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A86270 Repentance and conversion, the fabrick of salvation: or The saints joy in heaven, for the sinners sorrow upon Earth. Being the last sermons preached by that reverend and learned John Hewyt, D.D. Late minister of St. Gregories by St. Pauls. With other of his sermons preached there. Dedicated to all his pious auditors, especially those of the said parish. Also an advertisement concerning some sermons lately printed, and presented to be the doctors, but are disavowed by Geo. Wild. Jo. Barwick. Hewit, John, 1614-1658.; Wilde, George, 1610-1665.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664. 1658 (1658) Wing H1637; Thomason E1776_1; ESTC R209722 86,537 249

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accomplish the work of our redemption The Law and the Prophets endured till John but since his time the Kingdom of God is Evangelized Luk. 16.16 Many Kings and Prophets have desired to see the things which were seen when Jesus Christ converst in the world and they have not seen them Luk. 10.24 And therefore Jesus Christ prefers the least that were under the Gospel before the greatest that were under the Law St. John pointed at him with his hand and shewed him to the World to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins for which cause he was raised above the Prophets and because he had not seen nor shew'd the glory and vertue which followed his death and his resurrection he was therefore set below the Apostles And St. Paul saith that the grace which hath been given us in Jesus Christ from eternal times is now manifested by the apparition of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath destroyed death and put into light both life and immortality by the Gospel It seems then that this mystery of our redemption hath been hidden from precedent ages and that the ancient Fathers have had nothing but shadows and figures of things that were to come And yet Jesus Christ himself gives this testimony to Abraham that he desired to see this day of his and hath seen it and rejoyced Joh. 8.56 and St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.10 that the Prophets have enquired and made diligent search concerning the salvation of souls the reward of faith and by the Prophetick spirit in them have declared the sufferances which were to come to Jesus Christ and the joyes which were to follow them And for this reason it is that the Son of God sayes He had the testimony of Moses and the Prophets and that the Scriptures of the old Testament bare witness of him Joh. 5.39 To know then how that must be understood to resolve us in this appearance of contrariety and to begin our undermining at the foundation of Papistical errors touching the state of the souls of the Fathers deceased before the coming of Christ let us learn then from this confession of faith so fair so firm so clear as it can be in the noon day of the Gospel that we have no other faith nor other means of salvation then what the ancient Patriarchs had before us and that the ancient Covenant contracted with them in the substance and truth is the same thing with the new one contracted with us that are fallen into these later times all the difference which is in them consisting only in the order and the means of the dispensation which according to the diversity of times hath made it assume divers visages for as the Apostle Heb. 1.1 2. God hath heretofore many times and after many sorts spoken to the fathers by the Prophets and in these later times by his Son Jesus Christ. Where he seems to distinguish the times by the coming of the Son of God betwixt the preceding ages and those that were to come after The first part hath had divers seasons and divers manners according to which this dispensation hath been ordered The first season is counted from the fall of Adam unto Abraham during which we had no declaration more express of this eternal alliance of God with men then that which is contained in few words but of an high and full signification The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent Gen. 3.15 upon which promise confirmed declared and entertained by the usage of sacrifices and carried from hand to hand and from father to son during all the first age of the world this faith was sustained and the hope of the faithful founded In the second season from Abraham to Moses during which Job lived a true Son of Abraham both according to the flesh and to the promise this general promise was as it were restrained in the family and posterity of this Holy Patriarch when God made this alliance with him that he would be their God and they his children and discocovered to him that from him should go forth the Redeemer of the World when he said that in his seed all the Nations of the World should be blessed Genes 12. giving him beside the sacrifices the particular seal of the circumcision as a sign of the justice of faith Rom. 4.11 The third was from Moses to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ where in a more especial and ample manner God was pleased to instruct his people exposing and confirming his Covenant unto them after divers fashions in which are remarkable two principal parts having reference each to other and ordained one for the love of the other Like the two Cherubims who being placed one right against the other and extending their wings one toward the other did both of them look toward the propitiatory Exod. 25.20 the one was the Law promising life and everlasting benediction under the condition of a most perfect observation of his commands A condition impossible to corrupted nature whose imaginations were nothing but evil at all times and yet very necessary and useful to make men know the duty wherein they were obliged to make them sensible of weakness and to make them comprehend the horrour of that condemnation into which their transgressions had precipitated them by that means to conduct them to the second part of the Covenant which was all of it purely Evangelical as that which under divers figures and ceremonies did represent mans reconciliation to God and his plenary deliverance by the ransom of that infinite merit of the sacrifice of the death and passion of Christ After this in the fulness of time came the great Redeemer of our soules who abolished the first means that he might establish the second abolish'd I say not wholly but in part not in the substance but in the accidents For as for the first part he exacts no more as it were by force of maledictions that perfect obedience of the Law but supplying the defects of nature by the abundant effusion of his spirit of grace he draws from sanctified hearts a voluntary obedience And in the second he hath caused the body to succeed the shadows the truth the figures the thing the signes all these things having been fulfilled in the death of Christ And from hence may we easily comprehend the difference that there is betwixt the new Covenant and the old between the faith of the Fathers that lived under the Law and theirs that live under the Gospel For it is the same thing in substance Having God for the Author his grace and mercy for the cause and the satisfaction of Christ for the meritorious foundation The same things promised grace and glory God is to us both a Sun and a Shield he gives both grace and glory and withholds no good thing from such as wait upon him Distributed in general by the same means and the preaching of the word Hearken and your soules shall live Isai 55.3 the
Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia He is the greatest Conqueror that can subdue his own passions and keep his body in subjection as St. Paul did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he I chastise my body from whence Friars draw their authority of chastising themselves though without cause and so take the word to be such a chastisement as School-masters use to boys We ought all of us against the grain of our flesh to mould and fashion our selves to repentance that so we may obtain a Trinity of Graces to save us Faith Hope and Charity and this Trinity of Grace will deliver us from a Trinity of Evils Blindness Error and Unbelief and if we be delivered from these we shall be freed from the predominancy of the World the Flesh and the Devil and if we be preserv'd from these we shall undoubtedly be crowned by the blessed Trinity God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost to whom be Glory Honour and Praise World without end Amen GOD AND MAN Mutually Embracing In the first Epistle of St. John the 4 Chap. and the 19 vers it is thus written We love him because he first loved us LOve is the punctum or centre SERM. III. about which the circumference of our thoughts doth move and the primus motor that induceth us to fix our spirits upon an object Love is to our souls as weight is to ponderous bodies for as the gravity of a body forceth it downward that it may enjoy a sweet repose in its centre so Love moves our souls to an object that promiseth repose and contentment therefore from hence it follows that as ponderous bodies move in a straight line toward their centre so if we will obtain a true rest our Love must be regular and proceed in a direct line by a divinely-composed motion This Text Beloved that I come from reading to you is the Epitome of Christian Religion or the great Folio of Christian duty reduced into a Decimo-sexto or pocket-volume In this Text there are two parts and these two parts are the two pillars of the Church and the whole Christian World 1. Our love toward God in these words We love him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Gods love toward us which is but the reason or rather efficient cause of our love toward him because he first loved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to stand upon the nice and fine-spun distinctions that the School-men make of Love we shall only divide it into two sorts Divinum and Humanum amorem into Love Divine and Humane the divine is couched down by the holy Spirit of God in the latter part of the verse because he loved us and the humane in the former We love him We will begin with the latter humane love or the love of man to God Spiritual or true love gives repose and contentment to the soul when as carnal or false love is an irregular agitation and an inconsiderate motion without a Terminus ad quem it is ever repleat with inquietude and distraction and never ceaseth or resteth till it despairs or is quite tired out which is not properly a rest but an impotency and inability of motion and the desire is strong when the power is weak like a horse that tied to a manger gnaweth his bridle asunder such are most persons their desires are strong their power but weak they desire most what they can least perform The cause of this disturbance is this Our Love selecteth out Reasons why we love not God perfectly 1 Cause and fixeth upon false objects and such that cannot satiate the desire for if you survey all sublunary things that deserve the name of beautiful you shall find in them no true quiet or rest but a concatenation of cares interwoven with perpetual trouble The greatest delicacies are consited in bitterness The acquisition of honour and preferment is painful and many break their necks in riding upon the airy stilts of Fame The possession of riches is uncertain and the loss certain if they leave not us by some accident Death Natures Bayliff will arrest us and force us to leave them To aim at such things is but ventum prosequi To pursue the wind an action as ridiculous as can be Grant they be good yet they are incertain therefore we must seek after our repose somewhere else since the earth cannot afford it and turn the compass of our Love toward Heaven For as the lower region of the Air is the habitation of winds tempests and earth-quakes but that part that is near the Heaven is serene and quiet so our Love so long as it adheres to sublunary objects will be full of trouble but 't will find rest and quiet if it lift it self up to Heaven and lay hold of the promises of God and then the soul though in the midst of the confusions and afflictions of this world be they never so thorny will have the fruition of an assured tranquillity like the Needle of the Compass that remains firm upon one point notwithstanding the violence of the scolding surges of a Tempestuous Sea and all because it is guided by the motion of the Heavens God is the sole object or at least ought to be of our Love and hath only a power to render us amiable by loving us He that only can nay that will give them felicity and that unutterable too that love him As the Apostle St. Paul writeth in the first to the Corinth the 2 Chap. and the 9 vers Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath entred into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love him He promiseth also in St. John chap. 14. vers 23. to come unto him that loveth him and make his abode with him O unparallelled Love that makes a Palace of our souls for the King of Glory and a Sanctuary of the Holy Ghost 2. 2 Cause Philosophy it self hath this down for a maxime that Natura Deus nihil fecerunt frustra that God and Nature made nothing in vain Now that infinite and insatiable desire or appetite that is in man were in vain if there were nothing to satisfie and content it Which since it is impossible to find out upon this Terraqueous Globe we must search after it in Heaven of God that is bonum infinitum an infinite good 3 Cause 3. Besides God created the world for the use of man and therefore without doubt he created man for something better then the world viz. God himself 4 Cause 4. God created man inter omnia animalia only secundum imaginem according to his own image with a straight body and an upright countenance according to mellifluous Naso Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri Jussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus that so he might behold him whom he represented and that the But and White of all his actions and thoughts
conflict or combat that he may be dissolved and be with Christ 'T is a hellish disposition and suitable to the devils nature to give a blow to a man that is already reeling 't is his constant course when he finds you most afflicted with diseases and enfeebled with age then doth he redouble his force and shews you your sins in multiplying glasses that so he may if possible compel you to land the vessel of your soul upon the shoar of Despair Lust will struggle and strive for superiority and therefore ought to be suppressed and held in subjection by the power of Gods Spirit operating in and aiding of us Man is his own enemy he nourisheth a bird within him that will pick out his own eyes Homo homini lupus which made St. Augustin cry out A me libera me Domine blessed Lord free me or deliver me from my self O the wretched nature and inclinations of men that procure or at least endeavour it their own ruine O the fixed and fast rooted corruptions of man that by their mutinies will relead us or compel us to return into Aegypt that after our departure out of Sodom perswade us like Lots Wife to look back and have a kind of internal regret for the evil we have forsaken These are corruptions that interpose and disturb our best actions with wicked suggestions and bespatter them with some evil If we seriously meditate on death the flesh will suggest and say What needs all these melancholy dumps To what purpose all these sighs and erected eyes There is time enough for that hereafter If we read or near Gods judgements and menaces against infamous scarlet sinners the flesh perswades us that it belongs to others not to us If we comtemplate the Heavens 't will suggest unto us immediately that we shall arrive there soon enough If we go to extend our hand and manifest our charity out of a real Christian sympathy to a distressed member of Christ 't will whisper to your souls You know not how soon you may want your selves If we be resolved to reprove a friend that we may reduce him from the broad way of sin and uncleanness and conduct him to the narrow though blessed path that leads unto salvation then 't will retract and withdraw and make you desist from your intented purpose for fear of offending him or incurring his total displeasure every good action hath two ansae by which the world and the flesh take hold to prevent the execution of it Therefore in this case we must carefully and piously repair unto God craving his divine assistance and imitate Rebecca who had recourse unto God by prayer when two Embryones or infants strove in her womb a most exact figure or divine Hieroglyphick of the two men that are in every believer The old and the new Adam one our nature corrupted and cicatrized by sin the other our spirit regenerated which lust one against the other as the blessed Apostle St. Paul testifieth Gal. 5.17 So God answers unto Rebecca telling her that the greatest should obey the least For the old man must be brought in subjection to the new till he be perfectly reduced to the obedience of God he must be overcome totally and his forces quite routed Now we are arrived to the top of the Ladder the fifth and last degree 5 Degree which is the Love whereby we shall love God in the Kingdom of Heaven when we shall be cloathed with the Robes of Eternal Glory For our Love proceeds from our knowledge and according to our knowledge we proportion our Love Then shall we love God far more because we shall know him far better Now we see saith the blessed Apostle through a glass darkly but then face to face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 13. very emphaticall in a riddle Our love that looks a great distance and is distracted by variety of objects shall then approach and look near and shall be totally fixed upon God And as two great rivers that have forsaken their constant chanel and meeting together cause a terrible inundation so the Love of God are two currents that shall be joyned whilest on earth but when we shall arrive and land on the shoar of eternal felicity they will meet in Heaven How unutterable will the vehemency of these affections be when they shall be joyned and swallowed up one within the other with a mutual Love For then in loving God we shall also love our selves because that God shall dwell in us and because according to the holy Apostle St. John 1 John 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall be like unto him we shall resemble him Nor must we doubt or imagine that there is not an entire and real Love and mutual affection among the blessed Angels but it flows from the Love of God Therefore let us love nothing in our selves that prepares us not for the expectation of that Love that is mingled with the Love of God a rare and Sacred Dose composed of two incomparable Ingredients to cure the distemper of sin-sick man But because that Love with which we shall love God in Paradise hath its original from the sight and contemplation of his glorious aspect for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love is enflamed by sight Let us endeavour to find out what this sight shall be that is the cause of our Love The eyes of the body behold all things two ways or by two means either by a reception of the image or species and so we behold and see all bodies exposed to our view or in receiving into our eyes the self-same thing that we see as we see the light which enters into our very sight God that is the primum lumen or lumen luminum will manifest himself unto us in Heaven this last manner for he dwelleth in his Saints he is to them all in all Rom. 1. But in this life we see him in his image i. e. by the contemplation of his works whereon he hath made an impression or engraven as it were his own portraicture and express and significant indicia or marks of his vertue We shall then see God as we do the light here below but that we do only see it through the windows of our bodies viz. our eyes but then we shall receive on every side the light of Gods countenance that will light us every where with the splendor of its rays and the beams of its translucent glory like a man that if it were possible could be apple of the eye all over composed of nothing else he would receive the light from all parts round about him This sight of God will transform us into his likeness or similitude so saith St. John 1 John 3.2 We shall be like unto him for we shall behold him as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as a looking-glass or mirrour if it be exposed to the Sun will represent the resemblance or image thereof so God entertains no body with