be extinguished Now Death of its own nature being eternal there being naturally no return from the privation to the habit therein must man have been detain'd for ever if our merciful God had not found out an expedient to deliver us from it which is by his Son Jesus whom Acts 2. 36. he hath made both Lord and Christ and hath exalted to be a Prince and a Acts. 5. 31. Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins and by consequence deliverance from death This being that very thing which St. Paul saith The Law of the Spirit of Life hath made me free from the Law of sin and death Which words are a reason or rather a clearer explication of what he had said before viz. That there is no condemnation to them who in Christ Jesus that is by Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but walk after the Spirit i. e. who for the most part do not in their actions follow the duct and guidance of their sinful appetites but walk according to that Gospel which the Spirit hath consigned to us or that Vertuous habit of mind which that Spirit hath ingenerated in us there is no condemnation to such This Law of the spirit of life i. e. of the quickning Spirit having delivered us from the Law of sin Paraphrase of the words and death That Spirit which our Lord is about to give which leads to Eternal life hath made me i. e. every Christian free first from all customary and habitual sins then from eternal death which necessarily follows all sinful habits and customs By sins St. Paul understands consulted Strom. 2. p. 387. and deliberated sins So Clemens after a long discourse to that purpose concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only are matters So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in St. John 3. 6 10. which God will damn When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ had triumphed over Death and the Grave had ascended on high and was vested with all power in heaven and earth then he gave gifts unto men but no donative did so excel as that effusion of the Spirit in the day of Pentecost the chief and last effects and events whereof were the deliverance of all Believers from the double tyranny of sin and death Hath made me free from the Law of sin and death In the words then we have a deliverance from Sin the cause of Death Death the fruit and consequent of Sin There is a victory over and a deliverance from all habitual customary consulted and deliberate sins to be obtained in this life which is that true Evangelical righteousness which gives us at present a title to and hereafter will actually invest us with a blessed Immortality For our more distinct perception of which notion we may consider that Real Evangelical Righteousness admits of various degrees 1. The first and lowest whereof is of them who for the most part yield obedience to the Precepts of Christ and abstain from sin but yet not without grievous conflicts and great difficulties because that although the Spirit be superiour to the flesh yet the carnal part is not altogether subdued nor a habit of Vertue taken in a more perfect acceptation entirely acquired for which cause their lapses are frequent either for that the Appetite is assisted too strongly from external incitement or too often surprised by error or incogitancy 2. The second degree is of them who have acquired a perfect habit of Righteousness and have so subdued the flesh that they find either none at all or very little difficulty in acting in the ways of God thence consequently are more steady and uniform in the waies of Vertue and holiness and such was St. Paul as may be gathered from divers passages of his writings and others such like there may be as appears both from the sacred Book and also from Experience it self which will yet be more manifest if we shall demonstrate as by and by we shall That there remains possible an higher degree of holiness than that we have yet spoken of although there needs no farther proof than those plain words of our Lord My yoke is easie and my burthen is light i. e. to all them who are supported with a firm hope of a life after death and a blessed immortality And those words of St. John This is the love of God i. e. Metonymically the manifestation of our love towards God that we keep his commandements and his commandements are not grievous These overcome the World and that too by their Faith which inspires strength into them And he that overcomes i. e. all such things as the World objects to him to affright and call him off from righteousness sive prospera sive aspera whether smiles or frowns to him it is easie to keep the commands of God to him I say that yoke is easie that burthen is light The third degree and that the highest is of such who being most cheerfully incumbent on the study of Vertue have proceeded so far as that for some competent space of time they sin not at all against any Precept of Christ To this degree ought all Christians who are going heaven-wards always to aspire which state St. Paul seems mystically to call the Resurrection from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12. the dead and was the mark whereto he pressed Not that I have already attained neither am already perfect This then is the third degree whereunto if Christians do not attain 't is simply necessary they should reach the second or the first 'T is praise worthy in Priâ—ra sequentem hoâ—stum est in secâ—nd is out tertiâ—s consistere Tully him that endeavours to excell to be found in the second or the third degree of Vertue Yet all who would find mercy in the day of Christ must endeavour to attain this highest degree For all acknowledge 't is never permitted to a Christian to sin consultatively for that is to sin malitiously Now unless a man shall labour to shun every sinful act which is to aspire to this supreme degree of Piety he sins consultatively i. e. malitiously which no Christian will defend Sin becomes exceeding sinful exceeding heavy with its own weight if done malitiously or with deliberation And God sometimes remits greater sins if fallen into through frailty or ignorance sooner than lesser sins malitiously committed Again that great study diligence vigilance and labour so exactly required of us in all our Christian Conversation points us out our Mark and Scope which is to eschew every sin and so to aspire to this highest degree of Piety Are we not every where all up and down the sacred Books called upon to imitate God and Christ to be holy as God is holy to be perfect as our Father is perfect to walk in the light as God is in the light to walk as Christ walked and to follow him He that observes these Precepts doth no
I shall say no more but most vehemently beseech you as you will answer it in the day of Judgment when you shall be proceeded with by that man whom God hath appointed to judg Act. 17. 31. the World according to your works not according to your opinions that your lives and conversations in the World be agreable to your knowledge and that if you know the tenour of the new Covenant you would observe your parts of it that you would give just and but just respects to Truth knowing that the peace of God is more worth than notion knowledge or understanding Eph. 4. 3. And that together with the verity you would consider the necessity of every Proposition it being in the judgement of the learnedst of our Kings together with his excellent Amanuensis and of all Royal and Majestick K. Jaâ—â—â—s Is Casaubon minds not barely the best but the only expedient to preserve the unity of the Spirit i. e. Church which is a spiritual body in the bond of peace That you would seclude neither your selves nor others out of the Communion of the Church but for such causes as you have very full rational assurance will shut them or your selves out of the Kingdom of Heaven Excommunication if the Churches proceedings be clave non errante being summum futuri judicii praejudicium a vehement presumption of succeeding condemnation That in your daily reading of the holy Scriptures whose perfection and perspicuity in all necessary Articles I have been wont to inculcate to you you would carefully collect all the instances of your duty towards God your Neighbour your selves in all your relations to the Civil and Sacred Societies whereof you are constituent parts and that you would acquaint your selves with the arguments and motives with which our Lord and Master Christ together with the blessed Apostles and Evangelists do endeavour to induce you to the observation of them And then remember that not every one who Mat. 7. 21. shall say Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of the Father which is in Heaven All Controversies in Religion I would wish you to decline by reason of the great damage which has thereby accrued to Religion through the weak mesnagery and defence of it and to Religionists by leavening their spirits with pride peevishness and passions and so that which was designed by God to serve the noblest ends of man Is by that old deceiver's subtile play Made the chief party in its own decay And meets that Eagles destiny whose breast Felt the same shaft which his own feathers drest As the matchless Orinda sings Consider much the magnificent Commendations and Characters which St. Paul gives to Charity 1 Cor. 13. Let it be conspicuous in all the actions of your lives I shall summ up all I shall now say to you in these 12. Rules of an holy Life laid down by a worthy Dr. Jer. Taylor Prelat 1. Believe all the Articles of that Faith whereinto you were Baptized 2. Worship God constantly with Natural Religion i. e. Prayers Praises and Thanksgiving 3. Take all opportunities to Commemorate the Death of Christ by the participation of his Body and Blood 4. Live Chastely 5. Be Merciful 6. So use the World as that it always give place to Duty 7. Be Just in your Dealings 8. Be Humble in your Spirits 9. Be Obedient to Government 10. Be Content in your Fortunes and Employments 11. Let the Love of God inflame you to your Duty 12. And if you shall be afflicted be Patient and prepared to suffer for the Cause of God These are twelve signs of Grace and the man upon whom they are found is the son of God as surely as he is his Creature And now my Friends let me assure you that it is some trouble to me that the first present I should make you in this manner should be a bundle of Cypress But so our wise God would have it I move you not now to follow her with Crowns and Hymns nor do I understand how nor designe to prepare the incombustible Oil of the Antients with which I might supply a Lamp consacrated to her memory which might burn so long as that found some while since in the Appian 1500 years Pancerol Licetus Mancinus Way in the Sepulchre of Tulliola the Daughter of Cicero But all that I design all that I desire is that that which was prepared for her Herse may adorn your Closets Yea that you would look upon her and learn to live and learn to die In the ensuing Papers you have the Rule of our Religion and you have an Example too Follow her so far as she followed Christ and it is hard to say where she step'd aside where she stay'd behind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 20. So often as you see the Armories of her Parentage or your left Hands remind you of her Funerals Call to mind a great Example of Vertue and Goodness so Illustrious and Conspicuous that there remain'd no doubt but only whether the Universality or Sincerity of her Obedience was the greatest VALE ET SALVE ANIMA O ANNAE FELICISS NOS EO ORDINE QUO NATURA PERMISERIT TE SEQUEMUR S. T. T. L. Rom. 8. 2. For the Law of the Spirit of life hath made me free from the Law of sin and death THat Mortality was an original condition of Humane Nature will appear to him who shall consider these seven Observations following 1. That before Adam sinned the procreation of man was designed whereas such as shall partake of the Resurrection of the dead marry not because they do not die 2. That he hungred and was provided of meat whereas Immortality needs neither meats nor the belly God will destroy both it and them 3. That his Body was animal which St. Paul makes all one with vile corruptible and mortal 4. That Christ Jesus who hath taken away sin all its force and punishment hath yet left his dearest Saints liable unto death 5. That the first man was of the earth earthy and we forasmuch as we die and corrupt are said to bear his Image 1 Cor. 15. 6. That God planted a Tree of Life in the Garden which needed not if man had been created not liable unto death 7. That all the causes of natural mortality within us or without us did exist as well before as after Man had sinned Yet notwithstanding sin was the way to actual death and that the wages of it It being usual with God to do that upon occasion which he hath power absolutely to do i. e. to make use of the instances of his Dominion to serve other designs of his Providence which help us to understand that first threatning In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death i. e. Thy strength supported by the tree of life shall begin to languish and fail Thy Oyl at length shall be exhausted and thy Lamp shall
Sigismund you shall eat our bread and salt with us And to this custom 't is not unlike but our Lord alludes in these words Have salt in your selves and have peace one with another He had observed that envy and ambition had moved that question vers 34. Tic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which of them should be the greatest and therefore in order to the latter 't is no wonder he referred to the former of these symbolical qualities I mean that in order unto peace that he referred unto purgation For only by Prov. 13. 10. pride comes contention So that you may please to take this Paraphrase of the words Let the doctrine of the Gospel corrode and eat out all the corruptions of your souls and minds and oblige you to all amity and peaceableness one with another of the latter of which I shall chuse to intreat chiefly and of the former only in order thereunto Where you must not expect a tedious harangue in praise of peace For Quis unquam Herculem vituperavit whoever dispraised it but rather a severe stricture and reflection upon the want of charity in the Christian World with a proposal of some causes of that defect Such as is 1. The non-purgation of all vitious and depraved affections 2. The mistaking the true notion of the Christian Religion 3. The overvaluing of opinions 4. The advancing doctrines which have no good influence upon our lives 5. The taking up the sences of late men without inquiring after the good old paths wherein the Fathers of the first and best Ages walked and such like And if peace was the last Legacy our Lord left us before he dyed and the first blessing with which he did salute us after he rose again how is it that that innocent dove has so many Ages since taken her flight Terram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reliquit Of old in the multitude of believers Acts 4. 32. there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one heart and one soul and their mutual charities did notam nobis inurere did signalise us saith Tertullian See say they how Christians love one another and are ready to die for one another 'T was Lucian's observation in his peregrinus Vide inquiunt ut invicem se diligunt ut pro alter utro mori sint parati Tertul. who speaking of his imprisonment tells us 't is incredible what zeal and celerity the Christians expressed in visiting and relieving of him in such cases Christians were wont to spare for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing nay they inriched him and assigning the reason hereof he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian pag. 996. Edit Par 1615. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Their chief Law-giver perswaded them they would become mutual Brethren So the City Prefect in the passion of Vincentius calls Christians by way of Deridiculi causâ scorn Fratres Brethren But whosoever shall take a view of the Christian Churches from the beginning of the Fourth Century down to this very day must needs suffer some kind of commotion even for Religions sake where he shall find no footsteps of that Primitive charity though it may be now and then a good man in vain calling for it Of old the Church was all one body compacted by the Literae formatae even from the Rhene to Nilus from the Brittish Ocean to and beyond Euphrates but now every little spot of earth has God help us a several Church Catholick Nay ever since the opening of the Springs of Controversies and the determining of unnecessary Questions the Church has suffered a deluge of Opinions and Schisms with which at this day 't is over-run and which is the saddest effect of all since we are become anathema Dum alter alteri anathema esse coepit prope sane nemâ— est Christi St. Hyl. to one another almost no man is found closely to adhere to Christ The dissentions of Christians are the disgrace of Christianity Witness the woful effects of the Alexandrian controversie wherein we have seen Council condemning Council and one Prelate another Whom would it not grieve to see the Mitre and the Crosier strangely converted into the Helmet and the Partizan and such ingenious cruelties practised upon one another as quite out-did the bloody Pagans So that a Heathen complained Nullae infestae hominibus bestia ut sunt sibi fâ—rales plerique Christianorum Ammian Marcel No Wolves nor Tygers nor beast of prey are so hurtful to man as very many Christians are to one another What Ingenuous Christian is not troubled to hear Julian bespeaking dissenting Christians Audite me quem Alemanni audierunt Franci i. e. hear me whom the barbarous Nations have heard To hear Marcus Antoninus O Marcomanni O Quadi O Sarmatae tandem alios vobis inquietiores inveni at length I have found some others more seditious and more unquiet than your selves So that a Parisian massacre a Guisian league or a Power-Treason and that too for Religion's sake the more 's the pity is no great wonder in the World But O tell it not in Gath nor publish it in the 2 Sam. 1. 20. streets of Ascalon lest the Daughters of the Philistins rejoyce lest the Daughters of the uncircumcised triumph The Great Eusebius complained that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the forementioned Alexandrian division caused the venerable divine doctrine to undergo the impure scorns and ludibries even of the Pagans in the midst oâ— their Theaters And how much Religion suffers in these late days by these means amongst weak men who cannot or will not distinguish betwixt humane passions and divine revelations I need not now remember What devastation the holy house the Sambanite and the fatal pile have they made in the World We have seen Princes unthroned Prelates unchaired and people over run with fire and sword and all for Religion Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum For Religion did I say no St. James has better resolved that question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence are wars and fightings are they not from your pleasures by a Metonymy i. e. for the desires of things rather pleasurable than necessary for humane or divine life Divitis hoc vitium est auri nec bella fuere Ex cupiditatibus odia dissâ—dia discordiae seditiones bella na scuntur Cic. 1. de Fin. Faginus adstabat cum scyphus ante dapes When men drank in a treen dish there were no wars Our hatred dissensions discords seditions our holy and unholy wars are from our lusts our envy our pride our avarice and our ambition So that a great part of our sufficiency for these things is a cordial endeavour after an universal purity of heart and life And therefore the best Philosophers do frequently discourse of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purgative vertues as necessary to preserve the soul for the knowledge of the most excellent and useful truths For into a malicious soul wisdom shall