Lex ignea, or, The school of righteousness a sermon preached before the King, Octob. 10, 1666, at the solemn fast appointed for the late fire in London / by William Sandcroft ...

Lex ignea, or, The school of righteousness a sermon preached before the King, Octob. 10, 1666, at the solemn fast appointed for the late fire in London / by William Sandcroft ...

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ISAIAH xxvi. 9.‘—When thy Judgments are in the Earth, the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness.’

THis Chapter with the two next before, and that which follows, are all four parts of the same prophetick Sermon, (as appears by those words so often repeated in them, In that Day, fixing and determining All to the same Epoch, and period of Time;) belong All to the same subject Matter, sc. the Destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, whether by the Babylonians, or the Romans, or both. So that the Earth (or as we may rather translate, the Land, or the Countrey) wasted, and utterly spoiled, and V. 1. & 3. turn'd upside down, Cap. xxiv. is doubtless the Land of Jewry: And the World that languisheth, and fadeth away, V. 4 of that Cap. not much wider; that, and the neighbouring Regions, with whom the Jews had commerce, and intercourse of Peace and War, Moab, and Egypt, and Babylon, [...] & [...] & [...]. in a word, the Jewish World; (for so both the Hebrew and Greek words usually translated the Earth and the World, are often in Scripture-language contracted [...] and limited by the Matter in hand:) And consequently the City of Confusion, which is broken down, a City turn'd Chaos again, as the Hebrew imports, cap. xxiv. 10. the City turn'd into a Heap, or a Ruine, nay, in tumulum, as the Vulgar Latine, or [...], as the LXX. translate it, into one great Sepulchre to it self, buried in its own Rubbish, Cap. xxv. 2. The lofty City laid low, even to the Ground, and abased in the very Dust. Cap. xxvi. 5. The City desolate, and forsaken,[Page]and lest Wilderness, and desert all over, Cap. xxvii. 10. are but so many variations of the phrase, and signifie all the same thing, the burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, or Titus, or (as some will have it) by both.

This sad Devastation the Prophet first beholds in speculo prophetico, sees it from far in his prophetick Telescope, as clearly, and distinctly, as if it were before his eyes, and describes it here and there the whole Sermon throughout, but chiefly, Cap. xxiv. in so lofty a Language, that many have mistaken it for the End of the World, and the Consummation of all things. But then, to sweeten so sad a Theme, he assures them, it shall not be a [...], God will not make a final End now: No, a Remnant shall be left, as the shaking of an Olive-tree, and as the gleaning Grapes, when the Vintage is done, Cap. xxiv. 13. Nor shall they be only preserved, but restored too; The Lord God will in time wipe away every Tear from off all Faces, and at last, swallow up this Death too in Victory, Lacrymam Vulg. Cap. xxv. 8. Hee'l turn their Captivities, and rebuild their City, and their Temple too; and all this shall be as it were Life from the Dead, as the Apostle calls it, so miraculous a Re-establishment, at a Juncture so improbable, Rom. xi. 15. when they are destroyed out of all Ken of Recovery, that it shall be a kind of Resurrection; and so like the great One, that 'tis described in the very proper Ezek. xxxvii. Dan. xii. phrases of that, both by the other Prophets, and by Ours too a little below the Text, Thy Dead shall live again; My dead Bodies shall arise: Awake and sing, ye that V. 19. dwell in the Dust, &c. And then, (which is of nearest Concern to us, and to our present Business) the Prophet directs the Remnant that should escape, how to behave themselves under so great a Desolation; and he contrives his directions into a threefold Song (that they may be the better remarkt and remembred) tun'd and fitted to the three great Moments of the Event.

The first, to the time of the Ruine it self, Cap. xxiv. [Page] where having set before their Eyes the sad prospect of the holy City, and House of God in Flames; When thus it shall be in the midst of the Land, saith he, there shall be a Remnant, and they shall lift up their voyce, and sing for the Majesty of the Lord, saying, Glorifie ye the Lord in the Fires, V. 15. And this is [...] a Song of Praise.

The second is [...] a Song of Degrees or Ascensions, fitted to the time of their Return, when All should be restor'd and rebuilt again; and that we have Cap. xx vii. 2. In that Day sing ye unto her; A Vineyard of Red Wine: I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

The third (of which my Text is a principal strain) belongs to the whole middle interval between the Ruine and the Restauration, in this xvi. Cap. In that day shall this Song be sung in the land of Judah, We have a strong City; Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks, &c. As if he had said; Though our City be ruin'd, yet God is still our dwelling place; our Fortresses dismantled, and thrown down, but Salvation will he appoint us for Walls and Bulwarks; Our Temples in the Dust, but God will be to us himself, as a little Sanctuary. Ezek. xi. 16. And this is [...] a Song to give Instruction, teaching them, and in them us, how to demean our selves, while the Calamity lies upon us: sc. to make God our Refuge, ver. 4. to wait for him in the Way of his Judgments, ver. 8. and in this 9. ver. earnestly to desire him from the very soul in the Night (in the Darkest, and Blackest of the Affliction;) to seek him early, when it begins to dawn towards a better Condition; and in the mean time, as 'tis in the Text, to improve all this severe Discipline, as he intends it, for the advancing us in the knowledge of Him, and of our selves, and of our whole Duty; For when thy Judgments are in the Earth, the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness.

A Text you see, that supposeth Judgments in the Earth, [Page] or upon a Land (as its Occasions) and so suitable to our sad Condition: a Text too, that proposeth our Learning, as its End and Design, and so sutable (one would think) to our Inclination too. The Character, and Genius of the Age, we live in, is Learned: the pretence at this day so high, and so universal, that He is No-body now, who hath not a new Systeme of the World, a new Hypothesis in Nature, a new Model of Government, a new Scheme of God's Decrees, and the greatest Depths in Theology. We are many of us acute Philosophers (that must not be disputed us;) most of us grand Politicks and Statsemen too; All of us (without exception) deep Divines:—will needs be wiser than our Neighbours, but however wiser than our Teachers and Governours, if not wiser than God himself. A kind of Moral Rickets, that swells, and puffs up the Head, while the whole inner Man of the Heart wasts and dwindles. For like the silly Women, 2 Tim. 3. 6, 7. Disciples to the old Gnosticks, while we are thus ever learning (pretending to great Heights, and Proficiencies) we come never to the Knowledge of the Truth (the Truth which is according unto Godliness;) In fine, amongst so many Learners they are but few, that learn Righteousness:—And therefore God himself here opens us a School; erects a severe Discipline in the Text; brings forth his Ferulas, when nothing else will serve the Turn. For he hath indeed four Schools, or rather four distinct Forms, & Classes in the same great School of Righteousness; the last only (that of his Judgments) express in the Text, but the Rest too suppos'd at least, or covertly implied.

For whether we look upon the latter Clause of the proposition. The Inhabitants of the World will learn;—We find our selves there under a double Formalitie; As Learners, and as Inhabiters. As Learners first, and so indued 1. with Faculties of Reason; Powers of a Soul capable of Learning, what is to be learned; stampt, and possest with first Principles, & common Notions which deeply search'd, [Page] and duly improv'd, and cultivated, might teach us Much of Righteousness. And this is Schola Cordis in Domo interiori, the School of the Heart, God's first School in the little World within us. Secondly, as Inhabitants of the 2. great World, which is God's School too, as well as his Temple, full of Doctrines and Instructions; Schola Orbis, in which, He takes us forth continual Lessons of Righteousness,—Seque ipsum inculcat, & offert, Ut bene cognosci possit; and that both from the Natural World, and from the political; whether Schola Regni, or Schola Ecclesiae. Or if we return to the former Branch of the Text, When thy Judgments are in the Earth. This when they are, supposeth another time, when they Are Not in the Earth, and that time is the time of Love, (as the Prophet speaks) Ezek. xvi. 8. the Season of Mercy; So that, Thirdly, here's Schola Misericordiarum, the School of God's tender Mercies inviting 3 us, gently leading, and drawing us with the Cords of a Man, Hos. xi, 4. with the Bands of Love: And lastly, when nothing else 4. will serve, here's Schola Judiciorum, the School of God's severe Judgments driving us to Repentance, and compelling us to come in and learn Righteousness. A provision (you see) every way sufficient, and abundant for our Learning,, were not we wanting to our selves.

But alas! we may run by the Text, and easily read in it these three things, as so many very Natural Deductions, and Emanations from it. First, our own ignorance 1. and Stupidity; Born like a wilde Asse's Colt, as Zophar Jo b. xi. 12. speaks; and then to our Natural we add affected Ignorance too: So that we are much to seek, and to learn Righteousness it must be taught us. Secondly, God's infinite, 2. and inexpressible Grace and Mercy to us; that when we had blurr'd the Original, defac'd the first Traces of Righteousness upon our Souls, he was pleas'd to provide Expedients to teach it us again the second time, that we might be renewed unto Knowledge after the Image Col. iii. 10. Ephes. iv. 24. of him, that created us in Righteousness, as the Apostle [Page] speaks. And Thirdly, Our indocible and unteachable Humour, our foul and shameful Non-proficiency under 3. so plentiful a Grace. For though the Text indeed speaks of our learning Righteousness, when God's Judgments are upon us; yet (if the Appearances of the World abroad suggested nothing to the contrary) 'tis introduc'd here in the Text too, as the Effect of the last Form in God's School, in exclusion of all the former as ineffectual; his utmost Method not to be used but at a pinch, when all the rest are basfled, and prove improsperous upon us: And then 'tis exprest in the Original, and learned Versions with so many Limitations and Abatements (as we shall see by and by) that we may well give it up as the sum and upshot of all, that our All-merciful God omits no Means or Methods of our Improvement; but we (supinely negligent, and prodigiously stubborn as we are) render them all ineffectual.

That we may do so no longer, but rather make good the profession, with which we have dar'd to appear this Day before God, of humbling our selves under his Almighty Hand; Let us, before we pass on any further, lift up our Hands and our Hearts to Him in the Heavens, beseeching him by the Power of his Mighty Grace so to sanctifie to us All, both the Sense of his present Judgment, and all our Meditations and Discourses thereupon, that by all we may be promoted in learning Righteousness.

THe Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness or Justice: What's that? Is there such a thing in the World? Or is it a Name onely, and a glorious pretence? Is it not only another word for Interest or Utility, and so nothing just, but what is profitable; Carneades his infamous Assertion retriv'd and own'd with open face V. Lactant. lib. v. by Christians? Is it not the taking of a party, or the espousing of a Faction, and appearing for it with heat and animosity; and a savage condemning and destroying All that are not of it? Is it not the Profession to believe such a [Page] a System of Opinions, what life soever is consequent thereupon? an airy invisible Righteousness, that never embodies or appears in our Actions, but hovers in the Clouds, in speculations and fancies, where no Man can find it?

The Truth is, there is no piece of Unrighteousness more common in the World, than thus to weigh Justice it self in an unjust Ballance; while every one contrives his Hypothesis, so as to salve the Phaenomena, so declares his Notion, as may best suit and comport with his own unrighteous practices. But the Righteousness we are to learn in God's School, must not be a self-chosen Righteousness: We must not pay God our Soveraign, the Tribute of our Obedience in Coyn of our own stamping; it must be such as will abide the Touchstone of his Word, and the Ballance of his Sanctuary. To make short, Righteousness or Justice, though elsewhere a single Vertue, yet here 'tis vittually All:— [...], said the Poet; and the Philosopher after him, [...], not a part, but all Vertue: and so often both in Scripture, and Fathers, comprehensively all Religion, the whole Duty of Man. [...], Theogn. Ethic. v. 1. saith S. Chrisostome: Omnes Virtutum species uno Justitiae nomine, saith S. Jerome. Not a particular Star, nor a single Constellation, but a whole Heaven of Vertues, an entire Globe of Moral and Christian Perfections; an Universal Rectitude of the Will, conforming us in all Points to Hom. 12. in S. Matth. God's Righteous Law, the Rule of our Righteousness, Or if you will in two words, 'tis Suum cuique to give every one his Due; Suum Deo first, and then Suum proximo; give God his Due, and your Neighbour too: These are the integral parts of it. So that Righteousness, as the great Rule of it, hath two Tables, or, if you will two Hemispheres, the upper and the nether: Both so vast, that we cannot measure them in a Span (the Span of time allotted me;) I shall therefore contract them to the occasion, and give you only some of those particular Lessons [Page] of Righteousness, which this present Judgment of God upon our Land seems most clearly to take us forth, both in relation to God himself, and to our Neighbours; and then call you, and my self to a serious Scrutiny, how well we have learn'd them, and so an end.

And first we begin (as we ought) in giving God his due; in rendring to God the things that are Gods. To limit this wide Universality too, and render it more proper, and peculiar, we may reduce all to that first of Esai's three Songs mention'd at the beginning, Glorifie ye the Lord in the Fires; giving him upon this sad Occasion the C. xxiv. 15. Glory of that great Trinity of his Attributes; the Glory of his Power, and Majesty; the Glory of his Justice and Equity; the Glory of his Goodness and Mercy.

Give him the Glory of his Power and Greatness; which 1. the Prophet calls, singing for the Majesty of the Lord, Cap. xxiv. 15. or beholding the Majesty of the Lord, when his Hand is lifted up, in the verse after my Text. How great and glorious our God is, who is in himself incomprehensible, appears best by the glorious greatness of his Works. If he builds, it is a World, Heaven and Earth, and the Fulness of both. If he gives, it is his only Son out of his Bosom, the Brightness of his Glory, and the express Image of his Person. If he rewards, 'tis a Crown, 'tis a whole Heaven of Glories. If he be angry, he sends a deluge; opens the Cataracts of Heaven above, and breaks up the Fountains of the great Deep below, and pours forth whole Flouds of Vengeance: Or else he rains down Hell out of Heaven, and in a moment turns a Land like Salvian. the Garden of God into a dead Sea, and a lake of Brimstone. If he discover himself by any overt expression of his Power, though the Intention be meer Mercy, and loving Kindness, Mortality shrinks from it, and cannot bear it. When his Glory descends on Mount Sinai, the people remove, and stand afar off, and Let not God speak with us (say they) lest we die: and Depart from me, O Lord, Ex. xx. 18, 19. [Page] saith S. Peter. amaz'd at that miraculous draught of Fishes: Luc. v. 8. How much more should the Inhabitants of the World tremble before him, when his great and sore Judgments are in the Earth: Tremble thou Earth, the presence of God (saith the Psalmist) even when he improves the hard Rock Ps. cxiv. 7, 8. into a Springing Well: much more when a fruitful Land Ps. evii. 34. he turns into barrenness, or a stately City into Ashes, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. I am horribly asraid, saith David, for the ungodly that sorsake thy Law; and I exceedingly sear, and quake, said Moses, at the giving Ps. cxix. 53. Hebr. xii 21. of it: But when our Lord shall come again to require it, The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken too; the Matth. xxiv. 29. Angels themselves (as S. Chrysestom interprets) though pure and innocent Creatures shall tremble ( [...]) to see the severity of that Judgment. How much rather Hom. 77. in Matth. ought we, wretched Creatures that we are, conscious to our selves, of Dust, and Sin, to tremble and quake at the Wrath of this dread Lord of the Universe; at whose Voice alone, the great Emporous Caligula runs under Sueton. l. V. n. 51. Dan. v. 6. the Bed, and the mighty Bel-shazzar's Loins are loosed, and his knees knock one against another, when God but writes bitter things against him on the Wall.

It were a vain Affectation, to attempt a Description of the greatness of our late horrible Devastation. This were to be Ambitiosus in Malis, to chew over all our Wormwood, and our Gall again: This were Rogum ascia polire, which the xii. TABLES forbad, to carve and paint the wood of our Funeral pile. I shall only call back your thoughts to stand with me upon the prospect of that horrid Theatre of the divine Judgments, and say, Come hither, and behold the Works of the Lord, what Desolation he Ps. xlvi. [...]. hath made in the Earth; and then who will not joyn with me to say upon so convincing an occasion? We humble our selves under the Almighty Hand of God, the Lord of all the World; We adore his Power and Majesty in lowly prostrations; before whom all the Nations of the [Page] World are as a Drop of the Bucket, the Globe of the Earth Isai. xi. 15. as the small Dust of the Balance, and who taketh up the Isles (even our Great Britains too, as we call them) as a very little thing. Great and marvelous are thy Works, O Lord God Almighty! who would not fear thee, and glorifie Apoc.. xv. 3, 4. thy Name, when thy Judgments are thus manifest? Thou hast brought them down that dwell on high, and laid the lofty City low, even to the Ground; the Joyous City of our Solemnities, the Royal Chamber, the Emporium of the World, the Mart of Nations, the very Top Gallant of all our Glory in the Dust. Even so Holy Father, Mattli. xi. 26. for so it seemed good in thy sight. We say not to our God, What do'st thou? Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this great City? we reply not, we answer not again: The Lord hath spoken; let all the Earth keep silence before him. We acknowledg thy Hand in it, O our God; we submit to thy good pleasure in it; we wait for thy Comfort, and thy Salvation in it. We meekly kiss the Rod that strikes us: With dying Jacob we desire to worship [...], with perfect Resignation as we are able, leaning Hebr. xi. 21. and reposing upon the top of this thy severe Rod. For shall we rcceive Good at the hand of our God, and shall we not receive Evil? 'Tis the same Blessed Hand that distributes Job. ii. 10. and strikes; and with equal Reverence and Affection we adore it, whether he opens it wide in Bounty, or contracts it close in severity: The one the Divine Rhetorick to perswade us to learn Righteousnes; the other his more irrefragable Logick to convince and constrain us. And therefore, we charge not our Maker foolishly; but meekly accept the punishment of our Iniquity. And having thus ador'd his Power (which was the First) we go on in the next place to acknowledg his Justice too; saying with holy DAVID, Righteous art thou, O Lord, and Ps. cxix. 137. just are thy Judgments: The second part of God's Due.

Give him the Glory of his Justice also; and if you learn no other Righteousness in his School, at least learn [Page] His, and frankly confess it too. For though God's Judgments may be secret, yet they cannot be unjust: Like the Ps. xxxvi. 6. great Deep indeed, an Abyss unfathomable; But though we have no Plumb-line of Reason, that can reach it, our Faith assures us, there's Justice at the Bottom. Clouds and Darkness are round about him, saith the Ps. xcvii. 2. Psalmist; but, as it follows, Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of his Throne: So much we may easily discern through all the Veils and Curtains that invelop him, that Justice stands always fast by his Judgment-seat. And therefore though it be a nice, and a delicate point to assign the particular sins, for which God hath thus sorely afflicted us; yet must we declare (as we are warranted by sacred Authority) That God hath laid his heavy Judgment upon us All, as an Evidence of his Displeasure for The King's Declaration. our Sins in general.

Not to engage in that Common Theme; we may clear it a little by the Light of our own Fires, (the particular Instrument of our Calamity) in two or three Reflections upon that. God spake his Righteous Law at first out of the midst of the Fire, Exod. xix. 18. And he shall appear from Heaven again in flaming Fire, taking vengeance on them that obey it not, saith the Apostle. Now 2 Thes. i. 8. as the Prophet Amos argues from another circumstance of Terrour, wherewith the Law was given, the sound of the Trumpet (the first Trumpét certainly, we ever read of in any Record in the World, as the last Trumpet (the Apostle tells us) shall be that of the Arch-angel to 1 Cor. 15. 52. summon us to account for it) Shall a Trumpet be blown Amos iii. 6. (and so say I, shall a Fire be kindled) in the City (nay, a whole City become but one great Fire) and the people not be afraid; We not reflect upon our own Guiltiness before God, who came at first with a Fiery Law in his Right Hand to teach us our Duty, and shall come again Deut. xxxiii. 2. at last with Fiery Indignation at his left to devour all those that perform it not? Again, Fire and Water are the two Hebr. x. 27. [Page] great Instruments of God's double Vengeance upon the World of the Ungodly: The One long since past recorded for our Instruction; the Other yet to come, the Matter (it ought to be, I am sure) of our continual Terror. The World that then was, perished by Water (saith S. Peter) and the World that is now, is reserv'd unto Fire: In the 2 Pet. iii. 6, 7. mean time, Fire and Water, things of commonest Use with us, are also the standing Metaphors almost in every verse of Scripture, to express God's Judgments of all sorts: Is it not on purpose to remind us, when ever we hear the sound, or make use of the things, or feel the smart of either, to reslect upon the heavy wrath of God against Sin in his so solemn expressions of it? Once more, Fire is the Tyrant in Nature, the King of the Elements, the mighty Nimrod in the Material World. God hath given us this Active Creature for our Servant, and we degrade him to the meanest Offices, to the Drudgery of the Kitchin, and the labour of the Furnace. But God can infranchize him when he pleases, and let him loose upon us; and for our sins, of an useful Servant, make him to us a a rigorous, and a Tyrannical Master. You saw him the other Day, when he escaped from all your Restraints, mockt all your Resistance, scorn'd the Limits, you would have set him: Wing'd with our Guilt, he flew triumphant over our proudest Heights, waving his curl'd Head, seeming to repeat us that Lesson which holy S. Austin taught us long since, That the inferiour Creatures serve us Men, only that we may serve him, who made both us and them too. If we rebel against Heaven, [...], saith the Wiseman; The World shall rise in Wisd. v. 20. Arms upon us, and fight with him against the Unwise. Even the Holy Fires of the Altar too, though kindled from Heaven on purpose to propitiate an angry Deity, prov'd often through Man's provocations the Instruments of his Fury; the Mercy-seat became the Arsenal of Vengeance, and from the presence of God himself went forth those Flames [Page] that devour'd his Adversaries? And all to teach us this Lesson, That 'tis Sin puts the Thunder into God's Hand, and turns Flames of Love into a consuming Fire.

And therefore dream no longer of Granado's or Fire-Balls, or the rest of those witty Mischiefs; search no more for Boutefieus or Incendiaries, Dutch or French: The Dutch Intemperance, and the French Pride and Vanity, and the rest of their Sins, we are so fond off, are infinitely more dangerous to us, than the Enmity of either Nation; for these make God our Enemy too. Or if you'l needs find out the Incendiary, look not abroad; Intus host is, intus periculum, saith St. Jerome. Turn your Eyes inward into your own Bosoms; there lurks the great Make-bate, the grand Boutefieu between Heaven and us. Trouble not your selves with Planetary Aspects, or great Conjunctions; but for your own Oppositions direct and Diametral to God, and his Holy Law. Fear not the Signs of Heaven, but the Sins on Earth, which hath made a separation between you and your God. 'Tis injurious to the sweet Influences of the Stars, to charge them with such dire Effects, as Wars, and Pestilences and Conflagrations: Divinae Justitiae opera haec, sunt (saith the Father) & humanae injustitiae. These are the Products of God's Righteousness upon our Unrighteousness. Wherefore glorifie we God in these our Fires, saying with the Prophet, Righteousness belongs to thee, O Lord, but unto us confusion of Faces, as it is this day, because of our manifold Trespasses Dan. ix. 7. that we have trespassed against thee.

If yet it be expected I should be more particular, in assigning the very Sins that have occasian'd this heavy Judgment, 'tis a slippery place, and hard to keep firm footing in it. The mysterious Text of God's Holy Providence (as I said before) is dark and obscure; and so much the more, because there are so many Interpreters, (for though there be no infallible Judge of the Sense of it, yet all Fingers itch to be doing;) their Conjectures so [Page] various, and full of contradiction, so tincted and debaucht with private prejudice, that they do but [...], wrest it unskilfully, as they do the other holy Text, Convertunt in mentem suam (as the aethiopick turns that place in St. Peter) torture, and torment it, till it confess their 2 Pet. iii. 16. own Sense. As for the many spiteful and unrighteous Glosses upon the sad Text of our present Calamity (on which every Faction amongst us hath a Revelation, hath an Interpretation;) I will not mention, much less imitate them. Justus Accusator sui, saith the Wiseman. 'Tis a righteous thing for every Man to suspect himself, to look Prov. xviii. 17. first into the plague of his own Heart, and to be ready to say with the Disciples, Master, Is it not I? We are all over apt to charge one another foolishly enough; to take St. Peter's counsel, [...], to be kind and favourable to our selves in our Interpretations and Censures; but God methinks, at present seems to accuse us All.

When a Judgment is particular and reacheth but a few, we have a savage promptness in condemning the Sufferers, with, This is God's just Judgment for such a thing, which we, it seems like not, though perhaps God himself doth. So long as the Thunder-bolt flies over our own Heads, we hug our selves, and All is well; 'tis our dear pastime, and a high voluptuousness to sit and censure others, and flatter our selves, that we are more righteous than they. To meet with this ill Humour, God hath reacht us now an universal stroak that comes home to every Man: So that 'tis as our Prophet states it in the beginning of this Sermon, As with the Prince and the Priest, (for [...] is both) so with the people, as with the Master, Cap. xxiv. 2. and the Mistress, so with the Servant, as with the Buyer, and the Borrower, so with the Seller and the Lender. In fine, He is no Englishman that feels not this Blow: And therefore as the Judgment is Universal, let us give Glory to God, and confess, that the Sin is so too; saying with the good Nehemiah, Thou art just, O God, in All that is brought Cap. ix. 32, 33. [Page] upon us; on our King, and on our Princes; on our Priests, and on our Prophets; on our Fathers, and on all thy People; For thou hast done Right, but we have All done Wickedly. God give us Grace to take every one the shame that belongs properly to himself, and to joyn heartily together in a full Chorus at the last, repeating that excellent Exomologesis of holy David, with which I began this point, and shall now conclud it, Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy Judgments. But there is another yet behind.—

Lastly, give God the Glory of his Mercy too; that 3. must in no wise be forgotten. 'Tis the priviledge and S. Ambrose, Suo jure omnibus Dei operibus superingreditur & supernatat. Ps. cxxxv. 7. prerogative of Mercy, that it mixeth it self in all God's Works; even in Justice it self too. He sendeth forth Lightnings with the Rain (saith the Psalmist) he bringeth the Winds out of his Treasuries. Strange Furniture, one would think for a Treasury, Storms and Tempests! But there is so very much of Mercy even in God's Judgments too, that they also deserve a place amongst his Treasures, ay and amongst ours too. For he licenseth not a Wind, or a Storm, lets not fly a flash of Lightning, or a Ball of Fire, but a Mercy goes along with it; comes flying to us (if we miss it not by our Negligence or Inadvertency) upon the Wings of that Wind; and discovers it self to us even by the Light of those Fires. And therefore turn not away your Eyes in Horror, but study the late Conflagration: And even in the Dust and Ashes of our City, if we sift and examine them well, we may find rich Treasures of Mercy hidden.

Mercy first, that God spar'd us, and preserv'd us so long. For without his Divine Manutenency, our strongest 1. Fabricks had faln immediately upon their very Builders, He that made all things at first, by preserving makes them still; new makes them every Moment; and for his Will's sake alone they were and are created. He carries Nature alwayes in his Bosom, fostering and cherishing [Page] her; and that not only as she came out of his own hand, and bears the Impresses of his Infinite Wisdom and Power; but as we have transform'd and disguis'd her by our petty skill; as she is fettered and shackled by our silly Artifices: Even the World of Fancy too, the poor Attempts and Bunglings of Art, our Houses of Dirt and Clay (which we call Pálaces and so please our selves in) would quickly fall asunder, and moulder all into the Dust they consist of, did not an Almighty Hand uphold them. If he keep not the House and the City, in vain the Builder builds, and the Watchman wakes, and the Centinel stands perdu. And therefore give we him the Glory of this Mercy, saying Thanks be to the Lord, who so long shew'd us marvellous great Kindness, I say not with Ps. xxxi. 23. the Psalm, in a strong City, (though the strongest without him is weakness) but in a very weak One: A City in the Meanness of the Materials, the Oldness of the Buildings, the streightness of some Streets, the ill Situation of others, and many like Inconveniencies, so expos'd to this dismal Accident, that it must needs have been long since in Ashes, had not his miraculous Mercy preserv'd it, who, so long as he pleaseth (and that is just so long as we please Him) continues the Fire to us useful and safe, serviceable, and yet innocent, with as much ease as he lays it asleep, and quiet in the Bosom of a Flint.

Mercy again, That he afflicts us at all; that we are yet 2. in his School; that he hath not quite given us over, and turn'd us out as unteachable and incorrigible. Felix cui Ps. xciv. 12. Deus dignatur irasci, saith Tertullian; in David's Language Blessed is the Man whom thou chastnest, O Lord, and teachest [...]. him in thy Law; send'st him thy Judgments, and learn'st him thy Righteousness. But to sin, and not be punisht, is the sorest punishment of all, saith S. Chrysostome. Dimisit eos secundum desideria Cordis, He suffer'd them to walk Ps. lxxxi. 13. after their own Heart's Lusts, that's a dreadful portion: [Page] Let them alone, Why should they be stricken any more? Isai. i. 5. Prov. i. 32. Ps. xi. 6. that's the prosperity of Fools that destroys them, as Solomon; or as David phraseth it; This is for God to rain Snares upon the ungodly: A horrible Tempest indeed! as he there calls it, and worse than the Fire and Brimstone in the same Verse.

Mercy too, That he afflicts us himself, keeps us still under his own Discipline, and hath not yet given us over 3. unto the Will of our Adversaries. The hand of an Enemy Ps. xxvii. 14. poysons the Wound: His Malice or his Insolence doubles and trebles the Vexation. The Malignity of the Instrument may invenom a Scratch into a Gangrene. But the Blessed Hand of God, even when it strikes, drops Balsom. His very Rods are bound up in Silk and Softness, and dipt before hand in Balm: He wounds that he may heal, and in wounding heals: Una, eademque Manus Vulnus, opemque—And therefore may we never be beaten by the hand of a cruel and insulting Slave: But let our Righteous Lord himself smite us, and it shall be a Ps. cxli. 5. Kindness; let him correct us, and it shall be an excellent Oyl. O let us us still fall into the Hands of God (for great are 2 Sam. xxiv 14. his Mercies) but let us not fall into the hands of Men.

Mercy lastly in the Degree of the Affliction; That he 4. hath punisht us less than our Iniquities deserve; afflicted us in measure; corrected us in Judgment, not in his Fury, for then we had been utterly brought to nothing: That we have had our Lives for a Prey, and are as so many Fire-brands pluckt out of the Burning. And therefore, why should a living Man complain? Say we rather as Abraham did in the Case of Sodom, when he had that horrible Scene of Vengeance now in his Eye, We are but Gen. xviii. 27. Dust and Ashes: Not only Dust in the course of ordinary Frailty, but Ashes too in the merit of a far sharper Doom; deserve, that God should bring us to Dust, nay, even turn us to Ashes too, as our Houses. It is of the Lam. iii. 22. Lord's Mercies, that We our selves also are not consumed, [Page] because his compassions fail not; that any part of our City is still remaining; that God hath left us yet a holy place to assemble in, solemnly to acknowledge (as we do this Day) his most miraculous Mercy: That when all our Wit was puzzl'd, and all our Industry tir'd out; when the Wind was at the highest, and the Fire at the hottest, and all our hopes were now giving up the Ghost, Then He, whose season is our greatest extremity; He, who stayeth his rough Wind in the Day of the East-wind, as 'tis Cap. xxvii. 8. in the next Chapter; He, who alone sets Bounds to the Rage of the Waters; restrain'd also on the suddain, the Fury of this other merciless and unruly Element, by the Interposition of his Almighty Hucusque, hitherto shalt thou go, and no further. Ay this deserves indeed to be the Matter of a Song, Joy in the Lord upon so great an Occasion, upon so noble an Experience, sits not unhandsome on the Brow of so sad a Day as this is. It shall be said in that Day, saith our Prophet, and let us all say it; say it with Triumph, and Jubilee too,) Lo, this is our Cap. xxv. 9. God, we have waited for him, and He hath saved us; This is the Lord, we will be glad, and rejoyce in his Salvation:—The third and last part (we shall mention) of God's Due, the Glory of his Mercy.

And now having thus clear'd and secur'd the Fountain of Righteousness, in the Discharge of some part of our 2. Duty to God (where regularly it must begin;) it remains, Ut ducatur Rivus Justitiae de fonte Pietatis, as St. Gregory speaks: It must not be a Fountain seal'd or shut up within it self; (Religion is not, as some would have it, a Supersedeas to Common Honesty; the performing our Duty towards God, no Discharge of our Duty to Man:) In the next place it should run down like a River, Amos. v. 24. in mighty Streams of Righteousness to all our Neighbours round about us; the other great Branch, the second Table, or (if you will) the other Hemisphere in this great Globe [Page] of Righteousness. And here, Ecce nouas Hyadas, aliumque Oriona—So many new Asterisms and Constellations of Vertues appear, that the time will not give leave to number them, or call them all by their Names: I can only touch lightly the greater Circles, some of the more comprehensive Lines and Measures of them in these few Generals, and so pass on.

'Tis Righteousness Indefinitely First, and so Universally. So that 'twill not be sufficient to take forth some 1. part of it in God's School, a line or two, it may be, of our great Lesson, and neglect the Rest; to study some one Page or Paragraph, and tear all the Book besides; to break the Tables (to far worse Effect than Moses did) and content our selves with some sorry Fragment: No, What ever goes under the common style of Universal Justice; whatever falls within the large Bosom of that comprehensive Epitome, into which our Lord himself abridg'd the Law and the Prophets, All things whatsoever ye would Matth. vii 12. that men should do to you, do even so to them; Whatever comes within compass of that [...], as S. James Jam. ii. 8. calls it, the Royal Law, (the latter part of the holy Institutes, the other tome of the Christian Pandects, the second great Commandment like the first, as our Saviour styles it) Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self; Even all the Offices Matth. xxil. 38, 39. and Instances of duty between man & man; (Reverence and Obedience to our Superiors, Courtesie and Humanity to our Equals; Kindness and Condescension to our Inferiours; Gratitude and Thankfulness to our Benefactors; Justice and Upright-dealing towards All; Truth in our Words, and Faithfulness in our Trusts, and Constancy to our Promises, and Candor, and Sincerity and Honesty in all our Actions: And yet further and higher, for 'tis a Righteousness improv'd & heightned, or at least interpreted by our Lord into Love, and so obligeth us beyond the strict Measures of Common Justice, and not only renders, what is legally due, but gives and forgives beyond it;) Equity [Page] and Moderation to those, that are any way obnoxious to us; Mildness and Gentleness to those that have any way offended us; Sympathy and Compassion towards them that suffer; Mercy and Bounty to them that need; Goodness and Peaceableness, and Charity to all the World:) These are all parts of this great Lesson, and whatever else may help to denominate us The Righteous Nation that keepeth the Truth (as 'tis in the second verse of this Chapter) or the City in which dwells Rightcousness.

But then as 'tis Righteousness indefinitely, (the Commandment 2. exceeding broad, as David speaks, wide in the Ps. cxix. 96. Extension; so is it also as deep in the Intension,) 'tis Righteousness Internally and Spiritually too; as being a Righteousness taught us by God's, and not by Mans Judgments only, and consequently must have an Effect proportionable: 'Tis when Thy Judgments are in the Earth, Men will learn—As the Jews, while their fear towards God was taught them by the Precepts of Men, drew near to him, and honoured him with their Mouth only, but removed their Hearts far away from him, Isai. xxix 13. Upon the same Ground, our Righteousness will never exceed the Righteousness of Scribes, and Pharisees Hypocrites, must needs prove Noise, and appearance only, a meer and vain Semblance, if we learn it in no higher School than Mans; take it forth from the XII Tables only, not from the Two, and have no other Tutor in it than Solon, or Lycurgus, or Justinian. For the Derivation can return no higher than the Fountain-head; and what is taught us only by the Statutes of Omri, or at Caesar's Judgment-seat, will never come up to what the perfect Law of God requires. While we are under this lower and external Discipline only, if we can but skulk and shift, and play least in sight, and seem to be Righteous, though we are not so; Recti [...]in Curia, though not upright in Heart: Or if we be discovered and impleaded too, if we can, whether by Power or Artifice, break through the venerable Cobweb, and run under the [Page] miserable shelter of a Temporal Indemnity at these lower Bars: Why, All is well; with Solomon's Wanton we wipe Prov. xxx. 20 our Mouths, and are suddenly very Virgins again, not only safe, but innocent too. But though Humane Laws exact only outward Compliances, assume not to themselves to judge the Heart, because they cannot discern it, nor take Cognizance of secret Thoughts and Purposes, further than they are declar'd by overt Acts: Yet God is a Spirit, and a Discerner of the inmost Thoughts and Intentions; and his Law Spiritual too, and given to the Spirit; and the Righteousness taught in his School, is not a Carcase, or an Outside only, but a living Soul, and a Spirit of Righteousness: and by con'equence it stays not in the outward Act, (the proper Object of Humane Laws and Provisions;) restrains not only open violences (such as the Judgment-seat of Man condemns, and the Scaffold, or the Gibbet take notice of;) not only smooths and polisheth the outward Garb, to render that plausible in the eyes of the World: But goes yet further and deeper, even to the Heart; composeth the whole Inner-Man too, and labours to approve that to the Righteous Judge, who sees not as Man sees; and in fine, calls us up to that glorious height of the Primitive Christians in Justin Martyr, who obey'd indeed the Municipal Laws of their Countrey, but out-liv'd them too, and surmounted them far, [...], as he speaks; they contented not themselves with so seant Measures, but flew a higher and a nobler pitch, aiming at a more re [...]in'd and perfect Righteousness, the worthy Effect of God's Judgments, and not of Mans only; taught in his School alone, and not at our Tribunals. And then,

Lastly, 'Tis Righteousness Positively and Affirmatively too. For though the Decalogue is almost all over Negative 3 [...]. in the Style and Form of it; yet, our Lord, by reducing all the Precepts of it to one Affirmative (Love,) and also by his Affirmative Glosses or Additions to it in his [Page] Sermon on the Mount, seems to have authorised the Rule of their Exposition, receiv'd generally by Christian Divines, That the Negative still infers the Affirmative, and that there are many Yeas conceal'd in the Bosom of every such No. So that however 'tis indeed a part of our Duty, not to Murther, and not so Slander, and not to Covet, and the like, (an Obligation consequent upon God's prohibition; and he takes it well, when for his sake we abstain from the Evil we are inclin'd or strongly solicited to, and so accepts graciously our very Nothing, as I may call it, our not doing amiss; thus giving us leave to inclose, as it were, a part of our Waste, and to [...]aise some Revenue upon it:) Yet this is so much short of the Height of the Lesson we are to learn in God's School, that 'tis only the unlearning something that might obstruct it; so far from making us truly Righteous, that it can only style us Innocent, and set us Extra vitia rather than Intra virtutem. We must not then content our selves with a Negative Righteousness; nor confine, and limit it within the sorry Bounds of the Pharisaical Boast, That we are not, as other Men are, Luc. xxiii. 11.Extortioners or Unjust: In some Cases he is unjust too, that gives not his own, as well as he that takes away what is anothers: In the Sacred Dialect, Alms-deeds are Justice too; even Acts of Mercy, and Bounty to those Ps. cxii. 9. Isai. lviii. 7, 8. that need them, stricti Juris, a part of our Righteousness sometimes so indispensable, as not to be omitted without Sin. And therefore glorifie thy self no longer, that thou do'st harm to no Man:

—Cum dicis stultum, qui donat Amico,

Qui paupertatem levat, attollitque propinqui,

Juvenal. Sat. xiv.

Et spoliare doces—could the Heathen Poet say: He robs his neighbour, that relieves him not: He spoils his Friend, that in some Cases doth not supply him. And though 'tis well (a good Degree) if we can say with S. Paul, 2 Cor. vii. 2. I have wronged no Man; yet he only is perfectly blameless in this kind, Qui ne in eo quidem ulli noceat, quo prodesse [Page] desistat, as S. Jerome excellently; who doth not this Evil Lib i. Epist. 14. ad celantiam. to his Neighbour, that he omits to do him all the good he can. Thou didst not burn thy Neighbours house, (a strange piece of uncouth Righteousness!) But do'st thou receive him into thy own, now he is harborless? Thou hast not opprest, or impoverisht thy Brother; 'Tis well: But is thy Abundance the Supply of his Want in this present exigent? thy Superfluity the Ransom and Redemption of his extream Necessities? If not, remember, that Dives is in torments, not for robbing Lazarus, but for not relieving Sin: And the dreadful Decretory Sentence Matth. xxxv. proceeds at the last Day, not for oppressing the Poor, but for not feeding, not cloathing, not visiting them: A Reflection very common indeed; yet never more proper or seasonable than at this time, when God presents us an Object of Charity, the greatest, I think, and the most considerable that was ever offer'd to this Nation, and when Heaven and Earth expect, that something extraordinary should be done.

I have now opened the Book, and laid it before you, and given you a short Draught of this very important Lesson: a Lesson so considerable, that our Wise and Good God thinks it worth the while to rout Armies, and sink Navies; to burn up Cities, and turn Kingdoms upside down; to send Wars, and Plagues, and Conflagrations amongst us; to set open all his Schools, and ply all his severest Methods to teach it us the more effectually. Think now, that he looks down this Day from Heaven to take Notice of our Proficiency; to see how far we are advanc'd by these his Judgments in learning Righteousness. And is it possible, we should stand out any longer? Can we still resist so powerful a Grace? Are not the parts of the Text by this time, happily met together? and the Truth of it accomplisht, and exemplified in us to the full?—Gods Judgments on us, and his Righteousness in us? Who would not think and hope so? But as S. Jerome [Page] complains of his Age (which was indeed very calamitous) Orbis Romanus ruit, & tamen Cervix nostra non flectitur: The World sinks and cracks about our Ears, and yet our Neck as stiff, and the Crest of our Pride as lofty, and as erect as ever. How few are they that repent in Dust and Ashes, even Now, that God hath laid our City in Dust, and our Houses in Ashes! Look we first upon the Text, and then upon our selves, and we must ingenuously acknowledge, that whatever Abatements or Diminutions to the Height of the design'd event of God's Judgments upon us the Text, or any Version of it note, or imply, our wretched evil Lives do but too plainly express and justifie. For—

1. Who are they that are said here to learn Righteousness in the Text? Not always the Afflicted themselves, it seems; but some others that stand by and look on. For 'tis not to be omitted, that the phrase manifestly varies in the parts of the Proposition: Judgments in the Earth, or upon the Land, some particular Countrey; and the World at large, or some few in it learn Righteousness. Thus Tyrus shall be devour'd with Fire, saith the Prophet: Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza and Ekron shall be very sorrowful: Zach. ix. 4, 5. But not a word how Tyrus her self is affected. God forbid it should be so with us! May it never be said, that any of our neighbors make better use of our calamities, than we our selves! Have we any so hard-hearted amongst us, that can look upon so sad a Spectacle, as if they sate all the while in the Theater, or walkt in a Gallery of Pictures; little more concern'd, than at the Siege of Rhodes, or the Ruines of Troy? Shall any Neighbour-City say wisely—Mea res agitur, jam proximus ardet Vcalegon—? Shall our enemies themselves (the sober and the Wise amongst them, at the least) tremble at the Relation, and we continue stupid, and senseless? Shall Constantinople and Alexandria resent it, and we not regard it as we ought? Nay, shall China and Peru (it may be) Surat [Page] and Mexico, both the Indies hear, and be affected with it, and we our selves insensible? Shall the Inhabitants of the World abroad warm themselves at our Fires, with kindly and holy Heats; while in the mean time our Repentings are not kindled, nor our Charity inflam'd, and our Devotion as cold and frozen as ever? Shall our Mountain (which we said in our jolly pride should never be removed) be fulminated, and thunder-strook, but the Blessed shower, that follows, the Instruction, that descends after, like the Rain, slide off to the Vallies, to Others, that are round about us? Our Lord wept over Jerusalem, because she knew not then (at forty Luc xix. 41. years distance) the time of her Visitation; for the Days will come, saith He, when there shall not be lest one stone upon another: But Wo is me! Our Day is come already, and our Visitation now actually upon us; and yet I fear, we will not know it, as we ought. For—

2. Reflect a little upon the Tense of the Verb, how that varies too in the parts of the Proposition: The Judgments Are in the Earth, and the Inhabitants Will learn—(So the Vulgar Latin & the English:) 'Tis still per verba de suturo. For we list not to hand-fast our selves to God Almighty, to make our selves over to him by present Deed of Gift; but would fain, forsooth, bequeath our selves to him a Legacy in our last Will and Testament. Ay but In necessitatibus nemo Liberalis: 'Tis not a free or a noble Donation, which we bestow, when we can keep it no longer our selves: For such a Bequest we may thank Death, rather than the Testator, saith S. Chrysostome. But we are all Clinicks in this point; would fain have a Baptism in Reserve, a Wash for all our [...] Hom. xviii. in Ephes. Sins, when we cannot possibly commit them any more. Like Felix the unjust Governour, when S. Paul reasons of Righteousness, our Heads begin to ake, and presently we adjourn, Acts xxiv. 25. with, Go thy way for this time; [...], (as he pretended) when we have time and Opportunity, and convenient Leisure (which we read not, that he ever found) in plain English, when we have nothing else to do, or can do nothing else, then wee'l take forth this Lesson;—Learn [Page] Righteousness, as Cato did Greek, Jam Septuagenarius, just when we are a dying;—Begin then to con our part, when we are ready to be hist off the Stage, and Death is now pulling off our properties. But take we heed in time: He may prove a false Prophet, that promiseth himself to die the Death of the Righteous, when he hath lov'd, and pursu'd the Ways, and Wages of Unrighteousness all his life long: Who thinks if he can but shape the last faint Breath he draws into a formal pretence of forgiving all the World, and a sly desire of being forgiven; Upon these two hangs the whole stress of his Righteousness, he goes out of God's School upon fair terms, and thinks to render a plausible Account of himself. No no; the great Lesson of the Text is harder and deeper than so: 'Tis that we must sweat for, 'tis that we may bleed for: 'Tis all that Adam lost, and All that Christ came to recover: 'Tis the Business of our whole life, and 'tis desperate Folly and Madness to defer to learn it till Death, when God now calls us to account for it. Though the Verb in some Versions be future (as I said) yet still 'tis Discent Habitatores, we must learn it while we dwell here in the World, and who can secure us that beyond the next moment? When once we remove hence, there's no School beyond: The Platonick Eruditorum in ORIGEN (a place under Ground, I know not where, in which separated Souls are suppos'd to learn what they mist of, or neglected here) as very a Fable as the Platonick Purgatory. As there is no Work, nor Labour; so no Device, nor Knowledge, nor Wisdom Eccles. ix. 10. in the Grave. The Schools are all in this World: All beyond is Prison, and Dungeon, and place of Torment, for such as learn not their Duty here; Fire without Light, and utter Darkness.

3. Again, They did learn (so the Syriac, and the Interlineary Latin) when thy Judgments were in the Earth: For there is an Ellipsis in the Original of the former clause, and the Verb Substantive may be supplied either way, when thy Judgments Are or Were in the Earth: And the Conjunction may seem to stand fair for the later [...] in quantum, or [Page] juxta quod; [...] (as R. David glosseth it) qua mensura, aut modo; and so the Syriac, Qualia Judicia, talem Justitiam dedicerunt: So much Judgment, so much Justice; Righteousness they did learn, just while God's Rod was over them, and no longer. Thus while God's Plagues lay heavy upon Pharaoh, even that stiff neck bow'd, and that hard heart was softned; As Iron in a quick Fire relents and melts; but take it out of the Furnace, and it grows hard again, nay worse, Churlish and Unmalleable: And so he, When he saw that there was Respite, saith the Text, or a breathing time, He hardned his Heart, Ex. viii. 15. And do not we all the same? Like teeming Women, while the pangs are upon us, we have sorrow; when some great Affliction gives us a smart Visit, strikes home, and deep, we seem to be a little Joh. xvi. 21. sensible Ay but the Throws once over, [...] saith our Lord, the Woman remembers them no more; and so we, If but for a little space Grace be shewed us, if God gives us but a little Respite in our Bondage, like Israel newly returned from Babel, we streight forget his Commandments; which made the good Ezra asham'd and blush to lift up his Face to Heaven; Ezra, Cap. ix. Vers. 8, 10.

Happy We, if, as Pliny adviseth his friend Maximus, Tales Lib. 7. Ep. 27. esse sani perseveremus, quales futuros profitemur infirmi; if we continue such in Health, as we promise to be upon our sickbeds. But alas! Convaluit; Mansit, ut ante. How few with David pay the Vows which they spake with their Mouths, Ps. lxvi. 14. when they were in trouble? Do not the engagements on the sick-bed vanish, like the Dreams of the sick, forgotten, as if they had never been? I appeal to your own Bosoms; though affected at first with this late dismal Accident, doth it not prove to you a nine-days Wonder, and your Thoughts though much startled at first, by degrees reconcile to it? Do not your Devotions begin to grow cold with the Fires; rak'd up, like those dying sparks in dead Ashes, and buried in the Dust;—Ignes suppositi Cineri doloso? Just as our Prophet states it here, While thy Judgments were upon them, they learn'd; But as it follows immediately, Fiat Gratia[Page]Impio, Let Favour be shewed to the Wicked, the least Intermission Vers. 10. or kind Interval, and he will not learn Righteousness, saith the Text expresly; he soon lays by his Book, and gives over. But

4. Lastly, What is it that we learn? or, to what good end or purpose? The Chaldee Paraphrast interposeth here a very Material and Operative word, Discent operari, they will learn [...] to do, or to work Righteousness. And this Addition shews us another of our Defects; cuts off, I fear, above half the Roll of our Learners at once. We live (as I said) in a learned Age: But in all this Croud and Throng of Learners, how few put themselves in good earnest into God's School? And of them that do, how much fewer yet take forth their Lesson aright?—Learn any thing else they will, but not Righteousness; and if that, any thing, but to do it? But this is not [...], rightly to divide; this is to mangle the Text, and to saw Isaiah asunder again. Would learning or talking, or pretending serve the turn, We might find Righteousness enough in the World: We can define it, and distinguish it, Criticize upon the Word, & dispute of the Thing without end: we stuff our Heads with the Notion, and tip our Tongues with the Language, and fill the World with our pretences to it: But Little Children, saith S. John, (Oye World of Learners) Be not deceived, (Let no Man seduce 1 Joh. iii. 7. you into this piece of Gnosticism, as if to learn, or to know, were sufficient; No,) 'O [...], He that Doth Righteousness, he is Righteous. Non fortia loquimur, sed vivimus, saith S. Cyprian; The life of Religion is Doing. What we know, we must practice too; Whereto we have already attained, we must walk in it, saith the Apostle. They, that follow'd Christ, were Phil. iii. 16. first indeed call'd Disciples, that is, Learners, (for there Actsxi. 26. we must begin;) But they soon after commenc'd Christians at Antioch, Anointed to Action, as the word implies; and this Name sticks by them still, as the more essential. Their Oyl must not be spent all in the Lamp, In Schola Sapientiae, that they may shine by Knowledge; they must do their Exercises too In Gymnasio Justitiae, be anointed to the Agon, [Page] and to the Combat (as the Champions of old;) and if they expect the Crown of Righteousness, must not only learn Righteousness, but learn to do it.

ANd therefore (to shut up All, and to inforce it a little upon such Topicks, as the Text, and the sad Face of things amongst us suggest;) Let us no longer trifle with God Almighty, now we find to our cost, that He is in good earnest with us. Be not deceived; God, I'me sure, is not mock'd. 'Tis not our fasting, and looking demure a little, and hanging down the Head, like a Bull-rush for a Day; 'Tis not a few Grimaces of sorrow, a sad word or two, or a weeping Eye will serve the turn:—Our Hearts must bleed too, our Souls must be afflicted, and mourn for our old Unrighteousnesses, and forsake them too, and renounce them all for ever; and yet further, take forth new Lessons of Righteousness in all holy Conversations and Godlinesses, as S. Peter 2 Pet. iii. 11. speaks, even in all the instances of Piety, and Justice, and Charity, ye heard of even now, or all this holy Discipline of God is lost, and spent in vain upon us. For this is all the Cap. xxvii. 9. Fruit, saith our Prophet, to take away sin: If that remain still in us, Adversity is a bitter Cup indeed. To keep our sins, and hold them fast, even when God's Judgments are upon us for them, this is with Copronymus, to pollute the Fountain that should wash us, to defile the salutary Waters of Affliction, to prophane the holy Fires of God's Furnace, and to pass through the Fire to Moloch, to some reigning and domineering Sin, some Tyrant-lust, or Mistress-passion. Correction without Instruction, this is the Scourge of Asses, not the Discipline of Men, nor the Rod of the Sons of Men. To suffer much, and not to be at all the better for it, 'tis certainly one of the saddest portions that can befal us in this World; if not the fore-boding and prognostick of a far sadder yet to come, the very beginnings of Hell here, the Fore-tasts of that Cup of Bitterness, of which the Damned suck out the Dreggs.

And wilt thou after all this hide the sweet Morsel under [Page] thy Tongue, when thou sensibly perceiv'st it already turning into the Gall of Asps?—Still long for the delicious portion, consecrated and snatch it greedily from God's Altars, though thou seest thy Fingers burn, and thy Nest on fire with it?—Still retain the old Complacence in thy sparkling Cup, though thou feel'st it already biting like a Serpent, and stinging like an Adder?—say still, Stoln Waters are sweet, Prov. ix 17. though like those bitter Ones of Jealousie, thou perceiv'st them carry a Curse along with them into thy very Bowels? Dare we thus provoke the Lord to Jealousie? Are we stronger 1 Cor. x. 22. Job xxviii. 3. Job xli. 9. Isai. xxxiii. 14. than He? Gird up now thy loyns like a Man, thou stoutest, and gallantest of the Sons of Earth. Hast thou an Arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a Voice like him? Wilt thou set the Briars and Thorns of the Wilderness against him in Battel-Array? or canst thou dwell with everlasting Burnings? Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance; not knowing Rom. ii. 4. (refusing to know) that the Long-suffering of our Lord 2 Pet. iii. 15, is Salvation, and that his Goodness leadeth thee to Repentance? If not, know assuredly, that thy Hardness and Impenitent Heart, do but treasure up for thee, yet a fiercer, and a more insupportable Wrath.

And therefore let us not flatter our selves, nor think that God hath now emptied his Quiver, and spent all his Artillery upon us; Let us not come forth delicately with the foolish Agag, saying, Surely the Bitterness of Death is past: No, the 1 Sam. xv. 32. Dregs of the Cup of Fury are still behind; God grant we be not forc'd at last to drink them, and suck them up. Great Plagues remain for the ungodly, saith the Psalmist. Vae unum abiit; Ecce duo veniunt. One Wo is past, but behold there come two Woes more; for the rest of Men that were not kill'd by the Ps. xxxii. 11. former Plagues, repented not, Apoc. ix. 12. 20. When God's Rods and his Ferulaes (the Discipline of Children) are contemn'd, he hath a lash of Scorpions to scourge the obstinate. When the ten dreadful. Plagues are spent all upon a stubborn Egypt without effect, there's a Red Sea yet in Reserve, that at last swallows all: And if our present Affictions reform us not, that we sin no more; take we heed, lest yet [Page] a worse thing befal us. Remember, that when the Touch of God's little Finger did not terrifie us, he soon made us feel the stroak of his heavy hand. If the more benign, and benedict Medicines will not work, nor stir us at all, he can prepare us a rougher Receipt, or a stronger Dose; retrive and bring back his former Judgments in a sharper Degree, or else send upon us new ones, which we never dream of.

The Devil of Rebellion and Disobedience, which not long since possest the Nation, rent and tore it till it fom'd again, and pin'd away in lingring Cousumptions; that cast it oft times into the Fire, and oft times into the Water (calamities of all sorts) to destroy it; is now through God's Mercies cast out, and we seem to sit quiet, and sober at the Feet of our Deliverer, cloath'd, and in our right Minds again. But yet this ill Spirit, this restless Fury (this unquiet and dreadful Alastor, the eldest Son of Nemesis, and heir apparent to all the Teriours and Mischiefs of his Mother) walks about day and night, seeking Rest, and finds none; and he saith in his heart, I will return some time or other to my House from whence I came out. Oh let us take heed of provoking that God, who alone chains up his Fury, least for our Sins he permit him to return once more, with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself, and so our last Estate prove worse than the former.

The Sword of the Angel of Death, which the last year cut down almost a hundred thousand of us, may seem to have been glutted with our Blood, and to have put up it self into the Scabbard. Quiesce & sile, as the Prophet speaks: God grant it may rest here, and be still. But, as it follows Jer. xlvii. 6. there, How can it be quiet, if the Lord give it a new Commission against us? Methinks I see the Hand still upon the Guard, and unless we prevent it by our speedy Repentance, it may quickly be drawn again more terrible than ever, new furbisht, and whetted with the keener edge, and point, our wretched Ingratitude must needs have given it. The Sun of Righteousness was ready to rise upon us, with healing in his Wings, to clear our Heaven again, and to scatter the [Page] Cloud of the last years unhealthiness. But yet, methinks, this slow-moving Cloud hangs still o're our Heads, hovers yet in view, with God knows how many Plagues and Deaths in the Bosome of it: and without our serious Amendment we have no Rainbow to assure us, that we shall not again be drencht in that horrible Tempest. Though the best Naturalists say, That great publick Fires are a proper Remedy for Diamerbr. depeste Noviomag. the Plague, Yet God, if he be angry, can send a ruffling Wind into the very Ashes of our City, blow them into the Air, and turn them as those of the Egyptian Furnace, into a Blain, and a Botch, and a Plague-sore upon us. Ex. ix. 8, 9.

Nay even out of those dead Ashes, can He raise yet a fiercer Flame, to consume what still remains. As the Lightning comes out of the East, saith our Lord, and shineth even unto the West, so shall my coming be, (sc. to destroy Jerusalem,) and wherever the Carcase is, will the Eagles be gathered together, Matth. xxiv. Fire is the Eagle in Nature; nothing in the Elementary World mounts so high to its place, and stoops so low to its prey: the two properties God himself ascribes to that Bird, Job xxxix 27, 30. And if we still refuse obstinately to be gathered, like Chickens under our Lord's Wing, he can again let loose this Bird of Prey, this Eagle of Heaven upon us; and from the East, where it began before, flie it home like Lightning [...], even to the utmost West, to seize, and to devour where ever there is the least Quarry remaining.

Or if this move us not, let us remember that we have another City upon the Waters, a floating Town of moveable Forts and Castles, the Walls and Bulwarks of the Nation; stronger than those of Brass, the Fable speaks of. As we desire that God would ever fill their Sails with prosperous Gales, & still bring them home with Honor and Victory, and good Success, Let us take heed that we fight not against them too. Our Sin, like a Talent of Lead, may sink them to the Bottom; our Lusts, and Passions, and Animosities may fire them; our Drunkenness, and deep Excesses may drown them; our Vollies of Oaths and Blasphemies may pierce [Page] them; nay, our Seditious Murmurings, and Privy Whisperings may blow them'over. For God is Piorum Rupes, Reorum Scopulus; a Rock to found the Just upon, but a Shelf to shipwrack, and confound the Unrighteous.

And yet all these are but the common Roads, and ordinary Instances of God's Displeasures: But he hath also, besides, and beyond all these, unknown Treasures of Wrath, vast stores of hidden Judgments (for who knows the Power, or the extent of his Anger?) laid up in those secret Magazines, Ps. xc. il. where his Judgments are, when they are not in the Earth, reserv'd as his dreadful Artillery against the time of trouble, against the day of Battel and War, as he speaks himself, Job xxxviii. 23. Oh let us take heed of treasuring up to our selves Wrath against that day of Wrath, and the Revelatian of his Righteous Judgments. Rom. 1. 5.

And now what shall I say more, if all that hath been said hitherto, prove ineffectual? The Text affords yet one [...], &c. Expedient as the Chaldee Paraphrast may seem to have understood it: Because thy Judgment, saith he (not [...] as in the Hebrew, but [...] or [...] as the Jews call it, and S. Jude from them, The Judgment of the great Day) because Jude 6. that Judgment, though not as yet in the Earth, is yet fixt, and appointed, and prepared for all the Earth [...] in the Hebrew it self too, for rather than in the Earth) therefore most certainly, if at all, or for any thing, the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness.

But if they put far from them this evil day too, as if they had made a Covenant with Death and with Hell; if they finally refuse to come under God's Discipline, and to take forth to themselves Lessons of Righteousness here, they shall then be made themselves great Lessons, and dreadful examples of God's Righteousness to all the World. If they will not glorifie God in these Fires, as they ought, nor walk in the light of them; let them remember that there are Fires without Light, where none glorifie him, but by suffering the Eternal Vengeance of their Sins. There must they learn by saddest experience, who obstinately refuse the more gainful [Page] Method, [...], That 'tis a searful thing to fall into the Hands of a living God. For our enemies here must die, and our storms at last blow over, and our Fires, you see, though never so great, in time go out and vanish: But God lives; hath a Worm too, that dies not (for those that live not as they ought) and a fire that is not quenched: The Babylonian Furnace, seven times hotter than usual, a cool walk to that; all our Vulcans and Etnas, our Heclas and Andes faint types and shadows of it; the great Conflagration, we so lately trembled at, and still bewail, but a spark to that infernal Tophet, but a painted Fire to that dreadful Mongibel; even Everlasting Burnings. From which, God of his tender Mercy deliver us All; and give us Grace in this our Day, (the Day of his Judgments) so to learn Righteousness, and so to do it, that at the last, and great Day of Judgment, when he shall come again to Account with us for all our Learning, and for all our Doings, we may through his Mercy receive the Crown of Righteousness, for his sake alone, who so dearly bought it for us, even Jesus Christ the Righteous: To whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed by us, and all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth, Blessing, Honour, Glory and Power, henceforth and for evermore. Amen.

[...]

FINIS.

§

[Page]

[Page] LEX IGNEA: OR The School of Righteousness. A SERMON Preach'd before the KING, Octob. 10. 1666. At the SOLEMN FAST appointed For the late FIRE in LONDON.

By WILLIAM SANDCROFT, D. D. Dean of S. Pauls.

Published by his Majestie's Special Command.

[figure]

London, Printed for R. Pawlett, at the Bible in Chancery-lane near Fleetstreet.

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Title statement

Lex ignea, or, The school of righteousness a sermon preached before the King, Octob. 10, 1666, at the solemn fast appointed for the late fire in London / by William Sandcroft ...

Sancroft, William, 1617-1693.

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1666

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2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

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A61503

ID [STC]

Wing S553

ID [STC]

ESTC R14856

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

11845770

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ocm 11845770

ID [VID]

49840

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A61503)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 49840)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 547:15)

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— Lex ignea, or, The school of righteousness a sermon preached before the King, Octob. 10, 1666, at the solemn fast appointed for the late fire in London / by William Sandcroft ..., Sancroft, William, 1617-1693..

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36 p.

Printed for R. Pawlett ...,. London :: [1666].. (Title vignette (St. Paul's? burning)) (Reproduction of original in Bristol Public Library, Bristol, England.)

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