and in the unity of the souls substance there is a trinity of faculties the reason the will and the memory which being created in holiness fell away from the uncreated goodness of God And in the unity of Christian Religion there is a trinity of invaluable grace Faith Hope and Love whereby the relapsed trinity of mans soul is reunited unto the blessed favour of the Eternal Trinity of Gods Essence And these three graces I find most excellently delivered and explained by three of the chiefest Apostles the three worthiest Pillars of Gods Church S. The three chiefest graces exprest by the three chiefest Apostles 1. Faith expressed by S. Peter Peter S. Paul and S. John for as Faith is radix omnium virtutum the root of all virtues as S. Ambrose saith and prima quae subjugat animam Deo and as S. Hierome saith the first grace that bends and brings our souls to God and the foundation of all other graces from whence as from the root of a tree those fair and fruitful branches of hope and love do spring So S. Peter was the first of all the Apostles and his confession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art Christ the Son of the living God was the Rock whereupon the whole frame of Christian Religion was established as both S. Ambr. and S. Aug. testifie And as hope is quasi columna quae totum spirituale aedificium sustentat 2 Hope explained by S. Paul as Laurentius Justinianus saith like the Pillar that beareth and upholdeth faith and love or the Anchor that preserveth the little ship of Gods Church in all storms as the Apostle calleth it and is indeed the only Nurse that feedeth inlargeth and maintaineth the very life of these graces So the blessed Apostle S. Paul was the greatest Inlarger and Cherisher of the Doctrine of Christ that we can read of for he caused the same by his own indefatigable pains to be planted and watered preached and published in abundance of places as you may see in the Table of his Peregrination collected out of his own writings and the Acts of the blessed Apostles and as love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection and complement of all virtues indeficiens thesaurus gratiarum an unexhaustible treasure of graces unguentum suave quo pestes animi sanantur oculi cordis illuminantur and that sweet precious oyntment which healeth all the sores of our souls enlighteneth the eyes of our understanding and sweetneth all those fruits that proceed from Faith and Hope 3 Love amplified by S. John Iohn 3. as S. Basil saith So that heavenly Evangelist and best beloved Apostle S. John is the best and chiefest expressor of Gods love to man and the most careful exacter and requirer of mans love to God again for what else doth he chiefly aim at in all his Gospel but to shew how God loved the world that he gave his only begotten and his dearly beloved Son coequal and coessential unto himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this Son was the Word and that Word was God saith S. Basil that whosoever believed in him John 3. should not perish but should have everlasting life And what else doth he in all his Epistles in every Chapter and almost in every verse but as the Prophet David in the 119. Psalm doth continually touch upon the strings of Gods Law so doth he as sweetly play upon the strings of Gods Love his love to us and that love which we owe and are so many wayes bound to render unto him And to his dying day when he could not go he would be carried to the Church in a Chair and when he was able to say no more his whole Sermon was ut diligatis invicem that they would love one another And no marvel for he was indeed the Disciple which our Saviour loved above the rest and before all the rest of the Apostles he was the chiefest child of Love as S. Aug. calleth S. Paul the best Child of Grace And therefore as S. Paul gave himself principally to magnifie the free grace of God so doth S. John wholly dedicate himself to amplifie the great love of God and as he doth the same in all his works so he doth it especially in this my Text which I may well call the Epitome of all his writings and it containeth these two things which contain the sum of all Divinity 1. Gods love to Man The sum of all Divinity two-fold 2. Mans love to God For what Is the end of the Law and the substance of the Gospel but to shew how God loved us and to teach us why and how we should love God again and manifest this our love to God by loving one another For to love God with all our hearts is the great command of the Law and to love one another as Christ hath loved us is the new Command of the Gospel In these two hang all the Law and the Prophets and in these are comprehended all our duties and all this is contained in these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quia causae precedit effectum Wherein the Apostle doth principally aim at the main ground and chiefest cause why we do and should love our God This is the sum of the whole expressed in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore must be first treated of Indeed if we do contemplate of those infinitely amiable excellencies and transcendent beauties that are so accumulated and resplendent in the Essence of God which is that light in whom is no darkness at all We shall find that as Nazian saith of Christ he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholly desiderable and wholly delectable so fully invested with such attractive excellencies as are easily able to confound the senses and to ravish the desires of all that truly consider them Worthy men worthily loved for when we hear Abraham so highly commended for his Faith David for his Valour Solomon for his Wisdome Hercules Achilles Alexander Hannibal Caesar and the like such glorious Heroes celebrated and admired for their eminencies above other men we cannot chuse but deem them worthy of love when so many wise men as have written of them thought them worthy of admiration and reputed them the Worthies of the world So when we consider the glory of nature and the beauty of bodies which is nothing else but an apt proportion and a just correspondence of the parts and colours of these visible creatures they do so intice our senses captivate our affections and ravish our minds that our hearts are more present in their desires with such bodies that they like and love then with our own wherein they sojourn and live But what are all the Mights and Monarchs of the World compared unto God No excellency any wayes comparable to the excellencies of God but as Lambs among Lyons or as the leaves that are driven away with the wind blown down from their Regal Thrones
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more and above all other his creatures whatsoever And here you must observe also that amongst men as the glory of all Starres or the beauty of all Flowers is not the same when as every Star is not a Phoebus and every Flower is not a Lilly so the love of God doth not appear alike to all men for I love them that love me and I will shew mercy on them that love me and keep my commandements saith the Lord but the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickedness doth his soul abhor And thus not onely the Elect are beloved better then the Reprobates and the Saints better then Sinners but among the very chosen Saints God loveth some better then others for every like loveth his like and therefore God embraceth them with a greater love whom he vouchsafeth to make and findeth them willing and most yielding to be the more like unto himself and so he loveth those that are the better more then those that are less good as the more we excell in Vertue and Goodnesse the more dearly doth God love us so he loved Abraham among the Patriarchs Moses among the Prophets David among the Kings and this beloved Disciple among the Apostles more as it seemeth then any other and so the blessed Virgin whom all generations shall call blessed was highly beloved and loved more then any of all the daughters of men And of this gradation of Gods love S. Aug. saith Omnia diligit Deus quae fecit God loveth all that he made and among them he loveth rather the reasonable creatures and of these he loveth them more which are the members of his Son and most of all his onely begotten Son And this greater love of God to some men more then to others besides those internal graces of Faith Hope Love Patience and the like which he giveth to the Elect Mark 4.11 and not to the Reprobates Quia vobis datum est because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of heaven but to others not because they will not accept of them when they are offered God manifesteth the same to all men by two outward infallible demonstrations 1. The donation of his graces 2. The preservation of their persons For 1. There is no man but might consider how God hath bestowed more excellent gifts and graces on himself 1 God giveth his Gifts and Graces severally and differently then he hath done to many others as either Health or Wealth or Honour or some other gift that the meanest man hath which many others have not or if not yet seeing God out of his greater love to some men more then to others bestoweth on some five Talents when he bestoweth on others but two or but one and maketh some men Princes and others Peasants or indueth some men with Learning and Knowledge when he leaveth others ignorant and foolish and so maketh some men rich when as many others are very poor Why should our eyes be evil because he is good For Cum huic fit misericordia tibi non fit injuria when as herein he doth but shew mercy unto one and injury unto none Why should we not rather consider that he may love whom he will and shew mercy on whom he will have mercy and so do what he will with his own especially seeing we know not why he doth what he doth 2. God doth guide some men with his counsel that they run not with the wicked Ps 37.24 Rom. 1. into the same excess of riot as they do for seeing by nature we are all equally indifferent and equally inclined to all sins Repleti omni injustitia saith the Apostle How comes it to pass that some men abstain from odious Rebellions and other impious abominations and abominable impieties that many wicked men do perpetrate Is it from out selves and from the goodness of our Natures or the sweetness of our dispositions No no it is from God that giveth his grace and holy Spirit unto some that are willing and ready to receive it when God offereth it unto them rather then to others that refuse to answer when he calleth and to accept his gifts and graces when he offereth the same unto them so God preserved Noah from partaking with the wickedness of the old world Lot from following after the abominations of the Sodomites Joseph from consenting to the lewd inticements of his Mistress and the like and so he doth preserve them that he loves from imitating the wicked in their odious sins because these men love God again are ready and willing to be preserved by God for did not the blessed God work this happy change in our souls and the Father of Lights illuminate our minds with a more distinct knowledge of his grace we might have groped and flumbled in a thicker mist of stupidity then now befools our unnurtured brethren and whatsoever is either odious or ridiculons in them might have beene farre more prodigious in us And so S. Aug. doth most excellently confess it saying tentator defuit Satan was away and time and place was wanting to do the deed but this was thy doing to preserve me the Tempter came in time and place convenient Aug. Soliloqu L. 16. but then thou withheldest me from consenting So when I had a will I wanted ability and when I had ability I wanted opportunity and all this was from thy blessed Spirit that preserved me And this preservation of us from evil Prov. 1. is offered by the goodness of God unto the wicked but that they refuse it as the wise man sheweth and the Scripture testifieth in many places And as God preserveth those that he loveth from the sins so he delivereth them also from the punishments of sin for though misfortune shall slay the ungodly yet as the Prophet saith God preserveth the righteous And though the plagues of God shall range and rage so far against the wicked that thousands of them shall fall besides the godly and ten thousands on his right hand yet it shall not come nigh him because God giveth his Angels charge over those that he loveth and they do preserve them in all their wayes that they dash not their foot against a stone And here in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the persons on whom God shewed so many testimonies of his abundant love to some more then to others I may and must put our selves before many thousands of others that perhaps deserved the same far better then we do For whereas all other places that had the truth of the Protestant Religion amongst them have now their Candlesticks removed and the true publick service of God metamorphosed and corrupted with lyes heresies and blasphemies we alone of all our Kings Dominion have the true light and the publick service of God shining in the right Candlestick and with Authority maintained And I humbly beseech Almighty God that our sins unthankfulness and unworthiness do not ere long deprive us
saith Lex non justior ulla est Quam necis Artifices arte perire sua There cannot be a juster Law 2 In retaliation of good for good then for him that diggeth a Pit to fall into it himself or that he that loveth War should perish in the War and he that sheddeth mans Blood should have his Blood shed by man so in the retaliation of good for good the same Law holdeth most just and more especially 1. In Giving 2. In Suffering 3. In Loving For For 1. 1 In giving Is it not just that we should give to him that hath given all to us And what have we that we have not received from God Why then should we think much either to give the Tenth to God or our Almes unto the Poor when the Lord himself professeth he that giveth unto the poor lendeth unto the Lord and whatsoever you do to these you do to Him 2. 2 In suffering Is it not as just that we should be ready to suffer for him that hath suffered so much for us The Apostle saith that Christ exinanivit seipsum though he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2.6 yet he emptied himself of all his Royal Dignities and suffered all the Indignities that could be laid upon him for our sake and shall we grudge to suffer the Losse of a little Worldly Trash or the bearing of some Light Affliction for him and for the Defence of his Truth and True Service that hath suffered all Sufferings for us No no when we suffer any thing for the Faith of Christ or our Loyalty to our King let us but consider what Christ hath suffered for us and what our good King hath suffered for the Defence of our Faith because he will not yield to deface the Church of Christ and to destroy the True Service of God and this will support us in all our Sufferings we suffer a little for him that suffered much for us 3. Because all men have not wealth to give 3 In loving and all men have not the patience to suffer yet all men have hearts to love God and they can have no excuse if they love him not because he hath so dearly loved them for if you consider all the Motives and procurements of Love which are very many as Beauty Benignity Bounty Wisdom Valour and the like yet there is none of these nor all these nor any other thing in the world so powerful to beget Love as Love it self neither is there any thing so available to encrease or to continue Love as Love it self Therefore the Poets feign that when Venus the Goddess of Love brought forth her first begotten Son she called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love and when she saw he thrived not but was still lean meager and bloodless How Venus consulted with Themis about her son Eros she consulted with Themis the Goddess of Justice which was Mother to Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom to know the reason of the sad condition of her Son and she told her that she must bring forth another Son which she did and called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Love for Love and then both her Children prospered and became exceeding beautiful and lovely So among men when we prosecute any one with Love it is impossible that Love should be lasting if at no time in no measure it should be requited with Love again for as the Coales Conjoyned will preserve the heat but when they are scattered will be soon extinguished so debet amor laesus irasci love when it is deserted and forsaken or left alone will be soon lost And therefore if we desire the Love of God to continue towards us we must resolve to shew our Love to God again for I will love them that love me and shew mercy unto Thousands of them that loue me saith the Lord Prov. 8.17 And so the Apostle saith we love him because he loved us first that is seeing he hath loved us therefore we are bound to love him where you may observe 1. The Persons We. We love him 2. The Act Love We love him 3 Parts 3. The Object Him We love him 1. The persons here said to love God are not the Angels 1 The persons that love God We. though they do exceedingly love him when as the Script saith He maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire where you may see three most admirable and transcendent excellencies of the Angels as 1. Purity of substance because they are Spirits 2. Readiness of obedience because they are his Angels and his Ministers Three excellent properties of the Angels and such as for their swift execution of Gods commands are compared to the wings of the wind 3. Ferventness of charity or burning love not only of one towards another but especially towards God because they are flames of fire but the persons here meant are men we love him i.e. we that are the sons of Adam do love him seeing mans love to God is but Radius divini amoris erga homines in deum reflexus a beam of Gods love towards man reflected from man to God again as Zanchius saith and seeing that where so powerfull a cause doth exist the subsequent effect must needs follow Therefore seeing God loveth all men it must needs be that all men How all men do love God Acts 17. in some measure do love God again that is as God is their Creator Preserver and Cause in whom they live and move and have their being and from whom they have and do receive all the good that they have so the Jews Turks and Heathens Worldlings Rebels and Traytors and all the wicked men in the world doe love God But seeing this love is too general and too base for all Christians scarce worthy of the name of love it will not serve the turn to make us happy but will deceive and destroy those lovers that have none other love to God but this poor confused general love Therefore 2. To proceed unto the stricter discussion of the act or the affection of love 2 The act love The Original cause of love twofold 1. General We love him you must note the same to be according to the original cause and ground thereof And that is two-fold 1. General as the many manifold benefits that we continually receive from God as he is the faithful Creator a wise Preserver and a bountiful Bestower of abundance of all good gifts upon his Creatures So the Reprobates love God 2. Special and in this respect the very Reprobates as I told you cannot chuse but love the Lord that is their Creator and Preserver 2. Special as the serious apprehension of our own infinite wants and miseries and of those Miracles of Love and Mercies which God hath performed to cure our souls from those Miseries Thus the Saints only love God by sending his only Son to
Herod an Idumean to become King of Jurie The great love and humility of Scipio Africanus to his younger brother Lucius Scipio but they should live like Moses and Aaron and should love one another as Plutarch relateth P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus and his brother Lucius Scipio did for notwithstanding he was the African by name that had overcome Hannibal and had triumphed over the Carthaginians and excelled all others in the praise of Martiall discipline yet of his own good nature he made himself inferior and was contented to be Lieutenant to his younger brother Plutarch in vitâ Scip. Afr. that his brother might have the honor of obtaining the Government of that Province from Laelius that was his fellow Consul and the like love or rather more fervent we find to be in Castor and Pollux for when Castor was slain by Ida How deerly brethren loved one another in former times Pollux besought Jupiter that he might impart half his own life unto his brother which being granted the Poet saith Sic fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit And these celestial signs that have their denomination from these brethren do shine in heaven Alternis vicibus by turns as the Astrologers do observe in token of that great love of these brethren And if the time would give me leave I could tell you of two Roman Brethren whereof the one was in Sertorius Army and the other in the adverse Party and of many others that did so exceedingly love one another in former times that each of them loved the other as himself But now Rara est concordia fratrum in our time the love of Brethren is waxen cold and so frozen that many of them are degenerated and become most unnatural one towards another that it is even a shame to see it 2. There is a National Brother-hood a brotherly love 2 The National Brother-hood Exod. 2.11 betwixt those men that are born and bred in the same Country and are as it were sprung from the same Stock for so Moses is said to have gone to see his Brethren and spying an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew one of his Brethren he slew the Egyptian and when he saw an Hebrew striving with an Hebrew he said Sirs Act. 7.26 you are brethren Why do ye wrong one to another And the Lord sheweth that all the children of Israel though strangers one to another yet were they Brethren for he saith If thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with thee then thou shalt relieve him yea though he be a stranger Levit. 25.35 36.39 Deut. 23.19 or a sojourner that he may live with thee And so in many-many places the Lord calleth all the Jews and all the Israelites Brethren And the very Heathens deemed their Countrymen that were of the same Nation to be Brethren and loved one another even as Brethren And the Romans held the Trojans to be their Brethren because they were descended from them And Scipio Africanus esteemed better of him that preserved the life of one Roman his Countryman than of him that had slain ten of his enemies that were Barbarians And what a shame is it then for men of the same Country of the same Nation yea and of the same kindred to be set as the Scripture speaketh of an Egyptian against an Egyptian or as the Souldiers in Senacheribs Army when the Angel caused them to bathe their swords in the blood of each other Is it not a pitiful thing to see an Irish man killing Irish-men or an English-man making his sword drunk in the blood of English-men Surely any War is lamentable and as the Poet saith heu miseri qui bella gerunt They are wretched men that do wage War But of all Wars Lucan Pharsal l. 2. And therefore Claudian saith Cum Gallica valgo Praelia jactaret tacuit Pharsalica Caesar Namque inter socias acies cognataque signa Vt vinci miser m nunquam vicisse decâ—rum Claud de 6. consulat Honorii 3. The Political Brother-hood Summum Brute nesas civilia bella fatemur That is the worst and most lamentable when a Kingdom is divided against it self and the men of the same Nation shall fight and kill one another like enemies that should love and live together like brethren And therefore what pretences soever they have I know not how those men in our Kingdoms that to make themselves great have and do involve these Nations in their own-blood will answer for it Cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus When God shall come and shall make inquisition for all the blood that they have caused to be unjustly spilt 3. The Political Brother-hood is when either two or three or more Friends or Cities or Nations shall covenant and confederate to help and assist one another in all just and honest things against all those that shall seek unjustly to wrong them and oppresse them And this is a commendable Brother-hood and ought to be loved and inviolably to be observed as it was by Damon and Pythias Pylades and Orestes and by the Ancient Romans to all their Colleagues and Confederates 4. 4 The Spiritual Christian Brother-hood The last best and chiefest Brother-hood is that which is spiritual and which therefore ought to be preferred and loved rather than any other Brother-hood whatsoever For as there are degrees and difference in Gods love when though he loveth all the things that he hath made yet he loveth Man better than any of all the things that he made yea better than he loved the Angels when he is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but is no where found to be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And among men though he loveth them all as they are his creatures and the works of his hands yet he loveth the godly far better than all the rest that are wicked and of all that are godly he loveth best his well-beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and next to him he loves them best We ought to order our love as God loveth that are most conformable to the Image of his Son that is in goodness in holiness and righteousness So we ought to order our love towards all men and to each Brother-hood that they may have the best share in our love which ought to have the best and that is the Brother-hood which is spiritual For though the Apostle bids us to do good unto all men and so to love each Brother-hood yet he tells us that we ought to do it more especially Galat. 6.10 to them that are of the houshold of faith that is to relieve the good sooner than the bad a Christian before a Pagan and a Saint rather than a sinner And therefore though we may and ought to love each of the foresaid Brother-hoods that is in good and especially the Brother-hood of flesh and blood which nature teacheth every man to do when they are like Hypocrates Twins and should have idem velle and idem
that we might fear him and he addeth which brought thee out of the land of Egypt that we might love him And in lege precandi he teacheth us to say Our Father that we might love him and he addeth which art in Heaven that we might fear him And in lege credendi we are taught to say I believe in God the Father that we might love him and to add Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth that we might fear him And besides all this we find that these two Graces Fear and Love 1. Are injoyned by the same Law 2. Do proceed from the same Cause 3. Do produce the same Effects And 4. Shall obtain the same Reward For 1. Moses that was faithful in all Gods house saith And now Israel What doth the Lord thy God require of thee Deut. 10.12 but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to love him Where you see fear and love so equally required that whosoever neglecteth the fearing of him though he should love him or omitteth the loving of him though he should fear him if he could do the one and not the other yet he is a transgressor and liable to the breach of this Commandment 2. As none denieth but mercy should procure love therefore Moses after he had rehearsed the great mercies of God towards the Israelites Deut. 10.11 21 22. Josh 23.9 11. Psal 130.4 addeth Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God And Joshua doth the like so David after he had considered his own vileness saith With thee there is mercy therefore shalt thou be feared Where you see the mercy of God is the foundation of this fear of God as well as of the love of God And as the mercy of God so the justice of God produceth both â—ffects the one as well as the other For my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements saith the Prophet And though justice seems as oil to continue the burning of this lamp of fear and as water to quench the fire of love yet as lime which is naturally cold doth notwithstanding retain a fiery quality ex aqua incenditur ex qua omnis ignis extinguitur and is inflamed by water which doth extinguish all fire So the love of the Saints is kindled by the judgements of God Therefore the Prophet saith Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgements Psal 119.164 Psal 119.52 And again I remembred thy judgements of old and have received comfort 3. As love inflameth the desire to do what is acceptable unto God so fear hateth to do what is abominable unto him and as love keepeth his Precepts so fear loatheth to break his Commandments and as love mitigateth the sorrow which fear causeth so fear qualifieth the joy which love produceth And as S. John saith God is love so Jacob calleth him the fear of his father Isaac And as S. Paul saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law Gal. 6.2 Eccles 12. So Solomon saith The end of all things is the fear of God and the keeping of his Commandments 4. As the mercy of God is shewed upon thousands of them that love him Exod. 20. Luke 1.50 and keep his Commandments So it is no lesse upon them that fear him But as the Psalmist saith Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord he shall be mighty upon earth Gloria divitae in domo ejus And as the son of Sirach saith Timor Domini gloria gloriatio laetitia corona exultationis Because as the Prophet saith Dat haereditatem timentibus nomen suum Yea Psal 61.5 Psal 145.19 he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him and look whatsoever they do it shall prosper And as eternal life is promised to them that love God So eternal death shall never seize on them that fear God And in brief whatsoever attendeth the one becometh a follower of the other and no marvel because that in love fear is included and in fear love is implied And while we are in this world both grow together in the heart of every true Believer And as the Poet saith of another kind of love so I may more truly say of this Divine love Res est soliciti plena timoris Amor. This love of God is full not of distrustful but of careful fear Quia timentes Deum non erunt incredibles verbo Illius saith the son of Sirach Ecclus. 2. But the wicked have neither true fear nor perfect love For though Cain Esau and Judas had a kind of fear yet was it false because it wanted love And though the Pharisees and Simon Magus had a kind of love yet was it but counterfeit because it wanted fear for if the former had had love they would have desired favour and should have obtained grace and if the other had had fear they would have aimed at Gods glory and not have sought their own praise which did work their own confusion And therefore well might S. Peter enjoyn every Saint that loveth God to fear God And as the love of God so the fear of God is sometimes put for a part of Gods Service and sometimes for the whole Service of God and so it is in this place as in the first of Job and in Luke 1.50 and in the Psalms in many places As where he saith Come ye children hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord where the fear of God signifieth the whole Worship of God to honour him obey him trust in him pray unto him and what duty soever else we owe unto him And thus the fear of God is the rarest Jewel and the most excellent thing in the World No riches no honour no preferment like unto it No evil shall happen to them that fear the Lord but God shall preserve them in temptation liberabit eos à malis Ecclus 33. saith Siracides And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation but mischief and unhappinesse and all evil shall continually attend and overtake them that fear not God to bring them to shame beggary and confusion as you may see it manifested in the Story of the sons of Israel who while they feared God were replenished with a thousand blessings preserved from a thousand misfortunes and delivered out of the Egyptian slavery by a thousand prodigies the Lord dividing the Sea to make way for them and closing the same again to destroy their enemies Drawing waters out of the Rocks to quench their thirst and feeding them with the food of Angels But when they did cast off the fear of God then God sent flying Serpents and stirred up enemies and powred down his vengeance upon their heads still plaguing them more and more untill they should be either quite consumed or happily reduced to embrace the fear of God again And not to search farre for any further presidents How happy weâ—e
bond or free Nahum 1.7 so God knoweth them that trust in him saith the Prophet and he shall say of them I know them and I will acknowledge them to be mine my sheep and my servants wheresoever they are and in what state or condition soever they be And therefore they follow me and study to be holy as I am holy which is their sanctification and the third part of these words 3. Christ told his Apostles at the first that if any man would be his Disciple Tertia part they follow me Luke 9.23 The following of Christ twofold 1. In suffering Esay 53.3 and so his sheep to hear his voice and to learn of him he must take up his cross and follow him And this following of him as you see by these words must be twofold 1. In patiendo in suffering as he suffered 2. In agendo in doing as he did For 1. Our Shepherd Christ was vir dolorum a man of sorrows as the Prophet calls him that had experience of infirmities and his whole life from his Cradle to his Cross was but a life of suffering the scornful reproofs of the wealthy and the despitefulness of the proud who did all that either tongues or hands could do against him and yet as a Lamb before his shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth V. 7. but forgave them all their indignities and prayed for them that crucified him which was an example of suffering without example and beyond all examples And our Saviour tells us the Disciple must not be above his Master he must not look to walk on flowers when his Master walks through the bryars but where the Master goeth before the servant should follow after And yet we may justly say with S. Bernard Quam pauci O Domius Jesu post te ire volunt cum tamen ad te pervenire nemo sit quinesit hoc scitutibus cunctis qua delectationes in dextratnausque ad finem How few O Lord Jesu there are which will come after thee when as to come unto thee there is no man but is willing because where thou art and in thy right hand there is fulness of joy and abundance of pleasures for evermore Et propterea saith that Father Volâ—â—t omnes te frai at non ita intitari conregnare cupiunt sed non compati And therefore all men would enjoy thee but not so as to follow thee they would Reign with thee but they will not suffer with thee they can be concented with the Apostle to build Tabernacles and to abide with him on mount Tabor where he was transfigured in Glory but they can all forsake him on mount Calvarie when he was overwhelmed with sorrow and confusion went over his face This is the common course of the world to follow him close in prosperity and to seem zealous of his honour and of his service Cum benefecerit illis when as the Prophet David saith Their corn and wine and oyle encreaseth and they prosper in their successes but if they should be ejected suppressed and persecuted for serving him then will they start aside like a broken bow and like the children of Ephraint that being harnessed and carrying bowes and so being enabled by their learning wealth and friends to do God good service do turn their backs to him in the day of battel when there is most need of their help and they could most chiefly follow him But the true sheep of Christ and the faithfull servants of God will follow him Per mare per saxa per ignes and will say Who shall separate us from the love of Christ or withdraw us from the service of our God and following after our Shepherd or shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword No sure in all these things they are more then Conquerours through him that loved them so that neither Death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor Things present Rom. 8.35 v. 38.39 nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate them from the love of God and from following their Master Jesus Christ our Lord. And they that cannot truly say thus or they that love Father or Mother or Son or Daughter or any other thing in this world even their own life more then Christ they are not worthy of Christ Mat. 10.37 as Christ himself doth testifie And therefore seeing that to suffer with Christ and for Christ his Service is an especial gift and grace of God Phil 1.29 1 Pet. 3.14 Mat. 5.11 as the Apostle sheweth and that they are happy and blessed that suffer persecution for righteousness sake and when men shall revile them and say all manner of evil against them falsly for Christ his sake I say with the Poet Componite mentes Lucan Phars Ad magnae virtutis opus magnosque labores And as our Saviour saith when you suffer all that can be suffered and all that your enemies can impose upon you Mat. 11. v. 12. rejoice and be glad yea and be exceeding glad because your reward shall be great in heaven and let not your sufferings trouble you Nec enim fortuna querenda Ovid Met. l. ulâ— sab 44. Sola tua est similes aliorum respice casus Mitius istaferes For this is not your case alone but if you look what happened to other men you shall finde that as our Saviour saith So persecuted they the Prophets that were before you and so are many of your brethren persecuted as well as you and perhaps more then you which should teach you Mitius ista ferre to follow Christ in his sufferings the more patiently and contentedly without any manner of muttering 2. 2 In Doings As we are to follow our Shepherd Christ in his Sufferings so we are to follow him in his Doings that is to imitate him in our actions and to make him the Exemplar and the Pattern of all our doings for though we should live by Rules and not by Examples yet the Example of Christ is beyond all Rules Et validior est vox operis quam oris Bern in Cant. Ser. 59. and morall operations are more forcible then all the logicall demonstrations in the world But you must understand that the Acts and Doings of Christ are of two sorts 1. Unimitable 2. Imitable And The first he did as God to approve his Office and to confirm our Faith that we might believe him to be the Son of God and the Messias that should come to be the Saviour of the world for so he saith himself The works that I doe do testifie and beare witnesse of me And herein we are not required to follow him and we are not able to imitate him neither should we attempt to doe it for when he saith Learn of me he meaneth not saith Saint Augustine that thou shouldst learn of him Aut mundos fabricare aut mortuos suscitare
from many sins they would fall into most fearfull abominations and did not he sustain them with his hand they would pull down many mischiefs and kindle many plagues upon their own heads 3. Way 3 By bestowing many gifts and favours upon his creatures as sending them raine and fruitfull seasons Acts 14.17 making the Sun to shine both upon the good and upon the bad and filling our hearts with food and gladness by giving us Health Wealth and Prosperity 4. Way 4 By that which is above all and beyond all the rest in giving his onely Son to redeem us when we were captives and to save us when we were utterly lost Seneca saith we esteem our selves too highly if we suppose our selves worthy that the revolution of Winter and Summer should be done for us But alas good Philosopher if thou thinkest it strange that the world should hold his course for our sake what wouldst thou think if thou knewest as much as we that God for our sake should send his only Son to suffer the most ignominious death of the cross to deliver us from everlasting death The inexpressable greatness of Gods love in sending his Son to redeem us for this love is so full of all bottomlesse Mysteries so transcendently infinite that all the other multitudes of his blessings heaped upon us in our creation and preservation are not worth the talking of or so much as to be once named in comparison of this blessing but as the light of the Sun obscureth all the light of the Starres so the consideration of this benefit swalloweth up all the memory of all other benefits whatsoever And therefore this is ever and anon shewed and urged as the chiefest argument of Gods love and as the most royal Present whereby the King of Heaven did so exemplarily commend his love towards the sons of men 1 Johon 4.9 for as the Apostle saith in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was manifested the love of God towards us that he sent his onely begotten Son into the world Why this benefit exceedeth all other benefits that we might live through him And the reason why this benefit transcendeth and excelleth all other benefits seemeth to be two-fold 1. Reason 1 Because That before our creation we had done nothing that had displeased God or opposed his purpose to produce us but before our redemption we had every way offended his Majesty rejected his grace and refused his favours towards us nay we had not onely slighted his love but we had also in all hostile manner done as we see others do now unto us rendered to him evil for good and for all his grace and loving favours we offered Wars and all despightful Indignities unto him Reason 2 2. Because in our Creation Dixit facta sunt he spake the world and they were made commanded and they stood fast but in working our redemption Multa dixit magna fecit dira tulit he spake many excellent Sermons he did many admirable Works and he suffered many intolerable Things and yet Solus homo non compatitur pro quo solo Deus patitur of all Gods creatures The exceeding greatness of the Mystery of our Redemption by the Incarnation Passion of Christ Col 1.26 1 Pet. 1.10 12. man alone regards not all this for whom alone God did all this And therefore this work alone was that astonishing project wherewith the invisible God blessed for ever intended in the fullest measure to glorifie all his Attributes even at once and to make himself far more admirably known by this then he was either by the Creation or the preservation of all the things of this world And this was that unsearchable Mystery that was hidden from the Ages and the Generations before in which God would make known the riches of his glory and which the holy men of God for many ages together longed to see and the Angels themselves desired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most heedfully to pry into it So you see that God by innumerable wayes and specially by this superlative argument of his love to mankind doth sufficiently testifie that he loveth 3. For the extent and object of Gods love the Apostle saith that he loveth us 3 The Parties loved us Love what it is The extent of is The extent of Gods Love 1. Himself 2. All that he made and S. Austin defineth love to be a motion of the heart delighting it self in any thing And the better we conceive the thing to be the more is our heart inflamed to love it and therefore God being the chiefest good he must needs in the first place love himself best as the Father loveth the Son the Son in like manner loveth the Father and both of them equally love the holy Spirit and the Spirit them And besides himself God loveth all things that he made because all that he made were good Sin he made not therefore he loves it not but hateth the same with a perfect hatred But though God loveth every thing which he hath made That of all Creatures God loved Mankind best yet he loveth not all things equally alike for we finde that he shewed more evident testimonies of far greater love to mankind then he did to any other creature whatsoever for though he loveth his Angels with a very great and singular love when he maketh them his Ministers and these Ministers flames of fire that do continually burn with the love of his Sacred Majesty yet we do not read that he stileth himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of Angels as he termeth himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of men as Zanchy well observeth out of Tit. 3.4 And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his love to man more then to any other creature appeareth more manifestly by the manifold effects of his love As 1. In creating man alone after his own Image 2. In giving to him alone dominion over the rest of his creatures over all the works of his hands 3. In predestinating his onely begotten Son to take upon him our flesh thereby to exalt the humane nature alone above all other creatures whatsoever for though the Angels were of a pure simple and unspotted being and we of a terrene corrupted substance yet as the Apostle well observeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2.16 he took not upon him the Angels but he took the seed of Abraham And therefore the Prophet David considering these many many testimonies of the divine love to man crieth out with admiration O God what is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the son of man that thou so regardest him thou madest him a little lower then the Angels but it was to crown him with glory and worship Psal 8 5. Gods love to men not equally alike to all men Prov. 8. Exod. 20. Psal 11.6 And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here hath an emphasis that God loved us men or mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
we were thus filled with malice swelled with enmity and opposite to all amity to all verity to all goodness when we lay polluted in our own blood as the Prop. Ezek. saith Ez. 6.6 were enemies unto God and were as the Ap. speaketh dead in trespasses sins having hearts but no hearts to love him having souls Eph. 2.1 but no souls to long for him and having bodies but no bodies to serve him but such as were breathing out slaughters against him as Saul was breathing the like against the Church Acts 9.1 and when we were no more willing to yield him any the least jot of true love or holy affection then dead bodies are able to perform the most honourable action God then pittied our miseries and had compassion of our unworthiness and as S. Aug. saith etiam non dilectus dilexit out of his abundant goodness without any other motive he loved us when we thus hated wronged and abused him continually provoking him to anger with our continual abominations and yet he doth not say with the Poet Odero si potero si non invitus amabo I love them against my will but indignos amavi I have freely loved them that are so worthy of my hate and so unworthy of my love And therefore here is love and the love of loves and the wonder of all wonders to prosecute them with love that persecuted him with hate and so mercifully to give his only Son to save their lives that so causlesly and maliciously put his Son whom he so dearly loved to a most direful and a most shameful death And therefore as David directeth his 45. Psalm which is Epithalamium Christi sponsae or Canticum amicanum a Song of Loves to the chief Musitian upon Shoshannim or to him that excelleth in Musick So must I leave this great love of God to be amplified by him that is vates amorum the Disciple of Love not he that termed himself so but he that was so indeed the Disciple which our Saviour loved And so I will descend unto the second part of this text which is Pars 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos diligimus eum as Catharinus Calv. Beza Tremel and abundance more do read it or diligamus eum as the Vulg. Lat. Aquinas Justinianus Corn. a Lapide and all those that follow the vulgar translation do expound it which in effect is all one the Holy Ghost purposely using that word which in the original is both the Indicative and the Subjunctive Mood to reach us that what the holy men of God do all men should do the same that is to love him which is the second part of my Text far different from the former that being high and excellent this low and but indifferent that very great and more then can be expressed this very very little and less then should be imagined and therefore I can speak but a little of it and for that little I beseech you to consider these two points The 1. From the consideration of Gods love that he loved us 2. From the consideration of the time that he loved us first The first point teacheth us to love God again Quia amor amoris magnes 1 VVhat the first Point teacheth us i.e. to love God a-again De Lege Talionis Res dare pro rebus pro verbis verba solemus Pro bufis bufas pro trufis reddere trufas Buffets with blowes and mocks with mowes Dalton p. 180. Mat. 7.12 1. In retaliation of evil for evil Exod. 21.22 durus est qui amorem non rependit and Lextalionis The Law of like doth require no less then that we should love him that loveth us for even reason sheweth that Lex non justior ullaest there cannot be a juster Law in the world then the Law of Retaliation and so our Saviour testifieth With the same measure ye meat it shall be measured to you again and Nature it self teacheth us the same Lesson Quod tibi fieri velis aliis hoc fieri videto Quod tibi fieri nolis aliis hoc fieri caveto And the Eternal Verity saith Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets And this Law holdeth good not only in general but also in the particular retribution 1. Of evil for evil 2. Of good for good As 1. Moses that was Faithful in all Gods House saith If men strive and any mischief follow then thou shalt give Life for Life Eye for Eye c. which is to be understood not of private revenge but to be executed by him that is justly deputed to execute vengeance upon the evil doers And so we find it executed both by God and men for the Old world that filled the Earth with a Deluge of all wickedness God brought a Deluge of Water to wash the same clean away and the Sodomites that burned with the fire of unlawful Lusts were consumed with Fire and Brimstone for the same and the Egyptians that drowned all the Male Children of the Israelites were themselves drowned in the Red Sea and the Children of Israel when they took Adonibezek cut off his Thumbes and his Great Toes and he said Judges 1.6 7. Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbes and their Great Toes out off gâ—thered their meat under my Table and now as I have done so God hath required me So when Perillus made his Brazen Bull to torment others Phalaris thought it just that himself which made it should first tast of his own Invention And when Egypt wanted the wonted Inundation of Nilus and Thracius told Busiris that the Wrath of the gods would be appeased by the Sacrificing of a Strangers Blood and the King understanding by his own Confession that he was an Alien Illi Busiris fies Jovis Hostia primus Inquit Aegypto tu dabis hospes aquam He thought it the justest act to offer him first unto the gods So we read that those Lords which first called the Moores into Spain to suppresse their King Rodericke whom they hated were themselves and their Families destroyed by the means of those Moores and the Britains that rejected their Just and Lawful King Aurel. Ambrosius Speed l. 7. c. 12. and sent for the Saxons Hengist and Horsus to aid Vortigerne and his Associates that were Intruders were driven by the Saxons into the Rocky Mountains where they remain exiled from their own Right to this very day and because the God of Long Patience is a God of Great Justice that will render to every man according to his deeds and holds it very just that those rebellious people which call any other Nation to suppresse their own Lawful King should at one time or other either by that very Nation or some other be subdued and destroyed themselves therefore Subjects ought to think of Gods Justice before they cast off the Yoke of their Allegiance And 2. As the Poet
save us from all our sins And thus the true Saints that do hate their sins and lay hold on Christ do only love the Lord and the wicked that delight in sin and perceive not the sweetness of their Saviour cannot be said to love God for as the whole have no need of the Physitian and give no thanks for his Physick so they that feel not the sense of their own miseries and perceive not their Obligation to their Deliverer can have no love to God their Saviour Therefore seeing as the Poet saith Quod latet ignotum est ignoti nulla cupido And as S. Bern. saith non potes aut amare quem non noveris aut habere quem non amaveris we cannot love whom we know not nor enjoy whom we love not it behoveth us to search into our spirits to look into our own states to consider the multitude of our own sins and to bethink our selves in what need we stand of a Deliverer to see if this will not bring us in love with God our Saviour And then I beseech you Two special Points to be considered let us consider 1. What manner of Love we ought to have 2. How great a love it ought to be towards him And 1. I presume theâ—e is no man in this Assembly but he would think himself much injured 1 What manner of Lovewe ought to have if it were but imagined that he did not love God his Saviour and iâ— is not my desire to dishearten any when I wish from my heart that every the least sparke of your love to God might prove a Glorious Flame Yet I fear there be very many men that come into the world they know not why and live therein they care not how and go out of it again they cannot tell where but do live in it without a God and then die without any hope And others there be that dream of happiness and their hopes being but dreams they do therein but deceive themselves like those that dream they are at a pleasant Banquet yet when they awake their soul is hungry For as the Jews in our Saviours time did indeed persecute him because they were so blinded that they could not apprehend him to be the Son of God but for God himself they made full account that they alone and none but they did love him and for Moses vvhose very Name vvas the Glory of their Nation they professed to love him beyond measure so that vvhosoever spake any blasphemous vvords against Moses vvas thought vvorthy to be stoned to death Acts 6.11 John 5.42 V. 45. And yet our Saviour tels them I know you that you have not the love of God in you and that Moses in vvhom they trusted should accuse them before God So many Christians at the last day shall profess that they have prophesied in Christ's Name cast out Devils done many wonderful works in his Name rebelled against their ovvn King and killed their own Brethren and starved their own Shepherds and hazarded their own Lives for his sake and yet he shall protest unto them I never knew you i. e. to love me or to do these things for my sake but for your own ends and to satisfie your own desires and therefore depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity And the reason is Two sorts of the Lovers of Christ 1. Formal 2. Real that there are two sorts of the lovers of Christ and two kinds of professors of Christianity 1. General 2. Special That formal this real that in shew this in deed that ingendred by Education by Country by Custome by conformity to the Laws and Fashions of them with whom they live and by a common sence of Gods outward favours for Christ his sake unto them and this infused by an inward operation of Gods Spirit in the heart in all sincerity and truth and is continually preserved and encreased by a lively sence of Gods special favour unto them through Jesus Christ And you know that S. Paul tells us he is not a Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that which appeareth outwardly in the flesh i.e. which is but only born and bred a Jew of the seed of Abraham of the visible Synagogue and partaker of all the external Covenants of grace but he only is the right Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly in the secrets of the heart so he is not a Christian that is but only born a Christian and doth but outwardly profess Christianity to come to the Church to hear Sermons to receive the Sacraments Who is the true Christian and to accustome himself to all the outward formalities of Christianity but he is the true Christian that is so made by his second birth and by that internal grace which is indeed invisible unto others but most sensible unto himself and who as the Evangelist saith John 1.13 is born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And therefore seeing God is not mocked and that he requireth truth in the inward parts and the exactest kind of love that can be imagined let us not mock our selves by any presumptuous conceits of our love to God and so deceive our own hearts and betray our own souls which is the usual practice of too too many men for if we love God as we ought then our love must be as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in purity in simplicity or as the word signifieth in incorruption i.e. such as neither the most honourable nor the most profitable nor the most delectable things in this world can ever be able to lessen or diminish the least jot of our love to God when with the Apostle we disesteem our preferments and our honours and whatsoever else the world could confer upon us and account them all but as dung in comparison of our love to God and the discharging of that duty which we owe unto him for so Abraham forsook his Country neglected his honour and was ready to facrifice his only Son in obedience to the commands of God and so will all they do that do truly love the Lord as they out to love him 2. For the extent and quantity of our love to God S. Augustine saith Aug. de moribus Ecclesiae that Modus diligendi Deum est ut diligatur quantum potest diligi quanto plus diligitur tanto est dilectio melior And St. Bernard saith that Modus diligendi Deum est sine modo The measure of our love to God should be beyond measure so much that we should prefer his Love his Honour and his Service before our Father or Mother or Wife or Husband or Children or Pleasure or Profit or any other thing in this World yea before our own life which we should be ready and willing to lay down for the love of him and the defence of his truth and service Qui
post nummos Haec Janus summus ab imo perdocet Haec recinunt juvenes dictata senesque Which made Euripides to present one in an humor that neglected all things and all reproaches for wealth because said he men seld om or never ask how good or how honest is such a one but how rich is he and each man is that which he possesseth and is so esteemed according as he is worth and no more And therefore most men I mean worldly men love their gold as their God and this God hath their love And yet riches in their own nature have neither honour nor knowledge nor power nor valour nor any other good nor evil in themselves more than that whereunto they that do possesse them do direct them but they are like the water Riches like the waters of Feneo of the lake Feneo whereof the Arcadians do report that whosoever drinketh of it in the night he falleth sick but whosoever taketh it in the day time he becometh well so riches used for the works of darknesse to oppresse the poor to subdue our Prince to uphold pride to maintain Idolatry rebellion and the like are very poyson unto our Souls but if we imploy them for the deeds of light How riches do evil and how they may do good to uphold the right to relieve the poor to defend the innocent they are as antidotes against all evil for neither is the rich man condemned nor the poor man saved because the one is rich and the other poor but as both may be saved so beth may be condemned because the rich man abuseth his wealth and the poor man his poverty And as most men hunt after riches so I might shew you how others affect authority and others are drunk with the desire of honours but the time would be too short for me to go about to cut off the head of this monstrous Hydra of misordered love and most men do professe to know that as S. John saith 1 Joh. 2.15 Whosoever loveth the World the love of the Father is not in him and that this world is full of snares and thorns and vanities and vexation of spirit and that the lovers of this world are none other than the Servants of the Devil and they do likewise confesse that God hath done and doth all those great things for them which we have set down and therefore that they are no worldlings but do love God with all their hearts and do think themselves much wronged if they should be otherwise suspected Yet because 2 Thes 3.2 as the Apostle saith all men have not faith so all men have not love What we must do if we love God especially such love as they ought to have therefore lest we should deceive our selves herein and so destroy our Souls we must know that God is truth and therefore he that loves God loves truth and whosoever loves lies and falsehoods loves not God and God is Justice therefore he that loves God loves that which is right and just and he that loves to do wrong loves not God and so God is Wisdom and God is Mercy and therefore he that loves God loves Wisdom and sheweth mercy and they that are foolish as all the wicked are and do shew cruelty unto their brethren as do the blood thirsty men that do now seaze and kill and slay the innocent that never offended them cannot be said to love God But for the fuller manifestation of our love to God 1. Two things to be done I will set down some of the most infallible signs of this true love of God the best of them that are collected 2. Lest upon the discussion of these truths we find our selves destitute of this love I will briefly and as the time will give me leave shew the impediments and set down the furtherances of our love to God 1 The infallible signs of our true love of God The Image of of Love how anciently painted And why And 1. I find amongst the Antient Hieroglyphicks that the Image of Love was painted in the shape of a beautiful woman cloathed in a green vesture wherein was written these two words prope procul far and nigh in the breast were ingraven life and death in the borders of her garment were set Winter and Summer and in her side a wound so wide and so largely opened that all her inward parts were transparent And those Sages that pourtrayed Love thus did it for these reasons 1. In the shape of a woman to shew the vehemencie of this affection The explanation of the hierogliphick 2 Sam. 1.26 because women by reason of their weaknesse to bridle their passions as they are more violent in their hate so are they more fervent in their love and more vehement in all their desires than men therefore David expressing the great love of Jonathan towards him saith that his love passed the love of women 2. Of a beautiful woman to shew that Love is an alluring subject and is sweet and delectable even to them that are troubled with Love 3. In a green vesture to shew that true love ought alwayes to be fresh and fair and never withered nor waxen old because it never faileth 1 Cor. 13.8 as the Apostle testifieth 4. In the words far and nigh that were set in the forehead of that Image was signified that contrary to the common practice of the world to follow that old Proverb Qui procul ab oculis procul est a limine cordis Out of sight out of mind true love remaineth firm as well in the absence as in the presence of them that we love when as neither length of time nor distance of place can any wayes alter the constancie or lessen the affection of a true Lover 5. In life and death that were ingraven on the breast was shewed that Cant. 8.6 as Solomon saith love is as strong as death Ecl. 49.1 and cannot be extinguished even by death it self but we will love the very names and memories of them whom we loved as the Son of Syrach saith of Josias 6. By the Winter and Summer that were set in the borders of her garment was signified that true love is permanent and durable as well in adversity as in prosperity for though as the Poet saith of worldly lovers Donec eris felix While prosperity lasteth and thy table is well furnished thou shalt want no friends nor misse of any guests but if adversity cometh thy friends will fail and thy guests will be gone so the Prophet tells us there be many men that will love God and praise him too cum lucrum accidit illis when they receive any benefit from him and when as David saith their corn and wine and oyl increaseth Psal 4.8 Job 1.11 but if any great losse or sud calamity should happen unto them then what the Devil said falsely of holy Job may be truely said of these worldly men they will
aut per maria ambulare Aug. de bonis Câ—njugal c. 37. Non in quantum sil dei sed in quant filius hominis Id. de sanctitat Virginit c. 27. aut coecos illuminare but learn of me that I am meek and lowly in heart Therefore The second sort of the Acts and Doings of Christ are such as he did as man and are imitable to be imitated by us that are men and would be counted the Sheep and Servants of Christ and herein we should follow him And therein also we are to follow him 1. In respect of the Manner 2. In respect of the Matter For 1. What vertuous or pious act soever we desire to do 1 Sincerely 2. Totally 3. Diligently 4. Constantly 5. Humbly Diabolus dux nobis fuit ad superbiam Aug. ho. 12. Phil. 2.7 and to imitate Christ therein we must strive to do it to the uttermost of our power Modo forma in the same manner as Christ did it and that is 1. In sincerity without hypocrisie 2. For Gods glory and not for our own commodity 3. In a discreet knowledge and not in a blinde zeale Without the observation of which rules the Acts that we do may be good in themselves and yet quite spoyled from yielding any great good to us by our ill manner of doing them As 1. To fast and pray and to pay Tythes of Mynt and Annyse 1 Boni videri volunt sed non esse Bern. in cant Ser. 66. 1 Chr. 28.9 Prov. 21.1 Psal 51. Ad novercae tumulâ—m flere Hieron in Esa l. 6. How horrible it is to do villanies under the pretence of Piety Erasm in simil were very good deeds commended and commanded to be done by God himself yet because the Scribes and Pharisees did them in hypocrisie to be seen of men and to make the world believe they were Saints and the onely religious men our Saviour denounceth many a bitter woe against them and tells us that they have their reward and that is as Saint Hierom saith Gloriam mercenariam supplicia peccatorum So they that proclaim dayes of Humiliation and practise nothing but Oppression that pray to God to blesse them and prey upon the poor that curse them do but as the Greek Adage saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to weep for the death of our Stepmother and double their sin in the sight of God Quia levius est in alium aperte peccare quam simulare sanctitatem because the professed thief that robs by the high-way-side is not so bad as the holy Saint that under the shew of Religion takes away mine Estate saith Saint Hierome for as Wine mingled with Water doth sooner provoke vomite then either Water alone or pure Wine Ita intolerabilior est nequitia pietatatis simulatione condita quam simplex aperta malitia so any wickedness that is covered with the Cloak of Religion is a great deal more intolerable then if the same were plainly committed without any pretence of Piety saith Erasmus So horrible a sin it is to cloath Sin in the garment of Holiness as to put the Coat of Christ upon Judas his back 2. As it was an acceptable service unto God 2 Many doe Gods work for their own end as to subdue the rebels to get their lands for themselves The continual course of all worldlings in the service of God and a very good work to root out the house of Ahab for his Idolatry and prophaning Gods Service yet because Jehis did it rather to get the Kingdom unto himself and destroyed all the Kings children the better to secure himself in his Kingdome then to satisfie Gods justice for Ahabs Impiety the Lord saith that he will require the blood of Ahab on the house of Jehu even so they that destroy any Offenders root out the Transgressors of Gods Lawes and punish the Corrupters of Gods Worship be they whom you will the Work may be good and just yet if the doers thereof do it not so much to execute Gods Will as to satisfie their own Malice to suppress whom they hate or according to their ambition to make themselves great and to get their Estates and Possessions to themselves and their Posterity God will never accept of this work for any service done to him but will most severely punish it at the last And I think that the making of themselves great as Jehu did by the service that men pretend to do to God doth sufficiently cause many others to doubt whether they have done those things onely for Gods glory or for a conjuncture likewise of their own profit and I conceive you may be sure the jealous God will not regard that service which is done to him with a sinister aspect and respect to our own profit because he will not give his glory unto another he will not yield any part of his service to any of them that do the service but though he will certainly reward every man that doth him service yet as our Saviour explaineth the words of Moses it is written The shalt worship the Lord thy God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and him onely shalt thou serve and not thy self with him in the service that thou dost to him so he will neither accept nor reward that service which thou dost to thy self as well as to God or rather to thy self then to God And therefore I would advise all those that in doing service unto God by pulling down the Transgressors of his Lawes have raised themselves to such great Polsessions I would the Rebels would consider this to look well to their intention progression and execution of their work lest that for the service they believe they do to God they receive the reward of the Scribes and Pharisees or of Jehn that pulled down King Ahab to make himself King of Israel 3. 3 Many do good in a blind zeal Num. 11.28 2 Sam. 16.9 The love of Joshna to Moses when Eldad and Medad prophesied was good and so was the love of Abishai to David when Shimei cursed him and of James and John to Christ when they would have called for fire out of heaven to destroy the Samaritans for not receiving Christ but the love of them was in a blind Zeal without knowledge and therefore instead of being commended they were much reproved for their indiscretion even as Saint Paul persecuted the Saints when his blind zeal perswaded him that he destroyed Gods enemies And as Aiax in his frenzy is reported to have slain his own children by taking them for Ulisses and Agamemnon so many men in their blind Zeal destroy the true Ambassadors of Christ and the Pastors of Gods people by taking them for Popish Prelates Origen in ep ad Rom. Zelus ad mortem Amb. in Ps 119. and therein think they do God good service as the Jews thought when they crucified Christ for as Origen saith Putant se zelum Dei habere sed quia non secundum
scientiam zelati sunt sacriligi extiterunt in filium Dei they perswaded themselves that they had the love and zeal of the honour of God but because their zeal was not according to knowledge they became sacrilegious against the Son of God and their fiery zeal to Gods Worship became as Saint Ambrose saith A bloody Zeal unto Death and like unto a Ship under faile without a Pilate that will dash it self against the Rocks all to pieces so it is when we rob and spoyl and persecute the true Servants of Christ for being as we suppose the limbs of the Antichrist But such and so great is the malice and subtilty of Satan towards mankind that he cares not which wayes he brings man to destruction so he may bring him any way either in being too zealous without knowledge and so persecute the good for bad or too careless with all our knowledge and so bless the bad for the good either by hating the superstitious Papist The continual practice of the Devil beyond all reason or loving the malicious Sectary contrary to all reason either by falling into the fire on the right hand or into the water on the left hand either by making the whole Service of God to consist onely of preaching and hearing Sermons and neglect the Prayers and all other Christian duties or using the Prayers onely with the Service of the Church and omit the preaching of Gods Word for this hath been alwayes the Devils practise To separate those whom God would have joyned together and to joyn those together whom God would have kept asunder And therefore we should be very careful to joyn Knowledge and Discretion with our Zeal and desire to do God service if we desire to follow Christ 2. 2 The matter wherein we are to follow Christ For the Matter Points or wayes wherein the Sheep of Christ are to follow him they are very many but the chiefest of them are reducible into these three principal Heads 1. The works of Piety Joh. 2.17 2. The works of Equity 3. The works of Charity Jam. 2.16 Eph. 5.1 2. In all which we are to do our best endeavour to imitate and to follow Christ Actu ciffectu Bern. in Cant. S. 50. and therein we shall do the things that are most acceptable unto God and most profitable for our selves For the first none doubts of it but that these things are most acceptable in the sight of God And for the second we may be sure of it that it is better for us to build Churches to maintain Preachers and to erect Hospitals then to raise our Families and we shall receive more comfort to do Justice and to protect the Innocent and to relieve the Poor then by gaining Naboths Vineyard or heâ—ping Dives his Treasures unto our selves The time will not give me leave to prosecute these particulars any further but I pray God give us grace to prosecute the performance and doing of them throughout all our lives to the glory of God the discharging of our Duties and the eternall comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all Glory and Honour for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SEVENTH TREATISE 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us THis text you see is a text of love a Theam that filleth Sea and Land Heaven and Earth and as the Poets feign Hell it self Claudian de raptu Proserpinae when as the King thereof Tumidas exarsit in iras did swell with rage because he might not enjoy his love in hell as Jupiter did in heaven And yet the scarcity and want of true love causeth such plenty of great evils in every place for we love not God we love not our neighbours we love not our own selves for if we loved God we would keep his Commandments if we loved our neighbours we would neither wrong them nor oppress them and if we loved our selves then we would love God if not for his own sake which is the right love yet for our own good and our neighbours for Gods sake But for Gods Commandements I may truly say it with Nehemiah Nehem. 9.34 Neither have our Kings our Princes our Priests nor our Fathers kept his Laws nor hearkned unto his Commandments but as Ezra saith Ezra 9.7 We have all been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our King our Priests our Bishops our Judges and all of us been delivered to the sword to the spoil to confusion of face and to all these miseries as it is this day And for wronging one another if we consider all the oppressions that are done under the Sun nay that were done in these Kingdomes and the tears of such as were oppressed and had no Comforter when the oppressors had such power that none durst speak against them then as Solomon saith we may most justly praise the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2 3 and him better then both which hath not yet been to see the great evils that are done amongst us And for our own selves we do just as the wise man saith seek our own death in the errour of our life and Sampson-like pull down the house upon our own heads as you may remember that when we had plenty of peace and prosperity then as the children of Israel murmured against Moses that delivered them out of the Aegyptian bondage and loathed Manna that came down from heaven so were we discontented at every trifle and so weary of peace and such murmurers against our happiness When the Articles of peace were published we were so discontented and murmured so much thereat that the ear of jealousie which heareth all things heard the same and was pleased to satisfie our discontents and to send us our own desires such plenty of wars and fulness of all miseries plagues famines and oppressions as our Fathers never knew the like and are like to continue amongst us until God seeth us more in love with his goodness towards us and our repentings move him to repent him of the evils that he intendeth against us that have so justly deserved them from him Therefore to ingender and beget love where it is not to encrease it where it is but little and to rectifie it where it is amiss either towards God or our neighbours or our selves I will by Gods help and your patience with as much brevity as I can How the created Trinity fell and may be reunited to the uncreated Trinity express the plenty of these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mellifluous S. Bern. whose laborious work is like a pleasant garden that is replenished with all sorts of the most odoriferous flowers saith that in the Unity of Gods Essence there is a Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost
his private Closet his mind was wandring among the Wantons in the Galleries of Rome If we hear Sermons he will poyson our Opinions and prejudicate our minds with some ill conceit of the Preacher if we do well he will infect our best deeds with Pharisaical pride tum superbia destruit quicquid justitia aedificat pride destroyeth whatsoever righteousness buildeth if we do ill he will perswade us to persevere therein And so in all things else though he professeth love yet is it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the gift of an enemy as was Ajax Sword that he received from Hector wherewith he kill'd himself a most deadly love worse then any open hate 2. Passing over all dissembling flatterers and all flattering friends 2 How the world professeth to love us perditissimos homines and those villanous men as Cicere terms them which can give a stab to the smile of an innocent and perfidiously deceive them qui laesi non essent nisi credidissent which had been safe if they had not trusted them The whole world is the Devils Ape and imitates him to a hair like the Courtlie Mountebank that is composed of nothing else but Complements and can promise golden Mountains but perform dirty Dales and deal with us as Laban did with Jacob Gen. 29.24 when he had served seven years for beautiful Rachel to thrust into his bed and to his bosome bleer-ey'd Leah It is like Dalila able to betray the strongest Sampson and like Circe powerful enough to bewitch the Wisest Solomon And if I had time to relate unto you the Tragedies of Mar. Attilius Regulus Cheops King of Egypt that erected the Pyramides Croesus King of Lydia Darius King of Persia Manius Acilius the Roman Consul Belisarius the brave General of Justinian who in his old age begged Date obolum Belisario Iob 30.4 quem virtus exaltavit fortuna depressit malitia excaecavit O give one half-peny to him whom virtue raised fortune spoiled and malice made him a poor blind begger And those thirty Emperours or thereabouts that died not sicca Morte but were killed from Julius Caesar to Charlemaigne and especially that notable example of Hebraim Bassa chief Councellor and of greatest power with Solyman the Great Turk whom Paulus Jovius termeth the greatest Minion of the worlds inconstancy because he was so intirely beloved of Solyman that he entreated his Master not to make so much of him lest being elevated with Haman too high he might have like him too great a fall and the Emperour swore he would never take away his life while he lived yet afterwards for some distaste of his insolent carriage Solyman being informed by a Talisman or Turkish Priest that a man asleep cannot be counted among the living sent an Eunuch into his Chamber who with a sharp Razor cut his throat as he was quietly sleeping in his bed And likewise Pope Baltazar Cossa who called himself John the XXIV that being thrown out of his Popedome by the Council of Constance 1417. made these verses of himself Qui modo summus eram gandens nomine Prasul Tristis Abjectus nunc mea Fata gemo Excelsus solio nuper versabar in alto Cunctaque Gens pedibus oscula prona dabant Nunc ego paenarum fundo devolvor in imo Vultum deformem quemque videre piget Omnibus eterris Aurum mihi sponte ferebant Sed nec Gaza juvat nec quis amicus adest Sic varians Fortuna vices adversa secundis Subdit ambiguo nomine ludit atrox And a thousand like examples that might be produced of some men that as Job saith cut up mallows by the bushes and Juniper roots for their meat children of fools yea children of base men that were viler then the earth whose Fathers we would have disdained to have eaten with the dogs of our flocks are now keepers of Castles and Commanders of whole Countryes Camer l. 4. c. 7.246 And others that from the highest honor were suddenly thrown down to the lowest misery compell'd to change their scarlet robes for rugs it would plainly appear unto us that the lovers of this world which relie upon the Worlds love Camerarius l. 3. c. 5.162 are greater fools then Heliodorus the Carthaginian who caused this Epitaph to be ingraven upon his Tomb hard by the straight of Gibralter I Heliodorus Reliodorus his Epitaph a fool of Carthage have ordained by my last will to be buried in this place in the remotest part of the world to see if any man more foolish then my self would come thus far to see me And therefore the best way to escape the deceits of the World is to follow the counsel of the Epicarmus How we ought to deal with the world that is semper diffidere alwayes to distrust it and never to believe it but with Ulysses to tye our selves unto the main Mast of our ship i.e. to sound reason or rather to true Religion that teacheth us to deal with this World as the worldlings deal with God to stop our ears like the deaf Adder that layeth one ear close to the earth and clappeth her tail in the other and so never listneth to the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely 3. 3 How we love our selves 2 Tim. 3.2 The Comique tells us verum idesse vulgo quod dici solet that every man loves himself better then another And Euripides saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one loves himself better then his friend and the Apostle saith that in the last times men should be lovers of themselves And yet there was not a sounder truth uttered by the mouth of any Phylosopher then nemo laditur nisi a seipso no man is wounded but by himself because as Aquinas saith inordinatus amor sui est causa omnis peccati Sin is the cause of all our miseries and the inordinate love of our selves That our self-self love is the cause of all our sins and of all our miseries is the chiefest cause of all sins And Plato calleth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons omnium malorum the root and fountain of all mischief And experience tells us that intus est equus Trojanus every mans greatest enemy lodgeth within his own bosome otherwise if we had the true reins of our own passions and could bridle our own affections then outward occasions might well exercise our virtue but not much injure our actions because others cannot draw us into any great inconveniences if we do not some way help our selves forward As the Adulterers cannot bereave us of the chastity of our bodies if there be not an Adulterer lodging within our souls and the Fornicator cannot take away the chastity of a Virgin if her corrupted heart doth not some way yield consent and therefore the Law saith of the ravished woman that she shall be freed and no cause of death shall be in her because the fact was committed against
of it And whereas this day five years past all the Protestants in this Kingdome and we especially of this City were destined to be sacrificed and slaughtered and sent as an Holâ—â—â—st or whole burnt-offering from the holy Father to the infernal God as many thousands of our Brethren were then and since yet by the love of God towards us we are still preserved alive that we might serve him and love him again And what more shall I say but cry out with the Psalmist O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31.21 and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the Sons of men for thou hast shewed us Marvellous great kindness I cannot say in a strong City but I say in a weak City and delivering us from strong Enemies whose Subtilty and Cruelty Treachery and Perfidiousness would require the head of the best experienced converted Jesuite to express it I had rather preach of Gods Love than treat of their Malicâ— and to talk of his Goodness rather than their wickedness and that great goodness The Lord Marquess of Ormond which he hath so lately shewed in delivering our most Excellent Governour so often from that malicious wickedness of the Sons of Belial so perfidiously intended against him is not the least Testimony of Gods Love to us all especially if we consider that what was intended this day 5 years had now questionless been executed if God had not broken the Snare of the Fowler and by delivering him redeemed us all from the Sword of Malice and from the Jawes of death and therefore this ought to be rightly weighed and duly remembred in our Thanksgiving among the many great undeserved and unexpected Preservations that our good God hath wrought for us And because his Excellency trusteth not in Lying Vanities but putteth his Trust in the Lord and in the Mercy of the Most High therefore he shall not miscarry But indeed this Love of God to us hath been so great and his Blessings in our Deliverances have been so many that if I should go about to enumerate them I might as well tell the Stars for as the Prophet saith they are more in number than I am able to expresse and therefore I will now conclude with our hearty thanks and Praise unto our good God for all his Love and Favours and Deliverances that he hath shewed unto us through Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for evermore Labilis memoria hominis How easily and how soon men forget good things the memory of man is very frail and slippery especially in the retention of all good things for though as the Poet saith Scribit in marmore laesus we write injuries in marble and never forget nor forgive the least ill turn that is done against us yet we write all benefits and all good instructions in the sands where the waves of forgetfulness do soon wash all away as the children of Israel regarded not the wonders that God wrought in Aegypt neither kept they his great goodness in remembrance Psal 106.7 13 21. but soon forgot his works yea and forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Aegypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea therefore lest you should forget the first part of this text before you heard the second I thougt it high time to proceed to those points which the time prevented me to inlarge not the last time I was in this place but the last time I treated of this verse and I hope you do remember that I told you this text was a text of love and of a twofold love 1. The love of God to man And 2. The love of man to God And In the first I noted these four things 1. The lover God 2. The affection Love He loved us first 3. The beloved Us. 4. The time First And I have done with the first three and therefore not to stand upon any further repetition I am now to proceed to shew you the fourth point that is the time when he loved us 4 The time when God loved us first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he loved us first i.e. before we would or could love him for love is one of the affections and the affections are seated in the heart and the heart is placed in the midst of the body and the body could not contain the heart nor the heart cast forth the affections nor the affections produce love before our loves Jer. 31.3 God loved us from everlasting before our Creation and affections and hearts and bodies had their being But God loved us before we were created and before we could have the least thought of our very being for I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee saith the Lord and this love was everlasting as well a parte ante from the time past as a parte post for the time to come and this love will appear the greater if we consider how freely and how undeservedly he hath loved us for the object of love is good either that which is really so indeed or seeming so to be And S. Aug. reasoneth most truly that antequam creati eramus nihil boni merebamur before we were made we could do no good we could merit no reward we could deserve no love And yet before we had received any being the love of God towards us had received a beginning and when our souls were unbreathed our bodies unframed and all this glorious structure laid in the dust before ever we beheld the light or the light was brought out of darkness or the darkness was upon the face of the deep our bodies and our souls were affected by God and we had a deep interest in the love of God when as then the earth was created for our habitation the creatures were produced for our service and the heavens were appointed for our comfort So God loved us before our Generation before we were before we had our being and after our transgression God loved us after our transgression John 8. when as God had made us his sons like himself and we had made our selves like our Father the devil there was cause enough of hate but none of love for then we found a way to run away from God we invented garments to hide our shame and to cover our nakedness from the eyes of men but to make us most loathsome in the eyes of God and we became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God that laboured with the old Gyants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight and war with God to unthrone him and to ungod him when we desired to make our selves like Gods nay the only Gods and he should be no God at all unless we might have our wills and not his will to be done in heaven as we do in earth Yet then when
all these things pass I dare appeal to any impartial Reader that neither Eusebius nor Socrates nor Thuanus nor Chammier nor any other Hystorian Ecclesiastical or Prophane that have written of Persecutions or of the cruelty of Antichrist can shew me any King since the King of the Jews that by his own Subjects and for no vice of his own that malice it self can tax him but only in reality whatsoever is otherwise pretended for the defence of Christ his faith and the true service of God the protection of all faithfull Preachers and the upholding of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom hath or could suffer more unkingly indignities by any Antichrist than our gracious King hath done by his own ungraciaus Subjects of these three Kingdoms But stay and let us consider that although these Persecutions be exceeding great yet our sins and transgressions are far greater and God in all this is most just and as Ezra saith Ezra 9 13. Punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve for certainly we must confess what the world seeth that we have sinned with our Fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly and therefore as Eusebius confesseth the iniquities of the Primitive Christians to have pulled upon them those Heathen Persecutions so must we acknowledge this Antichristian Tyranny to have most justly fallen upon us And not only so but seeing we have so justly deserved it let us submit our selves under the mighty hand of God repent and be sorry for whatsoever we have done amiss and pray to God for grace and strength to suffer what shall be laid upon us either for the punishment of our sins or the trial of our Faith to God and our Loyalty to our King not only the loss of all worldly things but even of our life it self because that in so suffering unto death we shall be sure to have the Crown of life which the Lord grant unto us for Jesus Christ his sake to whom be all glory and honour for ever and ever Amen I have spent two hours in treating of this one verse already and because here is magnum in parvo abundance of treasure in this little mine I must crave leave to spend one hour more and with that I hope I shall finish all that I have to say on these words You may remember I told you the words contain 1. Gods love to Man 2. Mans love to God The first I handled in my first Sermon And In the second I shewed you three parts that is to say 1. The Persons We 2. The Act Love 3. The Object him We love him 3 The Object of our love God The two first in my last Sermon And now because I love neither Tautologies nor to stand long upon repetitions I will proceed unto the object of our love where the Apostle saith We love him that is God And I would to God that we did all love him quia actus distinguitur per objectum because it is not our love that doth hurt us but the object of our love maketh or marreth all for as St. Augustine saith Duas civitates duo faciunt amores our love to God buildeth up Jerusalem Aug. super Psal 64. the Church and City of God and our love to the world and these worldly things buildeth up Babylon the Synagogue of Satan And therefore this is the errour of the sons of men The errour of men not that we are subject unto Passions and endued with the affections of Fear Hate Love and the like but that we misguide our Passions and misorder our affections by misplacing them where they ought not to be setled for we may fear so it be him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire we may hate so it be the thing that is evill and we may love so it be what we ought and as we ought to love But this is that which God cannot endure that we should fear men more than God or fear temporal losses goods or lands more than the loss of our souls and the wounding of a good conscience or that we should hate our brethren and not their sins which we cherish in our selves though we detest them in all others or that we should love the world and not God or any thing in the world more than God or so much that it should any waies lessen our love to God And therefore here I may stop my course and stay a while to reprove those many millions of men that are as the Philosophers said The Citizens of the world and do freely bestow their loves not on God but either upon the vain pleasures The love of vain things choaketh our love to God or the vile profits of this wicked world And it is a strange thing to see how one affecteth Honour another Beauty a third Authority and most of us some one kind of vanity or other that either drowneth or driveth away and so lesseneth much our love to God And above all things the love of Riches choaketh this divine love in all worldly men For as Apolonius Tyanaeus saith That he hath seen a stone called Pantaura which is the Queen of all other stones and hath in it all the vertues that are to be found in all the other pretious stones So to this stone do some men compare riches Kiches what they are like because they suppose riches to contain in them the force and vertue of all other things and are able to bring mighty things to pass as the fiercest beasts are made tame by them the fairest Ladies are won by them as Jupiter prevailed with Danae What great things wealth and riches have done when as the Poets feign he came unto her in a golden showre The greatest Kings are subdued by them when as no weapons can overcome the shields of Gold and Rome it self might have been bought if Jugurth had had wealth enough to purchase it as he said when he passed out of Rome And you see the Fishes of the Sea that are overwhelmed with water and drowned in the Deep cannot escape the force of Riches and the Fowls of the air though of the swiftest Wings yet can they not fly from their Empire yea what Altitudes have not Riches abated What difficulties have they not vanquished What improbabilities I will not say impossibilities have they not facilitated And what things have they desired that they have not obtained Therefore St. Augustine shewing the folly of the Pagans about their selected gods Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 7. c. 3. wondreth that if wise men were their Selectors why Venus was preferred before the Lady Vertue or if Venus deserveth her enhansement because more do affect her than those that love vertue then why was not Lady Money more famous than Minerva seeing that in all sorts of men there are more that love coyn better than knowledge and all Trades aime at Money and say with the Poet Quaerenda pecunia primum est virtus
Death of the King we do see and must acknowledg the just Judgment of God and that he spareth not his dearest Children if they do offend but though Coniah were as the Signet upon his right-hand when he transgresseth God will cut him off so in this very Judgment of God The great goodness of God towards King Charles seen we may plainly see Mercie ana Truth met together Righteousness and Peace kissing each other yea we may clearly see the great love and mercie of God towards this good and godly King both in his Death and in the consequents of his Death as specially 1. In his Friends 2. In his Honour 3. In his Posterity 4. In his Felicity for First In his death touching his Death it is a true saying Qui non vult in vita praevidere mortem non potest in morte videre vitam and as another saith Turpe est eo statu vivere in quo non statuas mori therefore did King Charles live so Justly so innocently so Religiously and so Christianlike that he might well say nec pudet vivere nec timeo mori I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die for he lived like a Saint and died a Martyr like a good Christian yea so Christianlike that although I would not wish it for a World to be where I fear many of his Enemies are yet next to my being with Christ I would wish nothing of God sooner or rather then to be where I assure my self King Charles is Nec dubito qui sic vixit sic mortuus idem est Qui n sit apud Superos nobilis umbra Deos. Secondly 2 In the Consequents of his death 1. In his Friends Claud. 2. Stilicon For the Consequents of his death and First For his Friends as Claudian saith Haec amicitias lengo post tempore firmat Mansuróque adamante ligat nec mobile mutat Ingenium parvae strepitu nec vincula noxae Dissolvi patitur nec fastidire priorem Allicitur veniente novo Or as Solomon saith fortis est ut mors dilectio Love is as strong as death So they verified all this in testifying to the World that although his Enemies took him out of the World and his Picture which with all reverent respect to Christ be it spoken was in my judgment the likest that ever I saw to that Picture and Description of our Saviour that Publius Lentulus sent to the Senate of Rome out of our houses yet they never were nor ever shall be able to take him or our loves to him out of our Hearts the hearts of all us that truly knew him quia igneti nulla cupido and therefore loved him and so loved him that neither Life nor Death nor all the malice of his Foes could or can lessen our love and honour that we bare to him or blot out the goodness of this King and the Sweetness of his disposition from our thoughts and memories but as the Son of Sirach saith of good Josias so we say of good King Charles In Honour and good name Ovid in Ibin Antut Anaxaâ—chus pila minuaris in alta The remembrance of King Charles is like the composition of perfume that is made by the art of the Apothecarie the more you stir it the Sweeter it smelleth and therefore Secondly He is happie in his honour and good name that shall continue Famous and Blessed among all Posterities for evermore for though Anaxarchus-like that for his Detracting tongue was Pestled to death in a Brasen Morter his Enemies say with malicious Juno Non sic abibunt odia vivaces aget violentus iras animus saevúsque dolor aeterna bella pace sublatâ geret Their hatred to him shall never die yet as Solomon saith Memoria justi erit in benedictionibus the remembrance of this just man and good King shall be blessed for ever Indeed the malice of his enemies hath been and still is such and so great as that to falsifie the Saying of the Poet Pascitur in vivis livor post fata quiescit that tells us we hate the living onely and our hatred dieth with death they never cease to stain his good name and obscure his honour with apparent lies and scandalous aspersions for their hate to him is immortal and unexplicable seeking to burie his honour with himself yea and before himself was buried even while he was alive they dealt with him as the Jews did with his Master Christ saying that he was a Blasphemer a Glutton a Drunkard a Sabbath-breaker a Traytor unto Caesar and a Seducer of the people that had a Devil and did cast out Devils through Beelzebub the chief of the Devils and what not so do these like those Jews say that King Charles was an Hypocrite making onely an outward profession of honesty and piety that he was a Tyrant and a Traytor which both are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most inconsistible when as a Tyrant as Claudian describes him Jnstat terribilis vivis morientibus baeres Claudian De bello Gildico Virginibus raptor thalamis obscoenus adulter Quisquis vel locuples pulchra vel conjuge notus Crimine pulsatur falso si crimina desunt For which I think the Devil could not have the face to tax King Charles with any of all these things for we all know that he was so mercifull a Prince as seldom if ever he took the advantage of the rigor of any Law but lessened and sweetened that same many times and in many things neither do I believe that Juno her self had she been his Queen could have suspected him for any false Play so Chast a Prince was King Charles beyond the fair carriage of Alexander towards the Wife and Daughters of Darius And that he should be a Traytor is a thing that the like was never heard of because Treason is as you know crimen laesae Majestatis an offence against the Supreme Majestie which was solely and fully resident in himself and would he think you be a Traytor to himself Indeed he was when too confidently he trusted himself into the hands of those perfidious Gentlemen the Scots that worse then Judas sold him and delivered him to be crucified by his grand enemies of the Parliament and other treason I am confident can no ways be fixed on him But quid miror quid opus est verbis what need we say any more When men laid to Christ his charge the things that he never knew and taxed him with what he never did nor said what wonder is it if they slander the Foot-steps of his Anointed Yet all they do is to no purpose for as Plutarch saith Plutarch in Numa Omnes bonos justosque viros major post mortem sequitur laus invidia non multum post illos temporis supervivente non nunquam etiam ante exitum eorum moriente the greatest praise and honour will follow good and just men after they are dead envy and malice not living long after them but sometimes dying before them even
are not able to seed the poor ' nor scarce our selves and some for other longer time reserving onely some small rent for the succeeding Bishops as in my Diocess theat Lordship was set for 10. l. yearly that is well-nigh worth a 200. l. and that was set for 4. l. that is worth a 100. l. and the like And therefore seeing the Bishops themselves did so unjustly destroy their succeeding Bishops what wonder is it that the just God should suffer the haters of the Bishops and the Enemies of all goodness to destroy them And therefore not to do my self what I blame in others lest God should justly condem me out of mine own mouth I have resolved and do pray to God continually to give me the grace to perform it and do hope that God will grant it me That I will take no Fine for any Lands or Lordships belonging to my Bishoprick while I live that I may not wrong any of my succeeding Bishops nor lessen the Revenue of the Church of Christ but to take heed and beware of covetousness which is the cause of much and many evils especially in all Church-men as you see it was the root that sprang to the destruction of Judas and to cause Demas to apostatize from the Ministery of Christ Secondly For the discharging of the Episcâ—pal duties which is a very great charge onus Angelicis humeris formidandum as a Father calls it if Revelat. ii 14. with the Church of Ephesus we have not forsaken our first love and grown cold in our care to promote the gospel of Christ yet I fear the Bishops had amongst them those that held the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to set a stumbling-block before the Children of Israel that is as the Apostle expoundeth it to love the wages of unrighteousness and for the love of worldly honour wealth and other sinister respects to grow cold in the love of truth which made a Preacher at Paul's cross to pray that God would be pleased to make the Lords Temporal more spiritual and the Lords Spiritual less temporal and it grieves me much to set down how the Bishops Courts were generally complained of how justly or how unjustly I cannot tell as the greatest Oprressours of the People and the publique grievance of the Kingdom their delays unsufferable their excommunications unreasonable Corn. Agâ—ippa De vanitâ—ue Scientâ—arum cap. 61. their Fees intolerable and often times their injustice no ways to be excused which made the Lay people to exclaim against the Bishops and their Courts as much and in like manner as Cornelius Agrippa and our Presbyterians do against the Romish Bishops And if they say as they do the Courts belonged to their Chancellours that were learned men Doctours of the Civil and Canon Laws and of honourable repute among all Nations and what they did should not be imputed to the Bishop's fault It may be answered Qui facit per alium idem est quasi faceret per seipsum he that offends by his Proctor shall suffer by himself And we must confess the Courts were the Bishops Courts and the Chancellours were but their Deputies and they should have rectified the Abuses of their own Courts Yet I must ingenuously confess that I can accuse none of the Bishops for this fault but that this is the complaint of the People how truly I know not unless the Chancellour might say to the Bishop as it was said to the Pope of the like Officer Vendere jure potest emerat ille prius He had paid him dear for his place therefore he must take great Fees and sell justice or he shall lose much by the Bargain for indeed he cannot sell cheap that buyeth dear and be a saves thereby nor can he prove but very seldom an upright Judge that hath bought his office and by corruption obtained his place and therefore this selling of the Chancellour's office and other places in the Bishops Courts was the root of all the corruption that were of those Courts and so the Bishops that did this even for these faults besides the neglect to redress their other abuses can not in my judgement be any ways excused But I will shew you yet To ordain unworthy persons to be Priests a great fault to the shame of some greater Abomination which I have often bemoaned when I considered how some of the Bishops not following Saint Paul's counsel in the ordination of Priests and Deacons to lay hands on no man rashly but to see the Persons to be admitted to Holy Orders should be no Novices and no ways unworthy of that high Calling but every way qualified both for life and doctrine so as the word of God doth require have notwithstanding Vide Englands Reprover pag. 67. either by the solicitation of friends or for some other respects and perhaps worser corruption many times made young Novices illiterate men and which is worse men of corrupt minds and bad life the Priests of the most high Gods to wait at his Altar that were not worthy to wait on our Tables and therefore as the Bishops that did this did herein falsifie their faith to God and betrayed his Service to these unworthy men so the just God hath most rightly suffered these perfidious men to betray their Makers to spit in their Father's faces and to combine with the Enemies of God to destroy the Bishops of Christ and so as the Poët saith in another kind Ignavum fucos pecus à praesepibus arcent Neither was this all the Bishops fault to ordain these to drive away themselves but as it was said of old Rector eris praestò Men obtained their livings four manner of ways de sanguine Praesulis esto or as another saith Quattuor Ecclesias portis intratur in omnes Prima patet magnis nummatis altera tertia charis Quarta sed paucis solet patere Dei So to put weapons into their hands to enable them to war with their Bishops it was the practice of some of the Bishops if we may believe the common report of the Country Mercury to bestow Livings Rectories Prebends and other preferments not on such worthy Scholars and Academicks as best deserved them but either upon their own Friends Children Kinsmen or Servants or on such as according to the old riddle could tell them who was Melchisedec's Father and his Mother too and could say Saint Peter's Lesson Aurum argentum non est mihi the clean contrary way And this very practice of those Bishops that did so bred ill blood and many corrupt humours against the Episcopal function as especially First A disdain of them amongst those worthy men that were so carelessly neglected Secondly A neglect of God's People and leaving them untaught and unguided by those unworthy men that were thus promoted Thirdly A general distast of the people against all the Bishops when they resented these distempers that were onely caused by very few And all these things cryed to God for redress and
righteous and just Secondly I say that there is crudelitas parcens misericordia puniens a sparing which is cruelty and a punishment that is a great mercie and such are the troubles pressures and punishments of God's Children mercies rather then judgments because they proceed not from God's Wrath but as the chastisements of a Father to his Children so do these come from the love of God towards his servants for their good whom he afflicteth here for a moment that they should be bettered and not be condemned with the Wicked hereafter for ever Thirdly I say that the Miseries Crosses and Calamities Reason 1 that the Faithfull suffer in this World are not always so much a punishment for their Sins Reason 2 though their Sins deserve much more Reason 3 and Sin is the root from whence all miseries do spring as trials and probations of their Faith and Constancie in God's love and service for so the Scripture saith that God tempted Abraham not temptatione deceptionis to deceive him as Satan tempteth us but temptatione probationis to try him whether he would obey the Commandment of God or not when he commanded him to offer his Son his onely Son Isaac for a Sacrifice unto God and so he tried the Israelites at the waters of Strife and as Moses saith in their Fourty years wandring through the Wilderness to see whether they would love the Lord their God and cleave unto him and continue faithfull in his service and so he doth plainly tell the Church of Smyrna that the Devil should cast some of them into Prison that they might be tryed and they should have Tribulation ten dayes and that is either ten years as Junius expounds it or else several times as others think yet all to this end that they might be tryed whether they would continue faithfull unto death or not and such were the afflictions of Job and of many other of the Saints of God they were justly deserved by their Sins and God in mercie sent them for their trial What the former Doctrine teaching the us And therefore whatsoever and how great soever a measure of Miseries Crosses and Troubles we have or shall suffer yet let us not faint nor be affraid of them and let not the Children of God be like the Children of Ephraim that being Harnessed and carrying Bows and so well prepared for the fight yet turned themselves back in the day of Battaile when there was most need of their assistance but as we have loved our King and have suffered all the calamities and burthens that are layd upon us for our faithfulness to him and the preservance of a good conscience so let us continue unto the end and never comply with any of the King's Enemies in the abatement of the least jot of our love and good opinion of the deceased King or with the Factious Non-conformists in the dis-service of God and the new invented Religion of our upstart Schismaticks let neither weight of trouble nor length of time change our minds because perseverance in Faith and Virtue is that which crowneth all the other Virtues and if at any time even at the last we forsake our first love and change our Faith we lose all the reward of all the former good that we have done and do by our revolt testifie that we were not good for the love of goodness nor adhered to the truth for righteousness sake but for some other by-respects for our own ends that never brings any to a good end and therefore the primitive Christians could never by any means be drawn to alter the least point of their Faith Prudent De Vincéntio and the right service of God but as Prudentius saith Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis lamina Atque ipsa paenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est All the Torments and Terrours of the World could never move them to change their mindes But some man may say Objection Providence hath decided the Controversy the King is dead Victrix causa Dits placuit and the Parliament hath prevailed against him and all his Friends and therefore what should I do now but comply with the stronger side and use that religion which they profess and that form of worship which they prescribe and so redeem the time that I have lost and repair some losses that I have sustained I answer Solution that our Saviour Christ to prevent this very Objection that the Jews might make to terrifie the Christians and to with-hold them from the faith of Christ because they had killed him and he was dead and therefore to what purpose should they adhere to a dead Saviour and hazard their lives and their fortunes to maintain the honour of a dead man that could not preserve his own life because a Living Dog is better then a dead Lion saith unto his Servant John I am he that liveth and was dead and behold or mark it well I am alive for evermore Amen and therefore let not my death deterr any man from following me or believing in me so I say that faith and truth are still alive and though oftentimes suppressed and afflicted yet not killed and therefore the Poet saith Dispaire not yet though truth be hidden oft Because at last she shall be set aloft And as another saith Terra fremat regna alta crepent ruet ortus orcus Si modo firma fides nulla ruina nocet And for King Charles I say though he is dead yet he is still alive many ways and that his blood like Abel's blood being dead yet speaketh and speaks aloud not onely to God These things were written and preached by the Author in the time of Oliver but also to every one of them that loved him that they should not so soon forget their faith and love to him that lost his life for their defence and the defence of the true Catholick Faith and though he be dead he is still alive alive with Christ in Heaven for evermore and alive with us on earth in the good that he did bring to us in the love that he shewed towards us and in the good that he left amongst us and shall we leave him and leave our love to him and our remembrance of him and forsake our faith and prove perfidious both to God and to the honour and to the memory of our deceased King and cleave to them to say and do as they say and do that have bereft us of him and would have destroyed us with him No no let us abhor them and their evil doings detest their false Faith and hate their Wickedness with a perfect hatred And though we have suffered much and may suffer much more at the hands of these Tyrants that are our new Masters yet let us submit our selves unto them but as Daniel and the rest of God's people did unto the Chaldeans full sore against their wills Iames v 11. Job lxii 12. and let us yield none otherwise to this present Government