LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

The Six and Twentieth SERMON. (Book 26)

PART III.

MATTH. VI. 33.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

WE have already presented you with the Object, and the Dignity or Beauty thereof, and shewed you what this Righteousness is, and what it is to seek it. We come now to shew you the Excellency and Preeminency of the Object, of Righteousness be∣fore all these other things. And behold, our Savi∣our here prescribeth and tieth us to a method in our search; We must seek it first; and these things shall be added. Where our Saviour seemeth to speak with some kind of scorn and indignation that our infirmity should force him to name the things of this life, as we commonly say, the same day with the things of the life to come: Wherefore having expresly named the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he passeth slightly over the rest, as disdaining to name them, otherwise then by the general name of these things. As He∣zekiah

pulling down the brazen Serpent, calleth it no otherwise then by the scornful name of NEHUSHTAN, brazen stuff; so Christ willing to pull down in us the things of this life, (after which we have run a who∣ring more then ever the Jews did after the brazen Serpent) telling us of Divine matt••••s, willeth us first to seek the kingdom of God and his righteous∣ness, and then shall all these things, this brass, this Nehushtan, this leaden, pewter, or at the best brazen, stuff of the world, be cast in upon us. This is the method which is prescribed; and this we must follow. If the first stone in our building be Righteousness, then will the things of this life come in; otherwise no: or, if they do come, they come not because of God's promise, but from some other cause; and it had been better they had never come. As it is with those who build, some things they pro∣vide for the main wall and foundation, other things onely for ornament and furniture. Now that building must needs prove weak, where that is laid for the foundation which was onely provided for garnish. These outward things are but a seeming kind of furniture for this life; but the main wall is Righteousness. Her foundations, saith the Psalmist, are in the holy hills. Now S. Paul telling us of some builders, who having laid a good foundation, lay upon it hay and stubble, sheweth what great damage they shall sustein for so doing. And if this be the case of those builders whose foundation is supposed to be good, what can we imagine shall be the loss of those whose very foundation is hay and stubble, who have made the things of this world their prime and corner stone, and bring it forth with shoutings, crying, Grace, Grace, unto it? First then seek Righteousness. And FIRST is a word of order: And Order is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith the Phi∣losopher, a divine thing, of wonderful force and efficacy. For cost may be laid out, matter provided, labour bestowed, and all to no purpose, if there be not a set course and order observed in our proceedings. Nihil negligentia operosius, said Columella well; There is nothing putteth us up∣on more business then Negligence, and nothing doth more entangle and turmoil then Disorder. For if we begin amiss, we must begin again, or else our work will fail and be lost between our hands, will dye and perish, as some infants do, in the very womb. The experience of the meanest Ar∣tist amongst you is able to tell you thus much. Whosoever goeth to pra∣ctise his trade, cannot begin where he list. Something there is to be done in the first place, without which he cannot go unto the second; something in the second place which will not be done except something be done be∣fore it. Some order there is, which prescribeth a law and manner to his action, which being not observed, nothing can be done. As in all other businesses, so in this great business of Christianity, we must not think that we may hand over head huddle up matters as we please, but we must 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, keep a method, an order, a course in our proceedings: not first these things, and then his Righteousness; but first his Righteousness, and then these things. They who have commended to us the great use of Method and Order in our studies, tell us that if a man could assure him∣self thirty years of study, he might with more advantage spend twenty of them in finding out some course and order in study, and the other ten in studying according to this order, then spend the whole though in very diligent study, if with misorder and confusion. Howsoever it may be with Method and Order in our Academical studies, certainly in our study which concerneth the practice of Righteousness it cannot chuse but be with great loss of labour and industry, if we do not observe that order and method which here our Saviour prescribeth. Simplicius, in his Com∣ments upon Aristotle, maketh a question whether youths in the reading of Aristotle's books should begin with his Logicks, where he teacheth men

to dispute and reason, or with his Ethicks, where he teacheth Civility and Honesty. For if they begin, saith he, from his Logicks without Morals, they are in danger to prove but wrangling Sophisters; and if from his Morals without Logick, they will prove but confused. Thus indeed it fareth in the knowledge of Nature, where all things are uncertain; thus with those Students who have Aristotle for their God; scarcely will all their Logick shew them where they should begin, or where they should end. But in Christianity all things are certain; the end certain, and the way certain; and our best Master, Christ, hath written us a spiritual Lo∣gick, hath shewed us a method and order, what first to do, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••ext, and how to range every thing in its proper place. And he that shall fol∣low this method may be secure of his end; nor is it possible he should lose his pains. Never was any true Student in Righteousness an unproficient. Now the excellency of this method will appear by comparing the one with the other, the Soul with the Body, and the temporal things of this life with spiritual.

First, what is this Body of ours but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Nyssene calleth it a prison, an ill savoured sink, a lump of flesh which mouldereth away and draweth near to corruption whilst we speak of it? But the Soul is Divinae particula aurae, a beam as it were of the Divinity, which in this dark body of ours is as the Sun to the Earth, enlivening, quickning and chearing it up; Phiala, in qua non includitur Manna, sed Pater & Filius & Spiritus Sanctus, as Ambros; A golden vessel, to receive not Manna; which, if you lay it up till the morning, will stink and breed worms; but the Father and the Son and the graces of the Spirit, which are eternal. It was a speech of S. Augustines, Domine, duo creasti, alterum prope te, alterum prope nihil; Lord, thou hast created two things, the one Divine, celestial, of infinite worth; the other base and sordid; the Soul, and the Body; the one near unto thy self, the other next unto nothing. Now our care should carry a proportion to the things we care for. We are not so diligent to keep a coun∣ter as a diamond. Alexander, when amongst the spoiles of Darius he found a rich and precious box thought nothing to be good enough to be laid up in it but Homer's Works. And the Sacred Writings were decked and a∣dorned with jewels and gold and precious gemms, saith Zonaras; by which the Christians exprest their reverence and love to those Sacred Vo∣lumes. But what cabinet can we find for the Soul? Where should that be laid up but in the bosome of God? Shall we leave that poor and naked, when our selves abound in wealth? Shall our bodies rest in a house of ce∣dar, and our soul in a nasty stie? How many Heathen Philosophers have flung away their wealth to enrich their nobler part? How have they been ashamed to think their souls were in their bodies? as Eunapius speaketh of Jamblicus. One flingeth his gold into the sea; another strippeth him∣self; a third 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, did macerate his body, and keep it down, that he seemed to have made it his labour to have turned it into soul. And shall Christians make it their study and de∣light to immerse the soul in the body, and to turn it into flesh? to take such care of their flesh as if they were nothing but flesh, and had no soul at all? No: As the soul is more excellent then the body, so it must first be in our care, first in our devotion. Look upon all the commendable actions which purchase us praise with God, and what are they but acts of open war and hostility against the body? Temperance and Continence, what are they but the subduing of our fleshly lusts, which fight against the spirit? Care and Diligence, what are they but a petpetual war with Sloth and Idleness, upon which this dull and earthy mass of our bodies is prone to relapse? Piety and Devotion, what are they but a neglect, or rather

an open defiance unto all things which seem to savour of love and care for the body? so that here Love were treason, and Agreement nothing but conspiracy, and Peace pactio servitutis. For if we enter∣tein any covenant of peace with our flesh, it can be but such a one as Nahash the Ammonite offered to make with the men of Jabesh Gi∣lead, upon condition we will pull out our eyes. The flesh,* 1.1 the more vve suppress it, the more we love it; the more vve beat it down, the more vve exalt it; and vvhen vve mortifie it, vve do even spiritualize it, and in a manner upon this corruptible put on incorruption. Our first care must be to subdue the body, and keep it under, vvhich is indeed to honour it. If our affections be levelled aright, if vve keep a true and exact method in our search, we shall not talk so much of Ri∣ches as of Righteousness; vve shall be enquiring what news from heaven, vvhat the state of that Court is, vvhat place, vvhat degree vve shall have there; of Faith and Holiness and Obedience, without which no man shall see God.

For, in the next place, vvhat comparison can vve make between spiritual and temporal blessings? the one of inestimable price, the o∣ther not worth the naming. S. Hilary, commenting upon the first Psalm, speaketh of some vvho, interpreting the book of Psalms, thought it some discredit to that book that terrene and secular matter should so often interline it self, and therefore all their interpretations they made respectively to spiritual things and God himself. Which conceit, though an apparent errour, yet that Father condemneth not, but mildly pronounceth of it, Haec eorum opinio argui non potest; This opinion of theirs cannot be condemned: for it is the sense of a mind piously and religiously affected; and it is a thing unblameable, by favourable endeavour to strive to fit all things to him by whom all things were made. For vvhat if vve vvere not told of a Land flowing with milk and hony? vvhat if vve saw not riches and plenty in God's left hand, and length of dayes in his right? What if vve vvere not told of riches and honour and prosperity? could vve think there vvere no∣thing to be sought for? All the gold in Ophir is not to be compared vvith one religious thought, nor can there be any greater preferment then to be a Saint. Indeed these things are nothing. Nihil habent solidi, nihil firmi; There is no solidity, no hold-fast in them. When vve see them, vve do not see them: vvhen vve feed on them, vve are not sa∣tisfied: vvhen they are, they are not. Vanae spes hominum; The hopes of men are vain, vvhen they seek these things, that are not, as if they vvere. Vanae rerum species; the species and shew of these things are vain. They appear to us as in a dream: they come, and are gone; and stand by us, and vanish; and behold, when vve awake, all is but a dream. No glory on Honour, no brightness on Gold, no lustre on Beauty; but that vvhich in my dream vvas all, vvhen my eyes are open, is nothing but vanity of vanities, all is vanity.* 1.2 Excude aliquid quod sit perpetuò tuum, said Pliny to his friend; If thou wilt spend thy time upon any thing, spend it upon that which shall be alwayes thine. Now temporal things are neither ours, nor are they lasting. Apud te sunt, sed tua non sunt; They are vvith thee, but they are not thine. Dum placent, transeunt; When they most please thee, they pass away. In thy youth they please thee, and that dyeth into age: In thy age they please thee more: For covetousness as it increaseth vvith our heaps, so it doth with our age; and we then love riches most when they are even upon the vving, ready to flie away. And then Death unladeth the Ass, taketh thee from thy vvealth vvhen thy soul is even bound vvith it;

cutteth off a thousand hopes, defeateth a thousand purposes, and when thou art joyning land to land, leaveth thee no more then will serve to bury thee; and then Earth to earth. All thy huggings of thy self, all thy pride, all thy busie and fore-casting thoughts, all thy delights perish. Our lands and possessions are but the way in which we set our foot, but keep footing we cannot: others come apace after us, and take them up.

Nunc ager Ʋmbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli Dictus, erit nulli proprius, sed cedit in usum Nunc huic, nunc alii:

He that hath a Lordship or a Mannour, hath but his footing there; possessi∣on he hath not: Another cometh after, and after him another, whilest that remaineth like the way; and delivereth up all alike to their last home. Onely Righteousness is that jewel which none can rob us of; nec unquam definit esse nostra postquam coeperit, nor will it ever leave us, when we have once made it ours. There are little stones, we are told, lying in some fields, which Philosophers call lapides speculares, which at some distance sparkle and send forth light, but when we come near them have no appearance at all, nor can they be found: Like to those are these things; our Saviour would not name them: Riches and Honour, when we stand at distance, and do not enjoy them, present themselves in glory and in a shape of allurement; but when we come near them, when we are possessed of them, they have not the same countenance, nor are so glorious. A Crown hath cares, Honour hath burthen, and Riches anxi∣ety and danger. Envy and malice wait close upon them, ready to sweep them away.

Taedet adeptos quod adepturos torfit;

That which set my desires on fire, bringeth smoke enough with it to smo∣ther them. That which I bowed to as to a God, I am now ready to run from. I looked upon them as upon a staff; but when I had taken them up into my hand, they proved a Serpent.

But, in the third place, there is great danger in seeking them at all: and though we seek them, as we think, in the second place, we may seek them too soon. For our advancement in temporal things may prove a hinderance to our improvement in spiritual. But if the last be first, the first will be none at all. In illis opera luditur; We lose time in getting them; and when we have got them, we lose them; or if we do retain them, non sunt subsidia, sed onera, they are rather burthens then helps, and, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the instruments of sin. S. Basil asking the question why God made Adam naked in Paradise, and withall gave him no sense of his nakedness, telleth us the reason was, that he might not be distracted, nor called away from medita∣ting upon God. For these arts, saith he, which provide for the flesh, have been occasion of care and business, then which nothing could have been more noxious to that state in which then Adam was. Had it so pleas'd God, saith he, it had been much better that the soul had been left naked in the day of her creation, and never been clothed with this garment of flesh: For from hence hath proceeded that swarm of cares and business with which our life is overrun, which draweth us from Divine speculation and meditation upon the things of God, which is the proper work of the soul. For consider the Soul in it self, and what relation or reference hath it to any earthly thing? Care for meats and drinks and apparel, for posterity, to heap up riches, to be ambitious of honours, all these rigid Publicanes, which demand and exact so much of our time and labour, befell the Soul upon the put∣ting

on of this clothing of the body. At what time the earth recei∣ved the Curse that it should bring forth briars and thorns, at the same time sprang there up this abundance of Arts and Trades, this variety of callings and occupations, with which the world is overrun as with briars and thorns: For had we stood in our original integrity, we had had but one care, but one art, one common trade and calling, the worship and service of God. Cain aedificavit civitatem, pessimorum more, stabile hujus seculi domicilium putantium, saith Gregory; Cain was the first that built a city, upon a groundless conceit, which posses∣seth the hearts of many, that the houses they build are not of clay, but to stand and last for ever. Josephus telleth us he was the first that ever found out weights and measures; and he passeth this severe censure upon it, That by this he did pristinam sinceritatem ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam depravare, corrupt the former innocency and sincerity by bringing in a new kind of provi∣dence and craft, which before, as it stood in no need, so was it al∣together ignorant of any such art. The Philosopher will tell us that the use of these common things is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an hinderance to contemplation; and S. Basil, that we cannot well pray for spiritual graces, unless the mind be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, unclouded of the mist and fog of the cares of this world. Haec sunt vincula, hae catenae, saith S. Cyprian; These be the bonds and chains, with which the soul is still clogged, that she cannot mount, and seek those things which are above, our faith oppressed, our understanding bound, and our mind shut up. Why then should we seek so earnestly for that which is not ours, and which perteineth not to us, not to that which maketh us men, and by which we are capable of happiness, and so faintly look after true riches as if we were afraid to find it? Nay, why should we shun it, and run from it, as if it were a Lion in the way to devoure us, and to ravish from us all that which we delight in as most conve∣nient for us? Why do we take the one as it were on a knives point, and greedily swallow down and devour the other? Talibus bonis non fiunt homines boni; sed aliunde facti boni bene utendo faciunt ut ista sint bona: You call them Goods; but I tell you, saith the Father, by such goods men are not made good, but being made good by Righteous∣ness, by using them well they make them good. And therefore the desires of temporal goods before spiritual are not onely 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Scholiast mistook, unprofitable, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as it is in the Text, vain and foolish. You will say perhaps that you know all this, that Wisdom is better then Wealth; that you are not ignorant of the me∣thod of the Lord's prayer, that every child can tell that Fiat volun∣tas tua is before Da nobis, the petition for Obedience before that for Bread. Nor do I think that any man saith his Pater noster back∣wards. It is true, in the Church we pray orderly; but how is it in our closet? This method twangeth upon the tongue, but not upon the heart-strings. There, quae turba phantasmatum? vvhat troops of phantasmes? vvhat multitudes of suggestions? Do vve not vvish for vvealth vvhen vve pray for Righteousness? Are vve not vvilling that God should mistake us, and give us the one for the other? How is the mind lost every moment, in ipso conatu elabens, of such lubri∣city that it slideth away from that vvhich it seemed to lay hold on! We may call this a seeking, if vve please; and vve may put in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and persuade our selves that vve seek it first, because vve com∣mend it, as we may do a man vvhom vve mean to tread under our foot; But vve cannot be so vvicked as to think that God doth hear

us when we bring pias preces, holy prayers, and animam triticeam, as the Father speaketh; a soul kneaded up as it were of corn and wine and wealth. For this is to thwart that method which God hath drawn out, to blot out his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and not first to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, nor in our desires to prefer spiritual graces before temporal blessings. This is in domo Jesu Jesum non quaerere, in Christ's house not to seek for Christ; to study the world in the Church; to seek for transitory, mortal, fading blessings in the temple of eternity. Christ therefore in this Text hath shewed us a method and order, what first to seek, what next, and how to range every thing in its proper place. If we follow this method, we lay hold on not onely spiritual but also temporal promises. For these things are an∣nexed as a promise to Righteousness, not Righteousness as a promise to these. All things necessary follow that unum necessarium, that one thing necessary. But if we break this method, by a strange 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 placing wealth above Righteousness, we have forfeited our hopes to both. For if we like best of our own method and our own courses, God dealeth with us no otherwise then parents do with their children who forsake their rules, and like best of their own wayes; they think it meet that they should take the event and fortune of them, and leave them to themselves; which is indeed utterly to forsake them. And what is a Mammonist in the midst of his heaps, what is a man of power in the midst of his triumphs, what is a Ty∣rant on the throne, without God? Yea, so much the more dangerous is our errour in not observing that order which Christ hath given us, because it cannot afterward be remedied, but we have for ever lost the claim both to Righteousness and these things. As Cato said of er∣rours committed in Battel, Praeliorum delicta emendationem non reci∣piunt, quia poena statim sequitur errorem; Errours in other kinds may be afterwards amended, but the errour of a battel cannot possibly be remedied, because the inconveniency immediately followeth the mi∣stake: So in this case the errour admitteth of no amendment: for if we have not observed this method of our Saviour, if any thing have possest our thoughts above the thought and study and care of heavenly and spi∣ritual things, we lie open to the inconvenience, to have a writ of out∣lawry against us, to be fugitives and vagabonds upon the earth, and (which is the worst of evils, though we make it the least) to be shut out of the kingdom of heaven.

For, in the fourth place, if we do not seek Righteousness first, we may flatter and deceive our selves as we please, but we seek it not at all. For who will think that merchant doth traffick for diamonds who is most careful to gather up apes and peacocks? Who will think he loveth Penelope that maketh his first and most ceremonious addresses to her maids? Our Saviour in this chapter hath laid down the reason of this in a plain Axiome; No man can serve two masters; no more then you can draw a straight line to two divers points, and terminate it in them both.* 1.3 You cannot swear by the Lord and by Malcham. It is not, Non oportet, You ought not to do it; but, Non potestis, You connot do it. It is a thing most impossible; not onely 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Nazianzene speaketh, as inconvenient and incongruous, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, for want of strength and ability. We who are so quick and active in the service of Mammon, must needs be dull and heavy in the service of Christ. We who grasp the world, have not a hand to give. When so many thoughts are thronging and pressing after the world, what a poor feeble imagination is that which is left

to entertein Christ! When our desires are on the wing in the pursuit of vanity, what heart can there be for the Kingdom of Heaven, if it should bow it self towards us? or what would we give for Righteousness, though we have the price in our hand? When our Understanding is made as the mint, and our Memory the counting-house, there can be no fit place for Christ to take his rest in. When we have dulled all the facul∣ties and powers of our souls in the raising and erecting this Idol, how shall we use them as instruments to make a statue for Christ? It is impossible. If I am ready to rise up early when Covetousness calleth, it is very likely I shall fall fast asleep at the voice of Christ. The reason is plain and evi∣dent. For it is not with the Will and Affections as it is with the Understanding. The Understanding can easily sever one thing from an∣other, and apprehend them both; yea, it hath power to abstract and se∣parate things really the same, and consider the one as different from the other: but it is the property of the Will and Affections in unum fer∣ri, & se in unitatem colligere, to unite and collect themselves, to make them∣selves one with the object, so that our desires cannot be carried to two contrary objects at one and the same time. We may apprehend Christ as just and holy, and the world and the riches of it as vanity it self; but we cannot at once love Christ as just and holy and adhere and cleave to the world and the vanities thereof. Our Saviour hath fully expressed it, where he telleth us, we shall hate the one, and love the other; or else lean to the one, and despise the other. If it be a love to the one, it will be at best but a liking of the other; if a will to the one, but a villeity and faint in∣clination to the other; if a look on the one, but a glance on the other. And this glance, this villeity, this inclination are no better then hatred and contempt. For these proceed from my Understanding, but my love from my Will, which is fixed, not where I approve, but where I chuse. For what is it to say, This is beauty, and then spit upon it? to say Righ∣teousness is hominis optimum, as Augustine calleth it, the best thing that man can seek, and yet chuse a clod of earth before it? What is it to call Christ Lord, and crucifie him? For reason will tell us, even when we most dote upon the world, that Wisdom is better then rubies, that Christ is to be preferred to Mammon, that it is better cum Christo affligi quàm cum aliis deli∣ciari, to be afflicted with Christ then to enjoy the pleasures of this life and sport away our time with others: but this will not make it Love, which joy∣neth with the object, which swalloweth it up, & is swallowed up by it. What love is that to Righteousness which putteth it post principia, in the second file behind the World, and in this placeth all its hope of happiness, seeing Righteousness, if it be not sought, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the first place, is lost for ever.

For, last of all, if we seek any thing before Righteousness, that must needs be predominant, and give laws to Righteousness, square and fashion Religion as it pleaseth; and so Religion being put behind, will be put al∣so to vile offices, to swell our heaps, to promote our lusts, to feather our ambition, to enrage our malice, to countenance that which destroyeth her, to follow that which driveth her out of the world: And whereas Righ∣teousness should be as the seal to be set upon all our intendments and upon all the actions of our life, that they may go for warrantable, being stamped and charactered as it were with the Image of the King of glory, Christ Je∣sus, Righteousness will be made as wax to receive the impression of the World, and whatsoever may prove advantageous will go current for Righteousness, and every thing will be Righteousness but that which is. Whereas Righteousness should be fixed as a star in the firmament of the soul, to cast its influence upon all we think or speak or do; we shall draw up a meteor out of the foggy places of the earth, a blazing and ill-boding co∣met,

and call it by that sacred name. This, this hath been the great cor∣rupter of Religion in all the ages of the Church. This was that falsary which did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, adulterate, the truth of the Gospel. This hath made that desolation which we see upon the earth. For if the eye be first fixed on the things of this world, it will be so dazled as not to see Righteous∣ness in her own shape, nor discern her unless she be guilded over with va∣nity. My Covetousness now looketh like Christian providence: for my love of these things must Christen the Child. My Ambition now is the Honour of God. My malice cannot burn hot enough: for I seek the Lord in the bowels of my brethren. My Sacrilege is excessive piety: for though it is true that I fill my coffers with the shekels of the Sanctuary, yet I beat down Baal and Superstition. But if we did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, first seek Righteousness, our Covetousness would not dig and drudge with such a fair gloss, our ambition would flag and stoop to the ground, our Malice would dye, never to be raised again, and our Sacrilege would find no hand to lay hold on the axe and the hammer; the power of Righteousness, and not her bare name, would manifest it self in our actions, and all excuses and pretences and false glosses would vanish as a mist before the Sun: the World would be but a great dunghil; Honour, but air; Malice, a fury; and the Houses of God would stand fast for ever. But this misplacing the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 hath put all out of order; divided the Church, shaken the Pillars of the earth, ruined nations, and left nothing of Righteousness but the name; when that which indeed is Righteousness doth make and preserve a Church, uphold the world, and is the alone thing which can perpetu∣ate a Government and continue a Commonwealth, to last so long as the Moon endureth. If this did prevail, there could be no wars, nor ru∣mours of wars, no violence in the form of a law, no injury under pre∣tence of conscience, no beating of our fellow-servants, no murthering of our brethren in the name of the Lord. I say, the casting Religion be∣hind, and making it wait upon us in all our distempers; is that which hath well-near cast all Religion out of the world. This hath raised so many sects, which swarm and buzze about us like flies in Summer. This is the coyner of Heresies, which are nothing else but the inventions of worldly-minded men, working out of the elaboratory of their phansie some new Doctrine which may favour and keep pace with their humour, and lift them up and make them great in the world. This built a Throne for the Pope, and a Consistory for the Disciplinarian. This hath stated many Questions, and been President at most Councils. For be the man what he will, private interest is commonly the Doctor, and magisteri∣ally determineth and prescribeth all. If a thing be advantageous, it must also be orthodox, and hath on the one side written, RIGHTE∣OUSNESS UNTO THE LORD; on the other, FROM HENCE WE HAVE OUR GAIN. We cannot be too chari∣table; yet you know charity may mistake. Peradventure weakness of ap∣prehension may leave some naked to errour; conscience may sway and bow others in some things from the truth: but let me tell you, in that which is plain and evident, in the open and bright way of Righteousness, the con∣science never did, never can err. Did ever any mans conscience persuade him against a manifest law? Did reason ever tell any, Thou mayest kill, Thou mayest be perjured, Thou mayest bear false witness? No: It is not con∣science, but the love of this world, that maketh a negative precept affir∣mative. That is the Tribune that setteth us at liberty, and letteth us loose against the Law it self, though it be written with the Sun-beams; before which we draw a cloud of excuses or pretences, and fight against Righteous∣ness with its name. From the corruptions of mens lives have corruptions

crept into Religion, which carry with them a near likeness and resem∣blance to those lusts and desires which are mighty and prevalent in us, to carry us with a swindge into those enormities and irregularities which Righteousness forbiddeth. Ʋt in vita, sic in causis spes improbas habemus, saith Quintilian: Those unlawfal hopes and foul affections which sway us in our lives, appear again, and shew themselves as full of power to pervert and mislead us in point of doctrine, and for a while to take all scruple from the conscience. Conscience may err, and persuade me that is Superstition, which is indeed Devotion: But when I raise my own house upon the ruines of God's house it is not Conscience but Covetousness that is the architect. Conscience may incite me to redeem my brother from errour, when he is as free as the truth can make him: But it is the love of the world that is the persecutour which strippeth him of his pos∣sessions. For if he were guilty, yet a tender conscience would shrink at such an intrusion. Conscience may check at the gold of the Temple; but it is the love of these things which putteth it into the bag. Conscience not well informed may startle at the one; but it would run from the other, did not the love of the world draw it back, and lay it asleep with the musick it maketh. But it will awake again, if not with a pinch from a tedious dis∣ease, or some other calamity, yet most certainly at the sound of the last trump, and be that worm which shall gnaw the dreamer for ever. Let us not deceive our selves; The Kingdom of God and his Righteousness were the alone desirable object, and first to be sought after, before that faction and schism did rend & divide the Church, before it mouldred into sects, and crumbled into conventicles, before the Pope King'd it and the Dis∣ciplinarian Pope'd it in the house of God, beating their fellow-servants, not for being unrighteous, but for not being righteous after their form and prescript, for not setting their Religion to their mode and fashion. For when men did look and like and delight in the things of this world, then was this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, this First, blotted out, and Righteousness left behind, and in the place thereof succeeded Ceremony, Formality, Superstition, Faction; then Godliness was gain, and private interest conscience; then that divided voice was heard, Lo, here is Christ, and, there is Christ; here in this Congregation, or there in that Conventicle; here in this govern∣ment, or there in that, or here in no government; here in this secret cham∣ber, and there in that desart, in that wilderness of beasts, of Tygers and Bears, which bite and devour each other. Then did men lye down and sleep on those heaps which they had gathered in the name of Righte∣ousness; then did they batten in their wealth; then did they bless and say an Ave, an Hail to themselves, as highly favoured; then did they flatter themselves, when this golden showr fell into their laps, as if Righteousness had poured it down, and God himself were in it: Then injustice was counted Righteousness; faction, Zeal, and humane poli∣cy, Religion. This mischief, this ruine hath 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, want of method, be∣ginning where we should end, wrought amongst Christians, and made our very name to be lothed of those who are without, the Turk and the Jew; who can say no worse of us then this, and think that this they may say truly, That we follow Christ to gain the world, and give Righteous∣ness the fairest title, but the lowest place.

— Pudet hoec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse, & non potuisse refelli.

And is it not a shame for us that this may be said, and said truly? that Christianity should be thus scorned and blasphemed for their sakes who profess it? For conclusion then; Let us not think our selves wiser then Wisdom it self; let us not count our selves better

Methodists then our Saviour: but let us keep the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 where it should be, and where Christ hath placed it, on Righteousness. Let us observe exactly in our spiritual building what Vitruvius requireth in Architecture, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, order and disposition; that in our Religion there may be nothing 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ill-placed. Why should Righteousness come after these things, and God after Mammon? There is not, there can••t be, a greater absurdity, a greater solecism, then this: an absurdity which ma∣keth men and Angels and God himself ashamed of us: a thriftless, de∣structive absurdity, which maketh us poorer by making us rich, more vile by making us honourable, and which, ••hen we think it lifteth us up, tumbleth us down into the lowest pit. For, as the School-man telleth us, to follow too much the sway of our sensuality, and to neglect the directi∣on of Reason, which is the best methodist, tam sensualitatem quàm ratio∣nem extinguit, doth not onely put out the eye of our reasonable part, and leave that dark, but at last extinguisheth the very power of sense it self: so our devotion and desires, if they waste and consume themselves where they should not shew themselves, if vve place them on these things, on temporal, and not spiritual, or on temporal before spiritual, they never fly to the mark, but miss of both, they neither fill our hands with plenty, nor our souls with that spiritual Manna which should nourish us to eternal life; or, if they do come home, and reach these things, they serve us to no other purpose then the Tyrant's daggers of silver and ropes of silk, ut cariùs pereamus, that we may fall and perish with more state and cost and pomp then other men. But Christ's method is de schola coeli, from heaven, heavenly, and will lead us thither, through poverty and riches, through honour and dishonour, and never fail. In a word, Righteousness, if it be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, first, in our desires, if it have the upper room and a throne in our heart, bringeth with it both the promises of this life and that which is to come, and will make us happy here, in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment; it will open the gates of heaven, and let us in to that happiness which is everlasting in the Kingdom of God.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1 Sam. 11.
• * 1.2

  Eccles. 1.2.
• * 1.3

  Zeph. 1.5.