his gate his tardity and slowness of speech And when he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man collected in himself and much given to meditation they affecting the like deportment fell into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sad kind of melancholy and stupidity These defects many times overtake us because we look upon the person and never consider the Rule How many are Sarahs but to tell a lye Rebekahs but to deceive Davids but to revenge or worse Therefore St. Augustine speaking of the sin of David in the matter of Uriah observeth that many upon the reading of that story did aedificare in ruinam build their fall upon David's fall and framed unto themselves this reason Si David cur non ego If David did thus then why not I And as we erre in taking the Saints vices to be vertues so do we many times grosly mistake those graces which do most commend them Multos saepe fallunt quae similia sunt saith Hilarie Those things which are like one another do oft deceive us Multa quae tarditatis ignaviae sunt gravitati consilio tribuuntur That which was Gravity in the copy is but Sloth and Dulness in the transcript That which was Zele in Phinehas is Madness in another That which would have been Obedience in Abraham would be cruel Murther in any man else That may be Gravity in the Saint which is Stupidity and Senslesness in me Hope when transcribed by imitation may be Presumption Bounty Prodigality Peaceableness want of Courage Devotion Superstition The Orator faith well Multa fiunt eadem sed aliter Many do the same things but not after the same manner A thief fighteth stoutly but we call him not Valiant A bad servant complaineth not under the whip but we commend not his Patience A traiterous Jesuite may smile perhaps at the very ridge of the gallows but we do not call it Martyrdom How soon is the complexion of a good duty changed and altered How fair is it in one and what deformity hath it in another It is gold here and anon it is but a counter at one time sealed with an Expedit approved as very expedient at another checked with a Non licet forbid as altogether unlawful To draw towards a conclusion There are some duties which are local Not the same Ceremonies at Eugubium as at Rome There are duties fitted to the times Not the same Discipline in the Church in the time of peace and in the time of persecution Not the same face of the Church now that was in the Apostles time now were it fit that in all things it should be drawn like to that Lastly there be personal and occasional duties which in some persons and upon some occasions are praise-worthy but in others deserve no other reward but Death The command is Thou shalt not kill Samson killed himself but every man is not a Samson hath not Samson's spirit Phinehas with his spear slayeth the adulterous couple but every man is not a Phinehas nor hath Phinehas's Commission S. Basil's rule is most certain Where we find a contradiction between the Work and the Precept when we read a fact commended which falleth cross with the command we must leave the fact and adhere to the precept David was a good man but no Apology for adultery Solomon a wise man but no pretence for Idolatry S. Peter was a Rock but we may dash upon this Rock and shipwreck and if we follow him in all his wayes we may chance to hear a serious check from Christ himself Get thee behind me Satan Be followers of Elijah but not to consume men with fire Be followers of Peter but not into the High Priest's hall to deny our Master Be followers of S. Paul and of all the blessed Saints of God but with S. Paul's Correction As they were of Christ Christ is the great Exemplar the supreme and infallible Pattern which all are to conform unto a perfect Copy for every one to imitate a principal standard Rule by which all other rules are to be examined and according to which all our lives ought to be squared and sitted Put ye on saith the Apostle Rom. 13.14 the Lord Jesus Christ Which is according to Chrysostom's exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to be clothed with him from top to toe that nothing appear in us but that which is of Christ All our affections must be sutable unto his Let the same mind be in you Phil. 2.5 saith S. Paul which was in Christ In all our actions we must tread in his steps I have given you an example saith he that ye should do as I have done unto you Joh. 13.15 In all our sufferings we must take up our cross and follow him Heb. 12.1 2. and as it is we must run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus Yet we must not here conceive that we are bound to walk in an universal conformity unto Christ in all things For there were many actions of his which as they far exceed our natural abilities so they require not our imitation It is not safe for us to follow him on the Sea lest we sink with Peter nor into the Wilderness to invite the Tempter by a solitary retiredness We are as unable to fast forty dayes and forty nights as we are to feed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes We cannot command the Winds to be still nor Devils to come out nor drive away Diseases with a word or with a touch In brief we cannot follow Christ in the way of his Miracles They afford us matter of wonder not of imitation Neither secondly must we think to imitate him in his works of Merit Luk. 17.10 Do well we must and suffer ill we may But when we have done all we are still unprofitable servants And though we suffer never so much yet are the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore in the third place Rom. 8.18 we must follow Christ only in the works of his ordinary Obedience And thus he was unto us a living Commentary on his own written Law or rather a living and breathing Law for us to live by He was subject to his Parents obedient to the Magistrate assiduous in his calling painful in preaching frequent in praying zealous of God's glory and ever obedient to his will He was in his life an exact patern of Innocence He went about doing good and there was no guile found in his mouth at his death of Patience When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not in both and in all of Piety and Humility Beloved we may assure ourselves that we do and walk aright when we frame and fashion our lives according to this Rule when we express and represent the life of Christ in our conversation when we so walk even as he walked 1
We have also the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their Blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance and that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased and multiplyed it We see him in his Word we see him through the Blood of Martyrs and we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen and alive 1 Cor. 15.3 4. secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeateth it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Augustines and let it pass for his sake When the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appeareth as visible as a mountain There is more in this VIVO than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He liveth in as much as He giveth life There is vertue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls He will raise them nay he hath done it already Col. 2.12 3.1 We are risen together with him and we live with him We cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this VIVO it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christ's Living breatheth life into us In his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca And this is such a one an eternal pattern Plato 's Idea or common Form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this This is a true and real an efficacious and working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ lose his power when he had raised himself but as he is so it is everlasting and worketh still to the end of the world Perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which Christ wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he meaneth to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now VIVO I live is as loud to raise our Hope as the last trump will be to raise our Bodies And how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour Christ's life derives its vertue and influence on both Soul and Body on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath both Understanding and Will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made We do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel â—o perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be it will be done whether we will or no But to Awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be Renewed and raised in the inward man to Die to sin and Live to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept And though this Life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 Phil. 2.13 yet a necessity and a law lieth upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner There will be a change in both As the flesh at the second so the soul at the first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata If I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but Christs Phil. 2.5 Job 17.13 14 having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst Corruption is our father and the Worm our mother and sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the World and it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it self Death hath dominion over us For let us call the World what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christ's life we shall rise fairly not with a mouth which is a sepulchre but with a tongue which is our glory not with a withred hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient ear not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our Life Col. 3.3 saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it thereby a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practical application of his glorious resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the love of the world the Devil who is the Prince of the world is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idleness we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self But when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings Mal. 4.2 When we worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands 2 Cor. 4.11 then the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh then we have put off the old man yea in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertullian speaketh Candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead Matth. 21.32 but of the living We see now what virtue and power there is in this VIVO in the Life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as Eternity it self Hebr. 6.20 Hebr. 7.16 For as he liveth so behold he is alive for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever being made not after the law of a carnal commandment after that law which was given to
as a command on us to sin no more if such a necessity lay upon us that we must needs sin again For he that is born of God that is is a Christian indeed sinneth not that is falleth not into any sin which is inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace For would we have Christ perform his part of the Covenant and we break ours Can we love him and not keep his commandments or can we keep his commandments and break them Can we lift up our hearts with this talent of lead upon them Can we hope to go to heaven and yet remain in that sin which in the sight of God is as loathsome as hell it self No saith S. John He that is born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not toucheth him not so as to bring him into his snare toucheth him not so as to strike him down For 1. God requireth no other obedience but that which is given up with all our mind with all our heart with all our understanding and with all our strength He is no such hard Master as to require brick and give no straw to bid us do that which he knoweth we cannot do 2. God hath promised to circumcise the heart of his people Deut. 30.6 to love him with all their hearts to teach them to write a new Law in their hearts that they shall do his will and if they do it not the sin must lie at their door and God be true and they lyars 3. God himself beareth witness of many that they did it of the people that they sought the Lord with their whole desire 2 Chr. 15.15 of Asa that his heart was perfect all his dayes 2 Chr. 15.17 2 Kings 22.2 of Josiah that he did that was right in the sight of the Lord and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left Quid disperamus quid deficimus quicquid fieri potuit potest Why then should we despair why should we thus faint and fall under the command as under a burthen which neither we nor our fathers could bear If the dry tree they under the Law could bring forth such fruit shall the green tree watered with more abundant grace be barren and bear none at all Shall temporal blessings and but a shadowed light draw them to that height of Perfection which the rich promises of the Gospel and a full sight of heaven it self and the gracious assistance of a good God cannot lift us up unto Shall Publicans and Sinners shall Jewish worshippers enter before us into the kingdom of God and shall we whom the Sun rising from on high hath visited onely look upon the light and gaze at heaven till we are shut out Shall they be able to do their duty and we shut up all in an humble confession as we call it of our weakness and inability Shall we be strong to nothing but sin Beloved God requireth Obedience as he doth our Almes according to that which we have and not according to that which we have not an obedience answerable and proportioned to our strength Not to sin against the dictate of conscience Not to omit that which we know we ought to do Not to commit that which we condemn before and when we do it To press forward with S. Paul to the mark He requireth that Perfection of parts that it be universal though not total in every part though but in part And this part of the distinction we run away with and delight in and think we are seasoned well enough with sanctifying qualities when we are in the gall of bitterness think our hearts clean when they are receptacles and a very stew of polluted thoughts our Phansies sanctified when they are but the shops of vanity our Wills rectified when they do but look on that which is good and fasten and joyn on that which is evil Therefore besides this Perfection of parts God requireth also that Perfection of degrees not such a perfection to which nothing can be added but to which something is added every day For Perfection in the highest degree which cannot be increased and improved is impossible in this life But such a Perfection as by the assistance of Grace we may attain unto such as is alwaies accompanied with an earnest and serious endeavour of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the work and business of this life not to be reserved for the future not to be begun in earth and finished in heaven as some of late have loved to speak For that Perfection in the other world is not a duty but a reward When our breath is gone from us we are extra statum merendi aut demerendi Precepts were given for this world not for the next Here we are to work out our salvation there to enjoy it Our labour is in the vineyard there is the peny Our wedding garment must be worn here there we shall put on immortality All that is to be done is to be done in this life the next is either misery or bliss And shall we be content with any degree of perfection in hope that the same hand of Mercy will crown and perfect us at once Shall we yield to God any measure of obedience in this world upon this most dangerous presumption that he will fill it up in the world to come Shall we come short of our duty here because some have taught us what we are willing to learn that God will make it up for us in the highest heavens I am no Pelagian nor Perfectionist nor would I make the way to heaven narrower then it is yet I am unwilling to betray either the Truth or my Text and say Christ doth not require what he doth require that we may do what we list and have what we list They who make the way wider for flesh and bloud to walk in are but false guides and to avoid the needle's eye run into the very mouth of destruction It is good advice that of S. Augustine Nemo sibi promittat quod non promittit Evangelium Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it Let no man take upon him to be wiser then Christ Let no man say that is impossible which he is unwilling to do and which he never attempted Let no man say This cannot be done when he is resolved to do the contrary It is a good observation of the Fathers That many things seem very absurd to weak and unskilful men which wise men embrace as truths eò elatiùs laudant quò abjectiùs stulti aspernantur and do therefore more extoll and magnifie because they who will not understand have set them at a low price And the Philosopher will tell us That those opinions which bear no shew of truth with them are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more powerful to perswade ignorant men then the truth it self though never so
the Church is and not like unto the world Wonder not then for the Church hath its peace even in persecution And that we may not think it strange let us not frame and fashion to our selves a Church by the world For by looking too stedfastly upon this world we carry the impression it maketh in us whithersoever we go and that maketh Persecution appear to us in such a monstrous shape that we begin to question the providence of God in suffering it to rage within his territories How doth it amaze us to see Innocency trod down by Power to see a Saint whipped by a Devil But in the world we are born in the world we are the world is the greatest part of our study and hence it cometh to pass that in the pursuit of the knowledge of Christ and his Church we are ready to phansie something to our selves like unto the world Temporal Felicity and Peace is the desire of the whole world and upon this some have made it a note and mark of the true Church like the Musician in Tully who being asked what the Soul was answered that it was an harmony is à principiis artis suae non recessit He knew not saith he how to leave the principles of his own art From hence it is that when we see persecution and the sword and fire rage against the true professours we are at our wits end and think that not onely the glory is departed but the light of Israel is quite put out that when desolation hath shaken a Kingdom the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church As groundless a conceit well near as if we should take the description of Heaven in the Revelation to be true in the letter and that it is a City of pure Gold that the foundations of the walls are adorned with pretious stones that every gate is a pearl and the streets shine like glass Let us then wipe out this carnal errour out of our hearts That the Kingdom of Christ doth hold proportion with the form and managing of these Kingdoms below here on earth that the same peace doth continue and the same division and pâ—â—secution dissolve and ruine both that the same violence which removeth the Candlestick doth blow out the light And let us abstract and wean our selvâ—â— from the world let us be dead to the world let us crucifie the world in a word let us not love the world nor the things of the world and we shall then begin to think persecution a blessing and all these conceits of outward peace and felicity will vanish into nothing And therefore in the third place let us cast down these imaginations these bubbles of wind blown and raised up by the flesh the worser part which doth soonest bring on a persecution and soonest fear one and let us in the place of these build up a royal fort build up our selves in our most holy faith and so fit and prepare our selves against this fiery tryal For as those are called mysteries which are precedaneous and go before the mysteries and he may be said to fight who doth but flourish and arm and fit himself for the battel so the blessed Spirit of God every where calleth upon those who are his souldiers to watch and stand upon their guard to put on the whole armour of God that when the devil assaulteth them in a storm of persecution they may be able to stand Eph. 6.11 to look upon the sword beforehand to take it up and handle it to dispute it out of its force and terrour and so by a familiar conversing with it beforehand by opposing our hopes of happiness and the promises of life to the terrours that death may bring opposing the second part of my Text to the first the Kingdom of heaven to persecution we may abate its force and violence and so by a due preparation conquer before we suffer and leave the persecutor no more power but to kill us And to this end let us view and well look upon the beauty and glory of Righteousness and learn to love it to make it our counsellour our oracle whilest the light shineth upon our heads to let it have a command over us and when it saith Do this to do it For if we thus make it our joy and our crown display it abroad in every action of our life in the time of peace we shall not part with it at a blast nor fling it off and forsake it in time of persecution If we love Righteousness Righteousness will love us and cleave close to us when our friends and acquaintance leave us and fall away like leaves in Autumn A good conscience is an everlasting never-failing foundation but the clamours and checks of a polluted one will give us no leisure at all to build up an holy resolution For when we have a long time detained the truth in righteousness kept it down as a prisoner and not suffered it to work in us when in the whole course of our life we have kept her captive under our sensual lusts and affections it is not probable that in time of danger and astonishment it should have so much power over us as to win us to suffer for its sake but these sensual lusts which in time of peace did keep the Truth and Righteousness under will now shew themselves again in time of persecution and be as forcible to deter us from those evils which are so but in shew and appearance as they were to plunge us into those evils of sin which are true and real If then thou wilt be fitted for Persecution and so for Blessedness first persecute thy self crucifie thy flesh with the lusts and affections raise up a persecution in thy own breast banish every idle thought silence every loud and clamorous desire whip and correct every wandring phansie beat down every thing that standeth in opposition to Righteousness be thus dead unto thy self and then neither death nor life neither fear of death nor hopes of life neither principalities nor powers neither present evils nor those to come shall ever be able to shake thy confidence or separate thee from the love of Righteousness which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And now as we have brought the Righteous person into this Field of bloud and prepared and strengthned him against the horror of it so must we bring the Persecutor also that he may behold what desolation he hath made Why boastest thou thy self in thy mischief O mighty man That thou hast sped that thou hast divided the prey that thou hast made Innocence it self to lick the dust of thy feet that thou hast spilt the bloud of the righteous as water on the ground Thus did the tyrants of old triumph and dance in the bloud which they shed Behold thou persecutest thy self and though the righteous fall under thee yet thou sufferest most Every blow thou givest them entereth into thy own soul that power with which
we love him then we love also his appearance and his coming 2 Tim. 4.8 And our Love is a subscription to his promise by which we truly testifie our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to the Angels promise Amen Even so come Lord Jesus That of Faith may be forced that of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come to me as an enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the chair of the scornful or lie in the bed of lust that he should come to me and find me with a strumpet in my arms or a sword in my hand fighting against that Power which is his ordinance For doth any condemned person hope for a day of execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improved his Talent and brought my self to that temper and constitution that I can idem velle idem nolle will and nill the same things and be of the same mind with that Jesus who is to come when I have made my self the friend of the Judge then Spes festina then Hope is on the wing then substantia mea apud Christum as the Vulgar readeth it my expectation my substance my being is with Christ Nec pareo Deo sed assentior And I do not onely subscribe to the VENIET to his coming because he hath decreed and resolved it but because I can make an hearty acknowledgment that the will of Christ is just and good and I assent not of necessity but of a willing mind And as he who testifieth these things confirmeth the Angels promise with this last word Surely I come quickly so shall I be able truly to answer Even so come Lord Jesus In the last place this VENIET this foretelling of Christ's second coming hath another operation and is powerful to work in us Fear and Circumspection the very prop and foundation of those three Theological vertues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preservative of all the good we have It tempereth our Love that it be not too bold our Faith that it be not too forward and our Hope that it be not too confident It is as a watch and guard upon us to keep us in all our wayes VENIET is of the future tense and though it be most certain that Christ will come yet the time is not determined that we may so love Christ as that we may be fit to believe and hope and long for his coming The VENIET may end this moment and the promise be made good as well this day or the next as a thousand years hence The When God hath kept as a secret in his own breast ut pendulâ expectatione solicitudo fidei probetur saith Tertullian that by suspending our expectation and leaving us uncertain of the time he may make trial of the watchfulness of their faith whom he meaneth to place among the few but great examples of eternal happiness Semper diem observant qui semper ignorant semper timent qui quotidie sperant Whilest men are ignorant of the day they observe every day and fear that Christ may come this minute who they know will come at last Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine Brethren he will come he will come assuredly and we must be careful how he findeth us when he cometh He will come not as at the first in the form of a servant but as a King not as a sheep that openeth not his mouth but with a mighty voice shaking the heaven and earth with Angels and with Archangels by the power of his Trump raising the dead out of their graves and bringing them all to his seat of judgment He shall come in great majesty and glory So come say the Angels as ye have seen him go into heaven Which pointeth to the manner of Christ's coming and should now come to be handled But the time will not permit Onely for conclusion let us remember that he shall come and shall not keep silence that a fire shall devour before him and a tempest round about him that he shall come cum totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum with an earthquake and the horrour of the world and with the lamentation of all except Christians Et qui nunc ventilat gentes per fidem tunc ventilabit per judicium And he that now winnoweth the nations and separateth them one from the other by faith will then search and divide the whole world by his last and decretory sentence And let this noise startle the Adulterer in his twilight strike the sword out of the hand of the Rebellious and awake the Atheist out of his deep sleep and lethargy For this Jesus this same Jesus shall so come who placed Adultery in the eye and Murther in the thought and commanded to give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar'◠and he shall judge the Adulterer and the seditious Rebel according to that Gospel which he preached in great humility and which many Christians Atheistical Christians trample under their feet with as great pride 2 Cor. 5.11 And let this terrour of the Lord as S. Paul calleth it persuade men to lay aside every weight and those sins which do so easily beset us our Covetous desires which fasten us to the dust our Pride which though it lift up our heads on high yet at last will have a fall our Ambibition which though it reach the pinnacle yet cannot build its nest in heaven our Seditious and Atheistical imaginations which can never enter that place where Obedience and Humility sit crowned for neither Covetousness nor Pride nor Rebellion can ascend with Christ who was humble and yet the Prince of peace But SURSUM CORDA Let us lift up our hearts even lift them up unto the Lord. Let our conversation be in heaven Imitemur quod futuri sumus Let our life be a type of the Ascension and our present holiness an imitation of our future bliss Let us mortifie our earthly members now that then they may be glorified Let us ascend in heart and with all the powers of our soul now in this life that when this Jesus shall come again in glory and great Majesty we may be caught up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air and be with him for evermore The Fifteenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's WE have in our last presented before your eyes the bloudy and victorious Passion and glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ The later our Apostle mentioneth ver 14. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power raise us not onely out of the grave but out of that deep prison and dungeon
crop and harvest of our Devotion This is truly cum parvo peccato ad ecclesiam venire cum peccatis multis ab ecclesia recedere to bring some sins with us to Church but carry away more for fear of the smoke to leap into the fire for fear of coming too near to Superstition to shipwreck on Profaneness for fear of Will-worship not to worship at all like Haggards to check at every feather to be troubled at every shew and appearance to startle at every shadow and where GLORY TO THE LORD is engraven in capital letters to blot it out and write down SUPERSTITION I see I must conclude Beloved fly Idolatry fly Superstition you cannot fly far enough But withal fly Profaneness and Irreverence and run not so far from the one as to meet and embrace the other Be not Papists God forbid you should But be not Atheists that sure talk what we will of Popery is far the worse Do not give God more then he would have but be sure you do not give him less Why should you bate him any part who giveth you all Behold he breathed into you your Souls and stampt his Image upon them Give it him back again not clipt not defaced but representing his own graces unto him in all holiness and purity And his hands did form and fashion your Bodies and in his book are all your members written Let THE GLORY OF GOD be set forth and wtitten as it were upon every one of them and he shall exalt those members higher yet and make thy vile Body like to his most glorious body In a word Let us glorifie God here in soul and body and he shall glorifie both soul and body in the day of the Lord Jesus The Seventeenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost THat Jesus is the Lord was seen in his triumph at Easter made manifest by the power of his Resurrection The earth trembled the foundations of the hills moved and shook the graves opened at the presence of this Lord. Not the Disciples onely had this fire kindled in their hearts that they could not but say The Lord is risen but the earth opened her mouth and the Grave hers And now it is become the language of the whole world Jesus is the Lord. All this is true But we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is it What profit is it if the Earth speak and the Grave speak and the whole World speak if we be dumb Let Jesus be the Lord but if we cannot say so he may and will be our Lord indeed but not our Jesus we may fall under his power but not rise by his help If we cannot say so we shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall cross with him nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak the quite contrary If we cannot call him Lord then with the accursed Jew we do indeed call him Anathema we call the Saviour of the world an accursed thing Si confiteamur exsecramur If we confess him not we curse him And he that curseth Jesus needeth no greater curse We must then before we can be good Christians go to school and learn to speak not onely Abba Father but Jesus the Lord. And where now shall we learn it Shall we knock at our own breasts and awake our Reason to lead us to this saving truth Shall we be content with that light which the Laws and Customs of our Country have set up and so cry him up for Lord as the Ephesians did their Diana for company and sit down and rest our selves in this resolution because we see the Jew hated the Turk abhorred and Hereticks burned who deny it Shall we alienis oculis videre make use of other mens eyes and so take our Religion upon trust These are the common motives and inducements to believe it With this clay we open our eyes thus we drive out the dumb Spirit And when we hear this noise round about us that Jesus is the Lord our mouth openeth and we speak it with our tongue These are lights indeed and our lights but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceitful My Reason is too dim a light and cannot shew me this great conjunction of Jesus and the Lord. Education is a false light and misleadeth the greatest part of Christians even when it leadeth them right For he that falleth upon the Truth by chance by this blind felicity erreth when he doth not erre having no better assurance of the Truth then the common vogue He walketh indeed in the right way but blindfold He embraceth the Truth but so as for ought he knoweth it may be a lye And last of all the greatest Authority on earth is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faint uncertain and failing proof a windy testimony if it blow from no other treasury then this below No we must have a surer word then this or else we shall not be what we so easily persuade our selves we are We must look higher then these Cathedram habet in coelo Our Master is in heaven And JESUS IS THE LORD is a voice from heaven taught us saith the Apostle by the holy Ghost who is vicarius Christi as Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth and supplieth his place to help and elevate our Reason to assure and confirm our Education and to establish and ratifie Authority Would you have this dumb spirit dispossessed The Spirit who as on this day came down in a showre of tongues must do it Would you be able to fetch breath to speak The holy Ghost must spirare breathe into us the breath of spiritual life inable us by inspiration Would we say it we must teach it If we be ignorant of this the Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have us to understand that No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And now we have fitted our Text to the Time the Feast of Pentecost which was the Feast of the Law For then the old Law was given then written in tables of stone And whensoever the Spirit of the living God writeth this Law of Christ THAT HE IS THE LORD in the fleshly tables of our hearts then is our Pentecost the Feast of the holy Ghost then he descendeth in a sound to awake us in wind to move and shake us in fiery tongues to warm us and make us speak The difference is This ministration of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh far more glorious And as he came in solemn state upon the Disciples this day in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come Though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together Though no house totter
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
hid in the secret pavilion of our thoughts but the Tongue is the door by which we go out and manifest and expose our selves to the publick view But even this gate this door may be a wall a pavillion to skreen us and many times we are least seen when we are most exposed For words are deceitful upon the balance When you come to weigh them those words which went for talents weigh not a mite and though they present unto us the softness of butter yet upon the touch and trial they have an edge and wound like swords To bless with the mouth and curse with the heart is the Devil's lecture who in these last Atheistical times hath set the heart and tongue at such a distance that they hold no intelligence Hosanna is the word when we wish Christ on the cross and we call him Lord when we trample him under our feet If we look upon the greatest part of Christendom we may take them not for a Church but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a convention or congregation of idle talking men who say it and never say it say it often but never speak it as they should To say it then is of a more spreading signification and taketh in the Tongue the Heart the Hand taketh in 1. an outward Profession 2. an inward Persuasion 3. a constant Practice answerable to them both This is the best language of a Christian when he speaketh by his Tongue his Eye his Ear his Hand by every member that he hath Rom. 10.9 First we are bound to say it That we may be saved we must confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus 1 John 4.15 God dwelleth in him that confesseth Jesus is the Son of God The Mouth is named by S. Paul in allusion to that of Moses The word is in thy mouth Where by a Synecdoche the Mouth is mentioned when all the other parts of the body are understood For if the Mouth were enough if to say it were sufficient there needed no holy Ghost to descend to teach it We might learn to say Jesus is the Lord as the Pye or Parrot did to salute Caesar and between our Jesu Domine and the birds Ave Caesar the difference would not be great And indeed if we send our eyes abroad and take a survey of the conversation of most Christians we shall find that our Confession is much after the language of birds To name Christ and speak well of his name To bless the child Jesus and to curse the Jews this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the total of our Say of our Confession And if we were to frame a Religion out of mens lives as one is said to have done a Grammar out of Homer's works we should find none but this For what can we discover in most mens lives but noise and words How good is the Lord How beautiful are the feet of Jesus Doth any man speak against Jesus Ad ignem leones Let him die for it And thus some say it because they are inwardly convinced and willing to think so For not onely out of the mouths of babes and sucklings but also out of the mouths of wicked men hath God ordained strength And Jesus is justified and magnified not onely by his children but also by his enemies Again some are Christians in a throng and dare not but say it for very shame dare not oppose it lest the multitude of those they live with should confute or silence them or stone them to death Si nomen Christi in tanta gloria non esset tot professores Christi sancta Ecclesia non haberet saith Gregory If the name of Christ had not been made glorious on the earth the Church of Christ would fall short in her reckoning and number of Professours whereof the greatest part name him but for companie 's sake And that is the reason why so many fall from him in time of persecution and are so ready to forget him For that Religion which we take up by the way will never bring us forward upon the point of the sword Besides the Heart doth not alwayes sympathize and keep time with the Voice but is often dull and heavy when our Hosannas and Hallelujahs are loudest nay most times turneth away from that which our Profession tendeth to The Voice may be for Jesus and the Heart for Mammon the Voice for Christ the Heart on his Patrimony the Voice for his miracles the desire for his loaves We may say he is the Lord when are ready to crucifie him O miserable disproportion and contradiction of Voice and Heart Foolish men that we are to profess the Gospel is true and yet so live as it were most certainly false I did not well to mention this For thus to say it is not to say it This Confession is at best but a beam cast forth from the light of Reason but an acknowledgement against our wills and we may truly say Vox est preterea nihil It is a voice a sound of words and no more Thus they may name him who never name him but in their cursed oaths and exsecrations who shall be said never to have named Jesus because they name him too often and whom he will not know because they have been too familiar with him Thus the Profane person may say it who teareth him pieces the Sacrilegious person who devoureth him the Covetous who selleth him the Ambitious who treadeth upon him the Devil who will have nothing to doe with him and that white Devil the Hypocrite that trumpet of an uncertain sound that monster with the voice of an Angel and the malice of a fiend But this is not to say it And we must learn to distinguish between Samuel and the Devil which the witch brought up in his mantle Outward Profession will not reach home But In the next place as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word floating on the tongue so there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word conceived and shaped in the mind the word of the Heart a kind of dialogue within our selves as Plato calleth it when by due examination and comparing one thing with another and well weighing the inducements and evidences which are brought we are well persuaded of the Truth and settle our selves upon this conclusion That Jesus is the Lord. We commonly call it Faith Which of it self is operative as a fire in the bones which will not be concealed My heart was hot within me and whilst I was musing the fire burned Psal 39. Psal 116. then spake I with my tongue saith David I believed and therefore have I spoken The love of Christ constraineth us saith S. Paul And indeed of its own nature so it will For it is of an active nature Sometimes we read of its valour it stoppeth the mouths Lions Sometimes of its policy it is not ignorant of the Devil's enterprises Sometimes of its strength that it removeth mountains And we find
furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of Faith But that Faith should be idle or speechless or dead is contrary to its nature and proceedeth from our depraved dispositions from Love of the world and Love of our selves which can silence it or lull it asleep or bury it in oblivion Thus we may have Faith as if we had it not and use it as we should use the world as if we used it not or worse abuse it not believe and say it but believe and deny it not believe and be saved but believe and be damned For the Devil can haereticare propositiones make propositions which are absolutely true heretical Believe and be saved is as true as Gospel nay it is the Gospel it self but by his art and deceit many believe and are by so much the bolder in the wayes which lead unto Death believe Jesus to be the Lord and contemn him believe him to be a Saviour and upon presumption of mercy make themselves uncapable of mercy and because he saveth sinners will be such sinners as he cannot save because they believe he taketh away the sins of the world will harden themselves in those sins which he will not take away Many there be who do veritatem sed non per vera tenere maintain the Truth but by those wayes which are contrary to the Truth make that which should confirm Religion destroy Religion and their whole life a false gloss upon a good Text having a form of godliness but denying the power of it crying Jesus is the Lord but scourging him with their blasphemies as if he were a slave and fighting against him with their lusts and affections as if he were an enemy sealing him up in his grave as if he were not that Jesus that Saviour that Lord but in the Jews language that deceiver that blasphemer But this is a most broken and imperfect language And though we are said to believe it when we cannot believe it to have the habit of Faith when we have not the use of Reason and so cannot bring it forth into act as some Divines conceive though it be spoke for us at the Font when we cannot speak and though when we can speak it we speak it again and again as often almost at we speak Lord Lord though we gasp it forth with our last breath and make it the last word we speak yet all this will not make up the Dicere all this will not rise to thus much as to say JESUS IS THE LORD Therefore In the third place that we may truly say it we must speak it to God as God speaketh to us whose word is his deed who cannot lie who Numb 23.19 if he saith it will doe it if he speak it will make it good And as he speaketh to us by his Benefits which are not words but blessings the language of Heaven by his Rain to water the earth by his Wool to clothe us and by his Bread to feed us so must we speak to him by our Obedience by Hearts not hollow by Tongues not deceitful by Hands pure and innocent Our heart conceiveth and our obedience is the report made abroad And this is indeed LO QUI to speak out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make our works vocal and our words operative to have lightning in our words and thunder in our deeds as Nazianzene spake of Basil that not onely Men and Angels may hear and see and applaud us but this Lord himself may understand our dialect and by that know us to be his children and accept and reward us In our Lord and Saviour's Alphabet these are the Letters in his Grammar these are the Words Meekness and Patience Compassion and Readiness to forgive Self-denial and Taking up our cross This must be our Dialect We cannot better express our Jesus and our Lord then idiomate operum by the language of our works by the language of the Angels whose Elogium is They doe his will the Tongue of Angels is not so proper as their Ministery for indeed their Ministery is their Tongue by the language of the Innocents who confessed him to be the Lord not by speaking but by dying by the language of the blessed Martyrs who in their tumultuary executions when they could not be heard for noise were not suffered to confess him said no more but took their death on it And this is truly to say Jesus is the Lord. For if he be indeed our Lord then shall we be under his command and beck Not a thought must rise which he would controll not a word be uttered which he would silence not an action break forth which he forbideth not a motion be seen which he would stop The very name of Lord must awe us must possess and rule us must inclose and bound us and keep us in on every side Till this be done nothing is done nothing is said We are his purchase and must fall willingly under his Dominion For as God made Man a little World so hath he made him a little Commonwealth Tertullian calleth him Fibulam utriusque substantiae the Clasp or Button which tieth together two diverse substances the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other saith S. Paul are carried diverse wayes the Flesh to that which is pleasing to it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as pleasing nor irksom but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the perfection and beauty of the soul Gal. 5.17 They lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battel is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit against those inclinations and motions which the Word and the Spirit beget in us And then Sin taketh the chair the place and throne of Christ and is Lord over us reigneth as S. Paul speaketh in our mortal bodies If it say Go we go and if it say Come we come and if it say Doe this we doe it It maketh us lay down that price for dung with which we might purchase heaven See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look and the glance of an eye and bindeth him with a kiss which will at last bite like a serpent See how Self-love driveth on thousands as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword And thus doth Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it over us And in this bondage and slavery can we truly say Jesus is the Lord when he is disgraced deposed and even crucified again Beloved whilest this fighting and contention lasteth in us something or other will lay hold on us and draw us within its
and Desolation This phansie pleaseth me now this thought ravisheth me this action is my crown my joy it is sowen in honour in pleasure in applause but what will it be vvhen it riseth again what vvill it be at the harvest Will a gloss or pretense alter the nature of the seed and change it as vve our selves shall be in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye Let us never build a resolution but upon this of the Apostle What a man sows that shall he also reap O quanta subtilitas judiciorum Dei saith Gregory Oh the subtile and exact method of the Justice of God vvhich gives to every seed it s own body The Eye vvhich vvould not look upon God shall be filled with horrour The Understanding vvhich vvould not receive Light shall receive no impression but of Darkness and everlasting separation And the Will vvhich made the sin shall it self be made a punishment It is now a vvanton Thought it well then be a gnawing Worm It is now Lust it will be a burning Flame It is now Blasphemy it will be Howling and Gnashing of Teeth We must now conclude and we cannot better conclude then with that of S. Peter Brethren if these things be so if you believe there be such things be deligent that at the great harvest you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless free from Self-deceit walking and trembling before your God not plowing the Wind to reap the Whirlwind but sowing seed in Righteousness and Sincerity that you may reap Peace and Joy in this life a fair promising Spring which gives a full assurance of a rich Harvest of Glory and Immortality in the life to come Both which God grant us through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Thirtieth SERMON PART I. THESS IV. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words THe words are plain and easie They are as the Use of that Doctrine of the Coming of the Lord which is set down at large in the precedent verses For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout c. a doctrine seasonably opened and applied to the Thessalonians now hanging down their heads with grief and weeping over the graves of their friends as men without hope inter praecepta virtutum spem resurrectionis even then when S. Pauls doctrine and the hope of the Resurrection should have armed them against all assaults even then languishing and falling away and bating from their spiritual growth as if they had almost forgotten that article of their Belief the Coming of the Lord and lost not onely their friends but their faith It was fitted for them and in this case but it may serve for any Meridian for any who are brought low by oppression evil and sorrow It was preacht in the first age of the Church when she began to be militant which was as soon as she began And it is an antidote as it were put into her Hands which she may use even in her last age which she must use till she be triumphant And therefore we will not bind and confine it to this present case of the Thessalonians but propose it as a preservative against all evil whatsoever And since the two affections which weigh down the afflicted are Sorrow and Fear we will set up this to remove them both For be sorry why should they Let the Heathen be so who are without Hope And fear what need they Have they lost their friends they do but sleep Have their goods been torn from them They shall receive an hundred fold Is their life in jeopardy It is in his Hands who is coming who shall descend from heaven with a shout and the voyce of the Archangel and the dead in Christ shall rise first wherefore comfort one another with these words These words I called a Use of that Doctrine which S. Paul had formerly preacht at Thessalonica and it lieth in the form of an exhortation in these black and gloomy dayes in these last and perilous dayes in these dayes of misery and mourning most necessary when so many weak hands are to be Hâ—ld up and so many feeble knees to be strengthned Herein briefly I observe the Matter and the Manner the Action and the Rule or square of that action The Matter Comfort you one another the Manner how this duty must be performed with these words But for our more plain and orderly proceeding we will speak first of the Object or Persons ALII ALIOS one another And these we shall look upon first in their common nature and condition as they are of the same passions Wis 7.3 subject to the same infirmities falling upon as the Wiseman speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earth which is of like Nature All men have the like entrance into life and the like going out and I may say are subject to the same depressions and miscarriages which even Life that we are so unwilling to part with hath wrapt up in her and carries as in her womb a short life and full of misery Next we will look upon them in that near relation which they have one to another and that as they are either Men or Christians For the second doth not take away but establish the first Grace doth not destroy Nature but perfect it and if the last be upheld the former can never fall to the ground And this alii alios the Persons will afford us Comfort you one another Secondly this Habitude and mutual Dependance doth even invite the Act which will be our next consideration What it is to comfort one another And this in the third place requires the Rule and Method how we should perform it with these words with the words of Truth with the words of the Gospel Which is indeed to draw the waters of Comfort out of the wells of Salvation You have then 1. the Persons one another 2. the Act Comfort 3. the Method with these words Wherefore comfort one another with these words First of the Persons one another And indeed one man is the image of another because the same image of God is on all Every man is as the Text and every man is as the Commentary Every man is what he is and yet one man interprets another and declares what he is We be as glasses each to other and one sees in another not onely what he is but what he may be The Beggar is a glass for a King and a King for a Beggar The Sheephook hath been turned into a Sceptre and the crowns of mighty Kings have been cast to the ground These things I write to thee saith Plato of Man who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature and condition mutable now on the wing for heaven anon cleaving to the dust now sporting in the Sunshine of prosperity and anon beaten down with a storm now rejoycing with his friends and anon bewayling them now vvith a shining anon vvith a cloudy countenance novv vvith a cheerful anon
Powers and Principalities Laws and Precepts and all that is named of God Ambition maketh Laws Jura perjura Swear and forswear Arise kill and eat Covetousness maketh Laws condemneth us to the mines to dig and sweat Quocunque modo rem Gather and lay up Come not within the reach of Omri's statutes of humane Laws and you need not fear any Law of Christ. Private Interest maketh Laws and indeed is the Emperour of the world and maketh men slaves to crouch and bow under every burthen to submit to every Law of man though it enjoyn to day what it did forbid yesterday to raise up our heads and then duck at every shadow that cometh over us but we can see no such formidable power in the Royal Law of Christ because it breatheth not upon it to promote and uphold it but looketh as an enemy that would cast it down biddeth us deny our selves which we do every day for our lusts for our honour for our profit but cannot do it for Christ or for that crown which is laid up for those that do it Thus every thing hath power over us which may destroy us but Christ is not hearkned to nor those his Laws which may make us wise unto salvation For we are too ready to believe what some have been bold to teach that there are no such Laws at all in the Gospel Therefore in the last place let us cast this root of bitterness out of our hearts let us look upon it as a most dangerous and baneful errour an errour which hath brought that abomination of desolation into the world and into the lives and manners of Christians which have made them stink amongst the inhabitants of the earth amongst Jews and Pagans and Infidels which tremble to behold those works of darkness which they see every day not onely done but defended by those who call themselves the children of light Because in that name we bite and devour one another for this they despise the Gospel of Christ because we boast of it all the day long and make use of it as a Licence or Letters patent to be worse then they riot it in the light beat our fellow-servants defraud and oppress them which they do not in darkness and in the shadow of death The first Christians called the Gospel legem Christianam the Christian Law and so lived as under a Law so lived that nothing but the name was accused But the latter times have brought forth subtle Divines that have disputed away the Law and now there is scarce any thing left commendable but the name A Gospeller and worse then a Turk or Pagan a Gospeller and a Revenger a Gospeller and a Libertine a Gospeller and a Schismatick a Gospeller and a Deceiver a Gospeller and a Traitor a Gospeller that will be under no Law a Gospeller that is all for Love and Mercy and nothing for Fear I may say the Devil is a better Gospeller for he believeth and trembleth And indeed this is one of the Devils subtilest engines veritatem veritate concutere to shake and beat down one Truth with another to bury our Duty in the Good news to hide the Lord in the Saviour and the Law in the covering of Mercy to make the Gospel supplant it self that it may be of no effect to have no sound heard but that of Imputative righteousness From hence that irregularity and disobedience amongst Christians that liberty and peace in sin For when Mercy waiteth so close upon us and Judgment is far out of our sight we walk on pleasantly in forbidden paths and sin with the less regret sin and fear not pardon lying so near at hand To conclude then Let us not deceive our selves and think that there is nothing but Mercy and Pardon in the Gospel and so rely upon it till we commit those sins which shall be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Nemo promittat sibi quod non promittit Evangelium saith Augustine Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it nor so presume on the Grace of God as to turn it into wantonness so extol it as to depress it so trust to Mercy as to forfeit it but look into the Gospel and behold it in its own shape and face as pardoning sin and forbidding sin as a royal Release and a royal Law And look upon Christ the authour and finisher of our faith as a Jesus to save us Psal 2. and a Lord to command us as preaching peace and preaching a Law Rom. 8.3 condemning sin in his flesh dying that sin might dye and teaching us to destroy it in our selves In a word let us so look into the Gospel that it may be unto us the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death so look upon Christ here that he may be our Lord to govern us and our Jesus to save us that we may be subject to his Laws and so be made capable of his mercy that we may acknowledge him to be our Lord and he acknowledge us before his Father that Death may lose its sting and Sin its strength and we may be saved in the last day through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Two and Fortieth SERMON PART II. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THat the Precepts of the Gospel do bind us as Laws ye have heard already and how the Doctrine of the Gospel is a Law We must in the next place see how it is a perfect Law And first That is perfect saith the Philosopher cui nihil adimi nec adjici potest from which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added Such is the Gospel You cannot adde to it you cannot take from it one lota or tittle If any shall adde unto these things Rev. 22.18 God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this book And if any shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life There needeth no second hand to supply it and that hand deserveth to be cut off that shall corrupt or alter it For look upon the End which is Blessedness There you have it drawn out in the fairest lines that flesh and bloud can read in as large a representation as our humane nature is capable of Then view the Means to bring us to that end They are plainly exprest and set out there in such a character that we may run and read them open to our understanding exciting our faith raising our hope and even provoking us to action There is nothing which we ought to know nothing which we must believe nothing which we may hope for nothing which concerneth us to do nothing which may lift us up to happiness and carry us to the end but it is written
men that one should succeed another but after the power of an endless life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life that cannot be dissolved that cannot part from the body And thus as he liveth for evermore so whatsoever issueth from him is like himself everlasting the beams as lasting as the light His Word endureth for ever his Law is eternal his Intercession eternal his Punishments eternal and his Reward eternal Not a Word which can fall to the ground like ours who fall after it and within a while breathe out our souls as we do our words and speak no more Not Laws which are framed and set to the times and alter and change as they do and at last end with them but which shall stand fast for ever Psal 62.11 aeternae ab aeterno eternal as he is eternal He hath spoken once and he will speak no more Not an Intercession which may be silenced with power but imprinted in him and inseparable from him and so never ceasing an Intercession which Omnipotency it self cannot withstand Not a a transitory Punishment which time may mitigate or take away but an everlasting Worm Not a Reward which may be snatched out of our hands but lasting as the heavens nay as Christ himself And they who would contract and shrink it up into one and so make a temporary perishing everlastingness that shall last as long as it lasteth do stretch beyond their line which may reach the Right hand as well as the Left and do put an end to the Reward as they would do to the Punishment For of the one as well as of the other it is said that it shall be everlasting All that floweth from Christ is like himself yesterday Hebr. 13.8 Hebr. 7.26 and to day and the same for ever And such an High Priest became us who was to live for ever For what should we do with a mortal Saviour or what could a mortal Saviour do for us What could an arm of flesh a withering dying arm avail us Shadow us to day and leave us to morrow raise us up now and within a while let us fall into the dust and at last fall down and perish with us Man is weak Job 14.10 and dieth man giveth up the ghost and where is he Where is I will not say Alexander or Caesar but where is Moses that led his people through the Red-Sea where are his lawes Where is David S. Peter speaketh it freely that he is both dead and buried Acts 2.29 and that his Sepulchre was with them unto that day But the son of David is ascended into heaven is our Priest for ever and liveth for evermore And this title of Eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire adorneth his burning Feet is engraven on his Sword may be read in his Countenance and platted in his Crown and doth well become his Power his Wisdome his Justice his Goodness For that which is not eternal is next to nothing What Power is that which sinketh What Wisdome is that which faileth What Riches are they that perish What Mercy is that which is as the morning dew which soon falleth and is as soon exhaled and dryed up again Virtue were nothing Religion were nothing Faith it self were nothing but in reference to Eternity Heaven were nothing if it were not eternal Eternity is that which maketh every thing something maketh every thing better than it is and addeth lustre to Light it self I live evermore giveth life unto all things Eternity is a fathomless Ocean and carrieth with it Power and Wisdome and Goodness an efficacious Activity a gracious and benevolent Power a wise and provident Goodness If Christ live for evermore then is he independent if independent then most powerful if most powerful then blessed and if blessed then good He is powerful but good good but wise And these Goodness and Power and Wisdome and a diligent Care for us meet in him who liveth for evermore and worketh on us for our eternal salvation And first as he liveth for evermore so he intercedeth for us for evermore and he can no more leave to entercede for us than he can to be Christ His Priesthood must fail before his Intercession because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably inherent in him St. Paul joyneth them together his Sitting at the right of God and his interceding for us Rom. 8.34 So that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God where he looketh down upon us is present with us and prepareth a place for us His wounds are still open his merits are still vocal his sufferings are still importunate his everlasting presenting of himself before his Father is an everlasting prayer Jesus at the right hand of the Father is more powerful than the full vials the incense the prayers the groans the sighs the roarings of all the Saints that have been or shall be to the end of the world If he sate not there if he interceded not they were but noise nay they were sins but his Intercession sanctifieth them and offereth them up and by him they are powerful By his power the sighs and breathings and desires of mortal men ascend the highest heavens and draw down eternity And this is a part of Christ's Priestly office which he began here on earth and continueth for us maketh it compleat holdeth it up to the the end of the world Again this title of Eternity is annexed to his Regality and is a flower of his Crown not set in any but his Thou art a King for ever cannot be said to any mortal Did he not live for evermore he could not threaten eternal death Nor promise everlasting life For no mortal power can rage for ever but passeth as lands do from one Lord to another lyeth heavy on them and at last sinketh to the ground with them all Nor can the hand that must wither and fall off reach forth a never-failing reward Infinitude cannot be the issue and product of that which is finite and bounded vvithin a determined period And this might open a vvide and effectual door unto Sin and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Virtue and Piety vvhich is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood that the perseverance in it requireth no less a povver than that vvhich Eternity bringeth along with it to draw it on How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People What joy and delight vvould fill them did not the thought of a future endless estate pierce sometimes through them and so make some vent to let it out When the evil that hangeth over is but a cloud vvhich vvill soon vanish few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter Post mortem nihil est ipsáque mors nihil est There is nothing after death and Death it self is nothing setteth up a chair for the Atheist to set at ease in
it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any Keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these Keyes too long in our hands For though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romish party wheresoever they find keys mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the Keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the key of David Rev. 3.7 which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth was not given to the Apostles but is a regality and prerogative of Christ who only hath power of Life and Death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calleth himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings Phil. 2.8 9. He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2.7 11. He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable and fit subjects for his power to work upon which nevertheless will have its operation and effect either let us out or shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death Were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darkness and oblivion for ever But Christ living infuseth life into us that the bands of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place For it is impossible it should hold them You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell For how can Light dwell in Darkness How can Purity mix with stench How can Beauty stay with Horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and be both true yet this is such a contradiction as unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Matth. 5.18 Heaven and earth may pass away but Christ liveth for evermore and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self Rev. 6.8 And again There was a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and he had power to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth But now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger us and fling us down that we may rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self Job 18.14 Death was the King of terrors and the fear of Death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures less delightful and our virtues more tedious made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own dare look upon Death in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertullian and are ready to meet him in his most dreadful march with all his army of Diseases Racks and Tortures Man before he sinned knew not what Death meant then Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so do Christians with Death Having that Divine Image restored in them they are secure and fear it not For what can that Tyrant take from them Col. 3.3 Their life That is hid with Christ in God Psal 37.4 It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord. Matth. 6.20 It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified Gal. 5.24 their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keyes in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing as troubled S Augustine to define what it is We call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses and of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death because it is so profitable and advantageous to us It was indeed threatned but it is now a promise or the way unto it for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised It was an end of all it is now the beginning of all It was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it We may say it is the first point and moment of our after-eternity for it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them We live or rather labour and fight and strive with the World and with Life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and press forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the Spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our souls and we from our miseries and temptations and this living everliving Christ gathereth us together again breatheth life and eternity into us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the main articles of our Faith 1 Christs Death 2. his Life 3. his eternal Life and last of all his Power of the Keyes his Dominion over Hell and Death We will but in a word fit the ECCE the Behold in the Text to every part of it and set the Seal Amen to it and so conclude And first we place the ECCE the Behold on his Death He suffered and dyed that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and raise thee from both and wilt thou learn nothing from his compassion
can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast himself into hell and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glory He cannot say Amen to Life who killeth himself For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith but Phansie When we are told that Honour cometh towards us that some Golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that Content and Pleasure will ever be near and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemeth to make its approach towards us is as uncertain as Uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaveth a noysome and unsavoury sent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more But when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox faucibus haeret we can scarce say Amen So be it To the World and the pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our Assurance together so to study the Death and the Life the eternal Life and the Power of our Saviour that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.11 to meet the Resurrection to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousness sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed Psal 105.15 and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory when that Ear which hearkned to his voice shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everling powerful Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN XVI 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth WHen the Spirit of truth is come c. And behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memorial of his Coming a memorial of that miraculous and unusual sound Acts 2.2 3. that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as the holy Ghost came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our very souls are shaken no fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the holy Ghost descendeth both as an Instructer and as a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul and imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing or drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth In the words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzene speaketh or rather the Promise of his coming and appearance And if we will weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40.7 For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Isa 11.2 and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus Legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christ's Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christ's Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ Isa 61.2 Luke 4.19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it For we may soon see that the one will little avail without the other Christ's Birth Death and Passion and glorious Resurrection are but a story in Archivis good news sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him and the virtue and power of his resurrection and make us conformable to his death Phil 3.10 This is the sum of these words And in this we shall pass by these steps or degrees First we will carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirit 's Advent the miracle of this day Cùm venerit When he the Spirit of truth is come in a sound to awake the Apostles in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Acts 2.2 3. Secondly we will consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost He shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen Personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his Person the demonstrative pronoun ILLE when He 2. nomen Naturae a name expressing his Nature He is the Spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose Spirit he is In the second we shall find nomen Officii a name of Office and Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way For so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be the Apostles leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a straight and even course in the way And in this great Office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the Lesson he teacheth It is Truth Secondly of the large Extent of this Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He leadeth into all truth Thirdly of the Method and Manner of his discipline It is a gentle and effectual leading He driveth us not he draweth us not by violence but he taketh us as it were by the hand and guideth and leadeth us into all truth Cùm venerit ille Spiritus veritatis First though we are told by some
man else They leap over all their Alphabet and are at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their end before they begin They are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or round They study heaven but not the way to it Faith but not Good works Repentance without a Change or Restitution Religion without Order They are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool They study Predestination but not Sanctity of life Assurance but not that Piety which should work it Heaven and not Grace and Grace but not their Duty And now no marvel if they meet not with saving Truth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this so great disorder and confusion No marvel when we have broke all rules and order and not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leadeth us into the truth 4. The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation and Practice of the truths we learn This is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goeth under that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. Strom. l. 4. and is called an exercise by Clemens Alexandrinus Nyssene Cyrill of Hierusalem and others And though they who lead a Monastical life have laid claim to it as their own they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirit 's Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leadeth Which is to make the World it self a Monastery A good Christian is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by this dayly exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit doth drive the Truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit Talis quisque est qualibus delectatur Inter artificem artificium mira cognatio est Anaxagoras said well Manus causa sapientiae It is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge and worketh wisdome And true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consisteth not in being a good Critick and rightly judging of the sense of words or in being a good Logician drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 34.10 He that hath no experience knoweth little Ex mandato mandatum cernimus By practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God Joh 7.17 he shall know the Doctrine In Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them We learn Devotion by prayer Charity by giving of alms Meekness by forgiving injuries Humility and Patience by suffering Temperance by every-day-fighting against our lusts As we know meat by the tast so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover Heaven it self in piety And this is that which S. Paul calleth doctrine according to godliness We taste and see how gracious the Lord is 1 Tim. 6.3 Psal 34.8 1 Joh. 1.1 we do as it were see with our eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word when we manifest the Truth and make it visible in our actions the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and closet of Truth He displayeth his beams of light as we press forward and mend our pace He every day shineth upon us with more brightness as we every day strive to increase He teacheth us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those virtues which are his lessons and our duties We learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaketh Psal 119 99. Psal 19.2 wiser then our teachers To conclude Day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead us further from truth to truth till at last we be strengthned and established in the Truth and brought to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MICAH VI. 6 8. v. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Psal 4.6 THere be many who say Who will shew us any good saith the Prophet David For Good is that which men naturally desire And here the Prophet Micah hath fitted an answer to this question He hath shewed thee O man what is good And in the discovery of this Good he useth the same method which the Philosopher doth in the description of his moral Happiness First he sheweth us what it is not and then what it is And as the Philosopher shutteth out Honour and Riches and Pleasure as being so little necessary that we may be happy without them so doth the Prophet in the verses going before my Text in a manner reject and cast by Burnt-offerings and all the cerimonial and typical part of Moses Law all that outward busie expensive and sacrificing Religion as no whit esseâ—tial to that Good which he here fixeth up as upon a pillar for all eyes to look upon as being of no great alliance or nearness nor fit to incorporate it self with that Piety which must commend us to God And as a true Prophet he doth not only discover to the Jews the common errour of their lives but sheweth them yet a more excellent way first asking the question Non satis est reprehendisse peccantem si non doceas recti viam Colum. de Re Rust l. 11. c 1. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams Whether Sacrifice be that part of Religion with which we may appear and bow before our God and be accepted and then in his answer in the words of my Text quite excluding it as not absolutely necessary and essential to that which is indeed Religion And here the Question Will the Lord be pleased with sacrifice addeth emphasis and energy and maketh the Denyal more strong and the Conclusion in the Text more positive and binding then if it had been in plain terms and formally denyed Then this Good had been shewed naked and alone and not brought in with
that Jordan yet have been saved but it is necessary to have the laver of regeneration and to cleanse our selves from sin It is not absolutely necessary to eat the Bread and drink the Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for some cross accident may intervene and put me by but it is necessary to feed on the Bread of life as necessary as my meat to do Gods will True Piety is absolutely necessary because none can hinder me from that but my self but it is not alwaies in every mans power to bring himself to the Font or approch the Lord's Table All that can be said is That when they may be had they are absolutely necessary but they are therefore not absolutely necessary because they cannot alwaies be had And they who stretcht beyond this stretcht beyond their line and lost themselves in an ungrounded and unwarranted admiration of these Ordinances which whilest we look upon them in their proper orb and compass can never have honour and esteem enough Some put the Communion into the mouthes of Infants who had but now their being and into the mouthes of the Dead who had indeed a being but not such a being as to be fit Communicants And S. Augustine thought Baptisme of Infants so absolutely necessary that Not to be baptized was to be damned and therefore was forced also to create a new Hell that was never before heard of and to find out mitem damnationem a more mild and easie damnation more fit as he thought for the tenderness and innocency of Infants Now this was but an errour in speculation the errour of devout and pious men who in honour to the Authour of the Sacraments made them more binding and necessary then they were And we may learn thus much by this overgreat esteem the first and best Christians and the most learned amongst them had of them that there is more certainly due then hath been given in these latter times by men who have learnt to despise all Learning whose great devotion it is to quarrel and cry down all Devotion who can find no way to gain the reputation of wisdome but by fierce and loud impugning of that which hath been practised and commended to succeeding ages by the wisest in their generation by men who first cry down the determinations of the Church and then in a scornful and prophane pride and animosity deny there is any such collection or body as a Church at all But our errours in practise are more dangerous more spreading more universal For what is our esteem of the Sacraments More a great deal then theirs and yet less because it is such as we should not give them even such as they whom they are so bold to censure would have anathematized We think or act as if we did that the water of Baptisme doth cleanse us though we make our selves more Leopards fuller of spots then before that the Bread in the Eucharist will nourish us up to eternal life though we feed on husks all the remainder of our dayes We baptize our children and promise and vow for them and then instill those thriving and worldly principles into them which null and cancel the vow we made at the Font Hither we bring them to renounce the world and at home teach them to love it And for the Lords Supper what is commonly our preparation A Sermon a few hours of meditation a seeming farewel to our common affairs a faint heaving at the heart that will not be lifted up a sad and demure countenance at the time and the next day nay before the next day this mist is shaken off and we are ready to give Mammon a salute and a chearful countenance the World our service to drudge and toyl as that shall lead us to rayl as loud to revenge as maliciously to wanton it as sportfully to cheat as kindly as ever we did long before when we never so much as thought of a Sacrament And shall we now place all Religion nay any Religion in this or call that good that absolutely good and necessary for which we are the worse absolutely the worse every day Well may God ask the question Will he be pleased with this Isa 1.12 Well may he by one Prophet ask Who hath required it 1 Cor. 12.31 and by another instruct us and shew us yet a more excellent way It was not the errour of the Jew alone to forget true and inward Sanctity and to trust upon outward Worship and Formality but sad experience hath taught us that the same errour which misled the Jew under his weak and beggerly elements Gal. 4.4 9. hath in the fulness of time found admittance and harbour in the breasts of Christians under that perfect law of liberty James 2.25 Tit. 2.11 in which the grace of God hath appeared unto all men I am unwilling to make the parallel It carrieth with it some probability that some of them had that gross conceit of God that he fed on the flesh of bulls and drunk the blood of goats For God himself standeth up and denieth it Psal 50.12 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goats If I be hungry I will not tell thee If there were not such a conceit why doth God thus expostulate And is there no symptome no indication of this disease in us Do we not believe that God delighteth in these pageants and formalities that he better liketh the devotion of the Ear then of the Heart Do we not measure out our devotion rather by the many Sermons we have heard then the many Almes we have given or which is better the many evil thoughts we have stifled the many unruly desires we have supprest the many passions we have subdued the many temptations we have conquered Hath not this been our Arithmetick to cast up our accounts not by the many good deeds we have done which may stand for figures or numbers but by the many reproches we have given to the times the many bitter censures we have past upon men better then our selves the many Sermons we have heard which many times God knoweth are no better then cyphers and by themselves signifie no more Do we not please our selves with these conceits and lift our selves up into the third heaven Do we not think that God is well pleased with these thoughts do we not believe they are sacrifices of a sweet-smelling savour unto him And what is this less then to think that God will eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goats nay may it not seem far worse to think that God is fed and delighted with our formalities which are but lyes and that he is in love with our hypocrisie I may be bold to say it is as gross an errour and as opposite to the wisdome of God as the other It is truly said Multa non illicita vitiat animus That the mind and intention of man may draw an obliquity
Phot. Bibl. 1394. Thus it falleth out with dust and ashes with Man whose will is free when his hands are bound who may propose miracles but can do nothing who may will the dissolution of the world when he hath not power to kill a fly or the least gnat that lighteth upon him But Gods Power is infinite nor can any thing in heaven or earth limit it but his Will which doth regulate and restrain it for otherwise it must needs have a larger flow If he cut off or shut up or gather together who can hinder him Job 11.10 The voice of the Lord that is his Power for his word is power is full of majesty Ps 29.3 6. It breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon and maketh them skip like a calf Ps 19.4 5. It hath set a tabernacle for the Sun he biddeth it run its race and commandeth it to stand still He doth whatsoever he will in heaven or in earth Ps 135.6 I need not here enlarge my self Every work of his is a miracle every miracle is eloquent to declare his Power Ps 150.6 Every thing that hath breath speaketh it and that which hath neither breath nor life speaketh it That which hath voice speaketh it and that which is dumb speaketh it Day unto day uttereth speach and night unto night sheweth knowledge Ps 19.2 3. There is no speach nor language where their voice is not heard The Power of this Lord is the proper language of the whole world Non ut ait ille Apul. de mundo silere melius est sed vel parùm dicere It is not good to be silent nay we cannot be silent but yet it is not good to speak too much of the Power of this Lord because we cannot speak enough nor can any finite understanding comprehend it Now by this Power first God created Man and breathed into him a living soul made him as it were wax fit to receive the impressions of a Deity Psal 139.14 made him a subject capable of a Law I am fearfully and wonderfully made saith David marvellously made excellently made set apart selected culled out as it is Psal 4.4 from all the other creatures of the earth Gen. 17.1 to walk with God and be perfect My members were curiously wrought drawn as with a needle for so the word there signifieth embroidered with all variety as with divers colours every part being made instrumental either to the keeping or breaking of the Divine Law I am as it were built and set up on purpose to hearken what that Power which thus set me up will require of me Psal 100.3 In a word It is he that made us not we our selves And he made us to this end to his glory to be united to himself to bowe under his power to be conformed to his will and so to gain a title to that happiness which is ready to meet them that run unto it by doing what he requireth at their hands Again by his Power as God createth so he continues Man and protecteth him doth not leave him as an artificer doth his work to the injuries of time to last or perish as the strength of the materials is of which it consisteth but as by his power he made him so by the same power he upholdeth and preserveth him that in this life he may move and press forward to a better he moveth in him and moveth with him that in this span of time he may make a way to Eternity Acts 17.25 He giveth to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath but in a more eminent manner to Man to whom he hath communicated part of his Power and given him Dominion over himself and other creatures 27. He is not far from every one of us he is near us Wisd 6.7 with us within us He hath made the small and the great and careth for all alike Sceleratis sol exoritur saith Seneca His Sun riseth upon the evil and the good Matth. 5.45 saith our Saviour His Power moveth in the hand that smiteth his brother and in the hand that lifteth him out of the dust in the Tyrant which walketh in his palace and in that poor man who grindeth at the mill 2 Sam. 6.6 7. Deus salus est perseverantia earum quae effecerit rerum Apul. de Mundo Psal 31.15 By it Uzzah's hand was stretched out to uphold the Ark and by it he was smitten and dyed It moveth in the eye that is open to vanity and in the eye that is shut up by covenant All the creatures all men all motions and actions of men are in manutenentia Divina My times are in thy hand saith David And in this sense the Schools tell us that the Creation of Man and his Conversation are but one continued act that we may say of every creature so long as it is that so long God createth it because Creation respecteth the being of the creature as made out of nothing and Conservation the being of the same creature as continually quickned and upheld that it fall not back again into that Nothing out of which it was made For God's Power is the Being of the creature and the withdrawing of it is its Annihilation 2 Pet. 3.5 7. The Heavens and the Earth are by the word of God and are established by his power and when he will no longer uphold them all shall be dissolved 12. and the Elements shall melt with heat It is no more but the withdrawing of his Power and the world is at an end Now in the next place from this Ocean of God's Power naturally issueth forth his Power of giving Laws of requiring what he please from his creature For as there is but one omnipotent God so there is but one Lawgiver James 4.12 who is able to save and to destroy For the one is the ground and foundation of the other Psal 100.3 If he made us and not we our selves if he preserve us and not we our selves then not we our selves but he is to give us Laws It is here Do ut des and Facio ut facias He giveth us our Being and Continuance that we should give him our Obedience and Subjection he doth this for us that we may do something for him even whatsoever he shall require The Stoicks say well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All duties are measured out by relations Epict. Enchir. c. 28. The Care of the Father calleth for the Honour of the Son The Oversight of the Master commandeth the Obedience of the Servant And the Father and the Master are to the Son and Servant as Moses is said to be to Pharaoh Exod. 4.16 instead of God domestici magistratus saith Seneca De Benef. 3.11 domestick Lords or Magistrates He is my Father if he speak the word it is done He is my Master and Lord if he say Go I go The reason of this is plain For
another mightily and doth sweetly order all things For which way can frail Man come to see his God but by being like him What can draw him near to his pure Essence but Simplicity and Purity of spirit What can carry us to the God of Love but Charity What can lead us into the courts of Righteousness but Justice What can move a God of tender mercies but Compassion Certainly God will never look down from his Mercy-seat on them that have no bowels In a word what can make us wise but that which is good those virtues Temperance Justice and Liberality which are called the labours of Wisdome Wisd 8.7 Hebr. 6.5 What can bring us into Heaven but this full tast of the powers of the world to come So that there is some truth in that of Gerson Gloria est gratia consummata Glory is nothing else but Grace made perfect and consummate For though we cannot thus draw Grace and Glory together as to make them one and the same thing but must put a difference between the Means and the End yet Wisdome it self hath written it down in an indeleble character and in the leaves of Eternity That there is no other key but this Good in the Text to open the gates of the kingdom of Heaven and he that bringeth this along with him shall certainly enter Heaven and Glory is a thing of another world but yet it beginneth here in this and Grace is made perfect in Glory And therefore in the last place God's absolute Will is not only attended with Power and Wisdome but also with Love And these are the glories of his Will He can do what he will and he will do it by the most proper and fittest means and whatsoever he requireth is the dictate of his Love When he sent his Son the best Master and Wisest Lawgiver that ever was on whose shoulders the government was laid Isa 9.6 he was ushered in with a SIC DILEXIT So God loved the world John 3.16 God's Love seemeth to have the preeminence and to do more then his Power This can but annihilate us but his Love if we embrace it will change our souls and angelifie them change our bodies and spiritualize them endow us with the will and so with the power of God make us differ as much from our selves as if we were not annihilated which his Power can do but which is more made something else something better something nearer to God This is that mighty thing which his Love bringeth to pass We may imagin that a Law is a mere indication of Power that it proceedeth from Rigour and Severity that there is nothing commanded nothing required but there is smoke and thunder and lightning but indeed every Law of God is the natural and proper effect and issue of his Love from his Power it is true but his Power managed and shewn in Wisdome and Love For he made us to this end and to this end he requireth something of us not out of any indigency as if he wanted our company and service for he was as happy before the creation as after but to have some object for his Love and Goodness to work upon to have an exceptory and vessel for the dew of Heaven to fall into As the Jews were wont to say propter Messiam mundum fuisse conditum that the world and all mankind were made for the Messias Psal 2.7 whose business was to preach the Law which his Father said unto him and to declare his will And in this consisteth the perfection and beauty of Man For the perfection of every thing is its drawing near to its first principle and original The nearer and liker a thing is to the first cause that produced it the more perfect it is as that Heat is most perfect which is most intense and hath most of the Fire in it So Man the more he partaketh of that which is truly Good of the Divine nature of which his Soul is as it were a sparkle the more perfect he is because this was the only end for which God made him This was the end of all Gods Laws That he might find just cause to do Man good That Man might draw near to him here by obedience and conformity to his Will and in the world to come reign with him for ever in glory And as this is the perfection so is it the beauty of Man For as there is the beauty of the Lord Psal 27.4 so is there the beauty of the Subject The beauty of the Lord is to have Will and Power and Jurisdiction to have Power and Wisdome to command and to command in Love So is it the beauty of Man to bow and submit and conform to the will of the Lord for what a deformed spectacle is a Man without God in this world Eph. 2.12 which hath Power and Wisdome and Love to beautifie Beauty is nothing else but a result from Perfection The beauty of the Body proceedeth from the symmetrie and due proportion of parts and the beauty of the Soul from the consonancy of the will and affections to the will and law of God Oh how beautiful are those feet which walk in the wayes of life How beautiful and glorious shall he be who walketh in love as God loved him Eph. 5.2 who resteth on his Power walketh by his Wisdome and placeth himself under the shadow of his Love And thus much the substance of these words affords us What doth the Lord require Let us now cast an eye upon them in the form and habit in which they are presented and consider the manner of proposing them Now the Prophet proposeth them by way of interrogation And as he asked the question Wherewith shall I come before the Lord so doth he here ask what doth the Lord require He doth not speak in positive terms as the Prophet Jeremiah doth Ask for the old paths Jer 6.16 where is the good way and walk therein Isa 30.21 or as the Prophet Isaiah This is the way walk in it but shapeth and formeth his speach to the temper and disposition of the people who sought out many wayes but missed of the right And so we find Interrogations to be fitted and sharpned like darts and then sent towards them who could not be awaked with less noyse nor less smart And we find them of diverse shapes and fashions Sometimes they come as Complaints Psal 2.1 Why do the heathen rage sometimes as Upbraidings How camest thou in hither Matth. 22.12 2 Sam. 2 22. Matth. 22.18 sometimes as Admonitions Why should I now kill thee sometimes as Reproofs Why tempt ye me you Hypocrites And whithersoever they fly they are feathered and pointed with Reason For there is no reason why that should be done of which Christ asketh a reason why it is done The question here hath divers aspects It looketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forward and backward It looketh back upon the
full of business for others or to have no business but for my soul to be solicitous for that which cannot be done or to have no other care but to do what God requireth To do this will cost us no sweat nor labour We need not go on pilgrimage or take any long journey it will not cost us money nor engage us to our friends we need not sail for it nor plough for it nor fight for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Chrysostome If thou beest willing Orat. de ira obedience hath its work and consummation If thou wilt thou art just merciful and humble As Aristotle spake of his Magnanimous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. l. 4. c. 3. Liber rectus animus omnia subjiciens sibi se nulli Sen. ep ult so to a resolved Christian nothing is great nothing is difficult It is not to dig in the minerals or labour in chains it is not to cleave wood or draw water with the Gibeonites but thy lines are fallen unto thee in a fair place it is but to do justly love mercy c. Lastly it is not onely easie but sweet and pleasant to do what God requireth For obedience is the onely spring from whence the waters of Comfort flow an everlasting foundation on which alone Joy and Peace will settle and rest For what place canst thou find what other foundation on which thou mayst build up a true and lasting joy Wilt thou look on all the works which thy hands have wrought Wilt thou prove thy heart with mirth and gather together all that is desireable and say Here it will lye All that joy will soon be exhausted and draw it self dry That Pleasure is but like that beast of the Apothecary to whom Julian the Pelagian likeneth S. Augustine Non sum similis pharmacopolae ut dicis qui promittebat bestiam quae seipsam comesset August Cont. Jul. Pelag. l. 3. c. 21. which he promised to his patient to be of great virtue which before the morning was come had eaten up himself But the doing what God requireth our Conformity to his will is the onely basis upon which such a superstructure will rise and towre up as high as heaven For it hath the Will and Power of God to uphold and perpetuate it against all those stormes and tempests which are sent out of the Devils treasury to blast or imbitter it Do you take this for a speculation and no more Indeed it is the sin and the punishment of the men of this world to take those truths which most concern them for speculations for groundless conceptions of thoughtful men for School-subtilties rather then realities Mammon and the World have the preeminence in all things and spiritual Ravishments and Heaven it self are but ingens fabula magnum mendacium as a tediously or a long tale that is told And there is no reason of this but their Disobedience For would men put it to the trial deny themselves and cleave to the Lord and do what he desireth there would then be no need of any Artist or Theologue to demonstrate it or fill their mouth with arguments to convince them of the truth of that which would so fill their souls Of all the Saints and Martyrs of God that did put it to the trial did we ever read that any did complain they had lost their labour but all of them upon a certain knowledge and sense of this truth betook themselves chearfully to the hardship of mortification renounced the world and laid down their lives poured out their blood for that Truth which paid them back again with interest even with fulness of joy Let us then hearken what this Lord will say and answer him in every duty which he requireth and he will answer us again and appear in glory and make the terrours and flatteries of the world the object not of our Fear and Amazement but of our Contempt and the displeasing and worser side of our Obedience our crown and glory the most delightful thing in the world For to conclude this why are we afraid why should we tremble at the commands of God why should their sound be so terrible in our ears The Lord requireth nothing of us but that which is 1. possible to rouse us up to attempt it 2. easie to comfort and nourish our hopes and 3. pleasant and delightful to woe and invite and even flatter us to obedience and to draw us after him with the cords of men Hos 11.4 We have now taken a view of the Substance of these words and we have looked upon them in the Form and Manner in which they lye What doth the Lord require Let us now draw them nearer to us And to this end they are sharpned into an Interrogation that as darts they might pierce through our souls and so open our eyes to see and our ears to hearken to the wonders of his Law First this word Lord is a word of force and efficacy It striketh a reverence into us and remembreth us of our duty and allegiance For if God be the Lord then hath he an absolute Will a Will which must be a rule to regulate our wills by his Jubeo and his Veto by his commands and prohibitions by removing our wills from unlawful objects and confining them to that which may improve and perfect them from that which is pleasing but hurtful to his Laws and commands which are first distastful and then fill us with joy unspeakable And this is the true mark and character of a servant of God To be then willing when in a manner he is unwilling to be strong when the flesh is weak to have no will of his own nor any other spring of spiritual motion but the will of his Lord. And therefore as God is the Lord over all so are his Laws over all Laws As to him every knee must bowe so to his Laws all the Laws of men must yield and give place Isa 45.23 Rom. 14.11 which are no further Laws or can lay any tye or obligation but as they are drawn from his and wait upon them and are subservient to them Common Reason will tell us and to that the Apostles Peter and John appeal when the rulers of the Jews commanded them to speak no more in the name of Christ Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then to God Acts 4.18 19 20. judge you For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard And we cannot but be obedient for the Lord requireth it When Creon the Tyrant in Sophocles asked Antigone how she dared to bury her brother Polynices when he had enacted a law to the contrary her answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That this was not Jupiter's Law and that she buried he brother in obedience to a Law more ancient then that of the Tyrant's even to the Law of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For this Law was not of yesterday but eternal and I ought not for fear of any man to break the Law of God and Nature And what better answer can a Christian make to all unlawful commands either of those we love or of those we fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God hath not enacted these I see more of the claw of the Devil then finger of God in them These are Novellae institutionis but of yesterday the breathings and dictates it may be of Lust and Covetousness of Pride and Ambition and I must not consider what Man what this Man this Lord or this Potentate but what the Lord of Lords and King of Kings requireth at my hands When his Laws are publisht all others must be silent or as little hearkened to as if they were as when the Sun appeareth the Stars are not seen nor seen at any time-but with that light which they borrow from it For again as he is Lord paramount and hath an absolute Will so his Will is attended with Power with that Power which made thee And he did not make thee a Man that thou shouldest make thy self a beast of burden to couch under every load which the hand of a Pharisee will be ready to lay upon thee He did not make thee capable of a Law that thou shouldst keep the Laws of the Flesh or of Men. He did not publish his will that upon this or that pretense thou shouldest resist it that the fear of a frown or the love of the world should be stronger and prevail with thee more then his Will For if thou wilt not do what he requireth he will not do what thou expectest but leave thee to thy choice to those new Lords and Masters under the same wrath and curse to walk delicately along with them to that vengeance which will fall upon the heads of those who will not hearken to this Lord. For thirdly by the same Power he preserveth and protecteth thee which all Power that is over us doth not For then the Thief may be said to protect him he robbeth the Strong man may be said to protect him he bindeth the Oppressour him whom he hath eaten up and Cain to have protected Abel when he knockt out his brains But the power of God is a saving and preserving Power and under the shadow of his wings we shall be safe And to this end he spreadeth his wing over us he guideth and holdeth us up that we may walk before him in all obedience in the land of the living bowing to his will against our Lust against our Ambition against all those machinations and temptations which press upon us to break his will even whilst we are under his wing What should a Wanton an Oppressour a man of Belial do under God's wing And yet we see many times they play and revel it in the shadow when they that do his will are beaten with the tempest and yet are safer there then the others are in their Paradise are the miracles of God's Providence to be manifested at last to all the world It is true the wicked are in some sort under God's wing for he upholdeth and continueth them and prolongeth their daies And if an eye of flesh may judge they are the greatest favourites of this Lord and if the world were heaven they were the onely Saints 1 Cor. 2.15 But the spiritual man judgeth all things and to his eye they are but a sad and ruful spectacle as condemned men led with musick to execution For God preserveth and protecteth them no otherwise then he doth Serpents and Vipers and Beasts of prey He upholdeth them no otherwise then he doth the Earth and the Devils and Hell it self which he preserveth for them as he reserveth them for it as S. Jude speaketh in his Epistle And then Jude 6. as Abraham said to the Rich man Son remember Luke 16.25 thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things so shall this Lord say to those to a Cain to a Nimrod an Ahab a Pharisee a Hypocrite Remember you were under my wing under my protection and remember what you did there how you beat your fellow-servants how you stripped one dispossessed another killed a third how even then when you were under my wing when I upheld and preserved you you said in your hearts there was no God Psal 14.1 This is a fearful and hideous change like the fall of Lucifer Onely he fell from heaven indeed these from an imaginary one a heaven built up with a thought but both fall into the same place Oh then since he made us since in him we live Acts 17.28 and move and have our being let us live unto this Lord let our motion be regular and let us be what he would have us to be Let it be our wisdome to follow him in those waies which his infinite Wisdome hath drawn out for us Let our Love be the echo of his Love This Wisdome is from above and this Love is kindled from the coal of a Cherubin is a fire from heaven kindled in our hearts and it will lick up all fluid and unbounded desires in us Let us remember that God hath endowed us with faculty and ability to do what he requireth that he hath committed and entrusted this unto us for this end that he doth now as it were manu suâ tenere debitores that he hath us in his power obliged and bound fast unto him by this his gift as by an instrument or bond 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Apostle's word Rom. 3.2 and it is the very word which the Civilians use He hath committed and entrusted his commandments and requireth something of us And as he that entrusteth his money doth not lose the propriety of it no more doth God of that substance of our intellectual and practick faculties which he hath put into our hands He hath not passed them over to us as a free and absolute gift Luke 19.13 but left them onely to traffick with and improve till he come For in receiving the Law and will and faculty to observe it Arist. Eth. 5. we make a kind of contract with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle For the Law it self is a kind of contract or covenant because he that cometh under a Law hath bound himself to keep it Let us remember then that we come under many obligations I cannot name the several waies we stand obliged to this Lord. We may comprehend all in that axiome of the Civilians Tot obligationes praesumuntur quot sunt scripturae We have as many engagements and obligations as there be instruments and writings betwixt us and there are as many as there be precepts and commands which are the best helps to promote us to perfection Let us then provide against the day of trial For not to keep covenant with this Lord but when he cometh to make inquisition whither
weigh the danger of them and from what they proceed First if we would find out the fountain from whence they flow we shall find it is nothing else but a strange Distrust in God and a violent Love of the World a Distrust in that God who is so far from leaving Man destitute of that which is convenient for him Psal 147.9 that hee feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him For if the windows of heaven do not open at our call if riches increase not to fill our vast desires we murmur and repine and even chide the Providence of God and by foul and indirect means pursue that which would not fall into our mouthes As Saul in the book of Kings 1 Sam. 28.6 7. Acheronta movemus when God will not answer we ask counsel of the Devil Secondly we may think perhaps that they are the effects of Power and Wisdome the works of men who bear a brain with the best the glorious victories of our Wit and trophies of our Power but indeed they are the infallible arguments of Weakness and Impotency and as the Devils marks upon us Non est vera magnitudo posse nocere It is not true Power or true Greatness to be able to injure our brethren It is not true Wisdome to be cunning artists in evil and to do that in the dark which may be done with more certainty and honour in the light and to raise up that with a lye which will rise higher and stand longer with the truth That Power more emulateth the Power of God by which we can do good that cometh nearer by which we will Nor can we attribute Wisdome to the fraudulent but that which we may give to a Jugler or a Pick-purse or indeed to the Devil himself And commonly these scarabees are bred in the dung of Laziness and Luxury and their crafty insinuating and subtle sliding into other mens estate had its rise and beginning from an indisposition and inability to manage their own He that can bring no Demonstration must play the Sophister And if the body will not do then he that will be rich saith Nevisanus the Lawyer must venture his soul Lastly weigh the danger Though the bread of deceit have a pleasant tast and goeth down glibly yet passing to thee through so foul a chanel as Fraud or Oppression it will fill thee with the gall of Asps The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them Prov. 21.7 saith Solomon shall fall upon them like a talent of lead Zech. 5.7 8. fall upon the mouth of their Ephah and lye heavy upon it Serrabit eos so it is rendred by others shall tear their Conscience as with a saw exossabit so others shall consume them to the very bones and break them as upon a wheel or as others rapina eorum diversabitur that which is got unjustly shall not stay long with them It may give them a salutation a complement peregrinabitur like a traveller on the way it may lodge with them for a night but dwell longer as with a friend it will not but take the wing and fly away from these unjust usurpers Psal 26.6 never at rest but in those hands which are washt in innocency and in that mouth which knoweth no guile 1 Pet. 2.12 will dwell with none but those that do justly To conclude Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who doth that which is evil and unjust to the oppressour and deceiver Rom. 2.7 9 10. to the man that boasteth himself in his Power and to the man that blesseth himself in his Craft to the proud Hypocrite and the demure Politician but to those that do justly that are as God is just in all their waies Psal 145.17 and righteous in all their dealings that walk holily before God and justly with men shall be glory and honour and peace and immortality and eternal life Thus much of Justice and Honesty The next is the Love of Mercy The Fifth SERMON PART V. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly c. WE have laid hold of one Branch of this Tree of life and beheld what fruit it bare We must now see what we can gather from the second Mercy or Liberality which groweth upon the same stock is watered with the same dew from heaven and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance and answerable to our heavenly calling Whether you take it in actu elicito or in actu imperato whether you take it in the habit or in the act which is misericordia eliquata that which runneth from it in the melting as it were the Love of Mercy includeth both both a sweet and heavenly disposition a rich treasurie of goodness full and ready to empty it self and those several acts which are drawn out of it or rather which it commandeth And here though miracles be ceased yet this by the blessing of the God of mercy retaineth a miraculous power healeth the sick bindeth up the wounded raiseth the poor out of the dust and in a manner the dead to life again upholdeth the drooping and fainting spirit which is ready to fail intercedeth and fighteth against the cruelty of persecutours filleth up the breaches which they make raiseth up that which they ruine clotheth the naked whom they have stripped buildeth up what they have pulled down and is as a quickning power and a resurrection to those whom the hand of Wickedness and Injustice hath laid low and even buried in the dust A Branch it is which shadoweth and refresheth all those who are diminished and brought low by oppression Psal 107.39 evil and sorrow And these two Justice and Mercy are neighbouring Branches so enwrapped and entwined one within the other that you cannot sever them For where there is no Justice there can be no Mercy and where there is no Mercy there Justice is but gall and wormwood Therefore in the Scripture they go hand in hand Vnto the upright man there ariseth light in darkness Psal 112. he is gracious and full of compassion and righteous There is an eye of Justice a single and upright eye as well as an eye of Mercy There is an eye that looketh right on Prov. 4.25 Prov. 22.9 and there is a bountiful eye and if you shut but one of them you are in darkness He that hath an evil eye to strip his brother can never see to clothe them He whose feet are swift to shed blood will be but a cripple when he is called to the house of mourning and if his bowels be shut up his hand will be scon stretcht out to beat his fellow servants It becometh the Just to be thankful Psal 33.1 In their mouth praise is comely it is a song it is musick And it becometh the Just to be merciful and liberal out of their heart mercy floweth kindly streameth forth like the river out
full strength scatter every mist disperse every cloud and be most seen in darkness If it be a Man and miserable she maketh hast to help him She asketh no questions maketh no pause nor deliberation standeth not upon circumstances of time or place or measure of what or where or when or how much She doth not examine nor catechize the person and then raise scruples for a scrupulous Mercy is but a conniving cruelty Vbicunque est homo ibi beneficio locus est Sen. l. 4. De benef c. 24. it doth not hurt but it doth not help Shee seeth him cast down and she imployeth the understanding to find out waies and means she openeth the ear to hearken to complaints she maketh the tongue as the pen of a ready writer and speaketh to his heart and stretcheth forth the hand to lift him up Her hast is her wisdome her loss her improvement her motion her light her actuating is the next object her life is misery her method poseth the wisemen of this world her art is simplicity her soloecismes rules her strange works the the laughter of fools and the musick of Angels In a word she endeth not but in her self For if it end where the object is seen it is not Mercy And thus she leadeth us on and groweth up with us to that strength that we are able to die for the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 and then and not till then the merciful man and his mercy end together And yet they do not end for they shall be had in everlasting remembrance Psal 112.6 30 And we shall not think so strange of this Operation and Magistery of Mercy if in the next place Operari est largiri eleemosynam Tert. de Idolol 23. Cypr. De opere eleemos Col. 3.12 Isa 16.11 we consider what spring and what principle it is which beginneth and continueth its motion and setteth it a working S. Paul placeth it in the inward man in the very Bowels of him Put on therefore bowels of mercy bowels which may sound as an harp to raise and refresh every drooping soul For there is a melting as well as a flowing which is nothing else but Compassion or Fellow-feeling And as every natural act and motion hath its principle from whence it proceedeth so have our spiritual duties their form as it were to give them life and motion And when this is wanting we fail and sink in our performance are but idoles have eyes but see not have mouthes but speak not have hands Ps 115.4 c. but cannot reach them forth Now Compassion is the spring and principle of Mercy when it exerciseth its act when it teacheth the ignorant or feedeth the poor This wrought the miracle of the Loaves For Christ telleth his Disciples Matth. 15.32 I have compassion on the multitude and he multiplieth them This forced tears from him and drew them down his cheeks Luk. 9 41. For when he came near he beheld the City and wept over it In a word this nailed him to the Cross Nor can we take it ill or be troubled to hear of a compassionate and weeping Christ unless we be troubled also that he was a Man For never did the Hand reach forth relief nor the Tongue speak comfort till Compassion had melted the Heart Never was there any true natural motion without a spring Nor was there any reason it should be expunged and left out For we read it again John 11.35 Jesus wept It is no wisdome so to honour Christ as to take from his Humanity This Wisdome cometh not è porticu Solomonis from the porch of the Temple but from the gallery and schools of the Stoicks who took away all Passion and with it the very nature of Man It was extreme folly with them to be compassionate And as they took Passions away quite so the Peripateticks left them but with a curb to be stopt and moderated And here they both run diverse waies and both missed of the right For as Lactantius well observeth Lib. 6. de ver cult c. 14 15 16 17. neither are the Affections quite to be extirpated and rooted out as the Stoicks hold nor yet alwaies to be checked and bounded as the Peripateticks would have it but to be levelled and directed on the right object If you set your compass and steer to the right point you cannot fill your sails too much If Jerusalem Jerusalem now shaking tottering and falling be in your eyes you cannot weep too much If a multitude now ready to famish you cannot be too compassionate If your affections be set right your Anger cannot be too loud for no Indignation can be raised up equal to your Sin your Love cannot be too intensive for you cannot love Virtue enough the Love of a friend the Love of a woman cometh short and will never reach it your Sorrow cannot be too excessive for how can they be cast down too much who are fallen from God He that goeth out of his way though his pace be gentle yet must needs walk with danger every step is an errour but he that keepeth on in the right way cannot possibly make too much speed No Compassion is so far from being imputed as a defect that it is that by which we come nearest to Christ himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a Divine thing 2 Cor. 1.3 saith Isidore to be compassionate an imitation of him who is a Father of Mercies Lam. 3.22 and whose compassions never fail And therefore God forbid saith S. Augustine That though we pray against them and would use our strength and wit and utmost power to keep them off we should take off our eye as loth to see or shut our ears as unwilling to hear the complaints and grievings and miseries of our brethren It is indeed a sad spectacle but a blessed occasion to call up our Compassion and to draw out our Mercy into act to kindle the fire within us that it may break forth into a pure flame to warm and comfort them And what is a Christian mans life and what is the business of his life but to watch and observe and lay hold on occasions to look upon that fire which may melt him and that misery of others which may make an impression and leave its image in his heart which will bring in that heavenly community cùm quamvìs alii ferendo patiantur alii cognoscendo compatiantur communis tamen fit tribulatio when Mercy possesseth the heart of all men with the smart of that affliction which but one man lieth under making every man a partaker though not in the loss yet in the sorrow For this Compassion is bound up as it were in the very nature and constitution of the Church and it is as impossible to be a part of the Church without it as it is to be a Man without the use of reason nay we so far come short of being Men as we are
not be a House subject to weather but some house of pleasure a Seraglio not in Egypt or Babylon but in the Fortunate Islands or in Paradise Our Lily should be set far enough from the Thorns We would go to Heaven without any Ifs or And 's without any Buts or difficulties We would be eased but not weary be saved but not believe or believe but not suffer Acts 14.22 We would enter into Gods Kingdome but not with tribulation that is we would have God neither provident nor just nor wise that is which is a sad interpretation we would have no God at all But Gods method is best Honorem operis fructus excusat Tâ—rtul Scorpiac c. 5. Luk. 17 25. 24.46 And that which we call Persecution is his art his way of making of Saints De perverso auxiliatur He raiseth us by those evils we labour under As in his manifold wisdome he redeemed mankind so the manner and method of working out our salvation is from the same Wisdome and Providence which as it set an Oportet upon Christ to suffer for us so it set an Oportet upon the Church to have a fellowship in his sufferings â—ct 14 22. We must through many afflictions be consecrated be made perfect and so enter into the Kingdome of God We must first be made more spiritual by the contradiction of those who are born after the flesh more Isaacs then before for the many Ishmaels So Perfection is not onely agreeable to the wisdome of God but convenient to the weakness of Man God will not save us we cannot be saved any other way Phil. 1.29 Oportet we must go this way Nay Datum est It is a gift It is given not onely to believe but to suffer a gift for which heaven it self is given Matth. 5. And it is a Beatitude Blessed poverty blessed mourning blessed persecution Blessedness is set upon these as a Crown or as â—ich embroyderie upon sackcloth or some courser stuff Thus you see the Church is not cannot be exempt from Persecution if either we consider the Quality of the Persons themselves or the Nature and Constitution of the Church or the Providence and Wisdome and Mercy of God As it was then so is it now In Abraham's family Ishmael mocketh and persecuteth Isaac In the world the Synagogue persecuteth the Church and in the Church one Christian persecuteth another It was so it is so and it will be so to the end of the world Let us now look back upon this dreadful but blessed sight and see what advantage we can work what light we can strike out of this cloud of blood to direct and strengthen us in this our warfare Revel 2.10 that we may be faithful unto death 1 Pet. 4.12 and so receive the crown of life And first let us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Peter speaketh think it strange or be amazed at the fiery trial not be dismayed when we see that befall the Church which befalleth all the Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the world when we see the face of the Church gather blackness and not shine in that beauty in which formerly we beheld her For what strange thing is it that Ishmael should mock Isaac The Church so far as she is visible in respect of her visibility and outward form is as subject to change as any other thing that is seen as those things which we use to say are but the balls of Fortune to play with For those things of the Church which are seen are but temporal 2 Cor 4.18 those which are eternal are not seen 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away saith S. Paul and so doth the fashion of the Church And when the scene is changed it cometh forth with another face and speaketh now like a servant who spake before like a Queen In brief the Church turned about on the wheel of change is subject to the same storms to the same injuries to the same craft and violence which the Philosopher saith make that alteration in States change them not into those which may bear some faint resemblance of them but into that which is most unlike and contrary to them setteth up that in their place leaving them lost and labouring under the expectation of another change Thus it is and ever was and ever shall be with the Church in respect of outward profession Gen. 3.15 which is the face of the Church nor hath the Seed of the woman so bruised the Serpents head but that he still biteth at the heel Exod. 17. Behold the children of Israel in the wilderness sometimes in straits anon in larger wayes sometimes fighting sometimes resting as at mount Sinai sometimes going forward and sometimes turning backward sometimes on the mountains and sometimes in the vallies sometimes in places of sweetness as Mithkah and sometimes in places of bitterness as Marah Behold them in a more settled condition when their Church had Kings for her nursing-fathers how did Idolatry follow Religion at the heel and supplant it And of all their Kings how few of them were not Idolaters How many professours were there when Elijah the great Prophet could see but one And how can that have alwayes the same countenance which is under the powers and wills of mortal men which change so oft sometimes in the same man but are never long the same in many amongst whom one is so unlike the other that he will not suffer that to stand long which a former hand hath set up but will model the Church as he please and of those who look upon it with an eye of distast will leave so few and under such a cloud that they shall be scarce visible Not to speak of former times of those seven golden Candelsticks which are now removed out of their place Rev. 1.12 20. nor of those many alterations in after-ages but to come home to our selves Our Reformed Religion cannot boast of many more years then make up the age of a Man That six years light of the Gospel in the dayes of Edward the Saint was soon overspread and darkned with a cloud of blood in Queen Maries reign Since when we have been willing to believe for we made our boast of it that it shined out in beauty to these present times which have thought fit to reform the Reformation it self And now for the glory of it for its Order and Discipline which is the face of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it to be seen We may say of it as Job doth of frail Man It dieth it wasteth it giveth up the ghost Job 14.10 and where is it Talk what we will of Perpetuity of Visibility of outward Profession quod cuiquam accidere potest cuivis potest What we have seen done to one Church may certainly be done to another may be done to all What was done in Asia may be done in Europe and if the Candlestick
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
the Vulgar readeth that of the Psalmist My expectation my substance my being is with the Lord and I do not onely subscribe to his Coming because he hath decreed and resolved upon it but because I can make an hearty acknowledgement that the will of the Lord is just and good and I assent not of necessity but of a willing mind and I am not onely willing but long for it and as he testifieth these things Rev. 22.20 and confirmeth this Article of his Coming with this last word ETIAM VENIO Surely I come so shall I be able truly to answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly And now the Lord will come And you may see the necessity of his coming in the end of his coming For qualis Dominus talis adventus As his Dominion is such is his Coming his Kingdome spiritual and his Coming to punish sin and reward Obedience to make us either prisoners in darkness or Kings and Priests to reign with him and offer up spiritual sacrifices for evermore He cometh not to answer the Disciples question to restore the Kingdome to Israel Acts 1.6 Matth. 20.21 Luk. 14.15 for his Kingdome is not such a one as they dreamt of nor to place Zebedee's children the one at his right hand and the other at his left nor to bring the Lawyer to his table to eat bread with him in his kingdome These carnal conceits might suit well with the Synagogue which lookt upon nothing but the Basket And yet to bring in this errour the Jews as they killed the Prophets so must they also abolish their Prophecies Isai 53.2 Zech. 9.9 Isa 9.6 7. which speak plainly of a King of no shape or beauty of his first coming in lowliness and poverty of a Prince of Peace and not of war of the increase of whose government there shall be no end Nor doth he come to lead the Chiliast the Dreamer of a Thousand years of temporal happiness on earth into a Mahometical Paradise of all corporal contentments that after the Resurrection the Elect and even a Reprobate may think or call himself so may reign with Christ a thousand years in all state and pomp and in the affluence of all those pleasures which this Lord hath taught them to renounce A conceit which ill becometh Christians Heb. 10.34 11.13 Phil. 3.20 who must look for a better and more enduring substance who are strangers and pilgrims and not Kings on earth whose conversation is in heaven and whose whole life must be a going out of the world Why should we be commanded and that upon pain of eternal separation from this our Lord to wean our selves from the world and every thing in the world if the same Lord think these flatteries of our worser part these pleasures which we must loath a fit and proportionable reward for the labour of our Faith and Charity which is done in the inward man Can he forbid us to touch and taste these things and then glut us with them because we did not touch them And can they now change their Nature and be made a recompense of those virtues which were as the wings on which we did fly away and so kept our selves untoucht and unspotted of this evil But they urge Scripture for it And so they soon may for Scripture is soon misunderstood and soon misapplyed It is written they say in Revel 20.6 that the Saints shall reign with Christ a thousand years Shall reign with Christ is evidence fair enough to raise those spirits which are too high or rather too low already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No sooner is the word read but the crown is on To let pass the divers interpretations of that place some making the number to be definite others indefinite some beginning the thousand years with the persecution of Christ and ending it in Antichrist others beginning it with the reign of Constantine when Christianity did most flourish and ending it at the first rising of the Ottoman-Empire others beginning it at the year 73 and drawing it on to conclude in the year 1073 when Hildebrand began to tyrannize in the Church To let pass these since no man is able to reconcile them we cannot but wonder that so gross an errour should spread so far in the first and best times of the Church as to find entertainment with so many but less wonder that it is revived and fostered by so many in ours who have less learning but more art to misinterpret and wrest the Scriptures to their own damnation For what can they find in this Text to make them Kings no more then many of them can find in themselves to make them Saints And here is no mention of all the Saints but of Martyrs alone who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus v. 4. But we may say of this Book of the Revelation as Aristotle spake of his books of Physicks that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publisht and not publisht publisht but not for every man to fasten what sense he please upon it Though we cannot deny but some few of later times and so few as are but enough to make up a number by their multiplicity of reading and subtil diligence of observation and by dextrous comparing those particulars which are registred in story with those things which are but darkly revealed or plainly revealed to S. John but not so plainly to us have raised us such probabilities that we may look upon them with favour and satisfaction till we see some fairer evidence appear some more happy conjectures brought forth which may impair and lessen that credit which as yet for ought that hath been seen they well deserve But this is not every mans work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every mans eye is not so quick and piercing to see at such distance And we see since so many men have taken the courage and been bold to play the interpreters of dark Prophesies they have shaped out what phansies they please and instead of unfolding Revelations have presented us with nothing but dreams as so many divers Morals to one Fable Rev. 11. 13. And so for two witnesses we have a cloud for one Beast 1 John 2. almost as many as be in the forrest and for one Antichrist every man that displeaseth us But let men interpret the thousand years how they please Mark 12.24 27. our Saviour calleth it an errour an errour that striketh at the very heart of Christianity which promiseth no riches nor power nor pleasure but that which is proportioned to those virtues and spiritual duties of which it consisteth For in the resurrection neither do they marry wives nor are married Matth 22.30 We may adde Neither are there high nor low neither rich nor poor Gal. 3.28 but all are one in Christ Jesus And his words are plain enough John 18.36 Quaedam sic digna revinci ne gravitate adorentur Tert adv Valentin My Kingdom is not
esse debet ager quà m agricola The farm must not be too great for the husbandman but what he may be well able to manure and dress And the reason is good Quia si fundus praevaleat colliditur dominus Because if he prevail not if he cannot manage it he must needs be at great loss And it is so in the speculations and works of the mind Those inquiries are most fruitful and yield a more plentiful increase which we are able to bring unto the end which is truly to resolve our selves Thus it is as a little plot of ground well tilled will yield a fairer crop and harvest then many acres which we cannot husband for the Understanding doth not more foully miscarry when it is deceived with false appearances and sophismes then when it looketh upon and would apprehend unnecessary and unprofitable objects and such as are set out of sight Res frugi est sapientia Spiritual Wisdome is a frugal and thrifty thing sparing of her time which she doth not wantonly wast to purchase all knowledge whatsoever but that which may adorn and beautifie the mind which was made to receive Virtue and Wisdome and God himself To know that which profiteth not is next to ignorance But to be ambitious of impertinent speculations carrieth with it the reproch of folly Hom. 29. adv calumn 8. Trin. What is it then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh to seek with such diligence for that which is past finding out And first the knowledge of the hour of Christ's coming is most impertinent Acts 1.7 Psal 31.15 and concerneth us not It is not for us to know the times As our dayes so the times are in God's hand and he disposeth and dispenseth them as it pleaseth him fitteth a time to every thing which all the wisdome of the world cannot do Thou wouldst know when he would take the yoke from off thy neck It is not for thee to know That which concerneth thee is to possess thy soul with patience which will make thy yoke easie Thou wouldst know when he will break the teeth of the ungodly and wrest the sword out of the hand of them that delight in blood It is not for thee to know Thy task is to learn to suffer and rejoyce and to make a blessing of persecution Thou wouldst know when the world shall be dissolved Why shouldst thou desire to know it Thy labour must be to dissolve the body of sin and set an end and period to thy transgressions Thou wouldst know what hour this Lord will come It is not for thee to know but to work in this thy hour and be ready and prepared for his coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The present the present time that is thine and thou must fill it up with thy obedience That which is to come of what aspect so ever it be thou must onely look upon and consider as an help and advantage to thee in thy work The Lord will come speaketh no more to me then this To labour and sweat in his vineyard till he come All the daies of my appointed time will I wait Job 14.14 saith Job There is a time and an appointed time and appointed by a God of eternity and I do not study to calculate or find out the last minute of it but I will wait which is but a syllable but of a large and spreading signification and taketh in the whole duty of man For what is the life of a Christian but expectation of and waiting for the coming of the Lord David indeed desireth to know his end and the measure of his dayes Psal 39.4 but he doth not mean so to calculate them as Arithmeticians do to know a certain and determined number of them so to number them as to tell them at his fingers ends and say This will be the last but himself interpreteth himself and hath well explained his own meaning in the last words Let me know the measure of my dayes that I may know how frail I am know not exactly how many but how few they be let me so measure them that I may know and consider that they are but few that in this little time I may strive forward and make a way to eternity This was the Arithmetick he desired to have skill in It may seem a paradox but there is much truth in it few men are so fully resolved of their mortality as to know their dayes are few We can say indeed that we are but shadows but the dreams of shadows but bubbles but vapours that we began to die before we were born and in the womb did move and strive forward towards the gates of Death and we think it no disparagement because we speak to men of the same mold who will say the same of themselves and lay to heart as little as we But should we pass over Methusalem's age a thousand times yet when we were drawing even towards our end we should be ready to conceive a possibility of a longer race and hope like the Sun to run the same compass again And though we die every day yet we are not so fully confirmed in this that we shall ever die Egregia res est condiscere mortem saith Seneca The best art is the knowledge of our frailty and he must needs live well who hath well learnt to die And egregia res est condiscere adventum Domini Ep. 26. It is a most useful thing to have learnt and well digested the coming of the Lord. For we cannot take out this as we should but we must be also perfect in those lessons which may make us fit to meet him when he cometh The hour of his coming is lockt up in the treasury of his Wisdome and he hath left us no key to open it that we might not so much as hope to find it and so mispend our thoughts in that which they cannot lay hold on and which should be fastened on the other to advance and promote our duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fix that well which is present here lay out all thy store all the powers of thy soul Whilest it is time whilest it is day whilest it is thy day make ready for his coming For secondly though it be in the future tense VENIET he will come though it lie hid as it were in the womb of Time and we know not when it will be brought to birth yet at this distance it looketh upon us and hath force enough in it self to work that fear and caution in us which the knowledge of the very hour peradventure might not do We say we believe it and that is enough And some have given Faith the preeminence above Knowledge and count the evidence we have by Faith clearer and more convincing then that we have by Demonstration But if it were not yet even that which is but probable in other things doth prevail with us and is as it were principium motus the
Scriptures if you look over Christs Sermon on the mount you will easily be induced to believe that to serve one another in love is the greatest service we can do to God who made us all and to this end Alterutra diligentia charitatis as Tertullian calleth it This mutual and reciprocal work of charity in upholding each other is that which maketh us indeed the servants Christ Secondly as Compassion to our brethren is a fair preparation to purity of life so doth Purity of conversation commend our liberality and make it to be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord. Compassion in a profane and impure person is but a sudden forced motion is but by fits and starts for sure it cannot stay and dwell in such a sty He that walloweth in the pleasures of this world and devoteth himself to riot and luxury cannot gain the title of religious by some cup of cold water or some piece of money which he giveth He that gathereth by oppression and then le ts fall an almes doth but steal an ox to make a sacrifice Perdere scit donare nescit as Piso said of Otho Tac. 1 Hist. He knoweth how to blast and spoil but not how to give an almes And commonly those winds blow not out of the Treasury of the Lord this bounty floweth not from the clear fountain of Divine Love but hath some other spring Thus to visit the fatherless and widows to reach out that hand unto them which is stained with the blood of others is not pure and undefiled Religion It may be bread it is not an almes that is brought by the hand of an oppressour or a Pharisee Therefore in the next place as they bear this fair correspondence and mutually uphold each other so we must not think it possible to separate them Some there be who come on slowly to the works of charity because they are not guilty of those sins which have shame written in their very foreheads pigri ad exercenda bona praecipua Hom. 36. in Evang. quia securi quòd non commiserint mala graviora as Gregory They are very backward to do good because they have not been overforward to do evil dull and heavy to the performance of the best deeds because they have not been active in the worst men for the many of them of more forecast then conscience that owe their morality not to the love of God but to the world knowing well enough that those vices which the world crieth down are commonly enemies to thrift delightful but costly there being scarce any one of them which is not a stake in his way who maketh haste to be rich and therefore they do abstain that they may not abstain they abstain from these disgraced expensive vices that their abstinence from these may be as a warrant or commission for them to make their brethren their daily sustenance Psal 14.4 53.4 to eat them up as they eat bread and devour these Temples of the Holy Ghost with as little regret as they do those which are made with hands And this is a common fault amongst Christians to think the performance of one part of our duty to be an apologie for the neglect of the other and that the observance of some few precepts will absolve us from the breach of all the rest that a sigh is louder then an oath and can sooner call down a pardon then the flying Book can bring a curse Zech. 5.1 2 3. that the diligence of the ear will answer for the boldness of the hand that a Fast will make Sacriledge a virtue and the keeping of the seventh day acquit us of those sins which we have resolved already to commit in the other six Indeed saith Basil the first rise and motion in Religion is to depart from all evil but yet it is a great deal easier to do nothing at all then to finish and perfect a good work THOV SHALT NOT KILL THOV SHALT NOT COMMIT ADVLTERY THOV SHALT NOT STEAL these are negative precepts and require but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forbearance and sitting still a not drawing to the harlots lips a not touching the wedge of gold a not taking up the instruments of cruelty but To love our neighbour as our selves To sell all and give to the poor To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction In Psal 1. are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 works fit for a souldier and strong man in Christ. We must beat down many enemies many wilde passions in our way before we can raise our selves to this height Nor can any man take this honour to himself but he that is called and fitted of God as were Abraham and Isaac and those Patriarchs and Apostles who were full of good works Both then are required at our hands and if God hath joyned them both together let no man take upon him to divorce or put them asunder For in the next place these two thus linked and united together will keep Religion pure and undefiled which I told you are as the colours and beauty of it the beauty of Holiness which hath its colour and grace from whence it hath its being and strength and if it be true will shine in the perfection of beauty Religion if it be true and not a name onely is as a virgin pure and undefiled and maketh us so and espouseth us to Christ Basil De Virginitate And as the Father telleth us Omnia virginis virgo sunt all that a virgin hath is so a virgin Her eyes are not touched with vanity her ears not defloured with evil communication her thoughts not ravished with the insiliencie of wanton desires her taste not violated with studied dainties and devised meats but all is like her self a Virgin So is true Religion simple and solid full of it self having no heterogeneous matter but ever the same and about the same There is nothing in our Love which sowreth our Justice nothing in our Justice to kill our Compassion nothing in our Liberality to defile our Chastity nothing in our Fear to beat down our Confidence nothing in our Zeal to consume our Charity Tertull. De corona militis Christianus nusquam est aliud A true Religious man is alwaies himself And as Religion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure without mixture so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undefiled and cannot subsist with pollution and profaneness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now are our Olympicks now is the great trial to be made before God and the Father 2 Tim. 2 5. And our Religion consisteth in this to fight it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legally a condition they were bound to who were admitted to those games and exercises Before they did contend a proclamation was made to this purpose whether they were not servants or thieves or otherwise of an infamous life and if any of these were proved against them they were put back The same proclamation is made
Daniel and his fellows were among them I will give you one reason more and I borrow it from S. Augustine who in his first book of the City of God touching upon this question Why the righteous partake with the wicked in common calamities maketh one especial cause to be That they use not that liberty they ought in reprehending of sinners but by their silence do as it were consent and partake in their sin and therefore in justice ought to partake in their punishment For indeed a great error it is and of so great an allay that it taketh us out of the shadow and protection of the Almighty outlaweth us from his common favours to imagine that the duty of reprehension is impropriate ad pertaineth onely to the Minister It is true the right of publick reprehension is intrusted as it were upon his office alone For if every member were a Tongue where were the Ear If every man were a publick Teacher where were the Hearer We need not preach against this for put it once in practice and it will soon preach down it self For if every man will act the King the Play is at an end before it begins And if every man can teach in publick I see no reason why any man should learn Yet as Tertullian spake in another case in publicos Hostes omnis homo miles est against traytors and common enemies every man is a Souldier so is it true here Every one that is of strength to pull a soul out of the fire is for this business by counsel by advise by rebuke a Priest neither must thou let him lie there to expect better help Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy brother and not suffer sin upon him or Levit. 19.17 according to the Hebrew that thou bear not sin for him This is spoke not to the Priest but to the people And in this respect the Cure of Souls is committed to every man as well as to the Priest Every man thus hath a cure of souls either of his child or his servant or his friend or his neighbour And if any of these perish through our default their blood shall be required at our hands For if we be bound to bring home our brothers beast if we find him go astray much more are we bound to bring home our straying brother himself Common charity requireth thus much at our hands And to make question of it is as if thou shouldst ask with Cain Am I my brothers keeper Art thou his keeper Yes thou art and his keeper to keep him in all his wayes his Physician to heal him his Counsellor to advise him his Priest his Bishop to rebuke and exhort him with all long-suffering And the neglect of this duty though in it self a great sin yet in this respect is much greater because it interesteth us in other mens sins It maketh a chast man in some sort guilty of uncleanness an honest man accessary to theft a meek man a kind of second to the murderer it bringeth the innocent person at least under the temporal curse that followeth those sins which his soul hateth but hath not soul enough to reprehend and so falleth into the same fire which he should have striven to have pulled his brother out of Therefore to conclude this since the neglect of this duty doth as it were pull down the banks and open a wide gap to sin and wickedness we have no reason to be at a stand and amazed if we see the righteous person sometimes overwhelmed with those flouds to which himself hath opened the way or under those judgments which his intempestive silence as well as other mens open sins hath called down upon a Nation And this may suffice to clear God's Justice from all imputation in the execution of his general judgments 3. It may be we need not move any question at all about this matter For in those common calamities which befall a people it may be God doth provide for the Righteous and deliver him though we perceive it not Some examples in Scripture make this very probable The old World is not drowned till Noah be shipt and in the Ark the shower of fire falleth not on Sodome till Lot be escaped Daniel and his fellows though they go away into captiviy with rebellious Judah yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respects in the Land into which they go and which was a kind of leading Captivity captive they had favour and were intreated as friends by their enemies who had invaded and spoiled them And may not God be the same still upon the like occasions How many millions of righteous persons have been thus delivered whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded Some things of no great worth are very famous in the world when many things of better worth lie altogether buried in obscurity Hor. l. 4. od 9. caruerunt quia vate sacro because they found none who could or would transmit them to posterity Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona No doubt but before and since millions have made the like escapes though their memory lieth raked up and buried in oblivion But suppose the righteous do tast of the same cup of bitterness with the wicked Calamitas non est poena militia est Min. Felix yet it hath not the same tast and relish to them both For Calamity is not alwaies a whip nor doth God alwaies punish them whom he delivereth over to the sword To lose my goods or life is one thing to be punisht another It is against the course of Gods providence and justice that Innocency should come under the lash Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 Yes he shall yet without any breach of justice he may take away that breath of life which he breathed into our nostrils Rom. 5.14 though we had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression For he may do what he will with his own Matth. 20.15 and take away our goods or lives from us when and how he pleaseth because he is Lord over them and we have nothing which we received not from his hands God is not alwaies angry when he striketh nor is every blow we feel given by God the avenger He may strike as a Father Therefore these evils change their complexions and very natures with the subject upon whom they are wrought They are as Devils and have the blackness of darkness to some but are as Angels and messengers of light to others They lead the righteous through the valley of death into the land of the living when the wicked are hewn down by the sword to be fuel for the fire What though they both be joyned together in the same punishment as a Martyr and a Thief in the same chain August De civitate Dei l. 1. c. 8. yet manet dissimilitudo passorum in similitudine passionum Though the penalties may seem alike yet the difference is great betwixt
of no use at all Nay we make that a snare unto us which was made for a help Every creature within the bounds of its nature is useful and profitable so also these external helps the Ark of God the Word and Sacraments of the Church are great blessings and highly to be honoured whilst we use them to that end for which they were first instituted whilst we walk within that compass and circle which God hath drawn according to that form which he hath shewed us That Jew deserveth not the name of an Israelite that either by word or gesture dishonoureth the Ark when we see he was not permitted to touch it But he that of a sign of the presence of God in the day of battle shall make it his God is so much a Jew that he deserveth to be flung out of the Synagogue And that Christian that boweth not to the majesty of the Word and receiveth it not as a letter and epistle from God as S Augustine calleth it that esteemeth not of the Sacraments as those visible words the signs and pledges and conveiances of God's great love and favour to us in Christ hath too little of the Christian to make him so much as one of the visible Church But he that is high in his panegyrick and ever calling Speak Lord for thy servant heareth and then lieth down to sleep or if he be awake is onely active in denying the power of that Word he so much magnified and called for and thinketh he hath done all duties and offices to God if he do but give him the ear which is to trust in the Ark more then in God he that shall make the Sacrament first an idole and then a seal to shut up treason in silence as the Jesuite or use it as an opiate once or twice in the year to quiet his conscience his viaticum and provision rather to strengthen him in sin then against it he that shall thus magnifie and thus debase it thus exalt and thus tread it under foot is guilty of Heresie saith Erasmus which is not properly an Heresie but yet such a kinde of Heresie may make him Anathema though he be of the Church and at last sever him as a Goat from the Sheep And now let us judge not according to the appearance let us judge righteous judgement Or rather if you please do but judge according to the appearance Cast an eye upon these unhappy times which if they be not the last yet so much resemble those which as we are told shall usher in the great day that we have great reason to look about us as if they were the last Weigh I say the controversies the business of these times and concerning those duties and transactions which constitute and consummate a Christian you shall finde as great silence in our disputes as in our lives and practice The great heat and contention is concerning Baptisme the Lord's Supper and the Government and Discipline of the Church It is not Whether we should deny our selves and abstain from all fleshly lusts but Whether we may wash or not Whether eat or not Whether Christ may be conveighed into us in Water or in Bread Whether he hath set up a chair of infallibility at Rome or a consistory at Geneva Whether he hath ordained one Pope or a million What digladiations what tragedies are there about these points And if every particular phansie be not pleased the cry is as if Religion were breathing out its last when as the true Religion consisteth not principally in these but these may seem to have been passed over to us rather as favours and honours and pledges of God's love then as strict and severe commands That we must wash and eat are commands but which bring no burden or hardship with them the performance of them being most easie as no whit repugnant to flesh and blood It is no more but Wash and be clean Eat in remembrance of the greatest benefit that ever mankind received All the difficulty is in the performance of the vow we make in the one and the due preparation of the soul for the other which is the subduing of our lusts and affections the beautifying of our inward man This is truly and most properly the service of Christ the Ark of our Ark the Glory of our Glory and the crown of all those outward advantages which our Lord and Master hath been Pleased to afford us We may ask with the Prophet Mich. 6.6 7. Wherewith shall we come before the Lord or bow our selves before the high God Will he be pleased with the diligence of our Ear with our Washing v. 8. and Eating and answer with him He hath shewed thee O man what he doth require to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Go to Shiloh and there learn we to disdeceive our selves by the example of the Israelites if all our Religion be shut up with theirs in the Ark all in outward ceremony and formality God strike both us and the Ark we trust to recover and call back those helps and gracious advantages from such prodigal usurpers For when all is for the Ark nothing for the God it representeth when we make the Pulpit our Ark and chain all Religion to it when the lips of the Preacher which should preserve knowledge Mal 2.7 Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be as a Ship as Basil speaketh to conveigh that Truth which is more precious then the Gold of Ophir bringeth nothing but Apes and Peacocks loathsome and ridiculous phansies when the hearers must have a song for a Sermon and that too many times much out of tune when both Hearer and Speaker act a part as it were upon a stage even till they have their Exit and go out of the world when we will have no other laver but that of Baptisme no bread but that in the Eucharist when we are such Jewish Christians as to rely on the shell and outside on external formalities and performances more empty and less significant and effectual then their ceremonies we have just cause to fear that God will do unto us as he did unto Shiloh or as he threatned the same people Amos 8. send a famin into the land not a famin of bread but of hearing the word and such a famin we may have though our loaves do multiply though Sermons be our daily bread that he may deprive us of our Sacraments or deliver them up to Dagon to be polluted by Superstition or to be troden under foot by Profaneness which of the two is the worst that we may even loath and abhor that in which we have taken so vain so unprofitable so pernicious delight and condemn our selves and our own foul ingratitude and with sorrow and confusion of face subscribe to this Inscription DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. And now we have setled the Inscription upon every particular And it may seem at first not well placed
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him THese words are our Saviours And it was usual with this our good Master by things visible to the eye to lift up his hearers minds and thoughts to spiritual and heavenly things and to draw his discourse from some present occasion or business in hand He curseth the fig-tree which had nothing but leaves Matth. 21.19 Sterelitas nostra in ficâ—â— Luke 11.39 to correct our sterility and unfruitfulness At the table of a Pharisee upon the sight of the clean outside of his cup he discovereth his inward parts full of ravening and wickedness At Jocob's well he powreth forth to the woman of Samaria the water of life John 4. After he had supped with his disciples he taketh the cup John 15. and calleth the wine his Blood and himself the true Vine Thus did Wisdom publish it self in every place upon every occasion The Well the Table the High-way-side every place was a pulpit every occasion a text and every good lesson a Sermon To draw this down to our present purpose In the beginning of this chapter Christ worketh a miracle multiplyeth the loaves and fishes that the remainder was more then the whole A miracle of it self able to have made the power of God visible in him and something indeed it wrought with them For behold they seek him they follow him over the Sea v. 24. the ask him Rabbi when camest thou hither v. 25. But our Saviour knowing their hypocrisie answereth them not to what they ask but instructeth them in that they never thought on Verily verily you seek me v. 26. not for the miracle but the loaves But behold I shew you yet a more excellent way I shew you bread better then those loaves better then Moses his manna I am that bread of life My flesh is meat indeed v. 48. v. 55. and my blood is drink indeed And he commendeth it unto them by three virtues or effects 1. That it filleth and satisfieth which neither the Loaves nor Moses his manna could do He that cometh to me v. 35. that devoteth himself to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst 2. That it is living bread bread that giveth life v. 51. which Moses manna could not do but was destroyed with them that ate it in the wilderness 3. v. 49. That it was bread which had power to incorporate them to embody them to make them one and give them union and communion with the Lord of life in the words of my Text He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood that is as Christ himself who best knew his own meaning interpreteth it that believeth in me v. 35. that so feedeth on the mystery of my Incarnation that can look upon my cross to which my flesh was fastned and there with the eye of faith behold and wonder at those rich treasuries of Wisdome of Patience of Humility of Obedience of Love which are the truest title and superscription that could be written on my cross that can look upon the several passages of my blessed oeconomy and receive and digest them and turn them into nourishment that can look upon my Birth and be regenerate and born again upon my Precepts and make them his daily bread upon my Cross and be crucified to the world upon my Resurrection and be raised to newness of life He that thus eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him You have the occasion and sum of these words For more then an allusion to our eating and drinking in the Sacrament I cannot see and that too though the Church of Rome would have more is more then we can prove I may call it the true Character of a Christian And who could draw it better then Christ It consisteth as you see of two parts 1. The Christian's or the Believer's part He dwelleth in Christ 2. Christs part He dwelleth in every man that is regenerate So that in this our Union with Christ there passeth a double action one from us to Christ another from Christ to us And as in arched buildings all the stones do mutually uphold each other and if you remove and take one away the rest will fall so do these two interchangeably hold up and prove one another For if we dwell not in Christ Christ will not dwell in us and if he dwell not in us it is impossible we should dwell in him Or we may resemble these two our relation to Christ and Christ's to us to the two Cherubins covering the Mercy-seat with their wings Exod. 25. and having their faces one to the other with the Covenant in the midst between them The Cherubins though they were both Cherubins and very like yet were two distinct Cherubins So though our dwelling in Christ and Christ's dwelling in us tend to the same end yet they are two and the Covenant is in the midst between them If we will be his people he will be our God If we dwell in him he will dwell in us Take it then in these two propositions or doctrines 1. That something some act is required on our parts which is here exprest by dwelling in him 2. Something is done by Christ some virtue some efficacy proceedeth from him which is here called dwelling in us In both which is seen that mutual and interchangeable reciprocation between Christ and a regenerate Soul As he dwelleth in Christ so Christ dwelleth in him and as Christ dwelleth in him Cant. 6.3 so he dwelleth in Christ I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine We begin with the first That some act of ours is required which is here exprest by dwelling in him Now to dwell in Christ is a phrase peculiar to this our Evangelist and he often useth it both here and in his first Epistle It is full and expressive and operative implying a real and durable interest in Christ a reliance and dependance on him alone not onely on his Person that they are bold to do who crucifie him again but also on his Offices as he is a King to govern us a Priest to mediate and intercede for us and a Prophet to teach us such a dependance as maketh us truly his Subjects his Purchase his Disciples We usually say the lover dwelleth not in himself but in him he loveth He dwelleth there and delighteth in such an habitation nor is ever satisfied with the pleasures of it Gen. 44.30 as we read that Jacob's soul was bound up with the soul of Benjamin his life was knit with the young mans life his life hanged and depended on his And by this we may discover what is meant by this phrase When our souls are bound up with Christ's when our understandings wills and affections are bound up vvith his vvill for vvhat Cassian speaketh of his Monk is true of the Christian Nescit judicare Nescit judicare quisquis
now present with us and anon asleep Lastly he dwelleth in him not as Marcion blasphemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a phantasme or apparition for so he is in every hypocrite but true and perfect God by the same power his Father gave him as truly dwelling in him by his virtue and efficacy as he now doth in glory in the highest heavens And now we have have seen both the parts 1. Our part to dwell in Christ 2. His gracious act to dwell in us Let us a little look back upon this great light and see what matter it will further afford us for our instruction First we must look back upon the resemblance the two Cherubins and see how they keep their places and never turn away the face but eye each other continually and by them learn not to turn away from Christ but to look up upon the Finisher of our faith as he looketh upon us and to dwell in him as he dwelleth in us which maketh up our union and communion with Christ and knitteth us together in the bond of love As it is between Christ and his Father so it must be between us and him I am in the Father and the Father in me John 14.11 John 17. and All mine is thine and thine mine and I glorifie him and he glorifies me And this relation betwixt him and his Father is the ground and foundation of that reference and union which is between Christ and a regenerate soul And then see how it echoeth between them My beloved is mine Cant. 6.3 John 10.17 6.56 and I am my wellbeloveds I know my sheep and my sheep know me They dwell in me and I in them O happy interchanges O blessed reciprocation when Christ looketh upon us in love and we look back upon him in faith working by love when he shineth upon us with all his graces and we reflect back again upon him not in his person for he needeth it not being the fulness of him that filleth all things but in our selves searching the inward man and decking and preparing a place for him reflect upon him in that poor Lazar in those his brethren and our brethren nay even in our enemies for even in them he is pleading for them Mat. 5.44 and commanding us to love them I say unto you Love your enemies Nay further yet reflect upon him in his enemies And can Christ be in his enemies Not indeed so near as to dwell in them but so neer unto them as to call unto thee to pray for them to pity them to restore them John 10.16 For even they may be in the number of those his other sheep which he will bring into his fold Oh remember the resemblance but withall remember the thing too and be very careful to uphold this relation this blessed reciprocation between Christ and thy soul Secondly from this great sight Christ dwelling in Man and Man in Christ let us rouse up our selves and take courage to set a price upon our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pythagoras counselled to honour and reverence our selves to remember we are Men and so have something of God in us are made partakers of the high calling in Jesus Christ and not to debase and dishonour our selves to become vile in our imaginations and place them on that which is far below the exalted nature of Man And shall I perswade you to think well of your selves I may as well make use of Logick and raise arguments to prevail with a hungry man to eat For how greedily do we suck in air What a perfume is the breath of fools In what perfection of beauty would we be seen to every man In what shape of glory would we be fixt up in their phansie What gods would we be taken for Praise is a most sweet note and we delight to hear it But what a thunderclap is a reproach How sick are we of a reprehension What a loss is the loss of another mans thought What an Anathema is it it is a vulgar phrase to be out of his books And yet in the midst of all disgraces and calamities when we are made the scorn of the world when fools laugh at us and drunkards sing of us nay when wisemen condemn us amongst them all there is none who entertaineth a viler thought of us then we do of our selves for we think our selves good for nothing but to be evil We think indeed we highly honour our selves when we take the upper seat and place others at our footstool when with Herode we put on royal apparel and make us a name when men bow before us and call us their Lords we think so and this thought dishonoureth us degradeth us from that high honour we were created to For is not the life better then meat Matth 6.25 and the body then raiment Is not the soul better then all these 1 Cor. 9.27 Then we honour our selves when we beat down our bodies Rom. 12.16 when we beat down our minds and make our selves equal to them of low degree Then we tread the wayes of honour look towards our original Isa 51.1 unto the rock out of which we were hewn are candidates of bliss Matth. 8.11 and stand for a place in heaven to sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God Synes ep 57. For Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an honourable creature of a high and noble extraction honourable no doubt seeing the Son of God was content to die for him onely that he might dwell in him And if Christ who knew well the worth of a soul did so honour us as to unite our nature in his person and lift up himself upon his Cross to draw our persons after him then will it necessarily follow and Ingratitude it self cannot deny the consequence that we also ought to honour our selves and not fall under the vanity of the creature in a base disesteem of our selves as if we were fit for nothing but to be fuel for hell not make that a stews of uncleanness a forge of mischief a work-house of iniquity which Christ did chuse to make his house to dwell in his temple to sit in and his heaven to reign in Oh let us remember our high extraction our heavenly calling and not thus uncover our selves be thus vile and base in the sight and presence of Christ And that we may thus honour our selves our third inference shall be for caution That we do not deceive our selves and think that Christ dwelleth in us when we carry about us but slender evidence that we dwell in him It is an easie matter to be deceived and we never fall with such a slide and easiness into any errour as into that which is most dangerous and fatal to the soul In the affairs of this life Lord how cautelous are we We ask counsel we look about us we use our own eyes and we borrow other mens eyes and if
erecteth a pillar a saving Hope a Hope which is not ashamed to enter the Holy of Holies and lay hold on the Mercy-seat which was hidden and veyled before Why art thou cast down O my soul Psal 42. 43. and why art thou troubled within me Trust thou in the Lord And if thou fear him and leave thy evil wayes thou mayest trust him He will not he cannot fail thee Thou hast him fettered and entangled with his own promises which are Yea and Amen and all the powers on earth 2 Cor. 1.20 all the Devils in hell nay his own Power cannot reverse them For his Justice his Wisdom his Mercy hath sealed them Read his character and he made it himself Psal 116.5 He is merciful righteous and full of compassion And S. Ambrose it was that observed it that here is Mercy twice mentioned and Justice but once And he addeth for our encouragement what to hope nay but to turn that we may hope In medio Justitia est gemino septo inclusa Misericordiae Justice is shut up in the midst and hedged in on every side with Mercy If thou turn from thy evil wayes Mercy shineth upon thy tabernacle and Justice is the same it was but confined and bound up that it cannot that it shall never reach thee to destroy thee When thou sinnedst he was just to punish thee and now thou turnest from thy evil wayes unto him 2 Tim. 4.8 he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a righteous Judge still but to receive and reward thee They in the Primitive times who fell away for fear of persecution and afterwards returned to the bosome of the Church and confessed and bewailed their apostasie though it were rather a verbal then a real one having been drawn thereunto rather by fear of smart then by hatred of the Gospel were said by the Greek Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. De Lapsis which S. Cyprian interpreteth elatum primâ victoriâ hostem secundo certamine superare to recover the field and by a second onset to foil that enemy who did glory in a former conquest and to defie the Tempter after a fall The Novations called themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Puritanes of those times And they had good reason so to do as good reason as a deformed man hath to call himself Boniface or a wicked man to write himself Innocent For they were proud merciless and covetous Nazianzene layeth it to their charge goodly and fit ingredients to make up that sweet composition of Purity These withstood the receiving of lapsed persons into the Church but not without the Churches heaviest censure Saint Hierome for all their name calleth them by one quite contrary immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae adversarios the enemies of Gods mercy and goodness Orat. 14. And Nazianzene telleth them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence and uncleanness which had nothing but the name of Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. which they made saith he a bait to catch and cajol the ignorant and unwary multitude who are taken more with the Trumpet of a Pharisee then with his almes and are fed with shews and pretenses as they say Chamelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzene observe that severe doctrine of those proud and covetous men drove the offending brethren into despair and despair plunged them deeper in sin and left them wallowing in the mire in their blood and pollution being held down by a false opinion that no hand could draw them out and that pardon was impossible whereas a Convertimini the doctrine of Repentance might have raised them from the ground drawn them out of their blood and filth Hebr. 12.12 strengthned their feeble knees and hands that hung down put courage and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and to stand up to see and meet the salvation of th Lord. And this is the proper and natural effect of Mercy to give sight to the blind that they may see to bind up a broken limb that it may move to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this it shineth in brightness upon us every day to enlighten not onely them who sit in darkness but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darkness yet may be under a cloud raised up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but from a tender and humble heart For we cannot think that every man that saith he despaireth is cast away and lost or that our erroneous judgement of our state and condition shall be the rule by which God will proceed against us and judge us at the last day that though we have set our hearts to serve God and have been serious in all our wayes though we have made good the condition that is our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentleness of the Gospel doth exact yet God will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves but though we have done what is required perswade our selves that we are fallen so short in the performance of our duty that we shall never reach to the end in a word that God will forbear to pronounce the EVGE Well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works that he will put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholick fit that he will condemn the soul of any man for the distemper of his body or for some perturbation of his mind which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 and in the power of his might did cheerfully run the wayes of his commandments It were a great want of charity thus to judge of those whose troublesome and most afflicting errour was conceived and formed in the very bowels of charity For sometimes it proceedeth from some distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain And if we have formerly striven and do yet strive to do God service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it ariseth from some defect in the Judicative faculty through which as we make more Laws to our selves and so more sins then there are so we are as ready to pass sentence against our selves not only for the breach of those laws which none could bind us to but our selves but even of those also which we were so careful to keep For as we see some men so strong or rather so stupid that they think they do nothing amiss so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but not epidemical The first are a great multitude
Heaven before the tribunal of Christ let us change our plea and let us answer the last part of the Text with the first the Moriemini with the Convertimini answer God that we will turn and then he will never ask any more Why will ye die but change his language and assure us we shall not die at all And our answer is penned to our hands by the Prophet Behold Jer. 3.22 23. we come we turn unto thee for in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel And our Saviour hath registred his in his Gospel and left it as an invitation to turn Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that be weary of your evil wayes and are heavy laden feel the burden you did sweat under whilest you were in them and I will ease you that is I will deliver you from this body of Sin Rom. 7.24 fill you with my Grace enlighten your Understandings Hebr. 10.22 sprinkle your hearts from an evil Conscience direct your Eye level your Intentions lead you in the wayes of life and so fit and prepare you for my kingdom in Heaven To which he bring us c. The Four and Twentieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 25. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me THat which is made to degenerate from its first institution is so much the worse by how much the better it would have been if it had been levelled and carried on to that end for which it was ordained The truth of this is plain and visible as in many others so in this great business of the Administration of the Lords Supper Which in its right and proper use might have been as Physick to purge and as Manna to feed the soul to eternal life but being either raised higher or brought lower than it self either made more or less then it is either made miraculous or nothing hath become fatall and destructive and hath left most men guilty of the body and blood of our Lord. 1 Cor. 11.27 Some we see have quite changed and perverted the Ordinance of Christ scarce left any shadow or sign of its first institution have made of a Supper for the living a Sacrifice for the dead turned the Minister into a sacrificing Priest Bread and Wine into very Flesh and Blood and Bones the Remembrance of Christs death into the Adoration of the outward elements have written books filled many volumes in setting out the miraculous virtue it hath of which we may say as Pliny did of the writings of those magical Physicians that they have been published non sine contemtu irrisu generis humani not without a kind of contempt and derision of all the world as if there breathed not in it any but such who were either so brutish as not to know or such fools as to believe whatsoever fell from the pen of such idle dreamers Others fall short are more coldly affected and lose themselves in a strange indifferency as not fully resolved whether it be an institution that bindeth or no and look upon it rather as an invention of man than the word and command of Christ Others run far enough from Superstition as they think and are great enemies to Popery and yet unawares carry a Pope with them in their belly lean too much to the opus operatum to the bare outward action think what they will not say that if they come to the Feast it is not much material what garment they come in the outward elements are of virtue to sanctifie the profaner himself that though they have been haters of God yet they may come to his Table though they have crucified Christ yet here they may taste and see how gracious he is These extremes have men run upon whilst they did neglect the plain and easie rule by which they were to walk the one upon the rock of Superstition the other as it fâ—lleâ—h out most commonly not only from the Errour which they were afraid of but from the Truth it self which should be set up in its place We see at the first institution almost and when this blessed Table was as it were first spread that many abuses crept in to poyson the Feast Some by factiousness others by partiality and some by drunkenness profaned it v. 21. did come and sit down and eat and drink but to their punishment and damnation Therefore S. Paul having laid open their gross errours and profanations and set their irregularities in order before them prescribeth the remedy and calleth them back to the first institution and the example of Christ himself First he sheweth the Manner of Christs institution v. 23-25 He took the bread and gave thanks brake it and gave it them and secondly the Mystery signified thereby The breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine represent the bruising of his Body and shedding of his Bloud for the remission of sins Last of all the End of the institution and celebration of the Lord's Supper in the words of my Text This do ye as oft as ye do it in remembrance of me These vvords I read to you as S. Pauls but indeed they are Christ's delivered by Paul but received from Christ as he telleth us v. 23. In them you may behold Christ's Love streaming forth as his bloud did on the cross For not content once to die for us he vvill appear unto us as a crucified Saviour to the end of the vvorld and calleth upon us to look upon him and remember him whom our sins have pierced presenteth himself unto us in these outvvard elements of Bread and Wine and in the breaking of the one and pouring out of the other is evidently set forth before our eyes Gal. 3.1 and even crucified amongst us as S. Paul speaketh thus condescending and applying himself to our infirmities that he may heal us of our sins and make and keep us a peculiar people to himself And since the vvords are Christ's vve must in the first place look up and hearken to him who breatheth forth this Love secondly consider what task his Love hath set us what we are to do thirdly ex praescripto agere since it is an injunction whose every accent is Love do it after that form which he hath set down after the manner which he hath prescribed So the parts are four 1. the Authour of the institution 2. the Duty enjoyned to do this 3. to do it often 4. Lastly the End of the institution or the Manner how we must do it we must do it in remembrance of him i. e. of all those benefits and graces and promises which flowed with his bloud from his very heart which was sick with Love And with these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion at this time First we must look upon the Authour of the institution For in every action we do it is good to know by what authority we dot it And this is the very order of Nature Lib
Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
Body and his Bloud and S. Paul calleth it the Bread and the Cup Nor is S. Paul contrary to Christ but determineth and reconcileth all in the end both of Christ's suffering and our receiving in the words of my Text As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come In which words the Death of the Lord of life is presented to us and we called to look up upon him whom our sins have pierced through to behold him wounded for our transgressions ex cujus latere aqua sanguis Isa 53.5 utriusque lavacri paratura manavit as Tertullian out of whose side came water and bloud to wash and purge us which make the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper And the effect of both is our Obedience in life and conversation that we should serve him with the whole heart who hath bought us at so dear a price that we should wash off all our spots and stains and foul pollutions in the laver of this Water and the laver of this Bloud And therefore as he offered himself for us on the Cross so he offereth himself to us in the Sacrament his Body in the Bread and his Bloud in the Cup that we may eat and drink and feed upon him and taste how gracious he is Which is the sum and complement and blessed effect of the duty here in the Text to shew the Lord's death till he come For he that sheweth it not manducans non manducat eating doth not as Ambrose doth eat the Bread but not feed on Christ But he that fully acquitteth himself in this shall be fed to eternal life Let us then take the words asunder And there we find What we are to do and How long we are to do it the Duty and the Continuation of it the Duty We must shew forth Christ's death the Continuation of it We must do it till he come again to judgment In the Duty we consider first an Object what it is we must shew the death of the Lord Secondly an Act what it is to shew and declare it The death of the Lord a sad but comfortable a bloudy but saving spectacle And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew a word of as large a compass as Christianity it self And the duration and continuation of it till he come that is to the end of the world Of these in their order The object is in nature first and first to be handled the death of the Lord. And this is most proper for us to consider For by his stripes we are healed and by his death we live And in this he hath not onely expressed his Love but made himself an example that we may take it out and so shew forth his death First it is his Love which joyned these two words together Death and the Lord which are farther removed then Heaven is from the Earth For can the Lord of life die Yes Amor de coelo demisit Dominum That Love which brought him down from his throne to his footstool that united the Godhead and Manhood in one Person hath also made these two terms Death and the Lord compatible and fastned the Son of God to the Cross hath exprest it self not onely in Beneficence but also in Patience not onely in Power but also in Humility and is most lively and visible in his Death the true authentick instrument of his Love He that is our Steward to provide for us who supplieth us out of his rich treasur◠who ripeneth the fruit on the trees and the corn in the fields who draweth us wine out of the vine and spinneth us garments out of the bowels of the worm and the fleece of the flock will also empty himself and pour forth his bloud He who giveth us balm for our bodies will give us physick for our souls will give up his ghost to give us breath and life And here his love is in its Zenith and vertical point and in a direct line casteth the rayes of comfort on his lost creature This Lord cometh not naked but clothed with blessings cometh not empty but with the rich treasuries of heaven cometh not alone but with troops of Angels with troops of promises and blessings Bonitas foecunda sui Goodness is fruitful and generative of it self gaineth by spending it self swelleth by overflowing and is increased by profusion When she poureth forth her self and breatheth forth that sweet exhalation she conveyeth it not poor and naked and solitary but with a troop and authority with ornament and pomp For Love bringeth with it whatsoever Goodness can imagine munera officia gifts and offices doth not onely give us the Lord but giveth us his sufferings his passion his death not onely his death but the virtue and power of it to raise us from the lethargy and death of Sin that we may be quick and active to shew and express it in our selves Olim morbo nunc remedio laboramus The remedy is so wonderful it confoundeth the patient and maketh health it self appear but fabulous Shall the Lord of Life die why may not Man whose breath is in his nostrils be immortal Yes he shall and for this reason Because it pleased the Lord of Life to die We need not adopt one in his place or substitute a creature a phantasm as did Arius and Marcion in his office For he took our sins and he will take the office himself Isa 63.3 he will tread the wine press alone and will admit none with him Nor doth this Humility impair his Majesty but rather exalt it Though he die yet he is the Lord still The Father will tell us that they who denied this for fear were worse then those who denied it out of stomach and the pretense of his honour is more dangerous then perversness For this is to confine and limit this Lord to shorten his hand palos terminales figere to set up bounds and limits against his infinite Love and absolute Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shape and frame him out to their own phansie and indeed to blaspheme him with reverence to take from him his heavenly power and put into his hand a sceptre of reed His Love and his Will quiet all jealousies and answer all arguments whatsoeever It was his will to die and he that resteth in God's Will doth best acknowledge his Majesty For all even Majesty it self doth vail to his Will and is commanded by it What the Lord of life equal to the Father by whom all things were made shall he die Yes quia voluit because he would For as at the Creation he might have made Man as he made other creatures by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the clay and fashioned him with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send an Angel one of the Seraphim or Cherubim or any finite creature which he might have done
but at the word 's speaking He crieth Lo I come to do it my self Look upon this object of Majesty and Humility yet once again and see the power and omnipotencie of his Love In this laying down his life for us he was pleased to give a price infinitely above the merchandize and as in the world some buyers are wont to do to buy his own affection to us to pay down not a talent for a talent but a talent for a mite Himself for a worm and his Love for the world nay by his infinite Love to bound as it were his infinite Power his infinite Wisdom and his illimited Will For here his Power Wisdom and Will find a NON ULTRA and are at the furthest He cannot do He cannot find out He cannot wish for us more then he hath done then being equal with God to take upon him the form of a servant and in that form to humble himself to the death of the cross How should this spectacle of Love and Power of Majesty and Humility affect and ravish our souls How should this fire of Love these everlasting burnings kindled in our flesh enflame us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers That is greater which is above our hope That is greatest which pre-occupateth and forestalleth our desires But what is that which over-runneth our opinion and even swalloweth it up in victory Had not he revealed his will and told us he would die we could not have desired it but our prayers had been turned into sin our hope had been madness and our opinion impiety All that we can say is that it was his infinite Love And his Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Cross and maketh it as glorious as his Throne For when he was fastned to it when he died it was his Throne and from it he threw down Principalities and Powers and Sin and Death it self Love hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law it hath the prerogative of Honour and maketh Bondage free Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Death life it worketh a harmony out of these two inconsistent terms Death and the Lord which is the joy of the whole earth Thus is Christ's Death made a spectacle unto us and his Love bespeaketh us to behold it and there needeâ—h no other Oratour to perswade us For where Love is denied the tongues of Men and of Angels are but as a tinckling cymbal But this is not all For In the second place Christ hangeth not on the cross onely as a sacrifice That every eye is willing to behold even the eye of flesh the eye that is full of adulteries But he standeth there as an Ensample to us of Humility Patience Obedience Love This Altar hath an inscription TOLLITE CRUCEM Take up your cross and follow me Not an Ensample alone that cometh too short Nor a Sacrifice alone for shall he be offered up for those who deny him Not an Ensample alone For flesh and bloud may follow him but never overtake him no not in those wayes which he marked out with his bloud of Obedience and Love Nor Satisfaction alone For how can he satisfie for those who will be in evil what he is in good yesterday and to day and the same for ever 1 Pet. 2.21 Christ suffered for us saith S. Peter leaving us an ensample that we should follow his steps Can an humble Saviour be a sacrifice for the proud Can a meek Saviour dye for a revenger Can a poor Christ give himself for him who will neither clothe nor feed him Can he in whom there was found no guile plead for him who is full of deceit Can a Lamb be a sacrifice for a Fox a Wolf or a Lion He is sacrificed and all is done on his part There is a CONSUMMATUM EST It is finished But our Obedience is not shut up in that but beginneth where Christ's did end and by the power and force of his Love must be carried on in an even and constant course unto our Consummatum est till we end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have redemption Ephes 1.7 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pattern Jussit fieri qui fecit He sacrificed himself for us 1 Tim. 1.16 that we might offer our selves a lively sacrifice to the Lord. Jesus Christ is a pattern to them who shall believe on him to life everlasting We dare not say with some that Christ came into the world non ad satisfactionem sed exemplum not to satisfie at all but to direct us by his example in the wayes of life not to pay down our debts but to teach us an art of thrift to be able to pay them our selves But most true it is if we make him not an ensample he will not be a sacrifice nor will there remain any sacrifice for sin God forbid that our Malice should shelter it self in his Love that his Meekness should be a buckler for our Revenge that his Righteousness should shadow our Unrighteousness that all our Obedience should be lost in his Sacrifice that because he suffered so much to lead us the way we should take the less care to follow after him that by the Gospel as by the Law Sin should revive that the Law should convince the conscience and the Gospel flatter it that the Law should affright sinners and Christ encourage them that the Cross of Christ which is a School of virtue should be made a Sanctuary for wilful offenders that Christ should nail the handwriting against us to his cross and then let fall a Dispensation from all righteousness and make it less necessary for us to observe so strictly the moral Law that this ease and benefit should accrue to Christians by the death of Christ that we may be more indulgent to our selves do what we list Pardon lying so near at hand that we should destroy our selves because he is a Jesus pollute our selves because he is Christ to anoint us be more rebellious because he is our Lord and live in sin because he died for it A conceit so unreasonable that even common reason abhorreth it Had our Saviour given up his ghost and left no precept behind him had his Apostle been silent and said no more but that he died for our sins the weakest understanding might easily draw out this conclusion that we are to forsake them For why should he dye for that which he was willing should survive Or who would lay his axe to the root of the tree and not cuâ— it down to the ground And yet as gross a conceit as it is we open our hearts to receive it And it is summus seculi reatus the great guilt of the age the pit out of which locusts swarm which are as scorpions to bring evil on the earth Were it not for this Physick men would not be so sick were it not for hope of reconciliation men would
not dare so oft to offend and which is most strange had not Christ so loved us we had not persecuted him had he not been a sacrifice we had been more willing to have made him an ensample For we hope his Love that nailed him to the cross will be ready to meet and succour and embrace us in any posture in any temper whatsoever though we come towards him clothed with vengeance Zeph. 1.8 in anger and fury with strange apparel in wantonness and lust polluted and spotted with the world Thus doth the sophistry of our Sensual part prevail against the demonstrations of Reason which doth bring Christ in as dead for our sins but withall as a Lord to help us to destroy Sin by the power of his death For both these are friendly linked together in the Lord's Death his Love and his Ensample Et magnum nobis quà m parvo constat exemplum And this great example how little doth it cost us Not to be spit upon and buffeted and crucified not to suffer and die It is no more then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew it forth in our selves till he come Which is the Act here required and my next Part. And this we must do if we will be fitted for this Feast and be welcome guests at the Lord's Table Divines have told us of a threefold manner of feeding on the flesh of Christ a Sacramental alone a Spiritual alone and a Sacramental and Spiritual both Which distinction may not be rejected if it be rightly understood 1. They that come to this Table and receive the Sacrament without faith and devotion may be said indeed to eat the Body of Christ as that name is usually given to the Sacrament and sign and the Sacrament of the body of Christ after a manner is the Body of Christ and yet that of S. Augustine is true He that sheweth not forth his death eateth not his flesh but is guilty of the body and bloud of Christ a Communicant and no Communicant an enemy and not a guest fitter to be dragged to the bar then to be placed at his Table And what a morsel is that with which we take down Death and the Devil together 2. Some there be whom not contempt and neglect but necessity the great patroness of humane infirmitie keepeth from the Lord's Table and Sacrament and yet they shew his death look up upon his cross draw it out in their heart in bleeding characters apply it by faith and make it their meditation day and night And these though they feed not on him Sacramentally yet spiritually are partakers of his body and bloud and so made heirs of salvation though they eat not this bread nor drink of this cup. For what cannot be done cannot bind Some Actions are counted as done though they be never brought forth into act If the heart be ready though the tongue be silent as a viol on the wall yet we sing and give praise Persecution may shut up the Church-doors yet I may love the place where God's honour dwelleth Persecution may seal up the Priest's lips shut me up in prison and feed me with no other bread then that of affliction yet even in the lowest dungeon I may feed on this Bread of life I may be valiant and not strike a blow I may be liberal and not give a mite hospital when I have not a hole to hide my head in He that taketh my purse from me doth not rob me of my piety he that sequestereth my estate yet leaveth me my charity and he that debarreth me the Table cannot keep me from Christ As I told you out of Ambrose Manducans non manducat I may eat the Bread and not be partaker of the Body so Non Manducans manducat Though I take not down the outward elements yet I may feed on Christ But happy yea thrice happy is their condition who can do both so receive panem Domini the Lord's bread that they may receive also pane 〈◊〉 Dominum be partakers of the Lord himself who is the Bread of life Blessed is he that thus eateth Bread with him at his Table For he feedeth on him Sacramentally and spiritually both Here he findeth those gracious advantages his Faith actuated his Hope exalted his Charity dilated the Covenant renewed the Promises and Love of Christ sealed and ratified to him with his bloud And this we shall do this comfort and joy we shall find even a new heaven in our souls if we shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and publish his death Which we may look upon at first as a duty of quick dispatch but if we look upon it again well weigh and consider it we shall find that it calleth for and requireth our greatest care and industry For it is not to turn the story of Christ's passion into a Tragedy to make a scenical representation of his death with all the art and colours of Rhetorick to declaim against the Jews malice or Judas's treason or Pilate's in justice but rather to declaim preach against our selves to hate and abhor crucifie our selves Nos nos homicidae We we alone are the murtherers Our Treachery was the Judas that betrayed him our Malice the Jew which accused him our Perjury the false witness against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him Our Pride scorned him our Envy grinned at him our Luxury â—pit upon him our Covetousness sold him Our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thorns our sores lanced with his spear and the whole body of Sin stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life This indeed doth shew his death This consideration doth present the Passion but in a rude and imperfect piece The death of the Lord is shewn almost by every man and every day Some shew it but withal shew their vanity and make it manifest to all men Some shew it by shewing the Cross by signing themselves with the sign of it Some to shew it shew a Body which cannot be seen being hid under the accidents of Bread and Wine Some shew their wit instead of Christ's Passion lift it up as he was upon the cross shew it with ostentation Some shew their rancour and malice about a feast of Love and so draw out Christ with the claw of a Devil Phil. 1.15 Some preach it as S Paul speaketh out of envy and strife and some also of good will Some preach it and preach against it Some draw out Christ's Passion and their Religion together and all is but a picture and then sound a trumpet make a great cry as the painter who had drawn a Souldier with a sword in his hand did sound an alarm that he might seem to fight But this doth not shew the Lord's death but as Tertullian speaketh id negat quod ostendit denieth what it sheweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew to preach the death of the Lord is more We may observe that
There is danger in giving Alms danger in a Fast danger in Prayer And as there is danger in forbearing so there is danger also in coming to the Lord's Table And the reason why vve do not perfect every good vvork is because vve do not reverence it as vve should not gird up our loins and lift up our hearts vvith that devotion and preperation vvhich is due unto it We think to Give an alms is but to fling a mite into the treasury to Fast but to abstain for a day to Pray but to say Lord hear me and to shew Christ's death till he come but to sit down at his Table and eat of his bread and drink of his cup. But this is to dishonour and undervalue those duties which duly performed would honour and glorifie us This is to be officiperdae in this sense also to destroy our work before we begin it For what place can a strict obedience have amongst those thoughts which choke and stifle it Or what welcome is he like to find at such a Feast that cometh as the Corinthians did drunk to the Table Where the birth is so sudden so immature how can it chuse but prove abortive No He that will offer up his prayers must offer up more then the calves of his lips He that will have an open hand must first have a melting heart He that will fast must first feed on himself eat and work out all the corruption of his heart Behold here God hath spred his Table and invited you to a Feast to a feast of the Body and Bloud of his Son And the Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that is athirst come and take of this Bread of life and Water of life freely But what Vers 18 19. shall we come as Schismaticks or Hereticks Shall we come with pride and malice with contempt of the Church and bringing shame to our brethren Shall we come drunken This is not to discern the Lord's body not to discern the Bread which in the Sacrament is to him the Lord's body from common bread He that thus cometh and eateth and drinketh is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord as guilty as those Jews that crucified him For this is to put him to open shame Hebr. 6.6 to count of him no more then as if he had been an Impostor and so to tread him under foot Here certainly no caution can be enough though we look about us as he speaketh with a thousand eyes This consideration should work and imprint in us such a care and solicitude as should severely and impartially weigh what on either side either fear of danger or hope of advantage love of a Saviour or terrour of a Judge may suggest how better then Manna this spiritual refreshment may be and how it may be turned into poison This the Corinthians laid not to heart And on the same pillow of supine negligence and inconsideration do too many Christians at this day lie and sleep And as men in passion or some sudden amaze cannot have leisure to believe what they feel and suffer so do they not believe what they cannot but know or not consider what they believe which is far worse then to be ignorant They discern not the Lord's body mistake the shadow for the substance rest in the outward act of eating and drinking look upon nothing but that which is visible in the ceremony think not on the end to which it tendeth and so use it not with that spiritual sense and feeling which is answerable to the institution Therefore against this wilfull blindness and ignorance this supine and profane negligence doth our Apostle here draw up his whole force and strength to demolish it He blameth them and he directeth them he useth his rod and he bespeaketh them in the spirit of meekness and like a skilful artist he first openeth and searcheth the wound and then with a gentle hand a hand of love he applieth this soveraign plaister in my Text To avoid this evil Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup. The words are plain and we need not descant upon them nor labour in dividing of them Here are two things presented to us 1. Our Qualification for and 2. our Admission to the Feast 1. a Duty To examine our selves 2. a Grant or Privilege To eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Or 1. our Preparation and 2. our Welcome Or 1. our Initiation and 2. our Consignation First we must examine ourselves and then we are received and admitted in Sanctum Sanctorum into the Holy of Holies unto the participation of these Mysteries to eat of this Bread and to drink of this Cup. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup. Examination is in order first and therefore first to be handled And this we shall find to be a duty of no quick dispatch but which requireth care and a curious and diligent observation whether we look upon it in the generality or in its particular application and reference to the blessed Sacrament Examine our selves Why that is assoon done almost as said We can do it in the twinkling of an eye some few dayes before the eve before the hour before the time We think we do it though we never do it But if we look nearer on it we shall find it business enough for our whole life For to examine our selves is to take a true and strict survey of all the passages of our life to follow our Thoughts which have wings and flie in and flie out bring in and drive out one another to call to remembrance our Words which have wings too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flie from us but leave an impression and guilt in the soul and to number our Actions and weigh them all in the balance of the Sanctuary to gain a distinct knowledge of our spiritual estate to read an Anatomy-lecture on our selves to anatomize and dissect our Hearts which are deceitful above all things to follow Sin in all the Meanders and Labyrinths it maketh to pluck off its dress to wash off its paint to drive it out of the thicket of excuses and by the light of Scripture to take a full view of our selves Psal 119.59 in a word to consider our wayes to consider not to glance upon them but to look upon them again and again to look through them to look stedfastly and with an impartial eye so to fix our thoughts on them that we may turn our feet unto God's testimonies And by this course we shall find in what Grace we are defective with what Sin we are most stained what is to be mortified and destroyed and what is to be exalted and improved in us And to the right performance of this duty there is I say great care and diligence required because we are to deal with our selves who are commonly the greatest
not please and flatter our selves in our formalities in a lazy and unsignificant devotion cast-down looks forced sighs open confessions some-few dayes sequestration of our selves from the noise and business of the world which we delight in from those sins which we carry about with us when we seem to leave them and which we cast a look of love back upon when we renounce them Be not deceived God is the purest essence Heaven and Happiness are realities the Lord's Table is not a phantasm or apparition but presenteth that food which will feed and nourish us all God's promises gifts and blessings whatsoever he speaketh whatsoever he doth are real and will not enter the heart which is not like them and fitted for them These realities are not bought with shews and shadows this dew from heaven will not fall upon the hairy scalp of him that goeth on still in his sins A thousand looks and trials are not so effectual as one single victory over one single lust Examination is but lost labour without amendment A survey is the extremity of folly if I look and search and see the errours and faults in my spiritual building and then let it sink and fall to the ground Realities must be answered with realities We must be good ground for the good seed If it fall upon stony places a look of the Sun will scorch it and having no roâ—t it will soon wither away Not a drop of mercy can fall but into a broken heart The Sacrament is but the sign of the thing and yet it conveyeth the thing it self into a prepared heart For as the Priest consecrateth and setteth apart the Bread and Wine to this holy use so doth the Receiver after a manner consecrate them to himself and by complete and perfect Examination and Approving of himself receiveth the outward signs and with them Christ and all the riches and glories of the Gospel all the blessings and comforts it affordeth This is the true Examination this is the true preparation Silent and hearty Devotion receiveth the promises and blessings sealeth the promises maketh them blessings when they withdraw themselves or rather prove curses to them who fill up their Examination and Trial of themselves with noise and shews I urge this the rather because we see some care taken for the one but the other laid aside and buried in the land of oblivion We can forbear for a time our common imployments nay our common delights We can enter our chamber and commune with our hearts but leave off before the Dialogue be perfect We can confess and fast and pray go mournfully and hang down our heads like a bulrush And all this is requisite and praise-worthy but all this doth not fill up nor fully express the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not bring our Examination home to its end The main is a Good Christian a Just man The sum and end of all is Eecl 12.13 the fear of God and Obedience to his commandements Let the bridegroom go out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet as the Prophet Joel exhorteth let us take off our thoughts from lawful contents but we then approve and prepare our selves for that mercy of God which shineth in these pledges of his love casteth its beams upon us even from these outward Elements when we sequester our selves from our selves Let the bridegroom go out of his chamber yea and let the sinner go out of himself Let the Bloud thirsty man stifle murther his malice and crucifie his lusts and affections Let the Covetous rise from the dead rouse himself from the earth wherein he lieth buried and tread it under his feet Let the Proud degrade himself and make himself equal to them of low degree Let the Contentious bind himself in the bond of peace Let the Wanton make himself an eunuch for the kingdome of heaven Let every man fight against that lust which is predominant and prevaileth in him And then he hath past and gone through his Trial he hath duely examined and approved himself and may eat of this bread and drink of this cup. This is as that clean linen cloth in which the body of Jesus must be wrapped It will not lie in noise and shews and shadows in the thin cobwebs of our own spinning much less will it abide in a soul torn and distracted or bespotted with the world and the flesh To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices Isai 1. saith the Lord. To what purpose is this outward pomp and formality Why do we send out our thoughts and fasten them upon these and not imploy them on that which will take them up and exercise them to their utmost extent and which indeed deserveth our greatest care These things we ought to do and not to leave the other undone Let me tell you A good Christian is fitted and prepared for the Lord's Table at all times And accordingly in the first and purest times they did receive almost at every meeting and refreshment This was their practice till Iniquity broke in and made Religion a trade and merchandise to promote mens ends to fill their purses not to purifie their souls Nor did they forget that other ceremonious preparation nor was it possible they should For he that hath sweat in the heat of the day will not fail or fall short to perform those offices which may be done in the cool He that stood out and shewed his strength in that great work of mortification will not shrink in or contract himself and neglect that part of piety which is more easie and not so terrible to flesh and bloud He that can deny himself can deny his affairs He that flieth from sin may easily abstain from meat He that can shut himself out of the world will find it no hard task to retire for a while from the business of the world He whose whole life is a seeking of God or as the Father speaketh one continued prayer cannot but lift up his heart and pour forth his soul in earnest supplications on this solemn occasion In a word they are both necessary the one as the end the other as the means We must trouble our selves in those things but one thing is necessary indeed Holiness of life without which we cannot see God and with which we shall see him with which we receive Christ in the Sacrament and without which we receive but a sop but bread and with it the Devil our own condemnation The other without this are but the noise of those who cry Lord Lord open unto us and receive no other answer from him but this I know you not This is the main the chief ingredient I may say the very essence of our Preparation He is most meet to receive Christ who carrieth him alwaies about with him but into a froward heart into a heart fiâ—led with nothing but sin and formality into a hollow heart he will not enter The Love
of the world cannot receive a poor Christ The Pride of life cannot receive an humble Christ The Lust of the flesh cannot receive a chaste Christ The sinner who confesseth and crucifieth him cannot receive him Those Antichrists cannot receive Christ no though they knock and knock again though they cry and cry aloud though they fast and pray and sequester themselves at some set times Then onely we are fit to receive him when we are Christi-formes made conformable to him The humble and obedient heart is his house his Temple and he will dwell in it for he taketh a delight therein Sequester then your selves draw your thoughts and apply them to this great benefit fast and pray and commune with your selves but do not then say We have done all that thou commandest us but let all these begin and end in obedience and holiness Let that be on the top the chief mark you aim at Tie it to you as an ornament of grace upon your head as a chain about your neck all the dayes of your life This will make you fit for Christ fit to receive his Body and Bloud and all the benefits of his Cross and his love will stream forth in the bloud which he shed and feed and nourish your souls to eternal life This I conceive to be the full compass of this duty of Examining of our selves And as it is necessary at all times so ought we especielly at this time to use it when we are to approch the Table of the Lord to make it our preparation before the receiving of the Sacrament He that neglected the Passeover was to be cut off from among his people And he that eateth and drinketh unworthily without examination of himself eateth and drinketh his own damnation because he discerneth not that is neglecteth the Lord's body Here at this Table thou dost as it were renew thy Covenant and here thou must renew thy Examination and see what failings and defects thou hast had and what diligence thou hast used in keeping of thy Covenant and bewail the one and increase and advance the other Consider whose Body and Bloud it is thou art to receive and in what habitude and relation thou art unto him and try thy Repentance thy Faith thy Charity For these unite thee to Christ bring thee so near as to dwell in him transform thee after his image and so give thee right and title to him and to all the riches and wisdom which are hidden in him Examine first your Repentance therefore Whether it be true and unfeigned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that circumcision made without hands Col. 2.11 Whether it be moved and carried on by a true spring hatred of sin and love of Christ Whether it be constant and uniform and universal consisting not in a head hanging down and a heart lifted up in to-day's sorrow and to-morrow's relapse in the detestation of idolatry and the love of sacrilege For this is as Luther saith poenitere simul non poenitere satis to repent and not repent to rise and fall and fall and rise This is not to repent but prevaricate to forsake our own cause and promote the Devil's No that Repentance which must place us at this Table must devote and consecrate us wholly to him whose Table it is And as our sins crucified him so must our repentance crucifie us and offer us up unto him as a holocaust or whole-burnt-offering who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world In the next place the Apostle exhorteth us to examine our selves whether we be in the Faith or no 2 Cor. 13.5 to prove our selves whether Christ be in us Without Faith there is no true Repentance There may be some distaste some regret some sorrow but not according to God Some distaste even those have had who never heard of Christ But it will not raise and improve it self not draw on a constant and serious resolution to shake off that which distasteth us to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us till Faith possesseth our hearts and a firm persuasion that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself 2 Cor. 5.19 I believed and therefore I spake saith David We believe and therefore we examine our selves and take a strict survey of our souls we grone under our burthen and desire ease we find our selves sick and run to the Physician we find our selves dead in sin and flie to the Fountain of life Faith is the salt which seasoneth all our actions Nor will Christ admit us to his Table without it nor give himself to those who do not believe in him Faith is the mouth of the soul and with it we receive Christ To come unto him and receive him and believe in him are one and the same thing As the Word preached did not profit them that heard it Hebr. 4.2 not being mixed with faith not having this salt so the Sacraments are but bare signs and signifie nothing to them that believe not Accedens Verbum ad elementum facit Sacramentum non quia dicitur sed quia creditur saith Augustine The Word added to the Element maketh a Sacrament not because it is spoken but because it is believed That is without faith it profiteth nothing in respect of us although by Divine institution it hath force and power and ought to quicken and enliven us By the eye of Faith alone we follow Christ through every passage and period of his blessed oeconomy we behold him in the manger in his swadling-cloths and worship him we follow him in the streets going about and doing good and imitate him we behold him in his agonie and are nailed with him to his cross we see him rising and ascending and behold the heavens open and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God and lastly we behold him here in the Sacrament and lift up our hearts above these visible Elements to those things which are spiritual and invisible we see in them Christ's body lifted up upon the cross as the Serpent was in the wilderness and by this sight by this Faith we are cured Here in the Sacrament our Saviour again presenteth himself unto us openeth his wounds sheweth us his hands and his side speaketh to us as he did to Thomas Reach hither your fingers and behold my hands and reach hither your hands and thrust them into my side Take eat This is my body and be not faithless but believing Here shake off that chilness that restiveness that weariness and faintness of your faith here warm and actuate and quicken it Here God doth not shew us his face his extraordinary glory and majesty which no mortal can behold and live but we see him as it were in his back-parts and in these outward Elements Here he exhibiteth and giveth us his Son who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his Person in whom he hath
a word where there is no true Charity there can be no true Church and where there is the least Charity there it is least Reformed Talk not of Reformation Purity and Discipline They may be but names and make up a proud malicious faction but it is Charity and Charity alone that can build up a Church into a body compact within it self Malice and Pride and Contention do build indeed but it is in gehennam downwards to hell and present men on earth as so many damned Spirits And there is no greater difference between them then this that the one may the other can never repent An imbittered faction is a type and representation of Hell it self Let then Faith and Charity meet in our Trial and Preparation Faith is a foundation but if we raise not Charity upon it to grow up and spread and dilate it self in all its acts and operations it is nothing it is in vain and we are yet in our sins Let not Anger or Rancour or Malice keep you from this Table and bring you within that sad Dilemma That you must and may not come That to come and not to come is damnation And do not forfeit so great mercy to satisfie so vile and brutish affections Lose not the hope of being Saints by pleasing your selves in being beasts Why should LOVE be wrote so thick on your walls and scarce any character any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any title of it in your hearts The Heart is the best table to receive it There engrave it with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond and then it will be legible also in your actions Remember it was Love that brought down Christ from heaven that nailed him to his cross that drew his heart-bloud from him and all to beget Love in us Love of God and Love of our Brethren And let this Love rule in our hearts and put down all our Malice Bitterness and Evil speaking all these our enemies under our feet Sacrifice and offer them up before we come to the Altar then shall we be fit to sit down at this Table Thus we must put our Charity to trial For this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast of Love Examine therefore whether thy Charity be firm and strong such a Charity as is stronger then Death a Charity that in Christ's cause will stand out against Poverty Imprisonment and Death it self a Charity which in respect of thy brethren will bear all things bear injuries kiss the hand that striketh thee bow to them that are in the dust condescend to the lowest a Charity which will die for the brethren For that Charity which speaketh big and doeth nothing scattereth words but casteth no bread on the waters defieth a tempest and runneth away at a blast can embrace a brother and yet persecute him forgive and yet wound him that is love and yet hate him will never fit and qualifie us for this feast of Love Let us then examine our selves And let us consider also him that inviteth us the Apostle and high Priest of our profession Christ Jesus Consider him as our high Priest and that we shall soon do For what captive would not be set at liberty Who that hath a debt to pay would not have a Surety that should pay it down for him Who that hath a request to put up would not have an Intercessour All this we may desire and yet not consider him as our high Priest And we must not think that he was such an high Priest for such as would not consider him and that he came to free those who did love their fetters to satisfie for wilful bankrupts to deliver them who all their life time delight in bondage to offer up those prayers which malice or oppression or deceit or hypocrisie have turned into sin Therefore let us also consider him as our Prophet putting into our hands those weapons of righteousness that spiritual armour those helps and advantages which are necessary and sufficient to work our liberty to strike off our fetters and demolish in us the Kingdom of Sin And here put it to the trial and ask thy self the question Art thou willing to hearken to this Prophet Art thou willing he should teach thee Wouldst thou not make the way to heaven wider and his yoke easier then he hath made it Hast thou not looked on these helps and advantages as superstitious and unnecessary As he is thy Prophet so art not thou his interpreter and hast taught him to speak friendly to thy lusts and sensual appetite Hast thou not given a large swinge to Revenge let out a longer line to Christian Liberty and given a broader space for the Love of the world to trade in then ever this Prophet did This is not to consider him but effoeminare disciplinam to corrupt his discipline and to make Christianity it self which is a severe Religion wanton and effeminate by the interpretations And therefore thou must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 examine thy self yet more and more Bring it to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a judgment till thou hast censured and condemned those thy glosses and presented in thy conversation an Expurgatory Index of them all till thou canst digest his precepts with all the aloes and gall with all the hardness and bitterness that is in them and then thy stomach also and thy heart will be prepared for this Bread of life for this celestial Manna Last of all canst thou consider him as thy King and Lord Is his fear to thee as the roaring of a Lion and his wrath as messengers of death And art thou willing to kiss to bow and worship him that he be not angry Canst thou discover Majesty in him now Majesty in his discipline wisdom in his Laws power in weakness now in this life when he is whipped and scourged and crucified again when his precepts are made subject to flesh and bloud and dragged in triumph after the wills of men when for one Hosanna he hath a thousand Crucifiges for one formal and hypocritical acknowledgment a thousand spears in his sides Who hath most command over thee the Prince of this world or this King Will not a smile from beauty move thee more then the glory of his promises Art thou not more afraid of the frown of a man of power then of his wrath Will not the love of the world drive thee against more pricks and difficulties then the love of a Saviour Will not that carry thee from east to west when the command of this King shall not draw thee a Sabbath dayes journey to visit the fatherless and widows Art thou of the same mind with him Are thy will and affections bound up in his will Is his will thy Law and his Law thy delight Then he is thy Priest and hath sacrificed himself to make thee a Feast He is thy Prophet to invite and fit thee and thy King to welcome thee and he shall gird himself and make thee sit
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
best and most experienced Masters so doth he condescend and indulge to our infirmity and appointeth the fittest for us and those of whom we will soonest learn Our first question commonly is Who is the Preacher We deliver up our Judgments to our Affections and converse rather with mens fortunes then their persons and make use of no other rule in our censure of what is done or said then the Man himself that did or spake it If Honour or Power or Wealth have made the man great in our eyes then whatsoever he speaketh is an oracle though it be a doctrine of Devils and have the same Father which all other lyes have Truth doth seldome go down with us unless it be presented in the cup in which we love to divine and prophesie Eccl. 9.15 There was a poor wise man found saith Solomon that delivered the city by his wisdome but none remembred or considered this poor wise man For Poverty is a cloud and casteth a darkness over that which is begot of light sullieth every perfection that is in us hideth it from an eye of flesh which cannot see Wisdome and Poverty together in one man whereas Folly it self shall go for Wisdome and carry away that applause which is due to it if it dwell in the heart or issue from the mouth of a purple and gallant fool Vt sumuâ— sic judicamus As we are so we judge and it is not our Reason which concludeth but our Sense and Affection If we love Beauty every painted wanton is as the Queen of Sheba and may ask Solomon a question If Riches Dives with us will be a better Evangelist then S. Luke If our eyes dazle at Majesty Acts 12.21 22 Herodes royal apparel will be a more eloquent oratour then he that speaketh and the people shall give a shout and cry The voice of a God and not of a man Do but ask our selves the question Doth not Affection to the person beget Admiration in you and Admiration commend whatsoever he saith and gild over Errour and Sin it self and make them current Do not your Hopes or Fears or Love make up every opinion in you and build you up in your most unholy faith Is not the Coward or the Dotard or the Worldling in your Creed and Profession Do you not measure out one another as you do a tree by the bulk and trunk and count him best who is most worth Is not this the compass by which you steer Is not this the bond of your peace the cement of all your friendship Doth not this outward respect serene or cloud your countenance and as the wind and the state of things change make you to day the dearest friends and to morrow the deadliest enemies Can you think ill of them you gain by or speak ill of them you fear Can he be evil who is powerful or dare you be more wise then he that hath thirty legions We may say this is a great evil under the sun But it is the property of the blessed Spirit to work good out of evil to teach us to remember what we are by those who so soon make us forget what we are to make use of Riches which we dote on of Power which we tremble at of that Glory which we have in admiration to instruct us to the knowledge of our condition and to put us in mind of our mortality and frailty by Kings whom we count as Gods Behold a King from his throne proclaimeth it to his subjects and all the world That his Power is but as a shadow cast from a mortal his Glory but his garment which he cannot wear long and his Riches but the embroidery which will be as soon worn out And when we have gazed and fallen down and worshipt and are thus lost in our own thoughts if we could take away the film from our eye which the world hath drawn over it and see every thing in its nature and substance as it is we should behold in all these raies of glory and power and wealth nothing but David the stranger So that we see Kings who are our nursing-Fathers are become our School-masters to teach us Psal 49.10 For we see that ignorant and foolish men perish and they dye as fools dye not remembred nor thought on as if nothing fell to the ground but their Folly The begger dyeth Luke 16.22 but what is that to the rich who cannot see him carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome The righteous also perish and no man layeth it to heart I Isa 57.1 but Kings of the earth fall and cannot fall but with observation they fall as a star are soon mist in their orb and soon forgot But then living Kings make their Throne a Pulpit and preach from thence and publish to the world their own frail and fading condition measure out their life by a span Psal 39.5 12. Psal 85.8 and prophesie the end of it call their life a Pilgrimage and shall we not hearken what the Lord God doth say by such royal Prophets Shall their Power make us beasts of burden to carry it whithersoever their beck shall direct us and shall not their Doctrine and Example perswade us that we are men travelling men hasting to another counâ—ry Behold then here David a Prophet and a King made and set up an ensample to us And if David be a stranger upon the earth we can draw no other conclusion then this Then certainly much more we If David and all his Fathers if pious Kings and bloudy Tyrants if good and bad found no setled estate no abiding place here why should we be so foolish and ignorant as to turmoil or sport and delight our selves under the expectation of it If Kings be pulled down from their thrones and fall to the dust we have reason to cast up our accounts and reckon upon it that we are gliding and passing nay posting and flying as so many shadows and that our removal is at hand 1 Cor. 10.11 For these things happened to them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition They prophesied to us and they spake to us I may say They died to us and to all that shall follow them to the last man that shall stand upon the earth When Adam had lived nine hundred and thirty years Gen. 5.5 he dyed led the way to his posterity not that they should live so long but that they should surely dye every son of his till the second coming of the second and last Adam Abraham was a stranger and Moses a stranger and David a stranger that we might look back upon them and see our condition When Patriarchs and Prophets and Kings preach not onely living but dying not onely dying but dead we shall not onely dye but dye in our sins if we take not out the lesson and learn to speak in their dialact and language ACCOLAE SVMVS ET PEREGRINI We are strangers and pilgrimes on the
wrong We see many interpret Scriptures as Jonathan shot his arrows sometimes beyond sometimes beside sometimes short of the sense of them Now that we may take the extent of these words aright we must observe that our Saviour doth not say Sin no more in this or that sin but simply and positively Sin no more And out of this necessarily followeth this conclusion He that will enter into the kingdom of heaven must have no sin remaining in him And of this we have a fair representation in the present miracle Which as all miracles are was complete and absolute The impotent man had his bodily health perfectly restored So it is also in the cure of the Soul That is a thorow and exact change The Lion is turned into a Lamb the Leopard into a Kid and the Old man into a New creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Most men applaud and even bless themselves if they abstain from some sins which they observe in others The Luxurious person comforteth himself because he is not such a cormorant as that Usurer and that Usurer huggeth himself for not being such a swine as that Drunkard The Zelote is almost in heaven already because he is not so brutish in his understanding as that Idolater and he maketh it an argument of his love to Christ that he hateth the very sign of his Cross and that Idolatry applaudeth himself seeing he is not so wicked as he who breaketh all the commandments of Christ by an indiscreet and irregular defending of one But however men may satisfie themselves with their parcel and partial obedience certainly it will never content him who offered up himself a whole sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world We are told by those who have skill in cattel that if we would have fair and white flocks of sheep we must have especial care that the rams be white Neither is it enough that their fleece be fair but we must also see that they have not a black spot under their tongue For if they have though their coats be never so white they will quickly change the colour of the stock And so it is with us Though we wash and purge our selves of sin though our fleece seemeth never so white and fair yet whilest there is this black spot under our tongue whilest there is one sin lurking in us this one will prove enough to make us unprofitable in the flock of Christ The young man in the Gospel that had kept all the commandments from his youth who would not have taken him for a goodly sheep in this flock But you see the great Shepheard of the flock our blessed Saviour quickly espied the black spot under his tongue Yet one thing wantest thou go sell all that thou hast His stomach turned at this and therefore our Saviour sendeth him away with this sad farewel How hardly shall they who have riches enter into the kingdom of God! If that which the Schools teach us be true then is the danger of this one black spot of some one sin remaining very great and the contagion reacheth very far For it is a conclusion of theirs That whosoever is in the state of any one mortal sin unrepented of all that he doth his Alms his Prayers his Divine offices and whatsoever good act besides it forwith becometh mortal sin If that be not true yet certainly this is If our righteousness be never so great though it shall not become sin yet thereby it shall become unprofitable Again we observe that every man is not equally prone to every sin but according to different tempers and constitutions that is lothed by one which is liked by another And it is the policy of our Enemy to assault us where we lie most open and to lay such baits in our way as are most agreeable to our humour Therefore as Quintilian adviseth Schoolmasters to observe the several dispositions of their scholars and accordingly to apply themselves unto them so must we study our selves observe our own inclination and be most instant and diligent against that temptation which it looketh towards with most favour and complacency Animadvertenda ea peccata maximè quae difficilè praecaventur saith Tully We must keep a steddy eye and watch over those tentations which we are most like to fall into and to which the bent of our corruptions doth especially sway us Let the Melancholick beware of Envy the Cholerick prepare himself against injuries the Glutton put a knife to his throat the Wanton beat down and chastise his body As wise Captains use to plant their engines where the city is weakest and as it is the wisdom of Governours iis malis maximè mederi quibus Resp maximè laborat to be most diligent to cure those evils with which the Common-wealth is most molested and as good Physicians purge out the predominant humour so must we take a strict survey of our selves and set the strongest guard there where we are most attemptable If it be Anger tie it up if Lust quench it if Sloth chase it away Ante omnia necesse est teipsum astimare It is the chief and principal Work of man to weigh and ponder himself For as it is good to know our own strength so is it also useful to take notice of our own weakness that we may make use of our strength to defend us there where we are weakest and to quench the fire of that dart which is most likely to enter In a word thus looking into our selves let us provide against that danger which threatneth abroad and by often ripping up our hearts let us purge and clense them as Moses did his hand by putting it again into his bosom When God sent Saul out against Amalek he gave him charge to put all without exception to the sword but Saul as we find took upon him authority to dispense with God's command and found pretences to spare many of the people And see the event of this irregular and unseasonable mercy He spared one too many and preserved him to be his executioner For he that he gave him his last blow and bereft him of his life was an Amalekite 2 Sam. 1. And thus it is with us many times We go out in these spiritual battels of the Lord even as Saul did against Amalek too too favourably and peaceably inclined and spare many times where we ought to kill Whereas our charge is not a partial charge like that of David Touch not the young man Absolom Touch not the sons the sins of your desire nor like that of the King of Syria Fight not against small or great save onely with the King of Israel Fight not against those lesser sins nor against those which by their bulk and corpulency betray themselves and are loathed as soon as seen But our Commission is general without limitation Sin no more All must to the sword The whole body of sin as S. Paul calleth it must be destroyed For if
those means which he findeth most proper and fit for that end which commonly run in a contrary course from that which humane infirmity flesh and bloud would find out Isa 55.8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord but as far removed as Heaven from Earth And as he hath made the Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh the veile of his Divine majesty so in all his proceedings upon men he is Deus sub velo a God under a veile hidden but yet seen in a dark character but read not toucht but felt tunc optimus cum nobis videtur non bonus then most favourable when he seemeth to frown merciful when he seemeth angry gracious when he seemeth to put the sword into the persecutour's hand the same God yesterday in the calm and to day in the storm raising the righteous as high as heaven when in appearance he hath opened the gates of hell to devour them whilest flesh and bloud stand at gaze and wonder at his counsels and dispositions and understand them not till the spirit revealeth them as David speaketh in the sanctuary Psal 73. Were flesh and bloud to build a Church it should not be an House subject to the wind and waves but some house of pleasure a royal palace it should not be in Egypt or Babylon or in the land of the Philistines but in Paradise For we would go to heaven without any condition or difficulty have fathers and brethren and houses a hundred-fold without persecution march to the Land of Canaan and meet with no serpents in the wilderness not see a son of Anak to oppose us we would reign but not suffer hear God but not in the whirlwind see him but not in the fire would have the Kingdom without persecution that is would have God neither provident nor just nor wise that is would have no God at all These are these dictates the results the evaporations of flesh and bloud But God's method is best and is drawn out by his manifold wisdom Eph. 3.10 Nor indeed considering what materials we be made of could it possibly be otherwise Perversitas quam putas ratio est That is good order which we take to be confusion and that which we call Persecution is favour and mercy For could we be brought to God any other way he would not so much as touch us with his rod Or could we take possession of his kingdom without it he would not thus chase us into it by the fury and sword of the persecutor But our corruption can hardly be let out but with the lance The Old man must sit heavy on us that we may put him off and the World must breathe fire and brimstone in our faces that we may loath it Persecution sheweth what a prison what a hell the world is how ready it is to overflow our fading delights with gall that we may fly out of it to a better place If we will we may make our persecutor our Apostle to preach Jesus Christ unto us And therefore as Theodoret calleth the Redemption of man the most excellent part of God's providence so the manner of bringing it about by these sad and unwelcome means to flesh and bloud is from the same Providence Which as it set an Oportet upon Christ though his dispensation was most free Heb. 2.10 It became him for whom are all things c. to consecrate the Captain of our salvation through sufferings so there is an Oportet set upon the righteous Acts 14.22 We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God Nor indeed take us as we are polluted and unclean could we possibly enter any other way we could not enter the new heavens but purged and refined by persecution into the new creature cured by diseases healed by bruises raised by falls and made happy by misery taught by the counsel of the wise and taught by the contradiction of sinners helped by Prophets and advantaged by Tyrants directed by the Apostles and hastned by Persecutours to our inheritance For in some sense we may say Persecution giveth us livery and seisin and maketh it ours The Text it self implyeth so much Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven I have now brought you into this Aceldama this Field of bloud where you may behold the ungodly for their own lust persecuting the poor where you may behold hypocrites and deceitful men bending their bow and shooting at the righteous in secret and mighty men drawing their swords and drenching them in their bloud A sad sight to see righteousness under the whip and harrow But withall you may discover not onely an Angel going before them as before the children of Israel in the wilderness but Christ himself leading them through these terrours and amazements to a place of refreshing to a City not made with hands to the kingdom of heaven Oportet they must suffer but there remaineth a Sabbath for the children of God Persecution is the lot the inheritance of the righteous that was our first part We will now present you with the second That every man that suffereth hath not title to this Blessedness in the Text but onely those who are persecuted for righteousness sake Which comprehendeth all those duties which the Gospel requireth at their hands who have given up their names unto Christ For it is possible that a man may suffer for one virtue and neglect the rest may suffer to preserve his chastity and yet be covetous may keep his virgin and be a thief may give up his goods rather then bow to an Idol and be an yet adulterer may sacrifice to no God but the God of Israel and yet bow in the house of Rimmon nay may suffer for some truth which he is fully perswaded of and yet hold the truth of God in unrighteousness For tell me May not a Jew stand more for the circumcision of his flesh then of his heart for the Sabbaths bodily rest then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that quietness of mind which is the proper effect of righteousness For the one he will lose his life for the other he doth not lay out many thoughts He will starve before he will eat a piece of swines-flesh and yet not put his knife to his throat to keep off intemperance He can suffer for the Law and yet break it Bid a Christian deny the Lord that made him and Christ that redeemed him and he will rather suffer his tongue to be cut out then to speak that word but yet will in his life deny him every day he will curse the Jew and yet crucifie Christ he will venture sea and land put his fortunes and life in hazard for a new discipline and yet take no pains to be a disciple of Christ Such an advantage many times hath education and custome upon us such a power hath the love of the
against those assaults and tentations which as so many winds beat upon it to drive it from that object to which God hath confined it to that indeed which it may cleave to being a free faculty but that there is a Veto a prohibition writ upon it to dull and by degrees to take off that inclination For talk what we will of seeking him as who talk more then they that scarce look after him yet we never seek him till we have lost denied and hated our selves Yet by the surrendry of our wills we do not lose them but make them more ours For herein consisteth the beauty and rectitude and true liberty of the will in that it conformeth to his will who is Wisdom it self and followeth his imperious command Multum est abnegare quod habes sed valde multum est negare quod es saith Gregory It is much for a man to renounce what he hath but it is very much and more praise-worthy to renounce what he it and yet he is not truly till he doth renounce it For as St. Bernard telleth us nihil ardet in inferno praeter propriam voluntatem nothing sinketh us to hell but our own will so is it most true nothing bringeth us to God but denial of our selves and renouncing of our wills That is the best holocaust when our will is sacrificed For as they who lay siege to cities when they have taken the chief and principal fort soon make themselves masters of the town so it fareth in our spiritual warfare and search Till we have given up our will unto God taken it from those vanities and forbidden objects which we most hunt after and sacrificed it to him we seek him not though we call upon him louder then those idolatrous priests did upon their Baal Till he hath taken that we are none of his For though he fetter our hands and put out our eyes and tack up our tongues to the roof of our mouths yet we may still stand out and fight against him by murther without a hand by blasphemy without a tongue by lust without an eye For though the Will be frustrate of its effect yet it remaineth a will still and may finish and determine its act and make us guilty as evil-doers when nothing is done But when this principal fort this commanding faculty is taken and captivated then God taketh possession of all entereth with all his graces dwelleth there and reigneth as King for ever All the faculties of our soul all the parts of our body are ready at his beck we seek him and we find him the Understanding is open to saving knowledge the Memory faithful to retain it the Phansie catcheth not at shadows but becometh an elaboratory and workhouse of wholsom thoughts which are winged to flye after God Then we do not onely seek but run after God totâ fidei substantiâ as Tertullian speaketh with the whole strength and power and substance of our faith our Eye seeketh him whilest we wait on his providence our Ear seeketh him whilest we hearken to his voice our hands seek him whilest we cast our bread upon the waters our Tongue seeketh him by being an instrument of his glory our Faith layeth hold on him our Hope attendeth him our Patience waiteth upon him and our Love embraceth him and will not let him go You may call it what you please Obedience or Holiness or Repentance or Denial of our selves and Renouncing of our wills but this is truly to seek the Lord. That we may thus seek the Lord we must make use of that light which God holdeth up unto us and those means which he hath graciously afforded us to help and forward us in our search Some duties there are which look further then those acts vvhich seem to perfect and accomplish them and if they attain not that end they are nothing yea vvhich is vvorse they are sins but being rightly performed they expedite and facilitate those actions of our life vvhich being linked and united together are as an ornament of grace unto our head and chains about our neck in vvhich dress and glorious habit vve make our approches unto the Lord. I name but three Hearing and Reading of the Word Fasting and Prayer Exercising our selves in these is commonly called seeking the Lord by those vvho either do not or vvill not understand what they speak Many thus seek him vvho nevertheless run from the presence of the Lord further then Jonah did not to some Tarshish or to the bottom of the ship but to Hell it self They hear and run from him fast and run from him pray and run from him They hear that they may sin fast that may continue in it pray that it may prosper and as if it vvere some head corner stone they bring it out with shoutings and cry Grace Grace unto it But vve must remember these are means appointed but not to this end and next that they are the Means and not the End For first the Word of God as it is the mother vvhich begetteth this desire in us so is it the nurse to cherish it as it first began that motion vvhich tendeth to God so it improveth every day our activity in seeking keepeth every vvheel in its ovvn place fitteth and applieth it self to every one of the generation of seekers of vvhat state and condition soever But novv If all be hearing where is our smelling vvhere is our eye and hand And if to hear of him be to seek him there needeth no Prophet's voice to rowse us up there needeth no Moses to bid us Hear Oh Israel For they who are lame and impotent criples and so lye at the beautiful gate of the Temple and cannot move at all when he biddeth them take up their cross and follow him without the help of a Peter without a miracle will walk and leap and be as swift as a roe to run to a sermon to hear of him But this indeed is to abuse those helps and means which God doth plentifully afford us For Hearing of it self is of singular use if it drive to a right end and therefore it was wise counsel which Demosthenes gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work the first cure upon our ear that it may be fit to receive the Word of God and conveigh it downward into the heart and so beget a new creature a child of God that we may not count Hearing seeking but so hear that we may seek the Lord. Secondly that our ears may be purged that we may have clean ears and so have pure hands we must beat down our body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring it into subjection by Fasting and abstinence make it a servant that every part may be ready at the beck of Reason For to this end Fasting is enjoyned not to a politick but spiritual not a natural but a supernatural end God forbid that a fast should either keep us evil or make us worse It is but as a stage-play as
the Anabaptists call it if it be not levelled to its right end which is not to afflict but to purge and refine us to withdraw us from the present momentany pleasures that we may be fitted for the future for those which are not seen which are eternal that we may so abstain from meats ut solo Deo alamur as Tertullian speaketh of Moses and Elias that we may feed on God alone which is to seek him Last of all Prayer is of great force and availeth much saith Saint James It is the best guide and conduct to lead us in our way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nyssene it addeth wings unto us even the wings of a Dove that we may fly after God and be at rest It is impossible that it should return empty if we ask for grace not wealth that we may do God's will and not that we may bring our own purposes about and then say it is his will The wicked are not heard for God regardeth not their prayers but loatheth them as an abomination And yet they are heard and have that which they request granted them but for another end even as God gave the Israelites a King in his wrath and indignation and to their further condemnation But when we bow before God and desire power and ability to seek him that is to walk in his wayes we pray for that which God is alwayes ready to give We pray that we may seek him who beseecheth and commandeth us to seek him who sendeth his Prophets to call upon us to seek him Such prayers are as musick in the ears of the Almighty and our diligence in seeking him is the resultance We may call Prayer with Dionysius the Areopagite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bright and radiant chain by which we ascend unto God and God descendeth unto us by which we are drawn to follow and seek the Lord. To conclude this part then these three Hearing Fasting and Prayer as they are helps to forward our repentance so are they signs of a troubled spirit probable symptoms of a heart thirsting and panting after God and yet through the corruptions of our hearts they are nothing else but bare signs and types and shadows Signs but such as signifie nothing Types but such as have no Antitypes Shadows of which the substance was never seen For as it was observed of the Jews that the greatest sacrifices so it may be amongst Christians that the most frequent hearers the greatest fasters and they that are longest and loudest in prayer may be the greatest sinners It is well we can be brought to these if it be in God's name but commonly some other wind driveth us to the Temple some other hand putteth on our sackcloth and our love nay the Prince of this world may bring us on our knees and then in these our devotion is terminated and if we can well pass over these as we may well for we delight and pride our selves in them we think we have God in a chain and bound him with our merits that we have past through as many punishments as they did who were to be consecrated to Mithras the God of the Persians In a word in these three Hearing Fasting and Prayer our devotion our seeking is at an end We please and content our selves with the service of the ears of the body of the lips with a Sermon I should say many Sermons with a Fast and that is not complete without something which they call by that name with the labour of the lips with a Prayer and that too must have something of the Sermon and something of the Libel when as indeed our turning to God is the best commendation of a Sermon to loose the bonds of wickedness of that wickedness we now stand guilty of before God and men is the best sanctifying of a Fast and to seek the Lord with all the heart the most effectual Prayer we can make To this end are these duties enjoyned and to this end alone they are useful and serviceable that we may seek the Lord. We have beheld the Object which we must seek the Lord who is the sole and adequate object of our desires in whom alone they may rest If we desire Wealth the earth is the Lord's and all that therein is if Strength he is the Lord of Hosts if Wisdom he created her and poured her out upon all his works if Life he is the living God if Immortality he onely is immortal And if we seek not him our riches are snares our greatest wisdom the greatest folly our strength will overthrow us and our momentany life will deliver us over to eternal death We have also seen what it is to seek the Lord namely to seek him in Christ to seek him in those wayes of obedience and humility which he hath drawn out unto us in his Gospel in a word to bow our wills and receive him into our hearts that God in us may be all in all Now we pass from the Act to the Time when we must seek the Lord while he may be found my last part And do we ask when we should seek the Lord We do not well to ask it because we should not stay so long as to ask the question before we seek him Huic rei perit omne tempus quodcunque alteri datur All time is lost to this which we bestow in any thing else For shall we prefer our pleasure our profit our health our life before God Nor is there need of deliberation in that action wherein all the danger is not to do it Fides pura moram non patitur If we love God and truly believe in him we cannot be so patient as to endure the least delay We may miss of happiness but certainly we cannot meet it too soon I know God may be found at any time which we can call ours at any time of our life in the morning or at noon in the heat of the day or in the cool of the evening But a great presumption it is to promise to our selves to seek and find him when we please He may be found in our old age but it is most safe to remember him in our youth he may be found in affliction but it is not good to stay till the rod be on the back he may be found in war and yet it is hard to find the God of peace in war and therefore it is a folly to delay seeking him till we see the glittering spear and hear the noise of the whip and the prauncing of the horses If we will determine and fix a time we must take the first opportunity lay it to the first beam and dawning of our reason The second or third opportunities though they come not peradventure too late to find him yet they come too late for us to begin to seek him because we lost the first which for ought we knew might have been the last To morrow may be but Now is the while
black lines of reprobation drawn out by the hand of Justice Oh that thou hadst known now whilest I speak whilest the word is in my mouth yet it is time hitherto is thy day NUNC AUTEM But now the word is spoken that time is past and cannot be recalled Hitherto was DIES TUA thy day but now the night is come Hitherto the light did shine and thou mightest have seen it but now omnium dierum soles occiderunt thy Sun is for ever set and darkness is come upon thee and that which might procure thy peace is hid from thy eyes for ever Beloved compare Jerusalem's state with the age of a man and you shall find as in that so in this there is a HAEC DIES TUA a This thy day in which thou mayest seek God and work thy peace and a NUNC AUTEM a Now when they shall be hidden from thine eyes Every man hath his day his allotted time in which he may seek and find God Hic meus est dixere dies And this day may be a feast-day or a day of trouble it may beget an eternal day or it may end in the shadow of death and everlasting darkness Oh that we men were wise but so wise as the creatures which have no reason so wise as to know our seasons to discover saltem hanc diem nostram this our day wherein we may yet see the things of our peace Oh that we could but behold that decretory moment in which mercy shall forsake us and justice cut off our hopes for ever But though there be such a day such a moment yet this day this moment like the day of Judgment is not known to any and God hath on purpose hid it from our eyes that we might have a godly jealousie of every moment of our life to come lest peradventure it may be the NUNC the Now wherein those things which concern our peace may be hidden from our eyes 2 Pet. 3.15 For as the long-sufferance of the Lord is our salvation so is every day every hour of our life On this hour on this moment Eternity may depend And who would perfunctorily let pass such an hour such a day which carrieth along with it eternity either of pain or bliss Flatter not thy self that thy day may be a long day or that thy last day may be that day Think not in thy heart that the NUNC AUTEM the decretory Now is yet afar off that whensoever thou seekest the Lord he will be found that when every action of thy life hath its proper season thy seeking of God hath none but what thou thy self appointest that thy failing in an hour may forfeit thy estate on earth but thy prodigally mis-spending of many years can no whit endanger thy title to Heaven Repentance indeed hath a blessing whensoever it cometh Pharaoh Judas Julian the Apostate could they have repented might have been saved But God who hath promised to Repentance a blessing at all times hath not promised repentance or power to repent when we list He that hath promised to be found at any time that we seek him hath not promised that we shall seek him when we please If thou pass thy NUNC thy Now thy allotted time he may give thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heart that cannot repent nor seek him And it is justice with God to punish continuance in sin with final impenitency and to leave that heart which will not be softned unto it self till it be harder then the neither milstone Ephraim is joyned to idols Hos 4.17 let him alone And if the heart be alone it will soon turn stone and harden of it self The examples of Manasseh of him that was called at the eleventh hour of the thief on the cross are solatia poenitentium non subsidia rebellium saith Augustine These are left as comforts to the truly penitent not to chear and strenthen the heart of a rebellious sinner These becken to us and call upon us If you will enquire enquire return come Isa 21.12 but put no dispensation into our hands to seek when we please It will be good then for us if we will not believe this doctrine to be at least jealous of it as if it were most true to make every Now the last now to cast away our sins for fear that they may cleave as fast unto us as the leprosie did on Gehazi and his seed even for ever Pietas etiam tuta pertimescit It is the part of a pious mind sometimes to fear where no fear is and in the most plain and even ground to suspect a stone of offense Nor can we possibly be too scrupulous of our own salvation That thou mayst therefore meet with the Lord IN INVENIRI SUO whilest he may be found think that a time may come when thou mayst not be able to seek him Such a thought if it improve it self into a resolution will enlarge thy feet to seek and run after him Fear lest the measure of thy iniquity be almost full and perswade thy self thy next sin may fill it such a fear will make thee as bold as a lion in the wayes of God Such a perswasion that thou mayst fail and fall is far more safe then a groundless phantastical faith that thou shalt stand fast for ever Think that there is a Rubicon a river Kidron set thee which if thou pass thou shalt dye the death Think this is thy day and time of seeking and though it be not yet think it the last If it be an errour it is a happy errour that hasteneth thee to thy God If it be not the last if thy day have yet more hours more Nows in it yet the night will come when thou canst not seek him a night on thy understanding that thou shalt not have light to seek him a night of spiritual dulness when thou shalt have no mind to seek him and thy last night Death it self when thou canst seek no more And therefore let us seek him in this our day whilest he calleth upon us before our measure be full for then he will speak no more before we are past our bounds for there Death waiteth upon us ready to arrest us before our glass is run our day spent for then time shall be no more Let us seek him IN INVENIRI SUO whilest he may be found And here if you expect I should point out to a certain time the time is Now. Now the Prophet speaketh now the word soundeth in your ears To day now if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts For why is it spoken but that we should hear it Seek him now is an exhortation and if we obey not it is an argument against us that we deserve to hear it no more We are willing that what we speak should stand not a word we utter must fall to the ground If we speak to a friend and he turn away the ear it is a quarrel If
So there is nothing in the Church to drive any out of it nothing in the We to divide it Whatsoever things are true â—it 4.8 whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise these make a company a congregation at unity within it self these make many one and carry them together to the house of God with joy and triumph We must then seek for the cause of dis-union abroad For Religion can no more make it then the Sun when it shineth can produce darkness Light and darkness may assoon meet in one as true Religion and Division No Inimicus homo the envious man the Devil doth this It is Covetousness and Pride and Malice and Envy the fruitless fruits of the evil Spirit that have torn the seamless coat of Christ yea that have divided his body that have set up the partition-wall and made of one many 1. Aemulatio mater schismatum saith Tertullian Envy is the mother of division An evil eye which striketh and hurteth when others are in glory which when it cannot behold its own good delighteth in others evil Arius will break forth and trouble all if Alexander be in the chair before him 2. Covetousness that would not onely depopulate but gather in the whole world unto it self Etiam avaritia quaerit unitatem saith S. Augustine Even Covetousness is a great lover of unity would swallow all into it self And then where were the WE It is the observation of Aristotle that that friendship which is enterteined for pleasure is subject but to few quarrels that which is for vertue and honesty to none but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all complaints and quarrels arise from that which is grounded upon profit While they are assistant to one anothers designs so long they have but one purse but one soul but when they come short and fail then they flie asunder and keep distance and look back upon one another as enemies They are one to day and to morrow they are divided Quòd unum velimus duo sumus We therefore disagree because we are so like we are not one and the same because we love one and the same thing Quod vinculm amoris esse debebat seditionis odii causa idem velle That which should draw and knit us together divideth and separateth us namely having the same desires the same mind the same will Covetousness neither careth for union nor community And this is it which raiseth seditions in the Common-wealth and maketh rents in the Church This sent that swarm of Flies and Locusts the Novations the Puritanes of those times disciples of Novatus who would be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure But saith Nazianzene as pure as he was he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very covetous A disease which may seem to have cleaved to his sect and followers throughout all generations to this day Consider of it judge and give sentence 3. Ambition looketh not back leaveth all behind will be on the top of the ladder Pride lifteth up the nose as the Psalmist speaketh keepeth distance and her word is a Isa 65.5 Go from me for I am holier then thou b Rev. 18.7 I sit as a queen c Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me The proud man loveth to be alone and would have no companion but would be learned alone beautiful alone rich alone strong alone religious alone d Luk. 18.11 I am not as other men I am not as this Publicane was the Manifesto of a Pharisee and he was proud To conclude These vices which distract us in our selves can never make nor keep us at one with others No it is Humility and Patience and Contempt of the world and the Love of Christ which alone knit this love-knot e Eâ—h 2.14 15. break down the partition wall and make them one cause f Psal 133.1 brethren to dwel together in unity draw them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint have it to the same thing to have the same faith the same purpose the same mind the same wealth the same wit the same understanding or to be as assistant to one another as if they were the same in a word which make them one in Christ as g Joh. 10.30 Christ and the Father are one that they be of the same quire and sing the same song with the people of Israel IBIMUS Let us or We will go into the house of the Lord. I have been carried away ye see as with a stream but the waters were pleasant Bonum jucundum saith the Psalmist Psal 133.1 Good and pleasant it is for brethren to go together There is but one stage more and we shall be at the journeys end even at the Temple-gates but one circumstance to consider and we shall lead you in and that is 4. Their alacrity and chearfulness in going I told you their long absence rendred the object more glorious For what we love and want we love the more and desire the more earnestly When Hezekiah having been sick unto death had a longer lease of life granted him Isa 38.1 22. he asketh the question What is the sign not that I shall live but that I shall go up to the house of the Lord Love is on the wing chearful to meet its object yea it reacheth it at a distance and is united to it while it is afar off But when it draweth near and a probable hope leadeth us towards it then is Loves triumph and jubilee Love saith one is a Sophister and a Philosopher witty and subtile to compass its own ends a Magician able to conjure down all difficulties and oppositions that lie in its way How doth the Covetous hast to be rich the Ambitious fly to the pinnacle of State the Glutton run to a banquet When the fool had filled his barns he sung a Requiem to his soul When Haman was advanced by the King Luk. 12.19 Esth 5.10 11. he sent and called for his friend and Zerish his wife and told them of his glory We read of one who hired a horse from the cirk to ride to a feast Love is alwayes in hast delighting it self in thoughts of hope and carried on them as on the wings of the wind Thus it is in sensual Love and thus it is also in spiritual When we have once tasted the good word of God Hebr 6.5 and the powers of the world to come when our hearts are possessed with love of God's glory when our minds are truly principled when as the Apostle speaketh Colos 2.6 7. we have received Christ Jesus the Lord and are rooted and built up in him Lord what an heaven is virtue what glory is there in obedience what beauty in holiness what a holy place is a Church how do we faint and pant not onely after religion
opportunities of Time and Place to serve him in bless him for those who erected these fabricks and bless him for those who repair and adorn them and by the right use of these means build we up our selves on our most-holy fâ—ith Jude 20. and so deck and beautifie our souls that they may be fit temples of the holy Ghost And then whensoever we spread forth our arms in this place God will stretch forth his hand and help us when our prayers ascend as incense he will receive them as a sweet-smelling savour when we bow our knees to him he will bow down his ear to us when we speak he will hear and return our prayers back again into our bosom when we pour out our petitions he will pour down his blessings peace of conscience with all things necessary for this life which are a pawn and pledge and earnest of those everlasting blessings glory honour and immortality Thus we have led you into the house of the Lord the main circumstance in the Object of the Psalmists joy The place we are going to and the thing we are about may be of such a nature that Many may be worse then none Resolution may be pertinacie and madness Agreement and Union may be conspiracy and Hast may be precipitancie A man had better in some things be like Mephibosheth lame on both his feet then like Asahel light of foot as a wild roe 2 Sam 9.13 2.18 Ye have read how that pursuing after Abner he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner 19. and so ran straight to his own death Psal 1.1 There be too-too many who walk in the counsel of the ungodly and stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful There may be a Synod of Hereticks a Senate of rebells as ye know there is a Legion of Devils Pliny telleth us Mark 5.9 Major coelitum populus quà m terrae that there were more people in heaven then on earth and it might be true when they made God's for they might make as many as they pleased But the broad way hath most travellers Matth. 7.13 there they go in sholes in bodies in companies in Societies and some under the name of JESUS And our Saviour saith that many there be which go in at the wide gate Secondly resolve men may and oftentimes resolve they do and are resolute in that which they should abhor Their Dixit is a Factum est they say and do it no law no conscience no thunder from heaven can deter them from it Matth. 2 6. Give me money enough and I will betray my Master said Judas and he did do it betray him into the hands of his enemies Thirdly men may gather together and be united to do mischief thieves and murderers may cast in their lots together and have all one purse Prov. 1.14 Yea men of disagreeing and different principles may agree and combine in the same wicked design though they have severall judgements yet may they be brethren in iniquity Gen. 49.7 Judg. 15.4 5 they may be tied together as Samson's foxes were though their heads look divers wayes and one be an Anabaptist another a Brownist a third a Disciplinarian a fourth a Seeker a fifth a Quaker a sixth but there are so many Sects that I cannot tell you their names though their looks and language be never so opposit yet they may be linked together by the tails and carry those firebrands between them that may burn up the harvest As Paterculus said of Jugurtha and Marius In iisdem castris didicere quae postea in contrariis facerent They learnt their skill in arms both in the same camp which they afterwards practised in divers even one against the other So have the Jesuites and these Sectaries taken up some common principles and we know in whose camp they learnt them which they make use of to drive on their purposes and yet defie one another as much as Jugurtha and Marius ever did Many wicked men ye see may agree we see too many do and their agreement breaketh the peace and maketh the body of Christendome fly asunder into so many pieces and parts with that noise and confusion that we tremble to behold it ridente Turcâ nec dolente Judaeo whilest the Turk laugheth and a Jew pulleth the veil closer to his face and comforteth and applaudeth himself in his errour Last of all as men may resolve and agree so may they encourage themselves in evil Rom. 1.32 and not onely do the same thing but as S. Paul speaketh have pleasure in them that do it they may go together with a shout and with a merry noise sport in the miseries dance in the ruines and wash their feet in the bloud of the innocent and their word still be So Psal 35.25 so thus we would have it Thus I say the Many may resolve agree and delight in that which is forbidden they may have a firm heart they may have but one heart they may have a merry heart in that which is evil their hearts may be fixed their hands joyned and their feet swift to shed bloud Prov. 1.16 Isa 59.7 Rom. 3.15 Therefore we must look forward to the last circumstance the Place the house of the Lord the Service of God This shineth upon all the rest and beautifieth them Many here make a Church To Resolve here is obedience To Agree here is peace the peace of God which maketh us one of the same mind of the same will To be one in place and not in mind is poena saith a Father it is not a blessing but a punishment To be one in mind and not in place is bonitas goodness To be one in place and in mind both is felicitas greatest happiness Then in the last place to Go together chearfully to the house of the Lord is an expression of that joy which is a type and earnest of that which is in the highest heavens There is nothing here we told you which a religious mind can check at No just scruple can arise concerning the place seeing we have God's word for it under the Law and Christs word for it under the Gospel that it is God's house If any do arise it riseth like a fog it steameth from a foul and corrupt heart from Pride and Covetousness the mothers of Pertinacy and Contradiction Which cannot be brought to conform to the counsels of the wise no not to the wisdom of God himself but call Truth heresie because others speak it Bounty wast because others lay it out Reverence superstition because others bow would pull down Churches because others build them spurn at every thing nihil verum putant nisi quod contrarium think nothing true but what is diverse and contrary and breatheth opposition against the Truth This is a great evil under the Sun to quarrel even the blessings of God to be angry with
God grant there be no legio sulminatrix in this sense no thundring Regiment to call down the tempest of Gods wrath not upon their enemies but themselves Look into the Temple There God is present we may be sure as present as in heaven it self and no doubt many come to it as to the place of his habitation But we may with the cast of an eye discover not a few who come disguised indeed as if they meant to hide themselves from God but of so irreverent deportment as if the place were not dreadful and God were not here Look into the City That is Jerusalem the faithful city But how is the faithful city become an harlot what is her Religion but a mockery What mock fasts when she fasts to turn away Gods judgment and is her self the greatest judgment God hath sent upon the land What mock-prayer whilest she prayes for that she will not have prays for peace and beats up the drum I should not indeed have given her her portion with the Hypocrite but that her shew of holiness is too thin a scarf and her wickedness is too transparent Look into the Country I know there is sancta rusticitas that God may be served with the hammer in the hand and will hearken to an Halelujah sung at the Plow tayl But what coldness do we find amongst many what indifferency what halting between God and Baal I hope there are not many but a few are too many of those who can salute Anthony or Caesar as occasion serves and will be very good subjects when the King prevails And now last of all look into the Church that indeed is made a spectacle unto the world unto Angels unto men and hath been lookt upon with such an evil eye that now we can scarce see it unless we will seek it in a Conventicle which they call a Synod a great part whereof scarce understands the word Yet look upon this Heaven in its beauty before the powers of it were shaken and we fear we might have seen some Angels fallen from their estate some wandring stars some reaping plentifully that did sow nothing that indeed had nothing to sow many striving to enter in but not at the strait gate Go run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem Look into that part of the world which we call Christendom and there you shall see Religion follow and lacquey it to the World to the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life varying in its shape and complexion as that alters and changes running along in the same stream and channel looking towards one haven but carryed as it were with the tide into another carryed captives according to the will of the enemy and yet triumphing in the name of the Lord. There you may see men that call themselves the Temples of the Holy Ghost like those Egyptian Temples of a fair and glorious fabrick without but having nothing but Cats and Crocodiles within instead of Gods There you may observe the same men professing Christ sighing and groning out Christ and yet putting him to open shame making this poor Christ a way to Riches this humble Christ a way to Honour making this meek Lamb a Butcher bringing him as the Jesuite doth as a patron and promoter and abettor of all the cruelty they practice upon their brethren of all their unjust designs not an accessory but principal for they are begun and ended in his name The same Christians ravisht at the glory of his Promises and crest-fall'n at the voice of his Command confessing themselves sinners yet not sensible of their sin proclaiming Heaven the onely blessed estate and yet never moving towards it bound to the Haven of rest and yet steering their course into the gulf of destruction calling Christ with one Prophet the desire of all nations and yet looking upon him with so small regard as if as another Prophet speaketh there were nothing to be seen in him that we should desire him begging Life most importunately and yet most passionately making love to Death made up of so many contradictions that it might pose a considering man and make him at one view resolve as the Cynick did when he beheld the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is the most generous plant in nature and at another view with the same Cynick when he saw the Sooth-sayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pronounce Man the most ridiculous creature in the mass Run I say to and fro through the world by the wonderful frame whereof we might learn to know God but we turn away our eye from Christ and learn to mock him by its vanities These are the last dayes and S. Peters prophesie is fulfilled It is become the language of the world an oeconomical language Tush God doth not see Atheisme and Profaneness will certainly bring this gray-headed World with sorrow to its grave For as Demodocus said of the Melesians that they were not fools but did the same things which fools use to do so may we of these profane mockers Atheists we will not call them but most plain it is they do the very same things for which we call men so And thus much of the first point That the Conversation of men for the most is but a mockery of God We see then that this disease doth eructare se ab animo in superficiem as Tertullian speaks exhale and breathe it self forth and is visible in the outward man And the behaviour of many profess what they will is but a mocking of God But further yet in the second place it may be in votis We may not onely live as if God did not see but we may wish from our hearts that he had no eye at all For we never make worse wishes then when we are the servants of Sin our Wishes commonly being proportioned to our Actions Lust brings forth the one and Fear the other If we sin we fear and if Fear be the mother and midwife of our Wish the Wish that it brings forth will prove a monster Take us in any state in any condition but this non satis patemus Deo we are never open enough to God Fling us into prison and we desire our sighs may come before him Lead us into captivity we cry out with the Prophet Behold Lord for we are in distress Lay us on our bed of sickness and we call upon him to look upon us and to come so near as to turn our bed Lay us in our grave and our hope is he will breathe upon our dust but when we sin and our conscience presents unto us the countenance of an angry God then we put him far from us we are willing he should depart from us who have departed from him we wish for some rock to hide us or some mountain to cover us from his sight then we could be content and it is even our wish that he had no eye at all We have an author who
time of age it was best for men to marry it was answered That for old men it was too late and for young men too soon This was but a merry reply But the truth is many of our civil businesses whensoever they are done are either done too soon or too late for they are seldome done without some inconvenience But this our Rising may peradventure be too late for old men but it can never be too timely for the young It is a lesson in Husbandry Serere nè metuas Be not afraid to sow your seed when the time comes delay it not And it is a good lesson in Divinity Vivere nè metuas Be not afraid to live You cannot be alive too soon Vult non vult He wills and he wills not is the character of a Sluggard which would rise and yet loves his grave would see the light and yet loveth darkness better then light like the twin Gen. 38. puts forth his hand and then draws it back again doth make a shew of lifting up himself and sinks back again into his sepulchre Awake then from this sleep early and stand up from the dead at the first sound of the trump at the first call of grace But if any have let pass the first opportunity let him bewail his great unhappiness that he hath stayed longer in this place of horrour in these borders of hell then he should and as travellers which set out late moram celeritate compensare recompense and redeem his negligence by making greater speed And now we should pass to our last consideration That the manifestation of this our Conversion and Rising consists in the seeking of those things which are above But the time is welnear spent and the present occasion calls upon me to shorten my Discourse For conclusion Let me but remember you that this our Rising must have its manifestation and as S. James calls upon us to shew our faith by our works so must we shew and manifest our Resurrection by our seeking those things which are above It is not enough with S. Paul to rise into the third heaven but we must rise and ascend with Christ above all heavens Nor can we conceal our Resurrection and steal out of our graves but as Christ arose and was seen 1 Cor. 15. as S. Paul speaks of above five hundred brethren at once and as S. Luke having told us of Christ The Lord is risen presently adds and hath appeared unto Simon so there must be after our Resurrection an Apparuit we must appear unto our brethren appear in our Charity forgiving them in our Patience forbearing in our Holiness of life instructing them in our Hatred of the world and our Love of those things which are above Indeed some mens rising is but an apparition a phantasme a shadow a visour and no more But this hinders not us when we are risen but we may make our appearance nor must the Pharisee fright away the Christian Quaedam videntur non sunt Many things appear to be that which indeed they are not But this action cannot be if it do not appear If there be no apparition there is no Resurrection It is natural to us when we rise to shâ—w our selves If we rise to honour Acts 25. you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great pomp If we rise in our Estates for that is the Worldlings Resurrection and not to rise thus with him is indeed to be dead you may see it in the next purchase If we rise and increase in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then scire meum nihil est we are even sick till we vent knowledge is nothing it the world cry us not up for men of knowledge And shall we be so ready to publish that which the world looks upon with an evil eye and conceal that from mens eyes which onely is worth the sight and by beholding of which even evil-doers may glorifie God in the day of visitation Shall Dives appear in his purple and Herod in his royal apparel and every scribler be in print and do we think that rising from sin is an action so low that it may be done in a corner that we may rise up and never go abroad to be seen in albis in our Easter-day-apparel in the white garment of Innocency and Newness of life never make any shew of the riches and glory of the Gospel have all our Goodness locked up in archivis in secret nothing set forth and publisht to the world What is this but to conceal nay to bury our Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with Christ let us be seen in our march accoutred with the whole armour of God Ephes 2. â—0 Let us be full of those good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them for by these we appear to be risen and they make us shine as stars in the firmament We may pretend perhaps that God is the searcher and seer of the heart Well he is so sed tamen luceat opera saith the Father yet let thy light shine forth make thy apparition For as God looketh down into thy heart so will thy good works ascend and come before him and he hath pleasure in them Lift up your hearts They are the words we use before the Administration and you answer We lift them up unto the Lord. Let it appear that you do And therefore as you lift up your hearts so lift up your hands also Lift up pure and clean hands such hands as may be known for the hands of men risen from the dead Let us now begin to be that which we hope to be spiritual bodies that the Body being subdued to the Spirit we may rise with Christ here to newness of life which is our first Resurrection and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second Resurrection to glory in that place of bliss where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God To which he bring us who is our Resurrection and Life even Jesus Christ the righteous who died for our sins and rose again for our justification To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for evermore The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PHILIPP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Or For I am greatly in doubt on both sides desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all WE may here behold our blessed Apostle S. Paul as it were between heaven and earth doubtfully contemplating the happiness which his Death and the profit which his Life may bring perplexed and labouring between both and yet concluding for neither side To be with Christ is best for him to remain on earth is best for the Philippians
this they did contradict themselves who brought in their Wiseman sensless of pain even on the rack and wheel When the Body is an unprofitable burden unserviceable to the Soul oportet educere animam laborantem we ought to do drive the Soul out of such an useless habitation Cum non sis quod esse velis non est quod ultrà sies When thou art what thou shouldst be there is no reason thou shouldst be any longer Quare mori voluerim quaeris En quia vivam Would you know the reason why I would dye The onely reason is because I do live These were the speeches of men strangers from the common-wealth of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those who were without without Christ and so without God in this world But the Christian keeps his station and moves not from it injussu Imperatoris but when the Lord of all the world commands who hath given us a Soul to beautifie and perfect with his graces but hath not given us that power over it when it is disquieted and vexed as he hath given to the Magistrate over us if we offend and break the peace of the common-wealth Qui seipsum occidit est homicida si est homo He that kills himself is a murderer and homicide if he be a man And he that thus desires death desires it not to that end for which it is desireable to be with Christ but to be out of the world which frowns upon him and handles him too roughly which he hath not learnt to withstand nor hath will to conquer This desire is like that of the damned that hills might cover them and mountains fall on them that they migâ—â— be no more No this desire of S. Paul is from the heaven heavenly drawn from that place where his conversation was wrought in him by the will of God and bowing in submission to his will a longing and panting after that rest and sabbath which remains after that crown which was laid up for him And this Desire filled the hearts of all those who with S. Paul loved God in sincerity and truth in whom the Soul being of a divine extraction and like unto God and cleaving and united to him had a kind of striving and inclination to the things above and was restless and unquiet till it came to rest in him who is the centre of all good Here they acted their parts in the world as on a stage contemned hated reviled it trod it under foot and longed for their exit to go out Vae mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est saith David Wo is me that I sojourn in it any longer So Elias who could call down fire from heaven give laws to the clouds and shut and open heaven when he would cryes out unto God It is enough Take away my life for I am not better then my fathers And this affection the Gospel it self instills into us in that solemn Prayer Thy kingdome come wherein we desire saith Tertullian maturius regnare non diutiùs servire to reign in heaven sooner and not to stay longer and serve and drudge upon the earth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death this whole state and generality of sins of Calamities and those evils which the world swarms with life brings along with it So Pharaoh speaking of the Locusts which were sent Intreat saith he the Lord your God to take away this death from me This desire that vvas in S. Paul in some degree possesseth the heart of every regenerate person and is nourished and fomented in them by the operarion of the blessed Spirit as a right spirit a spirit of Love vvorking in us the Love of God and as a spirit of Peace filling our hearts vvith Peace making our conscience a house of Peace as the Ark of God as the Temple of Solomon where no noise was heard We love Christ and would be there where his honour dwelleth our conscience is at rest and we have confidence in God Now first to love God is not a duty of so quick despatch as some imagin It is not enough to speak good of his name to call upon him in the time of trouble to make laws against those which take his name in vain to give him thanks for that he never did and will certainly punish to make our boast of him all the day long For do not even hypocrites and Pharisees the same But to love him is to do his will and keep his commandments John 17. By this we glorifie him I have glorified thee on earth saith Christ and the interpretation follows I have finished the work thou gavest me to do that is I have preached thy law declared thy will publisht both thy promises and precepts by the observation of which men may love thee and long after thee and be delivered from the fear of death Idem velle idem nolle ea demùm est firma amicitia then are we truly servants and friends to God when we have the same will when we have no will of own The sting of Death is sin and there is no way to take it out to spoil this King of terrour of his power but by subduing our Affections to our Reason the Flesh to the Spirit and surrendring up our wills unto God Then we dare look Death in the face and ask him Where is thy terrour Where is thy sting God loves them that love him nay he cannot but love them bearing his Image and being his workmanship in Christ And he that is thus loved and thus loves cannot but hasten and press forward and fly like the Doves as the Prophet speaketh to the windows of heaven It is a famous speech of Martin Luther Homo perfectè credens se esse haeredem Dei non diu superstes merueret A man that perfectly and upon sure grounds doth believe himself to be the child and heir of God would not long survive that assurance but would be swallowed up and dye of immoderate joy This is that transformation and change by which our very nature is altered Now Heaven is all and the World is Nothing All the rivers of pleasures vvhich this world can yield cannot quench this love What is Beauty to him that delights in the face of God what is Riches to him vvhose treasure is in heaven vvhat is Honour to him vvho is candidatus Angelorum vvhose ambition is to be like unto the Angels This true unfeigned Love ravisheth the soul and setteth it as it were in heavenly places This makes us living dying men nay dead before we depart not sensible of Pleasures which flatter us of Injuries vvhich are thrown upon us of Miseries vvhich pinch us having no eye no ear no sense no heart for the world vvilling to loose that being which vve have in this shop of vanities and to be loosed that vve may be with Christ Secondly this Love of God and this Obedience to his will
mind whence 554. Men love to hide their sins and to make shew of their good deeds 167 168. Man is never free but while he is obedient to Law 1100 c. v. Liberty How Man is Lord of all his actions 257. Man ever laid open to tentations how and why 280. Few Men fully perswaded of their mortality 250 251. Manichees 8. 165. 171. 412. 705. 752. Many v. Multitude Marcion 8 9. 21. 23. 246. 390. 412. 808. Marie the Mother of our Lord a blessed person 985. Some will not call her Saint 986. Others make her more 986. Mark xiv 36. expounded 25. Marriage v. Husband Perfection may be had as well in a Married as in a single life 1090. The inconveniencies of Marriage nothing so dangerous as Sin 1090. Martyrdome An excellent encomium of it 754. How to be armed for Martyrdome 192. A good life and a good cause go to the making of a Martyr 705. Their gallant and triumphant carriage in their sufferings 26. 568 569. Fear of hell made them so couragious 391. v. Sufferings Every Christian is designed to Martyrdome 573. There may be a Martyrdome before Martyrdome 82. The Devil and Errour have their Martyrs as well as God and the Truth 704 705. 912. Some slain for throwing down Images not allowed the title of Martyrs 215. Massalians 705. Mass-book Some condemn some truths because they are in the Mass-book 671. Masters of families Their Duty 545. Mathematicks No such certainty to be looked for in Ethicks as in M. 1015. Matth. v. 22 28 32 34 39 44. 1079. ¶ 48. 1087. how eluded 690. ¶ vi 25 34. 222. ¶ vii 12. 127. ¶ viii 26. 314. ¶ x. 16. 130. ¶ xi 30. 481. ¶ xxii 30. 939. ¶ xxiv Christ's Sermon in this chapter concerning the signes of his second coming nearly concerneth us 1042 1043. Matrimonie and Virginity weighed together 1090. Meaning A good Meaning or intention a poor excuse for sin 443. 447 448. Means v. End Many gaze and dote on the Means and regard not the end 988 989. Means if not made good use of turne to our great disadvantage 424. 555. Measures v. Weights Meats now under the Gospel may be indifferently used or not used 1098. Mecenas 383. Mechanick A witless etymon of the word 522. Meddling with other mens matters reproved 212. 640 641. It is against not onely the laws of Christianity 213. but also the method of Nature 214 216. Meddling busy-bodies are enemies to others and themselves also 215. They are ridiculous and prodigious 216. Idleness is the root of this vice 218. Meditation on good things how advantageous 206. 691. It is to be seconded by Practice 207. Meditation what 597. 1107. Memorie Of the Memorie 828. What a gratious efficacie the Memorie of God's Mercy hath upon the soul 828 829. Our Memories are apt to forget God's mercies and have need of reviving 589. 596. ¶ What care vvas taken to preserve the Memorie of the Saints 1019. Mercy praised 138. 147. It is an inseparable companion of Justice 138 139. We are as much bound to do acts of Mercy as not to do an injurie 139. 142 143. Nothing more sutable to the Nature of Man then Mercy 140. Mercy maketh Man like unto God 279. What influence God's Mercy and ours have one upon another 815. v. Forgiveness Mercy maketh a sympathie and harmonie in the Church 141. Why worldly men like it not 142. It is often rewarded in this life but in the next infallibly 143. The M. of the primitive Christians how far beyond ours 144 145. Less danger to exceed herein then to fall short 145. Distinctions coyned to elude Texts that enjoyn Mercy 146. Compassion the spring of Mercy 147. 149. v. Almes To love Mercy what 150. Mercie is natural 150. constant 151. sincere 152. delightful 153. Objects of Mercy appear every where 154. Motives to Mercy 153. Our Mercy to others is the rent God respecteth for his M. to us 154. God's Mercy and his Justice reconciled by Christ's Death and our Repentance 347. Why the antient Fathers were so profuse yet sparing tenderers of God's Mercy 349 350. The Mercy of God fearfully abused by some 276. Make not Mercy an occasion of sin 352 353. Mercy and Judgment should compose our song 353. Judgement followeth Mercy at the heels 360. v. GOD. The use we should make of God's Mercies 579. 590. 1072. Sins after Mercy the greater 612 613. Mercy is of most efficacie to humble our hearts 643. Merits The doctrine of Merits overthrown 812 813. 1126. All we can do or suffer is far short of meriting heaven 233. 993. 1126. Messias Christ is not such a Messias as the Jews looked for and as some worldly-minded Christians frame to themselves 33. A glorious Messiah was exspected by the Jews 553 554. 559. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. Metaphors fruitfull of controversie 46. Their use 229. Metellus Numidicus 668. Method and Order how necessarie to be followed 885. as necessarie in Christ's School as in humane Arts and Sciences 68. 947. Want of Method what mischief it worketh in the world 892. c. 945 946. Meum and Tuum quarrelsome vvords 840. Milk by some not allowed to be eaten 752. Mind v. Man The Mind is the Man and the action too 622 623. It cannot intend several things at once 509. Whether it be not necessarie that the Mind should still fluctuate and be lost in uncertainties 678. The Mind is apt to be dazled with some lesser good vvhen it should be intent upon far greater 988 989. Ministers must not flatter 511 512. v. Flattery Miracles v. Conversion The end and use of Miracles 572 c. 957 c. 968 969. 978. 988. In respect of the Agent properly there is no Miracle 969. Why M. are now ceased 970. Of Popish Miracles 970. He that will not believe the Word vvould not believe a Miracle 734. 970. What Christ did in person he doth still spiritually by his Church 970. Christ's Miracles preferred before Moses's 978. Christ's M. were supernaturall publick quick perfect 979. Miracles should fill us with admiration 979. Miracles may be scoffed at by profane men 956 c. Miserie to be chosen rather then Iniquity 127. Mockery Most mens conversation is but a Mockery of God 919 c. 958. How vvicked men are said to mock God vvho in very deed cannot be mocked 923 c. God will return the Mock upon them that mock him 925. v. Scoff Moderation to be observed 56. Moderation in the pursuit of Knowledge commended 248. Modestie in apparel to be used 1101. Monitours vve should be to one another 576. Monks and Friars censured 220. v. Perfection Solitarie Montanus 65. 752. Morality scorned and derided by speculative hypocrites 83. Morall Laws v. Ceremonie Morall virtues are not natural 199. but must be studied and laboured for 205. Of the Morall virtues of the Heathen 663. v. Heathen Morose v. Christianity Mortality Of our Mortality 538. How little believed