prevaile and procure us admittance into his presence who onely hath immortality and can give eternall life This is the vertue and operation of this vivo in aeternum I live for evermore for though a time will come when he shall not govern and a time when he shall not intercede yet the power of his Scepter the vertue of his Intercession is carried on along with the joy and happiness of the Saints as the cause with the effect even to all eternity and shall have its operation in the midst of all our glorious ravishments and shall tune our Halellujahs our songs of Thanksgiving to this our Priest and King that lives for evermore We pass now from the duration and continuance of his life to his power He hath the keyes of Hell and of Death Habeo claves I have the keyes is a metaphoricall speech Et metaphorae feracissimae controversiarum saith Martin Luther Metaphors are a soyl wherein controversies will grow up thick and twine and plat themselves one within the other whilest every man manures them and sowes upon them what seed he please even that which may bring forth such fruit which may be most agreeable to his taste and humour Lord what a noyse have these keyes made in the world you would think they were not keyes but bells sounding terrour to some and making others more bold and merry than they should be Some have gilded them over others have even worn and filed them quite away put them into so many hands that they have left none at all For though they know not well what they are yet every man takes courage enough to handle them and let in and let out whom they please one faction turns them against another the Lutheran against the Calvinist and diabolifies him and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and superdiabolifies him The Church of Rome made it a piece of wisdome to shut us out and all that will not bow unto her as subordinate and dependent on that Church which was but idle physick which did neither hurt nor good but was as a dart sent after those who wee gone out of reach a curse denounced against those who heard it and blest themselves in it indeed a point of ridiculously affected gravity such as that Church hath many for what prejudice could come to us by her shutting us out who had already put our selves out of her Communion unlesse you will think the valour of that Souldier fit for Chronicle who cut off the head of a man who was dead before I have the keyes saith Christ and it is most necessary he should keep them in his hands for we see how dangerous it may prove to put them into the hand of a mortall man subject to passions and too often guided and commanded by them and we know what Tragedies the mistaking of the keyes have raised in the world And yet he that hath these keyes this power hath delegated also a power to his Apostles not onely to preach the Gospel but to correct those who disobey it I would not attribute too much to the Pastors of the Church in this dull and iron or rather in this wanton age where any thing where nothing is thought too much for them where all hath been preaching till all are Preachers yet I cannot but think they have more than to speak in publick which 't is thought every Christian may do They are the Ambassadours of Christ set apart on purpose in Christs stead to minister to his Church nay but to rule and govern his Church it is S. Pauls phrase and they carry about with them his commission a power delegated from him to sever the Goats from the Sheep even in this life that they may become sheep to segregate them Abstinâ—râ— Cyp. Segregare exauctorare virgâ Pastorali serire Hier. c. to abstein or withhold them to exauctorate them to throw them out to strike them with the pastorall rod to anathematize them c. this was the language of the first and purest times which by degrees fell in its esteem by some abuse of it by being drawn down from that most profitable and necessary end for which it was given which at last brought all Religion into disgrace nor indeed could it be otherwise for if upon the abuse of a thing we must straight call for the beesome to sweep it away what can stand long in its place the Temple is prophaned that must down to the ground Liberalty is abused shut up your purse and your bowels together Prayer is abused and turned into babling tack up your tongues to the roof of your mouth nay every thing in the world is abused if this argument be good the world it self should long since have had its end But such a power Christ did leave unto his Church and the neglect of it on the one side and the contempt of it on the other hath brought in that lukewarmness that indifferency amongst the professors of Christianity which if God prevent not will at last shake and throw down the profession it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these keyes too long in our hands for though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romishparty wheresoever they find the keyes mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the keyes of David which opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens were not given to the Apostles but are a regality and prerogative of Christ who onely hath power of life and death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calls himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his Scepter out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant but he hath delegated a power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable sit subjects for his power to work upon which neverthelesse will have its operation and effect either let us out ot shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darknesse and oblivion for
we suffer our selves to be over-swayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never doe what we know well enough and are otherwise enabled to Now to walk in Christ takes in all these Faculty Power Will Knowledge Love Then you see a Christian in his walk rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the Counsellor and points out This is the way walk in it and the will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the understanding bows it self and as a Queen drawes with in those inferior faculties the senses and Affections when it opens my eye to the wonders of Gods Law and shutts it up by covenant to the vanity of the world when it bounds my touch and tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing when it makes the senses as windows to let in life not death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the world and the Devill and lifting up their Heads to let the King of Glory in when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a Peace and Harmony setting our love to piety our anger to sinne our feare to Gods wrath our hope to things not seen our sorrow to what is done amisse and so frameth in us nunc modulos Temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as Saint Ambrose speakes now the even measures of Temperance now a Psalm of piety now the Threnody of a broken heart even those Songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven and God himself delight in and all these are vitually included in this one word to walk in Christ and if any of these be wanting what proffers soever we make what fancies soever we entertaine what empty conceptions soever we foster yet flesh and blood cannot raise it self on these wings of wind nor can we be more said to walk then they who have been dead long agoe For so farre is the bare knowledge of the way from advancing us in our walke that it is a thing supposed and no where under the command as it is meerly speculative and ends in it self no more then to see or feele or heare and so essentiall is this motion of walking to a Christian that in the language of the Spirit wee are never truely said to know till wee walke and that made imperfect knowledge which receives those things which concern our peace no otherwise then the eye doth colours or the eare sounds never being once named or mentioned in the Scripture but with disgrace If any man say I know him and keep not his Commandements he is a lyar 1 Joh. 2.4 so that to define our walking by Knowledge and speculation is a kind of Heresy which rather deserves an Anathema and should be drove out of the Church with more zeal and earnestness then many though grosse yet silly impertinent errors which pâ—sse abroad about the world but under that name For 1. this speculative knowledge is but a naked assent and to more and hath nothing of the will and the understanding is not an arbitrary faculty but necessarily apprehends objects in that shape and form they represent themselves nor is it deceived even when it is deceived I mean in things which concern our walk for the bill and accusation against us is not that we doe not but that we will not understand nolumus intelligere ne cogamur facere saith Aug. we wilnot know our way for no other reason but because we are most unwilling to take the paines and walk in it And therefore in every Christian peripatetique there must be something of the Seraphin and something of the Cherubin there must be heat as well as light love as well as knowledge for love is active and will pace on Hugo de Sancto vict where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze Amor intrat ubi cognitio foris stat love is active and will make a battery and forcible entrance and take the Kingdom of heaven by violence whilst Speculation stands without and looks upon it as in a Map What talke we of knowledge and speculation It is but a look a cast of the mindes eye and no more and doth but place us as God did Moses once upon mount Nebo to see that spirituall Canaan which we shall never enjoy and then what comfort is it to know what Justification is and to want that hand of a quick and active faith which alone can lay hold on Christ to talke of Election and never make it sure to dispute of Paradice and have no title to it to speak of nothing more then Heaven and be an heire of Damnation And then what a fruitlesse mock-knowledge is that which sets God a walking whilst we sleep and dreame makes the Master of the Vineyard work and sweat and stands idle it self all the day long which hath a full view of what God hath done before all Time and no power at all to move us to do any thing in this our day when we are well seen in the Decrees of God and little move in our own Duties when we can follow God in all his ways and tell how he worketh in us and are afraid of that feare and trembling with which we should work out our Salvation can speak largely of the Power of Gods Grace and resist it of perseverance and fall more then seven times a day This knowledge I say is but a bare assent and so far from being enjoyn'd us that as the case now stands ignorance were the safer choice and rather then thus to know him we may say with the Apostle Let him that is ignorant 1 Cer. 14.38 be ignorant still For in the second place as we use it it workes in us at the most but a weake purpose â—f minde a faint velleity a forc'd involuntary approbation which we would shake off if we could as we do a friend which speaks what we would not hear and calls that poyson which is as Honey to our tast For who can see such sights and not in some degree be taken with them Who can look upon the Temple and not ask what Buildings are these who can see the way to life and not approve it but you know I may purpose to rise and yet fold my hands to sleep I may commend the way and not walke in it Nay how often do we pray Give us ever of this Bread of life and yet labour most for this bread that perisheth which we at once revile and embrace and speak evill of it because we love it when heaven is but as a Picture which we look upon and wonder and refuse and hath no better place of reception then that common Inne of all wild and loose imaginations the fancy Christ is the way it is in every mans Creed and if this would make us walkers what a multitude of Sectaries what a Herd of Epicures what an assembly of Atheists what a congregation of fools I had almost said what a Legion of Devills might goe under that
Beatitude Blessed Poverty Matth. 5. blessed mourning blessed persecution blessedness set upon these as a Crown or as rich Embroyderie upon Sackcloth or some courser stuff And thus you see the Church is not cannot be exempt from Persecution if either we consider the Quality of the Persons themselves or the Nature and constitution of the Church or the Providence and Wisdome and Mercy of God As it was then So is it now In Abrahams Family Ismael mocks and persecutes Isaac In the World the Synagogue persecutes the Church and in the Church one Christian persecutes another It was so it is so and it will be so to the end of the World Let us now look back upon this dreadfull blessed sight and see what Advantage we can worke what light we can strike out of this cloud of blood to direct strengthen us in this our Warfare That we may be Faithfull unto Death and so receive the Crown of Life And first knowing these Terrors as the Apostle speaks seeing Persecution entaild as it were upon the Church seeing a kind of Providence and Necessity that it should be so Let us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Peter speaks Think it Strange or be amazed at the fiery Tryall not be dismay'd when we see that befall the Church which befalls the Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the world when we see the face of the Church gather blacknesse and not to shine in that Beauty in which formerly we beheld her For what strange-thing is it that Ismael should mock Isaac that a serpent should bite or a Lion roar that the world should be the world or the Church the Church For the Church so far as she is visible in respect of its visibility and outward form is as subject to change as any other thing that is seen as those things which we use to say are but the balls of fortune to play with for those things of the Church which are seen are but temporal those which are eternal are not seen 2 Cor. 4. last v the fashion of the world passeth away saith Saint Paul and so doth the fashion of the Church and when the scene is changed it comes forth with another face and speaks like a servant that spoke like a Queen in brief it is turnd about on the wheel of change subject to the same stormes to the same injuries to the same craft and violence which the Philosopher sayes make that alteration in States changes them not into those which may bear some faint resemblance of them but into that which is most unlike and contrary to them sets up that in their place leaving them lost and labouring under the expectation of another change Thus it is and ever was and ever shall be with the Church in respect of outward profession which is the face of the Church nor hath the seed of the woman so bruised the Serpents head but that he still bites at the heel Behold the Children of Israel in the wildernesse sometimes in straits and anon in larger wayes sometimes sighting Exod. 17. sometimes resting as at mount Sinai sometimes going forward and sometimes turning backward sometimes on the mountains and sometimes in the vallies sometimes in places of sweetnesse as Mithkah and sometimes in places of bitternesse as Marah Behold them in a more setled condition when their Church had Kings for her Nursing-fathers how did Idolatry follow Religion at the heel and supplant it and of all their kings how few of them were not Idolaters how many professors were there when Eliah the great Prophet could see but one and how can that have alwayes the same countenance which is under the power and wills of mortal men which change so oft sometimes in the same man but are never long the same in many amongst whom one is so unlike the other that he will not suffer that to stand long which a former hand hath set up but will model the Church as he please and of those who look upon it with an eye of distast will leave so few and under such a cloud that they shall be scarce visible Not to speak of former times of those seven Golden candlesticks which are now removed out of their place nor of those many alterations in after ages but to come home to our selves our reformed Religion cannot boast of many more years then make up the age of a man That six yeers light of the Gospel in the dayes of Edward the Saint was soon overspread and darkned with a cloud of blood in Queen Maries reign since when we willing to beleeve for we made our boast of it that it shined out in beauty to these present times which have thought fit to reform the Reformation it self and now for the glory of it for its order and Discipline which is the face of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it to be seen we may say of it as Job doth of the frailty of man It dieth it wasteth it giveth up the ghost and where is it talk what we will of perpetuity of visibility of outward profession Quod cuiquam accidere potest cuivis potest what we have seen done to one Church may certainly be done to another may be done to all what was done in Asia may be done in Europ and if the candlestick be removed out of one it may be removed out of any place nor is that Church which calls her self the mother and Queen of the rest secure from violence but may be driven from her seat and pomp though she be bold to tell the world that the Gatesof Hell shall not prevail against her Religion 't is true is as mount Sion which cannot be moved but standeth sast for ever no sword no power can divide me from it nor force it out of my embraces this hath its protection its salaogardium from Omnipotency but the outward profession of it the form and manner in which we professe it in a word that face of the Church which is visible is as subject to change as all those things are which are under the Moon All I shall say is Nolite mirari wonder not at it for whatsoever changes and alterations there be in the outward profession of Religion Religion and the Church of Christ is still the same the same in her nakednesse and poverty which she had in her cloth of wrought Gold and all her Embroyderie Marvel not then for this admiration is the childe of ignorance an exhalation from the flesh and hath more in it of Ismael then of Isaac The third Inference And that we may not think it strange let us in the next place have a right judgement in all things and not set up the Church in our fancy and shape her out by the state and pomp of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mindes Rom. 12.2 For by looking to stedfastly on the world we carry the image of it about with us whithersoever we go and make
by changing the preposition In into Cum God is with every place Others conclude that the essence of God is most properly in heaven others have shut him up there and excluded his presence from this lower world The heaven they will tell you is his Throne but then is not the earth also his footstoole why may he not then be in earth as well as in heaven For the Argument is the very same nor must we conceive of God as we do of great Potentates whom we do not entertain in a Cottage but in a Palace nor can his Majesty gather soyl by intermingling it self with the things of the earth a most carnall conceit for the very Poet will tell us Tangere tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res That nothing but a body can be touch'd much lesse defiled We cannot think the Angel impaired his beauty by being in prison with Peter or in the den with Daniel unlesse we will say he was scorch't in the furnace when the three men did not so much as smell of the fire The heavens themselves are unclean in his sight saith Job c. 15. yet he remains saith the Father pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a most wonderfull exuberance beyond all Hyperbole No pitch can defile him no sinne pollute him No deformity on earth can sully his beauty Our cursed oathes do even blast his name yet his name is the same the Holy of Holyes his eyes beheld us weltring in our blood yet they are ten thousand times brighter then the sunne and therefore he is truly called Actus primus an act or essence as free from contagion as composition We take perfection from him he receives no imperfection from us he sits in heaven yet his Majesty is not increased he walks on the earth yet his Majesty is not diminished he rides on the wings of the wind yet his Majesty and glory is still the same He is in darknesse makes darknesse a Pavillion round about him yet is light it self he is in our corrupt hearts yet is purity it self Nusquam est ubique est he is no where because no place can contain him he is every where because no body no place no substance whatsoever can exclude him And as he is present with us and about our paths so he sees and knows every motion and action of ours Our inclinations our thoughts when they are risen whilest they were arising before there was either object or opportunity to raise them or any temptation to draw them up He sees our habits our vices and virtues before we ventured on that action which did lead the way and begin them I know him saith God of Abraham Gen. 18.19 and that he will do Justice and Judgement He knows our dispositions And found some good thing in Jeroboams child 1 Kings 14.13 He sees all our actions long before they are done our thoughts before they are conceived our deliberations before we ask counsel and our counsels before they are fixt Of what large extent were many of the prophesies how many yeares how many crosse actions how many contingencies what numberlesse swarms of thoughts inconsistent and not understood and yet concurrent and introductory to that which was foretold came between the prophesie and the fullfilling of it yet God saw through all these and saw all these and how they were working to that end of which he was pleased to give the prophets a sight The prophet Daniel foretells the succession of the Monarchies the division of Alexanders kingdomes the ruine of the Jews and that so plainly that Prophyry a great enemy to the Christians to disgrace and put it off said That it was a discourse much like Lycophrons Cassandra written after the things were done and so publisht to caiol and deceive the people who are soon pleased so soon taken with a cheat Malè nôrunt Deum qui non putant illum posse quod non putant Tert. de Resurr Carn c. 38. saith Tertullian They have but little knowledge of God who do not think that he can do yea and doth know and see what they cannot think For he that made the eye shall not he see He that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know Psal 94.9,10 He that fashioneth the heart shall not he consider all our works Psal 33.15 He sees us when we fall down before him he sees us when we harden our faces and he sees us in our teares and he sees us in our blood and yet he remaines yesterday and to day and the same for ever For as it is an argument of his infinite perfection to understand all things so is it of his Judiciary and infinite power to see and know and observe those motions those offers those inclinations which are against his Law and by which we are said to fight against him I may know Adultery and yet be chast I may see malice and debate in the City and yet be peaceable I may heare blasphemy and yet tremble at Gods name For sinne doth not pollute as it is in the understanding but in the will not as it is known but as it is embraced and not by any physicall but a morall contagion which first infects the will alone If the bare knowledge of evil could pollute then he that makes himself an Eunuch for the kingdome of heaven may be an Adulterer and the Judge that sits to condemn the sinne may be a Parricide God then may be present every where and this is the poorest exception that can be made against it I have waved you see that more subtile and intricate disputes and there be too many for men are never weary of doing nothing that which hath been spoken is as plain as necessary and no man can take it as a thing out of his sphere and reach Let us passe to that which we proposed in the second place and for which we proposed this of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God For the consideration of this is the best preservative of Mercy and Pillar to uphold Justice Septum Legis a fence a hedge set about the Law that no unclean beast be so bold to break in and come so neer as to touch it The Prophet David makes this use of it Psal 139.7 Quò ibo à spiritu whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I fly from thy presence If I go into heaven thou art there If I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shalt thou find me out Now nothing can be more forcible to make us walk reverently and humbly with our God then a firm perswasion that God walks with us that he sees and observes us that whatever we do or think lyes open to the view and survey of that all-seeing eye For secresie is the nurse of sinne that is done often which is done without witnesse and done with more delight in
way and through all the surges of this present world brings us to the presence of God who is truth is self a truth which leads us to our Originall to the Rock out of which we were hewen and brings us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself an Art to cast down all Babells all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our soules powre them out upon variety of unlawfull objects which deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Time 1.10 for whatsoever the prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of immortality was but darknesse in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth luxury place on wealth and riches what horror on nakednesse and poverty How doth a jewell glitter in my eyes and what a slurr is there upon virtue what Glory doth the pomp of the world present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath righteousnesse How is God thrust out and every Idol every vanity made a God but the truth here which the spirit teacheth discovers all pulls off the vayle shewes us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived shewes us vanity in riches folly in honour death and destruction in the pomp of this world makes poverty a blessing and misery happinesse and death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and man where he should be at his footstoole bowing before him which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a truth of power to unite us to our God that brings with it the knowledge of Christ the wisdome of God which presents those precepts and doctrines which lead to happinesse a truth that goes along with us in all our wayes waits on us on our bed of sicknesse leaves us not at our death but followes us and will rise again with us unto judgement and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate For if we make it our friend here it shall then look lovely on us and speak good things for us but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this truth to them that love it but to those who will not learne shall be Tribulation and anguish the Sun turn'd into Bloud the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the Trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of the heart acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this truth which the spirit teacheth according saith Saint Paul to my Gospel Rom. 2.16 The large extent of this lesson This is the lesson The spirit teacheth truth let us now see the extent of it which is large and universall for the spirit doth not teach us by halves doth not teach some truths and conceal others but teacheth all truth makes his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous and full of saving knowledge For saving knowledge is all indeed that truth which brings me to my end is all and there is nothing more to be known I desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 here his desire hath a Non ultra this truth is all this joyns heaven and earth together God and man mortality and immortality misery and happiness in one drawes us neer unto God and makes us one with him This is the Spirits lesson Commentum Divinitatis the invention of the divine Spirit as faith is called the gift of God not onely because it is given to every believer and too many are too willing to stay till it be given but because this spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith And as he first found it out so he teacheth it and leaves out nothing not a tittle not an Iota which may serve to compleat perfect this Divine Science In the book of God are all our members written All the members yea and all the faculties of our soul and in his Gospel his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off which limit the understanding to the knowledg of God which bind the will to obedience and moderate confine our Affections level our hope fix our joy stint our sorrow which frame our speech compose our gesture fashion our Apparel set and methodize our outward behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious and what should I more say for the time would faile me to mention them all In a word then this truth which the spirit teacheth is fitted to the whole man fitted to every member of the body to every faculty of the soule fitted to us in every condition in every relation it will reign with thee it will serve with thee it will manage thy riches it will comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee and sit down with thee on the dunghill it will pray with thee it will fast with thee it will labour with thee it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee it will govern a Church it will order thy Family it will raise a kingdome within thee it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abrahams bosome and set a crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more or what need more than that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to blessednesse and there is but one Truth and that is it which the Spirit teacheth and this runs the whole compass of it directs us not onely ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not onely to that which is the end but to the means to every step and passage and approch to every help and advantage towards it and so unites us to this one God gives us right to this one Heaven and brings us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this truth which the spirit hath plainly taught 't is true but then for the most part they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make cases sometimes raised by weakness sometimes by wilfulness sometimes even by sin it self which
And first Every particular sinne is of a monstrous aspect being committed not onely against the Law written but against the Law of Nature which did then Characterise the soule when the soule did first enforme the Body for though we call those horrid sinnes unnaturall which Saint Paul speaks against in the 1. to the romanes yet in true estimation every sin is so being against our very Reason which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 34. the very first Law written in our hearts saith Naz. for sin is an unreasonable Thing nor can it desend it self by discourse or argument If Heaven were to be bought with sin it were no Purchase for by every evill work I forfeit not onely my Christianity but my manhood I am robb'd of my chiefest Jewel and I my self am the Theef Who would buy eternity with sinne who would buy Immortallity upon such loathed Termes If Christ should have promis'd Heaven upon condition of a wicked life who would have beleeved there had been either Christ or Heaven And therefore it is laid as an imputation upon man Solum hoc animal Naturae fines transgreditur no Creature breaks the bounds and limits which Nature hath set but Man and there is much of Truth in it man when he sinnes is more unbounded and irregular then a Beast For a Beast follows the conduct of his naturall Appetite but man leaves his Reason behind which should be more powerful and is as naturall to him as his sense Man saith the prophet David that understands not is like to the Beasts that perish and Man that is like to a Beast is worse then he No Fox to Herod no Goat to the Wanton no Tyger to the Murderer no Wolfe to the Oppressor no Horse-leech to the Covetous for Beasts follow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that instinct of Nature by which they are carried to the Object but man makes Reason which should come in to rescue him from sin an Instrument of Evill so that his Reason which was made as a help as his God on Earth serves onely to make him more unreasonable Consider then though it be but one sinne yet so farre it makes thee like unto a Beast nay worse then any though it be one yet it hath a monstrous aspect and then Turne from it Secondly though it be but one yet it is very fruitful and may beget another nay multiply it self into a numerous issue into as many sins as there be haires of thy head for as it is truly said omne verum omni vero consonat there is a kind of agreement and harmony in truthes and the devout School-man tells us that the whole Scripture is but one copulative proposition because the precepts therein contained are many and yet one many in regard of the diversity of those works that perfect them but yet one in respect of that root of charity which begins them so peccatum multiplex unum there is a kinde of dependencie between sins and a growth in wickednesse one drawing and deriving poyson from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius speaks of heresies Epiphan Heres Bastlid as the Asp doth from the Viper which being set in opposition to any particular vertue creepeth on and multiplies and gathers strength to the endangering of all And sin may propagate it self first as an efficient cause Removens prohibens weaking the power of grace dimming the light of the Gospel setting us at a greater distance from the brightnesse of it making us more venturous taking off our blush of modestty which should restrain us one evil act may dispose us to commit the like and that may bring on a thousand Secondly as a material cause one sin may prepare matter for another thy covertousnesse beget debate debate enrage thee more and that not end but in murder Last of all as the final cause thou mayest commit theft for fornication and fornication for theft that thou mayest continue a Tyrant be more a Tyrant that thou mayest uphold thy oppression oppresse more that thou mayest walk on in safety walk on in the blood of the innocent that thou mayest be what thou art be worse then thou art be worse and worse till thou art no more Ambition leads Absolon to conspiracy conspiracy to open Rebellion Rebellion to his Fathers Concubines at last to the Oak where he hung with three darts in his side For sin saith Basil like unto a stone that is cast into the water multiplies it self by infinite Gyres and Circles The sins of our youth hasten us to the sins of our age an the sins of our age look back upon the follies of our youth pride feathers my ambition and ambition swells my pride gluttony is a pander to my lust and my lust a steward to my gluttony Sins seldom end where they begin but run on till they be infinite and innumerable And now this unhappy fruitfulness of sin may be a strong motive to make me run away from every sin and fear one evil spirit as that which may bring in a Legion Could I think that when I tell a lie I am in a disposition to betray a kingdom could I imagine that when I slander my Neighbour I am in an aptitude to blaspheme God could I see luxurie in gluttony and incest in luxurie strife in covetousness and in strife murder in idleness theft and in theft sacriledge I should then Turn from every evil way and at the sight of any one sin with fear and trembling cry out behold a troop cometh But in the Third place if neither the monstrosity of sin nor the fruitfulnesse of sin moves us yet the guilt it brings along with it and the obligation to punishment may deter us For sin must needs then be terrible when she comes with a whip in her hand indeed she is never without one if we could see it and all those heavy judgments which have fallen upon us and prest us well-neer to nothing we may impute to what we please to the madnesse of the people to the craft and covetousnesse of some and the improvidence of others but t was sin that called them down and for ought we know Josh 7.2 Sam. the last c. but one For one sin as of Achan all Israel may be punisht for one sin as of David threescore and ten thousand may fall by the plague For Jonahs disobedience a Tempest may be raised upon all the Marriners in the ship and what stronger winde can there blow then this to drive us every one out of every evil way how should this consideration leave a sting behinde it and affect hand startle us It may be my sacriledge may the Church-robber It may be my luxury may the wanton It may be my bold irreverence in the House of God may the prophane man say whatsoever sin it is it may be mine which hath wrought this desolation on the earth and then what an Achan what a Jonah what a Murderer am I I
ever the Patient and the son of the Bond-woman he that is born after the flesh layes on sure strokes unus venter sed non unus animus saith Aust as the two Twins strove in the womb of Rebeckah so these two the Good and the Evill strive in the World the one by silence the other by noise the one by being what he is the other by being Angry that he is so the one by his life the other by his Sword Ecclus 2.1 Art thou borne of the Spirit a true member of Christ then prepare thy self for temptation as the sonne of Syrach speaks for when thou hast put on These Graces That make thee one thou hast with them put on also a Crowne of Thornes if thou be an Isaac thou shalt finde an Imsael 3. From the Nature of the true Church Thus then by looking on the persons in the Text you may plainly see the face and condition of the Church and that no priviledge she hath can exempt her from persecution which will yet more plainly appeare from the very Nature and constitution of the Church which is best seen in her Blood when she is militant which is more full and expressive then any other representation any other Title she hath For doe we say she is visible the best and truest parts of her are not so wee see the Professour but not the Saint all we can challenge is but a charitable guesse and conjecture for the Lord onely knoweth who are his 1 Tim. 2.19 Doe we call her Catholick and Universall Christi nomen regnum ubique porrigitur omnibus Christus aequalis omnibus rex omnibus Judex Omnibus Deus Dominus est Tert. adv Judaeos c. 7. she is so when her Number is but small she was so when Christ built her as a House upon a rock open to all and ready to receive them though not many rich not many Noble entred shall we give her that high and proud title of Infallible Although she be so in those Doctrines without which she cannot be a Church yet in many Things we erre all But when we draw her in her own blood when we call her Militant we bring her in wrestling not onely against flesh and blood against men but against Principalities and all those Powers of Darkness then we shew her as she is To say she is the Body of Christ filled with him who filleth all things is to set her up as a marke for the World and the Devill to shoot at and this To set her up as a marke is to build her up into a Church so that Though persecution comes forth in severall shapes with more or less Terror yet to say the Church is ever free from all is as full of Absurdity as to say A man may live without a soul But now take it with all its Horror accompanied with whips and Scorpions with fire and sword yet is it so farre from the destroying the true Church That it rather establishes enlarges and Adorns her For the Church of Christ and the Kingdomes of the Earth are not of the same making and Constitution have not the same soule and Spirit to animate them These may seem to be built upon Aire they are so soon thrown down This is rais'd upon a Holy Hill These have a weake and fraile hand to set them up and as weak a hand may cast them downe This is the work of Omnipotency which fences it about and secures it from Death and Hell These depend upon the Opinions upon the affections upon the lusts of men which change oftner then the wind upon the breath of that Monster the Multitude which is any thing and which is nothing which is it knows not what and never agrees with it self is never one but in a Tempest in Tumult and Sedition This is founded upon the eternall Decree and will of GOD and upon Immutability it self and shall stand fast for ever These when they are in their height and glory are under uncertainty and chance The Church under the wing and shadow of that Providence which can neither erre nor miscarry but worketh mightily and irrisistibly to its end His evertendis una dies Hora momentum sufficit These are long a raysing and are blowne downe in a moment but this is as everlasting as his love that built it in a word these are worne out by Time This is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most Glorious when Time shail be no more I know well Persecution appears to us as a Fury sent from Hell and every Haire every Threat is a Snake that Hisseth at us but 't is our sensuality and Cowardize that whips us yet the common consent of all men hath given her a fairer shape and they that run from her doe preferre the suffering part and as our Saviour said It is more blessed to Give then to Receive so is it vox Populi The voice of the People though they practice it not It is better to suffer then to Oppresse even they who have the sword in their Hand and breath nothing but Terror and Death will rage yet more if you say They persecute you and either magnify their Cruelty with the name of Justice or else seek to perswade the world that they and they alone suffer Persecution Every man flies persecution and every man is willing to owne it The Arrians complained of the cruelty of the Orthodox and the Orthodox of the fury of the Arrians vos dicitis pati persecutionem saith Austin to the Manichees August ep 48. et 68. you say you suffer but our Houses are laid waste by you you say you suffer but your Armed men put out our eyes you say you suffer but we fall by the sword what you doe to us you will not impute to your selves but what you doe to your selves you impute to us Thus it was then And how doe we look back upon the Marian daies as if the Bottomless Pit did never smoake but then and are not they of the Romish party as loud in their Complaints as if the Devill were never let loose till now we bring forth our Martyrs with a Faggot on their shoulder and they theirs with a Tiburne Tippet as Father Latimer calls it and both glory in Persecution We see then every party claimes a Title to it and counts it an Honor to be placed in the Number of those that suffer and indeed Floridi Martyres dicuntur à Cypriano ep 20 21. Persecution is the Honour the prosperity the flourishing Condition of the Church for it brings her out of the Shadow into the Sunne makes her indeed Vifible puts her to her whole Armour to her whole strength to the whole substance of her Faith That shee may suffer and Conquer which indeed is to be a Church Nazianzen I remember calls it the Mystery of Persecution Sacramentum sanguinis the Sacrament and Mystery of blood a visible signe of Invisible Grace where
one thing is seen and another Thing done where the Christian suffers and Rejoyces is east downe and promoted falls by the sword to rise to Eternity where Glory lies hid in Disgrace Advantage in losse Increase in Diminution and life in Death Ecclesia in attonito a Church shining in the midst of all the blackness and darkness and Terrors of the world For again As when Common-wealths are in their best estate and flourish every man fits under his own Vine and Figtree every one walkes in his owne Calling The Schollar studies the Merchant Trafficks the Tradesman sells The Husbandman Tills and Ploughs the Ground so the time of persecution to the True Church to that Body which is made up of those who are borne after the spirit is a Day of Salvation 1 Tim. 6.22 a Day to work in her Calling for hereunto you were called saith the Apostle where she sits under the shadow of Gods wings where she studies patience and Christian Resolution where she ploughs up the Fallow ground and sowes the seeds of Righteousnesse where she Trafficks for the rich Pearle and buyes it with her blood where every Member Acts in its proper place by the virtue and to the Honour of the Head But this you may say is True if we take the Church as Invisible made up of sheep onely as a Collection of Saints To speak truly Charity builds up no other Church for all she beholds are either so or in a possibility of having that Honor though the Eye of Faith can see but a small number to make up that Body But take the Church under what Notion you please yet it will be easy to observe that Persecution may enlarge her Territories Increase her number and make her more visible then she was when the weather was faire and no cloud or Darkness hung over her that when her branches were lopt off she spread the more That when her members were dispers'd there were more gathered to her when they were drove about the world they carried that sweet smelling favour about them which drew in multitudes to follow them That in their flight they begat many Children unto Christ insomuch Crudelitas vestra illecebra est Sectae Tert. Ap. c. L. saith Saint Hierom That una vox totius mundi Christus Christ was become the Language of the whole world Plures efficimur quoties metimur when Christians are drove about the world and when they are drove out of the World they multiply so that we may conclude That so farre are all the Graces and beauty of the Church from raising any Priviledge to exempt her from persecution that they are rather Occasions and Provocations to raise one and make Persecution it self a Priviledge For in the last place As it was then so is it now And he doth not say It may be so or It is by Chance but Ita est so it is by the Providence of God Providentia ratio ordinis rerum ad Fiem Aquin. which consists and is seen in the well Ordering and bringing of every Motion and Action of man to a right End which commonly runnes in a contrary Course to that which Flesh and blood Humane Infirmity would find out Eternity and mortality Majesty and Dust and Ashes wisedome and Ignorance steere not the same course nor are they bound to the same point My wayes are not your wayes Is 55.8 nor my thoughts yours saith God by his Prophet to a foolish Nation who in extremity of folly would be wiser then God Mine are not as yours not such uncertaine such vaine such contradictory and deceitfull Thoughts but as farre removed from yours as Heaven is from the Earth And as he hath made the Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil as a vaile of his Divine Majesty so in all his proceedings and Operations upon man Deus tum maximè magnus cum homini pusiltus tum maximè optimus cum homini non bonus Tert. l. 2. adv Marcion c. 2. he is Deus sub velo a God under a vaile Hidden but yet seene In a dark Character but read not toucht but felt Mercifull when he seems angry Just when in outward appearance he favours Oppression then shadowing us under his wing when we think he Thunders against us The same yesterday in the calme and to day in the storme then raising his Church as high as Heaven when we tremble and imagine he hath opened the Gates of Hell to devour her whilst we stand at distance and gaze and wonder at his Counsells and dispositions and understand them not Were flesh and blood to build a Church we should draw our lines out in a pleasant place It should not be as a House subject to the winds and weather but some house of pleasure a Seraglio a Royall Palace It should not be in Egypt or Babylon but in the Fortunate Ilands or in Paradise Our Lily should be set farre enough from the Thornes For we would goe to Heaven without any Ifs or And 's without any buts or difficulties we would be eased but not weary we would be saved but not beleeve or beleeve but not suffer we would heare God but not in the Whirlwind Enter into his Kingdome but not with Tribulation That is would have God neither provident nor Just nor Wise that is which is a sad Interpretation would have no God at all But Gods method is best and is drawne out by his manifold Wisedome Eph. 3.10 nor could it possibly be otherwise Honorem operis fructus excusat For that is Method and Order with him which we take to be confusion and that which we call persecution is his Art his way of making of Saints de perverso auxiliatur raysing us by those evills Tertul. Scorpiac c. 5. we labour under and as in his manifold Wisedome he redeemed mankind so the manner and method of working out our Salvation is from the same Wisedome and Providence which as it set an Oportet upon Christ to suffer for us so it set an Oportet upon the Church to have a Fellowship in his Sufferings Act. 14.22 We must through many Afflictions be consecrated be made perfect and so enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Nor Indeed Take us as we are polluted and uncleane could we enter any other way not enter into the New Heavens but purg'd and refin'd and transform'd by these into a new Creature Cured by diseases heal'd by Bruises rais'd by our Fall and made more spirituall by the contradiction of those who are borne after the flesh more Isaacs then before for the many Ismaels so that it is not onely agreeable to the wisedome of God but convenient to the weaknesse of man God could not save us we could not be saved any other way Oportet we must go this way Nay Datum est Philip. 1.29 it is a Gift It is given not onely to beleeve but to suffer a Gift for which heaven it self is Given and it is a
and floods of this present world If then thou wilt stand up against Israel be sure to be an Isaac a childe of promise and an heir to the faith of Abraham if thou wilt be secure from the flesh be renewed in the spirit if thou wilt be fit to take up the crosse first crucifie thy self thy lusts and affections if thou wilt be prepared against persecution first raise one in thy own brest smother every idle thought silence every loud desire check and correct thy wanton sancy beat down every thing that stands in opposition to the truth Be thus dead unto thy self and then neither death nor life neither fear of death nor hope of life shall be ever able to separate thee from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus This is all the preparation that is required which every one that is born after the spirit doth make and there needs no more for he that is thus fitted to follow Christ in the regeneration against the Ismaelites of this world is well qualified and will not be afraid to meet him in the clouds and in the air when he shall come in terrour to judge both the quick and the dead Conclus And now to conclude what sayes the Scripture Cast out the bond-woman and her son for the son of the bond-woman shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman 'T is true Ismael was cast out into the wildernesse of Beersheba Gen. 21.14 and the Iew is cast out ejectus saith Tert. coeli et soli extorris cast out of Jerusalem scattered and dispersed over the face of the earth and made a proverb of obstinate impiety Tertul adv Judaeos c. 13. Apolog. 21. so that when we call a man a Jew putamus sufficere convitium we think we have railed loud enough But now how shall the Church cast out those of her own bowels of her house and family for such enemies she may have which hang upon her breasts called by the same word sealed with the same Sacraments and challenging a part in the same common salvation To cast out is an act of violence and the true Church evermore hath the suffering part but yet she may cast them out and that with violence but then it is with the same violence we take the kingdom of Heaven a violence upon our selves 1. By laying our selves prostrate by the vehemency of our devotion by our frequent prayers that God would either melt their hearts or shorten their hands either bring them into the right way or strike off their chariot wheels fot this kinde of spirit these malignant spirits cannot be cast out but by prayer and fasting which is energeticall and prevalent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Euseb a most invincible and irresistible Thing placing us under the wing of God far above all principalities and powers above all the flatteries and terrours of the world there with Steven pleading for Saul the persecutor till he become Paul the Apostle which is in effect to cast out the persecution it self Secondly by our patience and long suffering For patience worketh more miracles then power it giveth us those goods which our enemies take from us it makes dishonour glorious it dulleth the edge of the sword it cooleth the flames of fire it wearieth cruelty shames the Devil and like a wise Captain turns the Ordnance upon the face of the enemy Rom. 5.3 Patience is the proper effect of faith for if we beleeve him who hath told us our condition what will we not suffer for his sake and it is omnipotent Philip. 4.13 by the virtue of which Saint Paul professes he could do and suffer all things It may seem strange indeed that a mortal fraile man should be omnipotent and do all things yet it is most evidently true so true that we cannot denie it unlesse we denie the faith for if the eye of our faith were as clear as the reward is Glorious it would neither dazle at the smile and beauty of a flattering nor at the terrour of a black temptation but pleasure would be vanity and persecution a crown So that you see to sit still and do nothing to possesse our souls with patience and to suffer all things is to cast them out 3. By our innocency of life and sincerity of conversation and thus we shall not onely cast them out but persecute them as righteous Lot did the men of Sodom this is to keep our selves to mount Sion to that Jerusalem which is above to defend our priority our primogeniture our Inheritance this is to be born after the spirit Hom. 8.10 There is saith Austa Just persecutio there is a just and praiseworthy persecution for Isaac to be Heire was a persecution to Ismael for the Church to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles Christ being the head corner stone was a persecution to the Jews for no sooner had Paul mention'd his sending to the Gentiles but they fling off their cloathes and fling dust in the aire and cry Acts 22.23 Judaeorum Synagogae fontes persecutionum Tertul. Scorp c. 10. Away with such a fellow from the Earth and nothing more odious to a Jew to this Day then a Christian The holy and strict conversation of the just is a persecution to the wicked castigat qui dissentit hee that walkes not by our Rule Wisd 2.12 but draws out his Religion by another is as a Thorne in our eyes and a whip in our sides and doth not instruct but controll and punish us Doe they not speake it in plaine words Contrarius est he is contrary to our Doings it grieves and vexes us to look upon him He will not digge with us in the Mine for Wealth he will not wallow with us in Pleasure nor climbe with us to Honor he will not cast in his Lot with us to help to advance our purposes to their End And let us thus persecute them with our Silence with our Patience with our Innocency even persecute those Ismaelites no other way but this by being Isaacs The fourth and last Lastly Psal 55.22 we may cast them out by Casting our Burden on the Lord by putting our cause into his Hands who best can plead it by citing our Persecuters before his Tribunall who is the Righteous Judge If we thus cast it upon him we need no other Umpire no other Revenger If it be a loss he can restore it if an injury he can returne it if grief he can heale it if disgrace he can wipe it off and will certainly doe it if we so cast it upon him as to trust in him alone the full perswasion of Gods Power being that which awaketh him as one out of sleep puts him to cloth himself with his Majesty sets his power a working to bring mighty Things to passe and make himself Glorious by the delivery of his People Conclus To shut up all and Conclude Thus if we cast our burden upon him
to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and wil nay must come again either with a reward for those who bow to his Scepter or vengeance to be poured forth upon their heads who contemn his laws and think neither of him nor the right hand of God and will not have him reign over them though they call him their king Let us a little further consider the Nature and quality of his Dominon that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little neerer to us and we may conceive of him as not onely sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell the daughter of Sion behold thy king coming to thee meek on a colt Math. 2.51 the foal of an Asse this was his first coming in great humility and this and his retinue that his Kingdom was not of this world Philip. 2.8,9 He humbled himself saith Saint Paul wherfore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name given him power dignity and honour and made him our Lord and King For his Prophetical office which he exercised in the land of Judea was in a manner and act and effect of his kingly Office by which he sits as Lord in the Throne of Majesty for by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world as a king and Lord he makes his Laws and as a Prophet he published them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediates and intercedes for his Church and Governs his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he Governs us the vertue and power the compasse and duration of his Dominon and we shall finde it to be of a higher and more excellent Nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazles at that he is The Lord of lords and King of kings And first the difference between his Dominion and the Kingdomes of the world is seen not onely in the Authors but the Laws themselves for the Laws of men are enacted many times nec quid nec quare and no reason can be given why they are enacted good reason there is why there should be Laws made against them and they abolished some written in blood too rigid and cruel some in water ready to vanish many of them but the results and dictates of mens lusts and wilde affections made not to safeguard any State but their own But his are pure and undefiled exact and perfect such as tend to perfection to the good of his Subjects and will make them like unto this Lord heires together with him of eternity of blisse and as the reward is eternal so are they unchangeable the same to day and to the end of the world not like the Laws of the Heathen which were raised with one breath and pull'd down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a second Licurgi leges emendatae saith Tert. Lycurgus his Lawes were so imperfect so ill fitting the Common-wealth that they were brought under the hammer and the file to be beat out and fashioned in another form more proportionable to that body for which they were made Tert. Apol. c. 4. were corrected by the Lacedemonians which undervaluing of his wisdom did so unman him that he would be a man no longer but starved himself to death Vetus et squallens sylva legum edictorum securibus Truncata the whole wood of the old Laws now sullied and weakned with age were cut down by the edicts and rescripts of after Emperors at the very root as with an axe all of them are in the body of time and worn out with it either fail of themselves or else are cast aside humane Laws being but as shadows cast from men in power and when they fall to the ground lost with them no more to be seen nec uno statu consistunt sed ut coeli facies et maris ità rerum et fortunae tempestatibus variantur Gel. Noct. Att. l. 20. nor do they remain in one state but alter as the face of the Heavens and the Sea now smile anon frown now a calm and by and by a tempest now the strong man sayes do this anon a stronger then he comes and I forfeit my head if I do it they are too oft written with the point of the sword and then the character follows the hand that beares it Thus it is with the Laws of men but the Laws of this our Lord and Law-giver can no more change then he that made them no bribe can buy out their power no dispensations wound them no power can disanul them Dispensationes vulnera legum but they are the same and of the same countenance they moult not a feather they alter not in one circumstance but direct the Obedient and stare the offender in the face and by the power of this Lord kindle a Hell in him in this life and will appear at the great day to accuse him for we either stand or fall in judgement according to these Laws in a word humane Lawes are made for certain Climates and fitted to the complexion and temper of certain Common-wealths but these for the whole world Rome and Britanny and Jerusalem all places are bound alike and as his Dominion so his Laws reach from one end of the earth to another and these which he publisht at the first are not onely Laws but promises and pledges of his second coming for he made them not for nought but hath left them with us till he come again in Glory to judge both the quick and the dead according to his Gospel Besides the Laws of men are too narrow and cannot reach the whole Body of sin cannot comprehend all not the inward man Leges non omnia comprehendunt non omnia vetant nec absolvunt Sen. 3. de Benef. c. 6. the thoughts and surmises of the heart no not every visible act they forbid not all they absolve not all some irregularities there be which these Laws look not upon nor have they any other punishment then the common hatred of men who can passe no other sentence upon them then this that they dislike them and we are forced to leave them to the censure and anger of the highest saith Seneca Quoties licet non opertet Every thing that is lawful for me to do is not fit to be done and his integrity is but lame that walks on at pleasure and knows no bounds but those which the Laws of men have set up and never questions any thing he doth till he meets with a check is honest no further then this that he fears not a Prison nor the Gibbet is honest because he deserves not to be hang'd How many are there who are called Christians who yet have not made good their
title to that honour which we give to a just man How many count themselves just men yet do those things which themselves if they would be themselves would condenm as most unjust and do so when others do them and how many have carried so much honesty with them into hell the Law of men cannot reach home to carry us to that height of innocency to which on other Law but that within us might lift us up but the Lawes of this Lord like his power and providence reach and comprehend all the very looks and profers and thoughts of the minde which no man sees which we see not our selves which though they break not the peace nor shake any pillar of a common-wealth for a thought troubles no heart but that which conceives it yet it stands in opposition to that policy which this our Lord hath drawn out and to that end for which he is our Lord and is louder in his ears then an evil word in ours and therefore he looks not onely on our outward guilt but the conscience it self and pierceth to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit regulates the very thoughts and intents of the heart which he looks upon not as fading and vanishing characters in the soul but as killing letters imprinted and engraven there as S. Basil speaks as full and compleat actions wrought out in the inward man Saint Bernard calls them passivas actiones passive actions which he will Judge secundum evangelium Bas de virg Bern. 159. according to these Laws which he hath publisht in his Gospel Secondly that he is a Lord appears by the vertue and power of his dominion for whereas all the power on earth which so often dazles us can but afflict the body this wounds the soul rips up the very heart and bowels and when those Lords which we so tremble at till we fall from him can but kill the body This Lord can cast both soul and body into Hell nay can make us a Hell unto our selves make us punish and torment our selves and being greater then our conscience can multiply those strokes Humane laws have been brought into disgrace because they had not power enough to attend and hold them up and even the common people who fear them most have by their own observation gathered the boldnesse to call them cobwebs for they see he that hath a full purse or a good sword will soon break through them or finde a beesom to sweep them away What speak you of the Laws I can have them and binde them up in sudariolo saith Damianus in the corner of my Handkerchief nay many times for want of power victae leges the Laws must submit as in conquest and though they have a tongue to speak yet they have not a hand to strike And as it is in punishment so it is sometimes in point of reward men may raise their mer it deserts so high that the Exchecquer it self shall not finde a reward to equal them We have a story in our own Chronicles of a Noble-man who did such service for his friend then but a private man that he made him first a Conqueror then a king the Historian gives this note that kings love not to be too much beholding to their Subjects nor to have greater service done then they are able to reward and so how truly I know not makes the setting on of the Crown on his friends head one cause of the losing of his own But it is not so with this our Lord who being now in his throne of Majesty cannot be outdared by any sin be it never so great never so common and can break the hairy scalp of the most Gyant-like offender and shiver in pieces the tallest Cedar in Libanus Who shall be able to stand up in his sight In his presence the boldest sinner shall tremble and fall downe and see the Horror of that profitable Honorable sinne in which he Triumpht and called it Godlinesse The Hypocrite whose every word whose every motion whose every look was a lye shall be unmaskt and the man of Power who boasted in malice and made his will a Law and hung his Sword on his will to make way to that at which it was levell'd shall be beat down into the lowest pitt to Howl with those who measured out Justice by their Sword and thought every thing theirs which that could give them Before him Every sinne shall be a sinne and the wages thereof shall be Death Again he hath rewards and his Treasurie is full of them Not onely a Cup of cold water but the powring forth my blood as water for the Truths sake shall have its full and overflowing Recompence nor shall there ever any be able to say what profit is it that we have kept his Laws No saith Saint Paul Non sunt condignae Mal. 2.14 Rom. 8.8 put our passions to our Actions our Sufferings to our Almes our Martyrdome to our Prayers they are not worthy the naming in comparison of that weight of Glory which our Lord now sitting at the right Hand of God hath prepared for them that feare him Nec quisquam à regno ejus subtrahitur nor can any goe out of his reach or stand before him when he is angry He that sits on the Throne and he that grindes at the Mill to him are both alike 3. And now in the third place That every knee may bow and every Tongue confesse him to be the Lord Let us a little take notice of the large compasse and Circuit of his Dominion and the Psalmist will tell us That he shall have Dominion from the Sea to the Sea and from the River unto the ends of the world Adam the first man and he that shall stand last upon the Earth Every man is his subject For he hath set him saith Saint Paul at his right hand in heavenly places and hath put all things under his Feet and gave him to be Head over all Things to his Church and what a thin shadow what a Nothing is all the overspreading power of this world to this All other Dominion hath its bounds and limits which it cannot passe but by violence and the sword nor is it expedient for the world to have one King nor for the Church to have one Universall Bishop or as they speak one visible Head For as a ship may be made up to that bulke that it cannot bee managed so the number of men and distance of place may be so great that it cannot subsist under one Government Thus it falls out in the world but it is not so in the Kingdom of this our Lord No place so distant or remote to which this Power cannot reach Lybiam remotis Gadibus Jungit all places are to him alike and he sees them all at once It is called the Catholick Church and in our Creed wee professe wee beleeve Sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam the holy Catholique CHURCH That is That that
Church which was shut up within the narrow confines of Judea now under the Gospel is as large as the world it self The Invitation is to all and all may come They may come who are yet without and they might have come who are bound hand and foot and cannot come The Gate was once open to them but now 't is shut Persa Gothus Judus Philosophantur saith Saint Hierom the Persian and the Goth and the Indian and Egyptian are subjects under this Lord Barbarisme it self bows before him and hath chang'd her Harsh notes into the sweet melody of the Cross There was dew onely upon the Fleece the people of the Jews but now that fleece is dry and there is dew upon all the earth The Gospel saith our Saviour must be Preached to all Nations and when the Holy Ghost descended to seale and confirme the Laws of this Lord Act. 2,6 there were present at this great sealing or Confirmation some saith the Text of all Nations under Heaven that did heare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wonderfull things of God every one in his owne language so that the Gospel might seem to have been Preached throughout the world before the Apostles did stirr a foot from Jerusalem But here we may observe that Christ who hath jus ad omnem terram hath not in strictnesse of speech jus in omni Terrâ The right and propriety is his for ever but he doth not take possession of it all at once but successively and by parts It is as easy for him to illuminate all the world at once as the least nook and corner of it but this Sonne of Righteousness spreads his beames gloriously Joh. 11.1 but is not seen of all because of the Interposition of mens sinnes who exclude themselves from the Beames thereof This true light came into the world but the world received him not but yet what our sensuality will not suffer him to doe at once he doth by degrees and passeth on and gaineth ground That so successively he may bee seen and known of all the world But suppose men shook off their Allegiance as too many the greatest part of the world the greatest part of Christendome doe suppose there were none found that will bow before him which will never be suppose they Crucify him againe yet is he still our King and our Lord the King and Lord of all the world such an universall falling a way and forsaking him would not take away from him his Dominion nor remove him from the right hand of God and strip him of his Power If all the world were Infidells yet he were a Lord still and his Power as large and irresistible as ever For his Royalty depends not on the Duty and fidelity of his subjects if it did his Dominion would be indeed but of a very narrow Compasse the sheep not so many as the Goates his flock but little Indeed he could have no right at all if it could be taken from him Neither deceit nor violence can take away a right no man can lose his right till he forfeit it which was impossible for this supreame Lord to doe All the Contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his Title or contract his Power If all should forsake him if all should send this Message to him Nolumus hunc regnare Luk. 19.14 we will not have thee Reign over us yet in all this scorn and contempt in this open Rebellion and Contradiction of sinners he is still the Lord and as he favours those subjects who come in willingly whom he guides with his staffe so he hath a rod of Iron to bruise his Enemies and this Lord shall command and at his command his servants and Executioners shall take those his Enemies who would not have him reign over them and slay them before his face He will not use his Power to force and dragg them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offers them and turn his grace into wantonness then will he shew himself a King and his anger will be more terrible then the roaring of a Lion They shall feele him to be a Lord when 't will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and Howle under that Power which might have saved them for the same Power opens the gates of heaven and of Hell In his hand is a Cup saith the Psalmist Psal 75.8 and in his hand is a reward and when he comes to Judge he brings them both along with him the same Power brings Life and Death as Fabius did Peace or Warre to the Carthagenians in the lap of his Garment and which he will he powres out upon us and in both is still our Lord when faith failes and Charity waxeth cold and the world is set on wickedness when there be more Antichrists then Christians he is our Lord yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 13.8 4 And in the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is most lasting and shall never be destroyed and shall break to pieces and destroy all the Kingdomes of the Earth but it self shall stand fast for ever no violence shall shake it Dan. 2.44 no craft shall undermine it no Time wast it but Christ shall remaine our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaks of an end of delivering up his Kingdome and of Subjection 'T is true there shall be an end 1 Cor. 15.24 but 't is when hee hath delivered up his Kingdome and hee shall deliver up his Kingdome but not till he hath put down all Authority Finis hic defectio non est nec Traditio Amissio nec subjectio infirmitas saith Hilary This end is no fayling This delivery no losse this Subjection is no weakness nor Infirmity Regnum Regnans tradet He shall deliver up his Power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzens Interpretation and then this subjection is nothing else but the fulfilling of his Fathers will Orat. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36. Oration which he made against the Arrians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in Computation is but one Person vvith Christ and when His Church is perfected then doth he deliver up his Power and Dominion But let us but observe the manner of the ending of this Kingdome and the Fayling and Period of others and we shall gaine light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties For other Kingdoms are undermined by craft and shaken by the madness of the People who shun the whip and are beaten with Scorpions cast off one yoak and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complain'd either Kingdoms are chang'd and alter'd as it pleaseth those who are victorious whose right hand is their God but the Power of this Lord is then and
onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of Laws when the Subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and Crowne them with Glory and Honor for ever Here 's no weaknesse no Infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crowne and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in Chaines and his subjects free free from the feare of Hell or Temptations of the Devill the World or the flesh and though there be an end yet he reignes still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was Though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaines a Lord and King for Evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God His right and Power of Government his Laws just and Holy and wise the virtue and Power the largeness and the duration of his Government a sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the comming of this Lord for they that long to meet him in the Clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right Hand of God Look upon him then sitting in Majesty and Power and think you now saw him moving towards you and were now descending with a shout for his very sitting there should be to us as his comming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great Day Look upon him and think not that he there sits Idle but beholds the Children of men those that wait for him and those that Think not of him and he will come down with a shout not fall as a Timber-logge for every Frogg every wanton sinner to leap upon and croake about but come as a Lord with a Reward in one hand and a Vengeance in the other Oh 't is farre better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his Power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Lawes and write them in your hearts for the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consists not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them for obedience is the best seal and Ratification of a Law He is Lord from all eternity and cannot be divested of his royal office yet he counts his kingdom most compleat when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold he commands threatens beseeches calls upon us again and again and the beseechings of Lords are commands preces armatae armed prayers backt with power and therefore next consider the vertue and power of his dominion and bow before him do what he commands with fear and trembling let this power walk along with thee in all thy wayes when thou art giving an almes let it strike the trumpet out of thy hand when thou fastest let it be in capite jejunii let it begin and end it when thou art strugling with a tentation let it drive thee on that thou faint not and fall back and do the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 when thou art adding vertue to vertue let it be before they eyes that thou mayest double thy diligence and make it up compleat in every circumstance and when thou thinkest of evil let it joyn with that thought that thou mayest hate the very appearance of it and chace it away why should dust ashes more awe thee then Omnipotency why should thy eye be stronger then thy faith not onely the frown but the look of thy Superior composeth and models thee puts thee into any fashion or form thou wilt go or run or sit down thou wilt venture thy body would that were all nay thou wilt venture thy soul do any thing be any thing what his beck doth but intimate but thy faith is fearlesse as bold as blind and will venture on on the point of the sword fears what man not what this Lord can do to him fears him more that sits on the bench than him that sits at the right hand of God If we did beleeve as we professe we could not but more lay it to our hearts even lay it so as to break them for who can stand up when he is angry let us next view the largenesse and compasse of his Dominion which takes in all that will come and reacheth those who refuse to come and is not contracted in its compasse if none should come and why shouldest thou turn a Saviour into a destroyer why should'st thou die in thy Physitians armes with thy cordials about thee why shouldest thou behold him as a Lord 'till he be angry he caleth all inviteth all that come why should Publicans and sinners enter and thy disobedience shut thee out Lastly consider the duration of his Dominion which shall not end but with the world nor end then when it doth end for the vertue of it shall reach to all eternity and then think that under this Lord thou must either be eternally happy or eternally miserable and let not a flattering but a fading world thy rebellious and traiterous flesh let not the father of lies a gilded temptation an apparition a vain shadow thrust thee on his left hand for both at his right and left there is power which works to all eternity The second his Advent or coming Venit he will come And now we have walkt about this Sion and told the towers thereof shewed you Christs territories and Dominion the nature of his laws the vertue and power the largenesse and compasse the duration of his kingdom we must in the next place consider his Advent his coming consider him as now coming for we cannot imagine as was said before that he sat there idle like Epicurus his God nec sibi facessens negotium nec alteri not regarding what is done below but like true Prometheus governing and disposing the state of times and actions of men M. Sen. Contr. Divinum numen etiam qua non apparet rebus humanis intervenit his power insinuates it self and even works there where it doth not appear Though he be in heaven yet he can work at this distance for he fills the heaven and the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beholdeth all things he heareth all things he speaks to thee and he speaks in thee he hears thee when thou speakest and he hears thee when thou speakest not in his book are
Ottoman Empire some beginning it at the yeer 73. and drawing it on to conclude in the yeer 1073. when Hildebrand began to Tyrannize in the Church To let passe these since no man is able to reconcile them we can not but wonder that so grosse an errour should spread so far in the first and best times of the Church as to finde entertainment with so many but lesse wonder that it is reviv'd and foster'd by so many in ours who have lesse learning but more art to misinterpret and wrest the Scriptures â—o their own Damnation For what can they finde in this text to make them kings no more then many of them can finde in themselves to make them Saints And here is no mention of all the Saints but of Martyrs alone who were beheaded for the witnesse of Jesus v. 4. But we may say of this book of the Revelation as Aristotle spake of his books of Physick that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is publisht and not publisht publisht but not for every man to fasten what sense he please upon it though we cannot deny but some few of latter times and so few as but enough to make up a number have by their multiplicity of reading and subtil diligence of observation and by a dextrous comparing those particulars which are registred in story with those things which are but darkly revealed or plainly revealed to Saint John but not so plain to us have raised us such probabilities that we may look up them with favour and satisfaction 'till we see some fairer evidence appear some more happy conjectures brought forth which may impair and lessen hat credit which as yet for ought that hath been seen they well deserve But this is not every mans work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every mans eye is not so quick and piercing to see at such distance and we see since so many men have taken the courage and been bold to play the interpreters of their dark Prophesies they have shaped out what fancies they please and instead of unfolding Revelations have presented vs with nothing but dreams as so many divers moralls to one fable and fo for two witnesses we have a cloud for one Beast almost as many as be in the Forrest and for one Antichrist every man that displeaseth us But let men interpret the thousand yeers how they please Our Saviour calls it an errour an errour that strikes at the very heart of Christianity which promiseth no riches nor power nor pleasure but that which is proportioned to those vertues and spiritual duties of which it consists For in the Resurrection neither do they marry Wives nor are married we may adde neither are there high nor love neither rich nor poor but all are one in Christ Jesus and his words are plain enough Quaedam sic digna revinci ne gravitate adorentur Tert. adv Valentin John 18. my Kingdom is not of this World I should scarce have vouchsafed to mention an errour so grosse and which carries absurdity in the very face of it but that we have seen this monster drest up and brought abroad and magnified in this latter age and in our own times which as they abound with iniquity so they do with errors which to study to confute were to honor them too much who make their â—…ual appetite a key to open Revelations and to please and satisfie that are well content here to build their Tabernacle and stay on earth a thousand yeers amongst those pleasing objects which our Religion bids us to contemn and to be so long absent from that joy and peace which is past understanding Their Heaven is as their vertues are ful of drosse earth and but a poor and imperfect resemblance of that which is so indeed and their conceit as carnal as themselves which Christianity and even common reason abhors For look upon them and you shall behold them full of debate envy malice covetousnesse ambition minding earthly things and so fancy a reward like unto themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like embraceth like as mire is more pleasing to swine then the waters of Jordan and it is no wonder to hear them so loud and earnest for riches and pleasure and a temporal Kingdom who have so weak a title to and so little hope of any other But God forbid that our Lord should come and flesh and blood prescribe the manner for then in how many several shapes must he appear in he must come to the covetous and fill his cofers to the wanton and build him a Seraglio to the ambitious and crown him no his advent shal be like himself he shal come in power majesty in a form answerable to his Laws Government and as al things were gatherd together in him Eph. 1.10,22 which are in Heaven and which are in earth and God hath put all things under his feet so he shall come unto all to Angels to the Creature to men And 1. he may well be said to come unto the Angels For he is the head of all Principalitie and Power colos 2.10 as at his first coming he confirmed them in their happy estate of obedience which we beleeve as probable though we have no plain evidence of Scripture for it so at his second he shall more fully shew that to them that which they desired to look into 1 Pet. 1.17 as Saint Peter speaks give them a clearer vision of God and increase the joy of the good as he shall the torments of evil Angels For if they sang for joy at his Birth what Hosannas and Hallelujahs will they sound forth when they attend him with a shout if they were so taken with his humility how will they be ravisht with his Glory and if there by joy in Heaven for one sinner that repents how will that joy be exalted when those repentant sinners shall be made like unto the Angels when they shall be of the same Quire and sing the same song glory and honour to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to this Lord for Evermore Secondly he comes unto the Creatures to redeem them from bondage for the desire of the Creature is for this day of his coming Rom. 8.19,22 for even the whole Creation groaneth with us also but when he comes they shall be reformed into a better estate 2 Pet. 3.13 there shall be new Heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse Now the Creature is subjecta vanitati subject to vanity not onely to change and mutability but to be instrumental to evil purposes to rush into the battle with us to run upon the Angels sword to be our drudges and our Parasites to be the hire of a whore and the price of blood They groan as it were and travaile in pain under these abuses and therefore desire to be deliverd not out of any rational desire but a natural inclination which is in every thing to preserve it self in its best
those rules and precepts hath raised such a fence and hedg about every common-wealth which if we did not pluck it up our selves might secure and carry them along in the course of things even to their end that is to the end of the world but this we talk of as we do of many other things and talk so long till we believe it and rest on our guesse and conjecture as on a demonstration but the truth is we are our own fate and destiny we draw out our thread and cut it we start out of our places and divide our selves from one another and then indeed and not till then Fate and Necessity lye heavy upon a kingdom and it cannot stand Christianity binds us to our own businesse and till we break loose till some one or other steps out of his place from it there is peace we are safe in our lesser vessels and the ship of the common-wealth rides on with that smoothnesse and evennesse which it hath from the consistencie of its parts in their own place for though all are one in Christ Jesus yet we cannot but see that there is a main difference between the inward qualification of his members and the outward administration and government of his Church In the kingdomes of the world and so in the Church visible every man is not fit for every place some must teach and some govern some must learne and obey some must put their hand to the plough some to this trade and some to that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks those who are of more then ordinary wit and ability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot l. 6 Polit. c. 5. must beare office in Church or Common-wealth One is noble another is ignoble one is learned another is ignorant one is for the spade and another for the sword one for the flaile and sheephook another for the scepter and such a disproportion is necessary amongst men for nihil aequalitate ipsa inaequalius Plin. Epist there is no greater inequality in the world then in a body politick where all the parts are equall for that equality which commends and upholds a Common-wealth ariseth from the difference of its parts moving in their severall measures and proportions as musick doth from discords when every part answers in its place and raiseth it self no higher then that will beare when the magistrate speaks by nothing but the Laws and the subject answers by nothing but his obedience when the greater shadow the lesse and the lesse help to fortifie the great when every part doth its part and every member its office then there is an equality and an harmony and we call it peace For if we move and move cheerfully in our own sphere and calling we shall not start forth to discompose or disorder the motion of others in theirs if we fill our own place we shall not leap over into anothers our desires will dwell at home our covetousnesse and ambition dye our malice cease our suspicion end out discontent vanish or else be soone changed and spiritualized our desires will be levelled on happinesse we shall covet the best things we shall be ambitious of heaven we shall malice nothing but malice and destroy it suspect nothing but our suspicion and be discontent with nothing but that we are so and so in this be like unto God himself and have our Center in our selves or rather make peace our Center that every motion may be drawn from it that in the compasse and Circumference of our behaviour with others all our Actions as so many lines may be drawn out and meet and be united in peace And this is not onely enjoyned by Religion and the Gospel but it is the Method of nature it self which hath so ordered it that every thing in its own place is at quiet and rest and no where else The earth moves not water is not ponderous in its proper place the fire burnes not in its sphere but out of it it hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam saith Pliny it spreads it self most violently and devours every thing it meets with nay poyson it self is not hurtfull to those tempers that breed it Senec. ep 81. Illud venenum quod serpentes in alienam perniciem proferunt sine suâ continent saith Seneca The venome of the Scorpion doth not kill the Scorpion and that poyson which serpents cast out with danger and hurt to others they keep without any to themselves And as it is in nature so is it in the society of men Our diligence in our own businesse is soveraign and connaturall to our estates and conditions but most times poysonous abroad and dangerous and fatall to our selves and others When Uzzah put forth his hand to hold up the Ark of God and keep it from falling though his intention were good yet God struck him for his error and rashnesse in moving out of his place and struck him dead 2 Sam. 6.7 because he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe his own businesse when Uzziah invades the Priests office the 2. Chr. 26. and would burn Incense and Azariah the Prophet told him ad te non pertinet it pertaineth not to thee it is not thy businesse even while the censer was yet in his hand his sinne was writ in his forehead he was struck with a leprosie cut off from the city of the Lord v. 21. When Peter was busie to enquire concerning John What shall this man doe Our Saviour was ready with a sharp reply quid ad te what is that to thee thy businesse is to follow me When Christians out of a wanton and irregular zeale did throw down Images and were slaine by the Heathen in the very fact the Church censured them as disturbers of the peace rather then Martyrs and though they suffer'd death in the defiance of Idolatry yet allowed them no place in the Dypticks or in the Catalogue of those who laid down their life for the truth Corah riseth out of his place and the earth swallows him up Sheba is up and blowes a Trumpet and his head flyes over the wall Absalom would up into the Tribunall which was none of his place and was hang'd in the Oke which was fitter for him and if any have risen out of their place as we use to say on the right side and been fortunate villaines their purchase was not great honey mingled with gall Honour drugg'd with the hatred and curses of men with feares and cares with gnawings within and Terrors without all the content and pleasure they had by their great leape out of their place was but as Musick to one stretcht out on the Rack or as that little light which is let in through the crack or flaw of a wall into him that lyes fettered in a loathsome dungeon and at last their wages which was death eternall death and howling for ever Nay when we are out of our place and busie in that which
like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great state and pomp They set it up as Nebuchadnezzar did his Image of Gold threescore Cubits high to be seen of all boast of their Atheisme and look down upon them with a contemptuous pity as shallow weak men who goe about to perswade such men as they of quick and searching wits that there is a God who both sees and heares them and take it very ill if we doe but wish them well Thus it is in every bold presumptuous sinner even as it was with the Devil Depuduit no sooner doe they cast themselves down from Heaven but they cast away all shame and their modesty flyes from them in the very fall and their Motto is Tush God doth not see And this sure is not to walk with God but to walk and strut as Nebuchadnezzar did in his Palace This is the Palace which I have built Thus thus have I done and who dares fling a stone at it To walk as Goliah did in a coat of Brasse and defie the Host of Israel and God himself Golias in fronte c. saith Austin Golias was smote in the forehead and so are they The disease indeed is in the heart but it hath made an impression and left a mark in the forehead He that hath forgot to blush doth not well remember that there is a God who looks upon him Secondy the dissembling sinner the Hypocrite walks not with God for he is but a Player of Religion and being but a Slave comes forth a King and then treads his measures puts it to the triall whether God hath an eye whether he will take drosse for silver a superficies for a substance a Fast for Repentance a picture for the new creature Archidamus said well of an old man that had died and discoloured his haire 'T is not likely he should speak truth qui mendacium in capite circumfert who carries about with him a lye on his head nor can he walk as with his God whose very speech and gesture whose very look is a lye Where there are false lights there the ware is not warrantable where there are privy doors there the Priests will practise collusion and eat up the Idols meat If you see a labyrinth it is either to conceale a strumpet or a Minotaure That is true of the hypocrite which the Rabbies conceived of their Priests He is like an Angel visible or invisible as he please Now this is not to walk with God but to walk with our lusts with our malice and Covetousnesse to look upon them as we should do upon our God to be carefull that they are pleased and satisfied to reverence them to follow their behests and commands to provide that these horse-leaches be fed our lust fed with pleasure and our covetousnesse with gold for these are the Hypocrites gods As for the true God they leave him behind them and walk with nothing but his Name Thirdly The Apologizing sinner walks not with God but runnes himself into the thicket of excuses Covers his transgressions as Adam and hides his iniquity in his bosome Job 31.33 Covers himself over with these leaves which have no heat no solidity in them but will wither and dye when the Sun shews it self and be scattered before the wind and leave him naked and miserable He hath learnt an art and he may quickly learne that of his sinne which needs and teacheth it pavimentare peccata it is Saint Austins phrase to smooth or plaster and parget over his deformities he excuses the breach of one commandment with his zeal to another the breach of his charity by his love to his faith He excuses sacriledge by his hatred to Idolatry his malice by his zeal he pleads ignorance where there is light enough and weaknesse when he might be strong and infirmity where he presumes and willingnesse when he had no will and will not consider that the devil speaks by all these as he did to our first parents by the serpent For this is no sinne at all and you shall not dye at all are all one He speaks saith Saint Austin by the mathematician That he sinnes not but his starre He speaks by the Manichee That he sinnes not but the Prince of Darknesse I may add he speaks by the Anabaptist 'T is not he sinnes but the Asse his body By the Libertine That God sins in him and by the many that the devil onely is in fault If we look upon it well and send our eye abroad into the world we may peradventure be tempted to think that the world and all that therein is were onely made to yield matter out of which to forge and fashion an excuse for what is there almost in the world which we do not lay hold on for that end Adam the first man is the first excuse and we drew it out of his loines Originall sinne and after that the Law the flesh the will the understanding sinne obedience the devils and God himself are forced in to speak for us and what was made the matter of virtue and obedience is by us made the matter of excuse we may be bold to say This is not to walk with God as if he had an all-seeing eye but to flutter up and down as the Raven did upon the waters from excuse to excuse but far from God and the Arke so to walk as if we were quite out of his reach and sight Last of all The speculative sinner doth not walk with God I meane the man that breaks not out into action but yet perfects his work in his mind where the sinner doth that which he never doth joynes with that object which he shall never touch commits adultery and yet may be an Eunuch plots revenge and yet never strikes a stroke grasps the wealth which he will not labour for marryes that beauty which he saw but once and shall never see again and there acts over those sinnes which he shall never bring into act delights in that which he shall never enjoy and robs and slayes and rides in triumph on a thought and so leaves his God who gave him this power and faculty to another end and not to wallow in this mire nor to be enslaved to the drudgery of so vile an imployment and yet too many are willing to perswade themselves that God neither sees it nor regards it that a thought is such Gozamour of so thin an appearance that it escapeth the eye and so they set up a whole family of them in the mind and dally and delight themselves with them as with their children And yet this is the ground of all evil and evil it self wrought in the soul which works by its faculties as the body doth by its members the eye and the hand and thus it may beat down Temples murder men lay Kingdomes levell with the ground and it growes and multiplies reflects upon it self with joy and content omnia habet
peccatoris praeter manus and hath all that makes a sinner but hands and though men see not our thoughts for this is a royall prerogative yet they are visible to his eye who is a spirit and they that look upon them as bare and naked thoughts and not as complete works finisht in the soul know not themselves nor the Nature of God and therefore canot be said to walk with him To conclude then These walk not with God and let us mark and avoid them The presumptuous daring sinner walks not with him but hides himself in this Atheisticall conceit that because man cannot punish God doth not see The hypocrite comes forth in a disguise and acts his part and because men applaud him thinks God is of their mind as the Pantomime in Seneca who observing the people well pleased with his dancing did every day go up into the Capitol and dance before Jupiter and was perswaded that he was also delighted in him The Apologizer runnes into the holes and burrowes of excuses and there he is safe for who shall see him The speculative sinner hides himself and all his thoughts in a thought is this thought that thoughts are so neer to nothing that they are invisible that sin is not sinfull till it speak with the tongue or act with the hand But the eye of God is brighter then the Sun and his eye-lids will try the children of men Psal 11. as the gold-smith trieth his gold in the fire and will find out the drosse which we do not see And if we will not walk with him but walk contrary unto him Levit. 26.22 He will also walk contrary unto us He will see us and not see us know us and not know us Hilar. l. 9. de Trin. Habemus nescientem Deum quod tamen non nescit saith Hilary God will seem not to know that which he doth know and his ignorance is not ignorance but a mystery For to them who walk not with him humbly the word will be at the last day I know you not and God will keep state and not know and acknowledge them This pure God will not know the unclean this God of truth will not know the dissembler this strong and mighty God will bring down the imperious offender this Light will examine thoughts and excuses will fly before it as the mist before the Sun But then The Lord knows the wayes of the Righteous saith the Psalmist and those that do justly and love mercy and walk as under his all-seeing eye with humility and reverence he will lead by the hand and go along with them and uphold and strengthen them in their walk and shadow them under his wing and when their walk is ended know them as he did Moses above all men and seeing his own marks upon them beholding in them though a weake yet the image of his Justice and his Mercy upon them he will spare them as a Father spareth his Son that serveh him he will know them and love them know them and receive them with an Euge well done good and faithfull servants you have embraced the Good which I shewed you done the thing which I required of you you have dealt Justly with your brethren and I will be Just in my promises you have shewed Mercy and Mercy shall crown you you have walked humbly with me I will now lift up your heads and you shall inherit the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world FINIS HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERALL OF THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sir GEORGE VVHITMORE Knight Sometime Lord Mayor of the City of LONDON VVho departed this life Decemb. 12. 1654. At his house at Bawmes in MIDDLESEX PSAL. 119.19 I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me THis Psalme is a Psalme of David so Saint Augustine and Hilary and others or gathered by him or out of him and it is nothing else but a Collection of Prayers and Praises a body of devout ejaculations which the Greek Fathers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lively sparkles breathed forth from a heart on fire and even sick with love and they fly so thick that observation can hardly take the order of them The method of devotion followes and keeps time with the motion of the heart which is as various and different as those impressions which joy or griefe feare or hope make in it which either contract and bind it up and then it struggles and labours within it self and conceives sighs and grones which cannot be expressed or breaks forth into complaints and strong supplications Take away the rebuke that I feare v. 39. Let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live v. 77. and the like or else dilate and open it and then it leaps out of it self and breaths it self forth with exultation and triumph in songs of praise and Hallelujahs O Lord thou art my portion v. 57. O how I love thy Law v. 79. The Law of thy mouth is better unto me then thousands of gold and silver In this which I have read unto you and chosen as the fittest subject for this present occasion The heart having looked abroad having lookt out of it self and reflected back into it self drawes out in it selfe the picture of a stranger or a Pilgrime and having well lookt upon it with the serious eye of contemplation which is the heart of the heart and the soul of the soul having surveyed the place of its habitation how fraile and ruinous it is as a tent subject to the winds and beat upon by every storm and at last to be removed it goes out of it self and seeks for shelter under the shadow of Gods wing sends forth strong desires for supply and support in hoc inquilinatûs sui tempore as Tertullian speaks in this time of its sojourning and Pilgrimage and for that supply which is most answerable to the condition of a stranger upon earth and which may best conduct him to the place for which he was born and bound He asketh not for riches they have wings and will fly away and leave him in his walk or if they stay with him they will but mock and delude him and lead him out of his way not for honour that 's but a breath but aire and may breath upon him at one stage and at the next leave him but never forward him in his way not for delightfull vanities these are but ill companions and will lead him out of his way the best supply for a stranger here upon earth is from heaven from the place not where he sojournes but to which he is going the best convoy the will and commandments of God the word of God the best lantern to his feet for whilest these are in his eye and heart he shall passe by slippery places and not fall he shall passe through fire and water he shall walk upon the Lion and the Aspe he