〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mind earthly things the fourth sort in whicâ— all their wisdom lies Which two last sorts of Enemies I shall attaque together The Cross of Christ amongst its other ends was set to be an instrument whereby the World is to be Crucified to us and we unto the World to be the means whereby we are enabled to prevail upon and overcome our worldly lusts and inclinations and to sleight yea and detest all the temptations of its Wealth Delights and Heights when they attempt to draw us into sin or take us off from Duty Now to this it works by these three steps First shewing us the Author and the finisher of our Faith nailed himself to that Cross his joints rack'd on it his whole Body strip'd and nothing else but Vinegar and bitter potions allow'd his thirst and thus convincing us that if we will be his Disciples we must take up his Cross and follow him at leastwise we must have preparedness of mind to take it up when ever it is fix'd to Duty to renounce all profits honours and delights of this World that are not consistent with our Christian profession This is the Doctrine of the Cross of Christ it being otherwise impossible to to be the Disciples of a Crucified Master And when this great Captain of our Salvation was himself consecrated by his sufferings and had for his Standard his own Body lifted up upon the Cross we that are listed under him and with that very badg the Cross too crucis Consecranei Votaries and fellow Soldiers of that Order if we shall avoid our Duty when it is attended with a Cross or straitned any ways and the provisions of this World are cut off from it and betake our selves rather to the contents of Earth we do not onely shamefully fly from our Colours Fugitive and Cowards Poltrons in the Spiritual Warfare but are Renegadoes false and traytours to our selves too such as basely ran away not onely from our Officer but from Salvation which he is the Captain of and which we cannot possibly attain except we be resolv'd to follow him and charge through whatsoever disadvantages to attend Religion vanquishing all those temptations with which the World assaults us in our course to Duty Thus the Cross of Christ first shews us the necessity we have to renounce and Crucifie the World But to encourage and enable us to do so it does also shew us Secondly The certainty of a good issue in the doing it assures us that those who deny themselves forbidden satisfactions here that will be vertuous maugre all the baits and threats of Earth will embrace Duty when it is laden with a Cross although so heavy as to crush out life and kill the body assures us that those lose not but exchange their lives shall save their Souls and that there is another World wherein their losses shall be made up to them and repaired with all advantage To the truth of this the Cross of Christ is a most pregnant and infallible testimony For as by multitudes of Miracles Christ sought to satisfie the World that he was sent from God to promise all this and justified his Power to perform it by experiment raising some up from the dead so when they said he did his Miracles by Beelzebub he justified it â—urther with his Life affirming that he was the Son of God no 't is impossible but he must know whether he were or no and consequently sent and able to do all he promised and resolv'd to do it also for our more assurance in himself that he would raise himself up from the dead within three days and saying this when he was sure he should be Crucified for saying so and sure that if he did not do according to his words he must within three days appear a meer Impostor to the world and his Religion never be receiv'd Now 't is impossible for him that must needs know whether all this were true or no to give a greater testimony to it than his Life For this that Bloud and Water that flowed from his wounded side upon Cross which did assure his Death is justly said to bear witness to his being the Son of God and consequently to the truth of all this equal to the testimony of the Spirit whether that which the Spirit gave when he came from Heaven down upon him in his Baptism or the testimony which he gave by Miracle for there are three that bear witness upon Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood Thus by his Death Christ did bring Life and Immortality to light his choosing to lay down his own life for asserting of the truth of all this was as great an argument to prove it as his raising others from the dead and Lazarus's empty Monument and walking Grave-cloaths were not better evidence than this Cross of Christ. 4. Once more this Cross not onely proves the certainty of a future state but does demonstrate the advantage of it and assures us that it is infinitely much more eligible to have our portion in the life to come than in this life That to part with every thing that is desireable in this World rather than to fail of those joys that are laid up in the other that to be poor here or to be a spoyl to renounce or to disperse my wealth that so I may lay up treasures for my self in Heaven and may be rich to God never to taste any one of these puddle transient delights rather than to be put from that right hand where there are pleasures for evermore to be thrown down from every height on Earth if so I may ascent those everlasting Hills and Mount Sion that is above that this is beyond all proportion the wisest course it does demonstrate since it shews us him who is the Son of God who did create all these advantages of Earth and prepare those in Heaven and does therefore know them both Who also is the Wisdom of the Father and does therefore know to value them yet for the joys that were set before him choosing to endure the Cross and despising the shame On that Beam he weigh'd them and by that his choice declar'd the Pomps of this World far too light for that exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that the whole earth was but as the dust upon the Ballance and despis'd it and to make us do so is both the Design and direct influence of the Cross of Christ. But as at first the Wise men of this World did count the Preaching of the Cross meer folly to give up themselves to the belief and the obedience of a man that was most infamously Crucified and for the sake of such an one to renounce all the satisfactions suffer all the dire things of this Life and in lieu of all this onely expect some after Blessednesses and Salvations from a man that they thought could not save himself seemed to them most ridiculous So truly
it makes men heavy sad and melancholly hangs plummets upon the soul plucks down the thoughts and countenance and does that which no burden can effect in them whom weights do but exalt elevate and in their own expression a load of sin and drink that sinks their bodies to the earth doth but heighten imagination and delight Alas these men do no more discern the true labor of their own sins than they do the ease and the refreshments of the pious souls They see his fasts and abstinences but they discern not how he feeds upon marrow and fatness as David saith and finds all the words of their luxury in his religious performances how he tasts of the heavenly gift and of the powers of the world to come Heb. 6. 4 5. how he hath the antepasts of blessedness These men do not consider that the pious mans weights are as the other bucket which the heavier it is the faster it lifts that up that is against it a burden theirs like that of wings that does but poise their flight and help them up to Heaven whereas their own lightness shall sink them into the deep of that pit that hath no bottom 'T is true indeed those very sins that make our Savior stile the man a laborer are in other places called sleep as if they had the ease of rest as if to him that were wearied with duties of calling or devotion to take vicissitudes of sinning would be a soft refreshment and a pleasant reward as if a little return of iniquity would restore him as sleep doth the weary laborer And how shall we reconcile these expressions Shall we attribute them to the unhappy contradictions of this thing sin which is at once ease and pressure sleep and yet heavy labour or rather shall we gather hence the extremely toilsom condition of the sinner whose very rest is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whose refreshments tire and are most wearisom where shall he look for ease whose ease is misery and anxiety Tho his life be all sleep yet he is all that while one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text. And so those very wickednesses which are here called heavy burden are in other places called our own body our selves And what shall lighten him whose very self is weight What shall disburden him who is his own immense pressure Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from these burdens of our selves Burdens indeed with which the expressions seem to labor as well as the sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have not words for them the mineries the Gallies the Mill or dungeon are words of ease to the service of sin No such slavery in the world as his that is bound to serve his lusts and passions he must adventure thro all black designs and blacker hazards to attend ambition or to wreak ones malice or some hasty choler adventure upon rotteness embrace a Purgatory but to please an itch must be the Martyr of his lust run upon quarrels qualms head-ach hazard desperate misfortunes to quench not thirst but a little custom If you would see the labor that is in sin behold your Savior in the Garden it made the Son of God to sweat like clots of bloud it squeez'd that very person who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it made him faint not able to stand under that tree on which he was to bear the Iniquity At such hard rates man buyeth damnation as if he envied himself ease in Ruin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth extremely labor till he faint to get to Hell Have you read in Scripture the pains and anguishes of a man possest by a Devil how it speaks of such a one that was intolerably vext and tormented how the spirit rent and tore him often cast him into the agonies of death from it did revive him still onely to throw him back again into them It were no hard matter to shew that the Scripture does express every gross Sinner to be one of these Demoniacs to be possessed and inhabited by a Devil Matth. 12. 43 44. When the unclean spirit is gon out of a man he Walketh thro dry places then he saith I will return to my house from whence I came out and he enters in and dwells there And what doth all this mean but describe a person that after seeming amendment returns back again to his courses of sin Of such a one the Devil saith I will return A wicked person is the Devil's house Sathan dwells there and is not his house Hell And then are not all the miseries of Tophet the torments of the vale of Hinnom in a Sinner Yea experience is fair enough for this that the habitually wicked person is a Demoniac Look upon the wrathful angry furious man and you would think the man possest were but his picture his passion swels and tears him he stares and foams he cries out and is not so innocent as to say what have I to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God for he hath to do with him in blaspheming him with oaths and execrations and his spirit rends not himself onely but the wounds of that Holy one of God and if his passion could speak plain it would surely say his name also were Legion The debaucht Drunkards they have the Epilepsies the falling sicknesses the dead Apoplexies of men possest and there the Devil is again enter'd into swine The lustful person may find also a spirit of uncleaness and an unclean Devil in the Gospel And thus our sins do treat us And who then but wretched man would buy damnation at so hard rates who would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremely labor tire himself till he faint to get to hell as if he envied himself ease because he is to go down the hill thither that he may think he has an easy descent facilis descensus he will therefore load himself with a most heavy burden to make his passage the more troublesom Of what a profligated choice are we that refuse Heaven with ease and chuse Hell tho we must labor hard to get it Or secondly letting the heavy laden stand as they do in the sense we have now given we cannot excuse the Sinner from that expression there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that labor may signify such as groan under the sense of that burden such as labor to rid themselves of that weight that pant and blow after a liberty and ease from that heavy pressure under which they find themselves sinking into the horror of that deep the very imaginations of which doth cause faintings of soul in them and Apoplexies of fear that tire themselves to find out any way to escape from that eternal weight of torments that is prepared for them below and the weight of indignation and vengeance that hangs over them above and from that heavy burden themselves that sinks faster than either of the other outvying God's threats with multiplied accumulated
which makes Death a miserable condition as it is the sting of the Serpent that makes him a poysonous creature so it is that which makes Death destructive For were Death the expiration of that little spark in the moving of our heart and if our spirit utterly vanisht as the soft air and were it as the Atheist in the Wise man says we are born at all adventure and shall be hereafter as tho we had never bin Death would be so far from all sting that it would be perfect rest and the end of troubles but Sin makes it onely the beginning of sorrows it changes the very nature of death by making that which seems to be the cessation of sensible function to be the very original of the sensibility of torments Then the Sinner doth begin indeed to feel when he dies Death were but the term of a miserable life did not Sin make it the birth of a more miserable life or death I know not whether to call it for it is of so strange a nature that the very uniting of a Sinner's body and soul which is the onely thing we call life God calls death Rev. 22. 13 14. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell or the grave deliver'd up the dead which were in them that is the bodies to be joyn'd to the souls and they were judg'd every man according to their works and in that case all are cast into the lake of fire this is the second death Sin makes Resurrection to be dying and it must needs be so because as afflictions are in this life call'd death as St Paul saith in Deaths often so much more then may those torments of hell be call'd death So that in that death that Sin engages to it is necessary to live always that we may for ever die and it must be so because this makes us liable to the eternal indignation of the offended God which we were not capable of suffering were it not a death of this nature This is indeed death with a sting in it and it is the sense of this approaching that wounds the dying soul when it do's at once call to mind the wickedness of its past life and the wrath that do's await it when he recollects how sinful he hath bin and withall how hateful sin is to God so hateful that it was easier for God to send his Son to suffer death than to suffer sin to go unpunish'd then his own expectations sting and stab his very soul for if God did thus use his own Son how will he use me that have both sinn'd and trod under foot the death of that Son by going on wilfully in my sins Would you then my Brethren find out a way to make death easy and familiar to you you must pull out this sting The Jews say if Adam had continued righteous he should not have died but after a long happy life God would have taken up his soul to him with a kiss which they call osculum pacis he would have receiv'd that spirit which with his mouth he did inspire a kiss of taking leave here to meet in Heaven Wouldst thou have thy death to be the same thing 'T is but becoming righteous with the righteousness of Christ thro whom we have this Victory here in the Text the other part I am to speak to who giveth us the victory thro Jesus Christ our Lords where we have those that are partakers of the Victory and the means thro Jesus Christ our Lord and as to both these this I shall demonstrate over all those enimies in order who the us and how the Victory is gotten First the Law Now that Christ hath redeem'd us from the curse of the Law is said expresly and that by his being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. and what that curse of the Law was is set down in the tenth verse cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them which no man besides Christ did ever or can do and consequently all mankind lay under that same dreadful curse obnoxious to the wrath of God and the effects of everlasting indignation but Christ by undergoing that curse and by that means satisfying that strict Law procur'd an easier to be set us upon gentler terms not perfect and unsinning strict obedience which was impossible but instead thereof the Law of Faith obsequious Faith that works by love endeavors honestly and heartily and where it fails repents that is grieves and amends and perseveres in doing so For as St Paul assures us we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. tho we be under the directions of it the duty of it is most indispensable vertue always yet we are not under those strict terms of it according to the tenor of that curse but in a state of favor under terms of grace where there is mercy pardon to be had upon repentance thro faith and where there is encouragement and aid to work that faith and that amendment in us And thus far the Victory accrues to all mankind for all that will accept these terms of this remedying Law of grace the other killing strict Law hath no power over them For the Gospel was commanded to be preach'd to and its terms offer'd every creature under heaven all mankind a victory this that could not be obtain'd but by Christ's bloud the grace and favor of these easier terms for our obedience valued equal with his life for to take of this curse cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do it these strict terms he himself was made a curse and 't will be certainly a most unkind return if that which he thought worth the dying for to get us we shall not think worth the accepting slight these blessed terms and do not care unless we can be free from all necessity of an endeavor freed from vertue too as well as Law But secondly the Law being as we have shew'd it is the strength of Sin in giving it a power to condemn us that Law being taken off that power also cannot but be taken off from Sin and by that means the great strengths of that Enimy defeated Accordingly St Paul do's tell the Romans c. 6. v. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you that is it shall not have by vertue of the Law a power to condemn you for you are not under the Law but under grace are in that state where men are not condemn'd for every gross or heinous sin altho too long continued in but there is pardon to be had for them that will but faithfully endeavor to amend turn from their sins return to Christ receive him and his pardon and where there is also help to do this 't is a true state of grace so that unless men will resolve to force their own
the first the qualification believe which is absolutely necessary to make men capable of any benefits from Christ. For in all benefits of this kind the Text mentions such as were to come by miracle 't is well known what St Matthew says of Nazareth his own country that he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief c. 13. 58. St Mark expresses it that he could there do no mighty work c. 6. 5. that is he could not be inclined to work them so as that he could or would be willing to do any saving that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them For tho signs are not as St Paul says for believers but for them that believe not 1. Cor. 14. 22. so that infidelity seems rather prerequir'd to them than belief since they are don on purpose to convince work men to the Faith on which account some were always wrought first where he was not known to raise mens opinions and expectations concerning him which if they were heeded so that they did work some but beginnings of Belief he us'd to add more to encrease that Faith and confirm it But where the first Essays were ineffectual and got no credit there he did forbear for such render'd themselves unworthy of them altogether Miracles were lost upon them not attaining that end which they were intended for which was not for compassion to their sick to to heal or their dead to raise them for then as St Chrysostome observes he would have cur'd or rais'd them all but was for their Conviction to make faith of the Divinity of his Person and Doctrine and prevail with them to give themselves up to him as to the Messiah and therefore all those who by the knowledg or the fame of his great works were drawn to come to him for help he still requires profession of the faith they had concerning him and just according to the measures of that faith so he dispenses aid Thus Matt. 9. 28. the blind men that cried after him and followed him for sight he asks believe ye that I am able to do this and when they affirm'd yea Lord he yeilds no more but this according to your faith be it unto you v. 29. But when the Canaanitish woman did believe even to importunacy and trouble and her faith was such as would neither be shaken nor receive repulse but was full proof against Christ's arguments and his seeming reproches yea made use of his upbraidings urg'd them to her own advantage and in spight of all resistance persever'd Christ could not then contain but cried O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Matt. 15. 28. And on the other side as while Peter's courage seeing Christ his master walking towards them upon the water made him desire to meet him on the water too accordingly it suited while he did resolvedly obey his Master and rely on his assistance that commanded him he was sustain'd that confidence did buoy him up but when a turbulent strong wind once shook his faith when he began to fear and then to doubt immediatly he sunk Matt. 14. 30. And all the reason in the world that when he doubted whether Christ would or were able to uphold him in obeying him tho he had present experiment of both he should be then left to himself when in the height of the success and the securities of miracles he was afraid and stagger'd since 't was the whole design of miracles and by consequence of that to work faith and it is the very essence also of faith to assure us of God's power and his readiness to perform whatever he hath promis'd howsoever difficult It was this very faith that gave denomination and acceptance to the Father of the Faithful for when Abraham was bid to offer up that Son in whom he had receiv'd the promises that he should be the Father of many Nations that faith by which against hope he believ'd in hope that it would come to pass and staggering not consider'd neither difficulty rather natural impossibility of what was promis'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor was curious to satisfy himself or indeed examin how it should or could be as if he would model God's performances or his own expectation by the measuress of his comprehension of the means and method but accounting God was able if all other methods fail'd to raise him up from death altho he had no instance of that power Heb. 11. 19. and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness Rom. 4. 21 22. Now as this faith that God was able was that faith which made Abraham approved and the like faith in Christ we see was that which made them capable of his miraculous assistances so those cures and miracles being emblems and indeed pledges of that greater cure that far more comprehensive miracle he undertook and came to work on mankind the healing of their bodies not onely shadowing out the healing of their souls but also restitution of sight to the blind movement to the lame and the like being partial essaies of that Resurrection which he promis'd that was to restore all those to all at once giving life to the dead the like assurance of his power and readiness to do all this together with a full trust in him that whatever difficulties we encounter or imagin yet in the performance of his promises he will never fail those who seek after and pursue them in the ways that he hath chalk'd out to arrive at them This faith I say is the first qualification that can make us capable of benefit by him indeed as 't is the first so 't is the most intimate and onely active Principle of all Obedience Religion and Virtue For when all impressions both of God himself of good and evil and their after-recompence were defac'd and tho the lineaments of these things were wrought into men in their making and the study of Philosophy had refresh'd the dying images yet an inundation of corruption and debauchery had overspread all so far as that Almighty God did think it needful that his Son should be incarnated to revele again our duty and teach virtue and to give us an example of it in his practice even in the most severe and fatal instances and after having suffer'd for it and by that means ransom'd us from suffering for transgressing of our duty then to rise again and ascend into Glory to assure the blessed recompences of Religion and Obedience and the infinitely miserable returns of impiety and vice if after all we either shall so far abhor the duty as that we renounce these glorious obligations to it turn away from the very proposal of all those advantages that are to crown it and defy that ransom paid for them disbelieve all count them dreams cheats or illusions or however if we cannot satisfy our selves that those rewards
by except we will walk on in darkness unto the land of utter darkness But as a lanthorn is no guidance to the blind and a light is of use only where there is an eye so Gods commandments can have no influence upon nor give direction or assistance to our waies except this eye of the mind be enlightned by them for it is Conscience that is the conveiance to all duty to the heart of man that cannot set up obedience but as the Conscience do's press it on it that conveys the immediate obligation My Conscience tells me this I must forbear that I must practise Yea where there was no law to give direction the eye of Conscience looking o're the frame of man a creature reasonable in his making could strait see a necessity of doing things agreable to right reason and viewing the materials of the pile saw he was built of Soul as well as body of of an immortal Spirit as well as a carnal part knew that his life was to be order'd to the uses of the Spirit as well as of the flesh and more indeed that being the better part and easily could gather hence that man was not to serve his lower brutish part the body so as to discompose his soul and when it did so did condemn him for the doing of it And upon this S. Paul affirms Rom. 2. 14 15. When the Gentiles that have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law they having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written on their hearts their Conscience bearing them witness Which says that tho the rest of the world had not the Revelation of Gods will and Law as the Jews had yet from the dictats of their reason and the notions of good and evil implanted in them their conscience did oblige them unto the performance of such things as the Law required and upon such performance or omission without any other Law did either excuse them as men that did not culpably wander out of those paths which the light and Eye that God had planted in them did direct them in or else accuse them as transgressors and render them obnoxious to punishment And so it did before the Law So Rom. 5. 13 14. For until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no Law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgressions First after Adams time till Moses before the giving of the Law men fin'd and tho it be true that sin is not charg'd to punishment but where there is a Law to forbid it under that penalty and therefore it might be thought that sin without the Law would not have brought death into the world yet from Adam till Moses death reign'd men died that had not sinn'd as Adam did against an express actual precept promulgated as his was and establish't with a positive threat of death but died because they had sinn'd against the laws of their nature the principles of duty that were put into their making which Conscience prest upon their practise and whose guidance they would not follow they pull'd death upon themselvs in the errors of their waies 'T was by the equity of this that when the wickedness of men grew great in the earth the floud grew so too an inundation of waters overspread it when sin had once don so and iniquity against the dictates of conscience struck all the world at once with death except eight persons Conscience therefore where there is law and also where there is none is the great director of our actions and to this I shall apply our Saviors discourse dividing not the Text but Conscience and in the several members verifying what our Savior he reaffirms 1. Conscience either respecteth actions to be don or actions already don First as it respecteth actions to be don telling us this we must do that we must forbear so first as it answers to the single Eye it denotes the pure Conscience the enlightned Eye of the mind as S. Paul calls it that is a truly well inform'd Conscience a Conscience that judges according to its rule and to this I shall first tell you what is the entire rule of conscience and consequently when it s dictates are right when it informs me truly this I must do that I must forbear 2. Prove to you that all our actions that are regulated by such a well inform'd conscience are good and honest so that if this eye be single the whole body shall be full of light If the conscience be pure the man's holy and so the first part of the text is proved 2. As it answers to the evil eye so it denotes an evil conscience a conscience that do's not give true judgment of duty ill inform'd And this either First wholly so and then 't is reprobate sense such as that of them that call good evil and evil good from which men are stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4. 2. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Phavorinus Rom. 1. 31. Or secondly but in part and then 't is either first an erring conscience or secondly a doubtful conscience or thirdly a scrupulous conscience to which also several others will fall in And I shall shew you how every of these do's mislead a man into the dark The scrupulous raiseth clouds and mists about him dark errors and discomforts too the doubtful do's instead of guiding leave him so puzl'd that he knows not which way to be-take himself and the erring conscience lights him into the pit takes him by the hand to thrust him down guides him into a necessity of sin and the no conscience the reprobate sense it is a darkness somwhat worse then that the blackness of Hell here All this I shall do in order Upon the other part conscience as it relates to actions already don so it do's testify and in so doing either excuse or accuse Rom. 2. 15. Now tho conscience in the other former respect hath indeed the greater influence upon our practise and so to it the text do's more directly answer yet this latter having some also in order to the making future actions holy by repentance for when once the soul hath shipwrack't on a sin and she is ready to sink and perish there is no plank on which she can escape but repentance Now 't is this Eye that must look out for that 't is an accusing conscience that must set him upon Repentance this hurry's him about and will not let him rest 'till he get upon the plank that 's fastned to the Anchor even the Anchor of hope by which until it be secur'd a good conscience never is at quiet Because I intend to say but little to this I shall dispatch it now And that in order to its actions excusing and accusing And first if conscience be the
let their strictnesses take in some temporal aim besides as Reputation with their Party or getting Praise or Wealth they serve Mammon or Fame with Gods Religion and make the very Worship of the Lord be the Idolatry of Covetousness or of Honour If Jehu in his Executions on Ahab and his Family intend the cutting off the Regal Line as well as Baals worship and with their Blood to purple his own Royalty though God did bid him shed that blood yet does it stain his Soul with crimson guilt and God will punish him for his Obedience I will visit the blood of Jezreel upon the House of Jehu Hos. i. 4. But he that lets a vicious aim mix with his Vertue and does good to an ill end addresses Gods Religion to the Devil and makes Christ minister to Belial he does sin multipliedly both in his vicious intention and in debauching Vertue to serve Vice and he might much more innocently not have been Pious Neither is that Vertue or Heart sincere whose intentions are not purely and meerly vertuous but intend to compass some Religious end by means that are not lawful For such intentions are not clean but mixt with Vice and 't is sure I cannot please God with such kind of holy meanings If Saul will sacrifice with the Sheep and Oxen he was bid to destroy his very worship loseth him the Throne of Israel Nor an I serve God with such Pieties God never does require an action which he sees I cannot compass without sin for he requires no man to sin for that were to command me to break his Commands and I were bound to disobey him in obedience to him Shall I speak wickedly for God saith Job and then shall I do so Such Religious intentions the justice of those ends will never qualifie me for Gods goodness when it but makes Damnation just to me for so S. Paul affirms Rom. iii. 5 6 7 8. In fine if there be any wickedness in the heart it gives so foul a tincture to whatever pious actions we perform that they become sin to us 'T is true Prayer is as the Incense David says and the lifting up of our hands is like the Evening Sacrifice but if the heart of him that Prays have any heats of Malice in it truly that man does light his Incense with strange fire kindles his sacrifice with the flames of Hell for so S. James does call those heats He that gives God any of his performances and hath a naughty Heart like Nadab and Abihu he presents his Offering in an unhallowed Censer and all his holy worship will get nothing else from Heaven for him but a consuming fire as theirs did He that will offer any thing to God must take a care it be not tainted with such mixtures which spoil all the Religion making it not sincere and also spoil the Heart by making it not clean and undefiled The last remaining sense A Clean and undefiled Heart Of those things which our Saviour says defile the man some are meerly sins of the Heart such as may be consummated within the Soul and for the perpetration of which a spirit is sufficient to it self such are Pride especially spiritual pride the sin of those that think none holy as themselves and cast the black doom of Reprobation upon all that do not comply with their Opinions and interests such also are uncontentedness with our estates inward repinings at the dispositions of Providence concerning us black malice bitter envyings Now in these as the mind does need no outward members to consummate them requires no accessary Organs to work them out so neither does it require any outward accessary guilt to make them liable to condemnation we know 't was one sin of the spirit onely that made Angels Devils If a foul body be abominable to the Lord shall a foul spirit be less odious he that defiles his Soul offends God in a much nearer concern of his because that speaks nearer relation to him than the Body this was only his workmanship made out of Earth the Spirit was created out of himself a foul body is but filthy Clay but he that does pollute his Soul does putresie the Breath of God and stains a beam of the Divinity The other sort of things that are said to come from the Heart and to Defile are those which S. Paul calls works of the Flesh such as if they be committed must be committed outwardly Murders Drunkenness Revellings Revenge Wrath and Contentions Seditions Factions Schisms all Vncleannesses c. In these indeed the Heart can be but partial Actor the utmost it can do is to desire and to intend them and to contrive and manage the designs of compassing them which yet Providence or the Innocence of others may put out of the reach of mans power or his own temporal fears may make him not dare to set upon them though he do cherish the desires Now if they be obstructed from committing most men use to conclude gently of their guilts while they do keep within the Heart the Execution of them is the onely thing that does look mortal and till the sin be perfected there is no death in it And truly I confess that as it happens many times on a sudden surprize of soul when a bright gilded temptation strikes the heart and dazles the mind we see that the Will rushes on it instantly consents and wishes heartily yet within a while the Spirit does recover out of the surprize puts by the thrusts of fancy and the stabs of the temptation and that Will languishes and dies like a velleity as if it had been nothing but a woulding and now the man would not by any means consent to the commission In this case though there be a guilt to be repented of and cleansed with many tears yet this is Innocence in the comparison but if the Will purpose contrive and do its utmost it is the same to the man as if he had committed 'T were easie to demonstrate this that whatsoever evil thing a man intends and does fixedly resolve he is guilty of though he do nothing or though the thing he chance to do be never so much lawful Those sayings of St. Paul I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is no meat unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean Rom. xiv 14. and he that doubteth is damned if he eat ver 23. These could have no truth in them unless the heart by choosing and pursuing to the utmost any thing that it does judg unlawful incurr'd the guilt of that unlawfulness even to Damnation and all that meerly by it self without the Action which in that case had nothing sinful in it A weight that is upheld by a mans hand and otherwise would rush down to the earth does surely gravitate as much it is as heavy though it do not fall quite down as if it did and were it let alone
be the Correctives of the distempers of the Soul to quell the risings of the Appetite and Passions and bring the sensual part of us under obedience to Reason and Religion to make all calm and even in us and put us in the frame of Men and Christians of Rational and Pious Creatures And if they do not work this in us if the Soul do not meet in the performances they are not acceptable in themselves at all These are only the mint anise and cummin of our Pieties and as Origen says the condimenta actuum the sauces of Religion not the main standing parts of it which he therefore that offers solitary gives God a Sacrifice of Sallads and thinks that will be a Sin-Offering They do mistake themselves who cherish any hope from having spent a day or Lent of abstinence if the Excesses of their Vices be not made over and evacuated by it if they continue still full gorg'd with their iniquity or who think all is well they have atton'd by having bowed down the head like a bulrush if the Soul were not also humbled in them for as S. Paul does say I may give all my goods to feed the poor yet have no Charity and I may give my body to be burnt yet in those Martyr-fires there may be no heats of Love to God and then all these profit me nothing 1 Cor. xiii 3. So I may chasten my self too and yet yet receive correction or be disciplin'd and then Gods punishments are still due to me That Church indeed which hath found out the easie expiation of Indulgences that hath the Treasure of Christ's merits and all the supererogations of the Saints at her dispose and by Commission can issue them at pleasure out and apply those merits to mens uses not by Sacraments but by a Bull or Brief and not require Gospel conditions of Faith and Repentance in the Persons that receive them but visiting a Church in Rome ascending the steps in such a Chappel in the Lateran on such a day shall give a plenary remission from sin and punishment the saying of such a Prayer over daily shall do it for fourscore thousand years could they but make a Lease for men to live and sin out the indulgence too that would get them good store of Chapmen that Church I say may give encouragement to hope that God may be compounded with at easie rates that for a Surfeit I may give a Meal and God will pardon it and let me have Wine too into the bargain for they allow afflicting of our Souls in Wine that some weeks change of Dyet may go for a change of Life for indeed these come up somewhat nearer the just value than some of their Prices But though there be all the reason in the World they should let men out of Purgatory on what condition they please when themselves onely put them in and make the breath of a few noster's quite blow out those flames which burn no where but in their Doctrines Yet when without any commission from Christ they make Attrition able to secure men from Hell and an Indulgence able to release them out of Purgatory when they make new conditions of Pardon that is new Gospel new ways of application of Christs Merits and though our Saviour God when he found in his heart to dye for us yet in the Agonies of his Compassion could not find in his heart to give us easier terms of Life than such as do require Contrition Humiliation and Amendment which they commute so cheaply with his Vicar We justly stand astonish'd at such usurpation on Christ's Blood and Merits that does assign them at these rates I make no question but easie expiations get them many Converts Rome from its first foundation grew from being an Asylum to the dissolute but they that go away upon such hopes 't is to be feared that easiness betrays them into sins from which those Expiations cannot rescue them and at once makes them Proselytes to Rome and Hell Nor are our trusts much more secure if we rely upon our opus operatum too our little outward strictnesses unless the Soul be engag'd and except there be inward life of Religion all those will not avail If I deny my self my meals and give my self my sins that is so far from expiation that it aggravates I am an argument against my self that my crimes are incorrigible when I will have them though I cut off the Instruments and foments of them and though I meddle not with the Temptation yet I seize the sin What S. Austin does say of Alms In meliùs vita mutanda per eleemosynas de peccatis praeteritis propitiandus est Deus non ad hoc emendus quodammodò ut semper liceat impune peccare This is applicable to these performances also our lives must be Reformed and so on that Repentance and these strictnesses God will be reconciled and our offences done away but he will not be brib'd by these to let us alone in them he is not gratified by such performances so as to wink at Vices for their sakes and suffer us in our Rebellions upon such compositions as these take a Reward to spare the Guilt Nor is he such a soft and easie God as to take them for payment of that infinite Debt we owe that which he bought off with the Blood of God shall not be ours at such unworthy prices The Prophet Micah seeking for a Present to appease him with rejects all the Jewish rites though God prescrib'd them as insufficient and in them all things of the like external kind Mic. vi 6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and How my self before the most high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousand Rivers of Oyl shall I give my first-born for my Transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul If I do offer up whole Hecatombs to God will that atone for having offered up too plentifully to my Genius Or if I do remove my Riots from my Table to the Altar and change my few extravagant Dishes into whole Herds of thousand Sacrifices shall I by doing so remove the guilt too of my Luxuries If I give God ten thousand Rivers for my overflowing Cups will the Intemperance be wash'd away in those Or shall I think to expiate an Adultery with a Child and for that momentary and unclean delight give up the lovely and first issue of my lawful Bed And who will be content to be his own Priest in such manner to pay such Sacrifices for sins But yet that will not do as it cost more to Redeem Souls which not Rivers of Oyl can cleanse but streams must flow out of the Heart of Christ to do it nor the fruit of Mans body make a satisfaction for but the eternally begotten Son of the Divinity and none but the first born of
determination just and necessary But sure when God hath put other needs in my making and hath provided supplies for them those also are as just and necessary objects of desire while they are with and under him But yet he that had brought all his affections into Davids frame might well say he desired nothing upon Earth besides nothing with God for he had weaned his very Flesh and all the craving appetites of Sense from their own objects and had fix'd them upon God in all their strength and vigour My Soul saith he thirsteth for thee elsewhere my Soul gaspeth unto thee even as a thirsty Land and my flesh also longeth after thee Psalm lxiii 1. How My Soul thirsteth for thee with thee indeed is the Well of Life But Thirst is an Appetite gasping a consequent defailance and impatience of the Body to both which the Soul is a meer stranger as it is also to the ways by which the Body does desire â—or the Soul is drawn by moral engagements by persuasions and motives there is place for deliberation and Choice in her Desires she can demur in her pursuits divert her Inclinations and quench a Desire with a Consideration but the Flesh pursues in a more impulsive manner is drawn and spurr'd on by such impetuous propensions as are founded in matter You can no more persuade a thirsty Palate not to thirst than you can woo a falling Stone to stay its hast or invite it to turn aside from its direction to the Center Yea but the Soul also exerts it self in all these appetites of flesh and matter and with all their violence when it looks on God when we have once had a taste or when indeed we but discern our needs of him whether our Temporal or Spiritual those of the Soul or Flesh all the desires of both then fly at him and with a tendency most close and uncontrollable then nothing besides him For all the appetites of Body croud into the Soul that they may catch at God that Thirsts and Gaspes And the Soul does put on the violent impetuous agitations of the Bodies Appetites My Soul thirsteth for thee and my Flesh also longeth after thee What Longing is whether an Appetite or Passion of the Flesh or Mind whose signatures are more express indeed upon the Flesh than those of any other yet whose impulses are so quick and so surprizing as they were Spirit I shall not now enquire but sure if the Flesh long it should be for some carnal Object for that is proportion'd to it Flesh and the Creature use to close indeed and they imbibe each other as if they knew to fill and satisfie each other yea some there are that have brought down their Souls to the propensions of Flesh have given to their very Spirits an infusion of carnality for they mind onely fleshly things But by the rates of David's practice it should seem the pious man does the just contrary sublimes his Flesh into a Soul drains all the carnal Appetites out of it weans it from all its own desires and teacheth it those of the Spirit onely makes it long for God Now he whose flesh is defaecated thus and as it were inur'd to the condition which it shall put on when it awakes from its corruption as if it were already in that place whose happiness and desires have no use of Body and were in that state where their Bodies neither hunger or thirst for these he hath translated from his flesh 't is his Soul onely thirsts and that for God As if he were indeed like Angels now how can this man desire any thing on Earth besides the Lord who is and does already what they are and do in Heaven where we have nothing but thee But notwithstanding this exalted temper though we should arrive at this Seraphick constitution of desires and though God hath now made himself to us the proper object of these appetites for since God struck the Rock for us which Rock was Christ since the true Bread came down from Heaven if our Flesh long for God there is a satisfaction ready he hath made his Flesh be meat indeed if our Souls thirst for God he can furnish drink for a Soul the Blood of God But yet while this Soul sojourns in this earthly Tabernacle the man will still want other supplies and may be not desire them or can he choose indeed For they that tell us stories of some men whose hungers and thirsts after God as they devour'd all other desires in them so also gave themselves no other satisfaction but panem Dominum that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supersubstantial daily Bread the Lord these men I say would find it hard to make out how bare Species could nourish and sustain a bodily life Yea Christ himself when he was upon the Earth did hunger and although it was his meat to do his Father's Will yet when he was an hungered Angels came and ministred unto him and then may not our earthly needs desire something besides him That while we are upon the Earth all those necessities are in our constitution is certain but that we need not desire for them or any thing besides Him is as certain Because to them that desire him all these things shall be added they are annex'd by Promise Matth vi 33. it is for such to be sollicitous who would have something they must have alone something that cannot come along with God But if I be assur'd that all my needs shall be supply'd in him I need desire nothing besides him now this Promise he must perform for he that when he put Man in a state of Immortality in Paradise provided him a Tree of Life that might for ever furnish and sustain him For that Age also that he does design a man a being for his Service here upon the Earth he must allow him necessaries for his being and his Service otherwise he can nor serve nor be And then if they be certain what need he desire them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostome These are not objects for our careful wishes but our trusts and confidences we may assure our selves of these if we have him these are his Appendages and then why should I put them with him into my Devotions when my Soul lies gasping towards God in Prayer my desires seizing on his Blessednesses to take them off from him and to make my desires turn aside to little earthly things and fix them there is to affront not my God onely but my Prayer too and when these things are sure seems to betray a mind too Earthly and too apprehensive of these needs Surely I were most strangely necessitous or strangely greedy if both God and that which shall be added to him were not enough for me More wretched or else more unsatisfied than Hell if the Almighty were not sufficient for me if he be my provision then I need desire nothing besides him But yet Necessities will crave Hunger
would abide that touchstone and they therefore had no surer more compendious way for its security then to prevent such trial taking care men should not know what was or what was not in Scripture And it is not possible for me to give account why in their catechising they leave out all that part of the commandments Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image c. but this only that they dare not let the laity compare their doctrine and their practice with that Scripture But tho it is possible they might conceive some danger if the whole Scripture should be expos'd yet in those portions which the Church it self chose out for her own offices the little Lessons and Epistles and Gospels those sure one would think were safe no not their Psalter Breviary nor their Hours of the Blessed Virgin must they have translated in their own tongue as that Council did determin And truly when the Roman Missal was turn'd lately into French and had bin allow'd to be so by the general Assembly of the Clergy in the year 1650. and when it was don it had the usual approbation of the Doctors and some Bishops and then was printed at Paris with the license of the Vicars general of their Archbishop Yet another general Assembly of the Clergy the year 1660 whereat there were 36 Bishops upon pain of excommunication forbid any one to read it and condemn not only that present traduction but the thing in general as poysonous in an Encyclical Epistle to all the Prelates of the Kingdom and in another they say of him that did translate it and the Vicars general that did defend him in it that by doing so they did take arms against the Church attaquing their own Mother namely by that version at the Altar in that sanctuary that closet of her spouses mysteries to prostitute them and in another Epistle they beseech his Holiness Pope Alexander 7th to damn it not in France alone but the whole Church which he then did by his Bull for ever interdicting that or any other Version of that book forbidding all to read or keep it on severest pains commanding any one that had it to deliver it immediatly to the Inquisitor or Ordinary that it might be burnt forthwith Now thus whatever it be otherwise the Mass is certainly a sacrifice when 't is made a burnt offering to appease his Holiness's indignation when that verâ— Memorial of Christs passion again suffers and their sacred offices are martyr'd To see the difference of times 't was heretofore a Pagan Dioclesian a strange prodigy of cruelty who by his edict did command all Christians to deliver up their Bibles or their bodies to be burnt 'T was here his Holiness Christs Vicar who by his Bull orders all to give up theirs that is all of it that they will allow them and their prayers also that they may be forthwith burnt or themselves to be excommunicated that is their souls to be devoted to eternal flames And whereas then those only that did give theirs up were excommunicate all Christians shun'd them as they would the plague and multitudes whole regions rather gave themselves up to the fire to preserve their Bibles now those only that have none or that deliver up theirs are the true obedient sons of that Church and the thorough Catholics I know men plead great danger in that book it is represented as the source of monstrous doctrines and rebellions I will not say these men are bold that take upon them to be wiser then Almighty God and to see dangers he foresaw not and to prevent them by such methods as thwart his appointments but I will say that those who talk thus certainly despise their hearers as if we knew not Heresies were hatcht by those that understood the Bible untranslated and as if we never heard there were rebellions among them that were forbid to read the Bible For if there were a Covenant among them that had it in their own tongue so there was an Holy League amongst those men that were deni'd it While those that had the guidance of the subjects conscience were themselves subject to a forreign power as all Priests of that communion are How many Kings and Emperors have there bin that did keep the Scriptures from their people but yet could not keep their people from sedition nor themselves from ruine by it In fine when God himself for his own people caus'd his Scripture to be written in their own tongue to be weekly read in public too and day and night in private by the people and when the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost indited Scripture for the world they did it in the language that was then most vulgar to the world what God and the Holy Spirit thus appointed as the fittest means for the Salvation of the world to define not expedient as the Holy Fathers of Trent did looks like blasphemy against God and the Holy Spirit But blasphemies of this kind are not to be wondr'd at from that kind of men that call the Scripture a dumb judg a black Gospel inken Divinity written not that they should be the rule of our faith and Religion but that they should be regulated by submitted to our faith that the autority of the Church hath given canonical autority to Scriptures and those the chief which otherwise they had not neither from themselves nor from their authors and that if the Scriptures were not sustain'd by the autority of the Church they would be of no more value then Aesops fables And lastly that the people are permitted to read the Bible was the invention of the Devil But to leave the controversy and speak to the advantages which may be had from early institution in the Scripture 't is so evident that I need not observe how 't is for want of principles imprest and wrought into the mind in Childhood that our youth is so licentious And 't is not possible it can be otherwise when they have nothing to oppose to constitution when 't is growing and to all the temtations both of objects and example no strict sense of duty planted in them no such notions as would make resistance to the risings of their inclination and seducements of ill company and they therefore follow and indulge to all of them And in Gods name why do parents give their Children up to God in their first infancy deliver him so early a possession of them as if they would have Religion to take seizure on them strait as if by their baptizing them so soon they meant to consecrate their whole lives to Gods service make them his as soon as they were theirs as if they had bin given them meerly for Gods uses And they therefore enter them into a vow of Religion almost as soon as they have them why all this if accordingly they do not season and prepare
represent It signifies therefore that we there renew our vow of Baptism assume faithful Evangelical Obedience to all the Gospel do's require which if we do not faithfully endeavor and where we transgress repent but fail wilfully we wish that all the agonies of Christ may be our portion This is the Tenor of those our performances And now consider I beseech you in the fear of God with what strange multiplied arts of managery Almighty God pursu'd you thro all the stages of your life to seize on you scare you that you might not be a prey to vice and to the Devil How in your first Infancy he took early possession and in the soft tenderness of that age a temper the most capable of impression set his seal upon you markt you for his own that so the first thing you should come to understand might be that you already were engag'd to him and to his service not only Sanctitatis designati in Tertullian design'd and set apart for consecrate to holiness but in a solemn vow of it sworn to Religion and the keeping of Gods Commandments So that the sense of these great obligations might prevent not only any first essays of vice but even the first inclinations of the appetite or body We know whose fault it is if children be not season'd in this manner Now when by means of careful education pious principles have taken up their yet untainted understandings when their minds are stor'd with images of good things and their apprehensions wrought into an awe of God and reverence for Religion and to an abhorrency of vice least constitution ripening curiosity inciting edging it example drawing in encouraging and conversation pushing forwards Youth that is not setled steddy hath not firmness nor experience might yeeld to at least not break the first assaults which for the most part are the most impetuous that age was call'd upon to come and solemnly upon their knees before the Congregation to renew their vows Which could not but refresh the sense of all their obligations and make new and strong impressions of their great concern of fearing God and being cautious of all Sin and more and more excite and actuate their care in the performances of dutiful obedience And truly besides those assistances and blessings we might hopefully expect to reap in that rite from the praiers and benedictions of Gods Officers of blessing besides this at that time when the mind had not bin yet defloured the meer shame of violating what we had so publicly so holily resolv'd and sworn must needs be a strong curb to rein us in from evil Our heart would have fail'd us if we had attemted any for our very blushes must have call'd away the blood from thence to rise against the thing we had so solemnly renounc'd and bid defiance to Yet more to strengthen us we were thenceforwards yearly call'd upon at frequent solemn seasons to renew all in a more engaging Ceremony in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper where with deliberated preparation in the most tremendous Symbols we again made oath that we would not deceive wrong or oppress any bear false witness kill commit adultery or steal or covet and all this with the most astonishing circumstances possible doing it in the blood of Christ that was shed for Sin as it were shewing to our selves the cursed consequences of it how it tore his body spilt his blood and could have no less expiation so to make it look more dreadful to us And having don so taking in those pledges of that expiation into us as it were expressing we receiv'd them on those terms we had resolved there and no otherwise expected that they should be salutary to us then as we endeavoured to observe them And to do thus hath bin our constant practice and this I must suppose we are designing now preparing for and the more to affect our own selves with a real intimate sense of all this that Passion of our Savior must be represented to us Christ crucified before our eyes We consecrate a day to shew our selves that infinite indignation God Almighty hath to Sin which could not express it self in softer easier ways then in the Agonies and bloody sweat the Cross and Passion of the Son of God and shew our selves that infinite love of his to Sinners that inclin'd him to do all this for accept it in the stead of those that faithfully would cleave to him and leave their sins and to give more pungency to all this that it may touch livelier and pierce deeper we intend to entertain the celebration with the humbling and afflicting of our own souls and all this to actuate give life and vigor to the resolutions that we are to take upon it For while our hearts will be yet wreaking with the apprehensions we intend in that blood to renew again our vows and this we do from year to year and mean to do now Now sure we think we are in earnest when we do thus we do not tie these sacred bonds upon our selves as Samson did teach Dalilah to do on him only to try our own strengths on them and to serve us to break thro And therefore in Gods name that we would now begin to try in earnest whether we could keep them and that whosoever vows thus would first set himself against that Sin which constitution or his custom makes his sorest enemy that if he chance to come neer an occasion of it he consider I have deeply sworn against thee I have made a Covenant with my God and with my eies and with my ears and bound them from pursuing their careers over the invitations that have hitherto crept in at them and betrai'd me and whensoever a temtation do's come towards thee bethink thy self that 't is the Devils harbinger and that he himself is not far off but is there laying trains for thee and however kind his address be he hath a dagger at thy heart and a chain at thy feet which he is then come from below to get thee into out of all thy vows and a dungeon in Hell for thee Do not therefore treat with it but call up all thy resolution and thy oaths for otherwise thou dost betray thy self and it is plain thou hast no mind to keep them that thou didst not take them with that meaning And truly any one would think so that consider'd but mens vows and conversations how they first vow cleanness in the Laver which the Holy Ghost did hallow and then make their whole lives to be but wallowing in uncleanness and make that filthy which that vow had cleansed And then they swear amendment at the Altar dip those oaths in blood to make them solemn and strait mind and contrive nothing else but how to vomit up those Oaths and that Blood They seem before a Sacrament to have some sorrow or at least some thoughtfulness about their Sins but yet not resolving perfectly to part with them they bring
the conscience is past feeling then it is past cure The onely method is prevention here the onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep the conscience tender then it will be sensible of every the least touch of guilt check at whatever we shall do amiss Conscience is the eie of the soul now tenderness is a disposition very proper to the eie it is the tenderest part of the whole body and if the conscience be right that is so of the soul the smallest spill or mote is restless agony to the eie it never leaves to force out tears both to bewaile the torment and to wash away the cause I am sure our Savior calls a sin of the least size or guilt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 7. 3. things that should make the conscience as restless fret into lamentings prick passages for repenting sorrow The conscience of Converts always does so Acts 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked in heart and indeed this is the necessary constitution of Soul for them that ever hope to have their conversation holy he whose eie is not tender 't is not useful if it be not sensible of spills that get into it it cannot be sensible of objects such a callum as will make it not feel will make it not see and when it cannot perceive pain then it cannot direct or light and so the conscience if it feel no grievance from thy vices it will never boggle at them but when it is tender as the eie then it will rowl and weep if any thing disturb it 't will be restless till it free it self Let other Souls be tickled when they feel the pleasures of a sin but Lord let my heart smite me then the stroke and smart may make me fly the cause Let sin that and cruel Serpent sting stab wound me thus for then it will make outlets for its putrifaction it will draw tears to cleanse me from it self and sure after the bloud of Christ there is no other laver to wash away the foulness of my sin but that which gushes from those wounds of spirit nothing else will quench the power of it This tender conscience will preserve the whole conversation pure if its respects be universal if its cares reach to the whole latitude of its object if it be void of offence both towards God and towards man which shews the extent of its obligation and is my next consideration of which in a few words Void of offence towards God and towards men a conversation unblamable in all things that relate to God or man both these must be join'd the Honesty without the Godliness is but Heathen Morality and the Godliness without honesty but Pharisaical Hypocrisy 'T is just that which our Savior describes and sentences Matt. 23. 14. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye devour widows houses and for a pretence make long praiers therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation as if their long and earnest praiers pull'd down nothing else but woes and condemnation on them and their more religion gain'd them but more hell The one of these for all his honesty if he have not piety he is without God in this world nor shall have any thing of his heaven in the other whose life did not look thitherwards but aim'd no further than a conversation that was regular betwixt man and man The other the dishonest man notwithstanding his Godliness shall be without God in the world to come for sure he is not fit to live with God in that who is not fit to live with man in this who will not behave himself honestly must not think he can live religiously nor can that help him towards Gods rewards that does but help him to the greater condemnation So that they must be join'd and our conscience must be void of offence towards God and towards men and that not onely as the objects of our duty but the rules That Gods Law is the rule of conscience that we are bound to do what he commands I think I need not prove in this I have onely to wish our practice were as orthodox as our opinions But that man can oblige the conscience that laws however just of our rightful Governors are a part of this rule and we are bound in conscience to observe what they would have us do many men doubt there bene qui latuit bene vixit a close offender does not sin and if they come not under the lash of the Law they think the conscience hath no whip for these offences yet Scripture is express Rom. 13. 5. Wherefore you must needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake again 1 Pet. 2. 13 15. submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake for so is the will of God I do not here set down that humane Laws oblige the conscience immediatly it is enough for me they do it by Gods constitution that what we do so is for his sake and 't is his will that we should do it and then he that does not obey he breaks the will of God and so does that which a good conscience must needs tell a man he must not do I know some have found out a subterfuge that onely passive obedience is required in conscience not active and tho this interpretation would secure the Magistrate for men must not rebel against that rod which they are bound to submit to yet 1. 'T is strange a man should not be bound in conscience to obey the Law yet should be bound in conscience to suffer for the not obeying it What reason for this difference Sure if either 't is most reasonable to escape the punishment if he can But 2. What sense will they make St Paul speak * wherefore ye must needs be subject not onely for wrath if wrath mean punishment as it certainly does and be subject signify submit not actively but submit to punishment as they will have it then it means therefore a man must submit to punishment not onely for punishment or for fear of being punished but also because he is bound in conscience to bear the punishment now 't is indeed impossible that a man ought and is necessitated to submit to the penalty of the Law for fear of the penalty of the Law be bound to suffer a thing for fear of suffering that very thing or that he may escape that very suffering which he is bound in conscience too to suffer These are contradictions But of the active obedience the sense is plain we must obey their just Laws not onely that we may avoid their punishments which we shall suffer if we obey not but because we are bound in conscience to obey All the Apostles instances also being of active obedience and the whole reasoning of the place evincing it might serve for further evidence but this shall suffice me for proof and St Paul truly seems to take in these here in the text for amongst several
Hope of a Christian is this Hope Fourthly how that Hope does set a man on purifying He that hath this Hope purifies himself For the first what it is to purify I shall onely name it is to cleanse from all mixture of pollution and how far it is to extend is set down by St Paul upon the very same grounds with those in the Text Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of the Flesh and Spirit and St James Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded and they both mean thus much that for external actions Christian purity tho it will admit of slips and failings yet it is not consistent with continuance in any known sin And therefore David tho he were said to be a man after Gods own heart and that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord the very description of pure yet it is added save in the matter of Vriah For first it never does admit any filthiness of Flesh but must be universal and it is in this true what St James saith c. 2. v. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all God had before affirm'd the same expresly Ezek. 18. 10 11 12 13. If he beget a son that is a robber and that doth the like to any one of these things and hath defil'd his neighbours wife hath oppressed the poor and needy c. shall he then live he shall not live he hath don all these abominations he shall surely die So that in Gods sight he that hath don any one of these things he hath don all these abominations for it is plain that those he had not don he abstain'd not from because God had forbidden them for then he had abstain'd from that which he had don God had forbidden that so that his abstinences are not innocence but squeamishness or fear Either he does not like them or he dares not do them for some worldly reason and he does not onely let God see he can abstain for such considerations as these but will not for his Promises or his autority He values these below the mode or fashion of the world or his respect to some other person or any little interest or humor 2. Neither does this purity admit any filthiness of the Spirit we must purify our hearts and for internal purity the rule is that to abstain from outward actions of sin is not enough but the heart must be cleansed also this is proved already And indeed to deny my flesh the pleasures of the flesh and yet to let my mind dwell upon them and enjoy them not to commit them and yet suffer my soul to do it is to transplant the sin to make my soul act the deeds of the flesh and my very spirit become carnal This is at the best to give God the worst part of my services and the Devil the best my heart and soul the Devil enjoies God hath nothing but a few outward abstinences What a mixture is here how far from purity God and the Devil join'd together and the Devil having the upper hand the better portion Thus in general but to tell you what kind of purity we are to strive after I shall touch at some few Scripture wordings of it 1. Holiness For pure and holy are often join'd 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Now the true notion of holiness consists in a setting apart or discrimination from other things or persons And therefore holiness of life is the observing that peculiar different form of life which God hath commanded those whom he hath call'd not being conform'd to the fashion of the world As St James saith pure Religion not to live after the common manner of men common and holy being every where oppos'd so that when God is said to call us to holiness he requires us to consecrate our lives to his service to look upon our selves as things sacred Hence Christians are call'd living Sacrifices holy to God Rom. 12. 1. Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. and all names of Holiness are set upon them to shew how strict a necessity lies upon us to separate our selves from all carnal wordly uses and defilements 2. The Pure are exprest by Virgins 2 Cor. 11. 2. For I am jealous over you with a Godly jealousy that is as a strict careful Parent over his beloved maiden daughter so that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ. Every gross impurity deflowers the soul and when it sins it plays the strumpet And if a bride that on her wedding day should play the harlot and give away that Virginity which she had but then promised to her Husband would certainly not dare to stand the wrath of her furious Bridegroom that should catch her in her villany how wilt thou meet the jealousy of thy Spouse when as thou spread'st thy self to every temtation committest perpetual whoredoms with the World and flesh and doest continually act disloialty in the very eyes of his glory Certainly the same jealous care and earnest desires that are emploi'd in seeking a wife that is not vitiated this very expression of Virgin does direct us to make use of in watchfulness over our selves that sin do not devirginate us that we do not present a strumpet to Christ for his Spouse but that he may find us Virgins at the Marriage of the Lamb. Yea that we may see what kind of ones also St Paul expresseth their Purity Ephes. 5. 27. not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish For as every gross Sin does deflowr the Soul and make it no Virgin so every lighter fault is a spot upon the cheek a wrinkle in the forehead in Christs eyes And if chastity shall be severely guarded out of a respect to future hopes of marriages which there is no hopes to be successful in if that be blasted if to please a Suiter the glass shall be consulted with every stain shall be adorn'd cover'd made a beauty-spot and all methods sometimes more then honest us'd to keep the forehead smooth the cheek full and plain not content with the Lords workmanship upon them they will outdo their Maker and create to themselves beauties that God and Nature never did intend them if men do avoid wrinkles in a Bride as they would do a Deaths-head or memento mori in their bridal bed can we then think our selves whom every day bespots and stains every hour adds such wrinkles to whose souls have more of those furrows than our lives have minutes who are indeed onely bundles of deformities besides our gross whoredoms can we I say think our selves a fit Spouse for Christ Is he the onely Bridegroom to be thus provided for Can we have
cannot hope yet will in despite of that knowledge hope and do notwithstanding all think to come to Heaven Certainly while a man goes on to sin to hope for mercy is presumtion in him and so another sin added to the rest yea 't is a disbelieving of Gods threatning an affronting him in his veracity an imputing falsehood to his menaces and a putting himself almost out of the possibility of repenting For he that do's hope for Salvation in the condition he is in hath no temtation at all to change his condition but is likely to go on confidently and hopingly to eternal perdition it were a mercy to such a person to be struck into despair that he may be taught the wretchedness of his condition and hurried out it in which as long as he does hope there 's no reason to expect that he should leave it but by becoming hopeless in it may be frighted from it and the gates of hell is the onely probable means to let that man into the way of heaven O the Christians Hope it is the hope of righteousness Gal. 5. 5. Nothing else but holiness and righteousness can give a man ground for it And certainly my Brethren it is such a Hope as would countervail the trouble and the pains of reforming our selves What will not a man undertake which he can but hope to go thro and is assur'd of a large recompence for doing and surely Heaven is worth the endeavouring after and that blessed Hope worth purifying our selves for For it was worth the death of the Son of God Christ was content to be crucified to compass it and cannot we be content to purify our selves for it Will you see what hope can perswade a man to do See Abraham to whom God promis'd onely the Land of Canaan and that not to be enjoied by himself nor by his Son but onely by the Posterity of Isaac his Son and his Promises were further off than Heaven yet after that before Isaac had any Posterity when he was but a child God commands him to go and sacrifice his Isaac and go to cut off all hopes of ever enjoying it yet against hope he believed in hope saith St Paul and he that had receiv'd the promises of God offer'd up his onely begotten Son Heb. 11. 17. i. e. having entertain'd and embrac'd the promise of a numerous seed and people that should spring from him and having no other Son but this from whom they should spring nor possibility in nature nor promise above nature that he should have any more children but a plain affirmation that this People to whom the Promises belong'd should come from Isaac yet having once truly hop'd that God would perform his promise he absolutely obei'd that command of Gods resolving to kill the Son on whom all those Promises depended And now my Brethren there is no such puzles in our Hope nor no such hard thing requir'd of us no Sons to be sacrific'd but onely a few vices no doubtful perplext promise of a Canaan onely but plain assured Heaven and then had we but the least degree of his hope as we have infinitely greater reason how would we sacrifice any thing to Christs command how would we offer up a lust and think a sin a good exchange for the hopes of Heaven and he that had this hope would certainly purify himself as he is pure It is but now the Church hath celebrated the Ascension of our Lord Christ and the great Proposal of the Angels Acts 1. 11. to all those Disciples that beheld him going up to Heaven and gaz'd after him so wishly was that they should see him come again Now the particular comfort of that coming so again is when he shall appear we shall be like him 1 John 3. 2. and the hopes of being so St John thought a sufficient motive to set every man on purifying and that himself for this lustration cannot be perform'd by Proxy and be remitted to another for even our Saviors Righteousness will not be imputed unto those who will have none besides he redeems and saves none but them whom he has sav'd from their sins Reveal O Blessed God some of thy Glory which thou hast prepar'd for them that love thee some of that blessed Hope of a Christian calling to our hearts that it may stir our desires and longings and heat them into hopes and that we having the hopes of seeing thee may purify and may escape that day of fire which shall melt the Heavens and purge those glorious bodies which are not pure in thy sight Behold O God we tremble with horror of thy dreadful Judgment The Angels are not clean in thy sight and the Seraphims cover their faces what then shall become of us vile filthy Sinners whose daily impurities have so defil'd both our souls and bodies that we are but one mass and heap of uncleaness Blessed God we know that as long as we continue such we cannot hope to see thee in mercy we know that if we repent not we shall all perish we know that if we live after the Flesh we shall die eternally we know that neither fornicators c. shall have any inheritance O let this knowledg apply it self to our hearts and consciences that the terrors of it may fright us from the vain hopes that we do cherish of being happy notwithstanding we go on in our sinful courses for alas those hopes will perish with us and that those terrors may so work on us to set upon amendment Cleanse and wash we pray thee all our impurities in the bloud of thy Son bury them in his grave never to rise hereafter and melt our hearts into repentant tears that so our hearts may become purer O thou that didst cleanse us with thy bloud baptize us with thy Holy Spirit and with fire that it may purge out our dross and filthiness and be an earnest to us of that glorious Purity which we shall have in Heaven seeing thee as thou art and becoming like thee where we shall sin no more but for ever serve and praise thee SERMON VIII OF THE HIDING PLACE From Indignation Isaiah 26. 20. Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the Indignation be overpast UPON the Eve as it were and the Vigils to the day of Indignation when we cannot but look upon it as ready to be pour'd out on us in a full stream when we see destruction make close approches to us work round about us and punishment like our sin lies at the very door ready either to enter in upon us or seize us if we offer to come out to offer at a way to prevent all this that should discover to you a safe retreat from those threats that pursue this Nation in general open a shelter from the present storm cannot chuse but be seasonable yet such a thing the Text do's venture at
the Parable concerning importunate continuance in Praiers saith it opens the bed-chamber door and gets in thither And then my Brethren what need I be troubled how the world does go abroad when I am entertain'd in Gods banquetting house and in his bed-chamber It were easy for me to produce instances of them that were so taken up with the joys of Devotion that they had scarce any thoughts for any thing besides they even forgot that which was most necessary to their being it made all other passions to languish they had no appetites for other things at least there was no vigour in those appetites onely decaied desires from which the soul was quite retir'd and minded nothing but the Object of their Praiers being as it were in trance and swoons of Devotion Neither is this any strange thing or without reason that the Soul that loves should be so employ'd about and bent upon the Object of those desires as to neglect all other of its offices so impetuous in serving them that it abandons all its other business attends no faculty but that which is engag'd upon that Object does not so much as lend it self to any outward organ feeds and advances onely that affection but leaves the rest to decay and languish and being destitute of soul to die Just so if the love of those Contemplations which Devotions afford take possession of the heart it becomes heartless to all other functions careless and languid to every thing besides the Soul is so wholly bent upon the Object of those impatient desires that it does not animate any other inclinations they have no spirit in them but are weak and faint neither can they employ the heart so as to make him mind them but just as the enamour'd person that may be call'd and waken'd into some other business but let his thoughts alone and they run to his desires there they unite and center And to a Soul that is thus taken up what 's the world or the miscarriages that are therein Are there fears abroad They do but make me then withdraw into my chamber where there are all these joys Does judgment threaten an utter desolation make solitude about us and drive us into the place of dragons in Davids words I will retire that way into Gods bed-chamber Is the dimness of anguish and darkness as of the shadow of death coming upon the Land yet I am sure that in the little Oratory there is the light of Gods Countenance Does Calamity rifle all plunder the very bosom breasts and bowels the bosom of its dearest guest the breasts of their dear burden the bowels of their daily food and rob necessity Yea but how stands my Praier-chamber It is not quite so ill if they have left me the food of immortality the Body and Bloud of Christ it cannot plunder me of my Devotions and there is always blessed entertainment in Gods banquetting house If these comforts do seem too subtil and too notional for any tho this do happen merely by being unacquainted with the things that give them and I have shew'd you the way how you may certainly arrive at them of which this is the sum The devout Soul receives in times of discontent not onely liberty but invitation to go and bemoan his case to him that hath God-like compassions for him so much love to him as to die for him and to cast himself with confidence upon such a kindness submitting to his all-wise all-loving will These submissions are secondly rewarded by him with the great contents of having Gods will don upon him with the comforts of finding that it is indeed best for him And sure I am there are that have experience that never any sad thing happened to them but they found that it was for the best Thirdly the custom of this repairing to God and giving themselves up to his guidance begets a great acquaintance an intimacy with the Lord he reveals himself and his comforts to that soul it do's enjoy strange refreshings from enlightnings breathings inspirations evidences and assurances even tasts of promises and preparations Lastly the contemplations of these and familiarity with God begets transcendencies of love and joy which when they are once entertain'd their desires languish to all other things they seem low and of base alloy and consequently they take no content in them being swallowed up by the other Yet let others lower souls take the comfort of this consideration when things are so that if they look into the world they can see nothing round about them but the prospect of trouble and if they go on besides the loss of all the opportunities of Religion the labors of their whole life will but serve the ruins of an hour that they have provided onely for spoil heap't up for rapine and gather'd but a prey when the affliction of such an hours consideration shall have made them forget all their prosperity so that in the whole compass of things they cannot find one occasion of comfort why then those hours they have spent or shall go and lay out on devotion and the service of God they shall be sure will turn to their account both here as to the preservation of those opportunities and of their Church for sure if God be likely to be mov'd to the continuance of them 't is to those that will make use of them and 't is for them for what should others do with them that do not value them nor use them and will also turn to their account hereafter That Praiers and those other exercises go up for a memorial to God as the Angel told devout Cornelius and prepare them mansions there when they shall be divested of all other habitations and that with Mary here is the better part that cannot be taken from them that when their Riches have forsaken them taken the adverse party and gon to their enimies these will stick by them go along with them even up to Gods Tribunal and take their part at the day of Judgment when nothing dares appear for them but Christ and Piety Oh my Brethren when you or I have spent one hearty hour in humble zealous devotions the hopes of the issues of that hour the confidence that God hath heard your and my Praiers and do's accept this our service and will eternally reward it if we continue thus tho we be not able to raise our selves up to those heights of joy and love and complacency before recited yet those lower hopes and confidences have more comfort in them than all the hours of pleasure in my life for what have I of that when the frolick's over I may as well look for the footsteps of an impression on the water whose gliding streams instantly smooth themselves or search for the tracts of birds in the yeilding air that shuts and closes up it self in a little moment as seek for relicts of joy after the pleasure is past alas the delight did vanish with the laughter and
the comfort died as soon as the smile the very memorial of them is perisht and there is nothing of them left alive but that now all is don I am never the better for them But the comforts of my devouter hours shall never die but when I go to die my self will be like life and immortality to me O the strange acquiescencies of soul in the Consideration the few hours that a man hath spent piously how they will calm death assist in agonies and releive from pains how such a Soul anticipates his Heaven The truth is to such an one death is welcom and life tho it have on it the shadow of death is full of comfort For when all the world about is Egypt a devout man tho he have but his chamber to retire to and his doors be shut upon him he lives in Goshen when the consuming fire did run upon the ground throughout the land there was no storm in Goshen Exod. 9. 26. and when flashes of judgment do burst in upon other persons 't is calm in the Praier-room When the destroying Angel had overrun every house in Egypt with death when there was nothing but carcasses and crying in each dwelling there was not one sick in Goshen Exod. 12. 30. When a thick darkness dwelt upon the Nation the Israelites had lights in all their dwellings Exod. 10. 23. and when a sad dark cloud does sit upon Gods Countenance and pour down inundations of tempest on a people yet then his face does shine in the Closets of devotion there he breaks in and does reveal his comforts God is so there as his Angel was at that time a Pillar of light to them and of cloud to those others Exod. 14. 20. and when in this their pilgrimage he takes off their chariot-wheels v. 25. that they drive heavily prest with the weight of afflictions and the heavier incumbrances of the World striving against the tide and torrent of troubles encountring nothing but rubs and crosses and having on no wheels none of Gods comforts to bear them up they march heavily till at last the waters overwhelm them when as to those others the waters were a wall on the right hand and on the left and to the devout persons the troubles of their times by making them retire into their chambers prove an occasion of security which brings on the next observation from the words hide thy self Whence we draw that Praiers and the exercises of Piety are in sad days the onely great security and the Devotion-chamber a sure hiding place from trouble And indeed where else should we take shelter but in our Sanctuary Where should we seek for refuge but at the horns of the Altar where we offer up the incense of our Praiers and the lifting up of our hands is as the evening Sacrifice I have told you to retire thus into your chambers is to enter Gods bed-chamber and where is safety to be had if it be not there Is there not full quietness and calm in the Lords withdrawing rooms Not to tell you that David plac't his Rock his Fortress his Castle his every word of safety upon this foundation not to reckon up an infinity of places besides Psalm 27. 5. and 61. 2 3 4 5. I shall onely say that 't is impossible for any Sermon to say better what I have to say for him that betakes himself to these secret rooms and nestles there nor more pertinent to a time of sickness and distress than the 91. Psalm hath spoke v. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 c. and to which 't were vanity if not Tautology to add Should I labour to evince this further I could prove strangely to you that good hearty devout Praiers are in time of danger a Security even to a Miracle Security from the fury of men when single Prayers did resist an Army when Moses's hand lifted up in his devotions slew more Amalekites than the armed hands of Joshua and all his Regiments stretcht out for when Moses lifted up his hand then Israel prevailed Exod. 17. 11. Security against the storm of Gods assault for a Praier of Moses is call'd a standing in the breach against the Lord when he came to destroy the People by a plague Psalm 106. 23. so God said he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrathful indignation least he should destroy them They are terms of war and do express the desperatest act of Valour which war hath occasion for when wall and rampart could not resist the storm of shot but the Assault made its way thro stones and bulwarks then must courage become the Rampart maintain the breach and repulse the Assailants This is the danger and the glory of Valour and this very expression do's Scripture make use of to declare the force and courage of a zealous Praier When Gods indignation had storm'd the People when it had made a gap a breach to enter and overrun them in a moment and the Angel with his sword drawn was assaulting had began his deaths in steps Moses arm'd but with single Praier maintains the breach and turns away the Indignation Neither was this all for it did not onely beat off his fury but assail'd him also as it were took God captive and held him that he could not fall upon them For in the 32. Exod. 9 10. he cries to Moses it is a stiff-necked people now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them in a moment let me alone Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dimitte me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 permitte me ut invalescat Syr. nunc si permiseris mihi invalescet Arab. dimitte deprecationem tuam à facie mea Chald. Loose me and let me go suffer me let me alone that I may destroy them do not pray to me thy strong desires are as bonds and cords upon me loose me and do not hold me I can do nothing if thou pray my arm of power my stretcht our arm is held in it is restrain'd by thy strong cries thy violent sighs they cool my wrath that it cannot wax hot against them thy zeal it is irresistible do not therefore make use of it do not hinder me do not pray now let me alone and I will make of thee a greater Nation I will bribe thee to silence because my fury will not withstand thy Praiers if thou maintain the breach I shall not take this People now by storm be hir'd then to withdraw let me alone But Moses he would take no bribes from God but he besought the Lord his God as it follows there and the sudden effect of his Praier was the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people Here 's the power of a fervent Praier it hath a kind of force on the Almighty a force that he does seem as it were afraid of would have prevented and
their lusts advance but their lusts are their plague and torment them and they extremely hate and curse those things which they do passionately desire Now that habitual Sinner his sins they are his emploiment his delight too he longs as those other but he satisfies also and finds pleasure in them and then if those others be fit company for the Devils onely canst thou believe thy self fit company for Christ that he should bid thee come to him No begin to act thy Hell a little sooner account them here thy torments hate them in time perceive them to be burdens while they may be laid down and then come unto Christ and he will give thee rest And evermore O Lord give us of thy rest a rest from sin here and a rest from misery eternally Yea O Lord give us to labor and to find trouble under that intolerable burden of our guilt that we may with eager hast fly to the refreshment that we perverse obdurate Sinners whom thy mercies cannot invite our own miseries may force to be happy and tho our wickednesses are multiplied into an infinite mass and weight yet despise us not when we fall under them for thou didst invite us to come and bring all that load to thee despise us not tho heavy laden for thou thy self didst bear this weight and didst die under it And O thou who didst thy self thus suffer by reason of this load pity us that labor with it ease us of the burden of our former guilt free us from the slavery of our iniquity from bearing any longer Sathan's loads then shall we at last sit down with thee in the Land of everlasting rest deliver'd from all weights but that eternal weight of glory and resting from all labors save that of praising thee and ascribing all Honor Power Praise Might Majesty and Dominion to Father Son and holy Ghost for evermore SERMON X. OF THE CHRISTIANS VICTORY Over Death Sin and the Law 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. THE words are the close of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Song of joy and triumph for a victory Now a victory supposeth Enimies and the verse before names them and the Text shews us the means that they art conquer'd by and who they are that are partakers of the Victory I shall declare and treat of both 1. The Enimies here mention'd and we may account them three if that which gives both aid and strength to fortifies our Enimy be so as sure it is 1. Here is Death which sin arms with a sting and do's envenome it 2. Sin it self empower'd and strengthned by the Law 3. That Law also In the second place here are the means by which the Victory is gotten and for whom us the victory thro Jesus In handling all which I shall shew First that the Law gives Sin all its strength and how it do's so 2ly That Sin is the sting of Death and how it is so 3ly That by Christ both the Law which is the strength of Sin is taken away and Sin which is the sting of Death pull'd out and so both Sin and Death so weaken'd that they cannot hurt now and they shall be swallowed up in perfect victory and who they are all this is don for Of these all in this order which I crave leave to speak to directly without any least diverting from the Text or Subject First I am to speak of the first preparations that are made against us in behalf of our Enimies and that is to shew you that the Law gives all the strength to Sin which it hath and how it do's so Sin hath its very being from Law it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. and Sin is not imputed where there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. yea where there is no Law there is no transgression c. 4. 15. But this is not all for in the Law besides the Precepts there is also Sanction and it lays a twofold obligation first to duty secondly upon transgression to punishment 1. To duty and that perfect and unsinning strict obedience for the terms are these Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them And to this the whole man is oblig'd the soul as well as body caro spiritus Dei res est saith Tertull. God made the soul as well as body one 's his creature as much as the other and the one hath as much reason then to pay him honor and obedience as the other if indeed the spirit hath not much more to obey him in its own motions and actings than in those of the body which are onely under it and guided by it So that thoughts are criminal against this Law as well as doings by them the Soul fulfils its part of the transgression more it may be than its own share while it robs the Flesh seizes its satisfactions and makes them her own against her nature And indeed whatever part the Law is broken and transgrest by 't is transgression and sin still whether by the mind for lust when it hath conceived onely sin is then begotten James 1. 15. or by the tongue for of every idle word we must give an account at the day of Judgment Matth. 12. 36. and by thy words thou shalt be condemn'd Or lastly by the works So that according to the Tenor of this strict and severe Law whatever we can do or indeed whatever we do not is Sin besides commissions that are sinful there is still defect and so transgression in our thoughts our words and deeds even in the best and in not doing also there 's omission and so failing But besides this severe obligation of the Law to duty upon this our faileur there is a severer obligation 2. To punishment for every sin is cursed as we saw Upon this account the Law saith St Paul worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. we are children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. whose inheritance is destruction and who are of right to possess onely the sad issues of God's indignation for to this the Law condemns us all by reason of our Sins and upon that account the Law is said to be the strength of Sin Because by force and vertue of this threatning of the Law we that have sinned are therefore liable and obnoxious to the condemnation of it And this I take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 7. 7 8 9 10. I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known concupiscence except the law had said thou shalt not covet But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence for without the law sin was dead but when the commandment came sin revived and I died and the commandment which was ordain'd to life I found to be unto death The Apostle's drift here is not to evince how the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies O Death where is thy plea by which thou didst attaint men before God's Tribunal where is the right thou hadst over all men to seize and take possession of them what 's become of the sentence that was awarded thee by which all of us were adjudg'd to be thy bond-slaves where is that punishment which thou didst inflict upon us all and by it ruin us To all these rights Sin did entitle thee O Death or as it is here in the Text Sin is thy sting whatsoever power thou hast of hurting man as the Scorpion's venom lies in his sting that power Sin hath given thee and in that it lies without Sin Death were no plague and it is this that makes Death insupportable Now to prove this I need not urge more than what I have already said for if Sin be a sting in the very thought of Death much more pungent will it be when Death it self approaches when the Feaver shall lay hold upon the bloud not onely to revenge the former heats of that lustful or that riotous bloud but to be dawnings of those eternal Burnings which do await the Sinners and shall do more than represent unto thee the heats of that unquenchable brimstone which is to be thy lot and which already doth begin to flash in upon thee Which part of thee do's labor with the more intolerable Feaver thy Body or thy Soul Alas the frost of the Grave would seem to thee a Julip a cool refreshment onely if Sin did not make thee look upon the grave as a downlet to that bottomless pitt which is the lake of fire that is not quencht Nothing possibly can keep an unrepentant Sinner that on his death-bed apprehends his guilt from the horror of despair from being his own Devil and suffering his own Hell in his own bosom upon earth I shall demonstrate this invincibly to you that Sin do's and nothing else do's make Death most insupportable when it approaches Now to evince this my Argument is none other than our Blessed Savior himself in whose Passion the onely imputation of guilt seems to have rais'd the greatest contradictions imaginable If you look upon him preparing for his Passion it seems his onely and most pleasing design as he came into the world for that end so his whole life before it was but a Prologue to it onely a walk to mount Calvary it was his extreme desire I have a baptism to be baptiz'd with baptiz'd indeed with fire and his own clotted sweat of bloud yet this Baptism how am I streightened till it be accomplished Luke 12. 50. He had longing throws after it he did as much desire it as a woman to be deliver'd of her burden Nay it was his contrivance he did lay plots that he might not escape it for when a glorious Miracle had broke from him that did extort the confession of his Deity from Men and Devils he charges these to hold their peace and bids the other tell it no man one reason of which was least the knowing him to be the Son of God should hinder him from suffering He gives it himself Luke 9. 21 22. he straitly charg'd and commanded them to tell no man that thing saying the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected now should they know I were the Son of God they would not crucify the Son of glory You see what care he takes least he should not suffer and just before his passion he come in triumph to Jerusalem with songs and joy about him as if Death were the onely pleasant thing and his passion so desirable that he would go ride to meet it which he never did at any other time And add to all this that the person was the Son of God to whom nothing could be truly insupportable yet when this person comes to meet it see how he entertain it his soul is exceeding sorrowfull he fell on his face to pray against it and while he was in this condition an Angel from Heaven came to strenthen him yet he is still in an agony and prays more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of bloud Now 't was the sense of Sin upon him that made his bloud run out in clotts as it were flying from that sense it was the apprehensions of the guilt imputed to him and the wrath which he knew was due to it did make him apprehend his God who was himself was gon from him made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Now to say that all this dread were from the mere apprehension of death were horrid blasphemy the meanest Martyr was never guilty of so much weakness No 't was from the sense of the iniquity that was upon it 't was because he was made sin for us he was a man of sorrows saith the Prophet Isaiah because in representation he was a man of sins for he bore our iniquities saith the same Prophet c. 53. The Lord had laid upon him the iniquities of us all and therefore he was oppressed And so I have made appear that Sin is the sting of Death more than if your selves did feel it by an experimental despair for it is more that Sin should make Death terrible to the Son of God than that it should make it insupportable to you And therefore before Death seize you and prostrate you into his dust this consideration may humble you into the dust and ashes of Repentance this I say if Sin were a sting that made Death so insupportable to Christ what will it be to us If the apprehension of it when it came arm'd onely with the imputation of our guilt for he himself knew no sin was so terrible to the Son of God how shall we stand under it when it brings all our own iniquities to seize upon us If he that was a person of the Trinity could not bear the weight how shall we sink under it That which made our Jesus in an agony as if he meant to pour out his soul in his sweat and pray and roar and die will certainly be to us most infinitely beyond sufferance Alas what then will be our hope We have certainly none except we can by Faith and Repentance rid our selves of this Sin which is the sting of Death and makes it to be thus intolerable which how it comes to pass I must now shew 2. Why and how Sin is the sting of Death Sin may seem very properly to be call'd a sting of Death for it was the Serpent that brought Death into the World and Sin was that by which he did inflict it now a sting is a Serpent's proper instrument and a venomous sting it was that could blast Paradise and shed destruction there where the Tree of life bore fruit But that is not all the reason why it should be call'd the sting of Death because it makes us obnoxious to Death but it is that
see him as he is add this Every man that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure doth righteousness in the words following and so is righteous even as he is righteous But that we may know what King David means by beholding Gods face in Righteousness we must know that first by Righteousness is meant uprightness and sincerity of a religious holy virtuous life and as for the beholding of Gods face we may take notice that altho God saith he spoke to Moses face to face yet he tells the same Moses that he cannot see his face and live Exod. 33. 11 10. so that Davids beholding of his face is not seeing him as he did hope to do when he did awake up after Gods likeness but 1. As for God to lift up the light of his countenance Psalm 4. 6. and to make his face to shine upon a man Psalm 31. 16. is to be favorable to him and to hide Psalm 30. 7. or turn away his face 2 Chron. 30. 9. is to withdraw his favor and to be displeased so also to seek his face 1 Chron. 16. 11. is to endeavor to obtain his kindness and accordingly to see or behold his face is to be in his favor to be in a state of enjoying it But besides this also 2. As those that are said to behold the face of Kings are those that minister about them do them service of the nearest admission and that stand in their presence and are ready still to execute whatever they command So 2 King 25. 19. and he took five men of those that saw the King's face of those that serv'd him in ordinary and so very often Ester 1. 14. c. And as secondly the Angels that are ministring Spirits sent forth by God to minister perpetually are said to see the face of God always Matt. 18. 10. so when David says of God thou settest me before thy face Psalm 41. 12. the Jews expound set me that he might serve minister unto him for that is to stand before the face of one 1 Kings 1. 2 4. and c. 10. 8. and c. 17. 1. c. as he had said dost appoint me for thy service and by consequence to see his face or to behold his presence is to wait upon him in all duty and obedience to his commands whom they attend accordingly to walk before him or walk with him in his presence is to serve him constantly with all uprightness Gen. 17. 1. and to please him Heb. 11. 5. cum Gen. 5. 24. But particularly in the acts of Worship and Religion his House the place that 's dedicated to his Worship being call'd his Court his presence Psalm 95. 2. and 100. 2 4. because he sate upon and spoke from the Mercy-seat Exod. 25. 22. Numb 7. 89. and the Ark is therefore his presence and his face those that serve there are said to minister before him in his presence those that come there to appear before him Psalm 42. 2. those that pray to seek his face 2 Chron. 7. 14. and to intreat the face of the Lord 1 Kings 13. 6. and our King David did desire one thing of the Lord which says he I will require even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord Psalm 27. 4. So that to behold God's face in righteousness here does signify all this I will serve thee truly faithfully attend thy commands and wait upon thee in a constant diligent performance of my duty live as always in thy presence holily and righteously especially in attendance on thy Worship when I come to seek thy face to put my self before thee in thy presence and so doing I make no doubt but that thou wilt lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall behold thy face to shine upon thy servant And indeed that this is the means and that there is no other way to arrive at this state is not difficult to prove for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness saith the same David Psalm 11. 7. his countenance will behold the thing that is just whereas without this no man shall see the Lord and thereupon the Prophet Micah after strict inquiry in the peoples name what they were to do that they might find God's face look pleasingly upon them and see his favorable countenance wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and how myself before the most High God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams If his favor be to be bought tho at the greatest price 't will be abvisable to give it and the dearest purchase would be a reasonable one Or shall I give ten thousand rivers of oyl thereby to make his face to shine and look upon me with a chearfull countenance This sure were to be don Or farther yet shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Time was indeed when men would do that offer up their tender infants in the fire to Moloch to preserve themselves from those sins of the other Tophet as if the burnt child were to expiate the foul heats that begat it I know not whether men believe now such transgressions can deserve so severe atonements that a sin of theirs is valuable at the life of their own first-born tho they take upon them to profess the faith that they were valued at the life of the first-born of God however there our Prophet shapes this answer to that question wherewithall shall I come before the Lord He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And truly if we come before the Lord to behold his presence in the duties of Religion we must see his face in Righteousness otherwise he will either turn away his Face or else our praiers will but call his frowns upon us and indanger us to perish at the rebuke of his countenance The Prophet Isaiah speaking as from God to that vainglorious nation of the Jews saith c. 1. v. 12 c. When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me it is iniquity even your solemn meetings Sabboths and your appointed feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many praiers I will not hear Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment right the oppressed c. And surely if men do not put away the evil of their doings from them when they come before his face how lowd
it does require is very obvious Lord is a word of power and autority it requires service and obedience Nothing more frequent in the Prophets than when they have from God severely worded their commands to add this sanction I am the Lord and as applied to Christ St Paul does say I serve the Lord Christ. A servant is the necessary relative to a Lord and truly doing what he doth command was the use he assigned of all that power he had given him teaching them to observe whatever I have commanded And truly if those Scriptures be remembred which secure his Autority thus let us know that Power was the reward of his sufferings and he endured them partly for the Title 's sake therefore says as much and Heb. 12. 2. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God did all this that he might gain that place or if that be not plain enough then this is most express Rom. 14. 9. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Verse 8. That whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord that is that both our life might be consecrated to him our lives spent on his service and our deaths be at his command and this was part of the end of his death And then I appeal to your own hearts for what end think you he did so desire and obtain this power Do you think when he was set at the right hand of God he was exalted onely to a name that by all those sufferings he did acquire but a bare title to be call'd Lord of Lords as he is call'd Rev. 19. 16. but neither to look after our obedience nor indeed to set us any law to obey as some would have it Was this power so dear to him as that he would suffer all those torments to compass it and yet when he hath it that it should be so little regarded by him as to suffer us to neglect contemn it to go on in a continued course of disobedience to all his precepts to rebel against his Power never submit our appetites to it but let every lording passion fly in his face every lust defy his Autority let us be proud against that Lord be higher than our duties and all the temper of virtues and let every ebullition of our proud wrath trample on a statute back'd with hell-fire yea and so believe that his death should procure us an impunity in doing this What a wretched mistake is this to think his bloud which purchased him a power to command us should purchase us a leave to disobey him This is to make Christ's bloud divided against it self and to make it spill and dash it self That we should go on in a course of iniquity or allow our selves some peevish vices and stop our own consciences and a Preacher's mouth with saying Christ died for us when as 't is clear he died that he might be Lord that is that we might live and dy to him do both at his command and canst thou think that that death will excuse thee for not obeying which was undertaken for that very end that thou mightest obey him Christ died to be thy Lord and thou wilt have that death a plea for thee when thou obeyest sin and the Devil his greatest Enimies His Cross was his very Ensign and Standard against these Enimies his Passion was his grappling with them and his death his Victory And yet thou dost again submit to their authority becomest a subject to their power and settest them Lord over thee and fetchest the justification of this thy defection from that death and victory and that is the same thing as to make them of no autority nor power yea the captivity and ruin of those Enimies to be the reason of thy obeying them to excuse thy disservice to Christ by saying he is thy Lord and for thy rebellion and waging war with him pretend thou dost it under his own standard No certainly his Title claims Obedience and does assure thee thou must serve This is the first thing what thou must do The second what thou maist expect from it is easily discover'd that is wages For he will recompence every man according to his deeds Rom. 2. 6. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life v. 7. And glory honor and peace to every man that doth good v. 10. For he is the Lord of glory the Prince of peace and Lord of life the Scripture saith in a word to sum up both what his Title doth require and what we may expect from it it saith Service and it saith Wages and both are set down in that to the Heb. 5. 9. He is the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him and both here are applied to him who does in earnest owne the relation to this Title and can say in truth My Lord the next part and first of the applying what it does require Service as it is the assuring of performance My Lord. And truly had we not entred any voluntary obligation and had we not contracted formally to take him for our Lord and not onely owned all that the relation does import to be due from us but engaged also to render it yet he is to us both 1. By an Original right he made us and there is not a workman in the world hath so much right to require the uses of his own handy-work to dispose of that same utensil which himself shap'd or fram'd as the Lord hath to require our service Did I perchance furnish the Lord with some materials for my self or did I find any piece towards my making contribute any least thing to my being then let me claim somthing for my share in my self and by the rule of fellowship with God have some use of my self to my self and as to that let him not be my Lord. But there is no such thing he called me into being out of the infinite resistance of vacuity and nothing He gave me body soul and every power and faculty and he upholds every motion and inclination of those faculties and gives me opportunities and objects for them There is no considerability of any thing within me is from my self but entirely owes its being from his store and comes from the Almighty and then what least imaginable pretence or plea can I have why every motion and inclination both of soul and body should not be bound to look towards his service and every action and thought acknowledge him My Lord. And 2. By purchased Title He did redeem us from the service of those cruel Lords Sin and the Devil whose service is unreasonable and unmanly slavery and whose wages is eternal ruin and he bought the right and title to our service
Shall that miscarry that is a part of thy custody and care a part of thy possession and inheritance for all this is implied in that challenge my God For they whose God he is they are his People that is the correlation Now that means a special People Deut. 7. 6. a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2. 9. a peculiar Treasure Exod. 19. 5. his People of inheritance Deut. 4. 20. his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. the Jewels of his Crown Zach. 9. 16. If I am his I am so under all these precious notions and then how dear how valuable am I to my God who make up his inheritance who do enrich his treasury who give a lustre to his Diadem of glory and am a Jewel in his Crown How secure may I be For will God wretchlesly lose his inheritance or will he not take care of his especial things or will he throw away his treasure or will he throw his own Crown to the ground so to dash off the Jewels of it That place of Malachy expresses the different condition of those that are God's People from the others that have no relation to him in respect of God's carings and protection Mal. 3. 14 15 16 17 18. Ye have said it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts And now we call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up yea they that temt God are even delivered Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not In times of undisturbed abundance and of full prosperity when the God of this World is good to them that serve him when the Lord lets men alone and the ungodly thrive then indeed his protections are not much regarded but wickedness and wealth do seem the strong securities But when God sends his indignation abroad and when his judgments sweep away those confidences then this will be a comfortable consideration Come what will come I have one that will care for me one that hath writ me in his note book his book of remembrance to put him in mind that he is to provide for me and when the most florishing ungodly man shall be stript of all his hopes and trusts so that there remains no least relief from them nor can he look for any from the Lord he is not of his People then have I one that will make me up amongst his Jewels have the same care of me as of his precious and peculiar treasures I have a right and title to his protections to provide for and to take care of me it is his office he undertook it in his Covenant and not to do it were to break his compact which he hath bound himself to with an oath For I am his therefore I can with confidence go to him I am thine save me Therefore the words afford me greater grounds of confidence when they give me autority to challenge him and tell him Thou art mine my God All the securities that his preserving mercies signify all the watches of his providence all the blessings that fulfil his Attributes as goodness they are all mine for he is mine Can I fear the malice of Adversaries shall I doubt the fury of that spoiler that even robs necessity will rob me even to a perfect desolation Ah my poor soul Nunquid sibi Christianum I am sure it cannot take all from me it must void Heaven before it can disfurnish me of all it must commit a rape upon my Jesus for while they leave him I have my God Can I want any thing for this life or the life to come if there be a supply in Christ I may be sure to have it if his Divinity can effect it I need not want for I have right to him he is my God What one thought can afflict or trouble me long unless it be such an one for which there is no help for in God If such a one indeed do seize me there is danger but till that happen why art thou so troubled O my soul why art thou so disquieted within me O put thy trust in God in Christ for he is my God Can I desire indeed when I have him Sure I am strangely greedy if the Almighty be not enough for me more unsatisfied than Hell if Christ that is God cannot suffice me if I am not content when he is my God O my soul Christ never failed to pay his debts he is a happy Creditor to whom he owes especially where he owes that debt and where he owes himself Now if thou be a faithful and Religious Soul he is thy debt as due to thee as thy own portion Thou art my portion O Lord saith David thou hast as great a right to him as thy inheritance Thou art the lot of my inheritance saith he again as St Thomas here He is my God But never hath a faithful Soul more right to lay this claim than at the Sacrament to both the claims that I have treated of 1. To be his Treasure his peculiar Treasure for the Church tells us If with a penitent and true heart we receive that holy Sacrament then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud then we dwell in him and Christ in us we be one with Christ and Christ with us an Union which fulfils what Christ hath praied for John 17. 21 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one with us Here 's Unions and interests enough and all cemented and assured by the worthy receiving of this Sacrament I am certainly his if I be made one with him and dearer than his Jewels and more peculiar to him than his Treasure for I am him himself And the same thing will prove that he is mine for certainly if I have a title to him ascertain'd if I be made one with him I may well call that mine to which I am united So when he dwells and is in me then I may say He is my Christ my God And then he that there faithfully performs worship and service to him and so does take him for his God then if his God be his inheritance there he does make his entry if his God be his portion there he receives his portion The Priest there gave thee if thou wast a good Communicant the Body and Bloud of Christ and
and Sun and a City and a Candle things that are visible or else diffusive of their vertues and then concludes Let your light or rather So let your light as a candle gives light unto all that are in the house So do ye Let your light shine hefore men Light is set here for Christian Holiness and Purity as I shall shew you and that most fitly because nothing so pure as Light clear as shine and noon-day nor nothing so diffusive it shews it self to all so that the thing meant by it is an open visible Holiness of Conversation Or secondly more especially to represent the Purity of a Christian Life Light is so clear that it is set to express the very Holiness of God himself 1 John 1. 5. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is Light and in him is no darkness at all And indeed Light was the very first emanation of God in the Creation he said first let there be light And it is the most spiritual and pure of all visible corporeal beings its motions seem instantaneous and by a kind of omnipresence it fills the medium and appears entire in every part of it yea farther it is not liable to stain or sulliage sun-shine is as bright upon a Cottage as a Palace a dung-hill as a bed of Roses you may extinguish light but not defile it No expression comes near the clearness of light and this our Holiness is to strive after But thirdly most of all to represent the open visibility of Christian virtue Nothing is so easily seen as Light for indeed nothing can be seen but by it in a moment it will scatter it self over the whole Hemisphere yea Heaven it self does not bound the Sun-shine and it passes thro the Firmament Even so diffusive should our Piety be shining before men and like the Sun 's light too spreading into Heaven shining before Angels and making them rejoice A Christian is not to suffer any man to walk in the dark either of ignorance or of sin whom his knowledg or example may recover he must instruct and enlighten the mind he must reform and enlighten the will and the affections His pious actions must be always shining in his eyes to guide and stir him up and every one must be Christ's star to lead to him They that be wise saith Daniel c. 12. 3. shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever Yea they are to shine so as they may turn many that shining being both their glory and their duty And St Paul tells how they are to shine Phil. 2. 15. Be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom ye shine as lights in the world All men look upon you and therefore you are to give them good example They are as watch-towers upon the sea that have lights placed in them to guide the Mariners into safe harbor to teach them how to shun the rocks and this they are to do both by their own practice and by reproof Eph. 5. 11 13. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light When those foul acts that are don of them in secret are reproved by a man that hath this Divine Light in him then it appears how foul and wicked they are which the darkness of their souls would not let them see John 3. 20. it is set down as the property of light to reprove evil deeds by discovering to them the ugliness of their courses and shewing the fair example of a contrary life to turn them from the evil of their ways This is to let their light shine before men Another expression is of a Candle v. 15. of which the ground is the same with that of the other the Light of the world onely the Type sinks a little The Light there had a larger Sphere for the Sun gives shine to all the world but the Candle here gives light but unto all that are in the house as our Savior words it or at least that are in the room Now this Emblem was also very necessary the greatest part of men are of a lower rank and emploiment than their example should have influence upon very many or that their actions should be called Sunshine the acts of their calling are low and so are those of their Piety and Religion not considerable enough to be view'd or look'd upon by many others they are not any thing notably and how then can they be exemplary in their lives They are too much clouded both in their fortunes and their emploiments and their faculties to send forth any Raies they cannot shine Why yet for these our Savior hath a Type here in his Sermon as also a great part of his life was the very practice of this exemplariness in a very low and ordinary condition From the time that he disputed with the Doctors at twelve years old the shine and glory of which action may seem enough to have temted one to shew forth his light in an eminent manner to have presently undertaken emploiments wherein he might have bin seen yet till the time that he was thirty years old he retired himself and was subject to his Parents living with and serving them privately at Nazareth Luke 2. 51. who God knows were of a very mean condition and consequently so was he working with his hands in a mean trade Now all this while how did his light shine before men when it was immur'd in a Carpenter's work-house Why even then it did in exemplary humility great obedience pious carriage and virtuous diligence ordering his conversation in that very mean condition so as that made him gracious in the sight of God and of men v. 52. So that from his behavior in that low estate men accounted him a very good person And then whosoever thou art be thou never so low Christ hath shewed thee how to shine before men as he did tho he were the Son of Righteousness Thou canst not be too mean to be obedient to be careful in thy service to be harmless never doing or speaking ill of any body thou canst not be too low to be abased nor consequently to have occasion to shew forth patience meekness and longsuffering and gentleness those glorious however humble virtues And this is truly to make thy light shine before men Tho thy example be not big enough to be look'd upon by a whole Shire nor yet a Parish nor a Township thou canst not be accounted the light of the world yet be thou never so little thou maiest shine forth as a Candle give example to the Family in which thou art by those virtues of being harmless If thou have not so much Piety so much Light as will shine abroad and make a day
some men made this reliance or dependance trust or faith our whole condition of the Covenant But tho 't is true the Covenant does require some disposition in us that we also may be trusted for those that are not faithful to him cannot have faith in him for us he knows our needs he knows our hearts too and if they be false he sees it and the trust is broken on both sides such hearts cannot trust him for it is impossible that one can trust upon another if he know that other does discern that he is false to him for he knows that he is not in condition to be dealt with by the rules of trust Yet the sincere and honest-hearted person may cast all his care there Faith does his work and he knows well whom he hath believed The sum is this however grievous Sinner one hath bin if he return and with intire submission to God's will become faithful to him and assure his own heart towards him he may commit himself and all his Spiritual and Eternal interests with all assurance absolutely into his hands and his temporal so far as they shall be succesful in all cases except those wherein God sees it necessary for his more advantage to determin otherwise All his concerns too for Religion he may put into the same safe hands with all assurance for God will never destroy his own Religion if it do not change first vitiate and put out it self And in whatever Judgments God at any time shall bring upon the publick he may perfectly assâ—re himself that whatsoever happens shall be for good to him for how sad soever the necessity be he knows both it and how to remedy it and is able and hath said he will he is true and just and faithful in his promises it is his very Nature that he cannot change or fail him and how desperate soever his condition seem here that state is God's opportunity and that time his set time and depending on him is yet a further engagement to him Yet in all this I have said very little all these grounds for trust reliance the old Covenant afforded Thus far the Jew knew whom he had believ'd but sure the Christian knows more comfortably hath more cause to trust on God as on the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And certainly we may rely upon that Father that he will deny us nothing who denied ns not his son 'T is St Pauls argument Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things We may resign our selves into his hands that lov'd us at these rates and cannot but be confident as the Apostle was v. 38 39. that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which he hath to us in and thro Christ our Lord and Savior or shall hinder him from preserving and delivering us in and from the hopes and fears the terrors and allurements of them all the temtations that either fear of death or hope of life or malice of the Devil and his Angels or of Principalities or powers whether earthly Potentates or infernal or distresses present or to come or heights of honor or depths of disgrace may assault us with How can these hinder when sin could not hinder Or what possibly can separate when God chose to be divided as it were from his own Son rather than any thing should separate him from the love of man And then what may we not expect from this the Eternal Son of God who became one of us that so he himself suffering by being temted might be able to succour them that are temted Heb. 2. 18. Able to succour Sure he could have don it ere he took upon him weak flesh being God Almighty he was not less able when he was Omnipotent yet being when he was made man himself afflicted having the experience of our infirmities in all points temted like as we are he is enabled to be much more sensibly compassionate and toucht with the feeling of our weak condition which himself felt so the ability which he hath gain'd is the Omnipotency of kindness One would have thought indeed it had bin large enough before when to shew mercy to us seem'd more dear to him and more considerable than to enjoy Divinity when he emtied himself of this that he might be qualified for the other How infinitely willing then was he to be compassionate to us when he takes flesh to learn to be compassionate How desirous was he to succour us who lays down Heaven and glory above and life here below that he might be able to succour us To whom can we betake our selves for mercy with such confidence as him who made himself like one of us that he might be a merciful High-Priest to expiate and make reconciliation We that are the sheep of his pasture what hands can we possibly resign our Souls into with such assurance as to those of this Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls this good Shepherd who not onely seeks the lost sheep that is run away but who also lays down his life for his sheep 10. 15. And what may not his poor Church depend upon him for who purchased to himself his Church with his own bloud What design can he have to fail us possibly who would be crucified for us In a word if one that for us men and for our Salvation would come down from Heaven be incarnate and made man a man of sorrows and afflictions and would suffer want shame and reproches agonies a Cross a bitter passion and a cruel death for us and who is sat down on the right hand of Majesty and Power hath all power in Heaven and Earth the keys of Death and Hell in whom all the promises of God are yea and Amen faithful and true faithful to immutability Jesus Christ yesterday to day and the same for ever if I say he that is all this can be trusted we know whom we have believed And now I have no more to do but onely ask whether we are assur'd of any other whom on more or safer grounds we have or may believe I will upbraid none with that Irony which Eliphas insults on Job with c. 5. 1. Call now see if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn thee There are that do with all the evidence imaginable of a strong confidence and chearful hopes to speed in doing so pour out their needs their whole Souls to a fancied or it may be true Saint whom they have adopted as the object of their invocation which it seems they cannot do so feelingly with such a close and intimate dependance with such comfortable expectations upon Christ himself Now I would onely put the question of f
Orator Men have their shifts of conscience as of clothes their dress is carefuller and their rules stricter much abroad in public then when at home or out of sight As for the conscience of compliance many do not only do things which they have dislike to out of compliance but satisfy themselves because they do them with reluctancy against their inclination to avoid the being singular or offensive For the mode too Men learn to interpret God's laws also by the practice of the age live and judge by imitation and example The man's conscience tho it boggle at first sight of dangerous uncomely liberties yet conversation with them as it takes away the horror of them so he thinks it do's the danger and ill influence And as fashion makes all dresses to be mode and not look uncomely so the custom of these things makes them seem indifferent A Conscience also for the interests of a Profession as in trade for example and in Corporations of it it thinks their combinations for the better keeping up the Company fair and honest and therewithal make tricks and exactions lawful And in single traders such another principle makes Princes Laws be broken their dues stoln without any check of Conscience and I verily believe that many think these are not inconsistent with a good mind I might have instanc'd in other professions particularly in that which satisfies it self in the defending manifestly wrongful and in right causes in protracting suits to mens great molestation and the ruin of just rights But in truth this is paltry trifling with religion having false weights and mesures of what 's lawful and unlawful things that God abhors and indeed these frauds will in the end return upon their authors and the unhappy artist will most certainly deceive his own soul. For he never can arrive at life whom he that is the way do's not lead thither Christ and his rules only can introduce us into the mansions of Eternity 'T is true there may be doubts somtimes about the way of duty for 't is that I speak to in applying general rules for circumstances may perplex vary cases obligations seem to clash and quarrel so that one may be uncertain which to follow what means he should take to attain his great end 2. Now in case of such uncertainty as to the means the Child of this world do's observe a Rule of Prudence better then the Christian for he takes advice For who intends to purchase an inheritance but he goes to Counsel and if there be the least appearance of uncertainty in the Title spares no charge to have it searcht and to be sure The least indisposition drives the man that aims at life to his Physician In every difficulty of a voiage where there 's any apprehension of a shelf or rock the Merchant and the Master will consult the Pilot. But in the voiage towards heaven how many make shipwrack of a good conscience because they will not commit themselves to any conduct How often do they shake their Title to God's inheritance because they will not take advice of him at whose mouth God commanded they should seek the Law And who do's go to the Physician of Souls to prevent death Eternal I do not say men should betake themselves to a director in each action of their lives For who goes to a Doctor to know whether he should eat stones or poison or who asks a Lawyer whether he should keep or burn his evidences Now for the most part what I ought to do what to forbear is every jot as clear as those except where circumstances trouble or else seeming cross obligations a muse our judgment and then for a man not to ask direction in his way to heaven is unanswerable folly in a man that will inquire the way to the next village 't is nothing but a wretchless stupid carelesness in the Eternal interests of his own Soul When he that takes the best directions he can get with this sincere intent that he may not transgress may quiet his own mind in this that he hath don his utmost faithfully towards duty and in doing that with our good God shall be interpreted to have don his duty if he also faithfully pursue the means directed the 3d. property of Wisdom which does set the man upon the use of those means which he must attain his end by the last thing I am to speak too Now as to this I must confess the Child of this world wiser and give up the cause Whoever does resolvedly intend his profit pleasure honor or whatever state in this life 't is the business of his parts his study and his whole life to pursue it and it is so while the appetite of any carnal end is eager in him Anger hate revenge c. And I cannot say it is so with the Christian as to his end But the worldly man besides the zeal in using all means in pursuit of his end he observs two Rules that wisdom dictates with more carefulness 1. Be circumspect then wary both prescrib'd us by St. Paul Ephes. 5. 15. See that ye walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumspectly not as fools but wise as we translate it and the Vulgar caute warily with caution Now the first of these two Circumspection signifies the looking every way about him to discern or if he can foresee whatever may obstruct him in his progress give him any hindrance in whatever shape it is likely to attemt it whether it do threaten with inconvenience or do flatter with the deceitful appearances of being useful come with treachery or open opposition as a false Friend or a known Enemy and the other Caution sets him upon all the care he can make use of to avoi'd or rid himself of such impediments of what kind soever Now t is evident the man of this world in whatever occupation trade profession or place he may be from the lowest to the highest who proposes any one thing to himself and does not live ex tempore and follow ends and objects as the boy 's do Crows but hath at least some one design so far as he does so looks round him that he may shun every thing that would defeat divert or but disturb him in it and endeavors to move every stone which he may stumble at in his pursuit whatever may be an impediment to his attainments Now the Child of Light hath warning given him by the wise man also My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy soul for temtation There are those that will attemt to break his progress in pursuit of any such designment His enemy the Devil like a roaring Lyon his false friend the Flesh and a third that will assault him under both appearances the World somtimes by reproches taunts and insolent scorn by turning piety and virtue into raillery discouraging men from the pursuit somtimes by vexatious molesting injuring oppressing good men that they think will bear it making
a prey of the meek patient and long-suffering treading under foot the humble because they know their principles will make them suffer it and somtimes by invading them with downright persecution when duty and Religion are made crimes true faith and a good Conscience mark men out for ruine Sometimes on the other side it courts us shews us all it's glory it's places powers plenties pomps and gayeties and so kindles in us the desire of wealth which is the only way to compass all those which desire if it touch the heart once if the world can charm us once with the deceitfulness of riches as our Saviour words it Matth. 13. 22. we are quite betraid For these deceitful riches tho they are and may be made great instruments of good and most well minded men when they are in the way of getting them imagine they shall do more good with more of them when they have got them they deceive them prove occasions and foments of vices do not only serve but grow incentives to those Sins which men have any inclinations too yea many times betray them into those they before had no disposition towards by putting them into their power and by heightning for them And however many that possess them do make blessed use of them yet those that seek them and endeavor their increase on the account of doing so to make them help their entry into life do in our Savior's judgment for the most part so deceive themselves and are as sottish as a man that should get up upon a Camel to ride thro the eye of a Needle 'T is our only wisdom to beware of all temtations 'T was Christ's last advice in that agony both of his Love and Sufferings Watch and pray that ye enter not into them Look about you give no opportunities to them to approch you undiscern'd advert still that you may be either able to avoi'd them or have time to fortify and call up all the succours Reason and Religion offer and all those of Grace which God is ready to bestow upon your prayers that you may not be surpriz'd and taken unprepar'd and rather bear suffer any thing then yield Whatever 't is that is most precious to thee serves thy greatest uses contributes to thy most charming satisfactions rather part with it then let it temt thee 'T is our Saviors charge if thy right Eye offend insnare thee pluck it out and cast it from thee It is sad indeed when the Eye that should watch the organ of Circumspection and with which we should discern the snare to shun it should it self lead into it and be it But 't is sadder when the snare is dear to men as the usefullest part and most delightful of their senses when they can no more endure to withdraw from temtation then to cut off their right hand or pull out their right Eye when they use those parts to look about for ruine and lay violent hands upon the instruments of their Perdition when they will loose any of those organs rather then not pursue what the temtation suggests rather cut off a right hand and pull out a right Eye then not satisfy the appetite it raises give up all their own aimes and the worldlings also for that only loose their Salvation their God and their own Soul spend wealth and strength and body honor and understanding on one sin that they may become their own ruins here in this life and the type of their judgment in the life to come Now these are such instances of folly that the men that practise them and call themselves Christians are not to be put in the comparison with the children of this world who in every part of wisdom are much wiser in relation to their ends and to the means they pitch upon and to the use of those means in pursuit of their intentions which I undertook to shew And then when all their Wisdom is foolishness with God and branded with the worst extremest names of it in Scripture in what rank of folly stand most Christians And truly to sum up all 't is a most astonishing contemplation how 't is only in these everlasting interests that most men act without any consideration as men wholly destitute of understanding and that could not think He that hath a journey or a voyage which he must make and accordingly designes he takes some thought of fit means of conveyance and providing whatsoever else is at least necessary for it never is so sottish as to chuse and prepare a Ship for land or a Coach for Sea nor to hire and put himself in any one he meets by hazard without minding whether it is going and will carry him Now each man hath a journey to the other World knows he must make it and is going on it and and pretends at least to be assur'd there are two ways to that world one that leads to felicities which never can dye and the other to as endless and immortal misery and torment yet the one of these however dreadful and the other how desireable soever never enter into his Consideration so as to weigh ought with him and to incline him in the choice he makes of that way which he walks in all his life long And tho men know that they approch nearer to that terrible moment every day and have for ought they know few paces more but are to step immediatly into one of these two Eternities yet if you ask them why they go that way they march in not another whether they ever minded where that way will lead them why alass they did not ask themselves that question may be never yet reflected on it but their inclinations and affections the example of converse with others carried them along without consideration whither these did guide them wholly and from these they took their sentiments of things and actions which they follow'd without ever giving heed too or examining how they came by them or what grounds of truth or goodness they have for them but pursued them constantly and doing so that while those sentiments remain in them as judgments and remaining long so and by that becoming prejudices with them go for Principles and if ever they be call'd on to reflect upon the way they walk in being willing out of a desire that 's natural to man and is inbred in him to justify themselves as much as may be in their inclinations and their actions they seek reason or colour of it to guild over and beautify the principles they took up so Thus they come to have their maxims and rules and so a Conscience which excuses or at least does not reprove their conduct and so go on confidently and acquiesce in those and never take nor ask other direction Yet these very men will hire a Tutor to direct their footings that they may be to the mesures and the rules of Music will be bountiful and docile obedient to him and spend time too
intention if there be no other unhandsom circumstance will serve to make the common actions of life innocent and not blameable but without the Religious intention the action cannot be accounted duty and upon this score 't is in Religion reprovable Among all creatures here below man is the only one that hath a faculty to chuse his ends consequently that can direct his intentions Things without life are carried only to the makers ends not to their own the stone however by its own weight it hurry downwards to it's sphere of rest and as it does approch goes faster still and faster as if there were it's inclination and that inclination were more sensible as it came nearer and so increas'd upon it yet 't is determined to it's line 't is bound to move by plummet and cannot possibly turn one point aside not make the smallest crook to meet a nearer knob of earth that stretches up it self to give it soonest rest and all it's hast is only weight not inclination not choice but natural violence as it were Things that have life and sense have inded aims and these do prosecute those aims with eager strong intentions but they also are limited determinantur ad unum as the Schools speak their end is set to them nor do they pick and chuse upon comparative considerations that which strikes their present sense with strongest relish that they necessarily fix upon and therefore Buridan tells us of an Asse that was so justly plac'd between two bottles of hay of so exact and equal sent and goodness that neither of them being able to determine his appetite to the one more then the other his inclinations stood divided equally betwixt those equal invitations and being not able to preferr nor consequently chuse any he wanted both and two bottles sterv'd him whom one would have preserved But 't is not so with man for as there is as great a difference betwixt his ends as does distinguish Hell from heaven in obedience on one side and transgression on the other life and death eternity of blessedness and immortality of misery are set before his choice one of these everlastingnesses sets out it self before every action of his that is not merely indifferent and offers it self to be his aim So also he hath as it mostly proves a most unhappy privilege that he can chuse his ruine and as by the assistance of that Grace which God does not deny he can intend those actions that look directly towards happiness so he can by the power of his will prosecute his own destruction Now then as for him that can thus chuse his ends that can direct his intentions either to good or evill to limit this his freedom to the choice of evill would be most unreasonable God knows 't is too much so for him to let the lawful delights of his senses according to their degrees and strengths fix and determine much of his intentions and to employ his soul to spring and start such pleasures and let his appetite still hover over them and the fairest quarry alwaies engage it in the pursuit tyed to that object that does strike his sense with greatest vigor of temtation for this is to live merely a life of sense 't is to degenerate from man into the rank of lower creatures for just these are their aims and so they make their choices and did God place an immortal and Angelic Spirit in a man only to make him be a more sagacious brute But then much more then brutish would it be when as two objects court his choice as different as Hell and Heaven in desireableness for him to chuse the terrors to pursue that which carries with it inconsistency to all his happinesses The beasts cannot do so they cannot chuse the worse but man will preferr misery and make his choice of wretchedness And truly thither every action of man does tend that is not otherwise level'd and directed by honest intentions It is the meaning that distinguisheth the deeds and as the mind intends so it alters the exterior action into good bad or indifferent If I do take a walk to the next town whether I do it for fresh aire and recreation or else to make a charitable Christian visit so to relieve or help a weak sick soul or go to meet companions of my sin and to appoint or execute a vice the walk is still the same but those so different ends do make the action tend to consequences of an eternal difference Nay the aim hath so great an influence upon the deeds that tho the action be an action of a vertue or Religion yet according to the quality of the mans meaning that performs it so it may either lose its vertue or transmute into a vice and the very Religion become sin The first part of this chapter is all demonstration of this 't is lawful without question by all good humane means to seek to advance my reputation but he that does endeavor it by his devotions tho his life be all strictnesses and he do spend himself in alms and fasts and praiers by all these holy practices he does not purchase the reward of piety but only praise of men so that all that Religion ceaseth to be holy and if it mainly aim at that becomes hypocrisy And all the reason in the world it should be so for he that merely in order to his ends does chuse and practise such means 't is certain he does love those means no otherwise then as they serve that end and therefore tho the means be vertue he does not love the Religion of that vertue but the convenience of it as it does contribute to his aim Now if it be convenient to an ill end 't is an evill convenience and so in chusing vertue he chuseth evill if but to an indifferent end 't is an indifferent convenience and so the Religion becomes insipid and indifferent and tho there be honesty in the thing yet 't is by accident as to his mind 't is not for that he chuses it but for its usefulness and ordinarily 't is not that males it convenient or useful for ends or if it do yet the appearance of it is as good as it is it self and so 't is clear howsoever he chuse vertue yet the vertue hath no interest in his performance not in his intention nor election Thus he that is charitable to one in distress on purpose to oblige him afterwards for some designs he hath in using him he does contract not give and 't is not alms but commerce 't is rather earnest of wages then a liberality She that abstains from vicious and suspected company and observes strictest chastity merely to avoid an ill name or worse consequences does not fear God but shame and being undone and 't is not vertue this but care of reputation she 's no more chast as to the Religion of it then she that does abstain from places suspected of diseases that would spoil her face
taken from thee it is its own defence and shine for righteousness shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward and then 't is clearly prov'd that such a single Eie shall make the body full of light 2. Light do's signify holiness of life deeds truly Christian walk as Lights in the Lord nothing more common in Scripture and Darkness signifies a sinful and un-Christian life a life that 's full of deeds of darkness And then the words mean thus as the eie is the candle of the body lightens and directs it well if it be as it ought but otherwise very ill and the man is in the dark if his eie be ill and do not serve him so is the heart of man as to the guidance and direction of his actions if his eie be single if he have an heart taken off from the world a liberal bountiful mind not set upon the love and desire of the things of this world his whole body will be full of light his whole life will be very Christian all his actions holy and heavenly and to the making of them so liberality of mind hath a very observable influence It will incline a man wonderfully to pious courses it is a leading vertue as the eie is a leading part But if the eie be evil but if the heart be worldly set upon wealth either for it self or for those heights or fine things or pleasures which wealth do's procure if it be unsatisfied in these things for it self or envious at others for them the whole body will be full of darkness the whole life will be very un-Christian such a disposition of mind as that quite draws a man off from the temper that Christ requires the unsatisfied the envious and the covetous person can never serve God but only Sin those dispositions being the root of all evil Now if the light that is in thee be darkness if thy heart be un-Christian and if thy leading vertue that was to take thee off from all worldly inclinations be extinct and dark in thee how great is that darkness what an un-Christian life will there be and whatever light do's shine about thee of the Gospel whatever light thou dost pretend of knowledg or of whatsoever else there is a deep darkness dwells upon thy heart and is in all thy actions Now this sense we see connects what went before and that which follows after drives on our Savior's design that he is pressing here and to this sense Scripture alwaies speaks in the expressions of single and of evil eie of light and darkness and therefore this was certainly the sense that was intended by our Savior and to the prosecuting of it I shall shew 1. That to have a generous liberal mind an heart taken off from the self uses and advantages of wealth is the great means the great engine and instrument of making all the actions very Christian the life holy 2. This grace in the heart bounty of mind is a great evidence of a true Christian heart 3. A worldly heart loving and desiring wealth troubled at its condition envying others that are in better and for the ends of any advantages to it self straitning its liberality is not only in it self an un-Christian temper but such as is the root and cause of a life wholly un-Christian and unholy Of these in their order 1. To have a liberal mind c. That the throwing of this earth out of the heart is a most hopeful way of making the man clean and pure we have most pregnant Scripture Luke 11. 39 40 41. Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter but your inward part in full of ravening and wickedness Ye fools did not be that made that which is without make that which is within also But rather give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you which bears this sene ye hypocritical Pharisees wash yor selve as if a man should wash his vessels the outside of them only leaving the insides of them full of filthiness for thus do ye wash your bodies leaving your souls full of all uncleaness This is an extreme folly for it your outward washings were in obedience to God you would cleanse the insides your hearts and souls as well as your bodies The best way of purifying your selves your estates your meats and drinks c. from all pollution cleaving to them is by works of mercy and liberal alms gifts and not by washing pots and vessels Thy broken meats thy scraps thy charities shall cleanse thy platters more than washing them shall do alms shall make all things clean But how this To cleanse hath two aspects either on the guilt of past actions or on the habits and dispositions to future commissions and is to cleanse us from the evil that we have don or to make us clean from those vices that were in us and which would make us do more evil the first of these is don by Repentance not by Alms. Indeed the Wise man saies the alms of a man is as a signet with the Lord and he will keep the good deeds of a man as the apple of an eie and give repentance to his sons and daughters Ecclesiasticus 17. 22. the happiest way of purchase for a family in the world The give to children an estate perchance is but to give an instrument of vice bestow the means of sining on them at best 't is but to leave them pomp and superfluity but to give Repenetance to them is to give security of everlasting blessedness this is as it were to entail Heaven on ones children But this is not the thing we mean we are to see how Alms should make us clean from vice It is observ'd by a Reverend Expositor that our Savior speaking Syriack useth a word for alms which in that language and Arabick signifies cleansing that is give Alms which as it comes from a word that signifies to cleanse so all shall be clean to you and they give this reason of the notion they derive Alams from a word that signifies to cleanse quod opes ab inquinamento animum ab avaritiae sordibus purgat because 1. Alms purgeth our wealth from the pollution and filthiness that adheres to it As among the Jews it was not lawful for any man to use the increase of his own land or cattle to eat part of his own harvest nor feed on his own vineyard or imploy the profits of any one beast of his own herd or flock till he had given up to God the first-born of that beast offered the first fruits every year of his fruit-yards and dedicated a first sheaf of his harvest this must sanctify all the rest which till then was unclean not to be used by him to this it seems our Savior do's look in his direction There is an unclean tacke in every thing that comes from earth it do's derive a soil and
as the Swine were drowned on the one side so two men possessed with Devils were recovered and that Christ had don this since his coming thither Hereupon the whole City as being very much concern'd in that which had happen'd came out to meet and see Jesus who did such Miracles and instead of being wrought on by his cure on the men to desire his continuance among them the consideration of the loss of their Swine made them desire and beseech him that he would depart out of their Coasts Behold an equal Enemy to Christ and all his Miracles an Enemy that was too hard for them even a little worldly advantage The Senate of Hell hath no project like this to keep out Religion as this making Religion thwart an interest rather no Christianity than abate gain or greatness or any earthly satisfaction rather the Swine than Christ himself But we have a worse instance yet than this and more comprehensive as to our purpose An evil eie could not endure to see the Son of God alive and when the second Person of the Godhead was to be betraied and crucified the Devil had no other passion to employ on that design but these same discontent and envy and a greedy mind and all these but at little trifles We find that Judas bore the purse and S. John saies that he robb'd it John 12. 6. was deceitful in the discharge of his office of relieving the poor Now it happen'd that a woman spent a box of precious ointment upon Christ at which Judas was discontent and envied it his Master Matt. 16. 8. Mark 14. 4 5. he murmur'd and had indignation at it saies the places his evil eie could not endure to see such a sum should pass his purse of which yet he could have purloin'd but very little for the sum was not great and missing that for very envy for it was immediatly upon it Mark 14. 10. his own covetous heart by the Devil's suggestion put him upon his project of gain to make some advantage by delivering Christ to the hands of the Jews and upon his consenting to this suggestion the Devil was permitted by God to have this power over him to enter into him John 13. 2. and doing so incited him to make a bargain with the Rulers of the Sanhedrim their great Council and with their Officers to deliver up Jesus unto them and he yielding to his incitation and after Christ's talking with him and telling him distinctly of it and the sin and danger attending it Mark 14. 21. and his not yet relenting the Devil entred into him again more forcibly than before John 13. 27. hurried him to the speedy execution and he went and covenanted with them that he should have thirty shekels Matt. 26. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22. 6. and thanked them altho it were a low and a vile sum as could be the price of a slave Exod. 21. 32. yet Judas thankt them for the offer so covetous he was and glad of an occasion to get mony We see the Devil enters at an evil eie if that be envious Satan gets in strait at that eie himself in person and he possesses hearts set upon gain and then no wonder if the Kingdom of darkness be in such an heart when as the King of Hell the Devil dwells there Satan entred into him and when he was there what design hath he to fill an heart with nothing but that of getting mony this is effect enough of his possession The Devil hath don work enough in such a heart as he is entred into really if he but make it set upon desire of mony tho it be but a trifle of gain but three pounds fifteen shillings But Lord God what will not a worldly heart adventure on what will not a mind undertake which envies at another and is greedy for it self When such an one did set Judas upon betraying Christ for almost nothing one vanity one sport one dress one sin's engagement to damnation costs a man more than what an envious covetous Soul did sell the Son of God the Ransom of Mankind the price of all the Souls in the whole world for yea and was thankful for it too so low so fordid and so base a soul it is that loves increase And now my Brethren there is no need that I should tell you that you must bring no evil eie to the Lord's Table to see his body crucified and his bloud poured out in the Sacrament no discontents no murmurs no envious intentions nor covetous desires must come near that for they were these betraied him If such a soul come thither Judas is there again the things that sold him come again to tear his body and to shed his bloud And do you think that such shall be receiv'd and entertain'd by Christ Oh no the bread of the Sacrament will be their Sop and not Christ but the Devil enters into such Oh sure no heart so fit to come to that same feast as the charitable those that feed him he will feed and I could tell you charity the offertory I mean an offering for the poor was used as an essential part of the Sacrament and was a service of so high esteem that preparation was requir'd for it as for the Sacrament and by the first Councils men guilty of gross sins might not offer their charities would not be receiv'd by the Church Yea and there was an excommunication from this duty and to be excluded from bringing their gifts for the poor was a greater censure than to be shut out from the Sermon or the Praiers But these are things our world do's not take notice of nor will understand to be censur'd from liberality and to be excommunicate from bounty and that receiving of mens alms should be a grace and an indulgence to the givers are talks that men now have no notions of nor much care for But let them be sure no time so proper for our relieving the members of Christ as when the body of Christ is relieving us to life eternal no occasion more urgent for us to contribute towards the clothing of the naked body of Christ than when Christ is clothing us with the crimson glorious garment of his Righteousness no opportunity more pressing than this to visit his sick members than when he administring to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing do's preach Charity like a Sacrament nor no Sacrament more than this at the time of his Incarnation when the Son of God did so exhaust himself for us as to emty immensity of God-head into a span of weak poor helpless flesh to become really one of the meanest objects of compassion one that had no revenue in the world but Charity for while he liv'd he had not an hole to put his head in nor when he died a grave to put his body in but as thro all his life his sustenance was alms so at his death his burying place was alms too and yet this was
Riotous that Eats to eat eats to hunger and provoke not satisfie how will he content himself there where their happiness is they shall neither hunger nor thirst or the Incendiaries that love to set all on fire what should they do there where there are no flames but such as kindle Seraphins so that flesh and blood not only shall not but cannot enjoy the Kingdom of God And why then should they long after or think of it Nay I would this unhappy Age and an unlucky axiome of Aristotles did not convince that they do think there are no such things Sensual pleasures are corruptive of Principles saith he and indeed where Damnation is the conclusion 't is a much quieter and more easie thing for Men of Wit and Understanding to deny the Principles than granting them to lie under the torture of being liable to such an inference they therefore that resolve to love this Life and all the sinful pleasures of it at the next step resolve there is no other Life And now this pamper'd and puft Flesh is got into the Psalmists Chair the Chair of Scorners and 't is one of the Luxuries of their life to scoff at them who are so foolish as to be Religious and to deny their flesh its present appetites and pleasures on such thin after-hopes here their Wit also is an Epicure and feasts and triumphs dictates and professes in that Chair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Chair of Pestilences as the LXX translate and very truly for such men shed a Sphere of Contagion about them and their Discourses are effluvia of the Plague and the breath of Pestilence But how to get Flesh down out of this Chair that 's the difficulty yet that my Text will tell us for all this progress of the Flesh is trasht and checkt by Sufferings for He that hath suffered hath ceast from Sin Which how I will briefly shew The Fleshes first Art was by immersing it self in the full Lawful use of Pleasures and by consequence in the immoderate to prevail with the Soul to find a gust in them and from a continued enjoyment to conclude them necessary and so from the importunities of a perpetual temper and an accustomed satisfaction to think of nothing else in this life Now it is plain Affliction made this Art unpracticable for that it did do so was every ones complaint it rob'd them of the immoderate and even of the lawful use of Pleasures it took off those customary Delights by which the mind was habituated and glued to them by not allowing them and made them so far from being necessary that they were not acquirable Thus by denying us even the Lawful use of them it stabs the Flesh in its first onset Indeed it does that for us which every man in every state of life in his most plentiful prosperity must sometimes do for himself that is Deny himself what he desires and might enjoy without offence Which he that does not do but constantly gives his Appetite every sort and degree of lawful thing it asks does teach it to crave on and be importunate and insolent and not endure to be resisted when it did always find him to be so obsequious to it If David never checkt Adonijah did not at any time displease him saying Why hast thou done so he easily takes confidence to say I will be King and step into the Throne 1 Kings i. 5 6. But he that mortifies sometimes that does acquaint even his most innocent desires with a denial how can unlawful ones assault him For can my Appetite hope to betray me into superfluities who have taught my self not to wish for necessaries Will he be tempted with Excesses or hearken to the invitations of Luxury that will not hear his bowels when they croak for bread Or he gape for intemperate satisfactions who will not let thirst call but shuts his mouth against it Why should he covet more that hath learnt to give away and want that which he hath Now Sufferings inflict this temper on us and acquaint us with the necessity of all this and in a while with the liking of it teach us Content without Lawful Delights yea by degrees make that content appear better than an assured enjoyment For were I offered the choice either of an uninterrupted Health or of a certain Cure in all Diseases sure I had rather never need a Potion than drink Antidote and Health it self And even so the lawful good things of this Life are at the best but Remedies and Reliefs never good but upon supposition Therefore while Affliction taught us to want it hath destroyed this Art of the Flesh. As for the Second Then the lulling asleep all sense or thoughts of any Life hereafter neither minding the fear of one or hopes of the other Affliction surely met with this too For Sufferings bring both the hereafters to remembrance the Sad one while every Punishment was an Essay and tast of that which is prepared for those that live after the Flesh and the more insupportable our Fiery Tryal was the more it caution'd us to beware of that Fire which is never quenched And for the other Life surely when our Condition was such that if we lookt unto the Earth behold nothing but Darkness and dimness of Anguish and darkness as of the shadow of Death we could not choose but turn away our Eyes and lift them up to Heaven When the Soul is thrown down by Oppression it mounts by a resiliency and with the force of pressure is crush'd Upwards or if the Load be heavy so as to make it grovel and lie prostrate it is but prest into the posture of Devotion When she 's disseised of all turn'd out of every possession then she begins to think of an abiding City and eternal Mansions For the Soul that is restless when it sees nothing here below to stay upon but all is hurried from her roams about for some hold to rest on and being able in that case to find nothing but God there she does grasp and cling and when the storms splits all enjoyments and devours Friends which â—â—ke enjoyments comfortable all perish in one wrack then she sees she must catch at him that sits above the Water-Floods I told you out of Job Affliction did discover better than Revelation and in the dimness of Anguish we might see more than by Vision and truly of two Visions which our Saviour gave to his most intimate Apostles Peter James and John the one of Glory on Mount Tabor the other of Sufferings in Gethsemane shewing in the one Heaven and Himself transfigured a glimpse of beatifical Vision and in the other Hell transfigured and a sad Scene of all its Agonies he thought this a more concerning sight for when they fell asleep at both at his Transfiguration Luke ix 32. Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep yet he does not rouse them up to behold his Glory when they did awake
it would A setled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stop'd in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottom the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a Will shall be imputed to its self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodness of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not die with the body and then was ask'd what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt Partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin lays the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward gross Transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments sor thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever is not enough to punish it all that while it must suffer with the Body but it must have an age of Vengeance besides particularly for it self to plague it for those things it could not execute and punish it for what it did not really enjoy only because it did allow it self to desire and contrive them and it must be tormented for those unsatisfied desires And though indeed desires where they are violent if they be not allayed by satisfaction are but so much agony yet do they merit and pull on them more these Torments shall be plagued and the soul suffer for its very passion even from Death to the last Judgment and 't is but just that being it usurp'd upon the pleasures and the sins of Flesh it should also seize on and take possession of the Vengeance appointed for those sins it should invade and should usurp their condemnation But why do I stand pressing aggravations against uncleanness of Heart in an Age when God knows Vice hath not so much modesty or fear to keep within those close and dark restraints Instead of that same Cleanness which the Text requires we may find Purity indeed of several sorts but 't is either pure Fraud or pure Impiety the one of these does make a strange expression very proper pure Corruption for so it is sincere and without mixture nothing but it self no spots of Clean to chequer it but all stain The other is pure white indeed but it is that of whited Sepulcres a Life as clean as Light a bright pure Conversation but it shines with that light onely which Satan does put on when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light and it is but a glory about a fiend But yet this shines however whereas others do stand Candidates of Vice and would be glorious in wickedness and that is such a splendor as if Satan should dress himself with the shine of his own flaming Brimstone and make himself a glory with the streamings of his Lake of Fire And yet thus is the World we do not onely see men serve some one peculiar vicious inclination and cherish their own wickedness but they make every Vice their own as if the Root of bitterness branch'd out in each sort of Impiety in them such fertile soyls of sin they are here insincerity were to be wish'd and where there is not cleanness that there were a Mask that there were the Religion of Hypocrisie We may remember God was good to Israel of old by Obligation and performance the one as great as he could enter the other great to Miracle and astonishment when after seventy years Captivity and Desolation he did rebuild a Temple where there was no Monument of its Ruines and raised a Nation and Government of which there was no Reliques And yet at last when the Religion of some turned into Faction of others into Prophaneness when the strictest Sect of them the Pharisees became most holy outwardly to have the better means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mischief those that were not of their Party and got a great opinion of Sanctity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as to be believed in whatsoever they did speak against the King or chief Priests and that so far as to be able openly to practise against both and raise Commotions They are Josephus's words of them and when another Sect the Zelots the most pernicious of all saith Bertram did commit Murders Sacriledg Prophanations and all kind of Villanies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good Intentions saith the same Josephus and when those who did not separate into Sects but were the Church of Israel became lukewarm supine and negligent in their Profession yea and licentious and Prophane fit only to be joyned with Publicans in Christs expressions when sin grew generally Impudent when they did live as if they would be Scandalous as well as vicious as if they lov'd the guilt as much as the delights of sin and cared not to be wicked to themselves but must debauch as if they did enjoy the ruine of other persons sinning just as the Devil does who does not taste the sin but feasts upon the Sinners Condemnation Then did God execute a Vengeance whose prediction was fit to be mistaken for that of the Day of Judgment and whose event almost fulfill'd the terrors of that day I need not draw resemblances shew how Gods goodness to our Israel does equal that to them applying to our selves their Raptures how when the Lord turned the Captivity of our Sion we also were like them that dream surprized with Mercy Indeed as in a Dream Ideas
are not always well connected there is no chain or thred of fancies and the thoughts are not joynted regular and even but there are breaches and disorder in them still the Images of sleep being like Nebuchadnezzar's made of such things as do not well unite So there is something I confess like this in our condition for with our gold and silver our precious things that are restored there is Iron and Clay not onely meaner mixtures but such things as will not close or be soder'd but do incline to part asunder and would moulder and tend towards dissolution and just as in a Dream the composure of things is no so undisturb'd but that there is some confusedness neither our affections nor practices do perfectly cement but yet I hope it is no dream of mercy 't is not a Phantasm or an Apparition of Gods kindness but the Lord will be truly good to us Yet if we do proceed as Israel and equal it in provocations But I will make no parallels publique clamors do that too loud these do display the factions of iniquity among us and muster up the several parties of our Vices too and each man is as perfect in the guilts of all sides that he is not of as if their memories were the books that shall be opened at the Day of Judgment some men can point you out our Pharisees and Zelots others can shew you our prophane licentious Professors Lay and Clergy both and indeed we need not go far to seek any or all of these nor do we want our Sadduces Now if all this be true then as those were the signs of the Son of Man's coming to them in Judgment so we may fear they are his Harbingers to us If they be I am sure the only way to make his coming good to us is to prepare for it by cleansing from all filthiness and insincerity then though he come clothed with a Glory of flaming Vengeance yet will those streams of Fire find nothing to consume or wash away in us but through that flame the pure in heart shall see God so as that that sight shall be the Beatifick Vision Yea they shall see the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living they shall see Jerusalem in prosperity all their life long and Peace here upon Israel and in his light hereafter in the Jerusalem that is above To the state of which glorious Light He bring us all who is the brightness of his Fathers Glory To whom be Glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen The Third SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Second Wednesday in Lent LEVIT XVI 31. Ye shall Afflict your Souls by a Statute for ever THE words are one Single Precept concerning one part of the Celebration of a Day I shall not take the Precept asunder into parts for it hath none but shall frame my Discourse to answer three Enquiries that naturally offer themselves to be consider'd from these words And they are 1. What the Importance of the thing commanded is What is required in this Injunction Ye shall afflict your Souls 2. What Usefulness and Efficacy this Duty had upon that time in which it was prescribed what the Afflicting of the Soul contributed to the work of that Day that it should be made so indispensable an ingredient of its performances tied to it by a Statute for ever 3. Whether that for ever do reach us which is the Application and brings all home to us First What the Import of the thing commanded the Afflicting of the Soul is The Arab. and Targum of Jerusalem Translate it Fasting yea and a Learned Rabbine says that wheresoever these two words are put together that is meant And indeed they are often joyned in Scripture to express it Psalm XXXV 13. I afflicted my Soul with Fasting And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of this Day in my Text says Is it such a Fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his Soul Isa. lviii 5. Somewhat a strange expression it is for Fasting does afflict the Body properly and yet we find the like too in the other Extream We read of pampering the Soul Psalm lxxviii 18. They required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meat for their Souls not to supply the Hunger of their Body that they had before but to indulge the Lusts of their mind they did not want for food but variety Festival diet and a Table furnish'd they would have and this luxuriancy and wantonness of Meat the Scripture calls meat for the Soul Such as God says in other places the Soul lusteth after Indeed forc'd meats and things that please meerly by being rare and dear or by being extravagant these do not feed the Appetite but Opinion and the Mind it is the Soul that only hungers after these Thus when I look after Wine in the glass and make my Eye a Critique of its accidents and by the mode and fashion of it teach it to please or displease my judgment I do not thirst after the cool moysture of it but the sparkling flame and do not drink the Wine but the flavour and colour and this is all but Notion Now certainly these are not proper objects for our Appetites meat for the Body says the Scripture and it is the Stomach and not the Imagination that is hungry nor is it Fancy or the Soul that thirsts but 't is the Palate so that these are unnatural and monstrous satisfactions And yet to bring mens selves to this is one of the great masteries of Wit and Art to force themselves to find a relish in these things and then contrive them is a piece of Skill which the advantages of parts and fortune are desireable mostly as they are useful to And a well studied Epicure one expert in the mysteries of Eating is a singularly qualified and most grateful Person It were in vain to ask what else such men can be good for that being their Profession they are out at most other things Indeed the Soul that dwells in Dishes and is stew'd in its own Luxuries grows loose and does dissolve its sinews melt all its firmness of mind forsakes it the man is strong for nothing but for Lusts his faculties are choak'd and stifled they stagnate and are mir'd within him and there corrupt and putrefie And then what Cranes will force out thence and wind up such a Soul into the practices and expectations of Piety will make it mind and entertain the hopes and Duties of Religion what macerations what Chymistry will defecate a Spirit so incarnated and rectifie it into such a fineness as befits that state where all their blessedness have no sensual relish but are sublimed into Divine and purely Spiritual Lord God! that thou shouldst shed a rational Angelick Soul into us a thing next to the Being of thy Self to animate only the Organs of Intemperance and Gluttony and their appendant lusts Only inspire us how to be but more sagacious indeed but more luxurious
Brutes when thou hast set us here to train and discipline our selves for a condition of such glorious Joys as are fit to entertain Souls of Reason with and to make them blessed which to enter upon our Bodies must drop from us our Souls must be clarified from Flesh and Flesh it self refined into Spirit that we should make our selves Antipodes to this walk contrary to all and so debase our spirits as that they are qualified for no other satisfaction but those of dull sense and carnality Adam fell his great Fall by Eating but ever since men fall further by riotous intemperate Eating He fell from Paradise and they from Reason the Man sinks into Beast and the Soul falls into very Flesh and hath no other faculties or appetites but fleshly ones Such people of all others are not to be raised up by Religion their fulness gives no place to that but does exclude it God did complain of this of old Deut. xxxii 15. Jesurun waxed fat and kicked that we may see they want to brutish quality who do allow themselves the appetite of Brutes they that pamper themselves like to fed Horses will also neigh like them and kick even him that fed them thou art waxen fat thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation When they came once where they did suck honey cut of the Rock and Oyl out of the flinty Rock they could not mind the Rock of their Salvation Indeed this sensuality as it consumes Estates eats Time and all the faculties of the Mind so it devours all Religion too it hath not only a particular opposition to some one duty as the other Vices have but by a direct influence it destroys the whole foundation of Vertue and obedience to God I mean subordination of the lower appetite to Reason and Religion which it renverses quite and breeds an universal cachexy of the Soul as well as Body For ever since Adam did eat of the forbidden Fruit the carnal mind we know is neither subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be as S. Paul says Rom viii 7. because Gods Commands are restraints upon those things which Flesh desires eagerly Now therefore while that Mind is unsubdued it must needs lust against the Spirit for those things that are forbidden nor endure to be limited which he that feeds it is so far from working towards that he does give it still more provocation and more power and makes the Flesh more absolute for it is clear that Plenty does encrease all its desires and their unruliness it ministers both vigor to it by which it is enabled to fulfill its lusts and it ministers aptness and incitation also both by custom of satisfaction and by adding heat which makes it more prone to rebel and more impossible to be kept under The progress of this is apparent in the Scripture Exod. xxxii 6. The People sat down to Eat and Drink and rose up to Play Lusum non denotasset nisi impudicum he means to play the wantons But Jeremy is plainer Chap. v. 7 8. How shall I pardon thee for this thy Children have forsaken me when I had fed them to the full they then committed Adultery and assembled themselves by troops in Harlots houses Nor stays it there but does encrease as well as feed to an Excess we may discern that by the Wisemans Prayer xxiii Ecclesiast 6. O Lord Father and God of my Life Let not the greediness of the Belly not the lust of the Flesh take hold of me and give not over me thy Servant to an impudent mind Gyant-like he had called it in the Verse before and sure the Wiseman in the Proverbs apprehended it as such and dreaded it accordingly as if Bellies full gorg'd were those Mountainr which the Gyants cast up to storm Heaven on He look'd upon this Vice as that which would bid defiance to God and out him and therefore thinks it necessary to beseech the Lord not to afford him so much as would furnish Plenty Prov. xxx 8. Give me not Riches feed me with food convenient for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an Allowance with no more than is sufficient for me lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord. It seems such persons know no other God besides their Belly nor is it any wonder if a Soul made Flesh cannot well apprehend a Deity that is a Spirit or believe it but thinks all Notions of such beings to be contradiction when once by the suffusions of Carnality all the impressions of a Spirit are wrought out of it self And truly this is the most natural and certain way to become Atheists Whether this time that hath been almost always set aside for strict Severities and to work out Repentance and if it be not so intended now I know not what pretence did call us hither for though there be some relaxation of the severer Dyet of this time sure there is no indulgence of that Penitence which the strictness of this time design'd and let some men talk what they please of the Intention of their Statutes yet these Assemblies certainly were not intended for th◠increase of Cattel and advance of Fishing these were for higher aims of Piety Now whether we employ if so much towards this as to afflict our Souls i. e. our appetites and to revenge our superfluities upon our selves and to teach our desires to be denied Or whether we do teach the Dyet of this season to be but a variety of Luxury and if the Law did not command it and so make it Pressure by giving it the inconvenience and the uneasiness of being duty and obedience our selves could make it be one of the changes of our Vice only another course a diverse service of the same Riot and so defeat the Law by our obedience to it Or whether we do break the Law outright and to our superfluities add disobedience to Authority whether we do the one or other is not for me to say But if the Nation and we our selves have any sins to be repented of and we design this season for that use as sure some season must be so employed and why not this as well rather indeed than any other if we be not of those that would be glad to see all thrown again into Confusion glad to see a return of the same Vengeance as indeed a return of the same sins and the abuse of Mercies seem to call for it while men do live as if they thought God had wrought all these Miracles meerly to give them opportunity to serve their Vices or their other ends to put them in a way to get Places Estates and Dignities and by uncharitable gains hard-hearted griping yea by false unworthy treacherous Arts to heap up Wealth to raise their Families or feed their Lusts These these cry out to God to renew his Commission to the Sword to pass through all
the Land again and embowel it self in Church and State these call for it as loud as the hatangueing Prayers of Seditious Men and the Lord knows there are too many hands that would unsheath it if God do not interpose to hinder and well we have deserv'd he should But if we would endeavour to engage him by Repentance that will require the Afflicting of the Soul by some severities Do not mistake your selves Repentance as it cannot be wrought out amidst our courses that were contradiction to return and yet go on so also it will not be wrought out amidst the Comforts as we call the jollities of life Tertullian is very pleasant with those who did dislike that in their Penitencies they were by the Church prescrib'd to put off Mirth and put on Sackcloth and take Ashes for Bread Come says he reach that Bodkin there to braid my Hair and help me now to practise all those Arts that are in Mode to attire it give me the washes of that Glass the blushes of that Paper the foyles which that Box hath to beautifie and dress my Cheeks come and set out and dress my Table too let me have Fowl with costly forc'd and not a natural Fat or let me have cramb'd Fish and cram my Dishes also get me chearful Wine too and if any one ask why I do thus indulge my self Why I will tell him I have sin'd against my God and am in danger of Perdition and therefore I am in great trouble I macerate do you not see the signs of it and excruciate my self I take these fearful careful ways that I may reconcile God to me whom I have offended Alas to humble ones self thus in fulness and to afflict the Soul in chearful plenties is such a thing as none but he that sinks under the surfeit of those Plenties understands I 'm sure the Lord when he required his People to repent required them then to discipline and use severities upon themselves they were to fast or dye God took the execution for whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be Afflicted that same day shall be cut off from among his People Levit. xxiii 29. Even cut off by God himself And I do verily persuade my self that one great cause why men that have sometimes thought to reform their lives and do resolve against their Courses yet repent of their Repentance their resolutions untwist and become frail as threds of Cobweb the first assault of a temptation does break through them is they do not use mortifications to work their aversations high and strong against their sins and fix their resolutions The universal sense of the whole Primitive Church gives me confidence in this persuasion who for that very reason in their penitential Excommunications did inflict such severities as 't is almost incredible that Christians would submit to yet they beg'd to be censur'd into and those had S. Paul for their precedent But now Repentance are but dislikes little short unkindnesses at our sins and wouldings to do better On some moving occasion if Gods Hand or his Spirit lash it may be Tears will gush out of the Wound and we in angry sadness do intent against our Vices but when that fit is over and the Flesh by indulgences prepared to make or answer a temptation we fall again and then it may be shake the head and curse the sin but yet again commit it if the invitation be fair And then are very sorry account our selves unhappy who lie under such a violent infirmity but act it still Now if we consider how it comes to pass that we go round like men inchanted in a Circle of Repenting and of Sinning we shall find it is for want of Discipline upon our selves for had we strove to make our humiliations more low and full of pungent sorrow the Soul would start and fly at the first glance of that which cost it so much anguish but who would fear to act that sin which puts him to so little trouble to repent of as a sad thought a sigh a wish and a loose purpose thin intentions and that 's all Do not complain of the Infirmity of the Flesh for this and say thou wouldst live Spiritually but the frailty of thy sensual part betrays thee its stings and incitations make thee start from duty and goad and force thee into actions which otherwise thou neither shouldst or wouldst commit 'T is thou thy self that arm'st thy Flesh with all its stings thou givest it strengths whereby it does subdue the Spirit thou waterest thy desires with Wines thou feedest them with strong meat and teachest them to crave thou cocker'st them with thy indulgence and thou dost treat Temptations to sin dost invite wickedness and nourish the occasions of Ruin and then it is no wonder if thy resolutions be not strong enough there is no way but by Austerities to mortifie all inclinations that stir against the Spirit and by denying satisfactions to thy Appetite to calm and moderate thy affections to every thing below and then Temptations will have neither Aid nor Avenue But Secondly You shall Afflict your Souls cannot be meant only that ye shall Afflict your Bodies the Spirit also must be troubled and we must rent the Heart as well as Garments that is indeed a Sacrifice fit for a Propitiation day for it is such a one as God will not despise Psal. li. 17. and without which all others are but vain Oblations God may call fasting the Afflicting of the Soul because it is the most appropriate and natural means to work it but when he calls it so he does intend it should produce it Austerities are humilificandi hominis disciplina as Tertul. says Humiliation Discipline but yet they have not always that effect The Pharisee that fasted twice a week did not mortifie at all but his Humiliation made him lofty his emptiness filled him with wind and puft him up and the Publican was more justified than he And late experiences have taught us that Fasting does not always humble when it did gape for Sovereignty and did afflict then into Power only when there attended it a sacra fames an hunger after Holy things and such as all the relicts of old Sacriledg could not allay but it devoured Church and State and yet crav'd still And the throat of these fasting men was an open Sepulchre indeed open to bury and that could no more be satisfied than the Grave But 't is not only these demure impieties and those that are devout in wickedness and act it in Religion and the Fear of God I have to speak against But in the general If Fasting do not humble and those severities that wear the Flesh break not the heart too and make it contrite then they are lost upon us and do not profit us All these strictnesses of bodily and outward exercise as S. Paul calls it are acts of discipline prescribed to make the Sorrows of Repentance more severe and operative and so to
God alone for thus expiation of sins was wrought Even so to make that expiation mine besides reliance on it I must transcribe the Copy of the Sufferings of that Son transplant the Garden of Gethsemane into my breast If his Soul be sorrowful even unto Death my Soul must be afflicted too Humiliations must prostrate me upon my face to deprecate that Fire and Brimstone burning Tempest that is the portion of the Sinners Cup saith David O my Father let this Cup pass from me The lustful Feavers of my blood must excern themselves in cold sweat of fear and grief in Agonies of Penitence and my excessive draughts not onely make me to cry out I thirst but give me Vinegar and Gall to drink sorrow as bitter as my riotous egestions have been my Oaths that have struck through the Name of God must pierce my Soul with grief as pungent as his Thorns and Nails In a word I must so afflict my Soul as to crucifie the body of sin and nail it to his Cross. And this is that which in its own proportion was required of the Jews this Day here in the Text to the work of which Day how the Afflicting of the Soul in both the given senses does contribute was my Second and the next Enquiry Secondly What this Day was the Verse before the Text informs us it was their Day of Expiation or Atonement Now that the Jews esteem Fasting and Humiliation expiatory Sacrifices appears from a Form of Prayer which even yet they use on such a day where he that fasted says O Lord the Governour of all the World I have now finished my Fast before thee thou knowest that when we had a Temple standing the man that sinned was bound to expiate it by a Sacrifice the Blood of which was poured out and the Altar consumed the Fat to make amends for his offence but now by reason of our many wickednesses we have neither a Temple Altar or Priest to make Atonement for us I beseech thee therefore O Lord my God the God of my Fathers to accept of that little portion of my own Flesh and Blood which this days Fasting hath torn from me in lieu of a Sin-offering and be thou reconciled unto me for thy mercies sake Thus when he cannot give a Lamb for his Transgression he gives some of himself he offers Hunger for Shewbread and Thirst for a Drink-offering he consecrates a Meal instead of a Beast and sheds a sower fasting sigh for Incense and this he hopes God will accept as Sacrifice And truly the Text says no day of Expiation could be kept without it Nor does the Scripture want great instances of its effect towards Atonement of Gods wrath How when Judgment was given on a Nation or Person and Execution going out against them yet this revers'd the Sentence Ahab is a great proof of this 1 King xxi 27. And it came to pass when Ahab heard those words that he rent his Clothes and put Sackcloth upon his flesh and Fasted and lay in Sackcloth and went softly And the word of the Lord came unto Elijah the Tishbite saying Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days On Fasting-day secured a Life the weaknesses it brought upon the body upheld it against all Gods threats Vengeance pronounc'd and coming out against him falls to ground if Ahab humble and afflict his Soul Gods stretch'd out Arm will not strike Sackcloth nor wound through Fasting Garments One fit of it removes his Judgments a whole Age and had it been sincere and persevering how had it wip'd them out to everlastingness Ninive is another instance of the practice and success of this even among the Heathens Nor should it seem to have less Efficacy among Christians The Primitive Fathers call these severities Satisfaction for sin and Compensations the Price with which they are bought off the things that cover them and blot them out and which Propitiate and appease God for them not in their sense who force up these Expressions to a strange height of meaning and yet have quite beat down the Practice as to the publique wholesom use of them out of the Church But though these sayings assign not the Power and just Efficacy of that discipline in it self yet they do the acceptance and effect of it by virtue of Christs Satisfaction A Fainting Body cannot bear indeed the weight of our iniquities nor will lowest prostrations in the dust bury them in the dust or Tears alone blot out our Guilt but Christ having done that which is effectual to all this and requiring no more of thee to make that thine as he does every where most solemnly avow but faithful humbling of thy self in an afflictive sorrow for what 's past and so to mortifie as to work out Repentance the doing this is doing what he does require and consequently will accept These satisfie the Command and therefore God though not by a condignity of performance yet as Conditions which his Covenant of Grace hath set us which when they are fulfilled then God is satisfied thy sins are expiated and thou art pardoned And so in this lower sense these are thy Satisfactions with which God is well pleased And thus these self Afflictions of the Sinner supply Gods Indignation and divert it They leave no place nor business for it and by these short severities upon himself he does make void he does expunge the Sentence of eternal Torments saith Tertullian As thou becomest severe against thy self so will the Lord abate of his severities and he will spare and he will pity thee in that he sees thou wilt not spare thy self How can he choose but be appeased towards thee when he shall see thee executing his Sentence even upon thy own self and punishing his Enemies although they be thy Members so that by this means thou dost censure thy self into Gods Absolutions afflict thy self into his Pardons and dost condemn thy self into eternal Life Our Church says the same thing That in the Primitive Church there was a Godly Discipline that at the beginning of Lent such Persons as were notorious Sinners were put to open Pennance and punished in this World that their Souls might be saved in the Day of the Lord and she does wish if her wishes be of any force and value when her Orders and Constitutions are not that Discipline could be restored But this I shall not press if all those whom the Primitive Church Condemned or S. Paul sentenced were so used if every Schismatick that lies tearing himself and others off from the Lords Body were rejected and if the Fornicator that joyns himself to his unclean Accomplice were disjoined from Christ and not suffered to make his members be the members of an Harlot if every scandalous debauching Offender that lies corrupting Christs Body spreading Contagion thrusting the Gangreen forward were cut off and these and all
Bones Psal. Cix 17 18 19. And truly amongst those things which we did Curse there are that will fulfill all that most literally the Riots of thy gaudy bravery that make thee gripe extort spend thy own Wealth and other mens undo thy self and Creditors be sordid and in Debt meerly to furnish trappings to dress thy self for others eyes and may be sins these bring a Curse to cover thee as does thy Garment yea and they gird it to thee The draughts of thy Intemperance carry the malediction down into the Bowels like Water yea like the Wine into the very Spirits There is another of them too that will conveigh the Curse like Oil into the Bones till it eat out the marrow and leave nothing but it self to dwell within them yea till it putrefie the Bones till it prevent the Grave and Judgment too while the living Sinner invades the rottenness of the one and torments of the other and then the Lents and abstinencies that the sin prescribes shall be observed exactly onely to qualifie them for more sin and condemnation may be at the best but to recover them from what it hath inflicted when â—et alas they are too soft and tender the Lord knows to endure any â—rities to work out their Repentance and Atonement and yet sure â—se the Sinner does go through have nothing to commend them which these others do not much more abound with If those are not grievous to thee because they are so wholesom and though it be a miserable thing to go through all their painful squalid methods yet how disgustful soever by the benefit of their Cure they excuse their offensiveness and ingratiate the present injury they do the Flesh by the succeeding health they help thee to and by the Death they do secure thee from Why sure to omit that the other have all these advantages none have so calm and so establish'd health as the abstemious and continent and their mind is still serene their temper never clouded but besides this the Christians bitter Potions do purge away that sickness that would end in Death eternal his fastings starve that worm that otherwise would gnaw the Soul immortally his weepings quench the everlasting burnings yea there is chearful Pleasure in the midst of these severities when God breaks in in Comforts into them The Glory of the Lord appears in that Cloud too that is upon the penitent sad heart when he is drench'd in tears the Holy Ghost the Comforter does move upon those waters and breaths Life and Salvation into them and he who is the Vnction pours Oil into those wounds of the Spirit and we are never nearer Heaven than when we are thus prostrate in the lowest dust and when our Belly cleaveth unto the ground in humble penitence then we are at the very Throne of Grace And this our light afflicting of the Soul which is but for a moment does work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory To which c. The Fourth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL October 12. 1662. JOHN XV. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I Command you THE words are a conditional Assertion of Christ's concerning his Apostles and in them all Christians And they do easily divide themselves into two parts The First is a positive part wherein there is a state of great and Blessed advantage which they are declared to be in present possession of In these words Ye are my Friends In which there are two things that make up that advantage 1. A Relation 2. The Person related to Friends and My Friends The Second is a Conditional part wherein there are the terms upon which that Possession is made over and which preserve the Right and Title to them in these words If ye do whatsoever I command you in which there are two things required as Conditions I. Obedience If ye do what I command you II. That Obedience Universal If ye do whatsoever I command you The first thing that offers it self to our consideration is the Relation Friends It is a known common-place Truth that a Friend is the most useful thing that is in whatsoever state we are It is the Soul of life and of content If I be in prosperity We know abundance not enjoy'd is but like Jewels in the Cabinet useless while they are there It is indeed nothing but the opinion of Prosperity But 't is not possible to enjoy abundance otherwise than by communicating it a man possesseth plenty onely in his Friends and hath fruition of it meerly by bestowing it If I be in adversity to have a person whom I may intrust a trouble to whose bosom is as open and as faithful to me as 't is to his own thoughts to which I may commit a swelling secret this is in a good measure to unlade and to pour out my sorrow from me thus I divide my grievances which would be insupportable if I did not disburthen my self of some part of them Now there is no bosom so safe as that where friendship lodges take Gods Opinion in the case Deut. xiii 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosom or thy Friend that is as thine own Soul This is the highest step in the Gradation And there is all the reason in the World for though Parent and Child are as near one to other as any thing can be to part of it self Husband and Wife are but two different names of the same one yet these may become bitter and unkind A Parent may grow cross or a Child refractory a Mother may be like the Ostrich in the Wilderness throw off her bowels with her burthen and an ungracious Son is constant pangs and travail to his Mother his whole life gives her after-throws which are most deadly Dislikes also may rest within the Marriage-Bed and lay their heads upon two wedded Pillows but none of these unkindnesses can untie the Relation that ends not where the bitterness begins he is a Parent still though froward and a Child though stubborn but a true Friend can be nothing but kind it does include a dearness in its essence which is so inseparable from it that they begin and end together A man may be an Husband without loving but cannot be a lover that is a Friend without loving And sure to have no one Friend in this Life no one that is concerned in any of my interests or me my self none that hath any cares or so much as good wishes for me is a state of a most uncomfortable prospect The Plague that keeps Friends at a distance from me while I live out of the sphere of my infection and after gives me Death hath yet less of Malignity than this that leaves me the Compassions the Prayers all the solitary Comforts all indeed but the outward entertainments of my Friends that though it shut the Door against all company yet puts a Lord have Mercy on the Door But this
out his own Bowels and cut off his hopes will Sacrifice his onely Son and Sacrifice Gods Promises to his Commands And then he that will trust to Abraham's example of believing yet will not follow him at all in doing will obey no Commands that is so far from offering up an onely Son he will not slay an onely evil Custom nor part with one out of the herd of all his vicious Habits will not give up the satisfaction to any of his carnal worldly or ambitious appetites not sacrifice a Passion or a lust to all the Obligations that God and Christ can urge him with he hath nor faith nor friendship no nor forehead 'T is true indeed he that hath Abraham's faith may well assure himself he is Christs Friend but 't is onely on this account because he that believes as Abraham believed he will not stick to do whatever Christ commands which is that universality of obedience that is the next condition that entitles to Christs friendship and my last Part. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I Command you There is no quality so necessary to a Friend or so appropriate to friendship as sincerity They that have but one Soul they can have no reserves from one another But disobedience to one Precept is inconsistent with sincerity that hath respect unto all the Commandments and he that will not do whatever Christ prescribes hath reserves of affection for some darling sin and is false to his Saviour He is an Enemy indeed so that there is no friendship on either side S. Paul says so of any of one kind the minding of the flesh saith he whether it be providing for the Belly or any other of the Organs of Carnality is desperate incurable Rebellion Now such a Rebel is we know the worst of Enemies S. James does say as much of any of those vicious affections that are set on the World Whosoever will be a friend of the World is an Enemy of God James iv 4. And he calls them adulteresses and Adulterers who think to joyn great strict Religion to some little by-love of an Honour or a profit of this World Such Men are like a Wife that not contented with the partner of her Bed takes in another now and then she must not count her self her Husbands Friend though she give him the greatest share in her affections no she is but a bosom Enemy And so any one Vice allowed is a paramour sin is whoredom against Christ and our pretended friendship to him in all other obediences is but the kindness and the caresses of an Adulteress the meer hypocrisie and treachery of love If it be necessary to the gaining Christ's friendship that thou do his Commands 't is necessary that thou do them all that thou divorce thy self from thy beloved sin as well as any other Because his Friendship does no more require other obedience than it does that but is as inconsistent with thy own peculiar Vice as with the rest Indeed it is impossible that it should bear with any they being all his murderers If thou canst find one sin that had no hand in putting Christ to Death one Vice that did not come into the garden nor upon Mount Calvary that did not help to assassin thy Saviour even take thy fill of that But if each had a stab at him if no one of thy Vices could have been forgiven had not thy Jesus died for it canst thou expect he should have kindness for his Agony or friendship for the man that entertains his Crucifiers in his heart If worldly cares which he calls Thorns fill thy head with Contrivances of Wealth and Greatness of filling Coffers and of platting Coronets for thee as the thorns did make him a Câ—own too wouldst thou have him receive thee and these in his bosom to gore his Heart as they did pierce his Head If thou delight in that intemperance which filled his deadly Cup which Vomited Gall into it can he delight in thee That Cup which made him fall upon his face to deprecate will he partake in as the pledge of mutual love He that sunk under could not bear this load of thine when it was in his Cross upon his shoulders will he bear it and thee in his Arms when thou fallest under it When thou wilt cast a shameful spewing on his glory too if he own such a Friend Thou that art so familiar with his Name as thou wer't more his Friend than any in the World whose Oaths and imprecations Moses says strike through that Name which they so often call upon thou mayst as well think his Heart did attract the Spear that pierced it and the Wound close upon its head with Unions of Love as that he hath kindness for thee If Christ may make Friendship with him that does allow himself a sin he may have fellowship with Belial For him to dwell in any heart that cherisheth a Vice were to descend to Hell again But as far as those Regions of Darkness are from his Habitation of Glory and the Black Spirits of that place from being any of his Guard of holy Myriads so for is he from dwelling with or being friend to him that is a friend to any wickedness to him that will not do whatever he commands And now if these Conditions seem hard if any do not care to be his Friend upon these terms they may betake themselves to others Let such make themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness A Friend indeed that hath not so much of the insincerities as many great ones have For this will furnish them with all that heart or lust can wish for all that necessity or wantonness proposeth to it self to dress out pomp or Vice But yet when with enjoyment the affections grow and become so unquiet work them so as not to let their thoughts or actions rest make them quicken themselves and like the motions of all things that go downwards tending to the Earth increase by the continuance grow stronger and more violent towards the end then when they are most passionate it fails them And having filled their life with most unsatisfied tormenting cares it leaves them nothing but the guilt of all When their great Wealth shall shrink into a single sheet no more of it be left but a thin shroud and all their vast Inheritances but six foot of Earth be gone yet the iniquity of all will stick close to them and this false Friend that does it Self forsake them will neither go along nor will let its pomp follow them raises a cry on them as high as Gods Tribunal the cry of all the Blood all the oppressed rights that bribery till then had stifled the groans of all those Poor that greatness covetousness or extortion had groun'd or crush'd the yellings of those Souls that were sâ—arv'd for want of the Bread of life which yet they payed for and the price of it made those heaps which will
that many Ages prov'd but Centuries of Martyrdom unto that Truth all Torments were more eligible than the belief of this Religion which was confirmed so that against all arts and power of Opposition against the Wit and Fury of the World though all the Subtlety and all the Strength of Earth resisted it yet it over-spread the Universe Besides it is most prudent to believe it too for if there be another World what then There was enough done therefore but Corruptions suffer them not to attend to that which hath been done And 't is no wonder they should do so at this distance for they contrasted with Christs Miracles when present and they were so uneasie under the conviction of them that rather than be prest so by the mighty power of his Works they did design to rid themselves of him that wrought them John xi 47. you may find them strugling with his demonstrations to keep off the Evidence What do we for this man doth many Miracles Yea they do conspire against the Miracles themselves and would put Lazarus also to death because he was raised from the dead they could not let the Evidence and the Conviction live but they must murder that too Nay more as if the pertinacy of their prejudices could do mightier Works than Christ and could controul and were above the power of his Miracles it is said to have bound his hands and he could do no mighty Works at Nazareth because of it Mar. vi 6. At least as saith Theophylact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could not do them where men were not capable they should be done So that Christ did pronounce from Reason and Experience If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead Such an amazing argument might probably astonish but would not convince unless it met with honest inclinations for after the surprize of it were over and had vanish'd then the corruption that Bosom Sophister would stir and goad and urge incessantly so that to ease himself the Man must find out some cross Scruple to weaken the force of that Evidence and the Conviction would vanish like the Ghost And if we should examine the Experience of our selves and others we should find that just according to the rate of virtuous inclinations and dispositions of heart to part with sin so are men prepar'd for the belief of Christ so are their cares and regards of his Religion He that is honestly inclin'd opens his Soul to Christianity for it speaks to his heart 't is right to the grain of his Soul he looks upon the Promises as made to him and lays them up as Gods encouragements of his inclinations every thing in the Gospel fits the temper of his mind And he that is but pretty well disposed that loves Virtue for the most part but does allow himself some one corruption he always hearkens to Religion where it sets it self against those Vices which he hates but as to his own particular evil inclination there he is a little Infidel cannot persuade himself that God will be so stern against a single pleasure that one petty indulgence should be so considerable that it should provoke to those extremities the Bible threatens and can by no means believe S. James that he that offends in one point thus is guilty of all And they upon whose constitutions there are weights and Plummets that incline them to some vicious courses and by loose Education have those pronenesses of temper pamper'd and by having their inclinations follow'd and indulg'd taught them to crave then to get head and to command and then by conversation with others that mind nothing but satisfaction of those bents of the Brute part that allow themselves all the desires of constitution are come to swill the pleasures profits and the Honours that do wait on those practices Or whosoever by whatever steps arrive at an habit of doing thus and a great liking of them and so to improbity of Heart to utter aversations of the strictnesses of Piety all which they have lived so out of 'T is known that not enduring to be bound up in those narrow paths of Piety and Virtue they burst all the Obligations to them seek little things to cavil at or to deride hoping with those their poison'd Arrows through the skirts and the Extreamer parts to send a Wound into the very Vitals of Religion for they aim at the Heart when they pretend to strike only the out Lap of its Garments and to say all at once grow down-right Atheists And though as once at Corinth now again the World by Wisdom knows no God there being Skill and Manage in this Mystery of Infidelity and it requires Study Wit and Parts yet they proceed just by the Method of King David's Fool first he says in his heart there is no God before he say it in his thoughts and Opinions He wishes it and so comes to believe it the Atheism is rooted in the Seat of the Affections and it branches thence into the Mind at least into the Mouth and finding Hell the greatest check to their Delights which they cannot determine with themselves to leave and to repent of therefore because they will not quench it with their tears they study how to put it out with Arguments And meerly for this reason that they will not live like Men they resolve therefore to believe that they shall die like Beasts But alas they must live for ever with the Devil and his Angels it that Christ whom they reject does not lay hold on them and rescue them from thence as he is in his passage to his Cross the next Way we must prepare for him and my next Part. The Solemn days approaching will discover to you this Way namely the Passage from the Garden in Gethsemane to Golgotha There you will see he does begin his Journey with the Amazements of an Agony and ended it in something like the horrors and the outcrys of Despair he travailed under such a load as made his life gush out through all the parts of his whole Body the weight of it did make his Soul faint by the way and when he was upon the Tree crush'd it out and made it expire sooner than the stress of Nature would have done and forc'd it to burst out away in Prayers and strong Cries that so he might sooner escape from under that sad pressure And then do but consider and look on him under that representation which S. Paul does shew of him how all that time that he was creeping under that dire burden in that dolorous way he was meerly pressing on with all the haste he could to overtake us in our course and rescue us from Ruine For that Journey was a Race and we the Prize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have been laid hold on saith he Phil. iii. 12. laid hold on in the Agonistick sense as in a Race he so expresses it And
hold on any noble part take in some Nerve or Artery then he must cut the thread of Life that cuts it off So he must rent my heart indeed that tears my pleasures from me Life it self does seem to have so little salisfaction without them that it is a death to me to part with them Or else hath the Old Man no Soul is he all Flesh and hath Iniquity debas'd the whole of him so that his very Spirit is become Body of Sin so as that Wickedness should be our very Being be all one with us and I and my corruptions prove denominations of one importance signifie the very same so it is indeed Besides the carnal part that is sold under sin and consequently does deserve the Cross that punishment of Slaves the part also that is in the quite opposite extream that lusts against the flesh that must be made away Be ye 〈◊〉 ansform'd by the renewing of your mind Rom. xii 2. And if there be any sublimer and more deâ—â—â—cated past in that it must submit to the same Fate 〈…〉 in the spirit of your mind Ephes. iv 23. Corruption hath invaded that To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the diviner ruling part is grown a slave to the Beast part of him it hath debauch'd its notions whereby it should discriminate good from evll so that now it can discern no natural difference between them but does measure both meerly by his present inclinations and concerns and the eternal Laws of Honesty are blotted our and principles of interest and irreligion rais'd there in the place and buttress'd by false reasonings and Discourses Now all these Fortresses of Vice that maintain and secure a man in sin must be demolish'd all such imaginations cast down and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and every thought brought into Captivity to the obedience of Christ That Spirit of the mind must be destroyed and we transformed into persons of new notions and reasonings But above all the remaining part of Man his own Will must be mortified which besides its natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by perverse inclinings to sollicitations of flesh is most corrupted and most dangerous in that which way soever it inclines it draws the whole Man after it If any thing in us be crucified in a Conformity to Christ it must be this for in that death wherein Christ offered up himself upon the Cross where although the Divine Nature gave the value 't was onely the Humane Nature made the Offering there it was the crucifying his own Will that above all other the ingredients made his Death a Sacrifice and the price of our Redemption God that had given him his Blood and Life might call for it again when and how he saw good and being due it was not properly a price that could be given him for sin but his free voluntary choice his being willing to endure the Agonies and Contempts of the Cross his stabbing his own natural desires with a resolute determination Not my will but thine be done This his own Will was his own Offering and such is ours if we be Crucified with Christ made conformable to his death if we present our selves a Sacrifice acceptable to the Lord for our will is not given up to him till it do perfectly comport with his but that it cannot do till we renounce our own desires till we have brought our selves to an indifference in outward things to such a resignation as she is storied to have had who being in her Sickness bid to choose whether she rather would have Health or Death made answer Vehementissimè desidero ut non facias voluntatem meam Domine this above all I desire that thou wilt not do my will I would have thee not do what I desire and would have So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole of us the Spirit Soul and Flesh go to make up this Person and the body of Sin is the Old man entire I whole I am nothing but a mass of guilts my Senses are the bands of wickedness that procure for my evil inclinations my members are the weapons of unrighteousness my Body is a Body of Sin and Death and the affections of my Soul are Lusts its faculties are the powers of Sin yea and the Spirit of my mind that Breath of God is putrefied that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Angel-part of me is fall'n and turn'd Apostate and however I be partly Son of Man and partly Son of God yet I am wholly Child of Wrath and so fit to be Crucified Which calls me to the next Enquiry to the nature of the duty here intended I am Crucified What is design'd by it S. Paul does perfectly declare Rom. vi 6. Our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of Sin might be destroyed that we should no longer serve sin So that it means a through Repentance and abandoning of former evil Courses A Duty which there are few men but in some instants of their life think absolutely necessary and persuade themselves they do perform it At some time or other they are forc'd to recollect and grow displeas'd and angry at their sins and have some sad reflections on them beg for mercy and forgiveness and do think of leaving them and when they have return'd to them again they shake the head and chafe and curse at their own weakness and renew their purposes it may be and do this as oft as such a Season as this is or other like occasions suggest it to or move them And with this they satisfie themselves and hope if God do please to take them hence in some such muddy gloomy fit of their Repentance all 's well Now shall we call this being Crucified are there Racks and Tortures in this discipline hath a Spear prick'd them to the heart and no blood nor no water no tears gush out thence hath it made no issue for some hearty Sorrow to purle out Indeed I must confess the Scripture does sometimes word the performance of this Duty in expressions that are not so sower but of an easier importance as first put off the Old Man as if all were but Garment put it off I say not as they strip'd our Saviour in order to his Scourgings and his Cross but intimating to us what an easie thing it is to cast off Sin for them who do begin with it betimes before it get too close to the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Theophyl even as easie as putting off thy Cloaths and thy Repentance is but as thy Shift thy change of life like changing thy Apparel But alas for all the easiness which this expression hints where the sins also lie in the Attire as besides emulation pride vainglory great uncharitableness and inhumanity cruel injustice and oppression often do when many are undone through want of those dues which do furnish other men with the excesses of this
kind when the sins therefore lie in the Attire and they may put them off without a Metaphor yet it is so hard that it cannot be done sometimes the worth of a whole Province hangs upon a slender thread about a Neck a Patrimony thrust upon one joint of one least Finger and these warts of a Rock or a Shell-fish with the appendages eat out Estates and starve poor Creditors for whom indeed they should command these stones to be made bread but that 's a Miracle too stubborn for their Vertue And then how will they proceed to the next expression of this Duty Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts Jer. iv 4. These are harder and more bloody words they differ in the pain and anguish that they put us to as much as to uncloath and flea would do It appears indeed this punishment of fleaing often went before the Cross. To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ctesias of one having his Skin pull'd off he was Crucified And the scourges in some measure did inflict this on our Saviour when they put off his Cloaths they strip'd his Skin also left him no covering but some rags of that which whipping had torn from his flesh Yet this expression sounds harsher when it bids us circumcise the foreskin of our hearts and tear it from thence flea that When long Conversation with the pleasures of a sin hath not onely given them Regallias but hath made them necessary to us so as that we cannot be without them when Custom craves with greater feaver than our thirst when if we want it we have qualms saintings of Soul as if the life were in that blood of the grape when men can part as easily with their own bowels as the Luxuries that feed them if you take away their Dishes then you take their Souls which dwell in them when the sins of the Bed are as neâ—dful and refreshing as the sleeps of it when to bid a man not look not satisfie his lustful eye is every jot as cruel as that other Iâ— thine eye offend thee pluck it out For if he must no more find pleasure in his sight he hath no use of it yea if this be indeed a kindness not to leave him Eyes to be to him the same as Appetite to Tantalus that which he must not satisfie and is his hell 'T is easie if the Lust be got no further than the Eye to pull them out together but if through that it shoot into the Blood and Spirits mix heats with those if it enwrap the heart twist with its strings and warm the Soul with its desires so that it Spirit all the motions all the thoughts and wishes of the heart when it is thus to make the heart to stifle its own motions stab its thoughts and strangle all its wishes to untwist and disentangle and to tear it thence if this be to be Circumcised with the Circumcision of Christ and he that hath not the sign of this the Seal of the New Covenant as he that in the Old had not the other was must be cut off our long habituated hardned Sinners must not think that there is any thing of true Repentance in their easie perfunctory sleight performances there is something like Death in the Duty which yet is required of us farther under variety of more severe expressions for we are bid thirdly to slay the Body of Sin Rom. vi 6. to mortifie our members Col. iii. 5. and to Crucifie Gal. vi 14. which how it may be done the next consideration of S. Paul's condition in the Text and my next part declare I am Crucified with Christ that is first as he was by being made conformable to his Death And truly should we trace him through all the stages of his Passion we should hardly find one passage but is made to be transcribed by us in dealing with our sins First he began it with Agony when his Soul was exceeding heavy for it labour'd with such weight of indignation as did make the Son of God to sink under the meer apprehension And he was sorrowful unto Death so as that his whole Body did weep Blood The Sinners passion his Repentance is exactly like it it begins always with grief and sense of weight whoever is regenerate was conceiv'd in sorrow and brought forth with pangs and the Child of God too is born weeping And for loads the Church when she does call us to shew forth this Death of Christ as if she did prescribe that very Agony requires that we should find that Garden at the Altar makes us say we are heartily sorry for our misdoings the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the burden of them is intolerable So that the Sinner's Soul must be exceeding heavy too Secondly There he is betrayed by his own domestick sold for the poorest Price imaginable as a Slave for thirty pieces of silver I shall not mind you what unworthy things the love of Money does engage men to to sell a Christ a Saviour and a God! and rather than stand out at such a base rate as we scorn to buy a sin at every single act 's engagement to Damnation costs more than the Ransom of the World is sold for and the Blood of God is purchas'd cheaper than any one opportunity of Vice does stand us in But I onely mind you here that he shall have a better hire that will but be a Judas to his own iniquities do but betray the Regent sins deliver them up and thou shalt have everlasting Heaven Thirdly We find him next carried before the High Priest And the strictest times of Christianity would serve their sins so to receive his doom upon them to be excommunicated into Reformation But I shall not urge how we can discover to a Physician our shames all our most putrid Guilts as well as Ulcers and make him our Confessor in our most secret sins neither will I be inquisitive why the Physicians of our souls are balk'd but will pass this part of the Conformity and follow Christ to Pontius Pilate And for this part we our selves are fitted the whole furniture of a Judicial Court all that makes up both Bench and Bar is born within us God hath given us a Conscience whereby we are a Law to our selves Rom. ii We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Jews did want such evidence as is sufficient to condemn us the same Conscience that is privy to our doings and stands by our thoughts and sees through our intentions is a thousand witnesses And that there may be a Prosecutor our own thoughts accuse us saith S. Paul and if we will give them way will aggravate each Circumstance of guilt and danger bark and howl and cry as loud against us as the Jews did against Christ for Sin is of so murthering a guilt it will be sure to slay it self and that he may not want his deserved Ruin the Sinner makes his
account of Christ or of Religion is most inconsistent with the Spirit of the Gospel For it was the Spirit of Elias who destroyed those whom the Magistrate did send that Christ opposes here the Spirit of the Gospel to in this severe rebuke ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of The other warm Apostle meets a greater check in the like case S. Peter's zeal that they say made him chief of the Apostles as it made him promptest to confess the Lord so it did heat him to be readiest to defend him as fiery to use his Sword as his Tongue for his Master But his Master will not let a Sword be drawn in his own cause put up again thy Sword into his place The God of our Religion will not be defended by Treason and from Murder by the wounding of another nor will his Religion suffer a Sword out of the sheath against the Power of the Magistrate no not in behalf of Christ himself but goes beyond its proper bounds to threaten things that are not Gospel punishments even excision in this life to them that do attempt it They that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword Here the Gospel becomes Law and turns zealot for the Magistrate though persecuting Christ himself Our Saviour does not think it sharp enough to tell S. Peter that he did not know what Spirit he was of for when this Disciple would have kept these sufferings from his Master onely by his counsel he replies to him get thee behind me Satan He was then of that manner of Spirit therefore now that he does so much worse when he attempts to keep them from him with a Sword and drawn against the Power as if Christ did not know how to word what Spirit such attempts did savour of he does not check and rebuke now but threaten and denounce And 't is obvious to observe that this same Peter who would needs be fighting for his Master in few hours with most cursed imprecations forswears him And so irregular illegal violences for Religion usually flame out into direct opposition to that they are so zealous for fly in the face of that Religion they pretend to strive for to let us see they do not rise from Divine Zeal and from true Piety but from Hypocrisie Ambition Revenge or Interest and that warm shine that kindles there pretended Angels of Light is but a flash of Hell a glory about a fiend Therefore afterwards none was more forward than S. Peter was to press submission to the Magistrate though most unjustly persecuting for Religion talks of no Fire but the fiery trial then in Epist. 1. Cap. iv and If ye suffer for the Name of Christ the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you he knows what manner of Spirit such are of When they are in the place of Dragons then the Holy Ghost and God is with them when the darkness of the shadow of death is on their Souls even then the Spirit of glory resteth on them Accordingly the after-Fathers urge the same not onely towards Heathen Emperours but relaps'd Hereticks and Apostates As Julian and Constantius Valens Valentinian and upon the same account S. Ambrose says Spiritus Sanctus id locutus est in vobis Rogamus Auguste non Pugnamus The Holy Spirit spake these words in you we beg O Valentinian we oppose not And S. Greg. Nazianzen says to do so was the Christian Law most excellently ordained by the Spirit of God who knew best to temper his Law with the mixture of what is profitable to us and honest in it self They knew what manner of Spirit that of Christianity was It does assume no power to inflict it self 'T is not commission'd to plant it self with violence or destroy those that refuse or oppose it It wages War indeed with Vices not with men And in the Camp of our Religion as once in Israel there is no Sword found but with Saul and Jonathan his Son onely the Princes Sword Our Spirit is the Dove no Bird of prey that nor indeed of gall or passion If Christian Religion be to be writ in Blood 't is in that of its own confessors onely if mens false Opinions make no parties nor mischiefs in the State we are not to make them Martyrs to their false Opinions and if they be not so happy as to be Orthodox send them down to Hell directly tear out one anothers Souls to tear out that which we think an Errour Sure they must not root out smutted Corn that must not root out Poppy we may let that which is a little blasted grow if we must let the Tares and Darnel grow The Soldiers would not crucifie Christ's Coat nor make a rent there where they could find no seam But now men strive so for the Coat that they do rent his Flesh to catch it and to gain an inclosure of the name of Christians tear all other members from the Body of Christ care not to sacrifice a Nation to a supposed Errour will attempt to purge away what they call dross in a Furnace of consuming flame The Christian Spirit 's fiery Tongues must kindle no such heats but his effusions call'd Rivers came to quench such fires Effusions that were mistaken sor new wine indeed but never look'd like Blood Nor are they that retain to this Spirit those that have him call'd down on them in their Consecration impowered for such uses When Christ sent his Disciples to convert the World Behold saith he I send you forth as Lambs among Wolves And sure that does not sound like giving a Commission to tear and worry those that would not come into the Flock The Sheep were not by that impowered to devour the Wolves Our Lords directions to his Apostles when a City would not receive their Doctrine was shake off the dust of your feet let nothing of theirs cleave to you have no more to do with them cast off the very dust that setled on your Sandals as you pass'd their Streets And surely then we must be far from animating to give ruin to and seize the Sword the Scepter and the Thrones of Kings if they refuse to receive Christ or his Kingdom or his Reformation or his Vicar If I must not have the dust of any such upon my feet I must not have their Land in my possession their Crowns on my head their Wealth in my Coffers their Blood upon my hands nor their Souls upon my Sword It will be ill appearing so when we come to give an account how we have executed our Commission and shall be ask'd did I send you to inflict the Cross or preach it to save mens Souls or to destroy their lives yea and Souls too And when in those Myriads of Souls that have perish'd in the desolations which such occasions have wrought their Blood shall cry from under the Altar as being sacrific'd to that Duty and Religion which was the
severe Judges were appointed meant the same thing with our last Assize and their Elizian fields were but Poetical Paradise their Phlegethon River of Fire was set to express our stream of Brimstone flame Thus Resurrection in fable made them vertuous the guess at it made Socrates die chearful and though his hopes had faint weak Principles they had Heroick almost Martyr resolutions And on the other side of those that among them deny'd an after life though we are told that Epicurus was a vertuous man yet his Sect did give name to Vice and is still the expression for it and all that did espouse the Tenents of it did the Vices too the Sadduces among the Jews are call'd Epicures not onely for Opinions sake because they did make God a body and totally denyed his Providence as Zakuth says but Epicures also for their practice sake For they used to scoff at the Pharisees for afflicting themselves by Fasting and Austerities in this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when there is nothing at all of recompence for them in any life to come Yea and Josephus says of them they were the worst of all Sects living like savage Beasts towards one another and uncourteous to their own Sect as to strangers and this says he was but a natural effect of their Opinion which wholly denied the Immortality of the Soul and all Rewards and Punishments after this Life which Principle one coming from the dead would rectifie and so contribute to Repentance Especially if Secondly That one were Lazarus if he that at the Supper of the Lamb sits next the Father of the faithful and the friend of God in one of the higher Seats of Paradise in Abraham's Bosom if he would go and speak his knowledg of the Pleasures of that Bosom which he tasts and of the glories of that Place and but compare them with the little gayeties of my Fathers House shew them the difference betwixt their Structures and that Foundation whose builder and maker God is betwixt the entertainments of their riotous Palats and the Festivals of the Blessed Trinity then sure they would disrellish those and catch at these which do exceed them by a whole Infinity and will out-live them an Eternity And here should I attempt what he would have had Lazarus perform to dash out the blessedness of that place making the first draught of them with notions of delight not such as the Understanding cannot apprehend but such as seize the heart with pleasure in this Life and that give it the strongest agitations here and sweetning that by those transcendencies which I could fill it up with and should I raise it then with shadow evince that reason though it cannot fathom can yet by sure Discourse conclude the greatness of those Glories which I would leave for your expectations to loose themselves into should I attempt all this I were an insolent undertaker Yet were it very easie to describe them so as that viewing them with the things below these would vanish in the comparison And to do so much was the utmost that our Rich Man could design by sending Lazarus who if he could have been believ'd might probably have done the work for if Faith did but do what Lazarus did look into Abraham's Bosom were it but turn'd into a little Vision and but as clear an evidence of things not seen as eye-sight hath of its temptations had the spiritual Object but that advantage the carnal hath of being present now it is the work of Faith to give it that advantage sure it would be impossible for the sensitive Objects the pleasures or the Profits of this World which ae so far inferiour to the other in desireableness and onely make advantage of their being present when the other is so far off 't would be impossible for them to gain our wills consent at any time and therefore when those glories shall be present to the Soul 't will be impossible for any other Object to steal or ravish any way to engage one thought away from them In Heaven they cannot wish to sin Nay the flash alone of that glory fascinates the heart Peter and James and John saw but a glimpse of it and that transfigur'd too onely the other way that Moses and Elias were for the glory suffered an exinanition and they but wak'd into the sight of it so that 't was but an apparition of Heaven and yet they never would have left the place which it once lightned Master it is good for us to be here let us go down no more never converse with any thing beneath Mount Tabor but let us build three Booths such Tents would be like that which He hath spread and such Booths be some of the many Mansions of his House who spreadeth out the Heavens for a Tent for himself to dwell in But the truth is while men do onely hear of Joys above and have but thin neglected notions of them and on the other side a sense of present profits pleasures honours which the World affords they will not be affected with the future dry hopes of those as with all these in present will nor have as effectual a tast of the Supper of the Lamb as of their own delicious daily fare nor be as much wrought upon by the Promises of being Cloath'd upon with the white Robe of Immortality and by the mentions of a Crown although of Glory as they are pleas'd with their own Royal Purples they have much surer Conviction of the delights of present things than of those far removed futurities but now if Lazarus would go from Abraham's Bosom he might Convince them from his own Experience and then they would Repent Especially Thirdly because Lazarus hath seen me in my Torments and can give account of them wherefore I pray thee Father Abraham send him for if such an one went unto them from the Dead one that could testifie of this place he would tell them such sad stories of my condition here how in lieu of all my sumptuous fare I have nothing now but gnashing of teeth streams indeed of Brimstone and a lake of fire but everlasting feaver of thirst for my delicious intemperate Palate my short-liv'd sins turn'd to eternal Agonies sure this would prevail with them to cut off their sins by Repentance before Death cut off their sin and them together and so they might prevent the coming hither And very probably it might have taken for upon such Conviction 't is hard not to resolve to change for who is he that can resolve thus with himself well I will now content my self with everlasting Condemnation and this sin for I see they are consequent now this I cannot leave therefore let the other come they that were once affected with the apprehensions of the greatness and the certainty of that Damnation cannot resolve thus and therefore we see fewer men adventure to transgress Man's Law whose Punishment is near and most assur'd than God's
a Pompous Royal Messiah they will not believe in this but reject a Saviour that comes upon those disadvantages which will therefore prove occasions of falling to them That is was so is expresly said Behold I lay in Sion a Chief Corner-stone a stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence And that it was so upon this account is clear the Great ones cry out of him This fellow we know not whence he is They that seem'd to know whence did upbraid him with it Is not this the Carpenter And therefore with a deal of scorn they question Do any of the Rulers or the Pharisees believe in him Yea Christ himself knew this would be so great a Scandal that in the 11. Chapter of S. Matthew in the close of many Miracles which he wrought on purpose to demonstrate he was the Messiah he adds vers 6. and blessed is he that shall not be offended in me As if he thought his mean condition would prove a greater argument against him than his mighty Works were for him And it were a vaster Prodigy to see the Saviour of the World the promised Messiah poor and abject than to see one cure the Blind and heal the Lame and raise the Dead and they might think they had a stranger Miracle to confirm their unbelief than any he would work to make them believe in him And really that the Kingdom of the Messiah which the Prophets did express in terms as high as their own Extasies and Raptures in transported words as if it vied with Gods Dominion both for extent and for duration should prove at last an Empire onely over twelve poor Fishermen and Publicans and one of them a Traytor too And that He that was born this King should be born in a Stable while he liv'd that he should not have an hole to put his Head in nor his Corps in when he died but his Grave too must be Charity this would startle any that did wait for the Redemption of Israel in those glorious expresses which the Prophets trac'd it out in To you indeed that are Votaries to this Child are confirmed Christians these seeming disadvantages can give no prejudice However mean and abject his condition were that cannot make you to despise him who from that must needs reflect how dear you were to God when for your sakes meerly he became so mean an abject He became poor saith S. Paul that you through his poverty might be made rich He was made the Child of Man that you might be made Sons of God it was to pay the price of your Redemption that he so emptied himself thus he valued you and men do not despise meerly because and by those measures that they are esteem'd these are not the returns of love its passionate obliging ravishing effects do not use to be thus requited this his great descent cannot occasion your fal who know he descended onely to assume you up to glory But 't is worth inquiry why since it was certain that for this this Child should be the fall of Israel that for this they would reject him and the meanness of his condition would prove an unremovable obstruction to their belief as it is to this day Why yet he would chuse to be born in a condition so in the utmost extream to his own nature so all contradiction to his Divinity and so seemingly opposite to the very end of his coming The Jew indeed will find no excuse for his Infidelity from this condition For whatever that were yet those Miracles that made the Devils to confess him brought conviction enough to make Jews inexcusable And it was obvious to observe that He who fed five thousand with five Loaves and two Fishes till they left more than was set before them needed not to be in a condition of want or meanness if it were not otherwise more needful he should not abound God that when he brought this first begotten Son into the World said Let all the Angels of God worship him might have put him into an estate which all Mankind most readily would have done homage to As easily have dress'd his Person with a blaze of Pomp and Splendor as his Birthday with a Star if there had not been necessity it should be otherwise And such there was For when the fulness both of Time and Iniquity was come when Vice could grow no further but did even cry for Reformation and when the Doctrine that must come to give the Rules of this Reformation was not onely to wage War with Flesh and Blood with those desires which Constitution gives but which perpetual universal Custom had confirmed and which their Gods also as well as Inclinations did contribute to which their Original sin and their Religion equally â—omented for Vice was then the Worship of the World Sins had their Temples Theft its Deity and Drunkenness its God Adultery had many and to prostitute their bodies was most â—acred and their very Altar-fires did kindle these soul heats whence Uncleanness ' is so often call'd Idolatry in Scripture And besides all this when all the Philosophy and all the power of the World were ingag'd in the belief and practice of this and resolv'd with all their wit and force to keep it so When it was thus the Doctrine that must come to oppose controul reform all this must come either arm'd with Fire and Sword design to settle it self by Conquest or come in a way of Meekness and of suffering The first of these Religion cannot possibly design because it cannot aim to settle that by violence which cannot be forc'd and where 't is force is not Religion One may as well invade and hope to get a Conquest over thoughts and put a Mind in Chains and force a man to will against his will All such motives are incompetent to demonstrate Doctrines for however successful their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true for by that Argument is proves that Religion that it settles true it proves that which it destroys was true before while it prevail'd and had the Power Had this Child come so he had onely given such a testimony to the truth of Christianity as Heathenism had before and Turcism hath since He might indeed have drown'd the wicked World again in another Deluge of their own Bloud But sure never had reform'd it thus Therefore that Religion that must oppose the Customs and the Powers of the World upon Principles of Reason and Religion must do it by Innocence and Patience by doing good and which was necessary then by consequence as the World stood by suffering evil parting with all not onely the Advantages but the Necessaries of this life and life it self too where they stood in competition and were inconsistent with mens duties and their expectations And by this means they must shew the World that their Religion did bring in a better hope than that which all the profits pleasures glories
of a Reprobate sense In fine because I dare not prosecute the Character Men sink so fast as if they were resolv'd to fall as far below Humanity as this Child did below his Divinity O do not you thus break Decrees frustrate and overthrow the everlasting Counsel of Gods Will for good to you He set ordain'd this Child for your rising again Do not throw you selves down into Ruin in despite of his Predestinations He hath carried up your nature into Heaven plac'd Flesh in an union with Divinity set it there at the Right hand of God in Glory Do not you debase and drag it down again to Earth and Hell by Worldliness and Carnal sensuality Make appear this Child hath rais'd you up already made a Resurrection of your Souls and your affections they converse and trade in Heaven And that you do not degenerate from that nature of yours that is there Then this Child who is Himself the Resurrection and the Life will raise up your Bodies too and make them like his glorious Body by the working of his mighty Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Blessing Power and Praise Dominion and Glory for evermore The Thirteenth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Novemb. 17. 1667. St. JAMES IV. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you THese Words are easily resolved into two parts The first a Duty and the second to encourage the performance an assurance of an happy issue in the doing it The First the Duty in these words Resist the Devil the happy issue in those other he will flee from you For the more practical and useful handling of these parts I shall endeavour to do these three things 1. View the Enemy we are to resist the Devil see his Strengths and what are his chief Engines his main Instruments of Battery whereby he shakes and does endeavour to demolish the whole frame of Vertue in mens lives shatters and throws down all Religious holy Resolutions and subjects men to himself and Sin 2. See what we are to do in opposition to all this and how and by what means we must resist 3. Prove to them that do resist the happy issue which the Text here promiseth First of the first Though no man can be tempted so as to be foil'd by the temptation but he that is drawn away by his own Lust an enticed James i. 14. and all the blandishments of this World all the wiles and artifices of the Prince and God of it the Devil are not able to betray one into sin till his own Lust conceive that sin and bring it forth Man must be taken first in his own Nets and fall into that pit himself hath digged before he can become the Devil's prey Yet Satan hath so great an hand in this affair that the Tempter is his Name and Office Matth. iv 3. And the War which is now before us is so purely his that we are said to fight not against flesh and blood those nests and fortresses of our own Lusts but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this World against spiritual wickednesses in high places that is against the Enemy here in the Text the Devil Now to bring about his ends upon us he hath several means The first that I shall name is Infidelity With this he began in Paradise and succeeded by it for he had no sooner told the Woman that she should non surely die and so made her doubt of not believe and consequently nor fear that which God had threatned but she took of the forbidden fruit and she did eat and gave it to her Husband too and he did eat Now if a Serpent siding with her inclination could so quickly stagger and quite overthrow her Faith if she because she sees and likes a pleasing Object can in meer defiance of her own assured Conviction when the Revelation look'd her in the face and God himself was scarce gone out of sight straight give credit to a Snake that comes and confidently gives the lye to God her Maker offers her no proof at all of what he says but onely flatters her desires with promises and expectations of the knows not what Ye shall not die but ye shall be as Gods if in spite of Knowledg she turn Infidel so soon and easily 'T is no great wonder if that Serpent do at this distance from Revelation prevail on men whose conversation being most with Sense their satisfactions also consequently gratifying of their Sense they do not willingly assent to any thing but that which brings immediate evidence and attestation of the Senses which the Objects of our Faith do not especially if it give check to and restrain those satisfactions as those do on such men I say that do not care noâ— use in things that are against their mind to apply the Understanding close and strongly to reflect on those considerations which should move assent and work belief Considerations which I dare affirm if with sincerity adverted to if there be no improbity within to trash their efficacy no sensual inclination cherish'd that must hinder their admittance as not being able to endure to lodg in the same breast with those persuasions would make disbelief appear not onely most imprudent but a thing next to impossible But in those that give themselves no leisure have no will thus to advert 't is not strange if through Satans arts in things of this remote kind they have onely languid opinions which sink quickly into doubts and by degrees into flat Infidelity S. Paul does fetch the rise of unbelief of Charistianity from hence 2 Cor. iv 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this World hath blinded their minds That is if the Christian Doctrine do not appear to be the truth of God to any 't is to obstinate persons onely whom the Devil hath besotted so with the advantages and pleasures of this World that their affections to these will not let the other be admitted For The Carnal prejudice can cast a mist before the mind or that a bright an glittering Temptation of this World may dazle it so as that it cannot see that which is most illustriously visible we have this demonstration Those Works which Christ and his Apostles wrought which made the whole World that was Heathen then so many Millions of such distant Nations as could never meet together to conspire an universal change in their Religions made them yet agree to lay aside their dear gods and their dearer vices and do that to embrace a Crucified Deity a God put to a vile ignominious death as one worse than the worst of men and a Religion that was as much hated counted as accursed as that God of it He and Doctrine crucified alike and a Religion too that had as great severities in its Commands
Miracle and the Rock must give them drink yet having no Imployment they made Feasts They sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play Nor would eating to the uses of their nature serve them but they must have entertainments for their wantonness Had they been imployed to get their Bread their labour would have made their morsels sweet But since God as the Wise-man says sent them from Heaven bread prepared without their labour they must have varieties to sweeten it they require him to prepare a Table also in the Wilderness and furnish them with choice And although they had the food of Angels able to content every mans delight and agreeing to every taste and serving to the appetite of the eater it temper'd it self to every mans liking and what could they fancy more The latitude of Creatures the whole Universe of Luxury could do nothing else in every single morsel they had sorts Variety all choice as if that Desert had been Paradise that Wilderness the Garden of the Lord Yet so coy is Idleness so apt to nauseate that they abhor the constancy of being pleas'd And though they were not sated neither he that gather'd much had nothing over onely to his eating God as well providing for their Health and Vertue as Necessity and dieting their Temperance as he did their Hunger Yet their very liking does grow loathsom to them When their Bodies were thus excellently well provided for having no imployment nothing to take up their Minds and Entertain their Souls they require 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meat for their Souls meat not to serve the uses of their bodies but to feed their fancies their extravagant minds Thus Idleness requires to be dieted And all this but to pamper and feed high mens inclinations so to make Temptations irresistible and by consequence Vice necessary It were easie to recount more of those ways by which the Devil does make use of mens want of Imployment to debauch their lives and ruin all the hopes of Vertue in them S. Jude finds more of its effects at Sodom They gave themselves over to Fornication and went after other flesh and are set forth for an Example suffering the vengeance of Eternal fire Indeed these are most certain consequents of not being imployed Quaeritur Aegysthus is too known an instance and great holy David is another But it s dire influence is sufficiently visible in that which it rain'd down upon those Cities Since it did fulfill the guilt of Sodom and made Heaven furnish Hell for it and God himself turn Executioner of fire and brimstone to revenge it this shall serve to prove it is one of the Devil's Master-pieces 3. Next succeed his fiery darts as S. Paul calls them namely Persecutions or Calamities of any kind Which he manageth either by inflicting pressures and he was so confident of the force of these that he did tell God he would make Job curse him to his face with them Or if he find men in necessities and pressures then by tempting them to get from under them by methods which he shall direct and he had such assurance of the strength of this Temptation that by it he tried our Saviour to find out whether he were the Son of God or no believing none but he that was so would be able to resist it Indeed the trials are severe which this Temptation does present to draw men from their Duty and to overcome their Constancy Whether it solicite by inflicting punishment as on the Mother and her Children 2 Maccab. vii or by offering to withdraw it if they will submit to their unlawful terms and so they tried her youngest Son there verse 24. or at leastwise by some feigned act some ambiguous words or practices will pretend compliance so they dealt with Eleazar Chap. vi 21. whom they would have had to bring flesh of his own provision such as he might use without offence and so onely seem to eat forbidden meat Each of which is as great a trial also and to stand against them reckon'd up amongst as vigorous acts of Faith as those that held out in the greatest tortures persecuting malice could invent Heb. xi 17. They were stoned sawn asunder were tempted Now to fetch an instance of the sad success of these I shall not need to go so far as to those Persecutions of Antiochus nor those of the primitive times of Christianity when they had no other choices but these to deliver up their Bibles or their Lives either to sacrifice to Idols or at least procure a Ticket which should certifie that they had done it or to be themselves an Holocaust and give those Idols a Burnt-offering with their martyr-flames Which made the Traditores Lapsi the Thurificati and the Libellatici to be so numerous Through Gods blessed mercy there is no use of such instances as there is no fear of such a trial 't is not death to be a Christian now For if the Son of Man or Satan's self should come to try us at those rates 't were a great doubt whether the one or other would find Faith upon the Earth whether they would sacrifice a life to our Religion who are not content to sacrifice a little interest or pleasure to it whether they are likely to resist unto blood fighting against sin who will not resist to tears nor sober resolutions Alas what Religion should we be of if God should raise a Dioclesian come to tempt us with the fiery trial Martyrs as we are to nothing but our Passions and our lusts Nor shall I produce more known and near experiences when by reason of such storms of Persecution men made shipwreck if not of their Faith yet of good Conscience When by order or permissions of Providence they were brought to such a streight that either they must let go their possessions or their honesty acting against Principles and Conscience of Duty I shall not remember how when God did shake his angry hand thus over them they fled to the Devils kindness and made Hell their refuge to save them from their Fathers rod how they grew so Atheistical as to believe a Perjury or other crime greater security that would preserve their selves and their condition better than all God had promis'd were such Infidels that they did rather trust their being here to the commission of a sin than to the Providence and the Engagements of the Almighty For indeed what need I instance in these greater cases where the trial was so sharp as not to offer any easier choice than this either to part with Conscience or with all they had God knows we find less Interests will do The Devil by no more than this driving the Gadarens swine into the Sea was able to drive Christ out of their Coasts You have the story Matth. viii from the 28. verse A legion of those evil spirits did possess two men and finding Christ would cast them out
him draw off and flie It is not strange to find him siding with a natural Inclination with the bent of Constitution still presenting Objects laying Opportunities throwing in Examples and all sorts of Invitation always pressing so that when a man hath strugled long he does grow weary of the service not enduring to be thus upon his guard perpetually watching a weak heart with strong inclinations busie Devils do lay siege to and so growing slack and careless he is presently surprised Or else despairing that he shall be always able to hold out lays hold upon a tempting opportunity and yields by the most unreasonable and basest cowardise that can be yields for fear of yielding lest he should not hold out he will not but gives up and puts himself into that very Mischief which he would avoid meerly for fear of coming into it For which fear there is no reason neither For 't is not here as in our other Sieges where if it be close continuance must reduce men to necessity of yielding Strengths and Ammunitions will decay Provisions fail and if the Enemy cannot their own Hunger will break through their Walls and make avenues for Conquest time alone will take them but in these Spiritual Sieges one Repulse inables for another and the more we have resisted the Temptation is not onely so much flatter and more weak and baffled but the inward Man is stronger Victory does give new forces and is sure to get in fresh and still sufficient supplies For God giveth more grace saith S. James And they shall have abundance saith our Saviour So that where the Devil after several repulses still comes on with fresh assaults we may be sure he does discern there is some treacherous inclination that sides with him And although the man refuse himself the satisfaction of the sin the Devil sees he hath a mind to it his refusals are but faint not hearty though he seem afraid to come within the quarters of the Vice he keeps it may be correspondence with the incentives to it entertains the opportunities plays with the Objects or at best he does not fortifie against him Now this gives the Tempter hopes and invites his assaults and does expose the person to be taken by him But where he sees he is resisted heartily his offers are received with an abhorrency discerns Men are in earnest watch to avoid all opportunities and occasions and prepare and fortifie and arm against him there he will not stay to be the triumph of their Vertue We may know thâ—â— by his Agents those that work under the Devil whom he hath instructed in the mysteries of waging his Temptations Where they are not like to speed and as to this they have discerning spirits they avoid and hate and come not near but study spite and mischief onely there The intemperate men are most uneasie with a person whom they are not able to engage in the debauch the rudeness and brutality of their excesses are not so offensive to the sober man as his staid Vertue is to them they do not more avoid the crude egestions shameful spewings of their overtaken fellows Riot then they do the shame and the reproach that such a man's strict Conversation casts on them which does in earnest make them look more foul and nasty to themselves In fine every Sinner shuns the Company of those whom he believes Religious in earnest 't is an awe and check to them they are afraid and out at it as their Great Master also is who when he is resisted must be overcome And as they that are beaten have their own fears also for their Enemies which are sure to charge close put to slight chase and pursue them so it seems he also is afraid of a sincere and hearty Christian for he flies him So he did from Christ Matth. iv verse 11. and so the Text assures If you resist him he will flie from you And now although we all did once renounce the Devil and his works were listed Soldiers against him took a Sacrament upon it and our Souls the immortality of life or misery depend upon our being true and faithful to our selves and Oaths or otherwise nor is there more required of us but resolution and fidelity onely not to be consenting to our Enemies Conquest of us not to will Captivity and Servitude Yet as if in meer defiance of our Vows and Interests we not onely will'd the ruine but would fight for it we may find instead of this resisting of the Devil most men do resist the Holy Ghost quench not the fiery darts of Satan but the Spirit and his flames by which he would enkindle love of God and Vertue in them If he take advantage of some warm occasion to inflame their courage against former follies heat them into resolutions of a change as soon as that occasion goes off they put out those flames and choak these heats until they die If he come in his soft whispers speak close to the heart suggest and call them to those joys of which himself is earnest to all these they shut their ears can hear no whispers are not sensible of any sounds of things at such a distance sounds to which they give no more regard than to things of the same extravagance with the Musick of the Spheres Nay if he come with his more active methods as the Angels came to Lot send mercy to allure and take them by the hand as they did to invite and lead them out of Sodom if that will not Judgments then to thrust them out as they did also come with fire and brimstone to affright them they not onely like the men of Sodom do attempt a violence and Rape upon those very Angels but they really ally debauch the Mercies and profane the Judgment having blinded their own Eyes that they might see no hand of God in either using thus unkindly all his blessed methods of reclaiming them till they have grieved him so that he forsake and leave them utterly As if they had not heard that when the Holy Spirit is thus forc'd away the evil spirit takes his place 1 Sam xvi 14. As if they knew not that to those who close their eyes and stop their ears against the Holy Spirit 's motions till they are grown dull of hearing and blind to them God does send a spirit of slumber that they should not see nor hear and that for this dire reason that they may not be converted nor be saved Five times he affirms it in the Scripture Yea once more in words of a sad Emphasis 2. Thess. ii 12 13. He sends them strong delusions that they may believe a lye that they all may be damn'd who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness And that because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Blessed God! Is it so easie for such Sinners to believe and be converted that thy self shouldst
interpose to hinder it and hide the possibilities of mercy from their eyes that they may never see them nor recover What can then become of those for whom God does contrive that they shall not escape when instead of those bowels that did make him swear he would not have the sinner die but would have him return and live he puts on so much indignation at such Sinners as to take an order they shall not repent and take an order that they shall be damn'd And yet all this is onely to those men who being dull of hearing the suggestions of the Spirit and not willing to give entertainment to his holy motions grieve him so that they repell and drive him quite away and so by consequence onely make way for the Devil Whereas there are others that directly call him force him to them ravish and invade occasions to serve him Some there are that study how to disbelieve and with great labour and contrivance work out arguments and motives to persuade themselves to Atheism Others practise discipline and exercise themselves to be engag'd in Vice Some dress so as to lay baiâ—s snares to entrap Temptation that they may be sure it may not pass them Others feed high to invite and entertain the Tempter do all that is possible to make him come and to assure him that he must prevail when they have made it most impossible for themselves to stand and to resist Some there are indeed whom he does not overcome so easily but is put to compound with them takes them upon Articles for when he would ingage them to a sin to which he sees they have great inclinations with some fears he is fain to persuade them to repent when they have done to lay hold upon the present opportunity and not let the satisfaction escape them but be sorry after and amend For where these resolutions of Repentance usher in transgression there we may be sure it is the Devil that suggests those resolutions But if he can get admittance once thus by prevailing with a person to receive him upon purposes of after-Penitence he is sure to prosper still in his attempts upon the same condition For Repentance will wash out another sin if he commit it and so on And it is evident that by this very train he does draw most men on through the whole course of sin and life For never do they till they see themselves at the last stage begin repenting When they are to grapple with Death's forces then they are to set upon resisting of the Devil And when they are grown so weak that their whole Soul must be imployed to muster all its spirits all their strength but to beat off one little spot of phlegm that does besiege the avenues of breath the ports of life and sally at it and assault it once again and a third many times and yet with all the sury of its might cannot break through nor beat off that little clot of spittle when it is thus yet then are they to wrestle with and Conquer Principalities and Powers all the Rulers of the utter darkness pull down the strong holds of sin within cast down imaginations and every high thing that did exalt it self against the knowledg of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and with those feeble hands that they are scarcely able to lift up in a short wish or prayer they must do all this resist the Devil and take Heaven by force Now sure to put it off to such a fatal season is a purpose of a desperate concern In God's Name let us set upon the doing it while there is something left of Principle and vigor in us ere we have so griev'd Gods Spirit that he do resolve to leave us utterly and before the Devil have so broke us to his yoke that we become content and pleas'd to do his drudgery We deceive our selves if we think to do it with more ease when Constitution is grown weaker as if then Temptations would not be so â—rong For the Habits will be then confirm'd Vice grown Heroical and we wholly in the power of Satan dead and sensless under it not so much as stirring to get out But if we strive before he have us in his clutches we have an Enemy that can vanquish none but those who consent to and comply and confederate with him those that will be overcome So that if we resist he must be Conquer'd and Temptation must be conquer'd too for he will flie and then by consequence must cease to trouble and molest us This is the sure way to be rid of Temptations to put to flight the great Artificer and Prince of them subdue and overcome him and our selves And to him that overcometh thus Christ will grant to sit with him on his Throne as He also overcame and sate down with his Father on his Throne To which c. The Fourteenth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Last Wednesday in LENT 1667 8. PHILIPP III. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. THough many by the Cross of Christ here understand any sort of Suffering for the sake of Christ or Religion it being usual with the Scripture to entitle Christ to every evil that befals a man for doing of his duty yet others looking on it properly as that on which Christ himself suffered by the Enemies of the Cross understand those that set themselves against the whole design and influence of Christ's death upon it Now to name that in few words the Cross of Christ not onely is one of the greatest Props on which our Faith of the whole Gospel leans which it establisheth the truth of as Christs Bloud shed upon it was the sanction of the Covenant on Gods part who by that federal Rite of shedding Bloud engag'd himself and we may certainly assure our selves he cannot fail to make good whatsoever he hath promised in that Covenant who would give the Bloud of his own only Son who was so holy and who was himself to Seal that Covenant and his Bloud is therefore called the Bloud of the Everlasting Covenant But besides this extrinsick influence of it all the blessed Mercies also of the Gospel are the Purchase of this Cross and all the main essential duties of the Gospel are not onely Doctrines of the Cross such as it directs and does inforce but the Cross also hath an immediate efficacy in the working of them in us For S. Paul saith by the Cross of Christ the World is Crucified to me and I unto the World On it the Flesh is also crucified with the Affections and Lusts And to say all that comprehensive Duty of the Gospel Self-denial is but another word for taking up the Cross And then as for the Mercies of the Gospel on the Cross the satisfaction for our sins was made the Price of
Trajan's time when St. John's date was almost out his life and his Commission expiring and the Churches of Asia to be provided with succession the Men were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified by the Holy Ghost But the Chron. Alex. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he went clean throughout Asia and the adjacent Regions constituting not only Bishops but others of inferiour Clergie And even in the lowest thus it was when the first Deacons were to be made Men full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom were to be look'd out Act. 6. 3. But yet that did not authorize them the Holy Ghost and Wisdom did not make a Deacon For besides that the Apostles will appoint them over their business ibid. and they are brought to them and they do lay their hands upon them v. 6. Thus it was in those times of full effusion of the Holy Ghost Men always had to do in giving that Commission so that whoever pleads an Order of the Spirit for his Office although such a Commission of the Spirit if he had it would evidence it self and if it were it would appear for 't was the manifestation of the Spirit that was given to every man to profit withall yet if we yield him his pretensions and let his own incitations pass for inspirements and his strong fancie for the Holy Ghost if the Holy Ghost did call him who did separate him Whom the Holy Ghost calls he sends to his Officers to empower they both work He says do ye separate And here a Consideration offers it self unto those holy Fathers whom the Spirit makes his Associates in separating men to sacred Offices that when they set apart even to the lowest stalls of the Church they labour to perform it so that the Holy Ghost may be engag'd and act along with them in the performance Separate such as they may presume the Spirit hath call'd and will own He does not call the ignorant or appoint blind eyes for the Body of Christ or make men Seers to lead into the pit The Holy Spirit calls not the unclean or the intemperate we know it was another fort of Spirit that went into the swine nor does he ever say Separate me those who separate themselves the Schismaticks the Spirit calls not such as break the unity of the Spirit nor sets into the rank of higher members in Christs body those who tear that body and themselves from it the factious those that will not be bound neither in bonds of peace nor of obedience but break all holy tyes that make commotions and rave and foam sure 't is the Legion that sends them and not the Holy Ghost He whom the spirit will call must not be under the reputation of a Vice but should be of a good report lest he fall into reproach and so into the snare of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 7. i. e. lest he fall into reproach and then his teaching do so too and men learn to slight or not heed the doctrines of such a one as is under scandal for his life and so the Devil get advantage over them and do ensnare them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For to be to any an occasion of falling is to be the Devils snare Now Christ's Fishers of men those whom the Holy Ghost appoints to spread nets for the catching Souls to God their lives must not lay snares for the Devil and entangle Souls in the toyls of perdition Those also that come to you out of Ambition or of greediness of gain the spirit calls not neither He calls we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a work so that they who seek more then they can well attend the labour of or are qualified for the work of they are not of his sending But of all men the Holy Ghost will least deal with the Simoniacal that come not to a work but to a market that contract with Patrons for the spirits call or worse than their master Simon would hire the Holy Spirit himself to say Separate me them The Successors of the Apostles have a Canonical return to these Your money perish with you They whom the Holy Ghost does call must have his gifts and temper St. Paul hath set all down to Timothy and Titus and those who minister in this employment if they will be what he hath made them joynt Commissioners with him and his Co-workers they must order it so that he may work and act which he does not but where he calls nor does he call but those whom he hath qualified And 't is of those only whom he hath call'd that he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Separate The Third particular the thing enjoyn'd And the Holy Ghost said Separate The separateness of the Functions of the Clergy the incommunicableness of their Offices to persons not separated for them is so express a doctrine both of the Letter of the Text and of the Holy Ghost that sure I need not to say more though several heads of Probation offer themselves As first the condition of the Callings which does divide from the Community and sets them up above it And here I might tell you of bearing rule of thrones of stars and Angels and other words of as high sence and yet not go out of the Scripture bounds although the dignity did not die with the Scripture Age or expire with the Apostles the age as low as Photius words it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Apostolical and Divine Dignity which the chief Priests are acknowledged to be possest of by right of Succession Styles which I could derive yet lower and they are of a prouder sound than those the humble ears of this our age are so offended with But these heights it may be would give Ombrages although 't is strange that men should envy them to those who are only exalted to them that they may with the more advantage take them by the hands to lift them up to Heaven Those nearnesses to things above do but more qualifie them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theoph. and to draw near to God on your behalf that those your Angels also may see the face of your Father which is in Heaven and those stars are therefore set in Christ's right hand that they may shed a blessed influence on you from thence The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Work and labour of the work the one is the 〈◊〉 and the other Saint Paul's word require a whole man and therefore a man separate and if St. Paul one of our separated persons here who had the fulness of the Spirit and the fulness of Learning too that was brought up in the Schools and brought up in Paradise taught by the Doctors and taught by the mouth of the Lord in the third heaven snatcht from the feet of Gaâ—aliel to the presence of God to have a beatifical Vision of the Gospel if after
indulg'd license makes them too big and heady to be brought under discipline And is 't not so with us Among many of those that stay within the Church I know not whether I do well to say so when of these I mean there is little other Evidence of their doing so but this that they will swear and drink of the Churches side blessed Sons of a demolished Church who think to raise their Mother a Temple by throwing stones at her by reason of the late overthrow of Government and discipline and the consequent licences Vice hath been so nurst up not only by an universal barefac'd uncorrected practice but by principles of liberty that can dispute down all Ecclesiastical restraints and have set up the Religion of License that now sin is grown so outragious as to be too strong for discipline nay rather than it should be set up 't is to be feared they would endeavour to reverse all in the Church and enterprise as much in their vices quarrel as others have done for mistaken Religion And indeed to what purpose were the Censures whose first and medicinal effect is shame amongst men where 't is in very many instances the only shameful thing not to be vitious where men stand candidates for the reputation of glorious sinners take to themselves sins they have not committed that are not theirs and usurp Vice sins and damnations hypocrites What work is here for discipline But this state wants not precedents the censures of the Church were not only lay'd aside in the Vastations of the Arian heresie and persecution when the weapons of the Churches warfare were too weak to make defence against all their cruelties and impieties and before that in Diocletian's days against the Lapsi But we find also that Saint Paul is forc'd to break out only in a passionate wish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would they were even cut off that trouble you cut off by excommunication he means Gal. 5. 12. When he saw the ill humours were too spreading and too tough also Sedition and Sehisme wide and obstinate so that neither his authority could reach nor his methods cure but were more likely to exasperate them Then he does excommunicate them only in desire And again 2 Cor. 10. 6. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfill'd It becomes therefore every one that hath good Will for Sion to labour to fulfill his own obedience that so the Church may be empower'd to use Christ's Method for reforming of the rest And thet that will not do so must know they shall not only answer for their sins but for refusing to be sav'd from them that they resist all medicine as men resolv'd that nothing shall be done towards their Cure as men that rather choose to perish and prefer destruction And for the seasons and degrees of putting this work into Execution Wisdom must be implor'd from that Spirit of Wisdom that calls unto this work The last Part Whereunto I have called them The Nature of the calling of the Holy Ghost is a Subject that would bear a full discourse But waving those pretensions which Necessity and inward incitation do make to be the Calls of the Holy Ghost I shall positively set down that the call of God and of the Holy Ghost to any Work or Office for I enquire not of his calling to a privilege or state of favour is his giving abilities and gifts qualifying for that Work or Office The call immediate when the gifts were so but mediate and ordinary when the abilities are given in his blessing on our ordinary labours 'T is so in every sort of things Exod. 31. 2. See I have call'd Bezaleel and I have fill'd him with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of Workmanship to devise cunning works and to work in all manner of Workmanship and behold I have given him Aholiab and in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put Wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee And he repeats the same again Chap. 35. 30. adding that he hath put in his heart that he may teach both he and Aholiab so that giving this skill to work and teach is nam'd Gods calling So in another case the Lord does say of Cyrus I have call'd him Esay 48. 15. which he explains in the 49. I have holden him by my right hand to subdue Nations before him to loose the loyns of Kings I have girded him So when Isaiah saith the Lord hath call'd me from the Womb or rather says that of our Saviour Isa. 49. 1. he tells you how ver 5. he form'd me and prepared me from the Womb to be his servant to bring Jacob to him And throughout the New Testament as his Call to a privilege is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace in allowing such a state of favour so his calls to a Work are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts enabling for it The Gifts of these Apostles by which they were enabled for their Office and which made up their call are set down Those of Barnabas in the fore-cited 11 Act. He was a good man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost and Paul's call was a little Extraordinary If we look into times we shall find reason to believe those Revelations in 2 Cor. 12. were given to Paul a little before this consecration of him in the Text. That Epistle was writ saith Baronius in the second year of Nero and this separation was in the second of Claudius as may be gathered also in some measure from the famine mention'd in the 28th verse of the 11th chap. betwixt these two were fourteen years now saith Saint Paul when he wrote that he had his revelation somewhat above 14. years before a little therefore before this solemnity Here was a call indeed call'd up to the third heaven to receive instructions for his Office and for ought he did know call'd out of his own body too that he might be the fitter for it whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knows v. 2. and that again v. 3. They whom Gods Spirit qualifies for Consecration to separate to these diviner Offices may be stil'd Angels well when they are call'd from all regards or notices of any body that belongs to them their gifts and graces set them above the consideration of flesh In the entertainment of these qualifications the Soul is swallowed up so that it cannot take cognizance whether it have a body of its own and is not sensible of that deer partner of it self it is so onely sensible of this Employment 'T is not for an Apostle or for his Successor to think of things below with much complacency When these have all their uses all their glories on they but make pomp to dress the body which an Apostle does not design for nor knows whether he be concern'd at all
between will serve the turn but it must give a constant shine Devotion must be a fixt Light such as is not variable and turning and so this expression shews how we must purify as he is pure with kind I say not with degree For the Text does not mean that we should be as pure as he to aim at such a virtue were Rebellion and the hopes of such a Purity were Lucifers Ambition and would throw us down to Hell Neither yet pure as he is pure without any mixture of spot or stain For while we are made up of a mixt composition we shall never be so pure neither is any such exacted of us All the meaning is if we have hopes to be like God hereafter with glorious likeness we must endeavor also to be like him here and that is don by endeavoring after Purity forasmuch as God is pure Here is then an efficacious motive for us to labor after Purity it makes us like God To be a Child or a Son in Scripture is the same thing as to be like or do such works as the other does Ye are of your Father the Devil and his works ye do John 8. 44. and what in one place is said That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven in an other place is that ye may be like you Father For whatever the Children of a Natural Father be Gods Children must be like him or they are not his and the way to be so is but to labor after Holiness to be still amending by little and little daily cleansing out some sin or other he vouchsafes to call this purifying as he is pure he calls such a person like him and his Child But secondly whose Children are they and like whom who go on still in their courses of wickedness and if they do not grow daily worse as few there are that do not yet they never think of growing better if we should examin them by the expressions we have given And take them first to that of Light by which we saw a holy Conversation was stil'd we shall in that see the sad condition of a wicked person his life is all darkness that sore Plague of Egypt which three days made intolerable is still upon the Sinners Soul nothing but night about him And indeed nothing else befits his deeds of darkness as sins are call'd which how glorious and splendid soever they seem to him the onely modes and gallantry yet alas the splendor of them is but like the shine of lightning full of horror in it self and makes the darkness of the night also more irksom And what can these men that have no light whose deeds are all the deeds of night and darkness what can they expect but to be cast at last into utter darkness where there is onely weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth 2. If we take them to the other expression of White Raiment how will they whose open exemplary sins do strip them and expose them naked have reason to be asham'd and to cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloâ—e How wretchedly stupid is the heart of this People that glory in their shame that count their sins the onely gaudy bravery when as poor souls they are miserable and poor and naked Rev. 3. 17. There was no such disgraceful thing as to have the uncomly parts of the body laid open to publick sight so Hanun us'd Davids Ambassadors whom he thought Spies 2 Sam. 10. 4. which was occasion enough for a war upon them And God expresses Isaiah 20. 4. He shall lead away the Egyptians Prisoners naked with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt And you may see what God threatens to adulterous Israel Isaiah 3. 16 c. and much more at large in Ezek. 16 and 23. that she might be laugh'd to scorn and had in derision and might be an infamous woman And in one place he threatens to discover her by throwing her cloths over her head Now I have shew'd you that Holiness is the onely Virginity and sin is the Souls whoredom and the expression that I have in hand tells you that Holiness is the onely garment and the openest of sinning is the Souls nakedness which if you put together you will see that a profane person an open sinner is the same scorn'd thing as a whore with her cloths over her head a bare strumpet acting naked lewdness in high ways with her unexpressible filthiness expos'd in publick to eyes and shame And is such a thing as this fit to go to God or to be a Spouse of Christ No his Bride must be arrai'd in fine white linnen that is the righteousness of the Saints and without holiness no one shall see him For he that hath that hope must purify himself as he is pure This Hope What Christian Hope is it is a patient and a comfortable expectation of the performance of all Gods Promises Patient expectation it is Rom. 8. 25. if we hope then do we with Patience wait for it Comfortable it must needs be because of the excellency of its object Gods Promises all the comfort of the Scriptures are the very ground of it Rom. 15. 4. That we thro patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope and it is therefore call'd Coloss. 1. 23. The hope of the Gospel Whatsoever mercy is included in the whole Gospel Remission of sins and everlasting Blessedness all those rich and precious mercies which that does propose and which God himself thought to be the most temting baits to allure us even all these our Hope does fly at You may find them every where scatter'd the Resurrection from the dead Acts 23. 6. I am accus'd of the hope and resurrection from the dead and c. 28. 20. For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain Secondly Eternal Life Tit. 1. 2. In hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Thirdly the Glory to come Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God and Col. 1. 27. it is call'd the Hope of Glory Yea the being like God himself in the Text We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him and then it follows and he that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure as also Tit. 2. 13. That blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. All these the Christian does with joy and confidence expect Heb. 3. 6. And here you may see the price of your calling whatsoever good things God hath prepar'd for them that love him and they are such as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither can enter into the heart of man to comprehend Yea whatsoever good things he hath prepar'd for himself his own glories all these he hath set out to bait our hopes with these are a Christians most assured expectations Whosoever thou art that art a careful Soul
and with strict Religion followest after Holiness thou maist securely give the Scoffers of the world and the wicked leave to call thee miserable to deride thy strictnesses and thy austerities to say thy mortifications do make thy life sad and uncomfortable alas they do not see the Hope that is laid before thee such a Hope as made thy Savior endure the cross and despise the shame They look upon thy strict performances but they do not look upon thy expectations they consider not the Crown of those performances for if they did they would not certainly think the present momentany pleasures of their sins could countervail that Crown Be the hardship what it will it is a comfortable Hope and that sufficiently confirm'd to us full of assurance it leans upon the whole Trinity 1 Pet. 1. 21. That our hope might be in God and Tim. 1. 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ our Hope Rom. 5. 5. That we may abound in Hope thro the power of the Holy Ghost The Power of the whole God-head ingag'd both to secure and to support our Hope A blessed Hope Tit. 2. 13. a Hope that is enjoyment And if it be a blessed Hope what will the possession be if there be happiness in the expectation what will there be in the fruition O purify your selves and come and see which brings me to the last part how this Hope does set a man on purifying for every man that hath this Hope purifies himself Now to declare and prove this to you I shall do two things First prove that this is such a Hope as hath in it motive enough to set a man on purifying Secondly that he that does not purify cannot have this Hope 1. This Hope hath certainly motive enough to set a man on purifying had we laid the hopes of heaven near our hearts were our thoughts but once set and bent upon the joys above we would easily perswade our selves to set upon the mending of our selves What will not hope do All the emploiments of the world do but serve this passion They that plow plow in hope saith St Paul because the heavens promise them a season of harvest tho they do frown in seed-time and storm against their labors with inundations of tempest or freez the earth into an untam'd hardness till it become iron as their instruments yet will they melt themselves or they will thaw those frosts and toil as if they would vie drops with winter clouds in showers of sweat as well as rain merely because they hope to reap And they that plow the sea are yet more slaves to Hope for they out-face death with all its terrors for the hopes of a gainful venture they do charge thro a shower a deluge of waves that do assail them with foaming wrath and sustain an inundation of billows that fall like Gods swelling cataracts as if they came from heaven out against them and are fearless when they are but an inch remov'd from an Abyss of ruin that gapes like hell men of confidence hard as those rocks which they despise for hopes of a little profit And what shall we say to the poor Soldier who for hopes of rags and roots will charge fire whom the promise of God knows a thin salary will make to run into as great a storm and tempest of flame as the Seaman does of water even into a shower of death The most active of our passions either submit to Hopes or owe their violence to an activity deriv'd from them Do not men bridle in all their desires and the furies of their passions to the peevish will and liking and become perfect compliance to the otherwise intolerable humors of one whom they hope to please or from whom they hope for some inheritance or preferment And the Tragedies of Ambition which useth towade thro a sea of bloud and sin that does scorn Relations defy God and its own Conscience reverse States and confound all rather than miss its aim are but the issues of a most uncertain Hope And then my Brethren would not the Hopes of Heaven be able to do somthing with us when the Hopes of a little know not what 's will do all this Would we not sow to the Spirit where the harvest is Blessedness Would we not war against the Flesh when he that overcomes should have a Crown immortal and incorruptible Would we not comply with Christ and please him to get his inheritance and have some ambition for the Throne of God if we did but hope for these as we do for the other Yes my Brethren I will give an example of one who slighted all the most glorious satisfactions of the most swelling earthly hopes and when he had every thing brought to him that ambition could gape for yet threw off all upon these onely Hopes Hebr. 11. 24 25 26 c. When he was coâ—â— to years when he came to the age of understanding the honors of a Court and when his appetite was grown ripe for the delights that do attend one and he fit for the enjoyment of them and the opportunity of them thrown into his hands by being taken in Son of the Crown and so Possessor of all the advantages of pleasure which such a Relation can afford and when on the other side there was nothing in the other scale but the sorrows of a low vassalage and the afflictions of a hard slavery nothing but a brickiln to be set against the Palace and instead of the rich variety of earthly entertainments not so much as straw to make their brick of that he should chuse the afflictions and as if his will were not alone engag'd that way but his understanding also led that he should esteem that wanting that contemtible condition the reproach of Religion to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt And indeed the very reproach of Christ is greater riches riches I shall carry with me to that great Tribunal at the dreadful day that will be the great Kings Badge his Livery upon me when I stand before his Throne when all the spangles of your pomps shall be faln off and look as gastly to the wicked as their own sad carcasses or sadder expectations as if there were more shine and splendor in the dirt which scorn does throw into the face of Piety than in the Pomps of Wealth Now this must sure be from some strange consideration Why all was upon this score he had respect to the recompence of the reward he hop'd for better things what 's the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter to the Son of God or the succession to the Crown of Egypt in comparison with the possessing the Inheritance of Heaven 'T is true the treasures of that Crown may furnish me with the aims of all my appetites what'ere my heart or what my lust can wish that will get me the opportunity of having it will allow me all those pleasures which all the world gapes after riches to procure for them whatever
to me rather than use a violence upon my self I must find out some salve now to quiet Conscience and yet keep the Vice And truly if it be but one thing that a man transgresses in he is apt to be gentle to himself and finds plump grounds to be so The best man hath his fault and this is his only in this the Good Lord pardon him in other things he will be strict but this is his particular infirmity to which his very making did dispose him having been poysoned by its Principles without his fault or conspiration 'T is true indeed men have some one or other sinful inclination which is a weight and violence upon them and which they did derive from Adam whose sin like an infection taken in by divers men breaks out in several Diseases according to variety of Constitutions But truly Adam gave them no ill Customs and they have no Original habits themselves did educate their inclinations into Vices and for those inclinations that are derived into them the water of their Baptism was therefore poured upon them to cool those inbred heats and quench those flashings out of Nature wash away those foul innate tendencies in that Laver of Regeneration which therefore they who spare and are tender to because they are original and natural they spare them for that very reason for which they there engaged to ruin them and do renounce their Baptism as to the aims and uses of it There thou didst list thy self a Soldier to fight against the Devil World and Flesh now whichsoere of these gets most into thee wilt thou think fit to spare thy Enemy because he is thy bosom one the Risque is greatest when the Foe is Rebel and Traytor too is got in thy own Quarters shuffled with thy own Forces entred thy Holds and thy Defences and mixes in thy Counsels does counterfeit thy Guard so that thou but command'st and leadst on thy own ruin Sure here is need of strictest care to rid thy self of so much treacherous danger so far is it from a defence to say this is the single force and bent of Nature in me that if I no not therefore most resist it I am perjuriously confederate with my Destruction and howsoever pure I keep my self from other Vices I am not clean David will tell me when I am Psalm xviii 23. I was uncorrupt before him and eschewed my own wickedness God hath not given us Authority to pick and choose our duties observe him where we like and leave the rest and when in the severe contritions of Repentance we come to judg our Lives we have no leave to spare a Vice because custom hath made it our Companion and Intimate or 't is as near to us as the close inclinations of our hearts He that does so although he live a careful life in other things yet all his Innocence is only this he hath a mind to but one sin and those he does not care for he forbears but that which pleaseth him that he commits And sure God is beholden to him that there is but one way of provoking which does take him and therefore must allow him what he hath an inclination to and pardon him because he does abstain from those he does not like I shall now only add that in this case St James's Aphorism holds that Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point only he is guilty of all he that allows himself to break one Precept does keep none but shall be reckoned guilty of those things which he does not commit For whosoever keepeth the whole Law and yet thus offendeth in one point is guilty of all And then I need not prove such have no Title to the goodness of the Text but may conclude if God be good to Israel it is to such as are of a Clean Heart And so I fall upon the subject Heart And here I must first caution not to think the Heart is set as if it were the entire and only Principle by which a judgment might be past upon our doings as if our Actions so wholly deriv'd denomination from it that they were pure which came from a clean upright heart In opposition to which I shall not doubt to put That the external actions may have guilts peculiar to themselves such as are truly their own not shed into them by an evil mind and a man may be wicked in the uprightness of his heart when he does not intend any such thing but rather the clean contrary Our Saviour tells his Apostles The time will come that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service John xvi 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he does offer an Oblation or Worship shall think his Murder Sacrifice that that would propitiate for other faults his Crime should seem Religion and attonement to him We have seen guilts put on such colours too and yet by these same actions which their hearts pursued with Holy aims out of a Zeal to God as S. Paul says Rom. x. 2. they sacrificed themselves and their Nation to Gods Vengeance Once more St. Paul does find reason to call himself the chief of Sinners 1 Tim. i. 15. for the commissions of that time of which he says that he served God with a pure Conscience ver 3. did what he was persuaded in his heart he ought to do pursued sincere intentions and after says he had lived in all good conscience before God until that day Acts xxiii 1. So that here was enough of the clean heart a good and a pure conscience and could his fiery persecutions by vertue of that flame within be Christned Holy Zeal Could his Pure Conscience make his Bloody hands undefil'd Oh no! 't was blasphemy and persecution and injury for all 't was Conscience for all his heart was clean from such intentions I was before a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious ver 13. We may not think to shroud foul actions under handsom Meanings and an Innocent Mind a Conscientious man may yet be chief of Sinners St. Paul was so he says and a clean Heart will not suffice alone Therefore Heart is put here accumulatively as that whose cleanness must be added to the purity of Conversation to compleat it and it implies what elsewhere he does set down more expresly Clean Hands and a Pure Heart all which a clean Heart may be set to signifie because under Gods Holy Spirit it is the principal and only safe agent in the effecting of the rest as that which only can make the other real valuable and lasting When a Disease hath once insinuated it self into the Vitals spread through the Marrow and seised the garrisons of Life the Souls strong holds and after fallies out into the outer parts in little pustles and unhandsome Ulcers they who make application only to those outward Ulcers may perchance smooth and cure the skin make the unhandsomness remove and shift its seat but all that while the man decays
the Forts of Life are undermin'd and sink the vitals putrefie and the whole Skin becomes but the fair Monument of its own rotten Inwards Just so we have a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inward deep infusion bed or seed-plot of malignity which sometimes shews it self in outward gross commissions but if we only use the Lance or corrosive to these we may perchance make a man shift a sin thus it is possible that the profane may alter into Factious or contrary the profuse Proud man turn Covetous but till the ground of these be purg'd away the man 's not cur'd but only the Disease is chang'd and he is as unsound as ever Gods severe Judgments that did lie so long so close upon us like strong repercussives may have stricken back the breakings out of former sins or inclinations But then no care being taken of the Heart the first heat sent them out again and Mercy made a restauration of Vices too But if the Heart once entertain a real and sincere sense of Religion if it consent to thorough resolutions of Piety as far as the man discerns so far the Cure is perfected and such are fitted for Gods goodness for truly God is good to Israel even to those that are of such a clean Heart And so I fall upon them both together first in the former sense propos'd That Clean heart signifies sincere true-hearted men I have not only the assurance of Translations and among them the Syriack but the Text it self does evince it because such only are indeed of Israel for so our Saviour says Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile John i. 47. One like the Father of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. xxv 27 a man unfeigned that did seem nothing he was not all Heart And such each Israelite each man that does expect an interest in that goodness which the Lord hath for Israel must be sincere and without guile 1. In his Conversation with Men I am not here to say Sincerity is much most generous when it looks like a disingenuous fear to be afraid of my own mind when my Heart dares not look into my Face or speak in my Tongue but must lurk under a disguise of words or countenance that are assum'd and not its own Nor is it Secondly my business to say it is the greatest prudence or as we call it Policy and that not only because it hath most reason to attend and to expect Gods Blessing which other false acts cannot but because though bold open Truth breeds Anger frequently yet insincerity breeds hatred and contempt there being no so ignominious thing as Reputation of Falsness which yet is unavoidable for events must discover insincerity and then how piteous a thing he is when he must turn and wind still in more Mazes till he be quite lost in his own shifts and having no clue for his own Labyrinths betrays himself more by his not knowing where he is and men must needs be much more angry at pretences when they find them than they were at unpleasing truth at first when they discern their wants and expectations too deceived themselves refus'd and mock'd find nothing but a Vizard for a Friend nay find an Enemy indeed for so is the Dissembler to mankind Great Casuists do tell us that the moral Obligations to speak truth depend upon a right that each man hath who is a member of humane society Man being a sociable Creature meerly by vertue of his Speech But speech could not contribute to cement Society if there were not an obligation to speak truth hence they conclude that Children Fools and Madmen who are not truly members of Humane society and also open Enemies with whom we are in a state of War and have broke that society as to all things but Laws and Articles of War all these and these alone we may deceive and then surely the false insincere man either esteems all others Fools and Madmen or holds himself in a state of War with all Mankind out of all Laws and Obligations of Humane society and is an Enemy to the World a Creature by himself but that there are so many of them But to pass by such Arguments Gods Precepts of not lying to one another oblige us and all those that require faithfulness and his Command that Love should be without Dissimulation that while we speak gently we should not be hard-hearted give melting language soft as the airs of Flattery but yet have crusted inwards that cannot yearn nor stretch into compassion Jacobs voyce but Esau's rough red hands Besides Gods reasons do inforce this Putting away lying speak every one truth to his Neighbour for we are members one of another So that Dissimulation is as great a Treachery as for the Eys to seek Traps to ensnare the Feet the Hands to sauce stones for a Meal which may perchance delight the Palate with a transient gust of that they are condited with but cannot be digested into Nourishment Go prepare for your hungry stomachs only festival Smells which may encourage fainting Appetite but do but mock its emptiness go warm a cold part with a painted light cover a naked member with a shadow when your own parts would take it well from one another to be thus insincerely dealt with then not till then will it be tolerable to Dissemble For we are members one of another all fellow-members of Christs Body the Church this Israel to which the Text says God is truly good not in presence or colour onely he hath not the hypocrisies of kindness Now such a true good God he will not be to them who are but counterfeit and mock-parts of his Israel for what is there in such a man that he can be good to To the good kind well-spoken part Alas that is but shape and varnish 't is not the man that speaks 't is all a motion and artifice he puts it on and then it vanisheth and dies is not a subject for Gods kindness or to the heart but that is hard and is not qualified for his Goodness our true good God being onely such to those that are of a clean true and sincere heart towards their brethren 2. And much more Secondly is he such onely to them that are sincere in their Religion to him Christ hath nothing but woes for Hypocrites the 23d Chap. of S. Matth. is made up of them when he would word Gods Vengeance to Sinners he says he shall give them their portion with Hypocrites and Vnbelievers Things strangely coupled sure that they whose Life does seem all Faith all Godliness should be onely fit Company in Tophet for the Unbelievers rank'd and condemned with them that all their strong belief cannot remove them from an Infidel Sure they are far enough from the goodness of the Lord when the portion of Hypocrites is Rhetorick of Hell is its Torments exprest with Art They whose heart is not clean to God in their Pieties but
and deprecates and when he durst not meet the apprehensions wilt thou stand the storm see what a sting death hath when it makes out-lets for such clots and globes of Blood and stings the Soul so too that it pours out it self in Sweat And then he sinks again under the deprecation of it and prays that that Cup may pass from him Blessed Saviour when thou hadst just now made thy Death thy Legacy thy Sacrament dost thou intreat to scape this death if this Cup pass from thee what will the Cup of Blessing profit us thou hadst but now bequeathed a Cup to us which was the New Testament in thy Blood and now wilt thou not shed that Blood But dost thou refuse thy Cup Oh 't was a Cup of deadly Wine red with God Indignation poison'd with Sin And can the Sinner thirst for the Abyss of this the Lake that hath no bottom and when he goes again and prays the same words the third time be yet not onely so supine as not ask to scape it seldom and very sleight in any Prayer or wish against it but also so resolv'd to have it as to gape that he may swill it down to everlastingness Follow him from that Garden and you see him even dying under his Cross he cannot bear that when it is laden with sin who yet upholdeth all things by the word of his Power 'T is said the time will come when the Sinner will cry out to the Hills to fall on him any weight but that of iniquity the burden of that is intolerable 't is easier for him to bear a Mountain than a Vice and yet Christ saith he hath a beam in his Eye and can he shrink at any weight whose part that is most sensible tender to an expression can bear that which shoulders must fall under onely Pillars can sustain Oh yes that which did sink the shoulders of Omnipotence Then the Mountains rather and the Rocks to cover but in vain they will not cover for thy very Groans will rent them Christ's were so sad that his did they tore the Rocks and that which is much more inflexible the Monuments Death started at them and the bonds of the Grave loosened and the Dust was frighted into Resurrection and more the Hypostatick Union seem'd rent by them the God to have forsaken his own Person And can the Sinner hope to stand this shock will the courage of his Iniquity make his heart harder than those Rocks more insensible than the Grave and better able to endure than he that was a God and will you die into this state eternally which it was necessary for him to have the assistance of Divinity in his Person that he might be able to endure one day and which yet notwithstanding made one day intolerable The sum is this a Person so desiring Death and yet so dreading it and sinking under the essays of it and this Person the Son of God and that dread meerly because there was sin in the Death for if this were not in the cause no Martyr but had born death with more courage but that Son of God all this as it does leave no Reason for the Sinners choice of death Eternal so neither doth it leave a possibility of bearing it And if so give me leave in God's Name to Expostulate the last imployment of these words Why will ye die After this killing Prospect while the damp of it is on you let my Bowels debate with you which yearn more over you than they did over my Beloved Son in whom I was well pleased when I have sent my only Son God one with my own Self to be made Man that he might suffer what was necessary to be suffer'd to preserve you from eternal sufferings when I have laid on him that was brought up with me from everlasting and that was daily my Delight all your Iniquities and my own Indignation that so you might be freed from both When I have found out made an Expiation with which I am more pleased than ever your transgressions offended me which hath quite blotted out your sins and my Displeasure when your Redemption from death is made the Ransom paid the Price is in my hand why do you then refuse your selves your own Eternal Blessedness which was thus dearly purchas'd and is ready for you Why will you seize that Indignation which you are redeemed from and force those sufferings on your selves which have been laid already and inflicted on another 'T is a small thing that you refuse me the return of my Expence that which I gave my Son for but do you renounce Happiness because my Love and Blood is in it and will you die because you may and I desire you should live when my Son went from the essential felicities of my Bosom to embrace Agonies and dy'd for you why will you also die as you have slain his Person will you Crucifie his Kindness too and crucifie your selves rather than have it and having us'd him most despightfully will you therefore use his favours so and not let his Death and Passion do you any good contemn his methods of Salvation his divine Acts of making you for ever Blessed is your Saviour and Life it self so hateful to you and after such Redemption of your persons is there no redemption of your Will from perishing nothing of value that can bribe your choice against it nothing that can betroth you into a desire of Life and take you off from your resolves to die had I set no advantage on the other side if sin had sweetned misery to your Palate it had been no such great despite and contradiction to Appetite but when Heaven and the Joys of God are in the Scale against it to prefer Misery is Wretchless beyond aggravation Oh why will you rather die Those very things that tempt your Wills were they abstracted from the death they do inveigle you into were they sincere and innocent if they were set against that Life that blessed life immortal Life would vanish quite in the comparison when you should see they are but frolicks of delight that never take you but when you are turn'd up to them in moods and fits and the complacencies you take in them are but starts of Appetite that swells and breaks out to them and then falls again and so the pleasures die even in the birth and therefore cannot satisfie indeed do but disquiet an immortal appetite such as man's is so that it were impossible to choose a life these rather although there were no misery annex'd to them if you consider'd For it were to resolve that a few drops were more than an immence Ocean of Delight a Moment longer than Eternity a Part were bigger than the Whole an Atome greater than an Infinite Now there is nothing then that can prefer these to your choice but the Death only and Oh will ye without and against all Temptation Will ye die O thou my Soul take
other Resolutions thou seest the things that men with so much care and sin provide to make their lives delightful here although success answer their care are vain and helpless things and life it self as vain and I must die and drop from Heaven and therefore be thou sure to take a care their treacherous comforts do not make me die into the everlasting want of them and of all comforts The Artificial pleasures of the Palate whether in meats or drinks forc'd tasts that do at once satisfie and provoke the Appetite will rellish ill when I begin to swallow down my spittle but sure I am I am invited to the Supper of the Lamb to drink new Wine with Christ in my Father's Kingdom The fatted Calf is dressing for my Entertainment and shall I choose to be a while a Glutton with the Swine rather than the eternal Guest of my Father's Table and Bosom and refuse these for a few sick Excesses which would end in qualms and gall and vomits if there were no guilt to rejolt too and which will kindle a perpetual Feaver The Honours and the Glories of this Life will lose their shine when I am going to make my Bed in the Dark in a black lonely desolate hole of Earth my Gayeties must die when I must say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister And if there were pride or ambition in them their Worm will never die that Pride will make me fall as low as Lucifer that Glory will go out into utter darkness and that Ambition change my Honour into everlasting Shame Envy and Torment But sure I am that there are Glorious Robes and Thrones and Scepters in God's Promises and let thy gayety my Soul be in the Robe of Immortality the Throne of thy Ambition that of Glory When I shall lie tortur'd or languishing in my last Bed Palaces and Possessions will no more relieve me than the Landskip of them in the Hangings can do it And if there were Covetousness Bribery Sacriledg or Injustice in them I shall be carried out of these and have no other Habitation assigned me but with the Devil and his Angels shall inherit and possess nothing but the Almighty's Indignation for ever But in my Father's House are many Mansions Places prepared for me and an Inheritance as wide as Heaven as Endless and Incorruptible as Eternity and God Himself And sure if I may choose there I will live where there is neither Will nor possibility to die where there is Life fulness of Joy Pleasures for Evermore To which c. The Sixth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL PSALM LXXIII v. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee MY Text is the result of the Pious man's Audit the foot of the account in summing up his whole that he hath either in Possession or Desire and instead of nice Division of the Words I shall observe in them these Subjects of Discourse First the different tenure or condition of Estates in the two different Countreys we relate to this here is a Land onely of desires the other is a place of enjoyments Have in Heaven Desire on Earth Yea Secondly Though our estate here in this Earth be present and that other seem removed far off yet the possessions of that are present and in hand but the most native satisfactions of the Earth are still at distance onely the object of our aims and expectations I have now I have in Heaven on the Earth I but desire Thirdly Here is the matter of both these desires and enjoyments to the Pious man No Person or no thing for so it bears also but God There is nothing upon Earth that I desire besides thee And as to Heaven the negation is express'd emphatically by a Question Whom have I in Heaven but thee Yet least this Question should look like an Expostulation and he that asks it seem unsatisfied with his Portion we will therefore Lastly see the Importance of it to the Christian since our Saviour is gone up into Heaven see whom the Christian hath there And if the Psalmist could find none but God and David if he were the Author could not see the Son of David there yet since Christ is set at the Right hand of God the Christians present Interest in Heaven is such that looking with contempt on all that worldly men applaud themselves in the enjoyment of rejecting all but thee O Christ he justly triumphs in resolving of this question to himself and being satisfied in having thee he does renounce even the desiring any thing but thee Of these in their order beginning here on Earth where our tenure even of earthly things is but desire this World does give no satisfactions in hand but still they are onely the objects of our Expectations and wishes When God hath given Man an erect Countenance Eyes that do naturally look towards him and the very frame of him is such that Heaven is his constant Object it were no wonder if his looks and thoughts were always there since both the duty and necessity of that does seem imprest upon him in his making and to desire things above is as it were the Law in his members But when he swims in delicacies here upon the Earth is immerst in the plenties of all kinds that these should give him nothing but desires of themselves that the delights should not be present to him but he should still pursue and need that which he is encompast with that while with open mouth and in a most intemperate current he swills down the pleasures yet his open mouth should gape only with thirst and he be sensible of nothing but the want of these is strange even to astonishment Yet such it seems the nature of them is When S. John would enumerate all that is in the World the particular that he gives in is thus 1 John ii 16. All that is in the world the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life He does not say the objects of these Lusts that are to serve and satisfie them for there 's no such thing as satisfaction but onely lust and if we make enquiry into the particulars we shall find it To begin with that of the Eyes Covetousness or the love of Money 'T is evident that where an Object is not useful to the faculty it cannot satisfie for satisfaction is fulfilling of our needs and uses but Money is not useful to the sight nor indeed does it prove useful to or serve any of the Covetous mans occasions or faculties rather the contrary in every kind he does bereave himself of good because he hath it He is in agonies of trouble and sollicitude lest he should need and not have that which when he hath acquir'd he will still need and will not have enjoyment of Nor is it possible it should be otherwise for since there is no natural