Commentary on 2 Peter
There are two helps to goodness; the praises of an enemy, and the repre • sions of a friend. He that shall take from friendship the liberty of a modest 〈◊〉 roof, leaves nothing to distinguish it from flattery. To see men in troupes • he Courts of God; to hear the melodious harmony of his praises, the vol • 〈◊〉 of invocations sent up to his glorious Name, to behold the charitable contri • ions to the poor, the holy emulations to exceed in good works; all like bees • ouring to bring honey to the hive of the Church where wrongs are pardoned, • d men encouraged, the Gospel honored, and the will of God obeyed: O • e is an object worth our seeing and hearing, which instead of vexing, shall de • t our righteous souls: lifting up our desires to heaven, where all good works 〈◊〉 done with perfection: where we shall see and hear what we shall never be • ry of seeing and hearing: see the glory of God, hear the melody of Angels, 〈◊〉 joy of all Saints, and be both ravished in the pleasure, and confirmed in the e • take ternitie of them.
To conclude; we that have grieved others, let us now be grieved for it our • es. It was an impotent and childish passion in Honorius, to be more grieved for • ltry hen, than for his Imperial City. Yet if we can more lamen the de • ture of a friend into bliss, than the departure of CHRIST from our own • es: and be more heartily troubled with a convulsion of body, than with dis • esting our conscience: if every trifling inconvenience of our own have pow • • o rack us, when the dishonor of God cannot move us; wonder we no more • onorius. We may howl for corn and wine, but in vain: our true tears and sobs • uld be for our sins. We are yet in the day, yet in the way: let us husband • ht this blessed opportunity, the only certain hour of our visitation. O let • ot play out the candle, and go to bed darkling: nor consume our lives in folly 〈◊〉 go to the grave in ignorance: like boys that slubber out their books before 〈◊〉 have learned their lessons. That sudden conversion of one at the last, was never • nded in God's purpose for our temptation. If every man should run on in sin, • e meet unexpected mercy, because one in sin obtained mercy: then every man • ght as well spur his beast till it speak, because Balaam's beast did once speak.
Could we be sure that God would call us at the last, yet how unsweet were 〈◊〉 sacrifice, the bran and dregs of our dotage; the wine and flower being con • ed in folly? whereas the good man is the older the better, as CHRIST kept 〈◊〉 good wine till the last. If we repent when we cannot sin, all is necessary: they leave us, we leave not them, nothing is here voluntary. What q •• y i • 〈◊〉 lay the heaviest burden on the weakest beast: to force old age, too weak to b • a • e it self, to carry the load of our repentance? When that strong man is gro • e • stronger by prescription, our tabernacle rotten by corruption, when 〈◊〉 hath turned vice into nature, and sin is soaked into substance, our bones being 〈◊〉 of the faults of our youth; we would then repent; we would if we could. 〈◊〉 as he that never went to school, will hardly when he is put to it, read his N ••• verse: so he that never learned the doctrine of repentance in his life, will find it •• ry hard, if not impossible, at his death. Wine at first drawing is quick and l •• ely; when it runs low, it grows dead. Let us give God our youth, that is l •• elyhood, and pleasing to him: not when our life runs on the tilt, the lees and 〈◊〉 of old age. Heaven is not unlike Ahasuerus Court, no mourners are suffered thee all joyful guests in their wedding garments: we must either mourn on earth, 〈◊〉 mourn in hell. Thus we that have vexed the Spirit of God, and the eyes 〈◊〉 ears of others by our sins: let us now please the Spirit of God by our repen • an •• and rejoice the eyes and ears of others by our amendment. Wretc • ed 〈◊〉 we defer our rep • ntance, wretched if we repent not our deferring. Let us •• pent as soon as we can, yea and repent for this, that we have repented no so •• . In a word, howsoever in indifferent things, it be held safe to hear and see, 〈◊〉 say nothing; yet in gross and scandalous evils let us not be silent; so if we c •• mend others, yet with Lot we shall save our own souls in the great day of Ch •• .
Vexed his righteous soul.] I come from the kindlers to the fire it self. Ze •• is a fervency of spirit, arising from a mixture of love and anger, say some. It • not a single affection; that were to confine it, rather than define it: there are 〈◊〉 affections excercised in it than love. Nor yet is it a mixed affection; that were r • there to compound it, than comprehend it. It is not one affection, nor many, 〈◊〉 a fervent hear of all: as varnish is no one color, but that which polisheth all 〈◊〉 makes a man to love what he loves, excessively: to desire what he desires, pass •• nately: to hate what he hates, deadly: his sorrows be not remiss, but bitter 〈◊〉 racking: his joys not transient and overly, but ravishing: when he hopes, his eyes are dim with waiting: when he fears, all his bones feel a trembling a • d shivering. To be cold or luke-warm is not an affection, but a constitution 〈◊〉 zeal is no nature, but a temper; a spiritual heat wrought by the Holy Ghost improving all sanctified affections for the glory of God. As the spirits are to the body, and wine to the spirits, and quickness to the wine, so is zeal to the 〈◊〉 , making it vigorous and strenuous in God's service, like a Giant refreshed 〈◊〉 Faith and zeal are the souls two wings, whereby she is made resembling the Angels: who are armed with wings, and called a flame of fire, for their burning a • d flying execution of God's hests. It is zeal that help us to do what we pray; 〈◊〉 will of God in earth as it is done in heaven. This zeal is axis & cardo, the 〈◊〉 blood that runs in every vein of the Text: a burning fire in the heart of Lot 〈◊〉 gives him mettle to contest with God's enemies; and because he cannot 〈◊〉 them, he vexeth his own soul. His example teacheth us three observations 〈◊〉 zeal; that it doth prove our righteousness, improve our righteousness, and honor our righteousnesses.
[unspec 1] It is the argument of a righteous man, to be far from coolenesse in his makers service. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. D •• this become us in other things, and mis-become us in the worship of God? S •• a man eagerly follow his lusts, and not be violent for the kingdom of heaven 〈◊〉 The slothful hastens his own beggary in temporal things, much less shall he 〈◊〉 rich in the graces of Christ. He hath but a mean skill in the most excellent art is never admired: a man had never better poetise, than only rime; never paint, 〈◊〉 do no more but daube: as good no religion, as coldness in the best religi • ▪ Shall we, like those Jewish elders for the Centurion, be instant for a friend, 〈◊〉 cold for our heavenly father? He is worthy of infinite more love than we are a • le to give: all our brooks and springs of affection ought to run into this main; • ot one small channel be suffered another way. Let all reflect upon him, and • othing be respected out of him, of whom, for whom, and through whom, are all • hings.
How unbrookable is dullness in any work to a man of spirit? A heavy and • lt-less oration is insufferable to a quick hearer. We single out the forwardest Deere in the herd, choose the liveliest colt in the drove; and think we the back • ardest man fit enough for God? will he that is all Spirit, be pleased with a lea • en and drowsy service? He bids the giver, give cheerfully: the doer, do • uickly. He forbad the Israelites to offer the firstling of an Ass: why so? • oth God hate the Ass? No, but for the quality of the creature; it being the • ieroglyphicke of slowness: to show that God cannot abide tarditie in his busi • esse. It is lazy to go, we are bid to run the way of his Commandments. As • iles to the ship, and wind to the sails, so is fervency to righteousness. A souldi • without courage, a horse without mettle, a creature without vivacitie, such is a • hristian without fervency.
It doth also improve righteousness; like the fire which came down from [unspec 2] • even upon the sacrifices, causing the sacrifices to ascend thither in acceptation. • ighteousnesses hath no grace, but this fervency makes it more gracious. Repen • nce is one primary grace; yet if a man's sorrow be not fervent, it is like a hot • mmer-shower, that makes the streets stink after it. Faith is a fundamental • race, should overcome the world; it will prove but a coward without fervency. • ope, the waiting-maid of Glory, will soon fall a sleep, if zeal keep not her • yes open. Love without fervency is cold and dull, and as it were enforced; and • on extorquebis amare. Reliefe of the poor is left-handed without this; no re • ard belongs to it. It is only fervent prayer that prevaileth. Israel had ne • er wrestled, or wrestling, not prevailed with God, but by fervency. It was no • erfunctory devotion in Moses, that caused the Lord to answer, Let me alone. No vapors ascend up from the Still, unless there be fire under it: nor prayers • each heaven without the heat of zeal. Fluminall baptism is but a cold proof • f a man's Christendom, except this flaminall baptism of fire and zeal ap • rove it. The worship of God without this, is like meat dressed by an uncleanly • ooke; it will not down with him. Let a table be furnished with the choicest • ands the season affords; if they be boiled or roasted to the halves, or stand on • e board till they be luke-warm; the guests will not be pleased with their cheare.
Fervencie is that mark which God would have us set on all his services, that 〈◊〉 they may be discerned to be his own: as the name of a famous Tradesman doth • ll his commodity, so the mark of zeal crowns all our works. If the color • e pale, the motion insensible, and the pulse leave beating, we give a man for dead: • e moving of these argue life. They whose actions want heat and color, that • ive unwillingly, that do Justice constrainedly; appear dead. It is fervency that • aches a difference of actions▪ we have all alike precious faith, the seeds of all gra • es are in every convert: the inequality is in the degrees, the degrees are seen in • e fervency. This makes men differ in grace, as stars do in glory, or as human • en in blood and dignity.
It honors righteousness: many thousands have been righteous, whose [unspec 3] • mes are not on record: but of those that have been zealous in their piety, the • cripture takes special notice. Our Apostle having spent one whole verse upon • e commendation of Lots fervency, in vexing himself for their sins, is not so con • nt; but exegetically presseth it further, exemplifies it in particulars; showing • hat a righteous man is better than his neighbor. The righteous are the best of the • orld, the fervent are the best of the righteous. It is true of zeal, as of fire; the • ture of it is to multiply, as one coal kindles a whole heap, and one torch lights many. Elisha calls Elias, The Horse-men and Chariots of Israel: in the plural number, to show that he was Instar multorum, one man worth a thousand: doing Go • more service than a Jesuit doth the Pope, or a make-bate the devil. It is not •• likely that David's zeal made him styled, A man after God's heart.
But do we thus honor our righteousness, that God should honor us? If 〈◊〉 the same time come several news; one, some loss of our own estates; the other, of some apostated Christians: which doth now most vex us? We he • e 〈◊〉 once God's Name blasphemed, our own name traduced: which most stirs us? We perceive trade decaying in England, the religious Professors of the Gospel • bleeding in France and Germany by the sword of a cruel enemy; which of these goes nearest to our hearts? When some unruly yonkers were sporting in the field on the Sabbath day; a Churl fretted and stormed at it; an honest neighbo •• did also dislike it, that they so little regarded the Sabbath: tut, quoth the other, what tell you me of the Sabbath? It vexeth me, that they have spoiled my come. In carnal things we are very sensible; in spiritual, without feeling. Men ca •• y swords, and stand on terms of reputation, on the least cross word they a •• ready to cut one another's throat; confessing their lives to be little worth, not so much as a word. Let God be dishonored a thousand ways, they are as s •• p • as the stones they walk on: if they take any part, it is against their Maker. Be the honor of their own house questioned, their weapons fly like lightening: let God's House be pulled down to the ground, all their help is, to carry away the timber and the stones. They heat the furnace seven times hotter in their own cause, than they do in God's cause.
But will the Lord multiply his favors upon such? Husbandmen cast the •• seed on the fruitfullest ground, which will return them the best harvest: and God his graces on such as will improve them. When Judgment covers the ear • h who shall then be delivered but the zealous Lots? God will preserve them▪ as men do their plate, while they let the baser stuff burn. For their ferve •••• in goodness was Enoch translated, and Elias advanced in a triumphant cha ••• • o heaven. How ever all Believers have their places in blessedness, yet he th •• rewards all according to their works, observes that congruity in crowning •• s own graces; that the most zealous in this world, shall be the most glory •• s 〈◊〉 the World to come.
Vexed his soul.] As this was no common fervency, so no counterfeit: he l •• tle dissembles whose soul is moved. Zeal, like the King of Israel, hath ma • y shadows, therefore we must distinguish it from all semblances. There be fa •• fires, which while they usurp the honor of it, rather bring an ill name upon it. How common a thing is it to wound all holiness under the name of Purita • ; whereof convinced, they think to make amends with, Crie you mercy, I me •• the hypocrite: as the ruffian strikes a man first, and then excuses it, that he m •• took him. B • sides, it cannot be denied, but some have taken on them this order, greater than the Knights of Malta, or of Saint John of Jerusalem; that have d •• graced it by an unworthy deportment of themselves. And some, after it hath served their turns, leave it: as the door when it hath been oiled, leaves the creaking. For their sakes, the name of goodness is blasphemed all the day long, 〈◊〉 ill report and suspicion raised upon them that serve God in truth: so for the deceivers fault, the true man is beaten. There is in the body the native and radical 〈◊〉 , a principal Instrument of life: and there be often anguish and distempered • e •• s that cause sickness and death.
There be some that vex themselves out of envy: Lot did not so. The Poets fain this affection, ex Styge & Pallante natum esse: they meant inspired into me • by Satan, and those envious devils. This is a black Zeal, reckoned among the works of the flesh. These are not pure tapers, shining clear, and giving light: but brinish and ill made candles, that sparkle and spet at others. Lot vexed himself, because he saw men bad; these, because men are good: not that God's Law • s broken, but because others keep it better than themselves. It is the cursed zeal • f these men, to malign the good zeal of all men.
There be that vex themselves out of choler; robustious men, transported with intemperate passions. We do not read that Lot was cruel and turbulent, • exing others: but he vexed himself. Severitie should never be but by cumpulsion, and then not without compassion. Christianity abhors cruelty, and rather wisheth with that happy Queen, that it knew not how to write a sentence of con • emnation. It is for the malignant Church to satiate her self with gore: nothing • ut fire and fagot, is the voice of Rome. This is a wolvish fervency, to feed on • o diet, but the warm blood of the Lambes. Poor Sheep are the subject of • heir tyranny: to the Lyon they are as submiss and fawning as dogs: over the • est they rage and domineer, like the Sea in a storm. Whereas the thunder spares • he yielding purse, and melts the resisting metal: descends not to the low cotta • es, but strikes the towering pinnacles. The sons of thunder dare check the • ighest and greatest; as John did Herod, and Jonah Nineveh. But these, like bustards • n a fallow field, cannot raise themselves, sine vi turbinis, without a whirlwind. • nd then like squibs in a throng, they fly out on all sides. This turbulent fervor 〈◊〉 bred of two causes: the defect of love and humility, the excess of passion and • mperiousnesse. As Spirits, that being once conjured up, scorn to k • epe with • n their own circles. A wild-fire, no harth can hold it; it is mettle in a head • trong horse; and runs like the weights of a clock when the spring is broken.
There be that vex themselves without cause, and strike an Israelite instead of 〈◊〉 Sodomite, their friends for their enemies. A contentious zeal; Sheba blows • trumpet, and suddenly they are up in arms. Alas! against whom do you fight, ye sons of debate? Brethren against their own mothers children? You • re brethren, wrong not one another in the sight of your Father, in the arms of your Mother. What way is this, but to advance the name of Mahomet in the Temples of JESUS? But to come nearer home; how hath Anti-christ got ground • y our dissensions? The unnatural coldness of some, and the preternaturall heat of others, hath set us together by the ears about trifles; while the common enemi • breaks in: and we have poured those vials of indignation one upon another, which should all be spent upon the seat of the Beast. While the Devil can busy men about ceremonies and circumstances, he hopes they will let him alone about • he principal, which is faith and manners. Alas! they are not Tanti, not worth our vexation; we have made him too much sport already. How doth Saint Paul • eat down their weapons! Rom. 14.4.10. Let our zeal come in to part, not to partake the fray: all endeavoring and praying, that peace may be within the gates of Zion.
There be that vex themselves out of hypocrisy; they have other ends than God's glory. Ostentation leads them more than conscience: they will offer violence to nature, wring out a show of fervency; but all is on the stage. When such a furious Orlando hath done his part, he is quite another man. These be hi • trionicall professors, that bounce at the gate as if they would break down the house; more violent than a Jesuit in the pulpit. There is nothing more liable to suspicion, than a fantastic affectation of zeal. A horse-coursers jade will bound, curvet, and show more tricks, than a horse of good mettle. Come, see my zeal for the Lord, says Jehu: his word was, for the Lord; but his project was for the kingdom. It is not a little art, to hide Art: let me tell them that love to be marked for the religious, by the white of their eyes, audible sighs, unfashionable garments, (as if this were, not to fashion themselves to the world ) by conspicuous places in the Church, and ruffling their leaves for proofs: that the best zeal is to hide zeal. The Preacher in the pulpit, or the painter in the windows, must proclaim their benevolences: this is far from Christ's rule. Comets make a greater blaze then fixed stars: reed, than substantial fuel. A Fever breeds flus • i • gs and is more seen in the face, than natural warmth at the heart.
There be that vex themselves out of ignorance, for there is a zeal not according to knowledge. Thus a devout Papist vexeth himself, that his adored Idols should be held as puppets, and that the Popes Supremacy is curbed. The Separatist vexeth himself, that all reformed Churches receive not his Innovation; that his Sect-master should not be set at the stern to guide the whole vessel. Blind they are, and led by the blind; whose errors they first imitate, then inheri • e. Out of this ignorance, Satan hammers them like swords and pistols, to raise tragedies; till they become, like the Turks Ianisaries, his best soldiers. Here is a pitieable fervency, like mettle in a blind horse, or a sting in an angry be. If the •• eyes were opened, and their zeal directed, they might be special Instruments of God's glory. The Stoics would pull out the gall and bowels, as if they had to use to serve virtue. Not so, they are bad masters, but good servants. Let anger remain still, but stand in awe of reason: as a soldier, that at the command of •• s Captain takes up, and lays down his weapons. There are three affections 〈◊〉 the soul, like three mineralls in the earth, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. Wit is like salt, Sales ingenii: anger like sulphur: affability like Mercury. These w •• tempered and allayed, are necessary and helpful, otherwise noxious. If wit wh • it self to justify mischief; if anger be not qualified by reason; if affability tu • ne to flattery; if all be not directed by knowledge, they run to danger. Wh •• the ship is under sails, with a fair way, and a fore-wind, then look to the s ••• age, keep the watch, have an eye to the compass and land-marks. The A • gels are said to have eyes to guide their way, as well as wings to maintain their flight. Turn Paul's zeal to the right and he did not so much hurt before, as now he will do good.
Thus true Christian fervency hath diverse counterfeits, which brings ho •• zeal into suspicion with the world. But shall men tax all the Apostles, beca ••• of one Judas? or admit no fire into their houses, because some sparks are •• ruly, and will not keep their own harths? The very name of a counterfeit presupposeth an original: he that hears of a false CHRIST, takes it granted 〈◊〉 there is a true. Slip-coin warrants us that there is of that stamp current money. The best drugs have their adulterates: and let not men that have been deceived by base colors, despise those that be died in grain. This we may safely co • clude, that that virtue which even hypocrites put on to grace them, is qu • s • io • less some rare and admirable thing. The true Lot, whose fervency is in the Spirit, not in show: in substance, not in circumstance: for God, not for himself: guided by the word, not by humor: tempered with charity, not driven with turbulency: such a man's praise is of God, though it be not of men: and through all • contempts on earth, it shall find a glorious reward in heaven. But as Saint Pau • • aid of his country-men, I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not •• cording to knowledge. So I must invert it of my Country-men, I bear them record, that they have a knowledge of God, but not according to zeal. Now the Lord rectify our zeal by our knowledge, and heat our knowledge by our zeal; that every man of a Philemon may be made a Zealots; of a faithful servant on earth a glorious Saint in heaven.
That righteous man.] This is the singularity of his zeal. One Lot will be righteous amongst and against all Sodom; and express this righteousness in the midst of their vicious customs. It hath been the Lot of fervent holiness to be rare, as to be excellent: adherents may hearten, opposites must not dash zeal out of countenance. It is the common Remora to all forwardness of profession, the small number of such: why should I attempt more than others? Few indeed there be that stand with all their might for religion, and few there be that shall be saved. He is unworthy of heaven, that will not live well without company, not do good but by example, nor move a step before his neighbors. Cowards stand still looking who should go first: and they are mere Iades that will not go except the way be led them. He was a brave and bold Israelite, that first did set his foot into the channel of the sea, leading the rest all along that moist and uncouth walk: he a soldier of courage, that first mounts the breach. Yea, resolute spirits will cast lots for the on-set, and show willingness to desperate services.
The fear of trouble is a poor hindrance to godliness, where faith looks unto the preserver, and reward. The fearful stand in the fore-rank of them that are cast into the lake: they have been most backward to goodness, therefore shall be foremost in vengeance. The timorous snail puts out her horns to feel for danger, and pulls them in again without cause. It is an ill modesty that suffers another to out-go him in the way to bliss: lik some travelling Iade, that hearing another horse come after him stands still till he overtakes him. True faith neither fears to do well, nor to reprove those that do ill. But there be few so good? Yet Lot was good alone, none to go before him, none to go with him, none to come after him, in all Sodom. No man can say so with us, for we see some zealous of God's glory. And if there be any; true emulation will single out the best patterns. How dearly is one content to buy a choice principal, or some rare copy! He that intends to be a good Artist, propounds to himself the most exquisite master and lesson. God limits us to no ordinary stint of holiness; but bids us aim at perfection: if we can, to go beyond all that have gone before us, yea to come (if possible) close up to Christ. From this point we may well gather three duties.
1 So near as we can to make choice of the good; for man naturally produceth works conformable to the objects before his eyes: as Jacob's sheep brought forth Lambes according to the color of the pilled rods. A good example hath not so much power to make us good, as a bad one hath to make us evil. One man sick of the plague will sooner infect ten sound ones, than ten sound men can cure him. The flocks feeding among the bushes will leave some of their wool behind them: it is hard to live in the forest of impiety, and to reserve integrity. Sin upon earth is in it own soil, grows without planting, or any pains bestowed on it: much more when it is manured with applauses and practice. But virtue is like some precious seed fetched from Paradise, which will hardly grow here without special care and indulgence. It is not safe venturing among the wicked in confidence of our own strength; no more than it is to run among thieves, in hope that they will not rob us. How many breathe in this world, like men sleeping in • hot, carried down the stream even to their Graves-end, without waking to think where they are? Therefore Eorum simus sodales, quibus licet esse similes: if we may be our own disposers, seek we our lot among the righteous. The situation of Jericho may be good, but the waters are naught: he that goes from Jerusalem to Jericho, soon lights among thieves; to leave holy company for base commodity, is a quench-coal to righteousness. Can one be warm alone? Can one single coal keep it self from going out? He that forsakes the orbe of heat and fervor, the congregation of Saints, must needs take cold.
2 If like Lot, we be necessitated to the society of bad people, yet let us be good still; yea therefore the more holy, because in the midst of a perverse generati • n, shining as lights in a dark place. The colder the climate, the more piercing • he air, the more doth a man's natural heat fortify it self within: their palpable wickedness caused Lot inwardly to vex himself. Every visible act of vice should be our encouragement to virtue. The dissolute lavishnesse of many prodigalls makes the wary man still the better husband. And it is the trades-man's policy, by engrossing a commodity in the plenty and neglect of it, to enrich himself when • year of dearth shall come. It made Erasmus more studious, by seeing the Monks such illiterate dunces: as the good knife is made sharp by the dull whetstone. The Christian will be good and devout, like Daniel, though alone: though with the Emperors and the worlds Non licet: though he seem a prodigy among men, digito monstrari, the pointing of all fingers. Esa. 8. Ver. 18. We are fo • signs and for wonders in Israel. Signs and wonders, where? even in Israel. If it were a wonder to see a family serving GOD in Israel, what is it in Sodom? If a miracle in Jerusalem, how much more in Babylon? But as he that stands upon a hill, where the air is clear, and sees the fields round about beaten with tempests, the valleys full of fogs and mists, doth not seek to change his station for being alone, though he be remarkable to every eye. Let our hearts be aloft, fixed on Christ; and albeit we are exposed to the worlds derision, yet we shall bless God for our deliverance from the worlds malediction.
3 Let us follow the examples of the best, not of the Most. Who had not rather be righteous with one singular Lot, than perish with all ungodly Sodom? Neither have we him alone, but even a cloud of witnesses, that have been faithful among the dissolute: a Pillar of fire (in many blessed precedents) that went before directing us the way to Canaan. The Church is full of those holy acts and monuments: the confession of Christ before Pontius Pilate, the profession of the Apostles before the worlds tyrants, the bold testimony of the Martyrs at their stakes. O let the very pictures of their fires warm our hearts, and inflame our constant zeal to do, and (if God will) to die as they did, that we may come to the place where they are. If we find a living Lot among us, fasten we our eyes upon him; let his sprightly example put us forward. He is a dull Iade that will not follow: a brangling hawk in the company of high flyers will mend her pitch, and make her point: the society of the Prophets is able to make even a Saul prophecy. Yea, let us learn to be righteous even by a man of meaner grace: a good mettled horse seeing but a Iade in the company put forward, springs out and is scarce restrained. No free spirit but is ambitious of a transcendency in lawful endeavors. At S • las coming, Paul burnt in the Spirit: a lesser stick may fire a billet, a little candle lights many torches. But these great examples, how should they work in us grea • zeal! Soe the Stoics defined zeal; Imitatio alicujus boni sine invidia. Th •• Alexander: was stirred up with the fame of Achilles, Caesar of Alexander▪ Cicero with the eloquence of Hortensius, Demosthenes of Isocrates. The ze •• of the Corinthians provoked many: let this good man's provoke us, that we may provoke others: helping them that come after us, as we have been holpen by those before us, toward heaven.
From day today.] This is the constancy of his zeal; it was not mu • ab • e. The fixed stars are ever like themselves, whereas meteors and vapors have no continued light: the wicked may have some aguish fits, and lunatic moodes. To run with the stream, or sails with the wind, or like the marigold to open only with the sun-shine, is no praise of piety. Give me that Job, that will be as hone •• a man among his thousands, as under the rod, when the number of his present •• cers exceeds his former riches. To shoot up like the corn on the house top, by the favorable influencie of great persons: for a Saul to prophecy no longer tha • he is among the Prophets: or for a Joash to be good only while Jehoiada lives: th • t which depends upon human supportations, is but like Ephraim's, a transi • ory goodness. Thus you have some rash riders; at their first exeunt they gallop a main, till within some few miles they tire, and are overtaken by the slow pac • horses. The hasty girds of profession are seldom durable, sudden showers have sudden ends. And whereas the Sun and all natural motions are swiftest toward their end, these begin hot in the spirit, and conclude stone-cold in the flesh. Their religion is but a blaze, which quickly goes out in smoke and smother. True fervency, like the vestall fires, or the fire of the Altar, is never extinguished. To be hot today, and cool tomorrow, gives little assurance of Lots fervency.
Would we know the means to maintain a constant righteousness, to be good, yea better from day today? 1 Pray instantly; prayer and zeal, like water and Ice, naturally produce one another. Fervency enliveneth prayer, and prayer increaseth fervency. At heaven-gate he that does not knock mainly, knocks vainly. This God will hear, yea, if it should want a tongue, so it want not a heart. As Christ, though he heard not Zachei verbum, yet he saw Zachei votum: he perceived his desire to invite him, therefore invited himself. Thus he breaths more grace into our soul, that breathed our soul into our body. 2. The ordinary • ewell to maintain it, is Preaching: Sermons being so many bellows to increase • his holy flame. 3. Reading the word hath a special place: no devout soul ever returned from that exercise, but his soul was more warmed. 4. Meditation perfects the rest. Meditatio docet quid desit, oratio obtinet ne desit. Contemplate that infinite Majesty; the apparition or shadow whereof fired Moses more than the burning bush. Let but the unfolded heavens give way to Stephens eyes, to behold CHRIST in the glory of his Father, how willing is he to ascend by that • tony passage! These be the accustomed meals of the good soul, that will • eepe natural heat from decaying. When thou goest to bed, rake up thy fire, wrap up thy devotion with prayer; so in the morning thou shalt find it ready to cheer thy heart.
Discontinuance of good duties hath lost men much virtue: to bethink the cause betwixt God and ourselves only by snatches, when we have nothing else to do: or to read the Bible by fits, only upon rainy days: here may be a smack • ing to maintain table-talk, but not enough to keep life and soul together. Let not men plead want of leisure, they have somewhat else to do: for there is one • hing necessary, to which as to the Kings business, all the rest must veil and stand by. From our most serious labors we can steal some hours for our pleasure: is • here no time to be spared for God and our soul? O that men should think one Sabbath more tedious than ten Holy-days! Nor let those flatter themselves with • ufficiencie, that present themselves in the Temple twice every Sunday: let God have some of the devotion at home, and by themselves. The kings ordinary ser • ants do not only wait on festival days, but are always ready in the presence to be commanded. True love is most passionate without a witness: he that humbles himself before the Lord alone, betwixt them two disburdens his heart, weeps, prays, begs mercy, hath some proof of his Christianity. Our families, beds, boards, walks, and meetings must witness our devotion so well as our Temples: this is the daily work of Christians.
I know the soul hath it's satiety as well as the body; and fire may be oppres • ed with too much wood: nor doth God so require men to serve him, as to be unmerciful to themselves. He that hath done his work honestly, may go to play •• rrily. But this is rare, to find a man offending on the right hand. Nor let the • crisions of Sodom cool this religious heat: a wise man will not be scoffed out of his money, nor a just man be flowted out of his faith.
One caution; when we have thus heat ourselves, let us beware of taking cold • gain. The fire is put out either by the subtraction of fuel, or pouring on of water. Sin is the quench-coal: he that voluntarily admits it, or does not sud • enly repent it, endangers the cessation of zeal. When we have done a sin, till • e repent truly, we serve God but coldly. He whose very hunger hath tempted • im to steal a lamb, says but a cold grace to his supper. How the oppressors and • efrauders of this City give thanks to God for their wealth, I refer to your • houghts and their own consciences. Sin is worse than a thief in the candle, or 〈◊〉 obstruction in the liver. A deadly sin clapp'd on the heels of late devotion, • like a sudden cold after a violent heat; dangerous, if not mortal. Let us be • ech him that hath begun a good work in us, to finish it: that we be not vexed • ith sin today, and pleased with it tomorrow: but that our lusts may drop from • like leaves in Autumn, and our graces enjoy a perpetual spring, through the • p and life of all goodness, Jesus Christ.
Thus I have run thorough the main scope and other passages of the Text; and yet some further instruction remains, if your good construction will admit it. Three things I take leave to consider; a Question, an Illation, and a conclusion.
Lot was vexed in soul,] inwardly grieved; but was his zeal confined to his own breast? Did he smother it from the Sodomites? How could they the • be convinced of their crimes, or know his dislike of their soul courses? Certainly, that holy man did not keep it in, but manifest it to them on all just occasions. Fire in Jeremiah's bones will make him weary of forbearing; and new wine, if • have no vent, will burst the vessels. We may justly suspect that zeal, that is never manifest: let men talk what they will of their honest hearts, whilst they have dumb mouths and lame hands. Faith will open the lips, and he that loves God cannot but speak for him. Nicodemus was but cold when he stole to Christ by night: but when be buried Christ by day, his fervor broke forth like unsuppressed love. It was hardly enough for Obadiah, to hide his religiousness in his bosom, as he did the Prophets in a Cave. Profession is the relative to faith: With the heart we believe, with the mouth we confess. Some confess and believe not, such are hypocrites: some believe and confess not, such are timorous cowards; some neither confess nor believe, such are Atheists; some both believe and confess, these are sound hearted Christians. Fire cannot be smothered, it will either find a vent, or go out: true righteousness never wanted words or deeds to declare it self. David often professed not only to praise God, but in the great Congregation: both ad supplendum defectum, & • x • itandum affectum alterius: for them that cannot, and for them that will not. 〈◊〉 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. What then? Be present at m • sse, communicate with the wicked in their idolatries; because faith may still be firm before God? No, Paul speaks of the faith (not quae ad dogmata pertinet, sed de rebus medijs ) that concerns indifferent things: otherwise, he that expresseth not his faith before men, hath denied the faith before God.
Earnest affections will find a tongue: if it be low water, the mill may stand but a strong current will set it a going. If the spring of zeal be wound up in the heart, the wheels will be kept in motion. It is not enough to keep our religion within doors, to tumble over a few Orisons while we are dressing or undressi • g ourselves, half a sleep, half a wake: nor to observe a short perfunctory form and stint, as mill-horses do their round, or pack-horses their pace: Such coward-soldiers are not for CHRIST's Standard. They must be those dare hazard themselves to many troubles; a fire not quenchable by the worlds buckets, b •• consuming their own and others corruptions. So Chrysostom conceives the Apostle, as a man made all of fire, walking in the midst of stubble. The sluggard hears of a Lion, and quakes: tell Sampson and David, they will go out to me • him. Let Agabus tell Paul of bonds at Jerusalem; he answers, I am ready 〈◊〉 only to be bound, but to die at Jerusalem, for JESUS. The horse neighes at the trumpet, the Leviathan laughs at the spear. Tell Luther of enemies in Wormes, h •• will go, though all the tiles of the houses were devils. To carnal friends he says, I know you not: to disswaders, Get you behind me Satan. Four comely things are commended by Solomon, to which we may add a fifth, stronger than the L •• , swifter than the Gray-hound, nimbler than the Goat at climbing upwards, more victorious than a King; it is a resolved Christian, who armed with faith and zeal, disdains all resistances in his journey to the Kingdom of Heaven.
If the Sodomites be so condemned for vexing a righteous Lot, what deserve they that vex the true Lot, Jesus Christ, the Righteous, with their unlawful deeds? Is it not enough that we have once put him to death, but that we must again renew those wounds, and being healed set them bleeding a fresh? The Jews were but the instruments of his crucifying, we are the principals: they cried, Crucif • e Him, in the court of Pilate: our sins cried, Crucify Him, in the Court of Heaven. Ours, I say, no • the reprobates: for as his death was not efficient to save repro • tes, so their sin was not sufficient to kill Him. To despise the blood wherewith 〈◊〉 were san • t • fi • d; this comes near him. If we ask him concerning his former • u • ds, he will answer, Thus was I wounded in the house of my enemies. But if, • ncerning these new incisions, by blasphemies, oppressions, &c. he will an • ere, Thus was I wounded in the house of my friends. The least unkindness of • riend pierceth deep: My own familiar friend did me the mischief. Our • ter vexing of him is far worse than the first: his body was then passable and • or • all, now it is glorious and immortal: the Jews knew not what they did, • e know it and yet grieve him: then he was dead and buried, but he rose again; • e bury him in forgetfulness not three days, but all our life, excepting only his • ntion.
The torments of his passion were inconceivable, in comparable, intolerable: 〈◊〉 it appears by his protestation, that the least willful sin of a Christian doth • re vex him, and strikes more to his heart than all those dolorous pangs. It is 〈◊〉 sin still that keeps him on the rack, and (though he be out of the reach 〈◊〉 sorrow, yet) does what it can again to kill the Lord of life. What pleasure 〈◊〉 we take i • grieving him that is the life of us all? Call not thyself the friend of • HRIST, if thou delight in that which tormented him. Think of this, you • si • g swearers, whom nothing can persuade to be civil, to be men, I say not, to 〈◊〉 Christians. You swear away your salvation, curse away your blessing, vex • 〈◊〉 Lord that bought you. If nothing can asswage your rancor and hell-bred ma • e, know it had been better for you that there had been no Christ. His first • th was for y •• r redemption, but the many deaths you now put him to, is for • ur gr •• ter damnation. If your blind souls could consider this, it would not • y • lifie your hearts for the sins past, but also terrify you against sins to come • or f •• tter yourselves, that he shall do you good at your death, who have mis • d • im all your life. When that fearful hour comes, you would all then fain 〈◊〉 to heaven and that by Christ: alas, as that despairing Pope said, the Cross • uld d • e him no good b • cause he had sold it away: so how should Christ do 〈…〉 w • o hav • railed him away? you have vexed him so long as you lived, 〈◊〉 l • st •• e shall vex all the veins of your hearts when you are dead. The 〈◊〉 a man 〈◊〉 to God, the more heartily he detests sin: now if Lot, a man • y bu • in 〈◊〉 ▪ with many infirmities, were thus vexed with iniquity; what an 〈…〉 it be to the most righteous God, and Him that died for it, JESUS • HRIST.
• f Lot w •• so vexed at others sins, how should we be vexed at our own? For • m is required a sorrow of compassion, for ourselves a sorrow of compunction. • ome we home to a self-condemnation; we, we have dishonored God, therefore 〈◊〉 to be vexed at ourselves. What is repentance but contrition, what is contrition 〈◊〉 a vexation? we that have sinned with Sodom, let us be vexed with Lot. If Lot 〈◊〉 not repented his own sins, he had never grieved for theirs: if the Sodomites • d been thus vexed, they had not perished. We have sinned what shall we do unto 〈◊〉 O thou preserver of men? What, but repent and amend? Repentance is the • per medicine for sin; as God hath ordained a salve for every sore. A medicine • ich cureth the eyes and nothing else, we may say was made for the eyes and 〈◊〉 nothing else. A man loseth his wealth, and is sory for it: will sorrow recover 〈◊〉 He • th his child, and is sory for it: will sorrow raise him from the • d? He suffers injury, and is sory for it: will sorrow right him? Himself is • e, and i • sory for it: will sorrow heal him? Nay, will it not rather hurt him? • row then was not made for these things. He hath sinned, is he sory for that? • row now will help him, repentant sorrow will take away his sin. Sin is then 〈◊〉 si • knesse, for which sorrow is the remedy. Direct this lesson to your hearts, • fore you go home to your houses, and digest it before your dinners: have troubled hearts, vexed with sorrow for your sins. Many a one comes into 〈◊〉 Church a dissolute sinner, that goes out an humble Saint; why should I not hope 〈◊〉 much of you effect? This were a blessed of a Sermon; when the fruit of one hour is no less than eternity of days. A square piece of metal, molten and cast into a round mould, comes out round: a piece of blew put into the scarlet fat, comes forth scarlet. Remember our Savior's sentence of sin; vel paenitendum, vel perendum: l Except you repent, you shall perish. If the child cry it lives: so if we can heartily cry for our sins, there is life in us. Thus let us be grieved, that we may be comforted.
VERSE 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the god • y out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.
PRofane people conceit GOD to be all of mercy, and cannot 〈◊〉 to hear of his Justice: or if they be convinced to acknowledge 〈◊〉 also Just, yet they measure it Secundum parvitatem suam, by the po •• tie of their own Judgment; and think it pity to destroy a man for his sins. Indeed it pleaseth God to be magnified by his mercies above all his works: and 〈◊〉 never find him called the Father of Judgments, but often the Father of ma •• . Mercy seems to be more properly his than vengeance: for he takes the man •• a mercy out of himself and his goodness: Sed quod judicat & damnat, nos cum •• damodo cogimus: but that he punisheth and condemneth; our sins compel 〈…〉 it. But both are infinite in him that is infinite; and as mercy hath her day in give ••• time of Repentance, so Justice must have her day in the retribution of vengeance. All sins are debts, all God's debts must be paid: it is a bold word, but a tr • e •• is in vain to hope for pardon without payment. Every sin must be pu ••• either in the person of the Savior, or in the person of the sinner. Too many ••• kon their own sins, as the false Steward did his Masters debts: of a hundred, they set down but fifty: as if God would call them to account, because he knew the • faithful. Thus they may hide God from themselves, but they cannot hide the • selves from God. Do they think that God will be so kind to them, as to be 〈◊〉 to himself? No, the Lord will be just, let them go on and perish. There c •• 〈◊〉 no reconciliation without remission, no remission without satisfaction, no sa •• sfaction but in the blood of Christ. Turn over the book of thy conscience, see 〈◊〉 thou canst find that reckoning there discharged. We keep books for expenses, do we keep none for offenses? He never breaks his sleep for debt, that p •• s as he takes up. But careless arrereages shall find a day of reckoning.
That God is not just without mercy, nor merciful without Justice, this Text proves; which speaks of a Deliverance to the godly, to the unjust of Vengeance. God indeed is slow to anger, yet he will not acquit the wicked. So that a man sh •• say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous, surely there is a God that judgeth the earth. A man, any man, every man shall confess it, none have power to deny it. This is our Apostles conclusion upon the premisses: God could preserve the holy Angels by his mercy, and confound the Apostate Angels in his Justice: in his mercy saveth righteous Noah, when by his Justice he drench'd the unrighteous world: Justly destroyeth four ungodly Cities, and mercifully delivers one just Lot. He that could do such mighty works, in heaven, on earth, in the waters; can as easily still deliver his children, and reserve the unjust to the day of Judgment to be punished.
The verse contains a pair of thwart sentences, directly opposite, in quality of persons, conditions, and events. Here is the Godly and unjust: a delivering, and Reserving: out of temptations, into Judgment. God stands in the fore-front, and hath • woe arms stretched forth: one arm to the East, another to the West: one to de • iver the godly out of trouble, the other to inflict severe punishment upon the wicked. Here is an Enlargement, and an Attachment: a delivering out of prison, and a casting into prison: a releasing from present perturbation, and a binding over to a further Session. The godly are acquitted, absolved, freed; not reprieved, but quite delivered. The unjust are apprehended, bound over, go as 'twere under baile: at the general Assizes they must make their appearance, and being guilty receive their sentence. This the Judge can do, and will do: he wants not power, for he is The Lord: he wants not wisdom, for Novit, He knoweth. His Almighty wisdom, and all wise power, are extended to both these actions, The Lord knoweth. The righteous proceeded thus far, they come upon their trial; for • emptation is a trial: but not to arraignment, much less to conviction, least of all to condemnation. But being charged by that common Barritor, the accuser of the brethren; and thus brought before the Judge, not publicly at a Session, but to a private examination, they are found innocent, and delivered. Temptations, like fet • ers, may hamper and afflict them for a while, but when their cause comes to be heard, and their righteousness appeareth, they are discharged. For the other, their guilt is manifest, therefore the chains of bondage are upon them, which together with the custody of omnipotency shall keep them fast to the day of Judgment, • nd that shall send them to execution, to be punished.
In the enlargement consider these particulars. 1. What, a deliverance. 2. Who are delivered, the godly. 3. From what, out of temptations. 4. By whom, The Lord doth it. 5. How; we need not examine, it is sufficient, Dominus novit, The Lord knoweth how.
First, the matter is a Deliverance. It is a great comfort in every distress, to hope for a deliverance: to believe it, greater: to be sure of it, greatest of all. Thus certain is every Christian, by the assurance of faith, grounded on the infallible promise of God. It was promised to Abraham, in Isaac shall thy seed be called: yet must Isaac, before he had seed, be killed; and that by his fathers own hand. Here Abraham might reason; I may believe the promise, and not obey the commandment: I may obey the commandment, and not believe the promise: but • ow can both stand together? But he holds the promise, and obeys God, though all the reason in the earth cannot tell how that promise and that commandment should stand together. Though I know not, and reason know not, yet God know • th. In human reasoning it is a note of ignorance to stick always to the conclusion: but in spiritual trials this is sound Divinity, to hold fast GOD'S promises. Therefore he both believes the one, and obeys the other: this Deliverance was above his reason, it was not above his faith. He did not argue, but obey: being sure that what GOD commands, is good, and what he promises, is infallible: therefore careless of the means, he trusts to the end. Daniel is not delivered at the beginning of his trouble, he must first be in the Lions den; then he finds it. Those three servants are not rescued at the ovens mouth; in the furnace they are. That is a gracious well tried faith, that can hold out confidence to the last.
Abraham after that terrible command, must go three days journey, a tedious extension of his sorrow: and in all that travel no Angel meets him with news of a deliverance. He sees the chosen mountain, dismisseth his servants; a strange devotion that will abide no witnesses, none comes yet. All the while the Altar is a building, his own heart bleeding; Isaac pleading for his life, none yet. He binds his hands, lays the wood on the Altar, the Sacrifice on the wood; yet no news. Now having kissed him his last, after many mutual tears, he lifts up his hand to give the fatal blow of death: yet he does not think, perhaps God will relent after the first wound. Loe, now the comfort of Abraham, the hope of the Church, lies a killing by the hand of his Father; yet there is no revocation. I would have made the bowels of a Savage yearn at this spectacle; to see the knife of such a Father hanging over the throat of such a son: yet he whom it nearest concerned, is least touched: faith had wrought in him, what cruelty would in others, not to be moved. He proceeds, contemning all fears, and overlooking all impossibilities: deliverance he might expect, but he knew not which way it could come: only that the same hand which raised Isaac from the dead womb of his Mother, can revive him from those ashes. Now having given Isaac, and Isaac given himself, for dead; the knife is falling upon his throat: Now, now comes the Deliverance; by an Angel calling, forbidding, commending him. Often is deliverance promised, and yet the time not mentioned. They shall serve the 〈◊〉 of Babylon seventy years: not a day, not an hour to be bated, Exod. 12.41. At the end of four hundred and thirty years: till then Moses undertook it in vain, D •• 5.30. That very night. Neither did Daniel, that knew the determined time of seventy, till upon the expiration, pray for deliverance.
God defers His deliverance. 1. To return us home: when no man 〈◊〉 harbor that unthrift son, he will back again to his father. 2. To make a seek our deliverance in the right unde: while money can buy physic, or friends procure enlargement, the great Physician and Helper is not thoroughly trusted 〈◊〉 to. 3. To set a better price on his benefits; for suddenly gotten are suddenly forgotten. Abraham's child at seventy years was more welcome, than had he been given at thirty: and the same Isaac had not been so precious to him, if he had not been as miraculously restored, as given: his recovery from death made 〈◊〉 more acceptable, than if he had never been in danger. God's charges are 〈◊〉 harsh in the beginning, hard in the proceeding, but the conclusion is always comfortable. Spiritual consolations are commonly late and sudden; long before they come, and speedy when they do come, preventing even expectation.
The Lord defers on purpose, that our trial may be perfect, our deliverance welcome, our recompense glorious. Say our temptation be externally aff • ict ••• and we are not delivered from it: our poverty is long, and we shall never be 〈◊〉 our sickness tedious, and we shall never recover; what now? Shall we desp ••• and die? No, but whether he doth deliver us or not, We will serve Him; though ••• He kill us, we will trust in Him. Though he hold off long, and suspend our 〈◊〉 yet deliverance shall come; if not the same way we would have it, yet a way that is better for us. Shall we be sullen, because our desires be not presently granted▪ As Jonah would die, because he was displeased: Achitophel, because he was de •• sed; Saul, because he was discomfited. No, death it self shall deliver us; that red Sea shall put us over to the Land of promise; and we shall say to the praise of God, we are delivered.
The persons delivered are the Godly. Godliness (according to the propriety of the word) consists in two things; the devout adoration, and sincere imitation of God. They that worship him as he will be worshipped, and follow him in the things wherein he will be followed, are right godly men. He that worships God aright, adheres to the rule, and believes the reward. Superstition first loves, and then believes: true Religion first believes, and then loves. Reverence and zeal become adoration: for a man to mouth a Pater-noster, while his heart is 〈◊〉 • is coffer; as if he could reconcile those two contrary masters, and at once serve God and mammon; in vain thinks himself godly. When in the Temple God • arce hath our knees or our voices, seldom our minds; never tell me of godliness. • ou are not Atheists, to think that he regards your prayers, as he doth the hum • ing of flies and bees; that they be so formal and heartless. The godly man • owes that God sees him, sees him in every place, takes special notice of him in • e Church. Caesar's eye made his soldiers prodigal of their blood: God's eye • d speech to the soul, Well done good and faithful servant, makes him work out • s heart. Loose thoughts are too bad for common places, intolerable in divine • orship. We may observe how God bates of his own service for us; allows 〈◊〉 to go from his Temple to quench a burning house, or to help a beast out of • e pit; and makes homicide the greatest sin upon earth. Now shall he bate of • s own glory for our benefit and shall not we bate of our benefit for his glory? • hey that either for wantonness or covetousness, much worse for drunkenness, • olate the Sabbath, which is the time of God's worship; or neglect the Church, • hich is the place of his worship; have little godliness. We are charged to wor • p him in spirit and truth. The Jews worshipped him bodily, we must also in • rit; they figuratively, we in truth.
Nor is adoration enough without Imitation; it is the sum of all religion, imitate him we adore. He was called a Platonist, that followed Plato's princi • es: and he that follows the example of God, is godly. Outward holiness • ust be joined with inward; a man may be a Saint at Church, and a Devil at • me: true godliness is seen in our own house as well as in God's house; he is • re short of godliness, that is not an honest man. It is shame for Christians to • rne honesty of Pagans; and yet they say, some of us are a form below them. • e may know whose children such are by their complexions and conditions: 〈◊〉 that doth righteousness, is righteous. It was not enough by the Levitical law • hose ground was moral to chew the cudde, but to divide the hoof: our feet • ust be clean as well as our mouths While the worship of God sits in our • s, and the dishonor of God is seen in our lives; we might as safe be wholly clean. Some have the mark of the beast in their hand, some in their fore head: • e • her in the fore-head, or in the hand, so it be his mark, it is all one to the De • l. This commended Job, that he feared God; that's one part of piety: that eschewed evil, that's the other. The doctrine of faith is much controverted; • d while Satan can raise troubles about faith, he hopes the world will let him a • ne about manners; and so that Christi nomen periret de terris: but it is a counter • faith without obedient and practiall godinesse.
God's word is first sown in the heart, that seed is rooted in faith, that root • ngs forth a tree of charity, and that tree bears the fruit of good works. Our • sons are justified by our faith, our faith is justified by our charity, our charity 〈◊〉 the actions of a godly life. Therefore justify thy faith, that thy faith may ju • fie thee. Faith is an Illumination, and many content themselves with an illusion: we want charity to our brother, there is no faith to our maker. Some lose them • es Vituperando Christum, as Pagans: some Etiam laudando Christum, as pro • e Christians: these so praise his merits, that they never weigh their own mis • meanors. But do good, and have good: little says the Scripture of the Apo • s learning, it speaks much of their acts. It is not the taste of meat that nouri • th, but after concoction the benefit is in the strength. The conscience is not sa • fied with reading good things, the comfort it feels is in the practice. Children • e after their father; thus to show mercy, is to be godly. Forgive your offenders • hy? God doth forgive you: be as ready to pardon men, as you are ready to de • your own pardon of him. He that walks under a wall in a sunny day, shall • heated by the wall, which first was heated by the Sun: if God have forgiven 〈◊〉 the warmth of charity is in us to forgive others. Be ye holy: Why? because God is holy: if we find a piece of wax with an impression or mark upon it, we know there hath been a seal, the print whereof is left behind: holiness is the print of God's sacred seal: if not holy, not sealed. God is patient toward s •• ners; furious avengers of themselves are not godly. He is the God of peace, the sons of malice and contention are far unlike him.
We see who are godly, now these are delivered: they of all men, out of temptations; because they of all men are most subject to temptations. The higher a tree shoots up, the more tempest beaten: if a Christian grows to any statute and talnesse in grace, and sprouts up toward heaven, Satan will raise the sorer storms against him. Some are not troubled with temptations, know not what they mean; ask them, they never felt the devil so busy about them. The more miserable creatures they: no Prince makes war against his obedient subjects: sho • ld they rebel against Satan's laws, they should hear of him in another kind. 〈◊〉 as God said in his Justice; Ephraim is joined to Idols, let him alone: so Satan in 〈◊〉 malice, they are joined, united, incorporated to sin, let them alone. They me • dle not with repentance, and he meddles not with them; all is peace. Let th •• take it for the fearful sign of a dead heart, when they feel not the Thorn 〈◊〉 t •• flesh, temptation. Fall they to deprecation, cry for pardon of their sins, and se •• the kingdom of heaven; then Satan begins to bustle, then temptation upon temp •• tion: Job had not more foes to vex him, than they shall find baits to entice th •• . Therefore CHRIST on purpose, to the Pardon of sins, annexeth, lead us no • 〈◊〉 temptation. Not only because with the pardon of sins past, we should desire 〈◊〉 prevention of sins to come: that neither our consciences be stung with the old nor our concupiscences corrupted further with the new. But because a man's 〈◊〉 be no sooner forgiven, and he rescued from Satan; but that Lion foames 〈◊〉 roars, and bestirs himself to recover his loss. So that grievous temptation • 〈◊〉 always accompany the remission of sins. Some suspect themselves to be ou • 〈◊〉 God's favor, because they are so wearied and worried with temptations: but godliness and temptation be such inseparable attendants on the same person, it is • therwise. For the devils hatred is to them most, whom God loves best: 〈◊〉 where he shows mercy, Satan will exercise malice. So that in the characters o • temptations we may spell God's love, which cannot be enjoyed without S •• disturbance. Yea, howsoever weak consciences have been dismayed at it; 〈◊〉 proof of saving grace in us, is the exercise of the devils malice against us
They that receive from God more graces, are sure of more temptations. 〈◊〉 God testify good of Job, the Devil will have a fling at him. If Peter have 〈◊〉 the keys, Satan will tempt him to be a Satan to his master. If there be ho • e •• the vessel, the wasps will be busy about it. But as no wise man leaves his 〈◊〉 for some flies, but rather seeks to drive them out, than they should drive him 〈◊〉 so no good man forsakes his holiness for temptations, but rather resists the d •• d, as knowing then he will fly from him. A full barn is better than an empty o • though thieves let this alone, and be pilfering about the other. We do not •• stroy our roses for the cankers, but rather destroy the cankers from the roses • s no policy for the traveler to leave off his weapons, because he knows the •• • e thieves in the way. We say, one true man is hard enough for two thieves, o • e faithful man is able to repel many wicked spirits. Our godliness doth not 〈◊〉 us from temptations, but conquers them. CHRIST was no sooner come 〈◊〉 of the water of Baptism, but he enters into the fire of temptation: if he be 〈◊〉 of the holy Spirit, he shall be set upon by the malignant spirit. If God say, Th •• is my son: Satan will say, If thou be the Son of God. That Divine testimony did not allay his malice, but exasperate it: the Serpent most violently affairs 〈◊〉 whom God hath honored.
Neither the gifts of grace, nor the seals of grace, can free us from affairs we may have force to repel bad suggestions, we have not to prevent them. The more we are engaged to God, by the bonds of our own profession, and the pledges of his favor; so much the more busy is the tempter about us. That Goliath defies none but the Host of the living God: if we be once seen in the field, then he is mad, and seeks to wring away our weapons, and with them to wound our own bosoms. Lord, how should we scape that Dragons assaults, when the Son of thy love could not be free! When even to be gracious draws on his enmity, and the profession of a good conscience, is the Butt for his burning arrows? He that spared not the Head, will not forbear the remoter limbs. If the state of Innocency could have been any defense against evil motions, the first Adam had not been tempted, much less the second.
Nothing should more comfort us than resistance: if we did not stand for the Lord; Satan would not stand against us: if we were not in a way to do good, we should find no rubs. The devil hath no cause to trouble his own, especially while they go about his business. To sin, he would have our paths smooth, and calm, and pleasant, winning us forward: but if we turn our feet toward Zion, then he encounters us, and blocks up our way with temptations. But it is not the presentment of bad motions that can hurt us, but our entertainment of them. Ill counsel is the fault of the giver, not of the refuser: if we be tempted, as Joseph was by a great Lady, and withstand it, we are not the worse, but the better. We cannot forbid lewd eyes to look in at our windows, we may shut our doors against their entrance. If Satan knock, it is in our choice to open: a booty lies in our way, we may choose whether we will stoop and take it up. To suggest evil, is Satan's blame: to resist evil, this is our praise. The more we are tried in the furnace, the purer gold we shall go to the Treasury of Heaven. Lord, make us as strong, as the devil is malicious: say in a sweet spiritual feeling to my conscience, as Thou spakest once vocally and audibly to my Savior; Thou art my Son; and let the devil do his worst.
Temptations we understand to be of two sorts; Probations, or Provocations; trials of suffering, or trials of doing. God tempts, to draw something out of us, and to make it appear; Satan tempts to put something into us which was not before. It is one thing Explorare an sit peccatum, another Provocare ut sit peccatum. The former we may properly call Examinations, Searchings, Afflictions; these are of God. The other, Incitements, enticements, impulsive motions to sin, these are of Satan. Now this promised deliverance stands in analogy and reference to both these.
For Satan's suggestions; What godly man hath not been wrought upon by temptations; not only to like the bait, but even to swallow it with consent of will! Yet hath it not choked their grace, God hath delivered them. Look upon David; 2 Sam. 11. While his people are busy in the war against Ammon abroad, Satan as busily makes war against David at home: they lay siege to Rabbah, he lays siege to their King. The temptation first takes fire at his eyes, his eyes recoil upon his heart, and his heart burns in the desires of his lust. The tempter so prevails, that he makes him become a tempter, bestowing his own bad office upon him. He sees Bathsheba, inquires after her, sends for her, solicits her to uncleanness. There was store of fair Virgins in Israel, yet he must dote upon the marriage-bed: he had many wives of his own, and was not restrained from taking more; yet is not contented saving with the only one of a subjects. He was not overcome by the solicitation of a strumpet, but himself was the prosecutor of this filthiness. There is nothing wanting to amplify his sin, and cause our fear. O whither shall we go, if God stay us not? What man among the millions of God's servants was better furnished with preservatives against such temptations? Where could the Devil have less hope of prevailing? Yet is this strong man overcome; and as it is hard and rare to commit a single sin; he does not only abuse the wife, but betrays the husband, and teacheth his lust to look with bloody eyes on the life of his faithful servant. If wine cannot woe • 〈◊〉 to father a false seed, the sword of an uncircumcised Anatomy shall fall upo • him. Thus deep in is David, and falls asleep many months, exchanging the conscience of his sin for the sense of his pleasures Yet even out of this tempta • ion he is delivered; Nathan shall rouse him, the Spirit shall melt him, his ow • e heart shall smite him; with a wounded soul he shall cry for pardon, d • 〈◊〉 wickedness and find mercy.
In this glass we see ourselves, how apt to be tempted, to go along with it, yea often to persist in it; yet withal, God's infinite goodness to deliver us from it. For this we pray, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: the la • te • being an exposition of the former: that we be not led into temptation, deliver us from evil; the cause being taken away, the effect ceaseth. The best of God's children may not only be drenched in the waves of sin, but even lie in them for a time; as a man may sink twice to the bottom, yet rise with life in him. But they that belong to the covenant, shall be delivered: Saul is tempted, sinneth and sleepeth in it his last: David is tempted, sinneth, and sleepeth, but not his la •• . Peter is tempted to conceal, to deny, to forswear his Master; yet one look of Christ delivered him: Judas is tempted to betray him, goes on, and perisheth. The Lord would never have suffered so dear favorites of his, as Lot, David, Peter, to fall so dangerously: if he had not meant to make them universal examples to the world, of not presuming, of not despairing. For how can we presume of no • sinning, or despair for sinning, when we find so great Saints thus fallen, thus risen? How many years had those ten brethren forgotten their unnatural treachery! Alas, what long and dead sleeps may the holiest souls take in fearful 〈◊〉 ▪ Were it not for God's mercy that thus delivers us out of temptations, we should end our spiritual lethargy in a sleep of death. David in those ten mone •• s might have some transient glances of remorse; but no compunction is heard of till Nathan's message, and perhaps had been further adjourned, if that Monitor had been longer deferred. God could have sent him sooner, and checked David 〈◊〉 h • s first project of sin: so had Bersheba been chaste, Uriah alive, and himself gui •• l •• se of murder. But that Almighty wisdom knew how to win more glory by the permission, than by the prevention; by the permission of one sin to prevent •• ons. How many thousands had presumed on their own strength, if such a Champion had not fallen! How many thousands had despaired in the consciences 〈◊〉 their own mis-deeds and weakness, if such sins had not found remission! It is h •• py for all after-times that we have such precedents, so holy sinners, so sinful ••• tents: their falls have taught us by whom to stand. In a word, many Saints 〈◊〉 committed as great sins as reprobates: that the one is pardoned, not the other, • he difference is not in the quantity or quality of the sin, but in the mercy of God.
1 We that pray for deliverance from evil, must endeavor against e •• . The best Fencer lies close, [Uses of it.] and is more careful to defend than to offend: w • we lie open, Satan hath a fair mark. Ranke mirth, a full belly, gaming, and wine, lay a man open. That wine is an inducement to lust, David knew; and therefore gave Uriah such superfluous cups: and it is hard to refuse pledging, where a King begins a Health to a Subject. This might easily lay him open to evil; the drunkard may be anything but good. But temptation is then stronger, when 〈◊〉 proceeds from a mighty instrument: the requests of Princes are commands • he •• very suites imperative. How many Bethshebas and Jane Shores have thus been wrought, to pollute both a royal and matrimonial bed! The countenance of authority is authoritative with many: ask a Romist, whether if the Pope command him to kill his Sovereign, he is to do or refuse it: perhaps he trif • es that the Pope will never command it: but put him to it, If; then his answer m • st be affirmative. If Saul charge a Doeg, he will wreak his spleen on the Priests. L •• the master tempt his servant, the father his child, their least word is a law. But 〈◊〉 will be no excuse to say at last, such a great person tempted me, as Adam said of Eve▪ it is quid that we must regard, not quis; the action, not the person: be the mover never so glorious, if his motion be to sin, let it be entertained with d • fiance. Let us have wary eyes, for it is not the self-appearing devil, but the same a transformed Angel, that doth corrupt us.
2. Consider what preventions the provident God useth against our sinnings. How many stays doth Saul find in his pursuit of David: twice he casts his I •• elin, and mist him: exposed him to the Philistines, but he slew them: M • chol was given him for a snare, yet she delivers him; Jonathan is constant to him: Saul hath begirt him, loe then he is delivered by the Philistines invasion. This found Balaam in his pestilent itch to curse Israel: one night God puts him off; the second time he answers his importunacie and bids him go in anger: an Angel stands to cross him, his beast turns out of the way: she bruiseth his fo t • against the wall, at last falls down under him: many crosses to recall him H • w is the other Saul (with his letters missive to vex the Church) arrested from heaven. I know there be sudden sins, no sooner thought of than dispatched; which is like fire to powder. But in our resolved intentions of doing a sin, if we would mark it, we meet with strange impediments, as Jonah did in his flight; which should make us grow jealous of such enterprises. Some have been frighted from their uncleanness, by the tolling of a passing-bell: others diverted from a b d journey, by the sudden lameness of their horse. How often hath God prevented murders by strange accidents? Sometimes he shortens our own arms, sometimes strengthens others against us. Sometime reason is heard, when religion si • s out: and the dishonesty, inutility, or difficulty of a sin is p •• p • nded. But it is best, when the fear of God hath corrected us, or the word of God av • rted us, or the Spirit of God recalled us. By innumerable means doth the Lord stop our precipices, hedge up our ways to sin: that when temptation invites us, we may have hands manacled, and feere fettered with detentions; and we cozen the devil against our wills. He would have us come, and we would come • , but (thanks be to God) we cannot come. Let us observe it; as when we are doing w • ll, we have many provocations to alienate our minds from it; so when we are intending mischief, God sends many inconveniences, as it were vocal accidents, to hinder us; as if God should say, take heed what you do.
3 Let us meditate how we are blessed of God, and have reason to bless God, for these happy deliverances. As Saint Augustine, Tentator defuit, &c. I had time and place to commit sin, but then the Tempter was away: thy doing, O Lord, it was that he was away. The tempter was present, but then time and place were wanting; thy doing it was that I wanted time and place. Time and place were convenient, and the tempter was there also, provoking me forward, all opportunities forth • ring: but then I had no stomach to it, lust was cool, my will had no will to consent: thy doing it was that I was unwilling, that the edge of my appetite was dull. Sometimes I had will, but then I wanted means: sometimes I had means, but then I wanted will: sometimes I had likewise will and means, but then I also wanted ability: another time; means, will, and ability were concurring; but then came in some other interruption; a messenger with sudden business, the distress of a friend, the invitation of a neighbor. Still, O Lord, that I was not led into temptation, nor captivated by suggestion, it was thy doing. Blessed be God, as for his furtherance in good, so for his hindrance in evil. If we be godly, and find these things true, let us enter into our chambers, fall upon out knees, lift up our hearts, and say in humble thankfulness; Lord, thou hast delivered me, I find thy mercy, to thy name be the glory.
4 Lastly, if we love not evil, let us long for our final and plenary deliverance from it; that immortal court, where sin can no more enter, than sorrow or death: out of this the Tempter is excluded forever. Here the Lord d • livers us from the damnation and domination of sin, there from the temptation and assault: here it shall not overcome us, there it shall not come near us. Wretched man! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who? He that now free • us from the burning, will then from the smell of the fire. Here even a Saint is but a mixed creature; and the sin which he hath by his generation, fights against the grace which he hath by his own regeneration. This felt St Paul: and Jerome i • his very abstinence; Men's ardebat desideriis in frigido corpore: my face was pale, but my heart was flushing; and I had a burning mind in a chill body. Mortall perfection is a vain dream: Aquinas thinks we may fulfill a precept two ways: either perfectly, quando pervenitur ad finem, when we perform the full scope of 〈◊〉 : or imperfectly, cum non receditur ab ordine ad finem, when we keep the way conducing to the end. But as when the Captain bids the soldiers fight and conquer, he that fights and conquers, perfectly doth his will: he that fights and doth not get the victory, comes short of doing his will: and in God's battles, he that conquers not, which is the end; recedit ab ordine ad finem, doth certainly fail in the means. Therefore he that sincerely loves GOD, and detests sin, desi • eth dissolution for no other end, but to be freed from temptation. The good soldier will fight when he is in the field, but he is contented to have the battle over. This is one benefit that death against his own will shall do us; a perfect delivery from all temptations. In Paradise man had a Posse non peccare: in heaven he shall have a Non posse peccare. Satan shall then be bound in eternal chains, never to stir out of that local torment; and the Elect be set at triumpha • t liberty.
For Probations, which are the other sort of temptations, or trials by troubles; they are derived from three fountains, and may thus be distinguished, not in propriety of terms, but after the common acceptance. As they come from Satan they are usually called temptations: as they come from man, persecutions: as from God, afflictions. All these are in some manner from the Lord: neither man nor devil can afflict us without God, God can afflict us without them. When we pray not to be led into temptation, we pray not against correction, but against evil: for though Christ mak • us invincible, he makes us not invulnerable. All our days are evil, some worse • as the ague hath chief fits, critical days. Some be more grievous sufferings tha • others; as Martyrdom in the extent, (for it may be occultâ cogitatione, though not apertâ passion ) and we have cause to bless God that we resist not unto blood. If there were no good in these temptations, they should not come near us: for nothing absolutely evil shall come to a good man. And when they have done the business they came for, they shall leave us: the plaster will not stick on whe • the sore is healed.
Do they come from the ungodly? Whether Tertullus persecute the Church with his tongue, or Elimas with his hand, God hath the command of both. I • deed the wicked are the mediate causes of our troubles: the righteous are as the center, the other the circumference: which way soever they turn, they find themselves environed: yet still the center is fixed and immovable, being founded upon CHRIST. It is good for some men to have adversaries: for often they more fear to sin, least they should despise them, than dislike it for conscience, least God should condemn them. They speak evil of us: if true let us amend it: if fall • e contemn it: whether true, or false, observe it. Thus we shall learn good out of their evil; make them our Tutors, and give them no pupillage. In all things let us watch them, in nothing fear them Which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to us of salvation. The Church is that Tower of David: if there be a thousand weapons to wound us, there are a thousand shields to guard us. When the Angel saluted Gideon, God be with thee; he replied, If God be with us, he •• i • all this evil befallen us? Why do the Midianites vex us? Yes, God may be with us, and the Midianites against us: yea therefore are they against us, because God is with us. It is neither our shame to suffer what CHRIST suffered, nor • ir honor to do as Judas did. Howsoever they be wicked Instruments, yet the 〈◊〉 hand is the Lord's: God gave, saith Job: what and the Devil took away? No, 〈◊〉 Sabaeans took away? No, but the Lord took away. As when the malignity of • isease is spent, health will return: so when all our adversaries have done their • rst, if not before, then God will deliver us. Let Jezebel fret her heart out, and • ear by her gods, Elijah must be safe. Let the red Dragon spout forth floods of • ome, the Church hath wings to fly away, she shall be delivered.
Do they come from God? diligit quem corrigit: storms and afflictions are 〈◊〉 from fury without love, but rather from love without fury. Lord, he whom 〈◊〉 lovest, is sick: Lazarus may be sick and yet CHRIST love him. The intelli • t son knows that his fathers correction is no argument of his fathers ha • d; therefore is silent. I was dumb, because thou didst it. I was not dumb for • t I did, but confessed my sin: but dumb for that thou didst, acknowledging it • st punishment. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee, for a moment. It is but Mo • um, a little, ad momentum, for a moment: and I hid my face, never turned my • rt from thee. Indeed as man is under the Law, they are legal punishments: • t as under grace, paternal corrections. They are a testimony of his good • our toward us, when by them he separates the sin which he hates, from • e person which he loves. And this he always so tempers, that it is nei •• er according to our sins, nor exceeding our strengths. Non ultra vires: • ts? No, but not above GOD'S strength in us. No parent corrects another's • ild, and he is no good parent that corrects not his own. By this we come to • ow our friend: three things are not known but in three places: valor, but in • nger: wisdom, but in anger: a friend, but in misery. Afflictions have done 〈◊〉 this good, that we are sure we have a friend, a father in heaven, for we have try • him. Faith understands troubles to be Probationis Indicia, not Reprobationis ar • menta. Our life is a web woven by the hand of God, the thread reaching from • r birth unto our death. The woof is trouble, but still runs with it a Weft of • erwoven comforts. But if so then may we not pray for their removal? Yes, • emove thy plague away from me: Thy plague, and mine: thine by affliction, mine 〈◊〉 passion: thine because thou didst send it, mine because I endure it: thine because 〈◊〉 comes from thy Justice, mine because it answers my injustice: remit what I have • one, and remove what thou hast done. But whosoever laid it on, the Lord will • ke it off. Be our troubles many in number, strange in nature, heavy in measure • et God's mercies are more numerous, his wisdom more wondrous, his power • ore miraculous, he will deliver us out of all. This doctrine well digested, will • reed good blood in our souls, and is useful three ways.
1 To fortify our patience; he needs not fear the trouble, that knows 〈◊〉 infallible deliverance. Possess your souls in patience. He doth not say, pos •• sse your mouths, for some being provoked will give no bad language; nor • ossesse your hands; many being urged can forbear violence: yet still the desire • f revenge may boil and ranckle in both their hearts. But possess your souls, that 〈◊〉 , yourselves, in patience: this binds both mouth and hand to the peace and good • orbearance: all are quiet, if the soul be quiet. Two things become a Christian; • apientia in verbis, patientia in verberibus. Time is the Physicians Cure, reason the • hilosophers Cure, patience is God's Cure. Time helps sorrows, Dies adimit • gritudinem: but still this is tedious, and time runs to dully with them that be in • isery. Reason qualifies it, for it is the courage and magnanimity of a man to • ffer. But this only seeks means to extricate us, reason will not stay for time: • u • faithful patience looks neither to reason nor time, but knows a better reme • y: she commits her cause to God, and resolves upon this resignation, that either • er sorrow shall be less or her fortitude more. Nobile vincendi genus est patien • ia. Faith, Charity, and Patience, are the three rich possessions of a Christian: by Faith we possess Christ, by Charity, we possess our neighbor, by Patience 〈◊〉 possess ourselves. He that wants Faith is without the head: he that wants Cha •• ty, is without the body; he that wants patience is without himself. Our patience, like our trial, hath but a short exercise: our deliverance is glorious and everlasting.
2 To confirm our hope, he that hath tasted the mercy of God in some no • ble deliverance, hopes in the next trial for the same assistance. Experience brings hope; because it hath made the matter easy: he that hath often done a thing ease • y, mistrusts not to do it again. David had often found his deliverance out of 〈◊〉 exigence, therefore says; In the Name of God I will leap over the Wall: his experience had made it so easy to him, that it was but a skip or jump in his conce • .
3 Let us not fain afflictions before we have them: we can expect no del ••• rance out of fantastical griefs. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. T •• beggars by permission, that fain themselves halt and blind: and beg •• by commission, that have patents for fires and wracks: but their fires are 〈◊〉 feigned and false fires, and all their wracks the wrack of their own conscie • ces. Let them take heed, lest their fictions prove at last true afflictions, thei • •• sembled lameness prove lameness indeed. As Martial writes of Caelius, who 〈◊〉 avoid the Ave potentiorem, giving his attendance early and late to the great ones 〈◊〉 the time; feigned himself sick of the gowte; so cunningly, that his hyp • cr •• came home to him, and he fell sick of the gowte indeed. Tantum cura potes • 〈◊〉 ars doloris, desiit fingere Caelius podagram. How often have those mischances tales to men without relief, for which they begged relief before they had cause! Go • promiseth deliverance from the temptations he sends, not those we fetch: such as come from our want, not from our wantonness. Many make to themselves c •• ses; and while God's hand is not visible, they with their own hands beat themselves. Haman that great favourite hath honor enough, though Mordecai do •• cringe to him: yet this makes him discontent; here was a cross of his own beg • ting. Ahab was King, had lands and demeasnes enough of his own, yet beca •• e Nabaoth denies him his vineyard, he falls sick of the sullens. For this trouble let him thank himself: what needs a rich man be a thief? Amnon had v ••• tie of choice objects for his inordinate affection; yet he must be love-sick of T •• mar: none but his half-sister can please the eyes of that wanton Prince. Or •••• ry pleasures will not content extraordinary persons; such pampered and •• vern'd youthes, whose greatness and ease have made unruly appetites. This 〈◊〉 unnatural heat of which he languishes; was not this an affliction of his own 〈◊〉 king. It is not rare to see a great man vex himself at the neglect of a peasant; 〈◊〉 as a true Lion would pass by with an honorable scorn. To see the husband 〈◊〉 a virtuous and comely spouse, doting on a foul and forbidden bed. To see 〈◊〉 man pine away with projecting how he should live when he is old. Innume ••••• be our fantastical evils, and we trouble ourselves about nothing. Evils co •• fast enough of themselves, there is store made to our hands, we need not encr ••• their number: those ill weeds will grow without our planting.
Our deliverer is The Lord. It is the voice of all creatures in their several la • guages, Salvation is of the Lord. The confession of men more sensibly, This 〈◊〉 the preserver of men. The acknowledgment of Saints more especially, 〈◊〉 help standeth in the Name of the LORD. This word leads us to a cons • deration of his Power; He can deliver us, and none but He. Lord: his Almightiness was the first Name He would be known by to the world, Exod 6.3. Not that Jehovah was not in some manner formerly known: for Gen. 15. and 26.24. But as if he made this difference: Then I gave promises what I would do, now I come to perform the promises: with God Almighty, which signifies my Majesty; I will show myself Jehovah, the God of Abraham, which shall demonstrate my mercy. Subjiciuntur omnes potestates Potestati Infinitae. The Lord. his Sovereignty is a point that comes not often to be handled, therefore here I take leave to enlarge myself. It may be considered in seven respects.
1 It is undependant: many things are said to govern, but they have some • ependance on their superiors. Our life is beholding to the fruits, the fruits • o the trees, the trees to the earth, the earth to the rain, the rain to the Sun, • he Sun and all to the Lord: Natura Naturanti, machina Creatori. Fruits are • om trees, and trees from seeds; both moistened by the air, and matured by the • unne: element is qualified by element, orbe depends on orbe, the Sun it self • n Primum mobile: Astra regunt homines, sed Deus astra: we can go no higher. The child looks up to his father, his father lives by the peace of the country, the • ountrey could have no peace but by the Magistrate, the Magistrate is countenan • ed and warranted by the King, the King is ruled by God. Still one looks upon • nother, but the eyes of all things look up unto thee, O Lord.
2 It is absolute; he may dispose of his Subjects at his pleasure. As the • otter having the lump in his hand, makes what kind of vessel he listeth; • reat or small, round or square, for the Parlor, or for the Stable: and when • ee hath done, he may set it on his cupboard, or on the dunghill: be it to • onour or dishonor, he will be honored by it. Man respects deserts or de • erits, in making the poor rich, or the rich poor; in ennobling the base, or de • asing the noble: God doth all according to his own will without further relati • n. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? He can make Tabor • little heaven, and turn Paradise into a desert. It is absolute, without control: • here is none to call him to account or examination; with Cur ita facis? O Lord, 〈◊〉 was not therefore thy doing because it was good, but therefore is it good be • ause it was thy doing. Whether thy mercy saveth us, we have cause to be thank •• ll: or thy justice confoundeth us, we have no cause to complain: still Thou conti • uest holy, O thou worship of Israel.
3 His Lordship is universal. First, overall times; other Lord's die; Domi • i terrae, but terra Domini: he is eternal. Eternity is properly the duration of an • ncreat • d Ens. It is improperly taken, either for things that have both beginning • nd end, as Colles aeterni, terra aeterna, everlasting mountains; diverse such phra • es in Scripture. Or for things that have a beginning but shall have no end: so are • ngels, and men's souls eternal; so, eternal life, eternal fire. But God calls • imselfe, I AM: I am what I have been, I have been what I am, I am and • ave been what I shall be. This Attribute is incommunicable: all other things • ad a Non esse preceeding their Esse; and they have a mutation tending to nothing. They shall be as nothing that war against thee: all come to nothing unless they • e upheld by the manutenency of God: but Thou art the same, and thy years shall • ave no end. Thou turnest man to destruction, and again sayest, Return: even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God: the sole Vmpire and Measurer of beginning and ending. Secondly, over all places, heaven, earth, hell. Psal. 135.6. Kings are limited, and cannot do many things they desire: they cannot command the Sun to stand still, nor the wind to blow which way they would: in the • ofty air, in the depth of the sea, no King reigns. They fondly flatter the Pope with his long arms, that they reach to purgatory; (but indeed both power and • lace are alike imaginary,) it is CHRIST alone that hath the keys of all places. • hirdly, over all creatures; binding the influences of Plejades, and loosing the • onds of Orion: commanding the fire against the nature of it, to descend: creating • nd ruling the stars, over-ruling the Lions, sending the meteors, hedging in the • ease, lapping it up like a child in swaddling clouts, dividing, diverting, filling it. In • oth fire and water, these two raging elements that have no mercy, he shows mer • y: delivers us from both in both. He calls the fowls, and they come: the beasts • nd they hear: the trees, and they spring to obey him. He hath a Raven for Elias, 〈◊〉 gourd for Jonah, a dog for Lazarus. Makes the Leviathan, the hugest living creature, preserve his Prophet. That a terrible Lion should be killed, as was by Sampson; or not kill as they forbore Daniel; or kill and not eat, as that Prophet, 1 Kings 13. Here was the Lord. Over metals, he makes Iron to swim, sto •• s to cleave a sunder. Over the devils, they must obey him though animo resist • di. But they continually rebel against him, and break his will? They do indeed against his complacency, not against his permission: Et quando permittit, non •• lens sed volens permittit. There is then no time, not the hour of death: no place, not the sorest torment; no creature, not the devil: but the Lord can deliver us from them. Therefore at all times, in all places, and against all creatures, let • s trust in him for deliverance.
4 It is necessary; we could not live but by his dominion. Take away government, we are worse than beasts; a bad King is better than no King. If man rule 〈◊〉 he over-rules all: Higher than the highest. Above all, to support: the Pillar and the foundation of the pillars and foundations of the world. Above all to correct, binding Kings in chains: if authority grow warped, to straiten it with his justice. Above all, to direct, he directs natural government to natural good; that the Elements be not at war, but working in a well disposed harmony for our benefit: that one doth not swallow up another, nor the stronger oppress the weaker; it is the Lord's doing. As he made nature with his Fiat, so he sets it a working wi • h his Faciat: let it so be, let it so work. He directs politick government to politick good, that we might live like men in a civil peace. Supernatural government to salvation, that we may live like Christians in a gracious obedience and comfort. This power was necessary for creation; he must be an Almighty Lord that could make us of nothing. It is necessary for preservation, to conserve things in their being and working. Necessary for redemption; it must be an infinite sto • e, that must pay an infinite debt. If the Lord had not become a servant on earth, those servants could never have been Lord's in heaven. All the parts of a Common-wealth, ought to uphold one another in policy: all the members of the Church to uphold one another in charity: as in a building one stone doth bea • e up another, but the foundation bears up all. The members uphold the body, the body the members: the Subjects uphold the King, the King upholds the Subjects: but Thou O Lord, upholdest us all.
5 It is immutable; whatsoever the Lord is, he is Simul & Semel. With • s one thing doth exclude another, this moment thrusts out that; learning excludes ignorance, riches poverty; the business of this hour gives place to the next. Be • God's Essence and perfections are together: Aeternitas Dei; Essentia Dei est. As he is eternal, absque Origin, so invariable absque Mutatione: We are not prese •• to things past or to come: God is to all times and things, past, present, or 〈◊〉 ; ever present. The reason is, he is Immense, and fills all places without mo • i •• , without ascent, or descent. Indeed he is sometime said to d descend; but it is because he then doth some new work; men took no notice of his presence before This Lordship hath no succession, yet he produceth works successively: Eg • f • cio, and Ego faciam. But this is not in regard of himself, but in respect of us, that he is said to do one thing after another. He doth not now create the world, not now destroy it, nor now call Abraham out of Vr: nor is Isaac redeemed from sacrifice, and Christ sacrificed, in the same place or at the same time. The type 〈◊〉 properly go before the antitype. It is false then to say that men were justified before they were borne: they are elected before all time, but called and justified in time: these things are done successively. With the Lord there is order, though there be no time. If I come to a Pillar with my left side toward it, it is then on my left side: if I come with my right side toward it, then is it on my right side: yet is the pillar it self immovable. Omnis mutabilitas quaedam mors, saith the School if God could change, he could die. Now change is either substantial, or qualitative: but God's substance cannot be changed, and he hath no qualities. Again, it is either amissive, or perfective: no man changes but he is either the better or the worse by it: God is the fountain of life, nothing can be added to him, for he is • nite: nothing derogated from him, for he is the Lord Almighty. In his will, his purpose, in his joy, in his Justice, in his mercy, in all unchangeable. How is then said to repent? Not that he doth repent, but appears to us in the alterati • of his work, as one repenting. There may be change in the work, there is none • he work-man. Ad novum opus consilium non novum, sed aeternum: mutat rem, non • ilium. The unchangeable decree of God disposeth the change of all things, • man that builds a house, hath an Idea in his head whereby he purposes to frame • he decrees how to order this part, to erect that corner, here to build a partition, • re a chimney, to set up a scaffold, and pull it down again: here is a variety 〈◊〉 change of the work, the worker is still the same. What God once is, he is • ever: once just, ever just: once merciful, ever merciful.
6 It is incomprehensible, whoever saw God in his strength, and lived? This • rd is in himself Invisible, as indivisible: seen in his mighty works, never to 〈◊〉 seen in his Person. But we shall see him face to face? Not the deity it self, as 〈◊〉 Anthropomorphites dreamed: not a light only resulting from him, as was the • or of the Armenians. But by face to face, is meant the clear knowledge of • understanding: and we shall know him, not with comprehensive knowledge, • with Scientia adaequata, as he is cognoscible, for he is incomprehensible. So are • se places to be understood, Hebr. 12.15. 1 John. 3.2. Revel. 22.4. The intel • uall vision is not of his Essence, but of some work represented. And that of • uel, Chap. 7.9. was but a dream or vision upon his bed; some divine and su • natural revelation. But did not John the Baptist see the Holy Ghost? No, not the • vine nature, but the Dove. But doth not Job assure himself of Seeing God? • t GOD himself, but his Redeemer, God in the veil of the flesh: JESUS • ll be thoroughly and joyfully looked upon: but the deity shall not be seen here • er with the bodily eyes.
Nothing can apprehend that which is out of the limits; but we are finite, and • d is immense. Every thing that is seen, must be seen in some place; but God 〈◊〉 no place. Our body indeed shall be spiritual, not needing meat, nor sleep, 〈◊〉 breathing by air: yet it is not capable of comprehending that infinite Spirit. • re we understand him after the measure and capacity of man, in a human re • blance; as if he had feet, eyes, affections: because they that should know him, • e such. But when we read of God's Foot, let us think of his coming, as a • n removes by his feet. When we read of his eyes, consider his knowledge of 〈◊〉 things, as a man sees all by that Organ of sense. So when we are said to see his • e, conceive our knowledge of him to be meant. He that made the ear, shall he 〈◊〉 hear? he doth not say, Hath he not an ear? but, shall he not hear? The Pure 〈◊〉 heart are promised to see God: but as that pureness is in heart, so is that vision 〈◊〉 heart. We say, I see a man's wisdom, see his valor, see his meaning; yet 〈◊〉 not these visible▪ so nor this Lord but by his effects, what his power worketh. • us far in heaven we shall exceed in knowledge: here we know him only by • gatives, what he is not; that not mortal, not mutable: and by his works; • he Lord is known by his Judgments; and vacate & videte, Be still, and know that 〈◊〉 God: you that are absent, come and see: you that are present, stand still and • ntemplate: see and know, know and confess, confess and apply, make use of • at you see and know. What's that? I am God, you are but men: Put them in • de, O Lord, that they are but men; worms, vanity, nothing. But Ego Deus, not • opular, titular, idle, abject God, like the gods of the Gentiles, not able to wipe 〈◊〉 dust off their own faces: but a God that makes gods, a God that mars gods; • t hath a dominion above all dominion, above all comprehension. LORD, • e cannot comprehend thee in thy Majesty, do thou comprehend us in thy • rcie.
7 It is Glorious and blessed: he is the chiefest good, and he enjoys himself, therefore is perfectly and infinitely blessed. Our blessedness consists in enjoying him, his, not enjoying us, but himself. The Hebrew speaks of Blessedness in the plural, Beatitudines: as the latines call wealth, Divitiae, Opes: because • a • y things concur, as to make up a rich man, so to make one blessed. There is 〈◊〉 them both, Objectiva pars; as gold, silver, lands, houses be the materials of •• ches. And Formalis pars, the free and certain possession of these things; for if they may be gone, a man is poor in possibility; when they are gone, he is po •• •• deed. Mans blessedness is from another, the Lord's is from himself: m •• 〈◊〉 grace, God's in nature: man's temporal, God's Eternal: man's voluntary, Go •• necessary, it cannot be otherwise: man's changeable, God's always the same. The greatest and statelyest monarch puts off his glory and robes at sometimes; 〈◊〉 when he goes into the Bath, the bed, the grave. He carries no Scepter in the 〈◊〉 yet may he then have a Crown on his head: he hath neither scepter nor Cro •• e in his bed, yet even then he is known a King by his attending guard: but in 〈◊〉 grave he leaves off all. Now God's glory is never left off, there is no interu ••• on of his blessedness, not a moment wherein he is less happy.
His blessedness is Internal or external. Internal consists. 1. In the c •• templation of his own sufficiency: thus he saw all to be very good which he 〈◊〉 and took pleasure in his own wisdom that made them. 2. In the compre ••• sion of all happiness; for it is nothing to be blessed, and not to understand it: •• ny were faelices, bona si sua norint: God's omniscience is his blessedness. 3. 〈◊〉 the delectation taken in this comprehension, when he knows there is nothing 〈◊〉 offend him: whereas Kings may be free from danger, not from fear. 4. 〈◊〉 contentation taken in this delight; having all things so fully in himself, th •• 〈◊〉 needs no addition. Many men think not themselves happy in the much they ha •• , because they want something they would have: but there is nothing more 〈◊〉 God to desire. He comtemplates his own goodness, and rests in himself 〈◊〉 a sweet complacency, as the infinite fountain of all blessedness. External blessedness is that he receives from the creatures, everyone, sensible and insensible, especially, Angels and men. He is blessed in himself, yet he will also be bless • 〈◊〉 us. We can add nothing to him, nor may we take his due honor from him. H • looks for praises for electing us, creating us, &c. We discourse our blessings 〈◊〉 an annual commemoration, rejoice and solace ourselves in them; but still let 〈◊〉 reflect all by praises to our Maker. A King will take a present of a beggar, 〈◊〉 by this occasion he may (not enrich himself, but) reward the poor man. G •• needs not this outward clothing, yet he is pleased to wear it for our sakes. 1 C •• . 1.3. Blessed be God, &c.
Thus far I thought good to meditate on the ineffable Majesty of God. It is 〈◊〉 possible to drink up all the sea, to suck in all the air, much less to compreh •• God. When a man considers himself in relation to the reasonless creatures; 〈◊〉 the beasts do him homage, the earth yields him her fruits and metals, the •• brings him in merchandise, the air provides breath for his nostrils, and 〈◊〉 for his table, the Sun misseth not his hour to enlighten him; he may then th •• himself something: but when he considers the Lord, he is swallowed up, 〈◊〉 thinks himself nothing. Now though a man cannot drink up all the river, y •• he may taste it: though not span the Sun, yet look upon his beams: though 〈◊〉 cannot take in all the air, yet enough to fill us. Let us get enough of this L ••• fill our hearts, we need no more. When a man thrusts his hand into the fire, it burns him: when he comes but near it, it warms him: let us come with a purpose to partake, not to comprehend the Lord. Origen on Levitic. The two days offering are the two Testaments; these eat and feed upon: what is reserved for the third day, is for the world to come; it will fire us to search that. Not is th •• point barren, but hath the comfortable use, and that even appliable to our p •• pose. Doctrine being like the Sun, not only to delight us with the contemplatio • , but also to warm and quicken our affections.
This Lord being the Supreme, and all other Powers subordinate to him, and [unspec 1] dependant on him, let this encourage our faith to trust him with our deliverance. 〈◊〉 Trouble not yourselves with your enemies, nor yet say Manus nostra excelsa, our own hand shall deliver us: Kings are men of might, yet but men of dust: without this Lord their power cannot save themselves, much less us. Angels are mighty, but cannot come unless this Lord send them; I could ask my Father, • d he would give me Legions of Angels; saith Christ: we must ask our Father, or • ot have one Angel to do us good. He shall look his eyes out, that trusts to any other deliverer than the Lord.
His Dominion being so absolute, let men cease to rebel against it. I will be [unspec 2] • xalted, not only in my Israel; but in Gentibus, among the nations: if they receive • ne, volentibus, with their good contents: if they refuse me, Invitis, against their wills. And if there be any ground, whose lines are extended farther than people • nd nations inhabit, there also will I be exalted, in universa terra. We fear Kings • nd take their wrathful looks as messengers of death; and we do well to Give fear, to whom fear belongs. But here is a Power we cannot resist, a Wisdom we cannot delude, a Justice we cannot corrupt. Locks, and stocks, and treble bar • ed doors, a dark dungeon, and a cruel Gaoler, all cannot keep them in, whom • his Lord will deliver. His power shall shake the foundations of the earth, that earth-quake the foundations of the Prison, that trembling (as in the body) dis • oynt and unfasten the doors, and loose all their bands. There is no knot but he can untie it; let us at once fear and trust him.
This being universal over all times; the God of Abraham, and of his seed; [unspec 3] Jesus Christ yesterday, and today, and the same forever; the God of our fathers that were, of ourselves that are, of our posterity that shall be, then our enemies shall never find time, wherein he shall not find means to deliver us. Over all places, Coelum & terram impleo, whither shall we go from his presence? Whither? That place was never yet discovered. He is present even to those that shun his presence; that say to him, Depart from us: how much more to us? Dominus nobiscum; yea he is not only with us, but for us; Nobiscum & pro nobis: Immanuel, God in our nature, God in our flesh. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Dominus virtutum, there's his power: Refugium nostrum, there's his favor. The Load of Hosts, strong: the God of Jacob, sweet. The one Virium, the other Voluntatis: the one Roboris, the other Foederis: one of puissance, another of promise. The Lord, the Lord; whatsoever belongs to Power, Majesty, Governance: merciful, what ever belongs to election, dilection, compassion, covenant, sacrament: both together a just aequilibrium between greatness and grace; a fair and sweet harmony. Over all creatures; as heaven is his throne, the earth his foot-stool, and the sea his wash-pot; so all creatures in them are at his beck; none can say, Ego solus aufugi, I have escaped. He can make the very flies and insects, those scorns of nature, executioners of his vengeance. Over us, in a gracious and special manner; which affords us a challenge and defiance against all adversary forces: we fear not armies of men, legions of devils, nor the gates of hell: Dominus Deus noster, The Lord is our God: which are not only voces charitatis, comprehending in a community all Christians; but voces fidei, when we take this great Lord for our proper and peculiar God. That he can deliver us, this we presume: that he will deliver us, this we assume: from that principle or Thesis, we derive this Hypothis, and appropriate it to ourselves. Therefore we say not only with the Leper; Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean: but we know thou canst, and we believe thou wilt, and we beseech thee to do it.
The necessarinesse of this Lordship gives us experience, experience confidence, [unspec 4] and confidence will bring deliverance. How easily would the thunder strik us dead, the sea break in upon us, thieves spoil us, the whelps of Rome worry us, the fiends of hell ruin us; but that our Lord sits in the chair of omnipotency and protects us: Many are the dangers which we see and fear; innumerable those, we neither see nor fear: therefore to take away all attribution to ourselves, even when we know not, the Lord delivers us. How manifold are thy works O Lord▪ How manifold, if we sails in the main Ocean, and put not into some arm or cree • we never find an end. But that Consuetudinis perseverantia amisit admiratio •• : we wonder not because they are common. Abundantia contumeliosa in seme •• psam: of fullness comes loathing. It is not magnitudo, but novitas; that draws our eyes and observations. But he that considers his own weakness and impotence; how he was made in the womb, and knew it not; taken from the womb and not able to help himself: that God must now give him his daily bread to feed him, his daily breath to quicken him, or he perishes: or that considers the power of his enemies, with the implacable fury of their malice, the blood-hounds of hell: and yet that he is delivered; must confess, A Domino, factum est, This is the Lord's doing. That Sisera should fall by a woman, Pharaohs host sink like stones into the bottom of the sea, an invincible Navy perish by a few rotten ships on fire: O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men: that our children's children to the last period of any generation in this Island may say, O God we have heard with our ears, our Fathers and Grand-fathers have declared to us, that noble work of thy deliverance.
The immutability of it gives us further cause to trust in him. Laban may [unspec 5] love Jacob well, but his countenance will change upon him: Amnon will hate Th • mar more than ever he loved her: Pharaohs Officer forgets Joseph when his tu •• e is served: there is no constancy in man, but Ego Jehovah non mutor, I the L •• d change not. The World changeth, the Vines cast off her grapes, the tired ea • th grows dull in increase, man's stature is lessened, his length of life less than th •• , his honesty little or nothing at all: the sea encroacheth upon the land, Springs lock like Autumns: States change, policies change, governments change, all the materials of nature change: we see it, we need not preach it: it is matter of fight • o • of faith. Every man's mouth is full of this complaint. The world is fickle: wh •• soever is delectable, vanisheth like smoke; Nocturnum somnium. That medici • e helps today, which doth not tomorrow: God is always helpful. That •• ceit helps one which helps not another; God helps all. The hoarder adores his money; yet is his wealth but like an Inheritance on Salisbury plain; he may rob many Passengers for a time, at last somebody will rob him. Set not your heart o • riches, lest you be driven to say, as Laban to Rachel, Thou hast stolen away my he • . And when they are gone, Plus cruciant amissa, quàm delectant possessa. Contra •• lie, God's love increaseth; though not formaliter, in it self, yet effective, to us. Frie •• s are mutable, Paul had many adherents, yet at last complains, No man stood 〈◊〉 me, but all forsook me. Indeed Alexander opposed his words: some withstood h •• but none stood with him. Yet then he finds this Lord to stand for him, he deliver •• him. Peace changeth into war, discord thrusts out amity; but in God is const ••• peace. I create the fruits of the lips, peace, peace, &c. Where we find; 1. Certit • tnem, Paraohs dream is doubled for the sureness; 2. Magnitudinem, no peace 〈◊〉 our reconciliation w th God, it is past all understanding. 3. Multitudinem all kinds of peace that may stand w th goodness. If sufferings abound for Christ, consolations 〈◊〉 also: if the exuperance be in either scale, it is in the comforts. Ro. 8. we read of se ••• enemies: and v. 38. of seven victories. And if there be any other obstacle, from the height of heaven to the depth and bottom of hell: or further malignity in a • y creature, it shall be removed. Whom God loves he loves to the end: and if he have once given us an earnest of his favor, we shall be sure of the whole bargain.
The incomprehensiblenesse of this power, so far transcending angustias h ••• ni cordis, and yet so visible to the eye in the great and wondrous effects; may well further show us where our deliverance lies. Howsoever the noblest demonstration of things be from their causes and principles; yet the nearest to us ward, a • d most apprehensible is from the effects and performances. At Sennacherib's army Judah hung down the head, rent her clothes, and hid her face; nothing was left her, but Lord bow down thine ear and hear, open thine eye and consider: yet in this extremity they found the Lord a Deliverer: an Angel slew in one night 185000 of them. Here was an invisible hand, but a mighty one: a power not comprehensible, yet discerned in the work. If any object, We see not our signs, not one finger of this hand appears: we are in distress, and the Lord hath thrust his working arm into his bosom, buried his mercies in forgetfulness: yea he does that which seems contrary to his works of favor; not diversa, sed adversa, which the Prophet calls Opera peregrina, strange and unproper works, almost aliene from his nature, troubling his own people; that the very wicked insult, Where is now their God? yet even then is an invisible hand working for us; and when the Devils conspiracy is come to the birth, it shall be abortive, or strangled in the womb; the God of our salvation will deliver us.
It is blessed, and that which blesseth us, and all things to us: the Sun doth not [unspec 7] so necessarily lighten the air, as God doth bless them his favor is pleased to shine upon. CHRIST is his principally Blessed Son. Matth. 26.23. Son of God. Mark. 14.61. Son of the blessed. This blessedness comes down from him to the rest of his children: all blessings come from God, but by the hand of man, even that man of God, and hand of his Father; Christ. That bread should not choke, rather than nourish; it is blessing. That garments, which are cold of themselves, should keep us warm: but especially, that we perish not in our sins, that we are delivered from the power of death, and paws of the Dragon; this is his extraordinary blessing. Blessedness is every man's desire; now he that hath God, hath blessedness: whosoever hath the Sun, hath the light of the Sun; he cannot want water, that hath the fountain. Saint Augustine hath the story of a histrionical Mounte-bank, that to get spectators, and money by them, promised to tell them the next day what they all most desired. The Theater being full of people, and their minds full of expectation; what was the Device? Vili vultis emere, & chare vendere: you would all buy cheap and sell deer. But this holds not; for the good man in a famine will buy corn deer, and sell it to the poor cheap. And on the other side, the unthrift will sell his inheritance cheap, to buy vanities deer: therefore he failed of his promise. But if he had told them, Beati vultis esse, you would all be happy, this had been a full satisfaction. Let us cleave to this blessed God, and he will deliver us from sin and hell, which is blessedness begun; and bring us to salvation and heaven, which is blessedness perfect and consummate.
Let this teach us to bless him, that blesseth us. A man drinks of a river, he adds nothing to it, but takes something from it: when we offer to God our praises, we give him nothing, we receive something from him. Psal. 116.13. It is but thanks we give, but we take the cup of salvation. We send up praises, as a man throws up flowers, that fall down back upon his own head: so the showers of our free-will offerings fall down upon ourselves in showers of mercies.
Let it also invite us to love him, as being most blessed and lovely. Look what foundation there is in any other, why thou shouldst love, fear, serve, honor them all these are a thousand times more in God. Thy Prince hath honor, thy father reverence, thy Master service, thy wife love: all these are due to God in a transcendent measure. He that is thy King, is but God's servant; and spiritually we are all kings, in Christ: and when all the confederate kings of the earth cannot deliver thee this Lord can save thee. Thou lovest thy country, it is well: thy country gave thee not being & life: to displease God is the way to make thine own country spew thee out. If therefore Curtius in a vain-glorious love to his country, threw himself into the gulf, because the oracle said, whom the people loved best, he must be cast in to stop it. How are we bound to love God even above our own lives, that hath preserved us here, and provided a better country for us hereafter! Thou reverencest thy father, thou doest well;
nature it self would rebuke the contrary. But if such awe be to the father of thy flesh, what humble reverence is due to the Infuser of thy soul, the father of thy father and of all mankind? Thou servest thy master, well done: that God which always commands, not seldom commends this obedience. But if a Masters reward be such an encouragement, what is it to hear from heaven, Well done good servant? Thy wife hath thy heart, it is fit, you are one flesh: but be not so uxorious to thy wife, as to be injurious to thy husband, Christ. Of all places, remember Solomon, and let not thy wife have God's place. The love of a brother is great, of a friend greater, of a wife above that: but the love of God must be above all. Let the dead bury their dead, follow thou me: forsake thy father living, much more dead, to follow CHRIST. If the wife of thy bosom alienate thy affection from him, she is a Traitor to thee and to him. Now if lust or profit comes in competition with God, examine thy conscience, which preferrest thou? Gold many go to the Devil for, yet Thy Law is better to me, than thousands of gold or silver. How many of all these things do postponere curam, make it their last and least care! many men's shoe-tyes cost them more in a year than God and their souls: so unmindful are we of thee, O Lord!
The Lord knoweth how.] I have held you long in this point of deliverance, and you say it is high time to deliver you from it: one circumstance more, and you have your wish. This last concerns the wisdom of God: it is enough that he promises deliverance, he keeps the Quomodo to himself. It is set down indefinitely: no man, no Apostle, no Angel, can know all the means of God's delivering his: it is enough, Novit ipse, himself knows. This gives a check to all saucy Inquirers, that will not believe help from the Lord, unless he tells them How. It hath ever been the foolish ambition of man, to be most prying into concealed things: desiring to know what he is forbidden, and slighting that he is charged to learn. It was not the thirst of gold, that was the fall of mankind; the earth and all her metals were his: not of honor, he had sovereignty over all the creatures: not of pleasure, he wanted none: Satan had another bait, a forbidden knowledge. How Divine a thing is knowledge, whereof even Innocence it self was ambitious! Adam looked for speculative knowledge, he should have looked for experimental. He thought it had been good to know evil, whereas good was ample enough to have made up his perfect knowledge and blessedness. He that knew all other things, knew not this one thing, that he knew enough. All that God made was good, the Maker being much more good: they good in their kinds, he good in himself. Adam knew the Creator, and his creatures, yet this could not content him: he would know that God never made, evil; evil of sin, evil of death: both which himself made by desiring to know them. Ever since, we know evil too well, and smart with knowing it: how dear hath this lesson cost us, that it is safe to be ignorant, where God hath not bid us know. Yet still are we transported with this saucy appetite of our Grandmother, and run ourselves a ground with the curious affectation of forbidden knowledge. For the things revealed, Lord give us a sober knowledge for the things concealed, give us a contented ignorance. There is more manifested than we can know, enough to make us happy by knowing. Deliverance we look for: how or when the Lord will deliver thee or me, that is in his own bosom, and the breast of his privy Council, Jesus Christ.
The Lord knoweth how.] As there is nothing unpossible to his might, so there is nothing concealeable from his understanding. God's wisdom and providence is like the eye of a well-drawn Picture; that looks upon all and everyone, as if everyone were all. Take an eye and draw never so many lines from it, it sees all alike, and at once: the Center is present to every point of the circumference. This is a threefold comfort to us.
1 He knows our temptations before they be upon us: he sees the preparing of the potion, weighs the ingredients to a scruple, qualifies the malignity of th • purgatives with sweet consolations. Satan, that bloody Apothecary, minds nothing but the drugs and dregs of poison; but God puts in an Antidote that he knows not of: he means to do hurt, but the Lord knows how to convert it to good. Thus tota miseria Christiani est dolor medicinalis, non sententia poenalis. Now he that looks to our affliction, will look to our extrication. • e would never suff • r Satan to assault us, but that he knows how to deliver us. It Pharaoh had kept himself at home, God's honor had not been so great at the red Sea: he knows as well how to get himself honor of Satan, as he did of Pharaoh.
He knows them when they be upon us. The Lord looked down upon the affliction of Israel: Pharaoh plagues them, he sees it, and therefore plagues Pharaoh. Thou hast considered my trouble, thou hast known my soul in adversities. Now he that knows the soul in adversity, knows how to deliver it out of adversity. Videat Dominus, says dying Zechariah; The Lord look upon it: yes, he did see it. The wronged child hopes to relieve himself, by making moan to his father. The Eagle, though she flies aloft, hath still an eye to her young ones: if any danger approach, she swiftly stoops to defend them. Thus Christ in heaven hath an eye to his darlings on earth: if any Saul be riding with a bloody Commission against them; down he comes from his Imperial throne to their rescue. Why doest thou persecute Mee? Me; dost think Saul, that Christians have no Patrons upon ea • th.
3 He knows how to rid them from us: they are often so perplexfull and intricate, that neither we see, nor the world sees, nor reason apprehends how, yet the Lord knoweth. Egypt afflicts Israel through many degrees: Pharaoh suspects them for purpose of revolting, imposeth on them heavy burdens: still God looks on, and lets him alone. To the name of strangers is added the name of slaves: Israel had gathered some rust in Egypt, and now must be scoured: it is well they bore their burdens, who else had borne the burden of God. When like Palme trees, they flourish with their burdens; Midwives are suborned to destroy their male children; and they whose office is to help the birth, must murder it. Still the Lord knows, and holds his peace. From burdens they proceed to bondage, and from bondage to blood; from vexation of their bodies, to destruction of the fruit of their bodies. If the Midwives refuse, the multitude shall do it: cruelty had but smoked before, now it flames up. It is rare tyranny that finds no villainy for an executioner. Lastly, impossible labors are laid upon them, the Tyrant requires tasks not faisible: they could neither make straw, nor find it, yet they must have it. Do what may be, is tolerable: but do what cannot be, is cruel. Yet thus doth Pharaoh pick a quarrel to punish: and if they do it not, they are beaten. Now God begins to look down, and spite of all he delivers his people. No arms shall keep them longer in Egypt, no armies shall hurt them out of Egypt. Pharaoh or the sea looks for their conque • t: to scape is beyond all hope, all thought: yet both shall be disappointed; The Lord knew how to do it. So that they did not cry so loud before, as now they sin: not faith, but sense teacheth them to magnify that God after their deliverance, which they scarce trusted for their deliverance.
The Antichristian enemies of God's Church and truth, after the infatuation of so many treacherous conspiracies, found out at the last a speeding one: such as in so many thousand years, from the fall of the reprobate angels, never came into the head of any devil, to put into the head of any man▪ or if the head could devise it, yet to find a heart to receive it, or a hand to act it, would have been thought impossible. But decreed it was in the Senate of Rome, in the bosom of that man of sin, who turns the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, into the keys of the Kingdoms of the Earth. Advised by that family of malice, who of all the world, Soli inventi sunt dogmatizare mendacium; as Augustine said of the Priscillianists. Thus far God lets them alone. Executioners must be found, there must be hands as well as heads; Vlisses may contrive, Diomedes must thorough with it. Still the Lord says nothing: their secrecy makes them confident, dejerated with a treble bond of counsel-keeping; Religion, Oath, Sacrament: You shall swear by the blessed Trinity, and holy Sacrament, not to reveal it: thus they eat their God upon a bargain of blood. Still the Lord is silent. They build the foundation of their design under the foundation of the Parliament house; Insidiantur in abscondito, and say to the ground, cover us: they trust not the air, but lay up their treason in a • subterraneous vault, with great improbity of labor. Who should discover those Penetralia mortis? Those inward chambers of death: Yes, the Lord knows how. Their catholic doomesday is now at hand, and their wants nothing but a hand to act it: they say of our souls, there is no help for them in their God. Then was God's time and hint, and in a Parable, by a Miracle, we are delivered. Their stratagem is defeated, their dungeon and hell of secrecy opened, the deeper hell of their hearts eviscerated, their vault of most barbarous villainy ransacked, to convince them and all the world, that novit Dominus, the Lord knows how to deliver his. Alas, we were like men that dreamt, nay we dreamt not of this: the noise of mill-stones, light of candles, bread and wine, bride and bridegroom, were our song: the plot of ruin came not within the reach of our thoughts. Blessed be that God who only delivered us.
Thus he can deliver with equal means, with small means, with no means. Novit Dominus, he can tell how. Midian comes against Israel; they like the sand by the Sea, covered all the Valley: the Israelites were two and thirty thousand strong. They think we are too few: God says, the people are too many. They say, the Midianites are too many for us: God replies, you are too many for them. Indeed, if Israel had expected the victory from their own fingers, they had been too weak for Midian: but seeing God will give the conquest, and have the glory; they are too strong. Where human strength is opposed, there needs an equality: but now God will fight, and he knows how to do it with a few, with none, as well as with many. His care is not how to get the victory, but how to preserve the glory of it gotten. Therefore he chooseth to save by few, that all the honor may redound to himself. So jealous is he of his glory, that though he give deliverance to Israel, yet the praise of the deliverance he will keep to himself. Therefore he shortens their means, that they may not shorten his mercies. Now if he will not allow lawful means to darken his honor, how intolerable is unlawful means? He that remembers the year eighty eight; (and what true English spirit can forget it, or forbear to report it to his children?) An invincible Navy, an implacable fury, furnished with instruments of murder and torture, confident of our utter desolation: and considers how they were all desolated, and we delivered, when no arm nor finger of flesh was for us: must needs confess, that Novit Dominus, the Lord knows how: he used no help in the delivery, let him have no partner in the glory. There is less danger in stealing anything from him, than his honor. If men steal the Princes tribute, or clip his coin, he may pardon it: but not if they go about to rob him of his Crown. No, but still let him be praised, both in our chambers at home, and abroad in our Churches, for our time, and throughout all the generations of our children's children after us, till Christ appear in the clouds; and then in the Kingdom of Heaven forever and ever, Amen.
And to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.] We have seen how the godly speed, now let us mark the end of their persecutors. The wicked keep such a noise in the world, that a poor man's tale can no more be heard, than the humming of a Be in a clap of thunder. So head-strong and uncontrouleable is the precipice of sin, that when the righteous would withstand it, they are borne down by it. Virtutibus semper contradicitur. The Church should never find so many stratagems directed ex professo against her, but that she takes a course which the world dislikes. Perversorum derogatio, vitae nostrae approbatio, Greg. In all ages, the rebuke of Christ, hath been the religion of Christians. The reason is, our singularity and descent from their customs: which as it makes them hiss like serpents, because we trouble their nests: so like an Antiparistasis, it should inflame our zea • . We have read of Heathens that would shun the popular current. Phocion had not suspected his speech, had not the people applauded it. Antisthenes mistrusted some ill in himself for the vulgar commendation. And shall we be brutishly driven with the drove? Or rather like nails in a wheel, turn as we are turned, without either conscience of sin, or guidance of reason? If we live like them that are reserved to Judgment, how should we think ourselves not reserved with them? This is their time to persecute, ours to suffer: their time will come to suffer, ours to triumph. Let me rather feel their malice, than be wrapped up in their vengeance. Recusat esse de corpore, qui non vult mundi odium sustinere cum capite, August. They are our corrosives, corrasives, used only to pare off our excrements, and eat out our dead flesh by their temptations: but the patient is preserved, when the plaster is thrown into the fire.
Saint Jerome allegorically upon Ezech. 47.19. The possession begins at Thamer, and reacheth along to the waters of strife. Is there peace between Joshua and Gibeon? then there is quarrel enough for the Amorites against Gibeon. The heirs of heaven can expect no better at the hands of the children of this world. A larger book might be written of the Apostles Sufferings, than that of their Acts. And had not the Divine power given them a miraculous success, in the safe conduct of a Gospel, thorough a world of temptations; it might have been entitled in a bloody Rubric; The book of the sufferings of the Apostles. God hath set forth us the Apostles last, as it were appointed to death; Paul might well say: last, with an Emphasis: the former endured but the injuries of their own country, the last, the malice of all the world; vying who should multiply the most disgraces upon them. Concerning this Sect, we know it is everywhere spoken against. They might well affirm it, that were the first authors of it. As Caesar wrote of those battles, Quibus non solum interfuit, sed & praefuit. But let us stand upon our guard, keep to the lists of our warfare, maintain the fight we have sworn in Baptism me. Subtle arguments well answered, breed a clear conclusion: our souls shall shine the brighter one day for this rubbing. Consider we two encouragements. First, Christ endured such contradiction of sinners: he is the commander and beholder of this combat: the Judge and rewarder of this courage: the leader of the company, and conquerer of the enemy. Be ye of good cheare, I have overcome the world. Next, their rage is but like their Generalls, sharp but short; for a time: for they are reserved to the day of Judgment to be punished.
The parts are four, according to the proceeding of civil Judicature: the malefactors; their binding over, the Assizes, and the execution.
The
- Malefactors; The unjust.
- Binding over; are reserved.
- Assizes; To the day of Judgment.
- Execution; To be punished.
The unjust.] This term must be considered in a threefold relation. 1. As it is a want of that righteousness which the Law requires. 2. As a want of that righteousness which the Gospel accepts. 3. As it implies a habit of unrighteousness, such as both the Law and Gospel condemns. Of all these a little.
1 For legal Justice, how far short is the best man of it! God requires a perfect fulfilling of the Law, because he gave a perfect ability to do it. If man would lose willfully this sufficiency, what fault is in God? Now the son that inherites his fathers goods, is bound to pay his fathers debts: we have our fathers goods, natural endowments, &c. Therefore bound to answer for his sin: if so we call original sin, not ours but His. But howsoever our parents conveyed unto us original sins, we ourselves are the parents of actuals. All naturals are depraved, all supernaturals are deprived, by the first fall. Mans nature may be inclined to some moral virtues imperfect; as Truth, Justice, temperance, chastity: but not to supernatural, as faith, hope, charity, humility; these are quite out of natures orbe. So for that Justice, which should give absolute obedience to GOD'S will, all men be unjust.
2 For Evangelical Justice, which is had by faith: this is a righteousness of Grace, to supply the defects of nature. We that had no righteousness of our own, must be beholding to one that hath some to spare: such a one, as though he give never so much, hath never the less: an infinite and in exhaustible fountain of goodness. Satan like a Chimicke, had extracted all the juice and spirits of our grace: we have no way to enrich our bankrupt estate, but with the treasures of CHRIST. He was not not only our brother by taking our flesh upon him, but also our surety by taking our debts upon him: not only naturam hominis, but formam servi. Restituli quod nunquam abstui, may he well say; I paid that I never took. What man will give his son for his sin? Yet God did more: he gave his Son, for (not his own, but) another's sin. Mans sin was the cause of Christ's death: Christ's death the cause of man's life. He gave life to us, by giving his life for us. Had he been mere man, this had done us no good; his Justice had been little enough for himself. But the Son of God suffered, not in Proprietate Natura, yet in Vnitate Personae; Personaliter: and so he merited. The Sword of Justice was awaked to be sheathed in our bowels; the Shepherd interposed himself to take the blow. By sin we are indebted to God more than we are worth; now Christ undertook for us. In his Circumcision, he gave the earnest, set his hand to the Obligation, to pay the whole debt. God is the Creditor, he paid him, and sued out for his Church a Quietus est. Satan was the Gaoler, he paid him; death the executioner, he paid him too; though for their fees they parted his garments among them. As Jacob's life was bound up in the life of Benjamin, without whom his gray hairs would be brought to the earth in grief. So our life is bound up in the life of JESUS, and if he be not with us, we shall die with anguish, and go to the grave in sorrow.
This is a second way to be just: the former we lost by sin, this we find by faith: he that wanteth this is unjust and must perish. Now reprobates cannot have this justice, by reason they lack faith: as he that is blind hath no benefit by the light. Indeed the world thinks this an easy attainment; but is quite mistaken. A child cannot generate, nor a man regenerate himself: the latter is as possible as the former. Mans nature being whole, could not preserve it self: much less being broken, can it repair it self. He that cannot keep himself from death while he lives, will more impossibly restore and revive himself to life being dead. Faith is a rare gift, though there be many Christians: all think they have it; yet even CHRIST himself says, he shall scarce know where to find it. How great a part of the world lies quite out of the orbe of faith! In Rome it is not they contest against it. In Courts it is rare, many live there rather by the favor of the Prince, than by the faith of God. In the City, the credit of faith is so weak, that it cannot be trusted without ready money. In the Country she is likeliest to be had; but the Tenant finds so little faith in the Land-lord, that he thinks it a needless virtue in himself. Among Lawyers there is just so much faith, as there is charity. Most men have so much, and so little, as to think they need no more. The professors of faith are like Gideon's army, two and thirty thousand: but when the faithful are separated, as those soldiers were mustered, there is but three hundred left. Lord, increase our faith, and the number of the faithful: that we who cannot be just in ourselves, may be just in Jesus Christ.
3 There is a third kind of Justice; actual, practical; inseparably proceeding from the former: it is a sanctified conformity to the will of God. This justifies all them to the world, whom faith hath justified to the Lord. When in all our earthly business, we still carry a heavenly mind. When our faith to God, is seen in our faithfulness to men. Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee the crown of life. Continue in evangelical faith, though you die for it: continue in moral faithfulness, til you die in it. There is a faith of the Law, Mat. 23.23. There is a faith of the Gospel, Mat. 25.23. Rom. 1.17. The one is fidelity in our promises, the other is confidence in the promises of God. If he covenant with us, I will be your God: we must restipulate, then will we rest upon thee. Thou shalt be my people; then we must be faithful. Secundum fidem quam credimus, Deus fidelis nobis: secundum fidem quâ credimus, nos fideles Deo. Both these together: for no man can deal faithfully with God legally, unless he believe evangelically that God will deal faithfully with him. Want of legal faith oppugnat Dei majestatem: want of evangelical faith oppugnat Dei veritatem & misericordiam. Be not false-hearted in the first, nor faint-hearted in the latter. In a word, he is a just man that doth good: and there is no sap of life in the tree if no fruit appear in the branches.
The unjust man wants all these three righteousnesses: he is not legally just, for he hath no purity of nature: he is not evangelically just, for he hath no sanctity of grace: he is not practically just, for he hath no morality of life. The first wicked men cannot have, the next they will not have, and (without that) the last they shall not have.
Thus we see negatively who are unjust; but there is more than a bare privation in it; Quiddam positivum: it includes not only a defect and indisposition to do well; but also an actual contrariety to Justice, doing what is palpably evil. So there is a twofold malignity in it; the transgression, and the duration of it. For the former, the wicked are unjust to God, to men, to themselves.
1 To God: righteousness is an obedience to the will of God; and injustice is no other than disobedience. That we may learn to judge ourselves in this, consider the infallible marks of obedience. First, it must be Integra; respective of all the Commandments: he that transgresseth one, hath not obeyed. Saul kept part of God's precept, slew the most, and worst; yet God rejected him as disobedient. Many piece their lives, as beggars do their cloaks, here and there a new patch: an alms at Christmas, this is a patch of charity: communicate twice a year, two patches of faith. Disobedient for all this. Secondly, Simplex, we must obey the law Intuitu legislatoris, without glance at our own profit or credit or safety by it. If one eye look one way, the other another way, the object will never be well seen. The servant would go to Church, to please his master; more fain another way, to please himself: but he that looks any other way in his devotion, than to the Lord's precept; is unjust: he makes God the second, himself the principal. Thirdly, Prompta, ready: Angels have wings to fly about it. Abraham no sooner received that strange command, but he rose early to obey it. A compulsory obedience the devils may give, but are never the nearer being righteous. He shall never be welcome to God, that comes on his feet, and leaves his heart behind him. Fourthly, Assidua, constant: that obedience which hath an end, had never any true beginning. If it falls it was never a fixed Star, but a mere meteor. A man may lose his Horse, his Purse, his Cloake; these be separable: the grace that hangs on by tacks, like a mantle, soon drops off. Divers have a crust of profession congealed by cold, desirous to keep themselves warm by the fire of the Temple; which the summer of wantonness thawes into fluid and spilled water. The Grashoppers campe in the hedges in a cold day, &c. In cold weather they lie in heaps and swarms: in hot weather they scatter: when prosperity comes, their looseness appears. In God's Book these are found unjust servants. Fifthly, Vera vel Iusta, no trick nor equivocation in it. It seeks not to obey God for man's sake, but man for God's sake: it obeys men, but never against the Lord.
Disobedience is called witch-craft, for it goes from God to the devil, and like a Witch intends mischief and revenge. There be two parts of it; Cum non fit quod praecipitur, cum contra fit quàm praecipitur. Disobedience material, when it breaks the Law: formal, when it scorns the Law-giver. Disobedience did cast Adam out of Paradise, Angels out of Heaven, Jonah out of the Ship, Saul out of his Kingdom, Israel out of Israel. Superiors complain that others do not obey them; but no wonder, when they obey not God. Shall any creature owe that man service, that will perform no service to his Maker? God for this often makes a tumult and rebellion in their own bosoms; that reason, the Queen Regent of the soul, cannot be heard, nor any of her laws be respected, because the mutinous affections make such a combustion, putting the whole man out of order and good disposition. Disobedience will not bow, but it shall be broken: as the thunder melts the stubborn metal, and spares the unresisting purse. Thus is he unjust to God, that detaines his honor: that is fed and gives no thanks: such an one steals his meat. He requires the seventh of our time, the tenth of our increase: we are unjust that deny this. These are thought honest men, yea think themselves no less: they go as merrily with this profanation and sacrilege at their heels, as horses with an empty Coach. Yea, the devil serves them, as Carriers do their horses; lay on them heavy loades, and then hang bells at their ears, to make them music. These are reserved to judgment, for no human law takes hold of them. Where should the poor Minister have the Tenths adjudged to him? And for making that day common to licentiousness, which God hath separated for especial holiness; where is this censured? A good Lord gives his poor servant a farm to live on: for the Rent, he requires every week one days service, and at the years end the tenth of his profits. He that returns not this small part, to that God who gives all, is most unjust, and will be so found at the day of sentence.
2 To man: such are they that measure their right by their power, and therefore will do injury, because they can do it. Unjust. 1. To the common-wealth, as the golden extortioner. (I may so call him, because he gets gold by Usury, as Babel is called the Golden City, because she is an exactresse of gold.) Let all the scribes in the City pass their words for him, yea set their hands to it; yet God will hold him unjust. 2. To the Church; that deny him reverence to their mother, and withhold her maintenance; and which is worse, plead a custom for it: as if it were a custom for children to rob their parents. The Italians have a trick in the art of rapier and dagger; they will teach a scholar with a traverse or two, to get the point of his adversaries weapon, and then to lock him up so suit, that (turning away his face) he runs him thorough: and for-sooth he turns away his face, because he will behold no cruelty. It is Custom in England that locks up our points; and the Law takes away the Churches weapons by a trick of custom: yea men stand still, behold this, justify it: but God's Judgment shall find them unjust. 3. To private persons; such as steal away a man's good name with a felonious slander. Everyone is bound to preserve the reputation of his brother: he that abuseth it, (color his spleen with what pretence he can) shall be condemned for unjust. Such a man is a monster; his throat a sepulcher, his tongue a sword, his mouth a bag of poison. I know in diverse Courts, scandals have their just censures: but how if the Courts themselves admit of scandals? By the Law of quittance, he that accuseth another of crimes which blemish his credit, and cannot prove them; should undergo the punishment due to such an offense. Gallio drove the railing Jews from the Judgment seat: he knew they had more malice than matter: a rare example! Thus Lawyers often hunt a man at his form, and leave the cause at loss. A Captain of Darius hearing a mercenary soldier rail upon Alexander, stroke him with his Iavelin: Ego te ut pug •• s; I hired thee to fight against him, not to rail against him. Let Advocates plead the cause, not Petere adversarium, inveigh against the adverse party.
The great injustice of the world is oppression; that doth ravish the poor, not of their bodies, but of their estates. The hard hearted Levite did but pass by, without succouring the robbed passenger: it is wicked miserum relinquere, but worse miserum facere. If the Levite be taxed for not helping him, what is their punishment that robbed him? Such are depopulaters, ruining people to feed beasts that where before men devoured sheep, now sheep devour men. This hath been an old disease, complained of by our forefathers: there were oppressors in their days, but the successors of them are now worse. Antigonus was a Tyrant bad enough; yet being dead, and a more cruel one succeeding him: a Cynicke fellow falls every day a digging by the high way. The passengers asked him what be digged for: he answers, Antigonum refodio, I would have Antigonus again. Rehoboams government made them ready to say, God be with Solomon. This caused the poor widow, an old Tenantesse, so to pray for the life of her young Land-lord, who had now the third time racked her rent. This he hearing, demanded the reason why she should so bless him, that had so cursed his father; seeing that he (in his modest phrase of oppression) had improved her rent. She answered; when your Grandfather dealt hardly with us, we wished him in his grave, hoping for some goodness in the next. Your father was worse than he; ew longed to be rid of him, our hopes looked on you; now you are the worst of all. And seeing by experience, seldom comes the better, we desire to keep you still: for certainly when you are gone, the next will be the Devil himself. Innumerable other be the demonstrations of Injustice; as the wicked borrows, and pays not again: the sword-man wounds the Image of his Maker: the tradesman abuses the simplicity of his customer: the lascivious corrupts the wife of his neighbor: these be capital unrighteousness, that bring men to Judgment.
3 To a man's self: so is the unthrift, that spends himself into poverty by pride and luxury. His father went to hell with Carrets, and he follows after with Potatoes: out of a laborious silk-worm rises often such a painted butterfly. The drunkard is unjust to himself; hath blood, and he fires it; spirits, and he chokes them; drowns himself on the dry land. So is the envious, that loseth the sweetness of his own, by grudging at his neighbors; that grinds himself to powder with his neighbors millstones: another's fatness shall keep him lean: and not being patient to tarry sicknesses leisure, or (which is more dispatching) his Empirics; soon dies of the sullens. The covetous of the unjust to himself; what he should add to the content of his nature, he adds to the continent of his treasure. It grudgeth his heart, that his heart should have any good. If his body be not kept pining, his mind is repining. A secret and sore Judgment; that he who is unjust to all others, should be most unjust to himself. When pride, or lust, or mis-affection calls for the purse; it is ready: let the soul call for it; that cost may be spared. While you deny yourselves for a whole year the body and blood of your Savior, are you not unjust to yourselves? While you hear Sermons, the food of your souls, as if you had no stomach to them; your are more unjust to your spiritual life, than he that willfully famisheth himself, is accountable for his own death. Oh hear your consciences in time, and comfort them, lest they be never able to comfort you.
Thus you have heard the nature and specifications of Injustice; now look upon the continuance of it; for so much the word imports. God will not cast all sinners into hell, who then should go to heaven? but the unjust: such as practice unrighteousness without any recovery of repentance. The unrighteous shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven: it is the continuance in sin that excludes from mercy. Two things throw men to perdition, without the intervention of extraordinary favor; malice in sin, and utter apostasy. These be the symptoms of that endangered disease, for which there is no balm in Gilead; we call it the sin of the Holy Ghost. Not that it is against the third Person, as he is the third person, more than against the first or second: but because it is against the function or operation of that person, whose office is to illuminate the mind, and mollify the heart with love: therefore himself is called love. If men sin willfully after that they have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for their sins: because they maliciously have sacrificed their sacrifice, and split the only vessel that should save them. The iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice forever: never expiated. There is a sin unto death, I do not say he shall pray for it. Every sin is unto death, but this Emphatically; with a prohibition of interceding set upon it; like the flaming sword that kept Paradise; Pray not for it. Schoolmen give this reason, why the sin of malice is unpardonable. The defect may find remission, where the will may pretend fear of excess. A sin of ignorance is often forgiven, as was Paul's; because a man may affect too much knowledge; as Adam did. A sin of infirmity is oft forgiven, because a man may affect too much power and dominion, as did the Angels. A sin of carnal fear is often forgiven, because a man may affect too much zeal; as did two of the Apostles. A sin of partiality is oft forgiven, because a man may affect too much Justice. But not a sin of malice, because a man can never affect too much charity.
No less doth Apostasy and falling off from God; Totus, a toto, in totum. A man may sin beyond all comfort in his own conscience, till he cannot hope for himself; as did Judas. Beyond all interest in the Churches devotion, till their prayers cannot help them: Pray not thou for this people. Beyond all claim to Christ's satisfaction; the blood of the Lamb shall not help them, Mat. 12.31. That which makes this sin past all cure, is, because it strives against the cure: as a mad man wounded, will not suffer his wounds to be bound up, but rather seeks to wound the Surgeon God hath mercy upon sinners, Christ came to call and die for sinners, there be none now in heaven but they were once sinners; which of all the holy Patriarchs, blessed Apostles, can excuse themselves that they never did act unjustly? But Injustice was none of their trade; they did not live in it, not die in it. Zacchaeus was once unjust, but he testified his repentance by charity and restitution. But they that practice unrighteousness to the end, in the end shall find judgment.
Are reserved.] This is the binding over: God puts off many wicked men from the Quarter Sessions, to the great Assizes. There is a Reservation that tendeth to good: as in the danger of wrack, much luggage is thrown over-board, the precious things are reserved. In the general slaughter of Amalek, Saul reserved Agog. Unless the Lord had reserved a remnant, we had been as Sodom. But here is a reservation to punishment: whether they sleep or wake, play or work, stand or walk, their time runs on, their judgment is nearer: and they are more surely kept unto it, than any dungeon with the thickest walls and strongest chains, can hold a Prisoner till his arraignment comes. This reservation affords us a twofold collection or observation.
1 Wickedness hath but a time, but the punishment of wickedness is beyond all time. The most raging sea of malice hath the bounds, the usque the devil himself knows that he hath but a short time. Stay till the Amorites sins be full, then comes their overthrow. The wicked are suffered to have their wills upon the righteous, their fills of unrighteousness; but How are they brought into desolation, 〈◊〉 in a moment! The manner is scarce visible, the time scarce divisible: H •• , and in a moment. Impudent Pharaoh bloodied with this unresisted tyranny, can belch our defiance in the face of heaven; Who is God? It is too much honor for man to receive a message from heaven; yet God sends to Pharaoh, and is repulsed. Humility says, What is man that God should regard him? Pride says, What is the Lord that I should regard him? Thus he domineers for a while; but ere God have done with him, he will be known to him, and known by him to all the world. He could have swept him away suddenly, as a man most unworthy to live; who with the same breath he receives denies the giver of it. But he was reserved to another purpose, he must rage a while longer, that his determined confusion might be the greater. He sees Israel crossing the sea, and wonders: yet hath neither the grace not wit to retire. He is angry at the sea, thinks not on the Lord: sees not the plain difference which he puts betwixt his Israel and the Egyptians. He cannot now either consider or fear, it is his time to perish. Faire way he had, and smoothly ran on, till he came to the midst; not so much as one wave to wet the foot of his horse▪ When he is too far to escape, then God begins to strike. They know not why, but they wish themselves but again. Their Chariots grow heavy, when they had done them the service to bring them to their perdition.
Wicked men run not faster into sin, than they would run from judgment. But they shall find, that it was never so easy to post into transgression, but it will be more impossible to post from destruction. Saul's persecution makes David take many a weary step: he kills the Priests, consults with Witches; what not? He hath his day, but in mean time is reserved to the Lord's day: the battle in Gilb •• b shall pay for all. The people are slain before his face, his sons fall under the swords of uncircumcised enemies, and the last scene of that tragical field is reserved for Saul himself. GOD is long ere he strikes, but when he doth, it is to purpose. The wicked man is not half so sure of transient pleasures, as he is of permanent plagues. Sin serves him as Abner did Ishbosheth; put him on the challenge of the Kingdom, and there leave him miserable: or as Tamberlaine helped Cosroe to the Kingdom of Persia, and then took it away again. It is like a boys squib; flashes, and cracks, and stinks, and is nothing. It serves him as Jael did Sisera; he asks water, she gives him milk: he wishes shelter, she makes him a bed: he begs but the protection of her Tent, she covers him with a mantle: she gives more than he asks, but withal, more than he expects. When his troublous thoughts were pacified with the change, and he flatters himself, It is better to be here, than in the whirling of Chariots, in the horror of fight or flight; among such wounds, such shriekes, such carcasses. But as when Agag says, the bitterness of death is past, even then he feels the sword: so in these contentful thoughts Sisera dies: the terror of Israel lies bleeding at the foot of a woman. Do we see impudent sinners flourish, awe the greatest, confront yea control Magistracy? It is their time, and they take it: do what mischief they can, answer it as they may. But the Lord l •• ghes at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. There is a day of reckoning and that day is coming, and the Lord sees it. He that may reckon with them at any time, will not reckon till that time.
2 The unjust are already reserved, the decree is past against them. They are bound over to the last Assizes by a threefold recognisance, as it were with infrangible, though insensible chains of Judgment. The bond of their sins, the bond of their conscience, and the bond of omnipotent Justice: and this threefold cable is not easily broken.
The first bond is their sins; He shall be holden with the cords of his sins. His own shackles shall hold him fast enough, he needs no stronger chains than those he makes for himself. It may be asked the sinner, what he means to make his fetters so strong? Saul was ever from the beginning his own enemy; neither did any hands hurt him but his own. At last, his death is suitable to his life; his own hand pays him the reward of all his wickedness: he that had been so long a killing his soul, now makes as short work with his body; Satan needs not bind a reprobate faster than he bind himself. The wicked do not, like temporal malefactors, go under baile; where it is but forfeiting the recognisance, and scape: for every step they take in sin, brings them directly forward to their Judgment.
Therefore is this bondage called a death: sin being the death of life on earth, and the life of death in hell. There may be certain degrees in this spiritual dying, as there are in a corporal dissolution. There is a Syncope or swooning, an Epileps • e or falling sickness, an Apoplexy or cold palsy; which if it be to all, is also final. The former are incident to the faithful, but recoverable by their ordinary repentance: as a man in a swoon is restored by sprinkling cold water, or bowing forward the body. The second are greater crimes, deadly sins; so expelling the Spirit of God, that no sign of his Presence appears. It must be an extraordinary repentance, that recovers these offenders: as a man in the falling sickness, by striving, sweating, beating of himself. No • they that are in a swoon, or foaming under a Epilepsie, are bound fast enough, they cannot run away yet such fits and falls may be recovered. But when it comes to an Apoplexy, a putrefied custom, a rotten obstinacy in sin; the grave does not surer bind a dead body within her mouldy bars, than these bonds of obduratenesse enchaine such a soul. There may remain a while some small appearance of breath, a little natural warmth: yet is it impossible, without a miracle, to recover that spiritual life, which is so long, so universally excluded.
There is a proceeding with the mortified conscience, as with the dead • case. First the dead man that is to be buried, is the impenitent sinner; resembling a corps in many respects. 1. In lack of sense; so lethargis'd in sin, that he feels not the prickings and woundings of a sore heart. Lay a mountain upon a dead man, he feels not the weight. CHRIST counsels him to buy restoratives; he perceives no need to buy: the cause of buying is the feeling of want, not the want of feeling. There is no love to God, no charity to men, in them: they have the true love of sense, but not the true sense of love. 2. In lack of appetite; they neither hunger nor thirst after righteousness; as being full of sinful crudities. Life brings appetite, appetite desires meat, and meat affords nourishment: if the soul hungers not, it lives not. Appetite is sharper in famine than in plenty: a double punishment; more stomach, and less meat: but these desire not the body and blood of Christ. There is no corporal affection like thirst; as we see in Hagar, in Sampson, in Christ himself suffering; not Esurio, but Sitio; extreme heat working upon the radical moisture. But dry these souls are to the death, yet feel no thirst after the waters of life. 3. In lack of motion: Indeed; a dead body hath a natural propension downwards: so these unjust men have a passive motion, feruntur in infernum: but they cannot actively move one finger to goodness. A corps is a heavy disanimated lump, pressing downwards; as sin cast Dathan from this world, Lucifer out of heaven. 4. In lack of heat, infected with the poison of that Serpent, which is cold in the fourth degree, mortal. When a man is dead, chafe him, rub him, bow him, put Aqua-vitae into him; then take him by the hand, and bid him walk; yet he cannot stir the least joint; except the soul be restored, all persuasions be in vain. 5. In lack of sweetness; the soul, his salt being gone, what can keep it from putrefaction? Thus is adultery a noisome uncleanness; Slander an unsavory breath, like the steam that comes from a new open grave; their throat being an open sepulcher. Heapes of ill-gotten wealth is a very dunghill; all wickedness like stinking carrion to GOD.
Now the coffin or grave for such a sinner, is three-fold; according to his death. The sepulcher of the body is the earth, the sepulcher of the soul is the body; the sepulcher of both dying in sin, is hell: as there is natural, spiritual and eternal death. The Bearers that carry him, are four. 1. Hope of life; neither age nor sickness can put him out of that hope. 2. Promise of repentance to himself, when he can sin no longer. 3. Presumption of mercy; as if God must needs save him, because he made him. 4. Love of the world, which makes him forget the world to come. These carry him out of life, as the widows son was borne out of the gates of the City. A wanton eye carries a man out, by the gates of his sight: a swearing tongue, by the gate of his mouth: itching after scurrilous speeches, by the gate of his ears.
Thus dead is every obstinate sinner: dead in sin, saith Paul; yea, saith the Lord. It is not the opinion of some Physician, that may be deceived in his principals, but it is a Dicit Dominus. It is said of Adam fallen, as of a condemned malefactor; Mortuus in lege. Not only in respect of the dissimilitude betwixt God's life, and theirs: which is such an alienation, as is indeed a diametrall opposition. But in the order and course of God's Justice, sentencing death to everyone that sins: and this death must be answered either in the sinner, or in the Savior. So they are as dead to God, as a Traitor to the Prince, or as a Felon is to the Judge.
This is one especial bond, whereby they are reserved and bound over to the day of Judgment; a death in sin. Not, but that CHRIST is able to raise the dead, and to lose these bonds. He raised three sorts of dead in the three years of his Ministry. One in the house; Jairus his daughter: another in the gate; the widows son: a third in the grave, which was Lazarus. Saint Augustine thus resembles them a sinner is dead in the house, when he sins secretly, imagining mischief in his mind. He is carried out of the gate, when he sins openly, not confining it withindoores: but brings it forth, in word or deed, and makes it scandalous to the Church. He stinks in the grave, when he sins habitually, without any remorse. The first may be raised by Doctrine, the next by discipline: as appears by Christ's own practice and direction, John. 2.15. Matth. 18.17. But what shall we do with the incorrigible and customary sinner, who is dead in the grave? Only pray with Mary: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died: but I know, all things are possible unto thee. Now there was weeping for the damsel dead in the house: more weeping for the man carried out of the gate; the mother wept, the Church laments: but most weeping at Lazarus his grave: Martha wept, and Mary wept, and the Jews wept, and Jesus wept, and groaned in the Spirit. We ought to weep penitently for the beginnings of sin, more for the proceeding and increase, most of all for the completion and accomplishment of death; when the sinner betakes himself to the scorners chair, deriding God and all goodness. Let us say in the Church, as Demosthenes did in Athens; we have more cause to weep for the lives of the bad, than for the d • aths of the good. It is over the spiritually dead, that the confused Choir of hell sing Epinicions, and songs of triumph. They are glad to see us sin in the house, admitting an ill motion to our purpose: rejoice at our carrying forth breaking out into notorious offenses: are most merry, when we continue in filthiness, till we stink in the sepulcher. O let us hearken to Christ Surge; sit up and speak; to comfort our mother on earth, to please our father in heaven.
The next bond is their evil conscience; an infallible binder, hell it self is not surer. Such a man is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , damned of his own self. Unless he could run away from himself, he cannot scape this Judgment. There be three acts of conscience. 1. Before the deed is done, examining whether it be lawful or unlawful. 2. In the deed doing, allowing or resisting. 3. After the deed done, approving or condemning. There be diverse reasons why every man hath a conscience.
1 That man might have an internal School-master to direct him: now the fittest for this office is conscience. If the Irascible or concupiscible part had been our governors, either they would have been often absent, or else led us amiss. What a beast is man under the regiment of lust or sense? and how seldom does anger play the game with reason? But conscience like a pulley, keeps reason in the right wheel; and either cashiers mutinous affections, or executes martial Law upon them. If only outward Rulers were to govern us; they have no eyes to see the mind: there might be mis-rule enough within doors, and they never the wiser. Therefore they would either be contemned for meanness, or condemned for partiality. But in the conscience there is both awe enough, and Justice enough; and every man is willing to be ruled by his own mind: if not, this School-master hath a rod to compel him.