We rely not upon God as we ought when we pray but trust more to second means to our Wit to our Friends or the like than to Him And this seems to be that wavering in prayer S. Iames speaks of when he bids us pray in faith without wavering Chap. 1. 6. that is without reeling from God to rest upon second means But as with our mouth we pray to him so should our Hearts rely upon him to give us what we ask But we often pray to God for fashion but indeed we look to speed by others and so God takes himself mocked and so no marvel if he hears us not If it were our own case we would not listen to such suiters Or 3. We pray and speed not when we make not God's glory the End of what we ask Ye ask saith S. Iames Chap. 4. 3. and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye might consume it upon your lusts Or 4. We may ask something that crosseth the Rule of Divine Providence and Iustice and then also we must not look to speed David prayed for the life of his child by Bathsheba Vriah's Wife but was not heard because it stood not with the Rule of Divine Iustice that so scandalous a sin which made the Enemies of God to blaspheme should not have an exemplary punishment In like manner sundry times when the children of Israel rebelled against the Lord and murmured against Moses and Aaron their Governours Moses poured forth very earnest prayers to God for removing his judgments from off the people but God would not hear him because their sins were scandalous and committed with so high a hand that it could not stand with the Rule of his Iustice not to inflict punishment for them 2. Again sometimes and that too often we are indisposed for God to grant our request As first when some sin unrepented of lies at the door and keeps God's blessing out Psal. 66. 18. If I regard saith David iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me So God would not hear Ioshua praying for the Israelites when they fled before the men of Ai because of Achan's Sacriledge Get thee up saith God why liest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned for they have taken of the accursed thing that is the thing that cursed were those that medled therewith Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies because they were accursed Neither will I be with you any more except ye put the accursed thing from among you Or lastly our Prayers often are not heard because we appear before the Lord empty we do not as Cornelius did send up Prayers and Alms together we should have two strings to our bow when we have but one This is another indisposition which unfits us to receive what we ask of God For how can we look that God should hear us in our need when we turn away our face from our brother in his need When we refuse to give to God or for his sake what he requires why should he grant to us what we request Hear what an ancient Father of the Church S. Basil by name in Concione ad Divites saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have known many saith he who would fast who would pray who would sigh but not bestow one halfpeny upon the poor But what then will their other devotion profit them 3. Add to all these Reasons of displeasure a Reason of favour why God sometimes grants not our requests namely because we ask that which he knows would be hurtful for us though we think not so We ask sometimes that which if he granted us would utterly undo us As therefore a wise and loving Father will not give his child a knife or some other hurtful thing though it cries never so much unto him for it so does God deal with his children And how wise soever we think our selves we are often as ignorant in that which concerns our good as very babes are and therefore we must submit our selves to be ordered by the wisdom of our heavenly Father Moreover we must know and believe that God often hears our Prayers when we think he doth not and that three manner of ways As namely 1. When he changes the means but brings the End we desire another way to pass We ask to have a thing by our means but he likes not our way but gives it us by another means which he thinks better S. Paul that he might the better glorifie God in serving him desires the thorn in the flesh might be taken from him God denies him that means but grants him grace sufficient for him that so being humbled by the sight of his own infirmity he might glorifie God for his power in mans weakness And is it not all one whether a Physician quench the thirst of his Patient by giving him Barberies or some other comfortable drink as by giving him Beer which he calls for 2. God often grants our request but not at that time we would have it but defers it till some other time which he thinks best Daniel prays for the return of the Captivity in the first year of Darius but God defers it till the first of Cyrus We must not therefore take God's delays for denials The Souls of the Saints under the Altar Rev. 6. 10. cry out aloud for vengeance God hears that cry and cannot deny the importunate cry of innocent bloud yet he defers it for a little season saith the Text v. 11. and why because their fellow-servants and brethren that should be slain as they were might be fulfilled Lastly God sometimes grants not the thing we ask but gives us in stead thereof something which is as good or better And then we are not to think but that he hears us And thus much concerning the power and efficacy of Prayer Now I come also to shew the like of Alms how powerful a means they are to procure a blessing from God Not thy Prayer only saith the Angel but thine Alms also are come up for a remembrance in the sight of God For Alms is a kind of Prayer namely a visible one and such an one as prevails as strongly with God for a blessing as any other Hear David in Psalm 41. 1. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble 2. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon earth and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies 3. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness A place so evident as flashes in a man's eye But hear Solomon speak to Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given he will pay him again And Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack but he that hideth his eyes
is infected This poison saith the Scripture was the breach of God's commandment in Paradise by eating of the forbidden fruit for which Adam being called to an account by the great Iudge and laying the fault upon the Woman which God had given him for an helper God vouchsafes as ye hear in my Text to examine the Woman saying What is this that thou hast done And she answers The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat These words contain in them two parts First God's Inquisition accusing Secondly The Woman's Confession excusing her fact The first in the first words And the Lord said unto the woman c. The second in the last words And the woman said The Serpent beguiled me c. For the first words which God speaks being considered absolutely are an Indictment for some crime as they are Interrogative they are an Inquisition concerning the same and therefore I call them an Inquisition accusing So the second are a Confession as the Woman says I have eaten but with an excuse when she says The Serpent beguiled me and therefore I call them a Confession excusing In the Inquisition are two things to be considered First The Author and Person who makes it which is the Lord God himself so saith my Text And the Lord God said unto the woman Secondly The Inquisition it self What is this that thou hast done In the Person who comes and makes this Inquest being the Lord God himself we may observe and behold his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wonderful Goodness and unspeakable Love to mankind which here reveals it self in four most remarkable Circumstances First In his forbearance And the Lord said When said the Lord namely not till Adam had accused her she who was first in the sin was last questioned for the same and that too because her husband had appealed her God knew and observed well enough the first degree and every progress of her sin he needed no information from another yet as though he were loth to take notice thereof as though he were loth to find her guilty yea as though he were loth to denounce the punishment which his Iustice required he comes not against her until now and that as though he were unwilling to come at all If we look back into the Story we shall yet find a further confirmation thereof How long did God hold his hand before he stripped the woman especially of that glorious beauty of her integrity and made her with opened eyes to see her shameful nakedness She had at the first onset of her Conference with the Serpent sinned a sin of Vnbelief of God and yet God spared her In the progress she sinned more in her proud Ambition of being like to God himself and to be wise above what was given her and God yet spared her She sinned when she coveted and longed once to eat of the forbidden fruit when it began to seem more pleasing and desirable unto her than Obedience to God's Commandment and God yet spared her At last she takes and eats thereof and so came to the height and consummation of her sin and yet behold and see the Clemency and Longanimity of our good God he paused yet a while until she had given unto her husband also and then and not till then he opened their eyes to see their woful misery A Lesson first to us men if so be we think the Example of God worthy our imitation to bear long with our brother as God bears with us to admonish him as it is in the Gospel the first second and third time before we use him like an Heathen or a Publican to forgive him seven times yea as Christ says to Peter if he repent and ask forgiveness seventy times seven Secondly This may be a cordial of spiritual comfort unto us sinners Though we make a shift to keep our selves from the execution of sin yet we find our hearts full of sinful thoughts ungodly desires and unclean lusts and such like sinful motions from the infirmity of our flesh which notwithstanding we cannot ever expel or be rid of yet let us hope that God out of his mercy will bear with our weakness and pass by our infirmities who bore with the sin of our first Parents until it came to execution The second Circumstance is The temper of his Iustice in that he vouchsafes first to enquire of the offence and examine the fact before he gives Sentence or proceeds to execution The like example we have Gen. 11. 5. where it is said The Lord came down to see the City and Tower which the children of men had builded afore he would confound their language or scatter them abroad from that ambitious Babel upon the face of the earth Again Gen. 18. 20 21. the Lord says Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grievous I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know He from whom no secrets are hid he that formed the heart of man and knows all the works we do he that trieth and searcheth the heart and reins even he will first examine the fact will first hear what miserable man can say for himself before his Sentence shall pass upon him not out of ignorance of what was done for how should the omniscient God be ignorant but out of his wonderful clemency and unspeakable moderation towards Man I say towards Man for to him alone he shews this favour for as for the Serpent we see he vouchsafes nor to ask him one question nor to expect what he could say for himself but presently without examination proceeds to judgment against him Doth the great God the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth deal with so unspeakable temper with his creature and is vile man a base earth-worm so austere unto his brother It was the height of Eve's whole ambition to be like unto God but her off-spring's ambition is to be most unlike unto him He glories in mercy and clemency we in rage and rash austerity He hears his creature speak before he condemns him we condemn our brother before we hear him speak Be wise be instructed ye Iudes of the earth let this great Example of God be the pattern of your imitation yealet no private man condemn another rashly until he hath heard what he may say foâ— himself as God himself here vouchsafed to go before us The third Circumstance is God's condescent unto man in that he sends neither Angels nor Ministers to examine our first Parents and to make inquisition of their offence but he coâ—â—s himself in person to take notice thereof When men are offended especially great â—en they will not deign to look upon or to admit into their presence those that have offended them How great therefore is this indulgence of Almighty God who deigâ—s here his presence to our most wretched and most naked
Naphtali and Galilee all the Land of Naphtali and carried them captive to Assyria By occasion of which calamity being then newly happened Esay comforts them with this Prophecy that in recompence of that heavy disadvantage above the rest of their brethren they should have the first and chiefest share of the presence and conversation of Messiah which was to come As the first times saith he he made vile or debased the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali so in the latter time he shall make it glorious If ye ask Why it follows The way of the sea by Iordan Galilee of the Gentiles V. 2. The people that walked in darkness namely of affliction have seen a great light they that dwelt in the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined V. 3. Thou hast multiplied the nation and increased the joy thereof c. If ye ask How comes this it follows v. 6. For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counseller The mighty God The Father or Author of eternity The Prince of Peace V. 7. Of the encrease of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this This is he that should enlighten the Province of Galilee or the land of Zebulun and Naphtali with the glory of his presence and make it as it were amends for what it suffered before the rest of the Country of Israel by the hand of the King of Assyria And if this be not a Prophecy of Christ I know not what is And to the same purpose I bring it doth S. Matthew quote it chap. 4. 14 c. upon our Saviour's going after Iohn was cast into prison to dwell at Capernaum the Metropolis of Galilee to make it the Seat of the preaching and publication of the Gospel of his Kingdom which should have made us take more notice thereof than commonly we have done Blind Iews that could not see it nay for this very reason because he was of Galilee they would not believe him to be the Messiah Shall Christ come out of Galilee say they should not Christ come out of Bethlehem And so he did too and yet was by habitation and conversation a Galilean Nay I must yet say more even we Christians cannot altogether be excused who by following the Iews too close have so troubled and darkned the beginning of this Prophecy by mis-translating and mis-distinguishing it that when we have done we can hardly tell how to defend S. Matthew's application thereof much less see the evidence of so noble and clear a Prophecy I think the devil did owe it a spight from the beginning The Septuagint is here corrupted into pure non-sense and so I believe was even in the Apostles times which made S. Matthew that he could quote nothing of that first sentence but only the names of Zebulun and Naphtali as he may see that compares them The Chaldee Paraphrast is as wide How we translate of latter times I shall not need to mention those who are pinched therewith can tell best For my part I am perswaded the four or five first words wherewith we are wont to begin this ninth Chapter belong to the last verse of the Chapter before-going as both the Chaldee Paraphrast and S. Ierome refer them and that the words following begin a new Prophecy namely that which I have hitherto alledged for Messiah's abode in Galilee in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According as the first time he made vile or debased the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali so in the latter time he shall make it glorious Or making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the supposition of the sentence thus As the first time made vile the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali so the latter time shall make them glorious Or simply without comparison thus The first time he debased the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali but in the latter time he shall make them glorious Then follow the words which S. Matthew quotes The way of the sea by Iordan Galilee of the Gentiles c. It seems to me to be exceeding plain and to make the Prophecy so clear as scarce any in Scripture goes beyond it Is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make vile or base and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to glorifie or make glorious Let him that hath skill in the language judge What need we then translate lightly afflict and heavily afflict True 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the signification of lightness but it is of light worth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of weight but as in Piel frequently so here of the weight of glory and we our selves otherwhiles translate it so And to conclude the Event is true and evident That as the land of Zebulun and Naphtali had the first share in the calamity by Assyria so had they a prerogative in enjoying the presence of Messiah The Observation that this circumstance of Christ our Saviour's habitation and abode suggests unto our meditation is an Example of that rule of God's administration S. Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 1. 27 c. to make choice of the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and of weak base and despicable things in the world's account to confound the mighty That no flesh should glory before him For Galilee and the inhabitants thereof were in respect of Iudaea reputed ignoble and half strangers both because they were so far divided from Ierusalem where the Temple of their Nation was and because it was not the proper and original habitation of the Tribes of Iudah and Benjamin which returned from Captivity but part of the lot of the Kingdom of the ten Tribes which Salmanasser carried away captive Howbeit the Iews of the two Tribes after their return especially in the prevailing times of the Maccabees had many of them setled themselves there and at length subdued the Gentiles there dwelling and replenished it with their own people yet so as many of the Gentiles dwelt still among them In which respects they were despised of those that dwelt in Iudaea their native home and accounted though of the same Nation yet far less noble than themselves Insomuch that the name of Galilaean was in some sort reproachful and despicable as we may gather even from those speeches of the Iews in the Gospel Shall Christ come out of Galilee and Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Yet did God so order it that Christ the King of Israel the great Saviour of Mankind who was to be exalted to sit at the right hand of God far above all principalities and powers should be as you see a Galilean And was not the rest of his breeding suitable thereunto Who would not have
which God sends for any special sin but it hath one of these marks in it Come therefore to Adonibezek and let us learn of him by God's stamp in our punishment to find out what sin he aims at If we would once use to read this Hand-writing of God in our crosses and afflictions what a motive would it be to make us leave many a sin wherein the Devil nuzzles us the greatest part of our life without sense and feeling For if any thing would rouze us and scare us from sin sure this would to hear word from God himself what the sin is he plagues us for and so sharply warns us to amend Whensoever therefore any cross or calamity befals us or any of ours either in body goods or name or in the success of any thing we take in hand let us not rebel against God with an impatient heart or fret at the occasion or author of our misery but let us take a just account of our life past and thus reason with our selves This is surely none other but the very Finger of God I am punished therefore have I sinned I am punished thus and thus in this or that sort in this or that thing in this or that place or time therefore God is angry with me for something I have done the same with that I suffer or something like unto it or because I sinned in this thing or at this time or in this place when and where I now am punished As I have done so surely God hath requited me Therefore I will not look any longer upon any other cause or occasion of this misery of this cross or calamity but look unto my sin and give glory unto God who sent the hand which hath done all this unto me Thus did the sons of Iacob having no doubt learned of their good father to make this use of their crosses and afflictions For when they saw themselves so roughly entertained in Egypt being challenged for spies of the countrey when their brother Simeon was to lie in prison in a strange land and not only this brother but another brother so dearly beloved of his father must needs be taken from him and come into the like jeopardy when all this distress fell still upon the head of a brother and nothing but a brother they presently discovered the Hand-writing of God and cried out We are guilty and therefore is this evil come upon us Behold the Finger of God All this evil still lights upon one or other of our brethren for we are verily guilty concerning a brother our brother Ioseph in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Ah! said Reuben I told you I spake unto you that you should not sin against the child but you would not hear therefore behold his bloud is now required Yea this writing of God is yet more evident for we sinned in the dearly-beloved of our Father Ioseph and now are we distressed about our brother Benjamin the child whom our Father loveth As we have done so God hath requited us This is the last point I observed in these words and it contains the Use of all the former Verbum sapienti one word is enough to him that is wise and one Example is sufficient for him that is willing to follow it DISCOURSE XXXI S. MATTHEW 11. 28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls I SHALL not need trouble you with prefacing of the coherence The words I have read are an intire sense of themselves without dependence on what went before For the matter they are such as I might call them an Epitome or Brief summe of the whole Gospel containing in few words the compleat method of Salvation and as in a small map a full view of the way to the gates of Eternal life whither he is most unworthy to come who will not learn so small a Catechism as this They are propounded unto us by way of an Invitation consisting of Three parts 1. The Thing 2. The Persons 3. The Benefit 1. The Thing invited to which is double to wit Christ and his yoke Come unto me saith he and take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly 2. The Persons invited Those that labour and are heavy laden Come all ye that labour and are heavy laden 3. The Benefit to those who embrace the invitement Rest and Ease which you shall find in every corner of this Invitation I will give you rest or I will ease you again Ye shall find rest unto your souls and in conclusion My yoke is easie and my burthen is light A Benefit so transcendent as might allure any car that is not wholly stopped up with spiritual deafness to listen after the means whereby it is attained Let us therefore consider these Three points in order and first that which must first be known and learned The quality of the persons invited Those that labour and are heavy laden Which before I tell you what they mean I must first tell you how to construe them viz. by the Figure called Hendiadis understanding the conjunction and causally and so contriving the two things named into one in this manner labour and heavy laden into labouring of being heavy laden As if it had been said Come unto me all ye that labour of or by being heavy laden All you that are toiled with and weary of your heavy burthen come unto me and I will ease you For after this manner are many things in Scripture which are uttered conjunctionwise to be understood I will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception saith God unto the woman Gen. 3. 16. that is I will multiply thy sorrows of conception or the sorrows which come of conception You shall find often in Scripture Do judgment and righteousness that is Do judgment according to righteousness Do such judgment as proceeds from justice and righteousness Psal. 116. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication that is the voice of my supplication Ier. 29. 11. The Lord promiseth his people to give them an end and expectation that is the end of their expectation or the end they look for In this Gospel saith S. Iohn Baptist chap. 3. verse 11. He that cometh after me shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire that is with the fire of the holy Ghost So in my Text weary and heavy laden is weary of being heavy laden such as labour such as are toiled and tired out by the weight of their loading And thus are the words to be construed Now to the meaning of them Those that labour of being heavy laden are such as grieve and groan under the burthen of
they are imperfect and whatsoever they were we owed them to him in whom we live and have our Being whether there were any Reward or not promised for them Neither do we hereby any whit detract from the truth of that Axiome That God rewardeth every man according to his work For still the Question remaineth the very same Whether there may not be as well merces gratiae as merces justitiae that is Whether God may not judge a man according to his works when he sits upon the Throne of Grace as well as when he sits upon his Throne of Iustice. And we think here that the Prophet David hath fully cleared the case in that one sentence Psal. 62. 12. With thee O Lord is Mercy for thou rewardest every one according to his work Nay more than this We deny not but in some sense this Reward may be said to proceed of Iustice. For howsoever originally and in it self we hold it cometh from God's free Bounty and Mercy who might have required the Work of us without all promise of Reward For as I said we are his Creatures and owe our Being unto him yet in regard he hath covenanted with us and tied himself by his Word and Promâ—â—e to confer such a Reward the Reward now in a sort proveth to be an Act of Iustice namely of Iustiâ—ia promissi on God's part not of Merit on ours even as in forgiving our sins which in it self all men know to be an Act of Mercy he is said to be Faithful and Iust 1 Iohn 1. 9. namely in the faithful performance of his Promise For Promise we know once made amongst honest men is accounted a due debt But this argues no more any worthiness of equality in the Work towards the obtaining of the Reward than if a Promise of a Kingdom were made to one if he should take up a straw it would follow thence that the lifting up of a straw were a labour or a work worth a Kingdom howsoever he that should so promise were bound to give it Thus was Moses careful to put the children of Israel in mind touching the Land of Canaan which was a Type of our Eternal habitation in Heaven that it was a Land of promise and not of merit which God gave them to possess not for their righteousness or for their upright heart but that he might perform the word which he sware unto their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob Whereupon the Levites in this Book of Nehemiah say in their Prayer to God Thou madest a Covenant with Abraham to give to his seed the Land of the Canaanites and hast performed thy words because thou art just that is true and faithful in keeping thy promise Now because the Lord hath made a like promise of the Crown of life to them that love him S. Paul sticks not in like manner to attribute this also to God's Iustice Henceforth saith he 2 Tim. 4. 8. is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them that love his appearing Upon which S. Bernard most sweetly as he is wont Est ergo quam Paulus expect at corona Iustitiae sed justitiae Dei non suae Iustum quippe est ut reddat quod debet debet autem quod pollicitus est There is therefore a crown of righteousness which Paul looks for but it is of God's righteousness not his own it being a righteous thing with God to give what he owes now he owes what he hath engaged himself to by promise Lastly for the word Merit â—t is not the name we so much scruple at as the thing wont now-a-daies to be understood thereby otherwise we confess the name might be admitted if taken in the large and more general seâ—se for Any work having relation to a reward to follow it or whereby a reward is quocunque modo obtained in a word as the Correlate indifferent either to merces gratiae or justitiae the reward of Grace or of Iustice. For thus the Fathers used it and so might we have done still if some of us had not grown too proud and mistook it Since we think it better and safer to diâ—use it even as Physicians are wont to prescribe their Patients recovered of some desperate disease not to use any more that meat or diet which they find to have caused it And here give me leave to acquaint you with an Observation of a like alteration of speech and I suppose for the self-same cause happening under the Old Testament namely of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness into That which findeth mercy For the Septuagint and the New Testament with them render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness not only when it is taken for Beneficence or Alms as in that Tongue it is the ordinary word in which use we are wont to expound it Works of mercy but where there is no relation to Alms or Beneficence at all Whence I gather that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Septuagint meant not as we commonly take it Works of mercy but rather Works whereby we find mercy at the hands of God I will give you a place which methinks is very pregnant Deut. 6. 24 25. where we read thus And the Lord commanded us to do all these Statutes you may see there what they are to fear the Lord our God for our good alwayes that he might preserve us alive as at this day And it shall be our Righteousness if we observe to do all these Commandments before the Lord as he hath commanded us Here the Septuagint for And it shall be our Righteousness have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it shall be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that whereby we shall find mercy at the hands of God if we observe to do all these Commandments c. This place will admit no evasion for there is no reference to Alms here And indeed all our Righteousness is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that whereby we find mercy at the hands of God and no marvail if Works of mercy as to relieve the poor and needy be especially so called for they above all other are the works whereby we shall find mercy and receive the reward of Bliss at the last day And thus much of my second Observation I come now to my third That it is lawful to do good works Intuitu mercedis with an eye or respect to the recompence of Reward It is plain that Nehemiah here did so Remember me O my God concerning this c. So did Moses of whom it is said Heb. 11. 25 26. that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for saith the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aspiciebat vel intuebatur 〈◊〉
Rom. 12. 11. 3. Zeal is that which carries our Devotions up to Heaven As Wings to a Fowl Wheels to a Chariot Sails to a Ship so is Zeal to the Soul of Man Without Zeal our Devotions can no more ascend than Vapours from a Still without fire put under it Prayer if it be fervent availeth much but a cold Sute will never get to Heaven In brief Zeal is the Chariot wherein our Alms our Offerings and all the good works we do are brought before the Throne of God in Heaven No Sacrifice in the Law could be offered without fire no more in the Gospel is any Service rightly performed without Zeal Be zealous therefore lest all thy works all thy endeavours be else unprofitable Rouze up thy dull and heavy Spirit serve God with earnestness and fervency and pray unto him that he would send us this fire from his Altar which is in Heaven whereby all our Sacrifices may become acceptable and pleasing unto him AND thus I come to the next thing in my Text Repentance Be zealous and repent Repentance is the changing of our course from the old way of Sin unto the new way of Righteousness or more briefly A changing of the course of sin for the course of Righteousness It is called also Conversion Turning and Returning unto God This matter would ask a long discourse but I will describe it briefly in five degrees which are as five steps in a Ladder by which we ascend up to Heaven 1. The first step is the Sight of Sin and the punishment due unto it for how can the Soul be possessed with fear and sorrow except he Understanding do first apprehend the danger for that which the Eye sees not the Heart rues not If Satan can keep sin from the Eye he will easily keep sorrow from the Heart It is impossible for a man to repent of his wickedness except the reflect and say What have I done The serious Penitent must be like the wary Factor he must retire himself look into his Books and turn over the leaves of his life he must consider the expence of his Time the employment of his Talent the debt of his Sin and the strictness of his Account 2. And so he shall ascend unto the next step which is Sorrow for sin For he that seriously considers how he hath grieved the Spirit of God and endangered his own Soul by his sins cannot but have his Spirit grieved with remorse The Sacrifices of God are a contrite Spirit Neither must we sorrow only but look unto the quality of our Sorrow that it be Godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the quantity of it that it be Great We must fit the plaister to the wound and proportion our sorrow to our Sins He that with Peter hath sinned heinously or with Mary Magdalen frequently must with them weep bitterly and abundantly 3. The Third step of this Ladder is the Loathing of sin A Surfiet of Meats how dainty and delicate soever will afterwards make them loathsome He that hath taken his fill of sin and committed iniquity with greediness and is sensible of his supersinity or abundance of naughtiness and hath a great Sorrow for it he will the more loath his sins though they have been never so full of delight Yea it will make him loath himself and cry out in a mournful manner with S. Paul Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 4. The fourth step is the leaving off Sin For as Amnon hating Tamar shut her out of doors So he that loaths and hates his Sins the sight the thought the remembrance of them will be grievous unto him and he will labour by all good means to expel them For true Repentance must be the consuming of sin To what purpose doth the Physician evacuate ill humors if the Patient still distempers himself with ill diet What shall it avail a man to endure the launcing searching and tenting of a wound if he stay not for the cure So in vain also is the Sight of sin and the Sorrow for and Loathing of Sin if the works of darkness still remain and the Soul is impatient of a through-cure And therefore as Amnon not only put out his loathed Sister but bolted the door after her as it is said in the forequoted place So must we keep out our sins with the Bolts of Resolution and Circumspection Noah pitched the Ark within and without Gen. 6. 14. So to keep out the waters and a Christian must be watchful to secure all his Senses External and Internal to keep out sin 5. The Fifth and last step is the Cleaving unto God with full purpose of heart to walk before him in newness of life All the former Degrees of Repentance were for the putting off of the Old man this is for the putting on of the New For ubi Emendatio nulla Poenitentia necessariò vana saith Tertullian de Poenit. c. 2. Where there is no Reformation there the Repentance must needs be vain and fruitless for as he goes on caret fructu suo eui eam Deus sevit i. e. hominis saluti it hath not its fruit unto holiness nor the end everlasting life Rom. 6. 22. And thus have I let you see briefly What Repentance is Will you have me say any more to make you to affect it as earnestly as I hope by this time you understand it clearly Know then that this is that which opens Heaven and leads into Paradise This is that Ladder without which no man can climb thither and therefore as S. Austin saith Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam Let us change our life here if we look for the Life of Glory hereafter Let us leave the old way of sin for the new way of righteousness and to apply all to my Text Let us change our course of Lukewarmness for a course of fervency in God's service our dull and drowsie Devotions for a course of Zeal Be zealous and Repent AND thus I come to the Third thing I propounded namely the Connexion and dependance of these latter words Be zealous therefore and Repent upon the former As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Many things might be here observed but I will name but one which is this That Repentance is the means to avoid and prevent God's Iudgments For as Tertullian in his de Poenitentia observes * Qui poenam per judicium destinavit idem veniam per poenitentiam spospondit He that hath decreed to punish by Iustice hath promised to grant pardon by Repentance And so we read in Ieremy 18. 7. When I shall speak saith the Lord there concerning a Nation or Kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from evil I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them And in Ezekiel 18. Repent and turn
what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Nay Ier. 7. 21 22 23. he seems to say expresly that he never commanded them Put saith he your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices and eat flesh For I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices But this thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in the wayes that I have commanded you that it may be well with you Yet nothing is more plain than that God ordained Sacrifices at Mount Sinai How then shall this difficulty be resolved Some and those of the Ancients too have affirmed that these Ordinances of Sacrifice were not given to Israel at first nor prima intentione Dei but were as they call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superinducta afterwards imposed upon them when they had committed Idolatry in making and worshipping the golden Calf But the contrary to this is also apparent For to pass by Cain and Abel's sacrifices and the sacrifices of Noah and Abraham when the Lord pronounced the Decalogue from Mount Sinai he added this as it were an Appendix thereto Ye shall not make with me gods of silver neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold Only an Altar thou shalt make unto me and shalt Sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings and thy peace-offerings thy sheep and thine Oxen c. and this before Moses came down from the Mount or the Calf was yet made Nay more than all this when Moses and Aaron were sent unto Pharaeoh the effect of their Embassy was The God of the Hebrews saith Let my people go that they may sacrifice unto me three dayes journey in the wilderness And when Pharaoh would have given them leave to have sacrificed to their God in the Land No saith Moses we will go three days journey into the wilderness and there Sacrifice to the Lord our God as he hath commanded us What shall we answer then to those passages of Scripture where God disclaimeth Sacrifice saying he required no such Service at his peoples hands yea that he commanded them no such thing when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt For the assoiling this difficulty according to the differing quality of the passages which are or may be produced to this purpose I lay down these three Propositions 1. That according to the propriety and genius of the Hebrew tongue a Comparative sense is often expressed after the form of an Antithesis As in that of Ioel Rent your hearts and not your garments that is more or rather than your garments Prov. 8. 10. Receive my instruction and not silver that is rather than silver as the words following teach us to construe it and knowledge rather than choice gold Likewise in the New Testament Lay not up treasures for your selves on earth but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven that is Treasures in Heaven rather than treasures on earth have more â—are to lay up the one than the other According to this construction only without more ado some of the aforesaid passages will be discharged of their difficulty as namely that of Hosea I desired mercy and not sacrifice that is more or rather than sacrifice as the following words give us to understand which are and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings and according as the same sense is elsewhere expressed as Prov. 21. 3. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice But all will not be thus salved 2. Wherefore I lay down this second Proposition That antecedenter antecedently it is true that God commanded not Sacrifice should be offered unto him neither when the Law was given nor before but consequenter consequently only For the understanding whereof we must know That Sacrifice was a Rite whereby men renewed a Covenant with God by making aâ—onement for their sin therefore it presupposed a breach and transgression of the Law But the will of God was not that men should transgress his Law and violate the Covenant he had made with them but that they should observe and keep it which if they did Sacrifice would have no place This is that I mean when I say that God required not nor commanded Sacrifice antecedently but that men should keep his Commandments But in case sin were committed and the articles of his Covenant violated then and in such a state God ordained and admitted of Sacrifice for a Rite of atonement and redintegration of his Covenant with men that is he commanded Sacrifice only consequenter consequently as a remedy if sin were committed And if those Ancients could be thus understood who say that Sacrifice was not ordained when the Law was first given but after it was transgressed namely if their meaning were only that the ordinance of Sacrifice presupposed a transgression of the Law then their Assertion were true but otherwise historically taken it cannot be defended Now according to this proposition is of that of Ieremy 7. 22 23. to be understood or if there be any other like it I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings and Sacrifices But this thing commanded I them Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the wayes that I have commanded you that it may be well with you 3. My third Proposition is this That when Sacrifice was to be offered in case of sin yet even then God accepted not thereof primariò primarily and for it self as though any refreshment or emolument accrued to him thereby as the Gentiles fondly supposed of their gods but secondarily only as a testimony of the conscience of the offerer desiring with humble repentance to glorifie him with a Present and by that Rite to renew a covenant with him For Sacrifice as I have said was oblatio foedâ—ralis a federal oblation Now Almighty God renews a Covenant with or receiveth again into his favour none but the repentant sinner and therefore accepts of Sacrifice in no other regard but as a token and effect of this Otherwise it is an abomination unto him as whereby men professed a desire of being reconciled unto God when they had offended him and yet had no such meaning Hence God rejects all Sacrifices wherein there is no Contrition nor Purpose to forsake sin and keep his commandments which are the parts of Repentance So is to be taken that in the first of Esay To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination unto me Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil then if you offer sacrifice unto me