this to perswade a polluted sinful soul that when he hath scornfully rejected the substance that piety which should make him strong in the Lord at the last in the time of danger and the furious approach of the enemy a shadow should stand forth and fight for him when he had broken the Law and the Testimony not regarded the Oracles forgot all the mercies of God and robbed him of his glory that then I say the shell the Ark the Shittim-wood should be as the great power of God to maintain his cause that he should anger God with his sin and appease him with his name forfeit his soul by deceit and cruelty by intemperance and lust and then save it by hearing a Sermon against it Certainly if this be not a wile of the Devil I know no snare he hath that can catch us if this be not to deceive our selves I shall think there is no such thing as Errour in the world But again in the second place and on the contrary as they did deificare Arcam as the Father speaketh even deifie the Ark attribute more unto it then God ever gave it or was willing it should have so they did also depretiare vilifie and set it at naught They called it their strength their glory their God but imployed it in baser offices then ever the Heathen did their Gods Pulcra Laverna Da mihi fallere c. Hor. l. 1. Epist 16. who called upon them to teach them to steal and deceive Not long since their Priests committed rapes at the very door of the Tabernacle and now they expect the Ark should help those profane miscreants who had so polluted it Oh the Ark the Ark the glory of God! that is able to becalm and slumber a tempest to binde the hands of the Almighty that he shall not strike to scatter an army to make Kings fly to crown a sinful nation with victory to bring back an adulterer laureate a ravisher with the spoils of a Philistine That shall be a buckler and a protection to defend them who but now defiled it that shall be their God which they made their abomination Bring forth the Ark and then what are these uncircumcised Philistines God heard this Psal 78.59 saith the Psalmist and was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel And seeing that all the cry was for the Ark no thought for the Statutes and Testimonies which lay shut up in the Ark and oblivion together seeing the Sign of his presence had quite shut him out of whose presence it was a sign seeing it so much honoured so much debased so sanctified and so polluted he delivereth up the people and the Ark together into the Philistines hands that they might learn more from the Ark in the temple of Dagon then they did when it stood in their own Tabernacle learn the right use of it now which they had so fouly abused when they enjoyed it In a word God striketh off their embroydery that they might learn to be more glorious within I remember there is a constitution in the Imperial Law Si feudatarius rem feudi c. If he that holdeth in fee-farm useth contrary to the will and intent of the Lord redit ad Dominum it presently returneth into the Lord's power And we may observe that the great Emperour of heaven and earth proceedeth after the same manner with his liege-men and homagers the Jews Hos 2.9 When they fell to idolatry and bestowed the corn and the wine which God gave them upon Baal then presently God taketh to himself away the corn in the time thereof and the wine in the season thereof and recovereth his flax and his wooll recovereth it as his own thus unjustly usurped and detained by idolaters V. 11. I will also cause all her mirth to cease her feast dayes her new-moons and her sabbaths as if he had said I will defeat my own purpose I will nullifie my own ordinance I will abolish my own law I will put out the light of Israel which to my peopl◠hath been but as a meteor to make them wander in the crooked wayes of their own imaginations Rom. 8.21 22. I will deliver the creature from the bondage of corruption which seemeth to groan and travel in pain under these abuses it being a kind of servitude and captivity to the creature to be dragged and haled by the lusts and phansies and disordinate affections of profane men to be put to the drudgery of the Gibeonite which I made to be as free as the Israelite himself to be kept in bondage and slavery under the pride and extravegant desires under the most empty and brutish phansies of corrupt men I will take them away from such unjust usurpers What should a prodigal do with wealth what should a robber do with strength what should a boundless oppressour do with power what should Hophni and Phinehas adulterers oppressours what should a sinful nation a people laden with iniquity do with the Ark of the covenant of the Lord I will begin and I will also make an end 1 Sam. 3.12 This glory shall depart from Israel and the Ark shall be taken And here when the Ark is taken and the glory departed from Israel the word and inscription is still the same DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. Now to apply this last particular shall I desire you to look up upon the Inscription It is the Lord Behold the Prophet hath done it to my hand Go to my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first Jer. 7.12 and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Go unto Shiloh and there purge the corruption the plague of your hearts wash off the paint of your hypocrisie with the blood of those four and thirty thousand Israelites Look upon the Ark but not so as to be dazled therewith and to dote on the glory and beauty of it not so as to lose the sight of your selves and of those sins which pollute it Look upon the Word and Sacraments but not so as to make them the non ultrà of your worship and to rest in them as in the end to eat and wash and hear and no more to say The word of God is sweet yet not to taste and digest it to attribute virtue and efficacy to the Sacrament yet be fitter to receive the Devil then the sop at once to magnifie and profane it to call it the Bread of life and make it poyson This is to come neer the Ark and to handle these holy things without feeling in a word this is to make them first an idole and then nothing in this world My brethren it is a very dangerous thing thus to overvalue those things which in themselves are highly to be esteemed and are above comparison with any thing in the world For when we make them more then they are we in effect make them less then they are and at last nothing
and speak more faintly and remisly when we call after the Presumptuous sinner to turn as if his last period were near and it were almost too late for him to begin We must not magnifie Repentance too much lest he make it a Pass and Warrant to sin again and so have more need of it We may tell him what is most true Repentance is a command indeed but praeceptum ex suppositione as Aquinas speaketh a command not absolute but upon a Si a supposition We are not commanded to repent as we are to believe as we are to fear God and to honour our Parents but upon supposition If we sin we have an Advocate that will plead for us if we repent The command which is absolute is to do Gods will Repentance is tabula post naufragium saith S. Hierom a plank reacht out after shipwrack But it is better to ride in the ship in a calm then to hang on the mast in a tempest Repentance is a virtue but of that nature that the less we stand in need of it the more virtuous we are It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a purgative potion but it is better never to be sick then to rise from our beds by the help of a Physician It was commendable in him that could say He thanked God he was now reconciled to his mother but he was more praise-worthy who replyed that he thanked God that he was never reconciled to his for he never offended her It is good to repent but it is better not to sin Oh it is a great happiness to be restored to the favour of God but it is a greater never to lose it It is good to appease him but it is our safest course never to anger him In a word It is better to be ever with God then by famine or pestilence to be forced to return better not acquire an evil habit then shake it off better never set a step in evil wayes then be called out of them with so much noise better never erre then turn It will concern us then not to put too much trust and confidence in our helps not to be careless of our health upon presumption of remedy Rom. 6.1 not to sin because grace hath abounded not to spend prodigally upon hope of supply not to oblige our selves too far because we see a hand of Mercy ready to cancel the bill How many have these hopes deluded How many have been betrayed by their helps How many Cities had now stood Fit ut ea parte capiantur urbes qua suut munitissime Polyb l. 7. had they had no other walls but their men Whilest we trust in these we neglect our selves and so make them not onely useless but disadvantagious to us We are foyled by our strength poysoned with our physick lost and betrayed in the midst of our fort with all our succours and artillery about us We trust in God and offend him look stedfastly towards the Mercy-seat and fall into the bottomless pit Therefore let us not be too bold with God's Mercy but learn to fear the Lord and his goodness Hos 3.5 not make Mercy an occasion of sin and so consequently of judgment which she is so ready to remove At the very name of Mercy at the sound of this Musick we lie down and rest in peace It is Mercy that saveth us and we wound our selves to death with Mercy As he that looketh upon the Sun with a steady eye when he removeth his eye hath the image of the Sun presented almost in every object so when we have long gazed on the Mercy-seat our eye beginneth to dazzle and Mercy seemeth to shine upon us in all our actions and at all times and in every place We see Mercy in the Law quite abolishing and destroying it silencing the many Woes denounced against sinners When we sin Mercy is ready before us that we may do it with less regret that no worm may gnaw us When our Conscience chideth Mercy is at hand to make our peace And this in the time of health And when our strength fayleth and sickness hath laid us on our bed we suborn and corrupt Mercy to give us a visit then when we can scarce call for it to stand by us in the evil day when we can do no good that we may die in hope who had no charity and be saved by that Jesus whom we have crucified And as it falleth out sometimes with men of great learning and judgement who though they can resolve every doubt and answer the strongest argument and objection yet are many times puzzled with a piece of Sophistry so it is with the formal Christian He can stand out against all motives and beseechings against all the batteries of God all his Calls and Obtestations against the terrours of hell and sweet allurements of promises but is shaken and foyled with a Fallacie with the Devils Fallacie à dicto secundùm quid ad dictum simpliciter That Mercy doth save sinners that repent and therefore it saveth all And upon this ground which glideth away from us upon this reason which is no Reason the Pleasures which are but for a season shall prevail with us Hebr. 11.25 when Heaven with its bliss and eternity cannot move us and the trouble which Repentance bringeth to the flesh shall affright us from good more then the torments which are eternal can from sin And therefore to conclude let us fear the Mercy of God so fear it that it may not hurt us so fear it that it may embrace us on every side so fear it that it mave save us in the day of the Lord Jesus Let our song be made up as David's was of these discords Mercy and Judgment Psal 101.1 Let us set and compose our life by Judgment that we may not presume and tune our Fear by Mercy that we may not despair Remember we were prisoners and remember we were redeemed Remember we were weak and impotent and remember we were made whole Remember what Christ hath done for us and remember what we are to do for our selves Phil. 2.12 and so work out our salvation with fear and trembling and then draw near with a true heart Hebr. 10.22 in full assurance of faith to the throne of Grace that Gods Wisdom and Justice and Mercy may guide us in all our wayes till they bring us into those new heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness where God shall be glorified in us 2 Pet. 3.13 and we glorified in him to all eternity The Eighteenth SERMON PART III. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes c. THE word is loud the call sudden and vehement And we have heard it loud in the ears of them that despair Turn ye turn ye it is not too late and terrible to them that presume Turn ye turn ye it is not soon enough And to these it cannot sound with terrour enough For we see Presumption is a
imitateth natural motion It is weak in the beginning stronger in the progress but most strong and violent towards the end Transit in violentiam voluntas antiqua That which we will often we will with eagernerness and violence Our first onset in sin is with fear and reluctation we then venture further and proceed with les regret we move forwards with delight Delight continueth the motion and maketh it customary and Custome at last driveth and bindeth us to it as to our centre Vitia insolentiora renascuntur saith Seneca Sin groweth more insolent by degrees first it flattereth then commandeth after enslaveth and then betrayeth us First it gaineth consent afterwards it worketh delight Jer. 6.15 at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shamelesness in sin Were they ashamed Nihil magis in natura sua laudare se dicebat quam ut ipsius verbo Vtar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Caligula They were not at all ashamed nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a senslesness and stupidity and Caligula's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stubbornness and perversness of disposition which will not let us turn from sin For by neglecting a timely remedy vitia mores fiunt our evil wayes become our manners and common deportment and we look upon them as upon that which becomes us upon an unlawful act as upon that which we ought to do Nay peccatum lex Sin which is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. â— is made a Law it self S. Augustine in his Confessions calleth it so Lex peccati est violentia consuetudinis That Law of Sin which carrieth us with that violence is nothing else but the force of long custome and continuance in sin For sin by custome gaineth a kingdome in our souls and having taken her seat and throne there she promulgeth Laws Lex alia in membris meis repugnavit legi mentis mea Rom. 7. Lex 〈◊〉 peccati est violentia consuetudinis qua trahâ—tur tenetur etiam invitus animus eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur Aug. l. 8. Confess c 5. Psal 127.2 If she say Go we go and if she say Do this we do it Surge in quit Avaritia She commandeth the Miser to rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of sorrow She setteth the Adulterer on fire and maketh him vile and base in his own eyes whilst he counteth it his greatest honour and preferment to be a slave to his strumpet She draweth the Revengers sword She feedeth the Intemperate with poyson And she commaundeth not as a Tyrant but having gained dominion over us she findeth us willing subjects She holdeth us captive and we call our captivity our liberty Her poyson is as the poyson of the Aspick She biteth us and we smile we die and feel it not Again it is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose judgements we sl ght to whom we wantonly turn the back when he calleth after us to seek his face Psal 27.8 and so tread that Mercy under foot which should save us We will not turn yet upon a bold and strange presumption That though we grieve his Spirit though we resist and blaspheme his Spirit yet after all these scorns and contempts after all these injuries and contumelies he will yet look after us and sue unto us and offer himself and meet and receive us at any time we shall point as most convenient to turn in It is most true God hath declared himself and as it were become his own Herald and proclaimed it to all the world The Lord Exod. 34.6 7. merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most lovingly affected to Man the chief and prince of his creatures He longeth after him he wooeth him he waiteth on him His Glory and Mans Salvation meet and kiss each other for it is his glory to crown Man Nor doth he at any time turn from us himself till we doat on the World and Sensuality and divorce him from us till we have made our heaven below chosen other Gods which we make our selves and think him not worth the turning to Jer. 23.23 He he is alwayes a God at hand and never goeth from us till we force him away by violence How many murmurings and rebellions how many contradictions of sinners hath he stood out and yet looked towards them Amos 2.13 How hath he been pressed as a cart under sheaves and yet looked towards them How hath he been shaken off and defied and yet looked towards them He receiveth David after his adultery and murder after that complication of sins the least of which was of force enough to have cast him out of Gods presence for ever He receiveth Peter after his denial and would have received Judas had he repented after his treason He received Manasses when he could not live long and he received the Thief on the Cross when he could live no longer Psal 100.5 Heb. 13.8 All this is true His Mercy is infinite and his Mercy is everlasting and is the same yesterday and to day and for ever But as Tertullian saith well De pudicit c. 10. non potest non irasci contumeliis misericordiae suae God must needs wax angry at the contumelies and reproches which by our dalliance and delay we fling upon his Mercy which is so ready to cover our sins For how can he suffer this Queen of his Attributes to be thus prostituted by our lusts How can he endure to to see men bring Sin into the world under the shadow of that Mercy which should take it away and advance the kingdome of darkness and fight under the Devils banner with this inscription and motto lifted up The Lord is merciful What hopes of that souldier that flingeth away his buckler or of that condemned person thar teareth his pardon or of that sick man that loveth his disease and counteth his Physick poyson The Prophet here in my Text where he calleth upon us with that earnestness Turn ye turn ye giveth us a fair intimation that if we thus delay and delay and never begin a time may come when we shall not be able to turn It may seem indeed a harsh and hard saying a doctrine not sutable with the lenity and gentleness of the Gospel which breatheth nothing but mercy to conclude that such a time may come that any part of time that the last moment of our time may not make a Now to turn in that whilest we breathe our condition should be as desperate as if we were dead that whilest we are men our estate should be as irrevocable as that of the damned spirits with this difference onely that we are not yet in the place of torment which nevertheless is prepared for us and will as certainly receive us as it doth now the Devil
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of Faith But that Faith should be idle or speechless or dead is contrary to its nature and proceedeth from our depraved dispositions from Love of the world and Love of our selves which can silence it or lull it asleep or bury it in oblivion Thus we may have Faith as if we had it not and use it as we should use the world as if we used it not or worse abuse it not believe and say it but believe and deny it not believe and be saved but believe and be damned For the Devil can haereticare propositiones make propositions which are absolutely true heretical Believe and be saved is as true as Gospel nay it is the Gospel it self but by his art and deceit many believe and are by so much the bolder in the wayes which lead unto Death believe Jesus to be the Lord and contemn him believe him to be a Saviour and upon presumption of mercy make themselves uncapable of mercy and because he saveth sinners will be such sinners as he cannot save because they believe he taketh away the sins of the world will harden themselves in those sins which he will not take away Many there be who do veritatem sed non per vera tenere maintain the Truth but by those wayes which are contrary to the Truth make that which should confirm Religion destroy Religion and their whole life a false gloss upon a good Text having a form of godliness but denying the power of it crying Jesus is the Lord but scourging him with their blasphemies as if he were a slave and fighting against him with their lusts and affections as if he were an enemy sealing him up in his grave as if he were not that Jesus that Saviour that Lord but in the Jews language that deceiver that blasphemer But this is a most broken and imperfect language And though we are said to believe it when we cannot believe it to have the habit of Faith when we have not the use of Reason and so cannot bring it forth into act as some Divines conceive though it be spoke for us at the Font when we cannot speak and though when we can speak it we speak it again and again as often almost at we speak Lord Lord though we gasp it forth with our last breath and make it the last word we speak yet all this will not make up the Dicere all this will not rise to thus much as to say JESUS IS THE LORD Therefore In the third place that we may truly say it we must speak it to God as God speaketh to us whose word is his deed who cannot lie who Numb 23.19 if he saith it will doe it if he speak it will make it good And as he speaketh to us by his Benefits which are not words but blessings the language of Heaven by his Rain to water the earth by his Wool to clothe us and by his Bread to feed us so must we speak to him by our Obedience by Hearts not hollow by Tongues not deceitful by Hands pure and innocent Our heart conceiveth and our obedience is the report made abroad And this is indeed LO QUI to speak out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make our works vocal and our words operative to have lightning in our words and thunder in our deeds as Nazianzene spake of Basil that not onely Men and Angels may hear and see and applaud us but this Lord himself may understand our dialect and by that know us to be his children and accept and reward us In our Lord and Saviour's Alphabet these are the Letters in his Grammar these are the Words Meekness and Patience Compassion and Readiness to forgive Self-denial and Taking up our cross This must be our Dialect We cannot better express our Jesus and our Lord then idiomate operum by the language of our works by the language of the Angels whose Elogium is They doe his will the Tongue of Angels is not so proper as their Ministery for indeed their Ministery is their Tongue by the language of the Innocents who confessed him to be the Lord not by speaking but by dying by the language of the blessed Martyrs who in their tumultuary executions when they could not be heard for noise were not suffered to confess him said no more but took their death on it And this is truly to say Jesus is the Lord. For if he be indeed our Lord then shall we be under his command and beck Not a thought must rise which he would controll not a word be uttered which he would silence not an action break forth which he forbideth not a motion be seen which he would stop The very name of Lord must awe us must possess and rule us must inclose and bound us and keep us in on every side Till this be done nothing is done nothing is said We are his purchase and must fall willingly under his Dominion For as God made Man a little World so hath he made him a little Commonwealth Tertullian calleth him Fibulam utriusque substantiae the Clasp or Button which tieth together two diverse substances the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other saith S. Paul are carried diverse wayes the Flesh to that which is pleasing to it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as pleasing nor irksom but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the perfection and beauty of the soul Gal. 5.17 They lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battel is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit against those inclinations and motions which the Word and the Spirit beget in us And then Sin taketh the chair the place and throne of Christ and is Lord over us reigneth as S. Paul speaketh in our mortal bodies If it say Go we go and if it say Come we come and if it say Doe this we doe it It maketh us lay down that price for dung with which we might purchase heaven See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look and the glance of an eye and bindeth him with a kiss which will at last bite like a serpent See how Self-love driveth on thousands as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword And thus doth Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it over us And in this bondage and slavery can we truly say Jesus is the Lord when he is disgraced deposed and even crucified again Beloved whilest this fighting and contention lasteth in us something or other will lay hold on us and draw us within its
and time Care not for the morrow let the morrow care for it self There is no time to seek him but Now. For 1. It is the greatest folly in the world thus to play with danger to seek death first in the errours of our life and then when we have run our course and death is ready to devour us to look faintly back upon life For the endeavours of a man that hath wearied himself in sin can be but weak and faint like the appetite of a dying man who can but think of meat and loath it The later we seek the less able we shall be to seek the further we stray the less willing to return For Sin gathereth strength by delay devoteth us unto it self gaineth a dominion over us holdeth us as it were in chains and will not soon suffer us to slip out of its power When our Will hath captivated it self under sin a wish a sigh a thought are but vain things nor have they strength enough to deliver us One act begetteth another and that a third many make up a habit and evil habits hold us back with some violence from God What mind what motion what inclination can a man that is drowned in sensuality have to God who is a spirit a man buried in earth for so every covetous man is to God who is in Heaven he that delighteth in the breath of fools to the honour of a Saint Here the further we go â—he more we are in That which is once done hath some affinity to that which is done often and that which is done often is next to that which is done alwayes We say Custome is a second nature and indeed it imitateth natural motion It is weak in the beginning stronger in the progress but strongest towards the end Our first engagement our first onset in sin is with fear and reluctation we then venture further and proceed with less regret we move forward with delight delight continueth the motion and maketh it customary and costome at last driveth and bindeth us to sin as to our centre For though God in Scripture be said to Harden our hearts and some be very forward to urge those Texts as if Induration were not our fault but God's and would be comfort even in hell if we could say his hand threw us in yet Induration and hardening of the heart is the natural and proper effect of continuance in sin For every man is shaped and configured to the actions of his life whether they be good or evil An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit nor can a good tree bring forth evil Virtue constraineth us and Vice constraineth us One sin draweth on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by natural inclination and brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calleth ferity or brutishness and the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind to delight in sin to triumph in sin to consecrate sin and call it virtue and religion to that difficulty of seeking God which the Lawyers call Impossibility in things which may but yet seldome come to pass For though God may be found even of these yet we have just cause to fear that few thus disposed ever seek him 2. It is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose judgements we slight to whom we wantonly turn our backs and run from him when he calleth after us to seek his face and so tread that mercy under our feet which should save us and will not seek him yet because we presume that though we grieve his Spirit though we resist his Spirit though we blaspheme his Spirit yet after all these scorns and contempts after all these injuries and contumelies he will yet sue unto us and offer himself and be found at any time in which we shall think convenient to seek him It is true God hath declared himself by his servant Moses and as it were become his own Herald to proclaim his own titles The Lord the Lord God Exod. 34.6 7. merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Manasseth was the most notorious offender of all the Kings of Judah and wrought much wickedness saith the Text even above all the Amorites and this he did not for a little space but even till he was grown old and yet we see that patience attended his return and accepted his person when he prayed and humbled himself So loth is God to withdraw himself whilest there is any hope that we will seek him For he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most lovingly affected to man the chief and prince of his creatures he wooeth him he longeth after him he waiteth on him he wisheth he were so wise as to seek him His glory and Man's salvation meet and kiss each other for it is his glory to crown him Nor doth he at any time leave us himself till we dote on the world and sensuality and divorce him from us till we have made our Heaven below chosen other Gods and think him not worth the looking after In a word he is alwayes a God at hand never goeth from us till we force him by violence When he went to lead his own people through the wilderness how many murmurings and rebellions did he endure ere he left them Till they committed that intolerable sin in Horeb in which it seemeth they were resolved to try the strength of his patience he did himself in person conduct them in the way Exod. 32. And after he telleth them he would not himself go before them left he should destroy them but he sendeth his Angel his vicegerent to supply his room so that even when he left them he left also room for mercy and he forsook them that he might not forsake them forsook them in some degree that he might not be constrained to forsake them for ever Since therefore God is so loth to hide himself from us or cast us off till we have cast off all care and thought of seeking him I would be very loth to wrong that property of his in which he seemeth so much to rejoyce or set bounds to his mercies which are infinite Yet as Tertullian speaketh non potest non irasci contumeliis misericordiae suae we cannot imagine but God must needs wax angry at the contumelies and reproches which by our dalliance and delay we fling upon his mercy vvhich is so ready to cover our sins For how can he suffer the Queen of his attributes to be thus prostituted to our lusts What hope of that souldier that kicketh away his buckler or of that condemned man that flingeth his pardon into the fire or of that sick man who loveth his disease and counteth his physick poison The Prophet here when he calleth upon
way for our desires which otherwise we could not once dare to confess and tender For should we sue for mercy with our hands full of bloud Can he that draggeth his brother to the prison dare to look back upon the mercy-seat Can we fall down for pardon with a full resolution to revenge Or can we hope to be heard in oratorio in the chappel or oratorie when we have left our brother in carcere in prison or that our devotion will be louder then the noise of his chains Take both expressions and you have both a similitude and a cause declared which though it be not causal to force yet it carrieth with it a strong motive to perswade a grant Our blessed Saviour implyeth thus much in those words which immediately follow the AMEN and conclusion of this Prayer Vers 14 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Which is a plain commentary and exposition of this Condition and a reason why it is annexed to the Petition And here we cannot but make a stand and conceive that some reason there was which moved our Saviour thus to re-inforce the duty which was fully comprehended in the Condition before He was not content to joyn it to that Petition which containeth all the hope and expectation of a Christian to make it a Condition without which there can be no remission of sins but he often repeateth and taketh it up again and again first here and that in appearance against all Grammar and method there being placed between not onely an entire Petition consisting of two parts or as some will have it two several Petitions but also the clause or conclusion of the whole Prayer and again Matth. 18. in the parable of the King calling his servants to account And indeed though in strictness of Grammar and method that re-inforcement of this duty of Forgiveness v. 14 15. cannot be referred to any Petition but this and is as a seal to the Condition to make it more authentick yet Christ's method is de schola coeli taken from no school but that of heaven nec unam sequitur orbitam nor is tied to one path alone and it is drawn many times not from the nature of the things themselves but from the temper and disposition of men now cometh fairly towards them and by and by pauseth or steppeth aside and then returneth to make a deeper impression that it may fasten the Divine precepts in our memory and that we may digest them and turn them into Nourishment And if you consider the multitude to which he spake he may seem to have used singular art For the Oratour observeth that to the common and ignorant people sparsa compositis sunt numerosiora those things which seem disorderly scattered are of more force then those which are bound within a certain method As a sword maketh way into the body so do good precepts into the mind morâ magis quà m ictu more by pauses and intervalls and often repetitions then by force and strength Having now laid down before you first what these Debts are which we must forgive secondly the Manner how we must forgive them or the Extent and Force of the Sicut in what the parity or similitude consisteth and how far our Forgiveness of our brother must answer the Remission of our sins we will lead you on forward to what remaineth the Dependance and Relation which is betwixt these two God's Forgiveness and ours and shew you first what power and influence God's Mercy should have on us to work the like tenderness and softness in our hearts towards our brethren and last of all vvhat force our Forgiveness hath to make God merciful to us to draw his hand to seal to us the Remission of our sins First God's Mercy though it be essential to him yet is one of those virtues vvhich are in a manner communicable diffused and poured on us to make us like him and vvhich by vvay of analogy and some degree of proportion must be found in the sons of men Who is great besides our God and vvho is Everlasting but the Lord What hath our Mixture of his Uncompoundedness or our Bounds and Limits of his Immensity What hath our Span of his Eternity Or what do these attributes work in the creature which carrieth any likeness or resemblance to them But his Truth his Justice his Mercy as they shine in God in perfection of beauty so do they cast their beams upon men and kindle in them that truth that justice and mercy which we may consider as so many reflexions from him He that loveth is born of God saith S. John He that is just is like unto him and he that is merciful is his child And therefore the Schools call them virtutes exemplares no otherwise vertues in God but as they are exemplary because those Divine vertues which are essential to him must be looked upon by us as patterns and copies We must be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful For he is thus pleased to set up himself as a copy of that Goodness which he will exact at our hands so that those patterns of holiness which we are bound to follow are to be taken not onely from his bare commandment but from the object of his will revealed I mean those constant practices in which he manifesteth himself to his creature every day which are so many express proofs and invincible arguments that his will is alwayes holy and just in those perfections whereof our general duties are the imperfect representations He that biddeth us forgive our enemies hath mercy in store for them He that commandeth us to bless our persecutors doth tender his blessings to them that persecute him He that biddeth us be loving to our neighbour is the Father and God of love And those vertues which he worketh in us he maketh good upon us He maketh us even see and feel and handle his mercy that we may be active in those duties of love which we owe unto our brethren As he hath made himself a great example of mercy so he hath made us capable of it made us as waxe on which his image and superscription may be wrote and which may receive those impressions which his gracious operation upon us doth naturally work He hath given us Understandings to behold and observe him in those wayes in which he maketh himself in a manner visible to us He hath given us a Will which is the mistress of our actions and must apply it self to the will of God revealed in his word and not to those actions which are nothing else but real contradictions to his and as so many spots and defacings of his image in us Now the Philosopher will tell us Simile generat sibi simile Naturally every thing produceth that which is like unto it as Fire turneth all
behold God's precious promises but when we are urged with this undeniable Consequence That we must therefore forgive we start back and will not yield to the Conclusion nor be convinced by that evidence which is as clear as the day So prevalent is the flattery of this world above the Mercy of God! so powerful is a gilded vanity above the glory of the Mercy-seat It is argument of great force à majori ad minus If Christ forgave us who were his enemies then ought they that take his name upon them to forgive them who are their Brethren And he that is Christ's and truly religious must needs see the force of this argument and confirm and make it good by practice To this end in the next place we must make use of those helps which will draw this consequence out of these premisses which will so fit and prepare us that the Mercy of God may work kindly in us to bring its power into act that as God's Mercy is a convincing argument that we must be merciful so our Compassion to our brother may be as a strong confirmation and full assurance to us that God hath forgiven us First then as the Psalmist speaketh let us have God's Mercy in everlasting remembrance to curb our appetite to check our lusts to bridle our tongue to stay our hand to beat down all our animosity and to make our anger set before the Sun For the Memory saith S. Bernard is stomachus animi the stomach of the soul to make all God's benefits become food and nourishment to turn them into good bloud that we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of the Spirit strong to the casting down of all imaginations which may stand in opposition to the Mercy of God when it is begetting something in us like unto it self to turn them into the very bloud and substance of our soul that she shall not breath nor think nor speak nor actuate the hand but in a way of mercy And in this respect that of Plato may be true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We learn and are instructed by those notions which were formerly imprinted in our memory This is as it were parturire misericordiam to conceive and be in travel with Mercy till it be fully formed in us to work it out first in the elaboratory of our heart to have this article of our faith Remission of sins before our eyes that may check us at every turn that may break the bow and snap the spear asunder and burn every instrument revenge that may scatter those thoughts which warm our bloud and raise our spirits and make our glory and triumph to tread down our enemies under our feet The frequent meditation of this begat a love in many which was stronger then death This was the chain which bound the Martyrs to the stake this sealed up their lips when they were laughed to scorn Sic posuerunt animas suas With the remembrance of God's mercy in Christ they laid down their lives praying for their enemies with their last breath as Christ did for his commending their souls to the mercy of God whose bloudy cruelty had devoted their bodies to the fire By frequent contemplation of God's love we draw our soul from out of those incumbrances which many times involve and fetter her we recollect our mind into it self and do not let it out to our passions to be torn and distracted but fasten it upon the Goodness of God where it resteth as upon a holy hill from whence looking down it beholdeth every object in its proper shape It looketh upon the World as upon a a shop of vanity upon Riches as that which may be lost and we never the worse upon Beauty as that which is lost whilest we look on it upon Honour as on a falling star which shineth and falleth and is turned into dung upon Injury as a benefit upon Persecution as a blessing upon Contempt as upon that sword which will slay none but the scornful upon Oppression as that which shall undoe none but the covetous Yea it seeth Life in the face and countenance of Death Oh it is a sad speculation that our Memory should keep its retentive faculty to preserve that which is poisonous and deleterial but that we should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leak and let out the water of life which should quicken and refresh the soul and make it grow in grace that at the impression of a wedge of gold our Memory should conceive theft or fraud or rapine at the sight of a face bring forth lust at the shew of an injury set the soul on fire but be as marble to receive the signature of God's goodness that it should be a well-lockt treasury to every fading vanity but a through-fare for those lasting and powerful objects which should work and fashion the soul to a mild and heavenly constitution Oh that we should never call our Memory good but in evil Therefore in the second place it is not enough to behold these glorious phantasms and for a while to carry them about with us as precious antidotes unless we mould and fashion and rightly apply them For many times nitimur infirmamur saith Hilary Contemplation bringeth us forward but then letteth us fall to the ground we profer and look back we put on resolutions and fling them off again before they are well on we remember God's mercy and when our bloud is a little chafed study to forget it The good which we would which we approve that do we not and soon learn not to think it good Et mentis judicium rectitudinem conspicit sed ad hoc operis fortitudo succumbit We fall short of that rectitude which the eye hath discovered and which we have but weakly framed and set up in our mind and so leave the truth behind us and go on undauntedly to that which our Anger or Lust doth hurry us to We do not so place God's Mercy before our eyes as to conceive something like unto it as Jacob's sheep did amongst the rods This hindereth the powerful operation of Mercy that we see it as the Jews did their Manna and know not what it meaneth But if we will put on the bowels of mercy we must contemplate Mercy in its own sphere in that site and aspect in which it looketh upon us deliberare causas expendere deliberate and question with our selves for what cause it was thus set up and draw it down to the right end and use of it Now to what end was the hand of Mercy reached out unto us Questionless to work in us peace of conscience and save us But if we look again and view it more nearly and considerately we shall find another use namely to make us fruitful in every good work O thou wicked servant saith the Lord in the Gospel Matth. 18. I forgave thee all thy debt shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as
Powers and Principalities Laws and Precepts and all that is named of God Ambition maketh Laws Jura perjura Swear and forswear Arise kill and eat Covetousness maketh Laws condemneth us to the mines to dig and sweat Quocunque modo rem Gather and lay up Come not within the reach of Omri's statutes of humane Laws and you need not fear any Law of Christ. Private Interest maketh Laws and indeed is the Emperour of the world and maketh men slaves to crouch and bow under every burthen to submit to every Law of man though it enjoyn to day what it did forbid yesterday to raise up our heads and then duck at every shadow that cometh over us but we can see no such formidable power in the Royal Law of Christ because it breatheth not upon it to promote and uphold it but looketh as an enemy that would cast it down biddeth us deny our selves which we do every day for our lusts for our honour for our profit but cannot do it for Christ or for that crown which is laid up for those that do it Thus every thing hath power over us which may destroy us but Christ is not hearkned to nor those his Laws which may make us wise unto salvation For we are too ready to believe what some have been bold to teach that there are no such Laws at all in the Gospel Therefore in the last place let us cast this root of bitterness out of our hearts let us look upon it as a most dangerous and baneful errour an errour which hath brought that abomination of desolation into the world and into the lives and manners of Christians which have made them stink amongst the inhabitants of the earth amongst Jews and Pagans and Infidels which tremble to behold those works of darkness which they see every day not onely done but defended by those who call themselves the children of light Because in that name we bite and devour one another for this they despise the Gospel of Christ because we boast of it all the day long and make use of it as a Licence or Letters patent to be worse then they riot it in the light beat our fellow-servants defraud and oppress them which they do not in darkness and in the shadow of death The first Christians called the Gospel legem Christianam the Christian Law and so lived as under a Law so lived that nothing but the name was accused But the latter times have brought forth subtle Divines that have disputed away the Law and now there is scarce any thing left commendable but the name A Gospeller and worse then a Turk or Pagan a Gospeller and a Revenger a Gospeller and a Libertine a Gospeller and a Schismatick a Gospeller and a Deceiver a Gospeller and a Traitor a Gospeller that will be under no Law a Gospeller that is all for Love and Mercy and nothing for Fear I may say the Devil is a better Gospeller for he believeth and trembleth And indeed this is one of the Devils subtilest engines veritatem veritate concutere to shake and beat down one Truth with another to bury our Duty in the Good news to hide the Lord in the Saviour and the Law in the covering of Mercy to make the Gospel supplant it self that it may be of no effect to have no sound heard but that of Imputative righteousness From hence that irregularity and disobedience amongst Christians that liberty and peace in sin For when Mercy waiteth so close upon us and Judgment is far out of our sight we walk on pleasantly in forbidden paths and sin with the less regret sin and fear not pardon lying so near at hand To conclude then Let us not deceive our selves and think that there is nothing but Mercy and Pardon in the Gospel and so rely upon it till we commit those sins which shall be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Nemo promittat sibi quod non promittit Evangelium saith Augustine Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it nor so presume on the Grace of God as to turn it into wantonness so extol it as to depress it so trust to Mercy as to forfeit it but look into the Gospel and behold it in its own shape and face as pardoning sin and forbidding sin as a royal Release and a royal Law And look upon Christ the authour and finisher of our faith as a Jesus to save us Psal 2. and a Lord to command us as preaching peace and preaching a Law Rom. 8.3 condemning sin in his flesh dying that sin might dye and teaching us to destroy it in our selves In a word let us so look into the Gospel that it may be unto us the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death so look upon Christ here that he may be our Lord to govern us and our Jesus to save us that we may be subject to his Laws and so be made capable of his mercy that we may acknowledge him to be our Lord and he acknowledge us before his Father that Death may lose its sting and Sin its strength and we may be saved in the last day through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Two and Fortieth SERMON PART II. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THat the Precepts of the Gospel do bind us as Laws ye have heard already and how the Doctrine of the Gospel is a Law We must in the next place see how it is a perfect Law And first That is perfect saith the Philosopher cui nihil adimi nec adjici potest from which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added Such is the Gospel You cannot adde to it you cannot take from it one lota or tittle If any shall adde unto these things Rev. 22.18 God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this book And if any shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life There needeth no second hand to supply it and that hand deserveth to be cut off that shall corrupt or alter it For look upon the End which is Blessedness There you have it drawn out in the fairest lines that flesh and bloud can read in as large a representation as our humane nature is capable of Then view the Means to bring us to that end They are plainly exprest and set out there in such a character that we may run and read them open to our understanding exciting our faith raising our hope and even provoking us to action There is nothing which we ought to know nothing which we must believe nothing which we may hope for nothing which concerneth us to do nothing which may lift us up to happiness and carry us to the end but it is written
should be What vvill become us 17. Comfort is for the godly not for sinners 1114 1115. Some little comfort from Philosophy none true and solid 949 950. 954 v. Scripture If vve perform the conditions the comforts of the Gospel shall be made good to us 953. Comforting of others what 941 c. Our Comforting of others must not proceed from Pride Hypocrisie Vain-glory or Fear 942. Motives to the duty 943 944. We seek Comfort and miss it because vve seek amiss 945. 948. 953. Where true Comfort is to be had 946 c. Commandments of God our light our provision our defense in our way to heaven 540 c. Common people v. Deceit Common-wealth to be preferred before private 544. Common-wealth and Kingdomes whether they have a fatal period 213. The respect Church and Common-wealth have each to other 224 225. Communion v. Lords Supper Communion of Saints 420. 840 c. 861. 939 c. Compassion though by the Stoicks cried down is a very divine virtue 147 148. Without it a man cannot be a part of the Church 148. V. Mercy Complaint and murmuring vvhence 937. Confession of sin vvhen hearty vvhen not 333. Be not ashamed to confess thy sins now lest thou be confounded hereafter 1039 1040. The vvay to have our sins hid is to confess them 1040 1041. ¶ We must confess the truth not onely in times of peace but even to the face of its enemies 982 983. Confidence must be in God alone 807. Conformity to Christ how necessary 15 16. v. Christ Congregation Every particular C. commonly damneth all for hereticks that cast not in their lots vvith them 319 320. 455. 682. 1060. v. Faction Conscience how little regarded 169. To sin against C. aggravateth sin fearfully 441. C. cannot erre in that vvhich is plain and evident 892. but Love of the vvorld vvill make a man run into that his C. starteth at 892 893. C. may sleep but not die in us 330. 502. Reluctancie of C. is no certain sign of a child of God 439 c. The force of C. 499. 1037. No torment like to a bad C. 740 741. The courses vvicked men take to silence it 449. 503. 688. 922. 948. 1037. If vve vvound our C. in one particular though but a little vve are in the vvay to vvound her deeper 1120. Every vvilfull violation of C. is a step to Apostasie 1121. How C. is to be honoured 1121 1122. When she is dishonoured 1122. Them that honour her she vvill honour 1122. The best vvay to calm a raging C. 946 947. A good Conscience is the product of Faith and Obedience 1013. It armeth us against the fear of Death 1013. v. Cases Consider We behold the Heavens our selves our Sins but consider them not aright 595 596. 1106. What it is to consider a thing devoutly 596 597. 1107. It is of singular use 597 598. 1108. Consolation for disconsolate souls 347. Conspiracy v. Vnion Contentions Of the C. among Christians 557. Contentment not to be found on earth 537. Contemplation v. Joy Controversies of these times of what sort 304. 1071. 1084. Their best Judge 287. Their original 665. Convenience v. Necessity Conversion of a sinner as great a miracle as Raising of the dead or Creating of the world 56. Vide pag. 587. 375. v. Resurrection What is God's part and what ours in it 587 588. 628 629. 722. A Christian's life beginneth at his Conversion 1003. Corban what 132. 1 Cor. i. 26. 974. 1071. 1084. ¶ 30. 871. ¶ iii. 22 23. explained ¶ iv 4. 347. ¶ v. 5. 565. 592. ¶ vii 20. 521. ¶ ix 22. 505. ¶ x. 13. 604. ¶ xi 10. 857. ¶ xiii 4. 1077. 2 Cor. v. 14. 67. Corrections God's C. are the blows of a Father and great arguments of his love 365. Covetousness and Ambition encrease by enjoyment 537. 887. How C. beginneth and groweth in the heart 625. v. Hope This sin emasculateth and weakeneth both mind and body 751. It is an enemy to Peace 208. the main cause of Persecution 700. and of Divisions in the Church 842. 845. 856. What will not C. make a man do 507 508. It is idolatry 623. v. Riches Some Covetous men doubt not to be saved because Abraham a Rich man is in heaven 618. The Covetous man's Texts cleared 222. Councels too much cried up by them of Rome 681. Counsel is like good Physick 842. Countrey v. View Court v. View Creation and Conservation but one continued act 104. v. God World Creatures Since all are clean in themselve why divers Cr. were forbidden as unclean 1098. Sin now disordereth and defileth all but the last day will reduce all to order and beauty 246. The Creature therefore longeth for the day of judgment 302. Creatures good in themselves we abuse to evil 897. Creed Truth was purest when there was but one short Creed 665. Cross the way to the Crown 174. 571. v. Affliction Crucifying our flesh what 725. Cujacius 2. 8. Cure of souls though in some sense impropriate to the Priest alone yet in some sense it is committed to every man 293 294. Curiosity a busie idleness punishing it self 1074. It is a busie and toilsome thing 730. Curious gazing where God hath drawn a veil unlawful fruitless dangerous 94 95. 164. 248 249 729. 1076. Custome in sinning how got and how hard to break 357. It maketh sin natural 793. v. Sin Cyprian 1003. 1023. D. DAngers and difficulties try and discover a Christian 982 983. Daniel Porphyrie's judgment of his Prophesie 166. David how devout and pious 860. Of his professing himself a stranger on the earth 531-536 His sin and Saul's compared together 1030. He seemeth to have gone further then he needed in confessing his sin 1040. Nathan's plain dealing with him 1115. Death once terrible now profitable and desirable to a Christian 48 49. To the godly it is a passage to heaven to the wicked the contrary 295. v. Obedience Why the Stoicks did desire D. 1011. and how Christians may do it lawfully 1011 1012. How to get rid of the fear of D. 543. 1012 c. Nothing more common more certain then Death yet nothing less thought on 538 539. 596. Arguments to moderate our grief for the D. of friends 543. Sin carrieth D. in its womb 445. We are dying continually 538. ¶ Death of the Soul v. Resurrection Whether God desire or decree the Death of Man 403 c. Man's D. proceeded not from God's primary but secondary will 405. If we die it is for no other reason but because we will die 424-446 Debt one easily runneth into but hardly creepeth out 809 810. How troublesome a thing it is to be in Debt 809. Debtours sometimes pay their Creditours with ill language 810. What Debtours Matth. vi 12. signifieth 816. We are all Debtours to God 806. v. Sin Obligation Deceit v. Oppression Common people how easily deceived 557. Men are cautelous that they be not deceived in worldly matters yet apt to deceive themselves in
is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. Micah 6.8 What doth the Lord require of thee c. Micah 6.8 But to do justly c. Micah 6.8 To love Mercy c. Micah 6.8 And to walk humbly with thy God Gal. 4.29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now 1 Thes 4.11 And that yee study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you 1 Thes 4 11. And to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you Matth. 24.42 Watch therefore for yee know not what hour your Lord doth come Matth. 24.42 Yee know not what hour your Lord doth come Matth. 24.42 Watch therefore c. Jam. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the World 1 Sam. 3.18 And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him And he said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good John 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turn yee turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye c. Ezek. 33.11 From your evil wayes c. Ezek. 33.11 From your evil wayes c. Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye c. Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye c. A Preparation to the holy Communion 1 Cor. 11.25 This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come 1 Cor. 11.28 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Gal. 1.10 the last part of the ver For do I now perswade men or God or do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Coloss 2.6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Sir George Whitmore Knight Psal 119.19 I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me A SERMON Preached on Christmas-Day HEBR. II. 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren THis high Feast of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour is called by S. Chysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Metropolitane Feast For as to the chief City the whole Countrey resorts Thither the Tribes go up saith David even the tribes of the Lord Psal 122. so all the Feast-dayes of the whole year all the passages and periods of the blessed oeconomy of that great work of our Redemption all the solemn commemorations of the Saints and Martyrs meet and are concentred in the joy of this Feast If we will draw them into a perfect circle we must set the foot of the compass upon this Deus homini similis factus God was made like unto Man But if we remove the compass and deny this Assimilation the Incarnation of Christ there will be no room then for the glorious company of the Apostles for the goodly fellowship of the Prophets for the noble army of Martyrs the Circumcision is cut off the Epiphany disappears our Easter is buried and the Feast of the holy Ghosts Advent is past and gone from us as that mighty wind which brought it in Blot out these two words PVER NATVS A Child is born The Son of God is made like unto us and you have wip'd the Saints all out of the Kalendar at once We will not now urge the solemn celebration of the Day That hath been done already by many who have thought it a duty not only of the closet but the Church and a fit subject for publick devotion And upon this account Antiquity lookt upon it with joy and gratitude as upon a day which the Lord had made And S. Augustine commends this anniversary Solemnity as either delivered to after-ages by the Apostles themselves Vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenariis Conciliis instituta c. Aug. p. 118. or decreed by Councels and devoutly retained in all the Churches of the world But we do not now urge it For when Power speaks every mouth must be stopped Logick hath no sinews an Argument no strength Antiquity no authority Councels may erre the Fathers were but children all Churches must yeild to one and the first age be taught by the last Job 12.20 Speech is taken away from the trusty and understanding from the aged But yesterday that monstre was discovered which the Churches for so many centuries of years heard not of and so made much of it and embraced it but they must have run from it or abolisht it if their eye had been as clear and quick as theirs of after-times I do not stand up against Power I say I should then forget him whose memory we so much desire to celebrate who was the best teacher and greatest example of obedience What cannot be done cannot oblige And where the Church is shut up every mans chamber every mans breast may be a Temple and every day a Holy-day and we may offer up in it the sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to the blessed Son of God who came and dwelt amongst us and was made like unto us which is the only end of the celebration of this Feast Christ is made like unto us is as true when every man tells himself so and makes melody in his heart as when it is preached in the great congregation But it is heard further and soundeth better and is the sweeter Musick when all the people say Amen when with one heart and soul and in one place they give glory to their Saviour who that he might be so factus est similis was made like unto them My Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a principle in Divinity and is laid down unto us in the form of a Modell proposition Which as we are taught in Logick consists of two parts the Dictum and the Modus Here is 1. the Proposition CHRISTVS FACTVS SIMILIS Christ is made like us 2. the Modification or Qualification of it with an OPORTVIT or DEBVIT It dehoved him so to be In the Proposition our meditations are directed to Christ and to his Brethren And we consider Quid Christus Quid nos What Christ is and What we we were God he was
sustinente contumelias fastidia naturae We are not ashamed of the man Christ passing through and enduring the loathsome contumelies of our nature exspecting the leisure of nine months in the womb born in a stable cradled in a cratch wrapped up in clouts poor and despised Non de crucifixo Christo not of our Lord hanging on the Cross But Wonder heighteneth our Joy and Joy raiseth our Wonder and we cry out with S. Augustine O prodigia ô miracula Oh prodigie oh miracle of Mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the strangeness of this new Birth With the Wise-men we open our treasuries Matth. 2.11 and present him gifts and worship him as a King though we find him in a manger And this is a signe from the depth from the low condition of our Flesh FACTVS SIMILIS saith the Apostle made like unto his brethren CORPVS APTASTI MIHI saith he himself in the Psalm Psal 40.6 Hebr. 10.5 A body hast thou prepared me So like us that the Divel himself as quick-sighted as Marcion or Manes took him for no other then a Man and was entrapped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the outward garment and vail of his flesh Naz. Or. 39. Venturing upon him as Man he found him a God and striking at the First Adam was overcome with the Second beat down and conquerred with that blow which he levelled But as Christ hath taken our Flesh must he take our Soul too May not his Divinity as Apolinarius phancied supply the place of our better part Shall we not free him from those passions and affections which when they move and are hot within us our common apologie is Humanum est That we are but men No to S. Hilarie's Corporatio we must add the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if S. Hilarie's Incorporating will not reach home their Inhumanition will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw together and unite both Body and Soul Christ came to save both therefore both he took that he might free the body from corruption and the Soul from sin refine our dross into silver and our silver into pure gold raise our Bodies to the immortality of our Souls and our Souls to the purity of the Angels He is perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane Flesh subsisting And now being made up of the same mould and temper having taken from Man what maketh and constituteth Man and being the same wax as it were why may he not receive the same impressions of Love and Joy Grief and Fear Anger and Compassion affectus sensualitatis Lombard even those affections which are seated in the sensitive part Behold him in the Temple with a scourge in his hand and you will say he was Angry Go with him to Lazarus his grave and you shall see his sorrow dropping from his eyes Mark his eye upon Jerusalem and you shall see the very bowels of Compassion Follow him to Gethsemane and the Evangelist will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he began to be grievously troubled Matth. 26.37 Ecce tota haec Trinitas in Domino saith Tertullian Behold here is this whole Trinity in our Lord De anima ◠◠1. RATIONALE the Rational part For he teacheth what he had learnt disputeth with the Pharisees and instructeth the people in those wayes which Reason commendeth as the best and readiest to lead them to the end 2. INDIGNATIVVM the Irascible power which breatheth it self forth in Woes and bitter Invectives against the Scribes and Pharises 3. Luk. 22.15 CONCVPISCENTIVM the Concupiscible Apetite He desireth he earnestly desireth to eat the Passover with his disciples We may be bold to say and it is gratitude not blasphemy to say it Angry he was and joy he did he breathed forth his desires and grieved and feared and he that as God could have commanded more than twelve legions of Angels Matth. 26.53 as Man had need of one to comfort him Luk. 22.43 He was similis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like in all things but with this huge difference In all these there was no ataxie or disorder not the least stoop or declination from reason There was no storm in his Anger no phrensie in his Joy He was no woman in his Tears no wanton in his Love no coward in his Fear He was like unto us in passions but not bowed or misled by passions like unto us In us they are as so many several winds driving us to several points almost at the same time Our fear hath a relish of Hope and our Hope is allayed with some Fear Our desires contradict themselves we would and we would not and we know not what we would have Our Sorrow ebbeth out into Anger our Anger floweth uncertainly sometimes it swelleth into Joy if it be not checkt and if it be and we miss our end it fretteth and wasteth and consumeth it self and is near lost in that flood of sorrow which it brought in Nunquam sumus singuli We are never long the same men but one passion or other riseth in us and troubleth us a while and so maketh way for another Such a perplexed medley such a lump of contradictions in Man Thus it is in us But in our Saviour's Passions were like straight and even lines drawn to the right centre His Anger was placed on Sin his Love on Piety his Joy on the great Work he had to do His Fear was his Jealousie lest we should fall from him When he grieved it was because others did not so When he seemed most moved he was in better temper than we are when we pray All our qualities he had that were indetractabiles as the School speaks which implyed no defect of grace nor detracted from his all-sufficient satisfactory righteousness He had poenam sine culpa those affections which might make him sensible of smart but not obnoxious to sin And in him they were not properly passions saith Eusebius Bishop of Thessalonica Apud Phot. Biblioth Cod. CLXII but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natural operations which did shew him to all the world as it were with an Ecce Behold the man And thus he condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 that is in those punishments which his flesh endured The blow for sin he latched in his own side when Sin touched him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore Pelusiota taking upon him our sinful nature yet without sin He that tells us he was like unto us in all things brings in this exception Heb. 4.15 yet without sin His miraculous conception by the holy Ghost was a sure and invincible antidot against the poyson of the Serpent and so presented him an innocent and spotless Lamb fit for a sacrifice We have now filled up S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and found our Captain Christ Jesus like unto us in all things We have beheld him in intimis naturae in the very bowels as it were and entrails of our nature nay
narrow understandings could receive it would not add one hair to our stature and growth in grace That Christ is God and Man that the two Natures are united in the Person of thy Saviour and Mediatour is enough for thee to know and to raise thy nature up to him Take the words as they lye in their native purity and simplicity and not as they are hammered and beat out and stampt by every hand by those who will be Fathers not Interpreters of Scripture and beget what sense they please and present it not as their own but as a child of God Then Lo here is Christ and there is Christ This is Christ and that is Christ Thou shalt see many images and characters of him but not one that is like him an imperfect Christ a half-Christ a created Christ a phansied Christ a Christ that is not the Son of God and a Christ that is not the Son of Man and thus be rowled up and down in uncertainties and left to the poor and miserable comfort of conjecture in that which so far as it concerneth us is so plain easie to be known Do thoughts arise in thy heart do doubts and difficulties beset thee doth thy wit and thy reason forsake thee and leave thee in thy search at a loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr Thy Faith is the solution and will soon quit thee of all scruples and cast them by thy Faith not assumed or insinuated into thee or brought in as thy vices may be by thy education but raised upon a holy hill a sure foundation the plain and express word of God and upheld and strengthned by the Spirit Christian dost thou believe Thou hast then seen thy God in the flesh from Eternity yet born Invisible yet seen immense yet circumscribed Immortal yet dying the Lord of life yet crucified God and man Christ Jesus Amaze not thy self with an inordinate fear of undervaluing thy Saviour wrong not his Love and call it thy Reverence Why should thoughts arise in thy heart His Power is not the less because his Mercy is great nor doth his infinite Love shadow or eclipse his Majesty For see he counteth it no disparagement to be seen in our flesh nor to be at any loss by being thus like us Our Apostle telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a Decorum in it and it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren That Christ was made like unto us is the joy of this Feast but that he ought to be so is the wonder and extasie of our joy That he would descend is mercy but that he must descend is our astonishment Oportet and Debet are binding terms words of duty Had the Apostle said It behoved us that he should be made like unto us it had found an easy belief the Debuit had been placed in loco suo in its proper place on a sweating brow on dust and putrefaction on the face of a captive All will say it behoved as much But to put a Debet upon the Son of God and make it a beseeming thing for him to become flesh to be made like unto us is as if one should set a Rubie in clay a Diamond in brass a Chrysolith in baser metall and say they are placed well there as if one should worry the lambs for the woolf or take the master by the throat for the debt of a Prodigal and with an Opertet say it should be so To give a gift and call it a Debt is not our usual language On earth it is not but in heaven it is the proper dialect fixed in capital letters on the Mercy-seat It is the joy of this Feast the Angels Antheme SALVATOR NATVS A Saviour is born And if he will be a Saviour an Undertaker a Surety such is the nature of Fidejussion and Suretiship DEBET he must it behoveth him he is as deeply engaged as the party whose Surety he is And oh our numberless accounts that engaged God! Oh our prodigality that made him here come sub ratione debiti Adam had brought God in debt to death to Satan to his own Justice and God in Justice did ow us all to the Grave and to Hell Therefore if he will have us if he will bring his children unto glory he must pay down a price for us Heb. 2.14 he must take us out of his hands who hath the power of death if he will have his own inheritance he must purchase it And let us look on the aptness of the means and we shall soon find that this Foolishness of God as the Apostle calls it is wiser than men 1 Cor. 1.26 and this weakness of God is stronger than men and that the Debuit is right set For medio exsistente conjunguntur extrema If you will have extremes meet you must have a middle line to draw them together And behold here they meet and are made one The proprieties of either Nature being entire yet meet and concentre as it were in one Person Majesty putteth on Humility Power Infirmity Eternity Mortality By the one our Saviour dyeth for us by the other he â—â—seth again By the one he suffereth as Man by the other he conquereth as God by both he perfecteth and consummateth the great work of our Redemption This Debuit reacheth home to each part of the Text First to Christ as God The same hand that made the vessel when it was broken and so broken that there was not one sherd left to fetch water at any pit ought to repair and set it together again that it may receive and contain the water of life Qui fecit nos debuit reficere Our Creation and Salvation must be wrought by the same hand and turned about upon the same wheel Next we may set the debuit upon Christ's Person He is media Persona a middle Person the office therefore will best fit him even the office of Mediatour Further as he is the Son of God and the Image of his Father most proper it may seem for him to repair that Image which was defaced and well near lost in us We had not onely blemished God's Image but set the Devil's face and superscription upon God's coyn For righteousness there was sin for purity pollution for beauty deformity for rectitude perversness for the Man a Beast scarce any thing left by which God might know us Venit Filius ut iterum signet The Son cometh and with his blood reviveth the first character marketh us with his own signature imprinteth the graces of God upon us maketh us current money and that his Father may know us and not cast us off for refuse silver sheweth him his face Indeed the Father and the holy Ghost dignified the Flesh but took it not filled it with their Majesty but not with their Persons wrought in the Incarnation but were not Incarnate As three may weave a garment and but one wear it as Hugo And as in Musick saith St.
Dei posse velle est non posse nolle Advers Praâ—eam c. 10. saith Tertullian He can do what he will and what he will not do we may say he cannot do Quod voluit potuit ostendit What he would do he could and did What his Son his own Son his beloved Son infinite and omnipotent as himself shall he be delivered Yes he delivered him because he would His will is that which openeth the windows of heaven and shutteth them again that bindeth and looseth that planteth and rooteth up that made the world and will destroy it His will it was that humbled his Son and his Will it was that glorified him He might not have done it not have delivered him He might without the least impairing of his Justice have kept him still in his bosome and never shewed him to the world Jam. 1.18 But as of his own will he begat us of the word of truth so he delivered up his owo Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 QVIA VOLVIT because he would For as in the Creation God might have made Man as he made the other Creatures by his dixit by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the earth and like a Potter formed and shaped him out of the clay with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send a Moyses or an Angel but delivered up his own Son and so gave a price infinitely above that which he bought mortal and sinful men being of no value at all but that he made them He payed down not a Talent for a Talent but a Talent for a Mite for Nothing for that which had made it self worse than Nothing He delivered up his Son for those who stood guilty of rebellion against him and thus loved the World which was at enmity with him Thus he was pleased to buy his own will and to pay dear for his affection to us And by this his incomprehensible Love he did bound as it were his almighty Power his infinite Wisdome and his unlimited Will For here his Power Wisdome and Will may seem to have found a non ultrá He cannot do he cannot find out he cannot wish for us more than what he hath done in this Delivery of his Son How should this affect and ravish our souls how should this flame of Gods Love kindle love in us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers that is greater which is above our hope that is yet greater that exceedeth our desires But how great is that which over-ruunneth our opinion yea swalloweth it up Certainly had not God revealed his will we could not have desired it but our prayers would have been blasphemie our hope madness our wish sacriledge and our opinion impiety And now if any ask What moved his Will Surely no loveliness or attractiveness in the object In it there was nothing to be seen but loathsomness and deformity and such enmity as might sooner move him to wrath than compassion and make him rather send down fire and brimstone then his Son That which moved him was in himself his own bowels of mercy and compassion Ezek. 16.6 He loved us in our blood and loving us he bid us Live and that we might live delivered up his own Son to death His Mercy was the onely Orator to move his Will Being merciful he was also willing to help us Mercy is all our plea and it was all his motive and wrought in him a will a cheerful will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. James Mercy rejoyceth against judgment Jam. 2.13 Though we had forgot our duty yet would not he forget his Mercy but hearkned to it and would not continere misericordias Psal 77.9 shut up his tender mercies in anger which is a Metaphor taken from Martial affairs When in a siege an Army doth compass-in a Town or Castle that they may play upon it in every place the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shut it up as in a net This is it which the Prophet David calleth CLAVDERE or CONTINERE to shut up mercy in anger The Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make a trench about and besiege it Now the Goodness of God and his Love to his Creature would not suffer him thus to shut up his tender Mercies as a sort or town is shut up to be undermined and beat up and overcome But as the besieged many times make sallyes upon the enemy so the Love and Mercy of our God brake forth even through his Anger and gained a conquest against the legions of his Wrath. Let the World be impure let Men be sinners let Justice be importunate let Power be formidable let Vengeance be ready to fall yet all must fall back and yield to the Mercy and Love of God which cannot be overcome nor bound nor shut up but will break forth and make way through all opposition through Sin and all the powers of Darkness which besiege and compass it about and will raise the siege drive off and chase away these enemies and to conquer Sin will deliver up his Son for the Sinner And this was aenigma aemoris saith Aquinas the riddle or rather the mystery of Love to pose the wisdome of the World I may say Being Love and infinite it is no riddle at all but plain and easie For what can Love do that is strange what can it do amiss That which moved God to do this sheweth plainly that the end for which he did it was very good DILEXIT NOS He loved us is the best commentary on TRADIDIT FILIVM He delivered his Son for us and taketh away all scruple and doubt For if we can once love our enemies it is impossible but that our bowels should yern towards them and our will be bent and prone to raise them up even to that pitch and condition which our Love hath designed And if our love were heavenly as God's is or but in some forward degree proportioned to his we should find nothing difficult account nothing absurd or misbecoming which might promote or advantage their good If our Love have heat in it our Will will be forward and earnest and we shall be ready even to lay down our lives for them For Love is like an artificial Glass which when we look through an Enemy appeareth a Friend Disgrace Honour Difficulties Nothing When God saw us weltring in our blood his Love was ready to wash us When we ran from him his Love ran after us to apprehend us When we fought against him as enemies his Love was a Prophet Lo all these may be my children What speak we of Disgrace God's Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Son Love as Plato saith hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed and by a kind of law hath this huge advantage to make Bondage Liberty Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Who can stand up against Love and
not with us in favour and mercy He seeketh after us and layeth hold on us being gone from him as far as Sin and Disobedience could carry us out of his reach It was his love it was his will to do so and in this we might rest But Divines will tell us that Man was a fitter object of mercy than the Angels quia levius est alienâ mente peccare De Angelis quibusdam suâ sponte corruptis corruptior gens Daemonum evaâ—it Tert. Apol c. 22. quà m propriâ because the Angels sin was more spontaneous wrought in them by themselves Man had importunam arborem that flattering and importuning Tree and that subtile and seducing Serpent to urge and sway him from his obedience Man had a Tempter the Angels were both the temptation and tempters to themselves Man took in death by looking abroad but the Angels reflecting upon themselves gazed so long upon their own beauty till they saw it changed into horrour and deformity And the offence is more pardonable where the motive is ab extrinseco than where it groweth up of it self Besides the Angels did not all fal but the whole lump of Mankind was leavened with the same leaven and pity it may seem that so noble a Creature made up after Gods own Image should be utterly lost These reasons with others we may admit though they may seem rather to be conjectures than reasons and we have not much light in Scripture to give them a fairer appearance Hebr. 2.16 but the Scripture is plain that he took not the Angels he did not lay his hands upon them to redeem them to liberty and strike off their bonds And we must go out of the world to find the reason and seek the true cause in the bosome of the Father nay in the bowels of his Son and there see the cause why he was delivered for us written in his heart It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of God to mankind Tit. 3.4 And what was in mankind but enmity and hostility sin and deformity which are no proper motives to draw on love And yet God loved us and hated sin and made hast to deliver us from it Dilexisti me Domine plusquà m te quando mori voluisti pro me saith Augustine Lord when thou dyedst for me thou madest it manifest that my soul was dearer to thee then thy self Such a high esteem did he set upon a Soul which we scarce honour with a thought but so live as if we had none For us Men then and for us Sinners was Christ delivered The Prophet Isaiah speaketh it and he could not speak it properly of any but him Isa 53.5 He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities So that he was delivered up not only to the Cross and Shame but to our Sins which nayled him to the cross which not only crucified him in his humility but crucified him still in his glory now he sitteth at the right hand of God and put him to shame to the end of the world Falsò de Judaeis querimur Why complain we of the Jews malice or Judas's treason or Pilates injustice We we alone are they who crucified the Lord of life Our Treachery was the Judas which betrayed him our Malice the Jew which accused him our Perjury the false witness against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him Our Pride scorned him our Envy grinned at him our Luxury spate upon him our Covetousness sold him Our corrupt Blood was drawn out of his wounds our Swellings prickt with his thorns our Sores launced with his spear and the whole body of Sin stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life He delivered him up for us Sinners No sin there is which his blood will not wash away but final Impenitency which is not so much a sin as the sealing up of the body of sin when the measure is full For us sinners for us the progeny of an arch-traytor and as great traytors as he Take us at our worst if we repent he was delivered for us And if we do not repent yet he may be said to be delivered for us for he was delivered for us to that end that we might repent For us sinners he was delivered for us when we were without strength for us when we were ungodly Rom. 5.6.8 So we were considered in this great work of Redemption And thus high are we gone on this scale and ladder of Love There is one step more He was delivered for us all ALL not considered as Elect or Reprobate but as Men as Sinners Rom. 5.12 for that name will take in all for all have sinned And here we are taught to make a stand and not to touch too hastily and yet the way is plain and easie For all This some will not touch and yet they do touch and press it with that violence that they press it almost into nothing make the world not the world and whosoever not whosoever but some certain men and turn all into a few deduct whom they please out of all people nations and languages and out of Christendome it self leave some few with Christ upon the Cross whose persons he beareth whom they call the Elect and mean themselves So God loved the world that is the Elect say they They are the world John 3.16 where it is hard to find them for they are called out of it and the best light we have which is the Scripture discovereth them not unto us in that place If the Elect be the world which God so loved then they are such Elect as may not believe such Elect as may perish and whom God will have perish if they do not believe It is true none have benefit of Christ's death but the Elect but from hence it doth not follow that no other might have had Theirs is the kingdome but are not they shut out now who might have made it theirs God saith S. Peter 2 Pet. 3 9. would not that any should perish and God is the Saviour of all men saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 4.10 but especially of those that believe all if they believe and repent and those who are obedient to the Gospel because they do The blood of Christ is poured forth on the Believer and with it he sprinkleth his heart and is saved the wicked trample it under their foot and perish The blood of Christ is sufficient to wash away the sins of the world nay of a thousand worlds Christ paid down a ransome of so infinite a value that it might redeem all that are ' or possibly might be under captivity But none are actually redeemed but they who make him their Captain and do as he commandeth that is believe and repent or to speak in their own language none are saved but the elect In this all agree in this they are Brethren and why should they fall out when both hold up the priviledge of the Believer
man else They leap over all their Alphabet and are at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their end before they begin They are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or round They study heaven but not the way to it Faith but not Good works Repentance without a Change or Restitution Religion without Order They are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool They study Predestination but not Sanctity of life Assurance but not that Piety which should work it Heaven and not Grace and Grace but not their Duty And now no marvel if they meet not with saving Truth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this so great disorder and confusion No marvel when we have broke all rules and order and not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leadeth us into the truth 4. The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation and Practice of the truths we learn This is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goeth under that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. Strom. l. 4. and is called an exercise by Clemens Alexandrinus Nyssene Cyrill of Hierusalem and others And though they who lead a Monastical life have laid claim to it as their own they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirit 's Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leadeth Which is to make the World it self a Monastery A good Christian is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by this dayly exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit doth drive the Truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit Talis quisque est qualibus delectatur Inter artificem artificium mira cognatio est Anaxagoras said well Manus causa sapientiae It is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge and worketh wisdome And true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consisteth not in being a good Critick and rightly judging of the sense of words or in being a good Logician drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 34.10 He that hath no experience knoweth little Ex mandato mandatum cernimus By practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God Joh 7.17 he shall know the Doctrine In Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them We learn Devotion by prayer Charity by giving of alms Meekness by forgiving injuries Humility and Patience by suffering Temperance by every-day-fighting against our lusts As we know meat by the tast so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover Heaven it self in piety And this is that which S. Paul calleth doctrine according to godliness We taste and see how gracious the Lord is 1 Tim. 6.3 Psal 34.8 1 Joh. 1.1 we do as it were see with our eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word when we manifest the Truth and make it visible in our actions the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and closet of Truth He displayeth his beams of light as we press forward and mend our pace He every day shineth upon us with more brightness as we every day strive to increase He teacheth us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those virtues which are his lessons and our duties We learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaketh Psal 119 99. Psal 19.2 wiser then our teachers To conclude Day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead us further from truth to truth till at last we be strengthned and established in the Truth and brought to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MICAH VI. 6 8. v. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Psal 4.6 THere be many who say Who will shew us any good saith the Prophet David For Good is that which men naturally desire And here the Prophet Micah hath fitted an answer to this question He hath shewed thee O man what is good And in the discovery of this Good he useth the same method which the Philosopher doth in the description of his moral Happiness First he sheweth us what it is not and then what it is And as the Philosopher shutteth out Honour and Riches and Pleasure as being so little necessary that we may be happy without them so doth the Prophet in the verses going before my Text in a manner reject and cast by Burnt-offerings and all the cerimonial and typical part of Moses Law all that outward busie expensive and sacrificing Religion as no whit esseâ—tial to that Good which he here fixeth up as upon a pillar for all eyes to look upon as being of no great alliance or nearness nor fit to incorporate it self with that Piety which must commend us to God And as a true Prophet he doth not only discover to the Jews the common errour of their lives but sheweth them yet a more excellent way first asking the question Non satis est reprehendisse peccantem si non doceas recti viam Colum. de Re Rust l. 11. c 1. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams Whether Sacrifice be that part of Religion with which we may appear and bow before our God and be accepted and then in his answer in the words of my Text quite excluding it as not absolutely necessary and essential to that which is indeed Religion And here the Question Will the Lord be pleased with sacrifice addeth emphasis and energy and maketh the Denyal more strong and the Conclusion in the Text more positive and binding then if it had been in plain terms and formally denyed Then this Good had been shewed naked and alone and not brought in with
the spoyls of that Hypocrisie which supplanteth and overthroweth it and usurpeth both its place and name Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings is in effect I must not do it That which is good that which is Religion hath so little relation to it that it can subsist without it and most times hath been swallowed up and lost in it It was in the world before any command came forth for Sacrifice and it is now most glorious when every Altar is thrown down and hath the sweetest savour now there is no other smoke The Question putteth it out of all question That this Good is best without it What will the Lord do to the husbandmen that killed the heir Matth. 21.40 41. Our Saviour putteth it up by way of question And you know how terrible the answer is What will he do what will he not do He will miserably destroy those wicked men Is it comely that a woman pray uncovered 1 Cor. 11 13. Judge in your selves You cannot say it is comely As the Athenians used to ask the guilty persons who were arraigned before them and by sufficient evidence convict of the crime Are you not worthy of death that they might first give sentence against themselves and acknowledge the sentence to be just which was to pass upon them So doth the Prophet here ask the sacrificing Jews who so doted on outward Ceremony that they scarce cast an eye or look towards that which was truly the service of God as if there were no more required at their hands then that which was to be done at the Altar Shall you bring burnt-offerings Shall you offer up your first-born the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul Your selves shall be witness against your selves and out of your own mouth shall you be condemned O ye Hypocrites you cannot be so ignorant as to think nor so bold as to profess that this is the true service of God I remember Gregory Nazianzene calleth Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we may call this good in the Text so a spiritual heavenly statue And as the Statuary by his art and with his chizel doth work off all that is unnecessary and superfluous and having finisht and made his work complete in every part fixeth it as the lively representation of some God or Goddess or heroick Person whose memory he would perpetuate in the minds of those who are to look upon it so doth the Prophet Micah here being to delienate and express the true servant of God in his full and perfect proportion first out of the lump and mass which made up the body of the Jews Religion he striketh off that which was least necessary and most abused all that formality and outward ceremony in which they most pleased themselves Burnt-offerings and calves of an year old these he layeth aside as that which may be best spared as that which God did not require for it self or for any good there was naturally in it and then he draweth him out in every part in those parts which do indeed make him up in that perfection in which he may shine as a great example of eternal happiness Wherewith shalt thou come before the Lord and bow thy self before the high God Not with Burnt-offerings those he putteth by as no essential materials as the scurf and least considerable part of Religion But with thy Heart and with thy Will and Affections with a just and merciful and broken Heart With these thou shalt walk with him or before him even with Justice and Mercy and Humility with those graces which will make thee like unto him and transform thee into the image of God and set thee up as a fair statue and representation of thy Maker He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. Or if you please you may conceive of true Piety and that which is good as of a Tree of Life planted in the midst of Paradise in the midst of the Church spreading as it were its Branches whereof these three in the Text are the fairest 1. Justice and Uprightness of conversation a straight and even Branch bearing no fruit but its own 2. Mercy and Liberality yielding much fruit to those weary and faint souls who gather it and are refresht under the shadow of it and 3. Humility a branch well laden full and hanging down the head Hebr. 10.9 More plainly and for our better proceeding thus He taketh away the one that he may establish the other He taketh away Ceremony and Sacrifice that he may set up true Piety and that which is Religion indeed Which here is 1. termed that which is Good in it self and for it self which Sacrifices and all other ceremonious parts of Gods worship were not 2. manifested and pointed out to as with a finger God by his Prophet hath shewed it 3. Published and promulged as a law What doth the Lord require of thee 4. Lastly charactered and drawn out in its principal parts 1. Justice and Honesty 2. Mercy and Liberality 3. Humility and sincerity of mind which is the beauty and glory of the rest and commendeth them maketh our Justice and Mercy shine in the full beauty of holiness when we are this and do this as with or before God These be the particulars We begin with the first That Piety and true Religion is here termed good in it self and for it self in opposition to the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law And 1. the Sacrifices and Ceremonious part of Gods worship were good but ex instituto because God for some reason was pleased to institute and ordain them Otherwise in themselves they were neither good nor evil They were before they were enjoyned And men offered them up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resp ad Orthod in operib Justini Mart. ad Interrog 83. Jer. 7.22 23. not in reference to any command but out of a voluntary zeal and affection to the honour of God which they expressed and shewed forth in this especial act in devoting that unto him which was with them of highest esteem as more due to the Giver of all things then to them for whose use they were given God did not command but did accept them for the zeal and affection of them who offered them up And he telleth them so himself I spake not to your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices But this thing I commanded them saying Obey my voyce 2. When they were commanded they were not commanded for any real goodness there was naturally in them For what are Blood and Smoke to the God of Spirits but brought in for that good effect which the Wisdome of God could work out of them which had nothing of Good in them which might commend them but the end for which they were ordained Therefore God commanded them not as desirable in themselves but by way of condescension submitting himself as it were
on those actions which in themselves are lawful Nay multa mandata vitiat it may make that unlawful which is commanded Hebr. 10.31 Oh it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! but how fearful is it to have his hand fall upon us when we stand at his Altar to see him frown and hear him thunder when we worship in anger to question us when we are doing our duty What a dart would it be to pierce our souls through and through if God should now send a Prophet to us to tell us that our frequenting the Church and coming to his Table are distastful to him that our fasts are not such as he hath chosen and that he hateth them as much as he doth our Oppression and Cruelty to which they may be the prologue that he will have none of the one because he will have none of the other And yet if we terminate Religion in these outward formalities make them wait upon our lusts to bring them with more smoothness and with more state and pomp and applause to their end to that which they look so earnestly upon if we thus appear before God he that shall tell us as much of our Hearing and Fasting and Frequenting the Church shall be as true a Prophet as Micah the Morasthite was And now to conclude if you ask me wherewith ye shall come before the Lord and bow your selves before the most High look further into the Text and there you have a full and complete Directory Do justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God With these you may approch his courts and appear at his altar In aram Dei justitia imponitur saith Lactantius De vero cultu l. 6. c. 24. Justice and Mercy and Sincerity are the best and fittest sacrifices for the Altar of God which is the Heart of man an Altar that must not be polluted with blood Hoc qui exhibet toties sacrificat quoties bonum aliquid aut pium facit The man that is just and merciful doth sacrifice as oft as he doth any just and merciful act Come then and appear before God and offer up these Nor need you fear that ridiculous and ungodly imputation which presenteth you to the world under the name of mere moral men Bear it as your crown of rejoycing It is stigma Jesu Christi a mark of Christ Jesus And none will lay it upon you as a defect but they who are not patient of any loss but of their honesty who have learnt an art to joyn together in one the Saint and the Deceiver who can draw down heaven to them with a thought and yet supplant and overreach their brother as cunningly as the Devil doth them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius is a good man Tertull. Apolog. his only fault is that he is a Christian would the Heathen say He is a good moral man but he is not of the Elect that is one of our faction saith one Christian of another I much wonder how long a good moral man hath been such a monster What is the Decalogue but an abbridgment of Morality What is Christs Sermon on the mount but an improvement of that and shall Civil and honest conversation then be the mark of a Reprobate Shall Nature bring forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius Just and Honest men and shall Grace and the Gospel of Christ bring forth nothing but Zanies but Players and Actours of Religion but Pharisees and Hypocrites Or was the New creature the Christian raised up to thrust the Moral man out of the world Must all be Election and Regeneration Must all Religion be carried along in phrases and words and noise and must Justice and Mercy be exposed as monsters and flung out into the land of oblivion Or how can they be elect and regenerate who are not just and merciful No The Moral man that keepeth the commandments is not far from the kingdome of God Mark 12.34 and he that is a Christian and buildeth up his Morality and Justice and Mercy upon his Faith in Christ and keepeth a good conscience and doth to others what he would that others should do unto him Matth. 7.12 shall enter in and have a mansion there when speculative and Seraphick Hypocrites who decree for God and preordain there a place for themselves shall be shut out of doors Come then and appear before God with these with Innocence and Integrity and Mercifulness Wash your hands in innocency Psal 26.6 Rev. 1.6 and compass his altar For Christ hath made us Priests unto his Father there is our Ordination To offer up spiritual sacrifice 1 Pet. 2.5 there is our duty and performance By Jesus Christ there is our seal to make good and sure our acceptance Chrysostom besides that great Sacrifice of the Cross In Psal 59. hath found out many more Martyrdome Prayer Justice Almes Praise Compunction and Humility and he bringeth in too the Preaching of the Word Epist. 87. Which all make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a most magnificent and pretious sacrifice We need not cull out any more then these in the Text for in offering up these we shall find the true nature and reason of a Sacrifice observed For to make any thing a true Sacrifice there must be a plain and express change of the thing that is offered It was a Bull or a Ram but it is set apart and consecrate to God And it is a Sacrifice and must be slain And this is remarkable in all these in which though no Death befall us as in the Beast offered in Sacrifice but that Death which is our Life our Death to sin yet a change there is which being made to the honour of Gods Majesty is very pleasing and acceptable in his sight When we do justly we have slain the Beast the worst part of us our Love of the world our filthy Lusts our Covetousness and Ambition which are the life and soul of Fraud and Violence and Oppression by which they live and move and have their being When we offer up our Goods there is a change For how strong is our affection to them how do we adore them as Gods are they not in common esteem as our life and blood and do we not as willingly part with our breath as with our wealth Hebr. 13.16 Now who so doth good and distributeth and scattereth his wealth he poureth forth his very blood bindeth the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar letteth out all worldly desires with his wealth and hath slain that sacrifice saith S. Paul with which God is well pleased And last of all Humility wasteth and consumeth us to nothing maketh us an Holocaust a whole-burnt-offering nothing in our selves nothing in respect of God and by this our exinanition it exalteth all the Graces of God in us filleth us with life and glory with high apprehensions with lively anticipations of that which
is not seen but laid up for us in the treasuries of heaven These are the good mans Sacrifice and they naturally flow from the Good which is here shewn in the Text and are the parts of it These were from the beginning and shall never be abolisht And if we offer up these we shall never be questioned or asked Will God be pleased with these For he is pleased only with these and for these with whatsoever we offer And he will love us for these and accept us in him who Eph. 5.2 to sanctifie and present these offered himself an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour Hebr. 6.20 even Jesus Christ the righteous who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek Thus have we taken a view of the Good in the Text as it standeth in opposition with the Sacrifices of the Law and outward Formality And now the veil is drawn we shall present it in its full beauty and perfection in our next The Second SERMON PART II. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God WE have shewed you that Piety is termed good in it self in opposition to Sacrifice and the Ceremonies of the Law which were but ex instituto for some reasons instituted and ordained but in themselves were neither good nor evil We might now take a view of this Good as it standeth in opposition to the things of this world which either our Luxury or Pride or Covetousness have raised in their esteem and above their worth and called good as the Heathens consecrated their Affections their Diseases their very Vices and placed them in the number of their Gods For Good is that which all desire which all bowe and stoop to but yet it hath as several shapes as there be opinions and constitutions of men And all the mistake is in our choice that we set up something to look upon which is not worth a glance of our eye that we call evil good and that good which is neither evil nor good but may make us so good if we use it well and evil if we abuse it Epist 20. Non est bonum quo uti malè possis That cannot be truly and in it self good which we may use to an evil end saith Seneca that we propose to our selves objects which are attended with danger and very often with horrour and give to them this glorious title paint out to our selves some deformed strumpâ—â— and call her a Goddess and kiss the lips of that which will bite like a cockatrice Good we desire and when our desires have run to that which we set up for good we meet with nothing but evil which sheweth not it self till it be felt We hoyse up our sails and make towards it and are swallowed up in that Sea as Augustine calleth it of the good things of this world which we thought might carry us to the end of our hope We take it for bread and in our mouth it is gravel We take it for pleasure and when we tast it it is gall We hunt after Riches as good and they begger us climb to Honour and that breaketh our neck And though we swallow down these good things as the Ox doth water yet we are never full S. Hilary in his Comments on the first Psalm having observed that some there were who drew down all their interpretations of that Book respectively to spiritual things and God himself because they thought it some disparagement to that Book that terrene and secular matter should so often interline it self yet passeth on them no heavier censure then this Haec eorum opinio argui non potest c. We need not be so severe as to condemn this opinion of theirs because it proceedeth from a mind piously and religiously affected and it is a thing which deserveth rather commendation then blame by a favourable endeavour to strive to apply all things to him by whom all things were made For these things are not good but only go under this deputative and borrowed title The world hath cryed them up but the Scripture hath no such name for them It is good to praise the Lord nay it is good to be afflicted this we read but where do we read It is good to be rich it is good to be honourable it is good to go in purple and fare deliciously every day We find many curses and woes sent after them but we never find them graced with the title of good Luke 16.25 Thou hast received thy good things saith Abraham to Dives Good things but thine such as thy lusts esteemed so thy good things and such good things as have helpt to hurry thee to this place of torment Good they are not for they are so far from making a man good that they make him not rich Look upon Dives at his feast and Lazarus at his gates and which was the rich man If I should say Lazarus it were no paradox for Dives had nothing of a rich man but his name Good then they are not in themselves nor can they be but by being subservient to this Good in the Text. And therefore we must make another defalcation of these Temporal goods as we did of those Sacrifices which were but temporary Down must Sacrifice and down must Mammom Down must his temple and his groves and no picture no representation must be left of them in our minds But let us look upon Sacrifice and Formality as shadows and upon the things of this world as less then shadows and then upon the ruines of Hypocrisie and Covetousness and Ambition to build up a temple to true Piety and Religion and that which is called Good here in the Text which God by his Prophet hath laid open before our eyes For he hath shewed thee O man not Sacrifice not the glory of the world that is the Devils shew but he hath shewed thee what is good Matth. 4.8 And now having drawn the veil we may enter the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of holies and behold Piety and that which is Good that Good which is so in it self Augustin Serm. 12. in Matth. real and eternal quod nec invitus accipis nec invitus amittis which thou neither receivest nor losest but when thou wilt as thou mayest thy possessions thy honours nay thy body and life it self which all may be taken from thee against thy will that Good which is a defluxion and emanation from God himself derived and flowing from tâ—at Wisdome which dwelt with him from all eternity that Good which will make us good here and raise us up to be eternal with him in the highest heavens that Good which will give us an heavenly understanding a divine will angelical affections and in a manner incorporate us with God himself And if you please to look upon it in
Jew busie at his Sacrifice and it looketh forward to the beauty of holiness and is levelled at the very heart of those errours which led the people from the city of God into the wilderness from that which is truly Good to that which is so but in appearance which did shew well and speak well but such words as were clothed with death First it checketh them in their old course and then sheweth them a more excellent way The Jew as we have told you formerly pleased himself in that piece of service which was most attempered to the Sense and might be passed over and performed with least vexation of the Spirit and labour of the Mind For what an easie matter was it to approch the courts of God to appear before the Altar Psal 118.27 What great trouble was it to bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of it Nay this was their delight this they doted on this they thought none could cry down but a false Prophet Did they not thus speak and murmur within themselves If this be not what is then Religion If to appear in his courts to offer sacrifice be not to serve God how should we bow before him and serve him As many say in their hearts now adayes If to go to Church to be zealous in a faction to cry down Superstition be not true Religion what Religion can there be Who can speak against it but an uncircumcised Philistin or he that hath drunk deep of the cup of the Whore He that preacheth any other Law or any other Gospel let him be Anathema And therefore the Prophet to silence this asketh another question Do you ask If this be not what is true Religion I ask also What doth the Lord require Not this in which you please your selves but something else to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God And this But as it is an Exclusive and shutteth out all other services whatsoever which look not this way or are not conducible to uphold and support and promote it so it doth colour as it were and place a kind of amiableness a philtrum upon that which may invite and win us to embrace it For commonly those duties which require the luctation of the Mind the strivings and victories of the Spirit are more formidable and so more avoided then those which imploy only the outward man the Eye the Tongue the Ear and the Hand Here every man is ready and officious and thrusteth himself into the service every man almost rejoyceth to run his race and there is a kind of emulation and contention who shall be the forwardest But those commands which set us at variance within our selves which busie the Spirit against the Flesh which sound the alarm and call us into the lists to fight the good fight of Faith against our selves against our Imaginations even those which lye unto us and tell us All is well these are that Medusa's head which turneth us into stones And we who were so active and diligent in other duties less necessary when these call upon us to move are lame and impotent we who before had the feet of hinds can move no more then he did who lay so long by the pool-side John 5. The Prophet Elisha biddeth Naaman the leper Go wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be clean 2 Kings 5.10 But Naaman was wroth and thought that may be done with the stroke or touch of the Prophets hand Are not Abanah and Pharpar 12. rivers of Damascus saith he better then all the rivers of Israel But the Servants were wiser then the Master and truly told him that what the Prophet enjoyned was no great thing for it was but this Wash and be clean 13. So it was with the Jew and so it is with us That which will cure and heal us we most distast Nauseat ad antidotum qui hiat ad venenum Tertul. Scorp c. v. The stomach turneth at the antidote that is greedy of poyson What bid us be Just and Merciful and Humble Will not Sacrifice suffice Are not our Sabbath-dayes exercise our Psalms and Hymns of force enough to shake the powers of heaven and draw down blessings upon us Why may he not speak the word and heal us Why may he not save us by miracle To be just and honest will shrink the curtains of our tabernacles To be merciful and liberal will empty our chests To be humble will lay us in the dust These are harsh and rugged hard and unpleasing commands beyond our power impossible to be done Nay rather these are the ebullitions and murmurs of the flesh the imaginations of corrupt hearts And therefore the Prophet Micah setteth up his But against them to throw them down and demolish them Quare formidatis compedes sapientiae Why are you afraid of the fetters of Wisdome They are golden fetters and we are never free but when we wear them Why do you startle at God's Law It is a Law that giveth life Why do you murmur and boggle at that which he requireth Behold he requireth nothing but that which is first Possible secondly Easie thirdly Pleasant and full of delight He requireth but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And first the Prophet here doth not bid us do any great things He doth not bid us work miracles remove mountains do that which is beyond our strength Do that which you cannot do Do justly for you cannot do so Be merciful for you cannot be so Walk humbly before me though it be impossible you should God never yet spake so by any Prophet This were to make God's commands such as S. Augustine telleth us those of the Manichees were not only nugatoria light and vain De Morib Manich but pugnatoria opposit and destructive to themselves For nothing is more destructive and contrary to a Law then to place it under an impossibility of being kept For the Keeping of a Law is the virtue and force and end of a Law the end for which it is enacted It is true Gal. 3.22 God hath now concluded all under sin And the reason is given For all have sinned Rom. 3.23 But the Apostle there delivereth it as an instance and matter of fact nor as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles He doth not say All must sin but All have sinned For both the Gentiles might have kept the Law of Nature and were punisht because they did not as it is plain Rom. 1. and the Jews might have kept that Law which was given to them as far as God required it for so we see many of them did and God himself bore witness from heaven and hath registred the names of those in his Book who did walk before him with a perfect heart 2 Chr. 15.17 1 Kings 11.33 34 38. 2 Kings 22.2 as of Asa of David that he kept Gods Laws of Josias that he turned
observe that most of those precepts delivered there tend to Honesty and Sincerity of conversation with men Blessed are the merciful Blessed are the peace-makers Be not angry Let your Yea be yea and your Nay be nay These short precept leave no room for Fraud and Deceit for that which is called Dolus malus when our Yea is Nay and our Nay Yea one thing is said and another meant one thing is pretended and another done The Apostles are frequent in urging this duty For Christianity was so far from disannulling those precepts of Morality and mutual conversation which the Philosophers by the light of Nature delivered and transmited to posterity that the ancient Christians as learned Grotius observeth Proleg ad 1. de Jure belli pacis though they were not devoted to any one Sect of them yet observing that as there was no Sect which had found out all truth so also there was not one of them which had not discovered some did take the pains to collect and gather into a body what was here and there diffused and scattered in their several writings and did think this a fair commentary on the practick part of the Gospel and a sufficient expression of that discipline which Christians by their very title and profession were bound to observe You may read them in the Philosophers but they are the precepts of Christ And this is the true face of Christianity See Serm 20. For no other foundation can any man lay then that which is laid Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 3.11 Now every foundation should bear something not Wood and Hay and Stubble but Gold and Silver and Pretious stones Fraud and Violence and Injustice cannot lye upon that foundation which is laid in Truth and in Mercy and in Justice 2 Cor. 5.21 nor upon that Saviour who knew no sin who had this Elogium from his very enemies Mat. 7.37 Joh. 18.38 19.4 6. That he had done all things well and that there was no fault to be found in him No upon this foundation you must lay such materials as are like unto it Innocency and Truth and Righteousness That these might grow up and flourish amongst the sons of men Christ watered them with his blood which was shed for the Oppressour that he might be merciful for the Dissembler that he might speak truth for the Deceitful person that he might be just in all his wayes and righteous in all his dealings for the Violent person that he might do no more wrong And if it have not this effect it is his blood still but not to save us but to be upon us to our condemnation For it is strange that Christs blood should produce nothing but a speculative and a phansied and an usurped faith a faith which should keep those evils in life which he dyed to take away a faith which should suffer those sins and irregularities to grow and grow bold and pass in triumph which he came to root out of the earth and to banish out of the world Hebr. 11.1 Faith is the substance and expectation of a future and better condition but we do not use to expect a thing and have no eye upon the means of attaining it Can we expect to fly without wings or go a journey without feet No more can we hope ever to enter those heavens wherein dwelleth Righteousness if we have no other conduct but Faith Faith so poorly and miserably attended with Fraud Deceit Injustice and Violence For who shall dwell in the holy hill Psal 15. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart He that doth no evil to his neigbour that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not It is strange then that there should be so many Oppressours in the world and so many Saints that so many should forfeit their Honesty and yet count their Election sure that they who are like enough to do as the Jews did crucifie Christ if he were on the earth should yet hope to be saved by his blood For if you should ask me what the true property of a Christian were Faith alway supposed which is the ground and foundation of all I could not find any virtue which doth more fairly decipher or more fully express him then Sincerity and Uprightness of conversation Which saith Climachus Seal Paradisi grad 1. is virtus sine varietate a virtue which is ever like unto it self and maketh us so which doth not look divers waies at once both towards Samaria and Jerusalem doth not profess a benefit when it studieth ruine cloath hatred with a smile and a purpose to deceive with fair language and large promises make up words of butter which at last prove to be very swords but is like the Topaz Si polis obscuras if you polish it you obscure and darken it but if you leave it as Nature presenteth it it casteth the brighter lustre And if you ask me the embleme of a Christian Matth. 10.16 our Saviour hath already given one the Dove whose feathers are silver white not speckled as a bird of divers colours whose eyes are single and direct not leering as a Fox nor looking divers waies animal simplex non felle amaâ—um non morsil us saevum saith Cyprian an innocent and harmless bird no bird of prey without gall not cruel to fight having no talons to lay hold on the prey so far from doing wrong that he knoweth not how to do it Quintilian observeth Lib. 1. Insti c. 14. de Grammat off Inter virtutes Grammatici est nescire quaedam that it is to be summed up amongst the virtues of a Grammarian to be ignorant of some particular nice impertinences So is it a part of a Christians Integrity and Simplicity not to be acquainted with the wiles and devises and stratagemes of the world to be a non proficient in the Devils Politicks to hear the language of the children of this world as a strange tongue and understand it not not to know what cannot make him better and may make him worse not to know that which we may wish buried in oblivion and darkness never to be seen or known of any For what glory can it be to be well seen in the arts of Legerdemain What praise is it to be that which I cannot hear from others with patience an unjust and deceitful and dishonest man For to conclude this it is far worse to do unjustly then to be reproached for doing so far worse to be dishonest then to be called by that name far worse to be a thief or a traytour then to be hanged for it For between the evil of Action and the evil of Passion there is no comparison The evil of Passion may have a good end it may be medicinal cure the sinner if not set an end to his wickedness but the evil of Action hath no end but damnation no wages but death and that too hath no
weigh the danger of them and from what they proceed First if we would find out the fountain from whence they flow we shall find it is nothing else but a strange Distrust in God and a violent Love of the World a Distrust in that God who is so far from leaving Man destitute of that which is convenient for him Psal 147.9 that hee feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him For if the windows of heaven do not open at our call if riches increase not to fill our vast desires we murmur and repine and even chide the Providence of God and by foul and indirect means pursue that which would not fall into our mouthes As Saul in the book of Kings 1 Sam. 28.6 7. Acheronta movemus when God will not answer we ask counsel of the Devil Secondly we may think perhaps that they are the effects of Power and Wisdome the works of men who bear a brain with the best the glorious victories of our Wit and trophies of our Power but indeed they are the infallible arguments of Weakness and Impotency and as the Devils marks upon us Non est vera magnitudo posse nocere It is not true Power or true Greatness to be able to injure our brethren It is not true Wisdome to be cunning artists in evil and to do that in the dark which may be done with more certainty and honour in the light and to raise up that with a lye which will rise higher and stand longer with the truth That Power more emulateth the Power of God by which we can do good that cometh nearer by which we will Nor can we attribute Wisdome to the fraudulent but that which we may give to a Jugler or a Pick-purse or indeed to the Devil himself And commonly these scarabees are bred in the dung of Laziness and Luxury and their crafty insinuating and subtle sliding into other mens estate had its rise and beginning from an indisposition and inability to manage their own He that can bring no Demonstration must play the Sophister And if the body will not do then he that will be rich saith Nevisanus the Lawyer must venture his soul Lastly weigh the danger Though the bread of deceit have a pleasant tast and goeth down glibly yet passing to thee through so foul a chanel as Fraud or Oppression it will fill thee with the gall of Asps The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them Prov. 21.7 saith Solomon shall fall upon them like a talent of lead Zech. 5.7 8. fall upon the mouth of their Ephah and lye heavy upon it Serrabit eos so it is rendred by others shall tear their Conscience as with a saw exossabit so others shall consume them to the very bones and break them as upon a wheel or as others rapina eorum diversabitur that which is got unjustly shall not stay long with them It may give them a salutation a complement peregrinabitur like a traveller on the way it may lodge with them for a night but dwell longer as with a friend it will not but take the wing and fly away from these unjust usurpers Psal 26.6 never at rest but in those hands which are washt in innocency and in that mouth which knoweth no guile 1 Pet. 2.12 will dwell with none but those that do justly To conclude Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who doth that which is evil and unjust to the oppressour and deceiver Rom. 2.7 9 10. to the man that boasteth himself in his Power and to the man that blesseth himself in his Craft to the proud Hypocrite and the demure Politician but to those that do justly that are as God is just in all their waies Psal 145.17 and righteous in all their dealings that walk holily before God and justly with men shall be glory and honour and peace and immortality and eternal life Thus much of Justice and Honesty The next is the Love of Mercy The Fifth SERMON PART V. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly c. WE have laid hold of one Branch of this Tree of life and beheld what fruit it bare We must now see what we can gather from the second Mercy or Liberality which groweth upon the same stock is watered with the same dew from heaven and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance and answerable to our heavenly calling Whether you take it in actu elicito or in actu imperato whether you take it in the habit or in the act which is misericordia eliquata that which runneth from it in the melting as it were the Love of Mercy includeth both both a sweet and heavenly disposition a rich treasurie of goodness full and ready to empty it self and those several acts which are drawn out of it or rather which it commandeth And here though miracles be ceased yet this by the blessing of the God of mercy retaineth a miraculous power healeth the sick bindeth up the wounded raiseth the poor out of the dust and in a manner the dead to life again upholdeth the drooping and fainting spirit which is ready to fail intercedeth and fighteth against the cruelty of persecutours filleth up the breaches which they make raiseth up that which they ruine clotheth the naked whom they have stripped buildeth up what they have pulled down and is as a quickning power and a resurrection to those whom the hand of Wickedness and Injustice hath laid low and even buried in the dust A Branch it is which shadoweth and refresheth all those who are diminished and brought low by oppression Psal 107.39 evil and sorrow And these two Justice and Mercy are neighbouring Branches so enwrapped and entwined one within the other that you cannot sever them For where there is no Justice there can be no Mercy and where there is no Mercy there Justice is but gall and wormwood Therefore in the Scripture they go hand in hand Vnto the upright man there ariseth light in darkness Psal 112. he is gracious and full of compassion and righteous There is an eye of Justice a single and upright eye as well as an eye of Mercy There is an eye that looketh right on Prov. 4.25 Prov. 22.9 and there is a bountiful eye and if you shut but one of them you are in darkness He that hath an evil eye to strip his brother can never see to clothe them He whose feet are swift to shed blood will be but a cripple when he is called to the house of mourning and if his bowels be shut up his hand will be scon stretcht out to beat his fellow servants It becometh the Just to be thankful Psal 33.1 In their mouth praise is comely it is a song it is musick And it becometh the Just to be merciful and liberal out of their heart mercy floweth kindly streameth forth like the river out
of Eden Gen. 2 10 11 12. to water the dry places of the earth There you shall find gold and good goldâ—bdellium and the onyx stone all that is precious in the sight of God and man But the heart of an Unjust man is as a rock on which you may strike and strike again but no water will flow out but instead thereof gall and wormwood blood and fire and vapour of smoke The tender mercies Joel 2.30 Prov. 12.10 the bowels of the wicked are cruel Their kisses are wounds their favours reproches their Indulgences Anathema's their bread is full of gravel and their water tainted with blood If their Craft or Power take all and their seeming Mercy their Hypocrisie put back a part that part is nothing or but trouble and vexation of spirit Thus do these two Branches grow and flourish and bring forth fruit and thus do they wither and dye together And here we have a fair and full vintage For indeed Mercy is as the Vine which yieldeth wine to chear the hearts of men Judg. 9.13 15. hath nothing of the Bramble nothing of the fire nothing that can devour It yieldeth much fruit but we cannot stand to gather all I might spread before you the rich mantle of Mercy and display each particular beauty and glory of it But it will suffice to set it up as the object of our Love For as Misery is the object of our Mercy so is Mercy the object of our Love And we may observe it is not here to do mercifully as before to do justly and yet if we love not Justice we cannot do it but in express terms the Lord requireth that we love mercy that is that we put it on wear it as a robe of glory delight in it make it as God doth make it his our chiefest attribute to exalt and superexalt James 2.13 and make it triumph over Justice it self Justice and Honesty give every man his own but Mercy openeth those treasuries which Justice might lock up and taketh from us that which is legally ours maketh others gatherers with us and partakers of our basket and bringeth them under our own vine and fig-tree Et haec est victoria This is the victory and triumph of Mercy Let us then draw the lines by which we are to pass And we shall shew you Mercy 1. in the Fruit it yieldeth 2. in its Root first in its proper Act or Motion casting bread upon the waters Focl 11.1 1 Sam. 2 8. Psal 113.7 and raising the poor out of the dust secondly in the Form which produceth this Act or the Principle of this Motion which is the Habit the Affection the Love of Mercy For so we are commanded not onely to shew forth our mercy but to love it What doth the Lord require but to love mercy c. We begin with the first The proper Act of Mercy is to flow and to spend it self and yet not be spent to relieve our brethren in misery and in all the degrees that lead to it necessities impotencies distresses dangers defects This is it which the Lord requireth And howsoever Flesh and Blood may be ready to perswade us that we are left at large to our own wills and may do what we will with our own yet if we consult with the Oracle of God we shall find that these reciprocal offices of Mercy which pass between man and man are a debt that we are bound as much to do good to others as not to injure them to supply their wants as not rob them to reach forth a hand to help them as not to smite them with the fist of wickedness Isa 58.4 Luke 16.7 And though my hundred measures of wheat be my own and I may demand them yet there is a voice from Heaven and from the Mercy-seat which biddeth me take the bill and sit down quickly and write fifty Do we shut up our bowels and our hands together Behold habemus legem we have a Law and the first and greatest Law the Law of Charity to open them It is true what we gain by the sweat of our brows what Honesty and Industry or the Law hath sealed unto us is ours ex asse wholly and entirely ours nor can any hand but that of Violence divide it from us but yet habemus legem we have a Law another Law which doth not take from us the propriety of our goods but yet bindeth us to dispense and distribute them In the same Court-roll of Heaven we are made both Proprietaries and Stewards The Law of God as well as of Man is Evidence for us that our possessions are ours but it is Evidence against us if we use them not to that end for which God made them ours They are ours to have and to hold nor can any Law of man divorce them from us or question us For what Action can be drawn against want of Mercy Who was ever yet impleaded for not giving an almes at his door What bar can you bring the Miser to Who ever was arraigned for doing no good But yet in the Law of God and in the Gospel of Christ which is a Law of Grace Matth. 25.41 c. we find an Action drawn de non vestiendis nudis for not clothing the naked not feeding the hungry not visiting the sick I saith Nazianzene could peradventure be willing that mercy and Bounty were not necessary but arbitrary not under a Law but presented by way of counsel and advice for the Flesh is weak and would go to heaven with as little cost and trouble as may be but then the mention of the Left hand and the right of the Goats and the Sheep of the torments they shall be thrown into not who have invaded other mens goods but who have not given their own not who have beat down but who have not supported these Temples of the Holy Ghost this is that which striketh a terrour through me and maketh me think and resolve that I am as much bound to do acts of mercy as I am not to do an injury as much bound to feed the poor man as I am not to oppress and murder him To shew Mercy to others is not an Evangelical Counsel it is a Law Therefore as Homer telleth us that men did not call some things by their proper names for the Gods had other names for them Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chalcidem homines Cymindim Dii vocant and he speaketh of a certain bird so when we call that ours which our net hath taken in our wit and industry hath brought it unto us we speak after the manner of men we speak the language of the world the dialect of Mammon but when we call them ours and make them ours for the use and benefit of others we do à Christo discere disciplinam as Tertullian speaketh we speak in the language of our Saviour in that phrase and sense which God and
round about you in arms as we have seen in Germany and other places Men and Brethren I may speak to you of the Patriarch David Acts 2.29 who is dead and buried and though we have not his Sepulchre yet we have the memory of his Mercifulness remaining with us to this day And I ask Had not he Zeal Yes and so hot and intensive that it did consume him Psal 119.139 and yet but three verses before Rivers of waters ran down his eyes And this heat and this moisture had one and the same cause because they kept not thy law in the one because they forgat thy word in the other which is the very same We much mistake if we do not think there may be a weeping as well as a burning Zeal Indeed Zeal is never more amiable never moveth with more decorum nay with more advantage both to our selves and others then when Mercy sendeth it running down the cheeks We cannot better conclude then with that usual advice of Bernard Zelus absque misericordia minùs utilis 46. S. in Cant. plerumque etiam perniciosus c. Zeal without Mercy is alwaies unprofitable and most commonly dangerous and therefore we must pour in this oyl of Mercy quae zelum supprimat spiritum temperet which may moderate our Zeal and becalm and temper our spirit which may otherwise hurry us away to the trouble of others and ruine of our selves but it cannot do so if Mercy be our Assessour To conclude Let us therefore cast off every weight Hebr. 12.1 let us empty our selves fling out all worldly lusts out of our hearts and make room for Mercy Let us receive it naturalize it consubstantiate it as the Greek Fathers speak with our selves that we may think nothing breathe nothing do nothing but Mercy that Mercy may be as an Intelligence to keep us in a constant and perpetual motion of doing good that it may be true and sincere and sweeter to us then the honey or honey comb and so be our heaven upon earth whilst we are here that peace may be upon us Gal. 6.16 and mercy even upon all those who love Mercy who are indeed the true Israel of God The last Branch is our humble Walking with God And that we shall lay hold on in our next The Sixth SERMON PART VI. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God WE have already gathered fruit from two of the Branches of this Tree of Life this Good which God by his Prophet hath shewed us in the Text. We have seen Justice run down as waters Amos 5.24 and Righteousness as a mighty stream as the Prophet speaketh And we have seen Mercy dropping as the dew on the tender herbs Deut. 32.2 and as rain upon the grass We have beheld Justice filling the hand and Mercy opening it Justice fitting and preparing the hand to give and Mercy stretching it forth to clothe the naked and fill the hungry with good things Justice gathering and Mercy scattering Justice bringing in the seed and Mercy sowing it in a word Justice making it ours and Mercy alienating it and making it his whosoever he be that wanteth it We must now lay hold on the third Branch which shadoweth both the rest from those blasts which may wither them those storms and temptations which may shake and bruise them from Covetousness Ambition Amos 5.7 Pride Self-love Self-deceit Hypocrisie which turn Justice into gall and wormwood and eat out the very bowels of Mercy For our Reverent and humble deportment with God is the mother of all good counsel the guard and defense of all holy duties and the mistress of Innocency By this the Just and Merciful man liveth and moveth and hath his being His whole life is an humble deportment with God every motion of his is Humility I may say his very essence is Humility for he gathereth not he scattereth not but as in Gods eye and sight When he filleth his garners and when he emptieth them he doth it as under that all-seeing Eye which seeth not onely what he doth but what he thinketh The Christian still moveth and walketh with Psal 116.18 or before his God not opening his eyes but to see the wonders of his Laws not opening his mouth but in Hallelujahs not opening his ears but to Gods voice not opening his hand but in his name not giving his Almes but as in the presence of his Father which seeth in secret Matth. 6.4 and so doing what he requireth with fear and trembling Humility spreadeth and diffuseth it self through every vein and branch through every part and duty of his life When he sitteth in judgment Humility giveth the sentence when he trafficketh Humility maketh the bargain when he casteth his bread upon the waters Eccl. 11.1 his hand is guided by Humility when he boweth and falleth down before his God Humility conceiveth the prayer when he fasteth Humility is in capite jejunii and beginneth the fast when he exhorteth Humility breatheth it forth when he instructeth Humility dictateth when he correcteth Humility maketh the rod whatsoever he doth he doth as before or under or with the Lord. Humility is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all in all In a word Singularum virtutum proprii actus say the Schools Virtues both Moral and Theological like the celestial Orbs have their peculiar motion proceeding from their distinct Habits and Forms but Humility is the Intelligence which keepeth and perpetuateth that motion as those Orbs are said to have their motion held up and regulated by some assistent Form without And now being here required to walk humbly with our God it will not be impertinent to give you the picture of Humility in little to shew you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 summarily and in brief what it is and so we may better see in what this our walking humbly consisteth And indeed we look upon Humility as we do upon a picture Mirantur omnes divinam formam sed ut simulacrum fabrè politum mirantur omnes as Apuleius speaketh of his Psyche Every man doth much admire it as a beautiful piece but it is as men admire a well-wrought statue or picture every man liketh it but which was the lot of Psyche no man loveth it no man wooeth it no man desireth to take her to his wife Yet it will not be a miss to give you a short view of her And the Oratour will tell us Virtutis laus omnis in actione consistit Every virtue is commended by its proper act and operation and is then actually when it worketh Temperance doth bind the appetite Liberality open the hand Modesty compose the countenance Valour guard the heart and work out its contrary out of the mind And Humility worketh out every thing that riseth up 2 Cor. 10.5 12.20 every swelling and tumour
as under heaven the Throne of God which shall stand fast for ever When we walk with men we walk as with them whom we can sometimes delude sometimes muzzle and bind But when we walk with God we walk with him who is every where and seeth every event whose eye is ever open whose hand is ever stretched out Psal 29.5 and whose voice breaketh the cedars of Libanus But now secondly as the Laws of men do not so aw and regulate us but that we break out too oft beyond those bounds which Reason and Religion hath set up no more doth the Law within us the Law of our Vnderstanding as Damascene calleth the Conscience command or confine us in our walk Sometimes we gloss it sometimes we slight it sometimes we silence it and some there be that seal it up and sear it as S. Paul speaketh as with a hot iron If it speak to us we are deaf 1 Tim. 4.2 if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul beat and wound it more and more Multi famam 1 Cor. 8.12 pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny The loudest noise our Conscience can make is not heard but the Censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we hear it and we tremble We are led like fools with melody to the stocks What others say is our motion and turneth us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we hear it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of Conscience is Defraud not your brother nay 1 Thes 4.6 but we will over-reach him The voice of Conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self Lev. 19.18 nay but we will oppress him The voice of Conscience is Love Mercy nay Matth. 19.19 but we will love our selves What we speak to our selves our selves soon make heretical How ambitious are we to be accounted just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against Sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it What a sin is Uncleanness in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet With what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death He whippeth the Thief and hangeth the Murderer and indeed whippeth and hangeth himself by a proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we ow to our selves are of any great force to prevail with us to order our steps aright Walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give ear to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusual that there is little hope that it will complete and perfect our walk and make us Just and Merciful men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God And to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion That whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he maketh is infinitely and incomparably more clear and certain then that which we make by our senses That we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts That thou seest not the birds fly in the ayr so distinctly as he seeth thy thoughts fly about the world to those several objects which we have set up for our delight That he seeth and observeth that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Though we are in the flesh and so led by Sense were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That God doth but see us as Man seeth us or were this as evident to our Faith as that is to our Sense we should be more watchful over our selves and more wary of the Devils snares and baits then we commâ—â—ly are Magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary There is a necessity laid upon us of fear and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe that he now standeth by as a Witness who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be and what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly believed Glorious things are spoken of Faith We call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 11.1 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask Is ours so Would to God it were Nay would for many of us we did but believe that God is present with us and seeth what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye Matth. 17.20 Would our faith were but as a grain of mustard seed Even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but should run from as from Serpents as from the Devil himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and power were so near Now in the last place let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion do walk on in the haughtiness of their hearts bow neither to the Laws of God nor men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerful Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Phil. 3.18 Many walk saith S. Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the Presumptuous sinner walketh not with God who hath first hardned his heart Zech. 7.12 Isa 3.9 and then his face as an adamant whose very countenance doth witness against him who declareth his sins as Sodome and hideth them not These first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself First they lose their Reason in their lusts and then their Modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil They do that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain They first make
but once and shall never see again acteth over those sins which he shall never bring into act delighteth in that which he shall never enjoy robbeth and slayeth and rideth in triumph on a thought and so leaveth his God who gave him this power and faculty to a better end then to wallow in this mire and to be enslaved to the drudgery of so vile an imployment Yet too many are willing to perswade themselves that God neither seeth this nor regardeth it that a Thought is such Gozamour of so thin an appearance that it escapeth the eye and so they set up a whole family of thoughts in their mind and dally and delight themselves with them as with their children And yet this is the ground of all evil and evil it self wrought in the Soul which worketh by its faculties as the Body doth by its members the Eye and the Hand And thus it may beat down Temples murder men lay Kingdoms level with the ground And it groweth and multiplieth reflecteth upon it self with joy and content omnia habet peccatoris praeter manus and hath all that maketh a sinner but Hands But though Men see not our thoughts for this is a Royal prerogative yet they are visible to his eye who is a Spirit And they that look upon them as bare and naked thoughts and not as complete works finisht in the soul know not themselves nor the nature of God and therefore cannot be said to walk with him Rom. 16.17 To conclude then These walk not with God let us therefore mark and avoid them The Presumptuous daring sinner walketh not with him but hideth himself in his Atheistical conceit That because Man cannot punish God doth not see The Hypocrite cometh forth in a disguise and acteth his part and because Men applaud him thinketh God is of their mind as the Pantomine in Seneca who observing the people well pleased with his dancing did every day go up into the Capitol and dance before Jupiter and was perswaded that he was also delighted in him The Apologizer runneth into the holes and burrows of excuses and there he is safe for who shall see him The Speculative sinner hideth himself and all his thoughts in a thought in this thought That Thoughts are so near to nothing that they are invisible That Sin is not sinful till it speak with the tongue or act with the hand But the eye of God is brighter then the Sun and his eye lids will try the children of men Psal 11 4 as the Goldsmith trieth his gold in the fire and will find out the dross which we do not see And if we will not walk with him but walk contrary unto him Lev 26 21 23 c. he will also walk contrary unto us He will see us and not see us know us and not know us Habemus nescientem Deum quod tamen non nescit l. 9. de Trin. saith Hilary God will seem not to know that which he doth know and his ignorance is not ignorance but a mystery For to them who walk not with him humbly now the Word will be at the last day Matth. 25.12 I know you not then God will keep state and not know and acknowledge them This pure God will not know the Unclean this God of truth will not know the Dissembler this strong and mighty God will bring down the Imperious offender this Light will examine thoughts and excuses will fly before it as the mist before the Sun But then Psal 1.6 The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous saith the Psalmist and those that do justly and love Mercy and walk as under his all seeing eye with humility and reverence he will lead by the hand go along with them uphold and strengthen them in their walk shadow them under his wing and when their walk is ended know them as he did Moses Exod 33. Numb 12. Mal. 3 17 above all men And seeing his own marks upon them beholding though a weak yet the image of his Justice and his Mercy upon them he will spare them as a father spareth his son that serveth him He will know them and love them know them and receive them with an EVGE Well done good and faithful servants Matth. 25.21 23. You have embraced the Good which I shewed you done the thing which I required of you you have dealt justly with your brethren and I will be just in my promises you have shewed Mercy and Mercy shall crown you you have walked humbly with me I will now lift up your heads and you shall inherit the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matth. 29.34 The Seventh SERMON GAL. IV. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so is it now IN these words the Apostle doth present to our eye the true face of the Church in an Allegory of Sarah and Hagar of Ismael and Isaac of mount Sinai and mount Sion Gal. 4.24 Which things are an allegory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It speaketh one thing and meaneth another and carrieth wrapt up in it a more excellent sense then the words at first hearing do promise Take the full scheme and delineation in brief 1. Here is Sarah and Hagar that is Servitude and Freedom 2. Here are two Cities Jerusalem that now is the Synagogue of the Jews and that Jerusalem which is above the Vision of peace and mother of all the faithful For by the new Covenant we are made children unto God 3. Here is the Law promulged and thundred out on mount Sinai and the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which God published not from the mount but from heaven it self by the voice of his Son In all you see a fair correspondence and agreement between the type and the thing but so that Jerusalem our Mother is still the highest the Gospel glorious with the liberty it brought and the Law putting on a yoke breathing nothing but servitude and fear Isaac an heir and Ismael thrust out the Christian more honorable then the Jew The curtain is now drawn and we may enter in even within the veil and take that sense which the Apostle himself hath drawn out so plainly to us And indeed it is a good and pleasing sight to see our priviledge and priority in any figure to find out our inheritance in such an Heir our liberty and freedom though in a Woman Who would not lay claim to so much peace and so much liberty Who would not challenge kindred of Isaac and a Burgessship in Jerusalem It is true every Christian may But that we mistake not and think all is peace and liberty that we boast not against the branches that are cut off Rom. 11.18 Paul bringeth in a corrective to check and keep down all swelling and lifting up of our selves the adversative particle S E D But as then so now We are indeed
corruption of our hearts findeth something in Faith her self to abate and weaken her force and power and to take off her activity and so maketh the very object of Faith an encouragement to evil and which is a sad speculation the Mercy of God a kind of temptation to sin Merey is a precious oyntment and mercy breaketh our head Mercy blotteth out sin and Mercy reviveth it Mercy is our hope and Mercy is made our confusion We should sin no more Psal 136. but we do sin more and more because his mercy endureth for ever We are the worse for the Goodness of God We post to destruction because he is said to make hast to help us We turn the grace of God into wantonness and make this Queen of his glorious Attributes to wait on our lust Of a covering a purging a healing a saving I tremble to speak it we make it a damning Mercy For had we not abused it had we not relied upon it too much had we not laid upon it all our uncleanness our impenitency our wilful obstinacy in sin it would have upheld us and lifted us up as high as heaven but our bold presumption layeth hold on it and it flingeth us off and we fall from it into the bottomless pit This then we may take for a sufficient reason why our Apostle putteth not Faith into his description of pure Religion In the next place as he doth not mention Faith so he passeth by in silence rather then forgetteth those other excellent duties Prayer and Hearing of the Word For whatsoever high esteem we put upon these two howsoever we magnifie them till they are nothing till our selves are worse than nothing worse than the beasts that perish yet are they not the end And their end is perdition who make them so and who think that to ask a blessing is to have it when they put it from them or that to hear of God is to love him and to hear of that happiness which he hath laid up is to be in Paradise The perfection of the creature saith the Philosopher is ad naturae suae finem pervenire to attain to the end for which he was made And the end of the Christian is to be like unto Christ that where he is he may be also That is his end John 14.3 that is his perfection Now to draw this home these two to Hear and to Pray do not make us like unto Christ but are means to renew the image of God in us that so we may resemble him They are not the haven to which we are bound but are prosperous and advantageous windes to carry us to it Quod per se bonum est semper est bonum That which is good in it self and for it self is alwayes good as true Piety true Religion but those duties which tend to it have their raward or punishment as they reach or miss of that end What is Hearing if it beget not obedience what are Prayers if they be but the calves of our lips Oh it is a sad question to be asked when we shall see Christians full of malice and deceit Have they not heard Rom. 10.18 They have heard that Malice shall destroy the wicked that Deceit is an abomination that Oppression shall eat them up yet will be such monsters as if they had never heard Oh it is a sad expostulation to the wicked Have they not heard And as sad a return may be made to prayers We may stretch out our hands Isa 1.15 and God hide his eyes from us we may make many prayers and he not hear We may lift up our hands and voice unto heaven and our minds stay below wallowing in the mire of foul pollutions mixt and ingendred with the vanities of the world For as we may fast to strife and debate Isa 58.4 so we may pray to strife and debate As there may be a politick Fast so our Prayer may have more in it of craft than devotion We may make it a trade a craft an occupation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoutly labour and hold out Rom 12.12 Matth. 11.12 23 14. not to take the kingdome of heaven but to devour widows houses We may make this Key of the gates of heaven become a picklock to open chests and so debase it to most vile offices which is a sin cujus non audeo dicere nomen for which I have no name bad enough And what is Prayer then What are the Means if we rest in them as in the end what are they if we draw and force them to a bad end what are they if we make no use of them at all or make this sad and fatall use of them if our Prayers bring down a curse if our Hearing flatter us in our disobedience if we hear and pray and perish These and whatsoever else of this nature have all their worth and efficacy from Religion from Charity to our selves and others These are the wings on which our Prayers ascend and mount up to the presence of God to bring down a blessing from thence These sanctifie our Fasts These open the ears of the deaf Matth. 13.14 that hearing they may hear and understand These consecrate our Pulpits and are the best panegerycks on our Sermons making them indeed the word of God Hebr. 4.12 powerful in operation Without these our Prayers are but babling and the Sermons which we hear are but so many libels against us or as so many knells and sad indications that they that hear them are condemned and dead already To visite the fatherless and widows in affliction that is To be full of good works to renounce and abstain from the pleasures of the world for those pleasures we dote on those riches we sweat for are those that bespot us is a far harder task then to say a hundred Pater nosters to continue our prayers as S. Paul did his preaching until midnight Acts 20.7 or to hear a Sermon every day Bid the wanton leave the lips of the harlot bid the ambitious make himself equal to them of low degree Rom. 12.16 1 Tim. 6.18 bid the mammonist be rich in good works and if they do not openly profess it yet the conjecture will be easy and probable that the wanton will chuse rather to fast twice in the week with the Pharisee than to make himself an eunuch for the kingdome of heaven Luke 18.12 Matth. 19.12 the ambitious and covetous will rather say their prayers for such can but say them then to stay themselves in the eager pursuit of their ends but so long as to give an almes the ambitious will pray and hear and do any thing rather than fall lower and the Miser will chain his ears to the pulpit rather than open them to the complaint of the poor Orat. ad Ditescentes S. Basil observed long since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that he knew many who without
any great pains might be brought to fast and pray and perform all parts of religion which were not chargeable but could not be won with the most powerful eloquence or strongest reason to any part of it which did cost them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but one half-peny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cheap religion is as easy as cheap but Go sell all that you have Matth. 19.21 and give to the poor is a bitter pill which we hardly let down and with a sowre countenance And should we prescribe it now to men of this iron age would they not as S. Paul speaketh in another case 1 Cor. 14.23 say that we are out of our wits In the last place these two if they be truly in us are never can never be alone but suppose Faith which is sigillum bonorum operum as Chrysologus speaketh Serm. 23. the seal to every good work to make it currant and authentick He that is perfect in these cannot be to seek in the rest He that can govern a ship in a storm when the sea rageth and is unquiet may easily manage a cockboat in a calm He that can empty himself to his brother that thinketh the bellies of the poor the best granaries for his corn and the surest treasuries for his money that can give unto God the things that are Gods Matth. 22.21 and return them back by the hands of his Ambassadours the poor who beseech us in his name he that is an exile at home hath banisht himself from the world he lives in and so useth it as if he used it not 1 Cor. 7.30 31. he that hateth sin as an infectious plague and in a holy pride will keep his distance from it though it bow towards him in the person of his dearest friend that abhorreth an Oath though his friend sweareth it that lotheth Lasciviousness though his brother acteth it that detesteth Sacriledge though his father were inricht by it and passed it over to him as an inheritance He that can thus keep himself unspotted of the world will lift up pure hands and beat down his body and be ready to hearken what the Lord God will say He that sendeth up so many sacrifices to God he that thus maketh himself a sacrifice will offer up also the incense of his prayers He that can abstain from sin may fast from meat He that hath broke his heart will open his ear In a word he that approveth himself in these two cannot but be active and exact in the rest And now having shewed you what is but shadowed in this picture and description of Religion let us look upon the picture it self so look upon it as to draw it out and express it in our selves in every limb and part of it 1 Cor. 14.25 that they that behold us may say that God is in us of a truth and glorifie him at the sight of such religious men Eccl. 11.1 And first we see Charity stretching forth her hand and casting her bread upon the waters the bitter waters of Affliction going about to the widow and fatherless and doing good going about as Christ did and working miracles giving eyes to the blind and food to the hungry and light to them that sit in darkness and a staff to the lame an oracle to those who doubt and a pillar to those who droop and are ready to sink under the burden of their sins doing all those things which Jesus did and taught walking in love as Christ loved us Ephes 5.2 And this we may well call a part of Religion and a fair representation of it For by this the image of the likeness of God is repaired in us saith Bernard and is made manifest in us and as it were visible to the eye In every act of charity he that dwelleth on high cometh down in the likeness of men speaketh by the tongue and giveth by the hand of a mortal man moveth in him and moveth with him to perfect this work This maketh us as God in stead of God one to another For Homini homo quid praestat One man is not superiour to another as he is a man In the Heraldry of Nature all are of the same degree all are equal for all are men But when Charity filleth the heart of a man and stretcheth forth his hand then he taketh an higher place the place of God is his Ambassadour and Steward not of the same essence with God but bearing about with him his image saith Clemens Alexandrinus Put ye on saith S. Paul Strom. 2. Col. 3.12 bowels of mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the elect of God When we have put these on we then are indeed the elect of God endowed with his spirit carrying about with us the mercies of God sent as it were from his mercy-seat with comfort and relief to those who are minished and brought low by oppression affliction and sorrow We may flatter our selves Psal 107.39 and talk what we please of Election and if we please intail it on a Faction but most sure it is without Charity our election is not sure 2 Pet. 1 7-10 and without bowels of mercy we can be no more elect then Judas the traytor was Elect that is by interpretation The sons of perdition It is doing good alone that maketh us a royal priesthood and this honour have all his Saints 1 Pet. 2.9 Psal 149 9. The kings of the Gentiles saith our Saviour exercise lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benefactours or gracious Lords are called what they should be not what they are for if they were gracious and benefactours then were they kings indeed anointed with the oyl of mercy which is sent down from heaven That day on which this distilled not from him on others Titus the Emperour did count as lost Diem perdidi so it is in Suetonius but Zonaras hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not reigned to day This day I was not Gods Vicegerent We read that God gave Solomon largeness of heart 1 Kings 4.29 and Pineda glosseth it liberalem fecit He made him liberal and merciful And we read that David was a man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 and Procopius upon the place giveth this as the probable reason of that denomination that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of the poor merciful as God is merciful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imitation giveth us a kinde of nearness and familiarity with God That in which we represent him maketh us one with him Matth. 12.50 maketh a man as Christ speaketh his brother and sister and mother This is our affinity this is our honour this is in a manner our Divinity on earth For God and Man saith Synesius Epist. 30. have but one onely thing common to them both and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do good Heb.
of no use at all Nay we make that a snare unto us which was made for a help Every creature within the bounds of its nature is useful and profitable so also these external helps the Ark of God the Word and Sacraments of the Church are great blessings and highly to be honoured whilst we use them to that end for which they were first instituted whilst we walk within that compass and circle which God hath drawn according to that form which he hath shewed us That Jew deserveth not the name of an Israelite that either by word or gesture dishonoureth the Ark when we see he was not permitted to touch it But he that of a sign of the presence of God in the day of battle shall make it his God is so much a Jew that he deserveth to be flung out of the Synagogue And that Christian that boweth not to the majesty of the Word and receiveth it not as a letter and epistle from God as S Augustine calleth it that esteemeth not of the Sacraments as those visible words the signs and pledges and conveiances of God's great love and favour to us in Christ hath too little of the Christian to make him so much as one of the visible Church But he that is high in his panegyrick and ever calling Speak Lord for thy servant heareth and then lieth down to sleep or if he be awake is onely active in denying the power of that Word he so much magnified and called for and thinketh he hath done all duties and offices to God if he do but give him the ear which is to trust in the Ark more then in God he that shall make the Sacrament first an idole and then a seal to shut up treason in silence as the Jesuite or use it as an opiate once or twice in the year to quiet his conscience his viaticum and provision rather to strengthen him in sin then against it he that shall thus magnifie and thus debase it thus exalt and thus tread it under foot is guilty of Heresie saith Erasmus which is not properly an Heresie but yet such a kinde of Heresie may make him Anathema though he be of the Church and at last sever him as a Goat from the Sheep And now let us judge not according to the appearance let us judge righteous judgement Or rather if you please do but judge according to the appearance Cast an eye upon these unhappy times which if they be not the last yet so much resemble those which as we are told shall usher in the great day that we have great reason to look about us as if they were the last Weigh I say the controversies the business of these times and concerning those duties and transactions which constitute and consummate a Christian you shall finde as great silence in our disputes as in our lives and practice The great heat and contention is concerning Baptisme the Lord's Supper and the Government and Discipline of the Church It is not Whether we should deny our selves and abstain from all fleshly lusts but Whether we may wash or not Whether eat or not Whether Christ may be conveighed into us in Water or in Bread Whether he hath set up a chair of infallibility at Rome or a consistory at Geneva Whether he hath ordained one Pope or a million What digladiations what tragedies are there about these points And if every particular phansie be not pleased the cry is as if Religion were breathing out its last when as the true Religion consisteth not principally in these but these may seem to have been passed over to us rather as favours and honours and pledges of God's love then as strict and severe commands That we must wash and eat are commands but which bring no burden or hardship with them the performance of them being most easie as no whit repugnant to flesh and blood It is no more but Wash and be clean Eat in remembrance of the greatest benefit that ever mankind received All the difficulty is in the performance of the vow we make in the one and the due preparation of the soul for the other which is the subduing of our lusts and affections the beautifying of our inward man This is truly and most properly the service of Christ the Ark of our Ark the Glory of our Glory and the crown of all those outward advantages which our Lord and Master hath been Pleased to afford us We may ask with the Prophet Mich. 6.6 7. Wherewith shall we come before the Lord or bow our selves before the high God Will he be pleased with the diligence of our Ear with our Washing v. 8. and Eating and answer with him He hath shewed thee O man what he doth require to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Go to Shiloh and there learn we to disdeceive our selves by the example of the Israelites if all our Religion be shut up with theirs in the Ark all in outward ceremony and formality God strike both us and the Ark we trust to recover and call back those helps and gracious advantages from such prodigal usurpers For when all is for the Ark nothing for the God it representeth when we make the Pulpit our Ark and chain all Religion to it when the lips of the Preacher which should preserve knowledge Mal 2.7 Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be as a Ship as Basil speaketh to conveigh that Truth which is more precious then the Gold of Ophir bringeth nothing but Apes and Peacocks loathsome and ridiculous phansies when the hearers must have a song for a Sermon and that too many times much out of tune when both Hearer and Speaker act a part as it were upon a stage even till they have their Exit and go out of the world when we will have no other laver but that of Baptisme no bread but that in the Eucharist when we are such Jewish Christians as to rely on the shell and outside on external formalities and performances more empty and less significant and effectual then their ceremonies we have just cause to fear that God will do unto us as he did unto Shiloh or as he threatned the same people Amos 8. send a famin into the land not a famin of bread but of hearing the word and such a famin we may have though our loaves do multiply though Sermons be our daily bread that he may deprive us of our Sacraments or deliver them up to Dagon to be polluted by Superstition or to be troden under foot by Profaneness which of the two is the worst that we may even loath and abhor that in which we have taken so vain so unprofitable so pernicious delight and condemn our selves and our own foul ingratitude and with sorrow and confusion of face subscribe to this Inscription DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. And now we have setled the Inscription upon every particular And it may seem at first not well placed
and opposite to his Wisdome and Goodness and which his soul hateth as That he did decree to make some men miserable to the end he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heal them That he did threaten them with death whose names he had written in the book of life That he was willing Man should sin that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our duty which himself will work in us by an irresistable force That he commandeth intreateth beseecheth others to turn and repent whom himself hath bound and fettered by an absolute decree that they shall never turn That he calleth them to repentance and salvation whom he hath damned from all eternity If any certainly such beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a dart No it is not boldness Exod. 19.12 Hebr. 12.20 but humility and obedience to God's will to say He doth nothing but what becometh him and what his Wisdome doth justifie Eph. 1.8 He hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in all wisdome and prudence His Wisedome findeth out the means of salvation and his Prudence ordereth and disposeth them His Wisdome sheweth the way to life and his Prudence leadeth us through it to the end Wisdome was from everlasting Prov. 8.23 And as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of God's wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God And she fitted and proportioned means to that end means most agreeable and connatural to it She found out a way to conquer Death and him that hath the power of Death the Devil Hebr. 2.14 with the weapons of Righteousness to dig up Sin by the very roots that no work oâ— the flesh might shoot forth out of the heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done again Immutabile quod factum est Quint. l. 7 to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kiss each other in Christ's Satisfaction and ours for our Turn is our satisfaction all that we can make Condigna estsatisfactio mala facta corrigere correcta non reiterare Bern. de â—ust Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antioch â—â—neil can 2. These she hath joyned together never to be severed Christ's Sufferings with our Repentance his agony with our sorrow his blood with our tears his flesh nailed to the cross with our lusts crucified his death for sin with our death to it his resurrection with our justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away he shed his blood to melt our hearts he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose again for our justification and to gain authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our CONVERTIMINI our Turn is the best Commentary on his CONSVMMATVM EST It is finished for that his last breath breathed it into the world We may say it is wrapt up in the Inscription John 19.19 JESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS For in him even when he hung upon the cross were all the treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge hid Col. 2.3 In him his Justice and Mercy are at peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seal our pardon we were in our blood and her voice was Live we were miserable Ezek. 16.6 and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowels yerned But then Justice held up the sword ready to latch in our sides God loveth his Creature whom he made but hateth the Sinner whom he could not make And he must strike and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevailed Mercy had been but as the morning dew Hos 6.4 13.3 and soon vanished before this raging heat And if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory God's hatred of sin and his fearful menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and portended nothing but been void and of none effect Psal 130.3 Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. If God had been extreme to mark what is done amiss men would have sinned more and more because there would have been no hope of pardon And if his Mercy had sealed an absolute pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their evil wayes because there would have been no fear of punishment And therefore his Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them both in Christ's propitiatory Sacrifice and our duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the guilt the other from the dominion of sin And so both are satisfyed Justice layeth down the sword and Mercy shineth in perfection of beauty Rom. 3.3 God hateth Sin but he seeth it condemned in the flesh of his Son and fought against by every member he hath He seeth it punisht in Christ and punisht also in every repentant sinner that turneth from his evil wayes He beholdeth the Sacrifice on the Cross and the Sacrifice also of a broken heart and for the sweet savour of the one he accepteth the other and is at rest Christ's death for sin procureth our pardon and our death to sin sueth it out Christ suffereth for sin we turn from it His satisfaction at once wipeth out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees destroyeth Sin it self Tert. De anima c. 1. Haec est sapientia de schola caeli This is the method of Heaven This is that Wisdome which is from above Thus it taketh away the sins of the world And now Wisdome is compleat Justice is satisfied and Mercy triumpheth God is glorified Man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Heus tu peccator De poenit c. 8. bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tertullian Take comfort sinner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy return What musick there is in a Turn which beiginneth on earth but reacheth up and filleth the highest heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed image on which God delighteth to look for there he beholdeth his Wisdome his Justice his Mercy and what wonders they all have wrought Behold the Shepherd of our souls see what lieth upon his shoulders Luke 15.5 6. You would think a poor Sheep that was lost Nay but he leadeth Sin and death and the Devil in triumph And thou mayest see the very brightness of his glory and the express image of his three most glorious
attributes which are not onely visible but also speak unto us to follow this heavenly method His Wisdome instructeth us his Justice calleth upon us and his Mercy his eloquent Mercy bespeaketh us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us to turn from our evil wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance It hath these three Gods Wisdome Justice Mercy to seal and ratifie it and make it authentick We come now to the Dictum it self It being God's we must well weigh and ponder it And we shall find it comprehendeth the duty of Repentance in its full latitude As Sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore conversio ad creaturam an aversion and turning of the soul from God and an inordinate conversion and application to the Creature so by our Repentance we do referre pedem start back and alter our course work and withdraw our selves from evil waies and turn to the Lord by cleaving to his laws which are the mind of the Lord and having our feet enlarged we run the way of his commandments A straight line drawn out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further you draw it the weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bowed and brought back again towards its first point The Wise man telleth us that God at first made man upright Eccles 7.29 that is simple and single and sincere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many inventions mingled himself and ingendered with divers extravagant conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines drawn out now to this object by and by to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh sometimes on the world now on Idolatry anon on Oppression and so at a sad distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his centre Therefore God seeing Man gone so far seeing him weak and feeble wound and turned about by the activity of the Devil and sway of the Flesh and not willing to lose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as in instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistency in his former and proper place to draw him back from those objects in which he was lost and to carry him on forward to the rock out of which he was hewed Whilest he is yet in his evil wayes all is out of tune and order for the Devil who hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost hom de Paenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon Repentance and boldness and senslesness upon Sin But Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our turn we see the danger we plaid with and the horrour of those paths in which we sported we see in our flight a banishment in every sin a hell and in our turn a Paradise Divers words we have to express the true nature of Repentance but none more usual full and proper then this of Turning This includeth all the rest It is more then a bare Knowledge of our sins more then Grief more then an Acknowledgement or Confession more then a Desire of change more then an Endeavour For if we do not turn a termino ad terminum from one term or state to another from every sin we now embrace to its contrary if we do not fly and loath the one and rest and delight in the other our Knowledge of sin is but an accusation our Grief is but a frail and vanishing displacency Lugentibus lachryma quietis recreationis loco sunt Moses Mairmon Doct. perplex l. 3. c. 41. our Tears are our recreation our Desires but as thought and our endeavours proffers But if we turn and our turn be real these instruments or antecedents These disposing and preparing acts must needs be so also true and real We talk much of the Knowledge and Sense of our sin when we cannot be ignorant of it of Grief when we have no feeling of Confession and Acknowledgement when the heart is not broken of a Desire to be good when we resolve to be evil of an Endeavour to leave off our sins when we feed and nourish them and even hire them to stay with us In udo est Maenas Attis Pers sat 1. Our Repentance is languid and faint our Knowledge without observation our Grief without compunction our Acknowledgement without trepidation our Desire without strength and our Endeavour without activity But they are all complete and made perfect in our Turn and Conversion If we turn from our sins then we know them and know them in their deformity and all those circumstances which put so much horrour upon them If we turn our head will be a fountain of tears Jer. 9.1 and the eye will cast out water our Confession will be loud and hearty Lam. 1.16 our Desire eager and impatient our Endeavours strong and earnest and violent This Turn is as the hinge on which all the rest move freely and orderly Optima paenitentia nova vita saith Luther The best and truest repentance is a new life A Turn carrieth all the rest along with it to the end the end of our Knowledge of our Grief of our Acknowledgement of our Desires and Endeavours For we know our sins we bewail them we acknowledge them we desire and endeavour to leave them in a word we turn that we may be saved First it includeth the Knowledge of our sins He that knoweth not his malady will neither seek for cure nor admit it He that knoweth not the danger of the place he standeth in will not turn his face another way Isid Pelusiot l. 1111. ep 149 He that dwelleth in it as in a paradise will look upon all other that yield not the same delight as upon hell it self He that knoweth not his wayes are evil will hardly go out of them Malum notum res est optima saith Luther It is a good thing to know evil For the knowledge of that which is evil can have no other end but this To drive us from it to that which is good When Sin appeareth in its ugliness and monstrosity when the Law and the Wrath of God and Death it self display their terrours that face is more then brass or adamant that will not gather blackness and turn it self But this prescript To know sin one would think should rather be tendred to the Heathen then to Christians Act 15.29 Quando hoc factum non est quando reprehensum quando non permissum Cic. pro M. Caelio Rom. 1.31 To them some sins were unknown as Revenge Ambition Fornication and therefore they are enjoyned to abstein from them yet even those which the light of Nature had discovered to them they did commit though they knew that they who did commit them were worthy of death But to Christians it may seem unnecessary For they live in the Church which is
Matth. 6.7 And happy we for whose sake God who hateth babling will yet multiply words nay reiterate the same but most unhappy we if we hearken not to his voice if our Turn and conversion be not as real as the ingemination is loud and vehement if there be not a religious Tautology a constant reinforced continued Turn in our Repentance To draw then the lines by which we are to pass We may observe There be two main lets and hinderances of our conversion I may call them retinacula poenitentiae that hang upon us and hold us back when we should turn Despair on the one side and Presumption on the other Despair maketh it too late to repent Presumption maketh it soon enough though it be never so late Presumption maketh and breaketh a resolution every day Despair will make no more Presumption maketh an evening a bed-time Repentances She will turn at last Despair no Repentance at all Never never Now this ingemination is as thunder to them both loud in the ears of those that despair Turn ye turn ye It is not too late and terrible in the ears of those that presume Turn ye turn ye It cannot be soon enough And as lightning it flasheth in the face of the presumptuous sinner shewing him the horrour of his waies and that Death is in the way and it discovereth to the drooping or rather dead soul the riches of God's mercy that though Death be in the way at the very door yet Death is not unavoidable From this Ingemination then we may gather First Gods love to Repentance to rowse us from Despair Secondly the necessary and essential Properties of Repentance It must be 1. matura conversio a speedy and sudden Turn Turn ye turn ye lest it be too late 2. Sincera conversio a real Turn a Turn in good earnest 3 Plena poenitentia as the Antients used to speak a full Repentance a total Repentance a Turn from all our evil wayes a Turn never to look back again And these will keep us from Presumption Of these in their Order Turn ye turn ye is a vehement ingemination to rowse us from Despair And indeed no greater argument can be brought against Despair then Gods Bowels and Compassion then his loud and open proffer of mercy For if it were too late to Turn he would not thus call after us If we could not turn at all one call were too many and then what need this noyse this ingemination Bring in the most despairing Christian living and if this voice from heaven awake him not I must pronounce him not onely dead in sin but in hell already For it is easie to observe that the ground of all despair is not from hence that we cannot but that we will not turn Which much resembleth that despair which chaineth the damned Spirits in the place of torment So far we are like to them that we despair for want of Charity which they can never have nor the despairing sinner as he thinketh and therefore will not have not for want of Faith which they have as well as he Jam. 2.19 and tremble We despair not I say for want of faith For it is plain if we did not believe we could not despair unless peradventure we do with some conceive of Faith as that instrument or habit by which we apply and appropriate Christs merits and promises to our souls which indeed is rather an act of our hope then of our Faith Despair being nothing else but the disability of applying Christs merits to our selves which is the effect not of Infidelity but ungodliness For we believe This is the way and we know we have not walked in it Isa 30.21 and so despair We are no where in Scripture commanded to be assured of our salvation 2 Pet. 1.10 but we are enjoyned in plain terms to make our election sure Nor are we any where in Scripture forbid to despair but if we make not good the condition we are forbid to hope and in that commanded to love Christ and keep his commandments Joh. 14.15 1 Joh. 5.2 that we may never despair Miserable Dilemma when I must neither despair nor hope for I cannot let in Despair till I have let in that monster sin which begat it and when that is let in and hath gained the dominion there is no room for Hope Ask Judas himself and he will tell you there is a God For if there were no God no Heaven no Hell there could be no such thing as Conscience Ask him again and he will tell you he is true or he denieth him to be God Coloss 1.27 He will tell you of the riches of the glorious mystery of our redemption and that in Christ remission of sins is promised Luk. 24.47 But his many sins and his late sin of betraying his Master cast so thick a cloud over his judgement that he cannot see any beam of mercy cast towards him and so he concludeth both against God and himself There is mercy for thousands but none for Judas Exod. 20.6 34 7. Matth 9.13 Matth. 27.5 God calleth sinners to repentance but not Judas and when all the world may turn he will go and hang himself Thus may our sins go over our heads and over those mercies too which might be over our sins and make us very witty to argue and dispute against our selves even to dispute our selves into hell A neglect of our duty begat Despair and Despair basely disproveth and augmenteth our neglect And if we judge rightly our non posse is a nolle we cannot turn because we will not turn For if we would but turn which we may if we will Despair would sink and vanish out of sight and Mercy would shine forth through the cloud and give light enough to fly far from that evil the fear of which had covered our faces and in a manner buried us alive for a despairing man is but a dead carcass actuated not by a Soul but by a Devil We need not seek far for arguments Despair is an argument against it self For if there could never be any The best that we have heard of is but the Logick of Fools which is Logick without reason I cannot hope because I cannot hope It is true a despairing person cannot hope in statu quo nunc as they speak in the state and condition he is now in And there is reason for that For why should an enemy to God hope for his favour Why should Dives hope for a place in Abraham's bosome And yet he may hope for Gods favour resolve to turn from his evil wayes and this will first build up him in righteousness and then build up a Hope upon the ruins of Despair Sin is the foundation of Despair and if we repent not will bear it up But upon our Turn Righteousness casteth down the foundation it self and with it Despair and in the fall grindeth it to pieces and in the place of it
erecteth a pillar a saving Hope a Hope which is not ashamed to enter the Holy of Holies and lay hold on the Mercy-seat which was hidden and veyled before Why art thou cast down O my soul Psal 42. 43. and why art thou troubled within me Trust thou in the Lord And if thou fear him and leave thy evil wayes thou mayest trust him He will not he cannot fail thee Thou hast him fettered and entangled with his own promises which are Yea and Amen and all the powers on earth 2 Cor. 1.20 all the Devils in hell nay his own Power cannot reverse them For his Justice his Wisdom his Mercy hath sealed them Read his character and he made it himself Psal 116.5 He is merciful righteous and full of compassion And S. Ambrose it was that observed it that here is Mercy twice mentioned and Justice but once And he addeth for our encouragement what to hope nay but to turn that we may hope In medio Justitia est gemino septo inclusa Misericordiae Justice is shut up in the midst and hedged in on every side with Mercy If thou turn from thy evil wayes Mercy shineth upon thy tabernacle and Justice is the same it was but confined and bound up that it cannot that it shall never reach thee to destroy thee When thou sinnedst he was just to punish thee and now thou turnest from thy evil wayes unto him 2 Tim. 4.8 he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a righteous Judge still but to receive and reward thee They in the Primitive times who fell away for fear of persecution and afterwards returned to the bosome of the Church and confessed and bewailed their apostasie though it were rather a verbal then a real one having been drawn thereunto rather by fear of smart then by hatred of the Gospel were said by the Greek Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. De Lapsis which S. Cyprian interpreteth elatum primâ victoriâ hostem secundo certamine superare to recover the field and by a second onset to foil that enemy who did glory in a former conquest and to defie the Tempter after a fall The Novations called themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Puritanes of those times And they had good reason so to do as good reason as a deformed man hath to call himself Boniface or a wicked man to write himself Innocent For they were proud merciless and covetous Nazianzene layeth it to their charge goodly and fit ingredients to make up that sweet composition of Purity These withstood the receiving of lapsed persons into the Church but not without the Churches heaviest censure Saint Hierome for all their name calleth them by one quite contrary immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae adversarios the enemies of Gods mercy and goodness Orat. 14. And Nazianzene telleth them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence and uncleanness which had nothing but the name of Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. which they made saith he a bait to catch and cajol the ignorant and unwary multitude who are taken more with the Trumpet of a Pharisee then with his almes and are fed with shews and pretenses as they say Chamelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzene observe that severe doctrine of those proud and covetous men drove the offending brethren into despair and despair plunged them deeper in sin and left them wallowing in the mire in their blood and pollution being held down by a false opinion that no hand could draw them out and that pardon was impossible whereas a Convertimini the doctrine of Repentance might have raised them from the ground drawn them out of their blood and filth Hebr. 12.12 strengthned their feeble knees and hands that hung down put courage and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and to stand up to see and meet the salvation of th Lord. And this is the proper and natural effect of Mercy to give sight to the blind that they may see to bind up a broken limb that it may move to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this it shineth in brightness upon us every day to enlighten not onely them who sit in darkness but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darkness yet may be under a cloud raised up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but from a tender and humble heart For we cannot think that every man that saith he despaireth is cast away and lost or that our erroneous judgement of our state and condition shall be the rule by which God will proceed against us and judge us at the last day that though we have set our hearts to serve God and have been serious in all our wayes though we have made good the condition that is our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentleness of the Gospel doth exact yet God will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves but though we have done what is required perswade our selves that we are fallen so short in the performance of our duty that we shall never reach to the end in a word that God will forbear to pronounce the EVGE Well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works that he will put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholick fit that he will condemn the soul of any man for the distemper of his body or for some perturbation of his mind which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 and in the power of his might did cheerfully run the wayes of his commandments It were a great want of charity thus to judge of those whose troublesome and most afflicting errour was conceived and formed in the very bowels of charity For sometimes it proceedeth from some distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain And if we have formerly striven and do yet strive to do God service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it ariseth from some defect in the Judicative faculty through which as we make more Laws to our selves and so more sins then there are so we are as ready to pass sentence against our selves not only for the breach of those laws which none could bind us to but our selves but even of those also which we were so careful to keep For as we see some men so strong or rather so stupid that they think they do nothing amiss so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but not epidemical The first are a great multitude
remedio laboramus By our own folly and the Devils craft our disease doth not hurt us so much as our remedy Repentance which was ordained as the best Physick to purge the soul is turned into that poyson that corrupteth and killeth it What wandring thought what idle word what profane action is there which is not laid upon this fair foundation Hope of pardon which yet will not bear up such hay and stubble We call Sin a disease and so it is a mortal one But Presumption is the greatest the very corruption of the blood and spirits of the best parts of the soul We are sick of Sin it is true but that we feel not But we are sick very sick of Mercy sick of the Gospel sick of Repentance sick of Christ himself and of this we make our boast And our bold relyance on this doth so infatuate us that we take little care to purge out the plague of our heart which we nourish and look upon as upon Health it self We are sick of the Gospel for we receive it and take it down and it doth not purge out but enrage those evil humours which discompose the soul John 13.27 We receive it as Judas did the sop we receive it and with it a devil For this bold and groundless Presumption of pardon maketh us like unto him hardeneth our heart first and then our face and carrieth us with the swelling sails of impudence and remorselessness to an extremity of daring to that height of impiety from which we cannot so easily descend but must fall and break and bruise our selves to pieces Praesumptio invericundiae portio saith Tertullian Presumption is a part and portion and the upholder of Immodesty It falleth and careth not whither it ruineth us and we know not how it abuseth and dishonoureth that Mercy which it maketh a wing to shadow it It hath been the best purveiour for Sin and the kingdome of Darkness We read but of one in the Gospel that despaired Matth. 27.5 Acts 1.25 and hanged himself and so went to his place but how many thousands have gone a contrary way with less anguish and reluctancy with fair but false hopes with strong but feigned assurances and met him there Oh it is one of the Devils subtilest stratagemes to make Sin and Hope of heaven to dwell under the same roof to teach him who is his vassal to walk delicately in his evil wayes to rejoyce alwaies in the Lord even then when he fights against him to assure himself of life in the chambers of death And thus every man is sure The Schismatick is sure and the Libertine is sure the Adulterer is sure and the Murderer is sure the Traitour is sure they are sure who have no savour no relish of salvation The Schismatick hath made his peace though he have no charity The Libertine looketh for his reward though he do not onely deny good works but contemn them The Adulterer absolveth himself without Penance The Murderer knoweth David is entred heaven and hopeth to follow him The prosperous Traitour is in heaven already His present success is a fair earnest of another inheritance That God that favoureth him here will crown him hereafter Every man can do what he list and be what he list do what good men tremble to think of and yet fear not at all but expect the salvation of the Lord first damne and then canonize himself For the greatest part of the Saints of this world have been of their own Creation made up in the midst of the land of darkness with noise with thunder and earthquakes We may be bold to say If Despair hath killed her thousands Presumption hath slain her ten thousands Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us that we lay hold on Christ when we thrust him from us make him our own and appropriate him when we crucifie and persecute him every day that we had rather phansie and imagine then make our election sure that we will have health and yet care not how we feed or what poison we let down that we make salvation an arbitrary thing to be met with when we please and can as easily be Saints as we can eat and drink as we can kill and slay Good God! what mist and darkness is this which maketh men possessed with Sin that is an enemy ready to devour them to be thus quiet and secure Could we or would we but a little awake and consult with the light of our Faith and Reason we should soon let go our confidence and plainly see the danger we are in whilst we are in our evil wayes and find Fear tied fast unto them So saith S. Paul But if you sin Rom. 13.4 fear Christian Security and Hope of life is the proper and alone issue of a good Conscience through faith in Christ purged from dead and evil works If we will leave our Fear Hebr. 9.14 we must leave our Evil works behind us Assurance is too choice a piece to be beat out by the phansie and to be made up when we please at a higher price then to be purchased with a thought It is a work that will take up an age to finish it the engagement of our whole life to be wrought out with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 not to be taken as a thing granted as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so set up as a pillar of hope when there is no better basis and foundation for it then a forced and fading thought which is next to air and will perish sooner The young man in the Gospel had yet no knowledge of any such Assurance-office and therefore he putteth up his question to our Saviour thus Good Master Matth. 19.16 Mark 10.17 what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life He saw no hope of entring in at that narrow gate with such prodigious sins And our Saviour's answer is Keep the commandments that is Turn from thy evil wayes Be not Envious Malitious Covetous Cruel False Deceitful Despair is the daughter of Sin and Darkness but Confidence is the emanation of a good Conscience What Flesh and Blood maketh up is but a phantasme which appeareth and disappeareth is seen and vanisheth so soon gone that we scarce know whether we saw it or no. There can be no firm hope raised but upon that which is as mount Sion Psal 125.1 and standeth fast for ever which is our best guard in our way nay which is our way in this life and when we are dead will follow us Eras Adag Nothing can bear and afford it but this Vnum arbustum non alit duos erithacos Sin and Assurance are birds too quarrelsome to dwell in the same bush Therefore if you sin fear or rather turn from your evil wayes 1 John 3 21. and then you shall have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God We must therefore sink and fall low and mitigate our voice
conquereth Kingdoms It is the best Physician and doth more then Art can do without it Art can do nothing It is the best Politician and without it Wisdome can do nothing It is the best Souldier for without it Power can do nothing It is all in all in every thing But in our spiritual politie and warfare it hath not strength enough to turn us about it is not able to bow our knee or move our tongue much less to rend our heart Yea such is our extremity of folly such is the hardness of our hearts Ipsa opportunitas fit impietatis patrocinium One opportunity raises in us a hope of another and maketh us waste our time in the wayes of evil which should be spent in our Return extendeth our hopes from day to day from year to year from one hour to another even till our last minute till Time flieth from us and Opportunity with it till our last sand and when that is run out there is no more time for us and so no more opportunity The voice of Opportunity is Psal 95.7 8. Hebr. 3.7 8. To day Now if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts This is his voice Now It is true but there may be more Nows then this and it is but There may be to morrow may yield an opportunity Thus we corrupt her language In my youth it is true but I may recover it in my riper age My feeble age will have strength enough to turn me or I may turn in my bed when I am not able to turn my self Now there be more Nows then Now What need such haste My last prayer my last breath my last gasp may be a Turn Psal 49.13 Now this our way uttereth our foolishness For what greater folly can there be then when Grace and Mercy and Heaven is offered now to refuse it Plutarch Vitâ Pelopidae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Sin devour the opportuniy and to morrow we will turn is a speech that ill becometh a mortal's mouth whose breath is in his nostrils Psal 39.5 for it may be his last His age is but a span long but a hand-breadth as nothing in respect of God The Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian Nullificamina others Nihilitudines or Nihilietates which is Nothings And in such a Nothing shall I let slip that opportunity which may make me Something even eternal Shall I make so many removes so many delayes within the compass of a span Whatsoever my span my nothing may be my opportunity is not extended beyond this span is no larger then this nothing And here is the danger Whether this Span be now at an end and measured out I cannot tell My Span may be but a fingers breadth my age but a minute that which I fill up with so many Nows so many opportunities Nothing And then if I turn not now I am turned into hell where I can never turn Care not then for the morrow Matth. 6.34 let the morrow care for it self There is no time to turn from thy evil wayes but now Secondly it is the greatest folly in the world thus to play with danger to seek death first in the errours of our life Wisd 1.12 and then when we have run out our course when death is ready to devour us to look faintly back upon light For the endeavours of a man that hath wearied himself in sin can be but weak and faint like the appetite of a dying man who can but think of meat and loath it The later we turn the less able we be to turn The further we stray the less willing shall we be to look back For Sin gathereth strength by delay devoteth us unto it self gaineth dominion over us holdeth us as it were in chains and will not soon suffer us to slip out of its power When the Will hath captivated it self under Sin a wish a sigh a thought is but a vain thing nor hath strength enough to deliver us One act begetteth another and that a third Many acts make up a habit and evil habits hold us back with some violence What mind what motion what inclination can a man that is drowned in sensuality have to God who is a Spirit a man that is buried in the earth so every covetous man is to God who sitteth in the highest heavens he that delighteth in the breath of fools to the honour of a Saint Here the further we go the more we are in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Rhet. c. 11. That which is done oft hath some affinity to that which is done alwayes saith Aristotle When an arm or other limb is broke it may have any motion but that which was natural to it And if we do not speedily proceed to the cure it will be the more difficult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set it in its right place again that it may perform its natural functions Now in Sin there is a deordination of the Will a luxation of that faculty Hence weakness seiseth upon the Will and if we neglect the first opportunity and do not rectifie it betimes and turn it back again and bend it to the rule it will be more and more infeebled every day move more irregularly and like a disordered clock point to any figure but that which should shew the hour and make known the time of the day We may read this truth in aged men saith S. Basil Orat ad Ditescentes When their body is even worn out with age and there is a general declination of strength and vigour the mind hath a malignant influence on the body as the dody in their blood and youth had upon the mind and being made wanton and bold with the custome of sin it heighteneth and enflameth their frozen and decayed parts to the pursuits of pleasures past though they can never overtake them nor see them but in effigie in that image or picture which they draw themselves They now call to mind the sins of their youth with delight and act them over again when they cannot act them as youthful as when they first committed them They have milk they think in their breasts and marrow in their bones They periwigg their Age with wanton behaviour Their age is threeseore and ten when their speech and will is but twenty They boast of what they cannot act and would be more sinful if they could and are so because they would It is a sad contemplation how we startled at sin in our youth and how we ventured by degrees and engaged our selves how fearful we were at first how indifferent afterwards how familiar within a while and then how we were setled and hardened in it at the last What a Devil Sin was and what a Saint it is become what a serpent it was and how now we play with it We usually say Custome is a second Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ibid. and indeed it followeth and
It must be matura conversio Hieron Paulino a speedy and present Turn Festina haerentis in salo naviculae funem magìs praecide quà m solve The Nineteenth SERMON PART IIII. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes c. TO stand out with God and contend with him all our life long to try the utmost of his patience and then in our evening in the shutting up of our dayes to bow before him is not to turn Nor have we any reason to conceive any hope that a faint confession or sigh should deliver him up to eternity of bliss whom the swinge of his lusts and a multiplyed continued disobedience have carried along without check or controll to his chamber and bed and to the very mouth of the grave who delighted himself in evil till he can do no good Delay if it be not fatall to all for we dare not give laws to Gods Mercy yet we have just reason to fear it is so to those that trust so to God's Mercy as to run on in their evil wayes till the hand of Justice is ready to cut their thread of life and to set a period to that and their sins together Turn ye turn ye that is now that it be not too late Proceed we now to the second property of Repentance the Sincerity of our Turn This Ingemination in the Text hath more heat in it for it serveth not onely to hasten our motion and Turn but to make it true and real and sincere When God biddeth us turn he considereth us not as upon a stage but in his Church where every thing must be done not acted where all is real nothing in shadow and representation where we must be holy as he is holy perfect as he is perfect true as he is true where we must behave our selves as in the house of God 1 Tim. 3.15 which is not peâ—gula pictoris a Painters shop where all is in shew nothing in truth Joel 2.13 Not our garments but our hearts must be rent that as Christ our head was crucified indeed not in shew or phantasm as Marcion would have it so we may present him a wounded soul a bleeding repentance a flesh crucified and so joyn as it were with Christ in a real and sincere putting away and abolishing of sin God is Truth it self true and faithful in his promises ☜ Psal 33.9 If he speak he doth it if he command it shall stand fast and therefore he hateth a feigned forced wavering imaginary Repentance To come in a visour or disguise before him is an abomination Nor will he give true joy for feigned sorrow heaven for a shadow everlasting happiness for a counterfeit and momentany Turn and eternity for that which is not for that which is nothing And Repentance if it be not sincere is nothing Nazianz. Orat 19. The holy Father will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is feigned is not lasting That which is forced faileth and endeth with that artificial spring that turneth it about as we see the wheels of a clock move not when the plummet is on the ground because the beginning of that motion is ab extrà not from an internal form but from some violence or art without Seneca Simplex recti cura multiplex parvi There is but one true principle of a real Turn the fear of God there may be very many of a false one Septem mendaciis eget mendacium unum ut verum videatur De Indulg Martine Luther said that one lie had need of seven more to draw but an apparency of truth over it that it may pass under that name So that which is not sincere is brought in with a troop of attendants like it self and must be set off with great diligence and art when that which is true commendeth it self and needeth no other hand to paint or polish it What art and labour is required to smooth a wrinkled brow Matth. 6.16 What ceremony what noise what trumpets what extermination of the countenance what sad looks what tragical deportment must usher in an Hypocrite What a penance doth he undergo that will be a Pharisee How many counterfeit sighs and forced grones how many fasts how many sermons must be the prologue◠〈◊〉 false Turn to a nominal Turn For we may call it turning from our evil wayes when we do but turn and look about us to secure our selves in them or to make way to worse Ahab and Jezabel did so Absalom did the Jews did so Fast to smite with the fist of wickedness Isa 58.4 and to make their voice to be heard on high A false Turn Wickedness it self may work it Craft and Cruelty may blow the trumpet in Sion Joel 2.15 and sanctifie a fast A feigned Repentance Oppression Policy Love of the world Sin it self may beget it and so advance and promote it self and be yet more sinful And commonly a false Turn maketh the fairest shew and appeareth in greater glory to a carnal eye then a true one Plin. Panegyr Ingeniosior ad excogitandum simulatio veritate Hypocrisie is far more witty seeketh out more inventions and many times is more diligent and laborious then the Truth because Truth hath but one work to be what it is and taketh no care for outward pomp and ostentation nor cometh forth at any time to be seen unless it be to propagate it self in others Now by this we may judge of our Turn whether it be right and natural or no. As we may make many a false Turn so there may be many false springs and principles to set us a turning Sometimes fear may do it sometimes Hope sometimes Policy and in all the Love of our selves more then of God And then commonly our Tragedy concludeth in the first scene nay in the very prologue our Repentance is at an end in the very first Turn Nemo potest personam diu ferre Ficta cito in naturam suam recidunt Sen. 1. de Clem. c. 1. in the very first shew Ahab's Repentance was but a flash at the Prophets thunder Pharaoh's Repentance was driven on with an East-wind and compast about with locusts an inconstant false and desultory Repentance I cannot better compare it then to motions by water-works Whilest the water runneth the devise turneth round and we have some Story of the Bible presented to our eyes but when the water is run out all is at an end and we see that no more which took our eyes with such variety of action So it is many times in our Turn which is no better then a pageant Whilest the waters of affliction beat upon us we are in motion and may present divers actions and signs of true Repentance Our eyes may gush out with tears we may hang down our head and beat our breast our tongue our glory may awake our hands may be stretched out to the poor we may cry Peccavi with David put
to shun the least suspicion of offense Hitr. ad Pammach Marcel nè quod fortuitò fecit consultò facere videretur lest what might formerly be imputed to chance or infirmity may now seem to proceed from wilfulness So when we turn and God is pleased so far to condescend as to take us to his favour and of enemies not onely make us his servants but call us his friends it will then especially concern us to abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thess 5.22 to suspect every object as the Devil's lurking-place in which he lieth in wait to betray us lest we may seem to have begged pardon of our sins not out of hatred but out of love unto them and to have left our sins for a time to commit them afresh We are bound now not onely in a bond of common duty but of gratitude For God's free favour is numella as a clog or yoke to chain and fetter and restrain us from sin that we commit not that every day for which we must beg pardon every day A reason of this we may draw from the very Love of God For the Anger of God in a manner is the effect and product of his Love He is angry if we sin because he loved us he is displeased when we yield to temptations because he loved us and his Anger is the hotter because his Love was excessive As the Husband who most affectionately loveth the wife of his youth Prov. 5.19 and would have her be as the loving hinde and pleasant roe but to himself alone will not allow so much love from her as may be conveyed in a look or glance of an eye is jealous of her very looks of her deportment of her garments and will have her to behave her self with that modesty and strangeness ut quisquis videat metuat accedere that no man may be so bold as to come so near as to ask the question or make mention of love and all because he most affectionately loveth her So much nay far greater is the love of God to our souls which he hath married unto himself in whom he desireth to dwell and take delight and so dearly he loveth them that he will not divide with the World and the Flesh but is straight in passion if we cast but a favourable look upon that sin by which we first offended him if we come but near to that which hath the shew of a rival or adversary But if we let our desires loose and fall from him and embrace the next temptation which wooeth us then he counteth us guilty of spiritual whoredome and adultery his jealousie is cruel as the grave Cant. 8.4 and his jealousie which is an effect of his Love shall smoke against us First it was Love and Jealousie lest we might tender our service to strange Gods cast our affections upon false Riches and deceitful Pleasures and now we have left Life for Death preferred that which first wounded us before him that cured us it is Anger and Indignation that he should lose us whom he so loved that we should fling him off who so loved us that he should create and then lose us and afterwards purchase and redeem us and make us his again and we should have no understanding but run back again from him into captivity For in the Second place as our sins are greater after reconcilement so if they do not cancel the former pardon as some are unwilling to grant yet they call those sins to remembrance which God cast behind his back For as good works are destroyed by Sin and revive again by Repentance so our evils which are covered by Repentance revive again by Sin Not onely my Almes are devoured by my Oppression my Chastity defloured by my Uncleanness my Fasting lost in my Luxury but my former sins which were scattered as a mist before the Sun return again and are a thick cloud between me and the bright and shining mercy of God Not that there is any mutability in God No God doth not repent of his gifts but we may of our Repentance and after pardon sin again and so bring a new guilt upon our souls and not onely that but vengeance upon our heads for the contempt of God's Mercy and slighting of his former pardon For nothing can provoke God to anger more then the abuse of his goodness and mercy nor doth his wrath burn most violently then when it is first quencht and allaid with the tears of a sinner and afterwards kindled again by his sin Then he that was well pleased to be reconciled will question and condemn us and yet make good his promise he that forgat our sins will impute our sins and yet be Truth it self For remission of sins is a continued act and is and remaineth whilst the condition which is required remaineth but when we fail in that the door of Mercy which before was wide open unto us is shut against us For should God justifie and forgive him who breaketh his Obligation and returneth to the same place where he stood out against God and fought against him Shall he be reconciled to him who will be again his enemy Ezek. 18.21 2◠If the righteous relapse his righteousness shall not be mentioned nor shall the wickedness of the wicked be mentioned if he repent The change is not in God but in our selves Aliter aliter judicat de homine aliter aliter disposito He speaketh in mercy to the penitent but in anger to the relapsed sinner The rule of Gods actions is constant and like himself And in this particular this is the rule this his decree To forgive the penitent and punish the relapsed sinner So he forgiveth the sinner when he repenteth and punisheth him when he falleth away And why should it be put to the question Whether God revoke his first Pardon Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest as Tertullian speaketh If we think he did it not or cannot do it yet what profit is it that that should remain which doth not profit nay which doth aggravate our sin Or what Pardon is that which may remain firm when he to whom it was given for his revolt may be turned into hell Matth 18. When the servant falleth down the Lord is moved with compassion and looseth him and forgiveth him the debt But when he taketh his fellow-servant by the throat he delivereth him to the tormenters till he pay the utmost farthing God is ever like unto himself constant to his rule and he forgiveth and punisheth for this reason because he is so and cannot change As we beg pardon upon promise so doth God grant it upon supposition of perseverance He doth not pardon us our sin that we should sin again If we break our promise we our selves make a nullity of the Pardon make it of as little virtue and power as if it had never been The Schools tell us that the Sacraments are
under the Law alone but also under the Gospel as a motive to turn us from sin and as a motive to strengthen and uphold us in the wayes of righteousness not onely as a restraint from sin but as a preservative of holiness and as a help and furtherance unto us in our progress in the wayes of perfection It may indeed seem a thing most unbefitting a Christian who should be led rather then drawn and not a Christian alone but any moral man Therefore Plato calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiberal and base disposition to be banisht the School of Morality And our great Master in Philosophy maketh Punishment one of the three things that belong to slaves as the rod doth saith Solomon to the fools back To be forced into goodness Prov. 26.3 to be frighted into health argueth a disposition which little setteth by health or goodness it self But behold a greater then Plato and Aristotle our best Master the Prince of Peace and Love himself striveth to awake and stir up this kind of fear in us telleth us of hell and everlasting darkness of a flaming fire of weeping and gnashing of teeth presenteth his Father the Father of Mercies with a thunderbolt in his hand Luk. 12.5 with power to kill both body and soul sheweth us our sin in a Deaths head and in the fire of hell as if the way to avoid sin were to fear Death and Hell and if we could once be brought to fear to die we should not die at all Many glorious things are spoken even of this Fear The Philosopher calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Psal 31 Tert. De poenit c. 6. the bridle of our Nature S. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of our lusts Tertullian Instrumentum poenitentiae an instrument to work out Repentance Pachomius placeth it supra decem millia paedagogorum maketh it the best Schoolmaster of ten thousand Hearken to the Trumpet of the Gospel be attentive to the Apostles voice What sound more frequent then that of Terrour able to shake and divide a soul from its sin Had Marcion seen our Saviour with a whip in his hand had he heard him cursing the Fig-tree and by that example punishing our sterility had he weighed the many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods For though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still as terrible to sinners that will not turn as when he thundered from Mount Sinai 2 Cor. 5.11 And if we will not know and understand these terrours of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing letter For again as humane laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment And to this end we find not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Juvenat â—at Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna That there remain punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen And we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the world had been far more wicked then it is We see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunteth and pursueth them This may be so There is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sin and this though it do not make them good yet restraineth them from being worse Quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium Freedom from punishment maketh sin pleasant and delightsome and so maketh it more sinful but fear of punishment maketh it irksome bringeth reluctancies and gnawings and rebukes of conscience For without it there could be none at all Till the whip is held up there is honey on the harlots lips and we would tast them often but that they bite like a cockatrice Non timemus peccare timemus ardere It is not sin we so much startle at but hell-fire is too hot for us And therefore S. Peter when he would work repentance and humility in us placeth us under Gods hand 1 Pet. 5. â— Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his Power his commanding attribute His omniscience findeth us out his wisdome accuseth us his justice condemneth us Potentia punit but it is his Hand his Power that punisheth us Take away his Hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his Wisdome or tarrieth for the twilight to shun his all-seeing Eye But cùm occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God early Psal 78.34 Again as the Fear of death may be Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an antidote and preservative against it It may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way As it is an introduction to piety so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregorie Nyssene Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. a watch and a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offense make me turn back again into my evil wayes For we must not think that when we are turned from our evil wayes we have left Fear behind us No she may go along with us in the wayes of righteousness and whisper us in the ear that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared She is our companion and leaveth us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our journeys end Our Love such as it is may well consist with Fear with the Fear of judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysostome L. 1. De compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 6.1 Isa 38.14 15. Rom. 14 10. the memory of Gods judgements written in his very heart His thoughts were busied with it his meditations fixt here and it forced from him DOMINE NE IN FVRORE Correct me not O Lord in thy anger nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walked in the bitterness of his soul did mourn like a dove and chatter like a Crane S. Paul buildeth up a tribunal and calleth
both restoring feet to the lame speech to the dumb and eyes to the blind so letting his bowels and compassion drop on both that both body and soul might be healed The miracle on the body is as a forerunner to prepare the way and draw on the miraculous renewing of the soul In this Chapter we have a man healed of an infirmity under which he had layn eight and thirty years Jesus looketh upon him with an eye of pity prepareth him for the cure by asking him whether he would be made whole and then speaketh the word Rise take up thy bed and walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wonder in a wonder as Basil speaketh He that had none to put him into the pool when the Angel troubled the water found one that did but speak but bid him rise and raised him up The cure is now wrought the man is made whole and hath taken up his bed and walketh All is done The man maketh haste to the Temple to offer up his sacrifice of praise Vers 13. And Jesus is withdrawn hath conveyed himself away because of the multitude Every trifle we do must be rung up with applause but Christ withdraweth not willing to hear a noise from the people though he had wrought a miracle For he did no miracle as the Father speaketh ad simplicem ostentationem potestatis onely to shew his power nec miracula tantùm propter miracula faciebat nor did he work miracles saith Augustine for the miracles sake but to glorifie his Father to confirm and ratifie his Doctrine to cure mens bodies That is done but that is not enough Christ hath a further end to do a cure upon their souls for he is the Saviour of both body and soul and when he sheweth his power in the one he doth it to promote his power in the other These things he did that they might believe and be saved And therefore that mercy which looked upon this man when he lay in one of the porches by the side of the pool is awake still and Christ hath him in his thought though he be removed from his eye He seeketh and followeth and findeth him in the Temple there as it were to interpret his miracle and declare the end for which he had wrought it to shew the meaning of it to make it didactical and instructive And this was seasonable in time of health to remember him of his disease and acquaint him with that which before haply he was ignorant of the cause of it Sin Nemo aeger diligit concionantem medicum When we are sick a preaching Physician is as troublesome as our disease Diseases must be removed by the virtue of herbs and not of Rhetorick But when we are up and walking then admonitions and cautions and prescripts are necessary to keep us from the like disease or a worse At the pool's side Christ doth but look upon the man and ask him a question but afterward he poureth forth himself and more fully instructeth him in the Temple First he stirreth him up with an ECCE Behold thou art made whole Consider that thou walkest and consider that thou hast been sick thirty and eight years Consider thy health and remember thy disease Then he bringeth in a Caveat and teacheth him to beware of that which had made him so impotent NOLI AMPLIUS PECCARE Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Here we may see Christ's Mercy distilling as the honey-comb every cell dropping sweetness Here is 1. misericordia solicita or prosequens mercy solicitous to complete and perfect the cure Jesus findeth him in the Temple 2. Misericordia excitans mercy stirring and rowsing the man up to remember and consider his former and present condition Behold thou art made whole 3. Misericordia praecipiens mercy teaching and prescribing for the future Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee The mercy of a Saviour who is a Friend to find us out a Monitor to admonish and remember us and a Doctor to teach us In these three we have the full pourtraiture and face of Mercy Mercy can do no more then follow and find us out and remember us and instruct us Her last act is in the other world If we now hearken to her voice she will then crown us Of these three here we shall speak in their order 1. that Christ found him 2. that he put him in remembrance 3. that he taught him Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple He found him there not by chance but by counsel and providence and of set purpose seeking him there where he knew he should find him This was done by chance is the language of the lower world of mortal men whose eye of providence is not so quick but that many things befall them not looked for and for which they can give no reason S. Augustine had used those words FORTE and FORTUITUM but at last he retracteth and thinketh them words not fit to be heard in the school of Christ Who though he were in the flesh and in a manner cast our nature over his Divinity as a veil did act by the power of God but in the form of a servant spake as never man spake and did as never man did but yet as a man Mat. 12.25 He knew thoughts He knew what was in man the inwards of their souls John 2.25 the heart of their hearts Hâ— â—â—w Nathanael when he saw him not John 1.48 when he was under the figtree He seeth us when we see not him thinketh of us when we think not of him and is with us when we are yet afar off He biddeth the woman of Samaria call her husband John 4.16 and yet telleth her that he whom she then had was not her husband to wit according to the Law It is said of the Isle of Rhodes that there is no day in the year so cloudy but the Sun one time or other is seen in it So Christ's Majesty displayed its beams as occasioned required and manifested it self in our flesh To know mens thoughts to see them where the eye could not reach them to discover what no man could know these speak him to be a most excellent Person The woman in the fourth of John could not but perceive he was a Prophet but she might have cried out with Peter Thou art the Christ Matth. 16 John 6. the Son of the living God Again he he found him in the Temple he found him where he knew he was and this to finish his work to perfect his cure Though the miracle be done yet there is more to do even a greater miracle then this Though the man rise and walk and go to the Temple yet he carrieth with him a paralytical soul luxatum judicium rationis his Understanding and Will the faculties and parts of his soul loose and out of joynt which like a dead limb though they did not grieve him yet did not help him or
wide gate to let Irreligion and Atheism in But from all Sedition and privy Conspiracy from all false Doctrine and Heresie from Hardness of heart and Contempt of Gods Word and Commandment Good Lord deliver us To conclude To the Temple the man went who was made whole and in the Temple Jesus found him In the Temple he praised God and in the Temple Christ instructed him Acts 3.1 To the Temple went Peter and John at the hour of prayer And into the Temple went up the Pharisee and the Publican the one a Sectary the other odious to a proverb yet no scruple no contention between them both went up together to the Temple to pray And as they had a Temple so have we the Church And if theirs was the Holy place as it is called so is ours being ordained to the same end I may say to a better Theirs to offer up the flesh of beasts ours to offer up our selves Theirs for corporal and carnal ours for spiritual sacrifices And why not ours then as Holy as theirs God himself cannot imprint Holiness in a stone All is from the end The Church is a house of prayer let it not be made a den of thieves to rob God of his glory It is Bethel the House of God let it not be made Bethaven a House of vanity Let our devotion and not our vanity here display it self Let the contention be not who shall be most vain most phantastick but who shall be most devout most humble most reverent It is a house of peace oh what pity what shame is it that we should from this place first hear the alarm to war It is a house where God's Honour should dwell let not Ziim and Ochim satyrs and screech-owles profane persons dance and revel here Last of all it is a place consecrate that is set apart for God's worship then if there be such a sin it it will be foul sacrilege to pull it down I will read to you some part of Psalm 83. Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God For lo thy enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They said let us take to our selves the houses of God in pessession O my God make them like a wheel as the stubble before the wind Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord. That men may know that thou whose name alone is JEHOVAH art the most High over all the earth Tell me now Is this a Psalm set to those times or a Prophecy of ours He that awaketh not he that trembleth not at this thunder is not asleep but dead Seneca speaketh of some who seem to be made as serpents and vipers for no other end but to hiss and trouble the world And such are they who disgrace and profane places set apart for publick devotion What is there in a Church that a religious mind can check at If we must meet together what scruple can arise concerning the place If any do arise it riseth like a fog and steameth from a foul and corrupt heart from Pride the mother of Pertinacy and Contradiction which will not be brought down to conform to the counsels of the wise no nor to the wisdom of God himself but calleth Truth Heresie because others speak it Bounty waste because others lay it out Reverence superstition because others bow and will pull down Churches because others build them kicketh at every thing that is received nihil verum-putans nisi quod diversum thinketh nothing true but that which is diverse and contrary nothing true but that which breatheth in opposition against the Truth as ridiculously but more maliciously scrupulous then Tyridates in Pliny who would not venture on ship-board nor could endure navigation because he thought it an unlawful thing to spit into the sea For see God hath rained down Manna upon us and we startle and ask What is this God hath given us his Word and we quarrel it He hath given us the Sacrament of Baptism and we ask By whom At what ages and How we must be washed It was a River then a Font now a Bason and can you tell can they tell who trouble these waters what it will be next If God prevent it not it will be Nothing Christ hath invited us to his Table and we know not whether we should sit or stand or kneel whether we must come as subjects or as his fellows and companions whether we receive him really or in a trope and figure whether we may not do it too often As Seneca speaketh of Philosophy so may we of Christianity Fuit simplicior aliquando inter minora peccantes When men were more sincere they were less scrupulous and had no leisure to find knots in every bulrush in that which was made smooth and even to their hands They did do their duty and not run about the world and ask How and When they must do it especially where the duty was open and easie to the understanding that they might run and read it They heard the Word and obeyed it They did submit to those who were supreme and not ask How they should be governed The great question of the world at this day and that which troubleth the world They honoured their Pastours and were not busie to teach them how to teach them They were baptized for remission of sins They received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and fed on Christ They went into the Temple the Church to pray with and in the midst of the congregation but never consulted nor asked counsel how to pull it down In a word they were religious and did not seem so Christ found the man he had cured in the Temple and there taught and instructed him And if he find us there he will teach and instruct us also by them to whom he hath committed the Oracles of God Hitherto we have been in the Temple and yet we are but in the porch of our Text. It is high time now to proceed and to hear what the Oracle what Christ doth say Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worst thing come unto thee Here mercy having freed the man of his Palsie spreadeth her wings further to shadow and protect him from a worse disease even Sin Before she did but walk and seek now she speaketh and poureth her self forth as a precious oyl upon his soul to cleanse and heal it And this though we are not willing to think so is the greater mercy of the two There is far more mercy in the Remembrance Tit. 2.11 in the Precept then in a Miracle The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men A saving grace and appearing Who is not willing to behold such an apparition who doth not clap his hands and rejoyce as if Heaven it self did open to take
God's benefits whether Beauty or Wit or Riches or Health is to make them benefits indeed But if we turn them into wantonness they will be turned into judgements we shall be the verier fools for our Wit the poorer for our Riches the more deformed for our Beauty the more despicable for our Power our Health shall be worse then a disease and Miracles themselves shall stand up to condemn us But if we behold that is consider them they will be as the influences of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions from God himself distilling upon us to refresh and quicken us and make us active in those duties which return them back again with praise unto their Fountain And in the strength of them we shall walk on from faith to virtue from virtue to knowledge from knowledge to temperance from temperance to patience till we are brought into the presence of God who is the giver of all things In a word If we thus behold and consider God's benefits we shall sin no more nor shall a worse thing come unto us Which is our third and last part and cometh next to be handled The Fifth SERMON PART III. JOHN V. 14. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee MAN hath not found out more wayes to destroy himself then God hath to save him You shall find God's preventing mercy his following mercy Psal 59.10 Psal 23.6 Psal 119. Psal 6.2 his reviving and quickening mercy his healing mercy Here they are all even a multitude of mercies Healing Preventing Following and Reviving Here I told you is 1. Misericordia solicita Mercy sollicitous to perfect and complete the cure The healing of this impotent mans body was but as a glimmering light as the dawning of the day Mercy will yet shine brighter upon him 2. Misericordia excitans Mercy rousing him up to remember what he was by the pool's side and to consider what he now is in the Temple And these two we have already displayed before you 3. The last now sheweth it self in rayes and light and full beauty Misericordia praecipiens Mercy teaching and prescribing for the future I may call it a Logical Rational Concluding Mercy making the miracle as the Premisses and drawing from it Salvation as the Conclusion Behold thou art made whole Therefore sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned Interpreter And we find that those lessons which are most plain are most necessary as those things which are most common are most useful When we are to build an house we do not go to the mines for gold or to the rocks for perle but to the quarry for stone Corn which feedeth us groweth almost in every field and Sheep which clothe us grase in flocks upon the mountains But those things quibus luxuria Pretium fecit which would be of little esteem did not our luxury set a price upon them are remote and in a manner hidden from us and we find them out with labour and hazard of our lives So it is in spiritual matters Those truths which are necessary lie open and naked to the understanding so that he that runneth may read them But more abstruse and subtle speculations as they are not necessary so are they set at distance and are hard to find out For it is not Curiosity but Humility that must build us up in our most holy Faith And yet the plainest truths in Scripture require our pains and labour as much as the obscurest We may observe that in the winter-season when the Sun is far removed from us we lay our selves open and walk the fields and use means to receive the light and heat of it but in the summer when it is almost over our heads we retire our selves and draw a curtain to exclude both light and heat The same behaviour we put on in our Christian walk When the Sun of righteousness cometh near us and shineth in our very faces we run with Adam into the thicket and hide our selves in excuses but when he withdraweth and as it were hideth himself and will not tell us what is not necessary for us to know we gaze after him and are most busie to walk where we have no light The obscurer places in Scripture are like unto the Sun in winter We delight to use all means to gain the light and meaning of them But the plainest are like the Sun in summer They come too near our Zenith their light and heat offend us they scald and trouble us by telling us plainly of our duty and therefore we use art and draw the curtain against them to keep off their heat As we have heard of the people of Africk that they every morning curse the Sun because the heat of it annoyeth them These plain words of the Text are a notable instance For to defeat the true meaning of them what art do we use what curtains do we draw When we should sin no more we question the possibility of the precept and whether there be any such estate or no As if Christ did bid us sin no more when he knew we could not but sin again and again And then we multiply our sins as we do our dayes and make them keep time almost with every hour and moment of our life And to this end we draw distinctions before the words to keep of their light SIN NO MORE that is Not unto death or SIN NO MORE that is Not with a full consent Not without some reluctancy or strugling of conscience And now where is this Text Even lost and swallowed up and buried in the glosses of flesh and bloud We may we think observe it and yet sin as oft as the flesh or the world shall require it Let us then take some pains to raise the Text from this grave and take off those cloths in which it is enwrapped let us draw it from those clouds and curtains wherewith it is obscured In the course of our speech we shall meet with some of them Now we shall take the words in their natural meaning as they lie And in them you may observe 1. the Prescript or Caution Sin no more 2. the Danger of not observing it If we sin again a worse thing will come unto us And by these we may try our selves as the Eagle doth her young ones If with open eyes w◠can look upon the Text as it lies in its full strength and meaning then are we of the true airy but if we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be weak sighted and cannot endure the light and heat of it we may then justly suspect our selves to be but bastard and counterfeit Christians First of all we shall consider how far the words Sin no more do extend and stretch themselves secondly the Possibility of keeping of them The first is a consideration of some consequence that we may not violate the word of God nor do the Scripture any
out of the deformed body of Sin and to turn their glory into shame who dishonour him For Sin and Punishment are nothing of themselves but in us they are something the one voluntary the other penal The voluntary is a foul deformity in nature and therefore the penal is added to order and place it where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole where the punishment of sin may either chase it away or else wipe off the dishonour of sin If we sin he correcteth us but if we sin again a worse thing will certainly fall unto us A worse thing then his eight and thirty years sickness nay a worse evil then any of those which change the countenance wither the body and burn up the bones as a hearth an evil that withereth up the soul maketh it impotent and unable to help it self and less capable of the help of Grace For as pardon doth nullifie former sins so it maketh those we commit afterwards more grievous and fatal For those sins which we commit after reconciliation are of a higher nature then those we committed before And as it is observed that it is the part of a wise friend after reconcilement etiam leves suspiciones fugere to shun the lest suspicion of offense nè quòd fortuitò fecisset consultò facere videretur lest what might formerly be imputed to chance may now seem to proceed from wilfulness so when God is pleased so far to condescend as to take us into his favour to work a miracle upon us and of enemies not onely to make us his servants but to call us his friends it will then especially concern us to abstain from all appearance of evil to suspect every object we behold as the Devil's lurking-place in which he lieth in wait to betray us and not commit that any day of which we beg pardon every day lest we may seem to have begged pardon of our sins not out of hatred but love unto them and to have left our sins to commit them afresh We are bound now not onely in a bond of common duty but of gratitude For God's free favour is numella a kind of clog and yoke to chain and fetter and restrain us from sin A reason of this we may draw from the very love of God For the Anger of God in a manner is the effect or product of his Love He is angry we sin because he loved us He is displeased when we yield to temptations because he loved us And his anger is the hotter because his love was excessive As the husband which most affectionately loveth the wife of his youth would have her not allow another so much love from her as may be conveyed in a look or glance of the eye is jealous of her very looks of her deportment of her garments and will have her so behave her self ut quisquis viderit metuat accedere that no man may be bold to approch so near as to make mention of love and all because he affectionately loveth her So much nay far greater is the love of God to our souls which by pardon he hath married unto himself in whom he desireth to dwell and take delight So dearly he loveth them that he will not divide with the World and the Flesh but is straight in passion if we cast but a favourable look or look friendly upon that sin by which we first offended him if we come but near to that which hath the shew of a rival or adversary But if we let our desires loose and fall from him and embrace the next temptation that wooeth us then he counteth us guilty of spiritual whoredom and adultery his Jealousie is cruel as the grave and the coals thereof are as the coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame And this Jealousie which is an effect of his Love shall smoke against us First it was Love and Jealousie lest we might tender our service to strange gods and cast our affections upon false riches and deceitful pleasures but now when we have left Life for Death and preferred that which first lamed us before him that cured us it is Anger and Indignation that he should lose us whom he so loved that we should fling him off who so loved us that he should create and then lose us and afterwards purchase and redeem us and make us his again and then we should have no understanding but run back again from him into captivity For in the second place as our sins are greater after reconcilement so they cancel the former pardon and call those offences to remembrance which God had cast behind his back For as good works are destroyed by sin and revive again by repentance so our evil works which are covered by repentance revive again by sin Not onely my Alms are devoured by Oppression my Chastity deflowred by Uncleanness my Fasting lost in Luxury but my former sins which were scattered as the mist before the Sun return again and are as a thick cloud between me and the bright shining mercy of God Not that there is any mutability in God God repenteth not of his gifts But we may repent of our repentance and after pardon sin again and so bring a new guilt upon our souls and not onely that but vengeance also upon our heads for the contempt of his mercy and slighting of our former pardon Irascitur enim Deus contumeliis misericordiae suae Nothing provoketh God to anger more then the abuse of his goodness and mercy Nor doth his wrath at any time burn more violently then when having been first quenched and allayed with the tears of a sinner it is after kindled again by his sin Then he that was well pleased to be reconciled will question and condemn us and yet make good his promise he that forgat our sins will impute our sins and yet be Truth it self If the righteous relapse his righteousness shall not be mentioned Ezek. 18.21 24. nor shall the wickedness of the wicked be mentioned if he repent For the change is not in God but in our selves Aliter aliter judicat de homine aliter aliter disposito He speaketh in mercy to the penitent but in anger to the relapsed sinner The rule of God's actions is constant And in this particular this is his rule this is his decree To forgive the penitent and to punish the relapsed sinner So he forgiveth the sinner when he repenteth and punisheth him who falleth away Why should we ask whether God revoke his former pardon Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest If we think he did not yet what profit is it that that should remain which doth not profit nay which doth aggravâ—te our sin What pardon is that that leaverh us When the servant falleth down the Lord is moved with compassion and looseth him Matth. 18. and forgiveth him the debt But when he taketh his fellow-servant by the throat he delivereth him
the breast of my brother and to say that for his sin this evil hath befallen us or to say that for his sin he vvas struck blind or poor or lame is to be too bold vvith God's quiver But to level the arrovv at my self to look upon the hand of God and to think that my sin hath lifted it up to strike and that the blovv may in justice fall upon me is to to be a good proficient in this study Perfectò errando non erramus Thus erring vve do not erre For it is an happy errour that maketh us vviser then vve vvere and that vvorketh mercy out of judgment it self Thus vve may read the providence of God driving every thing to its right end vvorking good out of evil sending evil to make us good teaching us by his corrections to sin no more and so keeping us from the wrath to come that that worst thing come not unto us The Sixth SERMON LUKE VI. 24. But wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation AT the very first hearing of these words every man will be ready to say This is a hard saying who can hear it For every man almost either is rich or desireth to be so and To be rich and To desire to be rich with Christ are the same thing and there is a Wo pronounced to them both Wo to them that have the good things of this world in possession and Wo to them that have them in desire Wo to them that love the world and reign in it and Wo to them that love the world though they have not so much as a fox hath a hole to hide their heads in Certainly this is a hard saying but then we must remember also that the way to happiness is very hard and Christ Jesus our Captain and Leader knoweth best which way to lead us Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli susurronum saith Hierome The judgement of the Son of God and of the sons of men are not the same It is one thing what we whisper one to another another what Christ proclaimeth from heaven What we call Beauty he calleth a snare what we call Riches he styleth vanity what with us is Honour with him is Shame where we fix a Blessing he fixeth a Wo and what we cry up with Grace Grace unto it he calleth Anathema Behold the rich man sheweth himself and the poor man trembleth his equals flatter yea his superiours will bow unto him For not onely the Crutch but even the Sceptre also will do homage to Riches Lord what a God is a rich man upon the earth how he commandeth all and they obey him how he commandeth the Law and the Judge and they obey him He saith to this man Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to a third Do this and he doeth it But yet this God is at the best but as the Gods of the Heathen silver and gold nay not of so lasting and abiding a nature as that silver and gold which he possesseth but a sick God a mortal God a God ready moulder away into dust and ashes And here when riches encrease when the world smileth when men speak well when the people fall down and worship in the midst of all this pomp and bravery this pride and jollity when the Rich man singeth a Requiem to his soul Soul take thy rest and praiseth his Gods of silver and gold Christ pronounceth a Wo unto him in the words of my Text Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation Which words are as the hand-writing on the wall Dan. 5.6 to change the countenance of the rich and to loose the joynts of his loins Here Christ may seem to deal with us as Jacob did with Joseph when he brought before him his two sons Ephraim and Manasseth to place his left hand where we would have him place his right or rather to curse where we do bless to kindle a hell in that which we have made our paradise to fix a Wo upon our Crovvn and to say Wo unto us vvhen vve think our selves encircled vvith joy and happiness To be rich is every mans vvish but vve startle at the very sound of a Vae But since Christ hath put them together it will be impossible to put them asunder but they must stand as we read them Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation The words divide themselves into two parts 1. a Wo denounced Wo unto you that are rich 2. a Reason given For ye have received your consolation And indeed if we weigh the Reason we shall not so much wonder at the Wo. For we may say of Riches as Job did of his friends that they are but miserable comforters And if we have no other consolation then from these or receive these as our consolation our last receipt will be Wo misery and torment The Reason then you see must make good the Wo. All the danger is in receiving riches for Wo be to Rich men because they have received their consolation We will therefore shew 1. In what conjunction these two Wo and Riches do stand 2. How they may be sundred find out why Riches are so dangerous to receive and how we may receive them without any danger And with these we shall exercise your devotion at this time Wo unto you that are rich and It is impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven and Go to now you rich men weep and howle these all are the phrases and language of the Holy Ghost And though peradventure they may be softned and mitigated by just and lawful interpretations so that when the letter killeth the spirit may give life though we may take off the Wo from Riches by having and contemning them and the impossibility of being saved from our selves by scattering them and the weeping and howling by not rejoycing in them though we may be rich and no Wo befal us yet Christ is thus pleased to deliver himself in terms plain and positive in ill-boding and portending words that at least we may be jealous of Riches and think it rather a matter of danger then content to bear up our heads with the best and to be rich in this world Luke 16. in that dialogue between Abraham and the Rich man Abraham doth not lay to the rich mans charge any great or notorious crime but doth onely tacitly and inclusively remember him of his cruelty to Lazarus That which he plainly accuseth him for is his being rich Son ver 25. remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things ver 19. And it is said of him that he was a rich man that he was clothed in purple and fine linen and that he fared sumptuously every day This this was his fault He was rich onely to be rich he was rich while Lazarus was poor he was clothed in purple and fine
first command with promise For Man to be under the Law is to be under God For the Law is nothing else but the mind of God To be under the Gospel is to be under God For he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Author and Finisher of it And then to bound our Christian Liberty to bring it under under Sobriety Charity Authority is to place our selves under God even under the shadow of his wings For his wing and power spreadeth it self over all these He gave us our Charter thus interlined he past over this Liberty unto us with these exceptions and limitations that it should not break the bounds of Sobriety and the rules of Charity nor fly loose and lift it self up against Authority And this we must do if we will put Humilitie's mantle and be God's humble servants we must have our SUB we must come under under the Precept under the Gospel under our selves under the meanest thought we have Our Christian Liberty must come under Sobriety under Charity under Authority And this will make us Descendent right in our right point and aspect in our Nadir even SUB DEO under God himself Thus have we run the whole compass of the Duty and at last brought you under the mighty hand of God For that we may humble our selves the Apostle here bringeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodoret calleth it the plow of Reason to plow up the fallow-ground of our hearts and dig up Pride by the very roots and he calleth us to the consideration of God's Power of his mighty hand with which he bindeth Kings in chains and Nobles with fetters of iron with which he bruiseth the nations and breaketh them to pieces like a potter's vessel And if any thing will strike reverence into us and melt and thaw our petrified hearts God's Power will If his Eye his care and providence over us if his Ear his facility in hearing our complaints if his Tongue his Prophets and Teachers will not yet his powerful hand should humble us Sure I am this is the rule of Wisdom it self and if you will trust S. Peter and his keys this is the low door of Humility and the righteous must enter into it Unto the Mighty bow we should For what he will do we know not but what he can do we know even in a moment humble us so that we shall never lift up our heads again And when we are advancing our plumes and thinking what goodly creatures we are he can humble that thought too and strike us into a spiritual dejection nay annihilate that thought and which is worse punish that thought which hath but the continuance of a thought Psal 46.6 everlastingly The Lord uttered his voice and the earth melted saith the Psalmist When Power speaketh every thing even the mountains and rocks and those Hearts which are more exalted and harder then they should melt We see how the Power of Man of as near kin to the Worm and Rottenness as we doth rule and awe us how it doth unnaturalize and unprinciple and unman us and even transform us into Beasts how it fettereth the Hand and naileth the Tongue to the roof of the mouth how it maketh us kiss the hand that striketh us worship what we hate and fall down before any Idol it shall set up how it maketh us to say that we do not think to swear to that we know a lie to do that which we were never resolved to do to do that to day which we loathed and abhorred yesterday We see how many proselytes it maketh how he is able to baptize a Jew and circumcise a Christian and make them both at last turn Turks And shall not the hand of God bow us to whom all Power belongeth Shall the breath of mortals make the earth to tremble and shake and shall it be earth still or a sensless and immoveable rock when God is angry Why are we so led by Sense and yet so much commend the Eye of Faith as to give her a more certain knowledge then that of Sense and yet fear that we see more then that we believe fear the shaking of a mortal's whip more then the scorpions of a Deity fear a prison more then Hell and the frown of a man more then the wrathful displeasure of God Why do we call him the mighty God and make it an article of our Creed when we do not believe it And if we believe it why do we sleep when God thundereth and startle when Man threateneth Why do ye fear Why do ye not fear Why do you fear where no fear is and not fear him who alone is to be feared O ye of little faith Beloved what can God do more then he hath done to make bare his arm and manifest his power His Voice is in his thunder his Power is in his judgments his mighty Hand is alwayes over us But hath it not of late been as visible as that Hand Belshazzar saw written upon the wall Might we not even read a TEKEL and a PERES in capital letters Do we not see how little we weighed and how much we lost I will not ask now Whose thoughts have troubled him Whose joynts have been loosed Whose knees have smote one against another But What hath this Hand this mighty Hand this visible Hand wrought in us Hath it dulleâ— the teeth of the Oppressour or deaded the appetite of the Intempâ—â—ate Hath it beat the deceitful weights out of the bag Hath it bound the hand of the Sacrilegious or stopt the mouth of the Blasphemer Hath it plucked the phylacteries from the Pharisee or the visour from the Hypocrite Hath it turned our harp into mourning or our purple into sackcloth Miserable men that we are and the more miserable that we feel it not but lie under God's hand nay feel the weight of it and so behave our selves as if he had no hand at all To be under his hand when he striketh and not to bow to be broken and bruised and yet not humble to be brayed as it were in a mortar and be as very fools as before O dolor what a grief is this saith the Father nay what a judgment is this To be under God's hand and not to bow to be under judgment and not to feel it is the last and greatest judgment in this world But the best sight of God's Power is in his Mercy For his Mercy hath a hand as well as his Justice and there is a Crown and Diadem in the hand of the Lord as well as a Thunderbolt Isa 62.3 And indeed our Humiliation is never so kindly never so proper as when it is the product of Mercy There is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared Psal 130.4 saith David This was the end why the acceptable year of the Lord was preached and a Jubilee proclaimed God was reconciled to his enemies that they might be friends he bought them with a price
it self in his mouth will be heretical and whatsoever droppeth from his pen will be poyson Hence it hath come to pass that we have heard the innocent condemned and things laid to their charge which they never did that they have been branded with the name of murderers who abhorred murder of injurious who suffered wrong of persecutors who were oppressed of idolaters who hated idoles of hereticks who were the strongest pillars of the Truth We are wont to say Love is blind and tell me now Is not Hatred blind also In the next place let one Feaâ— chase away another Let the Fear of God whose wrath is everlasting expell the Fear of Man whose breath is in his nostrils whose anger and power like the wind breathe themselves out who whilest he destroyeth destroyeth nothing but that which is as mortal as himself The reason why we miss of Truth is because we are so foolish and ignorant that we Fear man more then God and the shaking of his whip then the scorpions of a Deity How hath this ill-placed Fear unmanned us how hath it shaken the powers of our soul and made us say what we do not believe and believe that to be true which we cannot but know is false There hath passed an ungracious speeâ—h amongst us and often rung in our ears and this base degenerate Fear did dictate it Men have been so bad and bold as to say They had rather trust God with their souls then Man with their estates and lives Had they not thought they had stated the question they would not have proclaimed it with such ostentation they would not have sung it out and rejoyced in it Certainly if a proverb as the Philosopher saith be a publick testimony and do discover the constitution of the place where it is taken up then our Jerusalem is not the city nor our Countrey the region of Truth Trust man with our estates When we persevere in the Truth and suffer for it we trust not our estates with Man but put them into his hands who gave them and who can make the greatest Leviathan that playeth in the sea of this world Job 41.31 and maketh it boil like a pot disgorge himself and cast out the prey We do not trust them with Man but offer them a sacrifice to the Lord. But we will trust God with our souls say they See how a lie multiplieth in our hands We will trust God with our souls and pollute them and when we have polluted them still trust in the Lord. It is good to trust in the Lord but it is good too to take heed what a soul we trust him with Wilt thou trust an unclean soul with the God of purity a soul guilty of bloud with the God of mercy a distracted soul with the God of peace an earthy soul with the God of heaven a perjured soul with that God who is Truth it self Let not thy love of the world and thy fear of losing it draw so false and foul conclusions from so radiant and excellent a truth And if thou art in earnest and wouldst buy the Truth Matth. 10.28 then fear not them which kill the body and after that have no more that they can do Luke 12.4 5. but fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell yea I say unto you fear him Now in the last place what is our Hope If it be in this life onely we are of all men the most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 For this world is not the region of Truth here is nothing to be found but vanity and lies Pergula pictoris veri nihil omnia falsa Here are false Riches painted Glories deceitful Honours I may say the world is a monument a painted sepulchre and within it lie Errour Delusions and Lies like rotten bones And wilt thou place thy Hope here upon that which is a lie Shall this be thy compass to steer by in thy travel and adventure for Truth Shall the lying Spirit the God of this world be thy holy or rather unholy Ghost to lead thee to it O spem fallacem This is a deceitful Hope and will lead thee into by-paths and dangerous precipices wheel and circle thee about from one lie to another Mark 9.22 cast thee like that evil spirit into fire and water waste and wash away thy intellectual and discerning faculties which should sever Falshood from Truth make thy religion as deceitful as thy hopes and when all thy hopes and thoughts perish deliver thee over to the Father of lies Be sure then to take of thy Hope from these things on eâ—rth why should it stoop so low And raise it up to enter into that within the veil Hebr. 6.19 that it may not flie after shadows and phantasms but lay hold on the Truth it self that the World and the Devil may find nothing in thee to lead thee from the light into that ignorance which is darker then darkness it self that thou mayest say to them What have I to do with you and so pass on with courage and chearfulness to the purchase of that Truth which abideth for ever The Eleventh SERMON PART II. PROV XXIII 23. Buy the truth and sell it not also wisdome and instruction and understanding YE have heard of part of the payment But the price of the Truth is yet higher and there is more to be given And indeed we shall find that the merchandise is unvaluable and that it will be cheap when we have given all for it What are the Vanities of the world yea what is the whole World it self nay what is our Understanding Will and Affections what is Man in comparison of that Truth without which he is worse then nothing What is it then that we must lay down more when we come to this mart We must part with that which cleaveth many times so close unto us that we cannot so much as offer any thing for the Truth First we must remove all Prejudice out of our minds that they may be still tanquam rasa tabula though they have something written in them yet that they receive not any opinion so deeply in as not to be capable of another which hath more reason to commend it that they cleave not so close to that which was first entertained upon weak peradventure carnal motives as to stand out against that which bringeth with it a cloud of witnesses and proofs yea light it self to make entrance for it Secondly we must remove all Malice all distast and loathing of the Truth we must take heed we do not wilfully reject it as if it concerned us not nor were worth the buying Till our mind be clear of both these Prejudice and Malice we may talk of the Truth but onely as a blind man doth of the light we may commend the Truth but as a man of Belial may honour a Saint we may cry out Magna est Veritas praevalebit 1 Esdr 4.41 and yet
ship and an undefiled Conscience as the rudder If you strike off the rudder or let it go the ship will soon dash against the rocks But yet let us suppose that such a case may fall out though very rarely that the Conscience having been asleep for a long while may at length be awakened by the horrour of a prison and captivity and then break forth with power and strength to make such a man a champion for the Truth We may here say Men and brethren what shall this man do Shall he forsake the Truth against conscience God forbid For if that which is not of faith that is of conscience and a full perswasion of mind be sin then that which is against it is greater But may he not deny it with a mind to gain further time of repentance and so to fit himself to this work to make himself a better and more acceptable sacrifice to God No this is as dangerous as the other For evil is no good foundation to raise up that which is good upon We must not saith S. Paul do evil that good may come thereby And how can we hope that God should give us time to repent of our former sins when we adde this sin to the rest the Denial of the Truth Why may we not rather fear that he will cut us off in this very thought who to flie from the fire of his jealousie run further into it Certainly we cannot merit of God by our demerits We cannot make one sin a way to the remission of the rest It is not likely we should be carried into heaven on the Devil 's back or go through hell into paradise What shall he do then Shall he lay down his life Yes he must for it is better to die then to sin better to breathe out my last then to countermand my conscience better not to be then to be an apostate But then you will say being pressed down with the burthen of his sins how shall he be able to lift up his head What hope can breathe to comfort him in the midst of so many clamours and affrights When Conscience is loud against him what shall silence her Whither should he flie or whither should he go Even let him bow to that power which is over him and now come and desire him and in all humility beg the prorogation of life for so much time in which he may approve his repentance and make it evident both to God and man But if this be not granted as persecutors are alwaves in hast cannot sleep till he that offendeth them be in his grave then let him throw himself down before the throne of God and before his mercy-seat and with the Thief on the cross confess he doth receive the due reward of his deeds and with him cry loud unto Jesus to remember him And why should not we hope well of this man though he came in but at the eleventh hour of the day nay when his sun was even setting and his day well-near shut up Although he hath not the excuse that no man hired him yet he hath this comfort that his Lord may do what he will with his own He may rouse up himself with the extraordinary favour and mercy of God whose eye is good howsoever ours be evil and who though he hath bound us to timely repentance yet hath not bound himself not to accept of the latest if it be serious And that this man's is so no better argument can be brought then that which is written with his own bloud And now what is his hope His hope is even in Christ if not the most certain hope as certain as theirs who have served him in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of their life yet it cometh so near unto it that there cannot be one more certain then this And to conclude this we need not fear to number him amongst those who are persecuted for righteousness sake amongst those of whom that voice from heaven speaketh Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead who dye in the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who are destined as sacrifices and appointed as children to death for they shall rest from their labours and their works shall follow them And thus have you seen Persecution entailed as it were upon the children of God and What it is to suffer for righteousness sake Thus have we led you through this Field of bloud Let us now look back upon it and see what we can bring along with us for our further use and instruction And it looketh indifferently both upon those whose feet are swift to shed bloud and on those righteous persons who are fitted to poure it forth Eadem catena militem custodiam They are as it were linked together The persecuted and persecutor imply and suppose one another and are never asunder But let them that suffer have the first place And first knowing these terrours as the Apostle speaketh seeing Persecution is as it were entailed upon the righteous person seeing there is a kind of providence and necessity it should be so let us learn first as S. Peter speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to think it strange concerning this fiery tryal not to dote too much upon this outward guilded peace and perpetuity in publick profession or when we see these things think some strange thing is come unto us For what strange thing is it that wicked men should persecute the righteous that a serpent should bite or a lion roar that the world should be the world and the Church the Church Or what is now done which hath not been done in all the ages of the world For let us ask the dayes of old and they will tell us that outward Peace and Perpetuity of profession have more diligently attended Superstition and Idolatry then true Profession Look upon the Kingdom of Judah and see how there as upon a stage the service of God and Idolatry had interchangeably as it were their scenes and mutually succeeded one another But Superstition was still longer-lived and breathed with less trouble then true Religion which did shine for a while in peace but was soon over-shadowed with a cloud All that I shall say is but what our Saviour said to Nicodemus of our new birth Nolite mirari Wonder not at it For whatsoever changes and alterations there be in the outward profession of Religion Religion and the Church are ever the same the same in a cloud and obscurity that they were when they shined gloriously before the sun and the people the same in persecution which they were in peace but far more glorious For from these outward things if we would speak in the holy language befalleth the true Church of Christ neither peace nor war but as the blessed Angels have their motions and qualities and attributes which we are utterly ignorant of yet known to themselves so Peace and War and Persecution and other attributes we give the Church are such as
the highest heavens for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's THese words are a Logical Enthymeme consisting of two parts an Antecedent Ye are bought with a price and a Consequent naturally following Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's God's by Creation and God's by Redemption the Body bought and redeemed from the dust to which it must have fallen for ever and the Soul from a worse death the death of sin from those impurities which bound it over to an eternity of punishment and therefore both to be consecrated to him who bought them How God is to be glorified in our spirit we have already shewn to wit by a kind of assimilation by framing and fashioning our selves to the will and mind of God He that is of the same mind with God glorifieth him by bowing to him in his still voice and by bowing to him in his thunder by hearkening to him when he speaketh as a Father and by hearkening to him when he threatneth as a Lord by hearkening to his mercy and by hearkening to his rod. For the Glory of a King is most resplendent in the obedience of his subjects In a word we glorifie God by Justice and Mercy and those other vertues which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions and emanations from his infinite goodness and light In a just and perfect man God shineth in glory and all that behold him will say that God is in him of a truth The Glory of God is that immense ocean into which all streams must run Our Creation our Redemption are to his glory Nay the Damnation of the wicked at last emptieth it self and endeth here This his wisdom worketh out of his dishonour and forceth it out of blasphemy it self But God's chief glory and in which he most delighteth is from our submissive yielding to his natural and primitive intent which is that we should follow and be like him in all purity and holiness In this he is well pleased that we should do that which is pleasing in his sight Then he looketh with an eye of favour and complacency upon Man his creature when he appeareth in that shape and form which he prescribed when he seeth his own image in him when he is what he would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him and that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should wait upon him alone when he falleth not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as God is merciful perfect as God is perfect Then is he glorified then doth he glory in him Deut. 30.9 and rejoyce over him as Moses speaketh as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted not defaced Then is Man taught Canticum laudis nothing else but the Glory and Praise of his Maker Thus do we glorifie God in our spirit Now to pass to that which we formerly did but touch upon Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made up of both of Body and Spirit and therefore must glorifie God not onely in the spirit but in the body also For such a near conjunction there is between the Body and the Soul that nothing but Death can divorce them and that too but for a while a sleeping-time after which they shall be made up into one again either to howl out their blasphemie or to sing a song of praise to their Maker for evermore If we will not glorifie God in our body by chastity by abstinence by patience here we shall be forced to do it by weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter It is true the body is but flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 yet the life of Jesus may be made manifest in this our flesh It is but dust and ashes but this dust and ashes may be raised up and made a Temple of the holy Ghost a Temple in which we offer up ch 6.19 not beasts our raging lusts and unruly affections nor the foul stench and exhalations of our corrupted hearts but the sweet incense of our devotion not whole drink offerings but our tears and strong supplications such a Temple which it self may be a sacrifice a holy and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 post Dei templum sepulcrum Christi saith Tertullian and being a Temple of God be made a sepulchre of Christ by bearing about in it the dying of our Lord Jesus For when we beat it down and bring it in subjection when we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep it chast and pure quench those unholy fires which are even ready to kindle and flame up in it bind and tye it up from joyning with that forbidden object to which its bent and natural inclination carrieth it when we have set a watch at every sense at every door which may be an in-let to the Enemy when we have learned so far to love it as to despise it to esteem of it as not ours but his that made it to be macerated and diminished to be spit upon and whipt to be stretched out on the rack to be ploughed up with the scourge to be consumed in the fire when his honour calleth for it when with S. Paul we are ready to offer it up then is the power of Christ's death visible in it and the beauty of that sight is the glory of God First we glorifie God in our bodies when we use them for that end to which he built them up when we make them not the weapons of sin but the weapons of righteousness when we do not suffer them to make our Spirit and Reason their servants to usher in those delights which may flatter and please them but bring them under the law and command of Reason Touch not Taste not Handle not which by its power may check the weakness of the Flesh and so uphold and defend it from those allurements and illusions from that deep ditch that hell into which it was ready to fall and willing to be swallowed up Now saith S. Paul vers 13◠the body is not for fornication It was not created for that end For how can God who is Purity it self create a body for uncleanness Not then for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Who made it as an instrument which the mind might use to the improvement and beautifying of it self as a vessel to be possest by us in holiness and honour 1 Thes 4.4 his Temple and thy vessel his Temple that thou mayest not profane it and thy vessel that thou mayest not defile and pollute it nor defile thy soul in it For this kind of
speak in Faith speak in the bitterness of your souls speak in Hope and speak in the heavenly dialect which is Love ye then truly say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And this Jesus shall be your Jesus shall plead and intercede for you fill you with all the comforts and ravishments of his Gospel And this Lord shall descend to meet you here and welcome you to his Table And when he shall descend with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God he will enable and encourage you to meet him in the air and take you up with him into heaven that ye may be and rejoyce with Jesus the Lord for evermore Which the Lord grant for his infinite mercy's sake The Eighteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost WE have hitherto detained you in the Lesson Which is indeed a short one but in it is comprised the whole Gospel For when we have let loose our phansie and sought out many inventions when we have even wearied our selves in the uncertain gyres and Meanders which our imaginations cut out when we have laid out that time in following that we cannot overtake which we should have imployed in that work which is visible and put into our hands when our Curiosity hath even spent it self this is all Jesus is the Lord. And to profess him to be the Lord whom we must obey in all things who hath power in heaven and in earth a power to command our Understandings to bow to the Truth and our Wills to imbrace it is compendium Evangelii the sum of Religion the whole intent and scope of the Gospel of Christ This is the Lesson And I told you in the next place we must learn to say it that is first to Profess it But that is not enough All Nations have said it and the Devils have said it And what Religion is that in which the sons of perdition and the Devils themselves may joyn with us What a Profession is that which may be heard in Hell What a poor progress do we make towards happiness if the cursed Spirits go along with us and reach as far as we There is then secondly verbum mentis a word conceived in the mind a perswasion of the Truth And this also may come too short For many times there is not so much Rhetorick and power in this to move us to our duty as there is in a piece of money or a painted face to carry us from it but it lieth useless and of no efficacy at all suffering our members to rebel our flesh to riot it our passions to break loose and hurry us into by-wayes and dangerous precipices speaking to us for the Lord whilst we despise and tread him under foot For if we consider that intimacy and familiarity that many men have with those sins which cannot but present to the mind so much monstrosity as might fright them from them if we behold with what eagerness and delight men pursue that which is as loathsome as Hell it self how they labour and dig for it as for treasure how they devote both body and mind to its service how every trifle is in esteem above Grace and every Barabbas preferred before Jesus the Lord we might easily be induced to conclude that they do not believe that there is a God or that Jesus is the Lord but as the Heathen in scorn did ask Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabulâ count the Gospel and Christianity as a fable For it is not easie to conceive how a man that is verily persuaded in his heart that Jesus is the Lord and that to break Christ's command is to forfeit his soul that for every wilful sin he loseth Paradise and for a moments brutish pleasure he shall find no better purchase then an irreversible state in hell should dare to do that which he doeth every day in a kind of triumph and Jubilee or dip but the tip of his finger in the water of bitterness which he drinketh down greedily as an oxe But upon a review and more mature consideration we may observe that Sin is not alwaies the effect of Infidelity but sometimes of Incogitancy and because we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop and look intentively upon this truth that we have indeed learned this lesson but when we should make use of it to restrain us are willing to forget that Jesus is the Lord. We believe that we shall die but so live as if we were eternal We believe there is hell-fire but stoln waters are sweet and quench those flames We believe that there is a heaven but every trifle is a better sight We believe that Jesus is the Lord but the object that next smileth upon us becometh our Master We believe but are willing to forget what we believe Heaven and Hell the Law and the Gospel and the Lord himself In a word we believe that Death is the wages of sin but the pleasures and vanities of the world come towards us in a gaudy and triumphant march and swallow up this faith and this persuasion in victory detain it and put it in chains that it is not able to do its office not to move and work by Charity For if Heaven did display all its glory and Hell breathe forth all its terrour yet if we do but look upon it and then turn away our eye our persuasion will soon shrink back and withdraw it self and leave us naked and open to every temptation weak and impotent not able to struggle and resist it and we shall laetari in rebus pessimis rejoyce in evil sport and delight our selves at the very gates of hell as an intoxicated thief may laugh and jest at the ridge of the gallows Be not then too well persuaded of every persuasion For if it be but the word and the language of the mind it may soon be silenced And therefore we must nourish and soment it stir it up and enliven it that in the last place it may be of force to move the Tongue and the Hand that as the Heart doth speak to the Lord by a sincere belief Lord I belive so we may speak it with our Hands and Eyes and Feet and sound it out with every member that we have and together make that glorious report which may enter the highest heavens Lord we are ready to do whatsoever thou commandest that we may pray in his ears and weep in his ears Numb 11.18 that our Alms may speak louder then our Trumpet and our Fasting and Humility may houl unto him and not our exterminated face that he may hearken to our thoughts as well as to our words and that an universal Obedience may declare our Faith as the heavens do his glory This is the language of Canaan the
on heaven and having an eye fixed and buried in the earth And that he is a Spirit of truth And it is the property of Truth to be alwayes like unto it self to change neither shape nor voice but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak the same things He doth not set up one Text against another doth not disannul his Promises in his Threats nor recall his Threats in his Promises doth not forbid Fear in Hope nor shake our Hope when he biddeth us fear doth not command Meekness to abate my Zele nor kindle my Zele to consume my Meekness doth not preach Christian Liberty to take off Obedience to Government nor prescribe Obedience to infringe and weaken my Chiristian Liberty Spiritus nusquam est aliud The holy Spirit is never different from it self never contradicteth it self And the reason why men who talk so much of the Spirit do fall into so gross and pernicious errours is from hence that they will not be like the Spirit in this but upon the beck of some place of Scripture which at the first blush and appearance looketh favourably on their present inclinations run violently on this side animated and posted on by those shews appearances which were the creatures of their Lust Phansie never looking back to other testimonies of Divine authority that army of evidences as Tertull. speaketh which are openly prest out marshalled against them which might well put them to an halt deliberation which might stay and drive back their intention and settle them at last in the truth which consisteth in a moderation O that men were wise but so wise as to know the Spirit before they engage him to look severely impartially upon their own designs as seriously consider the nature of the blessed Spirit before they voice him out for their abettor or make use of his name to bring their ends about Not to do this I will not say is the sin though perhaps I might but sure I am it is a great sin even Blasphemy against the holy Ghost But I must conclude Let us then as the Apostle speaketh examine our selves and bring our selves and our actions to trial Prove your selves and prove the Spirit Are your steps right and your wayes straight Do your actions answer the rule and still bear the same image and superscription Are you obedient to the Church and do you not think your selves wiser then your Teachers Are you reverent to God's word and receive it with all meekness without respect or distinction of those persons that convey it To come close to the Text Do you not divorce Jesus from the Lord riot it upon his mercy and then bow to him in a qualm and pinch of conscience Do you not fear the Lord the less for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord Are you as willing to be commanded as to be saved and to be his subjects as his children Are you thus qualified And are you still the same not making in your profession those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crooked and unsteddy bendings those staggerings of a drunken man now meek as Lambs and anon raging like Lions now hanging down the head and anon lifting up your horn on high at the altar forgiveness and in your closet revenge courting your brother to day and to morrow taking him by the throat Are you as ready to bow the knee in Devotion and stretch forth the hand in Charity as you are to incline your ear to a Sermon Are you in all things in subjection unto this Lord Is this proposition true and dare ye subscribe it with your bloud JESUS IS THE LORD Then have ye learnt this language well and are perfect Linguists in the Spirit 's dialect Then let the rainfall and the flouds come let the winds and waters of affliction beat thick upon us and the waves of persecution go over our soul let the windy sophisms of subtil disputants blow with violence to shake our resolution in the midst of all temptations assaults and encounters in the midst of all the busie noise the world can make we shall be at rest upon the rock even upon this fundamental truth That the Spirit is the best teacher and That Jesus is the Lord. In which truth the Spirit of truth confirm us all for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake The Nineteenth SERMON ISA. LV. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near THE withdrawing of every thing from its original from that which it was made to be is like the drawing of a straight line which the further you draw it the weaker it is nor can it be strengthned but by being redoubled and brought back again towards its first point Now the Wiseman will tell us Eccles 7.29 That God hath made man upright that is simple and single and sincere bound him as it were to one point but he hath sought out many inventions mingled himself and ingendered with divers extravagant conceits and so run out not in one but many lines now drawn out to that object now to another still running further and further from the right and from that which he should have staid in and been united to as it were in puncto in a point and so degenerated much from that natural simplicity in which he was first made This our Prophet observeth in the people of Israel that they did their own wayes Chap. 58.13 Chap. 63.17 and erred from God's wayes run out as so many ill-drawn lines one on the flesh another on the world one on idolatry another on oppression every man at a sad distance from him whom he shoud have dwelt and rested in as in his Centre Therefore in every breath almost and passage of this Prophesie he seemeth to bend and bow them as it were a line back again to draw them from those objects in which they were lost and to carry them forward to the rock out of which they were hewen to strengthen and settle and establish them in the Lord. All this you have here abridged and epitomized Seek ye the Lord while he may be found The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned interpreter If we look stedfastly upon the opening of them we shall behold the heavens open and God himself displaying his rayes and manifesting his beauty to draw men near unto himself to allure and provoke them to seek him teaching dust and ashes how to raise it self to the region of happiness mortality to put on immortality and our sinful nature to make its approches to Purity it self that where he is we may be also The parts are two 1. A Duty enjoyned Seek ye the Lord. 2. The Time prescribed when we must seek him while he may be found But because the Object is in nature before the Act and so to be considered we must know what to seek before we can seek it and because we are ready to mistake and to think that we
blessings or by his judgments yet if we seek him he will be found Let us have as much feeling as the Cedars of Libanus which are shaken with his voice Let us seek him for there may be more wrath yet left in his vials let us seek him that he poure it not forth that our gold become not dim Lam. 4. that the pretious sons of Sion become not as earthen pitchers that the tongue of the suckling cleave not to the roof of his mouth for thirst that they amongst us who are brought up in scarlet embrace not the dunghils that our Jerusalem be not made a heap of stones And therefore let us with one heart and mind make a covenant to seek the Lord 2 Chron. 15.12 who now seemeth to stand behind the cloud and hide himself from us This is a Holy League a blessed Covenant indeed and we never yet read of any other Let those who have lost him by pride bow and seek him by humility those who have lost him by luxury seek him by temperance and severe discipline those who have lost him by profaneness seek him by reverence and devotion Let all seek him that he may be found of all and return to the many thousands of his Israel that we may be found in him in peace without spot and blameless and he may be found to us as light shining upon our Tabernacles but as a consuming fire devouring the adversary that the tryal of our faith which is much more pretious then gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire may be found unto praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 and he may be found to us our exceeding great and everlasting reward The Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors BEing to prepare you for a feast even the Supper of the Lamb there to partake of the body and bloud of Christ of all those benefits which issued from him with his bloud and are the effects of his love I could not invite your thoughts or call your meditations to a fitter and more proper object then this the Mercy of God covering your sins and at once working Mercy in you towards your brethren his Grace and Pardon and the Condition required to make it ours And here we have them both in this Petition God shining upon us with the bright beams of his mercy that it may reflect from us upon others Christ's bloud distilling upon our souls to melt them that as he was merciful we may be merciful as he forgiveth us our debts we may forgive our debtors In which Petition there are two parts or members which evidently shew themselves In the first is comprehended that which we desire in the second the cause or manner S. Cyprian calleth it the Law by which we put it up Forgive us our debts SICUT as we forgive our debtors God is ready if we be well qualified but if we forgive not then he shutteth his ears and is deaf to our petition For with what measure we mete he will measure to us again If we take our brother by the throat he will deliver us to the goaler If we will not forgive our brother an hundred pence a disgrace some injury some debt something which would be nothing if we were merciful he hath no reason to forgive us all Secundum nostram sententiam judicabimur He will pass no other sentence upon us then that which we have subsribed to in this Petition We beg for pardon on this condition SICUT ET NOS If or As we forgive our debtors And if we make not good our condition we do but prompt the Judge to the severity of a denial and ex ore nostro are condemned already out of our own mouth Let us then take a view of them both both of what we desire Forgiveness of our debts and what we bind our selves to in this request Forgiveness of others In the first we shall consider 1. Why Sins are called debts 2. What Remission of sin is What it is we desire when we pray for forgiveness of sins And this will fill up our first part In the second part 1. Who these Debtors are we must forgive 2. What Debts or Trespasses they be 3. In what the parity or similitude consisteth what extent the SICUT hath and how far our forgiveness must answer and resemble God's And of these we shall speak in their order First our Sins are compared to pecuniary Debts And they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of analogy and proportion betwixt them For what S. Matthew here calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debts S. Luke calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins And we may contemplate the wisdom of the holy Ghost in making choice of this resemblance in fashioning himself to the natural affections of men and bringing us to a sight of the deformity of our sins by that which is familiar to our eyes When we say that Sin is a transgression of the Law we are bold to ask whether it be a Substance and real thing or a Defect whether it be a Privation or Positive act We talk of the Act of sin and the Habit of sin and the Guilt of sin And we give it divers names according to its several effects and operations We call it a stain because it defaceth the image of God a pollution because of that contagion with which it doth infect the soul a prevarication because it is a kind of collusion and defeat of the command a crime because it deserveth to be brought to the bar and accused wickedness and abomination because it is injurious to the Majesty of the Highest But none of these appellations do express Sin so lively to the very sense as when we call it a debt Those names many times flie about us like atomes in the air shew themselves to the understanding and straight vanish away or if they enter they make no deep impression but this word is a goad cum ictu quodam auditur we hear it with a kind of smart Rem invisibilem per visibilis rei formam describit It conveyeth unto us that which is in its own nature invisible for who ever handled Wickedness who ever saw the wrath of God by the forms of things that are visible and familiar to us that we may more deeply apprehend and more firmly remember them And as in many places of Scripture God draweth reasons from outward blessings making our love to them a motive to bring us to himself so here he applieth himself to our infirmity and to drive us from sin calleth it by that name we love not to hear as mothers use to fright their froward children with the names of Hags and Spirits and Hobgoblins And this is the wisdom of the holy Ghost to take us by craft To win us to Wisdom by calling it a bracelet or ornament to bring the ambitious to him by telling
For a Debt and a Forfeiture may be paid at last and if the debtor be not able to pay he may give his service his body some satisfaction and some satisfaction is better then none But he that committeth Sin is the servant of sin for ever and can never redeem it if for no other reason yet for this alone that he did commit it For not a myriad of vertues can satisfie for any one breach of our obligation and no hand but that of Mercy can cancell and make it void If we be in debt with God nothing can quit us but forgiveness And therefore we pray Forgive us our debts And so we fall upon our next part What is meant by Remission of sins or Forgiveness of debts And here we lie prostrate before the throne of God and desire forgiveness And what that is we cannot be to seek if we consider those judicial terms which the Scripture useth For we read of a a 1 Cor. 4.4 Judge of a b 2 Cor. 5.10 judgment seat of a c Rom. 2.15 witness of a d Rom. 3.19 conviction of a e Col. 2.14 hand-writing of an f 1 John 2.1 Advocate and in this Petition our sins are delivered in the notion of debts So that when we pray for the forgiveness of our sins we do as it were stand at the bar of God's justice and plead for mercy acknowledge the hand-writing but beseech him to cancel it confess our sins but sue out our pardon that we may be justified from those things from which by the Law we could not and though we are not yet for his sake who is our Surety and Advocate to count us righteous and pronounce us innocent This is all we learn in Scripture concerning Remission of sins Et quicquid à Deo discitur totum est as the Father speaketh That which we learn from God is all we can learn But as the Philosophers agreed there was a chief good and happiness which man might attain unto but could not agree what it was so it hath fallen out with Christians They all consent that there is mercy with God that we may be saved they make Remission of sins an article of their Creed but then they rest not here but to the covering of their sins require a garment of righteousness of their own thread and spinning to the blotting out of their sins some bloud and some virtue of their own and to the purging them out some infused habit of herent righteousness and so by their interpretations and additions and glosses they leave this Article in a cloud then which the day it self is not clearer As Astronomers when a new star appeareth in their Hemisphere dispute and altercate till that star go out and remove it self out of their sight so have we disputed and talked Justification and Remission of sins almost out of sight For there is nothing more plain and even without rub or difficulty nothing more open to the eye and yet nothing at which the quickest apprehensions have been more dazled Not to speak of the heathen who counted it a folly to believe there were any such thing and could not see how he that killed a man should not be a homicide or he no adulterer who had defiled a woman quibus melius fide quam ratione respondetur whom we may give leave to reason whilest we believe It hath been the fault of Christians when the truth lay in their way to pass it by or leap over it and to follow some phansies and imaginations of their own How many combates had S. Paul with the false brethren who would bring in the observation of the Ceremonial and Moral Law as sufficient to salvation How did he travel in birth again of the Galatians that Christ might be truly formed in them And yet how many afterwards did Galaticari as Tertullian speaketh were as foolish as the Galatians How many made no better use of it then to open a gap and make a way to let in all licentiousness and profaneness of life nay went so far as to think it most necessary as if Remission of sins were not a medicine to purge but a provocative to inerease sin Nor was this doctrine onely blemished by those monsters of men who sate down and consulted and did deliberately give sentence against the Truth but received some blot and stain from their hands who were the stoutest champions for it who though they saw the Truth and did acknowledge it yet let that fall from their pens which posterity after took up to obscure this doctrine and would not rest content with that which is as much as we can desire and more then we can deserve Remission of sins Hence it was that we were taught in the Schools That Justification is a change from a state of unrighteousness to a state of righteousness That as in every motion there is a leaving of one term to acquire another so in Justification there is expulsion of sin and infusion of grace Which is most true in the concrete but not in the abstract in the Justified person but not in Justification which is an act of God alone From hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those unsavoury and undigested conclusions of the Church of Rome That to justifie a sinner is not to pronounce but to make him just That the formal cause of Justification is inherent sanctity That our righteousness before God consisteth not onely in remission of sins That we may redeem our sins as well as Christ we from temporal as he from eternal pain And then this Petition must run thus FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES that is Make us so just that we may need no forgiveness Forgive us the breach of the Law because we have kept the Law Forgive us our sins for our good works Forgive me my intemperance for my often fasting my incontinency for my zeal my oppression for my alms my murther for the Abby and Hospital which I built my fraud my malice my oppression for the many Sermons I have heard A conceit which I fear findeth room and friendly enterteinment in those hearts which are soon hot at the very mery mention of Popery or Merit In a word they say and unsay sometimes bring in Remission of sins and sometimes their own Satisfaction and so set S. Paul and their Church at such a distance that neither St. Peter himself nor all the Angels and Saints she prayeth to will be able to reconcile them and make his Gratis and their Merits meet in one It is true every good act doth justifie a man so far as it is good and God so far esteemeth them holy and good and taketh notice of his graces in his â—â—â—ldren he registereth the Patience of Job the Zeal of Phinehas the Devotion of David not a cup of cold water not a mite flung into the Treasury but shall have its reward But yet all the works of all the Saints in the world cannot satisfie
for the breach of the Law For let it once be granted what cannot be denied that we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty and culpable before God that all have sinned Rom. 3.19 and are come short of the glory of God then all that noise the Church of Rome hath filled the world with concerning Merits and Satisfaction and inherent Righteousness will vanish as a mist before the Sun and Justification and Remission of sins will appear in its brightness in that form and shape in which Christ first left it to his Church Bring in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles and deck them with all those vertues which made them glorious but yet they sinned Bring in the noble army of Martyrs who shed their bloud for Christ but yet they sinned They were stoned they were sawen asunder they were slain with the sword but yet they sinned and he that sinneth is presently the servant of sin obnoxious to it for ever and cannot be redeemed by his own bloud because he sinned but by the bloud of him in whom there was no sin to be found JUSTIFICATIO IMPII This one form of speech of justifying a sinner doth plainly exclude the Law and the works of it and may serve as an axe or hammer to beat down all their carved work and those Anticks which are fastned to the building which may perhaps take a wandering or gadding phansie but will never enter the heart of a man of understanding We do not find that beauty in their forced and artificial inventions that we do in the simple and native Truth neither are those effects which are as radiations and resultances from Forgiveness of sins so visible in their Justification by Faith and Works as in that free Remission which is by Faith alone The urging of our Merits is of no force to make our peace with God They may indeed make us gracious in his eyes after Remission but have as much power to remove our sins as our breath hath to remove a mountain or put out the fire of hell For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of that of Alexander's in killing Callisthenes crimen aeternum an eternal crime which no vertue of our own can redeem As often as any man shall say He slew many thousands of Persians it will be replied He did so but he killed Callisthenes also He slew Darius but he slew Callisthenes too And as often as we shall swell our minds and fill them with the conceit of our good deeds our Conscience will reply But we have sinned Let me adde my Passions to my Actions my Imprisonment to my Alms let me suffer for Christ let me dye for Christ But yet I have sinned Let us outgo all the ancient examples of piety and sanctity But yet we have sinned And none of all our acts can make so much for our glory and comfort as our sin doth for our reproch Our sins may obscure and darken our vertues but our vertues cannot abolish our sins For what peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel as our sins be so many Ot what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is under arrest under a curse who if Mercy come not in between is condemned already And therefore we may observe those Justitiaries who will not build upon Remission or Not-imputation of sins how their complexion altereth how their colour goeth and cometh how they are not the same men in their Controversies and Commentaries that they are in their Devotions and Meditations Nothing but Merit in their ruff and jollity and nothing but Mercy on their death-beds nothing but the bloud of Martyrs then and nothing but Christ's now nothing but their own Satisfaction all their lives and nothing but Christ's at their last gasp Before magìs honorificum it was more honourable to bring in something of our own towards the Forgiveness of our sins but now for the uncertainty of our own Righteousness which were no whit available to a guilty person if it were certain because there is no harbour here Christ's Righteousness is called in with a Tutissimum est as the best shelter And here they will abide till the storm be over-past To conclude then Remission of sins hath no relation or dependence on any thing which is in man is not drawn on or furthered by any merit of ours but is an act of the Mercy and Providence of God by which he is pleased to restore us to his favour who were under his wrath to count us righteous who were guilty of death and in Christ to reconcile us unto himself and though he have a record of our sin yet not to use it as an indictment against us but so to deal with us as if his book were rased and so to look upon us as if we had not sinned at all Et merebimur admitti jam exclusi And we who were formerly shut out for our sin shall be led into the land of the living by a merciful and perfect and all-sufficient Mediatour It is his Mercy alone that must save us This is as the Sanctuary to the Legal offendor This is as mount Ararat to Noah's tossed Ark as Noah's hand to his weary Dove as Ahasuerus his golden sceptre to the humble penitent Come then put on your royal apparel your wedding garment and touch the top of it But touch it with reverence Bring not a wavering and doubtful heart an unrepented sin a rebellious thought with thee For canst thou touch this Sceprre in thy lust or anger canst thou touch it with hands full of bloud Such a bold irreverent touch will turn this Sceptre into a Sword to pierce thee through For nothing woundeth deeper then abused Mercy Behold God holdeth it forth to thee in his Word Come unto him all ye that are heavy laden and touch it and you are eased He holdeth it forth in his Sacrament first in the flesh of his Son and then in the signs and representations of it and here to touch it unworthily is to touch nay to embrace Death it self The woman in the Gospel came behind Christ and did but touch the hem of his garment and was healed Most wretched we saith the Father who touch him nay feed on him so oft in his Sacrament and our issue of bloud runneth still we are still in our sins our Pride as swelling our Malice as deadly our Appetite as keen our Love of the world as great as before and all because we do not touch it with reverence nor discern the Lord's body which must not be touched by every rude and unclean hand Wash you then make you clean and then as your Sins are pardoned so here your Pardon is sealed with the bloud of the Lamb. Here thou dost see thy ransome Onely believe and come with a heart fit to receive him The best enterteinment and welcome thou canst give him is a broken contrite and reverent heart a a heart
fitted for such a Lord such a Captain such a King For as one well sayeth the Sacraments are nothing else but protestationes fidei the publick protestations of our Faith They who come to the Lord's Table by their very coming do publickly profess that they believe not onely every Article of their Faith but also this Divine promise and institution by which Christ will renew and strengthen and establish his Covenant to every worthy receiver Leave then thy wavering thy inconstancy thy diffidence thy formality thy hypocrisie thy malice before thou approch For wilt thou come to the Feast of the Lamb with the teeth of a Lion Wilt thou come to him in whom there was no guile found with a deceitful heart Wilt thou come to a meek Saviour with a heart on fire Wilt thou come to him who forbiddeth a wandring look with a stews about thee Wilt thou bring the love of the world along with thee to him that overcame the world Wilt thou come to the Son of God with the subtilty and malice of a Devil Thy coming is thy protestation not onely of thy Faith but of thy Repentance and if thou thus defeat and contradict thy own protestation I will not say what manner of Protestant thou art but the world affordeth many such at this day And how darest thou meet thy Saviour in this ugly disguise carrying about with thee a world of wickedness under protestation The Canonist will tell us Sacramentum mortis articulus aequiparantur that we are considered at the Sacrament as on our Death-bed And on our death-bed we are likelier to be attempted with thoughts of dejection then of presumption Here we lay down our malice here we loath our lust here vve fall out with Mammon here vve look down upon Honour here vve go out of the vvorld here vve are meek and humble and tractable here vve are commonly vvhat we should be in our health Consider thy self then at this Table as on thy Death-bed and here lay aside every weight and every sin that doth beset us lay them down not as sick men sometimes do to take them up again in health but drown them in the bloud and nail them to the cross of thy Saviour never to look back upon them but vvith sorrow and disdain Here shake off all inclination to them as far as is possible and take up a firm resolution never to entertein them again and then thou art fit to come to Christ and feed at his Table then as he is brought into the vvorld and hath brought himself into the Sacrament and vvill be so far present as to exhibite himself and all his love and favour in them so he vvill bring himself into thy soul and fill it vvith all joy The One and Twentieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 12. As we forgive our debtors HEre we have the Condition or the Cause or the Manner or as St. Cyprian calleth it the Law by which we put up the foregoing Petition Forgive us our debts SICUT as we forgive our debtours If we perform the Condition then Remission of our sins as the promise of it is Yea and Amen But if we perform it not to us it is but a promise And though it be not kept it is not broke because we made not good the condition And these two the Promise of reward and the Duty or Condition mutually look upon each other the Reward upon the Duty to facilitate and make it easie and the Duty upon the Reward to draw it on And as we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Relatives they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's Mercy is operative â—n us and our forgiveness is operative upon God His is powerful to produce the like goodness in us and ours is powerful to sheath his sword as having the promise of Remission of sins God doth forgive our debts that we may forgive our debtors and we forgive our debtors that he may be reconciled to us Heaven speaketh to Earth and Earth to Heaven The influence of God's mercy melteth our hearts and they being melted are capable of mercy The lines by which we are to pass are these 1. We must see what these Debts are which we must forgive 2. The manner how we must forgive them or the Extent and Force of this SICUT In what the parity and similitude consisteth and how far our Forgiveness of our brother's debts must answer the Remission of our sins 3. The Dependance which is between these two God's forgiveness and ours What power and influence God's Mercy should have upon us to work in us the like tenderness and softness towards our brethren and what force our Forgiveness hath to make God merciful to us to draw his hand to seal us and to seal to us the Remission of our sins against the great day of our Redemption Of these we shall speak plainly and in their order As we forgive our debtours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our debtours saith S. Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Luke every one that is indebted to us So that this duty is of large extent This royal and heavenly disposition which is required of a Christian hath no bounds no limits neither in respect of time nor place nor person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Let your softness your tenderness your moderation be known unto all men to Jew and Pagan to good and evil Nemini malum pro malo Render to no man evil for evil For as the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men so must our Charity enlarge it self and like the Sun non uni aut alteri sed statim omnibus in commune proferri display its beams universally on all on every man that is a brother and a Neighbour And now under the Gospel every man is so He is my neighbour and brother who loveth me and he is my neighbour and brother who hateth me He is my neighbour who bindeth up my wounds and he is my neighbour who gave me those wounds He is my neighbour who taketh care of me and he is my neigbour who passeth by me on the other side And my goodness must open and manifest it self to all men must be as catholick as the Church nay as the World it self Whosoever maketh himself our debtour maketh himself also the object of our mercy and whatsoever the debt is Forgiveness must wipe it out and cancel it Every debtour then must be forgiven And that we may better understand the condition here required we must consider what the debts are For commonly we call those debts alone which are pecuniary and esteem them our debtours whose names are in tabulis kalendario in our Bonds and Obligations But the word is of larger extent and the Civilians will tell us that he is not a debtour alone who hath sealed a Bond and standeth engaged for a sum of money but Debitor est cum quo agi potest He is a debtour against whom I
matter that is combustible into it self a man begetteth a man a sheep a sheep and a lion a lion So the natural and proper effect of God's Mercy to us should be Mercy in us and of it self it can produce nothing else The goodness of God cannot make us evil nor his Mercy harden our hearts nor can any poison be drawn from the Fountain of life When we walk in the midst of God's mercies compassed about with rayes and yet breathe nothing but fire and ruine to our brethren when we are compassed about on every side with mercy and yet carry with us no smell or savour of that mercy when God sheweth himself a Father and we are no more like him then a Tiger is to a Man the defect is not in the Agent or Example but in the Matter it worketh upon not in God's Mercy but our Will which is various and mutable and like the Chamaeleon taketh any colour which the next object presenteth and is sooner drawn to fashion and apply it self to the world then to God and so resisteth the force of his example and by that means many times draweth gall and wormwood out of the very bowels of Mercy For when vve say that God's Forgiveness of our sins hath povver to vvork in us the like compassion to others vve do not give it that causality vvhich doth necessarily and irresistibly produce such an effect For though it be povverful in it self yet it doth not so vvork as the Sacraments by some are said to do ex opere operato His infinite Mercies may leave our hearts as stone The promise of Remission of sins doth not as naturally beget love in us as Fire doth heat but it is powerful tanquam ordinatum ad hoc as the Schools speak as ordained to this end It hath the power of an object or exemplary cause I confess objects have a moving and attractive force but no invincible operation The heavens are a fair sight but they do not make a blind man see I may read of Julius Caesar and not be valiant of Solomon and not be vvise of Aristides and not be just But yet they have the power of an object vvhich is to present themselves to our very eye to dart light even in our faces to pierce the very inwards of our hearts to besiege and beleaguer us to beseech and persuade us and prevaile they will if vve stand not out vvilfully and fight against them What power vvhat commanding eloquence is there in them Hovv are vve able to stand out against those everlasting burnings Why should not God's mercy be more prevalent then any injury Why should not his example have more force then a temptation Why should not Reason be a better oratour then Sense Why should not Christ's Mercy bring forth my Love and his Death my Mortification For as S. Peter telleth us that the long-suffering of God is repentance because indeed it should produce no other effect so might I as properly say God's readiness to forgive is our mercy and charity to our brother because it is profered for this end Nor is it of less power and energy because through our default it vvorketh no such effect If the earth be as brass shall vve say the devv of heaven hath no virtue If we put out our eyes shall we say the Sun doth not shine Because we make God's Mercy but as a shadow to cover us shall we also count it no more then a Type which signifieth much but worketh nothing at all That it may therefore have its proper effect in us we must consider what it is that hindereth its operation and what is required of us that it may work kindly in us and so bring forth that effect which is natural what is the reason why it doth not alwayes prevail and what we must perform on our parts that it may And we may plainly see that we our selves harden our faces and our hearts against it that we are busie in the works of darkness when God's Mercy shineth round about us that we have decked our selves for harlots and wooe and draw them to us whilest God's Mercy standeth at the door and knocketh and can find no admittance that we have firted our minds for those guests alone which will defile them how one piece of silver can force our hand to our brother's throat when all the commands of God cannot take us off how the glory the vanishing glory of the world is the lamp we walk by and not the everlasting word of God how our hearts are stone and can Mercy make an impression and set the image of God upon a stone Besides one great hindrance and impediment is begot within us and derived from our selves For at the very name of Mercy as at the sound of musick we lie down and rest in peace and sleep as if Mercy had no other work to do but to save us And thus we make our selves the worse for the mercies of God shut up our bowels because he openeth his make no conscience of sin because he is ready to forgive will not be rich in good works because he is bountiful of his merits as if we onely were the adequate objâ—ct of mercy even then when we return with the spoil with our feet died in the bloud of our brethren It fareth with us as with the children of rich parents we are prodigal upon presumption of supply revel licentiously upon hope of sanctuary and patronage and like Nero spend all upon the false hope of treasure Non tam malè nobiscum ageretur si non tam bene It would not have been so ill with us if it had not been so well That which should make us happy maketh us miserable We read of a Gaoler and Torment but we soon forget that and when we bear about with us malice enough to constitute a Devil we relie still on a merciful Lord. Again we are like to those Sophisters in Aristotle who to that which was first proposed would soon yield assent That God is merciful and will forgive is most plain even written with the Sun-beams but when we should apply our wills to this rule and consider this position not onely as a principle in Divinity but also as a didactical example we presently fall off hunt out tricks and evasions and are very wise to deceive our selves Whatsoever the premisses are though drawn out of the very bowels of Mercy yet flesh and bloud are very apt and ready to deny the conclusion Christ loved us Therefore we must love one another Ephes 5. it is S. Pauls Enthymeme or argument And this Petition may be resolved into the very same God forgiveth us Therefore we must forgive one another But such is our blindness and perversness that though we are willing to subscribe to the Antecedent for we would sin still and be forgiven yet we are ready in our practice to deny the Consequence We have faith enough to see the riches of the Gospel to
I had pity on thee This is the natural and most necessary inference that can be drawn from these premisses What a sick soul then is that which when Mercy overshadoweth her bringeth forth a monster breathing forth hail stones and coals of fire even that cruelty which devoureth those she should foster This is the most false illation can be made For God freely profereth remission of sins to work in us the like mind and affection and pardoneth all by proclamation that we may forgive one another To conclude this It is with this great example of God's Goodness to us as it is with his Word and Spirit and other benefits They are powerful to work miracles to heal the sick to give eyes to the blind to give life to the dead to remove mountains any difficulty whatsoever but they do not necessarily produce these effects because there still remaineth an indifferency in the will of man and a possibility to resist It is the office of the Spirit to seal us to the day of our redemption and he is powerful to do it but he doth not seal a stone which will take no impression or water which will hold no figure His Word is his hammer but it doth not batter nor soften every heart How often is his Word in their mouth how often do they publish his mercies his wonderful mercies to the world whose very mercy notwithstanding is cruelty His Benefits are lively in themselves but dead and buried in an ungrateful breast Therefore to make his Mercy efficacious to let it work what it is very apt to work let us not onely hear God when he speaketh to us by it and go out to meet him when he cometh towards us by his exemplary goodness put off our shooes from our feet at the appearance of this great light to wit all our turbulent motions beat down all the contradictions of our mind and take the veil from before our eyes that we may discern his Mercy as it is working remission of sins but withall planting that love in our hearts which must grow up to shadow all the trespasses of our brethren And this power and influence the Mercy of God hath to work in us the like softness and tenderness of heart to others if we hinder it not if Covetousness and the Love of the world and that False love of our selves and other vile affections stand not up and oppose it We must now in the next place weigh the Force and Power which our forgiveness of our brethren hath to move God to shew mercy unto us And indeed it may seem to have some causality in it For as I told you the SICUT in S. Matthew is ETENIM in S. Luke as we forgive saith the one for we forgive saith the other But indeed they are both one and ETENIM is no more then SICUT And it is observed that this conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it carry with it the appearance of a Causal yet both in the New Testament and in humane Authours serves sometimes for nothing else but to make up the connexion For take Compassion and all the vertues which are commended to our practice take that Charity which is the fulfilling of the Law yet all will not make up a Cause either efficient or formal Rom. 3.24 of Remission of sins which is the free gift of God But because our Saviour hath told us that if we forgive men their trespasses our heavenly Father will forgive us we may say it is a Cause a cause so far as without it there is no remission of sins For though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains though I give my bread to the poor and my body to be burnt yet if I have not charity if I do not forgive my enemies there is no hope of remission Or it is as I told you causa removens prohibens a cause in this respect that it removeth that hindrance that obstacle that mountain which standeth between us and the Mercy-seat For God's Goodness is larger then his Beneficence He doth not do what good he can he doth not do what good he would because we are uncapable He doth not shine in full beauty upon us because we are nothing but deformity We will not suffer him to be good we will not suffer him to be merciful we will not suffer him to wipe out our sins by forgiveness we set up our rampiers and bulworks against him and our Malice is strong against his Mercy But so far it is a cause and may be said to produce it as the effect is commonly attributed to such causes which though they have not any positive causality yet without them the effect cannot be accomplished Thus Blessedness is placed as a title and inscription upon every vertue Blessed are the poor in spirit Blessed are the merciful Every vertue maketh us blessed but not every vertue without all So naked and destitute is every vertue if it be not accompanied with all nor is any vertue truly a vertue if it do not savour and relish of the rest For it is universal obedience that God requireth at our hands And though forgiveness of sins go as it were hand in hand with every vertue yet it is so in every vertue that we cannot find it but in all We are baptized for remission of sins We believe to remission of sins We forgive that our sins may be forgiven Yet none of these are available alone not Baptism without Faith nor Faith without Love The profession of Christianity taketh in all that is praise-worthy all vertues whatsoever As the Oratour telleth us that to his art of Oratory not onely Wit and Pronunciation and Command of language but also the Knowledge of all the arts are necessary quae etiam aliud agentes ornat ubi minimè credas excellit which adorneth our speech when we do not intend it and is a grace which sheweth it self in every limme and part of it and is very eminent where we do not see it So though the habits of Vertues be as distinct as their names yet they all meet in that general Obedience and Sanctity of life which denominateth a Christian And there is not any vertue but hath some appearance and is in part visible in every one My Christian Fortitude sheweth it self in my Temperance my Temperance in my Bounty my Faith in my Charity and my Charity in my Hope And as in an army of men though the Captain and Leader be commonly entitled to the victory yet was it vvrought out by the several and particular hands of every common souldier and by the united force of the vvhole battalion so that vve truly say All did overcome and Every one did overcome So vve may attribute Remission of sins to every vertue vvhich vve can never obtain but by the embracement and practice of them all Our Saviour's words then If ye forgive ye
shall be forgiven must be interpreted by other places For the whole Scripture is as it were but one copulative proposition saith the devout Schoolman knitting and uniting all parts together and confirming and expounding one by another And therefore vve must not take every proposition as it lieth and in that sense it first representeth but compare one part with another He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved saith our Saviour Hence saith S. Augustine some vvere ready to collect that Faith in Baptism was abundantly sufficient to remission of sins although it vvere naked and alone and destitute of all other vertues Others upon this Forgive and ye shall be forgiven inferred that to forgive others vvas enough Others upon that of our Saviour Luke 11.41 Give alms of such things as ye have and behold all things are clean unto you concluded that to open our hands was to vvash them that alms vvere enough But this is to be vâ—ise against the Scriptures vvhich is the greatest folly in the vvorld This is to be too familiar and bold vvith the Scripture vvhose language vve knovv not This is to vvalk in darkness vvith a light in our hands and make that a stone of offence vvhich should be our foundation to build on For this manner of expression is common in Scripture simply to attribute the effect to that thing which cannot produce it alone but is very prevalent to help it forward So If ye shall forgive your Father will forgive you doth not shew what is sufficient but what is necessarily required to the expiation of sin And when Christ telleth the Pharisees that if they give alms all shall be clean unto them we cannot conceive that Alms is a sufficient cause in it self to make them clean who give them since it is very possible that a man may give alms even all he hath which peradventure Christ meaneth by Alms in that place and yet notwithstanding be dead in those trespasses and sins which make him unclean and consequently make all things unclean unto him Tit. 1.15 Dan. 4.27 as the Apostle speaketh For as our Saviour bespeaketh the Pharisees so doth Daniel the great King Nebuchadnezzar that he should redimere peccata eleemosynis or as it is rendred out of the Fountain abrumpere abscindere redeem that is break and cut off his sins by shewing mercy to the poor Not that these acts of mercy taken by themselves can break off sins although they have some force and power to forward the work But our Saviour speaketh to the hypocritical Pharisees who have this mark set upon them in Scripture to be Covetous and Cruel and the Prophet to an oppressing Tyrant And what could Christ more properly oppose to their outward washings then Alms or the Prophet to his cruelty then Mercy Give alms was a precept shot home to the mark and rightly directed to them both to strike the Corban out of the Pharisees mouth and as fitly to the Assyrian Tyrant who did eat up God's people as he did eat bread For a general receipt will never work a particular cure Non curamuâ— hominem sed Socratem saith the Philosopher All cures are done upon particulars and the Physician tempereth his potion to the constitution of his patient If we will do a cure upon the Pharisee we must bespeak him to break off his sins by alms If we will purge his soul we must teach him to empty his purse because his disease is Covetousness If we will reclaim the wanton we must forbid him to look upon a woman If we will quiet the revenger we must tell him that Forgiveness is the price with which he may purchase heaven And we attribute to every one the act of all because it standeth in opposition and fighteth against that sin which hath the largest power and kingdom in him What profit then hath Mercy and Compassion and what doth it avail I may answer with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much every manner of way For it is that vertue in respect of which we come nearest to God and most resemble him who is a God that blotteth out transgressions and therefore it worketh a kind of complacency in him When we are angry and discontented when our countenance falleth and we push as it were with the horn I know not what we are We are not Men we are driven on as it were by a Fury and are Furies our selves and blast every one that cometh near us We are the children of that father who was a murtherer from the beginning We have eyes and see not ears and hear not understandings and will not understand but Malice is as our form or soul and actuateth us biddeth us go and we go do this and we do it Or rather it is that dumb spirit that teareth us and maketh us wallow fome and gnash with the teeth The mildest censure can be past upon us is that we are like to the beasts that perish But when we condescend to our brother's infirmity and lift him up when our Mercy is alwaies awake and cannot be so surprized with injury as to keep it back when we are more troubled at the sin our brother committeth then at the wrong he doth and so at once forgive and pray for him we are as God unto him For Majesty sheweth it self more gloriously in love then in power yea it is most powerful in love There peradventure it layeth an enemy at our feet here it maketh an enemy a friend There it destroyeth a body here it conquereth a soul There it beateth down a man here a strong imagination There it is managed by a mad passion here it followeth the wisdom of God There it beateth back a few injuries here it covereth a multitude of sins That maketh men as beasts this maketh them Gods one to another Last of all this Christian-like disposition by which we forgive one another is seldom I may say never alone For we must pass through more tentations then Mithras Priests did torments before we can attain to this heavenly perfection We pass through the glory of the world and slight it the persuasions of the flesh and deny them the grudgings of the mind and silence them we must learn to be poor to be contemned to be diminshed a lesson which we can never take out till the flesh be subdued to the spirit till the world be conquered and all those our spiritual enemies trode under foot For can he that thinketh he hath never enough suffer himself to be spoiled can he that doteth on honour put up a disgrace can he who is immersed in pleasure bear with any thing that sowreth it Will covetousness lose a penny can Ambition spare a leg can Pride receive a check can Luxury endure a restraint Castigat qui dissentit Not onely he that standeth in my way to honour or wealth or that crosseth me in my pleasure but also he that casteth not his lot in with me troubleth me
He is an enemy who telleth me the truth he is an enemy who is not a parasite Can we look for forgiveness out of that breast which is as a troubled sea ever casting out mire and dirt Or have we read of or have we seen the man that will not be pious yet can forgive that can be so cruel to himself and yet mild and merciful to his brother No it requireth a mind well exercised and brought under crucified to the world weaned from vanity the love of which maketh us impatient of others and impatient of our selves yea such haggards as to check at every feather We must know our brother in another shape in another relation before we shall forgive him We must know him in Christ the fountain of love who brought forgiveness into the world when he brought immortality to light And then if we know him in him we shall know nothing in him which may not command our pardon We shall know him in him who purchased our pardon with his bloud we shall forgive him as we are forgiven we shall cover our brother's trespasses for his sake who hath prepared a robe of righteousness to cover ours and for his sake forgive ours brother's debts who payed down our debts to the utmost mite Then shall we feel the power of this virtue and how prevalent it is with God Then as we have manifested our selves to be his children by the performance of the Condition so will he manifest himself to be our Father in removing our transgressions from us as far as the East is from the West Now for conclusion I cannot better bespeak you then in the words of S Paul I pray you brethren in Christ's stead be reconciled unto God And that is done by acknowledgement of the forfeiture by confessing your debts There is no hinderance of it but in your selves for if you will he is presently reconciled He calleth for it he desireth it he waiteth for it and if you arise and go towards him he runneth to meet you falleth on your neck and kisseth you It is but to leave off fighting against him and he is reconciled It is but to run no further in arrears and the writing is cancelled Wash every character the least sin with your tears and Christ's bloud is shed already and floweth as fresh as from the cross to blot them out Tu agnosce Deus ignoscet Do thou acknowledge the debt and God hath forgiven it Perform the condition and the promise will apply it self nay it is applied already At what time soever a sinner repenteth And again I pray you be reconciled unto your brethren You have for that the strongest and most winning motive the Mercy of God the best Topick we can find more persuasive in it self then all the eloquence of the learned then the tongues of men and of Angels of power to ravish a soul and transport it beyond it self and leave it deaf and dead to the flattery of the flesh and to the killing musick of the world For what can move me to pardon if Pardon cannot move me What can make me if Mercy cannot make me merciful And shall my Wealth or Reputation kindle that fire within me which the bowels of God and the bloud of Christ cannot quench Bring not then hither any lurking unrepented sin but bury it in the clifts of a broken heart and in the wounds of thy Saviour Bring not a grudging mind nor the least surmise against thy brother but smother it and bury it in the land of oblivion Leave not thy sin to day to resume and embrace it to morrow nor let thy wrath so set as to rise with more horrour hereafter But destroy the whole body of sin and purge out all the leaven of maliciousness Be reconciled unto God and be reconciled to your brethren and then come and draw near to this feast of Love Take eat This is his body which was broken for you and Take drink This is the New Testament in his bloud which was shed for you and for many for the remission of sins These are the pledges of his love and withall pignora fidei the pledges of our faith to actuate and quicken it to make it more apprehensive more operative more lively Here then confirm your faith exalt your hope enlarge your charity and so declare the Lord's death till he come And when he that came to visit us in great Humility and visiteth us again and again in his Sacrament and by the sweet operation of his blessed Spirit sealeth our pardon and sealeth us up to the day of our redemption shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead we shall be ready to meet him as fearing no bill no indictment against us and we shall be ever with him who hath payed our ransome and he shall call us his friends his children his brethren and he shall make us partakers of that glory which he hath prepared for us from the beginning of the world To which he bring us who dyed for us Jesus Christ the righteous The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART I. PSAL. CXXII 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us or We will go into the house of the Lord. WHether this Psalm of degrees or excellent Song as some term it were a Psalm of David or to David or delivered to the Masters of Musick by the hands of David Whether it was penned by him when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem and there seated as in its certain place which before had been carried up and down now to this place anon to another as several occasions and the exigence of the times required and so was fitted for the people publickly to sing when they should go up to their solemn Feasts Or whether it was penned by a prophetick spirit for those Jews who being returned out of Babylon should repair Jerusalem and build the second Temple Whether this Psalm were fitted for the Tabernacle or for the first Temple or for the second it is not much material to enquire Nor will it advantage to make diligent search where there is not so much light as that of conjecture to direct us The Psalm might well serve for all for the Tabernacle for the first Temple for the second And almost all agree that it was composed by David And he beginneth it as a Song should begin with LAETATUS SUM I was glad or I rejoyced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint Jucundatus sum so St. Augustine I was merry at heart as those who meet at a costly banquet I may entitle this Psalm David's Delight or his Triumph or his Jubilee Now when the heart is glad when the countenance shineth when the tongue is loud we may well think there is something more then ordinary presented to the sight For Joy when it is visible in the face when it is set to Musick is a manifest indication and a loud proclamation that there
he hath put a pardon into our hands We must therefore seek out another Righteousness And we may well say we must seek it for it is well near lost in this Imputed Righteousness is that we hold by and Inherent righteousness is Popery or Pâ—lagianism We will not be what we ought because Christ will make us what we would be We will not be just that he may justifie us and we will rebell because he hath made our peace As men commonly never more forfeit their obedience then under a mild Prince But if the love of the world would suffer us to open our eyes we might then see a Law even in the Gospel and the Gospel more binding then ever the Law was Nor did Christ bring in that Righteousness by faith to thrust out this that we may do nothing that we may do any thing because Faith can work such a miracle No saith S. Paul he establisheth the Law He added to it he reformed it he enlarged it made it reach from the act to the look from the look to the thought Nor is it enough for the Christian to walk a turn with the Philosopher or to go a Sabbath-day's journey with the Jew or make such a progress in Righteousness as the Law of Moses measured out No Christ taught us a new kind of Righteousness and our burthen is not onely reserved but increased that this Righteousness may abound a Righteousness which striketh us dumb when the slanderer's mouth is open and loud against us which boundeth our desires when vanity wooeth us setteth a knife to our throat when the fruit is pleasant to the eye giveth laws to our understanding chaineth up our will when Kingdoms are laid at our feet shutteth up our eyes that we may not look upon a second woman which a Jew might have embraced calleth us out of the world whilest we are in the world and maketh us spiritual whilest we are in the flesh Justitia sincera a sincere Righteousness without mixture or sophistication and justitia integra an entire and perfect Righteousness Righteousness like to the love of our Saviour integros tradens integrum se danti a Righteousness delivering up the whole man both body and soul unto him who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world For conclusion of this point and to make some use of it Beloved this is the Object we must look on And we must use diligence and be very wary that we mistake it not that we take not that to be our Juno which is but a cloud that to be Righteousness which flesh and bloud our present occasions our present necessities our unruly lusts and desires may set up and call by that name This is the great and dangerous errour in which many Christians are swallowed up and perish not to take Righteousness in its full extent and compass in that form and shape in which it is tendered and so fulfil all righteousness but to contract and shrink it up to leave it in its fairest parts and offices and to vvork all unrighteousness and then make boast of its name And thus the number of the Righteous may be great the Goats more then the Sheep the gate vvide and open that leadeth unto the Kingdom of God Thus the Hypocrite vvho doth but act a part is righteous the Zelote vvho setteth all on fire is righteous the Schismatick vvho teareth the seamless coat of Christ is righteous he whose hands yet reek vvith the bloud of his brethren is righteous righteous Pharisees righteous Incendiaries righteous Schismaticks righteous Traitours and Murtherers not Abel but Cain the righteous All are righteous For this hath been the custom of vvicked men to bid defiance to Righteousness and then comfort themselves with her name We vvill not mention the Righteousness of the heathen For they being utterly devoid of the true knowledge of Christ it might perhaps diminish the number of their stripes but could not adde one hair to their stature or raise them nearer to the Kingdom of God Nor will we speak of the Righteousness of the Jew For they vvere in bondage under the Elements of the world nor could the Lavv make any of them perfect We Christians on vvhom the Sun of Righteousness hath clearly shined depend too much upon an Imputed Righteousness An imputed Righteousness why that is all It is so and will lift us up unto happiness if we adde our own not as a supplement but as a necessary requisite not to seal our pardon for that it cannot do but to further our admittance For we never read that the Spirit did seal an unrighteous person that continued in his sin to the day of his redemption No Imputed Righteousness must be the motive to work in us inherent Righteousness and God will pardon us in Christ is a strong argument to infer this conclusion Therefore we must do his will in Christ. For Pardon bringeth greater obligation then a law Christ dyed for us is enough to win Judas himself those that betray him and those that crucifie him to repentance The death of Christ is verbum visibile saith Clement a visible word For in the death of Christ are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Righteousness If you look upon his Cross and see the inscription JESUS OF NAZERETH KING OF THE JEWS you cannot miss of another HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE LORD There hung his sacred body and there hung all those bracelets and ornaments as Solomon calleth them those glorious examples of all vertues There hung the most true and most exact pictures of Patience and Obedience and unparallel'd Love And if we take them not out and draw them in our selves imputed Righteousness will not help us or rather it will not be imputed What Righteousness imputed to a man of Belial Christ's Love imputed to him that hateth him his Patience to a revenger his Truth to the fraudulent his Obedience to the traitour his Mercy to the cruel his Innocency to the murtherer his Purity to the unclean his Doing all things well to those who do all things ill God forbid No let us not deceive our selves Let us not sleep in sin and then please our selves with a pleasant dream of Righteousness which is but a suggestion of the enemy whose art it is to settle that in the phansie which should be rooted in the heart and to lead us to the pit of destruction full of those thoughts which lift us up as high as heaven Assumed names false pretences forced thoughts these are the pillars which uphold his kingdom and subvert all Righteousness Vera justitia hoc habet omnia in se vertit True Righteousness complieth with nothing that is contrary or diverse from it It will not comply with the Pharisee and make his seeming a reality it will not comply with the Schismatick and make his pride humility it will not comply with the prosperous Traitour and make him a Father of his
swindge the condition of the righteous were most miserable But he striketh off the chariot wheels of those Egyptians that pursue them and putteth an hook into their nostrils so that against their wills they become instruments of good to them whom they most hate Besides the righteous because of righteousness are in a manner proscribed the world debarred of many of the thriving arts that are there taught They cannot flatter for a reward nor lye for advantage they cannot worship the golden calf supple and humour the rich man for his countenance and favour they cannot tread those paths which lead to honour and preferment and therefore if these things come it must needs be that God himself doth pour them on them The ravens feed Elijah 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings 19. An Angel bringeth him meat A Prophet is taken up by the hair of the head to carry a mess of pottage for Daniel's dinner Now whether God send his ravens or his Angels whether the rarest dainties or but a mess of pottage the care of God is the same and the miracle as great 3. This promise is not absolute but made over to us upon condition These things shall be added not to exclude Righteousness or thrust it from its seat but to be as an handmaid to wait upon it and serve it And therefore if God see that these things will slug and retard us in the pursuit of Righteousness he will withdraw them When he addeth them it is because his mercy endureth for ever and when he withdraweth them it is because his mercy endureth for ever That love which opened his hand doth shut it up and that which gave us these things will leave us nothing His love fitteth and applieth it self to our condition for his mercy endureth for ever How many things doth he give us which we would not have because he loveth us How many things doth he withhold from us which we would have because he loveth us Better it is and more honour to lye on the dunghill with Righteousness then to sit on the throne without it If the competition be between the Kingdom of God and these things then Domine nolo hanc misericordiam saith Bernard Lord I will have none of this kind of mercy this pleasing killing mercy none of these riches that will undo me none of these temporal blessings that will make eternity it self a curse Then God is liberal in denying me is better then his promise when he seemeth not so good as his promise For when he promised to adde these things he did not mean to destroy us 4. In the the last place If God do not adde all these things and so make good the promise in the letter yet Righteousness it self will supply all defects and make even nothing it self all these things unto us In respect of Righteousness it is alike gainful either to enjoy the things of the world or not to enjoy them And no man can doubt of this but he that knoweth not or will not know what Religion is who is divorced from Righteousness and married to the world Nay if I may use the word I may be bold to say It is as meritorious and as great a part of Righteousness to know how to want these things for God's sake as it is know how to abound and use them to his service We read of Epaminondas a noble Thebane that when the people in scorn had put him into a base office he did rather rejoyce in it then disdain it and told them that he would manage it with that wisdom and resolution that he would make it a place of as great honour and credit as any was in the State And this Righteousness can much more do It can make the lowest and basest estate equivalent unto the most honourable calling in the world and by the grace of God who made us out of nothing is able and doth make nothing as beneficial unto us as if we were made Lords of all the creatures That is not Honour that is not Riches which unrighteous men call by that name For is an Ass honourable in purple or rich when he is laden with gold and diamonds Yes he is as honourable as a raging Tyrant as Herod in all his royalty as an unjust Judge as he that will be great and not be righteous For they both both the Ass and the Man bear their honour and riches alike but the Ass more innocently Beloved neither to enjoy nor to want is a thing of any worth with God nor doth he consider or esteem it But to know how to use and how to want this becometh beneficial unto us For who is poorer then he that hath and enjoyeth not that swimmeth in rivers of milk and honey and cannot taste them And he that hath nothing in this world if he hath not this art of enjoying Nothing Perdidit infelix totum nil hath utterly lost the benefit of this Nothing When Job from so great an estate had fallen to nothing nay to worse then nothing in this world to misery which is a whip and under contempt which to a generous mind is a scorpion by patience and humble Submission under the hand of God by receiving calamities and giving thanks he purchased a greater measure of glory then if he had never tasted of them Nay he made his poverty a purchase for his estate his sheep his camels his oxen and his asses were doubled to him Whatsoever was transitory and perishing he received with interest and the greatest interest and but the just number of his children it is Basil's observation because they still lived in their better part and would all be restored at the resurrection Such purchaces doth Righteousness make such advantages and improvements doth she find It is for want of Righteousness that many do want and make their want a greater increase of evil unto them For the sting of poverty is impatience Repining at God's providence secret indignation and envy against those that abound these are the furies which pursue them and make their misery more malignant these heap up wrath against the day of wrath these make them unfit either to live or die and deliver them from one hell into another Or if they can quiet and compose their minds and make shew of calmness and contentedness it is rather senslesness and wretched stupidity then religious discretion as little children laugh at their fathers funerals because they do not understand their loss But to resign our selves into the hands of God whose we are to make his will ours though it be to make us a proverb of misery to be throughly contented to be any thing to suffer any thing which he will have us to want without repining this is the work of righteousness this is a part of piety as great as giving our bodies to the fire as entertaining of Christ and his Prophets as founding of Churches or building of Hospitals or doing whatsoever else is commended to us A
we were afraid of when we drink down sin for some pleasant tast it hath when we know it will be our poyson The Prophet David plainly expresseth it Nolunt intelligere They will not understand and seek God Psal 3.6 The errour then in practice is from the Will alone which is swai'd more by the flatteries and sophistry of the Sense then by the dictates of the Understanding as we many times see that a parasite finds welcome and attention when we stop our ears to seaven wisemen that can render a reason An errour of a foul aspect and therefore we look upon it but at distance through masks and disguises we seek out divers inventions and out of a kind of fear that we may not erre at all or not erre soon enough we make Sin yet more sinfull and help the Devil to deceive us Sometimes we comfort our selves with that which we call a punishment and being born weak we are almost persuaded it is our duty to fall Sometimes the countenance of the Law is too severe and we tremble and dare not come neer and because we think it hard to keep we are the more active to break it Sometimes we turn the grace of God into wantonness and since he can do what he please we will not do what we ought Sometimes we turn our very remedy into a disease make the Mercy of God a kind of tentation to sin and that which should be the death of the sin the security of the sinner Sometimes we hammer out some glorious pretense propose a good end and then drive furiously towards it though we perish in the way to defend one Law break all the rest pluck the Church in pieces to fit her with a new garment a new fangled discipline fight against the King for the good of the Common-wealth tread Law and Government under foot to uphold them say it is necessary and do it as if there could be an invincible necessity to sin This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil calleth it the Devil's mothod to bring-in God himself pleading for Baal and to suborn the Truth as an advocate for Errour For to make up the cheat he paints our errour in a new dress makes it a lovely majestick errour that we begin to bow and worship it Similitudo creat errorem Errour saith Tully hath its being from the resemblance which one thing bears to another It is Presumption but it is like Assurance It is Sacrilege but it is like Zeal It is Rebellion but it is like the Love of our country For as the common principles of truth may be discovered in every sect even in those opinions which are most erroneous so the common seeds of moral Goodness have some shew and appearance in those actions which are wholly evil There is something of Love in Effeminacy something of Zeal in Fury some sound of Fidelity in the loudest Treason something of the Saint in the Devil himself These are fomenta erroris these breed and nourish Errour in us these bring forth the brat and nurse it up S. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain wandring and stubborn imaginations the vapors of a corrupt heart exhaled and drawn up into the brain where they hang as meteors irregularly moving and wheel'd about by the agitation of a wanton phansie and S. Pau'ls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong disputes and subtle reasonings against God and our own souls The Vulgar translates it consilia deleberate counsels to undo our selves We consult and advise we hold a kind of Parliament within us and the issue is we shake and ruine that State which we should establish Nor do these minuere voluntatem make our errour less wilfull but aggrandize it for of themselves they have no being no reality but are the creation of the mind the work of a wanton phansie created and set up to sanctifie and glorifie our errour There is no such terrour in the Law till we have made it a killing letter no difficulty which our unwillingness frames not no pretense which we commend not no deceiving likeness which we paint not Still that is true Cor nostrum nos decepit our Heart hath deceived us Our reason is ready to advise if we will consult and it is no hard matter to devest an action of those circumstances with which we have clothed it and to wipe out the paint which we our selves have laid on But as S. Augustine well observes Impia mens odit ipsum intellectum When we forsake our Reason and Understanding we soon begin to distast and hate it and because it doth not prophesie good unto us but evil are unwilling to hear it speak to us any more from thence we hear nothing but threatnings and menaces and the sentence of condemnation It exhorteth and corrects and instructs it is a voice behind us and a voice within us and we must turn back from the pleasing paths of errour if we listen to it Timemus intelligere nè cogamur facere we are afraid to understand our errour because we are unwilling to avoid it we are afraid to hear of Righteousness who are resolved to be unjust And what was an apologie for Ovid may be applyed to us to our condemnation Non ignoramus vitia sed amamus We are not ignorant of the errours of our life but we do love them and will be those beasts which we know must be thrust through with a dart I have now brought before your eye the Errour we must fly from and the Apostle exhorts us to make haste 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not deceived It is tender'd as good counsel but indeed is a law For as Tertullian speaks If the ground of every Law be Reason Lex erit omne quod ratione constiterit à quocunque productum est Whatsoever Reason commends must be a law to us though it be not written in tables of stone nor proclaimed by the voice of the herald So had not this exhortatation been Apostolical yet it might well carry with it the force of a Law because nothing is more opposite to Reason then Errour I may say it is not onely a Law but compendium totius Eâ—angelii the sum of all the precepts of the Gospel or rather a â—â—â—lar to preserve them all pressing upon us a duty which if well observed will fit and qualifie us for all the duties of our life And thâ—refore what the Pope usurps upon weak grounds or none at all is the prerogative or rather the duty of every Christian in those things which concern his peace to be infallible One is no further a Christian nâ—si in quantum caeperit esse Angelus then so far forth as by casting off errour more and more he begins to have a tast of an Angelical estate And now we should descend to application And I could wish I could not apply it But if I should apply it I must make use of the Rhetorick of the antients who in a copions subject were wont to
weighs the simplicity and severity of Christian religion from whence it should come to pass that many Christians surpass even Turks and Jews in fraud deceit and cruelty And the resolution is almost as strange For by the policy of Satan our very Religion is suborn'd to destroy it self which freely offering mercy to all offenders many hence take courage to offend more and more pardon being so near at hand They dare be worse then Turks upon this bare encouragement that they are Christians So that to that of S. Paul Rom. 7. Sin took an occasion by the Law we may adde Sin takes an occasion by the Gospel and so deceiveth us It is possible for an Atheist to walk by that light which he brought with him into the world Even Diagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might have been an honest man For that Wisdom vvhich guides us in our common actions of morality is nothing else saith Tully but ratio adulta perfecta Reason improved and perfected But the Christian hath the advantage of another light another lavv a light which came down from heaven and a royal Law to vvhich if he take heed he cannot go astray Miserable errour shall I call it It is too good a name It is Folly and Madness thus to be bankrupt with our riches to be weaker for our helps to be blinded with light in montes impingere as S. Augustine speaks having so much light to run upon such visible palpable and mountanous evils to enter the gates of our enemies as friends and think our selves in Dothan when we are in the midst of Samaria Let us not deceive our selves which were bought with a price and redeemed from errour Let us not flatter our selves to destruction It is not the name of Christian that will save us no more then Epictetus his lamp could make a Philosopher Nay it is not the name of Christ that can save us if we dishonour it and make it stink amongst the Canaanites and Perizzites among Turks and Jews and Infidels Behold thou art called a Christian and restest in the Gospel and makest thy boast of Christ If thou art a Christian then know also thou art the Temple of Christ not onely in which he dwells but out of which he utters his oracles to instruct others in the wayes of truth If thou art a Christian thou art a member of Christ a member not a sword to wound thy sick brother unto death The folly of thy wayes thy confidence in errour doth make the Turk smile and the Jew pluck the veil yet closer to his face It is a sad truth but a truth it is This stamping Religion with our own mark and setting upon it what image and superscription we please hath done more hurt to Christianity then all the persecutions for Christ to this day These by diminishing the number of Christians have increased it and by the blessing of God have added to the Church from day to day such as should be saved The Sword and the Flame have devoured the Christian but this is a gulff to swallow up Christianity it self What Seneca spake of Philosophy is true of Religion Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes When men did frame and square their lives by the simplicity and plainness of the rule it was not so hard and busie a thing and there were fewer errours when the greatest errour was Impiety But after by degrees it began to spend and wast it self in hot and endless disputations one faction prescribing to another and promulging their dictates as Laws which many times were nothing else but the trophies of a prevailing side waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived And now all is heat and words and our Religion for the most part if I may so speak is a negative religion hath no positive reality in it at all Not to be a Papist is to be a Christian not to love the picture is to be a Saint not to love a Bishop is to be a Royal Priesthood not to be a Brownist or Anabaptist is to be Orthodox Should a Pagan stand by and behold our conversation he might well say Where is now their God Where is their Religion Thus hath the Church of Christ suffer'd from her own children from those who suck her breasts She had stretched her curtains further to receive in those who were without had they not been frighted back by the disconsonancy and horrour of their lives whom they saw in her bosome and she had had many mo children had not they who called her Mother been so ill-shapen and full of deformity and that is verified in her which was said of Julius Caesar Plures illum amici confoderunt quà m inimici She hath received more wounds from her friends then from her enemies Last of all This Errour in life and conversation this wilfull mistake of the rule we should walk by is an errour of the foulest aspect of greater allay then any other For in some things licet nescire quae nescimus it is lawfull to erre Errour in it self having no moral culpable deformity In some things oportet nescire quae nescimus we must not be too bold to seek lest we loose our way Some things are beside us some things are above us some things are not to be known and some things are impertinent In some things we erre and sin not for errantis nulla est voluntas saith the Law He that hath no knowledge hath no will But Self deceit in the plain and easie duties of our life is so far from making up an excuse that it aggravates our sin and makes it yet more sinfull For we blind our selves that we may fall into the ditch we will erre that we may sin with the less regret we place our Reason under the inferiour part of our soul that it may not check us when we are reaching at the forbidden fruit we say unto Reason as the Legion of Devils said to our Saviour What have we to do with thee art thou come to torment us before our time Art thou come to blast our delights to take the crown of roses from off our heads to retard and shackle us when we are making forward towards the mark to remove that which our eye longeth after to forbid that which vve desire and to command us to hate that vvhich vve best love We persuade down Reason vve chide down Reason vve reason down Reason and vvill be unreasonable that vve may be vvorse then the beasts that perish First vve vvash our hands vvith Pilate and then deliver up Jesus to be crucified Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that thus deceivest thy self Yea so far is this Self-deceit from making up an excuse that it deserveth no pity For vvho vvill pity him vvho is vvilling to be deceived vvho makes haste to be deceived vvho makes it his crown and glory to be deceived Had it been an enemy that deceived me or had it been a friend
it self the most disorderly thing in the world into order and maketh that which stands us against his law to meet with his Justice and that which runs from the order that his Mercy hath set up to be driven to the order of Equity For Sin is an offense against the Creation a breach and invertion of that order which the Wisdome of God did at first establish in the world My Adultery defileth my body my Oppression grindeth the poor my Anger rageth against my brother my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the Universe and at that order which was at first set up Luke 15. Father I have sinned against thee and against heaven saith the Prodigal against thee and against thy Power and that Order which thou hast establisht in the highest heavens And therefore his Providence ruleth over all to reduce this inequality to an equality and this confusion into order to shew what harmony it can work in the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed and unnatural body of Sin striking them down by his hand who would not bow to his will Sin and Punishment are nothing of themselves but in us or rather in the wayes of Gods Providence they are something The one is voluntary that is Sin the other penal that is Smart That which is voluntary Sin is a foul deformity in nature and in that course which God hath set up and therefore the penal is added to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole that the punishment of Sin may wipe out the dishonour of Sin that he who against the will of God would tast the pleasure of Sin may against his own will drink deep of the cup of Bitterness Interest mundo Therefore it concerns the world and all that therein is that Sin be punished and that every thing be set in its own place This the whole creation seems to grone for this it earnestly expects this is the Creatures Jubilee Rom. 8. it is deliverance from the bondage of corruption Turpis est pars quae suo toti non convenit It is an ill member for which the whole body is the worse Vt in sermone litterae As Letters in a Word or Sentence so Men are the principles and parts which concur to make up a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Men are the World and Men are the City and Men are the Church Now every impertinent and unpunished Sinner is a letter too much or rather a blur in that sentence Let the hand of Providence therefore blot it out Let the whip be on the fools back and the sword in the murderers bowels Let Dives be in Hell let every seed have its own body and every work its proper wages and then every thing is in its own order and place and then the World is the work of Gods Hands the Church is the body of Christ and the composition is entire So this is an everlasting truth Gods Justice requires it his Providence works it the very Creature groans for it And deceive we our selves if we will and mock God if we dare If we do not well sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 ready to break in with a whip and vengeance upon us For whatsoever a man sows that also shall he reap For in the next place God doth not onely punish sin but fits and proportions the punishment to the sin both in this life and in that which is to come He observes a kind of Arithmetical proportion and draws both parts together that the one may not crack of his purchase nor the other complain of his loss that the Sinner may not boast of his sin nor God lose any part of his glory The Prophet David hath fully exprest it He made a way to his anger LIBRAVlT ITER Psal 78 50. he weighed it as by the scales As they increased they sinned against me Hos 4.7 Therefore I will change their glory into shame Rom. 1.25 As they changed the truth of God into a lye so God delivered them up An Arithmetical and just proportion They took away Gods glory and they pay him with shame with the shame of a sinner which is Gods glory God under the Law did appoint particular punishments for particular sins as Famine by drought for Deteining of Tithes Pestilence for Injustice to destroy those that would not destroy the wicked nor plead the cause of the oppressed fierce and devouring Beasts for Perjury and Blasphemy and Captivity for Idolatry Lev. 10. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire and were consumed by fire from Heaven Adonibezek had his thumbs cut off and his great toes Judg. 1.6 and in the next verse he confesseth Threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table As I have done so God hath requited me Absalom's hearts desire was to get his Fathers crown and you may behold him with three darts thrust through his heart 2 Sam. 18 So in all ages it hath been observeable that men have been taken in their own net and been buried in the pit which they dig'd For this saith S. Basil is not onely a punishment but the very nature of Sin to make a net and to dig a pit for it self The Thief twists the halter that hangs him the Envious eateth out his own heart the Angry man slayeth himself the Wanton beast is burnt up with his own heat the Ambitious breaketh his own neck the Covetous pierceth his own soul and is choked as Crassus was with his own gold the Proud man breaks with his own swelling the Seditious is burnt with the fire he made So near doth Punishment follow Sin at the heels that in Scripture often one name and word serveth to signifie both and Sin is taken both for the guilt and the Punishment And this in this world But in the next Tophet is ordeined and prepared of old fitted and proportioned to every one that goes on in his sin as fit for an unrepentant sinner as a Throne is for a King or Heaven for an Angel For as there is some analogy between the joyes a good conscience yields on earth and thoss which we shall have at the right hand of God â—â—br 6.4 The Apostle calls it a tast of the heavenly gift and the Schoolmen tell us that Glory is the consummation of Grace which looked towards it and tended to it So is Sin an embleme of Hell carrying with it nothing but disorder confusion and torment Anselme thought it the uglier Hell of the two and more to be abhorred In Hell there is stench what more unsavory then Sin in Hell there is pain what more tormenting then Sin in Hell there is weeping what more lamentable then Sin in Hell there is a worm what more gnawing then Sin Sin entred in and then Hell was created Had
Joh. 2.6 when in all our carriage and behaviour we can truly say Sic oculos sic Ille manus sic ora ferebat Thus did or thus said my Saviour The lives and actions of men are subject to errour and the best of God's Saints in all ages have had their falls David is said to have been a man after God's own heart yet if we should follow David in all his paths he would lead us into those two fearful precipices Adultery and Murther Peter was a great Apostle but if we should imitate all Peter's actions we should not follow Christ but deny him In our imitation therefore of men we must observe the Apostles Caution here in the Text and be followers of the Saints even as they also are followers of Christ and no further When they go awry from Christ's example we must leave them be they what they will and carefully follow the presedent that our Lord hath set us He is the Way and the Truth and the Life He never went astray himself Joh. 14.6 neither can he mislead us He will be unto us as the Pillar of the cloud and of sire was to the Israelites a sure Guide to the Land of promise to the heavenly Canaan If we keep our eye still fixed upon him and heedfully and constantly follow his conduct we shall walk in the wayes of Truth and Peace walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called worthy of the name whereby we are called CHRISTIANS we shall give testimony of the truth and sincerity of our Faith and perform the promise and profession made at our Baptism which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and be made like unto him we shall adorn the Gospel honour our Master and glorifie our Father which is in heaven in a word we shall guide others in the way to happiness by our good example shining among them as lights in the world and we our selves having served our own generation by the will of God shall in the regeneration and the times of restitution of all things be received by him whom we have followed into those mansions of rest and glory which he is gone to prepare for us that where he is there we may be also The Eight and Thirtieth SERMON PROV XXVIII 13. He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Rom. 12.16 Prov. 3.7 Prov. 26.12 BE not wise in your own conceits It is St. Paul's counsel And it is the Wisemans counsel also And he giveth the reason for it Seest thou a wise man in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of him more hope of him that hath no use of reason then of him that hath and abuseth it that draweth it down to vile and base offices that maketh it ministerial and serviceable to his lusts that first imployeth it as a midwife to bring forth that sinne which his lust hath conceived and then when it hath brought it forth maketh it as a nurse to cherish it first to find out wayes to mature and perfect it and then to cast a shadow to cover it Certainly there is more hope of a fool then of him For a fool setteth not up to himself any end and so is not frustrate or defeated of it But he that is wise in his own conceit is the more unhappy fool of the two for he proposeth to himself an end and doth not only fail and come short of it but falleth and is bruised on a contrary He promiseth to himself glory and meeteth with shame he looketh towards Prosperity and is made miserable he flattereth himself with hope of Life and is swallowed up by death he smileth and pleaseth and applaudeth himself and perisheth he lifteth up himself on high and falleth and is buried in the mire and filth of his own conceits That which he seeketh flyeth from him and that which he runneth from overtaketh him The truth of which hath been visible in many particulars and written as it were with the bloud of those who have sought death in the errour of their lives and here Solomon hath manifested it in this Proverb or wise sentence which I have read unto you For how happy do we think our selves if we can sin and then hide and cover our sin from our own and others eyes and yet Wisdom it self hath said He that doth so shall not prosper What a disgrace do we count it to confess and forsake sin and yet he that doth so shall find mercy Our wayes are not as God's wayes That which we gather for a flower is a noysome and baneful weed that which we make our joy is turned into sorrow that which we apply to heal doth more wound our balm is poyson and our Paradise Hell Ye have heard of the wisedom of Solomon Hearken to it in this particular which crosseth the wisedom of this world He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Which words teach us these two things 1. The Danger of covering or excusing our sins He that covereth his sins shall not prosper 2. The Remedy or way to avoid this danger but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy The first we shall especially insist upon and shew it you in respect 1. of God 2. of our selves First the danger of covering our sins appeareth in this that sin cannot be covered cannot admit of excuse Omnis excusatio sui aequitate nititur say the Civilians All excuse is founded on equity and none is good but so far as equity commendeth it As far then as Sin may be covered or excused so far it is not sin at least not lyable to punishment For our own experience will tell us that where excuse with reason may run there it exempteth the accused both from fault and punishment We read Levit. 10. Vers 19. that when Aaron's sons had not eaten the goat of the sin-offering according to the Law and Aaron had made that reasonable excuse which we find that his sorrow for his two sons Nadab and Abihu had made him unfit to eat of those Holy things vvhich they vvere to do rejoycing Deut. 12.7 Deut. 26.14 and vvhen they brought their sanctified things they vvere to say I have not eat thereof in my mourning vvhen he had made this excuse the Text telleth us When Moses heard that he was content And this is the difference betwixt Moral and Ceremonial Laws Aliud sunt imagines saith Tertullian aliud definitiones Imagines prophetant definitiones gubernant We are governed not by Ceremonies vvhich pass away as a shadow but by Laws vvhich are immutable and indispensable Ceremonies are arbitrary and not only Reason but God himself doth in this case frame excuses and putteth them in our mouth and covereth what deformity soever they may present to men that cannot but misinterpret what they understand not David in his Hunger eateth of the shew-bread
the priest denieth him not Matth. 12.7 Hos 6.6 and our Saviour in the Gospel acquitteth him out of the Prophet I will have mercy and not sacrifice Better all Ceremony should fall to the ground then any one Hungry soul should starve for bread But the laws given to the sons of men as a rule of life are not ceremonial and temporary but reall and eternal nor can those sins vvhich break them receive any cover or palliation And to plead excuse or dispensation against these is to turn mercy into sacrifice to plead for Baal to cover and boulster up and justifie sin vvhich is the greatest sin of all When Sacrifices were omitted or the Sabbath for some reasons not observed vve do not find that God doth complain and Christ maketh it lawful nay necessary in some particulars a sin not to do that which otherwise would be a sin not to neglect the Sabbath to save the life of a man nay of an ass What Ceremony almost can we name vvhich hath not at some time upon just occasion been omitted But vvhen the Moral Law is broken when God's people fall into Idolatry or follow lies vvhen they are murderers or oppressors then he hath a controversie with them and pleadeth against them Here no cover vvill fit no paint nor pargetting vvill serve all the excuses in the vvorld vvill not keep off the sentence of death To imagine that God vvill admit of excuse for the breach of such a Law as is eternal and bindeth all men and at all times vvere as the Father saith to make God Circumscriptorem suae sententiae by a kind of fraud to avoid and defeat his own decree This vvere to make his goodness imaginary his severity a phansie his commands nothing but security for offenders This vvere to turn his justice into iniquity and his vvisdom into folly So to cover our sin is but to make it greater and increase the punishments He that covereth it shall not prosper To urge this reason taken from God further yet We find the two attributes of God his Wisdom and his Power the highest attributes which he hath As his Power is unlimited so he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdom above all wisdom whatsoever In his actions ad extrà these two alwayes concur As by his Power the creatures were created Psal 104.24 so in wisdom hath he made them all Psal 104.24 saith the Psalmist Yet his Power seemeth to be subordinate to and receive direction from his Wisdom And therefore though all the attributes of God be infinite and consequently equal yet his Wisdom seemeth to have the precedency the first and highest place It is so we see in his creature Man Ingenii damna majora sunt quà m pecuniae He that disparageth our Wisdom hath laid upon us the bitterest imputation he can We can hear with patience many times that others are richer or stronger then our selves No man is vexed within himself that he is not a Milo or an Hercules or a Croesus But he that detracteth from our Wisdom is an enemy indeed Nulla contumeliosiùs fit injuria He doth us the greatest injury in the world that calleth us fools Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit We cannot wonder then if we observe the same in God if we see and read him more jealous of his Wisdom then of his Power that his indignation should wax hotter against the Excuse then the Sin For he that committeth sin dallieth with his Power but he that covereth and palliateth sin playeth with his Wisdom trieth whether he can per fraudem obrepere fraudulently circumvent and abuse God He that sinneth would be stronger then God but he that covereth his sin striveth as it were to put out his all-seeing eye and to be wiser then he potior Jupiter quà m ipse Jupiter as he in the Comedy saith a wiser Jupiter then Jupiter Himself which no impiety can equal And therefore we may observe that God forgiveth the greatest sins when they are laid open and confessed but casteth an angry look and layeth an heavy hand upon those sins which would hide and cover themselves with excuses 1 Sam. 15. 2. Sam. 12. We have a notable instance of this in David and Saul Take but the pains to compare them both and you will at the first view be soon perswaded that the heavy sentence which Samuel denounced against Saul should have passed upon David that of the two David more deserved to have had the Kingdom rent from him the Sceptre torn out of his hands For bring their sins to the balance and compare them both Saul spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen And what errour was here but only that the commandment was broken For when he spared the oxen and the sheep who was the worse Quid meruistis oves what sin was it to be merciful to the dumb and innocent creature Besides his end and pretense was good He did it to sacrifice them to the Lord. But to the sin of David no oratory is equal Who can express the hainousness of it Saul offendeth against but one command and that a positive one and which was only for the present and with which God did often dispense but David against an eternal Law written in his Heart with which God never did never will dispense Again Saul's sin was but one but David's was peccatum complicatissimum a sin carrying a train with it of which the least in appearance was greater then that of Saul's first Adultery then an Attempt to make Uriah drunk then Murder not only of Uriah himself whose bed he had defiled but also of all those who fell with him And to this we may add his long continuance in sin even a whole year without any sense or feeling of it It will not be easie to find out a parallel hereunto either in Divine or Humane story either amongst the Israelites or amongst aliens from the commonwealth of Israel I would not rip up the bowels of this Saint or shew you the full horrour of his sinne but to this end to discover and shew you withall this most necessary truth the danger of covering a sin We see David easily reconciled to God but Saul cast off eternally without possibility of pardon Yet Saul confesseth his sin thought it were late I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and Samuel prayeth for Saul Vers 24. and yet nothing prevaileth Now the reason of this may be plainly gathered out of the Text. Nathan no sooner cometh to David and sheweth him his fault but he presently without any ambages or circumstance confesseth it and upon confession receiveth pardon which followed the confession as close as an Echo doth the sound 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned is answered with The Lord hath put away thy sin But with Saul it was otherwise For he denyeth and then wipeth his mouth and receiveth the Prophet with a complement Blessed be thou of
the Lord 1 Sam. 15.13 I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Being after taken and detected he shifteth his sails and turneth the point of his compass and tryeth by fair pretenses and excuses whether he can catch God with guile The people v. 15. saith he spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God He breaketh the commandment of God upon pretence of sacrifice and so as much as in him lyeth abuseth the Wisdom of God with a kind of mockery and deceit And this is it which made that great difference between the action of David and the action of Saul and that great breach between Saul and his God What a dangerous thing is it then to study to cover a sin How great is this sin which not onely trespasseth against the highest attribute of God but also defeateth and cutteth off the usual wayes of reconcilement After other sins committed the means to make our way to God's favour are Confession and the Prayers of the Saints one for another St. James telleth us so much chap. 5.15 16. Now covering and excusing our sin evacuateth them both Saul you see made liberal though late confession of his sin Samuel faithful Samuel one of the greatest of the Lord's Prophets earnestly prayeth for him yet neither the delinquent's confession nor the Prophet's prayer procure any thing at the hand of God The prayer of the righteous shall save the sick saith St. James Then certainly covering and excusing a sin is a very desperate sickness which the prayer of so righteous a person as Samuel was could not recover Nay which is more the prayer of the Prophet is not onely refused but he is straightly charged to pray for him no more 1 Sam. 16.1 How long saith God wilt thou mourn for Saul since I have rejected him This sin then of Covering sin is it not a sin unto Death Either it is so or not far from it There is but one sin for which in Scripture we are forbidden to pray There is a sin unto death saith St. John 1 Joh. 5.16 I do not say that thou shouldst pray for it I conclude nothing but wish them who delight to cover their sin who sin often and yet never sin who run away with the dart in their sides and never feel it to lay this to heart For see Samuel here is forbidden to pray for Saul To conclude this What a strange sin is this sin of Excuse which being liker to a circumstance of sin then a sin yet maketh a lesser sin exceed the greatest and the greatest to be greater then it is which maketh a wanton look worse then adultery anger then murder the breach of a temporal Law more dangerous then of an eternal The Schools say well Maximum peccatum excusatio quia quodlibet peccatum facit majus That must needs be the greatest sin which maketh every sin greater Not to leave yet the consideration of the greatness of this sin in respect of God When sin hath entred our heart and shewn it self in the active irregularity of our members there are but these five wayes observed in our deportment and behaviour against it either 1. Concealing or Denyal so Sarah denyed that she laught Gehazi Gen. 18.15 2 Kings 5.25 when he had run after Naaman for a reward boldly told his Master Thy servant went no whither Or 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alleviation and lessening the fault when we excuse our selves à tanto though not à toto let something of our fault appear and cover the rest Or 3. Despair as in Cain and Judas Or 4. penitential Confession as in David and Job Or 5. Excuse as in Saul These five are 〈◊〉 Prophets baskets of figs the good very good Jer. 24.1 2 3. and that is but one 〈◊〉 the evil very evil and naughty but the worst of all is Excuse For in Denyal and Concealment though we deny the fact yet we acknowledge it to be Evil Nolumus nostrum quia malum agnoscimus We would never deny it did we not confess it to be Evil. In Alleviation there is confession made but tenderly Something we confess to be amiss but not much And in Despair there is a large acknowledgment but to no purpose And the despairing sinner though he destroyeth himself yet deserveth our pity more then the former To despair is not so much a sin as the committing those sins which plunged him in that gulf Concealment Denyal and Alleviation are wilful errours to avoyd the punishment which is due unto our sin but Despair is an argument against itself calleth the punishment on the offender further then God is willing executeth the delinquent not for want of pardon which is ready to be sealed but of suing it out But of all the Apologizer who is ready with a veil to cover his sin who can make a circumstance an anvil to forge an excuse on is far the worst In the rest there is some acknowledgment made and so far they partake of the nature of penitential Confession Some confess too little others too much The two first come short of Repentance the third exceedeth The two first confess tenderly the other unprofitably But in him that covereth his sin with excuse there breatheth no air of penitential Confession but instead thereof he maintaineth that to be good which his conscience will tell him is evil I may deceive and cozen the wicked saith the Hypocrite who is more wicked then they I may sin because I am weak and break the command because I cannot keep it and multiply actual sins because of original Gen. 34. Simeon and Levi murder the Shechemites and the excuse is ready Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot The sacrilegious person taketh the houses of God into possession for should they be abused to superstition The foulest sin hath a mantle to cover it and sometimes walketh under a Canopy of state We sin and will not be said or thought to sin and this maketh sin more sinful This doth fores occludere misericordiae not shut out the sin but God himself letteth fall a Portcullis between God's mercy and our soul emptyeth God as it were who of himself is an inexhaust fountain of mercy ever ready to flow and will not suffer him to be what he is to be so good as he is For by our impenitency he cannot do us what good he would we will not suffer him to be merciful we will not suffer him to wipe out our sins by forgiveness but hide them as much as we can from his light and beams cover them that he may not see them and by our evasions and excuses leave him no sin to wipe out To conclude this point If we sport thus with God's Wisdome if we strive to deceive him caecâ die in these dark shops and grots of excuses if we think that any cover will keep us from his eye who is greater
then our Conscience and seeth more of us then we do when we are most impartial to our selves and see most if we thus dally and trifle with Wisdome it self Mercy which tryumpheth over Justice will yield to Wisdome and if we cover our sins 1 Joh. 1.9 and not lay them open by Confession we shall find God just and faithful but not to forgive us our sins not to cleanse us from all unrighteousness We might here inlarge But we pass from the danger in respect of God to that in respect of our selves There is no one sin to which our Nature more strongly inclineth us then this of covering and excusing our sin So pleasing is excuse to our disposition so inseperable from Sin that cum ipso scelere nascitur soror filia it is both the daughter and sister of Sin We travel with Sin and Excuse as Thamar did with twins Excuse is not the first for Sin first maketh the breach and then calleth for Excuse but though it be not the first yet it followeth close at the Heels Now to give a reason for this First it is the very nature of Sin not onely to infect the soul but to bewitch it that it shall either not feel it or not be willing to evaporate and expel it It is compared to a Serpent and the poyson thereof is much like unto that of the Aspick which Cleopatra put to her arm It casteth us into a kind of sweet and pleasant slumber and killeth us without pain We are smitten and we feel it not we are stricken Prov. 23 35. and are not sick we are in the very mouth of Hell and yet secure It is called a burden and yet we feel it not nor doth it burden or lye heavy upon us But as it is with those who lye under the water they feel no weight though whole seas run over them fo is it with those who are overwhelmed and drowned in sin they feel no weight or if they do they soon relieve and ease themselves I say a burden it is and we are careful to cast it from us but not that way which God prescribeth but after a method forged and beaten out by our own irregular fancy we do not cast it away by loathing it and loathing our selves for it by resolving against it by fearing the return of it as we would the fall of a mountain upon our heads but we cast it upon our own Weakness and Infirmity which will not bear it upon God's Long-suffering and Mercy and presume to continue in it upon Christ Jesus and crucifie him again upon Excuse which is but sand and cannot bear that which pressed the Son of God himself to death Soli filii irae iram Dei non sentiunt They onely are insensible of the Anger of God who are the children of Wrath. Secondly though God hath set up a tribunal in our hearts and made every man a judge of his own actions yet there is no tribunal on earth so much corrupted and swayed from its power and jurisdiction as this No man is so partial a judge in another mans cause as in his own No man is so well pleased with any cheat as that which he putteth upon himself Though God hath placed a Conscience in us Exod. 28.30 as he put the Urim and the Thummim in the breast-plate of judgment by which he might give answer unto us what we are to do and what not to do what we have done well and what amiss as the High-priest by viewing his breast-plate saw whether the people might go up to War or not go up yet when we have once defiled our Conscience we care not much for looking upon it or if we do it giveth no certain answer but we lose the use of it in our slavery under sin as the Jews lost the use of their Urim and Thummim at the Captivity of Babylon as appeareth Ezr. 2.63 Neh. 7 65. The use of it I say which is to (a) Rom. 2.15 accuse to (b) 1 John 3.20 condemn to (c) Wisd 17.10 torment to make us have (d) Deut. 28.65 a trembling heart and (e) Levit. 26.36 a faint heart For it doth none of these offices neither accuse nor convince nor condemn nor afflict nor strike with fear At best it doth but shew the whip and then put it up again It changeth and altereth its complexion as our sins and hath as many names as there be evil dispositions in men Our conscience checketh us and we silence it Sin appeareth and we cover it Our conscience would speak more plainly if we did not teach it that broken and imperfect language to pronounce Sibboleth for Shibboleth to leave out some letter some aspiration some circumstance in sin Or rather to speak truth the Conscience cannot but speak out to the offender and tell him he hath broken the Law but as we will not hearken to Reason when she would restrain us from sin so we slight her when she checketh us for committing it We will neither give ear to her counsel and not sin nor yet hearken to her reproof when we have finned neither observe her as a Counseller nor as a Judge neither obey her as a friend nor as an enemy Hence it cometh to pass that at last in a manner it forgetteth its office and is negligent in its very property is a Conscience and yet knoweth nothing a Register yet recordeth nothing or if it do in so dark and obscure a character as is not legible a Glass and reflecteth nothing but a Saint for a man of Belial a Book of remembrance but containeth not our deceit and oppression and sacrilege but the number of Sermons we have heard the Fasts we have kept though for bloud the many good words we have spoke though from a hollow and unsanctified hart from our indignation against the world which hath nothing worse init then ourselves And this is the most miserable condition a sinner can fall into Rom. 1.18 This is saith St. Paul to hold the truth in unrighteousness by an habitual course of sin to depress and keep under the very principles of Goodness and Honesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hold and have full possession of the Truth Luk. 19. but make no use of it to hide and bury it as the bad servant did his pound in a Napkin bury it in the loathsome sepulchre of a rotten and corrupt soul as if having a medicine about me I should chuse to take down poison having plenty starve my self to death having Honey and Manna lay it by till it stink and feed on Husks having a Conscience not keep it suborn my Counsellour to be my Parasite be endued with Reason and use it only to make me more unreasonable neglect and slight it when it bids me not do this and when I have done it paint and disguise it that I may not know the work of mine own hands nor see that sin which
them nay the very same the Faith that must qualifie and prepare us for Christ's second coming must be like his coming full of glory and power must shake the powers of the Grave must awake those that sleep must demolish Sin must make us like unto Christ not onely in his passion but also in his rising from the dead must be to us as the trump of God to call us out of our graves not fides inermis a weak and unarmed faith which hath neither buckler nor sword which can neither defend nor strike a stroke but is well content to stand by and see our Saviour fight it out but fides pugnax a faith armed against the day of trial that can fight it out against principalities and powers and against all the fearful signs which shall be set up and fides vincens a faith that overcometh the world and the love of the world and fides triumphans a faith that every day triumpheth over Sin and the Devil maketh a shew of them openly and manifesteth it self to God to Angels to men This Faith hath a clear and strong eye and can look upon these terrible signs By this faith Christ doth dwell in our hearts and if Christ dwell there Ephes 3.17 he bringeth with him courage and resolution How fit is he to behold the Sun darkned who hath this light in him to see the falling of the Stars who hath this bright Morning-star fixed in his heart And what if the world end if he be with him who is the Begining and the End This Faith will make us fit to behold any object will settle us in the knowledge of the providence of God of which we had before but certain confused notions little better then dreams This Faith is like the Emperour 's large Emerald in which he beheld wars and ruine slaughter and desolation whose colour tempered the object and made it appear less terrible then it was This Faith heareth a voice from heaven speaking to the whole host and army of calamities to all these fearful signs which shall usher in the end of the world as David did concerning Absalom Do the young man no harm Do my anointed my peculiar people no harm In a word this Faith will stay with us will wait and attend us in the midst of all this tumult and confusion And when the powers of heaven are shaken and the elements melt with fire and the world is ready to be dissolved it will bring us good news of help at hand Fear you not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. For this Faith alwaies bringeth with it Repentance which is another end why we are called upon to behold these things For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that long-suffering of God's which calleth us to repentance improveth and increaseth the means as we increase our hardness The more heavy our sleep is in sin the more noise and stir God maketh to awake us After we have spent our estate amongst harlots and fed with swine yet if we return he will receive us If we will not behold and consider him when he shineth upon our tabernacles yet if we fall down before him when these signs appear when he cometh with a tempest round about him then he will receive us When the world regardeth us not when it frowneth upon us when it is ready to be dissolved yet if we return he will receive us In wars and rumours of wars when the Sun is darkened and the Moon turned into bloud yet if we return he will receive us Never was the world so full of wickedness as in this last age of it for as our forefathers went before us in time so do we before them in iniquity And therefore were there never greater means to reclaim it So that this time of judgement is a time of mercy wherein Mercy even whilest Justice holdeth up the sword whilest she is striking spreadeth her wing and waiteth till we come under the shadow of it And these signs if we will behold them as we should and make them so may be signs of the dissolution of the body of Sin as vvell as of the frame of the Universe For the long-suffering of God is repentance saith S. Peter and will bring forth the fruits of it if it be not abused and hindered And the destruction of a sinner is never so absolutely decreed by God but that there is still hope of recovery even then when his foot is upon the very brink of death and desolation Let him then pull back and return to his God and he shall find that with him there is mercy and plentiful redemption Behold I have told you before And I have told you that you may behold and consider it that you may excutere veternum awake from that sleep in which security and self-love have lulled you that you may quicken your faith and perfect and complete your repentance and so be signed with these signs that the Spirit may sign and seale you to the day of redemption And this is the compasse of the Ecce And in this compasse we may walk and behold these signes behold them with a watchful eye with a believing eye with a repentant eye washing off all their malignity with tears These are the several rayes of consideration And if we thus behold these signs we shall be also fitted and prepared to meet Christ at his second coming Being thus qualified we shall look upon all the ill-boding calamities in the world which appear unto us in a shape of terrour as upon so many John Baptists telling us that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand we shall-look upon Death when he cometh towards us on his pale horse and not fear him we shall look upon the Son of man when he cometh towards us with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and it shall be as musick to us For he hath promised that where he is we shall be also and he hath made death and these signes and the dissolution of the world it self a promise For if we should not dye if the world should not be dissolved we could not enjoy the promise But when these signs shall usher him in when he shall come again then shall he free us from the yoke and harrow from oppression and tyranny Then the meek shall be higher then the proud and Lazarus richer then Dives Then that bloudy hypocrite which called himself a Saint shall have his portion with the Devil and his Angels and the innocent the despised condemned innocent shall look up and lift up his head Then though the heavens be shaken he shall stand fast as Mount Sion though the sea roar he shall be at peace though the Stars fall his heart shall be fixed Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae And when the Son of man shall come in the clouds he shall be ready to meet him and when the heavens shall be gathered
I need not be large in their character you may know them by their language I fast twice in the we e. They fast and they pray and they hear and they believe and they are assured of heaven They are and they alone The rest stand before them as Publicans or excommunitate persons Can any good thing can any Prophet come out of Nazareth Can any know any good or do any good that is not of that faction Enlarge thy phylacteries if thou canst thou Pharisee and paint that sepulchre of rotten bones vvhich thou art vvith more art and coriosity then these blow thy trumpet louder or draw thy face to more figures then these Lord what is now become of Religion It was placed in judgment and mercy it is now managed with cruelty and craft It vvas committed to every nation and all people it is now shut up in a party It vvas seated in the Will and Understanding it is now whirled about in the Phansie It vvas a wedding-garment it is now made a cloke of maliciousness It vvas once true He that loved Christ and kept his commandments was his Disciple but he is now no good Christian who is so if he be not so after such a mode and such a fashion We see it in the Church of Rome No salvation out of her territories God grant vve feel it not nearer home Beloved he that shall look abroad and vvell consider the conversation of many may be tempted perhaps to an unworthy thought that either there is no Religion or that Religion is nothing For vvherein is it placed In a Fast and that to our ovvn vvills in Hearing and that but vain in Prayer and that many times but babling in Faith and that but dead in Formalities and Shews It s sound is gone through the earth and it is lost in the noise Religion vve fight for and Religion vve fight against Religion vve extoll and Religion vve shame We cry it up and tread it under foot and are never less religious then vvhen the Pharisee speaketh vvithin us and telleth the vvorld and maketh it known to all the people that we are so Non apparemus mali ut plus malignemur We will not appear evil that vve may do the more evil seem very good that vve may be vvorse and vvorse Let us take an Inventory of our Jewels and our best things let us set down our virtues We fast vvith all our sins about us full of iniquity and many times feed it vvith a fast We fast and make it a prologue sometimes to a Comedy sometimes to a Tragedy and at once call down judgments and deprecate them humble our selves before God and provoke him We hear and that is all and vvould to God that vvere all But here that curse is upon it Deut. 28.38 We carry much seed out but gather little in We hear much and remember little and practise less nay vve practise the contrary to that vvhich vve heard vvith so much attention and delight We pray for one thing and desire another We make it a trade a craft and occupation to take indeed a pearl but not the kingdom of heaven I but vve believe I am unwilling to say Faith is a ceremony but in many it is not so much and signifieth nothing at all a meteor hanging in the phansie vvhich portendeth nothing but sterility and barrenness rather a scutcheon for shew then a buckler to quench a fiery dart We call Christ a foundation and we build upon him We lay our cruelty upon him who was a Lamb our malice upon him who prayed who died for his enemies our pride upon him who made himself of no reputation our hypocrisie upon him who was Truth it self and our rebellion upon him who was a pattern of obedience We believe in Christ and crucifie him again For this the wrath of God is revealed from heaven Rom. 1 1â— because we hold the truth of God in unrighteousness For this his Anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still not so much for the breach as for the contempt of his word and commandments not so much tor our offending him as for our dallying with him not so much for our sin as for our hypocrisie not onely for our obedience but for our hearing not onely for our defects but for our devotion not onely for our infidelity but for our faith not onely for our intemperance but for our fast For what can provoke God more then to see such pearls trode under foot by swine I do not mention paying of tithes for neither the Law of God nor of man can defend them nor any thing else that looketh like a prey And therefore for conclusion let me bespeak you as Christ did his Disciples Take heed of the leven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Luke 12. for it will leven and sowre the whole lump the whole body of your Religion taint and poison your Fast frustrate your Hearing turn your Prayer into sin make your Faith vain and leave you in your sins The One and Fortieth SERMON PART I. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THere is nothing more talked of then the Gospel nothing more wilfully mistook nothing more frequently abused The sound of it is gone through the earth is heard from the East to the West but men have set and tuned it to their own lusts and humours No Psalm will please us but a Psalm of Mercy For Judgment is a harsh note Mercy and Judgment though David put them together in his Song with us are such discords that they yield no harmony Mercy and Judgment Law and Liberty though they may meet and delight us though they must meet to save us yet we set them at distance cleave to the one and hate the other please and delight our selves under the shadow of Mercy till Judgment falleth upon as a tempest to overwhelm us loose our Liberty in our embraces forfeit Mercy by laying hold of it and the Gospel of Christ is made the Gospel of man nay saith S. Augustine Evangelium Diaboli the Gospel of the Devil himself This our blessed Apostle had discovered in the dispersed Tribes to whom he wrote That they were very ready to publish and magnifie the Gospel that they loved to speak of it that they loved to hear of it that they were perfect in their Creed that Faith was set up aloft and crowned even when it was dead that they did believe and were partial that they did believe and despise the poor that they did believe and blaspheme that worthy Name by which they were called And therefore to draw them back from this so dangerous a deviation Vers 19. he exhorteth them first to hear the word of truth that he disliketh not but then secondly to receive it into their hearts
Pulpit-flatterers 506. Flattering Preachers are vvorse then Judas 510 511. The root of Flattery is Covetousness 507 c. How apt vve are to flatter our selves 442. 480. 742. 875. v. Assurance Presumtion Security Flesh v. Body Flesh and Spirit contrary 175. 562. 767. ever contending one vvith another 312. Florimundus Raimundus 556. Folly Whence all the Folly that so aboundeth in the vvorld 689 690. Fools and Mad-men vvhat to be thought of 96. None such Fools as they vvho think themselves vvise 500 501. Forgetfulness of the World reproved 1116. Forgiveness How short our Forgiveness cometh of God's 817. God's F. is free and voluntary and so must ours be 818. Whether we are bound to forgive an injury before acknowledgment made 818. God forgiveth fully and so must vve not onely forgive but forget 819. By this vve become like unto God 820. Though vve must forgive yet is not the office of the Judge or going to Law unlawful 821. God's F. is not the less free because it engageth us to forgive 824. What force our F. hath to obtain F. of God 824 825 830 c. What influence God's F. should have on us 826 c. How it cometh to pass that it doth not alwayes vvork in us the likeness of it self 827 828. That we may forgive our Brother vve must oft call to mind and meditate upon the Mercy of God 828 829. and apply it aright 829. What vve must do to get our sins forgiven 833. Grace to forgive one another is never single but accompanied vvith other graces 833. Form A Form of godliness nothing worth vvithout the power thereof 663. yet it deceiveth many 77. 79. and contenteth them 74 c. 303 304. 487. and vvorketh confidence and security in their hearts 74. 76. 1127 1128. and they conceit that God himself also is much taken vvith such pageantry 82. 108 109. Indeed the Form is accepted vvhen the power is not wanting 79 80. otherwise not 487 488. Why a bare Form vvithout substance is so hateful to God 75-79 It hath the same motive with our greatest sins 76. It is mere mockery 80. 877. It is as pleasing to the Devil as it is odious to God 77. v. Hearing Piety Worship Formality v. Outward Duties It is compared to motions by vvater-works 845. Formalities are easy essential duties difficult 1057. Formal repentance is the grossest hypocrisie 372. Fornication eloquently and excellently declaimed against 750 752. Excuses for it answered 750. It dishonoureth the body and defileth the soul 750. It maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot 750. It is of all sins the most carnal 750. It effeminateth both mind and body 751. It is the Devil's net to catch two at once 751. How strictly Christ forbiddeth it 751. What presumtions there are of its abounding in this Age 751 752. That the very Heathen thought it foul appeareth from their custome of bathing after it 751. Frailty Of humane Frailty 535 c. Friendship obligeth to duty 105. No Friendship is lasting that is not built upon Virtue 371. A wise Friend will shun the least suspicion of offense 380. 612. Fundamentals of Protestants Religion 285 Fundamental and necessary points are plain and evident in Script 1084 1085. Funeral rites at the death of a Romane Emperour 423. Future events unknown to us 250. 1043. v. Time G. GAin v. Profit How greedily and basely pursued not onely by Heathens but by many Christians also 131 132. The gainfullest use of riches 143. Gal. ii 20. 521. ¶ v. 21. 375. ¶ vi 12. 501. Galene's helps in the pursuit of knowledge 66. Gallant The profane Gallant a despicable wretch 528. Gen. iii. 19. In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread a command as well as a curse 218. ¶ 22. 158. 630 631. ¶ vi 3. 795. ¶ xlii 21 22. 387. ¶ Gen. xlvi 27 28. handsomely applied 321. Gentleman No Gentleman hath a licence to be idle 222. GHOST The HOLY GHOST a distinct Person 53. Several titles of his and operations 54. Why called the Spirit of truth 54. 57. Though sent by the Father and the Son yet is his coming voluntary 56. The end of Christ's coming and of the H. Ghost's 52. 760. The H. Ghost though not so solemnly as of old yet still cometh effectually upon the faithful 52. 760. He is ever consonant to himself 55. He is our chief our sole Instructour 760. 772. Though the Church and the Word and Discipline be our Teachers yet the H. Ghost may be truly called our sole Teacher 778. How he is said to teach us all truth 58. How he teacheth us 773. Means must be used for the obteining the gifts of the H. Ghost 61. 67 68. Into what posture we must put our selves if we will receive him 779. We must be careful not to disquiet and grieve him 773 774. Many pretend to be led by the H. Ghost when their design is to oppose him 62. 64. Which is a sin perhaps more dangerous then flatly to deny him 63. 774. Whence it is that so few follow his guidance 65. He hath worse enemies nowadayes then the Eunomians and Sabellians 774. What horrible wickedness some in this Age entitle him to 774. But because some mistake and abuse the Spirit we must not thence conclude that none are taught by him 775. He not onely taught the Church in the Apostles times but teacheth it still in all ages 776. His operations indeed are not easily perceived 775. but that he hath wrought we may find 776. How we may prove the Spirit 780 781. and discern his instructions from the suggestions of Satan and the dreams of fanaticks 64. 66. 777. 780. Glorifying of God what 744 c. 748. 754. 1009. We must glorifie God in soul and in body 744 c. Whether an actual intention of God's glory perpetually in our mind be necessary 745. More is required of us then to glorifie God verbally 754. God's Glory must be the first mover of our obedience 1008. It is not so resplendent in a Starre nor in the Sun as in the New creature 1009. If we glorifie God here we shall glorifie him to eternity 747. Gnosticks 167. GOD cannot be spoken of with too much reverence 7. 409. He is a most simple Essence 78. incomprehensible 165. Bold and curious searching of him unlawful 164 165. He is to be seen by faith not curiously gazed upon 729. Though he be invisible yet we may see Him by the light that shineth in his Works in our Conscience and in his Word 784 c. ¶ God delighteth in his Wisdome more then in any other of his Attributes 326. 1029. Of his Omnipresence and Omniscience 164. Errours concerning God's Presence 165. Belief of God's Presence the greatest curb of sin 164. 167 c 258. God's Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them in Christ's Satisfaction and ours 327. Counsels which some men fasten upon God contrary to his Wisdome and Goodness 326. 407
mind whence 554. Men love to hide their sins and to make shew of their good deeds 167 168. Man is never free but while he is obedient to Law 1100 c. v. Liberty How Man is Lord of all his actions 257. Man ever laid open to tentations how and why 280. Few Men fully perswaded of their mortality 250 251. Manichees 8. 165. 171. 412. 705. 752. Many v. Multitude Marcion 8 9. 21. 23. 246. 390. 412. 808. Marie the Mother of our Lord a blessed person 985. Some will not call her Saint 986. Others make her more 986. Mark xiv 36. expounded 25. Marriage v. Husband Perfection may be had as well in a Married as in a single life 1090. The inconveniencies of Marriage nothing so dangerous as Sin 1090. Martyrdome An excellent encomium of it 754. How to be armed for Martyrdome 192. A good life and a good cause go to the making of a Martyr 705. Their gallant and triumphant carriage in their sufferings 26. 568 569. Fear of hell made them so couragious 391. v. Sufferings Every Christian is designed to Martyrdome 573. There may be a Martyrdome before Martyrdome 82. The Devil and Errour have their Martyrs as well as God and the Truth 704 705. 912. Some slain for throwing down Images not allowed the title of Martyrs 215. Massalians 705. Mass-book Some condemn some truths because they are in the Mass-book 671. Masters of families Their Duty 545. Mathematicks No such certainty to be looked for in Ethicks as in M. 1015. Matth. v. 22 28 32 34 39 44. 1079. ¶ 48. 1087. how eluded 690. ¶ vi 25 34. 222. ¶ vii 12. 127. ¶ viii 26. 314. ¶ x. 16. 130. ¶ xi 30. 481. ¶ xxii 30. 939. ¶ xxiv Christ's Sermon in this chapter concerning the signes of his second coming nearly concerneth us 1042 1043. Matrimonie and Virginity weighed together 1090. Meaning A good Meaning or intention a poor excuse for sin 443. 447 448. Means v. End Many gaze and dote on the Means and regard not the end 988 989. Means if not made good use of turne to our great disadvantage 424. 555. Measures v. Weights Meats now under the Gospel may be indifferently used or not used 1098. Mecenas 383. Mechanick A witless etymon of the word 522. Meddling with other mens matters reproved 212. 640 641. It is against not onely the laws of Christianity 213. but also the method of Nature 214 216. Meddling busy-bodies are enemies to others and themselves also 215. They are ridiculous and prodigious 216. Idleness is the root of this vice 218. Meditation on good things how advantageous 206. 691. It is to be seconded by Practice 207. Meditation what 597. 1107. Memorie Of the Memorie 828. What a gratious efficacie the Memorie of God's Mercy hath upon the soul 828 829. Our Memories are apt to forget God's mercies and have need of reviving 589. 596. ¶ What care vvas taken to preserve the Memorie of the Saints 1019. Mercy praised 138. 147. It is an inseparable companion of Justice 138 139. We are as much bound to do acts of Mercy as not to do an injurie 139. 142 143. Nothing more sutable to the Nature of Man then Mercy 140. Mercy maketh Man like unto God 279. What influence God's Mercy and ours have one upon another 815. v. Forgiveness Mercy maketh a sympathie and harmonie in the Church 141. Why worldly men like it not 142. It is often rewarded in this life but in the next infallibly 143. The M. of the primitive Christians how far beyond ours 144 145. Less danger to exceed herein then to fall short 145. Distinctions coyned to elude Texts that enjoyn Mercy 146. Compassion the spring of Mercy 147. 149. v. Almes To love Mercy what 150. Mercie is natural 150. constant 151. sincere 152. delightful 153. Objects of Mercy appear every where 154. Motives to Mercy 153. Our Mercy to others is the rent God respecteth for his M. to us 154. God's Mercy and his Justice reconciled by Christ's Death and our Repentance 347. Why the antient Fathers were so profuse yet sparing tenderers of God's Mercy 349 350. The Mercy of God fearfully abused by some 276. Make not Mercy an occasion of sin 352 353. Mercy and Judgment should compose our song 353. Judgement followeth Mercy at the heels 360. v. GOD. The use we should make of God's Mercies 579. 590. 1072. Sins after Mercy the greater 612 613. Mercy is of most efficacie to humble our hearts 643. Merits The doctrine of Merits overthrown 812 813. 1126. All we can do or suffer is far short of meriting heaven 233. 993. 1126. Messias Christ is not such a Messias as the Jews looked for and as some worldly-minded Christians frame to themselves 33. A glorious Messiah was exspected by the Jews 553 554. 559. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. Metaphors fruitfull of controversie 46. Their use 229. Metellus Numidicus 668. Method and Order how necessarie to be followed 885. as necessarie in Christ's School as in humane Arts and Sciences 68. 947. Want of Method what mischief it worketh in the world 892. c. 945 946. Meum and Tuum quarrelsome vvords 840. Milk by some not allowed to be eaten 752. Mind v. Man The Mind is the Man and the action too 622 623. It cannot intend several things at once 509. Whether it be not necessarie that the Mind should still fluctuate and be lost in uncertainties 678. The Mind is apt to be dazled with some lesser good vvhen it should be intent upon far greater 988 989. Ministers must not flatter 511 512. v. Flattery Miracles v. Conversion The end and use of Miracles 572 c. 957 c. 968 969. 978. 988. In respect of the Agent properly there is no Miracle 969. Why M. are now ceased 970. Of Popish Miracles 970. He that will not believe the Word vvould not believe a Miracle 734. 970. What Christ did in person he doth still spiritually by his Church 970. Christ's Miracles preferred before Moses's 978. Christ's M. were supernaturall publick quick perfect 979. Miracles should fill us with admiration 979. Miracles may be scoffed at by profane men 956 c. Miserie to be chosen rather then Iniquity 127. Mockery Most mens conversation is but a Mockery of God 919 c. 958. How vvicked men are said to mock God vvho in very deed cannot be mocked 923 c. God will return the Mock upon them that mock him 925. v. Scoff Moderation to be observed 56. Moderation in the pursuit of Knowledge commended 248. Modestie in apparel to be used 1101. Monitours vve should be to one another 576. Monks and Friars censured 220. v. Perfection Solitarie Montanus 65. 752. Morality scorned and derided by speculative hypocrites 83. Morall Laws v. Ceremonie Morall virtues are not natural 199. but must be studied and laboured for 205. Of the Morall virtues of the Heathen 663. v. Heathen Morose v. Christianity Mortality Of our Mortality 538. How little believed
words and syllables so that at last it was shut up and lost in phrases and second notions and terms of art which brought little improvement to the better part and made men rather talkative then wise For we may observe that the same noysome and pestilent wind which so withered Philosophy till it was shrunk up into a name being nothing but a body of words hath blown also upon Divinity and blasted that which was ordained to be the very life of our souls Which was more pure and plain when mens lives were so but is now sullied with much handling and made much unlike it self daubed over with glosses as with untempered morter wrought out into Questions beat out into Distinctions and is made an Art which is the Wisdome of God to Salvation The Schoolmen did toze and draw it out and then made it up in knots The Postillers played with it and made it well-neer ridiculous And we have seen some such unseemly Jigs in our dayes And there have been too many Theorical Divines who have stretched beyond their line beyond the understanding of their hearers and beyond their own wrought darkness out of light made that obscure which was plain that perplexed which was easie have handled Metaphors as Chymists do metals and extracted that out of them which Christ never put into them made them less intelligible by pressing them so far and by beating them out have made them nothing made them more obscure then the thing which they should shew yield us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sea of words but not a word of sense To be regenerate is something more then to be made good who were evil To be a new creature is something more if we could tell what it were then to be a just and righteous man and we are born and made what we are against our will And what hath followed this bold obtruding of our own thin and forced conceits upon the Church under the high commanding form of necessary truths Even that which hath been observed of Philosophy When men made Wisdom the only aim and end of their studies then Philosophy was it self in its prime and natural glory being drawn up unto its proper end But when they applied themselves to it only to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or delight their wits then she lost her native complexion or strength and degenerated into folly then Epicurus raised a swarm of Atomes Diogenes made him a Tub and the Stoicks brought in their Decrees and Paradoxes then were there Mille familiarum nomina so many sects that it is not easie to draw them into a catalogue some there were who declared their different opinions and disputed one against the other by outward signes alone as by Weeping and Laughing So we find it also in the Church of Christ that Divinity never suffered so much as when it was made matter of wit and ambition and Policy and Faction became moderatours and staters of questions Then every man became an interpreter of Scripture and every interpreter had need of another to interpret him Then men taught the Law as Moses received it out of a thick cloud and Darkness was drawn over the face of Life it self and men received it as it was taught and did understand them who did not understand themselves received it as newes out of a far country and conceived of it either more or less then it vvas received it in parcels and fragments which hung like meteors in their phansie or as indigested lumps in their minds which soon broke out into sores and ulcers and one was a Libertine another an Anabaptist another a Leveller and some there were vvho did distinguish themselves by the motion and gesture and some vvhich is strange by the nakedness of their bodies And thus mischief grew up and multiplied through the blindness or deceitfulness of teachers and the folly and madness of the people Which evil had not certainly so far over-run the Church if men vvould have kept themselves vvithin their own limits and not took upon them to be vviser then God if the Truth had been as plainly taught as it vvas first delivered and not held out by mens ignorance or ambition and set forth vvith vvords and phrases and affected notions of our own if all men would have contended for and rested in that Faith alone which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And this I markt and avoided and in the course of my Ministery run from as far as a good will with my weakness could carry me And as I strook at those errours which are most common and did strive to set up in their place those truths which are most necessary so I did indeavour to do it to the very eye with all plainness and evidence and as near as I could in the language of him who for us men and for our salvation did first publish them to the world To which end and to which alone next to the glory of God these my rude and ill-polished papers are consecrate And if they attein this in many or few or but one I have a most ample recompense for my labour and Praise and Dispraise shall be to me both alike for the one cannot make these Sermons better nor the other worse I know others before me have raised themselves up to a higher pitch and strook at Errour with more art and brought more strength to the building up of the Truth and I have seen Truth exalted and Falshood led in triumph gloriously by those whom God and their industry hath more fitted to the work I have therefore offered my self up to it but as some Succours which come when the day and heat is over who though they do not help yet shew their good will And we know that even they who bring on the baggage do some service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 20. The God of patience and consolation grant that we may be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.5 6. A Table directing to the Texts of Scripture handled in the following Sermons Four Festival Sermons ON Christmass-day Hebr. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be like unto his brethren On Good Friday Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things On Easter-day Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death On Whitsunday Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Twenty eight Sermons more Micah 6.6 8. WHerewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what