acceptable musick to them that hear them They shall be so first In re in their matter in the doctrine which they preach In Re. The same trumpets that sound the alarm that is that awakens us from our security and that sounds the Battail that is that puts us into a colluctation with our selves with this world with powers and principalities yea into a wrastling with God himself and his Justice the same trumpet sounds the Parle too calls us to hearken to God in his word and to speak to God in our prayers and so to come to treaties and capitulations for peace and the same trumpet sounds a retreat too that is a safe reposing of our souls in the merit and in the wounds of our Saviour Christ Jesus And in this voice they are musicum carmen a love-song as the text speaks in proposing the love of God to man wherein he loved him so as that he gave his onely begotten Son for him God made this whole world in such an uniformity such a correspondency such a concinnity of parts as that it was an Instrument perfectly in tune we may say the trebles the highest strings were disordered first the best understandings Angels and Men put this instrument out of tune God rectified all again by putting in a new string semen mulieris the seed of the woman the Messias And onely by sounding that string in your ears become we musicum carmen true musick true harmony true peace to you If we shall say that Gods first string in this instrument was Reprobation that Gods first intention was for his glory to damn man and that then he put in another string of creating Man that so he might have some body to damn and then another of enforcing him to sin that so he might have a just cause to damne him and then another of disabling him to lay hold upon any means of recovery there 's no musick in all this no harmony no peace in such preaching But if we take this instrument when Gods hand tun'd it the second time in the promise of a Messias and offer of the love mercy of God to all that will receive it in him then we are truely musicum carmen as a love-song when we present the love of God to you and raise you to the love of God in Christ Jesus for for the musick of the Sphears whatsoever it be we cannot hear it for the decrees of God in heaven we cannot say we have seen them our musick is onely that salvation which is declared in the Gospel to all them and to them onely who take God by the right hand as he delivers himself in Christ So they shall be musick in re in their matter in their doctrine and they shall be also in modo In modo in their manner of presenting that doctrine Religion is a serious thing but not a sullen Religious preaching is a grave exercise but not a sordid not a barbarous not a negligent There are not so eloquent books in the world as the Scriptures Accept those names of Tropes and Figures which the Grammarians and Rhetoricians put upon us and we may be bold to say that in all their Authors Greek and Latin we cannot finde so high and so lively examples of those Tropes and those Figures as we may in the Scriptures whatsoever hath justly delighted any man in any mans writings is exceeded in the Scriptures The style of the Scriptures is a diligent and an artificial style and a great part thereof in a musical in a metrical in a measured composition in verse The greatest mystery of our Religion indeed the whole body of our Religion the coming and the Kingdome of a Messias of a Saviour of Christ is conveyed in a Song in the third chapt of Habakkuk and therefore the Jews say that that Song cannot yet be understood because they say the Messiah is not yet come His greatest work when he was come which was his union and marriage with the Church and with our souls he hath also delivered in a piece of a curious frame Solomons Song of Songs And so likewise long before when God had given all the Law he provided as himself sayes a safer way which was to give them a heavenly Song of his owne making for that Song he sayes there he was sure they would remember Deut. 31. So the Holy Ghost hath spoken in those Instruments whom he chose for the penning of the Scriptures and so he would in those whom he sends for the preaching thereof he would put in them a care of delivering God messages with consideration with meditation with preparation and not barbarously not suddenly not occasionally not extemporarily which might derogate from the dignity of so great a service That Ambassadour should open himself to a shrewd danger and surprisall that should defer the thinking upon his Oration till the Prince to whom he was sent were reading his letters of Credit And it is a late time of meditation for a Sermon when the Psalm is singing Loquere Domine sayes the Prophet speak O Lord But it was when he was able to say Ecce paratus Behold I am prepared for thee to speak in me If God shall be believed to speak in us in our ordinary Ministry it must be when we have so as we can fitted our selves for his presence To end this then are we Musicum carmen in modo musick to the soul in the manner of our preaching when in delivering points of Divinity we content our selves with that language and that phrase of speech which the Holy Ghost hath expressed himself in in the Scriptures for to delight in the new and bold termes of Hereticks furthers the Doctrine of Hereticks too And then also are we Musicum carmen when according to the example of men inspired by the Holy Ghost in writing the Scriptures we deliver the messages of God with such diligence and such preparation as appertains to the dignity of that employment Now these two to be Musick both these wayes Vox suavis in matter and in manner concur and meet in the next which is to have a pleasant voyce Thou art a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce First A Voyce they must have they must be heard if they silence themselves by their ignorance or by their laziness if they occasion themselves to be silenced by their contempt and contumacy both wayes they are inexcusable for a voyce is essentiall to them that denominates them John Baptist hath other great names even the name of Baptist is a great name when we consider whom he baptized him who baptized the Baptist himself and all us in his own blood So is his name of Preacher the fore-runner of Christ for in that name he came before him who was before the world so is his Propheta that he was a Prophet and then more then a Prophet and then the greatest among the sons of women these were great
kindled Num. 11.15 there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex and speaks to God in the original language as if he should have call'd him Deam Iratam an angry she God all that is good then either in the love of man or woman is in this love for he is expressed in both sexes man and woman and all that can be ill in the love of either sex is purged away for the man is no other man then Christ Jesus and the woman no other woman then wisdom her self even the uncreated wisdom of God himself Now all this is but one person the person that professes love who is the other who is the beloved of Christ is not so easily discern'd in the love between persons in this world and of this world we are often deceived with outward signs we often mis-call and mis-judg civil respects and mutual courtesies and a delight in one anothers conversation and such other indifferent things as only malignity and curiosity and self-guiltiness makes to be misinterpretable we often call these love but neither amongst our selves much less between Christ and our selves are these outward appearances alwaies signs of love This person then this beloved soul is not every one to whom Christ sends a loving message or writs too for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so for so he doth to all As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a Sinner not every one that he sends jewels and presents to for they are often snares to corrupt as well as arguments of love not though he admit them to his table and supper for even there the Devil entred into Judas with a sop not though he receive them to a kiss for even with that familarity Judas betrayed him not though he betroth himself as he did to the Jews Osc 2.14 sponsabo te mihi in aeternum not though he make jointures in pacto salis in a covenant of salt an everlasting covenant not though he have communicated his name to them which is an act of marriage for to how many hath he said ego dixit Dii estis I have said you are Gods and yet they have been reprobates not all these outward things amount so far as to make us discern who is this beloved person for himself saies of the Israelites to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love yet after for their abominations devorc'd himself from them I have forsaken mine house Jer. 12.7 I have left mine own heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies To conclude this person beloved of Christ is only that soul that loves Christ but that belongs to the third branch of this first part which is the mutual love The Affection but first having found the person we are to consider the affection it self the love of this text it is an observation of Origens that though these three words Amor Dilectio and Charitas love and affection and good will be all of one signification in the sctiptures yet saies he wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love the scripture forbears the word love and uses either affection or good will and where there is no such danger the scripture comes directly to this word love of which Origens examples are that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca and Jacob upon Rachel in both places it is dilexit and not amavit Cant 5.8 and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my well-beloved it is not to tel him that she was in love but to tell him quod vulneratae charitatis sum that I am wounded with an affection good will towards him but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul there is evermore a free use of this word Amor love because it is even in the first apprehension a pure a chast and an undefiled love Eloquia Dominis casta sayes David All the words of the Lord and all their words that love the Lord all discourses all that is spoken to or from the soul is all full of chast love and of the love of chastity Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition yet if we content our selves with the definition of the Schools Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est love is nothing but a desire that they whom we love should be happy we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text when he that wishes us this good by loving us is author of all good himself and may give us as much as pleases him without impairing his own infinite treasure He loves us as his ancient inheritance as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world which he created for us He loves us more as his purchase whom he hath bought with his blood for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting But he loves us most for our improvement when by his ploughing up of our hearts and the dew of his grace and the seed of his word we come to give greaâ—â—r cent in the fruit of sanctification than before And since he loves â—s thus and that in him this love is velle bonum a desire that his beloved should be happy what soul amongst us shall doubt that when God hath such an abundant and infinite treasure as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus sufficient to save millions of worlds and yet many millions in this world all the heathen excluded from any interest therein when God hath a kingdome so large as that nothing limits it and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof even those legions of Angels which were created in it and are fallen from it what soul amongst us shall doubt but that he that hath thus much and loves thus much will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdome of heaven No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to it self and be so still that it love not Christ Jesus for that 's a condition necessary And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order that this love be mutuall I love them c. If any man loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Mutual saies the Apostle Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love he that loves not at all is first accursed That stupid inconsideration which passes on drowsilie and negligently upon Gods creatures that sullen indifferency in ones disposition to love one thing no more than another not to value not to chuse not to prefer that stoniness that in humanity not to be
but die and we must die And Edamus bibamus cras moriemur Let us eat and drink and take our pleasure and make our profits for to morrow we shall die and so were cut off by the hand of God some even in their robberies in half-empty houses and in their drunkenness in voluptuous and riotous houses and in their lusts and wantonness in licentious houses and so took in infection and death like Judas's sop death dipt and soaked in sin Men whose lust carried them into the jaws of infection in lewd houses and seeking one sore perished with another men whose rapine and covetousness broke into houses and seeking the Wardrobes of others found their own winding-sheet in the infection of that house where they stole their own death men who sought no other way to divert sadness but strong drink in riotous houses and there drank up Davids cup of Malediction the cup of Condemned men of death in the infection of that place For these men that died in their sins that sinned in their dying that sought and hunted after death so sinfully we have little comfort of such men in the phrase of this Text They were dead for they are dead still As Moses said of the Egyptians I am afraid we may say of these men We shall see them no more for ever But God will give us the comfort of this phrase in the next House Domus nostra This next House is Domus nostra our Dwelling-House our Habitation our Family and there They were dead they were but by Gods goodness they are not If this savor of death have been the savor of life unto us if this heavy weight of Gods hand upon us have awakened us to a narrower survey and a better discharge of our duties towards all the parts of our Families we may say to our comforts and his glory There was a son dead in disobedience and murmuring there was a daughter dead in a dangerous easiness of conversation there was a servant dead in the practice of deceit and falsifying there was but the Lord hath breath'd a new life into us the Lord hath made even his tempest a refreshing and putrefaction a perfume unto us The same measure of wind that blows out a candle kindles a fire this correction that hath hardned some hath entendred and mollified us and howsoever there were dead sons and dead daughters and dead servants this holy sense of Gods Judgements shall not only preserve for the future that we shall admit no more such dead limbs into our Family but even give to them who were in these kindes formerly dead a new life a blessed resurrection from all their sinful habits by the power of his grace though reached to them with a bloody hand and in a bitter cup in this heavy calamity and as Christ said of himself they shall say in him I was dead but am alive and by that grace of God I am that I am The same comfort also shall we have in this phrase of the Text in our third House the third House is not Domus nostra Domus nos but Domus nos not the House we inhabit but the House we carry not that House which is our House but that House which is our selves There also They were dead they were but are not For beloved we told you before in our former survey of these several Houses That our first-born for still ye remember they were the first-born of Egypt that induce all this application Our first-born in this House in our selves is our Zeal not meerly and generally our Religion but our zeal to our Religion For Religion in general is natural to us the natural man hath naturally some sense of God and some inclination to worship that Power whom he conceives to be God and this Worship is Religion But then the first thing that this general pious affection produces in us is Zeal which is an exaltation of Religion Primus actus voluntatis est Amor Philosophers and Divines agree in that That the will of man cannot be idle and the first act that the will of man produces is Love for till it love something prefer and chuse something till it would have something it is not a Will neither can it turn upon any object before God So that this first and general and natural love of God is not begotten in my soul nor produced by my soul but created and infus'd with my soul and as my soul there is no soul that knows she is a soul without such a general sense of the love of God But to love God above all to love him with all my faculties this exaltation of this religious love of God is the first-born of Religion and this is Zeal Religion which is the Worship of that Power which I call God does but make me a man the natural man hath that Religion but that which makes me a Father and gives me an off-spring a first-born that 's Zeal By Religion I am an Adam but by Zeal I am an Abel produced out of that Adam Now if we consider times not long since past there was scarce one house scarce one of us in whom this first-born this Zeal was not dead Discretion is the ballast of our Ship that carries us steady but Zeal is the very Fraight the Cargason the Merchandise it self which enriches us in the land of the living and this was our case we were all come to esteem our Ballast more then our Fraight our Discretion more then our Zeal we had more care to please great men then God more consideration of an imaginary change of times then of unchangeable eternity it self And as in storms it falls out often that men cast their Wares and their Fraights over-board but never their Ballast so as soon as we thought we saw a storm in point of Religion we cast off our Zeal our Fraight and stuck to our Ballast our Discretion and thought it sufficient to sail on smoothly and steadily and calmly and discreetly in the world and with the time though not so directly to the right Haven So our first-born in this House in our selves our Zeal was dead It was there 's the comfortable word of our Text. But now now that God hath taken his fan into his hand and sifted his Church now that God hath put us into a straight and crooked Limbeck passed us through narrow and difficult trials and set us upon a hot fire and drawn us to a more precious substance and nature then before now that God hath given our Zeal a new concoction a new refining a new inanimation by this fire of tribulation let us embrace and nurse up this new resurrection of this Zeal which his own Spirit hath begot and produced in us and return to God with a whole and entire soul without dividing or scattering our affections upon other objects and in the sincerity of the true Religion without inclinations in our selves to induce and without inclinableness