entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it For even those Jews had a promise of Canaan and in it of the eternal rest whose Carcasses notwithstanding for their disobedience fell short of it in the desert and God sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest And therefore though the passion and death of Christ be absolute and in it self belonging to all yet there may be but a few to whom the good and benefit of it shall redound For remission of sins doth not immediately flow from his blood without intercedent obedience in us the next effect of it is not presently Salvation but a way and means whereby non obstante justitiâ without any impeachment to his justice we may now attain unto Salvation It doth not instantly convey us again into Paradise but only gives us the word whereby we may if we will safely and without impeachment pass the Angel and his flaming Sword that guards the entrance thither so that by it non solvitur omnibus captivitas sed solvitur omnibus captivitati necessitas though all be not actually loosed from Captivity yet all are loosed from the necessity of Captivity as the late and learned Writer of the Pelagian Story The gates of Brass and bars of Iron are smitten in sunder and so a way opened unto the Captives who notwithstanding if they be so far enamoured with their misery and captivity may for all that lie still in their Prison It is a potion for the good of all that are sick sed si non bibitur non medetur if it be not faithfully drank it shall never effectually cure saith◠Prosper And therefore we need not be anxious or doubtful on Gods behalf but only careful and solicitous for our selves what he hath promised in Baptism that he for his part will not be wanting sure he will never break in his Supper He will not fail to perform his promise if we but seriously bewail the breach of ours It is a Spiritual Banquet whereunto there never came any sorrowful and hungry Soul that ever departed empty And therefore let us draw near in full assurance of Faith no way wavering for he is faithful that hath promised saith St. Paul And as he is faithful that hath promised yet because he promiseth nothing here but to the faithful we must bring this with us though it be not of us a living Faith that only can work Repentance from dead works not to be repented of And this Faith only once thoroughly rooted begets that other confidence and fullness of Faith the Apostle speaks of which if it hath any other Parent is illegitimate ill born and falsly termed Faith when the true Father's name is Presumption And for this cause those that the Apostle exhorts to draw near with full assurance of Faith he thus qualifies having a true heart an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Then we go on rightly and orderly when we come not to the confident faith but by the penitent and as we go from faith to faith here so we shall appear before the God of Gods in Sion hereafter if therefore our heart within be true an upright within us if by a deep and entire Repentance it be sprinkled from an evil Conscience let us draw near in full assurance of faith as being most confident that our lips do not more truly drink the fruit of the Vine than our Souls do the blood of our Saviour the effect and merit of his blood whereby that which before was but sprinkled shall now be drenched and thoroughly cleansed from all the stains and impurities of Sin Our heart is ready O God our heart is ready only come thou and dwell in our hearts purge them and cleanse them wholly with thy blood and being cleansed keep and preserve them by thy Spirit spotless and blameless until the day of thy second coming in the Clouds with Glory That we who receive thee with fulness of faith now may stand before thee with the same confidence then and be received by thee and with thee into those eternal habitations at the right hand of God where is fulness of joy an pleasure for evermore To whom with thee and the Holy Ghost three Persons c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum THE WAY TO HAPPINESS SERMON VII Upon MAT. vi 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you IT is a part of our Saviours Sermon in the Mount and the conclusion of a larger discourse in the precedent Verses whereto it refers And indeed it is or should be the Conclusion of all our discourses For all are little material and to no purpose unless they tend unto this issue The Kingdom of God and his righteousness Let us hear the Conclusion of all saith Solomon of all not only discourses but humane endeavours upon Earth Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man The second Solomon infinitely wiser than that first strikes here but on the same string though by his double touch it receives an air and relisheth more evangelical Unto the Righteousness of God adding the reward of it the Kingdom of God That so the works which the Law requires might be rightly wrought in the hope and faith of that immortality and glory which the Gospel proposeth However then we busy our selves about many things this is that unum necessarium the one thing that is necessary able to resolve Parmenides his Riddle Unum omnia one thing necessary wherein all necessaries are included whatsoever is necessary for the body or the soul whatsoever concerns either imployment here or felicity Eternal hereafter the whole perfection of man and the whole goodness of God If these things be all all these are enclosed in this one this one little exhortation Seek ye first c. The communication of divine goodness besides that of hypostatical union particular and supereminent hath generally but three degrees of participation Nature Grace and Glory And here they are all three either in their utmost extent or in their highest exaltations First all the necessaries of Nature pertaining to the body but slightly indeed inferred as deserving our least and slightest care These things shall be added unto you but though slightly yet fully All these things all that are requisite shall be added Secondly the utmost improvement of Grace that cannot farther adorn and beautify the Soul than with the righteousness of God His Righteousness And lastly the highest degree of glory nothing can be higher than participation with God in his own Kingdom The Kingdom of God The less marvel therefore that our search and travel for these these latter yea our utmost industry and endeavour be so carefully called led upon and inculcated with a Quaerite and a Primum quaerite seek and first seek Seek ye first the Kingdom of God c. Wherein the division is as plain as the
consider what he suffered in the other that you may do also factus sub lege will give you both For what were the actions of his life but the keeping of the Law in himself or what was the passion of his death but the satisfying of the Law for others that had broken it and in regard of either made under the law under the law to fulfil the precepts which it commands and under the Law to satisfy the penalty which it injoins So by this time I think it is full filled with the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ whose natures person actions passion whose incarnation birth life and death it fully contains verè verbum abbreviatum it may well be termed and abbreviated word a viol of Spirits a very extract and quintessence drawn from four Evangelists and clapt up in two verses by an Apostle Two verses which as I said have but two general parts fulness of time and fulness of matter both tend to declare the greatness of the Fathers love the depth of the Son's humility and the height of mans happiness The Fathers love is full and grows unto its fulness by two degrees He sent and he sent his Son The Sons humility is full and it ariseth unto its fulness by two degrees made of a woman and made under the law Mans happiness is full and it cometh to its fulness also by two degrees Redemption and Adoption that he might or that we might c. If then the greatest thing the Father could send the Son or the worst thing the Son could suffer the malediction of the Law or the best thing men could receive or wish for adoption of Sons can make it full it is full indeed and to purpose for it is filled with all these And of this fulness we will now draw out unto you as much as the short time will permit beginning first with the fulness of the time When the fulness of time was come c. All the works of God saith the Wise man are done in number weight and measure and therefore questionless in a just and opportune time For time it is that doth both number and measure all his works yea and gives weight unto them too his weightiest works and greatest would be something the lighter and lesser were they not designed unto the fullest and fittest times This then as it exceeds all other in the greatness of the work so was it fit to receive an answerable fulness of the season And sure the season must needs be full when so great a work was poured into it when he came to fill it in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily True but yet the Text doth not so much derive the fulness of the time from his coming as apply his coming unto the fulness of the time as being full and fit to receive him Again the time appointed by the Father as it is a little before and foretold by his Prophets was now full come and expired this then must needs be the fulness of time True also they argue the fulness of time but short as we make it for had there not been a fulness and fitness in the time it self it had never been either appointed by the one or foretold by the other though without his appointment it came not to this fulness neither True it is that the wit of Man is too narrow a vessel fully to receive and comprehend all the reasons of this fulness yet sure in that which it doth apprehend it hath reason enough to admire the wisdom of the Lord in the fitness of his appointment not without special convenience chusing out neither the first beginning of the world nor the last end of it but a mid time as it were between both when the world should arrive at his just age Not a time of war but a time of universal peace Not the time of a Common-weal but the time of a general Monarchy not of the AEquinox but the Solstice not in the Summer but the Winter not in the day but in the night for all these may be comprehended within this fulness as not wanting their convenient fitness First then upon great reason the Lord chose not the first ages of the young world but deferred it for some thousands of years that being first shadowed in types and figures and promised by many and antient prophecies and predictions his coming might be the more desired and expected of Men and himself the better received and with less doubt entertained when he should come So great a mystery is the Incarnation of the Son of God that unless his person and actions his birth death and resurrection with all the particulars of either had been clearly and frequently for many ages foretold by the Prophets his forerunners we should have little means either to perswade it to others or at this day to believe it our selves And again upon as good reason he chose not the end and last age of the decrepit world lest all eyes should fail and hope faint in too long expectation with Where is the promise of his coming Rightly therefore in a point and period of time between both these neither when the world was too old and doting nor whilst it was too young and under tutorage as it is two verses before but when it came to full age and strength in the sight of him that made it Secondly he chose not a troublous time of war but of calm and settled peace as being the true Solomon and Prince of peace that came to no other end but to make and establish an everlasting peace between Heaven and Earth God and Man Man and his own Soul Thirdly he chose not a time of Republick neither of Aristocracy wherein few nor Democracy wherein the people have the chief power but a time of Monarchy when one Man Augustus Caesar had obtained the Dominion did sway the Scepter command and give law unto the whole world to shew that the universal Monarch of all Nations the Supream head of all Churches the Catholick Bishop and Pastor of all Souls was now born into the world Fourthly he chose not the AEquinox but the Solstice not the Summer Solstice when the Sun runs at his highest but the Winter Solstice when the days are at shortest because then the Sun first begins to return and the days to increase as in light so afterwards in heat So in like manner he chose the Meridian time not the diurnal Meridian when the Sun by his presence makes light more but the nocturnal when by his absence he makes the deep noon of night because at that time the Sun is in the furthest point he can go from us and first begins to ascend towards the morning And both to shew the true Son of Righteousness was now approaching and drawing near unto us by his comfortable presence to give new light unto our minds and divine heat unto our affections to unthaw our benum'd and frozen consciences and to
us seek his face while he may be found and make our prayers in an acceptable time So shall our petitions be heard and we in all our tribulations in the hour of death and in the day of judgment as we desire be most assuredly delivered finding comfort in our life and life in our last end And what is all the wealth and honour pomp and glory of the world in comparison of this They may yield discontents enough as being gotten with travel kept with care and lost with grief but can never give any true satisfaction to the Soul especially in that last and perillous time which most requires it Surely every Mans thought is a secret watch unto his own heart let him then ask his own Soul and it will tell him versa reversa in tergum in latera in ventrem dura sunt omnia Christus solus requies muse and forecast toss and turn all the night long from side to side still still no true ease nor true contentment no perfect joy to be found but in the sweet peace of a good Conscience sprinkled and washed with the blood of Jesus Christ the Prince of peace All other things fail us at our death and therefore are unworthy of our care whilst we live No no Thoughts of remorse and joyes of sorrow silent moans and melting tears an heart truly humbled and a Spirit ever setled chearfully to live and willing to die in the loving arms of a gracious Redeemer this is the prize this is the Crown we should contend for and this is the way now to live a Saint on Earth and ever hereafter to injoy an exceeding and an eternal weight of glory in the highest Heavens Which the Lord of all glory grant unto us for and in the meritorious Passion of his Son Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom with the blessed Spirit c. Laus Deo in aeternum Amen FINIS * Antiquitates Univers Oxon L. ii p. 109. * â— x. Instit C. 2. * Better known perhâ—ps by the name of Mercurius Rusticus an 1647. Psal. cxi 2â— Ecclus. i. 16 Ecclus. i. 18 1 Joh. iv 18. Ecclus. i. 12 Psal. xix 10 Rom. viii Matt. x. Job xxxi Psalm xliii Jon. i. Gen. xxxi 53. Deut. vi Matt. iv Isa. viii 12. Rev Matâ— Job xxviii 28. Rom. 8. Matt. 7. 24. Rom. 4. Rom. 8. Gen. viii 4. Exod. xxiv 16. Josh. vi 16. Matt. 25. Heb. 1. Matt. 25. Prov. xxiv 12. Heb. ix 8. Heb. â—i 40. slev vi 10 Verse 6. Jam. iii. Rev. xx 10. Rev. xx 14. 2 Tim. Job xxix Rom. i. Rom. v. â—2 Acts xi 48. Gen. xvii Rom. v. 18. Rom. i. 2 Cor. v. 10. Mat. xxvâ— Aristot. De fide operibus Galat. i. 19. Mark xi 40. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Rom. 6. 2 Sam. 2. Judg. v. 23. James iii. 15. Jam. iii. 16. 2 Tim. iv 3. Matt. V. Gen. iii. 12. verse 14. 1 Cor. xv 55. Ber. de Con. ad Cleric Abbot in praesat Exercitat de gratia perseverant De bono Persev cap. 14. Rom. ix Phil. i. 2. John xv 16 Rom. ix Epist. 103. Aug. Enchirid cap. 98. De sp lit c. 34. Lib. 12. â—â—iâ—it Del cap. 9. Wisd. i. 13. Gen. Lib. 3. contra Julian cap. 13. Aug. lib. de Orat c. 22. Ad Moni lib. 1. c. 22. Suit cap. 61. Lib. advers mort sibi falso imp ad artic 10 Inst. lib. 3. cap. 23. Moral lib. 26. cap. 10. 2 Per. ii 1. Retract lib. 1. cap. 11. Isai. v. Lib. 4. cap. 71. Matt. xxiv Luk. ix 33. 2 Cor. xii 4. Exod. xii 48. xxii 6. Knowledge Faith Repentance Love Jer. xxx 24. 〈◊〉 Gen. xlix 10. Esa. vii 14 Jer. xxiii 5. Dan ix 25. Zaâ— vi 12 Hag. ii 8. Psal. lxxi lvi xxxv