A SERMON, Preached formerly in the Uni­versity of CAMBRIDGE.

A Time there was before all Times, when there was no Day, but the Antient of Dayes, no Good but God, no Light but the Fa­ther of Lights: Arts were but Idea's; the World, a Map of Providence; Heavens, the Book in Folio; Earth, Water, Aire, and Fire, in Quarto; Hell, the Doomes-day pageant; Men and Angells but Capitall Letters, in the Mar­gent of Gods Thoughts. Elohim Bara. But loe, the World and Time begun, the Heavens were spread as a Curtain, the Sphears incircled round, Comets [Page 2] and blazing Stars, Lightnings and Tempests; Birds and feathered Fowls, seated in the Aire; Leviathans and Fishes, in the Sea: The Earth infoulded within the armes of the Ocean embraces the Centre, beset with Plants and Herbs, and Garlands of all Flowers, gives nourishment to Beasts and Creeping things. Sanctius his Animal, Lastly Man was made, Lord Paramount of all; he calls Earth, Heaven, and Elements, Birds, Plants, and Beasts, according to their Na­ture, each by their names: clear light of Reason, makes him a Logician; Stars, an Astronomer; Na­ture of all Creatures, a Philosopher; Earth and Pa­radise, a Geographer: Thus nothing is hid from him, while he is unknown to all. The Stars shine, Hea­vens smile upon him, the Aire cherishes him, Fruits nourish him, Lions and all Beasts couch before him; all at once, as with a sudden rapture, admire, and know not what to call him. It's thou, O Lord, alone that madest him, that pouredst him out as Milk, that curdedst him as Cheese, that writst all his mem­bers in the volume of thy Book, that knowes him: Lord, what is Man!

Man, that was here David's mirrour of admiration, must be our glasse of speculation. Ignorance, in not knowing the true cause of things, is the true cause of Admiration in things. David, a man after Gods owne heart, knowes Man, and yet he knowes not Man; he knowes him, in respect of the efficient [...], the ofspring of God, as Aratus said; he knowes him in respect of the matter, Adam quasi Adamah, composed of red earth; he knowes him in respect of the form, his soul is spiraculum vitarum, breath of lifes; life vegetative, common with the [Page 3] Plants; life sensitive, common with the Beasts; life reasonable, peculiar to himselfe, temporall and eternall. He knowes him in respect of the end, all his thoughts, words, works, are so many motions, God is the Centre; his speculations, imaginations, meditations, are so many Lines, God is the Cir­cumference; in God, from God, and for God, is all his good, in whom we live, move, and have our being. But in this he knowes not man, Reason is at a stand, why God, that stood in need of no Creature, should create Man, to delight in him so vile a crea­ture; that Angels, more glorious Creatures than he, should minister unto man; that Heaven, with all her Hosts and Armies, should serve man; that Christ, that was [...], both God and Man, should be accursed and dishonoured for Man, that Man might be blessed and honoured with God, should leave Heaven and his Father's Throne, that Man might live for ever in Heaven, and before the Throne. All Creatures! confesse your ignorance in this; confessing it, admire; admiring, give God the glory. Fountains, clap your hands; Mountaines, bend your heads, skip you little Hills like Lambs; old men and Babes, young Men and Maids, Angells and Choristers of Heaven, joyne in this hymne, Glo­ry be to God on high, peace on earth, and towards men good-will. But why peace on earth, and towards men good-will? cease to scan, and leave it to him that is the Lord of Man: Lord, what is Man!

Which words are an Epiphonema, or, conclusion, following an Eucharistia, or spirituall gratulation, inforced from a soul, deeply solaced with the medi­tation of mercy, in the depth of misery. The parts [Page 4] are two: First, an Apostrophe or Appellation, Lord! Secondly, an Erotema or Interrogation, What is Man? There is a what of objurgation, a what of in­terrogation, a what of admiration, a what of medi­tation▪ David meditates of Man; the more he medi­tates, the more he admires; the more he admires, the more he asks; the more he asks, the more is his task, till mirrour is changed into terrour, and every glance into a trance. Earth that sustaines him, tell me; Fruits that nourish him, tell me; Aire that cherishes him, tell me; Creatures that serve him, tell me; Stars that shined at his Nativity, tell me; Astrono­mers, calculate; Gymnosophists, unfold this Riddle; Angells, unvail your faces, and tell me: Man, un­mask thy selfe, and tell me, What is man? Mount up my Meditations higher, pierce through the clouds towards Heavens; Glorified Saints, Principalities and Powers, tell me. If all these be silent, let wretched Man be bold to ask of Him, that sits upon the Throne, concerning man, Lord, what is man?

Man before the Fall created, Man after the Fall degenerated, Man by grace regenerated, Man after death glorified. What, in his creation? What, in his degeneration? What, in his regeneration? What, in his glorification? Man by creation, wholly pure, an Angell; by degeneration, wholly impure, a Devill; by regeneration, partly sanctified, a Saint; by glori­fication, entirely crowned, a King. An Angell in Eden, a Devill in the World, a Saint in the Church, a King in Heaven; and all this but silly Man: Lord, what is Man?

First, Man created before the Fall: what Man was in God's decree and intention, before the Crea­tion; [Page 5] what in his union and composition in the Cre­ation; what in his rule and dominion, after the Cre­ation. Man, in Gods decree and intention, a crea­ture next to the Creator; that Hell envied, Earth admired, Heaven desired; a Gemme of beauty, a Pearl of vertue, a Star of glory; Heir to a Crown, if he had not crossed himselfe. What in his union and composition in the Creation? The Son of God, moulded by God, and yet not (as the Manichees dream) of the Substance of God; the Image of God, and yet not that Image which was God; a Spirit from Heaven, breathed into a Body of Earth, and yet not all earth. Fire gave him naturall heat, Aire gave him vitall breath; Water, humours: the Fire was purified, the Air clensed, the Water purged, the Earth refined to make up this fine complexion of Man; and yet materiam superabat opus, the work­manship surpassed the matter, as far as Heaven sur­passes its matter; At the contemplation whereof, Dav [...]d bursts out into admiration, Psal. 139. 14. I was fearfully and wonderfully made. And Ga [...]en, be­fore an Atheist, composes an Hymne, in the praise of him that made him, styling the fabrick of mans body [...], the handy-work of God; [...], preserved by God. For, the Body is the Soul's Castle, the mouth, the entrance; the Lipps, a double leav'd door; the Teeth, a portcullis, and Ivory gate; the Tongue, the porter, trenchman, and Soul's Oratour; the Head, an eminent Tower, where four senses externall, Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Ta­sting; three senses internall, Common sense, Fanta­sie, Memory, keep so many scout-watches. The Brain, the Armorie and Treasury, fenced a­bout [Page 6] with hair, skin, bone, the pia Mater, or golden Eure: the Neck, a Wheel to turn this Turret, to every point in the Compasse: The Tongue, Teeth, and Palate, musicall Instruments, for modulation of the voice; the Chordae, or silver cords, stretched through the body; the Liver is the Well, the Pores, the Conduits; the Veines, the Pitchers of blood; the Heart is the Cistern, and Fountain of Life; the Systole and Diastole moves gales of winde, to free from putrefaction. For this cause, Man is called a Microcosme, or little World, in that he resembles the greater World: The Liver resembles the Ocean, the Veines, the lesser Rivers; the Breath, the Aire; the naturall Heat, the warmth of the Aire; the radicall Moysture, the fatnesse of the Earth; the Hairs of our head, the Grasse of the earth; Knowledge, Light; our Eyes, the Sun and Moon; our Beauty of Youth, the Flowers of the Spring; the Thoughts of our Minds, Motions of Angells; our four Complexions, resem­ble the four Elements; seven Ages, seven Planets. Thus was Man created a [...], containing All, till that by usurping All, he lost All.

Neither was this Beauty solely the Bodies, but the Soul in beauty far surpassed the Body, as far as the Soul is more active than the Body. The Under­standing clear, without ignorance; the Will holy, without disobedience; the Affections calme, with­out distemperance; Thoughts undistracted, Heart untempted, Conscience unwounded: The wonder­full union of them both, more wonderfull than both. Earth and Heaven were espoused, a Body from Earth, a Soul from Heaven, were united, that no­thing but Death could part; nor Death neither, if [Page 7] bodily concupiscence, with Martha, had not made choise of the worser part. Knowledge of sicknesse and sorrowes was unknown: No Paracelsus distracted about Extractions. It would have been the Physi­tians Disease, that there was no Disease; the Grave's Death, that there was no Death; Envie's Griefe, that there was no Envy.

What Man was, in Rule and Dominion after the Creation? Emperour of the whole Earth, Admirall of the whole Sea, Heir of Eden, peerlesse Peer of Paradise; that with the Grand Sultan, he might have insulted, styling himselfe, Ruler of the World, and Shadow of God: With the Pope, have worn a triple Crown, trampling upon Hell, triumphing upon Earth, trusting For Heaven. All Creatures seeing the splendour of Majesty, and God's Image resplen­dent in this new created Magistrate, with reverence pointed at him, with an Ecce Adam, lo Adam! The Stars that, lately created, were gazed upon as the world's wonder, wonder at this new created Star, with an Ecce Adam! The Angells, those ministring Spirits, Heb. 1. 14. behold him, to whom they must minister, with an Ecce Adam! God, who after the Fall, came with an Ecce exprobrandi, or upbraiding, comes now with an Ecce demonstrandi, or declaring to all Creatures, Ecce Adam, lo this is Adam, whom ye must all serve; this Adam, Lord of all, was Man, Lord, what is Man?

Thus we have done with the first what, what Man was in his Creation: We come to the second what, what man is in his Degeneration, where we must distinguish of a three-fold what; what degenerate Man is in his life, what in his death, what after death. [Page 8] The Degenerate in life, what in his Body, what in his Soul: In his Body, the length of his time, the strength of his time: What Man is in the length of his time; His life is a Mask, his Prologue is acted in secret, within the Curtains of the Womb; the Protasis in his Birth and Cradle; the Epitasis, in his checker'd mirth and sorrow; Death is the Catastro­phe; the Grave his Wardrobe. His time is a gliding Shuttle, a riding Post, a flying Cloud, a spying Eagle, a floating Ship, a fading Flower. The Shuttle is through, the Post is gone, the Cloud dissolves, the Eagle vanishes, the Ship is out of ken, the Flower fades. His length is but a Span, his strength Grasse, his beauty but a Venice-Glasse, a China's Dish; his thoughts Dreams, his body a Shadow, his flesh but a Vapour, his glory but a Taper, which begins as a Bubble, continues as a Blaze, ends with a Blast. Lord, what is man?

Thus what Man his Body is, in length of time: the second what, in strength of time, what in his In­fancy, what in his Youth, what in his Manage, what in his Old age; in all these Natures, ridle unfolding Sphinx his ridle. In his Infancy an Image, hath hands, and cannot handle right; tongue, and cannot speak; feet, and cannot go; a soul, and cannot understand; an unreasonable Brute, in the shape of reasonable Man, conceived in lust, imbrued in blood, brought forth in sorrow with throbs and throws.

His Youth an untamed Tiger, unsetled Quick­silver, a Camelion of every colour, a Polypus of every shape, an Ape in all imitations, beginning to swell with Pride, boyl with Revenge, burn with Lust, gaspe for Honour, gape for Riches. Manhood [Page 9] is a Monster, composed of many miseries, a Sea of sorrowes, a World of warrs, where all fears affright him: The Sea is full of Pirats, the Land of Robbers; Wealth is envied, Poverty is contemned, Wit distru­sted, Simplicity derided, Religion suspected, Vice advanced, and Virtue disgraced. Old age is a Creple, blinde as Appius, blear-eyed as Leah, lame as Me­phibosheth, bald in the head, wrinkled in the face, rot­ten in the teeth, stinking in the breath, teasty with choller, withered with drinesse, overwhelmed with sicknesse, bowed together with weaknesse, [...], looking upon the earth, which must be his grave, till he lie down in the grave, gasping for breath; begins with crying, continues with sighing, and ends with a groan, Lord, what is man?

Thus is every Age of life, a Stage of strife, that well may we sing with Ausonius a Turtle-like Song, [...], every Time is a troublesome Tide, no place or condition is secure in the world: Fear of Enemies affright, Suits in Law vex, wrongs of Neighbours oppresse, care for Wife and Children consume: The house is full of cares, the Field is full of toyl, the Country of rudenesse, the City of factions, the Court of envy, the Church of Sects, [...]; What course of life then shall a man take, when every life is a curse? What Art shall he study, when he is the dolefull subject of every Art, and studying it, studies his own misery? What does Grammer teach him, but to speak the language of his owne confusion? The first part whereof containes the true Orthogra­phie, and charactering of his cares, the Comma's, Colons, and Periods, (if any there be) of his passi­ons. [Page 10] The second unfolds his Casuum discrimina, a thousand diversities of dangers, accidents, varied with divers Cases, with Genders of sorrow, ingen­dring numberlesse, declining that which is good, and inclining to that which is evill. The third dis­plaies his misconstruction of Charity, in not Con­cording and agreeing with equalls, in not Governing his Inferiours, in not submitting to the government of Superiours. And what is the last, but an Accen­ting of his griefes, by severall pricks in the flesh, and Scanning of things upon the fingers of human reason, to tickle the ear of fancy and affection?

What is his Rhetorick, but a Poyson cooked in a painted dish? each Trope a translation from Purity to Corruption; each Climax climbes up by degrees of renued griefe; each Auxesis augments, and each Hyperbole makes up the height of his hardship. What is his Logick, but an art of Reasoning, to in­form Reason of the losse of Reason? each Predica­ment a Ladder of human frailty, declaring the Sub­stance of his body of death, the Quantity and Qua­lity of his sin, in what Relation he stands to the De­vill, Hell, and the Grave; the guilt of every Action, the sting of every Passion, ubi, quando, Where, When, in what manner and Habit every sin was committed; Demonstrating by causes, and proving by Induction, his destruction. His Musick is a Modulation, made up of diversity of maladies, in place of melodies; his birth by Originall sin sounds Base, by Actuall, Tre­ble worse; unconstant, never keepes Tenour; his life is a Cliffe, his might a Minim, his wit but a Crochet, his wisdome a Quillet, his glory but a Quaver. Lord, what is Man?

His Arithmetick deciphers the numberlesse num­ber of his necessities, adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying, measuring all things by the rule of Golden number, roules in a Circle, and ends in a Cypher. His Physick serves to seek out the symp­tomes of his sicknesse; the brain conceives frenzies, madnesse, vertigoes in the brain; the Eye sees three hundred diseases in the sight of the eye; the Ear can hear of a Parotis, or impostumated inflammation in the ear; the tongue can tell of an Angina, or Argur­angina, a Quincie, or silver-Quincie in the throat, which ties the tongue-strings: The Hand can feel a Chiragra, or Gout of bribery in the hand, the Sinews are sensible of convulsions of worldly cares; the Bow­ells of Tympanies, or swellings of pride; the Heart of a Cardialgia, or carnall fear; the whole Man of a noli me tangere, impatience of admonition. Thus Man is become the Anatomie of Misery, and the Misery of Anatomy; and yet his greatest misery is, that he can­not help his misery; making the whole World a Pesthouse, the Earth an Aceldama, or field of blood, and the Sea a Golgotha, or place of Sculs.

Thus what Man is in his body. The next, what in his Soul: First, What in regard of misery of losses. Secondly, What in regard of misery of crosses. In regard of misery of losses, the soul of Man hath lost blessings internall, externall, eternall. Internall, the perfect Image of the Creator, the perfect know­ledge of the Creature; God, Christ, holinesse in heart, uprightnesse in life, union betwixt God and the soul, which is [...], the very soul of the soul. Lost blessings externall; not Rivers of Milk, Wine, Oyle, Mountaines of Gold, Silver, Dia­monds, [Page 12] not a world of Crownes, Scepters, Diadems, these were but Blanks; but, the Prize in this Lottery lost, was his lot of inheritance in Heaven, commu­nion with Saints and Angells, in that inheritance that never fails. Lost blessings eternall, the glory of a Crown, and a Crown of glory; the blessed Vision, and the vision of Blisse, of the Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity,

Secondly, what the Soul of Man is, in regard of the misery of Crosses, crossed with the stain of sin, crossed with the pain of sin; the stain of sin, the Mind is stuffed with vanity, the Understanding is darkened with ignorance, the Will stiffned with stubbornesse; hence the Soul is defiled with lust, polluted with filthinesse, outraged with passions, over carried with affections, pined with envy, overcharged with glut­tony, surfetted with drunkennesse, boyled with re­venge, transported with rage.

The pain of sin consists in consciousnesse, of hor­rour of Conscience, and sense of a reprobate sense. This horrour meets a man in the dark, and makes him leap in the night, and makes him quake in his sleeps, and makes him start in every corner, and makes him think every Bush a Man, every Man a De­vill, every Devill a messenger to fetch him quick to Hell. By this, Theodorick saw the face of a Man in the mouth of a Fish; Nessus heard the noise of Murder, in the voice of Birds; Saunders run distracted over the Irish Mountains: This made Cain wander, Saul stab himselfe, Judas hang himselfe, Arius empty his bowells at the Stool, Latomus cry desperately, he was damned, Julian confesse, that he was conque­red; makes Man, the Lord of all, slave to all: Lord, what is Man?

Thus this Generall, what degenerate Man is in this life; the next, what degenerate Man unregene­rate, is in his death: Come to his Bed-side, and see how darts of calamity dart him.

Stiches, aches, cramps, feavours, obstructions, rheume, flegme, chollick, stone, winde, as so many tempests and whirlwindes, attempt him: View his body sweating, his members trembling, the head shooting, the face waxing pale, the nose black, the neather jaw-bone hanging down, the eye-strings breaking, the tongue faultring, the breath shortning, the throat ratling, at every gasp, the heart-strings cracking. Thus strugling, in comes Death, Hells Purveyor, to summon the Soul to Hell; Reason ac­cuses, the Devill endites, Memory gives evidence, Conscience condemnes, damned Spirits flutter like flies, to catch this Spirit flying. O then, with what stentorious cries would it pierce the Clouds, if it had a voyce to cry: Help Eyes, that were as quick­sighted in vanities, as Lynceus, and see for some com­fort; help Ears, late organs of melody, and hearken for some comfort; help tongue, that was my Suada-Orator, or Demostenes, perswade Satan, affright Death, flatter Hell, and tell my soul some comfort: Help Feet, that were my wings of swiftnesse, and quickly fetch some comfort; help hands, that were my Sword and Buckler, quiet my conscience, stop hells mouth, banish Satan, and minister me some comfort. Alas, the Eyes are closed up, the Ears deaf, the Tongue speechlesse, the Feet lame, the Hands dead, not able to remove the slime that stops the breath: and Man, that was even now a Body and Soul, is a stinking Carcase without Soul: Lord, what is Man?

Thus Death is displayed. Next, what degenerate Man is after death: A man of Death, fewell of Hell fire, lashed with Satyrs, wounded with Scorpions, scourged with Furies, sting'd with Dragons, gnawen with Vipers, still rowling the Stone of sorrow with Sisyphus, turning the restlesse Wheel with Ixion; hungring and thirsting, freezing and burning with Tantalus, burning with heat, freezing with cold. Romish crucifying, Turkish ganging, Jewish sto­ning, Christian racking, burning, firing, fagotting, are nothing to this. And besides this infinitnesse, it is everlasting infinite; the Grasse of the Field, Sands in the Haven, Stars in the Heaven, may be numbe­red; but the Dayes, and Months, and Years, and Ages, of the torments of Tophet, are numberlesse, which makes the frying Soul cry out, Fountains cool me, Mountains cover me, Rocks hide me, Sea swallow me up, that I may be freed from this bot­tomlesse Sea of misery. What Adamant can endure this knocking? what Steel this beating? what Brasse this burning? Lord, what is Man?

We passe from man Degenerate, and come to man Regenerate, the third what; what Man is by Regeneration, what in his Redemption, what in his Justification, what in his Sanctification? In his Re­demption, a Slave bought with a precious Price, a Prisoner rescued, an Enemy reconciled, a Malefa­ctour pardoned. Wretched Man was the Prisoner, the Enemy, the Malefactour. Christ is the Price, the Rescuer, the Reconciler, the Pardoner. Woods of Franckincense, Floods of Nectar, Ophir, India, and Havilah, though replenished with Gold and Pearls, could not pay this Price: Angells would [Page 15] have sunk under the burden, Man could not satisfie, God could not suffer; therefore Christ became both God and Man; God, to satisfie, Man to suffer: He left his Fathers Throne, for the Virgins Wombe, a heavenly Mansion, for a Manger; a Crown, for a Crosse, where he was crowned with Thorns, cru­cified between two Theeyes, as a Rose amongst Thornes; scourged with Whips, fastned with Nails, pierced with a Spear: where, with Saint Augustine, view his body sacrificed for man, his wounds blee­ding for man, his price payed for man, his head ben­ding to kisse man, his hands stretched out to embrace man; and then say, Lord, what is Man?

Secondly, what Regenerate man is by Justifica­tion, disrob'd of unrighteousnesse, arrayed with Christs robes of Righteousnesse, cloathed with the Wedding garment, annointed with new Oyle, fur­nished with the oyle of Grace, burning in his Lamp. The first-born of Saints are his associates, God his Father, Christ his elder Brother. Crete strove for Ju­piter, Thebes for Pindar, the seven Cities for the birth of Homer; shall not we for the Birth and Bro­therhood of Christ, which begets in us a new birth. This new birth frees Man from the second Death; the strongest, the richest, the learned'st, must taste of Death's cup; Pompey have no grave, Bajaset be brai­ned in an iron Cage, proud Saladine leave nothing but a shirt, Crassus be cashiered at Carrae, Aeschilus was slain with a Torteis shell, Euripides torn by Doggs, Mahomet the false Prophet by Hoggs, Ter­rence was drowned: But Man, that is born anew, Elected, Justified in Christ, shall not die eternally, but live for ever with Christ.

Thirdly, what Regenerate Man is by Sanctificati­on, changed from a vassall of wrath, to a vessell of honour, a spirituall creature, purified with the Spi­rit, not with Pelagian purity of conception, Ro­mish holy-water sprinkling, Popes pardoning, ex­tream unction, purgatory scorching; not with the Libertines law of Liberty, that hath no Law; but by Grace in the soul, that graciously clenses both body and soul. The Understanding is lightned, be­cause Christ is his light; the Will obedient to God, because he is born of the will of God; the Heart, by spirituall comfort, is heartned, and gives over burning; the Conscience barking; the Pulse of hor­rour beating; all his Hoste of Body and Soul, is set to serve the Lord of Hostes: Knees bend to pray, Tongue sounds to praise, Feet run, Hands fight the Lords Battle. Nor is this all, but Man enjoyes him that is all in all, and all in him: For in Christ, 1 Cor. 3. 22, 23. all are ours, we Christs, and Christ Gods. Satan cease to tempt him, Flesh to allure him World to beguile him, all is in vain; the Word feeds him, the Spirit guides him, the Creatures serve him, the Angells guard him; what joy of the Spirit with­in, what without, none knowes, no not the Spi­rit of Man, but the Spirit of him that made Man: Lord, what is Man?

Thus what Man regenerate is in Redemption, Ju­stification, Sanctification; we come to the last what, what Man is in his Glorification; what glorified in soul till the Resurrection, what in both body and soul to eternity, after the Resurrection. What Man is glorified in soul till the Resurrection, a glorified soul by Christs Resurrection, winged swiftly upon [Page 17] the wings of Cherubims to Heaven, where for every Crosse she receives a Crown; in either Palme, a Palme of Victory; Angells come at her entrance, and salute her with an Euge; thousands of Sera­phims, Thrones, Principalities and Powers, salute her with an Euge; Patriarchs, Priests, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, salute her with an Euge; Souls of Friends, Parents, Husband, Wife, Children, and all Saints deceased before her, salute her with an Euge; nay, Christ himselfe salutes her with an Euge, Well done, good and faithfull servant! To whom that Soul, with all the Souls, returnes Hallelujah; honour and praise to the Antient of daies, that sits upon the Throne. Now glorified Soul! that wouldst have won­dred with the Queen of Sheba, at Solomon in his roy­alty, at the Grand Sultan going to his Seraglio, at the Pope in his Procession; tell me how thou wilt wonder, and glory to see that Wonderfull, that nei­ther eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor hath en­tred into the heart of man. Lord, what is Man?

Thus what glorified Man is in Soul, till the Re­surrection; the last, and not the least, what glorified both in Body and Soul for ever, after the Resurre­ction. Glorified, in regard of the place of Glory, the object of Glory, the prerogatives of Glory. In re­gard of the place, which is Paradise, the third Hea­ven, the Heaven of Heavens, the heavenly Jerusalem, built of pure Gold, walled with Jasper, founded on pretious stones; the Gates, twelve Pearles, watered with the Water of life, planted with the Tree of life, bringing forth twelve kindes of Fruits, to feed the twelve Tribes of Israel: Pallas Temple at Troy, Di­ana's Temple at Ephesus, Jerusalem's Temple in Sion, must give place to this Temple of the new Jerusalem, [Page 18] which is the place of glory.

And as glorified in place, so glorious by the Ob­ject of glory in that place: The Object is, the vision of the Unity in the Trinity, where Man shall see all Felicity in the Glasse of the Trinity. Moses his face shined, with the shining brightnesse of Gods hinder parts; Paul was senslesse of all joyes but Heaven, when he was rapt into the third Heaven; Peter was transported in Soul, when Christ was transfigu­red in Body: How glorious then will thy face shine, when thou shalt see God, face to face? injoy the immediate communion with the Trinity? which will be joy to mans soul, health to his body, beauty to his eyes, musick to his ears, hony to his mouth, perfumes to his nostrills, meat to his belly, light to his understanding, content to his will, delight to his heart, whole happinesse to every part.

Glorious in the Prerogatives of glory; the body of a Mortall, made an Immortall body; of a Corrup­tible, an Incorruptible; of a Naturall, a Spirituall of a Weak, a Powerfull; of a Deformed, a Beauti­full: A Body shining as the Stars, the Soul in glory exceeding the Body, as far as the Moon exceeds the Stars; Christ in brightnesse exceeding all, as far as the Sun the Moon. Thus it shall be done to the Man, whom the King of Glory will honour. At the last doom, will Mountains burn, Devills mourn, Man shall be mounted up with Angells, and Christ the Archangell, towards Heaven: Open ye Gates, be ye opened, ye everlasting Gates, and let the King of Glory come in, with all his troops of Glory. Say all Crea­tures, what is any Creature? What is Man, Lord, what is Man, that thou conferrest this glory upon him? Sing all Creatures, Men, Angells, with Hymns, [Page 19] Anthems, Hallilujah's; keep an everlasting Sabbath of Thanksgiving, with, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbaths, heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory: To thee we give all Honour and Glory both now and for evermore.

A SERMON, Preached before the Generall of all the Forces of South-Wales, and the West of England.

HEAVEN is not feisable for mony; then shall an earthly price run in equipage with it? Well might this seem a Para­dox, if it were not a Parable. That [...], 2 Cor. 4. 17. excessive weight above, transcends our Scales below. Earth is but an Atome, and what we see, is scarce worth to make an Emblem of what we hope to [Page 20] see. Well said Emped [...]cles, Terra terram inspicimus, aeihere aetherem; In an earthen Globe, we see the earth's Diameter; and in a paper-Sphear, the Circle of the Sphears. A Mapp, displaies the World; Coun­ters, the revenues of a Crown; and, if we look up higher, a Pearl, a Palm of Victory: For, The King­dome ef Heaven is like a Merchant-man, seeking goodly Pearls.

Seek, saies our Saviour, and you shall finde; and, if ought, this Pearl is worth the scrutiny▪ Earth hath her pretious Stones, the Sea her Pearls; then what hath Heaven? The World is a Sea, the Church a Ship sailing for Pearles, and bound for Heaven the Haven. The Pixis of our Saviours speech, through this whole Chapter, points at this Pole. In the first verse, we finde Christ [...], by the Sea. In the second, [...], entring into a Ship, and that [...], on the Sea. And here resembling Heaven, [...], to a Merchant-man, trafficking by Sea. Scripture hath her rich Mines o [...] Rhetorick, and in every Mine a Mystery. This sweet conflux of the History with the Allegory, was not for nothing. Well then, make on for this Kingdome. Christ is the Gate; the Word, the Way, the Key: This Key hath many Wards. In the third Verse, [...], a Parable of the Sower: [...], in the 24. another Parable of the Tares: [...], in the 33. another Parable of the Leaven: [...], 44. Again, the Kingdome of Heaven is like unto a h [...]dden Treasure. And in the Text, [...], Again, the Kingdome of Heaven is like unto a Merchant-man. A Parable, a Parable, and then another Parable; Again, and again: and all these Parables and Againes, but Parallelisms to Hea­ven; [Page 21] Line upon Line, and Precept upon precept. Lord, how blinde are our eyes, that need so many Lamps to enlighten them. The three first pointed at the power of the Gospell; the fourth, at the price; this fifth, at the superlative transcendency of the price. Gold is the best of Mettalls, Pearles better than Gold; Heaven is like Pearles, nay, the best of Pearles, The Kingdome of Heaven, &c.

Parables had their birth in Paradise, He shall bruise thy heel, and thou shalt break his head, Gen, 3. 15. Plato commends them in his Dialogues, and does not Christ? They are fit similitudes, or, if you will, comparisons. That which no mortall eye hath seen, (and such is Heaven) must be made known by that which hath been seen. Princes send Pictures, to in­form their Paramours. Some things sublimed above a mortall reach, must be read below in Characters proportioned; as the Sun's splendour in a Pail, or as Medusa's head, is fained in Perseus glittering Shield: Moses his face must have a Vail, before he can be spoke with. These are three-fold; Typicall, as foretelling; Apologicall, as illustrating; Methologicall, as in­structing. This Parable is all; by Faith, giving fore­fight; by Knowledge, sight; by Sanctification, insight into Heaven. Then take up this Optick-glasse, The Kingdome of Heaven is like, &c.

The parts in generall, of this Apologue, are two: First, [...], the thing that is compared or like. Secondly, [...], to what it is compared or like. The thing that is likened, is the Kingdome of Hea­ven; the thing to which it is likened, is a Merchant­man, seeking goodly Pearles. The Antapodosis, or reddition to the former part, is not expressed, but by collection to be gathered from the latter. As Syn­chronisms, [Page 22] so Parallelisms, that begin together, must needs end together. Thus then take the Diagramma. First, a man under sin, is compared to a Merchant­man. Secondly, his seeking of some good things, (as omnia appetunt bonum) to seeking of goodly Pearls. Thirdly, the price of glory in Heaven being found, is compared to that one Pearl of great Price, the Mer­chant found. Fourthly, as the Merchant sold all that he had to buy that Pearle, so must we forsake all Earthly things, for this Heavenly Pearle. A Christian then is as a Merchant; probable good things, as Pearls; Heaven is [...], that most pretious of Pearles; thus [...], by inversion, [...] by al­ternation. These are the two passions the Philosopher makes of a Parable, [...], one thing alike irradiates another: For, as face answers to face in a Glasse, so the Kingdome of Heaven to this Pearl: For the Kingdome of Heaven is like, &c.

Of these Parts, by Divine assistance, and your Christian patience, in order; so using the Similitude, as Painters their Shadowes, to illustrate the Portrai­cture of the Text; [...], saies St. Chrysostom: In Apologues, we must have an eye at the Authors purpose, lest by too curious inquisition, we wring out blood. Thus then take the Paraphrase, as a Chart, to direct our Compasse in the future discourse. St. Jerom, by goodly Pearles, understands the godly Precepts of the Law and the Prophets; by that one Pearl of great price, the precious blood of our Saviour, by which we were bought with a price. The Merchant sold all to purchase this Pearl; so, with St. Paul, we must forsake the rites of the Law, ut Christum lucrifacia­mus, that we may gain Christ. This one Pearl being [Page 23] found, condemnes not the rest, nor the Sunshine of the Gospell, those lesser Stars of the Law; that was Marcion's Heresie, and the Manichees: Sed quia om­nis alia gemma sit vilior, saies Aquinas, The lustre of the Gospell is more translucent than the Law; other­wise, [...], the Law is a Doctor to drive us unto Christ.

Again, Goodly Pearles, (saies the Glosse) is the glory of this World, deforme conspicitur, all is but dung: That one pretious Pearle is that unum necessari­um, the vision of the Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, of Grace here by Faith, of Heaven here­after by Fruition. Omnia vendit negotiator, the Mer­chant sells all for this [...], love surpassing all knowledge.

These goodly Pearles, (saies St. Augustine) are unspotted and godly Men, which the Merchant sought, (as Diogenes with his Lanthorn in the Mar­ket) and found none; this one pretious Pearl is Christ Jesus, both God and Man. Or, these goodly Pearles are the observation of Gods Precepts: the pretious Pearle is, Charitas proximi, Charity, in which all vertues are contained. Or, these goodly Pearls are the Mines of Knowledge; this one Pearl, is that one Truth, [...], the Word made Flesh, Joh. 1. 14. This is the third Glosse, and [...], these three [...]re all that I finde, all of them in severall, answerable to the analogie of Faith, diversity without contrariety, and all of them joyntly perhaps to our Saviours meaning, whether the Gospell, or Grace, or Christ, or Charity, or E­vangelicall Knowledg; the Kingdom of Heaven, in the language of Scripture, comprises all, why then should not this Pearl, all? For, The Kingdome of Heaven is [Page 24] like unto a Merchant-man, seeking goodly Pearls.

Thus the Paraphrase, now to the Parts: [...], Every Man is a Merchant, that is the first Parallel; a Merchant, that Marts by Sea, not Land: For [...] is the same that [...], which Vitru­vius expresses by Mercatorem, and Lampridius by Negotiatorem Maritimum, a Merchant by Sea: At this points Porphyry, upon the second of Homer's Odysses, [...], one that trafficks by transporting: of which, Plato saies, in his Republica, [...], these are the Merchants. This appears by the root, for [...] is a journey, and such a journey (as Budaeus saies) as mari conficitur, is made by Sea. Of [...], to pierce, as water doth pores. Hence [...] is som­times [...], the Sea it selfe, and so Apollonius uses it. Well then, we are all Merchants; this floa­ting World, is the fickle Sea; these frail Bodies, our Barks; our Wishes, our Oars; our Zeal, our Sails; inbred desire of Good, our poynt in the Compasse; Knowledge, our Pilot; Discretion, our Rudder; Contemplation, our main-Mast; Provi­dence, our Cables; and Hope, our Anchor; [...], Take heed therefore to your tacklings. O navis, referent in mare te novi fluctus, fortiter occupa portum. Horat. Make for the Haven, one wave treads upon the neck of another, and where the old broak off, new scenes of surges have taken up their cues. Poor Soul, thou art the Palinurus, which ven­tures more, than all the West- Indian's Company is worth, while with the Argonautes, thou floats for the golden Fleece, embarked in a Barge of Clay, (for what is thy Body else?) all the world in sight is an Asphaltite, or dead Sea; each sound, almost a Sy­ren; [Page 25] each sin, a sink; each temptation, a tempest. Una Eurus (que), notusq, ruunt, creberque procellis Africus, (V [...]rgil Aeneid. 1.) Whirlwinds wheel about on every side, and drives our shipwracked weather beaten souls in brevia & syrtes, into desperate quicksands and shallowes, and tosses our Sea-sick Consciences, with blustering Billowes, angrier than Adria. On this side, Scylla's sin-sinking Gulph devoures us in de­spair; on that side, Charybd [...]s splits us on Rocks of presumption; here Satan, as a Pirate, assaults us without; there, through infirmity, our Vessells leak within; and what can we remember, that is not a Remora? Yet, we sing in security, as if the Halcyons had builded their nests about us, and promise our selves as fair, as if Castor and Pollux sat upon our Prora's or Poups. A wake, O thou keeper of Israel, that rebukedst the windes, and they obeyed, rebuke these windes and they shall obey. Thou that strechedst forth thy hand to Peter, when he was sinking, strecth forth thy hand of mercy, and save our souls from sinking, that optatâ potiamur arenâ, we may come to the wished for sand, where these goodly Pearls are shrined. Thus, I perceive, you imagine, how unex­pectedly my speech is glided, from Merchant, our State or Vocation, to seeking goodly Pearles, our Merchandise or Negotiation: The Kingdome of Hea­ven is like unto a Merchant-man, seeking goodly Pearls.

Seek, the Action; goodly Pearls, the Object. We must seek, which implies Paines, the best of Actions; Pearles, the best of Merchandise; goodly Pearles, the best of Pearles: Yet, Gold is but glittering clay, Pearls, but purer slime congealed; why should we seek them? Erasmus commends his Moria; Phavo­rinus, [Page 26] his quartane Feavour; Politianus, his Thersites; our Saviour, the unjust Steward; not their evill, but their good; not the Poyson in the Toad, but the Pearle. He that can bring light out of darknesse, by his omnipotent Chymistry, can extract a Pearl out of a Dunghill, the Kingdome of Heaven out of a Pearl: Seeking goodly Pearls.

After Man had lost Paradise, by losing himselfe in Paradise, the first Potion that was prescribed him for recovery, was [Seek.] A Minerall is found by digging, a Race won by running, a Pearl got by see­king. So let us seek, that we may finde; so run, that we may obtain. Atalanta, by Hippomenes his golden Apples, in the Poet, lost the Goal; by charmes of pleasure, so shall we. Let us have therefore alwaies written before our eyes, (as the Pharisees the Com­mandments on their Phylacteries) that saying of Piny, Vita vigilia est, This life is a watch. And learn that lesson, that Socrates, in Aristophanes, gives Strep­s [...]des, [...]. Let inchan­ting sleep be banished from our eyes. [...], saies Aristotle, No felicity is in slum­bring security; but, [...], in the virtuous search of an active Soul. This those Emblemes teach us, of Providence on a watch-tower, painted like Janus looking both waies; and Hercules his two waies in the Wildernesse, una voluptatis, the one of Pleasure, (as Tullie saies) but the other of Paines. Let us with Alexander, [...], nothing delaying, by seeking insist in this painfull way, lest, while with the Ravens, by sloath, we gape against the Sun, Satan watch us, as the Crab does the Oyster, in St. Ambrose, soru­pulps injiciens, throwing in Peebles in stead of Pearls, Seeking goodly Pearles.

So we are come to the Object of this search, [ [...], Pearls.] The word for Pearl in this place, hath its name from Mare, the Sea, or at least is Gem­ma Marina, a Pearl proper to the Sea; and this (which Quintilian commends) continues the Alle­gory. Gemmarum multa sunt genera, (saies Plinie) Pearles are of many kinds; [...], this Sea­kind is the best, and of them, those in profundo ma­ris are best, that are in the depth of the Sea. No won­der then, if this Merchant does [...], seek these Pearles.

They have many names to be sought by: That which Christ here, and Theophrastus elsewhere, calls [...], a Pearl, Arrianus calls Cynaedum; Lucian [...]; Statius, Propertius, and Claudian, [...]; Cicero, Gemmam; Pliny, Unionem; Virgil, Baccham Concheam; and St. Jerom, rubri maris gra­num, a grain of the Red Sea. Thus the Names; a word of the Nature: They are Conchae, pretious Shells, conceived in Conchyliis, in Sea-fishes, which at the time of their conception, drinking the dew from Heaven, gravidae in partu enituntur Mar­garitas, are delivered of Pearles, together with their Spawns. These goodly Pearles, the Merchant seeks, and emblemed in these, every man [...], seeks some Good, and to his knowledge, (as the Philoso­pher saies) [...], the Chiefest good. Our souls at first, like Needles of a Diall, were touched with the Magneticall tincture of Gods Image, poynting at Him, the Pole; till sin, like the Onyons of Egypt, and the presence of the Adamant in our hearts, bends our thoughts another way; like Children new­born, we still seek some Breast to suck, and with the confounded Linguists at Babell, lisp out some lan­guage: [Page 28] with Ixion, taking the Cloud for Juno, a Glasse for a Pearle, Jacob for Esau. Mans Soul is a seeking-Creature, and for lack of the chiefest, must have some, though but apparent Good. Hence it comes to passe, that this brittle glassie sea of the World, that should be the Chanell to convey us, and our perspective Glasse, to look up to Heaven, proves our Harbour, and our Looking-glasse. This gavefewell to that faction, betwixt the Academicks, and the Peripateticks, both of them confessing, that [...], the object of the Will, was that which is good: The one said, [...], but appa­rent good; the other, [...], true good. Aristotle joyned both, or quicquid sub specie boni, whatsoever seemes good: And that is meant by goodly Pearles, so called, not because they are all so, but because they all seem to be so. True Good, is a conformity with the will of God, archetypa, not with the will of man. Some are simply evill, as sensuality, sinfull pleasure: Some [...], neither Good nor Evill, but [...], as they are used; these are the Goods of Fortune, (as they call them) Honour, Riches. Some truly Good, yet not the chiefe Good, because re­ferred to a chiefer, or Architectonicall end, as Pru­dence, and Morall vertues, though Austin in Hea­thens, calls them, splendida peccata, glittering sins.

Well then, no wonder, if (as Varro saith, and the Father of Hippo secondeth him, in his Civitate Dei) there were three hundred opinions in the language of my Text, concerning these Pearles. As truth is is one, so Errour is infinite; and yet they were igno­rant of the Law, the Jewish Targum Cabala, and Sanhedrim, which Interpreters comprise within these Pearls. O the endlesse search of these inferiour [Page 29] things! we may seek them, but not rest in them. See­king is a motion, motion argues imperfection, so does Pearles in the plurall number: Martha carked for many things, there was but one thing needfull. It is wittily at least observed by Origen, that God put no lo, it was good upon that day, when the light was divided from the darknesse; nor must we put any rest in these Pearls. For to instance in a few: What is Pleasure, but a pill in Sugar? Beauty, but a painted Snake? Honour, but a blast of idle Winde? Riches, but a smile of Fortune? and all the Wealth the World hath piled together, but Obelisks of vanity? Let some Gallants condemn this, as the voice of a melancholick Schollar; yet, I know a day will come, when, Eccles. 12. 3. the keepers of their house of clay shall tremble, those that look out of the win­dowes shall be darkened, and Death shall gnaw upon them like sheep: then they shall confesse, that none, nor all these, can give their souls content. There is one pretious Pearle, that neither Prince nor Peo­ple, Men, nor Angells, have in their keeping; Heighth nor Depth, Principalities nor Powers, Life nor Death, can take away; and that is, [...], this one pretious Pearl.

So we are passed to the third part or parallel, where observe this method: first, seek; then finde. God answers every man to, nay, above his expecta­tion: Saul sought Asses, and found a Crown; the Milesian fishers, Fishes, and found a golden Trivet; the Merchant sought Pearls of lesse price, and found one of greater price. This Pearl is but one, and yet instar omnia, it comprises all. Plinie calls it an Union, and what is it else, but an union of God and Man into one person? of God and Mankinde into one [Page 30] Covenant? One, because Truth (as the Schoolman saith upon this place) is in divisa, undivided, as the Trinity in Athanasius his Creed. This Pearle was sought, because promised in the Law, but found in the Gospell. Abraham made his Servant put his hand under his thigh, and swear, (as Isiodore Pelusiota saies) by Christ, that was to come out of those loyns. The Massorites sought this Pearle out of the profound Sea of Curi­osities; Rabbins and Jewes, amongst Thrones, Pa­laces, and Principalities; and it is more than pro­bable, that the [...], or Popular sort, sought but an earthly Prince. But, as Mercury in the Fable, sent the Husbandman a Golden Hatchet, who pe­titioned but for an Iron one; so the carnall Jewes seeking but an earthly Messias, found an Emanuel: [...], I have found, saies the Mathematician, and what? but the Rule of Algebra. Italiam! cryed, Aene­as, and novum orbem! Columbus, but at the ken of an earthen shoar: [...], We have seen his Star, (saies the Wise-men); but when they had seen the Babe, [...], they re­joyced exceedingly. And so this Merchant, when he had found [...], this one Pearl of great price.

Many things have been esteemed pretious: Gyges his Ring, by which he went invisible; Vulcan's Pan­oplie, that was falsly reported to secure from all Weapons; Aesculapius his Herbe Panace, to cure all Diseases; [...], to contain all curi­osities: the Palm in Plinie, to minister all things ne­cessarie for Meat, Drink, Cloathing, and Building: the pretious Stone Opalum, to have the vertue of all Stones▪ the brightnesse of the Carbuncle, purple [Page 31] colour of the Amethist, the amiable greennesse of the Emerald; all these were nothing to this one pretious Pearl. There is a Pearle Gemites, wherein appears a hand in hand; that is this Pearle, Christ Jesus, and his Kingdome, wherein God and Man are joyned hand in hand, and [...], God with us.

Well then, get this Philosophers Stone, and thou needs want no Gold of the Sanctuary; this most pretious Pearl, so pretious, that it is beyond all conceptions transcendant: Reason cannot fathom it, but is at a stand; Scripture expresses, that it is unexpressible, Phil. 4. 7. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entred into the heart of man. The Saints at the sense of it, are rapt into an Exta­sie; Cherubims vail their faces: Sanctifying grace in man comes somewhat near it, which causeth joy in the heart unspeakable: and yet there is as great a disproportion, as for a Star that is enlightned by the Sun, to expresse the whole glory of the Sun. The World is but a painted Map, the reall Vision is in Heaven: all Creatures are but Raies and Spangles, from this Pearle that sits upon the Throne; and keepes the Keyes of Life. Tell me then, poor soul, what if this World were as the Gardens of Alcinous, Elysian fields, or Paradise; the Rivers run with Nectar, the Fields brought forth Ambrosie, Hya­cinth, and Moly; thy Ways were strowen with Car­pets, thy Head crowned with Rose-buds, each Tree were as the Tree of Life, or Apples of the Hespe­rides; the Heavens were a Globe of Gold, the Earth a Centre of Diamond, the Clouds shoured down pre­tious Pearles, like Gold in Diana's lap; each Man were an Orpheus or Amphion, with Musicks harmo­nious [Page 32] charm, to set Devotion on the Wing: Tell me, whether this one pretious Pearl being found, thou wilt not sell all that thou hast, and buy it?

So we are come to the last Parallel, or fourth Ri­ver of our Paradise, [...], He went, and sold. Grace is nimble heel'd, will not stand still, when it is transported with an Object, but moves unto it, as grave things to the Centre. The Merchant sought this Pearl before he found it, and when he had found it, he still went on. A Christian moves in a Circle, that point that ends one motion, like a Terminus communis, begins another. Standing water corrupts. Go we must for this Pearl, and yet we need not farr; Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and to the Tombs of Saints, are now out of date; Heaven, in this Sunshine of the Gospell, is to be found every where. Go, but not from thine own Pastour, in every Church. Revel. 22. 17. The Spirit, and the Bride saies, Come: Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. And yet he went, and sold. That which cost our Saviour his Blood, must cost us something. Though we have nothing but what we have received, yet, God must receive of that which we have: Or if we have any thing, it is but sin. Let us cut off our Hand of revenge, pluck out our Eye of lust, belch out our Heart of pride, and sell our selves, that we may buy our Sa­viour. This is to sell all that we have, not for a new Inheritance in a New England, under a new Discipline; this is with Demosthenes, to buy repen­tance to be repented of, which some of them confes­ses: Others, like the mured Anchorit at Bruxells, bites-in the lip, and dissembles, and sees their ex­change to be like his, that gave golden Armour for Brasen, but too late.

We must sell all to buy Heaven: Shall Creates of Thebes throw his Gold into the Sea, for purchase of Philosophy, and shall not we for Christ? Many in Hadrians time, lost their goods, their lives, in following that false Messias, that styled himself Benchochab, the son of a Star; but proved Bencozba, the son of a Lie. But he that followes Christ, shall gain his life, and fight under that Banner that Con­stantine saw, with this inscription, and the appariti­on of the Crosse, or rather crucified Saviour, [...], In this, overcome. What then, if we had the whole World to cast in counterpoise with this Pearl, it were [...], not worthy of it, but as the dust of the Ballance in comparison. We are like Sun-Dialls, unlesse It shine; blaze Torches, Tapers, Candles, all Stars at once are of no use; flow Riches, Honour, Strength, Wives, Friends, Children, to our con­tentment, without this Sun of Righteousnesse, it is still night. Lesser Pearles may be Copies of Gods Grace; but without Seal, Cyphers of no value, un­lesse the Unity in the Trinity be joyned with them. We cannot conceive so great a number of earthly things, but still more may be added, more desired: but, he that hath this Pearle, is ravished in spirit, cannot conceive more, hath contentment in minde, cannot desire more, his Cup doth overflow: To the fruition, and beatificall vision whereof, God of his mercy bring us.

[...].

A SERMON, Preached at the Ordination of MINISTERS.

THIS word is one of the last, ut­tered by Him, who is Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, to the Church of Laodi­cea, the last of the seven Chur­ches of Afia: A golden Lesson delivered by Him, that stands in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks, girded about his Papps with a golden Girdle, counselling us to buy Gold tryed with the fire. A light shining from Him, that holds the light of the seven Stars in his right hand, whose coun­tenance shines as the lightning. A burning Coal of Affection sent from his Altar, the feet of whose [Page 35] affections burns as fine Brasse in a Furnace, to in flame the key-cold affections of the luke-warm La­odiceans. [...], Be zealous.

The Angels of these seven Planet-moving Chur­ches, are compared here to seven Stars; yet, all of them borrowing their light from that Son of Man, Christ Jesus, that shines in the midst of them. The Angell of the Church of Laodicea, is ranked here like the Moon, the last in the Sphear of this heavenly Vi­sion: As the Moon waining from grace, she hath left her first love; as the Moon eclipsed, she is poor, and blinde, and naked; as the Moon seeming the greatest in her own eyes, I am rich, increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing, when she is the least of the Stars, wretched and miserable; as the Moon, bemoy­stening all things with watry humours, not with dew-dropping tears of repentance, but with carnall humours to be repented of; Repent, and do thy first works. As the Moon, neither hot nor cold in it selfe, they are luke-warme; so hot, as still Professors; so cold, as but hypocriticall disguisers: As the Moon, the Fountain of coldnesse to others, befreezing the well-springs of Grace, and sluces of Charity; thus this poor Church is sick, quid faciet? what shall she do? To what Gilead shall she resort for Balm? Come all you that are sick, and here is one salve for every soar, made up by the Physitian of the Soul, in this one Electuary, Zeal. If thy Grace be waining, Zeal will increase it; if thou be poor, Zeal will pre­sent thee Gold tryed in the fire; if thou be blinde, Zeal is a Collyrium or Eye-salve, to annoint thine Eyes withall: if thou beest naked, Zeal is a Garment to cover thy nakednesse withall; if thy Soul be drow­ned with a deluge of carnall humours, Zeal is a [Page 36] flame to drye it; if thou be luke-warm, Zeal is a fire to kindle thee; if thy Heart be frozen, Zeal is a heat to thaw it: [...], Be zealous.

It containes an Exhortation, brought in by way of illation, with this Illative, [...], As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: [...], Be zealous therefore: God loves us, therefore we must be zea­lous, for zeal is more then an ordinary heat of love. God, who is infinite, loved his Church infinitely; the Church, which is his Darling, must love him fer­vently, this fervency of love is zeal. Because he re­bukes us, we must be zealous, inkindled with zeal of anger at those sins, that he rebukes us for, moved with a zeal of love towards God, for rebuking us with Words, when he might afflict us with Swords. Zealous, because he chastens us with Rods, and not with Scorpions, sparkling with the fire of zeal at sin that chastises us, but zealous of those sparks of Gods love and mercy, that chastises, and subdues sin in us: [...], Be zealous.

The word hath its name from [...], to seeth, and [...] from the Greek Letter Z, the sound that li­quor makes in seething: Seething presupposes boy­ling, boyling heating, heating fire: This fire is af­fection, the seething pot the soul, Knowledge the fuell, prayer and meditation the bellowes; these in­flame the heart, and soul, and conscience, and eve­ry faculty of the inward Man; neither staies it there, but sparkles out into the outward Man, the tongue is tipped with zeal, the eye sparkles with zeal, the hand brandishes the sword of zeal, the feet are shod with zeal, all are zealous at once for the Lord of Hostes. This heat of zeal, if it be right tempered, in a fit quantity, as heat in the third Degree, is an An­tidote [Page 37] against vice, a Cordiall in afflictions, a pur­ger of corruptions: But if it be too hot, as in the fourth of fifth Degree, it becomes a poyson, a wild­fire, that no waters, scarce many waters, scarce the milk of the Gospell, will queneh: It is a fire that burnes without knowledge, as Ch [...]ysogonus his pot at Rome, seethes without any fire of knowledge at all; it is an ignis fatuus, a blinde fire, leading us in a blinde way; this blinde way is the broad way, that leads to destruction.

In briefe, the word [...], [Zeal] generally ta­ken, is an earnest affection to any thing; [...], a thing indifferent, neither good nor bad; and yet, either good or bad, as the thing to which it is refer­red differences it: When it soars aloft at Heaven, and the Sun of righteousnesse, then it is a Phoenix of vertues; for this, Phineas his Sword, imitating the flaming Sword of the Cherubim; and blind Samuel his zeal, though not blinde zeal, is commended. By this, one of the Apostles conquered more, then he that was the greatest Conquerour. Scipio, by con­quering Africk, was called Africanus; but Simon, by conquest of Zeal, was called Zelotes; this Con­quest was Heaven, a greater than can be imagined in somnio Sc [...]pionis. This Simon was not Simon Peter, for his Motto was not Zeal, but Love; Simon, lovest thou me? But it was Simon the Canaanite, not of the land of Canaan, with Caph, that comes from a Root that signifies, he was made vile; but written with Kuph, comming from a Root in Pihel Kinne, and signifies, He was moved with zeal. But Zeal, when it lookes asquint, and is not fixed upon the right object, when, Icarus-like, it towers aloft, without the wings of Knowledge; when, like an unruly flame, [Page 38] bursting out of the Furnace, it sets our neigh­bours house on fire, it's vitious, bitter as Colliquin­tida; for which, St. James calls it, [...], bitter zeal. The zeal here meant is in Nature, true zeal, in regard of the object, zeal according to knowledge, in degree, moderate zeal. [...], Be zealous.

The party exhorting was Zelotypus, a zealous God, out of whose mouth went a sharp two-edged Sword. The parties exhorted, the lukewarm Laodi­ceans, whom neither sincerity had made hot, nor hypocrisie would suffer to be cold. The thing ex­horted to, is Zeal; Zeal, which when it is true, drives out the distempered feavourish heat of opinion, that brainsick frenzie heat of obstinacy, and cures the senslesse security of that Lethargy of sin. [...], Be Zealous.

It cannot be divided into many Propositions, for it is but one, and that implicite; nor into many words, for it is but one, though explicite; yet, consisting of many Letters, and that without super­stition, a sacred septenary, which like the seven heads of Nilus, meets all in one Chanell: but here is the difference, the heads of Nilus are scarce known; the Head of zeal, well grounded knowledge, must be known: Those that dwell near the heads of Nilus, with the found thereof are made deafe, and cannot hear; but those, in whose heads, or rather hearts, Zeal dwells, are made more judicious, and more quick to hear. The word is one, the Proposition one, the Exhortation one, the point of Doctrine it yields is also one, Christians must be zealous. Be zealous; is as much as if he had said, You Pastours, you People must be zealous. Though the [Page 39] Laodiceans (Angell and Church) be Christians in profession, yet not spoke to them alone, but to all Christians, as the Oyntment poured on Aarons head, runs down to the skirts; All Christians must be zea­lous. All Scriptures, Prophets, Apostles, Saints, Evangelists, as so many Virgins with Oyle in their Lamps, yield fewell to this Torch of Zeal, by pre­cept, by practice. Noah's zeal dryed the waters of the Flood, which overtopped the Mountains, and drowned the VVorld. Lot's zeal, by a more holy fire, quenched the fire of Sodome, and preserved his life in Zoar. The brightnesse of Moses his zeal was ad­mirable, outshining the brightnesse of his face, Exod, 32. 32. If thou wilt not forgive their sins, blot me out of the book which thou hast written. Blot me. Does Moses his zeal, as Eagles at the Sun, flie at things impossible? or does he wing his speech with Seraphick raptures, to elevate his Rhetorick to Him, that thunders in the Clouds? Or, is he rapt with St. Paul into the third Heaven, where he conceives things unutterable, and utters things unconceivable? Or, does he dart this by way of supposition, that he would be contented with damnation, upon con­dition of their salvation? it is uncertain: Yet, this is most certain, though he shot at rovers, Zeal ben­ded the Bow, and drew the Arrow to the head. Phi­nehas his heat of zeal, contrary to the nature of heat, stayed the Plague, and cleansed the aire, and by the fall of two, prevented the fall of thousands on his right hand, and ten thousands on his left. David his zeal went through his bones, like the fury of a he­ctick Feavour, and brought him into a consumption, Psal. 119. 139. My zeal hath even consumed me, be­cause mine enemies have forgotten thy word. [Mine [Page 40] enemies have forgotten thy word.] VVhat would he have done, if his friends, if himselfe had forgot it? Psal. 69. 9. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up: that is, wasted me, consumed me, made me a Sche­leton or Anatomy. Come on, and see Jehu's zeal against Jezabel for the Lord of Hostes; whose zeal, though not true, if it be commended, consider what true zeal would be. Esay's terrible Trumpet was tipped with zeal, sounding a retreat to Idolatrous Judah and Jerusalem, Jeremiah's zeal did boyl more fervently, then the seething pot he spyed in the North, against the sins of the people. Our Saviour, the perfect pattern of zeal, though as meek as a Lambe in his own quarrell, yet zeal made him as fierce as a Lion in Gods, and that sparkling in words, Woe to thee Bethsaida; in deeds, to Peter in private, Get thee hehinde me Satan; to the prophaners of the Tem­ple in publick, You have made my Temple a den of theeves. Zeal metamorphosed Paul, from a Persecutor to a Professor, a Preacher, a labourer in Christs Vine­yard, one that laboured more then them all, a Mar­tyr indeed, sacrificing his body for the truth; and, if wishes would have prevailed, Anathema pro popu­lo, his soul also: Neither could this heat of zeal be kept within him, but like the fire of Aetna, it burst out to others. Tit. 2. 14. Be zealous of good works. Rom. 12. 11. Be fervent in spirit; fervency of spirit is but zeal, dressed in other attire. All those emblems in St. John's vision, of a zeal-commanding Saviour, are but so many motives to zeal; seven gol­den Candlesticks, burning with Lamps of zeal, a golden Girdle about his Papps, this Girdle (as that Ephes. 6.) is Zeal, Truth and Zeal must go together: These Papps are the two Testaments, from whence [Page 41] all truth flowes, upon which altar all zeal must be kindled. His eyes are a flame of fire: these eyes are Knowledge, this flame of fire is Zeal; knowledge and zeal must go together. His feet like fine brasse, burning in a furnace: This brasse is stability and con­stancy, this burning brasse is zeal; zeal and constancy must kisse each other. In his right hand seven stars: These Stars are so many Lamps, giving light to o­thers; for, they that have given up their names to Christ in Baptism, must be like John Baptist, lucernae ardentes, burning lights; lights burning inwardly with­in themselves, shining outwardly to others. Chri­stians must be zealous.

And that this our Christian zeal may be distin­guished from an ignis erra [...]icus, or wandring fire of opinion; an ignis fulminaris, or frensive fire of rebel­lion, let us examine the ground of this truth; for all zeal is grounded upon truth, and all truth upon Christ, [...], the Truth. Hence it is, that Chri­stians should be zealous, because for this cause, Tit. 2. 14. Christ gave himselfe for us, that he might re­deem unto himselfe a peculiar reople, zealous of good works. That Angel that appeared unto Moses in the burning bush, to the Prophets in a pillar of fire, as speaking from God to Man, became [...], both God and Man, that Man for the glory of God might be zealous. He bought our salvation with pangs, and blood, and sweat, that we, zealous of pie­ty and purity, might work out our salvation with fear and trembling. He sweat blood in the Garden, he was beat with cords and whips, fainted under the Crosse in the way, was fastned to it with nails, pier­ced with a spear, assaulted by Satan, Hell, and all our sins at once, that we might be covered with righte­ousnesse [Page 42] as with a roab, and cloathed with zeal as a garment. The Turks are zealous of their Mahomet, the Sidonians of Bell and Dragon, the Priests of Baal of their Idoll, the Papists for their Reliques, Cruci­fixes, Images; the Jesuits of their Ignatius Loyola, each Sect of their own superstitions: Then, shal not Christians be zealous for Christ, who, zealous of our salvation, gave himselfe for us, that we might be zealous of good works?

Secondly, Christians must be zealous, because zeal is the life and soul of Christianity; that which the Bellowes are to the forge, zeal is to the Soul, an in­kindler of grace; that which naturall heat is to the body, zeal is to the spirit, a preserver of Grace; that which Heroicall vertue is to Morall vertues, the same is zeal to all divine and heavenly vertues, the perfe­ction of grace. Zeal is the quintessence of Graces di­stilled, the marrow and life of Religion, the height and hyperbole of Holinesse. Faith without zeal, is but historicall, Charity without zeal is but hypocri­ticall, Profession without zeal is but carnall, Pati­ence without zeal is but Stoicall Apathie; Mercy without zeal is foolish sympathy, Hope without zeal is but impudency, Love without zeal but lechery, VVisdome without zeal but folly, Martyrdome without zeal but murder. These two reasons of the Poynt we have but poynted at, because zeal is a Grace that is grounded upon reason, yet in the heart, pra­cticall; therefore we omit any further reason, and come to Application. First, inquiring what true zeal is: Secondly, the severall kindes of zeal.

Zeal is defined by the Philosopher, to be a mix­ture of anger and love, when we are angry at the party or thing, that injures that which we love. [Page 43] These two affections, as fire and oyle, met together in Moses; he loved God, hated Idolatry, therefore he was angry at that Idoll, that was enmity against God. Antient Divines have described it, to be a mixt affection of griefe and anger flowing from love. Griefe is an affection of the heart, that wounds the soul for some present evill; thus Jeremie mournes, for the misery of the daughter of Sion. Anger is mixed of sadnesse and a desire of revenge: Esau was sad for the losse of his Birthright, his heart boyled with revenge against his supplanting Brother. These were the territories the Antients tyed zeal to, who all shot near, yet missed the mark; for true zea [...] neither consists in hatred, nor love, nor sorrow, nor a desire of revenge alone, a channell too narrow for zeal to run in, which (like) Nilus overflowes the whole soul; the higher, the fruitfuller. But true zeal, either consists in a mixture of all the affections, or is a high and heroicall pitch of any affection, that makes Heaven suffer violence. A high rapture of spi­rituall joy is zeal, that, like St. Paul, rapes us up into the third Heaven. The Scheme in Paul's Rhetorick was zeal, when he said, Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies, and again I say, Rejoyce. By this zeal, John Baptist leapt in his Mothers wombe, at the presence of Mary con­ceiving. By this zeal, Simeon's trembling armes re­ceived heat, to embrace our Saviour. By this zeal, the Angels rejoyce in heaven at a sinners conversion. Sure­ly, it was a high pitch of affection, and no affection but zeal, that lift the soul of Diagoras, of Chylon the Lacedemonian, of the Roman VVidow, off the hin­ges; this affection was joy. And, as a high pitch of joy, so, strain the pegg of sorrow, and it will prove zeal. Joy, a rapture for the present good; sorrow a [Page 44] pressure for the present evill. Rachell's sorrow for her Children, Mourning and weeping, and great la­mentation. Jeremiah's mourning for the captivity of the people, Come and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, may make up the tale of zeal. David's mourning all the day long, watering of his couch. Eze­kiah's chattering as a swallow, or crane in the desert, is the fruit of zeal. Hope, when it is wafted with full sailes towards the Haven, and like the Heliotrophium spreads it selfe towards the Sun of righteousnesse, is zeal. It was this zeal of strerched forth Hope, that put this [...], or full assurance, in Paul's mouth, I am perswaded, that neither death, nor life, &c. shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom. 8. 38. And as hope, so fear, when it is a Graduate in the University of the Soul, puts on the habit of zeal; this fear must be filiall: Such zeal as this was the fear of Martyrs, which feared God more then thousand deaths and burnings. This zealous fear of God wrought in Igna­tius this heavenly resolution, Fire, gallowes, wilde beasts, breaking of my bones, quartering of my members, crushing of my body, and all the tortures of hell come up­on me, so that I may enjoy my Lord Jesus and his king­dome. Anger, when in the forge of the affections, it receives a heat more than ordinary, becomes zeal. In this zeal, Moses broak the Tables, when he saw the golden Calfe set up. Phinehas in this zeal, thrust through the Adulterers. Samuel slew Agag. Hatred, when it growes inveterate and headie, Aeternum ser­vans sub pectore vulnus, is zeal. This is the zeal that all Saints have towards sin, Satan, corruption.

Love, when it is elevated to the height, is zeal; such love, such zeal, was that of Jonathan's love, [Page 45] stronger than death, stronger then the love of a woman. [...], Rejoycing at anothers hurt, when it is fixed upon the right object, in a high measure, is zeal; that object must be malum poenae, the evill of punishment, not malum culpae, the evill of sin. In this zeal, Moses and the Israel [...]tes sung a song of de­liverance, for the overthrow of Pharaoh. Barak and Deborah for the death of Sisera. This zeal wings Da­vid's Apostrophe to God, VVash thy footsteps, O Lord, in the blood of thine enemies, and laugh at their destru­ction. Thus you see zeal consists not in anger, love, or sorrow alone, but in a high pitch of all the affe­ctions, or any of them.

In the second place, we come to distinguish the severall kindes of zeal, or by the touchstone of tryall, to difference true from false. All zeal is a fire, and then true, when like Eliah's fire, it is from Heaven; then false, when like Nadab's and Abihu's, it is strange fire, such as God commands not. False zeal may be fixed, either upon the true or false object, true zeal onely upon the right object. When zeal is set upon the false object, it may be great, setting Churches and Commonweales in combustion, but can never be good. This wildfire is either Doctrinall in opinion, or Practicall in conversation; Doctri­nall, so the Turks are zealous for their Mahometan superstition, and Alcaron, the Ephesians for their Temple of Diana, and silver Shrines; the Church of Rome for their Popes Supremacy, Images, Indulgen­ces; the Brownists against the buildings of our Chur­ches, which they call Antichristian Synagogues. Practicall in conversation, when our zeal towards riches, makes Mammom our God, and things be­low, that should be our Perspective-glasse, to look [Page 46] towards Heaven, proves our Looking-glasse; when such is our zeal in Prayer, that though we seem to petition first for spirituall things, after for tempo­rall, our affections reads them backwards, like fi­gures, valuing the latter ten times more than the former. Again, zeal may be false, when it is fixed e­ven upon the right object, and that either in regard of the measure, or means. In regard of the measure, either too cold, which is remission, or too hot, which is superstition; too cold, and this is the tempe­rature of carnall worldlings, time-serving polititi­ans, formall professours, that will seem to be Chri­stians, and yet will give no sheafe of their corn, no penny of their talent, no oyle of their cruse, to the poor members of Christ; Christians in name, yet Devills incarnate indeed, zealous for the smoak of their chimney's, the watercourse of their channells, the dust of their waies, the bubble of their fame; yet, without any touch of conscience, hear the name of God blasphemed, see his Church profaned, ruinated; see the Fatherlesse wronged, the Widow oppressed; see the bleeding wounds of both Church and Com­mon-wealth gaping.

Zeal upon the right object too hot, which is su­perstition; this zeale is either of them, which are too hot for Ceremonies, that they advance them into the chair of Substance, punish the neglect of them as se­verely, as blasphemy, as murther, as theft: Too hot against Ceremonies, that while they brand others with superstition, surmount the highest Tower of superstition, forsaking holy solemnities for a Cere­mony, the Sacrament for a gesture, the Ministry for things of the least moment; pay Tithe of Annise, Mint, and Cummine, let passe the wonderfull things [Page 47] of God; strain at a Gnat, and swallow a Camell. False zeal, yet fixed upon the right object, in regard of the means and ground upon which it is builded; builded either upon ignorance, our own ends, or other men: Ignorance of them, that are hot in them­selves, a spur to others, a censurer of all men, that are slacker then they in duties that ought to be done; yet, they know no ground in Scripture, no reason in Nature why. This is false zeal, the zeal of ignorant Romists, to believe as the Church believes. Zeal up­on the right object, for our own ends; thus Judas was zealous for the bag, the People in the Wilder­nesse for the Bread, the Priests of Bell for the Wheat and Oyle, those in Tertullian's time, that went with the Christians to the Assembly of Prayer, because they were commonly attended with Love-feasts. This is false zeal, because it is not a heat of the heart, but of the stomack, and may be so sincere, as to arise out of the bowells, yet it ends in the belly. False zeal upon the right object, when it is builded upon men; zealous of the Word, when it is preached by such a man; key-cold, when more learnedly, more powerfully, more sincerely by another: They pray after such a manner, because such an one, who is their Paul, their Apollos, their Cephas,, their Demi­god, does so: Run so many miles to hear a Sermon, leaving a better at home behinde them, because such an one makes conscience of such things, conscience to disobey the Ordinance of God, conscience to be singular, conscience at the best, to be zealous not according unto knowledge, which is as good a consci­ence, as a painted man is a man. Now we come to true zeal, true in regard of the Object, Gods glory, Righteousnesse, Heaven, and spirituall things; true [Page 48] in regard of the measure and degree, neither too cold by remission, nor too hot by superstition. True in regard of the means and grounds, not builded up­on ignorance, which is blinde zeal; nor upon pro­fit or pleasure, which is counterfeit zeal; nor upon men, our Idoll-gods, which is idolatrous zeal. Of this here more briefly, because we stood more largely upon false zeal. For, as rectum curvi, so curvum & sui, & recti index; in the glasse of false zeal, we may judge of true zeal.

But, that we may distinguish this true fire of zeal, from many wildfires; true heat, from feavourish heat; Amphitryo from Jupiter, Juno from the Cloud, Salam [...]nder-like, let us abide a while in these flames. For, what is true of conscience, may be said of zeal; each man, each Heretick, pretends a zeal; the Turks die for their Mahomet, it is their zeal; the Jesuits stab Kings, dethrone Princes, it's their zeal; the Ar­rians go to the Stake, for denying the Divinity of Christ, it's their zeal; the Israelites offer their Chil­dren to Molah, it's their zeal; thou leaves divine Ordinances, the Sacraments, perhaps thy weighty Calling, it's thy zeal. Well, but all that say they are Israelites, are not of Israel: Therefore if thou wouldest have the touchstone of tryall, observe these marks well, and thou maist discern true zeal by them.

First, the matter and subject of thy zeal must be good, Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealously affected in a good matter. This is a fire that burnes in no Lamp, but the Lamp of the Sanctuary; a fire that feeds upon no oyle, but the oyle of the Sanctuary; that is kin­dled upon no Altar, but Gods, devoures no Sacri­fice but Gods. If the matter and subject of thy zeal [Page 49] be evill, thy zeal is evill. No fire but ignis erraticus, will feed upon stinking ditches; no fire but ignis lambens, will feed upon thine own carnall humours. If thou be zealous with Saul against Christianity, it is blasphemy; if thou be zealous with the Pharisees, to compasse Sea and Land to make a Proselyte of thy groundlesse opinions, it is diabolicall Heresie. Thy zeal is a fruit, that must not grow upon the for­bidden tree. Though thine eyes be now blinded, yet hereafter they may be opened, that thou maist see the blindnesse of thy zeal.

Secondly, true zeal, is zeal according to know­ledge, Rom. 10. 2. this knowledge must be the Scrip­tures truly understood, guiding us as a pillar of fire by night, a pillar of cloud by day. No fire might kindle the Vestalls Lamps, but from the Sun; no fire will kindle this Lamp of zeal, but the Sun of Righteousnesse, Christ; who (as Ignatius saies) as he was [...], the essentiall Word, by which all knowledge was created, so he is [...], the Word of life, which is a light unto our feet, and a lant­horn unto our steps. For this cause, Bernard compared knowledge and zeal to two wings; knowledge with­out zeal, cannot flie so high as to pierce the clouds; zeal without knowledge, is beatt back again like a whirlewinde: Take with thee both wings, Zeal and Knowledge, if thou wouldest flie to Heaven. As is fire to a Child that walks among barrells of Gun­powder, so is zeal without knowledge, a cause of incendiaries and combustions in Common-weales. This zeal without knowledge, slashed and gashed the Priests of Baal; this zeal without knowledge, armes the ignorant Papists, to maintain that with sword and blood, and persecution, which they cannot de­fend [Page 50] with the Word: This zeal without knowledge, makes many ignorant people in our nation, (as pre­posterously, as if one should ring the Bells back­ward at the sparkling of a Smith's Forge, or fire the Beacons at the discovery of a poor Dunkirkers Ves­sell) to be up in armes against every thing, that cros­ses their humours.

This blinde zeal works three dangerous effects in the soul; 1. Pride. 2. Uncharitablenesse. 3. Impati­ence of admonition. First, Pride, that like Lucifer the morning Star, they are bright in their own con­ceit, like the Element of fire over all Elements; nay, as good as in Heaven in their own conceit, cast in the same mould with Nebuchadnezar's Image, their head is of Gold, but their feet of Clay. Secondly, this zeal without knowledge is Uncharitable, cen­suring, nay, condemning all, like the fire of Eliah, not sparing the Elders. This made the Jewes crucifie Christ, for reproving their traditions; the Arrians persecute the Orthodox Christians, more then did the Heathen Emperours; the Papists more zealous for their Canons of the Councill of Trent, than for the Articles of their Creed. Thirdly, zeal without knowledge is impatient of admonition; it is as deafe as an Adder, though you charm it never so wisely; be earnest, and it flies with the sting in your face. This zeal made the Pharisees impatient, when our Saviour rebuked them for their blindnesse; made Zedekiah impatient of Michaiah's admonition. And for these causes, a worthy Divine saies, Zeal with­out knowledge is more dangerous in Church or Commonwealth, then knowledge without zeal.

The third mark of true zeal is, that it burnes fer­vently within the Furnace of the Heart, before the [Page 51] flame burst out at the crevises of the body; thy Soul and Conscience must be truly zealous within, be­fore thine eyes sparkle with zeal to affright others, thy tongue be tipped with zeal, to censure and re­buke others, thy feet be shod with zeal to pursue others, thy hands be armed with zeal to wound others. Many Zealists now adaies, are like the Hea­then God Momus, carp at all, doe nothing them­selves; like the Flies ingendred from the wild Fig­tree, provoke others to ripen, but are barren them­selves; finde fault with every corner in the streets, never sweep before their own doors; are informers, controulers in every Calling, practises none them­selves; and, as if they were Metropolitans of the whole VVorld, they keep continuall visitations and corrections of all mens manners, especially the Churches, who (if judged by true zeal) scarce be­long to the Church. Zeal hath many more marks, which if I should prosecute, my zeal of the Sub­ject would seem to outrun my discretion of the Time. I'le onely name them.

The fourth Mark is, that we must be zealous in weighty matters. The fifth, that we must look as well to our purity within, as our holinesse with­out. The sixt, that we must be as strict to our selves, as to others. The seventh, that we condemn sin as well in friends, as foes. The eighth, that it oppose it selfe against the sins of the Mighty. The ninth, that it be joyned with compassion. The tenth, that it be desirous of admonition. The eleventh, that it be fervent in Gods Cause. The twelfth, that it be constant in all estates. These are the twelve Signes of zeal, through which Christ Jesus, the Sun of righteousnesse, moves in the Zodiack of our souls.

I'le say no more, but seal up my discourse with that which our Saviour does, to the Church of Lao­d [...]cea, [Be zealous.] And if thou wilt but observe the Lesson given this Church, thou shalt have the re­ward of all Churches: Be zealous, and thou shalt eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, with the Church of Ephesus: Be zealous, and thou shalt not be hurt of the second death, with the Church of Smyrna: Be zealous, and thou shalt eat of the hidden Manna, with the Church of Pergamus: Be zealous, and thou shalt have power over many Nati­ons, and be as a morning Star, with the Church of Thyatira, Be zealous, and thou shalt be cloathed in white raiment, and have thy name writ in the book of life, with the Church of Sardis: Be zealous, and thou shalt be made a pillar in the temple of God, and have the name of God written on thee, with the Church of Phila­delphia. Be zealous, and thou shalt sup with Christ, and sit with him upon his throne, with the Church of Lao­dicca: And thither by prayer I recommend you.

[...].

A SERMON, Preached at a Generall Assises, in the Passion-Week.

THE words are an Enthymema, containing two parts, an An­tecedent and a Consequent: The Antecedent, Ye are bought with a price, ye are Gods. The Conse­quent, Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit. The Argu­ments unfolded, discover them­selves to be three-fold: The first is drawn from the worth of our Redemption, Empti pretio, ye are bought with a price. The second from the Relation, Jus patronatûs, Ye are Gods. The third from Induction of, particulars, In body, in spirit. In the Consequent is first [Page 54] a Duty, Glorifie God. Secondly, the manner, In body, in spirit. Because ye are bought with a price, there­fore glorifie God. Because ye are bought both in body and spirit, therefore glorifie him both in bo­dy and spirit: For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorifie God, &c.

The main and cardinal Propositions, to which every word may be reduc'd, are three: The first gathered from the Connexion, and but implyed, That we were lost, and stood in need of a Redeemer or being bought. The second, that we are Redeemed or bought with a price, Christs blood. The third, Because we are bought with a price, therefore we must glorifie God in Body, in Spirit. These three shall limit our dis­course at this time, onely let them leave and finde you attentive.

[...], For ye are bought. This [For] i [...] like Janus, double faced, and looks back at the former, Ye are not your own: Here is the reason, For ye are bought with a price. Not our own, therefore non ingenui, sed servi; not free-men, but slaves, servants, bought of God, and therefore not Gods before. And is not this a wonder, that Man, who by Crea­tion was Emperour of the whole Earth, Admirall of the whole Sea, Heir of Eden, peerlesse Peer of Pa­radise, should be owner of all, and yet not his own? He sold himselfe for sin, (as the Prophet saies) and lost his freedome. Amongst the Roman free-born, (as Justinian decreed) si quis solvendo non esset, if any man was indebted beyond the pitch of his estate, he might sell himselfe as a slave to pay the debt. Man, when he was free, and ought nothing, but service to his So­veraigne, sold himselfe for nothing (and was not this a misery?) but for an Apple. Even small things, [Page 55] when they are commanded, require no small obe­dience, which aggravates the sin. But if he was not his own, was he not Gods own, owne by Creation? owne by preservation? A Subject that by treason enslaves himselfe, is still a Subject; and what if not? Princes are like Categories, each chiefe in their own Predicament. An exile may live in another Orbe, and lose his first Alliegance. But God is supream Moderator of all, Angells and Men his Servants, Devills his vassalls, can lose nothing, whose are all things: Yet, he is bought of God, bought as a Son, redeemed as a Saint, of him, to whom he belonged before as a Creature, by whom he was condemned as a Judge. For in this sense, if he had not sold him­selfe from God, what need he have been bought? We are [...], delivered with a strong hand, (saies the Evangelist) and if delivered, the strong and ar­med man Satan, is conquered by Christ, a stronger than he. And if, [...], he hath redeemed us, bought us with a price, therefore we were in bon­dage before. Nature does nothing in vain, much lesse the God of Nature. It was no small ransome that was but payed with the death of him, that was the Lord of life. I appeal to Man himselfe, who was the Delinquent: VVho can be so partiall in his own cause, as not to confesse, that in breaking the Covenant with an infinite Majesty, we justly provoked against our selves an infinite Enemy, in that we sinned against infinite Justice, we were to be punished with infinite Judgment; in that we a­bused infinite mercy, we were not to be redeemed but with infinite Satisfaction. Thus we lost our selves in sin, Rom. 7. 14. were carnall, and sold un­der sin. O fond man▪ for Esau's pottage, Jonathan's [Page 56] hony-combe, for Judas his sop, to sell a Paradise here, a Palme of Victory hereafter! VVe count that Prince unwise, that exchanged his golden Armour for brasen; an Indian, that will give a Pearl for a Glasse, a pretious Jewell for a Chiua's dish: Yet, we sold Earth, Heaven, our selves, God, Grace, and Glory, for the price of Vanity, and stood in need to be bought with a price our selves, for we were not our own. Not our own, for God had forsaken us, the Flesh had inveigled us, Satan supplanted us, the VVorld imprisoned us, Hell threatned us, Death tyrannized over us. Thus were we lost, and stood in need of a price. Lost in Adam, his first sin was ours by imputation; lost by inborn corruption, traduced by propagation; lost again daily by actuall conta­mination. Eve had but one Tempter in Paradise, we three here, (as the three goddesses did Paris) each promises fair; the Flesh Beauty, but paies with infi­ciam vos, I will infect you: The VVorld Riches, but paies with deficiam vos, I will fail you: Satan Ho­nour, but paies with interficiam vos, I will slay you. Lord free us from these three Assasinates, that lie in wait for our Souls, and say, reficiam vos, I will refresh you: For we were lost, and stood in need of a price.

And because lost, let us therefore finde our hearts, and be humbled for our losse, if we desire to finde again. The Prodigall at first lost his Estate, and at once found his Father and himselfe: If he had not lost himselfe on Earth, he had scarce found Heaven; when he went astray he was humbled, and no sooner humbled but he was advanced. This humility must be true, and our sorrow as deep as our sins; not hy­pocriticall like the Pharisees, who, with the Roman [Page 57] Brutus, will kisse the Earth, when their thoughts of vain-glory are builded as high as Babel; by lessening themselves, hide their hypocrisie, (as the Snake does her length, by folding her selfe into many gyres and doubles). It hath stil been, and wil be, the garb of those formall Penitentiaries, who make Heaven a foot-stool for Earth, and Religion a Pandour to worldly Po­licy, like a Faulcon, by voluntary humiliation, to stoop the lowest, when they mean to soar highest; and like a Bullet, spit out of the mouth of a Canon, first graze and then mount. But we must remember, that we were lost, and not our own.

This is somewhat harsh. As we are generally for­getfull, so in nothing more, than in things belonging to our woes. Either we dare not, or cannot lay to heart, our former adversity, and our present cause of sorrow. The Mariners love not to hear of Storms, nor States rocked in security of VVars; neither can wanton Youth endure the tidings of sicknesse and old age; nor our souls, that they were slaves to sin, Satan, not our own. If any one be dismayed hereat, thin­king with the Disciples, that it is durus sermo, a hard speech; or judge of this humiliation, as Paphnutius did at the Council of Nice, of the Inhibition of Priests Marriage, that it is [...], a heavy yoke. Loe here, after this harsh sentence, a pardon presents it selfe, in the first words, [...], Ye are bought with a price.

This is the second Proposition, which as the Day­spring from on high, visits us with comfort; and (as the Angell, that sat upon the VVheel with the Martyr, under Julian's persecution, wiping away the blood with his handkerchiefe) sweetens the ma­lignity of the former, [...], Ye were bought. [Page 58] The word signifies to Buy, as one does in a Market, comming from [...], a fair or Market. This Fair was proclaimed in Paradise, rung to by Aaron's gol­den Bells, sounded by Esay's Trumpet, Isa. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, buy milk and wine without mony and without price. But, Fountains of Milk, VVine, Oyle; Mountaines of Gold, Silver, Diamonds; VVorldes of Crownes, Scepters, Diadems, were not of worth to redeem Man lost: VVhat then must he be bought withall? [...], with a price. The word sometimes signifies Ho­nour, sometimes the reward of Honour, sometimes Magistracy, Dignity, and Authority; sometimes Victory, sometimes a Trophy or reward of Victory, sometimes a Price that is paid for ransoming or re­covering a thing lost; and so here. And surely, if e­ver any was, this may be styled [...], by way of eminence, [...], the honourable price. The young Pellicans being dead, are not restored to life, but by the blood of the old one: Nor we, dead in trespasses and sins, without the pretious blood of our Saviour. Heaven is a Lottery, each Man drawes for, and aimes at a summum bonum, or chiefest good; some lights in friends, some in Honour, some in Ri­ches, some in Morall Vertues, above three hundred opinions, (as Varre hath observed): All these were but Blanks, here is [...], the price.

This price was Christ, the seller Judas, the buyer the Jewes, God the permitter, who appointed his Son a price, [...], By his deter­minate counsell and foreknowledge, Act. 2. 23.

The Son gave himselfe a price, Ephes. 5. 2. Judas was stigmatised with this everlasting brand, [...], the deliverer; all of them, [...], [Page 59] joynt Agents in this sale, yet not alike. God gave this price out of mercy, [...], he so loved the world; such a sic, as can never be parallel'd with a sicut. The Son gave himselfe a price in submission to the Father; Father, not my will, but thine be done. Judas sinned against the Father, in selling the Son: God neither commanded nor compelled Judas, Ju­das neither obeyed, nor aimed at Gods command; therefore was neither God guilty of Judas his fault, nor Judas free from guilt, by co-operating with God. Thus God brought light out of darknesse, Judas darknesse out of light. Lord, turn our darknesse into light, that we may see the value of this price, a price unvaluable.

The Vestalls fire put out, might not be kindled, but by the beams of the Sun; neither the fire of Gods Grace re-kindled, but by the obedience of his own Son; Men, Angells, blood of Martyrs, Incense of Saints, a thousand Worlds, ten thousand Rivers of Oyle, could not, nor any thing, but the death of him, that was the Lord of Life. We were captives, bondslaves, and he (to use the Civilians words) ad pretium participandum sese venundari passus est, suffe­red himselfe to be sold, to purchase the price of our Redemption. A price delivered from Satan to Judas, from Judas to the Souldiers, from the Souldiers to the High Priests, from the High Priests to Pilate, from Pilate to the Jewes to be crucified. Thus mare repellit ad barbaros, barbari ad mare; tossed between the Sea of our sins, and the Pikes of Satan, could find no resting place, till he was naild to the Crosse in Calvary. Look up all ye beholders, look upon this pretious Body, and see what part ye can finde free: That Head that was adored, and trembled at by [Page 60] the Angelicall Spirits, is all raked and harrowed with thorns; that Face, of whom it was said, Thou art fairer then the children of men, is all besmeared with the filthy spittle of the Jewes, and furrowed with his tears; those Eyes, clearer then the Sun, are darkened with the shadow of death; those Ears, that hear the heavenly consorts of Angells, are now filled with the cursed speakings and scoffs of wretched men; those lips, that spake as never man spake, that commanded the Spirits both of light and darknesse, are scornfully wet with Vinegar and Gall; those Feet, that trample on all the powers of Hell, (His enemies are made his footstool) are now nailed to the footstool of the Crosse; those hands that freely sway the Scepter of Heaven, now carry the Reed of re­proach, and are nailed to the Tree of reproach; that whole Body, that was conceived by the Holy Ghost, was all scourged, wounded, mangled.

This is the outside of his sufferings, and was he free within? these were but love-tricks to what his Soul endured. O all ye that passe by the way, behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Alasse! what can we see of thy sorrowes? we can no more see thy pain, than endure it; only this we see, that what the infinite sins almost of infinite men, committed against an infinite Majesty, deserved in infinite con­tinuance of time; all this Thou, in the short time of thy Passion, hast payed for to the full, and we are bought with a price.

O dear Christians, how ought these Earthy, Roc­ky, Adamantine hearts of ours, rent in pieces at this Meditation? What, all these tears, and pangs, and groans are for us, yea, from us. Shall the Son of God thus smart for our sins? yea, with our sins, and shall not [Page 61] we grieve for our own? How far were our soules gone, that could not be ransomed with an easier price? If thy Soul had been in His Souls stead, what had be­come of it? it shall be, if His were not in stead of thine. Go too now, thou lewd Man, that makes thy selfe merry with uncleannesse, thou little knowes the price of one sin, which made thy blessed Saviour cry out, to the amazement of Angells, and horrour of men, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But now, we are bought with a price.

And if we be bought with a price, then away with those Jubile Proclamations of Rome, I mean the Su­pererogatory sufferings of Saints, to pay forth this price; a blasphemous and beggerly Principle, (as lear­ned Fulk calls it). Some modest Doctours of Lovain would have minced it, affirming, that the suffering of Saints are not truly satisfactory, but only motives to move God, to apply unto us Christs sufferingss: but they were soon charmed by four severall Popes, (as their own Cardinall confesses) and commanded to speak home with Bellarmine, Passionibus Sanctorum ex­piari delicta, that by the sufferings of Saints, our sins are expiated, and that by them applyed, we are re­deemed from those punishments, we yet owe to God. Blasphemy worthy of tearing of garments!

How hath Christ payed the price, if we must supply the defect? But, we are bought with a price.

Take up then a Song of deliverance, far more glo­rious than that of Moses, Deborah, or Gideon. Art thou afraid of Satan? Christ hath spoyled Principali­ties and Powers. Art thou affraid of sin? Christ was made sin, that is, a price for sin for thee. Death, Hell, and the Grave are conquered, that thou maist tri­umph: Hell, where is thy sting? Death, where is thy vi­ctory. [Page 62] Nay this price hath payed for the abolishment of the Ceremonies of the Law. Away then with New Moones, Sacrifices, and the rites of Judaism, the vail of the Temple is rent. That conceit of Theophylact is witty at least, That as the Jewes were wont to rend their garments, when they heard blasphemy; so the Temple not enduring those execrable blasphemies against the Son of God, tore her Vail apieces. But that is not all. The vail rent, is, the observation of the Rituall Law cancelled. I say not, that all ceremonies are cancelled by this price, but the Law of Ceremo­nies and Jewish. It is a sound distinction of the An­tients, that some are Typicall, foresignifying Christ; some of order and decency; those are abrogated, not these. The Spouse of Christ cannot be without her laces, and chains, and borders. But thou, O Lord, how long shall thy poor Church, through contenti­ous spirits, finde her ornaments her sorrowes? How much better were it, to revive the sweet spirit of di­vine Saint Austine, turning this contention into gra­r [...]dation, glorifying God for these mercies; which is the next Proposition, and the last of the three; Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorifie God.

All things ought to begin for, to terminate in, Gods glory, which is the end of all our actions, the centre of all our motions. The Angells sounded this Trumpet at his Birth, when the price was but offe­red; shall not we, for his pretious Death and Passion, when it was payed? [...], Glory be to God on high. This glory is Gods: First, a debito, for we are his, and that triplici jure, by a threefold right: of Creation, as Men; of Redemption, as Sons; of San­ctification, as Saints. Secondly, ab integro, from the whole; we are composed of two parts, Body, and Spi­rit; [Page 63] are Gods, both in body and spirit, therefore must glorifie him both in body and spirit. Thirdly, a lytro, from the Ransom. Empti sumus, We are bought, by a Synecdoche, quasi redempti, redeemed, and re-bought, and that by an Emphaticall Pleonasme, pretio, with a price. And thus, what one ought to have done, a three-fold cord must move us to do, to glorifie God. We are Gods, both in body and spirit; Gods, because we are redeemed both in body and spirit by the Son of God. This is the main and cardinall reason, let us prosecute it.

What mercy was ever like this? for a God to sell his own Son, that he might redeem his Enemies? What more dear than a Son, what more hatefull than an Enemy? Yet, oftentimes we see, that the hate of an Enemy, is drunk up of the love of a Son. O my son Absalom, would God I had dyed for thee. Fulvius, a Roman Senatour, slew his Son, for conspiring with Cateline; but, in Christ was no guile found. Manlius adjudged his Son to die, for violating the Law of Armes; Christ kept the whole Law. Aegeus sent his son Theseus, to conflict with a Minotaur, to free himselfe and his Country from deserved bondage; God sent his Son to conflict with Satan, Death, and Hell, who was [...], free from all bondage. The Israelites sacrificed their Children to Moloch. Aga­memnon his daughter Iphigenia to Neptune; but they had more: But God, when he had no more, gave his onely Son for a price. Besides the infinite dispropor­tion betwixt God and Man. An act of mercy, in Scripture, in History, not to be found the like un­parallel'd, unlesse a Type in Abraham, and but a Type: I know (saies God to Abraham) thou lovest me, because thou hast not spared thine onely son Isaac. [Page 64] And then shall not we, O holy Father, know thou lovest us, that hast not spared, but given thine onely Son Jesus? Gods love to Christ was infinite, Abra­ham's to Isaac but finite. God gave his Son willingly, Abraham as it were constrainedly. God gave his Son to an ignominious death, Abraham to a holy Sacri­fice. Isaac was in the hands of a tender Father, Christ of barbarous enemies. Isaac was but offered in shew, Christ payed the price indeed. O the infinite dispro­portion! St. Chrysostome is rapt hereat, and calls it, [...], an excesse of love; that is a pin to low. Pareus calls it, por [...]entum amoris, a miracle of love; that is yet too short. St. Paul, waft upon Sera­phick wings, styles it, [...], love surpassing knowledge; that, that's it.

What can we do in lue? but to the point in hand, glorifie God; like Pigeons, having drunk of this River of life, [...], joyntly together hold up our Bills towards Heaven in token of thankfulnesse; thank him, who is the God of glory, for devesting himselfe of glory, that he might restore us to hope of glory. We reverence men on Earth, Rome gives [...] wor­ship to Saints in Heaven, [...], more worship to the Mother of our Saviour, Queen of Heaven, (as they style her). But, [...], glory on­ly to the God of glory. My glory (saies God) I will not give to another, but my peace I will give: Which was sung by the Angells at the Nativity, Glory be to God on high, peace on earth. It is Aristotle's saying in his Ethicks, We give praise to men, but [...], a better thing than praise to God: And what is that, but [...], Glory? Therefore [...], Glorifie God in your body and your spirits, which are Gods. It is Plato's [Page 65] phrase in his Respublica, [...], Glorifie God. Aratus his, [...], Ye are God's offspring. Joyne them both together, and we have the poynt, Glorifie God, because ye are Gods.

But as Honour, so Glory, is, in dante, in the Giver; we have no glory to give, all glory is Gods, to whom we ought to give; and when it is given, it is but his own, but a part of his own: And if all tongues should glorifie him at once, it addes no more to his glory, then a drop of a bucket returned to the Ocean, whence it issued. As Rivers return to refresh the Sea, whence they came, Sun-beams by reflection are in­flamed; so our hearts by glorifying God, must be en­flamed, that he may glorifie us, In storms, in calms, blow what winde wil, the Mariners Needle still points at the Pole; in prosperity, in adversity, we ought to aime at Gods glory: Here, I say, we ought; in Hea­ven I am sure we shall: for there [...], the Angells Leiturgie is singing of Hymns of glory. But what need we look so high? was not our first Reformers so? Observe the blessed method the Spirit dictated them, in the very dawning out of Popish superstition: First, Contrition; then, Confession; then, Absolution; then Petition; then, Gloria Patri, Glory be to God: then, Venite exultemus, Come and rejoyce: then, severall Psalms, as so many Hallelujah's for the Day, each concluding with Glo­ria Patri, Glory be to God.

After the first Lesson, Te Deum laudamus, We praise thee, O God, or the Song of the three Children, Bene­dicite omnia opera, Let all his works glorifie God. After the second Lesson, Jubilate Deo, Be joyfull in God: Ending still like Frankincense put out with this sweet odour, Gloria, Patri, Glory be to God. Well [Page 66] then, if this was the heavenly language in the infancy of our Church, let every grown Mem­ber of the Church glorifie God in Bo­dy, This was de­livered, An. 1640. in Spirit, for all his mercies, but especially, for this mercy of Redeeming us, with the price of his own pretious blood.

Therefore with Angells, and Archangells, and all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnifie thy glorious Name, evermore praising thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hostes, Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory; Glory be to thee O Lord most high: To thee we ascribe all honour and glory, both now and for evermore.

[...].

A SERMON, Expressing the benefits accruing from our Saviours Death and Passion, insisting only upon the latter part, by reason of the affinity with the former Subject.

THIS Text is an Exchequer, the Treasurer God, the Gift all things; the parties to whom, all men; the key, Christ. God the Father, that spared not to give Christ for us all, will not spare with him to give us all. The Parts in generall are two: First, an Hypothesis, or Supposition. Secondly, a Thesis or Position. The Hypothesis or Supposition hath a dou­ble [Page 68] reference; looking back at the former, unties a a knot; looking forward at the latter, is an argument to confirm a truth; in matter, drawn a majori, from the greater to the lesse; in form, an Enthymema, thus unfolded: God spared not, but delivered up his own Son, therefore he will not spare, but deliver up all things for his Saints. It is amplified, first, from the party or person giving, [...], He, in Grammer the Third, but here the First Person in the Trinity. Second­ly, from the double act, [...], hath not spared, negatively, [...], but hath delivered up, affirmatively. Thirdly, from the object or gift, that is, [...], a Son, [...], his own Son, [...], his only be­gotten Son. Fourthly, the subjects, or parties for whom, not Angells, but Men; for, when he ascended above Principalities and Powers, he gave gifts to men: [...], us; not restrained to some of us, but with a note of universality, all, [...], for us all: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.

The second Branch, is in it selfe a Position; in re­ference to the former, a Conclusion: The parts of it (as the Rivers of Paradise) are principally four: First, the Donor, God. Secondly, the Donation, [...], a free gift, or Charter, Thirdly, the parties to whom it is given, [...], to us. Fourthly, the Dona­tive, or gift, and that is, [...], all things, ampli­fied with the correlative, [...], with him: By him, all things were made: in him, all things are given. All of this illustrated by a threefold Emphasis, here expressed; [...], a note of Interrogation; [...], of Ne­gation; [...], of Augmentation; [...], How shall he not also? He that spared not his own Son, &c.

We have already [...]ntred into this Exchequer, [Page 69] where we have seen the rich treasurie of Gods mer­cy, in delivering up his Son for us all. Now is the second return, this Exchequer is yet open; let us all enter in further by him the Dore, and the Way, to see, how that with him, he will freely give us all things: How shall he not with him also, &c.

The first part is the Doner, He: The word is twice repeated by an Epanados, in relation to a double act of mercy: He that gave Christ for the health of our souls, that He will give us all things for the health of our bodies, [...], which is, which was, which is to be. Jam. 1. 17. Every good and perfect gift is from above, and commeth down from the Father of lights. He is Omnipotent to make all things, Omniscient to know all things; infinite in Wisdome, to contrive; in Mercy, to dispose; in Boun­ty, to bestow: He only that is [...], the maker of all things, He only [...], is the giver of all things. It was the dream of Avicen, that Angells, by the power of God, did make the Hea­vens, the Heavens the inferiour Bodies: But he was a Turk, and his Doctrine in this relishes more the Alcaron, than the Evangelists. As unsound is that Sentence of the Master of the Sentences, That God could communicate to the Creature, the power of Creation: For, Creation is a production of a thing out of nothing, to make a thing of nothing, an act of Omnipotency, Omnipotency an incommunicable Attribute of God, as incommunicable as that Attri­bute of giving every good and perfect gift, to be attri­buted to none but Him, that made all things for Man. Gen. 1. 29. Behold, I have given you every herb, every tree, the fruit of every tree, every beast of the field, foul of the aire, fish in the sea, creeping thing upon the earth. [Page 70] O curva in terris animae! O fond souls, like the poor lunatick man at Athens, to presume upon that which is Gods prerogative. Vermis crastinò moriturus, a worm, that must die to morrow. Before God had gi­ven Man a Beeing by Creation, he gave every thing for the Well-beeing of Man, by his everlasting pur­pose, Predestination, Election: Purpose, to make Man in his own Image, to make so many in number of men, (though not all their souls at once, as Origen said) as there are Angells fallen; so many, as the An­gells that remain in purity, say some; so many as the Angells pure and impure, say others; how many, un­certain, and that's the truth most certain. By Pre­destination, in which gift or chain of Gods mercies are three links: First, the decreeing of man to a su­pernaturall end. Secondly, the gift of eternall life, which is the supernaturall end. Thirdly, the disposing of all saving means, to this supernaturall end, all ef­fected in time, yet ordained before all time. By Election, which is a culling and picking of some out of the masse of sin, leaving others in the masse of corruption: As a Jeweller purifies what Gold, a man sifts what Wheat he pleases; so God purifies the Elect his Gold, sifts the Saints his Wheat for his Granarie, passes by the rest for their sin, I will not determine whether Originall or actuall sin, nor deny them Christ in some sense, whom the Father spared not, but delivered up for all. The reason why Christ was not effectuall for all, was their infidelity and sin. It is true, (as the School-men say) Predestinatio nihil ponit in praedestinato: Predestination is an act of meer mercy in God, not of merit in man; neither in regard of the Decree, which was, when he was nothing; of the first infusion of Grace, when he was worse than no­thing, [Page 71] in which God was the sole Agent, man the Patient; yet, man is an Agent, and operative in using of grace, which he was a Patient in receiving of. Whether God gives this grace to all indifferently, I will not here question: But to the purpose, to whom he gives this grace in Christ, he will give all. And as God was a giver in intention, before he made any thing, so he was a bountifull giver in execution, after he had made all things: By Creation, by Preservation, to sustain the body; by Vocation, Justification, San­ctification, to adorn the soul here; by Glorification to crown both body and soul hereafter. By Creation, making that of nothing, which was neerest nothing, the first matter of all, (as the Philosophers calls it) Moses, Tohu vebohu; the Septuagints, [...] or [...]; the Poets, a Chaos, or rude masse of unpiled Matter, out of which was made the starry Heavens to give light, the azured Skye, a Throne for the Clouds; the Aire, for birds to flie, men and beasts to breath in; the Earth paying her yearly revenue of herbs, Plants, flowers; the Sea, an unsteady Element, for fishes, made rather for use and wonder, than pleasure. All made by God, all gifts given by him: And as given by Creation, so continued by Preservation, garding of us by his im­mediate providence, by Angells, by Secondary cau­ses. By immediate Providence; For as omnia fecit, sic omnia fulcit, that hand that made all things, supported all things; [...], his eye behold all things, Spiritus intùs abit, his Spirit that moved up­on the waters, moves every where; in him, all things live, and move, and have their being. And as he gards us with his Providence, so with his Angels; whether with a good Angel to support us, as a bad to tempt us; whether every man have one ordinarily deputed, [Page 72] whether from his Birth, or from his Baptisme, (curi­ous speculations, more befitting the Schooles than the Pulpit) I'le not dispute. My present Theme is to prove, that it is God that gives; that He, in my Text, that gave his Angells charge over his Son, hath given his Angells charge over all, for whom he hath given his Son, and he hath given his Son for us all, that they should take us up in their armes, lest we dash our feet against stones. And shall not He, that gave his Angels as ministers, his Cherubims as flames of fire, give us an inheritance with the Angells, and free us from eternall fire. To his immediate Providence, as he hath substituted the Angells, so all Secondary cau­ses; the Heavens with motion, light, influence; the Fire to refresh, the Aire to cherish, the Earth and Sea to nourish, Food to feed, Physick to cure, Cloaths to cover these our bodies: All these he gives us, (as Aquinas saies) non propter defectum suae virtutis, sed propter abundantiam suae bonitatis; not that his power fails, but that his mercy overflowes. For, he could feed us without food, cure us without physick, save us from cold without covering. Neither is he only the giver of temporall things for the body, but spiri­tuall for the soul; by Vocation, either externall, the Word preached, Aaron's golden Bells ringing, the Sacraments, as nails of the Sanctuary; or internall, the Law by the Spirit hammering, the Gospell soft­ning, Grace seasoning our Souls. By Justification, in forgiving our sins, and imputing to us the merits of his Son. By Sanctification, as the Gold by filing, so our Souls by purifying, are made clean. The Sun enlightens the dark Moon, the Sun of Righteousnesse enlightens by his Spirit our dead members. By Glo­rification, non nostra merita, sed sua dona coronans, [Page 73] crowning not our merits, but his own mercies. These we touch briefly, because in giving his Son, he gave these, [...], who is the giver of all. And if God be the giver of all, (as Rivers receiving their Springs from the Sea, return them to the Sea) let all things give praise to the God of gods, to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endureth for ever. Mountains and Hills, Fountains and Springs, all Tongues, and Tribes and Kindreds, praise the God of mercies, as long as his mercy endureth, and his mercy endureth for ever. The Stork paies tribute of her young, the Trees of their fruits, the Earth of her flowers, for tillage: Shall we be [...], without na­turall affection? [...], without God in the world? not [...], return blessing and praising to him for his infinite blessings? And those that turn this blessing into a curse, will be cursed as an Anathema Maranatha, a bitter curse. Democritas and Epicurus denyed God the gift of Creation of the World, while they lived; yet questionlesse ere this confesse, that fabricavit infernum, he made Hell for them when they were dead. Some give God speciall providence of celestiall things in heaven, but not of terrestriall up­on Earth; this Atheism Eliphaz imputes to Job, Job. 22. 13. Thou sayest, how doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud? thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not. Rabbi Moses expunged all cor­ruptible things, except man, out of the Calender of Gods care. The Stoicks tie the god of Fate, to their [...], or inevitable necessity of Fate. Aristotle at the first maintained the World to be eternall, with­out Creation; yet, at the last, ascribes the glory of the World to God, and that in his Book, de Mundo, which Justine Martyr calls, the Module of all his [Page 74] true Philosophie, where he confesses, that it is [...], the handi-work of God; [...], preserved by God. Galen, the great Physi­tian, ascribed the fabrick of mans body to Nature, not the God of Nature; but, astonished at the work­manship of it, burst forth into an Hymn, concerning him that made it, and that in his third Book, de usu partium, [...]ompono canticum in creatoris nostri landem: I will make a Song (saies he) in the praise of him that made me. Lesse divine is that opinion, Gregory Nyssen reproves in divine Plato, making God the Guardian of spirituall, the Angells of Temporall, the Devills of human things. These were Vipers, not Men, that wounded those bowells of compassion, that made all things for the use of men. But in God is a threefold Providence, [...], universall preservation; [...], motion to all good; [...], permission of all evill, that his infinite goodnesse may appear [...], who is the giver.

This is the second Branch, [...], a free gift or charter: There is a commutative giving by way of exchange, when we exchange one thing for another; as gold for Garments: Thus God gives all, receives nothing. A distributive giving to every man accor­ding to his desert; but to us is no gift of merit, but of Gods free mercy. A ministeriall giving, not of his own, but of his Masters; thus Men and Angells are Gods Almners, he the rich Owner and Donor of all. There is a pernicious giving, to the receivers destru­ction, like the Grecian Horse to the Trojans, Deia­nira's shirt to Hercules, Eutrapelus his treasurie to his Favourites. But every gift of God is good, if it be re­ceived with thanksgiving. If the Son ask bread, will the Father give him a stone? if a fish, will he give [Page 75] him a serpent? That we as Toads turn the pure potions of Gods mercies into poyson, the grace of God into wantonnesse, is from us the ungratefull receivers, not from him [...], the free giver.

The word is derived of [...], grace, which is a free gift of God; [...], joy, and [...] comes of [...], to rejoyce, because (as Plutarch saies) there is nothing so [...] fruitfull of joy as [...] grace; so that by the name we finde, that grace is a free gift of God, flowing from his love; God is a free gi­ver, because he is a lover, for all his [...], free gifts, are beams from the sunshine [...] of his love: [...], He so loved the world; such a sic, as can not be parallel'd with a sicut. It was love, to make us of nothing; his [...], or bowells of pitty, to re­deem us when we were worse then nothing. Love linked with pitty, with Christ the means, internall, to link all means externall, to sugar and sweeten this life. Therefore as the Greek word hath the name of love, so the Hebrew of pitty, [...] chen, is grace, [...] chinam a free gift, both of them comming from [...] chanam to have pitty. This love, this pitty of God will more appear, if we seek out the several Charters of his grace, of his free gifts. There is a grace temporall, common to all; a grace spirituall, speciall to the Saints; this speciall grace is either gratis dans, in God accepting, or gratis data, in man receiving: In man receiving, there is a grace preventing, a grace follow­ing, a grace working, a grace co-working, a grace ex­citing, a grace perfecting; these graces are internall, and proper to them that have Christ, and given in the former branch of the Text, with Christ; the grace meant here is common, [...], that shall be given overplus with Christ, and those are [...] [Page 76] things for this life, that our heavenly Father knowes we stand in need of. He himselfe the giver will be to us a gift, which is all in all; a Castle to the besieged, liberty to the prisoner, a father to the fatherlesse, a husband to the widow, cloaths to the naked, bread to the hungry, health to the sick, oyntment to the head, oyle to the face, wine to the heart, marrow to the bones, strength to the body, comfort to the soul; and all these he gives with Christ, through whom is eternall salvation, both of body and soul. Now if God freely give all, let us in token of gratefulnesse return [...] thanks to him, [...], who is the giver.

The Stars shine, the Heavens rain, the Earth fru­ctifies, Cattle multiplies, all by his free gift, who if he should close his hand of bounty, the Stars shine not, the Heavens rain not, the Earth fructifies not, Cattle multiply not. Consider this, and wonder, O Epicure, that rises up to eat, lies down to sleep, with Solomon's sluggard; that hath eyes inclosed with fat, with David's Bulls of Basan; that ascribes all to thy fortune, carriage, cunning, providence. Many while they are in prosperity, feed upon Gods bles­sings, like Swine upon Acornes, and look not up at the Tree whence they fall; when they are in adversity, like Dogs snarl at the Stone that smitt them, but minds not the hand that threw it, never considering with Job, The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh, blessed be the name of the Lord. God is a free giver, thou art his Steward; if thou canst give nothing [...] freely, because what thou possessest is not thine own; yet, give [...] willingly. Some will give but [...] [...]willingly, (like narrow mouthed bottles) poure out nothing without grumbling. Thou must be un­like [Page 77] to these, if thou wilt be like to God, who giveth freely, so freely, that he does not grudge it thee, after it be given, nor turn it to thy misery, unlesse thy sins abuse his mercy. Kings oftentimes (as Diogenes Laer­tius saies) uses their Favourites like Bottles, whom they first fill, then hang up; or like Spunges, when they are swelled to the full, then squeese them. But God (as Curtius saies of Alexander) endowes his dar­ling Saints with lesser benefits, to make them more capable of greater blessings. And as it was in Trajan's time, the most winning way to petition for a fu­ture dignity at Gods hand, is to shew, we have lately been endowed with one. It is a good method in our prayers, to begin with [...], giving of thanks for bounties by-past, then proceed to suppli­cation and intercession for graces following. Stick not, but go boldly to the throne of grace; He that created the world for us, will freely give all things we need, [...], to us.

This is the third particular in this pile, the parties to whom this Donative or Charter is given, [...], to us. Where many have an equall possibility, though but one enjoy a Crown, there is an universall hope; but where all may enjoy, there is a generall Jubilee and rejoycing. All in a Race hope, yet only one can win the Goal: In a Lottery, each man expects a Prize, where a hundred for one drawes but Blanks. Darius alone was declared King by neighing of his Horse, while each of the Princes perswaded himselfe, the Persian Scepter was his own. Each of the three god­desses did fancy, the golden Ball was hers, yet Venus only got it. The lot of the Apostleship falls in Mat­thias's lap, while Joseph also expects it. Every Tribe throwes down their Rod, yet Aaron's onely budds. [Page 78] Many submits themselves to the judgment of Urim and Thummim, while the shining Letters on the High Priests breast can but pleasure one. If these [...], free gifts of God, were such rare Phoe­nixes, like high Offices in a Common-wealth, con­ferred on one, while thousands were competitors, there were some hope to every drooping soul; but here is our comfort, they are freely given, [...], to us; [...], to us, not onely collectively, as, to judge the twelve Tribes of Israel was given to the twelve Apo­stles, then some of us might despair, at least doubt of these free gifts, and say with Judas, Is it I that shall go without; but distributatively, [...], to each of us; He that gave Christ [...], for us all, he will much more give lesser benefits, that come by Christ: [...], [...]o us; and not only so, but with a note of uni­versality, [...], to us all. It is a rule impregnable, that natur a non deficit necessariis, Nature is not defici­ [...]nt in things necessary; and surely grace is lesse. God feeds the young Ravens, cloaths the Lillies of the field, and shall not he much more his Saints? Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will ease you. And here is our greatest comfort, that the poorest beggar that hath Christ, hath as good an inte­rest in God, in the [...] free gifts of God, as the richest Monarch. An Emperour, though he have divers Diadems, can not say, [...], he will only give to me. The Pope, (for all his usurped triple Crown) can not say, [...], he will onely give to me. A King that swaies the Scepter of many Kingdomes [...], he will onely give to me. A Duke for his Dukedome, an Earle for his Earl­dome, a Lord for his Baronry, none of them can say, [...] ▪ he will only give to me. But Joseph [Page 79] in the stocks, Lazarus at the gates, Job on the dung­hill; nay, all of them severally can say, [...], he will also give to me; all of them joyntly, [...], he will give unto us all; and what? not onely an Empire, a Popedome, a Kingdome, a Duke­dome, an Earldome, a Baronry, for these are but par­ticular things, but [...], he will give us all things.

This is the fourth thing, the Donative or Gift, [...], all things; that one man should enjoy all things to earthly Heraldry, may seem a Paradox: But that [...], all should enjoy all things, amounts unto a prodigie, a wonder: Ninus had his stately Palaces, Ptolemie his ample Provinces, Xerxes his numerous Armies, Craesus his unvaluable riches, all of them but something, and none of them all things: Nay, all these items put into one sum, makes up but a parcell or moity, not All; and yet this moity was never bequeathed to any one for a Legacy: The Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, each of them had their succeeding Monarchy; yet, he who possessed most, had but a point, in comparison of the Earth's whole Diameter. Cicero brings in Scipio weeping, when he be held, as from Heaven, the narrow strait­nesse of the Roman conquered Territories. Puissant Alexander could not passe Hercules his Pillars: Casar (unlesse it were in a Mapp) could never attain the Orcades. Admit that both of them had compassed the whole known World, America, and the greatest part was then undiscovered; grant them all the Earth, Ambition would have wept for more. A Christian that hath conquered the whole World, tramples the Moon under his feet, willscom dull Earth the Cen­tre. To Absolom's beauty, joyne Samson's strength, [Page 80] to both of them Croesus his wealth, to all these, Solo­mon's wisdome, all is but vanity, vanity is but emp­tinesse; where there is emptinesse, there is not [...], all things: Where is it then? It is in God, hid in Christ, given also with Christ; How shall he not with him also give all things? This is the Correlative, by which this universall [all] is amplified, [...], with him.

If we look upon Christ lying in the Manger, blee­ding in the Garden, naked in his Passion, complai­ning in the World, that though the Foxes had holes, Birds of the Aire nests, yet he had not [...], where to put his head, our faith might waver, how with him all things were given, that enjoyed nothing. But, if we consider, that it was he that by an omnipotent Chymistry extracted all things out of nothing, it is most plain, Joh. 1. 3. All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made. Coloss. 1. 16. All things were created by him, and for him. For him in his Mysticall, not in his Personall capacity: As God, [...]e had no use of terrestriall things; as Man, now he is impassible, immortall in Heaven; & therefore not in his own Person, but in the person of his Saints, what is done to them, he acknowledges don to himself; all the world, all things in the world, are given for the use of his Saints: All things (to use the Philosophers distinction) that are bona animi, goods of the mind, bond corporis goods of the body, bona fortunae goods offortune. All things (as Divines say) internall in the soul, externall of both body and soul, eternall for the saving welfare of both. All things (as Aqui­nas saies upon this place) quae cedant in nostrum bonum, that may turn to our good; divinae personae ad fruen­dum, to behold the vision of the Trinity, have com­munion [Page 81] with Saints and Angells, commerce with Men, comfort with and from all the Creatures. All things (as cur Saviour saies) [...], whereof we have need, Matth. 6. and Him we will follow as the best Interpreter. So then, we may conclude with the Apostle, 1 Cor. 3. 21. All things are ours; and God with Christ hath given all things to us all. If every man might be his own Interpreter, how sweet and heavenly would this Doctrine be? the Drunkard would swim in Rivers of Wine, the Whoremonger would have more Dalilah's, than the Turkish Grand Sultan or Solomon had; the Glutton would receive his daily tribute of delicates from Earth, Sea, and Aire; the Tyrant would make the Earth an Aceldama, or field of blood, the Sea a Golgotha, or place of sculs; the Covetous man would make the world his Coun­ting-house, each Iland a Closet of his Treasury; the Pope, and each ambitious Roman Prelate, would number their Crowns and Scepters by their Beads. But look again, before thou feed thy soul with this fools Paradise, it is [...], with Christ. If thou hast Christ, thou shalt have all things; if thou hast not Christ, thou hast nothing; but, that which thou pos­sessest, is not thine own, not thine own by a Spirituall right, though thine own by a Civill right. All things were lost by the first Adam, restored by Christ the second Adam, who, Heb. 1. 2. is heir of all; and only they that have Christ, are heirs and joynt heirs with Christ of all, Rom. 8. 17. So then, he may be a spirituall usurper, that is a civill lawfull possessour, possessour, either jure gentium, by the Law of Nations, and that by Conquest, as the Israelites subdued Canaan; or jure civili, by the Civill Law, so we possesse things given by the bounty of others, got with the sweat [Page 82] of our own brows, appropriated unto us by buying, ex­changing, falling upon us by descent, death of friends, honours given, as the reward of vertue. Some would have this Civill right to be derived to all by Creation, not to be lost by Degeneration; God that feeds the Storks, cloaths the Lillies, will much more feed and cloath his nobler Creatures, for whose sake, the Storks and Lillies were created. Some say, they were given in, and by Christ to all; He that delivered up his Son for all, delivered up all things with his Son for all. The Turks, Infidells, Impious, that have not Christ, are not debarred of these lesser benefits that come by Christ. Some give this Civill right onely to the visible members of the Church; he that is bap­tized into Christ, hath onely the benefit of this [...], all things that come by Christ. Which of these opinions is the truth, I will not de­termine; that onely the Faithfull have spirituall claim to this [All] in the Text, it is confessed by all; they onely can say and pray, [...], Give us our daily bread. For what is it to have spirituall right, but to have the Spirit turning all things to their comfort, and increase of glory, Rom. 8. 28. All things work for the good of them that love God, all things to the confusion of them that love not God. But how have spirituall men all things? A right to all things, not a possession of all things: Thus Abraham had a right to Canaan, because God had promised it, though he possessed it not; God, if it were for their good, would give them the fruition of all things. An Orphant trusts his Guardian for his means, a Patient his Physitian for his dyet; and dare not thou trust God? While thou art Militant here, thou art under tuition, and shalt not possesse all till [Page 83] thou be Triumphant. We restrain a man in a Lethargy of his appetite of sleep, and deny cold drink to one sick of a Feavour, though he be owner of all in the house. So does God, the wise Physician of our Souls, give us all things that we need, but not all things that we lust.

To look back again at the words, [...], He will give us all things with Christ: O happy union! Christ and his benefits are never severed. He that gives Gold, will much more give the Drosse; He that gives Pearles, will give Pebles; He that gave Christ, the Lord of life, wil give all things convenient for life. Heat may be separated from fire, as in Nebuchandnez­zar's Furnace, light from the Sun, as at our Saviour's Passion; but no good thing can be separated from the Son of God: he that hath the Son, hath life. And here me-thinks I see the noble Army of Martyrs, that seemed to the World to have nothing, to throw down the Gantlet of defiance, and triumph, that in Christ they have all things, Armour of proof, a strong Tower, an invincible Fort, a Rock of salvation, that if Men, Devills, Leviathans, Behemoths, losses, dis­eases, torments, swarm about them like the Flies of Aegypt, this [...], all things in Christ, will make them sing, under the whip, at the stake, in the flames, make the patient laugh, when the Spectatour weeps, carry frail flesh singing and rejoycing through a world of bonds, rods, swords, racks, wheeles, flames, strapadoes; break through torments, armies, tempests, floods, to Heaven; shake off bonds, fet­ters, manacles, and lead captivity captive. And if all these things come by Christ, O then, let us get Christ himselfe, which is the [...], the giver of all, Men venture themselves on the angry Seas, digg into the [Page 84] bowells of the Earth for Gold and Silver, expose their bodies in Warrs to wounds, scarrs, skirmages, massacres, death; for honour, riches, wealth, empire, dignity, which, without Christ, are for substance but shadowes, vapours, Sodom's apples; for continuance but bubbles, blasts, dreams; and for true solace of the soul, but like the Vipers conception, whose mo­mentary pleasure ends in murdering both body and soul. What pain, dammage, and travail do the Alchy­mists sustain, to gain the Philosophers Stone, a thing doubtfull whether it be possible, more doubtfull whether in their time; and if they had it, all is but to make Gold, a little glittering Clay: What then should we do to gain Christ, in gaining whom, we gain Heaven, and all? How often have we heard, and pittied some, whom the world accounts her dearest Minions, beyond an ordinary pitch of Epicurisme or Atheisme, Midas-like, to cram their soul with wishes to themselves, to their Children, of the flesh-pots of Aegypt, trash of this world, ballast to fill the guts; not one poor wish, I fear, scarce a thought, for Hea­ven, for Christ. Me-thinks I could resolve my selfe into Jeremie's lamentation, and Nehemiah's tears, to see the preposterous course worldlings take, to pro­vide earthly garbage for their Children, advancing them by Marriage, when ignorant of the principles of Religion, they go together like Brutes: They them­selves tumbled into the grave like the rich Glutton, leaving their posterity in as pittifull a plight, as he his five brethren. Tell me, I beseech you, what com­fort is it to a damned soul in hell, to leave Children upon earth wallowing in abundance, without Christ? they shall be as Fellons, apprehended with the Mannure in which they glory, and cast into the [Page 85] same Prison. The Rich without Christ are so far from having all things, that they have nothing, like the mad lunatick man at Athens, they may perswade themselves, that every ship that is landed is their own; like the Lam [...]ae or Witches, think they feed up­on delicacies; like Sanguine-dreams, fancy they have Earldomes, Dukedomes, Mountains of Gold; yet all is but a fancy. And admit the meat thou eats, the cloaths thou puts on, the pleasure thou enjoyes, the lands thou possesses, be truely thine own; without Christ, they are but as Trees without fruit, Clouds without rain, Combes without honey, have no more proportion to that a Christian enjoyes, than a house of Cards hath to a Palace, a Mole-hill to a Moun­tain, a King on a Stage to a King on a Throne. And admit thou receive some reall comfort here, the more will be thy sorrow hereafter; for every minute of sugered delight, thou shalt have an eternity of horrour; the more thy strength, thy beauty, thy ri­ches, thy honour here, the more will be thy feeble­nesse, thy deformity, thy want, the deeper thy dis­grace hereafter. Boast now, O Worldling of that thou enjoyest without Christ, glory as a Cripple of his soars, a Prisoner of his Fetters, a Pirate of his robberies at the Gallowes, of the things thou usurpest, till, Judas-like, thou throw them away as the cursed price, for which thou hast sold thy soul to Satan, and confesse, as thou wilt be once compell'd, that only he that hath Christ, hath [...], all things. All things in this world, are like Sun-dials, blaze-Torches, Tapers, Candles, all Stars at once, they are of no use; flow Riches, Honour, Strength, Wives, Friends, Children, to our contentment, without this Sun of Righteousnesse, it is still night: They may [Page 86] be Copies of Gods grace, but without Seal; Ciphers of no value, till the Unity in the Trinity, by Christ the Meadiatour, be joyned with them: When this union is once made, then, as if the whole World were a Globe of Gold, the Earth a Centre of Dia­mond, the Heavens poured down Balme, the Clouds showred down pretious Oyntments, all for the solace of that man; God shall replenish his Soul with com­forts, and no wonder, seeing he hath given him his Son, [...], How shall he not with him give all things?

This is the three-fold Emphasis, by which this Ar­gument is amplified; [...], a note of Interrogation; [...], of Negation; [...], of Augmentation: [...], How shall he not also? As if he had said, It is a thing beyond all possible certainty, and more then certain, that he will give us all things, and more then all things, if it be possible; and all of this, because he hath given us his own Son, who is [...], all of all, and all in all, and more than all.

And the reason of this inference may be either ta­ken from the Cause, Christ that made all things, con­taines all things; or from the Signe, He that could give Christ, can give all things; He that would give Christ, will give all things. God hath given to Sa­tan power in the world, and therefore he is styled in Scripture, god of this world, the prince that rules in the the aire: To the blessed Angells he hath given power in Heaven, therefore they are called, Thrones, dominions, principalities and powers; but to neither of them hath he given his Son. Some Divines make this the occasion of Lucifer's fall, and the Angells; they ambitiously a­spired, desired the union with the Unity in Trinity, envyed that the seed of Woman should be united [Page 87] with the eternall Word, the second Person in the Trinity. God hath given eternall Crownes to the Angells in Heaven, power to the Devills upon Earth, but Christ to neither of them. But he hath given us Christ, therefore he wil with him give us [...], all things in Heaven and Earth. Wherefore art thou then perplexed within me, O my Soul, still trust in God, Ille providebit, He will be thy great reward. Quid dubitas de possessionibus (saies St. Chrysostome) herum & dominum cum habeas? Why doubtest thou of possessions, when thou possessest the Lord of all, even Christ the Son of God? Now, O Lord, thou that sparedst not, but cru­cifiedst thy Son for our sins-sake, crucifie our sins, and spare us for thy Son's sake: Spare us for thy Son's merits, who wouldst not spare thy Son for our sins de­merits: Receive us by the red Sea of his Blood, through the dead Sea of Death, to the Land of Pro­mise; To whom with thee, O holy Father, &c.

[...].

A SERMON, Preached before these times, as prognosticating the storms that were then impendent, whereof part are fallen since.

THE time when, the occasion why, and the Author by whom this Psalm was penned, is not gene­rally agreed upon; but that it was (as all Scripture is) from the holy Ghost, in time of spi­rituall joy and exaltation, after some glorious victory, none makes question. And if Moses and the Israelites sung a Song of deliverance, for the overthrow of Pharaoh, Barak and Deborah for the death of Sisera, why may [...]ot we think with the Septuagints, that this is a Song [Page 89] of deliverance, for that miraculous discomfiture of Senacherib's army, in the daies of Hezekiah? But we leave that as more then probable, & come to the parts of the Psalm, which are four: The first is a Preface, in the two first verses, laying down the Argument, that God is to be praised, enforced by two reasons; the one drawn from his wonderfull works, whereby he hath shewed himselfe to the Jewes; the other, from his speciall presence at Jerusalem, and hiding his face from the Gentiles. The second containes a description, of that great victory Gods mighty arme had given them over their enemies. The third, propounds the Doctrines drawn from thence, for the Churches edi­fication, from the seventh to the tenth verse. The fourth and last, is an Epiphonema or conclusion, in the two last verses, exhorting all Tribes, and Tongues, and Kindreds, for the foregoing motives, to praise and glorifie God. Thus the Analysis.

The Text belongs to the third branch, containing points of Doctrine, for the Churches instruction: For having expressed, that God had broke the enemies bow and arrowes, shield and sword, in battle; that he had spoiled the stout-hearted; that at his rebuke, the horses and chariots were cast into a dead sleep: The Spirit of God enforces this conclusion, in the beginning of the seventh verse, Thou, even thou art to be feared. The Emphasis in the word [Thou] redou­bled, implies as much, as if he had said, Not princi­palities, not powers, not hell, not death, nor any thing for themselves, but thou O Lord alone art to be feared. Arguments and reasons to confirm it are two, here laid down in the Text: The first is drawn from Gods anger, who hath decreed, and accordingly executes, vengeance upon all proud rebells. The se­cond [Page 90] is drawn from his power, not Princes, not Ar­mies, not Men, not Angells, are able to endure the breath of his fury: For, Who may stand in thy sight, when once thou art angry?

The words at the first view, seem to divide them­selves into these two parts: First, an [...] or question, Who may stand in thy sight? Secondly, an [...] or supposition, When once thou art angry. But if by more strict examination, we lay them up on the file, the [...] or Supposition (as in all necessary truths) may be resolved into an infallible Position; as if he had said, There is a time, when God will be angry. The [...] or Question, is equivalent to a negative Proposition, but with more Emphasis and significacie, as if he had said, None can stand in thy sight. Hence these two points of Doctrine, naturally arising, offer themselves to our consideration: First, If men continue in sin, there will be a time when God will be angry. Secondly, When God is angry, none can stand in his sight and abide it. And of these in order. But first, the words are to be unfolded, for the clearer understanding of the matter; in which, if there be any difficulty, it is in these two; first, what it is to stand in Gods sight; secondly, in what sense he is said to be angry. Standing is properly a posi­ture of the body, that argues strength, valour, exer­cise; for while Souldiers stand in their squadrons and ranks, there is hope they make at their Enemies, and reward them; if not, they either turn their backs, and are discouraged, or fall to the ground, and so are utterly discomfited. So here in the Text, Who may stand? As if he should say, O Lord, if thou shouldst bend thy bow, and whet thy glittering sword to come to Battle, what man, what Angell would not [Page 91] fall before thee, and melt as wax before the fire? Thus much for the former. The second is, to inform our judgments, how God can be angry? The truth is, An­ger is a speech borrowed from men, in whom anger sometimes signifies displeasure or discontent, Gen. 45. 5. Be not angry at your selves, that you have sold me hither; that is, be not displeased. Sometimes it signi­fies a desire of revenge, upon the person of our neigh­bour, Matth. 5. 22. He that is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of judgment. Some­times it signifies displeasure, not against the person, but against the sin of our neighbour, or our own sin; this kinde of anger, if it be moderate, and joyned with compassion, is a holy affection, 2 Cor. 7. 1. In that ye were godlily sorry, what [anger] hath it wrought? that is, holy indignation against sin. Anger, in the first sense, is not a discontent in God, for he is all fulnesse of joy, and nothing can hinder his Blisse; it cannot be a displeasure at any mans person without a cause, for God is angry at none, but those that first have displeased him. Thirdly, it is not a passion or pertur­bation in God. But the truth is, he is said to be angry, when he does such things as angry men do, who pu­nish, and take away signes of favour from such, as they be angry withall. This the word [anger] in the originall imports, comming from [...] aph, that signi­fies a nostrill, because anger showes it selfe in snuffing and breathing of the nose; therefore David describing God when he is angry, saies, Psal. 18. 8. There went a smoke out of his nostrills, and fire out of his mouth de­voured, coles were kindled by it. Not that God hath pas­sions, or mouth, or breath, or nostrills; but because that men, when they are an [...]ry, shew it in some, or most of these. [...] [Page 92] [...]; It is spoke in the dialect of men, but must be understood in an Idiom proper to God. Of this more fully, when we come to the Uses: thus much for opening the words. Now to the first point of Doctrine, which is this, Though the enemies of the Church should link themselves together in bands of Iron, yet a day will come, when God will be angry.

For the proof of this, see what St. Paul saies; he does not say, Because God is mercifull, therefore they may take their scope in sinning; because he pu­nishes not presently, therefore he sees not; because he is long-suffering, therefore his justice shall not be executed: But he evinces the contrary, Rom. 2. 5. But after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart, thou trea­surest up to thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. As though he should say, Do not think to escape, because thou enjoyes hearts ease, Halcyon daies, and daies of peace; for every sin God hoords up, and seales as in a bag; the devill trusses up, as in a bill of inditement; thine owne conscience heaps up wound to wound, and plague to plague, which one day, as dammed Rivers, shall burst in upon thee with more violence; as long festered wounds be more incurable, as an Army long a providing, come with greater terrour to Battle. Therefore it was not the least point of wisdome in Solomon, to presse this point. Eccles. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth, let thy heart chear thee in the daies of thy youth, and walk in the delight of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: But know, that for all these things, God will bring thee to judgment. God uses to deal with sinners, as Fishes do with their prey, after they have swallowed the hook, suffers them to play [Page 93] and sport with it to the end of the line, then strikes it through their gills, and brings them back again. Thus much this forequoted speech of Solomon imports, as if he had said, You that solace your selves with all delights, in the heat of your blood; well, go on in your courses, banish dull and sad thoughts with the purest Wine, shake off your fits of melancholly, with peals of laughter, sleep on in the laps of your Dalilah's, chear up your selves with Pipe, and Tabret, and the sweetest Musick; yet a little more sleep, a little more slumber, live on, as though there were no Heaven, no Hell, no Wrath, no Judgment: Yet, know this, and know it you must, that God hath his hook in your nostrills, and ere long his wrath and fury shall wax hot against you like fire. Job goes about to inform gluttons, and worldly minded men, (men hardest of beliefe) in the truth of this Doctrine, Job. 20. 23. When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating. 27. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him; the increase of his house shall depart, and his good shall flow away in the day of his wrath. Even the Church of God it selfe, that like a wanton Minion, had put far from her the evill day, was glad to confesse this, and that with ruefull moan to complain, Lam. 1. 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that passe by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger, A day of anger indeed. Lam. 2. 21. The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets, my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword, thou hast slain them in the time of thine anger, thou hast killed, and not pittyed. Gods anger is such a flame, as cannot be quenched, [Page 94] his day of anger; such a day, as neither wisdome, nor honour, nor riches, nor gold, can ransome us from: Ezek. 7. 19. They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them, in the day of the wrath of the Lord. It is not Crownes imperiall, nor Thrones, nor Diadems, that can escape this day: Ps. 110. 5. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through Kings, in the day of his wrath. Therefore the holy Ghost, to note the certainty of Gods anger, calls it a day of wrath, of fierce wrath; a day of displea­sure, hot displeasure, heavy displeasure; a day of Gods vengeance, Jer. 46. 10. A day of the Lord, and a cloudy day, Ezek. 30. 3. A day of darknesse and of gloominesse, a day of clouds and thick darknesse, Joel 2. 2. Argu­ments and reasons further to confirm it, may be these.

The first is drawn from the nature of God, who is of purer eyes, than to behold iniquity unpunished; a consuming fire, that the stubble is burned up before him; a God of glory, that Dagon cannot stand in his presence; a light, that cannot dwell with darknesse; a jealous God, that burnes the chaffe with unquen­chable fire, wounds Kings, and spews all workers of iniquity out of his mouth. For, in Creatures, where­in (by reason of the antipathy of their nature and hu­mours) there is but a finite distance, there can scarce be any agreement; the Vine will not thrive in the same place with the Colwort, the Elephant is enraged at the sight of a Ram, one Bird and Beast pursues ano­ther with eager pursuit: Then how much more shall God, who is infinitely holy, everlastingly good, eter­nally happy, threaten, punish, be angry at, take re­venge upon sin, that abuses his mercy, despises his [Page 95] justice, defaces his image? What man will not take care to break a Cockatrice eggs, and kill a Serpent? And shall not God in the day of his fierce wrath, take re­venge upon sin, which that old Serpent Satan brought into the world? The reason why men are not angry at those crimes, that deserve Phinehas his zeal, and Sa­muel's indignation, is, because our understanding cannot see the hainousnesse of them, our wills can­not sufficiently desire revenge, our affections with eagernesse pursue them. But God understands, and wills, and hates, as things are in themselves, and as they deserve.

The second Reason may be drawn from Gods Will, who justly decreed, to poure down the fierce Vialls of his wrath, in the day of his wrath, upon all disobe­dient persons: See Deuter. 28. the curses and commi­nations God in his anger threatned to bring upon the people: See if he do not set apart the wicked for fuell of his wrath, against this day, Prov. 16. 5. The Lord made all things for himselfe, yea even the wic­ked for the day of evill. Now if God be willing to poure out his heavy displeasure upon those, that displease him, what can hinder his mighty arme for perfor­ming? Creatures indeed may be angry, but often­times like Drones without stings, cannot hurt; as Canons charged with powder without shot, onely makes a roaring; like the Popes Bulls, threatens ma­ny, hurts none but them whose consciences are en­slaved. Saul may be angry at David, but cannot finde him out; but, from Gods all-piercing eye, none can hide himselfe. Satan may desire to kill Job, Jonah may be angry till death for N [...]niveh's preservation; yet, God puts a bitt in both their mouths, which if he be angry, nothing can be holden out of his reach. Prin­ces [Page 96] (if they take captives) may have the rescued from them again, as Lot was from the King of Sodom; bought with a price, as Joseph of the Ishmaelites: But no power can rescue us from Gods anger, no ransome but Christs blood redeem us. Gods Will being set afoot, all his Attributes follow; if his Will say, Be angry, his Eye seekes out the object of his anger, and findes it; his wisdome tempers the cup, his hand whets the sword, his arme strikes the blow. Thus you see, there is a time of Gods anger for sin, because he will have it so.

The third Reason, that there is a time when God is angry, is drawn from the cause, which in generall is sin, and in speciall, the contempt, and contuma­cious despight we offer unto God, in every sin we commit: The Apostle uses the same reason, Rom. 2. 4. [...], Despisest thou the riches of his good­nesse, and forbearance, and long suffering? The conclu­sion he infers, is this, [...], Thou treasurest up to thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Nebuchadnezzar was angry at the three Children, for contempt of wor­shipping of his Image, and threw them into the hot fiery Furnace; Daniel for the like was throwne into the Lions den. Shall Kings wrath burn thus like fire, for despising of their unlawfull decrees? and then shall not God, who is a consuming fire, be angry at us vile wormes, for despising of his pure, holy, and wholsome Lawes, which the Angells dare not men­tion without trembling? Esau lost his Birthright, for preferring a messe of Pottage before it; the Jewes smarted, for preferring Barabbas before Christ; Judas felt Gods wrath, for valuing our blessed Saviour at thirty pieces of silver. In every sin, we prefer the [Page 97] service of Satan before Gods service, the pleasure of iniquity before the fruits of righteousnesse, death before life, our own will before Gods will.

The fourth Reason may be taken from the effects, and execution of his anger; we see symptoms of Gods wrath in some, in their bodies, as Oehazie's le­prosie; some, in lack of liberty, as Manasses; some in their children, as Eli; some in the gripes of a yelling conscience, as Cain, Judas, Achi [...]ophel, and Saul; some in taking away their reason, as Nabuchadnez­zar; in some of suddain death, as Belshazzar, while he was quaffing; Herod, while he was boasting; the peo­ple of Sodom, while they were wallowing in their uncleannesse; Dathan and Ab [...]ram swallowed quick to Hell, while they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and usurped the Priests office. Lastly, in all reprobates at the last judgment, which will be a day of anger indeed, where his wrath shall seaze upon them for ever. Hitherto the Reasons, the Uses fol­low: First, of Information. And how God can be angry, in opening of the Text we toucht, to make way to that which followed; Let us further enquire wherein it consists. When anger is said to be a desire of revenge, as [...] of [...] imports, to desire as ravinously as a hungry stomack does meat, an infla­ming of the blood about the heart, a sorrow of the heart, for the contempt that is done to us, with an inkindling of indignation against the despiser. Anger, as it is thus described, neither for the materiall nor formall, can belong to God, because he is a pure Es­sence, free from passion, all-sufficient in himselfe, cannot be crossed in his absolute will: Yet, in a sense it is true, that Anger is in God, and that in these three respects.

First, it argues his will, and most just decree of taking revenge, and punishing the injuries and con­tempt offered to him, and his Church, as, Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse; that is, God manifests by punishments, what he hath decreed from eternity. Secondly, it signifies the comminations and threatnings of punish­ments against sinners; for, when God threatens to bring plagues and judgments, he is said to be angry: Psal. 6. 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure; that is, do not punish me as thou threatens me, according to my sins. Thirdly, it signifies the effects of his displeasure, and the execution it selfe of those plagues and judg­ments, which he had before decreed and threatned. Thus you see, God may be said to be angry, because in his will he decrees, in his word he threatens, in his wisdome punishes. This may serve to confute that Stoicall opinion, that God cannot be angry, because anger (say they) is a disease of the soul, that cannot surprise a wise man: Here they may see, that it dero­gates not, but suites with the wisdome of him, who is wisdome it selfe. Here the Epicures may see, how blasphemously they dishonour God, when they say, he sits idle in Heaven, takes care for nothing, puni­shes none. How neer unto these are all our carnall Worldlings, that take their ease, eat, drink, and saie in their hearts, Tush, God cares not: Let them know, that for all this, though they escape a while unpunished, he will bruise them in pieces with a rod of iron, like a potters vessell,

The second enquirie is, Seeing God in a sense may be said to be angry, whether anger be one of those Attributes, that are imitable and warrantable in us, [Page 99] or no? We are commanded to be holy, as he is holy, mercifull as he is mercifull: But of anger, it may be doubted, because it blindes the understanding, per­verts the will, disorders the affections. The truth is, anger is not onely warrantable, but sometimes not to be angry is sin. This may be proved by the example of Christ, Joel 2. 7. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. Zeal is a passion, mixt of anger and love; by his actions, in driving the buyers and sellers out of the Temple; by precept, Ephes. 4. 25. Be ye anry, and sin not; that is, though anger in it selfe may be good, yet, the inordinatenesse of it makes it a sin, and that is three waies: First, if we be angry rashly, above measure, for sleight or no causes. Secondly, if we be angry for pri­vate injuries, and not for dishonouring of God. Thirdly, if we be angry more for the hatred we bear to our brethren, than for their sins. Otherwise to be angry at sin, (if the action be streaming in Christs blood) may be a meanes to asswage Gods anger for sin.

Let the second Use serve to examine our selves, whether we have provoked the Lord to anger, or no; And if; by what signes we may know the day of his anger is at hand: First, whether we have provoked him to anger, may be known from the cause, which is the contempt, and contumacious despight we offer to God in every sin; I'le onely name two or three which the Scripture often mentions, as the greatest incentives of his anger. First, Idolatry, a sin that puts God out of his Throne, sets up Idolls in his place; which is not only when we worship other Gods, but when we suffer riches, honour, beauty, pleasure, to take up or soul, which should be the holy Ghosts temple. This is high treason against God; [Page 100] therefore how often shewed he his anger to the Is­raelites, in fiery serpents, plagues, pestilences, dearth, famine, sword, and captivity. To this may be added, tempting of God, rebellion against God, that sin of witchcraft, blasphemy, hypocrisie, and profaning of the Lords Day.

The second way whereby we may know, whether we have angered God, is, to examine our souls, whether we have been dutifull to Parents, obedient to Rulers, reverent to our Betters: The Scripture styles them Gods; they that despise them, despise God, in as much as they are ranked among the cur­sed, Deut. 27. 16. Cursed is he that setteth light by his father, or by his mother, and let all the people say, Amen. Nay, so great is Gods anger, that he threatens the Ravens shall pull out their eyes.

Thirdly, Murderers, and those that imbrue their hands in innocent blood, offer injury and despight unto God with a high hand, and therefore highly dis­please him: He that stabbs but at the Grand Sultan's Picture, is guilty of treason; then how shall the blood of his brother crie for vengeance against him, that defaces Gods Image in Man? witnesse Cain's ghastly conscience, David's broken bones, Judas bursten bowells, and the wrath of God against the Jewes, who cryed, His blood be upon us, and upon our chil­dren.

Fourthly, the wronging of Widows and Orphans, oppressing the poor and strangers, are sins that anger God: He hath promised to be a Husband to the wi­dow, a Father to the fatherlesse, a succour to the poor, a guide to the stranger: They that offer wrong to these, strive to separate those, whom God hath wedded to himselfe by holy affections, by promises, [Page 101] by his Son Jesus: Therefore see what God saies; Exod. 22. 22. Ye shall not afflict any widow or father­lesse child; if thou afflict them in any wise, and they cri [...] at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath shall wax hot; and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shal be widowes, and your children father lesse.

Lastly, all filthy, unnaturall, and abominable lusts of the flesh, these rebell against the spirit, anger God the Father of spirits; witnesse the adultery of David, for which, the sword never departed from his house; those thousands of Benjamites that were slain, for abusing the Levit's wife; those Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that were buried in the fiery flakes of brim­stone. Thus we have discovered a few of the chiefest of those sins, that provoke Gods anger. By these, and all others, let us examine our souls, and sit an audit in our consciences, whether we have any share in kindling of Gods anger or no. O that many mens consciences did not tell them without examination, and that we did not see by daily experience, that, Hos. 4. 2. by swearing, and lying, and killing, and stea­ling, and committing of adultery, men break out that blood touches blood. Thus much for the Use of Exami­nation.

The next Use is of Enquiry; if it be so, that we have angered God, how we may foresee, and know the day of his anger. Mariners desire to so see a storm, diggers in Mines a damp, souldiers would be fore­warned, that they may be fore-armed against the comming of their enemies. The tru [...]h is, God for the most part keeps the expresse day of his anger, in his secret will to himselfe, yet many times shewes, that it is near; and those are either such, as must infallib [...]y come to passe, as the last Judgment; or are revealed [Page 102] to us with a condition, as Niniveh shall be destroy­ed if they repent not; Jerusalem shall be demolished, if she will not know the day of her visitation; Judas shall smart for it, if he betray his Lord and Master. and these events which are conditionally proposed to us, may be known three waies.

First, by the threatnings and menaces of Gods Pro­phets and Ministers, for they are his mouth, and as long as they speak, his Word cannot lie. If the Pro­phet tell Zedechiah, that if he go to the Battle he must be slain, tarry at home he must, or die. If Daniel tell Ne­buchadnezzar, that God was angry at the great Tree, he must either give over his beastly lusts, or live with the beasts. So when Gods Ministers threaten a day of anger against any Nation, Citie, Family, for their proud transgressions, it must of necessity come to passe, ei­ther here or hereafter; be repented of here, or for ever punished hereafter.

The second signe, whereby we may know, that the day of Gods anger is at hand, are lesser plagues, that he sends as fore-runners and harbingers of severer wrath; like Tamberlain, he first hangs out his Ensigne of peace, then his red Crosse of justice, and musters smaller plagues against us; if then we return not, and strike a League, he hangs out his black Flag of impla­cable wrath, skirmaging and massacring, till neither Prince nor People, root nor branch be left. He is like a Man of war, discharges a warning-piece at his ene­mies, if they despise that, quits the Hatches of them with a second, strikes off their mani-Mast with a third, and so sinks them. He sends little flashes, before the great thunder-crack come. Hence it is, that his anger is first compared to a smoak, then to a kindling of fire, then to a flame of fire, then to a consuming [Page 103] fire, then to an unquenchable fire. He sent to the Egyptians Frogs, Lice, Locusts, Murrain, Blood, Darknesse, Hail, Death of the First-born, and lastly an utter Overthrow. Christ, Matth, 24. having told Jerusalem of warrs, rumours of warrs, troubles, fa­mines, pestilences, earthquakes, ends his speech with a nondum finis, yet is not the end; these are but the beginnings of trouble. To apply. What shall we think God meant, by the late threatning of dearth and famine, such streams of blood-shed in our neigh­bour Nations, feavours and pestilences scattered a­broad, as though the destroying Angell were shoo­ting at Rovers; I will not conclude, that his day of anger is at hand, and that he will make us the Butt, at which he will discharge his whole Quiver of Ar­rowes; but this I say, that either repentance or de­struction must follow.

Neither is it the least signe, that a day of vengeance is at hand, and that the Lord hath a controversie with his people, when he takes holy and religious men, zealous Ministers, from amongst them. If a Seal be plucked from an Evidence, it argues the whole Wri­ting shall be torn assunder, cancelled, throwne in the fire, burned. Godly men are as a Signet on Gods hand, Seales and Pledges, that he will not destroy the righ­teous with the wicked; A royall Priesthood, whom he oftentimes takes away, that they may not see the ensuing misery; as Pearles pluck'd from Rings, Wheat gathered from the Tares, foretells, the one must to the furnace, to be new moulded, the other to the fire to be burn'd: As children taken from the breasts of mo­thers adjudged to die, that they may not see their ex­ecution. Thus God sent Lot and his Family out of Sodom, and then rained down fire and brimstone [Page 104] upon them. After God had taken away the godly King Iosiah, what miseries and calamities, like waves one in the neck of another, pursued the Jewes, till their utter desolation?

The third signe, whereby to know that a day of God's anger is at hand, is, his suffering of sin long to raigne unpunished. Vespasian had for his Ensigne, an Anchor, with a Dolphin painted in it; an Anchor, to signifie that he was slow in comming; a Dolphin, that he was fierce in taking revenge. It is the Tree that continues unpruned, that must be hewen down; the Oxen that go in fat Pastures, that must to the sham­bles: So sinners, if God feed them, it is but to fat them for the knife; if he preserve them, it is but for further judgment.

This is not the least token, that God hath sealed us up (unlesse we repent) for the day of his anger. What heart, though harder than Adamant, would not bleed, to think of the scourges of other▪ Countries, The streets running with blood, the Cities burning with fire, the children slain in the parents sight, the old gray heads dyed in crimson blood, the young led into captivity; while, while we are hedg'd about on every side with peace, wallow in abundance; and, which is worse, in unthankfulnesse, in sin. What good could we not yet promise this our Nation? But when the Streets rings with swearing and pro­fanenesse, Markets are stained with lying, oppressing, and cousenage; the Taverns and Innes abound with filthy vomitings, wickednesse raignes in every state, every condition, every place; shall we still put far from us the evill day?

Thus you see, we have angred God, and that un­lesse he be appeased, the day of his anger is at hand. [Page 105] The third Use is of Instruction, how to prevent it, and that is by repentance: First, taking a strict exami­nation of our selves, how often, in what manner, in what measure, we have angred God. A Physician must first know the disease, before he can apply the cure. Then we must be heartily sorry, that we have offen­ded God; this godly sorrow must work like a strong potion, work in the understanding, in the will, in the affections, in the conscience, bruise the bones, twinge the spirit, break the heart. Thirdly, we must aggravate it, by remembring, that we have not onely angered Men and Angells, but Christ that dyed for us. No heat of fire, nor knock of hammers, can break the Adamant; but annoint it with the hot blood of a Goat, it falls in splinters. Not precepts, not threat­nings, not judgments, can make a stony heart con­trite, till God in Christ move it. Fourthly, we must forsake our sins, whereby we have angered God. The Scolapendra when she hath swallowed an hook, vomits out her bowells with it, and so is quit. When we have swallowed iniquity, that the guilt thereof stings us, let us vomit and spew out our darling pleasures, pluck out our eye of lust, cut off our hand of revenge, belch out our heart of pride, and so in the rest. Fiftly, we must appease Gods anger with prayer, come to the Altar, bring Incense, stan [...] before the Mercy-seat, cry unto him that sits between the Cherubims, have some Moses to hold up his hand for us, and with us, some Samuel to make intercession for us: And if all this will not pacifie him, let some Magistrate, like Moses, Phinehas, or Ioshua, execute judgment, that so the plague may be stayed.

Hitherto the first point, that if we continue in sin, God will be angry. The second followes, That when [Page 106] God is angry, none can stand in his sight, or abide it; or, That the anger of God is a terrible, unspeakable, unsupportable, intolerable burden. Every word in the Text hath a speciall Emphasis to prove this; Who may stand? Who? shall Angells? they are but like refra­cted beams or raies, if God should hide his face, they would cease to shine. Shall Man? his glory and pomp, like the colours in the Rainbow, vanishes away, when God puts forth in anger the brightnesse of his face. Shall Devills? If he speak the word, they are tumbled down from Heaven like lightning. Stand in thy sight. [Stand.] What! a Reed against a Cedar, a Thistle in Lebanon against a Cedar in Lebanon, a Fea­ther against a Flame, a Grashopper against an Al­mighty, a head of Glasse against a head of Brasse. When once thou art angry. [Angry.] By sending out his wrath, that it wounds like arrowes; angry, in pouring it out, that it drownes like water; angry, in kindling of it, that it burnes like fire; nay, a con­suming fire, but that may be quenched; an unquen­chable fire, but that may cease to burn, when it lacks matter; an everlasting fire, that never goes out, That, that's it; such anger as is never fully shown, but in punishment of Reprobates; in no punishment, but that in Hell; in none in Hell, but that eternall.

First, to prove, that Gods anger is terrible, we need go no further, but to the godly, to seek it: How have the stout-hearted pulled in their horns, and melted like Snailes? Snailes (as Naturalists ob­serve) put in salt, dissolve into water: How hath it grinded them to dust? Hear David, Psal. 32. com­plaining, that his bones waxed old, and that his moy­sture was turned into the drought of summer. Hear him houl and cry, Psal. 102. that his daies were consumed [Page 107] like smoak; that his bones burned like hearth, withered like grasse; that he was become like a pelican in the wil­dernesse, or a sparrow on the house top. Hear Job com­plain, Chap. 6. that his griefe was heavier then the sand of the sea; that the arrowes of the Almighty were within him, the poyson had drunk up his spirit; the terrours of God had set themselves in array against him. Secondly, that Gods anger is unspeakable, we can all tell, how great, none can tell; it's like God himselfe, infinite in greatnesse, and (unlesse he in mercy put an end to it) it's like eternity, infinite in time, eternall: there­fore the Saints have thought no Rhetorick sufficient enough to expresse it in, but sighes; no tongue, but scrikes and groans; no inke would cast, but tears; no paper, but a wounded heart; no words of force, but exclamations of despair, and such as issue from a blee­ding soul. As Lines drawn from the Circumference meet in the Centre, and pierce it through, yet no part of them is comprehended in it; so, many arrowes of Gods anger may meet in us, pierce us through, but expresse them we cannot; nay, when we are in the greatest agonies, As burning­glasses by reflection of the beams of the Sun, cause heat and burning, which is not in the Sun, but pre­sents not the least glory of the Sun; So we can better expresse our passions, than unfold the weight of that mighty arme that smites us. Thirdly, that the anger of God is unsupportable, we need no other instance but of our blessed Saviour: He that makes the Heavens roul without an axel-tree, causes the Earth to hang in the Aire, as a ball poysed without pillars, puts bounds to the waves of the Sea, staggering over the banks; He sweat and bled, and groaned under this burden: We have heard tell of finite Creatures, that [Page 108] have endured mangling of bodies, ripping of bowells, racking of joynts, burning of flesh, boyling in oyle; but under this stroak, he that was God and Man, was in a sense compelled to cry out, O God my God, why hast thou forsaken me. Fourthly, that the anger of God is intolerable, Judas, Cain, and Saul could tell before their deaths, and, it is to be feared, better since; and many reprobates in this life are so racked, that it pierces the whole Man; head, heart, side, back, all parts at once ake, and sweat, and tremble; the eye sees no comfort, the tongue tastes no comfort, the ear hears no comfort; and as there is no ease within, so no comfort without, no place, nor bed, nor board, nor house, nor Church; no creature, nor meat, nor drink, nor friend, nor wife, nor child, will afford any comfort: How many have found a weight beyond the weight of mountains, lying upon their soules, and wish, that they had rather been famished or starved, or burned, or strangled long before, and catch and call for death, for hell, leap out of the fire into the flame. And if this be the arraignment of God's anger in this life, what will be the terrible execution hereafter.

You may have this proved by examples; God was angry at the Angells, and they fell down into the lowest pit; he was angry at Adam, and he was throwne out of Paradise; he was angry at the old World, and they were drowned in the Flood; angry at Sodome and Gomorrah, and they were burned with fire and brimstone; angry at Pharaoh, and he was bu­ried in the waves; angry at Dathan and Abiram, and they were swallowed quick to hell; he was angry at Senacherib, and the Angell slew a hundred fourscore and five thousand of his Army in one night; he was [Page 109] angry at the Jewes, and rased their [...]ie to the ground, and scattered them as vagabonds over the face of the whole earth; angry at all reprobates, and will cast them out of his presence for ever. Thus you see we range over the Scriptures, yet not out of the narrow bounds of the Text, as lines from the circum­ference meet in one centre, and spoaks of a wheel in one axeltree, poynts all at Gods anger; for, what Man, what Angell can stand in his sight, when once he is angry?

All the reason we will give of this Doctrine, shall be the infinite disproportion betwixt God and Man; when there is not a creature to a creature, weakness to weaknesse; but a finite must encounter with an infinite power, weaknesse must fight with strength, man with God, how can there be any standing? First, of Gods power. Secondly, of mans weaknesse. He that made all things of nothing, can, if he please, return all things to nothing; the Heavens will passe away at his anger as a smoak, the Hills melt, the Earth tremble, the raging Sea is dryed up, and all creatures couch before him like Lambs. Thus God can do without means what he pleases, and when he pleases, com­mand what means to be rods of his wrath he will, he can send upon their bodies, consumptions, feavours, extream burnings, botch of Aegypt, scab, itch, and pestilence; make the Heaven over our heads like brasse, the Earth like iron, rain down powder and dust, smite the corn with mildew and blasting, send famine and sword, strike our soules with blindnesse, mad­nesse, and astonishment of heart. Now what is man that he should stand against all these? a flower that's cut down, a shadow that continues not, a cloud that's consumed, a dream that vanishes, a shepheard's [Page 110] tent that is removed, a smoak that is scattered with the Sun-beams, and at the best, but the untimely fruit of a woman, that afore we be in life, we are in the midst of death. Thus the Reasons, the Uses fol­low. First, of Information.

Ob. The Angell of the Lord met Moses in the way, and would have slain him, yet he escaped. The Angell met Balaam in the way when he was angry, yet he lived.

Ans. I answer, the Lord dealt with them, as a Nurse that holds the finger of a child to the fire, not that the fire may burn it, but that it may learn to dread the fire: God seemed to be angry with them, not that he might overthrow them, but that they might learn to flie [...], from the wrath to come.

Ob. Secondly, the wicked, upon whom God threa­tens to poure down all the plagues written in the Law, stand highest in view, and strongest upon their guard.

Ans. I answer, if they stand the highest, it's but as Prisoners at the Bar, hold up their hand, that all may see their arraignment: If strongest upon their guard, but like Malefactours nailed to the Pillory, that they cannot move.

Ob. But the damned spirits and reprobates in Hell, endure the anger of God, not for a day, but for ever.

Ans. I answer, they endure it so, as they are still fainting; live so, as they are still dying; stand so, as they are everlastingly falling; like wheeles, are car­ried about in a circle of Gods vengeance, as one wave of his wrath beats them down, another raises them up again. God could with one blast of his fury consume them to nothing, but he deales with them, [Page 111] as the Turks with their Gally-slaves, adjudges them to perpetuall slavery.

The second Use may let us see, that no strength, no riches, no wisdome, no nation, no army, no city, can continue long, when once they have angered God; If strength, then Goliah, Sehon, Og the King of Bashan, might have boasted; if riches, the rich Glut­ton, and the Fool in the Gospell, might have sung on their Requieme; if wisdome, Solomon had been secure; if Kingdoms, the Jewes, and the three Monarchies had still flourished; if Armies, Senacherib's had not been defeated; if Cities, Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon, and Niniveh had still stood. This is it that made Solomon say, Prov. 21. 30. There is no wisdome, no understan­ding, no counsell against the Lord. This made Jeremie say. Jer. 9. 23. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdome, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches. This made David say, Psal. 2. 12. If his wrath is kindled, tantillum, but a little; quantillum, how little, O blessed Saint? that, he knows not: But after a long extasie or trance, breaks off his Aposiopesis with this Epiphonema, Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

We may learn also from hence, that all earthly comforts are but crosses, all worldly blessings are but cursings, when Gods anger once begins to flame. God was angry at Eli, and his own children burst his heart; angry at David, and his beloved Absolom conspires against him; angry at Senacherib, and his own sons im­brue their hands in his blood; he was angry at Solo­mon, and his wisdome was but vexation of spirit; all his riches and honour, but vanity of vanities; his Wives, Children, Horses, Chariots, and all his worldly pleasures, like buckets of Oyle thrown into [Page 112] the flame, increases the burning; he was angry at Ju­das, and all things work together for his sorrow; that he had been Christs Disciple wounds him, that he had preached the Gospell wounds him, that he had wrought miracles wounds and galls his soul. Thirdly, observe, that all other wounds they are but ripples, all other flames they are but sparkles, in comparison of Gods anger; diseases of the body, Gout, Stone, Strangury, bloody Flux may be cured; Plague, Pesti­lence, Dearth, Famine, may be abated: Punishments of the body, Rods, Swords, Racks, Wheeles, Flames, Strapadoes, may be endured: I ones Estate, poverty, nakednesse, imprisonment: In ones name, slanders, reproaches, defamations, false witnesses: In the Com­mon-wealth, captivity, overthrow, utter desolation, in some sense, may be undergone: But, before Gods anger, who can stand? This breaks the leggs, looses the joynts, consumes the marrow, burns up the spi­rits, dries the moysture, wounds the heart, deads the soul, and murders the conscience. In this Epilepsie, all parts fail at once, till God be pacified; in that Apoplexie they lie for ever, whom God in his anger leaves.

The third Use may serve, to reprove three sorts of men: First, those blasphemous Rabsheca's, whose words, works, lives, shew, they defie Gods anger, like the Cyclopes in Homer, that despised Jove's thun­derbolts; like Darius, that writ a Letter of defiance to the River Xanthus, for drowning his Horse; like the Cicilians, that made war against the mountain Aetna, for spoiling their corn fields, but were buried under the sands thereof, and flakes of fire; this is the lot of all that anger God. But some Machiavel or State-politician will say, we have Riches, Artillery, [Page 113] strong Towers to defend us. So had Jerusalem, but when she had anger'd God, she could not stand. But our enemies are weak. O consider, he can without means of man overthrow, as he did Pharaoh in the red Sea, Iericho with the sound of Rams horns; with weak means, as a thousand with Samson's jaw-bone, Goliah with David's sling. But the rich cormorant will say, What need we fear plague, famine hunger? we keep alone from all company, our tables are full of dain­ties, our granaries are full of corn, and mony we have enough to supply. Consider, He that could slay so many of David's, of Senacherib's Army in one night, can send the pestilence in thy meat, in thy drink, in every blast of aire thou drawes: He that took away holy Iob's substance in one day, may justly confound thee in a moment; that if thou like a flie flutter against this flame, thou will be forced one day to cry out, as did Iulian the Apostat, when he was wounded with an arrow from heaven, [...], Thou hast conquered, O Iesus of Galilee.

Secondly, this reproves those, that when God is angry, adde flame to flame, firebrand to firebrand. Does God threaten scarcity and want, then be sure at this time drunkennesse and gluttony will most abound. Does God smite with diseases of the body, as pestilence, burning Feavours, &c? then lascivious­nesse, wantonnesse, uncleannesse of the flesh, whor­dome, adultery, and the like. Does he shut up any in their houses, with the seales of his judgments? then there will be the most stealing, even out of in­fected houses; when his judgments will not come to them, they will find them out. Is not this to stand in defiance against Gods anger?

Thirdly, this reproves those, that murmur against [Page 114] God, for sending his rod of anger to correct us, when our sins have deserved the sword to kill us. If he should send the enemy amongst us, and you should see your daughters ravished, your sons butchered before your eyes, would not this be bitter? If we should see our Townes and Cities on fire, our streets running with blood, all in a skirmage and uproar at once, would not this be bitter? Should your chil­dren fall in the streets for bread, die for thirst, they ready to eat you up, you ready to chop them for the pot, would not this be bitter? All this we have de­served, all this Gods anger threatens, all this we shall have, unlesse we repent. O let's now prevent this, that we may never see nor feel it. The Word of God is against us, the decree is come out, most of those sins that have brought captivity, sword, famine, upon other Nations, are amongst us; we see the Lord hath begun already, and our Brethren have begun to us in this bitter cup. O the bitter lamentations of Germany, Fathers, Mothers, weeping for their Sons that be not. O England, England, look to it, that we drink not of the dregs. O that you would fast and mourn in publick; O that you would each in private, pray earnestly, and say, O Lord, spare our Nation, our houses, our sons and daughters; spare them from the sword, from famine, from pestilence, from misery▪ and who knowes, but the Lord may yet have mercy, turn away his anger, that we may not fall, but stand in his sight for ever.

[...].

A SERMON, Preached, when the Church see­med in part to be Eclipsed, and some eminent Members thereof to be Clouded.

THE subject is Christian sorrow, the burden of Paul and Barna­bas their first Sermon preached at Antioch, where men were first called Christians; a burden but like Christs, leight; affliction, fit for Paul to begin; the kingdome of God, a theam of comfort more suitable for Barnabas to end. The substance of the Law was, do, and live; but of the Gospell, suffer, and believe. Faith and affliction are linked together, for so saies the Text, that they confirmed the soules of [Page 116] the Disciples, and exhorted them to continue in faith, and that we must through much affliction enter into the kingdome of God.

The Proposition entire is not pure, but modall, consisting (as all of that kind) of two parts: First, the mo [...]us, or manner of it, oportet, we must. Secondly, the d [...]ctum, or matter of it, through much affliction enter into the kingdome of God. This life is a Race, Heaven is the Goal, this Text the common Stadium, wherein observe these severalls: First, the terminum à quo, whence our afflictions begins, and that is here imply­ed, from the wombe, nascimur afflicti. Secondly, the mobile, or parties who, [...], we Christians. Thirdly, the motum, or passage, [...], enter through. Fourth­ly, the med [...]um, or way through which, [...], through much affliction. Fifthly, the termi­num ad quem, the end of this race, [...], to the kingdome of God. Thus divided, it admits of a two-fold handling: First, generall, in regard of the modus or manner of it. Secondly, speciall, in re­gard of the dictum or matter of it, where (as in a So­rites, so many Propositions, so many implyed Syllo­gismes; so here) are so many parts, so many propo­sitions. We'l content our selves at the present with the generall, where the Propositions are two: The first is necessary, and armed with an oportet, that we must suffer affliction, before we can enter upon hea­ven. This is somewhat sharp and harsh. The next swee­tens and sugars it, That through these afflictions and waters of Marah, we shall at the length come to Heaven. We'l begin and end like a Comedie; and so of them in order. Afflictions must be suffered.

The Crosse of Christ must be born, before a Crown of glory be wo [...]; we must through the Wildernesse [Page 117] and Iordan, before we come at Canaan; go through the Wine-presse, before we drink of the Grape in the Kingdome of Heaven. Some have, and some still must go through a purgatory of rods, swords, racks, wheeles, flames, strapadoes, (in this life) be­fore they be carryed in a charriot of triumph into glory. We may prosecute this Argument, launching in blood of Martyrs to the knees, whole clouds of tears of afflicted Prophets, Apostles, Saints, who are now noble, and thrice renowned in Heaven, who had no other Armes upon the earth, but the Crosse; no Coat but Sable; no Badge, but the marks of Christ; no Crest, but Confidence; no Supporters, but Pati­ence; no Field, but Aceldama, a field of blood. This is the Watchword our Saviour gives his Souldiers, and the Motto in his Banner, Matth. 16. 24. If any man wil follow me, let him forsake himself, and take up his crosse, and follow me. Saint Paul saies to Timothy, All that will live godly in Christ Iesus, must suffer persecution. We are Christians, and our lives begins, baptismate fluminis, consecrated in the waters of affliction; goes on bap­tismate flaminis, confirmed in the fire of affliction; and oftentimes ends baptismate sanguinis, waft on Rivers of blood, covers our Hearse with a scarlet die to­wards Heaven, and that for these causes.

First, thereby God proves us, whether we be con­stant and true, and manifests to others our sincerity; they are a touchstone of tryall, to examine, whether we be pure or reprobate gold. The Eagle tries her young ones, whether they be bastards, by making them look at the Sun; so God tries us by the heat of tribulation. As Gideon's Souldiers were proved at the water, so we at the waters of affliction. Faith, that be­fore was but fained, will then vanish into smoak, like [Page 118] Sodom's apples, guilded hypocrisie into vapours: but true Faith set upon the file, will be more resplen­dent, Hope more certain, Zeal more blazing, Charity more perfect.

Secondly, afflictions are a means to wean us from the world, and win us unto God, as Mirrhe and A­loes, to lay on the paps of worldly pleasures, to make us flie to Christ, a Pharaoh to pursue us out of Egypt unto Canaan: they are a rod of God, to turn our Rivers of delight (when we are bewitched with them) into blood; they are a worm, to make our Manna stink, when we lust after it: This brought the prodi­gall Son to his Father, the Israelites from Captivity, the diseased unto Christ. Is the Arke taken, and the glory of Israel departed, then the House of Ely will begin to think upon God. Is David banished unto Gath? then happy are they that are but dore-keepers in the house of God, or the sparrowes that may build their nests there. Is Israel led into captivity? then will the daughters of Jerusalem hang up their Harps upon the willowes, when they remember thee, O Sion. Is any afflicted? then surely they will pray.

Thirdly, afflictions are medicinall restoratives, by which sinners may be awaked to recover their health by repentance; they are the launcing knife in the Phlebotomie of the soul, to wound us, that neither the Plethora, or ranknesse of blood, honour, riches, preferment, pleasure, choak and stifle the spirit; nor the Cacochymia or pestilent humours of sin, as co­vetousnesse, pride, intemperance, bring us into the Hectick feavour, or incurable disease of hardnesse of heart, rebellion, or sin against the holy Ghost. They are a rod to scourge us in a Lethargy: As Physicians [Page 119] in a Lethargy use to burn the hair of the patient, and smoak it into his nostrills; so afflictions burn vanities and darling pleasures, which are but as ex­crements, and casts them as dung into our nostrills: They are preparative potions to repentance, pills of contrition, purgations of naturall corruptions, vomits of sin, tents to search our wounds, scarri­fications to draw out ill humours. And though no afflictions be pleasant for the present, yet afterwards they are cordialls of comfort, restauratives of grace. Thus God taught Miriam by leprosy, to leave her murmuring; he awakened Jonah out of sleep, by ca­sting him into the Sea; he cured Zacharie of his infi­delity, by striking him with dumbnesse; delivered Saul from his evill course by blindnesse; David from pride, by the plague; cured him of adultery, by kil­ling the child. Blessed is the man whom the Lord thus correcteth.

Fourthly, as afflictions are restauratives for mala­dies by-past, so they are preservatives and antidores to prevent the evill to come. As a man, whose blood is consumed in a lingring feavour, is not so apt to take the pestilence, so neither a man afflicted, to be puffed up with pride, or burn with lust, he need not fear the swelling of that Carbuncle. They are salt to hin­der us from putrefaction, a stormie winde to save our standing pools from corruption, a fiery Cherubim, to keep us out of the forbidden paradise of sin: As the golden hair was to Nisus, a safeguard from his ene­mies, so the crosse of affliction armes from the flesh, the world, and the devill. As is said in the Fable of Achilles, so far as he was dipped in the water, so far he was unpiercible by any weapon; so far as we are plunged in the waters of Marah, our spirituall ene­mies [Page 120] have lesse power over us. God sent an Angell of Satan to buffet Paul, not so much for any evill he had done, as to prevent sin for the time to come, lest through the abundance of revelations, he should be exalted above measure. If God inflict upon us malum poenae, the evill of punishment, it is to prevent malum culpae, the evill of sin.

Fiftly, by afflictions we are prepared and polished for Heaven, that as the one scale of tribulation presses us down, the other of grace may mount us up. Our Oyle of grace is a quintessence, that must be extra­cted by fire, our cordiall waters of comfort by di­stillation, our Grapes squeazed in the Wine-presse of sorrow, our Wheat flayled in the threshing-floor of tribulation, our Flowre grinded between the milstones of pressure: We are Gold that must be purified seven times in the Furnace, before we be carryed into the Sanctuary; Trees that must be pruned, before they bring forth any fruit; living Stones, that must be polished and hammered, before they be brought into the heavenly Ierusalem: So that to a Christian, all his whole life is as it were a threshing, death is the fan to winnow the pure wheat from the chaffe, that we may be gathered into the heavenly Granary, where no unclean thing shall enter.

Well then, if every Christian must feel the sting of these fiery Serpents, before he come at Canaan, learn we to make account of them, not murmur, mut­ter, wonder at them. In this vale of tears, we must look to be fed with the bread of affliction, to drink the bitter water, gall, wormwood, and eat the soure grape of sorrow. Shall the heavens mourn, the clouds shed their tears, the earth tremble, the fruits be bla­sted, the sea rage, the creatures groan for our sins, [Page 121] and we not sympathize with them? Shall the Prophets and Apostles go through the fire, the Martyrs have their robes dyed in scarlet, our Saviour sweat water and blood, conflict with hell, Satan, death, and we go to heaven in a bed of roses, tread on carpets, ride still in triumph upon the wings of pleasure? True it is, in former times, we enjoyed Halcyon daies of peace, sitting under our own Vines and Fig-trees, singing the song of Sion, and tuning our own harps in a melodious harmony, having no Townes but Salems, no men but friends; if we had gone into the fields, we should have seen no spears but standing corn, have heard no drums but tabrets, no out-cries, but harvest-homes, had no years but of Jubilee, no daies but of rejoycing. But now of a long continuance, (by reason of our un­thankfulnesse) all places have become Aceldamaes, hou­ses of blood, fields of blood, ditches of blood, towns of blood, Churches of blood, in this land, that was once Insula pacis, an Island of peace. Lord water our eyes with tears of godly sorrow, like Gideon's fleece, while others are drie, that we may be drie, & saved from those waters of afflictions, wherein others are drowned; be­get in us fruits of contrition worthy of repentance, and then repent, that thou hast sent this spirit of division, and destroying Angell amongst us.

Secondly, this necessity of afflictions, may comfort Gods children in all troubles, on this consideration, that afflictions are sent of God, consecrated by his Son Jesus Christ, suffered of all Saints that are now triumphant in Heaven; that he that sowes in tears, shall reap in joy; that he that wears a Crown of thorns with Christ here, shall wear a Crown of glory with him in heaven hereafter: Seriously meditating in our hearts, that God afflicts us not in fury, but in mercy, [Page 122] and that for these ends: 1. That he may draw us from the Love of the world. 2. That he may cure our spi­rituall sicknesses. 3. That he may preserve us from fearfull falling into damnable sins. 4. That he may deliver us from the wrath to come, and the torments of hell. 5. To try and examine the sincerity of our faith. 6. To make us run unto God, the fountain of living waters. 7. That God might shew his outstrech­ed arme in delivering us. 8. That they may be san­ctified to the increase of our glory. Now our afflicti­ons are of two sorts, either internall in soul, or ex­ternall; these, either in our names, or in our goods, or in our persons; here we have comfort against all: Is any in prison? look upon the Irons entring into Joseph's soul, and yet delivered. Is any in banish­ment? look upon David, restored from thence to a Kingdom. Is any hungred, starved, naked, full of soars? look upon Lazarus in Abraham's bosome. Is any afflicted with losse of goods, health, children? look upon Job's triumph after misery. Does any suffer for conscience sake? look upon the crowned Martyrs in heaven. Is any a man of sorrowes? look upon Christ, before whose Throne, Angells, Saints, and Cherubims, throw down their Crownes and Palms of glory.

Thirdly, the necessity of afflictions may teach us, not basely to fear them, but rather fear sin, that laies us naked to Gods fierce indignation, and the malice of our enemies; fear indiscretion, that creates unto us many needlesse troubles; fear superstition and ig­norance, for that makes a man mistake his cause; fear singularity and presumption, so as to rest upon our own sufficiency. These are worse then affliction, as much as the sin is worse then the punishment.

Fourthly, the necessity of them, may make us lift up our eyes at Him, that rules the wheel of provi­dence. No affliction springs out of the dust, but comes from God; he hath tempered the cup, and said, Drink this; Christ could not escape it, though he besought it thrice with tears, and then shall we? Our sins deserved afflictions to the full, God turned them to our good. Moses at the first called the Rod his, but when he had wrought miracles with it, it was God's: The rod of affliction is Gods, let us there­fore kisse it; Thy rod and thy staffe (saith David) hath comforted me. Swine feed upon Acorns, and look not up at the Tree; Doggs snarl at the stone, and mind not the hand that threw it: But David minded Shimei not so much that cursed him, as God that sent that shame upon him. A Christian that makes this right use of afflictions, is the worlds wonder, with the bush, in which Jehovah appeared to Moses, he burns, and yet consumes not. Hananiah the false Prophet broke off the timber yoke from Jeremie's neck, but had one of iron put upon his own. He that burnes God's Rod, shall be beatt with Scorpions.

Fifthly, if this life be a passage through the wil­dernesse of afflictions, then here we are not perfect as we would be. The word is, [...], passe through afflictions; Every passage is a motion, every motion (as the Philosopher said) is [...], an imperfect act, moving for an end, running for a goal; this end, this goal, is the Kingdom of God; for, We must through much affliction enter into the Kingdom of God.

So the second Proposition offers it selfe, That through these afflictions, or waters of Marah, we shall at length come to heaven. This is somewhat sweeter, and sugars the former, therefore I beseech [Page 124] you observe it. For a storm here, we shall have a calm; for Christ's crosse, an eternall Crown; our nights of mourning shall be turned into Halcyon daies; for months of affliction, we shall have years of jubilee; for a rod of correction, we shall have a palme of victory; our mournfull Elegies of lamen­tation, shall be turned into Hallelujah's of conso­lation. With this, Athanasius comforted the Saints under Iulian's persecution, that affliction was but nubecula citò transitura, a storm that would quickly end in a sunshine or calm: So did our Saviour his disciples, Matth. 5. 10. Blessed are they that suffer per­secution for righteousnesse sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven: Nay, as if they were already in the suburbs of glory, v. 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Take up the perspective glasse of Faith, and look towards Heaven, and there you shall see the noble Army of Martyrs, Prophets, A­postles, Evangelists, set down with Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob in the Kingdome of God; yet, if you look at their journall towards heaven, you may trace them by their blood. These afflictions are sometimes called [...], passions, but such passions as are [...], lessons of no lesse than Christ and his kingdome. Here they are called [...], of straitnesse, elsewhere [...], of narrownesse; Matth. 7. 14. [...], strait is the gate, [...], narrow is the way: But it is [...], leading unto life, into a heavenly Canaan, that flowes with milk and hony. Hony in the Bee is not without the sting, neither the Kingdome of God without affli­ction; 2 Cor. 4. 17. we have an unparallel'd paral­lelism of these two, This light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding great, [Page 125] and eternall weight of glory. Here they are both cast in­to the scales, and their weights duely poysed, where first consider the difference between the subjects, or things weighed, [...], worldly affliction is cast into the one scale, and [...], heavenly glory, into the other. Secondly, their quantities, and that either durationis, of continuance, affliction is [...], momentary, for a day; glory is [...], everlasting, for ever, or molis, of weight; affliction is [...], light, easie, sup­portable; but glory is [...], heavie, weighty, beyond all possible Epithite, superlatively great; a phrase, able to challenge all the profane Writers in the world, neither Sophocles his high buskin, nor Demosthenes his lofty strain, is able to come neer it. Lastly, it's amplified by the act, [...], it works forth, which is as it were the Trutina or pin to turn the beam of the scales, where affliction hath no more proportion to glory, than the drop of a bucket to the whole Ocean, or the dust of the ballance hath to a mountain.

This then may serve for a ground of comfort to every soul, distressed with the tedious bitternesse of this life; for short sorrow here, we shall have eter­nall joy; for a little hunger, an eternall banquet; for light sicknesse and affliction, everlasting health and salvation; for a little imprisonment, endlesse liberty; for disgrace, glory: In stead of the wicked to oppresse and afflict them, they shall have the Angells and Saints to comfort and solace them; in stead of Satan to torment and tempt them, they shall have Christ Jesus to ravish and affect them. Joseph's prison shal be turned into a palace, Daniel's Lion's den, into the presence of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the three Children's hot fiery furnace, into the new Ierusalem [Page 126] of pure gold; David's Gath, into the Tabernacle of the living God.

Obj. But shall every affliction bring the patient to the Kingdome of God? shall the frenzie of Cain, ter­ [...]our of Iudas, horour of Achitophel, trembling of Felix, be turned into triumph?

Ans. No, afflictions to the wicked are like often baiting to some beasts, which grow mad at the stake, and makes them worse, specially if the cause be bad. It was a golden saying of St. Austin, and I hope we are all of his minde, Non ex passione certa justitia, It's not suffering, that makes a cause righte­ous; sed ex justitia gloriosa passio, but its righteous­nesse that makes sufferings glorious. It was well ob­served by Saint Cyprian, that the first Martyrs that suffered for Christ, were Innocents; and as well said, Non supplicium, sed causa facit Martyrem, Not the punishment, but the cause maketh the Martyr.

Who suffered more then the Cicumcelliones, those Donatists, in this Father's time, and yet no Crown. How many are there, who when they are punished for their misdemeanours, do lift up a hideous noise like Swine, and cry out, They are persecuted? Hujus farinae, of this leaven are our Ranters, Quakers, Le­vellers; their language you know is persecution al­together, and when they suffer for their opinions, or rather disordered practises, they are persecuted they say for their consciences; as if every conceit were conscience, every groundlesse opinion religion. We must not measure the cause by the sufferings, but the sufferings by the cause; for, unlesse a mans cause be good, his conscience good, and his carriage in some measure good too, his sufferings will amount to no more, then a condigne punishment, unlesse the [Page 127] end crown all; which makes St. Cyprian and St. Jero [...] say, That the Thiefe's suffering on the Crosse, was turned to Martyrdom.

What if then in a good cause, thus circumstanc'd, our afflictions (as in the Text) be [...], many, no single appellation, but a compound of all cruelty, nomen mul­titud [...]nis, like the possessed that lived amongst the Graves, her name is Legion, [...], because they are many; her Pavilion hung about with trophies of death, fetters and whips, racks and strapadoes, halters and swords, stakes and fire. What if one affliction still treads on the heel of another, and where the old went off, new scenes of miseries have taken up their cues? here is [...], a Kingdome that will recompense all.

It pitties me when I read what those Romans, Co­cles, Mutii, Curtii, Decii; what those Graecians, the peo­ple of Marathonia, Salamina, Plataea, and Thermopol [...] endured, toget them a fading name upon earth, that we Christians should not do as much, or more, for this [...], Kingdome of God; a King­dome, in regard of the dignity of it; of God, in re­gard of the author and giver of it; one Kingdome, but the estates are two, one Militant, another Trium­phant, of Grace, of Glory; one in substance, varying in degrees, but not an earthly, not a fading Kingdome, but [...], of God.

Herod was a King, so was Ahab; Jezabel was daughter, wife, mother, sister, to Kings, and yet still afflicted: Alexander wept, when he had all the Crowns and Scepters in the world, (piled as it were at his gates) that there were no more to be subdued. Godfrey of Bollene refused to be crowned at Jerusalem with a Crown of Gold, where our Saviour was crowned [Page 128] with Thorns. 'Tis only this Kingdome of God, that can wipe all tears from our eyes. Go then a pil­grimage to this holy Land, Heaven is feisable, and more easie to be attained then an earthly Kingdom; here we cannot all be Kings, there are not Kingdoms enough; but lo, in Heaven, there is none under the degree of a King: And in this Kingdome, Revel. 21. the Metropolis or chiefe City is of pure gold, the walls of Jasper, having twelve foundations of twelve pretious stones, twelve gates made of twelve pearles, every gate of severall pearl. The streets of the city paved with gold, interlaid with pearls and diamonds. The light of this city is the splendour of Christ himselfe in the midst thereof, from whose throne issues a river of water as clear as cry­stall, to refresh the city; and on both sides of the banks there growes a tree of life, bearing continually twelve kindes of fruit. Into this city no darknesse, nor any unclean thing shall enter. Now, afflicted soul, tell me, thou that wouldst upon earth have wondered with the Queen of Sheba, at Solomon in his royalty; at the Grand Sultan going to his Seraglio; at the Pope in his Procession; tell me how thou wilt wonder and glory, to see that wonderfull glory, that neither eye hath seen, ear hath heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man. Which glory, God of his mercy bring us all unto.

[...].

A SERMON, Preached the fourth day of June, 1656. at the Funerall Obsequies of James Parry, Gent.

HEre we have a divine Oracle, sent, not from Daphne or Delphos, but from the Tabernacle of God at Shilo, wherein two things specially remarkable are couchant: First, Samuel's Re­velation, And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. Secondly, Eli's Acceptation, And he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. It is the Lord, there is his humble confession. Let him do what seemeth him good, there is his patient submission. [Page 130] In the former branch is considerable, first, the Per­sons, which are two, the one young Samuel revealing, who by this occasion received primam tonsuram, his first unction to prophecy; the other is old Eli, who like Sexagenarius de ponte, as his bodily, so his spiri­tuall eyes grew dim; for, 1 Sam. 3. 1. The word of the Lord was pretious in those daies, there was no open vision. Secondly, we have the thing revealed, which is either the sin, or the punishment of sin; sin, either the fa­ther Eli's, for not correcting and chastising his sons; or the sin of his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who be­ing Priests of the Lord, 1 Sam. 2. 12. were sons of Be­liall, knew not the Lord; by their rapine made men abhor the daily sacrifice. 17. lay with the women that assembled at the dore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, 22. The punishment of sin either threatned first by a man of God, not otherwise named, 1 Sam. 2. 27. second­ly, by Samuel himselfe, that the Lord would cut off the whole family of Eli from the priesthood, and that the iniquity of his house should not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever, 1 Sam. 3. 14. Or executed in the fourth Chapter, for thirty thousand of the Israelites were put to the sword, the whole Camp scattered, Hophni and Phinehas the Priests slain, the Ark of God taken captive by the Philistims: the Wife of Phi­nehas hearing of it, fell into the pangs of childbirth, and was delivered of a Son, calling his name Ichobod, the glory is departed from Israel, and so expired; and at the relation of the messenger, Eli being ninty eight years old, fell back from his chair, and brake his neck. Thus the whole Family was dysastered, rarò antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede poena claudo. Seneca. Punishment and shame like a blood-hound, alwaies pursues sin at the heeles; the Ark was taken, the Ar­my [Page 131] routed, the Priests slain, Phinehas his Wife peri­shed in the after-pangs, Eli brake his neck. Hence observe, that sin is the deserving cause, procuring the ruine and calamity of Church and State, Cities and Families.

Sin it is, that infects our purest aire, that damps our richest mines, that poysons our sweetest dainties, that laies thornes in our softest beds of down, that undermines Palaces, pulls down Crowns, shakes Thrones, and ruinates Kingdomes; that sets all mor­tall Wights at opposition, heat against cold, cold a­gainst heat, winter and summer, light and darknesse, moysture and drought, in arms one against another. That the whole world is become a boyling furnace of contradictions, where man is the mettall, the body is the drosse, which must first be burned by the refi­ning fire of death, before the soul can become pure gold, fit for the heavenly Sanctuary. For the proof of this, hear Jeremie's lamentation, Lam. 3. 39. Wherefore is the living man sorrowfull? Heaven and earth answers his Interrogatory, with a soul's sad Eccho, Man suffereth for his sins. Come on further; and see all Creatures, Angells, Men, Beasts, Plants, Elements, Heavens, in sorrowes discord, sighing out the sad Epitaphium of mans mortality, 42. We have sinned and rebelled, therefore thou hast not spared, thou hast covered us with wrath, and persecuted us, thou hast slain, and not spared. Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death. As tooth for tooth, eye for eye, hand for hand, one talent for another; so death is a deserved reward for sin, death first seizing upon the body while we live, by the canker of corruption and mortality, bringing at the length death of the body by dissolu­tion; and all this hatched and brooded under the Coca­trice [Page 132] sin. Come on, and travail with St. Paul to Co­rinth, 1 Cor. 11. 3. For this cause (saies he) many are weak amongst you, and sick, and many sleep. For this cause, that is, for the poyson of sin, the canker of cor­ruption in generall; for spilling of our Saviour's blood, piercing his side, nailing his feet, unworthy receiving of the holy Sacrament in particular. Are sick, that is, feavours boyle you, consumptions waste you, plague and pestilence devour you. And many sleep, sleep in an everlasting Lethargy and apoplexie of death, never to be awaked before the last doom. Many, that Biers are become restlesse Peripateticks, the Spade and Mattock tyred, the Sextons still dig­ging, the Graves still gaping, passing-Bells without any stop or period, confounding the language one of another, the Church-yards more peopled then the Theaters; Mista senum, ac juvenum densantur funera, no sex, nor age, nor, young, nor old, are spared, but are made a subject for death to read mortalitie's le­cture upon. This made David complain, that his bones waxed old, and that his moysture was turned into the drought of summer, Psal. 32. made him houle and cry, that his daies were consumed like smoak, his bones were burned as hearth, withered like grasse; he was become like a Pelican in the wildernesse, or a sparrow on the house top, Ps. 102. This made Job complain, that his griefe was heavier then the sand of the sea, that the arrowes of the Almighty were within him, that the poyson had drunk up his spirit, the terrours of God had set themselves in ar­ray against him, Job 6. This makes all Mankinde rot as a Pomgranate, shiver as a Potsheard, splinter as a Venice Glasse, corrupt as a standing Pool, and vanish into ashes like Sodom's Apples.

And the reason of all this, is, because the justice [Page 133] of God requires it; sin is daily in the view of his all­piercing eye, sends up cries aloud into his holy ear, piercing through the clouds for revenge, importu­ning his vindicative hand, to whet his glittering sword, to feather his arrowes, to make sharp the point of his spear, to wash his footsteps in blood: And then shall not he, that hath called his footstool the Earth, and his throne the Heavens to witnesse, and hath sworn by himselfe the greatest, that sin shall not passe without revenge, shall not he be just? Besides this, consider all Creatures, as daily Oratours, that mise­rably complaining, put up their petitions to him. The higher House the suburbs of Heaven, sits droo­ping, the Sun is turned into blood, and eclipsed, the Stars unsnuffed burn dim within the socket of their sphears, their naturall force abated, their influ­ence impaired, all waxes old as does a garment, and saies, that sin is the cause. The aire is stifled with the poysoned breath of meteors, and insteed of comfor­ting the inhabitants of the earth, is become a stage of prodigies and terrours, flying Dragons amaze, bla­zing Stars as Beacons of astonishment affright, Thunder with her loud Canon-shot makes roaring, the impetuous fury of the Bolts brings death; the Clouds, in time of need are barren, in time of harvest intoxicate the earth with deluges; no dew some­times but mildew, no light but lightning, no blast nor gale of winde but blasting, and saies, that sin is the cause. The sea roules, the windes blow unmerciful­ly, the waves rage impetuously, all things are trou­bled unnaturally, which makes the Leviathans roar, and the fishes die, and saies, that sin is the cause. The earth quakes and trembles like a recoyling Cano [...], and mourns as with a sympathie, while the heavens [Page 134] weep, the flowers droop, and closes up their heads within the lap of their mother earth; the grasse wi­thers, the corn is blasted, the fruits are thunderstroke, and in stead of pagles, daizes, and roses of paradise, bryars, brambles, nettles, thistles, spring out of her wombe, and saies, that sin is the cause. All Nations, all States, all Kingdomes, are troubled, and saies, that sin is the cause. The Pagans against Turks, Turks against Christendom, one Province against another, as whirlewindes in a strait, move tumults. Victo­rious Sweden hath long sit in Sable, as a Matron mour­ning under the Myrtle trees, deploring the dismall fate of her deceased Worthy, which occasion'd so many alterations in government since, and fluctuati­ons in State, and saies, that sin is the cause. Poland lies sick, licking the scars of her lately received wounds, and saies, that sin is the cause. Denmark bewailes her ill [...]ccesse abroad, and feeles the smart of her losses, and intestine jarrs at home, and saies, that sin is the cause. Whole Italy is distracted with convulsions, and the State of Venice can scarce finde a pillow to sleep securely upon, and saies, that sin is the cause. France, before she could recover her blood­shed at the great Massacre, hath begun to bleed afresh with civill jarrs, and saies, that sin is the cause. Whole Germany hath been for many years in a com­bustion, burning of Cities is no greater wonder, then the sparkling of a Smith's forge; slaying of men of as small account, as of sheep in a slaughter-house; to die in Troops as familiar, as to live in Trenches; such overflowing of blood, that Rivers were dyed with the crimson tincture; old grey heads mourning, yo [...]ng infants crying, women like Leah blear-eyed, with weeping, like Rachel, lamenting the death of [Page 135] their children, and cannot be comforted, because they are not; and all conclude, that sin is the cause. We of these Nations, once styled fortunate Ilands, gar­ded like Goshen in the midst of Aegypt, with turelar Angells, have for these many years layne under the stroke of the destroying Angell, and the stage of War hath been set up in our Territories, making all places Aceldama's, fields of blood, the Common-weal di­stracted with factions, the Church rent with schisms; and, as if these intestine broyles at home were not sufficient, engagements with the Hollanders abroad, to the losse of life and treasury; with whom, no sooner was a Peace (if lasting) made, but Spain, that had fed us with her blandishments, proclaimes her selfe an enemy, preparing hostility against us, as if the Ar­mado in eighty eight, were but an earnest of what they intended to pay us. Thus this poor Church and State lies bleeding, and is not sin the cause? Well then, to sum up all, shall not the petitions of the Heavens darkned, of the Stars bedimn'd, of the Aire poysoned, of the Sea troubled, of the Earth cursed, of Kingdomes ruinated, of the unreasonable Crea­tures groaning under the burden, and looking up to­wards heaven, as if the Stars that fought in order for Sisera, would pitty and rescue them; shall not these (I say) awake the Lord out of sleep, as a Gyant re­freshed with wine, to put on his Brigandine, and to gird on his Sword? If souls for this deserve to die, then how much more the body? And shall not these that were petitioners, become also executioners? Lo the heavens, (as if it were their task to kill and slay) hath for her armes hung up in the Zodiack, man's ana­tomy; the Planet Mars, as though he were still the god of War, the Dog-star and Saturn, murders their [Page 136] children; the Ayer poysons with infections, feavours, plagues; the Sea is become a devouring gulph, and, contrary to Nature's intent, is made a Goigotha or place of sculls; the Earth, that with her fruites should have nourished, and with her conserves cherished, is become an Aceldama, or Theatre of blood; one Na­tion, one City, one Kingdome, one Family, one Bro­ther rises up against another, as if man were born with those, that arose of the Dragon's teeth in the Poet, mu­tuis peri [...]e gladiis, bleed to death on one anothers sword. And then shall not Gods just wrath, our just desert, so many executioners in heaven, in earth, by sea, by land, bring ruine and calamity of Church and State, Cities and Families?

Hence (as the case stands) we are blame-worthy in a four-fold respect: 1. Of Satan. 2. Of security. 3. Of pride. 4. Of intemperance. First, of Satan, who by his subtle sleights, as he hath killed the body, would mur­der also the soul; and yet we sleight it, as though we should die neither body nor soul. Satan is that Pan­ther, that with his sweet odours allures us, till he have gotten us within the reach of his talants, that he may tear us; that Crocodile, that commiserates us, till he have murdered us; that Hyena, that flatters us, till he have killed us; that Syren, that sings till she hath drowned us; that, with Jael, allures in with milk, and murders with a nail; with Joab, embraces with one hand, and stabs with another; that whore of Ba­bylon, that gives poysoned drink in golden cups; that cunning fisher, that baits his hooks with the pleasures of sin; that lies as a Snake in thy greenest grasse, as an Enemy to assault thee in thy securest travails, as a Ruffian to cut thy throat in thy sweerest sleep. Art thou banquetting like Job's children with thy friends? [Page 137] take heed, Satan's there. Art thou with Job praying? take heed, Satan's there. Art thou with Iudas and the Apostles receiving the Communion? take heed, Sa­tan's there. In thy eating, in thy drinking, in thy hea­ring, in thy praying, in thy meditating, beware, Satan is busie about thee; take heed, he that hath wrought thy bodily death, would also of thy soul. O man of God beware, mors in ollâ, death is in the pot.

Secondly, this discovers the security of carnall se­cure men, that mind death no more hanging over their heads, then Ierusalem did the blazing Star, and Army in the aire; then Damocles did the glittering sword, perpendicular over his head; then Ionah did the swelling of the waves over the Ship, while he was un­der the hatches sleeping: but they lie snorting in a le­thargy of sin, till a deluge of death overwhelme them, as the flood did the old World, as fire and brimstone did Sodom and Gomorrah, as the house of Dagon did the Philistims; that then death, and grave, and worms, and hell, and destruction, seazes upon them.

Thirdly, this discovers the vanity of pride; many while their life is consuming, as a candle burning within the socket, as a coal taken out of the fire grow­ing black, studies only to varnish and paint over that rotten stock the body, robbing all creatures to adorn it, from one takes his wool, from another his skin, from another his fur, from another their excrements, as silk from worms; beggs pearles of the fishes, diggs into the ground for gold and silver, turnes up the sands of the sea for pretious stones; and then, Peacock­like, prides themselves in these, which are but liveries of beasts, scum of the earth, badges of sin, earnests of death, and recognisants of hell; thus jetting, till death comes, and sounds his trumpet in his ear, O fool, this [Page 138] night they will require thy soul of thee, &c.

Fourthly, this discovers the vanity of intemperate and voluptuous men, that with Philoxenus, studie only to relish dainties, make their throats tunnells, and their bellies barrells, and shewes by their daily sacrifices, their O [...]gia, D [...]onysia, and Bacchanalia, that they are of that Epicure Sardinapalus his minde, that was wont to say, ventrem deorum esse max [...]m [...]m, that the belly was the greatest of the gods; living thus, till death arrest them, and then they shall be arrayed with nothing but a shroud, or winding-sheet, have no dwelling place but the grave, no house but a stinking coffin, no servants and tenants but crawling worms, have no allowance to give them, but their own flesh, which they shall feed upon, till all be consumed, and they made a fit Sceleton, for death to read Anatomie's Lecture upon.

Consider again, this was more particularly for the sins of Eli and his Sons: Let those that attend upon God's Ordinances in this present age, reflectupon this. It must be acknowledg'd sure, that the hand of God hath gone out against us, more then against others of our rank at other times; at least, that God hath not re­strained violence against us, so as he did against those of our profession in the daies of old. The portion of the Egyptian Priest (that served the Ox, the Ape, and the Onyon) escaped sale in the time of the famine. Lear­ned Junius, in his Academia, Cap. 4. saies, that the Philistims spared the Schooles of the Prophers in their warrs with Israel; and that the Phoenicians, Chaldeans, and Indians, were tender over such places; the Goths and Vandalls (as barbarous as they were) when they entered Italy, scarce laid a sacriligious hand upon the Churches revenues. Thus then did God restrain the [Page 139] spirit of Princes; yet, that God, who in his own Law, Levit. 25. 22. gave the Levites a speciall priviledge of redeeming lands sold by themselves at any time, when other tribes were limited to a set time, hath not stayed the raging of these waves, but that the Churches Pa­trimony is sold to others without redemption. We must acknowledge, that God's wrath (whether for our personall sins, or the sins of our Predecessors, or for the sins of the people joyntly) hath taken hold of us, Zach. 1. 5. that the Lord hath devised a device against us, hath watched upon the evill, and hath brought it upon us. For under the whole heaven hath not been done, as hath been done unto Ierusalem, Dan. 9. 14. Let us not flatter our selves presumptuously; the punishment answers the sin, as the wax the seal, and as the moulds own the figure, and let us own both.

Yet, let none think now, that this confession will give advantage to the adversary, they may take where none is given: They may say, let the Lord be glori­fied by their own confession, we offend not, though we devoure and dishonour them, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, Ier. 50. 7. But they shall finde at last, that to forsake the Levite is a sin, that it is a bitter thing to help forward affliction, when God is but a little displeased, that Ie­rusalem will be a cup of trembling, and a burdensome stone to every one that cries, but down with it. Wo to thee O Ashur, the rod of Gods wrath, the stasse in thine hand is Gods indignation for our correction; to purifie us the sons of Levi from our drosse: For, It is the Lord that does it. So we passe from the Revelation, to the Acceptation, And he said, it is the Lord.

But how did Eli know that it was the Lord? Partly by the man of God, partly by Samuel's dream or vi­sion, [Page 140] for he knew that the Lord had called the Child. It is a heathenish tradition, that no dreams that re­late to publick concernment are to be credited, that proceed not from Princes, as Macrobius stories it up­on Somnium Scipionis. Hence Nestor in Homer pro­claims in the Grecian Councill, that credit is to be given to Agamem [...]on, concerning the marshalling of his Army, because he was [...], the Generall, or ruler of the people, which otherwise should have been sieighted. But Ely was better instructed, who knew in part, though not so fully as was afterwards revealed, Ioel. 2. 28. that God would poure his spirit upon all flesh, and their sons and daughters should prophecy, their old men should dream dreams, and their young men should see visions. Therefore Ely willingly submitted, saying, It is the Lord. Lord by Creation, all things were made by him, Ioh. 1. 3. Lord by Donation, All power is g [...]ven me in heaven and in earth, Matth. 28. 18. Lord by Re­demption, for we are bought with a price, 1 Cor. 6. 20. Lord by Conquest, By death he destroyed him that had the power of death, the devill, Heb. 2. 14. Lord by Marriage, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine, Cant. 6. 3. Lord, by way of excellency, depending on no creature, Lord of Lords; Lord, not only of goods, body, life, but of soul and spirit; Lord, not for a sea­son, but for ever, an eternall Lord, a Lord that can­not [...], abuse his authority, but is Jehovah zedeck, Jehovah our righteousnesse, Ier. 23. 6. A Lord that doth what he pleaseth, Let him do what seemeth him good.

So we passe from his confession, to his submission, Let him do what seemeth him good. Peter Martyr makes a scruple, whether these words proceeded from a peni­tent soul or no, saying, they might come from an [Page 141] evill and hypocriticall minde, though God, who is only [...], a searcher of the heart, knowes this, yet he concludes, probabile est illum resipuisse, non ta­men necessarium, it is probable that he repented, but not necessary. Gregory is of opinion, that this answer is no true signe of his humiliation, but rather of his hardnesse of heart and reprobation, and endeavours to confirm it by three reasons: First, (saies he) we finde not, that after this, he either repented, or corrected his sons. Secondly, because he seemes to be willing rather to incur the heavy displeasure of God, then by severe and condigne punishment, to offend his chil­dren. Thirdly, because he seemes rather presumptu­ously and disorderly, to trust to the mercy of God, than by serious repentance, and selfe-denyall, to go in the way of God. It is the Lord, let him do what see­meth him good: Si Dominus, ubi timor? If it be the Lord (saies he) where is his fear? where are his prayers? where his tears? where his groans? we read of none. Haec oratio non culpam agnoscentis, non dei misericordiam implorantis; sed animum despondentis, iram provocantis: This speech is not of one imploring Gods mercy, con­fessing his faults, but of one despairing, provoking Gods wrath. But St. Chrysostom and Theodoret, per­haps upon better grounds, conceive, that they dis­cover Ely's unfained and hearty repentance: First, because he earnestly required Samuel to reveal unto him the vision. Secondly, because he adjures him by an oath, not to conceal any part of it. Thirdly, from his humble submission unto Gods pleasure, as he in­terprets the words, let him do what seemeth him goo [...]. Fourthly, from his magnanimous entertaining the newes of his sonnes death, and other sad dysasters; but, when he heard the Ark of God was taken, mae­rore [Page 142] confectus, his heart being burst with sorrow, he gave up the ghost: Gods cause and his Churches ought to be more dear unto us, then all private interests. And this to be the true meaning of this place, I am confident was the apprehension of our deceased Bro­ther, who frequently, with ingemination, repeated these words, during the time of his visitation and spirituall conflict, and before his departure, recom­mended them to be the theam and subject of my dis­course, and your meditations, at his funerall, Let him do what seemeth him good.

Which is the same in effect with that we daily pray, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven; with that which our Saviour prayed in his agony, Father, if it be possible, let this cup passe from me, yet let not my will, but thine be done. There is a Categoricall or absolute will of God, as to save only the Elect; there is an Hy­potheticall, or conditionall will of God, holden out to all that are willing to lend an ear. There is volun­tas signi, Gods revealed will, that Isaac should be sacrificed; beneplaciti, his hidden will, that he should be spared. There is Gods Antecedent will, that he would have all men to be saved; his Consequent will, that he would have impenitent sinners to be puni­shed. But the will of God in this place, or, quod bo­num est oculis suis, that seemeth him good, is, patient­ly to submit to his correction, come life, come death; it's vox patientiae, the voice of patience, and sounds like that, ecce paratus sum, lo, I am willing to under­go thy will, O Lord: It's he that hath perfectly lear­ned St. Paul's lesson, Phil. 4. 11. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound, every where, and in all things, I am instructed, both to be full, and to be [Page 143] hungry, both to abound, and to suffer need; I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me: That is, so confirmed and well-grounded a Christian, that with a cheerfull countenance, he can look upon all the changes of life. Sapiens (que) sibi imperiosus, quem ne (que) pauperies, ne (que) mors, ne (que) vincula terrent. Horat. That can, with an unmoved temper, welcome all fortunes; not tempted by felicity to forget God, nor urged by afflictions to murmur at him; that when he hath lost his ventures by sea, or his comforts by land, suffers no tempests, or rebellious perturbations within his own breast, but parts with his wealth, as Bias did with his at the sack of Priene, Ille haec ludibria fortunae, ne sua quidem putavit, (as Tully in his Parad.) conside­ring his riches are hirelings, destinated to change their Masters: And parts with his friends, as the noble Ro­man did with his son, of whose death, when he had received the notice, he entertained it with this manly reply, Ego cum genui, tum moriturum scivi; I received him upon such a condition, as I reckoned that death might make him not mine. He that thus meets the affronts of sicknesse, death, and fortune, giving them Iob's thankfull, though sad farewell, Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit, The Lord gives, and the Lord takes a­way, blessed be the name of the Lord, such a man hath well learned Christ, and made a just application of the Apostles Doctrine, 1 Thess. 5. 3. In all things give thanks, for this is the will of God. That layes his hand upon his mouth, and lets that, which was once his Masters, be his Motto, sicut ovis coram tondente, like a sheep dumb before the shearer. For our task is to suffer, not to reply or complain: It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.

But why does not Eli labour to reverse this sen­tence [Page 144] of death, by repentance? Vox desperantis, non de­precantis, saies Ephraem, It is the language of one de­spairing, not deprecating. Ezekiah was told, that he should not rise from his bed, and yet for his humilia­tion, fifteen years were added to his daies. Forty daies (saies Jonah) and Niniveh shall be destroyed; yet, at their repentance, the Lord deferred the judgment a­bove forty years. Novit Dominus (saies St. Austin) mu­tare sententiam, si noverimus mutare delictum; The Lord knows to reverse his sentence, if we know to reform our lives. Doubtlesse Ely petitioned, and the Lord heard him, as he did David, that (though his sin was pardoned) yet the sword should never depart from his house; as he did Christ, that the cup should not passe from him; as he did Paul, when he was buffered by a messenger of Satan, My grace is sufficient for thee: If not granting that which he requested, yet that which see­med best to the Master of Requests, quod bonum oculis suis, what seemed him good. But was it good for Ely and his family, thus signally to be punished? Yes, it is good for a man that is troubled with a [...], or ranknesse of blood, to breath a vein, for an obstructed foul body, to receive a sharp potion: It was good for me (saies David) that I was afflicted. Therefore Mauritius Emperour of the Romans, and Sigismund King of the Burgundians, earnestly petitioned God, that by suffe­ring of temporall punishments, they might be freed from eternall, and were therefore slain with their whole Families. This was Ely's choice, let him do what seemeth him good. And motives to patient sub­mission, to what God shall lay upon us, may be these. First, meditate, that our sins deserves scorpions, and we are but chastised with rods; an eternall curse, is turned to a momentary short correction: and shall we [Page 145] murmur at restraint for a day, who have demerited everlasting imprisonment? Secondly, we are in the hands of a loving Father, who corrects us for our good; it's a file to eat off our rust, a fire to purge a­way our drosse, a corrosive to corrode our dead flesh: We patiently submit to earthly Fathers, and shall not we much more to our heavenly Father, in hope of an eternall Crown? Thirdly, Christ was vir dolorum, a man of sorrowes, undergoing his Father's heavy displea­sure for us: Shall not we then take up the Crosse, and follow him, seeing it is his pleasure, that we must go through this Wildernesse, and tread on fiery Serpents, before we come at Canaan? Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps, 1 Pet. 2. 21. which St. Paul presses, Heb. 12. 1, 2. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, loo­king unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the crosse, and despised the shame. Fourthly, these sharp humours have run in all the veines of the mysticall body of Christ hitherto: no afflictions befall us, but such as are ac­complished in our brethren that are in the world. Joseph was in prison, Daniel in the Lion's den, the three Children in the fiery furnace, Job on the dung­hill, Lazarus prostrate at the rich Man's gates, the blessed Virgin's heart was pierced with a sword, the Apostles in the gaole. And we have a promise, that the God of all grace, after we have suffered a while; will make us perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle us: And that God of his fidelity, will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation also, make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. Fiftly, God hath put bounds to the storms of this troublesome Sea; huc us (que) thus far the [Page 146] waves shall rage, and no further. Thirty years were appointed the sick man at Bethesda's pool, twelve years to the woman with the bloody issue, three months to Moses, ten daies of tribulation to the An­gell of the Church of Smyrna, three daies plague to D [...]vid: Yea, the number of the godly mans tears are registred in Gods book, and the quantity kept in his bottle; they are but a showr that will end in sun­shine, a troublesome torrent, that will waft us to the haven of rest. Be faithfull unto death, and thou shalt receive a Crown of life. Sixtly, we are called, to give an account of our Stewardship, how we have impro­ved our Talent; to repetitions in Christs school, to see how much faith, patience, and godlinesse we have learned all this while; and whether we cannot, like [...]ob, receive at the hand of God some evill, as well as we have hitherto received a confluence of good. As therefore we have alwaies prayed, Thy will be done, so let us not be now offended at this which is done by his holy will. Seventhly, meditate, that all things shall work together for the best to them that love God, insomuch that neither death, nor life, nor An­gells, nor principalities, nor powers, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord: Every pang is a prevention of hel­lish pains, every sanctified respite, an earnest of hea­vens rest. It is but the Crosse of Christ, sent before to c [...]ucifie the love of the world in us; let us therefore with Simon of Cyrene, carry it after him; the pains will shortly passe, the joy will never passe away. Lastly, consider, there is no equality, no proportion, be­twixt the houre of temptation here, and the everla­sting jubilee hereafter. As is the centre to the cir­cumference, an instant to eternity, a molehill to a [Page 147] mountain, a drop of water to the sea; so are the Saints crosses to their crownes; as is the earth, little or no­thing in respect of heaven, so is our earthly sufferings in respect of it; therefore glory is called the kingdome of God, of the Father, of Heaven, Abraham's bosom, Matth. 8. 11. it's called, a Paradise of pleasure, where­in is the Tree of life, the house of our Father, all ful­nesse of joy, the new Jerusalem, an inheritance incor­ruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in the highest heavens: It's called the glory of God, our glory, rest, refreshment, such felicity, as neither eye hath seen, ear hath heard, neither hath it entred into the heart of man. For it is the habitation of God, of Christ, of the holy Ghost; as great a difference as there is betwixt a Snailes house and a Palace, a Tortoise shell, and Solomon's Temple, Jonah's Gourd, and the Towers of Ninivey, so much, and more difference, is betwixt heaven, and any thing that can be upon earth. We see this is the composure of the World, that finest things are scituated in the highest places; the earth, as grossest, is put in the lowest room, the Water above the Earth, the Aire above the Water; the Fire above the Aire, the Sphears of Heaven, pu­rer then any of them, above the rest, which you see beautified with Sun, Moon, and Stars, shining more gloriously, then all the pretious Stones in the world; and all this, but the neather side of the pavement of that Palace; then what shall be the glory of the Hea­ven of Heavens within, able to drink up all afflictions, as the Sea does the River Iordan. There are three di­stinct places, in which every Saint successively, is resi­dent; first, in his mother's wombe; secondly, in the world; thirdly, in heaven. As much as the whole Uni­verse is larger then our mothers wombe, so much is [Page 148] heaven larger and ampler than it; for, if one star ex­ceed the earth so much in bignesse, then what shall the heavens, that contain infinite stars? Secondly, as in largenesse, so in time; our time to be in our mo­thers wombs is but nine months, but on earth it may be an hundred times nine months; but our beeing in heaven is without period of daies, months, or years. Thirdly, as no man can remember, what sorrow he had in his mothers wombe, so shall our joies in heaven drink up all our sufferings upon earth. And this glory consists, either essentially, in the beatificall vision, or operatively, in the effects it works in us. Essentially, in the beatifical vision, (though the Familists and Mille­naries understand it not, confounding grace and glory) but no man upon earth hath seen God, neither can he be seen, that is, perfectly; it is true, we may see God here in a naturall vision in his Creatures, as in a Glasse, wherein some splendour of his glory shines; he may be seen in a specular or symbolicall vision, by signes and characters of his glory; so Moses is said to have seen Gods hinder parts, Esa. 6. 1. I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, high, and lifted up, his house was full of maj [...]sty, and the Seraphims stood about him. We see God here by the vision of faith, when by Do­ctrine of Christ his Son, and the operation of the Spi­rit, we know the will of the Father. But the beatificall vision in heaven, is to behold God and Christ Jesus face to face, we shall see him as he is, no veiles be­ing put betwixt us. Stay here, and pause a while. What comfort will this be, to see the Lamb sit upon his seat of state? If the wise men of the East came so far, and rejoyced to see him in the manger, what will it be to see him sitting in his glory? If St. Iohn Baptist did leap at his presence in his mothers wombe, what [Page 149] shall this his presence do, in his royall and eternall Kingdome? If the Queen of Sheba was astonished at the sight of Solomon, what shall we be at the sight of millions of Saints in his Court, every one greater than Solomon, throwing down their Crowns before him the King of Kings? To this, joyne the commu­nion of Saints; imagine what a comfort will it be, to meet with the noble Army of Martyrs, the goodly fel­lowship of the Prophets, the holy society of all the Apostles, Evangelists, Confessors, where we shall see their Crowns of glory set upon their heads, which Christ confers upon them, not for their merits, but for his mercies sake.

The effects the beatificall vision works on us, are radiant either in soul or body; in soul, where first the understanding shall be truly enlightned with divine and heavenly knowledge, which God shall immediate­ly reveal unto us, without the ministry of men and Angells. Secondly, in our Will, which shall be filled with righteousnesse and holinesse, perfect love to­wards God, charity towards our fellow Saints for ever. Thirdly, in our Affections, which shall be com­posed without at axie or disorder, into eternall harmo­ny, as Be [...]nard saies sweetly, Deus implebit animam ra­tionalem luce sapientiae, concupiscibilem justitiâ, irasci­bilem perfectâ tranquillitate: God will fill the soul with light of wisdome, the concupiscible faculty with righteousnesse, the irrascible with perfect tranquillity.

The effects it works on the body consists in these particulars: First, of mortall bodies, they shall be made immortall; of corruptible, incorruptible; our flesh, that is subject to so many mutations, vexed with so many diseases, defiled with so many corrup­tions, pestered with so many infinite calamities, shall [Page 150] be made most glorious, and most perfect, to endure for ever without change, and to raigne with the soul world without end. Secondly, of a naturall, it shall become a spirituall body, not in essence and being, but in quality and condition, because it shall be freed from all paines and troubles that belongs to the same, as sin, eating, drinking, sleeping, and the like. Thirdly, of a weak, it shall become a powerfull body, by reason of agility and nimblenesse, able to mount towards Heaven, and meet our Saviour in the Aire. Fourthly, of a deformed and imperfect, it shall be a perfect and beautifull body; Iacob shall not halt, Leab shall not be blear-eyed, nor Mephibosheth lame, but all shall be as nimble as Harts. Fiftly, in our bodies shall appear resplendent glory, beautifulnesse, and shining bright­nesse; we shall be [...], like Angells, glistering like stars, conformable unto Christs glorious body. Dan. 12. 3. They that be wise, shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteous­nesse, as the stars for ever and ever. Well then, seeing it is thus, let us say with Eli, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good, so we may enjoy him; with Austin, Hic seca, hic ure, Lance here, seare here, so we may have glorified bodies; with Ignatius, Fire, gallows, wilde beasts, breaking of our bones, quartering of our members, crushing of our bodies, so our bodies, so that we may en­joy our Lord Jesus and his Kingdome. Take our earthly possessions, so that we may raigne with him.

[...].