it could be the intuition of no other Riches but these that could make King David a Prince of such mighty wealth as the Treasure he left behind can at this day hardly be calculated yet amidst them all to cry out Ego vero pauper egenus but I am poor and needy but the Lord careth for me See where his Riches lay in that God which may not be enjoyed but in this Kingdom 4. The last things of moment attending on the Kingdoms of this world are Pleasures and delights whereof indeed they afford great variety but wherein little satisfaction For as their Gold hath much dross so their little pleasure is mixed with travel and trouble not a little Only the Kingdom of God the Paradise of true delight is it that hath liquid pleasures and pure from all mixtures of sorrow Revelâ— iiiâ— 3. We that are immersed drowned in flesh and blood can hardly think there are any other pleasures but these of the body though our own Reason if consulted cannot but inform us that this corâ—â—ptible earth is not more inferiour unto the immortal Spirit that informs it than the delights of that Spirit are excellent and Divine above all the gross and brute pleasures of the perishing body Though here are all and all sorts of delights all that are immixed and pure from imperfection both for body and Soul The senses of the one the powers and faculties of the other shall be all satisfied to the full and satiated with their highest and diviness objectâ— with their 〈◊〉 and closest 〈◊〉 with them to the utmost of their enlarged and glorified 〈◊〉 cities It is the Feast of the great King wherein he means to set forth all his magnificence like Ahasuerus unto his Princes The marriage-feast of the Lamb and write saith the Angel Blessed are they that are invited to the supper of the Lambs Marriage Revel xix How blessed then are they that shall at that time be married themselves unto the Lamb The Body indeed is invited to the feast but the Soul is it that shall be married unto the great King as it is in the Prophet Hosea I will marry thee to my self in everlasting kindness Quales Thalami illius amplexus Who can possibly conceive the joys then of the Bride-chamber or the pleasures of the Bride-grooms embracement when God and the Soul shall be so closely knit and closed together as they become but one Spirit as by this marriage here two are made one flesh 1 Cor. vi 17. A strange and marvellous union that as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father so all blessed Spirits shall be in both and all but one in both as both they are but one A true marriage this and a through on all sides Souls knit unto Souls and all unto God A union divine like the union of God the effect of it therefore a joy divine no less like the joy of God So like as in Scripture it is said to be the same Intra in gaudium Domini Enter into the joy of thy Lord even into that joy wherewith the Lord himself rejoyceth and is everlastingly blessed who perfectly apprehending his own infinite worth and goodness doth as perfectly enjoy it in himself And such shall be your joy who shall not only pierce the inmost verity of all other things and clearly know the truth of whatsoever is doubtfully disputed here but shall be enabled to behold and contemplate with open face all the excellence and beauty of the Divinity it self by the understanding and enjoy it too by embracing and cleaving unto it with the will and affections though not comprehensibly and commensurably as God doth yet fully every one according to his capacity and as a Creature may Totum Dei but not totaliter seeing and enjoying all of God though not in that alsufficient and supereminent manner as God doth This is intrare in gaudium Domini to enter into the joy of the Lord and that is to be filled as the Apostle speaks with all the fulness of God which since it is the most we can it shall be the last we will at this time say of it only adding thus much that though we may put an end to the speech of it there shall be no end of the joy At his right hand are pleasures for evermore A Kingdom then it is and in all respects the Kingdom of God In regard and so seeing be made like unto him and that is participation of the glory of God In regard of wealth and riches we shall be Rulers over all his goods and that is a full possession of the Treasures of God And lastly in regard of pleasures and delights we shall enter into the Lords joy and that is no other than the joy of God Joy Wealth Honour Dominion all Divine and a Kingdom of all and therefore the Kingdom of God that is an everlasting Kingdom for Regni ejus non erit finis of his Kingdom there shall be no end Luk. iii But we must end the point wherein if I have stayed the longer you may please to remember what St. Peter said when he saw but a shadow of it Bonum est esse hîc it is good to be here A subject so pleasing that once entred a man can hardly be drawn off with that Apostle from building Tabernacles there and dwelling on it for ever But yet we are not so to contemplate the happiness of this Kingdom as we forget to consider what we are to do that we may attain unto it for something is to be done though not much seek it we must at least if we mean to have it the second Point Seek the Kingdom of God 2. And sure it is little worth that is not worth the seeking not any thing not so much as our daily bread but must be sought and that in sudore vultûs in the sweat of thy brow And shall the Kingdom of Heaven so far above all things be valued at a lower rate than any thing else for there is not any thing but misery on earth and Hell beneath it the just reward of sloth that may be purchased without travel Those idle people in the Market-place whom our Saviour questions in the Parable with a quid hîc statis otiosi had yet some rational plea for their idleness no man hath hired us we have none such see a Kingdom even the everlasting Kingdom of God is your hire He that is now idle is idle without pretence and let him be miserable without pity And yet two sorts of Men there are that trespass in this particular The one seeks but without all respect of the Kingdom the other would gladly be invested in the Kingdom but will by no means seek it he scorns to work for hire this no hire can set a work that relies too much on divine attraction this aims too much at supposed perfection but seek the Kingdom of God convinceth both The first to touch first on
the punishment and it is no less than all which a Sinner may receive the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense the loss of all good in the exclusion from Heaven and the suffering of all evil in the torments of Hell This exprest in Scripture by an unquenchable fire that by a gnawing and never dying worm Divines contending which is worst when either is insufferably bad but both joined together make a double death and destruction which none can conceive And therefore the Son of Syrach 23. 12. doth well term it a sin that is arrayed and apparelled with death there is a word saith he and it is clothed about with death God grant it be not found in the heritage of Jacob and that you may know what the word is which he means he presently infers use not thy mouth to intemperate swearing for there is the word the word of sin clothed about with death and I pray God it may not be found in the heritage of Jacob neither in our Jacob nor his heritage his Son or Subject neither himself nor any of his Kingdom And this were punishment enough it should seem were there no other yet this is not all for this general and universal destruction of the world to come is common to all sins and sinners but the special threat and commination in that precept against this sin seems to relate unto some special revenge that God will take of it even in the life of this world here before they depart unto the sorrows of another for neither in that or this shall they ever be held guiltless but receive a just reward and recompence in both Concerning this later what and how grievous it is you may read in the 23. of Eccles. before cited It is briefly thus and I beseech you mark it Vir multùm jurans a man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and a plague or curse shall never depart from his house How terrible and dreadful is this himself shall be filled with iniquity and the curse of God shall be upon his house nay which is worse Shall never depart from his house his Spirit will forsake the one that being given up unto a reprobate sense he may fill up the measure of his sins and fat himself against the day of slaughter be shall be filled with iniquity and his blessing will leave the other unto the waste and spoil of a consuming malediction until ruine eat it up and wholly root it out the curse shall never depart from his house Gods judgments for other sins are great yet they seem to extend themselves but to the third or fourth Generation at the farthest how deadly then is this iniquity and how heavy the revenge that staies not there but runs through all Generations Shall never depart from the house until the house it self depart and be no more A bitter curse indeed that wasts and spoils wheresoever it comes but utterly ruines the House where it remains nay leaves not so much as any ruines to remain neither Stone nor Timber for it eats up both as you may read in the Prophet Zechariah where you shall find the curse written in a Role a large curse as it should seem for the Role hath room enough for more curses than ever the Spirit of God hath registred for it was twenty Cubits long and ten Cubits broad a great and flying Role which when that Prophet beheld in a Vision the Angel which gave the interpretation said This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth according unto which the swearer shall be cut off for it shall enter into his house and remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof Zech. 5. 4. A strange remaining wherein nothing not so much as Timber and Stone shall remain and a heavy malediction when a Man shall be emptied of all his goods and filled only with his own Sins He shall be filled with iniquity How many deaths and destructions do attend and inviron this accursed Sin the death of his estate and substance which shall be consumed the death of Sin or rather of Grace through Sin wherewith he shall be filled and the everlasting death of Body and Soul in a lake of burning brimstone wherein he shall be perpetually tormented So true is that of Syracides before mentioned but never enough repeated it is a word cloathed about with death and we can never enough repeat his prayer God grant it be not found in the heritage of Jacob. Consider these things now and then say It is a Custom and I cannot leave it shall it excuse the Malefactor if he say to the Judge I take no pleasure in Theft only my fingers have been inured to it from my youth and I cannot now forsake the habit and yet the Thief who notwithstanding hath his Curse written also in the other side of Zecharies flying Role may be the better excused of the two for though he take no pleasure yet there may be profit in the sin But the Custom whether without or upon pretence shall never excuse either till both forsake the Custom It is this only through which we shall be held guiltless and by which alone we may remove this Curse of God both from our selves and our houses And why can it not be done what should hinder that we may not forsake it where lies the labour or wherein doth the difficulty consist that it should be so invincible Why what saith Chrysostom Homil. 17. on Mat. Nunquid pecuniarum opus est impensa Nunquid aerumnis sudore perficitur is it a business that requires the expence of any great sums of our money or else of our spirits in sweat and painful labour to atchieve it Tantummodo Velle sufficit totum quod jubetur impletum est No such thing only will that is bend thy mind and thy will to it and the thing required is presently fulfilled As use hath bred a custom so disuse must destroy it and a contrary use beget a contrary Custom And sure the Will of man cannot think of a Custom so easy to be disused as this all others are deeply rooted in natural Affections and therefore hard to be plucked up but this hath no hold in Nature not one Appetite in the infirmity of man that gapes and waters after it it can neither quench the Thirst nor kill the Hunger of any desire whereunto our Corruption is subject but is only an external a naked and a bare Custom which only use hath begotten and doth still nourisn and disuse without any great difficulty can again starve and strangle Tantummodo velle sufficit only set thy will to it and the business is ended for as St. Austin hath it lib. 8. Conses In the ways of God Ire pervenire is nothing but Velle ire to walk is only to will and whosoever wills cannot but walk but then it
must be velle fortiter integre no cold and faint desire but a strong a total and a resolute will The sluggard may be willing to rise and yet for all that lie still in his warm Bed but it is not a Will that he hath but only a Velleity or willingness for when he will he riseth yea when he wills he cannot possibly choose but rise for the body doth naturally obey the mind so easily and readily ut vix à servitio discernatur imperium that the wit of man saith St. Austin can hardly discern between the command of the one and the execution of the other And therefore to will is to do and he that doth not do did never will he that doth not do what is possible for him to do did never will since if he will such things it is impossible for him not to do So that rightly in this Velle sufficit there is nothing required but thy Will yet thy full and total Will not a saint and lazy Velleity but a resolved Will that is ever accompanied with watchful and diligent endeavour which the Tongue of all other doth especially require of us as the same Father elsewhere speaks Lingua facilitatem habet motûs in udo posita est facile labitur in lubrico The Tongue hath a great facility in motion and is seated in a moist and slippery place where it is easy to slide of it self but much more through Custom And therefore quanto illa cilius movetur tanto tu adversus illam fixus esto The more movable the Tongue is the more immovable and fixt must be thy resolution and Care and the longer the Custom the greater thine intention to break it For vigilance will conquer it and the fear of God will beget vigilance and the meditation that thou art a Christian that must render an account of all at the last day is able to instil the fear of God into thy heart saith the same St. Austin who doth also incourage us not only by his exhortation but even by his own example who seems to have been as deeply engaged in this evil habit as another but how freed he himself Timendo Deum Jurationem abstulimus de ore nostro The fear of God saith he stripped it from my Tongue Luctatus sum c. For I wrestled with the evil use and wrestling I called upon God and Gods assistance delivered me from the Custom And now nihil mihi facilius quam non jurare there is nothing so easy to me as not to swear Beloved let us imitate the holy Father and we shall also as easily vanquish he hath beaten out a straight and plain path to victory and we need only to tread in his steps And therefore with him Let us cast up our eyes upon that sacred and dreadful Majesty which we offend and then fear and fearing wrestle and wrestling call and calling we shall certainly receive assistance undoubtedly to conquer yea and to insult over it conquered with a Nihil mihi facilius nothing is now so easy unto me as not to swear And sure the fear of God is ever the beginning of Wisdom especially here where the sin is the direct opposite to it as being a presumptuous irreverence in the very face and against the very honour of the Almighty which cannot possibly consist with his fear which is the surest bank and bulwork against all ungodliness And therefore when that like a Flood-hatch is plucked up and cast aside no marvel if dishonour be presently poured forth upon God and men become filled and overflown with Iniquity And as little marvel that the Lord for both respects as well for our benefit and good as for the fear and reverence of his own Name injoineth this as the very first thing we should beg of him in our prayers Sanctificetur Nomen tuum hallowed be thy Name and as the first thing inhibited with a special note of revenge for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain and as a prime instruction of the first Sermon that ever he preached I say unto you swear not at all That which he was so careful as to make the Instruction of his first Sermon the first petition in his prayer and the first revenge in the Decalogue cannot be thought a matter of light importance but must needs argue it a sin no less odious unto himself than pernicious unto man for which reason St. James seems worthily to inlarge our Saviour's instruction swear not at all with an Ante omnia above all things my brethren swear not at all To whose exhortation we may all yet well add another Ante omnia of Prayer above all things O Lord plant thy fear in our hearts that we swear not at all If the awful fear of thy Majesty may not deter us at least let the dreadful fear of thy Judgments terrify us from this presumptuous sin that it get not the dominion over us So shall we be innocent from the great offence and freed from the great malediction Thy curse upon our selves and houses whilest we live and destruction of Body and Soul in everlasting sorrow when we die Which the Lord of his infinite mercy avert and instead thereof grant unto us so to Reverence his holy Name now as we may be admitted with Saints and Angels everlastingly to magnify and adore it in thy Eternal Kingdom hereafter Whereunto God of the same infinite Goodness c. Amen A SERMON OF THE DUTY of MAN SERMON II. Upon ECCLES xii 13. Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments For this is the whole Duty of Man For God c. THIS whole Book is nothing else but a Search and Enquiry of King Solomon into that grand and famous Question de Summo Bono what may be the chief Wisdom and happiness of Man in this Mortality And this Verse with that other which follows as they close up the Book so they contain the Conclusion of the point a full discovery and resolution of that which in the former Chapters was but fearched after and enquired into whereunto his answer is short and plain but thus Fear God and keep his Commandments This only the whole matter of his Conclusion and that we may take it for full satisfaction to the Question he assures us that it is the Conclusion too of the whole matter Let us hear c. A Conclusion then we may be bold to term it for so it is and so it terms it self A Conclusion that hath two parts Fear God and keep his Commandments And both backt with two Reasons He will not beg the Conclusion but prove it For this is the duty the whole duty not of the Priest or some of the People but universally of Man Every Mans Duty and the whole Duty of every Man That is the first Reason There is a second in the next Verse and I may mention it though at this time not meddle
joyned too in man their subject the ywill make up that compleat fear which indeed is the full and compleat worship internal worship and service of God And therefore in the Scripture it is usually taken even for our whole Religion Piety and Adoration of the Divinity according to that of David O come hither and I will teach you the fear of the Lord that is the worship of the Lord. So Jonah unto the Mariners that enquired of him I am an Hebrew saith he and I fear the God of heaven and that made the Sea and the dry land So Jacob in like manner when he sware unto Laban he swore by the fear of his Father Isaac to wit by that God whom his Father Isaac feared that is worshiped and served Whence it is that what Moses terms fear Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God that the Septuagint and our Saviour himself renders by worship Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve And therefore we shall not need to scruple much at the enquiry why the Text saith not Believe or Love or the like but rather Fear God and keep his Commndments for he that hath said Fear hath said all no word can go beyond this It includes both faith and hope and love and all yea something more than all Not the meanest of these fears the fear of punishment but implies faith and the fear of offence both faith and hope and love also but the reverential fear is love and something more than love even Veneration too as acknowledging the love to be not like that of ordinary friendships inter Pares between Companions but at a distance and such an infinite distance on Gods part as requires the lowest Reverence and Adoration from all that love him For though it hath pleased his goodness to make and stile us his friends yet I hope we do not cease to be his servants nor he to be our Lord every way our Supream and Soveraign Lord So indeed our Lips stile him at every word and by that stile and Title too he himself requires his fear at our hands if I be your Lord ubi Timor meus where is my fear Where indeed his fear of Reverence for he is Lord of Majesty and Glory Where the fear of offence for he is the Lord no less good than glorious and as terrible as either to his contemners where then the fear of his wrath And sure the question is pertinent enough and it is but right that he demands where it is or what may become of it It seems to be fled with Astraea to Heaven sure I am it may trouble a man to find it out any where upon earth His judgments are far off as David speaks even out of our sight at least they seem yet to be beheld with such security as a Man would think most Men were in a league with death and at a Covenant with Hell as the Prophet speaks so little fear is there of his revenge And sure they that fear not punishment will hardly be restrained by any filial the fear of offence Indeed it were something well if we did not offend with less trouble than any thing else And as for the other the fear of reverence and that principally in the holy place where his special presence hath made it especially due that is so far from regard as it seems to have gotten an ill name of late we are grown some of us into such a familiarity with God as the reverence of his Sanctuary or of him in it or any decency or dignity that may serve thereunto is suspected now a days for an out-work of Popery God grant we do not make it Idolatry too to reverence even God himself in his Temple Is not the question just then in these times also ubi timor meus where is his fear indeed where any of his fears sure they have all left this world and it seems left in it little but worldly fear behind them That indeed and that alone runs through the world and only prevails For her we duck like Die-dappers at every Pebble that is thrown at us by a powerful hand and yet can stand up sturdily like Capaneus upon the walls of Thebes against the Thunderbolts of the Almighty we are become as he said well Gyants yea even Gods against God but Slaves unto Men whose Bodies and Consciences are sometimes equally rotten The revenge of the Law and shame of the world is for the most part all our fear so we may avoid these save our goods from loss our names from disgrace our skin from hurt our bodies from death we can sin on merrily it little matters for him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire This is the whole of most mens fears but fear not ye their fear neither be afraid but sanctify the Lord himself Is metus vester is pavor esto let him be your fear let him be your dread But what then is God only to be feared and nothing besides surely yes God and not any thing else if any thing shall stand in competition or opposition with God but yet under God and in subordination unto him we are to fear God and others too for Gods sake And all the people feared exceedingly God and his servant Moses So the Apostle fear to whom fear and honour to whom honour appertaineth and both sure appertain to all Superiors but eminently above all to him that is Supream Reverential fear for he hath a character of the Divinity upon him Fear obediential and filial fear too for he is Pater Patriae And fear of his wrath also for he is Gods Minister for vengeance And therefore fear the King for he carrieth not the sword in vain Yea and I must tell you fear the Church too and those in the Church that have power over us also another kind of power indeed but yet such as renders them Gods Ministers in like manner and your Ghostly Fathers and therefore will require in their degree obedience and reverence too yea and fear of their wrath also for they want it not for the wicked when occasions serve and therefore fear these too for they carry not the Keys in vain The Powers that are they are all of God and he that resisteth the power whether Temporal or Spiritual resisteth the ordinance of God and receiveth damnation unto himself It is true these are two distinct powers yet is it as true also they are not simply collateral but subordinate ever subordinate when the Prince is Christian as having though not all power in himself yet a Princely dominion over all Persons and that in all Causes whatsoever neither is more claimed and less cannot be denied For two Supremacies in a Kingdom are no less inconsistent than two Omnipotencies in the world And therefore the Apostle gives unto him universal subjection and conscientious too Let every one yea omnis anima let every soul
originally aspected But a Platonick year were any such possible would sooner be spent I suppose than these wise men agree among themselves when and what time this great Revolution will be finished This atempt therefore as rash and vain so ridiculous also The Modern Jews and Talmudists seem to go upon better grounds and with them some of the Fathers as Lactantius and others these all resolve the former for certain the latter in a strong opinion upon six thousand years for the worlds continuance two thousand under the Law of Nature two thousand under that of Moses and two thousand under the Gospel of Grace And that these once expired the son of man then comes without fail in the glory of the Father And the truth is they have some shews of reason and pretty congruities to countenance their divinations Some of the Rabbies by their Cabal learning have found this out even in the first verse of Genesis where Alpha the first of the Hebrew Alphabet and the Numerical letter that denotes the number of thousand is just as they observe six times written That so the worlds Age and dissolution might be mysteriously read in the very front and forehead of the worlds Creation which in the Creation it self and the manner of it is they suppose much more legible as farther typed out and more fully discovered For in six days it pleased God to create the Heaven and the Earth and all that is therein and on the seventh day he rested And to shew that this concerned mans continuance of Travel in this world God afterwards commanded him also six days to labour and to observe the seventh for a Sabbath the figure of Eternal rest in the Heavens now mille anni coram Deo sicut dies una A thousand years with the Lord are but as one day one day therefore in signification here as a thousand years And the self same they would have yet farther insinuated in the first Patriots and Progenitors of this new-born world Generis humani satores the first storers of the Earth with Mankind six succeded one another in order and then died Adam Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel and Jared but Enoch the seventh from Adam was translated taken up to walk with God as the type and figure of all his Children To these others add divers other sutable instances That the Ark of Noah the Type of the Militant Church floated six Months on the Waters and that in the seventh it rested on the mountain That Moses six days was in the Cloud and in the seventh was called unto the prefence of the Lord. That Jerico the figure of this world as being opposed unto Jerusalem the type of that to come being six days compassed by the command of God in the seventh fell utterly and ruined which happened too just as the Israelites were going off the Wilderness to possess their promised Land Some more yet there are to this purpose but of another strain and fetcht something farther There be that fish for it out of the sixscore years given to the old world for amendment before the coming of the Flood which though in that regard literally meant yet in a mystery these say they do design as many great years or years Mosaical and Jubilar every one whereof contained fifty of the common and ordinary and then fifty drawn on six-score every score producing a thousand the product that results from the whole must needs be just six thousand years the general space they conceive for the repentance of the whole world before the coming of the second deluge diluvium ignis that deluge of Fire The same these Men collect likewife from the life of Moses who lived precisely a hundred and twenty years forty years in the Court of Pharaoh which answers as they would have it unto two thousand years under Nature forty years in the Desart with Jethro keeping Sheep on the backside of Horeb which responds unto two thousand under the Law given in that Mountain and forty years in the wilderness governing the people of God and leading them on unto their Land of rest which design the other two thousand under the conduct and Kingdom of Christ our Lord who when these shall be once elapsed and spent will come again and deliver up the Kingdom unto his Father So some But Lactantius and others otherwise That he shall come indeed at the end of six thousand years but the end for all that is not yet For he shall spend they suppose a thousand years in a kingdom of Righteousness upon Earth as a spiritual Sabbath from sin which first kept they shall then pass into that great and eternal Sabbath of Glory even for ever These may be pretty Speculations to say no worse of them but they cannot conclude any thing They are little better than what that learned man tearms them Commenta quibus malignus ille humana detinet ingenia something indeed they have of wit much of curiosity but of certainty nothing at all For suppose the conjecture true were six thousand years as they would have it the full period of the Worlds age yet what could certainly be discovered from thence when the different Calculators themselves are at a fault or rather an unrecoverable loss concerning the just age of the world and how much of it is spent already But what need such computations Excellently St. Austin Omnium de hac re calculantiuâ— digitos ... quiescere jubet qui ait non oft vestruni noscere c. He raps all Accountants on the fingers and commands them to cease who says it is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power What the Son of God with such a check refused to reveal why should any other the sons of men dare presume to search or think to discover But such are the cross and preposterous ways of perverse Mortals ever attempting to know where they are enjoyned to be ignorant and there for the most affecting ignorance where God most requires their knowledge Otherwise we might find other computations much fitter to be busyed in forbear counting of the Times and think rather upon that Redde rationem Vilicationis how we may make up our own Accounts against that day which when all calculations are ended will notwithstanding steal upon the world undescryed like a Thief saith our Saviour in the night when men least dream of it overtake even these busie Calculators as the Enemy did Archimedes drawing his Circles for prevention in the dust and not suffer him to finish his diagrams nor These peradventure their Computations For as it was in the days of Noah men eat and drank and married securely until the Flood came and carried all away So saith he himself will it be at the coming of the Son of man who will come as a sweeping deluge indeed yea much more unresistable For he shall come in power and Majesty and great glory even in
Inhabitants of all other not only with Minerals Plants and Beasts but as yet with rational Men though mortal to some of whom the Lord even in this life hath imparted of his own soveraignty a Lordship over the earth yet so as he retains the Supremacy and will be still Lord paramount himself for his is the earth and the fulness thereof And yet it stayeth not here but pierceth farther into the lowest of all the subterraneous Region a Region of death and darkness Arabia deserta a desert and doleful Region this that brings forth no good fruits but is appointed only for the habitation of wicked and apostate Angels and such of Men as they have seduced to the like wickedness All these Regions and Provinces are contained within the circuit of his Dominion and Kingdom for omnia serviunt tibi all things what soever serve thee Psal. cxix This is Gods Kingdom and the Kingdom of God it is that shall be imparted to the children of Men His it is his only by natural righteousness his servants it shall be by gracious communication Indeed the communication of the Kingdom is first and principally unto Christ who is Haeres universorum the Heir the immediate Heir of all things Heb. i. There is not an Inhabitant of the three grand Regions Heaven Earth and under the Earth but they are all put in subjection under his feet and must every one therefore bow the knee at the very name of Jesus as a reverence and homage unto their Lord. But yet in and through Christ it shall be communicated also unto all his that are truly Christians for these are heirs too heirs of God and coheirs with Christ Rom. viii As they partake of his name so they shall receive of the Royal Unction which it signifies He only is the anointed King but the oyntment resteth not only on him but from him as from the head runs down into the beard and drops on the very skirts of his Rayment by which they are all interessed in the same Kingdom And therefore qui vicerit dabo ei sedere in throno meo to him that overcometh will I give to sit with me on my throne even as I overcame and am sate down on my Fathers throne Revel iii. 21. So Gods throne is over all Christ sits on God's we on Christ's and therefore on God's and so have a communicated power from God through Christ over all that God and Christ have He will make him Ruler over all his goods Matth. xxiv 47. Justly then a Kingdom in respect of Dominion and no less rightly in regard of Majesty and Glory the second Prerogative of Kings and Kingdoms And sure they are no mean rays of Majesty and Majesty Divine that above all other persons do descend and settle on the heads of Princes crowning them more than that of Gold with Glory and Honour True it is every rational Man is engraven more or less with the image and similitude of God which all other creatures irrational do acknowledge by their fear the fear of Man is on them all But Kings bear this similitude with a difference of eminence and excellency and are stamped with a special character of the Divinity that commands reverence and dread from all their inferiours even those whom all things else do fear A great participation of honour than which there is not a greater unless in this Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven that indeed infinitely surmounts it for there and there only is the fulness of Majesty Majesty Divine where is the Seat and Scepter the very Throne of the Divinity at the erection and presence whereof all other Thrones and Scepters though never so glorious must at length tumble to the Earth as that Image before the Ark utterly broken It was a goodly statue that Nebuchadnezzar beheld it had a head of pure Gold but when that mighty stone cut out of the Mountain without hands once fell upon it it ran instantly into powder so the same Prophet Daniel in a vision of his own doth assure us I beheld faith he till the thrones were cast down and the Antient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wooll his throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels like burning fire A fiery stream came â—ssuing forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him the judgment was set and the books were opened Dan. vii 9 10. And this sure is a majestick Throne and even on this Throne about which so many blessed Angels stood and ministred men which is strange holy men and Saints shall sit as Assessors judging not only the Tribes of Israel but the whole world the world of the wicked both men and Angels 1 Cor. vi 2 3. And as their majesty is such is their glory a glorious Majesty and marvellous For the glory of the Lâ—rd shall shine upon his Servants and he shall shew himself marvellous in his Saints Their very bodies shall be glorified and shine as the Sun in the firmament but their Spirits much more glorious with them they shall see God as he is that is in his glory and by seeing be transformed into his Image that is made like unto him in glory 2 Cor. iii. ult And as of Glory so I think it will be found for Riches and Treasure the third thing of eminence in the Kingdoms of this world as being the sinews of their strength the support of their state dignity and magnificence 3. But as all power is but impotence all honour ignomity so all wealth but poverty respectively unto the Riches of this Kingdom This only hath veins and mines of Treasure indeficient Fountains of wealth inexhaustible when these below are quickly drawn dry and whilst they run cannot quench the thirst of those that drink them who therefore have no means to be truly rich by adding to their wealth but by withdrawing from their desire But this beggerly Philosophy the best yet that is in this Vale of misery is utterly banished the confines of this Kingdom whose Riches are of another nature and powerful not only to provoke but to satiate the appetite We need not make a vertue of necessity here be content with such things as we have because we may not have such as we would at best but a rich poverty but enlarge your selves to the uttermost open the mouth wide and it shall be filled and that is true wealth that doth fill the mind not that which doth restrain it that doth not curb the desires but feed them till there be nothing more to be desired And such are the riches of this Kingdom For what can he desire more that hath God and all that God hath all that he hath for omnia ejus nostra sunt All that he hath is ours all that he is is ours too Deus erit omnia in omnibus God shall be all in all 1 Cor. xiii Doubtless
them in their refined zeal conceive they could serve God sufficiently were there neither Heaven nor Happiness to encourage them yea that men ought to serve him without all consideration of either branding all intuition of reward for self-love and all service founded thereon as meerly mercenary But Gods hired servants are servants and have bread enough saith the Text and will have while these aereal conceits blow up the Soul only with wind no way fill it with solid nourishment Indeed were the reward any thing but God himself it might well be self-love and a love meerly mercenary to expect only the reward But when the reward is God himself he neither loves God nor himself as he should that doth not then fasten his eye on the reward working in the hope and joy of it whatsoever he works It is most true every Man ought to love God above all yea all love ought to be fully and finally terminated in God But yet with reference unto him a Man may and should love both himself and other things also besides And therefore every love of himself is not presently self-love Indeed he loves himself least that hath most of self-love in these poor things and perishing that add nothing to his intrinsick perfection which he is bound to love And since God himself and God only is the full perfection of a Soul capable of God it follows he cannot but love God most that most affects his own perfection that is union with God And thus the love of God and self-love are competible yea are and must be inseparable Neither is it enough to love God only as the Supream and Soveraign good in himself unless he love him also as the supream and soveraign good of the lover of himself that loveth otherwise while men seek to clarifie they will but cool their love but evacuate utterly their hope That must henceforth be razed out of the number of the Theological virtues yea by this account must needs become vitious But there remain these three saith St. Paul Faith Hope and Love and let them remain still for sure unless we love in hope and have hope to cherish our love we shall neither love nor hope as we should no nor believe neither But that blessed Apostle it seems was not yet arrived unto these Mens perfection nay nor he neither that was perfection it self He in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily was yet incouraged by therecompence of the reward which is set forth as a reason why be endured the Cross despised the shame and run with patience the race which was set before him for he had an eye unto the recompence of reward And as he had an eye unto it himself in his own particular so he fails not to draw all eyes unto it almost every where in his discourses This very Sermon and it is the first set and solemn Sermon that ever he preached takes beginning with this this proposition of the reward this very reward of the Kingdom Blessed are the poor in spirit for their's is the Kingdom of Heaven Afterwards in the whole course of his preaching you shall find it frequently pressed and earnestly yea after his death and resurrection in those last forty days before he ascended appearing often unto his Disciples he discoursed unto them of the Kingdom of God Act. i. 3. This brings in and leads out all his Sermons the beginning continuance and consummation of them seems to be Regnum Dei the Kingdom of God And sure were it well known did we clearly apprehend the hope of our calling the riches of the inheritance of the Saints could we comprehend with them all what is the height and length and breadth and depth and know the dimensions of that love of God in Christ which passeth knowledge nay were the inestimable treasures of that Kingdom which this love hath prepared but truly believed I think no Man would account any labour too great that might bring him thither But to leave these that seek but not for the Kingdom for they are not so many The disease of those other that would gladly have the Kingdom but without seeking is more general Few Mens thoughts are much troubled with this employment If it concern these things indeed the pleasures or profits of the present how diligently do most Men seek and search rack and ransack all corners and quarters of the world That Woman for her lost groaâ— or these Gentiles in the verse here precedent not half so painfully But for that true wealth and honour and those immortal pleasures of the Kingdom which is to come as if they would come of themselves though we would gladly enjoy them when we can no longer hold these other yet travel or trouble for them in the mean time we would not willingly suffer any As if we thought to light on this Kingdom of God as Saul did on his whilst we seek Cattle in the desert Here we can be content to look on the Lilies of the Field as our Saviour a little before wills but with a contrary intention and would willingly be cloathed with Immortality and Glory but on their condition neque laborant neque nent so we might neither labour nor spin for it No voice so welcome to our ears as that of Moses at the red Sea Stand still and see the salvation of God or that of St. Paul to the Romans He was found of those that sought him not It is strange we can trust God for nothing that concerns this life and the good things of it without our utmost industry and endeavour and yet can be confident in him for the blessings of the future though we stir neither foot nor finger in the prosecution of them As if my Text were to be inverted and first seeking these things we supposed the Kingdom of God were to be added out of his providence and without our care All care and thought of our own seeking seems to be drowned in the conceit of his drawing That of our Saviour is so much in our eye as we can hardly see any thing else Nemo venit nisi Pater traxerit And it is most true unless God prevent us with his Grace and draw us unto himself we of our selves shall never can never come unto God But do we utterly want that attractive Grace or rather do we not draw back and turn the Grace of God into wantonness as the Apostle speaks For how doth God draw or whom though he draw yet he doth not drag he draws Men and not blocks so draws one way as yet refractory dispositions may and too often do another if any man shall draw back my soul shall hate him Heb. x. There are but two ways to work upon the heart of Man Power or Perswasion That is possible only to the omnipotence of God this proper to the rational nature of Man And it pleaseth God usually to deal with Men according to their nature Quos sic movet ut
motus suos agere sinat whom he so moves saith St. Austin lib. 7. de civit Dei cap. 30. as he yet permits to be their own movers yea when he moves most effectually yet he moves not but congruously also So saith the Wise man of him and his providence pertingit à fine usque ad finem fortiter disponit omnia suaviter powerfully first yet sweetly also that is aptly and sutably to their nature and disposition He draws them indeed yet not by the heels but by the ear qui audivit didicit he that hath heard and learned of my Father cometh The very next verse unto that former in the 6. of St. John gives the way of drawing by instruction not by impulsion Rational Men therefore must expect rational means direction and instruction I will inform thee in the way wherein thou shalt walk I will guide thee with mine eye Bitt and bridle that hold in by force as it follows are for horse and mule that have no understanding Not a word of his mouth not a motion of his spirit not a benefit of his grace and favour but are as so many cords to draw us unto himself and so himself testifies in the Prophet Hosea I took the yoke from their neck and I laid meat before them In funibus Adami loris amatoriis atiraxi eos I drew them with the cords of a man with the bonds of love The love indeed and goodness of the Lord laying meat before them as the Keeper draws his Call proposing a Kingdom as in this place and what may draw if such a Kingdom cannot especially when the gracious motions of his Spirit unto yours are not wanting and the like These are the cords and bands wherewith he drew them and with which intelligent Men should be drawn and well therefore stiled funiculi hominis the cords of a Man All other Physical traction being the cords of Carts and Carriages of beasts and blocks rather than Men. And when God thus draws and allures it will concern Man highly to obey and follow the attraction We may not think to stand idly under the influence of Grace like Fruit-trees under the beams of the Sun much less hang under the attraction like dead and inanimate trunks least of all hale another way but being prevented by Divine Grace for you are not under the Law but under Grace saith St. Paul it will behove us to cooperate having received a Talent to negotiate a gift to stir up the gift of God that is in us as the same Apostle unto Timothy ne quis desit gratiae Dei lest wanting not grace in himself he himself chance to be wanting unto his grace Heb. xii 15. Rightly therefore the Spouse in the Canticles trahe me post te curremus draw me after thee and we will run Cant. i. 4. And it should be the resolution of every one else for that of St. Austin is most true Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te he that made thee without thy self will not save thee without thy pains fecit nescientem non justificat nisi volentem he made you without your knowledge he will not justify you without your will and endeavour much less glorify Nemo coronatur nist certaverit no Man shall receive the Crown unless he strive for it or be conveyed into this Kingdom like Philip to Azoâ—us unless he seek it and seek it in the right way as he is here directed by Righteousness even the Righteousness of God seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness As no man finds unless he seeks So every one that seeks doth not presently find unless he seek in the right way If he err in this the more eagerly he seeks the more he errs it is but Cursus celerrimus praeter viam and then the farther he runs the farther still from his home Above all things therefore it concerns us to be sure of the right way before we run on too furiously And sure the way were not hard to be discovered but that it is now almost overgrown like the rest of the field for want of passengers It is indeed unto humane corruption something tedious and troublesome rough and rocky which is the reason men have diverted into so many by-paths of their own hoping to find out some shorter cut or at least a more pleasant passage into the Kingdom In this kind certainly we have had seeking enough yea and too much every one almost bending his wits how he may best shape the course of Religion sutable unto his own fancy and affections Setting up his own Ladder as St. Austin said of that Heretick that so he may climbe to Heaven alone by a way which none ever went before him but wherein he supposeth every man thenceforth is bound to follow him Yea by this means so many Paths and several Alleys have been beaten out as a Maze may sooner be trodden than such intricate labyrinths and which is more every man contending so earnestly for his own track as he condemns and even damns all others that tread never so little besides his footsteps Not considering that men may come to the same place by several tracts if they run on in the same road So long as they agree in necessary truths and fundamentals which is via regia the Kings high way or rather the high way unto the Kingdom they may differ in such as are disputable and doubtful and yet both come safe enough thither And yet we may not much complain so it hath ever fared and will fare with the Church of Christ. Errours if not heresies must needs be that they who love the Truth may be the better approved But what then is to be done in this case Amidst these doubts and disputes where shall we fasten for that approbation sure no way in the world so safe and secure as this the foundation we hold in common standing unshaken to let go disputes and fall unto practice leave the unhappy fatal tree of Knowledge and betake us to the tree of Life that since we cannot otherwise find truth or else agree in it we may at least seek righteousness by which we shall certainly find both agreement and truth a great deal the sooner For seeking truth too earnestly unnecessary truth we may easily lose righteousness and truth too Vertue and Vice as he said well being commonly at truce whilst truth and error are at wars but seeking righteousness in peace we shall hardly fail of truth Stand up from the dead faith the Apostle and Christ shall give thee light Eph. v. And blessed therefore ever be the Counsels of his Royal breast whose high prudence by damming up these waters of Marah in their Fountain and chasing away bitter disputes that began to overflow this as they have drowned almost other Countries hath both reserved truth to more deliberate and appeased cogitations hereafter and given peace unto the Church for the present That
Belial God and Baal is most insufferable yea more than the clear rejection of him Utinamcalidus esses aut frigidus I would you were hot or cold saith the Lord to some in the Revelations As if since they were not throughly hot he had rather by much they were utterly cold than in that faint temper between both fit for nought but evomition as is there threatned for the indignation of God riseth at nothing so much as when Men neither so cold as to contemn Religion nor yet so hot as to forsake their sins present him with a cooler mixture of both Better therefore be a pure Gentile or a graceless sinner than a compounded and perfunctory Christian worse than either and harder to be cured his mediocrity being grown venerable unto the world and himself under the shew and title of calmness and moderation For which cause that may be verified of these our Saviour said of others Publicans and harlots shall sooner enter the kingdom of heaven If we mean to find entrance there it may not be by the formal and falsehearted seeking seek the Lord and you shall find him but if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul otherwise instead of finding a Kingdom we may chance to fall upon a curse Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Seek ye therefore first with all Industry and with all speed too that it may be the first thing you seek every way first in time as well as in intention Death is uncertain and delays are dangerous whilst we take farther day unto our selves enlarging our time as the rich Fool did his Barns God oftentimes derides us as he did him Stulte hac nocte Thou Fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee And who in his own particular knows the length and date of this his day who can tell how many hours there are in it or how many of them are spent already How soon that now that henceforth of obstruction and blindness may come upon him and refusing to cleanse his Soul whilst the Spirit like that Angel in the Pool of Bethesda is moving the waters how suddenly he may fall under that fearful Sentence of the same Spirit in the Revelation He that is filthy let him be filthy still If that Fig-tree were cursed even before the time of fruit in comparison was come before the Gospel was throughly published may not those that have lived long under the bright beams and Sun-shine of it and still bring forth nought but leaves of shew and formality have just cause to fear every moment the approach and probation of that final and fatal doom Never fruit grow on thee more Whilst Men in their presumption are sporting themselves and grieving God with their sins God in his wrath in the mean while may be swearing they shall never enter into his rest Undoubtedly did the rays of true wisdom and divine pierce into the Soul had the heart any true impression of future things or of the vanity of the present did Men taste and relish the good gift of God and the powers of the world to come they would not permit any quiet to their Spirits or peace unto their Souls till their Souls had made and gained peace with their God and freed themselves from such uncertainties This is the Haven of our Rest and Heaven upon Earth and we that see it may well say unto our Souls better than he did say but saw it not O quid agis anima meâ— fortiter occupa portum what dost thou O my Soul the Port is before thee steer away before Sea and Wind manfully foul weather is behind thee make haste to escape the stormy Wind and Tempest And however there should chance not to be any for there may be room for misericordia Domini inter pontem fontem He hath not shut up life nor the gate of his mercy upon any yet it will concern wise men to fear the worst that is more likely and prevent it whilst they have time to work the work of the Lord whilst it is yet high day before that dreadful and terrible night approach wherein no man can work To defer it to the eleventh hour to the evening and twilight were a presumption too full of boldness especially since our Sun may set at noon and our light go out in the midst of our life For we are but dust as our Fathers were and the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with us Let us therefore laying aside all delays be resolute and vigilant attending speedily to open when it pleaseth him to knock when he calls instantly to answer Lo I come when he says seek ye my face to echo immediately thy face Lord will I seek So seeking his face in holiness here you may be sure to see it in glory hereafter In the mean time that God who hath added all things else plentifully unto you all abundantly unto one continue and multiply his favours unto all but principally and above all unto that one For since it is one of the last services your Majesty before your journey is to receive from this place I would not willingly leave it without one word of apprecation For though I may not bless yet I may pray God almighty whom you seek and serve hath blessed you ever hitherto and may his faithfulness and truth be your shield and protection ever hereafter He that went with Abraham in his Journey be with you in yours Let him lead you forth in peace and to the joy of all hearts return you again in safety May he carry you from Crown unto Crown from one Kingdome to another upon earth and having ministred all things else unto you according to your hearts desire here may he at last and let that be late minister an entrance unto you also abundantly into his own Kingdom this Kingdom of God Whereunto the same God of his infinite mercy vouchsafe to bring us all for and in the meritorious blood of his dearly beloved Son and our most blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum A PREPARATION FOR THE Holy COMMUNION SERMON VIII Upon 1 COR. XI 28. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. THE holy but fearful Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord as it is the highest and noblest Institution the Christian Religion hath so is it to be approached unto with the greatest reverence and regard For as it affords inestimable comfort to the worthy participant so not less danger and terrour to the unworthy Receiver He that takes it must know he takes a powerful medicine that will work one way or other either cure or kill prove wholsom Physick or deadly poyson As the patient is prepared so it works this way or that even either life or death For the blood which is received if it do not wash and cleanse it willâ— certainly stain
for breaking a higher law the eternal law of the Almighty which no other can satisfy for but a Christ as Almighty Christus Dominus Christ the Lord. Lastly all other Christs or Saviours whatsoever as they save but in few things and those only corporal and worldly so in them they save but for a little while which is but a reptieve rather than a saving for long they cannot save others that so quickly perish themselves Evermore they die they drop away still and leave their favourites and followers to seek but it is not a short rescue for a time but a permanent and perpetual Salvation that we expect for ever and for ever we might expect it at the hands of any other Christs and not find it because they cannot endure by reason of death Heb. vii 23. only this Christ because he is the Lord Dominus vitae the Lord of life indureth for ever hath an everlasting Kingdom wherein he dispenseth eternal Salvation which he purchased by his Priesthood The author of eternal Salvation to all that depend on him Heb. v. 9 and mark that well for none but the Lord can work eternal Salvation To save may agree unto men thus to save to none but Christ. To begin and to end to save Soul and Body from bodily and ghostly enemies from sin the offence and death the punishment from Hell the destruction and Satan the destroyer for a time and for ever Christ the Lord is all this and doth all this Now then we are right and never till now we have all his attributes a Saviour the word of benefit whereby he is to deliver us Christ his name of office whereby he is bound to undertake it the Lord his name of power whereby he is able to effect it Now our joy is full and never till now we have all the degrees of it whatsoever the Angel promised is here performed great joy he is a Saviour publick joy to all people a Saviour which is Christ perpetual joy joy which shall be even for ever and ever he is Christ the Lord the Lord who will not only free us from our misery and bring us to as good and better a condition as we forfeited and lost by our fall for else though we were saved we should not save by the match but that we may not be savers alone but gainers and great gainers by our Salvation estate us in all the bliss and happiness he is Lord of himself And Lord he is of life as I said Life then he will impart and he is Lord of glory 1 Cor. ii 8. and glory he will impart and he is Lord of joy Mat. xxv 21. Joy then he will impart life and glory and joy and make us Lord of them and of whatsoever is within the name and title of Lord even for ever and ever And then it will be perfect joy indeed when we shall enter into the joy of our Lord into that joy and life and glory and blessedness wherewith our Lord himself is eternally blessed Gaudium quod erit joy which shall be indeed and never cease to be everlasting for evermore So now we have all and never till now all his Attributes a Saviour Christ the Lord all our joy great publick and perpetual nay if you mark it we have yet more than this all his composition too two natures in one person his humanity in Christ his divinity in the Lord and but one Saviour of both one Saviour which is Christ the Lord and one person which is Man and God And just so it should be for of right none was to make satisfaction for Man but Man and in very deed none was able to give satisfaction to God but God So that being to satisfy God for Man he was to be God and Man and so he is A Saviour who is Christ the Lord. And so he became this day when though the Almighty God as this day he was born into the world in our nature and made Man The blessed birth of which thrice blessed person thus furnished in every point to save us throughly Body and Soul from sin and Satan the destroyers of both and that both here and for ever the blessed birth of this thrice blessed person for every word in his name is a several blessing is the very substance of this days solemnity of the Angels message and of our joy That which remains is but circumstance circumstance of persons time and place of the persons for whom of the time when and the place where yet not so light and trivial as may wholly be omitted the Angel the Holy Ghost would not leave them unmentioned and we may not pass them over untoucht yet we shall but touch them and so conclude but taking them in their order backward beginning with the place where where this Saviour was born In the City c. And where should the Son of David be born but in the City of David not in that City which David repaired and wherein he reigned that is Jerusalem a famous City indeed but in that City where David was born which is Bethlem a poor City a Village rather than a City And in this this little Town did this great Saviour this Christ the Lord vouchsafe to be born Indeed when he would die he would die at Jerusalem when he was to suffer shame and ignominy derision and disgrace and all manner of dishonour he would suffer it in the eye of the world in the great City but when he was to be born he would be born in Bethlem when he was to be glorified by Angels and receive gifts and worship from Kings and Princes he would receive it in an obscure and private place this little Village that so he might condemn the worlds pride at his first entrance into the world and teach men by his very birth the first point of Christianity to contemn honour and embrace contempt A doctrine which yet the particular place of his birth doth urge much more vehemently for it was not only in Bethlem a poor Town but in an Inn of Bethlem and a poor Inn so it seems for there was no room for them in it and not so only but in the poorest and basest part of the Inn in the Stable This was the Chamber of state for this great King instead of sweet odors perfumed with filth and hung with no other Arras but what was weaved by Spiders wherein he had only Littier for his Bed a Manger for his Cradle and an Oxe and an Ass for his attendants So low did he descend for our sakes by his own example utterly to cry down all the pomp and honour of the present life than which nothing is of more power to deprive us of the glory of the life to come What a deep humiliation hath he begun withal and how strange a disproportion is this between the titles of his person and places of his birth the Saviour Christ the Lord to be born in Bethlem in
what misery and fulness of misery should we then discern or rather what misery should we not discern in our lamentable estate sentenced unto that gulf of sorrow before our eyes with legions of Devils attending at our backs ready to execute the sentence and push us in to suffer that torment which we could not endure to behold Could we but with our fancy place our selves in this case which they are in that are under the Law this point I am sure would be full on our parts even fulness of misery Well then the first degree of our happiness is to be rid to be quit of this miserable estate but by what means may that be done and who shall obtain it for us Prayers and intreaties would not serve turn our pardon may not be had for the begging but sold we were and bought we must be God was wronged and must be righted the Law was broken and must be satisfied and without this ransom the prisoners may not be delivered A matter therefore not of Intercession but of Redemption But now the price of Redemption who shall lay down sure it is not so easily done we sin indeed with great facility but to expiate sin will cost a great deal more he that will do it must resolve to suffer as much punishment as a world of Men can deserve or an offended God in justice inflict and who or what is there amongst the works of the whole creation that may stand under his wrath until it hath taken full revenge and not perish under it for ever Gold and Silver in this case is of no worth the blood of Bulls and Goats of no value Men of as little esteem as either and therefore should they offer the Sons of their loins for the sins of their Souls they could do no good it cost more to redeem them than so therefore they must let that alone for ever Nay should an Angel of Heaven be incarnate to suffer for sin he would become but as an incarnate Devil and must lie in Hell for ever He is though an excellent creature yet but a creature and a creature may not satisfy the Creator when therefore nothing may do it nor mineral nor beast nor man nor Angel nor any thing else created no remedy but God himself must be made Man and the Man God made under the Law ut ille that he may do it that he might redeem them that were under the Law This is the ut the end the first end for which all this ado is kept for which Heaven and Earth are thus troubled for which is all this business this sending and making making over and over again that since there was nothing of sufficient value already created a new person of extraordinary worth and dignity might be made ut ille that he at least might be able to redeem us from under the Law And sure full and able he was every way being Man he might undertake for Man and being God he could give satisfaction to God for as sins against an infinite person are of infinite guilt so suffering in an infinite person must be of as infinite merit from whence it is that a short passion in him is equal to a perpetual punishment in us for what is wanting in the sufferings is abundantly supplied in the dignity of the sufferer whose infinite person suffering finitely carries full proportion with finite persons suffering infinite punishment Able then he was and no less willing than able what he only could do he lovingly did do and did it too to the full Any the least sufferings of his had been enough but that he might be sure to lay down a full price he gave pretiosum sanguinem his precious blood saith St. Peter yea his life blood saith St. Matthew dedit vitam he gave his life a ransom for many Matth. xx 28. he is content to bleed unto death for this little world when the least drop of his blood had been enough for many worlds He was not sparing in his price but as the Psalmist speaks with the Lord is plenteous redemption plenteous indeed every way there is a plenitude and fulness in it he fully made under the Law we fully delivered from under the Law which yet is but part of our fulness but the first degree of our happiness to be rid and quit of the misery under which we lay And yet this had been full enough were there no more but yet this is not all no he left us not there but that the measure might flow over he gave us not over when he had freed us of this wretched estate till he had brought us to the blessed estate himself is in and of prisoners under the Law made us Heirs of that glorious Kingdom promised in the Gospel For so it follows at the last end of all and the fullest too ut nos recipiamus that we might receive the Adoption of Sons that is of Captives condemned become children adopted adopted to the joint fruition of all that he hath which is fully as much as he could give or we could desire To purchase our pardon to free us from death and the Law 's sentence this seemed a small thing to him yet this is lex hominis mans goodness goeth no farther and gracious is the Prince that doth but so much For who ever heard of a condemned Man adopted afterwards or that thought it not enough and enough if he did but scape with his life So far then to exalt his bounty to that fulness as pardon and adopt both non est lex hominis haec no such measure amongst Men. Zelus Domini exercituum but the zeal of the Lord of Hosts was to perform this Isa. ix 7. So full is this on his part that he did not only redeem but adopt purchase us and purchase for us give us our lives but part with us his own Kingdom And full it is I am sure on our parts that are adopted did we fully know the riches of our inheritance which we shall not do till another fulness of time come Many and glorious things are spoken of thee thou City and Kingdom of God but yet when we then come to behold it we shall say of it as the Queen of Sheba did of the wisdom of Solomon when she came to him The report was less than the truth and the one half thereof had not been told us For what tongue may tell us that which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor ever may enter into the heart of Man till Man enter into it till that day when it shall be said unto him intra in gaudium Domini enter into thy Masters joy In the mean time where we cannot conceive what should we speak where the thing is so full that all words are too empty to express it it will be enough to admire in silence or say only with David Sure the lot is fallen unto us in a fair ground and we have a goodly heritage