fear God and his goodnesse not to make Mercy an occasion of sinne and so consequently of Judgement which she is so ready to remove For at the very name of Mercy at the sound of this Musique we lie downe and rest in Peace It is Mercy that saves us and we wound our selves to death with Mercy And as he that lookes upon the Sun with a steady eye when he removes his eye hath the Image of the Sun presented almost in every object so when we have long gazed on the Mercy-seat our eye begins to dazzle and Mercy seems to shine upon us in all our Actions and at all times and in every place We see Mercy in the Law quite abolishing and destroying it silencing the many woes denounced against sinners When we sinne Mercy is ready before us That we may do it with lesse regret That no worme may gnaw us when our Conscience chides Mercy is at Hand to make our Peace And this in the time of Health and when our strength fayleth and sickness hath laid us on our Bed we suborne and corrupt it to give us a visit then when we can scarce call for it to stand by us in this Evil day when we can doe no good that we may die in Hope who had no Charity and be saved by that Jesus whom we have Crucifyed And as it falls out sometimes with men of great Learning and Judgement who can resolve every doubt and answer the strongest Argument and objection yet are many times puzzled with a peece of Sophistry so it is with the formal Christian He can stand out against all motives and Beseechings and all the Batteries of God all his Calls and Obtestations against the Terrors of Hell and sweet allurements of his Promises but is shaken and foyled with a Fallacie with the Devills Fallacie à Dicto secundum quid ad Dictum simpliciter That Mercy doth save sinners that Repent and Therefore it saveth all and upon this Ground which glides away from us upon this reason which is no Reason the pleasures which are but for a season shall prevail with us when heaven with its blisse and eternity cannot move us and the trouble which Repentance brings to the flesh shall affright us from good more then the torments which are eternal can from sin And therefore to conclude Let us fear the mercy of God so fear it that it may not hurt us so fear it that it may embrace us on every side so fear it that it may save us in the Day of the Lord Jesus Let our song be made up as Davids was of these discords Mercy and Judgement Let us set and compose our life by Judgement that we may not presume and Turn our fear by Mercy Psal 101.1 that we may not despair remember we were Prisoners and remember we were Redeemed Remember we were weak and impotent and remember we were made whole Remember what Christ hath done for us and remember what we are to do for our selves and so work out our salvation with fear and trembling and then draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith to the throne of Grace that Gods Wisdom and Justice and Mercy may guide us in all our wayes till they bring us into those new Heavens wherein dwelleth righteousnesse where God shall be glorified in us and we glorified in him to all eternity THE SEVENTH SERMON PART III. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes c. THE word is loud the call sudden and vehement and we have heard it loud in the ears of them that Despair Turn Turn ye it is not too late and terrible to them that presume Turn ye Turn ye it is not soon enough and it cannot sound with terrour enough For we see presumption is a more general and spreading evil and it lames and criples us makes us halt in our turn that we Turn not soon enough or if some judgement or affliction Turn us about our Turn is but a profer a turn in shew not in reality or if we do Turn indeed it is but a turn by halfs a turn from this sin but not from all or a false hope deludes us and we are ever a turning and never turn Our December is our January our last moneth is our first day of the yeer our thirty dayes hence nay our last hour is to morrow is now Cate cras prosiciscetur h e. post triginta dies Plutarch in vitâ Cat. Vtic. as Cato's servents used to say of him our picture is a man our shadows substances our feigned repentance true our limb is a body our partial Repentance a complet one and a single Turn from one sin universal And therefore the Schools will tell us that presumption stands at greater opposition with Hope then with Fear One would think indeed the presumption did include a Hope and shut out Fear and so she doth even lead us madly over all over the Law and over the Gospel over the Threatnings of God and the wrath of God upon the point of the sword upon death it self But yet presumption is a deordination of Hope rather a brutish temerity a wilful rashnesse then Hope and moves contrary to her Hope layes hold on the promises but 't is the condition that stretcheth forth her hand she looks up to Heaven but 't is this Turn t is Repentance that quickneth her eye But presumption runs hastily to the promises but leapeth over the condition or treadeth it under her feet Presumption is in Heaven already without grace without Repentance without a Turn or at best it is serotina latewards in the evening in the shutting up of our dayes or ficta a formall repentance or manca a lame imperfect Repentance a false hope it is and therefore most contrary to Hope and therefore no Hope at all Now this sudden and vehement call should have more force and energie with it then to awake and startle us then to make us for a while look about It was so loud to hasten our repentance to give it a true being and essence to complete perfect and settle it for ever Our Repentance is our Sacrifice and it must be 1. matutinum sacrificium our morning early Sacrifice 2. Vivum a living Sacrifice breathing forth piety and holinesse not a dead carcase or the picture of Repentance and 3. integrum a Sacrifice without blemish perfect in every part and it must be in the last place juge sacrificium a continued sacrifice a Repentance never to be repented of a turn never to turn or looke back again The First The first matutinum Sacrificium An early Sacrifice Sen ep 7. There is a time for all things under the Sun saith the wiseman and it is a great part of wisdom occasionem observare properantem to watch and observe a fair opportunity and not to let it slip away between our fingers to hoyse up our sailes dum ventus operam dat Hier. ad
to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and wil nay must come again either with a reward for those who bow to his Scepter or vengeance to be poured forth upon their heads who contemn his laws and think neither of him nor the right hand of God and will not have him reign over them though they call him their king Let us a little further consider the Nature and quality of his Dominon that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little neerer to us and we may conceive of him as not onely sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell the daughter of Sion behold thy king coming to thee meek on a colt Math. 2.51 the foal of an Asse this was his first coming in great humility and this and his retinue that his Kingdom was not of this world Philip. 2.8,9 He humbled himself saith Saint Paul wherfore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name given him power dignity and honour and made him our Lord and King For his Prophetical office which he exercised in the land of Judea was in a manner and act and effect of his kingly Office by which he sits as Lord in the Throne of Majesty for by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world as a king and Lord he makes his Laws and as a Prophet he published them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediates and intercedes for his Church and Governs his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he Governs us the vertue and power the compasse and duration of his Dominon and we shall finde it to be of a higher and more excellent Nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazles at that he is The Lord of lords and King of kings And first the difference between his Dominion and the Kingdomes of the world is seen not onely in the Authors but the Laws themselves for the Laws of men are enacted many times nec quid nec quare and no reason can be given why they are enacted good reason there is why there should be Laws made against them and they abolished some written in blood too rigid and cruel some in water ready to vanish many of them but the results and dictates of mens lusts and wilde affections made not to safeguard any State but their own But his are pure and undefiled exact and perfect such as tend to perfection to the good of his Subjects and will make them like unto this Lord heires together with him of eternity of blisse and as the reward is eternal so are they unchangeable the same to day and to the end of the world not like the Laws of the Heathen which were raised with one breath and pull'd down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a second Licurgi leges emendatae saith Tert. Lycurgus his Lawes were so imperfect so ill fitting the Common-wealth that they were brought under the hammer and the file to be beat out and fashioned in another form more proportionable to that body for which they were made Tert. Apol. c. 4. were corrected by the Lacedemonians which undervaluing of his wisdom did so unman him that he would be a man no longer but starved himself to death Vetus et squallens sylva legum edictorum securibus Truncata the whole wood of the old Laws now sullied and weakned with age were cut down by the edicts and rescripts of after Emperors at the very root as with an axe all of them are in the body of time and worn out with it either fail of themselves or else are cast aside humane Laws being but as shadows cast from men in power and when they fall to the ground lost with them no more to be seen nec uno statu consistunt sed ut coeli facies et maris ità rerum et fortunae tempestatibus variantur Gel. Noct. Att. l. 20. nor do they remain in one state but alter as the face of the Heavens and the Sea now smile anon frown now a calm and by and by a tempest now the strong man sayes do this anon a stronger then he comes and I forfeit my head if I do it they are too oft written with the point of the sword and then the character follows the hand that beares it Thus it is with the Laws of men but the Laws of this our Lord and Law-giver can no more change then he that made them no bribe can buy out their power no dispensations wound them no power can disanul them Dispensationes vulnera legum but they are the same and of the same countenance they moult not a feather they alter not in one circumstance but direct the Obedient and stare the offender in the face and by the power of this Lord kindle a Hell in him in this life and will appear at the great day to accuse him for we either stand or fall in judgement according to these Laws in a word humane Lawes are made for certain Climates and fitted to the complexion and temper of certain Common-wealths but these for the whole world Rome and Britanny and Jerusalem all places are bound alike and as his Dominion so his Laws reach from one end of the earth to another and these which he publisht at the first are not onely Laws but promises and pledges of his second coming for he made them not for nought but hath left them with us till he come again in Glory to judge both the quick and the dead according to his Gospel Besides the Laws of men are too narrow and cannot reach the whole Body of sin cannot comprehend all not the inward man Leges non omnia comprehendunt non omnia vetant nec absolvunt Sen. 3. de Benef. c. 6. the thoughts and surmises of the heart no not every visible act they forbid not all they absolve not all some irregularities there be which these Laws look not upon nor have they any other punishment then the common hatred of men who can passe no other sentence upon them then this that they dislike them and we are forced to leave them to the censure and anger of the highest saith Seneca Quoties licet non opertet Every thing that is lawful for me to do is not fit to be done and his integrity is but lame that walks on at pleasure and knows no bounds but those which the Laws of men have set up and never questions any thing he doth till he meets with a check is honest no further then this that he fears not a Prison nor the Gibbet is honest because he deserves not to be hang'd How many are there who are called Christians who yet have not made good their
Fancy in its work repress them here in causis in their beginnings Take these Babylonish brats and dash them against the stones for he that doth not meet and withstand an evill in the approach hath fairely invited it to come forward qui morbo non occurrit sibi manus infert he that doth not use speedy means to keep back a disease is as he that kills himself A A thought begets Delight delight begets consent consent is seen in Action Action begets Custome Custome necessity necessity Death it was but an object but an apparition but a Thought at first and now 't is Death and he that was willing a Thought should lead in the Front was willing also that Death should come in the reare It is not safe thus to Dally with a Temptation to resolve not to act it and yet to act in the mind which will soon make the Basis and ground-work of a resolution to be afraid of the Action and yet commit the sinne to nourish that sinne in my bosome which I am ashamed to be seen with abroad which will yet at last break forth before the Sunne and the people to harbour that in my closet which within a while will be on the House top That of Bernard is most true though it be in ryme non nocet sensus ubi non est consensus the sense hurteth not where there is no consent It is no sinne for the eye to see or the care to heare or for the Fancy to set up objects within her in that shape in which they appear but it is a hard matter as Saint Hierome speaks integritate mentis abutivoluptatibus to abuse those pleasures which daily present themselves to a good end to have them as Aristippus had his Lais and not to have them to live in pleasure without that delight which makes Tentation a sinne we may say of Temptations as he did of Fortune ana est ad illam securitas non toties illam experirt The best security we have against Fortunes fickle inconstancy is not to make tryall of her too often not to want her so of Tentations It is not good to look too often upon them when they flatter not to see too often not to heare too often not to open our eyes or our eares to vanity For as they who busy themselves in worldly affaires when all things succeed prosperously doe begin at last to doate on Riches and love them for themselves which they sought for at first but for their necessity so what we look upon at first as a common object by degrees insinuates and is made familiar to us and winnes our affection to it delights and overcomes us and what did at first stand at doore and begge an entrance at last enters in and takes full possession of us and commands in chief Last of all let us Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession CHRIST JESVS even this Lord who is to come who hath openâ—d the Treasuries of Heaven broughâ— own Life and Immortality display'd his rich and precious promises of Heaven and Everlasting Happinesse all which he will make ours if we make good but this one word but this one syllable Watch This is the price of Heaven This he dyed for that we should be a peculiar People unto him Even his Watch-men That as he for the joy which was set before him endured the Crosse despised shame suffered the Contradictions of sinners and yet was yesterday and to Day Heb. 12. and the same for ever So wee by his Power and the efficacy of his Spirit by the vertue of his Precepts and the Glory of his Promises may establish our selves watch over our selves secure our selves in the midst of snares and so be in the World as out of the world walk in the midst of Temptations and be untoucht walk in the midst of all these Fiery Tryalls as the Three Children did in the Furnace and have no hurt Heare the Musick of the world but not hearken to it behold its allurements and not be moved be one and the same in all the Changes and variety of Temptations the same when they flatter and the same when they Threaten which is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be like unto our Lord. And because the watch man watcheth in vain unlesse the Lord keepeth the house we must call upon this Lord to watch with us and to watch over us who is not gratiae angustus as Saint Ambrose speaks no niggard of his Grace but as he hath given us a command to watch so he hath given us another to depend upon him Greg Hom. 36. for assistance et scimus quià petentes libenter exaudit quando hoc petitur largiri quod jubet and we know it is impossible he should denie us our requests when we desire him to grant us that which he desires we should have his help and assistance to do that which he commands do we desire it he wisheth it do we begg it of him he beseeches us to accept it we begg his assistance against the lusts of the flesh 1 Thes 4.3 he commands us to crucifie them against the pollutions of the world his will is our sanctification against the Devil if we will he will tread him under our feet he commands us who is Xistarcus the master of the race and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the over-seer and Captain of the watch by whose power and wisdom we may keep back all our enemies If the Devil suggests evil thoughts he inspires good if the enemy lay hard at us that we may fall his mercy is ready to hold us up if we be subtle our Lord is wisdom it self in all our trials in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgement he is our Lord and his Grace is sufficient for us If we fail and miscarry 't is because we will not joyn him with us because we begghis assistance and will not have it call upon him for help and weary him with our refusals be seech him to do that which we will not suffer him to do bespeak him to watch over us Is 21.11 If you will enquire enquire and fll fast asleep If you will repent repent saith the watch-man Iaf you would watch why do ye not How many yeers have you worn out in this spiritual exercise nay Vide Castalionis perutilem Tract de quinque impedimentis bonae mentis Job 8.9 to fall lower have we devoted two or three moneths nay lower yet how many weeks have we spent a week is not long but how many dayes our dayes on earth are but a shadow but how many hours and houres we say have wings and fly away I am ashamed to ask again How many minutes hath it cost us our life is but a span how much of this span how little of this little what a nothing of this nothing hath this great businesse took
a Name will sooner lead them into errour then into truth or if into truth it is but by chance for it should have found the same welcome and entertainment had it been an errour for the names sake for a name is their rule and not the thing All they now gain is that having such a leader they shall fall with more honour into the ditch It will be good then to be wary and watchfull against our selves and so to deprehend our selves and not to love our selves so as to be the greatest enemies we have not to take that upon trust to which we entrust our soules and on which we depend as our surest guide to that happinesse which now our hope and expectation looks on but to try and examine even the truth it self and to know what ground we stand on whether our foundation be firm and sure whether that which we have been taught be not now to be unlearned whether we have not took up that which we should have run from delighted in that which we should hate loved that which we should have feared whether we have not been too long familiar with that which will undoe us whether our naturall temper and complexion education and custome have not carried us so far from our selves with that swift but insensible motion that we had no leisure to look back and consult with our reason which was given us for our best help and guide whether delight or profit or honour and security did not make up our Creed for us whether in our pursuit of the truth they were not the onely lure which we did strike upon and now adhere to as to the truth it self it will be good thus to try and examine every conclusion which we have have made our rule to let one day teach another and maturity oversee and judge our greener yeares and the wisdome of age correct the easinesse of our youth reason recognize our education consideration controll custome judgment censure our delight and the new man crucify the old In a word to think that we may have erred and not to be so wise as because we are deceived to be so for ever Of this we may be sure for it is obvious to our eye that our education can be no forcible motive to bind us everlastingly to any conclusion for our pupillage doth too often most unfortunately fall under such tutors who instill not any principles into us but their own which are not alwaies true but more often false being such which they also took up upon trust from their instructers And then custome prevailes more in evil then in good and in those waies in which the flesh is carried on with a swindge and violence then in those in which we use to move but heavily and there be a thousand false fires at which we kindle our delight and can be but one true one And therefore in these conclusions which we our selves deduce and draw out of known principles in which all agree and in which out first judgement is our last we must be free and disengaged not in subjection to any man or any thing not under the awe of our first Instructers or of Custome or any Name under the Sunne or of our satisfaction and delight which we so often misplace or of profit and advantage which name we commonly give to that which undoes us Nor must we be so positive so wedded to our own decrees as to be averse and strange when a faire overture is made of better because having no surer conduct then these it is more probable we should erre then judge aright and from hence error hath multiplied it self and is that monster with so many heads even from this presumption in men that they cannot erre and we see many most conclusive and confident in that which they have but lightly lookt upon but never came so neer as to survey it and so discover what it is For if men were either impartiall to themselves or so prudently humble as to hearken to the judgement of others and to try and examine all the Prince of this world and the Father of lies would not have so much in us nor should we be in danger of so froward a generation If men were not so soon good they would not be so often evil if they were not sure they would not erre and if they were not so wise they would not be so much deceived Nor doth this submission and willingnesse to heare reason blast or endanger that truth which reason or revelation hath planted in us but improves it rather to a fairer growth and beauty as we see Gold hath more lustre by its triall And this readinesse to heare what may be said either for or against it is a faire evidence that we fell not upon it by chance nor received it as we do the devils temptations at the first shew and appearance but have maturely and carefully deliberated and fastened it to our soules by frequent meditation and are rooted and establisht in it Neither doth it argue any fluctuation or wavering of the mind or unfixednesse of judgement for mutatio sententiae non est inconstantia saith Tully to disanull a former judgement upon better evidence is not inconstancy nor doth he stagger in his way who follows a cleerer light And had not Tully forgot himself and what he here said which may well go for a rule he would not have made it a part of that elogie and commendations which he gives to another orator Nullum verbum emisit quod revocare vellet that he never spake word which he would recall which in Saint Austins judgement is truer of a fool then a wise man Quae lous creaibilior est de nimio futuo quam desaperte perfecto August Epist 7. for who more positive and peremptory then fooles who being what they are will be ever so No to be willing to heare to learne and prove every thing is the stability rather and continued act of reason it is its naturall and certain course to judge for that which is most reasonable and the mind in this doth no more wander then the planets do who are said to do so because they appeare now in this now in that part of the heavens but yet keep their constant and naturall motion Thus it entertaines truth for it self nor suffers errour to enter but in that name and resemblance and when truth appeares in its raies and glory and that light which doth most throughly and best discover it it runs from errour as from a monster and bowes to the Scepter and command of truth is never so wedded to any conclusion though never so specious as not to be ready to put it by and forsake it when another presents it self before it and hath better evidence to speak for it and commend it to its choice and practice Thus Saint Paul was a champion of the Law and after that a Martyr of the Gospel Thus he persecuted
and Attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot which was the Garment of the High Priest and his was an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 7.24 and he had a golden Girdle or Belt as a King v. 13. for he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loynes and Faithfulnesse he girdle of his reines Es 11.5 His head and his haires were white as wooll v. 14. and as white as snow his Judgement pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth even as waters are when no wind troubles them His eys as a flame of fire piercing the inward man searching the secrets of the heart nor is there any action word or thought which is not manifest in his sight His feet like unto fine brasse sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy his voyce as many waters v. 15. declaring his fathers will with power and authority sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world and last of all out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword v. 16. not onely dividing asunder the soul and the spirit but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortall eye his Countenance was as the Sun shining in his strength and now of him who walks in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large Robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power who is clothed with Justice whose Wisdom pierceth even into darknesse it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayes its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confesse with Peter This is Christ the Sonne of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the desire of the Nations the glory of his Father can Beauty it self appeare in such a shape of Terrour shall we draw out a mercifull Redeemer with a warriours Belt with eyes of Fire with feet of Brasse with a voyce of Terrour with a sharp two-edged Sword in his mouth Yes such a High Priest became us who is not onely mercifull but just not onely meek but powerfull not onely fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darknesse of Humility but with the shining robes of Majesty who can dye and can live again and live for evermore who suffered himself to be judged and condemned and shall judge and condemne the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and bids him shake off this feare for he is terrible to none but those who make him so to Hereticks and Hypocrites and Persecutors of his Church to those who would have him neither wise nor just nor powerfull non accepimus iratum sed fecimus he is not angry till we force him 't is rather our sins that turn back again upon us as furies than his wrath that makes him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all Sweetnesse all Grace all Salvation and upon these as upon St. John he layes his right hand quickens and rouzeth them up Feare not neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brasse nor my mighty voice nor my two-edged sword for my Wisdom shall guide you my power shall defend you my Majesty shall uphold you and my Mercy shall crown you Fear not I am the first and the last more humble than any more powerfull than any scorned whipped crucified and now highly exalted and Lord of all the world I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore c. Which words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lords Prayer breviarium Evangelii the breviary or summe of the whole Gospel or with Austin symbolnm abbreviatum the Epitome and abridgement of our Creed and such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable unalterable rule of Faith and then The articles or parts will be these 1. The Death of Christ I was dead 2. The Resurrection of Christ with the effect and power of it I am he that liveth 3. The duration and continuance of his life which is to all eternity I live for evermore 4. Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And these 1. Are ushered in with an Ecce Behold that we may consider it 2. Sealed ratified with an Amen that we may believe it That there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaks an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God I am he that liveth and was dead And of the death of Christ we spake the last day Par 1. we shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection consider it as past for it is fui mortuus I was dead and in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour which he drew out in his blood which must sprinkle those who are to be saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam Luke 24.25 Heb. 2.20 from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Christ and his Church are in computations but one person he ought to suffer and we ought to suffer they suffer in him and he in hem to the end of the world nor is any other method either answerable to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indelible characters nor to our mortall and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed must be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up quicquid Deo convenit Tetuil homini prodest that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us that which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head there is an oportet set upon both he ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again And first it cannot consist with the wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and we live as we please and the reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Divel for those who will be his vassals that he should foile him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this
are but as one day so in the case we now speak of a thousand a million a world of men are with him but as one man and when the Lord Chief Justice of Heaven and Earth shall sit to do judgement upon sinners what Caligula once wantonly wished to the people of Rome all the world before him have but as it were one neck and if it please him by that jus pleni Dominii by that full power and Dominion he hath over his creature A Platone dicitur Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide Plutarch quaest convival l. 8. q. 2. He may as he welneer did in the Deluge strike it off at a blow His judgements are past finding out and therefore not to be questioned He is the great Geometrician of the World which made all things in number weight and measure and hath infinitely surpast all human inventions whatsoever and therefore we cannot do him less honour then Hiero King of Sicily did to Archimede the great Mathematician for when he saw the Engins which he made and the marvellous effects which they did produce he caused it to be proclaimed that whatsoever Archimede did after affirme how improbable soever it might seem yet should not once be called into question but be received and entertained as a truth Let the course of things be carried on as it will let death passe over the door of the Egyptian and smite the Israelite let Gods Thunder misse the house of Dagon and shiver his own Tabernacle yet God is just and true and every man a liar that dares but ask the question why doth He this Look over the whole Book of Job and you shall see how Job and his Friends are tost up and down on this great deep For it being put to the question why Job was thus fearfully handled his Friends ground themselves upon this conclusion that all affliction is for sin and so lay folly and hypocrisie to his charge and tell him roundly that the judgement of God had now found him out though he had been a close irrigular and with some art and cunning hid himself from the eye of the World but Job on the contrary as stoutly pleads and defends his innocencie his justice his liberality and could not attain to the sight of the cause for which Gods hand was so heavy on him why should his Friends urge him any more Job 30.32 or persecute him as God they dispute in vain for in their answers he sees nothing but lies At last when the controversie could have no issue C. 21.34 Deus è machina God himself comes down from Heaven and by asking one question puts an end to the rest Job 38.2 who is this that darkneth Counsel with words without knowledge condemns Iob and his Friends of ignorance and weaknesse in that they made so bold and dangerous attempt as to seek out a cause or call his judgement into question 2. It may be we may save the labor that we need not move the question or seek any reason at all for in these common calamities which befall a people it may be God doth provide for the Righteous and deliver him though we perceive it not Some examples in Scripture make this very probable the old World is not drowned till Noah be stript and in the Ark the shower of fire falls not on Sodom till Lot be escaped Daniel and his fellows though they go away into captivity with rebellious Judah yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respects in the Land into which they go and which was a kinde of leading captivity captive they had favour and were intreated as friends by their enemies who had invaded and spoiled them And may not God be the same upon the like occasions How many millions of righteous persons have been thus delivered whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded some things of no great worth are very famous in the world when many things of better worth lie altogether buried in obscurity caruerunt quia vale sacro because they found none who could or would transmit them to posterity Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona no doubt but before and since millions have made the like escapes though their memory lies rak'd up and buried in oblivion But then suppose the righteous do taste of the same cup of bitternesse with the wicked yet it hath not the same taste and relish to them both for calamity is not alwayes a whip Calamitas non est poena militia est minus Foe lix nor doth God alwayes punish them whom he delivers over to the sword to lose my goods or life is one thing and to be punisht another it is against the course of Gods providence and justice that innocency should come under the lash Gen 28.23 shall not the Judge of all the earth do right yes he shall and without any breach of his justice take away that breath of life which he breathed into our Nostrils though we had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression for he may do what he will with his own and take away our goods or lives from us when and how he pleaseth because he is Lord over them and we have nothing which we received not from his hands God is not alwayes angry when he strikes nor is every blow we feel given by God the avenger for he may strike as a Father and therefore these evils change their complexions and very natures with the subject upon whom they are wrought they are and have the blacknesse of darknesse in the one but are as Angels and messengers of light to the other and may lead the righteous through the valley of death into the land of the living when the wicked are hewen down by the sword to be fuel for the fire What though they both be joyned together in the same punishment as a Martyr and a Thief in the same chain August de civitate Dei l. 1. c. 8. yet manet dissimilitudo passorum in similitudine passionum though the penalties may seem alike yet the difference is great betwixt the patients though the world perhaps cannot distinguish them and death it self which is a key to open the gates of Hell to the one may be no the other what the Rabbles conceive it would have been to Adam had he not fallen but osculum pacis a kisse of peace a gentle and loving dismission into a better state to conclude this then a people a chosen people a people chosen out of this choice Gods servants and friends may be smitten Josiah may fall in the battle Daniel may be lead into Captivity John Baptist may lose his head and yet we may hold up our inscription Dominus est it is the Lord. And now let us but glance upon the inscription and so passe to the third particular and the first sight of it may strike a terror into us and make us afraid of those sins which bring these general judgements upon
that word let every knee bow both of things in Heaven and things in earth let men and angels say Amen his will be done Dominus est It is the Lord it is the antecedent and the most natural consequent or conclusion that can be drawn from it is this of old Eli the High Priest Faciat quod bonum in oculis let him do what seemeth him good To conclude then when we are thus wrought and fashioned to his hand and will thus meek and yeelding to his Scepter when we follow him in all his wayes and not question but obey his Providence which is the bridle of the World and fit for no hands but his when with old Eli here we joyn our Faciat with his fecit and are willing he should do whatsoever is done when the Lord thunders from Heaven and shoots his arrows abroad when we can look upon them sticking in our own sides Psa 19. and say thus thus it should be Judicia Domini vera the Judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether then we have the spirit of God and we have the wil of God and these arrows will be to us as Jonathans were to David as signes and warning to fly from some danger neer at hand that those evils we suffer may work that patience which may make us Cooperarios Dei as Tertullian spake of Job fellow workers with God Tertul. De patient and joyn us with him in the conquest of those temptations which they bring along with them that our patience may beget experience how weak and fraile we are when we are moved and guided by our own will and this experience Hope which being founded on the promises of the God of truth can neither deceive us nor make us ashamed a hope that our Ark will return and God will restore to us all those helps and advantages which he shall think necessary for us in this our warfare He that hath the will of God hath this hope built upon his power and wisdom which alwayes accompanies his will he that hath the will of God hath what he will hath power and wisdom in the strength of which we shall be able to lift up our heads in the midst of all the busie noyse the World shall make be stedfast and immovable when the tempest is loudest and when our sun shall be darkned and the stars fall from Heaven when there shall be Sects and divisions and great perplexity when our Ark shall be taken and the glory depart from Israel look upon all with an eye of Charity or as Erasmus speaks with an Evangelical eye and walk on in a constant course of piety and contention with those infirmities which so easily beset us beating down sin in our selves though we cannot destroy errour in our brethren and so becomes as Nazianzen once spake of his people of Nazianzum like the Ark of Noah and by this our spiritual Wisdom escape that deluge and Inundation of Contention which hath neer overflovved and swallowed up the whole Christian World and so walk upon these floods and waves Christ himself going before till vve rest upon our Ararat our holy Hill that new Jerusalem that City of peace where there will be no envie no debate no Sects no Divisions no contentions no wars no rumor of wars but love and peace and unity and joy and unconceivable bliss for evermore THE THIRD SERMON COLLOSS 26. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him NOthing more familiar in Scripture then to compare a Christian mans life to a walke and Christianity to a way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to the way which they call Heresy so worship I the God of my Fathers saith Saint Paul Acts. 24.14 and the resemblane fitteth very well For as they who travell in the way meet with variety of Objects it may be a plant or Flower saith Saint Basil it may be a Serpent In Psal 2. or a Lyon objects to delight them and objects to terrify them all to retard and deteine them to stay them longer from their journeys end so in the course of Religion in our way to happiness every step is with danger our pathes are ensnared an our Progresse intangled if a plant or Flower Prov. 22.13 the pomp and glory of the world stay us not yet there is Leo in via a Lion in the way difficulties 2 Cor. 7.5 which we must struggle with and there are Feares in the way fightings without and Terrors Intur causus ambulamus saith Austin we walk in the midst of ruine where every object may prove a Temptation and every Temptation an overthrow nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidor with our ruine about us not onely the way but our feet be slippery Wee need not goe farre for instance for every man may find one in himself but we will take this which Saint Paul hath put into our hands of the Colossians the occasion of my Text and of them Saint Paul professes in this Epistle That they had made a fair onset in Christianity that they were forward in their way he beholds them with joy and rejoyceth to see them walk to see their order and their stedfast Faith in Christ in the verse before my Text but withall perceiving some uneven steps and dangerous swarvings and declinations from the will of Christ and those wayes which his Wisedome drew out in the Gospel he calls loud upon them and at once commends and instructs them armes them against those false Teachers who by their mixtures and additions had made it another Gospel commends them for their choice of their way and directs them how to walk In the way they were but there was Philosophus in viâ Vâ—s 8. at the Eighth the Philosopher in their way with his subtilties to spoile and rob them and then the word is Nen o vos depraedetur let no man make a spoile of you draw you by force out of the way by the vaine deceit of Philosophicall speculations And there was Angelus in viâ an Angel in the way with his glorious excellencies to amaze them v. 18. and here the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man defraud you of your reward of that I berty which Christ hath granted you which makes a fair and open way to you without the mediation of Angels Last of all There was Lex in viâ there was the Law in the way with her shadows and ceremonies to deteine them and there word is nemo vos judicet Let no man judge or condemn you of a Holyday or new Moone or the Sabbath Day v. 16. Harken not to the Philosopher but to him in whom dwelleth all the Fulnesse of the God-head bodily v. 9. and that wisedome which the Holy Ghost teacheth Bow not to an Angel but to him who is head of all Principality and Power v. 10. And look not unto the Law which is but a shadow but to the Body the
built up his assurance as strong as he can yet thinks himself not sure enough but seeks for further assurance and fortify's it with his Feare and assiduous diligence that it may stand fast for ever whereas we see too many draw out their owne Assurance and seale it up with unclean Hands with wicked hands with hands full of Blood We have read of some in the dayes of our Fore-fathers and have heard of others in our own and no doubt many there have been of whom we never heard whose Conversation was such as became the Gospel of Christ and yet have felt that hell within themselves which they could not discover to others but by gastly looks Out-cryes and deep Groanes and loud complaints to them who were neere them That Hell it self could not be worse nor had more Torments then they felt And these may seem to be breath'd forth not from a broken but a perishing heart to be the very Dialect of Despaire and indeed so they are for Despaire in the worst acception cannot sink us lower then hell But yet we cannot we may not be of their opinion and think what they say that they are cast out of Gods sight No God sees them looks upon them with an Eye full of compassion and most times sends an Angel to them in this their Agony as he did unto Christ a message of Comfort to rowse them up but if their tendernesse should yet raise doubts and draw the cloud still over them we have reason to think and who dares say the contrary that the hand of Mercy may even through this cloud receive them to that Sabbath and rest which remaines for the people of God I speak of men who have been severe to themselves and watchfull in this their Warfare full of good works and continued in them and who have many times when they were even at the gates of heaven and neere unto happinesse these Terrors and affrightments who are full of Charity and therefore cannot be destitute of hope although their owne sad apprehensions and the breathings of a Tender Conscience have made the operation of it lesse sensible and their hope be not like Aarons rod cut off dryed up and utterly dead but rather like a tree in Winter in which there is life and faculty yet the absence of the Sun or the cold benumming it suffers no force of life to worke but when that draws neere and yeelds its warmth and Influence it will bud and blossome and bring forth fruit and leafe together The Case then of every man that Despaires is not desperate but we must consider dispair in its Causes which produce and work it If it be exhal'd and drawn up out of our corrupt works and a polluted Conscience the streame of it is poysonous and deleteriall the very smoake of the bottomlesse pit but if it proceed from the distemper of the body which seises upon one as well as another or a weakness of Judgement which befalls many who may be weak and yet Pious or an excessive sollicitude and tendernesse of soul which is not so common we cannot think it can have that force and malignity as to pull him back who is now thus striving to enter in at the narrow gate or to cut him off from salvation who hath wrought it out with Feare and trembling At the Day of Judgement the Question will be not what was our Opinion and conceit of our selves but what our conversation was and what we thought of our Estate but what we did to raise it not of our fancied application of the Promises but whether we have performed the Condition For then the Promises will apply themselves God hath promised and he will make it good we shall not be askt what we thought but what we did for how many have thought themselves sure who never came to the knowledge of their Error till it was too late How many have called themselves Saints who have now their portion with Hypocrites How many have fancied themselves into Heaven whose wilfull disobedience carried them another way on the other side how many have beleeved and yet doubted how many have been synceere in the wayes of Righteousnesse and yet drooped How many have fainted even in their Savours Armes when his Mercies did compassed them in on every side how many have been in he greatest Agony when they were neerest to their Exaltation How many have condemned themselves to hell who now sit crowned in the highest Heavens I know nothing by my self 2 Cor. 4.4 saith Saint Paul yet am not thereby Justified Hoc dicit Dialogo adv Pelagium ne forte quid per ignorantiam deliquisset saith Saint Hierom though he knew nothing yet something he might have done amisse which he did not know and though our Conscience accuse us not of greater crimes yet our Conscience may tell us we may have committed many sins of which she could give us no Information and this may cast a mist about him who walketh as in the Day In a word a man may doubt and yet be saved and a man may assure himself and yer perish a man may have a groundless Hope and a man may have a groundlesse Feare and when we see two thus contrarily Elemented the one drooping the other cheerfull the one rejoycing in the Lord whom he offends the other trembling before him whom he loves we may be ready to pitty the one and blesse the Condition of the other cast away the Elect and chuse the Reprobate and therefore we must not be too rash to Judge but leave the Judgement to him who is Judge both of the quick and dead and will neither condemne the Innocent for his Feare or justifie the man that goes on in his sinne for his Assurance Take Comfort then thou disconsolate soule which art strucken down into the place of Draggons and art in this terror and anguish of heart This feare to thine is but a cloud and it will drop down and distill in Blessings upon thy head This Agony will bring down an Angel This sorrow will be turned into joy and this Doubt answered this despaire vanish that Hope may take its proper place againe the Heart of a poenitent Thy Feare is better then other mens confidence thy anxiety more Comsortable then their security Thy doubting more favoured then their assurance Timor tuus securitas tua thy feare of Death will end in the firme expectation of Eternall life Though thou art tost on a Tumultuous Sea thy Mast spent and thy Tackling torne yet thou shalt at last strike in to shore when these proud Saylors shall shipwrack in a Calme Misinterpret not this thy dejection of Spirit thy sad and pensive Thoughts nor seek too suddenly to remove them an afflicted Conscience in the time of health is the most hopefull and Soveraigne Physick that is thy feare of Death is a certaine Symptome and infallible signe of life there is no Horror of the Grave to him that lies
fall into a cold sweat and faint at another mans labour Now therefore Now let us close with it whilst it appear's in Beauty whilst it is amiable in our eyes whilst our will begins to bend and our heart inclines to it for if we let this so faire an opportunity to passe within a while Vanity it self will appeare in Glory and that Holinesse which should make us like unto God will be taken for a monster There will be Honey on the Harlots lips and gall on Chastity a Lordship shall be more desireable then Paradise and three lives in that then eternity in Heaven now God is God and if we doe not Now fall down and worship him the next Now Baal will be God The world will be our God and the True God which but now we acknowledged will not be in all our wayes The first now the first opportunity is the best the next is most uncertaine the next may be Never But now Turne now Sole puro in Times of Peace if we will stand to distinguish times by the events as by their severall faces the divers complexions they receive either from Peace or Trouble either from Prosperity or Adversity Then certainly the best Time to Turne to him is when he turns his face to us Cum candidi fulgent soles when he shines brightly upon our Tabernacles when God speaks to us not out of the Whir winde but in a still voice when Plenty crownes the Commonwealth and Peace shadows it when God appeares to us not as Jupiter to Semele in Thunder but as to Danae in a showre of Gold whilst he stands as it were at the Doore and intreats entrance and not stay till he knock with the hammer till he breake in upon us with his sword because to Turne to him now in this Brightnesse will rather be an Act of our love then our feare and so make our Repentance a Free-will Offering a Sacrifice of a Sweet smelling Savour unto God and make it evident that we understand the Voice of his calling the language of his Benefits the miracle which he works which is to cure our inward blindness with this Clay with these outward Things that we may see to Turne from our evill wayes unto the Lord. This is truely to prayse the Lord for all his Benefits this is truely to Honor him to beare our selves with that Fear and Reverence that wee leave off to offend this God of Blessings Negat beneficium qui non Honorat he denies he despiseth a Blessing that doth not thus Honor it Ingratitude is contumelious to God is the bane of merit the defacer of goodness The Sepulchre the Hell of all Blessings for by it they are turned into a Curse Ingratitude loaths the light loaths the Land of Canaan and looks for Milke and honey in Egypt And this is it which the Prophets every where complaine of that the People did enjoy the light of Gods Countenance but by it walkt on in their evill wayes and made no other use of it then this That they did per tantorum honorum detrimenta Deum contemnere as Hierome speaks lose the Favour of God in their contempt and were made worse by that which should have Turn'd them from being Evill that being his pleasant plant they brought forth nothing but wilde Grapes And to apply this to our selves Dare we now look back to the former times what face can turne that way and not gather blackness God gave us light and we shut our eyes against it God made us the envie and we were ambitious to make our selves the scorne of all Nations he gave us milk and honey and we turn'd it into Gall and Bitternesse God gave us Plenty and Peace and the one we loath'd as the Jews did their Manna the other we abused our Peace brought forth a Warre as Nicippus sheep in Aelian did yean a Lion God spake to us by Peace and we were in Trouble till we were in Trouble till we were in a Posture of Warre God spake to us by Plenty and we answered him by luxury God spake to us by love and we answered him by Oppression He made our faces to shine and we grinded the poore He spake to us in a still voice and we defyed the Holy One of Israel Every benefit of his cryed Give me my price and lo in stead of Turning from our evill wayes delighting in them in stead of leaving them defending them In stead of calling upon his Name calling it down to countenance all the Imaginations of our Heart which have been evill continually This was the Goodly price that he and all his Blessings were prized at and then when this light was thus abused our Sun did set our day was shut in That Now That Then had its end The next call was in Thunder and he gave us Haile for raine and flaâ—… fire in our Land But such a then such an opportunity we had and we may say with shame and sorrow enough that we have lost it but since we have let slip this time of peace this acceptable time yet at least let us turn now in the storm that he may make a calm turn to him in our trouble that he may bring us out of our distress turn now when our Sun is darkned and our Moon turned into blood when the knowledge of his Law of true Piety begins to wax dim and the true face and beauty of Religion to wither When the stars are fallen from Heaven the teachers of truth from the Profession of truth and set that up for truth which sets them up in high-places when the powers of Heaven are shaken when the pillars of the Church sink and break asunder into so many Sects and divisions which is as musick to Rome but makes all walk as mourners about the streets of Jerusalem when Religion which should be the bond of love is made the title and pretense of war the somentor of that malice and bitternesse which desiles it and puts it to shame and treads it under foot Now when the Sea and the waves thereof roar when we hear the noise and tumult of the people which is as the raging of the Sea but ebbing and flowing with more uncertainty and from a cause lesse known Now in this draught and resemblance of the end of the World when he thus speaks to us in the whirl-winde when he thus knocks with his hammer when he calls thus loud unto us turn ye turn ye now let us bow down our heads and in all humility answer him Ecce accedimus Behold we come unto thee For thou art our Lord and God For as our Saviour speaks of offences so may we of these Judgements and Terrours which he sends to fright us to him Necesse est ut veniant It must needs be that they come not only necessitate consequentiae by a necessity of consequence supposing the condition of our nature and the changes and chances of a sinful world or rather supposing
hugg themselves in it are very weak even Children in understanding Gerson the devour Schoolman tells us Mulieres omnes propter infirmitaetem consilii mâ—jores nostri in Tutorum potestate esse voluerunt Cicero pro Mutaena it is most commonly in Women quarum aviditas pertinacior in assectu fragilior in cognitione Whose affections commonly outrunne their understanding who affect more then they know and are then most enflamed when they have least light and it is in men too and too many who are as fond of their groundless Fancies and ill-built Opinions as the weaknesse of that sex could possibly make them are as weak as the weakest of women and have more need of the bitt and Bridle then the Beasts that perish what greater weaknesse can there be then to follow a blind guide and deliver our selves up to our Fancy and affective Notions and make them Masters of our Reason and the only Interpreters of that word which should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathes For if we check not our Fancy and Affections they will run madding after shadows and apparitions They will shew us nothing but Peace in the Gospel nothing but Love in Christianity Nothing but Joy in the Holy Ghost They will set our Love and Joy on Wheeles and then we are straight carried up to Heaven in these siery Chariots One is Elioas Another John Baptist Another Christ himself If the Virgin Mary have an Exultat they have a Iubilee If Saint Paul be in the Spirit They are above it and right Reason too and the Spirit is theirs if he put on that shape which best likes them If he be a Spirit of Counsel we are his Secretaries of his Closet and can tell what he did before all Times and Number over his Decrees at our Fingers ends If a Spirit of strength we bid defiance to Principalities and Powers If a Spirit of Wisedome we are filled with him the wise-men the sages of the World though no man could ever say so but our selves If a Spirit of Ioy we are in an Extasy if of Love we are on fire But if he be Spiritus Timoris a Spirit of Feare there we leave him and are at Ods with him we seem to know him not and we cannot Feare at all because we are bold to think that wee have the Spirit 'T is true whilst we stand thus affected a Spirit we have but 't is a Spirit of illusion which troubles and distorts our Intellectualls and makes us look upon the Gospel ex adverso situ on the wrong side on that which may seem to flatter our infirmities but not on that which may cure them and as Tully told his friend That he did not know Totum Caesarem all of Caesar so we know not totum Christum all of Christ wee know and consider him as a Saviour but not as a LORD wee know him in the Riches of his Promises but not in the Terror of his Judgements know him in that life he purchas'd for Repentant sinners but not in that death he threatens to Unbeleevers For to let passe the Law of works Heb. 12.20 we dare not come so neere as to touch at that for we cannot endure that which was commanded Let us well weigh and consider the Gospel it self which is the Law of Faith was not that establish'd and confirmed with promises of Eternal life and upon penalty of Eternall Death In the Gospel we are told of weeping and gnashing of Teeth of a condition worse them to the a Mill-stone hanged about our necks and to be throwne into the bottom of the Sea and by no other then by the Prince of Peace then by Christ himself who would never have put this feare in us if he had knowne that our Love had had strength enough to bring us to him And therefore in the Tenth of St. Matthews Gospel at 28. verse he teacheth us how we shall feare Rectâ methodo he teacheth us to be perfect methodists in Fear that we misplace not our Feare upon any Earthly Power he sets up a Ne Timete Feare not them that can kill the Body and when they have done that have done all and can do no more and having taken away one feare he establisheth another But feare him who can both cast Body and Soul into Hell fire and that we might not forget it for such troublesome guests lodge not long in our memory he drives it home with an Etiam Dico Yea I say unto you feare him Now Him denotes a Person and no more and then our feare may be Reverence and no more It may be Love it may be Fancy it may be nothing but qui potest is equivalent to quia potest and is the reason why we must feare him even because he can punish And this I hope may free us from the Imputation of sinne if our Love be blended with some Feare and if in our Obedience we have an eye to the hand that may strike us as well as to that which may fill us with good things and if Christ who is the Wisedome of the Father think it fit to make the Terror of Death an argument to move us we cannot have Folly laid to our charge if we be moved with the Argument Fac Fac saith Saint Austin vel timore poenae si non Potes adhuc amore justitiae Doe it man Doe it if thou canst not yet for Love of Justice yet for fear of punishment I know that of Saint Austin is true Brevis differentia legis Evangelii Amor Timor Love is proper to the Gospel and Feare to the Law but 't is Feare of Temporall punishment not of Eternall for that may sound to both but is loudest in the Gospel The Law had a whip to fright us and the Gospel hath a Worm to Gnaw us I know that the Beauty of Christ in that great Work of Love the work of our Redemption should transport us beyond our selves and make us as the Spouse in the Canticles is said to be even sick with love but we must consider not what is due to Christ but what we are able to pay him and what he is willing to Accept not what so great a Benefit might challenge at our hands but what our Frailty can lay downe for we are not in Heaven already but passing towards it with Feare and trembling And he that brings forth a Christian in these colours of Love without any mixture of Feare doth but as it was said of the Historian votum accomodare non historiam present us rather with a wish then an History and Character out the Christian as Xenophon did Cyrus Non qualis est sed qualis esse deberet not what he is but what he should be I confesse thus to fear Christ thus to be urged and chased to Happinesse is an Argument of Imperfection but we are Men not Angels We are not in heaven already we are not yet perfect and
we beleeve that he shall Judge the world and we read that the Father hath committed this Judgement to the Son John 5.22 take him as God or take him as man he is our Lord Cum Dominus dicitur unus agnoscitur for there is but one faith and but one Lord so that Christ may well say you call me Lord and Master 1. Cor. 6.20 Colos 2.15 and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure Redemptionis by the redemption having bought us with a price and so jure belli by way of Conquest by treading our enemies under our feet and taking us out of slavery and bondage And that we may not think that Christ laid down his power with his life or that he is gone from us never to come again we will a little consider the nature of his Dominion and behold him there from whence he must come to judge the quick and the dead and the Prophet David hath pointed out to him sitting at the right hand of God where we should ever behold him Psal 110.1 and fix our thoughts our eye of faith upon him in this our watch The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand Psal 110. till I make thy enemies thy footstool which speech is Metaphorical and we cannot draw it to any other sense then that on which the intent of the speaker did levell it which reacht no further then this to shew that his own kingdom was nothing in comparison of Christs which was of another Non exparabolis materias comment mur sed exmaterijs parabolas interpretamur Tert. de puducir c. 8. and higher nature as Tertul. spake of parables we do not draw conclusions and Doctrines out of Metaphors but we expound the Metaphor by the Doctrine which is taught and the scope of the teacher nor must we admit of any interpretation which notwithstanding the Metaphor might yeeld which is not consonant and agreeable to the Doctrine and analogie of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher we can neither bring a Metaphor into a definition nor can we build an argument upon it we may say of Metaphors as Christ spake of the voice from heaven they are used in Scripture for our sakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 5. Top. c 2. for likenesse and proportions sake and serve to present Intellectual objects to the eye and make that light which we have of things familiar to us a help and medium by which we may more clearly see those which are removed and stand at greater distance For he cannot be said to sit there at the right hand of God from the position and site of his body we cannot entertain so grosse an Imagination and Saint Stephen tells us Acts. 7. he saw him standing at the right hand of God but it may declare his victory his triumph and rest as it were from his labour secundum consuetudinem nostram illi consessus offertur qui victor adveniens Honoris gratia promeretur ut sedeat it is borrowed saith Saint Ambrose from our customary speech by which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorious service and so Christ having spoiled the adversarie by his death having lead captivity captive and put the Prince of Darknesse in chaines at his return with these spoiles hears from his Father Sede ad dextram sit now down at my right hand Nor doth his right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sits For Christ himself tells the high Priest That they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God Mar◠14.12 and coming in the clouds of heaven which if it be litterally understood we must needs conceive him coming and sitting at the same time All agree it is a Metaphor and some interpret it of that supremacy he hath above the Creature for so he is described sitting at the right hand of God in Heavenly places Eph. 1.20,21 far above all principalities and powers and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the World to come Some have conceived that by this honour of sitting at the right hand of God not onely an equality with God is implyed but something more Equal to the Father as touching his God-head Ath. Cr. not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equall in all things but because in respect of the exercise and execution of his royal office he hath as it were this dignity to sit in his royal seat as Lord and Governour of his Church for the Father is said as I told you to commit all judgement to the Son Tertul de pudicit c. 9. But we may say with Tertul. malo in scripturis forte minus sapere quam contra we had rather understand lesse in Scripture then amisse rather be wary then venture too far and wade till we sink and that will prove the best interpretation of Scripture which we draw out of Scripture it self and then Saint Paul hath interpreted it to our hands for where as the Prophet David Tells us the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaks more expresly Oportet eum regnare 1 Cor. 15. he must reign till he hath put down all his enemies under his feet Heb. 8.1 and in the Epistle to the Hebrews we have such an high Priest that sits at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the Heavens that is we have such an high Priest which is also a Lord and king of Majesty and power to command and govern us who hath absolute authority over things in Heaven and things in earth over all the souls and bodyes of men and may prescribe them Laws reward the obedient and punish offenders either in this world or the next or in both for though he were a Lord and King even in his cratch and on his crosse yet now his Dominion and kingly power was most manifest and he commands his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the World and speaks not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyns Repentance and amendment of life to all the Nations of the earth which were now all under his Dominion Thus saith Christ himself it is written and thus it behoved him to suffer and to rise again that Repentance and remission of sin Luk. 24.47 might be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all Nations and his Dominion is not subordinate but absolute he commands not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but as Solomons King he is Rex Alkum a King against whom there is no rising up And now that it may appear that he is not for ever thus to sit at the right hand of God but there sits
all things written nay he keeps a book in the very closet of thy heart the onely book which shall go along with thee and when he comes it shall fly open every chapte revery letter every character of sin shall be as plain to thy eye as to his and though we here seal up this book he can read it when it is shut He sitteth there tanquam venturus as one coming Indeed to us who like those Philosophers in Tully seeing nothing with our minde refer all to our sense and scarce beleeve any thing but that for which we have an ocular demonstration the eye of whose faith is so dull and heavie that it cannot clearly discern that eye of our Lord which is ten thousand times brighter then the sun he is most times as lost like Epicuus his God doing nothing like Baal either in his journy or sleeping and as at his first coming he was had in no reputation so now he is at the right hand of God he is in a manner forgot We do not insult over him in plain termes as those did in Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what doth the Carpenters son now do but we are as slow of heart to beleeve what we are taught and what we say we beleeve as those disciples which went to Emaus We are told that he did rise again from the Dead and ascended and sitteth at the right hand of God and wil come again but 't is a long time since these things were done and he is long a coming To the Athiest to the prophane person to the Luke-warm Christian to the Hypocrite he is in a manner lost they have seald up his grave and he will come no more And this is one argument that he will come even this that we so little regard it for can a Lord that breathes nothing but love bear with such contempt can he whom the voice of God and man whom Scripture and Miracles and reason have placed on the Tribunal and made judge of all the world be kept back by these vain Imaginations which are nothing else but the steame and exhalations from our sensual and Bruitish part shall not he judge all the earth because we are guilty and deserve to be condemned no veniet veniet his etiamsi nolis veniet he will come August he wil certainly come whether thou wilt or no nor is delay in comming an Argument that he will not come For the Lord is not slack concerning his promise and Coming as some count slackness some scoffers who walk after their own lusts and ask where is the promise of his coming For sensuality is the Mother and nurse of unbeleefe and the sense flyes the Knowledge of that which is terrible to it and so we are as Saint Peter tels us 2 Pet. 3.3,4 willingly ignorant of that which we are Taught and will not consider that the world is made of corruptible parts and therefore must at last be dissolved and vers 12. that as the old world perished by water so this shall by fire For what guilty Person doth not study to drive the thought of a Judge coming out of his mind He that hath his delight his heaven in this world is not willing to heare of another to come venit the Lord comes is not in his Creed Sed nulla est mora ejus quod certò eveniet but the deferring or delay of that which will certainly come should not come into our Consideration for come he will though he come not yet and when he is come all the time past and before in which we grew wanton and presumptuous and beat our fellow servants is not in true esteeme so much as a moment or the twinkling of an eye 'T is not slackness 't is not delay That is our false Glosse who when we break the Law are as willing to misinterpret the Law-giver The Hypocrite thinks him as very a dissembler as himself and is well perswaded that though he threaten yet he meaneth it not though he hath denounced judgement against those that sinne and repent not yet he will not be so good or rather as bad as his word The sacrilegious person lookes upon him as an enemie to Churches and he it is that puts the hammer into his hand to beat down his own Temple Tertul. de Animâ The profane person would excaecare providentiam Dei would put out the eye of his Providence and the morall Atheist pull him from his Throne and thrust him out of the world Every man frames such a God as will fitt him and proportions him to his lusts we draw him out as the Painter did the Goddess in the likeness of those vanities which wee most dote on and so we entitle him to our fraud and Oppression Petrarch invenimus quomodo etiam Avarum facerem we have found an Art to bring him in as an Abbettor a Promoter of our Covetousness and Ambition and so as much as in us lies make him as Ambitious Psal 50.21 and Coveto us as our selves Thou thoughtest verily that I was like unto thee saith God to the Hypocrite behold Christ sits at the right hand of God in full power and Majesty ready to descend but he comes not yet and hence the scorner concludes he will never come This is a false Gloss and a false conclusion the result and Inference of flesh and blood for 't is not slackness that 's the dictate of our lusts but if Truth interpret it 2 Pet. 3.15 't is long suffering his long suffering should end and be eas'd in our repentance Saint Peter tells us It is Repentance It is what it should be if it be not Repentance we have drove it from it self and see now 't is nothing but wrath and Indignation his long suffering is either our Repentance or our Condemnation And this is the true reason Why hee comes not yet Isid l. V. why he is not yet come but as it were a comming For Time is nothing unto him nor is it any thing in it self nec intelligitur nisi per actus humanos nor can we conceive or understand it but by those Actions which we doe now and againe and which we cannot doe at once A Thousand years in his sight are but as yesterday but not so long not so long as a Thought he delays not but he beares with us in this our Time we look upon the Day of Judgement as upon a Day to come but to him it is present That he is not come to us is for our sakes For the Church of Christ till the consummation of all things is in Fluxu in Corpore Temporum as Tert. speaks is wrapt up in the Body of Time comes not simul semel at once but successively gaines the addition of parts St. Paul cals it a body and though it be not such a Body as the Stoicks fancied quod more Fluminum in assiduâ diminutione adjectione est which
like Rivers receives every day encrease and every day diminution and is not the same to Day which it was yesterday yet is it corpus aggregatum a collected Body which is not made up at once in every part but receives its parts successively She is Terrible as an Army with Banners as it is said of the Spouse in the Canticles and in an Army you know the Van may lodge there to night where the Rere commeth not till the Morning So it is with the Church it hath alwayes its parts yet hath alwayes parts to be added so we read Acts 2. and the last verse That the Lord added daily that is successively such as should be saved Quantum iniquitatis grassatur tantum abest regnum Dei quod secum affert plenam re â—itudinem saith the Father Christ is come and yet is still a coming whilst there are Heresies and Schismes in the Church whilst the one undermineth the Bulwarks without and the other raises a Mutiny within whilst the Divell rageth and men sinne there be yet some to be gathered to his Sheep-fold and though in respect of his Power he be already come yet for his Elects sake he will not execute it yet And this is the very reason which Justine Martyr gives of the proroguing and delay of his comming and why the Consummation and end of all things is not yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mankinds sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the seed of Christians which is yet to be propagated for by his eternall Wisdome he fore-sees That many there be who will beleeve and turne to him by Repentance and some that bee not even many who are yet unborn in his second Apologie for the Christians For the promise is made to you and to your children saith Saint Peter natis natorum qui nascentur ab illis and to all that are afar off Acts 2.39 even as many as the Lord God shall call for how many thousands are not yet who shall be Saints for their sakes it is that the Lord doth not consume the world with fire that he doth not come to judge the world that wicked men are permitted to revell on the earth and the devil to rage that he suffers that which he abhors suffers injustice to move its armes at large and spread it self like a green bay tree and leaves innocency bound in chaines that he suffers men to break his commands to question his providence to doubt of his being and essence that we see this disorder and confusion the world in a manner dissolved before its end but when that number is full a number which we know not or if we did cannot know when he will fill it up when that is compleat then time shall be no more then Lo he comes and will purge the world of Heresie and Schisme will appear in that Majesty that the Athiests shall confesse he is God and see all those crooked wayes in which his providence seemed to walk made even and strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonur to his Majesty to mannage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every haire of our head and observe the Sparrow that falls from the house top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresy and Schisme prophanesse and Atheisme sin and death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Crosse and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finisht his victory and triumph compleat and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense Coloss 2.15 Triumph and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more THE FIFTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Dominus venturus The Lord will come Nescitis quâ horâ You know not what hour PART II. WEE have already beheld the person our Lord and we have placed him on his Tribunal as a judge for the Father hath committed the judgement to the Son you have seen his Dominion in his Laws which were fitted and proportioned to it as his Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousnesse so his Laws are just no man no Devil can question them we approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience gives us is an approbation You have seen the vertue and power of his dominion for what is regal right without regal power what is a Lord without a sword or what is a sword if he cannot manage it what is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he comes upon him but our Lord Es 9.6 as he is called wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large compasse and circuit of his Dominion no place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him Luk. 1.33 and over them that put him to open shame and last of all the durability or rather the eternity of it for of his Dominion there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary and take the words going before he shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain for as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign as his Priesthood so his Dominion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never passe away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversus settled in his place but upon his return Dominus venturus the Lord will come it is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of eshcacie and vertue First to awake and stir up our faith Secondly to raise our hope and Thirdly to inflame our charity It is an object for our faith to look on for our hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace And first it offers it self to our faith for ideo Deus alscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon
condition To these Dominus veniet the Lord will come and his coming is called the consummation of all things that which makes all things perfect and restores every thing to its proper and natural condition The creature shall have its rest the earth shall be no more wounded with our plowshares nor the bowels of it digg'd up with the mattock there shall be no forbidden fruit to be tasted no pleasant waters to be stolen no Manna to surfet on no Crowns to fight for no wedge of gold to be a prey no beauty to be a snare Dominus veniet the Lord will come and deliver his Creature from this bondage perfect and consummate all and at once set an end both to the world and vanity Lastly Dominus venit the Lord will come to men both good and evil he shall come in his glory Math. 25.31,32 and he shall gather all Nations and separate the one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from his goats and by this make good his Justice and manifest his providence in the end for his Justice is that which when the world is out of order establisheth the pillars thereof for sin is an injury to the whole Creation and inverts that order which the Wisdom of God had first set up in the World My Adultery defileth my body my oppression grindeth the poor my malice vexes my brother my craft removes the Land-mark my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the vniverse disturb and violate that order which wisdom it self first establisht and therefore the Lord comes to bring every thing back to its proper place to make all the wayes of his Providence consonant and agreeable to themselves to Crown the Repentant Sinner that recover'd his place and bind and setter the stubborn and obstinate offendor who could not be wrought upon by promises or by Threats to move in his own sphere Dominus veniet the Lord will come to shew what light he can strike out of Darkness what Harmony he can work out of the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed body of sinne for sinne is a foul deformity in Nature and therefore he comes in judgement to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the Grace and Beauty of the whole where the punishment of sinne may wipe out the disorder of sinne where every thing is plac'd as it should be and every man sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1.25 Gers to his proper place nec pulchrius in coelo Angelus quant in Gehennâ Diabolus Heaven is a fit and proper place for an Angel of light for the Children of God and Hell is as fit and proper for the Devil and his Angels Now the wayes of men are crooâ—ed Intricate and their Actions carried on with that contrariety and contradiction that to quit and help himself out of them and take himself off from that Amazement Duos Ponticus deos tanquam duas Symplegadas naufragii sui adsert quem negare non potuit i.e. creatorem i. e. nostrum quem procare non poteâ—it i. e suum Tert c. 1. adv Marcion Marcion ran dangerously upon the greatest Blasphemy and brought in two Principles one of Good and another of Evill that is two Gods but when he shall come and lay Judgement to the line all things will be even and equall and the Heretick shall see that there is but one now all is jarring discord and confusion when he comes he makes an everlasting Harmony he will draw every thing to its right and proper end restore Order and beauty to his work fill up those breaches which sinne hath made and manifest his wisedome and Providence which here are lookt upon as hidden mysteries in a word to make his Glory shine out of Darkness as he did light when the earth was without forme That the Lord may be all in all Here in this world all lyes as in a night in darkness in a Chaos or confusion and we see neither what our selves nor others are we see indeed as we are seen see others as they see us with no other Eyes but those which the Prince of this world hath blinded Our Judgement is not the Result of our Reason but is rais'd from by and vile respects If it be a friend we are friends to his vice and study Apologies for it If it be an enemy we are Angry with his virtue and abuse our witts to disgrace it If he be in Power our eyes dazle and we see a God come downe to us in the shape of a man and worship this Meteor though exhaled and raised from the dung with as great Reverence and Ceremony as the Persians did the Sunne what he speaks is an Oracle and what he doth is an Example and the Coward the Mammonist or the Beast gives sentence in stead of the man which is lost and buried in these If he be small and of no repute in the world he is condemned already though he have reason enough to see the Folly of his Judges and with pitty can null the Censure which they passe If he be of our Faction we call him as the Manichees did the chiefest of their Sect one of the Elect but if his Charity will not suffer him to be of any we cast him out and count him a Reprobate The whole world is a Theatre or rather a Court of corrupt Judges which judge themselves one another but never judge righteous Judgement for as we Judge of others so we do of our selves Judicio favor officit our self-love puts out the eye of our Reason or rather diverts it from that which is good and imployes it in finding out many Inventions to set up Evill in its place as the Prophet Esay speaks wee feed on Ashes a deceived Heart hath Turned us aside Isa 44.20 that we cannot deliver our soul and say is there not a lie in our Right Hand Thus he that sows but sparingly is Liberall He that loves the world is not Covetous He whose eyes are full of the Adultress is chast He that sets up an Image and falls down before it is not an Idolater he that drinks down blood as an Oxe doth water is not a Murderer He that doth the works of his Father the Devill is a Saint Multa injustè fieri possunt quae nemo possit reprehendere Cic. de Finibus 93. Many things we see in the world most unjustly done which we call righteousnesse because no man can commence a suit against us or call us into question and we doubt not of Heaven if we fall not from our cause or be cast as they speak in Westminster Hall If Omri'â— statutes be kept we soon perswade our selves that the power of this Lord will not reach us and if our names hold faire amongst men we are too ready to tell our selves That they are written also in the Book of Life This is
the Judgement of the world Thus we judge others and thus we judge our selves so byass'd with the Flesh that for the most we passe wide of the Truth Others are not to us nor are we to our selves what we are but the work of our own hands made up in the world and with the help of the world for the wisdome of this world is our Spirit and Genius that rayses every Thought dictates all our words begetteth all our Actions and by it as by our God we live and move and have our being And now since judgment is thus corrupted in the world even Justice requires it Et veniet Dominus qui malè judicata rejudicabit the Lord will come and give judgement against all these crooked and perverse Judgements and shall lay Righteousness to the Plummet Is 28.17 and with his oreath sweep away the refuge of lyes and shall judge and passe another manner of sentence upon us and others then we doe in this world Then shall we be told which we would never believe though we have had some Grudgings and whisperings some half Informations within us which the love of this world did soon silence and suppress Then shall he speake to us in his displeasure Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli Susurrorum Hier. and though we have talk'd of him all the day long tell us we forgot him If we set up a golden Image he shall call us Idolaters though we intended it not and when we build up the Sepulchres of the Prophets and flatter our selves and accuse our Fore-fathers tell us we are as great murderers as they and thus find us guilty of that which we protest against and haters of that which we think we love and lovers of that which we think we detest and take us from behind the bush from every lurking hole from all shelter of excuse take us from our Rock our Rock of Ayre on which we were built and dash our presumptuous Assurance to Nothing Nor can a sigh or a groane or a loud profession a Fast or long Prayers corrupt this Lord or alter his sentence but he shall judge as he knows who knows more of us then we are willing to take notice of and is greater the our Conscience which we shrink and dilate at pleasure and fit to every purpose and knoweth all things and shall judge us not by our Pretence our Intent or forc'd Imagination but secundum Evangelium according to his Gospel veniet he shall come when all is thus out of Order to set all at Right and strait again And this is the end of his coming The Third Particular Non nostis Horam You know not the Hour And now being well assured that he will come we are yet to seek and are ready with the Disciples to Ask When will these things be and what hour will he come veniet come he will Et hocsatis est aut nescio quid satis sit as P. Varus spake upon another occasion this is enough or we cannot see what is enough But nothing is enough to those who have no mind nor Heart to make use of that which is enough to them enough is too much for they look upon it as if 't were nothing and therefore Christ doth not feed and nourish this thriftless and unprofitable Humor but bridles and checks it puts in his veto his prohibition not to search after more then is Enough Non nostis Horam you know not the hour is all the Answer which he who best knows what 't is fit for us to know will afford our Curiosity For what is that we doe not desire to know Sen. devit Beat. c. 32. Curiosum nobis Natura dedit ingenium saith the Philosopher Nature it self may seem to have imprinted this itch of Curiosity in our very mindes and witts made them inquisitive given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eye which never sleepes never rests upon one Object but passeth by that and gazeth after another That he will come is not enough for our busy but idle curiosity to know we seek further yet to know that which cannot be known the Time and very hour of his coming The mind of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enormi otiosae curiositati tanâ—aâ—… decrit dis ere quantum â—buerit inquiâ—ere Terr de Anima c. ult restless in perpetuall motion It walkes through the Earth sometimes looks upon that which delights it sometimes that which grieves it stays and dwells too long upon both and misinterprets them to her own Impoverishing and disadvantage perruâ—pit Coeli munimenta saith Seneca it breaks through the very Gates of Heaven and there busily pryes after the Nature of Angels and of God himself but see it not Enters the Holy of Holies and there is venturing into the Closet of his secrets and there is lost lost in the search of those Things of Times and Seasons which are past finding out and are therefore set at such a distance that we may not send so much as a Thought after them which if they could be known yet could not advantage us It was a good Commendation which Tacitus gives of Agricola retinuit quod est difficulimum in sapientiâ modum In vita Agricolae He did what is difficult for man to doe bound and moderate himself in the pursuit of knowledge and desired to know no more then that which might be of use and profitable to him which wisdom of his had it gain'd so much credit as to prevaile with the sonnes of men which would be thought the Children of Wisedome they had then laid out the precious Treasure of their Time on that alone which did concern them and not prodigally mispent it on that which is impertinent in seeking that which did fly from them when they were most intentive and Eager in their search If this Moderation had been observed There be Thousand questions which had never been rais d Thousand Oâ—inions which had never been broacht Thousands of errors which had never shew'd their heads to disturb the Peace of the Church to obstruct and hinder us in those wayes of Obedience which alone without this impertinent turning our eye and looking aside will carry us in a strait and even course unto our end Why should I pride my self in the Finding out a new conclusion when t is my greatest and my onely glory to be a New Creature why should I take such paines to reconcile Opinions which are Contrary my businese is to still the Contradictions of my mind those Counsells and desires which every day thwart and oppose one another what profit is it to refute other mens errours whilst I approve and love and Hugg my owne What purchase were it to find out the very Antichrist and to be able to say This is the man All that is required of me is to be a Christian what if I were assured the Pope was the Beast I sought for he appeared in as
thus if we look up to the Hills from whence commeth our Salvation Luk. 21.28 wee shall also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look up and lift up our Heads behave our selves as if all Things did goe as wee would have them look up and lift up our Heads as herbs peep out of the Earth when the Sunne comes neere them and Birds sing when the Spring is neere so look up as if our Redemption our Spring were neere Thus if wee Importune Him by our Prayers wait on Him by our Patience walk before him when the Tempest is loudest in the syncerity and uprightnesse of our Hearts and put our Cause into his Hands if there bee any Ismael to persecute us any Enemies to trouble us hee will cast them out either so melt and transforme them that they shall not trouble us or if they doe they shall rather advantage them then Hurt us rather improve our Devotion then coole and abate it rather increase our Patience then weaken it raise our Syncerity rather then sink it rather settle and confirme our Confidence then shake it in a word shall so cast them out as to teach us to doe it that wee may so use them as wee are Taught to use the unrighteous Mammon to cast them out by making them Friends even such Friends as may receive us into Everlasting Habitations which God Grant for His Sonne JESUS CHRISTS sake c. THE FOURTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Watch therefore For you know not what hour your Lord doth come I. PART WHich words are the words of our Blessed Saviour and a part of that Answer which he return'd to that Question which was put up by his Disciples ver 3. Tell us When shall these things be and what shall be the signe of thy comming and of the end of the world Where we may observe that he doth not satisfy their Curiosity which was measuring of Time even to the last point and moment of it when it shall be no more but resolves them in that which was fit for them to know and passeth by in silence and untoucht the other as a thing laid up and reserved in the Bosome of his Father The Time he tells them not but foretells those Fearfull signes which should be the Fore runners of the Destruction of Jerusalem and the ends of the world which two are so interweaved in the Prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them We need not take any paines to disentangle or put them asunder At the 30. v. he presents himself in the Clouds with Power and Glory the Angels sound the Trumper at the next the two men in the Field and the two women grinding at the Mill in the Verses immediately going before my Text the one taken the other lest are a faire Evidence and seem to point out to the end of the world which will be a time of discrimination of separating the Goats from the sheep And then these words will concerne us as much as the Apostles In which he who is our Lord and King to Rule and Govern us He that was and that is Revel 1.4 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is to come tells us of his comming opens his will and manifests his Power and as he hath given us Laws tells us he will come to require them at our bands He that is the Wisedome of his Father he that neither slumbers nor sleeps calls upon us makes this stirre and noise about us and the Alarum is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be watchfull Call it what we please an Admonition or an Exhortation it hath the necessitating and compulsive force of a Law and Christ is his own Herald and proclaims it as it were by the sound of the Trumpet for this vigilate ergo watch Therefore is tuba ante Tuham is as a Trumpet before the last and thus it sounds To you it is commanded to fling your selves off from the bed of security to set a Court of Guard upon your selves to rowze up your selves to stand as it were on a Watch-Tower looking for and expecting the comming of the Lord. I may call it a Law but it is not as the Laws of men which are many times the result of mens wills which are guided and determined by their Lusts and Affections and so Ambition makes Laws and Covetousnesse makes Lawes and private Interest makes Laws with this false Inscription Bono publico For the Publick Good but it is prefac'd and ushered in with Reason which concerns not so much the Head as the Members not the Lord as his Servants not the King as his Subjects for us men and for our salvation For him that is in the Field and him that is in the House For him that sitteth on the Throne and the woman that Grindes at the Mill for the whole Church is the warning given This Law promulg'd and every word is a Reason 1. That he is our Lord that is to come 2ly That he will come 3ly That the time of his comming is uncertaine A Lord to seal and ratify his Laws with our blood which we would not subscribe too nor make good by our Obedience and a Lord gone as it were into a farre Countrey and leaving us to Traffick till he come but after a while to come and reckon with us and last of all at an uncertain time at an Hour we know not That every hour may be unto us as the hour of his comming for he that prefixes no Hour may come the next every one of these is a Reason strong enough to enforce this Conclusion Vigilate ergo Watch therefore A Lord he is and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch these are the premises and the conclusion is Logically and formally deduced primae necessitatis the most necessary conclusion that a servant or subject can draw so that in these words we have these things considerable First the person coming Dominus vester your Lord Secondly his Advent veniet he will come Thirdly the uncertainty of that hour we know not when it will be out of which will naturally follow this conclusion which may startle and awake us out of sleep vigilate ergo watch therefore Watch therefore for you know not the Hour c. We will follow that method which we have laid down and begin with the premises and first it will concern us to look upon the person for as the person is such is our expectation and could we take the Idea of him in our hearts and behold him in the full compasse and extent of his power we should unfold our armes and look about us veternum excutere shake off our sloth and drowsinesse and prepare for his coming for it is Christ our Lord. Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2. saith God to Christ and Christ sayes John 10.30 I and the Father are one