should bee and doe so and so as to Adam I should not have eaten the forbidden fruit I should have kept the Gen. 2. covenant of my God for hee said doe this and live to David I should not have committed adultery or contrived murther for God hath said thou shalt not doe so Secondly to apply by way 2 To apply of reflection upon themselvs what yee have beene or done I should have beene and done so and so but I am and have done thus and thus As to Adam I should not have eaten the forbidden fruit but I have done it to David I should not have committed adultery and murther but I have done them and to all of us I should have repented believed hoped loved but I have not done them as I ought 3 To pronounce Thirdly to pronounce impartiall judgement upon your persons actions as therfore I am a wicked man have done foolishly and am accursed 2 Sam. 24. or therefore I am in Christ have done uprightly and am blessed Thus David I Psal 119. Luke 1. 5. have gone astray like a lost sheep thus the prodigal I have sinned against heaven and before thee thus Paul I was a persecutor blasphemer oppressour thus Hezekiah I have walked before 2 Tim. 1. Es 37. thee with a perfect heart This work of conscience will make you runne out of Sodom with a showre of brimstone at your heeles or make you passe thorough the wildernesse under a cloud of comfortable protection therefore hold it Lastly the charge of conscience 4 Hold the charge of conscience must be held also It hath a large Diocesse over every secret and every manifest thing of yours in person or by communion It hath a charge over inclinations Davids conscience saw the inclinations pronenesse of his heart to cleave unto the dust and therefore hee flies to GOD encline my heart Psal 119. unto thy testimonies and not unto covetousnesse It hath charge over the understanding therefore Agurs conscience lookes upon that and complaines surely I am more brutish Pro. 30. 2 then any man and have not the understanding of Adam in mee It hath charge over the memorie therefore God presents memory to his people they remembred not the Lord Iud. 8. 34 Psal 106. 7 their God they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies that their consciences might worke accordingly It hath charge over thoughts wills affections Es 55. 7 and desires Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts saith God to conscience Math. 15. the thoughts defile a man saith Christ to conscience therfore how long shall your wicked Ier. 4 14. thoughts lodge within you yee Ioh. 5. will not come unto me that ye may bee saved saith Christ to conscience Oh how I love thy Psal 119. Psal 18. Psal 119. Psal 42. law yea I love thee dearly O Lord my God I hate all wicked waies saith David from conscience My soule longeth for thee as the hart panteth after rivers of waters I desire to be Phil. 1. dissolved to be with Christ say Davids and Pauls consciences but wicked mens consciences shall cry at last wee desired not the knowledge of Iob. 21. thy lawes Yea the charge of Conscience reacheth to your words and deedes Yee must give an account of every idle Math. 12. word to God and your consciences of every idle word that hath no naturall civill or religious end therefore Davids conscience pleaded against him that he said in his haste all Psal 31. 22. Psal 116. 11 men are lyars even Samuel himselfe in his message from God and Peters conscience lashed him to the purpose for his detestable words in the high-priests hall Davids conscience also comes to his deeds I have sinned greatly in that I have done I have done 2 Sam. 24. 10. very foolishly Ezra when he presented others consciences as well as his owne cried out and now what shall wee say Ezr. 9. 10 for wee have forsaken thy commādements O the large charge of Conscience As ye must hold the light of conscience the love of conscience and the worke of conscience so hold the charge of conscience that yee may doe as Paul would have you hold a good conscience Would you now know the grounds of holding a good 2 Why you must hold a good cōscience 1 If it bee gone God will be against us conscience Doe but marke these foure that follow First if conscience runne away from you GOD your own soules will be against you Gods eyes are purer then to behold iniquitie with approbation and when hee with rebukes doth correct man for sinne as a moath hee makes his beauty to Psal 39. 11 consume away hee doth not presently thunder out of heaven but secretly gnawes out the comfort of their hearts when hee is to Ephraim as a Hos 4. Ier. 20. 3 4 Pro 28 1 Levit. 26. 37 moath He makes them plagues to themselves magor missabib flying when none pursues at the sound of a shaking leafe making every moate a beame and every beame an whole house Yea by conscience he makes them an whole wildernesse of woe Hezekiah complained that God would breake all his Es 38. 13 bones that hee could not speak for anguish of spirit but chattered like a crane or swallow and mourned like a dove Iobs bitter Iob. 12. 26 things that God wrote against him made him cry out that the arrowes of the Almightie Iob. 6. 4. 8. Iob. 7. 14. 15. were within him scared him with dreames and visions and made his soule choose strangling and death rather then life Davids bones waxed old with roaring all the day long and his moysture was like the Psal 32. 3. 4. drought in summer when Gods arrowes stucke fast in him thorough the power of conscience Therefore hold a good conscience Secondly nothing will doe 2 Without it nothing will doe us good Psal 51. you good without a good conscience Have you all houses lands gold silver kingdomes Empires they will do you no good without this no nor faith it selfe for a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. 5 and a good conscience and faith unfayned will goe together they all worke one for another a good conscience riseth from a pure heart and faith unfained cannot bee without a good conscience There is a A fourefold sting in sinne fourefold sting in sin the guilt of sin the fruits of sin the service of sin the habits of sin Faith in Christ pulls out the two first a good conscience from Christ the two last If therefore yee would have any good of what you have hold a good conscience Thirdly with a good conscience 3 With it nothing can doe us hurt nothing can doe you hurt It stands out against all the world Let slanders come Paul sets the sentence of his conscience against them with me it is a very
that ye doe not this day wilfully sinne against his judgement and so I turne to the children of Israel and the children of Ammon and their cause The children of Israel are 2. 3. The parties Iudged and their cause here in full colours something like Adam in innocency making all the beasts before them to tremble They have 1 The children of Israel all the advantage of lawes libertie Judges of Israel and the Lord the Judge looking upon their cases You are not Israelites according Though wronged to the flesh yet God prevailed with for abundance of blessings upon you Notwithstanding some of you have been feared in your lives some of you have beene spoyled in your goods some of you have beene hurt in your names Must get the Lord to judge some of you have beene disquieted in your possessions some of you have beene battered in your members and in this onely different from the children of Israel heere As you have the Lord the Judge let the Lord the Judge judge for you in the judgements of men When Hezekiah received a blasphemous letter from By declining revenge 2 King 19. 14. proud Senacherib hee went to the temple and spread it before the Lord hee thus appealed to this great Judge you are now as in the temple even so doe you Shew God your cause with honest hearts and seeke and receive judgements as from him How gloriously will this worke it will make you proceede not in the lust Non Libidine unidictae sed amore justitiae of revenge which God hates but in the love of justice which God loves you have the sword of justice in your hands upon the best termes and in truth Christ saith for you sell a garment and buy a Luk. 22. 39. sword But heare how an ancient worthy meditated upon that text O Lord why dost Ambr. in Lucam thou bid me buy a sword forbiddest mee to strike with it Surely it is for just defence not for revenge Thou hast shewed me that I could revenge but I will not of conscience to thy command Even so doe you So be it Love law love justice love peace love truth but Rom. 12. vengeance is mine saith the Lord the Judge Philosophers say that seeing is the noblest sense if not for discipline yet for generall use because it suffers not by contrary objects It can looke upon blacke and white without an appetite of revenge on either Why should it not bee thus with Christians who are better enlightened by him who is all eye If your annoyances bee great let the Lord the Judge judge by his Iphtahs liefetenants and deputies and rest in that without the picklocks of new vexations But if they be lesse cloy no◠surfet not the honorable bench Is there not a wise man amongst you shall the pillars 1 Cor. 6. of the earth weare themselves out in bruising dust small when there are mountaines enough to levell God forbid If you and your causes are such the Lord the Judge will not judge for you at last But for the children of Ammon 2 The Children of Ammon where are they It is pitty they have not a ring in some place of this crowne that the word may fall upon them like raine upon the dry ground They are peeping out of their gates thinking this time too short which haply some of you do think too long I can say nothing to them because absent yet give mee leave to speake a word of them against them for them This be spoken of 1 Of them them They are such as love not the law Though let the Vivat Rex currat Lex King live and the law runne be the good subjects prayer yet the old law Iulia could not please adulterers nor the law Cornelia murtherers nor the law Rhemnia promoters so nor our lawes can please those wicked Belialists Their blisters must bee let out This bee spoken against 2 Against them Ne sint pedes nimium lanei ne tandem manus fint nimium ferreae them They have lived in this blessed Church where they might have beene better taught or if they have beene taught where they have unlearned many a good lesson If the ministery can doe no good the magistrate must take the care Let not your feet bee too much made of wooll least at last your hands bee made of two much yron Magistrates and ministers are compared to the teeth Some are Cutters which cut the meat and Incisores forme the voyce these are like ministers who convince Tit. 1 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Molares cuttingly Some are grinders which bruise the meate and fit it for passage these are like magistrates who by justice bruise the sonnes of wickednesse in peeces and send them downe into the draffe of the world Neither let it grieve you to be so compared seeing Christ is called the Rock of offence that breaks them in peeces on whom hee falls This lastly bee spoken for 3 For them them They are subjects though bad ones for else the law could not fall on them And though they have made themselves of christians in name Barbarians indeede in particular acts yet are they of two sorts Some are misled Errones Turbones and some are misleaders some are apprentices to sinne some monsters in that blacke art Now doe but consider how For mercy of Gods making carefull the Lord the Judge is least he slay with the wicked the righteous who are so either in present act or under charitable hope If he worke a worke of mercy hee delighteth in mercy if a worke of Mic. 7. 18. justice hee calleth it a strange worke because hee shaves with Esa 26. 21 a razor that is hired if he had no justice of his owne If he Esa 7. 20. be to work a worke of justice he is slow to anger comes to Exod. 34. it when there is no remedy but if a worke of mercy he is rich Chro. 36. 15. in mercy abundant in goodnesse If he looke upon occasions it is a great matter that mooves his justice when the sinnes of the Amorites are at the full Gen. 15. 16. when all flesh had corrupted her waies and the wickednesse Gen. 6. 5. of man was great in the earth when old and young even all the people from every quarter Gen. 19. 4 were given to sinne but a small matter mooves him to shew mercy If there be but tenne men in Sodom If Gen. 18. there bee but one Iacob in the house of Laban one Moses praying for Israel one Phinehas executing judgement and one man in Ierusalem Ier. 5. 1. that seekes the truth hee will spare multitudes So doe you and prosper when it is fit God is well pleased if you follow his owne sonne who excused his disciples in some infirmities saying their spirit is willing their Mat. 26. 41. Eph. 5.
9. flesh is weake and hee is never angry if yee follow him as deare children in workes of imitable mercy Onely know this is Gods Salvis prietate justitia rule that mercy must never bee shewed but when piety and justice can bee kept safe and sound Thus doe and yee shall this day be Iephtahs appealing to the Lord the Judge to judge betwixt the children of Israel and the children of Ammon And that yee may doe thus the Lord the Judge grant unto you who lookes upon no man in his person all men in their cause and hath made himselfe to you a patterne of executing justice and mercy and that for IESVS CHRIST his sake who is the Lambe of mount Sion the Saviour the Lion of the tribe of Iudah the Iudge and is angry with them that honour not the father kisse not the Sonne and grieve resist quench and despise the Spirit to the which coessentiall coeternall and coequall Trinity bee all kingdome power and glory henceforth and for ever Amen NATURES ASSIZE OR A SERMON ON MATH 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever yee would that men should doe to you doe ye even so to them for this is the law and the Prophets RIght Honorable Right worshipfull and beloved the last time I presented unto you the Assize of God and now I shall if God please lay before you the Assize of nature if both shall meete in Gods rule example and your imitation ye can not faile in the work of the day All scriptures are good and fit to make perfect yet have 2 Tim. 3. 17. they an accidentall difference as instruments of musick Some like Iacobs hasel rods Greg. Mar are partly pilled and partly covered some like Ahabs Heb. 5. house of Ivory are without a covering Some are like milke some like stronger meate Some are so cleare that the 2 Pet. 1. 19. 2 Cor. 3. day-starre ariseth with them in our hearts and some are darke through the vaile upon 1 Cor. 15. our minds As one starre differeth from another in glory yet are all heavenly bodies so is it with the scriptures some are large in handling weighty matters same bind up much in a word This heere is of the playner sort as all highly necessaries are So cleare that he is blind that sees it not so emphaticall that hee is an adamant that is not mooved so short that a snaile hath more blood then Plus habet limax sanguinis quam ille sensus hee hath sense that receives not much in a little Yet must you suffer a little more then a word of exhortation to convey unto your soules that little which I can commend from them They containe a sure rule of justice but every word must be scanned to bring it to the practise even of a willing people The very first word therefore 1 Therefore what it concludes is not without a knot for it may be asked upon what it is inferred Some thinke it to referre to the justice in the chapters foregoing but this Quest conclusion would be too farre separated from the premises by the God of order Some thinke it to bee redundant as many elegancies in the Scriptures are But certainely it is Answer not in vaine It is of good use and a note of an excellent conclusion to be for ever held out of it selfe Nature teacheth it the law and the prophets revive it therefore hold it doe it The last words have a 2 How this is the law and the Prophets greater knot For how can this bee said to bee the law and the prophets seeing they set downe the love of God and the promises of salvation by Christ as well as Iustice to each other Hereupon two questions are disputed in the schooles Quest Whether more then one precept Rom. 13. 9 First whether in the law there be more then one precept yea or no The doubt ariseth thus Saint Paul saith if there be any other commandement it is briefely comprehended in this thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe And Christ saith heere doe as you would bee done unto for this is the law and the prophets therefore it seemes there is but one But Answer seeing the Apostles mentioneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2. 15. Aquin. 1a 2 ae q. 99. Art 1. one law of many commandements it is resolved thus that there is but one precept with the respect to the full end charity but there are more with reference to the meanes subservient to it Secondly hence it is asked Quest Whether there be a connexion of all vertues Iam. 2. 10. whether there be such a connexion of vertues that where one is in truth there are all the rest This doubt ariseth from two texts too Saint Iames saith whosoever shall keepe the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all If it bee thus in breach it is thus in complement For there is but one body of legall justice either to doe or sinne against And Christ saith here that to Io. de corb com theol lib. 5. c. 8. doe as we would be done unto is the law and the prophets If justice to men bee the law and the prophets then surely where that is in truth all that they require is by way of concatenation and chayning Wall Eth Arist Majores extravitia quà m intravirtutes together This question is expounded to be understood of perfect and gratuitous vertues which are by infusion not of such as are acquired by industry Of these it is said of the grave moralists of old that they are greater in being without vice then in being within the lists of true vertues Of those there are some that are more noble then others and therefore are they called the mothers of vertue Thus Faith is the mother of vertue in originall Matres virtutum 1 Origine 2 Educatione for out of the acts of faith these flow Charity in education for it feedes them all with faiths provisions humility in conservation for they being raked up in her ashes are kept alive and prudence 3 Conservatione 4 Regimine in government for it she doe not order them all they are not carried without a blemish Though these have thus their due glory yet where one is in truth there are all the rest in linke Some subtile doctors goe against Scotistae this being overswayed as they thinke enough by experience But though of the shadowes of vertues this be true yea and this bee as true of true vertues that some are more conspicuous then others by humane aptnesse fitnesse of the instrument office time and occasions yet Answer it is better resolved affirmatively The subject requires it a vertuous man who can not bee at one time good and bad happy and unhappy which yet he could be if hee had some vertues and wanted others Gods bounty requires it which gives not one vertue to fit receivers without the
drunkards nor revilers nor extortiouers shall inherit the kingdome of God If they love not the nature being and rules of the object of faith this is not to hold faith Doe yee hold the act of 3 Try the act of faith faith Doe yee rest with confidence upon the promises of God in Christ ye pule and crie in the sorrow of your hearts even when your sorrow hath turned you to God and say I know not what to doe This yee doe but yee looke not upon the new and everlasting covenant and say God is mine Christ is mine the holy Ghost is mine and I Object am his Alas say you I am Sol. not worthy Surely there should not have beene a saint in heaven nor out of hell by this argument Though your willfull unworthinesse will discard you yet God tyes not himselfe to you by your worth but his owne Oh therefore hold faith as Iacob did God I will not let thee goe Gen. 32. 26. Ruth 1. except thou blesse mee and as Ruth did Naomi whithersoever thou goest I will go with thee both in life and death Doe yee hold the power of 4 Try the power of faith Rom. 16. Iames 2. faith Say then what doth it make thee to doe Shew the obedience of faith shew me thy faith by thy workes It is as the plummet on the clock-line which makes you strike It will make you looke upon sinne which pierced Christ and Zach. 12. mourne for it and cast it out as Agar the bond-woman with a Get thee hence It is in thee as in the sea there is that Leviathan and creeping things innumerable so there are in Psal 104. 25 26. thee master sinnes and creeping lusts innumerable but let faith loose upon them and then as when God made man after his Image he said let him have dominion over the fish of Gen. 1. 26 the sea and every creeping thing so doth God say to faith bee it unto thee as thou believest even Math. 15. against the whole hoaste of sinne It will make you looke upon Christ and love him above all and delight in all that belong unto him the word of faith the prayer of faith the seales of faith the houshold of faith for it will not let you stroake the head and strike the body yea it will make you desire the appearance of the Lord Iesus that yee may be with him for ever you will stay his leasure but with winged desires O make haste my beloved and bee like the Roe come Lord Cant. 8. 14 Apoc. 22. Iesus come quickly It will make you look upon God the father and depend upon him for all things for faith reasons thus if he have given mee Christ how shall hee not Rom. 8. with him give us all things also yea and submit unto him in all things for the children of Abraham will doe the workes of Abraham Iohn 8 Gal. 3. 7 and they which are of the faith are the children of Abraham yea and goe boldly to the throne Heb. 4. 16 of grace that yee may have his strength to doe all obedience and to trust in him in hardest Iob. 13. 15 times It will make you look to God the holy Ghost and submit to his worke of conviction and conversion yea and to do whatsoever he enableth unto Hee is the great master of faculties who helpeth Rom. 8. your infirmities you take his help by faith and doe it It will make you looke upon your selves and worke the worke of God upon your soules with power The fowles pick-up the good seede so soone as it is Luke 8. sowne because it is not mixed with faith but the word Heb. 4. 2 1 Thes 2 13. workes effectually in you that believe Yea it will make you fight the battels of God insuperably When Paul came to Ephesus there arose no small stirre about that way so when Act 19. 23 Math. 2. faith in Christ comes Herod is troubled and all Ierusalem but faith makes you like the house of David grow stronger and 2 Sam. 3. 1 stronger and sin like the house of Saul grow weaker and weaker It makes you like Rachel Gen. 30. 8 who wrestled with the wrestlings of Christ and prevailed Let the world fight against you this is your victorie 1 Ioh. 15. 4 1 Pet. 5. 8 even your faith Let Satan come resist him stedfast in the faith Let the flesh come as those beasts had their dominion Dan. 7. 12 taken from them yet their lives were prolonged so faith spoiles the flesh of her Kingdome though it must live as a Iebusite Let God himselfe desert and forsake thee yeth faith saith though Iob. 13. 15 thou kill mee I will trust in thee Lastly faith will make you looke upon your brethren and fill you with mercy and T it 3 8. Eph. 2 9 10 good workes When Dorcas believed shee made coates and garments to cloath the naked Act 9. 39 When Tyrus was to believe shee would nor treasure up merchandise but get it for them that dwell before the Lord Es 23. 18. to eate sufficiently and for durable cloathing When the disciples were taught to forgive their brethren they cried out Lord increase our faith as if Luke 17. 4 they should say faith will doe it the more faith the more mercy for if you believe your owne ten thousands forgiven you will forgive others tens yea when you looke upon your brethren faith will move you to draw them to Christ It sets you upon the high mountaines which doe make the vallies fat with the drops that descend from them when Luke 22. thou art converted strengthen thy brethen saith Christ to Peter If Andrew have found Christ hee calls Peter If Philip have met with him he cals Iohn 1 Nathanael If thou thus have the power of faith hold it If thou have it not be humbled in time get faith and hold it It may bee thou wilt say What wee must do to hold it what shall I doe to hold it if then thou wouldst have all in a word stop thine ears against the enemies of faith I was In hac fide natus sum August born in this faith is a lose plea it is the gift of God Heare duely the friend of faith the preaching of the Gospel Pray the praier of faith in the name of Christ Vse the seals of faith the sacraments Keepe experience to nourish and fatten faith Buy faith but sell it not for a thousand worlds part with al domineering sin for it they that set not this price upon precious faith shall never have it nor ever hold it Thus doe and thou shalt give glorie to God and bring comfort to thy own soule for ever and for ever Amen THE SECOND SERMON on 1 Tim. 1. 19. And a good Conscience YOu have seene the holding of faith The second savoury rule which Paul under the person of