speculation but a Faith in motion and able to walk and go unto Christ Iesus whom it believeth which if cherished will in time gather such further strength as will fill the Soul with a full and stedfast confidence But if thou sayest Thou believest that Christ is and that he is the Easer and Saviour of those which seek him and yet thy Soul is not on wing nor any motion in thy Heart advancing to him I say then either thy Sorrow for thy sin is not true and therefore thou yet feelest no need of him or thy Belief is deficient Whatsoever thou sayest and thinkest of thy self thou believest not yet throughly and indeed that Christ Iesus is a Redeemer and Saviour of those that come unto him For as I told you before that he believed not the Law throughly and indeed that could hear it without remorse of Conscience and contrition of Soul so he believes not the Gospel throughly and firmly who being laden and grieved for his sins yet is not able to flie and betake himself unto Christ for mercy For if you saw a man condemned to die and in great affliction for the same who hearing of a Pardon proclaimed for all in his case who would demand it should nevertheless sit still and never go about to seek it who would think but that either he misdoubted the report or gave but little credence to the word of the King Such is the case here There is certainly some defect in believing And this must be cured after the same manner as that in believing the Law namely by a sober and frequent meditation reading hearing and thinking of that great mysterie revealed of Redemption in Iesus Christ and of the gracious Promises of the Gospel in and through him This is Faith's whetstone which if it be blunt will make it keen This is the only means to establish thy Belief if it be deficient or unsetled if there be any metal in it this will give it an edge if there be any sparkles this will blow them into a flame Thus you have heard what Coming to Christ is that is what a Saving Faith is namely so firmly and effectually to believe that Christ is a Saviour of those that seek him as doth incline thy Heart to go unto him to sue out a Pardon and rely upon him for mercy and Redemption NOW follows the Benefit Ease and Rest to thy Soul I will ease you or give you rest that is I will free you of your burthen I will ease you of your sin I will acquit you And this is that we call Iustification of a sinner which is an Absolution or remission of sins by the only merits and satisfaction of Christ accepted for us and imputed to us An acquitting and cancelling of all bonds and obligations of transgression for Christ's sake through the only merit of his death passion and shedding of his bloud For he that hath right to Christ hath right in Christ to be partaker of his righteousness and of whatsoever satisfaction he hath undergone for the sins of mankind whereby he is justified that is acquit before God of the guilt of sin and of the punishment according to the Law due for the same For God saith S. Paul 2 Cor. 5. 21. made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Rom. 5. 19. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many are made righteous This is the Ease this is the Rest here mentioned the unlading and unburthening of a sinner where Christ dischargeth him of his loading and beareth him upon his own back For he saith Esay chap. 53. 4 5 6. hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all Thus he eased Peter when his heart was ready to break for denying him Thus he eased Mary Magdalen a woman laden with sins when she bathed his feet with tears Luke 7. 48. Thus he refreshed trembling Saul the persecutor Acts 9. 6. And still he casteth the eyes of his mercy upon every one that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at his word Esa. 66. 2. See therefore here to whom alone a troubled soul is to have recourse for Ease Neither to Angels nor Archangels For those who do so hold not the head Col. 2. 19. Neither to Saints nor Martyrs to Peter nor Paul no not to the blessed Virgin her self For Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knows us not Esa. 63. 16. and Cursed is he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord Ier. 17. 5. Nor to the Law given by Moses For the Law worketh not ease but wrath Rom. 4. 15. Nor will our merits and good works pilgrimages fastings or alms-deeds purchase this Ease For although we could do all we ought to do yet must we say we are unprofitable servants and that we have done but that which was our duty to do Luke 17. 10. It is Christ Iesus and only Christ Iesus who can give Rest to a troubled soul that Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world AND thus you have in part had a view of the Three points considerable in this Invitation 1. The Persons who 2. The Invitation or Thing invited to what and 3. The Benefit to be attained But I must call you to the Second point again there being one part thereof not yet spoken of For I told you The thing here invited unto was double Christ himself and His yoke The first concerning Christ himself I have spoken of in those words Come unto me Now it remains to speak of the second Take my yoke upon you Those who come unto Christ must also take his yoke upon them But what is this yoke even the yoke of obedience which should have been ours but Christ for our sakes took it upon him and made it his Yet not that we should draw our necks out of the collar but still do our endeavours by denying ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope to come As therefore in coming unto Christ you had Faith in the Ease by him Acquitting or Iustification so in the taking his yoke ye have Sanctification or Holiness of life All which are so linked together that neither must they nor can they be put asunder No man comes to Christ by Faith but shall be eased but no man can ever truly and seriously come unto him to be eased by him but he must take his yoke upon him No man puts on Christ to be justified but he takes on his yoke also to be sanctified That which God hath joyned together let no man put asunder True it
seems to signifie only Contrition or the act of aversion and turning away from sin Otherwise as I have already said it signifies the whole act of our turning from the beginning to the end as appears plainly either when both terms are mentioned or but the thing or term to be turned unto as Acts 20. 21. Repentance unto God and Act. 26. 20. where S. Paul saith that he preached both to the Iews and Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God For no man can turn unto God unless he first have turned from the Devil But to leave words and come to the matter Contrition or Dying unto sin is such a Compunction of the Heart for the same as is joyned with a purpose to leave and forsake it Not every Compunction for sin is true Contrition but such a Compunction only as is joyned with a purpose to leave and forsake it Contrition hath therefore as you see two parts or degrees The first is A Compunction of the Heart for sin the second A Purpose to forsake and renounce sin The one is a turning away from sin in the affections or passions of the Mind the other is a turning of the Will Compunction is a turning in the affections and passions of the Mind and that not of one passion only but of every passion wherewith we abhor and fly a thing as evil as Fear Grief and Hate for we must turn with our whole hearts Fear leads the rank and trembles at the wrath of God and dreadful Iudgment to come when it shall be said to every unrepentant sinner Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels there to be tormented for ever and ever For Fear is of an evil to come Next comes Grief and laments that ever it was committed whereby we have incurred so great an evil as to become vassals of Satan and the loss of so great a good as the favour of Almighty God yea of so good and gracious a God as saith again and again As I live I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his ways and live What wretch would have lost the favour of such a God as this O that it were to do again I would never do it For we grieve at the presence of evil and absence of good as we joy in the contrary Thirdly comes Hate and begins to loath and detest sin as a thing not only hurtful but ugly and abominable a soul and beastly thing most contrary to and unbefitting the nature and excellency of a Reasonable creature as man is For we hate that which is contrary and love what is agreeable to us These are the several motions and degrees of that Compunction of Heart whereby a Repentant Soul turneth from his sin And that this is the order of them may appear because that is always first which may be without the rest Now a man may tremble at God's judgments for sin and wrath to come and yet not grieve for them yea a man may tremble and grieve too for his sins and yet not hate and loath them But all these repentant passions of Compunction though diverse in themselves yet are wont to be comprehended under the name of Sorrow and Remorse for sin Not as though that were the only passion in our Compunction but because all passions of the Mind which spring from the apprehension and sense of evil are grievous and painful and so may as by a general name be comprehended under the word Sorrow as the contrary passions being pleasing and delightful to nature may be and are wont to be comprehended under the name of Pleasure For Dolor and Voluptas Pain and Pleasure divide all our Passions between them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every action of ours is attended with some either pleasure or pain Though yet there be among the doleful passions a passion peculiarly called Tristitia or Sorrow and among the delightful passions one likewise in special called Laetitia or Ioy. But all this Fear and Trembling at the wrath of God to come for sin this Sorrow for sin this Hating and Loathing of sin will not make our Contrition full and perfect unless our Will also do his part and resolve to forsake and leave it For so I defined true Contrition or Dying to sin to be A compunction of the Heart for sin joyned with a will and resolution to forsake it Hath then the wrath of God Almighty and the everlasting woe denounced to all impenitent sinners made thee fear and tremble Hath thy trembling been seconded with a true and hearty sorrow for thy sins Hath thy sorrow been such as brought forth hate and loathing of sin so that sin appeared ugly and abominable unto thee Hath there then followed a Will to be rid of it a Purpose to forsake and leave it Then art thou truly contrite and dead to sin-ward With this last act thy service of sin gave up the ghost Thou hast turned away bidden farewel and shaken hands with Sin and Satan An Effect of this Contrition is Confession when out of a contrite and wounded heart we acknowledge and lay open our sins before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father begging pardon and forgiveness for them A Duty always necessary to be performed to God himself whom we have chiefly and principally offended and in some cases also convenient to be made unto his Ministers not only for advice but for consolation by that power and authority which God hath given them to exercise in his name according to that Whose sins ye remit shall be remitted For if we confess our sins saith S. Iohn 1 Epist. 1. 9. he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and Proverb 28. 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whose confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy THUS have we seen the several degrees and steps of Contrition and Dying to sin Trembling at the fearful doom and vengeance due unto it Grieving for it Hating and loathing of it a Will and Purpose to forsake and leave it together with the common Effect of them Confession And so now we are arrived at the main Cardo and hinge of Repentance the Ioynt where the two parts thereof Aversion and Conversion meet and are knit together For where the Act of Aversion from sin endeth there Conversion unto God begins The last Act of turning from sin was that of the Will to forsake and leave it The same Act is the beginning of our turning unto God For no man can resolve to forsake and leave sin but he must purpose also to lead a new life to God Nor can any man have a purpose to lead a new life but he must withal resolve to leave sin This is then the main Ioynt of Repentance where the Spirit and Grace of God the vis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
their sins According to the Law none should appear before the Lord empty what offering what sacrifice then must we bring when we come in to Christ but that which David who well knew tells us Psal. 51. 17. The sacrifice of God saith he is a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Thus must they come furnished whom Christ inviteth For this is that which S. Paul calls 2 Cor. 7. 10. a sorrow after God or a godly sorrow which saith he worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of For understanding therefore of this Metaphor in my Text we must know That Sin is compared in Scripture unto a burthen wherewith every sinner is loaden yea overcharged a burthen intolerable So Psal. 38. 4. Mine iniquities saith David are gone over mine head as a heavie burthen they are too heavie for me Ver. 6. I am troubled I am bowed down greatly Ver. 8. I am feeble and sore broken I have roared because of the disquietness of my heart S. Paul followeth the manner of speech when he tells us 2 Tim. 3. 6. of silly women laden with sin and led away with divers lusts This loading and pressure of sin is in respect of a twofold weight which oppresseth the Soul the one of Punishment the other of Loathsomness For the weight of Punishment it is the ordinary style of the Prophets to term God's Iudgments for sin by the name of burthens Iehu calls his execution upon Iehoram the burthen which the Lord laid upon his father Ahab 2 King 9. 25. So S. Paul saith Gal. 6. 5. that every one shall bear his own burthen For the other the Loathsomness of sin that also weighs heavie Ah sinful Nation saith the Prophet Esay ch 1. 4. a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers and it follows v. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores This also is a part of David's burthen Psal. 38. 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness I am troubled or wryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurvatus sum I am bowed down greatly Is Sin indeed so heavie a thing how then do we make it so light a matter Nullum onus saith Ambrose Ep. 18. gravius est quà m sarcina peccatorum pondus flagitiorum No burthen is more heavie no load more pressing to the Soul than the weight and load of Sin If every thing that presseth down be heavy how heavy is that which presseth down to Hell that is unto that depth of woe whose bottom can never be fathom'd Is Sin so heavy a thing indeed how comes it then to pass we feel it not Our case is so much the more fearful and dangerous For saith Chrysosiome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The evil is so much the greater by how much it seems to be the lesser For Physicians all agree that those are most dangerously sick who have no sense and feeling of their sickness whereas on the contrary to be sensible of pain is a sign the sickness is not deadly Happy therefore are those who can add the other word to this being not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laden but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 labouring under the weight of their burthen These are those whom Christ calleth and these are those whose condition we are now to consider that we may know it and whether our selves be any of that number That a man therefore may truly be said to labour and be weary of his burthen two things are requisite First That he feel and be sensible of the weight thereof Secondly That he desire to be rid thereof He must feel and be sensible of the weight thereof Now the weight of sin as I told you is twofold First The weight of Punishment and secondly The load of Loathsomness The first and soonest felt is that of Punishment which as it is the grossest weight so may it be felt while the sense of the Soul is yet but gross and dull But to feel the other that is to loath our sin requires a quicker and more tender sense which is not easily attained to unless the Soul be first well rubbed and galled with the weight of Punishment The entry therefore and as it were the porch of Penitence are those Terrors and Pangs of the Soul affrighted with the apprehension of the Wrath of God for Sin and of the danger we are in therefore When the piercing sting of an accusing conscience upbraids us and tells us we are in a state to be damned eternally That if I should die this day this night this hour I must go to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth there to yell and howl with devils in pains unspeakable and be tormented for ever and ever When our Soul is stricken with horror to think how long we have lived in this danger and how little we thought thereof nay how securely we encreased our score as though we should never have come to a reckoning for the same how often God might have taken me away in the midst of my sins and where had I been then yea what shall become of me if he should do it now O how am I afraid of this moment who feared nothing so many years These are those arrows of the Almighty which must go through our Souls at the beginning of our Repentance That we may take up the words of David Psal. 38. 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure v. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore v. 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin This is a good beginning but is no more than a beginning for yet we labour not enough yet we are not weary enough for Christ to call us unto him This is but as the prick of a needle making way for the thread We must go further else this will do us no good For thus far as to be sensible and affected with the punishment due for sin to be terrified with the weight of the wrath of God which lies upon us for the same thus far he may come who shall be damned For it is common to the desperate reprobate as well as to the children of God to Iudas who hanged himself to Cain whom God drove out from his presence for he could say and confess to God himself My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4. 13. Let us therefore see what we are further to add unto it And that is a sense and feeling of the foulness loathsomness and odiousness of Sin If If we feel not our selves affected with this weight the former groaning will be accounted no better with God than hypocrisie and slavish fear for this is the soul and the life of a godly sorrow indeed without which the other is
Rom. 12. 11. 3. Zeal is that which carries our Devotions up to Heaven As Wings to a Fowl Wheels to a Chariot Sails to a Ship so is Zeal to the Soul of Man Without Zeal our Devotions can no more ascend than Vapours from a Still without fire put under it Prayer if it be fervent availeth much but a cold Sute will never get to Heaven In brief Zeal is the Chariot wherein our Alms our Offerings and all the good works we do are brought before the Throne of God in Heaven No Sacrifice in the Law could be offered without fire no more in the Gospel is any Service rightly performed without Zeal Be zealous therefore lest all thy works all thy endeavours be else unprofitable Rouze up thy dull and heavy Spirit serve God with earnestness and fervency and pray unto him that he would send us this fire from his Altar which is in Heaven whereby all our Sacrifices may become acceptable and pleasing unto him AND thus I come to the next thing in my Text Repentance Be zealous and repent Repentance is the changing of our course from the old way of Sin unto the new way of Righteousness or more briefly A changing of the course of sin for the course of Righteousness It is called also Conversion Turning and Returning unto God This matter would ask a long discourse but I will describe it briefly in five degrees which are as five steps in a Ladder by which we ascend up to Heaven 1. The first step is the Sight of Sin and the punishment due unto it for how can the Soul be possessed with fear and sorrow except he Understanding do first apprehend the danger for that which the Eye sees not the Heart rues not If Satan can keep sin from the Eye he will easily keep sorrow from the Heart It is impossible for a man to repent of his wickedness except the reflect and say What have I done The serious Penitent must be like the wary Factor he must retire himself look into his Books and turn over the leaves of his life he must consider the expence of his Time the employment of his Talent the debt of his Sin and the strictness of his Account 2. And so he shall ascend unto the next step which is Sorrow for sin For he that seriously considers how he hath grieved the Spirit of God and endangered his own Soul by his sins cannot but have his Spirit grieved with remorse The Sacrifices of God are a contrite Spirit Neither must we sorrow only but look unto the quality of our Sorrow that it be Godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the quantity of it that it be Great We must fit the plaister to the wound and proportion our sorrow to our Sins He that with Peter hath sinned heinously or with Mary Magdalen frequently must with them weep bitterly and abundantly 3. The Third step of this Ladder is the Loathing of sin A Surfiet of Meats how dainty and delicate soever will afterwards make them loathsome He that hath taken his fill of sin and committed iniquity with greediness and is sensible of his supersinity or abundance of naughtiness and hath a great Sorrow for it he will the more loath his sins though they have been never so full of delight Yea it will make him loath himself and cry out in a mournful manner with S. Paul Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 4. The fourth step is the leaving off Sin For as Amnon hating Tamar shut her out of doors So he that loaths and hates his Sins the sight the thought the remembrance of them will be grievous unto him and he will labour by all good means to expel them For true Repentance must be the consuming of sin To what purpose doth the Physician evacuate ill humors if the Patient still distempers himself with ill diet What shall it avail a man to endure the launcing searching and tenting of a wound if he stay not for the cure So in vain also is the Sight of sin and the Sorrow for and Loathing of Sin if the works of darkness still remain and the Soul is impatient of a through-cure And therefore as Amnon not only put out his loathed Sister but bolted the door after her as it is said in the forequoted place So must we keep out our sins with the Bolts of Resolution and Circumspection Noah pitched the Ark within and without Gen. 6. 14. So to keep out the waters and a Christian must be watchful to secure all his Senses External and Internal to keep out sin 5. The Fifth and last step is the Cleaving unto God with full purpose of heart to walk before him in newness of life All the former Degrees of Repentance were for the putting off of the Old man this is for the putting on of the New For ubi Emendatio nulla Poenitentia necessariò vana saith Tertullian de Poenit. c. 2. Where there is no Reformation there the Repentance must needs be vain and fruitless for as he goes on caret fructu suo eui eam Deus sevit i. e. hominis saluti it hath not its fruit unto holiness nor the end everlasting life Rom. 6. 22. And thus have I let you see briefly What Repentance is Will you have me say any more to make you to affect it as earnestly as I hope by this time you understand it clearly Know then that this is that which opens Heaven and leads into Paradise This is that Ladder without which no man can climb thither and therefore as S. Austin saith Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam Let us change our life here if we look for the Life of Glory hereafter Let us leave the old way of sin for the new way of righteousness and to apply all to my Text Let us change our course of Lukewarmness for a course of fervency in God's service our dull and drowsie Devotions for a course of Zeal Be zealous and Repent AND thus I come to the Third thing I propounded namely the Connexion and dependance of these latter words Be zealous therefore and Repent upon the former As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Many things might be here observed but I will name but one which is this That Repentance is the means to avoid and prevent God's Iudgments For as Tertullian in his de Poenitentia observes * Qui poenam per judicium destinavit idem veniam per poenitentiam spospondit He that hath decreed to punish by Iustice hath promised to grant pardon by Repentance And so we read in Ieremy 18. 7. When I shall speak saith the Lord there concerning a Nation or Kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from evil I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them And in Ezekiel 18. Repent and turn
evil eye and rapacious hands than what is given to any other use or service whatsoever yea though it were to the service of Vanity Luxury or any other Lust he could not but heartily with that some of the Protestant Churches would seriously lay it to heart and approve themselves more and more Reformed in the cleansing and purifying themselves from any the least stain of Sacriledge from which yet so tempting is this Sin with the seeming advantages it presents they that call themselves Catholicks are not free neither yea even he that is peculiarly styl'd Rex Catholicus is wont to be accursed and excommunicated at Rome on Maundy-Thursday for detaining part of S. Peter's Patrimony as they are pleas'd to call it And it is as well known how much he abhorr'd any kind of Sacrilegious profanation of what is Relatively holy whether Times Places or Things Sacred as Bona Ecclesiastica the Sacred Revenues and the like and that in more than a few Discourses he hath largely asserted the Distinction between Things Sacred and Common and that therefore what is Sacred and consequently is become God's by a peculiar right should be used appropriately and with a different respect from things Common such an appropriation and discriminative usance of Holy things being a just testimony and expression of the respect and honour due unto Almighty God whose Name is called upon them The like Zeal he had particularly for Gods House his Worship and Service therein that all things might be done there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently for the honour of God and to edification for the benefit of our Neighbour Which two Rules of the Apostle excellently score out the way and exactly contain even in external and indifferent things what course is to be taken as the Religious and Prudent Mr. G. Herbert hath stated the case who hath also in his Poem The British Church elegantly and fully express'd the very same Sentiments that our Author had touching the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Gods House the keeping the mean between Superstition and Slovenliness between the painted looks lascivious gaudiness of the Church upon the Hills and the careless neglected dress of some Churches in the Valley Both our Author and this Good man were after Davids heart the man after Gods heart who thus breath'd forth his affection Domine dilexi decorem Domûs tuae and thought it unworthy that the Ark of God should dwell within curtains when as he himself dwelt in an house of Cedar nor was he of so ungenerous a disposition in Religion as to serve the Lord his God of that which did cost him nothing So agreeable is it to a Soul that is established with a religious and free spirit as well as it is agreeable to the Light of Nature That God the Best of Beings should be served and honoured with the Best Which was shadowed out of old in the Sacrifices and Drink-offerings In the Peace-offerings wherein God did feast with the people the Fat upon the inwards c. was Gods Mess his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Food All the Fat is the Lords and was therefore to be burnt upon the Altar and offer'd unto the Lord. Nor were the Drink-offerings to be of any sort of Wine but of Shecar the best Wine Num. 28. Nor had our Author herein any ambitious design to please men and thereby to advantage himself in the world as some that less knew him were apt rashly to impute unto him Time-serving for this just right was done to him in print by one better acquainted with him though of a different perswasion That he had many years before the Times did relish those Notions declar'd himself to the same purpose instancing in his Concio ad Clerum which particularly treated De Sanctitate Relativa Veneratione Sacra and to the same effect he had express'd himself in an early Specimen or first Draught of his Thoughts which he presented to the R. R. Bishop Andrews after he was newly made Fellow of Christ's Colledge 44. With his zeal for God's honour and Church decorum we may not unfitly joyn his mindful observance of the Apostle's Precepts Honour the King and Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account and herein he shew'd himself a true Son of peace as we observ'd before and shall now farther add That he had so great a value and so hearty an affection for the Peace of our Ierusalem and in order thereunto for submitting to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to be King as Supream or unto Governours as those that were sent by him that when he received notice of the evil that was then breaking forth out of the North to apply that of Ieremy chap. 1. who elsewhere complains in the same note Behold the noise of the bruit is come and a great commotion out of the North-country upon this intelligence of wars and rumours of wars his righteous and meek Soul was grieved within him and in a Letter of his written to a Friend within less than three months before his death he thus express'd his resentments concluding in a strain almost Prophetical If the Scotish business be no better than you write I pray God both they and others have not cause to curse the time at length when such courses were first resolved upon and that in the event the cause of Religion pretended be not advanced thereby as it is in Germany and no better I am firmly perswaded there will never come good of it God avert his judgments and make them wiser His reverential regard to the establish'd Government and Discipline of the Church was well known to them that knew him and they that knew not his Person may know it from his Writings these testifie of him how great a Lover he was of Unity Peace all good and decent Order and whatsoever might make for the beauty and strength the honour and safety of the Protestant Reformation both here at home and abroad as considering that those Characters of a Carnal and Unspiritual temper Envying and Strife and Divisions and the consequents thereof Confusion and Disorder would at once both weaken and dishonour the Protestant Cause and occasion the Grand Enemy to triumph who seeing much of his work done for him by those who would seem to be most averse from him while they bite and devour one another claps his hands saying Aha Aha Our eye hath seen it So would we have it But our Author thought it his becoming duty to study Obedience for peace and good order's sake and not to expose the Protestant Interest to danger and ruine 'T is true There were not wanting even in his days some who breaking themselves off from the Great Congregation were apt to say Lo here is Christ Behold he is in the secret chambers as if
Iews were dispersed This is yet further confirmed by S. Peter's speech unto them as when having cited the words of the Prophet Ioel verse the 22. he saith unto them Ye men of Israel hear these words Iesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you c. v. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain Men of Israel and such as had slain their Messias surely those were no Gentiles Likewise when at the hearing of this they were pricked in their hearts he saith unto them Repeut and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins For the Promise is made unto you and your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord shall call The Promise saith he is made unto you and your children were these then any others than Iews or Israelites of the seed of Abraham Lastly we find that of these Parthians Medes and Elamites and of the rest named with them there were added unto the Church by this Sermon of S. Peter three thousand souls But it is certain that Cornelius the Centurion was the first Gentile that was converted unto the Faith Therefore these first converts were no Gentiles Perhaps you will say They were Proselytes of these several Nations and therefore called Iews I say Not so neither because Proselytes are by name rehearsed among them when it is said of those Roman advenae verse the tenth that they were Iews and Proselytes Ergo the rest were Iews by race and not by Religion only But what need I to have heaped together all these proofs when my Text alone is sufficient to evince it I come now therefore to a more particular illustration thereof according to what I have thus in general premised And first for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I translate sojourning rather than dwelling for so I understand it that they were not proper dwellers but such as came to worship at Ierusalem from those far Countries at the Feasts of the Passeover and Pentecost and so had been continuing there some good time 'T is true that in the usual Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie a durable mansion but with the Hellenists in whose Dialect the Scripture speaketh they are indifferently used for a stay of a shorter or a longer time that is for to sojourn as well as to dwell as these two examples out of the Septuagint will make manifest One in Genes 27. 44. where Rebecca says to her younger son Iacob Son arise and flee unto Laban my brother to Haran 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tarry with him a few days until thy brother's fury turn away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here to tarry but a few days Another is in 1 Kings 17. 20. where Elijah cries unto the Lord saying O Lord my God hast thou also brought evil upon the widow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with whom I sojourn by slaying her son here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to sojourn only In a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answer to the Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any stay or remaining in a place Next for the persons here specified Iews out of every Nation under Heaven for the right understanding thereof we are to know That before this last Dispersion of the Iews by the Romans after their Temple and City were destroyed by Titus which at the time of this story was not nor many years after it there had been already two Captivities and great Dispersions of that Nation besides some smaller scatterings The first was of the Ten Tribes by Salmanasser King of Assyria who is said to have planted them in Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan and in the Cities of the Medes and these never I mean any considerable part of them returned to dwell again in their own Country of these therefore at least chiefly we are to understand those to have been which the story here calls Parthians Medes and Elamites Elamites that is Persians of the Province Elymais For in those Countries which these names comprehend were the Ten Tribes placed by the Assyrian and there still dwelt and thereabouts in our Saviour and his Apostles time and long after S. Hierome upon those words Ioel 3. 6. The children of Iudah and the children of Ierusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians which he understands of the Captivity by Vespasian and Titus tells us thus much Filii saith he Iuda Ierusalem nequaquam Israel decem Tribuum quae usque hodie in Medorum urbibus montibus habitant The children of Iudah and Ierusalem not of Israel and the Ten Tribes which even to this day have their habitation in the Cities and Mountains of the Medes The second Captivity was by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon of the Two Tribes Iudah and Benjamin more than a hundred years after that of the Ten. Now a good part of these at seventy years end returned again under Cyrus and his Successors to dwell again in their own Land re-edified the Temple and City of Ierusalem and re-erected their Common-wealth which continued till our Saviour's time and a little after Notwithstanding all those that were Captives in Babylon returned not no it may be not much more than the half of them certain it is that a great number of them stayed there still those especially which were rich and well accommodated having no mind to stir whence in our Saviour's and the Apostles times there were an innumerable company of them in those parts where they flourished with Academies and Schools and had Doctors not inferior to those of Ierusalem it self Yea from them proceeded the Chaldee Paraphrase and that great Doctor and Patriarch of Rabbies R. Hillel Of these therefore we have reason to think were those which are here enumerated by the name of Dwellers in Mesopotamia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where note by the way that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are comprehended in the number of those whom my Text saith were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which confirms my interpretation that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies sojourning and not dwelling for that they could not be said to dwell in both places These two Dispersions beyond the River Euphrates how numerous they were in our Saviour's and the Apostles times we may gather from those words of King Agrippa in Iosephus in that Oration he made unto the Iews before that fatal siege disswading them from rebelling against the Romans their party being too much too weak to maintain themselves against that mighty Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What associates saith he will you have from some Country not inhabited to aid you against the Romans For all those that at this day dwell in any part of this world that is
for at the hands of God without it An invincible argument whereof is That our Saviour himself in the Prayer he hath taught his Church hath put in a bar against asking it but upon this condition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us If we ask not with this disposition there is no promise that any such prayer shall be heard nay our Saviour tells us in plain terms it shall not If saith he you forgive not men their trespasses no more will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses How then can any man whose heart is fraught with malice and meditates revenge against his brother hear this and not tremble Is it not a fearful thing for a man to carry in his own bosom not only an evidence that his sins are unpardoned but a bat too that he cannot ask the forgiveness of them Let no man deceive himself Though our consciences should bear us witness of many good works we have done reconciliatione tamen contemptâ nullum possumus promereri solatium yet if we neglect to be reconciled to our brethren we are not in a capacity to receive any comfort and mercy from God So Chrysost. As the fifth Commandment is called by the Apostle the first Commandment with promise so is this Petition for forgiveness of sins the only Petition with condition and such a condition too as our Saviour dwells upon and enforces when he had delivered this Form of Prayer to his Disciples For he passes by all the rest of the Petitions and singles out this alone to comment upon as that wherein the chiefest moment lay and without which all our prayer would be uneffectual and to no purpose A further confirmation of which we have in that parable of Servus nequam the wicked Servant Matth. 18. whom his Lord being moved with compassion when he besought him forgave a debt of ten thousand Talents But he finding one of his fellow-servants which ought him an hundred pence though he fell at his feet and besought him yet would not hear him but cast him into prison Then his Lord was wroth and said O thou wicked servant shouldst thou not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity upon thee And he delivered him unto the tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him The Application is terrible So likewise saith our Saviour shall my heavenly Father do unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses We are this Servus nequam if when our heavenly Father forgives us thousands of Talents we stand with our brethren for an hundred pence For there is no proportion between the offences wherewith we offend God and the offences wherewith our brother offends us And therefore we have no excuse hath our brother wronged us never so often never so much never so hainously For whatsoever it be or how unworthy or undeserved soever our sin our ingratitude to Almighty God is and hath been infinitely greater even as ten thousand Talents to an hundred pence To these two Testimonies add a third and that also as the former out of our Blessed Saviour's own mouth Matth. 5. 23 24. If thou bring saith he thy Gift to the Altar and there remember that thy brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word whereby the Septuagint constantly render that which the Law calls Corban and the Gospel concurs with them Mark 7. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now Corban in the Law is in special used for those Offerings which were made for atonement of Sin as the Burnt-offering Sin-offering Trespass-offering and Peace-offering call'd Offerings by Fire or Sacrifices So that this Precept of our Saviour's here is the same in effect with the former When thou comest to offer an offering unto God for an atonement of thy sin go thy way first and be reconciled unto thy brother for without this thy sin shall not be forgiven thee I shall not need tell you that now in the Gospel Christ is the Sacrifice is the Gift which a Christian by faith offers unto God for the propitiation of his sin and that this Sacrifice is commemorated sealed and communicated unto us in the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper whereby it will easily appear how this Precept of our Saviour's uttered after the style of the Legal worship is appliable to the Evangelical Hence in the ancient Church when they assembled to celebrate this Sacrament the Deacon was wont to proclaim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ne quis contra aliquem Let no man have ought against his brother And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salute one another with an holy kiss which accordingly they did first the Bishop and Clergy then the Laiety the men apart by themselves and the women by themselves and this was a profession of friendship and reconciliation and therefore called Osculum pacis the kiss of peace In after-times the Priest gave this Kiss of peace unto the Deacon and he to the chief of the Congregation and so it was given from one to another In stead of which at length was brought in that foolish ceremony still used among the Romanists for the Priest to send a little gilded or painted Table with a Crucifix or some Saint's picture thereon to be kissed of every one in the Church before they receive the Holy Bread which they call the kissing of the Pax. So oftentimes profitable and useful Ceremonies degenerate into toys and superstitions Our Church though she useth no ceremony retains the substance when the Priest in his Exhortation to the Communicants saith If any of you be in malice or envy or any other grievous crime bewail your sins and come not to this holy Table and by the Rubrick the Priest if he knows any such is to turn them back unless they will be reconciled Lastly The necessity of this duty is testified by that pious and generally-received Custom amongst Christians to exhort those that are dying to forgive all the world that so themselves may find mercy and forgiveness at the hands of God Is it needful at the hour of death and not as needful in the time of our health Is there no forgiveness to be expected at the hands of God without it when we are dying and is there while we are living No certainly All times are alike here and there is no time wherein God will forgive us unless we forgive our brother What then remains but that we do every day as we would do if we were to die the next It is a blessed disposition to have a becalmed heart to those who have wronged us and not to let the Sun go down upon our wrath to be able to come before God with confidence and say Lord forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
and believe the Gospel of which I am to speak now None can be Members or Citizens of the Kingdom of God but only those who are the Sons of God The means to become the Sons or Children of God is by Regeneration or New-birth This is the Mystery our Saviour told Nicodemus of when he came to him by night Except a man saith our Saviour be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Iohn 3. 3. Now Regeneration or New birth consists of these two parts Repentance towards God and Faith towards Christ according to that which the Apostle Paul told the Elders of the Church of Ephesus Acts 20. 21. that he had testified both to Iews and Greeks Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ that is the whole mystery of Regeneration whereby a man becomes the Child of God and a member of his Kingdom Where we are to note and it will serve us to understand these things the better that Repentance properly and distinctly taken looks towards God the Father and Faith unto Christ our Mediatour The one is our returning unto God from whom we are gone astray by sin the other the means or way of our return unto him by Christ without whom we can neither be reconciled to our heavenly Father nor perform any service acceptable unto him These two therefore our Saviour distinguisheth when he saith Repent and believe the Gospel the one looking to his Father the other to himself Both joyned together make the New birth or a new man even as in natural generation the Soul being united with the Body makes a natural man Repentance here being as the Body or Matter which Faith in the Gospel of Christ inlivens and informs as a Soul Those therefore who make Faith a part of Repentance understand by Repentance the whole Regeneration of a sinner Otherwise if Repentance be taken precisely and distinctly as it is here by our Saviour then is not Faith a part but a necessary concurrent of Repentance as the Soul is no part of the Body but concurs therewith to the making of a Man And thus much I held needful to speak of Repentance and Faith in general to make my way the more straight and easie to the handling of them severally and apart which now I come unto And first to begin with that which is first Repentance REPENTANCE is A turning of the whole heart from Satan and Sin to serve God in newness of life I say from Satan and Sin because he that lives in Sin serves the Devil and belongs to his jurisdiction And therefore in our Baptism which is the Seal of our New birth we profess our Repentance by renouncing the Devil and all his works that is the works of Sin wherewith he is served and then we swear fealty to God saying I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth c. The Definition I have given you shall find full and whole in our Saviour's words to S. Paul when he appeared to him going to Damascus Acts 26. 18. as S. Paul himself reporteth them namely that he would send him to the Gentiles To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified Which voice S. Paul there saith V. 19. he was obedient unto and thereupon went and shewed first to the Iews and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance V. 20. The Commission therefore given him in the words aforesaid was To preach Repentance And howsoever the name of Repentance be by a custome of speech restrained only to that Sorrow and Remorse for sin which is but the beginning of our Turning yet if we will speak according to Scripture as we must do when we expound it the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Repentance is of a larger extent signifying not only those pangs of Contrition wherewith Repentance begins but the whole change and journey as I may so speak of the Soul of a sinner leaving the service of the Devil and turning to the service of God For this word in the New Testament answers to that of Turning and Returning so frequent in the Old as appears not only by the Syriack which so renders it but by those places in the New Testament where the one is put to explain the other as in that of S. Paul now quoted And that the word Turning is of as large sense as I speak of I shall need go no further for proof than to the words of our Saviour to S. Paul even now mentioned But this will appear better by the ensuing Discourse of the Parts of Repentance Repentance as any one almost may gather by the Definition given thereof hath two parts according to the two terms à quo ad quem An aversion or turning away and A conversion or turning unto An aversion or turning away from Satan and Sin that is the first part then A conversion or turning unto God by newness of life that is the second part The one is a falling off from the Creature the other a betaking to the Creator The first some call Mortification from that phrase in Scripture of Dying to sin Rom. 6. 11. Col. 3. 3. that is of ceasing to be the servants of sin The second Vivification from that Scripture-phrase of Living to God Rom. 6. 11. Gal. 2. 19. that is of beginning to be to God-ward the first receiving virtue from Christ's death the other from his resurrection For to live in the Scripture notion is as much as to be to die as not to be Because therefore to turn away from Satan and Sin is to renounce them and to be no more their 's under them it is called Dying to sin and because to turn unto God by newness of life is to become his and be that to him which before we were not it is called Living unto God But the more usual name of the first part of Repentance or the act of aversion and turning away is Contrition a term borrowed from the Old Testament The other part is simply called Conversion unto God or by some Reformation or Newness of Life I shall use some of these terms so as not to neglect the rest And the first part of Repentance I will call Contrition or Dying to sin as the most easie expression of which I shall now begin to speak Contrition or Dying unto sin hath sometimes the whole name of Repentance and Turning given to it namely as often as the thing to be turned from is solely mentioned As Heb. 6. 1. we have repentance from dead works S. Peter saith to Simon Magus Act. 8. 22. Repent of thy wickedness S. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 21. speaks of repenting of uncleanness and sornication and lasciviousness In all which and the like places Repentance
God in him which is a Faith whereof there is no Gospel A true Faith is to believe Salvation to be attained through obedience to God in Iesus Christ who by his merits and satisfaction for sin makes our selves and our works acceptable to his Father A saving and justifying Faith is to believe this so as to embrace and lay hold upon Christ for that end to apply our selves unto him and rely upon him that we may through him perform those works of obedience which God hath promised to reward with eternal life For a justifying Faith stays not only in the Brain but stirs up the Will to receive and enjoy the good believed according as it is promised This motion or election of the Will is that which maketh the difference between a saving Faith which joyns us to Christ and that which is true indeed but not saving but dogmatical and opinionative only And this motion or applying of the Will to Christ this embracing of Christ and the Promises of the Gospel through him is that which the Scripture when it speaks of this Faith calleth coming unto Christ or the receiving of him Come unto me all ye that are heavy-laden and I will ease you Matth. 11. 28. See Iohn 5. 40. and chap. 6. 37 44 45. So for receiving Iohn 1. 12. As many as received him to them he gave power or priviledge to be the sons of God even to them that believe on his Name where receiving and believing one expounds another Now if this be the Faith which is saving and unites us unto Christ and none other then it is plain that a saving Faith cannot be severed from good works because no man can embrace Christ as he is promised but he must apply himself to do them Would we then know whether our Faith be true and saving and not counterfeit This is the only sign and note whereby we may know it if we find these fruits thereof in our lives and conversations For 1 Iohn 1. 6. If we say we have fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth Ch. 2. 3. Hereby we know that we know him namely to be our Advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our sins if we keep his Commandments And ch 3. 7. Little children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is righteous even as Christ is righteous For if every one that believes in Christ truly and savingly believes that Salvation is to be attained by obeying God in him and so embraces and lays hold on him for that end how can such a ones Faith be fruitless DISCOURSE XXVII Acts 5. 3 4 5. But Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy Ghost and to purloin of the price of the land Whiles it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not in thy power why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God And Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost IN the 110. Psalm where our Saviour is Prophetically described in the Person of a King advanced to the Throne of Divine Majesty glorious and victorious The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool c. amongst other Kingly Attributes and Graces it is said if it be translated as it should be That his people in the day of his power should offer him Free-will-offerings that is bring him Presents at the day of his Inauguration or Investment as a sign of their Homage For so was the manner of the East to do unto their Kings and therefore when Saul was anointed King by Samuel it is said of those sons of Deâ—ial which despised and acknowledged him not that they brought him no presents But of Messiah's people it is said Thy people in the day of thy power that is the day when thou shalt enter upon thy power or the day of thy Investment shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people of free presents or shall bring thee Free-will-offerings It is an Elliptical speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rightly expressed in the Translation of our Service-Book Thy people shall offer or bring the Free-will-offerings This we see fulfilled in the Story of the foregoing Chapter when after our Saviour's ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of God which was the day of his power or Inauguration in his Kingdom assoon as this his Investment was published by sending of the Holy Ghost presently such as believed in him that is submitted themselves to his power and acknowledged him to be their King dedicated their goods and possessions to his service selling their lands and houses and laying down the money at the Apostles feet namely to be distributed as were the sacred Offerings of the Law partly to the maintenance and furnishing of the Apostles for the work whereabout they were sent and partly for the relief of the poor Believers which belonged to Christ's provision According to this Example one Ananias with Sapphira his wife consecrated also a possession of theirs unto God and sold the same to that purpose but having so done covetousness tickling them they purloined from the price and brought but a part of the summe and laid it down at the Apostles feet Then said Peter according to the words I have read Why hath Satan filled thine heart that is made thee so daring to lie unto the Holy Ghost and to purloin from the price of the field c The words I have read contain two things Ananias his Sin and his Punishment therefore His Sin in the third and fourth verses his Punishment in the fifth Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost Concerning his Sin as appears by the relation I have already made it was Sacriledge namely the purloining of what was become holy and consecrate unto God not by actual performance but by vow and inward purpose of the Heart For as it is well observed by Ainsworth on Levit. 7. 16. out of Maimonid in his Treatise of offering the Sacrifice Chap. 14. Sect. 4 5. c. In vows and voluntaries it is not necessary that a man pronounce ought with his lips but if he shall be fully determined in his heart though he hath uttered nothing with his lips he is indebted And this is no private Opinion of mine the Fathers so determine it S. Augustine that Ananias was condemned of Sacriledge quòd Deum in pollicitatione fesellisset because he had deceived God had been false to him in what he had promised him And in another Sermon Ananiam detraxisse de pecunia quam voverat Deo Ananias purloined and kept back part of the money he had devoted to God S. Chrysostome in his 12. Homily upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The
obnoxious to the rage of troublesome times being looked upon aâ— a booty by such as are able and find advantage to seise upon them Only the Mean estate is most free from such perillous Extremities being as below Envy so above Contempt If then our good and gracious God hath given us a convenient measure of means to maintain our condition let us think our line hath fallen unto us in a pleasant place as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 16. 6. and that we have a goodly heritage He that hath once a Competency let him be assured he hath all the Contentment which is to be found in these temporary things and Experience will tell him Though Riches may encrease yet after a Sufficiency once attained Contentment will encrease no more though Riches encrease never so much THUS much of that which Agur requested Now follows The Reason of his Request Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord c. Out of which before we come to handle them particularly let us make this General Observation That the Rule of our desires and endeavours in the getting and enjoying of these outward things ought to be our Spiritual welfare and the bettering of us to God-ward This was Agur's Rule He desires such a measure of outward means as might neither through fulness make him forget God nor through want tempt him to sin both against him and his neighbour This is the Compass we ought to sail by if we would avoid shipwrack This is the Pole-star and Heavenly mark whereon our eyes in all our thriving courses should be fixed and by it our desires and aims measured That proportion of outward things and provisions for this life which may the besâ— stand with our improvement to God-ward which may the most further and enable us and the least endanger and hinder us in our religious devotions to God and charitable duties to our neighbours this should be the stint of all our worldly desires and endeavours under the Sun More than may stand with this is so far from being wished or sought for that we ought with Agur to pray against it and say Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil But alas we set the Cart before the Horse we make not the Worship of God and our Spiritual advantage the Rule of our aims in getting and enjoying of these Temporal things But on the contrary we use to serve God and keep his Commandments so far as may stand with our profit with our covâ—tous and ambitious desires and no farther And this was Ieroboam's sin who forsooth would serve the God of his Fathers so as he thought might stand with the safety of his kingdom but no farther But alas what would it profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul But Ieroboam lost his kingdom too which else God had promised to entail unto his posterity But let us be wiser and as S. Paul bids us whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do else let us do all to the glory of God Let this be the End of all our actions and then we shall be sure to thrive here and be blessed for ever in the world to come So much for the General Observation Now to the particular handling of the words Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord The words are plain and their meaning of Impiety and Irreligion Give me not Riches lest I become ungodly and irreligious For as to know God in Scripture is to worship and serve him with fear and reverence so to deny him is to be devoid of Religion toward him to live as if there were no God So it is said of the sons of Eli that they were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord that is they acknowledged him not by love fear and obedience but lived as if they had said Who is the Lord Now that men who abound in Wealth and Superfluity are much subject to this malady is so manifest by other places of Scripture that Agur's fear was not without a cause Deut. 6. 12. is a Caution given to Israel when God should bless them with Prosperity When thou shalt have eaten and be full them beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Again Deut. 8. 10 c. When thou shalt have eaten and be fullâ— Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments and Iudgments and his Statutes Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein And thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied Then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought c. Vers. 17. And thou say in thine heart My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth Whence it appears not only how dangerous Prosperity is to Piety but what it is to forget God which is in my Text to deny him and to ask Who he is namely to break his Commandments Statutes and Iudgments to be unthankful for his Blessings and to attribute all to our own power and wisdom Again in Deut. 32. 15. Moses prophetically sings of Israel Iesurun waxed fat and kicked Thou art saith he waxed fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness Then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation Vers. 16. They provoked him to jealousie with strange gods with abominations they provoked him to anger And Hosea 13. 6. the Lord complains of the event of this prediction According to their pasture saith he so were they filled and their hearts were lifted up therefore they have forgotten me Rarae fumant felicibus arae I think it is sufficiently proved and Experience doth every where make it good 1. The cause hereof is the weakness of our Nature through sin not able to wield the Blessings of God if they abound Even as the Physitians say that a Plethora or full state of body is dangerous in respect of health even though it be without impurity of bloud because Nature if weaker then it cannot wield it or if a while she be of equal strength yet is soon and sometimes suddenly overturned Even such is the case here with our life and health spiritual 2. Religious Devotion springs from Humility and Lowliness of mind but Abundance usually pusseth up with pride as the Lord even now complained in Hosea that the heart of his people was exalted and therefore they forgot him So in the quotation Deut. 8. 10 c. Lastly A full belly is unfittest for Devotion and Prayer and therefore in our devoutest Supplications we use Fasting Even as it is in plenteous feeding so is it in the very outward injoyment of plenty whence ye heard even now the Spirit of God to express this Abundance of outward things by Feeding
of Zophar Iob 20. 4. was known in the days of old and found true ever since man was placed upon the earth For as the Apostle saith of righteousness that it hath both the promise of this life and of the life to come so it is most true of unrighteousness that it hath the curse of this life as well as of the life to come The first sin of our first Parents whereof we all stand guilty was thus punished as it were to be a Rule and Law of what God would do after I say the first sin of our first Parents was punished with a curse in things of this life From hence come all the outward calamities and miseries of mankind wherein the happiest man on earth hath his share hence our labour and vexation of spirit hence our pain our want and all our trouble wherein we travel under the Sun No man in the world is exempted from this Law all of us as well feel a present punishment here in this life as fear that which shall be to come hereafter in the world to come Now as the universal misery we all feel is a temporal punishment of an universal sin so the clods of daily sin which we add unto this great mountain of transgression doth usually bring us under some special kind of punishment above that which we have in common with other men The whole History of the Bible if we look well into it is most part taken up in Examples of this one Maxim whosoever thinketh otherwise he hath taken too slight a view and too short a survey of the world's affairs Perhaps he sees the person of a Tyrant of an Oppressor of a Blasphemer to live long in jollity and to end his days in tranquillity or to use the words of Iob in the same argument to spend their days in wealth and in a moment without any more trouble go down into the grave How is it then true That God requiteth sin in this life or that any regard should be had to any temporal calamities or worldly disasters since these come alike to the just and unjust to the fool and to the wise to those whom God favoureth as well as those he favoureth not But for Answer hereunto we must know That the way of God in temporal punishments is one and his way in eternal and spiritual another he deals not after the same fashion in both For eternal punishments in the world to come the person which sinneth shall alone suffer and no other for him but as for temporal punishments which are seen in this world sometimes God lays them upon the person sometimes upon the posterity of the offender or sometimes upon others which in such like respects are near unto them as he sees best in his wisdom When therefore thou seest a man live in open and gross sins confine not thine eye unto his person only but look farther about him survey his whole family if nothing appear while he is living yet after his death consider of his posterity and thou wilt find the ways of God to be just and glorious in the avenging of sin and wickedness This question was long debated between Iob and his friends and at last came to this very issue Iob himself determining and assoiling it after this manner I will teach you saith he chap. 27. ver 11 c. by the hand of God that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal Behold all ye your selves have seen it why then are you thus altogether vain This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty If his children be multiplied it is for the sword and his off-spring shall not be satisfied with bread c. The reason of this difference between temporal punishments and eternal is to be gathered from the several and differing Ends of them both Because they are for divers Ends and Purposes therefore the way of God is diverse in the execution of them The End of eternal punishments is to satisfie the justice of God in avenging sin but the End of temporal punishments chiefly exemplary that is for example and warning unto others that they might hereby know that God regardeth and observeth the actions of men and therefore fear lest the like might come unto themselves which they have seen to have befallen other men Now for such an End as this it is not always requisite that God should punish every offender in his own person because the punishment here respecteth not so much the person of the offender himself as others who have been witnesses of his sin that they might take heed of committing the like Now this End may be as well attained in the punishment of a mans posterity subjects servants as of his own person For by both alike may others see that God observeth the sins of men and hath plagues in readiness for those which commit them And by both alike will men be afraid of the hand of God seeing most men do most vehemently wish the good and happy condition of their posterity and others having like relation unto them Kings the weal of their Subjects Fathers the good of their Children Husbands the good of their Wives and therefore will refrain from doing that which they see by experience of others may bring a plague or a curse upon any of them Yea God so much regardeth this exemplary End in temporal punishments that I think this to be one chief reason why God forgiving the sin and consequently eternal punishment yet he remitteth not temporal plagues and chastisements lest when the sin is notoriously known and scandalous those who saw the sin and could not so well know of the inward reconciliation between God and the sinner might stumble and doubt in their hearts Whether there were a God or no who observeth the ways of men In this sort and for this end was David punished whom though upon his humble repentance Nathan had told The Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die yet nevertheless did God raise up evil against him out of his own house he took his wives from before his eyes and gave them unto his neighbour and the sword never departed from his house according as the Lord had spoken The reason hereof follows in the Text in the words of Nathan Because saith he by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also which is born unto thee shall surely die The child also that is all the former plagues together with the death of the child shall come upon thee for this end This then being so plain what End God chiefly aims at in his outward and visible judgments we ought hence to learn what to do as often as we see the hand of God fall heavy upon any open and known sinner namely to accomplish in our selves the End which God aâ—ms at to
examine our actions past to amend our lives lest as bad if not a worse thing befal us or ours And if at any time we see an Example of this upon one of God's own children as we heard of David before a man after God's own heart let us learn to fear and tremble and say If such things befal those whom God most loveth what shall become of us if we sin likewise Again when we see God thus punishing sin in the eyes of the world let us acknowledge his All-seeing Providence and say with those Rev. 15. 3 4. Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name when thy judgments are made manifest and with David Psal. 9. 16. and Psal. 11. 7. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness AND thus I come to the second thing I observed namely That God often forbears and defers his punishments As I did long ago saith Adonibezek yea again and again seventy times one after another so long and so often that I thought God had either not seen or quite forgotten me yet now I see he requiteth me How true this Observation is is sufficiently witnessed by their experience who have little less than stumbled and staggered hereat This made Cato a Heathen man to cry out Res divinae multum habent caliginis The disposals of Divine providence are not a little cloudy and dark This made David a man after God's own heart to confess and say My feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipped This made Ieremy cry out from the bottom of an amazed soul Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper why are they happy that deal very treacherously Yea those Martyred Saints Rev. 6. 10. are heard to cry from under the Altar How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell upon the earth Now as these forenamed have stumbled at God's delaying and forbearing his judgments so others there are who have been quite deceived verily believing that with God Quod differtur ausertur what was forborn was also forgotten Such as one was Adonibezek here who having escaped so long thought to have escaped ever And such were those whereof David spake Psal. 10. 6. Who say in their hearts We shall never be moved we shall never be in adversity Such an one is the great Whore of Babylon that sings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I sit like a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Such an one was Pherecydes Syrius master of Pythaegoras and a famous Philosopher and one that is said to have been the first Philosopher that taught among the Greeks the Soul to be immortal and yet among all his knowledge had not learned this one Principle The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom For as AElian reports he used among his scholars to vaunt of his irreligion after this manner saying That he had never offered sacrifice to any God in all his life and yet had lived as long and as merrily as those who had offered several Hecatombs But he that thus impiously abused the long-suffering of God came at length to an end as strange as his impiety was unusual for so they report of him that he was stricken like Herod by the Angel of the Lord with such a disease that Serpents bred of the corrupt humors of his body which eat and consumed him being yet alive But that we may neither distrust the righteous ways of God nor prevent his unsearchable counsels with our over-hasty expectation let us a little consider of the Ends why God oftentimes deâ—ers and prolongs his Iudgments These Ends I suppose may be referred unto four heads 1. For the sake of godly ones for whom God useth to forbear even multitudes of sinners So had there been but ten righteous persons in Sodom Sodom had never been destroyed I will not destroy it saith God for tens sake So for good Iosiah's sake God deâ—erred the plagues he had decreed to bring upon that people that Iosiah might be first gathered unto his fathers in peace and his eyes might not see all the evil that he was to bring upon that place as it is 2 Kings 22. 20. For as the new wine saith the Lord Esa. 65. 8. is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for a blessing is in it even so will I do for my servants sakes that I may not destroy them all That is I will spare a whole cluster of men even for one or two blessed servants of mine which I shall find therein This is the first End and this is most if not only found in publick judgments and common sins such as concern whole societies of men for in such properly doth God for the sake of godly ones forbear a multitude of sinners 2. The second End is To give time of repentance and amendment For the Lord is long-suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance as it is 2 Pet 3. 9. This is shewed by the parable of the Fig-tree Luke 13. 7. Three years the husbandman came to seek fruit and found none and the fourth year he expected before he would cut it down An hundred and twenty years the old world had given them before the Floud came And Ionah proclaimed not Yet one day but Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed This End concerns such punishments as deprive men of life and of the means of salvation and of amendment of life For such as these only can God be said to forbear to give time of repentance For as for other punishments not the forbearance but the hastening of them rather would cause repentance seeing men then use to remember and call upon God when they are in misery and affliction 3. The third End of God's deferring his punishments is The opportunity of example by them unto others and of manifesting his own glory God is Lord of Times and as he created them so he alone knows a fit Time for all things under the Sun He therefore who knows all occasions when he seeth a fit Time for his Iudgments to profit other men by example and most of all to set forth his own glory then he sends them forth and till then he will defer them 4. The fourth End or Reason hath some affinity with this and it is When God intending some extraordinary judgment suffers mens sins to grow unto a full ripeness that their sin may be as conspicuous unto the world as his purpose is their punishment shall be Thus God punished not the Canaanites in Abraham's time but deferred it till Israel's coming out of Egypt and that as
but a carkase if it be alone But if by rubbing and galling our Hearts it makes them at length so tender as to be sensible not only of the punishment but to loath Sin it self as a foul and ugly thing then indeed it begins to live and give some proof it will be sincere For as a surfet of meats how dainty and delicate soever will afterward make them loathsome So if we be indeed surcharged with the burthen of our sins the appetite of the Soul will begin to loath them though they have been never so full of delight yea it will make us loath our selves and cry out in a mournful manner with S. Paul Rom. 7. 24. O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Even as a man who is covered over with noisome boiles and sores is not affected only with the bodily pain caused by them but even abhors the sight and smell of that which causeth it as filthy and ugly so must it be in this leprosie of sin And indeed were our eyes once open to see it Sin is the most ugly beastly filthy and noisome thing in the world For being wholly opposite to God the most glorious Beauty and most delectable Good it is contrary to whatsoever is any way seemly comely graceful and beautiful for all these carry in them some Image and resemblance of him but Sin none at all Nay it is a distasteful and loathsome thing to the Reasonable nature of man as appears by the continual upbraiding and griping of the Conscience which can never down with it In meats if any go against our stomach we abhor and loath them how much more loathsome is that which the Conscience cannot digest the stomach and taster of our souls O how nice and daintie we are that no loathsome and unpleasant meat should offend so much as by the sight thereof our fleshly appetite which is common to us with Beasts but our Souls our nobler part whose safety so much concerns us we cram and choak with the loathsome filthiness of Sin and perceive it not But as those who cannot endure a cat or a mouse or the like by Antipathie of nature when any such thing comes within their sight or near their person presently they start and shew some extremity of passion or other and if they cannot fly it it casts their body into a cold sweat So must we labour under the sight of our sins that we may be of those whom Christ here calleth for O Lord supple our hearts with thy quickning grace that they may be so tender as to feel this part of their butthen as well as the other Thus have we heard the first requisite of such as may be truly said to labour and be weary of their burthen namely To feel and be sensible of a double weight thereof Now follows the next and last requisite A desire to be rid thereof He that truly and unfeignedly labours under the burthen of his sin he that is indeed weary thereof will desire to be rid of it For Sorrow is so much against the good liking of Nature that he that is pressed with the burthen thereof will earnestly desire to be eased will endeavour to shake off his burthen and remove that which procures his Sorrow He therefore that is not so far toiled with the pressure of his sins as to have a purpose to forsake and leave them is no true penitent none of those who are yet weary enough to go unto Christ for ease And lest we might deceive our selves and think we have a purpose to leave our sins when we have not let us examine our selves by these three Rules following 1. That this purpose must be general without reservation of any darling sin For he that retains any sin is not yet weary enough of his burthen He that looks for a forgiveness of all his sins must purpose to forsake them all he must not with Herod in the Gospel have a reservation of Herodias his brother Philip's wife God will not be served with halves he will have our whole Hearts or none 2. He that devises not how to cast off the burthen of his sin though it pains him but how to carry it more handsomely and conveniently by qualifications and distinctions and the like he is perhaps heavy laden for he feels his shoulders pincht but he is not weary of carrying but thinks to ease himself as he in the Fable did his horse of the plough who sitting still upon his horse back carried the plough on his own neck So was the horse eased by a distinction for now his master carried the plough and not he 3. He that hath indeed a purpose to cast off the burthen of his sin and to forsake it is willing to make amends where he hath wronged as we see by the example of Zacchaeus in the Gospel For he that cannot wish from the bottom of his heart that what he hath done were undone and if it were to do again he would never do it is no true penitent nor heartily sorry for his sin But how can he say thus who hath ill-gotten goods and will not restore them who hath power in his hands yet in some sort to undo his sin as far as the injury concerneth man and yet will not do it And thus you have seen How the persons must be qualified and what preparation is required of them who are capable of this sweet Invitation of our Saviour Come unto me all ye that are weary or labour of being heavy laden and I will ease you But you will say How should a man come to be thus affected How should he come to be touched with remorse for sin and what means is to be used I answer By a serious and often meditation upon the Law of God which is a Glass wherein to behold the deformity of sin and depth of our misery Dost thou in deed and good earnest believe that God Almighty hath given this Law to men Dost thou believe thou hast transgressed and broken every part thereof Dost thou believe tell me truly that all those who have done so are under the wrath of God and in the state of eternal damnation to be tormented with the devil and his angels for ever Dost thou or canst thou believe all this and thy heart not yield and bleed to think how woful and fearful a condition thou art in If it doth not I say thou dost not yet fully and in earnest believe any of these things Thou mayst perhaps lay so and think so too but thou deceivest thine own heart The devil deludes thee I say again Thou believest not thy perswasion is too slight For every unrepentant sinner that knows and hears the law of God without sorrow and contrition of heart is a piece of an Infidel and it is Vnbelief and nothing but Vnbelief which makes his Heart so unmoveable and unrelenting If a Proclamation came from an earthly Monarch that
whosoever had at any time committed such and such misdemeanours should have his estate confiscated or suffer some grievous and exquisite torments as a Traitor unto his Prince if I should see a man deeply liable unto all this who could hear of such a Proclamation securely without trouble and astonishment that could sleep quietly and be no whit dejected or cast down therewith might I not justly think either he believed himself not guilty of any of the crimes there mentioned or took it for a counterfeit or only some scare-crow never meant to be put in execution I know your selves would think so How then is it possible that a man should firmly and seriously give credence to the Law of God and the Threats contained therein and yet his Heart never smite him his Soul be never touched with remorse No without doubt this Legal faith for so I call the belief I speak of is yet a weak one a superficial and unsetled perswasion perhaps but no grounded or firm impression Wouldst thou amend it wouldst thou drive it deeper Rub thy Heart continually with a fixt and frequent meditation of the severity of God's Law of the number and greatness of thy transgressions of the dreadfulness of wrath and vengeance due for the same Never cease doing this untill thy Heart shall yield and thy bowels melt within thee One drop of water weareth not a stone but continual dropping will do it Gutta cavat lapidem c. If one meditation will not melt thy Heart yet a continuance therein will do it Those who let bloud will rub the Vein often to make it swell so must thou rub thy Heart often to make it bleed A hard skin with often grinding and fretting will at length grow thin and tender I COME now to the Second thing I propounded in this Invitation The thing invited to which is double Coming unto Christ and Taking his yoke upon us I begin with the first This coming unto Christ is the approaching to him by Faith which is manifested by those places of Scripture where coming and believing are interchangeably used as one and the same thing He that cometh to God saith S. Paul Heb. 11. 6. must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him Iohn 6. 35. I am saith our Saviour the bread of life He that cometh to me shall never hunger he that believeth on me shall never thirst Here coming is expounded by believing Ver. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out In Iohn 1. 12. it is called a receiving of Christ But as many as received him to them gave he power or priviledg to become the Sons of God even to them that believed on his Name Here therefore observe That a Saving Faith a Faith which makes Christ our own and hath promise of ease by him in a word that Faith which gives us an interest in Christ Iesus is more than a bare assent or perswasion that the Gospel is true which saies that Christ is the Son of God and the Redeemer and Saviour of mankind It is a coming Belief a coming Faith that is an assent inclining the Soul to Christ to be made partaker of the Benefits through him Not a bare Speculative assent which remains in the Brain and proceeds no farther but such an assent as rests not there but worketh a motion in the Will to seek and embrace that which is believed Such an assent as not only believes the Promises made in Christ but goes unto him relies upon him clings unto him for them Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie laden and I will ease you To believe the Gospel is true that Christ Iesus is the only means of Salvation ordained by God I grant it to be a Faith though it go no farther But it is an insufficient Faith an imperfect and impotent Faith which is usually called Historical Faith which I make no question but you all have But if you stay here the Devil believes as much as you do But a Saving Faith though it begins with this yet it staies not there It stands not only gazing upon Christ but is effectual and powerful upon the Soul to make it apply and betake it self unto him This height of Faith the Devils have not nor can have They can believe as well as we that Christ is a Saviour but never so far or so much as to have any hope affiance or confidence in him For if a King should proclaim a general pardon to a number of known rebels and vow execution without mercy upon some principal offenders who had cunningly and maliciously seduced the rest both of them might equally believe the Proclamation to be true yet the one would be encouraged to relie upon the King's clemency and to sue out his pardon but the other would be utterly disheartned as being uncapable Such altogether is the case of men and wicked Angels in the Proclamation of the Gospel Men hearing Christ took the woman's Seed are encouraged with hope of pardon the Devils knowing he in no wise took the nature of Angels the better they believe his Incarnation the less are their hopes of their own redemption Come we therefore to application He that cometh unto God saith S. Paul must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him So say I He that cometh unto Christ must believe that he is and that he is the Easer of them that seek unto him He that believes this sufficiently cannot but go unto Christ. You therefore that labour and are heavy laden with your sins do you believe that Christ is and that he is the Easer of them that being weary of their sins seek unto him How can your Soul then but fly unto him with trust and confidence in him Yea but will some men say I believe that Christ is and that he is the Easer of them that seek him yet for all this I can put no trust and confidence in him Yea but dost thou believe it so well as to find thy Soul on wing toward him to seek and sue for pardon If thou findest this thou hast some trust and confidence in him more or less For didst thou quite despair of Ease from him thy Heart could never seek to him for where a man utterly despairs to obtain he will not so much as stir a foot to make a suit The motion or flight of the Soul is Desire He that out of a true sense and feeling of his sin for no other can do it in good earnest desires Christ he goes unto him And Christ thou â—eest requires no more but that all those who are weary and heavie laden should thus come unto him and he will ease them And this is the first degree of a Faith which is Iustifying and gives interest in Christ Iesus For this Faith is not barely Historical and in
is and nothing more true That no works of ours in this life can abide the Touch-stone of God's Law and therefore not able to justifie us in the presence of God but to condemn us But it is true also That we are therefore justified through Faith in the bloud and righteousness of Christ that in him we might do works pleasing and acceptable to Almighty God which out of him we could not do For as the bloud and sufferings of Iesus Christ imputed to us through Faith cleanseth and acquitteth us of all the sins whereof we stood guilty afore we believed so the imputation of his righteousness when we believe makes our works though of themselves far short of what they should be yet to be acceptable and just in the eyes of the Almighty Christ supplying out of his Riches our poverty and by communication of his obedience continually perfecting ours where we fail that so we might receive the reward of the righteous of him that shall reward every man according to his works Being therefore in Christ we are so much the more bound to frame our lives in holy obedience unto God's Commandments in that before we were justified we could not but now henceforth we are enabled to do that which for Christ's sake will be acceptable and pleasing to Almighty God our Father This is that which S. Peter tells us 1 Epist. 2. 24. That Christ his own self bare our â—â—s in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness So S. Paul Tit. 2. 11 c. The grace of God saith he that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men wherefore Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ ver 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Here you may see that Christ is therefore given us to be a propitiation for our sins and to justifie us that in him we might walk before God in newness of life so to obtain a crown of righteousness in the world to come But if this be not enough to perswade us to take on this yoke of Christ yet I hope this consideration will do it when I shall shew you that That Faith can never be true which is not attended with these fruits Nor is there any other mean to assure us we are truly come to Christ and ingraffed in him but this If we have taken up this yoke of Christ we may know then we have put on him If we have never put our necks to his yoke we never put on him It is S. Iohn's express assertion 1 Epist. 1. 6. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the the truth Ch. 2. 3. Hereby we know that we know him viz. to be our Advocate with his Father and the propitiation for our sins if we keep his commandments The Reason is plain Because the one follows the other as the heat doth the Fire or the light the Sun Which I thus demonstrate both on Christ's part and ours On ours thus He that sincerely sues to and seriously relies upon another for a Favour which nearly concerneth him and no other can do for him will by all means endeavour to avoid whatsoever he knows may distaste his Patron and do his best to approve himself in whatsoever he can learn is most pleasing unto him If you should see a man having a Suit to some great Courtier for a pardon of his life and yet shewing no care of doing in his presence what he knew would deeply offend him and wilfully neglecting that he knew would give him the best content would you think such a man in earnest and sufficiently perplext with fear of death and seriously relying upon that man to save it I know you would not If therefore out of a true affrightment and sense of the wrath of God for sin with a sincere and serious Faith thou suest unto and reliest upon Christ for mercy and redemption as the only name under heaven whereby thou canst be saved how canst thou but love him with all the Powers of thy Soul and therefore do thy best to please him upon whom thou dependest for so great and unvaluable a benefit If thou dost not surely thou hast not yet weighed thy misery sufficiently thy Faith is insufficient and counterfeit it never yet came home to Christ that he might ease thee The same appears on Christ's part For unto whomsoever Christ is given for Iustification through the imputation of his merits and righteousness in him God creates a new heart and reneweth a right spirit as the Psalmist speaketh Psal. 51. 10. that is by virtue of this union he conferreth upon him the grace of his Spirit for the abolishing of the body of sin and enabling the Soul in some measure against the assaults thereof to abandon at least the more eminent notorious enormous and mortal sins though sins of ordinary infirmity shall not be quite subdued in this life If therefore I see a man run still without restraint into gross and open sins and walk not blameless in the eyes of men I conclude he hath not this Spirit of grace within him and therefore was never ingraffed into Christ by a true and lively Faith Wheresoever therefore is a true faith and unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. there follows a new life He that cometh to Christ sincerely takes his yoke upon him too Labour therefore as S. Iames saith to shew your Faith by your works For not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father saith Christ shall inherit the kingdom of heaven DISCOURSE XXXII S. MATTHEW 11. 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls THese Words are a continuing of the former Exhortation to take upon us the yoke of Christ First in general That we follow his Example Learn of me Then in particular wherein we should follow him In Meekness and Lowliness For I am saith he Meek and Lowly in heart Then the Profit we shall reap thereby Do this And ye shall find rest unto your souls For the first Learn of me Observe That Christ is given unto us not only for a Sacrifice for sin but for an Example of life They are the words of one of our Collects For he is our Lord and King and Subjects we know will naturally conform and fashion themselves unto the manners of their Princes Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis And those which do so are accounted the most devoted to them and are the best accepted of them If Christ then be our Lord and King we must acknowledg him to be such by conforming to his Example
humblest nature and the humblest condition are the fittest for devotion For humble natures experience shews them the most religious whereas those which the world so much commendeth for high and brave spirits of all others do buckle the worst unto devotion God seeth not as man seeth It is not the tallest Eliab but the humblest David who is the man after God's own heart He that humbleth himself as a little child the same is the tallest and goodliest Soul in the kingdom of heaven The Stars in the firmament howsoever they here seem small to us yet are bigger than the Earth So he that is despicable and small here in the eyes of men is there a great one in the eyes of God As the humblest nature so the humblest estate and condition is best fitted for Religion as the poor rather than the rich Therefore Agur desired of God not to give him riches more than food convenient for him lest being full he should deny him and say Who is the Lord Such likewise is the state of adversity and affliction being a state of lowliness and an estate wherein our hearts are taken down and therefore more fit to bring us home to God than that of prosperity whence you know that David saies Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and Psal. 119. 67 71. Before I was afflicted I went astray But now I have kept thy word It is good for me that I have been afflicted For diseases say the Physicians must be cured by contraries It was Pride which caused the disloyalty and rebellion both of Men and Angels against their Creator whence is that of the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 10. 12. The beginning of Pride is when one departeth from God and his heart is turned away from his Maker ver 13. Pride is the beginning of sin and he that hath it shall pour out abomination If Pride then be the beginning of our rebellion against God then must Lowliness be the proper disposition of those who fear and worship him And Tanto quisque est vilior Deo quanto est pretiosior sibi The higher any one is in his own esteem the lower he is in God's Now from this near affinity and inseparable dependance between a Religious devotion and an Humble and Lowly mind it is that the Scripture useth them as equipollent terms Prov. 22. 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches honour and life Prov. 3. 33. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the habitation of the Iust. Ver. 34. Surely he scorneth the scorners but he giveth grace or sheweth favour unto the lowly Where scorners and the wicked on the one part and the lowly and the just on the other are interchangeably used for one and the same In like manner speaks the son of Sirach Ecclus. 12. 4 5. Give to the godly man and help not a sinner Which in the next words he altereth thus Do well unto him that is lowly but give not to the ungodly In the same notion of Humility and Lowliness S. Paul tells the Ephesian Elders at Miletus that he had served the Lord with all humility of mind Acts 20. 19. I have dwelt the longer upon this point To shew that Lowliness of mind is the proper disposition for devotion and the mother of a religious fear because the present occasion if you examine it is nothing else but the exercise of what I speak of For the End of Fasting is to beget Lowliness and humbleness of mind that so we might be rightly disposed and affected to approach the Divine Majesty and tender our supplications unto him Especially at such times when his dreadful rod is shaken over us to bid us down and cry for mercy lest we perish Are they not some of the first words we uttered this day O come let us humble our selves and fall down before the Lord with reverence and fear Hence Fasting and Humbling a mans self go in Scripture for equipollent terms My clothing was sackeloth saith David Psal. 35. 13. I humbled my self with fasting So Ahab humbled himself and thereby deferred his judgment 1 King 21. 29. Hezekiah humbled himself both he and the inhabitants of Ierusalem 2 Chro. 32. 26. Manasseh likewise besought the Lord and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Father 2 Chron. 33. 12. If we take a view of the Ceremonies of this Discipline which the Ancients used and we in some part continue they imply nothing else but Lowliness either to express it if we be already so affected or to work and beget it in our hearts if as yet we have it not They are reducible to three heads 1. of Habit 2. of Gesture 3. of Diet. For Habit it was anciently Sackcloth and Ashes By the coursness of Sackcloth they ranked themselves as it were amongst the meanest and lowest condition of men By Ashes and sometimes Earth upon their heads they made themselves lower than the lowest of the creatures of God For the lowest of the Elements is the Earth than which we use to say a man cannot fall lower Qui jacet in terra non habet unde cadat For Gesture they sate or lay upon the ground which in the Primitive Church was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humicubatio a natural ceremony both to express and ingenerate or increase this disposition of Lowliness and abjection of our selves and as frequently practised among the Christian Fathers as it is seldom or never used among us It were a thing most comely and undoubtedly most profitable if either these Ceremonies or some other answerable to them were reviv'd amongst us at such times as these If we were all of us this day attired if not in Sackcloth for perhaps it sutes not with the custom of our Nation yet in the dolefullest habit of mourners if we lay all groveling upon the ground would not such a ruful spectacle would not the very sight of such an uncouth Assembly much affect us The mournful hue of Funeral solemnities we know by experience will often make them to weep who otherwise had no particular cause of sorrow how much more when they have But the Principal ceremony and which we retain is Abstinence from meat and drink from which this whole exercise hath the name of Fasting the End thereof being to bring down our Bodies thereby the better to humble our Souls or to express so much I mean to express our sorrow and dejection if we be already so affected Mores animi sequuntur temperamentum corporis If the Body be full and lusty the Mind will be lofty and refractary and most unfit to approach the Divine Majesty with reverence and fear How uncomposed is that Heart to sue to God for mercy and aversion of his judgments which is fraught with rebellious unclean proud and lustful thoughts like so many dogs barking within it But these are all engendered and cherished by full feeding and
Meekness in the special sense is a vertue exercised only towards men so in this general notion thereof I extend it no farther making as I told you Lowliness and Meekness to share the Decalogue betwixt them Here now I might observe at large How Meekness seasoneth all our actions and carriage towards men giving that genuine sweetness and relish of Vertue to them all this being the reason of that so general acception of the word in the phrase of Scripture I might also inlarge my self unto all the several offices and duties of this Vertue But let me commend unto you those two which are most principal and immediate and therefore expresly required in our Liturgie as the truest tokens of Repentance namely forgiving of offences and satisfaction of injuries both of them genuine off-springs of this Meekness And ye shall find rest unto your souls HERE is that inestimable Benefit which befalleth those who take up Christ's yoke and learn of him to be meek and lowly They shall find rest unto their souls For the understanding whereof we must know that there is a twofold Ease mentioned in this Invitation of our Saviour The one to those who come unto him by Faith Come unto me c. and I will ease you or give you rest The second to those who take upon them his yoke that is the yoke of obedience to God's commandments a yoke which Christ first wore for our sakes and made it his that so he might make it possible for us to wear it whilest the main weight still rests upon his shoulders Those who put their necks to this yoke shall find rest unto their souls These two Rests are near of kin but not the same The first Rest is that which Christ gives the second the Rest which we shall find All those who come and by Faith apply themselves to Christ shall have Ease But there is something else to be done before our selves shall find and know it we must put our necks into the collar and take his yoke upon us and then there shall not only be Rest obtained for us but we shall find and feel our selves eased For a Sinner hath a twofold Burthen 1. The weight of his sin and 2. The pain he feels thereby for such is the condition we know of every one that is laden Answerable therefore to this twofold Burthen there is a twofold Rest and Ease to be attained The first is by taking off the burthen by remission of our sin in our Iustification when Christ discharges those who come unto him of their load and beareth it upon his own back by justifying and acquitting them of sin The second is the ceasing of the pain which the pressure of sin hath caused when a sinner by wearing of the yoke of Christ finds peace of conscience and ease and rest unto his soul. For the pain and aking of the Soul for sin doth not presently cease though sin be taken off A man condemned to die doth not presently feel the comfort of his pardon as soon as it is obtained for it may be gotten many daies before he knows it and till then his pain and discomfort will be as if it were not gotten at all Also a man that hath overlong born a burthen too heavie for him is often we know so benummed that he thinks he feels the pressure of his burthen still some while after it is taken off his back So is the ease here the pain of the soul will not presently cease when Christ hath taken off our sin nor will the joy and comfort of our pardon be so soon found as our pardon is obtained Let this then be the first Observation That as those only are justified and discharged of their sin by remission who flee unto Christ by Faith So only those have promise of rest and peace of conscience who take his yoke upon them and being as he was meek and lowly stoop unto God and submit their lives unto his Commandments Art thou heavy-laden and wouldst thou be discharged of thy sin Go unto Christ and he will ease thee Wouldst thou know thy sins are acquitted wouldst thou have peace and feel thy conscience sweetly comforted Take this yoke upon thee learn of him to be yokeable to be meek and lowly to walk in the waies of God and thou shalt find rest to thy soul. By this saith S. Iohn we know that we know him namely to be our Advocate and the propitiation for our sins if we keep his Commandments There is no way but this to feel and have notice thy sins are forgiven thee Many do trust all to a supposed Faith as a short and compendious cut to quiet their conscience But never look to find peace with God so long as thou hast peace with sin There is no peace unto the wicked saith the Prophet What Iehoram 2 King 9. 22. asked Iehu Is there peace Iehu What peace saith Iehu so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Iezebel and her witchcrafts are so many So saith God to all such whose life and conversation is unreformed What peace can be unto thy soul so long as contempt of his worship extortion defrauding of thy neighbour covetousness drunkenness backwardness to all good duties reign still within thee If thou wouldst have peace in thy soul if thou wouldst have the wringing torments of a troubled conscience to be calmed within thee If thou wouldst find out that peace of God which passeth all understanding let thy whole life and conversation as far as thou art able be ruled by the Law of God wear that yoke which Christ thy Saviour hath made so easie learn of him to be meek and lowly and thou shalt find rest unto thy soul. But some perhaps will say What needs so much preciseness and strictness of life For my part I do as other men do I can dispense sometime and take my pleasure in sin and am not thus yoked as you speak but take my liberty according as I see advantage either for my profit or contentment and yet am not disquieted but find my soul at rest and ease without thus much ado I answer It is hard to conceive that a man should give himself the reins to commit sin and his Conscience not to twitch him more or less though he useth all the means he can to smother it But if it doth not thy case is so much the more woful and dangerous For alas it is not a rest and ease of soul as thou misdeemest but hardness and deadness of heart which thou mistakest for rest and quietness A condition than which there cannot be a worse and of all estates of the soul the most hopeless And this is the fruit of a customary violation of the Conscience which being often bruised scratched at first with smaller sins and at length rent and torn with greater contracts one scar and brawn all over and so becomes senseless and unfeeling How dreadful therefore is it if men
shall have many a curse Also Prov. 11. 25. The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Likewise Eccles. 11. 1. Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days These are for corporal blessings and of this life But hear also for spiritual blessings and those of the life to come David Psal. 112. 9. quoted by S. Paul 2 Cor. 9. 9. He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor his righteousness remaineth for ever c. that is he shall be remembred not only in this life but in the life to come Luke 16. 9. Make to your selves saith our Saviour friends of the unrighteous Mammon that is of these deceitful and uncertain riches that when you fail they that is the friends you have made may receive you into everlasting Tabernacles that is that God looking upon the Alms-deeds you have done and hearing the Prayers and blessings of the poor may reward you with eternal life So S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 17 c. Charge them that be rich in this world that they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God That they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Non memini saith S. Hiâ—rome me legere mald morte mortuum qui libenter opera charitatis exercuit habet enim multos intercessores impossibile est multorum preces non exaudiri I do not remember in all my reading that ever any one died an ill death who was in his life-time ready to good works and acts of Charity for indeed such a one hath many to intercede and pray for him and it is impossible but that the prayers of so many in his behalf should be heard and accepted by God What should I say more Shall we not receive our sentence at the Last day according to our works of mercy Come ye blessed of my Father and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For when I was hungry ye gave me meat when I was thirsty ye gave me drink c. ye know the rest O the wonderful efficacy of Alms in prevailing with God! What favour do they find in his sight how are they remembred but not for any merit in them which is none but of his mere mercy and merciful promise who accepts them in Christ our Saviour Whence is that Prayer of Nehemiah c. 13. 22. concerning this case of good works Remember me O my God concerning this and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy Thus much of the efficacy and prevalency which Prayer and Alms have with Almighty God to procure a blessing from him Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before God NOW I come to the third thing propounded The Reasons why God requires them and why they are so pleasing unto him which Bensons when they are known will be also strong Motives to us why we should frequent them For though indeed their Efficacy alone were a Motive sufficient to invite any reasonable man to do them yet will these Reasons add a further enforcement thereunto To begin then with Prayer The Reasons why God requires this duty at our hands I will name but the chief are these 1. That we might acknowledge the property he hath in the Gifts he bestows upon us otherwise we would forget in what tenure we hold those Blessings we receive from his hands Though therefore he be willing to bestow his Benefits upon us yet he will have us ask them before he doth it Even as Fathers do with their children though they intend to bestow such things upon them as are needful yet they will have their children to ask them Unless therefore we ask of God the things which are his to give as we shall not receive what we have not so we cannot lawfully use any thing we have 2. Another Reason is That we might be acquainted with God Acquaint now thy self with God saith Eliphaz Iob 22. 21. and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Now acquaintance we know grows amongst men by conversing together by intercourse and speaking to one another So is it here by accustoming to speak to God in Prayer we grow acquainted with him otherwise if we grow strangers to him and he to us we shall not dare to behold him 3. Prayer is the way to keep our Hearts in order For to come often into the presence of God breeds an holy awe in our Hearts it makes us to call our Sins to remembrance with sorrow and shame and to be afraid to commit them We may know it by experience men are afraid to offend those into whose presence they must often come to ask and sue for favours and if they have offended they are presently ashamed and the first thing they do will be to sue for pardon These are the Reasons for Prayer Now let us see the Reasons also why Alms are required which are near of kin to those for Prayer For 1. We are to offer Alms to testifie our acknowledgment of whom we received and of whom we hold what we have For as by Prayer we ask God's creatures before we can enjoy them so when we have them there is another Homage due for them namely of Thanksgiving without which the use of the creature which God gives us is unclean and unlawful to us Every creature of God saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 4. 4. is good if it be received with thanksgiving not else And the same Apostle 1 Cor. 10. tells us that even those things which according to the manner of the Gentiles were offered unto Idols that is to Devils a Christian might lawfully eat so it were done with thanksgiving to the true and only God For so he should profess he eat not meat of the Devil's gift or Devil's Table but of the Lord's whose of right was the Earth and the fulness thereof Whether therefore saith he v. 31. ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do else do all to the glory of God that is give him the glory of the Lordship of his creature by your thanksgiving For to do a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the glory of God in the Apostle's meaning is that which the Iews say To do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as the Majesty and Dominion of God may be acknowledged thereby which the Scripture calls His Glory Now our Thanksgiving to God for his creature must not express it self in words only but it must be also in work and deed that is we must yield him a Rent and Tribute of what we enjoy by his favour and blessing which if we do not we lose our Tenure This Rent is twofold either that which is offered unto God for the maintenance of his Worship and Ministers or that
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is joyned themselves together and made a word which as I cannot conceive how it should be so I think it less probable And thus hitherto have you heard the diverse Opinions of the matter and manner of this Oracle of Vrim and Thummim Here is variety enough I leave to every one to make his own choice which he will believe only give me leave to add thus much in way of censure of them which is That they all seem against reason and likelihood to confound Vrim with Thummim in making them one and the same thing called by diverse names in regard of diverse effects and uses which I can the less believe because I find Vrim alone used in matter of consultation with God whereby it seems Thummim had some other use In the 27. of Num. 21. Moses commands Ioshua in all business to consult the High Priest by the judgment of Vrim before the Lord but no speech of Thummim Again 1 Sam. 28. 6. it is said that Saul asked counsel of Lord when he was to go against the Philistines but the Lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by Vrim nor by the Prophets Here also is Vrim spoken of but no word of Thummim If I may therefore speak what I think I would say That Vrim and Thummim were a twofold Oracle and for a twofold use And that Vrim was the Oracle or part of the Oracle whereby God gave answer to those who enquired of him in hard and doubtful cases therefore called Vrim or Lights because as ignorance is called darkness so is all knowledg a kind of illumination or enlightning and that which bringeth knowledg is fitly called a Light because it dispels the darkness of our minds But Thummim was that Oracle or mean whereby the High Priest knew whether God did accept the Sacrifice or no therefore called Thummim that is Integrity because those whose Sacrifice God accepted were accounted Thummim that is just and righteous in the eyes of God because their Sacrifice was a shadow of Christ's Sacrifice by acceptation whereof we are justified and made righteous before God For without doubt the Patriarchs and Legal Church had some ordinary mean to know when their Sacrifice was accepted else had they been behind the Gentiles for they had a sign to know when they did Litare that is when their false Gods accepted their false sacrifice and as the Devil was God's Ape in giving Oracles so I verily believe he was in this also Nay Iosephus expresly affirms it of the Iews though for the particular I suppose he is mistaken For he saith that whensoever God did accept the Sacrifice the Onyx-stone on the Priests left shoulder shone with an admirable splendor but this saith he ceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two hundred years before his time And no wonder for when the Sun of righteousness drew near unto his rising those dimmer Vrim and smaller stars must needs lose their light Now that which Iosephus affirms of the Onyx-stone on the left shoulder I suppose was mistaken for the Thummim on the left part of the Breast-plate And lastly as I said before of Vrim so I think of Thummim That it was in use among the Patriarchs of old and that by some such means as this Abel knew that God accepted his Offering and Cain that his was refused And thus much of Vrim and Thummim considered Personally in the High Priest now I come to consider it Typically for as the High Priest himself was a Type of Christ so must these Adjuncts of his also be Types of something in Christ. Which we shall not be long a finding out if we remember again the signification of the words and the use of the things themselves Vrim is Light and Illumination Thummim Integrity and Perfection By Vrim the Iews were ascertained of the counsel and will of God by Thummim of his favour and good will towards them All this agrees to Christ both in himself and in regard of us In himself His Breast is full of Vrim full of Light and Understanding In him are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg as S. Paul saith He is the Wisdom of the Father by which the world it self was made His heart is also endowed with Thummim with all kind of Perfections He was conceived without Original sin lived without Actual sin fulfilled the whole Law of God which is the Law of Thummim the Law of all Perfection Thus to Christ himself agrees both Vrim and Thummim and so it doth also in regard of us for he is an Vrim and Thummim both to us and for us To us he is Vrim a Light which enlightneth every one which cometh into the world He is the Light which shone in darkness but the darkness could not comprehend it He was that Light by which the people as it is said in Matthew 4. 16. which sat in darkness saw great light And of this Light Iohn came to bear witness that all might believe in him Iohn 1. 7. In sum Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patris the Word and Oracle of his Father by whom we know and learn the Father's will for so S. Iohn saith ch 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealed him unto us Neither is Christ only an Vrim but also a Thummim to us For as by Thummim the Iews were ascertained of God's favour toward them in accepting their Sacrifice so by Christ coming in the flesh is revealed the unspeakable Mercy of God to Mankind in that he would accept his Sacrifice once offered for the expiation of the sins of the whole world This is that Good-will toward men which the Angels sung of as soon as he was born Glory be to God on high Peace on earth and Good-will towards men Yea Glory be to God on high for this Peace on earth and for this Good-will towards men Thus we see Christ an Vrim and Thummim to us now let us see how he is the same for us and that is when his Wisdom and Righteousness is made ours by imputation So his Vrim becomes our Vrim his Thummim our Thummim that is his wisdom is made ours his righteousness and favour with God made ours for This is my well-beloved Son said a Voice from Heaven in whom I am well pleased In brief S. Paul comprehends both these together where he saith Christ Iesus is made unto us Wisdom Sanctification and Redemption And so Lord Let thy Vrim and thy Thummim be with thy Holy One. AND thus much for the special consideration of this Vrim and Thummim both Personally and Typically Now I come unto the general meaning thereof as it concerns not the High Priest only but the whole Tribe of Levi for this is the Blessing of that whole Tribe And in this large respect the meaning cannot
unruly and obvious to be surprised for such things we are wont to keep and so much therefore is implied in that they are to be kept else they needed no keeping This is therefore the condition of our Hearts 1. They are untrusty The heart is deceitful above all things Ier. 17. 9. Therefore it stands in hand to watch it to suspect it and deal with it as we would with a notable Iugler or with an untrusty and pilfering servant to have a jealous and a watchful eye over it For if our eye be never so little off it will presently break out into some unlawful liberty or other 2. It is an unruly thing if it be once lost a man cannot recover it again without much time and labour For it is like unto a wild horse if the bridle be once let go he will be gone and not gotten again in haste yea it may be we shall be forced to spend as much time in recovering him as would have served to have dispatched our whole journey So if the bridle of watchfulness be once let go and our Hearts get loose they will not easily be regained it will ask us no small time to temper and tune them again for the service of God Lastly our hearts are continually liable to surprise we walk in the midst of snares encompassed with dangers on every side What is that almost which will not entice and allure so fickle a thing as the Heart from God We can be secure of it at no time neither sleeping nor waking in no place neither house not street neither bed nor board not in our Closet no not in the Church and Pulpit THUS much shall suffice to have been briefly observed by way of implication from the Act Keep Now I come to the Object it self The Heart Keep thy Heart By Heart we must understand the inward thoughts motions and afâ—ections of the Soul and Spirit whereof the Heart is the Chamber But not a natural man's Heart for that is not worth a keeping but such a Heart as lives to God-ward a good and gracious heart which consists in two properties in Purity and Loyâ—lty This is the state and temper we must keep our Hearts in I will speak of them in order And first of Purity and Cleanness We must keep our Hearts in Purity and Cleanness For Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God and none but such shall ever see him It behoves us therefore to know what this Cleanness is the having or not having whereof concerns us so nearly Know then A clean or pure Heart is that which loaths sin and loves righteousness For the better understanding whereof we must further know That an absolute cleanness and pureness of the heart and soul from sin is not attainable in this life Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Yet is there a cleanness of heart which must be had and without which we shall never see God as you heard before Such was that which David prays for Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me And 2 Tim. 2. 22. true Christians are described to be such as call upon the Lord out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. 5. The end of the Commandment saith the Apostle is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned And himself 2 Tim. 1. 3. thanks God whom he served from his forefathers with a pure conscience But if this Purity of the heart were no other than a total freedom thereof from all unclean thoughts and sinful motions and desires in such sort as a man should never be troubled and defiled with them alas who then should see God who should be saved That Claenness therefore that measure of Purity which God requires to be in the heart of every one who shall see him and with whom he will vouchsafe to dwell is as I told you the loathing of sin and the love of righteousness that is an accepted Cleanness through Faith when the hate of impurity and love of cleanness in the heart is accepted with God for cleanness and pureness it self Though not a cleanness of all our affections yet at least and what can God require less an affection to all cleanness For God accepts the will for the deed If we love if we desire if we delight heartily in that which is clean and pure in the eyes of God if we hate and abhor if we loath in our selves all sinful impurities and pollutions both of flesh and spirit howsoever we find in our selves a great want of the one and our hearts much and often vexed and troubled with the other yet is this affection of our hearts accepted with God for a pure and cleansed heart indeed And where this disposition is the heart cannot chuse but grow cleaner and cleaner even with real and formal cleanness For a man cannot but cherish that which he loveth and rid himself as much as may be of what he loatheth So he that loveth and affecteth cleanness of heart will cherish and make much of every good motion which the Spirit of God shall put into it and if he indeed loath and abhor unclean and sinful thoughts will do his best to stifle them and remove them far from him This Cleanness and Purity of Heart is that which the Scripture slyleth Holiness even that Holiness without which S. Paul tells us Heb. 12. 14. no man shall see the Lord. For in the Law the legal cleansing washing and purging of that which any way belonged to God or was prepared for his presence and service is called sanctifying or hallowing Exod. 19. 10. When the Lord was to come down upon Mount Sinai Go unto the People saith he to Moses and sanctifie them to day and to morrow and let them wash their clothes 2 Chron. 29. 5. Hezekiah saith to the Levites Sanctifie now your selves and sanctifie the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place And accordingly in the 16. ver the Priests go in to cleanse it which cleansing in the next verse is called their sanctifying it In Deut. 23. 14. where a law is given for cleanness and neatness in the Camp the reason is rendred in these words For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the Camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee therefore shall thy Camp be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee The same expression S. Paul applies to spiritual cleansing 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us saith he cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Here with S. Paul also Holiness is Cleansing and Cleansing is Holiness So Eph. 5. 26. That he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. As therefore under the Law that
place was not fit to entertain the presence of God nor any thing duly prepared to approach or come near him which was not thus externally cleansed and sanctified Such is the case of the inward cleansing of the heart unless it be sanctified with purity and cleanness God will never dwell in it nor suffer ought from it as acceptable to come near him Wherefore it is not without good reason we pray in our Liturgie O Lord make clean our hearts within us And take not thy holy Spirit from us For God's Spirit will not dwell in a sty it is a clean Spirit and will have a clean habitation That which S. Paul speaks of the whole man 2 Cor. 6. 16 17. Ye are the Temple of the living God wherefore touch no unclean thing and I will receive you is principally true of the heart and spirit The rest of the Body is but as the Court of the Temple but the Seat of his presence in the spiritual man as the Holy place is the Heart even as it is also the Seat of life in the natural primum vivens ultimum moriens the first that lives and the last that dies But by what means should a man get and keep such a Heart as this How is this Holiness and Cleanness of heart to be come by I answer The General means on our part to obtain this and all other Graces of God is faithful and devout Prayer But this being common to all Graces is not proper to be spoken of in this place Let us therefore see a means more special and peculiar for obtaining this Cleanness and Purity of heart such a one as though it may have some use for other Graces yet I think is more proper unto this than unto any other whatsoever and that is For a man always to possess his heart with the apprehension of God's presence and to walk before him as in his eye Wheresoever thou art there is an Eye that sees thee an Ear that hears thee and a Hand that registreth thy most secret thoughts For the ways of man saith Solomon Prov. 5. 21. are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings How much ashamed would we be that any one we loved and honoured should surprise us in our corporal uncleanness to see and behold any nasty pollution either of our bodies or chambers How would a man blush and be confounded to be taken and seen in the manner as we speak But every unclean thought wicked desire and motion of our heart is more open and revealed to the eyes of God than the works themselves if we should put them in execution could be visible to the eyes of men Yea and these thoughts and desires wherewith our hearts are besmeared are as foul ugly and loathsom in his sight as the works themselves would appear shameful in the eyes of men if we should commit them openly in the street and in the fight of the Sun Nay suppose that men could see our hearts as well as they may our out-works would we not be as much ashamed they should behold the foulness of the one as see the shamefulness of the other Consider it What if such a Patron such a Friend such a one to whom I desire to approve my self should know what I now ruminate in my heart what unchast pollution what other abhorred desire and thought it now wallows and delights in should I not blush and be ashamed What horrible Atheism doth this argue That the presence of man yea sometimes of a little child should hinder us from that wickedness which God's presence cannot If we did throughly and indeed believe this Ubiquity of God's Eye and let it make a firm impression in our minds how would it quash the first rising of evil thoughts in our hearts The eye of man draws from us a care of our outward behaviour why then should not the All-seeing Eye of God if we loved him if we honoured him if we desired at all to approve our selves unto him draw from us a care of the inward behaviour of the Heart since he sees thy Heart better than man sees thy Face and understands thy Thoughts better than any man thy Works and Words Little children when in the midst of their disorders they spie once their Father's eye they are hushed presently So should it be with us when through forgetfulness of this All-seeing Eye of our Heavenly Father continually overlooking us our Hearts begin to break loose and to sport themselves in vain and idle thoughts and desires then should we consider that all this while God looked upon us and beheld our misbehaviour then should we cry him mercy with Iacob at Bethel Surely God was here and I was not aware And thus I come to the second requisite of that gracious Temper a good Heart must be kept unto which is Loyalty unto God We must keep a loyal heart The Loyalty of the heart to God consisteth in an universal purpose of obedience and resolution against all sin without Reservation and Exception Sceptra non ferunt socium Kings can endure no copartners Nor can a purpose of obedience mingled with Exceptions and Reservations stand with a true faith and allegiance to Christ our Lord. In anima in qua peccatum regnaverit non potest Dei regnare regnum saith S. Ierome In the Soul where sin reigns and has got dominion God's Kingdom can never be set up nor established For how can he be a faithful servant of Christ who still holdeth correspondence with and is a Pensioner to his Arch-enemy the Devil Even such an one is he who hath any sin which he holds so dear that he hath no purpose nor will to part with it What will it profit thee to keep thy Heart at all unless thou keepest it loyal Will God accept a piece of thy Heart No he will have a whole Heart and a whole Soul or none Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and whole mind otherwise thou keepest not thy heart to God but betrayest it unto the Devil For one breach in the walls of a City exposeth it to the surprise of an enemy one leak in a Sâ—â—p neglected will sink it at last unto the bottom of the Sea 1. If thou wilt therefore have a Loyal heart know that such a heart cherisheth no darling sin no Herodias no boâ—om-sin such a dead fly as this will mar the whole box of oyntment 2. A Sound and Loyal heart is not that which boggles and scruples at small sins but makes no conscience of greater like the I harisees straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel nor the contrary whose conscience is only for the greater matters of the Law Mercy and Iudgment without any regard of Mint or Anise A Loyal heart is like unto the Eye troubled with the least mote 3. A Loyal heart as it hates all sins so at all times Sometimes the unsound heart will hate sin
when there is no benefit by it but if it chance to be once beneficial to our selves then we love it Here is the trial of a Loyal heart to God to prefer vertue before vice then when in humane reason vertue shall be the loser vice the gainer This note discovered Iehu who destroyed the worship of Baal with a great shew of zeal but when it came to Ieroboam's Calves he dispensed with them lest it might prove dangerous to his Kingdom if the Israelites should go worship at Ierusalem 4. To conclude A Loyal heart is that which the Scripture calls in the old Testament A perfect heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not perfect in respect of degrees for such a perfection is not attainable in this life but perfect in respect of parts Cor integrum a heart wherein no part is wholly wanting howsoever weak and a great deal short of due proportion 1 Kings 11. 4. when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other Gods and his heart was not perfect with his God as was the Heart of David his Father not because he served not the Lord at all but that he served him not only and intirely Ioshua 24. 14. Now therefore saith he fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in perfectness and truth and put away the Gods which your Fathers served which was as much as to say Serve the Lord wholly and quite renounce all service to others 2 Kings 20. 3. Hezekiah prayes in his sickness Lord I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight He saith not he had done perfect Actions or performed perfect service for who can do such but yet that he walked with a perfect heart that is with a loyal heart before God So 1 Kings 15. 14. it is said That though Asa failed in his Reformation and the high places were not removed nevertheless his heart was perfect that is loyal with the Lord all his dayes THUS much shall suffice to have spoken of the Act Keep and of the Heart the Object of our keeping which are the two first things I considered in this Admonition The Third remains which is the Manner or Means how our heart is to be kept viz. with all diligence or above all keeping saith the Text that is with the best the surest the chiefest kind of keeping which is not only now and then to look unto it but to set a continual guard about it Nature hath placed the Heart in the most fenced part of the body having the Breast as a natural Corslet to defend it If the Heart be in fear or danger all the bloud and spirits in the body will forsake the outward parts and run to preserve and succour it If Nature be so provident for that which is but the Fountain of a natural life what care should the spiritual man have to keep his heart and soul guarded and fortified against all annoiances spiritual The life we lose if this be wounded or poisoned is inestimable the other of Nature is of no great value Yea but perhaps a natural man's heart is liable to more natural dangers than the heart of a man that lives to God-ward is to spiritual annoiances I answer The contrary is true For the Heart we speak of whence the Issues of the life of grace proceed is like a City every moment liable both to inward commotion and outward assault Within the fountain of original Impurity is continually more or less bubbling with rebellion Without the World and the Devil continually either assault it or lye in Ambuscado to surprise it The world batters it with three great and dangerous Engines of Pleasures Riches and Honours wherewith she endeavoureth to lay it waste and rob it of all heavenly treasure The Devil watcheth every opportunity to hurl in his fiery darts to cast all into a combustion and thereby farther to invenome and enrage the already-too-much impoisoned vitiousness and impetuousness of our corrupt nature How needful a thing is it therefore to follow this precept of Solomon to keep our hearts with all diligence or above all keeping to keep them with a continual guard to keep a continual watch and ward left the enemies surprise them Watch and pray saith our Saviour Matt. 26. 41. that ye enter not into temptation Watch in all things saith S. Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. 4. 5. Be sober be vigilant saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 5. 8. because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour If the heart be to be kept with all diligence or above the keeping of any thing else then is this Watch we hear commanded and this Guard of Prayer and this is a strong Guard to be chiefly and above all applied unto it But for a more particular direction of this guarding of the Heart we must be careful to observe this order following 1. As those who keep a City attempted or besieged by an Enemy have special care of the Gates and Posterns whereat the Enemie may get in So must we in this Guard of the Heart watch especially over the Gates and Windows of the Soul the Senses and above all the Eye and the Ear whereat the Devil is wont to convey the most of those pollutions wherewith the Heart is wasted First concerning the Eye David's example may warn the holiest men to the world's end to keep a watchful jealousie over it What a number of Cut-throats did one idle glance upon Bathsheba let in who made that Royal Heart whose uprightness God so much approved to become a sty of uncleanness and robbed it of those heavenly ornaments wherewith it was so plentifully adorned For the Ear take heed of obscene and wanton talk which by those Doors or Windows entring like Balls of Wild-fire inflame the Heart with lust We must beware also of the slanderer's mouth and backbiters tongue whose lying reports and malicious tales if they get in would sow in thine heart the seeds of heart-burning spight and mental murther which in that sinful soil will fructifie very rankly And think them no small sins which make thee guilty of innocent bloud for thine heart and tongue may kill thy brother as well as thy hand 2. As those who keep and defend a City make much of such as are faithful trusty and serviceable and if any such come will entertain and welcom them with much kindness but a Traitor or one of the enemie's party they presently cut short as soon as they discover him So must we make exceedingly much of all good motions put into our hearts by God's Spirit howsoever occasioned whether by the Word of God mindfulness of death good Admonition some special cross or extraordinary mercy any way at any time These are our Hearts friends we must cherish encrease and improve them to the
utmost with meditation prayer and practice But on the contrary we must resist and crush every exorbitant thought which draws to sin at the first rising Tutissimum est It is most safe saith S. Austin Epist. 142. for the Soul to accustom it self to discern of its thoughts ad primum animi motum vel probare vel reprobare quid cogitat ut vel bonas cognationes alat vel statim extinguat malas and at the first motion thereof either to approve or else to disallow what the Mind is thinking of and so either to cherish and improve the thoughts and motions of the Mind if goodâ— or presently to extinguish them if evil 3. Lastly Let him that will indeed guard his Heart as it should be take heed of familiar and friendly converse with lewd prophane and ungracious company There is a strange attraction in ill company to poison and pervert even the best dispositions He that toucheth pitch saith the Son of Sirach shall be defiled therewith Can a man take fire in his bosom saith Solomen and his clothes not be burnt For believe it when a man is accustomed once and wonted to behold lewd and ungodly behaviour there steals upon him insensibly first a dislike of sober courses next a pleasing approbation of the contrary and so presently an habitual change of affections and demeanour into the manners and conditions of our companions It is a point that many will not believe but few or none did ever try but to their cost It was wise counsel had it not been in a sinful business which Ieroboam advised If this people saith he go up to sacrifice at Ierusalem then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord even to Rehoboam king of Iudah and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Iudah O that some men would be as wise for their good as he was for his sin THUS I have done with the first part of my Text The Admonition Keep thy heart with all diligence or above all keeping Now I proceed to the Motive For out of it are the issues of life that is All spiritual life and living actions issue from thence All living devotion all living service and worship of God issues from the Heart from those cleansed and loyal affections and dispositions of the Soul and inward man whereof I spake before Where such a Heart is not the Fountain there no action to God-ward liveth but is spiritually dead how gay and glorious soever it may outwardly seem No outward performance whatsoever be it never so conformable and like unto a godly man's action yet if it be not rooted in the Heart inwardly sanctified it is no issue of spiritual life nor acceptable with God Even as Statues and Puppets do move their eyes their hands their feet like unto living men yet are they not living actions because they come not from an inward Soul the fountain of life but from the artificial poise of weights and device of wheels set by the workman So is it here with heartless actions they are like the actions of true Christians but not Christian actions because they issue not from a Heart sanctified with purity and loyalty in the presence of God who tries the heart and reins but from the poise of vain-glory from the wheels of some external respects and advantages from a rotten heart which wrought not for the love of God but for the praise of men As therefore we judge of the state of natural life by the Pulse and beating of the Heart so must we do of spiritual No member of the body performs any action of natural life wherein a Pulse derived from the Heart beats not So is it in the spiritual man and the actions of Grace That lives not which some gracious and affectionate influence from the Heart quickens not Now this Issuing of our works and actions from the Heart is that which is called Sincerity and Truth so much commended unto us in Scripture For this Sincerity and Truth which is said to be in the works and actions of all such as fear and serve the Lord with acceptance is nothing else but an agreement of the outward work seen of men with the inward and sutable affection and meaning of the heart which God and our selves alone are privie to For as our words and speeches have truth in them when we speak as we think so our works and actions are done in sincerity and truth when they are done according to our heart's affection Sincerity therefore and Truth is the life of all our works of devotion and obedience unto God without this they are nothing but a carkase they are dead they live not neither doth God accept them For he desireth truth in the inward parts Psal. 51. 6. that is truth which proceedeth or issueth from the inward parts The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him that call upon him in truth Psal. 145. 18. For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Iohn 4. 24. Whatsoever ye do saith S. Paul Col. 3. 23. do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men Our faith must be unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. that is in truth and in sincerity Also our Love must not be in speech and tongue only but in deed and truth 1 Iohn 3. 18. And this is the highest Perfection attainable in this life for which God accepteth of our obedience as perfect which springeth from it though it be stained with much corruption and full of imperfection That which is wanting in the measure of obedience and holiness is made up in the truth and sincerity thereof If it have not this whatsoever it be it is good for nothing because it wants the Issue of life And such Actions are all the Actions of Hypocrites For Hypocrisie is the contrary to Sincerity and wheresoever Sincerity and Truth is not there Hypocrisie is being nothing else but a counterfeiting and falsehood of our actions when they come not from a Heart sutably affected and therefore is otherwise in Scripture understood by the name of Guile when those who serve God in sincerity and truth are said to be without guile that is without hypocrisie So Nathanael Iohn 1. 47. is called an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile And of the Virgin-Saints Rev. 14. 5. it is said that in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God that is they served God without hypocrisie in sincerity and truth and therefore God accepted of their obedience as if it were without fault and imperfection as he is wont to do the works of those who serve him in that manner If therefore Sincerity be the life of our obedience and that which makes it graceful in the eyes of God then is Hypocrisie the death thereof which makes him loath and abhor it as a stinking carkase Hitherto have I
spiritually considered his way or walking should be the outward actions of his life which are or may be seen of others And as in the natural man his moving to or fro is the execution of the hidden intendments of his Fancy So in a man spiritually considered To walk is to put in execution outwardly what the Heart conceives inwardly I will not deny but this phrase of walking or treading out a way is in Scripture sometimes taken more largely for the whole course of our Life whatsoever but here the Antithesis of the words following viz. evil thoughts do manifestly imply that the former viz. a wicked man's way is to be taken for an evil Conversation in the sense I have spoken So also in Psal. 1. 1. Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly the collation of walking with ungodly counsel may warrant the like expression that the counsel of the ungodly should signifie evil thoughts and purposes walking in these counsels the practice and execution of them Moreover if I did delight in such subtilties I might confirm this Exposition by the word here used for a wicked man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a laborious sinner a practitioner in sin the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to make a stir to be exceeding busie unquiet or troublesome whence some do expound that Eccles. 7. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not too wicked for Be not too busie or too stirring Keep not too great a coile namely in things of this world Semblably here Let the wicked man forsake his way is Let him that bestirs himself in the execution of sinful counsels leave his busie practice and in the next place he that hath but evil thoughts or bad desires purge his heart of them also Let the man who walks wickedly in his outward conversation forsake his evil way this is the first step of a Convert But more than this Let him that hath but an evil heart though his actions were outwardly blameless banish even all his evil thoughts and cogitations and this is the second degree of a sinner's conversion This Exposition therefore being taken for a ground now I come to the Observations I collect from thence The first Observation I gather is common to both these degrees of a sinner's conversion and that is from the word forsake For to forsake is an Emphatical word To forsake sin is more than a bare refraining from sin or a withdrawing a mans self from doing wickedness To forsake sin is to give over all acquaintance all dealing with sin or to foregoe it altogether For a man that refrains a friend's company is not by and by said to forsake him no more can he that only refrains from sin be said to forsake it Hence therefore we learn That whosoever retains any one darling sin is no forsaker of sin though he refrain from all other for this is not to break off all acquaintance with sin but rather to make choice of his sin to chuse what sin he will use and what sin he will refuse Thus did Herod in the Gospel he reformed many things at the preaching of Iohn Baptist but still he kept Herodias his brother Philip's wife Mark 6. 19 20. But we must know that he that keeps any one sin hath forsaken none so saith S. Iames chap. 2. vers 10. He that offends in one point he is guilty of all God must have our whole heart or none he will not be served by halfs For that were to say as David said to Mephibosheth 2 Sam. 19. 29. concerning his lands Thou and Ziba divide the lands so we God and the Devil his slave divide our hearts between them What will it profit to guard never so strongly all the other parts of a City walls if any one part be left open for the enemy to enter or what is a Ship the safer though all other parts be strong and sound if but one leaking hole be unstopped will not this sink the whole Ship be it never so sound Even just so will it be with us if we leave any one place in our Soul for any one sin to enter Do we not know that a little crack in one place of a Bell marrs the sound as well as if it were clean through So will any one crack of sin marr the musick of our Souls in the ears of Almighty Do we not know that the laying but a finger upon the edge of a thing which giveth sound damps the sound as well as the whole hand Even so is the Devil lay but his finger upon our heart he damps all our actions of devotion and makes them give but a dead sound in the hearing of the Lord of Heaven How true this is I appeal unto every man's conscience who hears me this day whether he finds not in his own experience that the cherishing of any one Sin makes him dead-hearted toward God dull and heavie in all works of devotion THUS much of this general Observation Now I come to several Observations I gather from the several parts The first whereof was as you may remember The forsaking of wicked ways which I expounded in this place The forsaking of sin in our outward walkings and conversation before men If this therefore be the First degree of Conversion then may we learn That those who want this have not gone the first step of a new life Indeed in the eyes of God who sees that which no body else can see no man appeareth blameless or free from sin But that those who are entred the way of a new and holy life should walk so that men may not accuse them of open crimes this I say is required of every true Convert So it is said of Zachary and Elizabeth Luke 1. 6. that they walked in the Commandments of God blameless yea even many Heathen men have come thus far that men could not accuse them and yet they perished everlastingly Let no man therefore deceive or flatter himself Those who fall into open and grievous sins are not yet in the state of a true convert sinner If any man saith S. Iames 1. 26. seem to be religious and bridles not his tongue he deceiveth his own heart his religion is vain What S. Iames saith of wicked speakers may be said of open wicked doers if any man who is a drunkard an extortioner or falls into such open sins if he seem religious he deceiveth his own heart his Religion is in vain Remember therefore what Christ saith in the Gospel and let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorifie your Father which is in heaven Secondly If a Reformed conversation before men be required of every true Convert then are they deceived who think it sufficient if they keep their hearts to God though they apply their outward and bodily actions unto mens liking No matter they think what their
speeches and gesture and their outward seeming be so that in their hearts they condemn and abhor such sinful actions as outwardly they seem to approve This is the opinion of too-too many But let us hear what our Saviour Christ saith He that denieth me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven Would any man excuse his wife's adultery though she should say never so often she kept her heart and love only unto him No more will Christ excuse us when we yield our outward man to wickedness though we say we keep our hearts intire to him Christ suffered not only in Soul but also in Body that he might redeem us both Body and Soul from everlasting destruction and shall not we glorifie him with both Yes verily and since God hath given us both a Body and a Soul it becomes us as S. Paul saith 2 Cor. 7. 1. to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God THUS having spoken sufficiently of the first degree of Repentance I come unto the second which is contained in these words Forsaking of evil thoughts Whence first I observe That Concupiscence or the evil dispositions or motions of our hearts are sins before God though we never consent to put them in execution For this is the style of the holy Ghost in my Text not only to call the bad liver a wicked man but the owner too of evil motions unrighteous If we seek for a Law whereof they are a breach it is the last Commandment of the Decalogue which prohibits all irregularity of our desires and thoughts whatsoever Non concupisces Thou shalt not so much as covet any thing amiss if thou dost it will be sin The natural man could not know thus much S. Paul himself confessing that he had never known concupiscence to be sin had not the Law said Non concupisces Thou shalt not covet Concupiscence he calls not the Faculty or nature of the Act it self but the Anomaly of the Act not the desire only but every motion of the heart not agreeable to the will of God and that from the Style of this Commandment Non concupisces If any shall say that the inward motions of our Mind are involuntary and past the command of the Will and therefore not sinful I answer Ab initio non suit sic It was not so from the beginning we procured this evil unto our selves in the sin of our first parents and therefore the fault is our own Secondly It is not necessary that whatsoever is sin should be under the mastery of our Will for so original sin should be none But this is necessary that all should in some sort belong unto the Will and so do our desires affections and all other motions as we call them of the Mind If any shall further add that the Apostle Iames 1. 15. saith of Concupiscence that it bringeth forth sin and therefore it self not like to be sin the Cause being always diverse from the Effect I answer The Apostle saith not it is the cause of sin simply or all sin but only of outward sins or sins of fact and howsoever this reason is so far from proving Concupiscence not to be sin that it argueth the mere contrary for that so bad an off-spring as sin cannot find a more natural parent than sin it self The serious consideration hereof should be a cooling to the pride of our nature and a strong motive to Humility in the esteeming of our selves and our best actions Alas what are we that any good work we do should make us so highly conceit of our selves Let us examine our inward thoughts our hopes our fears our by-respects our vain-glory the whole Regiment of Concupiscence and it will make us even ashamed to think what we have done howsoever that which is seen outwardly be blameless and glorious in the eyes of men If the Peacocks-wings of a laudable work or the gay feathers of seeming worth do make thee swell do but cast thine eyes a little upon the legs whereon thou standest upon the rotten post whereon thou hast reared thy work so glorious without and then thou wilt cast down thy high looks and cry with S. Paul Rom. 7. 18. Lord whatsoever men see without me I know there dwelleth no good thing within me The second thing I observe from hence is The Priviledg the Law of God hath above the Laws of men It is true in the Laws of men that Thoughts are free but with God's Law it is not so Mens Laws are not broken though only the outward man observe and keep them but God's Laws are broken if the inward man alone transgress them be the outward man I mean man in outward conversation never so conformable And this is our meaning when we say That the Law of God only doth bind the Conscience meaning the inward actions of the soul and spirit those actions which only God and our Conscience are privy unto But the Laws of men do bind only the outward man that is to the performance of outward actions which men either do or may take notice of Which that we may the better understand we must know that Laws are said to bind in two regards 1. in commanding the doing of some actions which else were at our choice and 2. in making liable to an agreeable punishment if they be transgressed Now whosoever commandeth must be Lord of what he commandeth whosoever maketh liable to punishment must both be able to take notice of the fault and of power to inflict the punishment Seeing then God alone is Lord of the soul and spirit he alone can bind them by Commandment Seeing God alone can take notice of the sins of the heart and is only able to inflict the punishment namely everlasting death and damnation the proper punishment which the conscience feareth he alone may command upon pain of eternal damnation Man's Law therefore in this sense which I have spoken binds not the Conscience or inward man because no man is Lord of anothers conscience nor can take notice of the actions thereof nor yet hath in his power to inflict the punishment which it only feareth In one word conceive it thus The actions whereunto the Conscience alone is privie are not the object of the Laws of man but only such actions as fall within the notice of men And yet this is also true Though the Laws of men do not bind the Conscience yet a man is bound in Conscience to obey the Laws of men but this bond is from the Law of God which commands us to use sutable affections in obeying the Laws of men Obey every ordinance of men not for fear of punishment but for conscience sake If now we did truly acknowledge this Prerogative of the Laws of God we would witness the same by our extraordinary care in keeping them in an extraordinary fear of breaking them But what do we even
the clean contrary we fear man more than God those that can but kill the body above him that hath power to cast both body and soul into hell-fire Who would not be loth to break a King's laws in a King's sight and yet for God's Laws who fears though our most secret thoughts be always in his sight In the outward work which men see we are careful to restrain our hands and tongues from slipping lest man's Law might take hold of us but the thoughts of our heart we with all security let run at random and never once curb them What is this but to account the Laws of God as cobwebs the Laws of men as chains of Iron or openly to profess that of men we have some little fear where they command with God but where God commands alone no fear at all Even as those wicked ones whereof David speaks in the 94. Psalm v. 7. who say The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Iacob regard it But he that planted the ear saith David v. 9 10 11. shall he not hear he that formed the eye shall he not see He that teacheth man knowledg shall he not know yes The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man c. Who then art thou to use the words of Esay that art afraid of man who shall die and of the son of man who shall be as the grass and forgettest the Lord who made thee who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth The last thing I mean to observe from these two first degrees of a sinner's conversion is Wherein the life of a true Convert doth exceed the works both of the heathen and the hypocrite Glorious things are spoken of Aristides of Scipio of Socrates But their best works are but like unto counterfeit coin the outside glistering with gold but the inside lead or worse metall their hands their feet their walk like the Gate of an Israelite but their heart was uncircumcised like the heart of a Philistine for they wanted the purity of the heart seasoned with the love of God they wanted these cleansed thoughts these holy affections and therefore were their best works no better than glorious sins Even as statues and puppets do move their eyes their hands their feet like unto living men and yet they are not living actions because they come not from an inward soul the Fountain of life but from the artificial poise of weights and wheels set by the workman Even such were the vertues of the heathens very puppet-plays like unto the actions of Christian men but not Christian actions because they came not from a pure heart which gives life unto a Christian but from the poise of vain-glory from the wheels of corrupt affections from a rotten heart which wrought not for the love of God but for the praise of men â— And no better are the works of Hypocrites â—ay worse for they knew not that the heart was to be cleansed or how it should be cleansed but these know that God requires the heart and yet their works are nothing but shews unto men Such were the Pharisees of whom Christ saith Matth. 23. 27 28. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye are like unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead mens bones and of all uncleanness Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of hypocrisie and iniquity and v. 25. ye make clean the outside of the Cup and platter but within ye are full of extortion and excess But if we are loth as who would not to share our portion with the Gentiles or to have our lot fall with the Hypocrites let our righteousness then exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees let us remember that God challenges the heart and inward man as his peculiar due Let us not therefore only forsake the walk and external gate of wickedness but even bad thoughts and evil motions with all the occasions of them Let us I say with Solomon Prov. 4. 23. Keep our heart above all keeping for out of it are the issues of life But the joy of the hypocrite saith Zophar Iob 20. 5. is but for a moment v. 6. Though his excellency mount up unto the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds v. 7. Yet shall he perish for ever like his own dung Having spoken of the two first degrees of Repentance I come now to the third which is Returning unto God It is not enough to forsake the works of wickedness or the heart to forgoe the thoughts of unrighteousness but this is more required of a sinner than he should return unto the Lord. He that hath gone out of his way and knows it will not only make a stop and go no farther in the wrong way but if he means to arrive at the place he desireth will seek the new and right way and follow it for he that standeth still will never come at his journies end Even so must every sinner do in his journey of Repentance The putting off the old man we heard before now come we to the putting on of the new In the two former steps we had eschewing of evil in this we have doing of good and without this the other is altogether vain That tree is not called a good tree which bringeth forth no ill fruit but that is a good Tree which bringeth forth good fruit and Every Tree that bringeth forth no fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire But for the better understanding of this we will consider two things proper to a man that returneth 1. To go away clean contrary to the way he went before 2. To out-tread and obliterate his former steps Both of these every one must perform who truly returns unto God by Repentance First I say He must go a way clean contrary to his former way Many men think that the way to Hell is but a little out of the way to Heaven so that a man in a small time with small ado may cross out of the one into the other but they are much deceived For as Sin is more than a stepping aside viz. a plain and direct going away from God so is Repentance or the forsaking of sin more than a little coasting out of one way into another crossing will not serve there is no way in the world to come to the place we seek but to go quite back again the way we came The way of pleasure in sin must be changed for as extreme a sorrow for the same He that hath superstitiously worshipped false Gods must now as devoutly serve the true the tongue that hath uttered swearings and spoken blasphemies must as plentifully sound forth the name of God in prayer and thanksgiving the covetous man must become liberal the oppressor of the poor as charitable in relieving them the calumniator of his brother a tender guarder of his
should a man take in that gain which he knows he must one day forgo as willingly as now he desireth covetously when he might thus say with himself The time must come that I must wish from the bottom of my heart that this I now do had never been done if ever I mean to find mercy at the hands of God The time must one day come that I must restore all this I have thus unlawfully gotten yea make recompence besides for the injury I have done or else woe worth the time that ever I was born and cursed be the night wherein I was conceived If men would consider this Alas I shall never say unto God on my death-bed I repent from the bottom of my heart if I bequeath one joâ— of this I have thus gotten I shall never say unto God I wish from my soul this sin I have done were undone or if it were now to do again no motive in this world should make me do it Alas how can I say this whiles it is in some sort in my power to undo sin by restoring if I will not Surely he that had this in his mind would think it would not quit the cost to attain any of this world's goods unlawfully But let them think as they will as sure as God is true Without Restitution Repentance can never be true and without true Repentance it is impossible to be saved And thus much of this Third degree of Repentance and of the First part of my Text. I COME now to the Second which is The Condition and State he comes unto who hath done all this and that as ye hear is a State of Mercy The repentant sinner is capable of the Mercy of God to pardon and forgive his sin If the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous his thoughts The Lord will have mercy on him our God will abundantly pardon The Mercy of God is here as you see his loving-kindness unto a sinner to set him free from that evil he is liable to through sin and to restore unto him the good he hath lost thereby that is with commiseration of his misery to forgive him and restore him to that blessedness which is in the favour of God This mercy or mercifulness of God is here exprest first simply in the words The Lord will have mercy on him and secondly with a degree he will pardon abundantly Of these I will speak briefly and so make an end And first of the first If the forgiveness of our sins and the accepting of us into the everlasting favour of God be a work of Mercy then not of any Merit or deserving on our part for these two cannot stand together So saith S. Paul Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he hath saved us For if when we have done all we can we are still the subjects of pity it needs must be we are still in misery for no man shews pity or commiseration but to those that are in a pitiful case wheresoever Mercy is shewn the party aileth something But to be in case of Merit is no pitiful case what can he aile for his sin to whom Heaven is due for his merit who need not be beholden to God for his kindness but may challenge him for justice If this then be the manner of God to shew mercy unto those who deserve nothing at his hands it is our part to be like unto him We are not in actions of charity to look upon the merit but the misery the bestowing of Alms is no paying of wages or giving of rewards but an act of holy pity The like I might say of forgiving the offences of our brethren If he repent him of the injury thou are not to exact a merit of forgiveness but let thy love be as ingenuous unto thy brother as God's was free unto thee The last thing to be considered is The degree of God's mercy in delivering us from our sins It is no small favour for he pardoneth abundantly Amongst all the works of God his works of Mercy toward mankind are in surpassing measure Hence it is that he proclaims himself by this as by his principal style Exod. 34. 6. The Lord the Lord God merciful gracious long-suffering which David expounds Psal. 103. 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy S. Paul describes him Ephes. 2. 4. a God who is rich in mercy This may appear by the admirable way of our Redemption in sending his own Son from Heaven to suffer the ignominious death of the Cross for our sake Even so God loved the world saith S. Iohn that he gave his only-begotten Son for the same This may appear by his patience and long-suffering in enduring sin In the 65. chap. of this Book v. 2 3. He spreadeth out his hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good yea which provokes him to anger continually to his face Lastly It may appear by that huge proportion wherein his Mercy exceeds his Vengeance He visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those that hate him but sheweth mercy unto the thousandth generation of those who love him and keep his Commandments This may serve for our consolation in the most grievous temptation about the greatness of our sin The Lord is rich in mercy and therefore he will forgive the most grievous sin for the mercy of the Lord is greater than the sins of the whole world This Argument of comfort Moses bringeth in Deut. 4. 31. Because the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee nor destroy thee nor forget the Covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them DISCOURSE XXXIX S. MATTHEW 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven THERE are three sorts of men in the World Some which call not Christ their Lord as Turks Iews and Infidels Some which call him Lord as all Christians but not all in like manner for there are two sorts of them some which call him Lord and that is all others which both call him Lord and do the will of his Father the administration whereof is committed to him The first of these three sorts Those who do not so much as call Christ their Lord it is plain they cannot be saved for there is no other name under heaven to be saved byâ— but by the name of Christ only For the second sort Those who call Christ their Lord that is are Christians and profess to believe in Christ and hope to be saved by him and yet do no works of obedience unto God though such as these may think themselves in a good estate yet our Saviour here expresly excludes them from entring into the Kingdom of Heaven
and cast into the fire Matth. 21. 19. The fig-tree was cursed for having no fruit not for having evil fruit And the Sentence of condemnation as you heard before is to pass at that great day for not having done good works not for doing ill ones Go ye cursed for when I was hungry ye sed me not c. Matth. 25. 41 c. THUS having let you see how necessary it is for a Christian to joyn good works with his Faith in Christ I will now come to shew you How you must do them hoping I have already perswaded you that they must needs be done First therefore We must do them out of Faith in Christ that is relying upon him only for the acceptance and rewarding of them for in him alone God is well pleased with us and with what we do and therefore without saith and reliance upon him it is impossible to please God We must not think there is any worth in our works for which any such reward as God hath promised is due For alas our best works are full of imperfections and far short of what the Law requires Our reward therefore is not of merit but out of the merciful promise of God in Christ which the Apostle means when he says We are saved by grace and not by works that is It is the grace and favour of God in Christ which makes our selves acceptable and our works rewardable and not any desert in them or us Having laid this foundation The next thing required is Sincerity of heart in doing them We must do them out of the fear of God and conscience of his Commandments not out of respect of profit or fear or praise of men for such as do so are Hypocrites Not every one saith our Saviour that saith unto me Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father Now it is the will of our heavenly Father that we serve him in truth and uprightness of heart I know saith David 1 Chr. 29. 17. that thou my God triest the heart and hast pleasure in uprightness And so he said to Abraham Gen. 17. 1. I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou upright or be thou sincere This manner of serving of God Ioshua commended to the Israelites Iosh. 24. 14. Fear the Lord saith he and serve him in sincerity and truth and the Prophet Samuel 1 Sam. 12. 24. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart This sincerity uprightness and truth in God's service is when we do religious and pious duties and abstain from the contrary out of conscience to God-ward out of an heart possessed with the love and fear of God It is otherwise called in Scripture Perfectness or Perfectness of heart For it is a lame and unperfect service where the better half is wanting as the Heart is in every work of duty both to God and men And therefore it is called perfectness when both go together when conscience as the Soul enlivens the outward work as a Body And indeed this is all the perfection we can attain unto in this life To serve God in truth of heart though otherwise we come short of what we should and therefore God esteems our actions and works not according to the greatness or exactness of the performance but according to the sincerity and truth of our hearts in doing them as appears by the places I have already quoted and by that 1 Kings 15. 14. where it is said that though Asa failed in his reformation and the high places were not taken down nevertheless his heart was perfect with the Lord his God all his days A note to know such a sincerity and truth of heart by is If in our privacy when there is no witness but God and our selves we are careful then to abstain from sin as well as in the sight of men If when no body but God shall see and know it we are willing to do a good work as well as if all the world should know it He that findeth himself thus affected his Heart is true at least in some measure but so much the less by how much he findeth himself the less affected in this manner When we are in the presence and view of men we may soon be deceived in our selves and think we do that out of conscience and fear of God which indeed is but for the fear or praise of men either lest we should be damnified or impair our credit or the like But when there is none but God and us then to be afraid of sin and careful of good duties is a sign we fear God in truth and sincerity and not in hypocrisie The special and principal means to attain this sincerity and truth of heart is To possess our selves always with the apprehension of God's presence and to walk before him as in his eye Wheresoever thou art there is an Eye that sees thee an Ear that hears thee and a Hand that registreth thy most secret thoughts For the ways of man saith Solomon Prov. 5. 21. are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings How much ashamed would we be that men should know how much our hearts and our words and actions disagreed How would we blush that men should see us commit this or that sin or neglect this or that duty What horrible Atheism then doth this argue that the presence of man yea sometimes of a little child should â—â—nder us from that wickedness which God's presence cannot This having of God before our eyes and the continual meditation of his All-seeing presence would together with devout Prayer for the assistance of God's grace be in time the bane of hypocrisie and falshood of heart and beget in stead thereof that truth and sincerity which God loveth Another property of such obedience as God requires is Vniversality we must not serve God by halfs by doing some duties and omitting others but we must with David Psal. 119. 6 20. have respect to all God's Commandments to those of the second Table as well as to those of the first and to those of the first as well as those of the second The want of which Vniversality of obedience to both Tables is so frequent as the greatest part of Christians are plunged therein to the undoubted ruine of their fouls and shipwrack of everlasting life if they so continue For there are two sorts of men which think themselves in a good estate and are not The one are those who make conscience of the duties of the first Table but have little or no care of the duties of the second And this is a most dangerous evil by reason it is more hard to be discovered those which are guilty thereof being such as seem religious but their Religion is in vain Such were those in the Church of Israel against whom the Prophet Esay declaimeth Chap. 1. from the 10. verse to the 17. To what
to is That the unworthy Receivers of the Sacraments are in the number of those men with whom God is not well pleased Of unworthy Receiving and Receivers I make two the one à parte antè by undue preparation the other à parte pòst by unholy demeanour and conversation afterward The former is unworthy to approach this Table at all the other to have approached it And of both these were the Fathers in the Wilderness guilty For Manna being both their ordinary and sacred Food their unholy and lustful demeanor upon the former eating made them continually unprepared Receivers for the future And so it is with us An unholy life upon the first receiving is a great part of our unworthiness for the second yea more unworthy are we then made than we had been upon the like conversation at the beginning For to have broken so solemn a Promise to God as we bound our selves in at the first time doubles our sin and to have already abused so precious and gracious a gift which God then gave us makes us doubly unworthy ever to find the like favour any more As in Physick for the body a Preparative is required before and a good and careful diet to be observed after so is it here as also a distempered diet after Physick received will do more hurt than it would before so is it here Now because it is Sin which makes us lose the favour of God and it alone which makes him not well pleased with us that we may behold how justly God's displeasure is kindled by this unworthy Receiving let us a while consider wherein the Sin thereof consisteth which will appear 1. In the correspondence of the Receiver and the thing received It is written Deut. 22. 9 10. Thou shalt not sow thy Vineyard with diverse kinds of seeds Thou shalt not plough with an Ox and an Ass together Whereby it appears That God Almighty loves not to have things unsutable and incompatible joyned together it is an unpleasing spectacle unto him But what fellowship hath light with darkness what agreement between the holy Sacrament and a prophane heart who will put precious water into filthy vessels or wholesome wine into foul casks It is the ground of Ioshua's speech Iosh. 24. 19. to the children of Israel You cannot serve the Lord saith he for he is a holy God that is whilst you are wicked the Righteous Lord who loveth Righteousness will not accept of your services Again Almighty God hath ever required a correspondence between his holy Ordinances and those who were to be partakers of them Thus the Shew-bread was appointed only for Aaron and his Sons because they were holy the Trespass and Sin-offering must be eaten in the holy Place because it was most holy The same thing is implied by our Saviour's proverbial precept Give not that which is holy unto the Dogs And which of us all would not be offended at a Dog if we should see him devour the meat appointed for our Childrens Diet Even such in God's account and no better are wicked persons Beware of Dogs beware of Evil-workers saith S. Paul Phil. 3. 2. and Apocal. 22. 15. Without the City of God are Dogs Sorcerers Whoremongers c. Now we know Exod. 19. 13. that no Beast might touch the Mountain when the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai So none of those whom God accounts in the number of Beasts as all who have beastly affections may approch in Christ's presence or come unto his Table Wherefore as God saith Be ye holy because I am holy so may it be said unto all communicants Be ye holy because the Sacrament is holy Whence it was a worthy custome in the ancient Churches for the Bishop or Deacon to proclaim at the holy Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy things for them that are holy holding in his hand the holy Sacrament And good reason why For where this holiness is not there in stead of comfort the Heart is more and more corrupted Even as the Spider gets strength of poison from the sweetest herbs and flowers so the prophane Heart is strengthened in wickedness by receiving this holy and heavenly Food 2. The hainousness of this sin is aggravated in respect of the thing received for our Apostle elsewhere saith The unworthy receiver becomes guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ that is he is guilty of offering contumely injury and indignity unto him S. Paul when he disswades Husbands from misusing their Wives gives this for a reason No man ever yet hated his own flesh And may not I reason thus Let no man offer injury unto Christ because he is flesh of our flesh yea he is our Head and a wound or maim given to the Head is more odious and dangerous than to another part To offer violence to a common person is a fault to strike a Magistrate a greater but to wound a King who is the Lord 's Anointed is a sin in the highest degree O what a hainous sin is it then to offer violence to and as much as in us lies to strike and wound the Son of God the King of Kings and the Lord of Glory To be guilty of death and shedding of the bloud of any innocent man is a fearful sin and this made David cry out Deliver me O Lord from bloud-guiltiness How fearful is it then to be guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ Whose heart is not moved against the Iews when he hears or reads their villanies and violence offered to our Blessed Saviour But Chrysostome gives us a good Take-heed Take heed saith he lest thou be guilty in the like kind by unworthy receiving of the blessed Sacrament He that defiles the King's body and he that tears it offend both alike The Iews tore it thou defilest it Here are saith the same Father diversa peccata sed par contumelia some difference of the sin but none of the contumely therein offered Ioseph and Nicodemus their pious devotion in begging and embalming the Body of Christ is worthily recorded and commended to all generations Mary Magdalene in bestowing that box of precious oyntment upon his holy head hath gained to her self endless honour in stead of her former infamy So if receive and handle worthily this Mystical Body of Christ our portion shall be with honourable Ioseph and pious Mary Magdalene our memories shall be as theirs blessed and our Souls as theirs to receive unspeakable comfort but if we come unworthily we joyn with Iudas and the Iews and are guilty as they were of the Body and Bloud of Christ. AND thus much of the first thing I propounded The state of unworthy Receivers of these holy Mysteries that they are men in whom God hath no pleasure and therefore woful and lamentable The second thing now to be spoken of is The danger of such unworthy Receivers in regard of the Punishment which followeth them which as concerning the
22. 8. and so he did indeed I shall need gather no more Examples Let no man therefore be discouraged for fear of danger to do his duty in that calling and vocation wherein God hath set him If God hath bid thee hope thou likewiâ—e he will protect thee But if thou neglect his commandment so to avoid what thou fearest be sure then that thou fearest or a worse will come upon thee take heed thou goest not out of God's blessing into the warm Sun Let Saul's example be our warning who to prevent as he thought the scattering of the people from him and the evil which longer delay might occasion if he should stay for Samuel presumed to offer Sacrifice himself but he was called a fool for his labour and made to know at length that Obedience was better than Sacrifice And so shall every one that makes so ungodly an experience find his policy in the end plain foolery and Obedience to God's Commandment better than all the Policy in the world AND thus I come to the third thing considerable viz. The place where every Male was to appear In the place the Lord shall chuse namely in the place where the Ark and Tabernacle of God should be which at the first was at Shiloh in the Country of Samaria and Tribe of Ephraim afterwards at Ierusalem in the Tribe of Iudah where David first pitched a new Tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant after it had been taken by the Philistins and returned home again and in the same place his son Solomon built that glorious Temple which was the Beauty of the whole earth Of these two places spake the Samaritan woman in the Gospel to our Saviour Iohn 4. 20. Our Fathers said she worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship By Our Fathers she means the old Ephraimites from whom the Samaritans falsly vaunted they were descended upon which ground she likewise calls Iacob Our Father Iacob v. 12. For they were indeed the off-spring of those strange Nations which Shalmaneser transplanted into the Cities of Samaria when he had carried Ephraim and the rest of Israel captives into Assyria as we read 2 Kings 17. 24. By this Mountain she means Mount Ephraim where Shiloh was and the Ark and Tabernacle of God in ancient time had been For when Manasses the brother of Iaddus the High Priest was excommunicated and driven from the Priesthood because he had married the daughter of Sanball at the Horonite as it is in the last of Nehemiah v. 28. he with his faction to vex his own Nation procured a Temple to be built in Gerizim on Mount Ephraim whereof himself was the High Priest and to draw a company of Transgressors like himself from the Temple at Ierusalem unto this it was coloured as if this were the only place which the Lord had chosen because the Tabernacle was first pitched at Shiloh in Mount Ephraim and not at Sion on Mount Moriah and this was the bone of everlasting division and capital hatred between the Iews and Samaritans Thus we have seen where This place was first and last which the Lord had chosen Now let us further consider why it is thus called The place which the Lord shall chuse First therefore these words imply That the place for holy Assemblies was a select place For they were not to assemble in every place as occasion and opportunity served but to have a choice and select place for that purpose Secondly This place for Legal worship was to be one only place and no more and therefore here the singular number is used I say there was but one only place for Legal worship meaning Sacrifices and the Service accompanying them for otherwise they had many Synagogues for heaâ—ing the Law read and expounded Ierusalem it self had four hundred and in those the Scribes bore rule as the Priests did in the Temple But the reason why there was but one Temple and place of Sacrifice and Prayer was for a Type of that one only Mediator Iesus Christ in whom alone our sins are expiated and our prayers and thanksgivings accepted before God So that in the time of the Law to build an holy Altar or offer Sacrifices any where but here though it were unto the true God was a Typical Idolatry because it implied a multiplicity of Mediators of whose Oneness the one only place of worship and the one Altar was a sign which was the reason why it was so unlawful to sacrifice in the high places though it were unto the Lord their God And yet because it was but a ceremonial sin God did in the confused times of that Church sometimes pass by it as it were because of the hardness of their hearts as our Saviour saith in another kind But he that did dispense with an irregularity in figure because of the state of the times will never allow Idolatry in deed such as is that of the Church of Rome who fulfil the very substance of that whereof the Iewish sin was but a Type whose Mediators are so many that they are not easily numbred and though they for excuse subordinate them all to Christ as the chief and derive their Mediatorship from the virtue of his merits yet is this but like unto that of the erring Church of the Law which notwithstanding God's commandment to the contrary had a conceit that they might sacrifice in any high place so it were unto the Lord their God only The third and last thing which these words imply is That this select and only place should be of the Lord 's own chusing The place he shall chuse But how should the Lord chuse it it seems by giving some extraordinary sign of his allowance in accepting their Sacrifice or it may be they did consult him in this case by the Oracle of Vrim and Thummim For of the first place in Shiloh we have nothing expressed but only read Ioshua 18. 1. That the whole Congregation of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation there But of the second place in Mount Sion we read That the Angel of God commanded Gad to say to David that he should set up an Altar in the threshing-floor of Ornan and that when David offered thereon burnt-offerings and peace-offerings the Lord answered him from heaven by fire upon the Altar of burnt-offering and that David hereupon designed that place for the Tabernacle and future Temple saying This is the house of the Lord God and this is the Altar of the burnt-offering for Israel 1 Chron. 22. 1. Now to make some application of this to the times of the Gospel The two last circumstances of this place concern us not For that of one place was a Type and so is gone the second of God's immediate choice seems to be so also and to be a figure of that which the Angel Gabriel said to the blessed Virgin
need of Beasts for Types but Meats and Drinks for godly works are as it were Meat and Drink to preserve that life which is according to Godliness This Corban we turn the Meat-and-Drink-offerings others Munus the Gentiles called it Libum But I said This Offering was commonly adjoyned to the Zebach or Bloudy Sacrifice for sometimes it is separate from it For to this Mincha I refer the holy Incense which was within the Temple which figured that continual sweet favour and Incense of the Merits and Obedience which Christ presents unto his Father in a Temple not made with hands that is in Heaven Again both Zebach and Mincha the Bloudy Sacrifice with its Meat-and-Drink-Offering were of differing kinds and for differing Ends. For either kind was Simple or Diverse Simple I call that which all of it was most holy and the whole was to shadow out the Satisfaction of Christ. And this was either for Internal sins or for External For Internal sins that is the sins of our Hearts Thoughts and Affections was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holocaust or Burnt-offering For External sins or evil deeds were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin-offering and the Trespass-offering as we call them the one if I am not deceived for Sins against the First Table to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Trespass-offering the other for sins of the Second Table But because our Internal sins or sins of Infirmity are peccata jugia continual and daily sins therefore the Holocaust or Burnt-offering was continual and daily offered the Sin-offering and Trespass-offering were not so and yet whensoever they were offered they were offered with a Burnt-offering to shew that our Evil works cannot be expiated and made pure unless the Heart the fountain whence they spring be also purged A Diverse Sacrifice or Varium Sacrificium I call that which was not wholy most Holy neither was all of it to figure the Offering of Christ to come So that it was partly holy and partly most holy Such a one was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Peace-offering which I define A Corban part whereof was burnt upon the Altar as in other Sacrifices but the remainder and greater part was eaten by the faithful people who brought it that so their Sacrifice by being turned into their bodies nourishment might be a Sign of their incorporation into Christ to come who was the true Sacrifice for sin Here that which was eaten by the People was not most Holy for then had it belonged only to the Priest but it was a Sacrament and a Communion of that Sacrifice which was offered and signified Christ whose Bloud was to be shed and Body broken for their atonement Rightly therefore was it called a Sacrifice of Peace as being a Ceremony or Sacrament of Peace and Communion with Christ Iesus and by him with God the Father The Greeks commonly call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Eucharistical sacrifice it being to be celebrated with both oral and real Thanksgiving to God as for the same reason our Sacrament of Peace is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eucharist which our Saviour Christ hath ordained in stead of that Eucharistical Sacrifice under the Law And of this kind were the ordinary Sacrifices of the Gentiles of which the Christians were forbidden to eat because they who in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper had communion with Christ already come as the Iews in the Peach-offerings had communion with Christ who was to come might have no peace and communion with Devils as the Greeks had in their sacrifice as S. Paul after he had compared these three together concludes 1 Cor. 10. 21. Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's Table and of the Table of Devils Out of which place and the Epistle to the Hebrews you may gather all that I have said hitherto of the Vse and Ends of the Corbanim or most Holy Offerings This affinity of the Eucharistical sacrifice with the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper moved the ancient Christians to frame the Office of the Lord's Supper as near as could be unto the Office of the Eucharistical Sacrifice as might be easily shewn in most particulars BUT now will I leave The most holy Offerings and come to Those which had but a single holiness which I said before were called Terumoth or Heave-offerings more seldom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tenuphoth or Wave-offerings both from the manner of offering them which was not by Fire as in the most Holy but by holding up or shaking them before the Lord. A Terumah therefore or Heave-offering I define thus An Offering made unto God of that we have received in way of thankfulness or acknowledgement of his dominion over the whole earth or thus more shortly An Offering made only unto the praise and honour of God and therefore it is Levit. 19. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctum laudationum an holy thing of praise or an offering of praise And to this purpose are those words of David unto God 1 Chron. 29. 11 12 13 14. whenas himself and the Princes of Israel had offered an huge Terumah of Gold and Silver for the building of the Temple Thine O Lord saith he is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as Head above all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all Now therefore our God we thank and praise namely by this Heave-offering thy glorious Name For all things come of thee and of thine own hand we have given thee Now the Terumah or Heave-offering was either Definite or Indefinite A Definite Heave-offering was the Tenth of all increase and this alone was certain both in regard of the things to be offered and the measure according to which they were to be offered The Indefinite Terumah was either Commanded or Free That which was Commanded was either General as the First-fruits or Special as the Heave-offering of the breast and shoulder of the Peace-offerings and of one loaf of the Meat-offering of the same and these the Greeks call fitly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Freewill-offering or voluntary Heave-offering was either more or less solemn The most solemn and usual was that which the Hebrews call Terumah-gedola which indeed was ordinary but I think no where absolutely commanded Voluntary Heave-offerings less usual were the Offerings of Gold Silver Land and whatsoever else they might give unto the use of the Lord his Temple and Ministers AND thus have we seen all the Kinds of the Offerings in the Law both holy and most holy and I think there is no Offering to be found but it belongs to some of these I have named either
evermore But now lest that which hath been spoken concerning Assurance of Salvation might disquiet the weak conscience of some who cannot feel this Assurance in themselves let them know That this Assurance doth not always continue in like measure but is often shaken with the assaults of mis-belief and overcast with clouds of distrust We know that though the Sun be risen upon the earth she doth not always shew her self in full brightness but sometimes is overcast with clouds and shadowed from our sight and yet she always giveth so much light as thereby we may discern the day from the night Even so although the Sun of comfortable Assurance be risen in our hearts yet it doth not always shine forth with brightness or shew it self in full strength and vigour but is sometime overcast with fear and distrust and yet when there is least there is so much light that a man may discern day from night and know the children of God from the sons of Darkness Despair not therefore though fear sometimes disquiets thee Distrust not the Lord thy God though he seems sometimes to hide his Countenance from thee but when thou feelest a combate in thy soul pray then and say with the Father of that child in the Gospel Lord I believe help thou my unbelief AND thus I come unto the second part of my Text which contains the Means whereby we come to this Certainty of knowing Christ and this Assurance of Salvation and that is By keeping God's Commandments for saith my Text Hereby we know that we do know him if we keep his Commandments To know Christ I told you is to believe in him to be assured we know him is to be assured our Faith is a right and a true Faith which Faith whosoever knoweth he hath cannot chuse but know certainly he shall be saved But hereby saith my Text may we know that we know Christ aright and believe in him truly and savingly if that we keep his Commandments From whence I observe First That though it be true That whatsoever good thing we have cometh from God and that it is his Holy Spirit that worketh all heavenly graces in our hearts yet he doth it not immediately without means but by blessing those helps and motives to us which he hath ordained for us to attain such graces and such favours by For it is true That Assurance of Salvation is the work of God's Spirit and yet S. Iohn saith here That it is the keeping of God's Commandments whereby we are assured we know Christ to be our Redeemer that is The Spirit of God by this keeping of the Commandments and by obedience to the will of God doth assure us as by an argument or evidence that our Faith is a true Faith a living Faith and that therefore we may assure our selves that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us and that we shall enjoy a Crown with Saints and Angels in the life to come So likewise Faith is the work of the Spirit of God and yet S. Paul saith that Faith cometh by hearing and how should men believe unless they hear the Word preached It is God that saveth us and Christ who purchased eternal life for us and yet the use of the Sacraments must be as means to bring us to this happiness So saith Christ Every one that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and S. Peter 1 Ep. 3. 21. calleth Baptism the figure whereby we are saved And throughout the Scripture we shall find that God bestows his blessings and favours by the use of means and to those who use the means which he hath appointed If Abimelech will have God to heal him and to forgive his sin he must have Abraham to pray unto God for him so saith the Text Gen. 20. 7. Restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live So if Iob's friends will have God to forgive their sin in censuring Iob so uncharitably they must use the means which God commanded them Iob 42. 8. Take unto you saith God seven bullocks and seven rams and go to my servant Iob and offer for your selves a burnt-offering and my servant Iob shall pray for you and I will accept him If Cornelius will have the will of God revealed to him he must send to Ioppa for Peter to preach unto him Acts 10. 5. If Naaman the Syrian will have the God of Israel to heal him of his Leprosie he must use the means commanded to wash himself seven times in the River Iordan 2 Kings 5. 10 14. Again Though God had promised Iacob that he would be with him that he would do him good when he was to return unto the land of Canaan and though Iacob depended only upon God to deliver him from the fury of his brother Esau yet he knew that God would require of him the using of the means and therefore he sent a Present to his brother and when he came unto him he used all humble and submiss behaviour toward him Lastly Though Hezekiah in his sickness had received a Sign and a Promise from God that he should recover I have heard thy prayer saith the Lord 2 Kings 20. 5. I have seen thy tears behold I will heal thee on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord yet for all this he did not neglect the means for according to the counsel of the Prophet Esay he took a lump of figs saith the Text ver 7. and laid it upon the boil and he recovered Thus then you see the manner how God bestows his graces and favours upon the sons of men He is the chief and principal worker in all things which are done and yet he worketh not without the means for so he should always do Miracles for Miracles are nothing else but the works of God without and against the ordinary means but he worketh by blessing of the means to those who have and use them Here is therefore a Lesson worthy to be learned of those who when you tell them of the perverseness and corruption of their hearts and exhort them to seek to be at peace with God to amend their lives to eschew evil and do the works of righteousness answer presently That all the thoughts of man's heart are by nature evil and that of our selves we are not able so much as to think one good thought much less to do any good deed we have no free will in these things but are dead in sin we cannot turn to God unless he turns us first unto him we cannot mend unless God first amend us we cannot believe unless he give us Faith we cannot of our selves do any good untill it pleaseth God to enable us And after this manner as S. Peter saith those who are unskilful and unstable wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction But do you not know also that it is God that giveth us our daily
Spirit The rising of the Sun is known by the shining beams the Fire is known by its burning the Life of the Body is known by its moving Even so certainly is the presence of God's Spirit known by the shining light of an holy conversation even so certainly the purging Fire of Grace is known by the burning Zeal against sin and a servent desire to keep God's Commandments even so certainly the Life and liveliness of Faith is known by the good motions of the Heart by the bestirring of all the powers both of Soul and Body to do whatsoever God wills us to be doing as soon as we once know he would have us do it He that hath this Evidence hath a bulwark against Despair and may dare the Devil to his face He that hath this hath the Broad Seal of Eternal life and such a man shall live for ever But on the contrary He that walks not in the ways of Obedience to God's Commandments whatsoever conceit he hath of God's favour toward him without all doubt he knows not Christ to be his Redeemer he hath not nor cannot have any Assurance of Salvation for how should a man be assured of that which is not His Hope is Presumption his Faith is nothing but Security his Comfort if he feels any a mere imagination His Hope his Faith his Comfort are all delusions of the Devil For if we say saith our Apostle chap. 1. ver 6. that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we are lyars yea and the Devil the Father of lies is in us Here therefore is a good Caveat for us all Let us not deceive our selves without Holiness no man shall see God Beware of Presumption for Presumption sends more to Hell than Desperation Let us never think we have Faith to be saved by or acknowledge Christ throughly till we may see and know it by keeping his Commandments For hereby we know that we know him c. But you may say Alas this is an hard saying If none have true Faith or know Christ aright but those who keep the Law of God who then can be saved For what man is he who hath such a Faith For there is no man living which sins not and who can say his Heart is clean the best of us all hath need to pray unto God daily and hourly Lord forgive our trespasses 1. I answer It is true that an absolute and perfect Obedience to the Law of God is not attainable in this life For the best that are though not in a current and constant course yet ever and anon offend both in doing what they ought not and omitting what they should do yea some mixture of infirmity and imperfections will cleave unto the face of the fairest action So incompatible is an uninterrupted and unstained purity with this unglorified state of mortality 2. All this is true and cannot be denied For our Apostle himself saith chap. 1. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us But the same Apostle in chap. 3. 8. of this Epistle saith also That he which commits sin is of the Devil There is therefore some measure of holiness and obedience and that more than ordinary required of those who are the Sons of God That ours may be such we must know the requisites thereof are three To be Cordial Resolved and Vniversal 1. It must be Cordial that is Conscionable and Sincere it must be internal proceeding from the Heart not external only in the appearance of the outward work God looks for fruit and not for leaves therefore the Fig-tree in the Gospel which had nothing but leaves we know was accursed But blessed are they saith David that keep his Testimonies and seek him with their whole heart For true Faith not only restrains the actions of the outward man for that Humane laws and other respects may do but it purifies the Heart also from the reigning allowance of any lust or lewd course of sin There is abhorring as well as abstaining loathing as well as leaving for else a chained Lion though he abstain from devouring hath his Lionish nature still 2. It must be Resolved that is out of a full and setled purpose to conform our selves to the Law of God That howsoever we often fail in the execution yet this Root may still keep life within us For good actions which come only by fits and occasions are no part of true Obedience nor where such a Resolution is are failings and slips more a sign of a disobedient child than the missing of a mark argues he that shot never aimed to hit it but only is a sign either of weakness want of skill or good heed or some impediment 3. It must be Vniversal I say not absolute and perfect for no man can keep the Law of God absolutely and perfectly yet it must be Vniversal that is to one Commandment as well as to another True Obedience knows no exception no reservation nor can any such stand with a true Faith and allegiance to Christ our Lord. First therefore there must no darling no bosome sin no Herodias be cherished such a dead fly as this will marre the whole box of ointment For how should he take himself for a faithful servant of Christ who still holds correspondence with his Arch-enemy the Devil It were treason in an earthly subject to do it how serviceable soever he might otherwise be unto his Prince One breach in the walls of a City exposeth it to the surprise of the Enemy one leak in a Ship neglected will sink it at last into the bottom of the Sea the stab of a Pen-knife to the Heart will as well speed a man as twenty Rapiers run through him If thou hedge thy close as high as the middle region of the Air in all other places and leave but one gap all thy grass will be gone If the Fowler catch the Bird either by the head or the foot or the wing she is sure his own So in the present case If Satan keep possession but by one reigning sin it will be thine everlasting ruine If thou live and die with allowance and delight in any one known sin without resolution to part with it thou art none of Christ's servants thou as yet carriest the Devil's brand he hath thereby markt thee out for his own Secondly An Vniversal obedience submits not only to Prohibitions of not doing evil but puts in practice the Injunctions of doing good Many think they keep the Commandments well so they do nothing which they forbid But the not doing good is a sin as well as the doing of evil Dives fries in Hell not for robbing but for not relieving Lazarus The unprofitable servant was cast into outer darkness not for spending but for not bestowing his Master's talent The five foolish Virgins were shut out of doors not for wasting but for not having oil in their Lamps And the wicked shall be
the Iacobite sect may have the like custom as it is certain that in most of their Rites they agree with them Now the religious guise of the Iews and other Nations of the Orient having anciently been and still being such as you have heard when they entered into their Temples or remained in them the words of my Text Look to thy Foot or feet being taken for an expression borrowed from and alluding thereto will have the same sense as if we inflecting them to our manners should say Look unto thy Head that is have a care thy Head be fitted as it ought to be when thou comest into the House of God meaning that he should put off his hat or be uncovered when he comes thither and use such other reverence as is wont to accompany it For know that the Holy Ghost mentioning or specifying but one Rite is yet so to be understood as implying therewith the rest of the same order accustomed to go with it according to that usual Trope of Scripture by a part or that which is more notable or obvious in any kind or rank of things to imply the rest the rule whereby we interpret the Decalogue and is the more fitly appliable here because this guise of Discalceation was a leading Ceremonie to the other gestures of Sacred veneration then used as that of putting off the hat in civil use at least is wont to be with us Nor as if Solomon or the Holy Ghost in this Admonition intended the outward Ceremonie only and no no more that were ridiculous to imagine but the whole act of Sacred reverence commenced in the heart and affection whereof this was the accustomed and leading gesture to wit the very same and all that which the Lord commandeth in that original law Lev. 19. 30. Sanctuarium meum reveremini Reverence my Sanctuary which Ionathan's Targum explaineth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye shall go to the House of my Sanctuary with reverence Solomon paralleleth here with Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God For so is the manner of Scripture almost every where under the name of the Gesture only to understand and imply the whole dutie of Veneration which such Gesture representeth and importeth But as this is most true so is it on the other side as false if any shall from hence collect That therefore the Outward worship may securely be neglected in Time and Place where and when it may be done so the Inward be performed Nay the contrary follows For if the Inward worship be chiefly intended when the Outward or Bodily is only named as it is granted is it not then absurd to imagine that where that which is not expresly named is meant there that which is only mentioned should be excluded Nay surely where the Outward is mentioned as here in my Text there no doubt but the Outward in one kind or other is a part of the dutie commanded whatsoever besides it be intended And because it is a disease almost proper to our time for our forefathers were mostly sick of the other extreme so far to slight and disesteem that I may not say disdain the worship of God by the Body as to think it may be omitted and neglected even in Time and Place convenient as in God's House and publick service without all guilt of sin give me therefore leave to propound a few Considerations for the Cure of such as are sick of that maladie For as that which seems but some lighter Symptome at the first if the cure thereof be neglected and contemned oftentimes proves fatal and destroys life it self so may this I would have them therefore consider 1. That we all look not only for the Glorification of our Souls but of our Bodies in the life to come Now a Reward presupposeth a Work It is meet and right therefore we should worship and glorifie God here in this life with the Body as well as the Soul if we look that God should one day glorifie both 2. That as the Outward worship without the Inward is dead so the Inward without the Outward is not complete even as the Glorification of the Soul separate from the Bodie is not nor shall be consummate till the Body be again united unto it 3. That those who derogate so much from Bodily worship in the service of the true God as kneeling bowing and the like make by consequent Idolatrie a sin far less hainous in degree than it is For is not Idolatrie to communicate that honour with a creature which is due unto the Creator alone By how much therefore the worship of gesture and posture is less due unto God when we do our homage unto him by so much is the sin the less hainous and grievous when the same is given unto an Idol For I believe they will not deny but part of the sin of Idolatrie consists even in the outward worship given unto an Idol as kneeling bowing and falling down before it and the like 4. Lastly That although Bodily worship being considered in it self be one of the minora Legis of the lesser things of the Law and the honour done unto God thereby of no great value though not of none in his sight yet may a voluntary and presumptuous neglect even of so small a duty be a great and hainous sin because such a neglect proceeds from a prophane disposition and election of the heart For a sin is not always to be esteemed according to the value of the duty omitted but from the heart's election in omitting it Non est bonum per se saith Seneca munda vestis sed mundae vestis electio quia non in rebonum est sed in electione that is A clean garment hath no goodness of it self but it is the election of a clean garment which is commended because the goodness consists not in the thing but in the election thereof So say I here It is not the value or merit of the work which aggravates the sin in omitting the doing thereof but the Election not to do it Now therefore to return to my Hypothesis By that which hath been delivered it appears That it is not only lawful to use some Reverential gesture when we come into God's House which yet some think they are very liberal if they grant but that it is a duty commanded by God himself and so no Will-worship as namely in that Divine admonition given first to Moses and afterward to Iosua Put thy shoes from off thy feet c. in that Law Reverence my Sanctuary in this Instruction by Solomon Look to thy feet when thou comest to the house of God That the Saints and people of God in the Old Testament and Christians in the New have used such Reverence That the neglect thereof is condemned of Prophaneness by the practice of Iews Gentiles Pagans Mahumetans all Religions whatsoever if any be to be excepted proh pudor dolor it is our selves But without doubt in
New Testament is answerable Hebr. 3. 12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in departing from the living God And which is more near to our purpose S. Paul in his 2 Thess. 2. 3. means no other thing in his Prophecie of the man of sin by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than Christian Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnless that Apostasie come first that is Unless there be a breach of Allegiance and Faith given unto Christ by Idolatry under Antichrist The like therefore I conclude to be intended in my Text by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely That in the latter times men should break their Oath of fidelity to Christ that in and through him alone they should approch and worship the Divine Majesty And so hath the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught us something or at least it hath wrought an indefinite suspicion of what should befal Christians in the latter times Howsoever we are yet in suspence whether this departing from Christ and the Mystery of Godliness should be Total in not acknowledging him at all or whether Heretical in serving others besides him For the Iews we know when they forsook the Lord most yet did not forsake him altogether but their Apostasie was in not serving him only and alone but others besides him as Calves the Host of Heaven and Baalim LET us therefore see if the next general words will afford us yet further information viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attending to erroneous spirits or as some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits of errour It would be unprofitable and tedious to tell here of the diverse use of this word Spirit in Scripture Some take in this place for Doctors of spiritual things and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be Doctors of Errors But I had rather take Spirits in this place for Doctrines themselves For so Divines observe it to be used I Iohn 4. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believe not every spirit i.e. every doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but try the spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they be of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because many false Prophets are gone out into the world and so onward in that Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit of Antichrist signifies the false doctrine of Antichrist So if this sense be admitted we are something less in suspence than we were and may guess that this Revolt should not be Total but Heretical For we shall not easily find the word Spirit to be otherwise used but either for the Doctrines or Doctors of Christianity or for Heresies under the same It seems therefore to be some revolt from Christ by Idolatry even in those who would seem to worship him But suppose it be so yet still are we in suspence what these Erroneous and Idolatrous Doctrines might be For Idolatry as we may see in the Iewish Apostasies was of diverse kinds as worshipping the Host of Heaven Baalims and the Gentiles other things besides them But we shall not be long in doubt the next words will clear the case and tell us they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrines of Daemons not which Daemons or Devils are authors of though that be true as if the Genitive case were active but Doctrines concerning Daemons the Genâ—tive case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being here to be taken passively for the object of these doctrines as in Hebr. 6. 2. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrines of Baptisms and doctrines of laying on of hands of the Resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment that is doctrines about and concerning all these And the same use may elsewhere be found even with the word Doctrine as Acts 13. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctrine of the Lord that is concerning him So Titus 2. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctrine of God our Saviour And Gal. 2. 20. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the faith of the Son of God that is concerning him Semblably in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Doctrines of Daemons or Doctrinae Deastrorum that is The Gentâ—es idolatrous Theology of Daemons should be revived among Christians For I take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all is one not in that worst sense which no Author but the Scripture useth but in the better or more indifferent sense as it was supposed and taken among the Theologists and Philosophers of the Gentiles and as it is also sometimes taken in Scripture as I shall shew in due time CHAP. III. Daemons according to the Theology of the Gentiles were 1. for their Nature and Degree a middle sort of Divine Powers between the Sovereign Gods and mortal Men. 2. For their Office they were supposed to be Mediators and Agents between the Celestial Gods and Men. This proved from Plato Plutarch Apuleius Celsus in Origen and S. Austin The Doctrine of the Mediation of Daemons glanced at and reproved by the Apostle Coloss. 2. 8. The distinction of Sovereign Gods and Daemons proved out of the Old Testament and elegantly alluded to in the New 1. Cor. 8. 5 6. MEAN-while let us first see what the Gentiles and their Theologists understood by Daemons which when you have heard I doubt not but you will confess the Deifying and worshipping of Saints and Angels with other parts of their Idolatry which do this to be as lively an image of the Doctrine of Daemons as could possibly be expressed and such an one as whereby the Apostasie of the latter times is as by a character distinguished from the Heresies false doctrines and corruptions of all other times whatsoever Daemons in the Gentiles Theology were Deastri or an inferiour sort of Deisied Powers as a middle between the Sovereign Gods and mortal men So saies Plato in Symposio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So say all the Platonists and well-nigh all other Sects of Philosophers I am sure the most do for it is a very ancient doctrine insomuch that Plutarch De defectu Oraculorum fetcheth this distinction between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sovereign Gods and Daemons as far as the antiquity of Zoroafter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They seem to me saith he to have solved great and difficult doubts who have placed the Daemons between the Gods and Men and found out what in some sort uniteth and joyneth us with them whether this be the doctrine of the Magi and Zoroafter or the Thracian doctrine derived from Orpheus or the AEgyptian or Phrygian c. The Sovereign or Highest Gods which amongst them were properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were those whom they supposed to be in the Heavens yea in the Sun Moon and Stars whence they called them Dii Superi Dii Coelestes whom they affirmed to
shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel p. 234 Verse 16. I will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception p. 150 Chap. 10. 5. By these were the Isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands every one after his tongue after their families in their nations p. 271 276 Chap. 27. 36. Well may he be called Iacob for he hath supplanted or beguiled me these two times p. 226 Chap. 28. 16 17. Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not How dreadfull is this place it is no other but the House of God even the gate of Heaven p. 343 Chap. 29. 27. Fulfil her week p. 599 Chap. 46. 26. All the souls that came with Iacob into Egypt which came out of his loins p. 35 Chap. 48. 16. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads and let my name be named on them p. 5 Chap. 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be p. 34 EXODUS Chap. 1. 5. And all the souls that came out of the loyns of Iacob p. 35 Chap. 3. 5. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground p. 348 Chap. 4. 25. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her Son and cast it at his feet and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sponfus sanguinum tu mihi es p. 52 Chap. 13. 2. Sanctifie unto me all the first-born p. 402 Chap. 19. 5. Then ye shall be unto me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a peculiar treasure Lxx. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a peculiar people above all people p. 125 Chap. 20. 24. In all places where I record my Name I will come unto thee and bless thee p. 341 Chap. 29. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tabernacle of meeting p. 343 Chap. 30. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tabernacle of meeting p. 343 Chap. 30. 31 32. This shall be an holy anointing Oyl unto me It is holy therefore it shall be holy unto you p. 6 LEVITICUS Chap. 2. 13. the Salt of the Covenant of thy God p. 371 Chap. 19. 30. Ye shall reverence my Sanctuary p. 398 Chap. 25. 3. The land shall not be sold for ever for the land is mine for ye are strangers and sojourners with me p. 121 Chap. 27. 26. Only the first-born of the beasts which should be the Lord's no man shall sanctifie it it is the Lord's p. 402 NUMBERS Chap. 2. 2. Every one of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own Standard with the Ensign of their fathers house about the Tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch p. 594 Chap. 14. 22. Those men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times p. 118 Chap. 17. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tabernacle of meeting p. 343 DEUTERONOMY Chap. 4. 28. And there ye shall serve Gods the work of mens hands p. 707 Chap. 16. 16. Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse in the Feast of Vnleavened bread◠and in the Feast of Weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles And they shall not appear before the Lord empty p. 260 269 Verse 17. Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee p. 265 Chap. 28. 64. And there thou shalt serve other Gods which neither thou nor thy fathers have known p. 667 Chap. 33. 2. The Lord came from Sinai unto them he came with his holy Myriads from his right hand went a fiery Law p. 344 Verse 8. And of Levi he said Let thy Thummim and thy Vrim be with thy holy one p. 177 IOSHUA Chap. 5. 15. See Exod. 3. 5. Chap. 7. 1. Achan took of the accursed thing p. 117 Chap. 24. 26. And Ioshua took a great Stone and set it up there under the Oak which was by the Sanctuary of the Lord. p. 65 IUDGES Chap. 1. 7. As I have done so hath God requited me p. 140 I SAMUEL Chap. 26. 19. They have drives me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other Gods p. 668 II. SAMUEL Chap. 9. 10. Thou and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him and thou shalt bring in the fruits that that he may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 food to eat pag. 689 I. KINGS Chap. 8. 64. The same day did the King hallow the middle of the Court that was before the House of the Lord for there he offered burnt-offerings and meat-offerings p. 402 Chap. 11. 4. And his heart was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect with the Lord his God p. 202 Chap. 15. 34. And he walked in the way of Ieroboam and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin p. 242 243 II. KINGS Chap. 25. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 808 I CHRONICLES Chap. 16. 42. Musical instruments of God p. 11 II CHRONICLES Chap. 16. 9. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole Earth to shew themselves strong in the behalf of them whose hearts are perfect towards him p. 43 Chap. 20. 21. He appointed Singers unto the Lord that should praise the Beauty of holiness and to say Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever p. 59 Chap. 29. 3. He walked also in the ways of the house of Ahab p. 243 EZRA Chap. 1. 10. Thirty basons of gold and other vessels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thousands p. 700 Chap. 2. 63. Till there rose up a Priest with Vrim and Thummim p. 183 Chap. 6. 10. That they may offer Sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of heaven and pray for the life of the King and of his Sons p. 379 Chap. 9. 1. The people of Israel◠have not separated themselves from the people of the lands according to their Abominations p. 708 NEHEMIAH Chap. 13. 14. Remember me O my God concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the House of my God and for the offices thereof p. 173 Verse 22. Remember me O my God concerning this and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy p. 173 ESTHER Chap. 7. 5. Where is he whose heart hath filled him to do so p. 116 IOB Chap. 26. 5 6. Gigantes gemunt sub aquis qui habitant cum eis Nudus est Infernus coram illo nullum est operimentum perditioni p. 32 PSAI. MS. Psal. 1. 1. that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly p. 206 Psal. 8. 2. Out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine Enemies that thou mightest still the Enemy and Avenger p. 36 Psal. 28. 2. when I lift up my hands toward thy Holy Oracle p. 394
whole Orthodox Christian Church in the Age immediately following the Apostles 771. a passage out of Iustin Martyr to this purpose vindicated which had been corrupted as other passages to the like purpose were expunged out of Sulpitius Severus Victorinus Petav. and others of the same judgment 533 534. nor was it anciently denied but by Hereticks and such as denied the Apocalyps 534 602. Other Testimonies for it as out of the Council of Nice 813. and a Carechism set forth in K. Edward the sixth his Reign 813 815. That this Millennium follows upon the expiring of Antichrist's reign 603. this clearly proved by the Synchronisms 429. That the 1000 years of Satans being bound began not at Constantine 427 880. S. Hierome's misrepresentation of the sense of the more ancient Fathers detected 899. Doubtful whether Cerinthus held any part of this Opinion though in a wrong sense 900 Mincha what 357 826. in marg The Purity of the Christian Mincha explained in three particulars 358 359 Minister how the word is sometimes used improperly 27 517. Four Solecisms from the improper use thereof ibid Ministers are not the peoples Ministers but God's 26. and are maintained out of Gods revenue 77 78 120. their maintenance is not of the nature of Alms 73. To make provision for God's Ministers and Worship a work highly pleasing to God 174 Miracles No noise of Miracles done by Reliques of Martyrs in the first 300 years after Christ 679 680. The design of the pretended Miracles in after-ages 681 c. Monks and Friers the chief promoters of Saint-worship 690 691. and of Image-worship 691. The two characters of Monastick professors 688. a third character 689. Monkisn poverty no point of Piety 126 c. Months The 42 Months in Apocal. 11. 2. the same with 1260 Days in vers 3. are to be taken for Months of years and are more than three single years and an half 598. their beginning and ending 600. why the profaning of the holy City by the Gentiles and the continuing of the Beast is number'd by Months Apocal. 11. 2. ch 13. 5. but the Prophesying of the Witnesses and the Woman's abode in the Wilderness by Days ch 11. 3. ch 12. 6. 481 492 Moses the Rites and Ordinances of Moses observed for some time after Christs ascension by the Apostles and believing Iews 841 Mountains and Hills what they signifie in the Prophetick style 135 462 Mountains and Islands 450 N NAme written in their foreheads in Apocal. 14. 1. what meant thereby 511 Name of God Hereby is meant 1 God himself 2. what is his by a peculiar right 4 5. Gods Name to be called upon a thing what is imports 5. Gods Name how it is sanctified or hallowed 9. how it is prophaned or polluted 14 Names of men in Apocal. 11. 13. what 489 490 Nations or Gentiles put in the Apocalyps for the Apostate or false Christians 574 908 Nazarites their Vow and Law abrogated by the Apostles and therefore no ground for Monkish orders 128 Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of an Image of Gold Silver Brass and Iron explained 104 105 743 744 New Heavens and New Earth what meant thereby 613 New Ierusalem what meant thereby 772 877 914 Nicene Council See Council Noah The seven Precepts of the sons of Noah 19. these Precepts were briefly included in the Apostles decision at the Council in Ierusalem Acts 15. 165. whether the observation of the Sabbath-day was included in any of these Precepts 20. The division of the Earth by Noah's Sons was not confused but orderly 274 Number of the Beast 666 why he differs from Monsieur Testara's conjecture about it 795. Mr. Potter's Discourse upon it highly approved by him 877 Numbers of Times when Definite and Indefinite 597 656 Numbers Distributive or Divisive wanting in the Hebrew Text and how supplied 700 O OBedience to Gods Commands the best protection against dangers 262. a more necessary and acceptable duty than Sacrifice 351 c. Three qualifications of true Obedience 1 Cordial 2 Resolved 3 Vniversal 310 Offerings were either Eucharistical or Euctical and Vâ—tal 285. a description of these 289. They are due to God naturally and perpetually 286. That they were not Typical and Ceremonial but Moral in their end and nature proved by four arguments 288 289. That they are required of Christians 291. the three degrees or parts thereof 290 Offerings and Sacrifices wherein they differ 369 The two Olive-branches in Zech. 4. explained 833 Oracles The Heathen Oracles began to cease at the birth of Christ. 193 194 Oratories See Proseucha's P. PAlestine See Canaan Passions 4 Rules for the governing of them 227 S. Paul's Conversion a Type of the calling of the Iews 891 Peace on Earth Luke 2. what is meant thereby 93 94 Peace-offerings and other Sacrifices were to be eaten before the third day and why 51 Penitents 5 degrees of them according to the discipline of the ancient Church 331 Pentecost why called the Feast of Weeks 265. and of harvest 269. why the Gospel was first published and in such a miraculous way at Pentecost 76. That those First Converts to the Christian Faith at Pentecost were not Gentiles but Iews 74 75 Perfect Heart See Heart Perjury upon Theft a more dangerous Sin in the Iewish State 133 Persecutions Which were the greatest and longest of the 10 Persecutions 334 S. Peter his Second Epistle why and by whom questioned 612 Pillars and Images why at first erected 632 The Pontifical Stole and Title first refused by the Emperour Gratian. 601 Poverty its dangers and evils 132 133 Prayer why God requires it of us 170. why not always heard 168. how God often hears our Prayers when we think he doth not 169. A set Form of Prayer proved to be lawful 2. Objections against set Forms answered 3 4. To be prayed to in Heaven and to present our Prayers to God is a Right and Privilege proper to Christ 639. and that Christ purchased it by his death 640 Presents The Oriental Custome to bring Presents to their Kings 115 Priesthood why confined to one Tribe only under the Law 178 179 Prophecies so foretel things to come as yet to instruct the present Church 285 Prophesying hath a fourfold sense in Scripture 58. in what sense it is attributed to Women 58 59 A Prophet's Reward is a special and eminent Reward 87 Prophetical Schemes familiar and usual to the Eastern Nations 616 759 Proselytes two sorts of them 1 Proselytes of the Covenant or Righteousness 2. Proselytes of the Gate 19 20. these are called in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Worshippers and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that fear God 20 21. why there were more of this sort of Proselytes 21 22. how these became so ready for the Gospel and Faith of Christ. 22 Proseuchae or Places of Prayer their use among the Iews and how they differed from Synagogues 66 67. where they are mentioned in Scripture 67. their Antiquities 68 69 Prosperity is apt to make men
35 Schism the evil and danger of it 876 Scripture The Holy Scripture is not to be kept in an unknown tongue 190. whether the silence of Scripture be an argument sufficient to conclude against matter of fact 840. an account of some Idioms or Forms of speech in Scripture 161 and 347 349 380 285 and 352 Sea what it signifies in the Prophetick style 462 The Sealing of the 144000 in Apocal. 7. what it means 584 Seed of the Woman meant of Christ's person and Christ mystical 236 Serpent why the Devil took this shape 223 289. the Curse was pronounced upon both the Serpent and the Devil 229. what kind of Serpent was accursed 230. how God could in Iustice punish the brute Serpent 229 230 his Curse was To go upon his Breast and not only on his Belly 231 232. as also To feed on dust 233 234. Enmity between Man and the Serpent 234. The Serpents Seed meant of the Devil and wicked men 236. The Serpents Head or Headship is Principatus mortis 237 Set Forms See Prayer Seven eyes of the Lord are the seven Archangels 41 43 Seven Heads of the Beast signifie both 7 Hiâ—s and 7 Successions of different sorts of Governours 524 Seven Seals in Apocal. 6. what is meant thereby 441 917 c. Seven Trumpets See Trumpets Seven Vials See Vials Seventy Weeks See Daniels Weeks Seventy years See Years Shechinah or Gods special presence in a place is where the Angels keep their station 343 c. Sheep set at Christs right hand 841 Shiloh the name of Messiah 34 it signifies a Peace-maker 35 Silence in holy offices was a point of Religion 458 Simeon Metaphrastes his fabulous Legends 682 c. his design therein 683 c. Sin compared in Scripture to an Heavy Burthen in respect of the Weight of Punishment and of Loathsomness 151. the reason of Sins Loathsomness 152. Conformity between the Sin and Punishment in 4 particulars 144. the hainousness of a Sin to be estimated from the hearts election 350. Commission of one Sin makes way for another 135. what it is to forsake Sin 207. Rules to know whether our purpose to forsake Sin be real 152 153 Sin-offering what 287 Sincerity of Heart what it is how it may be known and attain'd 217 218 Sitting at Gods right hand what it signifies 638 639. that it is a priviledge appropriate to Christ. ibid. Some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word doth not always in Scripture imply a small number 648 c. Socinian Tenets censured 869 883 Son of man whence Christ is so called 764 788 Spirit sometimes in Scripture signifies Doctrine 626 Spirit and truth See Worship in spirit and truth Spirits Good or Evil how they appear and converse with men 223 224 Spiritual blessings were veiled in Earthly Promises under the Law 249 250 Stealing is either by Force or by Fraud both forbidden in the 8 Commandment 132. See more in Theft Sun Moon and Stars what they are according to the Prophetick style in the Political world 449 450 466 615 Synagogues how they differ'd from Proseucha's 66. their antiquity 839 Synchronisms what 491. their usefulness 431 581 T. TAbernack of meetingâ— so call'd from God's meeting there with men 343. Feast of Tabernacles wherein it was a Figure of Christ 266. how it was neglected to be kept from Iosua's time to Nehemiah's 268. what this Omission may seem to imply 268 Table sometimes in Scripture put for Epulum or the Meat it self 386. Table of the Lord in 1 Cor. 10. why so called 375. the name Table not used in any Ecclesiastical Writer before 200 years after Christ 860. Table and Altar how they differ 389 Holy Table Name and Thing 844 Temple what the Gentiles Notion of a Temple was 335 336. why the primitive Christians for the most part abstain'd from the name Temple 336 337 Temple at Ierusalem it s 3 Courts in our Saviours time 44 45. it was the Third or Gentiles Court that was prophaned by the Iews and vndicated by our Saviour 45 46. This Temple is called in Scripture Gods Throne 438 439 917. In what respects it was a Type of Christ. 48 407 263 Temples of the Heathen why they are said by the ancient Fathers to be nothing else but the Sepulchres of dead men 633 Ten Horns signifie in Dan. and the Apocal. Ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was shivered 661. that they belong to the Seventh or Vppermost Head of the Beast 499 737 Ten Kings See Ten Horns Teraphim what they were and how they answered to Vrim and Thummim 183 Terumah or Heave-offering defined 288 the Terumoth or Heave-offerings were either First-fruits or Tithes or Frâ—e-will-offerings 290 Theft in no case lawful 133. the trial of it in doubtful cases was in the Iewish Polity by the parties Oath Hence Perjury and Theft are forbidden together in Scripture 133 Three Kings whom the Little Horn should depress to advance himself 779 Throne to be taken up to Gods Throne what 494 Thummim See Vrim Thunder See Bath Kol Time Times and half a Time what 497 656 744. Times of the Gentiles 753. Times put for Things done in time 737 Tithes How the question of the due of Tithes is to be stated 120 Tituls why Houses and Churches were so called 5 327 328 Tobit's prophesie of the Iews Captivity and Restauration explain'd 579 Transubstantiation promoted by lying Miracles 688 Trees what they signifie in the Prophetick style 460 Trespass-offering how it differed from the Sin-offering 287 Tribes why the 12 Tribes are in Apocal 7. reckoned in a different order than elsewhere in Scripture 455 c. Tribute See Rent Trumpets Seven Trumpets their meaning 595 Turks why described in Apocal. 9. by the army of Horsemen 473 Twelve why each of the 24 Courses or Quires of Singers in the Temple consisted of Twelve 3 Typical speeches often true in the Type and Antitype 285. when what is attributed to the Type belongs to the thing typified 468 V. VEspers See Even-song Vials Seven Vials their meaning 585 923. the agreement between the 7 Vials and 7 Trumpets 585 Vintage what it means in the Propherick style 521 c. Visions Apocalyptick whether represented in the Seven-sealed Book to be seen or to be read by S. Iohn 787 An Vnrepentant Sinner is an Insidel 153 Vnworthy receiving See Sacraments Vows The 3 Vows common to all Monks viz. Vow of Chastity Poverty and Abstaining from meats the Fourth Vew viz. of Obedience not common to all nor so old 689 Vrim and Thummim what they signifie 183. they were a Divine Oracle ibid. the Matter thereof and the Manner of enquiring thereby 184 185. How Vrim and Thummim did typisie something in Christ. 185 186 W. WAldenses See Albigenses White To walk in white To be clothed with white raiment what meant thereby in the Apocalyps 909 Whore and Whoredom meant according to the Prophetick style of Idolatry 645 646. Whoe of Babylon in Apocal. 17. why this Vision only of all
one and the other were Spiritual or Sacramental namely in being Signs resembling and assuring Christ with the Spiritual Blessings through him 3. In what sense these Sacraments are said to be the same with ours to wit not in the Signs but in the Spiritual thing signified which is the Soul and Essence of a Sacrament We come now to such Observations as these Words and Explications will afford us The first whereof is That if the Seals and Sacraments under the Law were the same with ours then must they also have the same Covenant of Grace with us for the Sacraments are Seals of the Covenant If the Seals then were the same as our Apostle affirmeth how should not the Covenant also be the same and seeing their Sacraments were differing in the Signs from ours how could they be any way the same with ours but only in what they sealed and signified The Fathers therefore were saved by Grace and through Christ as well as we So true is that the Apostle says Acts 4. 12. There is no other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved For Iesus Christ as it is Heb. 13. 8. is the same yesterday and to day and for ever that is He was a Saviour of old is still and shall be for ever hereafter This is that which S. Peter yet more expresly affirmeth Acts 3. 25. saying Ye are the children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying to Abraham And in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Yea not only from Abraham but even from that time when God said The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's head was this Covenant made with men and at length diversly shadowed in the Types and Sacrifices of the Law until Christ himself was revealed in the flesh For the better understanding of this we must know what a Covenant is and what are the kinds thereof A Covenant is as it were a Bargain between God and man wherein God promises some Spiritual good to us so we perform some duty unto him if not then to incur everlasting punishment This Covenant is of two sorts the one is called The Covenant of Works the other The Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Works is wherein God on his part makes us a promise of Eternal life if we on our part shall perform exact obedience unto his Law otherwise to be everlastingly condemned if we fail The Covenant of Grace or of the Gospel is wherein God on his part promises us sinners Christ to be our Saviour and Redeemer if we on our part shall believe on him with a lively and obedient faith otherwise to be condemned The Covenant of Works God made with man at his Creation when he was able to have kept the conditions he required but he through his disobedience broke it and so became liable to death doth Corporal and Spiritual And though the Covenant of Grace then took place as we have said yet was the former Covenant of Works still in force until Christ who was promised should come in the flesh And therefore was this Covenant renewed under Moses with the Israelites when the Law was given in Horeb as Moses sayes Deut. 5. 2. The Lord God made a Covenant with us in Horeb. For all the time under the Law the open and apparent Covenant was the Covenant of Works to make them the more to see their own misery and condemnation and so to long after Christ who was yet to come and at whose coming this obligation should be quite cancelled Yet nevertheless together with this open Covenant there was a secret and hidden Covenant which was the Covenant of Grace that they might not be altogether without the means of Salvation whilst Christ yet tarried This truth is plain Gal. 3. 17 c. where the Apostle affirms That the Covenant of Grace in Christ was four hundred and thirty years afore the Law was given and that therefore the Law could not disannul it or make it of none effect but that the Law so he calls the Covenant of Works was only added to it because of transgressions until the blessed Seed should come v. 19. and that it might be a Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ v. 24. For in the Moral Law of God under whose curse they stood bound they might as in a Glass see their sin their guilt their want of Righteousness and in their Ceremonies and Sacrifices they might again as in Shadows of Heavenly things behold the means of their Reconciliation through his bloud who was to be slain and offered to God for them Now though this Covenant of Grace afore Christ be the same for substance with that under which we are now since his coming yet the circumstances and outward fashion thereof are so varied that the Scripture for this regard makes of this one Covenant two Covenants calling one the Old Covenant for the old manner thereof under the Law and the other a New Covenant for the new manner thereof now the Gospel is revealed Having therefore already seen the agreement and onâ—ness of them for the inward part let us now behold their differences for the outward fashion and so we shall see that as the Fathers ate the same Spiritual meat and drank the same Spiritual drink and yet there was some difference in them so the Fathers were under the same Covenant of Grace with us and yet after a different fashion This difference S. Paul Gal. 4. 1. c. setteth forth thus by a similitude The heir as long as he is a child c. i. e. The difference of the condition of those afore Christ and since is but as the condition of Heirs when they are under age and when they come to full years They are Heirs and Lords of all in both conditions as well in one as the other only the difference is that in the one condition they are in the state of Servants under Tutors and Governors in the other they enjoy the freedom of Sons So the faithful in the Law enjoyed the same Covenant of Grace with us but under the bondage of worldly Elements but we now have the same in a state of freedom as not held under such burthensome Elements and Pedagogies as they were But elsewhere he shews this difference more expresly both on God's part and our part First On our part Heb. 8. and elsewhere thus The Old Covenant which required so many external services is called a carnal Covenant the New wherein no such are required but works of the Spirit only is a Spiritual Covenant whereof God means when he saith v. 10. I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and so he will be their God and they shall be his people For in the Old Covenant he wrote a Law as it were upon their hands and fleshly members in that he required so many fleshly washings and sprinklings and
sacrifices for expiation and cleansing of sin whereas in the New he writes his Law only upon the Soul and Spirit in that he now stipulates only the service of Faith which is an action of the inward man and not of the outward not of the hand or bodily members but of the Soul within For by Law here I suppose is meant the condition which God stipulates in the Covenant and through which he makes good his promise unto us Not as though this spiritual condition was not also required under the Law in the Covenant of Grace then but because it was not only nor so openly therefore is it made as a formal difference of the New Covenant and the Old Secondly On God's part the Scripture shews the difference of the Covenants thus The Old Covenant was a Covenant of worser promises the New a Covenant of better Promises and so a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. Indeed they in the Old Covenant had the same Spiritual Promises we have and so it was one and the same Covenant but they had them not open and uncovered as we have and so our Covenant is not the same but a better Covenant So S. Paul makes his comparison in the same argument 2 Cor. 3. 11. If that saith he which is done away was so glorious much more that which remaineth As if he had said If the Cover seemed so glorious much more shall the Iewel within so seem when the cover is taken from it as now it is For all the open Promises in the Old Covenant seem to be no other than Temporal blessings as for Spiritual they had them only as enwrapped in them so that they could look for them no otherwise but in and through the Temporal which they had as Pledges of the Spiritual veiled under them But in the New these are all revealed and no longer hid from us by such curtains the veil is taken from the face of Moses and we behold with open face the glory of the Lord as the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 3. 14 18. Remission of sins Reconciliation with God Everlasting life these are our Promises not deliverance from Temporal enemies worldly prosperity nor the land of Canaan or long life in the land the Lord hath given us So the case here is quite altered For then Earthly blessings were as Pledges of Spiritual but now unto us Spiritual are Pledges of Temporal so far as God sees good for us For the tenour of the Gospel now is Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you And it is now time we should say with S. Paul Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! and with David Psal. 40. 5. Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward and Psal. 92. 5. O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep THUS I come to a second Observation which these words afford us namely If the Fathers ate the same Spiritual Meat and drank the same Spiritual Drink which we do then eat we not the real Body nor drink the real Bloud of Christ For the Manna they ate was the same Manna still though a Sacrament of Christ the Water of the Rock was verily Water still though a Sacrament of his Bloud If then we eat the same Spiritual Bread we eat Bread still though Spiritual Bread If we drink the same Spiritual Drink our Drink is Wine still though Spiritual Wine Yea S. Paul himself calls them as they are 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Bread we break is the communion of the Body of Christ Ergo That which is the communion of the Body of Christ is Bread still And unless it should be so how could there be a Sacrament which must consist of a Sign and a thing signified of an Earthly thing and a Heavenly thing For if the Sign once becomes the thing signified it is no more a Sign and so then is no more a Sacrament If it be urged That Christ himself saies plainly of the Bread Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body of the Wine Hic est sanguis meus This is my Bloud I answer He saies also I am the Door and in my Text is as expresly said The Rock was Christ. If therefore it be absurd from hence to infer the Rock left being a Rock and was made the real Person of Christ so will it be of our Spiritual Bread and Wine For the manner of these speeches is nothing but a Figure of certainty or assurance He that receiveth the Bread as assuredly receiveth Christ Body as if the Bread were his Body He that receiveth the Wine as assuredly enjoyeth the Bloud of Christ as if this Wine were his very Bloud indeed A predication in casu recto is a predication of sameness and therefore is used properly in things which are in a manner the same as Genus and Species Homo est animal but in things which are disparate and of several natures we speak usually in concreto or obliquo and from hâ—â—ce arises a Scheme or Figure of speech when we would express a most near union of things even different yet to speak them in casu recto which is the predication of sameness as it were to express they were as nearly link'd together as if they were the very same So we are wont to say a man is Virtue or Piety it self meaning they are throughly link'd unto him And because of all other things the things in the Sacraments are so assuredly and throughly link'd together the Holy Ghost used this Scheme for a Sacramental speech Hoc est corpus meum and Hic est sanguis meus that is a Sign so sure as if it were the very same AND so I will come to a third Observation The Fathers saith my Text ate the same Spiritual Meat and drank the same Spiritual Drink therefore is our Sacrament also to be eaten and drunk of us and not only offered for us Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud we have no life in us And very fitly For as our Bodies are nourished by eating of corporal meats so our Souls are nourished by the Spiritual feeding upon Christ. This condemns that lurching Sacrifice of the Mass where the Bread and Wine are offered as a Sacrifice for the people but they receive no one jot thereof they are invited to a Banquet but eat never a bit Even like the unbelieving Ruler spoken of 2 Kings 7. 19. who saw all the plenty foretold by Elisha but ate no whit thereof And what is it but as Christ said to light a Candle and put it under a Bushel Matt. 5. 15. They think it is enough if the Priest eats all himself though he gives no body else any with him But it is no less absurd to affirm that another should receive good by the Priest's receiving