NO man can be so sordid­ly blockish,SERM. I. or so wic­kedly profane, as to de­ny the necessity and be­nefit of Repentance: Nor can there be any that plead a right to the title of Christians, but will acknowledge themselves so im­plunged into Sin, as, without Repen­tance, they deserve to be wrapt up in the embraces of eternal flames. This is the stable foundation upon which the solid Christian builds the assu­red Fabrick of his future felicity. [Page 2] There is a procul O procul it o profane! written upon the gates of heaven, unless Repentance procure you en­trance. Since, therefore, Beloved, 'tis so necessary a Christian duty, I have made choice of this Text; wherein (not to stand upon Divisi­ons, for we have too many of them already) there are Two Parts present themselves to your Meditation.

1. That there is joy in heaven for the souls of the just that are already converted; as appears by that Con­junction [...] or quam, then, that hath reference to somewhat preceding.

2. That there is far more joy in heaven for the conversion of a peni­tent sinner.

This second in Order, though first placed in the Verse, shall be the sub­ject of our ensuing Discourse. We must therefore consider,

• 1. What Repentance is: and
• 2. How to become true Peni­tents.

1. What it is: and that you shall know by this ensuing Definition: 'Tis a new Creation, or sacred Metamorphosis of the soul, converting it from sin to God. [Page 3] The Greek word is very emphatical, [...], which imports as much as a recollecting of the minde, and meditating as it were upon for­mer offences, so as to repent and be heartily sorry for them; not with a superficial and slight kinde of grief, but a real, cordial, and extraordina­ry Compunction and Contrition for sin.

Now this Repentance presuppo­seth some sin formerly committed, some crime heretofore perpetrated. That we are all infected with the Le­prosie of sin, no rational Christian I presume will deny, or dare gainsay. Our first parents have infused, or ra­ther left a taint of their first sin upon all their posterity; so that no man, how devout soever he be, can plead a freedom from Original corruption: Nemo non inficitur Adami labe: All persons are infected with the sin of our first parents; and, as thorow a chanel, the tincture of it hath taken its course to the whole world. You may as well separate hic homo, and hoc individuum, as Man and Original sin. Besides this, how is our life made up [Page 4] of an infinite number of offences and trespasses! 'Tis but a fasciculus or forrago peccatorum, a Bundle or Misce­lany of sin: sins Original, and sins Actual; sins of Omission, and sins of Commission; sins of ignorance, and sins of Knowledge; sins against the Law of God, and sins against his Gospel; sins against Light, and sins against Love. Our sinful Words are more then word can express; our sinful Thoughts are more then thought can conceive: our sinful Deeds have been so many in number, and so hainous in nature, that we have scarce left number for more, or place for worse. Nay, the very Heathens, though poysoned with I­dolatry, and guided by no other light but the Rush-candle of Nature, could cry out, Nemo sine crimine vi­vit: All men sin. Since therefore we are all more or less vitious, all more or less peccato dediti; since we are all sick of this disease of sin, all troubled with this malady; we must seek out a Physician that may pre­scribe us a Medicine, a Cure for this our filthy Leprosie. The Physician [Page 5] is our Saviour JESUS; and so much is intimated unto us by his Name in the Original, [...], which hath its derivation from [...] to heal, and [...] to save: first he heals, and then he saves: first he remedies the distem­per of the body, and then he saves the soul. And that you may be in­excusable if you split the precious vessels of your souls upon the rock of Perdition; and without defence, that you may not pretend either a sinful Bashfulness, or Insufficiencie and Unworthiness; He himself hath vouchsafed to descend so far below himself, as to give you invitation, Matth. 11.28. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavie laden, and I will ease you. [...], it is in the Original; all ye that groan under the weight of sin, as Porters do under a heavie burthen; and I will ease you, saith our Saviour. So that whoso­ever he be that groans under the weight of sin, and lies under the wrack of a pricking Conscience, may come, unless he be wilfully bent upon his own ruine, and receive help from the Prince of Physicians, and the [Page 6] God of them too. For he is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, as that pious Anagram of his blessed Name doth intimate unto us; [...]: Thou art the Lamb, [...], the irreprehensible Lamb, or Lamb without spot or blemish: but the Original signifies somewhat more; so undefiled, and so pure, that Momus himself cannot tell how to carp at him. Nay, the blessed Angels, Heaven it self rejoy­ceth at the conversion of a penitent sinner; Repentance therefore is a thing necessary and requisite to the salvation of a soul. Christ is our Physician, and Repentance is our Physick. We may soon, with the tears of sincere Contrition, wash our selves in the bloud of Christ, from all putrefaction and filthiness that sin hath polluted us withal. There­fore we ought all of us to begin and take a Lesson of Repentance in the School of Christ: we ought to begin ab incunabulis, in our very youth; and not dare florem diabolo, foecem Deo; not waste away the flower and vigour of our youthful years in the devils vas­salage, [Page 5] and when our heads are hoa­ry and Periwig'd with the Snow of Age, then to consecrate our selves to the service of God, and to offer up our selves to the Altar of his Acce­ptance, and that he would for the merits of our most blessed Saviour, his most blessed Son, who suffered that cursed and ignominious death, the death of the Cross, for our sins, have mercy upon us, and pardon all our enormities past, present and to come. Begin in May, not in Decem­ber: for assure your selves, God will never accept of the devils leavings. You must not stream out your Youth in Wine, and live a Lapling to the Silk and Dainties; wear all your Mannors on your back at once, and like the rich man in the Gospel, go attired in purple, and fare deliciously eve­ry day; and then think when you are come to the Spectacle, and bearing­staff, to turn to God, and steer the Vessel of your soul toward heaven. Sera poenitentia raro vera: Repentance in the declining of a mans age, when the Sun of his life is posting to the West, is seldom true. The Thief [Page 8] upon the Cross, of whom we may truly say, Periisset, nisi periisset, was sav'd: There was one sav'd, that none might despair; and but one, that none might presume.

Use not the common Shift of the world, to say that you are not guilty of any Crying sins; they are but pet­ty offences. For I must tell you, Be­loved, these are but diabolical sugge­stions infused into you by the spirit of Darkness: you must first finde out a small God, before you can com­mit a small sin. Nay, all sins, of what sort soever they be, are great sins, sins of a high stature, because commit­ted against the Law of the sin-detest­ing God. For were it not for the Law of God, that strictly and severe­ly prohibits all manner of sin, and commands uprightness, there would be no such thing in the world as Sin: for what is sin, but the transgression of Gods Law? And therefore holy David acknowledged his sins to be committed against God, because he had transgressed & violated his Law and Commandment: which made him to break forth into that peni­tent [Page 9] and holy Rapture; Against thee, against thee onely have I sinned: Psal. 51.4. We are all naturally sinful: there is no difference by Nature, be­tween the Elect and Reprobate, nei­ther in external nor internal disposi­tion, until it be made by Grace. St. Paul was a Persecutor of as deep a Scarlet-dye, as ever Domitian or Juli­an was: Zacheus, as unconscionable and miserable a Worldling, as the rich Glutton in the Gospel, Luke 16.19. All persons are alike by Na­ture, till Grace comes in and makes a difference: for we are all by Na­ture children of wrath, heirs of per­dition, and in danger of damnation. 'Tis Regeneration, that procures us our passage to heaven: Except a man be re-born, (or born anew) he cannot see the kingdom of God: Joh. 3. and Luk. 13.5. Except ye repent, ye shall all like­wise perish. So that so long as we re­main in the state of Nature, being conceived in sin, and brought forth in iniquity, we are still remaining in a most desperate and damnable con­dition.

For the poyson of our Nature is [Page 10] as virulent in us, as in the wicked; and by Nature we are as much ad­dicted to all manner of sins: And though by the special mercy of the Father of mercies, we have escaped many damnable and detestable crimes, which we finde the wicked have been often implunged into; 'tis not because we are of a more pure and undefiled nature then they, (for 'tis the same as theirs) but because the envenom'd virulencie thereof hath not as yet manifested it self in us; which we have just cause every day to fear: for, in truth, we have taken so much of the devils Opium, that, without Repentance, we shall never be awakened out of the dead sleep of sin.

Therefore let us strive with a holy resolution to shake off these rags of Natural Corruption, and clothe out selves with the precious garment of Christ Jesus. Let us get into a state of grace, and by a real & sincere Repen­tance turn over a new leaf, become converts & disciples of our Saviour. Adam, you know, did not fall as a private man, but as the Root of all [Page 11] Mankinde; and we all partake of that Fall, since we are the issue of his loyns: and the vessels of our bodies still keep a smack of the old relish. For, according to the Poet,

The sweetest Stream that flows, will relish of the soyl that it hath sa­luted.

Sheep never come neer a hedge, but they leave some Wool behinde them. One man infected with the Plague, will corrupt ten men, sooner then ten men can cure one infected person. You know what the Saty­rist saith:

Which our English Proverb renders exactly, One scabbed sheep will spoil the whole flock.

Well might that sweet-mouth'd Romane call this The Iron Age: for Iniquity is an epidemical distemper, or a Chronical Disease, that ad­mits of no Cure but Repentance, and that sincere too. And I fear that the Poet writ in Prophetick measures, when his Muse warbled this so suitable an expression to our Times:

Our Age is grown to such a height of Impiety, that Posterity will not be able to adde any thing to it. Pride swaggers in the streets, Luxury is housed, and Drunkenness reels to and fro, notwithstanding the heavie Judgements of God denounced a­gainst those that exercise such abo­minations: and all the Armour of the mightiest Potentates in the world is not able to resist the Pro­phets of God, when their Commissi­on is seal'd with God's Ipse dixit, cu­jus verbum ab intentione, quia veritas, [Page 13] factum a verbo, quia virtus, non dif­fert. Gods word is a word with a deed; and what he saith, shall be done without doubt or demur: And all good men will obey his Law and Commandment: but where are these good men now adays? A good man is hard to be found; he is rara avis in terris, sprung from the ashes of some dead Phoenix, whose abode is scarce known: he is like the Berries of the Prophet Isaiah's tree, here and there one to be found: nay, 'tis a thousand to one, if you finde one in a thousand. The jerk­ing Satyrist, the Lash of his time, could say, so long since, much more then may we now,

There are but seven good men, at most, saith he. A small number in­deed! What the Philosopher saith of Good, I'm sure is in these our Times verified of Evil: Malum est [Page 14] sui diffusivum: Evil is diffusive; 'tis of a spreading nature; a disease that is catching; therefore we should never go abroad without an Anti­dote against it; and that is the Word of God: for, Antidotum verbi serpen­tis venenum expugnat: The Word of God is a soveraign Antidote against the poyson of the Serpent. We live now in the sink of Time, where­in Vertue is accounted a Prodigie, and Piety a Crime, or at the best a Simplicity. And our Aarons are taken away, and put aside as useless; and the people die of the Plague: I wonder who shall stand between the living and the dead, holding the Censers, and making Atonement for them? They are cast aside, Belov­ed, and none but a Spurious Issue ad­mitted of, that have no Authority nor Commission. Quicquid libet licet, nunc dierum; and yet 'tis strange, non licet esse bonus. And take this by the way, That he that will be a godly Christian, must, like the Antipodes, run a contrary course to the men of the world. 'Tis sin, and the Fall of our parents, that hath brought us in­to [Page 15] this condition: here we lie: but thanks to the Almighty, here is com­fort enough for the most hainous sin­ner, so he have not committed the sin against the holy Ghost, if he will but repent. Sacrae paginae scatent hu­jusmodi consolationibus. The Scripture abounds with Lectures of Comfort to all penitent sinners: Isai. 55.7. Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous his own imaginations, and turn unto the Lord, and he will have mer­cy upon him; and to our God, for he is ready to forgive. And so likewise in Ezek. 18.21, 22. If the wicked will return from all his sins that he hath com­mitted, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live, and not die: all his trans­gressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him; but in his righteousness that he hath done, shall he live. The Scripture is an Ocean that flows with such comfortable streams; and that both the Old and New Testament, as it appears in 1 Joh. 1.9. If we acknowledge our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighte­ousness. [Page 16] [...], from all injustice. And so in the 2. Chap. of the same Epistle, vers. the 1. and 2. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just. And he is the reconcilia­tion for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world: [...]: Now what need we care what suit we commence, at the Upper-bench in Heaven, so long as we have Christ for our Lawyer, our Counsellor? Si Deus nobiscum, quis contra nos? if God be for us, who shall be against us?

1 Use. This then should serve for a Use of Consolation, to stir up all persons to a real and true repen­tance. Since Christ is for them; since he calls himself their Advocate, their Pleader, their Counsellor; and hath promised so often that whosoe­ver repenteth shall not perish, but have everlasting life: And though every man be an enemy to his own salvation, & the flesh resist the same work; & the divel doth endeavour by his wicked machinations to stir up in the heart of a man an aversion to [Page 17] conversion; this should create in us more firm and setled resolutions af­ter the work, since we have the pro­mise of our blessed Saviour for suc­cess in our undertaking; but this cannot be performed without a holy indefatigable industry on our part; for 'tis called in holy writ, a Birth, a Death, a Circumcision; and you know no Birth, no Death, no cutting off of the flesh can be without care, pain and labour: The Embryo is not delivered out of the womb of the mother without pain; nay, many times the womb proves the tomb; and therefore you cannot imagine it is a thing possible, to be delivered of sin, which is in you, was concei­ved with you, and which you since your nativity, unto this moment, have cherished with such delight; and not to have a relish or gust of pain and travail in the new birth, in your regeneration. Assure your self that it will cost you many a salt tear, many a bitter groan, many a heavy sigh, before you have this work of regeneration perfectly wrought in you. Nemo repente fit optimus. No [Page 18] man can arrive to the height of a ver­tue in a moment; & since 'tis res tam ardua, tantae molis opus: so difficult, and so necessary a work; you ought all to labour more fervently then hitherto you have done, and use all holy means that God hath constituted and appointed in sacred writ as sub­servient thereunto, viz. The Word read and preached by the faithful & Orthodox Pastors of the Church; the Sacraments reverently and duly administred in the most decent and devout manner; Prayer and holy ejaculations that dart up the desire of the soul to God, and meditation on the Law of God; crying unto him noctes atque dies, night and day for his blessed assistance in a work of so great moment and consequence as the regeneration of man: add here­unto an unfeigned repentance of all sins committed; and let it not be a little lip-labour only, but it must proceed from a real and contrite heart, free from hypocrisie and dissi­mulation.

2 Use. Secondly, this serves as Use of Terror to all careless and [Page 19] impenitent sinners, that will follow the swinge of their own pleasure, and the lusts of the flesh, though they shipwrack their souls inevitably. How should this pull down and to­tally demolish the Pyramide of pride, mans heart, and devest them of their gawdy attire, and change it for sackcloth and ashes, which is far more sutable to their spiritual condi­tion? Yet how do they ruffle in vel­vet a la mode, and boast and vaunt in the spoils of a poor silk-worm! yet in the interim they consider not that the sores of Lazarus will make as good dust as the paint of Jezabel; and that their poor souls languish and are very near starved for want of heavenly Manna, Gods Sacred word, whilest they pamper their bodies, and plump them with delicacies, which serves onely to make them more fat and gorgious nourishment for worms. Learn to wash your selves by the tears of repentance from the filth of sin: your whole life should be a continued Lent; the Spring-time of your sanctified reso­lutions, and the hour-glass of your [Page 20] remaining dayes should be fill'd with the dust of mortified concupi­scence; you should read nothing but lectures of penitency, and so like a good and solid Christian verifie what is feigned of the Phoenix, in a bed of spices, in odors of devotion, kindled by the beams of the true Sun of righteousness, quickning out of the ashes an acceptable sacrifice to the Father of Lights; for he delighteth not in the death of a sinner, but ra­ther that he should turn from his wickedness and live. 'Tis not a light sorrow, or petty sigh, or a Miserere mei Domine at the last gasp, when the soul is going to give his ultimum vale to the body, will serve your turn, or procure pardon of your sins from God; no, no; you must labour to be humbled more deeply for your enormous offences and hainous sins, which seale the heavens with their clamor, and cry for vengeance from the Lord of heaven; so that if we could possibly shed tears of blood for our crimson scarlet sins, we should do it; for all come short of that grief for sin, and real contrition of heart, [Page 21] that we ought to have. Could we stream out the residue of our dayes that it shall please the Almighty to allow us in this vale of misery; could we consume and wast the Taper of our life in sighs, and heart-breaking groans; 'twere all little enough to beg and obtain pardon of God for our sins. You must bath the Leprosie of your sin in a Jordan of tears, be­fore you can come to the Land of Canaan, the Zoar of salvation. Life you know is uncertain, death cer­tain; you had best therefore beloved take hold of opportunity by the fore­lock; for, post est occasio calva: an op­portunity once slipt, is seldom reco­ver'd: whilst it is call'd to day, harden not your heart: Nemo sibi crastinum promittat; Let no man assure himself of the morrow; for death wrestleth with every man, and serius aut citius mortem properamus adunam; sooner or later he gets a fall: he hath tript up the heels of all our Ancestors, and you know not how soon he may foyl you; Venienti occurrite morbo; meet the distemper, and remedy it whilst it is curable. Delays in rebus san­ctis [Page 22] are very dangerous; repent there­fore of your sins before death: that though he be termed by the Heathen Philosophers [...], he may be to you a Messenger that bringeth glad tidings: a guide to con­duct you from a momentany unto eternal life, which we shall enjoy with God in secula seculorum. I could wish cordially that that saying of that good old man St. Cyprian were not so true as daily experience mani­fests it, In aetate senescunt, in pietate juvenescunt. Most men now adayes have gray heads and green wits, ca­pita cana, and corda vana; and when their heads are ful of silver hairs, they have not so much as suckt in their Rudiments: they have need of milk, the food of babes and sucklings, in­stead of the more solid grounds and fundamentals of Religion. Whereas ancient Christians should be walk­ing Laws, and talking Statutes; their dicta, edicta; and their actiones, axioma­ta, as Gregory Nazianzen saith. 'Tis a sad thing to be near heaven, and never the near; to be at the gates of death, before they have learnt one [Page 23] lesson of repentance: and if their repentance be sorrowless, 'twill prove but a sorry one: Old men should like trees of righteousnesse bear fruit in their old age, when their heads are candied with hoary hair; but not the fruits of old age, covetousness, suspicion, and the like. If the Evangelists in their time could cry out, Repent, repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; it must of necessity be nearer at hand now then it was then; therefore beloved, I have the more cause to press this Doctrine of repentance upon you: and let me tell you, that there is no musick so melodious in the ears of God, as that which re­sounds from a broken instrument: God loves a broken heart, and yet he'll have the whole heart or none: 'tis strange, and yet true, repentance is a consumption, yet no sickness; and what man would not willingly condescend to undergo such a con­sumption here, that he might not be consumed in endless, easeless and remediless flames and torments here­after? One thing I do very much ad­mire [Page 24] at, viz. how they can expect fa­vour from God, that will grant fa­vour to none but upon the divels conditions in the 24 of St. Matthew, [...], if falling down thou wilt worship. They would have others fall down and worship them, when as they will not worship and adore God. Dejecisti eos, dum eleva­rentur, saith the Psalmist; a strange kind of expression, Thou hast taken them down, whilest thou liftedst them up: this seems to have an allu­sion to the Eagle and other birds of prey, who having found an Oyster, that they with their own strength cannot break, or open; they soar aloft, and spying the clift of a rock (for they are very quick-sighted, as natural Philosophers inform us) they let the Oyster fall perpendicularly, and so it breaking to pieces, they come to their desired food: so God he lifts them up on high, that they may the better get a fall.

Such haughty minds are not sea­son'd aright; they have no true frame of a penitent spirit; neither will God accept of such persons: and till you be reconciled to God through his son Jesus Christ, and are washed and cleansed from all your iniqui­ties by the tears of repentance, and be converted from sin to God, your case is desperate; and it had been better for you to have been a beast, than a man. Display your sins before God, not hypocritically, but real­ly; for there is no dissembling with God: and confession in your mouth, if it be hypocritical, will be like a Shibboleth in the Hebrew; you can­not pronounce it without lisping: your sins are hainous, confess them cordially to be so; your sins are many in number, acknowledg them to be so; the Terra incognita of your corruptions is far larger then the Terra cognita. But let not the hai­nousness of thy sin, the number or multitude of them, deter thee from repentance; but proceed with a ho­ly resolution to go through all diffi­culties by the help of Christ Jesus, [Page 26] and all objections that the world, the flesh, and the devil can alleadge against you, till you have obtained pardon and remission of your sins: never cease, till you come to a pe­riod; for he that intends to sing Te Deum to the Almighty, must not break off till he come to the end. Proceed, I say, beloved, ad finem usque, and rely upon the merits of our Jesus: and be not put off by the hainousness of your sins, and the rigour of the Law of God; for if the most holy man that ever breath'd upon the face of the earth, should be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary, and no grain of fa­vour be allowed him, then without all doubt mene tekel might be ap­plied to him, he would be found too light. There will be grains of allowance to thee, without question; therefore be converted, and turn from the broad way of sin and death, to the narrow path of life and eternal glory; for such a soul will be acceptable unto the Lord; the blessed Quire of Angels will re­joyce at the conversion of such a [Page 27] sinner; For (according to my Text) joy shall be in Heaven over one sin­ner that repententh, more then over ninety and nine just persons, that need no repentance. So much for this time.

WE have already discoursed upon these words,SERM. II. and de­monstrated unto you both by Scripture and other authority, the necessity and excellency of Re­pentance: We have largely dis­coursed of the nature of repentance, and defined it unto you. Now not to detain you with any farther repe­tition, we shall immediately fall up­on the second observation that we raised from the words of the Text, and that was this, viz. ‘How to become true poenitents.’

And really, beloved, hic labor, hoc opus est, or at least should be; this should be the white at which every true Christian should level his thoughts; This ought to be the Asy­lum unto which every godly man should have recourse, when he is prosecuted and persecuted both by sin and Satan; This should be the [...], or sum of every mans actions, and the chiefest and first of his in­tentions, the cream and top of his holy ambition: But where shall we traffick for true penitent souls? what climate affords them? all Nations are more or less given to some hai­nous crime. To be sober among the Germans, setled among the French, chaste among the Italians, and loyal among the English, is rare, and wor­thy admiration: you need not make any strict inquisition after impiety, there is enough daily presented up­on the stage of the world; there is too too much, God knows: Truth, the pure, innocent, undefiled Truth, like the Dove of Noah, flies about, and scarce gets any room for her footing; she is mounted to heaven [Page 30] with Astraea: but if you desire to finde out a whorish Achan, a co­vetous Ahab, a hard-hearted Pharaoh, a Nebuchadonozor quaffing in the bowls of the Sanctuary, a sacrilegi­ous fellow buying Bishops Lands, you may meet with him in every corner, Scatent plateae hujusmodi viris nequam: for truth is expelled nunc dierum. To be true and loyal, march­eth in the rank of impossibilities, as the world is now: but let us operum dare, labour tooth and nail, as we say proverbially, to avoid the accursed punishment of impenitent persons; seek after the remission of sins by the bloody death and passion of our Sa­viour; and lay hold with the hand of faith on all Gospel-promises, ap­plicable to a conscience-wounded sin­ner; that so after we have lived a life of grace here in this vale of misery, we may enjoy a life of glory in perpetuum hereafter.

Now the main point intended in this discourse, is to discover unto you some wayes or means how to appre­hend when you are truly penitent; & that I shall demonstrate unto you,

• [Page 31]1. Negatively, and
• 2. Affirmatively.

1. Negatively: and here I will declare unto you, beloved, auspiciis Divinis, by the help of the Deity, what it is not, viz. being true peni­tents, and that in 5. particulars,5 Disco­veries of true peni­tency. which shall be as so many brands on their foreheads, to inform the world of their impenitency.

1. He is no true penitent, that is not so perplexed, as to be gnawen at the very heart by that viper Sor­row, for his many enormous offen­ces, and sensible of the need that he stands in of Gods mercy, an Ocean of mercy; nay unless he think the burthen of his sin so ponderous and weighty, so filthy and impure, as to require every drop of the blood of our Saviour to satisfie for them. King David, (if it be not a crime to allow him his Title) having im­plunged himself into a gulf and mul­titude of sins, begs a multitude of mercies, as it appears in the 51. Psal. vers. the 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender [Page 32] mercies, blot out my transgressions. We stand in need of a Sea of mercies for the innumerable number of our hai­nous crimes, that we are guilty of: Now he that is so hardned with the yoke of sin, that he is become braw­ny, and insensible of the weight and hainousness of it, this man hath no penitent frame of spirit; and we may safely say, without any preju­dice to our charity, or incurring the evil of censure, that such a man is no true penitent.

2. They are not become true pe­nitents, no nor in the way to repen­tance, that are so far from being grieved at sin, as to make no bones of great sins; nay, to dally and toy with sin and impiety: but 'tis bad handling such edged tools; for the sword of Gods indignation will soon cut them off: swearing with such persons, is but a grace and lustre to their speech, a splendor, but I fear such a one as will light them to hell: lying, but wit's craft, or policy; drun­kenness, jovialness, or good fellow­ship; whoring, a trick of youth, covetousness, thriftiness: thus do [Page 33] they baptize vice by the name of ver­tue: see how bestial, fowl and de­formed a thing vice is, that it dare not appear in its own native defor­mity and hue, but it must borrow the Mask of vertue: they think that they can shift well enough without mer­cy, and imagine that three words at the last gasp is sufficient to save their soul; but I pray God they may not share with that Gentleman in for­tune, that was very debauched, and had streamed out his youth in wine and venery, who being desired by his Confessor to acknowledge his mis­demeanors towards God and man, and to beseech God to vouchsafe him pardon of his sins; put him off with a pish: Three words at last are of sufficient power to save my soul; meaning, Miserere mei Deus: but it hapned that this Gentleman not long after, as he was riding over a bridge, his horse slipt, and down fell horse and man into the river; and in falling, instead of Miserere mei Deus, he was heard to say, Capiat omnia Dae­mon, The devil take both horse and man: sad words, to be the vehiculo [Page 34] animae suae, to waft his soul over in­to the other world; a sweet Epi­logue to the Tragedy of his life! His Catastrophe was as damnable, as his whole life abominable and odi­ous. This will be a caveat to all se­rious and solid Christians, to avoid procrastination in repentance, and endeavour after it with all possible speed.

3. They are not true penitens that are meerly earal, verbal, and worded men, that speak more then they really intend; this is not re­pentance, but a little lip-labour, a foolish weak stratagem, a meer ex­ternal pomp of words, for which the Pharisees were reprehended by our Saviour, long since: 'Tis strange that men should be so meanly brain­ed, as to imagine the putting of a cheat upon God; to what purpose should the title of [...] be con­ferred upon him? If you are bent to sin, & cannot be reclaim'd from your lewd courses, but must have your swinge, and forsake your Creator in the dayes of your youth, and you are resolved to run to hell in full ca­reer, [Page 35] and no perswasion will operate or work upon you; then must you look to the event, and feel the smart of Gods rod, and the weight of his indignation. And 'twere better far in my judgment, for a man not to be born, then to be deprived and robbed of the lustre of Gods emparadising countenance; whose frown's a hell, whose smile's a heaven; for there is hell where God is absent, and there heaven where he is present. Think not then to deprive God of one of his most Glorious Attributes, viz. Omniscience, by endeavouring to counterfeit a kind of repentance, when you have no such intent, but still tread the paths of the impiously profane, and commit sins so in pri­vate, though as damnable, as secret: I will only bestow a golden sentence of St. Augustines on you, Quaere locum ubi te Deus non videat, & fac quid vis: Find out a place where you may commit sin unseen, and then do what you please: not a couch-bed-sin, but lies open to the perspicuity of Gods all-seeing eye; 'tis not the slender barricado of a curtain can defend [Page 36] you, or prevent his sight; nay there is a sentence of infelicity, and not prospering, pronounced upon all se­cret Sinners: in the 28. of the Prov. vers. 13. He that hideth his sins shall not prosper: but he that confesseth, and forsaketh them, shall have mercy. There­fore be real, and repent cordially, cheat not your pretious souls of so heavenly a viaticum; unless you in­tend, and are desperately resolute, and bent to defraud your self of eter­nal felicity, and so be cast into hell irrecoverably: Repent, Repent, be­loved, strive and endeavour after re­conciliation with God; get the wed­ding-garment on, that you may en­ter into the Bride-chamber, and be a welcom guest to God the Father. Cease provoking of him to wrath by your hainous sin; For it is a fear­ful thing to fall into the hands of the li­ving God, Heb. 10. And if the wrath of a King be as the roaring of a Lyon, that can only prejudice the body; how much more heavy and weighty shall the wrath and indignation of God be,Matth. 5.30. who can cast both body and soul into eternal unquenchable burnings!

[Page 37]4. It argues a mans repentance not to be solid or laid upon a good foundation, when they are induced to it for fear of shame and punish­ment; and were it not for this, he could willingly devote his dayes to sin and uncleanness: though they may be accounted true penitents, and so esteemed by the world; many Pharisaical persons may put such a gloss upon their sins, that their Apo­cryphal deeds may pass for Canoni­cal actions; but [...], The all-seeing eye of God will soon pierce into the inmost chambers of their hearts, and discover their de­ceit, how closely and privately so­ever they carry it. This will cut the comb of all hypocrites and counter­feits, that think an outward colour, or superficial shew is satisfactory & acceptable to God; though like the externally specious Apples of Sodom, they be rotten at the core: such per­sons are like the Cynamon-tree, whose bark is better than the substance. The Lord is infinitely offended at such proceedings, and testifieth his dislike thereof; This people (saith he) [Page 38] come near me with their lips, and honour me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me; so the Lord telleth the Jews in the 42 ch. of the prophecy of holy Jeremiah, the 20. verse; They did but dissemble with him in their hearts, and promised to do his will, but they do nothing but the contra­ry, and follow their own lusts. God abhors and detests such persons; he will spue them out of his mouth, and never suffer them to be partakers of his Heavenly Kingdom: Let all such hypocritical persons take notice, and consider the judgement of God on Ananias and Sapphira, Acts the 5. who because they would videri tan­tum, seem only religious, and for­ward to sell their Lands, and give it to the poor, (thus covetousness can­not walk without the cloak of reli­gion to cover its deformity) there­fore the Lord smote them both dead. And that Christ might manifest how vile and odious hypocritical persons are in the sight of the Lord; He tells us in the Gospel of St. Mat­thew, chap. 24. vers. 51. All vile sin­ners shall have their portion with hypo­crites; [Page 39] because if there be one place in hell hotter then another, that may be termed locus hypocritarum, The seat of hypocrites. Therefore we should all endeavour to get a sound heart, free from dissimulation and hypocrisie, which may be an accep­table sacrifice to God, and well-pleasing, that he may smell a sweet savour from all our pious works.

5. Fifthly and lastly, it is a sign of impenitency, when men are so im­piously bold as to stand on their own merits and desert, their own good­ness and worthiness, when they ap­proach the presence of God; like the proud Pharisee, Luke the 18.11, 12. I thank thee, O God, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican; I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess: but the Publican that only smote his breast, and said only, God be merciful to me a sinner, went down to his house justified, saith the Text, ra­ther then the boasting Pharisee: such tumours are as great scars and im­perfections to the soul, as a wound or wen to a rare complexion. We [Page 40] should all cast away our own righte­ousness as a menstruous rag, and rely wholly upon the meritorious death and passion of the immaculate Lamb of God, his Christ, and our Saviour, for the salvation of our immortal souls: We should totally devest our selves of all worth, for we are all sin­ful dust and ashes; and therefore may well make this expostulation with all men; Homo bulla, quid super­bis? O man, thou that art but an aiery bubble, Why art thou proud? Thou that art a bubble that is made of nothing, and when made, as soon blown to nothing; Cum sis humi li­mus, cur non es humillimus? Since you are composed of the dung of the ground, of earth; why are you not according to the matter you were created of, mean and humble? The whole world is not able to satisfie their ambition, but the aspiring Pyramid of their thoughts mount­eth and still lesseneth by degrees, till it come to a meer punctum. Most men now adaies, like the Pellaean Hero, Alexander the Great, do Aestuare an­gusto limite mundi, Sweat for want [Page 41] of room in the world; there is not space enough for the flight of their soaring thoughts, that are wing'd with ambition: but this is accord­ing to the Wiseman, nothing but vanity, vanitas vanitatum, omnia va­nitas: They fish after impossibili­ties; and grant they could subdue the whole world, and reduce it into their own possession; 'twould not, it could not satisfie their heart, or give them any real solid content: for the world is a Circle, the heart of man a Triangle; now we all know that a Circle cannot fill a Triangle. Cease then, all you that aim at the hilling up of fatal gold, and employ your hours in a more noble traffick, in procuring the riches and treasures of Jesus Christ, that may serve you, and be of use to you in the day of wrath, to get your Sins pardoned, all your crimes expunged with the Spunge of Oblivion, that the Lord may nevermore lay them to your charge; and this must be by an un­feigned repentance, though none of the five forementioned ways. Now that you may know how to gain the [Page 42] salvation of your souls, how to be eternally blessed, and sing Hallelu­jahs to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, world without end; which felicity will undoubtedly be attained unto by all true penitent souls. And that you may know affirmatively what it is to be true penitents, take it in these fol­lowing Considerations:The five steps of as­cention by Repen­tance. To this fe­licity we must ascend by 5 degrees or steps of true and unfeigned repen­tance.

1. The first step whereof that leads and conducts to heaven, is for a man to have an internal regret for sin, to be grieved and perplexed for it, to be wounded in conscience for it; for till a man see his Sins in the glass of repentance, and weigh them, and meditate upon the curse of God that hangs over his head in a judgment for them, he will never repent: This is the godly sorrow that leadeth unto repentance never to be re­pented of. This compunction or pricking of the heart is a clear de­monstration of repentance, sincere and sound; and is the first step to [Page 43] heaven, and so per consequens to the salvation of the never dying soul.

And if it be so that this is the first step to heaven; Use 1 how sad a thing is it to see men in such a miserable estate as many are in these distracted times! how many are there that have not set one foot forward in the way to heaven! and you know the old say­ing, Non progredi, est regredi; Not to go forward, is to go backward. How many are there that never have been humbled, never touched, never wounded in conscience for their Sins?Wilful im­penitency, or a care­less neglect of Repen­tance, very dange­rous. O what a miserable conditi­on, what a deplorable estate do they lye in! Now apply this to your selves, Beloved; did the sacrificing Knife of Gods Word never wound your conscience, nor extract one tear from your eyes for the deluge of your Sins, that will overwhelm your soul eternally, without Gods infinite mercy? if you have not been thus and thus grieved for your trespasses and transgressions, you are in a de­sperate condition, and there is very little hope or probability of your salvation.

Ʋse 2 This serves then for a Use of Con­solation to all the Children, all the Sons and Daughters of God; for if you feel your hearts wounded for your Sins, and you bath your soul in true penitent tears for the many hainous crimes that you are con­scious of; it is a true indicium or sign of being in the state of grace, and that Gods spirit hath met with us, and his Word hath cut the throat of Sin, which otherwise would have ruinated you, nay aims at God him­self; for peccatum, saith Parisiensis, est Deicidium, Sin is the Cut-throat of God, with holy reverence be it spo­ken; Sin strives to dethrone God; therefore let us endeavour to cast Sin down the precipice of our hearts, and nevermore afford it house-room, since it offends so merciful, so graci­ous, and so kind a God as ours; for Sin is an abomination unto the Lord, and so are all Sinners and evil-doers.

2. The second sign of, or way to true penitency, is this, when a man fears to Sin, not because of the pu­nishment, but because he offends so [Page 45] great a God in so doing: like holy Joseph, who when he was tempted by the sweet caresses of his Mistris, cried out, How can I do this great evil, and sin against God! Therefore from him we may learn what is most to be de­sired here on earth, viz. the love and favour of God▪ so that if any one should put the question to you, and demand what your desire most hun­ted after, and what your affections were most fixed on? You ought to answer, The love and favour of God in Christ Jesus. 'Tis not your em­broidered apparel, your manners and mannors, your parts and arts, that are able to appease the trouble and perplexity of a distressed con­science; nothing but the mercy of God in Christ Jesus will afford it: This is the onely refuge for a trou­bled conscience in the greatest ex­treamity. Men may in their ex­tremities go to drink away sorrow, as they term it in their profane gib­brish, and betake themselves to their merry company; but alas! this is no comfort, this no remedy for their disease: an old sore gangren'd or [Page 46] putrified, if it be not very skilfully handled, will hardly admit of cure; but if it be superficially healed at top, and not throughly at the bot­tom, as soon as 'tis skin'd at the top, it will break out at the bottom; so when men seek to smother the accu­sation of their own consciences, and strive to blunt the edge of it, it will rebound again, and give a deadly wound, even to desperation. Beg of God therefore power and ability through his strengthning grace, that you may be buoy'd up thereby in the midst of an Ocean of troubles, and that the burden of an afflicted wounded conscience may be mino­rated, and lessened, that so you may not fall into despair. To prevent de­spair, all godly persons ought like Heraclitus, to weep away their daies; and indeed, they are a sea of tears, a meer vapour melted into tears: his voice is painted with tears, which have such an airy power and faculty, as that they are able to mount up to Heaven, and there to insinuate themselves into the ear of the Almighty, begging and craving [Page 47] pardon for sin, and a preservation from despair by the mighty power of God. Lachrymae & preces are the only weapons in a Christian battel; let us so fight with these weapons, as to get the peace of conscience and joy of the Holy Ghost, that passeth all understanding, and that speedily too: for our journey is long, and our time short, therefore we had need to husband it well: Can there be a longer journey then from earth to heaven? and a shorter time than a moment? Yet such is our journey, such is our time: Repent therefore now while it is called to day, harden not your hearts, for procrastination is dangerous: doubt not of the power of God, for he is Omnipotent; and this attribute of his is manifested in every petty piece of the Hexame­ron Fabrick: There is [...], something that may challenge our admiration, even in the borders of a gaudy Butterfly, saith Ari­stotle; which do afford an evi­dent smack or view of the Omni­potency of God. Rely upon him therefore; fear sin, and avoid it, be­cause [Page 48] it offends so gracious a God.

3. The third step to true repen­tance, is a constant and setled resolu­tion, never to sin, or displease God; to do his will, walk in the way of his Commandments: I do not say, that a truly sanctified person never sins at all, but he never sins with an intent and purpose to sin; he takes no de­light or complacency in sin; 'tis the sole object of his hatred, and resol­veth to please God as far as possibly he may by the grace of God that strengthens him: When he can say with holy David, Psalm the 18. and the 23. I have refrained my feet from every evil way. Again, 1 John 3.9. He that is born of God sinneth not, i. e. not with a full purpose of heart, or with a delight in it, or affection to it; but they constantly strive against it, shun and avoid the occasions of sin, suspect themselves upon every occasion, and are continually arm'd to give battel to the devil and his temptations. In may things we sin all, saith St. James. But if we can but say really and experimentally that it is against our intention, that we hate, [Page 49] abhor & detest sin with an unuttera­ble hatred, and that we condemn the very sins we commit, then we may be comforted, receive joy, and assure our selves that we are true peni­tents; for this takes away the do­minion of sin in our mortal bodies: doth not quite thrust it out, it doth devest it of its authority; so that it hath no power to prejudice or injure us in our salvation.

4. The fourth sign of, or way un­to true repentance, is an aggravation of our sins; when we render them hainous in the sight of God, ac­knowledging we have sinned so much, that we deserve eternal dam­nation; we deserve that the Vials of Gods wrath should be poured down upon our heads. You would fare the better, not the worse, for aggrava­ting your transgressions; For God so loved the world, that he gave his only be­gotten son, that whosoever believed in him, might not perish, but have everla­sting life. This is a sic without sicut: Such a so, as never man loved so; and all this for the salvation of man­kind.

[Page 50]5. The fifth and last sign of, or step unto repentance, is a frank and free confession of sins, not extorted and wrung out of you, but flowing from you liberally, chearfully and really, in hope of the pardon and re­mission of them.

We must so confess our sins, as to beg pardon for them, and to entreat the Lord to have pity on us out of the bowels of his tender compassion. Do not abscond and conceal your sins; manifest them publickly both to God and man: be cordially penitent for them, and no doubt but the mer­ciful God will save your souls. Con­fession of sins is the forerunner of remission; and this must not be flashy and for a time, but so long as are our years upon the earth mea­sured out; for he that will serve the primus motor, must not write his ne ultra, till he come to the Terminus ad quem. He must proceed with a cou­rage; we must confess them openly, and not like the worldly wise, whose wisdom Lactantius saith, abscondit, non abscindit peccata; conceals, and not cuts asunder, or separates sin. [Page 51] Now we must confesse our sins,

• 1. To God, and
• 2. To Man.

1. To God, as holy David teach­eth us in his own example, Psalm the 51. vers. 4. Against thee, against thee only have I sinned: and again in the 32 Psam, vers. the 6. I said I will con­fess my sins unto the Lord, and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin. 'Tis true, we may injure men by our sin, as David did Uriah; but being sin, the chiefest wrong and injury falleth upon God.

2. We must confess to men, and that both privately and publickly, according to the quality of the sin; for though we condemn auricular confession, as a trick of State-policy; yet we allow, and not only so, but exhort all Christians to a true volun­tary and sincere confession of their sins to the Bishop and Superinten­dents of the Church: confession must be made to men in respect of the Church, that the Congregati­on that hath been offended may be satisfied, and that others may be deterred from falling into the same [Page 52] sins, as it is in the 2 Epistle to St. Timothy, 4 ch. and the 26 vers. Them that sin, rebuke openly, that the rest may fear. And last of all, in respect of the Sinner himself, that he may be humbled for it; for were it a pecu­niary mulct onely, and his purse were to do penance, he would not probably value that; but now it may bring him to an humiliation, and a sincere repentance, accompa­nied with a godly life hereafter. Now this serves to condemn all those that are so far from acknow­ledging and confessing their sins, as to justifie themselves in them, and plead for them with all the Rheto­rick they have; so that if any one in a Christian way reprove them with meekness, 'tis verba ventis dare; to prattle to the wind: they will probably reply with some such kind of cross answer: What need you busie your self about the state of my soul? I shall be responsible, not to you for it, look to your self first: if they carouse & follow strange attire, they will say they do but as others do, 'tis the fashion, what care they? [Page 53] and this slye trick of dissimulation we suckt from our first Parents; Genesis the 3. and the 12. where when Adam was examined, he posted off the matter from himself to his wife; The woman that thou gavest me, she gave me of the fruit, and I did eat. We are unwilling to confess and acknow­ledg our sins, when as we have en­couragement enough for it from our Text, since there is such an exces­sive joy in Heaven at the conversion of one Sinner. God himself rejoy­ceth, the blessed quire of Angels re­joyce, and all the Host of Heaven. How then should we labour after true repentance, since we have so many sacred invitations to it in holy writ? Since God himself doth vouch­safe to come and invite us unto him, and promiseth us acceptance from him, he will bid us welcom, be confident, beloved, whenever we approach his presence with a real and a contrite heart. Overcome your selves, though it be very difficult: for ‘Fortior est qui se, quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia.’

He is the greatest Conqueror that can subdue his own passions, and keep his body in subjection, as St. Paul did, [...], saith he, I chastise my body: from whence Fri­ars draw their authority of chasti­sing themselves, though without cause; and so take the word to be such a chastisement as School-ma­sters use to boys: We ought all of us against the grain of our flesh to mould and fashion our selves to re­pentance; that so we may obtain a Trinity of Graces to save us, Faith, Hope, and Charity; and this Tri­nity of Grace will deliver us from a Trinity of Evils, Blindness, Er­ror, and Unbelief: and if we be de­livered from these, we shall be freed from the predominancy of the World, the Flesh, and the Devil: and if we be preserv'd from these, we shall undoubtedly be crowned by the blessed Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: to whom be Glory, Honour, and Praise, World without end. Amen.

LOve is the punctum or centre,SERM. III. about which the circumfe­rence of our thoughts doth move; and the primus motor that in­duceth us to fix our spirits upon an object. Love is to our souls, as weight is to ponderous bodies; for as the gravity of a body forceth it down­ward, that it may enjoy a sweet re­pose in its centre; so Love moves our souls to an object that promiseth repose and contentment; therefore from hence it follows, that as ponde­rous bodies move in a straight line toward their centre: so if we will obtain a true rest, our Love must be regular, and proceed in a direct [Page 56] line, by a divinely-composed mo­tion.

This Text, Beloved, that I come from reading to you, is the Epitome of Christian Religion; or the great Folio of Christian duty, reduced into a Decimo-sexto, or pocket-volume.

In this Text there are two parts; and these two parts are the two pil­lars of the Church, and the whole Christian World.

1. Our love toward God, in these words, We love him; [...].

2. Gods love toward us, which is but the reason, or rather efficient cause of our love toward him; be­cause he first loved us, [...].

Not to stand upon the nice and fine-spun distinctions that the School-men make of Love, we shall only divide it into two sorts; Divi­num and Humanum amorem; into Love Divine, and Humane: the divine is couched down by the holy Spirit of God in the latter part of the verse, because he loved us; and the humane in the former, We love him.

We will begin with the latter, hu­mane love, or the love of man to God.

Spiritual, or true love, gives repose and contentment to the soul; when as carnal or false love is an irregular agitation, and an inconsiderate mo­tion without a Terminus ad quem. it is ever repleat with inquietude and di­straction; and never ceaseth or re­steth, till it despairs, or is quite ti­red out; which is not properly a rest, but an impotency and inabili­ty of motion; and the desire is strong when the power is weak, like a horse that tied to a manger gnaweth his bridle asunder: such are most persons; their desires are strong, their power but weak; they desire most what they can least perform.

The cause of this disturbance is this: Our Love selecteth out,Reasons why we love not God per­fectly. 1 Cause. and fixeth upon false objects, and such that cannot satiate the desire; for if you survey all sublunary things that deserve the name of beautiful, you shall find in them no true quiet or rest, but a concatenation of cares, interwoven with perpetual trouble. [Page 58] The greatest delicacies are consited in bitterness. The acquisition of ho­nour and preferment is painful; and many break their necks in riding up­on the airy stilts of Fame. The pos­session of riches is uncertain, and the loss certain; if they leave not us by some accident, Death (Natures Bay­liff) will arrest us, and force us to leave them. To aim at such things is but ventum prosequi, To pursue the wind; an action as ridiculous as can be.

Grant they be good, yet they are incertain; therefore we must seek after our repose somewhere else, since the earth cannot afford it, and turn the compass of our Love to­ward Heaven. For as the lower re­gion of the Air is the habitation of winds, tempests, and earth-quakes; but that part that is near the Heaven is serene and quiet: so our Love, so long as it adheres to sublunary ob­jects, will be full of trouble, but 'twill find rest and quiet, if it lift it self up to Heaven, and lay hold of the promises of God: and then the soul, though in the midst of the con­fusions [Page 59] and afflictions of this world, be they never so thorny, will have the fruition of an assured tranquilli­ty: like the Needle of the Compass that remains firm upon one point, notwithstanding the violence of the scolding surges of a Tempestuous Sea; and all because it is guided by the motion of the Heavens. God is the sole object (or at least ought to be) of our Love, and hath only a power to render us amiable by lo­ving us; He that only can, nay that will give them felicity, and that un­utterable too, that love him. As the Apostle St. Paul writeth, in the first to the Corinth. the 2 Chap. and the 9 vers. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entred into the heart of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. He promiseth also in St. John, chap. 14. vers. 23. to come unto him that loveth him, and make his abode with him. O unparallelled Love! that makes a Palace of our souls for the King of Glory, and a Sanctuary of the Holy Ghost.

2.2 Cause. Philosophy it self hath this [Page 60] down for a maxime, that Natura & Deus nihil fecerunt frustra, that God and Nature made nothing in vain. Now that infinite and insatiable de­sire or appetite that is in man, were in vain, if there were nothing to sa­tisfie and content it; Which since it is impossible to find out upon this Terraqueous Globe, we must search after it in Heaven, of God that is bonum infinitum, an infinite good.

3 Cause.3. Besides, God created the world for the use of man, and therefore without doubt he created man for something better then the world, viz. God himself.

4 Cause.4. God created man inter omnia animalia, only secundum imaginem, according to his own image, with a straight body, and an upright coun­tenance, according to mellifluous Naso,

that so he might behold him, whom [Page 61] he represented; and that the But, and White, of all his actions and thoughts, might be Heaven.

5.5 Cause. The perfection of our spirits cannot be, but in the union of or with the first of spirits, who com­municateth his bona, or good things to us his Creatures, as the Sun darts his rays upon us; that is, he gives them so, he bestows them on us, yet so, that they depend on him after he hath disposed of them.

6.6 Cause. True Love is that trans­formeth the amantem the Lover, in amatum, into the thing or party lo­ved. Now if a deformed person be never so highly enamoured with the captivitating beauty of a red & white complexion, he will never be able by this love to correct his deformity. On the contrary, in loving God, we become sibi similes, like unto him; and as the holy Apostle saith in the second to the Corinth. the third Chap. and the last verse, Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, with open face, are changed into the same image.

7. And lastly, Beauty,7 Cause. being the first incitation to Love, or the Tin­der [Page 62] of the affections, we shall soon be able to discern when the scales of ignorance are fallen from our eyes, that this beauty, as we term it, that is here below, is but a superficial co­lour, or a cover to a bundle of fil­thiness: but that the Lumen, or true Light, is the true beauty; God therefore being the true Light, and the Father of Lights, is the chief beauty, and the object on whom we all ought to fix our affections.

Natural Philosophy here is dia­metrically opposite to the Divine, and jars with it much in this case; for Philosophy affirms that Natural motion is better then that is against Na­ture. On the contrary, quoad amorem, the Word of God, that is, our Divine Philosophy, instructeth and per­swadeth us, that Love contrary to Na­ture, is better then Love natural. For since that Satan in seducing our first Parents, hath defaced the image of God in Man, our desires have had their constant course towards the World, and, as I may say, our Love hath been precipitated from Heaven to the Earth. The affection of the flesh [Page 63] is enmity against God, Romans the 8. and the 7 verse: If one love, that love flows not from him naturally, but it is a free gift of God. And the Apostle St. Paul drawing us out of the mud, and freeing us from the bait of all alluring delights of this World, commands us to seek the things above, Coloss. 3. vers. 1, 2. [...], be skilful in the things above, be wise in heavenly matters; for according to the words in my Text, We love God, because he first loved us.

Our love therefore it appears ma­nifestly, is an effect of Gods Love to us; nor is there any thing that we ought with more devotion or zeal to crave of God, then Love; for it is a pledg unto the faithful of Gods Love to him. It is the first fruit, the pri­mitiae of Faith; 'tis the most exact and curious extract of the Image of God. It is the most perspicuous mark of a child of God.Love is the summe of Christia­nity. This Love is the soul of our soul; the life of vir­tue; the rule by which we square (or at least ought to do) all our acti­ons; the summary or compendium of [Page 64] the Law: 'Tis the pillar or sustenta­culum of Martyrs; the Jacobs Lad­der, by which you may ascend the Heavens, and true peace of con­science; nay (with holy reverence be it spoken) it is a praelibamen, or earnest-penny of that Sacred union and communion that we expect all to enjoy with God in Heaven, world without end. Our meditation could not pitch upon a more sublime sub­ject; for what is there that dare stand in competition with God, either for his greatness, or the sweetness and candor of his Love? The profit of this Love of God is no way infe­rior to the delight; for men are ter­med good or evil, not for what they believe, but what they love.

Let us all therefore labour for this, and become proficients in the School of Christ, and beseech the spirit so to mould our hearts, that they may be wrought to a true and perfect Love of God: lest we be abused and fooled into error with the sound of this word Love, and mistake the spiritual for a carnal love, an im­portunate or fretting corrosion of the [Page 65] heart; an aguish alteration; the last of vices for the first and best of ver­tues, a brutish malady for an Ange­lical distemper.

'Tis true; he that disposeth and conformeth himself to the Love of God, must expect the hatred and bespattering calumnies of the world; but God will cause the very discom­modities that the world afflicts us with, to be converted into commodi­ty and profit: for (saith the blessed Apostle) Rom. the 8. and the 28. And we know that all things work toge­ther for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to his purpose. Their corporeal afflictions, are but spiritual exercises; their [...], nocumenta, documen­ta. The malady of their body, is a remedy for their soul: for God alone is the true Aesculapius, so divine a Chymist, that he will convert poy­sons into Antidotes for his childrens health and security: His wounds are balm, saith the Divine Harper, Psalm 14. vers. 5. In all our suffe­rings for Gods sake, there is not only matter of patience, but occasion for [Page 66] glory; they are scars of credit in the forehead; conformities unto our bles­sed Saviour Jesus Christ, and the livery of all Christian Souldiers. And all this by the sustentation and support of this Love, the sweetness whereof qualifies and abates the bit­terness of all sublunary crosses.

Object. But here some may object and say, that the Love of God is pro confesso an excellent vertue; but we must know him, before we love him; and we cannot compass any other but a lame and decrepit insufficient noti­on of him. 'Tis true; but notwith­standing all this, we ought still dare operam to it, and make exact search after it; and when we have it, em­brace it; for ignorance must not be a Cloak or tegument to our negli­gence, since we cannot gain so little of the true knowledge of God, but some profit will accrue to us there­by, and that will blow up the em­bers of the love of God in us to an ac­ceptable degree of heat and pious zeal. One ray of the love of God will outbalance and overvalue all the splendor of the Meridian Sun. A [Page 67] dark obscure knowledge of God, sur­passeth the most acute and sharp in­sight into all natural things. If one beam of the Sun chance to peep into a Dungeon, the prisoner by this, re­collects the beauty and excellency of Light; so that small and imperfect knowledg that we obtain of God, is sufficient for a taste of the excellency of his Love, and able to inflame us therewith; besides, 'tis sufficient for salvation. We love God, because he lo­ved us first.

We are so incapable of the Love of God, that we understand not what it is to love him: This Tree of Know­ledge grows not in our Eden; This flower springs not up in our Garden; 'tis [...], a gift dropt out of Heaven, proceeding from the Father, who is Love and Charity, as St. John saith: This is a divine liquor, the true Nectar, that God poures into our souls guttatim, drop by drop, as in narrow-neckt vessels. Wherefore to accommodate our selves to our native slowness, we'll endeavour to infuse into our spirits by little and little, so by degrees to arrive at the highest [Page 68] degree and Apex of Love.

There are five degrees of this our Love to God.

1. The first is, to love God for the good he doth us, and we expect to receive from him still.

2. Secondly, To love him pro­pter seipsum, or sui ipsius gratia, for his own sake, because he is most ex­cellent, and most amiable.

3. Thirdly, To love God above all things, nay your own selves; but to love nothing in the World, but for his sake.

4. Fourthly, To detest and ab­hor himself for the Love of God.

5. Fifthly, to love him as we shall in the life to come, when we shall be in glory; with this love the Saints are extasied, and assist at the Throne of God in secula seculorum.

We call these Degrees of Love, and not species or kinds, because the superior contain the inferior, as the chiefest white differs from the other parcels of the same colour that are less clear and transparent, not in specie, but in gradu: we must remount up these degrees or stairs, and rest [Page 69] our selves a little upon every one of them.

1. The first degree and lowest is,Five de­grees by which we are brought to love God. To love God for the good he doth us; upon this step of Love was King David, when in the 116 Psalm, and in the 1 verse, I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice, and my supplica­tion; and so in the 18 Psalm: for God will have respect and love from us, because he extends his bounty so liberally to us. 'Tis God that crea­ted us; 'tis God that preserves and keeps us being created; that nouri­sheth our bodies, that cherisheth our souls; that redeemeth us by his Son; that governs us by his holy Spirit; that instructeth us by his word, that hath vouchsafed to admit us as his servants, nay his friends and chil­dren; and which is more, the same with himself.

Plato playing the Philosopher with the grace of God,Plato bles­sed God for three things. thanked him for three things:

• 1. That he was created a man, and not a beast.
• 2. That he was born a Graecian, and not a Barbarian; and,
• [Page 70]3. That he was a Philosopher.

Now we that are instructed in the School of Christ, a School of more strict discipline,So ought we for these espe­cially. make another kind of distribution of the grace of God, and return him thanks for these three things:

1. That of all Creatures, we were created men.

2. That of all men, Christians; And,

3. That among those that are Christians, he hath made us in the number of the true elect. And if you please, you may add a fourth, That he hath adopted us by his Son Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the World; having been carefull of us, not onely before we had any exi­stence, but even before the world had its creation. Now if God did mani­fest his love to us before we were, how liberally will he extend it to us, how bountifully will it flow from him when we invocate and call upon his Sacred Name, and affect him with a filial and reverential love? Now the smaller our number is, the larger is our priviledge; the more [Page 71] extensive and diffusive is his bounty and goodness to us; to endow us with sight, among so many blind per­sons; as the portion of Jacob in Ae­gypt, solely enlightned in the midst of obscurity, Cimmerian darkness: like the fleece of Gideon, that was only bedewed with the grace of God, when the rest of the earth was dry, and destitute of it. God hath encir­cled us with abundance of examples of stupendious caecity or blindness, that he might raise our estimation of light, and that we might make a far­ther progress in the way of salvation, that so whilest it is called to day, we may steer the ship of our souls by the Lanthorn of his Word. All these vertues, the constellation of all these graces, depend upon one Soveraign and Prime one, viz. reconciliation with God by the passion of our blessed Jesus. This is the Chanel through which the graces of God stream unto us. 'Tis Jacobs Ladder that joyns Heaven and Earth toge­ther, that rejoyns God and Man. The Angels ascending this Ladder, represent our prayers, that we pi­ously [Page 72] dart up to Heaven: the Angels descending, signifie the blessings of God that are distilled in answer to our prayers. Jacob sleeping at the foot of the Ladder, intimates unto us the quiet and tranquillity of con­science, that we enjoy under the cool and comfortable shade of his intercession. Before, man was envi­roned with horror and astonish­ment; he could not cast his eye a­side, but he met with an object of fear. If he look't upon God, he dis­cerned a consuming fire, a supream Justice, armed with revenge against sinners. If he cast his eye upon the Law, he immediately perceived the arrest of condemnation: If he viewed the Heaven, he concluded himself excluded thence by reason of sin; If the World, he saw his irreparable loss of dominion over the Creatures; if himself, a thousand spiritual and corporal infirmities. At the signes of Heaven, and the Earth-quake, he was ague-struck with fear. Then Satan, Death, Hell, were his invete­rate foes, that either drew him to perdition, or did behel and wrack [Page 73] him with the expectation of them. But now every person that hath con­fidence in Christ Jesus, changes his language, and speaks in a more pleasing dialect. If he look upon God, he'll say, 'Tis my Father, that hath adopted me: If his thoughts pitch upon the day of Judgement, he'll bespeak himself thus, My El­der Brother sits there; and he that is my Judge, is also my Counsel­lor: If he think on the Angels, he cries out, They are my guardians, Psalm the 34. If he view the Heaven, he terms it his habitation. If he hear it thunder, he'll reply, 'Tis the voice of my Father. If he consider the Law, The Son of God (saith he) hath accomplisht it for me. If he swim with the flowing tide of pro­sperity, he'll say, God hath reser­ved better things for me. If in the low ebb of adversity, Jesus Christ hath endured far more for me. God exerciseth, or proves, corrects or af­flicts me, making me therein confor­mable to his Son. If he thinks on Hell, the Devil, or Death, then he will triumph over all with the holy [Page 74] Apostle; in the 1 to the Corinth. the 15 Ch. and the 55, 56, and 57 vers. O Death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory! The sting of Death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Though these things buz about his ears like bees provoked or irritated, yet they have lost their sting. If the old serpent bruise his heel, yet his head is broken; if the Devil give us a false alarm by persecutions, yet we are souldiers fighting under Christs Banner, listed and registred into the Book of Life at our Baptism: he hath bought and redeemed us by his most precious blood, and no one can ravish us from him. What soul can be so sordid as to fear the arm of flesh, when he is guarded by the spirit of Christ, that doth not on­ly intercede for sinners, but of sin­ners makes them become just: That is not only Advocate of a bad cause, but also renders it good; That doth both pray, and pay for us; so that his pardoning of us is not onely a work of his mercy, but also an effect [Page 75] of his justice? Besides these obliga­tions, we have an infinite number of incitations to the love of Christ, if we will but recollect our selves, and seriously consider, how often he hath delivered us from imminent danger; caused inexpected overtures of evil intended to us, that we might avoid them: for according to the old Pro­verb, Praemoniti, praemuniti, forewar­ned, forearmed; and afflicted us here, that he might save us hereafter. Now 'twas the wish of that famous pillar of the Latin Church St. Augu­stin, Hic ure, hic tunde, hic seca, modo in aeternum parcas: Cut, saw, burn my body here, so thou savest my soul hereafter. Now for shame, let it not be said, that God hath show­red down his blessings on the sand. Let us not be so bestial, as to drink of the stream, and ne'er think of the fountain; without elevating our thoughts unto God the source of all benedictions.

But when we say God doth good unto us, to the end that we may love him; not that he stands in need of our Love, but he will have us love [Page 76] him, in regard that we cannot be sa­ved if we hate him. Nay farther, that we love him, proceeds from him as a gift; for 'tis he that kindles in us his love. He doth not only bestow and confer his bona upon us, but he gives us a hand to receive them, grace to use them, and vertue to glorifie for them; so that Deus primo dat quod jubet, and then jubet quod vult: first he gives what he commands, viz. Love,Love is the gift of God. and then he commands what is most agreable to his will and plea­sure.

This first degree or step of Love, though it be holy and useful, yet 'tis but principium amoris divini, 'tis but the prologue to the Love of God; for he that loves God only for profit, is like an infant or child that prays only for his break-fast; and to speak properly, such persons love not God, but themselves. Such love is but mer­cenary, and injurious to God, a pal­pable affront put upon the Deity. Therefore he must know, that hath gained this first degree, he must proceed; for non progredi, est regredi; to be at a stand, is to be retrograde: [Page 77] he must therefore, I say, ascend the second step.

The second degree of our Love to­ward God, is to Love him,2 Degree. not on­ly for our profit, but also for him­self, (i. e.) laying aside all conside­ration of his benefits, that he is dai­ly pleased to confer on us; and though we expected no profit from him, yet to love him supra omnia. Holy David spake of this Love in the 69 Psalm, Let all those that love thee re­joyce in thy name. He counsels us to love God for his name, because he is the supream, Wise in his counsel, just in his actions, true in his pro­mises; whose habitation is in glory inaccessible; enjoying a Soveraign perfection. God, whose life was without beginning, and his duration without end; his eternity without alteration, his greatness without measure, and his power irresistible: That created the World by his Word, governs it by his vertue, and will reduce it to a Chaos of ruine, when it is his pleasure: Who in one sole vertue and perfection, which is his Essence, encompasseth all other [Page 78] vertues that are infused into all other creatures. All other vertues do con­centre in this punctum; and the more they deviate from him, the more ec­centrique they are. God therefore is to be loved for these preceding con­siderations, more then for the good that he is pleased to confer upon us. Our Saviour instructeth us the same, in that most absolute pattern, that he himself hath set before us; in which he commands to beg the san­ctification of his Holy Name, and the advancement of his Kingdom; before we put up a petition for our daily bread. We naturally are enamoured with beauty: now Light is the first of beauties, without which there is no distinction between beauty and deformity. God therefore being the primum lumen, it follows necessarily that he be also the prime beauty. He is the Father of Lights, Pater Lu­minum, saith St. James; and holy David the Psalmist in the 36 Psalm 9. For with thee is the Fountain of Life; in thy light shall we see light. Wherefore in laying his hand to the stately Fa­brick of the World, when he redu­ced [Page 79] the Chaos of confusion into a beautiful and harmonious order, he began first with the light, as that by which his nature is best represented. He is the Sun of Righteousness, a Sun that never comes to the West, never sets, nor casts a shadow; all things are naked unto him, [...], all things are bare-neckt unto him, 'tis in the Original, being a metaphor taken from the mode in the Eastern Coun­treys, where they go bare-neckt: such a Sun as doth not only clarifie the sight, but gives it also. And judge you what a splendid, sight-of­fending lustre this is, that the Sera­phims assisting at his Throne cover their faces with their wings, as Isaiah saith, 6 Chap. 2 vers. not being able to endure so glorious a splendor. And if at the coming and appear­ance of the humanity of Christ, the Sun shall be benegroed in darkness, as a petty light at the coming of a greater; how, if you cast an eye up­on the life of God!The life of God. ours is but a shadow, if compared to it, nay a nihil: for our life is a flux or succession of parts. But God possesseth and [Page 80] hath full and entire fruition of his eadem instanti, and all together. And his only begotten Son was willing to lay down his life for the redemption of us miserable and wretched sin­ners: That Son that Isaiah calls Chap. the 9. Father of eternity, was content to assume this frail flesh of ours. He became Son of Man, that we might become the sons of God. He was born in a stable, that we might be received into the King­dom of Heaven; born among beasts, that we might be the associates of Angels. He that was regens sydera, became sugens ubera; [...], be­came [...]. He that is the bread of life was pinched with hunger, that we might be satisfied. He that is the fountain of life, became thir­sty, that we might have ours quench­ed. In fine, he that is life it self, did undergo death, that he might make us heirs of eternal life. [...], as the blessed Apostle in a holy ex­tasie cried out; O the depth of the riches of the Love of Christ! These are pro­sundities that swallow up our spi­rits, and there is pleasure in being [Page 81] lost therein: for these are the graces of God that surpasse our shallow capacities, but recreate our hearts; that afford matter of admiration, and subject of consolation.

Now to what end is all this, if not to induce us to love God, and admire the treasures and riches of his grace? Our spirits are extasied with the rap­ture and contemplation of thy boun­ty. Our words are a degree beneath our thoughts, & yet our thoughts are far beneath the truth. We do but lisp forth thy praise; our commendation and elogiums of thee, are but an un­dervaluing of thee; for in so doing we do but lumen soli praeferre, or endea­vour to delineate him in his golden tresses, by the dark draught of a char­coal. Therefore we must intreat the Lord, that is our Father, to touch our hearts with a filial affection; that it would please him that bestows and infuseth his love into us, to create also in us strong affections and desires af­ter such a divine vertue; that we may pant after, & pursue it with so much eagerness, as to encounter with all obstructions for the obtaining of it.

All these considerations do but in­cite us to the love of God, not for our selves, but for his own sake; which is perspicuous in this, that our Love cannot be regulate, unless it be formed and fashioned on the model of his Love that he bears to us. Now God Loves us for his own sake, accor­ding to the Prophet Isa. Chap. 43. 'Tis I, 'tis I, that blot away thy trangres­sions, for mine own sake: And it is the prayer of holy Daniel in the 9. of his prophecy, Lord hear me, Lord pardon me; O Lord my God tarry not, for thine own sake; for thy name hath been called up­on by this people. God considers that we bear his Image on our souls; he con­siders that we are unworthy of his benefits; but that it is a divine thing to do good to those that are unwor­thy of receiving it; and which is more, to make them worthy in do­ing them good. He looks upon his Church as a small fold that carrieth his name, and are baptized the peo­ple of God, Hosea the 2. nor will he suffer it to become the prey of Sa­tan, or the triumph of their adver­saries. Amen.

WE have in one Sermon al­ready discoursed of our Love of God,SERM. IV. and infor­med you of the several degrees of this Love, which were five: two where­of we have only as yet insisted on; the other three we shall, auspice Christo, dispatch in our subsequent love-discourse. Therefore not to detain you with the reiteration or repetiti­on of what you have formerly heard; we'll proceed at present to the third degree of our Love to God, which is this, viz.

To Love God so far above all sub­lunary beings, as to affect nothing,3 Degree. to be enamoured with nothing, but [Page 84] only for his sake. As for instance, in the vast circumference of the terre­strial Globe, there is variety both of persons and things, that we cannot withdraw our affections from them, we cannot but love them; and in rea­lity, 'twere impiety not to Love them. A Father loveth his Children, a Wife her Husband: our Parents, our Kindred, our Neighbours, our Friends, have all share in this ami­ty. So a man loves his health, and labours to preserve it: if it be any way lost, he endeavours by all possi­ble means to recover it. The brawny Peasant is in his element when whi­stling to his Teem, and manuring of his acres. The Scholar is so ravi­shed with his study, that his very countenance smels of the candle, as the Poet ingeniously expresseth it; ‘Livida nocturnam sapiebant ora lu­cernam.’ Their pale countenance did relish of the candle; speaking of excessive students. Nay, to go to disrobe a man of this love, would be a doctrine [Page 85] inhumane, and a degree below bru­tality. He is worse than an Infidel, that hath not a care of his family, saith the blessed Apostle. Piety doth not extir­pate a mans affections, but cultivates them, and makes them colleagues with the Love and fear of God: No otherwise than Joshuah, who having subdued the Gibeonites, would not put them to death, but compel them to service in the House of God: For then doth a father love his sons with a real paternal affection, when he resolves to educate them so in their youth, that they may encrease in growth, and become plants that one day may fructifie to the glory of God. Then doth a man love his friends as he ought, when their love to God is the efficient cause of his love to them; and that he perceives the Image of God shine in them. Then shall we love our health law­fully and aright, when we desire it, not because it is more pleasant and comfortable, but because it endowes our bodies with a vigour, and our souls with a liberty of serving God in our vocation. The same may be [Page 86] said of Riches, Honour, Learning, and the like; these are things that one may affect, but so, that their love rob us not of our love to God; but rather stimulate us on, and pro­voke us to good works. And as there is no river so small, but disembogues it self into the Sea; so there is none of Gods benefacta, though of the lowest size, of the most dwarfish sta­ture, but conducts and leads our thoughts to the profound abyss of his goodness and greatness. Then shall our affections to our friends be regulated, and sweetly composed, when they shall be branches or arms of the Sea of Gods immense Love, and have a reflection upon the Image or benefits of God. Set not a price or estimation upon men for that that is about them, but for what is in them: Love not men as you do Pur­ses, (i. e.) for the money they have. If you honour a person for his stately attire, you might as well salute the Sattin when intire in a whole piece: If you reverence a man for his ho­nour, or renown, you pin his di­gnity upon his sleeve, and fix his [Page 87] worth on an airy title: and this is the mode now adaies; this is the frame of most mens spirits in the world, to adore the Casket, and contemn the Jewel that is cabinetted in it; to esteem the bark, and slight the body. It was the ancient com­plaint of devout St. Bernard, Color, non calor aestimatur; vestium, non vir­tutum cultus insistitur: 'Tis the gaw­diness, not the warmth of apparel, that is minded; the trimming of garments, not the adorning of ver­tues, is stood upon: 'Tis the lining of his pockets, not that of his brain, that is regarded. Nay Aristotle, Natures elder son, was of opinion, that an Asse laden with Gold might have a pass through any gate: 'Tis true in a natural, but not in a spiri­tual sense; for he cannot passe through the straight gate of Heaven. 'Tis Gold, hisce temporibus ferreis, that is omnium Regina, The Empress of the world; ‘ [...],’ Fight with spears of Gold, and you [Page 88] will meet little or no opposition. And pardon me if I go too high, or offend: some dunghill-souls will be­tray their Royal Soveraign for re­ward, for a mercenary golden re­compence. 'Tis money that rules, and overrules the whole world. Men rise early, sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness; and all for ad­ding to the mass of their treasure: all is good that procures wealth, be it what it will, or how it will; per fas, & nefas; by hook, or by crook, right or wrong; quo jure, quaque in­juria, as the Comedian excellently, and suitable to our present times; whether it be by Hophnies flesh-hook, or Habakkuks net; all's good fish that comes to the net. The holy A­postle tells us that godliness is great gain: but there are many now living that would tell him, if he were a­mong us, that great gain is godli­ness; at least, their godliness. 'Tis apparel makes a man, now adaies; but if once you be disrobed of your bravery, and ad paupertatum redactus, Then, ‘[Page 89]Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes.’ Then when you are in a thred-bare condition, you shall find no friends, few or no visitations: and whereas before they did stick to your thre­shold, and were unwilling to leave your society, now they'll be as nig­gardly of their visitations, as before they were prodigal of them. Like the Asse that carried the Image Isis in procession, when adorned with the ornaments; then did they bow the officious knee; but when spoiled and deprived of them, then they come no more about her, but she must be ranked with the rest of her dull, cold, contemptible fellow-crea­tures. But on the contrary, when your affections are bestowed on a man, because he fears God, he is firm and stable in his faith, advan­ced in the true knowledge of God, true in his words, just in his deeds, and charitable to the afflicted, in­flamed or eaten up with the zeal of Gods house, (not like many of the Puritanical faction, whose prepo­sterous [Page 90] zeal hath put the whole Na­tion into a combustion) your love toward him will continue, as long as he himself. Dispossess such a per­son of his Lands, deprive him of his Titles, disrobe him of his gorgeous attire, his body and all his orna­ments will remain; and that excel­lency that consists in the Image of God, and the graces of his Spirit.

I know that the secrets or intenti­ons of mens hearts are profound; and that oftentimes it evenes, that those persons that we make choice of, and pick out for friends, and vertuous too, become vitious, or else demonstrate unto us they have ever been so. In this case, he that loves God, ought to reprove his friend, and redress him with all his power. Adulation or flattery hath rob'd amity or true love of all its terms, but onely a liberty of re­proving. He that reproves not his friend for fear of incurring his dis­pleasure, it is a respect full of cru­elty; just as if when he were upon the point of drowning, you should be afraid of lifting him up by the [Page 91] hair of the head, for fear of pluck­ing off a lock. If he mend not when you reprehend him, the love of man must give place to the love of God; you must in this case do as holy Mo­ses did, who made use of his Rod, whilest it was a Rod; but did flye away from it, when 'twas metamor­phosed into a Serpent: and 'tis bet­ter far, to separate your self from such a person gradatim, by degrees, and rather untwist your friendship with him, than to tear it all to pie­ces.

The Love of God serves as a rule to the overcoming and subduing all the forementioned difficulties. Pa­gans have amassed and pickt up se­veral precepts out of the nature of amity, or friendship; but never dis­covered that secret that regulates and orders all their precepts. viz. [...], first to love God, and to make our love spring from the love of God. What the Brain is to the Nerves, the Liver to the Veins, or the Heart to the Arteries, the same is the Love of God to humane love, (i. e.) filaments, or branches, on [Page 92] which it depends. Without this di­vine Love, friendship is not friend­ship, but a conspiracy, an accord of discording with God: friendship whose tottering basis, or shaking foundation, is placed on pleasure or profit, expires when pleasures lose their gust or taste through age; or when the profit is diminished, be­gins to moulder and crumble away; or when the distribution thereof is unequal. But the love or friendship fixed, or rooted in the Love of God, is firm and stable; because built up­on a sure foundation: which love ought to proceed so far, that we must powre out our Love not only upon our friends, but our intestine enemies for Gods sake; 'tis the will and pleasure of the Almighty, Matth. the 5. because that even in the midst of this enmity, the impression of the Image of God is apparent. And these are Rods in Gods hand to jerk us for correction and amendment; and have such a compulsive vertue, as to induce us to fear him.

4 Degree.We are not yet come to the high­est round in this Jacobs Ladder that [Page 93] reacheth to Heaven; for we must arrive to so high a pitch, as to hate our selves for the Love of God. For although we concede, that self-love is the strongest and most natural love of man; and it is this amor-sin that is the greatest Antagonist and enemy to the Love of God; and 'twill opus magnae molis, multi sudoris, to overcome and surmount it: What the shirt is among our cloaths, the same is self-love among our affecti­ons, viz. the last that is pulled off: it is like the last onset or sally that Satan makes upon a soul, that is hard to be repulsed, or made to quit the field: Yet no person can love God, ut deceat, as it behooveth him, that detests not his own na­ture, that is not irritated against his concupiscence, and wages not a per­petual war with them, with a firm and Christian resolution, to subdue them, (Deo juvante) and to admit of no truce, nor quarter, but to commit a total slaughter, and to de­stroy them all, without compassion; thirsting after the dissolution of this body, and reigning with God and [Page 94] the blessed Hierarchy of Angels, world without end: He must be wil­ling to exhaust and pour out every drop of blood that flows in the pur­ple chanels of his body, for the glo­ry of God. Being wearied out with this fleshly tabernacle, as in a rouling prison, or an ambulatory sepulchre; just like a captive cloystered up in a loathsome prison, that peeps at the grates, aspiring after liberty; you must not expect to have egress, or depart by the door, but by the ruine of the prison, (i. e.) the dissolution and destruction of the body. He that hath commenced war, and stood in defiance to his lusts with most vigour and constancy, shall have the great­est share of peace with God. He that hath accused himself, shall be excused: he that hath despised and made little or no estimation of this life, shall be saved. Luke 9. and the 24. saith the blessed Evangelist there, For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

This is the fourth degree of Love, and the cream and top of Love, [Page 95] whilest we are on this side Heaven: 'Twas this degree of Love, that forc'd the holy Apostle to so pious and que­rulous an exclamation; [...]; O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? 'Tis this degree of Love that forced that sweet Harper King Da­vid, though his temples at that time were adorned with a Crown, and his hands with a Scepter, the vanquisher of his enemies, whose name was as famous, as his possessi­ons were vast; confess, and acknow­ledg himself a stranger, and a sojourner upon the earth. Psalm 39.12. & 119.19. 'Tis this degree of love that hath furnished holy Mar­tyrs with resolution and courage, accompanied with a zeal that was hotter then the fire it self, to pass through all torments, and smile at the fagot and sword: they fear not the threats of the brow-bearing Judge, if furnished with this degree of love: they are armed with the murus aheneus of Horace; for a guilt­less conscience, with the shield of his own innocency, beats off all oppo­sition [Page 96] and resistance. No man can be such an Ignaro, as to imagine his sinews to be made of wyre, or his bodie to be immured with brass; nor no one can be so whimsi­cal, as to think them to have the Stoicks a pathy: no, no; but as the violent heat of a fever doth exsiccate the exterior wounds or ulcers, and so that the less heat is obedient to the greater; so the internal ardor of the Love of God, did predominate over the heat of the flames, and had more power to sustain the pain, then the grief had strength to destroy them. The vertues of the Martyrs do check our vices; their pious em­bers do reinfuse heat into our cold walking clay. Whose blood, (for as one of the Fathers saith) Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae, the bloody time of the Saints, is the Seed-time of the Church; their blood, I say, exclaims against our slackness, who of late like a spurious issue have de­generated from their constancy: And be sure, if we imitate them not, and follow their example, they will be a reproach and condemnation un­to [Page 97] us. Their red evening was precur­sor to a most glorious day, and their bloody trial proved a deliverance at last from the worlds rage and fury. Now to arrive to this degree, re­quires a long and stout combat: for our flesh is mutinous and refractory; and concupiscence is so fast rooted in us, that even (Deo judice) it is re­sembled and assimilated to the cut­ting off of a hand,Matth. 5. and pulling out of an eye. And the Apostle of the Gen­tiles terms our lusts, our members, [...], Coloss. 3. Yet God him­self tells us, that the perfection of his work is manifested in our infirmity; He makes us Conquerours,2 Cor. 12. Gal. 5. after many defeats and failings. Men of­tentimes are as in a crooked way, be­tween the flesh and the spirit; be­tween mundane and divine Love, the Love of God, and the Love of the World; and then they meet with several wicked and abominable sug­gestions, and a terrible counterscustle between them and their lusts. How often and frequently doth it evene, that after the Love of God hath gain­ed the dominion and upper-hand in [Page 98] the soul of man, and that he is re­solved to live well and religiously; in a small time after, do his lusts and evil concupiscence rally up themselves, and make a fresh assault more vio­lent than the former? But the faith­ful man, when assaulted with a desire of revenge, rapine, or adultery, will perceive and hear by the ears of faith, the Love of God whispering these following interrogations, and catechising him thus; Miserable wretch that thou art, whither dost thou wander? Doth not God view thee? dost thou despise his menaces? dost thou reject his promises? dost thou forget thy vocati­on? Why should you grieve the Spirit of God? Why should you bespatter his Church with infamy, and calumny? Where are the promises you made to God? Where is the grateful remembrance of his benefits? Is this the way to the Kingdom of Hea­ven? Are you certain of arising when you fall? What, will you disturb your peace of conscience for such bitter-sweet pleasures? [...] for the most guilded pill of pleasure hath is allow'd ingredi­ents. What, will you hazard your primoge­niture, for a mess of lentile-potage? At [Page 99] these spiritual suggestions, the faith­ful man makes a stand; sighs and groans before God, and, like Sam­pson, is resolved to break in sunder the bands of his concupiscence. But all is not yet ended; the rebellious and contumacious, surrenders not her self up yet; for oftentimes, after ho­ly resolutions, at certain intervals, or spaces of time, there will arrive some cooling kind of temper, that may induce and perswade carnal reason to a postarize, and especially in these rebellious times; where a man may find more matter for to compose a book of Apostates, rather than Martyrs. Now Satan, who is a spirit, but A-bad-one, as 'tis in the Revelation, watcheth for an oppor­tunity to find us conversant with de­bauched company, and voyd of em­ployment, and to catch us disconti­nuing, or ceasing from our pious eja­culations to Heaven (which with a fervent and zealous brevity are thrown up to the Throne of Grace; and God showres down his blessings upon them, according to their re­quest, and suitable to their present [Page 100] necessities and indigencies, if they be faithful) Satan, I say, raiseth an Anarchy in the soul of man, and fosters nothing but a Chaos of con­fusion: then are the concupiscence and lusts of the flesh up in arms a­gainst the desires and motions of the spirit, and close and strangle one an­other; which oftentimes renders the life of a Christian so bitter and un­comfortable, that he is often desi­ring an end of this conflict or com­bat, that he may be dissolved and be with Christ. 'Tis a hellish disposition, and suitable to the devils nature, to give a blow to a man that is already reeling; 'tis his constant course, when he finds you most afflicted with dis­eases, and enfeebled with age, then doth he redouble his force, and shews you your sins in multiplying glasses; that so he may, if possible, compel you to land the vessel of your soul upon the shoar of Despair. Lust will struggle and strive for superiori­ty, and therefore ought to be sup­pressed, and held in subjection by the power of Gods Spirit, operating in, and aiding of us. Man is his own [Page 101] enemy; he nourisheth a bird within him, that will pick out his own eyes. Homo, homini lupus: which made St. Augustin cry out, A me, libera me, Domine; blessed Lord, free me, or deliver me from my self. O the wretched nature and inclina­tions of men, that procure (or at least endeavour it) their own ruine! O the fixed and fast rooted corrupti­ons of man, that by their mutinies will relead us, or compel us to re­turn into Aegypt! that after our de­parture out of Sodom, perswade us, like Lots Wife, to look back, and have a kind of internal regret, for the evil we have forsaken. These are cor­ruptions that interpose, and disturb our best actions with wicked sugge­stions, and bespatter them with some evil. If we seriously meditate on death, the flesh will suggest, and say; What needs all these melan­choly dumps? To what purpose all these sighs and erected eyes? There is time enough for that hereafter. If we read or near Gods judgements and menaces against infamous scar­let sinners, the flesh perswades us, [Page 102] that it belongs to others, not to us. If we comtemplate the Heavens, 'twill suggest unto us immediately, that we shall arrive there soon enough. If we go to extend our hand, and manifest our charity out of a re­al Christian sympathy to a distressed member of Christ; 'twill whisper to your souls, You know not how soon you may want your selves. If we be resolved to reprove a friend, that we may reduce him from the broad way of sin and uncleanness, and con­duct him to the narrow, though bles­sed path, that leads unto salvation; then 'twill retract and withdraw, and make you desist from your intented purpose, for fear of offending him, or incurring his total displeasure: every good action hath two ansae, by which the world and the flesh take hold, to prevent the execution of it.

Therefore in this case, we must carefully and piously repair unto God, craving his divine assistance; and imitate Rebecca, who had re­course unto God by prayer, when two Embryones or infants strove in her womb; a most exact figure, or di­vine [Page 103] Hieroglyphick of the two men that are in every believer; The old, and the new Adam; one, our nature corrupted and cicatrized by sin; the other, our spirit regenerated; which lust one against the other, as the bles­sed Apostle St. Paul testifieth, Gal. 5.17. So God answers unto Rebecca, telling her, that the greatest should obey the least. For the old man must be brought in subjection to the new, till he be perfectly reduced to the obedience of God; he must be over­come totally, and his forces quite routed.

Now we are arrived to the top of the Ladder, the fifth and last degree,5 Degree. which is the Love whereby we shall love God in the Kingdom of Hea­ven, when we shall be cloathed with the Robes of Eternal Glory. For our Love proceeds from our knowledge; and according to our knowledge, we proportion our Love: Then shall we love God far more, because we shall know him far better. Now we see (saith the blessed Apostle) through a glass dark­ly, but then face to face: [...],1 Cor. 13. [Page 104] very emphaticall, in a riddle. Our love that looks a great distance, and is distracted by variety of objects, shall then approach, and look near, and shall be totally fixed upon God. And as two great rivers that have forsaken their constant chanel, and meeting together, cause a terrible inundation: so the Love of God are two currents that shall be joyned whilest on earth; but when we shall arrive, and land on the shoar of eter­nal felicity, they will meet in Hea­ven. How unutterable will the ve­hemency of these affections be, when they shall be joyned and swallowed up one within the other with a mu­tual Love? For then in loving God, we shall also love our selves; because that God shall dwell in us, and be­cause according to the holy Apostle St. John, 1 John. 3.2. [...]. We shall be like unto him, we shall resemble him. Nor must we doubt, or imagine, that there is not an entire and real Love and mutual affection among the bles­sed Angels, but it flows from the Love of God: Therefore let us love nothing in our selves, that prepares [Page 105] us not for the expectation of that Love, that is mingled with the Love of God; a rare and Sacred Dose, composed of two incomparable In­gredients, to cure the distemper of sin-sick man.

But because that Love with which we shall love God in Paradise, hath its original from the sight and con­templation of his glorious aspect, (for [...], Love is enflamed by sight:) Let us endeavour to find out what this sight shall be, that is the cause of our Love. The eyes of the body behold all things, two ways, or by two means: either by a reception of the image or spe­cies, and so we behold and see all bodies exposed to our view; or in re­ceiving into our eyes the self-same thing that we see, as we see the light, which enters into our very sight. God that is the primum lumen, or lumen luminum, will manifest him­self unto us in Heaven, this last man­ner: for he dwelleth in his Saints; he is to them all in all. Rom. 1. But in this life we see him in his image, (i. e.) by the contemplation of his works, [Page 106] whereon he hath made an impressi­on, or engraven as it were his own portraicture, and express and signi­ficant indicia or marks of his vertue. We shall then see God as we do the light here below; but that we do only see it through the windows of our bodies, viz. our eyes; but then we shall receive on every side the light of Gods countenance, that will light us every where with the splen­dor of its rays, and the beams of its translucent glory: like a man that, if it were possible, could be apple of the eye all over, composed of no­thing else, he would receive the light from all parts round about him.

This sight of God will transform us into his likeness or similitude: so saith St. John, 1 John 3.2. We shall be like unto him; for we shall behold him, as he is; [...]. For as a look­ing-glass or mirrour, if it be expo­sed to the Sun, will represent the resemblance or image thereof; so God entertains no body with an in­tent to contemplate his face, but he transforms him into his own likeness [Page 107] or similitude, by the irradiation of his splendor and perfection. And if God be Charity and Love, as the holy Apostle St. John affirms, and all Christians are engaged to believe, in the 1. of St. John, 4 Chap. 8 vers. it follows of necessity, that the crea­ture being by this beatifical vision made like unto God, should be ra­vished with love, and all on a flame with this spiritual fire: Such a fire as hath imposed a name on the Sera­phims, to termed, because of their ardor; which is no other thing but the Love of God, the fervor of their zeal, and their promptitude and agi­lity in his service.

This now should serve for a Use of exhortation to all good Christians, Use viz. to labour after the love of God with all humility, pious speed, and integrity of heart; that so they might be like unto God, [...], as the Apostle expresseth it. And unless you be drunk with momentary, and totally deprived of a sense or imagi­nation of the super-excellency and plerophory of joy that is in Heaven, you cannot but strive by a holy life [Page 108] and conversation to attain unto the everlasting Crown of Glory, and the seat and society of the blessed An­gels in Heaven, where you shall chant forth in aeternum Hallelujahs to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and live in fe­licity, and joy that is unutterable, to the praise and glory of Gods im­mortal name, without care, sorrow, grief, or distraction, world without end.

Use 2 This serves for a Use of terror, and horror, to all wicked persons, whose whole life hath been a perpetual wil­ful violation of Gods Law, without any repentance of, or amendment and conversion from their misde­meanours and offences. They shall never enter into the joy of the Lord, but have that terrible doleful doom and sentence passed upon them, Go ye cursed into everlasting darkness, where there is nothing but weeping and wayling, and gnashing of teeth; to­tally deprived of Gods comfortable soul-vivifying presence; being en­tombed alive in this pit of dark­ness, [Page 109] ubi miseriae, ubi tenebrae, ubi horror aeternus; ubi nulla spes boni, nulla desperatio mali: where you shall be surrounded with miseries, bene­groed in more then cimmerian, and that perpetuall darkness too, over­whelmed by, and implunged into eternal horror; where there is no hope of restitution to a blessed, or redemption from an accursed estate; but there must be tormented world without end.

Thus have I demonstrated unto you the happiness of those that fear God; and their unhappiness, that go a whoring after the lusts and concupiscences of the flesh: we have shewn you the five Degrees of Love toward God; and our meditation cannot soar any higher; this is the last round of Jacobs Ladder that con­veys us to Heaven.

We all profess, I must confess, to love God; but few do it seriously and cordially: and by this kind of external pomp and outward shew of profession, we deceive ignorant [Page 110] man, nay we put a fallacy upon our selves. But there is no humane po­licy or sophistry that can cheat a God: wherefore it is necessary, for the prevention and knowledge of such counterfeit, hypocritical per­sons, to bring them to the touch, and try what metal they are com­posed of; to discern the true, sin­cere, and pure Love of God, from the false and counterfeit.

And as there are five degrees of our Love to God, so there are five marks or tokens visible enough, whereby we may discern whether or no we have the true Love of God;5 Marks of Gods Love. which we shall only enumerate, and so conclude for the present.

1 Mark.The first mark or token of our Love to God, is this, viz. It extin­guisheth all other unchaste and in­ordinate Love.

2 Mark.The second mark and effect of this Love, is, the peace and tranquillity of the soul and conscience.

The third mark, is,3 Mark. our Love to­wards our Neighbour.

The fourth mark, is,4 Mark. the delight and pleasure that we have and take in communing and conversing with God.

The fifth mark is,5 Mark. a zeal for the glory of God, that is increased or diminished according as God is ho­noured or dishonoured.

He, whosoever he be, that per­ceives these effects wrought in him, may assure himself that he loves God with a true, real, and religious Love: and though it may happen sometimes, that his love may be aba­ted, the heat of his zeal be somewhat quenched, the vigor of his affection somewhat debilitated; though this Love be weak, yet it argues it not to be false, it is true for all that: for as a weak faith is a good faith, so a weak love is a good love. The very Apostles themselves were termed by our Saviour men of little faith: though it be small, so it encrease indies, day [Page 112] by day, tending to perfection; 'twill without doubt end in happiness and eternal joy.

Thus have I laid down these five degrees or marks of our true love to God; which I shall desist from dis­coursing any farther on at present; but commit you to God, and leave the handling of them to the next op­portunity: If God permit. Amen.

HE alwayes goes stumblingly, SERM. V. that walks in the night, said Jesus Christ the true light of the World, Joh. 11.10. And he that walketh in darkness, knows not whither he goes, said his beloved disciple. If there be any thing wherein this may be clearly known, is is in the mistake of judgement, which those make of themselves, who being destitute of the celestial light of verity, suffer themselves to be led away by their own natural darkness. For there is nothing more frequent in their mouths, then the complaint of their misfortunes; nor nothing more rare then the confession of their faults: [Page 114] they out-speak their punishments, and palliate their crimes; they de­clare themselves miserable, but would not be thought wicked: you shall often hear the Philosophers call man a dream of a shaddow, a wea­ther-cock of inconstancy, an exam­ple of weakness, a general rendez­vous of dolours and misfortunes: A Democritus laughing at his folly, an Heraclitus bemoaning his calamities. The one termes those happy that go quickly out of the world, and th'other those more happy that never come into it. All too much occupied in the sense of their misery, but never in searching or acknowledging their sins: All accusing Nature as a step­dame, but no man himself as a rebel­lious or disobedient child. He of all men seems to have best hit of mans condition, who hath qualified him the miserablest and proudest of crea­tures: for whereas all declamations upon the pitiful estate of humane nature, ought to be so many lively lessons of true humility; and that cloud of misfortunes that showres on their heads, bring them down as [Page 115] low as the centre of the earth: on the contrary, like balloones full of wind, the more they are pressed down, the higher they rise: and as it happens in the agitation of a vio­lent tempest, the same wave break­ing, makes them sink into the deeps; and keeping it self whole and swel­ling, carries them again up into the clouds. And their presumption, like a kind of folly, drowning at once both memory and sense of their mis­fortunes, you see them raise them­selves again in their own good opi­nions, and rejoyce in the light of their understandings; they gaze up­on themselves in the splendor of their vertues, and lose themselves in the subtilty of their inventions; and to make themselves happy, to depend on no other decree then that of their own wills, to call in no other help then the strength of their own souls. Our life (sayes one) we have from God; but that we live well and holy, is to be attributed to ourselves. We must (sayes another) demand our fortune of God, but we must seek for wis­dome in our selves. Every one (sayes [Page 116] another) hath riches of his own acquisi­tion: for if it were given him from God, he should deserve no commendations. Never any of the wise-men gave thanks to God for making him ver­tuous; so that by this reckoning of theirs, those people who were late­ly charged with misfortunes, are now found free from faults: They that are most miserable upon earth, think themselves most worthy of heaven: They who cannot defend themselves from the least creatures, think they have themselves and every thing else in their power: They who for the tooth-ache, made vowes to Aesculapius, for the health of their cattle, and the conservation of their corn, sacrificed to Pan and Ceres, do not hold themselves obliged to ren­der thanks to God, for the vertues and excellent qualities that spring and grow in their souls.

That the Pagans (who are stran­gers to the Covenant, and ignorant of the way of God, destitute of the light of his Holy Word) should be thus carried and tost by so contrary opinions in the judgement of their [Page 117] own condition; it seems nothing strange: But that they that call themselves Christians, seeing shine in their climate these two great lights, the Gospel and the Law, that they should go stumbling as in the twylight, and groping like men without their eyes; and without power either in themselves, of know­ing the greatness of their miseries, or without themselves of knowing the vertue of the grace and infinity of the mercies of God; that they should go halting on both sides: sometime raising themselves to hea­ven by their own poor merits; at another time sinking down as low as hell in despair, even by distrust of the gift of God; and of the other side rendring themselves alike un­worthy, and throwing themselves into such a distance of his favour: this seems openly to verifie the com­plaint of the Evangelist, Joh. 1.5. that light hath shined in darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not; that his light came into the world, but that the world rather loved darkness, then light. So that it becomes no won­der, [Page 118] if reaping the fruit of what they so much loved; they have also for their part errour, uncertainty, and astonishment, the ordinary companions of the night: And if whereas the truly faithful, who by the light of the Law acknowledging their demerits, and by the light of the Gospel embracing the merits of the Redeemer of the World, say with Job, I know that my Redeemer li­veth; with the Apostle, 2 Tim. 2.12. I know on whom I have believed, with the wel-beloved disciple. 1 Jo. 3.19. We know that we are of God; these men, dazled with a vain opinion of their own vertues, and undervaluing the redemption of the Lord Jesus, say, We know not whither we shall go; we know not if we believe; we know not whether we shall be saved.

But if herein they would acknow­ledge their blindness, there were some hope of bringing them back to the light; but they are so far from this, that in this uncertainty and wandring of their troubled souls, they find no infirmity; but on the contrary, this is that which they [Page 119] say, We see: and to say truth, they take a pleasure in their errour, as if it were in the brightest clarity; and upon these floting waves and uncer­tainties, they establish the highest perfection of their faith: Attribu­ting also to the fairest of all the ver­tues, the three most vitious and ab­ject passions that are to be found in all corrupted nature, which are, Ignorance, Uncertainty, and Fear; keeping in blindness that which should guide us through the dark­ness of this world, and whose prin­cipal action is to see; for, by faith they of old have seen the promises, and saluted them afar of, Heb. 11.13. not staggering through unbelief, but like Abraham, that was strengthned by faith: not fearful and trembling, but being born of God, to overcome the world, 1 Joh. 5.4. What brave ex­ploits can be expected from a Cham­pion that must fight a combat after his eyes be put out, or his soul filled with fear and astonishment? Cursed are they that call evil good, and good evil; bitter to be sweet, and sweet bitter; darkness to be light, and light darkness, [Page 120] Isai. 5.20. To this it is that we would now send back these Doctors of darkness, that we might once be rid of them; and by the lively clari­ty of Jobs faith, make you follow and consider the true object, where ours should rest; and there to search for her true nouriture and advance­ment; if we were not for the pre­sent hindred, by that bold sacriledge whereby they seek to make holy Scripture a party to their wicked de­sign, and to be the cryer for their dishonest gain; making it as much as they can, belie her own nature, which is to be the light and sure guide of soules, to make it serve for a cloak to the night, and as a fantosm for astonishments, wherewith they per­plex consciences.

They say their doctrine is that of Ecclesiastes, Eccl. 9.1. who saith, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; and yet no man knoweth either love or hatred that is before them; but all things are kept in uncertainty for the time to come. If these were the words of Ecclesiastes, they had some appearance of reason [Page 121] in them: but that which makes most express for their opinion, is not the words of the wise, but the additions and false expositions of the vulgar Version, whereof they make use, and of which by an unparallelled bold­ness they correct the Originals. For this last clause, that all things are kept in uncertainty for the time to come, is not at all in the Hebrew Text; and the rest is only coucht in these terms; The just, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God, and no man knoweth either love, or hatred, that is be­fore them. Where you see what a violence is used to draw out of these words a certain conclusion against the certainty of faith. For it is a thing to be observed, that in the Holy tongue many times love and hatred are taken for the things which one loves or hates; and that which is translated to know, signifies as often to dispose or to make use of a thing at our pleasure: as, where it is said in Job 38.33. Dost thou know the Ordi­nances of the Heavens, or dost thou di­spose of the government of each of them upon Earth? And in this sense they [Page 122] are not altogether without reason, that turn this verse thus: But all things are so in the hand of God, that none of men can use or dispose at his plea­sure of what he either hates or loves. Others, as Arias Montanus, think that by that which is before them, the wise man meant those that were be­fore them; as friends, Parents, or Domestickes, who many times under a veil of friendship conceal their ha­treds and mortal envies, which are very hardly discovered while they can be concealed under a feigned ap­pearance. Others understand this uncertainty of events of our love and hatred, which are so hidden from us, that they fall out often contrary to our desires; and sometimes so cross, that to day we hate, what we must love hereafter, and love that which we must ere long detest. But with­out straying as much as may be from the literal sense, 'tis clear enough, especially if we consider what imme­diately follows, which serves both as a light and interpretation to this pas­sage: that is, That all happens alike to all, and the same accidents to the good [Page 123] and the bad: for the wiseman would have us know, that by exterior things, by the ordinary course of the world, and the good or evil that can be discern'd by the eyes of flesh, it is very hard to distinguish who are lov'd or hated of God; as 'tis also dangerous to go about to judge of Gods curse or grace, by th' adversity or prosperity of men. And here the friends of Job were deceived, when upon the evils that fell upon him, they would conclude against him both the hatred of God, and the im­purity of his own life. And here the Jews likewise abused themselves, when they said, We esteem the proud to be blessed, and they that have tempted God were delivered. And to this pur­pose the Psalmist tells us, 37.7, 9. Fret not thy self, because of him who prospereth in his way, and who bringeth wicked de­vices to pass: for evil doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Sometimes the righteous man mourns under the op­pression, and he that walks upright is subject to a thousand evils, & the wic­ked are terrible, and flourishing like a [Page 124] green bay-tree, and they have more then their heart could wish, Psal. 73.7. And sometimes also joy and the voice of singing and triumph is heard in the tabernacles of the righteous, and the wicked man is ensnar'd and over­thrown by his own iniquities. And so it is a hard matter to judge of this immutable will of God by accidents so divers and changeable: But it goes far otherwise with the inward sense of conscience; for the most righteous among men (setting their life and works before the clearness of Gods justice) do know well, and profess openly, that they find them­selves worthy of hatred: and so Mo­ses said, We are consumed by thee, we are troubled by thy wrath; thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance, Psal. 90.7, 8. For this the Psalmist cryes out, Enter not into judgement with thy ser­vant, for no flesh is righteous in thy sight. And Daniel avowing the verity and justice of Gods judgements, said, Dan. 9.7. Lord, with thee there is ju­stice, but shame and confusion of face unto us. So the Centurion said, [Page 125] Matth. 8.8. I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; and the Apostle St. Paul esteemed himself un­worthy to be an Apostle, 1 Cor. 23.9. But these men returning toward the compassions of God, and relying upon the merits of the Redeemer of the World, have not ceased to esteem themselves, in him, and for his sake, worthy of eternal life. And upon this assurance David saith, Psal. 16.11. Thou shalt make me to know the way of life. Daniel besought the Eternal, that according to all his righteousness, his anger and fury might be turn'd away from Jerusalem. Saint Paul assures himself, that the Crown of Justice is reserved for him, 2 Tim. 4.8. And in the Apocalypse 'tis said of those that have not defiled their garments in the corruptions of the world, that they shall walk with the Lamb in white cloath­ing: for they are WORTHY, Apoc. 3.4.

And this consideration furnishes an answer to another passage, which they alleadge to as little purpose, as they have maliciously falsified this, which we have now answered. This [Page 126] is the saying of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 4.4. I find my self guilty in nothing: but for this I am not justified: A pas­sage that cuts their throats; For without doubt, they dare not say that St. Paul was not assured of his salva­tion; since to some other passages we have already produced, that had no other subterfuge, but that he was assured of it by particular revelation. What is it then the Apostle would say, but that this inward conscience (whereof his conscience bears him witness) is not sufficient to justifie him before God? And of this he does not speak doubting, but as in the Epistle to the Galatians he had said, Gal. 3.10. That all they that are of the Law, are under malediction; and all they that seek to be justified by the Law, are fallen from grace, Gal. 5.4. Thus he pronounces openly, and without any sort of uncertainty, that by this he is not justified. And yet it must be observed, that this in­terior sentiment of his innocency, is not extended over all the actions of his life; for by that which followes, may easily be comprehended, that [Page 127] he speaks only of the execution of his charge, wherein being conducted by the Spirit of God, he knows he hath gone right: As he said in an­other place, 2 Cor. 1.12. This is now the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity, and not in carnal wisdome, but according to the grace of God, we have convers'd with the world, and chiefly toward you. Now he that in some one of the actions and occupations of his life, finds himself innocent, will yet not stick to acknowledge himself, in conside­ration of other things, culpable. And thus we see that David some­times speaking of some action and particular cause wherein he im­plores the justice of God against his enemies, does yet glorifie himself in his integrity to God, Psal. 18. to have kept the wayes of the Lord, and not wickedly to have departed: but els­where he confesses his faults; and in the 19 Psal. he prayes the Lord, saying, Keep back thy servant from pre­sumptuous sins; let them not have domi­nion over me: then shall I be upright, and innocent from the great transgression. [Page 128] And the Apostle himself, who in the exercise of his Apostleship finds himself exempt of fault, yet forgets not to sigh and demand deliverance from this law of his members, which makes him carnal, and sold under sin, Rom. 7.24. And this excellent Or­gan of the Spirit of God knew very well, that to obtain justification by works, it was necessary that works should be perfect, and innocency and sanctification should be entire, as well in their parts, as their de­grees; because that he that fails in one point of the Law, makes himself guilty of the transgression of all; and that no single action, though perfect in it self, can make a perfection of ju­stice: whereas one sin alone is able to slay the soul, to ternish the lustre, and corrupt the value of all prece­dent justices; and therefore he aban­dons this feeble prop, whereon who­soever thinks to rely, remains al­waies in uncertainty: And therefore not to testifie any incertitude of his salvation, but to affirm the assu­rance of it upon a foundation inva­riable, he reputes all things, even [Page 129] his own innocency, as dung; that he may gain Christ, and be found in him, ha­ving not his own justice, which is of the Law; but the justice of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ.

This is then to beat the air, and fight with his own shadow, to go about to shew the weakness and in­firmity of man, to sound the depth of the malice of his heart, and to open the dark corners and retraicts of his hypocrisie: we confesse more then they can accuse us of; being only sorry that it is out of an envy to do ill, in troubling the consciences, and not the love of the truth, which pulls this confession from our mouth, that no man living can say, My heart is clean, and I am pure from sin: and yet at other times, they contest with this confession, when they fall upon the strength of their free will, and to establish their works of supereroga­tion: Yes, it is true, that there is no just man on earth that doth well, and sins not, Eccl. 7.21. In many things we offend all, James 3.2. If we say we have no sin, we are lyars, 1 Joh. All the most holy among men have con­fest [Page 130] their sins before God, Job 15.15. and why not? since the Heavens them­selves are not pure before him; He put no trust in his servants, and his Angels he charged with folly, Job 4.18. But so little doth this confession shake the assurance of the faith, that contrary­wise it settles it so much the more, because hereby a man is led to go forth of himself, to go and put his whole affiance in the only mercy of God; and to withdraw all his hopes from the merit of his own works, to rely entirely upon the infinite merits of him, who of God is made unto us, wis­dome and righteousness, and sanctifica­tion and redemption, 1 Cor. 1.30. Of our selves we have not so much as a good thought, but all our sufficiency com­eth from God; but yet able to do all things in him that strengthens us, Phi­lip. 4.13. we are combated by him, but we are in all things more then Con­querors through him that loved us, Rom. 8.36. And very well said St. Ber­nard in the fifth Homily of the dedi­cation of the Temple, entring into consideration of the soul: I seem to have found two things contrary to each [Page 131] other; for if I behold it such as it is in it self, and of it self, I cannot speak bet­ter then in saying that it is reduced to no­thing: for what need is it for me to re­count all her miseries, how it is charged with sins, envelopt in darkness, envi­ron'd with temptations, boyling with lusts, subject to passions, fill'd with illusions, inclined to vice, full of shame and confu­sions? If all the righteousness of man be before God nothing but pollution, what shall be his unrighteousness? If there be nothing but darkness in his light, how obscure then shall be the darkness it self? What shall I then say? For certain man is nothing but vanity, he is reduc'd to nothing, man is nothing: But how is he thus nothing, whom God so magnifies? How is he nothing, since Godsets his heart upon him? Let us have courage: although we be nothing in our hearts, yet we shall find in Gods heart something hidden of us. O Father of mercies! O Father of mise­rable! how is it that thou setst thy heart upon us? for thy treasure is where is thy heart: and how are we thy treasure, if we be nothing? Certainly in the judgment of thy verity we are nothing, but not so in the affection of thy piety and goodness.

But why, say they, if we have ab­solute assurance of our Salvation, are there so many advertisements given us in holy Scripture, to take heed to our selves; to watch, to pray, and that he that stands take heed he do not fall? and if these be truly profitable, as it is to be presum'd; then this is a te­stimony that a man may fall; and consequently, that he cannot stand firm in his assurance.

To this we answer: That the ex­hortations and threatnings in Scri­pture, which are commonly made, ought to be applied according to the quality and necessity of every one: The visible Church, to which the Word of God is announced, is com­posed of divers sorts of people; some have need of a bridle, others of a spur; some to be held back by threat­nings from their abandoned vices; others to be waken'd from a natural lethargy by lively exhortations: to some, consolation; to others, corre­ction is necessary. There are that abuse themselves, who under pre­text of exterior piety, wherein they seem very zealous, thinking them­selves [Page 133] to be high-flown upon the wings of a holy devotion, while avarice and luxury, and other vani­ties, have tyed them fast to earth, and drag them through the dirt: To these men, the saying of the Apo­stle addresses properly, 1 Cor. 10.12. that he that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall: and those that stand truly, ought not to slight this ad­vice, but rather to take it (not as a presage of their misfortune, but) as a testimony, that although of our selves we are subject to fall, yet ne­vertheless God would not have us fall, because he directs his word to us; who putting us in mind of our con­dition, conducts us more and more to seek the confirmation of his grace: And then to fall, is not to make a total loss of our salvation, but only a stumbling or a fall in a spiritual course; a thing that may happen to the most righteous; and yet not that they should fall from the hope of their salvation, because they are soon again restored by repentance; For if the just man fall, yet he can fall no farther, because the Lord holds [Page 134] him by the hand, Psal. 37.24. And so these exhortations tend only to make us distrust our selves, but not to ravish us of the confidence we ought to have in God: They fight with the carnal security of profane ones, but not with the faith of the children of God, to whom they ra­ther serve as means to advance them towards that glory which they wait for, rendring by a holy vigilance the hope of their vocation still more firm.

Yet they will say, There is no­thing so much recommended to us in Scripture, as fear: Work out your sal­vation with FEAR and trembling, Philip. 2.12. Happy is the man that FEARETH alwayes, Prov. 28.14. Be not high-minded, but FEAR, Rom. 11.20. Pass the time of your sojourning here in FEAR, 1 Pet. 1.17. Cer­tainly, if it were necessary to oppose to these passages that recommend fear, those that chase it from our hearts; for one, we might oppose thirty, there being nothing more common in all the course of Scri­pture, then these words, which are [Page 135] addrest to the faithful, Fear not: But the Word of God never belies it self, and therefore 'tis necessary, that there be a fear of two sorts; one, that is compatible with assurance, a good, a holy, a commendable fear; because it leads us to God: the other, that extinguishes it, and makes us flye from the face of God, as Adam did after his sin, Gen. 3.8. and this is that which the fear of God ought to chase and banish from every faithful soul: And therefore 'tis no wonder, if fear and assurance be met in one and the same subject, in di­vers respects. So when I consider the Law, with those thunders and light­nings, and threatnings and curses, my soul is ready to vanish for fear: but when I turn my self to the gra­cious promises of the Gospel, she fills her self with assurance: when I consider my own demerit, I enter into distrust; but under the merits of Christ, I re-assure my self again: I tremble over the pendant slippery paths of this life; but I comfort my self, when I see the hand of God that sustains me: And thus I serve [Page 136] the Lord in fear, and rejoyce before him in trembling, Psal. 2.11. This is that filial fear that makes Gods chil­dren prudent in their waies; not that spirit of fear, that torments the con­sciences of the wicked, Rom. 8.15. not that which proceeds from distrust of power, or despair of the good will of God; but which is born out of the knowledge of dangers that en­viron us, and from the sense of our own infirmity: not that which trem­bles for punishment, but that which is apprehensive for the sin: not that which flyes from the face of God; but that which hath recourse to his grace: And such a one, as if there were no punishment nor recompense, no Hell nor Paradise, would not o­mit her duty toward God, but would take heed to displease him: This goes equal steps with that assurance which is reckoned among the gifts that are shed upon the Son of God, Isai. 12.2. who was not able to en­ter into any distrust of the love of his Father.

But what relation to this reverence of true children to their father, hath [Page 137] this trouble, and uncertain trembling fear, which the Roman Doctors cast into mens consciences? Cer­tainly among so divers fluctuations, wherewith (as impetuous winds) our souls since sin are miserably agi­tated; there is none more strange, then this fear; nor among the judg­ments wherewith God threatens and punishes the wicked, there is none more terrible then this cry of fear, which he sends into their eares, Job 15.21. This trembling heart, this dimness of eyes, this distress of soul, which makes their life so doubtful before them, that at evening they say, Deut. 28.67. Who shall let us see the morning? and in the morn they demand, Who shall let us see the evening? Fear, like a terrible voice, wakens the soul by startings, and so seizes it, that it remains insensible to every thing, except that stroke of astonishment that beats it; and from that which is nothing, makes it feel a thousand dolorous passions: and whereas we feel not other evils, more then they are in us, and the cause remains there: yet fear calls back evils that [Page 138] are past: multiplying and engros­sing those that are present, and an­ticipating those that are not yet, and perhaps that shall never be; and so forges imaginary torments, where­with it makes miserable souls sensi­ble of a thousand real sorrows. The mortal enemy of all repose, it ra­vages in an instant whatsoever is either pleasant or delightful in life: and like a feaverish heat, it infects and imbitters the best prepared sweetnesses; bringing in a profound sadness into our hearts; which so gnawes and undermines them, as the rust doth steel, and makes us draw a life after us, more miserable then death: Inconsiderate passion! which continually represents to our eyes the image of the danger that attends us, and is thereby so trou­blesome, that we can neither see, nor foresee for remedies: neither more, nor less, then an abysse, where waters drawn out of the deep, whirl about with so much impetuosity, giving us afar off the warning of ship-wrack, and yet draws us in by such an astonishment, that we are [Page 139] plunged and swallowed up in the gulf that we would so fain escape.

Thus it awakes in our souls a ve­hement desire to avoid that mischief that treads upon our heeles; but it so troubles and astonishes all our sen­ses, that losing both our judgment and discourse, we precipitate our selves into the danger from which our fear seems to lend us wings; and then it happens to us, as at other times we dream, when prest by some enemies as we think, or by some hideous fantosm, we seek to flye away, but cannot, because our heavy bodies, or else our trasht feet, will not follow our desire: or if a light seeming swiftness answer our fear, and seem to skip over furlongs, yet which way so ever we turn in the trouble of this affright, though pant­ing for pain; this funeral-object meets us every where, giving us the chase, and leaving us nothing but complaint; in which we would fain cry out, but cannot, because the apprehension stops our voice, and tyes up our trembling and stamme­ring tongue to the roof of our [Page 140] mouths: So those that are seized with this passion, apprehend every thing, and fall foul upon all: They are afraid of their dreams; they are troubled at their fancies: They give themselves to be abused by lying spi­rits; they take all that they meet with for ill presages; and sometimes come to fall into such a confusion of spirit, that they throw themselves head-long into despair. Histories af­ford us but too many examples of those who being unable to deliver themselves from this passion, have yielded up themselves to death, find­ing more sweetness in death, then in the fear of dying. Whosoever beholds an affrighted man, may easi­ly read in the tracts of his visage, and in all the actions of his body, what the trouble and confusion is that agi­tates his soul: for, to observe his scattered eyes, his bleak face, his pale and shaking lips, his dry mouth, his furred tongue, his confused voice, his beating heart, his panting flanks, his knees knocking together, his stumbling feet, and all the movings of the body trembling and uncer­tain; [Page 141] what can be said, but that his body is so miserably agitated, that his soul must be in great disorder? And in this condition, it is as unca­pable to produce a good action, as to take good counsel; but from thence, as from an infernal jakes, do issue the most infamous vices and execrable actions that can be com­mitted by men. And as in an army after a terrour taken, the battalions break their rankes in disorder; all flye, all run, and nothing seen but blood and slaughter: so it is when fear possesses the soul; she troubles her self; all vertues abandon her, and the vices make a horrible wast and spoil. From hence sprung up su­perstition, and so many execrable sacrifices, the very report whereof breeds horrour. Cruelty claims her for her mother; perfidiousness, trea­son, and dissembling, owe her their original: She hath hatcht tyranny and ill counsels; and it is none but she, that breaking the sacred bonds of nature, is capable to animate fa­thers and mothers against their pro­per blood, and their own bowels. [Page 142] In a word, 'tis impossible to love the thing which we fear. Behold then this monster which these Doctors nourish in these poor souls, which God by so many promises of his love and assistance, chases and bani­shes from the hearts of his children: Fear not, little flock; for it is your fa­thers pleasure to give you a Kingdom, Luk. 12.32.

Nay but, say they, To day I am well assured, but who can continue me this assurance till to morrow and afterwards? He that perseveres to the end, shall be saved, Matth. 24.13. And what is there more changeable and inconstant then man? So many assaults that Satan gives us, so many dangers that beset us, so many infir­mities that are in us, so many exam­ples of Apostates that make ship­wrack of their faith; do they not give us cause enough to doubt? Yes verily, and to despair absolutely, if we look no farther then to our selves: But the power of God is perfected in our weakness, 2 Cor. 12.19. If we be weak, he is strong; if we be change­lings, he's immutable: I have loved [Page 143] thee with an everlasting love, and have therefore extended my loving kindness to thee, Jerem. 31.3. Those whom he hath loved, he hath loved to the end; and the gifts and calling of God are with­out repentance, Rom. 11.29. His foun­dation continues firm, 2 Tim. 2.19. He knows who are his, and none shall ravish them out of his hands: and it is impossibile that his elect should be seduced, Matth. 24.24. but those whom he hath foreknown, he hath prede­stinated, called, justified, and glorified, Rom. 8.29. This chain of his love is altogether inviolable; and therefore rest thy self upon his favourable power, and upon his unchangeable goodness, saying with David, Psal. 138. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O Lord, en­dureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. This assurance is the true humility which beats down the pride of man, that he may glorifie God: pride and presumption are to be feared when we go about to rely [Page 144] upon our selves, when we sacrifice to our own nets, and exalt the me­rit of our vertues: but let not that man fear to glorifie himself, that seeks his glory in the shame of the cross of Christ; that strips himself of all other ornaments, to put on Christ; that celebrates not his own justice, but the compassions of God: I do not glorifie my self because I am just, said St. Ambrose, but because I am redeem­ed: I will not glorifie my self at all, be­cause I am without sin, but because I have obtained pardon of my sins: I will not glorifie my self that I have profited any, but because Christ is Advocate for me towards the Father, 1 Joh. 1.2. that he hath shed his blood for my sake, and for me hath tasted of death; this is not arrogance, but faith. To preach and to publish that which thou hast received, is not pride, but devotion, said St. Augustine.

And for conclusion, it is least to be feared that this doctrine should make men negligent, or be as a pillow un­der their elbowes, to make their souls sleepy in the neglect of the means of salvation. St. Paul draws a quite contrary consequence, when he saith, [Page 145] Philip. 2.12, 13. Work out your salva­tion with fear and trembling; and adds this for a reason; for it is God that works in you both the will and the per­formance, according to his good pleasure. Will you say then, that this belief makes men sleepy, and choakes in their consciences, both the duties of prayer, and the exercises of charity? contrarywise, there is not a sharper spur to this acknowledgment, then the knowledge of the Love of God, and the assurance of his grace. Who hath ever seen fear produce a good action? And what is there in the world that is either fair or generous, which is not to be attributed to hope? It were a devilish malice, to be wick­ed because God is good; to turn the back upon him, when he turns his face upon us; to flye him, because he seek us; to change affection to­ward him, because his love is for ever unchangeable toward us; and because he will give a kingdom in heaven for us, to cast our selves into the way that leads to infernal pains. The children of God go another way; and from the faith and assu­rance, [Page 146] which they have of the love of their father, they enflame their loves the more to him, and feel themselves the more obliged to his obedience. They fear to offend so good a Father; and being purchased by so excellent a price, they conse­crate their bodies and spirits to his glory. And as the sick man to whom Physitians have given assurance of re­covery, keeps himself from things that are contrary to his health, and takes more willingly the remedies that are ordained him; whereas he that despaires of his health abandons himself to his appetite: So the faith­ful man knowing that God will im­part to him of his glory, goes by the way of sanctity and good works, that he may attain to the other; and having so many fair promises, cleanses himself from all pollution of flesh and spirit, finishing the sanctifi­cation in the fear of God, 2 Cor. 7.1. So Daniel knew, that when the 70 years of the captivity were at an end, God should deliver his people, and therefore about that time, he put himself upon prayer and fasting, [Page 147] Dan. 9.2, 3. So St. Paul, Act. 23.24, 31. had a promise for all those that were with him in the ship, that none should be lost; but yet when he saw the Mariners ready to withdraw themselves, he did not spare to tell them, that if they did not tarry with us, we could not be saved. The Pagans themselves never entred into com­bats with more courage, then when they had their birds, or the entrails favourable: they never engaged in­to a business with so much vigor, as when they were assured of success by the answers of Oracles. We are called by the vocation of God, to the possession of the heavenly Canaan: He promises us for the getting it, his conduct, favour, and assistance; so that with Job we may very well say, I shall see God. And what then re­mains, but that casting down every burden, and the sin that so easily enlaces us, we may pursue with constancy the course set before us: and traversing all dangers, and going under hope against hope, we may have our eyes upon Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith; that so we may more and [Page 148] more in his love, revive the strength of ours; and recollect in him every day new vigor, until the time that from vertue to vertue, we may ap­pear before his Sacred face, where receiving the Crown and heap of his blessings, we may glorifie him for ever; as to him appertains ho­nour and glory from this time forth, and from generation to generation. Amen.

IT is impossible to please God without faith, Heb. 11.6.SERM. VI. for 'tis neces­sary that he that comes to God, be­lieve not only that he is, but that he is a rewarder of those that seek him. To God that dwells in the Heavens, we go by faith, not by view. All the view that conducts us to eternal sal­vation, is faith. And therefore as in vain the Sun sends forth his light, in vain does it enlighten so many tor­ches in the Heavens, and discovers upon Earth so rich an embroidery of leaves and flowers, for those that are without eyes: So as unprofitable [Page 150] are the marveiles which the wisdom of God hath display'd in all this uni­verse, and the divine mysteries which it hath discovered in the clear­ness of his holy word, for those that are without faith. God complaines Esai. 65. that in vain he hath stretcht out his hands to a rebellious and contra­dicting people: and St. Paul, Heb. 4.2. gives a reason why the word of preaching hath not profited the peo­ple of the Jewes: and it is, because it was not mingled with faith in those that heard it. Who hath believed our preach­ing, and to whom hath the arm of the E­ternal been revealed? Isai. 53.1. Light is the first and most excellent work of God, in the elementary world; the eye is the most admirable beauty of all the humane body: it is the joy of our life, the address of our actions, and the cleerest window of the soul: the eye and light of our soul is faith, without which it re­maines in darkness, ignorant of the way of God, confused in all her acti­ons, and plunged in mourning and despair: and therefore it is also the chief gift of heavenly grace, the first [Page 151] tract of the Image of God that is markt in our hearts, the first action of our spiritual life, and the founda­tion and origine of all other vertues. By this light Job acknowledges and discovers the eternal benefits which recompense his temporal losses; he finds spiritual sweetness, which tem­pers the bitterness of his corporal do­lours; he sees and embraces the per­durable felicity of the second life, which reinforces his soul against the apprehensions of death.

For this cause we have so long in­sisted to describe and represent to you the nature of this faith, by wind­ing it out of ignorance, from the confusion and uncertainty wherein they seek to fold it up, that with­draw souls from the true spring of life, and divert it to the crackt ci­sterns of superstition; to engrave the lively tracts of it as deep in your souls, as Job desired to have them imprinted in the hard rock, that so the deduction which we shall make you, after him, of the mysteries of your redemption, may not be un­fruitful to you, but that being guided [Page 152] by this divine and heavenly torch, you may there find that assurance, firmity and consolation, that Joy ine­narrable and glorious, which is neces­sary for you in the midst of so many evils and combats as the enemies of the truth of God do deliver and pre­pare for his Church.

Before we come to a more parti­cular consideration of the Redeemer, and of this life, resurrection and glory, which he hath purchased for us by the price of his redemption; we must upon these words make some general remark, which may be proper to confirm us as much in the verity of our faith, as they will make us see that it is venerable for antiquity, and alwaies veritable and constant in her unity. We see the dolours of Job encrease against all other remedies, drawn either from hope of temporal things, or from any rules of the law; and to ac­quiesce in one onely Jesus Christ, seeking in the only benefit of his re­demption, his repose and hope; where he teaches us clearly, that the principal and special object of faith [Page 153] hath at all times been the promise of the grace and salvation which was to be purchased by this Mediator be­twixt God and men: which holding and embracing, she finds (and not till then) her repose and tranquilli­ty. The whole Word of God is truly the proportioned object to th'extent of our faith; and according to the intelligence and approbation of the understanding, she embraces it wholly, and can go no further: and in every thing, and every where, she reputes God to be true, whether he command or forbid; whether he promise or threaten; whether he in­struct or correct: she leads all her thoughts captive under obedience; she receives all his commands with humility; she keeps her self to his prohibitions with fear; she embra­ces his promises with affection: she fears his threatnings, she hearkens to his instructions, and profits by his corrections; for if faith doubt and go reeling in uncertainty of any one point of whatsoever is manifested in the Word of God, there will after­wards need no great violence to [Page 154] shake it in all other things, and to throw it head-long into infidelity: And therefore when we give for the principal object of faith, the promise of salvation and grace, we will not subtract it to other parts of the word, as leaving it indifferent, and every one to liberty of believing or mis-believing at his fancy; but con­trariwise, knowing that all hath been brought to us not by the will of man, but by the inspiration of the eternal spirit, which hath guided the tongues and pens of those that have announced and left written this holy word; we maintain that the verity of it must be wholly and in every part both heard and received, with the like reverence. But we say more­over, that as the waters of the Sea are for divers ends spread abroad, and go creeping through an infinity of chanels, over and under the face of the earth, yet in such sort, that at last they return all into the bosom of the Ocean from whence they had their birth: so we say, that in the book of Scripture, divers matters, histories, examples, judgements, [Page 155] threatnings, laws, instructions and exhortations, which like little ri­vers rejoyce the City of our God, and serve to divers uses in the Church: But after all, Jesus Christ is the mark whereat all aim, the Centre whither all return, and guide our faith in him to find and obtain rest: So Moses and the Prophets give their te­stimony, Luk. 24.27. and the end of the Law is Jesus Christ, Rom. 10.4. and to this intent speaks St. Paul, 1 Cor. 2.2. that he will know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified; be­cause that is the summary and prin­cipal end of all the knowledge of the Scriptures; which faith not onely beholds as a thing to be consented to; but embraces it, as the only sub­ject where to find salvation and life. Certainly, faith believes the creation of the world, the genealogy of the fathers, the confusion of tongues in Babel, the captivity of Israel in E­gypt, the exploits of the Judges and Kings given to the people of God for Liberators: and from all these things there may be gathered divers instru­ctions for this life: but to find in this [Page 156] recital the means of our reconciliati­on with God, of the remission of sins, and the eternal glory, it is not possible, because it is not in any of these properly. Where the Eternal offers and presents the gifts of his heavenly grace, that is, a Word of God which he pronounced to Adam with his own mouth, after he had transgrest the commandment; Thou shalt dye the death; in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread, Gen. 3.19. These things were conforma­ble to the Law and Word of God: all these fearful menaces which the friends of Job with so much prepara­tive denounced to the hypocrites and wicked: but these are so far from be­getting or keeping up faith, (which as 'tis requisite, should be accompa­nied with peace and consolation) that contrariwise they put the con­science into trouble, they fill the sinful soul with fear; and in stead of giving us access to God, go chasing and banishing us behind his face; as we read of the people of Israel, who not able to abide the thundring voice of the Eternal, (giving his [Page 157] Law upon the mountain) stood afar off, and said to Moses, Exod. 20.19. Speak thou with us, and we will hear thee; but let not God speak with us, for fear we dye. This very part of the word that commands obedience, and prescribes a rule for works, propo­sing blessing and life to those that ac­complish it; Do this, and thou shalt live, Luk. 10.28. Whosoever doth these things, shall live by them, Levit. 18.5. is not that where our faith rests; because as it promises life to the observers, so it denounces male­diction against all those that do not abide in all the words of the Law to fulfil them: And thus our conscience, guilty of many transgressions, cannot find nor affirm her assurance, nor seek for remission of sins, where there is nothing presented but wrath and judgment: And therefore the Apo­stle in the Epistle to the Romans, and in that which he writes to the Gala­tians, retires our faith from the Law, and tells us openly, that the Law is not of faith, Gal. 3.12. that all they that are of the works of the Law, are under the curse, Gal. 3.10, 11. [Page 158] that the Law was not given to quic­ken, but contrary, that it is the mini­ster of death and of condemnation; none being able to be justified before God, by the works of the Law; declaring with David, those to be blessed to whom God imputes justice without works, Psal. 32.1, 2. Nevertheless it ceases not to serve faith, because by it comes the knowledge of sin; and that it serves as a School-master to lead us to Christ, Rom. 3.23. in whom we are freely justified by the grace of him, by the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath proposed a mediator by faith in his blood; by whom the remission of sin is announced, to the end, that in whatsoever we could not be justified by the Law, whosoever believes might be justified by him, Act. 13.39. For to him all the Prophets give testimony, that whosoever shall believe in him, shall have remission of sins by his name, Act. 10.43. Hither it is properly that our faith is invited: Whosoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink, Joh. 7.37. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy loden, and I will refresh you, Matth. 11.28. So that this Gospel of [Page 159] peace, this word of reconciliation, mi­nistry of spirit, and of life, power of God unto salvation to all that believe, Rom. 1.16. Which opens to us the Abysses of compassions, of love, grace, and the good pleasure of God, which deduces to us the coming, the incarnation, the suffrances, the ju­stice, and the death of the Redeemer of the world, and which represents to us the Holy Spirit, applying and sealing by the preaching of the Go­spel and the Sacraments, these divine and heavenly benefits in our souls, and rendring us assured of our recon­ciliation with God, of the abolition of our offences, of the imputation of the justice of Christ, and of the gift of heavenly life. The Gospel is the word of life, saith St. Paul, Rom. 10.8. It looks at the whole word of God, but it embraces only his good will: It approves all his truth, but it runs only after his gratuity; and then 'tis best pleased, and content, when both are met in Christ, in whom gratuity and verity are met, justice and peace have kissed each other, Psal. 85.11. by whom the gratuity of [Page 160] God is multiplied upon us, and his truth endures for ever, Psal. 117.2. We do not then reject any part of the word, nor we do not tear the faith in pieces; but in this general object, we observe what is most proper, and most particularly belongs to it, by reason of the differing parts of it. Be then the Word of God a Paradise to the faithful soul; but so, as among so many fruits of different tast and ver­tue, she may find one tree of life that may fully satisfie the hunger of justice, that she so seeks for: let the Scripture be her Orchard; but yet let there be one apple-tree whose shadow she desires sitting down un­der it, and the fruit sweet to her pa­late: let the truth of God be her garden of aromatique drugs; but let there be one Rose of Sharon, whose sweet smell may recover her fainting heart, and which she may put in her bosome, no otherwise then a bundle of myrrhe, Cant. 1.13. He knows well enough that his Redeem­er is living.

But if the Gospel be the particular object of faith, from whence shall [Page 161] we say that Job learned this science, and from whence he could draw the foundations of an assurance so firm, since this was not but many ages af­ter his death, that the Gospel was publisht to the world, or that the Saviour of the world was come to accomplish the work of our redem­ption? The Law and the Prophets endu­red till John; but since his time, the Kingdom of God is Evangelized; Luk. 16.16. Many Kings and Prophets have desired to see the things which were seen, when Jesus Christ converst in the world, and they have not seen them, Luk. 10.24. And therefore Jesus Christ prefers the least that were un­der the Gospel, before the greatest that were under the Law: St. John pointed at him with his hand, and shewed him to the World, to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins; for which cause he was raised above the Pro­phets; and because he had not seen nor shew'd the glory and vertue which followed his death and his re­surrection, he was therefore set be­low the Apostles: And St. Paul saith, that the grace which hath been given us [Page 162] in Jesus Christ, from eternal times, is now manifested by the apparition of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath destroyed death, and put into light both life and immortality by the Gospel: It seems then that this mystery of our redemption hath been hidden from precedent ages, and that the ancient Fathers have had nothing but shadows and figures of things that were to come. And yet Jesus Christ himself gives this testimony to Abraham, that he desired to see this day of his, and hath seen it, and rejoyced, Joh. 8.56. and St. Peter, 1 Pet. 1.10. that the Prophets have enquired and made diligent search, concerning the salvation of souls, the re­ward of faith; and by the Prophe­tick spirit in them, have declared the sufferances which were to come to Jesus Christ, and the joyes which were to follow them: And for this reason it is, that the Son of God sayes, He had the testimony of Moses and the Prophets, and that the Scri­ptures of the old Testament bare wit­ness of him, Joh. 5.39.

To know then how that must be understood, to resolve us in this ap­pearance [Page 163] of contrariety, and to be­gin our undermining at the founda­tion of Papistical errors, touching the state of the souls of the Fathers deceased before the coming of Christ; let us learn then from this confession of faith, so fair, so firm, so clear as it can be in the noon day of the Gospel, that we have no other faith, nor other means of salvation, then what the ancient Patriarchs had before us; and that the ancient Covenant contracted with them, in the substance and truth, is the same thing with the new one contracted with us, that are fallen into these later times: all the difference which is in them, consisting only in the order and the means of the dispensa­tion; which according to the diver­sity of times, hath made it assume divers visages: for as the Apostle, Heb. 1.1, 2. God hath heretofore many times, and after many sorts, spoken to the fathers by the Prophets; and in these later times by his Son Jesus Christ. Where he seems to distinguish the times by the coming of the Son of God, betwixt the preceding ages, and those that [Page 164] were to come after. The first part hath had divers seasons and divers manners, according to which this dispensation hath been ordered: The first season is counted from the fall of Adam unto Abraham, during which we had no declaration more express of this eternal alliance of God with men, then that which is con­tained in few words, but of an high and full signification: The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Ser­pent, Gen. 3.15. upon which pro­mise, confirmed, declared and enter­tained by the usage of sacrifices, and carried from hand to hand, and from father to son, during all the first age of the world, this faith was sustain­ed, and the hope of the faithful founded. In the second season, from Abraham to Moses, during which Job lived (a true Son of Abraham, both according to the flesh and to the promise) this general promise was (as it were) restrained in the fa­mily and posterity of this Holy Pa­triarch; when God made this alli­ance with him, that he would be their God, and they his children; and disco­covered [Page 165] to him, that from him should go forth the Redeemer of the World, when he said, that in his seed all the Nations of the World should be blessed, Genes. 12. giving him beside the sacrifices, the particular seal of the circumcision, as a sign of the ju­stice of faith, Rom. 4.11. The third was from Moses to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; where, in a more especial and ample manner, God was pleased to instruct his people, expo­sing and confirming his Covenant unto them, after divers fashions; in which are remarkable two principal parts, having reference each to other, and ordained one for the love of the other: Like the two Cheru­bims, who being placed one right against the other, and extending their wings one toward the other, did both of them look toward the propitiatory, Exod. 25.20. the one was the Law, promising life and everlasting benediction, under the condition of a most perfect observa­tion of his commands: A condition impossible to corrupted nature, whose imaginations were nothing but evil at all [Page 166] times: and yet very necessary and useful, to make men know the duty wherein they were obliged, to make them sensible of weakness, and to make them comprehend the horrour of that condemnation into which their transgressions had precipitated them; by that means to conduct them to the second part of the Cove­nant, which was all of it purely Evangelical; as that which under di­vers figures and ceremonies did re­present mans reconciliation to God, and his plenary deliverance by the ransom of that infinite merit of the sacrifice of the death and passion of Christ. After this, in the fulness of time, came the great Redeemer of our soules, who abolished the first means, that he might establish the second; abolish'd (I say) not wholly, but in part; not in the substance, but in the accidents: For as for the first part, he exacts no more as it were by force of maledictions that perfect obedience of the Law; but supplying the defects of na­ture by the abundant effusion of his spirit of grace, he draws from [Page 167] sanctified hearts a voluntary obe­dience: And in the second, he hath caused the body to succeed the sha­dows, the truth the figures, the thing the signes; all these things ha­ving been fulfilled in the death of Christ.

And from hence may we easily comprehend the difference that there is betwixt the new Covenant and the old; between the faith of the Fathers that lived under the Law, and theirs that live under the Gospel. For it is the same thing in substance; Having God for the Author, his grace and mercy for the cause, and the satisfaction of Christ for the me­ritorious foundation; The same things promised, grace and glory: God is to us both, a Sun and a Shield; he gives both grace and glory; and with­holds no good thing from such as wait up­on him: Distributed in general by the same means, and the preaching of the word; Hearken, and your soules shall live, Isai. 55.3. the admini­stration of the Sacraments: He that shall not be circumcized, shall be cut off, Gen. 17.14. and the inward work­ing [Page 168] of the spirit of God, Isai. 59.21. My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put into thy mouth, shall not depart from thy mouth, nor from the mouth of thy seed, nor from the mouth of thy seeds seed, from henceforth and for ever: Aiming at the same end, to wit, salvation and life eternal. But as to the accidents, and in the man­ner of dispensation, there is no small difference. For in the Gospel, the manifestation of doctrine is more clear, express, and efficacious; as much more clear, as accomplish­ments are before prophesies; and things present, then things which are as yet hid in the length of ages to come: and so much the more clear, in that at this day of exterior mani­festation, hath been added a greater abundance of the Spirits interior light, according as it was prophesi­ed, Joel 2.28. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: so that whereas they of old saw Jesus Christ but under sha­dows [Page 169] and images of what was to come; we hold him as come already, and look upon him as crucified be­fore our eyes. To this may be added, their Covenant was contracted by the mediation of Moses; ours, by that of Christ: The old Covenant was confined to one corner of the world, and tyed to one family; the new one hath reach'd to the ends of the earth, and hath embraced the Nations: The old one lasted but for a time, whereas the new one shall not termi­nate but by the end of ages.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, Heb. 13.8. This is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, Revel. 13.8. 'Tis he that is a light to the nations, and the salvation of God unto the ends of the earth: in waiting for him, those of old found their consolation, as we have ours in seeing him: and the odor of his sacrifice expanding it self as well over the fore-going as following ages, hath restored those souls who before or since have put their whole trust in him: Wherefore although wee see those of old in rudiments [Page 170] which are seemingly gross, let us not the lesse value their faith, who for having the less of clarity, have not the less of certainty. Certainly, prophesie was like a candle giving light in an obscure place; the Law like the dawning of the day, or the Star of the morning; and the Gospel like the clear noon: But all these lights, though differing in clarity, have been enough to make us see and follow the wayes of salvation, 2 Pet. 1.19. And though it seem to us, that we see no more promised to the people of Israel, and their Patri­archs, then a Canaan flowing with milk and hony, and with a thousand sweets of temporal blessings; yet let us not think that they stopt there, or that they did not with Job raise their souls, and carry up their desires to things spiritual, to that inward peace, and never-decaying glory, which was represented to them un­der those shadows of an earthly hap­piness. For in whatsoever was here­tofore offered and presented to them, they still cast their eyes on Jesus Christ the promised Messias, in [Page 171] whom all Gods promises are yea and amen, 2 Corinth. 1.20. The consideration of whom, would by no means suffer them to dwell upon the transitory sweetnesses of this world; his King­dom being represented to them by Prophesies, not as a carnal or world­ly one, but as one altogether celestial and spiritual. The Scepter (said Jacob to his sons) shall not be taken from Ju­dah, nor the Law-giver from betwixt his feet, till Silo come, Gen. 40. That is to say, The seed of the woman, the man to be born without a Father; and to him the people shall assemble themselves: He was to come forth of Judah, but at the time that he was to come, Judah must lose the Sce­pter; not then to rule or signorize in Judah: for if he were to raise Judah above the Nations, he should not then be the hope of his people, since his coming was to vanquish and sub­jugate them: but to him all Nati­ons were to run, and to offer him vo­luntary obedience, because under his yoke they should come to seek their liberty; because he shall raigne over their souls, and conduct them [Page 172] with a rod of comfort, delivering them from the bonds of sin, and the tyranny of Satan, whose head he shall bruise, and take away his Empire. So likewise when the Pro­phets speak of the deliverance of Ba­bylon, of the peoples return into the land of promise, and the re-esta­blishment of the Temple; presently you see them transported with a con­sideration of the Kingdom of this great Messias, of the deliverance of the souls of the true temple, which is the Church: As if they would teach the people, that the possession of Ca­naan, and all the contentment depen­ding thereon, were but shadows not to be trusted to; their felicity not consisting, to live, to govern, and reigne here below, but to serve God, to be govern'd by him, as that by the Scepter of his word, and effi­cacy of his spirit, he might reign in us, and be fully obeyed: So saith Esai, that the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel, Isai. 42.3, 4. But with what glory? It [Page 173] is (and he adds) that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusa­lem, shall be called holy; and those that shall be in Jerusalem shall all be written to life, when the Lord shall have washt a­way the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning: and in the 11 Chapter he shews, that the gifts he hath received from above, to communicate to the world, are all spiritual, when he saith, Isai. 11.2. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and un­derstanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord: He saith moreover, that he will bring his people from the North and from the South, and that the earth shall be too narrow to contain them; that Kings and Queens shall be their nursing fathers and nursing mothers: But this is not to promise a temporal Kingdom, but to represent an arri­val of all Nations to his Church; and of their Kings themselves, under whose protection she should abun­dantly prosper. And here you may [Page 174] see the difference, which is betwixt the advancements which the Eter­nal promises to Kings, and he en­trance which he prepares for his Son into the world. Behold how he speaks to Cyrus, Isai. 45.12, 3. I have taken thee by thy right band, that thou might'st make the Nations thy sub­jects; and that I might weaken the reins of their Kings: I will break the gates of brass, and bruise the bolts of iron, and give thee the hidden treasures. But when he speaks of the Messias, We have seen him grow up as a tender plant; and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him: He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs, and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteem­ed him not. And after, he shewes why he was come into this sad and abject form, because he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows: he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, Isai. 53.4, 5. The price which hath purchased our peace, was put upon him; and by his mur­therings, [Page 175] we were healed: As Daniel more openly declares, that he should come to put an end to disloyalty, to purge iniquity, Dan. 9.24. and to bring justice into the world. This is that which was so clearly represented to them by the ceremony of the sacrifices, where such things were offered that could not have an entire and proper vertue for the washing of the soul, but did onely look after, and search their perfection in the full and entire sa­tisfaction which Jesus Christ hath rendered to the justice of God his Father, by the sacrifice of the Cross. And thus the faithful instructed by all these means, have ever testified that the attendance of their souls hath carried it self higher then the outside of signes, and of the tran­sient benefit of these temporal pro­mises: For Job declares it not only here in formal termes, but likewise, as the Apostle shewes, in the Epistle to the Hebr. Chap. 11.9, 10. The Patriarchs have dwelt as strangers in the Land of Promise, as if it had not belonged to them; dwelling under Tents, and possessing nothing there [Page 176] but their sepulchres: to let us see, that it was not properly that earth, which being dead they could not en­joy, that was given for a reward of their faith; but that they looked for a City which had a foundation, whereof God himself was the Architect and buil­der: even that God that had alwaies been their buckler, and was also for ever, and after death it self their abundant reward: A reward which Jacob waited for during all the course of his life; and touching it as with his finger at the point of death, He cried out; Lord, I have waited for thy salvation, Gen. 49.18. A reward for which the Prophet David rejoy­ced, Psal. 17.15. I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness: which goes beyond this life, as himself testifies, when he assures that the death of the children of God is precious in his sight, Psal. 116.15. and hath made this holy and heavenly light so resplen­dent and sparkling, that even Bala­am, though a wicked Prophet, stran­ger to the Covenant, and enemy of Gods people, seeing afar off this [Page 177] Star of Jacob, and this King that should render him blessed, cryes out, Numb. 23.10. Let me dye the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his: which without doubt he could never have desired, if he had not had hope of good after death; and if death, as a Pagan saith, had made an end of all things, and of it self too.

The faith then that we profess, & the profession of the hope where­to we stick, is no new thing: It is the faith of the fathers, which be­holds with knowledge, and receives with assurance, the grace that is gi­ven to the merit of the Lord Jesus, and the eternal benefits of the glory which is to come. Let the Papists no more alleadge the Fathers to us: Job and the Patriarchs are more ancient then all the Fathers that they can al­leadge: let them no more produce their enfumed titles, nor the walls of their Churches, which time hath covered with Ivy and Moss; these are but feeble arguments to combat with a faith which hath been from the beginning, and from the first [Page 178] ages, alwaies the same, until this present: we care not if our walls be new, so that our doctrine be ancient: little doth it concern us what the school-men ergat in their schools; the very Horse-coursers of heavenly truth, which they have pulled out of her throne, to make her a slave to temporal commodities, and accom­modate her to the profit of a disho­nest gain; only to this end, that we may appear merchants upon the steps of these ancient Patriarchs, who have had testimony to have pleased God; and who following the faith of Job, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we may also have place with them in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Only, my brethren, let us have a care of this, that the faith of the An­cients, which amidst the shadows of the Law, and the dusky obscurities of these gross rudiments, hath been so lively, so firm, and so constant, pro­nounce not a condemnation against our infidelity; of us (I say) on whom the later times are fallen, to whom the saving grace hath clearly appear­ed, to whom (the veil being taken [Page 179] off) without shadow or aenigma, the mystery of the redemption is in ex­press terms represented; the won­ders of the resurrection manifested; and the unspeakable joy of the glory to come discovered: Those that saw these things but obscurely, and afar off, have been nevertheless, so far toucht and ravisht with so much force, by the excellency of them, that they have contemned their country, their pleasures, the world, and their own lives, to follow them: And we in the midst of the light of so great a knowledge, to keep our selves to the least of these perishable goods, are but too ready to forsake those excel­lencies: And where are those at this day, in this clear light of the Gospel, that like Abraham, would suffer to see themselves exiled from their dear Country, or severed from their friends and their parentage, and go they know not whither, to follow the vocation of God? Heb. 11.8. Where are they that like Moses re­ject the greatness of the world? re­fuse to be called the son of the daughter of Pharaoh, chusing rather to be afflicted [Page 180] with the people of God, then for a time to enjoy the delights of sin; esteeming the op­probry of Christ greater riches then the treasures that were in Egypt? Or those who with David love rather to have one favourable regard from the face of God, then the favour of Kings, and the abundance of the goods of this world, and to be a simple por­ter in the House of God, then to dwell with honour in the taberna­cles of the wicked? Or else those who with Job, after the loss of their goods, the desolation of their fami­lies, and in the very arms of death, are ready to glorifie God, and esteem themselves blest to possesse his grace, and wait for the certain­ty of his glory? Where shall we seek them in this perverse age, where there are many that are more ready to sell their Country, their Brethren, and Parents, for a little silver, then to forsake them for the glory of God? Where this rage of getting goods, this infernal fury of avarice, so pos­sesses the greatest part of men, that are so far from quitting their riches to follow Christ, that contrarily [Page 181] they do not stick to truck with Jesus Christ for riches; and do willingly leave the certain hope of the glory of heaven, for the uncertain promise of some honour, or some command in the world, though but for three dayes; and where at last, in stead of the joy which the children of God resent in their tribulations, and the actions of thanks which they render to God in the midst of his correcti­ons, we see painted upon the faces of the most modest, a consternation and a sadness, which witnesses that we regard his fatherly rods with a wick­ed eye, and that these light afflictions do send us to deaths door, notwith­standing the Weight of Justice, which they carry, nor the glory that fol­lowes them, can any waies awaken nor cheer up our hearts: And what is this, but that faith goes by little and little failing and falling to the ground? that we have no more but an appearance of piety, and a shew of godliness, but have renounced the force of it: we believe not in the promises of God, and Atheisme is but too far insinuated into the great­est [Page 182] part of souls that are slaves to the perishable Mammon, that love your pleasures more then God; unwor­thy to have an immortal spirit, that set your affections upon things that have not so much honour as to be mortal. Of all that which you sow to the flesh, what do you reap, but corruption? What can you hope for after the contempt of the heaven­ly gift, whereof you have tasted? Of this power of the world to come, which you have known; of this spirit of grace, which you have grieved; of this blood of the Covenant, which you tread un­der foot? but an horrible expectation of the judgement of God, a fervour of fire consuming his adversaries, and a ven­geance as much redoubled as the knowledge which you have had, ren­ders you more wicked and inexcusa­ble?

You then (faithful souls) to whom God hath given better inspirations, at this noyse and report of the faith of your fore-fathers, awaken ear­nestly this drowziness of your own; turn away your hearts from the va­nity [Page 183] of this flower of the world that passeth; see that your life is but a wind, and that death shall shortly pull to ground, and reduce to nothing this terrestrial and miserable masse: And therefore seek while you are here below, the spiritual goods of your souls, that may follow you to­ward the Heavens: And forasmuch as the light of the Gospel discovers move clearly to you, then the Fa­thers could see under the shadows of the Law; Love them therefore more ardently, pursue them more con­stantly: And since we are regene­rate into a lively hope by the resur­rection of Jesus Christ from among the dead, to obtain the incorruptible inheritance, which cannot be contami­nate nor withered, but is reserved in the Hea [...]en for us; Let us make lighter of the World and of her goods, of these bodies, and of these delights; and esteem it a great gain to have lost them, that we may gain Jesus Christ: And that being found in him, having not our own ju­stice which is of the Law, but his which is by faith; we may also in him, and [Page 184] by him, obtain this good, which eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard, nor hath entred into the heart of man; and which God hath prepared for those that love him, 1 Cor. 2.9. To which God the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, from henceforth and for evermore.

Amen.

A Sad Text in a sadder time;SERM. VII. in which the rivers of Babylon swelled not so high with in­undation of water in the letter, as the waters in the Metaphor, out­swelling and breaking down their banks, have overflown both our Church and State. The waies of Zion mourn, and her children are set to a task of weeping, whilest they be­hold the ruine of their Mother, by the Caledonean Boars on th'one side, and the mixt but wilder Herd then [Page 186] those of Africa, the Foxes busily un­dermining the vineyard, whilest the fowls of the air, th' Atheists, as did the fowls on Abrahams divided sa­crifice, seize on the divided Church; she in the mean while, doubtful to which, as most powerful (though alike pernicious) she should yield up her life, Religion, for a prey.

And who is there now (if not a stranger in Israel) whose fears have not taught his eyes acquaintance with his heart to pour out water be­fore the Lord, with them at Miz­peth? 1 Sam. 7.6. or whose heart hath not borrowed from his eye compassion with Jeremy? Mine eye affecteth my heart, because of the slain of the daughter of my people, Lam. 3.5. and if so, how shall not our better devotion hallow so pious an expence, by sending them both up in an hum­ble importunity of prayer, to work an atonement with Heaven, that we may recover the departed glory of Israel; and the Ark of the Lord now captiv'd by the Philistins, may be brought back to us, though but up­on the necks of the scarce yoked [Page 187] beasts. Happy are those tears that are made the rich tribute of the Chur­ches ransom; happy those passionate groans that hasten to prevent a Jere­mies reiterated lamentation, & a Jeru­salems once total final expiring: hap­py those childrens prevailing pray­ers, that make their mother a deb­tor for that life she gave their offe­rers; who as they live at her breasts, so how shall they not expire in her blood, if either tainted by corrupti­on, or let out by cruelty? It is, 'tis true, our unfortunate and deplora­ble condition, to see these sad times of distraction and persecution, which as they are for the tryal of our pa­tience, who are called to suffering, and for the exercise of their wisdom, to be honoured with publick coun­sel; so they are for the actuating of all our devotions; whose hearts would faint, did not our eyes wait, and our hands knock for a speedy composure, and expected deliverance, from the gates of Heaven. And those that feel not great strivings of heart for the division of Ruben; those, whose bowels are restrained, whose [Page 188] souls bleed not within themselves by compassion, do with the actor of a mischief contract a guilt, and by their own neutrality appropriate to themselves a curse; Curse ye Merosh, yea curse, yea bitterly, because they came not forth to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty, Judges 5.13. a Text however sacrilegious­ly inverted by irreligious religi­ous interpreters, yet God does ex­pect our help; and we help him in his Church: Zion does desire our help, and we help her in our pray­ers. Heaven and your piety divert the curse; and so it shall, from the blessed off-spring of faithful Abra­ham, whom (me thinks) I may conclude blessed in misery, at home and in captivity, at Jerusalem in Babylon, sith by those waters remem­bring dearest Zion. And let not us be less affected to ours, then they were to theirs: our freedom is as straight as was their captivity; our (once) purer waters of the Sanctuary, are as pudled as were they the wa­ters of Babylon; whilest our Jerusalem, once at unity in it self, is now as the [Page 189] City of Babylon, a land of confusion. And if any thing be wanting to make up the parallel of the history, yet let that of the duty be found compleat: By the waters of Babylon sit we down and weep, when we remember thee, O Zion.

Which words admit of a double sense: 1. Historical and literal. 2. Al­legorical and moral. If we consider them in the history and letter, then the whole Psalm is a Prophecy of that destruction of Jerusalem, which was acted by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and lamented by the Pro­phet Jeremy. Which sense, Hugo Cardinalis seems to observe; nor doth St. Hillary deny it made more pro­bable from the title of the Psalm, which runs thus; A Psalm of David for Jerusalem. And though the inscri­ption he suspects of forgery from the tradition of the Ancient Hebrews, yet not the application of it to their foreseen captivity in Babylon; so Ju­nius. Well then, the parts are these.

The place of their captivity, [Ba­bylon.] 1

The place of their sitting [by the 2 waters] of Babylon.

3 Their posture in that place [we sate down.]

4 Their affection in that posture, [and wept.]

5 The motive of that their affection, [when we remembred thee, O Zion.]

Each word bears a full sense of sorrow; but of each of them in their order: and,

First, the place of their captivity [Babylon.]

Babylon was a City situate in the field of Shinar in Chaldea, North from the Land of Judea; which as it was the Imperial Seat of Nebuchad­nezzar (whose victorious army was by Gods avenging justice stretched many Kingdoms besides Judea,) so for its magnificence was it stiled the glory of Nations, the beauty and pride of the Chaldeans, Esai. 13.19.

God sometimes prospers the wick­ed, whilest he suffers his own peo­ple to lye under oppression: these have the glory of their houses en­creased, and have riches in possessi­on, whilest the other are evil in­treated of Tyrants; and they that hate them are Lords over them. Babylon [Page 191] sits as a Queen, and seeth no sorrow, whilest Judea is gone into captivity, and her beauty into the enemies hand. But whilest correction reclaimes the er­ring Saint, the prosperity of the wicked destroyes the sinner. Gods outward fa­vours (though they be silken cords) seldom draw the wicked to goodness. Babylon is beautiful, rich, and pro­sperous, yet Babylon is still a City of confusion; and so, not more for the confusion of tongues there, Gen. 11.4, 7. then for their confusion both in Religion and Government.

For the former, the Sacred Story tells us, a general deluge of water had overflown the whole earth: the re­membrance of the former inundati­on, imprinted in men a fear of a fu­ture: and though God had past an Act of Grace for security, and placed his bow in the clouds, to be a Sacrament to the world, that he would never destroy it so again; yet their jealousies and fears prom­pted them to new inventions of their own, for their own security: a build­ing of their own device shall be more trusted in, then the word, promise, [Page 192] and ordinance of God. But how justly did divine vengeance confound their tongues and hands to a division among themselves, whose impious attempts had made a division be­twixt themselves & Heaven? When the wickedness of men opposeth it self to Heaven, Gods judgments up­on their wickedness sends amongst them divisions and confusions. If man be confederate against his God, God (as in the confusion of Babel) sends a division not so much among the tongues, as the hearts of men. No peace with home-born subjects, either by the free obligation of love, or by the strict tye of allegiance, so strong; no union with our Neigh­bours so firm, which upon our com­mon breach of faith with Heaven, God suffers not, either for the weak­ning of a State, or the disturbance of a Church, to conclude in a dan­gerous rupture, an unnatural dis­affection. Our peace with man, is grounded upon our peace with God. If God be with us, who can be against us? was both an Apostles triumph, and an Emperours motto. But if we be [Page 193] not with God, God will not be with us; and if God be against us, he will (as by sad experience we have found it true) send amongst us divisi­on and confusion.

Secondly, [Babylon] a City of confusion, for their confusion both in Religion and Government. It is the observation of Antiquity, that (after the Languages confusion) through the neglect of words, the ignorance of God got strength, and sent forth a fruitful progeny of false Gods, to the number of their wor­shippers. Succoth Benoth was the Idol-god chosen and worshipped by the Babylonians, 2 Kings 17.36. But though they had forsaken the Lord, and served Idols, they staid not here; they will have their glorious refor­mation; a monstrous golden image is set up, and every one (without li­berty of conscience to any) must fall down before it, when the musick gives them warning, Dan. 3.15.

It was the fault of the Jewes, that they desired to be like the Nations. And Christians (I fear) have learn­ed too much of Heathenish Idola­ters, [Page 194] to alter, not their form of wor­ship only, but their very Creed too.

It is observed in Disputes, that one absurdity granted, a thousand follow. Men run to errour without end, when they have once departed from the truth; and that mischief which (at first) they could not think on without horrour, they can (at last) commit without remorse.

Yet one step further; even Ma­chiavel himself could say, that the gi­ving God his due, is the cause of the greatness of any State: and that there is a God, is the unanimous language of the whole world, even since the confusion of tongues: yet upon this principle have been built more Babels of errours, then there have been Nations derived from the languages confusion. For though Nature hath enstamped upon the soul of man the certainty of a Deity; yet the designes of policy have so misrepresented him to mens conceits, as 'tis hard to say whether they were more happy in a dark ignorance, or miserable in a doubtful know­ledge. How often have men (for [Page 195] the furtherance of their designes) as if they came into the world, not to receive rules of faith, but to pre­scribe them, undertaken to be Mo­narchs in the Art of Faith, and to trick up anew (each men after his fancy) that great work of Religion, which derives its accomplishment from God alone?

Babylon then (the place of their captivity) must needs add to the mi­sery of the captives, if we look no further then the beauty, pride, riches and glory of Babylon; yet to be ca­ptive amidst all this, were but to starve in the midst of plenty, to be naked in a rich wardrop, to be bound in fetters of gold, and to kneel in the dust before a throne of glory: Fetters of gold are but fetters; and the Peasant that from his loamy cot­tage is carried prisoner to a stately Castle, though for his homely stall, he hath the exchange of a Princely building; yet he changes his golden liberty for iron shackles.

These Jews whom the Kings of Babylon honoured most, were at the best but captive Governours. When [Page 196] the King of France was here in En­gland, King Edward who had taken him captive, honoured him with all Princely entertainments; yet still was he pensive: and being desired to be merry, answered, How shall I sing songs in a strange land? To be encir­cled with ten thousand bared heads, and to be served on the bended knees of the mighty men, and to want no ceremonies befitting Majesty; yet to be a captive, a prisoner; this clouds the brightness of the Sun, and shuts it up again in darkness. All honour, beauty, riches, and what else desira­ble, without liberty, are but glorious Pageants: 'tis liberty that gives life and vigour, and sets a price upon all things else: this is the true Elixir, that turneth all things into gold; and gold it self, without it, resolves to vilest earth. Had they been but Tributaries to that uncircumcised power, their necks might with some ease have born that yoke of subjecti­on; whilest they had this happiness left, their liberty to repair to the Sanctuary, and to visit Gods Holy Temple; but now Ichabod, their glory [Page 197] is departed; their land enjoyes her Sabbaths, but they may enjoy nei­ther it nor them: By the waters of [Ba­bylon] they sate down, &c.

But that's not all; for secondly, they are constrained to dwell in Mesech, and to have their habitation in the Tents of Kedar; they are captives in [Baby­lon;] where, as almost every day brings forth a new Deity and Reli­gion: so all occasions are sought for their destruction. New decrees and ordinances lay as close siege to their soules, as formerly did their conque­ring forces to their fortified walls; that their souls and consciences might be alike captivated as their bodies: So as in Babylon they are still but as in a larger prison, or a belea­guered City; and so much the more dangerous, as the assaults to the soul are more dreadful then all violence to the body.

But they were open enemies that did them this dishonour; and professed ad­versaries, that magnifying themselves against them, led them into captivity; and therefore the more tolerable, from whom they could expect no [Page 198] better; but that thou my companion, and mine own familiar friend, with whom I took sweet counsel, and walked together in the house of God as friends, should do me this mischief; this was a temptati­on strong enough to have provoked the spirit of David, to have wished passionately what he spake Prophe­tically; Let death come hastily upon them, and let them go down quick into hell; for wickedness is in their dwellings and a­mong them. Whilest these, like melan­choly men, betake themselves to the rivers side, whose soft murmurs bear consort with their sad tempers; by the waters of Babylon sit we down, and weep, when we remember thee, O Zion. And so I have done with the first thing, the place of their captivity [Babylon] and proceed to.

The second thing, the place of their sitting [by the waters] of Babylon.

Hydrographers tell us, that the wa­ters of Babylon flew out of Paradise.

First, Sin can turn the happy streams of Paradise into the waters of Babylon; this turns the silver into tin, the wine into water, the faith­ful City it makes an harlot; and the [Page 199] seates of judgement and justice, it fills with murtherers, Esai. 1.21, 22. And when Bethel the house of bread, shall become Bethaven a den of thieves, how shall not Jerusalem become Je­rusckecah, an homely and unpleasant place?

Secondly, Those gracious streams of the Waters of Life, that fertilize some souls into the happiness of a Paradise, wash others with their heavenly current; yet still they re­main a Babylon. Those silver drops of Heaven, that falling on a good soil, fill the fields with fruitfulness; light­ing upon a clayish ground, it proves wet as well as cold, but barren still. Some say the reason is, that the same Sun of Grace, which is (as it were) in the Meridian to some souls, is but (as it were) in the setting to the other: but those say better, that the same fire that mollifies the wax, har­dens the clay; not through want of efficacy in the one, but through the ill disposition of the other. Christ stands at our doors and knocks, and of­fers to us the waters of life without money, or without price: our rejecting so great [Page 200] salvation, proves, that of our selves is our own destruction: I would have healed Babylon, and she would not be healed.

Thirdly, [by the waters] of Babylon. Afflictions have been baptized by the name of [waters.] When thou pas­sest through the waters, I will be with thee, (saith the Lord by his Prophet.) Here therefore they sate, that by what they saw, they might, by refle­cting on themselves, be induced to meditate on what they suffered. Yet it is observable, that they sate but [by,] not [in] the waters; that as none could say with the justifying Hypocrite, This punishment is great­er then we have deserved; neither might any say with despairing Cain, This punishment is greater then we can suffer.

God is just is punishing; yet in punishing is he merciful: though we have deserved more then he inflicts, yet he inflicts lesse then we have de­served. He might make the deep wa­ters go even over our souls, as some­times they did cover the face of the new created earth; yet, as then his [Page 201] spirit moved upon the waters, (though as yet there was darkness upon the face of the deep) and anon did ga­ther them into an heap, so as the dry ground appeared: so, though the inundations of our afflictions be deep and broad, and a thick darkness of Heavens displeasure do cover us; yet even here doth his goodness move, and rests not, but makes the ground of some sparing mercy appear, from which our faith (as Noahs dove) may gather an Olive-branch of com­fort, to keep us up, so as these deep waters drown us not, though they rage so horribly and so long, as by these waters of Babylon we sit down and weep. And so I have done with the second thing, the place of their sit­ting, [by the waters] of Babylon; and proceed to

3. The third thing, their posture in that place: [we sate down.]

Sitting is a posture that implies a stay; yet was it neither desire of ease, nor any content in the delightfulness of the place, that moved them to sit. Things in nature do not more hasten to their centre in which they rest, [Page 202] then did they long after Zion, after which their souls did breath: but a miserable necessity under which they were bound, and that divine will to which they must subscribe, had determined on them their seven­ty years captivity, till the time of their return, Jerem. 25.12. and till then, though they might with tears have prevented that captivity; yet though they should now, as Esau for his blessing, beg deliverance care­fully with tears, they shall neverthe­less till then weep for that misery, which (till they felt) they would not believe. That penitent sorrow which would prevent the decree of ven­geance before it brings forth, is oft too late to reverse it, when it is put in execution. Those daily tears which (had they been shed at home) might have expiated their offences, and been in mercy accepted for their Countries ruine, are now condem­ned to wash a prophane land, where (hopeless Exiles) they are faster bound by the decree of Heaven, then by all the power of their enemies. Their lusts had led them willing ca­ptives [Page 203] under the Law of sin, and their enemies led them into an un­willing captivity under the power of sinners; and as they had a long time sinned without repentance, so shall they be a long time punished with­out remission. The gliding streams with happy freedom wash the se­veral banks they passe by, and at length repose themselves in the desi­red common bosom of waters: but perpetuity gives perfection to these captives misery; from day to day, from morning to evening, they [sit down] in sorrow, and tyre their weary souls in a longing expectation of long delayed felicity. The dayes of our age are but threescore years and ten; and though some be so strong as to live fourscore years, yet then is their strength (naturally) but labour and sorrow, (saith Moses) so soon passeth it away, and we are gone, Psalm 90.10. yet lo, seventy years, threescore years and ten, is the time for their ca­ptivity.

Sin hastens on, and lengthens to us the miseries of our life. When God sets our misdeeds before him, and our [Page 204] secret sins in the sight of his countenance, our dayes we pass in his anger, and our years in troubles; we consume away in displeasure, and tremble at his wrath­ful indignation: we are killed from day to day; every dayes fear ushers in a new trouble, and every dayes trouble brings forth a further fear: wave after wave, and billow after billow, come tumbling to our shores, whilest we by these waters of Babylon sit down and weep.

Again, secondly, if we refer their posture to their affection, [we sate down and wept;] those postures of the body are to be used most, which suit best with the occasion, and move, or (at least) express the in­ward affection. Isaac walked and meditated; old Jacob leaned upon his staffe, and worshipped: Abraham bowed his face to the ground, and did reverence: Solomon stood and prayed: Daniel kneeled upon his knees, to deprecate the captivity of his people: which here the people did bewail but sitting. Standing suits not with a dejected condition; kneeling, not with a simple bewail­ing [Page 205] of our condition to our selves, but to God. Job indeed in his affli­ction arose and fell down, but be­cause he worshipped. Nehemiah, when he heard of the afflictions of Jerusalem, sate down and wept: Ha­gar, when in the bitterness of her soul she bewailed the death of her son, sate down, Gen. 21.16. and the Jewes when in the like sorrow of heart, for the Temple, their own captivity, and the distresses of Zion, as if they would dwell and feed upon sorrow, [sate down:] we sate down and wept.

Long afflictions require alike length of sorrow to repentance. They are grievous sins, that have provo­ked the God of mercy to lengthen the smart of his judgments: gravia pec­cata, gravia desiderant lamenta, (saith Isidore) grievous sins require the greatness of our sorrow, both for in­tention and duration. But to be pla­gued for sin, and yet to be senceless of the judgement, is the worst of judgments. No greater Symptome of death, then when the sick man grows senceless, and knows not that [Page 206] he is sick at all. And I would to God such a Crisis could not be made of us; else, why such weariness and neglect of our humiliation, whilest the judgment is continued? Nay, (as if our sores were the more festered for their lancing) why such exemplary prophaness, as former ages have been piously ignorant of, and future (I hope) will detest to imitate? Why such notorious sins, such noon-day evils, to which each mans eye and ear bears witness, perhaps some with tingling, others with tears? Why such debauchedness of life, which when it hath unsouled the man, buries the beast in excess and riot? Why such execrable oaths and blasphemies, which pass so fre­quently through those common shores, the fatal ports of our mouths, which are seldom open, but to tran­sport such carrion and filth? Why those unworthy actions of luxury, that mark of reprobation; as one which engulphs the soul in such base pleasures, and makes it like the worst of Devils, that are more gross, (as the Caldean and Egyptian) that which [Page 207] hath gluttony for the fuel, pride for the flame, unclean words for the sparkles, infamy for smoak, ordure for ashes, & a hell for Centre? O de­ceive not your selves! all our longing expectation of the removal of these judgments, will be unsatisfied, till we heartily sorrow, and earnestly re­pent of those our misdoings, where­by we have provoked Gods wrath and indignation against us; there is no hope of our returning to the fair hill of Zion, the beauty of holiness, and the beauty of order, till in sor­row for our transgressions, that have made a separation betwixt God and us, by these waters of Babylon we sit down and weep. And so I have done with the third thing, and come to

The fourth thing, their affecti­on in that posture, We sate down [and wept].

As all rivers, so those of Babylon, run into the sea; and as others, so they, receive addition of waters as they run. The heads of the drooping captives were as waters, and their eies as fountains of tears that stream­ed into the rivers current: as they [Page 208] sate down by them [and wept:] their whole composition was but like en­gendred clouds, exhaled vapours drawn up by the heat of Gods anger, and now distil and melt themselves into continual showers of tears. So as if Babylons rivers, as once Hagars bottle, should chance to fail; as she set her dying child, so have they their expiring mother before their eyes, which will force a new supply to fill them up again. And should I say the waters tides were caused by the ebbes and flouds of the captives tears, it would be but an Hyperbole that would expresse the victors cru­elty, and the captives griefs. Nay their grief knows no ebb; their Moon (and so their sorrow calls for a Change at last) is at her Full of sor­row: each pensive enslaved Jew payes to the waters of Babylon their tears for tribute, to the memory of Zion. And (as if what they shed for her sake, they would commit to the waters of faithfulness to carry them) they sit by the rivers side [and weep,] that their floating tears might at last greet their Country from her weep­ing [Page 209] worshippers, whilest they (mean while) weep again in remembrance of thee, O Zion.

Etiam atque etiam flevimus, (say Ju­nius and Tremellius) they wept, and they wept again. 1. As Patientes, Sufferers, they wept for themselves, and for their children: Weep not for me, O ye daughters of Jerusalem; but weep for your selves, and for your children: for your houses shall be left unto you desolate, Luk. 23.28. No affliction is joyous, but grievous. The presence of dolorous and dreadful objects, even in minds most perfect, may as clouds over­cast all sensible joy, and dissolve in­to showres of tears. 2. As Compa­tientes, fellow-feeling members of others miseries, [we wept again,] for thee, O Zion! Mine eye runneth with ri­vers of waters, for the destruction of the daughter of my people: mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without intermis­sion, Lam. 3.48. When Christ wept for Lazarus, behold how he loved him (said the Jews:) these were teares, as of love of her good, so of compassion of her misery.

How shall that heart refrain from [Page 210] tears, with whom love within, and misery without, shall plead for pity? no expression so emphatical, as that of weeping. Tears speak that grief, which no tongue is able to expresse: no language so sincere as this, nor yet so passionate. Alas, my brother, was the Elegy of that lying Prophet: his words might bely his dissembled mourning; but tears are the Rheto­rick of grief, that speak the affecti­ons of a true hyperbole. And let who will, divide passions from the soul; let who will, say, fear becomes not a stout heart: it is a senceless heart that is not affected; and a stony heart that doth not weep. Nor is it any shame to confess that grief we can­not conceal. Shall the hunted stagge pay a Funeral-Obsequie to his own fleeting life, which now sits upon his utmost lips, with a frequent distilling tear? And shall not we, who are pursued with such a pack of evils, weep for this, That he that is the soul of our soul, the breath of our nostrils, the life of our Zion, the glory of our God, is at a distance from us? The Heavens weep dew [Page 211] at the going down of the Sun: our Sun (I am afraid) is a setting at noon­day; our glory is departing; and shall not we weep? David the father, could weep like a child, at the loss of a child; O Absalom, Absalom, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee; O Absalom, my son, my son: And shall not thy children, O Zion, weep for the destruction of thee their mother, the Church? O daughter of Jerusa­lem, what shall I liken unto thee? O Virgin Zion, wherewith shall I compare thee? our eye, our eye, runneth down with tears; we can as well dye for thee, as in this deny thee: By the waters of Babylon we sate down and wept, when we remembred thee, O Zion. And so I have done with the fourth thing, their affection in that posture, We sate down [and wept;] and proceed to

The last thing, the motive of that their affection: when we remembred thee, O Zion.

Dura satis miseris memoratio prisca bonorum: the memory of a lost feli­city, makes misery it self more mise­rable. There is more ease in sense of [Page 212] torment, then in losse of happiness. To be in any captivity, is a calamity; but to be captive to the tyranny of an uncircumcised people, whose sportive pastime was in their gauling taunts of the afflicted, must needs heighten the affliction. Davids suffer­ings made him complain; but the bitter reproaches he had from his foes, opened a spring of grief in him, which fed his tears day and night: yet the remembrance of his former (now lost) happiness in communion with God in his house, made yet deeper impressions in his soul, Psalm 42.4. former favours and happiness, make the soul more sensible of all im­pressions to the contrary: we wept, [when we remembred thee, O Zion.]

But what was Zion, that whilest they remembered it, they could not forget to weep? Take it barely for their native countrey, (for so the word means in the latitude) and even so, Patriae fumus igne alieno luculen­tior: there is more pleasant warmth in the smoak of our own, then in the fire of a strange country: and then their loss of happiness, and ac­cesse [Page 213] of misery, must needs bee the more great, the one being a land of promise, the other of captivity; the one an effect of Gods favour, the other of his vengeance. But this is not all; the hill of Zion is a fair place; and the joy of the whole earth, Psal. 48.2. Strictly taken, it was a fort in Je­rusalem, on the top whereof was a Tower, called the City of David; and so by a Synechdoche, Zion is put for the Kingdom of Judea. Let us then remember what it was in its glory, and consider what it is in its captivity, and refrain from weeping if we can.

First, Very excellent things are spoken of thee, O thou City of God. The Kings of the earth marvelled to see such things: shall we (as David bids) go round about Zion; and tell the Towers thereof, and mark well her Bulwarks?

First, There is the Throne of David: but (woe unto us that we have sinned) the Casket is without its Jewel; David is not there on his Throne.

Secondly, Tell the Towers thereof: The Towers were those many Prince­ly and Noble Families; and the les­ser [Page 214] Pinacles, the Heroick Gentry, who as they added a glory and orna­ment, so they were the strength and defence of the King and his Throne.

But all these Towers are either levelled with the dust, or led into captivity, or have by an unworthy compliance basely prostituted them­selves to the power of the Conque­rour.

Thirdly, Mark well her Bulwarks. The Bulwarks were the numerous commonalty, whose affections and loyal obedience were such strong for­tifications to the Throne of Majesty, as the Kings of the earth have been afraid to assault them. But now all these strong holds are broken down, the right hand of the enemy is set up, and all the adversaries rejoyce: Zions Crown is cast down to the ground, and her honour laid in the dust, so as she is become a scorn to her ene­mies; and they that hate her, shake their heads against her.

Fourthly, Thither the tribes go up; but now they are taken captive.

Fifthly, There is the seat of judgment; but now the chair of tyranny and op­pression.

But secondly, Zion was called the Mount of the Lord, and the Holy Mount; and so it includes in it the Temple, the Church too; and of this God himself did say, This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell: yet, O God, the Heathen are come into thine inheritance, thy Holy Temple have they defiled; that beauty of holiness is ravish'd with Babylonish fire: That excellent work at whose rearing no noise of iron was heard, is broken down with axes and hammers: that Heavenly Order and Musick, wherein God himself hath seemed to tread the measures, (for it's well seen, O God, how thou goest, how thou goest, how thou my God and King goest in the Sanctuary: the singers go be­fore, the minstrels follow after; in the midst are the Damsels playing with their timbrels:) yet all this is hudled up in confusion. That house of holy pleasure wherein King David had ra­ther be a door-keeper, then dwell in the glorious tents of ungodliness, is sacked and spoiled; and the many thousand vessels of gold and silver, and the rich and hallowed vestments of the house of God, are sacrilegiously [Page 216] carried away, and prophaned with revelling. When we think upon these things, we pour out our souls within us; for we were wont to go with the multitude into the house of joy, and praise; but now by these waters of Babylon we sit down, &c.

But they were Babylonians that did this; Heathens, that had no knowledge of Gods Laws: but when men do Gentes agere sub nomine Christi, mask Gentilisme with the titles of Christianity, acting works of dark­ness under vizards of children of light; not carrying the children of Zion captive into Babylon, but turn­ing Zion it self into Babylon: this is enough to make us by these waters of Babylon sit down and weep, when we re­member thee, O Zion.

Ezekiel took up a lamentation for wicked Tyre, Ezek. 27.2. Isaiah be­wailed with the weeping of Jaazar the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, Esai. 16.9. and how shall not we take up a lamenta­tion, and a bitter mourning, when we remember thee, O Zion? How [Page 217] doth the City sit almost solitary, that was full of people? she that was Princess a­mong the Provinces, how is she become tributary? Lam. 1.1. How is the gold become dimme? how is the fine gold chan­ged? the children that did feed delicately, are almost desolate in the streets; and they that were brought up in scarlet, are ready to embrace dunghils, Lam. 4.5. hinc illae lachrymae: hence, hence are these rivers of tears which gush out of our eyes, whilest by the waters of Babylon we sit down, and remember thee, O Zion.

I have now done with the parts of my Text, and you may expect I should apply them; but I forbear: only from what hath been spoken, let us gather two things, as a double Corollary: one from them, as they were patientes, sufferers; the other, as they were compatientes, fellow-feeling members of other sufferings.

1. As they were Patientes, suffe­rers. A Church may be brought in­to extream calamity: [By the waters of Babylon we sate down.]

2. As Compatientes, as they were fellow-feeling members of others suf­ferings. We must be affected with [Page 218] the calamities of the Church: we wept, when we remembred thee, O Zion.

1. Of the first. A Church may be brought into deep misery: by the wa­ters of Babylon we sate down. This Church of the Jews (for I desire not to lead your thoughts into a further pilgrimage) though it had such a magazine of blessings as no Nation or Church under Heaven was owner of; yet was it not exempt from this humane, nay Christian lot of mi­sery: in its very infancy (for in the Egyptian bondage it was but an em­bryo not yet formed) but no sooner did it take but its name, but it was christned with the cross: in Samuels dayes, God suffered himself (be it spoken with holy reverence) to be taken captive of the uncircumcised Philistines; for the Ark, in which was his immediate presence, was surprised and taken from the Israe­lites, when the Church, no less then Phinehas son, first got the name of Icha­bod, where is the glory? 1 Sam. 4.19. In the dayes of Zedekiah, when she was now in her perfect age and beauty, Jerusalem was destroyed by fire, and [Page 219] her children led captives into Baby­lon: which sad story that sorrowful Prophet hath exprest in his patheti­cal Lamentations, and our Psalmist David here prophesied of. In her de­crepit age, after the coming of Christ, Jerusalem was sackt by Ve­spasian, and made quite desolate; of which Daniel prophesied, Dan. 9. vers. last. And our Saviour himself foretold, there shall not one stone be left upon another, Matth. 24.2. Nothing is left of it, but a name, and ruines that bear the impress of Gods ven­geance and justice. Where now are those lying words wherein you trusted? the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord; this is the Temple of the Lord, Jer. 7.4. The Ark may be taken, the Temple may be destroyed, and ye may be carried captives into Babylon, where by the waters of Babylon ye may sit down, &c.

And was God so severe to the na­tural branches, Appl. which were disobe­dient, & will he spare the wilde olive-branch that is grafted in? Behold, I bring evil upon the City that is called by my name; and shall you go unpunished? [Page 220] Jer. 25.9. What is become of those renowned Churches of the East, mentioned in the Revelations, are they not quite destroyed? What is done to our neighbouring Churches in Germany, are they not miserably defaced? Hath not God been work­ing this strange work of justice also even upon us these many years, here in these three Nations, which though divided from the rest of the world by Seas of waters, yet are conjoined in the same lot of calami­ty? What will be the end, who can divine? but without speedy and se­rious repentance, and amendment of life, may we not fear the like de­struction in which others have peri­shed? Therefore what was the An­gels advise to the Church of Ephesus, it will be happy for us if we can make use of it: Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works, or else I will come quickly, and remove the candlestick out of its place, except thou repent, Rev. 2.5. And thus considering them as Pati­entes, sufferers, you see that a Church may be brought into deep calamity: [Page 221] by the waters of Babylon we sate down.

Secondly; As Compatientes, fel­low-feeling members of others suffe­rings: we must be affected with the miseries of the Church: we wept when we remembred thee, O Zion. Compassi­on is an act of humanity to any in di­stress. Did I not weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? saith Job 3.25. but to the Church in evil times, compassion is a duty of piety: If I forget thee, O Jeru­salem, let my right hand forget her cun­ning: if I remember thee not, O Zion, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. It is a sin that prophaneth the affe­ctions of nature it self, to hide thy face from them of thine own flesh; how much, that crosseth the divinity of grace, to hide thy face from them of the same spirit? Our Saviour wept over languishing Jerusalem: Daniel set his face to seek God in the capti­vity, by prayers and supplications, and fasting, and sack-cloath and ashes: Nehemiah, when he heard of the afflictions of the people, sate down and wept, and mourned, and fasted, and prayed before the God [Page 222] of Heaven: and these devout Jews here, whom it pitied to see the glory of Zion laid in the dust, wept when they remembred it.

Appl.What shall we say then of those, who now in the time of our Church and Kingdoms calamity, when God seems to call to us as sometimes Jehu did, Who is on my side, who? When the Church cries to us, as sometimes she did, Is it nothing to you, all ye that passe by the way? have ye no regard? be­hold and see, if ever sorrow were like my sorrow: yet neither in heed to his voice, nor in pity to her complaints, will they humble themselves by fa­sting and prayer, to cry to Heaven for mercy upon her; but rather when God calls to mourning, they are a re­velling: they drink wine in bowles, and anoint themselves with precious oynt­ments, but remember not the afflictions of Joseph: wherefore I have sworn by my self (saith the Lord God of hosts) I abhor the excellency of Jacob, Amos 6.6, 8. And let such read the 22 Chapter of Isaiah, vers. 12, 13, 14. and tremble at the close of it: Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you, till you dye. [Page 223] Ye would take it in foul disgrace, to be called hard-hearted Jews; yet these were more compassionate of the Churches miseries, then are ma­ny of you: these wept when they remem­bred Zion: How then shall not our hearts agonize under Gods displea­sure, and our bedewed cheeks trickle down with tears, for the miseries of our Church and State; seeing the Heavens themselves have with wa­terish eyes long wept for our calami­ties, not with dews, but showers of compassion, all the summer long; and still (now in winter) keep their gloomy face, to reproove the hard­ness of our obdurate hearts, that can neither weep for our own, nor pity the miseries of others. O insensate hearts! Is it nothing to you, that you all passe by Zions sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger? The senceless creatures groan and travel, in a fellow-feeling pain; but you, when your own members suffer and perish, O where are the sounding of your bowels? are they quite restrained? The earth trembles at the voice of God, the Sea saw him, and [Page 224] was afraid; and the rocks cleft at our Saviours passion: and shall men be so obdurate, as not to be moved, nor split asunder at a Church and a Kingdoms passion? If rocks be more affected then we, O God, take away from us these obdurate hearts of flesh, and give us hearts of stone, that seeing we cannot with innocent, yet we may with hearts broken by repentance for all these sins that have pulled down those judgments upon our heads, by these waters of Babylon sit down and weep, when we remember thee, O Zion.

And so I have done with the words in their literal sense, and proceed now to them,

Secondly, in their moral sense: of which briefly.

In this sense, St. Hilary, St. Augu­stine, Hugo de Sancto Victore, Hugo Cardinalis, with many others, have taken these words: nor in this do we offer any violence to the truth of the history, but only digest gesta in ex­emplum, & scripta in doctrina (as saith St. Hilary) the passages into exam­ple, and Scripture into doctrine:

The soul (we all know) hath four several states:

• 1. Of innocence.
• 2. Of a lapsed condition.
• 3. Of renovation by grace.
• 4. Of expectation of glory.

And going along with her from her first instant of creation, to the last of eternity, we shall find all of them in the Text.

1. That of innocence, but implied; so as that captivity supposeth a fore­going freedom: this freedom was that of our created holiness, which we enjoyed in Paradise; that new Jerusalem, that vision of peace: but (God knows) we stay'd not long there, before we were carried captive by the devil into Babylon, from Para­dise into the world; from our coun­try into exile, from liberty into ser­vitude, from glory into disgrace, from pleasure into grief, from hap­piness into misery, from integrity into corruption, from life into death; and therefore Merito illic se­demus, merito flemus: there we de­servedly sit and weep (as Hugo Victo­rinus concludes: and that is the se­cond state.

[Page 226]2. The souls lapsed condition fi­gured in [Babylon, and the waters of Babylon.] That Babylon properly si­gnifies a City of confusion; and that mystically here is meant this sinful world, is agreed on by a general suffrage of Fathers; and therefore consonantly they make [the waters of Babylon] to be bona temporalia, (so Hugo Cardinalis) temporal things; which as the rivers, stay not, but pass from one elbow of earth unto another; the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, 1 Joh. 2.17. or (as Victori­nus calls them) decursiones nostrae cor­ruptiones, the decursions of our cor­ruption and mortality, which (as Solomon speaks) tend to the grave, as the rivers into the Sea: or (as saith St. Augustine) flumina Babyloniae sunt omnia quae hic amantur & transeunt: the rivers of Babylon, are all transi­tory things whereon we set our hearts: (and so St. Hilarie) omnia sae­culi & corporalium opera; all secular and corporal travels, which like ri­vers are transient, without the least station: for what bodily pleasure is it, but when once 'tis past, by that [Page 227] time becomes none? What earthly joy, that dies not in the sense, and perishes not in the enjoying? yet are these those rivers on which the heart of man sets and fastens his delight, and engulphs his care, till at last they drown his soul, and sink it as low as that pit which knows no bot­tom.

3. But not so the Saints, whose spiritualized souls are lifted up to a third state of graces renovation; who though they do with patience, wait their desired change in this flesh of sin, as well as of mortality: and so may be said to [sit by the waters of Ba­bylon] which they account no better then the place of their short captivi­ty; yet humiliatione humiliati, (saith St. Augustine) they sit in humiliation, (so Victorinus;) not erect by pride, nor cast down by despair, but hum­bly set (so Hugo Cardinalis) because they attend that misery in which they are, that happiness from which they are distant. Or, there they sit, but 'tis (supra flumina) above the wa­ters, (so the old Latine word reads it.) The Citizens of Babylon so drench [Page 228] themselves into the delights of the sinful world, as they drown them­selves in their pleasing, but deadly waters: whereas the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem sit higher, sit [above,] not so low, as to fear drown­ing; nor so high, as not to need to [weep:] and [weep] they do too, as well as sit: if sitting be a posture that pleaseth the body; [weeping] I am sure is an evacuation that easeth the soul. O quam fic flere juvat! (saith St. Hierome,) O what sweets are there in hallowed tears! how the soul delights to melt it self into such blessed showers; because when she goeth into the lowest pitch of mourn­ing, she is then lifted up into the highest rapture of joy. You have heard of them that have wept for joy, but not so oft of them that have rejoyced for weeping; yet of all the passions the soul is owner of, she is a debtor to none more for her joy then this; this is her rich treasure, in which she traffiques with Heaven; this the rarest dissolved pearl, with which she defrayes all the passages of her captivity through the valley of [Page 229] tears. Feel'st thou sin? sit down and weep: there is no innocence so clear among mortal men, as that which is drencht in tears. Fear'st thou hell? sit down and weep: flames cannot burn, where these drops do fall. O happy weeping, that redeems from eternal weeping.

4. But lookest thou up to Heaven, that last state of thy souls glory, her Country, her Kingdom, her Securi­ty? sit down and weep, that thy Pil­grimage is prolonged, that mortality is not swallowed up of life, that thou art yet a stranger, and a sojourner, nor art thou yet joyned with those innu­merable companies of Angels, and the first born that are written in Heaven. O when shall that time be, when our souls being delivered from the Baby­lon of this world, from the prison of this flesh, from the bondage of this corruption, shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God? How long Lord, till these souls of ours, which like streams (here) wander from the fountain of bliss, be again re-admitted into that glorious source of immortality? For [Page 230] this we breathe, for this we groan, for this each devout heart weeps, when he recounts the miseries of this pre­sent exile; but the happiness of Zion which we expect, where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes; where is no death, nor sorrow, nor lamen­tation any more, but all joyes, tran­quillity and peace, even for ever and ever.

To which the God of mercy, for his Sons sake, who is gone before us thither, in his due time bring us: to whom, with the holy and ever-bles­sed Trinity, three Persons, and one God, be all honour and glory, world without end.

Amen.