both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
and feet the blasphemer wounds him to the heart wo is me what an heavy case are these men in we cannot but think those that offered this bodily violence to the Son of God were highly impious Oh thou sayest I would not have been one of them that should have done such a fact for all the world but O man know thou that if thou be a wilfull sinner against God in these kindes thou art worse then they He that prayed for his first crucifiers curseth his second they crucified him in his weaknesse these in his glory they fetcht him from the garden to his crosse these pull him out of heaven surely they cannot be more enemies to the crosse of Christ then Christ is to them who by him shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thessal 1.9 as it also followes in my Text whose end is destruction A wofull condition beyond all thoughts like unto that Hell wherein it is accomplished whereof there is no bottom had the Apostle said only whose end is death the doom had been heavy but that is the common point whereat all creatures touch in their last passage either way and is indeed the easiest piece of this vengeance it were well for wilful sinners if they might dye or if they might but dye Even earthly distresses send men to sue for death how much more the infernal there are those that have smiled in death never any but gnashed in torments that distinction is very remarkable which our Saviour makes betwixt killing and destroying Matth. 10.28 Killing the body destroying body and soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men may kill God only can destroy there are gradations even in the last act of execution expressed in the Greek which our language doth not so fully distinguish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to kill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyes violence in killing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cruelty in that violence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absoluteness and eternity of torment Killing is nothing to destroying the body is but meer rubbish to the soul and therefore to put these together killing the body is nothing to destruction of the soul Alas here is every circumstance that may add horrour and misery to a condition suddainnesse of seizure degree of extremity impossibility of release suddainness They shall soon be cut down as the grasse saith David Ps 37.2 yea yet sooner then so as the fire licks up the straw Esa 5.24 and more suddainly yet as the Whrilewind passeth so is the wicked no more Prov. 10.25 Shortly they are brought to desolation in a moment Psal 73.19 As for the degree of extremity it is far beyond all expressions all conceptions of the creature the wrath of God is as himself infinite as the glory of his Saints is such as St. Paul that saw it tells us that it transcends all conceit and cannot come out of the mouth cannot enter into the heart so the vengeance prepared for his enemies is equally incomprehensible the Rack the Wheel the Gibbet the Fire are fearfull things but these fall within our thoughts wo unto that soul that must suffer what it is not capable to conceive Even what we men can devise and do apprehend is terrible those very torments that men prepare for men are such as we shrink at the mention of tearing fleying broaching broyling c. what shall those be which an angry God hath prepared for his enemies But though the torment were extream for the time yet if at last it might have an end there were some possibility of comfort alas we shrug at the thought of burning though in a quick fire but to think of mans being a whole hour in the flame we abhorr to imagine but to be a whole day in that state how horrible doth it seem Oh then what shall we say to those everlasting burnings To be not dayes or moneths or years but thousands of millions of years and millions of millions after that and after that for all eternity still in the height of these unconceivable tortures without intermission without relaxation Oh the grosse Atheisme of carnall men that do not believe these dreadful vengeances Oh the desperate security of those men who profess to believe them and yet dare run into those sins which may and will plunge them into this damnation Is sin sweet Yea but is it so sweet as Hell fire is grievous Is it profitable But can it countervail the loss of the beatifical vision of God Oh mad sinners that for a little momentany contentment cast themselves into everlasting perdition let the drink be never so delicate and well-spiced yet if we hear there is poyson in it we hold off let Gold be offered us yet if we hear it is red hot we draw back our hands and touch it not Oh then why will we be so desperately foolish as when a little poor unsatisfying pleasure is offered us though sauced with a woful damnation for ever and ever we should dare to entertain it at so dear a rate Have mercy upon your own souls my dear brethren and when the motions of evill are made to you check them with the danger of this fearfull damnation from which the God of all mercies graciously deliver us all for the sake of the dear Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous to whom c. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY Laid forth in a SERMON Preacht to his late MAJESTY at WHITE-HALL In the time of the Parliament holden anno 1628. By JOS. B. of EXON Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free AS if my tongue and your ears could not easily be diswonted from our late Parliamentary language you have here in this text Liberty Prerogative the maintenance of both Liberty of Subjects that are freed Prerogative of the King of glory that hath freed them maintenance of that liberty which the power of that great prerogative hath atchieved Christian liberty Christs liberation our persistence Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free Liberty is a sweet word the thing it self is much sweeter and mens apprehensions make it yet sweeter then it is Certainly if liberty and life were competitors it is a great question whether would carry it sure I am if there be a life without it yet it is not vital Man restrained is like a wild bird shut up in a cage that offers at every of the grates to get out and growes sullen when it can finde no evasion and till stark famine urge it will not so much as feed for anger to be confined Neither is the word more sweet then large There are as many liberties as restraints and as many restraints as there are limitations of superiour commands and there are so many limits of commands as there are either duties to be done or sentences to be undergone There is a liberty of
and indeavours to the holding of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and labour and study not how to widen or gall and ranckle but how to salve and heal these unhappy sores of the Church and State by confineing our desires within the due bounds free from incroachments from innovations by a discreet moderation in all our prosecutions by a meek relenting even in due challenges by a fair and charitable construction of each others acts and intentions and lastly by our fervent perswasions and prayers and so many as are thus minded peace be upon them and upon the whole Israel of God this day and for ever Amen A SERMON Preacht at the TOWER March 20. 1641. By JOS. NORVIC JAMES 4.8 Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double minded 9. Be afflicted and mourne and weep c. I Have pitch't upon this Text as fit for both the time and the season both of them sad and penitentiall and such as call us to devotion and humiliation both which are the subjects of this Scripture There is no estate so happy if it could be obtained as that of perfect obedience but since that cannot be had partly through the weaknesse and partly through the wickednesse of our nature for there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an impossibility upon it Rom. 3. the next to it is that of true repentance which is no other then an hearty turning from our evill wayes and an indeavour of better obedience and this estate is here recommended to us under a double Alegory the one of our drawing nigh to God the other of our cleansing and purging In the former whereof the sinner is represented to us in a remote distance from God in the other as foul and nasty both in his heart and his hands and the remedy is prescribed for both of his remotenesse drawing nigh to God of his foulnesse Cleansing and purging the former is enough to take up our thoughts at this time Wherein ye have a duty injoyned and an inducement urged the Duty draw nigh to God the Inducement God will draw nigh to you To begin with the former the duty of drawing nigh implies something and requires something it implies a distance and requires an act of approach It implies a distance for we cannot be said to draw near if we were not afar off The sinner therefore is in a remote distance from God and that in respect of both termes both as of God and as of the sinner Of God first the sinner then is aloof off from God not from the presence of his essence and power so he would be afar off and cannot Whether shall I go from thy presence or whether shall I flee from thy Spirit If I go up to Heaven thou art there and if as our new Translation hath it I make my bed in hell an uneasy bed God knowes that is made there yet there thou art also Ye the Devills themselves could not have their being but from God for their being is good though themselves be wicked that they are spirits they have from God that they are evil Spirits and so Devils is from themselves And their companions the wofull reprobate soules would fain be further off from God if they could They shall in vain call to the Rocks and Mountains to cover them from his presence he cannot be excluded from any place that fills and comprehends all things How then is the sinner aloof off from God From the holinesse of God from the grace and mercy of God from the glory of God From the holinesse of God he is no lesse distant then evill is from good which is no lesse then infinitely There is no locall distance but is capable of a measure for an actuall infinite magnitude is but an atheous paradoxe in philosophy If it be to the Antipodes themselves on the other side of the earth we can have a scale of miles that can reach them yea of furlongs of paces of feet of barley cornes but betwixt good and evil there is no possible no imaginable proportion and as from the holinesse of God so from the grace and mercy of God he is no lesse distant then guilt is from remission which is also no lesse then infinitely for the sinner as he is and continues such is utterly uncapable of remission It is true that Gods mercy is over all his works but the sinner is none of them By him were made all things that were made John 1. but God never made the sinner God made the man but it is the Devil and mans free-will that made the sinner indeed sin is nothing else but the marring of that which God hath made sin therefore without repentance may never hope for remission when repentance comes in place it ceaseth in Gods imputation to be it self but without it there is no place for mercy Many sorrows saith the Psalmist shall be to the wicked Psal 32.10 but he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compasse him about Lo sorrowes and torment are for the wicked mercy only for the penitent and faithfull The sinner may flatter himself as our nature is apt to do Mens sibi saepe mentitur with a vaine hope of better but he that is truth it self hath said it There is no peace saith my God to the wicked tribulation and anguish on every soul that doth evill he that hardens his heart shall fall into evill And as he is a aloof off from Grace as the way so from Glory as the end here is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulfe and unmeasurable betwixt the Sinner and Heaven One is not so much as within the ken of the other without holiness there is no seeing of God saith St· Paul Hebr. 12.14 no not so much as afar off unlesse it be for an aggravation of torment Much lesse may any unclean thing enter there Look as impossible as it is for a man that hath this clogg of flesh about him to leap into the Skie so impossible it is for the soul that is clogged with sin ever to come within the verge within the view of the third Heaven which is the presence of the Lord of Glory This for the distance in respect of God will ye see it in respect of the sinner himself He is aloof off from God in his thoughts in his affections in his carriage and actions In his thoughts first which are onely evill continually He never thinks of God but when he feels him punishing and then not without a murmuring kind of regret Psal 10.4 and indignation no not even whiles he sweares by him doth he think of him God is not in all his thoughts saith the Psalmist that is by an usuall Hebraisme God is not at all in his thoughts for otherwise unlesse it be virtually and reductively there is no man whose thoughts are altogether taken up with the Almighty the
make this Land desolate and an hissing every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hisse because of all the plagues thereof Jer. 18.8 Hitherto then I have shewed you the just grounds of our mourning afflictions sins dangers and applyed them to our own condition I have shewed you the due regulation of our mourning in the quantity the quality the manner of performing it the company that goes with it and the train that followes it what remaines now but that I should labour to perswade you all to be true mourners in our Sion were it my work to exhort you to mirth and jollity the task were both pleasing to undertake and easie to perform for we all naturally affect to be delighted yea I doubt there are too many Christians that with the Epicure place their chief felicity in pleasure but for sorrow and mourning it is a sowre and harsh thing unpleasing to the ear but to the heart more But if as Christians we come to weigh both these in the ballance of the sanctuary we shall find cause to take up other resolutions will ye hear what wise Solomon sayes of the point Sorrow saith he is better then laughter And it is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting Eccles 7.2 3. Lo his very authority alone were enough who as a great King had all the World to be his Minstrell but withall he sticks not to give us his reason why then is sorrow better then laughter For by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better look to the effects of both and you shall easily see the difference sorrow calls our hearts home to God and our selves which are apt to run wild in mirth where did you ever see a man made more holy with worldly pleasure no that is apt to debauch him rather but many a soul hath been bettered with sorrow for that begins his mortification recollecting his thoughts to a serious consideration of his spirituall condition and working his heart to a due remorse for his sin and a lowly submission to the hand that inflicts it And why should it be better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting For this is the end of all men and the living shall lay it to his heart The house of mourning hath here principally respect to a funerall the death which is lamented for being the end of all flesh a man is here and thus put feelingly in mind of his mortality which in an house of feasting and jollity is utterly forgotten By how much then it is better for a man to have his heart kept in order by the meditation of death then to run wild after worldly vanity by so much is the house of mourning better then the house of feasting But if this be not perswasive enough hear what a greater then Solomon sayes Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn Lo he that is the author and the owner and giver of blessedness tells you where he bestows it even upon the mourners Did ye ever hear him say Blessed are the frolick and joviall Nay do ye not hear him say the contrary Wo be to you that laugh now and though he needed not whose will is the rule of all justice Luke 6.25 and paramount to all reason yet he is pleased to give you the reason of both Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted and wo be to you â—hat laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Lo joy and comfort is the end of Mourners and mourning and weeping is the end of mirth and Laughter O Saviour give me leave to wonder a little at this contrariety That to which the blessing is promised which is mourning is made the curse of laughter and joy for they shall mourn that rejoyced and yet they that mourn shall rejoyce Is it not partly for that necessary vicissitude which thou in thine infinite wisdome hast set of joy and mourning so as no man can be alwaies capable of both these but he that rejoyceth must have his turne of mourning as Abraham told the rich glutton in his torment and he that mourneth must have a time of rejoycing Or is it for the great difference that there is of the severall kindes of mourning and joy for as there is a naturall joy and sorrow which is neither good nor evill but in it self indifferent so there is a carnall sorrow and joy which is evill and a spirituall joy and sorrow which is good there is a temporall sorrow and joy enterchanged here and there is an eternall joy or sorrow reserved for hereafter So then hath thine infinite justice and wisdom distributed thy rewards and punishments that the carnall and sinfull joy is recompenced with eternal sorrow and mourning the holy and spirituall mourning with eternall joy and blessednesse Do we then desire to be blessed we must mourn do we desire to have all tears wip't hereafter from our eyes we must not then have our eyes dry here below And surely did we know how precious our tears are in the account of the Almighty we would not be niggardly of those penitent drops These these if we know not are so many orient pearles laid up in the Cabinet of the Almighty Ps 56.8 which he makes such store of that he books their number for an everlasting remembrance and lest one tear should be spilt he reserves them all in his bottle Do we not remember that he hath promised an happy and glorious harvest for a wet seed-time That those which sow in teares shall reap in joy Ps 126.5 6. that every grain which we sow in this gracious rain shall yield us a sheaf of blessednesse If then we believe this unfailable word of truth who would not be content to mourne awhile that he may rejoyce for ever Oh the madness of carnall hearts that choose to purchase the momentany pleasure of sin with everlasting torments whiles we are hardly induced to purchase everlasting pleasures with some minutes mourning Neither is it the pleasure of the Almighty to deferr the retributory comforts of his mourners till another World even here is he ready to supply them with abundant consolations The sweet singer of Israel was experimentally sensible of this mercy In the multitude of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul Psal 94.19 Neither was the chosen Vessell any whit behind him in the experience and expression of this gracious indulgence of the Almighty 2 Cor. 1.3 4. Blessed be God saith he even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comforts wherewith we our selves are comforted of God what do I stand to instance in the persons of some speciall favorites of heaven it is the very office of the Messiah the
necessity the doom was in paradise upon mans disobedience morte morieris thou shalt dye the death Man sinned man must die The first Adam sinned and we in him the second Adam must by death expiate the sin Had not Christ dyed mankind must had not he dyed the first death we had all dyed both the first and second without shedding of blood there is no remission Heb. 9.22 Hereby therefore are we freed from the sence of the second death and the sting of the first to the unfailing comfort of our soules hereupon it is that our Saviour is so carefull to have his death and passion so fully represented to us in both his sacraments the water is his blood in the first Sacrament the Wine is his blood in the second In this he is sensiby crucify'd before our eyes the bread that is his body broken the wine his blood poured out And if these acts and objects do not carry our hearts to a lively apprehension of Christ our true passover we shall offer to him no other then the sacrifice of fools Lo here then a soveraign antidote against the first death and a preservative against the second the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World why should we be discomforted with the expectation of that death which Christ hath suffered why should we be dismayed with the fear of that death which our all-sufficient Redeemer hath fully expiated 2ly In the first institution of this passover The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled upon the posts and lintells of the doores of every Israelite so if ever we look for any benefit from Christ our Passover there must be a particular application of his blood to the believing soul even very Papists can say that unless our merits or holy actions be dyed or tinctured in the blood of Christ they can avail us nothing but this consideration will meet with us more seasonably upon the fourth head 3ly This passover must be roasted home not stewed not parboild So did the true paschall lamb undergo the flames of his Fathers wrath for our sins here was not a scorching and blistering but a vehement and full torrefaction It was an ardent heat that could fetch drops of blood from him in the garden but it was the hottest of flames that he felt upon the cross when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh who can without horrour and amazement hear so wosull a word fall from the mouth of the Son of God Had he not said My Father this strain had sunk us into utter despair but now in this very torment is comfort He knew he could not be forsaken of him of whom he saith I and my Father are one he could not be forsaken by a sublation of union though he seemed so by a substraction of vision as Leo well the sense of comfort was clouded for a while from his humanity his deity was ever glorious his faith firme and supplyed that strong consolation which his present sense failed of and therefore you soon hear him in a full concurrence of all Heavenly and victorious powers of a confident Saviour say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit In the mean while even in the height of this suffering there is our ease for certainly the more the Son of God indured for us the more sure we are of an happy acquittance from the Tribunall of Heaven the justice of God never punished the same sin twise over By his stripes we are healed by his payment we are discharged by his torments we are assured of peace and glory Thus much of the preparation The eating of it followes in the appendances the manner the persons The appendances It must be eaten with unleavned bread and with sour or bitter herbs Of the unleavened bread we have spoken enough before For the herbs that nothing might be wanting the same God that appointed meat appointed the sauce too and that was a sallad of not pleasing but bitter herbs herein providing not so much for the palate of the body as of the soul to teach us that we may not hope to partake of Christ without sensible disrelishes of nature without outward afflictions without a true contrition of Spirit It is the condition that our Saviour makes with us in admitting us to the profession of Christianity he shall receive an 100. fold with persecutions those to boot that for his sake and the Gospells forsake all Mark 10.30 Sit down therefore O man and count what it will cost thee to be a true Christian through many tribulations c. Neither can we receive this evangelicall passover without a true contrition of soul for our sins past think not my beloved that there is nothing but jollity to be look't for at Gods table Ye may frolick it ye that feast with the World but if ye will sit with Christ and feed on him ye must eat him with bitter herbs here must be a sound compunction of heart after a due self examination for all our sins wherewith we have offended our good God Thou wouldst be eating the paschal lamb but with sugar-sops or some pleasing sauce it may not be so here must be a bitternesse of soul or no passover It is true that there is a kind of holy mixture of affections in all our holy services a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce in him with trembling saith the Psalmist It is and should be our joy that we have this lamb of God to be ours but it is our just sorrow to finde our own wretched unworthiness of so great a mercy Godly sorrow must make way for solid joy and comfort if there be any of you therefore that harbours in your breast a secret love of and complacency in your known and resolved sins procul O procul let him keep off from this holy Table let him bewail his sinfull mis-disposition and not dare to put forth his hand to this passover till he have gathered the bitter herbs of a sorrowful remorse for his hated offences And where should he gather these but in the low grounds of the Law there they grow plenteously lay the law then home to thy soul that shall show thee thy sins and thy judgment School thee Yea dear Christians how can any of us see the body of our blessed Saviour broken and his blood poured out and withall think and know that his own sins are guilty of this tort offered to the son of God the Lord of life and not feel his heart touched with a sad and passionate apprehension of his own vilenesse and an indignation at his own wickednesse that hath deserved and done this these are the bitter herbs wherewith if we shall eat this passover we shall finde it most wholesome and nourishable unto us to eternall life The manner of the eating of it followes in three particulars 1. The whole lamb must be eaten not a part of it 2. Not a bone of it must be broken 3. In
all Religion is expressed by the name of fear and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by Timoratus indeed where this fear is there can be no other then a gracious heart for this will be sure to work in a man true humility the Mother of vertues when he shall compare his dust and ashes with the glorious Majesty of God when he sees such an Heaven roling over his head such an Earth and Sea under him how can he but say Lord what is man this will make him think himself happy that he may be allowed to love such a God that such a worme as he may be admitted to have any interest in so infinite a Majesty this will render him carefully conscionable in all his wayes that he would not for a World do any thing that might offend such a God yea it will make him no lesse fearfull of sin then of Hell see Gods own connexion when he gives a Character of his Servant Job A perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evill Job 1.8 Lo he that fears God will therefore eschew evill will not dare to sin if Satan shall lay all the Treasures of the World at his feer he will say in an holy scorn Thy Gold and thy Silver perish with thee if all the philtrâ—s and wanton allurements of a great and beautifull mistress shall lay seige to him he will say with good Joseph Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God But O God who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Is there such a thing as the fear of the Lord amongst men Can we think that the common sins of the times can stand with the least scruple of the fear of the Almighty wo is me what rending and tearing of the sacred name of God in pieces with oaths and blasphemies do we meet with every where what contempt of his holy Ordinances and Ministers What abominable sacriledges what foul perjuries what brutish and odious drunkenness and epicurean excess what fraud and cozenage in trading what shamefull uncleanness what merciless and bloody oppressions Oh where then where is the fear of a God to be found the while yea to such an height of atheous boldnesse and obduration are the russians of our time grown that they boast of it as their greatest glory to fear nothing Neither God nor Devil they feast without fear they fight without fear they sin without fear But hear this ye carelesse and profane epicures that say Tush doth God see it Is there knowledg in the most high Hear this ye formall hypocrites that can fashionably bow to him whose face you can be content to spit upon and whom ye can abide to crucifie again by your wicked lives Hear this ye Godlesse and swaggering roarers that dare say with Pharaoh Who is the Lord You that now bid defiance to fear shall in spight of you learn the way to fear yea to tremble yea to be confounded at the terrors of the Almighty Those knees that are now so stiff that they will not bow to God shall once knock together those teeth through which your blasphemies have passed shall gnash those hands that were lift up against Heaven shall shake and languish If ye were as strong as Mountaines before his presence the Mountaines fled and the hills were moved If as firme as rocks who can stand before his wrath His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken before him Nahum 1.6 If as the whole Earth whose title is That cannot be moved The Earth trembled and quaked because he was angry saith the Psalmist yea if as wicked as Devils even they believe and tremble and if when he doth but thunder in his clouds the stoutest Atheist turnes pale and is ready to creep into a bench-hole what shall become of them when he shall put forth the utmost of his fury and revenge upon his enemies Lo then ye that now laugh at fear shall yell and houle like hell-hounds in eternall torments and God shall laugh when your fear commeth ye that would not now so much as with Faelix quake at the newes of a judgment shall irrecoverably shiver in the midst of those flames that can never be quenched But for us dear and beloved Christians far be it from us to be of that iron-disposition that we should never bow but with the fire no we have other more kindly grounds of our fear Great is thy mercy saith the Psalmist that thou maist be feared Lo it is the amiableness of merits that must attract our fear it is a thing that mainly concernes us to look where and how fears are placed Far be it from us to bring upon our selves the curse of wicked ones To fear where no fear is as this is the common condition of men Alas we are apt to fear the censures and displeasure of vain greatness whereas that may be a means to ingratiate us with God shame of the World whereas that may be a means to save us from everlasting confusion poverty whereas that may possess us of a better wealth death whereas to the faithfull soul that proves the necessary harbinger to eternall rest and glory in the mean time the same men are no whit afraid of the displeasure of God and their own perdition wherein they are like to foolish children who run away from their parents and best friends if they have but a maske or scarfe over their faces but are no whit afraid of fire or water Away with all these and the like weak misprisions and if we tender our own safety let it be our main care to set our fears right which shall be done if we place them upon our infinitely great and glorious God in that relation both of mercy and goodness wherein he is here recommended to us as our Father and that awfull apprehension of Justice wherein he is set forth to us as an unpartiall judge of us and all our actions Consider then that from the duty we may descend to the motive that this fear is of a Father and therefore a loving fear but this Father is a judge and therefore it must be an awfull love how will these two go together a Father and a Judge the one a stile of love and mercy the other of justice What ever God is he is all that he is all love and mercy He is all justice That which God is in the pure simplicity of his essence we must imitate in our compositions namely to unite both these in one heart He is not so a judg that he will wave the title and affection of a Father he is not so a Father that he will remit ought of his infinite justice in any of his proceedings upon both these must we fasten our eyes at once we must see the love of a Father to uphold and chear us we must look upon the Justice of a Judge that we may tremble and
salvation and knowledg of the truth So Ambrose interprets that place of 1 Tim. 2 he would have all to be saved saith he if themselves will for he hath given his law to all excepts no man in respect of his law and will revealed from salvation The Dedarative Decree of salvation to be equally and indifferently proclaimed unto all men Act. Syno in Thes c. For the further allowing whereof the same Zanchius cites the testimonies of Luther Bucer and others Neither doth it much ablude from this that our English Divines at Dort call the Decree of God whereby he hath appointed in and by Christ to save those that repent believe and persevere Decretum annunciativum salutis omnibus ex aequo indiscriminatim promulgandum Sect. 3. Surely it is easy to observe that we are too fearful of some distinctions which carry in them a jealousy of former abuse and yet both may well be admitted in a good sence and serve for excellent purpose As that if we labour for our better understanding to explicate the one will of God by several notions of the antecedent and consequent will of God which Paulus Ferrius a reformed Schoolman approves by the suffrages of Zanchius Polanus and other Orthodox Divines to look at it a little running as that which gives no smal light to the business in hand As there is wont to be conceived a double knowledg of God the one of meer understanding whereby he forknowes al things that may be the other of vision or approbation whereby he foreknowes that which undoubtedly shall be so there is a double will to be conceived of God answerable to this double knowledg an Antecedent will which answers to the meer understanding whereby God wills every possible good without the consideration of the adjuncts appertaining to it A consequent will answering to the knowledg of approbation whereby all circumstances prepensed God doth simply will this or that particular event as simply good to be and which is there upon impossible not to be The one of these is a will of complacency the other of prosecution the one is as it were an optative will the other an absolute In the first of these God would have all to be saved because it is in a sort good in it self in that the nature of man is ordeinable to life and man hath by God common helps seriously offered for the attaining thereof neither can we think it other then pleasing to God that his creatures should both do well and fare well In the latter he willeth some of all to be saved as not finding it simply good all circumstances considered to extend this favour to all this appears in the effect for if God absolutely willed it it could not fail of being neither doth ought hinder but these two may stand well together a complacence in the blessedness of his creature and a will of his smart For both that which we will in one regard we may not will in another As we may wish a felon to live as a man to dye as a malefactor and besides the possibility of one opposite doth not hinder the Act of another as he that hath power to run perhaps doth sit or ly Learned Zanchius methinks gives at once a good satisfaction as to this doubt so to the ordinary exception whereat many have stumbled of the pretended mockage of Gods invitations De nat Dei 1.3 c. 4. where he means not as some have misconceived a serious effect In the parable of the Gospell saith he those which were first bidden to the marriage feast and came not were they therefore mocked by the King because he only signified unto them what would be acceptable unto him and what was their duty to perform and yet he did not command them to be compelled as he did the second guests to come to the wedding Surely no yet in the mean time there was not the same will of the King in the inviting of the first and of the second for in these second there was an absolute will of the King that they should without fail come and therefore he effectually caused them to come In the former he only signified and that fairly and ingenuously what would be pleasing to him Thus he The entertainment of this one distinction which hath the allowance of Orthodox and learned Authors to be free from any danger or inconvenience would mitigate this strife since it is that which the Opponents contend for which the Defendents may yield without any sensible prejudice As for the envy of that irrespective and absolute decree of reprobation wherewith the Defendents are charged it is well taken off if we distinguish as we must of a negative and positive reprobation The latter whereof which is a preordination to punishment is never without a respect and prevision of sin for although by his absolute power God might cast any Creature into everlasting torment without any just exception to be taken on our parts yet according to that sweet providence of his which disposeth all things in a fair order of proceeding he cannot be said to inflict or adjudge punishment to any soul but for sin since this is an act of vindicative justice which still supposeth an offence If this be yielded by the Defendents as it is wherein also they want not the voyces even of the Romish School what needs any further contention especially whiles the defendents plead even those that are most rigorous that upon the non-election of some damnation is not causally but only consecutively inferred Non causaliter sed consecutive Perk. de praedest Sure I am that by this which is mutually yielded on both parts all mouths are stopped from any pretence of calumniation against the justice of the Almighty and we are sufficiently convinced of the necessity of our care to avoid those sins which shall otherwise be rewarded with just damnation Let this be enough for the first Article less will serve of the rest Concerning the extent of Christs death the Belgick Opponents profess to rest willingly in those words of Musculus Omnium peccata tulit c. He hath born the sins of all Men if we consider his sacrifice according to the virtue of it in it self and think that no Man is excluded from this grace but he that refuses it So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life J. 3.6 But if we respect those which do so believe and are saved so he hath borne only the sins of many Thus he Neither will the Opponents yield any less What is this other then the explication of that usuall distinction which we have whether from St. Austin or his Scholar Prosper of the greatness of the Price and the propriety of the redemption That equall to all This perteining but to some That common word seems enough to the Belgick Opponents The price of Christs