The Way to True Happiness, Sermon 1
but vponupon one part of it, where note: 1. The preparation to it: 2. The prosecution of it. We beginne with the first, where the motiue first offers it selfe, his sight of an Auditory, and that great, that's the first thing, and the second is the manner of our blessed Sauiours behauiour and deportment: First, hee takes the hill, and being there settled, Secondly, he sits downe, and being so sate, and his hearers placed, hee opens his mouth, (in the third place) and falls to worke. The first word that falls from his blessed lips, is a blessing, but of the matter anon. Meane while, let's looke vponupon the particulars already mentioned, where, before I goe any further, I craue leaue to vse mine owne method (without the least contempt of others) and my liberty (with fitting modesty) in taking vp such interpretations and collections, as shall seeme to mee most agreeable to the Text in hand, and the auditory in sight. I am very sensible of the richnesse of this Scripture, and variety of mens conceits about it; you will giuegive mee leaue to follow what I conceiue fittest, and, to speake popularly in a popular auditory, once for all let mee tell you, I reuerence antiquity as much as who doth most, and make vse of as many ancients and moderns as my purse can buy, and my strength will beare; if I rather read then name them, it is for your sakes, and so I pray you take it.
For the words, many things are disputed, touching these beatitudes in generall,Vide Caietan: in lentac. Pareum in loc: alios{que}. which wee will passe by, we onelyonly touch vponupon such things as giuegive light to the words, and way to instruction, and that's all, First, where 'tis said,Of which, Vide Aug. Hilar: &c. ascendere dicitur qui ad summum peruenit, qui in medio subsistit. Chamier. …. 12. c. 10. Tom. 3. De consens. Euang. l. 2. c. 19. Bunting, &c. that our Sauiour tooke the mount, it is questioned wherefore hee did so, and wee thinke it safest to shunne doubtfull mysteries, and to say as the Euangelists doe. Hee went vp, 1. to pray, and then to preach; that's in Luke, this here. Next 'tis questioned how the Euangelists must be accorded, when one saith that he came downe the hill, the other, that he went vp; the answer is, hee went first into an higher hill, or place to pray, and after came lower to preach, that's the last, and (I thinke) the best of Austins resolutions; as for the hill its selfe, and the stone where Christ is said to sit, I heare what men say, and trauellers yet report, but I louelove not heare-sayes in grounding points. Well, we find him on the mount, what's his gesture and behaour there? 1. He sits: 2. He opens his mouth, &c. I'll deale plainly, I abhorre mysticall senses and allegories, where the holy Ghost is not our warrant; I dare not say, that our Sauiour sate in a mystery, as some Ancients doe, nor can I ground a generall instruction, vponupon an occasionall gesture, more then this: Our LORD sate preaching, therefore 'tis lawfull in it selfe, whether necessary, let them consider who thus inferre, the LORD sate at Sacrament,Pro hic & nun… Dr. Denison de Sacr. therefore wee must whether hee sate at (our) Sacrament, is more then I know, whether hee purposely sate to binde vsus to the like, is more then any man (I thinke) knowes, and till that be cleared, I dare not vrge necessity; necessity? What? Praecepti or Medij; but our Sauiour opens his mouth, and teaches; what's that? I will not descant, it is true, our Sauiour taught with his hands,As Chrisost. and Thophy. Comment. as well as with his mouth, an… it is as true, that many open their mouths, and y… doe not teach, at least the people; but m…an… … Matthew so much? I trow not; what then? doth this phrase necessarily imply this to benis first Sermon,Vide the Iesuites ad locum. o… that now new matter comes to be broched, n…uer before vented, touching euangelicall counsells, &c. No neither, but the speech is Ebrewish, and sounds as much as hee beganne to speake, or if there be any more in it, it denotes: 1. The deliberate and aduised: 2. The cleare and free manner of our Sauiours, speaking, as the like phrase is vsed. Pro. 31.26. Act. 8.35, &c. Well, hee sits, hee teaches that people, lets vsus now (after him) teach you, wee will but touch vponupon the circumstances, because wee hasten to the Sermon it selfe.
Doctr. 1. Our Sauiour sees, and then teaches: Hence conclude, that. The sight of the auditory quickens the Preacher, the obiect quickens and affects the sense, the sense the vnderstanding, the vnderstanding the will, the will the whole man, and namely the tongue, hence this sight hath such an influence into these speaches; the Lord Christ, sees and speaks, and would all his messengers see their people oftener, perhaps they would speak oftner too, but what affects in an Auditory? 1. Fulnesse and greatnesse, who would not cast his net amiddest multitudes of fishes, this our Sauiors motiue here, argument else-where, both for Praying, Math. 9.38. and Preaching, Act. 18.10. Secondly, alacrity and readinesse, when they come vponupon the wing, as the doue to the window, this opened Peters mouth, Acts 10.3. Attentiuenesse, and tractablenesse, when they hang vponupon the Ministers mouth, as birds doe vponupon their dammes, Luk. 19.48. 4. Fruitfulnesse and growth in knowledge in obedience, this puts life into our prayers and studies at home, into our labours and application abroad, this opens the heart, the eye, the mouth, all, and the contrary to this, kills your teachers, a thinne, heauy, sleepy, froward, fruitlesse people stops the mouth, straitens the gifts, dead the spirit of a Pastor; and a people enlarged in their gifts and affections, carry a Preacher beyond himselfe, and make him more then himselfe; I hauehave heard much talke of barren Ministers, of silencing Ministers and the like: shall I tell you; a barren people make a barren Ministery, a cold auditory, a cold Sermon; a dead Parish, a dumbe Minister; nothing shuts our mouths and silences vsus so much as our own auditories were they quick and nimble in finding eares & hearts, the great Bishops of our soules would soone finde his tongue, as you finde it here.
You see what occasioned this Sermon, now Doctr. 2 looke vponupon our Sauiours pulpit, hee sate on an hill: when the heart is willing to goodnesse, it will finde meanes and opportunities of doing it. A good heart is a good contriuer, it will not be to seeke of time and place, and other fitting circumstances: witnesse our blessed Sauiour, it was his meate and drinke, to doe his worke, and therefore an hillock, a ship, a table, any place (almost) shall serue for a pulpit, for a chappell: witnesse Saint Paul, his heart was prepared, and then hee could pray in the goale, sing in the stocks, preach at bar, and can you maruell? the heart or will is a great Princesse, and hath a great command; shee sharpens wit, Reas. quickens sense, employes hand, tongue, foote, all the man, all about the man. Againe, the Lord who eyes the heart, answerers men according to their heart, free hearts with faire opportunities; when a heart is present, occasions shall be offered on Gods part, and will bee taken on Vse. 1 mans. Therefore,
This takes off the idle excuses of all sluggards, one would preach, but hee hath a bad memory, an ill vtterance, a dry body, a worthlesse people, and that is the reason of his negligence: the reason; nay, that is the pretence, the reason is, hee wants an heart: another would pray with all his heart, but his house is too too incōuenient, he hath no priuate place; a third would read, but he hath bad eyes, and no fitting booke; a fourth would heare Sermons, but he hath ill legs, and wants a seate, a fifth would gladly doe some good, but he cannot light vponupon a good opportunity and fit subiect: iust so your idle vagrant, hee would worke for his liuing, but no body will hyre him; hee would worke, but he wants cloathes, cloathes you giuegive him, but then he wants tooles, you supply him with tooles, but the truth is, he hath an infirmity, he is lame in his limbs and sickly, nay, the truth is, he is lame in his will & sicke of the lazies; were the will right, these excuses needed not; mark it in your children, when they go to schoole-ward, somewhat is euer in their way, now they want their hats, and then their books, and then paper, and then quils, and next their breakefast, something still when their errand lyes that way, but when they come homeward, how then; they can play without hat, neuer dry or hungry, then there is no lamenesse, sickenesse, nothing wanting but time and day light; the reason of this, they want affection to their books, none to their sports, hence the difference; it is so with men also, thou wouldst pray, but thy house is open, &c; heare, but thy seate is farre off; reade, but thy leisure is little, &c: heare me, mend thy will, and all this is holpen; did that stand rightly disposed, a barne, a stable, a bush, a furrow should serue for an oratory and a closset to pray in; thou wouldst spare time from thy meate, from thy sleepe, but thou wouldst reade, a mat should be thy seate, thy legs a pillar, thy feet a pew, but thou wouldst heare; therefore fault not occasions but thy selfe, a sluggard neuer wants an excuse, lions be in the street, as Salomon saith of him; and a willing mind neuer wants meanes in some measure.
2. Therefore mend the will, and all is mended, as the soule doth not find but make it selfe an habitation, and fit it selfe with organs: for it is true in naturall respects, so doth it in spirituall too; a willing preacher carries his pulpit in his heart, a willing hearer his seate, a good stomacke wil make a table, a stoole, a cushion of the ground, giuegive him meate, and hee will tell you that knees were made before stooles and tables, hands before kniues, thinke the same of spirituall affections; edge and whet them, and they will supply or dispence with other necessaries.
You see his pulpit, his cloth and cushion, this serueth the turne vponupon occasion, but this is no rule in a setled Church: they that thinke any barne, house good enough for God, any board, stoole, table, pulpit good enough for his messenger, hauehave no more religion in them than what they put into their purses: But now see our Sauiours gesture, he sate, and so they doe in some Churches, and so should we, if the argument were concludent from a feast to a sitting; for sure Christ feasts vsus in the Doctr. 3 Word, aswell as at the Sacrament, but we touch'd that before, all that now we note, is this: The holy Ghost obserues the very gestures of Christ in Gods worships, his sitting, standing, leaning, Ʋse. 1 groueling, but why? 1. because eueryevery action of his is for our instruction, though not imitation euer. 2. because God would doe vsus to know, that his eye is vponupon all his worshipers: here wee mought fall vponupon Popery, w…ich brings vp an ill report vponupon the sacred writings of God, as if they smelt of some vnsufficiency, were but a partiall rule, and had not in them a full and selfe-sufficiency: what? doth God descend to circumstantials, and is he defectiue in the substance? Doth hee so often repeate ex abundanti the same thing, and in the meane forget any maine point? Doth hee acquaint vsus with the very gestures of our Sauiour, and in the meane leaue out some doctrines and articles? Doth he record these Sts. saluattions one to another, and ouer-slip necessarie instructions of his owne? Let bastards emplead his last will and testament, whilst they please, as if it were imperfect, eueryevery true sonne will say with their elder brother, I adore the fulnesse of the Scripture.Ierom.
But I had rather speake to you; hence see what an eye is vponupon you in Gods worship, true, he is a Spirit, and desires such to worship him,Ioh. 4 24. who doe it in Spirit and Truth,: but withall, he that made thy body aswell as soule, and redeemed that, and will glorifie that as well as this, hath said, that eueryevery tongue shall confesse him, eueryevery tree bow to him, and hee will see it done: There ore looke thou to thy foote, to thine eye, to thine eare,Rom. 14.11. to thy head, to thy knee, to thy gesture in Gods presence, for the Lord doth: And doe not vnderunder a pretence of superstition proue thy selfe prophane, nay, vnmannerly and clownish as many doe, who come before God, as he before Caesar, fearing nothnig, but that they should be too mannerly.
The Preacher hauing taken his place, the hearers Doctr. 4 (the Disciples first, the people next) take theirs: so it should be; the preacher once settled, the schollars should place themselues with best conueniency, this preuents confusion and disturbance,Nehem 8.4. & 9, 4. conduces to both order and edifying, hence this obserued of old in Ezra's dayes, & elsewhere, and since in the new testament: Wee onelyonly touch vponupon it, in regard of the new disorders; if you repaire to Cities and more populous places, you shal sooner see the face of a Faire than of a Church such tumbling, brawling, clapping of pues, as little beseemes such assemblies, 2 if you looke vponupon your Country-meetings, you shall finde that many come more for mans law, than Christian Gospell; to see rather than to heare; so they bee Church, and keep their own seate, it matters not, what they learne whether they heare; And hereof is it, that they profit so little; profit should they be examined by their Pastors, as the French man was by his Preacher, what they heard, they might truly answere what he did, that they knew not what language the preacher vsed, French or Latine, Latine or English: It is a blushfull thing to be vnciuil in the congregation before men and angels, and the Lord of both, but to take Gods name in vaine, to come in vaine, to sit and heare in vaine; this is horrible and neare to cursing.
The last circumstance (he taught the people) here is a preachers worke, he must hauehave a mouth, that must be opened, and so opened, that he teach and the people may learne: Such a one was Christ Iesus,foreign. such a one would S. Paul hauehave to receiue orders, 1. he must be apt to teach 2 he must actually teach,Discendum propter docendum. hee is Christs mouth and deputy, and must represent him to the people, and this is his errand and office, hee must learne that he may teach, as the Hebrew prouerbe runnes, but whom must he teach? the people, the flocke depending on him, what? the whole Counsell of God, so farre as concernes them; how? freely, plainely, as they are able to beare it, so did our master, and this is to teach, as Austen notes in that excellent discourse, &c.Non dicitur quod non intelligitur. vid. August. de Doctr. Christiana. Here is our worke, and here must we sweate, but what must you doe? 1. you must learne, come and sit at the feet of your Gamaliels, as schollers, not as Masters, as many doe, and 2 your must reciprocate; if we giuegive you spirituals, you owe vsus temporals, Cor. 9. were wee but Catechists, you heare the Apostles Canon, Let him that is taught or Catechized, Galat. 6.make his teacher, partaker of all good things; you hauehave the best of our time, of our wits, of our inuentions, of our blood, of our spirits, you owe vsus of the best of your temporals in St. Pauls iudgment; consider of it, you looke for food, and so do wee, we must not starue soules, neither must yee starue bodyes, you expect plentifull teaching, performe plentiful meanes, men cannot liue without bread, nor study without bookes, nor preach without study, vnlesse you hold boldnesse, zeale, prating, preaching. Ob. Wee giuegive them what law affords them: whose Law? Gods? we aske no more, mans? take heed of pressing too much statute-wages, lest Ministers resolue vponupon statute-worke: let the strife rather be, who shall exceed other in feeding, in doing duty, you or we. But we hauehave stayed longer than I meant in the preparation; the Lord saw fit to premise it, and we did not dare to neglect it. Trow wee come forward to the Sermon it selfe, wherein our Sauiour declares himselfe, a most wise and skilfull builder wisedome stands in sorting things to their right ends, by the fittest meanes, the end whereto all men are carried, and whereat they aime, is happinesse, herein all concur,Vid. Seneca de vit. heat. Ca. 1. at least formally (as they speake) though not for matter; I meane, all men would bee blessed and happy, though they doe not all seeke it in the same thing: hence our Sauiour beginnes here, and proiects this first, and then 2. for the obtaining of this, propounds the right way and meanes, suiting supernaturall meanes to a supernaturall end and blessing. Touching which end wee hauehave somewhat to say in generall before we descend to the particular; we will not trouble you with the infinite disputes and discourses, which are extant vponupon this subiect, but confine all that we meane to speak, vntounto two heads, wherof the first is this: Happinesse is yet feisable and attaineable by man in this life. The next this:
It much imports and concernes man to know, where this his happinesse lyes, and is to be found. It was my meaning to hauehave handled one at least of the twaine at this time, but I see the time spent, and finde my selfe ouer-matcht with a Church, therefore I adiourne both.