a broken Leg nor daintiest Meat make the sick Man well nor all the choicest Extractions from the whole Body and Bulk of the Creature afford a Cordial strong enough to revive a languishing lost Soul And therefore as the Arabick Proverb adviseth Noli gemmam perdere in die festo in our greatest Feasts it would not have us lose our Jewel because it 's of such worth that all the delight we can have in the costliest Meal cannot countervail the loss of it so in all the richest of the World's entertainments let us be so merry and wise together as to be sure to look to our Jewel to our Souls the loss of which all else can no way compensate 3. As being in the last place irrecoverable When our Saviour said What will it profit a Man if he win the whole World and lose his own Soul In those words he tells us that the loss of it is inestimable But when he adds or What shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul He would thereby assure us that if after the price of Purchase which he laid down to redeem our Souls and repossess us of them they shall yet be so neglected as that they come indeed to be lost that Morgage will never be able again to be bought out No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be given in exchange but the loss absolute and irreparable But shall then such precious Souls be lost for want of looking to pawned for Toys nay sold outright for Trifles That thou mayest take thy pleasure carest not as sometimes thou profanely sayest if the Devil take thy Soul Is not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more sottish than the Indians exchanging Gold for Glass and more profane than Esau's selling his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage by Drunkenness Passion Drowsiness Lust putting our selves out of possession of the use of our Souls for the present or by these and such-like courses hazarding the utter loss of them for ever Should this be the sad lot of any as it will be of too many let it be of such sensual Brutes that know not the worth of a Soul that can so easily part with it of such sordid Muckworms quibus anima tantum est pro sale whose Souls serve only to keep them alive and to preserve their Bodies from stinking and who are as such something distinct from their Souls as it 's intimated of the Fool in the Gospel to whom God said This night shall they fetch thy Soul from thee Luke 12. 20. But for Christians that believe that the Blood of the Son of God was shed to save Souls for Scholars whose Souls are themselves Animus cujusque is est quisque who study the nature of Souls and therefore should know the worth of them for Divines whose traffique is in trading for Souls let us have ground to hope better things of you and such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that accompany Salvation Heb. 6. 9. whilst like wise Men Prov. 11. 30. you labour to win other Mens Souls be not such Fools as to lose your own It 's his Disciples and Apostles that our Saviour especially directs his Speech to in the words of the Text in which there is a double 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatever others do yet you above all in your patience possess ye your Souls SERMON XXXIII LUKE 21. 19. II. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries Cambridg Aug. 19. 1649. In your Patience possess ye your Souls TErtullian begins his Book of Patience with an ingenuous acknowledgment of his own unfitness Homo nullius boni aeger doloribus impatientiae c. And so may I well begin my Sermon of the same Argument with the like Apology but as he there adds The rich Man that so much desires health must be born with if he be speaking of it especially is his speaking help to instruct him in the Cure And therefore in the handling of this Text of Patience having dispatched the two first parts of it the last time which I called the Free-hold and the Seisin and from them held forth our duty to possess our Denotat causam instrumentalem quam necesse est pios adhibere si in calamitatibus spiritualem incelumitatem râ—tinere velint Illyricus Souls I now close with the third viz. the Tenure of it and that 's of Patience In your Patience possess ye your Souls All Graces indeed are of the Soul's Life-Guard and Faith is the Captain of them all according to that Heb. 10. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are of them that believe to the saving of the Soul But under Faith in perilous times Patience in an especial manner is here by our Saviour set upon the Guard And therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c in your Patience possess ye your souls And so James 5. 8. Be ye also patient establish your hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your Patience What 's that As they are your souls so is it your patience Yes Thus far in the general Both their 's Subjectivè but neither of them Causaliter Both Patience and Soul 's theirs but so as both from God the one from him as an Almighty Creator and Father of Spirits Heb. 12. 9. the other as a gracious Sanctifier and a God of Patience Rom. 15. 5. most patient in himself not forward to inflict any evil And the Giver of Patience to his afflicted Servants whereby they are ready to endure all according to that Col. 1. 11. Strengthened with all Might according to his Glorious Power unto all Patience and Long-suffering with joyfulness Your Patience therefore as thus 1. Subjectivè yours from God's gift in possession And 2. Specificativè yours by way of Distinction and that as some would have it from a Fourfold other kind of Patience viz. 1. Sinful 2. A Natural 3. A Moral 4. A Legal Patience 1. There is a Sinful Patience Falsa probrosa as Tertullian De patientia c. 16. calls it When Men as he instanceth are Patientes rivalium divitum invitatorum impatientes solius Dei Impatient only of Christ's Yoke and God's Commands and Chastisements But basely patient of the Tyranny both of their own and other Mens Lusts can endure nothing for God's Cause but any thing for their own for Profit Pleasure or Preferment sake can patiently here and see God blasphemed and dishonoured tamely prostitute Body Soul Conscience the Honour and Peace of them all The Parasite patient of Abuse and Scorn for his Belly-sake The Courtier can receive an Injury and give thanks for his Preferment 's sake Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plutarch to raise themselves make their Backs their Mistresses Footstools Even Pathici are in Authors often Patientes Happy See Cerda in Tertullian de patientia we if we were but as patient in God's Service as too many are in the Devil's drudgery But this Bastard-patience the meekest Christian Spirit is impatient of as of that which in stead
and to put them over to God who useth to restore them to us in a better kind Let us therefore use our Authority whilst we have it for the maintaining of good Men and good Causes our Riches in maintaining our Ministry and poor Brethren Sell that you have and give Alms to the Poor and so provide your selves Bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens that faileth not Luke 12. 33. Such wise Merchants we should be for our Souls thus now to improve these fading Perfections that one day we may have a return made us in the things of a more durable Substance 4. And that 's the last particular Let us therefore labour to see an end of these Perfections that so we may look out for something which is more perfect and which will abide with us for ever If we indeed had our ends as soon as these Perfections have theirs we might better terminate our Desires and Affections in them But it 's an ordinary saying Homo non habet ultimum finem in hac vita vel termini vel consummationis Man hath not his last end here And therefore whatever else we provide for let us have some pity of our Souls which will last always that as the School-Men use to say that two things do concur to make up the Perfection of an inferiour Being Aliquid secundum motum proprium and Aliquid secundum motum naturae superioris So let not all our Perfection be placed only in that in which we do but equal other Men or not exceed inferiour Creatures But let us ascend somewhat higher that as we have in us aliquid nihili so we may have aliquid Dei something so large and lasting as may fully everlastingly content and satisfie us Now if you should ask Where that 's to be found The Text makes answer But thy Commandment is exceeding broad God's Word is the Field in which this Pearl is found which will continue for all Times and fully comfort thee in thy greatest Wants He is never very Poor in whom the Word of God dwells richly But of this in the second part of the Text. For the present that Perfection which we shall find in it and which will perfectly and everlastingly make us happy is as they use to distinguish it either Objective or Formal First The Objective Perfection is God and Christ whose Nature and Work is perfect Deut. 32. 4. to whom nothing is wanting and therefore fully Perfect and from whom all the Perfection of the Creature is derived and in whom it is Eminently Infinitely and therefore Eternally perfect Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. He indeed may well be called the End of all perfection as you heard that many Expounded those words of him He is that Mountain on which I told you St. Austin placed David when he spake these words Christus mons est c. Christ is the Mountain from which only we may with David here descry the end of all other Perfections for thou wilt never see an Emptiness in them till thou hast found a Fulness and All-sufficiency in Him To this Hill therefore let us lift up our Hearts and Eyes from whence comes our Help our full our everlasting Salvation And seeing it 's the Perfection of all things that are ordained to a further end when they are brought to the Fruition of it Noli hoerere in via non pervenire ad finem as Austin speaks Stay not below in these inferiour and worse Perfections Rest not till thou beest made partaker of Christ And further when as the Philosopher tells us that Finis quaeritur in infinitum media vero cum modo let our Affections towards this End of Perfection be constant and enlarged as much as we can if we could infinitly But seeing other perfections that have an end are sometimes Hindrances at the best but Helps and it 's a part of our Imperfection that we stand so much in need of them let not our desires be terminated in them But whether with them or without them let us make sure of Christ who hath an unchangeable Priesthood and therefore is able to save us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7. 25. that is evermore as you have it in the Margin or to the utmost in the New or Perfectly in the former Translation and indeed Perfectly because evermore and to the utmost and so supplies what we have seen other Perfections wanted which did not always last and therefore did not save always and did not reach to our greatest Wants and therefore could not save to the uttermost But Christ doth both And therefore to this purpose what David said of the Blessed Man the Father applieth to our Blessed Saviour that he is the Tree planted by the Waters side The Waters flow but this Tree is rooted sure on which if thou layest sure hold thou art out of danger of drowning And therefore let me speak to thee in his words Raperis in praeceps Tene lignum Voluit te amor Mundi Tene Christum Lay strong hold on Christ and thou shalt have strong Consolation for he is a Priest for ever And so no end that way And for the other whatever others tell us what a ductile nature Gold is of and how much Ground an ounce of it may be made to cover yet we that are bought with no such corruptible things as Silver and Gold must believe that one drop of our dying Saviours Blood can and will cover and purge all ours and all Believers Souls And so it as well as the Word is exceeding broad And that 's the Objective Perfection we must aim at The Formal is double Grace and Glory Secondly For Grace It 's that which sets the Soul in joynt again and so makes the Man of God perfect and being once savingly wrought is so firmly established that all the Popish Arminian subtilties or the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it And therefore it would be well if we were so wise as to reach out for this Perfection and to know at last whatever perfection we may conceive to be in sinful Courses yet that in truth it 's Sin only that dasheth all our Perfection Thou wast perfect in thy way till Iniquity was found in thee Ezek. 28. 15. And for it self that how ever it may please for the present and promise more for the future yet we shall find them to be deceitful Lusts that they deprive us of endless Happiness for the enjoyment of short and empty Contentments that there will be a Time when we shall hear as in the Prophet Jer. 51. 13. Thine end is come and the measure of thy Covetousness The same we may say of other sins there will one day be an end of all and that none of the best for the end of those things is Death Rom. 6. 21. And though I confess sin and the punishment of it will never have end and that 's the
if we look to it may be the glorious Mansions of the Blessed God to dwell in and which to be sure we must dwell with either in weal or woe to Eternity Had we nothing else to say these two words might heighten our Souls worth and should our care in possessing of them 1. They are the purchase of the Blood of the Son of God And shall we trample under foot his Blood in so neglecting our Souls which were purchased by the Blood of the Shepherd of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. 2. And this that they might be holy and glorious Temples for the Blessed Spirit of God O then be sure to keep possession for so happy a Guest that the Devil may not prove an Intruder And thou that wilt be stiff and earnest and peremptory to maintain thine Interest in what thy Father or Friend left thee do not so under-value either thy Saviour or thy Soul as not to keep possession of that which He at so dear a rate hath purchased Our Souls should be precious that were purchased by Blood so precious Let that be said to every incroaching Enemy what Jephtah said to the invading Ammonite Judg. 11. 23. The Lord hath dispossessed the Amorites before his People and shouldst thou possess it And let their resolution ver 24. be ours Wilt thou not possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possess And so Whatsoever the Lord our God hath given to us that will we possess Our Souls he first made Jer. 38. 16. which we afterward lost which he repurchased by the Blood of his Son and restored to us to be kept as an everlasting pledg of his Love and therefore whatever else we lose look to it that we here keep possession But to the quickening of our care herein I need not seek for more particulars to set forth the Soul's worth than what I there propounded 1. Such as the saving and possessing of it 1. Crowns all other Enjoyments Wisdom with an Inheritance doth well Eccles 7. 11. but if mens sana in corpore sano it 's much better It was a Solomon's happiness that amidst all his delights of the Sons of Men his Wisdom also remained with him It 's an happy saving Bargain indeed if a Man especially in losing times when he saves his Estate and his Life can save his Soul too without which a Man with all his other Gettings and Enjoyments is but like a dead Body stuck with Flowers or as a Room round-about-hung and richly furnished and nothing but the dead Master's Hearse in the midst of it 2. Countervails all other Losses David's Mouth praiseth God with joyful Lips though in a dry and thirsty Land when his Soul is filled with marrow and fatness Psal 63. 1 5. And though he was for the outward Man at a weak pass yet it was a sufficient support that God had strengthned him with strength in his Soul Psal 138. 3. Though I possess months of vanity Job 7. 3. and with him be ejected out of all if yet in possession of my Soul I am no harbourless Object Though the invading Enemy hath quite broke down the Fence and laid all open and waste yet as long as with the Christians in Justin Martyr we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they have possessed themselves and taken away all with them if they have left but a good God and a good Conscience a Soul and a Saviour it 's but the Casket that 's lost the Treasure is saved and lends them a Key for Paul's Riddle of having nothing and yet possessing all things In this sense dum Anima est spes est as long 2 Cor. 6. 10. as my Soul is mine own I am not only in hope but in possession No cause to faint though the outward Man perish if the inward Man be renewed 2 Cor. 4. 16. nor to complain if the same hand that casts the Christian's Body to the Beasts casts his Soul at the same time into his Saviour's Bosom Paul meant not to kill but to cure the incestuous Person when he would have him delivered even to Satan to the destruction of the flesh if his Spirit may but thereby be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5 5. and that will make amends for all Thus we see that the saving and possessing of the Soul crowns all Enjoyments more than Countervailes all other losses 2. But on the contrary the loss of it 1. Compleats all other losses and miseries and makes them utterly undoing David speaks of his Enemies spoiling of his Soul as their greatest cruelty and his chiefest misery Psal 35. 12. The Prophet Lam. 3. 65. when he had given that heavy blow that made the heart ake Lord give them sorrow of heart he strikes the Nail to the Head when he adds thy Curse unto them O woe unto thee thou hast added grief unto thy sorrow Jer. 45. 3. and a curse to both when by thy riotous unclean or otherwise vicious courses thou hast lost it may be thine Estate thy good Name the health and strength of thy Body and which is worst of all thy Soul and all Undone wretch It was a desperate prodigal expense which all the Money in thy Purse and thy whole other Substance could not discharge but thy Soul also must go in to pay the reckoning Thy Saviour's Soul being heavy to the death was more sad than all his bodily Mat. 26. 38. Sufferings and that thrust which lets out the heart-blood of thy Soul is far beyond all other Wounds and makes them deadly To see an Enemy in the Habitation is one of Eli's sorest Afflictions 1 Sam. 2. 32. and to be a possession to Enemies is Edom's heaviest Cursé Numb 24. 18. but not so heavy as to see an Enemy possessed of this inward Mansion The loss of the Soul compleats all other losses and miseries 2. Cannot be made up and recompenced with all other Gains and Enjoyments The round World is but a Cipher to it For what is a Man profited if he should gain the whole World and lose his own Soul saith our Saviour Matth. 16. 26. He that tenders a whole World makes a great offer but he that loses his Mar. 8. 37. Soul for it sustains a greater loss for that World which cannot satisfie the desires of a Soul before it be lost cannot satisfie for the loss of a Soul when it is And therefore the rich Man Luke 12. 19 20. was but a Fool for all his Riches and the Hypocrite Job 27. 8. is brought in as a desperate Fool for all his Gain when God took away both their Souls How miserable when dead to have so many Friends to accompany the Body to the Grave and Devils only the Soul to Hell such Funeral Pomp and Tombs He that hath lost his Soul is a poor undone Man though with the Young Man in the Gospel he have never so great possessions Mat. 12. 22. For a Silk Stocken will not cure
he is like them or at least is not much displeased with them because he doth so much forbear them Psal 50. 21. Of Christ in whose whole Progress from his coming down Rev. 1. 9. from Heaven till his returning thither again the Fathers are wont to observe a Signature of patience in every step all along in the Way But especially in and towards his Journeys end to indure a Traitor Judas in his Bosom though fully known to him yet not to discover him to others and when he had betrayed himself in betraying his Master to entertain him with the compellation of a Friend who was to be reckoned amongst the worst of Enemies to endure so much of the Jews malice and rage with so much meekness and love notwithstanding all that pain and shame those buffetings scourgings spittings upon those railings and blasphemies as the dumb Lamb not to open the mouth or if at all in that heat of his agony to breath such sweet breath as Father not my Will but thine be done And again Father forgive them for they know not what they do That still voice speaks aloud Christ to be God even a God of Patience who was Water to those Sparks to which the meekest of us would have been Gun-Powder Nor yet so fo rs ut de supernis aestimetur as Tertullian speaks Chap. 3. as though this were so far above us as nothing belonging to us for in the third place they find Examples and Paterns of Patience not only in God and Christ but in the Servants of God in Moses David Job Jeremiah Stephen Paul In the Prophets Jam. 5. 10. Apostles Martyrs all so long-breathed that we shall scarce approve our selves to be of the same piece and to have the same Spirit if we be shorter-winded They are wont also the better to compose our Spirits to a meekned Patience under sufferings to put us in mind of our condition either as fallen in Adam and so we are born to trouble or as restored by Christ and so it 's the Patience and Kingdom of Jesus Christ Rev. 1. 9. An inraged Devil and World will have the Cross to be our Companion which therefore we should not quarrel at especially seeing it is such a Companion as proves a very faithful Friend It would be endless to go about to repeat all those benefits which the Cross and our patient bearing of it brings in to us whether for Grace or Peace here or Salvation in Heaven hereafter Affliction is very sharp but a much improving School And Faith and Patience help us to take out many an happy Lesson in it It inherits Promises Heb. 6. 12. brings Glory 2 Thess 1. 4 5. And so whatever it meets with in the way yet to be sure it ends well Jam. 5. 11. And all 's well that ends well But I omit all other Particulars as being sensible of what Cyprian saith in the beginning of his Tractate of this Argument De patientiae locuturus c. unde potius incipiam quam quod nunc quoque ad audientiam vestram patientiam video esse necessariam c. That our Hearers whilst we preach of Patience have need to exercise their Patience and therefore I 'l not tire out yours And therefore shall touch only upon two things which partly the Context and partly the Text afford us 1. And the first concerns the present time and season It was when Jerusalem was now near to be destroyed and as a forerunner of it that his Disciples should be hated betrayed and persecuted in the foregoing part of the Chapter that our Saviour prescribes this Receipt in the Text that the Malady might not prove mortal that in patience they possess their Souls And of the same time and day some think the Apostle speaks Heb. 10. 25. And after shewing how great a fight of Afflictions they indured in reproaches and spoiling of their Goods c. v. 32 33 34. he at last concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had need of Patience v. 36. And so for certain have we now or may have ere long as Capito in his time to Farel Durâ patientiâ Inter Calvini Epistolas Num. 4. nobis opus est in hâc dissolutione quâ versamur c. How near the destruction of our Jerusalem is I dare not fore-prophesie The God of Peace make and keep it a true Jerusalem a Vision of Peace both now and to perpetuity But if Wars and rumours of Wars if false Prophets and false Christs if the betraying and hating and spoiling of the Ministers and Servants of Christ be the sad presages and forerunners of it then unless God be the more merciful it may not be long before we hear of it when it may come again to be said as Rev. 13. 10. 14. 12. Here is the Patience and Faith of the Saints when no remedy but Faith and Patience so that either already we have or then may have very great need of it And happy we if when the worst comes we can but be able to possess our Souls by it 2. And that 's the second Particular in the Text viz. the great benefit and advantage of it that whatever other loss we sustain yet the main chance may be saved our Souls possessed by it And God thought he allowed Baruch fair though he did not grant him those great things he sought for if he might have his life for a prey Jer. 45. 5. Straits may be such that it may be a great mercy if we may but have our lives but if so as withal to possess our Souls that they be not endangered or lost to eternity nor for the present so affrighted or distempered but that in greatest distractions we may be our own Men and do yea and suffer like Christians So to possess the Soul even when we have lost all else is such a Mercy that with much thankfulness and comfort we may say with the Psalmist Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Psal 116. 7. A rich bounty and largess if through Patience keeping possession we may be able so to turn into our Souls and they return to their rest in God even when it comes to the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4. 11. When cast out of all we have no certain dwelling-place but with the faithful of old Heb. 11. 37 38. we should wander in Desarts and Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth If it should come to that pass that as you use to say no Remedy but Patience you will have no cause to complain for it is a very sufficient one even then we shall not be altogether harbourless out-casts as long as we can by Faith take Sanctuary in God and by Patience keep possession of our Souls For certain our Saviour thought so when against all those animi deliquia those sick fainting Fits in the former part of the Chapter he prescribes only this Cordial in