faire havens in heaven let us perfectly learne our way and all points of the Compasse and carefully steere by the Card of Gods Word and keepe in the streight and middle way of Gods commandements neither declining to the right hand nor to the left 6. Sixtly doth Satan play the crafty Merchant and cheate us with counterfeit stones for jewels with shewes of vertues for true graces let us also imitate the wisedome of Merchants who will bee perfect Lapidaries before they deale in pearles and pretious stones let us study the difference between true and seeming graces and pray continually to God that we may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement that wee may bee able to discerne things that differ and try Spirits whether they are of God or no. 7. Lastly doth Satan play the temporizer and time all his suggestions let us also in a pious sense be time-servers let us performe all holy duties in the fittest season let us omit no opportunity of doing good let us take advantage of all occasions to glorifie God and helpe on our eternall salvation If wee heare a bell toll let us meditate on our end and pray for the sicke lying at Gods mercy if wee see an execution let us meditate on our frailty and reflecting upon our owne as grievous sinnes though not comming within the walke of mans justice have compassion on our brother if wee see Lazarus lying in the street let us meditate upon the sores of our conscience and our poverty in spirituall graces and extend our charity to him finally sith wee know at what time Satan most assaulteth us let us be best provided at those times especially at the houre of our death let us follow the advice of Seneca though a Heathen r Sen. ep 2. Quotidiè aliquid adversus mortem auxilii compara cum multa percurreris unum excerpe quod illo die concoquas lay up store for that day every day gather one flower of Paradise at least that even when the fatall houre is come and the stench of death and rottennesse is in our nostrils we may have a posie by us in which wee may smell a savour of life unto life which God grant c. SERMONS PREACHED AT SAINT PAULSCROSSE OR IN THE CHURCH THE BELOVED DISCIPLE THE XXX SERMON JOH 21. 20. The Disciple whom Jesus loved which also leaned on his breast at Supper IF wee must abstaine from all appearance of evill in our civill conversation much more certainly in our religious devotion For God is most jealous of his honour which is all he hath from us for all we hold of him Praef. Apolog. fest eccles and the streight rule of religion will in no wise bend to any obliquity on either side either by attributing any true worship to a false or any false worship to the true God From both which aspersions hee that seeth not the Liturgy established by law in the Church of England to bee most cleare and free either is short-sighted or looketh on her through a foule paire of spectacles and thereby ignorantly imagineth that dust to bee in her sacred Canons and Constitutions which indeed is not in them but sticketh in his glassie eyes let him but rub his spectacles and he shall see all faire and without any the least deformity or filth of superstition as well in the Service appointed for the Lords day as for the Saints feasts For though wee adorne our Calendar with the names of some eminent Saints and make honourable mention of them in our Liturgy as the ancient Church did of her Martyrs a Austin de civ Dei l. 22. c. 10. non tamen invocamus yet wee call not upon them wee lift not up our hands wee bow not our knees wee present not our offerings wee direct not our prayers wee intend not any part of religious worship to them sed uni Deo martyrum nostrum but to their God and ours as Saint Austine answereth for the practice of the Church in his time Which may serve as a buckler to beare off all those poysonous darts of calumny which those of the concision cast at that part of our Church-service wherein upon the yeerly returne of the Feast of the blessed Virgin the Archangell Apostles Evangelists Protomartyr Innocents and All-holy-ones wee remember the Saints of God but in no wise make Gods of Saints sanctificamus Deum non deificamus Sanctos wee blesse God for them wee worship not them for God Although our devotion glanceth by their names yet it pitcheth and is fixed upon the Angel of the covenant and sanctum sanctorum the holy of all holy ones our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ On the blessed Virgins anniversary wee honour him in his Mother on Saint John Baptists wee honour him in his forerunner on Saint Michaels we honour him in his Archangel the Captaine of his celestiall squadron on the Apostles wee honour him in his Ambassadours on the Evangelists wee honour him in his Chroniclers on Saint Stevens wee honour him in his Martyr on S. John the Divine his day wee honour him in his beloved Disciple who also leaned on his breast at Supper 1 The Disciple 2 The Disciple beloved 3 Beloved of Jesus 4 In Jesus bosome All Christians are not Disciples this is the Disciple all the Disciples were not beloved this is the beloved Disciple all that are beloved are not beloved of Jesus this is he whom Jesus loved lastly all whom Jesus loved were not so familiar with him or neare unto him that they leaned on his breast this was his bosome friend and as the text saith at supper leaned on his breast Every word is here a beame and every beame is reflected and every reflection is an intention of the heat of Christs affection to Saint John Divis 1 A Disciple there is the beame 2 Ille the or that Disciple there is the reflection 1 Beloved there is the beame 2 Beloved of Jesus there is the reflection 1 Leaning there is the beame 2 Leaning on his breast there is the reflection It is a great honour to bee a Disciple but a greater to bee the Disciple a great honour to bee beloved a greater to bee beloved of Jesus a great honour to leane on such a personage a greater to leane on his breast Thus I might with an exact division cut the bread of life but I choose rather after the manner of our Saviour to breake it and that into three pieces onely viz. John his 1 Calling in Christ 2 Favour with Christ 3 Nearenesse unto Christ 1 His calling in Christ The Disciple 2 His grace and favour with Christ whom Jesus loved 3 His nearenesse unto Christ who also leaned on his breast The Disciple The Spouse in the Canticles setting out her husband in his proper colours saith b Cant. 5.10 My beloved is white and ruddy that is of admirable and perfect beauty or white in the purity of his conversation and
to strike when he is provoked in that he will awake his sword He who is here stiled Lord of hostes is elsewhere named the Father of mercy and by his attributes set downe in Exod. 34. ver 6 7. it appeareth that he is nine to two more inclineable to mercy than to justice But because from this hope of mercy many are apt to promise themselves impunity putting ever from them the evill day I hold it more needfull at this present to shew his haste and readinesse to execute vengeance upon such who presume too farre upon his long suffering and goodnesse There is a generation of men described by David in the 10. Psalme ver 11. that say in their heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it And by Solomon k Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against their evill workes is not executed speedily therefore their heart is fully set in them to doe evill Ut sit magna tamen certè lenta ira deorum est To these St. Peter hath answered long agoe l 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slacke as some men count slacknesse but is long suffering to us-ward that is the Elect whose conversion he graciously expecteth When their number is accomplished and the sinnes of the Reprobate which now looke white shall turne yellow and grow full ripe he will awake his sword to wound the heads of his enemies and his stay in the meane time is but to fetch his arme the further backe that be may give the sorer stroke and to draw his arrow to the head that hee may wound the deeper For this cause the ancient heathen attributed to God leaden feet but iron hands quia tarditatem vindictae gravitate compensat m Tacit. annal l. 1. In Haterium statim invectus est at Scaurum cui implacabiltus irascebatur silentio transmisit Tacitus noteth it of Tiberius Caesar that being displeased with Q. Haterius and Scaurus but not equally he fell foule presently upon Haterius with whom hee was lesse angry but said not a word to Scaurus for the present against whom he conceived irreconcileable haired so God when he is a little offended at some slips of the godly hee awaketh his sword presently but layes it downe againe after hee hath smote gently with it n Bernard in Cant. Ser. 42. Hic punit ut illic pareat supra omnem miserationem est ira ista but to the wicked hee giveth line enough that they may play with the hooke and swallow it deepe downe with the baite Hic punit ut illic seviat supra omnem iram est miseratio ista But praised be the Lord of hostes who to ransome us hath found a man to wreake his wrath and turne his sword upon his shepheard It is noted of o Xiphilin in vit Trajan Trajane that he would cut his richest robes in pieces to make rags for his souldiers wounds I shall now propose unto you a man that to bind up your bleeding wounds hath suffered himselfe to be cut in pieces under the furie of this waking sword Awake O sword Against my shepheard O magne Pastor animarum saith Bonaventure pasce animam meam ut pascatur meliùs fac ut ipse pascam Christ is a mighty shepheard but yet of a little flocke which was first pent within the walls of Eden and thence turned out wandred on the earth till the flood at the deluge tooke ship and landed in Armenia from thence removed to Canaan and from Cannaan to Egypt and from Egypt backe againe towards Canaan and after foure hundred yeeres stragling in a strange land wandred fortie yeares in the wildernesse and at last was folded in Judaea In all which crossings and turnings and wandrings he never ceased to feed and fodder them to give us his substitutes as well an example by his practice as a rule by his precept to feed feed and feed Alimento verbo exemplo quid est amas me Nisi quaeris in Ecclesia non tua sed mea saith St. Austine nisi testimonium perhibeat conscientia quod plus me ames quam tua quam tuos quam te nequicquam suscipias curam hanc But if thy conscience assure thee that thou lovest Christ in such sort then feed thou his flocke as well with integrity of life as puritie of doctrine learne as well facere dicenda as dicere facienda that is as Saint Jerome aptly expresseth it verba vertere in opera Thou must have engraven on thy breast as well Thummim as Urim and there must hang as well Pomegranates about thy garment as golden bells The Popish Writers say that a shepheard should have three things a scrip a hooke and a whistle but for their owne parts they are so greedy on the scrip and busie with the hooke that they forget the whistle give over their studie and preaching ac si tum victuri essent sine curâ cum pervenirent ad curam making account that all their care is past when they are got into a cure But the shepheard we speake of was the good shepheard who fed his flocke day and night and layd downe his life for it he is the universall shepheard ita curat omnes oves ut singulas He is here called Gods shepheard because his dispensation is from him or because he is the beloved of God and that divine shepheard which p Com. in Evan. Ardeus thus excellently describeth Educens è lacu miseriae conducens per viam gratiae perducens ad pascua gloriae and shall the sword of the Lord be against this shepheard The case is different betweene him and David there it was quid meruerunt oves here it is quid meruit Pastor For he was candidus and rubicundus candidus innocentiâ and rubicundus passione sine maculâ criminis sine rugâ erroris Had the sword beene awaked against the wolfe it had beene mercy against the sheepe is had beene justice but to awake against this good shepheard seemeth to bee hard measure The case is resolved by Daniel The Messias shall be slaine but not for himselfe God hath layd upon him the iniquity of us all O ineffabilis mysterii dispositio peccat impius patitur justus meretur malus patitur bonus quod committit homo sustinet Deus Here then you see the first and maine cause of the shepheards slaughter your sinnes It is in vaine to shift it off on Judas or Pilat and most impious to lay it upon the Lord of hostes For solum peccatum homicida est so that I may bring it home to the bosome of every one of you in the words of Nathan Tu es homo Thou art the man that hast slaine this shepheard O consider this yee that forget God doe not so wickedly as to commit a second murder upon this good shepheard crucifie not againe the Lord of life every reviling speech to your neighbour is a whip on his side every traducing
raise up the prostrate and dejected soule Be of good cheere ye that have received the sentence of death in your selves There is no malady of the soule so deadly against which the death of Christ is not a soveraigne remedy there is no sore so great nor so festering which a plaster of Christs bloud will not cleanse and heale if it be thereto applyed by a lively faith Thus as you see I have made of the bruised reed a staffe of comfort for a drouping conscience to stay it selfe upon extend but your patience to the length of the houre and I will make of it a strait rule for your actions and affections Though all the actions of our Saviour are beyond example yet ought they to be examples to us for our imitation and though we can never overtake him yet we ought to follow after him His life is a perfect samplar of all vertues out of which if we ought to take any flower especially this of meeknesse which himselfe hath pricked out for us saying Learne of me that I am meeke and lowly in heart Matth. 11.29 and you shall finde rest to your soules which also hee richly setteth forth with a title of blessednesse over it Matth. 5.5 and a large promise of great possessions by it Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth Matth. 5.7 Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtaine mercy Neither is this vertue more acceptable in the sight of God than agreeable to the nature of man Witnesse our sleek and soft skin without scales or roughnesse witnesse our harmlesse members without hornes clawes or stings the offensive weapons of other creatures witnesse our tender and relenting heart apt to receive the least impression of griefe witnesse our moist eyes ready to shed teares upon any sad accident mollissima corda Humano generi dare se natura fatetur Quae lachrymas dedit haec nostri pars optima sensus Shall not grace imprint that vertue in our soules which nature hath expressed in the chiefe members of our bodies and exemplified in the best creatures almost in every kind Even among beasts the tamest and gentlest are the best the master Bee either hath no sting at all or as Aristotle testifieth never useth it The upper region of the ayre is alwaies calme and quiet inferiora fulminant saith Seneca men of baser and inferiour natures are boysterous and tempestuous The superiour spheres move regularly and uniformly and the first mover of them all is slow in his proceedings against rebellious sinners hee was longer in destroying Jericho than in creating the whole world And when Adam and Eve had sinned with a high hand reaching the forbidden fruit and eating it it was the coole of the evening before the voice of the Lord was heard in the garden and the voice that was heard was of God walking not running to verifie those many attributes of God Mercifull gracious long-suffering Exod. 34.6 7. and aboundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sinne Is God mercifull and shall man be cruell is the master meek and milde and shall the servant be fierce and furious shall hee give the Lambe in his Scutchion and they the Lion If hee who ruleth the Nations with a rod of iron and breaketh them in pieces like a potters vessell will not breake the bruised reed shall reeds breake reeds Martial Epigr. The Heathen Poet giving charge to his woodden god to looke to his garden useth this commination See thou looke well to my trees Alioqui ipse lignum es Otherwaies know that thou art wood thy selfe that is fit fuell for the fire Suffer I beseech you the word of exhortation Looke to it that you breake not Christs bruised reeds Alioqui ipsi estis arundines Otherwaies know that you your selves are but reeds and what measure you mete unto others shall be measured unto you againe Stand not too much upon your owne a Sen. de clem l. 1. Nec est quisquam cui tam valde innocentia sua placeat ut non stare in conspectu clementiam paratam humanis erroribus gaudeat innocency and integrity For b August confes l. 13. Vae laudabili vitae hominum si remot â misericordiâ discutias cam Wo be to the commendable life of men if it bee searcht into without mercy and scann'd exactly The Cherubins themselves continually looke towards the Mercy-seat and if we expect mercy at the hands of God or man we must show mercy for there shall be judgement without mercy to him that will shew no mercy which menacing to the unmercifull though it point to the last judgement and then take it's full effect yet to deterre men from this unnaturall sinne against their owne bowels it pleaseth God sometimes in this life to make even reckonings with hard hearted men and void of all compassion As he did with Appius Livius dec 1. of whom Livie reporteth that he was a great oppressor of the liberties of the commons and particularly that hee tooke away all appeales to the people in case of life and death But see how Justice revenged Mercies quarrell upon this unmercifull man soone after this his decree hee being called in question for forcing the wife of Virginius he found all the Bench of Judges against him and was constrained for saving his life to preferre an appeale to the people which was denied him with great shouts and out-cries of all saying Ecce provocat qui provocationem sustulit who sees not the hand of divine Justice herein He is forced to appeale who by barring all appeales in case of life and death was the death of many a man Let his owne measure be returned upon him And as Appius was denied the benefit of appeales whereof he deprived others and immediatly felt the stroke of justice so Eutropius who gave the Emperour counsell to shut up all Sanctuaries against capitall offenders afterwards being pursued himselfe for his life and flying to a Sanctuary for refuge was from thence drawne out by the command of S. Chrysostome and delivered to the ministers of justice who made him feele the smart of his owne pernicious counsell I need the lesse speake for mercy by how much the more wee all need it and therefore I passe from the act to the proper subject of mercy The bruised reed If * Sen. de cle l. 1. Tam omnibus ignoscere crudelitas est quam nulli Jude ver 22. mercy should be shewed unto all men no place would be left for justice therefore St. Jude restraineth mercy to some Of some have compassion making a difference The difference we are to make is of 1. Sinne. 2. Sinners For there are sinnes of ignorance and sinnes against conscience sinnes of infirmity and sinnes of presumption sudden passions and deliberate evill actions light staines and fowle spots some sinnes are secret and private others publike and scandalous some
the race of a Christian life yet perseverance alone obtaineth the garland Suppose a ship to be fraught with rich merchandise to have held a prosperous course all the way and escaped both rockes and Pyrats yet if it bee cast away in the haven the owner is nothing the better for it but loseth his goods fraight and hope also For this cause it is that in all the promises in these letters of the hidden Manna the white Stone the water of Life the tree of Life the crowne of Life c. the onely condition that is exprest is perseverance To him that overcommeth I will give c. for without it faith is not faith but a wavering opinion hope is not hope but a golden dreame zeale is not zeale but a sudden heat joy but a flash love but a passion temperance but a physicke diet for a time valour but a bravado patience but weake armour notable to hold out All therefore who expect to eat of the hidden Manna and receive the white stone with the new name must get unto themselves and put on the whole armour of God and be daily trained in Christs schoole and when they are called to joyne battell out of an exasperated hatred against the enemies of their soule with great confidence and courage fight against Satan and his temptations the world and all the sinfull allurements in it the flesh and the noysome lusts thereof strenuously valiantly and constantly never putting off their armour till they put off their bodies nor quitting the field till they enter into the celestiall Canaan whereof the terrestriall was a type and what title the Jewes had to the one wee have to the other not by purchase but by promise yet as the recovery of that Land cost the Jewes so the recovery of this costeth the Saints of God much sweat and blood too sometimes but neither that sweat nor that blood is the price of the Land of Promise but the m Joh. 7.29 blood of the immaculate Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world In which regard the Prophet n Hos 10.12 Hosea having exhorted the people to sow in righteousnesse varieth the phrase and saith not yee shall reape in righteousnesse but yee shall reape in mercy Why not reape in righteousnesse as well as sow in righteousnesse because mans righteousnesse is not answerable to Gods and therefore hee must plead for his reward at the throne of mercy not at the barre of justice For though the wages of sinne is death yet eternall life is the gift of God by Jesus Christ to whom bee ascribed c. THE HIDDEN MANNA THE XXVI SERMON APOC. 2.17 I will give to eat of the hidden Manna Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IN the Old Testament we heare Sic ait Jehovah So saith the Lord God the Father in the Gospell Thus spake Jesus but in this booke for the most part Thus writeth the Spirit as in this verse Wherein you are to observe 1 Literam Spiritus The letter of the Spirit 2 Spiritum Literae The Spirit of the letter Or to use rather the Allegory in the text fixe the eye of your coonsideration upon 1 The golden Pot the elegant and figurative expression 2 The hidden Manna the abstruse and spirituall meaning To him that overcommeth Hee who biddeth us stand upon the highest staire consequently commandeth us to runne up all the rest so hee that would have us to overcome implicitely comandeth us 1. To have our names enrolled in our Captaines booke 2. To bee trained in military exercise 3 To follow our Generall into the field 4. To endure hardnesse and inure our selves to difficult labour 5. When battell is joyned to stand to our tacklings and acquit our selves like men never giving over till wee have 1. repelled next chased lastly discomfited and utterly destroyed our ghostly enemies and when wee are in the hottest brunt and most dreadfull conflict of all by faith to looke upon Christ holding out a crowne from heaven unto us and after wee have overcome in some great temptation and seeme to be at rest to looke upon the labell of this crowne and there wee shall finde it written Vincenti dabo To him that overcommeth indefinitely not in one but in all assaults of temptation not in one but in all spirituall conflicts till hee have overcome the last enemy which is death There are many too many in the militant Church who drinke wine in bowles and sing to the pipe and violl and never listen to Christs alarum others there are who hearing the alarum desire to be entertained in his service and give their names unto him but are not like Timothy trained up in Martiall discipline a third sort like of training well where there is little danger but when they are to put themselves into the field like the children of Ephraim turne backe in the day of battell lastly many like the ancient Gauls begin furiously but end cowardly in the first assault they are more than men in the second lesse than women None of these shall taste of the hidden Manna nor handle the white stone nor read the new name but they who by a timely resolution give their names to Christ by private mortification fasting watching and prayer are trained for this service by faith grapple with their ghostly enemies and by constancy hold out to the end For as Hannibal spake sometime to his souldiers Qui hostem vicerit mihi erit Carthaginensis hee that conquereth his enemy what countrey man soever hee bee hee shall bee unto mee a Carthaginian that is I will hold him for such and give him the priviledge of such an one so Christ speaketh here to all that serve in his warres Hee that overcommeth his enemie of what countrey or nation soever hee bee I will make him free of the celestiall Jerusalem I will naturalize him in my kingdome in heaven In other kingdomes there are severall orders of a Discourse l. origin des ordores milit p. 49. Knights as of Malta of the Garter of the Golden Fleece of Saint John of Jerusalem of Saint Saviour of Saint James of the holy Ghost and divers others but in the kingdome of Christ wee finde but one onely sort viz. the order of Saint Vincents In all other orders some have beene found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 white-livered souldiers or carpet-Knights that either never drew sword nor saw battell or basely fled from their colours but of this order never any either fled from his colours or returned from battell without the spoiles of his ghostly enemies Hee therefore that will bee of this order must bee of good strength and courage well armed continually exercised in Martiall discipline vigilant to take all advantages inured to endure all hardnesse to strength hee must adde skill to skill valour to valour industry to industry patience to patience constancy and to all humility not to challenge the rewards here proposed as due to his service
uttered but it may by ignorance be depraved no action of vertue can be so exactly performed but it may through malice be mis-construed It is not more proper to God to bring light out of darknesse peace out of trouble joy out of sorrow and out of sinne the greatest of all evils to extract much good by governing and disposing it to the declaration of his mercy and justice than it is naturall to the Divell and his impes out of the light of truth to endeavour to draw darknesse of errour and out of the best speeches and actions to straine and force out somewhat to maintaine and nourish their corrupt humours and bosome sinnes And what marvell sith even in Paradise amidst the sweetest flowers and wholsomest herbes and plants a Serpent could live and find there something to feed upon Paradise was the seat of mans happinesse the garden of pleasure the soyle of the tree of life seated in the cleerest ayre watered and environed with sweetest rivers enamelled with pleasantest flowers set by God himselfe with the choicest plants and yet was it not free from the serpent which turned the juices of those soveraign and medicinall simples into poyson Aristotle writeth of the Cantharides that they are killed with the sent of the a Arist de mirabil aus cult sweetest and most fragrant oyntments and it is morally verified in those gracelesse hearers to whom the Word which is the b 2. Cor. 2.16 sweet smelling savour of God to life becommeth a savour of death Such hearers the blessed Apostle Saint Paul sharply censureth in this chapter Occas who when hee preached to them salvation by the free grace of Christ hence concluded free liberty of sinne when to the comfort of all that are heavie laden with the burden of sinne he set abroach that heavenly doctrine where sinne abounded there grace superabounded they subsumed Let us therefore continue in sinne that grace may more abound whereas indeed they should have inferred the cleane contrary conclusion thus Grace hath abounded much more to us therefore wee of all men should not continue in sinne because God offereth us so good meanes to escape out of it The dew of heaven hath fallen plentifully upon us therefore wee ought to be most fruitfull in good workes not only because God hath better enabled us to doe them but also in a duty of thankfulnesse wee are to offer him our best service who hath enriched us with the treasures of his grace Therefore to beat them and in them all carnall Gospellers from the former hold St. Paul in this chapter planteth ordnance of many most forcible arguments drawne from three principall heads Analys 1. Christ and his benefits 2. Themselves and their former condition 3. The comparison between a sinfull and a holy course of life and their contrary effects 1 From Christ and his benefits after this manner The effect of grace is to mortifie sinne how then can they who have received a greater measure of grace by the merit of Christs death and buriall continue in sinne How can they that are dead to sinne live therein Whereas they urged grace for liberty of sinne the Apostle from grace enforceth sanctity of life whereas they alledged their redemption for their exemption from all service Saint Paul strongly concludes from so great a benefit a greater tye and obligation to serve the Lord their Redeemer whereas they built a fort of sin with the wood of Christs crosse he maketh an engine of the same wood to overthrow it by grace we are united to Christ and planted in him therefore we must live the life of the root bring forth the fruit of the c Ver. 5. Ver. 6. spirit If we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death wee shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth wee should not serve sinne c. 2 From themselves and their former condition thus When yee were free from righteousnesse yee were servants unto sinne now therefore being freed from sinne yee ought to be servants unto righteousnesse As yee d Ver. 18 19. yeelded your members servants of uncleannesse and iniquity unto iniquity so now yeeld your members servants of righteousnesse unto holinesse c. 3 From the comparison between the state of sin and grace thus When you were in the state of sinne you had no profit at all of your workes and you were confounded with shame for them and by them were brought to the very brink of death Coharent but now being in the state of grace you reap fruit here in holinesse the fruit of peace and joy and hereafter you shall reap the fruit of everlasting life and glory Thus you see the scope of the Apostle the occasion and coherence of the words which carry this sense Tell mee Exposit Gen. yee unsettled and unstable Christians who have been delivered from the thraldome of sinne and Satan and have given your names unto Christ and your members as servants unto righteousnesse why goe yee about to enthrall your selves anew to your ghostly enemies or make your selves vassals to your fleshly lusts Observe yee not the heavie judgements of God lighting daily upon presumptuous sinners See yee not before your eyes continuall spectacles of Gods justice and marke yee not in them the fearfull ends of those courses which now yee begin to take againe after yee had long left them Beleeve yee not the words of God e Rom. 2 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth for hee will f Psal 68.21 wound the hairy scalpe of every one that goeth on in his wickednesse Or if you turne away your eyes from beholding the vialls of wrath daily powred upon sinners and stop your eares that yee may not heare the dreadfull threats which God thundereth out in his Law against such backsliders and relapsers as yee are yet can yee stifle your owne hearts griefe can yee forget the wofull plight into which your former courses brought you when free from righteousnesse yee let loose the reines to all licentiousnesse that yee might worke wickednesse even with greedinesse yee glutted your selves with earthly vanities and tooke a surfeit of sinfull pleasures What gaine did yee not then greedily gape after what preferment did yee not ambitiously seek into what mire of impurity did not yee plunge your selves No sinfull pleasure but yee tooke your fill of no dish of Satan which yee left untouched yet speake the truth between God and your owne conscience what true delight or solid contentment tooke yee in those things I know yee are ashamed to speake of it and I will not wound modest eares to relate it and ought yee not much more to be ashamed to returne with the dogge to his former vomit and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire Your soules have been cleansed by
sonne when it is ripe which he permitted to grow in the father without applying any such remedy outwardly unto it yet this is most certaine that he never visiteth the sinne of the father upon the children if the children tread not in the wicked steps of their father Thus much the words that follow in the second Commandement imply unto the n Exod. 20.5 third and fourth generation of them that hate mee He often sheweth mercy to the sonne for the fathers sake but never executeth justice upon any but for their owne sinnes The sinne of the sonne growes the more unpardonable because he would not take example by his father but abused the long-suffering of God which should have called him to repentance The Latine Proverb Aemilius fecit plectitur Rutilius Aemilius committeth the trespasse and Rutilius was merced for it hath no place in Gods proceedings neither is there any ground of the Poets commination o Hor. l. 3. od 6. lib. 1. od 28. Negligis immeritis nocituram postmodo te natis fraudem committer◠fo rs debita jura vicesque superbae te maneant ipsum Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane For God is so far from inflicting punishment upon one for the sins of another that he inflicteth no punishment upon any for his own sinne or sins be they never so many and grievous if he turne from his wicked wayes and cry for mercy in time for God desireth not the death of a sinner but of sinne he would not that we should dye in our sinnes but our sinnes in us If we spare not our sinnes but slay them with the sword of the Spirit God will spare us This is the effect of the Prophets answer the summe of this chapter and the contents of this verse in which more particularly we are to observe 1. The person I. 2. The action or affection desire 3. The object death 4. The subject the wicked 1. The person soveraigne God 2. The action or affection amiable delight 3. The object dreadfull deprivation of life 4. The subject guilty the wicked The words are uttered by a figurative interrogation in which there is more evidence and efficacy more life and convincing force For it is as if he had said Know ye not that I have no such desire or thinke ye that I have any desire or dare it enter into your thoughts that I take any pleasure at all in the death of a sinner When the interrogation is figurative the rule is that if the question be affirmative the answer to it must be negative but if the question be negative the answer must be affirmative For example Who is like unto the Lord the meaning is none is like unto the Lord. Whom have I in heaven but thee that is I have none in heaven but thee On the other side when the question is negative the answer must be affirmative as Are not the Angels ministring spirits that is the Angels are ministring spirits and Shall the Son of man find faith that is the Son of man shall not find faith Here then apply the rule and shape a negative answer to the first member being affirmative thus I have no desire that a sinner should dye and an affirmative answer to the negative member thus I have a desire that the wicked should returne and live and ye have the true meaning and naturall exposition of this verse Have I any desire that the wicked should dye 1. God is not said properly to have any thing 2. if he may be said to have any thing yet not desires 3. if he may be said to have a desire of any thing yet not of death 4. if he desire the death of any yet not of the wicked in his sinne Have I As the habits of the body are not the body so neither the habits of the soule are the soule it selfe Now whatsoever is in God is God for he is a simple act and his qualities or attributes are not re ipsâ distinct from his essence and therefore he cannot be said properly to have any thing but to be all things Any desire Desires as Plato defineth them are vela animi the sailes of the mind which move it no other wayes than the saile doth a ship Desire of honour is the saile which moveth the ambitious of pleasure is the saile which moveth the voluptuous of gaine is the saile which moveth the covetous Others define them spurres of the soule to prick us on forwards to such things as are most agreeable to our naturall inclination and deliberate purposes Hence it appeares that properly there can be no desires in God because desire is of something we want but God wanteth nothing Desires are meanes to stirre us up but God is immoveable as he is immutable If then he be said to desire any thing the speech is borrowed and to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such sort as may agree with the nature of God and it importeth no more than God liketh or approveth such things That the wicked should dye A sinner may be said to dye two manner of wayes either as a sinner or as a man as a sinner he dyeth when his sinne dyeth in him and he liveth as a man he dyeth either when his body is severed from his soule which is the first death or when both body and soule are for ever severed from God which is the second death God desireth the death of a sinner in the first sense but no way in the latter he desireth that sinne should dye in us but neither that we should dye the first death in sin nor dye the second death for sinne He is the author of life p Job 7.20 preserver of mankind He is the q 1 Tim. 4.10 Saviour of all especially them that beleeve Hee would not that any should r 2 Pet. 3.9 perish but all should come to repentance If he should desire the death of a sinner as he should gain-say his owne word so he should desire against his owne nature For beeing is the nature of God Sum qui sum I am that I am but death is the not beeing of the creature No more than light can be the cause of darknesse can God who is life be the cause of death If he should desire the death of a sinner he should destroy his principall attributes of wisedome goodnesse and mercy Of wisdome for what wisedome can it be to marre his chiefest worke Of goodnesse for how can it stand with goodnesse to desire that which is in it selfe evill Of mercy for how can it stand with mercy to desire or take pleasure in the misery of his creature Doth he desire the death of man who gave man warning of it at the first and meanes to escape it if he would and after that by his voluntary transgression he was liable to the censure of death provided him a Redeemer to ransome him from death calleth all men by the Gospel to
to the cast of a Die for a matter of naught a toy a trifle a jussle a taking of the wall an affront a word Doe wee make so small reckoning of that which cost our Saviour his dearest hearts bloud 2. If Judges all those who sit upon life and death did enter into a serious consideration thereof they would not so easily as sometimes they doe cast away a thing that is so precious much lesse receive the price of bloud For if it be accounted and that deservedly a sinne of a deep die to buy and sell things dedicated to the service of God what punishment doe they deserve who buy and sell the living image of God It is reported of Augustus that he never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh and of Titus the Emperour that hee willingly accepted of the Priests office that hee might never have his hand dipped in bloud and of Nero that when he was to set his hand to a capitall sentence he wished that he could not write Utinam literas nescirem therefore let those Judges think what answer they will make at Christs Tribunall who are so farre from Christian compassion and hearts griefe and sorrow when they are forced to cut off a member of Christ by the sword of justice that they sport themselves and breake jests and most inhumanely insult upon the poore prisoner whose necke lyeth at the stake If any sinne against our neighbour leave a deep staine in our conscience it is the bloudy sinne of cruelty Other sinnes may be hushed in the conscience and rocked asleep with a song of Gods mercy but this is reckoned in holy Scripture among those ſ Gen. 4.10 crying sins that never will be quiet till they have awaked Gods revenging justice This is a crimson sinne and I pray God it cleave not to their consciences who wear the scarlet robe If there be any such Judges I leave them to their Judge and briefly come to you Right Honourable c. with the short exhortation of the Apostle Put you on the t Colos 3.12 bowells of mercy and compassion and if ever the life of your brethren be in your hands make speciall reckoning of it in no wise rashly cast it away let it not goe out of your hands unlesse the law and justice violently wrest and extort it from you Assure your selves that it is a farre more honourable thing and will gaine you greater love and favour with God and reputation with men to u Cicer. pro Quint. de Aquil Mavult commemorare se cùm perdere potuerat pepercisse quà m cùm parcere potuerat perdidisse save a man whom yee might have cast away than to cast him away under any pretence whom yee might have saved 4. If a malefactour arraigned at the barre of justice should perceive by any speech gesture signe or token an inclination in the Judge to mercy how would he worke upon this advantage what suit what meanes would he make for his life how would he importune all his friends to intreat for him how would he fall down upon his knees beseech the Judge for the mercies of God to be good unto him Hoe all ye that have guilty consciences and are privie to your selves of many capitall crimes though peradventure no other can appeach you behold the Judge of all flesh makes an overture of mercy he bewrayeth more than a propension or inclination he discovereth a desire to save you why doe ye not make meanes unto him why do ye not appeale from the barre of his justice to his throne of grace why doe ye not flye from him as he is a terrible Judge to him as he is a mercifull Father Though by nature ye are the sonnes of wrath yet by grace ye are the adopted sonnes of the Father of mercy and God of all consolation who stretcheth out his armes all the day long unto us Let us turne to him yea though it be at the last houre of our death and he will turne to us let us repent us of our sinnes and he will repent him of his judgements let us retract our errours and he will reverse his sentence let us wash away our sinnes with our teares and he will blot out our sentence with his Sonnes bloud When * Dan. 5.5 Belshazzar saw the hand-writing against him on the wall his heart mis-gave him all his joynts trembled and his knees smote one against the other Beloved Christians there is a x Colos 2.14 hand-writing of ordinances against us all and if we see or minde it not it writeth more terrible things against us What shall wee doe to be rid of this feare Is there any means under heaven to take out the writing of God against us Yes beloved teares of repentance with faith in Christs blood maketh that aqua fortis that will fetch out even the hand-writing of God against us The Prophet recordeth it for a miraculous accident that the sun went back many degrees in the Dyall of y Esa 38.8 Ahaz Beloved our fervent prayers and penitent tears will work a greater miracle than this they will bring back again the z Mal. 4.2 Sun of righteousnesse after he is set in our soules God cannot sin Angels cannot repent onely man that sinneth is capable of repentance and shall wee not embrace that vertue which is onely ours Other vertues are remedies against speciall maladies of the soule as humility against pride hope against despaire courage against feare chastity against lust meeknesse against wrath faith against diffidence charity against covetousnesse but repentance is a soveraigne remedy against all the maladies of the minde Other vertues have their seasons as patience in adversity temperance in prosperity almes-deeds when our brothers necessity calleth upon our charity fasting when wee afflict our soules in time of plague or any other judgement of God but repentance is alwayes in season either for our grosser sinnes or for failing in our best actions if for no other cause yet wee are to repent for the insincerity and imperfection of our repentance I will end this my exhortation as the Prophet doth this chapter * Ezek. 18.30.31 Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your ruine Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you new hearts and new spirits for why will yee die O ye house of Israel saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live yee O Lord who desirest not that wee should die in our sinnes but our sinnes in us mortifie our fleshly members by the power of thy Sonnes death and renew us in the spirit of our mindes by the vertue of his resurrection that wee may die daily to the world but live to heaven die to sinne but live to righteousnesse die to our selves but live to thee Thou by the Prophet professest thy desire of our conversion say but the word and wee shall bee converted
call us by thy spirit and wee shall heare thee and hearing thee turne from our wicked wayes and turning live a new life of grace here and an eternall life of glory hereafter in heaven with thee O Father the infuser O Son the purchaser O holy Spirit the preserver of this life Amen Cui c. THE BEST RETURNE THE LV. SERMON EZEK 18.23 Not that hee should returne from his wayes and live Or if hee returne from his evill wayes shall hee not live Right Honourable c. SAint a Possid in vit Austine lying on his death-bed caused divers verses of the penitentiall Psalmes to bee written on the walls of his chamber on which he still cast his eyes and commented upon them with the fluent Rhetoricke of his tears But I could wish of all texts of Scripture that this of the Prophet Ezekiel were still before all their eyes who mourn for their sins in private For nothing can raise the dejected soule but the lifting up of Gods countenance upon her nothing can dry her tears but the beams of his favour breaking out of the darke clouds of his wrath and shining upon her nothing can bring peace to an affrighted and troubled conscience but a free pardon of all sinnes whereby shee hath incurred the sentence of death which the Prophet tendereth in the words of the text Which are as the very heart of this chapter and every word thereof may serve as a principall veine to conveigh life-blood to all the languishing or benummed and deaded members of Christ his mysticall body Returne and live These words are spirit and life able to raise a sinner from the grave and set him on his feet to tread firmly upon the ground of Gods mercy as also to put strength and vigour into his feeble and heavie limbes 1. to creep then to walke and last of all to runne in the pathes of Gods commandements The explication whereof to our understanding and application to our wils and affections were the limits of my last Lords-dayes journey By the light which was then given you yee might easily discerne our lusts which are sudden motions from Gods desires which are eternall purposes and distinguish betweene a sinner who is not purged from all dregges of corruption and a wicked person who Moab-like is settled upon his lees between a common infirmity and a dangerous sickenesse betweene sin in the act and wickednesse in the habit Questionlesse there is more reason to pitty him that falleth or slippeth than him that leapeth into the sink of sinne and daily walloweth in the mire of sensuall pleasures Yet such is the mercy and goodnesse of almighty God that hee desireth not that the wicked such as make a trade of sinne and have a stiffe necke a hard heart a seared conscience that the wretchedst miscreants that breathe should either dye in their sinnes here or for their sinnes hereafter The former of the two is the death of life the latter wee may significantly tearme the life of death which exerciseth the damned with most unsufferable pangs and torments for evermore Here when wee part life dyeth but in hell death liveth and the terrours and pangs thereof are renewed and encreased daily the former death is given to the vessells of wrath for their earnest the latter is paid them for their wages This death is properly the wages of sinne which God cannot in justice with-hold from the servants of sinne and vassals of Satan For God whose infinite wisdom comprehends not only the necessity of all effects in their determined but also the possibility in their supposed causes foreseeing from all eternity what an intelligent nature endued with free-will left to himselfe would doe how hee would fall and wound himselfe by his fall and knowing how hee could so dispose of his fall and cure his wound that his the Creators glory might bee no whit impaired but rather encreased by not powerfully hindering it decreed to create this creature for his glory which he appointed to shew upon him by three meanes 1. By way of generall bounty in placing the first parents of mankinde in Paradise and in them giving all sufficient meanes to bring them to eternall happinesse an end infinitely elevated above the pitch of their owne nature and after the abuse of their free-will and losse of that happy estate in which they were created and bringing themselves into thraldome to sinne and Satan 2. By way of speciall mercy graciously freeing freely justifying justly glorifying some a Rom. 9.23 in and by Christ viz. the vessels of mercy prepared unto glory 3. By way of justice in utterly leaving or uneffectually calling and upon abuse or refusall of some measure of grace offered to them deservedly hardening and upon their finall incredulity and impenitency necessarily condemning and in the end eternally punishing others to wit the vessels of wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made up or fitted to destruction This fabricke of celestiall doctrine strongly built upon evident texts of Scriptures may serve for a fortresse to defend this text and the principall doctrines contained in it against all the batteries of Heretickes and Atheists made against it viz. 1. That God approveth not the death of the wicked in his sinne but on the contrary liketh and commandeth and taketh pleasure in his conversion 2. That he decreeth not or desireth the death of any wicked for it selfe as it is the misery and destruction of his creature but as a manifestation of his justice For he b Lam. 3.33 punisheth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his heart or willingly hee made not death nor delighteth in the c Wisd 1.13 Fulgent ad Mon. Mortem morienti non fecit qui mortem mortuo justè retribuit destruction of the living Thy destruction is from thy selfe d Hos 13.9 O Israel but in mee is thy helpe The wicked after his hardnesse and impenitent heart treasureth up unto himselfe wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God who rendreth to every man according to his workes Upon which texts the Fathers inferre that not onely the execution but the very decree of damnation of the reprobate passeth upon their sinne foreseene Saint e Ep. ad Sixt. Vasa irae homines sunt propter naturae bonu n creati propter vitia sâ—pplicio destinati si vasa sint perfecta in perditionem sibi hoc imputent Austine The vessels of wrath are wicked men created for the good of nature but destinated to punishment for their sinnes And againe If they are fitted to destruction let them thanke themselves Saint f Prosper ad object 3. Gal. Qui à sanctitate vitae per immunditiem labuntur non ex eo necessitatem pereundi habuerunt quia praedestinati non sunt sed quia tales futuri ex voluntariâ praevaricatione praesciti sunt Prosper They that fall away from holinesse through uncleanness lye not under a necessity of
hand and giveth them a stay in the next clause onely use not liberty for an occasion unto the flesh Lest any presumptuous sinner should lay hold on the hornes of the Altar and claspe about that gracious promise i Tit. 2.11 The grace of God that bringeth salvation unto all men hath appeared he beateth off their fingers in the next verse teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts wee should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world In like manner lest any should * 2 Pet. 3.16 wrest the former verse of this Prophet as they doe the other Scriptures to the building forts of presumption but to the apparent ruine of their owne soules the Prophet forcibly withstandeth them in the words of my text But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse c. The life of a Christian is not unfitly compared to a long and dangerous sea voyage the sea is this present world the barkes are our bodies the sailers our soules the pylot our faith the card Gods Word the rudder constancie the anker hope the maine mast the crosse of Christ the strong cables our violent affections the sailes our desires and the holy Spirit the good winde which filleth the sailes and driveth the barke and marriners to the faire k Act. 27.8 haven which is heaven Now in our way which lyeth through many temptations and tribulations there are two dangerous rockes the one on the right hand the other on the left the rock on the right hand to be avoided is presumption the rock on the left threatning shipwracke is despaire betweene which we are to steere our ship by feare on the one side and hope on the other To hold us in a solicitous feare that we touch not upon presumption let us have alwayes in the eye of our minde 1 The glorious and most omnipotent majesty of God 2 His all-seeing providence 3 His impartiall justice 4 His severe threatnings against sinne 5 The dreadfull punishments hee inflicteth upon sinners 6 The heinousnesse of the sin of presumption which turneth Gods grace into wantonnesse 7 The difficulty of recovery after relapses 8 The uncertainty of Gods offer of grace after the frequent refusall thereof To keepe us in hope that wee dash not upon the rocke of despaire on the contrary side let us set before our troubled and affrighted consciences these grounds of comfort 1 The infinitenesse of Gods mercy 2 The price and value of Christs blood 3 The efficacy of his intercession 4 The vertue of the Sacraments 5 The universality and certainty of Gods promises to the penitent 6 The joy of God and Angels for the conversion of a sinner 7 The communion of Saints who all pray for the comfort of afflicted consciences and the ease of all that are heavie laden with their sinnes 8 The examples of mercy shewed to most grievous sinners Upon these grounds the contrite penitent may build strong forts of comfort after this manner My sins though they be more in number than the heires of my head yet they are finite whereas Gods mercy is every way infinite if my debt bee as a thousand my Saviours merits are as infinite millions And not onely Gods mercy but his justice also pleads for my pardon for it is against justice that the same debt should be twice paid to require a full ransome from my Redeemer and expect it from my selfe I l â— Joh. 1.9 confesse my sinnes and therefore I know he is faithfull and just to forgive mee my sinnes and cleanse mee from all my unrighteousnesse One drop of the blood of the Sonne of God was a sufficient price for the ransome of many worlds and shall not such store of it spinning from his temples dropping from his hands gushing out of his side and trickling from all parts of his body both in the garden and in the High Priests Hall satisfie for one poore soule that preferreth his love even before heaven it selfe All my sinnes are either originall or actuall the guilt of originall is taken away in baptisme and as often as I have received the blessed Sacrament a generall pardon was tendred unto mee for all my other sinnes and the seale delivered into my hands What though God will not heare the prayers of such a sinner as I am yet he will heare the prayers of Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for my sinnes I acknowledge to my hearts griefe and sorrow that neither faith nor hope nor any other divine vertue beareth any sensible fruit in mee for the present yet the seed of my regeneration remaineth in mee And as the blind man knew that his sight began to be restored to him even by the defect he found in it when he thought he m Mark 8.24 saw men walke like trees so even by this I know that I am not utterly destitute of grace because I feele and unfainedly bewaile the want of it If there were no heavenly treasure in mee Satan would not so often and so furiously assault mee for theeves besiege not much lesse breake open those houses where they are perswaded nothing is to be found The greater my sorrow is for my sinne and my spirituall desertion the greater is my hope for the spirit maketh intercession for the sonnes of God n Rom. 8.26 with groaning which cannot be expressed None were cured by the brazen Serpent which before had not beene stung by the fiery neither doth Christ promise ease unto any but to those that feele themselves heavie burdened But to confine my meditations to the letter of my text Before ye heard Repent you of your sinnes and you shall surely live God pawneth his life for it therefore despaire not how grievous soever your sinnes be But now I am to tell you plainly if you repent you of your repentance and turne from righteousnesse to sinne and end your dayes in that state you shall surely die eternally therefore presume not how compleate soever your former righteousnesse seeme to have beene In these two verses are implyed a double conversion 1 From evill to good 2 From good to evill To turne from evill is good from good is evill the former is repentance upon which I spent my last discourse the later is relapse or apostacie against which I am now to bend all my forces But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity c. in the transgression which he hath transgressed and in the sinne which he hath sinned in them hee shall surely die The contents of this verse are like the Prophet Jeremies figges of which wee read that the bad were exceeding bad for in the antecedent or fore-part we have apostacie that totall and in the hinder part or consequent death and that finall The words divide themselves into first a supposition When or if the righteous forsake secondly an inference his former righteousnesse shall not be remembred c. The supposition is dangerous the
also doth the like Ovid. Met. l. 1. Cuncta priùs tentanda sed immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum est ne pars sincera trahatur Si frustra molliora cesserint Seneca l. 1. de irâ— ferit venam For Physicians first minister weak and gentle potions and as the disease groweth apply stronger medicines And good Surgeons Homer l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Machaon in Homer first lay plasters and poultesses to wounds and swellings and never launce or burne the part till the sore fester and other parts be in danger whom good Magistrates ought to imitate and never to use violent and compulsive remedies but when they are compelled thereunto nor to take extreme courses Senec. l. 1. de ira Ultima supplicia motibus ultimis parat ut nemo pereat nisi quem perire etiam pereuntis intersit but when the malady is extreme Desperate remedies are never good but when no other can be had for they that are of a great spirit if they be well given will not if they be ill cannot be amended by such meanes They resemble Jeat which burneth in water but is quenched with oyle or the c Plin. nat hist l. 31. c. 7. Uno digito mobilis idem si toto corpore impellitur resistens ita ratio est libra menti Colossus at Tarentum which you may move with your finger but cannot wagge if you put your whole strength to it As for those that are of a weaker spirit and are easily daunted harsh courses will doe them more hurt than good for they resemble tender plants which dye if they are touched with a d Rustici frondibus teneris non putant adhibendam falcem quia reformidare ferrum videntur cicatricem nondum pati posse knife or iron instrument The sixth rule is to sweeten the sharpest censures with mild speeches This rule is delivered by Lactantius in these words Circumlinere poculum coelestis sapientiae melle when wee minister a wholsome but bitter potion to annoint the side of the cup with honey when we give the patient a loathsome pill to lap it in sugar The manner whereof the Spirit sheweth us in divers letters sent to the Churches of e Apoc. 2.3 Asia First we are to professe the good will wee beare to the party and make it knowne unto him that whatsoever we doe we doe it in love f Apoc. 3.19 I rebuke and chasten as many as I love Secondly to acknowledge their good parts if they have any g Apoc. 2.2 4. I know thy workes and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not beare them that are evill neverthelesse I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Thirdly to give them some good advice and counsell with our reproofe h Apoc. 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist bee rich and white raiment that thou maist be clothed and that the shame of thy nakednesse may not appeare and to annoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see Lastly to promise them favour upon any token of amendment i Apoc. 3.20 Be zealous therefore and repent behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Some there are who like best a resolute Chirurgian who be the patient never so impatient will doe his duty and quickly put him out of his paine though in the meane time he putteth the party to most intolerable torture Give me a tender-hearted Chirurgian who being to set an arme or legge that is out of joynt handleth it so gently that the patient scant feeleth when the bone falleth in Thus Nathan the Prophet handled King David 2 Sam. 12.3 4 5 6 7. and by telling him first a parable of a poore man that had but one lambe c. and afterwards applying it unexpectedly to the King himself ere he was aware as it were set not his body but his soule in joynt The seventh rule is to keep the execution of justice within certaine bounds set by equity and mercy This rule is laid downe by the Prophet Micah Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 and what the Lord requireth of thee to doe justice and to love mercy and by Solomon Eccles 7.16 Be not just overmuch Cut not too deep nor launce too farre Ne excedat medicina modum It is better to leave some flesh a little tainted than cut away any that is sound It is more agreeable to Gods proceedings to save a whole City for ten righteous mens sake than after the manner of the Romans when there was a mutiny in the Campe to pay the tythe to justice by executing every tenth man through the whole Army For as Germanicus cryed out in Tacitus Tacit. annal l. 1. Non medicina ista est sed clades when hee saw a great number of souldiers put to the sword for raising up sedition in the Army Stay your hand this is not an execution but a slaughter not a remedy but a plague not severity of justice but extremity of cruelty For which Theodosius the Emperour was justly excommunicated by St. Ambrose and Aegyptus sharply censured by the Poet Ovid. l. 1. de Pont. Eleg 9. qui caede nocentum Se nimis ulciscens extitit ipse nocens And Scylla was proscribed by the Historians and Poets of his time to all ages because hee was not content with the punishment of sixty thousand in Rome who were executed with most exquisite torments but entring afterwards into Praeneste there left not a man alive and else where also his cruelty raging in the end as Lucan observeth hee let out the corrupt bloud but when there was in a manner no other bloud left in the whole body of the Common-wealth Lucan de bel ci l. 1. periere nocentes Sed cum jam soli poterant superesse nocentes What was this else Sabast conjur Caâ—il Vastaâ—e civitatem non sanaâ—e than as Salust speaketh to exhaust a city not to purge it I am not against the cutting off a rotten member to preserve the whole body I know the sword is the only cure of an incurable wound which yet hath no place when there is no sound part in the whole body a Bodin de rep l 3. c 7. Et si salutare est putre membrum ad universi corporis salutem urere aut secare non propterea si omnia membra extabuerint aâ—t gangâ—ena inficiantuâ— sectionibus erit aut ustionibus utendum Bodine speaketh pertinently to this purpose It doth not follow that because it is good Surgery sometimes to burne out rotten flesh or cut off a member to save the whole that therefore if a gangrene overspread the whole we are to apply a Razor or Cupping-glasse b Sen.
him Apoc. 1.7 even they that nailed him to the Crosse and pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him Yea and Amen then he shall bring or send forth judgement unto victory He brought forth judgement in his life by preaching the Gospel in his owne person and he sent it forth after his death by the ministery of his Apostles and doth still by propagating the Church but hee bringeth not forth judgement unto victory in the Evangelists phrase because this his judgement is much oppressed the light of his truth smoothered the pure doctrine of the Gospel suppressed the greater part of the Kings of the earth and Potentates of this world refusing to submit their scepter to his Crosse and saying as it is in St. Lukes Gospel Luke 17.14 Wee will not have this man to reigne over us but when the sonne of man shall display his banner in the clouds and the winds shall have breathed out their last gaspes and the sea and the waters shall roare when heaven and earth shall make one great bonefire when the stage of this world shall be removed and all the actors in it shall put off their feigned persons and guises and appeare in their owne likenesse when the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.3 8. that exalteth himselfe above all that is called God shall be fully revealed and after consumed with the spirit of Christs mouth and be destroyed by the brightnesse of his comming then he shall suddenly confound the rest of his enemies Atheists Hypocrites Jewes Turkes Idolatrous Gentiles and Heretikes and breake the neckes of all that stubbornly resist him and then the truth shall universally prevaile and victoriously triumph All this variety of descant which you heare is but upon two notes a higher and a lower the humility and the majesty the infirmity and the power the obscurity and the glory the mildnesse and the severity of our Lord and Saviour his humility upon earth his majesty in heaven his infirmities in the dayes of his flesh and his power since hee sitteth at the right hand of his Father the obscurity and privacy of his first comming and solemnity of his second his mildnesse and clemency during the time of grace and mercy and his wrath and severity at the day of Judgement and Vengeance Ecce tibiâ cecinimus vobis Behold out of this Scripture I have piped unto you recording the pleasing notes of our Redeemers mildnesse and mercy who never brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe now I am to mourne unto you sounding out the dolefull notes of his justice and severity which shall one day bring forth judgement unto victory But before I set to the sad tune pricked before mee in the rules of my Text I am to entreat you to listen a while till I shall have declared unto you the harmony of the Prophet Esay and the Evangelist S. Matthew the rather because there seemeth some dissonancy and jarre between them For in Esay we reade Esay 42.3 Hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth that is give sentence according to truth but in St. Matthew He shall send forth judgement unto victory which importeth somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that the judgement he shall send forth viam inveniet aut faciet shall either finde way or force it take place or make place no man or divell being able to withstand it Besides this discord in their notes there is a sweet straine in the Prophet he shall not faile Verse 4. nor bee discouraged till hee have set judgement on the earth left out in the Evangelist To the first exception the Jesuit Maldonat saith that the Syriack word signifieth both truth and victory and that Saint Matthew wrote not in pure Hebrew but in the Hebrew then currant which was somewhat alloyed and embased with other languages which if it were granted unto him as it is not by those who defend that the Greeke in the New Testament is the originall yet the breach is not fully made up For still the originall Hebrew in Esay and the Greeke in Saint Matthew which hath been ever held authenticall are at odds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew signifying truth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke signifying victory and not truth I grant the truth of Christ is most victorious and hath subdued all the false gods of the Heathen as the Arke laid Dagon on his face and the rod of Aaron devoured all the rods of the Magicians yet truth and victory are not all one A weake Judge may bring forth judgement unto truth yet not unto victory as on the contrary a potent and corrupt Judge may bring forth judgement unto victory yet not unto truth Tully in a bad cause prevailed against Oppianicus by casting dust in the Judges eyes And Aeschines prevailed not against Ctesiphon in a good cause Right is often overcome by might and sometimes by the sleight of a cunning Advocate for the false part To the second objection Beza answereth that these words that hee will not faile nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement on the earth were anciently in St. Matthew but of late through the carelesnesse of some transcriber from whose copy ours were drawne are left out But sith this Verse is wanting in all the copies of Saint Matthew now extant neither can Beza bring good proofe of any one in which this Verse was ever found it is not safe to lay any such imputation upon the first transcribers of St. Matthewes Gospel whereby a gap may be opened to Infidels and Heretickes to cavell at the impeachable authority of the holy Scriptures in the originall languages A safe and easie way to winde out of these perplexed difficulties is to acknowledge that the Evangelist who wrote by the same spirit wherewith the Prophet Esay was inspired tyed nor himselfe precisely to the Prophets words but fitteth the Prophets sense to his owne purpose and what the Prophet delivered in two Verses he contracteth into one For what is hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth and he shall not faint nor be discouraged till hee hath done it but that he shall doe it effectually and powerfully and what is that but he shall send forth judgement unto victory Hee shall send forth Cal. in Mat. 1. Hoc verbum educere quo utitur Propheta significat officium Christi esse Regnum Dei quod tum inclusum erat in angulo Judeae propagare in totum orbem This phrase reacheth forth unto us a twofold observation the first touching the extent the second touching the freedome of this judgement here spoken of By judgement is here meant the Kingdome of Christ which must not bee confined to Jury nor bounded within the pale of Palaestine but hee sent forth that is propagated and spread over the whole world according to the prophecy of the Psalmist a Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send a rod of thy strength out
cause in favour of the defendant and being taxed for it by his friends in private shewing them the coyn he received demanded of them quis possit tot armatis resistere who were able to stand against so many in complete armour Steele armour is bullet or musket proofe but nothing except the feare of God is gold or silver proofe Nothing can keepe a Judge from receiving a reward in private in a colourable cause but the eye of the Almighty who seeth the corrupt Judge in secret and will reward him openly if not in his lower Courts on earth yet in his high Court of Star-chamber in heaven 5 All corruption is not in bribes hee who for hope of advancement or for favour or for any by-respect whatsoever perverteth judgement is not cleere from corruption though his hands be cleane The Judges who absolved the beautifull strumpet Phryne had their hands cleane but their eyes foule The Judges who absolved Murena that by indirect meanes purchased the Consulship of Rome are not taxed for taking any bribe from him yet was their judgment corrupt because that which swayed them in judgment was not the innocency of Murena but his modest carriage together with his sickness then upon him moving them unto compassion An upright Judge must in a morall sense be like Melchisedek without Father or Mother kiffe or kin I meane in justice hee must take no notice of any affinity or consanguinity friendship or favour or any thing else save the merits of the cause to which 6 Hee must give a full hearing for otherwise the Poet will tell him that g Sen. in med Qui aliquid statuit parte inauditá alterá aequum licet statuerit baud aequus est though the sentence he gives may be just yet he cannot be just The eare is not only the sense of discipline or learning as the Philosopher speaketh but of faith also as the Apostle teacheth yea and of truth also and justice Though a Judge need not with Philip stop one of his eares while the accuser is speaking yet ought he alwayes to reserve an eare for the defendant and according to the ancient decree of the Areopagites h Demost orat de coron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heare both parties with like attention and indifferency their full time Albeit our Lord and Saviour knew the hearts of men which no earthly Judge can yet to prescribe a rule to all Judges hee professeth sicut audio sic judico i Joh. 5.30 as I heare so I judge Never any Romane Emperour was so much censured with injustice and folly as k Sueton. in Claud. Claudius Caesar and the reason why hee so oft mistooke was because hee often sentenced causes upon the hearing of one side only and somtimes upon the full hearing of neither But of hearing you heare every day not onely the Preachers at the Assizes but the Counsell on both parts call upon you for it I would you heard as oft of that which I am to touch in the next place without which hearing is to no purpose 7 Expedition If the time had not prevented me I would have long insisted upon the prolonging of suits in all Courts of justice For a man can come into none of them but hee shall heare many crying with him in the Poet Quem das finem Rex magne laborum When shall we leave turning Ixions wheele and rowling Sisyphus stone O that we had an end either way long delayed justice often more wrongeth both parties than injustice either I am not ignorant of the colourable pretence wherewith many excuse these delayes affirming that questions in law are like the heads of Hydra when you cut off one there arise up two in the place of it which if it were so as it argueth a great imperfection in our laws which they who are best able make no more haste to supply than beggars to heale the raw flesh because these gaine by such defects as they by shewing their sores so it no way excuseth the protraction of the ordinary suits disputes and demurres in which there is no more true controversie in point of law than head in a sea-crab 8 Of courage and resolution I shall need to adde nothing to what hath beene spoken because the edge of your sword of justice hath a strong backe the authority of a most religious and righteous Prince under whom you need not feare to doe justice but rather not to execute justice upon the most potent delinquent 9 There remaines nothing but Equity to crowne all your other vertues which differeth but little from moderation above enforced for moderation is equity in the minde as equity is moderation in the sentence Bee not over just saith l Eccl. 7.16 Solomon but moderate thy justice with equity and mitigate it with mercy for summum jus est summa injuria justice without mercy is extreme cruelty and mercy without justice is foolish pity both together make Christian equity Therfore these two vertues resemble Castor and Pollux which if either alone appeare on the mast is ominous but both together promise a prosperous voyage or like the metals which are so termed quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the veynes succeed one the other after the veyne of one metall you fall upon the veyne of another so in scripture you shall finde a sequence of these vertues as in the Prophet Micah m Micah 6.8 Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and love mercy and in Zechary n Zech. 7.9 Execute true judgement and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother and in Solomon o Pro. 21.21 Hee that followeth after righteousnesse and mercy findeth life righteousnesse and honour To gather then up at length the scattered links of my discourse to make a golden chaine for your neckes Be instructed O ye Judges of the earth either Judges made of earth earthly men or made Judges of the earth that is controversies about lands tenures and other earthly and temporall causes serve the Lord of heaven in feare and rejoice unto him with trembling bee religious in your devotion moderate in your passions learned in the lawes incorrupt in your courts impartiall in your affections patient in hearing expedite in proceeding resolute in your sentence and righteous in judgement and execution So when the righteous Judge shall set his tribunall in the clouds and the unrighteous Judge as being most contrary to him shall receive the heaviest doome ye that are righteous Judges as being likest to him shall receive a correspondent reward and bee taken from sitting upon benches on earth to be his Assessours on his throne in heaven To whom c. THE APOSTOLICK BISHOP A Sermon preached at the Consecration of the L. B. of Bristow before his Grace and the Lord Keeper of the Great Seale and divers other Lords Spirituall and Temporall and other persons of eminent quality
his sinne nay wound it but hee must not kill it Hee may dive deepe into the waters of Mara but not stay so long under the water till hee bee drowned Hee that hath grievously wronged Gods justice by presumption let him take heede that hee doe not more wrong his mercy by desperation his sinnes can be but finite but Gods mercy and Christs merits are infinite There remaines yet two other sacrifices the sacrifice of the tongue and the sacrifice of the hand Prayer and Almes-deeds Prayers are tearmed g Hos 14.2 Render the calves of your lips Vituli labiorum the Calves of the lippes and Almes-deeds are graced with the title of h Heb. 13.16 To doe good and communicate forget not for with such scarifices God is well pleased sacrifices by the Apostle and Saint Austine yeeldeth a good reason for it because God accepteth these pro sacrificiis or prae sacrificiis for or before all sacrifices With both these salt must bee offered the salt of discretion with the one and of admonition with the other spirituall wisedome must guide both the lifting up of our hands to God and the stretching them out to our brethren First for prayer No unsavory prayers proceeding from a corrupt heart are pleasing to God no words sound well in his eares but such as are consonant to his word and minister grace to the hearers Let my i Psal 141.2 prayer saith the Psalmist be directed to thee as incense prayer must be directed not suddenly throwne up as it were at all adventures Wisdome and intention must direct it not to Saints and Angels but to God As it must be directed and that to God so in the third place it must be directed as incense from a burning censer that is a zealous heart or to use the phrase of my text it must be seasoned with salt the salt of discretion and salted with fire the fire of zeale Is this to pray praise God to draw neare to him with our lips when our hearts are farre from him to lift up our eyes and hands to heaven when our mindes are on earthly things is this to pray unto or praise God to vent out our unhallowed desires and indigested thoughts in broken words without any premeditation order or connexion No surely this is not to offer to God Vitulos labiorum the calves of our lippes but labia vitulorum the lippes of calves You heare how needfull salt is in the sacrifice of the tongue as necessary it is in the sacrifice of the hands k Psal 41.1 Blessed is hee saith the Kingly Prophet qui intelligit super egenum who considereth the poore and needy that is first taketh notice of their condition and quality and accordingly relieveth them lest otherwise hee contribute to idlenesse and not to necessity Some want worke to their will others will to worke some are impotent indeed others are counterfeit to the one a gift is an almes-deed to the other the best almes is to give them a sharp admonition or send them with their errand to the House of correction The Philosopher might say when he bestowed an almes upon a lewd rogue l Plutarch apoph Non homini dedised humanitati Not to the man but to manhood not to his person but to his nature not to his ill conditions but to his miserable condition but he that feareth God must take heed that he cast not seede upon accursed earth lest it bring forth the fruits of Gomorrha or it prove like the seed sowne by m Ovid. Met l. 3. Vipereos dentes populi incrementa futuri c. Crescitque seges clypeata virorum Cadmus whence grew up on the sudden armed men I meane an army of sturdy beggars armed against us in the high-wayes Hee must make a conscience both what he giveth and out of what and in what manner and to what end First what hee must not give the childrens bread to dogges secondly out of what hee must not give to God of that which hee hath stollen from man or got by any indirect courses for this were to make God accessary to his stollen goods thirdly in what manner manu serendum non corbe hee must cast seede out thriftily by the hand not carelesly throw it out of the basket he must so draw out that the spring of bounty be not exhausted fourthly to what end to glorifie God not to receive praise from men to relieve want not to maintaine vice Though his left hand must not know what his right hand doth yet his right eye must know and direct his right hand to poure the oyle into the wounds of the Samaritane and not to spill it upon the sound flesh As eye-salve laid to the foote profiteth not at all and a plaster or poultess made for the feete if it be applyed to the eye endangereth the sight so bounty misplaced doth more hurt than good benefacta malè locata malefacta arbitror The application I wish it were so in the ministring physicke for the soule as it is in the physicke for the body where the Physitian prescribeth and the Apothecary ministreth the Physitian maketh or appointeth the making of the salve and leaves it to the Apothecary to apply it For of all texts this needes most warily to bee applyed because there is in it both fire and salt and fire if it bee layd close will scorch and salt if it bee rubbed into a wound will make it smart Howbeit the best is that rule in corporall physicke holdeth also in this Nulla medicamenta tam faciunt dolorem quam quae sunt salutaria The more bitter the potion for the most part the more effectuall and the more smarting the plaster the more wholesome To apply therefore in a word In the setting forth of any banquet or service fire and salt must bee at hand fire to dresse the meat and salt to season it Likewise in the sacrifices of the old law neither fire nor salt could bee wanting salt to prepare the sacrifices for the altar and fire to consume them upon it Neither can there be any spirituall sacrifice or evangelicall service acceptable unto God without the fire of zeale and salt of discretion Zealous discretion and discreet zeale is a rare composition not of art but of grace which maketh both our persons and our offering agreeable unto God No cold service nor unsavory dish is for his taste without heate of zeale the sacrifice wee offer is the sacrifice of dead men and without salt of discretion the sacrifice wee offer is a sacrifice of fooles Prophanenesse and worldlinesse cold in the true worship of God offereth a dead sacrifice and idolatry and superstition hot in the false worship offereth a foolish sacrifice religion in the middle being zealous in the true service of a God offereth a holy living and reasonable sacrifice unto him by zealous discretion pleasing God and by discreet zeale men Some offer unto God fire but want salt
of the 81. Psalme If Israel would have walked in my waies c. that is if you will yeeld to mee and acknowledge mee for your Lord and accept of my lawes I will take the protection of you against all your bodily and ghostly enemies I will secure you from all danger enrich you with grace give you all the contentment you desire upon earth and preferre you to a crowne of glory in heaven Can you desire fairer conditions than these know yee who it is that tendereth them he is your Lord and Maker who need not condition with you that which hee meekly craves he could powerfully force you unto hee sueth for that by entreaty which hee may challenge by right all that hee requireth on our part is but our bounden duty and his desire is that we should bind him to us for doing that service which wee are bound to doe Was there ever such a creditour heard of that would come in bonds for his owne debt and become a debtour to his debtour Saint r Aug l 5. confes c. 9. Dignaris quoniam in seculum misericordia tua est iis quibus omnia debita dimittis promissionibus tuis debitor fieri Austin could not hold when he fell upon this meditation but breaketh out into a passion Thou vouchsafest O Lord by thy promises to become debtour to them to whom thou remittest all debts What happinesse what honour is it to have Almighty God come in bonds to us I beseech you thinke what they deserve who set light by so great a favour and refuse such love Application Now God maketh as it were love to us and in dolefull Sonnets complaines of our unkindnesse O that my people would have hearkened to my voice c. To which his amorous expostulations if wee now turne a deafe eare the time will come when wee shall take up the words of God in our owne persons and with hearts griefe and sorrow say O that we had hearkened to the Lord O that we had walked in his wayes then should we have seen the felicity of his chosen and rejoyced with the joy of his people and gloried with his inheritance but now wee behold nothing but the misery of his enemies and are confounded with the shame of reprobates and suffer the torments of the damned and shall till wee have satisfied to the utmost farthing Now God wooeth us with deepest protestations of love and largest promises of celestiall graces which if we make light of it will one day fall heavie upon us The sweetest wine corrupteth into the sharpest vinegar and the most fragrant oyntments if they putrefie exhale most pestilent savours and greatest love if it be wronged turneth into the greatest hatred Now God as a lover passionately wooeth us but if wee sleighten him and despise his kinde offers he will change his note and turne his wooe into a woe as we heare ſ Hos 7.13 Woe be unto them for they have fled away from mee destruction shall be unto them because they have rebelled against mee though I have redeemed them yet they have spoken lyes against mee After the clearest flash of lightening followeth the terriblest clap of thunder in like maner after Gods mercy in Scripture hath for a long time lightened most clearly shewed it selfe to any people or nation his justice thundereth out most dreadfull threats For example after Gods familiar disputation with his Vineyard t Esay 5.1 2 3 4. My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and hee fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine-presse therein and he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wilde grapes And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem men of Judah judge I pray you between me my Vineyard what could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done c. mark the fearfull conclusion Verse 5. I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof it shall he eaten up I will breake downe the wall thereof and it shall be troden downe And what ensued upon our Saviours teares over Jerusalem which would not sinke into their stony hearts but the bloudy tragedy which was acted upon them 40. yeeres after by the Romans who spared neither the annointed head of the Priest nor the hoary head of the aged nor the weaker sexe of women nor the tender age of infants but put all to the sword sacked the walls rifled the houses burned the Temple downe to the ground and left not one stone upon another O that wee were wise then wee would understand and observe the method of Gods proceedings and in the ruine of Gods people if wee repent not consider our later end O that they were Wise The Philosophers distinguish wisedome into Observ 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sapience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prudence Sapience they define to be the knowledge of all divine humane things so farre as they fall within the scantling of mans reason Prudence they restraine to the ordering of humane affaires and this they divide into 1. Private 2. Publike and this they subdivide into 1. Civill 2. Military Military prudence maketh a wise souldier civill a wise statesman domesticke a wise housholder and sapience a wise contemplative and morall prudence in generall a wise practick man The rules of this wisedome are to be taken from the precepts of Philosophy discourses of Policy the apophthegmes stratagems sentences and examples of those whom the world hath cryed up for Sages but this is not the wisedome which Moses here requireth in Gods people and passionately complaineth of the want of it but a wisedome of a higher nature or to speake more properly a wisedome above nature a wisedome which descendeth from the Father of lights which directeth us so to order and governe our short life here that thereby we may gaine eternity hereafter so to worship and serve God in Christ in this world that we may reigne with him in the world to come The infallible rules of this wisedome are to be fetched onely from the inspired Oracles of God extant in the Old and New Testament the chiefe whereof are these 1. To receive and entertaine the doctrine of salvation Rules of spirituall wisedome which is the wisedome of God in a mystery confuting the errours and convincing the folly of all worldly wise men 2. To deny our selves and our carnall wisedome and reason and bring every thought in obedience to the Gospel 3. To account our selves strangers and pilgrimes here upon earth and so to use this world as though wee used it not 4. To know that we are not Lords of our lands wealth and goods but only Stewards to account for them and therefore so to dispense and distribute them that we make friends of unrighteous Mammon that when it faileth
but onely by vertue of the promise of him who here saith To him that overcommeth I will give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will render or repay for it is not so in this warre as in others wherein the souldier who carrieth himselfe valiantly in warre and ventureth his life for his Prince and countrey may challenge his pay of desert because wee beare not our owne armour nor fight by our owne strength nor conquer by our owne valour nor have any colour for our service on earth to pretend to a crowne in heaven In which regard though wee may expect yet not challenge looke for yet not sue for desire yet not require as due the reward here promised b Luk. 12.32 Feare not little flock saith our Saviour for it is your fathers pleasure to give you a kingdome it is not his bargaine to sell you it Albeit the wages of sinne is death and there we may plead merit yet the Apostle teacheth us that eternall life is the gift of God Upon which words Saint c L. de grat lib. arbit c. 9. Cum posset dicere recte dicere stipendium justitiae vita aeterna maluit dicere gratia autem vita aeterna ut hinc intelligeremus non pro meritis nostris Deum nos ad aeternam vitam sed pro sua miseratione vocare unde dicitur in psalmo coronat te in miseratione Austines observation is very remarkeable Whereas the Apostle might have continued his Metaphor and said the wages of righteousnesse is eternall life because eternall life is the reward of righteousnesse as death is of sinne yet hee purposely put the word gift in stead of wages that wee might learne this most wholesome lesson that God hath predestinated and called us to eternall life not for our merits but of his mercy according to those words of the Psalmist He crowneth thee in compassion If there be any merit in S. Bernards judgement it is in denying all merit Sufficit ad meritum scire quod non sufficiant merita And verily had the Church of Rome all faith as her proselytes suppose that she hath all the good works yet her standing upon tearms with God pleading merit would mar all her merit and justly fasten upon her the ill name of Meretrix Babylonica the whore of Babylon For Meretrix saith Calepine à merendo sic dicta est hath her name from meriting When wee have done all that wee can d Luk. 17.10 Christ teacheth us to say wee are unprofitable servants we have done but that which was our duty to doe Nay have wee done so much as wee ought to doe Venerable Bede to checke our pride who are apt to take upon us for the least good work we doe telleth us no quod debuimus facere non fecimus we have not done what was our duty to do and if the best of us have not done what was our duty to doe wee merit nothing at our Masters hands but many stripes Yet the Church of Rome blusheth not to define it as a doctrine of faith in her conventicle at Trent that our e Concil Trid. sess 6. Can. 32. Si quis dixerit hominis justificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei ut non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita aut non vere merere augmentum gratiae vitam aeternam anathema sit good workes doe truely merit eternall life In which assertion as Tertullian spake of venemous flowers quot colores tot dolores so many colours so many dolours or mischiefes to man so wee may of the tearmes of this proposition quot verba tot haereses so many words so many heresies for First it is faith which intituleth us to heaven not workes by grace wee are saved f Ephes 2.8.9 through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Fides impetrat quod lex imperat Faith obtaineth that which the Law commandeth Secondly if workes had any share in our justification yet we could not merit by them because as they are ours they are not good as they are good they are not ours but Gods g Phil. 2.13 who worketh in us both the will and the deed it is God which worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure for h 2 Cor. 3.5 we are not sufficient of our selves to thinke any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God Whence St. i de lib. arbit c. 7. Si bona sunt Dei dona sunt si Dei dona sunt non coronat Deus tanquam merita tua sed tanquam dona sua Austin strongly inferreth against all plea of mans merit If thy works are good they are Gods gifts if they are evill God crowneth them not if therefore God crowneth thy workes he crownes them not as thy merits but as his owne gifts Thirdly the workes that may challenge a reward as due unto them in strict justice must be exactly and perfectly good but such are not ours k 1 Joh. 1.8 For if we say that we have no sinne or that our best works are not some way tainted we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Woe saith St. l Confes l. 13. Vae hominum vitae laudabili si remota misericordia discutias eam Austine to the commendable life of men if thou examine it in rigour without mercy In which passionate straine he seemeth to take the note from m Psal 130.3 David If thou Lord shouldest marke iniquities O Lord who should stand and hee from n Job 9.2.3 Job How should man be just before God if he contend with him he cannot answer one of a thousand Fourthly were our workes free from all aspersion of impurity and suspition of hypocrisie yet could they not merit at Gods hands any thing to whom we owe all that we can or are Dei omne est quod possumus quod sumus The greatest Champion of merit Vasques the Jesuit here yeelds the bucklers because we can give nothing to God which he may not exact of us by the right of his dominion we cannot merit any thing at his hand by way of justice For o Vasques in Thom. disput Non meremur in via justitiae quia pro eo quod alteri redditranquam debitum nihil accipere quis debet ideo servi inâ—tiles dici possumus quod nihil quasi sponte Deo demus sed demus ea quae in re dominii ex praecepto exigere possit no man can demand any thing as his due for meerly discharging his debt no not so much as thankes Luke 17.9 Doth hee thanke that servant because he did the things that were commanded him I trow not Fiftly might our workes taken at the best merit something at Gods hands yet not eternall life For there is no proportion betweene our finite workes and such
divinae deducatur injustitia est sordet in districtione judicis quod in aestimatione fulget operantis Gregory drives to the head Our very righteousnesse if it bee scanned by the rule of divine justice will prove injustice and that will appeare foule and sordid in the strict scanning of the Judge which shineth and seemeth most beautifull in the eye of the worker Fiftly a meritorious worke must hold some good correspondency and equivalence with the reward ours doe not so for if wee might offer to put any worke in the ballance certainely our sufferings for Christs sake but these are too light yea so farre too light e Rom. 8.18 that they are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall bee revealed in us Upon this anvile Saint f In ep ad Col. Hom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in psal 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome formeth a steele weapon No man sheweth such a conversation of life that hee may bee worthy of the kingdome but this is wholly of the gift of God and although wee should doe innumerable good◠deeds it is of Gods pity and mercy that wee are heard although we should come to the very top of vertue it is of mercy that wee are saved And g Ansel de mensurat crucis Si homo mille annis serviret Deo ferventissimè non mereretur ex condigno dimidium diei esse in coelo Anselme steepeth it in oyle If a man should serve God most devoutly a thousand yeeres hee should not deserve to be halfe a day in heaven What have our adversaries to say to these things what doth the learned Cardinall whose name breathes * Bella Arma Minae Warres Armes and Threats here hee turnes Penelope texit telam retexit hee does and undoes hee sewes and ravels after many large books written for merit in the end Quae dederat repetit funemque reducit hee dasheth all with his pen at once saying Tutissimum est it is the safest way to place all our confidence onely in Gods mercy that is to renounce all merit Now in a case so neerely concerning our eternall happinesse or misery hee that will not take the safest course needs not to bee confuted but either to bee pittied for his folly or cured of his frenzie To conclude this point of difference the conclusion of all things is neere at hand well may men argue with men here below the matter of merit but as St. h Ep 29. Cum rex justus sederet in throno suo quis gloriabitur se mundum habere cor quae igitur spes veniae nisi misericordia superexultet justitiam Austine feelingly speaketh of this point When the righteous judge from whose face heaven and earth fled away shall sit upon his throne who will then dare say my heart is cleane nay what hope for any man to be saved if mercy at that day get not the upper hand of justice I need plead no more for this Dabo in my text if it plead not for us at that day wee shall never eat of the Manna promised but it shall bee for ever hidden from us I will give To eat The sight of Manna which the Psalmist calleth Angels food especially of the hidden Manna which by Gods appointment was reserved in a golden pot had beene a singular favour but the taste thereof is a farre greater The contemplation of celestiall objects is delightfull but the fruition of them much more Even of earthly beauties the sight is not so great contentment as the enjoying neither is any man so affected with delight at the view of a rich cabinet of jewels as at the receiving any one of them for his own Now so it is in celestial treasures delights through Gods bounty abundant goodnesse unto us we own what we see we taste what we touch and we feel what we believed and we possesse what we have heard and our heart entreth into those joyes in heaven which never entred into the heart of man on earth In which respect the Psalmist breaketh out into that passionate invitation i Psal 34.8 O taste and see how gracious the Lord is and S. Paul into that fervent prayer k Phil. 1.9 And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Saint l Confes l. 6. c. 10. Te lucem vocem cibum amplexum interioris hominis mei c. ubi fulget animae quod non capit locus ubi sonat quod non rapit tempus ubi olet quod non spargit flatus ubi sapit quod non minuit edacitas ubi haeret quod non divellit satietas Austine in that heavenly meditation O let mee enjoy thee the light the sound the food the love and embracement of my inward man thou art light to the eye musicke to the eare sweet meats to the taste and most delightfull embracings to the touch of my soule in thee that shineth to my soule which no place comprehendeth and that soundeth which no time measureth or snatcheth away and that smelleth which no blast dissipateth and that relisheth which no feeding upon diminisheth and that adhereth which no satiety can plucke away When therefore the ancients define celestiall happinesse to be the beatificall vision of God grounding themselves especially upon these texts of scripture m Mat. 5.8 Psal 27.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and seeke his face evermore My heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seeke and n Psal 17.15 I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse And o 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glasse darkely but then face to face wee are to understand these speeches by a figure called Synecdoche wherein a part is put for the whole for certainely there is a heaven in the will and in the affections as well as in the understanding God hath enriched the soule with many faculties and in all of them hath kindled manifold desires the heat whereof though it may bee allayed for a time with the delights and comforts which this life affordeth yet it can never bee quenched but by himselfe who made the hearth and kindled these fires in it As the contemplation of God is the understandings happinesse so the adhering to him is the wils the recounting of his blessings the memories the embracing him the affections and generally the fruition of him in all parts and faculties the felicity of the whole man To apply this observation to the words in my text When the dispensers of the mysteries of salvation open the scriptures they set before us heavenly treasure they point unto and shew us the golden pots of Manna but when by the hand of faith we receive Gods promises and are enriched by the graces of the spirit then we
finde here casually in my Text what I so long sought for similitudines auri golden resemblances to wit borders of gold with studs of silver For as e Sanctius in hunc locum Aurum ut ait Aquinas significat sensum spiritualem argentum eloqum nitorem illud suppedi tat Scriptura hoc ars concionatoris Aquinas teacheth us the gold mystically signifieth the Spirits meaning the studs of silver the Preachers art gold representeth the precious doctrine they delivered silver the perspicuity of their speech and bright lustre of their stile As for the number the Text saith borders in the plurall number and if Solomon continue his former comparison of a troupe of horses in Pharaohs charret in the precedent Verse which were foure after the custome of all Nations when they rode in state Ergo erit ille dies quo tu pulcherrime rerum quatuor in niveis aureus ibis equis the borders by consequence must needs be foure And herein the mysticall ornaments of the Spouse are corresponding to the typicall ornaments of her Husband As the f Exod. 28.17 breast of Aaron a type of Christ was adorned with foure rowes of precious stones so the necke and breast of Solomons Queen the Churches type is decked here with foure borders of gold See then here as it were the modell of my intended frame The friends of the Spouse who present her with foure borders of gold with studs of silver are the foure Preachers whose Sermons may be compared to the borders in my text in a fourefold respect 1 Of the number foure Borders foure Sermons 2 Of the order the Borders were set immediatly one under another the Sermons preached one after another 3 Of the matter the Borders were made of gold the Sermons consisted of Scripture doctrine like unto g Apoc. 3.18 gold tryed in the fire 4 Of the forme the Borders were enameled with silver or set out with spangles of that metall and in the Sermons Scripture doctrine was beautified with variety of humane learning and adorned with short sentences of ancient Fathers like O's spangles or studs of silver Pomiferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant Omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta Aurea perpetuâ semper dignissima vitâ THE FIRST BORDER OR THE PASSION SERMON The first presented the Spouse with a Border of gold with Studs of silver wrought upon the text Zech. 13.7 Awake O sword against my shepheard and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hostes smite the shepheard and the sheepe shall be scattered And thus he put it on ILlius Doctoris libentiùs audio vocem saith devout Bernard non qui sibi plausum sed qui mihi planctum movet The first Sermon preached on good Friday by master Warberton now Dean of Wels abridged Me thinkes whilest you are here assembled to celebrate the memorie of our Lords death I see a great concourse as it were to a funerall Sermon I shall therefore intreat you Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. to prepare rather your hearts to be wounded than your eares to be tickled and at this time to lay aside all expectation either of Art or Learning and yeeld your selves wholly to religious Passion It is the observation of St. Austine and Gregorie that the foure beasts mentioned by St. John mystically represent the foure maine acts of Christ a Apoc. 4.7 or workes of mans redemption His 1 Incarnation 2 Passion 3 Resurrection 4 Ascension For at his Incarnation he tooke our nature upon him and was found in shape as a Man In his passion as a Bullocke he was slaine for sacrifice In his resurrection he was a Lion In his ascension as an Eagle We here consider him as a Bullock sacrified upon the altar of the Crosse Which as it is the greatest mystery that ever was revealed to the world so the Pen-men of the holy Ghost have bin most laboriously employed to publish it in all ages figuring it in the Law foretelling it in the Prophesies of the Old Testament and representing it most lively in the history of the Gospell I have to doe with a Prophesie somewhat darke before the light of the Gospell shone upon it Awake O sword c. which words in the Prophet are a Prosopopaeia made by God or an Apostrophe to his sword to whet it selfe and be stirred up against a man of meane condition in the estimate of the world A shepheard yet in some relation to himselfe my shepheard of a strange composition and quality a man that is my fellow and it extendeth to the smiting of this shepheard and scattering his whole flocke The parts are two 1 The Speaker the Lord of hostes 2 The speech Wherein observe 1 Direction O sword 2 Matter Wherein 1 Incitation Wherein 1 The act Awake 2 The object described by 1 His office shepheard 2 Person which is my fellow 2 Commission Wherein 1 The act smite 2 The effect the sheep shal be scattered First we are to speake of the Speaker the Lord of hostes The Lord of hostes is a name of power and soundeth like a thunder his Generall is Death his great Captaines Plague Famine and the Sword his Arsenall the whole world and all creatures in heaven earth and hell his Souldiers ever ready pressed to fight his battailes Quantus Deus Dominus exercituum saith St. Bernard cui inservit universa creatura Onely rebellious man standeth out in such defiance to his Maker that the creatures which were ordained to be under his dominion are often awaked and summoned to be armed for his destruction Awake O sword As all the creatures are Gods souldiers so when hee imployeth them against man they are called his swords The wicked is said to be his h Psal 17.13 sword and the i 1 Chron. 21.27 pestilence also When the Lord is pleased to execute his wrath he never wanteth instruments or meanes he hath a sword for Saul and an oake for Absalom and a roape for Achitophel and a gibbet for Haman and a worme for Herod and thus for the generall The particular intent of the Spirit leadeth mee to another consideration viz. that of this great blow here threatned to the shepheard God himselfe is the Author Deus erat qui pastorem percuti jubebat saith Maldonat quod per alium facit ipse facit Yea but God never awaketh his sword to smite but for sinne and in this shepheard there was no sinne of his owne the sword therefore lies sleeping in the scabbard and must now bee summoned to awake Awake O sword Chereb gnuri To the act of mercy wee are all apt to importune God with clamours Up Lord but to the act of justice if we should provoke him who were able to stand before him To this he is enforced after a sort to provoke himselfe Wherein observe first his unwillingnesse to strike till he is provoked his sword sleepeth secondly his hast and resolution
blow the earth trembles the stones are cleft and the vaile of the Temple rends and the people smite their breasts now are blackes hung all about the galleries of heaven the Sunne hath put on a darke vaile insomuch that a Philosopher as farre from his hearse as from his faith takes notice of this great Gods funerall And to make up the companie of true mourners the grave sendeth forth her dead and corpse arise and enter into the holy Citie now is his hearse set without the gate that they that are without even dogs may see him and make songs of him and lest any should be ignorant whose hearse it was his title is set up in Hebrew Greeke and Latine O tell it not in Gath publish it not in Askelon lest the uncircumcised rejoyce to see the glory of Israel obscured nunc nunc vires exprime dolor solitum flendi vincito morem If it be true that the Hebrewes have no word for eyes but what serves for springs it seemeth that all the eyes the holy Language speaketh of should be like springs wherewith they should bewaile him whom they have pierced yet there is better use of this than to lament O consider this and rejoyce weepe for him but rejoyce for your selves When the glittering sword in the hand of the Lord was lift up and his arme stretched out utterly to destroy you this Shepheard steppeth in and standeth betweene and in his owne body receiveth the blow that was aimed at you O consider you this for whom the Shepheard hath suffered such things First acknowledge with reverence the singular justice of God that could not be satisfied but with such a ransome Secondly acknowledge with detestation the hideousnesse of your sinnes that deserved so great a ransome Thirdly acknowledge the uneffable love of this blessed shepheard that payd this great ransome On the other side consider this and tremble yee that forget God yee have no interest in this Shepheards death looke to your selves in time antequam exeat ira apprehendite disciplinam osculamini filium The Shepheard is smiten if you looke to it in time it may be for you if not a worse disaster remaineth for you than befell these sheepe you shall be confounded they were but scattered The sheepe shall be scattered This Prophesie hath speciall relation to their temporall flight but it extendeth also to their amazement and staggering at the heavinesse of the blow They trusted that it had beene hee that should have redeemed Israel but now through his blow they are fallen from their trust The Sunne labours in the eclipse no ray appeares hee cannot bee discerned to be the Sonne of God all candles were quite blowne out this night unlesse it were as Allensis affirmeth that of Virgin waxe and whether it had any light in it I cannot say certainely the sword went through her heart too But disperguntur tantum non destruuntur oves these sheepe shortly met againe and suffered much with great constancie for their shepheard Peter and Andrew were crucified James beheaded the other James brained with a Fullers club all martyred save John yet in all these deathes they were more than conquerours sanguis Martyrum semen Evangelii the bloud they spilt was as oyle to feed the lampes of the Church or as dew to fatten her soyle Let no man therefore be deterred at the mention of the Crosse it is like the man in armour that appeared to Josuah who seemed dreadfull at the first but in the end proved a friend O bone Jesu ubicunque fueris in praesepi in horto in cruce in sepulchro non curo modo te inveniam O sweet Jesu wheresoever thou art in the manger in the garden in the crosse in the sepulchre I care not what befalls me so I may finde thee Thus have I presented unto you the gift which the first Speaker tendered to the Spouse of Christ a border of gold with studs of silver nothing remaines but that I worke an embleme of the giver in his gift Every embleme consisteth of an image and a motto the Image shall be Sulpitius the motto Tullies testimonie of him in his booke De claris oratoribus Maximè grandis ut it a dicam tragicus Orator incitata volubilis nec redundans tamen oratio vox magna suavis gestus venustus he was a loftie and if I may so speake a tragicall Oratour his speech was full and fluent yet not redundant his voyce great and sweet his gesture comely THE SECOND BORDER OR THE RIGHTEOUS MAMMON The second border of gold which the second Speaker offred to the Spouse was wrought upon that text of Scripture which we finde 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertaine riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy Ver. 18. That they doe good that they be rich in good workes ready to distribute The second Sermon preached by Doctor Hall now Lord Bishop of Exon abridged willing to communicate And thus he put it on Right Honourable Right Reverend c. THose things which are most necessary in their use are most dangerous in their miscarriage And therefore nothing is more necessarie for a Christian than to be rectified in the managing of a prosperous estate and to learne so to manage his happinesse here that hee may be happier hereafter which this text undertakes to teach where Timothie is set as it were upon the Bench to give the charge Charge A charge to whom To the rich Of what 1 What they must avoyd 1 High-mindednesse because their wealth is in this world 2 Trust in wealth because their riches are uncertaine 2 What they must endeavour and labour for 1 Confidence in God because he is a living and liberall God 2 Beneficence to men because by this they lay up to themselves a sure foundation Here said the Preacher is worke enough for my discourse and your practice I feare more than enough for my rehearsing The God of heaven who blessed it in his hands blesse it now in mine who have it but at the second hand Charge Charge Janus-like hath a double aspect the one that lookes up to Saint Paul the other that lookes downe to Timothie and from him to the rich In the first there is Apostolicall superioritie in the second Episcopall power and Evangelicall sufficiencie For the first charge thou referres to I charge thee ver 13. so Paul chargeth Timothie to charge the rich The first foundation of the Church was layd in an inequalitie and hath ever since so continued There can be no harmonie where all the strings and voyces are of one tenour hee that giveth the charge if hee be not the chiefe of the Bench yet hee is greater than the Jurie the rich are commonly great Nobility in the account of God is joyned with wealth Curse not the King in thy thought nor the rich in thy bed chamber saith
should dye Mori infirmitatis est sic mori virtutis infinitae There wanted not other meanes to redeeme man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was meet that by the death of the Sonne of God wee should bee redeemed Sanguine quaerendi reditus animâque litandum No escaping the stroake of the Angel but by sprinkling the Lambes life bloud no meanes to returne from exile till the death of the high Priest Must hee dye then and are the Scriptures so strait in this point O death how bitter is thy remembrance witnesse our Saviour Si fieri potest transeat hic calix but sith for the reasons before named that was neither possible nor expedient sith dye hee must what death doth the Holy Ghost thinke to bee most expedient If hee may not yeeld to nature as a ripe apple falleth from the tree but must be plucked thence there are deaths no lesse honourable than violent shall he dye an honourable death No hee must bee reckoned among the malefactors and dye a shamefull death In shamefull deaths there is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rid him quickly out of his paine Misericordiae genus est citò occidere No that was not expedient Feri ut se sentiat mori it was expedient that hee should dye a tedious and most painfull death wherein a tract of lingering misery and lasting torment was to bee endured What death is that I need not amplifie even by the testimony of the Holy Ghost the death of the Crosse was for the torture most grievous for the shame most infamous He humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death Could his humility goe on one step further Yes one step even to the death of the Crosse that is a death beyond death the utmost and highest of all punishments saith Ulpian Having in it the extent of torture saith Apuleius The quintessence of cruelty saith the Roman Oratour It is not amisse to know the manner of the execution of this death First after sentence given the prisoner was whipped then forced to carry his Crosse to the place of execution there in the most tender and sinewie parts of the body nailed to the Crosse then lifted up into the ayre there with cruell mercy for a long while preserved alive after all this when cruelty was satisfied with bloud for the close of all his joynts were broken and his soule beat out of his body This was part of his paine I say part I cannot expresse the whole the shame was much more Infoelix Lignum saith Seneca truly and unhappy for untill this time the curse of God was upon him that was hanged It is a trespasse to bind 't is wickednes to beat it is murder to kill Quid dicam in crucem tollere Look we to the originall it was first devised by Tarquinius as the most infamous punishment of all against such as laid violent hands upon themselves Look we to the use of it they accounted it a slaves nay a dogs death for in memory that the Dogge slept when the Geese defended the Capitoll every yeer in great solemnity they carried a Goose in triumph softly laid upon a rich carpet and a Dogge hanging upon a crosse Looke wee to the concomitancy Non solent suspensi lugeri saith the Civilian no teare was wont to be shed for such as were crucified And was it expedient that our Saviour should dye this death It was expedient that the prophesie of Esay might be verified We saw him made as the basest of men and of David A scorne of men and the out-cast of the people and of himselfe They shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock scourge and crucifie him These were prophesies that it should be so yet we want a prophesie that saith It is expedient That we doe not Oportet filium hominis exaltari ut Moses extulit Serpentem for that Serpent lifted up to cure all that looked upon it was an embleme of Christ Thus himselfe who was a high Priest for ever did prophesie of himselfe being now both priest and sacrifice It was expedient that he should dye thus dye to be forsaken of his friends falsly accused by his enemies to be sold like a slave mocked like a foole spit upon like a made man whipt like a theefe crucified like a traitour make up a misery that the sun shamed the earth trembled to behold it yet it was expedient it must be done God hath said it Mee thinkes I heare our Saviour say in this baptisme of bloud as he said in his baptisme of water Thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousnes and thus it became him for whom by whom are all things to consecrate the Prince of our salvation through afflictions The prophesies had said it it should be so and it was expedient that he to whom they pointed should fulfill them that so in fulness of truth he might take his leave of the crosse and say Consummatum est those things which were written of mee have an end All this while we see not the reason why he should be thus tormented Goe to Pilate his answer will be I am innocent of the bloud of this man Enquire you of the Scribes and Pharisees their answer will be We have a law and by this law he must dye because he made himselfe the Son of God This was no fault he was so and therefore without robbery or blasphemy might both think and declare himselfe to be so Goe wee further from popular Pilate and the cruell Jewes to God himselfe and though we be but dust and ashes for the knowledge of this truth presume we to aske Cur fecisti filio sic How may it stand with thy justice that he should dye in whom there was found no fault worthy death nay no fault at all the unswer is Expedit mori pro populo yet O Lord wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked nay which is more wilt thou slay the righteous and spare the wicked nay which is yet more wilt thou slay the righteous for the wicked shall not the Judge of all the world doe right God cannot chuse but do right the wages of sin is death though he have not sinned the people have If the principall debtour cannot pay the surety must if the prisoner dare not appeare the baile must Christ was the surety the baile of the people and so God might permit his justice against sin to take hold on him and hee must dye for the people if he will not have the people dye It being knowne that he dyed for the people it is worth the while to know who these people were for whom he dyed Caiphas had respect to the Jewes only and their temporall good but the Holy Ghost intended the spirituall good of the Jewes primarily though not of them alone but of the people also through the world But is it possible that of all people he should dye for the Jewes Ab ipsis pro ipsis these were they
an ornament to beautifie us well may we like the Church of Sardis have a name that we live but we are dead we are in the gall of bitternesse and the burden of sinne hath pressed us downe to the bottomlesse pit which is now ready to shut her mouth upon us O then let us cr◠out of the depth abyssus abyssum invocet let the depth of our misery implore the depth of his bottomlesse mercy and behold the Angel of peace is at hand for now and never before are we fit subjects for this good Samaritan to worke upon Come unto mee all that are heavie laden The Spirit of God is upon mee to preach health to those that are broken in heart liberty to the captives and to them that mourne beauty for ashes and the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse whence you see that none are admitted into Christs Hospitall but lame sicke and distressed wretches for whom hee hath received grace above measure that where sinne appeared above measure sinfull grace might appeare without measure pitifull Wilt thou then have thy wounds healed open them Wilt thou that I raise thee up to heaven deject thy selfe downe to hell Ille laudabilior qui humilior justior qui sibi abjectior Use 2 As this may serve to rebuke such Seers as labour not to discover the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of Jerusalem but sow pillowes under mens elbowes and dawbe up with untempered mortar the breach of sinne in our soules Use 3 so may it lesson all hearers as patiently to abide the sharpe wine of the Law as the supple oyle of the Gospel as well the shepheards rod of correction as his staffe of comfort in a word to endure Bezaliel and Aholiab to cut off the rough and ragged knobs as they desire to be smooth timber in that building wherein Christ Jesus is the corner-stone poenitentia istius temporis dolor medicinalis est poenitentia illius temporis dolor poenalis est now our sorrow for our sinnes will prove a repentance not to be repented of then shall our sorrow be remedilesse our repentance fruitlesse our misery endlesse Wherefore I say with Bernard Illius Doctoris vocem libenter audio qui non sibi plausum sed mihi planctum moveat I like him that will set the worme of conscience on gnawing while there is time to choake it rodat putredinem ut codendo consumat ipse pariter consumatur In the meane time let this bee our comfort that God will not suffer the sting of conscience too much to torment us but with the oyle of his grace will mitigate the rage of the paine and heale the festred sore which it hath made with the plaister of his owne bloud And I will ease you Thus farre you have traversed the wildernesse of Sin tired out in that desart and languishing in that dry land and shadow of death now behold gaudium in fine sed sine fine Happy your departure out of Egypt and blessed your travell and obedience you are now to drinke of the comfortable waters that issue out of the spirituall rocke in Horeb Christ Jesus and to refresh your wearied limbes and tired soules therewith I will ease you Doctr. 4 I. Man cannot for man is a sinner and a sinner cannot be a Saviour Angels cannot for man in Angels nature cannot bee punished God cannot for he is impassible Saints neither may nor can for they need a Saviour but I will For I am man and in your nature can dye I am God and by any infinite merits can satisfie and so by my means Gods mercy and justice may stand together righteousnesse and peace may kisse each other Thus that faith may looke out of the earth to embrace you the day-springing from on high hath visited you Thrice blessed then must poore hunger-bit and distressed soules bee who have not a churlish Nabal with power wanting will nor a King of Samaria with will wanting power but Elshaddai a God all-sufficient to relieve and satisfie them and for his will no Assuerus so ready to cheare up a dolefull Hester as he a drouping soule no Joseph so ready to sustaine his father in famine and death as he is ready with pitty to save a soule from death Noli fugere Adam quia nobiscum est Deus Who shall lay any thing to our charge sith it is God that doth justifie Pleasant and sweet were the waters of Meribah to the thirstie Israelites of Aenochore to Sampsons fainting spirits gratefull the newes of life to sicke Hezekiah but our Saviours Epiphonema thy sinnes are forgiven thee goe in peace is mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde The strings of my tongue cannot be so loosened that I may expresse the extasie of joy which every sin-burdened soule feeleth whether in the body or out of the body shee cannot tell in that by assurance of faith shee can say My Justifier is with mee who being Emmanuel God with us is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man with God one with God in will and power and wholly for us in power and will Use 1 Woe worth then all such as forsaking the fountaine of living water dig to themselves broken pits of their owne merits Saints intercession and the Churches treasurie Is there no balme in Gilead to cure us no God in Israel to help us Si verax Deus qui promittit mendax utique homo qui diffidit saith St. Bernard For I demand Doe they distrust his power All power is given him in heaven and in earth Matth. 28.18 Doe they doubt his will Behold he saith Come unto me before we offer our selves and I will ease you not do my best or endeavour it is no presumption to beleeve Christ on his word and rest on it with full assurance Use 2 Againe can none say but Christ I will ease you How hopelesse then is their travell how endlesse their paine who seeke for hearts-ease in any garden but the Paradise of God or hope for contentment in any transitorie object the world affordeth To see Asses feed upon thistles for grapes were enough to move the spleene of an Agelastus they have a faire shew like flowers but pricke in the mouth Alas what anguish and horrour must there needs be Cum domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu Miscetur when their consciences like Sauls evill spirit haunteth and vexeth them at the heart when they brave it out in the face and what is their foolish laughter among their boone associates but the cracking of thornes under a pot suddenly extinguished and turned into ashes and mourning Well may they like the heathenish Romans of old have their gods of feare and terrour but sure they can have none of ease comfort or quiet O let not our soule enter into their secrets but let our peace be still as it is in God and the repose of our troubled conscience in our Saviours love who was made a curse for us that
hereof that the wages of sinne is eternall death I will produce manifold testimonies of Scripture beyond all exception not so much to convince l Aug. l. 22 de Civ Dei Origines eò erravit deformiùs quò sensit clementiùs the errour of Origen who was of opinion that all the damned yea the Devils themselves should in the end bee released of their torments as to settle a doubt which troubleth the mindes of the godly how it should bee just with God to inflict eternall punishments upon men for temporall transgressions For your better satisfaction herein may it please you to take notice of two opinions concerning the rule of justice and goodnesse the first maketh the will of God the rule of good the latter goodnesse the rule of Gods will If yee embrace the former opinion to prove that it is just to repay eternall punishments to temporary and finite offences it will bee sufficient to shew that it is Gods will and good pleasure so to doe if yee encline to the latter opinion it will bee farther requisite to shew the congruity of such proceedings with the principles of reason and rules of justice among men It is very reasonable to thinke that God hath alwayes a reason for his will yet it is safest for us to take his will for a reason For God cannot will any thing but as hee willeth it it is just and good and that it is Gods will and decree to torment them eternally who dye impenitently appeareth by the words of our Saviour m Mat. 25.46 These shall go into everlasting pain and of Saint n 2 Thes 1.9 Paul These shall bee punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord and glory of his power and of Saint o Apoc 20.10 John And the Devill that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false Prophet shall bee tormented day and night for evermore Thus much of the torments in generall in speciall that the fire is unquenchable wee reade in Saint p Mat. 3.11 Matthew The chaffe hee will burne with unquenchable fire and in Saint q Jude 7. Jude Which suffer the vengeance of eternall fire How should the fire ever goe out sith as the Prophet Esay informeth us r Isa 30.33 The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone continually kindleth it And that the worm likewise is immortall Christ teacheth ſ Mar. 9.44 46 48. Where the worm saith he never dyeth and the fire is not quenched and that the darknesse likewise is perpetuall wee heare out of Saint Peter t 2 Pet. 2.17 They are Wells without water clouds carryed about with a tempest to whom blacke darknesse is reserved for ever yea the chaines of this prison wherewith the damned are manacled and fettered are everlasting for the Angels that kept not their first estate saith Saint Jude u Jude 6. God hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day and lastly The * Apoc. 14.11 fume and the stench of the brimstone lake riseth up perpetually and the smoake of their torment shall ascend for evermore Neither can it bee answered in behalfe or comfort of the damned that indeed hell torments shall still endure but that they shall not be alwayes in durance that the racke shall remaine but they shall not bee everlastingly tortured on it that the Jaile shall stand but that the prisoners shall not alwayes be kept in it for the Scipture is as expresse for the reprobates enduring as for the during of those paines They shall goe saith Christ x Mat. 25.46 into everlasting fire y 2 Thes 1.9 They shall suffer saith Saint Paul the paines of everlasting perdition z Apoc. 20.10 They shall bee tormented saith Saint John with fire and brimstone for evermore and therefore the fire is called * Mar. 9.44 their fire ignis eorum because it burneth them and the worme their worme because it feedeth upon them and the torments their torments because they paine and torture them These texts are so plaine that Cardinal Bellarmine himselfe professedly refuteth those of his owne side who give credit to the legend which relateth that by the prayers of Saint Gregory the soule of Trajan was delivered out of hell The good will and pleasure of God concerning the condition of the damned being thus made knowne unto us wee are to tremble at his judgements and quell and keepe under every thought that mutines against them To call Gods justice in question concerning the everlasting torments of the damned is to bring our selves in danger of them Are not Gods actions just because wee see not the squire by which they are regulated * Aug. l. 2. de Civ Dei Cujus plenè judicia nemo comprehendit nemo justè reprehendit though wee cannot comprehend all Gods judgements yet wee may not reprehend any Multa Dei judicia occulta sunt nulla injusta many judgements of God are secret none unjust In particular concerning this point much hath and may bee said in justification of Gods proceeding with the damned even by humane reason 1. Saint Austine rightly observeth that in punishing offences we are not so much to regard the time as the quality the duration as the enormity A man justly lyeth by it the whole yeere for a rash word spoken in a moment another is condemned to the Gallies all his life for a murder or a rape committed on the sudden in hot bloud therefore howsoever the sins of the reprobate are but temporall yet the circumstances of them may be so odious and the number of them so great and the nature so hainous that they may deserve eternall punishments 2. Where the guilt still remaineth it is not against justice that the party still suffer but in the soules of all infidels and impenitent sinners whose consciences were never washed neither in the salt water of their owne teares nor in the sweet laver of regeneration the guilt of all their sinnes still remaineth and therefore justly they may be eternally punished for them 3. An impenitent sinner if he should alwayes live upon the earth would alwayes hold on his sinfull course and that he breaketh it off at his death it is no thanke to him had he still the use of his tongue he would still blaspheme and curse had he still the use of his eyes hee would still looke after vanity had hee still the use of his feet hee would still walke in crooked wayes had he still the use of his hands he would still worke all manner of wickednesse had hee still the free use of all the faculties of his soule and members of his body he would still make them weapons of unrighteousnes Inchinus the a Inchin lib. de 4 Novis Romish Postillar giveth some light to this truth by an inch of candle whereby two play at tables in the
serious lesson of the vanity of earthly delights worldly comforts we reade in many Texts of Scriptures heare in divers Sermons see in daily spectacles of men troubled in mind at their death yet we never thoroughly apprehend it till Gods rod hath imprinted it in our bodies and soules then finding by our wofull experience that earthly felicity is nothing but misery masked in gaudy shewes and that all the wealth of the world together with all carnall delights cannot ease a burthened conscience nor abate any whit of our paine we begin to distaste them all we grow out of love with this life and entertaine death in our most serious thoughts Here the eye of faith enlightened by divine revelation seeth beyond death the celestiall Paradise in it a chrystall ſ Apoc. 22.1 2. river of the water of life by it a tree of life which beares twelve sorts of fruits and besides these a heavenly City shining with t Apoc. 21.18 19. streets of gold and foundations of pearle and precious stones the sight wherof leaveth an unspeakable delight in the soule which sweetneth all temporall afflictions and stirreth up in us an unspeakable desire of those solid comforts and substantiall joyes u Ramus in orat Heliogabalus was wont to set before his parasites a banquet painted on cloth or carved in wood or cut in stone and whatsoever hee fed upon in truth they had drawne before them in pictures and images such are the joyes and delights which the Divell the World presenteth unto us false shadowie vaine The true are to be found no where but in heaven where those joyes are in substance which we have here but in shadowes x Aug. confes l. 2. c. 5. Fornicatur anima quae avertitur abs te quaerit extra te ea quae pura liquida non invenit nisi cùm redit ad te pure which we have here polluted full which we have here empty sincere which wee have here mixt perpetually flourishing which we have here continually fading to these substantiall full pure sincere everlasting joyes God bring us for his Son Jesus Christ his sake Cui c. THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN THE XLVII SERMON APOC. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. THat which Pliny writeth and experience confirmeth concerning hony-combes that the thinner and weaker hony runs out of them at the first but the thickest and best is pressed squeezed out of them at the last we find for the most part in handling Texts of holy Scripture compared by the Prophet a Psal 19.10 David to hony-combs the easier more vulgar observations flow out of them upon the lightest touch but we are to presse each phrase and circumstance before we can get out the thickest hony the choicest and most usefull doctrines of inspired wisedome The more we sucke these combes the more we may the hony proveth the sweeter the combe the moister and which is nothing lesse to be admired the spirituall taste is no way cloyed therewith Wherefore with your good liking and approbation I will presse again and againe these mellifluous combes in our Saviours lips dropping celestiall doctrine sweeter than hony to delight the most distempered taste and sharper than it to cleanse the most putrefied sore I rebuke and chasten there is the sharpnesse and as it were the searching vertue of hony As many as I love there is the sweetnesse Parallel Texts of Scripture like glasses set one against another cast a mutuall light such is this Text and that Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt also consider in thy heart that as a man chasteneth his sonne so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee and Job 5.17 Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty and Prov. 3.11 12. My sonne despise not the chastening of the Lord neither bee weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father doth the sonne in whom he delighteth and Hebr. 12.7 If yee endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sonnes for what sonne is he whom the father chasteneth not As a Musician often toucheth upon the sweetest note in his song Paven or Galliard so doth the holy Spirit upon this and therefore we ought more especially to listen to it For 1. It convinceth the Papists who over-value crosses and afflictions accounting the bearing of them satisfactions for sinnes For with a like pride whereby they cry up their actions to be meritorious they would improve their passions to be workes satisfactory by satisfactory intending such as make amends unto the justice of God wherein they as much over-reach as they supererogate or rather superarrogate in the former Satisfactions to our brethren for wrongs done unto them by restitution mulct or acknowledgement of our fault with asking forgivenesse for it we both teach and practise but they shall never be able to satisfie us in this point that any thing they can doe or suffer can satisfie God Neither can our actions satisfie his law nor our penall sufferings his justice none can satisfie for sinne but he that was without sinne nothing can recompence an infinite transgression but an infinite submission or to speake more properly the submission and passion of him that was infinite It cost more to redeem sinnes than the world is worth and therefore they must let that alone for him who f Esay 63.3 trod the wine-presse alone Before I noted the difference between chastisement and punishment in the one a compensation of wrong done to the person or law is intended in the other a testifying of love and a care of amendment of the party chastened Who would ever be so unreasonable as to thinke that a few stripes given by a tender-hearted father to the childe whom he most dearly affecteth were a satisfaction for the losse of a Diamond of great price yet our sufferings hold not such a proportion For what are our finite and momentary sufferings to the offence given to an infinite Majesty Nothing can be set in the other scale against it to weigh it downe but the manifold sufferings of an equall and infinite person the eternall Sonne of God Neither will it help our adversaries any whit to say that Christ satisfied for the eternall but not for the temporall punishment of our sinnes For this is all one as to say that our Redeemer laid downe a talent of gold for us yet not a brasse token or payd many millions of pounds yet not a piece The Apostle said hee gave himselfe a g 1 Tim. 2.6 ransome for all will they deny it to be a sufficient one or was there any defect in his good intention They have not rubbed their foreheads so hard as to affirme any such thing Well then let them tell us how that man is perfectly ransomed by another who is still kept in prison till he have discharged part of his ransome himselfe This very conceit that they merit by
the first law of equity to heare both the plaintiffe and defendant with indifferency For as q Senec. in Trag. Qui aliquid statuerit parte inauditâ alterâ aequum licet statuerit haud aequus est Seneca saith truely Hee that giveth a right judgement without hearing both parties is no righteous Judge and therefore r Suet. in Claud. Pronunciabat saepè alterâ parte auditâ saepè neutrâ Suetonius justly chargeth Claudius with injustice for precipitating his sentence before hee had given a full hearing to both parties nay sometimes to either 2 They must lay all that they heare and what is brought on both sides in an even ballance and poyse them together Res cum re causa cum causâ ratio cum ratione concertet by the collision of arguments on both sides the fire of truth is struck out Protagoras his exception was good against them who to prove the providence of their paynim gods brought a number painted in a Table of them that calling upon them escaped shipwracke At picti non sunt inquit qui naufragio perierunt True saith he but none of those who notwithstanding their prayers to them suffered shipwracke are any where painted neither is there any register kept of them 3 They must maturely advise and seriously consider of the matter before they passe sentence The eye unlesse it bee fixed upon the object cannot perfectly discerne it nor distinguish it from things that are neare and like unto it And howsoever in a cleare water we may easily perceive any thing that is in the bottome yet if it bee troubled wee cannot and in every Court there are many troublers of the water the Lawyers by their wrangling and the witnesses by their varying the Judges by their different opinions to speake nothing of Angels also troubling the cleere streame of justice at certaine times 4 The eyes of their judgement must bee free from all mists of prejudice and clouds of affection For as that which a man looketh upon through red or greene glasse seemeth to bee of that colour the glasse is of though it bee of a far different if not a contrary so that which wee judge out of a forestalled conceit or prejudicate opinion seemeth to answer to our opinion of it how contrary soever it bee The Romane souldiers as t Div. instit l. 1. Lactantius noteth thought verily that the goddesse worshipped at Syracuse being demanded whether shee would bee carryed by them to Rome answered that shee would not that the image spake any such word but because they were before strongly perswaded that the goddesse would give such an answere Unlesse those that sit in judgement observe these rules they may easily take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fallacy for a demonstration and a malitious calumniation for a legall conviction If their eyes be either dimme with private affection or blinded with rewards or wink through carelesnesse or are shut through wilfulnesse that will fall out which S. u L. 2. ep 2. Inter leges ipsas delinquitur inter jura peccatur innocentia nec illic ubi defenditur reservatur qui sedet crimina vindicaturus admittit ut reus innocens pereat sit nocens judex Cyprian so grievously complaineth of Injustice sitteth in the place of justice and even in the sight of the lawes hanging about the judgement seat the lawes are broken the Judge who sitteth to revenge wrongs offered offereth that which hee should revenge and committeth that which hee should punish and hath his conscience coloured with sinnes of a deeper dye than the scarlet of his robes The Empresse wisely advised her husband when sitting at play and minding as it seemes that more than the cause before him hee rashly pronounced sentence Non est vita hominum ludus talorum The sitting upon life and death is not like the playing a game at Tables where a Table-man of wood is taken up by a blot and throwne aside without any great losse the life of man is of more worth than so Though all men detested Seianus and that most deservedly yet when they heard him adjudged to a most cruell and infamous death by no legall proceedings or course of justice the hate of all men recoyled backe upon the Judges and the people began to pity that great favourite who before was most odious Crepat ingens Seianus great Seianus is drawn upon an hurdle and hee suffereth for too much abusing his Princes favour * Juven sat 9. Sed quo cecidit sub crimine quisnam Delator quibus indiciic quo teste probavit c. Nil horum Verbosa grandis epistola venit A Capreis Benè habet nil plus interrogo What crime was laid to his charge what evidence was given in against him what witnesses were sworne I heare of none onely I heare of a long letter sent from the Emperour taking his pastime at the Capreae Hush not a word more Who doth not observe in our owne Chronicles how God met to Hastings his owne measure who the same day that the Earle Rivers Gray and others in the reigne of Edward the fourth without triall of law were by his advice executed at Pomfret had his head strucken off in the same manner in the Tower of London Such as Tiberius his Judges or Edward the fourth's are no fit Presidents for Christian Magistrates this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my text will evidently convince them at Christs tribunall in the clouds for not looking better to their evidence when they sate on the bench here below let them therefore take judicii praefidem for a president in their judgements even God himselfe who as wee x Gen. 18.20 reade though the sinne of Sodome were exceeding great and the cry of it went up to heaven yet came downe from heaven to see whether they had done according to that cry Chrys in Gen. before hee rained down fire and brimstone to burn their bodies with unnaturall fire whose soules burned with unnaturall lust As the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I rebuke rebuketh the carelesnesse rashnesse of Judges and Magistrates in giving sentence upon the life or state of any in question before them so the other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I instruct by chastening instructeth fathers and mothers to performe that duty which they owe to God and must performe to their children viz. before them continually to rehearse the law of God y Deut. 11.19 4 10. To talke of it when they are in their house and when they walke abroad when they lye down and when they rise up Above all things they must take care to season their young and tender years with pure and incorrupt religion and bring them up in the feare of God otherwise they are but halfe parents if they have not as well a care of their soules as of their bodies if they pamper the flesh in them but starve the spirit if they labour
they may see your workes and glorifie your Father which is in heaven it is your part to endeavour to take your candle from under the bushell which covereth it and set it on a high candlesticke that is some eminent place of dignity in Church or Common-wealth that it may give light to the whole house of God But latet anguis in herbâ there lyeth a foule affection under this faire pretence For such as are overtaken with this temptation of Sathan seeke not their owne advancement for Gods glory but Gods glory if so at all they seeke it for their owne advancement they pray that the Sunne may cleerly shew forth his beames but it is that their gifts which are but as moates in comparison may be seen and glissen in his raies They are like false friends and cunning spokesmen they beare the world in hand that they wooe for God but they speake for themselves Otherwise it would be indifferent to them if any other of as good or better parts than themselves should be preferred to those dignities they aspire unto and howsoever they could not but rest satisfied with the answer of God himselfe I have o Joh. 12.28 glorified my name and will glorifie it God hath a greater care of his glory than they can have neither is there one only way by which he setteth forth his glory for the wayes of the Lord are mercy and justice All that are exalted are not exalted in mercy some are exalted in justice as malefactors are carried up to a high scaffold for more exemplary punishment God bestoweth no gifts in vaine he will make the best benefit and advantage for his glory feare they it not he knoweth the value of all the jewells of his grace and he will sort and ranke them where they may most decke and adorne his Spouse take they no care for it As for their condition what doth their obscurity and privacy disparage them their Father who seeth their good parts in secret will reward them openly I fore-see what may be further objected against the doctrine delivered if he that humbleth himselfe shall be exalted how commeth it to passe that none are usually more vilified and dis-esteemed than they who make themselves cheap Tanti eris quanti te feceris a man is accounted of according to that he valueth himselfe his gifts of mind and body are never thought worth more than himselfe priseth them at Who get sooner into the highest places of preferment than those who are still climbing Doth not pride and ambition exalt many or at least are not those that are in high places high minded and consequently neither are the humble exalted nor those that are exalted humble I answer that the proud are often exalted in this world yet not by God but either by the world who like a cunning wrestler lifteth up his adversary above ground to give him the greater fall or by the Divell who doth his best by his instruments to set them in high places that through giddinesse they may fall and ruine themselves Or if it be by God it is in justice not in mercy as souldiers condemned to the strapado are drawne up to the highest round that they may be more tortured in their fall My collection out of this Text standeth yet firme None are exalted by God in mercy especially to a Crowne in heaven of which the Apostle here speaketh but such as are dejected in themselves and beare a low saile in their minds For God acknowledgeth none for his but those that deny themselves he is pleased with none but those that are displeased with themselves he accounteth none worthy of honour but those that account themselves unworthy Now the reason why God exalteth the humble is apparent for he hath promised Honorantes me honorabo Them that p 1 Sam. 2.30 honour mee I will honour and none more honoureth God than the humble who ascribeth nothing to himselfe but all to God If Princes most willingly advance those to high places under them who they are perswaded will most honour them and doe them best service in their offices whom then should God rather raise than the humble who the more they are exalted the more they extoll him the more glorious they are the more they glorifie him the more light of honour they receive the more they reflect backe Besides to whom is honour more due than to those who flye it who fitter to governe than they who know best what it is to obey who are like to be freer from oppressing and depressing others than they who in the height of their fortune most deject their minds Those vertues which are most attractive and are aptest to win our love and affection are all either parts or adjuncts of humility None so religious as the humble who by so much hath a higher conceit of God by how much he hath the lower of himselfe None so thankfull as hee who acknowledgeth all Gods blessings undue None so patient as hee who acknowledgeth all the chastisements that are inflicted upon him most due unto him None so obedient as hee who utterly denieth himselfe and bringeth every thought in subjection to Gods Word None so fervent in prayer as he who is most sensible of his wants None so penitent as he who abhorreth himselfe for his sinnes and repenteth in dust and ashes None so mercifull as he who accounteth himselfe the greatest offender None so free in contribution to others as hee who maketh reckoning that any better deserves Gods blessings than himselfe These graces and beautifull ornaments of the humble soule kindle an affection in God himselfe and shall they not inflame our love to this vertue Looke we not to the acts of it which seem vile and base but to the effects which are glorious and honourable It is called q Mat. 5.3 poverty in spirit yet it enricheth the soule it is in name and nature lowlinesse yet it exalteth it is vile in the eyes of the world but precious in Gods esteem The grasse upon the house top withereth and the July-flowers on the wall soon lose their sent but the Violets and other flowers that grow neere to the ground smell sweeter and last longer What doe the twelve precious stones shining in the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem signifie but so many Christian vertues laid in the ground of humility Neither let it trouble any that men who put not themselves forth though they are of extraordinary parts are often forgotten in states and neglected by those who should tabulas benè pictas collocare in bono lumine bring them into the light for such men are most fitly compared to the statues of Brutus and Cassius that were not brought forth nor carried with the rest in the funeralls of Junia of whom the wise Historian saith Eo ipso praefulgebant quod non visebantur If true honour as all wise men judge consist not in pomp and retinue or lands or possessions or houses plate or
grievous unto you to punish and d 2 Cor. 7.11 take revenge of your selves often who transgresse more often to afflict your soules often who e Eph. 4.30 grieve Gods holy spirit more often whereby yee are sealed to the day of redemption Sit par medicina vulneri let the remedy bee answerable to the malady let the plaister fit the wound if the wounds be many let the plaisters be divers if the wounds bee wide let the plaisters bee large Now to perswade all that heare mee this day willingly to apply these smarting plaisters to undertake joyfully this taske of godly sorrow and perform chearfully this necessary duety of mourning for our sinnes I have chosen this Text wherein God by expressing his desire of the life of a penitent sinner assureth us that wee shall obtaine our desires and recover the health of our soule if wee take the Physicke hee prescribeth Have I any desire that a sinner should dye and not that hee should returne from his wicked way and live Vers 22 24. If the wicked shall turne from all his sinnes that hee hath committed and keepe all my statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right hee shall surely live hee shall not dye All his transgressions that hee hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousnesse that hee hath done hee shall live But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live All the righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not bee mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sinne that hee hath sinned in them hee shall dye That is briefly If repentance follow after sinne life shall follow after repentance if sinne follow finally after repentance death shall follow after sinne O presumptuous sinner despaire not for repentance without relapse is assured life O desperate sinner presume not for relapse without repentance is certaine death Art thou freed from desperation take heed how thou presumest hast thou presumed yet by no meanes despaire Nec spera ut pecces nec despera si peccasti Neither hope that thou maist continue in sinne neither despaire after thou hast sinned but pray and labour for repentance never to bee f 2 Cor. 7.10 repented of But before I pitch upon the interpretation of the words give mee leave to glance at the occasion which was a Proverbiall speech taken up by the Jewes in those dayes wherein Ezekiel prophecied Ch. 18..2 The g Jer. 31.29 In those dayes they shall say no more the fathers have eaten a sowre grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge of which wee may say as h Vell. Pater hist l. 2. Disertus sed nequā facundus sed malo publico Velleius Paterculus doth of Curio It is a witty but a wicked Proverb casting a blot of injustice upon the proceedings of the Judge of all flesh i Aristot l. de mirabil auscul Aristotle reporteth it for a certaine truth That vulturs cannot away with sweet oyntments and that the Cantharides are killed and dye suddenly with the strong sent and smell of roses which makes it seeme lesse strange to mee that the doctrine of the Gospel which is a savour of life unto life should prove to some no better than a savour of death unto death and the judgements of God which were sweeter to Davids taste than the honey and the honey comb should taste so sower and sharpe in the mouthes of these Jewes with whom the Prophet had to doe that they set their teeth on edge and their tongue also against God himselfe whom they sticke not to charge with injustice for laying the fathers sinnes to the sonnes charge and requiring satisfaction of the one for the other Our fathers say they have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge What justice is there in this why should wee smart for our forefathers sinnes and lye by it for their debt The depulsion of which calumny is the argument of this Chapter wherin the Prophet cleareth the justice of God from the former foule aspersion both by denying the instance and disproving the inference upon it They were not saith hee the grapes your fathers ate that have set your teeth on edge but the sowre fruit of your owne sinne Neither doth God seeke occasion to punish you undeservedly who is willing to remit the most deserved punishments of your former sinnes upon your present sorrow and future amendment So far is he from laying the blame of your fathers sinnes upon you that he will not proceed against you for your owne sins if you take a course hereafter to discharge your consciences of them The sufficiency of which answer will appeare more fully by laying it to the former objection which may be thus propounded in forme He who punisheth the children for the fathers fault offereth hard and uneven measure to the children But God threateneth to doe so and he often k Plut. de ser num vind Antigonus propter Demetrium Phylenus propter Augaeum Nestor propter Neleum poenas sustinuere Hes op diei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 20.5 Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third fourth generation doth so For l Herod in Clio Croesus quintae retrò aetatis poenas luit hoc est Abavus qui cùm esset satelles Heraclidum Dominum interemit Croesus lost his kingdome for the sinne of his great great great grand-father Rhehoboam the ten Tribes for the sinnes of Solomon The posterity of Ahab was utterly destroyed for the sin of their parents and upon the Jewes forty yeeres after the death of our Saviour there came all the righteous bloud shed upon that land from the bloud of righteous Abel unto the bloud of Zacharias the sonne of Barachias whom they slew between the Temple and the Altar m Matth. 23.35 36. Verely saith our Saviour all these things shall come upon this generation Ergo God offereth hard and uneven measure to the children In which Syllogisme though the major or first proposition will hardly beare scale in the uneven ballances of mans judgement for in some case the sonne loseth his honour for his fathers sake as of treason yet the Prophet taketh no exception at it but shapes his answer to the assumption which is this in effect that their accusation is a false calumny that he that eateth the sowre grapes his teeth shall be set on edge that the sonne shall not beare the iniquity of his father but that the soule which sinneth shall dye For howsoever God may sometimes spare the father for many excellent vertues and yet cut off the sonne for the same sinne because he is heire of his fathers vices but not of his vertues or he may launce sometimes the sinne in the
faith and repentance unto life giveth charge to his Apostles and their successors to preach the Gospel unto every creature saying ſ Mar. 16.16 Whosoever beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved But here some cast a darke mist which hath caused many to lose their way How say they doe we maintaine that God desireth not the death of a sinner who before all time decreed death for sinne and sinne for death This mist in part is dispelled by distinguishing of three sorts of Gods decrees 1. There is an absolute decree and resolute purpose of God for those things which he determineth shall be 2. There is a decree of mandate or at least a warrant for those things which he desireth should be 3. There is a decree of permission for such things as if he powerfully stop them not will be Of the first kind of decree or will of God wee are to understand those words of the Psalmist Quaecunque voluit fecit Deus Whatsoever t Psal 135.6 God would that hath he done and of our Saviour Father u John 17.24 Rom. 9.19 Ephes 1.5 1 Tim. 2.4 I will that they also whom thou hast given mee be with mee where I am To the second we are to referre those words of the Apostle God would have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth God would that all should come to * 2 Pet. 3.9 repentance and This is the will of God even your x 1 Thes 4.3 sanctification and y Rom. 12.2 Be yee not conformed to this present world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is the acceptable and perfect * John 7.17 will of God In the last acception the Apostle seemeth to take the word will in those words It is better if the z 1 Pet. 3.17 will of God bee so that yee suffer for well doing than for evill doing and Saint Austine where he maintaineth that even those things that are most repugnant to the Law of God and so directly against his revealed will are not besides his will but in some sort fall within the compasse of his decrees The * Encharid ad Laurent c. 100. Hoc ipso quod contra Dei voluntatem fecerunt de ipsis facta est voluntas ejus miro inestabile modo non fit praeter ejus voluntatem quod etiam contra ejus voluntatem fit quia nec fieret nisi sineret nec utique nolens sed volens nec sineret bonus fieri male nisi omnipotens etiam de malo facere posset benè will of God is done by or upon them who seeme to crosse his will after a wonderfull and unspeakable manner that comes not to passe but by Gods will that is his secret decree which is done against his will that is his command For it could not be if he suffered it not neither doth he suffer it against his will but with his will neither would he who it good suffer evill to be but that by his omnipotency he can draw good out of evill The second distinction which much cleereth the point in question is of good things which may be sorted thus 1. Some are good formally good in themselves and by for selves as all divine graces and the salvation of the elect 2. Some things are good suppositively and consequently as warre is good not simply but when without it either the safety or the honour of the state cannot be preserved in like manner executions are nor good simply but upon presupposall of hainous crimes worthy of death in him that is executed especially for the terrour of others No man will say that it is simply good to launce or cut off a joynt yet is it good in case that otherwayes the sore cannot be healed or the sound parts preserved from a gangrene 3. Some things are good occasionally onely or by accident from whom some good may come or be made of them or out of them as treacle of poyson and wholsome pills of such ingredients as are enemies to nature If ye rightly apply these distinctions ye may without great difficulty loosen the knots above tyed the first whereof was whether God decreed sinne originall or actuall Ye may answer according to the former distinctions that he decreed effectually all the good that is joyned with it or may come by it or it may occasion but hee decreed permissively onely the a Al Monim Malum praescivit Deus non praedestinavit Anomy obliquity or malignity thereof he neither doth it nor approveth of it when it is done but only permitteth it and taketh advantage of it for the manifestation of his justice When Fulgentius denieth that God decreeth sinne and the b Concil Araus Ad malum divinâ potestate praedestinatos non modo non dicimus sed etiam siqui sint qui id affirmare ausint cum summâ execratione in eos anathema dicimus Arausican Councell thundereth out an anathema against any that dare maintaine such an impious assertion they are to bee understood of a decree of effecting or commanding or warranting it But when Calvin pleads hard for Adams fall to have not come to passe without a decree from God lest he should make God an idle spectatour of an event of so great consequence we are to interpret his words of a decree of permission of the event and disposing of the fall foreseen by him to the greater manifestation of his justice and mercy Ordinavit saith Junius id est statuit ordinem rei non rem ipsam decrevit To the second question which toucheth the apple of the eye of this Text whether God decreeth the death of any ye may answer briefly that he doth not decree it any way for it selfe as it is the destruction of his creature or a temporall or eternall torment thereof but as it is a manifestation of his justice Here I might take occasion as many doe to dispute divers intricate questions concerning the decrees of God especially of reprobation both absolute and comparative and the acts of it privative and positive whether it depend meerly upon the will of God or passe ex praevisis or propter praevisa peccata upon or for sinnes fore-seen originall or actuall as also concerning the object whether it be homo condendus conditus integer or lapsus whether man considered in fieri as clay or red earth in the hands of God out of which some vessels were to be made to honour some to dishonour or as created of God according to his image before his fall or as fallen in Adam tainted with originall sinne or lastly singular persons considered in the state of infidelity or impenitency and so dying sed b Scotus in 1. sent dist 41. nolo scrutari profundum ne eatur in profundum I will not approach too neere this deep whirle-poole lest with many through giddinesse of braine I fall into it For although I
have read what S. Austine writeth touching these points to c Epist 105 lib. 1. ad simpl q. 2. Sixtus Prosper to Vincentius Falgentius to Monimus what the 4. Councels held at Arles Arausica Valentia Mentz decreed against or for Godescalcus what d Aquin. 1. q. 22. art 3. Aquinas Bonaventure Ariminensis Basolis Biel Banes Capreolus and Mediovillanus and the Dominicans resolve on the one side and what f Loc supr cit Potest dici dari reprobationis causam non quae producat reprobationem activè in Deo quia tum Deus esset passurus sed propter quam actio terminetur ad istud objectum c. Scotus Argentinensis Herveus Occham Cumel Molina e In 1. sent dist 41. and the Franciscans generally on the other side and lastly what the Remonstrants Contra-remonstrants in our age have published one against the other to the worlds view yet I professe I find many thorny difficulties which cannot be plucked out but with that strong hand of the Apostle O g Rom. 9.20 21. man who art thou that disputest with God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made mee thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour When all mankind in Adam lay in the snares of death in which they intangled themselves to have left all in that woefull plight had been justice without mercy to have plucked all out had been mercy without justice but to draw out some and leave others in that doome which all had deserved declareth both the divine attributes of justice and mercy justice eternally shining in the deserved flames of the damned and mercy in the undeserved crownes of the elect But why more are not ordained to be saved than to be damned why of children yet unborne one should bee loved and another hated why the Infidels child sometimes comes to baptisme and the seed of the faithfull dyeth without it why Christ wrought not those i Mat. 11.20 miracles in Tyrus and Sidon which he did in Capernaum sith he knew they would have brought those Heathens to repentance in sackcloth and ashes whereas they took no good effect with the Capernaits why St. k Act. 16.6 7. Paul was forbid to preach in some places where they found no opposition in the people and commanded to preach in other places where the people shewed themselves l Act. 13.46 unworthy the means of salvation why it is given to some to know the m Mat. 11.25 13.11 mysteries of Christs Kingdome and they are hid from others why God is n Rom. 10.20 found of some who seeke him not and not found of others who seek him with teares why some of most harmlesse and innocent carriage yet live and dye in those places where they never can heare of any tidings of the Gospel others who have given scope to their vicious desires and for many yeeres continued in a most abominable estate of life defiling their mouthes with blasphemy their hands with theft and murder their whole body with uncleannesse yet before their death have the Gospel preached unto them and their hearts opened to give heed unto it and they sealed to the day of redemption I professe with Saint o Amb. l. de vocat gent. c. 5. Cur illorum sit misertus non horum quae scientia potest comprehendere liberatur pars hominum parte pereunte si hoc voluntatis meritis velimus ascribere resistet innumerabilium causa populorum Ambrose Latet discretionis ratio non latet ipsa discretio this difference which God maketh of men is apparent but the reason thereof is not apparent I confesse with S. * Qui in factis Dei rationem non invenit in infirmitate suâ rationem invenit quare rationem non inveniat Gregory he that findeth not a reason of the actions of God finds a reason in his owne infirmity why he cannot find it I resolve with Saint p Aug. de verb. Dom. serm 20. Quaeras tu rationem ego expavescam altitudinem tu ratiocinare ego credam Aug. ep 105. ad Sixt. Cur illum potiùs quà m illum liberet aut non liberet scrutetur qui potest judiciorum ejus tam magnum profundum veruntamen caveat praecipitium Et l. ad Simpl. q. 2. Si quia praesciebat opera Esaui mala proptereà praedestinavit ut serviret minori proptereà scil quia praescivit ejus opera bona praedestinavit Jacob ut ei maâ—or serviret c. Austine Seeke thou a reason I will tremble at the depth of Gods councels dispute thou I will beleeve I see depth I find no bottome Doest thou O man looke for a reason of mee I am a man as well as thou therefore let us both give eare to him who saith O homo O man what art thou who standeth upon termes with thy Maker and holdeth out argument against him If ever that censure of the Poet fell justly upon any Nae q Terent. in Andria intelligendo faciunt ut nihil intelligant they understand themselves out of their wits it most deservedly lighteth on those in our age who cast all Gods workes in the mould of their owne braine and take upon them to yeeld a reason of his eternall counsels as if they had been his r Rom. 11.33 34. counsellers who search into the unsearchable judgements of God and will seem to find those wayes which are past finding out r Rom. 11.33 34. O the deph of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Who hath knowne the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counseller These men resemble those that unskilfully handle knots of wier strings who by taking the wrong end the more they labour to untwist them the more they tangle them and in the end are forced to cast them away as unserviceable for their instruments wherefore leaving their curious speculations upon my Text I come to a briefe application 1. Doth God take no pleasure in the death of the wicked that daily transgresse his Law grievously provoke his wrath ungraciously abuse his mercy and sleightly regard his judgements Doth hee use all good meanes to reclaime them and save them from wrath to come Is the life of every man so precious in his eyes Doth he esteem of it as a rich jewell engraven with his owne image how carefull then and chary ought we to be who are put in trust with it locked up in the casket of our body that we lose it not by carelesse negligence much lesse expose it for a prey to others by duels either sending or accepting challenges Doe we set such an invaluable jewell as is the life of our bodies and soules at so low a rate that we will put it to the hazzard as it were
that any one Divell should get possession of our hearts yet seven nay a legion may be cast out by fasting and prayer God forbid that any of us should be long sicke of any spirituall disease yet those that have been sicke unto death have been restored yea those that have been long dead have been raised God forbid that wee should forsake our heavenly Fathers house and in a strange countrey waste his goods and consume our portion yet after we have run riot and spent all the gifts of nature and goods of this life and lavished out our time the most precious treasure of all yet in the end if we come to our selves and looke homewards our heavenly Father will meet us and kill the fat calfe for uâ— Therefore if wee have grievously provoked Gods justice by presumption let us not more wrong his mercy by despaire but hope even above hope in him whose mercy is over all his workes Against the number and weight of all our sinnes let us lay the infinitenesse of Gods mercy and Christ his merits and the certainty of his promise confirmed by oath As I live I desire not the death of a sinner if hee returne he shall live Oh saith Saint a Bern. in Cant. Quis dabit capiti meo aquam oculis meis fontem lachrymarum ut praeveniam fletibus fletum stridorem dentium Bernard that mine eyes were springs of teares that by my weeping here I might prevent everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell What pitie is it that we should fret and grieve and disquiet our selves and others for the losse of a Jewell from our eare or a ring from our finger and should take no thought at all for the losse of the Jewels of Gods grace out of our soules We are overwhelmed as it were in a deluge of teares at the death of our friends who yet are alive to God though dead to this world but have we not a thousand times greater reason to open those floodgates of salt waters which nature hath set in our eyes for our selves who are dead to God though alive to the world St. b De laps Si quem de tuis chatis mortalitatis exitu perdidisses ingemisceres dolenter fleres facie incultâ veste mutatâ neglecto capillo vultu nubilo ore dejecto indicia moeroris ostenderes animam tuam miser perdidisti spiritualitèr mortuus es supervivere hic tibi ipse ambulans funus tuum portare caepisti non acritèr plangis non â—ugitèr ingemiscis Cyprian hath a sweet touch on this string If any of thy deare friends were taken away from thee by death thou wouldst sigh thou wouldst sob thou wouldst put on blacks thou wouldst hang doâ—ne thy head thou wouldst dis-figure thy face thou wouldst let thy haire hang carelesly about thine eares thou wouldst wring thy hands thou wouldst knock thy breast thou wouldst throw thy selfe downe upon the ground thou wouldst expresse sorrow in all her gestures and postures O wretched man that thou art thou hast lost thy soule thou art spiritually dead thou survivest thy selfe and carriest a dead corps about thee and dost thou not take on dost thou not fetch a deepe sigh hast thou not a compassionate teare for thy selfe wilt thou not be thy owne mourner especially considering that all thy weeping and howling for thy friend cannot fetch him backe againe or restore him to life whereas thy weeping for thy selfe in this vale of tears and seriously bewailing thy sinnes may and by Gods grace shall revive thy soule and recover all thy spirituall losses and that with advantage Experience teacheth us that the presentest remedie for a man that is stung in any part of his body by a Scorpion is to take the oile of Scorpions and therewith oft to annoint the place sinne is the Scorpion that stingeth our soules even to death if we apply nothing to it yet out of this Scorpion sinne it selfe and the sorrow for it an oile or water may be drawne of penitent teares wherewith if we annoint or wash our soules we shall kill the venome of sinne and allay the swelling of our conscience c Pind. od 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a most soveraigne water which will fetch a sinner againe to the life of grace though never so farre gone It is not Well water springing out of the bowels of the earth nor raine powred out of the clouds of passion but rather like a d Cyp de card Chris op De interioribus fontibus egrediuntur torrentes super omnes delicias lachrymis nectareis anima delectatuâ— non illos imbres procellosae tempestates deponunt ros matutinus est de coelestibus stillans quasi unctio spiritus mentem deliniens post affectio se abluit lachrymis baptizat dew falling from heaven which softeneth and moisteneth the heart and is dried up by the beames of the Sun of righteousnesse Have not I a desire that the wicked should turne from his wayes and live When a subject hath rebelled against his naturall Soveraigne or a servant grievously provoked his master or a sonne behaved himselfe ungraciously towards his father will the Prince sue to his subject or a master to his servant or a father to his sonne for a reconciliation Will not an equall that hath a quarrell with his equall hold it a great disgrace and disparagement to make any meanes that the quarrell may be taken up will he not keepe out at full distance and looke that the partie who as he conceiveth hath wronged him should make first towards him and seeke to him Yet such an affection God beareth to us that though we silly wormes of the earth swell and rise against him yet he seeketh to us he sendeth Embassadours to e 2 Cor. 5.19 20. treat of peace and intreate and beseech us to be reconciled unto God For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled unto God Stand not out my deare brethren resigne the strong holds of your carnall imaginations and affections deliver up your members that they may serve as weapons of righteousnesse and yeeld your selves to his mercy and yee shall live Turne and live Should a prisoner led to execution heare the Judge or Sheriffe call to him and say Turne backe put in sureties for thy good behaviour hereafter and live would he not suddenly leap out of his fetters embrace the condition and thanke the Judge or Sheriffe upon his knees And what think ye if God should send a Prophet to preach a Sermon of repentance to the divels and damned ghosts in hell and say Knock off your bolts shake off your fetters and turne to the Lord and live would not hell be emptied and rid before
the Prophet should have made an end of his exhortation This Sermon the Prophet Ezechiel now maketh unto us all here present f Ezek. 33.11 18.30.31 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he turne from his wayes and live turne ye turne ye from your evill wayes for why will yee die Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your destruction Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye perish Shake off the shackles of your sinnes and quit the companie of the prisoners of death and gally-slaves of Satan put in sureties for your good behaviour hereafter turne to the Lord your God with all your heart and live yea live gloriously live happily live eternally which the Father of mercy grant for the merits of his Sonne through the grace of the Spirit To whom three persons and one God be ascribed all honour glorie praise and thankes now and for ever Amen THE DANGER OF RELAPSE THE LVI SERMON EZEK 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live All his righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not bee mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sin that hee hath sinned in them shall hee dye Right Honourable c. SAint Jerome maketh a profitable use of the a Gen. 28.12 And hee dreamed behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the Angels of God ascending and descending on it Angels ascending and descending upon the ladder which Jacob saw in a dreame reaching from the earth to heaven The ladder hee will have to bee the whole frame of a godly life set upwards towards heaven whereupon the children of God who continually aspire to their inheritance that is above arise from the ground of humility and climbe by divine vertues as it were so many rounds one above another till Christ take them by the hand of their faith and receive them into heaven They are stiled Angels in regard of their b Phil. 3.20 heavenly conversation these Jacob saw continually ascending and descending upon that ladder viz. ascending by the motions of the spirit but descending through the weight of the flesh rising by the strength of grace but falling through the infirmity of nature and hereby saith that learned Father c Hieron ep 11. Videbat scalam per quam ascendebant Angeli descendebant ut nec peccator desperet salutem nec justus de suâ virtute securus sit wee are lessoned not to despaire of grace because Jacob saw Angels ascending as they fell so they rose nor yet presume of their owne strength for hee saw Angels descending also as they rose so they fell Presumption and desperation are two dangerous maladies not more opposite one to the other than to the health of the soule presumption overpriseth Gods mercy and undervalueth our sinnes and on the contrarie desperation overpriseth our sinnes and undervalueth Gods mercy both are most injurious to God the one derogateth from his mercy the other from his justice both band against hearty and speedy repentance the one opposing it as needlesse the other as bootlesse presumption saith thou maist repent at leasure gather the buds of sinfull pleasures before they wither repentance is not yet seasonable desperation saith the root of faith is withered it is now too late to repent The learned dispute whether of these two be the more pernicious and dangerous the answer is easie presumption is the more epidemicall desperation the more mortall disease Presumption like the Adder stingeth more but desperation like the Basiliske stings more deadly many meet with Adders which are almost found in all parts of the world but few with Basiliskes Presumption is more dangerous extensivè for it carrieth more to hell but desperation intensivè for those whom it seizeth upon it carrieth more forcibly and altogether irrecoverably thither and finall desperation never bringeth men to presumption but presumption bringeth men often to finall desperation To meete with these most pernicious evils God hath given us both the Law and the Gospel the Law to keepe us under in feare that wee rise not proudly and presumptuously against him and the Gospel to raise us up in hope that the weight of our sinnes sinke us not in despaire the threats of the one serve to draw and asswage the tumour of pride the promises of the other to heale the sores of wounded consciences and the Scripture as Saint Basil rightly calleth it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Apothecaries shop or physicke schoole wherein are remedies for all the diseases of the soule In these verses as in two boxes there are soveraigne recipes against both the maladies above named against the former to wit desperation vers 23. against the later viz. presumption v. 24. And it is not unworthy your observation that as in the beginning of the Spring when Serpents breed and peepe d Adrianus Chamierus in ep dedicat Eccles Gal. Pastor Sicut ineunte vere cùm primùm è terrae cuniculis prodeunt serpentes ad nocendum parati fraxinum adversus venenatos eorum morsus praesens remedium laturam educit out of their holes the Ash puts forth which is a present remedie against their stings and teeth so the holy Ghost in Scripture for the most part delivereth an antidote in or hard by those texts from whence libertines and carnall men sucke the poyson of presumption The texts are these God hath raised up an horne of salvation for us that we beeing delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare f Rom. 5.20 Where sinne abounded grace did much more abound g Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus * Gal. 5.13 We are called to liberty Now see an antidote in the verses following Lest any man should suck poyson from these words in the first text Serve him without feare it is added in the next words in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Lest any man should abuse the second the Apostle within a verse putteth in a caveat What shall we say then shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound e Luk. 1.69 72 74. God forbid how shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein vers 1 2. Lest any should gather too farre upon that generall speech of the Apostle There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus h Luk. 1.75 there followes a restriction in the same verse who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Lest any should stumble at those words of the same Apostle Ye are called to libertie he reacheth them a
in the height of their swelling pride when in hope and almost in sight they had devoured the whole kingdome i Claud. de Theodos militat aether Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti Partly a tempest dispersed partly wild-fire burned partly the sea with open mouth swallowed downe their shipping But this day presenteth afresh to our memory a stranger example of divine providence and a prodigious designe of Sathans malice who put into the heart of that caitiffe Catesby the most hellish project and plot of treason that ever entred into the heart of man or Divell to offer up our King Queen Prince Nobles Prelates Judges and all States assembled in Parliament for a holocaust or whole burnt offering to the Moloch of Rome The keeper of Israel seemed for a long time to slumber nay rather to be fast asleep The plot is contrived the actors designed the enginers provided the mine digged the wall pierced the seller hired the powder bought the murdering artillery amassed the traine laid and the incendiary ready with match and touch-wood O preserver of mankind save us now or we are all but a blaze O keeper of Israel O sentinell of Jacob sleepest thou now when our destruction sleepeth not But Ecce non dormitat neque dormit custos Israelis be of good cheare the keeper of Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep By this keeper the Prophet meaneth Almighty God whom hee nameth in the verses following The Lord himselfe is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand the Lord shall preserve thee from all evill the Lord shall preserve thy soule the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy comming in from this time forth for evermore and Except the k Psal 127.1 Lord keep the City the watchman waketh but in vaine Yet in a second place we may entitle his majesty to this office of Lord-keeper for he next under God watcheth over all Gods Israel in his kingdomes and ecce non dormitat neque dormit hic custos Israelis the Lord keepeth this keeper of Israel awake and in the dead time of the night discovereth unto him the snares of death laid for him and his people His Majesty receiveth the word from Almighty God though spoken softly in his eare and scarce audibly gave it to his faithfull servants who by the dark light he gave them of some blow by powder searched the place and found the l Fax signifieth a torch or brand Faux a chop fire-brand of Hell and chop of the Divell Guido Faux with a darke lanterne making his traines and sowing if I may so speake the seeds of all our destruction How many miracles have wee here of divine providence and mirrours of his justice Wonderfull strange it was that the arch plotter Catesby should for many moneths keep within him that monstrous and prodigious designe like strongest poyson and never breake Wonderfull strange it was that so horrible and damnable a conspiracy should be afterwards imparted by him to so many noised abroad so far brought to that maturity that the successe thereof was prophesied by some in m Novelties shall passe with a cracke and he shall give them a blow c. scattered papers prayed for almost by all of the Jesuites faction at least in generall and yet Argus with his hundred eyes the great Counsellers of State who have eyes and eares in all places should have no notice of it till neere the houre in which it should have been acted and most strange of all that his Majesty by a violent and unnaturall construction of a phrase in a letter should find out the violent and unnaturall intendment of the authors of this treason to destroy the state in as n See a discourse of the Powder treason in the supplement of Foxe his Martyrologie little a time as the letter would be burnt in the fire Yee have heard the miracles of Gods providence in discovery of this powder plot behold now the mirrour of his justice Of destruction it selfe there is good construction to be made and order to be observed in confusion it selfe which most justly fell upon the unjust authors thereof The first contriver of the fire-workes first feeleth the flame his powder sin upbraids him and flieth in his * This last yeere 1635. the house where Catesby plotted this treason in Lambeth was casually burnt downe to the ground by powder face Their heads are lifted up above the house of Parliament who would have blowne up the heads and peeres of our Realm thither The quarters of the Black-birds of Hell and Vultures of Antichrist that would have preyed upon the barbarously murdered and cruelly quartered and dismembred corpses of our Church and Common-wealth are set up for a prey for the fowles of heaven and according to the letter of our daily prayer the eyes that waited for the destruction of our King and State are pecked out by the Ravens of the valley and the birds of the aire have eaten them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o Judg. 7.31 So let thine and our implacable enemies O Lord perish but let them that love thee be as the Sunne when hee goeth forth in his strength Deo Patri Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. ABRAHAM HIS PURCHASE A Sermon preached at the Consecration of the Church-yard inclosed within the new wall at Lambeth THE LXII SERMON ACTS 7.16 And were carried over into Sechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of mony of the sons of Emor of Sechem UPon the hearing of my Text read I suppose many looke for a Funerall Sermon and have already so christened my future discourse in their preconceits For here is the carrying of the dead and the interring together with a place for buriall a Gen. 22.7 purchased by Abraham for him and his heires for ever But as Isaac said to his father Abraham Behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lambe for a burnt offering so they may reason with themselves Behold the bearers and a sepulchre and the ground but where is the corps to be laid in it My answer hereunto must be a thanksgiving to God whose mercy hath altered the case with us because his compassions faile not It stood lately thus with us when the waies of Sion mourned because none walked in them and the gates of the Sanctuary lamented because almost none specially of the better ranke who left us desolate entred at them Wee saw with weeping eyes and bleeding hearts a presse as it were of dead corpses and many suing for a reversion of a void roome in our dormitory but now God be blessed we have a place given for buriall and no corpses at this present to take reall and corporall possession thereof Howbeit because what hath be fallen us heretofore may also hereafter and if death should strike any at this present without a writ of removall which cannot bee sued out of
and crucifying the lusts of the flesh than in verbo or signo After these three wayes we must all shew forth the Lords death Till he come To wit either to each particular man at the houre of his death or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgement This Sacrament is called by the auncient Fathers viaticum morientium the dying mans provision for the long journey he is to take Every faithfull Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able and can worthily prepare himselfe even to the day of his dissolution and all congregations professing the Christian religion must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation As often The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are but on the contrary wee are the better welcome the oftener wee come to the Lords Table with due preparation There are two reasons especially why wee ought oft to eate of this bread and drinke of this cup the first is drawne from God and his glory the second from our selves and our benefit The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries being qualified thereunto the more we illustrate Gods glory and confirme our faith If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate I answer 1. In generall as oft as yee need it and are fit for it The x Cypr. ep 54. Quomodo provocamus eos in confessione nominis Christi sanguinem suum fundere si iis militaturis Christi sanguinem denegamus aut quomodo ad Martyrii poculum idoneos facimus si non eos prius ad bibendum in Ecclesiâ poculum jure communicationis admittimus Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day because looking every houre to be called to signe the truth of their religion with their bloud they held it needfull by communicating to arme themselves against the feare of death Others in the time of peace received either daily or at least every Lords day The former Saint Austine neither liketh nor disliketh the latter he exhorteth all unto 2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus the Synod of Agatha and the Rubrick of our Communion booke that every one at least ought to communicate thrice a yeere at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the yeere as the disposition of our mind in going forward or drawing backe from this holy Table The sacrament is fit for us at all times but wee are not fit for it y Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Quotidié Eucharistiam dominicam accipere nec laudo nec vitupero omnibus tamen dominicis communicandum hortor Ibid. Qui in natali Domini Paschate Pentecoste non communicaverint catholici non credantur nec inter catholicos habeantur wherefore let every man examine his owne conscience how hee standeth in favour with God and peace with men how it is with him in his spirituall estate whether he groweth or decayeth in grace whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit or the Spirt of the Flesh whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished and accordingly as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts let us either out of sense of our owne unworthinesse and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbeare or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table either to receive a supply of those graces we want or an increase of those we have and when we come let us Eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament This the Schooles roundly confesse Two things saith z Part. 3. q. 63. art 1. Ideò ad Sacramenti hujus integritatem duo concurrunt scilicet spiritualis cibus potus Et q. 80. art 12. Ex parte ipsius Sacramenti convenit quod utrumque sumatur corpus scilicet sanguis quia in utroque consistit perfectio Sacramenti Aquinas concurre to the integrity of the Sacrament viz. spirituall meate and drinke and againe It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kindes the body and the bloud because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament And * Bonavent in 4. sent dist 11. part 2. art 1. Perfecta refectio non est in parte tantùm sed in utroque ideò non in uno tantùm perfectè signatur Christus ut reficiens sed in utroque Bonaventure A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only but in bread and drinke therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our soules in one kind but in both And a Soto in 12. distinct q. 1. art 12. Sacramentum non nisi in utrâque specie quantum ad integram signification em perficitur Soto The Sacrament as concerning the entire signification thereof is not perfect but in both kindes Doubtlesse if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper there must be drinke in it as well as meate The Popish communion be it what it may be to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of shewing forth the Lords death for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christs bloud out of the veines and the parting of his soule from his body If we should grant unto our adversaries which they can never evict that the bloud of Christ might be received in the bread yet by such receiving Christs death by the effusion of his bloud for us could in no wise bee represented or shewen forth which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principall end of receiving this Sacrament As oft saith he as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup Yee shew forth Christs death In Christs death all Christianity is briefly summed for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied the love of Christ manifested the power of Sathan vanquished the liberty of man from the slavery of sinne and death purchased all figures of the Old Testament verified all promises of the New ratified all prophecies fulfilled all debts discharged all things requisite for the redemption of mankind and to the worlds restoration accomplished Therein we have a patterne of obedience to the last breath of humility descending as low as hell of meeknesse putting up insufferable wrongs of patience enduring mercilesse torments compassion weeping and praying for bloudy persecuters constancy holding out to the end to which vertues of his person if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church which hee hath comforted by his agony quit by his taking justified by his condemnation healed by his stripes cleansed by his bloud quickened by his death and crowned by his crosse if you take a full sight of all the vertues wherewith his crosse is beset as with so
the left that they may be charmed both by the word and by the voyce of reason it selfe Christ saith his house is an house of prayer but where spake hee this spake he it not in the Temple and were not these very words part of a sermon which hee preached to the buyers and sellers there Hee hath but little skill in the language of Canaan who knoweth not that prayer and invocation of Gods name is in Scripture by a Synecdoche taken for the whole f Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.13 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved c. worship of God yet admit that our Saviour should in that place take prayers strictly for that part of Gods worship which consisteth in lifting up our hands to preferre our petitions and supplications unto him S. Paul furnisheth us with a direct answer to this objection even by those questions he propoundeth g Rom. 10.14 How then shall they call on him on whom they have not beleveed how shall they beleeve on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher As there is no powerfull preaching without prayer to God for a blessing upon it so no good prayer without preaching to direct both in the matter and forme and to enflame our hearts with zeale There being three parts of prayer humble confession confident invocation and hearty thanksgiving how can they make a full confession of their sinnes who learne not what are sinnes from the mouth of the Preacher How can they bee humbled in such sort as they ought before whom the Preacher out of the word setteth not God his terrible name glorious Majestie all-seeing eye infinite purity strict justice fierce wrath against sin together with man his vilenesse wretchednesse sinfulnesse wants and infirmities How can they call upon God with confidence who are not perswaded out of the Word by the Preacher of God his love to man mercie and long-suffering gratious promises omnipotent goodnesse as also of Christ his perfect obedience plenary satisfaction and perpetuall intercession How can they recount Gods blessings both spirituall and temporall who never have beene told them by the Preacher Yea but they will say they know enough of these things nihil est dictum quod non sit dictum prius This very objection of theirs bewrayes their ignorance and want of knowledge in divine things For were they rightly instructed as they ought to be they could not but know that the Scripture is like a plentifull mine in which the deeper we digge the veine of heavenly truthes proves still the richer they would know that all the Saints of God in all ages have complained of and confessed their ignorance and continually praied with David Doce me viam statutorum tuorum O teach me the way of thy statutes and open mine eyes that I may see the wonderfull things of thy law Lastly that it is the duty of every good Christian to h Ambros de Offic. l. 1. Et quantumvis quisque profecerit nemo est qui doceri non queat donec vivit improve his talent of wisedome and spirituall understanding to i 1 Tim. 4.15 meditate on those things he readeth and heareth that his profiting may appeare unto all and to k 2 Pet. 3.18 grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Admit they should learne no new thing in divers Sermons yet will not this any way excuse their neglect of this duty of hearing neither ought it to be any cause at all to keepe them from Sermons because instruction of ignorance is not the onely end of preaching there are many others as to glorifie God to countenance the ministerie of his word by their presence to encourage others to the diligent and constant hearing of the word by their example who perhaps may more need instruction than themselves to testifie their obedience to Gods ordinance who commandeth all his servants as well to heare him when he speaketh to them in his Word as to speake unto him in their prayers to have religious affections stirred up in them sometimes hope sometimes feare sometimes godly sorrow sometimes spirituall joy alwayes zeale for Gods glorie fervour in their devotion and watchfulnesse over all their wayes to be put in minde of those things which indeed they knew before but either forgot or made as little use of them as if they had never knowne them to be awaked out of their spirituall lethargie to be admonished of divers dangers they are like to incurre to be convinced of divers errours which they count to be none till the powerfull ministry of the Word hath demonstrated them to be such to reprove them of the sins they daily commit as well of ignorance as against their conscience and to pricke their hearts deep with godly compunction that with weeping eyes and bleeding hearts they may seek to God in time for pardon Lastly to prepare them to performe all religious duties in a better maner that they may for the future receive more comfort in their private devotions and more benefit by the publike ministry of the Word and Sacraments The grand enemie of our soules partly by immediate suggestions and thoughts ingested into our mindes and partly by the mouthes or pennes of Atheists Infidels Heretickes and Schismatickes layeth new batteries against our most holy faith and is it not then most needfull to learne from the most able and experienced Souldiers of Christ how to beat them off and fortifie against them And if their memorie be so brittle and pertuse as they pretend that it will hold nothing there is a greater necessitie for them to heare oftener than others that the frequent inculcation of the same doctrine may imprint that in their mindes which others receive by the first hearing And to answer them in their owne metaphor albeit the bucket be so full of holes that all the water they take up in it runneth out yet certainely the often dipping it into the Well and filling it with water will make it moister than otherwise it would have beene And so I passe from the eare marke of Christs sheepe to the marke in their heart They were pricked in heart This pricke in the heart may be considered two manner of wayes 1 In a reference to the cause and so it is an effect 2 In a reference to the subject and so it is an affection If wee consider it as an effect it sheweth unto us the efficacie of Gods Word in the mind of the hearers which is far greater than any force of humane art or eloquence Art and humane eloquence may move affection but it is the powerfull preaching of the Word only that can remove corruption as we read Lex Jehovae convertens animas l Psal 19.7 The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The word of man my tickle the eare but it is the word of God onely which pricketh deepe the heart
for it But I never yet read or heard of any that sinned with a high hand but his owne heart smote him with feare For where sinne is of a deepe die not washed out with penitent teares there is guilt where guilt is there must needs be an expectation of condigne punishment and where this expectation is continuall feare The sinners conscience tells him that his fact is unjust and God is just and therefore in justice will give injustice his just reward either in this life or in that which is to come As Antipho through a disease in his eye thought that he had his owne Image alwayes before him so he that hath charged his conscience with any abominable or very foule and bloudy crime seeth alwayes before him the ougly image of his sinne and hideous shape of his deserved punishment Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae m Cic pro Rose Amer. these are the ghosts that haunt wicked men these are the furies that follow them with torches and scorch them with flashes of hell fire these suffer them not non modo sine cura quiescere sed ne spirare quidem sine metu these make them flie when no man pursueth them cry when no man smiteth-them quake when no man threatneth them languish in a cold sweat when no fit is upon them n Juvenal sat 17. frigidamens est Criminibus tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ When o Cic. ib. Sua quemque fraus suus terror maxime vexar suum quemque scâ—lus agitat suae malâ— cogitationes consâ—ientiaeque animi terrent they are alone and quiet out of all other noise they heare their sinne cry for vengeance At which huy and cry they are so startled that though many be sometimes free from the cause of their feare yet they are never free from feare of danger Every shadow they take for a man every man for a spie every spie for an accuser As in a fever the greater the fit is the more vehement the shaking so the more horrid the sinne is the more horrible the dread The sinne of the Jewes in giving consent to the saving of a murderer and the murther of the Saviour is beyond comparison and therefore their feare beyond measure As a child that hath committed some great fault and expecteth to bee fleaed for it cryeth to his master What shall I doe Or a passenger suddenly benighted when he perceiveth that he is riding downe a steepe rocke cryeth to all within hearing Oh what shall I doe Or a patient that is in a desperate case feeleth unsufferable paine and apprehendeth no meanes of ease cryeth to his physician What shall I doe Or a seafaring man in a storme in the night when he heareth the water roare and feareth every moment to be swallowed up in the sea cryeth to the Pilot What shall we doe In this perplexitie in this fright in this agonie are the Jewes in my text and from hence is this speech of distracted men What shall we doe This their feare ought to strike a terrour in us all who have our part in their guilt for we by our sinnes have and doe provoke the Father grieve the Spirit and even crucifie againe the Sonne how can wee then but feare when we heare Gods threats against sinne when we see daily his judgements upon sinne when wee remember our Saviours sufferings to satisfie Gods justice for sinne How dare we draw iniquity with cords and sinne with cart-ropes How dare we kicke against the pricks How dare we make a covenant with death and league with hell How dare wee hatch the cockatrice egge How dare wee lie at the mouth of the Lions den Let no man say in his heart when he plotteth wickednesse or committeth filthinesse in the darke no eye seeth mee and therefore what need I feare for hee that hath eyes like a flame of fire pierceth the thickest darknesse and discovereth every hidden roome in thy house and corner in thy heart hee seeth thee in secret and will reward thee openly if thou by smiting thine owne heart prevent not his blowes as the Jewes did in my text saying What shall we doe This interrogation riseth from three springs or heads 1 Feare of punishment 2 Sorrow for sinne 3 Hope of pardon A man in feare driven to an exigent being now at his wits end saith with himselfe What shall I doe likewise a man overwhelmed with cares and ready to be drowned in sorrow as hee is sinking cries Oh! what shall I doe or what will become of mee The fruit of sin is sweete in the mouth but bitter in the stomacke like poison given in a sugred cup it goeth downe sweetly but it kindleth a fire in the bowels it tickleth the heart in the beginning but it prickes it in the end it is pleasure in doing it is sorrow when it is done Saint Bernard speaketh feelingly Sinne after it is perpetrated leaves in the soule a sad farewell amara foeda vestigia where the divell hath set his foote there remaines after he is gone a foule print and a stinking sent Though the sinner use all meanes to dead the flesh of his heart though he make it as hard as flint or the nether milstone yet conscience writeth in it as with the point of a Diamond this sentence of the eternall Judge of quick and dead p Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth They that stabbed Caesar afterwards turned the point of the same dagger upon themselves so it is certaine that no man by sin grieveth Gods Spirit but he woundeth himselfe with sorrow If the sprayning a veine or dis-locating a bone or putting a member out of joynt or distempering the bloud be a pain to the body how much more is the distorting the will the disordering the affections the quenching the light of reason by sinne a torment to the soule There is no man that hath not lost his senses but hath sense of great losses what losse comparable to the losse of Gods favour and love the comforts of the spirit and the treasures of his grace Though a sinner should gaine the whole world by his sinne yet would hee be a loser for at the present he hazzardeth and without mature repentance he loseth his owne soule To speake nothing of losse of time by idlenesse of wit by drunkennesse of strength by incontinencie of health by intemperancie of estate by prodigality of credit and reputation by lewdnesse and dishonestie besides the guilt of sinne and losse by it there is great folly in it which vexeth the mind and discontenteth the spirit of a man his thoughts perpetually accusing him in this manner This thou mightest have done and here thou befooledst thy selfe and thou hast brought trouble and shame upon thee thou mayst thanke thy selfe for all the mischiefes that have befalne thee Yea but ye may object Are sinne and sorrow such individuall companions is there no sorrow but for sinne
not to bee Gods instruments for their eternall as they have beene for their temporall life Doubtlesse z Pro. 1.8 Solomon who injoineth children to heare their fathers instruction and not to forsake the law of their mother because they shall be as an ornament of grace unto their head and chaines about their necke implieth in the duty of children to receive the duety of parents to give them such instructions and lawes What yeares fitter to lay the ground colour of vertue and true religion * Quint. instit orat l. 1. c. 1 Sapor quo nova imbuis diutissimè durat Horat. ep Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odotem testa diu Naturâ tenacissimi sumus eorum quae rudibus annis imbibimus nec lanarum colores quibus simplex ille candor mutatus est elui possunt Quint. il than those which are the more capable thereof because as yet without any tincture at all when better forming the mould of the heart and affections than when it is softest and who rather to doe it than a father whose workmanship next after God the child is If it have any blemish or deformity of body bee it a scar in the face or stammering in the tongue or wrinesse in the necke or disproportion in any limbe what will not a tender hearted parent doe to take away such a blemish and rectifie such a distortion All children are borne with worser deformities in their soule than these imperfections are in their bodie and yet how few parents take them to heart Scarce one of an hundred attendeth upon Gods ordinance and useth the meanes therein prescribed to cure the naturall blindnesse of ignorance or to purge the dregges of concupiscence in them or to breake them of many ill customes and habites growing upon them If children stammer out good words or pronounce them lispingly their fathers and mothers are offended at it and rebuke them for it but if they speake plainly and distinctly their words though they bee never so rotten and unsavoury they make much of them for it Verba ne Alexandrinis quidem permittenda deliciis risu osculo excipiunt Hence it commeth to passe that they can speake ill before they can well speake and drinke-in many vices with their mothers milke and get such ill customes and habites which afterwards when they would they cannot leave because according to our true Proverbe That will never out of the flesh which is bread in the bone It would touch the quickest veines in the heart of a Christian Parent to heare what a grievous complaint divers children made against their fathers mothers in a Cyp. ser de lap Nos nihil fecimus nec derelicto cibo poculo Dei ad profanas contagiones sponte properavimus perdidit nos aliena perfidia parentes sensimus parricidas illi nobis Deum patrem ecclesiam matrē abnegarunt S. Cyprian his dayes Alas what have we done that wee are thus pitifully tormented The negligence or treachery or misguided zeale of our parents hath brought all this misery upon us wee perish through others default our fathers and mothers have proved our murderers they that gave us our naturall life bereaved us of a better by depriving us of the wholesome nourishment of the Word and giving us a scorpion in stead of fish they plunged us in the mire of all sensuall pleasures when they should have dipped us in the sacred Laver of regeneration they kept us from God our Father and the Church our Mother But I will not longer insist upon this observation because as I conceive the Spirit useth this speech not so much to set an edge upon our religious care diligence as give a backe to our patience only I propose Monica the mother of S. Austin as a pattern to all parents b Aug. confes l. 1. c. 11. Illa magis satagebat ut tu mihi pater esses quam ille conturbata erat propter baptismi dilationem quoniam sempiternam salutem meam chariùs parturiebat Shee endured saith hee greater sorrow and was longer in travell for my second birth than my first and much more rejoiced at it shee continued her fervent prayers day and night with sighes of griefe and teares of love for my conversion Sometimes shee sought to winne mee by sweet allurements sometimes by sharpe threats sometimes by force of argument sometimes by vehemency of passion she dealt with many learned Bishops to conferre with me to convince me of my errors whereof one sent her away with this comfort * Confes l. 2. c. 12. Fieri non potest ut filius tantarum lachrymarum pereat It is not possible that a child should miscarry for whom the mother hath taken so much thought and shed so many teares This care of planting religion in the hearts of children as ground new broken up and watering the roots of grace in them by frequent admonitons and instructions is assigned for the chiefe cause of those extraordinary blessings which God bestowed upon Abraham for so wee read c Gen. 18.17 Shall I hide from Abraham the things that I doe seeing he shall be a mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall bee blessed in him for I know him that hee will command his sonnes and his houshold after him that they shall keepe the way of the Lord to doe justice and judgement that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which hee hath spoken of him Now because such is the wantonnesse and stubbornnesse of most children that they cannot be taught any thing without fear of the rod the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in some sort appropriated to gentle corrections such as are used by Masters and Fathers in the nurturing and teaching their scholars and children Wherein God taketh a cleane contrary course to the custome of most earthly parents for they commonly beat those children whom they affect not and lay stripes upon them often without cause or mercy but they are most indulgent unto cocker up and never leave embracing and kissing their darlings God contrariwise scourgeth that childe most whom he most delighteth in Why taketh hee any pleasure to see his dearest childrens eyes swolne with weeping their cheekes blubbered with teares their flesh torne with rods Surely no for they that are in such a plight are rather ruefull spectacles of misery than amiable objects of love how then doth he that in love which he loveth not to doe Is not that elegant speech of Saint Austine a riddle Castigat quos amat non tamen amat Castigare Hee chasteneth whom he loves yet he loves not to chasten None at all for a Surgeon launceth the flesh of his dearest friend or brother in love yet he taketh no pleasure in launcing nor would doe it at all but to prevent the festring of the sore The best answer to the former objection will be to assigne the reasons why God in justice and in love cannot
oftentimes withhold his rod from his dearest children To speake nothing of the reliques of originall sin in us after Baptisme which like cindars are still apt to set on fire Gods wrath and like an aguish matter left after a fit still cause new paroxysmes of Gods judgements ease it selfe and rest casteth us into a dead sleep of security which we are never thoroughly awaked of till God smite us on the side as the d Acts 12.7 Angel did Peter Prosperity and a sequence of temporall blessings like fatnesse in the soyle breed in the mind a kind of ranknesse which the sorrowes of afflictions eate out Moreover worldly pleasures distemper the taste of the soule so that it cannot rellish wholsome food which evill is cured by drinking deep in the cup of teares Neither seemeth it to stand with the justice of God that they who are to triumph in heaven should performe no worthy service in his battels upon the earth It is too great ambition for any Christian to desire two heavens and to attaine greater happinesse than our Lord and King who tooke his crosse in his way to his Kingdome and was crowned with thornes before hee was crowned with glory e Lact. div instit Lactantius rightly observeth Bonis brevibus mala aeterna malis brevibus bona aeterna succedunt that we are put to our choice either to passe from momentary pleasures to everlasting paines or to passe from momentary paines to everlasting pleasures either to forgoe transitory delights for eternall joyes or to buy the pleasures of sinne for a season at the deare rate of everlasting torments Were there no necessity of justice that they who are to receive a superexcellent weight of glory should beare heavie crosses in this life nor congruity of reason that they who are to be satisfied with celestiall dainties should fast here and taste of bitter sorrowes that they might better rellish their future banquet yet it were an indecorum at least that the Captaine should beare all the brunt and endure all the hardnesse and the common souldier endure nothing that the head should be crowned with thornes and the members softly arrayed that the head should be spit upon and the members have sweet oyntments poured on them Wherefore Saint Paul teacheth us that all whom God fore-knew he predestinated to be made conformable to the f Rom. 8.29 image of his Sonne who was so disfigured with buffets stripes blowes and wounds that the Prophet saith he had no g Esa 53.2 forme in him What himselfe spake of the children of Zebedee appertaines to us all Ye shall h Mat. 20.22 drink of my cup and be baptized with the baptisme wherewith I am baptized withall By baptisme he meaneth not to be dipped only in the waters of Marah but to be plunged in them over head and eares as the ancient manner of baptisme was He who was nailed to the Crosse for us will have us take up our i Mat. 10.38 crosse and follow him He that endured so much to shew his love to us will have us in some sort to answer him in love which as it is a passion so it is tryed rather by passions than by actions in which respect we must not only doe but suffer for his sake that our love may be compleat both in parts and degrees To you it is k Phil. 1.29 given saith Saint Paul not only to beleeve in him but to suffer for his sake For he l 1 Pet. 2.21 suffered for us giving us an example Should he have suffered all for us and as he tooke away all sinne so all suffering from us carrying away all crosses and tribulations with him patience should not have had her worke among other divine vertues and graces and thereby our crowne of glory should have wanted one most faire and rich jewell Wherefore God who is all goodnesse desirous to make us partakers of all the goodnesse which our nature is capable of by the misery of his distressed members giveth matter for our charity and compassion by our continuall temptations matter for faith by conflicts with heretickes and persecuters matter for constancy by the dangers of this life matter for wisedome by our manifold infirmities and frailties matter for humility by chastenings and afflictions matter for patience to worke upon Whether for these or any better reasons best knowne to himselfe it is that our heavenly Father holdeth a heavie hand sometimes over his dearest children certaine it is that few or none of them escape his stroake he chasteneth as many as hee loveth or as wee reade Hebr. 12.6 hee scourgeth every sonne whom hee receiveth therefore all that n 2 Tim. 3.12 will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer affliction Afflictions are in our way to heaven for wee must through many o Acts 14.22 afflictions enter into the Kingdome of God Before wee sing the song of Moses and the servants of God we are to swimme through a sea of burning glasse the sea is this present life swelling with pride wan with envie boyling with wrath deep with fraud and malice foming with luxuriousnesse ebbing and flowing with inconstancy which is here said to be of p Apoc. 15.2 I saw as it were a sea of glasse mingled with fire glasse to signifie the brittle nature thereof and burning to represent the furnace of adversity wherein the godly are still tryed and purified in this world And that we may not thinke that God his rod is for those only who are habes in Christ Jesus let us set before us David and Jeremy the former a man after Gods owne heart the latter a Prophet sanctified from his mothers wombe the former laid his heart a soaking in the brine of afflictions Every q Psal 6.6 night saith hee wash I my bed and water my couch with my teares and r Psal 102.9 I have eaten ashes for bread and teares have been my drinke day and night The other cryeth out in the bitternesse of his soule I am the man that have seen * Lam 3.12 15. affliction in the rod of his indignation Hee hath bent his bow and made mee a marke for his arrowes and hath filled mee with bitternesse and made mee drunke with wormwood Verily Job sipped not of the cup of trembling but tooke such a deep draught that it bereft him in a manner of all sense and put him so far besides himselfe that he curseth the very day of his birth and would have it razed out of the calendar Å¿ Job 3 4 5 6 7. Let that day be darkned let the shadow of death obscure it let it not be joyned to the dayes of the yeer nor let it come within the count of the moneths why dyed I not in my birth why dyed I not when I came out of the wombe Yee heare the loud cryes of Gods children whereby yee perceive they feele oftentimes the smart of their Fathers rod and are