DISCOURSES ON Several Texts OF SCRIPTURE BY The late Pious and Learned HENRY MORE D. D. LONDON Printed by I. R. and are to be Sold by Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1692. THE PREFACE I Shall not bespeak the acceptance of these Papers by any large Encomium either of them or of the Author This would detain the Reader too long from the Benefit of them and indeed to little or no purpose For the Discourses will sufficiently speak for themselves without the artifice of any Commendatory Preface And as for the Author His Name is so well known and deservedly admired in the World upon the account of the many Elaborate Treatises which he Published in his Life-time that these his Posthumous Pieces may find a welcome Entertainment without any other Invitation The business therefore of this Preface is only to acquaint the Reader with some things which concern this Edition and this I shall do very briefly in the following Particulars 1. The First and chief thing which the Reader is to be acquainted with is the Authenticness of these Writings they being all of them Printed by the Authors own Copies except Discourse XII th and XIII th which were with some of the other transcribed from the Originals in the Authors Life-time by one whose Faithfulness and Exactness is evident in the rest and is not in the least to be doubted of in these 2. The next thing which I should tell the Reader is by whom these Papers were committed to my care and management in order to make them Publick But I am forbidden to name him and therefore I shall be silent as to this particular 3. But here it may not be unfit to tell the Reader in general That I have bestowed upon them all the care and pains which the shortness of time determined for the preparing of them for the Press would admit of And this is sufficient to satisfie any ingenuous Person Whereas to speak of all the toil and difficulties which I met with therein would be too tedious an exercise of the Readers Patience and piece of Vanity as burdensome to my self as to others 4. And Lastly As for any Defects therein or for the Errors which have escaped the Press they are such as neither the Authors Name will suffer by reason of them nor the Papers be less acceptable to a Candid and well-disposed Reader Thus much I thought fit to advertise the Reader of here concerning this Edition As for the Discourses themselves I shall leave it wholly to Him to observe the Stile and Matter of them Only this I would suggest That they are such as were prepared for no mean Auditory some of them being University-Sermons and the rest College-Exercises I will conclude this Preface with a short Prayer Which I wish the Reader may as seriously and devoutly put up as the Pious Author did before one of the following Discourses O Lord our God the Fountain of Light and the Well-spring of all holy Wisdom and Knowledge without whose aid our search after thee and thy ways is but tedious error and dangerous wandering from thee Assist us mercifully in our endeavours after thee Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of thy Law Sanctifie our hearts unto obedience that we may unfeignedly love thee and worthily magnifie the holy Name through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen London Nov. 1. 1692. John Worthington THE TEXTS OF THE Following Discourses DISCOURSE I. 1 PET. II. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. p. 1. DISCOURSE II. PSAL. LXXXIV 7. They go from strength to strength every one of them appeareth before God in Sion p. 31 DISCOURSE III. MAT. VI. 22 23. The light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness p. 60. DISCOURSE IV. PROV I. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom p. 85. DISCOURSE V. JOHN IV. 31 32 33 34. In the mean time his disciples prayed him saying Master eat But he said unto them I have meat to eat that you know not of Therefore said the disciples one to another Hath any man brought him ought to eat Iesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work p. 119. DISCOURSE VI. JAM I. 22. Be ye Doers of the Word and not Hearers only deceiving your own selves p. 151. DISCOURSE VII PROV XV. 15. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil but a good conscience is a continual feast p. 191. DISCOURSE VIII PSAL. XVII 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness p. 221. DISCOURSE IX ROM VIII 17. And if children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him p. 251. DISCOURSE X. JAM I. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world p. 282. DISCOURSE XI HEB. XIII 16. To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased p. 314. DISCOURSE XII GAL. VI. 14 15 16. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world For in Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God p. 369. DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. I. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever p. 394. DISCOURSE XIV PSAL. CVI. 28. They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead p. 419. DISCOURSE XV. COL III. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God p. 435. Appendix to Discourse XIII p. 458. IMPRIMATUR Lambhith Nov. 2. 1692. Ra. Barker R mo in Christo Patri ac D no D no Johanni Archiepiscopo Cant. a Sacris Dom. DISCOURSES ON Several Texts OF SCRIPTURE DISCOURSE I. 1 PET. II. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. THE Text is an Exhortation to abstinence from the Lusts of the Flesh Which Duty the Apostle endeavours to fix upon the Spirits of
open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Rev. 3. 20. See how friendly and familiarly they are entertained by Christ as if they feasted one another at a mutual Collation I will delight my self by the possession and actuation of the Humane Nature by my Holy Spirit and they shall be delighted and transported by the comfortable and enravishing influence of my Divine Nature when they shall be filled with all the fulness of God Of such infinite consequence is it to attain to that Body which is the proper House of God or his Holy Temple that when he knocks and calls we may yield obedience to that voice in the Psalmist who prophesies of this Mystery Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in that the Lord of Hosts with all his glorious retinue may fill his own House For he is not there alone as it appear'd by that voice heard in the Temple of the Iews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by his residence in us replenisheth us with all Heavenly Graces We are strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of this Lord of Hosts unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness as the Apostle speaks And that is most eminently verify'd to us which occurs in S. Iohn Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world And as for being rooted in Love as S. Paul speaks in another place this glorious Lord of Hosts is also the God of Love For God is Love and he that abideth in Love abideth in God and God in him as touching Holy and Divine things This Heavenly Love has his abode in this AEthereal Tabernacle And as for Truth and Knowledge as S. Iohn witnesses where is it to be seen or heard but in this Lucid Temple of God While we are out of this condition we know but in part or rather quite miss the mark by the giddiness and distortedness of an unpurify'd mind we hear and understand but faintly and unsetledly like Thunder afar off but in this Holy Temple we do as it were distinctly from his own mouth receive the Living Oracles of God And briefly as for Truth this is that state wherein all Figures and Shadows do fly away This is that grand Mystery reserved more especially for these last approaching Ages and witnessed by a great Voice out of Heaven Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men Apoc. 21. 3. These are some few strictures or faint obscure strokes of the admirable and ineffable Happy Condition of the Travellers through the Valley of Baca when once they have arrived to their Journeys end and appear before the God of Gods in Sion DISCOURSE III. MAT. vi 22 23. The light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness THE Text seems to be a Syllogistical Parable The Argument is contained in those first words The light of the Body is the Eye From whence is this double Inference That if the Eye be single the whole Body is full of light But if the Eye be evil the whole Body is full of darkness with this Porisma or Corollary annexed to the latter Inference If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness That is It is wonderfully and unspeakably great The force of the Argument for the inferring the Conclusions is so conspicuous that it is altogether needless to say any thing toward the further clearing it And therefore we will only take notice of the Truths in several manifestly comprized in the Text. 1. The First whereof is That the Eye is the light of the Body 2. The Second That a Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light 3. The Third That an Evil Eye makes the whole Body full of darkness 4. The Fourth and Last That if the Eye it self be dark the Body is left in most wretched and miserable darkness such as the presence of no Light no not of the Sun it self can chase away Non radii solis nec lucida tela Diei Discutient These are the external Truths of the letter of the Parable But hitherto we do but lambere vitreum vas sed pultem non attingimus We must know therefore that every part of this Parable is but the Protasis of a Similitude and that all the skill will be to find out the true Apodosis in every particular And if our Judgment fail us not in the first we shall not easily mistake in the following parts of the Parable Wherein I mean in the First if we make out this Analogy viz. That as the Eye is to the Body so the Vnderstanding is to the Soul it would be neither inept in it self nor unsupported by very great Authorities Aristotle sayes expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may embolden us to make the Soul the Homologous term to the Body Which Galen does expresly as Grotius cites him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to this purpose several other Philosophers speak and not without truth though not so precisely accommodate to our purpose This Apodosis would be over-dry and Philosophical and such as will not reach that Diviner meaning of our Saviour This Analogy was obvious enough to the Natural man I mean the comparing the Intellectual or Rational faculty of the Soul with the Sight or Visive faculty in the Eye of the Body But having regard to our Saviours Discourse in this place it is plain he intends not so much that which the Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Homologous term to that of the Eye as what S. Paul stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not meer notion or perception but implies with it a savour and relish of what is perceived Get thee behind me Satan said Christ to Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because thou savourest not the things that be of God And the Apostle expresly mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In brief therefore respecting the scope of our Saviour as we shall see more clearly anon the Analogy must run thus 1. What the Eye is for enlightning the Body that is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this relish savour sense or sapience in this peculiar sense for the illuminating the Soul that is this being so or so minded or affected And this is the first Analogy hinted in this Parable 2. The 2d is That as the Single Eye enlightens thoroughly the Body so Single-mindedness does thoroughly illuminate the Soul And this is that great and important Arcanum of Life that this Parable affords us That that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 1. 12. that godly simplicity and sincerity is the Eye
of the Soul not only for its loveliness but for its light which it so plentifully imparts unto her That his Godly Simplicity and Sincerity that is devoid of all Self-interest of all Self-reflection or Self-gloriation but pursues what is simply good meerly for the good 's sake is that which answers to the Single Eye in the Parable is plain from the preceding and subsequent Context where our Saviour gives Monitions against Hypocrisie that when we fast we should not be as the Hypocrites of a sad countenance disfiguring their faces that they may appear unto men to fast and that we should lay up our treasure in Heaven not in Earth that our Heart or Affection may not be distracted nor divided for where your treasure is there will your heart be also and likewise immediately after my Text he sayes No man can serve two Masters It is therefore that Oneness of purpose and affection that seems here to be aimed at as in several other Parables of our Saviour He that layes his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God Which implies that there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that our mind should be taken up with one thing only Martha is troubled with many things but Mary has chosen the better part which shall not be taken from her The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hid in the field for which a man selleth all that he hath that he may purchase it or like that Pearl of great price for which a Merchant parts with all that he hath that he may buy it To be at one therefore or to have the lively savour or relish of some one most excellent divine and indispensable Principle seems to be that which is figured out by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Single Eye in my Text. Which I conceive is this Not to seek a mans self in any thing but simply and entirely to follow the will and pleasure of God or that which is simply good not pleasing and grateful to our Animal relishes or corresponding with our personal interest and concerns but that which comports with the Interest of the Kingdom of God and the real good of Mankind To be thus affected is to have this Single Eye that is this pure and clear Eye for so the word will also signifie devoid of all self-tincture or self-colouring and therefore capable of receiving the pure Light as it is and every Object in that Hue and Circumstances that they are The being quit from our selves and all Selfishness and having our Desires sincerely bent to what is simply the Best in every thing this is here that Single Eye of the Soul which our Saviour Enigmatically indigitates by that of the Body but is not the Light it self as the Eye of the Body is not the Natural light but they both be that which receives the Light the one the Divine the other the Natural Nor yet is either this Natural or Spiritual Eye to be said to be altogether devoid of light But as Plato conceiv'd there was an innate light in the Eye and that by the conjunction of this with the external light which Union in Plutarch is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vision was performed So we may not deny but that in some sense this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have described to be thus simply and sincerely affected as we have endeavoured to set forth as well as we can in words for what words can communicate the Sense of Life unless to them that have it that this sincere affection is the Inward Light of the Soul her diaphanous capacity of admitting Divine Truths whether suggested from without or from the Spirit of God within in vertue of the happy meeting together of which inwardly pure disposition of the Soul with those outward suggestions she is assured of the reality of the Divine and Spiritual Objects of the Understanding what is to be believed and what to be done as well as the Eye is assured of the truth of outward Natural Objects by the corradiation of its innate light with the external Rayes of the Sun What the Spirits are in the diaphanous Eye that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the relish of the Spirit in the pure Soul And this may suffice for the understanding the Second Analogy 3. From whence we shall easily understand the Third after we have taken notice what is meant in this place by an Evil Eye which is opposed to a Single one And the right meaning is easily fetch'd out from the Opposition For it is obvious to conceive that it is that kind of Evil of the Eye that is opposed to the clearness purity and diaphanousness thereof which is signify'd by the Single Eye For blindness obscureness or depravation of sight may come from sundry causes but the main is and the only here aimed at such as takes away the clearness and diaphanousness of the Eye whereby it ceases to be actuated by its own innate light and animal Spirits and becomes impervious and impenetrable by the Beams of the Sun or any other external lights or at least is so infected by some impure tincture that the rayes of light cannot enter without being soiled and contaminated by that internal infection Now as such an Evil Eye as this leaves the Body either wholly in the dark or obnoxious to perpetual errour touching the right hue of external Objects so the Carnal relish or Carnal-mindedness whereby we do so affectionately savour our personal concerns our Animal pleasure and interest this self-love self-respect self-desire self-will self-gloriation self-prelation or whatever touch of smack there is of selfishness be it brutish or diabolical pride or lust the inordinate desire of enjoying the pleasures of the Body or the desire of appearing some-body in the World and the impatience and abhorrence of being thrust below every body and to be in a worse condition than all other mortals though our ever-blessed Saviour submitted himself to that state this carnal relish I say which with the Apostle we will call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we did the single Eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Carnal-mindedness will in such sort leave the Soul to blindness and errour in things Spiritual to be believed and practised as the Evil Eye does the Body in things Natural Which is the Third Analogy 4. And the Fourth and last is this That as that Darkness which is the darkness of the Eye is in reference to the Body the most calamitous and deplorable darkness that is So the ignorance and insensibleness of the relish of the Spirit is the most hideous and miserable ignorance that can befal the Soul or which is all one to have no other light or sight but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the most hideous and miserable darkness that can possess the Mind If Carnal-mindedness become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eye of the Soul for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will
signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a dismal darkness will there be then For the blind then leading the blind both will fall into the Infernal Pit THE meaning of the Text I conceive is now abundantly plain and that the scope and end of our Saviours uttering this Parable to his Disciples was to stir them up to a constant and earnest endeavour of utterly disentangling themselves from all the attractions of the relish of the Flesh or Spirit of the World and of joyning themselves entirely and cordially with and of dwelling wholly in the relish sense and life of the Spirit of God or of that Divine Spirit whose suggestions are no dictates of self-love or partial interest but the substantial concerns of the Kingdom of God and the good of the whole World For which he who has this Divine relish will not stick to lay down his Life if need require according to that endearing Example of our ever-blessed and adored Saviour Let it be therefore my task at this time to exhort you earnestly to endeavour after this great and indispensable attainment of this Single Eye this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of the Spirit which this Parable of our Saviour points to and is indeed the proper Spirit of Christ concerning which S. Paul expresly declares He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Which ought to be a rousing Argument to awaken us into a due sense of so great a want For unless we regain this Single Eye we shall never see the right way to Heaven There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus namely to such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death For the relish of the flesh or carnal-mindedness is death But the relish of the spirit or spiritual-mindedness is life and peace But the carnal mind is enmity against God because it cannot submit it self to the law of God but is in perpetual opposition against it ever suggesting what is contrary to it Wherefore we must wholly withdraw our selves out of that Principle as we hope to attain to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And assuredly whosoever has that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus it will free him and rid him from the power of all the urgings suggestions or subtil insinuations of that Law of the sinful flesh of self-love and self-interest Though he may feel these self-savouring suggestions and the more clearly discern them to be such by the perspicuity of the Single Eye the Spirit of Christ yet he is so freed from their power that he will never act according to them but constantly act according to the relish and suggestion of that pure Principle of the Spirit which has not the least tincture of self-love or carnal interest And there is a neceffity of perfectly clearing up at last into this Single-mindedness by reason of the war and enmity betwixt the Carnal Principle and this of the Spirit for without this there is no peace nor joy nor enjoyment in this Life nor in that which is to come The Law of the sinful life of the Flesh therefore is utterly to be abrogated nulled and annihilated and we are to judge and act in all things according to the discernments of that Single Eye or pure Principle of the Spirit of Christ. But I will rather confine the Arguments of my Exhortation to the Text and content my self with what it will afford namely the four Analogies I have produced and explained and so conclude 1. The light of the Body is the Eye What therefore the Eye is to the Body that is some vital and sensible leading Principle in the Soul to the Soul Is it not therefore of infinite consequence what this leading Principle is when it is of as much consequence to the Soul as the Eye is to the Body and the Soul of incomparably more worth than the Body What man would have the Eye of a Batt of an Owl or of a Mole for the guidance of his Body unless he were to have his abode under the Earth with the Mole or to venture abroad only in the Night with the Batt and Owl Every Animal is to have an Eye congenerous to its own Nature And therefore that Divine Animal which we call Man I mean the inward man the Soul is to have an Eye congenerous to hers she is to have this Single Spiritual Eye unless she will converse only with Brutes or Devils in their Kingdom of Darkness 2. Again The Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light that is it is a fit and faithful guide to it which way soever it goes And that is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus to the Soul Which assuredly is the Law of Divine love which is not the love of a mans self or any particular or partial Interest but the hearty love of God and a mans Neighbour that is of all mankind when with a single heart he wishes them and is ready to do them all the good they are capable of and himself in a capacity to administer to them This is that pure and lovely Eye of the Soul indeed which fills her full of Celestial light and enrolls her in the Book of Life and of the Children of Light This is that Vnction from the Holy one even from the Father of Lights whereby we know all things appertaining to Life and Godliness and that Iesus that stupendious Pattern of this Divine Love is the Lord and Christ And that that man of sin that exalts himself above all that is called God and supports his Power Pride and Pomp with gross Imposture and barbarous Bloodshed is that notorious Antichrist he that has this Single Eye easily discerns this and can hardly forbear to suspect that they that do not see it are blind through the Spirit of the World or else drunk with the steames of that Cup of abominations and see double This Simple and Unself-interested Spirit of Love is that Anointing of which S. Iohn saith that if it abide in us we need not that any man teach us but the same Anointing will teach us of all things and is truth and is no lie It is very Truth substantial and essential without any shadow of vanity or imposture in it and such as will seal our hearts with an eternal adhesion to our ever-blessed Saviour as being the communication of his own Spirit to us and be evermore a safe guide to us in our passage thorough this present life He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Wherefore as we tender our safe conduct through the wilderness of this World through all the dangers and perils of so difficult a journey we must earnestly endeavour the recovering of this Single-mindedness this amiable Eye of the pure love
recreates the Eyes of ordinary Mortals seem'd to him not a bright azure but a funeral black nor Sun nor Moon real and true Lights but two painted Scutcheons Or and Argent hung upon the Melancholly Tapestry of this House of Mourning Wherefore to be buried in the Body with him is a real Death and this Terrestrial Region wherein we seem to live but one great Caemeterium or Dormitory No life no joy no pleasure is here no not amongst those that seem to enjoy most that have the greatest portion in this Life nay their only portion therein Wherefore what expectation of Happiness before that blessed Resurrection When we shall see the Face of God and be satisfied with his Likeness in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore But for the present Interval that is the time of our Immersion into the Sense of this Body the Prophet David as well as Heraclitus does plainly deem it a state of Sleep or Death which are the same in Scripture every where as to any Mystical meanings or purposes As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Munster piously and I believe truly paraphrases thus upon the Text. Egó verò omnes electi tui Domine non ita quaeremus has temporarias transitorias divitias ut in illis deliciemur sed justè piè vivemus in hoc seculo ut aliquando in futuro seculo videamus faciem tuam eâ satiemur cum scilicet è pulvere evigilaverimus reformati fuerimus ad similitudinem Christi tui And this may go for the Philosophical sense of the Text. But there is a Moral sense thereof which Castellio seems to reach at and is indeed the most easie to the words of the Text which run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which the easie and accurate Sense is I will behold thy face in Righteousness at the awaking of thy image I shall be satisfied according as Castellio has also rendered it Tum satiandus cum tua experrecta fuerit imago And his Gloss is accordingly Per Christi resurrectionem qui Dei imago est plenam consecuturus justitiam foelicitatem For the Image of God is Christ who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of the Glory of God answerably to the LXX Translation of my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall be satisfied when I shall see thy Glory Which Glory like the beams of the Sun reach and touch the very eye-lids of him that is asleep but are not seen nor enjoy'd till he awake for then the image of the Sun is also awoke in him that is to say excited into actual being According to which Analogy is that Saying of the Apostle Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light The Evigilation therefore or Resurrection of the Image of God in us is our Evigilation or Resurrection in a Mystical or Moral Sense into it which as soon as it does appear we also do appear in Glory with it but while Christ is thus hid or dead or asleep in us we are in a state of Death or Sleep and the true Life of our Soul is hid in him And this I would have the First Truth comprised in my Text viz. That the immersion of the Soul into the life of the Body and love of this present World which is the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul The Second That there is no true Satisfaction in this Worldly or Terrestrial Life which is but a torpid Sleep and the very shadow of Death The Third That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Image of God the Resurrection of Christ in us according to the Spirit The Fourth That this Mystical Resurrection of Christ is the only solid Enjoyment and Satisfaction to the Souls of the Faithful even in this Life The Fifth and Last That the way to attain to this Satisfaction which arises from the Evigilation of that Divine Image in us which is also stiled the Face of God or if you will the Image thereof whereby we see his Face so far forth as he is visible to Man is Righteousness and Sincerity of Heart I shall behold thy face in righteousness These are the precious Truths comprized in the Text which I shall handle with all possible brevity 1. That the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul the very Text does apparently intimate especially that Translation in our Liturgy When I shall awake into thy Image which is the Image of the Heavenly Adam I shall be satisfied therewith which implies that till this awaking we are in a state of Sleep or Death For in that we can eat and drink and go up and down these are no Arguments that we are truly alive no more than the growing of the Hair and the Nails of them that have lain long buried in the ground is any Argument of Life in them I mean of the Sensitive Life Nor though the Flesh be full of Worms will the man be thought ever the more alive for that For neither is Sense the Life of a man nor meer Carnal and Worldly Reason the Life of the Child of God The Divine Image is the Soul of his Soul and the Life of his Life of which seeing every Soul is capable it is rightly deemed dead till it partake thereof till it be awaken'd into this Image of God But so long as the mind is addicted to the things of this World to the Law of the Body which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so long is she dead or asleep call it which you will Hierocles calls it Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Death of every Rational Essence sayes he is the loss or suppression of her Divine and Intellectual excellencies Plotinus Sleep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So far forth as the Soul is immerged into the Body so far she is asleep And therefore those that are wholly taken up with the concerns thereof as relishing nothing but what is Worldly and Carnal may justly be look'd upon as fallen into a deep Sleep And what if they can walk and talk and go up and down and do such things as men that are awake also do do not the Noctambuli do the same Whose eyes being shut yet unwittingly do they several exploits some hazardous others ridiculous other some as it some seldomer times happens safe and congruous if the chain of Phantasms that leads them attract luckily and to convenient Objects But in the mean time they know not what they do but without any free consultation or deliberation are carried out hoodwink'd to action by the meer suggestion of Dreams and Phansies And is not this the very condition of those who have arriv'd no higher than to the Image of the Earthly
of the Truth and sincere purpose of doing what is absolutely best and of cleaving to what is absolutely best in all things without any self-relish or self-respect whatsoever A thing so lovely and desirable that even the better sort of Heathen seem vehemently to have breathed after it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O my dear Soul when wilt thou become One and naked and simple It is the Exhortation of that excellent Emperour Marcus Antoninus to his own Soul as that brief monition also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simplifie thy self reduce thy self to perfect Sincerity and Single-mindedness These strains I confess are so near the Spirit and Genius of Christianity it self that I half suspect the Philosopher of playing the Plagiary and that he adorned himself at a distance with the Practical Philosophy of that Religion the truth of whose Mysteries either the shortness of his Reason made him dissent from or the Reason of State hinder'd him from making profession of But it may be a just reproach to the generality of Christians who though they publickly profess the Faith of Christ yet let the Life fall to the ground But I proceed 3. Thirdly But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body will be full of Darkness that is If thou be carnally-minded and have not that Spiritual Eye above described thy Soul will be wholly left in the dark or closely surrounded with a Cimmerian mist or Egyptian fog thou wilt have no prospect nor be able to see thy way at all thou wilt be so closely besieged by the powers of darkness The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that spiritual relish above-mentioned But he that is spiritual discerneth all things yet he himself is discerned of no man He has a full prospect of light a large Horizon lies open to his view so that where-ever he turns himself his way is plain before him But he that has not that holy divine and unself-interested Spirit of Love that Single Eye of the Soul he walks in the dark and knows not whither he goes because the darkness hath blinded his Eyes 1 Ioh. 2. 11. But in that the Apostle S. Paul saith Yet he himself is discerned of no man that is to be understood that no carnally-minded man can discern him according to what S. Iohn writes in his Gospel And the light shined in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not For that Maxime of the Ancientest Philosophers is most assuredly true here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There must be a corresponding Principle within to be able to discern what occurs to us from without As face answers to face so the heart of man to man And hence it is I mean from this darkness that the wicked give such rude justles against the truly-good namely because they cannot discern them For if they could duely discern them it were impossible that they should hate them as being Friends to every mans person and out of mere care and compassion to them being only Enemies to their Vices Needless broils and quarrels mistake upon mistake mischief after mischief this is the necessary condition of him that by reason of the Evil Eye of the Soul cannot see his way distinctly but is ever and anon caught in unexpected Angiports and tedious Labyrinths out of which he can find no exitus but is forc'd to go backwards and forwards and to make Indentures in his gate like a sot and drunkard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways By reason of his want of that Single Eye he has not yet discovered that one simple and indispensable object that his heart is eternally to cleave to And therefore his Eye being tainted and infected with the impurities of the Animal life as the inward Complexion of his Body changes or the Circumstances of external affairs alter he adhering to nothing upon sincere grounds may be now a Reveller anon a superstitious Bigot now a Sceptick anon an inept and unskilful Dogmatist make profession of one Religion to day of another to morrow and next day of neither and at last if it prove plausible or fashionable of none at all Such wild contrary sallies is he subject to that is under the guidance of the Double Eye But that which is Single and One can never run contrary to it self but will ever act uniformly and correspondently to one End the Express whereof is the known will of God and what is simply and absolutely the best It is that only Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus according to which we must act if we would walk as Children of the Light If we mingle any thing of the self-relish or Carnal Interest this will supplant our goings and we shall most certainly stumble in the dark and if the concerns in our Interest grow high we shall reel and stagger like a drunken man and be at our wits end Be things at other times never so plain yet all must be now obscure and uncertain we abhorring from all evidence that is evidently against our own worldly advantage to acknowledge and profess it Faithfulness and Uprightness towards God towards our Prince our Countrey our Friend it cannot be deny'd will some say but they are things very commendable and that this Justice is to be performed to them so far as it will consist with our private Interest and Security And Profession of Truth such especially as is of great concern to the Church of Christ and so Exemplarity of Life are things in themselves worthy and laudable and caeteris paribus to be embraced before their corrivals But if Truth and Vertue once become ridiculous and the object of reproach and obloquy or the indispensable Duties to God our Prince our Countrey or Friend hazardous to our fortunes liberty or life then the Evil or Carnal Eye does very gravely suggest that the great point of Wisdom and Prudence is to shift for one and save a mans own silly inconsiderable self whatever suffers through so base a perfidiousness No better possibly can come of this mixt and mongrel principle of Double-mindedness This is that ugly and hateful mode of plowing with an Oxe and an Ass or of wearing a Linsy-woolsy coat not more expresly forbidden by the letter of Moses than severely prohibited by that Law of the Spirit of life which is through Christ who has plainly declared in his Gospel that he that loves Father or Mother Son or Daughter more than him is not worthy of him And that he that loveth his life shall lose it but he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal Which Law of Christ notwithstanding let the Carnal mind judge of it as it will is not so rigorous but that some of the Heathen Philosophers have utter'd what is not much removed from it Aristotle himself
etiam hic Dii sunt Come in Sir if God doth not lodge here also Sub sordido pallio latet Sapientia Wisdom sometimes is no better covered than with rags BUT I leave this point for your selves to enlarge upon I pass on from this first Part viz. the Occasion with all the Circumstances thereon depending to the Proposal of the Parable In the mean time his disciples prayed him saying Master eat But he made answer I have meat to eat that you know not of It is usual with our Saviour to ascend from sensible and Corporeal things to those things which are inward and Spiritual I need not look for instances far off Here in this very Chapter when as our Saviour had arriv'd at Iacobs Well at the heat of the day faint and thirsty and desired the Samaritan Woman that came to draw water that she would give him to drink and she reply'd How is it that thou being a Iew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria Iesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Ver. 10 11. viz. the very same water that he speaks of Iohn 7. ver 37. where he is said in the last day that great day of the feast of Tabernacles to stand and cry If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Which speech was occasion'd as is not without Reason conceiv'd from the custom of the day For upon this day by the Institution of Haggai the Prophet and Zacharias and such like they did with Joy and Solemnity bring great store of water from the River Siloah to the Temple where it being delivered to the Priests it was poured upon the Altar together with Wine the people singing that of the Prophet Esaiah Ch. 12. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation From this visible Solemnity and Natural Water Christ took occasion to invite them to an invisible and Spiritual Water As he doth the Samaritan Woman here in this present Chapter shewing her that whosoever drinks of the water that he asked of her shall thirst again But whosoever should drink of the Water that he should give shall never thirst but the water shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life So at the 6th Chapter of this Gospel of S. Iohn when our Saviour had fed them with Natural Bread he endeavours to raise their desire and appetite to the Bread of Eternal Life Ver. 26. Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life And at the 32th Verse Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven For the bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world I might instance in other Examples but this point is clear It remains only that we imitate that Pattern we understand so well Whether we would be Teachers of others or Instructers of our selves For indeed the whole World is ingens quoddam Sacramentum a large sign or symbol of some Spiritual Truths that nearly concern our Souls Methinks when the Morning Sun rises upon us the Eyes of our Souls should open at once with the Eyes of our Bodies and our Hearts should send out this Ejaculation Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and our minds presage that promised Happiness In thy light shall we see light When we breathe in the fresh Air it might mind us of something like that of the Emperours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only to draw in the common Air but also to be of one mind with that Intellectual Spirit that fills all the World Solitude and darkness that makes our Hearts shrink within us and overwhelms our Souls with horrour and misdoubt what is it in Spirituals but a privation of perfect Love that casteth out fear as the Apostle speaks He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth 1 Ioh. cap. 2. There is nothing that the Natural man is sensible of in this outward World but the Spirit of God has made use of to prefigure and set out the condition and nature of Reward and Spiritual things that hence the Soul may receive hints to raise her self towards him that made her for to inherit Spirituality and not alwayes lye groveling on the Earth Whatsoever we see or hear or smell or taste or feel we may in all these even very sensibly feel some hidden mystery and find out in those shells and husks some more precious food than this that pleases our mortal Body and perishable Senses And he that doth not feel through these sensible Creatures something better than themselves certainly is exceedingly benum'd or rather Spiritually dead and has his Conversation in the World no otherwise than the Beasts of the field and Nebuchadnezzars Curse is upon him till such a Mind be restor'd unto him that he doth acknowledge the most High and find him residing even in this lower World the habitation of mortal men Beauty Riches Strength Agility Sweetness Pleasure Harmony these are all better relish'd in the Soul than in the Body Our Blessed Saviour in the midst of his thirst after the Water of Iacobs Well which he beg'd of the Samaritan Woman was so refreshed with the remembrance of the Spiritual and Living Waters which he enjoy'd within that he had forgot his first request his Soul being inebriate as it were with the sweetness of that hidden spring in his Heart And this Storehouse he found within afforded him not Drink only but Meat also it should seem by his ansvver to his Disciples when they invited him to eat He did not as those starvling Souls that not at all being able to entertain themselves with their own store no not for a moment so soon as the Bodies treasure is exhaust men of this world which have their portion in this life and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure as the Psalmist speaks so soon I say as the carnal or outward man is emptyed and impoverished have their desire strait way furiously kindled like a broad fiery Meteor that is swiftly wasted hither and thither accordingly as the earthly unctuous Vapour its proper Pabulum is scattered in the Air. And it is no wonder that they are thus furious and impatient For what is Desire but a living death or an actual non-entity It is for 't is Desire But it is not viz. that which it desires to be And what Soul can endure to be in such a case Wherefore it is too too probable that that mind that can
abstain from fleshly and bodily Desires from their accomplishment I mean has some hidden Contentment within undiscover'd to the World The Heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy Our Saviour Christ himself could not with such ease have slighted the cravings of Nature for He was a man like to us in all things Sin only excepted and disregarded his seasonable Sustenance had it not been so as he professes it was in his Answer to his Disciples I have meat to eat you know not of AND thus much of the Occasion and Proposal of the Parable I come now to the double Consequent thereof viz. First The Disciples misapprehension or false collection Hath any man brought him to eat Secondly Our Saviours true interpretation of the Parable My meat is to do the will of him that sent me c. Hath any man brought him to eat It was obvious to think so I confess but not at all necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Has any man The Ravens fed Elijah the Tisbite by the Brook Cherith which is before Iordan They brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening 1 Kings 17. 6. And not the Fowls of the Air only but the winged Host of Heaven might have been employed for this purpose They owe more than this to the Son of God But the mistake was not so much in the manner of the conveyance of this Meat as in the nature of the Meat it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God will destroy both it and them He breaks and weakens that strong influence they have upon the minds of men that Circean Magick that metamorphozes the Souls of men into meer Beasts and changes their Understandings By the power of These the Disciples themselves seem stupid and are at a loss when their great Teacher utters himself in Heavenly Parables I have meat to eat you know not of For the unfolding of this dark Riddle They look no higher than a Sun-dyal or at farthest on the Sun and read there past Twelve and without any great subtilty can easily collect that it is Dinner-time which now compar'd with their lately bought Provision in the Cities of Samaria and the savoury suggestions of their own Stomachs their thoughts are circumscribed within the margins of a Platter they have animam in patinis as the Proverb goes and are not at leasure to think of any thing higher than Bodily Food Has any man brought him to eat I will observe two things from this passage and so leave it First The slowness of the Earthly Mind to apprehend Spiritual Mysteries There be two notable Instances of it One in those two Disciples that went to Emaus to whom Christ appeared and part of whose discourse was Luke 24. Concerning Iesus of Nazareth a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people And how the Chief Priests and their Rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him But they trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel viz. from the Roman yoke according to that meer Terrene apprehension the Iewes it should seem then had and at this time have concerning the Messias making him a Temporal Prince and expecting a Temporal Happiness from him The other Instance is Iohn 6. 51 52. I am the living bread that came down from Heaven If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world The Iews therefore strove amongst themselves saying How can this man give us his flesh to eat But the words our Saviour Christ here speaks are as he himself professes they are spirit and they are life and therefore Spiritually to be discerned and not by Carnal Eyes The other point that I would observe is the Vneffectualness of our Saviours presence according to the Flesh. If his Spirit had been in them as his Body was with them I make no question but their Minds had been so Heavenly disposed that our Saviours Speeches would not have proved such AEnigma's unto them It is true the very touch of Christs Garments healed the Bodies of the Sick sometime but nothing under his Spirit is effectual for recuring the Soul It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Ioh. 6. 63. I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth Iohn 16. 12 13. Our Saviours Bodily presence could not convey those Divine Truths unto his Disciples that an inward principle of life when they were partakers thereof would convey to them And therefore he prefers the mission of the Holy Ghost before his own Bodily conversing with them at the 7th Verse of that Chapter I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you And this was S. Pauls pious boast 2. Cor. 5. 16 17. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature viz. if he be in Christ not after the Flesh but be regenerate of the Spirit I HAST on now to the last part of the Text our Saviours own Solution of this Parable proposed by him to his Disciples and by them misunderstood Therefore said the disciples one to another Hath any man brought him to eat There 's the Misinterpretation Iesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work There 's our Saviours explication of his own mind The great Truth and Mystery not inferiour to any Mystery contained in this interpretation is this That the will of God is the food of the Soul This I conceive to be plainly exhibited to us in this Text. For the Divinity of Christ it cannot be said to feed of any thing it is self-sufficient and immutable according to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mankind has of God Such Spiritual food as the will of God cannot belong to the Body for those Bodies grow fat that have no relish thereof It remains therefore the Soul of Christ was that which was fed with the will of God And his Soul and ours are ejusdem speciei Christ being utterly like us in all things Sin only excepted Wherefore I conclude this Doctrine The will of God is the food of mans Soul I mean of Regenerate man I know the Carnal appetite will pronounce it a very slight and slender Sallet But I will answer that Objection in short The natural man is uncapable of the things of the Spirit of God 1. Cor. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
there is no darkness I am the light of the world saith our Saviour And the Apostle rouzing us out of this sleep of Sin saith Awake thou that sleepest that Christ may give thee light To walk therefore in the Light is to walk in the Life of Christ as in the Presence of the Father and he that thus walketh knoweth both whither he and others go But he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness blindeth his eyes 1 Ioh. 2. And no wonder then that fear attends his footing that ever and anon he is afraid that the next step he stumbles into the pit of destruction The wicked fear where no fear is but God is in the generation of the righteous saith the Psalmist It fares so with them as with those that travel in Arabia who if they chance to set their foot upon Iron Stone or any cold thing by night they are even ready to dye with fear suspecting they have trodden upon a Serpent So ungodly men whose stay and trust is not on God are subject out of the suggestions of an ill Conscience in every harsh thing they meet with to think that God hath forsaken them and that they now have stumbled upon that Old Serpent the Devil The rising of the morning may restore the other to peace and security but what will chace away the terrour of this inward darkness Nor the glorious light of the Sun nor the beautiful aspect of the Moon nor the chearful collustration of the sparkling Stars can yield them light or refresh their troubled Spirit Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse est Non radii Solis nec lucida tela diei Discutiant sed naturae species ratioque As the Poet speaks and may be understood in a better sense than his earthly mind could ever reach to Till that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or idea or Truth of all things free us from this misery we shall not be truly freed from it But if not freed from it how evil do we think his dayes are whom the clearness of the day and common light cannot deliver from the tormenting fears of that continual night Vide qualis affectus sit timor saith Cardan qui crepitare cogit dentes c. See what a kind of passion Fear is that makes a mans teeth chatter in his head which symptom saith that Physitian is proper to those that labour with some deadly Disease But sure the Horrour of that Eternal Darkness is worse where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth which is the Fear of the ungodly here and their Portion hereafter 3. Deformity in Body doth a little diminish ones Happiness But the Vgliness of Sin in a mans Soul if it could be seen with outward eyes it would even fright a man out of his wits to behold it For it is the very Impression or Character of that evil Fiend the ill shap'd Devil himself as Righteousness is the Image of God 4. Feebleness also of Body is a miserable thing But Weakness of Soul is worse when that every blast of vain Doctrine is able to blow us down when every Temptation makes us yield to our Enemy and to become a wretched Vassal of the Devils cruelty 5. But that I run not too much upon one point That which is most terrible is Death But the Death of the Body is but to be hid in the Grave but the Death of the Soul is to be excluded the Presence of God and not that only but to be vexed and tormented with those Spirits of torture which in their fury lay on sure strokes Thus it is manifest that every Evil of the Soul is worse than that of the Body that answers to it And so that Poverty which consists in the want of good things and the presence of evils that ensue from this want is a great deal worse in the Soul than in outward things concerning the Body Now when I say Poverty I know not what to add either for misery of Body or Soul it including all in both Hunger Thirst Nakedness Filthiness Sickness Heaviness Disconsolateness these and all manner of mischiefs accompany Poverty But be it what it will in the Body it is unspeakably worse in the Soul and a certain cause of making that poor mans life miserable so long as he continueth in that sense poor I but will some say how can this thing be When as dayly experience shows that men that are as destitute of all Spiritual and Heavenly Riches as they abound in Earthly live in all Jollity and Pleasure in all Mirth and Merriment But this is no good Argument if we believe the Wise Man Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughing the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness So Eccles. 7. As the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of a fool The flame and the noise go away together and at last is nothing left but scorching coals or dead ashes Would a man count a man in good plight because the poyson he takes makes him dye laughing as it is said of that Herb in Sardo and of the biting of the Tarantula We commonly count the case of a sick man more miserable when upon his bed he sings merry songs and finds out fond toyes from the weakness and distemper of his troubled Brain These men are miserable enough though they think not nor perceive themselves to be so And so it fares with all them that be ungodly and yet seem to flow in all joyes pleasures and contentments It 's but the phansie of a sick Brain Wise men are sorry to see them in such Distemper to have such an ill Symptom upon them And surely that that is miserable in their judgments is miserable and not in theirs whom misery hath made mad false pleasure hath infatuated So we see now plain enough That the poor man that is he that is destitute of Grace and Vertue all his dayes are sufficiently evil sometime in the judgment both of himself and others other sometime or rather ever in the judgment of others that is of wise and holy men Or that this Truth may be the stronglyer established in the judgment of God himself who is the measure of all Truth Thou sayest that I am rich and increased with wealth but thou knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and blind and naked c. Rev. 3. But of poverty wretchedness and misery enough It would seem more desirable to point out some way to be enriched The same Spirit that tells the Church of Laodicea of her miserable poverty shews her a way how to become rich Vincenti dabitur To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his throne Here 's no ordinary Riches Here 's the fulness of a Kingdom But take the condition I pray you Vincenti dabitur He that overcomes he shall be endued with large
Adam Surely every such man walketh like a vain image or shadow or like a winking Noctambulo that sees not whither he goes nor in what plight he is nor whom he may meet nor what Eyes are upon his nakedness nor what sad events may attend his fortuitous motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every wicked man or unregenerate not yet awak'd into the Image of God has the eye of his mind closed as these Noctambuli those of the body and do not walk by sight but by fortuitous phansie their whole Life being but a series of dreams and all the transactions thereof the execution of the dictates of their imagination impertinently busie in this profound Sleep For these Phantasms under whose conduct they are in this condition and which is their first mover in all their actions creep upon them by meer chance as dreams in the Night suggested by the temper of the external Air or of their own Blood or from some other casualty and so one Phantasm or commotion occasions another and the man like a Ship at Sea whose Pilate is asleep may be driven one while one way another while another in a right tract or out of it as it happens there being neither judge nor guide to stear to any end that due examination or mature deliberation has made choice of And therefore all the passages of such a Life whether thoughts or actions are so as it fares in dreams either fatal or fortuitous And although there be a great confidence that things are true and real and such as they appear and that we have concluded sure yet in all this we do but imitate those that dream 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinking those things they see to be clear Realities while they are but Dreams as Plotinus speaks and few but do experience it Nor can we give judgment what is right or wrong what false or what true whether we have dreamt luckily and divinatorily or all be falshood and delusion till that Mystical Resurrection the Resuscitation of the Image of God in our Souls And this briefly may suffice for the First Particular That the immersion of the Soul into the Life of the Body and love of this World is as it were the Death or Sleep of the Soul 2. The Second is That there is no true Satisfaction in this condition And indeed how can any true Satisfaction be there expected where we suppose nothing but Delusions and Dreams nor any one in a case to profess himself satisfied as being utterly unable to compute right or make a due estimate of things No man thinks him that is grosly cheated truly satisfied no not though he give it under his own hand he is so And is not this state of Sleep and Dreams a meer cheat and delusion There only is true Satisfaction where that which satisfies is truly that which it would appear to be and will be found so by a man when he can judge aright For that which every man means in all his pursuits is Happiness nor would he put forth his hand towards any thing that did not bear upon it that Inscription Which if it be false he must needs at last find himself in a wrong box and what profit is there in those things whereof he then must be ashamed And as in the sequels of Reason some one latitant falshood being admitted it will discover it self by the inference of some more gross and palpable absurdity to be false it self So some practical mistake in adhering to some false good though pleasing and alluring for the present will in the conclusion prove it self a real evil by the calamitous Consequence that will necessarily issue from it For the end of such things is Death as the Apostle speaks Thus plain it is that though we should dream pleasingly and prosperously it is no true Satisfaction because at the long run we shall find our selves disappointed and deceived But the truth is that those that dream most successfully are not happy no not so much as in this Dream but have an unquiet Night of it there being so many interruptions and disturbances from the fortuitous clashings of flying Phantasms that rise by chance and bring in scenes of Discontent as well as Pleasure Insomuch that those that have cast up the compute most accurately have concluded it best never to be born but next to that quickly to dye as the Epigrammatist inferrs upon his Synopsis of all the wayes and conditions of Humane Life And Solomon who was a King whose Reign also was Peaceable Splendid and Prosperous yet when he had laid all things together and compleated his account the whole summe was Vanity and vexation of Spirit Nay the scene of things in this present World seem'd to him so sad and Tragical that he praises the Dead which are already dead more than the Living which are yet alive and accounts him better than them both which hath not yet been because he hath not seen the toil that is done under the Sun So far is this Worldly or Terrestrial Life from affording any true Satisfaction to them that are immerse into it But this is a Theme so trite that it had been enough only to have named it and therefore we will pass to the Third Particular 3. That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Divine Image The truth of which assertion we shall easily understand if we but consider what Life is and wherein its fulness does consist as also what is the Image of God For we know that Death is a privation of Life and Sleep a partial Death as being a partial privation of the Vital Functions And therefore the recovery of the Soul into more full and ample Functions of Life must needs be her expergefaction if not resuscitation from the dead Now I conceive the fulness of Life to be compleated in these three things in self-motion or self-activity in sense or speculative perception and in pleasure love or joy And that the heightning or enlargement of these in several degrees is the enlargement of Life and a releasement from such a measure of Sleep or Death These Principles are so plain and manifest that scarce any one can be so dull and sleepy but that he will acknowledge them at the first sight What the Image of God consists in we shall easily understand if we have recourse to the Attributes of his Nature by which only he is cognoscible to us Which Nature of God consists in Omnipotency Omnisciency and Infinite Goodness Whence the Image or Face of God as it is called in the Text so far forth as it is visible to us is nothing else but our perception approbation or rather devotional admiration of these Divine Excellencies and the being effectually impressed upon by them to the transfiguration of our Souls into this similitude so far forth as Humane Nature is capable to be assimilated unto God For we cannot be absolutely Omnipotent nor Omniscient nor Infinitely
good But we may have a kind of communicated Omnipotency as to the affairs of our own Sphere in our own Microcosm or little World where we ought to rule with an absolute hand and never to be quiet till we can profess with S. Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Wherefore as God is Omnipotent in the great Universe and does curb and keep up the whole Corporeal Creation within the limits of certain Natural Laws which they cannot pass So also we are to set bounds and limits to our Bodily Passions and keep them in constant subjection to the Laws of right Reason or to the Rule of the Spirit of God And again in the second place Though we cannot be Omniscient yet we may become in a manner entirely Intellectual and throughly understand and as affectionately relish the true interest of our own Souls and perfectly discern all the concerns thereof and be accompanied with all those Divine Truths and Blissfull Speculations which are requisite for the perfecting of Humane Happiness which in our Sphere is an imitation of the Divine Omnisciency And lastly Though it is impossible that any Creature should be infinitely good yet it is capable of being filled with a Spirit of unexpressible Benignity and to be a faithful well-willer to the happiness and prosperity of every Creature of God and therefore to be in a perpetual promptness and readiness to help them that are in any distress and to rejoyce in the good and wellfare of every parcel of the Creation And this is briefly the amiable Face or Image of God as it is visible or communicable to us which we see by the beams of its own brightness as we see the Sun by its own Light though not in that real lustre nor bigness that it is And I hope now it will plainly appear That the recuperation of this Divine Image is the true expergefaction or resuscitation of the Soul from a state of Sleep or Death into the most full and ample functions of Life Of which the first degree was self-motion or self-activity For meer passivity or to be moved or acted by another either without a mans will or against it this is the condition of such as are either dead or asleep as to go of a mans self is a Symptom of one alive or awake Wherefore whatever is done in us by meer Passion or Ignorance seems rather to be acted upon us than acted by us and to be a defect of that degree of Life which we call self-motion or self-activity in such cases we seeming rather to be carried by surprize than to go of our own accords as men that are dead drunk may be haled or disposed of where others please And every one that is acted by Passion is drunk or if acted upon through Ignorance asleep and so are deprived of that degree of Life which is self-activity a doing things from an inward or thorough assent to them Which no man does in a wicked action because every one that commits wickedness does it to his own infinite disinterest and wrong which no man did ever yet nor even can assent to Whence it is plain that he is not in this regard self-active and that therefore he is in the state of Death out of which the Image of God awakes him namely the power of Christ in him which shews him his way clearly that he may make a choice never to be repented of and enables him to walk in that way and to bear strongly and victoriously against all the assaults of the Body or suggestions of this Worldly Life And so by the self-activity of that spiritual or immaterial Principle in him he rules this little World of his by irresistible Laws as God himself does the great one And this I think is one considerable degree of the evigilation of the Soul through the Divine Image And the Second is no less considerable and which we have touched upon already in the former For if Ignorance be Sleep the Intellectual state of the Soul must needs be an eminent evigilation of her And if to grow Corporeal be to become more inert more unactive and drousie then surely to become more Spiritual must be joyned with a greater measure of Life and Activity And what actions are more Spiritual than those which the Soul exerts her self into in rational disquisitions and divine speculations and in the search of the most noble and momentous Truths concerning God and Nature When she unravels all into certain immutable and indelible Ideas of things which she was taught by no touch from external matter but are the most inward hidden Life of the Soul that Adytum or Oracle that speaks truth from the deepest recess of her Essence into which she cannot enter but by a lusty rowzing up and rubbing her Eyes clean of all those mists and fumes that arise from Corporeal Phantasms or accustomary prejudices These operations certainly must be very intellectual and incorporeal and therefore very much raised above the Body that Sepulchre or Dormitory of the Soul and not to be performed but by the excitation of such kind of Spirits as are in some measure congenerous to that Heavenly Body that Luminous or AEthereal Vehicle in which the Soul shall ride as in her Triumphal Chariot at the general Appearance in the last day I say the closer and more noble intellectual Operations of the Soul are not to be performed but by the assistance of more tenuious and fiery Spirits whence the Oracles call the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentem igneam which are contrary to that phlegmatick sluggishness and drownedness that the Worldly and Carnally-minded are overflown with But besides that the Principle from whence these Intellectual actions flow argues a notorious excitation or expergefaction of the mind therein that which is Intellectual being plainly Divine or Godlike whom the Schools rightly define to be Actus purissimus pure Life and Essential Energy That the Soul in her Intellectual Operations is roused as it were out of a Sleep will farther appear if we compare the functions of the Terrestrial Life with those of the Intellectual The largest Operation of the former of which is that of our Eye which takes in but this Visible Hemisphere of the World and if it could take in the whole according to this contracted proportion it were a pitiful scant thing such as is infinitely lesser than what our Understanding conceives the Universe to be nay many thousand times less than the Earth which is but as a Mathematical point in comparison of the body of the World How contracted then is Touch and Taste and the other Senses For the love of which when the Soul is immersed into the Body and wholly given up to them it is plain that her functions of Life are infinitely contracted and that she lies asleep or dead to her largest Faculties and that therefore the excitation of them is her expergefaction into infinitely a more ample Sphere
to the Second requisite in our Beneficency which is the Vniversality thereof Gal. 6. 10. While we have time let us do good to all men especially to them of the houshold of faith Here 's no evasion out of this injunction If so be the Apostle had said Do good to all some cavilling Sophister would have said I to all Christians or to all true Professours As every Sect will be found to stile themselves so Thus this All is to be restricted But the Apostles command or rather the manner of it prevents all such self-seeking Sophistry Do good to all men whatsoever so far as they are capable though in the first place I could wish you to have a special tender care of them of the Holy Faith and upright Godly Life I but will Flesh and Blood reply to our Enemy Yes to our Enemy If a man find his enemy will he let him go This was that that amased Saul so mightily That David a Type of the Divine Love a Symbol of the very Life and Spirit of Christ that David whom he had sought to kill should let him escape when he was in his power It wrought so upon Sauls Spirit that it forced tears from his eyes and made his heart in his body like melting wax When David had made an end of expostulating with Saul about his unjust pursuit of him and had shewed how dear his Masters Life was in his sight Saul said Is this the voice of my son David And Saul lift up his voice and wept And said to David thou art more righteous than I For thou hast rendered me good and I have rendered thee evil 1 Sam. 24. I will only add the Apostles Exhortation Rom. 12. 26. If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink 3. And so I go on to the Third requisite which is the Qualification of the mind of the giver which consists chiefly in these two things 1. In chearfulness and willingness of mind 2. In an honest and humble simplicity of heart without any reference to the applause and approbation of men but in an unfeigned obedience unto God and tender heartedness toward his Neighbour 1. That Chearfulness S. Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 9. As every man wisheth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a chearful giver And Rom. 12. 8. He that sheweth mercy let him do it with chearfulness It should seem that in time past the Holy Saints of God distributed their Alms to men with such a loving and kind Spirit that they out of the abundance of their good affection added sweet and comfortable words to their Christian Bounty whence in the New Testament in the original Beneficency is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good-speaking blessing or well-wishing to the party to whom they do communicate And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same notion which signifies both benediction and a gift 2. The Second qualification of mind is the Sincereness of communicating without respect to popular applause but merely out of love to God and our Neighbour Take heed that you give not your almes before men to be seen of men or else you shall have no reward of your father which is in heaven Not that it is unlavvful to give Alms in the sight of men but unlawful it is to give Alms in the sight of men of a purpose to be seen of them A man among other Gifts and Graces of God may let this light of Mercy shine also before men that they seeing his good works may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven I say with this proviso we may do our works in publick that it be not for our own proper ostentation but for the Glory of God HITHERTO I have declared To what persons we are to give what we are to give to these persons and after what manner we are to give I will now set down some Motives to stir us up to give our Beneficence to due Objects of our Beneficence 1. The First Motive may be drawn from the things themselves that we communicate For such is the nature of them that no man can assure himself the possession of them no not an hour Wilt thou cast thine eyes upon that which is nothing For riches taketh her to her wings as an eagle and flyeth into heaven Prov. 23. Here 's a double Argument to unty our hearts from that which Flesh and Blood so easily cleaveth to The most envious and nigardly man that is will be very well content to give nothing or to part with that which he conceives to be worth little or nothing And such is Riches in themselves unless made good use of for further happiness instead of being of our substance they are nothing if Solomons judgment be better than ours But grant they be something I and some great thing too and very desirable Yet it being so uncertain how long we shall enjoy them being they are so suddenly stone as an Eagle that in a moment gets upon her wing surely we would do wisely to follow our Saviours counsel Make you friends with the mammon of unrighteousness that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16. The Covetous man holds his Wealth so fast as if he was perswaded whensoever his Riches take their flight as an Eagle and mount to Heaven they will draw him up with them I but if he hold so fast how shall they fly Or if they get from him he holds not fast then and so is disappointed of his post But to let this pass and fall more seriously upon Instruction There 's no way of making Riches serviceable for our journey to Heaven but willingly to let them fly thither before us And that is by giving them to poor honest necessitous people to them that are as poor in Spirit as in Purse Thus may your Liberality happily arrive at Heaven For Heaven is where God is and God is there if any where In so much as you did it to any of these little ones you did it unto me as you heard before out of the 25th of S. Matthews Gospel He that gives unto these doth rather purchase than part with his Means He doth but remove his goods to another house whither he himself shall follow after a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2. And this is the Second Motive viz. The profit which doth accrue to us from our liberal distributions But if we be so sharp set that we cannot wait till that great payment That we have no excuse to hold our hands from doing good God hath promised even a Temporal Reward too Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth to the poor shall not lack And elsewhere in the Proverbs He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord. And the borrower you know returns the same kind to the lender So we lending Temporal things to God God will return to us Temporal things here and
naturally from the Text and be most profitable for you to hear But God forbid That hath reference to the precedent Verse But they desire to have you circumcised that they might glory in your flesh Yet the Holy Apostle devoid of all ambition and emulation and of making an outward shovv among them contents himself vvith that vvhich is but the scorn of Worldly men nay glories in it and in it alone the Inward Cross the Mortification of the Old man the Circumcision of the Heart God forbid that I should glory in any thing c. See the exceeding deep humility of the Apostle a man endued vvith such excellent gifts from God so learned and vvell versed in the Lavv one acquainted vvith so Divine Revelations rapt up into the Third Heavens an Hebrew also an Israelite a Son of Abraham such an excellent Oratour as he approved himself before Felix before Festus before Agrippa and also at Lysta vvhere they took him to be the God of Eloquence Mercury himself and would have Sacrificed unto him so well versed in the Poets as his quotations out of Aratus and others testifie him to be But these are but trifles I mean Poetry and Oratory You may see him in the Acts casting out Devils healing the Sick making the Lame walk recovering the Dead to Life nay giving the Spirit of Life even the Holy Ghost and with it the power of Prophesie and speaking with Tongues Yet all these and many more the least whereof were able to puff up the vain mind of our ordinary Christians and swell them to an unusual extent stir not S. Paul above his wonted measure But he still continues himself a Paul i. e. little in his own eyes though the endowments God had bestowed on him were very great A true Disciple of Christ who taught his to be thus minded Learn of me for I am meek and lowly And methinks I hear the Apostle call to us out of this Text saying Be you followers of me as I am of Christ. But if a man propound the Example of the Apostles and Saints of God to some they look on them rather as Prodigies to gaze at than Examples to imitate and do usually with the rude Cyclops in Erasmus return this answer Paulus est Paulus Ego sum ego Paul had a privilege to be good my privilege is to be as bad as he was good But let Reason move thee if Example will not Why shouldst thou glory and in what Art thou Noble No more than the blood that runs out of thy Fathers Nose or that which is blown out of it unless thou be Vertuous Art thou well Apparel'd Yet a Lilly is better Art thou Fair It is but in thy superficies or surface of thy Body within is stinking dung and dirt Art thou Strong Yet weaker far than an ordinary Cart-horse Art thou Proper Yet not so tall as a Pine A goodly great-bodied man The whole Earth is but a Point why struttest thou then so proudly as if thou wouldst out-face Heaven Thou art a wise and subtil piece So is the Devil and a Serpent Thou art extolled and admired of men So is Vanity Beloved of women But their own Lust and Lasciviousness a great deal more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All whatsoever thou boastest thy self in is but ludicrous and ridiculous contemptible dust and less than dust even nothing Why then dost thou glory in any thing God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the cross What a Paradox is this More strange than not to boast at all For not to boast there being nothing worthy boasting of is but reasonable But to boast of that which is a shame and reproach among all men is uncouth and strangely admirable Crux crux inquam infaelici miseris The Cross was but the fate and doom of Thieves and Malefactors and as little glorious as the deserts that bring to it But it may be it was some fine Silver or Golden Crucifix A pretty toy for Children to glory in What was it The Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ Yet it is but a stumbling-block to the Iews and to the Greeks foolishness I but it is the Cross of Christ Whereby the World is crucified to him and he unto the World This is worse and worse a scandal also to the Christians themselves Sufficient for them it is that Christ bore his own Cross and the Cross bore him It was fitter one man should dye for the people What that we may securely live in sin God forbid He that will be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me saith our blessed Saviour The death therefore of the Cross belongs to us as well as to him though we would fain avoid it This is true then truer than we would have it that a right Christian whose Pattern S. Paul is must be crucified to the World and the World to him be dead unto the World and the World dead to him But what is the World and what to be dead to it S. Iohn in his 1 Ep. Chap. 2. describes it from its parts Ver. 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world These then ought we to be dead to viz. The lust of the flesh i. e. all carnal concupiscence and unlawful desires of the Body all gluttony drunkenness and leachery To the lust of the eyes i. e. all covetousness and filthy avariciousness desiring to encroach and compass all that we see and pleasing our selves with looking upon what we have got already but making no good use of it to the glory of God or good of our Neighbour To the pride of life i.e. ambition stately and lordly living the praise and applause of men superiority and authority over others All these things we are to be dead to by the inward Cross by an holy and serious mortification of our corrupt Life But how shall a man be able to mortifie this corruption to kill these inordinate desires I will tell you an infallible way upon condition you will remember it By a constant denial of their Cravings Give a Beggar nothing at thy door and he will never visit thee Desire is starved by being unfulfill'd A man you know often loseth his appetite by staying very long for his Dinner Inordinate desire will hurt a man like an Ague if we pamper or satisfie it The Devil and the Sop will both down into our guts at once But thou mayst pine out both Desire and the Devil that lurks in it by a pertinacious Temperance or stopping thy self in thy outward actions Affect not vain glory in thy actions or words but modestly decline it and Pride will fall in thy Soul in good time thou shalt find Humility rise
by that Spirit of Christ being alive in you then you seek those things that be above For it is as impossible that the Spirit of Christ should be alive in us and not we alive by it to him as it is that light should be let into a room and the air in the room not enlightened Wherefore if Christ be risen in us we are also risen with him But the Sign that we are thus risen with Christ is that we seek those things that be above But how above What Is the contemplation of the Stars or the knowledge of Meteors viz. of Comets of Rainbows of falling Stars of Thunder of Lightning of Hail of Snow or such like commended to us Nor Astronomy nor Astrology nor Meteorology seem considerable things in the eyes of God Those things that be above That is in Heaven But how in Heaven Or what is Heaven We are therefore to understand that this word Heaven has a threefold signification in Holy Writ First It signifies the Air. Psal. 79. 2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of Heaven That is of the Air. Secondly It signifies that space where the Stars the Sun and the Moon and the rest of the Host of Heaven do move Isa. 13. 10. For the stars of heaven and the planets thereof shall not give their light the sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine Thirdly It signifies that aboad of the holy spirits of men where the eternal light and lustre of God is present where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God At the right hand of God That is the Power Majesty or Glory of God For God hath neither a Right hand nor a Left because he hath not a Body or any palpable distinct Members Wherefore when any sensible parts of a Body are ascribed to him they are to be understood by way of Analogy or resemblance So when his eyes are said to be upon the hearts of men and his eye-lids to try their wayes when his ear is said to be open to the prayers of the faithful these signifie nothing else but that God doth perfectly both know and discern and approve or disallow as certainly and as clearly nay infinitely more clearly than we see or hear any thing with our eyes or ears Now as by the organs of sense attributed to God the Knowledge of God is set forth so by the organs or instruments of action or operation is his Power decyphered And most eminently by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instrument of instruments or best of all instruments the Hand The hand of God is the Power of God ordinarily in Scripture So is he said to deliver the Israelites with a mighty hand and stretched-out arm that is by exceeding great Power Now the Right hand being more active than the Left the more usual instrument in outward works or manufactures it may intimate the exceeding abundance of the Power of God Or the Right-hand of his Power may intimate the Power of God to good the more large effusion or pouring out of Benignity the enlargement and exaltation of the Soul of Christ and his Fellow-members as many as have been conformable to him in the death or mortification of the Old Man For these also God will raise up with him to Eternal Riches and Glory and irresistible Power which the Devil Death and Sin shall never be able to overcome But the Power of his Left-hand is the Power of destruction the fury and wrath and strong tempest of God which doth sieze the Children of Disobedience which abideth in Hell for them for an endless woe and toil and torment for ever And this is the distinction of the Sheep and the Goats on the Right hand and the Left these shall be plagued with the vengeance and anger of God in the power and dominion of Hell but those shall be strengthened and comforted with those pleasures that flow at the Right-hand of God for evermore Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life In thy presence is the fulness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore What therefore the Right-hand of God is we plainly see viz. the full and strong stream of his Goodness and Divine Benignity To sit here what can it be but to remain in this Happiness unshaken unmov'd steadily and securely But he that stands is next going or departing AND thus much by way of Explication of the words which will afford us these Doctrines 1. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul belonging to every true Christian 2. That those that do partake of this Spiritual Resurrection seek those things that be above that is Divine and Heavenly things 3. That they seek them where Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God First of the first viz. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul in this Life I will not go far for my first Proof I will only step back into the Chapter foregoing my Text viz. the Second Chapter of this Epistle to the Colossians at the 11th and 12th Verses In whom i. e. in Christ also ye are circumcised with circumcision made without hands by putting off the sinful body of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ in that you are buried with him through baptism In whom ye are also raised up together through the faith of the operation of God which raised him from the dead And ye which were dead in sins and in the uncircumcision of the flesh hath he quickened together with him forgiving you all your trespasses And then follows my Text for all the residue of that Chapter may be very well Parenthetical If ye then be risen with Christ c. which he doth assert or affirm in the forenamed Verses when as he saith they are buried with him in Baptism There 's the Death we are to imitate in our Soul that is to have the body of Sin dead and buried In whom you are also raised up by the operation of God There 's the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul And in the next Verse Ye which were dead in sins There 's the Death of the Soul hath he quickened together with him There 's the Resurrection of the Soul from its Death which is Sin For Sin is the Death of the Soul as Obedience Righteousness or the Holy Spirit of God is the Life thereof But for further and more manifest proof of this point it will not be amiss to rehearse again to you that place at the 6th of Romans for it suits exceeding well with the place I expounded to you just now Ver. 3 c. Know you not that all we that have been baptised into Iesus Christ have been baptized into his death We are buried then with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life For if we be grafted with him into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him c. The words do plainly describe the Spiritual Death of the Soul as also the inward Resurrection thereof from Sin to a newness of life as the Apostle speaks And so Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mortified for sin As we would say such an one is kill'd for Robbing or is let blood for an Ague So dead for sin is either the mortifying our Bodily and Carnal Affection in a just vengeance on our selves for the sin they suggest and made us commit Or dead or mortified for sin is that Sin may be quite dislodged of our Bodies as a man is said to be let blood for an Ague to rid himself quite of that disease or to prevent its unwelcome returns But the Spirit is life or righteousness that is the Spirit is our life vivification or the cause of our inward or Spiritual Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for righteousness that is that we may be righteous or live righteously For Beloved if we take the sense of this place of Scripture in a natural meaning It will not prove true For those Romans bodies to whom the Apostle writes were not dead for if so they had not been able to read the Epistle or to have heard others read it And beside this the words would imply that Christs being in us destroyed this Body or the health of it when as Piety unfeigned preserves both Body and Soul in good temper much less doth Christs being in us make the Body dead unto Righteousness Therefore it is plain that this is the sense of this place viz. That if Christ be in us the Body or Flesh of a man is dead or mortified to sin and that our Life then is the Spirit of God to live in Righteousness Now mark the following Verse But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you O behold the mighty power and dominion of the Spirit of God in a man Not only our Will and Understanding is swayed ruled and enlivened by it but it descends even to the enquickening of our Bodies too when they be once mortified that is the Passions and Lusts thereof destroyed so that we exercise not our Affections in the things of this World Then will God enliven it with better and more Divine Passions and Affections For Anger against our Brother unadvisedly it shall be moved with holy and discreet Zeal against all wickedness in every body For Sorrow and inordinate Grief for its own private crosses with a sweet and tender Compassion and Pitty toward all that be in any Affliction For Lust and Sensual or Carnal Love with Divine Charity and a large embracement of all the Creatures of God they having some resemblance of his lovely Wisdom and Beauty Thus shall a man exult and rejoyce in the ways of God both Body and Soul serving willingly and chearfully with the whole man For our mortal Bodies even those earthly tabernacles lyable to death and dissolution shall the Spirit of Christ enliven by his powerful working if so be that our Bodies be first made dead unto Sin and the Spirit of God be in us indeed As the Apostle doth plainly witness A further proof for this purpose may we gather out of Phil. 3. 10 11. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect That this is meant of a Spiritual Resurrection seems reasonable from these grounds First because it is ranked with Spiritual sufferings and Spiritual conformableness unto the Death of Christ And then because the Apostle useth this way of apologizing Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect which caution he need not have put in about the Bodily Resurrection For could the Apostle think the Philippians to be so mad as to conceive that the Apostle had now risen out of the grave already clothed with his glorious Body which should be incorruptible Wherefore the Apostle speaks there of a Spiritual Resurrection And that this Doctrine want no Authority to confirm it I will add those words of our blessed Saviour Iohn 5. 25. Verily verily I say unto you The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live That Life and Resurrection from the dead can it be understood of the Resurrection of the Body out of the grave That was not then when our Saviour Christ spoke nor hath been yet fulfilled saving in one single example of Lazarus whom Christ called out of the grave But that was not the Life that is meant here for it is called everlasting life in the foregoing Verse which Lazarus was not raised up to else Lazarus would be alive at this very day which no man will acknowledge to be true But remember what our Saviour Christ saith Iohn 11. 25 26. I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me or trusts in me or my power though he dye or be mortified or though he be dead yet he shall live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me that is is alive in me or to me The everlasting Righteousness of God and trusteth this living power shall never dye but be ever alive to Righteousness and to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This must be understood of a Spiritual Life or Resurrection or else it will follow that all true Believers in Christ shall not dye at all that their Bodies shall never descend into the grave And now Beloved if this Discourse of the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul seem to us subtle nice or obscure it is our fault not the fault of Truth The Sun is clear enough and easie to be seen but he that is blind dead or asleep beholds it not Nor can the unbelieving and unregenerate while he lies dead or asleep in Sin discern the truth of the Spirit of God in the Holy Scripture But all things are discovered and made manifest by the light For whatsoever doth make manifest is light Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Eph. 5. 13 14. Wherefore this point is plain to him whose eyes are open to behold it viz. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection or Vivification of the Soul But now if you be desirous to know what