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 supreme Lord to do All the contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his title or contract his power If all should forsake him Luke 19.14 if all should send this message to him 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 favoureth those subjects who come in willingly whom he guideth with his staff 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 27. and slay them before his face He will not use his power to force and drag them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offereth 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 feel him to be a Lord when it will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and howl under that Power which might have saved them For the same Power openeth the gates of heaven and of hell Psal 75.8 In his hand is a cup saith the Psalmist and in his hand is a reward and when he cometh to judge he bringeth them both along with him The same Power bringeth life and death as Fabius did peace or war to the Carthaginians in the lap of his garment and which he will he powreth out upon us and in both is still our Lord. When Faith faileth 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 Hebr. 13.8 and the same for ever In the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is it most lasting and shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 It shall break in pieces and destroy all the Kingdoms of the earth but it self shall stand fast for ever No violence shall shake it no craft undermine it no time wast it but Christ shall remain our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaketh of an end of delivering up his Kingdom 1 Cor. 15.24 28. and of subjection It is true there shall be an end but it is when he 〈◊〉 delivered up his Kingdom and he shall deliver up his Kingdom 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 loss this subjection no weakness nor infirmity Regnum regnans tradet He shall deliver up his power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzen's interpretation and then this Subjection is nothing else but the fuâ—filling of his Father's will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36th Oration which he made against the Arians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in computation is but one Person with 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 Kingdom and the fayling and period of others and we shall gain light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties Either 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 yoke and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complained or Kingdoms are changed and altered 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 crown them with glory and honour for ever Here is no weakness no infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crown and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in chains and his subjects free free from the fear of Hell or temptations of the Devil the World or the Flesh And though there be an end yet he reigneth 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 remaineth 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 coming 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 see him moving towards you and descending with a shout For his very sitting there should be to us as his coming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great day Look upon him and think not that he there sitteth idle but beholdeth 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-log for every frog every wanton sinner to leap upon and croak about but come as a Lord with a reward in one hand and a vengeance in the other Oh it is far 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 Laws and write them in your hearts For the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consisteth 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 Christ is Lord from all eternity and cannot be devested of his Royal office yet he counteth his Kingdome most complete 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
did such service for his friend then but a private man that he made him first a Conquerour then a King the Historian giveth 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 maketh 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 giant-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 down and see the horrour of that profitable honourable sin in which he triumpht and called it Godliness 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 levelled shall be beat down into the lowest pit to howl with those who measured out justice by their sword and thought every thing theirs which that could give them Before him every sin shall be a sin and the wages thereof shall be Death Again he hath rewards and his Treasury is full of them Not onely the powring forth my blood as water for the Truths sake Matth. 10.42 but a cup of cold water shall have its full and overflowing recompense nor shall there ever any be able to say What profit is it that we have kept his Laws No Mal 3.14 saith S. Paul Non sunt condignae Put our Passions to our Actions Rom. 8.18 our Sufferings to our Alms 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 1 Cor. 2 9. hath prepared for them that fear him Nec quisquam à regno ejus subtrahitur Nor can any go out of his reach or stand before him when he is angry He that sitteth on the throne and he that grindeth at the mill to him are both alike Psal 76.7 And now in the third place that every knee may bow to him Rom. 14.11 and every tongue confess him to be the Lord let us a little take notice of the large compass and circuit of his Dominion The Psalmist will tell us that he shall have dominion from sea to sea Psal 72 8. and from the river unto the ends of the earth Adam the first man and he that shall stand last upon the earth every man is his subject For he hath set him Eph. 1.20 21. saith S. Paul at his right hand in heavenly places and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the 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 pass but by violence and the sword Nor is it expedient for the world to have onely one King nor for the Church to have one universal Bishop or as they speak one visible Head For as a ship may be made up to that bulk that it cannot be managed so the number of men and distance of place may be so great that it cannot subsist under one Government Thus it falleth 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 Libyam 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 we profess we believe SANCTAM CATHOLIC AM ECCLESIAM the holy Catholick CHVRCH 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 it is shut Persa Gothus Indus philosophantur saith S. Hierom The Persian and the Goth and the Indian and the Egyptian are subjects under this Lord. Barbarism it self boweth before him and hath changed her harsh notes into the sweet melodie of the Cross Judg. 6.37 â—0 There was dew onely upon the Fleece the people of the Jews but now that flâ—ece is dry Matth. 24.14 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 seal and confirm the Laws of this Lord there were present at this great sealing or confirmation some Acts 2.5 11. saith the Text of all nations under heaven that did hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wonderful things of God every one in his own language so that the Gospel might seem to have been Preached throughout the world before the Apostles did stir a foot from Jerusalem But here we may observe that Christ who hath jus ad omnem terram hath not in strictness 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 easie for him to illuminate all the world at once as the least nook and corner of it but this Sun of righteousness spreadeth his beams gloriously but is not seen of all because of the interposition of mens sins who exclude themselves from the beams thereof John 1. This true Light came into the world but the world received him not But yet what our sensuality will not suffer him to do at once he doth by degrees and passeth on and gaineth ground that so successively he may be 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 do suppose there were none found that will bow before him which will never be suppose they crucifie him again yet is he still our King and our Lord the King and Lord of all the world Such an universal falling away 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 Infidels yet he were a Lord still and his Power as large and irresistible as ever For his Royalty dependeth not on the duty and fidelity of his subjects If it did his Dominion would be indeed but of a very narrow compass the Sheep not so many as the Goats his flock but little Indeed he could have
and dare not abide the answer Audire nusquam veritatem regium est We think it a goodly thing to live as we list without check or reproof and never be told the truth For Truth is sharp and piquant and our ears are tender Some Truths peradventure are musick to the ear but strike not the heart Others are harsh and ill-sounding and when we hear them we entreat they may not be spoken to us any more as the Israelites did when the Law was promulged with thunder and lightning and the mountain smoked we remove our selves and stand afar off But that we may not seem to do as Pilate did ask what Truth is and then go our way let us a little recount what kinds of Truths there be in the world that so amongst them all we may at last single out that which here by Wisdome it self we are instructed to buy And indeed Truths there are many kinds First there are Truths proper to the studies of great Scholars and learned men truths in Nature in the Mathematicks the knowledge of natural causes and events of the course of the Sun and of the Moon and the like These we confess are excellent truths and they deserve to be bought though we pay dear for them With these truths God was pleased supernaturally and by miracle to endow King Solomon 1 Kings 4.33 when he gave him the knowledge of Beasts Birds Creeping things and Fishes of Stones and of Plants from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Moss that groweth upon the wall Yet this is not that Truth which we are here commanded to buy Again there are many excellent Truths concerning the preservation of our Bodiess which are also well worthy to be bought Health is the chief of outward blessings without which all the rest lose their name For present all the glory and riches and pleasures of the world to a sick person Eccl. 30.18 and what are they but as the Wise-man speaketh like messes of meat set upon a grave for he can no more tast and relish them then a dead man sealed up in his monument Therefore as the same son of Sirach saith Eccl. 38.1 honour the Physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him for the Lord hath created him The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth and he that is wise will not abhorre them 4. Yet the skill of the Physician is not that Truth that Solomon here biddeth us buy Further yet there are many necessary Truths which concern the making and executing of Laws and the government of Commonwealths and Kingdoms By these the world is ordered peaceably and every wheel made to move in its proper place Without these Commonwealths would become as the hills of robbers Innocency alone would prove but a thin and weak defense in the midst of so many several tempers and dispositions as we daily encounter These Truths therefore are worth the buying also With skill in these did God honour his Priests under the Law Mal. 2.7 The Priests lips were to preserve such knowledge and the people were to seek the Law at his mouth and he was ordained to judge betwixt cause and cause betwixt man and man But neither yet is this the Truth here recommended to us We may descend lower yet even to the very Plough and find many useful conclusions and truths in Husbandry and Tillage whereby food and rayment and other necessaries for the body are provided without which we could not subsist Of these truths God professeth himself the Authour For the Prophet speaking of the art of the plough-man telleth us that his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Isa 28.26 c. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cumin but the fitches are beaten out with a staff and the cumin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised c. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Yet neither is this nor any other of these truths that Truth which is here meant For first all these Truths concern onely those particular persons whose breeding and vocation calleth them to them All are not to buy them but ii tantùm quibus est necesse such whose education and occasions lead them to them If all were one member saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 12.19 where were the body If all men were subtile Philosophers or skilful Physicians or learned Lawyers and Politicians or painful Husbandmen the world could not well subsist Again all are not fitted for every truth for every calling All if they had a heart thereunto Prov. 17.16 yet have not a price in their hand Every Philosopher is not fit to hold the plough nor every one that handleth an ox-goad to be a Physician nor every Physician to plead at the bar These arts seem to be of a somewhat unsociable disposition and a very hard thing it is for a man to learn and practise perfectly more then one of them for the mind being distracted amongst many things must needs entertain them but brokenly and imperfectly Sic opus est mundo and thus Divine Providence hath ordered it But the Truth here is of a more pliable nature and therefore the commandment is given to all All must buy it It is put to sale and proferred to the whole world to him that sitteth on the throne and to her that grindeth at the mill to the Husbandman in the field to the Philosopher in the Schools to the Physician in his study and to the Trades-man in his shop No man of what calling or estate soever is unfit for this purchase The poorest that is may come to this markets and find about him money enough to purchase the commodity Yea let him go whither he will and live amongst what people and in what part of the world he please whether at Jerusalem or amidst the tents of Kedar in the city or in the wilderness he shall still find himself sufficiently furnished for this bargain And that he buyeth serveth both for this world and the next it will prove both a staff and a crown it will direct his feet in his pilgrimage and crown his head at his journeyes end All the other Truths I reckoned up to you as they may be bought so also they may be sold and forgone Yea there may come a time when they must all give place to the Truth in my Text and become the price for which it must be bought and be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss and dung Phil. 3.7 3. that we may gain it as S. Paul speaketh of his skill and forwardness in the Jews religion in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus But though those Truths continue with us all our life yet at last they will forsake us Who will look for a Philosopher or a Physician or
Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 11. Noct. Attic. c. 16. De Tranq c. 12. which Gellius confesseth he cannot render no not obscurely in many words Seneca inquietam inertiam an unquiet and troublesome sloth by which we run up and down and never abide at one stay but like men which run in hast to quench a fire shoulder every one we meet and tumble down our selves and others in the way Sticho act 1. sc 3. and so fall together Curiosus nemo est quin sit malevolus saith he in Plautus Curiosity is the breath of Malice and is mischievous And Mischief provoketh Wrath and Injustice and Mischief on the one side and Impatience and Wrath on the other meet and strive and struggle together and in the contention either one or both are lost And therefore Plato telleth us De Repub c 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to meddle with our own matters and not to busie our selves in other mens is that which we call Justice for by this we leave to every man that which is his untoucht and preserve to our selves that which is ours that is we are just to others and just to our selves we do not trouble and disadvantage other men in their station and defend our own But when we fly out and pass beyond our bounds we are not what we should be but carry about with us a world of iniquity Our thoughts are let loose full of desire and are doubled upon us full of anxiety and when we gain most we are the greatest losers We are injurious false deceitful we are oppressours thieves murderers usurpers we are all that in our selves which we condemn in others For this is the seminary of all those evils which are sent forth as so many emissaries to break the peace of Church and Common-wealth And therefore not onely Religion but Reason also not onely Christianity but even Nature it self hath copsed and bound us in from flying out and hath designed to every man his proper business that he may not stray nor wander abroad First Christianity is the greatest peace-maker and keepeth every man to his own office if Ministery to wait on his Ministery if Teaching Rom. 12.7 to teach if Trading to follow his Trade if Government to rule with diligence if Service to be obedient with singleness of heart Eph. 6.5 Every man hath his gift and every man hath his measure and proportion And as it was in the gathering of Manna he that hath much hath nothing over Exod. 16.18 and he that hath little hath no lack Every mans place is the best for there is no place either in Church or Common-wealth which is not honourable and a great honour it is to serve God in any place 1 Cor. 15.41 One star differeth from another star in glory but in its proper sphere every Star shineth but out of it it is either a Mass or lump or nothing It is true indeed Gal. 3.28 in Christ Jesus there is neither high nor low neither rich nor poor Psal 49.2 no difference between the Noble and the Peasant Exod. 11.5 between him that grindeth at the mill and him that sitteth on the throne because his spiritual graces are communicated non homini sed humano generi not to this man or that to this calling or that but to as many as will receive them to all the world And every man that is Christs servant is a Peer a Priest and a King And when he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead he will not pardon this man because he was a King nor condemn that man because he was a begger For neither was Dives put in hell because he was rich nor Lazarus carried into Abraham's bosome because he was poor neither was Nero lost because he was an Emperour nor Paul saved because he was a tent-maker But yet for all this he hath made up his Church and formed Common-wealths not of Angels but of Men who live in the world and so under order and government and hath assigned every man his place and calling which every man would keep and make good every man would be quiet and in peace the Church would be as Heaven it self all glory and all harmony and the Common-wealth would be a body compact within it self never fly in pieces but last for ever and flourish in it self being subject to no injury but that of Time or a greater and overpowerful forrein force For that conceit of a designed Period and a fatality hanging over every body Politique which at last sinketh it down and burieth it in that ruine upon which another is raised is generally believed in the world but upon no convincing evidence having neither Reason nor Revelation to raise it up to the credit of a positive truth For That such a thing hath been done is no good Argument that it shall ever be so Though God hath foretold the period and end of this or that Monarchy yet the prophesie doth not reach unto all And he himself hath given us rules and precepts to be a sense and hedge about every Common-wealth which if we did not pluck it up our selves might secure and carry along 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 talk so long till we believe it and rest on our bare guess 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 Kingdome and it cannot stand Christianity bindeth us to our own business And till we break loose till some one or other step out of his place from it there is peace we are safe in our lesser vessels and the ship of the Common-wealth rideth on with that smoothness and evenness which it hath from the consistencie of its parts in their own place Gal. 3 28. 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 some govern some learn and obey some put their hand to the plough some to this trade some to that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaketh Polit l. 6 c. 5. those who are of more then ordinary wit and ability must bear office in Church or Commonwealth One is noble another is ignoble one is learned another is ignorant one is for the spade another for the sword one for the flail or sheephook another for the scepter Plin. Epist. And such a disproportion is necessary amongst men
of this world I should scarce have vouchsafed to mention an errour so gross and which carrieth 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 errours which to study to confute were to honour them too much who make their sensual 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 years amongst those pleasing objects which our Religion biddeth us to contemn and to be so long absent from that joy and peace which is past understanding Their Heaven is as their virtues are full of dross and 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 abhorreth For look upon them and you shall behold them full of debate envy malice covetousness ambition minding earthly things and so they phansie 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 Kingdome 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 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 shall be like himself He shall come in power and majesty in a form answerable to his Laws and government And as all things were gathered 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 first he may well be said to come unto the Angels For he is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos 2.10 And as at his first coming he confirmed them in their happy estate of obedience which we believe as probable though we have no plain evidence of Scripture for it so at his second he shall more fully shew to them that which they desired to look into as S. Peter speaketh 1 Pet. 1.12 give them a clearer vision of God and increase the joy of the good as he shall the torments of the evil Angels For if they sang for joy at his birth what Hosannahs and Hallelujahs will they sound forth when they attend him with a shout 1 Thess 4 16. If they were so taken with his humility how will they be ravisht with his glory And if there be joy in heaven for one sinner that repenteth Luke 15 7 10. 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 Luke 20.36 and sing the same song Glory and honour to him that sitteth upon the throne Rev. 5.13 and to this Lord for ever more Secondly he cometh unto the Creatures to redeem them from bondage Rom. 8 19-22 For the desire of the creature is for this day of his coming and even the whole creation groneth with us also But when he cometh they shall be reformed into a better estate There shall be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3 13. Now the Creature is subject to vanity not onely to change and mutability but also 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 grone as it were and travail in pain under these abuses and therefore desire to be delivered not out of any rational desire but a natural inclination which is in every thing to preserve its self in its best condition To these the Lord will come Acts 3.21 and his coming is called the restitution of all things that which maketh all things perfect and restoreth every thing to its proper and natural condition The Creature shall have its rest the Earth shall be no more wounded with our plowshares nor the bowels of it digged up with the mattock there shall be no forbidden fruit to be tasted no pleasant waters to be stolen no Manna to surfet on no crowns to fight for no wedge of gold to be a prey no beauty to be a snare The Lord will come and deliver his Creature from this bondage perfect and consummate all and at once set an end both to the World and Vanity Lastly the Lord will come to men both good and evil He shall come in his glory Matth 25.31 32. and gather all nations and separate the one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and by this make good his Justice and manifest his Providence in the end His Justice is that which when the world is out of order establisheth the pillars thereof Sin is an injury to the whole Creation and inverteth that order which the Wisdom of God had first set up in the World My Adultery defileth my body my Oppression grindeth the poor my Malice vexeth my brother my Craft removeth the land-mark my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the Universe disturb and violate that order which Wisdom it self first established And therefore the Lord cometh to bring every thing back to its proper place to make all the wayes of his Providence consonant and agreeable to themselves to crown the repentant sinner that recovered his place and bind and fetter the stubborn and obstinate offender who could be wrought upon neither by promises nor by threats to move in his own sphere The Lord will come to shew what light he can strike out of darkness what harmony he can work out of the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed body of Sin Sin is a foul deformity in nature and therefore he cometh in judgment to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole where the punishment of sin may wipe out the disorder of sin Act 1 25. Gerson Then every thing shall be placed as it should be and every man sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his proper place Nec pulchrius in coeâ—o angelus quam in gehennâ diabolus Heaven is a fit and proper place for an Angel of light for the children of God and Hell is as fiâ— and proper for the Devil and his Angels Now the wayes of men are crooked and intricate and their actions carried on with that contrariety and contradiction that to quit
ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse upon them and death upon himself Num. 31.8 for he was slain for it with the sword What evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knoweth well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come And he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breathe vengeance in his face For howsoever we pretend ignorance yet most of the sins we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the Foolish man that the lips of the harlot will bite like a Cocatrice he knoweth it well enough and yet will kiss them Prov. 20.1 Tell the Intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived The cruel Oppressour will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eateth bread Psal 14.4 53.4 Matth. 7.12 Who knoweth not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice Who knoweth not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 and yet how many seek it out and are willing to travail with it though they die in the birth Cannot the thought of judgment move us and will the knowledge of a certain hour awake us Will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and would he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined hour were upon record No they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.13 Earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the Devil avoid though they knew the very hour I might say though they now saw the Lord coming in the clouds For wilt not thou believe God when he cometh as near thee as in wisdome he can and as his pure Essence and infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou wilt believe him if he would please to come so near as thy sick phansie would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dream of a sick and ill-affected mind that complaineth of want of light when it shineth in thy face For that information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same lethargicks which we were In a word if Christ's doctrine will not move us the knowledge which he will not teach would have little force And though it were written in capital letters At such a time and such a day and such an hour the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this death in sin till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam and so conclude We may learn even from our Ignorance of the hour thus much That as the Lords coming is uncertain so it will be sudden As we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we do not think on it cum totius mundi motu Apol. c. 33. cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tertullian with the shaking of the whole world with the horrour and amazement of the Vniverse every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did wait for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1 Thes 5.2 3. Luke 21.35 1. of travel coming upon a woman with child 2. of a Thief in the night and 3. of a Snare Now the Woman talketh and is chearful now she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff and now she groaneth Now the Mammonist locketh his God up in his chest layeth him down to sleep and dreameth of nothing else and now the Thief breaketh in and spoileth him Now our feet are at liberty and we walk at large walk on pleasantly as in fair places Now the bitterness of death is past and now the Snare taketh us Now we phansie new delights send our thoughts afar off dream of Lordships and Kingdoms Now we enlarge our imaginations as Hell anticipate our honours and wealth and gather riches in our mind before we grasp them in our hand Now we are full now we are rich now we reign as Kings now we beat our fellow-servants and beat them in our Lord's name and in this type and representation of hell we entitle our selves to eternity of bliss we are cursed and call our selves Saints and now even now he cometh Now sudden surprisals do commonly startle and amaze us but after a while after some pause and deliberation we recover our selves and take heart to slight that which drove us from our selves and left us as in a dream or rather dead But this bringeth either that horrour or that joy which shall enter into our very bones settle and incorporate it self with us and dwell in us for evermore Other assaults that are made upon us unawares make some mark and impression in us but such as may soon be wiped out We look upon them and being not well acquainted with their shapes they disturb our phansie but either at the sight of the next object we lose them or our Reason chaseth them away Aul Gel. Noct. Att l. 19. c. 1. The tempest riseth and the Philosopher is pale but his Reason will soon call his blood again into his cheeks He cannot prevent these sudden and violent motions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not consent he doth not approve these unlookt-for apparitions and phantasies He doth not change his counsel but is constant to himself Sudden joy and sudden fear with him are as short as sudden But this coming of our Lord as it is sudden so it bringeth omnimodam desolationem an universal horrour and amazement seiseth upon all the powers and faculties of the Soul chaineth them up and confineth them to loathsome and terrible objects from which no change of objects can divert no wisdome redeem them No serenity after this darkness no joy after this trembling no refreshing after this consternation For no coming again after this coming for it is the last Ser. 140. de Tempore And now to conclude Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine He shall come he shall come my brethren His coming is uncertain and his coming is sudden
imitateth natural motion It is weak in the beginning stronger in the progress but most strong and violent towards the end Transit in violentiam voluntas antiqua That which we will often we will with eagernerness and violence Our first onset in sin is with fear and reluctation we then venture further and proceed with les regret we move forwards with delight Delight continueth the motion and maketh it customary and Custome at last driveth and bindeth us to it as to our centre Vitia insolentiora renascuntur saith Seneca Sin groweth more insolent by degrees first it flattereth then commandeth after enslaveth and then betrayeth us First it gaineth consent afterwards it worketh delight Jer. 6.15 at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shamelesness in sin Were they ashamed Nihil magis in natura sua laudare se dicebat quam ut ipsius verbo Vtar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Caligula They were not at all ashamed nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a senslesness and stupidity and Caligula's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stubbornness and perversness of disposition which will not let us turn from sin For by neglecting a timely remedy vitia mores fiunt our evil wayes become our manners and common deportment and we look upon them as upon that which becomes us upon an unlawful act as upon that which we ought to do Nay peccatum lex Sin which is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. â— is made a Law it self S. Augustine in his Confessions calleth it so Lex peccati est violentia consuetudinis That Law of Sin which carrieth us with that violence is nothing else but the force of long custome and continuance in sin For sin by custome gaineth a kingdome in our souls and having taken her seat and throne there she promulgeth Laws Lex alia in membris meis repugnavit legi mentis mea Rom. 7. Lex 〈◊〉 peccati est violentia consuetudinis qua trahâ—tur tenetur etiam invitus animus eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur Aug. l. 8. Confess c 5. Psal 127.2 If she say Go we go and if she say Do this we do it Surge in quit Avaritia She commandeth the Miser to rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of sorrow She setteth the Adulterer on fire and maketh him vile and base in his own eyes whilst he counteth it his greatest honour and preferment to be a slave to his strumpet She draweth the Revengers sword She feedeth the Intemperate with poyson And she commaundeth not as a Tyrant but having gained dominion over us she findeth us willing subjects She holdeth us captive and we call our captivity our liberty Her poyson is as the poyson of the Aspick She biteth us and we smile we die and feel it not Again it is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose judgements we sl ght to whom we wantonly turn the back when he calleth after us to seek his face Psal 27.8 and so tread that Mercy under foot which should save us We will not turn yet upon a bold and strange presumption That though we grieve his Spirit though we resist and blaspheme his Spirit yet after all these scorns and contempts after all these injuries and contumelies he will yet look after us and sue unto us and offer himself and meet and receive us at any time we shall point as most convenient to turn in It is most true God hath declared himself and as it were become his own Herald and proclaimed it to all the world The Lord Exod. 34.6 7. merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most lovingly affected to Man the chief and prince of his creatures He longeth after him he wooeth him he waiteth on him His Glory and Mans Salvation meet and kiss each other for it is his glory to crown Man Nor doth he at any time turn from us himself till we doat on the World and Sensuality and divorce him from us till we have made our heaven below chosen other Gods which we make our selves and think him not worth the turning to Jer. 23.23 He he is alwayes a God at hand and never goeth from us till we force him away by violence How many murmurings and rebellions how many contradictions of sinners hath he stood out and yet looked towards them Amos 2.13 How hath he been pressed as a cart under sheaves and yet looked towards them How hath he been shaken off and defied and yet looked towards them He receiveth David after his adultery and murder after that complication of sins the least of which was of force enough to have cast him out of Gods presence for ever He receiveth Peter after his denial and would have received Judas had he repented after his treason He received Manasses when he could not live long and he received the Thief on the Cross when he could live no longer Psal 100.5 Heb. 13.8 All this is true His Mercy is infinite and his Mercy is everlasting and is the same yesterday and to day and for ever But as Tertullian saith well De pudicit c. 10. non potest non irasci contumeliis misericordiae suae God must needs wax angry at the contumelies and reproches which by our dalliance and delay we fling upon his Mercy which is so ready to cover our sins For how can he suffer this Queen of his Attributes to be thus prostituted by our lusts How can he endure to to see men bring Sin into the world under the shadow of that Mercy which should take it away and advance the kingdome of darkness and fight under the Devils banner with this inscription and motto lifted up The Lord is merciful What hopes of that souldier that flingeth away his buckler or of that condemned person thar teareth his pardon or of that sick man that loveth his disease and counteth his Physick poyson The Prophet here in my Text where he calleth upon us with that earnestness Turn ye turn ye giveth us a fair intimation that if we thus delay and delay and never begin a time may come when we shall not be able to turn It may seem indeed a harsh and hard saying a doctrine not sutable with the lenity and gentleness of the Gospel which breatheth nothing but mercy to conclude that such a time may come that any part of time that the last moment of our time may not make a Now to turn in that whilest we breathe our condition should be as desperate as if we were dead that whilest we are men our estate should be as irrevocable as that of the damned spirits with this difference onely that we are not yet in the place of torment which nevertheless is prepared for us and will as certainly receive us as it doth now the Devil
all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our Lusts conceived and brought forth by the midwifery of our Will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this complaint against Nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and Nature hath imprinted in our souls those common principles of goodness That good is to be embraced and evil to be abandoned That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst as the Stoicks call them of the mind and preparations against Sin and Death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke them might lift up our souls far above those depressions of Self-love and Covetousness and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which Reason with the help of Grace overcometh at once For Reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but also when we are beat to the ground it checketh and upbraideth us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation Psal 62.1 121.1 is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam And when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weakness as well as we do with the temptation Psal 103.14 then if we fall God remembreth whereof we are made considereth our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever But to think of our weakness and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves Wisd 1.12 to seek out Death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approch as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weakness is to charge God and Nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself And thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fall willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anak too strong for such grashoppers as we We delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the mother of all those mishapen births and monsters which walk about the world we dress and deck up and give it a fair and glorious name and call it Humility Which is Humilitas maximum fidei opus Hil. in Psal 130. saith Hilary the hardest and greatest work of our faith to which it is so unlike that it is the greatest enemy it hath and every day weakneth and disenableth it that it doth not work by charity but leaveth us Captives to the world and sin which but for this conceit it would easily vanquish and tread down under our feet We may call it Humility but it is Pride a stubborn and insolent standing out with God that made us upon this foul and unjust pretense That he made us so humilitas sophistica saith Petrus Blesensis the humility of hypocrites which at once boweth and pusheth out the horn in which we disgrace and condemn our selves that we may do what we please and speak evil of our selves that we may be worse Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are we groan it out and there is musick in the sound which we hear and delight in and carry along in our mind and so become wretched indeed even those miserable sinners which will ever be so And shall we call this Humility If it be Col. 2.18 it is as the Apostle speaketh a voluntary humility but in a worse sense He is the humblest man that doth his duty For that Humility which is commended to us in Scripture letteth us up to heaven this which is so epidemical sinketh us into the lowest pit That Humility boweth us down with sorrow this bindeth our hands with sloth that looketh upon our imperfections past this maketh way for more to come that ventureth and condemneth it self condemneth it self and ventureth further this runneth out of the field and dare not look upon the enemy Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt And it is no marvel they should fall and perish whom their own so low and groundless opinion hath already overthrown For first though I deny not a derived Weakness and from Adam though I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self or bound to the centre of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with others yet it is easie to deceive our selves and to think it more contagious then it is more operative and more destructive then it would be if we would shake off this conceit and rowse our selves and stand up against it Ignaviâ nostrâ fortis est It may be it is our sloth and cowardise that maketh it strong Certainly there must be more force then this hath to make us so wicked as many times we are and there be more promoters of the kingdom of Darkness in us then that which we brought with us into the world Lord what a noise hath Original sin made amongst the sons of Adam and what ill use hath been made of it When this Lion roareth all the Beasts of the forrest tremble and yet are beasts still We hear of it and are astonished and become worse and worse and yet there are but few that exactly know what it is When we are Infants we do not know that we are so no more then the Tree doth that it grows Much less can we discover what poyson we brought with us into the world which as it is the nature of some kind of poyson though it have no visible operation for the present may some years after break forth from the head to the foot in swellings and sores full of corruption and not be fully purged out to our
This is my body And be not faithless but believing Here shake off that chilness that restiveness that acedie that weariness that faintness of your Faith here warm and actuate and quicken it that it may be a working fighting conquering Faith For thus to do it is to do this in remembrance of Christ Secondly It taketh in Repentance By this we do most truly remember Christ remember his Birth and are born again for Repentance is our new birth remember his Circumcision and circumcise our hearts for Repentance is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great circumcision saith Epiphanius go about with him doing good for Repentance is our obedience remember him on his Cross for Repentance setteth up a Cross in imitation of his and lifteth us up upon it stretcheth and dilateth all the powers of our soul pierceth our hearts and so crucifieth the flesh and the affections and lucts thereof Our Repentance if it be true is an imitation of Christs suffering a revenge upon our selves for what the Jews did to him the proper issue and effect of his Love For what Christ worketh in us he first worketh upon us maketh us see and feel and handle his Love that we may be active in those duties of love which by his command and ensample we owe to him and in him to our brethren He dyed to be a propitiation for our sins that is 1 John 2.2 4.10 that he might make sin to cease for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyeth He giveth us strength by Repentance quite to extinguish and abolish sin Thus if we repent thus if we do we do it in remembrance of him And this we are alwaies to do but then especially when we prepare our selves to make our addresses to Christs Table For though Repentance be the fruit of a due Examination of our selves yet we may and must examin our Repentance it self And the time to do it is now Now thou art to renew thy Covenant thou must also renew thy Repentance In the feast of the Atonement the Lord telleth his people Lev. 23.29 Whatsoever soul should not be afflicted that day should be cut off This is a day for it in this day thou must do it This is the season to ransack thy soul to see how many grains of Hypocrisie were left behind in thy former Repentance what hollowness was in thy Grones what coldness in thy Devotion to see what advantage Satan hath since taken what ground he hath won in thy soul And then in remembrance of Christs Love set afresh to the work of Mortification wound thy heart deeper lay on surer blows empty thy self of thy self of all that rust and rubbish which thy Self-love left behind And then stir up those graces in thee which through inadvertency and carelessness lye raked up as in the ashes In a word refine every Virtue quicken every Grace intend thy Will exalt thy Faith draw nearer to Christ and so renew thy Covenant and sit down at his Table And thus if thou do it thou dost it in remembrance of him I might here take in the whole train the whole circle and crown of Christian graces and virtues and draw them together and shut them within the compass of this one word Remembrance for it will comprehend them all Knowledge Obedience Love Sincerity Thankfulness from whence the Sacrament hath its name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meditation and Prayer For he that truly believeth and repenteth as he is sick of sin so is he sick of Love of that Love which in the Sacrament is sealed and confirmed to us he is full of saving knowledge is ever bowing to Christs sceptre is sincere and like himself in all his wayes will meditate on Christs Love day and night will drive it ab animo in habitum as Tertullian speaketh from the mind to the motions and actions of the body from the conscience into the outward man till it appear in liberal hands in righteous lips and in attentive ears will breathe forth nothing but Devotion Prayers Hallelujahs Glory Honour and Praise for this his Love And so he will become as the picture and image and face of Christ reflecting all his favours and graces back upon him as a pillar engraven with Gods loving kindnesses a memorial of Gods goodness thankfully set up for ever And thus to do it is to do it in remembrance of Christ To conclude Thus if we do it if we thus remember him he will also remember us Cant. 8.6 remember us and set us as seals upon his heart and signets on his arm remember us as his peculiar treasure And as our Remembrance of him taketh up all the duty of a Christian so doth his Remembrance of us comprehend all the benefits of a Saviour Our Love of him and his Love to us are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian orat 17. will be as matter and fuel to nourish and uphold this remembrance between us for ever We shall remember him in humility and obedience and he shall remember us in love and power We shall remember him on earth and he shall remember us in heaven and prepare a place for us He shall remember our affliction and uphold us he shall remember our prayers and make them effectual our almes and make them a pleasing sacrifice He shall remember our failings and settle and establish us our tears and turn them into joy He shall remember all that we do or suffer all but our sins those he hath buried in his grave for ever And now we are drawing near to his Table with fear and reverence he will remember us and draw nearer to us in these outward Elements then Superstition can feign him beyond the fiction of Transsubstantiation Psal 36.8 He will abundantly satisfie us with the fatness of his house feed us though not with his flesh yet with himself and move in us that we may grow up in him In a word he will remember us in heaven more truly then we can remember him on earth and distill his grace and blessings on us be ever with us and fill our hearts with rejoycing Which will be a fair pledge of that solid pure and everlasting joy in the highest heavens And Lord remember us thus now thou art in thy Kingdome The Five and Twentieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 26. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come THere is nothing so good in it self but it may prove the the worst of evils if it be not carried on to its right end and fitly applied to that use for which it was ordained Frustrà est quod rationem finis non ducit saith the Philosopher Every thing hath its use from its end If it decline from that it is not onely unprofitable but hurtful I do not warm my self with a plainer nor smooth a table with fire for this were not onely vain but would destroy my work The
down to meat and will come forth and sâ—rve thee that is will fill thee with all those comforts enrich thee with all those blessings give thee all that honour which he hath promised to those who trie and examine and make themselves fit to be guests at his Table I must conclude though I should proceed to the second Part the Grant and the Privilege But he that hath performed the first is already intitled to the second and may nay ought to eat of that bread â—nd drink of that cup For even the Privilege it self is a Duty But the time is spent and I fear your patience I will but re-assume my Text and there needeth no more Use For you see my Text it self is an Exhortation Let a man examine himself A man that is every man Let him that taketh the tribunal and sitteth upon the life and death of his brethren that exalteth himself as God and taketh the keyes out of his hand and bindeth and looseth at pleasure that wondereth how such or such a man who is not his brother in evil as factious as himself dareth approch the Table of the Lord let him examine himself Let him look into himself and there he shall see a great wonder a Wolf and a Lamb a John Baptist and a Herod a Devil and a Saint bound up together in one man the greatest prodigy in the world and as ominous as any ominous to his neighbours ominous to Commonwealths and ominous to all that live in the same coasts And let them examine themselves who with their Tribunitial VETO forbid all to come to this Feast who will not submit to their Examination Young men and maids old men as well as children they that have been catechised and instructed in season and out of season whom they themselves have taught for many years all must pass by this door of Trial to the Table of the Lord. I shall be bold to ask them a question since they ask so many WHERE IS IT WRITTEN Ostendat scriptum Hermogenis officina It is plain in my Text that we are bound to examine our selves but that some should be set apart to examine others we do not read And quorsum docemur si semper docendi simus why are we taught so much if we are ever to learn Certainly that Charity believeth little which will suspect that a man full of years and who hath sate at his feet many of them should now in his old age and gray hairs be to be instructed in the principles of faith It is true we cannot be too diligent in instructing one another in the common salvation we cannot labour enough in this work of building up one another in our holy faith and it concerneth every man to seek knowledge at those lips that preserve it and if he doubt to make them his oracle who are set over him in the Lord For Ignorance as well as Profaneness maketh us uncapable of this Privilege unfit to come to this Feast But this formal and magisterial Examination for ought we can judge can proceed from no other Spirit then that which was sent from Rome to Trent in a Cloke-bag and there at the XIII Session made Auricular Confession a necessary preparative for the receiving of the Sacrament Sacramental Confession and Sacramental Examination may have the same ends and the same effects and there may be as idle and as fruitless questions asked at the one as at the other But I judge them not onely call upon them in the Apostle's words Let them examine themselves whether Love of the world Love of preeminence or Love of mens souls do fan that fiery zele which is so hot in the defence of it Let them also examine themselves who are God's familiars and yet fight against him who know what is done in his closet and do what they please at his footstool and so upon a feigned assurance of life build nothing but a certainty of death who think nay profess and write it that the Elect of which number you may be sure they make themselves may fall into the greatest sins Adultery Murther and Treason and yet still remain men after God's heart and the members of Christ and that to think the contrary is an opinion Stygiae infernalis incredulitatis which upholdeth a Stygian and hellish incredulity and can proceed from none but the Devil himself Let these I say examine themselves And if this Luciferian pride will once bow to look into this charnel-house of rotten bones if the hypocrite will pluck off his visour and behold his face naked as it is in the glass of God's Word we need not call so loud on open and notorious offenders Intestinum malum periculosius These intestine secret applauded errours are most dangerous and that wound which is least visible must be most searched But the exhortation concerneth all Let the Pharisee examine himself and let the Publican examine himself Let the Oppressour examine himself and melt in compassion to the poor Let the Intemperate examine himself and wage war with his appetite Let the Covetous person examine himself and tread Mammon under his feet Let the Deceitful man examine himself and do that which is just Let him that is secure and let him that feareth Let him that is confident and let him that wavereth Let the proud spirit and let the drooping spirit examine himself Let every man examine himself Let every man that nameth Christ and in that Name draweth near to his Table depart from all iniquity And then behold here is a Grant passed over to them a Privilege enrolled and upon record They may eat of this bread and drink of thiâ— cup taste and see how gracious the Lord is be partakers of his body and bloud that is of all the benefits of his Cross Redemption Justification his continued and uninterrupted Intercession for us Peace of conscience unspeakable Joy in the holy Ghost And when he shall come again in glory they shall have a gracious reception and admittance to sit down at his Table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs and all the Apostles and that noble army of Martyrs in the Kingdom of heaven And with these ravishing thoughts I shut up all and leave them with you to dwell and continue and abound in you and to bring you with comfort on the next great Lord's day to the Table of the Lord. The Seven and Twentieth SERMON GAL. I. 10. The last part of the Verse For do I now perswade men or God or do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ WHich words admit a double sense but not contrary for the one is virtually included in the other As first If I should yet do as I did when I was a Jew seek to please men and to gain repute and honour and wealth fit my doctrine to their corrupt disposition I should never have entred into Christs service which setteth
more I shine and the more I shine the more I am on fire Thus was John Baptist and thus is every true Christian not onely a burning but a shining light And we may well compare the Profession of the Truth and Holiness of life to the Light that shineth The path of the just is as the shining light Prov. 4.18 saith Solomon For as Light serveth not onely to illustrate the medium and make it diaphanous but casteth also a delightful lustre on the object and is pleasant to the eye in a manner quickning and reviving us for they who are in darkness are as in a grave and they who are blind are as they who have been dead long ago so the Piety of the Saints and the beauty of holiness doth not onely shew and manifest it self as Light but like Light it hath a kind of influence and powerful operation upon others It worketh upon the phansie and imagination which is much taken with these real resemblances and representations and it worketh on the passions which must be as wings to carry us to those blessed Worthies to that pitch of holiness where they sit a spectacle to the world to men and to Angels For in our definitions and precepts and decrees and exhortations Piety many times to divers men appeareth in different shapes or ele slideth away and passeth by in silence but being charactered in the practice and actions of the Saints and written as it were with Light it gaineth more force and efficacy it presseth upon our phansie and busieth our understanding part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is more visible in actions then in words Would you see Humility drawn out to the life Behold our Saviour on the cross Had we seen S. Paul in the flesh we had had the best commentary on his Epistles What fairer picture of Charity then the Widow flinging in her two mites into the treasury of Severity and strictness of life then John Baptist in his leathern girdle and camels hair feeding on locusts and wild honey There is virtue gone from them that we may come near and touch and be familiar with it There is light that we may look upon it and walk by it Imaginatio provocat desiderium A strong imagination must needs provoke in us a desire of that which pleased it and raise up in us an holy emulation I say an holy Emulation which is a mixt passion made up of Sorrow and Anger and Love and Hope Sorrow for our defects Anger at our selves that we stay behind Love of that goodness which we see in others and find not in our selves and Hope to equal them And these poise and qualifie each other My Sorrow is not envious for Hope comforteth it my Anger is not malignant for Love tempereth it And they are all as so many winds to fill our sails to swell our thoughts and to drive on our desires to the mark We read of Donatus the Grammarian that as oft as he found any remarkable passage in the Ancients which might deserve applause he was wont to say Malè pereant antiqui qui nobis nostra praeripuerunt I beshrew the Ancients who have prevented us by their inventions and so robbed us of that renown which might have been ours A vain speech of a proud Grammarian Malè pereant Nay rather Blessed be the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of John Baptist and of all the glorious Saints and Martyrs who hath set up these lights to direct us in our way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sublime Towers with continual light and fire to guide us in this our dangerous passage to the haven where we would be who hath fixt these Stars in the firmament of the Church to lighten them that are in darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed be God for this light For by this light in a manner we live and move and have our being By this light we are encouraged and provoked to walk on to perfection And such a power and force this light hath that if it do not bow the will yet it will command the understanding if it do not prevail with us to love it yet it will win our approbation if it do not beget a love yet it will force a delight and the worst men shall be willing to rejoyce in it though it be but for a season And so I pass from the Character and Commendation of John Baptist to the Censure passed upon the Jews Ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light God had not now for some hundreds of years spoken to the Jews by the mouth of a Prophet and therefore a Prophet after so long a vacancy could not but be welcome unto them Quod rarum est plùs appetitur Let Prophets run about our streets and we are ready to stone them but after a long silence let a John Baptist lift up his voice and we all leap for joy No sooner did John preach Luke 3.15 but the people were in suspence and expectation and all men mused in their hearts whether he were the Christ or no. And peradventure they thought that though his beginning was obscure as that of Moses yet the time might come when he would shew himself to be the Messias restore the Kingdom to Israel and be as Moses their Captain and fight their battels and make them lords of all the world This I say they might conceive of John But this was not the light with which he did shine And to root out this conceit he confessed John 1.10 and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ That which so gloriously shined in him was his Strictness of life and Holiness of conversation And such is the activity of this light such is the lustre and power of Holiness that it will work a complacency and delight even in them who oppose it And this is the glory and triumph of Truth and Goodness that it striketh a reverence into those that neglect it findeth a place in his breast whose hand is ready to suppress it and worketh delight where it cannot win assent We may embrace a truth and condemn it commend Chastity and be wantons and with the Jew not hearken to the voice of the Crier and yet rejoyce in his light And the reason is manifest For as there is a sensitive joy which is nothing else but the pleasing and titillation of the sense by the application of that which is convenient and agreeable to it as of a better white and red to the Eye a more pleasant voice to the Ear more savoury meat to the Tast so there is a rational and intellectual joy which is nothing else but the approbation of Reason in the apprehending of that which is proportioned to it an assent to a conclusion drawn out of the common principles of discourse or at most but a resultancy from it For Truth is fitted to the Understanding as Colours are to the Eye or Musick to the Ear. The remembrance
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
jurisdiction something or other will have the command of us either the World or the Flesh or Jesus Therefore we ought to consider what it is that beareth most sway in our hearts what it is we are most unwilling to lose and afraid to depart from Whether we had rather dwell in the world with all its pomp and pageantry in the flesh in a Mahumetical paradise of all sensual delights or with Jesus the Lord though it be with persecutions Suppose the Devil should make an overture to thee as he did to our Saviour of all the Kingdoms of the world and the Flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee Pleasure and Honour and Power and all that a heart of flesh can desire in those Kingdomes and on the other side Jesus the Lord should check thee as he doth in his Gospel and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that this present shew will rob thee of future realities that the pleasures which are but for a season are not to be compared to that eternal weight of glory that in this terrestriall Paradise thou shalt meet with the sword and wrath of God and from this seeming painted heaven fall into hell it self Here now is thy trial here thou art put to thy choice If thy heart can now truly say I will have none of these if thou canst say to thy Flesh Who gave thee authority over me What hast thou to doe with me if thou canst say with thy Jesus Avoid Satan and then bow to Jesus and acknowledge no power in heaven or in earth no Dominion but his then thou hast learned this holy language perfectly and mayst truly say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And now to apply it in a word Is it not pity nay a great shame that Man who was created to holiness who was made for this Lord as this Lord was made man for him whose perfect liberty is his service whose greatest honour is to be under his Dominion and whose crown of glory it is to have Jesus to be his King should wait and serve under the World which passeth away should be a parasite to the Flesh which hath no better kin then Rottenness and Corruption should yield and comply with the Devil who seeketh to devour him and fling off the service of Christ as the most loathsome painful detestable thing on earth who is a Jesus to save him and a Lord that hath purchased him with his bloud Is Jesus the Lord Nay but the World is the Lord and the Flesh is the Lord and the Devil is the Lord. This is Vox populi the language of the world And therefore Saint Cyprian bringeth in the Devil thus bragging against this Jesus and magnifying his power above his and laughing us to scorn whom he hath filled with shame Ego pro istis sanguinem non fudi I have not spent one drop of bloud for these I gave them wine to mock them I presented them beauty to burn them I made riches my snare to take them I flattered them to kill them All my study was to bring them to death and everlasting destruction Tuos tales demonstra mihi Jesu Thou that openedst thy bowels and pouredst forth thy bloud for them shew me so many servants of thine so ready so officious so ambitious to serve thee And what a shame is this to all that bear the name of Christ and call him both their Jesus and their Lord that the malice of an enemy should win us and the love of a Saviour harden us that a Murtherer should draw us after him and a Redeemer drive us from him that Satan an Adversary and the Devil an Accuser should more prevail then Jesus the Lord Lacrymis magìs opus est quà m verbis Here let us drop our tears and lay our hands upon our mouths and abhor our selves in dust and ashes go into the house of mourning the school of Repentance and there learn this blessed dialect learn it and believe it and speak it truly JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. For conclusion Ye that approch the Table of the Lord to receive the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud consider well whose Body and Bloud it is Draw near for it is Jesus but draw near with reverence for it is the Lord. And as he was once offered upon the Cross so in these outward elements he now offereth himself unto you with all the benefits of his death For here is comprehended not onely Panis Domini but Panis Dominus not onely the bread of the Lord John 6. but also the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from heaven And how will ye appear before your Jesus but with love and gratitude and with that new song of the Saints and Angels Rev. 5.12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And how will ye appear before your Lord but with humility and reverence with broken hearts for your neglect and strong and well-made resolutions to fall down and worship and serve him all the dayes of your life For if the ancient Christians out of their high esteem of the Sacrament were scrupulous and careful that not one part of the consecrated Bread nor one drop of the consecrated Wine should fall to the ground but thought it a sin though it were but a chance or misfortune quanti piaculi erit Deminum negligere what an unexpiable crime will it be to neglect the Lord himself If the Sacrament hath been thought worthy of such honour what honour is due to Jesus the Lord Bring then your offerings and oblations and offer them here as he offered himself upon the cross your Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh your Temporal goods your Prayers your Mortification that this Lord may hold forth his golden sceptre to you that you may touch the top of it and be received into favour For what else doth the Eucharist signifie We call the Sacraments the signs and seals of the Covenant of Grace But they are also saith Contarene the protestations of our Faith by which we believe not onely the articles of our Creed but the Divine Promise and Institution And Faith is vocal and will awake our Viol and Harp our Tongue and all the powers and faculties of our soul and breathe it self forth in songs of thanksgiving And they are the protestations of our Repentance also which will speak in sighs and grones unutterable And they also are the protestations of our Hope which is ever looking for and rejoycing in and talking of that which is laid up And they are the protestations of our Charity which maketh the tongue and hand as the pen of a ready writer whose words are more sweet whose language is more delightful then that which is uttered by the tongues of men and of Angels And if ye thus
world then a learned fool So the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more then from carnal men who are thus Spirit-wise For by acknowledging the Spirit they gain a glorious pretence to work all wickedness and that with greediness which whilest others doubt of though their errour be dangerous and fatal yet parciùs insaniunt they cannot be so outragiously mad But yet it doth not follow because some men mistake the Spirit and abuse him that no man is taught by the holy Ghost The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his but it doth not follow hence that no wise and sober merchant knew his own To him that is drunk things appear in a double shape and proportion geminae Thebae gemini soles two cities for one and two Suns for one Can I hence conclude that all sober men are blind Because I will not learn doth not the Spirit therefore teach And if some men take Dreams for Revelations must the holy Ghost needs loose his office This were to run upon the fallacy non-causae pro causâ to deny an unquestionable and fundamental truth for an inconvenience to dig up the Foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it or because some men have sore eyes to pluck the Sun out of his sphere This were to dispossess us of one evil Spirit and leave us naked to be invaded by a Legion To make this yet a little plainer We confess the operations of the Spirit are in their own nature difficult and obscure and as Scotus observeth upon the Prologue to the Sentences because they are quite of another condition then any thought or working in us whatsoever imperceptibiles not to be suddenly perceived no not by that soul in which they are wrought In which speech of his doubtless if we weigh it with charity and moderation and not extremity of rigour there is much truth Seneca telleth us Quaedam animalia cùm mordent non sentiuntur adeò tenuis illis fallens in periculum vis est The deadly bitings of some creatures are not felt so secret and subtle a force they have to endanger a man So on the contrary the Spirit 's enlightning us and working life in our hearts can at first by no means be described so admirable and curious a force it hath in our illumination Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi profuit profuisse deprehendes That it hath wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which it wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration We read that Mark Antony when with his Oration he shewed unto the people the wounded coat wherein Caesar was slain populum Romanum egit in furorem he made the people almost mad So the power of the Spirit as it seemeth wrought the like affection in the people who when they had heard the Apostles set forth the passion of Christ Acts 2. and lay his wounds open before their eyes were wrapt as it were in a religious fury and in it suddenly cryed out Men and brethren what shall we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text They were stung and as it were nettled in their hearts Now this could not be a thing done by chance or by any artificial energy and force in the Apostles speech this I say could not be For if we observe it Christ was slain amongst them and what was that to them or why should this hazard them more then the death of many other Prophets and holy men who through the violence of their Rulers had lost their lives And what necessity what coactive reason was there to make them believe that He was to save and redeem them who not long since had cruelly crucified him Dic Quintiliane colorem What art was there what strong bewitching power that should drive the people into such an ecstasie Or what could this be else but the effect of the operation of the holy Spirit which evermore leaveth the like impressions on those hearts on which he pleaseth to fasten the words of the wise Eccl. 12.11 which are like unto goads quae cum ictu quodam sentimus saith Seneca we hear them with a kind of smart as Pericles the Oratour is reproved to have spoken so that he left a sting behind in the minds of his Auditory And this putteth a difference betwixt natural and supernatural and spiritual Truths We see in natural Truths either the evidence and strength of Truth or the wit and subtilty of conceit or the quaintness of method and art may sometimes force our Understanding and lead captive our Affections but in sacred and Divine Truths such as is the knowledge of the Dominion and Kingdom of Christ the light of Reason is too dimme nor could it ever demonstrate this conclusion Jesus is the Lord which the brightest eye that ever the world had could of it self never see Besides the art by which it was delivered was nothing else but plainness and by S. Paul himself the worthiest Preacher it ever had except the Son of God himself it is called the foolishness of preaching But as it is observed that God in his works of wonder and his miracles brought his effects to purpose by means almost contrary to them so many times in his persuasions of men he draweth from them their assent against all rule and prescript of art and that where he pleaseth so powerfully that they who receive the impressions seem to think deliberation which in other cases is wisdom in this to be impiety But you will say perhaps that the holy Ghost was a Teacher in the Apostles times when S. Paul delivered this Christian axiom this principle this sum of Christianity when the Church was in sulco semine when the seeds of this Religion were first sown that then he did wonderfully water this plant that it might grow and increase But doth he still keep open School doth he still descend to teach and instruct us on whom the ends of the world are come Yes certainly he doth For if he did not teach us we could not vex him if he did not work in us we could not resist him if he did not speak unto us we could not lie unto him He is the God of all spirits to this day And uncti Christians we are And an anointment we have saith S. John and whilest this abideth in us we need not that any man teach us for this unction this discipline this Divine grace is sufficient And though this oyntment flow not so plenteously now as of old yet we have it and it distilleth from the Head to the skirts of the garment to the meanest member of the Church Though we be no Apostles yet we are Christians and the same Spirit teacheth both And by his light we avoid all by-paths of errour that are dangerous and discern though not all Truth yet all that is necessary They had an Ephah we an Hin yet our Hin is a measure
end where they cannot find a fault they will make one And this fiction of theirs must be as a sheet let down from heaven Acts 11.01 13 with a command to arise and kill and eat And at the sight of a prodigy of their own begetting they rejoyce and divide the spoil For conclusion then Let us mark these men and avoid them And let us mourn and be sorry for their joy the issue not of Christian Love but of Pride and Covetousness and which hath not God's glory for its object but their own Let them murmure let us rejoyce let them reproch us let us pray let them break witless jests let us break our stony hearts let them detract let us sing praises let them cry Down with it Down with it even to the ground let us reverence God's Sanctuary let us remember the end for which it was built and draw all our thoughts words and gestures to that end let us so behave our selves in the Church that we may be Temples of the living God and worship God in the beauty of holiness Why should we not rejoyce with David and tune our harps by his our devotion by his songs of thanksgiving The same God reigneth still the same end is set up and the same means appointed for that end Let us press hard to the end and then no scruple can arise Let not our sins and evil conscience trouble us and nothing will trouble us Come let us worship and fall down that is one end and our everlasting happiness is another And these are so linked together that ye cannot sever them The end cannot be had without the means and the means rightly used never miss of their end And then God's glory and our happiness will meet and run on together in a continued course to all eternity Oh then let us so use the means ut profectum pariant non judicium as S. Augustine speaketh that they may have their end and not end in judgement Why should any benefit opportunity occasion that looketh this way be lost and so ly dead and buried why should it loose the effect it should have Why when God soweth his grace and favour should nothing grow up but wormwood and bitterness Why should Heaven bow it self and Earth withdraw Why should God honour us and we dishonour his gift Let us therefore put on David's spirit and enter God's courts with joy and his house with rejoycing let us come to Church with one heart and one soul Prov. 8.31 And as God's delight is to be with the children of men so let our delight be to converse with him in all humility And Humility is an helper of our Joy let us bow our knees and lift up our hearts and upon those altars burn the incense of our prayers and offer up the sacrifice of our praise and let our obedience keep time with our devotion Thus if we present our selves before God in his house he will rejoyce over us and his Angels will rejoyce with us and for us and we shall joy in one anothers joy and when all Temples shall be destroyed and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll Isa 34.34 we shall meet together in our Masters joy and there with Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven sing praises to him for evermore To which joy he bring us who can hear from heaven and grant our requests and fill us with all joy even the God of love the Father of mercy and the Lord of heaven and earth Soli Deo Gloria The Four and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you THE Decalogue is an abridgment of Morality and of those precepts which direct us in the government of our selves and in our converse with others And this Sermon of our Saviour is an improvement of the Decalogue Herein you may discover Honesty of conversation Trust in God and the Love of his kingdom and his righteousness mutually depending on each other and linked together in one golden chain which reacheth from earth to heaven from the footstool to the throne of God Our conversation will be honest if we trust in God and we shall trust in God if we seek his kingdom and his righteousness For why is not our Yea Yea and our Nay Nay Why are not we so ready to resist evil Why do we not love our neighbour Why do we not love our enemy Why do we arm our selves with craft and violence Why do we first deceive our selves and then deceive others The reason is Because we love the world Why do we love the world Because we are unwilling to depend on the providence of God Why do we not trust in God Because we love not his kingdom and his righteousness He that loveth and seeketh this needeth no lie to make him rich feareth no enemy that can obstruct his way knoweth no man that is not his neighbour nor no neighbour that is not his friend layeth up no treasure for the moth or rust serveth not Mammon nor needeth to be sent to school to learn the providence of God from the fouls of the aire or the lilies of the field This is the summe and conclusion of the whole matter The kindgdom of God and his righteousness is all comprehendeth all is the sole and adequate object of our desires And therefore our Saviour calleth back our thoughts from wandring after false riches taketh off our care and solicitude from that vanity which is not worth a thought and levelleth them on that which hath not this deputative and borrowed title of Riches even that kingdom and righteousness which is riches and honour and pleasure and whatsoever is desirable For even these are of her retinue and train and she bringeth them along with her as a supplement or overplus Do you fear injury This shall protect you Do you fear disgrace This shall exalt you Do you fear nakedness and poverty This shall cloth and enrich you Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you In these words our Saviour setteth up an Object for his Disciples and all Christians to look on first the kingdom of God the price and prize of our high calling Which we need not speak of we cannot conceive it the tongue of men and Angels cannot express the glory of it Secondly his righteousness this is the way to God's Kingdom Next you have the Dignity of the Object it must be sought then the Preeminence of it it must be sought first and last of all the Motive or Promise or Encouragement to make us seek it which answereth all objections which the flesh or the world can put in All these other things shall be added to you These be the parts of the Text and of these in order The Kingdom of God is the end and we must look on
countrey it will not fit our Ambition in the eager pursuit of honour nor our Covetousness in grasping of wealth nor our Luxury in doting on pleasures Righteousness treadeth all these imaginations under her feet and will at last rise up against those Impostors which work these lying wonders in her name She changeth and transelementeth all into her self the love of the World the love of Honour the love of Pleasure into the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. To conclude This is the Object we are to look on and if we receive and embrace it if we seek it and seek it first it will supply us with all things necessary for us in the way and at last bring us to the Kingdom of God The Five and Twentieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you IN our former discourse we have lifted up the Object that you might behold the beauty and majesty of it and so fall in love vvith it that your desires may be on the vving and that you may seek it vvith your vvhole heart Which is my next part and cometh now to be handled But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Let us now see what it is to seek it For as vve mistake one object for another set up Pleasure for an idol and Mammon for a God and call that Righteousness which is as distant from it as the heavens are from the lowest pit so vve are vvillingly deceived in our seeking of it and make it but the sudden flight of the soul the business of the phansie the labour or rather the lust of the ear As David speaketh there is Generatio quaerentium a generation of them that seek Righteousness Some seek it in their bed have peradventure a pleasant dream of it talk of it as men do in their sleep Some seek it and sit still and gaze Some seek it and are unwilling to find it bound and limit their desires vvhich in the pursuit of Righteousness should admit no bounds Our desires after it may be too vveak and faint they cannot be too vehement Some never think themselves vviser stewards for God and themselves then vvhen they favour themselves and say This is too much benigni Dei interpretes too too favourable interpreters of God and his commands boldly concluding he is not so hard a task-master as he maketh shew of and vvith the false Steward in the Gospel vvhen the debt is an hundred measures of oyl taking the bill and writing fifty Commonly when we fail and fall short in our performance we make not that use we ought of the rule to quicken and enliven our endeavours but by our weak endeavours judge the rule it self and whatsoever how little soever we do this is it which God requireth If we do but think of Righteousness if we do but speak of it if we do but look after it or faintly pray for it that with us is to seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Every grone is Repentance Agrippa's modicum our Altogether every Lord Lord that Violence which taketh the Kingdom of heaven every look a liking every inclination a desire and every desire a seeking of Righteousness Now there are three duties in which the formal Christian seemeth so to please himself as if to pass over them were to finish his course and enter into heaven and of which he maketh his boast all his life long publick Profession of the Gospel hearing of the Word and tendring of his Prayers unto God Naming of Christ Hearing what he will say and Speaking to him that he may hear These three are all by which we can discover his desire or endeavour and in the strength of these he walketh on and that securely all the dayes of his life thinking not that bitterness will be at the end Let us stay a while and take a view of them And first if we send our eyes abroad and take a survey of the conversation of most Christians we may be persuaded that the mere profession and naming of Righteousness the speaking well of it is all the pains they take in seeking it For what can we discover in most mens lives but noise and words What a place is Heaven What Manna is Righteousness how happy are they that seek it and no more But this is too short so far from seeking that it may consist with loathing and it may proceed from some other cause then a desire or love of Righteousness Some speak well of it because they are convinced and cannot think otherwise For not onely out of the mouths of babes and sucklings but even out of the mouths of wicked men hath God ordained strength And Righteousness is justified not onely by her children but also by her enemies Again some are righteous in a throng applaud Righteousness for very shame dare not with open face oppose it left the multitude of those they live with should confute and silence them Si nomen Justitiae in tanto honore non esset tot professores hodie non haberet If the name of Righteousness were not glorious in the world she would fall short in her reckoning and number of professors whereof many make but a proffer approach towards her for companies sake Besides the Desire doth not alwayes sympathize and keep time with the Voice but often is dull and heavy when our songs of praises are loudest The voice may be for Diana the desire for gain the voice for a new discipline the desire for preeminence the voice for liberty the desire for dominion the voice for the glory of God the desire for our own the voice for the good of the Church the desire for the wealth of the Church the voice for Righteousness the desire for the things of this world O miserable disproportion and contradiction of Voice and Desire of what we approve and what we would have Foolish men that we are to say Righteousness is the fairest object and yet to loath it to profess the Gospel is true and yet to live as if we were certain it were false I did not well to mention this for this hath nothing of desire in it this is not to seek but to run from Righteousness At best it is but a beam cast from the light of reason an acknowledgement against our wills an echo from a hollow cave or sepulchre of rotten bones which when all the world crieth up Righteousness resoundeth it back again into the world of so little activity that we may truly say Vox est preterea nihil It is a voice an echo and no more This then is not to seek Righteousness In the second place S. Paul hath told us of itching ears 2 Tim. 4.3 And we may observe some to have a greedy desire to hear of Righteousness And their listning after it their attention may seem to come near it Yet Righteousness dwelleth
swindge the condition of the righteous were most miserable But he striketh off the chariot wheels of those Egyptians that pursue them and putteth an hook into their nostrils so that against their wills they become instruments of good to them whom they most hate Besides the righteous because of righteousness are in a manner proscribed the world debarred of many of the thriving arts that are there taught They cannot flatter for a reward nor lye for advantage they cannot worship the golden calf supple and humour the rich man for his countenance and favour they cannot tread those paths which lead to honour and preferment and therefore if these things come it must needs be that God himself doth pour them on them The ravens feed Elijah 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings 19. An Angel bringeth him meat A Prophet is taken up by the hair of the head to carry a mess of pottage for Daniel's dinner Now whether God send his ravens or his Angels whether the rarest dainties or but a mess of pottage the care of God is the same and the miracle as great 3. This promise is not absolute but made over to us upon condition These things shall be added not to exclude Righteousness or thrust it from its seat but to be as an handmaid to wait upon it and serve it And therefore if God see that these things will slug and retard us in the pursuit of Righteousness he will withdraw them When he addeth them it is because his mercy endureth for ever and when he withdraweth them it is because his mercy endureth for ever That love which opened his hand doth shut it up and that which gave us these things will leave us nothing His love fitteth and applieth it self to our condition for his mercy endureth for ever How many things doth he give us which we would not have because he loveth us How many things doth he withhold from us which we would have because he loveth us Better it is and more honour to lye on the dunghill with Righteousness then to sit on the throne without it If the competition be between the Kingdom of God and these things then Domine nolo hanc misericordiam saith Bernard Lord I will have none of this kind of mercy this pleasing killing mercy none of these riches that will undo me none of these temporal blessings that will make eternity it self a curse Then God is liberal in denying me is better then his promise when he seemeth not so good as his promise For when he promised to adde these things he did not mean to destroy us 4. In the the last place If God do not adde all these things and so make good the promise in the letter yet Righteousness it self will supply all defects and make even nothing it self all these things unto us In respect of Righteousness it is alike gainful either to enjoy the things of the world or not to enjoy them And no man can doubt of this but he that knoweth not or will not know what Religion is who is divorced from Righteousness and married to the world Nay if I may use the word I may be bold to say It is as meritorious and as great a part of Righteousness to know how to want these things for God's sake as it is know how to abound and use them to his service We read of Epaminondas a noble Thebane that when the people in scorn had put him into a base office he did rather rejoyce in it then disdain it and told them that he would manage it with that wisdom and resolution that he would make it a place of as great honour and credit as any was in the State And this Righteousness can much more do It can make the lowest and basest estate equivalent unto the most honourable calling in the world and by the grace of God who made us out of nothing is able and doth make nothing as beneficial unto us as if we were made Lords of all the creatures That is not Honour that is not Riches which unrighteous men call by that name For is an Ass honourable in purple or rich when he is laden with gold and diamonds Yes he is as honourable as a raging Tyrant as Herod in all his royalty as an unjust Judge as he that will be great and not be righteous For they both both the Ass and the Man bear their honour and riches alike but the Ass more innocently Beloved neither to enjoy nor to want is a thing of any worth with God nor doth he consider or esteem it But to know how to use and how to want this becometh beneficial unto us For who is poorer then he that hath and enjoyeth not that swimmeth in rivers of milk and honey and cannot taste them And he that hath nothing in this world if he hath not this art of enjoying Nothing Perdidit infelix totum nil hath utterly lost the benefit of this Nothing When Job from so great an estate had fallen to nothing nay to worse then nothing in this world to misery which is a whip and under contempt which to a generous mind is a scorpion by patience and humble Submission under the hand of God by receiving calamities and giving thanks he purchased a greater measure of glory then if he had never tasted of them Nay he made his poverty a purchase for his estate his sheep his camels his oxen and his asses were doubled to him Whatsoever was transitory and perishing he received with interest and the greatest interest and but the just number of his children it is Basil's observation because they still lived in their better part and would all be restored at the resurrection Such purchaces doth Righteousness make such advantages and improvements doth she find It is for want of Righteousness that many do want and make their want a greater increase of evil unto them For the sting of poverty is impatience Repining at God's providence secret indignation and envy against those that abound these are the furies which pursue them and make their misery more malignant these heap up wrath against the day of wrath these make them unfit either to live or die and deliver them from one hell into another Or if they can quiet and compose their minds and make shew of calmness and contentedness it is rather senslesness and wretched stupidity then religious discretion as little children laugh at their fathers funerals because they do not understand their loss But to resign our selves into the hands of God whose we are to make his will ours though it be to make us a proverb of misery to be throughly contented to be any thing to suffer any thing which he will have us to want without repining this is the work of righteousness this is a part of piety as great as giving our bodies to the fire as entertaining of Christ and his Prophets as founding of Churches or building of Hospitals or doing whatsoever else is commended to us A
should be What vvill become us 17. Comfort is for the godly not for sinners 1114 1115. Some little comfort from Philosophy none true and solid 949 950. 954 v. Scripture If vve perform the conditions the comforts of the Gospel shall be made good to us 953. Comforting of others what 941 c. Our Comforting of others must not proceed from Pride Hypocrisie Vain-glory or Fear 942. Motives to the duty 943 944. We seek Comfort and miss it because vve seek amiss 945. 948. 953. Where true Comfort is to be had 946 c. Commandments of God our light our provision our defense in our way to heaven 540 c. Common people v. Deceit Common-wealth to be preferred before private 544. Common-wealth and Kingdomes whether they have a fatal period 213. The respect Church and Common-wealth have each to other 224 225. Communion v. Lords Supper Communion of Saints 420. 840 c. 861. 939 c. Compassion though by the Stoicks cried down is a very divine virtue 147 148. Without it a man cannot be a part of the Church 148. V. Mercy Complaint and murmuring vvhence 937. Confession of sin vvhen hearty vvhen not 333. Be not ashamed to confess thy sins now lest thou be confounded hereafter 1039 1040. The vvay to have our sins hid is to confess them 1040 1041. ¶ We must confess the truth not onely in times of peace but even to the face of its enemies 982 983. Confidence must be in God alone 807. Conformity to Christ how necessary 15 16. v. Christ Congregation Every particular C. commonly damneth all for hereticks that cast not in their lots vvith them 319 320. 455. 682. 1060. v. Faction Conscience how little regarded 169. To sin against C. aggravateth sin fearfully 441. C. cannot erre in that vvhich is plain and evident 892. but Love of the vvorld vvill make a man run into that his C. starteth at 892 893. C. may sleep but not die in us 330. 502. Reluctancie of C. is no certain sign of a child of God 439 c. The force of C. 499. 1037. No torment like to a bad C. 740 741. The courses vvicked men take to silence it 449. 503. 688. 922. 948. 1037. If vve vvound our C. in one particular though but a little vve are in the vvay to vvound her deeper 1120. Every vvilfull violation of C. is a step to Apostasie 1121. How C. is to be honoured 1121 1122. When she is dishonoured 1122. Them that honour her she vvill honour 1122. The best vvay to calm a raging C. 946 947. A good Conscience is the product of Faith and Obedience 1013. It armeth us against the fear of Death 1013. v. Cases Consider We behold the Heavens our selves our Sins but consider them not aright 595 596. 1106. What it is to consider a thing devoutly 596 597. 1107. It is of singular use 597 598. 1108. Consolation for disconsolate souls 347. Conspiracy v. Vnion Contentions Of the C. among Christians 557. Contentment not to be found on earth 537. Contemplation v. Joy Controversies of these times of what sort 304. 1071. 1084. Their best Judge 287. Their original 665. Convenience v. Necessity Conversion of a sinner as great a miracle as Raising of the dead or Creating of the world 56. Vide pag. 587. 375. v. Resurrection What is God's part and what ours in it 587 588. 628 629. 722. A Christian's life beginneth at his Conversion 1003. Corban what 132. 1 Cor. i. 26. 974. 1071. 1084. ¶ 30. 871. ¶ iii. 22 23. explained ¶ iv 4. 347. ¶ v. 5. 565. 592. ¶ vii 20. 521. ¶ ix 22. 505. ¶ x. 13. 604. ¶ xi 10. 857. ¶ xiii 4. 1077. 2 Cor. v. 14. 67. Corrections God's C. are the blows of a Father and great arguments of his love 365. Covetousness and Ambition encrease by enjoyment 537. 887. How C. beginneth and groweth in the heart 625. v. Hope This sin emasculateth and weakeneth both mind and body 751. It is an enemy to Peace 208. the main cause of Persecution 700. and of Divisions in the Church 842. 845. 856. What will not C. make a man do 507 508. It is idolatry 623. v. Riches Some Covetous men doubt not to be saved because Abraham a Rich man is in heaven 618. The Covetous man's Texts cleared 222. Councels too much cried up by them of Rome 681. Counsel is like good Physick 842. Countrey v. View Court v. View Creation and Conservation but one continued act 104. v. God World Creatures Since all are clean in themselve why divers Cr. were forbidden as unclean 1098. Sin now disordereth and defileth all but the last day will reduce all to order and beauty 246. The Creature therefore longeth for the day of judgment 302. Creatures good in themselves we abuse to evil 897. Creed Truth was purest when there was but one short Creed 665. Cross the way to the Crown 174. 571. v. Affliction Crucifying our flesh what 725. Cujacius 2. 8. Cure of souls though in some sense impropriate to the Priest alone yet in some sense it is committed to every man 293 294. Curiosity a busie idleness punishing it self 1074. It is a busie and toilsome thing 730. Curious gazing where God hath drawn a veil unlawful fruitless dangerous 94 95. 164. 248 249 729. 1076. Custome in sinning how got and how hard to break 357. It maketh sin natural 793. v. Sin Cyprian 1003. 1023. D. DAngers and difficulties try and discover a Christian 982 983. Daniel Porphyrie's judgment of his Prophesie 166. David how devout and pious 860. Of his professing himself a stranger on the earth 531-536 His sin and Saul's compared together 1030. He seemeth to have gone further then he needed in confessing his sin 1040. Nathan's plain dealing with him 1115. Death once terrible now profitable and desirable to a Christian 48 49. To the godly it is a passage to heaven to the wicked the contrary 295. v. Obedience Why the Stoicks did desire D. 1011. and how Christians may do it lawfully 1011 1012. How to get rid of the fear of D. 543. 1012 c. Nothing more common more certain then Death yet nothing less thought on 538 539. 596. Arguments to moderate our grief for the D. of friends 543. Sin carrieth D. in its womb 445. We are dying continually 538. ¶ Death of the Soul v. Resurrection Whether God desire or decree the Death of Man 403 c. Man's D. proceeded not from God's primary but secondary will 405. If we die it is for no other reason but because we will die 424-446 Debt one easily runneth into but hardly creepeth out 809 810. How troublesome a thing it is to be in Debt 809. Debtours sometimes pay their Creditours with ill language 810. What Debtours Matth. vi 12. signifieth 816. We are all Debtours to God 806. v. Sin Obligation Deceit v. Oppression Common people how easily deceived 557. Men are cautelous that they be not deceived in worldly matters yet apt to deceive themselves in
Israel and of England compared 422 423. J. JAmes St. James and St. Paul seem to contradict each other but do not 276. Jealousie vvhat in Man vvhat in God 381. 613. 643. Jer. xxv 18-29 299. JESUS how excellent a name 732 733. That JESUS is the Lord though Law and Custome and Education teach us yet vve cannot say it but by the holy Ghost 759 c. Many say so yet but few say it 763 764. He vvho saith it aright saith it vvith his Tongue 764. 770. with his Heart 765. 770. and vvith his Hand 766. 270 c. Oh vvhat pity and shame it is that Man should suffer the Flesh the World and the Devil to Lord it over him and not Jesus 768. Jews vvhy commanded to offer sacrifice 72. Why blamed sometimes for so doing 80. 82. They pleased themselves exceedingly in this and in other outward servics 108. v. Formality Their great privileges 418. Privileges of Christians greater then theirs 419. Many things vvere permitted to be done by the Jews vvhich are unlawful for a Christian 869. Their course of sinning 611. Jew a term of reproch 194. Job's case 292. 903. Joh. vi 63. 468. ¶ viii 36. 742. 1 Joh. ii 4. 723. ¶ 16. 280. ¶ iv 18. 398. ¶ v. 3. 112. St. John v. Charity St. John Baptist a burning and shining light 549 c. How the Jews at first admired him 553. but vvithin a vvhile disliked him 554. Joy good and bad 338. Sensitive and Rational 553. It is configured to the soul that receiveth it 860. God's Joy over us and our Joy in Him and in one another 861. Against them that rejoyce in the sins or calamities of others 862 863. Joy that ariseth from Contemplation of good is nothing to that which ariseth from Action 1125. True Joy floweth from Love 153. and from Obedience 113. 992. 1125 1126. Sorrow is vvont to go before Joy 560. Judas's repentance 336. his despair 343. Judge neither others sinners because afflicted nor thy self a Saint because prosperous 295 c. 616. We may disannul our former Judgment upon better evidence vvithout inconstancie 676 c. The Judgment of God and of the World how different 964. God's J. and Man's differ much 616. That of Men for the most part corrupt and partial 246 247. Judgment Few believe there shall be a day of Judgment 926. Though scoffers say Nay it will assuredly come 237 238. Why it is so long in coming 238. It cannot be the object of a wicked man's hope 242. 737. v. CHRIST Curious enquiry after the time of the last Judgment condemned 248 c. We ought to exspect and wait for it 250. Signes of the day of Judgment 1043 c. Judgments Of God's temporal Judgements 611. Judgments justly fall even on God's own people vvhen they sin 290. In general J. many times the good are involved vvith the evil vvithout any prejudice to God's Justice 291. Reasons to prove that point 292. A fearful thing to be under J. and not to be sensible of them 643. Judgments should fright us from sin and drive us to God 364. 800. If they vvork not that effect they are forerunners of hell-torments 365. 801. We should especially be afraid of those sins vvhich are vvont to bring general J. on a Nation 297. It is the greatest judgement not to fear J. till they come 502. 615. We must studie God's J. 615. v. Punishment Judge The Judge's calling necessary 821. His office 120. How his autority may be lawfully made use of 822. Julian the Apostate 957. His liberality 143. His malitious slander of the Christians 148. He wounded Religion more with his wit then with his sword 959. His death 959. Justice of how large extent 119. What it is 120. Private J. is far larger then publick 121. Our common Nature obligeth to live justly 123. and so doth the Law of Nature 124. 126. c. 134. and Fear of God's Vengeance 125. and the written Law of God 128. especially Christ's Gospel 129. How strict observers of Justice some Heathens have been 128. How small esteem Justice hath in the world 131. Motives to live justly 134 c. That which is not Just can neither be pleasant nor profitable 126. v. Mercy Justification what 811. The Church of Rome's doctrine confuted 812 813. Faith justifieth but none but penitents 872. The several opinions about Justification may all be true 1074 c. But many nice and needless disputes there be about it 1075. Wherein Justification consisteth 1075. K. KEyes Power of the Keyes neither to be neglected nor contemned 47. Kingdomes v. Fate Kings though mighty Lords on the earth are but strangers in the earth 532. 535. K. love not to be too much beholding to their subjects 232. It is not expedient for the world to have onely one King 233. Kneeling in the service of God proved by Calvine to be of Divine autority 756. Knowledge Want of Knowledge many alledge to excuse themselves but without cause 437. Pretended K. how mischievous 556 557. Three impediments of K. 96 c. Four wayes to get K. 66. Of which Practice is the chief 68 69. K. is the daughter of Time and Industrie 956. What kind of K. it is that we have in this life 678. God's wayes are not to be known by us his will and our duty easily may 93. We should not studie to know things not revealed 248. Though the K. of what is necessary be easy and obvious 93. 95. yet it is to be sought for with all diligence 96. K. even in the Apostles grew by degrees 61. K. of all future things if we had it would do us no good 789. K. of Sin v. Sin K. of Nature Medicine Laws Husbandry is very excellent 656 657. Saving K. is onely necessary 59 60. 248. K. of Christ surpasseth all other K. 715 c. but it must be not a bare speculative K. but practical 723 c. Many know the Truth but love it not 549. 690. Knowledge Will Affections all to be employed in the walk of a Christian 516 c. Speculative K. availeth nothing without Love 517. It is but a phantasm a dream 518 519. 724 725. It is worse then Ignorance 518. 520. 523. 690. 723. Adde therefore to K. Practice 519 725. As K. directeth Practice so Practice encreaseth K. 520. 693. Words of Knowledge in Scripture imply the Affections 463. Love excelleth Knowledge 977. How God is said not to know the wicked 173. L. LAbour is the price of God's gifts 219. It is not onely necessary but honourable 220. No grace gotten by us no good wrought in us without Labour and pains 667 c. v industrie Sin is a laborious thing 927. more laborious then Virtue 928. It is sad to consider that many will not labour so much to be saved as thousands do to be damned 928. Law Whether going to Law be lawfull 821. Good men have alwayes scrupled the point 822. Cautions and rules to be observed 822. 824. Lawfull