it is thy death that gives us life; so as, therefore, we cannot be at once enemies of the Cross, and friends of thee Crucified. As Christ himself, so the Cross of Christ hath many false friends; and even those are no other than enemies. Unjust favours are no less injurious than derogations. He, that should deify a Saint, should wrong him as much, as he, that should devilize him. Our Romanists exceed this way, in their devotions to the Cross; both in over-multiplying and over-magnifying of it. Had the wood of the Cross grown, from the day that it was first set in the earth till now, and borne Crosses; that, which Simon of Cyrene once bore, could not have filled so many carts, so many ships, as that, which is now in several parts of Christendom given out and adored for the true Cross of Christ. Yet the bulk is nothing to the virtue ascribed to it: the very wood, which is a shame to speak, is by them sainted and deified. Who knows not that stale hymn and unreasonable rhyme of Ara crucis, lampas lucis, sola salus hominum : Nobis pronum fac patronum, quem tulisti dominum. Wherein the very tree is made a mediator to him, whom it bore; as very a Saviour as he that died upon it. And who knows not, that, by these bigots, an active virtue is attributed, not only to the very wood of the Cross, but to the airy and transient form and representation of it? A virtue of sanctifying the creature, of expelling devils, of healing diseases: conceits, grossly superstitious, which the Church of England ever abhorred, never either practised or countenanced; whose cross was only commemorative and commonitive, never pretended to be any way efficacious, and therefore as far different from the Romish cross, as the fatal tree of Christ from that of Judas. Away then with this gross and sinful foppery of our Romanists; which proves them not the friends, but the flatterers of the Cross: flatterers, up to the very pitch of idolatry. And can there be a worse enemy than a flatterer? Fie on this fawning and crouching hostility to the Cross of Christ. Such friendship to the altar is a defiance to the sacrifice. For these Philippian Pseudapostles, two ways were the Enemies to the Cross of Christ; in their Doctrines, in their Practice. In Doctrine: while they joined circumcision and other legalities with the Cross of Christ; so, by a pretended partnership, detracting from the virtue and power of Christ's death: thus they were enemies to Christ's Cross as his. In Practice: following a loose and voluptuous course; pampering themselves, and shifting off persecution for the Gospel: thus they were enemies to the Cross of Christ, as theirs. Truth hath ever one face. There are still two sorts of enemies to the Cross; the Erroneous, the Licentious: the erroneous in judgment, that will be inter-commoning with Christ in the virtue and efficacy of his passion; the licentious in life, that despise and annihilate it. In the first, how palpable enemies are they to the Cross of Christ, that hold Christ's satisfaction upon the Cross imperfect without ours! Thus the Romish Doctors profess to do. Their Cardinal passes a flat non expiat upon it, boldly: Temporalem pœnam totam, nisi propriá satisfactione cooperante, non expiat. lib. iv. de Pœnit. c. 14. §. Neque vero. "Our penal works," saith Suarez, "are properly a payment for the punishment of our sin." And which of the Tridentine Faction says otherwise? What foul hypocrisy is this, to creep and crouch to the very image of the Cross; and, in the meantime, to frustrate the virtue of it! Away with these hollow and hostile compliments. How happy were it for them, if the Cross of Christ might have less of their knees, and more of their hearts; without which, all their adorations are but mockery! Certainly, the partnership of Legal observations was never more enemy to Christ's Cross, than that of human satisfactions. For us: God forbid that we should rejoice in any thing, but in the Cross of Christ, with St. Paul. Our profession roundly is, The Cross is our full redemption: let them that show more say so much; else, for all their ducking and cringing, they shall never quit themselves of this just charge, that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. The Licentious, secondly, are Enemies to the Cross of Christ : and those of two sorts; whether Carnal-Revolters, or LooseLivers. truth." The first; in shifting off persecution, by conforming themselves to the present world. They will do any thing, rather than suffer; caring more for a whole skin, than a sound soul: mere slaves of the season, whose posey is that of Optatus; Omnia pro tempore, nihil pro veritate; "All for the time, nothing for the Either ditty will serve; Hosanna, or Crucifige. Such was that infamous Ecebotius: such was Spira: such those, in the primitive times, that, with Marcellinus, would cast grains of incense into the idol's fire, to shun the fire of a tyrant's fury: such as will bow their knees to a breaden God, for fear of an inquisitor's fly; and kiss the toe of a living idol, rather than hazard a suspicion. The world is full of such shufflers. Do ye ask how we know? I do not send you to the Spanish trade, or Italian travels, or Spa-waters. The tentative Edict of Constantius described many false hearts: and the late relaxation of penal laws for religion discovered many a turn-coat. God keep our great men upright! If they should swerve, it is to be feared the truth would find but a few friends. Blessed be God, the times profess to patronize true religion. If the wind should turn, how many, with that noted time-server, would be ready to say, Cantemus Domino, &c. Let us sing unto the Lord a new song. There is no Church lightly without his weathercock. For us, my Let us sit Beloved, we know not what we are reserved for. down, and count what it may cost us: and, as those, who would carry some great weight upon a wager, will be every day heaving at it to inure themselves to the burden, before they come to their utmost trial; so let us do to the Cross of Christ let us be every day lifting at it in our thoughts, that, when the time comes, we may comfortably go away with it. It was a good purpose of Peter, though I should die with thee I will not deny thee: but it was a better grounded resolution of St. Paul, I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die for the Name of the Lord Jesus; Acts xxi. 13. Let us in an humble confidence of God's mercy in upholding us, fix upon the same holy determination; not counting our life dear unto us, so as we may finish our course with joy. Thus we shall not be more friends to the Cross of Christ, than the Cross will be to us: for, if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. Besides carnal revolters, Loose Livers pour shame upon the Cross. Christ's Cross is our redemption: redemption is from sin and death: while therefore we do wilfully sin, we do, what in us lies, frustrate the Cross and make a mock of our redemption. Every true Christian is, with St. Paul, crucified together with Christ; Gal. ii. 20. His sins are fastened upon that tree of shame and curse with his Saviour. The misbelieving Christian, crucifies Christ again. Each of his willing sins is a plain despite to his Redeemer. The false tongue of a professor gives in evidence against the Son of God: the hypocrite condemns Christ, and washes his hands: the proud man strips him, and robes him with purple: the distrustful plaits thorns for the head of his Saviour: the drunkard gives him vinegar and gall to drink the oppressor drives nails into his hands and feet: the blasphemer wounds him to the heart. Woe is me! what a heavy case are these men in! We cannot but think those, that offered this bodily violence to the Son of God, were highly impious. "Oh," thou sayest, "I would not have been one of them, that should have done such a fact, for all the world:" but, O man, know thou that if thou be a wilful sinner against God in these kinds, thou art worse than they. He, that prayed for his first crucifiers, curseth the second: they crucified him in his weakness; these, in his glory: they fetched him from the garden to his Cross; these pull him out of Heaven. 4. Surely, they cannot be more enemies to the Cross of Christ, than Christ is to them; who by him shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 2 Thess. i. 9. as it also follows in my Text, whose END is destruction. A woeful condition, beyond all thoughts; like unto that hell wherein it is accomplished, whereof there is no bottom. Had the Apostle said only, whose end is death, the doom had been heavy but that is the common point whereat all creatures touch, in their last passage, either way; and is indeed the easiest piece of this vengeance. It were well for wilful sinners, if they might die; or, if they might but die. Even earthly distresses send men to sue for death: how much more the infernal! There are those, that have smiled in death; never any, but gnashed in torments. That distinction is very remarkable, which our Saviour makes betwixt killing and destroying; Matt. x. 28: killing the body, destroying body and soul; ἀποκτείνειν, and ἀπολέσαι, Men may kill; God only can destroy. There are gradations, even in the last act of execution, expressed in the Greek, which our language doth not so fully distinguish; dvaípew is to kill; povevew implies violence in killing; ȧTOKтeivew, cruelty in that violence; but áñоλéσαι, an absoluteness and eternity of torment. Killing is nothing to destroying the body is but mere rubbish to the soul: and therefore, to put these together, killing the body is nothing to the destruction of the soul. Alas, here is every circumstance, that may add horror and misery to a condition: Suddenness of Seizure; Degree of Extremity; Impossibility of Release. Suddenness: They shall soon be cut down as the grass, saith David; Psalm xxxvii. 2: yea, yet sooner than so; as the fire licks up the straw; Isaiah v. 24: and more suddenly yet; as the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more; Prov, x. 25: shortly, they are brought to desolation in a moment; Psalm lxxiii. 19. As for the Degree of Extremity, it is far beyond all expres sions, all conceptions of the creature. The wrath of God is, as himself, infinite. As the glory of his Saints is such, as St. Paul that saw it tells us, that it transcends all conceit, and cannot come out of the mouth, cannot enter into the heart; so the vengeance prepared for his enemies is equally incomprehensible. The rack, the wheel, the gibbet, the fire are fearful things; but these fall within our thoughts. Woe unto that soul, that must suffer what it is not capable to conceive! Even what we men can devise and do apprehend, is terrible: those very torments, that men prepare for men, are such as we shrink at the mention of; tearing, flaying, broaching, broiling, &c. What shall those be, which an angry God hath prepared for his enemies? But, though the torment were extreme for the time, yet if at last it might have an End, there were some possibility of comfort. Alas, we shrug at the thought of burning, though in a quick fire but to think of man's being a whole hour in the flame, we abhor to imagine; but, to be a whole day in that state, how horrible doth it seem! Oh, then, what shall we say to those everlasting burnings? To be, not days, or months, or years; but thousands of millions of years, and millions of mil lions after that, and after that for all eternity, still in the height of these unconceivable tortures, without intermission, without relaxation? Oh, the gross atheism of carnal men, that do not believe these dreadful vengeances! Oh, the desperate security of those men, who profess to believe them; and yet dare run into those sins, which may and will plunge them into this damnation! Is sin sweet? yea, but is it so sweet, as hell-fire is grievous? Is it profitable? but can it countervail the loss of the beatifical vision of God? O mad sinners, that, for a little momentary contentment, cast themselves into everlasting perdition! Let the drink be never so delicate and well-spiced, yet, if we hear there is poison in it, we hold off. Let gold be offered us; yet, if we hear it is red hot, we draw back our hands, and touch it not. Oh, then, why will we be so desperately foolish, as when a little poor unsatisfying pleasure is offered us, though sauced with a woeful damnation for ever and ever, we should dare to entertain it at so dear a rate? Have mercy upon your own souls, my Dear Brethren; and, when the motions of evil are made to you, check them, with the danger of this fearful damnation. From which, the God of all mercies graciously deliver us all; for the sake of the Dear Son of his Love, Jesus Christ the Righteous: To whom, &c. SERMON XIII. THE TRUE PEACE-MAKER: LAID FORTH IN A SERMON BEFORE HIS MAJESTY, AT THEOBald's, Opus Justitia Pax. ISAIAH XXXII. 17. The work of Justice (or Righteousness) shall be Peace. My text, you hear, is of Justice and Peace: two royal graces; and such as flow from sovereign majesty. There is a double Justice; divine and human: there is a double Peace; outward in the state, inward in the soul. Accordingly, there is a double sense of my Text; a spiritual, a civil sense the spiritual concerning Theological Justice, and inward Peace; the civil concerning Human Justice, and outward peace. The spiritual thus the Messiah shall cause the fruit of his perfect justice to : |