Iacobs inheritance without his pottage For euer because he shall iudge the world GOD hath appoynted a day in the which he will iudge the world in righteousnesse by that Mâ—…n whom he hath ordained In the day that God shall iudge the secrets of mâ—…n by Iesus Christ. Let the wicked flatter themselues that all is but talke of any comming to Iudgement non aliud videre patres aliudve nâ—… pâ—…tes aspicâ—…nt all is but terriculamenta nutricum meere scar-babes Scribarâ—…m peâ—… mendaces they haue written lies there is no such matter But when they shall see that Lambe whom they haue pearced and scorned they shall cry to the mountaines and rockes Fall vpon vs and couer vs. Now they flatter themselues with his death mortuus est hee is dead and gone and Mortuum Caesarem quis â—…etuit Who feares euen a Caesar when he is dead But he that was dead liueth behold I am aliue for euermore Amen Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and for euer Quâ—…sitor scâ—…erum veniet vindexque reorum Here is matter of infallible comfort to vs. Lift vp your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Here wee are imprisoned martyred tortured but when that great Assise and generall goale-deliuery comes Mâ—…s non â—…rit vltra there shall be no more death nor sorrow but all teares shall be wiped from our eyes For it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you And to you who are troubled rest with vs when the Lord Iesus shall be reuealed from heauen with his mightie Angels We shall then find him the Sâ—… the same Lambe that bought vs shall giue vs a venitâ—… beati Coâ—…e ye blessed receiue your kingdome Surely I come quickly Aâ—…on Euen so Come Lord Iesus Effectually in his Grace and Mercie so he is the Same Yesterday to our fathers To day to our selues For euer to our children Yesterday to our Fathers All our Fathers whose soules are now in heauen those Spirits of iust men made perfect Hebr. 12. were as the next words intimate saued by Iesus the mediatour of the new Couenant and by the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abell Whether they liued vnder Nature or vnder the Law Christ was their expectation and
A Crucifixe Ephe. 5. 2. He hath giuen himselfe for vs an offering The good Politician directed Math. 10. 16. Be wise as Serpents The way home Math. 2. 12. And being warned of God in a dreame Semper Idem Hebr. 13. 8. Iesus Christ the same yesterday Gods bounty Prou. 3. 16. Length of dayes is in her right hand The lost are found Luke 19. 10. For the Sonne of man is come to seeke A Generation of Serpents Psal. 58. 4. Their poyson is like the poyson of Serpents Heauen made sure Psal. 35. 3. Say vnto my soule I am thy saluation The Soules refuge 1. Pet. 4. 19. Let them that suffer according The end of the Contents THE HAPPINES OF THE CHVRCH HEBR. 12. Ver. 22. But ye are come vnto Mount Sion and to the Citie of the liuing GOD the heauenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels 23. To the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in heauen and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of iust men made perfect 24. And to Iesus the Mediator of the new Couenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel THEY that make comparisons alteram partem deprimunt vt res alterius emineant debase the one part that they may aduance the honour of the other Our Apostle abates the glory of the Law that he may giue more glory where it is more deserued to the Gospell For if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousnesse exceede in glory The summe of the comparison is spent in these three generalls 1. There were Omnia terrena et externa all things outward and sauouring of earth ver 18. A Mount that might still be touched c. Here all Interna et coelestia spirituall and heauenly 2. There are all Obscura et caliginosa darke and difficult Blacknesse darknes c. Here all Clara et illustria cleare and conspicuous therfore the Prophet called Christ Solem Iustitiae The Sun of Righteousnesse and Iohn Baptist stiled him That light which lightens euery one comming into the world 3. There all were Terribilia fearefull and amazing not onely to the people ver 19. who intreated that the Word should not bee spoken to them any more But euen to Moses ver 21. So terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly feare and quake Here all Amabilia et laeta louely as Rachel delightfull as Musike the Gospel is called the Message of peace Our Apostle therefore preacheth a double quantity in the Gospell Magnitudinem Gloriae multitudinem gratiae the greatnes of Glory to worke in vs reuerence the multitude of Grace to worke in vs loue obedience The Law was giuen by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Christ Iesus The excellency of Christ aboue Moses is exemplified in the third Chapter of this Epistle Moses verily was faithfull in all Gods house as a seruant But Christ as a Sonne ouer his owne house c. To the words the parts are generally two the Accesse and the Obiect First for the Accesse Yee are come What on your own feet without a Guide No Accessistis hoc est fide Euangelica perducti estis Yee are come that is yee are brought by the faith of the Gospel There is one that brings you God euery person in the blessed Trinity It is Opus Patris No man can come except the Father draw him Opus Filij Draw me we will runne after thee Opus spiritus sancti Let thy good spirit lead me into the Land of righteousnes Man is by nature in Zedechias case blind and lame Blind Non inuenisset viam nisi via inuenisset eum vnlesse the vvay had found him he could neuer haue found the way Lame he may know that the Temple of heauen hath a beautiful gate Grace but cannot come thither till God brings him loo sen his stupified ioynts and put into his hand the Almes of mercy This done he may enter into the Temple walking and leaping and praising GOD. Thus first he giues the Soule eyes vnderstanding then feet gracious affections and now expects that he should come God hath not so done all for thee that thou shouldest doe nothing for thy selfe A Deo sine te factus à te fine Deo infectus A Christo sine te refectus non à te fine Christo nec à Christo sine te perfectus God did create thee without thy selfe thou didst lose thy selfe without God without thy selfe Christ did redeeme thee but neither thy selfe without Christ nor Christ without thy selfe shall perfect thee Potest Dominus inueniri adueniri non praeueniri There may be a finding of God a comming to God but no preuenting of God Haue faith Hee that commeth to God must belieue and that of thine owne for there is no comming on anothers foote Thus that we might come to Christ Christ came to vs. Non de coelo merita nostra sed peccata traxerunt Not our merits but our maladies drew that great Physician from heauen to vs. Yee are not comming but come it is rather a time perfectly past then expectantly future Which plainely demonstrates that this is a description of the Church in her militant estate so well as triumphant Indeed either hath a relation to other a communion to other and the inestimable priuiledges of them both are wrapped vp together The connexion of Glory to Grace is so infallible that they often change names Heauen is called the kingdome of Holinesse and Holinesse is called the kingdome of Heauen Yee are saued by hope and Hee that belieueth hath euerlasting life and is passed from death to life So sure as if they were already in Heauen So Paul Our conuersation is in heauen from vvhence wee looke for our Sauiour Iesus Christ. The obiect or place of our arriual is described by many excellent and honourable titles First it is called a Mount but is there so much happinesse in that Feriunt summos fulgura montes the highest Mountaines are most danger'd to the violences of Heauen ver 18. There was a Mount burning with fire This is no Mountaine of danger or terror but Sion safe pleasant delightfull Sion the ioy of the whole earth the beloued of GOD the Iohn that leaned on the bosome of Christ. The Lord loues the gates of Sion better then all the dwellings of Iacob But though a Mount though Mount Sion yet it might be a solitary and vnfrecuented Hill like that whereunto the Diuell tooke Christ and shewed him the kingdomes of the world vvhere a man can onely see glory not enioy it Or like that mount Nebo or top of Pisgah whereon Moses might onely stand and behold the Land of Canaan Not so but on this Mount there stands a City a populous Citie and full of buildings like that wherein Christ
that is called by my Name as I haue done to Shiloh It lies in the power of sinne to make the most blessed places accursed God turnes a fruitfull land into barrennesse for the wickednesse of the inhabitants that dwell therein Ciuitatis euersio morum non murorum casus The ruine of a Citie is not the breach of the walls but the apostacie of manners Were our Fences stronger then the seuen-folde walls of Babylon the sinnes within would hurle downe the Bulwarkes without If there be Prauilegium among vs there is no Priuilegium for vs. This Sion then stands not on earthly foundations for at the generall dissolution the earth with all the workes in it Cities Castles Townes Towres shall be burnt vp If it were built on a saâ—…dy foundation when the raine the flouds and windes shall conspire against it it would fall and the fall of it would be great But Sion is built on Christ Behold I say in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect and precious he that beleeueth on him shall not be confounded This is conspicuous by the Antithesis of Mount Sion with the Gospell to Mount Sinai with the Law The Apostlecals that montem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mount that might be touched if this had beene vpon earth it had also beene contrectabilis touchable but it is onely spirituall Hee alludes to Gods Prophesies and Promises Euangelium proditurum de monte Sion that the Gospel should come out of Mount Sion This is manifest to those that will consider and conferre these places Obad. vers 21. Esa. 2. 3. Mie 4. 2. Come let vs goe vp to the Mount of the Lord for out of Sion shall goe forth the Law and the word of God from Ierusalem Esa. 59. 20. with Rom. 11. 26. There shall come out of Sion the Deliuerer and shall turne away vngodlinesse from Iacob Sinai gaue thraldome by Moses Sion giues freedome and saluation by Iesus These two words giue vs two comforts of grace Fortitudinem quia mons Beatitudinem quia mons Sion Securitie because it is a mountaine Felicity because it is Mount Sion 1. Heere is considerable the validity and strength of grace that comes by Christ we are not built in a valley but on a mount A mountaine hath euer beene held the place of safety I said in my prosperity I shall neuer be moued What is his reason Lord thou of thy fauour hast made my mountaine so strong But alas what are all the mountaines of the earth to mount Sion Woe to them that trust in the mountaines of Samaria The prophane Edomite stands on his mountain and derides the iudgement of God The Syrians thought God only Deum montium a God of the mountaines It was vpon the high mountaine that Israel played the harlot Many sit on their mountains and giue defiance to heauen The couetous mans mountaine is his riches there he thinkes himselfe safe Soule rest thou hast much goods layd vp for many yeares The ambitious mans mountaine is his honour and who dares finde fault with so promontorious a celsitude yes Euery mountaine shall be brought low Sensualitie is the voluptuous mans mountaine there he refugeth himselfe against all reproofes But when the iudgements of God shall come vpon the earth in vaine they shal cry to the mountaines Fallon vs and to the hills Couer vs. As neyther against the waters in the former Deluge so nor against the fire in the latter dissolution shall the mountaines defend onely this Mount Sion shall saue vs. The mountaine of worldly confidence hath not more strength of defending against the assaults of men then danger of exposing to the violences of heauen Heere is the difference betwixt the worldlings building and the Christians 1. They thinke themselues onely to build high aspiring to an equality with mountaines and as low builders poore deiected and reiected creatures But indeed they build low for all sublunary things are low buildings onely he that builds on this Mount Sion builds high and sure when all oppositions and aduersary forces haue done their worst he stands firme like Mount Sion which cannot be remoued but abideth fast for euer The Wise mans mind is euer aboue the Moone yea aboue the Sun What turbulencies soeuer be in the world all is peace there In my Fathers house there are many mansions In domo it is a house not a Tabernacle Of my Father for if he hath afforded such a house for his enemies how glorious is that he hath reserued for himselfe and his friends Patris mei saith Christ My Father your Father is able to giue you a cottage for your short life My Father giues a house for euer There are Mansions à manendo not moueable tents but mansions Many enow for all none shall be troubled for want of elbow-roome Therefore let all Mountaines stoope to this The mountaine of the Lord shall be established in the top of mountaines and shall be exalted aboue the hills and all Nations shal flowe vnto it This is Gods Mountaine who hath chosen of all Nations Israel of all Tribes Iuda of all Cities Ierusalem of all Temples that of Salomon of all Mountaines Mount Sion 2. The worldlings thinke this Mountaine is but a dreame because they cannot see it nor touch it But our Apostle sayes it is intrectabilis it cannot be touched with earthly fingers no profane feet must tread in those holy Courts Naturall mens vnderstandings are led by their senses Plus oculo quà m oraculo they will belieue no further then they see Giue mee good cheare sayes the Epicure this I can see and taste and tell not me of your spirituall banket in heauen Giue me good liquour sayes the Drunkard the bloud of the grape this giues colorem saporem odorem colour to the eye sauour to the palate odour to the sent heauen hath no Nectar like this Giue me honour saith the Ambitious which may aduaunce me that from this Mountaine of preferment I may ouerlooke the inferiour world and behold vassals prostrate to my Celsitude this I can feele and see tel not me of your inuisible kingdome and Such honour haue all his Saints Giue mee gorgeous apparell sayes the proud this vvill make me admir'd giue me admission among the great ones tell not me of our Robe of Glory Giue me gold saies the Couetous this I can see it is my Sunne by day and my Moone by night I can spend my time delightfully in telling feeling treasuring this neuer tell me of your treasure in heauen Well if there be no remedy but Sense must be your Religion and this world your God take your choise these grosse palpable things trust you in these Mountaines but Lord giue vs this Mount Sion which our Lord Iesus Christ hath established for vs. Now sith we are built vpon a Mountaine let vs know that we are conspicuous all the world takes notice of vs. The faithfull
are not ordained to liue in corners vnobserued but are set on a Mountaine as examples of goodnesse to all A Citie that is set on a hill cannot be hid God meant you notable take heed you become not notorious As Mount Sion is the ioy of the whole earth so it is the light of the whole earth If that light become darknesse how great how greatly to be condemned is that darknesse This was that great exception God tooke against Israel that through them his Name which should haue beene honoured was blasphemed among the Gentiles You are founded on a Mountaine therefore haue your conuersation honest among men that by your good works which they behold they may glorifie God in the day of visitation 2. The felicitie that comes by Christ insinuated by Sion which was a place of blessednes This is either Praemissa or Promissa already sent into our hearts or certainely obiected by promise to our faiths It is either assumed or assured Inre or in spe either that we haue or that we shall haue The happinesse wee haue already by this Mount Sion consists in three priuiledges the Fauour of God Ioy of the holy Ghost and peace of Conscience 1. In the Fauour of GOD which is to Sion as the light was once to Goshen shining there and no vvhere else Or as to Gedeon the Fleece on the Mountaine is wet with the dew of Heauen when all the earth is dry besides This Lux vultus tui the light of thy Countenance which puts more gladnes into our hearts then the aboundance of earthly fruites reioyce the couetous The wicked shall neuer see it vnlesse so much as may encrease their anguish when they must depart from it for euer 2. In the ioy of the Spirit which is hilaris cum pondere virtus a gladnes that can neither be suppressed nor expressed Sentire est cordis dicere non est oris The heart doth feele it the tongue cannot tell it It is that Stone with the new Name written in it which no man knoweth sauing be that receiueth it There is much reioycing in the world but the matter of it is mutable These lower delights are more sensitiue but more fluid They sooner cloy vs Magna foelicitas est à foelicitate non vinci It is a great happinesse not to be ouercome of happinesse Corporall delights work in vs a great hunger till they are attained But Spirituall Cùm non habentur sunt in fastidio cùm habentur in desiderio Whiles we haue them not we care not for them but when we haue them wee more eagerly desire them There is no hunger of it till we taste it In illis appetitus generat saturitatem saturitas fastidium In istis appetitus parat fruitioneâ—… fruitio parit appetitum In carnall pleasures appetite begets fulnesse fulnesse lothing in spirituall desire prepares fruition fruition begets desiring Voluptuous pleasure is like a blister it beginnes first with an itching but at last it swells breakes forth in anguish and putrid corruption There are two obseruations able to keepe vs from ouer-affecting the ioyes of this world and from vilipending the ioyes of Sion 1. First resolue euery carnall delight in the first matter and principle of it and there will be more likelihood of despising then danger of much desiring The Couetous makes gold his hope and sayes to the Wedge Thou art my confidence and what are those precious metals hee so worshippeth but veines of the earth better coloured Tâ—… Ambitious builder that erects a Babel for the honour of his owne Maiesty thinkes all eyes standamazed at his magnificence And what are those sumptuous monuments wherein hee so glorieth but monumentall witnesses of his folly a little hewne tymber some burnt and hardned earth The Adulterer admires the beauty of his harlot kneeles to a pledge of her memory by wanton sonnets Idolises her turnes his soule to an Elephant and worships this Sun Now what is that stately building of a humane lumpe but the same earth his foote treads vpon better tempered because painted worse when it wants the guest the soule that quickens it worst of all The proud dotes on his costly robes centers his eye vpon himselfe as if no second obiect was worth looking on the Tailors hand hath made him a man and his purse makes the Taylor a Gentleman And what are those curious ragges but such are giuen of wormes and consumed of mothes Consider the materials of your lower ioyes if you will persist in their dotage you shall doe it without our enuy 2. Obserue their Conclusion looke from their beginning to their end Delectatio vulnerat transit infoelicem reddidit reliquit Pleasure like an Irish man wounds with her dart and is sodainly gone it makes a man miserable and so leaues him Mors in ollâ behold laughter concluded in teares The protasis delights the apodosis wounds The Conscience receiues a long vexation for a transient delectation for an vnperfect content perfect torment This is a hard penniworth so little pleasure for so much repentance He that for a little ioy giues that Christ bought with so much paine Stultum Christum reputat mercatorem thinkes Christ a foolish buyer but the euent proues him a foolish seller Esau bitterly repented this bargaine This for the world but now the ioyes of Mount Sion are for matter spirituall for substance reall for vse vniuersall for continuance eternall 3. In the peace of Conscience There is little outward peace in the world wee haue eyther an Esau with his hand or an Ismael with his tongue bent against vs. As then he that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the Spirit euen so it is now So it is and so it will be to the end of the world This is the difference betwixt Mount Sion militant and Mount Sion triumphant In heauen are all comforts without any crosses in hell are all crosses without any comforts on earth comforts and crosses ioy and griefe peace and trouble misery and mercy are blended together We may say of a Christian as Lorinus the Iesuite writes of an Archbishop of Toledo who weighing the much disputed coÌ„trouersie whether Salomon was saued or damned and not being satisfied with the arguments of eyther side caused Salomon to be painted on the walls of his Chappell halfe in Heauen and halfe in hell So the Christian in respect of his outward calamities seemes to be halfe in hell but in respect of his inward comforts he is the better halfe in heauen Howsoeuer Being iustified by Faith wee haue peace with God And wheresoeuer wee are dispersed or howsoeuer distressed the Peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding and surpasseth all commending preserueth our hearts in Iesus Christ euermore But all this in Possesso we haue already there is something more in Promisso which we shall haue Wee are now the sonnes
Feruour of Charitie These are couertly implied from Psal. 104. He maketh his Angels spirits his ministers a flaming fire Spirits there is the Puritie of their substance ministers there 's the Readinesse of their obedience Flame of fire there 's the heate of their Charitie Thus were the Cherubims of the Tabernacle made figuring these three vertues in the Angels Exod. 25. First they were made of Pure gold ver 18. This shewes the excellencie of their substance for gold is the purest and best of mettals To this Gods owne Word is compared We will make thee borders of gold with studdes of siluer Secondly they had two wings stretched out to witnesse Promptitudinem obedientiae Gabriel did fly swiftly Of all creatures the winged are the swiftest O that I had wings like a Doue then would I fly away and be at rest The most suddenly transient thing riches is compared to a winged creature Riches makes it selfe wings like an Eagle Thirdly they were made with their faces one towards another to manifest the truth of their loue not like proud men turning away their countenance from their brethren Lastly though one were toward another yet both toward the Mercie-seate beholding him in sight to whō they were beholden in dutie Thus we see 1. that their nature is pure and this their mansion declares which is heauen for into it shall enter no vncleane thing They are shining and singing starres When the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted for ioy Heauen like fire Similem sibi reddit ingredientem makes that it receiues like it selfe 2. That their obedience is ready and swift their very name imports Angels Aquo dominatio ab eo denominatio for a name is giuen from some supereminent qualitie Hee rode vpon a Cherub and did fly 3. That their Charity is great appeares by their busie protecting vs grieuing at our falls reioycing at our perseuerance in good helping vs forward to saluation Let vs imitate them in foure things 1. In Puritie nothing is more pleasing to God It hath the blessing of this life of the life to come Of this life Truly God is good to Israel euen to such as are of a pure heart God is good to the whole vvorld with his common benefites better to Israel with extraordinary blessings but best of all to the Pure in heart with his sauing Graces Of the life to come Who shall stand in Gods holy place he that hath cleane hands and a pure heart Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Thereis no ioy like to this beatificall vision to see God is the height of happinesse But so shall the wicked they shal see him whom they haue pierced Diuines vsually distinguish of that sight They shall see the Sonne of man comming in a cloud they shall see him as man not as God as their iust Iudge not mercifull Sauiour 2. In Pietie and obedience wherein the Angels are ready and speedy resolute and absolute As they helpe vs to commaund the creature so let them teach vs to obey the Creator They fly when God sends them true obedience hath no lead at the heeles Paul herein was like an Angel hauing his Commission hee stood not to conferre with flesh and bloud Quantum morae addis tantum obedientiae detrahis So much as a man addes to delay hee takes away from obedience The truely obedient man doth not procrastinate Sed statim parat aures auditui linguam voci pedem itineri manum operi cor praecipienti He instantly prepareth his eare for the message Speak Lord for thy seruant heareth His tongue giueth a ready answer to the question Simon louest thou me Lord thou knowest that I loue thee His foote is shod for the iourney his feete be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace His hand is fit for the worke Abraham stretched forth his hand to slay his sonne His heart is pliable to the Commander Paratum cor O Lord my heart is ready 3. In Charitie Angels looke vpon and loue one another and all loue vs Let this teach vs to loue them our selues Doe they seeke our peace and shall wee vncharitably warre It was the Angels song Luke 2. Pax in terris Peace vpon earth warre with none but with Antichrist the diuell The Angels haue no need of our loue vve of theirs Loue we that on earth which shall dwell vvith vs for euer in heauen Charitie 4. In humility those glorious spirits stoope to do vs seruice let vs not thinke it bad or base to serue one another in loue No one man can so farre exceede another as the Angels excell the best men doe they abase themselues to our succour and shall we in a foolish pride soorne our brethren The haughty peece lookes on the poore betwixt scorne and anger Touch mee not I am of purer mould yet Mors dominos seruis blended together in the forgotten graue none makes the finer dust we cannot say such a Ladies rottennesse smells sweeter then such a beggers Come downe thou proud spirit deny not succour to thy distressed brother lest God deny his high Angels to succour thee Thus for imitation now for application learne we other vses 1. This is terror to the vvicked who contemne and condemne the righteous Despise not these little ones for their Angels are with my Father in heauen Beware you that scoffe at poore Innocents their Angels may plague you They for their parts may be content to put vp abuses and to forgiue iniuries but their Angels may take vengeance Herod vexed certaine of the Church killed Iames with the sword and seeing it please the Iewes hee tooke Peter also They could not helpe this but their Angels did for an Angel of the Lord smote him that he died Thou maiest haue euasion from the executioners of men but no protection against the Officers of GOD. When they are bidden to strike they will lay on sure strokes Wee will destroy this place for the Lord hath sent vs to destroy it 2. They teach vs deuout reuerence so to behaue our selues as in the sight and presence of holy Angels The consideration of so blessed a company doth not onely Conferre fiduciam and afferre deuotionem but inferre reuerentiam saith Bernard When to Iacob in his dreame was presented that Ladder and the Angels ascending and descending on it wakening hee saies How fearefull is this place This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heauen Seneca said that the conceit of Cato and Plato such graue men in our company would restraine vs from euill but what are these to the holy Angels of heauen Wee are a spectacle to the Angels they are obseruers and witnesses of all our actions For this cause the vvoman ought to haue power on her head because of the Angels
errors I beleeue saued for others Nescio quid dicere I know not what to say They haue damnable heresies as that of Free will of Merites c. yet the persons that of weakenesse defend them may be saued God pardons euen wilfull errors if they be truly repented Therefore I belieue that many of our forefathers went to Heauen though through blindnesse Now indeede they are more inexcusable because our sound is gone out among them There are Seducentes and Seducti the wilfull blind lead the wofull blind vntill both fall into the ditch If they will not see there is no helpe no hope If simple ignorance mislead there is hope of return but if affected it is most wretched Our office is to helpe them with our prayers and let vs pray for them as Paul for his Ephesians That the eyes of our vnderstanding beeing enlightened they may know what is the hope of Gods calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance is in the Saints Many of them haue ready hearts but they want eyes wee haue open eyes God grant vs ready hearts The first borne which are written in heauen This is a description of the persons of whom the Church consists The Church it selfe is a number of men which God hath set apart by an eternall decree and in time sanctified to become reall members of it They are written in heauen there 's their eternall election and they are the first borne that is 〈◊〉 borne there 's their Sanctification For the two parts of the description Their Primogeniture and Registring in Gods booke are but borrowed speeches whereby God would ratifie the euerlasting Predestination and saluation of his Church That as the First borne is not to bee defeated of his inheritance and the Enrolled names are neuer to be obliterated so certainly shall they inherite eternall life The first borne Some vnderstand by the first borne not all the Elect but onely the Patriarchs and such ancient Saints the noble primitiue parts of the Church Caluin Then this should haue beene referred onely to the Church triumphant in heauen but the Catholike Church is here expresly meant which coÌ„prehends also the Saints vpon earth therefore they also are first borne Besides they are said to be written in heauen which had beene a superfluous speech of those who are already in heauen they that are there need no writing Unusquisque Electâ—…est Pimogenitus But this seemes to infringe the Primogeniture of Christ to whom that Name is by speciall title and right giuen Primogenitus inter multos fratres saith Paul he is the First begotten among many brethren Primogenitus vniuersae creaturae the first borne of euery creature Primogenitus mortuorum the first borne from the dead He is the first borne as he is the Sonne of God and as hee is man As he is the Sonne of God in respect of time before all things the beginning of all in respect of dignity because hee is the foundation of all good to his Church Of his fulnesse haue we all receiued and grace for grace As he is man he is the first borne not in respect of time but of excellency and vertue In respect of his miraculous conception the first that euer was conceiued without sinne and by the ouershadowing of the holy Ghost In respect of his birth he was the first borue of Mary Shee brought forth her first borne Sonne and called his name Iesus In respect of his resurrection when GOD raised him out of the graue he is said to beget his Sonne Thou art my Sonne this day haue I begotten thee And lest the interpretation of birth onely should be deduced from that place Saint Paul expressely applies it to his resurrection Acts 13. 33. God raised vp Iesus againe as it is written in the second Psalme Thou art my Sonne this day haue I begotten thee Lastly in respect of his preeminence hee is the first borne from the dead that in all things he might haue the preeminence So the priuiledge of primogeniture is singularly and indiuidually his How then are the faithfull heere called the first borne To answer this we must know that God hath sonnes by nature and by grace Christ by nature onely all the elect by grace Christ is a Sonne begotten not made we are sonnes made not begotten in respect of nature Christ as God is begotten not borne as man he is borne not begotten We see the priuiledge of Christs primogeniture from his let vs looke to ours for from him wee haue it The elect are called First-borne in three respects 1. Because they are vnited to the first borne For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren Hee that is made vnus cum primogenito may be well called primogenitus one with the first borne is a first borne 2. Because they are culled and called out of the world Many wicked are created before them but they are elected in Gods decree to life before the other for the wicked are not chosen at all Esau was Isaaks first borne but Iacob was Gods first borne Many of the worlds first-borne haue beene reiected Israel laid his right hand vpon Ephraim the younger and his left vpon Manasseh the elder Reuben thou art my first borne but thou shalt not be excellent Cain Adams first borne Ismael Abrahams first borne were cast off Thus saith the Lord Israel is my sonne euen my first borne The Lord had first chosen that nation to be his people yet afterward reiected them and accepted the Gentiles so that the elder serue the younger But Gods first borne are neuer refused whom hee hath predestinated to be sonnes hee hath also called to bee heyres So that this primogeniture is not in respect of generation but of regeneration Though they be not primò conditi they are primò reconditi Flesh and bloud hath no worke in this birth nor the will of man but the will of God Of his owne will begate he vs with the word of trueth that wee should be a kinde of first fruits of his creatures The Spirit begets of immortall seed grace in the wombe of the Church the meanes of this Birth being the Word Except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdom of God Out of that vniuersall apostacie God sent his Sonne to beget some first borne to himselfe 3. Because the priuiledges of the first borne are theirs These were many as we may find in allusion to the Law 1. The excellency of strength Reuben my first borne my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignitie and the excellencie of power Man decayes and the children of age are not so strong as the children of youth therefore the first borne are called the beginning of power and the excellency of strength True it is that there 's no
written on a monument equall to a Colossus yet be ignominious written on the Hospitall-gates yet goe to hell written on his own house yet another come to possesse it All these are but writings in the dnst or vpon the vvaters where the characters perish so soone as they are made They no more proue a man happy then the foole could proue Pontius Pilate a Saint because his name was written in the Creed But they that be written in heauen are sure to inherite it Now to apply all this vsefully to our selues some perhaps would be satisfied how wee may know our names written in heauen It is certaine that no eye hath looked into Gods booke yet himselfe hath allowed certaine arguments and proofes whereby wee haue more then a coniecturall knowledge The principall is the Testimonie of Gods Spirit concurring with our spirit Rom. 8. 16. But of this I haue liberally spoken in some later passages of this booke together with the most pregnant signes of our election Here therefore I am straightned to insert onely some there omitted effects Which are these foure If our hearts be on Gods booke If the poore be in our booke If wee well order the booke of our conscience Lastly if we can write our selues holy in earth then be bold we are vvritten happy in heauen 1. If our heart be on Gods booke and this wee shall find è conuerso if Gods booke be in our heart Mary laid vp Christs words in her heart It must not lye like loose corne on the floore subiect to the pecking vp of euery fowle but it is ground by meditation digested by faith manet alto corde repostum God saies My sonne giue thy heart to me doe thou pray My Father first giue thy selfe to my heart I aske not whether this booke lyes in thy study but whether the study of it lyes in thy heart The life of the Scriptures is not in verborum folijs sed in medulla cordis not in the letters and leaues but in the inwards of the heart It is not lectio nor relectio but dilectio not reading but leading a life answerable that assures vs. If we syncerely loue this booke wee are certainly in Gods booke Mary zealously louing Christs word is said to chuse the better part that shall neuer be taken from her 2. If the poore be in thy booke and this is reciprocall then thou art in their booke and the conclusion is infallible thou art in the booke of Life For the relieued poore by their prayers entertaine or make way for thy entertainement into euerlasting habitations And Christ at the last day calls them to himselfe that haue beene charitable to his members Come yee blessed receiue the kingdome prepared for you Your works haue not merited this kingdome for it was prepared for you but as that vvas prepared for you so your charitie hath prepared you for it Come and take it Let not thy left hand knowe vvhat thy right hand doth Doe thou write it in the dust the poore will write it in their hearts GOD findes it in their prayers their prayers preuaile for thy mercie mercy writes thy name in heauen Thy prayers and thy almes are come vp for a memoriall before God Therefore Cast thy bread vpon the waters drowne it in those watry eyes it is not lost in that Riuer like Peter thou throwest in an angle bringest vp siluer enough to make thee blessed Via coeli est pauper si non vis errare incipe erogare The poore is the high-way to heauen if thou wouldest not wander in thy iourney shew mercy Non potes habere nisi quòd acceperis non potes non habere quod dederis Thou canst haue nothing vnlesse thou receiue it thou canst keepe nothing vnlesse thou giue it Him that the poore writes not charitable on earth nor doth God write saueable in heauen 3. If thy name be written Christian in the booke of thy Conscience this is a speciall argument of thy registring in heauen For if our heart condemne vs not vvee haue boldnesse and confidence towards God Ang. VVhat if mans ignorance and vnmercifull ielousie blot thee out of the booke of his credite Si de libro vinentium nunquam propria deleat conscientia so long as thy owne conscience doth not blot thee forth the booke of blessednesse If the good spoken of vs be not found in our conscience that glory is our shame If the euill spoken of vs be not found in our conscience that shame is our glory Therefore it is that Hugo calls the cōscience Librum signatum et clausum in die Indicij aperiendum a booke shut and sealed onely at the Resurrection to be opened Conscientiam magis quà m famam attende falls saepe poterit fama conscientiae nunquam Looke to thy Conscience more then to thy credite fame may often be deceiued conscience neuer The beames that play vpon the water are shot from the Sunne in heauen the peace and ioy that danceth in the conscience comes from the Sonne of righteousnes the Lord Iesus If a hearty laughter dimple the cheeke there is a smooth and quiet mind within Vpon the wall there is a writing a man sitting with his backe to the wall how should hee read it but let a looking-glasse be set before him it vvill reflect it to his eyes he shall read it by the resultance The writing our names in heauen is hid yet in the glasse of a good conscience it is presented to our eye of faith and the soule reades it For it is impossible to haue a good conscience on earth except a man be written in heauen 4. If the booke of Sanctification haue our names written then surely the booke of Glorification hath them and they shall neuer be blotted out For God hath chosen vs in Christ before the foundation of the vvorld that wee should be holy and vvithout blame before him in loue Now as we may reason from the cause to the effect so certainely from the effect to the cause Election is the cause Holinesse the effect as therefore euery one written in heauen shall be holy on earth so euery one holy on earth is written in heauen This sanctitie is manifested in our obedience vvhich must be Ad totum I had respect to all thy commandements Per totum I haue enclined my heart to keepe thy statutes Alway euen to the end De tote to keepe thy precepts with my whole heart In Rome the Patres conscripti were distinguished by their robes and they of the Liuery in London haue a peculiar habite by themselues to differ from the rest of the Company Is thy name enrolled in that Legend of Saints thy liuery will witnes it thy conuersation is in heauen A Senator relating to his sonne the great honours decreed to a number of Souldiers whose names vvere written in a booke the sonne was importunate to see that booke The father shewes him the
despised him mercy to them that feared him Happy faith that shall not be ashamed at that day Abide in him that when he shall appeare we may haue confidence and not be ashamed before him at his comming The heauens shall be on fire the elements melt vvith the flame the earth be burnt Castles Cities Townes and Towers be turned to one pile the Deuils shall make a hideous noyse the reprobates shrieke and howle like Dragons all because this Iudges wrath is kindled But the faithfull shall reioyce I will see you againe and your hearts shall reioyce and your ioy no man taketh from you The musike of Saints and Angels shall be ioyned in one Quire and all sing Blessing honor glory and power be vnto him that sits on the Throne and to the Lambe for euer The Iudge This is his authority now there are certaine properties required in a iust Iudge some of them are found in some Iudges many in few Iudges all perfectly in no Iudge but this Iudge of all Iesus Christ. 1. Perspicacitas ingenij sharpenesse of apprehension and soundnesse of vnderstanding Ignorance in a priuate person is a weakenes in a Iudge a wickednesse Ignorantia Iudicis calamitas innocentis A Iudge ignorant makes wretched the innocent It was a curse I will giue children to be their Princes and babes shall rule ouer them that is Gouernors of a childish discretion It is a woe Woe to thee O Land when thy King is a childe Iustice was anciently painted blinde to shew that no fauour be giuen to persons but it vvas not meant so blinde as not to discerne causes It is vvofull when Iudges are so blinde that they are faine to feele the right No man vvould haue his body come vnder the cure of a foolish Physician nor his estate vnder an ignorant Iudge But this Iudge of heauen and earth is so wise that hee knowes the very secrets of mens hearts All things are naked and opened vnto the eyes of him with whom wee haue to doe The wicked can haue no hope that a bad cause flourished ouer should passe vnconstrued vncensured His eyes are as a flame of fire cleare to search and finde out all secrets Accordingly he hath now put in his interlocutory then will giue his definitiue sentence 2. Audacitas animi boldnesse of courage a timerous Iudge looseth a good cause In the fable vvhen the Hart is made Iudge betweene the Wolfe and the Lambe it must needs goe on the Wolfes side The feare of displeasing Greatnesse is a sore Remora to the vessell of Iustice. Therefore the poore complaine If the foundations bee cast downe what can the righteous doe Quis metuet offendere cum Iudex metuat abscindere Who will feare to doe mischiefe when he knowes the Iudge dares not punish him Therefore when GOD made â—…oshua Iudge of Israel obserue how he doubles this charge Iosh. 1. ver 6. 7. 8. 9. Be strong and of a good courage And the people againe ver 18. We will obey thee onely be thou strong and of a good courage But this Iudge will not be danted with faces of men The Kings of the earth the great men the rich men the chiefe Captaines and the mighty-men hid themselues in the dennes in the rocks of the Mountaines Those terrors of slaues and mirrors of fooles that made the vnderlings tremble hide themselues in caues now for all their puissance are glad to runne into a hole and cowardly shrowd themselues Adducetur cum suis stultus Plato discipulis Aristotelis argumenta non proderunt Heroâ—…is maiestas deijcietur cùm filius pauperculae venerit iudicatâ—…rus terram Then foolish Plato shall appeare with his scholers Aristotle shall be confuted with all his arguments Herodâ—… pompe shall be turned to shame when that Sonne of the Virgin shall come to iudge the world 3. Honestas conscientiae honesty of conscience The Iudge that will be corrupted dares corrupt the truth Wofull is that iudgement which comes from him who hath vaenâ—…lem â—…nimam a saleable soule Fâ—…lix was such a Iudge who hoped that money should haue beene giuen him of Paul Qui vendit iustitiam pro pecuniae perdit pecuniam cum anima He that sells iustice for mony shall lose mercy and his soule You afflict the iust you take a bribe and turne aside the poore in the gate from their right They haue built them houses of â—…ewen stone ver 11. How By bribes What shall become of them They shall not dwell in them for fire shall consume the Tabernacles of bribery If any Iusticers thinke so to raise themselues it is but vt lapsu grauiore ruant that they may haue the sorer fall There are certaine rich stuffes forbidden by the Statute but to weare clothes cut out of bribes and laced with exactions is specially forbidden by the Statute of heauen When money can open the locke of Iustices dore the worst cause is first heard This pocket-key is fitted for all dores One spake vnhappily I haue a key in my pocket saith he that will passe me in all Countryes he meant his purse In Italie it can open the dore of life Doe you hate a man for mony you may haue him pistold or poysond In Frâ—…nce it can open the dore of loue lust you for such a vvoman money makes her your harlot In Spayne it opens the dore of Iustice the case shall goe on the rich mans side In England it can open the dore of honour mony makes a Gentleman and reputation swels with the Barnes In Rome it can open the dore of heauen for they sell Claues Altariâ—… Christum peace and pardon and heauen and Christ himselfe Graâ—…s lacerantur pauperes à prauis Iudicibus quà m à cruentissimis hostibus Nullus praedo tâ—…m cupidus in alienis quà m Iudex iniquns in suis. The robes of peace couering corruption are worse to the poore then hostile inuasion But this Iudge of heauen will take no bribes other Iudges may procrastinate put off or peruert causes Saepe non finiunt negotia quousque exhauriant marsupia they will often see an end of the Clyents money before the Clyents see an end of their cause They often determine to heare but seldome heare to determine But Christ shall iudge those Iudges Be instructed ye Iudges of the earth kisse the Sonne lest he be angry and ye perish At that day Plus valebunt pura corda quà m asâ—…ta verba conscientia bona quà m marsupia plena Pure hearts shall speed better then subtile words a good conscience better then a full purse Iudex non falletur verbis nec flectetur donis That Iudge will neither be mooued with our gifts nor deceiued with our shifts Happy soule that forsaking the loue of money hath gotten a pure heart to appeare before Iesus Christ. 4. Impartialitas Iustitiae impartiall Iustice. Tully tells vs of a Prouerbe Exuit
Thou O Lord art onely vvoorthy to receiue glory and honour They haue nec boni inopiam nec in bono superbiam They are not poore in good workes nor proud of good workes They wrote their charity in the dust therefore did God write it in Marble They seeme to forget the works of mercie they haue done therefore are they remembred by Iesus Christ. 4. The answere of Christ Mat. 25. 40. In as much as yee haue done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye haue done it vnto me The miseries of my brethren are my own miseries Wee haue an high Priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities That invulnerable and glorified brest is still touched with the sense of our wounds Saul thou persecutest mee he sayes not mine but me me in mine He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Surely he will pity the misery of euery one that is afflicted with the sorowes of all Quis recusabit pro Christo pati quando Christus compatitur patienti Who would refuse to suffer for Christ when he is sure that Christ suffers with him Here is excellent direction for our works of mercy that no sinister end draw them from vs but syncere loue to Christ. If any fish for the applause of men his bait shal be his owne hooke to snare himselfe Da Christo looke on the poore man and in that member behold the Head Christ. He that shall giue a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a Disciple he shall in no wise lose his reward A cup of water is but a small gift yet done in that Name and for that cause it is rewarded as an excellent worke of mercy It is the true note of a child of God to shew mercy to a Christian because he is a Christian. Naturall men haue their priuate ends and aduantagious respects in their beneficences Such a one shall doe me seruice flatter my addiction bring intelligences to mine eare I will make him my property my charity shal bind him to me Morall men will sometimes giue euen for pities sake but the true Christian doth it for Christ his sake and lookes no further Dooing good vnto all especially to them that are of the houshold of faith Some thinke that the best worke is to build Temples and Monasteries but indeed the best worke is to relieue not the dead but the liuing Temples of Christs mysticall Body It was an ancient complaint Fulget Ecclesia in parietibus â—…get in pauperibus The Church flourisheth in her glorious buildings but mourneth and pines away in her poore members Deny not due cost to the dead walls but first satisfie the liuing bowels that Christ may say Come yee blessed I come now to the sentence of Condemnation Math. 25. 41. Then shall he say to them on the left hand Depart from mee yee cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Deuill and his angels In this forme of damnatory iudgement are foure points considerable A Reiection of the vvicked a Reason of that reiection an Obiection against that reason a Confutation of that obiection In the Reiection are many particulars gradually inhancing their iudgement They are partly Priuatiue partly Positiue Depart from mee yee cursed there is Poenadamâ—…i Into euerlasting fire there is Poena sensus As there be two kindes of sinne Delictum and Peccatum Delictum est desertio boni Peccatum perpetratio mali the one a forsaking of that is good the other a committing of that is euill So there is a like proportion of punishment a depriuing of ioy and a giuing ouer to torment Heere is 1. A grieuous refusall Depart This seemes nothing to the wicked now such is their dead securitie Depart Why they are content to be gone Because sentence against an euill worke is not executed speedily therefore their heart is fully set in them to doe euill But as when a Prince opening his long locked vp Treasurie graciously takes some in with him and saying to other ill-meriting followers Depart it will be a disgracefull vexation So when the glory of heauen and those vnualuable treasures shall be opened and dealt about to the faithfull vvhat horror will it be to the Reprobates to be cast off with a Depart Blessed are the eyes that see the things vvhich yee see saith Christ to his Saints For Kings haue desired to see them and were not suffered If it were such a Blessednes to see Iesus in humility what is it to see him in glory But from this the wicked are bidden Depart 2. The losse of Saluation From mee your Sauiour that was wounded for you that offered my bloud to you which was offered for you And if from mee then from all that is mine my mercy my glory my saluation Consider here what an excellent thing it is to haue familiarity with Christ on earth that he may not cast vs off as strangers from heauen He that would haue Christ know him there must not be a stranger to Christ here He must haue some fellowship with GOD How If wee walke in the light we haue fellowship with God and with his Sonne Iesus Christ. To walke in the darke is to haue fellowship with the Prince of darknesse to walke in the light is to haue fellowship with the Father of lights VVill a Reprobate that hath alwaies turned his back vpon Christ here presse into his company Vpon what acquaintance Yes Wee haue eate and drunke in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets as if they should say We haue fed at thy Communion table and heard thee preach in our Pulpits Still this proues no acquaintance for in the one you did eate Panem Domini non Panem Dominum the bread of Christ but not Christ with the bread In the other you haue heard Uerbum Domini not regarded Dominum verbi Your eare hath beene open but your conscience shutte Therefore ver 25. Non noui vos as familiar as you presume yet you are such strangers to me that I know you not They neuer vvillingly came neere Christ but to persecute him therefore hee shall then cast them farre enough off for euer 3. The deserued Malediction Yee cursed Hee is cursed that being borne in sinne liues in it and dyes in it without seeking recouery I call this curse merited because they loue it As hee loued cursing so let it come vnto him Hath he loued it Let him take his loue As hee clothed himselfe with cursing as with a garment so let it come into his bowels like vvater and like oyle into his bones ver 18. It was his outside let it be his linings it was his outward stuffe let it be his inward stuffing Euery one that hath not first a pardon by Christ must heare this curse pronounced against him from Christ. O then suffer not thine eyes to sleep till Christ hath sealed thee a Quetus est Giue
aduise thy sicke soule who after a desperate and inueterate wound lookest for a suddaine cure by repentance it is better to make this thy dyet then thy physicke Repent euery day that thou maist haue remission one day Melior medicus qui excludit morbos quà m qui curat He is a better Physician that keeps diseases off vs then he that cures them beeing on vs. Preuention is so much better then healing because it saues the labour of being sicke Thou allowest not a Surgion vnnecessarily to breake thy head to try his skill and the vertue of his plaister Sprindges were better taken away quae non prosunt because they doe no good then the setting of watchmen by them to warn trauellers ne noceant that they be not hurt by them Take away thy lusts quite this is the way to be sure for repentance may be like Baal so fast asleepe that all thy cryes are not able to waken her To conclude hee that will weare a crowne in heauen must be all his life on earth preparing the gold to make it Not that thy owne vertues crowne thee but that GOD without thy vertues will neuer crowne thee The robe of glory that is worne there must be spun and wouen heere spun out of the side of Christ by faith and embroydered with our good workes That eternall light ariseth from this internall life Lay vp in store for your selues a good foundation against the time to come that you may lay hold on eternall life The ground worke of saluation is made here that high Tower of glory that is built for thee in heauen hath the foundation of it laid vpon earth How should a man be Perfectus that was neuer factus well begun I wonder what perfection a wine-bibber lookes for sure to be a perfect drunkard What perfection expects the luxurious prodigall sure to bee a perfect begger What perfection hopes the couetous Churle that allowes himselfe a race of fourescore yeares and sets God at the latter end of it and he hath that place too with this condition that hee trouble not his minde about it till the last day comes Surely to liue vnblessed and to die vnpittied but that some now blesse God hee 's gone and other say it 's pitty he died no sooner All his proiections haue aimed at this perfection to make himselfe a perfect slaue What perfection dreames the Iesuite to himselfe but to become a perfect traitor What perfection is likely to the incontinent adulterer but to bee a perfect Lazar. What the malicious but a perfect villaine what the proud but a perfect foole what the blasphemer but a perfect Deuill They say earely holinesse proues ripe corruption but I am sure habituated prophanesse proues ranke damnation Alas how should they make an end that neuer begin This man began to build saith Christ but could not make an end how should they finish that neuer began you that spend your dayes in a lazie forgetfulnesse of religion examine your owne consciences do you euer think to be perfect Are you content still to be abortiue and shall you be perfected in the womb of the graue God hath giuen you time and meanes he did not say Sumite consumite take it and spend it at your pleasure O begin that you may continue and end heare to learne learne to doe doe to continue continue to be perfect Begin betimes lest Gods end come before your beginning Enter into the way of Piety and follow it striuing with all your powers to grow vp to a perfect man vnto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. And to Iesus the Mediator of the new Couenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel We haue considered the glory of the Citie the felicity of the Citizens we are lastly come to the Mediator who brings both these together and without whom they had beene euerlastingly asunder We are all by nature belonging not to Mount Sion but to the valley of Hinnon not to the celestiall Ierusalem but to the infernall Babylon not to the society of glorious Angels but of afflicting Deuils not to the Church of the first borne but to the assembly of abortiue reprobates wee had no reference to God as a kinde Father but as a seuere Iudge not to iust spirits made perfect from sinne but to lost spirits made perfect in sinne Thus were wee by nature but Iesus hath brought vs to Mount Sion c. How blessed a thing will it be to come vnto this Iesus It was Saint Augustines speciall wish to haue seene Christ in the flesh If there were such cōfort in seeing Christ humbled if such admiration in seeing him transfigured what ioy is it to behold him in heauen glorified How glorious a matter do some thinke it to stand in the Court of an earthly Prince to receiue a gracious looke to heare a royall word or to bee commanded some honourable seruice what is it then to stand in the Court of heauen to haue the King of Kings speake peaceably to vs to behold our Lord Iesus crowned with that immortall Diadem to sing his prayses as free from flattery as from inconstancy and to liue in that Paradise for euer Vbicunque fueris Domine Iesu wheresoeuer thou art O blessed Sauiour giue vs no more happinesse then to be with thee If thou be in the earth wee will trauell day and night to come to thee if on the sea with Peter we will swimme to thee if on the Crosse we will stand weeping by thee if riding in triumph we will sing Hosanna to thee if transfigured on Tabor we will bee rauished with thee but if sitting in thy heauenly Throne how blessed euen to looke vpon thee It is his will that we should be with him where he is and behold his glory Wee are now come to him by a coniunction mysticall wee shall then haue a vicinity locall and eternall The Mediator not a Mediator but The That Mediator that onely one For there is one God and one Mediator betweene God and men the man Christ Iesus God was angry man was guiltie Christ is the Mediator betwixt them who being God could satisfie God and beeing man could suffer for man We are lost and desire something to recouer vs what shall that be Mercy No God is iust he that hath offended must be punished Shall it be Iustice No we haue need of mercy that he who hath offended might be spared Here to be so merciful as not to wrong his iustice to be so iust as not to forget his mercy there must be a Mediator This must not be the world that was Gods owne before he made it not Angels for they are engaged for their owne creation and being finite cannot satisfie an infinite Maiestie by infinite punishment for infinite sinnes Gods Sonne must doe it now if hee come to satisfie for pride he must put on humilitie if for rebellion he must
Word and will reape his Glory His glory eyther in your instruction or destruction conuersion or conuiction life or death O why should that be to your horror that is meant to your comforts Turne not that to your desolation which God sends to your consolation Pray you then with me euery one to the Lord that this seed now sowne may bring forth fruit in vs all in some thirty in some sixty in some a hundred fold To the glory of his holy name and the eternall saluation of our soules through Iesus Christ. Amen HEAVEN-GATE OR THE PASSAGE TO PARADISE REVELAT 22. 14. in fine And may enter in through the Gates into the Citie IF we supply these words with the first word of the verse Blessed wee shall make a perfect sentence of perfect comfort Blessed are they that doe his commandements that they may haueright to the tree of life And may enter in through the gates into the Citie In the whole there be Premises Promises The Premises qualifie vs we must be such as are Blessed and who are they Qui praestant mandata that doe his commandements The Promises crowne vs and these are two 1. That wee may haue right to the tree of life euen that which Reu. 2. is in the middest of the Paradise of God From whence the Angell with a flaming sword shall keep all the reprobate 2. Et per portas ingrediantur ciuitatem And may enter in through the gates into the City When without shall be dogs and scorners c. whosoeuer loueth and maketh a lie To the last words of the verse I haue bound bounded my discourse Wherein I finde three points readily offering themselues to be considered Motus Motion Enter in Modus Manner Through the gates Terminus Place Into the Citie So there is a threefold circumstance Quid. What an Entrance Qua. How through the gates Quò Whither into the Citie The Motion Enter in They are blessed that enter in Perseuerance onely makes happy Our labours must not cease till wee can with Stephen see these Gates open and our Sauiour offering to take vs by the hand and welcome our entrance We know who hath taught vs that onely continuers to the end shall be saued It is obseruable that in the holy Spirits letters sent to those seuen Churches in the second and third chapters of this Booke all the promises runne to Perseuerers Uincenti dabitur To him that ouercomes shall it be giuen Nec paranti ad praliim nec pugnanti ad sanguinem multo minus tergiuersanti ad peccatum sed vincenti ad victoriam Nor to him that prepares to fight nor to him that resists to bloud much lesse to him that shewes his back in cowardice but to him that ouercomes to conquest Demas seeing this warre ranne away fell backe to the security of the world Saul made himselfe ready to this battell but he durst not fight glory and lusts carried him away Iudas stood a bowt or two but the High Priests money made him giue ouer and the Deuill tooke him captiue But Paul fought out this combat euen to victorie though he bore in his body the markes of the Lord Iesus I haue fought a good fight I haue finished my course I haue kept the faith Therefore now there is laid vp for me a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall giue mee This is a good life saith Bern. Mala pati et bona facere et fic vsque ad mortem perseuerare To suffer euill to doe good and so to continue to the end Some came into the Vineyard in the morning some at noone others later none receiued the Penny but they that stayed till night Augustine affirmes this to be almost all the contents of the Lords Prayer Hallowed be thy Name thy kingdome come thy will be done Wherein wee desire that his Name may alwaies be sanctified his Kingdome alwaies propagated his will alwaies obeyed Indeed this grace perfects all graces Wee beleeue in vaine if our faith hold not out to the end Weeloue in vaine if our charitie grow cold at last We pray in vaine if our zeale growes faint VVee striue in vaine at the strait gate if not till we enter Venire adreligionem est vera deuotio sed non religiose viuere vera damnatio To come to the truth of religion is true deuotion not to liue religiously is true damnation Man is naturally like a horse that loueth short iourneyes and there are few that hold out Whence it comes that the last are often first and the first last Know ye not that they which runne in a race run all but one receiueth the prize He that hath a good horse can goe faster vp a hill then downe a hill He that hath a good faith doth as quickly ascend the Mount Sion as the wicked descend to the valley of Hinnon If men would as strongly erect themselues vpwards as they direct their courses downewards they might goe to heauen with lesse trouble then they doe goe to hell But he that at euery sleppe lookes at euery stoppe and numbers his perils with his paces either turnes aside faintly or turnes back cowardly They that goe wandring wondring on their iourney are at the gates of Samaria when they should enter the gates of Ierusalem God saith I will not leaue yòu Heb. 13. Will you then leaue GOD One told Socrates that he would faine goe to Olympus but he distrusted his sufficiencie for the length of the iourney Socrates told him Thou walkest euery day little or much continue this walke forward thy way and a few dayes shall bring thee to Olympus Euery day euery man takes some paines let him bestow that measure of paines in trauclling to heauen and the further he goes the more heart he gets till at last he enter through the gates into the Citie Bernard calls Perseuerance the onely daughter of the highest King the perfection of vertues the storehouse of good works a vertue without which no man shall see God There is a last enemy to be destroyed Death we must hold out to the conquest euen of this last aduersary Which if it conquer vs by the Sting of our Sinne shal send vs to the dores of hell if we conquer it by our Faith it shal send vs to the gates of this Citie Heauen Lauda nauigantem cum peruenerit ad portum All the voyage is lost through the perilous Sea of this world if we suffer shipwracke in the Hauen and lose our reward there where we should land to receiue it What get we if we keepe Satan short of ruling vs with his force many houres when at our last houre hee shall snatch our blisse from vs The runner speeds all the way but when he comes at the races end to the goale he stretcheth forth his hand to catch the prize Be sure of thy last step to put forth the hand of faith then most strongly Ne perdatur
this world our second is a gate into the world to come There is some paine in both For this vvorld but little ioy after the paine for the other after short sorrow eternall glory Sanctification Is the second gate Make your calling and election sure saith Peter by a holy life For so an Entrance shall be ministred vnto you abundantly into the euerlasting kingdome of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ. But there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoeuer worketh abomination or maketh a lie Therfore Paul prayes the God of Peace to sanctifie vs wholly Holinesse is the way to Happinesse Grace the gate of Glory But some may obiect frō that of Paul that this Sanctification must be totall and perfect but who can come so furnished to the gate therefore who can enter the Citie I answer There is required onely Sanctificatio viae non Patria such a Sanctitie as the gate can afford though farre short of that within the Citie The Schoole distinguisheth vvell It must be communiter in toto vniuersaliter in singulis partibus but not totaliter et perfectè This Sanctification must be communicated to the whole man and vniuersally propagated to euery part though it haue in no place of man a totall perfection Indeed Nullum peccatum retinendum est spe remissionis No sinne is to be cherished in hope of mercy But wee must striue for euery grace vve haue not and for the encrease of euery grace wee haue Quaerendum quod deest bonum indulgendum quod adest Let vs make much of that we possesse and still seek for more striuing to the marke And yet when all is done Profectio haec non Perfectio est Wee haue made a good steppe forward but are not come to our full home But stil Lord be mercifull to me a sinner And Enter not into iudgement with vs. Now sith this gate stands in our owne Heart giue me leaue to describe it and that briefely by The Properties The properties are 2. It is Lovve Parts Little Lowe Heauen is well called a Building not made with hands for it differs both in Matter and Forme from earthly edifices For matter it is Eternall not momentany for maner fabricked without hands Great Mannors on earth haue large answerable Porches Heauen must needes be spacious when a little starre fixed in a farre lower Orbe exceedes the earth in quantitie yet hath it a lowe gate not a lofty comming in They must stoope then that will enter here He hath filled the bungry with good things and the rich hee hath sent empty away The rich in their owne conceits and proud of their owne worth shall be sent empty from this gate Zaccheus climes vp into a Sycamore tree to behold Iesus but when Iesus beheld him got vp so high he said Come downe Zaccheus Luke 19. Make haste and come downe Whosoeuer will entertaine Iesus must come down The haughtie Nebuchadnezzar that thinks with his head to knock out the starres in heauen must stoope at this gate or hee cannot enter Be you neuer so lofty you must bend Gods honour must be preferred before your honours It is no discredite to your Worships to vvorship GOD. Little Christ calls it a narrow gate They must be little that enter little in their owne eyes slender in the opinion of themselues Whosoeuer shall not receiue the kingdome of God as a little child he shall not enter therin Samuel to Saul When thou wast little in thine own sight wast thou not made the Head of the Tribes of Israel When Iesse had made all his Sonnes passe before Samuel he asked him if none remained yet Iesse answeres Yes a little one tending the flockes Fetch that little one saith Samuel for wee will not sit downe till he come That little one was hee Sayes the Angell to Esdras 2. Esdras 7. A citie is built and set vpon a broad field full of all good things Yet the Entrance thereof is narrow This is spatiosa speciosa Ciuitas A citie beautifull and roomthy yet it hath but a narrovv wicket a little Gate Alas how will the surfeted Epicure do to enter whose gluttonous body is so deformed that it moues like a great Tunne vpon two pots What hope hath an Impropriator with foure or fiue Churches on his backe to passe this little gate The bribing Officer hath a swolne hand it will not enter and the gowtie Vsurer cannot thrust in his foote The factious Schismaticke hath too bigge a head the swearer such forked blasphemies in his mouth that here is no entrance Pride hath no more hope to get into the gates of that Citie aboue then there is hope to cast it out the gates of this City below Much good do 't with earthly Courts for it must not come into the Courts of Heauen Thinke O sinners you cannot goe with these oppressions with these oathes frauds bribes vsuries with these wickednesses into the gates of this Citie You must shift them off or they will shut you out You heare the Properties the Parts are now to bee considered and these are foure The foundation the two sides and the roofe The Foundation is Faith One of the sides Patience The other Innocence The Roofe Charitie Faith Is the foundation Coloss. 1. Be ye grounded and setled in the Faith Credendo fundatur saith Augustine It is grounded in faith All other graces are as it were built on this foundation Credimus quōd speramus quod credimus speramus diligimus quod credimus speramus diligimus operamur What we hope wee beleeue what wee beleeue and hope we loue what we beleeue hope and loue wee endeuour to attaine So all is built on Faith Hope on faith Nulla spes increditi it is impossible to hope for that wee beleeue not to be Charity on faith why should a man giue all to the poore vnlesse hee belieued an abundant recompence Repentance on faith why else suffer we contrition for sin if we beleeued not remission of sinne Temperance on faith why forbeare wee the pleasing vanities of the world but that we belieue the transcendent ioyes of eternity whereof these harlots would robbe vs Patience on faith why would we endure such calamities with willing quietnesse and subiection if wee belieued not an euerlasting peace and rest to come All obedience on faith that God would accept it in Iesus Christ. If all bee built on faith I may call it the basis and foundation of this Gate Without faith it is impossible to please God for hee that commeth to God must belieue that he is and that hee is a rewarder of them that diligently seeke him Faith is the passage-way to God not one of that holy ensuing Legend entred the City of life without this He that hath faith shall enter yea hee is entred Iohn 5. He hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but
honour as to be Denisons of this Citie whereof once made free how contemptibly they will looke at the vaine endeuors of worldly men Thinke Beloued yea knowe how sweet soeuer the gaines of this lower Citie be it is yet far short of the gaines of heauen And you will one day say There is no Citie to the Citie of GOD. Where shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor any more paine Death with all his Apparitors that cite the whole vvorld to his Court sorrow crying paine shall be no more They shall persecute you from Citie to Citie saith Christ till at last we come to this Citie and then out of their reach O that this clay of ours should come to such honour Well may we suffer it to endure the Worlds tyrannie and to be afflicted by the Citizens thereof alas wee are but Prentises and they will vse vs hardly till our yeres be out When that day comes we shall be free possessors of this Citie You heare now the gate and the Citie what should you doe but enter Passe through the gate of grace a holy sanctified life and you shall not faile of the City of glorie Whither once entred you shall sing as it is in the Psalme Sicut audiâ—…imus ita et vidimus As we haue heard so haue we seene in the Citie of our God VVee see that now which was preached to vs yea and tenne thousand times more then euer could be vttered You shall say to Christ as the Queene of Sheba to Salomon I heard much of thy glory but behold the one halfe was not told me You saw Ierusalem before in a Mappe now you shall walke through the streets and obserue the towres and bulwarkes fully contemplate the glorie But my discourse shall giue way to your meditation The ioyes are boundlesse endlesse the Lord make vs free of this Citie Amen SPIRITVALL EYE-SALVE OR THE BENEFIT of Illumination EPHES. 1. 18. The eyes of your vnderstanding beeing enlightned that â—…ou may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance is in the Saints THE speciall grace that heere Paul prayes for his Ephesians is Illumination wherein is described to vs an Eye Obiect The eye is spirituall the obiect celestiall The Instrument isâ—…gracious the spectacle glorious The eye inlightned there is the organ the hope of Gods calling and the rich inheritance of the glorified Saints there is the obiect The Eye is described by the Situation Qualification The Site is the Understanding the Qualification is Inlightned The Eye Is the most excellent organ of sense Saint Augustine applies Seeing to all the senses Heare and see touch and see and the Psalmist hath Taste and see how gracious the Lord is Other senses discerne onely things neere them this remote and distant obiects Some say the roundnesse of the Eye resembles the Vnity of the Deity which is one and perfect and the triangular sight the Trinity of persons This is too curious happy is that intellectuall eye whose obiect is the blessed Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity whose delight is good yea God In a cleare eye the looker sees his owne image so God in a sanctified vnderstanding sees a limited resemblance of his infinite selfe And as some Physicians say that if looking in a sicke mans eyes they see their image there is hope of life but the want of this resultance is held an argument of instant death whereby they giue themselues a prognosticke signe whether the Patient will dye of that sicknesse or recouer it by the reflection of his eyes But it is certaine if Gods image be not in the vnderstanding instat mors animae the soule is in danger if it shine there there is comfort of life yea life of comfort Hence it is that the God of this world doth so striue to blind the minds of them that beleeue not ne imago Dei c. that the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the Image of GOD should not shine vnto them God hath set two liddes to defend the corporall eye from annoyances So hee hath giuen the vnderstanding duas palpebâ—… Faith and hope to shelter it For the eye is not more tender to the body then the vnderstanding is to the soule And therefore Satan seekes by all meanes to hurt it eyther by offering it violent blowes which the shield of Faith beares off or by throwing dusts into it gifts blinde the eyes which the other lidde of hope for better riches keeps out The Situation Of this spirituall eye is in the Soule God framing mans soule planted in it two faculties the Superior that is the Vnderstanding which perceiueth and iudgeth the Inferiour that is the will which being enformed of the other accordingly followes or flies chuseth or refuseth The Scripture fauouring the simplest capacity compares these two powers of the soule to two knowne parts of the body The vnderstanding to the Eye the Affections to the Foote the eye directing the foote walking Euery man is naturally borne blinde and lame as Zedekiah captiuated to the King of Babylon first they put out his eyes and then they lamed his feete with fetters of brasse So is euery man by nature and therefore easily made a slaue to the king of infernall Babylon if the mercy of Christ should not redeeme him This consideration reacheth foorth to vs two vses the one of Instruction the other of Reprehension 1. This teacheth vs to desire in the first place the Inlightning of our eyes and then after the strengthening of our feete So that sweet Prophet ordereth his prayers Psal. 25. First Shew me thy wayes O Lord teach mee thy paths Then Lead me in thy truth First cleare my eyes then enable my feete Psal. 119. Make mee to vnderstand the way of thy precepts And then I will runne the way of thy Commandements Hee that would saile safely must get a good Pilot before good rowers Swift horses without a skilfull waggoner endanger more Hee that labours for feet before he hath eyes takes a preposterous course for of the two the lame is more likely to come to his iourneyes end then the blind Could hee runne as swift as Hazael and outstrip the young Hart on the mountaines yet being blinde he would hardly hitte the way to Heauen There is but one way thither by-paths innumerable it is a thousand to one against him that he misseth the right If he be set into it yet there are so many blockes rubbes obstacles put before him by the Deuill and the world that hee can no more goe into the true way then he could discerne it from the false But if a man hath eyes there is hope he will creepe to heauen though on lame feet Hee sees where Ierusalem stands and hath direction for the way as trauellers in scroles from such a village to such a city c. so the word of God
mundi infectio animi our soules are affected infected with this contagion We are easily inclined and declined from our supernall blisse by doting loue of these transient delights And vbi amor ibi oculus the eye followes the heart with more diligence then a seruant his Master Now it is no wonder if that eye be blinde which the Deuill hath dawbed vp with the dirt of this world Couetousnesse is an Ingrosser whersoeuer it dwells and as it would ingrosse the whole Vniuerse to it vnsatiate selfe so it takes vp the whole soule with all the affections and desires of it It giues euery member and faculty presse-mony and bindes all their contention to get riches It leaues not so much as an eye for our selues not a thought for God Quicquid de se intrinsecus agatur oblitus est animus dum extrinsecus occupatur Whiles the mind is externally busied it forgets what is done in it selfe what shall become of it selfe This pearle then must be cut out of the worldlings eye vvith the sharpe knife of repentance otherwise he is likely neuer to see heauen For it may be well said to them as the Philosopher answered to some that asked him curious questions of the world whether it had a soule whether it were round c. Vos de mundo solliciti estis vestram immunditiem non c◅atis You are busie examiners concerning the world but idle neglecters of your vnclean selues These are the Diseases there is also a double defect in this naturall Eye 1. It perceiues onely naturall and externall things qua ante pedes sunt which lie at their feete 2. Pet. 1. For It cannot see a farre off It beholds only the barque or rinde but not the inward vertue It can perceiue vvhat thy riches are thy house adorned thy lands tilled thy grounds stocked but not those spirituall blessings and celestiall priuiledges that belong to thee as thou art a Christian. It iudgeth the Cabinet by the Lether and couer not by the costly iewels in it It may see Iobs outward affliction not his inward consolation If God swells their garners with plenteous fruits and fills their bones with marrow this they see but the hope of Gods calling the comforts of the Gospell the sauing health of Iesus Christ and the promises of eternall life they not see The world is their circumference other things Nec capiunt nec cupiunt neque tenent manibus nec cernunt oculis they neyther comprehend nor couet neither hold nor behold them A beast hath one kinde of eye a naturall man two a Christian three The beast hath an eye of Sense the naturall man of Sense and Reason the Christian of Sense of Reason and of Faith Each of these hath his seuerall obiects seuerall intentions The eye of sense regards onely sensuall things the eye of reason onely sensible and naturall things the eye of faith spirituall supernall and supernaturall things The eye of sense doth not extend to intelligible things and matters of discourse Tell a bruit beast of Philosophy and the conclusions of nature he vnderstands you not The belly of Sense hath no eares for such instructions Let it be fed nourished haue the appetite delighted of further felicitie it hath neyther notion nor motion Nec noscit nec poscit The eye of Reason sees further then that of Sense and hath more then common Sense a rationall and discursiue apprehension of intelligible obiects For the bodies of creatures the bruites see them as well as man and perhaps some better but in these bodies he perceiues hidden vertues obiectuall to the scope of vnderstanding which the beast cannot see I confesse that many a man is defectiue in the graduall ascents of reason Tell a rusticke or mechanicke that the Sun is greater then the whole earth or that a little starre is larger then his car-wheele and he derides thy boldnesse and thinkes thou wouldst be admired for telling alye Though this by the eye of mature reason is discerned perfect truth The eye of Faith sees further then both the former for it lookes into the hope of our calling and the glorious inheritance of the Saints The Christian hath not onely an eye of Sense cōmon with beasts nor an eye of reason common with men but also an eye of faith proper to his profession Wherein he goes beyond the naturall man further then the naturall man goes beyond the beast The vnregenerate liuesall his dayes in a mist he cannot looke vp to heauen in comparison whereof that world he sees is but a base moale-hill and himselfe is like a blind moale digging in it Yea in this very world his owne proper element how little doth he truely perceiue There is no herbe or flower hee treads on that he truely knowes Yea he is a stranger at home and is ignorant of what is in his owne bosome But for things that concerne a better world he hath no insight The naturall man perceiueth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse vnto him neyther can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned Those things are incredible impossible to him which we build our faiths on Happy then are their eyes that see these things In matters of the world our simplicity moues pity or makes sport let it content vs that these losses are requited by our spirituall knowledge seeing further into better matters That wherein we are ignorant is transient contemptible that which we know is glorious and eternall The ignorance of the former shall not hinder our blessednesse the knowledge of the other shall accomplish it 2. The second defect in this eye is an in solid leuity it is rouing like Dinahs and rauished abroad but wants self-inspection Two things exceedingly mooue men Similitude and Example When men iudge others very euil they begin to think themselues good Nothing doth sooner blinde vs then comparisons Hee that would mount to a high opinion of his owne worth by comparing it to the base wickednesse of another Perinde est ac si quis ad clandos respiciens s◅am miretur velocitatem is like one that obseruing a Cripples lamenesse wonders at himselfe that he is so swift The curious man goes abroad Et exterius omnia confiderat qui sic interna despicit and is so intentiue vpon forreigne businesses that he forgets his owne They are common questions Quid ille fecit What hath hee done and Quid ille faciet What shall hee doe But not What haue I done not What shall I doe that I might be saued They are like Taylors that haue taken measure of many men neuer of themselues Such a man doth not smite his owne bosom with the Publican but breakes his neighbours head with the Pharise It is good for a man to keepe his eyes at home and set them about the domesticall businesse of his owne heart lest at last Omnibus notus ignotus moritur sibi he that
rest in thee Nothing but the Trinity of persons in that one Deity can fill the triangular concaue of mans own heart The fire flieth to his sphere the stone falleth to his center the riuers run to the sea as to their end and rest and are but violently detained in any other place The needle touched with the Loadstone stands euer trembling and quiuering till it enioy the full aspect of the Northerne Pole Thus the Lord is onely our Center the very life of satisfaction full of perfect and infallible comfort and he alone can content the boundlesse apprehension of this intellectuall eye All other are but shadowes and vanities but this matter obiected in my Text satisfies The world cannot but this can the hope of Gods calling and his glorious inheritance c. 5. Clearnesse of space betwixt the Organ and the obiect For the interposition of some thicke and grosse body preuents the faculty of the Eye The quickest eye cannot see through hils and a crasse cloud is able to hide the Sunne from vs at noone day On necessity that wee may behold with our vnderstandings eyes this celestiall obiect the hope of our calling there must be a remouing of all thicke and impenetrable obstacles 1. Some haue whole mountaines betwixt their eyes and heauen the mountaines of vaineglory hinder their sight They are rauished with the brauery of earth they thinke there is no heauen but at Court no further scope of ambition then to be great in this world If you tell them of the glory of Gods Inheritance giuen to his Saints alas they beleeue not your prattle they cannot see it They cannot indeed for who can see through mountaines 2. Others to make surer preuention against their sight of heauen haue rolled the whole earth betwixt that and their eyes These are the couetous who are rooting downe to the Center If you tell them of this hope c. they answere Non videmus nisi terram wee see nothing but earth Well may they say so for what eyes can see through the vast and condensed body of the earth 3. Others yet haue interiected such obscure and pitchy clouds between their sight and this Sunne of glory that they cannot see Whether of errors that darken the light of the truth Or of affected ignorance that blindes their owne eyes Or of blasphemous Atheisme they will see nothing but what they doe see Where is the promise of his comming Since the Fathers fell asleepe all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation Nil noui video I see no new thing it was so and it is so Non aliud vidêre patres aliudue nepotes Aspicient Or of rude and crude impieâ—…ies which both bleare their owne eyes and shadow heauens graces from them Thus the Deuill deales with theÌ„ as the Pharises seruants dealt with Christ first they blinde him and then buffet him and bid bim prophecie who smote him First hee puts out their eyes with their owne iniquities and then leades them about to make himself sport They cannot see the way to blisse they haue blinded themselues interposed such clouds betwixt them and heauen that this glorious light cannot shine vnto them There must be then a clearer space and this God grants to faith Stephen full of the holy Ghost looked vp stedfastly into heauen and saw the glory of GOD c. Behold I see the heauens open and the Sonne of man standing on the right hand of God Though this bee taken for more then a spirituall sight yet hence we haue this comfort that our eyes of Faith shall see God now in Grace and our eyes of flesh heereafter in glory 6. Lastly the obiect must be stable and firme for if it moue too swiftly it dazeleth the eye and cannot be truly according to the perfect forme of it beholden An oare in the riuer often seems to the passengers as if it were brokeâ—… by reason of the swift and violent motion of the water An arrow cuts the ayre with such quicknesse that we can scarce discerne it which lying at the marke is easily seene God hath therefore answered our desires and fitted our vnderstandings with a stable obiect which Paul calls an exceeding eternall waight of glory A waight substantiall and permanent not a light transient matter nor a swift voluble nature but waighty Therefore let vs not looke on the things which are seene but on the things which are not seene for the things which are seene are temporall but the things which are not seene are eternall It is here called an Inheritance which none can take from vs that subtle Lawyer Satan shall neuer be able to picke cauils against it You must not expect that I should enter into a particular resolution of our obiected comforts I must reserue that to a more liberall time Onely now let vs set them in our meditation and settle our selues to attaine them Contemne we condemn we the foolish choice of worldlings in regard of our portion and better part neuer to bee taken from vs. Why should I dislike my gold because he preferres his copper The least dramme of these ioyes shall outwaigh all the pleasures of earth And as one torment in hell shall make the reprobate forget all earthly vanities so the least drop of this pleasure shall take from vs the remembrance of our former miseries Wee shall not thinke on our pouerty in this world when we possesse those Riches and forget our contemptible basenesse when God shall giue vs that Glory of Saints Hee shall not much remember the dayes of his life because God answereth him in the ioy of his heart God giue vs to see these things now in grace that we hereafter may see them in glory Amen THE COSMOPOLITE OR WORLDS FAVOVRITE LVKE 12. 20. But God said vnto him Thou foole this night thy soule shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast prouided THIS is the Couetous mans Scripture and both like an vnflattering glasse presents his present condition what he is and like a fatall booke premonstrates his future state what hee shall bee And because as no man would be thought of others or will thinke himselfe a worldling so nor apply to himselfe the terrour of this Text therefore this Scripture doth both indigitate and single him out with a Tu es hâ—…mo and when it hath set himselfe before himselfe it tels him how he shall stand before the Tribunall of God vvith a lost name with a lost soule with a lost world with a lost and neuer to be recouer'd heauen We shall perceiue more plainly the Cosmopolites fearefull iudgement if we take a precursory view of the Parables former passages First we haue the Rich man vers 16. prospering in his wealth not onely in the vsurious gaines which his money fraud oppression or vniust dealing might get but euen in those things which God by the hand of nature did reach
putting oyle into it but this makes it burne more And as it is with some that thirstily drink harish and ill-brewed drinks haue not their heate hereby allayed but inflamed So this vvorldlings hote eagernesse of riches is not cooled but fired by his abundance 4. That which makes a man easie to hit makes also his wound greeuous The Poet tells vs that when Codrus his house burnes a little cottage in the Forrest he stands by and warmes himselfe at the flame hee knowes that a fewe sticks straw and clay with a little labour can rebuild him as good a Tabernacle But if this accident light vpon the Vsurers house distraction seizeth him withall he cryes out of this Chamber and that chest of his Closet and Cabinet of his bonds morgages money and plate and is so much the more impatient as hee had more to lose In a vvord here is all the difference betwixt the rich and poore the poore man would be rich while he liues and the rich would be poore when he dies For it is small greefe to leaue hunger cold distresse bondage hard lodging and harder fare but to forsake full Barnes full purses musike wine iunkets soft beds beautious vvomen and these lust-tickling delights and to goe vvith death to the Land of forgetfulnesse this is the terrour I end then as Paul concludes his counsell to rich men Lay vp for your selues a good foundation against the time to come that you may lay hold on eternall Life THE BAD LEAVEN OR THE CONTAGION OF SINNE GALAT. 5. 9. A little Leauen leaueneth the whole lumpe THIS Epistle was written with St. Pauls owne hand chap. 6. 11. Ye see how large a letter I haue written vnto you with my owne hand It is for quality excellent for quantitie large Hee wrote not so long an Epistle to any other Church with his owne hand Indeed he wrote a letter to Philemon with his owne hand vers 19. I Paul haue written it with mine own hand but it was short He wrote longer Epistles to the Romanes and Corinthians but not with his owne hand but by Scribes Wee haue cause therefore to regard it more as his pains were greater in writing so let our diligence bee greater in obseruing The maine purpose of it is to discouer 1. That ill coniunction of Moses and Christ the ceremonies of the Law with the sanctimony of the Gospell 2. The free Grace and Iustification by the bloud of Christ without the workes of the Law In this the Galatians had receiued a beginning but now had admitted a recidiuation For this cause the Apostle chides vers 7. Yee did runne well who did hinder you that you should not obey the Trueth Where there is a Concession and a Conuiction a step and a stop The Concession or Step ye did runne well The Conuiction or Stop Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth In the former he compares Christianity to a race all men must first be viatores in this valley of teares before they can be Assessâ—…res and sit with Christ in his kingdome of glory Onely as it agrees with a Race in many things as labor it 's no idle thing to be a Christian shortnesse it is a Race the perplexity is recompenced vvith the breuity continuance the runner must hold out the last steppe if he will obtaine the prize So there are some differences 1. In other races many runne onely one winnes the goale but in this all that runne faithfully shal raigne triumphantly Though they cannot runne so fast as others nor so farre as others yet euen they that came at the eleuenth houre into the Vineyard receiued they penny so well as they that came at the third For the Lord regards not Quantum but ex quanto not how much but how well What euer houre they are called let them spend the aftertime in a zealous diligence 2. In other races one hinders another but in this iourney one helpes another The more the merrier no enuy or grudging eyther in the way or the goale Dispar gloria singulorum sed communis latitia omnium There may bee different glory of some yet there is a common ioy of all Euery good man is a spurre to his brother Peter and Iohn ranne to Christs Sepulcher Iohn out-ran Peter vnto the graue Peter out-went Iohn into the graue But we run together vnto Christs Throne some come before some after all meet in the Communion of Saints 3. In other races the runner obtaines a prize that shall perish all the runners heere get an incorruptible crowne They runne for a little prize a little praise we for eternall glory Runne wee then cheerefully behold a kingdome lyes at the stake God giue vs all eyes of faith to see it and hearts of obedience to runne to it through the power of Iesus Christ. In the latter the Apostle may seeme to put a superfluous question Who did hinder you For there are many aduersaries As first Satan the General of that damned crue that hinder our passage to heauen Paul excuseth himselfe to the Thessalonians Wee would haue come vnto you once and againe but Satan hindered vs. Zach. 3. Ioshua the high Priest stood before the Angell of the Lord and Satan stood at his right hand to resist him Where God hath his Church Satan hath his chappell So also wicked men such as haue taken the Deuils oath of Allegiance What the Deuill cannot doe immediately by himselfe hee does mediately by his Instruments To erre Humanum is the weakenes of a man but to seduce diabolicum is the part of a Deuill It is ill to play the woman worse to play the beast worst of all to play the Deuill But what speciall hinderers the Apostle meanes wee shall haue precise occasion in some future passages to demonstrate Onely I must not omit that the Apostle giues a direct resolution by way of negation vers 8. This perswasion comâ—…eth not of him that calleth you God is no wayes the Author of error and sin He that wils the death of no sinner will not lead him into the wayes of destruction Indeed he suffes Satan to temptal but to a diuerse purpose the good to try them the reprobate to destroy them The temptations of the godly are for their instruction of the wicked for their destruction Iames tells vs that euery good gift comes downe from the Father of lights is it euill it commeth not from God The Apostle telling the Ephesians of lusts blindnesse wantonnesse obstinacy concludes piercingly Non sic didicistis Christum Yee haue not so learned Iesus Christ. Art thou peruerted thou neuer learnedst this of Christ. Let no man say when hee is tempted I am tempted of God for God tempteth no man In him we liue moue and haue our being A Gentile Poet sung it a Christian Apostle sanctified it all the creatures in heauen and earth cry Amen vnto it Life is his whether we liue well
and acceptable to God by addition of our prauity becomes euill Thus the best actions of an vniustified person are so leuened with his owne corruption that God abhorres them Your new Moones and your appointed Feasts my soule hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to beare them when ye make many prayers I will not heare you What is the reason Your hands are full of bloud Euen sacrifices and supplications good seruices in their owne nature are made displeasing by the leuen of sinne He that killeth an Oxe is as if he slue a man he that sacrificeth a Lambe as if hee cut off a dogs neck Sacrifices God commanded and often commended yet victimae impiorum the oblations of the wicked are abominated Non speciosalaus in ore peccatorum Praise becommeth not the mouth of a sinner Euery vnregenerate man Claudicat in rectis halts in the straitest path Omnia naturalia bona polluta omnia supernaturalia amissa His portion of naturall good is defiled but of supernaturall good all share is vanished Peccaui was Dauids voice after his sinfull Arithmeticke the same was Iudas his voice after his damned treason Similis sonus non sinus there was the same sound but not the same heart Esau wept as much after the losse of the blessing as Peter after the denyall of his Master Similes lacrimae non animae like teares but vnlike soules The Pharise went to Church so well as the Publican but the Publican came home rather iustified then the Pharise The Pharises threw bounteously into the Treasury the poore widow two Mites yet Christ commends the poorer gift for the richer charity That worke which seemes the same In identitate operis yet differs much Ratione agentis in respect of the workers Many Heathen excelled vs in morall vertues yet the ignorance of Christ did shut heauen against them Vae tibi Aristoteles laudaris vbi non es damnaris vbi es Woe to thee O Aristotle who art commended where thou art not and condemned where thou art yea euen in a iustified mans workes though pure from the Spirit yet passing through his hands there is some tang of this leuen enough to keepe them from being meritorious Looke then well both to the iustification of thy person and the sanctification of thy workes Thou indeed confessest sinne to be damnable but it would grieue thee to go to hell for thy good deeds Though a man should giue all his goods to the poore yet wanting Faith and Loue he may for his charity go to the deuill Pray then that thy defects may bee supplyed by Christ Who gaue himselfe a sacrifice for vs to God of a sweet smelling sauour perfuming vs with the pleasant odour of his merits 3. By Leuen sowred we make rellishable bread for the vse of man so by the vngodly's most cursed sinnes God will aduance his glory Will Pharaoh harden his heart I will get me honour vpon him saith God That Leuen of malice which so wred the soules of those Brethren against poore Ioseph the Lord made vse of to his glory From that vngracious practice hee raised a pedegree of blessings Otherwise there had beene no prouision in Aegypt no bread to spare for Israel no wonders wrought by Moses no Manna from heauen no Law from Sinai no possession of Canaan So from the vnnaturallest murther that euer the Sunne beheld yea which the Sunne durst not looke vpon God glorified himselfe in sauing vs. The Oppressor impouerisheth the righteous God sees and suffers and from his villany effectuates their good by taking away those snares to saue their soules The Lord will glorifie himselfe in the vessels of destruction and the grones in hell shall honour his Iustice so well as the songs in heauen honour his mercy How much better is it to glorifie God in faithfulnesse that will preserue thee then in wickednesse which will destroy thee 4. A man cannot Liue by bread only much worse by Leuen No man can liue for euer by his righteousnesse and good works much lesse by his sinnes Sinne is no nourishment to the soule vnles as some Mithridates-like haue so inured their bodies to poison that Venenum nutrit euen venime doth batten them so others their soules to sinne that they cannot keepe life without it And indeed we say of some things that they nourish sicknesse and feed death Omne simile nutrit simile inward corruption is fed maintained by outward action Couetice in Iudas is nourished by filching his masters money Murder in Ioab is hartned and hardned with bloud Theft is fatted with booties pride with gay rags vsury battens by extortion Sacriledge by Church-robbing Pascitur Libido conuiuijs nutritur delicijs vino accenditur ebrietate flammatur Banketting is the diet of lust Wantonnesse her Nurse Wine kindles a heate in her bloud and Drunkennesse is the powder that sets her on fire Thus sinne feeds vpon this leuen but with the same successe that Israel vpon quailes they fatted their carkasses but made them leane soules Though this leuen passe the swallow yet stickes in the stomach sinne may be deuoured but lies heauy on the conscience Bread of deceit is sweet to a man but his mouth shall be filled with grauell It may be sweet in his mouth but it is the gall of Aspes in his bowels Putrid meate is apt to breed and feed wormes so this Leuen the worme of conscience when they once come to feele it worke then ready to cry This is my death vnlesse God giue them a good vomite of repentance to put it off their soules and the sober dyet of sanctification to amend and rectifie their liues 5. Lastly Sinne and leuen are fitly compared for their sowrenesse There is a Leuen sharpe and sowre but sanatiue The Kingdome of heauen is like vnto leuen But this leuen here is farre sowrer yet hath nothing but death in it It is sowre to God sowre to Angels sowre to Saints sowre to the sinner Sinne is sowrer then any Leuen 1. Sowre to God who hates nothing but sinne He made man and man made sinne Hee loues his owne creature but he hates mans creature Sinne is sowrer to him then the deuill For Non odit peccatum Diaboli cansa sed Diabolum peccati causa He hates not sinne for the deuils sake but the deuill for sinnes sake It is so sowre to him that for one sinne hâ—…e plagued a world of men how will he plague one man for a world of sinne So sowre that he could rellish no man for it till hee had killed it in the sides of Iesus Christ. We are all so sowre that but for this sweetning and perfume we could neuer haue beene endured The Scripture for our vnderstanding ascribes senses to God and we finde euery sense displeased with sinne 1. It is offensiue to his smelling He tels the Iewes that their sinnes did stinke in his nosthrils So did the old World offend him that he washed
the other walke after that direction and they vvill bring the soule to heauen For Transition or Passing as the feete corporally so these spiritually mooue and conduct the man from place to place Indeed none can come to the Sonne vnlesse the Father draw him but when he hath giuen vs feet he looks we should goe Hee that hath eares to heare let him heare he that hath hands let him worke hee that hath feet let him goe Hence is that exhortation Draw neer to God he will draw neer to you In this foot-manship there is Terminus à quo recedimus Terminus ad quem accedimus motus per quem procedimus From the waies of darknes from the wages of darknes to the fruition of light to the counersation in light From darknes exterior interiour inferiour Outward this land is full of darknes fraught operibus tenebrarum with the works of darknesse Inward Hauing the vnderstanding darkned being alienated froÌ„ the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnes of their heart Outer darkenesse that which Christ cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or lower darkenesse Hee hath reserued the Lost angels in euer lasting chaines vnder darkenesse Vnto light externall internall eternall Outward Light Thy word is a lampe vnto my feet and a light vnto my path Inward light In the hidden parts thou shalt make mee to know wisedom Euerlasting Light They shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament and as the starres for euer and euer Blessed feet that carry vs to That light which lightneth euery man that commeth into the world and to the beames of that Sunne which giues light to them that sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death happy feet they shall bee guided into the way of peace Looke to thy foote wheresoeuer thou treadest beware the gardens of temporall pleasures Est aliquid quod in ipsis floriâ—… angat It is worse going on fertile ground then on baâ—… the smooth wayes of prosperity are slippery in rough â—…fflictions we may take sure footing Let your feet bee â—…od saith Paul your affections restrained barre lust of her vaine obiects turne her from earth to heauen Set her a trauelling not after riches but graces Keepe the foot of desire still going but put it in the right way direct it to euerlasting blessednes And this is 3. The End whither we must goe to perfection Thou hast done well yet goe on still Nihil praesumitur actum dum superest aliquid ad agenduÌ„ nothing is said to be done whiles any part remaines to doe No man can goe too far in goodnesse Nimis iustus et nimis sapiens potes esse non nimis bonus Thou maiest be too iust thou maist be too wise but thou canst neuer be too good Summae religionis est imitari quem colis It is a true height of religion to be a follower of that God of whom thou art a worshipper Come so nigh to God as possibly thou canst in imitation not of his power wisedome maiestie but of his mercie Be holy as the Lord is holy Be merciful as your heauenly Father is mercifull The going on forward to this perfection shall not displease him but crowne thee Giue not ouer this going vntill with Saint Paul thou haue quite finished thy course Aime at perfection shoot at this marke though thou cannot reach it When the wrastling Angel said to Iacob Let me goe for the day breaketh he answered I will not let thee goe except thou blesse me happy perseuerance When I caught him whom my soule loued I held him and would not let him goe O sweet Iesus who would let thee goe Qui tenes tenentem apprehendentem fortificus fortificatum confirmas confirmatum perficis perfectum coronas Thou that holdest him that holdeth thee that strengthenest him that trusteth thee confirmest whom thou hast strengthened perfectest whom thou hast confirmed and crownest whom thou hast perfected In the behalfe of this continuance the Holy Ghost giues those exhortations Hold fast Stand fast Hold that thou hast that no man take thy crowne The same to the Church of Thyatira Tene quod habes Reu. 2. 25. Stand fast in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made vs free It is an ill hearing Ye not doe but did runne well The Prophet in his threnes weepes that they which were brought vp in scarlet embrace dunghils It is iust matter of lamentation when soules which haue beene clad with zeale as with scarlet constantly forward for the glory of God fall to such Apostacie as with Demas to embrace the duÌ„ghil of this world and with an auarous hausture to lick vp the mudde of corruption Ioseph had a coat reaching downe to his feete our religion must be such a garment neither too scant to couer nor too short to continue ad vltimum to the last day of our temporary breath Be thou faithfull vnto the death and I will giue thee the crowne of life this crowne is promised to a good beginning but performed to a good ending Striue to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height If we can comprehend with the Saints not onely the height of hope the depth of faith the breadth of charity but also the length of continuance we are blessed for euer Euen the tired horse when he comes neere home mends his pace be good alwaies vvithout wearinesse but best at last that the neerer thou commest to the end of thy dayes the neerer thou mayest be to the end of thy hopes the saluation of thy soule Omnis coelestis Curia nos expectat desideremus eam quanto possumus desiderio The whole Court of heauen waites for vs let vs long for that blessed society with a hearty affection The Saints looke for our comming desiring to haue the number of the elect fulfilled the Angels blush when they see vs stumble grieue when vve fall clappe their vvings vvith ioy when vve goe cheerefully forward our Sauiour Christ stands on the battlements of heauen and with the hand of helpe and comfort wafteth vs to him When a noble Souldier in a forraine Land hath atchieued braue designes wonne honourable victories subdued dangerous aduersaries and with worthy Chiualry hath renowned his King and Country home he comes the King sends for him to Court and there in open audience of his Noble Courtiers giues him words of grace commendeth and vvhich is rarely more rewardeth his Valour heapes dignities preferments and places of honour on him So shall Christ at the last day to all those Souldiers that haue valiantly combated and conquered his enemies in the sight of heauen and earth audience of men and Angels giue victorious wreathes crownes and garlands long white robes to witnesse their innocency and Palmes in their hands to expresse their victory and finally he shall giue them a glorious kingdome
that can helpe thee No measure of earthly things can giue thee ease but this measure of grace that shall bring thee to the full measure of glory Grow thou as high in this world as Ionas gourd a worme shall smite thee and thou shalt wither Grow vp to this stature of Christ so fast as thou mayest and so farre as thou canst and what is here wanting to thy holy endeuours God shall make vp with his happy mercies Of the fullnes of Christ. Adulti Christi It is not meant the full growth of Christ in the flesh which was as other children Luk. 2. The child grew and waxed stronger We reade him a babe sucking at 12. yeares old disputing at 30. preaching and about 33. dying His encreasing was not habitualiter sed effectualiter But here we must consider Christ as Head of his Body the Church and so said to haue mensuram staturae adultae the measure of full stature when his body is Perfected now some predestinated members of this Body are yet vnborne which must concurre to the perfection and making vp of this stature of the fullnesse of Christ. Whence we haue a sweet and comfortable obseruation offred vs. Till the church be fully gathered together there is in some sort a want to the perfection of Christ. But we must consider Christ two wayes Personally and mistically Personall or abstractiuely in himselfe he is not onely perfect but perfection it selfe Colos. 1. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullnesse dwell And. chap. 2. In him dwelleth not passeth by the fullnesse not a good reasonable measure and this not onely a sufficient fullnes but all the fullnesse not of any created nature but of the Godhead and that not fantastically but bodily Mistically or in relation to his Bodie the Church now ye are the bodie of Christ and members in perticular And Christs will is that where he is his members may be there also So that till the whole Bodie be gathered to the Head the head is in some sort not perfect And in this sence may that Cant. 3. be vnderstood Behold King Solomon with the Crowne wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousalls where the Church is sayed to set a Crowne on Christs head as if his full and perfect coronation were not come till the day of his espousalls and marriage in heauen when his whole Church shall be crowned together with him Time was that the other Disciple out ranne Peter to the Sepulcher and Peter out went that other Disciple into the sepulcher but at this day they that are aliue shall not preuent them that sleepe For God hath prouided better for vs that they without vs should not be made perfect We shall all goe together to glory What a treasure of ioy and comfort is heere opened vs Our Sauiour so loues vs that he thinkes not himselfe perfect without vs. What is man O Lord or the sonne of man that thou soreckonest of him Thou hast Saints the spirits of iust blessed and obedient Angells thy owne infinite selfe to delight thee Quid opus vermiculo What need hast thou of a worme What am I O Sauiour that thou shouldest not thinke thy selfe perfect without me Well may this sweeten all our pouertie miserie disgrace and ignominie that the world casts vpon vs. A great Gallant blusheth to see thee take acquaintance of him lookes vpon thee betwixt scorne and anger thinkes himselfe disparaged by thy companie be content the God of heauen and earth thinkes himselfe not perfect without thee He that can breake thy contemners to pieces respecteth thee Thou art vnworthy of the fauour of Iesus Christ if thou canst not content thy selfe with it without the worlds What a terrour shal this be to the wicked to see those men crowned Kings with Christ to whom they disdained to giue notice in the world Diues lookes with pitifull eyes on glorified Lazarus who once lay at his gates without the releese of crummes It shall be no small aggravation to the vngodly's torments to say of the Saint This was he whom we had some times in derision and a proverbe of reproch We fooles accounted his life madnesse and his end without honour Now he is numbred a mong the children of God and his lot is among the Saints I conclude Euery Saint shall enioy this full measure of glorie there shall be no scanting no limitation None shall complaine of lacke there is the fountaine drinke thy fill there is the heape take as much as thou wilt There shall be in all an equalitie though not of quantitie yet of proportion which ariseth not from the obiect wherein is plenitude but from the subiect which is not alike capable A vessell throwne into the sea can be but full another is but full though it containe a greater measure Euery one shall possesse this fulnesse and being full there is no want therefore no enuie But let vs take no thought who shall sit highest in this kingdome with the sonnes of Zebedee it is enough that we shall be crowned kings Trouble not thy selfe for order onely striue for admission We cannot desire to be more then blessed Let vs get into the Citie of glory and let God appoint vs a roome Here we see the great difference betwixt this life and the next In this life we grow vp to our full Stature and then we decrease till we decease we decline and die In the other we come at first to a perfect stature and so continue for euer We are here subiect to sorrowes and sinnes the first grieuous to vs as we are men the other as we are good men loe we shall one day be freed bee perfect It is a sweete meditation that fell from a reuerend Diuine that many vegetable brute creatures doe exceede men in length of dayes and in happinesse in their kind as not wanting the thing they desire The Oake the Rauen the Storke the Stagge fill vp many yeares in regard of whom man dies in the minoritie of child-hood This made the Philosophers call Nature a Stepdame to man to the rest a true mother For shee giues him least time that could make best vse of his time and least pleasure that could best apprehend it and take comfort in it But here diuinitie teacheth reacheth a large recompence from our God Other creatures liue long and then perish to nothing man dies soone here that hereafter he may liue for euer This shortnesse is recompenced with eternitie Dost thou blame Nature O Philosopher for cutting thee so short that thou canst not get knowledge Open thine eyes perfect knowledge is not to be had here though thy dayes were double to Methushalems Aboue it is Blesse God then rather for thy liues shortnes for the sooner thou diest the sooner thou shalt come to thy desired knowledge The best here is short of the least there Let no man blame God for
and faculties run to the soule to saue that which is principall The bloud and spirits striue to saue the life of the bodie faith hope to saue the life of the soule So that at the suddaine assault of some daunger a man shall best iudge of his owne heart It may bee at other times a dissembler for mans heart is false who can know it yet at such time it will manifest it selfe and cannot deceiue If God hath beene our familiar friend and accustomed helper danger doth not sooner salute vs then we salute him by our prayers The first thought of our hearts is Iesus Christ the first voyce of our lips is Peters on the sea in such an extremitie Lord saue mee our faith is reposed on his wonted mercy and protection Wee know whom we haue beleeued Daniell cals on GOD ere hee fals to the Lions this stoppes their mouthes The wicked in such miserie are either heauie and heartlesse as Nabal whose heart dyed within him and he became as a stone Or desperate as Iulian throwing his bloud vp into the ayre with a blasphemous confession Or sottish as these here running to the mountaines vnprofitable vnpossible helpes When the blow of vengeance strikes the couetous he runs to his counting house if his bagges can giue him no succour he is distracted If any broken reed bee their confidence in these ouerwhelming woes they catch drowning hold of that so they and their hopes perish together There are some whose tongues are so poysoned with blasphemie that in an vnexpected accident the very first breath of their lips is a curse or an oath As if they would sweare away destruction which euery vngodly speech drawes on neerer If these men hadde beene acquainted with God in faire weather they would not forget him in a storme But they that will haue no familiaritie with God in peace shall haue him to seeke in extremitie When therefore some sudden perill hath threatned thee with terrour note seriously how thou art affected Though the danger came vnlook'd for let it not passe vnthought of but as thou blessest God for deliuery so examine the good or ill disposednesse of thine owne heart If thou find thy selfe couragious and heauenly minded on thy confidence in God take at once assurance of thy faith and Gods mercie Hee that nowe stood by thee will neuer leaue thee If otherwise lament thy sinnes which darken thy soules way to the mercie-seate and beseech Iesus Christ to store thy heart with better comforts If thy treasure be in heauen and thy soule hath beene vsed to trauell often thither when danger comes it knowes the way so well that it cannot misse it 2. Affirmatiuely this presents a soule amazed with feare and follie They call to the Mountaines that can neither heare nor answere When the world was destroyed with water men climbed vp to the tops of the Mountaines when it shall be dissolued with fire they will desire the holes of the rockes and to lie vnder the hils The mountaines are but swellings of the earth and the rockes are surd things that haue no eares can they heare or if they heare can they answere or if they answere can they saue when the graues must vomite vp their dead shall the rockes conceale the liuing Those fiue Kings could not be hid in the caue of Makkedah from Ioshua and shall any caue hide from Iesus Whiles guilt and feare consult of refuge how vaine shifts they imagine Adam would hide his disobedience in the bushes Saul his rebellion in the crowd of the people So the hood-wink'd foole seeing no body thinkes no body sees him Helplesse euasions when Adoniah heard the trumpets sounding at Salomons coronation he quaked and fled to the hornes of the Altar When the vngodly shall heare the Archangels Trumpe proclaiming the coronation of Christ they haue no Sanctuarie they neuer loued it in all their liues but flie to the rockes and mountaines The graue is a darke and priuatiue place yet as a prisoner that comes out of a sordid and stinking dungeon into the open ayre for his triall in a desperate cause had rather keepe the prison still So these reprobates newly raysed from the earth cry to it to receiue them againe glad to remaine though not on the face of it with pleasure in the bowels of it with rottenesse and solitude rather then in the open light to come before the iudgement seat of Christ. The graue is a drowne-bed to hell They suddainly start out of their sleepe and meet with gastly amasednesse at the mouth of their sepulchers beholding on the one side sins accusing on another side hellish fiends vexing an anguish'd conscience burning within heauen earth without aboue them the countenance of an angry Iudge below them a lake of vnquenchable fire round about howling and bitter lamentations no maruell then if at the worlds end they be at their wittes end and cry to the mountaines Fall on vs. Let all this declare to men the vanitie of their worldly hopes God is the Preseruer of men not hils rocks The rich man is brought in vpon a Premunire can his gold acquit him in this Starre-chamber The Epicure thinkes to drowne sorrow in lustie wines the oppressor mistrusts not the power of his owne hand the proud refugeth his troubled heart in his trunkes the lustfull in his punkes what is this but running to rockes and mountaines Thus madly doe men commit two errors Ier. 2. They forsake the creator which would neuer forsake them and adhere to the creatures which can neuer helpe them O Lord the hope of Israell all that forsake thee shall be ashamed and all that depâ—…t from thee shall be written in the earth Nowe at this day perhaps they would seeke to the Lord but they are answered Goâ—… to the gods whom ye haue serued Loe then of these gods they shall be wearie as in the 2. of Esay where these very words of my Text are deliuerd ver 19. They shall goe into the holes of the rockes c. it is immediatly added In that day a man shall cast his Idols of siluer and his Idols of gold which he made for himselfe to worship 〈◊〉 the moules and to the battes Euen the spirituall Idolater the Couetous shall throw his Images golden or siluer shrines for the Diana of his auarice his damned coyne to combustion with a vae Woe vnto it it hath lost my soule As the sicke stomacke lothes the meate whereof it surfetted Well let vs leaue inuocation to these Rockes worldly refuges and remember that there is one to be called on who is onely able to defend vs a spirituall holy and happy Rocke Iesus Christ. Dauid often cals God his Rocke and his refuge A rocke that beares vp the pillars of the world Their Rocke is not as our Rocke euen our enemies themselues being iudges He that builds his house of assurance on this rocke shall stand
as strictly examine your going out as it did your coÌ„ming in Nonne telluris tres tantum cubiti te expectant doe not only three cubites of ground allotte themselues to receiue you Onely a graue remaynes and all you that boast of your great lands shall at that day say haec terrâ—… mea and terra tua this is all my land this is all thy land euen so much roome as thy dusts will take vp all the remainder of mighty Hercules will scarce fill a little pitcher A litle quantitie of ground hath nature proportion'd thee distst thou possesse as much as euer the Tempter shewed Christ. When certaine Philosophers intentiuely beheld the Tombe of Alexander sayth one Heri fecit ex auro thesaurum bodie aurum ex eo facit thesaurum Yesterday he treasured vp gold to day gold treasures vp him Another Yesterday the world did not content him to day ten cubites containe him Socrates carried Alcibiades bragging of his lands to a mappe of the world and bad him demonstrate them Alcibiades could not find them for alas Athens it selfe was but a small and scarce discernable point A wiser man spake otherwise of his lands O Ager quà m multorum fuisti eris nunc meus postea mescio cuius O Land how many mens hast thou beene and shalt be now mine and herafter I know not whose So litle ground contents vs when we are dead But when the wicked shall rise againe would it not serue them still with all their hearts Had they not rather lie in rottennesse then combustion Were not a cold graue more welcome then a hote furnace Yes rather had they be dead without sense then aliue in torment Now they beg not a cittie though a little one as Zoar not a house though poore and bleake as Codrus his not an open ayre though sharpe and irkesome scorched with the Indian Sunne or frossen with the Russian cold there is no hope of these fauours Giue them but a mountaine to fall on them and a rocke to hide them and they are highly pleased Here is a strange alteration for the wicked When they shall goe from a glorious mansion to a loathsome dungeon from the table of surfet to the table of vengeance from fawning obseruants to afflicting spirits from a bed of downe to a bed of fire from soft linnen and silken couerings to wish a rocke for their pillow and a mountaine for their couerlet Nay and yet they that commanded so farre on earth cannot command this peece of earth to doe them such a kindnesse They could in the dayes of their pride speake imperiously enough this land is mine this towne is mine as Naball sayd Shall I take my meate and my drinke c. but nowe they feele it was none of theirs not one hole must shelter them not one hillocke doe them seruice Nothing helpes when God will smite mountaines and rockes are no defence when God pursues Doest thou thinke to raigne because thou cloathest thy selfe in Cedar What is Cedar against thunder GOD hath a hand that can strike through Forts Rockes and Bulwarkes The seuenfold wals of Babilon cannot defend the Tyrant within them The heauens melt at the presence of the Lord if he touch the mountaines they smoake for it The of-spring of the reuiued world offer to build a Tower whose toppe might reach to Heauen What securitie could be in it Are not thinges nearer to heauen more subiect to the violences of Heauen lightning thunder and those higher inflammations Feriunt summos fulgura montes In se magna ruunt summisque negatum est stare diù God soone made it a monument of their follie and his power He giues confusion of their voyces and their worke at once When God raigned from heauen that greatest showre that euer the earth did or shall sustaine you knowe their shifts They thinke to ouer-climbe the iudgement and being got vp to the highest mountaines looke downe with some hope on the swimming valleys When the water began to ascend vp to their refuged hils and the place of their hope became an Iland loe now they hitch vp higher to the toppes of the tallest trees till at last the waters ouertake them halfe dead with hunger and horror The mountaines could not saue them in that day of water nor shall the mountaines in this day of fire It is not then the defence of forts or ports the secrecie of caues or graues the bottome-burroughes of hils or vaultie dens of rockes not a league with all the elements of the world beastes of the earth stones of the street that can secure them Be hidden they cannot what should they then wish but death they that once trembled to die doe nowe more quake to liue they would bee glad of a riddance and kisse the instrument of their annihilation They would prise and embrace it as the best happynes that euer saluted them if like beasts they might perish to nothing Here they enuie the storke stagge rauen oake for long life and chide nature for their owne shortnesse But at this day they would change with any flower though the continuance thereof were not so much as Ionah's Gourds and thinke not to be was to be happy The pangs of the first death are pleasures in respect of the second But what hope is there of their securitie or refuge in mountaines when ver 14. The very heauen shall depart a sâ—…rowle that is rolled vp together and euerie mountaine and Iland shall be moued out of their places Heauen is expansum tanquam linteum diducta laâ—…ina but shall then be folded vp like a garment whose beautie is not seene or rolled together like a volume whose large contents are as it were abridged not that the matter of the world shall be quite abolished For as we say now of grace Adolet non abolet naturam gratia so we may say of glorie Perficit non perdit mundum gloria Corruption shal be taken away not all the matter that was corrupted But if all things be thus narrowly searched how shall the vngodly hope to lye hidden We haue now considered the horror of the Reprobates let vs looke to the Iudge from whom they desire to be hidden From the presence of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lambe In whom we find an omniscience and an omnipotence which circumstances the time allowes me but to mention First for his all knowing Wisdome From the face It was euer the fashion of guiltines to flie from the presence of God Adam had no sooner sinned but he thrusts his head in a bush Sins ineuitable effect is Shame Though impudence beare it our for a time Ier. 6. They were not ashamed when they had committed abomination yet they shall one day beare the reproch of their sinnes and be ashamed yea euen confounded Shame must come either first to repentance Rom. 6. what fruit had you then in those things wherof
not see corruption How much lesse when he is dead recouer him to life againe Here was the finger of God Now to proceede in order with the myracles 1. Myracle The Vaile of the Temple c. This Vaile was the partition betwixt the Sanctum Sanctorum the Sanctum as it might be the vpper part of the Quire Into this went the high Priest alone once euerie yeare not without bloud which he offred for himselfe and for the errours of the people By the renting this Vaile were many things presignified 1. This serues for a confirmation of that Christ spoke on the Crosse It is finished The renting of the Vaile doth actually eccho to his wordes and indeede fulfils them Here is an end put to all the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the law In the new Testament one onely reall and royall Sacrifice Christ crucified This was that obiect whereto all those legall rites looked to them all there is now giuen a Consuâ—…tum est So that now Coremonia mortua Lex mortifera Ceremonies are dead and the typicall law deadly Nouum Testamentum latet in veteri Vetus patet in nouo The Gospell lay hidden vnder the law the law is compleat in the Gospell Now after that you haue knowne God in his Gospell how turne you againe to the weake and beggarly Elements whereunto you desire againe to be in bondage Gods seruice is now simple and plaine in spirit and truth Christ is sayd to be the end of the law the morrall law he kept himselfe syncerely and satisfied for vs soundly The Ceremoniall was referred to him performed of him fulfilled in him extinguished by him They had all Vigâ—… a Christo relationem ad Christum consummationem in Christo. Hee gaue them their beginning hee hath also giuen them their end The Vaile rent to witnesse the cancelling of that rituall obligation Christ hath blotted out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against vs nailing it to his Crosse. That moment was their last gaspe they expired with Christ. But dâ—…d all Ceremonies then vtterly die No some were typicall prefiguring Christ those are dead Some are for decencie and order adminicula deuotionis these are not dead The law of Iewish ceremonies is abolished but some must be retained Christ came not to dissolue order Men consist of bodies as well as soules and God must bee serued with both now bodies cannot serue God without externall rites the Spouse of Christ cannot bee without her borders and laces On necessitie there must be some outward obseruances but thus qualified That they be for number few for signification plaine for obseruation simple farre from ostentation farther from superstition Christ his Spouse must not flaunt it like an harlot but be soberly attired like a graue matron Ceremoniae quasi care moniae wants a carendo as it were ordained to supply the defects of our nature Because we could not serue God in that simplicitie we ought therefore wee haue these helpes Hence it is that the nearer to perfection the fewer ceremonies as it were the more light the lesse shadow In the law were abundant ceremonies in the Gospell far fewer in heauen none at all This condemnes the Church of Rome for a glorious Harlot because shee loads her selfe with such a heape of gawdy ceremonies and their masse for meere Idolatry which they beleeue to bee a reall propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ made by the Priestes for the sinnes of quicke and dead This is to build vp the vaile here rent in pieces and to accuse Christ of falshood in his Consummatum est Is an end put to them and shall they still retaine them yea obtrude them as principall partes of Gods seruice yea worship them yea bind mens consciences to them on paine of damnation Therefore they are liable to Augustines censure who cals such Impios sepulturae violâ—…tores Diggers into the graues of the dead for putrified and rotten reliques Yea to the Iudgement of God who sayth If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though liuing in the world are ye subiect to Ordinances after the commaundements and doctrines of men They will say Dicit Papa sanxit Concilium thus sayth the Pope thus decrees the Councell but wee Dixit Dominus non Donatus wee heare what the Lord sayes in his Scripture concerning the law of ceremonies 2. The second thing signified by the renting the vaile is this The holy of holyes figured the third heauen where GOD sheweth himselfe in glory and maiestie to his Saints Salomons Temple hadde in it three Courts an vtter court whereinto the people were admitted an inner Court wherein onely the Priests and Leuites entred an inmost of all whereinto the high Priest alone and that but once a yeare and this was called Sanctum Sanctorum So there is a threefolde Heauen Coelum elementarium Stellatum Gloriosum First the Elementarie heauen wherein are cloudes windes raine dew and the birds are called the birds of heauen that is of this elementarie heauen The second is the Starrey heauen So the Sunne is sayd to goe from the end of the heauen and his circuite vnto the ends of it The last is the Glorious heauen the habitation of God himselfe and this was signified by the Holy of holyes The vaile signified the flesh of Christ the renting of the vaile the crucifying of Christ by this is made an entrance into that Sanctum Sanctorum the heauen of glory So expressely Heb. 10. Hauing therefore boldnesse to enter into the Holyest by the bloud of Iesus By a new and liuing way which he hath consecrated for vs through the vaile that is to say His Flesh. Heauen gate was shut vp by our sinnes none but our highest and holyest Priest had passage there but hee rent the vaile suffred his bodie to be torne by death that he might giue vs an entrance Paul speaking of the legall vse of that Holyest place in the Temple sayth thus Heb. 9. The holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing But now by Christ his renting the vaile Patet alti ianua Coeli the way of saluation is opened Let this reach forth to vs two comforts 1. There is no feare to be shut out of heauen if thou haue faith in Christ for to thee is the vaile rent the separation is abolished Christ is crucified For So sayth Saint Peter an entrance shall be ministred vnto you aboundantly into the euerlasting kingdome of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ. Indeede to vnbeleeuers and hypocrites to worldly wolues and luxurious goates the vaile is vp still How should they enter the Sanctum sanctorum that neuer approched the Sanctum How shall they see the glory of God who would neuer entertaine the grace of God No to these there are inaccessible barres and Cherubims with flaming swords to forbidde their entrance But to
euery good and faithfull Seruant the vaile is taken away and Christ sayes enter thou into the ioy of the Lord. 2. By this meanes we haue in this world a free accesse to the Throne of grace by our prayers the vaile and separation of sinne and wrath is rent asunder by Christ and a cleare way made for our supplications The Propitiatory and Mercie-seate the Cherubims of glory shadowing it the very presence of God were within the Holyest and the people might not approach it but stood without a farre off Our Sauiour hath torne away this vaile and opened our petitions a free passage to the Seate of mercie in heauen Hauing such an high Priest ouer the house of God sayth Paul immediately after the clearing our way through the vaile Let vs draw neare with a true-heart in full assurance of faith c. Wee see howe farre our prerogatiue excelles that of the Iewes They were seruants we are sonnes and cry Abba Father they had Priests we are Priests they had a barre to vs that vaile is rent away Let vs therefore come boldly vnto the Throne of grace that we may obtaine mercie and find grace to helpe in time of neede This is singular comfort that poore subiects may bee sure of accesse to the King with their petitions yea more bee heard in all their desires yea most of all haue an Aduocate at the Kinges right hand to plead their cause But then remember the Psalmists caution If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not heare mee Let the seruants of Baal cry neuer so loudly if lewdly their prayers are not heard To the cryes of vnfaithfull sinners the vaile is vp still and like a thicke cloud reuerberates beats backe their orisons that they cannot ascend to the Throne of grace Onely faith makes a free passage and a cleare conscience hath a cleare voyce that can peirce heauen 3. The breaking downe of this vaile did make the Holyest and the other part of the temple all one Whereby was signified that of two was made one Iewes and Gentiles one Church He is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken downe the middle wall of partition betweene vs. So that now those the Iewes called dogges eat the bread of the children yea they are the children and Iaphet is perswaded to dwell in the tents of Sem. She is also Beloued that was hated euen the Church of the Gentiles is the Spouse of Christ. The vaile that hindred Paul cals the Law of commandements contained in ordinances this he abolished for to make in himselfe of twaine one new man Heauen gate is no wider open to a Iew then to a Grecian In Christ Iesus neither circumcision auaileth any thing nor vncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walke according to this rule peace be on them and mercie and vpon the Israel of God The Sum of the Gospell as of the world is not confined to lighten Iudea onely but shines vniuersally There is not one priuiledge wherein the Gentile hath not as franke a share as the Iew the sonnes of Hagar are adopted the sonnes of God and the free Ierusalem aboue is the mother of vs all All this did our blessed Sauiour worke for vs by renting the vaile That he might reconcile both vnto God in one body by the crosse hauing slaine the enmitie therby Oh then let vs keepe the vnitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace Christ hath made vs at one let vs not make our selues twaine The vaile is rent why set we vp new schismes in doctrine iarres in conuersation The bill of diuorcement is cancelled let vs loue our husband Christ and for his sake euery man his brother Let vs set vp no more vailes least we doe it with the curse of building more Iericho's There is no bond so sure as Religions no ligaments so strong as faith and a good conscience Wretched man that breakest these tâ—…es and rentest thy selfe from them to whome thou art by Christ vnited A mothers yea a Fathers blessing forsakes thee and thou buildest vp a new vaile which thou must looke for no more Christs to come rent asunder 4. The renting of the vaile teacheth vs that when men sinne rebelliously against God no prerogatiue shall doe them good The Temple was one of their principallest priuiledges their glory their crowne The Temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord. It was a figure of the Church militant as Solomon the builder was a figure of Christ. For this Temples sake God often spared them So Daniel prayes Cause thy face to shine vpon thy Sanctuary that is desolate Yet when they fall away from God and crucifie their Messias this prerogatiue helpes not For here Gods owne hand rents the vaile and after giues the whole fabricke a spoyle to the Gentiles If ye will not heare if ye will not lay it to heart I will send a curse vpon you I will curse your blessings yea I haue cursed them already because you doe not lay it to heart It lies in mans sinne to make God curse his very blessings and to punish the nocent in the innocent creatures We see the way how wee may loose Temples and peace and Gospell and all priuiledges by running the courses of disobedience Who can number the blessings we haue enioyed by the Gospell Let vs beware least our vngracious and vngratefull liues robbe vs not of that with all the appertinent comforts They that haue trauelled the Belgicke Prouinces can witnesse the miserable footsteps of warre and the tyrannie of desolation Churches and Cities haue no more monuments but the ruined foundations to testifie that they were Sin made way for bloud and massacre Idolatrie puld downe those wals which otherwise the most sacrilegious hand should haue forborne If there had beene no enemie to rase them they would haue falne alone rather then couered so blasphemous impietie vnder their guiltie roofes Peace is within our walles prosperitie within our palaces blessed for euer be our God of peace for it Yet we haue a subtle aduersarie Sacriledge that incroacheth sore vpon vs and hath taken many of Gods houses in possession We cannot say They haue burnt vp all the Synagogues in the land but they haue done very wickedly to the Lords Sanctuaries The wals stand and it is well if in many places they do so but there is not a Leuite to feede the people alas how can there when there is nothing left to feede a Leuite Couetousnes would do as much hurt with vs as warre hath done with our neighbours it would but I trust in the Lord Iesus it shall not Though they haue rent away Gods right Tithes and offrings they shall neuer rent away Gods Truth and Gospell rent themselues from it indeede they are likely to do 5. Lastly The Vaile was rent By renting the part God did threaten the subuersion of
with the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp The workes of mens hands the workes of their brines their very thoughts shall perish The Lords voyce shooke the earth and hee hath saide yet once againe I will shake not the earth onely but also heauen O blessed place that is not subiect to this shaking whose ioyes haue not onely an amiable countenance but a glorious continuance The things that are shaken shall be remoued but the things that are not shaken remaine for euer All the terrours of this worlde mooue not him that is fixed in heauen Impauidum ferient ruinae They that put their trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion which cannot beremoued but abideth for euer But the Tabernacles and hopes of the wicked shall perish together For the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth euer Whereon sayth August Quid vis Vtrum amare temporalia transire cum tempore an amare Christum viuere in aeternum Whether wilt thou loue the world and perish with it or loue Christ liue for euer 3. Myracle The rockes rent A wonderfull act to breake stones and rend rockes This giues vs two obseruations 1. This did foresignifie the power and efficacie of the Gospell that it should bee able to breake the very rockes As the death and passion of Christ did cleaue those solid and almost impenetrable substances so the publishing of his death and passion shall rend and breake in pieces the rockie hearts of men So Iohn Baptist said God is able of stones to rayse vp children vnto Abraham The hearts of Zaccheus Mary Magdalene Paul were such rockes yet they were cleft with the wedge of the Gospell This is that Rod of Moses able to breake the hardest Rockes till they gush out with flouds of penitent teares This is Ieremies hammer powerfull to bruise the most obdurate hearts The bloud of the Goate sacrificed of force to dissolue Adamant There is power in the bloud of Iesus to put sense into stones Blessed are you if you be thus broken-hearted for him whose heart was broken for you For the broken heart the Lord will not despise 2. Obserue the wonderfull hardnesse of the Iewes hearts The stones rent and claue in sunder at the cruell death of Iesus but their hearts more stony then stones are no whit moued They rend not their garments much lesse their hearts when as the earth rent the Stones her bones and the rockes her ribbes The flints are softer then they the flints breake they harden They still belch their malicious blasphemies the rocks relent the stones are become men and the men stones O the sencelesnesse of a hard heart rockes will sooner breake then that can be mollified Euen the hardest creatures are flexible to some agents flints to the raine iron to the fire stones to the hammer but this heart yeelds to nothing neyther the showers of mercie nor the hammer of reproofe nor the fire of Iudgements but like the stithy are still the harder for beating All the plagues of Egypt cannot mollifie the heart of Pharaoh It is wondrously vnnaturall that men made the softest hearted of all should be rigidiores lupis duriores lapidibus more cruell then wolues more hard then stones I woulde to GOD all hard-heartednesse had dyed with these Iewes but it is not so Howe often hath Christ beene here crucified in the word preaching his Crosse to your eares in the Sacraments presenting his death to your eyes thinke thinke in your owne soules haue not the stones in the walles of this Church beene as much moued God forbid our obduratenesse should be punished as theirs was since they would be so stony-hearted Ierusalem was turned to a heape of stones and the conquering Romanes dasht them pitifully against those stones which they exceeded in hardnesse Here let the wicked see their doome the stones that will not be softned shall be broken There is no changing the decree of God but change thy nature and then know thou art not decreed to death Stony harts shall bee broken to pieces with vengeance doe not striue to alter that doome but alter thy owne stony heart to a heart of flesh and so preuent it in the particular Wolues and goates shall not enter into heauen thou maiest pull starres out of heauen before alter this sentence but doe it thus Leaue that nature and become one of Christes sheepe and then thou art sure to enter No adulterâ—… nor couetous person sayth Paul shall inherite the kingdoâ—… of heauen this doome must stand but not against thee if thou bee conuerted Such were ye but ye are washed c. You are not such Had the Iewes ceased to be stones they had beene spared God will roote thornes and bryers out of his vineyard if thou wouldst not haue him roote out thee become a Vine and bring forth good grapes God threatens to breake the hairy sealpe of him that goes on in sinne yet mayest thou ward this blow from thy selfe Goe no further on in sinne When God comes in iudgement to visite the earth to shatter rockes and breake stones in peeces thou hast a heart of flesh mollified with repentance Let the earth quake and the rockes teare thy faith hath saued thee goe in peace 4. Miracle The graues were opened and many bodyes of Sanits which slept arose Concerning this two questions are moued 1. Where their soules were all this while before I answere where the scripture hath no tongue we should haue no eare Most probably thus their soules were in heauen in Abrahams bosome and came downe to their bodyes by diuine dispensation to manifest the power and Deitie of Christ. 2. Whither they went afterwards I answere by the same likelyhood that they died no more but waited on the earth till Christs resurrection and then attended him to heauen But these things that are concealed should not be disputed Tutum est nescire quod tegitur It is a safe ignorance where a man is not commanded to know Let vs then see what profitable instructions we can hence deriue to our selues They are many and therefore I will but lightly touch them 1. This teacheth vs that Christ by his death hath vanquished death euen in the graue his owne chamber That gyant is subdued the graues flie open the dead goe out This beares ample witnesse to that speach of Christ. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeueth in me though he were dead yet shall he liue The bodies of the Saints what part of the earth or sea soeuer holds their dusts shall not be detayned in prison when Christ cals for them as the members must needs goe when the Head drawes them He shall speake to all creatures Reddite quod deuorastis restore whatsoeuer of man you haue deuoured not a dust not a bone can be denyed The bodyes of the Saints shall be raised sayth August Tanta
them casting vp white and red earth in abundance Wherewith his amazed eyes growing soone enamoured he desires a participation of their riches They refuse to ioyne him in their gaines vnlesse he wil ioyne himselfe in their paines Hereupon he fals to toyling digging deluing til some of the earth fals so hea uie vpon him that it lames him and he is able to goe no further There he dies in the sight of that Citie to which he could not goe for want of feet looseth a certaine substantial gift for an vncertain shadow of vaine hope You can easily apply it God of his gracious fauour not for our deserts giues man his creature a glorious Citie euen that whose foundations are of Iasper Saphyre and Emerald c. He doth more directes him the way to it Goe on this way Walke in loue He begins to trauell and comes within the sight of heauen but by the way he spies worldlings toyling in the earth and scraping together white and red clay siluer and gold the riches of this world Hereof desirous he is not suffered to partake except hee also partake of their couetousnes and corrupt fashions Now Mammon sets him on worke to digge out his owne damnation where after a while this gay earth comes tumbling fo fast vpon him that his feet be maimed his affections to heauen lost and he dyes short of that glorious Citie which the king of heauen purchased with his owne bloud and gaue him Thinke of this ye worldlings and seeing you know what it is to be charitable put your feet in this way Walke in Loue. There be yet others whose whole course is euery step out of the way to God who is Loue and they must walke in Loue that come vnto him 1. There is a path of Lust they erre damnably that call this the way of Loue. They turne a spirituall grace into a carnall vice and whereas Charitie and Chastity are of nearer allyance then sound these debauched tongues call vncleanesse Loue. Adulterie is a cursed way though a much coursed way for a whore is the high-way to the Deuill 2. There is a path of malice and they that trauell it are bound for the Enemie Their euill eye is vexed at Gods goodnes and their hands of desolation would vndoe his mercies Other mens health is their sicknes others weale their woe The Iesuites and their bloudy Proselyts are pilgrims in this way We know by experience the scope of their walkes Their malice was strong as Sauire in saxa but they would turne Ierusalem in aceruum Lapidum into a heape of stones Yea such was their rage that Nil reliqui fecerunt Vt non ipsis elementis fieret iniuria they spared not to let the elements know the madnesse of their violence They could not draw fire from heauen their betters could not do it in the dayes of Christ on earth therefore they seeke it they digge it from hell Flectere cùm nequeunt Superos Acheronta movebunt Here was a malicious walking 3. There is a counterfeit path the Travellers make as if they walked in loue but their loue is dissimulation It is not dilectio vera true love which S. Ioh. speakes of nor dilectio mera as Luther not a plaine-hearted loue They will cosen you vnseene and then like the whore in the Proverbes wipe their mouthes and it was not they Their art is Alios pellere aut tollere to giue others a wipe or a wound Iudas-like they salute those with a kisse against whome they intend most treason 4. There is a way directly crosse to loue which neither obeyes God for loue keepes the commandements nor comforts man for loue hath compassion on the distressed These haue feete swift enough but swift to shed bloud Destruction and miserie are in their wayes They are in Zedechiahs case both their eyes are put out and their feete lamed with the captiue chaines of Satan so easily carried downe to his infernall Babilon These are they that devoure a man and his heritage Therefore Christ calles their riches not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things without them as if they had swallowed them down into their bowels The phrase is vsed by Iob He hath swallowed downe riches he shall vomit them vp againe God shall cast them out of his belly When this vomit is given them you shall see strange stuffe come from them Here the raw and vndigested gobbets of vsurie there the mangled morsels of bloudy oppressions here fiue or sixe impropriate Churches there thousand acres of decayed tillage here a whole casket of bribes there whole houses and patrimonies of vndone orphans here an Inclosure of commons there a vastation of proper and sanctified things Rip vp their conscie nces and this is the stuffing of their hearts These walke crosse to the Crosse of Christ as Paul sayth they are Enemies cursed walkers Whereupon we may conclude with Bernard Periculosa tempora iam non instant sed extant the dangerous times are not comming but come vpon vs. The cold frost of indevotion is so generall that many haue benūmed ioynts they cannot walke in loue Others so stiffe and obdurate that they will meete all that walke in this way and with their turbulent malice striue to iustle them out of it Therefore David prayes Preserue me from the violent men that haue purposed to ouerthrowe my goings Let vs then vpon this great cause vse that deprecation in our Let any From pride vain-glory hypocrisie from envy hatred malice all vncharitablenes Good Lord deliver vs. I am loth to giue you a bitter farewell or to conconclude with a menace I see I cannot by the times leaue drinke to you any deeper in this cup of Charity I will touch it once againe and let every present soule that loues heauen pledge me Walke in loue The way to life everlasting is loue and hee that keepes the way is sure to come to the end We knowe that we haue passed from death to life because we loue the brethren For this are the workes of mercie charity piety and pitty so much commended in the Scriptures by the Fathers with so high titles because they are the appoynted way wherein we must walke and whereby we must worke vp our owne salvation Therefore the Apostle claps in the necke of good workes laying vp in store for themselues a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life Thereby wee lay the ground of saluation in our consciences and take assured hold of eternall life He that goes on in loue shall come home to life This comforts vs not in a presumption of merite but in confident knowledge that this is the way to glory wherein when we find our selues Walking wee are sure we are going to heauen and sing in the wayes of the Lord Great is the glory of the Lord.
into this infinite and boundles Sea I will onely note foure sweete streames of life in his Loue. It was Holy Sine Merits Hearty Mode Kind Despectâ—… Constant Defectâ—… 1. Holy The Loue of Iesus to vs was Sancta sanctificans dilectio a Loue holy formaliter in itselfe and holy effectiuè in making those holy on whom it was set He gaue himselfe to vs and for vs and gaue vs a faith to receiue and embrace him Sine quo nec dilâ—…cti nec diligentes fuissemus Without whom wee neither could haue receiued loue nor returned loue Now his loue did not only extend to our bodyes health but to our soules blisse So he loued vs that he saued vs. Our loue should likewise be holy whole desiring not onely our brothers externall welfare but much more his internall his eternall blessednes He that pitties not a famished body deserues iustly the name of an vnmercifull man but he that coÌ„passionates not an afflicted conscience hath much more a hard heart It is an vsual speech of compassion to a distressed man Alas poore Soule but this same alas poore Soule is for the most part mistakeÌ„ Neither the pittier nor the pittied imagins the soule pittiable Very humanitie teacheth a man to behold an execution of theeues traytours with griefe that men to satisfie their malicious or couetous affections should cut off their owne liues with so infamous a death But who commiserates the endangered Soule that must then ventor and enter on an eternall life or death The story of Hagar with her Son Ishmael is set downe by so heauenly a pen that a man cannot read it without tears She is cast out of Abrahams house with her child that might call her Master father Bread water is put on her shoulder and she wanders into the wildernes a poore reliefe for so long a iourney to which there was set no date of returning Soone was the water spent in the bottle the child cries for drinke to her that had it not and lifts vp pittiful eyes euery glance whereof was enough to wound her soule vents the sighes of a dry panting heart but there is no water to be had except the teares that ran from a sorrowful mothers eyes could quench the thirst Downe she layes the child vnder a shrubbe and went as heauy as euer mother parted from her onely son and sate her downe vpon the earth as if she desired it for a present receptacle of her griefe of her selfe a good way off saith the Text as it were a bow-shoâ—…e that the shrickes yellings dying groanes of the child might not reach her eares crying out Let me not see the death of the child Die she knew he must but as if the beholding it would rent her heart and wound her soule she denyes those windowes so sad a spectacle Let mee not see the death of the child So she lift vp her voyce and wept Neuer was Hagar so pittifull to her Sonne Ishmael as the Church is to euery Christian. If any sonne of her wombe wil wander out of Abrahams familie the House of Faith into the wildernes of this world and prodigally part with his owne mercy for the gawdy transient vanities thereof She followes with intreaties to him and to heauen for him If he will not returne she is loath to see his death she turnes her backe vpon him and weeps He that can with dry eyes and vnrelenting heart behold a mans Soule ready to perish hath not so much passion and compassion as that Egiptian bond-woman 2. Hearty The loue of Christ to vs was hearty not consisting of shewes and signes and courtly complements but of actuall reall royall bounties He did not dissemble liue to vs when he dyed for vs. Exhibitio operis probatio amoris He pleaded by the truest and vndenyable argument demonstration I loue you wherein I giue my Life for you Tot ora quot vulnera tot verba quot verbera So many wounds so many words to speake actually his loue euery stripe he bore gaue sufficient testimony of his affection His exceeding rich gift shewes his exceeding rich loue This heartines must be in our Loue both to our Creator and to his Image 1. To God so he chalengeth thy loue to be conditioned with thy Heart with all thy heart And this saith Christ is Primum Maximum mandâ—…tum the First and the greatest Commandement The first Quasi virtualiter centinens reliqua as mainely comprehending all the rest For he that loues God with all his heart will neither Idolatrize nor blaspheme nor profane his Sabboths no nor wrong his creatures The greatest as requiring the greatest perfection of our loue This then must be a hearty loue not slow not idle but must shew it selfe Et properando operando in ready diligence in fruitfull working obedience There are many â—…otent to loue God alitle because he blesseth them much So Saul loued him for his kingdome These loue God Pro seipsis not Prae seipsis For themselues not before themselues They will giue him homage but not fealtie the calues of their lippes but not the calues of their stals If they feast him with venison part of their Imparked Riches which is deere to them yet it shall be but rascall deere the trash of their substance they will not feast him with the heart that is the best deere in their Parke 2. To man whom thou art bound to loue as thy selfe where say some As is but a Tam not a Tâ—…ntum As thy selfe not As much as thy selfe As for the maner not for the measure But this is certaine true loue begins at home and he cannot loue another soundly that primarily loues not himselfe And he that loues himselfe with a good heart with the same heart will loue his brother In quâ—… seipsum proptâ—…r quod seipsum In that maner for that cause that he loues himselfe This then coÌ„mands the same loue if not the same degree of loue to thy brother that thou bearest to thy selfe This hearty loue is hardly found More is protested now then in former times but lesse done It is wittilyob serued that the old maner of saluting was to take shake one another by the hand now we locke armes ioyne breasts but not hearts That old hand full was better then this new armefull Our cringes and complementall bowings promise great humilitic but the smootherd venime of pride â—…es within We haue low lookes and loftie thoughts There are enough of those Which speake peace to their neighbours but mischiefe is in their hearts Whose smooth habites doe so palliate and ornamentally couer their poyson as if they did preserue mud in Chrystall The Romaynes vsually painted Friendship with her hand on her heart as if she promised to send no messenger out of the gate of her lips but him that goes on the hearts arrand Now we haue studied both textures of words and pretextures of
propitiate for sinne that were themselues guilty of sinne and by nature lyable to condemnation Wretched Idolaters that thrust this honour on them against their wils how would they abhorre such sacrilegious glory Not the riches of this world We were not redeemed with corruptible things as siluer and gold Were the riches of the old world brought together to the riches of the new world were all the minerall veines of the earth emptied of their purest mettals this pay would not be currant with God It will cost more to redeeme soules They that trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches Yet cannot by any meanes redeeme their brother nor Giue to God a ransome for him The seruant cannot redeeme the Lord. God made a man master of these things hee is then more precious then his slaues Not the bloud of Bulls or Goates Hebr. 9. Alas those legal sacrifices were but dumbe shewes of this tragedie the meere figures of this oblation mystically presenting to their faith that Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world This Lambe was prefigured in the sacrifices of the law now presented in the sacraments of the Gospell slaine indeed from the begining of the world Who had power Prodesse to profit vs before hee had Esse a being himselfe None of these would serue Whom Gaue he then Seipsum Himselfe who was both God and man that so participating of both natures our mortalitie and Gods Immortalitie he might be a perfect Mediator Apparuit igitur inter mortales peccatores immortalem iustum mortalis cum hominibus iustus cum Deo He came betweene mortall men and immortall God mortall with men and iust with God As man he suffered as God hee satisfied as God and man he saued He gaue himselfe Se Totum Himselfe Wholy Solum Onely 1. All himselfe his whole Person soule and body Godhead and manhood Though the deitie could not suffer yet in regard of the personall vnion of these two naturs in one Christ his very passion is attributed in some sort to the Godhead So Act. 20. It is called the bloud of God And 1. Cor. 2. 8. The Lord of glory is said to be crucified The Schooles distinction here makes al plaine He gaue Totum Christum though not Totum Christi All Christ though not All of Christ. Home non valuit Deus non voluit As God alone he wold not as man alone he could not make this satisfaction for vs. The Deitie is impassible yet was it impossible without this Deitie for the great worke of our saluation to be wrought If any aske how the manhoode could suffer without violence to the God-head being vnited in one Person let him vnderstand it by a familiar comparison The Sunne-beames shine on a tree the axe cuts downe this tree yet can it not hurt the beames of the Sunne So the God-head still remaines vnharmed though the axe of death did for a while fell downe the man-hood Corpus passum est dolore gladio Anima dolore non gladio Diuinitas nec dolore nec gladio His bodie suffered both sorrow and the sword his soule sorrow not the sword his Deitie neither sorrow nor the sword Deitas in dolente non in dolore The God-head was in the Person pained yet not in the paine 2. Himselfe onely and that without a Partner Comforter 1. Without a Partner that might share either his glory or our thankes of both which he is iustly iealous Christi passio adiutore non eguit The sufferings of our Sauiour need no helpe Vpon good cause therefore we abhorre that doctrine of the Papists that our offences are expiated by the passions of the Saints No not the blessed Virgin hath performed any part of our iustificatiō payed any farthing of our debts So sings the Quire of Rome Sancta virgo Dorothea tua nos virtute bea cor in nobis novum crea Wherin there is pretty rime petty reason but great blasphemie as if the Virgin Dorothy were able to create a new heart within vs. No but the bloud of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne His bloud and his onely O blessed Sauiour euery drop of thy bloud is able to redeeme a beleeuing world What then need we the helpe of men How is Christ a perfect Sauiour if any act of our redemption be left to the performance of Saint or Angell No our soules must die if the bloud of Iesus cannot saue them And whatsoeuer wittie errour may dispute for the merits of Saints the distressed conscience cries Christ and none but Christ. They may sitte at Tables and discourse enter the Schooles and argue get vp into the Pulpits and preach that the workes of good men is the Churches treasure giuen by indulgence and can giue indulgence and that they will doe the soule good But lie we vppon our death-beds panting for breath driuen to the push tost with tumultuous waues of afflictions anguished with sorrow of spirit then we sing another song Christ Christ alone Iesus and onely Iesus Mercie mercie pardon comfort for our Sauiours sake Neither is there saluation in any other for there is none other Name vnder heauen giuen among men whereby we must be saued 2. Without a Comforter he was so farre from hauing a sharer in his Passion that he had none in compassion that at least might any wayes ease his sorrowes It is but a poore comfort of calamitie Pittie yet euen that was wanting Is it nothing to you all yee that passe by Is it so sore a sorrow to Christ and is it nothing to you a matter not worth your regard your pittie Man naturally desires and expects if he cannot be deliuered eased yet to be pittied Haue pittie vpon me haue pittie vpon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me Christ might make that request of Iob but hee had it not there was none to comfort him none to pittie him It is yet a little mixture of refreshing if others be touched with a sense of our miserie that in their hearts they wish vs well and would giue vs ease if they could but Christ hath in his sorest pangs not so much as a Comforter The Martyrs haue fought valiantly vnder the banner of Christ because hee was with them to comfort them But when himselfe suffers no reliefe is permitted The most grieuous torments find some mitigation in the supply of friends and comforters Christ after his monomachie or single combate with the deuill in the desart had Angels to attend him In his agonie in the garden an Angell was sent to cofort him But when he came to the maine act of our redemption not an Angell must be seene None of those glorious spirits may looke through the windowes of heauen to giue him any ease And if they would haue relieued him they could not Who can lift vp where the Lord wil cast downe What Chirurgion can
graine did also feed vpon him albeit he built a Tower in the middest of the riuer Rheine to auoid them which the Germanes call still Rattes Tower How shall they which slander heauen with pretended dearths be admitted as friends to that place which they haue belyed You see how these riches must be gotten how disposed honestly gotten iustly dispensed now it follows also in the next place that they must be 3. Patiently lost When God giues riches to the good he giues them also a heart to trust in himselfe in himselfe I say not in them Trust not in vncertaine Riches but in the liuing God who giueth vs aboundantly all things to enioy He giues abundantly but he forbiddeth trust in that abundance He commends riches to vs as a great man doth a seruant to his friend worke him but trust him not put labour to him not confidence in him Wealth may doe vs good seruice but if it get the masterie of our trust it will turne tyrant Termagant we condemne our selues to our owne gallies To the godly riches are neuer so deare but they can be content to forgoe them They receiue them at Gods hands with much thankfulnesse and they loose them with much patience When God takes ought from vs he does vs no wrong Retrahit sua non abstrahit nostra he doth but take backe his owne not take away ours So Iob. The Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken away The Lord giueth therefore hee may take away Yea faith sayes Lord take all so thou giue me thy selfe We haue left all and followed thee sayth Peter Nos sequamur Christum caetera sequentur nos Let vs follow Christ other thinges shall follow vs. But if they doe not it is gaine enough to haue Christ. He is too couetous whom the Lord Iesus cannot satisfie We may loose diuitias Dei but neuer Deum diuitiarum We may be forsaken of these riches of God but neuer of the God of riches Amittamus omnia dum habeamus habentem omnia Let vs loose all so we haue him that hath all That was neuer perfectly good that might bee lost Of this nature are riches they haue made many prouder none better As neuer man was better so neuer wise man thought himselfe better for them That wise Prophet would neuer haue prayed against riches if their want had beene the want of blessednesse The Deuill indeed sayes All those will I giue thee but the two dearest Aposties say Siluer and gold haue I none Who would not rather be in the state of those Saints then of that Deuill Riches are such thinges as those that haue them not want them not those that haue them want them they are lost in a night and a man is neuer the worse for loosing them How many Kings not fewer then nine in our Iland that haue begun their glory in a Throne haue ended it in a cell changing their command of a Scepter for the contemplation of a Booke Alas silly things that they should dare aske one dramme of our confidence Non tanta in multis foelicitas quanta in paucis securitas There is not so much happines in the highest estate as there is content and peace in the lowest Only then God be our trust whose mercie we can no more loose then himselfe can loose his mercie Thus you see this second generall poynt amplified if Riches be Gods good blessings not onely in themselues so they are alwayes good but to vs then they are gotten honestly disposed iustly lost patiently As much happily might be said for Honour wherein I will briefely consider how and when it is of God God indeed giues Honour and Riches but not all Honour as you heard before not all Riches There are foure things in an honoured person First his Person wherein he pertakes of the common condition of Mankind liues and dies a man Euen the sonnes of Princes haue their breath in their nosthrilles Secondly his Honour and dignitie this simply considered is of God whosoeuer he be that hath it a Ioseph or a Haman Thirdly the manner of comming to his Honour and this is no longer of God then the meanes are good If it bee Gods honour God must giue it not man vsurpe it Fourthly the menaging of this Honour and this is also of the Lord if it be right and religious It happeneth often that Potens the great man is not of God They haue set vp Kings but not by me they haue made Princes and I knew it not The manner of getting dignity is not alwayes of God Richard 3. came to the Crowne of England by bloud and murther Alexander 6. obtained the Popedome by giuing himselfe to the Deuill Yet the dignitie is of God By me Kings raigne by me Princes and Nobles It is a hard question wherein Honour consists It is in bloud descending from the veines of noble auncestors Not so except nature could produce to Noble parents noble children It was a monstrous tale that Nicippus his Ewe should yeane a Lyon Though it be true among irrationall creatures that they euer bring forth their like Eagles hatch Eagles and Doues Doues yet in mans progenie there is often found not so like a proportion as vnlike a disposition The earthy part onely followes the seed not that whose forme and attending qualities are from aboue Honour must therefore as well plead a Charter of successiue vertue as of continued scutchions or it cannot consist in bloud The best things can neuer be traduced in propagation thou mayest leaue thy sonne heire to thy lands in thy will to thy Honour in his bloud thou canst neuer bequeath him thy vertues The best qualities do so cleaue to their subiects that they disdaine communication to others That is then onely true Honour where dignitie and desert bloud and vertue meete together the greatnesse whereof is from bloud the goodnesse from vertue Among Fooles dignitie is enough without desert among wise men desert without dignitie If they must bee separated desert is infinitely better Greatnesse without vertue laudatur ore alieno damnatur conscientia sua is commended by others tongues condemned in the owne heart Vertue though without promotion is more comforted in the owne content then dishartned by others contempt It is a happie composition when they are vnited thinke it your honour ye great men that you are ennobled with vertues not that you haue but that you deserue Honour Let this that hath beene spoken teach vs some lessons concerning Honour 1. Take it when God sends it but bee not ambitious of it Indigni est arripere non accipere honorem It is an argument of vnworthinesse to snatch it denyed not to accept it offered God resisteth the proud opposeth himselfe in a profest warre against him as if he held a sword against his brest when he would rise vp in glory to nâ—…le him fast downe to the earth But he giueth grace to the humble like a great
for the most part inseparable companions Eccle. 6. God giues to a man Riches and Honour First Riches and then Honour for it is lightly found so much Riches so much Honour and reputation is measured by the Acre I haue wealth enough saith the worldling Luke 12. I will turne Gentleman take my ease eate drinke and be merry Riches are the staires whereby men climbe vp into the height of dignitie the fortification that defends it the food it liues vppon the oyle that keeps the lampe of Honour from going out Honour is a bare robe if Riches doe not lace and flourish it and Riches a dull Lumpe till Honour giue a Soule to quicken it Fiftly then Honour and Riches Wealth and Worship doe beare one another companie 4. Lastly obserue that though riches and honour be Gods gifts yet they are but the gifts of his left hand therefore it necessarily followes that euery wise man will first seeke the blessings of the Right First seeke the kingdome of God and his righteousnes and these things shall be added to you Godlinesse is the best Riches Riches the worst let vs striue for the former without condition for the other if they fall in our way let vs stoope to take them vp if not let vs neuer couet them It is no Wisedome to refuse Gods kindnesse that offers wealth nor pietie to scratch for it when God withholds it When the Lord hath set thee vp as high as Haman in the Court of Ahasuerus or promoted thee to ride with Ioseph in the second Chariot of Egypt were thy stocke of Cattell exceeding Iobs seauen thousand sheepe three thousand Camels fiue hundred yoke of Oxen did thy Wardrobe put downe Salomons and thy cup-bord of plate Belshazzars when the vessels of Gods temple were the ornature Yet all these are but the gifts of Wisedomes left hand and the possessors may be vnder the malediction of God and goe downe to damnation If it were true that sanctior qui ditior that goods could make a man good I would not blame mens kissing the left hand and sucking out Riches and Honour But alas what antidote against the terrour of conscience can bee chym'd from gold What charme is there in braue apparell to keepe off the rigour of Sathan Quod tibi praestat opes non tibi praestat opem That which makes thee wealthy cannot make thee happie Ionas had a Gourd that was to him an Arbour he sate vnder it secure but suddenly there was a worme that bitte it and it dyed Compare secretly in your hearts your riches to that Gourd your pleasure to the greenesse of it your pompe attendance vanities to the leaues of it your suddaine encrease of wealth to the growing and shooting vp of it But withall forget not the Worme and the Wind the Worme that shall kill your roote is Death and the Wind that shall blow vpon you is calamitie There is a greater defect in this wealth and worshippe then their vncertaintie Non mâ—…do fallacia quia dubia verùm insidiosa quia dulcia They are not onely deceitfull through their ticklenesse but dangerous through their lushoâ—…snesse Men are apt to surfeit on this luxurient abundance it is a baâ—…e to securitie a baud to wantonnes Here is the maine difference betweene the gifts of Gods right hand and of his left He giues reall blessings with the left but he doth not settle them vpon vs he promiseth 〈◊〉 perpetuitie but with the graces of his right he giues assurance of euerlastingnes Christ calles Riches the riches of deceitfulnesse but grace the better part that shall neuer be taken away Dauid compares the wealthy to a flourishing tree that is soone withered but Faith stablisheth a man like Mount Sion neuer to be remoued He that thinkes hee sittes surest in his seate of Riches let him take heed least he fall When a great man boasted of his abundance sayth Paulus Emilius one of his friends told him that the anger of God could not long forbeare so great prosperitie How many rich Marchants haue suddenly lost all How many Noblemen sold all How many wealthy heires spent all Few Sundayes passe ouer our heads without Collections for Ship-wrackes fires and other casualties Demonstratiue proofes that prosperitie is inconstant riches casuall And for honour wee read that Belâ—…sarius an honourable Peere of the Empire was forced in his old age to beg from dore to dore obulum date Bel sario Fredericke a great Emperour was so low brought that he sâ—…ed to be made but the Sexton of a Church O then let vs not adhere to these left hand blessings but first seeke length of dayes eternall ioyes neuer to be lost A man may enioy the other without fault the sinne consisteth praeferendo vel conferendo either in preferring Riches or in comparing them with faith and a good conscience Vtere caducis fruere aeternis Thou must necessarily vse these transient things onely enioy and rest vppon the euerlasting comforts of Iesus Christ. When God hath assured to a Christian spirit the inheritance of Heauen he ioyfully pilgrims it through this world if wealth and worship salute him by the way he refuseth not their companie but they shall not stray him out of his path nor transport his affections for his heart is where his hope is his loue is where his Lord is euen with Iesus his Redeemer at the right hand of God Now this mans very Riches are blessed to him for as from the hand of God hee hath them so from the hand of God hee hath to enioy good in them Whereas to some sayth Salomon I haue seene Riches kept for the ownâ—…s thereof to their hurt to this man they shall worke to the best blessing his condition in this life and enlarging his dition in heauen as the wise man sweetly The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and hee addeth no sorrow with it Thus in particular if we conferre the right hand with the left we shall generally learne 1. That both Gods hands are giuing it is enough if man giue with one hand but the Lord settes both his handes a doling his Almes of mercie Nemo tuarum vnam vincet vtraque manu No man can doe so much with both handes as GOD with one hand with one finger Hee hath Manum plenam extensam expansam hand full not emptie so full that it can neuer be emptied with giuing Innumerable are the drops in the sea yet if one be taken out it hath though insensibly so much the lesse but Gods goodnesse can suffer no diminution for it is infinite Men are sparing in their bountie because the more they giue the lesse they haue but Gods hand is euer full though it euer disperse and the filling of many cisternes is no abatement to his euer running fountaine Our prayers therfore are well directed thether for blessings whence though we receiue neuer so much wee leaue no lesse behind Let this
heauen hic affuit inde non defuit Humana natura assumpta est Diuina non consumpta est Hee tooke Humanitie he lost not his Diuinitie He abideth Mariae Pater the Father of Mary who is made Mariae Filius the Sonne of Mary To vs a child is borne to vs a sonne is giuen Whereon Emissenus Natus qui sentiret occasum datus qni resciret exordium Hee was borne that should feele death hee was giuen that was from euerlasting and could not die Natus qui matre esset iunior datus quo nec Pater esset antiquior He that was borne was younger then his mother hee that was giuen was as eternall as his father He was Sonne to both God and Mary Non alter ex Patre alter ex Virgine sed aliter ex Patre aliter ex virgine As the flowers are said to haue Solem in coelo patrem solum in terra matrem so Christ hath a father in heauen without a mother a mother on earth without a father Here is then the wonder of his Humanitie The euerlasting Father is become a litle child He that spreads out the heauens is wrapd in swadling clouts Hee that is the Word becomes an Infant not able to speake The Sonne of God calls himselfe the Sonne of man His Humilitie If your vnderstandings can reach the depth of this bottome take it at one view The Sonne of God calls himselfe the Sonne of man The omnipotent Creator becomes an impotent creature As himselfe sayth Greater loue hath no man then this that a man lay downe his life for his friends So greater humilitie neuer was then this that God should be made man It is the voyce of Pride in man I will bee like God but the action of Humilitie in God I will be man Proud Nebuchadnezzar sayes Ero similis altissimo I will be like the Highest meeke Christ sayth Ero similis infimo I will be like the lowest hee put on him the the forme of a seruant yea hee was a despised Worme God spoke it in derision of sinfull man Behold hee is become as one of vs but now we may say God is become as one of vs. There the lowest aspires to bee the Highest here the Highest vouchsafes to be the lowest Alexander a sonne of man would make himselfe the sonne of God Christ the Sonne of God makes himselfe the sonne of man God in whose presence is fullnesse of ioy becomes a man full of sorroâ—…es Eternall rest betakes himselfe to vnrest hauing whilst hee liued i passiue action and when hee dyed actiue passion The LORD ouer all things and Heire of the world vndertakes ignominie and pouertie Ignominie the King of glory is become the shame of men Pouertie Pauper in nativitate pauperior in vita pauperrimus in cruce Poore in his Birth for borne in another mans stable poore in his Life fed at another mans table poore in his Death buried in another mans sepulcher There are sayth Bernard some that are humbled but not humble others that are humble not humbled and a third sort that are both humbled and humble Pharaoh was humbled and cast downe but not humble smitten with subuersion not moued with submission Gothfrey of Boloigne was not humbled yet humble for in the very heate and height of his honour he refused to be crowned in Ierusalem with a Crowne of gold because Christ his master had bin in that place crowned with a crowne of thornes Others are both humbled and humble When he slew them they sought him they returned and enquired early after GOD. Our Sauiour Christ was Passiuely humbled hee was made lower then the Angels by suffering death the Lord did breake him Actiuely he humbled himselfe he made himselfe of no reputation and tooke vpon him the forme of a seruant he humbled himselfe Habitually hee was humbled Learne of me for I am meeke and lowly in heart Let this obseruation lesson vs two dueties 1. Esteeme wee not the worse but the better of Christ that hee made himselfe the Sonne of man Let him not lose any part of his honour because hee abased himselfe for vs. Hee that tooke our flesh is also over all GOD blessed for ever Amen There is more in him then humanitie not alia persona but alia natura not another person but another nature Though hee bee verus homo hee is not merus homo And euen that Man that was crucified on a crosse and layed in a graue is more high then the heauens more holy then the Angels Stephen saw this very Sonne of man standing on the right hand of God The bloud of this Sonne of man giues saluation and to whome it doth not this Sonne of man shall adiudge them to condemnation Vnder this name and forme of Humilitie our Sauiour apposed his Disciples Whome do men say that I the Sonne of Man am Peter answeres for himselfe and the Apostles whatsoeuer the people thought Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God He cals himselfe the Sonne of man Peter cals him the Sonne of God The Iewes see him onely a stâ—…mbling blocke and the Greekes foolishnesse but Christians see him the Power of God and the Wisedome of God The wicked behold him without forme or comelynesse or beauty to desire him but the faithfull behold him crowned with a Crowne his face shining as the Sunne in his glory Therefore Quantò minorem se fecit in humilitate tantò maiorem exhibuit in bonitate Quanto pro me vilior tanto mihi charior The lower hee brought himselfe in humilitie the higher hee magnified his mercie By so much as hee was made the baser for vs by so much let him be the dearer to vs. Obserue it O man quia limus es non sis superbus quia Deo iunctus non sis ingratus because thou art dust of thy selfe be not proud because thou art made immortall by Christ be not vnthankefull Condemned world that despisest him appearing as a silly man The Iewes expected an externall pompe in the Messias Can hee not come downe from the Crosse how should this man saue vs They consider not that hee who wanted a Rest for his head Bread for his followers fed some thousands of them with a few loaues that hee which wanted a pillow giues rest to all beleeuing soules that hee could but would not come downe from the crosse that the deare price of their redemption might be payed Many still haue such Iewish hearts what beleeue on a crucified man But Paul determines to know nothing but this Iesus Christ and him crucified They can be content to dwell with him on mount Tabor but not to follow him to mount Caluary They cleaue to him so long as hee giues them bread but forsake him when himselfe cryes for drinke Oderunt pannos tuos O Christ they like well
for them that are stung with scorpions so repentance for sin is the best remedie within vs to expell the poyson of sinne Thinke of the Wise mans counsell Flie from sin as from the face of a serpent if thou commest too neare it it will bite thee and follow it Their Deafnesse remaines to be spokeÌ„ must remaine vnspoken How should they be cured that are deafe to the counsel of their Phisician Though there be poison in vs euen the poiso of dragoÌ„s yet God blesse vs from the deafnesse of the Adder Let vs heare our remedie embrace it pray to God for it and receiue it and The bloud of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all our sinnes To this Sauiour let all that are saued giue prayse and glory for euer and euer Amen HEAVEN MADE SVRE OR The Certaintie of Saluation PSAL. 35. 3. Say vnto my soule I am thy saluation THE words containe a Petition for a Benediction The Supplicant is a king and his humble â—…te â—…s to the king of kings the king of Israel prayes to the king of heauen â—…arth He doth begge two things 1. That God would saue him 2. That God would certifie him of it So that the Text may be distributed accordingly In salutem Dei cortitudinem rei into Saluation and Assurance of it The Assurance Lies first in the words and shall haue the first place in my discourse Wherein I conceiue two things the Matter and the Manner The Matter is Assurance the Manner how assured Dic anima Say vnto my soule From the matter or Assurance obserue 1. That Saluation may be made sure to a man Dauid would neuer pray for that which could not be Nor would S. Peter charge vs with a dutie which stood not in possibilitie to be performed Make your election sure And to stoppe the baâ—…ng throates of all cauilling aduersaries Paul directly proues it Know yee not your owne selues how that Iesus Christ is in you except yee be reprobates We may then know that Christ is in vs if Christ be in vs we are in Christ if we be in Christ we cannot be condemned for There is no damnation to them which are in Christ Iesus But I leaue this point that it may be sure as granted and come to our selues that we may make it sure The Papists deny this and teach the contrary that Saluation cannot be made sure much good do 't them with their sory and heartlesse doctrine If they make that impossible to any which God hath made easie for many Into their secret let not my soule come 2. That the best Saints haue desired to make their Saluation sure Dauid that knew it yet intreats to know it more Psal. 41. I know thou fauourest me yet here still Dic anima Say vnto my soule I am thy saluation A man can neuer be too sure of his going to heauen If we purchase an inheritance on earth wee make it as sure and our tenure as strong as the brawne of the law or the braine of Lawyers can deuise We haue conueyance bonds and fines no streÌ„gth too much And shal we not be more curious in the setling our eternal inheritaÌ„ce in heauen Euen the best certeÌ„tie hath often in this thought it selfe weake Here wee find matter of consolation of Reprehension of Admonition Comfort to some reproofe to others warning to al. 1. Of Cosolation Euen Dauid desires better assurance to keepe vs from deiection behold they often thinke themselues weakest that are the strongest Sum Peccatorum maximus dicit Apostolorum non minimus He calls himselfe the Chiefest of sinners that was not the least of Saints Indeed sometimes a deare Saint may want feeling of the spirit of comfort Grace comes into the soule as the morning Sun into the world there is first a dawning then a meane light and at last the Sunne in his excellent brightnesse In a Christian life there is Professio Profectio Perfectio A profession of the name of Christ wrought in our conuersion not the huske of religion but the sap a pure heart a good conscience and faith vnfâ—…ned Next there is a profection or going forward â—…n grace working vp our saluation in feare and trembling Last a perfection or full assurance that we are sealed vp to the day of redemption And yet after this full assurance there may bee some feare it is not the commendation of this certainty to bee void of doubting The wealthiest Saints haue suspected their pouertie and the richest in grace are yet poorest in spirit As it is seene in rich misers they possesse much yet esteeme it little in respect of what they desire for Plenitudo opum non implet hiatum mentis the fulnesse of riches cannot answere the insatiable affection Whence it comes to passe that they haue restlesse thoughts and vexing cares for that they haue not not caring for that they haue So many good men rich in the graces of Gods spirit are so desirous of more that they regard not what they enioy but what they desire complaining often that they haue no grace no loue no life God doth sometimes from the best mens eyes hide that sauing goodnesse that is in their hearts 1. To extend their desires and sharpen their affection By this meanes he puts a hunger into their hearts after righteousnes whereas a sensible fulnes might take away their stomaches Deferred comforts quicken the appetite 2. To enlarge their ioyes when they shall finde againe the consolation which they thought lost Defiderata diù 〈◊〉 veniâ—…t What we much wished before it came we truely loue when it is come Our Lady had lost our Lord. Luk. 2. three dayes who can expresse the ioy of her soule when shee found him Shee reioyced not onely as a Mother finding her Sunne but as a sinner finding her Sauiour Iucundè obtinetur quod diù detinetur What was detained from vs with griefe must needs be obtained of vs with ioy 3. To trie whether we will serue God gratis and be constant in his obedience though we find no present recompence Satan obiects that against Iob Pro nihilo Doth Iob feare God for nought Thus put to the Test whether our seruice proceed from some other oblique respect or meerely out of loue to God when nothing but smart is presented to our instant sense 4. That our care may be the greater to keepe this comfort when we haue it Quod lachrymanter Iugemus ademptum vigilanter seruamus adeptum If we so sorrowfully lamented the losse sure we will looke well to the possession In all this Deus dona sua non negat sed commendat God intends not to deny vs his comforts but to instruct our hearts how to value them Citò data viliscunt If we might haue them for the first asking their worth would fall to the opinion of cheapnesse and contempt Wee shall haue it though we stay for it And to comfort vs let vs assuredly know
that this mourning for Gods absence is an euident demonstration of his presence 2. Of Reprehension to others that say they are sure of the purchase before they euer gaue earnest of the bargaine Presumption is to be auoided so well as despaire For as none more complaine that they want this assurance then they that haue it so none more boast of it then they that haue it not The fond hypocrite takes his owne presumption for this assurance he liues after the flesh yet brags of the Spirit This false opinion ariseth partly from his owne conceite partly from Satans deceite 1. From his owne Conceit he dreames of the Spirit and takes it granted that it euer rests within him but when his soule awakes he finds there no such manner of guest the holy Spirit neuer lodged there There is a generation that are pure in their owne eyes yet are not washed from their filthinesse These pure people so vaunt theâ—… assurance of saluation that they will scarce change places in heauen with St. Peter or St. Paul without boote The infallible marke of distinction which the Apostle sets on the Sonnes of God is this they are led by the Spirit Rom. 8. So many as are led by the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 sonnes of God The holy Ghost is their God and their guideâ—… and this Spirit 〈◊〉 them into all truth and guides them into the land of righteousnes But these men will Spiritum dâ—…ere lead the Spirit They are not ductible they will not be led by the Spirit into truth and pence but they will lead the Spirit as it were ouer-rule the holy Ghost to patronize their humours Let them be adulterers vsurers bribe-corrupted sacrilegious c. yet they are still men of the Spirit But of what Spirit Nesâ—…tis we may say to them as Christ to hit two hote disciples ye know not of what Spirit you are It is enough they thinke to haue oculos in coelo though they haue manus in fundo animos in profundâ—… It is held sufficient to haue eyes fixed on heauen though couetous hands busie on earth and crafty minds deepe as hell This ouer-venturous conceite that heauen is theirs how base and debauched liues so euer they liue is not assurance but presumption 2. This ariseth from Satans Deceite who cryes like Corah Ye take too much vpon you seeing all the congregation is â—…ily euery one of them You are holy enough you are sure of heauen what would you more You may sit downe and play your worke is done Hereupon they sing peace and Requiems to their soules and begin to wrappe vp their affections in worldly ioyes But Tranquilitas ista tempestas est this calme is the most grieuous storme This is carnall securitie not heauenly assurance As the Iewes went into captiuitie with Templum Domini the Temple of the Lord c. in their lips so many go to hell with the water of Baptisme on their faces and the assurance of saluation in their mouthes 3. Of Instruction teaching vs to keepe the euen-way of comfort eschewing both the rocke of presumption on the right hand and the gulfe of desperation on the left Let vs neither be Tumidi nor Timidi neyther ouer bold nor ouer-fainting But endeuour by faith to assure our selues of Iesus Christ and by repentance to assure our selues of faith and by an amended life to assure our selues of repentance For they must here liue to Gods glory that would hereafter liue in Gods glory 3. In the next place obserue the meanes how we may come by this assurance This is discouered in the text Dic animae Say vnto my Soule Who must speake God To whom must he speake to the Soule So that in this assurance God and the Soule must meet This St. Paul demonstrates The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contestari to beare witnesse together Neither our spirit alone nor Gods spirit alone makes this Certificate but both concurring Not our spirit alone can giue this assurance for mans heart is alwayes euill often deceitfull At all times euill Euery imagination of the thoughts of his heart is onely euill continually At some times deceitfull The heart is deceitfull aboue all things and desperately wicked Who can know it Non noui animam meam sayth Iob. I know not my owne soule though I were perfect And Paul concerning his Apostleship I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not hereby iustified And if Dauids soule could haue made a sufficient testimony alone what needed he pray Dic animae say Thou to my soule Some haue a true zeale of a false Religion and some a false zeale of a true Religion Paul before his conuersion had a true zeale of a false Religion I was exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my Fathers The Laodiceans had a false or rather no zeale of a true Religion I know thy works that thou art neither hote nor cold So that when about this certificate a man deales with his heart singly his heart will deale with him doubly No nor doth Gods spirit alone giue this Testimony least a vaine illusion should be taken for this holy perswasion But both Gods spirit and our spirit meeting together are Concordes and Contestes ioynt witnesses Indeed the principall worke comes from Gods spirit he is the primary cause of this assurance Now he certifies vs by word by deed and by seale By word terming vs in the Scripture Gods children and putting into our mouthes that filiall voyce whereby wee cry Abba Father By deed the fruit of the spirit is loue ioy peace long-suffering c. By these is our Election made sure sayth Saint Peter By Seale Grieue not the holy spirit of God by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption Now our spirit witnesseth with him from the sanctitie of our life faith and reformation He that beleeueth on the sonne of God hath the witnesse in himselfe 4. Lastly this is the sweetest comfort that can come to a man in this life euen an heauen vpon earth to be ascertained of his saluation There are many mysteries in the world which curious wits with perplexfull studies striue to apprehend But without this he that encreaseth knowledge encreaseth sorrow Vnum necessarium this one thing is onely necessary whatsoeuer I leaue vnknowne let me know this that I am the Lords Qui Christum discit satis est si caetera nescit He may without danger be ignorant of other things that truely knows Iesus Christ. There is no potion of miserie so embittered with gall but this can sweeten it with a cofortable rellish When enemies assault vs get vs vnder triumph ouer vs imagining that saluation it selfe cannot saue vs what is our comfort Noui in quem credidi I know whom I haue beleeued I am sure the Lord will not forsake me Deficit