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 drencht in tears the Holy Ghost the Comforter does move upon those waters and breaths Life and Salvation into them and he who is the Unction pours Oyle into those wounds of the Spirit and we are never neerer 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 and eternal weight of Glory To which c. SERMON IV. VVHITE-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 injoy'd is but like Jewells in the Cabinet uselesse 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 bosome 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 bosome so safe as that where friendship lodges take God's opinion in the case Deut. 13. 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosome 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 neer 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 Wildernesse 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 bitternesse 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 deerness 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 lesse 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 I now described hath none of that hath no good wishes nothing else but hate is worse than a perpetual Pestilence Yet neither is this state so comfortlesse in respect of this life as not to have a Friend in the concernments of the Life to come none that hath so much kindnesse for my Soul as every man hath for his Enemies Beast which if he see fallen in a Ditch he will at least give notice that it may be helpt out thence No one that when a sin like to that Falling sickness in the Gospel and it is such indeed without a Parable is casting me into the Water quenching my parts my Reason and the Immortal spark within me or throwing me into the Fire raising Lascivious heats within which after will break out into Hell fires none yet that will stretch out his hand to catch me or to pull me out None that does care to see me perish-to Eternity or that values my Soul which yet did cost the Blood of God at a word speaking This is to be like Dives in the Flames to whom they would not lend the help of the tip of a finger or give the kindness of a drop of Water I am as it were on the other side the Gulfe already Here is the use of Friendship the only noble one that 's worthy of that blessed quality When I have one that will be an assistant Conscience to me who when that within me sleeps or is benummed will watch over my actions will testifie them to my Face will be as faithful to me as the Conscience should be hold a Glasse to my Soul shew me the stains and the proud tumours the foul Ulcers that are there and then will fret and rub or prick lance and corrode to cure those tumours and do off those spots such an one is a familiar Angel Guardian is truely of that blessed Heavenly rank and onely lesse than the Friend in the Text the Person related to and my next part My Friends There are three things from which men use to take the measures of a Friend First From the good things he bestows on them He that thinks to keep friendship alive onely with air that gives good words but parts with nothing that entertains onely
have usurp'd be superseded by the voice of the Holy Ghost himself vvho in this case becomes the Preacher and says Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them My Text is a Commission parole from Heaven in it you have First the Person that sends it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost said Secondly the Persons to whom it is directed imply'd in the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate more particularly exprest in the foregoing words Thirdly the thing to which they were impowr'd by the Commission or which was requir'd of them set down in the remaining vvords of the Text wherein you have 1. The Act injoyn'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate 2. The Object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Separate me Barnabas and Saul 3. The End for vvhat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a work 4. The Determination of that work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the work whereunto I have called them Of these in their Order and first The Holy Ghost said Of those five things for vvant of vvhich the second Jewish Temple sunk below the first and its Glory seem'd faint in the comparison the Chiefest vvas the Holy Ghost vvho became silent his Oracles ceast then and he spake no more by the Prophets A thing not only confest by the Thalmudists vvho say our Rabbins have deliver'd to us that from the time of Haggai Zechary and Malachy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost was taken away from Israel but so notorious in experience that vvhen St. Paul meets Disciples at Ephesus Acts 19. 1. and asks them if they have received the Holy Ghost vvhether at their Baptisme the Spirit came down upon them as He did then on others they answer ver 2. VVe have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost any extraordinary effusions of the Spirit vvhether he do come down in Gifts and Afflations such as vve know were usual in the first Jewish Temple but have not been for a long time and we have not yet heard they are restored for of this pouring out of the Holy Ghost they must needs mean it not of himself of vvhom they could not doubt nothing was more known in the Jewish Church But as our Saviour did supply the other four vvith all advantage and so fulfilled the Prophecy and made the glory of that Temple greater so for the fifth the spirit he was restored in kind with infinite improvement that of Ioel fulfill'd I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh for they vvere all baptized with the Holy Ghost baptized in rivers of living waters which did flow out of the belly of themselves for this he spake of the Spirit which all that believed on him should receive Joh. 7. 39. so that Ioel did scarce feel or foresee enough to prophesie of this abundance but the inundations were almost like Christ's receivings without measure Nor were his Inspirations as of old dark and mysterious oracles direction in rapture where the Message it self was to have another revelation and it must be prophecy to understand as vvell as utter But in the Gospel his effusions run clear and transparent as the VVater that expresseth them revealing even all the unknown languages that were the conduits and conveighances all plain express direction such as that of the Text. Novv amongst all the several uses of the Holy Ghost for vvhich he was pour'd out in this abundance amongst all the designes he did engage himself in and advance He does not seem to have a greater agency nor to interess himself more in any than in qualifying for and separating to Church-offices This seems to be his great vvork and indeed how can he choose but be particularly concern'd in those offices vvhich are his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts Timothy's is expresly call'd so in each of his Epistles 1 Tim. 4. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 6. And vvhen our Saviour Ephes. 4 8. is said to give the gifts of the Holy Ghost to men it is added how ver 11. He gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teathers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry namely because those gifts enabled for those offices and all the reason in the vvorld that he should have a special hand in giving vvhere himself is to be receiv'd Receive the Holy Ghost that vvas from the beginning and is yet the installation to them And if vve take them from their divine original from that great Pastor and Bishop of our souls vvho vvas the maker of them too Thus he vvas consecrated the spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel Luk. 4. 18. And vvhen he comes to ordain succession he sayes as my Father sent me so send I you and he breathed upon them and said Receive the Holy Ghost Joh. 20. 21. And after bids them tarry at Jerusalem till they should be endued with power from above Luk. 24. 47. That is endued with the Holy Spirit Act. 1. The present Barnabas and Saul were sent by his Commission in the Text and v. 4. And Saint Paul tels the Elders of the Churches of Asia the Holy Ghost made them overseers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 20. 28. Timothy had his Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by immediate designation of the Holy Ghost 1 Tim. 4. 14. Clemens Romanus saith the Apostles out of those they had converted did oâ—dain Bishops and Deacons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having first try'd them by the Holy Ghost and so taught by his revelation who should be the men And Clemens Alexandrinus says Iohn after his return to Asia ordain'd throughout all the regions about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were signified and design'd by the Holy Ghost So that Oecumenius pronounces in the general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishops that were made they made not inconsiderately on their own heads but such whom the Spirit did command Chrysostome said as much before and Theophylact. Nor can we doubt that he maintains his interest in this affair even at this day But that our Veni Creator Spiritus Come Holy Ghost eternal God does call him to preside in these so concerning Solemnities For Christ when he commission'd his Apostles assuring them Behold I am with you even to the end of the world which promise he performs only vicariâ Spiritús praesentiâ by the presence of the Holy Ghost who is his Vican as Tertullian expresses not can the Spirit be with them till then but by making them be till then which being done by Ordination that Ecclesiastical procreation for so they derive themselves to the VVorlds end upon the strength of that promise we may assure our selves he does assist as truly though not so visibly as when he said here Separate The Holy Ghost's concernment being thus secured I have this one thing only to suggest that they who set themselves against all
those satisfactions would more afflict our Souls and more restrain our vices than that which was made for us by the Death of Christ and how can this be rectified unlesse by some severities upon our selves we give our selves a piercing sense of what our sin deserves and grateful apprehensions of what our Surety suffer'd for us When in sad private earnest I have thought fit to Afflict my Soul with some austere mortifications and when my fainting Spirits are scarce able to sustain my Body that sinks under the load of it self then I may have some tender apprehensions of that weight that sunk the Son of God and 't was my weight that he fell under But he that cannot think fit to revenge a year of follies and of vices with a few weeks severer life sure thinks his Saviour suffered much in vain quorsum perditio haec why must the Blood of God be paid for sin when I cannot afford a little self-denyal for it Why such great Agonies of the Holy Jesus when I cannot find in my heart to bear a little strictnesse for it But I could easily deduce were I not to suppose it done before that sure as if the Church had thought a Statute had annext these two for ever they have been joyn'd from the beginings of our Christianity it was the Fast that did attend our Saviours sufferings that in part caused the Contest about Easter which Polycarpe S. John's Disciple manag'd and then there was a Fast so soon and he that tells us this Irenaeus Schollar to that Polycarpe sayes some observ'd it many dayes some forty dayes also if we can take the Antient Ruffinus's authority but for a Comma And if the Antient Fathers do expound aright Christ himself thought that men were interested so much in his Death that they would Fast by reason of it When the Bridegroom is taken from them then shall they Fast in those dayes Upon which words they say the Season was determin'd to this Duty by the Gospel But they may say so who knew how to perswade men to take up restraints of strictest discipline and of severest Piety But we cannot engage them into order or from Scandal they made them fast we cannot make them temperate Blessed Saviour what kind of Christians didst thou hope for thy Disciples of whom thou wer't so confident they would so concern themselves in thy Passion as to Fast because of it when in our times Christians will not be kept from their Excesses by it not in those dayes of Fasting which thy Primitive followers did Celebrate with abstinences that did almost mortifie indeed and slay the Body of Flesh as well as Sin and we in imitation of them in answer of thy confidences will not abate a Meal nor an intemperance will eat and Riot too and make a Lent of Bacchanals Thus we prepare load for thy Day of Passion sin on to add weight to thy Crosse and yet we our selves will not be humbled under them It is in vain to tell men thou expectest they should mortifie that it will spirit their Repentance for they will have no kind of Penitence for sin but such as will let them return to sin again suffer no discipline with which their vices too cannot consist for they can scarce live if they make not themselves chearful with them even in this time of Sadnesse and in sight of the Memorial of thy sufferings for them Indeed when I consider how this Season is hedg'd in from Vice by all Gods Indignation threatned at first suffered at last pronounc't in Commination executed in Passion Ash-wednesday gave us all Gods Curses against Sinners all which Good Friday shews inflicted on our Saviour Thus we began Cursed are the Unmerciful the Fornicators and Adulterers the Covetous persons Worshippers of Images Slanderers Drunkards and Extortioners and we shall see the Son of God made this Curse for them yea we our selves said Amen to all as testifying that that Curse is due to all When I consider this I say I cannot choose but be astonish't to behold how men can break through all Gods Curses and their own to get at Vice first seale Gods Maledictions then provoke and incur them instantly as if they lov'd and would commit a Rape upon Perdition as if because men have so long in Oaths beg'd God to damn them and he hath not done it yet they would now do it in their Prayers too make their Devotions as well as Imprecations consign them to the wrath of God He that does love cursing thus in the Passive sense surely as David sayes it shall come unto him it shall be unto him as the Garment that covereth him it shall enter into his bowels like Water and like Oyl into his Bones Psal. 109. 17 18 19. And truly amongst those things which we did Curse there are that will fulfill all that most literally the Ryots 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 dresse 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 Bowells like Water yea like Wine into the very Spirits There is another of them too that will conveigh the Curse like Oyl 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 rottennesse 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 yet alas they are too soft and tender the Lord knows to endure any severities to work out their Repentance and Atonement And yet sure these the sinner does go through have nothing to commend them which these other do not much more abound with If those are not grievous to thee because they are so wholesome and though it be a miserable thing to go through all their painful squalid methods yet how disgustful so-ere by the benefit of their cure they excuse their offensivenesse 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 establisht health as the abstemious and continent and their mind is still serene their temper never clouded but besides this the Christians bitter poâ—ions 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 cheerful Pleasure in the
with which the World assaults us in our course of Duty Thus the Crosse 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 Crosse 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 further with his Life affirming that he was the Son of God now '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 dayes 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 dayes 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 Blood and Water that flowed from his wounded side upon the Crosse which did assure his Death is justly said to bear witnesse 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 Baptisme or the testimony which he gave by Miracle for there are three that bear witnesse 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 Lazarusâ—â— empty Monument and walking grave-cloathes were not better evidence than this Crosse of Christ. 3. Once more this Crosse 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 desirable in this World rather than to fail of those joyes 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 ever more to be thrown down from every height on Earth if so I may ascend 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 joyes that were set before him choosing to endure the Crosse 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 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 Crosse meer folly to give up themselves to the belief and the obedience of a man that was most infamously Crucifyed 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 does still appear so to the carnal reasonings of that sort of men who have the same objections to the Crosse of Christ as it would crucify the World to them and them to it as it would strip them of all present rich contents and give them certain evils with some promises of after good things which they have no tast for nor assurance of Now this being in their account folly then the contrary to this they must think wisdom as it is indeed the Wisdom of this World which Wisdom since it does design no further than this World and hath no higher ends than Earth and its Felicities it must needs put men upon minding the acquist and the enjoyment of these Earthly things for that is onely to pursue and to atchieve their ends to catch at and lay hold on their felicity and accordingly we see it does immerse them wholly in those cares So that it is no wonder if their God and Religion can get no attendance from them it being most impossible they should when Mammon hath engaged them in the superstitious services of Idolatry and when they sacrifice their whole selves to pleasure and make their bodies the burnt offerings of their Lusts and when Ambition even while it makes them stretch and climb and mount causes them also to fall low prostrate make their temper nature stoop lye down to every humour and to every vice they think themselves concern'd to court and please And though a man would think these so great boundlesse cares are very vain and foolish upon several accounts for common sense as well as Scripture does assure 〈◊〉 that this life and the Contents of it do not consist in the abundance of the things that we possess that it is all one whether my draught come out of a small Bottle or an Hogshead 〈◊〉 the one of these indeed may serve excesse and sicknesse better but the other serves my appetite as well the one may drown my Vertue but the other quenches thirst alike And every dayes experience also does convince us that the least crosse accident pain or affliction on our persons or some other that is seated neer our hearts or the least