both it is A prayer to God to preserve and prosper him that he may have good luck with his honour and ride on and a prayer to God to save and deliver us by and through him or to him to do it Salva oâ—â—cro O fili David O fili for filio Save us we pray thee O Son of David By this time you understand Hosanna to be both a prayer and a thanksgiving a short Collect and a Hymn both an expression of rejoycing for Christs coming with a prayer that it may come happy both to him and us Thus you have it in Psal. cxviii 24 25. whence this seems either to be taken or to relate This is the day which the Lord hath made We will rejoyce and be glad in it there 's the voice of rejoycing then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Help me now O Lord O Lord send us now prosperity the prayer upon it 'T is an easie observation hence that our rejoycings are to consist in Prayers and Praises in Hymns and Collects no true Hosanna's to Christ no true blessing him but so no keeping Christmas or any Feast without them To spend a day in idleness or good cheer is not to keep Holiday To keep Christmas is not to fill our mouths with Meat but our lips with Prayers and Praises not to sit down and play but to kneel down and pray not to rest from work and labour but by some holy rest and retirement from temporal labour to labour so to enter into eternal rest The business of a Holiday is holy business Hosanna business of Christmas Christs coming so to be solemnized with solemn prayers and praises and thanksgivings And there is more then so in this Hosanna It was the close of certain Prayers and Litanies used by the Iewish Synagogues like our Libera nos Domine our Good Lord deliver us in our Litanies They first reckoned up the names of God God Lord King of Kings c. and to each Hosanna then his Attributes his Mercy Truth c. to each Hosanna then what they desired both in publick and private and for each Hosanna All resound Hosanna all eccho out Hosanna save and help and prosper us 'T is no new thing it seems or of Popish Original to use publick Litanies and Liturgies 't is but what the Church of God has ever had in use the way from the beginning it always serv'd him in The very Petitions of the Lords Prayer are all taken out of the Iewish Sedar or Common-Prayer-Book and if Christ himself who wanted neither words nor Spirit to pray thought fit yet notwithstanding to make use of received expressions and antient forms I conceive not why any that profess him should think themselves wiser then their Master and reject old and accustomed Forms of Prayers and Praise Yet indeed we cannot well expect they should keep a Form that will not keep a day to bless him for his coming We that resolve of this may be resolv'd of the other that no way like the old to do it in That teaches us to pray the Messiah that Christ may Reign that his Kingdom may prosper and be enlarged that we our selves may be of it and prosper in it that we may have Redemption and Salvation Grace and Glory sing Hymns and Songs of Praise to him both in his Kingdom here upon Earth and in his Kingdom in Heaven This the way of entertaining him at his coming to entertain our selves and time in blessing him for his goodness and desiring of his blessing And yet besides there is as much Faith as Devotion to be here learn'd from the multitude in this Hosanna There is an acknowledgment of his Office that he was Messiah They it seems believed it I suspect they that love not to have a day to mind them of his becoming the Son of David of his Nativity do scarce believe it If they thought his coming real we should have some real doings at it they would be as busie in it as the best Were filio David well grounded in us did we really believe him the Son of David we would also become the Sons of David who was a man of Prayer and Praise sons of Praise sing Hosanna's as fast as any 'T is only want of Faith that hinders Works we believe not in him as we should what e're we talk else we would do to him as we should accept all his comings even upon our knees at least with all thankfulness and such Devotion as time and place required of us And 2. we would raise our voices a note higher add Benedictus to Hosanna Blessed is he that cometh c. Bless God and bless him and bless his coming and bless his goodness and bless his power and bless his fulness and bless his work and bless his purpose desire God to bless him and man to bless him and also bless our selves in him for no less then all these is in the words Blessed first be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his Servant David So old Zachary S. Luke i. 68. 69. Blessed be God the Father for the Son God the Father for the Son of David 's coming to us Blessed 2. be the Son blessed be he that cometh blessed be Our Lord Iesus Christ for his coming for to him is blessing due that he would vouch safe to come and bless bless the Father for sending the Son for coming blessing to them both for thus blessing us Blessed 3. be his coming all his comings his coming in the Flesh his coming in the Spirit his coming in Humility his coming in Glory his coming in the Flesh that 's a blessed coming for us whereby all other blessings come unto us his coming in the Spirit or by his Grace a blessed coming too and still daily coming his coming in Glory that may be a blessed coming to us too if we bless him duly for his other comings if we truly and devoutly rejoyce at his first and second coming no doubt but we shall also triumph at his last That he cometh came and will come unto the end is blessed news we therefore with these multitudes so bless him for it Blessed 4. be his goodness and that 's evident enough in his coming to us bless him for that he would be so good to come when all good was going from us when we our selves were gone away from him run away as far as well we could that he would come after us Blessed 5. be his power and authority for in the name of the Lord he comes not in his own name but in the Fathers that sent him S. Iohn v. 43. confess acknowledge submit to his power and authority that 's the true way to bless him Blessed 5. be his greatness and fulness of blessing blessed be his blessedness for he is full of blessings in him
observe that too and though many ways I shewed you they all come into one Law and Gospel Baptism and Repentance Faith and Obedience Mercy and Judgment Precepts and Counsels all into one 'T is way in the singular to shew that peace and unity is the only way of the Lord the only way of Christ. Yet 2. both paths and way it is We must descend to particulars every one to cleanse his own his own private paths Not only shew me thy ways O Lord says David but teach me thy paths too Psal. xxv 3. Not only to rectifie the outward action but the inward thoughts not to content our selves with a general profession but to come to a particular practice of Religion of the way of Christ. Observe that too Particular practice I say and yet 3. of the general way of the way generally and Catholickly held by all and 2. of all things generally in that way all the several tracks of vertue none to be omitted seeing the paths indefinitely one as well as another none as I hear excepted are here to be made strait that 's a third thing I wish observed But lastly the way first prepared then the paths made streight Christs way is a way of order First a general resolution to make all streight and ready then a particular entring into every path to do it Resolve first upon the way of Piety then take the paths that lead best to it parate first then facite prepare good resolutions then set to do them Nothing done well before them nothing well done without them And viam first then semitas the plain way of the Commandments for beginners the harder and streighter way of Counsels for great proficieâ—ts and perfect men II. The way and path thus now found out we are next to enquire whose it is or to whom it leads Viam Domini the Lords it is so the Septuagint and Evangelists all render it in the Genetive and Domino it is too so the Hebrew in the Dative to him it is or for him it is to him it is it leads for him it is prepar'd the preparation all for him Viam Domini 1. His way first and not our own Non sunt viae meae viae vestrae Isa lv 8. His ways are not ours ours are Lust Covetousness Ambition Hypocrisie meer superficial and external Works Vanity and Error The ways we spoke of Mercy and Truth Faith Hope Charity Obedience and all good ways are his not ours we have no good ones of our own Nay even our Souls those ways too into which he comes are his his and not our own the Soul of the Father and the Soul of the Son of all Fathers and Sons all mine says God Ezek. xviii 4. Our Bodies too they are Gods 1 Cor. vi 20. bodies and spirits all his made and prepared for his own way and Service all again to be prepared by us that they may be fit for him to walk and be in For 2. Viam Domino it is To him all our ways and paths must be directed to his Glory and Worship all lead to him as to the end of all from him all good ways come to him all good ways tend he is Alpha and Omega is and must be the beginning and end of them They are Domini Domino both of the Lord and to the Lord all our ways and preparations or all are wrong To him as to my Lord the King visiting us in mercy and gracing us with his presence and to him as to my Lord Judge to visit us in judgment and punish all offenders as a Lord to us or a Lord against us as our own King in triumph or another King in fury and to him in each consideration there is a proper way and a proper way of preparing it III. And now 3. Be it what way it will and to the Lord under what notion or way we will a preparation there is due a preparation next enjoyn'd us Indeed there is no meeting him unprepar'd better meet a Lion in the way or a Bear robb'd of her Whelps than him unprepar'd Prepare your hearts unto the Lord says the Prophet Samuel 1 Sam. vii 3. And make streight paths for your feet says the Apostle Heb. xii 13. Law and Gospel both for preparation If thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy soul says the Son of Sirach Ecclus. ii 1. 2. If thou goest into his house prepare thy foot keep it keep an eye over it that it slip not there says the Son of David Eccles. v. 1. go not in rashly and in haste 3. Prepare thy mouth too that it be not too hasty to utter any thing says he ver 2. 4. If thou goest any where to pray before thou prayest prepare thy self Ecclus. xviii 23. they that fear the Lord will do so Ecclus. ii 17. will prepare their hearts yea and ponder their paths too for so Solomon advises us Prov. iv 26. Ponder the paths of thy feet and let all thy ways be established Nay ponder them and all thy ways shall be established so it may be read and so Iotham found it became mighty says that Text 2. Chron. xxvii 6. because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God No way to become great mighty and powerful with God or Man like preparing Gods way in righteousness keeping our selves streight to the ways of God a reward sufficient to establish it for a duty That we may do it as we should we are now next to enquire what is meant by this preparing and making streight and how we are to do it The word in the Original is either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 panim facies and may be construed either by faciem date h. e. speciem make the way look fair give it a handsom face and so to prepare the way will be to cleanse the way or by faciem obverter or a facie amovere change the face of it or remove things off the surface of it and so to prepare it will be to clear the way of rubs and blocks to remove our sins out of the way Or 2. from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 angulus a corner and may be rendred Angulate corner it out and lay it to the line and rule And then to prepare will be to make it smooth regular and equal Put them together and to prepare the way will be to remove all soil and filth all blocks and impediments all roughness and unevenness out of our ways which are like any ways to hinder our Lords coming to us so to put all by that he may have way to come to us and we the easier and fullier receive him when he comes Thus to prepare his way will be to remove all hindrances and to make his paths streight will be to bring all furtherances to his coming To remove our sins by repentance which else would hinder him from coming is to prepare the way to regulate and order our paths to the rule of his Commandments
c. THE SEVENTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day 2 COR. viii 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich FOR ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ. And do you know any grace of the Lord Jesus Christ like this days grace the grace of Christmas any grace or favour like that grace and favour he this day did us when he so grac'd our nature as to take it on him surely whether this grace be his becoming poor or our making rich never was it seen more then this day it was Never was he poorer then this day shew'd him a poor little naked thing in rags Never we rich till this day made us so when he being rich became poor that we being poor might be made rich And rich not in the worst but in the best riches rich in grace but above all grace in Christmas grace in love and liberality to the poor the very grace which the Apostle brings in the poverty of Christ here to perswade the Corinthians to See says he that ye abound in this grace also ver 7. For ye know the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ. He was so full of it that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor made himself poor to make us rich that being made rich we might be rich To the poor bestow some of his own riches upon him again some at least upon him who gave us all supply his poverty who enricht ours be the more bountiful to the poor seeing he is now become like one of them that as through his poverty we were made rich so even in our very poverty we might abound also to the riches of liberality So the Macedonians did ver 2. So would he fain have the Corinthians too here in covert terms so he would be understood and so are we to understand him Christs poverty here brought in as an argument to perswade to liberality A grace so correspondent to the pattern of the Lord Iesus so answerable both to the purport of Christmas and the purpose of the Text that 't is hard to say whether the Day better explains the Text or the Text the Day For whether we take the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ towards us downward or the grace of the Lord Jesus in us towards him upward whether for the grace he did us in becoming poor for our sakes or for the grace we are to shew to his poor members for his sake again for his becoming poor and making of us rich I see not how or where I could have chosen a better Christmas Text a Text for the Day or a Day for the Text. For here is both the Doctrine and Vse of Christmas the Doctrine of Christs free Grace and the free Use and Application of it too The Doctrine That our Lord Iesus Christ though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that through his poverty we might be rich The Vse That we are to know it and acknowledge it know it for a grace and favour yea know the grace know it for a pattern too For ye know it that is to that end ye know it to take pattern by it to return grace again for grace to shew grace to his for his grace to us to supply his poverty in his members for his so gracious supplying ours to answer the riches of his grace with being rich in this grace also in the grace of love and charity to the poor the best way to be rich and to abound to the riches of his glory But more to appropriate it to the Day you may please to take it in these particulars Christs Birth The Christians benefit The evidence of both The Inference upon all 1. Christs Birth Egenus factus when he became poor 2. The Christians benefit Propter nos it was for your sakes it was ut vos divites That ye through his poverty might be rich 3. The evidence of both Scitis no less then that of Science ye know it 4. The inference upon all scitis enim For ye know it for what for a grace and favour Scitis gratiam the first And ut vos divites essetis that we might be rich in the same grace he was Then secondly that ye may do answerable to your knowledge for propter nos it is for our sakes he became poor that for his sake we might look the better upon the poor for that he made us rich that we might be rich in good works for that he made us rich by the way of poverty that we might know our riches have a near relation to poverty are given us for the poor as well as for our selves These are the parts and of all these the sum is that Christs Birth is the Christians benefit the knowledge of which ought to stir us up to Christian Charity or nearer the phrase of the Text that our Lord Jesus Christ though he was rich became poor to make us rich rich in all good gifts and graces but especially in this of love and mercy to the poor came down in grace to us to that purpose both in the Text and in the Day the whole and business of them both I shall prosecute it in order and begin with those words in the Text that seem to point us to the Birth of Christ egenus factus and if that were the original the factus would be plain for his being made man But as it is 't is plain enough he could not become poor but by becoming man I. For there is not so poor a thing as man indeed no creature poor but man no creature lost its estate and place and honour thrust out of doors and turned as it were a begging abroad into the wide world but man Other creatures keep their nature and place to which they were created man only he kept nothing first lost his clothes his robe of innocence in which he was first clad was then turned naked out of his dwelling out of Paradise only his nakedness covered a little with a few ragged leaves fain upon that to work and toil and labour for his living to get his bread forc'd to run here and there about the world to get it all the creatures that were lately but his servants stood gazing and wondering at him and knew him not would no longer own him for their Lord he look'd so poor so despicable when he had sinn'd they that before were all at his command by the dominion he had received over them now neither obey'd his command nor knew his voice so perfectly had he lost the very semblance of their late great Master so perfectly poor was he become The Devil kept a power and awe and Principality though he lost his seat got a Kingdom though he lost his glory But man lost all glory and grace riches and honour estate and power peace and ease shelter
meagre words to tell you what he did For to undertake this business when all others had given it over and left it in the rubbish Chap. i. 2. when their enemies without the Walls eagerly opposed and as scornfully derided it and false friends within as subtilly undermined it Chap. vi 17. when some of their Nobles dishonourably drew back for fear or interest Chap. iii. 5. then in a time so difficult so dangerous so troublesome then so vigilantly so couragiously so industriously to pursue it as not so much as shift themselves from weeks end to weeks end till all was finished Chap. iv 23. to be so bountiful to it too in a time of dearth and scarcity as it seems it was Chap. v. 3. when they had scarce money to buy bread for themselves and families then to draw both great and small the chief Fathers and the meanest people to great Contributions to it Chap. vii 71. is so many good deeds together and so good together that 't is nor Greek nor Hebrew nor Latine noâ— Original nor Translation can express the goodness I am sure I have all this while but injured it And if we sum up all his Mercies and Bounties all together his Tears and Prayers over the desolations and ruines of Gods House his Petition and diligence for the repairs his care and labour in the Work it self his Zeal and Courage in the cleansing and protecting it his Friendship and Faithfulness to the Officers and Ministers his Iustice to settle them in their Office his Mercy to deliver them from such as would disturb them in it his establishing them in their Rights and his studying all Conveniences for the holy Office his restoring the whole Service of the Church for days for Forms for State for Beauty for Order for all Solemnity Methinks I might spare you the trouble of the next Particular I am to give you to prove them good Yet because there are some that are not willing to believe it I must do it If we would yet but believe the very words of the Text we should need go no further Misericordias the Text calls them Mercies and Acts of mercy are good sure We say so when we want it and call it a doing us good Beneficentiam 2. Bounty it styles them too and that 's good Bonum benè good well done so is benefacere makes him so good that does them that one would even die to do him good again for a good man that is for a merciful bountiful man some would even dare to die Rom. v. 7. If 3. you examine the Object of these actions that 's good for 't is God That which is done to his House is done to him for if the robbing It be robbing Him as he tells us 't is Mal. iii. 8. the doing good to it must then be the doing good to him If you 4. enquire the intention that 's good too 'T is in Observantiis and Ceremoniis for Gods Service all that he may neither dwell slovenly nor be served so Will you have 5. a point of faith to sanctifie it further Why Deus meus is the very cloze of faith the believing God to be his God the very reason he is so good to God and His. To put all out of question Deeds of this nature God himself styles good David had it but in his heart to build God a House and God sends the Prophet purposely to tell him he did well to think on 't Forasmuch as it was in thy heart to build a House to my Name thou didst well 2 Chron. vi 8. Our blessed Saviour himself says as much in the case of Maries anointing him a work which all the Fathers reckon of the same sort with these we speak of she had wrought a good work St. Mar. xiv 6. Indeed Iudas and some that he had seduced with a pretence that it might have been bestow'd much better they disdained at it ver 4. and thought it waste but remember I pray that 't was but Iudas thought so and some few that he had abused Christ says the doing good to the poor which was the pretence against it might stay a while and must give way to it ver 7. Charity must give way to Piety Charity to them veil to Piety towards him Nay so far is is from a waste that is so spent that Christ seems to justifie the very wasting our selves upon it whilst he so highly commends the poor Widow that had cast into the Treasury of his house all that she had even all her living St. Mar. xii 44. Indeed it was but two Mites in all yet that he accepts the least that is done to him but 't was all she had and that it was which made him prefer it above the richest gifts and presents that were cast in by all the rest After all this I must tell you he affects these works so well and then they must needs be good and loves the House so much that he sets us a pattern of some of them himself he will not suffer any Vessel to be carried thorow it St. Mar. xi 16. and in indignation whips the buyers and sellers out of the very out-parts of it St. Luk. xix 45. Twice he did so First after he came up from Capernaum St. Ioh. ii 15. And again when he went up from Bethphage and the Mount of Olives St. Mat. xxi 12. Nay and he cast out all their Seats and Merchandise and Moneys would not suffer the least marks of prophane or common use be left upon it I wish we would learn to be so scrupulous in the point for now you see no reason to scruple their being good III. Yet good though they be they thirdly stand in need of Gods goodness to remember them as great mercies as we have shewn them they yet want his mercy to expound them a Secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum and a magnitudine bonitatis as 't is expresly ver 22. a verse parallel to this to construe and accept them Our works are not so perfect but they require it Verebar omnia opera mea says holy Iob viii 28. He was afraid of the best of them Nay though he were righteous he would not answer God ver 15. nor pretend to answer for them No more will holy David I have walked innocently O Lord says he indeed but yet be merciful to me for all that both in the same verse Psal. xxvi 11. That must be the Plea when all is done And he that here cries out wipe them not out O Lord or remember me concerning them and ver 22. Spare me O Lord or coâ—nive super me wink at me a little and ver 33. Remember them for good intimates plainly enough they are not so good but they may do well to be wink'd at may want a pardom or fear cancelling or be as well forgotten or be remembred for evil as well as good Yet good notwithstanding we will allow them But by Gods grace it
consider the practise of those first Christian Saints and Martyrs those daily pains and cares their days and nights were spent in we would think our Race to heaven another-gates business Christianity another manner of thing than we make it now a days or are willing to conceive it Were there no other word than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text this run to express it we might understand it to be a work of labour and if we take it with that reference it has to the Olympick Races there are many things in the performance that will sufficiently shew it What a deal of pains and care did they take first to fit and prepare themselves And then with what might and main did they pursue their course How often have such Racers been taken up at the Goal so tired and spent that they have had much ado to recover their life or spirits Ah! did we but half so much for heaven there were no doubt of it Running take we it how we will is a violent exercise that for the time imploys all the parts and powers 'T is that the Apostle would have here that all the faculties and powers of our souls and bodies should be taken up in the business of heaven Our heads study it our hearts bend wholly to it our affections strive violently after it our hands labour for it our feet run the ways of Gods Commandments to come to it our eyes run down with water for it and our bodies with sweat about it 'T will cost somewhat more to come to heaven than a few good words at the last than a Lord forgive me and have mercy upon me when we are going out of the World or than a hot fit or two of Piety when we are in it or a cold and careless walking and stragling up and down in it throughout even all our lives Nay more 't is not running over whole Breviaries of Prayers 'T is not running over good Books only neither reading and studying of good things but running as we read that all that run may read in our running the Characters of heaven Would men but lay this to heart that it is no such easie or perfunctory business to get thither their courses would be better their lives holier themselves heavenlier than they are nor would so many put off the work to the last cast make a meer death-bed business of it as if they then were fit enough to run Gods ways when they cannot stir a hand or foot whereby 't is more then to be fear'd they deceive themselves and being then in no possibility to run they go they know not whither II. And yet for all the pains and running we talk of if now secondly it have not an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rule and steer it if it be not a so running such a one as is right set to obtain we had as good sit still This so to run is 1. To run lawfully 2. To run carefully 3. To run speedily 4. To run willingly 5. To run stoutly 6. To run patiently 7. To run constantly and to the end To run 1. lawfully according to the Laws and Rules prescribed to obtain it 2. Carefully the way to obtain it 3. Speedily with the speed requisite to obtain it 4. Willingly with spirit to obtain it 5. Stoutly to endure any thing to obtain it 6. Patiently to expect to obtain it 7. Constantly not giving out till we obtain it 1. Lawfully according to the Laws and Rules of the Race we are to run we are not crowned else says our Apostle 2 Tim. ii 5. Now the Laws of the Christian Race are Gods Commandments according to which we are diligently to direct our steps Yet three Laws there are more particular and proper to it the Law of Faith the Law of Hope and the Law of Charity These the three more peculiar Rules of it We must run in a full belief of Gods Promises in Christ that in him they are yea and in him Amen that God will not let one tittle of them fall to the ground Looking unto Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith Heb. xii 2. of our course too We must secondly run in hope that through his grace we also even we though the most unworthy shall obtain laying hold upon the hope so set before us Heb. vi 18. And thirdly in Charity must be our course though we strive for the mastery it must not be in strife or envy but in love and charity in unity and peace in love unfeigned our selves 2 Cor. vi 6. and provoking one another to it Heb. x. 24. no other strifes or provocation but who shall go before one another in love so keeping the bond of peace which once broken our clothes and garments which were tied up to us with it as with a girdle fall all down about us and hinder us both in our Race and of our Crown Those who have broke this bond and rent the Churches Robes and their own souls by their unhappy separations will after all their labour with those in the Psalm sleep their sleep and find nothing nothing but that they have hindered both others and themselves of the Crown of glory Run we lawfully and orderly then that first And 2. run we carefully too neither to the right hand nor to the left neither looking after sensual pleasures or worldly profits or sinful lusts not turning aside after those golden balls which the Devil the Flesh and world are always casting in the way to hinder us but straight on our course carefully shunning all temptations stumbling-blocks and stones of offence which are likely to trip up our heels and throw us in our race what carefulness says St. Paul 2 Cor. vii 11. has your godly sorrow wrought will earnest desire of a heavenly Crown say I work in you if you would think upon it It would make you 3. gather up all your strength set to all your force put to all your speed you would think you could not come soon enough to so glorious a Goal Let us go speedily and pray before the Lord say they in Zachary viii 21. Make haste and come down says our Saviour to Zacheus St. Luke xix 6. as if he that meant to see Christ here at his own house or hereafter in his must make what haste he can Running is our speediest motion and the more haste to Heaven the better speed though to earthly things the proverb says it is not and the reason may be indeed because our swiftest motion is to be towards Heaven to be reserv'd for that Yet willingly 4. must it be we must do it without Whip or Spur they are for unreasonable Beasts and not for men in running We are not to look that God should force and drive us to his work he loves no such workmen A ready mind is Gods Sacrifice he accepts no other If I do it willingly says our Apostle ver 17. I have a reward no reward else to
a cold sweat to think of it before 't was built Gen. xxviii 17. Will the Lord dwell on earth Is it true says Solomon Can it be so Lord What am I says Holy David and my people that we should but offer to it Lord What is it that we should be allow'd to touch so holy ground with our unhallowed feet look upon so holy a sight with our unholy eyes that such a glo-worm as Man should be set upon a Hill But above all 3. Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou should'st so regard him as to advance him also into the holy Hill of Heaven too Lord what can we say what can we say Shall corruption inherit incorruption dust Heaven a worm creep so high What he that lost it for an Apple come thither after all he in whom dwelleth no good thing be let stay there where none but good and all good things are He that is not worth the Earth worth nought but Hell be admitted Heaven Lord What is Man or rather what art Thou O Lord how wonderful in mercies that thus priviledg'st the sons of men Admirable it is worth the whole course of your days to admire it in and you can never enough It will appear yet the more by the glory that accompanies it It is a glorious priviledge indeed even admirable for its glory Even in all the senses we take the words 't is 5. a Glorious Priviledge Glorious to be Sains they are heirs of Glory Glorious to be Saints in Churches for the Angels that are there 1 Cor. xi 10. to wait upon us and carry up our Prayers for the beauty of holiness that is seated there for the God of Glory whose presence is more glorious there But it is without comparison to be Saints in Glory Grace is the portion of Saints that 's one ray of Glory The Church the House of God is the Gate of Heaven Gen. xxviii 17. that 's the entrance into Glory What then is Heaven it self What is it to enter there into the very Throne of the King of Glory Lift up your heads O ye Gates lift up your heads and let us poor things in to see the King of Glory the Hill of the Lord can be no other then a Hill of Glory His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of Glory And being such you cannot imagine it 6. but hard to come by the very petty glories of the World are so This is a Hill of Glory hard to climb difficult to ascend craggy to pass up steep to clamber no plain campagnia to it the broad easie way leads some whether else St. Mat. vii 13. the way to this is narrow ver 14. 't is rough and troublesome To be of the number of Christs true faithful servants is no slight work 't is a fight 't is a race 't is a continual warfare fastings and watchings and cold and nakedness and hunger and thirst bands imprisonments dangers and distresses ignominy and reproach afflictions and persecutions the worlds hatred and our friends neglect all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go A man cannot leave a lust shake off bad company quit a course of sin enter upon a way of vertue profess his Religion or stand to it cannot ascend the spirtual Hill but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with But not only to ascend but to stand there as the word signifies to continue at so high a pitch to be constant in Truth and Piety that will be hard indeed and bring more difficulties to contrast with And yet to rise up to keep to that Translation that is to rise up in the defence of holy ways of our Religion is harder still to bloud it may come at last but to sweat it comes presently cold and hot sweats too fears and travels that 's the least to be expected Nor is it easie as it often proves to gain places to serve God in Temples are long in building that of Hierusalem 64 years together Great preparation there was by David and Solomon to that before and no little to the rearing of the Tabernacle It was 300 years and upward that Christianity was in the World before the Christians could get the priviledges of Sanctuaries and Churches The more ought we sure to value them that we come so hardly by them We would make more of the priviledge if we considered what pains and cost and time they cost how unhandsom Religion looks without them how hard it is to perform many of the holy offices where we want them how hard it would be to keep Religion in the minds of men if all our Churches should be made nests of Owls and Dragons and beds of Nettles and Thistles Yet I confess it is hard too to enter into those holy places with the reverence that becomes them to rise up holy there Every one that comes into the Church does not ascend he leaves his soul too oft below comes but in part his body that gets up the Hill the mind lies grovelling in the Valley amongst his Grounds and Cattel Nor may every one be said to rise up or stand in his holy place that stand or sits there in it unless his thoughts rise there unless his attention stands erect and stedfast up to Heaven when he is there he is indeed in the place but he unhallows it it is no longer holy in respect of him He must ascend in heart and soul raise up eyes and hands voice and attention too that can be properly said to ascend into the Hill of the Lord or rise up in his holy place Which how hard it is the very stragling of our own thoughts there will tell us we need not go to the Prophet to find a people that sit there as if they were Gods people and yet are not that hear his Word and stand not to it that raise up their voices and yet their hearts are still beneath We can furnish our selves with a number too great of such enow to tell us how hard it is to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and rise up in his holy place so few do it And if these two ascensions be so hard what 's the third the very righteous are scarcely sav'd 1 Pet. iv 18. If by any means I may says St. Paul 1 Cor. ix 27. supposes he may not he is afraid at least after all his Preaching he should become a cast-away fall short of the goal miss the Crown come short of the top of the Hill of the holy Place So hard a thing is Heaven so clogg'd are the wings of our soul so heavy and drossie are our spirits and our earth so earthy that it is hard to ascend so high We feel we find it and they but deceive themselves that think 't is but a running leap into Heaven a business to be done wholly or easily upon our Death-beds when we can
should seem either to receive glory from David or need his name to cover the obscurity of his beginning There is no glory to that of humility nor any so truly honourable as the humble spirit And of Iesse 4. not David to point out as it were the very time of our Messiah's coming even then when there was scarce any thing to be seen or heard of the house of David the Royal Line as it were extinct and Davids house brought back again to its first beginning to that private and low condition it was in in the days of Iesse Thus again would God teach us to be humble in the midst of all our ruff and glory by thus shewing us what the greatest Families of the greatest Princes may quickly come to where they may take up e're they are aware And 2. to give us the nearest sign both of Christs coming and of himself that when things were at the lowest then it would be and that his coming would be in a low condition too in poverty and humility Root and Iesse both intimate as much And lastly if we may with some Etymologists derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and interpret it a gift there will be as good a reason as any why it is here said rather of Iesse than of David even because this root of all this good is to us comes meerly of free gift So God loved the world says S. Iohn iii. 16. that he gave his only begotten Son and not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy says St. Paul this great kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards us this Lord our Saviour appeared to us Tit. iii. 4 5. as a root as a rod as a branch a root to settle us a rod to comfort us a branch to shelter us a root to give us life a rod to rule us in it a branch to crown us for it a close stubb'd root a weak slender rod a tender branch full of loveliness meekness and humility And he appeared as they all do out of the earth watered by the dew of Heaven they have no other Father than the heavenly showers so by the descending of the Holy Ghost upon the Blessed Virgin as rain into a dry ground this holy Root put forth this Branch sprung up without other father of his humanity which is the meaning both of erit in the Text and egredietur in the beginning both of this shall be here and that shall come forth or there shall grow up in the first verse of the Chapter And thus we have the first part of the Text the descent and stock and nature and condition and birth of Christ with other things pertaining to it And now for his design to be set up or stand for an Ensign to the people II. And indeed for that he was born to gather the stragling world into one body to unite the Iew and Gentile under one head to bring the straying sheep into one fold to draw all the Armies of the earth together into one heavenly host that we might all march lovingly under the banner of the Almighty under the command of Heaven Men had long marched under the command of Flesh Earth and Hell God had suffered all Nations saith St. Paul to do so to walk after their own ways Acts xiv 16. But now he commands otherwise commands to repent and leave those unhappy Standards to come in to his Acts xvii 30. And he exempts none debars none all men every where are called to it Acts xvii 30. every nation and every one in every Nation that will come shall be accepted Acts x. 35. every creature says he himself St. Mark xvi 15. Iew and Greek bond and free male and female all one here Gal. iii. 28. Be we never so heavy laden with sins and infirmities under this banner we shall find rest St. Mat. xi 28. Be we never so hotly pursued by our fiercest enemies here we shall have shelter and protection For he is not only an Ensign set up to invite us in but an Ensign to protect us too by the Armies it leads out for us And as it first is set up to call us and secondly to bring us into a place of defence and safety so does it thirdly stand to us and not leave us An Ensign may be set up and quickly taken down but this stands and stands for ever It is not idly said when 't is here said particularly it is to stand Humane forces devices and designs may be set up and not stand at all but God's and Christ's theirs will the gates of Hell it self cannot disappoint them cannot throw down this Banner St. Mat. xvi 18. His counsels shall stand he will do all his pleasure Isa. xlvi 10. They do but fight against God that go about to resist it says Gamaliel the great Doctor of the Law Acts v. 39. And will you know the Staff the Colours and the Flag or Streamer of this Ensign why the Staff is his Cross the Colours are Blood and Water and the Streamer the Gospel or preaching of them to the world The Staff that carried the Colours was of old time fashioned like a Cross a cross bar near the top there was from which the Flag or Streamer hung so as it were prefiguring that all the Hosts and Armies of the Nations were one day to be gathered under the Banner of the Cross to which Souldiers should daily flow out of all the Nations and Kingdoms of the earth By Blood and Water the two Sacraments is the way to him and the Word or Gospel preached is the Flag wav'd out to invite all people in Come we then in first and let not this Flag of Reconciliation of peace and treaty for to such ends are Flags sometimes hung out be set up in vain let it not stand like an Ensign forsaken upon a hill come we in to treat with him at least about our everlasting peace lest it become a Flag of defiance by and by Come we in 2. and submit to the conditions of peace submit to his orders and commands The Septuagint reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here to intimate this He that stands for an Ensign is to be the great Ruler and Commander of the Nations 't is requisite therefore that we come in and obey him Come we 3. to this Standard and remember we are also to fight under it That 's the prime reason of Ensigns and Banners We promise to do it when we are Baptiz'd and it must be our business to perform it It is not for us to be afraid of pains or labour of danger or trouble of our lives and fortunes for Christs service a Souldier scorns it even he who fights but for a little pay and that commonly ill paid And shall we turn cowards when we fight for a Kingdom and that in Heaven which we may be sure of if we fight well Above all 4. if this Ensign stand up for us let
by a Fire Here it was first he visited in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but a looking down from heaven till now a looking on us at a distance and that was a blessing too that he would any way look upon such poor worms as we it could not be construed visiting properly till this day came Now first it is so without a figure Yet is not good old Zachary too quick Does he not cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too soon our blessed Saviour was not yet born how says he then the Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Answer we might the good old man here prophesied 't is said so just the verse before and after the manner of Prophets speaks of things to come as done already But we need not this strain to help us out Christ was already really come down from heaven had been now three months incarnate had begun his visit had beheld the lowliness of his handmaid says his Blessed Mother ver 48. The Angel had told her twelve weeks since Her Lord was with her ver 28. of this Chapter Blessed Zachary understood it then no less than his Wife Elizabeth that proclaimed it ver 43. though he could not speak it As soon as he could he does and breaks out into a Song of Praise that was his prophesying for this new made Visit this new rais'd Salvation That word slipt e're I was aware comes in before the time But 't is well it did you might else perhaps have mistaken visiting for punishing so it went commonliest in Scripture till to day It does not here This business has alter'd it from its old acception And yet punishing sometimes is a blessing too 'T is a mercy we oft stand in need of to bring us home to God But it is infinitely a greater when he comes himself to fetch us home as now he does Shall I shew you how great it is Why then 1. It is a visit of Grace and honour that he made us here he visited us as great and noble persons do their inferiours to do them honour Hence Whence it is to me says St. Eliz. that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me c. ver 43. She good soul knew not how to value such an honour nor whence it was Whence then is this O Lord that the Lord of that Blessed Mother my Lord himself should come unto me That 's a far higher honour and no reason of it to be given but that so it shall be done to those whom this great King of Heaven and Earth delighteth thus to honour 'T is a blessing first this that we speak of by which God owns and honours us 2. It was a visit of Charity He visited his people as charitable men do the poor mans house to seek some occasion to bestow an Alms. He went about doing good says S. Peter Acts x. 38. As poor as he was and the Apostle tells us poor he was he had a bag for the poor S. Iohn xii 6. and for our sakes it was he became poor says S. Paul 2 Cor. viii 9. emptied bag and himself and all to make us rich His visit now 2. is a blessing that makes us rich 3. It was a visit of Service too He visited us as the Physician does his Patient to serve his necessity to cure and recover him The innumerable multitudes of the sick and lame and blind and deaf and dumb and Lepers and possessed that he daily healed and cured will sufficiently evince he visited them also as a Physician So 't was a blessing 3. that cures all diseases makes all sound and whole again 4. His visit 4. was a visit of brotherly love and kindness He visited us as David did his Brethren to supply their wants carry them provision and take their pledge 1 Sam. xvii 17. He did so and much more becomes himself by this visit our Provision makes his Body our meat and his Blood our drink and himself our pledge supplies all our defects and wants and enters himself body for body and soul for soul to make all good This a visiting no brother could do more no brother so much 5. His visit 5. was not of petty kindnesses but great mercies abundant mercies too He visited us as holy David says he does the earth Psal. lxv 9 11. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it thou makest it very plenteous Thou waterest her furrows thou sendest rain into the little Vallies thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it He not only furnishes our necessities but replenishes us with abundances makes us soft and plump and fat and fruitful by his heavenly dews and showers This 5. a visit of abundant superabundant mercies 6. His visit 6. was a visit of Friendship and that 's more yet He visited us as blessed Mary did her Cousin Elizabeth came to us to rejoyce and be merry with us So acquainted has he now made himself with us by this visit that he now vouchsafes to call us friends S. Iohn xv 15. he eats and drinks and dwells and tarries with us makes it his delight to be among the sons of men This is a visit I know not a name good enough to give it And yet lastly his visit was not of a common and ordinary friendship neither but of a friendship that holds to death He visited us as the Priest or Confessor does the dying man When health and strength and mirth and Physicians and Friends have all given us over he stands by and comforts us and leaves us not till he has fitted us wholly to his own bosom A visit of everlasting friendship or an everlasting visit was this visit in the Text. Thus I have shewed you a seven-fold visit that our Lord has made us made Gods first blessing into seven A visit of Honour a visit of Charity a visit of Service a visit of Kindness a visit of Mercy a visit of Friendship and a visit of everlasting Love All these ways he visited his people and still visits them all the ways he can imagine to bless them and do them good And yet I should have thought I had forgot one if it did not fall in with the blessing we are to consider next Redeeming For he visited us also as he is said to do the children of Israel Gen. l. 24. to bring us out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage He visited us to redeem us or visited and redeemed 2. Now if redeem'd Captives it seems we were And so we were under a fourfold Captivity To the World to Sin to Death and to the Devil The World 1. that had ensnared and fettered us so wholly taken us that it had taken away our names and we were called by the name of the World instead of that of Men as if we were grown such worldlings that we had even lost our natures and our names even the best of us the Elect are sometimes called
acknowledging of Gods blessings the first part of ours so sure a point of it that Confiteri to acknowledge or confess the blessing or him that sends it is above sixty times in the Book of Psalms set down for blessing And whole Psalms you have that are nothing else but an enumeration and catalogue of blessings the 66. the 103. the 104. the 105. the 107. the 136. And the more particular we are in it the more we bless him You have heard how particular Zachary is in it here He hath visited he hath redeemed c. given us nine particulars leaves neither gift nor giver unacknowledged Honourable it is to do so honourable to reveal to reveal the works of God says the Angel Iob xii 7. honourable to him honourable to us we cannot honour God without it nor expect honour from him if we will not acknowledge it Come and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul is the best way to begin our blessing 2. But it is but to begin it We must go on to the next way of blessing set close to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Benedictus from Benedicere both tell us there is much of it in words Only verbum is factum and dicere is facere sometimes in the holy page So we must take both words and deeds to do it with The word by the hand of thy servant as the Scripture sometimes speaks is the best way to bless him with Yet to our benedicere in the first sense first And to do that to give him good words is the least that we can give him let us be sure then not to grudge him them Confess we that he is good and gracious and merciful full of mercy plenteous in goodness and truth Streighten we not his visits stifle we not his Redemption coop we not up his salvation to a corner suffer we it to run large and full that the whole world may bless him for it Let us 2. speak it out Gods blessings were not done in a corner no more must ours Publick and solemn they would be And the Church has made it and Text part of the publick service that every one might bear a part in blessing God Every one of us and every thing of us too our souls and all that is within us heart and mind and all All within us and all without us our lips praise him our mouths praise him our hands praise him our flesh praise him our bones say who is like him all the members of our body turn themselves into tongues to bless him Bless we him 3. in set Hymns on purpose in good votes and wishes that his Church may prosper his Name be magnified his Glory advanced to the highest pitch for bene dicere is bene vovere too And sanctificare is no less To bless is sometimes to sanctifie So God blessed the seventh day is God hallow'd it and to sanctifie a day or place to bless him in is to bless him by his own pattern that he hath set us well said if well done I dare assure you to set apart both times and places to bless him in 2. But dicere is not all sung never sweetly said never so well The Lord bless thee in common phrase is the Lord do good unto thee Indeed Gods blessing is always such his benedicere is bene facere His saying is a doing his blessing a making blessed 'T is fit our blessing should be somewhat like it To himself indeed we can do no good He neither wants it nor can be better'd by it To His we may Though not to his head yet to his feet The poor we may bless them And the blessing them is blessing him for inasmuch as ye have done it unto these you have done it unto me says he himself S. Mat. xxv And truly it must needs be a poor blessing that cannot reach his feet Nay 't is a poor one if it reach no higher Indeed he that giveth alms he sacrifices praise says the Son of Syrach Ecclus. xxxv 2. And praise is blessing But to bless is to honour too And honour the Lord with thy substance says a wiser then the Son of Syrach Prov. iv Something must be done to his own honour So nething given or offered to support that here among us for to bless is to give thanks and that intimates somewhat to be given to him as well as said or spoken to him It will else be verba dare and not gratias a meer cheating him of our thanks As soon as Naaman the Syrian was cured of his Leprosie he begs of the Prophet to accept a blessing for it Nature had taught him God was to be blest so 2 Kings v. 15. When the Captains of Israel had found by their whole numbers how God had delivered them they come with a blessing in their hands of sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels of gold for the house of God Numb xxxi 52. David and his people the story tells us blest him so too 1 Chron. xxix 20 21. offered incredible sums of Gold and Silver for the service of the house of God And let me tell you without begging for it that the House of God being now by this Visit in the Text made the very office of salvation where he daily visits us and entertains us with his Body and Blood with holy conferences and discourses where he seals us every day to the day of Redemption and offers to us all the means of salvation there can be no way of blessing God so answerable and proportionable to his thus blessing us as thus blessing him again Yet where there is nothing thus to bless him with there is yet another way of blessing him nay where there are other ways this must be too To bless him is to glorifie him and a good life does that S. Mat. v. 16. By our ill lives the name of God is blasphemed says the Apostle Rom. ii 24. Then by our good ones it must needs be blest Zachary seems to point at this way of blessing when he tells us we were delivered that we might serve our Visitor in holiness and righteousness ver 75. And thus he that has neither eyes to look up nor hands to lift up nor feet to go up to the house of blessing nor tongue to bless him nor so much as a Cross to bless himself or God not a mite to throw into his treasure may truly bless him and be accepted To this and all the other ways of blessing is the Text set And let all now come in and bear a part in blessing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel is now lastly a call to call them in The Prophet David does so Psal. cxlviii Sun and Moon and Stars and Light Heaven and Earth and Waters both above and under them Dragons and Deeps Fire and Hail and Snow and Vapour and Wind and Storm and Hills and Trees and Beasts and Cattel
c. In the literal sense of the words 2. In his dealing with Christ in respect to man What is the Son of man 3. In his dealing with man in the sublimer sense of the Text again in respect to Christ what is man and the Son of man in the same sense too I. His mercy in his dealing with man will best appear 1. by what he did And 2. for whom he did it that he should do so much for man that he should do it for so little so little so inconsiderable a thing as man Six branches there are here of what he did 1. He was and is ever mindful of him 2. He visits him 3. He made him but a little lower then the Angels but one step below 4. He did that only too to exalt him to crown him as we read it 5. He crown'd him also 6. He crown'd him with glory and with worship too If you will know 2. for whom all this 'T is 1. For man Adam a piece of clay 2. For the Son of man Enos a piece of misery 3. For a meer quid est for a thing we know not what to call it 4. 'T is for one that the Prophet wonders God should mind or think on that he should come into Gods mind much more into his eye to be visited by him such a one that 't is a wonder he should be thought on II. His dealing with Christ in respect to man which is the Apostles interpretation of the words is a second manifesto of his mercy and shew'd 1. In his Exinanition that God for mans sake should 1. make him lower then the Angels That 2. he should make him so low as man As man 3. and the Son of man Such a Son of man 4. that we cannot know how to name him such a quid est such a we cannot tell what a wonder a gazing-stock not worth seeing or remembring and all only that man by him might be visited and remembred 2. In his Exaltation That notwithstanding all this God should a while afterwards remember him visit him crown him crown him with glory and honour III. And both Exinanition and Exaltation 3. that he might yet visit man the more remember him with greater mercies crown him with richer graces crown him with higher honours here then he did in the Creation and with higher glory hereafter then the first nature could pretend to Upon all these the second general the Prophets wonder comes in well will follow handsomely as the conclusion of all the application of all to teach us to wonder and admire at all this mercy and take up the Text and say it after David What is man Lord what is man that thou c. That we may wonder and worship too and give God Glory and Worship for this wonderful mercy for the glory and worship that he has given us I begin now to shew you his mercy in all the acts here specified and the first is his being mindful of us or remembring us 1. And he remembers that we are but dust Psal. ciii 14. and so deals accordingly blows not too hard upon us lest he should blow us clean away that 's a good remembrance to remember not to hurt us and the Lord hath been mindful of us says the Psalmist again Psal. cxv 12. hath and will ever be mindful of his Covenant Psal. cxi 5. though we too often forget ours The Bride may forget her ornaments Jer. ii 32. and the Mother her sucking child Isa. xlix 15. Yet will not I says God forget you The Hebrew here is in the future as the Latin is in the present but all times are alike with God what he is he will be to us even when he seems to forget us he is mindful of us Recordaris operationum ei says the Chaldee Thou remembrest his works to reward them but that 's too narrow Thou remembrest his substance all his bones and members forgettest none to preserve them Thou remembrest his soul to speak comfortably to it Thou remembrest his body to feed and clothe it Thou remembrest his goings out and his comings in to direct and prosper them Thou remembrest his very tears and puttest them up in bottles all these things are noted in his book Psal. cxxxix 15. put down there When we are shut up in the Ark and all the Floods about us then he remembers us as he did Noah and in due time calls us out When we are unhappily fall'n into Sodom among wicked hands and the City ready to be all on fire about our ears then he remembers us as he did Lot nay as he did Abraham rather when he delivered Lot Gen. xix 29. He is so good that he remembers us for one another remembers us for Abrahams Isaacs Iacobs and Davids sake remembers the Son for the Father the Nephew for the Uncle the Friend for the Friends Iobs friends for Iobs sake Iob xlii 8. So mindful is God of us so continually minding us such a care of us he has he careth for all no God like him for the care of all Wisd. xii 13. I would we were as careful again to please him as mindful of him 2. And yet 2. he is not only mindful of man but visits him too And thy visitation says Holy Iob has preserved my spirit Job x. 12. Will you know what that is Thou hast granted me life and favour so the words run just before not life only for his being mindful of us says that sufficiently but favour also his visiting intimates some new favour somewhat above life and safety Indeed visiting is sometimes punishing I will visit their sin Exod. xxxii 34. And 't is a mercy to man sometimes that God visits and punishes him it keeps him from sin increases him in grace advances him in glory And what is man that thou thus visitest him O Lord and sufferest him not to run headlong to destruction though he so deserve it But visiting here 2. is in a softer milder way 't is to bestow some favour on us Thus holy Iob in words somewhat like the Text What is man that thou shouldst magnifie him and that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him and that thou shouldst visit him every morning and try him every moment Job vii 17 18. So Gods visiting in Iobs interpretation is a magnifying of man a setting of his heart upon him to do him good a visiting him with some mercy or other every morning a purging and purifying him from tin and dross In the Prophet Ieremiah's stile it is the performing his good word unto us Ier. xxix 10. And in the Psalmists a Visiting with his salvation Psal. cvi 4. Great mercy without question Hence it is that he visits us by his Son to bring us to salvation Thus good old Zachariah understood it when he starts out as it were on a sudden with his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people S. Luke i. 68. He visits
their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more ver 10. 12. a Covenant of pardon and remission such as the Sacrifices of the Law could not give were not able And new Books we have it written in as authentick as those old ones in the Iewish Canon where we may find all seal'd by the testimony of the Spirit Heb. vi the Author of the new Testament as well as of the old 6. The new Church has its new Sacraments Ite Baptizata for Ite Circumcidite Baptism for Circumcision and the Lords Supper for the Passeover in both which of ours there is more than was in theirs in those legal Ceremonies not only outward signs as they but inward graces 7. New Sacrifices the calves of our lips instead of Calves and Goats the sacrifices of Praises and Thanksgivings nay the sacrifice of a contrite heart and humble spirit the sacrificing of our lusts and the offering up of our souls and bodies a living holy acceptable Sacrifice Rom. xii 1. 8. A new Priesthood to offer them an unchangeable Priesthood now Heb. vii 24. Christ our High-Priest and the Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. iii. 6. as so many under-Priests to offer them up to God Christ offer'd himself a Sacrifice offers up also our Prayers and Praises to his Father has left his Ministers in his Name and Merits to do it too and this a lasting Priesthood to last for ever 9. We have a new Altar too so St. Paul Heb. xiii 10. an Altar that they which serv'd the Tabernacle have no power to eat of Take it for the Cross on which Christ offered up himself or take it for the holy Table where that great Sacrifice of his is daily commemorated in Christian Churches Habem says the Apostle such an one we have and I am sure 't is new 10. Temples we have many new the Temples of our bodies 1 Cor. vi 19. those both to offer in and offer up and 2. Churches many for that one Temple so long since buried in dust and rubbish 11. There is above these a new Spirit Ezek. xxxvi 26. not the spirit of bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. viii 15. the spirit of love and not of fear the spirit of Sons and not of Servants a spirit that will cause us to walk in Gods Statutes keep his Commandments and do them Ezek. xxxvi 27. a new thing indeed that can make the Beasts of the Field to honour him as the Prophet speaks of it Isa. xliii 19. the Dragons and the Owls to do so the most sensual fierce cruel and dullest natures bow unto him that gives waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart Isa. xliii 19. 20. that blows but with his wind and these waters flow Psal. cxlvii 18. this is a new spirit that is so powerful And from this spirit it is that we 12. receive new life and vigour that we walk not under the Gospel so dully and coldly as they under the Law where the outward work to the letter serv'd the turn but according to the spirit in the inward purity of the heart as well as in the outward purity of the body To which lastly there is a new inheritance annexed a new Heaven and a new Earth which we may look for according to his promise 2 St. Pet. iii. 13. And are not these new things all good news worth our rejoycings Can we be ever old that enjoy such mercies are they not enough to revive the dying spirit nay to raise the dead one to set forth his praises who thus renews us as the Eagle renews his mercies to us every morning makes us Kings and Priests gives us easie Laws and pleasing Covenants effectual Sacrifices and saving Sacraments turns our bodies into his Temples and our hearts into Altars makes us a glorious Church and builds us Churches inspires us with a new Spirit and gives us a second life gives us a Kingdom gives us Heaven and all This is the new state under Christ since his coming ended and renewed our years unto us And therefore says our Apostle just before the Text If any man be in Christ he is a new creature all this new work is done upon him that 's the second way we are now to consider the words That in the Christian truly such all old things are past away and all things become new He is dead to sin Rom. vi 2. and he is dead to the Law Rom. vii 4. or if you will sin and the Law are both dead to him they can hold him no longer he is alive unto God Rom. vi 11. new created in righteousness and true holiness Will you have it more particular Why first then the Heathen ignorance and error that is past with them they are enlightned Heb. vi they know God and are known of him they are light in the Lord the very children of it The Heathen sins they are past with them in them they walkt once Ephes. ii 2. such they were some of them 1 Cor. vi 11. but now they are washt but now they are sanctified but now they are justified Nor are they now 2. under so slender a providence as the poor Heathen were God visits them often now and not only now and then and suffers them not to go on or fall back again into the old ways of infidelity But they are not only out of the Heathen condition but out of the Iewish too no more in bondage to the Law The sacrificing of Rams and Goats of all sensual affections is done already the unreasonable part is mortified in them they have been washt and need be wash'd no more they are oblig'd to no differences of meats no Iewish Sabbatizing no Circumcision no one particular place of Worship no legal Rites or Ceremonies Christ having abolished in his flesh the Law of Commandments says S. Paul contained in ordinances Ephes. ii 15. We are now at liberty he has made us free And we are now 3. under a new course of providence God leads us now by spiritual and eternal promises he threatens spiritual and everlasting punishments guides us by a clearer light than Prophesie the evidence of the Word and Spirit ties us not up to the Covenant of Works nor empty Ceremonies these things are past Makes us not rich that he may accept us but accepts us as we are He reckons not of us by our wealth or honour or learning or our parts we know no man so now ver 16. not Christ so now according to the flesh we value not any man now for any thing but holiness and righteousness for so much as he is in Christ. Nor does the Christian value himself now for any thing but for that of Christ which is in him riches he contemns honour he despises learning he submits all outward and externall priviledges and commendations he lays at the foot of Christ devotes them to his commands
Court of Heaven than the greatest Emperours Cup-bearer or the Viceroy of Iudea nay of Emperour of East and West This only by the way that He forgets himself and God will not remember him who thinks his Honour and greatness exempt him from the service of Gods House or values any beyond it King David himself had rather be a door-keeper there than dwell any where else One day there better says he than a thousand Psal. lxxxiv 9 10. And one poor Me is worth as many Worships and Honours that single Syllable of as few Letters as you can make it with a few good deeds to back it better than all glorious Titles without them But enough of so small a Particle Enough too here of the Person considered in himself because I shall speak of him all the way in his good deeds To which now I pass and enquire 1. What he did to the House of God and then 2. What to the Offices thereof And the several readings give us them under two Heads Misericordias and Beneficentiam His Mercy and his Bounty to them both both House and Offices His Mercy to the House that I begin with and that take in these particulars In his Compassion towards it his Petitioning for it his Repairing his Cleansing his Protecting it Give me leave to trace the Story as 't is fit I should and I shall shew you them in some or other of the neighbouring Chapters as they rise 1. His Compassion towards it that we may easily see in his sitting down and weeping over the ruines in his fasting and sadly praying for it Chap. i. 4. For 't is not Hierusalem only or principally either though first mentioned for which he does so but Sion the place that God had chosen to put his Name there ver 9. For that it is because of the House of the Lord his God that he thus seeks O Hierusalem to do thee good David plainly professes so for himself Psal. cxxii 9. And for Sion Thy servants says he they think upon her stones and it pittieth them to see her in the dust Psal. cii 14. All good men still it does as much they more bewail the ruines of God's houses than of their own Alas Hierusalem is but a sad dwelling without Sion no more than any other City any ordinary Heathen City not the City of the great King or a sure refuge without that Even a Fox as Tobiah the Ammonite jeer'd it Chap. iv 3. if he go up shall break down the wall if the wall of the House be not joyn'd to it and built with it 'T is for this principally Nehemiah mourn's and maks as it were a Cement for it out of the rubbish by the mixture of his tears 'T is a Tender mercy that first 2. But he does not meerly and dully sit down and weep end the business there Up he gets 2. and to the King he goes and petitions him for a Commission to repair it Chap. ii 7. Begs of him some supplies and materials towards it Good it is to do good to the House our selves but 't is doubled when we can work others to it too when we promote it with our friends and put our selves as it were to the blush to beg for it 'T is yet a mercy we need not blush at a holy impudence in doing good a very serviceable mercy a mercy not ashamed of any thing to do good to Gods house or any thing that is his That 's a second 3. These yet are but the Proems of his mercy He thirdly sets closely to the work provides necessaries and materials for the House and begins the repairs completes the unfinished Walls and Turrets not of the City only but the Temple too where ere they wanted Chap. iii. It had been begun to be re-edified by Zerubbabel Ezra vi Where by the way take notice they began their building with Gods House then yet it seems it was not fully finished Great works are not the business of a little time not of days but years Above forty years in building was this House wherein we are Nor are such Houses at any time so perfect at the last but that a religious hand will easily find somewhat or other always to be added to their beauty and glory And this is a point of Nehemiahs mercy too A mercy that thinks no pains too much no time too long to continue doing good to the House of God a laborious and continued mercy That 's the third 4. Nay sometimes it seems and we have found it by our own experience that the House is not fully finished yer it is afresh polluted Nehemiah 4. is fain to cleanse it Tobiah the Ammonite his houshold-stuff was gotten into the House Chap. xiii 5. The High Priest his Allie had brought it thither When the Priest himself profanes the House le ts the Ammonite come in or suffers it God help us God help us indeed to some good Nehemiah to throw out that stuff as you may see ours does Chap. xiii 9. A cleansing purifying mercy the House needs sometimes needed it we remember too long Such is Nehemiahs too A clean pure mercy That 's the fourth 5. And yet the Ammonite is not so easily cast out Nehemiah must stand to what he has done and still protect it or Sanballat Tobiah and Geshem the Horonite the Ammonite and the Arabian all Sects Schism Atheism and Prophaneness will in again If the Princes Authority and the Magistrates Sword do not protect as well as recover it from unhallowed hands and Offices 1. From corrupt Priests such as Eliashib ver 7. 2. From false ones such as cannot prove their succession Chap. vii 64. 3. From such as pollute it with strange marriages as one of the Sons of Ioiada ver 28. strange mixtures suppose the waters of the Tiber the Frith or the Leman Lake with the Springs of Sion 4. From strange Levites too so strange that we know not whence they came nor what their Pedigree even in those mercies of the most Highest which he hath lately shewed us contrary to the Psalm we shall all miscarry 'T is the highest Commendation of Nehemiahs mercies that he does not forsake the House but strill protects it both from open enemies and from treacherous friends the one by his Sword and Spear Chap. iv 16. the other by the restoring good order and Discipline Chap. xii 24. And this is a couragious and constant mercy The Fifth Commendation of Nehemiahs And thus you have his Mercies to the House it self His compassion on the Ruines his soliciting the Repairs his setting himself upon the work his delivering the house from prophanation his protecting it from the prophaners 1. a tender 2. active 3. laborious 4. pure 5. constant goodness to the House of God These are the first branches of those Mercies which God here commends to us to be shewn by his to his House The Second sort are those to the Offices And Misericordias in Custodiis in
Observantiis in Ceremoniis the several translations of the words again shall serve to head them Nehemiahs good deeds First To the Officers Secondly To the Offices Thirdly To the Ceremonies of the House these three shall be the Heads 1. Misericordias in Custodiis taking the Abstract for the Concrete His mercies to the Officers and Keepers of the House those who are set to watch and keep it them we take the first And indeed the Officers and Ministers they had need of them first and last need all the mercies that Nehemiah or any of you can shew them For not only unless the Lord keep the House but unless Nehemiah the Magistrate do so too you the Reveverend Iudges you the renowned Governours of the City the Watchmen the Priests and Levites will all labour but in vain Tobiah by his acquaintance and alliance Sanballat by his subtilty and pretences Geshem by his wealth and power will down with the Walls ere they be well dry and out with the Officers ere they are warm in their work and business Nehemiah therefore like a stout Governour sticks to them against those enemies of Sion and Hierusalem of peace and order whether open or conceal'd ones The first of them Chap. v. the other here ver 10. Against all that have ill will at Sion that envy the prosperity of the House of God he stands to them and protects them He Secondly disposes and settles them in their proper places ver 30. of this Chapter descends to take care even of the Singers and Porters or Vergers of the house Chap. xii 45. He calls home thirdly the poor Levite who had been forced to forsake the house for want of maintenance Chap. xii 11. delivers him from the oppression of such whose policy it was then and we know is still to starve the Levite or Minister out of the House that so they may either have no Minister at all and so scandalize the Government or none but such as will say and do what they would have them and so preach it down again He fourthly restores them all to their rights and dues establishes them to them too by a Law for time to come Chap. x. 32. and so on Lastly For their better maintenance and the readier performance of of the holy Office he commands the holy things and Vessels meat-Offerings and Oblations to their proper Chambers in custodias to be reserved in their several Wards Chap. xiii 9. And these in brief are Nehemiahs Misericordiae in Costodiis his good deeds to the Officers or Ministers of the House of God He defends them against their Enemies He confirms them in their Places He delivers them from their Oppressors He establishes them in their Rights He Orders all things to their best convenience Mercies never to be forgotten and I would our Age would remember them 2. Yet not them only but these that follow too And Misericordias in Observantiis are the next His Mercies to the Offices themselves Trace we him as we did before and we shall find him 1. restoring the observing of the solemn Fasts and Feasts in their due seasons Chap. viii 9 10 14. Vindicating 2. the Sabbath from prophanation Chap. xx 19. Making them 3. a solemn Form of Prayer Chap. ix 5. Setling 4. solemn Musick Hymns and Anthems of thanksgivings Chap. xii 27. Setting up 5. the publick reading and teaching of the Law of God Chap. viii 1. and ix 3. Re-establishing 6. the whole Office of Gods Publick Worship and Service according to the commandment of David the man of God Chap. xii 24. according to the ancient form and fashion 3. Follow we him a little further and you will see him 3. at Misericordias in Ceremoniis too how he behaved himself in the Ceremonies what good then And if you consider how reverently his people demean themselves at holy work how devoutly they all stand up at the reading of the Law Chap. viii 5. how unanimously they answer Amen at the Prayers and Blessing how they lift up their hands and bow their heads and worship the Lord with their faces to the ground ver 6. how content they are to be bound to the Statutes and Iudgments as well as the Commandments of God that is to the Ceremonials and Iudicials for so the words Statutes and Judgments do import as well as to the Moral Law and how he solemnly binds them to it by an oath Chap. ix 29. You cannot but say he has wrought a good work indeed upon them and by this Mercy kept them from disorder and confusion Mercy I say for there is none greater than to preserve the Sheep within the Fold than to keep all in peace and order and oblige men by Laws and Oaths to do their duties to attend the holy Offices diligently in a comely uniformity who otherwise would some of them never think of it and others under pretence of Christian Liberty run every day into all unchristian licentiousness and prophaneness and wander up and down in eternal errors and perish in them And sure to save them though against their wills is a mercy they need not quarrel with These now are the several Mercies of Nehemiah to the House of God and to the Offices thereof You will understand them better by his Bounty Misericordias fuller by Beneficentiam which is the second sort of his good deeds And the first kind of his Bounty is his own and his servants labour freely bestowed upon the Work For 't is no matter now whether we divide or joyn the House and Offices In effect it is no less than the whole Revenues of his Command and Government whilst refusing the Pay of the Governour Cha. v. 15 18. he suffered it so to run on towards the repairs It seems he was resolved not to enrich himself however by the Church but as the Phrase is rather lay out himself upon it The second Expression of it is the free entertainment of one hundred and fifty of those that laboured in the Work at his own Table at his own charges ver 17. of that cited Chapter He would neither grow rich upon the Churches charge or spare his own to enrich or at least recover that to its former greatness The third Manifestation of his Bounty is his voluntary gift of one thousand Drachmes of Gold to the Treasury of the House Chap. vii 70. a kind of springing stream of supplies unto it Add now the fifty Basins and Gold or Silver they must be the five hundred and fifty Priests Garments and they were no little cost as the Priests Garments then were made Exod. xxviii 40. for beauty all and glory the charging himself besides and all the people with a yearly Tax or Publick Revenue for the repair and service of the House and you will confess it a bounty beyond expression Especially if you consider not only that and what but when and how as the Story will inform you you will say Misericordias and Beneficentiam are lean and
establish him a throne for ever 2 Sam. vii 11 12 13. God will be behind hand with none that do good to his Habitation or really intend or go about it Nay the very Sparrow is blest and the Swallow is blest that love but his House that sing their Mattens and Vespers at his Altars the devout Prophet even envies them for it Psal. lxxxiv 3. So great are the blessings of the House of God and so ever are those persons under his eye so in the eye of blessing whose good deeds are there continually putting God in mind of them If you would but remember how God forgets his mercy or which is the same how he remembers them in Iudgment who do ill to his House or to the Offices how he strikes Vzzah dead for an irreverent touch of the Holy Ark how he smites Vzziah with a leprosie for an encroachment upon the sacred Office 2 Chron. xxvi 19. and turns Saul out of his Kingdom for the like fault 1 Sam. xiii 14. How he thrusts Nebuchadnezzar out of doors Dan. iv 33. because he had burnt up his Houses in the Land 1 King xxv 9. 'T is just indeed he should have no House who will let God have none How he despoils Belshazzar of his Kingdom because he had spoild his Temple and was now prophaning those holy spoils carouzing in the sacred bowles Dan. v. 30. How he quite forgets all mercy to the Iews and casts them out as soon as they prophaned his holy Temple and abused his Messengers Priests and Prophets 2 Chron. xxxvi 14. and professes he could hold no longer when they had arrived at that height of insolent wickedness How he makes the Heavens forget their dew and the earth her fruit because they let his house lie waste Hag. i. 9 10. you will readily conclude how he remembers those that raise the Walls and repair the Ruines and reverence the Sanctuaries and love the Priests If them with Curses then these with Blessings if them with diseases then these with health if them with exile these with quiet dwellings if them with scarcity these with plenty Vbertate Domus the plenty of his house if them with desolate and decaying Families these with happy and full Posterities if them with death then these with life even for ever and ever VI. But 't is time now to remember our selves And many things we are here to be remembred of That 1. We have a House of God as well as Nehemiah to do good to Many houses of God in the Land now as well as in the Psalm lxxiv. 9. This above the rest whose decay'd Towers and ruin'd Pinacles and ragged Walls and open Windows and falling Roofs and broken Pavements call loud for a Repairer of the breaches And 't is not Nehemiahs Mercy and Bounty nor the Levites thin revenue added that can do it Blessed indeed be God that he hath put it into the heart of the King to begin and offer so freely to the Work But I hope we shall ere long have reason to bless him for your offerings too This House is Gods all such houses Gods as well as that of Bethel or that of Sion or those Synagogues of the Iews stiled several times his houses That they are so the solemn Dedications always of them to his Name with so much glory say enough And if Domus orationis be Domus mea the House of Prayer be Gods and Christ says it is and sure he knows both what is his own and how to call it the daily celebration of that Publick Worship there will give a second proof That some such there were even in the Apostles times some house besides such as we eat and drink in that must not be so used must not be so despised the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. xi â—â— and that it was then called the Church of God in the same verse is to tell you in plain English our Churches are Gods houses And God has in our days own'd them for his own That signal preserving them in the heat of War and Plunder rage and fury when men were so wrathfully displeased at them and so implacably set against them That protecting them 2. through all the Triumphs of a godly Atheism and a sacriledge out of Conscience both as unsatisfied as the grave so miserably greedy that they would violate their Fathers Sepulchres and scatter their ashes in the air and wind for an inconsiderable piece of lead or brass or stone That miraculous restoring them 3. to all the holy Offices this Church in particular destined to a sale and deferred only to see who would give most are evidences of it too great to be disputed that God has vindicated his right and kept it for himself And I hope you will all remember it and now help him in it Court and City both of you And remember 2. These Houses have their Officers their Offices their Ceremonies as well as that here in the Text. Offices to be performed Officers to perform them and Ceremonies to perform them with Your countenancing your encouraging your protecting them are the good deeds you may do to them Remember therefore 3. I beseech you that you do so Three arguments there are in the Text to perswade it 1. Good it is to do so good deeds they are God 2. will remember them when they are done God 3. will remember you for doing them 1. Good they are remember that And good works are a good foundation 1 Tim. vi 19. a foundation upon which you may lay hold on eternal life says St. Paul there and can you desire a better Indeed Iudas tells us it would do better upon the poor But had he had the selling of the Ointment then or when some of his Disciples had the selling of it since Were the poor ever the better for it Were not thousands sent a begging by it Sure sure he that can be content to see the Church in ruines will not much pass to see the poor in rags He that envies the Church-mans wealth will never pity the poor mans want and he that one time sells the Church will next time sell the poor if he can get by him But we will not set good deeds together by the ears 'T is enough that these are good but 't is more 2. that God remembers them that he takes a particular notice of them 2. I may say too a notice of the particulars The Scrowles of them are laid up for an everlasting remembrance Feasts of Dedication have been always kept for a memorial of them and Christ himself vouchsafed to be present at them St. Ioh. x. 22. And if the Syriac Translator may be allowed to read the last verse of the Chapter Et ad oblationes ad sacra temporibus Festis Statutis memoriam hujus rei mihi serva we see these good deeds were solemnly remembred in those solemn Feast and Nehemiah expected his should be so Their persons have anciently been remembred
in the Christian Dypticks And you see to day we have revived the Custom here 3. But 't is not a meer remembring them for honour but also a real remembring them and them that do them for a blessing all sorts of blessings So that would I commend to my dearest friend a Trade to make him rich and happy it should be doing good to the House of God 'T is an old Jewish saying Decima ut dives fias Pay thy Tyths if thou wilt grow rich Build God a House say I and he will build thee one again Do good to His House say I and he 'll do good to thine and a wicked Son shall not be able to cut off the Entail For 't is worth the notice that when God promised David a House upon this account he tells him that though his Son commit iniquity he would not utterly take his mercy from him I know there are that to be excused talk much of unsetled times This is the way to settle them When God and man shall see we are in earnest for the House of God and the Offices thereof all your Sects will cease to trouble you and vanish Some cry the State must be setled first Why Fundamenta ejus in montibus Sanctis says the Psalm the foundations of Hierusalem are upon the Holy Hills Lay your foundations there and you shall never be removed God of his goodness will make your Hill so strong No better way to fix the House of the Kingdom or your own than to begin with His. Others to get loose tell us of the decay of Trade Why how can it be other says God Hag. i. 9. You looked for much and it came to little and when you brought it home and 't was scarce worth bringing home I did blow upon it blew it into nothing And why was it says the Lord of Hosts Because of my house that lieth waste and ye run every man to his own house You dwell in Cedars and you lap your selves in Silks and Silver and you have all neat and fine about you but the House of God that lies in the dust and rubbish But is it time for you O ye says he for I know not what to call you to dwell in cieled houses and my house lie no better Did God think you make Gold and Silver Silks and Purples Marbles and Cedars for us only and our houses and not for himself also or his own Or do you think to thrive by being sparing to it or holding from it No says God from the day that the Foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it from this that day will I bless you Hag. ii 18 19. And prove him so say I for he bids so himself Mat. iii. 10. and see if he will not pour you out a blessing Indeed he has been before us with it He has brought us home and stablisht our Estates and restor'd our Religion done more to us and to our houses than we durst desire or hope and is it not all the reason in the world we should do good to his again Hang up our remembrances upon the Walls pay our acknowledgments upon his Altars and bless all the Offices of his house for so great blessings God will remember you again for what ever it is If you would yet more engage him to you know God loves the Gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Iacob Psal. lxxxvii 2. must needs therefore love these most that most love them And I doubt not but we shall find many here that do so many too that will so express it Yet not according to what a man has not but to what he has says our St. Paul does God accept him We cannot expect that all that love most can express most Yet according to their abilities they will do it A cup of cold water I confess to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall not lose the reward no more shall a single Mite to the house of God as his Every one however may do somewhat towards it They that cannot give much may give a little they that cannot pay may yet pray for it And to wish it well and to rejoyce in the prosperity and welfare of it the repairing and adorning of it are two mites that any one can give and God will accept where there can be no other Only where there is most we must present it with humility as David did 1 Chron. xxix What am I O Lord that I should be able after this sort to offer thus to do it And where there is but little we must present it with a regret that we can do no more Will God remember and accept us remember and pardon us remember and bless us with blessings of the right hand and blessings of the left remember us in all places both at home and abroad in all conditions both in the days of our prosperity and in the time of trouble in our goings out and in our comings in in our Persons and in our Estates in our selves and in our Posterities with them shall remain a good inheritance and their children shall be ever within the Covenant And when all earthly glances shall be forgotten that which we have done to the House of God shall be still remembred when our bodies shall lie down in dust our names shall live in heaven when a cold stone shall chill our ashes our bones shall flourish out of their graves when time shall have eaten out our Epitaphs our righteousness shall not be forgotten God will remember it for ever And though the general conflagration shall at last calcine these glorious structures into ashes we shall dwell safe in buildings not made with hands eternal in the heavens where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the Temple and we sing the Offices of heaven with Angels and Archangels and all the holy Spirits with joy and gladness for evermore To which glorious House and Office God of his mercy bring us in our several times and orders through c. THE FIRST SERMON On the Day of the PURIFICATION OF THE Blessed Virgin St. LUKE ii 27 28. And when the Parents brought in the Child Iesus to do for him after the custom of the Law Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God AND when That When was as this day When the days of the blessed Virgins Purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished forty days after Christs Nativity this day just then they brought him to Ierusalem to present him to the Lord ver 22. Then blessed Mary and Ioseph brought then devout Simeon and Anna blessed and if we be either Maries or Anna's Iosephs or Simeons holy men or devout women we too will this day bless God for the blessing of the day For this day also of his presentation as well as those other days of his Birth Circumcision and Manifestation Candlemas-day as well as Christmas-day New-years-day or Epiphany is a day
Virgin and all the Saints and Angels we may sing praise and honour and glory to him Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever A SERMON ON Palm Sunday St. MAT. XXi. 8. And a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way others cut down branches from the Trees and strewed them in the way THe branches in the Text point you out what day it is St. Iohn calls some of them at least Palm branches St. Ioh. xii 13. and the Church calls the day Palm Sunday Dominica Palmarum the day wherein our Blessed Lord riding as Lord and Bishop of our souls his Visitation to Hierusalem upon an Ass was met with a kind of solemn Procession by the people a very great multitude of them says our Evangelist and had his way strewed with boughts and bespread with cloths the best they had as is usual in Princely Entertainments and Triumphs and Processions And 't is both a day and business worth remembring wherein we see the triumph of humility whereby we are taught both humility and its reward Christs mercy and mans rejoycing in it Christs way of coming to us and our way of going out to him to meet and entertain him Things worthy consideration All that was this day done were so but they are many and though they all concern us much yet our own duty concerns us most to know with what dispositions which way and how to meet and receive our Lord come he never so meanly never so slowly to us upon Horse or Ass by Mountain or Valley gloriously or humbly to us though come he how he will it will be humbly the greatest imaginable condescension even to come unto us I shall stir out neither of the Text nor time to mind us of our duty in the way of receiving Christ nor desire more matter to spend the hour than the words will give me Only I must take both the Letter and Spirit of them If we look to the History and Letter many remarkables we shall meet with If to the Mystery and Spirit more and more punctually to our purposes By both we shall be abundantly fitted against Christs coming to us and for our due receiving him the Sacramental within few days now at hand not excepted nay the Spirit of the words may be as fitly applied to that to the Sacramental receiving him as any other to teach us how to receive and meet him there as well as any where else Consider we the words then under both Notions what they did as to the Letter what we are taught to do by the Mystery and Spirit In each these three Particulars I. The Persons that go out to meet Christ and entertain him The multitude A very great multitude II. The Ceremony and respect they meet him and entertain him with Some spread their Garments in the way others cut down branches from the trees and strewd them in the way III. The Way and Place they meet and entertain him in both the one and the other in the way There they met him so they there entertained him so many hundred years ago in the literal sense in the same way and manner in the spiritual sense are we to entertain him every year and all our years and days to come And by thus canvasing the Text and taking both senses of it we shall plainly see we have good reason to remember a Palm Sunday the Church so to entitle it so to prepare us both to the Passion and the Resurrection by spreading still before us these branches of Palms and Olives by insinuating this way unto us as the properest to entertain our Saviour in to usher in the thoughts of both the Passion and Resurrection both his and ours and fit us for them both I begin with the Persons of the day and them I find the multitude A multitude for their quality a very great multitude for their number The multitude for their quality are the common people And Interdum vulgus rectum videt says the Poet Sometimes it seems the Common People see what is right No people of so low or mean understanding but may come to the knowledge of Christ and understand the ways of Salvation The Rabbins had a Proverb that Non requiescit Spiritus Domini super pauperem The Spirit of the Lord rests not upon the poor And the Pharisees had taken up somewhat like it when they give the people no better stile than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than of cursed and such as know not the Law St. Ioh. vii 49. Their blessing then comes by Christ it seems so they may well honour him upon that score 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the poor the Gospel is preacht is one of the tokens he sends St. Iohn Baptist to evidence himself the true Messiah quite contrary to the Pharisees Hic populus qui non novit this people that knoweth not the Law The Gospel the Law of Christ the far better Law is preacht it seems to the poor by him and spiritus is now joyn'd with pauperes The Spirit and poor together we find in his first Sermon and first beatitude the poor in Spirit St. Mat. v. 3. and a while after Quam difficile c. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kindom of God St. Mark x. 23. The condition altered the poor advanc'd the rich deprest a good reason why the multitude should follow and respect him and a great testimony of our Saviours mercy and humility so to honour mean things Yet 2. that the multitude may not forget themselves as they are too prone to do to ride you know whither when they are set a horse back they may remember Christ would not commit himself unto them St. Ioh. ii 24. He needed not their honour he knew what they would do in a few days hence cry as many Crucifies as they did to day Hosannahs as fast to crucifie him as now to bless him Indeed they are easie to be seduced and led away by any wind of Doctrine new Teachers and Seducers We have found it so of late Christ and his Church and his Religion more dishonoured by the madness of the multitude than he was honoured here They have stript himself and his Church of all the Garments and Ornaments to cloath themselves instead of stripping themselves or spreading their own Garments to honour him Yet for all that of such giddy pieces as these Christ does not always refuse to be honoured that we may know he does not deal with us after our sins nor reject us for our weaknesses much less condemn or damn us for them before we have committed them Nay perhaps 3. he accepts this honour from this multitude that he might shew us what all worldly honour is how fickle how inconstant how vain it is to puff up our selves with the breath of men to feed our selves with their empty air They that are now ready to lick the dust of some great mans feet and spread not their Garments
the body to make some expression in their way and order But not the powers of the body alone but all the powers of the soul too Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name Psal. ciii 1. Our souls magnifie the Lord our Spirits rejoyce in God our Saviour our memory recollect and call to mind his benefits and what he has done for us our hearts evaporate into holy flames and ardent affections and desires after him our wills henceforward to give up themselves wholly to him as to their only hope and joy 'T is no perfect joy where any of them is wanting 'T is but dissembled joy where all is outward 'T is but imperfect gladness where all is within It must be both God this day raised the body the body therefore must raise it self and rise up to praise him He this day gave us hope he would not leave our souls in hell fit therefore it is the soul should leave all to praise him that sits in heaven He is not worthy of the day or the benefit of the day worthy to be raised again who will not this day rise to praise not worthy to rise at the Resurrection of the just who will not rise to day in the Congregation of the righteous to testifie his joy and gladness in the Resurrection of his Saviour and his own He is worthy to lie down in darkness in the Land of darknes who loves not this day who stands not up this day to sing praises to him that made it And now I shall give you reason for it out of the last words In eâ in it In it and for it As short as they are they contain arguments and occasions as well as time and opportunity to rejoyce in Rejoyce first in it because this day it is a particular day of gladness and rejoycing Let us do what the day requires 'T is a day of joy designed for it let us therefore rejoyce in it Rejoyce 2. because the Lord made it All the works of the Lord are matters of joy to the spiritual man even sad Days too much more glad days such as this Rejoyce 3. because the Lords people have ever made it such God has always made them to rejoyce in it to contend and strive who should do it best or nearest to the point Be glad 4. for the occasion of it the Resurrection of our Lord and Master and the hopes thereby given us of our own all benefits of Christ were this day sealed unto us all his promises made good all so hang upon this day that without it we of all men says the Apostle had been most miserable none so fool'd so wretched so undone so miserable as we Rejoyce 5. because God bids us 't is an easie and pleasant Precept If we will not be glad when he commands us certainly we will do nothing that he commands us especially when he gives us so great occasion of joy when he commands it Rejoyce 6. because the very Jewish people do it here They had but little cause of joy compared to ours they saw but a glimmering of this joy at most saw the Resurrection but afar off and yet you hear they cry out We will rejoyce and be glad in it And is it not a shame that we Christians who see it clearly and pretend to believe it fully should not as much exceed them in our joy as in our sight in our gladness as in our faith Clearly so it is Rejoyce 7. because it is a good thing to rejoyce to rejoyce in Gods mercies and favours to us in Christs Crown and glory in his day and way The very Angels themselves put on this day the white garments of joy and gladness we find them in them St. Luke xxiv 4. Rejoyce lastly to day because this day is the first of all our Lords days ever since We count them feasts and days of joy and we meet together upon them to rejoyce in to give God praise and thanks and glory 'T is a piece of worse than non-sence to say we are to do it upon these days and not on this from which only and no other they had their rise and being All that we commemorate or rejoyce in on every Sunday is more eminently and first in this this the great yearly anniversary of that weekly Festival the time as near as the Paschal circle can bring it to the time that the Resurrection fell upon For these and for this day so made to mind us of all these let us now take up the resolution of these pious souls We will rejoyce and be glad in it in the day and on the day and for the day that 's the very work and business of the day opus diei in die suo the proper work of the day in the day it self And here is now a way particularly before us to rejoyce in Laetari is taken sometimes for laetè epulari To rejoyce is to eat and drink before the Lord in his House or Temple so Deut. xiv 26. And thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God and thou shalt rejoyce thou and thy houshold Here now we are before him the Table spread and our banquet ready let us eat drink and be merry and rejoyce before him only rejoyce in fear and be glad with reverence This is the day which the Lord made and all Christians observed for the celebration of this holy Banquet and Communion Never let the day pass without it excommunicated them that did not one day or other of or about Easter receive the blessed Sacrament the greatest expression of our Communion with God and Christ and all his Saints and our rejoycing in it You may see this people in the Psalm within one verse blessing him that cometh in the name of the Lord blessing the Minister that comes with it wishing him and all the rest that be of the House of the Lord good luck with their business Gods assistance in his Office and Administration And in the next verse calling out aloud God is the Lord which hath shewed us light Bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the Altar God has shewed us light and made us a day let us now bind the Sacrifice the living Sacrifice of our souls and bodies with all the cords of holy vows and resolutions even to the horns of the Altar and there sacrifice and offer up our selves even unto our blouds if God call to it all our fat and entrails the inwards of our souls our hearts and all our inward spirits the fat of our estates our good works and best actions the best we have the best we can do all we have or are even at the Altar of our God with joy and gladness glad that we have any thing to serve him with any thing that he will accept that we have yet day and time to serve him that he has not cut us off in the midst of our days but
the while and he seems to have no delight in us when he denies us at least to suspend the shewing it as he did there to David when he fled from Absolom a Priviledge sure all count it to have a place to serve God in together there would not else be such contention for it who should and who should not But for that hill of hills 3. far exalted above all hills to ascend thither to be lift so high that 's a priviledge without contradiction 'T is given to none but for whom it is prepared St. Mat. xx 23. few there are that find it St. Mat. vii 14. 't is meerly at our Fathers good pleasure to give it St. Luke xii 32. neither of him that wills nor him that runs but of God that shews mercy we have no other claim but mercy to it Only fear not for all that says Christ St. Luke xii 32. he ushers in the priviledge so And 2. strive to enter too says he for all that though the gate be streight 't is not impassable for them that strive and labour for it And then 3. too admire his goodness say we who yet leaves ope the gate to enter to any penitent sinner that will strive and labour for it who sets up a Si quis in the Market-place sets it upon the doors and skreens of our Churches and Chappels sets his Prophets too to proclaim and cry it Who will ascend who will come and stand up in his holy place come serve him here a while and reign with him for ever This Priviledge though all attain not to is not such as any are absolutely excluded from that no more enjoy it is because they voluntarily exclude themselves they shall not because they will not take the pains 't is no Decree against any though a Priviledge for some Such a one indeed it is and a high one too a high Priviledge 2. to be Sons and Heirs to the most High can be no less to be raised so to the tops of the hills above all the Nations of the World You only have I known of all the Families of the earth Amos iii. 2. to be the only men that God knows that he takes notice of in the World to be a Kingly Priesthood 1 Pet. ii 9. made Kings and Priests Rev. i. 6. this is high And High it is 2. too to be admitted into his House and holy Temple Every one came not there not all the Levites not all the Priests A high favour it was allow'd to some only to enter there Why the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Iacob says the Psalmist all the high places and Palaces of the earth are not in so high esteem with God as the very Gates and Ports of Sion to be suffered but to peep in there is a higher honour to be a door-keeper in the House of God a greater happiness than to dwell in the most magnifique buildings of the World David a King himself had rather be there than any where And he that shall consider the Primitive Zeal of Christians to these hills how they never thought enough bestow'd upon them how often they frequented them how they would not pass without going in and worshipping how the pious and devout souls thought it a happiness to look that way and a great comfort in the midst of their desolations and captivity cannot but confess they all thought high enough of the favour that God allowed them in receiving them into those hills and holy places A higher Priviledge yet it is to get up the other hill to be admitted into heaven when all is done so high that Christ says it is not his to give St. Mat. xx 23. the Father hath reserved it to himself and there is nothing higher situated than it The very name of hill the Phrase of the Text sufficiently shews if it be a priviledge it is a high one Hills are the highest places of the earth the Church is a beacon upon a hill every true Disciple a light there at least The Houses of God used to be thought high places too and so had in honour And for Heaven 't is stil'd the everlasting hills So to be admitted to the priviledge of any of them must needs be a high one 3. High and holy too that 's a third addition to the Priviledge Many high Priviledges that are not so Holy is the highest most like to the most High To be Saints to be called to holiness as St. Paul say we are to be a holy Nation as St. Peter says 1 Pet. ii 9. to be Priests as you heard before to have holiness engraved upon our foreheads is to be holy persons every Pot in Hierusalem to be holiness to the Lord Zech. xiv 21. is a priviledge and a holy one too To go up like Saints to the hill of Sion to keep holy-day there to worship before the holy Altars of the Lord of Hosts to drink and eat in holy vessels to be part of his holy portion to be made partakers of his holy Word and there praise the God of holiness in his holy Congregation is a holy honour that is done us The highest Priviledge that wants this the highest Palace that is without this is but the Tents of ungodliness and they says David will but make us afraid Let my Priviledge O God be holy or I care for none that 's that must bring me to his holy hill and to his dwelling that hill in which he dwells amidst Cherubims and Seraphims and all his Host. Whither thirdly to ascend is the height of the holy Priviledge 3. His holy heaven that 's the stile the Holy of Holies St. Paul calls it the very Seat of the most holy God and holy Angels and holy Saints It cannot there sure be suspected to be the holy Priviledge and the Priviledge of the holy only to come thither 4. This holiness must needs make it to be admired too An admirable Priviledge we told you it was 't is our fourth Point now And David as if he had been all this while in a kind of swoon at the contemplation of it breaks out now upon a sudden with a Who is he and what a thing is this to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and to rise up in his holy place Indeed we cannot sufficiently admire it that God should raise up dust and ashes to such a height as to make it a coheir with Christ as to make a Hill and holy Place of it for himself to dwell in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Apostle O the depth Who can find it out Who who can reach it That he should pitch his place and dwell among us give us free access liberty to come and go unto him to approach him when we will speak to him what we will eat and drink with him when we will too what can be stranger Who can wonder at it enough How terrible is this place it put poor Iacob into
dead Earth into Herbs and Flowers Such a wind is this Spirit that gives life to every one that comes into the world for he is the Spirit of Life Rom. viii 2. But that which adds somewhat still to the fuller glory of these effects and must not be pass'd without a note is that 't is Spirit still this wind blows still For however the winds are not always in a noise and bustle yet some spirit of air there is that moves in the deepest stillness Spiritus there is always though not ventus some tender breeze though no gale of wind there is always stirring And if there were not continually some such sweet breathings of the Holy Spirit upon us when those strong and louder blasts seem to be lull'd asleep we were but dead men and might sleep for ever but such there are and we live by them I might but I will not add any more to the Effects either of the Wind or of the Spirit I pass on to their Course and Compass to shew you how far their effects and powers reach The Wind bloweth where it listeth and the Spirit where he willeth And here I must tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vbi vult is a large circuit Vbi is where and Vbi is when and Vult is what you will especially when 't is his who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will Ephes. i. 11. So that 't will be no stretching to say either of the Wind or of the Spirit that it bloweth 1. Where it lists and 2. How it lists and 3. As much as it lists and 4. On whom it lists and 5. When it lists 1. The Wind blows where it lists on this side or on that side or on any side any where and every where The Spirit does so too only with more propriety to Vbi vult doing out of the liberty of its own will what the wind only does out of the subtilty of its nature No place lies exempted from the power of his will It finds St. Paul and Silas in the prison and blows up the organs of their voices into Songs and Hymns It finds Manasses in the dungeon blows there with his wind and the waters flow out of his eyes It finds St. Matthew at the receipt of Custom and blows him out of a Publican into an Apostle It blows St. Peter and St. Andrew out of their Boat to the stern of the Church of Christ. He blows upon some in their journey as upon St. Paul upon others at home as upon Cornelius upon one in the bed upon another at the Mill upon Ionas in the Whales belly No place beyond his compass not the Isles of the Gentiles not the land of Vz not the Deserts of Arabia Here and there even amongst them he blows some into his Kingdom In a word no chamber so secret but it can get into no place so remote but it can reach none so private but it can find none so strong but it can break through none so deep but it can fathom none so high but it can scale no place at all but it can come into and none so bad but some way or other it will vouchsafe to visit It makes Holy David cry out as in an extasie Psal. cxxxix 6. Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit or Whether shall I go then from thy Presence If I climb up into Heaven thou art there if I go down to Hell thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the earth even there also shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me No place it seems in Heaven or Earth or Sea or Hell it self can hold him out Nor can any hold him to this or that way of working neither for He bloweth 2. How he lists sometimes louder sometimes softer sometimes after this manner sometimes after that He raises new inclinations or he cherishes the old He changes the tempers of men or disposes them He removes opportunities of doing ill or he propounds opportunities of doing good he scares us with threats or allures us with promises he drives us with judgments or he draws us with mercies he inflames us within or he moves us from without which way soever it pleases him No wind so various in its blowing Different ways he has to deal with divers men and diversities of gifts he has for them too differences of Administrations diversities of Operations 1 Cor. xii 5. To one he gives the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge to another faith to another the gift of healing to another the working of miracles to another prophesie to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues all from the Spirit says the Apostle in the forecited Chapter Nor was this only for those times He still breaths diversities of gifts and graces as he pleases On some sanctifying graces on others edifying On others both To some he gives a cheerful to others a sad spirit to some a kind of holy lightness to others a religious gravity to one a power wholly to quit the World to another power to stand holy in it to one an ability to rule to another a readiness to obey to one courage to another patience to a third temperance and so to others other graces as he thinks fittest 3. Yet of these gifts to some more to some less not to all alike nay not to the same person always alike neither but 3. as much only as this Spirit will All have not faith alike nor hope alike nor charity alike nor courage alike nor patience alike neither all vertues nor any vertues all alike Upon some the abundance of the Spirit dwells upon others he breaths only some have had exstasies others but only moderate breathings Eliah had abundance of the Spirit yet Elisha has it doubled 2 Kings ii 9. And yet this very same Elisha that presently upon it divides Iordan with the wind of a Mantle and restores waters to their sweetness and earth to its fruitfulness by a cruse of Salt 2 Kings ii 21. in but the very next Chapter cannot so much as prophesie without a Minstrel ver 15. is not so much as in a disposition to receive this divine Spirit without the help of an Instrument of Musick to rally his spirits into harmony and order St. Paul who was but even now caught up into the third Heavens 2 Cor. xii 1. feels by and by such a thorn in the flesh ver 7. that of all that great extraordinary proportion he has no more left him than a poor pittance a mere sufficiency ver 9. 4. And the Person is as much in his own power as the measure is He blows not only what but upon whom he will He is no mans debtor Rom. xi 35. He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy Rom. ix 18. What
our pleasures and vagaries our mirths and vanities our successes and prosperities to steal away the time we are to spend in giving God thanks and glory for them Nor 2. to permit our selves so much time to the reflection upon our griefs and troubles as to omit the praising God that they are no worse and that he thus fatherly chastises us to our bettering and amendment does all to us for the best Yet not to cease praising him day and night seems still to have some difficulty to understand it The Angels perhaps that neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor labour they may do it but how shall poor man compass it Why first Imprint in thy soul a fixt and solid resolution to direct all thy words and actions to his glory Renew it 2. every day thou risest and every night thou liest down Renounce 3 all by-ends and purposes that shall at any time creep in upon thee to take the praise and honour to thy self Design 4. thy actions as often as thou canst particularly to Gods service with some short offering them up to Gods will and pleasure either to cross or prosper them and when they be done say Gods Name be praised for them And lastly omit not the times of Prayer and Praise either in publick or in private but use thy best diligence to observe them to be constant and attentive at them Thus with the Spouse in the Canticles when we sleep our hearts awake and whether we eat or drink or walk or talk or whatsoever we do we do all to the glory of God and may be said to praise him day and night and not cease saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And so I come to the second General The form here set us to praise him in In which first we have to consider the glory it self that is expresly given him Holy Holy Holy To speak right indeed the whole sentence is nothing else yet this evidently referring to that of Isai. vi 3. where the Seraphims use this first part in their Hymn of praise I conceive this the chief and most remarkable part of of it which may therefore bear the name before the rest Now this saying Holy Holy Holy is attributing all purity perfection and glory to God as to the subject of it himself and the original of it to others thereby acknowledging him only to be worship'd and ador'd So that saying thus we say all good of him and all good from him to our selves Thrice 't is repeated which according to the Hebrew custom is so done to imprint it the deeper in our thoughts and may serve us as a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw us to it But another reason the Fathers give And it is 1. they say to teach us the knowledge of the holy and blessed Trinity Indeed why else thrice and no less or more Why follows Lord God Almighty three more words why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three yet again and yet but three who was who is who is to come Why do the Seraphims in Isaiah say no more yet say so too Why have we in the following verses Glory and Honour and Thanks ver 9. and Glory and Honour and Power so punctually thrice and thrice only offered to them How came it to be so universally celebrated throughout the World and put into all the Catholik Liturgies every where words fall not from Angels and Angelical Spirits by chance or casually The holy Penmen write not words hap hazard Nor is it easie to conceive so hard a doctrine so uneasie to reason should be so generally and humbly entertain'd but by some powerful working of Gods Spirit This may be enough to satisfie us that the blessed Trinity is more then obscurely pointed out to us here And 2. to be sure the Fountain of all Holiness is here pointed to us that we may learn to whom to go for grace that we may see we our selves are but unholy things that nothing is in it self pure or holy none but God And 3. it points us out what we should be Be ye holy as I am holy says God No way otherwise to come near him no way else to come so near him as to give him thanks for out of polluted lips he will not take them For in the second place the Lord God Almighty it is we are to give this glory to The three Persons here me thinks are evident however God the Father the Lord the Son and the Almighty Spirit that made all things that does but blow and the waters flow that does but breath and man lives that with the least blast does what he will Yet these three it seems are still but one one Lord and one God and one Spirit Ephes. iv 4 5 6. all singulars here nounes verbs articles and participles all in the singular number here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might see though a Trinity there be to be believed yet 't is in unity though three Personalities but one Nature though three Persons but one God All the scruple here can but arise from the setting Lord the Son before God the Father but that 's quickly answered when they tell you there is none here afore or after other none greater and lesser than another and therefore no matter at all for the order here where all is one and one is all Lord God Almighty Yet now to encourage us the better to our Praises and Thanksgivings see we in the last place the benefits they here praise him for and they are intimated to us in the close of all Who was and is and is to come In the first we understand the benefit of our creation God it was that created us In the second we read the benefit of our Redemption the Lord it is that redeems us daily pardons and delivers us In the third we have the benefit of our Glorification still to come the Holy Spirit here sealing us and hereafter enstating us in glory In them all together we may in brief see as in a Prospect that all the benefits we have received heretofore he was the Author of them that all the mercies we enjoy he is the Fountain of them that all the joys or good we hope for he is the donour of them he was he is he must be the bestower of them all without him nothing he was and is and will be to us all in all And now sure though I have not the time to specifie all the mercies we enjoy from this blessed Lord God Almighty and indeed had I all time I could not and all tongues Si mihi sint linguae centum sint oraque centum I could not yet we cannot but in gross at least take up a Song of Praise for altogether say somewhat towards it Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty holy in our Creation Holy in our Redemption holy in our Sanctification Holy in Heaven holy in Earth holy under the Earth
Sometimes again it may be lawful for us to leave both Estates and Callings though we be not bound to it as when we plainly see we can thereby serve our Master better and he seems to point us to it when we perceive we cannot else perform the Task or Calling he has designed us to or the business he has already set us upon Otherwise let every man says the Apostle abide in the Calling wherein he is called and stir not from his station but when he may lawfully and orderly be made free from it 'T is not presently from the Counter to the Desk from the Loom into the Pulpit from the Shop into the Church from our Nets to our Books from secular Trades to the holy Function that we are to run there is something more than so when the Apostle bids men stay and continue in their Callings And to follow Christ is not only to be Apostles and Teachers for who then shall there be to be taught And to satisfie all from the example in the Text this is the third time of St. Andrews being call'd To the knowledge of Christ he was call'd St. Iohn i. 38. To his familiar acquaintance St. Luke v. 10. and here thirdly and St. Mark i. 17. to the Apostleship so many steps even these here made ere they came to be Apostles and not till now threw they quite away their nets to return no more unto them 'T is no such hasty business to become Apostles or succeed them in any point of their office Yet truly when Christ shall give any of these hasty heads power to do wonderfully to shew miracles to manifest their calling and to do extraordinarily as he did to these then we were much to blame if we would not allow them that God has extraordinarily call'd them to it and what were we that we should oppose against it But in the mean time le ts see them leave their nets their private interests and hopes of gain and repute and fame that we may have reason to think they follow Christ and not their own bellies fancies and humours Yet we can tell them too of those who have done more than the most they dare pretend have left all expresly all and yet no followers of Christ. Heathens have done it Socrates and Bias and Thales and Crates the Theban and Fabricius the Roman yet Christ not followed by it And I know they will say as much of the Hermits of the Desart and the Brethren of the Cloyster that though they have done what they dare not think for Christ yet they have not followed him And could these great Confidents shew what they have done or suffered or lost or left for Christ yet by the same Argument their own they cannot prove they follow him the while But alas they have left nothing but what they should not their proper Callings wherein St. Paul would have them abide with God And it is not Christ but the loaves they follow not Gods glory but their own For if we but examine what was their following in the Text and the grounds of their so doing as we shall anon it will appear quickly whom they seek what they follow too who pretend only or rather only pretend so much now adays to follow Christ. Let 's next see whom St. Andrew followed when he left his nets and how he followed Christ it was he follow'd for this Him is He. 1. Not his own profit sure he could hope for little from him who had not where to lay his own head 2. Not his ease and pleasure in his company who was always hungring and thirsting and yet had scarce bread to eat or water to drink or time to do either watching and walking up and down about his Fathers business till he was faint and weary and yet nor place nor time to rest in not to sleep but he must be awak'd as soon almost as he is laid down 3. Not his own honour certainly under a Master who was the most rejected and despised of men as the Prophet stiles him called Wine-bibber and a friend of sinners and deceiver of the people and a worker by the devil Not his own humour or fancy but Christs powerful Call that so straight transform'd his mind and raised him to a faith that could so suddenly part with all without murmuring reasoning or taking care for a future living In a word not any thing but Him But him then how did he follow 1. He followed him with his body gives himself to be one of his menial Servants and continual Attendants content with such course fare and cloathing as his poverty would allow him partaker of his fastings and watchings and journeyings and hard lodgings and painfulness and weariness and reproaches to teach what our bodies must be content to endure for his service and in following him 2. He followed him with his mind gave up his understanding to be informed his will to be directed his affections to be ordered by his Doctrine and Precepts for to follow Christ is to resign up our understandings to the obedience of faith 3. He followed him in his life in patience and meekness in humility in poverty of spirit in mercifulness and doing good in the life and practice of Christian vertues liv'd an admirable holy life went up and down from Country to Country into Macedonia and Achaia into Scythia and Ethiopia preaching Christ and following Christ whithersoever he call'd him and this is properly to follow Christ to imitate him And 4. He followed him in his death too was also crucified for him followed him so chearfully to that that says St. Bernard and the Story of him He seeing the Cross afar off thus joyfully saluted it Salve crux diu desiderata jam concupiscenti animo praparata ecce gaudens exultans ad te venio Welcome sweet Cross so long desired and wish'd and long'd for and now come at last I come rejoycing I come leaping to thee I come I come Thus I have shew'd you how St. Andrew followed Christ how we also are to follow him to throw away our Nets not only all unlawful ways of gain and preferment nor all things that stay and hinder us from the service of our Master but any thing every thing that may entangle us or keep us from the readiness and exactness of our attendance and having so prepared our selves to conform our selves presently after his example to humility to patience to meekness to doing good to obedience to acts of mercy to fastings to watchings to praying to any hardship or affliction no more now to seek our selves but him not our own praise but his glory not our own profit but the profit of our Brethren not our own private fancies but Christs Precepts and the Saints examples so to follow in their track in the ways and orders and obediences that they have traced us and to be content to part with any thing with all our own magnified imaginations all our
well as our Obedience The consent of wise grave learned Fathers till you know where to find better with any man not too high in his own conceit is certainly of a value somewhat above his private imagination For who tells you they are deceived Your private Minister And are you sure he is not and are they deceived And is it not as likely that you and he should be Were they not as wise as you As just as you As devout as you Have you reason and had not they Do you use Scripture and did not they Had they interests and have not you That all should be deceived till you and your new Ministers came into the World is morally impossible That they should purposely deceive you you have nor ground nor charity to imagine To think then that you may not as easily be deceived does it not look like pride And is not Pride enough to blind you from seeing truth 'T is true your Governours are not infallible no more are you Yet certainly there is more certainty in their united judgments than your simple fancies And I am sure many might with less hazard have erred with them suppose they erred than sometimes gone right That they might at any time in simplicity of heart This seldom without Faction Schism or Pride You mistake me all this while if you suppose I require a blind Obedience No I know God would not be served with a blind sacrifice His service is a reasonable service Clear sighted as you will but no curious inquisitive observance Know you must if possibly you can that it is not ill you go about and the Power just that commands it But to enquire into every circumstance as it is beyond the power of most so it is more than the duty of any 'T is this creates you so many difficulties suspicions controversies till you have lost your reward your Church and Country the profit of your virtue Were the judgment thus once submitted our affections would the sooner follow though they indeed are the cause commonly that we submit not our judgments Our affections set so strongly upon honours profits liberty pleasure make us take up opinions to keep them Yet Nature will tell you thus much Partem Patria partem Parentes Your King and Country and Church too claim a portion in your affections persons and estates I leave now de Iure for de Facto the Justice for the Practise of it to shew you all this done by the Rechabites How easily else might they have vied reason with their Father What drink no Wine All Creatures are good nothing to be refused with thanksgiving No Houses neither Must we thus be made the talk of the world Turn heirs to Cain's malediction Vagabonds upon the face of the earth Must our Wives and Children too suffer all the hardships of a kind of perpetual banishment No mercy to be had of our selves none of them What no Lands neither No earing nor harvest Must we leave our Children beggars our Wives unprovided for purchase nothing for them Thus and more they might have argued but all these notwithstanding how harsh soever they conceived it they rather trusted their Fathers judgment than their own But is their Reason only submitted are not their Affections too They neither contend for honour nor stickle for riches nor grudge at any inconvenience but submit their desires to their Fathers tread under their own natural propensions to obey him Would he have them drink no Wine They will not drink though the Prophet bid them ver 5. Would he have them poor They have no Lands Would he forbid them houses They will have no abiding place be everlasting Pilgrims What would he have them do that they will not do They submit judgments affections estates persons their own and their Posterities as much as in them lies that they may satisfie their Fathers This if any thing is Obedientis summa humilitas the exceeding Humility of their Obedience with so much approbation so oft reiterated through the Chapter They go one step higher Not only submit to his Authority but resolve into it Make no further Queres upon it nor murmur at it but as the Hebrew root sometimes signifies Acquievistis rest fully contented with it You may call this Obedientiae hilaritas Their chearful delight in their Obedience Thus far the Rechabites now again to our selves And first have we heard the King our Father Have we not rather with the deaf Adder stopped our ears One with the earth that 's our profit the other with our tail that 's our pleasures That we might not hear him charm'd he never so wisely The Fathers of the Church have had less at our hands Next how have you hearkned Much that way given Hearkened to find fault to cavil at to plot against to undermine This hath been the peoples course of late so to destroy those by whom God would save them The Civil Magistrate hath not been in much better case Your Judgments they have been submitted too But to whom To the factious and discontented decisions shall I call them or ravenings rather of ignorant and malicious Teachers who have exercised more tyranny upon your consciences than the most clamorous can prove ever Bishop did durst ever accuse him to do while they thus both belie God and abuse you by exacting an infallible assent to their unreasonable seditious unchristian frenzies under the name of the Word of God Thus while you refuse to submit your judgments where you are bound you captivate your reason to them who have lost their own and are therefore angry that others should have any How in the interim you have believed the sincere Declarations of your Sovereign how submitted to what he thought best or fittest for you How to the intire intentions of your right Spiritual Fathers let the general slighting and undervaluing their judgment we hear in every Shop as we pass along testifie for both In a word how you delight in the Laws and Statutes of State and Church and rest contented with them I would the general practice and countenance of Disobedience and Prophaneness did not even tell it in Gath and publish it in the streets of Askalon Thus we serve again to exalt the Rechabites while our sins condemn our selves For while our untractableness Impatience Pride and Murmurs banish Obedience they have heard their Father readily hearkened to him carefully submitted humbly and rested contentedly in his sole Authority without the least reluctancy or contradiction And by the way I may point out the reason They lived temperate mean and humble lives had no thoughts of raising houses but in heaven Now the riots riches pride and a desire of raising Families have made many of you forget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep under Yet let these men take heed lest while with Corah and his company they cry out to Moses and Aaron You take too much upon you keep us under keep us