and value it above his life he must contend earnestly for the faith by the most prevailing arguments by the arguments of holy living and ready dying by zeale and patience by conformity and humility by reducing words to actions fair discourses to perfect perswasions by loving the article and encreasing in the knowledge and love of God and his Son Jesus Christ and then his faith is not negligent deceitfull artificiall and improper but true and holy and reasonable and usefull zealous and sufficient and therefore can never be reproved 2. Our prayers and devotions must be fervent and zealous not cold patient easie and soon rejected but supported by a patient spirit set forwards by importunity continued by perseverance waited on by attention and a present mind carryed along with holy but strong desires and ballasted with resignation and conformity to the divine will and then it is as God likes it and does the work to Gods glory and our interest effectively He that asks with a doubting mind and a lazy desire begs for nothing but to be denyed we must in our prayers be earnest and fervent or else we shall have but a cold answer for God gives his grace according as we can receive it and whatsoever evill returnes we meet in our prayers when we ask for good things is wholly by reason of our wandring spirits and cold desires we have reason to complain that our minds wander in our prayers and our diversions are more prevailing then all our arts of application and detention and we wander sometimes even when we pray against wandring and it is in some degrees naturall and unevitable but although the evill is not wholly to be cured yet the symptomes are to be eased and if our desires were strong and fervent our minds would in the same proportion be present we see it by a certain and regular experience what we love passionately we perpetually think on and it returnes upon us whether we will or no and in a great fear the apprehension cannot be shaken off and therefore if our desires of holy things were strong and earnest we should most certainly attend our prayers it is a more violent affection to other things that carries us off from this and therefore if we lov'd passionately what we aske for daily we should aske with hearty desires and an earnest appetite and a present spirit and however it be very easie to have our thoughts wander yet it is our indifferency and lukewarmnesse that makes it so naturall and you may observe it that so long as the light shines bright and the fires of devotion and desires flame out so long the mind of a man stands close to the altar and waits upon the sacrifice but as the fires die and desires decay so the mind steals away and walks abroad to see the little images of beauty and pleasure which it beholds in the falling stars and little glow-wormes of the world The river that runs slow and creeps by the banks and begs leave of every turfe to let it passe is drawn into little hollownesses and spends it selfe in smaller portions and dies with diversion but when it runs with vigorousnesse and a ful stream and breaks down every obstacle making it even as its own brow it stays not to be tempted by little avocations and to creep into holes but runs into the sea through full and usefull channels So is a mans prayer if it moves upon the feet of an abated appetite it wanders into the society of every trifling accident and stays at the corners of the fancy and talks with every object it meets and cannot arrive at heaven but when it is carryed upon the wings of passion and strong desires a swift motion and a hungry appetite it passes on through all the intermediall regions of clouds and stays not till it dwells at the foot of the Throne where mercy sits and thence sends holy showers of refreshment I deny not but some little drops will turn aside and fall from the full channell by the weaknesse of the banks and hollownesse of the passage but the main course is still continued and although the most earnest and devout persons feel and complain of some loosenesse of spirit and unfixed attentions yet their love and their desire secure the maine portions and make the prayer to be strong fervent and effectuall Any thing can be done by him that earnestly desires what he ought secure but your affections and passions and then no temptation will be too strong A wise man and a full resolution and an earnest spirit can doe any thing of duty but every temptation prevailes when we are willing to die and we usually lend nothing to devotion but the offices that flatter our passions we can desire and pray for any thing that may serve our lust or promote those ends which we covet but ought to tear and fly from but the same earnestnesse if it were transplanted into Religion and our prayers would serve all the needs of the spirit but for want of it we do the Lords work deceitfully 3. Our Charity also must be fervent Malus est miles qui ducem suum gemens sequitur He that follows his Generall with a heavy march and a heavy heart is but an ill souldier but our duty to God should be hugely pleasing and we should rejoyce in it it must passe on to action and doe the action vigorously it is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour and travail of love A friend at a sneese and an almes-basket full of prayers a love that is lazy and a service that is uselesse and a pity without support are the images and colours of that grace whose very constitution and designe is beneficence and well-doing He that loves passionately will not onely doe all that his friend needs but all that himself can for although the law of charity is fulfilled by acts of profit and bounty and obedience and labour yet it hath no other measures but the proportions and abundance of a good mind and according to this God requires that we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abounding and that alwayes in the work of the Lord if we love passionately we shall doe all this for love endures labour and calls it pleasure it spends all and counts it a gain it suffers inconveniencies and is quickly reconciled to them if dishonours and affronts be to be endured love smiles and calls them favours and wears them willingly alii jacuere ligati Turpitèr atque aliquis de Diis non tristibus optat Sic fieri turpis It is the Lord said David and I will be yet more vile and it shall be honour unto me thus did the Disciples of our Lord goe from tribunals rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer stripes for that beloved name and we are commanded to rejoyce in persecutions to resist unto bloud to strive to enter in at the strait gate not to be weary of well doing doe
can The shepherd Cratis falling in love with a she goat had his brains beaten out with a buck as he lay asleep and by the lawes of the Romans a man might kill his daughter or his wife if he surprised her in the breach of her holy vowes which are as sacred as the threads of life secret as the privacies of the sanctuary and holy as the society of Angels Nullae sunt inimicitiae nisi amoris acerbae and God that commanded us to forgive our enemies left it in our choice and hath not commanded us to forgive an adulterous husband or a wife but the offended parties displeasure may passe into an eternall separation of society and friendship Now in this grace it is fit that the wisdome and severity of the man should hold forth a pure taper that his wife may by seeing the beauties and transparency of that Crystall dresse her minde and her body by the light of so pure reflexions It is certain he will expect it from the modesty and retirement from the passive nature and colder temper from the humility and fear from the honour and love of his wife that she be pure as the eye of heaven and therefore it is but reason that the wisdome and noblenesse the love and confidence the strength and severity of the man should be as holy and certain in this grace as he is a severe exactor of it at her hands who can more easily be tempted by another and lesse by her self These are the little lines of a mans duty which like threds of light from the body of the Sun do clearly describe all the regions of his proper obligations Now concerning the womans duty although it consists in doing whatsoever her husband commands and so receives measures from the rules of his government yet there are also some lines of life depicted upon her hands by which she may read and know how to proportion out her duty to her husband 1. The first is obedience which because it is no where enjoyned that the man should exact of her but often commanded to her to pay gives demonstration that it is a voluntary cession that is required such a cession as must be without coercion and violence on his part but upon fair inducements and reasonablenesse in the thing and out of love and honour on her part When God commands us to love him he means we should obey him This is love that ye keep my Commandements and if ye love me said our Lord keep my Commandements Now as Christ is to the Church so is man to the wife and therefore obedience is the best instance of her love for it proclaims her submission her humility her opinion of his wisdome his preeminence in the family the right of his priviledge and the injunction imposed by God upon her sexe that although in sorrow she brings forth children yet with love and choice she should obey The mans authority is love and the womans love is obedience and it was not rightly observed of him that said when woman fell God made her timorous that she might be rul'd apt and easie to obey for this obedience is no way founded in fear but in love and reverence Receptae reverentiae est si mulier viro subsit said the Law unlesse also that we will adde that it is an effect of that modesty which like rubies adorn the necks and cheeks of women Pudicitia est pater eos magnificare qui nos socias sumpserunt sibi said the maiden in the comedy It is modesty to advance and highly to honour them who have honoured us by making us to be the companions of their dearest excellencies for the woman that went before the man in the way of death is commanded to follow him in the way of love and that makes the society to be perfect and the union profitable and the harmony compleat Inferior Matrona suo sit Sexte marito Non aliter siunt foemina virque pares For then the soul and body make a perfect man when the soul commands wisely or rules lovingly and cares profitably and provides plentifully and conducts charitably that body which is its partner and yet the inferiour But if the body shall give lawes and by the violenco of the appetite first abuse the understanding and then possesse the superior portion of the will and choice the body and the soul are not apt company and the man is a fool and miserable If the soul rules not it cannot be a companion either it must govern or be a slave Never was King deposed and suffered to live in the state of peerage and equall honour but made a prisoner or put to death and those women that had rather lead the blinde then follow prudent guides rule fools and easie men then obey the powerfull and the wise never made a good society in a house a wife never can become equall but by obeying but so her power while it is in minority makes up the authority of the man integrall and becomes one government as themselves are one man Male and Female created he them and called their name Adam saith the holy Scripture they are but one and therefore the severall parts of this one man must stand in the place where God appointed that the lower parts may do their offices in their own station and promote the common interest of the whole A ruling woman is intolerable Faciunt graviora coactae Imperio sexus But that 's not all for she is miserable too for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a sad calamity for a woman to be joyned to a fool or a weak person it is like a guard of geese to keep the Capitoll or as if a flock of sheep should read grave lectures to their shepherd and give him orders where he shall conduct them to pasture O verè Phyrgiae neque enim Phryges It is a curse that God thereatned sinning persons Devoratum est robur eorum facti sunt quasi mulieres Effeminati dominabuntur eis To be ruled by weaker people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have a fool to ones master is the fate of miserable and unblessed people and the wife can be no waies happy unlesse she be governed by a prudent Lord whose commands are sober counsels whose authority is paternall whose orders are provisions and whose sentences are charity But now concerning the measures and limits of this obedience we can best take accounts from Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle in all things ut Domino as unto the Lord and that 's large enough as unto a Lord ut Ancilla Domino so St. Hierom understands it who neither was a friend to the sexe nor to marriage But his mistake is soon confuted by the text It is not ut Dominis be subject to your husbands as unto Lords but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in all religion in reverence and in love in duty and
fools but will order their actions according to these notices For if they doe not believe these things where is their Faith If they doe believe them and sin on and doe as if there were no such thing to come to passe where is their Prudence and what is their hopes and where their Charity how doe they differ from beasts save that they are more foolish for beasts goe on and consider not because they cannot but we can consider and will not we know that strange terrors shall affright us all and strange deaths and torments shall seise upon the wicked and that we cannot escape and the rocks themselves will not bee able to hide us from the fears of those prodigies which shall come before the day of Judgement and that the mountains though when they are broken in pieces we call upon them to fall upon us shall not be able to secure us one minute from the present vengeance and yet we proceed with confidence or carelesnesse and consider not that there is no greater folly in the world then for a man to neglect his greatest interest and to die for trifles and little regards and to become miserable for such interests which are not excusable in a Childe He that is youngest hath not long to live Hee that is thirty forty or fifty yeares old hath spent most of his life and his dream is almost done and in a very few moneths hee must be cast into his eternall portion that is hee must be in an unalterable condition his finall Sentence shall passe according as hee shall then bee found and that will be an intolerable condition when he shall have reason to cry out in the bitternesse of his soule Eternall woe is to mee who refus'd to consider when I might have been saved and secured from this intolerable calamity But I must descend to consider the particulars and circumstances of the great consideration Christ shall be our Judge at Doomes-day SERMON II. Part II. 1. IF we consider the person of the Judge we first perceive that he is interested in the injury of the crimes he is to sentence Videbunt quem crucifixerunt and they shal look on him whom they have pierced It was for thy sins that the Judge did suffer such unspeakable pains as were enough to reconcile all the world to God The summe and spirit of which pains could not be better understood then by the consequence of his own words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me meaning that he felt such horrible pure unmingled sorrowes that although his humane nature was personally united to the Godhead yet at that instant he felt no comfortable emanations by sensible perception from the Divinity but he was so drenched in sorrow that the Godhead seemed to have forsaken him Beyond this nothing can be added but then that thou hast for thy own particular made all this in vain and ineffective that Christ thy Lord and Judge should be tormented for nothing that thou wouldst not accept felicity and pardon when he purchased them at so dear a price must needs be an infinite condemnation to such persons How shalt thou look upon him that fainted and dyed for love of thee and thou didst scorn his miraculous mercies How shall we dare to behold that holy face that brought salvation to us and we turned away and fell in love with death and kissed deformity and sins and yet in the beholding that face consists much of the glories of eternity All the pains and passions the sorrowes and the groans the humility and poverty the labours and the watchings the Prayers and the Sermons the miracles and the prophecies the whip and the nails the death and the buriall the shame and the smart the Crosse and the grave of Jesus shall be laid upon thy score if thou hast refused the mercies and design of all their holy ends and purposes And if we remember what a calamity that was which broke the Jewish Nation in pieces when Christ came to judge them for their murdering him who was their King and the Prince of life and consider that this was but a dark image of the terrors of the day of Judgement we may then apprehend that there is some strange unspeakable evill that attends them that are guilty of this death and of so much evill to their Lord. Now it is certain if thou wilt not be saved by his death you are guilty of his death if thoa wilt not suffer him to save thee thou art guilty of destroying him and then let it be considered what is to be expected from that Judge before whom you stand as his murtherer and betrayer * But this is but half of this consideration 2. Christ may be crucified again and upon a new account put to an open shame For after that Christ had done all this by the direct actions of his Priestly Office of sacrificing himself for us he hath also done very many things for us which are also the fruits of his first love and prosecutions of our redemption I will not instance in the strange arts of mercy that our Lord uses to bring us to live holy lives But I consider that things are so ordered and so great a value set upon our souls since they are the images of God and redeemed by the Bloud of the holy Lamb that the salvation of our souls is reckoned as a part of Christs reward a part of the glorification of his humanity Every sinner that repents causes joy to Christ and the joy is so great that it runs over and wets the fair brows and beauteous locks of Cherubims and Seraphims and all the Angels have a part of that banquet Then it is that our blessed Lord feels the fruits of his holy death the acceptation of his holy sacrifice the graciousnesse of his person the return of his prayers For all that Christ did or suffer'd and all that he now does as a Priest in heaven is to glorifie his Father by bringing souls to God For this it was that he was born and dyed that he descended from heaven to earth from life to death from the crosse to the grave this was the purpose of his resurrection and ascension of the end and design of all the miracles and graces of God manifested to all the world by him and now what man is so vile such a malicious fool that will refuse to bring joy to his Lord by doing himself the greatest good in the world They who refuse to do this are said to crucifie the Lord of life again and put him to an open shame that is they as much as in them lies bring Christ from his glorious joyes to the labours of his life and the shame of his death they advance his enemies and refuse to advance the Kingdome of their Lord they put themselves in that state in which they were when Christ came to dye for them and now that he is in a state that he may rejoyce over them
for he hath done all his share towards it every wicked man takes his head from the blessing and rather chuses that the Devill should rejoyce in his destruction then that his Lord should triumph in his felicity And now upon the supposition of these premises we may imagine that it will be an infinite amazement to meet that Lord to be our Judge whose person we have murdered whose honour we have disparaged whose purposes we have destroyed whose joyes we have lessened whose passion we have made ineffectuall and whose love we have trampled under our profane and impious feet 3. But there is yet a third part of this consideration As it will be inquir'd at the day of Judgement concerning the dishonours to the person of Christ so also concerning the profession and institution of Christ and concerning his poor Members for by these also we make sad reflexions upon our Lord. Every man that lives wickedly disgraces the religion and institution of Jesus he discourages strangers from entring into it he weakens the hands of them that are in already and makes that the adversaries speak reproachfully of the Name of Christ but although it is certain our Lord and Judge will deeply resent all these things yet there is one thing which he takes more tenderly and that is the uncharitablenesse of men towards his poor It shall then be upbraided to them by the Judge that himself was hungry and they refused to give meat to him that gave them his body and heart-bloud to feed them and quench their thirst that they denyed a robe to cover his nakednesse and yet he would have cloathed their souls with the robe of his righteousnesse lest their souls should be found naked in the day of the Lords visitation and all this unkindnesse is nothing but that evill men were uncharitable to their Brethren they would not feed the hungry nor give drink to the thirsty nor cloath the naked nor relieve their Brothers needs nor forgive his follies nor cover their shame nor turn their eyes from delighting in their affronts and evill accidents this is it which our Lord will take so tenderly that his Brethren for whom he died who suck'd the paps of his Mother that fed on his Body and are nourished with his Bloud whom he hath lodg'd in his heart and entertains in his bosome the partners of his Spirit and co-heirs of his inheritance that these should be deny'd relief and suffered to go away ashamed and unpitied this our blessed Lord will take so ill that all those who are guilty of this unkindnesse have no reason to expect the favour of the Court. 4. To this if we adde the almightinesse of the Judge his infinite wisdome and knowledge of all causes and all persons and all circumstances that he is infinitely just inflexibly angry and impartiall in his sentence there can be nothing added either to thè greatness or the requisites of a terrible and an Almighty Judge For who can resist him who is Almighty Who can evade his scrutiny that knows all things Who can hope for pity of him that is inflexible Who can think to be exempted when the Judge is righteous and impartial But in all these annexes of the great Judge that which I shall now remark is that indeed which hath terror in it and that is the severity of our Lord. For then is the day of vengeance and recompenses and no mercy at all shall be shewed but to them that are the sons of mercy for the other their portion is such as can be expected from these premises 1. If we remember the instances of Gods severity in this life in the daies of mercy and repentance in those dayes when Judgement waits upon Mercy and receives lawes by the rules and measures of pardon and that for all the rare streams of loving kindnesse issuing out of Paradise and refreshing all our fields with a moisture more fruitfull then the flouds of Nilus still there are mingled some stormes and violences some fearfull instances of the Divine Justice we may more readily expect it will be worse infinitely worse at that day when Judgement shall ride in triumph and Mercy shall be the accuser of the wicked But so we read and are commanded to remember because they are written for our example that God destroyed at once five cities of the plain and all the country and Sodome and her sisters are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternall fire Fearfull it was when God destroyed at once 23000 for fornication and an exterminating Angell in one night killed 185000 of the Assyrians and the first born of all the families of Egypt and for the sin of David in numbring the people threescore and ten thousand of the people dyed and God sent ten tribes into captivity and eternall oblivion and indistinction from a common people for their idolatry Did not God strike Corah and his company with fire from Heaven and the earth open'd and swallowed up the congregation of Abiram And is not evill come upon all the world for one sin of Adam Did not the anger of God break the nation of the Jewes all in pieces with judgements so great that no nation ever suffered the like because none ever sin'd so And at once it was done that God in anger destroyed all the world and eight persons only escaped the angry Baptisme of water and yet this world is the time of mercy God hath open'd here his Magazines and sent his holy Son as the great channell and fountain of it too here he delights in mercy and in judgement loves to remember it and it triumphs over all his works and God contrives instruments and accidents chances and designs occasions and opportunities for mercy if therefore now the anger of God makes such terrible eruptions upon the wicked people that delight in sin how great may we suppose that anger to be how severe that Judgement how terrible that vengeance how intolerable those inflictions which God reserves for the full effusion of indignation on the great day of vengeance 2. We may also guesse at it by this if God upon all single instances and in the midst of our sins before they are come to the full and sometimes in the beginning of an evill habit be so fierce in his anger what can we imagine it to be in that day when the wicked are to drink the dregs of that horrid potion and count over all the particulars of their whole treasure of wrath This is the day of wrath and God shall reveal or bring forth his righteous Judgements The expression is taken from Deut. 32. 34. Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will restore it in the day of vengeance for the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants For so did the Lybian Lion that was brought up under discipline and taught to endure blowes and eat the
our faculties is to serve God and doe justice and charities to our Brother For if we doe the work of God in our own day wee shall receive an infinite mercy in the day of the Lord. But what that is is now to be inquired What wee have done in the body But certainly this is the greatest terror of all The thunders and the fires the earthquakes and the trumpets the brightnesse of holy Angels and the horror of accursed Spirits the voyce of the Archangel who is the Prince of the heavenly host and the Majesty of the Judge in whose service all that Army stands girt with holinesse and obedience all those strange circumstances which have been already reckoned and all those others which wee cannot understand are but little praeparatories and umbrages of this fearfull circumstance All this amazing Majesty and formidable praeparatories are for the passing of an eternall Sentence upon us according to what we have done in the body Woe and alas and God help us all All mankind is an enemy to God his nature is accursed and his manners are depraved It is with the nature of man and with all his manners as Philemon said of the nature of foxes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every fox is crafty and mischievous and if you gather a whole herd of them there is not a good natur'd beast amongst them all so it is with man by nature he is the child of wrath and by his manners he is the child of the Devill wee call Christian and wee dishonour our Lord and we are Brethren but we oppresse and murther one another it is a great degree of sanctity now a-days not to be so wicked as the worst of men and wee live at the rate as if the best of men did design to themselves an easier condemnation and as if the generality of men consider'd not concerning the degrees of death but did beleeve that in hell no man shall perceive any ease or refreshment in being tormented with a slower fire For consider what we doe in the body 12 or 14 years passe before we choose good or bad and of that which remaines above halfe is spent in sleep and the needs of Nature for the other halfe it is divided as the Stag was when the beasts went a hunting the Lyon hath five parts of sixe The businesse of the world takes so much of our remaining portion that Religion and the service of God have not much time left that can be spar'd and of that which can if we consider how much is allowed to crasty arts of cousenage to oppression and ambition to greedy desires and avaritious prosecutions to the vanities of our youth and the proper sins of every age to the meer idlenesse of man and doing nothing to his fantastick imaginations of greatnesse and pleasures of great and little devices of impertinent law-suites and uncharitable treatings of our Brother it will be intolerable when we consider that we are to stand or fall eternally according to what we have done in the body Gather it all together and set it before thy eyes Almes and Prayers are the summe of all thy good Were thy prayers made in feare and holinesse with passion and desire Were they not made unwillingly weakly and wandringly and abated with sins in the greatest part of thy life Didst thou pray with the same affection and labour as thou didst purchase thy estate Have thy alms been more then thy oppressions and according to thy power and by what means didst thou judge concerning it How much of our time was spent in that and how much of our estate was spent in this But let us goe one step further How many of us love our enemies or pray for and doe good to them that persecute and affront us or overcome evill with good or turn the face again to them that strike us rather then be reveng'd or suffer our selves to be spoil'd or robbed without contention and uncharitable courses or lose our interest rather then lose our charity And yet by these precepts we shall be judged I instance but once more Our blessed Saviour spake a hard saying Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof at the day of Judgement For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned and upon this account may every one weeping and trembling say with Jcb Quid faciam cum resurrexerit ad judicandum Deus What shall I doe when the Lord shall come to judgement Of every idle word O blessed God! what shall become of them who love to prate continually to tell tales to detract to slander to back-bite to praise themselves to undervalue others to compare to raise divisions to boast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who shall be able to stand upright not bowing the knee with the intolerable load of the sins of his tongue If of every idle word we must give account what shall we doe for those malicious words that dishonor God or doe despite to our Brother Remember how often we have tempted our Brother or a silly woman to sin and death How often we have pleaded for unjust interests or by our wit have cousened an easie and a beleeving person or given evill sentences or disputed others into false perswasions Did we never call good evill or evill good Did we never say to others thy cause is right when nothing made it right but favour and money a false advocate or a covetous Judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so said Christ every idle word that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Paul uses it every false word every lie shall be called to judgement or as some Copies read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every wicked word shall be called to judgment For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idle words are not meant words that are unprofitable or unwise for fooles and silly persons speak most of those and have the least accounts to make but by vaine the Jewes usually understood false and to give their mind to vanity or to speak vanity is all one as to mind or speak falshoods with malicious and evill purposes But if every idle word that is every vain and lying word shall be called to judgment what shall become of men that blaspheme God or their Rulers or Princes of the people or their Parents that dishonour the Religion and disgrace the Ministers that corrupt Justice and pervert Judgment that preach evill doctrines or declare perverse sentences that take Gods holy Name in vain or dishonour the Name of God by trifling and frequent swearings that holy Name by which wee hope to bee saved and which all the Angels of God fall down and worship These things are to be considered for by our own words we stand or fall that is as in humane Judgements the confession of the party and the contradiction of himselfe or the failing
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace we cannot have the blessing of the Spirit in the returns of a holy prayer and all those assemblies which meet together against God or Gods Ordinances may pray and call and cry loudly and frequently and still they provoke God to anger and many times he will not have so much mercy for them as to deny them but le ts them prosper in their sin till it swels to intolerable and impardonable * But when good men pray with one heart and in a holy assembly that is holy in their desires lawfull in their authority though the persons be of different complexion then the prayer flies up to God like the hymns of a Quire of Angels for God that made body and soul to be one man and God and man to be one Christ and three persons are one God and his praises are sung to him by Quires and the persons are joyned in orders and the orders into hierarchies and all that God may be served by unions and communities loves that his Church should imitate the Concords of heaven and the unions of God and that every good man should promote the interests of his prayers by joyning in the communion of Saints in the unions of obedience and charity with the powers that God and the Lawes have ordained The sum is this If the man that makes the prayer be an unholy person his prayer is not the instrument of a blessing but a curse but when the sinner begins to repent truly then his desires begin to be holy But if they be holy and just and good yet they are without profit and effect if the prayer be made in schisme or an evill communion or if it be made without attention or if the man soon gives over or if the prayer be not zealous or if the man be angry There are very many waies for a good man to become unblessed and unthriving in his prayers and he cannot be secure unlesse he be in the state of grace and his spirit be quiet and his minde be attentive and his society be lawfull and his desires carnest and passionate and his devotions persevering lasting till his needs be served or exchanged for another blessing so that what Laelius apud Cicer. de senectute said concerning old age neque in summâ inopiâ levis esse senectus potest ne sapienti quidem nec insipienti etiam in summâ coptâ non gravis that a wise man could not bear old age if it were extremely poor and yet if it were very rich it were intolerable to a fool we may say concerning our prayers they are sins and unholy if a wicked man makes them and yet if they be made by a good man they are ineffective unlesse they be improved by their proper dispositions A good man cannot prevail in his prayers if his desires be cold and his affections trifling and his industry soon weary and his society criminall and if all these appendages of prayer be observed yet they will do no good to an evill man for his prayer that begins in sin shall end in sorrow SERMON VI. Part III. 3. NExt I am to inquire and consider what degrees and circumstances of piety are requir'd to make us fit to be intercessors for others and to pray for them with probable effect I say with probable effect for when the event principally depends upon that which is not within our own election such as are the lives and actions of others all that we can consider in this affair is whether wee be persons fit to pray in the behalf of others that hinder not but are persons within the limit and possibilities of the presentmercy When the Emperour Maximinus was smitten with the wrath of God and a sore disease for his cruell persecuting the Christian cause and putting so many thousand innocent and holy persons to death and he understood the voice of God and the accents of thunder and discerned that cruelty was the cause he revoked their decrees made against the Christians recall'd them from their caves and deserts their sanctuaries and retirements and enjoyned them to pray for the life and health of their Prince They did so and they who could command mountaines to remove and were obeyed they who could doe miracles they who with the key of prayer could open Gods four closets of the wombe and the grave of providence and rain could not obtain for their bloudy Emperour one drop of mercy but he must die miserable for over God would not be intreated for him and though he loved the prayer because he loved the Advocates yet Maximinus was not worthy to receive the blessing And it was threatned to the rebellious people of Israel and by them to all people that should sin grievously against the Lord God would break their staffe of bread and even the righteous should not be prevailing intercessors Though Noah Job or Daniel were there they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousnesse saith the Lord God and when Abraham prevailed very far with God in the behalf of Sodome and the five Cities of the Plain it had its period If there had been ten righteous in Sodom it should have been spared for their sakes but four onely were found and they onely delivered their own souls too but neither their righteousnesse nor Abrahams prayer prevailed any further and we have this case also mentioned in the New Testament If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death At his prayer the sinner shall receive pardon God shall give him life for them to him that prays in their behalf that sin provided it be not a sin unto death For there is a sin unto death but I doe not say that he shall pray for it There his Commission expires and his power is confin'd For there are some sins of that state and greatnesse that God will not pardon S. Austin in his books de sermone Domini in monte affirms it concerning some one single sin of a perfect malice It was also the opinion of Origen and Athanasius and is followed by venerable Bede and whether the Apostle means a peculiar state of sin or some one single great crime which also supposes a precedent and a present state of criminall condition it is such a thing as will hinder our prayers from prevailing in their behalf we are therefore not encouraged to pray because they cannot receive the benefit of Christs intercession and therefore much lesse of our Advocation which onely can prevail by vertue and participation of his mediation For whomsoever Christ prays for them wee pray that is for all them that are within the covenant of repentance for all whose actions have not destroyed the very being of Religion who have not renounc'd their faith nor voluntarily quit their hopes nor openly opposed the Spirit of grace nor
farre greater and his terrors are infinitely more intolerable and therefore although he came not in the spirit of Elias but with meeknesse and gentle insinuations soft as the breath of heaven not willing to disturb the softest stalk of a violet yet his second coming shall be with terrors such as shall amaze all the world and dissolve it into ruine and a Chaos This truth is of so great efficacy to make us do our duty that now we are sufficiently enabled with this consideration This is the grace which we have to enable us this terror will produce fear and fear will produce obedience and we therefore have grace that is we have such a motive to make us reverence God and fear to offend him that he that dares continue in sin and refuses to hear him that speaks to us from heaven and from thence shall come with terrors this man despises the grace of God he is a gracelesse fearlesse impudent man and he shall finde that true in hypothesi and in his own ruine which the Apostle declares in thesi and by way of caution and provisionary terror Our God is a consuming fire this is the sense and design of the text Reverence and godly fear they are the effects of this consideration they are the duties of every Christian they are the grace of God I shall not presse them only to purposes of awfulnesse and modesty of opinion and prayers against those strange doctrines which some have introduc'd into Religion to the destruction of all manners and prudent apprehensions of the distances of God and man such as are the Doctrine of necessity of familiarity with God and a civill friendship and a parity of estate and an unevennesse of adoption from whence proceed rudenesse in prayers flat and undecent expressions affected rudenesse superstitious sitting at the holy Sacrament making it to be a part of Religion to be without fear and reverence the stating of the Question is a sufficient reproof of this folly whatsoever actions are brought into Religion without reverence and godly fear are therefore to be avoided because they are condemned in this advice of the Apostle and are destructive of those effects which are to be imprinted upon our spirits by the terrors of the day of Judgement But this fear and reverence the Apostle intends should be a deletery to all sin whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes the Etymologicum whatsoever is terrible is destructive of that thing for which it is so and if we fear the evill effects of sin let us flie from it we ought to fear its alluring face too let us be so afraid that we may not dare to refuse to hear him whose Throne is heaven whose Voice is thunder whose Tribunall is clouds whose Seat is the right hand of God whose Word is with power whose Law is given with mighty demonstration of the Spirit who shall reward with heaven and joyes eternall and who punishes his rebels that will not have him to reign over them with brimstone and fire with a worm that never dies and a fire that never is quenched let us fear him who is terrible in his Judgements just in his his dispensation secret in his providence severe in his demands gracious in his assistances bountifull in his gifts and is never wanting to us in what we need and if all this be not argument strong enough to produce fear and that fear great enough to secure obedience all arguments are uselesse all discourses are vain the grace of God is ineffective and we are dull as the Dead sea unactive as a rock and we shall never dwell with God in any sense but as he is a consuming fire that is dwell in the everlasting burnings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reverence and caution modesty and fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in some copies with caution and fear or if we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be fear of punishment as it is generally understood by interpreters of this place and is in Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then the expression is the same in both words and it is all one with the other places of Scripture Work out your salvation with fear and trembling degrees of the same duty and they signifie all those actions and graces which are the proper effluxes of fear such as are reverence prudence caution and diligence chastity and a sober spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also say the Grammarians and it means plainly this since our God will appear so terrible at his second comming let us passe the time of our sojourning here in fear that is modestly without too great confidence of our selves soberly without bold crimes which when a man acts he must put on shamelesnesse reverently towards God as fearing to offend him diligently observing his commandements inquiring after his will trembling at his voice attending to his Word revering his judgements fearing to provoke him to anger for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God Thus far it is a duty Concerning which that I may proceed orderly I shall first consider how far fear is a duty of Christian Religion 2. Who and what states of men ought to fear and upon what reasons 3. What is the excesse of fear or the obliquity and irregularity whereby it becomes dangerous penall and criminall a state of evill and not a state of duty 1. Fear is taken sometimes in holy Scripture for the whole duty of man for his whole Religion towards God And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God c. fear is obedience and fear is love and fear is humility because it is the parent of all these and is taken for the whole duty to which it is an introduction The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome a good understanding have all they that do thereafter the praise of it endureth for ever and Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man and thus it is also used in the New Testament Let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God 2. Fear is sometimes taken for worship for so our blessed Saviour expounds the words of Moses in Mar. 4. 10. taken from Deut. 10. 20. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God so Moses Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve said our blessed Saviour and so it was used by the Prophet Jonah I am an Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of Heaven that is I worship him he is the Deity that I adore that is my worship and my Religion and because the new Colony of Assyrians did not do so at the beginning of their dwelling there they feared not the Lord that is they worshipped other Gods and not the God of Israel therefore God sent Lions among them which slew
with so little relish that it comes as news of a victory to a man upon the Rack or the birth of an heir to one condemned to dye he hears a story which was made to delight him but it came when he was dead to joy and all its capacities and therefore sicknesse though it be a good Monitor yet it is an ill stage to act some vertues in and a good man cannot then doe much and therefore he that is in the state of flesh and blood can doe nothing at all 4. But in these considerations we find our nature in disadvantages and a strong man may be overcome when a stronger comes to disarme him and pleasure and pain are the violences of choice and chance but it is no better in any thing else for nature is weak in all its strengths and in its fights at home and abroad in its actions and passions we love some things violently and hate others unreasonably any thing can fright us when we should be confident and nothing can scare us when we ought to feare the breaking of a glasse puts us into a supreme anger and we are dull and indifferent as a Stoick when we see God dishonour'd we passionately desire our preservation and yet we violently destroy our selves and will not be hindred we cannot deny a friend when he tempts us to sin and death and yet we daily deny God when he passionately invites us to life and health we are greedy after money and yet spend it vainly upon our lusts we hate to see any man flatter'd but our selves and we can endure folly if it be on our side and a sin for our interest we desire health and yet we exchange it for wine and madnesse we sink when a persecution comes and yet cease not daily to persecute our selves doing mischiefs worse then the sword of Tyrants and great as the malice of a Devill 5. But to summe up all the evills that can be spoken of the infirmities of the flesh the proper nature and habitudes of men are so foolish and impotent so averse and peevish to all good that a mans will is of it self onely free to choose evils Neither is it a contradiction to say liberty and yet suppose it determin'd to one object onely because that one object is the thing we choose For although God hath set life and death before us fire and water good and evill and hath primarily put man into the hands of his owne counsell that he might have chosen good as well as evill yet because he did not but fell into an evill condition and corrupted manners and grew in love with it and infected all his children with vicious examples and all nations of the world have contracted some universall stains and the thoughts of mans hearts are onely evill and that continually and there is not one that doth good no not one that sinneth not since I say all the world have sinned we cannot suppose a liberty of indifferency to good and bad it is impossible in such a liberty that there should be no variety that all should choose the same thing but a liberty of complacency or delight we may suppose that is so that though naturally he might choose good yet morally he is so determin'd with his love to evill that good seldome comes into dispute and a man runs to evill as he runs to meat or sleep for why else should it be that every one can teach a childe to be proud or to swear to lie or to doe little spites to his play-fellow and can traine him up to infant follies But the severity of Tutors and the care of Parents discipline and watchfulnesse arts and diligence all is too little to make him love but to say his prayers or to doe that which becomes persons design'd for honest purposes and his malice shall out-run his yeares he shall be a man in villany before he is by law capable of choice or inheritance and this indisposition lasts upon us for ever even as long as we live just in the same degrees as flesh and blood does rule us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art of Physicians can cure the evills of the body but this strange propensity to evill nothing can cure but death the grace of God eases the malignity here but it cannot be cured but by glory that is this freedome of delight or perfect unabated election of evill which is consequent to the evill manners of the world although it be lessened by the intermediall state of grace yet it is not cured untill it be changed into its quite contrary but as it is in heaven all that is happy and glorious and free yet can choose nothing but the love of God and excellent things because God fills all the capacities of Saints and there is nothing without him that hath any degrees of amability so in the state of nature of flesh and blood there is so much ignorance of spirituall excellencies and so much proportion to sensuall objects which in most instances and in many degrees are prohibited that as men naturally know no good but to please a wilde indetermin'd infinite appetite so they will nothing else but what is good in their limit and proportion and it is with us as it was with the shee-goat that suckled the wolves whelp he grew up by his nurses milke and at last having forgot his foster mothers kindnesse eat that udder which gave him drink and nourishment Improbit as nullo flectitur obsequio for no kindnesse will cure an ill nature and a base disposition so are we in the first constitution of our nature so perfectly given to naturall vices that by degrees we degenerate into unnaturall and no education or power of art can make us choose wisely or honestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phalaris There is no good nature but onely vertue till we are new created we are wolves and serpents free and delighted in the choice of evill but stones and iron to all excellent things and purposes 2. Next I am to consider the weaknesse of the flesh even when the state is changed in the beginning of the state of grace For many persons as soon as the grace of God rises in their hearts are all on fire and inflamed it is with them as Homer said of the Syrian starre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shines finely and brings feavers splendor and zeal are the effects of the first grace and sometimes the first turnes into pride and the second unto uncharitablenesse and either by too dull and slow motions or by too violent and unequall the flesh will make pretences and too often prevail upon the spirit even after the grace of God hath set up its banners in our hearts 1. In some dispositions that are forward and apt busie and unquiet when the grace of God hath taken possessions and begins to give laws it seems so pleasant and gay to their undiscerning spirits to be delivered from the