ONE of the SERMONS PREACHED AT WESTMINSTER, On the day of the public Fast (April 5. 1628.) To the Lords of the High Court of Parliament And by their appointment Published. By the B. of EXETER. LONDON, Printed for Nath Butter. 1628. ESAY 5. the 4. and 5. VERSES. What could have heene done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth Grapes, brought it forth wild Grapes, And now go to, I will tell you, what I will do to my Vineyard; I will take away the Hedge thereof. IT is a piece of a Song (for so it is called Vers. 1. Alas, what should songs do to an heavy heart, Pro. 25. 20. or Music in a day of Mourning, Howling and Lamentation is fitter for this occasion? Surely, as we do sometimes weep for joy; So do we Sing also for sorrow, Thus also doth the Prophet here; If it be a Song, it is a Dump; Isaiah Lachrymae; fit for that (Sheminith) gravis symphonia, as Tremelius turns it, which some sad Psalms were set unto: 1. Chron. 55 21. Both the Ditty, Psal. 6. 1. and the Tune are doleful: Psal. 12. 1. There are in it three passionate strains; Favours, Wrongs, Revenge: Blessings, Sins, judgement; Favours and blessings from God to Israel; Sins (which are the highest wrongs) from Israel to God; judgements, by way of revenge, from God to Israel; and each of those follow upon other; God begins with favours to his people; They answer him with their sins, he replies upon them with judgements; and all of these are in their height; the favours of God are such as he asks. What could be more; the sins are aggravated by those favours; what worse than wild Grapes and disappointment? And the judgements must be aggravated to the proportion of their sins, what worse than the Hedge taken away, the Wall broken, the Vinyard trodden down, and eaten up: Let us follow the steps of God, and his Prophet, in all these; And when we have passed these in Israel, let us seek to them at home: What should I need to crave attention; the business is both Gods, and our own. God and we begin with favours; favours not mean and ordinary; not expressed in a right-downe affirmation, but in an expostulatory, and selfe-conuincing Question; What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it? Every word is a new obligation. That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God, that it is God's Vineyard, is yet more; that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated, as nothing more could be either added, or desired, is most of all: Israel is no vast Desert, no wild Forest, no moorish Fen, no barren Heath, no thorny Thicket but a Vineyard; a Soil of use and fruit. Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never find any lively member of God's Church compared to any but a fruitful Tree; Not to a tall Cypress the Emblem of unprofitable Honour, nor to a smooth Ash the Emblem of unprofitable Prelacy, that doth nothing but bear Keys: nor to a double-coloured Poplar, the Emblem of Dissimulation; nor to a well shaded Plane, that hath nothing but Form; nor to a hollow Maple, nor to a trembling Asp; nor to a prickly Thorn; shortly, not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not useful and beneficial; Hear this than ye goodly Cedars, strong Elms, fast-growing Willows, sappy Sycomores, and all the rest of the fruitless trees of the earth, I mean all fashionable and barren professors whatsoever, ye may shoot up in height, ye may spread far, shade well, show fair, but what are ye good for? Ye may be fit for the Forest, Ditches, Hedgrowes of the World; ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel; that is a Vineyard; there is place for none but Vines; & true Vines are fruitful: He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit, saith our Saviour, john 15. 5. And of all fruits, what is comparable to that of the Vine? Let the Vine itself speak in jothams' Parable, jud. 9 19 Should I leave my Wine which cheereth God and man? How is this? God cheered with Wine? It is an high hyperbole; Yet seconded by the God of truth; I will drink no more of the fruit of this Vine, till I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom, Mat. 26. 29. It must needs be an excellent liquor which is used to resemble the joys of heaven: Yea, the blood of the Son of God, that celestial nectar, which to morrow shall cheer our Souls, is it otherwise resembled then by the blood of the Grape? He is Vitis vera, the true Vine this is his juice. Alas; would God we had not too much cause to complain of the pleasure of this fruit; Religion, Reason, Humanity savour not to the palate of many in comparison of it? Wine is a mocker, saith Solomon: How many thousands doth it daily cheat of their Substance, of their Patrimony, of their Health, of their Wit, of their Sense, of their Life, of their Soul? Oh that we had the grace to be sensible of our own scorn, and danger; But this is the honour of the fruit, and the shame of the man: the excess is not more our sin, than the delicacy is the praise of the Grape; For sweetness of verdure, than all Plants will yield to the Vine; so tasteful, so pleasing, so delightful unto God are the persons, the graces, the endeavours of his Israel. Their persons are, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Rom. 12. 1. Their Love is better than Wine Cant. 4. 10. Their Alms are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a sweet smelling savour, Philip. 4. 18. Their prayers as evening Incense; of a most fragrant composition; and, for the rest of their words; The roof of their mouth is like the best Wine, Cant. 7. 9 Acceptation hath wont to be the encouragement of forwardness; Honourable and beloved, how should this hearten us in our holy stations, in our conscionable actions; Whiles we continue Vines it is not in the power of our imperfections, to lose our thanks; The delicatest Grape cannot be so rellish-some to the palate of man, as our poor weak obediences are to the God of mercies. Thou hast ravished my heart, my Sister, my Spouse, thou hast ravished my heart; saith Christ of his Church, Cant. 4. 9 The Vine is a noble plant, but a feeble and tender one; Other trees grow up alone out of the strength of their own sap; this grovels on the ground, and rots if it have not an Elm to prop it; Like as Man, the best creature, is in his birth most helpless; and would presently die without outward succours; Such is the Israel of God; the worthiest piece of God's Creation; yet of itself impotent to good; here is no growth, no life but from that Divine Hand; Without Me can ye do nothing: They are no Vines that can stand alone; those proud Spirits, as they have no need of God, so God hath no interest in them; His Israel is a Vineyard; and the Vine must be propped. As a Vineyard, so God's Vineyard. The Church shall be sure not to be Masterless: There is much waste ground that hath no Owner; our Globe can tell us of a great part of the World, that hath no name but Incognita, not known, whether it have any inhabitant; but a Vineyard was never without a Possessor; till Noah the true janus planted one, there was no news of any; Come into some wild Indian Forest all furnished with goodly Trees, you know not whether ever man were there; God's hand we are sure hath been there; perhaps not man's; but if you come into a well dressed Vineyard, where you see the Hillocks equally swelling, the stakes pitched in a just height & distance, and the Vines, handsomely pruned, now it is easy to say (as the Philosopher did when he found Figures) Here hath been a man, yea a good husband. There is an universal providence of God over the World; but there is a special eye, and hand of God over his Church: In this God challengeth a peculiar interest that is his (as we heard worthily this Day) in a double right, of Confederation, of Redemption; Israel is my Son, yea my first borne, saith God to Pharaoh: Thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it, saith the Psalmist, 80. 8. Oh the blasphemous diffidence of foolish men! Can we, dare we impute ill husbandry to the God of Heaven? Hath God a Vineyard, and shall he not tend it? Shall he not mightily protect it? Go on, ye Foxes, ye little Foxes, to spoil the tender Grapes; Go on ye Boars of the Wood to waste this Vineyard, and ye wild beasts of the field to devour it; our sins, our sins have given this scope to your violence, and our calamity: But ye shall once know that this Vineyard hath an Owner; even the mighty God of jacob; every cluster that you have spoiled shall be fetched back again from the bloody Winepress of his wrath: And in spite of all the gates of Hell, this Vine shall flourish. Even so, Return we beseech thee, O God of Hosts; look down from Heaven and visit this Vine: and the Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted: and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. Ye have seen Israel a Vineyard, and God's Vineyard▪ now cast your eyes upon the favours that God hath done to his Vineyard Israel; such, as that God appeals their own hearts for judges; What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done? Mark, I beseech you; He doth not say, What could have been done more than hath been done, but, more, that I have not done; challenging all the acts done to his Vineyard for his own; as the Soil is his, so is all the Culture; He that else where makes himself the Vine, and his Father the Husbandman, here, makes Israel the Vine, and himself the Husbandman; nothing is, nothing can be done to his Church that passeth not his hands: My Father still worketh, saith he, and I work. This work, this care knows no end, no limits. Many a good Husband over-taskes himself, and undertakes more, than his eye can overlook, or his hand sway; and therefore is fain to trust to the menagement of others; and it speeds thereafter. But the Owner of this Vineyard is every where; and works where ever he is; nothing can pass his eye, every thing must pass his hand; This is the difference betwixt Salomon's Vineyard, and his that is greater than Solomon; Solomon lets out his Vineyard to Keepers, Cant. 8. 11. Christ keeps his in his own hand; He useth indeed the help of Men, but as Tools, rather than as Agents, he works by them, they cannot work but by him; Are any of you great Ones, Benefactors to his Church (a rare style I confess in these not dative but ablative times) ye are but as the hands of the Subalmoners of Heaven: God gives by you: Are any great Potentates of the earth secret or open persecutors of his Church: Ashur is the rod of my wrath, saith God; They are but as Gods pruning Knives, to make his Vine bleed out her superfluous juice: God cuts by them: He is the Author of both, men are the instruments. To him must we return the praise of his mercy in the one, and in the other, the awe of his judgements, what ever is done to his Church, God doth it himself. Neither doth he say, What could I have done more that I have not done, as our former Translation reads it, with a reference to his absolute power; according whereto, we know that he can do more than he doth, more than he will do, but (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Quid faciendum; What could have been done more in respect of the exigence of the occasion; Would God set his omnipotent Power upon it, we know he could make all the World Israel; he could make all Israel Saints, he could have made Devils men, men Angels. But God uses not to proceed according to the rule of an absolute Omnipotency, but according to the Oeconomie of his most holy, most wise, most just Decrees: Whereby he hath chalked out unto men those ways, and helps of salvation, which he sees fit for the attainment of that end; these are they wherein he hath not been failing to his Israel. Of these he says, What could have been done more that I have not done? See what notice God takes, and what reckonings he keeps of all the good that he doth to any Church or people; he files up all his blessings; He is bountiful not profuse; openhanded, but not so as that his largesse makes him respectless or forgetful of his beneficences; he gives not like the picture of Fortune, blindfolded; or, like an Almoner in a throng, he knows not to whom; he notes both the man and the favour; In our gifts, our left hand may not know what our right hand doth, because our weakness is subject to a proud-selfe-conceit, and a mis-opinion of too much obligation in the Receiver; but he, whose infinite goodness is not liable to any danger of those infirmities which follow our sinful nature, sets all his mercies on the score, and will not balk one of the least. He that could say to Israel I took thee from among the Pots, and to David, I took thee from following the Ewes great with Lamb; do ye not think he still says to his Anointed, I brought you from weak in the Cradle to strong in the Throne; I kept you from treacherous hands; I returned you safe from the dangers of your Southern Voyage I have given you not the hands and knees, but the hearts of your Subjects. Do I not think he saith to me, I brought thee from the ferule to a pastoral staff; to another, I brought thee from the bench of justice to the seat of Honour; to an other I delivered thee from the Sword of thine Enemy, from the bed of thy sickness, from the walls of thy restraint, from the Powder Mine; I made thee Noble, thee Rich, thee Potent; I made this Country populous, that City wealthy, this Kingdom strong, Be sure, if we be forgetful, God will not misreckon his own mercies: Our favours are (like ourselves) poor and impotent, worthy to be scribbled upon the Sand, that they may be washed off with the next wave, his, are full of goodness, and infinite compassion, fit for the Marble of an eternal remembrance. Honourable and beloved, Why do not we keep one part of the Tally, as he keeps the other, that so we may hold eeuen reckonings with our munificent God? How should we meditate continually of the gracious and wonderful works of his bounty, knowing that God hath so done his great works, that they ought to be had in perpetual memory; How should we gratefully recount his favours, and call the World about us, with the sweet singer of Israel; Come hither, and hear all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul, Psal. 56. 16. O God it is a just quarrel that thou hast against us for our unthankfulness; the familiarity of thy blessings have drawn them into neglect. Alas, thy mercies have not been sown, but buried in us; We have been gulfs to swallow them, not repositories to keep them; How worthily do we smart, because we forget. How justly are thy judgements seen upon us, because thy mercies are not. Away with this wretched ingratitude; Oh love the Lord, Psal. 31. 23. all ye his Saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. What then is it, O Lord, what is it that thou hast done, than which more could not be done for thy Vineyard? Thou best knowest thine own mercies, and canst best express them: thou that wouldst not have us search into thy counsels, wouldst not have us ignorant of thy favours: those are particularised in the foregoing words: In thy choice. In thy fence, In picking, In planting, in oversight, in pressing; First, there is the advantage of the place chosen; where hath he settled his Vineyard but upon a very fruitful Hill? A double advantage, An hill, and very fruitful: Hills are held best for Vines; the declivity whereof gives much strength to the reflection; so as the most generous Vines are noted to grow upon the hills. Yet, there are barren hills; nothing but heaps of unprofitable sands; this is a fruitful hill, yea superlatively fruitful, the home of the Son of oil, as it is in the original; that is, by an Hebraisme; an hill eminently fat and fertile. But what would it avail the ground to be fruitful, if it be unfenced, that the wild Boar, or the Foxes may spoil it: as good no fruit as to no purpose. Lo then here, Secondly, both an hedge, and, lest that should not be sufficient, a Wall. But to what purpose should it be fenced with stones without, if it be choked with stones within; As therefore thirdly the stones were laid together in the Wall, for defence; So they were gathered off from the soil to avoid offence. But to what purpose is the fruitfulness, fencing, stoning, if the ground yield a plentiful Crop of Briers, Thistles, Weeds? Iniussa virescunt gramina; ill Weeds grow fast; here is therefore, Fourthly, the main favour to this Vineyard, that the owner hath planted it with choicest Vines; It is the praise of the Earth, to softer any Plant that is put into the bosom of it; it is the chief care of the Husbandman to store it with Mants of worth: Now all this provision of soil, Fencing, Stoning, Planting, were nothing without a continual oversight; the wise owner therefore. Fiftly, builds, not a Bower, not a Banqueting house, for pleasure, but a Tower for survey; and that not in some obscure Angle, but in the midst of the Vineyard, that he may view the carriage of his labourers, and descry the first danger of the annoyances. Lastly, to what purpose were all this choice, Fencing, Stoning, Planting, oversight, if when the Grapes are grown to their due ripeness, they should not be improved to an useful Vintage, this must be done by the Winepress; That is set up: and now, what can remain, but the setting under of Vessels to receive the comfortable juice, that shall flow from these, so well husbanded clusters. All this hath God done for his Vinyard, what could have been done more? Not to dwell in the mists of Allegories; God himself hath read this Riddle. The Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: Verse 7. And the house of Israel is his Church. The Church is God's hill, conspicuous for his wonderful favours (though not ever) even to the eye of the World; not an hidden unheeded Valley. A fruitful Hill, not by nature, but by grace; Nature was like itself, in it, in the World; God hath taken it in from the barren Downs, and gooded it: his choice did not find but make it thus. Thus chosen he hath fenced it about with the hedge of Discipline, with the wall of his Almighty protection. Thus fenced he hath ordained, by just censures to pick out of it those stones of offence, which might hinder their holy proceedings, and keep down the growth of the Vines; whether scandalous Men, false Opinions, or evil Occurrences. Thus cleared, he hath planted it with the choicest Vines of gracious motions, of wholesome Doctrines, Thus planted, he hath ouerlookt it from the Watch-towre of Heaven, in a careful inspection upon their ways, in a provident care of their preservation. Thus over-looked, he hath endeavoured to improve it by his seasonable Winepress in reducing all these powers and favours, to act, to use; whether by fatherly corrections, or by suggesting meet opportunities of practice; And now having thus chosen, fenced, cleared, planted, watched, and ordered to strain his Vines, he says most justly what could have been done more that I have not done? Certainly it is not in the power of any humane apprehension to conceive what act could be added to perfect his culture, what blessing could be added to the indearing of a Church. If he have made choice of a people for his own; If he have blessed them with good government, with safe protection, If he have removed all hindrances of their proficiency; If he have given them wholesome instructions, and plied them with solicitations to good; If his provident eye have been ever over them for their deliverances; If lastly, he have used both fair & foul means to wring from them the good juice of their obedience; Say men are Angels. What could have been done more? What Church so ever in the World can make good to itself these specialties of mercy, Let it know that God hath abated nothing to it of the height of his favour. These are the favours wherewith God hath begun to Israel, now turn your ears to the answer that Israel returns to God, see the mercies of a good God requited with the rebellions of a wicked people; wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? A woeful issue of such blessings: wild grapes, and that with the disappointment of God's expectation. Two usual faults doth God find with any vicious Tree; No fruit, Ill fruit, The one in omission of good, the other, in commission of sin: The figtree in the way is cursed for the one; Israel here taxed for the other. What then are these wild, or as Pagnine renders it vuae putidae, rotten Grapes? God hath not left it to our guess, but hath plainly told us v. 7. in an elegant parenomasie I looked for (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) judgement and behold (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a wound or scab: that is oppression) I looked for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice, and behold (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) clamour. Generally what ever disposition or act, uncultured nature doth, or would produce of itself, that is a wild grape: Particularly, the Holy Ghost hath here instanced in several sins, so styled: A self-greatning oppression, vers. 8. A settled drunkenness and wilful debauchedness, vers. 11. A determined resolution of wicked courses, verse 18. A nicknaming of good and evil, verse 20. A self conceitedness in their own ways, verse 21. Bribery in their judges, 1. 23. Pride in their women 3. 16. obdured infidelity in all 6. 10. Wild grapes indeed, such as corrupted nature yields without a correction, without an alteration: she herself is wild; she can yield but what she hath, what she is; Please yourselves who list in the opinion of your fair, and sweet, and plausible disposition; ye shall find nature at her best but a wild Vine; In me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good; saith the chosen Vessel: Wild grapes, for the harshness and fowrenesse of the taste; for the odiousness of their Verdure to the palate of the Almighty, the best fruits of nature are but glorious sins, the worst are horrible abominations: Such are the wild grapes of Israel; which yet could not have been so ill if God had not been put into an expectation of better, and if this expectation had not been crossed with disappointment: Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth Grapes, brought it forth wild Grapes? Had only Maples, or Thorns, or Willows grown there, God would not have looked for Grapes; had only wild Vines grown there; GOD would not have looked for pleasing clusters, but now that God furnished the Soil with Noble and Generous Plants, with what scorn, and indignation doth he look upon wild Grapes? Favours bestowed raise expectation, and expectation frustated doubles the judgement: The very leaves and the high way drew a curse upon the Figtree; Woe be to thee Chorazin, Woe be to thee Bethsaida. Son of man what shall be done to the Vine of all trees? Woe be to thee O Vineyard of Israel: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down the wall, and it shall be trodden down. My speech should now descend to the woeful vengeance, that God threats to and inflicts upon his Israel; A fit Theme for so heavy a day; the Hedge of good government and wholesome Laws shall be trodden down; the wall of Divine Protection shall be broken; the beasts of the Field and Forrest shall be let in; the Grapes devoured, the Trees brouzed and trampled upon, the roots extirpate; to the full and final vastation of Israel; to the scorn and hissing of all Nations, to the just terror of all the World, whiles that darling people which was once the example of God's mercy, is now becomne the fearful spectacle of his fury, and revenge; surviving only in some few abhorred, and despised Vagabonds, to show that there was once such a Nation: But the time and occasion call my thoughts homeward, and invite me rather, to spend the rest of my hour, in paralleling Israel's blessings, sins, threats of judgement with our own: Wherein our interest shall be a sufficient motive of our attention; Gather you together therefore, gather you, O Nation, not worthy to be loved; and cast back your eyes upon those incomparable favours, wherewith God hath provoked, and endeared this Island; in which, I dare boldly say we are, at the least, his second Israel. How hath he chosen us out of all the Earth, and divided us from the rest of the World, that we might be a singular pattern, and strange wonder of his bounty; what should I speak of the wholesome temper of our Clime; the rich provision of all useful Commodities; so as we cannot say only as Sanchez did, I have moisture enough within my own shell, but as David did, Poculum exuberans, My cup runs over to the supply of our Neighbour Nations; what speak I of the populousness of our Cities, the defencednesse of our shores; these are nothing to that heavenly treasure of the Gospel, which makes us the Vineyard of God and that sweet peace, which gives us the happy fruition of that saving Gospel: Albion do we call it? nay (as he rightly) Polyolbion; richly blessed; O God, what, where is the Nation, that can emulate us in these favours? How hath he fenced us about, with the hedge of good Discipline, of wholesome Laws, of gracious Government; with the brazen wall of his Almighty, and miraculous protection; Never Land had more exquisite Rules of justice, whether mute, or speaking: He hath not left us to the mercy of a rude Anarchy, or a tyrannical violence, but hath regulated us by Laws of our own ask, and swayed us by the just Sceptres of moderate Princes▪ Never Land had more convincing proofs of an Omnipotent Tuition; whether against foreign Powers, or secret Conspiracies; Forget if ye can the year of our Invasion, the Day of our Purim; Besides the many particularities of our deliverances filled up by the pen of one of our worthy Prelates. How hath he given us means to remove the rubs of our growth; and to gather away the stones of false doctrine, of heretical pravity, of mischievous machinations that might hold down his truth: And, which is the head of all, How hath he brought our Vine out of the Egypt of Popish Superstition, and planted it; In plain terms; how hath he made us a truly-orthodoxe Church; eminent for purity of doctrine, for the grave and reverend solemnity of true Sacraments, for the due form of government, for the pious and Religious form of our public liturgy; with what plenty hath he showered upon us the first and latter rain of his heavenly Gospel? With what rare gifts hath he graced our Teachers? With what pregnant spirits hath he furnished our Academies? With what competency of maintenance hath he heartened all learned Professions? So as in these regards; we may say of the Church of England, Many Daughters have done virtuously, Prou. 31. 29. but thou excellest them all. How hath the vigilant eye of his providence out of his door of Heaven watched over this Island for good? not an hellish Pioneer could mine under ground, but he espied him; not a dark Lantern could offer to deceive midnight, but he descries it; not a plot, not a purpose of evil could look out, but he hath discovered it; and shamed the Agents, and glorified his mercy in our deliverance. Lastly, how infinitely hath his loving care laboured to bring us to good? What sweet opportunities, and encouragements hath he given us of a fruitful obedience? and when his fatherly counsels would not work with us, how hath he scruzed us in the Winepress of his heavy afflictions; one while, with a raging Pestilence, another while, with the insolence and prevalence of enemies, one while with unkindly seasons, another while, with stormy and wracking tempests, if by any means he might fetched from us the precious juice of true penitence, and faithful obedience; that we might turn and live; If the press be weighty, yet the wine were sweet. Lay now all these together, And what could have been done more for our Vineyard, O God, that thou hast not done? Look about you, Honourable and Christian hearers, and see whether God have done thus with any Nation; Oh never, never was any people so bound to a God: Other neighbouring Regions would think themselves happy in one drop of those blessings which have poured down thick upon us: Alas, they are in a vaporous and marish vale, whiles we are seated on the fruitful Hill; they lie open to the massacring Knife of an enemy, whiles we are fenced: they are clogged with miserable encumbrances, whiles we are free; Briers, and Brambles overspread them, whiles we are choicely planted; their tower is of offence, their winepress is of blood. Oh the lamentable condition of more likely Vineyards than our own; who can but weep and bleed to see these woeful calamities that are fall'n upon the late famous and flourishing Churches of Reformed Christendom? Oh, for that Palatine Vine, late inoculated with a precious bud of our Royal Stem; that Vine not long since rich in goodly clusters; now the insultation of Boars, and prey of Foxes; Oh for those poor distressed Christians in France, Boheme, Silesia, Moravia, Germany, Austria, Valtoline, that groan under the tyrannous yoke of Antichristian oppression; how glad would they be of the crumbs of our Feasts; how rich would they esteem themselves with the very glean of our plentiful crop of prosperity; How do they look up at us, as even now Militantly triumphant, whiles they are miserably wallowing in dust and blood; and wonder to see the Sunshine upon our hill, whiles they are drenched with storm and tempest in the Valley? What are we, O God, what are we, that thou shouldst be thus rich in thy mercies to us, whiles thou art so severe in thy judgements unto them? It is too much, Lord, it is too much, that thou hast done for so sinful and rebellious a people. Cast now your eyes aside a little, and, after the view of God's favours, see some little glimpse of our requital; say, then, say, O Nation not worthy to be beloved; What fruit have ye returned to your beneficent God? Sin is impudent; but let me challenge the impudent forehead of sin itself; Are they not sour and wild Grapes that we have yielded? Are we less deep in the sins of Israel, then in Israel's blessings? Complaints, I know, are unpleasing, how ever just; but now, not more unpleasing than necessary, Woe is me, my mother, jer. 15. 10. that thou hast horn me a man of contention. I must cry out in this sad day of the sins of my people. The Searchers of Canaan, when they came to the brook of Esheol, they cut down a branch, with a cluster of Grapes, and carried it on a staff between two, to show Israel the fruit of the Land, Numb. 13. 23. Give me leave, in the search of our Israel, to present your eyes with some of the wild grapes that grow there, on every hedge: And what if they be the very same that grew in this degenerated Vineyard of Israel? Where we meet first with oppression; a Lordly sin, and that challengeth precedency (as which is commonly incident to none but the great (though a poor oppressor (as he is unkindly) so he is a monster of mercilessness.) Oh the loud shrieks and clamours of this crying sin! What grinding of faces, what racking of Rents, what detention of wages, what enclosing of Commons, what engrossing of Commodities, what gripping exactions, what straining the advantages of greatness, what unequal levies of Legal payments, what spiteful Suits, what Depopulations, what Usuries, what violences abound every where? The sighs, the tears, the blood of the poor pierce the Heavens, and call for a fearful retribution; This is a sour Grape indeed, and that makes God to wring his face in an angry detestation. Drunkenness is the next; not so odious in the weakness of it as in the strength: Oh woeful glory; strong to drink: Woe is me, how is the World tumed beast? What bousing, and quaffing, and whiffing, and healthing is there on every bench; and what reeling and staggering in our streets? What drinking by the Yard, the Die, the Dozen? What forcing of pledges. What quarrels for measure; and form? How is that become an excuse of villainy, which any villainy might rather excuse. I was drunk, How hath this torrent, yea this deluge of excess in meats and drinks drowned the face of the Earth, and risen many Cubits above the highest Mountains of Religion and good Laws? Yea would God I might not say that which I fear; and shame, and grieve to say, that even some of them which square the Ark for others, have been inwardly drowned, and discovered their nakedness. That other inundation, scoured the World, this impures it, and what but a Deluge of fire can wash it from so abominable filthiness. Let no Popish Eaves-dropper now smile to think what advantage I give by so deep a censure of our own profession; Alas, these sins know no difference of Religions; would God they themselves were not rather more deep in these foul enormities; we extenuate not our guilt; what ever we sin, we condemn it as mortal; they palliate wickedness with the fair pretence of Venialitie; shortly; They accuse us, we them, God both: But where am I? How easy is it for a man to lose himself in the sins of the time? It is not for me to have mine habitation in these black Tents; Let me pass through them running: Where can a man cast his eye not to see that which may vex his soul? Here Bribery and corruption in the seats of judicature: their Perjuries at the Bar; here partiality and unjust connivency in Magistrates, there disorder in those that should be Teachers; Here Sacrilege in Patrons, there Simoniacal contracts in unconscionable Leuits; Here bloody Oaths and Execrations, there scurrile profaneness. Here cozening in bargains, there breaking of promises; Here persfidious Undermine, there flattering supparasitations: Here pride in both Sexes, but especially the weaker, there Luxury and Wantonness. Here contempt of God's Messengers, there neglect of his Ordinances, and violations of his Days: the time and my breath would sooner fail me then this woeful Bedroll of wickedness: Yet alas, were these the sins of Ignorance, of Infirmity, they might be more worthy of pity then hatred; But oh, the high hand of our presumptuous offences, we draw iniquity with the strings of vanity, up to the head, up to the ear, and shoot up these hateful shafts against heaven▪ Did we sit in darkness and the shadow of death, as too many Pagan and Popish Regions do, these works of darkness would be less intolerable: but now, that the beams of the glorious Gospel have shined thus long, thus bright in our faces; Oh me, what can we plead against our own confusion? Oh Lord, where shall we appear, when thy very mercies aggravate our sins, and thy judgements. Why shouldst thou not expect fruit from a Vineyard so chosen, so husbanded, & woe worth our wretchedness that have thus repaid thee; Be confounded in thyself, O my Soul, be confounded to see these deplored retributions; Are these Grapes for a God? Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unjust; Hath he for this made us the mirror of his mercies to all the World, that we should so shamefully turn his graces into wantonness? Are these the fruits of his choice, his Fencing, his Reforming, his Planting, his watch Tower, his Winepress? Dan 9 4. O Lord; the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenants, and mercies to them that love thee, we have sinned, and committed iniquity, and have rebelled, by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judgements; Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth to thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; we know, we acknowledge how just it may be with thee to pull up our hedges, to break down our Wall, to root up our Vines; to destroy and depopulate our Nation, to make us the scorn and Proverb of all Generations; But O our God, Let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy jerusalem, Dan. 9 16, 19 thy holy Mountain. O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord hearken, and do: defer not for thine own sake, O our God, for thy City, and thy people are called by thy Name: But alas, what speak I of not deferring, to a God of mercy, who is more forward to give, than we to crave; and more loath to strike than we to smart, and when he must strike, complains, Why will ye dye O house of Israel? Let me rather turn this speech to ourselves; the delay is ours; Yet it is not too late, either for our return, or his mercies; The decree is not (to us) gone forth, till it be executed; As yet our Hedge stands, our wall is firm, our Vine grows; These sharp monitions, these touches of judgement have been for our warning, not for our ruin; Who knows if he will not return, and yet leave a blessing behind him: Oh that we could turn unto him with all our heart, with Fasting, and with Weeping, and with Mourning; Oh that we could truly and effectually abandon all those abominable Sins, that have stirred up the Anger of our God against us; and in this our day, this day of our solemn humiliation, renew the Vows of our holy and conscionable obedience: Lord God, it must be thou only that must do it; Oh strike thou our flinty hearts with a sound remorse, and melt them into tears of penitence for all our sins; Convert us unto thee, and we shall be converted; Lord hear our Prayers, and regard our tears, and reform our Lives, and remove thy Plagues, and renew thy loving countenance, and continue & add to thine old mercies, Lord affect us with thy favours, humble us for our Sins; terrify us with thy judgements; that so thou mayst hold on thy favours, and forgive our Sins, and remove thy judgements; even for the sake of the Son of thy love jesus Christ the righteous, to whom, etc. FINIS. Postscript. SInce it seemed good to that Great Court, to call this poor Sermon (amongst others, of greater worth) into the public Light; I have thus submitted to their pleasure: And now, for that they pleased to bid so high a rate, as their command, for that mean piece; I do willingly give them this my other Statue into the bargain. This work preceded (some little) in time, that which it now follows in place, not without good reason: Authority sends forth that, this, will: and my will hath learned ever to give place to authority. Besides my desire to save the labour of Transcriptions, I found it not unfit, the World should see, what preparative was given for so stirring a Potion; neither can there be so much need, in these languishing times, of any discourse, as that which serves to quicken our mortification; wherein I so much rejoice to have so happily met with those Reverend Bishops, who led the way and followed me, in this holy Service. The God of Heaven make all our endeavours effectual to the saving of the souls of his people. AMEN. A SERMON PREACHED TO HIS Majesty, on the Sunday before the Fast, (being March. 30.) at Whitehall. In way of preparation for that holy Exercise. By the B. of EXETER. LONDON, Printed by M. F. for Nath. Butter, and are to be sold at his shop at St. Augustine's gate. 1628. GALAT. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, etc. HE that was once tossed in the confluence of two Seas, Acts 27. 41. was once no less straited in his resolutions betwixt life and death, Philip. 1. 23. Neither doth my Text argue him in any other case here; As there he knew not whether he should choose, so here he knew not whether he had. I am crucified, there he is dead: yet I live, there he is alive again; Yet not I, there he lives not; but Christ in me, there he more than lives. This holy correction makes my Text full of wonders, full of sacred riddles. 1. The living God is dead upon the cross, Christ crucified; 2. St. Paul who died by the sword, dies on the cross. 3. St. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death, is yet crucified with Christ. 4. St. Paul thus crucified yet lives. 5. St. Paul lives not himself, whiles he lives; 6. Christ who is crucified, lives in Paul; who was crucified with him. See then here both a Lent, and an Easter; A Lent of mortification, I am crucified with Christ. An Easter of resurrection, and life, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me: The Lent of my Text will be sufficient (as proper) for this season; wherein my speech shall pass through three long stages of discourse: Christ crucified, St. Paul crucified, St. Paul crucified with Christ. In all which, your Honourable and Christian patience, shall as much shorten my way, as my care shall shorten the way to your patience. Christ's cross is the first lesson of our infancy, worthy to be our last, and all: The great Doctor of the Gentiles affected not to fly any higher pitch. Grande crucis sacramentum, as Ambrose. This is the greatest wonder that ever earth, or heaven yielded. God in carnate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 1 Tim. 3. 16. but God suffering, and dying was so much more, as death is more penal than birth: The Godhead of man, and the blood of God are two such miracles, as the Angels of heaven can never enough look into, never admire enough. Ruffian tells us that among the sacred characters of the Egyptians, the cross was anciently one, which was said to signify eternal life; hence their learneder sort were converted to, & confirmed in the faith. Surely, we know that in God's Hieroglyphics, eternal life is both represented, and exhibited to us by the Cross. That the Cross of Christ was made of the tree of life, a slip the Angels gave to Adam's son, out of Paradise, is but a jewish legend; Galatine may believe it, not we; but; that it is made the tree of life to all believers, we are sure; This is the only scale of heaven; never man ascended thither, but by it. By this, Christ himself climbed up to his own glory. Dominus regnavit a ligno, as Tertullian translates that of the Psalm; Father glorify thy name, that is saith he, Duc me ad crucem, Lift me up to the tree, not of my shame, but of my triumph. Behold, we preach Christ crucified (saith St. Paul) to the jews a stumbling block, to the greeks, foolishness; but to them which are called, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. Foolish men, that stumble at power, and deride wisdom. Vpbraid us now ye fond jews and Pagans, with a a crucified Saviour; it is our glory, it is our happiness; which ye make our reproach: had not our Saviour died, he could have been no Saviour for us; had not our Saviour died, we could not have lived; See now the flag of our dear Redeemer, this Cross, shining eminently, in loco pudoris, in our foreheads: and if we had any place more high, more conspicuous, more honourable, there we would advance it. O blessed jesus, when thou art thus lifted upon thy cross, thou drawest all hearts unto thee: there thou leadest captivity captive, and givest givest gifts unto men. Ye are deceived O ye blind jews and paynims, ye are deceived; It is not a gibbet, it is a throne of honour, to which our Saviour is raised. A throne of such honour, as to which heaven and earth, and hell, do and must veil. The Sun hides his awful head, the earth trembles, the rocks rend, the graves open, and all the frame of nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret, but divine pomp of his crucifixion▪ And whiles ye think his feet and hands despicably fixed, behold, he is powerfully trampling upon hell and death, and setting up trophies of his most glorious victory; and scattering everlasting Crowns, and Sceptres unto all believers: O Saviour, I do rather more adore thee, on the Caluary of thy passion, then on the Tabor of thy transfiguration, or the Olivet of thine ascension: and cannot so affectuously bless thee for Pater clarifica, Father glorify me, as, for, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me; sith it is no news for God to be great, and glorious; but, for the eternal and everliving God, to be abased; to be abased unto death, to the death of the cross, is that which could not but amaze the Angels, and confound Devils, and so much more magnifies thine infinite mercy, by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious. All Hosannaes' of men, all Alleluiahs of Saints and Angels come short of this Majestic humiliation: Blessing, honour, glory, and power be unto him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever, and ever, Reuel. 5. 13. And ye (honourable and beloved) as ever ye hope to make music in heaven, learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of these heavenly Elders; Rejoice in this, & rejoice in nothing but this cross; not in your transitory honours, titles, treasures, which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowful; but in this cross of Christ; whereby the world is crucified to you, and you to the world. Oh clip and embrace this precious cross with both your arms, and say with that blessed Martyr, Amor meus crucifixus est, my love is crucified. Those that have searched into the monuments of jerusalem, write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the West; which howsoever spitefully meant of the jews, (as not allowing him worthy to look on the holy City and Temple) yet, was not without a mystery; His eyes look to the Gentiles etc. Oculi eius super Gentes respiciunt saith the Psalmist; As Christ therefore on his cross looked towards us sinners of the Gentiles; so let us look up to him; Let our eyes be lift up to this brazen serpent, for the cure of the deadly stings (of that old serpent: See him, O all ye beholders; see him hanging upon the tree of shame, of curse, to rescue you from curse, and confusion, and to feoff you in everlasting blessedness: see him stretching out his arms to receive, and embrace you; hanging down his head to take view of your misery, opening his precious side to receive you into his bosom, opening his very heart to take you in thither, pouring out thence water to wash you, and blood to redeem you: O all ye Nazarites that pass by, out of this dead Lion, seek and find the true honey of unspeakable, and endless comfort. And ye great Masters of Israel, whose lips profess to preserve knowledge, leave all curious and needless disquisitions, and with that divine and extaticall Doctor of the Gentiles, care only to know, to preach, Christ and him crucified. But this, though the sum of the Gospel, is not the main drift of my Text: I may not dwell in it, though I am loath to part with so sweet a meditation: From Christ crucified turn your eyes to Paul crucified; you have read him dying by the sword; hear him dying by the cross; and see his moral, spiritual, living crucifixion. Our Apostle is two men, Saul and Paul; The old man, and the new; in respect of the old man he is crucified and dead to the law of sin; so as that sin is dead in him; neither is it otherwise with every regenerate. Sin hath a body, as well as the man hath, (who shall deliver me from this body of death? Rom. 7. 24. A body that hath limbs, and parts; Mortify your earthly members, saith our Apostle, Colos. 3. 5. Not the limbs of our humane body, which are made of earth, (so should we be hosts naturae, as Bernard) but the sinful limbs, that are made of corruption, Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, etc. The head of sin is wicked devices; the heart of sin, wicked desires; the hands and feet of sin, wicked executions; the tongue of sin, wicked words; the eyes of sin, lustful apprehensions; the forehead of sin, impudent profession of evil; the back of sin, a strong supportation and maintenance of evil; all this body of sin is not only put to death, but to shame too; so as it is dead with disgrace; I am crucified. St. Paul speaks not this singularly of himself, but in the person of the renewed; sin, doth not, cannot live a vital, and vigorous life in the regenerate. Wherefore then (say you) was the Apostles complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Mark, I beseech you; it was the body of sin; not the life of sin; a body of death, not the life of that body; Or if this body had yet some life, it was such a life, as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off; some dying quiverings, rather as the remainders of a life that was, than any act of a life that is: Or, if a further life, such a one as in 'swounds, and fits of epilepsy, which yields breath, but not sense; or if some kind of sense, yet no motion, or if it have some kind of motion in us, yet no manner of dominion over us. What power, motion, sense, relics of life are in a fully crucified man? such a one may waft up and down with the wind, but cannot move out of any internal principle. Sin and grace cannot more stand together in their strength, than life and death: In remiss degrees all contraries may be lodged together under one roof; Saint Paul swears that he dies daily, yet he lives; so the best man sins hourly, even whiles he obeys; but the powerful and overruling sway of sin is incompatible with the truth of regeneration. Every Esau would be carrying away a blessing; No man is willing to sit out. Ye shall have strong drinkers, as Esay calls them, Esay 5. 22. Neighing stallions of lust, as jeremy calls them, jer. 5. 8. Mighty hunters in oppression, as Nimrod, Gen. 10. 9 rotten talkers, Ephesians 4. 9 which yet will be challenging as deep a share in grace, as the conscionablest: Alas how many millions do miserably delude themselves with a mere pretence of Christianity; aliter vivunt, aliter loquuntur, as he said of the Philosophers. Vain hypocrites, they must know that every Christian is a crucified man: How are they dead to their sins, that walk in their sins? how are their sins dead in them, in whom they stir, reign, flourish? Who doth not smile to hear of a dead man that walks? Who derides not the solecism of that Actor, which expressed himself fully dead by saying so? What a mockery is this? eyes full of lust, itching ears, scurrilous tongues, bloody hands, hearts full of wickedness, and yet dead? Deceive not your solues dear Christians, if ye love them; This false death is the way to the true eternal, incomprehensibly-wofull death of body and soul: If ye will needs do so, walk on ye falsely dead, in the ways of your old sins, be sure, these paths shall lead you down to the chambers of everlasting death; if this be the hanging up of your corruptions, fear to hang in hell. Away with this hateful simulation; God is not mocked; Ye must either kill, or dye. Kill your sins; or else they will be sure to kill your souls, apprehend, arraign, condemn them; fasten them to the tree of shame; and, if they be not dead already, break their legs & arms, disable them to all offensive actions; as was done to the thieves in the Gospel; so shall you say with our blessed Apostle, I am crucified. Neither is it thus only in matter of notorious crime, and gross wickedness, but thus it must be in the universal carriage of our lives, and the whole habitual frame of our dispositions; In both these, we are, we must be crucified. Be not deceived my brethren, it is a sad and austere thing to be a Christian; This work is not frolic, jovial, plausible; there is a certain thing called true mortification, required to this business; and who ever heard but there was pain in death? but, among all deaths, in crucifying? what a torture must there needs be in this act of violence? what a distension of the body, (whose weight is rack enough to itself?) what straining of the joints? what nailing of hands and feet? Never make account to be Christians without the hard tasks of penitence. It will cost you tears, sighs, watchings, selfe-restraints, selfe-strugling, selfe-denyalls: This word is not more harsh than true; Ye delicate hypocrites, what do ye talk of Christian profession, when ye will not abate a dish from your belly, nor spare an hours sleep from your eyes, nor cast off an offensive rag from your backs for your God? In vain shall the vassals of appetite challenge to be the servants of God: Were it that the Kingdom of God did consist in eating, and drinking, in pampering and surfeits, in chambering and wantonness, in pranking and vanity, in talk and ostentation: Oh God how rich shouldest thou be of subjects, of Saints? But if it require abstinence, humiliation, contrition of heart, subiugation of our flesh, renunciation of our wills, serious impositions of laboursome devotions; O Lord, what is becomne of true Christianity? where shall we seek for a crucified man? Look to our Tables, there ye shall find excess and riot; Look to our backs, there ye shall find proud disguises, look to our conversation, there ye shall find scurrile and obscene jollity: This liberty, yea this licentiousness is that, which opens the mouths of our adversaries, to the censure of our real impiety; That slander which julian could cast upon Constantine, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 led him to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicacy, to intemperance, the very same do they cast upon us: they tell us of their strict Lents, frequent fastings, Canonical hours, sharp penances, their bashful shrifts, their painful scourge, their solitatie Cells, their woolward and barefoot walks, their hard and tedious pilgrimages, whiles we (they say) deny nothing to back or belly; fare full, lie soft, sit warm, and make a wanton of the flesh, whiles we profess to tend the spirit. Brethren, hear a little the words of exhortation: The brags of their penal will-worship shall no whit move us; All this is blown away with a Quis requisivit? Baal's Priests did more than they, yet were never the holier: But for ourselves, in the fear of God see that we do not justify their crimination; whiles they are in one extreme, placing all Religion in the outside, In touch not, taste not, handle not; let not us be in the other, not regarding the external acts of due humiliation: It is true that it is more easy to afflict the body, then to humble the soul; A dram of remorse is more than an ounce of pain: O God, if whip, and haireclothes, and watchings would satisfy thy displeasure, who would not sacrifice the blood of this vassal (his body) to expiate the sin of his soul? who would not scrub his skin, to ease his conscience? who would not freeze upon an hardle, that he might not fry in hell? who would not hold his eyes open, to avoid an eternal unrest and torment? But such sacrifices and oblations, O God, thou desirest not; The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise; Yet it is as true, that it is more easy to counterfeit mortification of spirit, than humiliation of body; there is pain in the one, none in the other: He that cares not therefore to pull down his body, will much less care to humble his soul; and he that spares not to act meet and due penalties upon the flesh, gives more colour of the soul's humiliation. Dear Christians, it is not for us to stand upon niggardly terms with our Maker, he will have both; He that made both, will have us crucified in both; The old man doth not lie in a limb, or faculty, but is diffused through the whole extent of body and soul, and must be crucified in all that it is. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the chosen vessel, I beat down my body; my body, as well as my spirit; Give me leave ye Courtiers and Citizens; Lent is wont to be a penitential Time; If ye have sound and effectually shriven yourselves to your God, let me enjoin you an wholesome and saving penance for the whole year, for your whole life. Ye must curb your appetites, ye must fast, ye must stint yourselves to your painful devotions; ye must give peremptory denials to your own wills; ye must put your knife to your throat in Salomon's sense. Think not that ye can climb up to heaven with full paunches, reaking ever of Indian smoke, and the surfeits of your gluttonous cramming and quaffings; Oh easy and pleasant way to glory; From our bed to our glass, from our glass to our board; from our dinner to our pipe, from our pipe to a visit, from a visit, to a supper, from a supper to a play, from a play to a banquer, from a banquet to our bed: Oh remeber the quarrel against damned Dives; he fared sumptuously every day; he made neither Lents, nor Embers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said, every day was gaudy and festival, in rich suits, in dainty morsels, and full draughts, Intus mulso, Wine within, Oil without. foris oleo, as he said; now all the world for a drop, and it is too little. Vae saturis, woe to the full, saith our Saviour; but even nature itself could abominate, bis de die saturum, One that is full twice a day. One of the sins of our Sodom is fullness of bread: What is the remedy? It is an old word, that hunger cures the diseases of gluttony. Oh that my words could prevail so far with you, Honourable and beloved Christians, as to bring austere abstinence and sober moderation into fashion; The Court and City have led the way to excess, your example shall prescribe, yea administer the remedy; Cic. de Fin. The heathen man could say, he is not worthy of the name of a man that would be a whole day in pleasure; what, and we always? In fasting often, saith St. Paul; what, and we never? I fast twice a week, saith the Pharisee, and we Christians, when? I speak not of Popish mock-fasts, in change, not in forbearance; in change of courser cates of the land, for curious dainties of the water, of the flesh of beasts, for the flesh of fish; of untoothsome morsels for soruitiunculae delicatae, as Hierome calls them; Let me never feast, if this be fasting; I speak of a true, and serious maceration of our bodies, by an absolute and total refraining from sustenance; which howsoever in itself it be not an act pleasing unto God, (for well may I invert St. Paul, neither if we eat not, are we the better, neither if we eat, are we the worse, 1 Cor. 8. 8.) yet, in the effect it is; singular sanctitatis aratrum, as that Father terms it; The plough bears no Corn, but it makes way for it; it opens the soil, it tears up the briers, and turns up the furrows; Thus doth holy abstinence; it chastises the flesh, it lightens the spirit, it disheartens our vicious dispositions, it quickens our devotion. Away with all factious combinations; Every man is master of his own maw; Fast at home, and spare not, leave public exercises of this kind to the command of Sovereign powers; Blow the trumphet in Zion, sanctify a fast, saith joel 2. 15. Surely this Trumpet is for none but Royal breath; And now (that, what I meant for a suit, may be turned to a just gratulation) how do we bless the God of heaven, that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to set this sacred trumpet to his lips: Never was it, never can it be more seasonable than now. Now that we are fall'n into a war of religion; Now that our friends and Allies groan either under miscarriage, or danger; Now that our distressed neighbours implore our help in tears, and bood; Now that our God hath humbled us with manifold losses; Now, that we are threatened with so potent enemies; Now that all Christendom is embroiled with so miserable and perilous distempers; Oh now it hath seasonably pleased your Majesty to blow the Trumpet in Zion, to sanctify a fast, to call a solemn Assembly; The miraculous success that God gave to your Majesty and your Kingdom, in this holy exercise, may well encourage an happy iteration; How did the public breath of our fasting prayers cleanse the air before them? How did that noisome pestilence vanish suddenly away, as that which could not stand before our powerful humiliations? If we be not strained in our own bowels, the hand of our God is not shortened; O Daughter of Zion, jer. 6. 26. gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes, make thee mourning and most bitter lamentation; Fast and pray and prosper: And in the mean time, for us, let us not think it enough to forbear a meal; or to hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day; but let us break the bands of wickedness, and in a true contrition of soul vow & perform better obedience. Oh then, as we care to avert the heavy judgements of God, from ourselves, and our land, as we desire to traduce the Gospel with peace, to our posterity; Let each man humble one; Let each man rend his heart, with sorrow for his own sins, and the sins of his people; Shortly, let every man ransack his own soul, and life, and offer and holy violence to all those sinful corruptions which have stirred up the God of heaven against us; and never leave till in truth of heart, he can say with our blessed Apostle, I am crucified. Ye have seen Christ crucified, St. Paul crucified, see now both crucified together, I am crucified with Christ; It is but a cold word, this, I am crucified; it is the company that quickens it: He that is the life, gives it life, and makes both the word, and act glorious, I am crucified with Christ. Alas! there is many a one crucified, but not with Christ; The covetous, the ambitious man is selfe-crucified; he plots a crown of thorny cares for his own head; he peirces his hands and feet with toilsome, and painful undertake, he drencheth himself with the vinegar, & gall of discontentments, he gores his side, and wounds his heart with inward vexations: Thus the man is crucified, but with the world, not with Christ. The envious man is crucified by his own thoughts; he needs no other gibbet, than another man's prosperity; because another's person, or counsel is preferred to his, he leaps to hell in his own halter; This man is crucified, but it is Achitophel's cross, not Christ's. The desperate man is crucified with his own distrust, he pierceth his own heart with a deep, irremediable, unmittigable, killing sorrow; he pays his wrong to God's justice with a greater wrong to his mercy, and leaps out of an inward hell of remorse, to the bottomless pit of damnation. This man is crucified; but this is judases cross, not Christ's. The superstitious man is professedly mortifyde; The answer of that Hermit in the story is famous, why dost thou destroy thy body? because it would destroy me; He useth his body, therefore, not as a servant, but a slave; not as a slave, but an enemy: He lies upon thorns, with the Pharisee; little ease is his lodging, with Simeon the Anachoret; the stone is his pillow, with jacob, the tears his food, with exiled David; he lanceth his flesh with the Baalites, he digs his grave with his nails; his meals are hunger, his breathe sighs, his linen haircloth, lined and laced with cords, and wires; lastly, he is his own willing tormentor, and hopes to merit heaven by selfe-murder. This man is crucified, but not with Christ. The Felon, the traitor is justly crucified, the vengeance of the law will not let him live; The jesuitical incendiary, that cares only to warm himself by the fires of States, and Kingdoms, cries out of his suffering; The world is too little for the noise of our cruelty, their patience; whiles it judgeth of our proceedings, by our laws, not by our executions; but if they did suffer what they falsely pretend, (as they now complain of ease) they might be crucified, but not with Christ, they should bleed for sedition, not conscience: They may steal the name of jesus, they shall not have his society; This is not Christ's cross, it is the cross of Barrabas, or the two malefactors (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Mark 15. 7. All these and many more are crucified, but, not as St. Paul was here, with Christ. How with Christ? In partnership, in person: In partnership of the suffering; every particularity of Christ's crucifixion is reacted in us. Christ is the model, we the mettle; the mettle takes such form as the model gives it: so are we spread upon the cross of Christ, in an unanswerable extension of all parts, to dye with him, as the Prophet was upon the dead child, to revive him. Superstitious men talk of the impression of our Saviour's wounds in their Idol St. Francis: This is no news; St. Paul; and every believing Christian hath both the lash●●, and wounds, and transfixions of his jesus wrought upon him; The crown of thorns pierces his head, when his sinful conceits are mortified; His lips are drenched with gall, & vinegar, when sharp & fevere restraints are given to his tongue: His hands and feet are nailed; when he is by the power of God's Spirit disabled to the wont courses of sin; His body is stripped, when all colour and pretences are taken away from him; shortly, his heart is pierced, when the life blood of his formerly-raigning corruptions is let out. He is not true Christian that is not thus crucified with Christ. Woe is me, how many fashionable ones are not so much as pained with their sins; It is no trouble to them to blaspheeme, oppress, debauch. Yea, rather it is a death to them to think of parting with their dear corruptions; The world hath bewitched their love; That which Erasmus saith of Paris, that after a man hath acquainted himself with the odious sent of it (hospitibus magis ac magis adlubescit) it grows into his liking more and more; is too true of the world, and sensual minds: Alas, they rather crucify Christ again, then are crucified with Christ. Woe to them that ever they were; for being not dead with Christ, they are not dead in Christ; and being not dead in Christ, they cannot but dye eternally in themselves; For the wages of sin is death: death in their person, if not in their surety. Honourable and beloved, let us not think it safe for us to rest in this miserable and deadly condition; As ye love your souls, give no sleep to your eyes, nor peace to your hearts, till ye find the sensible effects of the death, & Passion of Christ your Saviour, within you, mortifying all your corrupt affections, and sinful actions, that ye may truly say with St. Paul, I am crucified with Christ. Six several times do we find that Christ shed blood; In his Circumcision, In his Agony, In his Crowning, In his Scourging, In his Affixion, In his Transfixion. The instrument of the first was the Knife; Of the second, vehemence of Passion; Of the third, the Thorns; Of the fourth, the Whips; Of the fifth, the nails; Of the last, the Spear: In all these we are, we must be partners with our Saviour. In his Circumcision; when we draw blood of ourselves by cutting off the foreskin of our filthy (if pleasing) corruptions. Colos. 2. 11. In his Agony, when we are deeply affected with the sense of God's displeasure for sin, and terrified with the frowns of an angry Father. In his crowning with thorns, when we smart, and bleed with reproaches for the name of Christ; when that which the world counts honour, is a pain to us, for his sake; when our guilty thoughts punish us, and wound our restless heads, with the sad remembrance of our sins. In his scourging, when we tame our wanton, and rebellious flesh, with wise rigour, and holy severity. In his Affixion, when all the powers of our souls, and parts of our body, are strictly hampered, and unremovably fastened upon the Royal Commandments of our Maker, and Redeemer. In his Transfixion, when our hearts are wounded with divine love (with the Spouse in the Canticles) or our consciences, with deep sorrow. In all these, we bleed with Christ; and all these (save the first only) belong to his crucifying. Surely, as it was in the old Law (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) without blood shed there was no remission (Heb. 9 22.) so it is still, and ever, in the new. If Christ had not thus bled for us, no remission; If we do not thus bleed with Christ, no remission. There is no benefit, where is no partnership. If Christ therefore bled with his agony, with his thorns, with his whips, with his nails, with his spear, in so many thousand passages, as tradition is bold to define, & we never bleed, either with the agony of our sorrow, for sin; or the thorns of holy cares for displeasure; or the scourges of severe Christian rigour, or the nails of holy constraint, or the spear of deep remorse; How do we, how can we, for shame, say, we are crucified with Christ? Divine St. Austin, Epist. 120. ad Honoratum. in his Epistle, or book rather to Honoratus, gives us all the dimensions of the Cross of Christ; The latitude he makes in the transuerse; this (saith he) pertains to good works; because on this his hands were stretched. The length was from the ground to the transuerse, this is attributed to his longanimity, and persistance, for on that, his body was stayed, and fixed. The height was in the head of the cross, above the transuerse; signifying the expectation of supernal things. The depth of it, was in that part, which was pitched below within the earth, importing the profoundness of his free grace, which is the ground of all his beneficence. In all these must we have our part with Christ; In the transuerse of his Cross, by the ready extension of our hands to all good works of piety, justice, charity. In the Arrectary, or beam of his Cross, by continuance, and vninterrupted perseverance in good; In the head of his cross, by an high-elevated hope, and looking for of glory; In the foot of his cross, by a lively and firm faith, fastening our souls upon the affiance of his free grace, and mercy; And thus shall we be crucified with Christ, upon his own Cross. Yet lastly, we must go further than this, from his Cross to his person. So did St. Paul, and every believer, die with Christ, that he died in Christ: For, as in the first Adam we all lived, and sinned; so in the second all believers died, that they might live. The first Adam brought in death to all mankind, but, at last, actually died for none but himself; The second Adam died for mankind, and brought life to all believers. Seest thou thy Saviour therefore hanging upon the Cross, all mankind hangs there with him; as a Knight or Burgess of Parliament voices his whole Burrow, or Country: what speak I of this? The arms and legs take the same lot with the head; Every believer is a limb of that body; how can he therefore, but die with him, and in him? That real union, then, which is betwixt Christ and us, makes the cross and passion of Christ, ours. So as the thorns pierced our heads, the scourges blooded our backs, the nails wounded our hands & feet, and the spear gored our sides, and hearts: By virtue whereof, we receive justification from our sins, and true mortification of our corruptions. Every believer, therefore, is dead already for his sins, in his Saviour; he needs not fear that he shall die again. God is too just to punish twice for one fault; to recover the sum both of the surety, and principal: All the score of our arerages is fully struck off, by the infinite satisfaction of our blessed Redeemer; Comfort thyself, therefore thou penitent, and faithful soul, in the confidence of thy safety; Thou shalt not die but live, since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour; He died for thee, thou died'st in him; Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifies? Who shall condemn? It is Christ that died; yea rather, that is risen again, and lives gloriously at the right hand of God, making intercession for us: To thee o blessed jesus, together with thy coeternal Father, and holy Spirit, three persons in one infinite, and incomprehensible Deity; be all praise, honour, and glory, now, and for ever. Amen. FINIS.