spiritual wisdome which is that Salt which every Teacher should have in himself Matth. 5.13 Mark 9.50 to urge and press it to the multitude who are too ready to make an idol of that Serpent which is lifted up to cure them For how many weak hands and feeble knees and cowardly hearts hath this made How willing are we to hear of weakness and impossibilities because we would not keep the Law How oft do we lye down with this thought and do nothing or rather run away with it even against the Law it self and break it What polluted blind impotent cripled wretches are we ready to call our selves which were indeed a glorious confession were it made out of hatred to sin But most commonly these words are sent forth not from a broken but a hollow heart and comfort us rather than accuse us are rather flatteries then aggravation the oyl of sinners to break their heads and to infatuate them not to supple their limbs but benum them And they beget no other Resolution in us but this Not to gird up our loins because we are weak To sin more and more because we cannot but sin Not to do what God requireth because we have already concluded within our selves that it is impossible To conclude this The question is not Whether we can exactly keep a Law so as not to fail sometimes as men for I know no reason why this question should be put up but Whether we can keep it so far forth as God requireth and in his goodness will accept Whether we can be just and merciful and humble men And if this be impossible then will follow as sad an impossibility of being saved For the not doing what God requireth is that alone which shutteth the gates of Heauen against us and cutteth off all hope of eternal happiness And this were to unpeople Heaven this were a Dragons tail to draw down all the stars and cast them into hell But the Saints are sealed and have this seal That they did what God required And it is a thing so far from being impossible that the Prophet maketh but a But of it It is not impossible it is but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God Secondly it is so far from being impossible that it is but an easie duty My yoke is easie Matth. 11.30 saith our Saviour and my burden light For it is fitted to our necks and shoulders and is so far from taking from our nature or pressing it with violence that it exalteth and perfecteth it All is in putting it about our necks Prov 1.9 and then this yoke is an ornament of grace as Solomon's chain about them And when this burden is layd on then it is not a burden but our Form to quicken us and our Angel to guide us with delight in all our waies And this the beloved Disciple suckt from his Master's bosome 1 John 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous For here is Love and Hope to sweeten them and make them easie and pleasant Nor doth he speak this as an Oratour to take men by craft by telling them that that which he exhorted them to was neither impossible nor difficult and so give force to his exhortation and make a way for it to enter and work a full perswasion in them to be obedient to those commands but as a Logician he backeth and establisheth his affirmation with an undeniable reason in the next verse For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and so his commandments are not grievous to those who have the true knowledge of God He that is born of God must needs have strength enough to pass through all hindrances whatsoever to tread down all Principalities and Powers to demolish all imaginations which set up and oppose themselves and so make these commands more grievous then they are in their own nature And this he strengthneth with another reason in the next verse For he that is born of God hath the help and advantage of Faith and full perswasion of the power of Jesus Christ which is that victory which overcometh the world So that whosoever saith the commandments are grievous with the same breath excommunicateth himself from the Church of Christ and maketh himself an hypocrite and professeth he is that which he is not a Christian when Christ's words are irksome and tedious unto him that he is born of God when he hath neither the language nor the motion of a child of God doth not what God requireth but doth the works of another father the Devil When men therefore pretend they cannot do what God requireth they should change their language for the truth is they will not If they would there were more for them then against them Salvian Totum durum est quicquid imperatur invitis To an unwilling mind every command carrieth with it the fearful shew of difficulty Mavult execrari legem quà m emendari mentem praecepta odisse quà m vitia A wicked man mavult emendare Deos quà m seipsum saith Seneca had rather condemn the Law then reform his life rather hate the precept then his sin Continence is a hard lesson but to the wanton Liberality to a Miser Temperance to a Glutton Obedience to a Factious and Rebellious spirit All these things are hard to him that loveth not Christ But where there is will there is strength enough Cant. 8 6. and Love is stronger then Death What was sweeter then Manna Isid Pelus 2. ep 67. what sooner gathered yet the children of Israel murmured at it What more bitter then Hunger and Imprisonment yet S. Paul rejoyced in them Nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wickedness in its own nature is a troublesome and vexations thing Vitia magno coluntur saith Seneca Scarce any sin we commit but costeth us dear What more painful then Anger what more perplext and tormenting then Revenge what more intangled then Lust what can more disquiet us then Ambition what more fearful then Cruelty what sooner disturbed then Pride Nay further yet How doth one sin incroch and trespass upon another I fling off my Pleasure and Honour to make way to my Revenge I deny my Lust to further my Ambition and rob my Covetousness to satisfie my Lust and forbear one sin to commit another and so do but versuram facere borrow of one sin to lay it out on another binding and loosing my self as my corruption leadeth me but never at ease Tell me Which is easier saith the Father to search for wealth in the bowels of the earth nay in the bowels of the poor by oppression then to sit down content with thy own night and day to study the world or to embrace Frugality to oppress every man or to relieve the oppressed to be busie in the Market or to be quiet at home to take other mens goods or to give my own to be
sport in the wayes which we have chosen as the little fishes do in the river Jordan till at last they fall into the Dead sea Our word is as vain and mortal as our selves but God's word standeth for evermore I will not press this further in this place and I hope there is no need I should For I hope better things of you that not Faction which the Devil raiseth here on earth but true Religion which God sent down from above shall now and at all times teach you how to make your choice I will conclude with that with which I should have begun the Coherence of my Text with the first verse For this is a consequent of that and we are therefore exhorted to set our affections upon things above because we are risen with Christ. For without this manifestation there is no Resurrection If we be still earthly-minded we are not risen with him In other things it is natural when we rise to shew our selves If we rise to honour you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp If we rise in our estates you may see it in our next purchase If in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then Scire tuum nihil est we are sick till we vent And shall we manifest and publish our rising in the world and not our rising with Christ Shall Dives appear in purple and Herod in his royal apparel shall the rich fool be known by his barns and every scribler be in print and may we rise and yet lye in our Graves rise with Christ and yet lie buried alive in the earth rise with him and have no affection to the things above rise with him and yet be slaves and captives to that world which by rising he overcame This were to conceal nay to bury the Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with him let the same mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus the Lord. Let us be seen in our march Walk before God in the land of the living Look upon the things above Converse with Cherubim and Seraphim Count the things on the earth but dung Let us look upon the World as an enemy and overcome it that the last enemy Death may be destroyed Let us begin to make our bodies what we believe they shall be spiritual bodies that the body being subdued to the Spirit it may appear we are risen with Christ here and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second resurrection to that glory which is reserved above for us in the highest heavens for evermore The Tenth SERMON PART I. PROV XXIII 23. Buy the truth and sell it not also wisdome and instruction and understanding IT will not be worth the while to seek out the coherence of these words with the precedent sentences or proverbs For this would be a vain curiosity to seek what is not to be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to plow the winds and which was imputed as folly to Caligula conari quod effici posse negatur to busie our selves in doing that which cannot be done The words are plain and they present you with a merchandise which far excelleth all other and hath one property which is not seen in any other merchandise It must be bought but not be sold It is an observation of Tullie's De offic l. 2. c. 42. That those tradesmen who buy of the merchant to sell again are commonly but a sordid and base kind of people nihil enim proficiunt saith he nisi admodum mentiantur They get nothing except they lie for advantage I am not experienced in the truth of this But we see here the wisest of men doth more then intimate that they who buy the Truth to sell it again are guilty of much baseness and profit nothing unless they lie strenuously For what but a Lie can be gained by parting with the Truth since whatsoever is not truth must needs be a lie And in this again appeareth another main difference betwixt our spiritual thrift and thriving in the world For old Cato an excellent husband for the world and one who writ of Husbandry giveth us a rule quite contrary to our Text Patremfamilias vendacem De Rè rusti◠cap. 2. non emacem oportet To buy is an argument of want to sell a sign of store Wherefore a good husband will endeavour so to abound that he may be ready to sell to supply the necessities of others rather then to buy to make up his own But ye see here Solomon a more excellent husband for the Truth then Cato was for the World giveth us a rule quite contrary to his Emaces esse oportet non vendaces Selling is no part of our spiritual husbandry there is nothing here but buying He that selleth the Truth or parteth with it upon any terms whatsoever giveth great cause to suspect that he is in danger to decoct and break Which that we may better perceive and understand let us enter upon the words of the Wise-man and see what instructions they will afford us First the merchandise presenteth it self and we must look upon it and consider what Truth it is that is here meant Secondly the nature and quality of the merchandise which will set a value and price upon it Thirdly we shall observe Neminem casu sapere That we cannot find Truth by chance neither will it fall upon us as a dream in the night but we must go towards it lay out something for it and purchase it Fourthly we shall find it necessary to enquire What it is to buy the Truth Fifthly and lastly we shall shew how the Truth may be sold These particulars without tort or violence naturally of their own accord arise from the Text Which in the general is divided as the Jews divided the Law into DOE and DOE NOT. The first part is affirmative Buy the Truth the second negative Sell it not Of these in their order First we must enquire What Truth is Aristotle defining Goodness telleth us it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod omnia appetunt that which the appetite and desire of all is carried to And if I defining Truth should tell you that Verum est quod omnes fugiunt Truth is that which all men are afraid of I think I should not speak much amiss For I find St. Augustine thus speaking to his auditours Quod non vultis audire verum est Do ye enquire what Truth is That which ye will not hear that which with all my pains and zeal I cannot perswade you to That is Truth In the Gospel we read that Pilate asked our Saviour John 18.38 What is Truth but when he had said this he went out saith the Text. He thought the answer would not be worth the staying for Many like Pilate are content to ask what Truth is and when they have done go their way
fitted for such a Lord such a Captain such a King For as one well sayeth the Sacraments are nothing else but protestationes fidei the publick protestations of our Faith They who come to the Lord's Table by their very coming do publickly profess that they believe not onely every Article of their Faith but also this Divine promise and institution by which Christ will renew and strengthen and establish his Covenant to every worthy receiver Leave then thy wavering thy inconstancy thy diffidence thy formality thy hypocrisie thy malice before thou approch For wilt thou come to the Feast of the Lamb with the teeth of a Lion Wilt thou come to him in whom there was no guile found with a deceitful heart Wilt thou come to a meek Saviour with a heart on fire Wilt thou come to him who forbiddeth a wandring look with a stews about thee Wilt thou bring the love of the world along with thee to him that overcame the world Wilt thou come to the Son of God with the subtilty and malice of a Devil Thy coming is thy protestation not onely of thy Faith but of thy Repentance and if thou thus defeat and contradict thy own protestation I will not say what manner of Protestant thou art but the world affordeth many such at this day And how darest thou meet thy Saviour in this ugly disguise carrying about with thee a world of wickedness under protestation The Canonist will tell us Sacramentum mortis articulus aequiparantur that we are considered at the Sacrament as on our Death-bed And on our death-bed we are likelier to be attempted with thoughts of dejection then of presumption Here we lay down our malice here we loath our lust here vve fall out with Mammon here vve look down upon Honour here vve go out of the vvorld here vve are meek and humble and tractable here vve are commonly vvhat we should be in our health Consider thy self then at this Table as on thy Death-bed and here lay aside every weight and every sin that doth beset us lay them down not as sick men sometimes do to take them up again in health but drown them in the bloud and nail them to the cross of thy Saviour never to look back upon them but vvith sorrow and disdain Here shake off all inclination to them as far as is possible and take up a firm resolution never to entertein them again and then thou art fit to come to Christ and feed at his Table then as he is brought into the vvorld and hath brought himself into the Sacrament and vvill be so far present as to exhibite himself and all his love and favour in them so he vvill bring himself into thy soul and fill it vvith all joy The One and Twentieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 12. As we forgive our debtors HEre we have the Condition or the Cause or the Manner or as St. Cyprian calleth it the Law by which we put up the foregoing Petition Forgive us our debts SICUT as we forgive our debtours If we perform the Condition then Remission of our sins as the promise of it is Yea and Amen But if we perform it not to us it is but a promise And though it be not kept it is not broke because we made not good the condition And these two the Promise of reward and the Duty or Condition mutually look upon each other the Reward upon the Duty to facilitate and make it easie and the Duty upon the Reward to draw it on And as we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Relatives they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's Mercy is operative â—n us and our forgiveness is operative upon God His is powerful to produce the like goodness in us and ours is powerful to sheath his sword as having the promise of Remission of sins God doth forgive our debts that we may forgive our debtors and we forgive our debtors that he may be reconciled to us Heaven speaketh to Earth and Earth to Heaven The influence of God's mercy melteth our hearts and they being melted are capable of mercy The lines by which we are to pass are these 1. We must see what these Debts are which we must forgive 2. The manner how we must forgive them or the Extent and Force of this SICUT In what the parity and similitude consisteth and how far our Forgiveness of our brother's debts must answer the Remission of our sins 3. The Dependance which is between these two God's forgiveness and ours What power and influence God's Mercy should have upon us to work in us the like tenderness and softness towards our brethren and what force our Forgiveness hath to make God merciful to us to draw his hand to seal us and to seal to us the Remission of our sins against the great day of our Redemption Of these we shall speak plainly and in their order As we forgive our debtours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our debtours saith S. Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Luke every one that is indebted to us So that this duty is of large extent This royal and heavenly disposition which is required of a Christian hath no bounds no limits neither in respect of time nor place nor person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Let your softness your tenderness your moderation be known unto all men to Jew and Pagan to good and evil Nemini malum pro malo Render to no man evil for evil For as the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men so must our Charity enlarge it self and like the Sun non uni aut alteri sed statim omnibus in commune proferri display its beams universally on all on every man that is a brother and a Neighbour And now under the Gospel every man is so He is my neighbour and brother who loveth me and he is my neighbour and brother who hateth me He is my neighbour who bindeth up my wounds and he is my neighbour who gave me those wounds He is my neighbour who taketh care of me and he is my neigbour who passeth by me on the other side And my goodness must open and manifest it self to all men must be as catholick as the Church nay as the World it self Whosoever maketh himself our debtour maketh himself also the object of our mercy and whatsoever the debt is Forgiveness must wipe it out and cancel it Every debtour then must be forgiven And that we may better understand the condition here required we must consider what the debts are For commonly we call those debts alone which are pecuniary and esteem them our debtours whose names are in tabulis kalendario in our Bonds and Obligations But the word is of larger extent and the Civilians will tell us that he is not a debtour alone who hath sealed a Bond and standeth engaged for a sum of money but Debitor est cum quo agi potest He is a debtour against whom I
saith Augustine It is most dangerous both to men and manners cùm veritas imperitorum populorum irrisione sondescit when the Truth confirmed by a miracle or which is so open and manifest that it needs no miracle to confirm it shall be cryed down and laught and hooted out of the world by the scornes and jests of malicious and ignorant people when Piety it self shall be driven out of the world by a scoff when that which may lift us up to heaven must be trodden under foot because fools like it not We will therefore praescribere accusatoribus as the Civilians speak put in our exception in its right place against these mockers And first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth or at least Probability should be the rule And what probability nay what shew of probability was there that the Apostles were drunk It was their great feast and then it was a constant custome as Josephus relates it for the Jews to fast till the sixth hour and now it was but the third hour about eight or nine of the clock in the morning Besides they were altogether in private for fear of the Jews And rebus attonitis in the midst of fears and terrors men use rather to ask advice of their Reason then to drown it in liquor Who takes the cup into his hand when his enemy is at his elbow and ready for ought he knows to mingle his bloud with the wine Again others wondred Jews and Proselytes and Romans perhaps some of them who crucified Christ and some of all nations confessed in plain terms that they heard them speak every one in his own language so that vve may be sure vve have a major if not the better part against them Lastly it was the feast of Pentecost too early in the year if Chrysostomes observation be true for them to have new wine to fill them But Malice and Ignorance run over all regard not circumstances forget all probabilities that may make against them What speak we of customes Though they used to fast till noon yet now they may be drunk in the morning and drown their fears in wine If all the world give in evidence they laugh on they consider not national customs they oppose a cloud of witnesses they invert the order of Nature and make it Autumn at Whitsuntide But yet though there were no reason nor probability to justifie their scoff some shew and some appearance there was to countenance it The Apostles after this gift of Tongues talkt much they were fervent and hot and peradventure their countenance was cheerful and of a ruddy colour saith Gregory they being filled with joy though not with wine Mysticum est ut quod per ludibrium dicitur rei ipsa conveniat They made a mockery of the mystery but there was a mystery in their very mock The Disciples were full indeed with new wine with the wine of the New Testament and as drunken men they were merry and cheerful they publish secrets they fear no face they regard no power they regard not themselves being free they run into bondage before hid in a chamber now preaching on the house-tops before affrighted with the voice of a silly damsel now boldly speaking in omni praetorio in omni consistorio before every tribunal in every consistory lifting up their voices before Kings and not ashamed Cupiunt esse quod antè despexerunt odisse incipiunt quod erant They begin to be what they despised and to despise what they were Drunk indeed any Jew might think them that chose misery before content fasting before delights watching before rest dangers before safety and poverty before the glory of the world Hoc spiritali mero calebant This was the wine that filled them this was the intoxicating cup that overcame them and transported them beyond themselves sic inebriabat ut magis sobrios faceret It so overcame them that it made them more wise and sober then before Some shew some resemblance then these mockers had which might help to prompt their malice and make up a scoff Something they observed in the Apostles which they thought with the people might well pass under the name of Drunkenness the people I say which are the onely paper to print a ly on which they sell to one another for nothing There you may imprint or sow or ingrave as you please they will soon learn a lie and assoon teach it and anon it multiplies and every valley and obscure corner is ready to echo it back again Behold saith S. James how great a matter a little fire kindles c. 3. And he might well call the Tongue a fire for we find it is like that of a beacon which not onely burneth it self but occasioneth the firing of others and at last sets the whole Commonwealth in an uprore and combustion At first it is but a mock at last it cuts like a sword At first it doth but offend the ear at last it draws bloud At first it strikes at ceremony at last it beats down a Church At first it sports with the man at last it cuts off his head The persecution of the Apostles began you see in a scoff At first they are drunk anon they are setters forth of new doctrine bablers hereticks not fit to breath in the world This hath alwayes been and to this day is the great errour of the world to make shadows substances similitudes identities the faintest representations truth Hannahs lips moved when she poured out her soul before God 1 Sam. 1.13 and old Eli tells her she was drunk David in great joy danced before the Ark and in his wife Michols eys be was but a vain fellow What speak we of David 2 Sam. 6.20 Behold Christ himself a greater then David when the multitude followed him when he taught them and confirmed his doctrine by miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his friends his kinsmen seeing him laying himself open to the malice of his enemies went to lay hands on him for they said Mark 3.21 He is besides himself And to this day this argument a simili holds strong and what is but like nay what is not like but seems so to us we conclude to be the very same Upon this ground Faith was called presumption by the Heathen because it is like it Christianity is called madness for when we mortifie the flesh and estrange our selves from the world most that behold us think us not well in our wits At this day true Devotion goes for phansie Reverence for superstition Bowing for idolatry The Letany is conjuring because it is like it as like it as a saint is to a murderer as hearty and well-grounded Devotion is to babling and blasphemy and non-sense True Pastors are Baals priests for both are men The Pulpit as the Anabaptist called it is a prescript place or a Tub for both are wood Our Fasts are stage-playes wherein one acteth Sin another Judgment a third Repentance and a fourth the
Dei posse velle est non posse nolle Advers Praâ—eam c. 10. saith Tertullian He can do what he will and what he will not do we may say he cannot do Quod voluit potuit ostendit What he would do he could and did What his Son his own Son his beloved Son infinite and omnipotent as himself shall he be delivered Yes he delivered him because he would His will is that which openeth the windows of heaven and shutteth them again that bindeth and looseth that planteth and rooteth up that made the world and will destroy it His will it was that humbled his Son and his Will it was that glorified him He might not have done it not have delivered him He might without the least impairing of his Justice have kept him still in his bosome and never shewed him to the world Jam. 1.18 But as of his own will he begat us of the word of truth so he delivered up his owo Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 QVIA VOLVIT because he would For as in the Creation God might have made Man as he made the other Creatures by his dixit by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the earth and like a Potter formed and shaped him out of the clay with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send a Moyses or an Angel but delivered up his own Son and so gave a price infinitely above that which he bought mortal and sinful men being of no value at all but that he made them He payed down not a Talent for a Talent but a Talent for a Mite for Nothing for that which had made it self worse than Nothing He delivered up his Son for those who stood guilty of rebellion against him and thus loved the World which was at enmity with him Thus he was pleased to buy his own will and to pay dear for his affection to us And by this his incomprehensible Love he did bound as it were his almighty Power his infinite Wisdome and his unlimited Will For here his Power Wisdome and Will may seem to have found a non ultrá He cannot do he cannot find out he cannot wish for us more than what he hath done in this Delivery of his Son How should this affect and ravish our souls how should this flame of Gods Love kindle love in us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers that is greater which is above our hope that is yet greater that exceedeth our desires But how great is that which over-ruunneth our opinion yea swalloweth it up Certainly had not God revealed his will we could not have desired it but our prayers would have been blasphemie our hope madness our wish sacriledge and our opinion impiety And now if any ask What moved his Will Surely no loveliness or attractiveness in the object In it there was nothing to be seen but loathsomness and deformity and such enmity as might sooner move him to wrath than compassion and make him rather send down fire and brimstone then his Son That which moved him was in himself his own bowels of mercy and compassion Ezek. 16.6 He loved us in our blood and loving us he bid us Live and that we might live delivered up his own Son to death His Mercy was the onely Orator to move his Will Being merciful he was also willing to help us Mercy is all our plea and it was all his motive and wrought in him a will a cheerful will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. James Mercy rejoyceth against judgment Jam. 2.13 Though we had forgot our duty yet would not he forget his Mercy but hearkned to it and would not continere misericordias Psal 77.9 shut up his tender mercies in anger which is a Metaphor taken from Martial affairs When in a siege an Army doth compass-in a Town or Castle that they may play upon it in every place the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shut it up as in a net This is it which the Prophet David calleth CLAVDERE or CONTINERE to shut up mercy in anger The Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make a trench about and besiege it Now the Goodness of God and his Love to his Creature would not suffer him thus to shut up his tender Mercies as a sort or town is shut up to be undermined and beat up and overcome But as the besieged many times make sallyes upon the enemy so the Love and Mercy of our God brake forth even through his Anger and gained a conquest against the legions of his Wrath. Let the World be impure let Men be sinners let Justice be importunate let Power be formidable let Vengeance be ready to fall yet all must fall back and yield to the Mercy and Love of God which cannot be overcome nor bound nor shut up but will break forth and make way through all opposition through Sin and all the powers of Darkness which besiege and compass it about and will raise the siege drive off and chase away these enemies and to conquer Sin will deliver up his Son for the Sinner And this was aenigma aemoris saith Aquinas the riddle or rather the mystery of Love to pose the wisdome of the World I may say Being Love and infinite it is no riddle at all but plain and easie For what can Love do that is strange what can it do amiss That which moved God to do this sheweth plainly that the end for which he did it was very good DILEXIT NOS He loved us is the best commentary on TRADIDIT FILIVM He delivered his Son for us and taketh away all scruple and doubt For if we can once love our enemies it is impossible but that our bowels should yern towards them and our will be bent and prone to raise them up even to that pitch and condition which our Love hath designed And if our love were heavenly as God's is or but in some forward degree proportioned to his we should find nothing difficult account nothing absurd or misbecoming which might promote or advantage their good If our Love have heat in it our Will will be forward and earnest and we shall be ready even to lay down our lives for them For Love is like an artificial Glass which when we look through an Enemy appeareth a Friend Disgrace Honour Difficulties Nothing When God saw us weltring in our blood his Love was ready to wash us When we ran from him his Love ran after us to apprehend us When we fought against him as enemies his Love was a Prophet Lo all these may be my children What speak we of Disgrace God's Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Son Love as Plato saith hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed and by a kind of law hath this huge advantage to make Bondage Liberty Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Who can stand up against Love and
the sea in the deluge of our lusts if we do not bury our selves alive in stubborn impenitency if we do not stop up all the passages of our souls if we do not still love darkness and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and affection He will look upon us as his purchase and he that delivered his Son for us will with him also freely give us all things Which is the End of all the End of Christ's being delivered and offereth it self to our consideration in the last place IV. God delivered God sent God gave his Son All these expressions we find to make him a Gift He is the desire and he is the riches of all Nations As whatsoever we do we must do so whatsoever we have we receive in his name The name of Jesus saith S. Peter of the impotent man Acts 3.13 1 Cor. 6.11 Col. 2.3 hath made this man strong By his name we are justified by his name we are sanctified by his name we shall enter into glory With him we have all things for in him are all the treasures of riches and wisdome We may think of all the Kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them but these come not within the compass nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow that it is wrought in our eye and not in the cloud and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches and glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our phansie and have no worth or price but what our lusts and desires set upon them Luxuria his pretium fecit It is our Luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My Covetousness maketh that which is but earth a God my Ambition maketh that which is but air an heaven and my Wantonness walketh in the midst of pleasures as in a paradise There is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and Pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction There are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a king in his tub when Great Alexander was but a slave in the world which he had conquered How many Heroick persons lie in chains whilest Folly and Baseness walk at large And no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out Riches and the things of this world from the sum For with Christ they are somthing and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away It is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift By this power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing If we look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the Rich mans bosome In the night there is no difference to the eye between a pearl and a pibble between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulness of Riches and the glory of Affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or of glory where it is not to be found But when the light of Christ's countenance shineth upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulness in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compass large enough to take in the whole world But then it is the world transformed and altered the world conquered by faith i Cor. 3.21 22 23. the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christ's There is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation Psal 24.1 115.16 For the earth is the Lord's and he hath given it to the sons of men And there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to God's glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it He did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places Such a Messias did the Jews look for and such a Messias do some Christians worse than the Jews frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they phansie themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile They are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore Every ship every house every Lordship is theirs And indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember S. Paul calleth the Devil the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world For as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the cross for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape They conceive him giving gifts unto men not spiritual but temporal not the graces of the Spirit Humility Meekness and Contentedness but Silver and Gold dividing inheritances removing of land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheth's land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth Thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth That all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ A Doctrine which bringeth with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and giveth men power to spoyl whom they please to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his Charter larger than it is In the Gospel we find none of such an
saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Hebr. 2.10 Christ and his Church are in computation but one person He ought to suffer and they ought to suffer They suffer in him and he in them Luke 24.26 to the end of the world Nor is any other method answerable either to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indeleble characters or to our mortal and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up Quicquid Deo convenit homini prodest saith Tertullian that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us That which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head There is an oportet set upon both Luke 24.26 He ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again First it cannot consist with the Wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and that we might live as we please and then reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Devil for those who will be his vassals that he should foil him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble and beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this we could not have taken him for our Captain and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers Non novimus Christum si non credimus We do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captain that leadeth us as Moses did the children of Israel through a wilderness full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposeth some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looketh back into some grave Tolle certamen nè virtus quidem quicquam erit Take away this combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations and Religion it self will be but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it but a fable What were my Patience if no Pain did look towards it What were my Faith if there were no Doubt to assault it What were my Hope if there were no Scruple to shake it What were my charity if there were no Misery to urge it no Malice to oppose it What were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead I was dead saith the Lord of life And his speech is directed to us who do but think we live being indeed in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils that are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit Rev. 9 3. And when we hear this voice and by the virtue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ 1 John 5.4 our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcomeh the world Nor need this method seem grievous unto us For these very words I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plain and easie method For by Christ's Death we must understand all those miseries that he suffered before which were as the train and ceremony of his Death as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as Poverty Scorn and Contempt the Burden of our sins his Agony and bloody Sweat These we must look upon as the principles of this heavenly Science by which our best Master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to raise us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings For we have not such an High priest who will not help us Hebr. 4.15 2.17 but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is merciful and faithful hath not only power for that he may have and not shew it but will and propension also desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the gates of death Indeed Mercy without Power can beget but a good wish S. James his complemental charity Be ye warmed and Be ye filled and Be ye comforted Jam. 2.16 which leaveth us cold and empty and comfortless And Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heal a broken heart It may as well strike us dead as revive us But Mercy and Power when they meet and kiss each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and raise us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a bath a rack a bed and persecution a blessing will call those sorrows that are as if they were not Such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his Compassion and Mercy were coeternal with him as God yet as Man he learnt them He came into the world as into a school and there learnt them by his sufferings and death Hebr. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feel it our selves It must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggeth of me Luke 16. Luke 10.30 34. and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way-side and then I powre my oyl and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feel the Hell of sin in my self before I can snatch my brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walketh abroad Job 29.15 and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and so healeth two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him They were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffered are the main strength of our salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be merciful then he could leave off to be
Wilt thou not by him and by thy own sins and miseries which drew from him tears of blood learn to pity thy self Wilt thou still rejoyce in that iniquity that troubled his spirit and shed his blood which he was willing should gush out of his heart so it might melt thine and work but this in thee pity to thy self We talk of a first Conversion and a second and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to bliss If we could once have compassion on our selves the work were done And When were you converted or How were you converted were no such hard questions to be answered For I may be sure I am converted if I be sure that I truly pity my self Shall Christ only have compassion on thy soul But then again shall he shed his blood for his Church that it may be one with him and at unity in it self and canst thou not drop a tear when thou seest this his body thus rent in pieces as it is at this day When thou seest the World the Love of the world break in and make such havock in the Church oh it is a sad contemplation will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem Luk. 19.41 Secondly let us look upon him living and not take our eye from off him to fill and feed and delight it with the vanities of this world with that which hath neither life nor spirit with that which is so neer to nothing with that which is but an idole Behold he liveth that which thou so dotest on hath no life nor can it prolong thy life a moment Who would not cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils Isa 2.22 and then what madness is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all Shall Christ present himself alive to us and for us and shall we lay hold on Corruption and Rottenness And when Heaven openeth it self to receive us shall we run from it into a Charnel-house and so into Hell it self In the third place Behold he liveth for evermore and let us not bound and imprison our thoughts within a span and when immortality is offered affect no other life but that which is a vapour Jam. 4.14 Let us not raise that swarm of thoughts which must perish but build up those works upon our everliving Saviour which may follow us follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of eternity Doth our Saviour live for evermore and shall we have no spirit in us but that which delighteth to walk about the earth and is content to vanish with it Eternity is a powerful motive to those who never have such pensive thoughts as when they remember their frailty and are sick even of health it self and in a manner dead with life when they consider it as that blessing which shall have an end Eternity is in our desire though it be beyond our apprehension What he said of Time is truer of Eternity If you do not ask what it is we know but if you ask we are not able to answer and resolve you or tell you what it is When we call it an infinite duration we do but give it another name two words for one a short Paraphrase but we do not define what it is And indeed our first conceptions of it are the fairest For when they are doubled and redoubled they are lost in themselves and the further they extend â—hemselves the more weary they are and at greater loss in every proffer and must end and rest at last in this poor and unsatisfying thought That we cannot think what it is Yet there is in us a wild presage an unhandsome acknowledgment of it for we phansie it in those objects which vanish out of fight whilst we look upon them we set it up in every desire for our desires never have an end Every purpose of ours every action we do is Aeternitati sacrum and we do it to eternity Prov. 23.5 Psal 49.11 We look upon Riches as if they had no wings and think our habitations shall endure for ever We look upon Honour as if it were not air but some Angel confirmed a thing bound up in eternity We look upon Beauty and it is our heaven and we are fixt and dwell on it as if it would never shrivel and be gathered together as a scroul and so in a manner make Mortality it self eternal And therefore since our desires do so enlarge themselves and our thoughts so multiply that they never have an end since we look after that which we cannot see and reach after that which we cannot grasp God hath set up that for an object to look on which is eternal indeed in the highest Heavens and as he hath made us in his own image so in Christ who came to renew it in us he hath shewed us a more excellent way unto it and taught us to work out eternity even in this world in this common shop of change to work it out of that in which it is not which is neer to nothing which shall be nothing to work it out of Riches by not trusting them out of Honour by contemning it out of the Pleasures of this world by loathing them out of the Flesh by crucifying it out of the World by overcoming it and out of the Devil himself by treading him under our feet For this is to be in Christ and to be in Christ is to be for evermore Christ is the eternal Son of God and he was dead and liveth and liveth for evermore that we may dye and live for evermore and not only attain to the Resurrection of the dead but to eternity Last of all let us look upon the keyes in his hand and knock hard that he may open to us and deliver our soul from hell and make our grave not a prison but a bed to rise from to eternal life If we be still shut in we our selves have turned the key against our selves Christ is ready with his Keyes to open to us and we have our Keyes too our key of Knowledge to discern between life and Death and our key of Repentance and when we use these Christ is ready to put his even into our hands and will derive a power unto us mortals unto us sinners over Hell and Death And then in the last place we shall be able to set on the Seal the AMEN and be confirmed in the certainty of his Resurrection and Power by which we may raise those thoughts and promote those actions which may look beyond our threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 through all successive generations to immortality and that glory which shall never have an end This is to shew and publish our faith by our works as S. James speaketh Jam. 2.18 this is with the heart to believe as S. Paul Rom. 10.10 For he that believeth from the heart cannot but be obedient to the Gospel unless we
drop a penny We wast away and sicken and make our will and seal it and doubt not but the Spirit will do his office and seal our redemption At last the rich man dyeth and is buried and some hireling will tell you The Angels have carried his soul into heaven A strange conceit Luke 16. and if true of force to pluck Lazarus out of Abrahams bosome and to bring back Dives through the gulf and place him in his room But if this be not true may it never be true Onely let us not deceive our selves but search and try our hearts and root out all such vain and groundless and pernicious imaginations which may be raised up in time of prosperity and multiply like flyes in the Sun Let us not seek our peace in those false fictitious spurious deceitful Goods but in the true and full and filling Good the Good here in the Text. And because God hath fitted and proportioned it to us let us fit and apply our selves unto it And since he hath built us up after his own Image let us adorn and beautifie it with Justice and Mercy and Humility and not blur and deface it with the craft of a Fox the lust of a Goat and the rage of a Lion For what should the mark of the Beast do upon the Image of God Again being fitted to us and to all sorts and conditions of men Let young men and maids Psal 148.12 13. old men and children Scribes and Ideots noble and ignoble Priest and people cleave and adhear to it and so praise and magnifie the name of the Lord Sic laudant Angeli for so the Angels and Arch-angels praise him And thirdly being lovely and amiable let us make it our choice and espouse our wills to it love and embrace it not kiss and wound it approve and condemn it worship it in our hearts and persecute it in our brethren And since it is a filling and satisfying good here let us let down our pitchers Isa 12.3 and draw waters out of this well of salvatien even those waters which will sweeten our miseries and give a pleasant tast to Bitterness it self To conclude Behold here is the object that which is Good fair and beautiful to the eye Jer. 5.1 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see if you can find a MAN and he is the spectatour and cannot but see it But what went you out into the wilderness to see Matth. 11 7-9 saith our Saviour Why the eye is never satisfied Pro. 27.20 and all would go out to see Some would see soft Raiment Eccl. 1.8 4.8 and that you may see on every back Some gaze upon Beauty and that is a burning-glass to set the Soul on fire Others love to see the redness of the Wine Prov. 23.31 20.1 Look not on it saith Solomon It is a mocker Some would behold a shew of Pomp and Glory and we see though Justice can never fail but hath the best even when she is worsted yet Injustice hath had more triumphs then she When Julius Caesar triumphed over his countrey and when Pompey rid in with the spoils of Asia the ceremony and the pomp and the glory was the same But the eye with which we behold these spectacles is not fit for this object We have another eye a spiritual eye we call it the eye of our Reason and we call it the eye of our Faith This many times is but as an eye of glass for shew but no use at all and serveth to hide a deformity but not to see with But if it be a quick and living eye then here is a fit object for it worth the looking on in which we may see all other things in a fairer dress in a celestial form in the beauty of Holiness being made useful and subservient to it like that Speculum Trinitatis that feigned Glass in which they tell us he that looketh seeth all things If wee see not this object then are we blind 2 Pet. 1.9 or if not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purblind not seeing afar off those things which are laid up in heaven for those who look upon this Good and love it and then I am unwilling to say what we are but certainly we are but infidels And indeed there is something of Infidelity in all our aversions and turning away from this Good For what is the reason that covetous men make Riches an idol and sacrifice to their own net but want of faith and their distrust in God For when God doth not answer their desires 1 Sam. 28. Adv. Judaeos c. 1. Praeesset eis bubulum caput c. they run with Saul to the Devil at Endor or with the Israelites in a pet chuse to themselves bubulum caput as Tertullian expresseth it a Calves head to be their leader I say there is a degree of Infidelity in all these aversions from this Good All that can be said is but what many say within themselves after they have consulted with flesh and blood that this Good is not shewn so clearly nor made so plain as it is said to be which is indeed to remove thei◠own prop and pillar to demollish their own Idol and to drive Faith quite out of the world Believe they do in God yet will not trust him And they are perswaded of the truth of things not seen yet will leave the pursuit of them to follow vanity because they are not seen He hath shewed thee O man what is good and wilt thou not believe him Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things not seen and though they be not seen yet they are evident the Means evident and the End as evident as the Means in our sad and sober thoughts when we talk like speculative men as evident as what is open to the eye But such an evidence we have which a Covetous man would soon lay hold on for a title to a fair inheritance and the Ambitious for an assignment of some great place For if such a record had been transmitted to posterity if the Scripture which conveyeth this Good had entailed some rich Manour or Lordship upon them it should have then found an easie belief and been Gospel a sure word of prophecy unquestionable undoubtable like the decrees of the Medes and Persians which must stand fast for ever and cannot be altered For too many there be who had rather have their names in a good leaf then in the book of life And this is the reason why we are so ignorant of that which is Good indeed and so great Clerks in that which is called good but by the worst why we are so dull and indocil in apprehending that wisdome which is from above and so wise and witty to our own damnation why we do but darkly see this Good which is so plainly shewn unto us What shall we say then Nay what saith the
observe that most of those precepts delivered there tend to Honesty and Sincerity of conversation with men Blessed are the merciful Blessed are the peace-makers Be not angry Let your Yea be yea and your Nay be nay These short precept leave no room for Fraud and Deceit for that which is called Dolus malus when our Yea is Nay and our Nay Yea one thing is said and another meant one thing is pretended and another done The Apostles are frequent in urging this duty For Christianity was so far from disannulling those precepts of Morality and mutual conversation which the Philosophers by the light of Nature delivered and transmited to posterity that the ancient Christians as learned Grotius observeth Proleg ad 1. de Jure belli pacis though they were not devoted to any one Sect of them yet observing that as there was no Sect which had found out all truth so also there was not one of them which had not discovered some did take the pains to collect and gather into a body what was here and there diffused and scattered in their several writings and did think this a fair commentary on the practick part of the Gospel and a sufficient expression of that discipline which Christians by their very title and profession were bound to observe You may read them in the Philosophers but they are the precepts of Christ And this is the true face of Christianity See Serm 20. For no other foundation can any man lay then that which is laid Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 3.11 Now every foundation should bear something not Wood and Hay and Stubble but Gold and Silver and Pretious stones Fraud and Violence and Injustice cannot lye upon that foundation which is laid in Truth and in Mercy and in Justice 2 Cor. 5.21 nor upon that Saviour who knew no sin who had this Elogium from his very enemies Mat. 7.37 Joh. 18.38 19.4 6. That he had done all things well and that there was no fault to be found in him No upon this foundation you must lay such materials as are like unto it Innocency and Truth and Righteousness That these might grow up and flourish amongst the sons of men Christ watered them with his blood which was shed for the Oppressour that he might be merciful for the Dissembler that he might speak truth for the Deceitful person that he might be just in all his wayes and righteous in all his dealings for the Violent person that he might do no more wrong And if it have not this effect it is his blood still but not to save us but to be upon us to our condemnation For it is strange that Christs blood should produce nothing but a speculative and a phansied and an usurped faith a faith which should keep those evils in life which he dyed to take away a faith which should suffer those sins and irregularities to grow and grow bold and pass in triumph which he came to root out of the earth and to banish out of the world Hebr. 11.1 Faith is the substance and expectation of a future and better condition but we do not use to expect a thing and have no eye upon the means of attaining it Can we expect to fly without wings or go a journey without feet No more can we hope ever to enter those heavens wherein dwelleth Righteousness if we have no other conduct but Faith Faith so poorly and miserably attended with Fraud Deceit Injustice and Violence For who shall dwell in the holy hill Psal 15. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart He that doth no evil to his neigbour that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not It is strange then that there should be so many Oppressours in the world and so many Saints that so many should forfeit their Honesty and yet count their Election sure that they who are like enough to do as the Jews did crucifie Christ if he were on the earth should yet hope to be saved by his blood For if you should ask me what the true property of a Christian were Faith alway supposed which is the ground and foundation of all I could not find any virtue which doth more fairly decipher or more fully express him then Sincerity and Uprightness of conversation Which saith Climachus Seal Paradisi grad 1. is virtus sine varietate a virtue which is ever like unto it self and maketh us so which doth not look divers waies at once both towards Samaria and Jerusalem doth not profess a benefit when it studieth ruine cloath hatred with a smile and a purpose to deceive with fair language and large promises make up words of butter which at last prove to be very swords but is like the Topaz Si polis obscuras if you polish it you obscure and darken it but if you leave it as Nature presenteth it it casteth the brighter lustre And if you ask me the embleme of a Christian Matth. 10.16 our Saviour hath already given one the Dove whose feathers are silver white not speckled as a bird of divers colours whose eyes are single and direct not leering as a Fox nor looking divers waies animal simplex non felle amaâ—um non morsil us saevum saith Cyprian an innocent and harmless bird no bird of prey without gall not cruel to fight having no talons to lay hold on the prey so far from doing wrong that he knoweth not how to do it Quintilian observeth Lib. 1. Insti c. 14. de Grammat off Inter virtutes Grammatici est nescire quaedam that it is to be summed up amongst the virtues of a Grammarian to be ignorant of some particular nice impertinences So is it a part of a Christians Integrity and Simplicity not to be acquainted with the wiles and devises and stratagemes of the world to be a non proficient in the Devils Politicks to hear the language of the children of this world as a strange tongue and understand it not not to know what cannot make him better and may make him worse not to know that which we may wish buried in oblivion and darkness never to be seen or known of any For what glory can it be to be well seen in the arts of Legerdemain What praise is it to be that which I cannot hear from others with patience an unjust and deceitful and dishonest man For to conclude this it is far worse to do unjustly then to be reproached for doing so far worse to be dishonest then to be called by that name far worse to be a thief or a traytour then to be hanged for it For between the evil of Action and the evil of Passion there is no comparison The evil of Passion may have a good end it may be medicinal cure the sinner if not set an end to his wickedness but the evil of Action hath no end but damnation no wages but death and that too hath no
end for it it will be eternal Thus have we seen Justice or Honesty in its full shape and beauty fastned upon its proper pillars the Law of Nature and the Law of the God of Nature Let us now see by way of application with what eye and favour the world of Men and the world of Christians have lookt upon it whether they have not relied more on those pillars of smoke and air their private Phansie and private Interest then upon these pillars of marble that God himself hath set up which are firm and strong and might bear them up to build upon them that Justice which would raise them up above the dying and killing glories of this world to that which is everlasting in the highest heavens First the complaint is old that Justice or honesty hath long since left the earth or rather is driven out of it To speak truth when her territories were largest when she stretcht the curtains of her habitation furthest she did but angustè habitare took up but little room and her retinue was but small She never yet could tithe the children of men and it had been well if she had taken in one of an hundred It were even a labour to shew the divers arts and inventions of men which they make use of to work out their way to honour and the riches of this world Ad haec simplicem hactenus vivendi rationem excogitatis mensuris ponderibus immutavit pristinámque sinceritatem generositatem ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam depravavit Joseph Antiq. Judaic l. 1. c. 3. Sen de Benef. l. 7. c. 10. Cain is blamed by Josephus for first finding out Weights and Measures which was a tacite and silent accusation that that age was corrupt in which so much caution was necessary Quid foenus kalendarium faith Seneca What are Interest and the Kalendar and your Count-Books but names extra naturam posita found out quite besides and beyond the intention of Nature What are your Bills and Obligations and Indentures but as so many libels wherein you profess to the world that you dare not trust one another and that you believe men cannot be honest unless they be bound Plus annulis quà m animis creditis Your Seal-rings are a better assurance then your Faiths And how do too many sell themselves but not for bread How in all sorts and conditions of men have some used their Power others their Wit pro lege publica instead of a publick Law and have entitled themselves the just possessours of that estate into which they have wrought themselves with hands of Oppression Robbery and Deceit It hath been an old reproach laid upon Common-wealths That they did set common honesty to sale The Athenians had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tribute out of the stews and we are told that Christians have so if Rome may yet be thought to be in Christendome Look into the Civil Law Codice de Spect. Scen. Lenonibus of Theatrical Shews Stage-playes and Bawds and you shall find that even from hence from these loathsome and nasty dunghills of corruption Emperours and Common-wealths have sucked gain Mathematicians Juglers Fortune-tellers Thieves and which the Father could not tell whether he should grieve or blush at inter hos Christiani vectigales Tert. Apolog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. Arist 2. Rhet. Fest Verb. uxor Tacitus amongst this rabble Christians also were brought in as tributary This was exacted from Poor men from Statues from Dead-men from very Urine and this to the Emperour was a sweet-smelling savour In one age they did Vxorium pendere pay a sum of money for not being married in another etiam Matrimonia obnoxia they who were married were liable to this exaction Quocunque modo rem Gain was welcome at what gate or postern soever it came in So soon did they forget they were Men so little did they regard the Law of Nature And it were to be wished that this evil had stayed here that this art of unjust and unlawful acquisition had been onely known in the tents of Kedar But by degrees it stole in and found enterteinment in the Church of God and Christians forgetting their profession quae nil nisi justum suadet which should be known by Justice and Equity and Contempt of the world began to think stolen waters sweet and to feed greedily on the bread of Deceit and Violence For as the Pharisees did teach their children to say to their Father and Mother Mark 7.11 Corban which is not a curse as some have imagined for the Pharisees were too wise to be so openly wicked as to teach men to curse their parents to have done this had been to forfeit their phylacteries but it was their craft and policy an art to fill their Treasurie to teach children who were offended with their parents to consecrate their wealth to the Treasury that so they might defeat that other Law which bound them to supply their parents in want and distress So even within the pale of the Church there have been found men whose Phylacteries were as broad as theirs who by holy fraud did take into their hands the possessions of the earth and at last laid claim unto the whole world and that upon the score of Religion taught men to redeem their ill-spent time with a piece of silver What were else the Prayers for the dead as they were used in the Church of Rome but the price of mens souls For the very thought of the power and efficacy of them drove men to a more supine and negligent conversation to weary themselves in the wayes of wickedness having such a pillow to sleep on For what need they be diligent to make their election sure whilest they live who are fully perswaded that this may be done by proxy for them when they are dead This is truly the Pharisees Corban to teach men to rob their parents to endanger their souls by religion that so their treasuries may be full This is to make that monumentum sceleris a lasting monument of craft and policy which should have been specimen pietatis an example and expression of piety This is to cheat men into charity and liberality which should be free and voluntary with false hopes It was the saying of Martine Luther Papatus est robusta venatio Romani Episcopi that Popery was nothing else but a close senting and following of gain and hunting after the riches and pomp of the world For if men will not give or yield up their estates either Policy shall betray or Power like a whirlwind snatch them away When Peter's Keyes are too weak Julius the Second flingeth them into the River Tiber with this Christian resolution to try what Paul's Sword could do We may say with the Wise man that this is an evil disease under the Sun a disease which did not onely envenome that politick Estate which is nothing else but a Disease but did also
spread some part of its poyson and malignity amongst those who may seem to have been sent down from heaven to purge it out We cannot but magnifie the name of God for this blessed Reformation of the Church and bless their memories which were the Instruments But yet some there be who have thought it a just complaint that at least some of those who did bear a name with the best did not so much seek Gods honour as their own and the improvement of their estate and enlargement of their territories more then the advancement of Piety and so to recover the Church drew more blood from her then was necessary Excessit medicina modum nimiúmque secuta est Quâ morbi duxere manus Lucan l 2. I will hear pass no censure upon it and yet one would think Jupiter's cloak would sit best on his own sh ulders But we may have leave to look back and bewail it and at least wish that the hand which was so active to cure had not made so deep an incision as to leave no blood that there had been some other way found out to restore her to her health and soundness then that which at first made her poor and at last nothing But this is but our wish and not our censure and we may spend our affection there where we may not venture our judgement Dan. 4.11 12 20 21. The Tree which grew up and was strong whose leaves were fair and fruit much whose height seemed to reach to heaven and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth whose boughs spread even to the envy of her who sitteth as a Queen amongst the nations is now hewen down Rev. 18.7 and scarce a stump of the roots left in the earth So that we may wish for that which we can never hope And yet we might have observed some of those who cryed Down with it Psal 137.7 down with it to the ground even those who first laid the ax to the root of the tree sad and heavy and angry Esth 6. as Haman was when he waited on Mordecai now clad with that honour which his ambition had prophesied and decreed to himself much troubled that they gathered so little fruit from the branches when the tree was fallen But to proceed this contagion hath spread it self well-near over the face of all Christendome where most men count that lawful purchase which they can lay hold on much like Vibius in Tacitus l. 4. Hist pecuniâ ingenio inter claros magìs quà m bonos more famous for their worldly providence and wealth then their honesty What should I speak of Thieves that are dragged to the bar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 11. Noct. Attic c. 18. The Greek proverb telleth us there be thieves that keep holiday and old Cato in Gellius that those who steal from private men are fed with the bread of affliction held in misery and irons but fures publici in auro purpura your publick thieves glitter in purple and gold and none dare say Black is their eye as the word is for fear of losing their own There have been Laws made against those who dig down walls by night who sell adulterate and mixt corn who suppress and hoord their corn to sell it dearer whom Basil calleth the Hucksters and Factours of the common calamity Laws against Impostors and Cheaters and the authority of the Magistrate hath influence upon men of what calling or quality soever Lex Metella exstat fullonibus dicta adeo omnia maâ—oribus curae fuere Plin. N. Q. 35. 13. In the Common-wealth of Rome there was a Law to regulate Fullers and in ours a Parliamentary Statute that Cord-wainers should look to their sowing-threads and that their wax should be well tempered But what Law can restrain them who can deal with the Law as Alexander did with the Gordian knot cut it asunder with their sword I meane can defeat and baffle the Law by their power and wealth or those who as Tully spake of a certain Oratour Brut. sive de claris Orat. are lubrici incomprehensibles so slippery that the Law cannot lay hold on them so cunning that they can deceive the eyes of the Sun and Justice it self and rob the poor even at noonday who can make up the ruines of their estate which the Dye or the Strumpet hath wasted with the tears of the widow and fatherless and then think with that Emperour nunquam se prosperiori aleâ usos that they never threw a more fortunate cast in their life Yet such we have in the world and they call themselves Christians Thus have we shaken both the pillars of Justice Nature and Grace and put behind our backs the lessons of the one and the precepts of the other that we may run with less regret and controll to that forbidden tree which we delight to look on Nature is swallowed up in victory by the Love of the world buried and raked up in the Lust of the eyes the Lust of the flesh and the Pride of life and then on this foundation of Innocency we build in blood on this ground of Justice we set up Oppression Nay which is yet worse Nature is swallowed up in victory by Grace it self the Decalogue is lost in our Creed and Honesty in Faith For a strange conceit is now crept into the world That how regardless soever we be of those seeds of Goodness how forgetful soever of that which Nature dictateth to us yet if we can hear of Honesty talk of Honesty and cast some of our gall and bitterness upon that Injustice which is to us as sweet as honey we may be good Christians enough and the onely religious men in the world And as the Antients in time of superstition did appropriate Religion to that kind of life which did least express it and men were then said ingredi Religionem to enter into Religion when they went into a Monastery and put on a Monks coul so there are a generation of men amongst us who talk of nothing more then Religion as if it must needs live and dye with them and yet do only take her mantle and visor and in it walk on the whole course of their life here beating their fellow-servants here defaming one and defrauding another and defaming him that they may defraud him They sharply inveigh against and lash the iniquities of the time they are severe Justitiaries and chastise all but themselves as the wanton women in Ausonius did crucify Cupid on the wall Ausonii Cupido Crucifixus sibi ignoscunt plectunt Deum they know well enough how to pardon themselves for fraud for lying for false weights and measures for covetousness and malice and the whole body of their Religion is made up in this to fling disgrace upon the name of Dishonesty and so punish it but in a picture For conclusion then To avoid these rocks at which so many
it self and vvill meet and cope vvith him though he cometh towards us on his pale horse vvith all his pomp and terrour Love saith a devout Writer is a Philosopher and can discover the nature and qualities the malignity and weakness of those evils which are set up to shake our constancy and strike us from that rock on which we are founded Who is a God like unto our God saith David What can be like to that we love what can be equal to it If our hearts be set on the Truth to it the whole World is not worth a thought Nullum spectac lum â—incâ—â—cussione spiritus Tert. de Spect. c. 15. nor can that shop of vanities shew forth any thing that can shake a soul or make the passions turbulent and unruly that can draw a tear or force a smile that can deject the soul with sorrow or make it mad with joy that can raise an Anger or strike a Fear or set a Desire on the wing Every object is dull and dead and hath nothing of temptation in it For to love the Truth is all in all and it bespeaketh the World as S. Paul did the Grave Where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 Rom. 8 35-39 Nor height nor depth can separate us from that we love Love is a Sophister able to answer every argument wave every subtilty and defeat the Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wiles and crafty enterprizes Nay Love is a Magician and can conjure down all the terrours and noyse of Persecution which are those evil Spirits that amaze and cow us Love can rowse and quicken our drooping and fainting spirits Heb. 12.12 and strengthen the most feeble knees and the hands that hang down If we love the Truth if Truth be the antecedent the consequent is most natural and necessary and it cannot but follow That therefore we will when there is reason lay down our lives for it For again what is said of Faith is true of Love It purifieth the conscience and when that is clean and pure the soul is in perfect health chearful and active full of courage either to do or suffer ready for that disgrace which bringeth honour for that smart which begetteth joy for that wound which shall heal for that death which is a gate opened to eternity ready to go out and joyn with that peace which a good conscience which is her Angelus custos her Angel to keep her in all her wayes hath sealed and assured unto her A good conscience is the foundation of that bliss which the noble army of Martyrs now enjoy But if in our whole course we have not hearkened to her voice when she bid us do this but have done the contrary if in our ruff and jollity we have thus slghted and baffled her it is not probable that we shall suffer for her sake but we shall willingly nay hastily throw her off and renounce her when to part with her is to escape the evil that we most fear and avoid the blow that is coming towards us We shall soon let go that which we hold but for fashions sake which we fight against while we defend it and which we tread under foot even then when we exalt it which hath no more credit with us then what our parents our education the voice of the people and the multitude of professours have even forced upon us If the Truth have no more power over us if we have no more love for the Truth but this which hath nothing but the name of Love and is indeed the contrary if we bless it with our tongue and fight against it with our lusts if at once we embrace and stifle it then we are Ishmaels and not Isaacs And can an Ishmael in the twinkling of an eye be made an Isaac I will not say it is impossible but it carrieth but little shew of probability and if it be ever done it is not to be brought in censum ordinariorum it falleth not out in the ordinary course that is set but is to be looked upon as a miracle which is not wrought every day but at certain times and upon some important occasion and to some especial end For it is very rare and unusual that Conscience should be quiet and silent so long and then on the sudden be as the mighty voice of God that it should lie hid so long and then come forth and work a miracle Keep faith saith S. Paul and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 which some having put away concerning faith have made ship-wrack Faith will be lost in the wayes and floods of this present world if a good Conscience be not kept If then thou wilt stand up against Ishmael be sure to be an Isaac a child of promise and an heir to the faith of Abraham If thou wilt be secure from the flesh be renewed in the spirit If thou wilt be fit to take up the cross first crucifie thy self thy lusts and affections This is all the preparation that is required which every one that is born after the spirit doth make And there needeeh no more For he that is thus fitted to follow Christ in the regeneration against the Ishmaelites of this world is well qualified and will not be afraid to meet him in the clouds and in the air when he shall come in terrour to judge both the quick and the dead And now to conclude What saith the Scripture Cast out the bond woman and her son Gen 21.14 for the son of the bond woman shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman It is true Ishmael was cast out into the wilderness of Beersheba Advers Judaeos c. 13. Apolog 21. And the Jew is cast out ejectus saith Tertullian coeli soli extorris cast out of Jerusalem scattered and dispersed over the face of the earth and made a proverb of obstinate Impietiy so that when we call a man a Jew putamus sufficere convitium we think we have railed loud enough But now how shall the Church cast out those of her own bowels of her house and family And such enemies she may have which hang upon her breasts called by the same Word sealed with the same Sacraments and challenging a part in the same common salvation To cast out is an act of violence and the true Church evermore hath the suffering part But yet she may cast them out and that with violence but then it is with the same violence we take the kingdome of heaven Matth. 11.12 a violence upon our selves 1. By laying our selves prostrate by the vehemency of our devotion by our frequent prayers that God would either melt their hearts or shorten their hands either bring them into the right way Matth. 17 21. or strike off their chariot wheels For this kind of spirit these malignant spirits cannot be cast out but by prayer and fasting which is energetical and prevalent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eusebius a most
peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of Propriety Every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting Heathens Apolog. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this That they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law could not reach Hebr. 7.18 19. Neither could the Jew bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket nor the Philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soul to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquility and quietness which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terrour that is in it Humane Reason was too weak to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it Nor was it seen in its full beauty till that Light came into the world which did improve and exalt and perfect our Reason The Philosophers cryed down Anger yet gave way to Revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other Both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice Exod. 21.24 Matth. 5.38 42 c. The language of the Law was An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution Whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an Humility more bending a Patience more constant a Meekness more suffering a Quietness more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more clearly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law For is not Eternity of bliss a stronger motive then the Basket or Glory or Temporal enjoyments Is not Heaven more attractive then the Earth Under the Law this Peace and Quietness was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schools of Philosophers it was but a phansie The Peace and Quietness they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis De Anima c. 1. non de fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian out of an industrious affected endurance of every evil that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evil of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remain it self untoucht and unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect This was the business of the Prince of Peace who came into the world but not with drum and colours Tertull. cont Iudaeos Psal 72.6 but with a rattle rather not with noise but like rain on the mowen grass not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee with no sword but that of the Spirit Who made good that prophesie of the Prophet that swords should be turned into plow shares Micah 4.3 4. and spears into pruning books that all Bitterness and Malice of heart should be turned into the love and study of Modesty and Peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor fear it not disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the Earth might be a temporal paradise a type and representation of that which is eternal For this Christ came into the world and brought power enough with him to perform it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good And when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the Prophesie is fulfilled For it was never yet foretold by any Prophet that they should be quiet who made it their delight and study and the business of their whole life to trouble themselves and others What could Christ in wisdome have done more then he hath done He hath digged up Dissension at the very root Malè velle malè dicere malè cogitare ex aequo vetamur saith Tertullian To wish evil to speak evil to think evil are alike forbidden in the Gospel which restaineth the Will bindeth the Hand bridleth the Tongue fettereth the very Thoughts commandeth us to love an enemy to surrender our coat to him who hath stript us of our cloak to return a blessing for a reproch and to anoint his head with oyl who hath struck us to the ground which punisheth not the ends only but even the beginnings of dissension which bringeth every part to its own place the Flesh under the Spirit the Will under the law of Charity which is the Peace of the Soul the obedience of Faith under the eternal Law which is our Peace with God the Servant under the Master the Child under the Parent the Subject under the Magistrate which is the Peace of an House of a Commonwealth of the World which maketh every part dwell together in unity begetteth a parity in disparity raiseth equality out of inequality keepeth every wheel in its due motion every man in his right place is that Intelligence which moveth the lesser sphere of a Family and the greater orb of a Commonwealth composedly and orderly which is its Peace For Peace and Quiet is the order and harmony of things The Father calleth it a Harp and it is never well set or tuned but by an Evangelical hand which slacketh and letteth down the string of our Self love to an Hatred of our selves and windeth up the string of our Love to our brother in an equal proportion to the Love of our selves We must hate our life in this world Joh. 12.25 and we must love our brother as our selves Nay it letteth it lower yet Matth. 22.39 even to our enemies and the sound of it must reach unto them Talk what we will of Peace if it be not tuned and touched by Charity if it take not its rise and spring from this Peace here from the Peace of the Gospel it
no right at all if it could be taken from him Neither deceit nor violence can take away a right No man can lose his right till he forfeit it which was impossible for this supreme Lord to do All the contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his title or contract his power If all should forsake him Luke 19.14 if all should send this message to him We will not have thee reign over us yet in all this scorn and contempt in this open rebellion and contradiction of sinners he is still the Lord. And as he favoureth those subjects who come in willingly whom he guideth with his staff so he hath a rod of iron to bruise his enemies And this Lord shall command and at his command his servants and executioners shall take those his enemies who would not have him reign over them 27. and slay them before his face He will not use his power to force and drag them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offereth them and turn his grace into wantonness then will he shew himself a King and his anger will be more terrible then the roaring of a lion They shall feel him to be a Lord when it will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and howl under that Power which might have saved them For the same Power openeth the gates of heaven and of hell Psal 75.8 In his hand is a cup saith the Psalmist and in his hand is a reward and when he cometh to judge he bringeth them both along with him The same Power bringeth life and death as Fabius did peace or war to the Carthaginians in the lap of his garment and which he will he powreth out upon us and in both is still our Lord. When Faith faileth and Charity waxeth cold and the world is set on wickedness when there be more Antichrists then Christians he is our Lord yesterday and to day Hebr. 13.8 and the same for ever In the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is it most lasting and shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 It shall break in pieces and destroy all the Kingdoms of the earth but it self shall stand fast for ever No violence shall shake it no craft undermine it no time wast it but Christ shall remain our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaketh of an end of delivering up his Kingdom 1 Cor. 15.24 28. and of subjection It is true there shall be an end but it is when he 〈◊〉 delivered up his Kingdom and he shall deliver up his Kingdom but not till he hath put down all authority Finis hic defectio non est nec traditio amissio nec subjectio infirmitas saith Hilary This end is no fayling this delivery no loss this subjection no weakness nor infirmity Regnum regnans tradet He shall deliver up his power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzen's interpretation and then this Subjection is nothing else but the fuâ—filling of his Father's will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36th Oration which he made against the Arians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in computation is but one Person with Christ and when his Church is perfected then doth he deliver up his Power and Dominion But let us but observe the manner of the ending of this Kingdom and the fayling and period of others and we shall gain light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties Either Kingdoms are undermined by craft and shaken by the madness of the people who shun the whip and are beaten with Scorpions cast off one yoke and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complained or Kingdoms are changed and altered as it pleaseth those who are victorious whose right hand is their God But the Power of this Lord is then and onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of laws when the subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and crown them with glory and honour for ever Here is no weakness no infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crown and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in chains and his subjects free free from the fear of Hell or temptations of the Devil the World or the Flesh And though there be an end yet he reigneth still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaineth a Lord and King for evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God his Right and Power of government his Laws just and holy and wise the Virtue and Power the Largeness and the Duration of his government A sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the coming of this Lord. For they that long to meet him in the clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right hand of God Look upon him then sitting in majesty and power and think you now see him moving towards you and descending with a shout For his very sitting there should be to us as his coming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great day Look upon him and think not that he there sitteth idle but beholdeth the children of men those that wait for him and those that think not of him And he will come down with a shout not fall as a timber-log for every frog every wanton sinner to leap upon and croak about but come as a Lord with a reward in one hand and a vengeance in the other Oh it is far better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Laws and write them in your hearts For the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consisteth not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them For Obedience is the best seal and ratification of a Law Christ is Lord from all eternity and cannot be devested of his Royal office yet he counteth his Kingdome most complete when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold
strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonour to his Majesty to manage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every hair of our head and observe the Sparrow that falleth from the house-top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresie and Schism Profaneness and Atheism Sin and Death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Cross and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finished his victory and triumph complete and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense triumph Coloss 2.15 and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more The Eleventh SERMON PART II. MATTH XXIV 42. Yee know not what hour your Lord doth come WE have already beheld the Person Your Lord and we have placed him on his tribunal as a Judge John 5.22 For the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son You have seen his Dominion in his Laws which are fitted and proportioned to it Psal 45.6 As his sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness so his Laws are just No man no Devil can question them We approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience giveth us is an approbation You have seen the Virtue and Power of his Dominion For what is Regal right without Regal power What is a Lord without a sword Or what is a sword if one cannot manage it What is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he cometh upon him Es 9.6 Psal 76.7 But our Lord as he is called Wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God Who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large Compass and Circuit of his Dominion No place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him and over them that put him to open shame Luke 1.33 And last of all you have seen the Durability or rather the Eternity of his Dominion Of his Kingdome there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary And take the words going before He shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain For as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign Hebr. 7.24 As his Priesthood so his Dominion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never pass away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversûs settled in his place but upon his return The Lord will come It is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of efficacy and virtue 1. to awake and stir up our Faith 2. to raise our Hope and 3. to inflame our Charity It is an object for our Faith to look on for our Hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace First it offereth it self to our Faith For ideo Deus abscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur Therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our Faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon earth And he is therefore absent and in a manner lieth hid that this eye might find him out For Faith is a kind of prospective or optick instrument by which we see things afar off as if they were near at hand things that are not yet as if they were It turneth venturus est into the present tense It beholdeth Christ not onely sitting at the right hand of God but as now already descending with a shout With this eye of faith I see new heavens and a new earth a new face of every thing I see what a nothing that is which mortals sweat and fight for what a nothing the world is for I see it on fire I see Righteousness peace order constancy duration even whilst I walk in this shop of vanities this world of wickedness this Chaos and confusion this seat of change I see honesty pitied scorned baffled Honesty lifted up on high far above reproch or injury I see Injustice powerful all-conquering triumphant Injustice trembling before this Lord arraigned condemned flung down into the lowest pit there to be whipt with many stripes I see now the wisdome of men made foolishness 1 Cor. 1.20 25 and the foolishness of God wiser then men I see that restored which I saw lost I see the eye that was bored out in its place again I see the plowed back with no furrow on it I see Herod in prison and John Baptist with his head on I see my goods restored before I lose them and I am in heaven before the blow is given in bliss when every eye doth pity me And what is now left for the boasting Tyrant to do What can he take from me that is worth a thought What can he strip me off but that which I have laid down and left already behind me Will he have my goods The treasury where they are kept is out of his reach Will he take from me my good name It is written in the book of life Or will he take my life He cannot For it is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 This is sancta impudentia Fidei the holy boldness and confidence of Faith to break through flesh and blood all difficulties whatsoever to draw down heaven to earth and if the object be invisible to make it visible if it be at distance to make it present If the Lord say he will come to Faith he is come already This operation Faith will have if it be not dulled and deaded by our sensuality For what Faith is that which is not accompanied with these high apprehensions and resolutions equal to them What Faith is that which leaveth us weary of the truth and ashamed of our profession What Faith is that which we are so ready at every frown to renounce Shall I call that Faith which cannot strike the timbrel out of our hands nor the strumpet out of our arms that sheweth Christ coming to the Covetous yet leaveth him digging in the earth to the Ambitious and cannot stop
him in his mount to the Hypocrite and cannot strike off his mask to the Politician 2 Tim. 3.15 and cannot make him wise unto salvation that cannot make us displease our selves that cannot make us love our selves not aw an eye not bind an hand not silence a word not stifle a thought but leaveth us with as little power and activity as they who have been dead long ago although the VENTVRVS EST the doctrine of Christs second advent sound as loud as the Trump shall do at the last day Faith shall we call this or a weak and faint perswasion or a dream or an echo from an hollow heart which when all the world proclaimeth he will come resoundeth it back again into the world a Faith which can speak but not walk or work a Faith which may dwell in the heart of an hypocrite a murderer a devil For all this one may believe or at least profess and yet be that liar that Antichrist 1 Joh. 2.22 4.3 which denieth Jesus to be Lord or that he ever came in the flesh or will come again to judge both the quick and the dead Secondly as it casteth an aspect upon our Faith so it doth upon our Hope Padag 1. which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of our Faith saith Clemens Alexandrinus without which it will grow faint and pale and languish Oportet habere aliquem spei cumulum Advers â—â—ostic c. 6. saith Tertullian and therefore this addition of Hope to Faith is necessary For if we had all Faith and had not Hope this Faith would profit us nothing Faith without Hope may be in hell as well as on the earth Believe who does not or at least say so But how many expect Christs coming how many are saved The Apostle speaketh of a fearful looking for of judgement Heb. 10.27 Indeed they who hope not for Christs coming who do but talk of it and are unwilling to believe themselves may be said to look for it because they ought to do it And his coming is as certain as if they did Truly and properly they cannot be said to expect it For how should that be in their expectation which is not so much as in their thought Hope will not raise it self upon every Faith nor is that Faith which most of the world depend on a fit basis for hope to build upon Even he that despaireth believeth or else he could not despair For who will droop for fear of that veniet of that Judgement which he is so willing to perswade himself will never come Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us that we should glory in Faith and hope and make them the subjects of our songs and rejoycing when our Faith is but such a one as is dead and our Hope at last will make us ashamed when our Faith is the same which is in hell and our Hope will leave us with the Devil and his angels a Faith worse then Infidelity and a Hope more dangerous then Despair Faith when we do not believe and a Hope when there is great reason we should despair and which will serve onely to add to the number of our stripes yet this is the Faith this is the Hope of the Hypocrite of the formal Christian These are thy Gods O Israel Therefore in the last place that we may joyn these two together Faith and Hope we must draw in that excellent gift of Charity which is Copulatrix virtus saith Cyprian the uniting and coupling Virtue not onely of men but of these two Theological Virtues which will not meet together but in Love or if they do with so little truth and reality that they will rather disadvantage then help us For where Virtue is not the name is but an accusation I told you before that Hope doth suppose Faith For we cannot hope for that which we do not believe Yet Faith such as it may be may shew it self and speak proud words when Charity is thrust out of doors Many there be who have subscribed to the VENIVRVS EST that the Lord will come who have little reason to hope for his coming Rev. 22.12 How many believe he will come and bring his reward with him and yet strike off their own chariot-wheels and drive but heavily towards it How many believe there is a Judge to come and wish there were none Rom. 5.5 Faith saving Faith Hope Hope that will not make ashamed cannot dwell in the heart till Charity hath taken up a room But when she is shed and spread abroad in our hearts then they are in conjunction meet together and kiss each other Faith is a foundation and on it our Love raiseth it self as high as heaven in all the several branches and parts of it Because I believe I love And when my Love is real and perfect my Hope springeth up and bloometh and flourisheth My Faith seeth the object my Love imbraceth it and the means unto it and my Hope layeth hold on it and even taketh possession of it And therefore this Coming of the Lord is a threat and not a promise if they meet not If Faith work not by Love and both together raise not a Hope VENTVRVS EST he will come is a thunderbolt And thus as it looketh upon Faith and Hope so it calleth for our Charity For whether we will or no whether we believe or no whether we hope or no he will certainly come but when we love him 2 Tim. 4.8 then we love also his appearance and his coming and our Love is a subscription to his Promise by which we truly testifie our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to his Promise that he will come we echo it back again to him Even so come Rev. 22.20 Lord Jesus For that of Faith may be in a manner forced that of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come upon me as an enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the chair of the scornful or lie in the bed of lust or am wallowing in the mire or weltring in my own blood or washing my feet in the blood of my brethren For can any condemned person hope for the day of execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improved his talent and brought my self to that temper and constitution that I am of the same mind with this Lord and partaker of his divine nature 2 Pet. â— 4 then Faith openeth and displayeth her self and Hope towreth us up as high as the right hand of God and would bring him down never at rest never at an end but panting after him till he do come crying out with the souls under the altar How long Lord How long How long This is the very breathing and language of Hope Then Substantia mea apud te Psal 39.7 as
spring and beginner of all motion towards it Lord what Rhetorick what Commanding eloquence is there in that which is but probable nay many times in that which is most improbable if it carry any shew of probability with it Nay if it do not our ardent affections supply all deficiencies in the object and hurry us along to do that which when the heat is over we could easily see could not be done How doth Love carry us as it were on the wing to lay hold on that which we must needs know is out of our reach It is but probable that Industry will make us rich How do we toyl and sweat It is but probable that Flattery will lift us up on high and making our selves little will make us great Lord how do we strive to mishape and disguise and contract our selves What dwarfs what minims will we appear How do we call contumelies favours and feed on injuries onely because we are told that Potentates will make them Lords that make themselves their slaves Probability is the hand that turneth every wheel the Intelligence which moveth every sphere and every man in it Hearken to the busie noise of all the world behold the hollow look the pale and careful countenance the speaking and negotiating eye and the active hand see men digging sweating travelling shouldring and treading one another under foot and if you would know what worketh all this behold it is nothing but that which hangeth in Futurition that which is but probable and uncertain And if Probability have such Power and force in other things why should it not in this especially the evidence being so fair and clear that it is impossible to find out or set up any better against it which might raise any doubting in us and make us disbelieve it To a true believer DOMINVS VENIET The Lord will come is enough Nor need he seek any further A further inquiry to be assured of the time is but inquieta inertia a troublesome sloth and busie negligence like Ixion's wheel to turn us about where we shall never fasten and rest but be circled about in a giddy and uneffective motion Thirdly the knowledge of the very hour can be of no use at all to forward and carry on that which we are now to do Non prodest scire sed metuere futura saith Tully To know that which is to come is of no use but to fear it If I know it and not fear it I do but look upon it as to come And that doth but leave us setled in our lees This leaveth the Covetous in the mine the Revenger in his wrath the Wanton in the strumpets arms If we confess he will come and are not startled what a poor squib would that be if we should be told he would come at such an hour what a long hour should we make it how should we extend and thrust it back to all eternity Prov. 6.10 Yet a little sleep a little slumber For Poverty is in arms and coming but not yet come Yet let me grind the poor saith the Oppressour Yet let me crown my self with roses saith the Luxurious Yet a little more dalliance saith the Wanton Yet let me boast in mischief saith the Man of power Whilest we consider things in the future fit ut illud futurum semper sit futurum imò fortassis nunquam futurum saith the Father that which is to come will be alwaies to come nay peradventure we shall think at last that it will never come All futures are contingents with us and at last are nothing Time flieth away and will stay its course neither for the delaier nor the uncautelous and therefore our Lord who knoweth what is sufficient and best for us would not let us know any more Quod à Christo dicitur totum est That which he hath taught us is all that we can learn If the knowledge of the precise hour of his coming would add but one cubit to our stature and growth in grace Christ would have left it behind written in the fairest character but it is hid from our eyes for our advantage that by the doubtful and pendulous expectation of the hour our Faith might be put to the trial whether it be a languishing and dead faith or fides armata Tert. de Anima c. 33. a faith in arms and upon its watch ut semper diem observemus dum semper ignoramus that whilst we know not when it will be it may present it self unto us every moment to affront and aw us in every motion and be as our task-master to over-see us and bind us to our duty that we may fulfill our work Phil. 2.12 and work out our salvation with fear and trembling that our whole life may be as the Vigils and Eve and the hour of Christs coming the first hour of an everlasting Holy-day Lastly there is no reason why it should be known neither in respect of the good nor of the evil For the good Satìs est illis credere It is enough for them that they believe 2 Cor. 5.7 They walk by faith saith the Apostle and in their way behold the promises and comminations of the Lord and in them as in a glass behold heaven and hell the horrour of the one and the glory of the other And this sight of the object which they have by the eye of faith is as powerful to work in them obedience as if Heaven it self should fly open and discover all to them To the true believer Christ to come and Christ now coming in the clouds are in effect but one object for Faith seeth plainly the one in the other the last hour in the first the world at an end in the prediction But to evil and wicked men to men who harden themselves in sin no evidence is clear enough and Light it self is Darkness What they naturally know Jude 10. and what they can preach unto themselves in that they corrupt themselves and give their Senses leave to lead them to all uncleanness whilst Reason which should command is put behind and never hearkned to These are as brute Beasts in spite of all they have of Man within them And if they believe Christ's coming and will not turn back and bow and obey their Reason they would remain the same beasts or worse though they knew the very hour of his coming After all those judgements Pharaoh was still the same After the Rivers turned into blood after Frogs and Lice after the Plague on man and beast after every plague which came thick as line upon line precept upon precept after all these the effect and conclusion was Pharaoh hardned his heart was Pharaoh still the same Tyrant Exod. 10.27 Num 22. 2 Pet. 2.15 till he was drowned in the Red sea Balaam though the Ass forbad his folly and the Angel forbad it though the sword was drawn against him and brandisht in his very face that he bowed on the
It will concern us to take heed how he findeth us when be cometh Oh let him not find us digging of pits and spreading of nets to catch our brethren spinning the spiders web wearying and wasting our selves in vanity Let him not find us in strange apparel in spotted garments in garments stained with blood Let not this Lord find thee in rebellion against him this Saviour find thee a destroyer this Christ who should anoint thee find thee bespotted of the world Let not an humble Lord find thee swelling a meek Lord find thee raging a merciful Lord find the cruel an innocent Lord find thee boasting in mischief the Son of man find thee a beast But to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts This is your Day and this day you may work out Eternity Psal 95.7 8. This is your hour to look into your selves to be jealous of your selves Hebr. 3.7 8. vereri omnia opera to be afraid of every word work and thought every enterprise you take in hand For whatsoever you are saying whatsoever you are doing whatsoever you are imagining whilst you act whilst you speak before you speak whilst you think and that thought is a promise or prophecy of riches and delights and honours which are in the approch and ready to meet you or a seal and confirmation of those glories which are already with you whilst you think as the Prophet David speaketh that your houses shall continue for ever Psal 49.11 even then he may come upon you and then this inward thought all your thoughts perish or return again upon you like Furies to lash and torment you for ever And therefore to conclude since the Premisses are plain the Evidence fair Since he is a Lord and will come to judge us Since he will certainly come Since the time of his coming is uncertain and since it is sudden he is no Christian he is no Man but hath prostituted that which maketh him so his Reason to his Sense and Brutish part who cannot draw this Conclusion to himself That he must therefore watch Which is in the next place to be considered The Twelfth SERMON PART III. MATTH XXIV 42. Watch therefore c. WE have seen Christ our Lord at the right hand of God considered him 1. as our Lord 2. as coming 3. as keeping from our eye and knowledge the time of his coming And now what inference can we make He is a Lord and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch This every one of them naturally and necessarily affordeth and no other conclusion can be drawn from them But when we consult with Flesh and Blood we force false conclusions even from the Truth it self and to please and flatter our sensual part conclude against Nature to destroy our selves Sensuality is the greatest Sophister that is worketh Darkness out of Light Poyson out of Physick Sin out of Truth See what paralogismes she maketh God is merciful Therefore presume He is patient Therefore provoke him He delayeth his coming We may now beat our fellow-servants and eat and drink with the drunken It is uncertain when he will come Therefore he will never come This is the reasoning of Flesh and Blood this is the Devils Logick And therefore that we be not deceived nor deceive our selves with these Fallacies behold here Wisdome it self hath shewn us a more excellent way and drawn the Conclusion to our hands VIGILATE ERGO He is a Lord and to come and at an hour ye know not of Watch therefore And this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vigilate is verbum vigilans as Augustine speaketh a waking busy stirring word and implieth as the Scholiast telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all manner of care and circumspection And what are all the Exhortations in Scripture but a commentary and exposition of this Duty There we find it rendred by Awaking Working Running Striving Fasting Praying We shall find it to be Repentance Faith spiritual Wisdome that golden chain wherein all Virtues and Graces that Vniversitas donorum as Tertullian speaketh that Academy that World of spiritual Gifts meet and are united When we awake we watch to look about and see what danger is near When we work we watch till our work be brought to perfection that no trumpet scatter our Alms no hypocrisie corrupt our Fast no unrepented sin deny our Prayers no wandring thought defile our Chastity no false fire kindle our Zeal no lukewarmness dead our Devotion When we strive we watch that lust which is must predominant And Faith if it be not dead hath a restless eye an eye that never sleepeth which maketh us even here on earth like unto the Angels For so Anastasius defining an Angel calleth him a reasonable creature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one as never sleepeth Corde vigila fide vigila spe vigila charitate vigila saith S. Augustine An active Faith a waking Heart a lively Hope a spreading Charity Assiduity and perseverance in the work of this Lord these make up the VIGILATE the Watching here These are the seals Faith Hope and Charity set them on and the Watch is sure But this is too general To give you yet a more particular account we must consider first That God hath made man a Judge and Lord of all his actions and given him that freedom and power which is libripens emancipati à Deo boni Tert. l. 2. cont Marcion doth hold as it were the ballance and weigh and poyse both good and evil and may touch or strike which scale it please that either Good shall out weigh Evil or Evil Good For Man is not evil by necessity or chance but by his will alone See Dent. 30.15.19 I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil Therefore chuse Life Secondly God hath placed an apparancy of some good on that which is evil by which Man may be wooed and enticed to it and an apparency of smart and evil on that which is good Difficulty Calamity Persecution by which he may be frighted from it But then thirdly he hath given him an Understanding by which he may discover the horrour of Evil though coloured over and drest with the best advantage to deceive and behold the beauty and glory of that which is good though it be discouloured and defaced with the blackness and darkness of this world He hath given him a Spirt Prov. 20.27 which the Wiseman calleth the Candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of the belly his Reason that should sway and govern all the parts of the body and faculties of the soul by which he may see to eschew evil and chuse that which is good adhere to the good though it distaste the sense and fly from evil though it flatter it By this we discover the enemy and by this we conquer him By this we
Captain the Apostle and High Priest of our profession Heb 3.1 opening the gates of heaven unto us manifesting his glory streaming forth his light ready with his strength free in his assistance powring forth his grace now triumphing over these our enemies and leaving us onely the chase and pursuit of them to fill up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some small matter that is behind Coloss 1.24 which is nothing in respect of that which he both did and suffered let us lay this to heart and view it well all our dangers and all our advantages and we shall find that it is not the strength nor multitude of our adversaries nor yet our own weakness and infirmity which we so willingly acknowledge nor the craft of Satan for we have Wisdome it self on our side nor his strength or power for he hath none but our want of watchfulness and circumspection that giveth us the blow and striketh us on the ground For want of this our first Parents fell in Paradise and had certainly fallen saith S. Chrisostom had there been no Serpent Fp. ad Clymp no Tempter at all For he that watcheth not tempteth the Tempter himself who would not assault us so often did we not invite him nor fling a dart towards us did he see us in our armour with our buckler and upon our watch By want of this Adam fell and by use of this Adams posterity after the fall recovered their state escaped the corruption which is in the world and fled from the wrath to come So necessary is this for a Christian that had we no other defence but this yet we could not be overcome Fortis saepe victus est cautus rarissimè The strong man hath often been ruined with his own strength but he that standeth upon his guard though the adversary lay hard at hand yet is never overthrown We may look back with comfort upon the eternal purpose and decree of God I mean to save penitent believers but we must give diligence to make our calling and our election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 We cannot but magnifie the Grace of God which bringeth salvation Tit. 2.11 but we must work it out with fear and trembling We cannot deny the power of the Gospel Philip. 2.12 2 Cor. 2.16 2 Tim. 4.8 but it is Watchfulness that maketh it the savour of life unto life We look for a crown that is laid up but it is Watchfulness that must put it on And now having as it were set the watch we must next give you the particular orders to be observed in our Watch. And we must frame and fashion them not onely by the majesty of the Lord which is to come but also by the power and force and manner of working of those temptations which we are to cope withal and watch against that when they compass us about we may find away to escape them Solus Christianus novit Satanam saith Tertullian It is the character of a Christian and it is peculiar to him to know the Devil and his enteprises Veget. l. v. Et difficilè vincitur qui potest de suis adversarii copiis judicare saith Vegetius It is a very hard matter to overcome him who truâ—y knoweth his own strentgh and the strength of his adversary First we must know our selves how we are framed and fashioned and how the hand of God hath built us up And we shall see that he hath ever laid as open to tentations Job 7.20 16.12 Nazianz. Orat. 38. and set us up as Job speaketh as a mark for the enemy to shoot at that Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one creature but made up of two different natures the Flesh and the Spirit and put into this world which is a shop of tentations hung full with vanities which offer themselves and that with some importunity to the eye and ear and every sense he hath Eccles 7.29 Into this when God first put him he made him upright but withal mutable The root of which mutability was his Will by which he might incline to either side either bargain or pass by either embrace temptations or resist them Legem dedit Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 38. In hoc est lex constituta non excludens sed probans libertatem saith Tertullian To this end a Law was enacted not taking away but proving and trying the liberty which we have either freely to obey or freely to trangress Else why should God enact a Law For the Will of Man looketh equally on both And he being thus built up did ow to his Maker absolute and constant obedience and obedient he could not be if he had not been thus built up To this end his Understanding and Will were to be exercised with arguments and occasions which might discover the resolution and the choice and election of Man Now these arguments and occasions are that which we call Temptations Which though they naturally light upon the outward man yet do they formally aim at the inward and are nothing do nothing till they seise upon the Will which may either joyn with the Sensitive part against the Reason which maketh us to every good work reprobate or else with our Reason against our Sensual appetite which worketh in us a conformity to the Will of God for God willeth nothing to be done which right Reason will not have us do The Will is that alone which draweth and turneth these temptations either to a good end by watchfulness and care or by supine negligence turneth them to a bad turneth them from that end for which they were permitted and ordained and so maketh Satans darts more fiery his enterprises more subtle his occasions more powerful and his perswasions more perswasive then indeed they are so that what God ordained for our trial and crown by our security and neglect is made a means to bring on our downfal and condemnation We must therefore in the midst of temptations as in a School learn to know our selves And in the next place we must learn to know our enemies and how they work and mine against us examin those temptations which make toward us lest we judge of them by their outside look upon them and so be taken with a look lest as the Romanes observed of the barbarous Nations that being ignorant of the art of engining when they were besieged and shut up they would stand still and look upon the enemy working on in the mine not understanding quò illa pertinerent quae ex longinquo instruebantur what it meant or wherefore those things were prepared which they saw afar off and at distance till the enemy came so near as to blow them up and destroy them so we also behold temptations with a careless and regardless eye and not knowing what they mean suffer them to work on to steal nearer and nearer upon us till they enter into our souls and dwell there and so take full possession
affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world NOthing more talkt of in the world then Religion nothing less understood nothing more neglected there being nothing more common with men then to be willing to mistake their way to withdraw themselves from that which is indeed Religion because it standeth in opposition to some pleasing errour which they are not willing to shake off Multi sibi sidem ipsi totuis consttiuunt quà m accipiunt dum quae volunt sapiunt nolunt sapere quae verá sunt cùm sapientiae haec veritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Hilar l. 8. De Trin. Jam. 1.22 23. Ch. 4.3 Ch 1 26. and by the help of an unsatisfied and complying phansie to frame one of their own and call it by that name That which flattereth their corrupt hearts that which is moulded and attempered to their brutish designs that which smileth upon them in all their purposes and favoureth them in their unwarrantable undertakings that which biddeth them Go on and prosper in the wayes that leadeth unto death that with them is true Religion In this Chapter and indeed in every Chapter of this Epistle our Apostle hath made this discovery to our hands Some there were as he observeth that placed Religion in the ear did hear and not do and rested in that Some placed it in a formal devotion did pray but pray amiss and therefore did not receive Some placed it in a shadow and appearance seemed to be very religious but could not bridle their tongue and were safe they thought under this shadow Others there were that were partial in themselves despisers of the poor Ch. 2.4.6 17 c. Ch. 3.6 that had faith but no works and did boast of this Others had hell fire in their Tongue and carried about with them a world of iniquity which did set the wheel the whole course of Nature on fire Last of all some he observed warring and fighting and killing that they might take the prey Ch. 4.1 2. and divide the spoil Yet all these were religious Wisd 1.12 Every one sought out death in the errour of his life Phil. 3.14 and yet every one seemed to press forward towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To these as to men ready to dash upon the rock shipwrack doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore to turn their compass and steer their course the right way Seeing them as it were run several wayes all to meet at last in the common gulf of eternal destruction he calleth and calleth aloud after them To the superstitious to the profane to the disputer the scribe to them that do but hear and to them that do but babble to them that do but profess and to them that do but believe the word is Be not deceived That is not it but this is pure Religion This is as the Prophet speaketh a voice behind them Isa 30.21 saying This is the way walk in it This is as a light held forth to shew them where they are to walk as a royal Standard set up to bring them to their colours This doth infinitatem rei ejicere as the Civilians speak taketh them from the Devils latitudes and exspatiations from frequent but fruitless Hearing from loud but heartless Prayer from their beloved but dead Faith from undisciplined and malitious Zeal from noise and blood from fighting and warring which could not but defile them and make them fit to receive nothing but the spots of the world from the infinite mazes and by-paths of errour and bringeth them into the way where they should be where they may move with joy and safety Eccl. 12.13 looking stedfastly towards the end Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter Whatsoever Divines have taught whatsoever Councels have determined whatsoever Schoolmen have defined whatsoever God spake in the old times whatsoever he spake in these last dayes that which hath filled so many volumes and brought upon us that weariness of the flesh which Solomon complaineth of Eccl. 12.12 in reading that multitude of books which the world doth now swarm with that which we study and contend and fight for as if it were in Democritus his well Rom. 13.9 or rather in Hell it self quite out of our reach or if there be any truth that is necessary any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying even in this of S. James Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows c. I may call it the Picture of Religion in little in a small compass yet presenting all its lines and dimensions the whole Signature of Religion fit to be hung up in the Church of Christ and to be lookt upon by all that the people which are and shall be born may truly serve the Lord. May it please you therefore a while to cast your eyes upon it and with me to view I. The full Proportion and several Lineaments of it as it were its essential Parts which constitute and make it what it is We may distinguish them as the Jew doth the Law by Do and Do not The first is affirmative To do good To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction The second is negative Not to do evil To keep our selves unspotted from the world II. The colours and Beauty of it first in its Purity having no mixture secondly its Vndefiledness having no pollution III. The Epigraphe or Title of it the Ratification or Seal which is set to it to make it authentick and that not of men or by men but by the hand of God himself Matth. 3.17 17.5 which drew the first copy and pattern This is pure Religion before God and the Father As he gave witness to his Son from heaven This is my beloved Son so doth he also to Christian Religion Hebr. 12.2 of which he is the Authour and Finisher HAEC EST This is it and in this I am well pleased Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this Let us now in order view these And these two To do Good and To abstain from Evil our Charity to others in the one and our Charity to our selves in the other in being as those Dii benefici those Tutelar Gods to the Widows and Fatherless and as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeping all evil from our selves I call the essential parts of Religion without which it can no more subsist then a man can without a soul Jam. 2.26 For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also Not that we exclude Faith or Prayer or Hearing of the Word For without Faith Religion is but an empty name and it cometh by Hearing and is increased by Devotion Amb. in Psal 118. Faith is a foundation upon a foundation for as Truth is the foundation of
Faith so is Faith the foundation of an holy Conversation In this we edifie our selves and in this we sustain and uphold others In this we stand and in this we raise up others From Faith are the issues of life from Faith as from a fountain flow those waters of comfort which refresh the widow and the fatherless and that water of separation which purifieth us Numb 31.23 and keepeth us unspotted and white as snow But our Apostle mentioneth none of these and I will give you some reason at least a fair conjecture why he doth not First here where S. James telleth us what pure Religion is he doth not so much as name Faith For indeed Faith is the ground of the whole draught and portrayture of Religion and as we observe in it in pictures it is in shadow not exprest but yet seen It is supposed by the Apostle writing not to Infidels but to those who had already given up their names to Christ Faith is like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Mathematicks which Tully calleth initia Mathematicorum beginnings and principles which if we grant not we can make no progress in that science S. Paul calleth Faith a principle of the doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.1 And what necessity was there for my Apostle to commend that unto Christians which they had already embraced to direct them in that wherein they were perfect to urge that which they could not deny not deny nay of which they made their boast all the day long No S. James is for Ostende mihi He doth not once doubt of their faith but is very earnest to force it out that it may shew it self by works Then Faith is a star when it streameth out light and its beams are the works of charity Then Faith is a ship when pure Religion is the rudder to steer and guide it 1 Tim 1 19. that it dash not on a rock and be split Then Faith is the soul of the soul when by its quickning and enlivening power we run the wayes of Christs commandments Purè credunt pure ergo vivant pure ergo loquantur saith the Father Their belief is right therefore let their conversation be sincere No other conclusion can naturally be deduced from Faith and of it self it can yield no other And this it will yield if you do not in a manner destroy it and spoil it of its power and efficacy For what an inconsequence is this I believe that Christ hath taught me to be merciful Luk. 6 36. 1 Tim. 4.8 as my heavenly Father is merciful that Charity hath the promise of the world to come Therefore I will shut up my bowels This I am sure is one part of our belief if it be not our Creed is most imperfect and yet such practical conclusions do our Avarice and Luxury draw Our Faith is spread about the world but our Charity is a candle under a bushel O the great errour and folly of this our age which can shew us multitudes of men and women who as the Apostle speaketh are ever learning 2 Tim. 3.7 and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth who have conned their Creed by heart but have little skill or forgot the skill they have in the royal Law who cry up Faith as the Jews did the Temple of the Lord Jer. 4.7 Ch. 2. v. 17 20 26. and are very zealous for it yet suffer it to decay and waste till it be dead as my Apostle speaketh eat out the very heart of it by a careless and profane conversation as the Jews with their own hands did set fire on that Temple which they so much adored And this may be a second reason why S. James mentioneth not Faith in his character of Religion The power and efficacy of Faith having been every where preached-up men carnally minded did so fill their thoughts with the contemplation of that fundamental virtue that they left no room for other virtues not so efficacious indeed to justifie a sinner yet as necessary as Faith it self they did commend and extoll the power of Faith when it had no power at all in them nay which is the most fatal miscarriage of all they did make Faith an occasion through which sin revived which should have destroyed in them the whole body of sin Rom. 6.6 it being common to men at last to fix and settle their minds upon that object which hath been most often presented to them as the countrey peasant having heard much talk of the City of Rome began at last to think there was no other city but that If we look forward to the second chapter of this Epistle we shall think this more then a conjecture For there the Apostle seemeth to take away from Faith its attribute of saving Can faith save a man What an Heretick what a Papist would he be that should but put up this question in these our dayes wherein the SOLA JVSTIFICAT hath left Faith alone in the work of our salvation and yet the Question may be put up and the Resolve on the negative may be true Faith cannot save him certainly that saith he hath faith and hath not works Thus though S. James dispute indeed against Simon the Sorcerer and others as we may gather out of Irenaeus yet in appearance he levelleth his discourse against Paul the Apostle For Not by works but by faith saith S. Paul Not by faith but by works saith S. James and yet both are true the one speaking to the Jews who were all for the Law the other to those Christians who were all for Faith To these who had buried all thought of Good works in the pleasing but deceitful contemplation of Faith our Apostle speaketh no other language but Do this and exalteth Charity to the higher place that their vain boasting of Faith might not be heard For Faith saith he hath no tongue nay nor life without her And thus in appearrance he taketh from the one to establish the other and setteth up a throne for Charity not without some shew and semblance of prejudice to Faith For last of all to give you one reason more Faith indeed is naturally productive of Good works For what madness is it to see the way to eternity of bliss and not to walk in it Each article of our Creed pointeth as with a finger to some virtue to be wrought in the mind and published in the outward man If I believe that Christ is God it will follow I must worship him If he died for sin the consequenee is plain enough We must die to it If he so loved us the Apostle concludeth We must love one another Charity is the proper effect of Faith and upon Faith and Charity we build up our Hope If we believe the promises and perform the conditions if we believe him that loved us and love him and keep his commandments we are in heaven already But yet we may observe that the
separate our selves from our selves from our wilfulness and stubbornness and animosities and so place Christ in his throne Eph. 3.15 reinstate our selves into his house his family his kingdom that Christ may be all in all And thus it is Whilst this fighting and contention lasteth in us which will be as long as we last in our mortal bodies something or other will lay hold on us and have command over us There is no aequilibrium in a Christian man's life no time when the scales are even when he hangeth as Solomon is pictured between heaven and hell but one side or other still prevaileth Either we walk after the Flesh Rom. 8.1 when that is most potent or after the Spirit when that carrieth us along in our way against the solicitations and allurements of the Flesh One of them is alwayes uppermost It will therefore concern us to take a strict account of our selves and impartially to consider to which part our Will inclineth most whether it be hurried away by the Flesh or led sweetly and powerfully on by the Spirit which of these beareth most sway in our hearts whether we had rather be led by the Spirit Rom. 13.14 or obey the Flesh in the lusts thereof whether we had rather dwell in the world vvith all its pomp and pageantry in a Mahometical Paradise of all sensual delights or dwell with Christ though it be with persecutions Suppose the Devil should make an overture to thee as he did once to our Saviour of all the kingdoms of the world Matth. 4.8 and the Flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee Honour and Power all that a heart of flesh would leap at in those Kingdoms and on the other side the Spirit thy Conscience enlightned should check thee and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that Death and Destruction are in these kingdoms veiled and drest up with titles of honour in purple and state that in this terrestrial Paradise thou shalt meet with a fiery sword the wrath of God and from this imaginary painted heaven be thrown into hell it self Here now is thy tryal here thou art put to thy choice If thy heart can say I will have none of these If thou canst say to thy Flesh What hast thou to do with me who gave thee authority who made thee a ruler over me If thou canst say to the Spirit Thou art in stead of God to me If thou canst say with thy Saviour Avoid Satan I know no power in heaven or in earth no dominion but Christ's then thou art in his house in his service which is no service Rom. 8.21 but the glorious liberty of the sons of God then thou art in him thou mayest assure thy self thy residence thy abode thy dwelling is in Christ 3. If we dwell in Christ we shall rely and depend on him as on our tutelary God and Protectour And so we may be said to dwell in him indeed as in a house which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saiâ—h the Civilian our fort and sanctuary commune perfugium saith Tullie our common place of refuge And what is our hope whither should we fly but to him I am thine Psal 119.94 Psal 73.25 save me saith David because I am thine because I have none in heaven but thee and on earth desire none besides thee Thou art my house my castle my fortress and defense thou art my hope to the end of the world thou art my Christ And this is a principal mark of a true Christian of a man dwelling in Christ that he wholly flingeth himself into his protection that he here fixeth his hope and doth not busie himself to find any shelter but here For as the full perswasion of the almighty power of God was the first rise to Religion the fountain from which all worship whether true or false did flow for without this perswasion there could be none at all and we find this relying on God's power not onely rewarded but magnified in Scripture so the acknowledgment of God's wonderful power in Christ by which he is able to make good his rich and glorious promises to subdue his and our enemies to do abundantly above all that we can conceive to work joy out of sorrow peace out of trouble order out of confusion life out of death is the foundation the pillar the life of all Christianity And if we build not upon this if we abide not if we dwell not here we shall not find a hole to hide our heads For man such is our condition even when he maketh his nest on high when he thinketh he can never be moved when he exalteth himself as God is a weak indigent insufficient creature subject to every blast and breath subject to misery as well as to passion subject to his own and subject to other mens passions when he is at his highest pitch shaken with his own fear and pursued with other mens malice rising and soaring up aloft and then failing sinking and ready to fall and when he falleth looking about for help and succour When he is diminished and brought low by evil and sorrows he seeketh for some refuge some hole some Sanctuary to fly to as the Wise-man speaks of the Conies They are a generation not strong and therefore have their burrows to hide themselves in Prov. 30.26 Now by this you may know you dwell in Christ If when the tempest cometh you are ready to run under his wing and think of no house no shelter no protection but his Talk what we will of Faith if we do not trust and rely on him we do not believe in him For what is Faith but as our Amen to all his promises our subscription to his Wisdome and Power and Goodness And here we fix our tabernacle and will abide till the storm be overpast Believe in him and not trust in him You may say as well the Jews did love him when they nayled him to the cross Matth. 8.26 Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith said Christ to his Disciples That Faith was little indeed which would let in fear when Christ the Wisdome of the Father and the mighty Power of God was in the ship little less then a grain of mustard-seed which is the least of seeds so little that what Christ calleth there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little faith he plainly calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelief Matth. 17.20 The faith of this world the weak and cowardly faith of this world speaketh of principalities and powers great swelling words yet at the sight of a cloud not so big as a mans hand striketh in and is not seen but leaveth us groaning under every burden for to such a faith every light affliction is a burden leaveth us to complaints and despair or to those inventions which vvill plunge us in greater evils then those we either suffer or fear
by quickning and enlivening our Faith Eph. 3.17 He dwelleth in our hearts by faith so that we are rooted and grounded in love We read of a dead faith Jam. 2.20 a faith vvhich moveth no more in the vvayes of righteousness then a dead man sealed up in his grave And if the Son of man should come he would find enough of this faith in the World From hence from this that our Faith is not enlivened that the Gospel is not throughly believed but faintly received cum formidine contrarii vvith a fear or rather a hope that the contrary is true from hence proceed all the errours of our lives From hence ariseth that irregularity those contradictions and inconsequences in the lives of men even from hence that we have Faith but so as we should have the World We have it as if vve had it not 1 Cor. 7. and so use it as if we used it not or vvhich is vvorse abuse it Not believe and be saved but believe and be damned And we are vain men James 2.20 saith S. James if we think otherwise if we think that a dead faith can work any thing or any thing but death But when it is quickned and made a working faith vvhen Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith then it worketh wonders We read of its valour that it subdueth kingdoms Hebr. 11.23 and stoppeth the mouthes of lions We read of its policy 2 Cor. 2.11 that it discovereth the Devils enterprises or devises We read of its medicinal virtue Acts 15.9 that it purifieth the heart We read too furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of Faith It stealeth virtue from Christ Matth. 9.20 21. and taketh heaven by violence Yea such a wonderful power it hath in that soul in which Christ dwelleth 11.12 that it vvorketh out our corruption and stampeth his image upon us It vvorketh in us the obedience of faith Rom. 1.5 that is that obedience which is due to Faith and to which Faith naturally tendeth and to which it would bring us if we did not dull and dead and hinder it Christ first worketh in us a universal and equal obedience For if he dwell in us every room is his There are saith Parisiensis particulares voluntates particular wills or rather particular inclinations and dispositions to this virtue and not to another as to be liberal but not temperate to be sober but not chast to fast and hear and pray but not to do acts of mercy These are virtues but in appearance they proceed from rotten and unsound principles from a false spring but not from Christ And so they make up a spiritual Hermaphrodite a good speaker Duos in uno homine Syllas fuisse crediderit Valerius Max. l. 6. c. 9. and a bad liver a Jew and a Christian an Herode and a John Baptist a Zelote a Phinehas and an Adulterer and as the Historian said two Sylla's in one man like a Play-book and a Sermon bound up together But these I told you are not true virtues but proceed many times from the same principles which vices do for I may be a Hypocrite and a man of Belial for the same end But where Christ dwelleth he purgeth the whole house not one but every faculty of the soul that is the whole man as he raised not a part but all Lazarus For if any part yet favour of rottenness and corruption we cannot say that Lazarus is risen He worketh I say an universal and equal obedience in every respect answering to the command and working of Christ as a Circle doth in every part look upon the point or Centre Secondly Christ worketh in us an even and constant obedience The Apostle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.5 the firmity and stedfastness of our faith in Christ. The Philosopher well observeth that the Affections do but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 2. Ethic. c. 1. 5. lightly move us raise some motion in the minde trouble us and vanish so that one affection many times driveth out another as Amnon did Tamar our Love ending in Hatred our sorrow in Anger and our Fear in Joy But from Virtue we are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be strongly disposed to be confirmed and established in our actions So the reason of that unevenness instability and inconstancy in the conversation of men that they are now loud in their Hosanna and anon as loud in their Crucifige now in Abrahams bosom and anon into Dalilah's lap now fighting anon cursing now very Seraphical and anon wallowing in the mire is from this That they have no other motive no other principle then peradventure some private respect or a weak impression of some good lesson they have lately heard and some faint radiations from the truth and therefore they can rise no higher then the Fountain and will soon run out with it Now it is not so with the true Christian in whom Christ dwelleth He moveth with the Sun which never starteth out of his sphere he hath Christ living in him and the power of the Gospel assisting him in every motion and so cannot have these qualms of devotion these waverings this unevenness these Cadi-surgia Ephr. Sytus as the Father calleth them these risings and fallings these marches and halts these proffers and relapses because Christ is living in him 1 John 3.9 1 Pet. 1.5 because the seed of God abideth in him and he is kept by this power of Christ unto salvation Thirdly Christ worketh a sincere and real obedience in that heart in which he dwelleth And this is proper to the true Christian For the actions of an hypocrite are not natural but artificial not like unto the actions of a living soul but like unto the motions of that artificial body which Albertus made not proceeding from any life but forced as it were by certain wheels and engines by Love of a good name by Fear of smart or Hope to bring their purposes about Thus many times the Hypocrite walketh to his end in the habit of a Saint when no other appearance will serve But where Christ dwelleth there is his Spirit and where his Spirit is there is truth and he fashioneth and shapeth out our affections to the things themselves and maketh them such as so fair an object requireth As his promises so our affections are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1 20. As his reward is real so is our love to it real As the Gospel and Heaven and Christ is true so are our affections towards them hearty and sincere true as he is true and faithful as he is faithful So then to conclude this Christ dwelleth in every true Christian not as a contracted or divided Christ as the antient Hereticks made him but as the Apostle speaketh fully and plentifully Secondly he dwelleth in him as Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever not as Baal Hebr. 13.8 1 Kings 18.27
was to put all to the sword and the event was he spared one too many 2 Sam. 1. for one of them was his executioner God biddeth us destroy the whole body of sin Rom. 6.6 12. to leave no sin reigning in our mortal bodies and if we favour and spare but one that one if we turn not from it will be strong enough to turn us to destruction Again it is Obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth and so every degree of sin is rebellion God requireth totam voluntatem the whole will for indeed where it is not whole it is not at all it is not a will and integram poenitentiam a solid entire universal conversion True obedience saith Luther non transit in genus deliberativum doth not demur and deliberate I may add non transit in genus judiciale It doth not take upon it self to determine which commandment is to be kept and which may be omitted what is to be done and what to be left undone For as our Faith is imperfect if it be not equal to the truth revealed so is our Obedience imperfect when it is not equal to the command and both are unavailable because in the one we stick at some part of the truth revealed and in the other come short of the command and so in the one we distrust God in the other we oppose him What is a Sigh if my Murmuring drown it What is my Devotion if my Impatience chill it What is my Liberality if my Uncleanness defile it What are my Prayers if my partial Obedience turn them into sin What is a morsel of bread to one poor man when my Oppression hath eaten up a thousand What is my Faith if my Malice make me worse then an Infidel The voice of Scripture the language of Obedience is to keep all the commandments the language of Repentance to depart from all iniquity All the Virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin Mic. 6.7 Shall I give my first born for my transgression saith the Prophet the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Shall I bring the merits of one Saint the supererogations of another and add to these the treasury of the Church Shall I bring my Almes my Devotion my Tears All these will vanish at the guilt of one sin and melt before it as wax before the Sun For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of Alexander's in killing Callisthenes De Benef. crimen aeternum an everlasting sin which no virtue of our own but a full complete Repentance can redeem As oft as it shall be said that Alexander slew so many thousand Persians it will be replyed he did so but withal he slew Callisthenes He slew Darius it is true and Callisthenes too He wan all as far as the very Ocean it is true but he killed Callisthenes And as oft as we shall fill our minds and flatter our selves with the forbearance of these or those sins our Conscience will check and take us up and tell us But we have continued in this or that beloved sin And none of all our performances shall make so much to our comfort as one unrepented sin shall to our reproch And now because in common esteem One is no number and we scarce count him guilty of sin who hath but one fault let us well weigh the danger of any one sin be it Fornication Theft Covetousness or whatsoever is called sin and though perhaps we may dread it the less because it is but one yet we shall find good reason to turn from it because it is sin And 1. Every particular sin is of a monstrous aspect being committed not onely against the Law written but against the Law of Nature which did then characterize the soul when the soul did first inform the body For though we call those horrid sins unnatural which S. Paul speaketh against Rom. 1. yet in true estimation every sin is so being against our very Reason which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very first law written in our hearts Or. 34. saith Nazianzene Sin is an unreasonable thing nor can it defend it self by discourse or argument If heaven were to be bought with sin it were no purchase for by every evil work I forfeit not onely my Christianity but my Manhood I am robbed of my chiefest jewel and I my self am the thief Who would buy eternity with sin who would buy immortality upon such loathsome terms If Christ should have promised heaven upon condition of a wicked life who would have believed there had been either Christ or heaven And therefore it is laid as an imputation upon Man Solum hoc animal naturae fines transgreditur No Creature breaketh the bounds and limits which Nature hath set but Man And there is much of truth in it Man when he sinneth is more unbounded and irregular then a Beast For a Beast followeth the conduct of his natural appetite but Man leaveth his Reason behind which should be more powerful and is as natural to him as his Sense Man Psal 49.20 saith the Prophet David that understandeth not is like to the beasts that perish And Man that is like to a beast is worse then a Beast No Fox to Herode Luke 13.32 no Goat to the Wanton no Tiger to the Murderer No Wolf to the Oppressour no Horseleach to the Covetous For Beasts follow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instinct of nature by which they are carried to the object but Man maketh Reason which should come in to rescue him from sin an instrument of evil so that his Reason which was made as a help as his God on earth serveth onely to make him more unreasonable Consider then though it be but one sin yet so far it maketh thee like unto a Beast nay worse then any though it be but one yet it hath a monstrous aspect and then turn from it 2. Though it be but one yet it is very fruitful and may beget another nay multiply it self into a numerous issue into as many sins as there be hairs of thy head It is truly said Omne verum omni vero consonat There is a kind of agreement and harmony in truths And the devout Schoolman telleth us that the whole Scripture is but one copulative proposition because the precepts therein contained are many and yet but one many in regard of the diversity of those works that perfect them yet but one in respect of that root of charity which beginneth them So peccatum est multiplex unum There is a kind of dependency between sins and a growth in wickedness one drawing and deriving poyson from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius speaketh of Heresies Haeres Basilid as the Asp doth from the Viper which being set in opposition to any particular virtue creepeth on and multiplieth and gathereth strength to the endangering of
to destroy which threatneth striketh and then is no more When this Lion roareth every man is afraid is transelemented unnaturalized unmanned is made wax to receive any impression from a mighty but mortal hand And shall not the God of heaven and earth who can dash all this Power to nothing deserve our Fear shall we be so familiar with him as to contemn him so love him as to hate him Shall a shadow a vapour aw us and shall we stand out against Omnipotency and Eternity it self Shall Sense brutish Sense prevail with us more then our Reason of Faith And shall we cross the method of God make it our wisdome to fear man and count it a sin to fear God who is only to be feared This were to be wiser then Wisedome it self which is the greatest folly in the world I have brought you therefore to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this School of Fear set up the Moriemini shewed you a Deaths-head to discipline and catechize you that you may not die but live and turn from your evil wayes and turn unto him who hath the keys of Hell and of Death who as he is a Saviour Rev. 1 1◠so is he also a Judge and hath made Fear one ingredient in his Physick not onely to purge us but to keep us in a healthful temper and constitution And to this if not the danger of our souls yet the noise of those who love us not may awake us Stapleton a learned man Promptuar Moral but a malitious fugitive layeth it as a charge against the Preachers of the Reformed Churches that they are copious and large in setting forth the Mercies of God but they pass over graviora Evangelii the harsher but most necessary passages of the Gospel suspenso pede lightly and as it were on their tiptoes and go softly as if they were afraid to awake their hearers That we are mere Solifidians and rely upon a reed a hollow and an empty Faith Bellarmine is loud that we do per contemplationem volare hover as it were on the wings of Contemplation and hope to go to heaven in a dream Pamelius in his Notes upon Tertullian is bold upon it That the Primitive Church did anathematize us in the Marcionists and Gnosticks and if they were Hereticks then we are so And what shall we now say Recrimination is rather an objection then an answer And it will be against all rules of Logick to conclude our selves good because they are worse or that we have no errours because they have so many and that none can erre but he that sayeth he cannot and for which we call him Antichrist This bandying of Censures and Curses hath been held up too long with some loss and injury to Religion on both sides Our best way certainly to confute them is by our practice so to live that all men say the Fear of God is in us of a truth to weave Love and Fear into one piece to serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce in trembling Psal 2.11 Hilar. in Ps 2. Vt sit timor exsultans exsultatio tremens that there may be Trembling in our Joy and Joy in our Fear not to divorce Jesus from the LORD nor the Lord from Jesus not to fear the Lord the less for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord but to joyn them both together and place Christ in the midst And then there will be a Pax vobis peace unto us His oyntment shall drop upon our Love that it be not too bold and distill upon our Fear that it faint not and end in despair that our Love may not consume our Fear nor our Fear chill our Love but we may so love him that we do not despair so fear him that we do not presume That we may fear him as a Lord and love him as Jesus And then when he shall come in glory to judge both the quick and the dead we shall find him a Lord but not to affright us and a Jesus to save us 1 Joh. 4.17 Our Love shall be made perfect all doubting taken from our Faith Nay Faith it self shall be done away and the Fear of Death shall be swallowed up in victory and we who have made such use of Death in its representation shall never dye but live for evermore And this we have learnt from the MORIEMINI Why will ye die The One and Twentieth SERMON PART VI. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. why will ye die O house of Israel Prov. 7.27 WE have led you through the chambers of Death through the school of Discipline the school of Fear For why will ye die Look upon Death and fear it and you shall not die at all Thus far are we gone We come now to the house of Israel Why will ye die O house of Israel To name Israel is an argument Take them as Israel or take them as the house of Israel take the house for a building or take it for a family and it may seem strange and full of admiration that Israel which should prevail with God Gen. 32.28 Psal 122.3 should embrace death that the house of Israel compact in it self should ruine it self In Edom it is no strange sight to see men run on in their evil wayes Psal 120.5 In Meseck or the tents of Kedar there might be at least some colour for a reply but to Israel it is gravis expostulatio a heavy and full expostulation Let the Amorites and Hittites let the Edomites let Gods enemies perish but let not Israel the people of God die Why should they die The Devil may be an Edomite but God forbid he should be an Israelite The QVARE MORIEMINI why will ye die we see is levelled to the mark is here in its right and proper place and being directed to Israel is a sharp and vehement exprobration O Israel why will ye die I would not have you die I have made you gentem selectam a chosen people that you may not die I have set before you life and death Deut. 30.15 19 Life that you may chuse it and Death that you may run from it And why will ye die My sword is drawn to affright not to kill you and I hold it up that I may not strike I have placed Death in the way that you may stop and retreat and not go on I have set my Angel Num. 22.23 my Prophet with a sword drawn in his hand that at least you may be as wise as the beast was under Balaam and sink and fall down under your burden I have imprinted the very image of Death in every sin And will ye yet go on Will ye love Sin that hath such a foul face such a terrible countenance that is thus clothed and apparrelled with Death Quis furor ô cives What a madness is this O ye Israelites As Herode once upbraiding Cassius for his seditious behaviour in the East Philostrat in vit Herodis
all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our Lusts conceived and brought forth by the midwifery of our Will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this complaint against Nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and Nature hath imprinted in our souls those common principles of goodness That good is to be embraced and evil to be abandoned That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst as the Stoicks call them of the mind and preparations against Sin and Death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke them might lift up our souls far above those depressions of Self-love and Covetousness and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which Reason with the help of Grace overcometh at once For Reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but also when we are beat to the ground it checketh and upbraideth us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation Psal 62.1 121.1 is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam And when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weakness as well as we do with the temptation Psal 103.14 then if we fall God remembreth whereof we are made considereth our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever But to think of our weakness and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves Wisd 1.12 to seek out Death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approch as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weakness is to charge God and Nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself And thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fall willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anak too strong for such grashoppers as we We delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the mother of all those mishapen births and monsters which walk about the world we dress and deck up and give it a fair and glorious name and call it Humility Which is Humilitas maximum fidei opus Hil. in Psal 130. saith Hilary the hardest and greatest work of our faith to which it is so unlike that it is the greatest enemy it hath and every day weakneth and disenableth it that it doth not work by charity but leaveth us Captives to the world and sin which but for this conceit it would easily vanquish and tread down under our feet We may call it Humility but it is Pride a stubborn and insolent standing out with God that made us upon this foul and unjust pretense That he made us so humilitas sophistica saith Petrus Blesensis the humility of hypocrites which at once boweth and pusheth out the horn in which we disgrace and condemn our selves that we may do what we please and speak evil of our selves that we may be worse Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are we groan it out and there is musick in the sound which we hear and delight in and carry along in our mind and so become wretched indeed even those miserable sinners which will ever be so And shall we call this Humility If it be Col. 2.18 it is as the Apostle speaketh a voluntary humility but in a worse sense He is the humblest man that doth his duty For that Humility which is commended to us in Scripture letteth us up to heaven this which is so epidemical sinketh us into the lowest pit That Humility boweth us down with sorrow this bindeth our hands with sloth that looketh upon our imperfections past this maketh way for more to come that ventureth and condemneth it self condemneth it self and ventureth further this runneth out of the field and dare not look upon the enemy Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt And it is no marvel they should fall and perish whom their own so low and groundless opinion hath already overthrown For first though I deny not a derived Weakness and from Adam though I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self or bound to the centre of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with others yet it is easie to deceive our selves and to think it more contagious then it is more operative and more destructive then it would be if we would shake off this conceit and rowse our selves and stand up against it Ignaviâ nostrâ fortis est It may be it is our sloth and cowardise that maketh it strong Certainly there must be more force then this hath to make us so wicked as many times we are and there be more promoters of the kingdom of Darkness in us then that which we brought with us into the world Lord what a noise hath Original sin made amongst the sons of Adam and what ill use hath been made of it When this Lion roareth all the Beasts of the forrest tremble and yet are beasts still We hear of it and are astonished and become worse and worse and yet there are but few that exactly know what it is When we are Infants we do not know that we are so no more then the Tree doth that it grows Much less can we discover what poyson we brought with us into the world which as it is the nature of some kind of poyson though it have no visible operation for the present may some years after break forth from the head to the foot in swellings and sores full of corruption and not be fully purged out to our
by the neglect of their duty which is quite lost and forgot in an unseasonable acknowledgement of what God can and a lazy expectation of what he will work in them and so make God Omnipotent to do what his Wisdom forbiddeth and themselves weak and impotent to do what by the same Wisdom he commandeth and then when they commune with their heart and find not there those longings and pantings after piety that true desire and endeavour to mortifie their earthly members which God requireth when in this Dialogue between one and himself their hearts cannot tell them they have watched one hour with Christ flatter and comfort themselves that this emptiness and nakedness shall never be imputed to them by God who if he had pleased might have wrought all in them in a moment by that force which flesh and blood could never withstand And thus they sin and pray and pray and sin and their Impiety and Devotion like the Sun and the Moon have their interchangeable courses it is now night with them and anon it is day and then night again and it is not easie to discern which is their day or which is their night for there is darkness over them both They hear and commend Virtue and Piety and since they cannot but think that Virtue is more then a breath and that it is not enough to commend it they pray and are frequent in prayer pray continually but do nothing pray but do not watch pray but do not strive against a temptation but leave that to a mightier hand to do for them and without them whilst they pray and sin call upon God for help when they fight against him as if it were God's will to have it so If he would have had it otherwise he would have heard their prayers and wrought it in them And therefore he will be content with his Talent though hid in a napkin which if he had pleased might have been made ten and with his seed again which if he had spoke the word had brought forth fruit a hundred-fold Hence it cometh to pass that though they be very evil yet they are very secure 1 Joh. 5.4 this being the triumph of their Faith not to conquer the world but to leave that work for the Lord of hosts himself and in all humility to stay till he do it For they can do nothing of themselves and they have done what they can which is nothing And now this heartless and feeble and if I may so speak this do-nothing devotion which may be as hot on the tongue of a Pharisee and tied to his phylactery must be made a sign of their election before all times Gal. 5.21 Phil. 3.18 who in time do those things of which we have been told often that they that do them shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven I do not derogate from the power of Gods Grace They that do are not worthy to feel it but shall feel that power which shall crush them to pieces They rather derogate from its power who bring it in to raise that obedience which coming with that tempest and violence it must needs destroy and take away quite For what obedience is there where nothing is done where he that is under command doth nothing Vis ergò ista non gratia saith Arnobius This were not Grace or Royal favour but a strange kind of emulation to gain the upper hand We cannot magnifie the Grace of God enough which doth even expect and wait upon us woo and serve us It is that unction that precious ointment 1 John 2.27 1 Thess 5.19 20. S. John speaketh of but we must not pour it forth upon the hairy scalp of wilful offenders who loath the means despise prophecy quench the spirit and so hinder it in its operation of men who are as stubborn against Grace as they are loud in its commendations as active to resist as to extoll it For this is to cast it away and nullifie it this is to make it nothing by making it greater nay to turn it into wantonness But it may be said That when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves We willingly grant it That we have therefore need of new strength and new power to be given us which may raise us up We deny it not And thirdly That not onely the power but the very act of our recovery is from God Ingratitude it self cannot deny it But then That man can no more withstand the power of that grace which God is ready to supply us with then an infant can his birth or the dead their resurrection That we are turned whether we will or no is a conclusion which those premisses will not yield This flint vvill yield no such fire though you strike never so oft We are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better Basis then a figure and because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called Nor is our obedience to Gods inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creatour for the Creature hath neither reason nor will as Man hath nor doth Gods power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kind How often hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flowed out How often hath he said Fiat Lux let there be light and we remained still in darkness We are free agents and God made us so when he made us men and our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary nor doth his Power work according to the working of our phansie nor lie within the level of our carnal imaginations to do what they appoint but it is accompanied and directed by that Wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it As it was said of Caesar in Lucane though in another sense Velle putant quodcunque potest we think that God will do whatsoever he can But we must know that as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise and sweetly disposeth all things as he will and he will not save us against our will For to necessitate us to goodness were not to try our obedience but to force it Et quod necessitas praestat depretiat ipsa Necessity taketh off the price and value of that it worketh and maketh it of no worth at all And then God doth not voluntarily take his Grace from any but if the power of it defend us not from Sin and Death it is because we abuse and neglect it and will not work with it which is ready to work with us For Grace is not blind as Fortune nec cultores praeterit nec haeret contemtoribus She will neither pass
and catechise our Faith and enquire whether we remember Christ as we should whether our Faith be as strong our Hope as stedfast our Charity as fervent as so great Love requireth whether it be such a Faith and such an Hope and so intensive a Charity as Christ and his love thus diffused abroad might beget whether Christ be hung up in this gallery of our soul onely as a picture or whether he be a living Christ and dwelleth in us of a truth For the Memory as it is the womb to form and fashion Christ so it may yield good bloud to nourish him And in this sense that of Plato may be true Plato solus in tanta gentium sylvâ in tanto sapientum prato idearum oblitus recordatus est Tertull De anim c. 12. Gal. 4.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We learn and are instructed by those notions which were formerly imprinted in our Memory We do conceive and are in travel as S. Paul speaketh with Christ till he be fully formed in us We work him out in cogitatorio in the elaboratory of our Hearts When we have Christ in our thoughts and his precepts alwaies before our eyes as in a book which checketh us at every turn and by a frequent contemplation of them draw our souls out of those encumbrances which many times involve and fetter them when we recollect our Mind into it self and fasten it to this Rock where it may rest as upon a holy hill from whence it may look down and behold every object in its proper shape look upon an Injury as a benefit or Persecution as a blessing and see Life in the face and countenance of Death then and not till then we may be said to remember Christ For can he remember a meek Christ who will be angry without a cause Can he remember a poor Christ that maketh Mâ—mmon his God Can he remember the Prince of peace who is wholly bent to war Can he remember Christ who is as ready to betray him as Judas and nail him to the cross as Pilate Better he were quite raced out of our memory then that we should thus set him there as a mark to be shot at then to be thus set up to be scorned and reviled and spit upon and crucified again better never to have known him then to know and put him to shame And therefore if we will remember him we must contemplate him in his own sphere in that site and aspect which he looketh upon us deliberare causas expendere well weigh and consider upon what terms and conditions we did first receive and entertein him in our thoughts and memories And this will drive Christianity home make it enter into the soul and spirit fasten and rivet Christ into us and make him a part of us that his promises and precepts and the virtue of his death and passion may be in our memory as vessels are in a well-ordered family whence upon every occasion we may readily take them out for our use find a defense against every temptation a buckler for every dart that so the Love of Christ may swallow up all reluctancy in us in victory This giveth us a true tast and relish of the sweetness of those blessings and benefits which we receive in the Sacrament The sweetness of honey saith Basil is not known so well by the Philosophers discourse as by the tast which is a better and surer judge then the most subtile Naturalist No more are the benefits of Christ and his Gospel though uttered by the tongue of Men and Angels understood so well by the words which convey them as in a heart melted and transformed into the Love of Christ as in the mind of man when it is the same mind which is in Christ Jesus There Christ is remembred indeed there he is placed not as in the high-Priests hall to be mockt and derided and blasphemed but as in his throne in his heaven where he dispenseth his light his joy his glory such glory as no Elequence is equal to no language can express not S. Paul himself who was caught up into Paradise and tasted the sweetness of it but telleth us no more then this that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12.4 the words were unspeakable words words which it was not possible for a man to utter Which was in effect to tell us he did feel but could not tell us what it was And thus to tast Christ is to remember him And first this taketh in our Faith I do not mean a dead and unactive faith For that leaveth us dead and buried in a land of Oblivion never looking upon Christ or his benefits not gathering any strength or virtue from him no more considering this our High-Priest then if he had never offered himself never satisfied never been But I mean a faith that worketh by love a faith that followeth Christ through every period and stage and passage of his blessed oeconomy a faith that is a disciple and followeth him whithersoever he goeth looketh upon him in time of prosperity and clotheth him in the dayes of affliction forgetteth them remembring him in injuries and forgiveth them in death it self and maketh him our Resurrection maketh us one with him that we cannot think or speak or move that we cannot live nor dye without him Now the time of receiving the Sacrament of receiving these pledges of Christs Love and these pledges of our Faith is the time of actuating and quickning and increasing our Faith that it may be more apprehensive more opperative more lively that it may even spring in our hearts at the mention of Christ at this representation of his Body and Bloud Luke 1.48 as the babe did in Elisabeths womb at the Virgin Mary's salutation For our Faith as it may have its increasings and improvements so it may have its decreasings and failings It may be weakned by the daily incursions which the World and the Devil make upon it by presenting objects of terrour to daunt and enfeeble it objects of delight to slumber and charm it It may be weakned by the daily avocations and common actions of our life that we may not cleave so close unto Christ not eye him with that intention not love him with that fervour not obey him with that chearfulness which we should but be in a disposition ready to fall off and let go our hold of him And therefore as we must at all times stir it up and actuate it so especially in our approches to the Lords Table For in this doth our preparation to it in this doth the benefit and power of the Sacrament principally consist Here our Saviour as it were doth again present himself to us open his wounds shew us his hands and his side speak to us as he did to Thomas Reach hither your fingers John 20.27 and behold my hands and reach hither your hands and thrust them into my side Take eat
in Scripture words of Command and Duty carry with them more then they shew and have wrapped up in them both the Act and the End and are of the largest signification in the Spirit 's Dictionary To HEAR is to Hear and to Doe To KNOW is to Know and to Practice To BELIEVE is to Believe and to Obey The Schools will tell us FIDES absque addito in Scriptura formata intelligitur Where Faith is named in Scripture without some addition as a dead Faith a temporary Faith an hypocritical Faith there evermore that Faith is commended which worketh by Charity And so to shew or to preach the death of the Lord is more then to Utter it with the tongue and Profess it For thus Judas might shew it as well as Peter thus the Jews might shew it that crucified him Thus the profane person that crucifieth him every day may shew it Yea Christ's death may be the common subject for discourse and the language of the whole world Therefore our shewing must look farther even to the end For what is Hearing without Doing What is Knowledge without Practice What is Faith without Chariâ—y What is shewing the death of the Lord if we do it not to that end for which he did die Our hearing is but the sensuality of the ear our Knowledge but an empty speculation our Faith but phansie and our shewing the death of the Lord a kind of nailing him again to the cross For to draw his picture in our ear or mind to character him out in our words and yet fight against him is to put him to shame We must then understand our selves when we speak to God as we understand God when he speaketh to us and in the same manner we must shew him to himself and the world as he is pleased to shew and manifest himself unto us Christ did not present us with a picture with a phantasm with a bare shew and appearance of suffering for us Nor must we present him with shadows and shews And what is God's shewing himself Psal 80. Thou that sittest between the Cherubims shew thy self saith the Psalmist shine thou clearly to our comfort and to the terrour of our enemies God manifesteth his Power and breaketh the Cedars of Libanus He maketh known his Wisdom and teacheth the children of men He publisheth his Love and filleth us with good things His Words are his blessings and his demonstrations in glory He speaketh to us by peace and shadoweth us by plenty and our garners are full And see how the creature echoeth back again to him The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth welleth out speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge God's language is Power God's language is Love and God's language is Hope God planted a vineyard Isa 5. that expresseth his Power and built a tower in it and made a wine-press therein there is his Love and he lookâ—d for grapes there Hope speaketh for he that planteth planteth in hope He spake by his Prophets he spake by his judgments and he spake by his mercies but still he spake in hope for he doth neither shine nor thunder but in hope This is the heavenly dialect and we must take it out We must not speak as one that beggeth on a stage but as he that beggeth on the high way naked and cold and pinched with hunger Verba in opera vertenda By a religious Alchymie we must turn words into works and when God speaketh to us by his Prophets answer him by our obedience when he speaketh to us in Love give him our hearts and when he looketh for grapes be full of good works This is Christ's own dialect and he best understandeth it and his reply is a reward But from shews and words he turneth away his ears and will not hear that is for still in God's language more is understood then spoke he will bring us to judgment And now we see what it is to shew the death of the Lord not to draw it out in our imagination or to speak it with the tongue but to express the power and virtue of it in our selves to labour and travel in birth till Christ be fully formed in us till all Christian virtues which are as the spirits of his bloud be quick and operative in us till we be made perfect to every good work And thus we shew his death by our Faith For Faith if it be not dead will speak and make it self known to all the world speak to the naked and clothe him to the hungry and feed him to those who erre and are in darkness and shine upon them This is the dialect of Faith But if the cold frost of temptations as S. Gregorie speaketh hath so niped it that it is grown chil and cold and can speak but faintly if we have talked so long of Faith till we have left her speechless if she speak but imperfectly and in broken language now by a drop of water and now by a mite and then silent shew the death of Christ onely in some rare and slender performance behold this is your hour and the power of light this your time of receiving the Sacrament is the time to actuate and quicken your Faith to make it more apprehensive more operative more lively to give it a tongue that it may shew and preach the wonderful works of the Lord. And as we shew the Lord's death by our Faith so we shew it by our Hope which if it be that Hope which purifieth the heart will awake our glory the Tongue If it be well built and underpropped with Charity it will speak and cry and complain And the language is the same with that of the souls under the Altar How long Lord Rev. 6. How long shall the Flesh fight against the Spirit How long shall we struggle with temptations When wilt thou deliver us from this body of death When shall we appear in the presence of our God Though we fall we shall rise again Though we are shaken we shall not be overthrown Though thou killest us yet we will trust in thee This is the dialect of Hope And here at this Table we must learn to speak out to speak it more plainly to raise and exalt it to a Confidence which is the loudest report it can make Thirdly we shew and preach the Lord's death by our Love Which is but the echo of his Love And we speak it fully as he doth to us fill up the sentence and leave not out a word make it manifest in the equality and universality of our obedience as he offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for us Quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit Our love to Christ must be equal and like himself not meet him at Church and run from him in the streets not embrace him in a Sermon and throw him from us in our conversation not flatter him with a peny
of the world cannot receive a poor Christ The Pride of life cannot receive an humble Christ The Lust of the flesh cannot receive a chaste Christ The sinner who confesseth and crucifieth him cannot receive him Those Antichrists cannot receive Christ no though they knock and knock again though they cry and cry aloud though they fast and pray and sequester themselves at some set times Then onely we are fit to receive him when we are Christi-formes made conformable to him The humble and obedient heart is his house his Temple and he will dwell in it for he taketh a delight therein Sequester then your selves draw your thoughts and apply them to this great benefit fast and pray and commune with your selves but do not then say We have done all that thou commandest us but let all these begin and end in obedience and holiness Let that be on the top the chief mark you aim at Tie it to you as an ornament of grace upon your head as a chain about your neck all the dayes of your life This will make you fit for Christ fit to receive his Body and Bloud and all the benefits of his Cross and his love will stream forth in the bloud which he shed and feed and nourish your souls to eternal life This I conceive to be the full compass of this duty of Examining of our selves And as it is necessary at all times so ought we especielly at this time to use it when we are to approch the Table of the Lord to make it our preparation before the receiving of the Sacrament He that neglected the Passeover was to be cut off from among his people And he that eateth and drinketh unworthily without examination of himself eateth and drinketh his own damnation because he discerneth not that is neglecteth the Lord's body Here at this Table thou dost as it were renew thy Covenant and here thou must renew thy Examination and see what failings and defects thou hast had and what diligence thou hast used in keeping of thy Covenant and bewail the one and increase and advance the other Consider whose Body and Bloud it is thou art to receive and in what habitude and relation thou art unto him and try thy Repentance thy Faith thy Charity For these unite thee to Christ bring thee so near as to dwell in him transform thee after his image and so give thee right and title to him and to all the riches and wisdom which are hidden in him Examine first your Repentance therefore Whether it be true and unfeigned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that circumcision made without hands Col. 2.11 Whether it be moved and carried on by a true spring hatred of sin and love of Christ Whether it be constant and uniform and universal consisting not in a head hanging down and a heart lifted up in to-day's sorrow and to-morrow's relapse in the detestation of idolatry and the love of sacrilege For this is as Luther saith poenitere simul non poenitere satis to repent and not repent to rise and fall and fall and rise This is not to repent but prevaricate to forsake our own cause and promote the Devil's No that Repentance which must place us at this Table must devote and consecrate us wholly to him whose Table it is And as our sins crucified him so must our repentance crucifie us and offer us up unto him as a holocaust or whole-burnt-offering who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world In the next place the Apostle exhorteth us to examine our selves whether we be in the Faith or no 2 Cor. 13.5 to prove our selves whether Christ be in us Without Faith there is no true Repentance There may be some distaste some regret some sorrow but not according to God Some distaste even those have had who never heard of Christ But it will not raise and improve it self not draw on a constant and serious resolution to shake off that which distasteth us to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us till Faith possesseth our hearts and a firm persuasion that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself 2 Cor. 5.19 I believed and therefore I spake saith David We believe and therefore we examine our selves and take a strict survey of our souls we grone under our burthen and desire ease we find our selves sick and run to the Physician we find our selves dead in sin and flie to the Fountain of life Faith is the salt which seasoneth all our actions Nor will Christ admit us to his Table without it nor give himself to those who do not believe in him Faith is the mouth of the soul and with it we receive Christ To come unto him and receive him and believe in him are one and the same thing As the Word preached did not profit them that heard it Hebr. 4.2 not being mixed with faith not having this salt so the Sacraments are but bare signs and signifie nothing to them that believe not Accedens Verbum ad elementum facit Sacramentum non quia dicitur sed quia creditur saith Augustine The Word added to the Element maketh a Sacrament not because it is spoken but because it is believed That is without faith it profiteth nothing in respect of us although by Divine institution it hath force and power and ought to quicken and enliven us By the eye of Faith alone we follow Christ through every passage and period of his blessed oeconomy we behold him in the manger in his swadling-cloths and worship him we follow him in the streets going about and doing good and imitate him we behold him in his agonie and are nailed with him to his cross we see him rising and ascending and behold the heavens open and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God and lastly we behold him here in the Sacrament and lift up our hearts above these visible Elements to those things which are spiritual and invisible we see in them Christ's body lifted up upon the cross as the Serpent was in the wilderness and by this sight by this Faith we are cured Here in the Sacrament our Saviour again presenteth himself unto us openeth his wounds sheweth us his hands and his side speaketh to us as he did to Thomas Reach hither your fingers and behold my hands and reach hither your hands and thrust them into my side Take eat This is my body and be not faithless but believing Here shake off that chilness that restiveness that weariness and faintness of your faith here warm and actuate and quicken it Here God doth not shew us his face his extraordinary glory and majesty which no mortal can behold and live but we see him as it were in his back-parts and in these outward Elements Here he exhibiteth and giveth us his Son who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his Person in whom he hath
manifested his Wisdome his Justice his Love in whom he hath made the fullest discovery of himself that he is to us merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth whom he offereth unto us to be seen with the eye of our faith to be embraced with the arms of our affections to be received into the stomach of our souls and so to be conveyed through all the powers and parts of the inward man that we may grow up in him who is our Head and being partakers of him be made partakers of that glory which he hath purchased for us All this is made good unto us by Faith but In the last place not by a dead and unactive Faith looking up upon Christ but gathering no strength or virtue from him and no more considering our high Priest then as if he had never offered himself never satisfied for us for how can we think that heaven should be built upon such aire that that peace which passeth our thought should be bought at so cheap a rate as a thought but a Faith which worketh by Charity and that both towards God and towards our brethren For these two Christian virtues are inseparable and bear witness one to the other My Faith begetteth my Charity and my Charity publisheth and declareth my Faith They go hand in hand and help and advance each other He that separateth them doth not thereby prove that they are separate in themselves but that they are separate from him and that he hath but one of them and that also not the thing but the name For what Faith is that that worketh not by Love and what Love is that that is not kindled in us by Faith They are like Hippocrates his twins they live and die together When Faith is alive Charity is working of miracles healing the sick giving eyes to the blind and scattering her bread on the waters When Faith doth but float on the tongue Charity is but good words Depart in peace c. When Faith waxeth feeble Charity is but cold and when Charity cannot stretch out the hand nor open the mouth the Apostle telleth us Faith is dead It hath been the great fault of the world to make Faith an Idol and Charity Nothing But we must joyn them together before we come to Christ's Table or else we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approve our selves Nay they must be joyned together or they will not subsist but such a Faith and such a Charity as are heard but neither seen nor felt such a Faith and such a Charity as are but names and may be written on the visour of an hypocrite Let them therefore both meet and be united in our trial and preparation to this Sacrament which is a Sacrament of Union not onely of the Head with the Members but of the Members one with another under one Head Christ joyneth us unto himself by Love and by the same Love commandeth us to grow up together into one body and not to flie asunder by pride and malice and contention He that loveth God will love his brother also If we believe in Christ if the eye of our Faith be so clear as to see him with all his riches and glories with that glory which he hath prepared for us we cannot but love him and if we love him this Love will distil to the very skirts of his garment to the lowest member he hath Our Love of God consisteth in our admiration of his Majesty in a due acknowledgment of and subjection to his Wisdom and Justice and Power which we see but at distance in those effects which they produce but it is most visible in these our communications one to another I love God is soon said but it is a lie saith S. John if I love not my brother also It is reported of this Evangelist in whose Epistles this precept of LOVE is so often mentioned that being aged and brought to the congregation in a chair because through weakness he was not able to hold out in a continued speech his whole Sermon was but a repitition of these words Children love one another And being asked the reason his answer was Quia praeceptum Christi est si solum fiat sufficit That it was the precept of the Lord and if this onely were observed all was done And no doubt it is the peculiar precept of the Lord and sufficient of it self For if it be done as it ought it cannot but proceed from the Love of God since the Love of our selves and the Love of the world is the onely hinderance of this Love For why doth an injury stir my bloud and invenom my gall but because I love my passion and had rather be its slave then at the command of Christ to master it Why doth a disgrace cloud me with melancholy but because I had rather have my name great on earth then written in the book of life Why do we persecute and oppress our brethren but because we seek rather esteem from men then the face and favour of God Private interest is the great God of this world to which most do homage before which millions of men fall down and worship and then leave the Love of God behind them tread their brethren under feet and make that desolation which at this day we see on the earth Love of one another is a plant of our heavenly Father's setting But where doth it grow May we find it in the Commonwealth There is Love but it is set in dung in earthly hopes or fleshly respects And it groweth up in shew of some bulk and greatness but it beareth no better fruit then Complement and Good language If you shake and trouble it this fruit falleth and is turned into stones It beginneth in a kiss and endeth in a wound Like the thieves Salvian speaketh of it embraceth and killeth Shall we look for it in the Church That is a Paradise indeed and there it should grow But then it is in that Church which is not seen for there is little of it in that which is visible There are almost as many sects as men There every phansie is a sword keen enough to make a division Every slight opinion setteth men at variance and for that which is but opinion for that which is nothing men bite and devour one another A Church militant indeed it may well be called in this sense For there is nothing but wars and fighting noise and confusion such a Church Militant as in the greatest part of it shall never be Triumphant And yet here in the Church visible it is preached on the house tops Here it is taught by the Word and here it is taught by the Sacrament But to the most the one is but a sound and the other a sign and if it be but a sound and no more it is a knell and if we receive no more then a bare sign we receive more then we should the sentence of condemnation In
therefore they turn the ear from S. Paul and open it to let in the poyson of asps which the lips of those false Apostles carried under them and for no other reason but because they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make a fair shew in the flesh Gal. 6.12 make them put on the form and shape of a Jew to avoid the fury of the Romane who did then tolerate the Jew but not the Christian And how many have we nowadayes who do Galatizari as Tertullians phrase is who are as foolish as the Galatians Gal. 3.1 and make this humour the onely rule by which they frame and measure out their Religion who make it as their Mistress and love it most then when it is exploded who will hear no teacher but that Pharisee who hath made them his proselytes Every man is pleased in his Religion and that is his Religion which pleaseth him that he will rely upon and anathematize S. Paul or any Angel Gal. 1.8 9. if he shall preach any other Gospel but that Our two Tables are not written with the finger of God our Religion is not framed in the Mount but here below in the region of Phantasmes by Flesh and Bloud which must not be displeased but swelleth against every thing that doth not touch it gently and flatter it and so maketh us like to the Beasts that perish who have no principle of motion but their Sense Nay worse then they for they have no Reason but we have Reason indeed sed quae suo malo est atque in perversum solers Seneca but which is made instrumental against it self taught to promote that which it condemneth to forward that which it forbiddeth and serveth onely to make us more unreasonable For in the second place this humour this Desire to be pleased doth not make up our defects but maketh them greater doth not make Vice a virtue but Sin more sinful For he is a villain indeed that will be a villain and yet be thought a Saint such a one as God will spue out of his mouth And what is it to acknowledge no defect and to be worse and worse Rev. 3.1 to seign a Paradise and be in Hell to have a name that we live and to be dead And what content is that which is more mortal then our selves and will soon end and end in weeping and lamentation Better far better were it that a sword did pass through our heart that the hidden things of darkness were brought to light 1 Cor. 4.5 and the counsels of our heart made manifest to us then that it should be dead as a stone sensless of its plague better we were tormented into health then that we should thus play and smile and laugh our selves into our graves Look upon those sons of Anak those giant-like sinners against their God who have bound up the Law Isa 8.16 and sealed up the testimony which is against them who will do what they please and hear what they please and nothing else who deal with the Scripture as Caligula boasted he would with the civil Law of the Romanes Sueton. Calig c. 34. take care nè quid praeter eos loquatur that it shall not speak at all or not any thing against them Look upon them I forget my self for I fear we look upon them so long till our eyes dazle at the sight and we begin to think that is not truth which these men will not hear But yet look upon them not vvith an eye of Flesh but that of Faith an Evangelicall eye and it vvill rather drop then dazle pity then admire them O infelices quibus licet peccare Oh most unhappy men of the vvorld vvho have line and liberty to destroy themselves vvhom God permitteth to be evil as in vvisdom he may and then in justice permitteth to defend it vvhose chariot-vvheels he striketh not off t ll they are in the Red-sea vvhom he suffereth vvhen they vvould not hearken to his voice to be smothered to death vvith their ovvn povver and the breath and applause of fools Oh it is the heaviest judgment in the vvorld not to feel and fear a judgement till it come It may be said perhaps what in all ages hath been said and not vvithout murmur and complaining Behold these are the wicked yet they prosper in their wayes Their pride compasseth them about as a chain Psal 73.6 12. their violence covereth them as a garment They feel no pangs no throws have no luctations no struglings within them They call themselves the children of the Most High And what evil can be to him that feeleth it not What is Hell to him that is not sensible But these are but the ebullitions and breathings of Flesh and Bloud that seeth no more of Man then his face and garment For what seest thou A painted sepulchre but thou dost not see the rotten bones within Thou seest triumphs and trophees without but within are horrour and stench Thou seest the Tree of life painted on the gates open them and there is Fire and Brimstone Hell and Damnation Thou hearest the Tongue speak proud things but thou seest not the worm which gnaweth within All this Musick is but a Dirge sung at their funeral their joy but an abortive and untimely birth begot by Pleasure and Power and Wealth a shadow cast from outward contentments when these depart this joy perisheth For in the third place this humour this Desire to be pleased doth not take the whip from Conscience but enrageth her layeth her asleep to awake with more terrour 1 Tim. 4.2 For Conscience may be seared indeed but cannot be abolisht may sleep but cannot die but is as immortal as the Soul it self Conscience followeth our Knowledge and it is impossible to chace that away impossible to be ignorant of that which I cannot but know It is not Conscience but our Lusts that make the Musick For in the common and known duties of our lives Conscience doth not cannot mislead us Whose Conscience ever told him that Murder or Treason were virtuous But our Lust having conceived and brought forth Sin licketh and shapeth it to the best advantage He that is taken in adultery will not say that Adultery is no sin but that Flesh was weak and Beauty importunate saith Hilary He that revengeth wâ—ll look more on the foulness of the injury then the irregularity and exorbitancy of his wrath He that troubleth the peace of Israel will make Necessity his plea or say he troubleth none but those that trouble Israel Thus Conscience may be supprest but not totally and for a time but not for ever It may be slumbred by diversion of the mind from troublesome thoughts by immersing it in pleasures and delights by the lullabies of parasites and false prophets and so be in a manner held down by the weight of the flesh but still it is not dead but sleepeth And then when these are removed when Pleasure shall
hopes or satisfie his lusts or justifie his anger or answer his love or look friendly on that which his wild passions drive him to Opinion is as a wheel on which the greatest part of the world are turned and wheeled about till they fall of several waies into several evils and do scarce touch at Truth in the way Opinion buildeth our Church chuseth our Preacher formeth our Discipline frameth our Gesture measureth our Prayers methodizeth our Sermons Opinion doth exhort instruct correct teach and command If it say Go we go and if it say Do this we do it We call it our Conscience and it is our God and hath more worshippers then Truth For though Opinion have a weaker ground-work then Truth yet she buildeth higher but it is but hay and stubble fit for the fire Good God! what a Babel may be erected upon a thought I verily thought Acts 26.9 12 14. saith S. Paul and what a whirlwind was that thought It drove him to Damascus with letters and made him kick against the pricks Psal 74.6 Shall I tell you that it was but Phansie that in Davids time beat down the carved works with axes and hammers that it was but a thought that destroyed the Temple it self that killed the Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and crucified the Lord of life himself And therefore it will concern us to watch our Phansie and to deal with it as mothers do with their children who when they desire that which may hurt them deny them that but to still and quiet them give them some other thing they may delight in take away a knife and give them an apple So when our Phansie sporteth and pleaseth it self with vain and aery speculations let us suspect and quarrel them and by degrees present unto it the very face of Truth as the Stoick speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epictet sift and winnow our imaginations bring them to the light and as the devout Schoolman speaketh Gerson resolve all our affectual notions by the Accepistis by the Rule and so demolish all those idoles which our Passions by the help of Phansie have set up For why should such a deceit pass unquestioned why should such an imposture scape without a mark 3. But now if we may not walk SICVT VISVM EST as it seemeth good unto us yet we may SICVT VISVM EST SPIRITVI SANCTO as it seemeth good to the holy Ghost Yes for that is to walk according to the Rule for he speaketh in the Word And to walk after the Spirit and to walk by this Rule are one and the same thing But yet the World hath learned a cursed art to set them at distance and when the Word turneth from us and will not be drawn up to our Phansie to carry on our pleasing but vain imaginations we then appeal to the Spirit we bring him in either to deny his own word or which in effect is the same to interpret it against his own meaning and so with reverence be it spoken make him no better then a Knight of the post to witness a lie This we would do but cannot For make what noise we will and boast of his name we are still at Visum est nobis it is but Phansie still it is our own Spirit not the holy Ghost Matth. 24.24 1 John 4.1 For as there be many false Christs so there are many false spirits and we are commanded not to believe but to try them and what can we try them by but by the Rule And as they will say Lo here is Christ or there is Christ so they will say Lo here is the Spirit and there is the Spirit The Pope layeth claim to it and the Enthusiast layeth claim to it and whoso will may lay claim to it on the same grounds when neither hath any better argument to prove it by then their bare words no evidence but what is forged in that shop of vanities their Phansie Idem Accio Titióque Both are alike in this And if the Pope could perswade me that he never opened his mouth but the Spirit spake by him I would then pronounce him Infallible and place him in the Chair and if the Enthusiast could build me up in the same faith and belief of him I would be bold to proclaim the same of him and set him by his side and seek the Law at his mouth Would you know the two grand Impostours of the world which have been in every age and made that desolation which we see on the earth They are these two a pretended Zeal and a pretense of the Spirit If I be a Zelote what dare I not do And when I presume I have the Spirit what dare I not say What action so foul which these may not authorize what wickedness imaginable which these may not countenance What evil may not these seal for good and what good may they not call evil Oh take heed of a false light and too much fire These two have walkt these many ages about the earth not with the blessed Spirit which is a light to illuminate and as fire to purge us but with their Father the Devil transformed into Angels of light and burning Seraphim and have led men upon those Precipies into those works of darkness which no night is dark enough to cover I might here much enlarge my self for it is a subject fitter for a whole Sermon then a part of one and for a Volume then a Sermon but I must conclude And for conclusion let us whilst the light shineth in the world walk on guided by the Rule which will bring us at last to the holy mount For objects will not come to us but have onely force to move us to come to them Eternal happiness is a fair sight and spreadeth its beams and unvaileth its beauty to win our love to allure and draw us And if it draw us we must up and be stirring and walk on to meet it What that devout writer saith of his Monk Climacus is true of the Christian He is assidua naturae violentia His whole life is a constant continued violence against himself against his corrupt nature which as a weight hangeth upon him and cloggeth and fettereth him which having once shaken off he not onely walketh but runneth the wayes of Gods commandments Psal 119.32 Rom. 13.13 Again let us walk honestly as in the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becometh Christians in our several stations and conditions of life and not think Christ dishonoured if we mingle him with the common actions of our life We never dishonour him more then when we take him not in and use him not as our guide and rule even in those actions which for the grossness of the subject and matter they work on may seem to have no savour or relish of that which we call Religion Be not deceived He that thus taketh him in is a Priest and a King the most honourable person
sojourners and strangers in the earth It is true strangers we are for all are so and passing forward apace to our journeys end but not to that end for which we were made Therefore that we may reach and attain to it we must make our selves so Eph. 4.22 put off the old man which loveth to dwell here take off our hopes and desires from the world look upon all its glories as dung look upon it as a strange place Phil. 3.8 upon our selves as strangers in it and look upon the place to which we are going fling off every weight shake off every vanity Hebr. 12.1 every thing that is of the earth earthy make haste delay not but leave it behind us even while we are in it for a Christian mans life is nothing else but a going out of it And to this end in the last place you must take along with you your viaticum your Provision the Commandments of Gods Hide not thy commandments from me saith David And he spake as a stranger and as in a strange place as in a place of danger as in a dark place where he could not walk with safety if this light did not shine upon him Here we meet with variety of objects Here are Serpents to flatter us and Serpents to bite us here are Pleasures and Terrours all to deceive and detein us Here we meet with that Archenemy to all strangers and pilgrimes in several shapes now as a roaring Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 and sometimes as an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 And though we try it not out at fists with him as those foolish Monks boasted they had often tried this kind of hardiment though we meet him not as a Hippocentaur Hic on de vita Pauli Eremitae Malchi Hilarionis as the story telleth us Paul the Hermite did or as a Satyre or she-Wolf as Hilarion did to whom were presented many fearful things the roaring of Lions the noise of an Army Chariots of fire coming upon him Wolves Foxes Sword-plaiers and I cannot tell what though we do not feel him as a Satyre yet we feel him as voluptuous though we do not see him as a Wolf yet we apprehend him thirsting after bloud though we meet him not in the shape of a Fox yet non ignoramus versutias 2 Cor. 2.11 we are not ignorant of his wiles and enterprises though we do not see him in the Tempest we may in our fear and though his hand be invisible yet we may feel him in our impatience and falling from the truth We cannot say in our affliction This is his blow but we may hear him roar in our murmuring Or we may see him in that mongrel Christian made up of Ignorance and Fury of a Man and a Beast which is more monstrous then any Centaure We may see him in that Hypocrite that deceitful man who is a Fox and the worst of the cub We may meet him in that Oppressour who is a Wolf in that Tyrant and Persecutour who is a roaring Lion In some of these shapes we meet him every day in this our Pilgrimage And here in the world we can find nothing to secure us against the World Adversity may swallow up Pleasure in victory but not the Love of it Impotency and Inability may bridle and stay my Anger but not quench it Providence may defend me from evil but not from Fear of it Nor can the World yield us any weapon against it self Therefore God hath opened his Armoury of heaven and given us his Commandments to be our light our provision our defense in our way to be as our Pilgrimes staff our Scrip our Letters commendatory Ps 91.11 to be our Angels to keep us in all our waies And there is no safe walking for a stranger without them And as when the children of Israel were in the wilderness God rained down Manna upon them and led them as it were by the hand till he brought them to the land of promise so he dealeth still with all that call upon his name whilest they are in via in this their peregrination ever and anon beset with temptations which may detein and hinder them He raineth down abundance of his grace Wisd 16.20 which like that Manna will serve the appetite of him that taketh it is like to that which every man wanteth and applieth it self to every tast to all callings and conditions to all the necessities of a stranger Thus we walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Festina fides Faith is on the wing and leaveth the world behind us Heb. 11.1 is the substance and evidence of things not seen It looketh not on those things which are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 and please a carnal eye or if it do it looketh upon them as Joshua did upon Ai Josh 8.5 c. first turneth the back and then all its strength against them maketh us fly from them that we may overcome them 1 Joh. 5.4 For this is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith Hebr. 6.19 20 And Festina spes Hope too is in her flight and followeth our Forerunner Jesus to enter with him that which is within the veil even the Holy of holies Heaven it self Spe jam sumus in coelo We are already there by hope And to him that hath seen the beauty of Holiness the World is but a loathsome spectacle to him that truly trusteth in God it is lighter then Vanity and he passeth from it And then our Love of God is our going forth our peregrination It is a perishing a death of the soul to the world If it be truly fixt no pleasure no terrour nothing in the world can concern us but they are to us as those things which the traveller in his way seeth and leaveth every day and we think no more of the glory of them then they who have been dead long ago Col. 3.3 For we are dead saith the Apostle and our life is hid hid from the world with Christ in God Our Temperance tasteth not our Chastity toucheth not our Poverty in spirit handleth not those things which lye in our way but we pass by them as impertinencies as dangers as things which may pollute a soul more then a dead body could under the Law The stranger the pilgrime passeth by all His Meekness maketh injuries and his Patience afflictions light and his Christian Fortitude casteth down every strong hold every imagination which may hinder him in his course Every act of Piety is a kind of sequestration and driveth us if not from the right yet from the use of the world Every Virtue is to us as the Angel was to Lot Gâ—n 19.14 17. and biddeth Arise and go out of it taketh us by the hands and biddeth us haste and escape for our life and not look behind us And with this Provision as it were with the two Tables in our hands we
you what it was that made John a burning and what a shining light And here I need not tell you that he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet He was fibula Legis Evangelii as Tertullian calleth him the hasp which tied together the Law and the Gospel the middle Prophet which looked back upon the Truth obscurely shadowed in figures and types and looked forward on Christ that at the very voice of Christ's mother he sprang in his mother's womb prophetavit antequam natus erat and was a Prophet before he was a man Our Saviour here calleth him a burning light Supernatural illumination might have been enough to have made him a light to others but not to burn in himself Even Saul was amongst the Prophets and Caiaphas did prophesie and Baalam fell into a trance saw the vision of the Almighty took up his parable and breathed forth a prophesie a prophesie of as large a compass and extent as any we find in Scripture and yet he loved the wages of unrighteousness Even these were moved by the holy Ghost and spake as they were moved but were not holy men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil but the word of Prophesie came unto them by way of dispensation not for any purity or worth of theirs but for the present exigence and occasion and the instruction of others He that opened Balaams eyes opened also the Asses mouth to rebuke him All these may be called lights but we cannot say they burned or if they did not with any fire from heaven For Knowledge whether natural or supernatural whether gained by way of conclusion out of premisses or by the evidence of the things themselves or by Divine inspiration and extraordinary radiation is not alwaies accompanied with this heat and fire because the acts or reception of the Understanding are rather natural and necessary then arbitrary and the mind of man cannot but receive the species and forms of things as they are presented and imprinted either by the object it self or by a Divine supernatural hand In a word if the Truth open and display it self the Understanding cannot but receive it If the Spirit come upon Saul he must prophesie These radiations and flashes of light upon the Understanding do not alwayes make us burn within our selves but many times are darted on us when there is a frost at the heart when we are bound up and sealed as it were in our graves in a kind of Lethargy without heat or activity Every knowing man doth not love the truth which he knoweth nor is every Prophet a Saint Scire nihil aut parùm operatur ad virtutem saith the Philisopher Knowledge of it self bringeth no great store of fuel to this fire nor doth it conduce to the essence of Virtue For we do not define Virtue by Knowledge It may direct and illuminate but it doth not alwaies warm us it may help to fan this fire but it is not that heat with which we burn What is it then that made John Baptist and maketh every righteous man a burning light Not the Knowledge alone though it were supereminent but the Love of Truth For the Understanding is at best but a Counsellor to the Will It may call upon me to awake and I fold my arms to sleep It may speak as an oracle of God and I reject its counsel It may say This is the way when I run counter It may breathe upon my heart and no fire burn But when the Will is so truly affected with the Truth as to woo and imbrace it when I am willing to lay down my life for it then there is a fire in my bones and this fire doth melt me and this liquefaction transform me and this transformation unite and marry me to the Truth And this is that fire with which we burn which maketh this holy conflagration in us And indeed it hath the operation of Fire For first as Fire it is full of activity nor can any thing withstand its force It hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam as Pliny speaketh It is the most devouring thing in the world Nihil tam ferreum quod non amoris igne vincitur saith Augustine There is nothing so hard or difficult which it doth not overcome It esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood Be it Service it is a glorious liberty Be it seven years it is but a few dayes to Love Be it Disgrace it enobleth it Be it Poverty it enricheth it Be it Torment it sweetneth it Be it Death for the Truth 's sake it is made advantage and gain O beloved that the voice of power so soon shaketh us that the glittering of a sword the horrour of a prison a frown so soon loosneth our joynts abateth our courage that we either halt between God and Baal or plainly fall from the Truth is because we are but coldly affected to it If this fire were kindled in us it would make Persecution peace enlighten a prison and make Horrour it self an object of glory and joy That which is a tempest to others to them that love is a pleasant and prosperous gale Secondly as Fire it is very sensible and maketh us even to burn within us and to be restless and unquiet for the Truth 's sake Inquies animus ipso opere pascitur as Livy spake of himself It is fed with what it doeth and as that restless element it either spreadeth or dieth It is kindled from heaven and will lick up all the water all contrary matter 2 Cor. 5.13 as the fire did which Elijah called down Whether we be besides our selves or whether we be sober it is for the Truth 's sake Love urgeth and constraineth us driveth us upon the pricks upon any difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gordius the Martyr in Basil What loss am I at that die but once for the Truth In labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prison more frequent saith S. Paul And could he do no more Yes he could Vbi historiam praestare non potuit votum attulit What he could not do to fill up an history he supplieth with a wish and maketh it his prayer for the good of the Church Rom. 9. to be cut off from the Church pro Christo non habere Christum for Christ's sake to be separate from Christ And to speak truth in this Love differeth from Fire Fire will die if it want fuel but Love will live in that breast where it was first kindled and where it meeteth not with matter to work upon it burneth the more for want of it When it cannot fight with the Philistine not encounter Satan with his fiery darts not slight him in the pomp of the world not contemn him in his terrours it striveth and strugleth with it self and supposeth and frameth difficulties Nihil imperiosius charitate Nothing is more powerful nor commanding then Love And yet when it hath done all supposed all it is content
with immortality and eternal glory The Ninth SERMON COL III. 2. Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth THe whole scope and drift of this Epistle is That all the hope of man's happiness is placed in Christ alone and that therefore we must rest in the faith of Christ and live according to the prescript of the Gospel Now the voice of Christ and the Gospel is Seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof that is the things above and Love not the world nor the things of the world that is the things on the earth The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth To Esteem or Judge rightly of So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 16.23 Thou savourest not the things of God Thou judgest not aright of them Sometimes To Care for or Desire So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.6 the desire of the flesh To savour Rightly to Judge of To affect and desire the things above that is it which Christian Religion enjoyneth And it implieth both an act of the Understanding Conceiving aright of these things and an act of the Will and Affections Approving and embracing them Fastened to the things above but averse and flying the things on the earth And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things above are either the End or the Means either the Kingdom of heaven and the beatifical Vision of God or those things which lead unto it the graces of the Spirit Faith Charity Holiness Contempt of the world which are those seeds which grow up into a tree of life and the way by which we press unto the mark And our affections must be set on both For he that loveth not Obedience loveth not Pardon he that loveth not the Cross loveth not the Crown he cannot long for heaven whose conversation is not there already Now these are the things above For the things on the earth they are not worth a gloss or descant and we understand them but too well These are the words And they divide themselves as the Law is divided into Do and Do not an Affirmation and Negation calling and inviting our affections to the things above and taking them off from the things on the earth We will draw them both together in this general and useful Observation or Doctrine which naturally without tort or violence issueth from them both That the chief end and work of Christian Religion is To abstract and draw the soul of man from sensual objects and level and confine it to that object which is most fitted and proportioned to it even the things above A Doctrine which cannot be gainsayed but yet is not received of men with that firm and reverent persuasion of mind it should For who hath believed this report We must therefore make it good both by Scripture and Reason And first we hear David the father professing that God's word was a lamp unto his feet Psal 119.105 and a light unto his paths a light to burn by night 2 Pet. 1.19 a light that shineth in a dark place leading us from Egypt to the Promised land through the darkness of this world to that light which no eye of flesh can attain guiding us from that which is pleasant to that which is honest from that which is fair to that which is good from that which flattereth the sense to that which perfecteth the reason taking our thoughts from this world and fixing them on that new world wherein dwelleth righteousness And we may hear Solomon the son as it were paraphrasing it Prov. 15.24 and rendring it into other words The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath Above to him that is wise who looketh upon no light but that from heaven which discovereth the deceit and inconstancy and danger of those objects which may display to the sense a beauty like that of heaven but to us are made as hell beneath and tend thither For he that followeth his eye to the next vanity his ear to every pleasant sound his taste to every dainty his senses to every fair object that offereth it self is not wise And therefore we may hear the Son of David indeed but wiser then Solomon tell his Disciples John 15.19 John 17.6 Ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world And I have manifestd thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world And indeed what is the whole Gospel of Christ but Spoliarium sensuum a confinement a punishment a kind of execution of the sensitive part teaching us to beat down and tame to crucifie and mortifie the flesh to deny our selves and our sensual inclinations in which we are most our selves and least our selves most tractable and least what we should be Men where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beast the brutish part swalloweth up the Man the Reason in a word to be dead to the world This is the constant language of the Gospel of that wisdom which descended from above For the time past 1 Pet. 4.3 saith S. Peter may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles to have lived in the flesh in the lusts of men But now Christ hath suffered in the flesh we also must be of the same mind and cease from sin and not defeat him of his end which was to set an end to our lusts and destroy the works of the flesh The time past may suffice nay it is too much But now light is come into the world we must walk as children of the light and by that light discover horrour in Beauty poverty in Wealth dishonour in Glory a hell kindling in those delights which are our Heaven upon earth The ear that hearkened to every Siren's song must be stopped the eye that was open to vanity must be shut by covenant the phansie checked the appetite dulled the affections bridled and we must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritualized substances though immured in matter in the gross and carnal part in the flesh yet out of the flesh having eyes yet see not ears yet hear not hands but touch not in a word chosen culled abstracted from the world I will give you one reason from the Nature and excellency of the soul another from that huge Disproportion which sensual objects hold with that diviner part We may ask with the Psalmist Psal 89.47 Hast thou made all men in vain Or rather we cannot ask the question For without question God made not such an excellent creature but for an excellent end I created him for my glory I have formed him yea I have made him Isa 43.7 God made Man to communicate his goodness and wisdom to him to make him partaker of the Divine nature and a kind of God upon earth to imprint his image on him by which according to his measure and capacity he might represent
sin with that freedom and indifferency as if it were so are we not carnal When we hate a supposed evil in others more then we do a real one in our selves and then bid them depart from us and are pleased and tickled with this bold defiance and make it a sign and evidence of a good conscience to censure and condemn others for a bad and count it our heaven upon earth to make every place a hell which we go out of S. Paul himself will ask the question Are you not carnal I will but adde Do we settle our affections on things above when we count it a heresie to affirm that ever Saint lived who did not oftner offend then do his duty and think that God doth accept our faint and weak endeavours the dawnings and small beginnings of obedience our profers to go out of the world though we make it our Seraglio and place of pleasure When we first upon false grounds and premisses conclude that we are from the heaven heavenly even the beloved children of God chosen out of the world and then as boldly conclude that we are like Thetis's son invulnerable that no sin how foul soever no dart of Satan can hurt us though it stick in our sides when we make these pillows of security and lie down and sleep upon them do we then truly set our affections on things above Let us not deceive our selves These phansies and imaginations descend not from above but are earthy sensual and devilish or at best but as the sparks in a chimney which flie upwards as if they would reach the firmament and fix themselves amongst the stars but upon a sudden fail and fall and vanish into nothing and Christian Religion chaseth them out of the soul as the Devil's emissaries and spies sent to allure and corrupt it to draw it from the object which is fitted to it things above and bow and incline and fasten it to vanity and to things below which are nothing or nothing worth and being from the earth earthy hold no proportion with the Soul which is an immaterial substance breathed into us by our Father which in heaven The time is spent and we must conclude And we cannot conclude more appositely then with that of the Prophet Isa 51.1 Look unto the rock whence ye are hewen and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged Look upon your own frame and original and look unto the rock even the Rock Christ Jesus out of which ye were hewen again to be lively stones 1 Pet 2.5 to be built up a spiritual house Remember you are Men and remember you are Christians Remember you are Men and then you cannot but observe for Tully an heathen observeth it something Divine in you something aspiring and lifting you up above all lying vanities above the vanity of vanities of this world Remember the sublimity and the excellency of your Nature and fall not down below that which is so far below you And then remember you are Christians of a more noble extraction begot again unto a lively hope a hope that layeth hold of and in a manner taketh possession of the things above and a lively faith which is the victory that overcometh the world And these will discover the falshood of things on the earth and display the beauty of things above will be able to number them and call them by all their names Faith will tell thee This beauty is deceitful This wine a mocker This strumpet a deep ditch These riches have wings and will fly away and that thou thy self art but a shadow and will fly from them And it will lift up thy eyes to the hills from whence cometh thy help to see no riches but in Grace no health but in Piety no beauty but in Holiness no treasure but in Heaven no delight but in the things above And as thou lookest upon thy self in these two capacities as a Man and as a Christian so look upon thy right hand and upon thy left Look upon the things above and the things upon the earth and thou shalt find that between these as between heaven and hell there is a great gulf that thou canst not set thy affections on both thou canst not love God and Mammon And therefore let those things which are above be above and have the preeminence and draw them not down to give attendance and lacquay it after the things on earth For when the name of Religion and a deceitful earthy mind meet they ingender and bring forth those monsters which do blast the world and work that desolation which hath been seen upon the earth When the Love of the world cometh as the Devil did to Christ with Scripture in its mouth and worldly-minded men have HOLINESS written in their foreheads what can we expect but the abomination of desolation what can we look for but that men should be twofold the children of hell more then before For no Impiety is more raging then that which cometh towards us in the name of the Lord. That Sword is sharp and will eat flesh which Religion doth furbish Let then I say the things above have the first place be as our Pole-star to guide and move us whilest we walk amongst the things on earth that they do not bespot and pollute us Let Religion chuse our Servant our Friend our Magistrate For we see when private Interest maketh the choice we many times are undone by having our desire We purchase no more of a Servant but his eye of a Friend but a fair countenance of a Magistrate but one whose purse is his magistrate and governeth him Our Servant may prove a Judas our Friend a winter-brook of no use in a drought when we want him and the Magistrate as Briareus with a hundred hands to lay hold on bribes scarce so good as Caligula's Horse which he made Consul onely in this like him that ye may bridle and ride him Private Interest and the Love of the world put no difference at all between the Vine and the Bramble most commonly cleaveth to that which it thinketh will best shadow it though it be a Bramble But God's wayes are the safest if we would chuse them For when we leave them then to Endor we go to the witch to the Devil himself who may delude but cannot secure us When the children of Israel called upon Aaron Vp make us Gods which shall go before us you see the leader they made themselves was but a molten calf Tertullian thus expresseth it Praecessit illis bubulum caput That which went before them was but a Calf's head The Love of the world walketh but in a vain shadow and bringeth little with it but sorrow and private Interest doth not settle but shake the pillars of the earth For howsoever it may please us now and bring our ends about yet our eye is not clear enough to see what bitterness will be at the end And we do but play and
Gold All the things under the Moon are as changeable in their approches in their acquisition in their loss as that planet is Sometimes we must travel and hazard our lives for them sometimes we find them and they are even flung upon us We are wont to call such as are suddenly made rich the Children and Favourites of Fortune But in this market Fortune and Chance have no hand at all she can neither help nor hurt They who come to this Emporium or Mart know not the face of Fortune neither when she smileth nor when she frowneth but leave her behind them when they beat this bargain Nay they know her to be nothing They place their hopes neither upon Chance nor upon Necessity If Truth were brought to us any of these wayes we could not be said to buy it Do I buy that chain which I am forced to wear or that pearl which lying in my way I do but stoup for and take up I cannot think that ever Heaven did open it self and take in those who never thought of it nor that any Saint did stumble on it and enter by chance Luke 15.4 If the Truth be found it is found as the lost Sheep was we go after it and sweat and labour and search for it till we find it They were the Pharisees of old that brought Fate in and a Necessity of all events And they may well bear the same name who though they abhor the word yet countenance the thing it self and leave the Truth and all Virtues else as it were upon the cast of a die For with them we neither do nor suffer any thing but we are born and bound to it And they run upon the same absurdity which the Pharisees did attribute all to Fate and Destiny or to that which is in effect the same and yet believe a Resurrection leave us in the chains of Necessity and yet promise life to all that buy the Truth and threaten death to all that sell it make us necessarily good or evil and yet the objects for Rewards and Punishments to work upon But this fatal Necessity doth overthrow it self For if it lead or force all things to their end if it work all in us then it worketh this also That we cannot believe it And it is necessary I should deny this Necessity for I was destined to pronounce against Destiny and my fate it is to acknowledge no such thing as Fate No the Truth is established as the heavens that it cannot be moved And as it looketh toward Eternity so there is a setled and eternal course by which it is conveyed unto us Wisdome hath set it out to sale not left it in the uncertain hands of Chance nor in the infallible conduct of Fate and Destiny She standeth by the way in the places of the paths Prov. 8.2 Isa 55.1 but her voice is Come and buy It is true Truth as well as Faith is the gift of God But first every gift is not received or if it be yet he that received it might have refused it and so Necessity hath no place and a gift it is though it be not received as a Pearl may be a merchandise though it be not bought Truth is the gift of God a light kindled by him and set up in the firmament of his Church and there it shineth though men turn not their eyes that way but fix them on the earth Ephes 2.8 Faith had been the gift of God though all the world had been infidels The Civilians tell us there is a twofold Donation pura and conditionalis There is an absolute gift which the giver bestoweth to no other end but to shew his bounty he giveth it because he will give it And there is a conditional gift which exacteth something from him who must receive it It is here Do ut des I give thee this that thou mayest give something for it And such a gift is Truth such a gift is Heaven We are Men to woo and draw the Truth and not Statues to have it engraven upon us and then remain as little moved with it as insensible of it as if we were stones We read of infused Habits and though those texts of Scripture which are brought to uphold them are not so sure and firm a foundation that they may stand there unshaken yet because the opinion is so generally received we are not over-ready to lay it by But if they be infused as they are infused into us so they are not infused without us They are poured not as water into a cistern but into living vessels fitted and prepared for them For if they were infused without us they could never be lost If we did not buy the Truth we could never sell it If Wisdome were thus infused into us we should never erre If Righteousness were thus infused the Will would ever as an obedient handmaid look up upon that Wisdome and never swerve or decline from it If Sanctity were thus setled on the Affections they could never rebel The Understanding could never erre for this Wisdome would ever enlighten it the Will could not be irregular for this Righteousness would alwayes bridle it the Affections could not distract us for they would ever be under command For as they were given without us so bringing with them an irresistible and uncontrollable force they would work without us But we shall find that all these are conditional gifts and that according to the method of Truth it self we cannot receive till we ask nor find till we seek Matth. 7.7 Psal 24.7 â— nor enter the everlasting gates of Truth till we knock And those who follow this method the Truth hath its proper and powerful operation in them It is their viaticum provision for their way meat to feed them and nourish them up to an healthful constitution And it is a garment to clothe them and to defend them from those poisonous blasts and breathings of their spiritual enemy which might annoy and distemper them But in those who fancy to themselves a large and supernatural pouring in when they receive nothing nor do any thing that they may there is no room for Truth for they are filled with air with their own flitting imaginations And if the Truth do enter it entereth them not as Truth but is wrested and corrupted and made the abetter of a lie Scripture is either mangled by them or put upon the rack used as Procrustes used his guests either cut off in some part of it or stretched too far It lieth in their stomack like an undigested lump and is turned into a disease It is like a garment not well put on it sittteth not well upon them they wear it and it becometh them not They wear it either for shew to take the beholder or as a cloak of maliciousness to deceive and destroy him We may observe that that which is so easily gotten and beareth onely the name of Truth is more busie and operative
preferment Balaam's reward 2 Pet. 2.15 Jude 11. will make us leave the wayes of Truth and run after his errour For this taketh us from our selves enslaveth our understandings and alienateth our minds that we dare not venture and bid frankly for the Truth nay we will not admit it nor hearken after ought that is displeasing to those Balaks who can promote us to honour Numb 22.17 37. Thus we see daily the power of a mortal man is more prevalent then that which we so magnifie the Grace of God and the Court gaineth more proselytes then the Church mens religion being drawn by their hopes not of Eternity but of Riches which have wings and of Honour which is but a breath Prov 23.5 Magnus Deus est Error as Martine Luther speaketh Errour is the great God of this world and Hope waiteth upon it to bring in multitudes for reward whilest Truth with all her glorious promises Luke 12.32 findeth but a little flock For thus do those fools argue Why should we despise so good a friend who can raise us from the dung-hill and make us hold up our heads with the best and follow such a guide as Truth which will lead us upon pricks into prison unto the block This is the Sophistry of our worldly Hopes and it easily deceiveth us who are far sooner convinced with false shews then with the real arguments and enforcements of Truth Besides this we look upon it as a kind return and a piece of gratitude to joyn in errour with them who feed our lusts to make them our prophets who have made themselves our patrons to have the same authours of our faith and of our greatness and with the same chearfulness to receive their dictates and their favours The world is full of such parasites Phil. 3.19 whose belly is their God whose Hope looketh downward on the earth and so keepeth them from the sight of the Truth who cannot see a sin or an errour in them that pour down these fading and perishing graces on them For if they should grant they erre in any thing they might be brought at last to fear that they erre also in this in doing them good and heaping benefits upon them Thus do our hopes blind us And therefore if we will purchase the Truth we must cast them away And yet Beloved we need not cast our Affections quite away They are implanted in us by the same hand which set up a candle Prov. 20.27 as the Wise-man calleth the light of Reason in the soul And God hath placed them in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such order that they may be very usefull and advantageous to us They may indeed as ye have heard be powerful to withdraw us from the Truth and they may also be serviceable and instrumental to promote it Wherefore the Apostles counsel is that we crucifie the affections Gal. 5.24 2 Cor. 10.5 not quite extinguish them that we bring them into a glorious captivity and obedience to the Truth I may buy food with a piece of gold and I may buy poyson I may surrender my affections to Errour and I may bestow them on the Truth And happy is that man who is ready thus to spend and to be spent 2 Cor. 12.15 For he who thus spendeth himself he who thus wasteth and tameth his affections doth not quite lose them but loseth onely that of them which would destroy him Therefore in this negotiation we must observe the method of Socrates and drive out one love with another and one hatred with another supplant one hope and chase away one fear with another First Love is a passion imprinted in the soul for this end that it may be fixed on the truth And when once it is so it will be restless and unquiet till it have purchased it It will overcome all difficulties it will meet the Devil in all his horrour it will meet him in his armour of light and pass through all to this mart Nor is there any thing that can hinder it or keep it back Rom. 8.38 neither death nor life nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come No Love beareth us and carrieth us aloft over all as it were on the wings of the wind and bringeth us to the Truth Let us so love the Truth that we buy it and so buy it that we love it the more These two are alwaies in conjunction as the Heat and Light of the Sun The hotter the Sun-beams be the more light there is so the more heat there is in my Love the more bright is the light of the Truth and the more this light shineth the more servent is my Love The love of Truth and the Truth which we love are mother and daughter each to the other mutually begetting and bearing one another We speak of traffick and it is Love alone that maketh all the bargains that are made For who ever yet bought that which he loved not and can there be too great a price set upon that we love if we truly love a thing what will we not give for it As we deal with our Love so let us also with our Hatred Why should I hate any man who am my self a man But then to transferre my hatred from the person to the Truth and to revile it for his sake cometh near to that which we call the sin against the holy Ghost The Truth is the same in whomsoever it be and ought to be received for it self Else we must blot out one article of our Creed for the Devil himself confessed Jesus to be the Son of the most high God Mark 5.7 The Truth rather should force us to the love of the man then our hatred of the man make us enemies to the Truth It is true Though Socrates be a friend and Plato be a friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ethic. l. 1. c. 4. yet the Truth is to be preferred before them both And it is as true Though Socrates be an enemy and Plato an enemy yet the Truth whosoever professeth it is still to be accounted a friend Whether in Heretick or Orthodox whether in Papist or Protestant whether in Arminian or Calvinist the Truth is ever the same And he who cannot look through all these impertinent considerations and by-respects will prove as great an enemy to the Truth as those he condemneth He who casteth a veil of his own working over his face cannot behold the beauty of Truth cannot see to buy it If we will buy the Truth we must learn to hate this Hatred and to fling it out we must learn to abstract the man from his opinion what he saith or holdeth from what he appeareth to us For while we judge of things by the person whom we first hate and then draw him out in our minds in a monstrous shape Virtue and Truth in him will appear to us under the same loathed aspect yea Scripture
Truth and the glory of God That the righteous are ordained to suffer for righteousness and so to be like to the Sun of righteousness is laid down in terminis in plain words We need not seek for more proofs out of Scripture These are plain and positive And the reason is as plain even written with the Sun-beams For 1. in this God dealeth with them as a loving father He doth it ad probationem fidei for the tryal or rather the demonstration of their faith to make it appear that they do not gratiam fingere in odio make a profession of their love when they hate him in their heart depend upon him for their salvation and happiness and when persecution cometh leave him and exchange him for the world rather yield and fall under the burthen then stand fast in the faith and retain him as their God Our praying to him our bending our knees our magnifying his name our Hosanna's and Hallelujah's our falling down at his footstool are but communia signa as the Oratour speaketh in the like case but deceitful signs and indications of our affection towards him For the language of an enemy may be as pleasing as that of a friend A Pharisee may be louder in prayer then a disciple of Christ There must some occasion and opportunity be offered some danger some cross that may fright me and when I withstand all and cleave fast unto Christ then it will appear that I am his friend and servant This is it which bringeth forth the true professour in his own shape and unmasketh the Hypocrite Nauclerum tempestas Christianum persecutio probat saith the Father A mariner is best seen in a tempest and a Christian is best known when persecution rageth In a calm sea when the weather is fair and no wind nor tempest stirreth inglorius subit portum the pilote indeed arriveth at the wished for haven but without praise or honour But cùm strident funes strepent gubernacula when the tackling is torn and the mast rent when the storm is violent and the sea high-wrought then to drive to shore commendeth his skill and maketh him glorious to the beholders When our life is becalmed when no temptetion beateth upon it who can tell whether we do not sub alterius habitu alteri militare wear Christ's colours but fight for his enemies And therefore Gregory observeth of Job Si non flagellaretur non agnosceretur Job had never been known had he never been tormented If God had not pulled down his hedge we had seen perhaps the man in the land of Uz but not Job the example of patience Persecution is the matter and occasion of Vertue which is then in her full lustre when she doth eluctari os extra nubem strike and force her self out of that cloud which doth meet her in her course and would obscure her Faith and Hope are not the vertues of the Church triumphant but militant And we must buckle on the whole armour of God and stand ready-harnessed against the day of battel Not to fight is not to overcome For it is opposition that crowneth the conquerour Many professours we have many who say Lord Lord and live and die Christians of whom though we must hope well yet are we not certain that they are Saints For how know we whether he who held fast his profession when all was quiet and still about him would not have let go his hold upon the blast of a strong temptation How know we whether he who spake glorious words in the sun-shine would not have renounced them had the weather altered and the heavens been dark about him whether he who went for a defender of his faith till he fell down into his grave would not have forsook it at the sight of a sword or would have gone along with it to the stake and the fire and have took his death upon it It falleth out with some Christians as it doth with deformed women Non animus illis deest sed corruptor They are indeed very chast but not for want of will in themselves to play the wantons but for want of will in others to defile them and are more beholden to a bad face then a pure mind for their integrity Many are not Achans because there is no wedg◠of Gold before them many are not Judasses because there is no proffer made of thirty pieces many deny not Christ with Peter because there is none to question them Our faith is never seen in its full proportion and beauty till she come forth russata sanguine in her red garment with her back plowed upon in her own gore and bloud Thus doth God bring forth his choicest servants into the field against the sword and persecution his mighty men as if David should imploy the chiefest of his mighty men to break through the host of the Philistines as if Alexander should appoint a Parmenio or Caesar a Scaeva old experienced souldiers to bear the brunt of the battel Thus doth God handle those quos in magnis aeternae beatitudinis constituit exemplis whom he meaneth to make as great examples to draw others to the pursuit of eternal happiness and to fix them in the firmament of the Church for all eyes to behold 1 Pet. 1.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Beza rendereth it experimentum the tryal but it implyeth more the approbation of faith For in this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in Scripture as Rom. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind a mind that cannot be approved and Rom. 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approvest the things that are excellent and in divers other places That the tryal the approbation of your faith may be found to praise and glory For it is spoken of the righteous whose minds he must needs see and know who searcheth the heart and reins And therefore well knowing them he approveth them bringeth them forth before the Sun and the people to act their parts as on a theatre putteth them upon difficulties draweth them out as Gideon did his three hundred and sendeth the rest to their tents not tryeth but approveth them as his souldiers and biddeth them fight his battels As Gregory well expresseth When he is disposed to set up a picture in his Church to be well observed of all that shall come after that the people which shall be born may praise the Lord he doth it not by limning and painting but by the art of cutting and embroidery He dealeth not in colours as the Painter which according to his phansie he tempereth and layeth out to the view of the eye but he dealeth as the Embroiderer in more costly matter which he cutteth into pieces and fragments To adorn his Church with some rare pictures of Christian vertues he taketh his children and cutteth and mangleth them as it were into bits and pieces with crosses and calamities and then maketh them up again into most heavenly and angelical forms to
say are yet visible on the Mount For this were to fall upon the Disciples errour and to gaze still this were quite to forget the Angels Question Why stand ye gazing here and to lose our selves in the by-wayes and mazes of vain curiosity The Philosopher will tell us that that which is best in Kings their Magnificence Bounty Clemency is open to the view and made common and publick to every eye but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is hidden is dangerous their secret intents and counsels we do not know but with some hazard of our lives and states The holy Father Nâ—zianzene maketh the application for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is our King and he hath made his Law his Grace his Gospel his Oracles his Sufferings his Resurrection his Ascension as common to us as the Sun Faith Hope and Charity who may not look on these But those things which he hath veiled and drawn a cloud over as they are concealed so are they unnecessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are saith he to be placed in the last rank Why stand ye gazing here where the ground is so unsettled It is the observation of Aristotle that Place must be immoveable For if the thing on which we are seated be fluid and slide away from under us it is impossible it should serve us either for motion or rest And it is easie to observe how these unnecessary niceties and speculations glide and slide away from under us so that to endeavour to overtake them and rest and fix our selves upon them is as if we should strive to tread the waters and walk upon the wind No doctrine to be raised here no satisfaction to be had We may search but we shall never find we may gaze our eyes out and see no more of Christ then the Disciples here did when he was in the cloud To conclude this Let us remember Christ's words remember what he hath said unto us and do it Let us go with him to Bethany and see him in his ascent but when the cloud hath received him let us gaze no more but return to Jerusalem Let us see as much of Christ as he is pleased to shew us and rest in that and by that light walk before him as becometh Disciples have our conversation worthy of the Gospel of Christ. And so from the Angels Question Why stand ye here gazing into heaven we pass to the Resolve This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven Here are many Particulars observable and we cannot but glance upon them and touch them as we go First the Person who ascended JESUS a Saviour That is his name given indeed unto others as the name of God was to Moses to Judges to Kings but then it is but a deputative or assumed appellation For it is one thing to be called Jesus another really and essentially to be so one thing to be so in type and figure another to be so from all eternity Indeed saith Nyssene in respect of his various operations upon men he hath many names He is a Sword to divide asunder the soul and the spirit He is a Light to dispell the mist of ignorance He is a Lamb for meekness and innocency and a Lion for power But facilè intelliges quomodo multa bona sit Jesus saith Origen In this one name of JESUS all is contained For if he be a Sword it is to pierce and wound our souls with remorse that he may heal them if Light not to dazzle but to lighten those that sit in darkness if a Lamb it is to make himself a sacrifice if a Lion it is to destroy the Destroyer Whether he be a Sword or a Fire or a Light or a Lamb or a Lion all is that he may be JESUS a Saviour Whether he shine or burn strike or heal whether he humble himself to death or triumph over Death whether he be born or suffer or dye or rise again or ascend all is to open the gates of glory and perfect the great work of our Salvation All that he said all that he did is comprised in this word JESUS SOTER saith Tully hoc quantum est Ita magnum est ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non potest This name JESUS this name Saviour how great is it Even so great that in Latine we cannot find any one word to express it The best expression we have is our joy and gratitude as the Prophet Habakkuk speaketh GAUDERE IN DEO JESU NOSTRO to rejoyce in God our JESUS our salvation For consider what was taken up His Body even that Body that was plowed upon spit upon whipt nailed to the cross sealed up in the grave JESUS taken up in our nature taking with him the earnest of our flesh and nature and carrying it to heaven pignus-totius summae illuc quandoque redigendae a pledge and certain assurance that the whole lump all his members shall follow after And may not they now awake and sing that dwell in the dust who are buried alive in the scorn of the world and who are raked up in the pit of oblivion Behold JESUS is taken up And if he be taken up in our nature he will draw all men after him the prisoner to a place of liberty his despised servants to sit at his table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob the poor into Abraham's bosom and them that mourn to his right hand where there are pleasures for evermore And that Jesus ascended in the next place the Angels themselves appeal to the Disciples eye and sense Which appeal is left as a fair testimony of his Ascension and as a strong confirmation of faith Ye have seen him thus taken up And it is left upon record for our sakes who notwithstanding are too ready to dispute our selves out of our faith and to require stronger proofs and fairer evidence then the matter and object can afford and are still driving forward towards Impossibilities We would see God who is invisible know Christ in the flesh who is now in heaven call back the times past to present us with the sight of Christ and his Apostles and all his miracles and make that which Faith onely can apprehend the object of our Sense For this temptation hath taken hold on many who have been ready to ask why Christ did not in every age of the world most gloriously shew himself unto the world who would have matters of Faith written with the Sun-beams and the Ascension of Christ made manifest to the eye Thus whilest they seek to establish they take away the nature of Faith quite For if these mysteries of salvation were as evident to the Sense as it is that the Sun doth shine the apprehension of them would not be an act of our Faith but of our Knowledge and not to believe without such an evidence is as great an errour as to believe without any
evidence or confirmation at all And therefore saith Tertullian Christ shewed not himself openly to the people after his resurrection ut fides non mediocri praemio destinata difficultate constaret that faith which is destined to a crown might not consist without some difficulty but commend it self by our obedience Nec tam veniam quà m praemium habet ignorare quod credis Not perfectly to know what thou believest doth so little stand in need of pardon that it will procure and bring with it a reward What obedience is it for a man to assent to this That the whole is greater then the part That the Sun doth shine or to any of those truths which are so visible to the eye that they force the understanding and leave there an impossibility â—o dissent But when the object is in part hidden and in part seen when the truth which I assent to hath more probability to speak for it and persuade it then can be brought to shake and weaken it John 20.29 then our Saviour himself pronounceth Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed Again it were in vain that Christ should thus visibly every day shew himself We have Moses and the Prophets We have the testimony of his Disciples who saw him ascend And if we will not believe them neither would we have believed if we had been with them on mount Olivet and seen him received up into the cloud For if we will not believe God's word we should soon learn to discredit his miracles though they were done before the Sun and the people God rained down Manna upon the Israelites For all this they sinned still and believed not his wondrous works The Pharisees saw Christ's miracles yet would have stoned him The people said He hath done all things well yet these were they who crucified the Lord of Life And the reason is plain For though Faith be an act of the Understanding yet it dependeth upon the Will Whence it cometh to pass that many men build up an opinion without any basis or foundation at all without any evidence nay against all evidence whatsoever Quot voluntates tot fides So many Wills as there are nay so many Humours so many Creeds there be For every man believeth as he will I dare appeal to men of the poorest observation and least experience What else is that which turneth us about like the hand of a dial from one point to another from one persuasion to a contrary What is that that wheeleth and circleth us about that we touch at every opinion and settle on none How cometh it to pass that I now tremble at that which anon I embrace though I have the same evidence that that is not Perjury to day which was so yesterday that that is Devotion and Zeal now which from my youth upwards to this present I branded with the loathsom name of Sacrilege How is it that my belief shifteth so many scenes and presenteth it self in so many several shapes Beloved it is the prevalency and victory of our Sensitive part over our Reason that maketh so many several so many contrary impressions in the mind Self-love and the Love of the world these frame our Creeds these plant and build these root out and pull down build up a belief and then beat it down to the ground and then set up another in its place For commonly we believe and disbelieve for the same reason We are Atheists for advantage and we are Christians for advantage We embrace the Truth for our profit and convenience and for our profit we renounce it and we make the same overture for heaven which we do for destruction will believe any thing for a truth that flattereth our humour and count that Truth it self a heresie that thwarteth it In a word that we believe not the Truth is not for want of evidence but for want of will Last of all the knowledge a Christian hath of these high mysteries can be no other but by Faith Novimus si credimus Christian dost thou believe Thou hast then been at mount Olivet and seen thy crucified Saviour ascend into heaven With S. Stephen thou hast seen the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand And though thou canst not argue or dispute though thou canst not untie every knot and resolve every doubt though thou canst not silence the Jew nor stop the mouth of the unbelieving Arheist yet qui credit satis est ei quod credat there is required of thee no more then to believe and to believe is salvation One man saith the Father hath faith another hath also skill and ability to stand out against all the world and comâ— forth a defender of the faith another is strong and mighty in faith but not so able with art and skill to maintain it The one is doctior non fidelior The one hath advantage and preeminence over the other in learning and knowledge but not in faith may be the deeper scholar but not the better Christian may be of necessary use titubantibus to men who doubt but not credentibus to those who stand fast in the faith and liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free Both have the same evidence and it may be as powerful in the one for practice as it is in the other for speculation and argument We know those who saw Christ suscitantem mortuos raising up men from the dead believed not when he believed and confessed him who saw him pendentem in ligno hanging on the cross Surgunt indocti Simple and unlearned men take the kingdom of heaven by violence when the great Rabbies stand below and make no approch Illi ratiocinentur nos credamus Let the wise and the scribe and the disputer of this world argue and doubt our rejoycing is in our faith Let them dispute we will fall down at this great sight Let them reason we will believe not onely that this Jesus was thus taken up but that he shall come again Which is another article of our Creed and our last part and must now serve onely for conclusion And it is good to conclude with comfort And VENIET He shall come again was not onely a Resolve but a Message of comfort by two Angels who stood by in albis in the colours of joy to comfort the Disciples who were now troubled and did stoop for heaviness of heart because Christ was taken away He shall come again Prov. 12.25 was that good word which did make their hearts glad made them return to Jerusalem as Christ ascended into heaven in Jubilo in triumph But now it may be a word of comfort yet not unto all that shall hear it That which is comfort to one may be a sentence of condemnation to another The VENIET He shall come again may open as the heavens to receive the one and as the gates of hell to devour the other For what is a promise to him that is not partaker of
it What is comfort to him that will not be comforted What is heaven to a child of perdition It is a word of the future tense as all promises are of things to come And it is verbum operativum a word full of efficacy and virtue to awake and stir up our Faith to raise our Hope and enflame our Charity It hath a kindly aspect upon all these And first upon our Faith For ideò abcessit Dominus ut fides nostra aedificetur Our Saviour was therefore taken up into heaven that our faith which may reach him there may be built up here on earth He therefore lay hid that this eye might search him out Faith is a kind of Prospective or optick instrument by which we see things afar off as if they were near at hand and things that are not yet as if they now were It turneth Veniet into the present tense and beholdeth Christ as â—ow already descending with a shout And this is sancta impudentia fidei the holy boldness and confidence of Faith to break through all difficulties whatsoever if the object be in heaven to place it on earth if it be invisible to make it visible and if Christ say he will come to say he is come already And now Beloved try and examine your selves whether ye be in this faith In other things how cautelous we are what counsel do we ask how do we use our own and other mens eyes and how are we grieved how crest-fallen if we be over-reached as one that is beaten in battel and hath lost the day But then how easily are we abused how willing to deceive our selves how well pleased to erre where the errour is fatal and deleterial to the soul Will not a weak and groundless opinion a phansie a shadow be taken for that Faith which is the substance of things not seen Glorious things are spoken of Faith It is called a full assent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full assurance a full persuasion of mind And is ours so Nay for the most of us would we did but believe the second coming of Christ as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we believe a lie Would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed Even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would level many would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those sins which have nothing of the pain but are as loathsome as Hell it self Nequicquam segniùs credita movent quà m cognita saith one Those things which are but credible and believed move and set us a working many times as powerfully as those things which we know What maketh us venture our selves by sea and by land rise up early and lie down late bear all things endure all things but a firm belief that this is the way to honour and wealth What Faith then is that which cannot strike the timbrel out of our hands nor the strumpet out of our arms which cannot make us displease our selves nor unfold our arms not silence a word not stifle a thought but leaveth us with as little life and motion as those who have been dead long ago although the VENIET the doctrine of Christ's second Advent sound as loud as the Trump shall do at the last day Faith shall we call this or a Dream or an Echo from a sepulcher of rotten bones which when all the world proclaimeth Christ's second coming resoundeth it back again into the world a Faith that can speak but cannot walk nor work a Faith that may dwell in the heart of an hypocrite a murtherer a traitor a Devil For all these may believe or at least profess that Christ will come again and yet be that liar that Antichrist which denieth Jesus to be the Christ or that he ever came in the flesh Secondly as this VENIET casteth an aspect upon Faith so it doth upon Hope which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bloud of our soul saith Clement without which it will be faint and pale and languish Therefore oportet habere aliquem spei cumulum saith Terrullian this addition of Hope to Faith is most necessary For if we had all Faith and had no Hope this all would profit us nothing Faith without Hope may be in hell as well as on earth For magnifie Faith as much as you please and make it an Idol and fall down and worship it It is a true saying and worthy of all acceptation BY FAITH WE ARE SAVED But we have reason to fear that this true saying hath damned many not in it self for so Tâ—uth can bring forth nothing but life but through the corruption of mens hearts which turneth Manna it self into poison and Life into Death And let me tell you Hope will not raise it self upon every Faith nor is Faith alvvayes a fit basis for Hope to build on He that despaireth believeth or he could not despair For vvho can droop for fear of that VENIET that Judgment vvhich he believeth vvill never come Oh foolish men that vve are who hath bewitched us that vve should glory in Faith and Hope make them the subject of our songs of praise and rejoycing when our Faith is but such a one as is dead and our Hope at last will make us ashamed when our Faith is the same which is in hell and our Hope vvill leave us vvith the Devil and his Angels a Faith vvorse then Infidelity and a Hope as dangerous as Despair and that serve onely to adde to the number of our stripes yet this is the Faith this is the Hope of the world These are thy Gods O Israel Therefore in the third place that vve may joyn these tvvo together Faith and Hope vve must dravv in that excellent gift of Charity which is copulatrix virtus the coupling vertue not onely of Men but of these two Theological vertues For as I told you though Hope do suppose Faith yet Faith may shew it self vvhen Hope is thrust out of doors and many there be vvho have subscribed to the VENIET that Christ will come again vvho have small reason to hope for his coming How many believe that he will come and bring his reward with him and yet strike off their own chariot-wheels and drive but heavily towards it How many believe there is a Judge to come and wish there were none Faith and Hope dwell not in the heart till Charity hath taken up the room But when she is shed and spred abroad in our hearts then they are in conjunction and meet together and kiss each other Therefore this promise of Christ's coming is a threat a thunderbolt if these three Graces meet not if Faith work not by Love and both together raise a Hope And as VENIET here looketh upon our Faith and Hope so it calleth for our Charity For velimus nolimus veniet whether we will or no whether we bâ—lieve or no whether we hope or no he will certainly come But when
we love him then we love also his appearance and his coming 2 Tim. 4.8 And our Love is a subscription to his promise by which we truly testifie our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to the Angels promise Amen Even so come Lord Jesus That of Faith may be forced that of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come to me as an enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the chair of the scornful or lie in the bed of lust that he should come to me and find me with a strumpet in my arms or a sword in my hand fighting against that Power which is his ordinance For doth any condemned person hope for a day of execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improved his Talent and brought my self to that temper and constitution that I can idem velle idem nolle will and nill the same things and be of the same mind with that Jesus who is to come when I have made my self the friend of the Judge then Spes festina then Hope is on the wing then substantia mea apud Christum as the Vulgar readeth it my expectation my substance my being is with Christ Nec pareo Deo sed assentior And I do not onely subscribe to the VENIET to his coming because he hath decreed and resolved it but because I can make an hearty acknowledgment that the will of Christ is just and good and I assent not of necessity but of a willing mind And as he who testifieth these things confirmeth the Angels promise with this last word Surely I come quickly so shall I be able truly to answer Even so come Lord Jesus In the last place this VENIET this foretelling of Christ's second coming hath another operation and is powerful to work in us Fear and Circumspection the very prop and foundation of those three Theological vertues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preservative of all the good we have It tempereth our Love that it be not too bold our Faith that it be not too forward and our Hope that it be not too confident It is as a watch and guard upon us to keep us in all our wayes VENIET is of the future tense and though it be most certain that Christ will come yet the time is not determined that we may so love Christ as that we may be fit to believe and hope and long for his coming The VENIET may end this moment and the promise be made good as well this day or the next as a thousand years hence The When God hath kept as a secret in his own breast ut pendulâ expectatione solicitudo fidei probetur saith Tertullian that by suspending our expectation and leaving us uncertain of the time he may make trial of the watchfulness of their faith whom he meaneth to place among the few but great examples of eternal happiness Semper diem observant qui semper ignorant semper timent qui quotidie sperant Whilest men are ignorant of the day they observe every day and fear that Christ may come this minute who they know will come at last Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine Brethren he will come he will come assuredly and we must be careful how he findeth us when he cometh He will come not as at the first in the form of a servant but as a King not as a sheep that openeth not his mouth but with a mighty voice shaking the heaven and earth with Angels and with Archangels by the power of his Trump raising the dead out of their graves and bringing them all to his seat of judgment He shall come in great majesty and glory So come say the Angels as ye have seen him go into heaven Which pointeth to the manner of Christ's coming and should now come to be handled But the time will not permit Onely for conclusion let us remember that he shall come and shall not keep silence that a fire shall devour before him and a tempest round about him that he shall come cum totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum with an earthquake and the horrour of the world and with the lamentation of all except Christians Et qui nunc ventilat gentes per fidem tunc ventilabit per judicium And he that now winnoweth the nations and separateth them one from the other by faith will then search and divide the whole world by his last and decretory sentence And let this noise startle the Adulterer in his twilight strike the sword out of the hand of the Rebellious and awake the Atheist out of his deep sleep and lethargy For this Jesus this same Jesus shall so come who placed Adultery in the eye and Murther in the thought and commanded to give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar'◠and he shall judge the Adulterer and the seditious Rebel according to that Gospel which he preached in great humility and which many Christians Atheistical Christians trample under their feet with as great pride 2 Cor. 5.11 And let this terrour of the Lord as S. Paul calleth it persuade men to lay aside every weight and those sins which do so easily beset us our Covetous desires which fasten us to the dust our Pride which though it lift up our heads on high yet at last will have a fall our Ambibition which though it reach the pinnacle yet cannot build its nest in heaven our Seditious and Atheistical imaginations which can never enter that place where Obedience and Humility sit crowned for neither Covetousness nor Pride nor Rebellion can ascend with Christ who was humble and yet the Prince of peace But SURSUM CORDA Let us lift up our hearts even lift them up unto the Lord. Let our conversation be in heaven Imitemur quod futuri sumus Let our life be a type of the Ascension and our present holiness an imitation of our future bliss Let us mortifie our earthly members now that then they may be glorified Let us ascend in heart and with all the powers of our soul now in this life that when this Jesus shall come again in glory and great Majesty we may be caught up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air and be with him for evermore The Fifteenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's WE have in our last presented before your eyes the bloudy and victorious Passion and glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ The later our Apostle mentioneth ver 14. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power raise us not onely out of the grave but out of that deep prison and dungeon
furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of Faith But that Faith should be idle or speechless or dead is contrary to its nature and proceedeth from our depraved dispositions from Love of the world and Love of our selves which can silence it or lull it asleep or bury it in oblivion Thus we may have Faith as if we had it not and use it as we should use the world as if we used it not or worse abuse it not believe and say it but believe and deny it not believe and be saved but believe and be damned For the Devil can haereticare propositiones make propositions which are absolutely true heretical Believe and be saved is as true as Gospel nay it is the Gospel it self but by his art and deceit many believe and are by so much the bolder in the wayes which lead unto Death believe Jesus to be the Lord and contemn him believe him to be a Saviour and upon presumption of mercy make themselves uncapable of mercy and because he saveth sinners will be such sinners as he cannot save because they believe he taketh away the sins of the world will harden themselves in those sins which he will not take away Many there be who do veritatem sed non per vera tenere maintain the Truth but by those wayes which are contrary to the Truth make that which should confirm Religion destroy Religion and their whole life a false gloss upon a good Text having a form of godliness but denying the power of it crying Jesus is the Lord but scourging him with their blasphemies as if he were a slave and fighting against him with their lusts and affections as if he were an enemy sealing him up in his grave as if he were not that Jesus that Saviour that Lord but in the Jews language that deceiver that blasphemer But this is a most broken and imperfect language And though we are said to believe it when we cannot believe it to have the habit of Faith when we have not the use of Reason and so cannot bring it forth into act as some Divines conceive though it be spoke for us at the Font when we cannot speak and though when we can speak it we speak it again and again as often almost at we speak Lord Lord though we gasp it forth with our last breath and make it the last word we speak yet all this will not make up the Dicere all this will not rise to thus much as to say JESUS IS THE LORD Therefore In the third place that we may truly say it we must speak it to God as God speaketh to us whose word is his deed who cannot lie who Numb 23.19 if he saith it will doe it if he speak it will make it good And as he speaketh to us by his Benefits which are not words but blessings the language of Heaven by his Rain to water the earth by his Wool to clothe us and by his Bread to feed us so must we speak to him by our Obedience by Hearts not hollow by Tongues not deceitful by Hands pure and innocent Our heart conceiveth and our obedience is the report made abroad And this is indeed LO QUI to speak out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make our works vocal and our words operative to have lightning in our words and thunder in our deeds as Nazianzene spake of Basil that not onely Men and Angels may hear and see and applaud us but this Lord himself may understand our dialect and by that know us to be his children and accept and reward us In our Lord and Saviour's Alphabet these are the Letters in his Grammar these are the Words Meekness and Patience Compassion and Readiness to forgive Self-denial and Taking up our cross This must be our Dialect We cannot better express our Jesus and our Lord then idiomate operum by the language of our works by the language of the Angels whose Elogium is They doe his will the Tongue of Angels is not so proper as their Ministery for indeed their Ministery is their Tongue by the language of the Innocents who confessed him to be the Lord not by speaking but by dying by the language of the blessed Martyrs who in their tumultuary executions when they could not be heard for noise were not suffered to confess him said no more but took their death on it And this is truly to say Jesus is the Lord. For if he be indeed our Lord then shall we be under his command and beck Not a thought must rise which he would controll not a word be uttered which he would silence not an action break forth which he forbideth not a motion be seen which he would stop The very name of Lord must awe us must possess and rule us must inclose and bound us and keep us in on every side Till this be done nothing is done nothing is said We are his purchase and must fall willingly under his Dominion For as God made Man a little World so hath he made him a little Commonwealth Tertullian calleth him Fibulam utriusque substantiae the Clasp or Button which tieth together two diverse substances the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other saith S. Paul are carried diverse wayes the Flesh to that which is pleasing to it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as pleasing nor irksom but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the perfection and beauty of the soul Gal. 5.17 They lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battel is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit against those inclinations and motions which the Word and the Spirit beget in us And then Sin taketh the chair the place and throne of Christ and is Lord over us reigneth as S. Paul speaketh in our mortal bodies If it say Go we go and if it say Come we come and if it say Doe this we doe it It maketh us lay down that price for dung with which we might purchase heaven See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look and the glance of an eye and bindeth him with a kiss which will at last bite like a serpent See how Self-love driveth on thousands as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword And thus doth Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it over us And in this bondage and slavery can we truly say Jesus is the Lord when he is disgraced deposed and even crucified again Beloved whilest this fighting and contention lasteth in us something or other will lay hold on us and draw us within its
They had a full harvest we our sheaf yet our sheaf may make an offering Though our coyn be smaller yet the same image and stamp is on them both and the Spirit will own us though we weigh less All this is true But yet I must still remember you that whilest I build up the power of the Spirit I erect no asylum or sanctuary for illusions and wilful mistakes and when I have raised a fort and strong-hold for sober Christians I mean it not a shelter or refuge for mad-men and phantasticks God forbid that Truth should be banished out of the world because some men by false illations have made her factious or that Errour should straight be crowned with approbation because perhaps we read of some men who have been bettered with a lie The teaching of the Spirit it were dangerous to teach it were there not means to try and distinguish the Spirit 's instructions from the suggestions of Satan or the evaporations of a sick and loathsome brain or our own private Humour which is as great a Devil Beloved 1 John 4.1 saith the Apostle believe not every spirit that is every inspiration but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world that is have taken the chair and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnal And he giveth the rule by which we should try them Vers 2 Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is Whosoever striveth to advance the Kingdom of Christ and to set up the Spirit against the Flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote and further men in the wayes of innocency and perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happiness is from God that is every such inspiration is from the Spirit of God For therefore doth the Spirit breathe upon us that he may make us like unto God and so draw us to him that where he is we may be also But those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal which cry up Religion to gain the world which call their own discipline Christ's Discipline which he never framed and spurn at his to maintain their own which tread down Peace and Charity and all that is indeed praise-worthy under their feet to make way for their unguided lust to pace it more delicately to its end which sigh out Faith and Grace and Christ like mourners about the streets which attend a funeral when the World and Satan hath filled their hearts and thus sow in tears that they may reap the profits and pleasures of this present world with joy which magnifie God's will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God By their fruits ye shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cobweb-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spiritual men sweating and toiling for the Flesh these Saints digging in the minerals labouring for the bread that perisheth and making haste to be rich For though many times their wine be the poison of dragons and their milk not at all sincere yet they are not to be bought without money or money-worth Though GLORIA PATRI Glory to God on high be the Prologue to the Play for what doth a Hypocrite but play yet the whole drift and business of every Scene and Act is chearfully to draw altogether in this From hence we have our gain The Angel speaketh the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make the Epilogue Date manus Why should not every man give them his hands Surely such Roscii such cunning Actors deserve a Plaudite By their fruits ye shall know them For what though the voice be Jacobs Ye may know Esau by his hands What though the Devil turn Angel of light Ye may know him by his claws by his malice and rage For how can an Angel of light tear men in pieces By their fruits ye may know them So ye see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by the Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching is not unavoidable It is not necessary though I mistake and take the Devil for an Angel that the holy Ghost should be put to silence Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf Samuel runneth to Eli 1 Sam. 3. Vers 9. when the voice was God's but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Though there were many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one Though there be many false Prophets come into the world yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our chief but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sole Instructor Our last Part In which we shall be very brief We are told in the verse next after the Text There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit And we may say There are diversities of teachers but the same Spirit because be the conveyances and conduits never so many through which the knowledge of our Lord Jesus is brought unto us if the Sririt move not along with it it may be water indeed but not of life Because all means are but instrumental but He the prime Agent we may well call him not onely the chief but the sole Instructor The Church of Christ is DOMUS DOCTRINAE the House of learning as it is called in the Chaldee Paraphrase and COLUMNA VERITATIS 1 Tim. 3.15 the Pillar of the truth because it presenteth the knowledge of Christ as a Pillar doth an Inscription and even offereth and urgeth it to every eye that it may not slip out of our memories and SCHOLA CHRISTI the School of Christ in respect of his Precepts and Discipline Such glorious things have been spoken of the Church But now methinks this House is ruinous this Pillar shaken this School broken up and dissolved and the Church which bore so great a name standeth for nothing but the walls A Jesuite telleth us that at the very name of the CHURCH hostis expalluit the Enemy that is such as he called Hereticks did look pale and tremble But what is it now amongst us Nothing or but a Name and in truth a Name is nothing And that too is vanishing for it is changed into another And yet it is the same for they both signifie one and the same thing So prevalent amongst us is that Phansie and Folly which is taken for the Spirit A Church no doubt there is and will be but we onely see it as we do the Church Triumphant through a glass darkly Or she may be fair as the Moon clear as the Sun but sure she is not terrible as an army with banners Secondly the Word is a Teacher And Christ by open proclamation hath commanded us to have recourse unto it
26.8 This argument David's devotion framed because he loved the beauty of God's house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We render it the habitation Which giveth us thus much to understand Psal 96.7 110.3 That God doth dwell in the beauty of holiness I will not shew you the face of Antiquity For we must either fling durt at it or else hide our own either censure our fore-fathers too-much devotion or be ashamed of our own miserable neglect and profaneness I will not shew you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beauty and glory of their Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most worthy to be looked upon I will not shew you them raised up to an height unmeasurable as Eusebius speaketh more beautiful then their first founders had made them nor with what joy the Christians then more devout I fear more sincere nay more zealous then they of after-ages beheld them in their rich and better attire I might repeat many of their penegyrical exsultations when it was so and their sad complaints when it was otherwise Even they did allow it who seemed to speak against it Vestiant parietes marmorum crustis faith Hierome Let them line the walls with marble and gild them which feel it not Non reprehendo non abnuo I do not censure it I am not against it This is good and laudable But better it were the temples of the holy Ghost were made glorious with piety And indeed in those dayes when Devotion cryed up the building and beautifying of Churches and they did much glory in it yet in time of necessity and persecution they would strip their Churches to cloth their naked and sell their rich vessels to buy bread for the hungry Their pious affection to God and Religion made them account such cost very convenient and useful but they never looked upon it as a matter of absolute necessity without which Religion would fall to the ground While they could they were willing in some measure to take from themselves that they might adde to the splendour of God's house But when they were in streights they comforted themselves in this That God would accept the largeness of their hearts and their zealous affections They well knew necessaria praeferenda esse non necessariis that those duties which are absolutely necessary are to be preferred before those which have no such binding necessity to commend them And this is enough and they that quarrel it say nothing These are the best arguments till better are brought and till better are brought we may well rest in these Call the place appointed for publick worship by the name which God himself hath given it call it God's house and count it holy but for no other reason but because it is his and then for his sake for Religions sake for our own sake give it that honour which is due unto it fit and prepare it for that end for which it was set up Psal 96.7 that so we may meet together and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness What I would adde by way of application I shall defer till the next opportunity The Three and Twentieth SERMON PART II. PSAL. CXXII 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us or We will go into the house of the Lord. 1. THey were many that went to the house of the Lord the tribes even the tribes of the Lord go up And though there be no virtue nor power in Number yet we see it was that which made David glad at the heart that God was praised in the great congregation and among much people Psal 35.18 Therefore let us also exhort and provoke one another to go up to the Lord's house and gather as much company as we can to his service In the Devil's work one is too many but in God's many are too few For no number but All are fit for him who hath right and title to every man and whose dominion reacheth over all For other ends a number a multitude is soon gathered together How do men run to see a man clothed in soft raiment How hastily have we seen thousands joyn in a Covenant and within a while after as hastily engage to the contrary How many confused assemblies have we seen where the greatest part knew not why they were met together Acts 19.32 yet being met how have they kept tune and cried up they knew not what like Demetrius and his fellow-crafts-men they cry Great is their Diana though it be but a puppet Vbi plures erant omnes fuere as Tacitus saith Where the moâ—â— are there will soon be more and all will joyn with the many And shall Ambition and Covetousness shall Malice and Envy shall Folly it self have such force as to muster multitudes yea armies of men and shall Religion and Christ have so thin and poor a retinue Shall the Devil's chappel receive more then God's Church But for us the question had never been put Luke 13.23 Are there few that shall be saved For God calleth all and we may resolve for that which is good as well as for that which is evil for God as well as for Mammon 2. DIXERUNT They said and they resolved that they would serve the Lord. And so must we not say and promise onely but say and resolve it not onely see that which is good but see to the end contemplate the beauty and glory of it till we have drawn it in and in a manner consubstantiated it with our souls It is a strange thing to consider how resolute we are in that which we should abhor as Death it self that no law no terrour no danger can beat us from it what decrees we make in our selves to be rich how peremptory we are to revenge with what wings we fly to honour what fiery spirits we have in lust and how we put on the courage of a horse and even neigh after that which is forbidden how we hold up our resolution till the twilight in which time we might have parleyed with our selves and reasoned down our resolution On the contrary what shaking and paralytical thoughts have we about that which most concerneth us and what weak and feeble approches do we make towards it Isa 37.3 When the child is ready for the birth we have no strength to bring forth We resolve to be chast yet pollute our selves we resolve to go to Church yet upon the weakest inducement stay at home we resolve to be honest yet break our faith not to take God's name in vain and yet are perjured The reason is plain The Prince of this world hath more power over us then that God who made it And therefore if we will resolve to serve the Lord we must do what our Saviour hath done already and what he hath taught and enabled us to do John 12 31. We must cast the Prince of this world out 3. They agreed in their resolution IBIMUS We will go In like manner we must
Piety to act their parts on Here is water Act. 8. saith the Eunuch to Philip what now hindereth but that I may be baptized Here is a fair opportunity here is a Lazar at the gates what hindreth why doth not Compassion break forth as the morning and Comfort spring forth suddenly Here are sores why do we not dress them Here is an empty mouth why do we not fill it Here is a naked body why do we not part with our vain superfluities I might say with our own garment to cover it Here God speaks and Man speaks and Misery speaks and are our Hearts so hard that they will not open and so open the Mouth and open the Hands Shall our Pride and Scorn and not our Piety make an answer Beloved God hath laid many Lazars at our Gates presented us many sad and bleeding spectacles laid them down at our feet before our very eyes it is pity we should not be as much affected with them as we are with those we never saw that a relation from a far should pierce us and the lamentations which bring in our cares should leave us such rocks as no Moses no Prophets of the Lord can force one drop of water from that we should gush out in the one and be dry in other I could shew you many such spectacles I need not shew you for you see them every day I could shew you naked and miserable men I could shew you a naked and miserable Church stript of all her ornaments of all the glory wherewith her Mother the persons Charity of former times had clothed her Her light is well-neer put out yet the apple of our eye resteth God hath thundred but our earth is not melted he hath powred forth his indignation yet his arm is not revealed unto us Where are our sighs and lamentations Who hath sat down and wept at the remembrance of Sion Nay where was not the Garment of joy the bed of Ivory and the sound of the viol Where hath Vanity more displayed it self then in the midst of those evils which were sent from God to pull it down When were our eyes more wanton then in the midst of those ruthful objects which might put them out When were we worse then under that discipline which should make us better And indeed vvhat comfort can vve look for here from proud covetous vvanton men You may look as vvell for Liberty in a prison or for joy in hell Beloved let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus and then and not till then are you fit for this duty Shake off the Love of the vvorld vvhich he came to overcome Crucifie the Flesh for vvhich he vvas crucified and then you vvill love those men for vvhom he died Then vvill you vveep over Jerusalem as he did strive to make up the breaches of it and cement it even with your tears and bloud Then will you have so much piety as to bewayl the decay of it Then will you be ready to reach forth the hand to them who lie in the dust And if ye cannot help them up ye will at least pity them And where we cannot help Compassion is comfort Then shall we lay hold on every occasion of doing good and bless God for it Then shall we live together as Men as Brethren as Angels pouring forth this oyl and receiving it watering as Solomon speaketh and being watered again And in this mutual dispensation of blessings and comforts helping and supporting one another we shall be carried along in the same stream towards the Haven where we would be and press forward as it were hand in hand to those joyes and comforts which are laid up for those who comfort one another by the God of consolation in the Kingdome of heaven And now I should pass to my last part the Rule or Method we must use in this Duty but of that in the afternoon The One and Thirtieth SERMON PART II. 1 THESS IV. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words WE have spoken of the Persons one another and of the Duty comfort We pass now to our last part the Manner or Method how the Duty must be performed with these words Hence we may gather 1. That we must observe a rule and method in this Duty Every box will not yield us Physick we cannot find this balm in every place nor draw 〈◊〉 water of comfort out of every well 2. That this is methodus de coelo that this method is taught not in the school of nature but of Christ No words will produce comfort but the words of Wisdome it self To take it more generally and by way of deduction We shall find it in the Word of God and more particularly in these words concerning the coming of Christ and the Resurrection of the dead So we shall draw the waters of Comfort out of the wells of salvation With these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion at this time First in every action we must look to the manner and observe a right method in our proceeding For he that is out of the way though he walk and walk on all the daies of his life shall never come to his journeys end He that begins amiss is yet to begin and the further he goes the further he is fâ—om the end As S. James speaks of Prayer Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss so we seek Comfort and find not because we seek amiss Lord in what errours and perplexities do we entangle our selves what mazes and labyrinths do we toyl in what dangerous praecipices do we venture on how do we mistake poyson for physick hell for heaven a prison for paradise how many evils do we run and bruise our selves upon to fly the face of one and yet carry it along with us Quà m operosè perimus What pains do we take to ease that is to trouble and vex and undo our selves When we are in restraint we seek liberty and more enslave our selves When we are in pain we seek ease and our torment is increast When we are sick we take physick and dye Our eyes run to and fro through the earth we seek comfort in every place and under every leaf and under every leaf we find a serpent Our Phansy is our Physician and other mens phansies are our physicians We ask our selves counsel and they are fools that give it We ask other men counsel and they are deceitful flattering miserable comforters We would be at ease and seek out many inventions and pass by that which is so easie to be found For want of method and a right progress in our waies our life is nothing else but a continuation of errour Nec tam morbis quà m remediis laboramus nor do our diseases trouble us so much as our remedies And as they will say Lo here is Christ and Lo there is Christ so they will say Lo here is comfort and there is comfort But as those are false Christs so
the walls of Jerusalem to disannul the Law and to establish the Gospel magni opus moliminis an enterprise of great difficulty and therefore to be wrought with might and main by wonders and great signs As the Law was promulged with thunder and lightning so must the Gospel also by a voice from heaven even by great miracles which are the dialect and language of Power and are from heaven heavenly For in every Miracle there are two things as Aquinas saith Quod fit and Propter quod fit 1. the Thing done which must exceed the power of Nature and that order which God hath settled and established in the world and 2. the End for which it is done vvhich is alwayes supernatural for confirmation of some necessary truth Indeed if we consider the omnipotencie of the Agent properly there is no miracle at all It being as easie for the Creator of all things to alter the course of Nature as at first to establish it to bid the Sun stand still as to command it to run its race to put out the Stars as to light them in their sphears to give sight to the blind as at first to give them eyes to unloose the tongue as to make it Deus ita magnus est in operibus magnis ut minor non sit in minimis saith S. Augustine God is so great in his greatest works that he is no whit less in his least as great in the making of a Fly as of an Angel The Divine hand is alwayes like it self even in the production of those things which are most unlike But to us some works are wonderful quia inordinatè veniunt because they transcend the common course and order of things And it hath pleased God in his Divine goodness to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sakes and for our salvation to be various and manifold in the expression of his power and when we cannot behold him as we should in those obvious and plain but wonderful characters engraven in the book of Nature to present us with those which the hand of Nature cannot draw He openeth the eyes of the blind that we who sat in darkness may see the true light he multiplyeth the loaves that we may hunger after righteousness he maketh the dumb to speak that we may sing his praises he casteth out the devil that we acknowledge him to be God Quot miracula tot documenta Every miracle was a lesson not onely for shew but for instruction and to work in us the obedience of faith For though God alone be the Authour of our faith yet he worketh it in us by this means By his wonders as by a kind of iradiation from himself he illuminateth the Understanding and maketh the Will pliable so that we readily embrace the truth which before we were afraid of He who having been born blind received his sight John 9.30 wondred that the Pharisees should not know whence he was who had opened his eyes and thought their blindness almost as great a miracle as his recovery By this light and by the gratious and wonderful speaches which flowed from him the Woman here in the Text saw those excellencies that were in Christ and discovered him to be no common and ordinary person She made a right use of the light whilest it shone in its brightness As Christ did and spake these things it came to pass saith the Text. Her free acknowledgment did as it were keep time with the miracle for no sooner had Christ ended his speach but she lifteth up her voice Now as the Apostle saith of Abel Hebr. 11.4 this Woman being dead yet speaketh She bespeaketh us to have Christ's wondrous works in remembrance to lay hold on all occasions which may either beget or confirm our faith dum ventus operam dat vela explicare whilest the wind bloweth whilest the Spirit breatheth to unfold our sails that we may be carried on in a straight and even course to the knowledge and practice of the truth which will make us happy This is indeed to make the right use of God's works and words and to drive them to the right end Vnumquodque propter suam operationem saith the Philosopher Every thing is and hath its being for its proper operation for the work it hath to do If miracles work no alteration in us they are no miracles to us If God's words prevail not we nullifie them by our infidelity and disobedience as much as in us lieth we make the works and words of God of none effect and shorten the arm and weaken the hand of the Almighty What were all the beauty in the world if there were no eye to descry it What are all the riches of the Gospel without faith What were the greatest miracle if all the world were Pharisees Non videt qui non credit miracula saith S. Augustine To him that believeth not Miracles have lost their force and are not wonderful But ye will say perhaps that Miracles are now ceased We see no sign we behold no wonder No blind receive their sight no dumb spirits are cast out in our streets It is true nor is it necessary there should not so necessary now the Church hath stretched forth the curtains of her habitation as when she scarce had a being That watring is not requisite now she is grown and become a tree that was when she was like a grain of mustard-seed Matth. 13.31 32. Of the miracles of these times we may say what Livie saith of the prodigies of his Quò magìs credebant simplices religiosi homines eò plura nuntiantur The forward credulity of simple and devout souls hath much encreased their number The Legend had not been so full had men been slower of belief and not so ready to credit what every impostour hath been active to invent But yet though Miracles are ceased and we see no more signs though Christ cast not out devils nor raise the dead yet still he speaketh these things and still he teacheth us And we may say we see him curing diseases giving sight to the blind ears to the deaf feet to the lame a tongue to the dumb casting out devils and raising the dead because his word endureth for ever 2 Pet. 1.19 and as S. Peter saith is firmior sermo and the surest testimony we can have And if we will not believe his word neither would we believe though we saw him now raising up one from the dead Further I may say with S. Gregory Quod corporaliter tunc faciebat Christus illud S. Ecclesia spiritualiter quotidie facit What Christ did in person then he doth every day now spiritually by the Church When by our ministery the Covetous is brought to stretch forth his hand to help the poor then Christ hath recovered a dry hand when the Ignorant learn his statutes he giveth sight to the blind when we open our lips which Fear had sealed up so that we dare
up one another and if you remove and take one away the rest will fall So it is here These two especial stones of our spiritual building our first Resurrection and our Seeking of things above do mutually hold up and mutually prove one another For take away but the stone of our first Resurrection and that of Seeking the things above will immediately fall and take away the Seeking of the things above and there is no first Resurrection Let us but grant that we are risen with Christ and certainly we shall seek the things above and if we find our minds fixed on the things above we may infallibly conclude unto our selves that we are risen with Christ But I must come to my Division These words as all other conditional speeches and propositions do naturally divide themselves into these two parts 1. the Antecedent or foregoing part If thou be risen with Christ 2. the Consequent or following part then seek those things which are above We shall limit and bound our discourse within these three considerations 1. That our conversion and newness of life is a Rising which we ground upon these words If you be risen 2. That this our conversion and rising must be early without delay for which we have warrant in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle speaks in the time past For he saith not If you do rise or If you will rise but If you are risen as supposing it to be already done 3. Lastly That the manifestation of our conversion of this our rising with Christ consists in our seeking of those things which are above as Christs was by appearing to his Disciples and shewing to them his hands and his feet If you be then risen with Christ seek those things which are above Of these in their order Though there be many words in Scripture by which our Newness of life is exprest yet our Apostle in divers places of his writings makes especial choice of this of rising as Ephes 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins and v. 5. even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together in Christ and hath raised us up together with Christ And again chap. 5. he maketh use of that of the Prophet Isaiah Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Omnis causa eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo râ—â—â—â—atur saith Tertullian Every soul is dead with the first Adam 〈◊〉 it be raised up to life with the second We may truly say of it that it is departed because God who is the life of the Soul is departed from it And it being destitute of the favour of God which should actuate and quicken it the stench of Sin seizeth upon it the worm of Conscience gnaws it the horrour of Infidility makes it like unto the fiends of Hell fit in sepulcro corporis vivo funus animae jam sepultum and a living body is made the sepulchre to a dead soul a soul that is dead and yet dies every moment multiplies as many deaths as sins and if that of the Schools be true Peccator peccat in suo infinito would be dead and dying to all eternity Son of man can these bones live as the Spirit of God says unto the Prophet Ezek. 37. Can these broken sinews of the Soul come together and be one again Can such a disordered Clock where every whele is broken be set again Can this dead Soul be made a Saint and walk before God in the land of the living We may answer with the Prophet Lord God thou knowest Thou knowest that this dissolved putrified carcass may see the light again that Mary Magdelene may rise from sin as well as her brother Lazarus from the grave that as we are fallen with Adam so we may rise again with Christ that these Stones being formed into the faith of Abraham may be made the children of Abraham and this generation of vipers having spit out their venome may bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life And this our conversion may well be stiled a Rising for many reasons for many waies it resembles it First the World may well go not onely for a Prison but a Grave All the pomp and glory of it are but as dust and ashes wherein we are raked up and buried All the desires all the pleasures of it are but as the grave-cloths wherewith we are bound And in the midst of these allurements in the midst of these glories and sensual objects the Soul rots and corrupts and even stinketh in the nostrils of God In the midst of all the greatness the world can cast upon us the Soul becomes worse then nothing The Love of the world is as unsatiable as the Grave and devours souls as that doth bodies But when through the operation of the Spirit we are taken out of the world we have our resurrection Then it may be said of us as Christ said of his disciples They are not of the world for I have chosen them out of the world John 17. I have set them apart and made them my peculiar people that they may escape the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 They are born in the world and in the world they are born again unto me In the world they are but not of the world In the world they are and in the world they traffick for another world passing by this as not worth the cheapning looking upon Beauty as upon a snare loathing Riches as dung and afraid of Pleasures as of Hell it self They have a being but not living in the world for their life is hid with Christ in God But as Christ when he was risen staid yet a while upon earth before he ascended so do Christians make a short abode and sojourn for a time in it as in a strange country looking for a city whose builder and maker is God In the world they have nothing for they have forsaken all surrendred all the things of the world to the world Matth. 16. Luke 14. earth to earth dust to dust ashes to ashes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are our Saviours own words by which not onely the act of forsaking is signified but such an affection of the mind as placeth all things under Christ is ready to fling them away if they cannot keep them with Christ having as if they had not possessing as if they possest not having stept into the world as mariners do sometimes out of their ship to the shore there gathering these cockles but ready upon the sign given to cast them away and return with hast into the ship So that in respect of the world it may be said of them as the Angel said of Christ Why seek you the living amongst the dead they are risen they are not here Secondly at our Resurrection there will be a great change For though we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed This corruptible
that as S. Bernard saith Nihil ardet in inferno praeter propriam voluntatem Nothing suffereth in hell but our own will because nothing but our own will can cast us into that place of torment for our will alone it is that damneth us so nothing more endangereth us then Self-love which either blindeth us that we cannot see these signs or causeth that when we behold them we tremble and our hearts wither and fail for fear These two are of such consanguinity and nearness that we know not well how to distinguish them Fo he that thus loveth himself is alwaies rigidus in suam perniciem obstinate and wilful to his own destruction Sic se diligat homo ut sibi prosit saith Augustine Let a man so love himself that he may profit and advantage himself his better self his Soul Nam animus cujusque est quisque A mans mind is himself and if he adorn and beautifie that if he prepare that for happiness then his love and all his actions rest upon a right and proper centre But if he pollute his soul if he fight against his soul if he make his Reason a servant to his Lust which should be a mistriss to controul and check it if he thus transform himself into a beast he will be a most unfit spectatour of these signs if he thus deform himself he will undo himself If this be love it is such a love that bewitcheth me that blindeth me that deceiveth and cheateth me that first putteth out my eyes and then setteth me to grind at the mill that depriveth me of my judgment and maketh me worse then the beasts that perish The Covetous man loveth wealth and that pierceth his soul The Ambitious loveth honour and that is a snare The Wanton loveth beauty and that biteth like a cockatrice The Angry man loveth revenge and that keepeth his wound green which otherwise patience would heal Our first parents loved themselves and tasted the pleasant fruit and were thrust out of Paradise for it Achan loved himself and would finger the wedge of gold and was stoned for it Ahab loved himself and would have Naboth's vineyard and dogs licked his bloud for it Judas loved himself and received the thirty pieces and he burst asunder for it What could an enemy do more then Self-love hath done to them in whose bosom she hath found a place It stoneth it hangeth it killeth it distracteth it tormenteth and destroyeth and what can an oppressour or a tyrant what can the Devil do more But this is not all For as the Historian speaketh of Covetousness which is but a branch of it Animum corpus effoeminat It corrupteth both body and mind and maketh them soft and tender and effeminate First it corrupteth the mind and then weakeneth and enervateth the body it maketh us either insensible as stocks and stones or else too sensible of every blast of every breath that cometh but towards us it filleth our hearts with impatience and our mouths with complaints If it be a drop it is a storm if it be a breath it is a tempest if it be good counsel it is a reproch if it be an easie burthen we dare not touch it with one of our fingers If it be an object of a terrible aspect we study to forget it we would not believe it when we do believe it we would not see it when it is in our eye In prosperity self-love advanceth our plumes but when the weather changeth our spirits fail The Philosopher telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Self-love is a pusillanimity or weakness of mind afraid of every shadow lothing every thing flying every thing groaning at the very sight of any thing that breatheth in opposition to us And if Self-love doth so shorten our strength weaken our eyes and dead our spirits that we cannot look as we should upon those evils of common quotidian incursion and which we meet with every day it is not probable we should behold these spectacles of terrour the forerunners of the last Judgement with that profit and advantage and comfort which we should the Sun darkened and the Moon turned into bloud and the world for ought we know falling about our ears will be no signs to prevail with us to make ready and prepare for another world If we cannot meet the Son of Man at his first coming how shall we meet him at his second If we cannot meet him when he cometh and speaketh peace to us peace in times of peace and peace in times of tribulation how shall we be able to meet him when he cometh in terrour to judge both the quick and the dead If we cannot behold the signs of his coming as we should how shall we be able to stand up at his appearance This is one reason why we do not behold what is here foretold with that profit we should even our Self-love our inordinate and perverse love of our selves A second reason hereof is Want of faith And this Behold here is sounded forth to awake and quicken our faith For if we know whom we have believed and believe what we have read then may we look upon these signs even all the calamities of the world with comfort But if this be a reason then reason may seem to be on our side and to make us such Eagles as to look upon these bright but fearful apparitions For certainly there is no want of faith There is nothing more talked of Ebrius ad phialam mendicus ad januam Every man filleth his mouth with it the upright man for honesty the perjured for deceit the drunkard at his cup and the beggar at the gate Faith is become the language of good and bad of the pure in spirit and the hypocrite of the Saint and that Devil that taketh his name of the whole world Faith is to be found in every corner of Christendom but such a Faith as that Peace was the name of which onely was written on the walls of a Monastery when the whole Convent were together by the eares in hot debate and contention Multi sibi potiùs fidem constituunt quà m accipiunt saith Hilarie and it is true in this sense also It is a generall fault in the world not to entertain that faith which should strengthen and establish us to behold these things but to frame and fancy one of our own to spin out one as the spider doth his web and such a thin web it is that the blast of any temptation sweepeth it away And on this we lay all our sins even that weight which presseth down as if we should set up a great Colossus on a reed which will not bear one finger of it There is no want of this Faith nec nobis opus est fide ista nor is there any need or use of it But the Faith which must make us fit spectatours of these things which are here foretold and which indeed we have seen or something like unto
them nay the very same the Faith that must qualifie and prepare us for Christ's second coming must be like his coming full of glory and power must shake the powers of the Grave must awake those that sleep must demolish Sin must make us like unto Christ not onely in his passion but also in his rising from the dead must be to us as the trump of God to call us out of our graves not fides inermis a weak and unarmed faith which hath neither buckler nor sword which can neither defend nor strike a stroke but is well content to stand by and see our Saviour fight it out but fides pugnax a faith armed against the day of trial that can fight it out against principalities and powers and against all the fearful signs which shall be set up and fides vincens a faith that overcometh the world and the love of the world and fides triumphans a faith that every day triumpheth over Sin and the Devil maketh a shew of them openly and manifesteth it self to God to Angels to men This Faith hath a clear and strong eye and can look upon these terrible signs By this faith Christ doth dwell in our hearts and if Christ dwell there Ephes 3.17 he bringeth with him courage and resolution How fit is he to behold the Sun darkned who hath this light in him to see the falling of the Stars who hath this bright Morning-star fixed in his heart And what if the world end if he be with him who is the Begining and the End This Faith will make us fit to behold any object will settle us in the knowledge of the providence of God of which we had before but certain confused notions little better then dreams This Faith is like the Emperour 's large Emerald in which he beheld wars and ruine slaughter and desolation whose colour tempered the object and made it appear less terrible then it was This Faith heareth a voice from heaven speaking to the whole host and army of calamities to all these fearful signs which shall usher in the end of the world as David did concerning Absalom Do the young man no harm Do my anointed my peculiar people no harm In a word this Faith will stay with us will wait and attend us in the midst of all this tumult and confusion And when the powers of heaven are shaken and the elements melt with fire and the world is ready to be dissolved it will bring us good news of help at hand Fear you not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. For this Faith alwaies bringeth with it Repentance which is another end why we are called upon to behold these things For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that long-suffering of God's which calleth us to repentance improveth and increaseth the means as we increase our hardness The more heavy our sleep is in sin the more noise and stir God maketh to awake us After we have spent our estate amongst harlots and fed with swine yet if we return he will receive us If we will not behold and consider him when he shineth upon our tabernacles yet if we fall down before him when these signs appear when he cometh with a tempest round about him then he will receive us When the world regardeth us not when it frowneth upon us when it is ready to be dissolved yet if we return he will receive us In wars and rumours of wars when the Sun is darkened and the Moon turned into bloud yet if we return he will receive us Never was the world so full of wickedness as in this last age of it for as our forefathers went before us in time so do we before them in iniquity And therefore were there never greater means to reclaim it So that this time of judgement is a time of mercy wherein Mercy even whilest Justice holdeth up the sword whilest she is striking spreadeth her wing and waiteth till we come under the shadow of it And these signs if we will behold them as we should and make them so may be signs of the dissolution of the body of Sin as vvell as of the frame of the Universe For the long-suffering of God is repentance saith S. Peter and will bring forth the fruits of it if it be not abused and hindered And the destruction of a sinner is never so absolutely decreed by God but that there is still hope of recovery even then when his foot is upon the very brink of death and desolation Let him then pull back and return to his God and he shall find that with him there is mercy and plentiful redemption Behold I have told you before And I have told you that you may behold and consider it that you may excutere veternum awake from that sleep in which security and self-love have lulled you that you may quicken your faith and perfect and complete your repentance and so be signed with these signs that the Spirit may sign and seale you to the day of redemption And this is the compasse of the Ecce And in this compasse we may walk and behold these signes behold them with a watchful eye with a believing eye with a repentant eye washing off all their malignity with tears These are the several rayes of consideration And if we thus behold these signs we shall be also fitted and prepared to meet Christ at his second coming Being thus qualified we shall look upon all the ill-boding calamities in the world which appear unto us in a shape of terrour as upon so many John Baptists telling us that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand we shall-look upon Death when he cometh towards us on his pale horse and not fear him we shall look upon the Son of man when he cometh towards us with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and it shall be as musick to us For he hath promised that where he is we shall be also and he hath made death and these signes and the dissolution of the world it self a promise For if we should not dye if the world should not be dissolved we could not enjoy the promise But when these signs shall usher him in when he shall come again then shall he free us from the yoke and harrow from oppression and tyranny Then the meek shall be higher then the proud and Lazarus richer then Dives Then that bloudy hypocrite which called himself a Saint shall have his portion with the Devil and his Angels and the innocent the despised condemned innocent shall look up and lift up his head Then though the heavens be shaken he shall stand fast as Mount Sion though the sea roar he shall be at peace though the Stars fall his heart shall be fixed Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae And when the Son of man shall come in the clouds he shall be ready to meet him and when the heavens shall be gathered
looked upon as a foul and pernicious errour to be afraid of it in a calm and ready to embrace it in a tempest Not to dispute and persuade our selves to that which nothing but the horrour and advantage which attendeth it could make lawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Do not play the Sophister against thy self nor invent an art and method to hasten thy ruine and destruction These petty concessions as we think these easie but base condescensions are ominous and prophetical and presage and foretel a greater fall They look towards the lowest pit to the very abyss and depth of sin and thither they tend What may not he be induced in time to do who upon no better reason or motive then the love of himself and the suggestion of the flesh is ready to put up the question to himself May I not do this a question which he never thought of before How far may he run in the wayes of Errour when but to ask the question is to go too far This is the first knock at the gates of Death and he that is so bold as to knock will venture further even into her chambers For when our fears or hopes either flatter or affright us to chuse that which before we looked upon with some distaste and had set up a resolution though but a weak one against it we then begin to guild it over with some fair pretence and would fain learn how to make it good and so approve our choice which appeared in another shape unto us before the course of the world and of things was altered I would not engage my self now and within a while I think I am bound to it It is now Perjury anon a lawful and a necessary Oath Now I cannot look upon the Idol my present Interest calleth upon me and cajoleth me I soon learn to look and at last fall down and worship it Thus it falleth out when we are not strict observers of our Conscience in the least commands for then we soon put her off and fling her by in her greatest and as fools as the Father speaketh Ludimus adversûs nos ipsos we play and sport our selves and with danger and are witty and subtle to our own destruction We do more then the Pope ever did though he be liberal of his Pardons We grant our Indulgences to our selves We graze and play and run at large and when the tempest approcheth we run to the burroughs of excuses as those little beasts in the Proverbs do to the holes of the rocks We do that which we should not do and which at first we would not do and then say God be merciful to us in this We venture upon that which we once thought a sin and though that thought will not quite leave us yet we say of it as Lot did of Zoar Is it not a little one and my soul shall live A little one it may be but as little as it is the very condescension to it under that name may prepare the way and make the path smooth to let in the greatest O quà m parvis veniunt summa mala principiis How great a matter doth a little fire kindle How doth he that is willing now to slip at last fall and bruise himself to pieces For the same motive which brought me thus far may yet carry me further out of my way That which brought me to sleep on the bank may at last tumble me into the stream and drown me especially if it arise out of worldly respects That which maketh me slight my Conseience in the least may gain advantage and strength by that neglect and have force to debauch and prostitute her in the greatest sin That which maketh me lie may make me steal That which maketh my countenance fall may make me a murtherer It is not the last cup that intoxicateth It is not the last day that bringeth on age My age began in the womb When I began to live I began to die It is not the last sin that hardeneth us For Induration came in and began with our first yielding and condescension It was a high strain of the Orator accusing Popilius for Cicero's death Occisurus Ciceronem incipere deâ—uit à patre He could not have killed Cicero if he had not begun with his own father and first murthered him But a lesser sin then that might have led him to it That boy that hath heart enough but to put out a Quail's eyes may at last take courage and embolden himself to imbrue his hands in the bloud of his father The Thurificatores amongst the Ancients did not renounce their faith when they offered up a little incense to heathen Gods yet were they counted as Idolaters and cast out of the Church The names of the Libellatici and Traditores are infamous to this day whereof the one signed their Apostasie with their own hand and the other with their own hands gave up Gods Word to be burnt in the fire And some there were amongst them who bought it out with their money and purchased a license not to do it yet these were numbered amongst the Lapsi those that were fallen away and passed with the heaviest censure of the Church upon them And what shifts what evasions what witty witless devices have we heard of in these our dayes How have men studied perdition and gloried in their shame What would they do What would they not do How have they grown worse and worse deceiving and being deceived learning this cursed art of cheating themselves and teaching it others and then applauding each other in this their discretion and wisdom and laughing at and despising those simple and self-will'd souls that had so much conscience and so little wit as not to save themselves that is not to serve Christ and the world And these are CHRISTIANS They profess Christ's name they hear his Word and they never hear enough They talk of Heaven but mean their Purse and to safeguard this will forfeit that to save a peny will give up their reason and to satisfie their appetite deny their conscience Christians they are but such Christians that if they retire not and repent may in time become circumcised Jews There is as fair or rather as foul a probability for the one as the other Dost thou startle at the name of Jew Thou didst so at first and wast as much afraid of that which now thou embracest and hast conscience to defend even against thy conscience Beloved Conscience was never given us to toy withall but to hold and possess and keep unspotted which when once upon low and base respects we put away we are straight in danger concerning faith and our profession to make shipwreck and so be fit to be delivered to Satan to fill us with all iniquity 1 Tim. 1.19 2â— Every wilful sin every wilful violation of conscience if deliberately drawn on by the love of the world is a step and degree to Apostasie
it requireth no more at our hands for the obtaining of eternity of bliss but this Faith this persuasion If so be we be holy and innocent and remain in this Law and by this faith overcome the world BLESSEDNES then is as the Sun and looketh and shineth on all putteth life in the Law raiseth our Perfection begetteth and upholdeth our Liberty maketh Conscience quick and lively either to affright or joy us either to seourge or feast us If in this life onely we had hope our faith were vain nay this Law the Gospel were vain And therefore in every storm and tempest under the shadow and wings of this Hope we find shelter We flie for refuge saith the Apostle to lay hold upon the hope which is sâ—t before us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We flie out of the world a shop of vanity and uncertainty the region of changes and chances to this Hope as to an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast which cannot deceive us if we lay hold on it for it entereth into that within the veil and so is firm and safe fastened on this Blessedness as an anchor that reacheth to the bottom and sticketh fast in the ground Blessedness upholdeth and setleth our Hope and on our Hope our Obedience is raised to reach that Blessedness on which our Hope is setled In a word Blessedness like Christ himself is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and the last the end and yet the first mover of us in those wayes which lead unto it Christiano coelum antè patuit quà m via Heaven is opened to a Christian and then the way And he that walketh in it shall enter in he that doeth the work shall be blessed in it Now BEATUS ERIT He shall be blessed may either look upon this span or upon that immeasurable space of eternity And it is true in both both here where we converse with Men and Misery and there where we shall have the company of Seraphim and Cherubim and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Here we have something in hand there the accomplishment some ears we have we shall have the whole sheaf Here we have one part of Blessedness peace of conscience there remaineth the greater the reversion in the highest heavens As Christ said of the two Commandements This is the great Blessedness and the other is like unto it that Joy which is the resultance of every good work which we call our Heaven upon earth That which is to come is a state of perfection an aggregation of all that is truly good without the least tincture and shew of evil as Boethius speaketh This cannot be found here on earth in the best Saint whose joy and peace is sometimes interrupted for a while by the gnawings of some sin or other which overtaketh him or by the sight of imperfection which will not suffer his joy to be full The best peace on earth may meet with disturbance Therefore Peace is found alone in the most perfect Good even God himself who is Perfection it self whose delight and paradise is in his own bosom Which he openeth and out of which he poureth a part of it on his creature and of which we do in a manner take possession when we look into and remain in the perfect Law of Liberty which is an emanation from him a beam of that Law which was with God from all eternity and by which as we are made after the image so are we transformed after the similitude of God which Plato himself calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assimilation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 union with God In whom alone those two powers of the soul those two Horseleaches which ever cry Give Give the Understanding which is ever drawing new conclusions and the Will which is ever pursuing new objects have their eternal sabbath and rest He that doeth the work shall be blessed in the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this man and none but this shall be blessed So then this is the conclusion That Evangelical Obedience the constant observation of this Law of Liberty of the doctrine of Faith and Good works is the onely and immediate way to Blessedness For not the hearers of the word but the doers shall be justified saith S. Paul And indeed there is no way but this For First God hath fitted us to this Law and this Law to us He hath fitted us for this heavenly treasure For can we imagine that God did thus build us up and stamp his own Image upon us that we should be an habitation for owles and satyres Rom. 12 3. for wild and brutish imaginations that he did give us Understandings to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out an art of pleasure a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season that he did give us Wills to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and his Image which is in us Was the Soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow and is no more or hath he given us dominion over the beasts of the field that we should fall and perish with them No We are ad majora nati born mortal but to eternity And we carry an argument about us against our selves if we remain not in this Law For take it in credendis in those conclusions which it commendeth to our Faith though Faith indeed in respect of the remoteness of its object and its elevation be above Nature yet in the soul God hath left a capacity to receive it and if the other condition of persevering in it did not lie heavy upon the flesh the brutish part we should be readier scholars in our Creed then we are If we could hate the world we should soon be in heaven If we could embrace that which we cannot but approve our Infidelity and Doubtings would soon vanish as the mist before the Sun S. Augustine hath observed it in his book De Religione that multitudes of good moral men especially the Platonicks came in readily and gave up their names unto Christ The Moral man did then draw on the Christian But now I know not how the Christian is brought in to countenance those who deserve another name But then for the Agenda and precepts of practice They are as the seed and the Heart of man the earth the Matrix the womb to receive them And they are so proportioned to our Reason that they are no sooner seen but approved they bring as it were of near alliance and consanguinity with those notions and principles which we brought with us into the world Onely those are written in a book these in the heart indeed the one are but a commentary on the other What precept of Christ is there which is not agreeable and consonant to right Reason Doth he prescribe Purity The heart applaudeth it Doth he bless Meekness The mind of man soon sayeth Amen Doth he enjoyn Sobriety We soon subscribe
Ignorance of our selves 481. Self-love 481. Pride 483. The extent and latitude of this duty 484 c. It is our principal work to examin both our weakness and our strength 601 602. After Examination amendment must follow 485 c. Against such as magisterially examin others before the Communion 494. Every man ought to examin himself 494 495. Examples have far more power upon our Wills then Precepts 1016 c. The power of an Example 826 827. The Examples of God's Saints are to be looked upon with a wary Ey 525. 1024. They are as it were pictures and statues of Virtues 1018. and a light to us 552 553. Let us bless God for them 553. 1022. We must set before us the Examples of the best 1020 c. 1023. Great Ex. should not discourage but quicken and hearten us 1023. v. Saints A shame it is that after so many fair Ex. Religion and Holiness should decay 1023 1024. We should strive to equal and excel the brightest Examples 1024. If an Ex. vary from the Command we must not follow it 1026 1027. GOD is the great Ex. for Man to follow 826 c. CHRIST's Example is the Standard by which all others are to be examined 1026. Every man ought to give good Ex. to others 555 556. A fearful thing to draw others to sin by our Ex. 380. Excusing of sin how ordinary how sinful 171 172. It is even natural to us and inseparable from Sin 1036. The mischief of it 1036 1037. It is greater then the Sin it self 1034 1035. Exercise It s mighty force 1117. Of the military Exercises of the Romanes 1118. Exod. vii 3. 412. ¶ xx 25. 372. Expedient In matters of indifferencie we are to do nothing that is not Exp. 1102. Experience begotten by Use and brought forth by Memory 533. No Masters so willing and able as the Scholars of Experience 533. Extremes are both evil and both to be avoided 374. Ey In the Ey the Mind sheweth it self 264. F. FAction An embittered Faction a type of Hell 492. Every Faction is wont to cry-up themselves and to cry-down all others 319 320. 491. 682. 1060. 1127 1128. which is carnal and sensual 320. v. Church Faith in Christ what 1075. How gained and encreased 669. Why God will not let the articles of our Faith become objects of our Sense 733 734. If Faith's object were clear and without difficulty it would not be Faith but Knowledge 41. The Senses help to confirm our Faith 727. Though it be an act of the Understanding yet it dependeth on the Will 734. How excellent a grace it is 274. It is a Prospective that presenteth to us things afar off 241. By it vve see Christ and lay hold on him 490. The miserable condition of him that wanteth F. 314. Many phansie they have F. that have not 1048. 1060. We must examine whether we be in the right F. 735. True and real F. is not idle or speachless or dead but active and operative 241. 765. Faith vvithout Righteousness will deceive them that rely on it 130. 136. Without Charity and Good vvorks it is nothing vvorth 275 276. Faith and Charity like Hippocrates's twins live and die together 490. F. is naturally productive of good vvorks 276. F. justifieth a sinner but a repentant sinner 872. It is attended with Hope 242. It maketh a man slight the threats and power of Tyrants 241. It expelleth base Fear and filleth the heart with courage and confidence 314. What kind of F. it is that must qualifie and prepare us for Christ's second coming 1049. The vast difference between a dead F. and a lively F. 316. How St. James and St. Paul may be reconciled in the point of F. 256. Why St. James putteth not Faith into his description of pure Religion 274 c. F. hath as its encreasings so its decreasings 458. 465. One that is strong in the F. may want skill to maintain it 734 735. We should at all times quicken our F. but then especially vvhen vve come to the Lord's Table 465. 489 490. Faith and Charity judge not alike 837. What maketh men fall from one F. to another 41 42. Self-love and Love of the vvorld frame mens Creeds 734. Many Questions about Faith may well be spared 1075 1076. Falling from grace v. Perseverance Familiarity with God hovv to be held 757. Fanaticks v. Holy Ghost Fasting commended 752. Different kinds of F. 752. Politick hypocritical Fasts inveyed against 277 278. 1051 c. Some cry-down Popish F. some all 750. The ends and use and benefit of F. 753. 791. 1056 1057. F. is not holiness but an help to it 1056. v. Duties Fate Against them that attribute all to Fate and Destiny 666. v. Decrees Necessity Whether it be Fate that bringeth Kingdoms to their ruine and not rather something else 213. Fear what 387. It may seem the most unprofitable of all the Passions 387. How great a burden F. is 936. Plato and Aristotle banish it their Schools 389 but both God's Law and Christ's Gospel command it 389 390. The errours of some Hereticks that cried-down F. as out of date under the Gospel 392. confuted 393 c. It is a fair introduction to Piety 389. It maketh us advise and consult what is best to do 388. How it worketh and becometh useful to forward our Repentance 387. c. It not onely keepeth us from sin but upholdeth us in the way of righteousness 392. 399. To avoid sin out of Fear is indeed an argument of imperfection but vve need it vvhile vve are here 395. Fear of God a soveraign antidote against Sin 258. Want of F. threvv our first Parents out of Paradise and novv keepeth men out of heaven 395. Of the distinction of Fear into Servile and Filial 396. What kind of F. Christ forbiddeth Luk. xii 32. 397. God's Children may yea must fear punishment 396 c. 399. Fear of judgment may vvell consist vvith Love 391. 394 c. vvitness Gods Saints and Martyrs 391. Hovv Love casteth out Fear 398. Fear beginneth the good vvorks oftentimes which Love afterward perfecteth 926. Fear may stand with Faith 398. and vvith Hope 399. Hope and Fear ever go together 387. Fear keepeth them all in a due temper 399. Christ telleth us vvhom vve must not fear and vvhom vve must 394. We should not fear men but God 236. 400. 642. Wherein our F. of God is seen 807. The F. of God should drive out all F. of men 673. How basely many fear men but not God at all 400. 642. Base F. of men how strangely it transporteth and transformeth us 117. 400. 642. 671. Feasting 618. We are bid to feast the poor c. but vvho vvhere is the man that doth so 690. Fellow-feeling ought to be among us 141. 148. v. Compassion Fire Basil's phansie concerning Fire 551. Flattery and Dissimulation hovv they differ 54 55. The holy Spirit useth neither 54. How the vvorld aboundeth with Flatterers 504. A seditious Flatterer 506.