Five Sermons Preached Upon Special Occasions, Sermon 1 – Title page 2
THE SINNERS MOVRNING HABITE.
IOB. CHAP. 42. VER. 6.
Wherefore I abhorre my selfe, and repent in dust and ashes.
THis is in many deare regards a mourning and penitentiall season, therefore I thought best to accommodate it with a penitentiall Sermon. I abhorre my selfe, &c.
Affliction is a winged Chariot, that mounts vp the soule toward heauen: nor doe wee euer so rightly vnderstand Gods Maiestie, as when wee are not able to stand vnderunder our owne miserie. It was Naamans leprosie that brought him to the knowledge of the Prophet, and the Prophet brought him to the sauing knowledge of the true God: had he not beene a leper, hee had still beene a sinner. Schola crucis, Zepper.schola lucis: there is no such Schoole instructing, as the crosse afflicting. If Paul had not beene buffeted by Satan, hee might hauehave gone nigh to buffet God, through danger of being puffed vp with his reuelations.
The Lord hath many messengers, by whom he solicites man: He sends one health, to make him a strongman: another wealth, to make him a rich man: another sicknesse, to make him a weake man: another loss…s, to make him a poore man: another age, to make him an old man: another death, to make him no man. But among them all, none dispatcheth the busines surer or sooner then affliction: if that faile of bringing a man home, nothing can doe it. He is stil importunate for an answere; yea, hee speakes, and strikes. Doe wee complaine of his incessant blowes? alas, hee doth but his office, he waites for our Repentance; let vsus giuegive the messenger his errand, and hee will be gone. Let him take the proud man in hand, he will humble him: he can make the Drunkard sober; the Lascinious chast: the Angry patient; the Couetous charitable; fetch the Vnthrift Sonne backe againe to his Father,Luke 15.17. whom a full purse had put into an itch of trauelling: the only breaker of those wild Colts. Ier. 5. the waters of that Deluge, which (though they put men in feare of their liues) beare them vp in the Arke of Repentance higher toward heauen. It brought the brethren to the acquaintance of Ioseph, and makes many a poore sinner familiar with the Lord Iesus.
Iob was not ignorant of God before, while he sate in the Sun-shine of peace; but resting his head on the bosome of plenty, hee could lye at his ease, and contemplate the goodnesse of his Maker. But as when the Sunne shines forth in his most glorious brightnesse, we are then least able to looke vponupon him: wee may solace our selues in his diffused rayes and comfortable light, but wee cannot fixe our eyes vponupon that burning Carbuncle. These outward things do so engrosse vsus, take vp our consideration, and drowne our contemplatiue facultie in our sense; that so long, wee onelyonly obserue the effects of Gods goodnesse, rather then the goodnesse of God it selfe. Necessitie teacheth vsus the worth of a friend; as Absynthium, wormewood rubbed vponupon the eyes, makes them smart a little, but they see the clearer. Therefore Iob confesed, that in his prosperity hee had onelyonly (as it were) heard of God; but now in his tryall hee had seene him.Vers. 5. I heard of thee by the hearing of the eare, but now mine eye seeth thee: that is, he had obtained a more cleare and perspicuous vision of him; the eye being more apprehensiue of the obiect then the eare. Segniiùs irritant animos dimissa per aures. When wee heare a man described, our Imagination conceiues an Idea or forme of him but darkely: if wee see him, and in tentiuely looke vponupon him, there is an impression of him in our minds: wee know his stature, his gesture, his complection, his proportion. Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic or a ferebat. Such a more full and perfect apprehension of God did calamity work in this holy man; and from that speculation proceedes this humiliation; Wherefore I abhorre my selfe, and repent in dust and ashes.
Where wee may consider three degrees of mortification; the Sicknesse, the Death, and the Buriall of Sinne. I abhorre my selfe, there sinne is sicke and wounded: I repent, there it is wounded and dead: In dust and ashes, there it is dead and buried. To denie ones selfe, maimes concupiscence, that it cannot thriue: to repent, kills it, that it cannot liue: in dust and ashes, buries it, that it cannot rise vp againe. I throw it into the Graue, I couer it with mould, I rake it vp in dust and ashes.
But I will not pull the Text in peeces; only I follow the manuduction of the words: for there is not a superfluous word in the verse, as the Psalmist said of the Army of Israel, There was not one feeble person among them. It beginnes as high as the glory of Heauen, and ends as low as the basest of Earth. The first word [Therefore] respects an infinite God: the last words [Dust and ashes] declare an humbled man. The meditation of the former is the cause of the latter, and the condition of the latter is the way to the former. To study God, is the way to make an humble man: and an humble man is in the way to come vntounto God. Such a consideration will cast vsus down to dust and ashes: such a prostration will lift vsus vp to glory and blessednesse. Here then is a Iacobs Ladder, but of foure rounds. Diuinitie is the Highest, I hauehave se…ne th…e, Therefore. Mortalitie is the lowest, Dust and ashes. Betweene both these, sit two others, Shame and Sorrow; no man can abhorre himselfe, without Shame; nor Repent, without Sorrow. Let your honourable patience admit Iob descending these foure staires; euen so low as he went; and may all your soules rise as high as he is.
Wherefore.
This referrs vsus to the motiue that humbled him; and that appeares by the context, to be a double meditation; one of Gods maiestie, another of his merciemercy. 1. Of his maiestie; which being so infinite, and beyond the comprehension of man, hee considered by way of comparison, or relation to the creatures; the great Beh…moth of the Land, the greater Leuiathan of the Sea; vponupon which hee hath spent the precedent Chapters. Mathematicians wonder at the Sun, that it being so much bigger then the Earth, it doth not set it on fire, and burne it to ashes: but here is the wonder; that God being so infinitely great, and wee so infinitely euill, we are not consumed. VVhatsoe…r the Lord would doe, Psalm. 135.6.that did he, in heauen, in earth, in the Sea, and in all deepe places. If mans power could doe according to his will, or Gods will would doe according to his power,Genes. 6.7. who could stand? I will destroy man from the face of the earth, saith the Lord. The originall word is, I will steepe him, as a man steepes a piece of earth in water, till it tu…ne to dirt: for man is but clay, and forgets his maker, and his matter. None but God can reduce man to his first principles, and the originall graines whereof he was made: and there is no dust so high, but this great God is able to giuegive him steeping.
2. Or this was a meditation of his mercy, then which nothing more humbles a heart of flesh.Psalm. 130.4 VVith thee, O Lord, is forgiuenesse, that thou mightest bee feared. One would thinke, that punishment should procure feare, and forgiuenesse louelove: but nemo magis diligit, quàm qui maximè veretur offendere: no man more truely loues God, then hee that is most fearefull to offend him. Thy merciemercy reacheth to the heauens, and thy faithfulnesse to the cloudes; that is, aboue all sublimities. God is glorious in all his workes, but most glorious in his workes of merciemercy: and this may bee one reason, why Saint Paul calls the Gospell of Christ,1 Tim. 1.11. a Glorious Gospell. Salomon tels vsus, It is the glory of a man to passe by an offence: herein is God most Glorious, in that he pasleth by all the offences of his children. Lord, who can know thee, and not louelove thee; know thee, and not feare thee? feare thee for thy Iustice, and louelove thee for thy merciemercy: yea feare thee for thy merciemercy, and louelove thee for thy Iustice, for thou art infinitely good in both.
Put both these together, and here is matter of humiliation, euen to dust and ashes. So Abraham interceding for Sodome;Gen. 18 27. Behold, I hauehave taken vponupon mee to speake vntounto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. Gr…g. mo…. …8.Quanto magis Sancti Diuinitatis interna conspîciunt, tanto magis se nihil esse cognoscu…t. It is a certaine conclusion; no proud man knowes God. Non sum dignus, I am not worthy, is the voice of the Saints: they know God, and God knowes them.Exod. 33.17. Moses was the meekest man vponupon earth, and therefore God is said to know him by name. Gen. 32.10.I am lesse then the least of thy mercies, saith …acob; loe, hee was honoured to bee Father of the 12. Tribes, and Heire of the Blessing. Quis ego sum Domine, sayes Dauid, who am I, O Lord? Hee was aduanced from that lowly conceite to bee King of Israel. Mat. 3.11.I am not worthy to loose the latchet of Christs shooe, saith Iohn Baptist. Loe, hee was esteemed worthy to lay his hand on Christs head.Mat. ….8. I am not worthy that thou shouldest come vnderunder my roofe, sayes the Centurion: therefore Christ commended him, I hauehave not found so great faith, no not in Israel. I am the least of the Apostles, 1 Cor. 15.9.saith Paul, not worthy to be called an Apostle: therefore hee is honoured with the title of The Apostle. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, saith the holy Virgin: therefore shee was honoured to be the Mother of the Lord, and to hauehave all generations call her Blessed. This Non sum dignus, the humble annihilation of themselues, hath gotten them the honor of Saints. In spirituall graces, let vsus study to be great, and not to know it: as the fixed Starres are (eueryevery one) bigger then the earth, yet appeare to vsus lesse then torches. In alto non altum sapere; not to bee high-minded in high deserts, is the way to blessed preferment. Humilitie is not onelyonly a vertue it selfe, but a vessell to containe other vertues: like embers, which keepe the fire aliue that is hidden vnderunder it. It emptieth it selfe, by a modest estimation of the owne worth, that Christ may fill it. It wrastleth with God, like Iacob; and winnes by yeelding: and the lower it stoopes to the ground, the more aduantage it gets to obtaine the blessing. All our pride, O Lord, is from the want of knowing Thee: O thou infinite Maker, Reueale thy selfe yet more vntounto vsus; so shall wee abhorre our selues, and repent in dust and ashes.
I abhorre my selfe.
It is a deepe degree of mortification, for a man to abhorre himselfe. To abhorre others is easie: to deny others, more easie: to despise others, most easie. But it is hard to despise a mans selfe: to deny himselfe, harder: hardest of all, to abhor himselfe. EueryEvery one is apt to thinke well, speake well, doe well to himselfe. Not only Charity, a spirituall vertue, but also Lust, a carnall vice, begins at home. There is no direct Commandement in the Bible, for a man to louelove himselfe; because we are all so naturally prone to it. Indeed, we are bound to louelove our selues; so much is implied in the Precept; Love thy neighbour as thy selfe;August. therefore louelove Thy selfe, But Modus praecipiendus, vt tibiprosis; so louelove thy selfe, as to doe thy selfe good. But for a man, vponupon good termes, to abhorre himselfe; this is the wonder! He is more then a meere Sonne of Eue, that does not ouervalue himselfe. Qui se non admiratur, mirabilis est: hee that doth not admire himselfe, is a man to be admired.
Nor is this disease of proud flesh, peculiar onelyonly to those persons, whose imperious commands, surly salutations, insolent controulements, witnesse to the world how little they abhorre themselues. But it haunts euen the baser condition, and fomes out at the common iawes. A proud beggar was the Wisemans monster; but pride is the daughter of Riches. It is against reason, indeed, that metalls should make difference of men: against religion, that it should make such a difference of Christian men. Yet commonly, Reputation is measured by the acre; and the altitude of Countenance is taken by the Pole of Aduancement. And as the seruant values himselfe higher or lower, according as his master is: so the master esteemes himselfe greater or lesse, according as his master, that is, as his Money or Estate is. His heart is proportionably enlarged with his house: his good, and his blood riseth together:Dan. 4.30. Is not this the great Babylon, which I hauehave built for the honour of my Maiestie? But you know, hee was turned into a beast that said so. Gold and siluer are heauy metalls, and sinke downe in the ballance: yet by a preposterous inuersion, they lift the heart of man vpwards: as the plummet of a clocke, which, while it selfe poyseth downewards, lifts vp the striking hammer. As Saul vponupon his annointing, so many a one vponupon his aduancing, is turned quite into another man.Luke 18.11. God I thanke thee, sayes the Pharisee, that I am not as other men are, nor as this Publican: not as other men, and for this hee thankes God: as if because hee thought better of himselfe, God must needs thinke better of him too. Now hee must no more take it as hee hath done; a new port, for a new report. He abhorres all men, but admires himselfe. Yet after these blustring insolencies, and windie ostentations, all this thing is but a man, and that (God knowes) a very foolish one.
But the children of grace hauehave learned anothe… lesson, to thinke well of other men, and to abhor themselues. And indeed, if we consider what Master we hauehave serued, & what wages deserued, we hauehave iust cause to abhorre our selues. What part of vsus hath not sinned, that it should not merit to be despised? Run all ouer this little Ile of man, & find me one mēber of the body, or faculty of the soule, that can say with Iobs messenger, Ego solus aufugi;Iob. 1.15. I alone hauehave escaped. What one action can wee iustifie? Produce ex tot millibus, vnum. Where is that Innocencie, which desires not to stand onelyonly in the sight of MercieMercy? There is in our worst workes wickednesse, in our best weaknesse, errour in all. What time, what place, are not witnesses against vsus? The very Sabbath, the day of Rest, hath not rested from our euills. The very Temple, that holy place, hath beene defiled with our obliquities. Our chambers, our beds, our boords, the ground we tread, the ayre wee breath, can tell our follies. There is no occasion, which, if it doe not testifie what euill we hauehave done, yet can say, what good we should, and hauehave not done.
If all this do not humble vsus, looke we vp (with Iob heere) to the Maiestie which we hauehave offend…d. To spoile the Armes of a common Subiect, or to counterfeit his Seale, is no such haynous or capitall crime. But to deface the Armes of the King, to counterfeit his Broad Seale, or priuy Signet, is no lesse then Treason: because the disgrace redounds vponupon the person of the King. EueryEvery sinne dishonors God, & offers to sticke ignominy vponupon that infinite Maiestie; therefore deserues an infinite penaltie.Psal. 51.4. Against thee, O Lord, against thee hauehave I sinned. I, thy creature; against Thee, my Maker: heere is a transcendencie, which when a man considers, hee is worthie to bee abhorred of all men, that does not abhorre himselfe.
Yet when God, and our owne selues, stand in competition, which do we most respect? Temptation is on our left hand, in a beautifull resemblance, to seduce vsus. The will, the glory, the Iudgement of God, is on our right hand, to direct vsus: doe we now abhorre our selues? Commoditie sets off inquitie, & wooes vsus to be rich, though sinners: Christ bids vsus first s…ek thee kingdome of Heauen, and tells vsus that other things shall come without seeking, they shall bee added vntounto vsus: Doe we now abhorre our selues? Such a sinne is pleasing to my lust and concupiscence, but it is displeasing to God and my Conscience: Doe I now abhorre my selfe? That wee louelove God farre better then our selues, is soone said; but to prooue it, is not so easily done. Hee must Deny himselfe, Mark. 8.34.that will bee Christs seruant. Many hauehave denied their Masters, many hauehave denied their Friends, many hauehave denyed their Kinred, not a few hauehave denied their Brothers, some hauehave denied their owne Parents, but to denie themselues, durus hic sermo, this is a hard taske. Negare suos, sua, se; to denie their profits, to deny their pleasures, to denie their lustes, to denie their reasons, to denie themselues? no, to doe all this they vtterly denie.
Yet hee that repents truely, abhorres himselfe; Non se vt conditum, sed se vt perditum; not the creature that God made, but the creature that himselfe made. Repentance loues Animam, non malitiam, carnem, non carnalitatem; the Soule, not the venime of the soule; the flesh, not the fl…shlinesse of it. So farre as hee hath corrupted himselfe, so farre he abhorres hims…lfe; and could rather wish non esse, not to be at all, then malum …sse, to be displeasing to his Maker.
Thus, if wee despise our selues, God will honour vsus: if we abhorre our selues, God will accept vsus: if wee denie our selues, God will acknowledge vsus: if wee hate our selues, God will louelove vsus: if wee condemne our selues, God will acquite vsus: if we punish our selues, God will spare vsus: yea, thus if we seeme lost to our selues, wee shall bee found in the day of Iesus Christ.
I repent.
Repentance hath much acquaintance in the world, and few friends: it is better knowen then practised; and yet not more knowen, then trusted. My scope, now, shall not bee the definition of it, but a perswasion to it. It is eueryevery mans medicine; an vniuersall Antidote, that makes many a Mithridates venture on poyson. They make bolde to sinne, as if they were sure to repent. But the medicine was made for the wound, not the wound for the medicine. Wee hauehave read, if not seene, the Battell betwixt those two venimous creatures, the Toad and the Spider: where the greater, being ouer-match'd with the poyson of the lesse, hath recourse to a certaine hearbe, some thinke the Plantane; with which shee expells the infection, and renewes the fight: but at last, the hearbe being wasted, the Toad bursts and dies. Wee sucke in sinne, the poyson of that old Serpent, and presume to driue it out againe with Repentance: but how if this Hearbe of grace bee not found in our Gardens? As Traian was marching foorth with his armie, a poore woman sollicited him to doe her iustice vponupon the murderers of her onelyonly sonne. I will doe thee Iustice, woman, sayes the Emperour, when I returne. The woman presently replyed; But what if my Lord neuer returne? How farre soeuer we hauehave runne out, we hope to make all reckonings euen, when Repentance comes: but what if Repentance neuer comes?
It is not many yeares, more incitations, and abundance of meanes, that can worke it: but Repentance is the faire gift of God. One would thinke it a short Lesson; yet Israel was fortie yeares a learning it; and they not sooner got it, but presently forgot it.Reu. 16.11. Reu. 16. We reade of men plagued with heat, and paines, and sores; yet they repented not. Iudas could hauehave a broken necke, not a broken heart. There is no such inducement to sinne, as the presumption of ready Repentance: as if God had no speciall riches of his owne; but eueryevery sinner might command them at his pleasure. The King hath Earth of his owne, he lets his subiects walke vponupon it: he hath a Sea, lets them saile on it: his Land yeelds fruit, let them eate it: his fountaines water, let them drinke it. But the moneys in his Exchequer, the garments in his Wardrope, the Iewels in his Iewel-house, none may meddle with, but they to whom hee disposeth them. Gods common blessings are not denied:Math. 5.45. his Sunne shines, his raine falls, on the righteous and vnrighteous. But the treasures of heauen, the robes of glory, the Iewels of Grace and Repentance; these hee keepes in his owne hands; and giues, not where he may, but where he will. Mans heart is like a doore with a Spring locke: pull the doore after you, it lockes of it selfe; but you cannot open it againe without a key. Mans heart doth naturally locke our grace;Reuel. 3.7. none but hee that hath the Key of the house of Dauid, can open the doore, and put it in. God hath made a promise To Repentance, not Of Repentance: wee may trust to that promise, but there is no trusting to our selues. Nature flatters it selfe with that singular instance of mercy; one malefactor on the crosse repenting at his last houre. But such hath beene Satans policie, to draw euill out of good, that the calling and sauing of that one soule, hath bin the occasion of the losse of many thousands.
Wheresoeuer Repentance is, shee doth not deliberate, tarries not to aske questions, and examine circumstances; but bestirres her ioynts, cals her wits & senses together: summons her tongue to praying, her feet to walking, her hands to working, her eyes to weeping, her heart to groaning. There is no need to bid her goe, for shee runnes: she runnes to the word for direction, to her own heart for remorse and compunction, to God for grace and pardon: and wheresoeuer shee findeth Christ,2 Kings 4.30. shee layeth faster hold on him, then the Shunnamite did on the feet of Elisha; As the Lord liueth, and as thy soule liueth, I will not let thee goe: no Gehesi can beate her off. She resolues that her knees shall grow to the pauement, till mercy hath answered her from heauen. As if she had felt an earth quake in her soule, not vnlike that Iaylor, when he felt the foundations of his prison shaken;Acts 16.29. shee calls for a light the Gospell of truth, and springs in trembling; and the fi…st voice of her lips is, O what shall I doe to be saued? Shee lowes with mourning, like the Kine that carried the Arke; and neuer rests till shee comes to Bethshemesh, the fieldes of merciemercy. The good Starre that guides her, is the promise of God: this giues her light through all the darke clouds of her sorrow. Confidence is her life, and soule: she drawes no other breath then the perswasion of merciemercy;1 King. 20.31. that the King of Israel is a mercifull King. Faith is the heart-blood of Repentance. The matter, composition, constitution, substance of it, is amendment of life: there be many counterfets that walke in her habite, as King Ahab had his shadowes; but that's her substance. Her countenance is spare and thinne; shee hath not eyes standing out with fatnesse. Her diet is abstinence; her garment and liuery, Sackcloth and ashes: the Paper in her hand, is a Petition; her dialect is Miser…re; and lest her owne lusts should bee bane within her, she sweats them out with confession and teares.
Wee know, there is no other fortification against the Iudgements of God, but Repentance. His forccs be inuisible, inuincible; not repelled with sword and target: neither portcullice, nor fortresse can keepe them out: there is nothing in the world that can encounter them but Repentance. They had long since laid our honour in the dust, rotted our carkases in the pit, sunke our soules into hell, but for Repentance. Which of those Saints, that are now saued in heauen, hauehave not sinned vponupon earth? What could saue them but Repentance? Their infirmities are recorded, not onelyonly for the instruction of those that stand, but also for the consolation of them that are fallen. Instruunt Patriarchae, non solùm docentes, sed & errantes. They doe not onelyonly teach vsus by their Doctrines, but euen by their very errours. Noah was ouercome with a little wine, that escaped drowning with the world in that Deluge of water. Lot was scorched with the flame of vnnaturall lust, that escaped burning in the fire of Sodome, Sampson, the strongest; Salomon, the wisest, fell by a woman. One Balme recouered them all, blessed Repentance. Let our soules, from these premises, and vponupon the assurance of Gods promises, conclude; that if we repent, our sinnes are not greater, Gods mercies cannot bee lesse. Thus was Niniueh ouerthrowen, that she might not be ouerthrowen. Quae peccatis perit, fletibus stetit. EueryEvery man must either bee a Niniuite, or a Sodomite: a Niniuite sorrowing for sinne, or a Sodomite suffering for sinne. Doleat peccata reus, vt deleat peccata Deus. If wee grieue, God will forgiue.
Nor yet must wee thinke, with this one short word (I repent) to answere for the multitude of our offences; as if we that had sinned in parcels, should be forgiuen in grosse. It were a rare fauour, if we paying but one particular of a whole Booke of debts, should be granted a generall acquittance for them all. No, let vsus reckon vp our sinnes to God in confession, that our hearts may find a plenary absolution. Nor is it enough to recount them, but wee must recant them. Doe we thinke, that because wee doe not remember them, that God hath forgotten them? Are not debts of many yeares standing, to be called for? Mans Iustice doth not forbeare olde offenders: no tract of time can eate out the Characters of blood.Iob 13.26. Thou writest bitter things against me, when thou makest mee to possesse the sinnes of my youth. These things hast thou done,Psal. 50.21. saith God, and I held my peace: therefore thou thoughtest mee altogether such a one as thy selfe: but I will reprooue thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Therefore let vsus number all the sinnes wee can, and then God will forgiue vsus all the sinnes that wee hauehave.
If wee could truely weigh our iniquities, we must needs find a necessitie, either of repenting, or of perishing. Shall wee make God to frowne vponupon vsus in heauen, arme all his creatures against vsus on earth? shall w…e force his curses vponupon vsus and ours? Take his rod, and teach it to scourge vsus with all temporall plagues; and not repent? Shall wee wound our owne consciences with sinnes, that they may wound vsus with eternall torments; make a hell in our bosomes heere, and open the gates of that lower hell to deuoure vsus hereafter; and not repent? Doe wee, by sinne, giuegive Satan a right in vsus, a power ouer vsus, an aduantage against vsus; and not labour to crosse his mischiefes by repentance? Doe wee cast Brimstone into that infernall fire, as if it could not bee hote enough, or wee should faile of tortures except wee make our selues our owne tormentors; and not rather seeke to quench those flames with our penitent teares?
If we could see the farewell of sin, we would abhorre it, and our selues for it; Could Dauid hauehave conceiued the griefe of his broken bones, before-hand; he had escaped those aspersions of lust and blood. Had Achan foreseene the stones about his eares, before he filch'd those accursed things, hee would neuer hauehave fingerd them. But it may be said of vsus, as it was of our first parents; when they had once sinned and fallen;Genes. 3.7. Tunc aperti sunt oculi eorum, Then their eyes were opened; Then, not before. In this place comes in Repentance; as a rectifier of disorders, a recaller of aberrations, a repairer of all decayes and breaches. So it pleaseth Gods mercy, that the daughter should be the death of the mother.Aug. Peccatum tristitiam peperit, tristitia peccatum conteret. Sin bred sorrow, sorrow shall kill sinne: as the oyle of Scorpions healeth the sting of Scorpions.
If I should giuegive you the picture of Repentance, I would tell you, that shee is a Virgine faire and louely: and those teares which seeme to doe violence to her beautie, rather indeed grace it. Her Brest is sore with the strokes of her owne penitent hands; which are alwayes, either in Moses his posture in the Mount, lifted vp towards heauen; or the Publicans in the Temple, smiting her bosome. Her knees are hardened with constant praying, her voyce is hoarce with calling to heauen; and when shee cannot speake, she deliuers her mind in groanes. There is not a teare falles from her, but an Angell holds a bottell to catch it. Shee thinkes eueryevery mans sinnes lesse then her owne, eueryevery mans good deeds more. Her compunctions are vnspeakeable; knowen onelyonly to God, and her selfe. Shee could wish, not onelyonly men; but euen beasts, and trees, and stones, to mourne with her. Shee thinks, no Sunne should shine, because shee takes no pleasure in it; that the Lilies should bee cloathed in black, because she is so apparelled. Mercy comes downe, like a glorious Cherub, and lights on her bosome, with this message from God; I hauehave heard thy prayers, and seene thy teares: so with a handkerchiefe of comfort, dries her cheeks, and telles her that she is accepted in Iesus Christ.
In dust and ashes.
I hauehave but one staire more, downe from both Text and Pulpit; and it is a very low one; Dust and ashes.
An adorned body is not the vehicle of an humbled soule. Iob, before his affliction was not poore. Doubtlesse, hee had his Wardrobe, his change and choise of garments. Yet now, how doth his humbled soule contemne them! as if hee threw away his vesture, saying; I hauehave worne thee for pompe, giuen countenance to a silken case; I quite mistooke thy nature, get thee from mee, I am weary of thy seruice, thou hast made mee honourable with men, thou canst get mee no estimation before the Lord. Repentance giues a farewell, not onelyonly to wonted delights, but euen to naturall refreshings. Iob lies not on a bed of Roses and Violets, as did the Sybarites; nor on a couch beautified with the Tapestrie of Egypt; but on a bed of Ashes. Sackcloth is his apparell; dust and ashes the lace and embroyderie of it.Ion. 3.6. Thus Niniu…hs King, vponupon that fearefull sentence, rose from his throne, layd his robe from him, couered himselfe with sackcloth, and sate in ashes. O what an alteration can repentance make? From a King of the earth, to a worme of the earth: from a foot-cloth, to sackcloth: from a Throne, to a dunghill: from sitting in State, to lying in ashes! Whom all the reuerence of the world attended on, to whom the head was vncouered, the knee bowed, the body prostrated; who had as many salutations, as the firmament starres, God saue the King: Hee throwes away Crowne, scepter, Maiestie, and all, and sits in ashes. How many doth the golden Cup of Honour make drunke, and driuen from all sense of mortalitie! Riches and hearts ease, are such vsuall intoxications to the soules of men; that it is rare to finde any of them so low as Dust and Ashes.
Dust, as the remembrance of his originall: Ashes, as the representation of his end: Dust, that was the mother: Ashes, that shall bee the daugther of our Bodies.
Dust, the matter of our substance, the house of our soules, the originall graines whereof wee were made, the top of all our kinred. The glory of the strongest man, the beautie of the fairest woman; all is but dust. Dust; the onelyonly compounder of differences, the absoluer of all distinctions: who can say, which was the Client, which the Lawyer: which the borrower, which the lender: which the captiue, which the Conqueror; when they all lie together in blended dust?
Dust; not Marble, nor Porphyrie, Gold nor precious stone, was the matter of our bodies; but earth, and the fractions of the earth, dust. Dust, the sport of the winde, the very slaue of the beesome. This is the pit from whence wee are digged; and this is the pit, to which we shall bee resolued.Genes. 3.1… Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt returne againe. They that sit in the dust, and feele their owne materials about them, may well renounce the ornaments of pride, the gulfe of auarice, the foolish lustes of concupiscence. Let the couetous thinke, what doe I scrape for? a little golden dust: the ambitious, what doe I aspire for? a little honourable dust: the libidinous, what doe I languish for? a little animated dust, blowen away with the breath of Gods displeasure.
O how goodly this building of man appeares, when it is clothed with beautie and honour! A face full of maiestie, the throne of comelinesse; wherein the whitenesse of the Lilie contends with the sanguine of the Rose: an actiue hand, an erected countenance, an eye sparkling out lustre, a smoothe complexion, arising from an excellent temperature and composition: whereas other creatures, by reason of their cold and grosse humours, are growne ouer, beasts with haire, foules with feathers, fishes with scales. O what a workman was this, that could raise such a Fabricke out of the earth, and lay such orient colours vponupon Dust! yet all is but Dust, walking, talking, breathing dust: all this beautie but the effect of a well concocted food, and life it selfe but a walk from dust to dust. Yea, and this man, or that woman, is neuer so beautifull, as when they sit weeping for their sinnes in the dust: as Mary Magdalen was then fairest, when she kneeled in the dust, bathing the feet of Christ with her teares, and wiping them with her haires: like heauen, faire sight-ward, to vsus that are without; but more faire to them that are within.
The Dust is come of the same house that wee are: and when she sees vsus proud, and forgetfull of our selues, shee thinkes with her selfe, Why should not shee, that is descended as well as we, beare vp her plumes as high as ours. Therefore she so often borrowes wings of the winde, to mount aloft into the ayre, and in the streets and high wayes, dasheth herselfe into our eyes: as if shee would say, Are you my kinred, and will not know me? will you take no notice of your owne mother? To taxe the folly of our ambition, the dust in the street takes pleasure to bee ambitious.
The Iewes in their mourning, vsed to rend their garments; as if they would bee reuenged on them, for encreasing their pride, and keeping them from the sight of their nakednesse. Then they put on sackcloth, and that sackcloth they sprinkled ouer with dust, and ouerstrawed with ashes: to put God in minde, that if hee should arme his displeasure against them, he should but contend with dust and ashes; and what glory could that bee for him?Psal 30.9. Shall the dust praise thee, O God; or, art thou glorified in the pit? Nay, rather, how often doth the Lord spare vsus,Psal. 103.14. because hee remembers wee are but dust? To shew that they had lifted vp themselues aboue their creation, and forgot of what they are made; now by by Repentance returning to their first Image, in all prostrate humility they lay in the dust; confessing, that the wind doth not more easily disperse the dust, then the breath of God was able to bring them to nothing.
Thus, Dust is not onelyonly Materia nostra, or Mater, our Mother,Iob. 4.19. or matter wherof we are made; for our foundation is in the dust. Esai. 26.19.But Patria nostra, our Countrey where we shall dwell; Awake yee that dwell in the dust. We are no better then the dust wee shake off from our feete, or brush off from our clothes. O, therefore let vsus turne to God in dust, before hee turne vsus into dust. Yea, Saint Augustine goes further, and sayes, that not onelyonly the bodies of all men, but euen the soules of some men, are no better then dust. They are so set vponupon earth, and earthly things, that they are transformed into earth and dust: and so become the food of that old Serpent, whose punishment was to eate the dust.
For Ashes, they are the Embleme or representation of greater misery: Dust onelyonly shewes vsus, that wee hauehave deserued the dissolution of our bodies; Ashes put vsus in mind that wee hauehave merited also the destruction of our Soules. Ashes are the leauings of the fire, the offalls of consumed substances. When God shall giuegive vp the largest buildings of Nature to the rage of that Element, it shall reduce them to a narrowe roome, the remnants shall bee but ashes. This was all the Monument of those famous cities, Sodome, 2 Pet. 2.6.Gomorra, and the rest; heapes of ashes. Ecce vix totam Hercules impleuit vrnam, sayes the Poet; that great Gyant scarce makes a pitcher of ashes.
For this cause, the Ancients vsed to repent in Ashes; remonstrating to themselues, that they deserued burning in endlesse fire, more then those Ashes wherein they wallowed. Yea, if Abraham compared himselfe to dust and ashes, I may compare my soule to a sparke hid in the Ashes: which, when sickenesse and death shall stirre vp; like fire, shee takes her flight vpwards, and leaues the heauy fruitlesse ashes of my bodie behind her.
In both, wee hauehave a L…sson of our owne mortalitie. The finger of GOD hath written the Epitaph of man; the condition of his bodie, like Characters printed in the Dust. Mans body, so well as the yce, expounds that Riddle; the gignit filia matrem: the daughter begets the mother; Dust begot a bodie, and a bodie begets Dust. Our bodies were a… first strong Cities; but then wee made them the Forts of Rebels: our offended Liege sent his Serieant Death to arrest vsus of high Treason. And though for his mercies sake in Christ, hee pardoned our sinnes, yet hee suffers vsus no more to hauehave such strong houses; but lets vsus dwell in paper Cottages, mudde walles, mortall bodies. Methusalem liued nine hundred sixtie nine yeares; yet hee was the sonne of Enoch, who was the sonne of Iared, who was the sonne of Malaleel, who was the sonne of Cainan, who was the sonne of Enos, who was the sonne of Seth, who was the sonne of Adam, who was the sonne of Dust. Aske the woman that hath conceiued a childe in her wombe; Will it bee a Sonne? Peraduenture so: Will it bee well formed and featured? Peraduenture so: Will it be wise? Peraduenture so: Will it be rich? Peraduenture so: Will it be long-liued? Peraduenture so: Will it be mortall? Yes, this is without peraduenture; it will die. Euen a Heathen, when hee heard that his son was dead, could say without changing countenance, Scio me genuisse mortalem; I know that I begot a mortall man.
An olde man is said to giuegive Alexander a little Iewell; and tolde him, that it had this vertue; so long as hee kept it bright, it would out-value the most fine golde or precious stone in the world; but if it once tooke dust, it would not bee worth a feather. What meant the Sage, but to giuegive the Monarch an Embleme of his owne body; which being animated with a Soule,Eccl. 9.4. commanded the world; but once fallen to dust, it would be worth nothing: for a liuing dog is better then a dead Lyon.
I conclude, I call you not to casting Dust on your heads, or sitting in Ashes ▪ but to that sorrow and compunction of Soule, whereof the other was but an externall Symbole or testimonie.Esai. 58.5. Let vsus rend our hearts, and spare our garments; humble our soules, without afflicting our bodies. It is not a corps wrapp'd in Dust and Ashes, but a contrite heart, Psalm. 51.17.which the Lord will not despise. Let vsus repent our sinnes, and amend our liues: so God will pardon vsus by the merites, saue vsus by the mercies, and crowne vsus with the glories of Iesus Christ.
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE TRIENNIALL Visitation of the Right Reuerend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of LONDON, in Christ-Church.
BY THOMAS ADAMS.
LONDON, Printed by Aug. Matthewes, and Iohn Norton. 1625.