him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 We force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh not till we provoke him His Justice and Severity are the same as everlasting as Himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams bosome yet were he good Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his exhortations and expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. ◠seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils is still the same And his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced in a damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit And so to receive his glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde ad mortem sed antè ad vitam The sentence of death was pronounced against Man almost as soon as he was Man but he was first created to life We are punished for being evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 But if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his glory out of that which dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more power then the Sword In heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is to see it in the Church of the first
by his Son Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace and Righteousness So that Justice doth raise it self upon these two pillars Nature and Religion which are like the two pillars in the porch of the Temple Jachin and Boaz 1 Kings 7.21 and do strengthen and establish Justice as that doth the pillars of the earth Cant. 5 15. or as the Legs of the Bridegroom in the Canticles which were as pillars of marble set upon sockets of pure gold For the wisdome and strength of Christ and Christianity consist in adorning and improving of Nature and setling a true and perfect Religion and the sockets the bases are of pure gold Basis aurea timor plenus disciplinae saith Ambrose The golden Basis which upholdeth all is a well-disciplined Fear by which we walk with circumspection and carefully observe the Law of Nature and the Law of Christ and by the Law of Nature and the brighter and clearer light of Scripture so steer our course that we dash not against those dangerous rocks of Deceit and Violence of Oppression and Wrong that we may not spem nostram alienis miseriis inaugurare increase our selves by diminishing others not rise by another mans ruin not be enriched by another mans loss not begin and inaugurate and crown our hopes and desires with other mens miseries nor bath our selves with delight in the tears of the widow and the fatherless but rather suffer wrong then do it rather lose our coat then take away our brothers vitâmque impendere vero rather lose that we have yea life it self then our Honesty and so by being Men and by being Christians fulfil all Righteousness And first Nature it self hath hewn and squared all Mankind as it were out of the same quarry and rock hath built them up out of the same Materials into a Body and Society into a City compact within it self For the whole World is but as one City and all the Men therein in respect of mutual offices of love are but of one Corporation Isa 51.1 Look unto the rock out of which you were hewn and the hole of the pit whence you were digged Look unto the common seed plot out of which you were all extracted and there you shall discover that near relation and fraternity that maketh every man a Neighbor a Brother to every man how they are not onely together children of Corruption and kin to the Worm and Rottenness but the workmanship of the same immortal Hand and illimitted Power Sons of one Father Gen. 1 26. who hath built them up in his image and according to his likeness which though it may be more resplendent and more improved in one then in another yet is that impression which is made and stampt on all From the same Rock are hewed out the weak and feeble man and Ish the man of strength Job 21.24 who hath milk in his breasts and marrow in his bones From the same Hand is that face we turn away from and that face we so much gaze on the Scribe and the active Idiote the narrow understanding that receiveth little and the active and piercing wit which runneth to and fro the earth the plain simple man that hath no ends and the subtile Politician who multiplieth his every day and can compass them all Of the same extraction are the purple Gallant and the russet pilgrime And he that made all casteth an equal eye on all bindeth every hand from violence and every heart from forging deceit maketh every man a guard and protection to every man giveth every man a guard and conduct for himself and others And to every man the word is given Psal 105.15 Touch not another and Do him no harm Thus hath God fensed us in and taken care that the strong man bind not the weak that the Scribe over-reach not the idiote that the Politician supplant not the innocent that the experienced man defraud not the ignorant but that every mans strength and wit and experience and wisdome should be advantageous and not hurtful to others that so the weak man may be strong with another mans strength and the ignorant man wise with anothers experience and the idiote be secured by the wisdome of the Scribe For who hath made all these have not I the Lord And then if he made them and linkt them together in one common tye of nature 1 Cor. 4.7 quis discernet as the Apostle speaketh who shall divide and separate them who shall divide the rich from the poor that he should set him at his footstool and despise him the strong from the weak that he should beat him to the ground the wise from the ignorant that he should baffle and deceive him Indeed some distance some difference some precedency of one before the other may shew it self to an eye of flesh but yet even an eye of flesh may see how to reunite and gather them together as one and the same in their original RESPICITE ZVR Look unto the rock the vein out of which you were taken and then what Moses spake to the Israelites when they strove together may be spoken to all the men in the world Acts 7.26 Sirs you are brethren why do you defraud or use violence why do you wrong one to another But in the next place besides this our common Extraction the God of Nature who hath built us all out of the same materials hath also imprinted those Principles those Notions those Inclinations in the heart of every man which may be as so many buttresses and supporters to uphold this frame and to make us dwell together in all simplicity and innocency of conversation not in envy and malice in fraud and deceit but with courtesie and affability helping and supporting one another which is that Justice which God requireth at our hands Nulla anima sine crimine quia nulla sine boni semine saith Tertullian No soul can plead Not guilty here because no soul is destitute of this seed of Goodness And thus we see in Rom. 1. where S. Paul maketh up that catalogue of foul irregularities Rom. 1.29 c. he draggeth the unrighteous the covetous the malicious the deceitful the inventors of evil things the covenant-breakers to no other tribunal then that of Nature and condemneth them by no other Law then that which we brought with us into the world Quaedam jura non scripta Senec. contr Solonis leges ligneis axibus incisae Gell. l. 2. c. 12. sed omnibus scriptis certiora saith the Oratour This Law is not written and therefore is written to all and being connatural to us is more sure and infallible then those which are written in wood or engraven in brass or marble And one would think that it were as superfluous and needless to make any other Law to bind us to Justice and upright dealing one towards another as to command children to love their parents or parents to be indulgent to their children
but as the head of Jupiter upon the body of a Tyrant a merciful God plucking up and destroying his own people fighting for the Philistine against the Israelite as if a dead Israelite were of a sweeter savour in his nostrils then a dead Philistine and the Ark better placed in the house of Dagon then in his own Tabernacle But look again and consider it aright and you will say it is rightly fixed For the wayes of God are equal but ours are unequal Ezek. 18.29 and nothing but the inequality of our waies maketh God's seem unequal He remaineth the same God in the fire and in the earth-quake which he was in the still voice the same when he slew the Israelites and when his light shone upon their tabernacle His glorious Attributes cross not one another His Justice taketh not from his Mercy nor his Mercy from the equity of his Justice but he is just when he bindeth up and merciful when he woundeth us His Justice his Wisdome his Mercy are over all his works Psal 145.9 Psal 136.15 17 18. The same God that overthrew Pharaoh in the Red sea that slew great and mighty Kings did deliver up his own people good and bad did deliver them into their enemies hands did deliver up the Ark to Dagon For his Justice his Wisdome and his Mercy endure for ever Psal 136. And now having gone along with old Eli in his Discovery we cannot but take up his Resolution Let him do what seemeth him good We called it Eli's Use or Application of his Doctrine and let us for conclusion make it ours and learn to kiss the Son lest he be angry nay to kiss him Psal 2.12 and bow before him when he is angry to offer him up a peace-offering our Wills of more power then a hecatomb then all our numerous Fasts and Sermons to appease his wrath and to bring peace and order again into the World that our Wills being his being subdued by his Spirit and delivered up into that blessed captivity to be under his beck and command they may stand out against all our natural and carnal desires and check and quiet them This is the truest surrendry we can make This maketh us of the same minde with Christ who would not Quod vult effici id ipsum concedi bi non vult De Trin. l. 10. Acts 9.6 saith Hilary have that granted which he would have done did not refuse the Cup but desired it might pass from him As Saul when he was struck to the ground cryed out Lord what wilt thou have me to do so let us when Gods hand is upon us in our trembling and astonishment say Lord what wouldst thou have us to suffer Thy will be done though it be in our destruction By this we testifie our consent with him This is our friendship with God and they who as Abraham was are Gods friends 2 Chr. 20.7 Isa 41.8 James 2.23 have idem velle idem nolle will and nill the same things with God are ready to follow him in all his wayes when he seemeth to withdraw and when he cometh neer us when he shineth upon us and when he thundreth in what he commandeth and in what he permitteth in what he absolutely will do and in what he maketh way for onely and will suffer to be done to follow him in all and bow before him Non pareo Deo sed assentior Epist 96. ex animo illum non quia necesse est sequor saith the heathen Seneca I do not onely obey God and do what he would have me but I am of his minde and whatsoever is done in heaven and earth is done as I would have it The world is never out of frame with me I see nothing but order and harmony no disturbance no crossness in the course of things Wisd 7 22 24 For that Wisdome which is the worker of all things is more moving then any motion and passeth and goeth through them all reacheth from one end to another mightily and draweth every motion and action of men to that end in which if we could see them we should wonder and cry out So so thus we would have it The stubornest knee may be made to bow and obedience be constrained Balaam obeyed God but it was against his will But the true Israelite doth it with joy and readiness and though he receive a blow he counteth it as a favour For he that gave it hath taught him an art to make it so Psal 135.6 God doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth saith the Psalmist God willeth it and doth it and when it is done our will must bow before it and we must say with old Eli Let him do what he will Take the Will of God in those several wayes the Scripture and the light of Reason hath discovered it to us and in every kind we must subscribe and what he doth we must will and what he will have us suffer must seem good in our eyes There is voluntas naturalis inclinationis desiderii that desire and inclination which naturally was in him to work and wish the good of his creature which is the proper and natural effect of his Goodness For he created us for our good and his glory And there is an other Will voluntas praecepti the Law and Ordinance which he hath laid upon his creature which is every where in Scripture called his Will For as he ordained his creature for good so he made known unto it the means by which it should attain to that good for which it was at first ordained Now we cannot but yield in these For can there be any question made whether we will set a Fiat and subscribe to our own good It is strange that any man should be unwilling that God should love him unwilling to be happy or loath that way which so great Love hath designed to bring him to this end The number is but few of those that do this Will but it is the voice of the whole Christian world That this Will should be done But there is yet further as we may observe voluntas occasionata a secondary and consequent Will in God not natural but occasioned and to which he is in a manner constrained The severity of God the miseries and afflictions of this life induration of wilful and stubborn sinners eternal pains laid up in the world to come are the effects of this occasioned Will. Besides this there is voluntas permissionis his permissive Will by which he doth give way so far as he thinketh good to the intents and actions of evil men He doth not command them he doth not secretly suggest them nor doth he incline the Agents to them not incline the Philistines to invade that land which is none of theirs but by his infinite praescience foreseeing all actions and events possible he determineth for reasons best known to himself to give way to such actions
on them If his gracious and earnest call his Turn and his Turn will not turn us he hath placed Death in the way the King of terrours to affright us If we be not willing to dye we must be willing to turn If we will hear Reason we must hearken to his Voice And if he thus sendeth his Prophets and his voice from heaven after us if he make his Justice and Mercy his joynt Commissioners to force us back if he invite us to turn and threaten us if we do not turn either Love or Fear must prevail with us to turn with all our hearts And in this is set forth the singular mercy of our most gracious God Parcendo admonet ut corrigamur poenitendo Before he striketh he speaketh When he bendeth his bow when his deadly arrows are on the string yet his warning flieth before his shaft his word is sent out before the judgment the lightning is before his thunder Ecce saith Origen antequam vulneramur monemur When we as the Israelites here are running on into the very jaws of Death when we are sporting with our destruction in articulo mortis when Death is ready to seise on us and the pit openeth her mouth to take us in the Lord calleth and calleth again Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes And if all this be too little if we still venture on and drive forward in forbidden and dangerous wayes he draweth a sword against us and setteth before us the horrour of death it self Why will ye die Still it is his word before his blow his Convertimini before his Moriemini his praelusoria arma before his decretoria his blunt before his sharp his exhortations before the sentence Non parcit ut parcat non miseretur ut misereatur He is full in his expressions that he may be sparing in his wrath He speaketh words clothed with death that we may not die and is so severe as to threaten death that he may make room for his mercy and not inflict it Why will ye die There is virtue and power in it to quicken and rowse us up to drive us out of our evil wayes that we may live for ever This is the sum of the words The parts are two 1. an Exhortation 2. an Obtestation or Expostulation or a Duty and a Reason urging and inforcing that Duty The Exhortation or Duty is plain Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes The Obtestation or Reason as plain Why will ye dye O house of Israel I call the Obtestation or Expostulation a Reason and good reason I should do so For the Moriemini is a good Reason That we may not dye a good Reason why we should turn But it being tendred to us by way of expostulation it is another Reason and maketh the Reason operative and full of efficacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason invincible and unanswerable For this very Expostulation is an evidence fair and plain enough that God would not have us die and then it is as plain that if we die we have killed and destroyed our selves against his will Of these two in their order And first of the Exhortation and Duty In which we shall pass by these steps or degrees 1. We will look up upon the Authour and consider whose Exhortation it is 2. Upon the Duty it self and 3. in the last place upon that pugnacem calorem that lively and forcible heat of iteration and ingemination Turn ye turn ye the very life and soul of Exhortation And first we ask Quis Who is he that is thus urgent and earnest And as we read it is Ezekiel the Prophet And of Prophets S. Peter telleth us that they spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet 1.21 as they were moved by the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Isai 1. And they received the word non auribus sed animis not by the hearing of the ear but by inspiration and immediate revelation by a divine character and impression made in their souls So that this Exhortation to repentance will prove to be an Oracle from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine and celestial remedy the prescript of Wisdome it self and to have been written with the finger of God And indeed we shall find that this duty of Turning the true nature of Repentance was never taught in the School of Nature never found in its true effigies and image in all its lines and dimensions in the books of the Heathen The Aristotelians had their Expiations the Platonicks their Purgations the Pythagoreans their Erinnys but not in relation to God or his Divine goodness and providence Tert. De poenit Aratione ejus tantum abfuerunt quantum à rationis autore They were as far to seek of the true reason and nature of Repentance as they were of the God of Reason himself Many useful lessons they have given us and some imperfect descriptions of it but those did rise no higher then the spring from whence they did flow the treasure of Nature and therefore could not lift men up to the sight of that peace and rest which is eternal They were as waters to refresh them and indeed they that tasted deepest of them had most ease and by living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the directions of Nature gained that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that peace and composedness of mind which they 〈…〉 Happiness and which was all they could attain to Tully and Câ—â—â—â—â— not such divided and distracted souls as Cataline and Cethegus Aristot l. 1. Eth. c. 13. 〈◊〉 had not those ictus laniatus those gashes and rents in his heart 〈◊〉 had Even their dreams were more sweet and pleasant then those of other men as being the resultancies and echos of those virtuous actions which they drew out in themselves by no other hand then that of Nature which looked not beyond that frailty which she might easily discover in her self and so measured out their happiness but by the Span by this present life Or if she did see a glimpse and faint shew of a future estate she did but see and guess at it and knew no more Reason it self did teach them thus much that Sin was unreasonable Nature it self had set a mark upon it omne malum aut timore aut pudore suffudit had either struck Vice pale Tert. De poenit or died it in a blush did either loose the joynts of sinners or change their countenance and put them in mind of their deviation from her rules by the shame of the fact and the fear they had to be taken in it These two made up that fraenum naturae that bridle of Nature to give wicked men a check and make them turn but not unto the Lord. For were there neither heaven nor hell neither reward nor punishment yet whilst we carry about with us this light of Reason Sin must needs have a foul face being so unlike unto Reason And if
we would suffer Reason to come in to rescue when our loose affections are violent we should not receive so many foils as we do A natura sequitur ut meliora probantes Quint. l. 6. c. 6. pejorum poeniteat Not to sin to forsake sin Nature it self teacheth but Nature never pointed out to this plank of Repentance to bring a shipwrackt soul to that haven of rest which is like it self and for which it was made immortal Turn ye turn ye is dictum Domini a doctrine which came down from heaven and was brought from thence by him who brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 For it is impossible that it should ever fall within the conceit of any reasonable creature to set down and determine what satisfaction is to be made for an offense committed against a God of infinite Majesty What fit recompense can God receive from the hand of Dust and Ashes What way can Men find out to redeem themselves who are sold under sin Ten thousand worlds were too little to pay down for the least of those sins which we drink down as an Ox doth water The Ocean would not wash off the least spot that defileth us All the beasts of the Mountains would not make a sacrifice Spiritus fractus Psal 51.17 Naz. Or. 3. sacrificia Dei Other Sacrifices have been the inventions of men of the Chaldeans and Cyprians and but occasionly and upon a kind of necessity providently enjoyned by God But a relenting and turning heart is his Sacrifice nay his Sacrifices instar omnium worth all the sacrifices in the world his own invention his own injunction his own dictum his own command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath but one sacrifice Naz. Or. 15. and that is the sacrifice of purgation a cleansed purged contrite heart a new creature For when the inventions of men were at a stand when Discourse and Reason were posed and could make no progress at all in the wayes of happiness not so far as to see our want and need of it when the earth was barren and could not bring forth this seed of Repentance Lib. De poenit Deus eam sevit saith Tertullian God himself sowed it in the world made it publici juris known to all That he would accept of a Turn of true Repentance as the onely means to wash away the guilt of sin and reconcile the Creature to his Maker So that as Theodoret called the Redemption of mankind the fairest and most eminent part of Gods Providence and Wisdome so may we too give Repentance a place and share as without which the former in respect of any benefit that can arise to us is frustrate and of no effect A thing it is which may seem strange to flesh and blood Quod fieri posse Cicero non putavit Lact. l. 6. De ver cult c. 24. and Lactantius telleth us that Tully thought it impossible But indeed a strange thing it may seem that the sigh of a broken heart should slumber a tempest that our sorrow should bind the hands of Majesty that our repentance should make God himself repent our Turn turn him from his wrath and a change in us alter his decree Therefore to Julian that cursed Apostate it appeared in a worse shape not onely as strange but as ridiculous Where he bitterly derideth Constantine for the profession of Christianity Julian Caesar he maketh up the scoff with the contempt and derision of Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whosoever is a corrupter or defiler of women whosoever is a man-slayer whosoever is an unclean person may be secure It is but dipping himself in a little water and he is forthwith clean Yea though he wallow again and again in the mire and pollute himself with the same monstrous sins let him but say he hath sinned and at the very word the sin vanisheth Let him but smite his breast or strike his forehead and he shall presently without more ado become as white as snow And it is no marvail to hear an Apostate blaspheme for his Apostasie it self was blasphemy no more then it is to hear a Devil curse Both are fallen from their first estate both hate that estate from whence they are fallen and they both howl together for that which they might have kept and would not Upon repentance there is DICTVM DOMINI Thus saith the Lord and this is enough to shame all the wit and confute all the blasphemy of the world As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner but that he turn And in this consisteth the priviledge and power of our Turn This maketh Repentance a virtue and by this word by this institution and the grace of God annexed to it a Turn shall free us from death a tear shall shake the powers of heaven a repentant sigh shall put the Angels into passion and our Turning from our sin shall turn God himself from his fierce wrath and strike the sword out of his hand Turn ye turn ye then is Dictum Domini a voice from Heaven a command from God himself And it is the voice and dictate of his Wisdom an attribute he much delighteth in more then in any of the rest saith Nazianzene Orat. 1. It directeth his Power for whatsoever he doth is done in wisdome Wisd 11.20 in order number and measure Whatsoever he doth is best His rain falleth not his arrows fly not but where they should to the mark which his Wisdome hath set up It accompanieth his Justice and maketh his wayes equal in all the disproportion and dissimilitude which sheweth it self to the eye of flesh It made all his Judgements and Statutes It breathed forth both his Promises and Menaces and will make them good In Wisdome he made the heavens and in Wisdome he kindled the fire of hell Nothing can be done either in this world or the next which should not be done Again it ordereth his Mercy for though he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy Exod. 33.19 Rom. 9.15 18. yet he will not let it fall but where he should not into any vessel but that which is fit to receive it Psal 145.9 His Wisdome is over all his works as well as his Mercy He would save us but he will not save us without repentance He could force us to a Turn and yet I may truly say he could not because he is wise He would not have us die and yet he will destroy us if we will not turn He doth nothing either good or evil to us which is not convenient for him and agreeable to his Wisdome Nor can this bring us under the imputation of too much boldness to say the Lord doth nothing but what is convenient for him for it is not boldness to magnifie his Wisdome They rather come too neer and are bold with Majesty who fasten upon him those counsells and determinations which are repugnant
and opposite to his Wisdome and Goodness and which his soul hateth as That he did decree to make some men miserable to the end he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heal them That he did threaten them with death whose names he had written in the book of life That he was willing Man should sin that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our duty which himself will work in us by an irresistable force That he commandeth intreateth beseecheth others to turn and repent whom himself hath bound and fettered by an absolute decree that they shall never turn That he calleth them to repentance and salvation whom he hath damned from all eternity If any certainly such beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a dart No it is not boldness Exod. 19.12 Hebr. 12.20 but humility and obedience to God's will to say He doth nothing but what becometh him and what his Wisdome doth justifie Eph. 1.8 He hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in all wisdome and prudence His Wisedome findeth out the means of salvation and his Prudence ordereth and disposeth them His Wisdome sheweth the way to life and his Prudence leadeth us through it to the end Wisdome was from everlasting Prov. 8.23 And as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of God's wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God And she fitted and proportioned means to that end means most agreeable and connatural to it She found out a way to conquer Death and him that hath the power of Death the Devil Hebr. 2.14 with the weapons of Righteousness to dig up Sin by the very roots that no work oâ— the flesh might shoot forth out of the heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done again Immutabile quod factum est Quint. l. 7 to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kiss each other in Christ's Satisfaction and ours for our Turn is our satisfaction all that we can make Condigna estsatisfactio mala facta corrigere correcta non reiterare Bern. de â—ust Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antioch â—â—neil can 2. These she hath joyned together never to be severed Christ's Sufferings with our Repentance his agony with our sorrow his blood with our tears his flesh nailed to the cross with our lusts crucified his death for sin with our death to it his resurrection with our justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away he shed his blood to melt our hearts he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose again for our justification and to gain authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our CONVERTIMINI our Turn is the best Commentary on his CONSVMMATVM EST It is finished for that his last breath breathed it into the world We may say it is wrapt up in the Inscription John 19.19 JESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS For in him even when he hung upon the cross were all the treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge hid Col. 2.3 In him his Justice and Mercy are at peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seal our pardon we were in our blood and her voice was Live we were miserable Ezek. 16.6 and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowels yerned But then Justice held up the sword ready to latch in our sides God loveth his Creature whom he made but hateth the Sinner whom he could not make And he must strike and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevailed Mercy had been but as the morning dew Hos 6.4 13.3 and soon vanished before this raging heat And if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory God's hatred of sin and his fearful menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and portended nothing but been void and of none effect Psal 130.3 Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. If God had been extreme to mark what is done amiss men would have sinned more and more because there would have been no hope of pardon And if his Mercy had sealed an absolute pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their evil wayes because there would have been no fear of punishment And therefore his Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them both in Christ's propitiatory Sacrifice and our duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the guilt the other from the dominion of sin And so both are satisfyed Justice layeth down the sword and Mercy shineth in perfection of beauty Rom. 3.3 God hateth Sin but he seeth it condemned in the flesh of his Son and fought against by every member he hath He seeth it punisht in Christ and punisht also in every repentant sinner that turneth from his evil wayes He beholdeth the Sacrifice on the Cross and the Sacrifice also of a broken heart and for the sweet savour of the one he accepteth the other and is at rest Christ's death for sin procureth our pardon and our death to sin sueth it out Christ suffereth for sin we turn from it His satisfaction at once wipeth out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees destroyeth Sin it self Tert. De anima c. 1. Haec est sapientia de schola caeli This is the method of Heaven This is that Wisdome which is from above Thus it taketh away the sins of the world And now Wisdome is compleat Justice is satisfied and Mercy triumpheth God is glorified Man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Heus tu peccator De poenit c. 8. bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tertullian Take comfort sinner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy return What musick there is in a Turn which beiginneth on earth but reacheth up and filleth the highest heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed image on which God delighteth to look for there he beholdeth his Wisdome his Justice his Mercy and what wonders they all have wrought Behold the Shepherd of our souls see what lieth upon his shoulders Luke 15.5 6. You would think a poor Sheep that was lost Nay but he leadeth Sin and death and the Devil in triumph And thou mayest see the very brightness of his glory and the express image of his three most glorious
the highest heavens for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's THese words are a Logical Enthymeme consisting of two parts an Antecedent Ye are bought with a price and a Consequent naturally following Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's God's by Creation and God's by Redemption the Body bought and redeemed from the dust to which it must have fallen for ever and the Soul from a worse death the death of sin from those impurities which bound it over to an eternity of punishment and therefore both to be consecrated to him who bought them How God is to be glorified in our spirit we have already shewn to wit by a kind of assimilation by framing and fashioning our selves to the will and mind of God He that is of the same mind with God glorifieth him by bowing to him in his still voice and by bowing to him in his thunder by hearkening to him when he speaketh as a Father and by hearkening to him when he threatneth as a Lord by hearkening to his mercy and by hearkening to his rod. For the Glory of a King is most resplendent in the obedience of his subjects In a word we glorifie God by Justice and Mercy and those other vertues which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions and emanations from his infinite goodness and light In a just and perfect man God shineth in glory and all that behold him will say that God is in him of a truth The Glory of God is that immense ocean into which all streams must run Our Creation our Redemption are to his glory Nay the Damnation of the wicked at last emptieth it self and endeth here This his wisdom worketh out of his dishonour and forceth it out of blasphemy it self But God's chief glory and in which he most delighteth is from our submissive yielding to his natural and primitive intent which is that we should follow and be like him in all purity and holiness In this he is well pleased that we should do that which is pleasing in his sight Then he looketh with an eye of favour and complacency upon Man his creature when he appeareth in that shape and form which he prescribed when he seeth his own image in him when he is what he would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him and that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should wait upon him alone when he falleth not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as God is merciful perfect as God is perfect Then is he glorified then doth he glory in him Deut. 30.9 and rejoyce over him as Moses speaketh as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted not defaced Then is Man taught Canticum laudis nothing else but the Glory and Praise of his Maker Thus do we glorifie God in our spirit Now to pass to that which we formerly did but touch upon Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made up of both of Body and Spirit and therefore must glorifie God not onely in the spirit but in the body also For such a near conjunction there is between the Body and the Soul that nothing but Death can divorce them and that too but for a while a sleeping-time after which they shall be made up into one again either to howl out their blasphemie or to sing a song of praise to their Maker for evermore If we will not glorifie God in our body by chastity by abstinence by patience here we shall be forced to do it by weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter It is true the body is but flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 yet the life of Jesus may be made manifest in this our flesh It is but dust and ashes but this dust and ashes may be raised up and made a Temple of the holy Ghost a Temple in which we offer up ch 6.19 not beasts our raging lusts and unruly affections nor the foul stench and exhalations of our corrupted hearts but the sweet incense of our devotion not whole drink offerings but our tears and strong supplications such a Temple which it self may be a sacrifice a holy and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 post Dei templum sepulcrum Christi saith Tertullian and being a Temple of God be made a sepulchre of Christ by bearing about in it the dying of our Lord Jesus For when we beat it down and bring it in subjection when we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep it chast and pure quench those unholy fires which are even ready to kindle and flame up in it bind and tye it up from joyning with that forbidden object to which its bent and natural inclination carrieth it when we have set a watch at every sense at every door which may be an in-let to the Enemy when we have learned so far to love it as to despise it to esteem of it as not ours but his that made it to be macerated and diminished to be spit upon and whipt to be stretched out on the rack to be ploughed up with the scourge to be consumed in the fire when his honour calleth for it when with S. Paul we are ready to offer it up then is the power of Christ's death visible in it and the beauty of that sight is the glory of God First we glorifie God in our bodies when we use them for that end to which he built them up when we make them not the weapons of sin but the weapons of righteousness when we do not suffer them to make our Spirit and Reason their servants to usher in those delights which may flatter and please them but bring them under the law and command of Reason Touch not Taste not Handle not which by its power may check the weakness of the Flesh and so uphold and defend it from those allurements and illusions from that deep ditch that hell into which it was ready to fall and willing to be swallowed up Now saith S. Paul vers 13◠the body is not for fornication It was not created for that end For how can God who is Purity it self create a body for uncleanness Not then for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Who made it as an instrument which the mind might use to the improvement and beautifying of it self as a vessel to be possest by us in holiness and honour 1 Thes 4.4 his Temple and thy vessel his Temple that thou mayest not profane it and thy vessel that thou mayest not defile and pollute it nor defile thy soul in it For this kind of
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie