Forty Sermons
But this leads me off from this manner of drawing near to God, to the Way and Means of such approaches.
1. For the first is Removendo prohibens, a careful avoiding of that which sets God and us at a distance, and that is Sin only: It's not thy outward Meanness, which may indeed occasion proud Men to bid thee keep back, and stand there at a distance, Jam. 2. 3. Nor thy Poverty, which Solomon observes is wont to separate the poor Man from his Neighbor, Prov. 19. 4. Not the most dangerous and infectious Sickness, which may make thy Lovers and Friends (as David 's) stand aloof off from thy Sore, Psal. 38. 11. But Blessed be our God, who stoops lower than Man will, and draws nearer than best Friend sometimes either can or dare. It's neither Prison nor Pest-House, that the Son of Righteousness disdains to look in at, or keeps the God of Heaven out from keeping his poor dejected Servants company. Christ meets his cured Patient, when Men had cast him out, John 9. 35. Visits St. John, when Banished to the Isle of Patmos. Revel. 1. 9. and goes all along with his Israel in the Wilderness. The poor Beggar that is shut out of the Rich Man's Gates is received into Abraham's bosom, and admitted into the King of Heaven's Presence. The Mourner clothed with Sackcloth let in to his inward Court, when thrust out of Abasuerus his outward. Yea, the Poor, the Blind, the Halt, and the Lame, have they but on a Wedding-Garment, invited to the Marriage Feast. It's our Sin only that separates between us and our God, Isa. 59. 2. It fixeth that great separating Gulf at last, and causeth all Estrangement now. The Scripture saith so, and we by too sad and frequent Experience find it so. On God's part with whom no Evil dwells 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Bazil speaks: Smoak and ill Savours drive not Doves and Bees more away, than our loathsome Pollutions do the Holy God. In Scripture we find, that it makes him forsake, Jer. 23. 33. and depart from us, Hos. 9. 12. even quite cuts off his Soul from us: Luxata est anima mea a te, Jer. 6. 8. Insomuch that the Holy Ghost makes account, that whilst we go on in our sins, it's our meaning and intention (at least Intentio operis, if not operantis) that we should have God gone from us, according to that, Ezek. 8. 6. Son of Man, seest thou the Abominations that the House of Israel committeth, that I should go far from my Sanctuary? As he plainly saith, that he would have that Guest gone, who entertaineth him with that which he knoweth his Stomach riseth at only to look on. So blessed a Guest is God, that he thinks he deserves a better Welcome; and therefore makes haste away from such an unkind Entertainment. That for his part.
And for ours, it makes the Estrangement mutual, as God saith, Zech. 11. 8. My Soul loathed them, and their Soul also abhorred me. Sets us as far from God, as it doth God from us. For Instance, it makes us,
1. Unfit, that we may not. Unfit for the Beggar with his Rags and Filth to press into a King's Presence-Chamber: But more unfit for the more polluted Soul to come near before those purer Eyes, that cannot endure to look on such Filthiness. A Miriam, if leprous, her Father spits in her face, and thrusts her out of the Camp, Numb. 12. 14. We cannot stand before thee, because of this, Ezra. 9. 15.
2. Guilty, that we dare not draw near: Makes Adam hide himself from God in the Bushes, as an unhappy Child, when in fault, from his angry Father's presence.
3. Weak, lame, and blind, nay, quite out dead, that we cannot: And therefore they that were dead in Trespasses and Sins must be quickened, Ephes. 2. 1. If ever they that were afar off come to be made nigh by the Blood of Christ, ver. 13.
4. Peevish and froward that we will not. We are Lord's, we will come no more at thee, Jer. 2. 31. And therefore our Savior imputes it to the Jews perverse Will, that they do not come unto him that they might have life, John 5. 40. There is not more in God, that by reason of our sin we fear, than what naturally we dislike and hate: we fear his Power and Wrath, and that makes us run from him: We loath his Holiness and Righteousness and commanding Authority, and that makes us more averse, and sets us off further from him.
Great Sins, like violent Blasts, blow us far from God on the sudden; and lesser sins, by little and little, work us off more insensibly, as it is with a Ship whose fest is loosed; every Wave puts off a little more from the Shore, till it hath quite lost the sight of Land, and is at last sunk in the depth of the Sea. If ever therefore we would indeed draw near to God, we must put away a perverse Lip, Prov. 4. 24. for God cannot endure to come near so stinking a Breath. And listen to that Counsel which Zophar gives to Job, Chap. 11. 14. If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, and say unto it, Get thee hence, as it is Isa. 30. 22. or as 2 Sam. 20. 20. Far be it, far be it from me. The Loadstone draws not the Iron, when rusty; nor were the Virgins admitted to Ahasuerus his Company, till after a twelvemonths perfuming and purifying, Esther 2. 12. The like course God prescribes for our nearer approaches. So the Apostle, Jam. 4. 8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you: But mark what follows, Cleanse your hands, and purify your hearts. Till then God stands off at a distance from the lothsom sinner, Isa. 1. 10, to 16. But do but wash, and make you clean, and then come now, and let us reason together, v. 16, 18. If we would draw near to God, we must leave our sins behind us.
But for positive means and helps.
1. There is a drawing near to God in Place and Office; to Magistrates, Jer. 30. 21. and so Ministers, Numb. 16. 9. are said to come near to God, as menial Servants are near to a King, who daily stand before him, and minister unto him. But I insist not on this, only let me hence take occasion to mind such whom it concerns as of their Advantage, so of their Engagement; that Ministers and Scholars, who by their Calling and Employment have the honor and benefit of a nearer standing to God, would by it labor for the happiness of a saving Approach; that they never make good that blunt, if not profane, saying; The nearer the Church, the further from God; that the more like to God we are in Knowledge, we come not nearer to the Devil in Malice and Wickedness. The Eye in Heaven, and the Heart in Hell, what a real Soloecism! They of old were wont to sacrifice in their high Places, as taking the advantage of the Ground to be nearer Heaven: It were well that from our higher standing our Souls could take a better rise for an higher flight to get the nearer to God. It's good (not more profitable than seemly) for me, a Minister, a Scholar, to draw near to God.
2. There is also a drawing near to God in Profession; according to that, Jer. 12. 2. Thou art near in their Mouth, but far from their Reins. Pity that the Heart should be so far from the Tongue, and yet farther from God. Christ desireth to lie next the Heart; though he would also have the Mouth kiss him in an outward Profession.
3. There is also a drawing near to God in his Ordinances, Psal. 65. 4. 2 Chron. 29. 31. Mihi vero accedere ad cultum Dei bonum est; so the Chaldee. They are the Bed of Love; it was called the Ark of his Presence: Israel met with him at the door of the Tabernacle, and he spake with them from the Mercy-Seat. David accounts himself driven from God, when banished from his Courts, and therefore he faints and longs for them and him together, Psal. 84. 2. Nor is God more absent now from Gospel Ordinances, in which Christ and his Spirit are more fully and comfortably present. Christ is there present in the midst of his Servants; and the happy Soul, that finds there the powerful impressions of God upon it, reports that he is amongst them of a truth, 1 Cor. 14. 25. As on the contrary, the woeful experience of our unhappy days gives too sad Examples of many, who have indeed got as far from God, as they think they are above Ordinances: but till we gain Heaven, where we shall at the next hand see and enjoy God without such mediums, let all sober-hearted Christians ever keep close to them, as they would ever draw near to him.
1. To the Ministry of the Word, in which if the Minister do not so much jingle in the Ear, as labor to fasten Nails and Goads in the Heart, Eccles. 12. 11. that it come to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an engrafted Word, Jam. 1. 21. It then, and God in it comes very near to us, as we do to him, as Scholars sitting down at his feet to hear his Instructions, Deut. 33. 3. or as Servants standing before him to receive his Commands, as Children and Friends from his gracious Promises to carry away intimations of his Love, and his Threats prick our hearts, Acts 2. 37. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Luk. 4. 20. fastening the Eye, and putting the Ear to his Mouth; as it was said of our Savior's Auditors, Luke 19. 48. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they hung upon him to hear him. By these mutual outgoings of the Soul to God, and God to it, they come in this Ordinance to an happy meeting, and then are very near.
2. As likewise in the Sacraments, it's very near that we either do or may draw on to Christ. In our Liturgy we say well, Draw near, &c. not so much to the Minister as to God. He that eateth my Flesh, and drinketh my Blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him; and as I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me, John 6. 56, 57. Though no Popish corporal Transubstantiation, yet there is a very near spiritual union set out by three very strong and almost strange Expressions.
Of a kind of Concorporation, as of the Meat and the Body that is fed by it, in that Metaphor of eating and drinking.
Of a mutual cohabitation, or coinhabitation, in that other of his dwelling in us, and we in him. Nay, of a more divine coalition into the same Nature, as in that third expression of our living by Christ, as he by the Father.
In it with the Elders of Israel we go up to God in the Mount, Exod. 24. 11. And it's mercy that (as it's there said) he doth not lay his hand upon us; but that we may eat and drink: draw so near as Children to sit down at our Father's Table; with John to lean on our Savior's Brest; and with Thomas be bid reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing, John 20. 27. It was our sin, that, when we more frequently enjoyed Sacraments, we drew no nearer to Christ in them, and therefore it's deservedly our misery, that we are cut short of such opportunities of these blessed Approaches now in our too much want of them.
3. In the Communion of Saints, if rightly improved, we may enjoy very near and full communion with God; and therefore the Apostle, when he had said, Let us draw near with a true heart to God, Heb. 10. 22. he adds, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Thither God comes down to us, Matth. 18. 20. and thereby our mutual help, as upon one another's shoulders; our hearts are gotten nearer up to him. The Saints are a People near to him, Psal. 148. 14. and therefore they that keep close to them, are not far from him, as they that dwell in the Court are near to the King.
4, I add Prayer; for Petitioners use to draw near, when they tender their Petitions, Numb. 32. 16. and so do God's Suppliants, when they present him with their Prayers, 1 Sam. 14. 37. In Prayer we seek him, fall down at his footstool, come into his presence. We speak to him, we lift up our Eyes, Hands, and Souls to him; we wrestle with him. These and such-like Expressions of it we meet with in Scripture; and they all speak drawing near to him, according to Jamblichus his description of it, that it's Copula, quâ homines cum Deo conjunguntur, Clavis, quâ Dei penetralia aperiuntur; the Soul's Wing, by which it mounts up to Heaven, and the Key that opens the Gate of Heaven, and lets us into the presence of the everlasting King: How deep doth it thrust both Petition and Petitioner into its Savior's Bosom? And how often doth the loving Father with a sweet kiss take up the weeping Child from his knees into his Arms? How near doth he bow the Ear? and how low doth he reach down his hand to take us by ours, when it's lifted up to him? O the blessed interviews in this Duty, when God's and our Eye meet! Thou drewest near in the day when I called upon thee, said the lamenting Church, Lament. 3. 57. When for any other relief she could say, The Comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me, Chap. 1. 16. In Prayer God draweth near to the Soul, and the Soul to God; and one of his main Suits, (as Esther 's first was for the King's company, and the second for it again the second time, so it is) that God would both draw nearer himself, and draw it also nearer. Draw nigh to my Soul, Psal. 69. 18. and draw my Soul nearer to thee; unite my heart, Psal. 86. 11. With holy Austin, Redde mihi te Deus meus, red te mihi, ut currat vita mea in amplexus tuos. O convert me, and I shall be converted, Jer. 31. 18. Draw me, and we shall run after thee, Cant. 1. 4. as well knowing that we cannot draw near to him, till he draw near to us first. We cannot come, till the Father draw, John 6. 44. and therefore the Child reacheth out the hand in Prayer, and layeth hold on the Father, that he may draw, and thereby it also may draw nearer.
And thus we see, how by these and the like Ordinances, as by means appointed and sanctified by God, we do (or at least may) draw near unto him. Which saith these things to us.
1. First therefore use them, and carefully attend on them, as ever we would draw near to God, who for that very end hath appointed them; and as we would not, with the Pharisees, Luk. 7. 30. reject the Counsel of God against ourselves; it's there said, they did it in refusing one Ordinance of Baptism. Too many now reject not only that, but all Ordinances else. But do they get the nearer to God by it? No; The Autumn 's witherings tell us, that the Sun is withdrawn backward, and the woeful decays of foam of their both Professions and Practises saith, that the Sun of Righteousness, instead of drawing nearer, is got further off. Ordinances are sanctified Means of our approach to God. His going is in the Sanctuary, Psal. 68. 24. He meets us in them, and therefore make Conscience to use them.
2. Because but means, therefore rest not in them, till we find that we draw near to God by them. Not in Prayer, till either God draw near to us in a gracious Answer, or at least we get so near him, as by Faith to lay hold on him in a more serious wrestling. Not in hearing, till God speak something to our hearts; Nor in receiving, till we feel him strengthening us with strength in our Souls: Till we see the glory of God filling the Tabernacle, as Exod. 40. 34. the Holy Ghost falling upon us whilst we are hearing the Word, as Acts 10. 44. and Jesus Christ coming in and breathing upon us, when we are met together in such Ordinances, as John 20. 22. Let the Spouse abide in the Bed of Loves, but let her seek her Beloved there. Our falling short of this, and sitting down with the enjoyment of bare Ordinances,
1. Makes others (as we see) undervalue and despise them, whilst we rest in them. We in so doing make them our Idols, and then they think they have thence just ground to make them their Abominations.
2. For ourselves, instead of growing better, and drawing nearer to God by them; by this means we prove worse, and are set further off. None further from God and Salvation, than they that take up in means of Salvation, without enjoying God in them; as none more sure to fall short of his journeys end, than he that sits down, as having gone far enough, when he hath gotten on but the half way. My Friend may be gotten the further off, and (it may be) past hope of overtaking, whilst in the dark I take fast hold of his Garment, and think that by so doing, I keep him as fast by me.
3. At best, nothing at all the better, as your Phrase is, never the nearer for all those outward approaches. It will be but the grasping of the Cloud instead of Juno; a looking into the Grave, when Christ is risen; a seeking in the Bed, when the Beloved is withdrawn; an enquiring in the Temple, when the Glory of the Lord is departed. And what a poor empty forlorn thing is the most Royal Palace, when the Court hath left it? The former Luster and Majesty, which the King of Heaven's Presence conferred, to a heedful Eye makes his Court look the more Desolate, when he is withdrawn. So that whilst others jollily vaunt, and chant it, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these: Yet the chaste Spouse, not withstanding all these, is at a loss, and still upon the Inquest with her Saw ye him whom my Soul loveth? As long as she cannot find him there who is greater than the Temple, who too often finds cause enough in us on his part to leave his House, Jer. 12. 7. and then thou mayst come and knock hard, and yet not meet with him; but more often on our parts, when he is most graciously and powerfully present there to others, we are absent from him, because absent from ourselves; our Thoughts wandering, and then the Mind is in another place; we drowsing, and the Man asleep is in another World: Though God be in that Place, yet Jacob, when asleep, is not aware of it, Gen. 28. 16. And Lot, when drowsy and drunk together, knows not when his Daughters lie down and rise up. And so we may come and go to and again to God's Ordinances, and yet whilst we are in like Distempers, he and we may continue very strangers. Ordinances are like those Golden Pipes, Zech. 4. 2. and yet but Pipes, do us no good, will be but empty to us, unless they empty into us that Golden Oil, ver. 12. Sweetest Breasts of Consolation, but we shall suck Wind rather than Nourishment; unless, like the Suckling, we then find ourselves in our Heavenly Father's Arms, and laid close to our Savior's Breast to suck Life-Blood from his wounded Heart. It's good thus to draw near to God; and till it be thus, it will not be well with us, notwithstanding all outward Approaches and Ordinances.
And therefore our chief care and endeavor should be in our enjoyment of them, that they may Instrumentally concur to the working and quickening such Graces in us, as whereby we may formally (I mean indeed and good earnest) draw nigh to God.
1. Amongst which (as it's most fit) Knowledge in the first place must lead the way, for he must needs go very wide that follows a blind Guide. He will toto coelo errare, instead of arriving at God, or Heaven. The blind Sodomite will sooner stumble on Lot's door, and a Man in the Dark hit right in an unknown way, than that Man, whose Eyes the God of this World hath blinded, find of himself the way of access to God, or indeed find in his heart to draw nigh to him: For Ignorance usually is very profane, and so careth not to come into God's Presence, hath so much Candle-light of Sense, as to commit Works of Darkness by, and to see and follow that which leads off from God: But as long as it continues invincible, cuts off all hopes, because it plucks off all those ansae by which we might be laid hold on, and drawn nearer. And therefore gross ignorant Men are in a most desperate Condition; they that are so dark must needs be far from the Father of Lights now, as that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (which in the very Name of it, denotes the remotest distance from God) will be their Portion hereafter.
But on the contrary, the saving and clear Knowledge of God, and his Divine Excellencies, especially in Christ, approacheth so near, that the Understanding is in a manner made one with so blessed an Object. It indeed is so transcendently Glorious, that it bids Moses not come near, in regard of a reverential distance, Exod. 3. 5. and yet so infinitely ravishing, that it makes him desire to get as near as he may to see so great a Sight, ver. 3. as in Heaven a full Vision begets a perfect Love and Union. Angels that always behold God's Face, Mat. 18. 10. have the nearest Station. And if the lovely Creature's Beauty useth to draw after it many Eyes, sure the infinite Beauty of God so Glorious, of Christ so White and Ruddy, even the Brightness of his Father's Glory, if beheld with a clearer Eye, could not but much more strongly snatch our Hearts to it. They that turn away from him, do not see him. And if any be so desperate as to hate him (as the School determines) do so, because they only look at some particular in him, that is contrary to their own Lusts, which are nearer to them, and so blind them.
2. The second is a fervent and filial Love of God; for Spiritus noster adhaeret Deo per intimum amorem, so Alensis: Love in its nature is Appetitus unionis, and as such, carrieth the Soul out of itself, to the desired Embraces of its beloved Object, 2 Sam. 13. 39. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , David longed, or he was consumed with desire of going out to a beloved Absalom. The Love of God, I am sure, carrieth out the ravished Soul to God in Divine Extasies; as Dionysius expresseth it. This Glutinum animae, as Bernard calls it; How quickly doth it catch? and how fast doth it cleave? These Cords of Love, how strongly do they draw? And how firmly do they bind? The loving Wife and Ch •• d is not well, if not in the beloved Father's arms, and Husband's presence. Had we more of the Love of God in our Hearts, we could not live without him: It would be death to part with him. We could not be such aloof-off Strangers, if we were more loving Friends.
3. To Love add Fear; for although servile Fear (as in Cain) makes the Slave run from his Master, yet a filial Fear brings the Child (as Neh. 1. 11.) into his Father's presence. They shall walk after the Lord, and tremble from the West, saith the Prophet Hos. 11. 12. Trepide accurrent, they shall tremble, but they shall come trembling. This Fear will make us fly, but into our Father's arms; stand at a reverential distance, and yet even then on our Knees creep toward him. And how deep is the awful Child put into the Father's bosom? Whilst the bold Wanton is thrust away, and bid stand further off. God's Salvation is nigh to them that fear him, Psal. 85. 9. and where his Salvation is so near, he himself is not far off. In a word, this Fear is most of all afraid of sin, which alone separates us from God, as we heard from Isa. 59. 2. It cannot therefore but bring us very near, which removes that which only can keep us asunder.
4. Humility is wont to be the Fear of God's attendant, and when the one is trembling in its nearer approach, this much helps it to a more safe and easy access, for though it fall low, yet it lifteth up the Soul in the rebound much nearer to God. The Psalmist saith, that he humbleth himself in looking down upon us: But we by humbling ourselves get nearer, and the higher up to him; who is wont to have respect to the humble, whilst the proud he useth to behold afar off, Psal. 138. 6. For if none of us can endure a proud Man's company, why should? How can God? We that are so mean and low, might better away with an insolent Superior: But how can the most high God endure a proud Competitor? And yet such is every proud Man, contests with God about the two main Points of his Royalty; who should be the Prima Causa, and Finis Ultimus. But the nearer he aspires to be to God in one sense, the further he is from him in another; who scorns the Scorners, but gives Grace to the lovely▪ Prov. 3. 34. Lucifer, that climbed so high above the Clouds to get near to be like the most High, is cast down to the utmost possible distance, whilst Michael (whose very Name speaks humble Acknowledgment, and Adoration of God's Supremacy) is advanced to his place, from which his Pride threw him; as our proud attempt in Adam to scale Heaven was (as I may use the Prophet's words) such a swelling in an high wall, that hath tumbled us down far off from God into this woeful Ruin, wherein he now finds us. At magna humilitatis virtus, cui etiam Deitatis Majestas tam facile se inclinat. How gracious is this lowly Grace? or rather how Gracious is the High and Mighty God, that, when we in humility bow down, and as it were shrink back from him in sense of our own Baseness, he should then bow down lowest to us in nearest Approximation: So as Heaven should never be more clearly seen than in the lowest Vault, nor we ever nearer God, than when we are furthest from all proud Conceits of ourselves!
5. Repentance and Humility are near akin, and whilst these two lovely Twins are not parted, they will keep us closer united to God. The penitent Publican indeed stood afar off, Luke 18. 13. yet in their Addresses to God we know he got the upper hand of him, that thought and bragged himself to be the better Man. It's true, some of our now overgrown Men think repentant Crys and Tears Childish; yet let me be one of those Children, of whom is the Kingdom of Heaven. Nor let their scoffs babish us, as long as the crying Child is laid closest to the Mother's breast, and taken nearest into our Heavenly Father's Bosom. For so the Psalmist assureth us, that the Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart, Psal. 34. 18. Deus delinquentium gemitus esurit, sitit lachrymas peccatorum, so Chrysologus. Nothing more pleasing in God's sight, than a repentant Tear in Faiths Eye. Which leads to a Sixth Particular:
6. Above all, saith the Apostle, take the Shield of Faith, when you draw near to fight with your worst Enemy, Ephes. 6. 16. And I must advise you, above all bring Faith along with you, if you would ever draw near to your best Friend. There is nothing in Faith that hath not a strong tendency this way.
In its justifying Act it hath an Eye to look towards God, Isa. 45. 22. a Foot to come to him, John 6. 35. an Hand to take him, John 1. 12. to lean on him, Cant. 8. 5. to lay hold on him, Isa. 56. 4. 1 Tim. 6. 12. Heb 6. 18. so opens the Door, Rev. 3. 20. that he may come in and sup with us.
And because no walking together unless agreed, and made Friends, Amos 3. 3. It layeth hold on Christ our Mediator, and Reconciler, which brings God and us together: Brings our Benjamin along with it, by whom we have access into Joseph's presence. By it we come to Christ, and by him to God. Through him we have access, but by Faith, saith the Apostle, Rom. 5. 2.
There is also the Prayer of Faith, Jam. 5. 15. and by it we heard we have access and entrance.
And the Scripture tells us, and Believers find, that there is such a thing as the Assurance of Faith, in which the Apostle exhorts us to draw nigh, Heb. 10. 22. In this Plerophory our Sail is so filled, that we go amain towards God and Heaven: We do, because it tells us we may, that whilst Infidelity dares not approach, (She trusted not in the Lord, she drew not nigh to her God, Zeph. 3. 2.) and despair in Horror and Amazement makes us run away from him, as from our Enemy and Judge, the assurance of Faith imboldens us to draw nigh to him, as our Friend and Father. Guilt of sin lying on the Conscience is like a Mist, that keeps Friends from seeing and coming near one the other; as the Pillar of Cloud kept the Israelites and Egyptians asunder. But the Son of Righteousness arising, and shining out in bright Beams of Assurance and Joy, showeth us our Friend, and imboldens us ruere in Amplexus. When the Spouse can say, my Beloved, he is then as a bundle of Myrrh, lying all the night between her Breasts (Cant. 1. 13.) And that is very near her Heart.
7. I might here add Hope, which, though in nature it's of an object absent, yet as a Grace, it hath God very present: And so the Apostle calls it a better Hope, by which we draw nigh to God, Heb. 7. 19.
8. And Sincerity, which being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , dare draw nigh to the Light, whilst the painted Hypocrite is like the Man clothed with a kind of course Stuff, which they called, stand further off; cares not for so near a view of so piercing an Eye. But I shall not Insist on anymore Particulars.
9. But lastly add in general, That a course of sincere Obedience in the practice of all Saving Graces, is in Scripture-phrase, a Walking with God; and that implieth very near Communion. Every particular Grace in us is part of the Divine Nature, and so Allieth us to God: But in the general exercise of them, all God is ours, not only in surest Covenant, but also in closest Communion. It was the want of such a Wedding-Garment, that cast the Guest in the Gospel 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , into utter Darkness, Mat. 22. 13. which signifieth the utmost distance from God and Heaven, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that impassable Gulf, Luke 16. 26. being between. But whilst we are here in a gracious Course, we have the best Stand and Prospect, for the fullest and nearest view of God. Thou meetest him that rejoyeeth, and worketh Righteousness, Isa. 64. 5. And to him that ordereth his Conversation aright, I will show the Salvation of God, Psal. 50. 23. But when once Grace is made Perfect, and the Bride all over Cloathed, and fully made Ready, then shall be the Marriage of the Lamb, when Christ shall come from Heaven to us, and we shall be caught up in the Clouds to meet with him, and so for ever shall be with the Lord, when the whole Choir of Heaven, everyone in his own Part, and all together shall sing aloud this sweet Note of the Text, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is good for me to draw near to God, and to keep close to him forever.
SERMON XXXII.
OUr Savior, in the beginning of this Chapter, is foretelling Jerusalem 's destruction, verse. 6. but as a forerunner of it, he foretells also his Servants Persecution, that they shall be persecuted by Enemies, v. 12. betrayed by Friends, v. 16. and hated by all, v. 17. As when the Ship, Acts 27. 42. was ready to be wracked, they would first have killed Paul, who alone kept them from drowning: A foolish mistake of a mad World, to do the Godly most hurt, when they should most stand them instead; when the Night is putting in, to put out the Candle which should give them light; and when the House is falling, to make sure of it, they will needs pull down the Pillars that uphold it [the Holy Seed being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 statumen eorum, Isa. 6. 13.] So sottish is the World's malice, which otherwhile useth to be too ingenious in doing mischief to the Godly, as it were on purpose to undo themselves.
But although they be such Enemies to themselves, yet Christ is a better Friend to his Servants; and therefore as he encourageth them, telling them, That not an hair of their head shall perish, v. 18. so he directs them in this 19th Verse, In your Patience possess ye your Souls.
In which words we have three Particulars; which, according to the Metaphor here used, we may call,
- 1. The Freehold, and that's their Souls.
- 2. The Seisin 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , They are to be kept in possession; Possess ye your Souls.
- 3. The Tenure, and that is the Tenure of Patience; and so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , In your Patience possess ye your Souls.
1. For a little opening of the words, and first for Patience; it's duplex, Activa, Passiva. The one forbears, the other bears; both suffer, though in a different way.
Active, so called, in reference to acting, but improperly a minime agendo, because it acts not when Passion's Fingers itch, and would fain be doing; and so it's defined, quae malum non infert, that even when provoked, doth no evil, which the Greeks express by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or long suffering. This is eminently and essentially in God, who when we provoke him, is yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 longsuffering, Exod. 34. 6. even a God of Patience.
But Patience Passive is that, quae malum fert, that quietly suffers evil from others, which is more properly this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Text; not properly falling upon God, who simply is impassible, but is that which by his Grace he works in his suffering Servants; when in an humble submission to his Will, out of Faith in his Promise, in hope of his assistance and deliverance, they neither sink in despondency under the burden, nor rise up in rage against him, or the Instrument he strikes with, but willingly submit, and quietly wait for the Salvation of God, Lament. 3. 26, 27. If you will have Tully 's description of it, Patientia est honestatis & utilitatis (let us add & Religions) causâ rerum arduarum ac difficilium voluntaria ac diuturna perpessio. Or if rather you would have Bede's, Patientia vera est aliena mala aequanimiter perpeti, contra eum quoque qui mala irrogat nullo dolore moveri. This is properly this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Text; by which when dispossessed of all things else, we are even then able to possess our Souls.
2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Possess ye, so it's usually read, and so it holds forth a Command; though some read it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ye may, or so ye shall possess; and so it contains a Promise. I shall make use of both, and here only add, that this word in the Greek, answerable to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Hebrew, signifieth both acquirere, and conservare, both to procure and preserve; and Patience doth both.
3. For the last word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I need not tell you, that although it most properly signify the Soul, yet oft in Scripture is put for the whole Man, and sometime for our bodily Life. Your Souls, your selves, your outward Life. Patience, as a sure guard, keeps you in possession of all.
A word for natural Life, which I exclude not in reference to verse. 18. they should not perish; and here patience is a preservative. As God gives us possession of it, so patience helps to [Doct. 1] keep it. So we find in Scripture, meek Moses and patient Job long-lived, whilst bloody and violent Men live not out half their days, Psal. 55. 23. As stormy Winter days use to be short, whilst it's long before the Sun set in a serene calm Summer's day. The Prophet said, In quietness and confidence shall be your strength, and thereby also their safety, whilst frowardness and hastiness makes haste only to destruction. Job 's Wife, when she said, Curse God and die, spake truth, when she gave bad counsel; for it's curse and die, there's but a step between discontented cursing and dying. But if there be any such thing in this frail fading World, as via recta ad vitam longam, (which the Title of his Book promiseth); amongst other Virtues and Graces, Patience must be one of our Guides and Companions; and this, whether we consider either God, or others, or ourselves.
First, For God, we read that with the froward he will deal [Reas. 1] frowardly, Psal. 18. 26. but he delighteth to beautify the meek with Salvation. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah tears his Prey when it struggles and resists, but spares it when it lies quiet and prostrate; so that if you be weary of your life, you may go to it at sharp; but if you mean to save it, your wisest way is to submit, and quietly to lay down your Weapons Crudelem medicum, &c. The unruly impatient Patient makes his Physician cruel; and the Child's struggling doth but increase his stripes, whilst a quiet kissing the Rod oft saveth the whipping. Our God is our Physician and Father. We provoke him to Wrath, when we are provoked to impatience by whatever correction is inflicted by him. But it's meet to be said to him by every dutiful Child, and in such a Child's Language, I have born chastisement, and I will not offend anymore; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more, Job 34. 31, 32. and that's the way to prevent a second bout. With the Bird of Paradise, by a meekened moan, to mourn itself out of the Snare; not with the wild Bull in the Net, Isa. 51. 20. to tumble and rave, and so the more to entangle himself in the Snare. When God hears Ephraim bemoaning himself, Ephraim hears God comforting him, and telling him, that he is his dear Son and pleasant Child, that ever since he spake against him, he did earnestly remember him; that his Bowels were troubled for him, and that he would surely have mercy upon him, Jer. 31. 18, 19, 20. Whilst we frowardly struggle, 1. our Hearts fret against God; and 2. we would be our own Savior's, and both these betray us to danger. But by a patient lying under God's hand, as we acknowledge his Sovereignty, and righteous Proceedings, so we resign up ourselves to him, who hath a surer hand than ours to keep that wherewith it is betrusted. And thus Patience helps to hold our Souls in Life; first in reference to God.
And, secondly, in reference to other Men, whom we are at a [Reas. 2] contest with, and (it may be) in danger of; for with them (though froward) Solomon 's observation holds good, A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger, Prov. 15. 1. As the soft Wall damps the fiercest Shot, whilst the clashing of two earthen Pitchers breaks either one or both. Fatigatur improbitas patientiâ tuâ, saith Tertullian; Patience either wins or wearies the most enraged Enemy, so that either he will not, or he cannot hurt. How easily doth the weak Man, when provoked by patient forbearing, prevent his own mischief? Whilst the passionate Male-content, either by busy busling begins the Quarrel, or by giving the second stroke makes the Fray; and both ways, as the furious Horse rusheth into the Battle, and so too often sins against his own Life.
But were there none other to hurt us, yet impatience can [Reas. 3] make ourselves to be our own Executioners. Whether Achitophel was strangled with an Halter, or suffocated with some Humors raised by his grief, some of late dispute. The Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may signify both. But which soever of them it was, I am sure his impatience of a neglect was the cause of it in him; as in both kinds it hath been with divers others. Impatience of Pain, Poverty, Disgrace, and the like, hath proved in this unhappy World one of the great Apollyons and Abaddons, chief Engines in murdering, not only others, but ourselves also. What sudden Inflammations, what pining Consumptions, Frenzies, Lethargies, and other splenetick Distempers hath it cast many a Man into? and so betrayed them sometimes to more gentle and lingering; sometimes to more sudden and violent deaths, and that sometimes by their own hands? Passions with a witness, which make both Body and Soul joint-sufferers, like blustering storms that dash these frail Vessels against the Rocks; or like roaring and riotous Guests and Inmates, that set on fire, and pull down those Houses of Clay, which they are in present possession of.
But on the contrary, A patient or cool Spirit, as Solomon phraseth it, Prov. 17. 27. how timely doth it prevent these sparks from kindling, or happily quench them when they begin to flame, by composing the mind, that it dare not quarrel with God, nor pitch the Field with a Man's own self; and so quiets the Body, that it either prevents Bodily Distempers, or helps to bear them quietly, that they do not prove deadly? whilst the unruly sick Man by raving and tumbling kills himself; another more patient, by being quiet, doth sopire morbum, and by lying still, makes haste to his recovery. Possess but thy Soul with Patience, and it will keep thee in longer possession of the frail Tabernacle of thy Body. Indeed, short-winded Men are soon at their Journies end, but they that are longer breathed are so more ways than one, able through many difficulties to run a longer race, and at last in a late evening of a long day come to the end of it in peace. Discontents, I confess, may be long-lived, but so usually are not froward, impatient, discontented Men. But when the Psalmist tells us that the Meek shall inherit the Earth; that Phrase expresseth as a surer title, so a longer continuance; and thus, as our Souls are sometimes put for our Lives, even so by our Patience we are kept in possession of them. So 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (as I said some read it) you may, you shall.
And therefore for the Application, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (as the common [Use.] reading is) Christ here commands us to endeavor that we may possess our lives in Patience. At the best, we are but Tenants at will; and if some of us consider our Ages, and others our Weakness, and all of us the perilous Times we are cast into, we may well think that our Leases are fast hasting to an expiration. What Man therefore is he that desireth Life, and loveth many days, let him seek peace, saith the Psalmist, Psalm. 34. 12, 13, 14. and let me add, Patience; for Patience is one of the best Preservatives. Prayers and Tears were wont to be the Churches best offensive Weapons, and Patience one of the chiefest Defensives. Not by Might, nor by Power, but by my Spirit, saith God, when he stiles himself the Lord of Hosts, Zech. 4. 6. And truly the Spirit of Meekness and Patience hath in it the Spirit of a Conqueror. As therefore Christ our Lord vanquished the Devil, not by fighting but by dying: so our way to overcome the World, and save our lives, is rather by patient yielding and suffering, than by peevishly contending. I mean, not by a base unworthy complying with Men's sins, but by a generous suffering of their rage, and ever with a silent and meek submission to the righteous Judgment of God. Yea, in the way of thy Judgments have we waited for thee, O Lord, said the humbled Church, Isa. 26. 8. And waiting, as it implieth a still and quiet attendance, so with God it ever finds at last a gracious acceptance. Thou wilt never bid that Beggar stay and wait, whom thou at last intendest to send away empty; much less will God make thee content quietly to wait, whom he intends to send away discontented, by wholly frustrating thee of thy Expectation. The prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time, saith the Prophet, Amos 5. 13. How evil our times are I need not say; and therefore if we would show ourselves prudent and wise for ourselves, as we love our lives, let us keep silence; and that's the Expression which in the Old Testament Patience is usually and almost only set out by. Not a malicious silence, (as Absalom 's was, 2 Sam. 13. 22.) whereby we bite in for the present, but lie in insidiis to watch opportunities of mischief and revenge; but a shamefaced silence, in sense of our own confusion and guilt; an humble meek silence, not murmuring against God's dealings, or an angry clamouring at evil Men's proceedings; but a quiet submitting to his hand, and a patient enduring (as long as God continues it) of their oppressions, saying (if anything) with the Church, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; or rather with our Savior, though led as a Sheep to the Slaughter, and as the Lamb before the Shearer, so open we not our mouths; as Paulinus to his Friend, Nos taceamus istis loquentes ad Dominum silentio humilitatis, & voice patientiae; & tunc ipse qui invictus est, pugnabit pro nobis, & vincet in nobis. So the dumb Dove's mourning in a far Country was heard, and she delivered, if you compare the Argument and the 56th Psalm together. And Christ the meek silent Lamb, though slaughtered, yet shortly after was raised from the dead: to whom if we be Unisons in this sweet still-Music, we shall for certain have our lives for a prey, either preserved or restored; either kept from death, or if the two Witnesses be now to be slain, shall have part in a better Resurrection: For so if we should take the word in the Text for our lives, so it holds good that by our patience we may, and therefore ought to possess our Souls.
But take the word Soul in its more proper signification, for that nobler part of Man; and so most understand our Savior's meaning, when he here saith, In your patience possess ye your Souls.
In which words we have these two Particulars considerable.
- 1. That it's our duty to possess our Souls.
- 2. That Patience is one special means to keep this possession.
As always, so especially in evil and perilous Times (for such [Doct. 2] our Savior here speaks of) whatever else we are deprived or thrust out of, our great care and endeavor must be to possess our Souls. Whatsoever the force be, we must stand to it, and keep possession. Above all keepings, keep thy Heart, saith Solomon, Prov. 4. 23. And keep thy Soul diligently, saith Moses, Deut. 4. 9. Take heed to your Spirit, saith the Prophet, Mal. 2. 15. And so here, In your patience possess ye your Souls, saith our Savior. A dear and great Pledg it is, which both God and his People do mutually betrust each other with, and both to our present purpose. They him, looking at it as their Jewel, and considering their own weakness and heedlessness, leave it to be kept in his safer Hand. That we may possess it, (as the Child gives the Mother that it would have kept) we put it into God's Hands to keep it for us. And so it's Paul's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 2 Tim. 1. 12. his Depositum which he leaves with God. And our dying Savior, when now to be dispossessed of his Life, that he might keep possession of his Soul, saith, Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit, Luke 23. 46.
And he them; it being one of his chief Master-pieces, and therefore as soon as it comes out of his hands, he commends it to every Man's best care, as a great Talent which he betrusts us with, and will have at last a strict account of: At our Birth sent out from him, and in Death, Eccles. 12. 7. again to return to him, that he may have an account how it hath been abused or improved, whether kept or lost: When thrust out of this House of Clay, whether we have not lost it, and it Heaven. For so this possessing of our Souls includes a double care and endeavor, 1. That it be not utterly lost. 2. No, nor so Distempered and Disguised, that neither we nor it be ourselves.
1. First, I say, our care must be so to possess our Souls, that they be not utterly lost; for so the Scripture speaks of losing the Soul, Mat. 16. 26. And what is quite lost, is then out of our possession. And on the contrary, that in Matthew, He that endures to the end, shall be saved, Chap. 10. 22. and this of the Text, In your patience, possess ye your Souls, are by learned Interpreters made Parallel; so that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to possess the Soul, and to save it, is one and the same thing. And this therefore should be a great part of our greatest care, that our Souls may be so possessed, as they may be saved: And that, although in dangerous Times, all else may soon be lost, yet that a sure Course may be taken, that our Souls do not perish eternally.
2. But secondly, This care of a Man's possessing his Soul is not only that it be not wholly lost at last, but that for the present in greatest Distractions he be (as the Latin phrase is) Animi, (or Sui) compos, truly himself, his own Man; yea, master of his own Soul and its Faculties, Passions and Operations, which at such times oft are quite stounded, or prove very wild and unruly. Men dead with fear, as in Nabal, 1 Sam. 25. 27. and there is no Life; drunk with grief, as they Jer. 25. 27. and there's no sense; And mad with Oppression, as even the wise Man sometimes is, as the wisest King tells us, Eccles. 7. 7. But where's then his Wisdom? Which is then swallowed up, Psal. 107. 27. Nay, What's become of his Soul? When, Nec manus, nec pes, &c. when neither the Eye can see what's before it, or the Ear take heed what's said to it; the Man knows not what either he saith, or doth; where he is, or whither he goeth: In these Animi deliquia & deliria the Man is truly Exanimated, bereft of his Soul; the Mind and Understanding amazed, confused and darkened; the Affections and Passions in a mutiny and perfect uproar: But where's the Soul; that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 all this while, that should keep better order? Is it in being? Or is the Man in possession of it, which is wholly possessed with Amazements and Confusions, as a Town now entered and possessed by a Conquering Enemy? This too often in perilous Times is our Sin and Misery. But our Savior in the Text points out to us what at all times, and even then, is our duty, to take care, that whatever else we lose, that there be not Ejectio firmae, that we be not so cast out of our Freehold, but that by Faith and Patience (the one as the Fundamentum, and the other as the Sustentaculum of all Virtues, as Anselm distinguisheth them) we may still be ourselves, and possess our Souls, not frighted out of ourselves by Fears, or sunk below ourselves by overmuch Heaviness; but then speak and act with Nehemiah, Chap. 6. 11. like and worthy ourselves; with Jehoshaphat, when we know not what to do, to be so much ourselves, as to know how to do that which is best; not like gaster'd Men to look wildly about us, but with a fixed Eye to God above us; not to be out of our Wits, but to go out to God; and as David, when the sorrows of Death and Hell took hold on him (Psal. 116. 3.) to retire inward to our Hearts with his, Return unto thy rest, O my Soul, even when the sorrows of Death and Hell took hold on him, enough to Exanimate him, yet to retire inward; as a Man into his House out of the Crowd, in which he was like to be lost; or like a wise Pilot, thrusting his Ship out of the Storm into the Harbor: And then how safely doth he stand firm on the Shoar, whilst he seeth others over-whelmed with the Waves? So to turn into our Souls, and to turn them over to God, and there quietly to rest; this is indeed to be ourselves, and to possess our souls, Dum nobis ipsis dominari discimus, hoc ipsum incipimus possidere quod sumus, as Bede speaks. And thus whilst Christ hath held the Heads and Hearts of his Servants, they have been never more themselves, than when besides him they have had least else to rest either Head or Heart upon; never enjoyed themselves, or possessed their Souls more, than when now to be dispossessed of all else besides; as take a Believer on his Death-bed, or a Martyr at the Stake. It's but God's bidding Aaron, go up to Mount Hor, and put off his Garments and die, Numb. 20. 25, 26, 27, 28. No more than a Parent's bidding his Child go up to his Chamber, and put off his Clothes and sleep. They are fully themselves, nay, then more than ever above themselves; now that the Soul is mantling, and almost upon the Wing, to fly upward in Divinest Contemplations and elevated Expressions. (Some of which Mylius gathers up in his Book, which he calls Apophthegmata morientium). When the dying Man's tongue faulters, he speaks Apophthegmes, nay Oracles, and though the bodily Eye grows dim in that shadow of death; yet that's but the shutting of the outward window, whilst a more glorious Light is set up within to enlighten that darkness, and so that gloomy Evening is but the dawning of the now hasting Morning of the beatifical Vision. O the admirable farewell-speeches of Martyrs at their Sufferings! Those high-raised Expressions, that ravished other Men's hearts, shown plainly that they then most fully possessed their own Souls. Sure, Stephen was perfectly himself and above himself; that, when the Stones flew so fast at him, he could so quietly and orderly kneel down, and look up to Heaven, and pray for his Murderes, Acts 7. 59, 60. as were Daniel's Companions, Chap. 3. 25. who, when cast into the Furnace, did not fall all along, as Saul, 1 Sam. 28. 20. or down into the Furnace, as their Enemies did, but then walked erect in the midst of the Fire, and as the Apocryphal Addition saith, there sung forth God's Praises; yea, and therein exactly kept time and tune, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (as Chrysostom observes) in the same Order that God made his Creatures they there sung his Praises.
And thus in these two Particulars, we see what's meant by this possessing of our Souls, namely when such care is taken that they now be not distempered, nor at last utterly lost.
Which in the App • ication is that which is further to be pressed [Use.] upon us, as that which our Savior here expressly and peremptorily commands us, and (which is to be observed) at such a busy time when you would think his Disciples had something else necessarily to look after, when so Hated, Persecuted, Betrayed, as in the fore-going Verses, when every way so beset, and so wholly endangered. If Nature and Sense, like Pharez, (as it's ready) should put out its hand first it would find something next hand first to lay hold on; here would be Wife, Children, Parents, Friends, to be provided for: It may be my Estate, yea, my Life to be secured and taken care of. How shall I make such a Friend? Or what way to pacify such an Enemy? How shall I answer when called before such a King and Ruler? v. 12. But our Savior would take them off from such distracting cares, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. In all this unsettledness, settle you your heart not to meditate, v. 14. not to be over-anxious for those things, but here in the Text he would have them to make sure of their Chance. Let Martha, like the good House-Wife, be troubled about many things. But see that you, like wise Christians with Mary, make sure of the one thing necessary, as though he had said, in your getting your other Goods out of the Scare-fire, be sure you look that you save yourselves. And whatever else Thieves and Robbers run away with, be sure to keep possession of your Souls, that the Man be not first Wounded, and at last Killed out-right, that your Souls be not now Defiled, Distracted, or Distempered, and at last Perish everlastingly. Let thy Soul be precious in thine Eyes (as 1 Sam. 26. 21.) that it may not be as 1 Kings 20. 39, 40. it missing, thy everlasting Life go for it. This is here our best Friend's advice, and that which his best Servants have followed. What ever else hath comparatively been neglected, yet their God and their Souls have been secured. David was so encompassed with outward Enemies and Dangers, that he had his good Name, Estate, and his very Life to defend and provide for. But his Soul was his Darling, which he tenders as much as he can himself: And because his care and strength was too short, he commends it to God; it in a manner only, it I am sure especially, and that frequently and most pathetically. How often do you hear those sweet strains among his bitter Complaints? Lord, keep my soul, preserve my soul, deliver my soul, leave not my soul destitute. In which places though Life may be in part meant, yet the Soul properly so called, is not to be excluded. And if it be the Will of God that we should know how to p • ssess our Bodies in H • liness, (1 Thes. 4. 3, 4.) it's all reason that according to the former Particulars, we should endeavor to possess our souls in Patience. And that upon these following Grounds and Considerations. 1. Because all outward Comforts and Possessions may be lost. 2. Even then, if due care be taken, our souls may be secured. 3. Yet they are in greatest danger to be Assailed. 4. Of such invaluable worth, that the saving and possessing of them will more than countervail the loss of all else. As on the contrary, the loss of them is both irrecoverable, and invaluable; not to be made up by all other Enjoyments; and if joined with other losses makes them complete, and utterly undoing.
1. We had need be careful and watchful to keep possession of our souls, that we may be best possessed of something. Because of all else we may easily be dispossessed. At all Times it's possible, but in perilous Times too likely and probable. He was but a fool, and that upon Record, that said to his soul, he had Goods laid up for many years, when the following night turned him out of possession of all. The Women of my People have you cast out of their pleasant Houses, saith the Prophet, Mic. 2. 9. I need not tell you how suddenly Job was partly Plundered by the Chaldeans and Sabaeans, and partly by an immediate Hand of God stripped naked of all. Our Savior in general, hath said of all Treasures upon Earth, that the Moth and Rust will corrupt, and Thieves break through and steal: Either of themselves will decay, as the Cloth breeds that Moth, and the Iron that Rust which consumes it, or at least some either violent Hand will break through, or some false Fingers will more slily steal and carry away. The Grass will either wither of itself, or be cut down by the Sithe; so that Sidonius truly affirms, Hominem in hunc mundum non tam editum quam ejectum: Like a Ship-wracked Man, Ship split, his Goods sunk in the Sea, or made a Prey of on the Shoar: And it's well if he scape with his Life, and that sooner or later will be sunk too; for Death will be sure to turn all out of Doors, when it seizeth upon us: But when Death thus dispossesseth our very souls of their Bodies, would it not be sorrow upon sorrow, as the Apostle speaks, Phil. 2. 27. for us then to be dispossessed of our souls also, to lose all and our souls to boot? When Out-works are taken, to have no Fort within to fly to: To come to Adrian's animula, vagula, blandula, quae nunc abibis in loca? Not then to know whither our Souls shall go, or to be the more exanimated, if we do, how woeful and miserable will it be? Especially he so great an Astronomer, Qui cuncta de se scivit & praescivit; able beforehand to write a Diary of all things that should befall him, until the hour of his death, and then to be at a loss. You have taken away my God's that I have made, and the Priest, and what have I more, said Micah, when the Children of Dan had plundered him, Judge. 18. 24. Poor wretched undone Man! They took away the God's that thou hadst made: But wouldst thou have been at such a loss, if thou hadst had an interest in that God that made thee? They had stolen away thy Priest; but if he had not first stolen away thy heart, thou mightest then have possessed thy soul, which might have beeh both Priest and Temple for thee to have taken Sanctuary in. Which leads to,
2. The second thing propounded, That when all else is lost, yet if due care be taken, the soul even then may be secured. Our Estate and Esteem, yea, our Life itself, though they be our own, yet they are to be Inventoried amongst those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , things of another Man's, of which our Savior speaks, Luke 16. 12. because he that cares not for his own Life, may easily be master of mine: But our souls and our God, are that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , among those things which are so our own, that, unless it be by our own default, as no Creature gave them, so none can take them away. That violent Hand which takes away Riches, Honors, Friends, and Life itself, doth but with Joseph's Mistress, get the Garment whilst the Man goeth free. If we be but as wise as the Serpent, in such a strait we lose but the skin, but find ourselves. Job when stripped of all, at worst was not a maimed but a naked Man, Chap. 1. 21. but yet himself, a Man still; and by being naked, it may be coming nearer to our first Innocency and Perfection. It's the infinite Perfection of God that he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , perfectly Self-sufficient, that neither needs, nor indeed can go out of himself for any supply; and as in the foul of Man appears most the Image of God, so herein it bears one of the liveliest Resemblances of his Divine Perfection; that, as to all outward things it's Self-sufficient, and that however, in regard of the necessities of the body to which it is joined, it is forced to go abroad into the World, and thereby too oft is defiled (as Dinah was) in such Excursions, yet it's best when it keeps within at Home, conversing with and enjoying of itself, which it doth most, when it is least troubled with outward things. What therefore it doth of itself in a more gentle way, in abstracting itself▪from Bodily and outward Objects, the very same is done, though by a more violent hand, when Man or D • vil plucks these outward things from it. Thereby it's left in retirement with itself, and never more safe than when so shut up. They are Fools and Children that are afraid, and cry when they are alone: But if the wise Man be Nunquam minus solus, quam cum solus; I am sure the Godly Man, if he be wise, is never less lonesome than when alone, whilst he hath a good God, and a good Heart to bear him company. If he in a public depredation could say, Omnia mea mecum, he carried all that was his with him, when he left all else besides his naked self behind him; I know no reason, but that a Christian may be as Wise and Happy, if he prove not an Out-liar, and live not too much in and upon the World; when all else is plundered, yet his soul may be secured. And accordingly the Apostle, 1 Pet. 4: 19. most fitly and divinely Instructs them that suffer according to the Will of God, to commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing. He would have them take care that their souls be kept, because he speaks of suffering Times, in which nothing else it may be can be secured; but he makes account their souls may.
And yet (which is a third Argument for our greater care and diligence) though our Souls by a careful watch may be secured, yet there's greater need of it, because they are in greatest danger to be assailed. Many indeed, and horrid have the Miseries been, which the Devil and his Instruments have inflicted on Men's Bodies, but nothing to those innumerable Temptations and deadly Snares, by which they have seized on their Souls. The precious soul is that which the Adulteress hunts after, Prov. 6. 26. And they are the souls of Men, which the great Whore trades in, Rev. 18. 13. The Devil hath oft possessed Men's Bodies, but far oftener their Souls, and hath not been unwilling to be dispossessed of the one, that he might take more full seisin of the other: It being neither great nor small, which the Syrian fights against; not so much those Rivers of Blood which have run down in all the great Wars and Slaughters in the World, which he is satisfied with, as the Blood of Souls which he thirsts after. God desires not the Blood of Goats, and Bulls, Psal. 50. 13. nor doth the Devil principally the Blood of Men, unless it be of their Souls. And it's then (he thinks) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he hath hit them under the fifth rib, when like the devilish Assassinate, he kills the Body and damns the Soul together with the same blow. And therefore where the Siege is straitest, and the Assault fiercest, there our Watch needs be strictest, and our Guard strongest. Because the Soul is most laid at, it needs be most looked after, that above all keeping we keep our hearts, Prov. 4. 23. so as rather to be dispossessed of all, than not to possess our souls. (As God above all is to be feared, so the Devil especially to be watched, because both (though in their several ways) when they have destroyed the Body, can cast the Soul into Hell, Luke 12. 5.) Greatest care therefore need be of our souls.
4. And this as in regard of the danger of them, so also of the inestimable worth of them. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 My soul's my glory, saith Jacob, Gen. 49. 6. where the Chaldee hath 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 my precious ones, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 my Soul is my Darling, or mine only One, saith David, Psal. 22. 20. But should we go no further than the Text; this Phrase of possessing the soul saith, that the soul itself is a great possession. I may not now insist on all its Worth and Excellencies, that it is Divinae particula aurae, a Sparkle of Heaven, a Glymps of God, in which you may see most of his Image, and one of the Master-pieces of all his Works; of a Spiritual immaterial Constitution, of an everlasting Continuance and Duration, so that if it be not possessed, but lost one way, it will not be lost in another: In its Nature far above all this Terrestrial World, in its Apprehensions, that which a World cannot stint, nor in its Desires a thousand Worlds satisfy, made for God, and only to be filled with God: So Capacious, as if possessed and saved, can take in much of God, and if neglected and lost, will take in as much of his Curse and Wrath: So admirable in its Operations, that it's a shame, if for want of possessing it, it should like a Drunken Man be so disquieted and distempered, as to be hindered from them for a time. But so precious in itself, that it's a thousand pities that any of us should fall so short of possessing our souls, that such a glorious Creature should be lost and perish Eternally. It's in Mundo animarum, in that World of souls, in which we shall hereafter see more fully the worth of souls: In Mundo umbrarum, in this world of Shadows, it's but little we see, or know either of them, or their Excellencies. But yet so much (if we be not grown wholly Brutish) as may exceedingly shame us, that when others look so much to the Cabinet, we take no more care of the Jewel; that when others, nay, ourselves are so diligent to keep the Body in health and life, the precious everlasting Soul is no better provided for to be kept in a b ••• er condition; Physicians of the Body so honored; and Physicians of the Soul so slighted: The Body decked, and the Soul neglected and starved, nay, by the Bodies being crammed, the Soul to be pined or surfeited: That when we see sometimes so much Watch and ward to keep possession of some sorry House, or small Cottage, and which, it may be at most, we have but a short time in; we should either carelessly or willfully yield possession to the World, the Devil, and the Flesh, of these spiritual immortal Souls of ours, which, if we look to it, may be the glorious Mansions of the Blessed God to dwell in, and which to be sure we must dwell with, either in weal or woe to Eternity. Had we nothing else to say, these two words might heighten our Souls worth, and should our care in possessing of them:
1. They are the purchase of the Blood of the Son of God. (And shall we trample underfoot his Blood in so neglecting our Souls, which were purchased by the Blood of the Shepherd of Souls? 1 Pet. 2. 25.)
2. And this that they might be holy and glorious Temples for the Blessed Spirit of God. O then! be sure to keep possession for so happy a Guest, that the Devil may not prove an Intruder. And thou that wilt be stiff, and earnest, and peremptory, to maintain thine Interest in what thy Father or Friend left thee, do not so under-value either thy Savior or thy Soul, as not to keep possession of that, which He at so dear a rate hath purchased. Our Souls should be precious, that were purchased by Blood so precious. Let that be said to every encroaching Enemy, what Jephthah said to the invading Ammonite, Judge. 11. 23. The Lord hath dispossessed the Amorites before his People, and shouldst thou possess it? And let their resolution, ver. 24. be ours, Wilt thou not possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possess? And so, Whatsoever the Lord our God hath given to us, that will we possess. Our Souls he first made, Jer. 38. 16. which we afterward lost, which he repurchased by the Blood of his Son, and restored to us to be kept as an everlasting pledge of his Love; and therefore whatever else we lose, look to it that we here keep possession.
But to the quickening of our care herein, I need not seek for more particulars to set forth the Soul's worth, than what I there propounded.
1. Such, as the saving and possessing of it,
1. Crowns all other Enjoyments. Wisdom with an Inheritance doth well, Eccles. 7. 11. but if men's sana in corpore sano, it's much better. It was a Solomon 's happiness, that amidst all his delights of the Sons of Men, his Wisdom also remained with him. It's an happy saving Bargain indeed, if a Man, especially in losing times, when he saves his Estate and his Life, can save his Soul too, without which a Man with all his other Gettings and Enjoyments is but like a dead Body stuck with Flowers; or as a Room round-about-hung, and richly furnished, and nothing but the dead Master's Hearse in the midst of it.
2. Countervails all other Losses. David's Mouth praiseth God with joyful Lips, though in a dry and thirsty Land, when his Soul is filled with marrow and fatness, Psal. 63. 1, 5. And though he was for the outward Man at a weak pass, yet it was a sufficient support that God had strengthened him with strength in his Soul, Psal. 138. 3. Though I possess months of vanity, Job 7. 3. and with him be ejected out of all; if yet in possession of my Soul, I am no harborless Object. Though the invading Enemy hath quite broke down the Fence, and laid all open and waste; yet as long as with the Christians in Justin Martyr, we have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; When they have possessed themselves, and taken away all with them, if they have left but a good God, and a good Conscience; a Soul, and a Savior, it's but the Casket that's lost, the Treasure is saved, and lends them a Key for Paul 's Riddle of having nothing, and yet possessing all things. In this sense dum Anima est, spes est, as long as my Soul is mine own, I am not only in hope, but in possession. No cause to faint, though the outward Man perish, if the inward Man be renewed, 2 Cor. 4. 16. nor to complain, if the same hand that casts the Christian's Body to the Beasts, casts his Soul at the same time into his Savior's Bosom. Paul meant not to kill, but to cure the incestuous Person, when he would have him delivered even to Satan to the destruction of the flesh, if his Spirit may but thereby be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. 5 5. and that will make amends for all. Thus we see that the saving and possessing of the Soul crowns all Enjoyments, more than Countervailes all other losses.
2. But on the contrary, the loss of it,
1. Compleats all other losses and miseries, and makes them utterly undoing. David speaks of his Enemies spoiling of his Soul, as their greatest cruelty, and his chiefest misery, Psal. 35. 12. The Prophet, Lam. 3. 65. when he had given that heavy blow, that made the heart ache, Lord give them sorrow of heart; he strikes the Nail to the Head, when he adds, thy Curse unto them. O woe unto thee, thou hast added grief unto thy sorrow, and a curse to both, when by thy riotous, unclean, or otherwise vicious courses, thou hast lost (it may be) thine Estate, thy good Name, the health and strength of thy Body, and which is worst of all, thy Soul and all. Undone wretch! It was a desperate prodigal expense, which all the Money in thy Purse, and thy whole other Substance could not discharge; but thy Soul also must go in to pay the reckoning. Thy Savior's Soul being heavy to the death, was more sad than all his bodily Sufferings, and that thrust which lets out the heart-blood of thy Soul, is far beyond all other Wounds, and makes them deadly. To see an Enemy in the Habitation, is one of Eli 's sorest Afflictions, 1 Sam. 2. 32. and to be a possession to Enemies is Edom 's heaviest Curse, Numb. 24. 18. but not so heavy, as to see an Enemy possessed of this inward Mansion. The loss of the Soul completes all other losses and miseries.
2. Cannot be made up and recompensed with all other Gains and Enjoyments. The round World is but a Cipher to it. For what is a Man profited, if he should gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? saith our Savior, Matth. 16. 26. He that tenders a whole World, makes a great offer; but he that loses his Soul for it, sustains a greater loss; for that World which cannot satisfy the desires of a Soul before it be lost, cannot satisfy for the loss of a Soul when it is. And therefore the rich Man, Luke 12. 19, 20. was but a Fool for all his Riches; and the Hypocrite, Job 27. 8. is brought in as a desperate Fool for all his Gain, when God took away both their Souls. How miserable! when dead, to have so many Friends to accompany the Body to the Grave, and Devils only the Soul to Hell, such Funeral Pomp and Tombs? He that hath lost his Soul, is a poor undone Man; though with the Young Man in the Gospel he have never so great possessions: For a Silk Stocken will not cure a broken Leg, nor daintiest Meat make the sick Man well, nor all the choicest Extractions from the whole Body and Bulk of the Creature, afford a Cordial strong enough to revive a languishing lost Soul. And therefore as the Arabic Proverb adviseth, Noli gemmam perdere in die festo; in our greatest Feasts it would not have us lose our Jewel, because it's of such worth, that all the delight we can have in the costliest Meal, cannot countervail the loss of it; so in all the richest of the World's entertainments let us be so merry and wise together, as to be sure to look to our Jewel, to our Souls, the loss of which all else can no way compensate.
3. As being in the last place irrecoverable. When our Savior said, What will it profit a Man, if he win the whole World, and lose his own Soul? In those words he tells us, that the loss of it is inestimable: But when he adds, or What shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul? He would thereby assure us, that if after the price of Purchase, which he laid down to redeem our Souls, and repossess us of them, they shall yet be so neglected, as that they come indeed to be lost, that Morgage will never be able again to be bought out. No 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to be given in exchange, but the loss absolute and irreparable. But shall then such precious Souls be lost for want of looking to; pawned for Toys, nay sold outright for Trifles? That thou mayest take thy pleasure, carest not (as sometimes thou profanely sayest) if the Devil take thy Soul. Is not this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ? more sottish than the Indians exchanging Gold for Glass, and more profane than Esau 's selling his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage; by Drunkenness, Passion, Drowsiness, Lust, putting ourselves out of possession of the use of our Souls for the present, or by these and such-like courses hazarding the utter loss of them forever. Should this be the sad lot of any, as it will be of too many, let it be of such sensual Brutes that know not the worth of a Soul, that can so easily part with it; of such sordid Muckworms, quibus anima tantum est pro sale, whose Souls serve only to keep them alive, and to preserve their Bodies from stinking; and who are (as such) something distinct from their Souls, as it's intimated of the Fool in the Gospel, to whom God said, This night shall they fetch thy Soul from thee, Luke 12. 20. But for Christians, that believe that the Blood of the Son of God was shed to save Souls; for Scholars, whose Souls are themselves (Animus cujusque is est quisque) who study the nature of Souls, and therefore should know the worth of them; for Divines, whose traffic is in trading for Souls; let us have ground to hope better things of you, and such as are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that accompany Salvation, Heb. 6. 9. whilst like wise Men, Prov. 11. 30. you labor to win other Men's Souls, be not such Fools as to lose your own. It's his Disciples and Apostles that our Savior especially directs his Speech to in the words of the Text, in which there is a double 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Whatever others do, yet you above all in your patience possess ye your Souls.
SERMON XXXIII.
TErtullian begins his Book of Patience with an ingenuous acknowledgment of his own unfitness, Homo nullius boni, & aeger doloribus impatientiae, &c. And so may I well begin my Sermon of the same Argument with the like Apology: but as he there adds, The rich Man that so much desires health must be born with, if he be speaking of it, especially is his speaking help to instruct him in the Cure. And therefore in the handling of this Text of Patience, having dispatched the two first parts of it the last time, which I called the Free-hold and the Seisin; and from them held forth our duty to possess our Souls, I now close with the third, viz. the Tenure of it, and that's of Patience. In your Patience possess ye your Souls. All Graces indeed are of the Soul's Life-Guard; and Faith is the Captain of them all, according to that Heb. 10. 39. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , we are of them that believe to the saving of the Soul. But under Faith in perilous times Patience in an especial manner is here by our Savior set upon the Guard. And therefore he saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c▪ in your Patience possess ye your souls. (And so James 5. 8. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts.)
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Your Patience]. What's that? As they are your souls; so is it your patience? Yes. Thus far in the general: Both, their's Subjective, but neither of them Causaliter. Both Patience and Soul's theirs; but so, as both from God; the one from him as an Almighty Creator, and Father of Spirits, Heb. 12. 9. the other as a gracious Sanctifier, and a God of Patience, Rom. 15. 5. most patient in himself, not forward to inflict any evil; And the Giver of Patience to his afflicted Servants, whereby they are ready to endure all, according to that Col. 1. 11. Strengthened with all Might, according to his Glorious Power, unto all Patience and Long-suffering, with joyfulness.
Your Patience therefore; as thus, 1. Subjective, yours from God's gift in possession. And, 2. Specificative, yours by way of Distinction, and that (as some would have it) from a Fourfold other kind of Patience, viz. 1. Sinful. 2. A Natural. 3. A Moral. 4. A Legal Patience.
1. There is a Sinful Patience: Falsa & probrosa, as Tertullian calls it: When Men, as he instanceth, are Patientes rivalium, & divitum, & invitatorum; impatientes solius Dei: Impatient only of Christ's Yoke, and God's Commands and Chastisements: But basely patient of the Tyranny, both of their own and other Men's Lusts; can endure nothing for God's Cause, but anything for their own, for Profit, Pleasure, or Preferment sake; can patiently here and see God blasphemed and dishonored, tamely prostitute Body, Soul, Conscience, the Honor and Peace of them all: The Parasite patient of Abuse and Scorn for his Belly-sake. The Courtier can receive an Injury, and give thanks, for his Preferment's sake: Those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Plutarch, to raise themselves, make their Backs their Mistresses Footstools. Even Pathici are in Authors often Patientes. Happy we, if we were but as patient in God's Service, as too many are in the Devil's drudgery. But this Bastard-patience, the meekest Christian Spirit is impatient of, as of that which, instead of possessing the Soul, betrays and enslaves it, that it's no more itself, than the Galley▪slave his own Man. The Coolest Spirit in its own Cause is warm in God's; as we see in meek Moses, Exod. 32. 19. Nor did Christ speak Contradictions, Rev. 2. 2. when he said of the Church of Ephesus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I know thy patience, and that thou canst not bear them which are evil. But what cannot Patience bear? Any thing for God, but nothing against him: It's Impatient of that for which God is angry.
2. There is a second kind of Patience, which may be called Natural, arising from the natural Constitution of the Body, or Mind, as in a Disease of the Body, (as a Lethargy, or Palsy) that feels nothing; or from a natural Dullness and Brawniness, that is not so sensible of pain and pressure, as in the Brawniness of the Hand or Foot, in an Ox patient of labor, and the dull Ass under a heavy burden; Or from the hardiness of the Body, patient of Cold, and other outward Grievances; and from the courage and valor of the Mind, patient of wounds and hardship. But this is Tolerance rather than Patience; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rather than 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and it will not possess the Soul.
1. In greatest Extremities, if long continued. The Ox that stands the Butchers stroke with his Ax twice, falls flat at the third. The Brawn, when cut through to the quick, proves sensible. And Saul, though a Stout Man, at last falls all along, 1 Sam. 28. 20.
2. This Stoutness, though it endure pain, yet not disgrace, but Christian patience can, Acts 5. 41.
3. There is that which I called a Moral Patience, such as the Heathen Philosophers, and the Stoics, especially gloried of, by which (they will tell you) they attained to such an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , such a tranquility of Mind, that no Injury could betide them. [See Seneca, lib. Quod in sapientem non cadit injuria, Maximus Tyrius dissert. 2.] Nothing could trouble them; but that, like the upper Region, they were always serene; Homines quadrati, which way soever pitched, stood immovable. But as their wise Man was a Notion rather than a Reality; so this steady evenness of Mind was sooner to be found in their Books and Disputes, than in their Lives and Practices; especially when it came to a pinch indeed, in the Storm when the poor Skipper was cheerful, their great Philosopher's heart sunk within him: The more Wise and Knowing they were, the more sensible they were of their Danger, and being always proudly conceited of their own Worth, the more fearful they were of their Loss; and so the more erect they stood upon their Tip-toes, the more flat they fell under that burden, which they cold not undergo: As Saul higher by the Head than others, when such a weight fell upon them, with him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they fell all along, and there was no spirit in them, 1 Sam. 28. 20. for although in ordinary cases the spirit of a Man can bear his Infirmities, Prov. 18. 14. yet in extraordinary Stresses and Exigencies, it's not a natural Stoutness, nor a moral Composedness of spirit, but only Christian Faith and Patience, that will be able to keep it up from sinking; so that it's indeed a great commendation of patience, (as Tertullian observes) that these Heathen Grandees affected the Counterfeit of it, as the chief piece of their Bravery; yet in truth (as Cyprian affirms) it was only Insolens affectatae libertatis audacia, & exerti & seminudi pectoris inverecunda jactantia, A vapouring humor rather than any solid settlement of Spirit, because upon no good foundation: Blown up by Pride in themselves, and heartened by Applause of others; and so not able to keep possession of the soul in all Emergencies, though it may be sometimes parient of Loss and Pain, yet usually impatient of Disgrace; so that if cut in that Vein, none bled more deadly.
4. There is a Legal Patience, such as the Law requires, or rather which the Legal Paedagogie trained them up unto, which (I think) Tertullian somewhat too boldly under-values, nay, accuses, as that which trained them up to a kind of Revenge, in allowing to take Eye for Eye, and Tooth for Tooth, &c. Though that was in a way of Public Justice, and not of private Revenge. Sure I am, the Law of God was Holy, Just, and Good; and could they have kept it, it would have kept them, so as to have possessed their Souls with patience. This defect was not in the Law, but them that lived under it; in degree, not in kind. And accordingly Job then, whom Chrysostom calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is by the Apostle held forth to the whole World now, in the time of the Gospel, as a Mirrour of patience, James 5. 11. And truly, when we read and think of Abraham's faith, and Job's patience, and Moses his meekness, &c. the Eminency of some of them then, may justly cast shame on the Deficiency of many of us now, that their Twilight should out-shine our Noon-day, as though they had lived under the Grace of the Gospel, and not we, who fall so exceedingly short of that Conformity to the Law, which some of them in a greater measure attained to. But yet to my purpose, that of Illyricus is observable. Quomodo autem V. T. & Hebraei hanc patientiam vocant ignoro, nec etiane locum novi ubi describatur. Patience is seldom mentioned in the Old Testament, and they scarce have a proper Name for it, but when they speak of it, most commonly make use of the word Silence to express it, as though for the most part of Men it was then more rare, and less known under the Law, than it is, or at least should be, now under the Gospel. And therefore although it was a great measure of Patience which the Lord enabled some of the Faithful then unto, when 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. when they were Stoned, and Sawn asunder, and Tempted, &c. Heb. 11. 36, 37. Yet it was nothing to that which many Christian Martyrs by the Grace of the Gospel were raised up to under heavier Sufferings.
5. And therefore in the last place, it's Christiana Patientia, Gospel-Christian Patience: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Signanter dictum, Your patience; yours as Apostles, as Followers, as Servants of Jesus Christ, by which, when you are forced (it may be) to let all else go, you may even then keep possession of your Souls. Nothing else can do it: But that can. That whereas Impatience usurps a domineering power over the Man (according to that of Tertullian, speaking of Adam) Facile usurpari ab impatientia caepit, c. 5. Sopita ration, & excitato fomite, quoquo vult hominem versat, Cerda. I say, Impatience usurps over the Man, and then betrays all: On the contrary Patience keeps all, the Soul at least above all in a quiet possession; and accordingly Albertus Magnus makes Prudence and Patience, those two Wings of the great Eagle, by which the Woman, Rev. 12. 14. fled into the Wilderness, and was nourished from the Face of the Serpent.
And that's the Truth which I am now to prosecute. In which I shall, 1. Explain what I mean by this Gospel-Christian Patience. 2. Wherein it may be said to keep us in possession of our Souls. 3. How it doth it. And then, 4. Conclude with a short Application.
1. For the first, What Patience is was shown before, and I now only mind you, that it relates,
1. Either to God, according to that, Psal. 37. 7. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him; when it neither swells, nor sinks under his Hand, but silently waits his pleasure.
2. Or to Man, according to that, 1 Thes. 5. 14. Now we exhort you Brethren, be patient to all Men.
But it's called Gospel-Christian-Patience, as it is found in a Christian now in the time of the Gospel: And this
1. As he is directed and animated by the Example of Christ; for he hath also Suffered for us, leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps, 1 Pet. 2. 21. viz. in patient Suffering, as it is, ver. 20. his Steps having trodden out to us a Path, that we need not be at a loss in the most unknown Way; and if the Soldier be heartened by his Fellow-Soldiers courage and company, as Paul said, many of the Brethren waxed bold by his Bonds, (Phil. 1. 14.) then sure, by looking to Jesus the Captain of our Salvation, enduring the Cross, end despising the shame, we may well run with patience the Race that is set before us, Heb. 12. 1, 2. and without danger or distraction follow on; when our Abimelek, our Father-King (for Christ is both) hath Marched before, and given us that word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Do as I have done, as that other Abimelek did, Judge. 9. 48.
2. As enabled by the Grace and Spirit of Christ, according to that, Col. 1. 11. Strengthened with all might unto all patience, and Long-suffering with joyfulness; but is is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , according to his Glorious power, and that Power the more Glorious, in that out of weakness they have been made strong, as the Apostle speaks, Heb. 11. 34. The fearfullest and every way weakest Ages, Sexes, Constitutions, have oft in suffering Times been enabled with most Courage and Wisdom, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Chrysostom speaks, which plainly manifests that it was Christ's Spirit that kept them so in possession of their own: And if the strong Man armed keep his Palace, all is in peace, Luke 11. 21. If the Spirit of the Almighty God undertake to keep possession, who shall be able to make an Ejectment? It's a deadly aking Head that is distracted, if God with his own Hand do but hold it. It is an over-grown Burden that sinks me, if underneath be an everlasting Arm. Such a Back of Steel will sufficiently strengthen a very weak Bow. Though Paul be nothing, yet by Christ strengthening him, he can do, yea, and suffer all things.
3. As heartened by the Comforts of the Spirit of Christ, for the Joy of the Lord is our strength, Neh. 8. 10. Farina in olla, Meal in the Pot, that takes away the deadly intoxicating bitterness of it: Vinum in pect • re, the Cordial that Antidotes these Animi deliquia, these Swoonings, and sainting Fits, according to that, 2 Cor. 4. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , according as we have received Mercy, we faint not; such sweet Morsels strengthen the heart, that it can go on in its work and way, and not sink under its burden. Thus we had Patience and Joyfulness joined together, Col. 1. 11. as mutually begetting and strengthening each other.
Patience much furthering our Joy: So the Apostle, we rejoice (or glory) in Tribulation, if it work patience, Rom. 5. 3. And so Tetullian speaks of a Sagina voluptatis, of Patience fatting the Soul with delight, and brings it in as the sick Man's Nurse that sits by him, and cherisheth him.
And Joy much strengthening and confirming our patience, whilst sense of Mercy drowns the sense of Misery, makes the Martyr lie quietly on the Grid-Iron, when it is with delight, as on a Bed of Roses: Whists and silenceth all discontented complaints of Pain, Loss, Disgrace, &c. whilst he is sensible of the saving health of God's Countenance: can rejoice in his spiritual Gains, yea, and can Glory that he is accounted worthy to suffer Shame for the Name of Christ with them, Acts 5. 41. When this Candle of the Lord shines upon our head and heart, we are able with Job to walk through darkness, even dance in the dark without stumbling. And then with more ease lie down quietly, and sleep sweetly in the darkest Night.
Thus Patience animated by the Example of Christ, and spirited by the Grace and Comfort of the Spirit of Christ, becomes true Christian Patience: Which was the first thing propounded, and so, as such, in most troublesome Times helps us to possess our Souls.
2. But wherein doth that consist? Which was the second Particular.
I answer, especially in two things, viz. 1. In so keeping the Soul, that it be not at last utterly lost. 2. That for the present, whatever the occasion be, it be not so Disguised and Distempered, but that it may be itself, and we still our own Men. This was shewn in the general in the former Point: And now in the second we are particularly to show, that Christian-Patience is able to do both these.
1. Patience keeps possession of the Soul, in taking care that it be not lost and perish eternally. So that we find, that patient continuance in well-doing ends in eternal Life, Rom. 2. 7. And the Apostle, Heb. 10. 36. saith, that we have need of patience, that, after we have done the Will of God, we may receive the Promise. There is absolute need, especially in evil Times, that the Soul be possessed with patience, if it would at last be possessed of Glory, as will clearly appear from the contrary. Take an impatient Man, and let him meet with Trials and Exercises, and he presently chooseth Sin rather than Affliction, as the phrase is, Job 36. 21. He cannot Suffer, and therefore he must Sin, nor is there the most dreadful and damning Sin, which in that fright and hurry he will stick at, or set him at a stand; but over Hedg and Ditch, though with never so many break-neck Falls to his Soul, that he may but escape that outward danger that he is more afraid of. Cyprian, in his Book De bono Patientiae, and his Master Tertullian before him, in his Book of the like Argument, are large in this, to show that Impatience is not only a Sin, but a Mother-sin; that at first undid the Devil, and afterward Adam; thrust on Cain to his murder, Esau to his profaneness, the Jews to crucify Christ, and all Heretics to corrupt and blaspheme the Truth of Christ, which was but impatience to withstand their own Lusts; but in suffering time to withstand the rage and lusts of the Devil and Men, this the fearful unbelieving impatient Soul finds it oft an harder task: and therefore rather than stand out basely, yields up all, and itself and all; will be content to do all rather than suffer anything. We may tremble, when we think of David counterfeiting the Mad-man; Peter denying and forswearing his Lord and Master; Cranmer subscribing, and others of the choicest Servants of Christ faultring and foully miscarrying in times of straits and dangers: Even their Souls had hereby been lost, if Christ had not saved them. Peter had utterly sunk in that great Wave, had not Christ reached out his hand and re-saved him. But howl then ye▪Fir-Trees, if the Cedars be fallen. If the Righteous be scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and sinners appear? If the Godly for want of the exercise of Patience run such an hazard of their Souls, how will the ungodly, that wholly want the grace of Patience, avoid the utter loss of theirs? Upon two grounds, 1. Their over-prising outward things, which they cannot be without. 2. Undervaluing their Souls, especially seeing it is their Souls that they least of all look after, and expose them to danger and loss rather than anything else, deal with them as the Levite did with his Concubine, Judge. 19. 25. who, to save himself, did prostitute her to their lust to be abused to the very death, (as the Castor bites off and leaves that part of his Body▪ which they most hunt after to save the rest). Or, like a Forlorn, left to face and entertain the Enemy, whilst they draw off their Bag and Baggage, that they may secure Body, Life, Estate, Esteem, and the like, leave the Soul at stake to be wounded and defiled with the foulest and most horrid sins, even to deny Christ, and utterly to apostatize from him, his Truth, and Grace, and so, merely for want of Faith and Patience, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in such a time and pinch of temptation such fall away: And so the best bargain they make of it is, but to gain the World, and lose the Soul. But our Savior in the place parallel to the Text saith, He that endures to the end shall be saved: Now 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Patience is the enduring Grace, and therefore is the saving Grace, at least saves the Soul, when it can secure nothing else; dare suffer, and thereby may expose the outward Man to danger and misery; but dare not sin, and thereby provides for the Soul's safety, and so keeps possession, that it be not lost at last.
2. That it be not distempered and disguised for the present, how distracting and intoxicating soever the exercise and affliction be, Ira furor brevis. As anger is a madness, so impatience is an angry Sore that swells and burns, (Semper aeger caloribus impatientiae, as Tertullian speaks of himself) and so casts the Soul into a Burning Fever, and thereby brings the Man to a perfect 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he is so distempered, that he knoweth not what he saith or doth. And so Asaph in this case by his own confession becomes like a Beast, Psal. 73. 22. And Heman, though he continues a Man, yet a distracted Man, Psal. 88. 15. David, when his Heart waxt hot, and the Fire burned, he saith, he spake with his Tongue, Psal. 39. 3. and (as some expound that place) more than his share. I am sure even Job himself, when his Patience began a little to be inflamed into Passion, spake over; he confesseth that he uttered that he understood not, Chap. 42. 3. And if these, that were of so sober and gracious a Spirit, were, whilst in this case, so much besides themselves, then how stark wild may you expect to find such, who have no such inward bridle to check such a wild Horse, but lay the Reins loose on the Neck of passion and rage? And what is it that you then see? A Man in his right wits? No: but a wild Boar foaming at the Mouth, a Lion sparkling with his Eyes, a very Bedlam in the height of his phransy. And how is the Soul then kept in possession?
But Patience cools such hot Distempers, and being spiritualis incolumitas, (as he calls it) the very health of the Soul, it either prevents or cures such phrensies; keeps the Soul in a due temper, that the Man is still himself; as our Savior, That his Patience might have its perfect work in his sensible sufferings of the extremity of his torments, refused that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Mar. 15. 23. which some say was wont to be given to Men, when they suffered, to intoxicate and make senseless. No better Receipt than a Patient Spirit against a light Head under heaviest Burdens and Afflictions; though Job 's Messengers trod one on the heel of another, and that so long, till at last they had nothing more to say, because he had almost nothing more to lose: yet, as long as his Patience received their Messages, and he heard them by that Interpreter (though indeed at last he started up and rent his Mantle, and shaved his Head, and fell down upon the Ground; and Satan that stood looking on, to see how his Train, that he had laid, took, it may be might now think that the distracted Man began his Anticks, yet he fell short of his Hopes.) It's added, that after Job had done all this; he worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my Mother's Womb, and naked shall I return thither: The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away: Blessed be the Name of the Lord, Job 1. 20, 21. Now, (as they said) these are not the words of him that hath a Devil: So those words of Job, have they the least touch or air of a Distraction or Distemper? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . You hear not in them a distracted Man's nonsense, but rather a Man divinely inspired speaking Oracles: Such a full possession and enjoyment of a Man's Soul and self doth Patience put and keep him in; that if it have but its perfect work, it makes an all of Joy, when there is in view nothing but grief and sorrow, Jam. 1. 2, 4. so that when it comes to that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Man is round about beset with miseries and mischiefs, that another Man is quite-out exanimated and distracted, as Moses saith, even mad for the fight of his eyes, which he seeth: yet even then a truly patient Christian is so fully and perfectly himself, that he can freely enjoy himself; with the Martyr, sleep as soundly the night before his Suffering, as at any other time, and with as much strength and feeedom of Spirit pray and meditate, converse with God, and walk on in his way before Man, as if there were nothing to disturb and interrupt him; like an Archimedes, be hard at his Study, and intent on his Demonstration, when the Enemy hath now taken the Town, and takes away his life together; or rather as a Man in an impregnable Garison, may be every whit as quiet, and as little troubled, when the Cannons roar, and the Enemies fall on, as if there were none at all to molest him: But he may thank his safe Garison for it, which he is possessed of; and so must a Christian his Patience, which, as our Savior here showeth, is that which keepeth both himself and Soul in possession.
3. The third enquiry is, How Patience doth this? I answer two ways. 1. As it's enabled to suffer. 2. As it's trained up to wait with expectance; and the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 hints both.
1. Patience is a suffering Grace, and therefore in Scripture joined with longsuffering, Col. 1. 11. 2 Tim. 3. 10. can bear much. So 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Thou hast born, and hast patience, saith Christ to the Church of Ephesus, Rev. 2. 3. as the patient Ox endures the Yoke without kicking or fainting: and so the patient Christian, because he can endure much; therefore it is that he is not much distempered. A cool Spirit doth not diffluere in greatest heats of Persecution: [In this like a Man that hath so strong a Brain that he can bear much Drink, is not so soon drunk;] so that, though with Job he possess months of Vanity, yet he possesseth his own soul, and keeps all safe and in due temper: For what's the reason that many Men in evil Times are so much besides themselves, mad with Rage, drunk and swallowed up with Grief, and dead with Fear, come to deny Christ, to apostatize from the Profession of his Truth and Grace, stick at nothing, swallow anything, though never so deadly and destructive? But only because they are either so weak, or so tender and delicate, that they would 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and so cannot suffer persecution for the Cross of Christ, Gal. 6. 12. The Cross is too heavy for them, and therefore they fink under it: They are impatient of Pain, and Shame, and Loss, dare not, cannot lose their Lives, and so cowardly, and yet desperately lose their Souls.
But what said Christ in the former place? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and yet, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ver. 3. Thou canst not bear; and yet, Thou hast born. Patience cannot endure to sin, because it can endure to suffer; doth not betray the Soul and yield up possession, because it's able to withstand the assault of the Enemy; Doth not sink under the burden, because able to bear it. And this in a double respect, 1. Because it lightens the burden, 2. Strengthens the bearer.
1. It lightens the burden, which Impatience doubles and aggravates; makes a Mole-bill, a Mountain, and a Day, a Year; looks at the wrong end of the Prospective, or through a Magnifying-Glass, and calls Little, Great; and Short, Long; usual and light Afflictions, strange, and unsupportable: Like an evil Spie, makes itself a Grass-hopper, and every Enemy a Son of Anak, whilst patience with Caleb stills the uproar, and saith, we are well able to overcome them. How doth the least weight gall a sore shoulder? And a drop of Vinegar fret where the Skin is off? Whilst a sound part feels no smart, though never so much be poured on it Mollius fit patientia, &c. Faith and Patience add weight to Mercies, but lighten burdens, and so better bear them. As patient Job, when Miseries fell so thick and heavy upon him, as might plane obruere animam, yet when he had lost all other his possessions, his patience kept him on his Legs, and in possession of his Soul, by suggesting to him alleviating considerations. Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb, and naked shall I return thither. I am but Naked, not Wounded: I am but reduced to my first condition of Nature; and such a motion, though seemingly violent, should not be troublesome, nor I be troubled to go as naked to Bed at night, as I arose from it in the morning. And again, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away. It's his Sovereignty, as Lord, to do what he will, especially seeing what he doth is nothing but common Equity, in his own time to call home his own, which he at first lent me: And therefore no cause for me to Curse God for taking it away so soon, but to Bless him, that he continued the Loan of it so long; and therefore, Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Thus Patience helps to lighten the Burden.
2. And strengthens the Bearer; so it's said to stablish the heart, Jam. 5. 8. that such a composed quietness is our strength, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Isa. 30. 15. And so by patience we are enabled to run the race, Heb. 12. 1. as a long-breathed Man holds out to the end, when one that is short-winded is ready to faint and sink at every step. Great is the advantage that a patient considerate Man hath against his Adversary, either in a Dispute, or any other more rough Conflict. And great is the help that Patience affords.
Partly as it encourageth and comforteth the Heart, (as we read Rom. 15. 4. Patience and Comfort joined together) and that strengthens it. For the Joy of the Lord is our strength, Neh. 8. 10. Such a Cordial doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 restore (or bring back) the Soul, which in such swooning fits is going away, and keeps it in possession.
But especially as it hath the Company and Assistance of all other Graces, that are most reviving and strengthening: According to that of Bede, Idcirco possessio animae in virtute patientiae ponitur, quia radix omnium, custosque patientia est. It's Mother or Nurse of all other Graces; Fidem munit, pacem gubernat, dilectionem adjuvat, humilitatem instruit, &c. as Tertullian goeth on: And as he in another place calls Impatience, Delictorum Excetram: There's no sin so horrid, but Impatience is ready to hurry a discontented Man into, makes him blaspheme God, wrong others, undo himself; so there is no Grace which Patience doth not either receive life from, or give life to, or both.
It's joined with Faith, Heb. 6. 12. Rev. 2. 19. & 13. 10. Faith begets Patience, Jam. 1. 3. and Patience back again strengthens Faith. Fidei fundamentum, firmiter munit. Cyprian.
And the like I may say of Hope. Sometimes in Scripture Patience seems to be made the fruit of Hope, Rom. 8. 25. 1 Thes. 1. 3. and sometimes Hope the effect of Patience, Rom. 5. 4. & 15. 4.
And so I might show of other Graces: But that of Cyprian in the general, may suffice. De unius quidem nominis fonte proficiscitur, sed exundantibus venis per multa gloriarum itinera diffunditur. This one blessed Fountain spreads itself into many happy streams. The patient Man, as such, believes and hopes, is Loving, Humble, Meek, Wise, Valiant, by it approved to be sincere, and trained up to be Heavenly-minded: And so of the rest, that the Soul, that is thus guarded, need not fear to be kept in possession. How sweetly and fully doth that happy Soul enjoy itself, while Patience takes time, and by what it suffers opportunity and advantage, to exercise all other Graces? And whilst it's suffered to have its perfect work, so fully completes our happiness, that we are as the Apostle expresseth it, Jam. 1. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Perfect, Entire, and wanting nothing. And sure there is full possession kept, where there is nothing wanting. And thus Patience doth first, as it is a suffering Grace.
2. As it is a waiting and expecting Grace. So the Husbandman 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , waits and expects a Crop in his long patience, Jam. 5. 7. And so with Christians that sow for Eternity, though it be in tears of Affliction, yet it's with patience, because with expectance of a better Harvest. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , If we hope for it, then with patience we wait for it, Rom. 8. 25.
Christian Patience, though it suffer much, yet is full of Hope, and thereby full of Heart: And so keeps the Soul in life, according to that of the Prophet, The Just shall live by his faith, Hab. 2. 4. and he there speaks of dying Hours. Even in them the Heart may live, Psal. 22. 26. and that it doth, as long as the Man hath in him that lively Hope the Apostle speaks of, 1 Pet. 1. 3. and in this a Christian's Patience so much exceeds that of the choicest Heathens, as his Hope exceeds theirs. They sometimes with patience suffered much, it may be out of love of Virtue, and hope of Applause: But he may more patiently suffer more, when it's out of love of Christ, and hope of Glory.
Nothing more exanimates and dispossesseth a Man of himself than Despair: makes Cain run wild out of God's presence, Gen. 4. And them, Rev. 16. 10, 11. gnaw their Tongues, and blaspheme God like Mad men: And he that you read of, 2 Kings 6. when he hopes for no relief from God, instead of keeping possession, he gives up all for lost, is short-winded, and will not wait on the Lord any longer: But a patient Christian, though he sorrows, yet it is not as others that have no Hope; and here then invert the saying, Dum spes est, anima est: Till he is Hopeless, he is not Heartless. He keeps possession of his Soul, as long as it's possessed with a lively assurance of an happy close at last: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was said (you know) to animate some to patience and courage. Suitable to which, is that of the Apostle: You have heard of the patience of Job, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and have seen what end the Lord made, Jam. 5. 11. and his expectation of such an end, was that which helped him to possess his Soul with such patience. And well may the Soul be possessed with that patience now, which assures, that at last it shall be possessed of Glory. It's through Faith and Patience that some inherited the Promises, as the Apostle speaks, Heb. 6. 12. Promises are of things to come; and therefore patience is put to stay and wait, but faints not away in waiting, because it's joined with Faith, and so is assured of inheriting it at last, and therefore mean-while keeps the Soul in quiet possession. And this, I say, in these two respects, 1. As it's enabled to suffer much from Man. 2. To expect more from God. So that what the Apostle said of Charity, 1 Cor. 13. 7. that Charity beareth all things, endureth all things, and withal believeth all things, and hopeth all things, ver. 7. and thereupon in the very next words adds, that Charity never faileth, may fitly according to the former particulars be applied to Patience. Because it, 1. Beareth and endureth all things. And, 2. Believeth and hopeth all things; it therefore never faileth, nor will suffer the Christian's Heart to fail, that the spoiling of his Goods, Heb. 10. 34. should come to the spoiling of his Soul, Psal. 35. 12. but that in greatest Direptions and Depredations he may in patience possess his Soul.
Which (for Application) calleth upon us for an earnest endeavor [Use.] after this Grace, and such a due exercise of it, that whatever we lose, we may be kept in possession of our Souls by it. The Apostle's word is strong, and very general, Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect, and entire, wanting nothing, Jam. 1. 4. Some Christians then were forward and quick at the first Assault; but when the Battery continued long, were too ready to faint, and so by giving out in the Race, fell short of the Prize: For want of patience, too soon plucked off the Plaister: And so came not to a perfect Cure. And therefore the Apostle's advice is, that they would but stay, that it might have its perfect work; and then assures them, that it will make them perfect, and so entire, that when come 〈◊〉 to the worst, it will come to a Nec habeo, nec careo: that even when they have nothing, they shall then want nothing. Such a perfect and perfecting Grace, is this Grace of patience, that by its perseverance it sets the Crown upon the head of all other Graces: For Omnes virtutes certant, sola perserverantia vincit & coronatur.
The Arguments, by which the Ancients much commend this Grace to us, are many.
The Example,
Of God, who with much long-sufferance doth not only bear his undutiful Children's manners, Acts 13. 18. but his professed Enemies rebellions and insolencies, forbearing to punish them when their sins would enforce him, and causing his Sun to shine, and his Rain equally to fall on them, and on them that are dearest to him; insomuch that he suffers, because they do not, and that even by them too, whilst they are ready to think, that he is like them, or at least is not much displeased with them, because he doth so much forbear them, Psal. 50. 21.
Of Christ, in whose whole Progress from his coming down from Heaven, till his returning thither again, the Fathers are wont to observe a Signature of patience in every step all along in the Way: But especially in and towards his Journeys end, to endure a Traitor Judas in his Bosom, though fully known to him, yet not to discover him to others; and when he had betrayed himself in betraying his Master, to entertain him with the compellation of a Friend, who was to be reckoned amongst the worst of Enemies; to endure so much of the Jews malice and rage with so much meekness and love, notwithstanding all that pain and shame, those buffetings, scourgings, spittings upon, those railings and blasphemies; as the dumb Lamb, not to open the mouth, or if at all, in that heat of his agony to breath such sweet breath, as, Father, not my Will, but thine be done: And again, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. That still voice speaks aloud Christ to be God, even a God of Patience, who was Water to those Sparks, to which the meekest of us would have been Gun-Powder.
Nor yet so, fors ut de supernis aestimetur, as Tertullian speaks, as though this were so far above us, as nothing belonging to us; for (in the third place) they find Examples and Paterns of Patience, not only in God and Christ, but in the Servants of God, in Moses, David, Job, Jeremiah, Stephen, Paul: In the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, all so long-breathed, that we shall scarce approve ourselves to be of the same piece, and to have the same Spirit, if we be shorter-winded.
They are wont also, the better to compose our Spirits to a meekened Patience under sufferings, to put us in mind of our condition, either as fallen in Adam, and so we are born to trouble, or as restored by Christ; and so it's the Patience and Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Rev. 1. 9. An enraged Devil and World will have the Cross to be our Companion, which therefore we should not quarrel at, especially seeing it is such a Companion, as proves a very faithful Friend. It would be endless to go about to repeat all those benefits, which the Cross and our patient bearing of it brings in to us, whether for Grace or Peace here, or Salvation in Heaven hereafter: Affliction is very sharp, but a much improving School. And Faith and Patience help us to take out many an happy Lesson in it. It inherits Promises, Heb. 6. 12. brings Glory, 2 Thess 1. 4, 5. And so whatever it meets with in the way, yet to be sure it ends well, Jam. 5. 11. And all's well that ends well.
But I omit all other Particulars, as being sensible of what Cyprian saith in the beginning of his Tractate of this Argument, [De patientiae locuturus, &c. unde potius incipiam, quam quod nunc quoque ad audientiam vestram patientiam video esse necessariam, &c.] That our Hearers, whilst we preach of Patience, have need to exercise their Patience, and therefore I will not tire out yours. And therefore shall touch only upon two things, which partly the Context, and partly the Text afford us.
1. And the first concerns the present time and season. It was, when Jerusalem was now near to be destroyed, and as a forerunner of it, that his Disciples should be hated, betrayed, and persecuted, in the foregoing part of the Chapter, that our Savior prescribes this Receipt in the Text, that the Malady might not prove mortal, that in patience they possess their Souls. And of the same time and day (some think) the Apostle speaks, Heb. 10. 25. And after showing how great a fight of Afflictions they endured in reproaches, and spoiling of their Goods, &c. v. 32, 33, 34. he at last concludes, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that they had need of Patience, v. 36. And so for certain have we now, or may have ere long, as Capito in his time to Farel, Durâ patientiâ nobis opus est in hâc dissolutione quâ versamur, &c. How near the destruction of our Jerusalem is, I dare not fore-prophesy. The God of Peace make and keep it a true Jerusalem, a Vision of Peace both now and to perpetuity. But if Wars, and rumors of Wars, if false Prophets, and false Christ's, if the betraying, and hating, and spoiling of the Ministers and Servants of Christ be the sad presages and forerunners of it, then (unless God be the more merciful) it may not be long before we hear of it, when it may come again to be said, as Rev. 13. 10. & 14. 12. Here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints; when no remedy but Faith and Patience; so that either already we have, or then may have very great need of it. And happy we, if, when the worst comes, we can but be able to possess our Souls by it.
2. And that's the second Particular in the Text, viz. the great benefit and advantage of it, that whatever other loss we sustain, yet the main chance may be saved; our Souls possessed by it. And God thought he allowed Baruch fair, though he did not grant him those great things he sought for, if he might have his life for a prey, Jer. 45. 5. Straits may be such, that it may be a great mercy, if we may but have our lives: but if so as withal to possess our Souls, that they be not endangered or lost to eternity, nor for the present so affrighted or distempered, but that in greatest distractions we may be our own Men, and do, yea, and suffer like Christians. So to possess the Soul, even when we have lost all else, is such a Mercy, that with much thankfulness and comfort we may say with the Psalmist, Return unto thy rest, O my Soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, Psal. 116. 7. A rich bounty and largess, if through Patience keeping possession, we may be able so to turn into our Souls, and they return to their rest in God, even when it comes to the Apostles 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Cor. 4. 11. When cast out of all, we have no certain dwelling-place: but with the faithful of old, Heb. 11. 37, 38. we should wander in Desarts, and Mountains, and in Dens and Caves of the Earth: If it should come to that pass, that (as you use to say) no Remedy but Patience; you will have no cause to complain, for it is a very sufficient one: even then we shall not be altogether harborless outcasts, as long as we can by Faith take Sanctuary in God, and by Patience keep possession of our Souls. For certain our Savior thought so, when against all those animi deliquia, those sick fainting Fits in the former part of the Chapter, he prescribes only this Cordial in the Text, In your Patience possess ye your Souls.
Superaddenda.
Should our Spirits sometimes grow hasty, and not willing patiently to wait God's leisure; Consider,
1. That God's Retribution will be full.
2. The day of it certain, Hab. 2. 3. Heb. 10. 36, 37.
3. Though it stay, yet let this stay our Stomachs, That necdùm vindicatus est ipse qui vindicate: Christ himself, who hath been more wronged than we, and who will at last fully vindicate both himself and us, is not yet righted: but to this day he waits till his Enemies become his Footstool, Heb. 10. 13. And therefore be not so bold to desire, that the Servant should be served before his Lord, Nec defendi ante Dominum servi irreligiosa & inverecundâ festinatione properemus. Cyprian S. 15.
Dr. Hammond on Matth. 10. Annot. f. makes not this a Precept, but an Assertion or Prediction; that there was no such way to keep or preserve their lives from that common destruction coming on the People of the Jews, as persevering faithful adhering to Christ.
And as the Philosopher's Scholar, who having given himself to his Master to teach him, when taught, was by his Master given back again to be his own Man.
SERMON. XXXIV.
THe dying Swan's Song, though now found to be a Fable, yet if moralized of a dying Christian, may oftentimes prove a real Truth: for, whereas the dying Man's Breath useth to savor of the Earth, whither he is going, the believing Soul, then especially, breaths Heaven, to which it is then ascending. Some Books, which contain Apophthegmata morientium, tell us how, when their Tongues faulter in their Mouthes, they are wont to speak Apophthegmes; but in God's Book, we find them uttering Oracles. What a sweet Breath, and Divine Air was that in old Simeon's Nunc Dimittis? Paul's farewell-Sermon, Acts 20. had such a ravishing 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in it, that they could not then hear it without weeping, nor can some yet read it heedfully with dry Eyes. Above all in that ultimum vale of our Savior's to his Disciples before his Passion, John 14. 15, 16, 17. The Sun of Righteousness a little before its setting, shone out most Gloriously. This in the New Testament.
And for the Old, what heavenly strain's do you meet with in Hezekiah's ultimus singultus? Isa. 38. in David's verba novissima? 2 Sam. 23. in Moses his Songs a little before his death? Deut. 32, and 33. and in Jacob's before his, as in this whole Chapter, so especially in this Text? in which the Divine Soul, as the Bird before fainting in the snare breaks through it, in an abrupt expression, and having got itself a little upon the wing, as it were on the sudden bolts up Heaven-ward in this Divine Ejaculation, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.
Here in Jacob's blessing of Dan we find it, but how it should come there, & what coherence it hath with the foregoing words, that's the question; and some think a difficult one. So Pererius, Perobscura est haec sententia, & multiplex interpretandi ejus ratio.
Some satisfy themselves with this, that the Spirit of God will not be tied to our Artificial Methods, as too low and pedantic for him to be confined to, who both acts and speaks like himself; like a God, i. e. with greatest freedom. And therefore as his Illapses are sudden, and his impulses strong, Act. 2. 2. so the ventings of them answerable, as the Spirit gives utterance. v. 4. and it may be never more abruptly, than when those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 v. 11. are utterred, and so the Soul now full of God, and breaking for the longing it hath to him (as Psal. 119. 20.) cannot always keep rank and file, but breaks out to him, and is glad to get to him, though not in a methodical way. And so it is in all strong workings of Passion, Love, Fear, Joy, and Desire, &c. Expressions sudden, abrupt; for so Passions are, and their Expressions accordingly. So Judge. 5. 10. on those words [Then shall the People of the Lord go down to the Gates] Mais thus, Videtur hoc hiare, &c. ut pote ex affectu dictum: affectus enim non servat ordinem, sed plerumque evagatur. In such a rapture Jacob's Soul might here be caught & snatched to God, without being led to him by coherence, or the thread of the foregoing discourse.
Zwingli thinks that this Text might be versus intercalaris, and only added to make up the verse in this Divine Poem.
Others rather think, that after the manner of weak fainting old Men, or sick Men, who are wont, whilst they are speaking, sometimes out of faintness, and sometimes out of devotion, to pause, and to interpose sighs and prayers; so old Jacob here spent with speaking, relieves his spent Spirits, or rather pours out his fainting Soul into God's Bosom, in this parenthetical ejaculation, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.
But the first verse of this Chapter tells us, that the whole is Prophetical, of what was to befall them in the latter days.
And accordingly some apply it to Judas, whom they make that Serpent in the way, in the foregoing verse: Others to Antichrist, whom so many of the Ancients thought should be of the Tribe of Dan: and that Jacob, foreseeing what havoc he should make of the Israel of God, (as they expound the former verses) cries out (in this) for Christ and his Salvation. But this conceit of this Dan-Antichrist (with due Reverence to those Ancient Authors) by some, of even the Papists themselves, is held uncertain, by others of them fabulous, and therefore, seeing they are sick of it, we have no cause to be fond of it. To omit other particulars, I insist on these two, that Jacob,
1. Foreseeing both the sins and miseries, which his other posterity, and especially this Tribe of Dan should fall into, by Faith looks up to God for Salvation and Deliverance; which was especially effected by Sampson, a Judge of that Tribe; and he very fitly compared to that Serpent in the way, and Adder in the path, &c.
2. And yet foreseeing, notwithstanding this, that Sampson should die, and Israel should lie under captivity and affliction, and so Sampson's but an half-Salvation: (he did but begin to save Israel, Judge. 13. 5) After the manner of the Prophets, (who when they speak of any great Deliverance, or Deliverer, which did either typify or any way resemble the greater Salvation of the true Messiah, they were wont to look through one to the other, and so Jacob here looks above that Nazarite to the true Nazaren, from Sampson to Christ; not resting in that partial and temporal deliverance, but in, and through, and beyond it, looking at, and waiting for Messiah's Salvation. In a word,
In their foreseen dangers and miseries he waits for deliverance by Sampson, and there he rests not; but in and above that foreseen deliverance by Sampson he looks and waits for Salvation by Christ. And so understand we these words, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.
For the handling of them let me but premise this: That Salvation presupposeth danger and misery, and speaks deliverance; and and then the Text will afford us these particulars.
1. That it's the lot of the Seed of Jacob to be in such straits, that they shall stand in need of Salvation, and so long, that they are put to wait for it.
2. That it's their happiness, that notwithstanding those straits, yet they shall be saved.
3. That it's by the Lord. It's Jehovah's Salvation.
4. That it's their duty in all their dangers and straits to wait for Deliverance and Salvation.
5. And in all outward and temporal deliverances by man to look and wait for spiritual and eternal Salvation by Christ, so we shall fully come up to Jacob's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord. The three former are more Doctrinal and often spoken to, which I shall therefore only briefly touch upon, that I may the rather insist on the two latter, which are more practical, and yet I fear but little practiced, at least in a right way.
For the first, that the condition of the Israel of God is such, [Doct. 1] and so exposed to dangers and miseries, that they have need of Salvation, is so genuine to this Text, that it occasioned this expression. It was because Jacob foresaw the trouble and miseries that should betide this Tribe of Dan in particular, being with the last settled in its inheritance, and there sometimes grievously oppressed by the Amorites, Judge. 1. 3 • 4 and at all times galled and infested by their fast-by-neighbors the Philistines. Nor did he only relate to the miseries of this Tribe, but also to the troubles and dangers of all the rest; who while in Egypt, were in a Furnace, after that in a Wilderness; and though after settled in Canaan, flowing with Milk and Honey, the very Edon of God, and the Glory of all Lands, yet it bounded on both ends with Wildernesses, and on both sides with Seas, and round about (from all quarters) compassed with malicious and enraged Enemies; a perfect emblem of the site and posture of the Church of God in this World, though supplied with spiritual and heavenly provisions, which Canaan's Milk and Honey signified, yet so as surrounded with all sorts of Enemies, Wildernesses of wants, and whole Seas of dangers and miseries, that it oft comes to the Disciples, Save Lord, we perish. And how near we now are to it, God knoweth, I do not. It would be mercy, if we could say with Jacob, we wait. I am sure, our case is such, that we may all say, we have great need of thy Salvation, O Lord.
More particularly it's to be observed, that Jacob breaths out this sigh, whilst treating of Dan, the Tribe that is first in particular noted for Apostasy to Idolatry, that had first a Teraphim in the time of the Judges, Chap 18. v. 30, 31. and after had a Golden Calf in the time of the Kings, 1 King. •• . 29. and therefore left out in the numbering of the sealed ones, Revel. 7. Of all Churches, such as prove Apostatical and Idolatrous, though they least deserve, yet they will most need God's Salvation, as being most in danger of his fiery Indignation; it being a sin that divorceth a person and people from God, and is wont to bring heaviest judgments upon Men, makes the Earth quake, as well as Heaven thunder. Their sorrows are multiplied, that hasten after another God, Psal. 16. 4. When they chose new God's, then was War in the Gates, Judge. 5. 8. So that God will rather lay Cities waste, than not make Idols desolate, Ezek. 6. 6. like the Devil (in the Gospel) that would not be cast out without rearing: that fretting Leprosy in the Law, hardly cured without pulling down the house that it is in. This desperate infection our Land hath been extremely sick of; the disease of itself deadly, and the cure so hard, that the Lord grant it prove not mortal. If the Ancients expound the Text of Antichrist, we may at least apply it to him as the Serpent by the way, and the Adder in the path; which by his Idolatries and witchcrafts hath so bitten the Horse-heels, that the Rider is fallen backward. And now between the Stirrup and the ground we all have need to sigh and cry out with fainting Jacob in the Text, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord. Those words speak him so oppressed, ut non nisi divinitus servari possit, as one paraphraseth it. For us, our sins have brought us so to the brow of the Hill, and such a precipice, that man's arm is too short to hold us; it must be an hand reached from Heaven only, that will be able to uphold us. And yet this but the lot of God's people, which was the first point: Their dangers and miseries so great, that they have need of Salvation. But is Salvation in that case to be had? To which,
The second point answers, Yes: for this word Salvation, as it implies danger, so it speaks deliverance, and he saith he waits for it; and God suffereth not Faith to wait in vain, and we will not wait for what we cannot expect. The point is,
As it is the Lot of God's people to need, so it's their happiness [Doct. 2] to obtain Salvation. So Faith call's God the hope of Israel, and the Savior thereof in the time of trouble; so that, be the case otherwise never so desperate, there is yet hope in Israel as long as God is both hope and Savior, what ever comes, they are never either hopeless or helpless. Thus their style is the Redeemed of the Lord. Though thralldom, yet Redemption, and saved by the Lord. Though danger, yet Salvation. As God (in nature) layeth his beams in the waters, Psal. 104. 3. you would think but a sinking foundation, and founds the Earth by the Seas, and establisheth it upon the Flouds, Psal. 24. 2. • nd that's as dangerous a situation: So in his Church, though seated nearest greatest dangers, yet farthest from being swallowed up by them, because ever at last either defended or delivered from them; a most firm bank near a most raging Sea: a sure Shield amidst showers of envenomed darts. So God is David's Shield-bearer, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Psal. 7. 10. my Shield is upon God. Nay God is my shield, Psal. 3. 3. nay more than Shield. It covers the Man but on one side; but God is a Shield round about, Thou compassest him with favor as with a shield, Psal. 5. 12. I should be too large, if I should run out in such-like Scripture-proofs. Mark but out of one Psalm, those many and strong expressions, it's Psalm 68. They had lain among the Pots; but fly out of the collow as a Dove with silver wings, v. 13. See how God beautifieth them with Salvation, as white as Snow in Salmon, v. 14. Snow is white; but Salmon signifieth a shady gloominess. Behold, how there ariseth to them Light in Darkness! He is to them (v. 20.) a God of Salvations, multiplied deliverances in multitudes of dangers, to whom belongs issues from Death; when round about besieged and begirt with extremities, v. 21. he will wound both head and hairy scalp of Enemies. The wound in the Head is deadly, and dasheth out the Brains of all their Counsels, and the hairy-scalp signifieth strength of Age, and constitution; and not weakened and made bald either with Age or Sickness. And (to add no more) v. 22. He will bring back from Bashan (out of Og's, the most Gigantean Enemy's Clutches) from the depths of the Sea. Even the depths of Hell shall not drown the Israel of God, whose Hope is anchor'd upward in Heaven. It's a Christian's comfort, that whatever his dangers and troubles in this World may be, yet the last Articles of his Creed are a Resurrection and Life everlasting; and when come to the last cast, he can with fainting old Jacob lean on this Staff of comfort, and look up to God▪ and say, Lord I have waited for thy Salvation.
Salvation! But Lord it's thine, and that's the third particular before observed. It's the Salvation of a God, that the Israel of [Doct. 3] God is saved by. Jacob here put by all other Savior's, when he looks up to God, and waits for his Salvation. If it had not been the Lord, who was on our side, both then and now may Israel say, then the proud waters had gone over our Soul; as a Man in a Storm, that seeth nothing but Sea and Heaven, may cry out, if yonder Heaven do not save me, this Sea will drown me. And this partly from the extremities of the Church, and partly from the good pleasure of God.
1. The extremities of the Church oft de facto are such that of necessity it must be so. His Salvation or none, so Jonah 2. 9. Psal. 3. 8. Evils sometimes are so many and great, either so suddenly surprise them, or in continuance so tire them, or by their weight so overpower them, that unless it be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they are quite at a loss; no power or wisdom either of their own or others can rescue them.
Not their own, that they should prove Self-faviours. Indeed it's wont to be said, that Self-defense is held the first Maxim in Policy: But it's not so in Divinity. Enemies are so crafty and strong, and the Flock of Christ so simple and weak, that if the Sheep's strength be not in its Head, and it's security in the Shepherd's care, it would be soon either lost or worried. So Jehoshaphat cries out, we know not what to do, 2 Chron. 20. 12. and Asa (Chap. 14.) speaks as though he had no power, when he had almost Six hundred thousand fighting Men. It was not their own Sword or Arm, but thy Right-hand and thy Arm, and the Light of thy Countenance, Psal. 44. 3. Jerusalem may have Palaces, but God is known to be the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Refuge in them, Psal. 48. 3. In Jer. 36. 19. they bid Jeremiah and Baruch hide themselves; but it's added, ver. 26. that the Lord hid them. It's not our own hiding, but God's, that must secure us. When we are in such deep Waters, it's the stretching out of our Hands to Heaven that must save us. Clasping our Arms about ourselves, is the certain way to sink us. If saved, it's not by their own might.
Nor by others help. They either do not help us, or it's only by and from God, if they do. They do not, because they will not or cannot. Some may have glorious Titles; as he is called Hadadezer, 2 Sam. 8. 3. which in its signification promiseth a magnificent help. But in the Apothecaries Shop very promising Titles are oft writ upon Boxes that have either nothing, or (it may be) Poison in them. The Horse (in which is the strength of the Battle, and therefore promiseth much) the Psalmist saith, is a vain thing, and that signifieth nothing. But the Reed of Egypt not only breaks, but also wounds the hand that leaneth on it, and that's as ill as Poison: like him (in Austin) that in a Tempest sailing towards a Mountain, light and split upon a Rock, Ubi non invenit portum, sed planctum. They that promise most, oft perform least, unless it be Mischief. The one of which is Vanity: And the other Vexation. In a word, every Man is a liar, the Apostle saith; and of all others, Men of high degree, which promise most, the Psalmist, are a very Lye in the abstract. And if any at any time make good their Name, that in Scripture are sometimes called Savior's, it's only as they are Weapons in God's Hand, and in the alone Strength of this our Great Savior. And so indeed, as he said to Gideon, Go in this thy Might, and thou shalt save Israel. Otherwise, Truly in vain is Salvation hoped for from the Hills, and from the multitudes of Mountains; truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel. Though Hills, Mountains, multitudes of Mountains, though Pelion Ossa, though never so many Mountains be heaped one upon another, yet if they be but Mountains of Earth, they may not be high enough to set us above danger. A Deluge (as Noah's) may over-top them all. They are but Lying Fables, and contrary to Scripture, that tell of some saved then on the tops of Paris, or Ocila. First the Extremities of the Church may be so great, that nothing under Heaven, or less than God, can rescue it. Experience proves it is so.
2. The good pleasure of God is such, that on purpose he will have it so. As for Instance,
For Time, though Christ's Disciples be in a Tempest, yet he stayeth till the fourth and last Watch, that they are toiled out with Rowing, and faint with Waiting, that so he may say, It is I.
For Pressure and Danger, not till the Case be in a manner desperate, the Ship now covered with Waves, and now Conclamatum est, when they cry out, Lord save us, we perish; or as the Church, Lam. 3. 54. Waters flowed over mine Head; then I said, I am cut off.
For Persons, most weak and helpless. He is the Orphan's Father, and the Widow's Judge, Psal. 68. 5. That is said with an Emphasis, Judge. 5. 11. The Righteous Acts of the Lord towards the Inhabitants of his Villages in Israel. They most subject to be made a Prey, Ezek. 38. 11. If he be a Safeguard, it's especially to his poor open unfenced Villages: And there, if his Spouse be a Flower, it's not one that's planted and preserved in the Garden by Man's care; but Ego sum flos campi, & Lilium convallium, Cant. 2. 1. the Flower of the Field, and the Lily of the Valleys, exposed to every Hand to pluck, and every Foot to tread on; all to make out the truth in hand, Quod non humanâ industriâ, sed solâ Divinà benignitate, & caeli influentiâ floreat, as Pineda observes. They say, It's a Royalty at Sea to join with the weakest. I am sure it's the Royal Bounty of Heaven, that God chooseth to help the weakest.
And that (in the last place) for present Condition, when they are at the weakest: When he seeth their power gone, and there is none shut up or left, Deut. 32. 36. When the Physicians had drained the Woman's Purse, and not stopped her bloody Issue, and now given her over as a desperate Patient and a Beggar together, then is she fittest to be our Savior's Cure. And when the Disciples themselves could not cast out the Devil, then bring him to me, saith Christ, Mat. 17. 17. Who meeteth with the Man, when the Jews had cast him out, John 9. 35. Takes up David, when Father and Mother had cast him off, Psal. 27. 10. is a Strength to the Poor and Needy; but it's added, and that in his distress: A Refuge from the Storm, but then especially, when the Blast of the terrible ones is as a Storm against the Wall, Isa. 25. 4. That heals Simon Peter's Wive's Mother in the Paroxism of a Fever,