therefore have need of this kind of remedy as much need certainly as our first Parents had in Paradise who before they took the forbidden fruit might have seen Death written and engraved on the Tree and had they observ'd it as they ought to have done had not forfeited the Garden for one Apple had this Feare walked along with them before the coole of the Day before the rushing wind they had not heard it nor hid themselves from God in a word had they Feared they had not fell for they fell with this Thought that they should not fall that they should not die at all Imperfection though it be to Feare yet 't is such an Imperfection that leads to perfection Imperfection though it be to Feare yet I am sure it is a greater Imperfection to sin and not to feare It might be wished perhapps that we were tyed and knit unto our God quibusdam internis commerciis as the devout School-man speaks with those inward ligaments of Love and Joy and Admiration that we had a kind of familiar acquaintance and intercourse with him That as our Almes and Prayers and fasting came up before him to shew him what we do on earth so there were no imper fection in us but that God might approach so nigh unto us with the fulness of Joy to tell us what he is preparing for us that neither the Feare of Hell nor the Hope of Heaven and our Salvation but the Love of God and Goodnesse were the only cause of our cleaving to him That we might love God because he is God and hate sinne because it is sinne and for no other reason that we might with Saint Paul wish the increase of Gods Glory though with that heavy condition of our own Reprobation But this is such an Heroick spirit to which every man cannot rise though he may at last rise as high as Heaven this is such a condition which we can hardly hope for whilst we are in the flesh we are in the body not out of the body we struggle with doubts and difficulties Ignorance and Infirmity are our Companions in our way and in this our state of Imperfection contenti simus hoc Catone Dictum Augusti cum hortaretur ferenda esse praesentia qualiacunque sunt Suet. Octav. August c. 87. we must be content to use such means and Helpes as the Law-giver himself will allow of and not cast off fear upon a Fancy that our Love is perfect for this savours more of an Imaginary Metaphysicall subtility of a kind of extaticall affectation of Piety then the plaine and solid knowledge of Christian Religion but continue our Obedience and carry on our perseverance with the Remembrance of our last end with this consideration That as under the Law there was a curse pronounced to them that fulfill it not so under the Gospel there is a flaming fire to take vengeance of them that obey it not 2. Thess 1.8 It was a good censure of Tully which he gave of Cato in one of his Epistles Thou canst not saith he to his friend love and Honor Cato more then I doe but yet this I observe in him optimo animo utens summâ fide nocet interdum Reip. he doth endammage the Common-wealth but with an Honest mind and great Fidelity l. 2. ad Attic. ep 1. for he gives sentence as if he lived in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Platonis non in faece Romuli in Plato's Common-wealth and not in the dreggs and Rascaltry of Romulus And we may passe the same censure on these seraphical Perfectionists who will have all done out of pure Love nothing out of Feare They remember not that they are in fraece Adami the off-spring of an Arch-Rebell that their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite and that the want of this Feare threw them from that state of Integrity in which they were created and by that out of Paradise and so with great ostentation of love hinder the Progresse of Piety and setting up to themselves an Idaea of Perfection take off our Feare which should be as the hand to wind up the Plummet which should continue the motion of our Obedience the best we can say of them is summâ fide pio animo nocent Ecclesiae If their mind be pious and answer the great shew they make then with a Pious mind they wrong and trouble the Church of Christ For suppose I were a Paul and did love Christ as Cato did Virtue because I could no otherwise Nunquam recte fecit ut faces videretur sed quià aliter facere non poterat Vell. ratere l. 2. Hist suppose I did feare sinne more then Hell and had rather be damned then commit it suppose that every thought word and worke were Amoris foetus the issues of my Love yet I must not upon a speciall favour build a general Doctrine and because love is best make Feare unlawfull make it sinne to feare that punishment the Feare of which might keep me from sinne for this were in Saint Pauls phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put a stumbling-block in our Brothers way with my love to overthrow his feare that so at last both Feare and Love may fall to the ground for is there any that will fear sinne for punishment if it be a sinne to Feare What 's the language of the world now we heare of nothing but filiall feare and it were a good hearing if they would understand themselves for this doth not exclude the other but is upheld by it we are as sure of happinesse as we are of Death but are more perswaded of the Truth of the one then of the other more sure to goe to heaven then to die and yet Death is the gate which must let us in we are already partakers of an Angelicall Estate we prolong our life in our own Thoughts to a kind of Eternity and yet can feare nothing we challenge a kind of familiarity with God and yet are willing to stay yet a while longer from him we sport with his Thunder and play with his Hayl-stones and Coales of fire we entertain him as the Roman Gentleman did the Emperor Augustus Macrobius in Saturnal coenâ parcâ quasi quotidianâ with course and Ordinary fare as Saul in the 15. of the first of Sam. with the vile and refuse not with the fatlings and best of the sheep and Oxen Did we dread his Majesty or think he were Jupiter vindex a God of Revenge with a Thunder-bolt in his hand we should not be thus bold with him but feare that in wrath and Indignation he should reply as Augustus did Non putaram me tibi fuisse tam familiarem I did not think I had made my self so familiar with my Creature I know the Schools distinguish between a servile and Initial and a Filial feare there is a Feare by which we feare not the fault but the punishment and a feare which feareth the punishment
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 defective in humanity All Christians are the parts of the Church and all must sustaine one another and this is the just and full Interpretation of that of our Saviour Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and then thou wilt pity him as thy self Tolle invidiam tuum est quod habet Take away envy and all that he hath is thine and take away hardnesse of heart and all that thou hast is his Take away malice and all his virtues are thine and take away pride and thy Glories are his Art thou a part of the Church thou hast a part in every port and every part hath a portion in thee We are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compacted together by that which every joynt supplies Eph. 4.16 a similitude and resemblance taken from the curtaines in the Temple saith learned Grotius Exod. 26. whereof every one hath its measure but yet they are all coupled together one to another v. 3. and by their loops which lay hold one of another v. 5. and like those curtains not to be drawn but together not to rejoyce not to weep not to suffer but together The word Church is but as a second notion and it is made a terme of art and every man almost saith Luther abuseth it draws it forth after his own image takes it commonly in that sense which may favour him so far as to leave in him a perswasion that he is a true part of it and thus many enter the Church and are shut out of heaven We are told of a visible Church and the Church in some sense is visible but that the greatest part of this Church hath wanted bowells that some parts of it have been without sense or feeling besmered and defiled with the blood of their brethren is as visible as the Church We have heard of an infallible Church we have heard it and believe it not for how can she be infallible who is so ready to design all those to death and hell who deny it If it be a Church it is a Church with hornes to push at the nations or an army with banners and swords we have long talked of a Reformed Church and we make it our crown and rejoycing but it would concern us to look about us and take heed That we do not reforme so as to purge out all compassion also for cercainly to put off all bowells is not as some zelots have easily perswaded themselves to put on the new man Talk not of a visible Infallible or a Reformed Church God send us a Compassionate Church a title which will more fit and become her then those names which do not beautifie and adorne but accuse and condemn her when she hath no heart What visible Church is that which is seen in blood what infallible Church is that whose very bowels are cruell what reformed Church is that which hath purged out all compassion visible and yet not seen infallible and deceived reformed and yet in its filth Monstrum Horrendum Informe This is a mishapen monster not a Church The True Church is made up of bowells every part of it is tender and relenting not onely when it self is touch'd but when the others are moved as you see in a well-set instrument if you touch but one string the others will tremble and shake And this sence this fellow-feeling is the fountain from whence this silver streame of Mercy flows the spring and first mover of those outward acts which are seen in that bread of ours which floats upon the waters in the face and on the backs of the poore for not then when we see our brethren in affliction when we look upon them and passe by them but when we see them and have compassion on them we shall bind up their wounds and poure in wine and oyle and take care for them For till the heart be melted there will nothing flow We see almes given every day and we call them acts of piety but whether the hand of Mercy reach them forth or no we know not our motions all of them are not from a right spring vain glory may be liberall Intemperance may be liberall Pride may be a benefactor Ambition must not be a Niggard Covetousnesse it self sometimes yeelds and drops a penny and importunity is a wind which will set that wheel a going which had otherwise stood still We may read large catalogues of munificent men but many names which we read there may be but the names of men and not of the Mercifull compassion is the inward and true principle begetting in us the love of Mercy which compleats and perfects and crownes every act gives it its true forme and denomination gives a sweet smell and fragrant savour to Maryes oyntment for she that poured it forth loved much Luk. 7.47 I may say compassion is the love of the Mercy plus est diligere quà m facere saith Hilary It is a great deal more to love a good work then to do it to love virtue then to bring it into act to love mercy then to shew it it doth supply many times the place of the outward act but without it the act is nothing or something worse It hath a priviledge to bring that upon account which was never done to be entitled to that which we do not which we cannot do to make the weak man strong and the poore man liberall and the ignorant man a counsellor For he that loves mercy would and therefore doth more then he can do as David may be said to build the Temple though he laid not a stone of it for God tells him he did well That he had it in his heart and thus our love may build a Temple though we fall and dye before a stone be laid Now this love of mercy is not so soon wrought in the heart as we may imagine as every glimmering of light doth not make it day It is a work of labour and travell and of curious observance and watchfulnesse over our selves It will cost us many a combate and luctation with the world and the flesh many a falling out with our selves many a love must be digged up by the roots before we can plant this in our hearts for it will not grow up with luxury and wantonnesse with pride or self-love you never see these together in the same soyle The Apostle tells us we must put it on and ◠the garments which adorn the soul are not so soon put on as those which clothe the body we do not put on mercy as we do our mantle for when we do every puffe of wind every distaste blows it away but mercy must be so put on that it may even cleave to the soul and be a part of it
the truth as it was first delivered and are upon that account to be received as faithfull sayings of all men other are more forced and therefore Rejectaneous and unprofitable as begetting more heat then love and raising more noise then devotion besides these there be conclusions in point of discipline and Church-Policie in the defence of which we see much dust raised by men of divided minds and apprehensions and many times both parties well-neer smothered in the buzzle For though discipline government be necessary yet the best forme that was ever drawn cannot be absolutely necessary because it cannot alwaies find place vvherein to shew it self and the holy Spirit of God never laid an absolute necessity but on those things which as the Stoicks speak are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are within our reach and power or which we may do or have when we will it is necessary to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ but it is not necessary to be under this or that discipline though the best further then in affection and desire for in the midst of the changes and chances of this world we cannot be what we would nor be governed as we please We see well enough for it is as visible as any thing under the sunne that the sword which hath no edge or point against the essentiall parts of Religion with which we may be certainly happy and without which it is most certain we cannot as it makes its way dictates and appoints what it please with a non obstante notwithstanding all contrary constitutions though never so ancient and discipline is either quite cut off or else drawn out with the same hand which did form and shape the Common-wealth We have seen what a flow of troubles and dispute in matters of this nature hath passed on and carried away with it our Peace and Religion it self and then left it as it were upon the sands to shift for it self in the breasts of some fevv vvho by divine assistance are able to raise and cherish it up to some grovvth in themselves vvithout these helps and advantages and to give it a place and povver in them even in the foulest vveather being forced to be their ovvn bishops and priests vvhen the hand of violence hath buried those their Seers either in silence or in the grave We have seen Religion made an art and craft and that vvhich vvas first set up to uphold and promote it strook at and trod upon as the onely vvorme vvhich did eat it out we have seen the axe laid to the very root of it by those sonnes of thunder and noise vvhich is heard in every coast vvhich these clouds hang over we cannot but observe vvhat art diligence hath been used vvhat fire and brimstone hath been breathed forth to cast it dovvn we needed no perspective to look through the disguise under vvhich they vvalk or to behold vvith vvhat slight and artifice they vvrought themselves into the hearts of the people vvho are never better pleased then vvhen they are led as beasts to the slaughter and do flatter and pride themselves most vvhen they are under the yoke We see it hath been the work of an age to shatter and then blow away that form of Pollicie in the Church which shewed it self to the Profit and admiration of the best in so many and was the fairest bulwark the Church had to secure her from the Incursions of Schisme Heresy and Prophanenesse of which if we had no other argument the frenzie of this present age the wild Confusion and medley of the Sects and Factions which we see may be an unquestionable evidence And now we have seen it laid levell with the ground All this we have seen but yet we do not see that discipline which did emulate and heave at it and was placed in equipage with the Gospel of Christ we do not see that which was so much extolled as yet set up in its roome Nay we scarce see any thing left but the Idea of it which they still carry with them with expectation and great hopes vvhich prophesy to them the building up of this second Temple of this new form which might it obtain would they say be far more glorious then the first All this art and endeavour hath been used to make them great and supreme on earth the one half of which might have wrought out a Crown for them in a better place For that may be had if we will and if we be faithfull to the death it will fall upon our heads But in what ground our lines will fall or how they will be drawn out is a thing so far out of our reach and power that no humane providence can design and mark it out Day unto day teacheth us and the experience of all ages hath made it good that they who like not what is but onely what they would have and propose it to themselves and others do many times open and pave a faire way to it and walk forward towards it as full of hope as desire and yet when they are come so neer as even to touch and lay hold of it may see it removed as far from them as before and their hopes in their blossome and glory to fall off may live to see themseves in umbrage under a more mild and friendly toleration and behold that past by and sunk lower which they so longed to see in that height which might amaze and awe all about them and bring them in that harvest which was already gathered in their expectation I should be unwilling to stir the blood or draw upon me the displeasure of any who have cast in their lot with those who have been earnest in such a design and I have no other end but this to shew the vanity and deceitfulnesse of such attempts and how dangerous and vexatious a thing it is to drive so furiously after that which hath come towards us so often and then turned the back which we overtake and lose at once For it is so in the world and will be so even till the end of it that which is mutable in its own nature may and will be changed nor is there any thing certain but Piety and blisse the vvay and the end And therefore those things which are not so essentiall to Religion as that she cannot stand without them and are essentiall onely when they may be had being exemplified and conveyed to us by the best hands must not take up all that labour which we owe to the heat of the day and those duties of Christianity which are the summe of all and for which the others were ordained When they may be had we must blesse God and use them to that end for which they were given and when a stronger then we comes upon us and removes them look after them with a longing eye and bleeding heart follow them with our sorrow and devotion use all lawfull and
attributes he hath he is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace of Love of Joy of Zeale for where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coale from the Altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge he makes no shadowes but substances no pictures but realities no appearances but truths a Grace that makes us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith full and unspeakable Love ready to spend it self and zeal to consume us of a true existence being from the spirit of God who alone truly is but here the spirit of Truth yet the same spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begets our Faith cilates our Love works our Joy kindles our Zeal and adopts us in Regiam familiam into the Royall Family of the first-born in Heaven but now the spirit of Truth was more proper for to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and sometimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but Omnis veritas all truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and have the vayle taken from it and be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this spirit of Truth as he thus presents and tenders himself unto us as he stands in opposition to two great enemies to Truth as 1. Dissimulation 2. Flattery and then as he is true in the lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he comes And first dissemble he doth not he cannot for dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us it brings in the Divel in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend it speakes the language of the Priest at Delphos playes in ambiguities promises life As to King 〈◊〉 who a 〈…〉 slew when death is neerest and bids us beware of a chariot when it means a sword No this spirit is an enemy to this because a spirit of truth and hates these in volucra dissimulationis this folding and involvednesse these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others and they by whom he speaks are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftinesse not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully 2 Cor. 4.2 Eph. 4.14 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the slight of men throwing a Die what cast you would have them noting their Doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of Heaven Wisdom 1.5 when their thoughts are in their purse This holy spirit of Truth flies all such deceit and removes himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words there is nothing of the Divels method nothing of the Die or hand no windings nor turnings in what he teacheth but verus vera dicit being a spirit of truth he speaks the truth and nothing but he truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot the inseparable mark and character of the evill spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smiles upon us that he may rage against us lifts us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foiles whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds for flattery is as a glasse for a fool to look upon and so become more fool than before it is the fools eccho by which he hears himself at the rebound and thinks the wiseman spoke unto him and it proceeds from the father of lies not from the spirit of truth who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever who reproves drunkennesse though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter and layes our sins in order before us his precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement he calls Adam from behind the bush strikes Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit deprives him of his own Thy excuse to him is a libell thy pretence fouler than thy sin thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godlinesse open impiety and where he enters the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removes it self heaves and pants to go out knocks at our breast and runs down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becomes our torment In a word he is a spirit of truth and neither dissembles to decieve us nor flatters that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being truth it self tells us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by-paths of errour and misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appears is visible in those lessons and precepts which he gives which are so harmonious so consonant so agreeing with themselves and so consonant and agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repaire it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion measure like unto him that made it for this spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Feare in confidence nor shake our confidence when he bids us feare doth not set up meeknesse to abate our zeale nor kindles zeale to consume our meeknesse doth not teach Christian liberty to shake off obedience to Government nor prescribes obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian liberty This spirit is a spirit of truth and never different from himself never contradicts himself but is equall in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and that which thou runnâ—st from in that which will rayse thy spirit and that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who
their name calls them by one quite contrary Immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae aversarios Nazianz. or 14. the Enemies of Gods mercy and goodnesse and Nazianzen tells them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. and uncleannesse which had nothing but the name of Purity 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 shewes and pretenses as they say Camelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzen observe this severe Doctrine of these proud and covetous men did drive the offending Brethren into despair and despair did plunge them deeper in sin 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 failth strengthned their feeble knees and hands hat hang down put courage and and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and stand up to see and meet the Salvation of the Lord. And this is the proper and Natural effect of mercy to give sight to the blinde that they may see to binde up a broken limb that it may move and to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this is shines in brightnesse upon us every day not onely to enlighten them who sit in darknesse but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darknesse yet may be under a cloud raise up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but a tender and humble Heart For we cannot think that every man that sayes he despairs 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 when we have set our hearts to serve him and have been serious in all our wayes when we have made good the condition i. e. our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentlenesse of the Gospel doth exact it he will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves and 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 he will forbear to pronounce the Euge well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works or put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholly fit or condemn the soul for the distemper of the body or some perturbation of the minde which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord and in the power of his spirit did cheerfully run the wayes of his Commandements 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 proceeds from the distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain and if we have formerly and do yet strive to do him service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it arises 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 passe sentence against our selves not onely for the breach of those Laws which none could binde 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 amisse so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves that they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but it is not Epidemical The first are a great multitude which 't is hard to number quocunque sub axe they are in every Climate and in every place but most often in the Courts of Princes and the habitations of the Rich who can do evil but will not see it who can make the loud condemnation of a fact and the bold doing it the businesse of one and the same hour almost of one and the same moment The other are not many for they are a part of that little Flock and the good Shepherd will not drive them out of the fold for the weak conceit they had that they had gone too far astray For errour is then most dangerous and fatal when we do that which is evil not when we shun and fly from it as from the plague and yet cannot beleeve we are removed far enough from the infection of it And therefore again it may have its Original not onely from the Acrasie and discomposedness of the outward-man or the weaknesse in Judgement or that ignorance of their present estate which may happen to good men even to those who have made some fair proficiency in the School of Christ and to which we are very subject amidst that variety of circumstances that perplexity and multiplicity of thoughts which rise and sink and return again and strangle one another to bring in others in their place but it may be brought in by our very care and diligence and an intensive love For care and diligence and love are alwayes followed with fears and jealousies love is ever a beginning till all be done and is but setting out till she be at her journeyes end The liberal man is afraid of his Almes and the Temperate mistrusts his abstinence the meek man is jealous of every heat pietas etiam tuta pertimescit piety is afraid even of safety it self because it is piety and cannot be safe enough And if it be a fault thus to undervalue himself it is a fault of a fair extraction begotten not by blood or the will of men not by negligence and wilfulnesse and the pollutions of the flesh but of care and anxiety and an unsatisfied love which will sometimes demur and be at a stand in the greatest Certainty so that though the lines be fallen to him in a faire place and he have a Goodly Heritage a well setled spiritual Estate yet he may sometimes look upon it as Bankrupts doe upon their temporall worne out Debts and Statutes and Mortgages and next to nothing Every man hath not a place and mansion in Heaven that pretends a Title to it nor is every man shut out that doubts of his evidence This diffidence in our selves is commonly the mark and Character of a Good man who would be better and though he hath
holy Ghost then Si non in timore Domini tenueris te instanter if thou keep not thy self diligently in the Fear of the Lord in the Fear of his displeasure his wrath and in the fear of the last account this house this Temple will soon be overthrown For as the Temple in the first of Ezra the Scribe Ecclus. 27.3 was said to be built in great joy and great mourning that they could not discerne the shout of joy for the noise of weeping So our spiritual building is rais'd Inter Apocr cap. 5. ver 64 65. and supported with great hope and great feare and it may be sometimes we shall not discerne which is greatest our feare or our hope but when we are strong then are we weak when we are rich then are we poore when we hope then we feare and our weakness upholds our strength our poverty preserves our wealth and our Feare tempers our hope that our strength overthrow us not that our riches beggar us not that our hope overwhelme us not quantò magis crescimus tanto magis timemus the more we increase in Virtue the more we Feare Thus manente Timore stat aedificium whilst this Butteresse this Foundation of Feare lasts the house stands Thus we work out our Salvation with Feare and Trembling To conclude then I speak not this to dead in any soule any of those Comforts which faith or Love or Hope have begotten in them or to choke and stifle any fruit or effect of the Spirit of love No I pray with S. Paul that your love may abound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1.9 yet more and more but as it follows there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Knowledge and in all Judgement that you may discerne things that differ one from another a Phansy from a Reality a flash of Love from the pure flame of love a notion of Faith from a true Faith and hope from presumption For how many sin how few think of punishment how many offend God and yet call themselves his 〈◊〉 how many are willfull in their disobedience and yet perâ—…â—…ory in their hope how many runne on in their evill wayes 〈◊〉 leave seare behinde them which never overtakes them but is furthest off when they are neerest to their journeys end and within a step of the Tribunal For that which made them sinfull makes them senseless and they easily subborn false comforts the â—…knes of the flesh which they never resisted and the Mercy of God which they ever abused to chace away all fear and so they depart we say in peace but are lost for ever Curtius de Alexand. For as the Historian observes of men in place and Authority Cum se fortunae permittunt etiam naturam dediscunt when they rely wholly upon their greatness and Authority they lose their very Nature and turne Savage and quite forget that they are men in like manner it befalls these spiritualized men who build up to themselves a pillar of assurance and leane and rest themselves upon it they lose their nature and reason and forget to feare or be disconsolate and become like those whom the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because their boast was they did not feare a Thunder-bolt Feare not them that can kill the body saith our Saviour whom doe they feare else who hath beleeved our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed That arme which breaketh the Cedars of Libanus in peeces That Arme which onely doth wondrous works is ever lifted up and we sport and walk delicately under it when we tremble and Couch under that which is as ready to wither as to strike Behold Dust and Ashes invested with Power Behold man who is of as neere kin to the worme and Corruption as our selves and see how he aws us and bounds us and keeps us in on every side If he say Do this we doe it Subscribe to that as a Truth which we know to be false make our yea nay and our nay yea renounce our understandings and enslave our wills change our Religion as we do our clothes and fit them to the Times and Fashion pull down resolutions cancell Oathes be votaries to day and breake to morrow surrender up our soules and bodies Deliver up our Conscience in the midst of all its Cryings and Gain-sayings and lay it down at the foot of a fading transitory Power which breathes it self forth as the wind whilst it seeks to destroy which threatens strikes and then is no more When this Lion roares every man is afraid is transelemented unnaturalized unman'd is made wax to receive any impression from a mighty but mortall hand and shall not the God of heaven and earth who can dash all this Power to nothing deserve our feare shall we be so familiar with him as to contemne him so love him as to hate him shall a shadow a vapor awe us and shall we stand out against Omnipotency and Eternity it self shall sense brutish sense prevaile with us more then our Reason or Faith and shall we crosse the method of God make it our Wisedome to feare man and count it a sin to feare God who is only to be feared this were to be wiser then Wisedom it self which is the greatest folly in the World I have brought you therefore to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this School of feare set up the Moriemini shewd you a Deaths-Head to discipline and Catechise you that you may not die but live and Turne from your evill wayes and Turne unto him who hath the keyes of hell and of Death who as he is a Saviour so is he also a Judge and hath made Feare one Ingredient in his Physick not onely to purge us but to keep us in a healthfull Temper and Constitution And to this Promptuor Moral if not the danger of our soules yet the noise of those who love us not may awake us Stapleton a Learned man but a malitious Fugitive layes it as a charge against the Preachers of the Reformed Churches that they are copious and large in setting forth the Mercies of God but they passe over Graviora Evangelit the harsher but most necessary passages of the Gospel suspenso pede lightly and as it were on their Tiptoes and goe softly as if they were afraid to awake their hearers That we are mere solifidians and rely upon a reed a hollow and an empty faith Bellarmine is loud that we doe per contemplationem volare hover as it were on the wings of Contemplation and hope to goe to heaven in a Dreame Pamelius in his notes upon Tertullian is bold upon it That the Primitive Church did Anathematize us in the Marcionists and Gnostiques and if they were Hereticks then we are so And what shall we now say Recrimination is rather an objection then an Answer and it will be against all rules of Logick to conclude our selves Good because they are worse or that we have no
And these his Precepts are defluxions from him the proper issue of his naturall and primitive desire of that generall Love of good-will which he did beare to his Creature and the only way to draw on that love of Friendship that neerer Relation by which we are one with him and he with us by which he calls us his Children and we cry Abba Father his first will ordain'd us for good his second will was publisht and set up as a light to bring us to that good for which we were made and created But we are told there is in God voluntas permissionis a permissive will or a will of permission and indeed some have made great use of this woâ—d permission and have made it of the same necessitating power and efficacy with that by which God made the Heavens and the Earth for we find it in Terminis in their writings positâ peccati permissione necesse est ut peccatum eveniat that upon the permission of sinne it must necessarily follow that sinne must be committed They call it permission but before they winde up their Discourses the word I know not by what Logick or Grammar hath more significations put upon it then God or nature ever gave it Tert. in vit Agr. Romani ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant say the Ancient Britons in Tacitus The Romanes where by Fire and Sword they lay the Land waste and Turne all to a Wildernesse call it Peace so here the word is permission but currente rotâ whilst they are hot and busy in their work at last it is Excitation stirring up Inclining hardning permittere is no lesse then Impellere permission is Compulsion by their Chymistry they are able to extract all this out of this one word and more as That God will have that done which he forbids us to doe God doth not will what he tells us he doth will That some are cast asleep from all eternity that they may be Hardned and all this with them is but permission And to make this Good we are told That God hath on purpose created some men with an intent to permit them to fall into sin and this at first sight is a faire Proposition that carries Truth written in the very forehead but indeed it is deceitfull upon the weights one thing is said and another meant God hath created some and why some and not all for no doubt the condition of Creation is the same in all And why with a purpose to permit them to fall into sinne did he not also create them with a purpose that they should walk in his Commandements Certainly both and rather the last then the former for God indeed permits sinne but withall forbids it but he permits nay he commands us to doe his will Permission lookes upon both both upon sinne and upon Obedience on the one side it meets with a check on the other with a Command That we may not doe what is but permitted and Forbidden and that we may yeeld ready Obedience to that which is not permitted onely but commanded It was a Custome amongst the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to number and cast up their Accounts with their fingers Naz. Or. 3. as we do by Figures and Counters whence Orontes the Persian was wont to say Eundem digitum nunc Decem millia nunc unum ostendere that the same finger with some alteration and change did now signifie Ten thousand and in another posture and motion but one The same use some men have made of this word permission which they did of their fingers In its true sense and naturall place it can signifie no more then this A purpose of God not to Intercede by his Omnipotency and hinder the committing of those sinnes which if he permitted not could not once have a being but men have learnt so to place it that it shall stand for Ten Thousand for Inclination and excitation and induration and all these Fearfull expressions which leave men chain'd and Fetter'd with an Inevitable necessity of sinning and so make that which in God is but merely permission infallibly effective and so damne men with gentler Language and in a soster phrase he permits them That he doth that he must doe but their meaning is His absolute will is that they should die and let them shift as they please and wind and Turne themselves to slip out of reach after all Defalcations and substractions they can make it will arise neere to this Summe which I am almost afraid to give you That God is willing we should die For to this purpose they bring in also Gods Providence To this purpose I should have said To none at all For though God rule the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Law of Providence as Nazianz. calls it though he disposeth and ordereth all things and all actions of men yet he layes not any Law of Necessity upon all things Aquin. priâ—… part q. 22. Some effects he hath fitted with necessary causes that they may infallibly fall out saith Aquinas and to other effects which in their owne nature are contingent he hath applyed Contingent Causes so that that shall fall out Necessarily which his Providence hath so disposed of and that Contingently which he hath left in a Contingency and both these in the nature of things necessary and Contingent are within the verge and rule of his Providence and he alters them not but extrà ordinem when he would doe some extraordinary worke when he would work a Miracle The Sunne knoweth his seasons and the Moon its going down and this in a constant and unchangeable course but yet he commanded the Sunne to stand still in Gibeon Josh 10.12 and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon But then I think all Events are not as necessary as the change of the Moon or the setting of the Sunne for all have not so necessary causes unlesse you will say to walk or stand to be rich or poore to fall in battell or to conquer are as necessary effects as Darknesse when the Sun sets or Light when it riseth in our Horison And this indeed may bring in a new kind of Predestination to walke or stand to Riches and Poverty to Victory and Captivity as well as to Everlasting life and everlasting perdition But posito sed non concesso Let us suppose it though we grant it not That the Providence of God hath laid a Necessity upon such Events as these yet it doth not certainly upon those Actions which concerne our everlasting welfare which either raise us up to heaven or cast us downe to destruction It were not much material at least a good Christian might think so whether we sit or walke whether he predetermine that we be rich or poor that we Conquer or be overcome what is it to me though the Sun stand still if my feet be at Liberty to runne the wayes of Gods Commandements what is it to me if the Moon
appearance but the Heart and may account us dead for all these glories this Pageantry for all this noise which to him is but noise as the sound of their Trumpet who will not fight his battels but fall off and runne to the Enemy but as a song of Sion in a strange Land even in the midst of Babylon We read in our Books that it was a custome amongst the Romans when the Emperor was dead in honor of him to frame his image of wax and to perform to it all Ceremonies of state as if the image were the living Emperour The Senate and Ladies attended the Physitians resorted to him to feel his pulse and Doctorally resolved that he grew worse and worse and could not escape A guard watcht him Nobles saluted him his Dinner and Supper at accustomed hours was served in with water with sewing and carving and taking away His Nobles and Gentlemen waited as if he had been alive there was no Ceremony forgot which state might require Thus hath been done to a dead carcase and if we take not heed our case may be the same All our outward shewes of Churches of Sermons of Sacraments our noyse and ostentation which should be arguments of life and Antidotes against death may be no more then as funeral rites performed to a carcase to a Christian to a City whose iniquities are loathsome of an ill smelling savour to God the great company of preachers whereof every one chuseth one according to his lusts may stand about it and do their duty but as to an image of wax or a dead carcase the bread of life may be served in and divided to it by art and skill as every man fancies it may be fitted and prepared for every palate when they have no tast nor relish of it and receive no more nourishment then they that have been dead long ago Be not deceived benefits and burdens thou hast laden me daily with thy benefits saith David and burdens which if we bare not well and as we should do will grinde us to pieces All prerogatives are with conditions if the condition be not kept they turn to scorpions they either heal or kill us they either lift us up to Blisse or throw us down to destruction there is Heaven in a priviledge and there is Hell in a priviledge and we make it either to us We may starve whilest we hang on the brests of the Church we may be poisoned with Antidotes those mouthes that taught us may be opened to accuse us the many Sermons we heard may be so many Bills against us the Sacraments may condemn us the blood of Christ cry loud against us and our profession our holy profession put us to shame Hast thou been so long with me and knowest thou not me Philip saith our Saviour John 14.9 Hadst thou so good a Master and art yet to learn hast thou been so long with me and deniest thou me Peter hast thou been so long with me and yet betrayest me Judas hath Christ wrought so many works amongs us and do we go about to kill and crucifie him hath he planted Religion true Religion amongst us and do we go about to digg it up by the roots hath the Gospel sounded so long in our Eares and begot nothing but words words that are deceitful upon the Ballance words which are lies so many Sermons and so many Atheists so much Preaching and so much defrauding so many breathings and Demonstrations of love and so much malice in the house of Israel so many Courts of Justice and so much oppression so many Churches and so few Temples of the Holy Ghost what professe Religion and shame it cry it up and smother it in the noise and for a member of Christ make thy self the head of a Faction what presse on to make thy self better and make thy self worse Go up to the Temple to pray and prophane it what go to Church and there learn to pull it down why Oh Why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes Let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are That we are a house and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and murually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep death from entring in That we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves That we are his Church which is the pillar 1 Tim. 3.15 and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have his word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us we have many helps and Huge advantages and if we look up upon them and lay hold of them If we harken to his word not resist his grace if we neither Idolize not prophane his Sacraments but receive them with Reverence as they were instituted in Love If we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can nave no more Dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel Peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God The introductîon to the last part And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves for if we die it is quia volumus because we will die For Look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his Dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us there are armories of weapons treasuries of wisdom shops of Physick Balm and Ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which opens its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not digg it our selves The Church exhorts instructs corrects God calls invites expostulates death it self threatens us that we may not come neer Thus are we compast about auxiliorum nube with a Cloud of helps and Advantages the Church is loud death is terrible Gods Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner and confirmd with an Oath As he lives he would not have us die and it is plain enough in his Lightning and in his Thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it and
Die O House of Israel Why will ye die we may perhaps answer we are Dead already Haeret lateri lethalis Arundo The poyson'd and Deadly Dart is in our sides Adam sinned and we die Omnes eramus in illo uno cum ille unus nos omnes perdidit we were all in the loines of that one man Adam when that one man slew us all And this we are too ready to confesse that we are Borne in sinne nay we fall so low as to damne our selves before we were born which some may doe in Humility but most are well content it should be so well pleased in their Pedegree well pleased to be brought into the world in that filth and uncleannesse which God doth hate and make the unhappinesse of their Birth an Advocate to plead for those pollutions for those wilfull and Beloved sinnes which they fall into in the remaining part of their life as being the proper and naturall Issues of that weaknesse and Impotency with which we were sent into the world which is not True in every part for that weaknesse whatsoever it is can draw no such necessity upon us Licentiam usurpare praetexto necessitatis Tert. de cul Faem nor can be wrought into an Apology for sinne or an excuse for dying for to include and wrap up all our Actuall sinne in the folds of Originall weakeness is nothing else but to cancel our own Debts and Obligations and to put all upon our first Parents score and so make Adam guilty of the sinnes of the whole world Our naturall and Originall weakness I will not now call into question since it hath had such Grandees in our Church men of great Learning and Piety for its Nursing Fathers and that for many Centuries of yeares but yet I cannot see why it should be made a Cloak to cover our other Transgressions or why we should miscarry so often with an Eye cast back upon our first fall which is made ours but in another man nor any reason though it be a plant watered by the best Hands why men should be so delighted in it why they should lie downe and repose themselves under its shadow why they should be so willing to be weak and so unwilling to heare the contrary why men should take so much paines to make the way to happiness narrower and the way to death broader then it is In a word why we should thus magnify a Temptation and disparage our selves why we should make each Importunate object as powerfull and Irresistible as God himself and our selves as Idols even nothing in this world Magna pars humanarum querelarum non injusta modo materiâ Petrarch 1.3 R. S. c. 1. sed stulta est the world is full of complaints and excuses but the complaints which the world puts forth are for the most most unjust and void of that reason which should present and commend them For when our souls are pressed down and overcharged with sin when we feel the Gripes and Gnawings of our Conscience we commonly lay hold on these remedies which are worse then the discase and suborne an unseasonable and ill applied conceit of our own natural weaknesse which was more dangerous then the temptation as an excuse and comfort of our overthrow we fall and plead we were weak and fall more then seven times a day and hold up the same plea still till we fall into that place where we shall be muzled and speechlesse not able to say a word where our complaints wil end in curses in weeping and wailing Hierenym Amando and gnashing of teeth Omnes nostris vitijs favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem we are all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our lusts conceived and brought forth by the Midwifry of our will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the Door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this Complaint against nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and nature hath imprinted in our Soules those common principles of goodnesse as that good is to be embraced and evil to be abandond That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations as the Stoicks call them of the minde Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst c. and preparations against sin and death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke might lift up our souls far above those depressions of self love and covetousnesse and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which reason with the help of Grace overcomes at once For reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but when we are beat to the ground checks and upbraides us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam and when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weaknesse as well as we do with the temptation then if we fall God remembers whereof we are made considers our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever but to think of our weaknesse and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves to seek out death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approach as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weaknesse is to charge God and nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself and thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fal willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anack too strong for such Grashoppers as we we delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the
is fullfilled for it was never yet foretold by any Prophet that they should be quiet who made it their delight their study the businesse of their whole life to trouble themselves and others What could he in wisdome have done more then he hath done he hath digged up dissention at the very root malè velle malè dicere malè cogitare ex aequo vetamur saith Tertullian to wish evill to speak evill to think evill are alike forbidden in the Gospel which restrains the will binds the hand bridles the tongue fetters the very thoughts commands us to love an enemy to surrender our coate to him who hath stript us of our cloake to return a blessing for a reproach and to anoint his head with oyle who hath struck us to the ground which punishes not the ends onely but the beginnings of dissention which brings every part to its own place the flesh under the spirit the will under the law of charity which is the peace of the soule the obedience of faith under the eternall law which is our peace with God which draws with it the servant under the master the child under the parent the subject under the magistrate which is the peace of an house of a commonwealth the peace of the world which makes every part dwell together in unity begets a parity in disparity raises equality out of inequality which keeps every wheel in its due motion every man in his right place is that intelligence which moveth the lesser sphere of a family and the greater orbe of a commonwealth composedly and orderly which is its peace for peace and quiet is the order and harmony of things the Father calls it a Harp and it is never well set or tuned but by an Evangelicall hand which slacketh and letteth down the string of our self-love to an hatred of our selves and windeth up the string of our love to our brother in an equall proportion to the love of our selves we must hate our life in this world John 12.15 and we must love our brother as our selves Matth. 22.39 nay it lets it lower yet even to our enemies and the sound of it must reach unto them and talk what we will of peace if it be not tuned and touched by charity if it take not its rise and spring from this peace here from the peace of the Gospel it will be but a dreadfull sound as Job speaketh 15.21 either in the soule or in a family or in the Church or in the Commonwealth This is the nature the power the virtue of the Christian Law this it doth even when it is not done for if the Gospel might take place it would most certainly be done that there is so much heat so much distraction so much bitternesse amongst Christians that one kingdome riseth against another and almost every kingdome is divided in it self that the Church is moulder'd out into schismes and parcelled out into conventicles that every man almost is become a Church unto himself by a wilfull separation from the whole that Christians whose marke and badge is was by which they were known and distinguisht from all the world that they did love one another that they would dye for one another should hate one another revile one another proscribe one another Anathematize one another and kill one another and do that bloody office sooner then a Turke or Jew that Christendome should thus be made a stage of war and a field of blood is not from the Gospel or Christian religion no these winds blow not out of this Treasury but rather out of the pit of hell from the swellings of pride which Christianity beats down from the love of the world which Christianity conquers from desire of supremacy which Christ anity stifles from envy whose evill eye Religion puts out from an hollow deceitfull heart which Christianity breaks from those evills which are the onely enemies which the Prince of peace the author and finisher of the Gospel came to fight against and destroy Look back upon the first Christians who had rather suffer the greatest wrong then do the least who when for their multitude they might have trod their enemies under their feet yet yielded themselves to their fury and rage who did so out-number them that only to have withdrawn themselves had been to have left their persecutors in banishment to wonder and lament their own paucity and solitude and yet bowed down their necks to their yoke and delivered up their lives to their cruelty and more willing to rest in their graves then be unquiet and in them this prophesy was fulfilled their swords were indeed turned into mattocks and their speares into pruning hookes for all the weapons they had were their Innocency and Patience And thus it was for well-neere four hundred yeares together but look forward and then see blacknesse and darknesse noise and tempests even in the habitations of peace Christians reviling and libelling one another as in the Councel of Nice Christians killing and treading one another under foot as in the Councel of Ephesus Christians killing one another as in the quarrell or schisme of Damasus and Ursicinus and then let your eye passe on through all the ages of the Church and if it can for dropping look upon this last and you will see that which will be as a thorne in your eye and heare that which will make your eares tingle see blood and war tragedies and massacres tumult confusion Christians defranding cursing tormenting robbing one another you should see but the time would faile me to tell you what you should see but you would think that Christendome were a wildernesse not a place where the Leopard did lye down with the kid or the wolf feed with the Lamb but where the kid was turn'd into a Leopard and the Lamb into the wolf you will think that either this prophesie was false or that Christ the Prince of peace was not yet come in the flesh But as our Saviour said to his Disciples when they were affrighted and supposed him to be a Spirit why are you troubled Luk. 24.37.38 for if you be troubled you mistake Christs and think him to be what he is not For for all these dismall and horrid events so contrary so unproportioned to the promise of God Christ is come in the flesh and the prophesie is fulfilled for all Christians are peaceable men and whosoever is obedient to the Gospel doth feele and can demonstrate this power in himself what though we see violence and strife in the Church yet the Church is the house of peace what though Appius be unchast we cannot libell the Decemvirat what though Judas be a Son of perdition 't was the traytor not the Apostle which betrayed Christ If there be controversies Religion doth not raise them if there be schismes Religion doth not make them if there be war Religion doth not beat up the drum if there be busie-bodies Religion doth not imploy them if there
notes or rather noise we heare one part of the year and then they leave us vanish out of sight and hearing and as some say sleep out the other For even in the worst of men there be some seeds of goodnesse which they receive as they are men from whence arise those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those sudden but short and transitory inclinations which are choked up but not so dead in them but that sometimes they shew themselves and shoot out but as grasse doth upon the house-tops Ps 129.6 which withereth before it groweth up There is no Tyrant but may do one act of mercy no oppressor but may give a cup of cold water In pessimis est aliquid optimi there may be something of that which is good even in the worst Then mercy is in its full glory when it acts upon a certain and well grounded determination when we decree as the Stoicks speak and resolve so to do when we have fixed this decree and made it unalterable when we are rooted and grounded in mercy as Saint Paul speaks Eph. 3.17 Rooted as a tree deeply in it and built as a house upon it where the corner and chief stone is the love of mercy Then we are as trees to shadow others and as an house to shelter them otherwise our mercy will be but as a gourd as Jonahs gourd and will grow and come up and perish in a night Thirdly If we love mercy it will be sincere and reall for sincerity is the proper issue and child of love and makes the wounds of a friend better then the kisses of an enemy makes a dish of herbs a more sumptuous Feast then a stalled oxe makes a mite a good wish a good word an Almes What 's the mercy of the parasite he feeds by it What 's the mercy of the Ambitious a stirrop to get up by What 's the mercy of the Covetous a piece of art a warrantable cheat What was that seeming mercy of Peter It was an offence for which Christ called him an enemy What 's the mercy of those who through Covetousnesse with feigned words make a prey of mens soules 2 Pet. 2.3 I will not tell you because I cannot give it a name bad enough There may be mercy in a supply but that supply may be a snare There may be mercy in counsel but that counsel may betray me There is mercy in comfort but we know there be miserable comforters True mercy must be like our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.5 unfeigned and then it runs must pure and cleare without taint or trouble when love opens the fountain or rather is the fountain from whence it flows when the love of Christ hath begot in us the love of our brethren and we shew mercy to them not for those arguments which we make our selves or those perswasions which may be the oratory of the flesh and the world but for Christs sake and for the love of mercy whose rationall and demonstrative eloquence we should most obey otherwise it will begin fairely and end in blood It will drop teares and then hailstones it will be a but preface of clemency a mild prologue to lead in a tragedy an echo out of a sepulchre of rotten bones and as musick at the gates of hell It will be mercy but not like unto Christ in whom there was found no guile but like unto Marcions Christ all in appearance mercy with a trumpet in one hand and a sword in the other mercy which shall lessen your burthen to lay on more shall speak of ease and then add to the misery of the oppressed For that which is not sincere is not lasting It may begin to shine but it will end in a storme A true face is ever the same but a vizor will soon fall off In a word if it be not sincere it is not mercy and sincere it will not it cannot be if we love it not Last of all If we love mercy we shall take delight in it for joy is but a resultancie from love that which we love is also the joy of our heart Behold my servant whom I have chosen saith God of Christ Es 42.1 and then it follows In whom my soule delights I have loved thee saith God of Israel and his love thus bespeaks them as a bridegroome rejoyceth over his bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee Is 62.5 The bridegroome is sick of love in the book of Canticles his heart is ravish'd and then the floodgates are laid open and the streame is joy How faire is my love how much better is thy love then wine and the smell of thy oyntments then all spices Davids heart was knit unto Jonathan and then very pleasant hast thou been unto me 2 Sam. 1.26 Abraham loved hospitality and therefore he is said to sit in his tent doore in the heat of the day to invite men in as if every stranger had been an Angel If love be as the sunne Joy and delight are the Beames which streame forth from it If Love be as the Voice Joy is the Echo for Joy is but Love in the reflection If Love fill the heart it will heave and work it self out and break forth in joy By our joy we may see the figure and shape and constitution of our souls for Love is operative working and raising up something in the soul and with it that delight which is born with it and alwaies waits upon it If it be darke and scarce observable our Joy interprets it Joy is open and talkative In the wanton 't is a frolick in the Revenger it is a Boast in the Drunkard it is a Ballad in the Rich it is Pride in the Ambitious it is a Triumph but in the Mercifull it is Heaven What a well-drawn picture is to an Apelles what a faire character is to a Scribe what a heap of gold is to the Miser that and much more are the works of Mercy to them that love it onely here the joy is of a purer flame and burns brighter that is grosse and earthy this is Seraphicall When you reach forth your hand to give a peny tell me what doe you feele in your heart when you give good counsel doe you not heare a pleasing echo return back upon you when you have lifted up the poore out of the dust doe you not feele an elevation and ascension in your mind when you clothe the naked are not you even then super vestiti clothed upon with joy Beleeve it you cannot give that relief to the miserable which Mercy works in the soul nor can he that receives be so much affected as he that gives For when he gives he gives indeed his money but hath bestowed the greatest Almes upon himself the poore man rejoyceth as a hungry man that 's fed as a naked man that 's clothed as one that sits in darknesse doth at the breaking in of light but the mercifull man hath triumphs and Jubilees
could abide with or would abide with him but was still as a passenger and stranger on the earth Now to give you a second reason why the spirit of God makes choice of a King to preach this lesson as he chuseth the best and most experienced masters so doth he condescend and indulge to our infirmity and appoints the fittest for us and those of whom we will soonest learn whose first question commonly is who is the Preacher who deliver up our judgements 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 speaks is an Oracle though it be the doctrine of devils and have the same Father which all other lyes have Truth doth seldome goe down with us unlesse it be presented in the cup in which we love to divine and prophesie There was a poor wise man found saith Solomon that delivered the City by his wisdome Eccles 9.15 but none remembred or considered this poor wise man For poverty is a cloud and casts a darknesse over that which is begot of light sullies every perfection that is in us hides 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 ut sumus sic judicamus as we are so we judge and it is not our reason which concludes but our sence 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 Saint Luke If our eyes dazle at Majesty Herods royall apparrell will be a more eloquent orator then he that speaks and the people shall give a shout and cry the voice of God and not of man Doe but ask your selves the question doth not affection to the person beget admiration in you and admiration commend whatsoever he sayes and gild over errour and sinne it self and make them current do not your hopes or feares 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 compasse by which you steere the bond of your peace Is not this the cement of all your friendship doth not this outward respect serene or cloud your countenance and as the wind 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 or can he be evil who is powerfull or dare you be more wise then he that hath thirty legions We may say this is a great evil under the sunne 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 proclaimes it to his subjects and all the world That his power is but as a shadow cast from a mortall his glory but his garment which he cannot weare long and his riches but the embroidery which will be as soon worn out And when we have gaz'd and fallen down and worshipt and are thus lost in our own thoughts if we could take away the filme 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 glorie 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 For we see the ignorant and foolish men perish and they dye as fooles dye not remembred nor thought on as if nothing fell to the ground but their folly The begger dyes 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 layes it to heart I but Kings of the earth fall and cannot fall but with observation but they fall as a star are soon mist in their orbe and soon forgot But then living Kings make their Throne a Pulpit and preach from thence and publish to the world their own fraile and fading condition measure out their life by a span and prophesie the end of it call their life a Pilgrimage and shall we not hearken what the Lord God doth say by such royall 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 country 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 bloody Tyrants If good and bad found no settled estate no abiding place here why should we be so foolish and ignorant as to turmoile 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 removall is at hand 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 yeares he dyed lead the way to his posterity not that they should live so long but that they should surely dye to every sonne of his till the coming of the second and last Adam Abraham a stranger and Moses a stranger and David a stranger that we might look back upon them and see our condition And when Patriarchs and Prophets when Kings preach not onely living but dying not onely dying but dead we shall not onely dye but dye in our sinnes if we take not out the lesson and learn to speak