Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 46
SERMON XLVI.
The second Sermon Preached by the Author after he came to St. Dunstanes, 25 Apr. 1624.
PSAL. 34. 11.
Come ye children, Hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
THE Text does not call children simply, literally, but such men, and women,Mat. 18. 3. as are willing to come in the simplicity of children; such children, as Christ spoke of, Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven; Come ye children come such children. Nor does the Text call such as come, and would fain be gone again; it is Come and Hearken; not such as wish themselves away, nor such as wish another man here; but such as value Gods ordinance of Preaching, though it be, as the Apostle says, but the foolishnesse of Preaching, and such, as consider the office, and not the person, how meane soever;1 Cor. 1. 21. Come ye children; And, when ye are come, Hearken, And, though it be but I, Hearken unto me; And, I will teach you the feare of the Lord; the most noble, the most couragious, the most magnanimous, not affection, but vertue, in the world; Come ye children, Hearken unto me, and I will teach you the feare of the Lord.
To every Minister and Dispenser of the word of God,Divisio. and to every Congregation belong these words; Divisio. And therefore we will divide the Text between us; To you one, to us appertains the other part. You must come, and you must hearken; we must teach, and teach to edification; There is the Meum & Tuum, your part, and our part. From each Part, these branches flow out naturally; In yours, first, the capacity, as children; Then the action, you Come; Then your Disposition here, you hearken; And lastly, your submission to Gods Ordinance, you hearken even unto me, unto any Minister of his sending. In our Part, there is first a Teaching; for, else, why should you come, or hearken unto me, or any? It is a Teaching, it is not onelyonly a Praying; And then, there is a Catholique doctrine, a circular doctrine, that walks the round, and goes the compasse of our whole lives, from our first, to our last childhood, when age hath made us children again, and it is the Art of Arts, the root, and fruit of all true wisdome, The true feare of the Lord. Come ye children, hearken unto mee, and I will teach you the feare of the Lord.
First then,1 Part. the word, in which, in the first branch of the first part, your capacity is expressed, filii, pueri, children, is, from the Originall, which is Banim, often accepted in three notions, and so rendred; Three ways, men are called children, out of that word Ban…m, in the Scriptures. Either it is servi, servants; for, they are fili… familiares; as the Master is Pater familias, Father of the family, (and that he is, though there be no naturall children in the family) the servants are children of the family, and are very often in Scriptures called so, Pueri, children; Or it is Alumni, Nurse-children, foster-children, filii m…mmillares, children of the breasts; whether wee minister to them, temporall or spirituall nourishment, they are children; Or else it is filii viscerales, children of our bowels, our naturall children. And in all these three capacities, as servants, as sucking children, as sons, are you called upon in this appellation, in this compellation, children.
First,Serv…. as you are servants, you are children; for, without distinction of age, servants are called so,1 Sam. 21. 5. frequently, ordinarily, in the Scriptures, Pueri. The Priest asks David, before he would give him the holy bread, An vasa puerorum sancta, Whether those children, (speaking of Davids followers) were clean from women; 1 King. 20. 15.Here were children that were able to get children. Nay, Davids Soldiers are often called so, pueri, children. In the first of the Kings, he takes a Muster, recenset pueros; Here were children that were able to kill men. You are his children, (of what age soever) as you are his servants; and in that capacity he cals you. You are unprofitable servants; but it is not an unprofitable service, to serve God; He can get nothing by you, but you can have nothing without him. The Centurions servants came, when he said, Come; and was their wages like yours? Had they their beeing, their ever-lasting well-beeing for their service? You will scarce receive a servant, that is come from another man, without testimony; If you put your selves out of Gods service, whither will ye goe? In his service, and his onelyonly, is perfect freedome. And therefore as you love freedome, and liberty, bee his servants; and call the freedome of the Gospel, the best freedome, and come to the Preaching of that.
He cals you children, Alumni.as you are servants, (filii familiares) and he cals you children, as you are Alumni, nurse-children, filii mammillares, as he requires the humility, and simplicity of little children in you.Prov. 3. 32. For, Cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus, (as the vulgat reads that place) Gods secret discourse is with the single heart. The first that ever came to Christ, (so as he came to us, in blood) they that came to him so, before he came so to us, that died for him, before he died for them, were such sucking children, those whom Herod slew.Mat. 11. 25. As Christ thought himself bound to thank his Father, for that way of proceeding, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed these things unto babes; 19. 14.so Christ himself pursues the same way, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdome of heaven. Of such; not onelyonly of those who were truly, literally children, (children in age) but of such as those, (Talium est regnum coelorum) such as come in such a disposition, in the humility, in the simplicity, in the singlenesse of heart, as children do. An habituall sinner is always in minority, always an Infant; an Infant to this purpose, All his acts, all the bands of an Infant, are void all the outward religious actions, even the band and contract of Baptism in an habituall sinner is void, and ineffectuall. He that is in the house, and favour of God, though he be a child, (a child to this purpose, simple, supple, tractable, single-hearted) is, as Adam was in the state of Innocency, a man the first minute, able to stand upright in the sight of God. And out of one place of Esay,Esay 65. 20. our Expositors have drawn, conveniently enough, both these conclusions; A child shall die 100 years old, says the Prophet; that is, (say some) a sinner though he live 100 years, yet he dies a child, in ignorance; And then, (say others, and both truly) He that comes willingly, when God cals, though he die a child in age, he hath the wisdome of 100 years upon him. There is not a graver thing, then to be such a child; to conform his will to the will of God. Whether you consider temporall or spirituall things, you are Gods children. For, for temporall, if God should take off his hand, withdraw his hand of sustentation, all those things, which assist us temporally, would relapse to the first feeble, and childish estate, and come to their first nothing. Armies would be but Hospitals, without all strength; Councell-tables but Bedlams, without all sense; and Schools and Universities, but the wrangling of children, if God, and his Spirit did not inanimate our Schools, and Armies, and Councels. His adoption makes us men, therefore, because it makes us his children. But we are his children in this consideration especially, as we are his spirituall children, as he hath nursed us, fed us with his word. In which sense, the Apostle speaks of those who had embraced the true Religion, (in the same words that the Prophet had spoken before) Behold,Heb. 2. 13. I, and the children that God hath given me; Esay 2. 6.And in the same sense, the same Prophet, in the same place, says of them who had fallen away from the true Religion, They please themselves in the children of strangers, In those men, who have derived their Orders, and their Doctrine from a forein Jurisdiction. In that State where Adoptions were so frequent, (in old Rome) a Plebeian could not adopt a Patrician, a Yeoman could not adopt a Gentleman, nor a young man could not adopt an old. In the new Rome, that endevours to adopt all, in an imaginary filiation, you that have the perfect freedome of Gods service, be not adopted into the slavery, and bondage of mens traditions; you that are in possession of the ancient Religion, of Christ, and his Apostles, be not adopted into a yonger Religion. Religio à religando; That is Religion, that binds; that binds, that is necessary to salvation. That which we affirm, our adversaries deny not; that which we professe, they confesse was always necessary to salvation. They will not say, that all that they say now, was always necessary; That a man could not be saved without beleeving the Articles of the Councell of Trent, a week before that Councell shut up. You are his children, as children are servants; Malach.and, If he be your Lord, where is his fear? you are his children, as he hath nursed you, with the milk of his word; and if he be your Father so, (your foster Father) where is his love?
But he is your Father otherwise; you are not onelyonly Filii familiares, children because servants, nor onelyonly Filii mammillares, children because noursed by him, but you are also Filii viscerales, children of his bowells. For, we are otherwise allied to Christ, then we can be to any of his instruments, Phil. v 12.though Angels of the Church, Prophets, or Apostles; and yet, his Apostle says, of one whom he loved, of Onesimus, Receive him, that is mine owne bowells; my Sonne, says he, whom I have begotten in my hands. How much more art thou bound to receive and refresh those bowells from which thou art derived, Christ Iesus himselfe; Receive him, Refresh him. Carry that, which the wiseman hath said, Miserere animae tuae, bee mercifull to thine owne soule, higher then so; and Miserere salvatoris tui, Colos. 3. 12.have mercy upon thine owne Saviour, put on the bowells of mercy, and put them on even towards Christ Iesus himselfe, who needs thy mercy, by beeing so tome, and mangled, and embowelled, by blasphemous oaths, and execrations. For, beloved, it is not so absurd a prayer, as it is conceived, if Luther did say upon his death bed, Oremus pro Domino nostro Iesu Christo, Let us pray for out Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Had we not need pray for him? If he complaine that Saul persecutes him, had we not need pray for him? It is a seditious affection in civill things, to divide the King and the kingdome; to pray, to fight for the one, and leave out the other, is seditiously done. If the kingdome of Christ need thy prayers, and thy assistance, Christ needs it; If the Body need it, the Head needs it; If thou must pray for his Gospell, thou must pray for him; Nay, thou canst not pray for thy selfe, but thou must pray for him, for, thou art his bowells; when thou in thy forefathers, the first Christians in the Primitive Church, wast persecuted, Christ cryed out, why persecutest thou me? Christ made thy case his, because thou wast of his bowells. When Christ is disseised, and dispossest, his truth profligated, and thrown out of a nation, that professed it before, when Christ is wounded by the blasphemies of others, and crucified by thee, in thy relapses to repented sinnes, wilt thou not say to Them, to Thy selfe, in the behalfe of Christ, why persecute yee me? Wilt thou not make Christs case thine, as hee made thine his? Art not thou the bowells of Christ? If not, (and thou art not, if thou have not this sense of his suffering) thou hast no interest in his death, by thy Baptisme, nor in his Resurrection, by thy feeble halfe repentances. But in the duty of a child, as thou art a servant, in the simplicity of a child, as thou hast sucked from him, in the interest and inheritance of a child, as thou art the Son of his bowells, in all these capacities, (and with all these we have done) God calls thee, come ye children; and that is our next step, the Action, Come.
Passing thus from the Persons to the action, Venite, Venite.Come, we must aske first, what this comming is? The whole mystery of our redemption is expressed by the Apostle in this word,1 Tim. 1. 15. venit, that Christ Iesus is come into the world. All that thou hast to do, is to come to, and to meet him. Where is he? At home; in his own house, in the Church. Which is his house, which is his Church? That to thee, in which he hath given thee thy Baptisme, if that do still afford thee, as much as is necessary for thy salvation. Come thither, to the participation of his ordinances, to the exercises of Religion there. The gates of heaven shall be opened to you, at last in that word, Venite benedicti, come ye blessed, the way to those gates is opened to you now, in the same word, Venite filii, come ye children, come. Christ can come, and does often, into thy bed-chamber, in the visitation of his private Spirit, but, here, he calls thee out into the congregation, into the communion of Saints. And then the Church celebrates Christs coming in the flesh, a monethmonth before he comes, in four Sundays of Advent, before Christmas. When thou comest to meet him in the Congregation, come not occasionally, come not casually, not indifferently, not collaterally; come not as to an entertainment, a show, a spectacle, or company, come solemly, with preparation, with meditation. He shall have the lesse profit, by the prayer of the Congregation, that hath not been at his private prayer before he came. Much of the mystery of our Religion lay in the venturus, that Christ was to come, all that the law and Prophets undertooke for, was that venturus, that Christ was to come; but the consummation of all, the end of the law and the Prophets, is in the venit, he is come. Do not clogge thy coming with future conditions, and contingencies, thou wilt come, if thou canst wake, if thou canst rise, if thou canst be ready, if thou like the company, the weather, the man. Matt. 9. 2.We finde one man who was brought in his bed to Christ; but it was but one. Come, come actually, come earnestly, come early, come often; and come to meet him, Christ Jesus and no body else. Christ is come into the world; and therefore thou needest not goe out of the world to meet him; He doth not call thee from thy Calling, but in thy Calling.Gen. 8. 11. The Dove went up and down, from the Arke, and to the Arke, and yet was not disappointed of her Oliveleafe, Thou maiest come to this place at due times, and maiest doe the businesses of the world, in other places too, and still keep thy Olive, thy peace of Conscience. If no Hereticall recusancy, (thou dost like the Doctrine) no schismaticall recusancy, (thou dost like the Discipline) no lasie recusancy, (thou forbearest not because thou canst not sit at thine ease) no proud recusancie, (that the company is not good enough for thee) if none of these detain thee, thou maist be here, even when thou art not here; God may accept thy desire, as, in many cases, thou maist be away, when thou art here; as, in particular thou art, if being here, thou do not hearken to that which is said here; for that is added to the coming, and follows in a third consideration, after the capacity, Children, and the Action, Come, The disposition, Hearken: Come ye children & hearken.
Upon those words of David, Conturbata sunt ossa mea. Audite.St. Basil faith well,Psalm. 6. 3. Habet & anima ossa sua, The soul hath bones as well as the body. And in this Anatomy, and dissection of the soul, as the bones of the soul, are the constant and strong resolutions thereof, and as the seeing of the soul is understanding (The eyes of your understanding being opened) so the Hearing of the soul is hearkning in these religious exercises,Ephes. 1. 18. we doe not htar, except we hearken; for hearkning is the hearing of the soul. Some men draw some reasons, out of some stories of some credit, to imprint a belief of extasie, and raptures; That the body remaining upon the floore, or in the bed, the soul may be gone out to the contemplation of heavenly things. But it were a strange and a perverse extasie, that the body being here, at a religious exercise, and in a religious posture, the soul should be gone out to the contemplation, and pursuit of the pleasures or profits of this world. You come hither but to your own funeralls, if you bring nothing hither but your bodies; you come but to be enterred, to be laid in the earth, if the ends of your comming be earthly respects, prayse, and opinion, and observation of men, you come to be Canonized, to grow Saints, if your souls be here, and by grace here alwayes diffused, grow up to a sanctification. Bonus es Domine animae quaerenti te, Thou art good, O Lord, to that soul that seeks thee; It is St. Augustines note, that it is put in the singular, Animae, to that soul: Though many come, few come to him. A man may thread Sermons by half dozens a day, and place his merit in the nūber, a man may have been all day in the perfume and incense of preaching, and yet have receivd none of the savor of life unto life. Some things an Ape can do as wel as a Man; some things an Hypocrite as wel as a Saint. We cannot see now, whether thy soul be here now, or no; but, to morrow, hereafter, in the course of thy life, they which are near thee, & know whether thy former faults be mended, or no, know whether thy soul use to be at Sermons, as well as thy body uses to go to Sermons. Faith comes by hearing, saith the Apostle; but it is by that hearing of the soul, Hearkning, Considering. And then, as the soul is infused by God, but diffused over the whole body, & so there is a Man, so Faith is infused from God, but diffused into our works, and so there is a Saint. Practise is the Incarnation of Faith, Faith is incorporated and manifested in a body, by works; and the way to both, is that Hearing, which amounts to this Hearkning, to a diligent, to a considerate, to a profitable Hearing. In which, one essentiall circumstance is, that we be not over affectionately transported with an opinion of any one person, but apply our selves to the Ordinance, Come, and hearken unto me, To any whom God sends with the Seale and Character of his Minister, which is our fourth and last branch in your part.
David doth not determine this in his own person,Me. that you should hearken to him, and none but him, but that you should hearken to him in that capacity and qualification, which is common to him with others, as we are sent by God upon that Ministery; Me. that you say to all such, Blessed art thou that comest in the Name of the Lord. St. Augustine, and not he alone, interprets this whole Psalme of Christ, that it is a thankesgiving of Christ to his Father, upon some deliverance received in some of his Agonies, some of his persecutions; and that Christ calleth us to hearken unto him. To him, so, as he is present with us, in the Ministery of his Church, He is a perverse servant, that will receive no commandment, except he have it immediately from his Masters mouth; so is he too, that pretendeth to rest so wholly in the Word of God, the Scriptures, as that he seeks no interpretation, no exposition, no preaching, All is in the Scriptures, but all the Scriptures are not alwaies evident to all understandings. He also is a perverse servant, that wil receive no commandment by any Officer of his Masters, except he like the man, or, if his Master might, in his opinion, have chosen a fitter man, to serve in that place. And such a perversnesse is in those hearers who more respect the man, then the Ministery, and his manner of delivering it,1 Co…. 4. 1. then the message that he delivers. Let a man so account of us, as of the Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the mysteries of God. That is our Classis, our rank, our station, what names soever we brought into the world by our extraction from this or that family, what name soever we took in our baptisme, and contract between God and us, that name, in which we come to you, is that, The Ministers of Christ, The Stewards of the Mysteries of God, And so let men account of us, says the Apostle. Invention, and Disposition, and Art, and Eloquence, and Expression, and Elocution, and reading, and writing, and printing, are secondary things, accessory things, auxiliary, subsidiary things; men may account us, and make account of us, as Orators in the pulpit, and of Authors, in the shop; but if they account of us as of Ministers and Stewards, they give us our due; that's our name to you. All the Evangelists mention Iohn Baptist and his preaching; but two of the foure say never a word of his austerity of life, his Locusts, nor his Camels haire; and those two that do, Matthew and Marke, they insist, first, upon his calling, and then upon his actuall preaching, how he pursued that Calling, And then upon the Doctrine that he preached, Repentance, and Sanctification, and after that, they come to these secondary and subsidiary things, which added to his estimation, and assisted the passage of his Doctrine,Exod. 6. 12. His good life. Learning, and other good parts, and an exemplar life fall into second places;Ier. 1. 6. They have a first place, in their consideration who are to call them, but in you, to whom they are sent, but a second; fixe you, in the first place, upon the Calling. Esa. 6. 6.This Calling circumcised Moses uncircumcised lips; This made Ieremy able to speak, though he called himself a childe; This is Esays coale from the Altar, which takes away even his sinne, and his iniquity. Be therefore content to passe over some infirmities, and rest your selves upon the Calling. And when you have thus taken the simplicity of Children, (they are the persons, which was our first step) and are come to the Congregation, (that is your Action, and was our second) and have conformed your selves to hearken, (that also is the Disposition here, which was our third) And all this with a reverence to the Calling before an affection to the man, (that is your submission to Gods Ordinance, and was our fourth and last step) you have then built up our first part in your selves, & laid together all those peeces which constitute your Duty, Come ye Children, and hearken unto me; And from hence we passe, to our duty, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
In this second part,2 Part. we made two steps; first, The manner, Docebo, I will teach; And then the Matter,Docebo. Timorem Domini, I will teach you the feare of the Lord. Upon the first, we will stay no longer, but to confesse, That we are bound to teach, and that this teaching is to preach; And Vae si non, W… be unto us, if we do not preach. Wo to them, who out of ease, or state, silence themselves; And woe to them too, who by their distemper, and Schismaticall and seditious manner of preaching, occasion and force others to silence them; and think, (and think it out of a profitable, and manifold experience) That as forbidden books sell best, so silence Ministers thrive best. It is a Duty, Docendum, we must teach, Preach; but a duty that excludes not Catechizing; for cateching seems especially to be intended here, where he calls upon them who are ot be taught, by that name, Children. It is a duty that excludes not Praying; but Praying excludes not it neither. Prayer and Preaching may consist, nay they must meet in the Church of God. Now, he that will teach, must have learnt before, many yeers before; And he that eill preach, must have thought of it before, many days before. Extemporall Ministers, that resolve in day what they will be, Extemporall Preachers , that resolve in a minute, what they will say, outgo Gods Spirit, and make too much hast. It was Christs way;He tooke first Disciples to learne, and then… out of them, he tooke Apostles to teach; an those Apostles made more Disciples. Though your first consideration be upon the Calling, yet our consideration must be for our fitnesse to that Calling. Our Prophet David hath put them both together, well,Psal. 71. 17. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; (you see what was his Vniversity; Moses was his Aristotle; he had studied Divinity from his youth) And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works, says he there. Hitherto? How long was that? It follows in the next verse, Now am I old, and gray headed, and yet he gave not over. Then Gods work goes well forward, when they whom God hath taught, teach others, He that can say with David, Docnistime, O God thou hast taught me, may say with him too, Docebo vos, I will teach you But what? that remains only, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
There is a fear, which needs no teaching, a fear that is naturally imprinted in us.Timor Naturalis. We need not teach men to bee sad, when a mischiefe is upon them, nor to feare it is coming towards them; for, fear respects the future, so as sadnesse does the present; feal looks upon Danger, and sadnesse upon Detriment; fear upon a sick friend, and sadnesse upon as dead. And as these need not bee taught us, because they are naturall, so, because they are naturall, they need nor bee untaught us, they need not be forbidden, nor disswaded. Our Saviour Christ had them both, fear, and sadnesse; and that man lacks Christian wisedom, who is without a provident fear of future dangers, and without Christian charity, who is without a compassionate sadnesse in present calamities. Now this fear, thought but imprinted in nature, is Timor Domini, Tha fear of the Lord, because the Lord is the Lord of Nature, He is the Nature of Narture, Lord of all endowments and impressions in Nature. And therefore, though for this naturall feare, you goe no farther then nature, (for it is born with you, and i… lives in you) yet the right use even of this naturall fear, is from Grace, though in the root it be a feare… of nature, yet in the government thereof, in the degrees, and practise thereof, it is the feare of the Lord; Not onelyonly as hee is Lord of Nature, (for so, you have the feare it selfe from the Lord) but as this naturall fear produces good or had effects, as it is regulated and ordered, or as it is deserted, and abandoned, by the Spirit of the Lord; And therefore you ae called hither, Come, that you may learne the fear of the Lord, that is, the right use of naturall fear, and naturall affections, from the Law of God; For, as it is a wretched condition, to be without naturall a affections, so is it a dangerous dereliction, if our naturall affections be left to themselves, and not regulated, not inanimated by the Spirit of God;Sap. 17. 12. for then my sadnesse will sinke into Desperation, and my fear will betray the succours which reason offereth. This I gain by letting in the fear of the Lord, into my naturall fear; that whereas the naturall object of my naturall fear is malum, something that I apprehend sub ratione mali, as it is ill for me, (for, if I did not conceive it to be ill, I would not fear it) yet when I come to thaw this Ice, when I come to discusse this cloud, and attenuate this damp, by the light and heat of Grace, and the illustration of the Spirit of God, breathing in his word, I change my object, or at least, I look upon it in another line, in another angle, I look not upon that evill which my naturall fear presented me, of an affliction, or a calamity, but I look upon the glory that God receives by my Christian constancy in that afflicton, but I look upon that everlasting blessednes, which I should have lost, if God had not laid that affliction upon me. So that though fear look upon evill, (for affliction is malum poenae, evill as it hath the nature of punishment) yet when the feare of the Lord is entred into my naturall feare, my feare is more conversant, more exercised upon the contemplation of Good, then Evill, more upon the glory of God, and the joys of heaven, then upon the afflictions of this life, how malignant, how manifold soever. And therefore, that this feare, and all your naturall affections, (which seem weaknesse in man, and are so indeed, if they bee left to themselves, now in our corrupt and depraved estate) may advance your salvation, (which is the end why God hath planted them in you) Come and learn the fear of the Lord, Learn from the Word of God, explicated by his minister, in his Ordinance upon occasions leading him thereunto, the limits of this naturall fear, & where if may become sin, if it be not regulated, and inanimated by a better fear, then it self.
There is a fear,Timor seminaturalis. which grows out of a second nature, Custome, and so is half-naturall, to those men that have it. The custome of the palce we live in, or of the times we live in, or of the company we live in. Topical customes of such a place, Chronical customes of such an Age, Personal customes of such a company. The time, or the place, or the persons in power have advanced, & drawn into fashion and reputation, some vices, & such men as depend upon them, are afraid, not to concur with them in their vices; for, amongst persons, & in times, & places, that are vicious, and honest man is a rebel; he goes against that State, & that Government, which is the kingdom of sin, Amongst drunkards, a sober man is a spy upon thē; Amongst blasphemers, a prayer is a libell against them; And amongst dissolute and luxurious persons, a chast man is a Bridewell, his person, his presence is a house of Correction. In vicious times and companies, a good man is unacceptable, and cannot prosper. And, because as amongst Merchants, men trade halfe upon stock, and halfe upon credit, so, in all other courses, because men rise according to the opinion & estimation which person in power have of them, as well as by reall goodnesse, therefore to build up, or to keep up this opinion and estimation in them upon whom they depend, they are afraid to crosse the vices of the Time, so far, as by being vertuous in their owne paticular. They are afraid it will be called a singularity, and a schismaticall and seditious disposition, and taken for a Reproach, and a Rebuke laid upon their betters, if they be not content to be as ill, as those their betters are, Now, the fear of the Lord brings the Quo Warranto against all these priviledged sins, and priviledged places, and persons, and overthrows all these Customes, and Prescriptions. The fear of the Lord is not a Topicall, not a Chronicall, ot a Personall, but a Catholique, a Canonicall, a Circular, an Vniversall fear; It goes through all, and over all; and when this halfe-naturall feare, this feare grown out of Custome, suggests to me, That if I be thus tender-conscienced, if I startle at an oath, if I be sick at a Health, if I cannot conform my selfe to the vices of my betters, I shall lose my Master, my Patron, my Benefactor, This feare of the Lord enters, and presents the infallible losse of a farre greater Master, and Patron, & Benefactor, if I comply with to other. And therefore as you were called hither, (that is to the explication of the Word of God) to learn how to regulate the naturall fear, that that fear doe not deject you into a diffidence of Gods mercy, so come hither ot learne the fear of God, against this half-naturall fear, that is, bee guided by the Word of God, how far you are to serve the turnes of those persons, upon whom ye depend, and when to leave their commandements unperformed.
Well;Frtitudo. what will this feare of the Lord teach us? Valour, fortitude; feare teach valour? yes; And nothing but feare; True feare. As Moses his Serpents devoured the false serpents, so doth true fear all false fear. There is nothing so contrary to God, as false fear; neither in his own nature, nor in his love to us. Therefore Gods first Name in the Bible, and the Name which he sticks to, in all the worke of the Creation, is his Name of Power, Elohim; El, is fortis Deus, The God of Power; and it is that Name in the plurall, multiplied power, All Power; And what can he feare? God descends to many other humane affections; you shall read that God was Angry, and sory. and weary; But non timuit Deus, God was never afraid. Neither would God that man should be. So his first blessing upon man, was to fill the earth, and to subdue the creatures, and to rule over them, and to eat what he would upon the earth; All Acts of Power,Gen. 3. 10. and of Confidence. As soon as hee had offended God, the first impotency that he found in himself, was fear: I heard thy voice, and I was afraid, says he. He had heard the voice of Lions, and was not afraid. There is not a greater commination of a curse,Ps. 53. 6. then that, They shall be in a great fear, where no fear is; Which is more vehemently expressed in another place,Lev. 26. 17. 36. I will set my face against you, and yu shall flye, when none pursues you; I will send a faintnesse into their hearts, and the sound of a shaken leafe, shall chase them, as a sword. Flase feare is a fearfull curfe. To feare that all favours, and all preferments, will goe the wrong way, and that therefore I must clap on a byasse, and goe that way too, this inordinate fear is the curse of God. Davids last counsail to Solomon (but reflecting upon us all) was,1 Reg. 2. 2. Be thou strong therefore, and show thy selfe a man. Gregor.E Culmine corruens, ad gyrum laboris venit, The Davill fell from his place in heaven, and now is put to compasse the earth. The fearfull man that fals from his morall and his Christian constancy, from the fundamentall rules of his religion, fals into labyrinths, of incertitudes, and impertinencies, and ambiguities, and anxieties,Iob 7. 1. & irresolutions. Militia, vita; our whole life is a warfare; God would not chuse Cowards; hee lad rather we were valiant in the fighting of his battels; for battels, and exercise of valour, we are sure to have. God sent a Cain into the world before an Abel; An Enemy,Gregor. before a Champion. Abel non suspicor qui non habet Cain; Gregor. we never heare of an Abel, 1 Pet. 4. 12.but there is a Cain too. And therefore think it not strange, concerning the fiery triall, as though some strange thing happened unto you; Make account that this world is your Scene, your Theater, and that god himself sits to see the combat, the wrestling.Chrysost. Vetuit Deus mortem Iob; Iob was Gods Champion, and God forbad Satan the taking away of Iobs life; for, if he die, (sayes God in the mouth of that Father)Theatrum nobis non amplius plaeudetar, My Theater will ring with no more Plaudites, I shall bee no more glorified in the valour and constancy of my Saints, my Champions. God delights in the constant and valiant man, and therefore a various, a timorous man frustrates, disappoints God.
My errand then is to teach you valour; and must my way be to intimidate you, to teach you feare? yes, still there is no other fortitude, but the fear of the Lord. We told you before, sadnesse and fear differ but in the present, and future. And as for the present, Nihil aliud triste quàm Deum offendere, Chrysost.There is no just cause of sadnesse, but to have sinned against God, (for, sudden sadnesse arising in a good Conscience, is a sparke of fire in the Sea, it must goe out;) so there is no just cause of fear, but in Gods displeasure. Mens in timore Domini constituta, Gregor.non invenit extra quod metuat. God is all; and if I be established in him, what thing can I fear, when there is nothing without him? nothing simply,Chrysost. at least nothing that can hurt me; Quae sunt in mundo non nocentiis qui extra mundum sunt, This world cannot hurt him that made it, nor them that are laid up in him. Ionas did but change his vessell, his ship, when he entred the Whale, he was not shipwracked, God was his Pilot there, as well as in the ship, and therefore he as confident there.P…ov. 1. 38. It is meant of Christ, which is spoken in the person in Wisdome, Who so hearkneth unto me, shall dwell safely, and be quiet from the feare of evill. And therefore; when you heare of warres and commotions,Luc. 21. 9. be not terrified; these things must come to passe, but the end is not by and by; Imaginations, and tentations, and alienations, and tribulations must come: But this is not the end; the end that God lookes for, is, that by the benefit of his fear we should stand out all these.
So thē to teach you the fear of the Lord,Quid operatur. is to teach you what it doth, that you may love it, and what it is, that you may know it. That wch it doth, is that it makes you a constant, a confident, a valiant man, That which God, who is alwayes the same, loves. How doth it that? Thus. As he that is falne into tha Kings hand for debt to him, is safe from other creditors, so is he, that fears the Lord, form other fears. He that loves the Lord, loves him witl all his love; he that fears the Lord, fears him withall his fear too; God takes no half affections.Rom. 11. 02. Upon those words, Be not high-minded, but fear, Clement of Alexandria, hath another reading; super-time, over-feare; that is, carry thy fear to the highest place;Eccles. 5. 7. place thy fear there, where it may be above all other fears. In the multitude of dreams, there are divers vanities, but feare thou the Lord. All fearfull things passe away as dreams, as vanities, to him that fears the Lord; They offer at him, but in vain, if he be established with that fear. In Christ there was no bone broken; In him that feares the Lord,Iob. 1. 1. no constant purpose is ever shaken. Of Iob it is said, that he was perfect and upright; That is a rare wonder, but the wonder is qualified in the addition, He feared God. So are they put together in Simeon,Luke 2. 25. Iustus & timoratus, he was a just man; how should he be otherwise? He feared God. Consider your enemies, and be not deceived with an imagination of their power, but see whether they be worthy of your feare, if you feare God. The World is your enemy; sed vicit mundum, be of good cheare, for I have overcome the world, Iohn 16. 33. 15. 19.saith Christ. If it were not so, yet we are none of it; ye are not of the world, for I have chosen you out of the that world. Howsoever, the world would doe us no harm, the world would be good enough of it self, but that the Prince of the world, the Devill, is anima mundi, the soul of this lower world, he inanimates, he actuates, he exalts, the malignity of the world against us; and he is our second enemy. It was not the Apple, but the Serpent that tempted; Eve. no doubt, had looked upon the fruit before, and yet did not long. But even this enemy is not so dangerous, as he is conceived. In the life of St. Basil, we have a story, that the Devil appeared to a penitent sinner at his praiers, and told him, If you will let me alone, I will let you alone, meddle not with me, and I will not meddle with you, He found that by this good souls prayers to God, God had weakned his power, not onelyonly upon that man the prayed, but upon others too; and therefore he was content, to come to a cessation of armes with him, that he might turn his forces another way. Truely he might say to many of us, in a worse sense, Let me alone, and I will let you alone; tempt not me, & I will not tempt you: Our idlenes, our high diet, our wanton discours, our exposing our selves to occasion of sin, provoke and call in the Devill, when he seeks not us. The Devill possesses the world, and we possesse the Devill. But then, if the fear of the Lord possesse us, our owne Concupiscencies, (though they be indeed our greatest enemies) because the warre that they maintain is a civill warre) shall doe us no harm, for as the Septuagins in their Translation, diminish the power of the Devill, in that name …words…, (a disproportioned Creature, made up of a Lion and an Ant, because as St. Gregory saith upon that place) formicis …eoest, volatilibus formica, The Devill is a Lion. to Ants, dasheth whole hills of them with his paw, that creep under him, but he is but an Ant to birds; they prey upon him, that flie above him. If wee feare the Lord, our concupiscencies, our carnall affections, our selves, may prove our best friends, because, as the fire in the furnace did not burn the men,Dan. 3. but it burnt off those bands, that fettered and manacled them,2. 25. (for they were loose, and walked in the furnace) so our concupiscencies, if we resist them, shall burn off themselves, and file off their own rust, and our salvation shall be surer by occasion of temptations.August. We may prevent mortem mortificatione, everlasting death, by a disciplinary life. Mori, ne moriamur, is his rule too, To die to the fires of lust here, lest wee die in unquenchable fires hereafter; to die daily, (as S. Paul speaks of himself) lest we die at the last day. To end this, this is the working of the fear of the Lord, it devours all other fears; God will have no half-affections, God will have no partners; He that fears God fears nothing else.
This then is the operation of the feare of the Lord,Quid iste Timor. this is his working; remaines onelyonly to consider what this feare of the Lord is: And, beloved in him, be not afraid of it; for, this fear of God, is the love of God. And, howsoever there may be some amongst us, whom the heighth of birth, or of place, or of spirit hath kept from fear, They never feared any thing, yet, I think, there is none, that never loved any thing. Obligations of Matrimony, or of friendship, or of blood, or of alliance, or of conversation, hath given every one of us, no doubt, some sense in our selves, what it is to love, and to enjoy that which we doe love; And the fear of God, is the love of God. The love of the Lord passeth all things, Ecclus. 25. 11.saith the Wise man: The love, what is that to fear? It follows, The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of his love. As they that build Arches, place centers under the Arch, to beare up the work, till it bee dried, and setled, but, after, all is Arch, and there is no more center, no more support; so to lie at the Lords feet a while delivers us into his arms, to accustome our selves to his fear, establishes us in his love. Be content to stop a little, even at the lowest fear, the fear of hell. When Saul was upon an expedition,1 Sam. 11. 7. and did not finde himself well followed, he took a yoke of Oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and proclaimed, that whosoever came not to the supply, all his Oxen should be so served; and upon this, (says the Text there) The fear of the Lord fell upon all the people, and they came out, as one man, three hundred and thirty thousand. If Sauls threatning of their worldly goods, wrought so; let Gods threatning of thy selfe, thine inwardest self, thy soul, with hell, make thee to stop even upon thy fear of the Lord, the fear of Torment. Stop upon the second fear too, the fear of privation, and losse of the sight of God in heaven; That when all wee have disputed, with a modest boldnesse, and wondred with a holy wonder, what kinde of sight of God we shall have in heaven, then when thou shouldst come to an end, and to an answer of all these doubts, in an experimentall triall, how he shall be seen, (seen thus) thou shalt see then that thou shalt never see him. After thou hast used to hear, all thy life, blessednesse summed up into that one act, We shall see God, thou shalt never come nearer to that knowledge, thou shalt never see him; fear the Lord therefore in this second fear, fear of privation. And fear him in a third fear, the fear of the losse of his grace here in this world, though thou have it now. S. Chrysostome serves himself and us, with an ordinary comparison, A Tyler is upon the top of the house, but he looks to his footing, he is afraid of falling. A righteous man is in a high place in Gods favour, but hee may lose that place. Who is higher then Adam, higher then the Angels? and whither fell they. Make not thou then thy assurance of standing, our of their arguments, that say it is impossible for the righteous to fall, The sins of the righteous are no sins in the sight of God; but built thy assurance upon the testimony of a good conscience, that thou usest all diligence, and holy industry, that thou maist continue in Gods favour, and fearest to lose it; for, hee that hath no fear of losing, hath no care of keeping. Accustome thy self to these fears, and these fears will flow into a love. As love, and jealousie may bee the same thing, so the feare and love of God will be all one;August. for, jealousie is but a fear of losing. Brevissima differentia Testamentorum, Timor & Amor; This distinguishes the two Testaments, The Old is a Testament of fear, the New of love; yet in this they grow all one, That we determine the Old Testament, in the New, and that we prove the New Testament by the Old; for, but by the Old, we should not know, that there was to bee a New, nor, but for the New, that there was an Old; so the two testaments grow one Bible; so in these two Affections, if there were not a jealousie, a fear of losing God, we could not love him; nor can we fear to lose him, except we doe love him. Place the affection, (by what name soever) upon the right object, God, and I have, in some measure, done that which this Text directed, (Taught you the fear of the Lord) if I send you away in either disposition, Timorous; or amorous, possessed with either, the fear, or the love of God; for, this fear is inchoative love, and this love is consummative fear; The love of God begins in fear, and the fear of God ends in love; and that love can never end, for God is love.