and help himself out of them and take himself off from that amazement Marcion ran dangerously upon the greatest blasphemy Duos Ponticus Deos tanquam duaâ— Symplegadas naufragit sui adfert quem negare non potuit i. e. creatorem i. e. nostrum quem probare non poterit i. e. suum Tertull. 1. adv Marcion c. 1. and brought in two Principles one of Good and another of Evil that is two Gods But when the Lord shall come and lay judgment to the line all things will be even and equal and the Heretick shall see that there is but one Now all is jarring discord and confusion but the Lord when he cometh will make 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 Sin hath made and manifest his Wisdome and Providence which here are lookt upon as hidden mysteries in a word he will make his glory shine out of darkness as he did Light when the earth was without form 1 Cor. 15.28 That the Lord may be all in all Here in this world all lyeth 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 Judgment is not the result of our Reason but is raised 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 wits to disgrace it If he be in power our eyes dâ—zle and we see a God come down 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 Sun What he speaketh is an oracle and what he doth is an example and the Coward the Mammonist or the Beast giveth 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 pass 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 and one another but never judge righteous judgment For as we judge of others so we do of our selves Judicio favor officit our Self love putteth out the eye of our Reason or rather diverteth it from that which is good and imployeth it in finding out many inventions to set up evil in its place as the Prophet speaketh We feed on ashes Isa 44.20 a deceived heart hath turned us aside that we cannot deliver our soul nor say Is there not a lye in our right hand Thus he that soweth but sparingly is Liberal he that loveth the world is not covetous he whose eyes are full of the adulteress is chast he that setteth up an image and falleth down before it is not an Idolater he that drinketh down bloud as an ox doth water is not a Murderer he that doth the works of his father the Devil is a Saint Many things we see in the world most unjustly done Multa injustè fieri possunt quae nemo possit reprehendere Cic. de Finibus Mic. 6.16 which we call Righteousness 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's statutes be kept we soon perswade our selves that the power of this Lord will not reach us and if our names hold fair amongst men we are too ready to tell our selves that they are written also in the book of life This is the judgment of the world Thus we judge others and thus we judge our selves so byassed with the Flesh that for the most we pass 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 rayseth every thought dictateth 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 requireth it Et veniet Dominus qui malè judicata rejudicabit the Lord will come and give judgment against all these crooked and perverse judgements and shall lay Righteousness to the plummet Isa 28.17 and with his breath sweep away the refuge of lyes and shall judge and pass another manner of sentence upon us and others then we do in this world Then shall we be told what we would never believe though we have had some grudgings and whisperings and half-informations within us which the love of this world did soon silence and suppress Then shall he speak to us in his displeasure and Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli su surrorum Hier. though we have talked 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 forefathers 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 ayr on which we were built and dash our presumptuous assurance to nothing Nor can a sigh or a grone or a loud profession or a fast or long prayers corrupt this Lord or alter his sentence but he shall judge as he knoweth who knoweth more of us then we are willing to take notice of and is greater then our Conscience which we shrink and dilate at pleasure 1 John 3.20 and fit to every purpose and knoweth all things and shall judge us not by our pretense Rom. 2.16 our intent or forced imagination but according to his Gospel VENIET He shall come when all is thus out of Order to set all right and straight again And this is the end of his Coming And now being well assured that he will come we are yet to seek and are ready with the Disciples to ask Matth. 24.3 When will these things be and What hour will he
not onely placeth us upon but as Solomon speaks makes us an everlasting foundation by raising up in us a good conscience And this it doth as necessarily as fire sendeth forth heat or the Sun light For it is impossible to love God sincerely and not to know it and it is as impossible to know it and not to speak it to our own heart and comfort our selves in it For Conscience follows Science A light it is which directs us in the course of our obedience and when we have finished our course by the Memory it is reflected back upon us It tells us what we are to do and what we have done We have a kind of short but useful Genealogy in S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned From Faith unfeigned ariseth a good Conscience from that the Purity of the inward man from that that Peace which maketh us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace A golden chain where every link fits us in some degree for a dissolution nay where every link is unseparably annexed to each other and with it we cannot but tend naturally and cheerfully yea and hasten to our place of rest For our Conscience is our Judge our God upon earth And if it be of this royal extraction the product of our Faith and Obedience it will judge aright it will draw the Euge to us and tell us what sentence the Judge will pass at the last day and we even now hear in our ears Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy masters joy And when our Conscience hath past this sentence upon us we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God This this is an everlasting foundation and upon it we build as high as Heaven Our thoughts and desires our longings and pantings soar up even to that which is within the vail which is yet hidden and we are earnest to look into Let us then exercise our selves to have alwaies a conscience void of offense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word intimates the clearness of a way where no spy can discover any thing amiss For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas is speculator explorator a Scout a Spy So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a conscience clear and free from offense The want of this makes Death a King of terrours and puts more horrour in the Grave then it hath When Death comes towards wicked men on his pale horse it comes as a Serjeant to arrest them to put them out of possession of that which they had taken up as their habitation for ever to banish them out of the world which they made their paradise and to let them into eternity of torment If we love the world how can the love of God abide in us We plead for titles saith a learned Gentleman of our own who had large experience of the vanity and deceitfulness of the world and was exemplum utriusque fortunae an example of both fortunes good and evil We plead for titles till our breath fails us we dig for riches whilst strength enables us we exercise malice whilst we can revenge and then when Age hath beaten from us both youth and pleasure and health it s lf and Nature it self loatheth the House of old Age we then remember when our memory begins to fail that we must go the way from whence we must not return and that our bed is made ready for us in the grave At last looking too late into the bottom of our conscience which the Vanities of the world had lockt up from us all our lives we behold the fearful image of our actions past and withal this terrible inscription THAT GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JVDGMENT Thus he And this our vvay uttereth our foolishness in increasing the fear of Death and Judgment by striving to chase it away never thinking of Deaths sting till vve feel it putting by all sad and melancholy thoughts in our way till they meet us again vvith more horrour at our journeys end This is it which makes Death vvhich is but a messenger a King yea a King of terrours We can neither live nor are vvilling to dye vvith such a conscience vvhereas had vve learnt as Seneca speaks and studieâ— Death had vve not fed and supplyed this enemy with such vveapons a make him terrible had we cut from him now this now that desire an anon another for Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fights against us with our selves vvith our Wantonness and Luxury and Pride and Covetousness haâ— vve spoiled him of those things vvhich make Death terrible and the Dâ—â—vil our accuser vve might have boldly met him nay desired to meet him For vvhy should they fear Death vvho may present themselves vvith comâ—fort before God and shall meet Christ himself in all his glory coming iâ— the clouds To conclude Death shall be to them vvho love God and keep a good conscience a messenger of peace a gentle dismission into a better vvorld an Ostiary to let us in to the presence of God vvhere there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Our Apostle here calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a departing or dissolution To vvhich vve should lead you but vve cannot now so fully speak of it as vve vvould and as the matter requires vve will therefore reserve it for some other time The Seven and Thirtieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 1. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. THat which the Philosopher telleth us in the first of his Ethicks that we must not look for that certainty in Moral Philosophy which we do in the Mathematicks is most true And the reason is as plain For the Mathematician separateth and abstracteth the forms and essences of things from all sensible matter And these forms are of that nature for the most part that they admit not of the interposition of any thing Inter rectum curvum nihil est medium Between that which is straight and that which is crooked there is no medium at all for there is no line which is not either straight or crooked But in Morality and in the duties of our life the least circumstance varieth and altereth the matter and the forms there handled have something which cometh between so that there is an inclination which draweth us near sometimes to the right hand sometimes to the left sometimes to one extreme sometimes to another And in respect of this variety of circumstances it is that the Philosopher telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a hard matter many times to make our choice or in our judgment to prefer one thing before another Therefore they who have given us precepts of good life have also delivered us rules to guid us in this variety of circumstances that we swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left For as in artificial works the
actions are sometimes to be forborn if they be not expedient 639. 1102. Laws necessary for Man 1066. Laws still are framed and given by the prevailing party 1070. Reasons why humane Laws must needs be defective 121. 131. If we will be just we must do many things that mens L. enjoyn not 121. Many wayes to pervert and elude the Laws 122. 132. The Law of Nature more firm and binding then any written Law 124. 127 128. How far it carried some Heathen 1083 1084. Laws of Men and Laws of God compared 168. 228. 230. The Law of God is perfect 1088. but not so perfect as the Gospel 1078. Christ came not to dissolve the Law either of Nature or of Moses 1068. What arguments some Gospellers use to shake off the yoke of the Law 1068. Some will not allow Christ to be a Law-giver nor his Gospel a Law 1068 c. What a world of Laws are they subject to that will not obey Christs 1070 1071. Christ hath reformed and enlarged the Law and exacteth far more of us then the Law did 1078 1079. 1098. The Law of Christ teacheth us to look higher then the natural man could sore 1084. Christ's Laws as well as Mans have their force and life from Rewards and Punishments 390. 1122. Their nature and excellent effects 1067. Whether God's Laws may be exactly and fully obeyed 109 c. v. Gospel Many think Law and Liberty contrary things and that they are never free but when lawless 1099. But there is no liberty but under some Law 1099. ¶ Lawgivers the Disciples of God 106. v. GOD. Lev. x. 10. 1033. ¶ xix 17. 293. Libellatici 1121. Libertines errours confuted 392 c. v. Papists Liberty Our Christian Liberty wherein it consisteth 1097 c. Many abuse it 640. 1103. It is restrained by Sobriety Charity Autority 638 c. 1101 c. Men love to hear of Christian L. but not to have it confined 691. Doctrines of Liberty though true yet are not to be pressed 618. How to stand fast in our Christian Liberty 1103. How Law and Liberty can both be said of the Gospel 1099. c. Obedience to Law is Liberty to Angels to Men to the inanimate Creatures 1100. Lie The Persians told their children they might lie to their enemies but not to their friends 134. Life of Man short and uncertain 356. It is too pretious a thing to be prodidally flung away for a trifle 705 706. but it must be willingly parted with for Righteousness sake 706. We live not indeed till our new birth 1003. London's privileges and London's sins 422 423. 920. D. Longinus 103. LORD This word expresseth the Majesty and Greatness of God 103. and remembreth us of our allegeance 114. If we will not own Christ for our Lord he will not be our Saviour 760 c. 1072. v. Christ Jesus Love v. Charity Christ God Love is the most eminent and potent among the Affections 66. 550 551. It s mighty force 23. 66. 75. 192 193. It setteth all the other Affections on work 550 551. It is like Fire 550 743. Love Worldly and Godly 338. Love of our Selves how dangerous 856 857. v. Self-love They who love the World have no Love to God or Man 890 891. v. World How strangely Love blindeth the Judgment 670. That which we love is either our joy or our grief 570. Love both in God and Man is accompanied with Jealousie 743. What it is to love God 1012. Its effects in the soul 1013. It is the noblest motive to duty 395. 743. It maketh a man earnest and chearfull in duty 843 c. Where Love is cold and defective there is an irregular and inconstant behaviour 845. It may stand with Fear 394. v. Fear If not tempered with Fear it may be too bold 396. 399. Love coupleth not onely Men but also Faith and Hope together 242. 736. Love hath the advantage of Knowledge 977. It is better to love good then to do it 149. Not to love that which is good is to hate it 689 690. What a strange strait St. Paul's Love of Christ brought him into 1006 c. 1010. Our Love should be fixed on the Truth 672. Love of the Truth will not onely burn within us but also shine forth to others 551 c. Our Love of God hath inseparably united to it the Love of our Brethren 1009. To love them that love us is but the rudiments of Charity Christians have an higher an harder lesson 1087. Love of our Brother how to be shewn 576 c. Luk. xi 41. 831. ¶ xii 4 5. 394. ¶ 32. 397. ¶ xiv 13 14. 690. ¶ xvi 25 617. ¶ xvii 10. 1092. ¶ xix 41 c. 359. 795 c. ¶ xxii 42. 266. Lust v. Ignorance Luther 526. 682. Lutheranes depend no less on Luther then the Papists do on the Pope or on their Church 682. The reply of a Prince to the Lutheranes 1070. Luxurie Unnecessary Arts at first the daughters now the nurses of Luxurie 219. Lycurgus 231. 301. M. MAd-men v. Fools Majesty what 311. Maldonate's spite against Calvine 922. He rejected an interpretation that he held best onely because Calvine's 671. Malice and Ign. misconstrue every thing 961 962. 965 966. But their mis-interpretations will not prevail against the Truth 963. Malice against the Truth is downright or interpretative and both must be cast away 688 c. Man created and preserved by God and vvhy 104 105. 107. 115 116. 647. 649. Why created so excellent a creature 87. 647. His beauty and perfection consisteth in obedience and conformity to God 107. Man is a most goodly creature if not transformed by sin 125 135. By sin he is become worse then any Beast 378. How degenerated from his original and how to be restored 782. How weak and indigent 313. 938. How uneven and changeable 383. 773. How subject to chance 936. Other creatures can attein their ends of themselves but Man cannot without a guide 1066. How Christ hath honoured Man and how he ought to honour himself 218. He is too excellent a creature to mind earthly things 647 c. 653. He is a voluntary agent in the work of his conversion 435 436. 584-587 Man is a fair mirrour to behold God in 125. He is a theatre where the Flesh and the Spirit are fighting continually 312. 767. Every Man is a glass for another to see himself in 936 937. All have one common extraction 938. In Nature's Heraldry all Men are equal 279. All by nature are brethren and therefore should help and not hurt one another 123. 938. Arguments to move us thereunto 938. What helps Nature hath supplied Man with 939. His Body and Soul opposit each to other 159. His Mind curious and restless 218. 248. It should not be overtasked 249. What it is that can satisfie him 90 91. 786. Impossible for Man to equal God 1087. He is not to be accounted a Man who wanteth reason 96. The fickleness of Man's
seemeth him good THese words are the words of old Eli the Priest and have reference to that message which young Samuel brought him from the Lord such a message as made both the ears of every one that heard it tingle Come see the work of Sin what desolation it maketh upon the earth Hophni and Phinehas the two profane and adulterous Sons must die old Eli their indulgent Father the High Priest must die Thirty four thousand Israelites must fall by the sword of the Philistines The Ark the glory of Israel must be taken and delivered up in triumph unto Dagon This was the word of the Lord which he spake by the mouth of the child Samuel v. 19. Rom. 4.17 and not a word of his did fall to the ground What God foretelleth is done already With him who calleth the things that are not as if they were as the Apostle speaketh there is no difference of times nothing past nothing to come all is present So that Eli saw this bloody Tragedy acted before it was done saw it done before the signal to battle was given saw his sons slain whilst the flesh hook was yet in their hands saw himself fall whilst he stood with Samuel saw the Israelites slain before they came into the field and the Ark taken whilst it was yet in the Tabernacle A sad and killing presentment whether we consider him as a Father or as a High Priest as a Father looking upon his Sons falling before the Ark which they stood up and fought for as a High Priest beholding the people slain and vanquished and the Ark the glory of God the glory of Israel in the hands of Philistines But the word of the Lord is gone out Isa 55.11 and will not return empty and void For what he saith shall be done and what he bindeth with an oath is irreversible and must come to pass And it is not much material whether it be accomplished to morrow or next day or now instantly and follow as an echo to the Prediction Nam una est scientia futurorum saith S. Hierome Ad Pammach adversus errores Joan. Hierosol The knowledge of things to come is one and the same And now it will be good to look upon these heavy judgments and by the terrour of them be perswaded to fly from the wrath to come as the Israelites were cured by looking on the Serpent in the wilderness For even the Justice of God though it speak in thunder maketh a kind of melody when it toucheth and striketh upon an humble submissive yielding heart Behold old Eli an High Priest to teach you who being now within the full march and shew of the enemy and of those judgements which came apace towards him like an armed man not to be resisted or avoided and hearing that from God which shook all the powers of his soul settleth and composeth his troubled minde with this consideration That it was the Lord and with this silenceth all murmur slumbreth all impatience burieth all disdain looketh upon the hand that striketh and boweth and kisseth it and being now ready to fall raiseth himself up upon this pious and heavenly resolution It is the Lord. Though the people of Israel fly and the Philistines triumph though Hophni and Phinehas fall though himself fall backward and break his neck though the Ark be taken yet DOMINVS EST It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Which words are a Rhetorical Enthymeme perswading to humility and a submissive acquiescence under the hand the mighty hand of God by his power his justice his wisdome which all meet and are concentred in this DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. He is omnipotent and who hath withstood his power He is just and will bring no evil without good cause He is wise and whatsoever evill he bringeth he can draw it to a good end And therefore FACIAT QVOD BONVM IN OCVLIS SVIS Let him do what seemeth him good Or you may observe first a judicious Discovery from whence all evils come It is the Lord. Secondly a well grounded Resolution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to behave himself decently and fittingly as under the Power and Justice and Wisdome of God Let him do what seemeth him good The first is a Theological Axiome It is the Lord There is no evil in a city which he doth not do Amos 3.6 The second a Conclusion as necessary as in any Demonstration most necessary I am sure for Weakness to bow to Omnipotency In a word the Doctrine most certain It is the Lord All these evils of punishment are from him And the Resolution which is as the Use and Application of the Doctrine most safe Let him do what seemeth him good Of these we shall speak in their order And in the prosecution of the first for we shall but touch upon and conclude with the last that you may follow me with more ease we will draw the lines by which we are to pass and confine our selves to these four particulars which are most eminent and remarkable in the story 1. That Gods people the true professours may be delivered up to punishment for sin 2. That in general judgments upon a people the good many times are involved with the evil and fall with them 3. That Gods people may be delivered up into the hands of Philistines and aliens men worse then themselves 4. That the Ark the glory of their profession may be taken away These four points I say we shall speak of and then we shall fix up this Inscription DOMINVS EST It is the Lord and when we have acquitted his Justice and Wisdome in all these particulars we shall cast an eye back upon the Inscription and see what beams of light it will cast forth for our direction In the first place of Hophni and Phinheas the Text telleth us that they hearkened not unto the voice of their Father 2 ch v. 25. because the Lord would destroy them Which word Quia is not causal but illative and implyeth not the cause of their sin but of their punishment They did not therefore sin because God would punish them but they hearkened not to the voice of their father therefore the Lord destroyed them As we use to say The Sun is risen because it is day for the day is not the cause of the Suns rising Chap. 2.12 but the Sun rising maketh it day They were sons of Belial vessels already fitted for wrath as we may see by their many fowl enormities and therefore were left to themselves and their sins and to wrath which at last devoured them God's decree whatsoever it be is immanent in himself and therefore cannot be the cause of disobedience and wickedness which is extraneous and contrary to him Nor can there be any action of God's either positive or negative joyned with his decree which may produce such an effect And what need of any such Decree or Action to make the sons of Eli disobedient
them to whom God himself had given that name Luke 10.30 Let us look upon the man who fell amongst thieves who stript him and wounded him and left him half dead and who can tell but that he less deserved thus to be handled then the Priest and the Levite who did but look and pass by on the other side Behold a man destitute afflicted tormented clad with rags full of sores covered over with disgraces and contumelies a man of sorrows a Lazar of no reputation for ought an eye of flesh can discern he may be a man of God also a man designed to eternity and that deformity which thy pride scorneth to look upon may be but his pilgrims habit in which he is travelling to the new Jerusalem And now on the other side behold a man whom all the blessings which are promised under the law have overtaken a man honoured in the city conquering in the field blessed in the fruit of his body blessed in his cattle and flocks of sheep boasting of his hearts desire puffing at his enemies as the Psalmist speaketh Psal 10.5 12.5 chasing them before him treading them under his feet Why art thou cast down oh my soul and why art thou vexed within me there may be but a wall of earth and that mouldring too between this man this God and eternal destruction It is not Quà but Quò it is not Which way but Wither you go is considerable One man may go through a prison through fire and water into Paradise and another may ride in triumph into hell Let us not then make either Misery the livery of a bad nor outward Happiness of a good man For Misery though it be a sorry covert may be clothed upon with Honour and Glory and Prosperity though it be like Herods royal apparel glorious as the Sun and dazling a carnal eye yet it will fall at last from us and we may fall too into the lowest pit In a word these are no marks to judge by nor is the outward man the image of the inward but the judgment is the Lords Deut. 1.17 2 Tim. 2.19 who alone knoweth them that are his We will give you but one Use more and so conclude In the last place the sight of this Inscription It is the Lord that sometimes spareth the Philistine and striketh the Israelite and when he striketh sometimes throweth down the righteous with the wicked and involveth them both in the same judgment this I say may strike terrour into us and make us afraid of those sins which bring general judgments on a Nation as Oppression Uncleanness Profaneness Sacriledge Hypocrisie These crying and importunate sins will not let the Judge alone but break the vials of his wrath even whilst he holdeth them in his hand unwilling to pour them forth I say the consideration of the general judgments of God is a notable argument to work the conversion of the most obstinate sinner in the world Shall we continue in those sins which we see carry a train that will enwrap our Posterity our Famâ—ly our whole Countrey yea like the Dragons tail in the Revelation draw down the stars from heaven bring good men even the Saints of God within the compass and smart of them Parce Carthagini si non tibi said Tertullian to Scapula If you will not be good to your self yet spare Carthage spare your Country spare the Charets of Israel and the horsemen thereof spare those Lots which keep your Sodome from burning who when a Nation is ready to sink and dissolve bear up the pillars of it Psal 75.3 1 Cor 6.2 Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the world saith S. Paul They being first acquitted by Christ shall sit with him as his friends and assessours and judge and condemn those sins which brought them within the reach of Gods temporal judgments and overwhelmed them in the common calamity and ruine of their country 3. We pass now to the third particular If Israel must fall yet let him not fall by the sword of a Philistine Tell it not in Gath 2 Sam. 1.20 publish it not in the streets of Askelon was part of the Threnodie and Lamentation of David on the like occasion and he giveth his reason lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph Besides the misery to have such an enemy rejoyce in their misery which will make that affliction which is but a whip prove a scorpion this defeat might seem to cast some disgrace even upon their Religion there being nothing more common in the world then to commend a false Religion by some fatal miscarriage of the Professours of the true then to judge of Religion by its State and spreading then to cry it up for orthodox when the Church hath peace and to anathematize it as heretical when she is militant and under the Cross Nothing more common with wavering and carnal men then to lull themselves asleep in most dangerous errours by no other musick then the cryes and lamentations of those who oppose them If Hophni and Phinehas fall in the battle if Eli the High Priest break his neck if the the Ark be taken then Dagon is God any thing is God which is either the work of our hands or of our phansie Therefore this may seem not onely a rueful but a strange spectacle and as Diogenes said of Harpalus a notorious but prosperous thief testimonium adversus Deum dicere Cic. De Nat. Deor. l. 3. to stand up as a witness against God himself and his government of the world But Tertullian will tell us Malus interpres Divinae providentiae humana infirmitas The weak and shallow considerations of men are but bad interpretations of the providence of God The wit of man is a poor Jacobs staff to take the height and depth the true and full proportion of it For as we cannot judge of the beauty of the Universe because in regard of the condition of our mortality we can be placed but in part of it and so cannot at once at one cast of our eye see the whole in which those parts which offend us are at peace no more can the Soul of man which is confined within a clod of earth judge of the course and method of that Providence which is most like it self in those events which seem most disproportionable which is then most straight and even when sinners flourish and just men are oppressed most equal when the honest man hath not a mite and the deceitful a talent 1 Kings 22.27 when the true Prophets are fed with bread of affliction and every Balaam hath his wages when Israel falleth and the Philistine prevaileth because we cannot behold him but in this or that particular and can no more follow him in all his wayes then we can grasp the world in the palm of our hands By this light we may discover first That true Religion cannot suffer with
which it is hard to number quocunque sub axe They are in every climate and in every place but most often in the Courts of Princes and in the habitations of the Rich who can do evil but will not see it who can make the loud condemnation of a fact and the bold doing it the business of one and the same hour almost of one and the same moment The others are not many for they are a part of that little Flock Luk. 11.32 And the good Shepherd will not drive them out of the fold for the weak conceit they had that they had gone too far astray Errour is then most dangerous and fatal when we do that which is evil not when we shun and fly from it as from the plague and yet cannot believe we are removed far enough from the infection of it Therefore again Despair may have its original not onely from the acrasie and discomposedness of the outward man or from weakness in judgement and ignorance of our present estate which may happen to good men even to those who have made some fair proficiency in the School of Christ and to which we are very subject amidst that variety of circumstances that perplexity and multiplicity of thoughts which rise and sink and return again and strangle one another to bring in others in their place but it may be brought in by our very care and diligence and intensive love For care and Diligence and Love are alwayes followed with Fears and Jealousies Love is ever a beginning till all be done and is but setting out till she be at her journeys end The liberal man is afraid of his almes the temperate mistrusteth his abstinence the Meek man is jealous of every heat Pietas etiam tuta pertimescit Piety is afraid even of Safety it self because it is Piety and cannot be safe enough And if it be a fault for a man thus to undervalue himself it is a fault of a fair extraction begotten not by blood Joh. 1.13 or the will of men not by Negligence and Wilfulness and the pollutions of the Flesh but by Care and Anxiety and an unsatisfied Love which will sometimes demur and be at a stand in the greatest certainty so that though the lines be fallen to him in a fair place Psal 16.6 and he have a goodly heritage a well-setled spiritual estate yet he may sometimes look upon it as bankrupts do upon their temporal worn out with debts and Statutes and Mortgages and next to nothing Every man hath not a place and mansion in heaven who pretendeth a title to it nor is every man shut out who doubteth of his evidence This diffidence in ones self is commonly the mark and character of a good man who would be better Though he hath built up his assurance as strong as he can yet he thinketh himself not sure enough but seeketh for further assurance and fortifieth it with his Fear and assiduous Diligence that it may stand fast for ever Whereas we see too many draw out their own Assurance and seal it up with unclean hands with wicked hands with hands full of blood We have read of some in the dayes of our forefathers and have heard of others in our own and no doubt many there have been of whom we never heard Phil. 1.27 whose conversation was such as became the Gospel of Christ and yet they have felt that hell within themselves which they could not discover to others but by gastly looks out-cryes deep grones and loud complaints to them who were neer them that Hell it self could not be worse nor had more torments then they felt And these may seem to have been breathed forth not from a broken but a perishing heart to be the very dialect of Despair And indeed so they are For Despair 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 said that they are cast out of Gods sight No God seeth them looketh upon them with an eye full of compassion and most times sendeth an Angel to them in their agony Luke 22.43 as he did unto Christ a message of comfort to rowse them up But if their tenderness yet raise doubts and draw the cloud still over them we have reason to think and who dareth say the contrary that the hand of Mercy may even through this cloud receive them to that Sabbath and rest which remaineth for the people of God Hebr. 4.9 I speak of men who were severe to themselves watchful in their warfare full of good works and constant in them and yet many times when they were even at the gates of heaven and near unto happiness felt sore terrours and affrightments These being full of Charity could not be quite destitute of Hope although their own sad apprehensions and the breathings of a tender conscience made the operation of it less sensible Their Hope was not like Aaron's 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 and the cold benumming it suffereth no force of life to work But when the Sun draweth near and yieldeth its warmth and influence it will bud again and blossom and bring forth leaf and fruit The case then of every man that despaireth is not desperate But we must consider Despair in its Causes which produce and work it If it be exhaled and drawn up out of our corrupt works and a polluted conscience the steam of it is poysonous and deleterial the very smoke of the bottomless pit But if it proceed from the distemper of the body which seiseth upon one as well as another or from weakness of judgement which befalleth many who may be weak and yet pious or from an excessive solicitude and tenderness 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 striving to enter in at the narrow gate or to cut him off from salvation who hath wrought it out with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 At the day of judgment the question will be not what was our opinion and conceit of our selves but what our conversation was not what we thought of our estate but what we did to raise it not of our phansied 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 asked what we thought but what we did For how many have thought themselves sure who never came to the knowledge of their errour till it was too late how many have called themselves Saints who have now their portion with hypocrites how many have phansied themselves into heaven whose wilfull disobedience carried them another way On the other side how many have believed and yet doubted how many have been sincere in
under the Law alone but also under the Gospel as a motive to turn us from sin and as a motive to strengthen and uphold us in the wayes of righteousness not onely as a restraint from sin but as a preservative of holiness and as a help and furtherance unto us in our progress in the wayes of perfection It may indeed seem a thing most unbefitting a Christian who should be led rather then drawn and not a Christian alone but any moral man Therefore Plato calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiberal and base disposition to be banisht the School of Morality And our great Master in Philosophy maketh Punishment one of the three things that belong to slaves as the rod doth saith Solomon to the fools back To be forced into goodness Prov. 26.3 to be frighted into health argueth a disposition which little setteth by health or goodness it self But behold a greater then Plato and Aristotle our best Master the Prince of Peace and Love himself striveth to awake and stir up this kind of fear in us telleth us of hell and everlasting darkness of a flaming fire of weeping and gnashing of teeth presenteth his Father the Father of Mercies with a thunderbolt in his hand Luk. 12.5 with power to kill both body and soul sheweth us our sin in a Deaths head and in the fire of hell as if the way to avoid sin were to fear Death and Hell and if we could once be brought to fear to die we should not die at all Many glorious things are spoken even of this Fear The Philosopher calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Psal 31 Tert. De poenit c. 6. the bridle of our Nature S. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of our lusts Tertullian Instrumentum poenitentiae an instrument to work out Repentance Pachomius placeth it supra decem millia paedagogorum maketh it the best Schoolmaster of ten thousand Hearken to the Trumpet of the Gospel be attentive to the Apostles voice What sound more frequent then that of Terrour able to shake and divide a soul from its sin Had Marcion seen our Saviour with a whip in his hand had he heard him cursing the Fig-tree and by that example punishing our sterility had he weighed the many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods For though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still as terrible to sinners that will not turn as when he thundered from Mount Sinai 2 Cor. 5.11 And if we will not know and understand these terrours of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing letter For again as humane laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment And to this end we find not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Juvenat â—at Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna That there remain punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen And we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the world had been far more wicked then it is We see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunteth and pursueth them This may be so There is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sin and this though it do not make them good yet restraineth them from being worse Quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium Freedom from punishment maketh sin pleasant and delightsome and so maketh it more sinful but fear of punishment maketh it irksome bringeth reluctancies and gnawings and rebukes of conscience For without it there could be none at all Till the whip is held up there is honey on the harlots lips and we would tast them often but that they bite like a cockatrice Non timemus peccare timemus ardere It is not sin we so much startle at but hell-fire is too hot for us And therefore S. Peter when he would work repentance and humility in us placeth us under Gods hand 1 Pet. 5. â— Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his Power his commanding attribute His omniscience findeth us out his wisdome accuseth us his justice condemneth us Potentia punit but it is his Hand his Power that punisheth us Take away his Hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his Wisdome or tarrieth for the twilight to shun his all-seeing Eye But cùm occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God early Psal 78.34 Again as the Fear of death may be Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an antidote and preservative against it It may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way As it is an introduction to piety so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregorie Nyssene Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. a watch and a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offense make me turn back again into my evil wayes For we must not think that when we are turned from our evil wayes we have left Fear behind us No she may go along with us in the wayes of righteousness and whisper us in the ear that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared She is our companion and leaveth us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our journeys end Our Love such as it is may well consist with Fear with the Fear of judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysostome L. 1. De compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 6.1 Isa 38.14 15. Rom. 14 10. the memory of Gods judgements written in his very heart His thoughts were busied with it his meditations fixt here and it forced from him DOMINE NE IN FVRORE Correct me not O Lord in thy anger nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walked in the bitterness of his soul did mourn like a dove and chatter like a Crane S. Paul buildeth up a tribunal and calleth
Pharaonis Dominum obdurasse c. As often as it is read in the Church that God did harden Pharaoh's heart some scruple presently ariseth not onely in the minds of the ignorant Laity but also of the learned Clergy And for these very words the Manichees most sacrilegiously condemned the Old Testament And Marcion rather then he would yield that Good and Evil proceeded fâ—om the same God did run upon a grosser impiety and made another two Principles one of Good another of Evil. But we may lay this saith he as a sure ground an infallible axiome Deus non deserit nisi priùs deserentem God never forsaketh any man till he first forsake God When we continue in sin when the multitude of our sins beget Despair Despair Obduration when we add sin to sin to make up the weight that sinketh us when we are the worse for Gods mercy the worse for his judgments when his mercy hardeneth us and his light blindeth us God then may be said to harden our hearts as a father by way of upbraiding may tell his prodigal and thriftless son Ego talem te feci It is my love and goodness hath occasioned this I have made thee so by sparing thee when I might have struck thee dead I have nourished this thy pertinacy although all the father's love and indulgency was grounded upon a just hope and expectation of some change and alteration in his son Look upon every circumstance in the story of Pharaoh and we cannot find one which was not as a hammer to malleate and soften his stony hearts nor do we read of any upon whom God did bestow so much pains His ten plagues were as ten commandments to let the people go And had he relented at the first saith Chrysostome he had never felt a second So that it will plainly appear that the induration and hardning of Pharaoh's heart was not the cause but the effect of his malice and rebellion Magnam mansuetudinem contemtae gratiae major sequi solet ira vindictae The contempt of Gods mercy and there is mercy even in his judgements doth alwaies make way for that induration which calleth down the wrath of God to revenge it We do not read that God decreed to harden Pharaoh's heart but when Pharaoh was unwilling to bow when he was deaf to Gods thunder and despised his judgments and scorned his miracles God determined to leave him to himself to set him up as an ensample of his wrath to work his Glory out of him to give him up to his own lusts which he foresaw would lead him to ruine and destruction But if we will tie our selves to the letter we may find these several expressions in several texts 1. Pharaoh hardned his heart 2. Pharaoh's heart was hardned 3. God hardned Pharaoh's heart and now let us judge whether it be safer to interpret God's induration by Pharaohs or Pharaoh's by God's If God did actually and immediately harden Pharaoh's heart then Pharaoh was a meer patient nor was it in his power to let the people go and so God sent Moses to bid him do that which he could not and which he could not because God had hardned him But if Pharaoh did actually harden his own heart as it is plain enough he did then God's induration can be no more then a just permission and suffering him to be hardned which in his wisdom and the course he ordinarily taketh he would not and therefore could not hinder Sufficit unus Huic operi One is enough for this work of induration and we need not take in God To keep to the letter in the former shaketh a main principle of truth That God is in no degree Authour of sin but to keep to the letter in the latter cleareth all doubts preventeth all objections and openeth a wide and effectual door to let us in to a clear sight of the meaning of the former For that Man doth harden his own heart is undeniably true but that God doth harden the heart is denied by most is spoken darkly and doubtfully by some nor is it possible that any Christian should speak it plainly or present it in its hideous and monstrous shape but must be forced to stick and dress it up with some far-fetcht and impertinent limitation or distinction For lastly I cannot see how God can positively be said to do that which is done already to his hand Induration is the proper and natural effect of Sin And to bring in God alone is to leave nothing for the Devil or Man to do but to make Satan of a Serpent a very Flie indeed and the Soul of man nothing else but a forge and shop to work those sins in which may burn and consume it everlastingly God and Nature speak the same thing many times though the phrase be different That which the Philosopher calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arâ—stot l. 7. Eth c. 1. ferity and brutishness of nature and in Scripture is called hardness of heart Every man is shaped formed configured saith Basil to the actions of his life whether they be good or evil One sin draweth on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by the force of a natural inclination till we are brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calleth Ferity a shaking off all that is Man about us and the holy Ghost Rom. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind And such a mind had Pharaoh who was more and more enraged by every sin he had committed as the Wolf is most fierce and cruel when he hath drawn and tasted blood For it is impossible that any should accustome themselves to sin and not fall into hardness of heart and indisposition to all goodness Therefore we cannot conceive that God hath any hand in our death if we die and that Dereliction Incrassation Excaecation Hardness of heart are not from God further then that he hath placed things in that order that when we accustome our selves to sin and contemn his grace blindness and hardness of heart will necessarily follow but have no relation to any will of his but that of Permission And then this Expostulation is reall and serious QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die Now to conclude I have not been so particular as the point in hand may seem to require nor could I be in this measure of time but onely in general stood up in defense of the Goodness and Justice of God For shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 Shall he necessitate men to be evil and then bind them by a law to be good Shall he exhort and beseech them to live when they are dead already Shall his absolute Dominion be set up so high from thence to ruine his Justice This indeed some have made their Helena but it is an ugly and ill favoured
in Scripture words of Command and Duty carry with them more then they shew and have wrapped up in them both the Act and the End and are of the largest signification in the Spirit 's Dictionary To HEAR is to Hear and to Doe To KNOW is to Know and to Practice To BELIEVE is to Believe and to Obey The Schools will tell us FIDES absque addito in Scriptura formata intelligitur Where Faith is named in Scripture without some addition as a dead Faith a temporary Faith an hypocritical Faith there evermore that Faith is commended which worketh by Charity And so to shew or to preach the death of the Lord is more then to Utter it with the tongue and Profess it For thus Judas might shew it as well as Peter thus the Jews might shew it that crucified him Thus the profane person that crucifieth him every day may shew it Yea Christ's death may be the common subject for discourse and the language of the whole world Therefore our shewing must look farther even to the end For what is Hearing without Doing What is Knowledge without Practice What is Faith without Chariâ—y What is shewing the death of the Lord if we do it not to that end for which he did die Our hearing is but the sensuality of the ear our Knowledge but an empty speculation our Faith but phansie and our shewing the death of the Lord a kind of nailing him again to the cross For to draw his picture in our ear or mind to character him out in our words and yet fight against him is to put him to shame We must then understand our selves when we speak to God as we understand God when he speaketh to us and in the same manner we must shew him to himself and the world as he is pleased to shew and manifest himself unto us Christ did not present us with a picture with a phantasm with a bare shew and appearance of suffering for us Nor must we present him with shadows and shews And what is God's shewing himself Psal 80. Thou that sittest between the Cherubims shew thy self saith the Psalmist shine thou clearly to our comfort and to the terrour of our enemies God manifesteth his Power and breaketh the Cedars of Libanus He maketh known his Wisdom and teacheth the children of men He publisheth his Love and filleth us with good things His Words are his blessings and his demonstrations in glory He speaketh to us by peace and shadoweth us by plenty and our garners are full And see how the creature echoeth back again to him The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth welleth out speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge God's language is Power God's language is Love and God's language is Hope God planted a vineyard Isa 5. that expresseth his Power and built a tower in it and made a wine-press therein there is his Love and he lookâ—d for grapes there Hope speaketh for he that planteth planteth in hope He spake by his Prophets he spake by his judgments and he spake by his mercies but still he spake in hope for he doth neither shine nor thunder but in hope This is the heavenly dialect and we must take it out We must not speak as one that beggeth on a stage but as he that beggeth on the high way naked and cold and pinched with hunger Verba in opera vertenda By a religious Alchymie we must turn words into works and when God speaketh to us by his Prophets answer him by our obedience when he speaketh to us in Love give him our hearts and when he looketh for grapes be full of good works This is Christ's own dialect and he best understandeth it and his reply is a reward But from shews and words he turneth away his ears and will not hear that is for still in God's language more is understood then spoke he will bring us to judgment And now we see what it is to shew the death of the Lord not to draw it out in our imagination or to speak it with the tongue but to express the power and virtue of it in our selves to labour and travel in birth till Christ be fully formed in us till all Christian virtues which are as the spirits of his bloud be quick and operative in us till we be made perfect to every good work And thus we shew his death by our Faith For Faith if it be not dead will speak and make it self known to all the world speak to the naked and clothe him to the hungry and feed him to those who erre and are in darkness and shine upon them This is the dialect of Faith But if the cold frost of temptations as S. Gregorie speaketh hath so niped it that it is grown chil and cold and can speak but faintly if we have talked so long of Faith till we have left her speechless if she speak but imperfectly and in broken language now by a drop of water and now by a mite and then silent shew the death of Christ onely in some rare and slender performance behold this is your hour and the power of light this your time of receiving the Sacrament is the time to actuate and quicken your Faith to make it more apprehensive more operative more lively to give it a tongue that it may shew and preach the wonderful works of the Lord. And as we shew the Lord's death by our Faith so we shew it by our Hope which if it be that Hope which purifieth the heart will awake our glory the Tongue If it be well built and underpropped with Charity it will speak and cry and complain And the language is the same with that of the souls under the Altar How long Lord Rev. 6. How long shall the Flesh fight against the Spirit How long shall we struggle with temptations When wilt thou deliver us from this body of death When shall we appear in the presence of our God Though we fall we shall rise again Though we are shaken we shall not be overthrown Though thou killest us yet we will trust in thee This is the dialect of Hope And here at this Table we must learn to speak out to speak it more plainly to raise and exalt it to a Confidence which is the loudest report it can make Thirdly we shew and preach the Lord's death by our Love Which is but the echo of his Love And we speak it fully as he doth to us fill up the sentence and leave not out a word make it manifest in the equality and universality of our obedience as he offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for us Quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit Our love to Christ must be equal and like himself not meet him at Church and run from him in the streets not embrace him in a Sermon and throw him from us in our conversation not flatter him with a peny
to the tormentors till he pay the utmost farthing God is ever like himself and constant to his rule and he forgiveth and punisheth for this reason because he is constant and cannot change As we see Fire burneth and consumeth the stubble but not the harder metalls and yet hath but one essence but one and the same operation Besides as we beg pardon upon promise so doth God grant it upon supposition of perseverance He doth not pardon us our sin that we should sin again And if we break our promise we our selves have made a nullity of the grant For as the Schools tell us that the Sacraments are protestations of faith so is our Prayer for pardon a protestation and promise of repentance We pray to God to cast our sins behind his back with resolution to forsake them and upon this condition God sealeth our pardon Which we must make a motive not to sin but to a new life and constant obedience Repentance for one sin may be the business of our whole life And indeed what is Perseverance else but an entire and continued repentance When Sin reviveth in me I kill it by repentance and when it is dead I bury it by repentance And I never cast a thought back but I look upon it with horrour and detestation Optima poenitentia nova vita saith Luther The best repentance is new life drawn on in an uninterrupted course unto the end Again after pardon we have reason to arm our selves against temptations because relapses are dangerous and do not onely adde sin to sin but make us more inclinable to it more familiar with it and more averse and backward to piety Tertullian observeth Viduitas operosior virginitate that it is a matter of more difficulty to remain a widow then to keep our virgin not to tast of pleasure then after we have tasted to forbear it So it is easier to abstain from sin at first then when we are once engaged and have tasted of that honey and pleasure which commendeth it and then when we have loathed it once for some bitterness it had for some disease and misery it brought along with it and afterwards forget that bitterness and looking towards it again see nothing but those smiles and allurements which first deceived us we like and love it more then we did before it gave us any distast And at last we are incorporated as it were and consubstantiated with it and can merily walk along with it though wrath hang over our heads and Death be ready to devour us What we did before with some reluctancy we now commit with greediness We did but lap before with some fear and suspicion but now we take sin down as the oxe doth water An ill sign this that our repentance was not true and serious but like an intermitting fever The disease was not gone though the fit were over Alternae inter cupiditatem paenitentiam vices sunt We leave what we embraced and we embrace what we left Sin and Repentance like the Sun and the Stars have their interchangeable courses Now it is day anon darkness We sin and repent and repent and sin again As solemnly by our sin do we renounce our repentance as by our repentance we recant our sin And this ariseth from Repentance it self Sin taking an occasion by that which was ordained as a means against it Quis enim timebit prodigere quod licebit postea recuperare Who will be nice and sparing of that which he thinketh he may easily recover though lost never so oft Or who will be careful to preserve that which cannot be irrevocably lost Thus as we handle the matter Repentance which should be the death of Sin is made the security of the Sinner and that which should reconcile us to Christ is made a reproch to his mercy and contumelious to his goodness and an occasion of our sinning more and more and so of a worse thing the worst and last of all Destruction coming unto us I shall in a word or two make some Use of what hath been spoken and so conclude First this should teach us to be sensible even of God's temporal judgments and as David speaketh to tremble at them For not to be sensible of God's judgments is the greatest judgment that is Whilest they are in our eye they may work that humility in us which may turn them away but when they are far above out of our sight Mercy withdraweth and letteth them fall to crush us to pieces Amos 3.4 Will the lion roar in the forrest when he hath no prey Shall God's judgments be in vain Behold the lion hath roared but who doth fear God hath thundered but the earth hath not melted He hath rained down vengeance upon us but the apple of our eye hath rested He hath rained down his haiâ—stones and coals of fire and we look upon them as the Jews did upon their Manna and ask What is this Shall I ask What weeping and mourning what contrition what sackcloth and ashes what drooping and hanging down of the head Nay where was not the garment of joy the bed of ivory and the sound of the viol At first we trembled at God's judgments but now we can look upon them and converse with them and rest under the darkest shadow they cast They are blessings to some but judgments to few As it is in the fable of the Fox When he heard the Lion first roar he was amazed and astonished but when he had heard it often he durst approch the beast himself The menaces and judgments of men every day shake and shiver us as often as they are breathed forth they unnaturalize unprinciple unman us they beat us from our disposition and from our resolutions they drive us out of our selves and mould us into several shapes and never a one like the other but against the judgments of God we stand as a rock the same Hypocrites the same Profaneners the same Wantons we were A sad sign that the vials of God's wrath are not yet poured out but the dregs remain Therefore in the next place let us study them What study Calamity study Horrour and Amazement study the Rod That were to dwell in the region of blackness amongst clouds and lightning and thunder And why may we not study them as well as S. Hierom did the general Conflagration who wheresoever he was heard the last Trump alwayes sounding in his ears Certainly we shall find this the most profitable study that is Other studies may adorn our Understandings this will settle the Will and build up the New man Other studies may advance us in this world this will raise us out of the dust above the vanities of this world above judgments themselves and place us in the highest Heavens Other studies may make us rich or wise or honourable this will make us Saints What though God's judgments be past finding out yet vve may study them vvith profit Indeed to direct God's arrovv to
the breast of my brother and to say that for his sin this evil hath befallen us or to say that for his sin he vvas struck blind or poor or lame is to be too bold vvith God's quiver But to level the arrovv at my self to look upon the hand of God and to think that my sin hath lifted it up to strike and that the blovv may in justice fall upon me is to to be a good proficient in this study Perfectò errando non erramus Thus erring vve do not erre For it is an happy errour that maketh us vviser then vve vvere and that vvorketh mercy out of judgment it self Thus vve may read the providence of God driving every thing to its right end vvorking good out of evil sending evil to make us good teaching us by his corrections to sin no more and so keeping us from the wrath to come that that worst thing come not unto us The Sixth SERMON LUKE VI. 24. But wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation AT the very first hearing of these words every man will be ready to say This is a hard saying who can hear it For every man almost either is rich or desireth to be so and To be rich and To desire to be rich with Christ are the same thing and there is a Wo pronounced to them both Wo to them that have the good things of this world in possession and Wo to them that have them in desire Wo to them that love the world and reign in it and Wo to them that love the world though they have not so much as a fox hath a hole to hide their heads in Certainly this is a hard saying but then we must remember also that the way to happiness is very hard and Christ Jesus our Captain and Leader knoweth best which way to lead us Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli susurronum saith Hierome The judgement of the Son of God and of the sons of men are not the same It is one thing what we whisper one to another another what Christ proclaimeth from heaven What we call Beauty he calleth a snare what we call Riches he styleth vanity what with us is Honour with him is Shame where we fix a Blessing he fixeth a Wo and what we cry up with Grace Grace unto it he calleth Anathema Behold the rich man sheweth himself and the poor man trembleth his equals flatter yea his superiours will bow unto him For not onely the Crutch but even the Sceptre also will do homage to Riches Lord what a God is a rich man upon the earth how he commandeth all and they obey him how he commandeth the Law and the Judge and they obey him He saith to this man Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to a third Do this and he doeth it But yet this God is at the best but as the Gods of the Heathen silver and gold nay not of so lasting and abiding a nature as that silver and gold which he possesseth but a sick God a mortal God a God ready moulder away into dust and ashes And here when riches encrease when the world smileth when men speak well when the people fall down and worship in the midst of all this pomp and bravery this pride and jollity when the Rich man singeth a Requiem to his soul Soul take thy rest and praiseth his Gods of silver and gold Christ pronounceth a Wo unto him in the words of my Text Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation Which words are as the hand-writing on the wall Dan. 5.6 to change the countenance of the rich and to loose the joynts of his loins Here Christ may seem to deal with us as Jacob did with Joseph when he brought before him his two sons Ephraim and Manasseth to place his left hand where we would have him place his right or rather to curse where we do bless to kindle a hell in that which we have made our paradise to fix a Wo upon our Crovvn and to say Wo unto us vvhen vve think our selves encircled vvith joy and happiness To be rich is every mans vvish but vve startle at the very sound of a Vae But since Christ hath put them together it will be impossible to put them asunder but they must stand as we read them Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation The words divide themselves into two parts 1. a Wo denounced Wo unto you that are rich 2. a Reason given For ye have received your consolation And indeed if we weigh the Reason we shall not so much wonder at the Wo. For we may say of Riches as Job did of his friends that they are but miserable comforters And if we have no other consolation then from these or receive these as our consolation our last receipt will be Wo misery and torment The Reason then you see must make good the Wo. All the danger is in receiving riches for Wo be to Rich men because they have received their consolation We will therefore shew 1. In what conjunction these two Wo and Riches do stand 2. How they may be sundred find out why Riches are so dangerous to receive and how we may receive them without any danger And with these we shall exercise your devotion at this time Wo unto you that are rich and It is impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven and Go to now you rich men weep and howle these all are the phrases and language of the Holy Ghost And though peradventure they may be softned and mitigated by just and lawful interpretations so that when the letter killeth the spirit may give life though we may take off the Wo from Riches by having and contemning them and the impossibility of being saved from our selves by scattering them and the weeping and howling by not rejoycing in them though we may be rich and no Wo befal us yet Christ is thus pleased to deliver himself in terms plain and positive in ill-boding and portending words that at least we may be jealous of Riches and think it rather a matter of danger then content to bear up our heads with the best and to be rich in this world Luke 16. in that dialogue between Abraham and the Rich man Abraham doth not lay to the rich mans charge any great or notorious crime but doth onely tacitly and inclusively remember him of his cruelty to Lazarus That which he plainly accuseth him for is his being rich Son ver 25. remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things ver 19. And it is said of him that he was a rich man that he was clothed in purple and fine linen and that he fared sumptuously every day This this was his fault He was rich onely to be rich he was rich while Lazarus was poor he was clothed in purple and fine
us to seek the Lord while he may be found giveth a fair intimation that a time there may be vvhen he vvill not be found unless vve be so vvise as by prayer and repentance to prevent it I shall therefore be bold to deliver a doctrine to you somewhat harsh I confess but very profitable for that that troubleth a sick man cureth him And therefore if ye will be unvvilling to believe it because you are vvilling to stay out a little longer and be absent from your God yet it is good to be jealous of it and think that there is great possibility it may be true lest he withdraw himself and depart for ever We have a saying in our civil businesses that it i◠good to forecast the worst for the best will mind it self Let us but apply this rule to our spiritual business and to the point in hand concerning our late seeking and God's forsaking us and the doctrine which I shall commend to your Christian consideration is this That though God do long expect and hold out his hand unto us as himself by his Prophet speaketh yet at length he pulleth it in again and his patience is at an end That there is a Donec a While a space and compass of time set to every one of us according to the wisdom of Almighty God to some more to some less to all sufficient in which if we return and seek him we are accepted but if we let it slip and pass by we have broken our day our bond is forfeited and God may take the forfeiture may from thenceforth withdraw his grace from us and give us over to a reprobate sense to a heart that cannot repent That then there will be no more room for repentance remain no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectation of vengeance to consume the adversary We see he did so with the old world before the Floud he prefixed a time set them an hundred and twenty years wherein he looked upon them Gen. 6. stayed for them and waited their amendment as if he should have said An hundred and twenty years I have left you to seek me in But when they ceased not in this time to trespass against his patience as soon as the time prefixed was expired he brought in the floud upon them and swept them away And as it was in the beginning so it may be with us now For God doth nothing at one time which he may not do at any time As it was with them so it is very probable it may be with every one of us Our time is set it may be so many years it may be so many moneths it may be so many dayes and if we return not before our glass be run there can remain nothing but an expectation of a floud and wrath to be poured down upon our heads Caesar knew that if he passed the river Rubicon with his army there was no remedy but he must be proclaimed a traitour to his country Solomon told Shimei that if he passed the river Kidron he should surely dye and so it was And so hath God confined us we have our Rubicon our Kidron our bounds our limits which if we pass we shall surely dye our bloud shall be upon our own heads Not but that God would even now be found if we did seek him for whensoever we seek him he will be found but that when God doth upon our long trifling with him withdraw his grace it will be impossible for us to seek him It is ill colluding ill trying conclusions with a Deity I do not deliver this unto you as an article of your Creed and yet I may and I know no danger in believing it but it may prove fatal to disbelieve it or to look upon it as an errour and place it in our catalogue of Heresies Which that we may not do I shall commend unto you some parts of Scripture which seem much to enforce it Gen. 15.16 God telleth Abraham that he will bring his posterity into the land of the Amorites but yet he will stay to the fourth generation till their iniquity be full and when it is full he will strike Matth. 23 32. Our Saviour thus bespeaketh the Pharisees Fill you up the measure of your fathers which is not a command but a prediction that they should fill up the measure of their sin and then be ripe for punishment For when wicked men have run out the full length of their line when their time is run out to the last sand then is Gods time to give the check and pull them on their backs Luke 19 4◠When our Saviour Christ drew nigh to Jerusalem and wept over it because of the exceeding hardness of their hearts he brake forth into a very passionate strain Oh that thou hadst known the things that belong unto thy peace VEL IN HAC DIE TUA even in this thy day A day they had but when their Sun was set then followeth NUNC AUTEM but now they are hid from thy eyes which is that night that ushereth in the blackness of darkness for ever Oh that thou hadst then was liberty of choice but now thou art bound and fettered under a sad impossibility for ever Which speech is a passion of Christ's Humanity his bowels of compassion yearned within him and at the very sight of Jerusalem he could not but pour it forth And he may seem to have spoken it in the very moment in which God's patience was tired out and his set determination of Judgment first began This he spake at the very time when the decree came forth For it is not hard to observe how Christ doth tye together the last instant of Jerusalem's possibility of returning and the first instant of the impossibility of her reclaim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment followeth Mercy at the heels to take revenge upon those who wantonly abuse her Psal 116.5 God is merciful and just These two are alwayes joyned together Mercy alone would beget in us a supine carelesness and the terrour of judgment without a fair hope of mercy would soon fright us into despair therefore Mercy to whom mercy belongeth and Justice to whom justice belongeth When the rayes of Mercy cannot melt us when Mercy cannot do its work make us capable of mercy she withdraweth and hideth her self and Judgment maketh its approch in a tempest cometh upon us as an armed man and cannot be resisted God will not be found and you may seek him that is the dialect of Mercy God may be found but you shall not be able to seek him that is the voice of a despised and angry God Oh that thou hadst known the things that belong unto thy peace VEL IN DIE HAC TUA even in this thy day See Mercy gave Jerusalem a day and shined in it by which light she might have seen the things that concerned her peace NUNC AUTEM But now now it is past are as the
the land desolate untill the consummation and that determined shall be poured out upon it For the judgments of God are like to those waters which came out of the Temple at first they are shallow and come but to the ankles Ezek. 47. anon they are deeper and come up unto the loins but at length they are so deep that they give no passage over And therefore let us beware of God's judgments betimes whilst they are yet foordable when they are come but to the ankles when they are but corrections but if we stay till they come to the loins let us haste and pass them through for if we tempt his patience longer and wade yet a little further we shall find no passage at all by which to fly and escape from the wrath to come but it will swallow us up everlastingly And here to make some Use of this we may cry out with the Prophet Jeremiah Be astonished O you Heavens at this Jer. 2.12 and be ye horribly afraid be ye very desolate For Men who have understanding are become more unreasonable then the beasts more senseless then the Heavens then stocks or stones then Idols who have eyes yet see not the judgments of the Lord eares and yet hear not his voice when he is angry hands and yet feel not the scorpions of a Deity Prov. 23.35 God hath stricken us yet we are not sick he hath beaten us and we felt it not Our wickedness hath not corrected us and our backslidings have not reproved us God hath been jealous of us and we still provoke him to jealousie and would be stronger then he we strive and try it out with him as if he had no arme to strike or we had skill and activity to avoid the blow Nay the sword is latched in our sides and we walk delicately with all his judgments about us feel it not though he hath sent a fire into our bones He hath clothed himself with vengeance and we strut in purple he is angry and we are wanton he frowneth and we smile he hath hewn down thousands of us with the sword and we walk about drest up like coffins with herbs and flowers carrying our own funerals about with us He hath threatned to remove our candlestick and we so little fear it that it is our study to prevent him and do it our selves to send us false Prophets and we are ready to receive them as angels of light to destroy our Sanctuary and it is our religion to beat it down What can God do to us to make us believe he is angry what worm can gnaw us what fire scorch us but that of Hell Should he appear visibly before us with all his artillery in his hand unless he struck us dead we should attempt to besiege and invade him For what can he almost do in this kind which he hath not done What hailstones and coals of fire hath he which he hath not rained down upon us He may seem even to have emptied his quiver and drawn at several times all his judgments out of the treasury of his wrath yet we are still the same As it was in the dayes of Noah we eat and drink and be merry and the same profane sacrilegious covetous malicious proud unmerciful men the same giant-like sinners till the general floud till judgment sweep us away Like Caligula that monster of men in Seneca we threaten and challenge Jupiter himself to battel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou trouble me I will trouble thee So mad saith Seneca that he thought Jupiter could not hurt him or if he did that he could revenge it and return it back again upon Jupiter We do not indeed speak it for what Atheist will profess he is so but in effect we do it even fight against Heaven and bid defiance to God himself thinking it humility enough to hearken after him and honour enough to mention his name though it be with the tongue of a Pharisee When were there more symptomes and indications of an angry God when were there more demonstrations of a gainsaying people When was there more misery when was there more vanity When was there more cause of humility when was there more pride It was no great wonder that this horrid monster Pride should find an entrance and room amongst those spiritual substances the Angels because in heaven there could no calamity approch near unto them or seize upon them to allay and abate that tumour SED QUID SUPERBIS PULVIS ET CINIS Why art thou proud dust and ashes which could not be said to Lucifer And therefore as we began so we must end Be astonished O Heavens at this be horribly afraid be ye desolate For Desolation it self cannot humble mortal Man whose breath is in his nostrils For when God's judgments are near us when they are about us when they are entred into out very bowels we put them far from us place them over our heads out of our sight Yet run over all the flying book of curses look back and contemplate all the fearful judgments of God with which he used to redeem his glory and avenge him upon a proud and stubborn people Famine Plague Sword the Burning of Sodome the Drowning of the old world and you shall not find so great a judgement as this Not to be sensible of God's judgments What is it then not to be bettered what is it to be hardned by them Let us pray then to God with the Prophet David Psal 51. Create in us new hearts and renew a right spirit within us or as it is Ezek. 11.19 Take away these hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh or rather with Bonaventure that God would take from us these hearts of flesh such as they are and give us hearts of stone for were they stone they would be more sensible then ours and God by these his judgments as he did once by the hand and rod of Moses may strike our hearts more stony and obdurate then the rock and the waters of true contrition may flow out in such a stream which may first carry away our sins and then his judgments We will conclude with the speech of our Saviour to the women of Jerusalem when he was going to his cross with some little change Luke 23.28 Daughters of Jerusalem saith he weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children If we will not seek God for his own sake who is the fountain of goodness and onely to be sought yet let us seek him for our selves and if not for our selves yet for our wives and children for our City for our Country for our Church For Sin is as the Dragon's tail in the Revelation which sweepeth down many stars along with it involveth millions of those who committed it Let God's mercy allure let his judgments terrifie us If we seek him he will be found though it be through his rayes or through the storm by his
blessings or by his judgments yet if we seek him he will be found Let us have as much feeling as the Cedars of Libanus which are shaken with his voice Let us seek him for there may be more wrath yet left in his vials let us seek him that he poure it not forth that our gold become not dim Lam. 4. that the pretious sons of Sion become not as earthen pitchers that the tongue of the suckling cleave not to the roof of his mouth for thirst that they amongst us who are brought up in scarlet embrace not the dunghils that our Jerusalem be not made a heap of stones And therefore let us with one heart and mind make a covenant to seek the Lord 2 Chron. 15.12 who now seemeth to stand behind the cloud and hide himself from us This is a Holy League a blessed Covenant indeed and we never yet read of any other Let those who have lost him by pride bow and seek him by humility those who have lost him by luxury seek him by temperance and severe discipline those who have lost him by profaneness seek him by reverence and devotion Let all seek him that he may be found of all and return to the many thousands of his Israel that we may be found in him in peace without spot and blameless and he may be found to us as light shining upon our Tabernacles but as a consuming fire devouring the adversary that the tryal of our faith which is much more pretious then gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire may be found unto praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 and he may be found to us our exceeding great and everlasting reward The Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors BEing to prepare you for a feast even the Supper of the Lamb there to partake of the body and bloud of Christ of all those benefits which issued from him with his bloud and are the effects of his love I could not invite your thoughts or call your meditations to a fitter and more proper object then this the Mercy of God covering your sins and at once working Mercy in you towards your brethren his Grace and Pardon and the Condition required to make it ours And here we have them both in this Petition God shining upon us with the bright beams of his mercy that it may reflect from us upon others Christ's bloud distilling upon our souls to melt them that as he was merciful we may be merciful as he forgiveth us our debts we may forgive our debtors In which Petition there are two parts or members which evidently shew themselves In the first is comprehended that which we desire in the second the cause or manner S. Cyprian calleth it the Law by which we put it up Forgive us our debts SICUT as we forgive our debtors God is ready if we be well qualified but if we forgive not then he shutteth his ears and is deaf to our petition For with what measure we mete he will measure to us again If we take our brother by the throat he will deliver us to the goaler If we will not forgive our brother an hundred pence a disgrace some injury some debt something which would be nothing if we were merciful he hath no reason to forgive us all Secundum nostram sententiam judicabimur He will pass no other sentence upon us then that which we have subsribed to in this Petition We beg for pardon on this condition SICUT ET NOS If or As we forgive our debtors And if we make not good our condition we do but prompt the Judge to the severity of a denial and ex ore nostro are condemned already out of our own mouth Let us then take a view of them both both of what we desire Forgiveness of our debts and what we bind our selves to in this request Forgiveness of others In the first we shall consider 1. Why Sins are called debts 2. What Remission of sin is What it is we desire when we pray for forgiveness of sins And this will fill up our first part In the second part 1. Who these Debtors are we must forgive 2. What Debts or Trespasses they be 3. In what the parity or similitude consisteth what extent the SICUT hath and how far our forgiveness must answer and resemble God's And of these we shall speak in their order First our Sins are compared to pecuniary Debts And they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of analogy and proportion betwixt them For what S. Matthew here calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debts S. Luke calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins And we may contemplate the wisdom of the holy Ghost in making choice of this resemblance in fashioning himself to the natural affections of men and bringing us to a sight of the deformity of our sins by that which is familiar to our eyes When we say that Sin is a transgression of the Law we are bold to ask whether it be a Substance and real thing or a Defect whether it be a Privation or Positive act We talk of the Act of sin and the Habit of sin and the Guilt of sin And we give it divers names according to its several effects and operations We call it a stain because it defaceth the image of God a pollution because of that contagion with which it doth infect the soul a prevarication because it is a kind of collusion and defeat of the command a crime because it deserveth to be brought to the bar and accused wickedness and abomination because it is injurious to the Majesty of the Highest But none of these appellations do express Sin so lively to the very sense as when we call it a debt Those names many times flie about us like atomes in the air shew themselves to the understanding and straight vanish away or if they enter they make no deep impression but this word is a goad cum ictu quodam auditur we hear it with a kind of smart Rem invisibilem per visibilis rei formam describit It conveyeth unto us that which is in its own nature invisible for who ever handled Wickedness who ever saw the wrath of God by the forms of things that are visible and familiar to us that we may more deeply apprehend and more firmly remember them And as in many places of Scripture God draweth reasons from outward blessings making our love to them a motive to bring us to himself so here he applieth himself to our infirmity and to drive us from sin calleth it by that name we love not to hear as mothers use to fright their froward children with the names of Hags and Spirits and Hobgoblins And this is the wisdom of the holy Ghost to take us by craft To win us to Wisdom by calling it a bracelet or ornament to bring the ambitious to him by telling
Spartans conceit and think that Trees grow so and that there is no other natural shape and face of Gods service but that which is to deceive themselves and mock God These are lubidria scenâ pulpito digna mockeries fitter for the State and Theatre then the Churches of Christ in which we present the all-seeing eye of God with one thing for another with a Masker and say he is a King with a Slave and say he is a Conquerour with a Dreamer and say he is a Believer with a Man of Belial and say he is a Christian with a Devil and say he is a Saint We must now resume our Text. For all this though we desire to mock God though we do that which is but a mockery of God though we care not for God though we contemn God though we slight his counsels resist his will tender him one thing for another or something which he would have but not all though we abate the terrour of the Law by some fair pretense yet God is not mocked is an everlasting truth as everlasting as Himself and therefore saith a learned Writer it is to be understood cum effectu God is not mocked that is God will not let such mockers go unpunished For as he sees their thoughts before they are shapen hears their words before they are spoken beholds their actions before they are done and his clean and piercing Eye follows them through every grot and cave sees them through all their windings and turnings through those Meanders and Labyrinths in which they think to lurk and hide themselves so He will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 return the mock upon them If they mock God God will laugh them to scorn his Justice shall demonstrate his Providence and the weight of his hand make them feel that he had an Eye I cannot better conclude this second part then with that with which the Psalmist concludes his fiftieth Psalm O consider this ye that forget God ye that mock God for he that forgets him mocks him lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver What a mock was that of the Athenians to Antony which cost them a thousand talents What a mock was that of Calisthenes to Alexander which cost him his life But then what a mock will that be which mocks both body and soul into hell fire And this is the difference between our Mock and Gods Ours doth not cannot reach him we aim at His Mock as the Wiseman speaks flies like an arrow to the mark In our Mock there is nothing but folly and vanity in his there is reaking indignation fire and brimstone the scorching heat whereof who may abide Our Mock is as a dart shot upwards and his Mock returns it upon our own pates We mock him and he remains the same for ever He mocketh us and that is our misery our hell for evermore Oh then forget him not mock him not rather kiss that is worship him Kiss him not with a Judas's kiss worship him not as the Pharisee with an outward ceremonious empty unsignificant worship but fall down before him in simplicity and singleness of heart Worship him as God speaks to you and lye not Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce in him with reverence For tribulation and anguish to them that mock him but glory and honour and immortality to them who worship him in spirit and truth Both these are joyned together in the last part of my Text For whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap Which words as I told you declare the Justice of God in proportioning the Harvest to the Seed and come now to be handled This is a strong motive And it is the method of God to cure us by something which is contrary unto us to check one passion with another and when we love our selves so well as to undo our selves to awake our Fear and so controll and silence our Love It is a high flown phansie or rather a bold phrase of the Physician who makes it a part of his religion to think that there was never any man sâ—ared into heaven I cannot tell what chariot he may get up in nor yet do I think that every man is struck to the ground as S. Paul to be lifted up to heaven But no doubt many a Saint hath a mansion there which took their first rise and continue that motion upon the wings of Fear and that it might not slack and abate borrowed some heat from the fire of Hell Fear takes us by the hand and is a Schoolmaster unto us And when Fear hath well catechized us then Love takes us in hand and perfects the work So that in S. Basils judgment we pass from Fear to Love as from a School to an University Oh that men were wise would they were so wise as to fear the great day of retribution nay would they did believe it Glorious things are spoken of Faith We call it a full assent and we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full assurance The holy Ghost hath called it the evidence of things not seen Is ours so Is ours within the compass of this definition Would to God it were nay would to God many of us did but believe that such a time of reaping there will be as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicle nay as many times we believe a ly Would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed Even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which have nothing of pain but are as loathsome as Hell it self I will not give it so hateful a name as Infidelity for then how many Christian Infidels should we have but it is languor fidei as Tertullian speaks The faith of many is very weak sickly and feeble For whether good or evil we sow the one so sparingly the other so plentifully as if we should never reap These words might yield us many useful observations but we will handle them onely in reference to our former parts as they look back and cast an eye of terrour upon the Deceivers of themselves and Mockers of God that is upon wicked men And first we shall take notice of the metaphor of Sowing which requires not onely Air and Water and Earth but Industry also as Palladius tells us And then our Observation will be That Wickedness though it have a fair countenance and promises much ease and delight yet is a painful and destracting thing It doth not alwayes come up of it self it is sown and much cost and labour we bestow upon it Secondly we shall look upon the Harvest a harvest not worth the looking on a harvest not worth the reaping And did not my Text imply so much I should not call it by that name For what a harvest is Damnation And yet you know in the Gospel there is a harvest
give our selves in one Lent five and forty thousand stripes what though we should with the Euchite take S. Paul's words litterally and pray continually what though we hear the word every day and that from morning to night yet when all is done nothing is done unless all be drawn home to the end for which all were enjoyned which is sincere and universal obedience Without which we cannot think those services acceptable to God but as things which degenerate so much the worse by how much the better they had been if they had been carried and brought home to a right end What a sin is it that Prayer which was made to open the gates of heaven should devour widows houses that I should open my ears and greedily suck in the doctrine of truth and then as greedily confute the Preacher by my practice And what is a Fast if it be for oppression and bloud Fasting is no vertue saith S. Hierom who liked of Fasting well enough Adjumentum est non perfectio sanctitatis It is a good help and way to vertue but it is no part of the perfection and beauty of holiness And it will concern us to take heed how we flatter our selves when we fast as if we had performed some special part of God's service and to lose the benefit it might have brought with it Magìs hoc providendum est nè tibi hoc quòd licita contemnas securitatem quandam illicitorum faciat lest by Fasting or the rest we think we have highly merited at God's hands and that our abstinence from what is lawful encourage us not and countenance us in something that is most unlawful and thus make Fasting a stale and bawd for our sin Behold saith the people to God we have fasted and thou regardest it not They thought that to hang down the head for a day was religion when their lives were otherwise spotted with uncleanness And it is the nature of Ceremony to put a trick as it were upon Devotion and to assume that unto it self which is due to Religion And as it was sometimes said of Church mens wealth Religio peperit divitias sed filia devoravit matrem so standeth the case between Ceremony and Religion Religion was the first that brought it forth and the daughter with many men eateth up the mother Those duties which were ordained to promote Holiness of life undermine and supplant it and then stand in its place obtain not the end but are either taken for it or drawn to worse We fast as Saul made the people for a day and then as they did at night 1 Sam. 14. we eat with the bloud Therefore what S. Paul spake of Circumcision is true of Fasting They are in a manner both made of the same matter and upon the same mould Circumcision and so Fasting verily profitteth if thou keep the Law but if thou break the Law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision thy Fasting is turned into sin Again these duties which look further then themselves and are instrumental to others are of easier dispatch then those which they are ordained to advance It is far easier to fast to pray to hear to tithe mint and rue and anise and cumin then to do the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith These we must make our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or preparations the greatest difficulty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the work it self It is an harder matter to fight against lust then to fast for a day to be in the body and yet out of the body it is harder to crucifie the flesh then to punish it with the loss of a meal It is harder for the wanton to make himself an eunuch then to forbear his bread harder for the Mammonist to â—â—e rich in good works then to pay his tithes To sacrifice the oalves of our lips â—â—o open our ears to afflict our selves for a day many slender motives many by and earthy respects may persuade us How soon will war or famine or a plague bring us into the house of mourning and pull us on our knees when not all these judgments nor the terrour of the wrath to come can prevail with us to deny our selves can prevail with the covetous to scatter his bread with the sacrilegious to hold off his hand from that which is holy with the oppressour to beat out his teeth with the wanton to keep his feet from the house of the foolish woman Heaven it self hath not force enough to keep us out of hell nor hell terrour enough to drive us from it Here here is the agony and contention here is the strugling the labour the warfare of a Christian not in hearing but in doing not in abstaining from meat but from sin Here the mind is put to the utmost of its activity here it is put upon the rack here it is in labour and travel not to bring forth a hollow eye or an open ear a sigh or grone or many prayers but a new creature Hoc opus hic labor est This is a work indeed the work of a Christian Formalities and outward performances Hearing and Fasting and the like are set forth like those labourers in the parable early in the morning and begin the work but true Piety Obedience and Self-denial these bear the burthen and heat of the day Those may change nay may be turned into sin but these abide for ever and are as lasting as the heavens Thirdly the strict and severe observing of outward duties many times maketh us more slack and remiss in those which are more essential and necessary as Euphranor the painter having vvearied his phansie and art in drawing the pictures of the petty Gods failed and came short in setting out the Majesty of Jupiter Hovv often doth Sacrifice swallow up Obedience May not a man be more deceitful for his Prayers more wicked for the many Sermons he hath heard and more bloudy for a Fast May not a man cry out with Saul I have kept the commandment of God when he hath broke it sit down and rest in these types and shadows and deal with the substance as the Jews did with Christ revile and spit upon it and put it to open shame That of the Father is true Vbi quod non oportet adhibetur quod oportet negligitur Where we place our diligence in that which is less we withdraw and take it off from that which is more necessary are great fasters and greater sinners A Pharisee is never more a wolf or a viper then after a fast Last of all for I must hasten God is not so much glorified in a Fast as in the renewing of his image which is more visibly seen in a chaste just pious merciful man then in all the Anchorets or Fasters in the world For herein we are like him and resemble him We cannot say we hear as God doth hear or fast as God doth fast or pray as God doth pray but we are just as
of Liberty and remain in it Heb. 6.10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love O then neither let our obedience swell and puff us up as if God were our debtour nor let us be so afraid of Merit as not to do the work Let not our anger against Papists transform us into Libertines and let us not so far abominate an errour in judgment as to fall into a worse in practice cry down Merit and carry a Pope nay Hell it self along with us whithersoever we go Let us not be Papists God forbid And God forbid too that we should not be Christians Let us rather move like the Seraphims Isa 6. ◠who having six wings covered their face with the uppermost as not daring to look on the Majesty of God and covered their feet with the lowest as acknowledging their imperfection in respect of him but flew with those in the midst ready to do his will Let us tremble before him and abhor our selves and between these two let the middle wings move which are next to the heart and let our constant obedience work out its way to the end which is Blessedness For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed And here I must set a period to my discourse as the present Power that is over us hath to the exercise of my Ministerial function And I could not better conclude then in Blessedness That is the end and conclusion of the whole matter the end of this Royal Law for thither it tendeth the end of Perfection for to that it groweth up and the end of our Liberty for thither it moveth In Blessedness they end or rather they do not end but are carried on with joy and triumph and exsultation to all eternity I might here wish you and what good thing would I not wish you the blessings of the basket the blessings of the right hand and the blessings of the left all the blessings promised in the Law and those blessings which are the glory of the Gospel I might here wish you those fourteen parts of Blessedness reckoned up by the Father whatsoever is Blessedness or whatsoever tendeth to it But here they all meet and are concentred This is your strength your liberty your security your joy your wisdom Your wisdom is Obedience to this Law and Obedience striveth and hasteneth to overtake and joyn it self with this Blessedness which includeth all that we can desire nay more then we can conceive Quid à Deo praestari possit homini habenti felicitatem saith Augustine What can God do more for us then make us blessed And therefore when men say Lo here is Christ or There is Christ Lo here is Blessedness or There is Blessedness go not after them For here here alone it is to be found Seek it not in your Phansie in a forced and false persuasion that you have attained it when you run from it that you are in a Paradise when you are seeking death in the errour of your life and are even at the mouth of hell For Blessedness will not lie wrapped up in a thought That hath made many thousands of Saints which shall never see the face of God What is an imaginary Saint What is a painted Heaven What is Blessedness in conceit Next seek it not in Formalities in the ceremonious diligence of Hearing and Fasting and loud Profession All the formalities and ceremonies in the world will not make a ladder to reach it all this noise will not call it down But then seek it not in a Faction in a Discipline in this or that Politie or Government For it will not be found in the rents and divisions which we make It is tied to no place it may be found in any This Law of Liberty never made Papist or Calvenist or Lutheran or Presbyterian It is the Christian Law and maketh Christians and maketh Christians to make them blessed Cùm omnes felicitatem expetant vix centesimus quisque eam à Deo exspectat All desire Blessedness and not one of an hundred will take it from God or that which he offereth but they make one of their own such a Blessedness as leaveth them miserable they do that which is evil and comfort themselves with a thought they neglect the Law and bless themselves in formalities in Hearing when they are deaf to every good work in Fasting when they fast to bloud and oppression in Praying when they deny themselves what they pray for in loud Profession which is as a loud lie When they swim in their own gall in the gall of bitterness they think themselves in the rivers of Canaan which flow with milk and honey They applaud themselves in their malice and deceit in every evil work They are what they should not be and yet are blessed because they are of such a Faction of this Consistory of this Classis of this Conventicle that is they are blessed because they are not so Oh that men were wise oh that they would be blessed Then would they look for it where it is in this Law of liberty and Obedience to it in this Law which doth purge the Ear and sanctifie a Fast and give wings to our Prayers which plucketh the visour from the face of the Hypocrite and strippeth him of his formalities which scattereth the people that delight in war and is a killing letter to them that first displease God by their impiety and then please and bless themselves in a faction Which is rem quietissimam inquietudine quaerere to seek for a sad serious quiet thing in distraction to seek for constancy in a whirlwind reality in a shadow life in a picture peace in tumult and joy and Blessedness in hell it self For conclusion then That we may find Blessedness let us look into this Royal Law that was made for Blessedness and Blessedness for it And we may look into this Law in the blackest day in the darkest time When Superstition flattereth we may look into it and when Profaness is bold we may look into it When we are poor this will make us rich when we are despised this will honour us when we are silenced this will speak for us when we are driven about the world this will make it a journey to Paradise and though we be imprisoned this cannot be bound and though we die this is eternal as eternal as that God whose Law it is his everlasting Gospel It will not leave us at our death but lie down with us in our graves and rise again with us to judgement and set the crown of glory on our heads And to the true love of this Law to this Blessedness I commend you It is my gift my last wish that the grace of God may dwell in you plenteously and strengthen you to every good work It is the blessing of him
c. 411. God's Wisdome is the fountain of Laws 106. His Laws are most just and unalterable 106. They are not mere indications of His Power but the issue also of His Love 107. God alone is infallible 678. The belief of God's Knowledge is natural 918. yet most men live as if they believed it not 919 c. When men sin they wish God could not know 921. and at last they strive and study to believe he doth not 922. God is more jealous of his Wisdome then of his Power 933. 1034. No hiding ought from Him 933. 1059. He is therefore more offended with the Excuse then with the Sin 1034 1035. How God is said not to know some things 170. ¶ God's Omnipotencie 103. He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 103. His Power passeth through all 104. From His Power in making us floweth His Autority over us 104. Why He made us v. Man What moved Him to create the world 404. Those Powers which the Heathen phansied to be in several Gods are all united in the One onely true God 341. ¶ Gods Omnipotence submitteth to his Will 21. 103. and we magnifie Him more by giving Him an absolute Will then an infinite Power 21. The Will of God under a fourfold consideration 306. 406. 585 c. How he is said to will that that which is sinful 301. 306. 584 c. Whether God's Permission of sin be as some say effective 407 c. Why God permitteth Sin which he hateth and forbiddeth and punisheth 410. 585. God doth not will that sin be committed though he is willing to permit it 411. 585. Hardening and Blinding how ascribed to God 411 412. 587. Evil cometh not from God properly but from our selves 417. God's secret Will is no rule of our actions but his revealed is 577. God's Will of Permission doth not thwart any other will of his 585 c. The Will of God is not alwayes effected 409. 587. It is often resisted 587. All things that are done are not the work of his Hand 409. 584. ¶ God's Love to Man 381 743. His Love to Man and his Mercy to sinners exceeding great 358. The infiniteness of his Love and Mercy 22 23. v. Christ God's Love of two sorts 30. God's glory and Man's salvation are twisted together 34. His Mercy to penitent sinners set forth 348 349. But he will have no mercy on the presumtuous 349 350. 368. The doctrine of God's Mercy to be delivered with great caution 349 350. Nothing provoketh God to anger more then the abuse of his Mercy 358. 360. 381. 613. 794. God's Wisdome Justice Power Mercy shewn in Man's salvation 744. 763. ¶ Of God's Goodness 404 405. His benefits come not alone but one is a pledge of another 19. He serveth us more then we him 56. God's favours must be improved 579. Why God's favours are so often recorded and mentioned in Scripture 590. Abuse of his gifts highly provoketh Him 595. God is so absolute and all sufficient a Good that nothing is evil with him nothing good without him 784. He alone can satisfie the vast desires of Man's mind 786. 1124. ¶ God delighteth in his Justice 930. His Law enjoyneth not things impossible 109 c. 118. He is not willing Man should die 403. 424 c. He usually warneth before he striketh 323. He chastiseth gently at first but if we will not amend he layeth on heavier strokes 611 612. Out of zele to his honour we must not question His actions 21. ¶ How strange His Providence seemeth to humane reason 189. It runneth a course quite contrary to Mans wisdome 703. God protecteth even the wicked 115. He sometimes delivereth up his people to his utter enemies 298. v. Righteous God employeth oftentimes the worst of men to chastise his people and when they have done their office he throweth the rod into the fire 299 300. That act of Gods is a permission not a commission 299 300. The glory of their profession as the Ark was to the Israelite may be taken away 300. c. God's wayes are equal when they seem most unequal 305. From God's permitting the wicked to prosper we may not conclude He loveth them 684 685. ¶ We need God's Grace but whether it work irresistibly is a question 435 436. God biddeth us be good and useth means to make us so but not violence 585 586 The Conversion or Induration of a sinner is not a work of God's uncontrollable Power 587. v. Conversion God may do what he will but it is ill depending on that 368. 434. Our Wills must be conformable to God's Will in all things 305 c. Submission to God's Will maketh a man enjoy tranquility amid the greatest storms 307 308. God's wayes are secret and unsearchable but his will concerning our duty is manifest 93. God must be obeyed as Lord paramount though Men say nay 114. and though our Flesh hang back 115. His autority and commands are not to be disputed 451. 587 588. ¶ God's Judgements unsearchable 291. As supreme Lord over us he may take all from us at his pleasure 294. He justly taketh his blessings away when we abuse them 302. Nothing so terrible as the apprehension of Gods Wrath 25 26. How careful we ought to be lest we provoke God to jealousie and anger 381. 612 613. ¶ God is alwayes alike and immutable 381 382. 614. Why God who is free from all passion seemeth to put on Passion 384. Of those Affections that seem to be in God 385. ¶ He cannot lie nor dissemble 403 404. He is Truth and loveth it in us 369. and hateth nothing more then Hypocrisie 372. Why Hypocrisie is so hateful to him 1058 1059. He applieth himself sutably to our infirmity 452 453. ¶ God is all-sufficient and standeth not in need of any thing 404 405. His glory being infinite can neither be improved nor impaired 405. 590. 744. We must glorifie God in our spirit 744. 748. and in our body 745 c. 749. Nothing gloryfieth nothing pleaseth God so much as our being like him 1058. ¶ The reason of our dulness in Seeking of God is our ignorance and mistake of him 783. Many think they seek God well when their seeking is slight and lame 787 788. What it is to seek him aright 789. To that end we must hear the Word fast and pray 790 c. God should be sought without delay 792-803 The virtues that shine in God should kindle the like in us 826. What a shame it is that God should seek us and we run from him 881. ¶ God's house v. Church God's service doth best in God's house 580. When we offer unto God we must take heed we think not any thing good enough for him 849 850. ¶ God's Decrees are not to be pried into 415 416. v. Decrees To God all men all actions all events are present 288. 1043. ¶ God's Hand is mighty 626. 642. We should therefore stand in aw of Him and fall
Israel and of England compared 422 423. J. JAmes St. James and St. Paul seem to contradict each other but do not 276. Jealousie vvhat in Man vvhat in God 381. 613. 643. Jer. xxv 18-29 299. JESUS how excellent a name 732 733. That JESUS is the Lord though Law and Custome and Education teach us yet vve cannot say it but by the holy Ghost 759 c. Many say so yet but few say it 763 764. He vvho saith it aright saith it vvith his Tongue 764. 770. with his Heart 765. 770. and vvith his Hand 766. 270 c. Oh vvhat pity and shame it is that Man should suffer the Flesh the World and the Devil to Lord it over him and not Jesus 768. Jews vvhy commanded to offer sacrifice 72. Why blamed sometimes for so doing 80. 82. They pleased themselves exceedingly in this and in other outward servics 108. v. Formality Their great privileges 418. Privileges of Christians greater then theirs 419. Many things vvere permitted to be done by the Jews vvhich are unlawful for a Christian 869. Their course of sinning 611. Jew a term of reproch 194. Job's case 292. 903. Joh. vi 63. 468. ¶ viii 36. 742. 1 Joh. ii 4. 723. ¶ 16. 280. ¶ iv 18. 398. ¶ v. 3. 112. St. John v. Charity St. John Baptist a burning and shining light 549 c. How the Jews at first admired him 553. but vvithin a vvhile disliked him 554. Joy good and bad 338. Sensitive and Rational 553. It is configured to the soul that receiveth it 860. God's Joy over us and our Joy in Him and in one another 861. Against them that rejoyce in the sins or calamities of others 862 863. Joy that ariseth from Contemplation of good is nothing to that which ariseth from Action 1125. True Joy floweth from Love 153. and from Obedience 113. 992. 1125 1126. Sorrow is vvont to go before Joy 560. Judas's repentance 336. his despair 343. Judge neither others sinners because afflicted nor thy self a Saint because prosperous 295 c. 616. We may disannul our former Judgment upon better evidence vvithout inconstancie 676 c. The Judgment of God and of the World how different 964. God's J. and Man's differ much 616. That of Men for the most part corrupt and partial 246 247. Judgment Few believe there shall be a day of Judgment 926. Though scoffers say Nay it will assuredly come 237 238. Why it is so long in coming 238. It cannot be the object of a wicked man's hope 242. 737. v. CHRIST Curious enquiry after the time of the last Judgment condemned 248 c. We ought to exspect and wait for it 250. Signes of the day of Judgment 1043 c. Judgments Of God's temporal Judgements 611. Judgments justly fall even on God's own people vvhen they sin 290. In general J. many times the good are involved vvith the evil vvithout any prejudice to God's Justice 291. Reasons to prove that point 292. A fearful thing to be under J. and not to be sensible of them 643. Judgments should fright us from sin and drive us to God 364. 800. If they vvork not that effect they are forerunners of hell-torments 365. 801. We should especially be afraid of those sins vvhich are vvont to bring general J. on a Nation 297. It is the greatest judgement not to fear J. till they come 502. 615. We must studie God's J. 615. v. Punishment Judge The Judge's calling necessary 821. His office 120. How his autority may be lawfully made use of 822. Julian the Apostate 957. His liberality 143. His malitious slander of the Christians 148. He wounded Religion more with his wit then with his sword 959. His death 959. Justice of how large extent 119. What it is 120. Private J. is far larger then publick 121. Our common Nature obligeth to live justly 123. and so doth the Law of Nature 124. 126. c. 134. and Fear of God's Vengeance 125. and the written Law of God 128. especially Christ's Gospel 129. How strict observers of Justice some Heathens have been 128. How small esteem Justice hath in the world 131. Motives to live justly 134 c. That which is not Just can neither be pleasant nor profitable 126. v. Mercy Justification what 811. The Church of Rome's doctrine confuted 812 813. Faith justifieth but none but penitents 872. The several opinions about Justification may all be true 1074 c. But many nice and needless disputes there be about it 1075. Wherein Justification consisteth 1075. K. KEyes Power of the Keyes neither to be neglected nor contemned 47. Kingdomes v. Fate Kings though mighty Lords on the earth are but strangers in the earth 532. 535. K. love not to be too much beholding to their subjects 232. It is not expedient for the world to have onely one King 233. Kneeling in the service of God proved by Calvine to be of Divine autority 756. Knowledge Want of Knowledge many alledge to excuse themselves but without cause 437. Pretended K. how mischievous 556 557. Three impediments of K. 96 c. Four wayes to get K. 66. Of which Practice is the chief 68 69. K. is the daughter of Time and Industrie 956. What kind of K. it is that we have in this life 678. God's wayes are not to be known by us his will and our duty easily may 93. We should not studie to know things not revealed 248. Though the K. of what is necessary be easy and obvious 93. 95. yet it is to be sought for with all diligence 96. K. even in the Apostles grew by degrees 61. K. of all future things if we had it would do us no good 789. K. of Sin v. Sin K. of Nature Medicine Laws Husbandry is very excellent 656 657. Saving K. is onely necessary 59 60. 248. K. of Christ surpasseth all other K. 715 c. but it must be not a bare speculative K. but practical 723 c. Many know the Truth but love it not 549. 690. Knowledge Will Affections all to be employed in the walk of a Christian 516 c. Speculative K. availeth nothing without Love 517. It is but a phantasm a dream 518 519. 724 725. It is worse then Ignorance 518. 520. 523. 690. 723. Adde therefore to K. Practice 519 725. As K. directeth Practice so Practice encreaseth K. 520. 693. Words of Knowledge in Scripture imply the Affections 463. Love excelleth Knowledge 977. How God is said not to know the wicked 173. L. LAbour is the price of God's gifts 219. It is not onely necessary but honourable 220. No grace gotten by us no good wrought in us without Labour and pains 667 c. v industrie Sin is a laborious thing 927. more laborious then Virtue 928. It is sad to consider that many will not labour so much to be saved as thousands do to be damned 928. Law Whether going to Law be lawfull 821. Good men have alwayes scrupled the point 822. Cautions and rules to be observed 822. 824. Lawfull