watchfulnesse that we fall not into sinne we have lucem essentiae possession and fruition of heaven and of the light of Gods presence and then if we doe by infirmity fall into sinne yet by this denudation of our soules this manifestation of our sinnes to God by confession and to that purpose a gladnesse when we heare our sinne spoken of by the preacher we have lumen gloriae an inchoation of our glorified estate and then an other couple of these lights which we propose to be considered is lumen fidei and lumen naturae the light of faith and the light of nature Of these two lights Faith and Grace first and then Nature and Reason we said something before but never too much be cause contentious spirits have cast such clouds upon both these lights that some have said Nature doth all alone and others that Nature hath nothing to do at all but all is Grace we decline wranglings that tend not to edification we say onely to our present purpose which is the operation of these severall couples of lights that by this light of Faith to him which hath it all that is involved in Prophecies is clear and evident as in a History already done and all that is wrapped up in promises is his own already in performance That man needs not goe so high for his assurance of a Messias and Redeemer as to the first promise made to him in Adam nor for the limitation of the stock and race from whence this Messias should come so far as to the renewing of this promise in Abraham nor for the description of this Messias who he should be and of whom he should be born as to Esaias nor to Micheas for the place nor for the time when he should accomplish all this so far as to Daniel no nor so far as to the Evangelists themselves for the History and the evidence that all this that was to be done in his behalf by the Messias was done 1600. yeares since But he hath a whole Bible and an abundant Library in his own heart and there by this light of Faith which is not onely a knowing but an applying an appropriating of all to thy benefit he hath a better knowledge then all this then either Propheticall or Evangelicall for though both these be irrefragable and infallible proofs of a Messias the Propheticall that he should the Evangelicall that he is come yet both these might but concern others this light of Faith brings him home to thee How sure so ever I be that the world shall never perish by water yet I may be drowned and how sure so ever that the Lamb of God hath taken away the sinnes of the world I may perish without I have this applicatory Faith And as he needs not looke back to Esay nor Abraham nor Adam for the Messias so neither needs he to looke forward He needs not stay in expectation of the Angels Trumpets to awaken the dead he is not put to his usquequo Domine How long Lord wilt thou defer our restitution but he hath already died the death of the righteous which is to die to sinne He hath already had his buriall by being buried with Christ in Baptisme he hath had his Resurrection from sinne his Ascension to holy purposes of amendment of life and his Iudgement that is peace of Conscience sealed unto him and so by this light of applying Faith he hath already apprehended an eternall possession of Gods eternall Kingdome And the other light in this second couple is Lux naturae the light of Nature This though a fainter light directs us to the other Nature to Faith and as by the quantitie in the light of the Moone we know the position and distance of the Sunne how far or how neare the Sunne is to her so by the working of the light of Nature in us we may discern by the measure and virtue and heat of that how near to the other greater light the light of Faith we stand If we finde our naturall faculties rectified so as that that free will which we have in Morall and Civill actions be bent upon the externall duties of Religion as every naturall man may out of the use of that free will come to Church heare the Word preached and believe it to be true we may be sure the other greater light is about us If we be cold in them in actuating in exalting in using our naturall faculties so farre we shall be deprived of all light we shall not see the Invisible God in visible things which Saint Paul makes so inexcusable so unpardonable a thing we shall not see the hand of God in all our worldly crosses nor the seal of God in all our worldly blessings we shall not see the face of God in his House his presence here in the Church nor the mind of God in his Gospell that his gracious purposes upon mankinde extend so particularly or reach so far as to include us I shall heare in the Scripture his Vinite omnes come all and yet I shall thinke thatâ— his eye was not upon me that his eye did not becken me and I shall heare the Deus vult omnes salves that God would save all and yet I shall finde some perverse reason in my selfe why it is not likely that God will save me I am commanded scrutari Scripturas to search the scriptures now that is not to be able to repeat any history of the Bible without booke it is not to ruffle a Bible and upon any word to turne to the Chapter and to the verse but this is exquisit a scrutatio the true searching of the Scriptures to finde all the histories to be examples to me all the prophecies to induce a Saviour for me all the Gospell to apply Christ Jesus to me Turne over all the folds and plaits of thine owne heart and finde there the infirmities and waverings of thine owne faith and an ability to say Lord I beleeve help mine unbeleefe and then though thou have no Bible in thy hand or though thou stand in a dark corner nay though thou canst not reade a letter thou hast searched that Scripture thou hast turned to Marke 9. ver 24 Turne thine eare to God and heare him turning to thee and saying to thy soule I will marry thee to my selfe for ever and thou hast searched that Scripture and turned to Hos. 2. ver 19. Turne to thine owne histery thine owne life and if thou canst reade there that thou hast endeavoured to turne thine ignorance into knowledge and thy knowledge into Practice if thou finde thy selfe to be an example of that rule of Christs If you know these things blessed are you if you do them then thou hast searched that Scripture and turned to Io. 13. ver 14. This is Scrutari Scripturas to Search the Scriptures not as though thou wouldest make a concordance but an application as thou wouldest search a
may be equall as the Devill is a Spirit and a condemned soule a spirit yet that soule shall have a Body too to be tormented with it which the Devill shall not How little we know our selves which is the end of all knowledge But we hast to the next branch In the Resurrection we shall be like to the Angels of God in Heaven But in what lies this likenesse In how many other things soever this likenesse may ly yet in this Text and in our present purpose it lies onely in this Non nubent In the Resurrection they shall not mary But did Angels never mary or as good or at least as ill as mary How many of the ancients take those words That the sonnes of God saw the daughters of Men that they were faire and they tooke them wives of all which they chose to be intended of Angels They offer to tell us how many these maried Angels were Origen saies sixty or seventy They offer to tell us some of their names Aza was one of these maried Angels and Azael was another But then all those who doe understand these words The sonnes of God to be intended of Angels who being sent downe to protect Men fell in love with Women and maried them all I say agree that those Angels that did so never returned to God againe but fell with the first fallen under everlasting Condemnation So that still the Angels of God in Heaven those Angels to whom we shall be like in the Resurrection doe not mary not so much as in any such mistaking they doe not because they need not they need not because they need no second Eternity by the continuation of children for says S. Luke they cannot die Adams first immortality was but this Posse non mori that he needed not to have died he should not have died The Angels immortality and ours when we shall be like them in the Resurrection is Non posse mori that we cannot die for whosoever dies is Homicida sui sayes Tertullian he kills himselfe and sinne is his sword In heaven there shall no such sword be drawn we need not say that the Angels in heaven have that we when we shall be like them in the Resurrection shall so invest an immortality in our nature as that God could not inflict Death upon them or us there if we sinned But because no sinne shall enter there no Death shall enter there neither for Death is the wages of sinne Not that no sinne could enter there if we were left to our selves for in that place Angels did sinne And fatendum est Angelos natura mutabiles saies S. Augustine Howsoever Angels be changed in their Condition they retaine still the same nature and by nature they are mutable But that God hath added another prerogative by way of Confirmation to that state so as that that Grace which he gives us here which is that nothing shall put a necessity of sinning upon us or that we must needs sinne God multiplies upon us so there as that we can conceive no inclination to sinne Therein we shall be like the Angels that we cannot die And the nearer we come to that state in this life the liker we are to those Angels here Now beloved onely he that is Dead already cannot die He that in a holy mortification is Dead the Death of the righteous dead to sinne he lives shall we dare to say so yes we may he lives a blessed Death for such a Death is true life And by such a heavenly Death Death of the righteous Death to sinne he is in possession of a heavenly life here in an inchoation though the consummation and perfection be reserved for the next world which is our last circumstance and the Conclusion of all At the Resurrection we shall be like the Angels Till then we shall not and therefore must not looke for Angelicall perfections here but beare one anothers infirmities It is as yet but in Petition fiat voluntas Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven And as long as there is an Earth it will be but in Petition His will will not be done in Earth as it is in Heaven when all is Heaven to his Saints all will be well but not all till then In the meane time remember all especially you whose Sacramentall that is Mysterious and significative union now is a Type of your union with God in as neare and as fast a band as that of Angels for you shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven That the office of the Angels in this world is to Assist and to supply Defects You are both of noble extraction there 's no defect in that you need not supply one another with Honour you are both of religious Education there 's no defect in that you need not supply one another with fundamentall instructions Both have your parts in that testimony which S. Gregory gave of your Nation at Rome Angli Angeli you have a lovelinesse fit for one another But though I cannot Name no nor Thinke any thing wherein I should wish that Angelicall disposition of supporting or supplying defects yet when I consider that even he that said Ego pater unum sumus I and the Father are one yet had a time to say utquid dereliquisti My God my God why hast thou forsaken me I consider thereby that no two can be so made one in this world but that that unity may be though not Dissolved no nor Rent no nor Endangered yet shaked sometimes by domestique occasions by Matrimoniall encumbrances by perversnesse of servants by impertinencies of Children by private whisperings and calumnies of Strangers And therefore to speake not Prophetically that any such thing shall fall but Provisionally if any such thing should fall my love and my duty and my Text bids me tell you that perfect happinesse is to be staid for till you be as the Angels of God in heaven here it is a faire portion of that Angelicall happinesse if you be alwaies ready to support and supply one another in any such occasionall weaknesses The God of Heaven multiply the present joy of your parents by that way of making you joyfull parents also and recompense your obedience to parents by that way of giving you obedient Children too The God of heaven so joine you now as that you may be glad of one another all your life and when he who hath joined you shall separate you againe establish you with an assurance that he hath but borrowed one of you for a time to make both your joies the more perfect in the Resurrection The God of Heaven make you alwaies of one will and that will alwaies conformable to his conserve you in the sincere truth of his Religion feast you with the best feast Peace of conscience and carry you through the good opinion and love of his Saints in this world to the association of his Saints and Angels and one
found in all the Scriptures Tremellius hath mollifyed it in his translation there it is but Confodere to pierce And yet it is such a piercing such a sapping such an undermining such a demolishing of a fort of Castle as may justly remove us from any high valuation or any great confidence in that skinne and in that body upon which this Confoderint must fall But in the great Bible it is Contriverint Thy skinne and thy body shall be ground away trod away upon the ground Aske where that iron is that is ground off of a knife or axe Aske that marble that is worn off of the threshold in the Church-porch by continuall treading and with that iron and with that marble thou mayst finde thy Fathers skinne and body Contrita sunt The knife the marble the skinne the body are ground away trod away they are destroy'd who knows the revolutions of dust Dust upon the Kings high-way and dust upon the Kings grave are both or neither Dust Royall and may change places who knows the revolutions of dust Even in the dead body of Christ Jesus himself one dram of the decree of his Father one sheet one sentence of the prediction of the Prophets preserv'd his body from corruption and incineration more then all Iosephs new tombs and fine linnen and great proportion of spices could have done O who can expresse this inexpreffible mystery The foul of Christ Jesus which took no harm by him contracted no Originall sin in coming to him was guilty of no more sin when it went out then when it came from the breath and bosome of God yet this soul left this body in death And the Divinity the Godhead incomparably better then that soul which soul was incomparably better then all the Saints and Angels in heaven that Divinity that God-head did not forsake the body though it were dead If we might compare things infinite in themselves it was nothing so much that God did assume mans nature as that God did still cleave to that man then when he was no man in the separation of body and soul in the grave But full we from incomprehensible mysteries for there is mortification enough and mortification is vivification and aedification in this obvious consideration skinne and body beauty and substance must be destroy'd And Destroyed by wormes which is another descent in this humiliation and exâ—anition of man in death After my skinne wormes shall destroy this body I will not insist long upon this because it is not in the Originall In the Originall there is no mention of wormes But because in other places of Iob there is They shal lye down alike in the dust and the worms shall cover them The womb shal forget them and the worm shal feed sweetly on them because the word Destroying is presented in that form number Contriverint when they shall destroy they and no other persons no other creatures named both our later translations for indeed our first translation hath no mention of wormes and so very many others even Tremellâ—s that adheres most to the letter of the Hebrew have filled up this place with that addition Destroyed by worms It makes the destruction the more contemptible Thou that wouldest not admit the beames of the Sunne upon thy skinne and yet hast admitted the pollutions of sinne Thou that wouldst not admit the breath of the ayre upon thy skinne and yet hast admitted the spirit of lust and unchast solicitations to breath upon thee in execrable oathes and blasphemies to vicious purposes Thou whose body hath as farre as it can putrefyed and corrupted even the body of thy Saviour in an unworthy receiving thereof in this skinne in this body must be the food of worms the prey of destroying worms After a low birth thou mayst passe an honourable life after a sentence of an ignominious death thou mayst have an honourable end But in the grave canst thou make these worms silke worms They were bold and early worms that eat up Herod before he dyed They are bold and everlasting worms which after thy skinne and body is destroyed shall remain as long as God remains in an eternall gnawing of thy conscience long long after the destroying of skinne and body by bodily worms Thus farre then to the destroying of skinne and body by worms all men are equall Thus farre all 's Common law and no Prerogative so is it also in the next step too The Resurrection is common to all The prerogative lies not in the Rising but in the rising to the fruition of the sight of God in which consideration the first beam of comfort is the Postquam After all this destruction before by worms ruinous misery before but there is something else to be done upon me after God leaves no state without comfort God leaves some inhabitants of the earth under longer nights then others but none under an everlasting night and those whom he leaves under those long nights he recompenses with as long days after I were miserable if there were not an Antequam in my behalfe if before I had done well or ill actually in this world God had not wrapped me up in his good purpose upon me And I were miserable againe if there were not a Postquam in my behalfe If after my sinne had cast me into the grave there were not a lowd trumpet to call me up and a gracious countenance to looke upon me when I were risen Nay let my life have been as religious as the infirmities of this life can admit yet If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable For for the worldly things of this life first the children of God have them in the least proportions of any and besides that those children of God which have them in larger proportion do yet make the least use of them of any others because the children of the world are not so tender conscienced nor so much afraid lest those worldly things should become snares and occasions of tentation to them if they open themselves to a full enjoying thereof as the children of God are And therefore after my wanting of many worldly things after a penurious life and after my not daring to use those things that I have so freely as others doe after that holy and conscientious forbearing of those things that other men afford themselves after my leaving all these absolutely behind me here and my skin and body in destruction in the grace After all there remaines something else for me After but how long after That 's next When Christ was in the body of that flesh which we are in now sinne onely excepted he said in that state that he was in then Of that day and houre no man knoweth not the Angels not the Sonne Then in that state he excludes himselfe And when Christ was risen againe in an uncorruptible body he said even to his nearest followers Non est
to be Lapis Iacob the stone that Iacob slept upon fourthly to be Lapis Davidis the stone that David flew Golih withall And lastly to be Lapis Petra such a stone as is a Rock and such a Rock as no Waters nor Stormes can remove or shake these are benefits Christ Jesus is a stone no firmnesse but in him a fundamentall stone no building but on him a corner stone no piecing nor reconciliation but in him and Iacobs stone no rest no tranquillity but in him and Davids stone no anger no revenge but in him and a rocky stone no defence against troubles and tribulations but in him And upon this stone we fall and are broken and this stone may fall on us and grinde us to powder First in the metaphor that Christ is called a stone the firmnesse is expressed Forasmuch as he loved his owne which were in the world In finem dilexit eos sayes St. Iohn He loved them to the end and not to any particular end for any use of this owne but to their end Qui erant in mundo sayes Cyrill ad distinctionem Angelorum he loved them in the world and not Angels he loved not onely them who were in a confirmed estate of mutuall loving him too but even them who were themselves conceived in sinne and then conceived all their purposes in sinne too them who could have no cleansing but in his blood and when they were cleansed in his blood their owne clothes would defile them againe them who by nature are not able to love him at all and when by grace they are brought to love him can expresse their love no other way but to be glad that he was betrayed and scourged and scorned and nayled and crucified and to be glad that if all this were not already done it might be done yet to long and wish that if Christ were not crucified he might be crucified now which is a strange manner of expressing love those men he loved and loved unto the end Men and not Angels and then men Ad distinctionem mortuorum sayes Chrysostome not onely the Patriarchs who were departed out of the world who had loved him so well as to take his word for their salvation and had lived and dyed in the faithfull contemplation of a future promise which they never saw performed but those who were partakers of the performance of all those promises those into the midst of whom he came in person those upon whom he wrought with his piercing Doctrine and his powerfull miracles those who for all this loved not him he loved Et in finem he loved them to the end It is much that he should love them in fine at their end that he should looke graciously on them at last that when their sunne sets their eyes faint his sunne of grace should arise and his East be brought to their West that then in the shadow of death the Lord of life should quicken and inanimate their hearts that when their last bell tolls and calls them to their first Judgement and first and last Judgement to this purpose is all one the passing bell and Angels trump sound all but one note Surgite qui dormitis in pulvere Arise ye that sleepe in the dust which is the voyce of the Angels and Surgite qui vigilatis in plumis Arise ye that cannot sleepe in feathers for the pangs of death which is the voyce of the bell is but one voyce for God at the generall Judgement shall never reverse any particular Judgement formerly given that God should then come to the beds side ad sibilandum populum suum as the Prophet Ezekiel speaks to hisse softly for his childe to speake comfortably in his eare to whisper gently to his departing soule and to drowne and overcome with this soft Musick of his all the danger of the Angels Trumpets all the horror of the ringing Bell all the cryes and vociferations of a distressed and distracted and scattering family yea all the accusations of his owne conscience and all the triumphant acclamations of the Devill himselfe that God should love a man thus in fine at his end and returne to him then though he had suffered him to go astray from him before it is a great testimony of an unspeakable love but his love is not onely in fine at the end but in finem to the end all the way to the end He leaves them not uncalled at first he leaves them not unaccompanied in the way he leaves them not unrecompensed at the last that God who is Almighty Alpha and Omega first and last that God is also love it selfe and therefore this love is Alpha and Omega first and last too Consider Christs proceeding with Peter in the ship in the storme first he suffered him to be in some danger but then he visites him with that strong assurance Noli timere Be not afraid it is I any testimony of his presence rectifies all This puts Peter into that spirituall knowledge and confidence Iube me venire Lord bid me come to thee he hath a desire to be with Christ but yet stayes his bidding he puts not himselfe into an unnecessary danger without a commandment Christ bids him and Peter comes but yet though Christ were in his sight and even in the actuall exercise of his love to him yet as soone as he saw a gust a storme timuit he was afraid and Christ letteth him feare and letteth him sinke and letteth him crie But he directeth his feare and his crie to the right end Domine salvum me fac Lord save me and thereupon he stretcheth out his hand and saved him God doth not raise his children to honour and great estates and then leave them and expose them to be subjects and exercises of the malice of others nor he doth not make them mightie and then leave them ut glorietur in malo qui potens est that he should thinke it a glory to be able to do harm He doth not impoverish and dishonour his children and then leave them leave them unsensible of that Doctrine that patience is as great a blessing as aboundance God giveth not his children health and then leaveth them to a boldnesse in surfetting nor beauty and leave them to a confidence of opening themselves to all sollicitations nor valour and then leaveth them to a spirit of quarrelsomnesse God maketh no patterns of his works no modells of his houses he maketh whole pieces he maketh perfect houses he putteth his children into good wayes and he directeth and protecteth them in those wayes For this is the constancy and the perseverance of the love of Christ Jesus as he is called in this Text a stone To come to the particular benefits the first is that he is lapis fundamentalis a foundation stone for other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Christ Jesus Now where Saint Augustine saith as he doth in two or three places
calling by being personally here at these exercises of Religion thou art some kinde of witnesse of this light For in how many places of the world hath Christ yet never opened such doors for his ordinary service in all these 1600. yeers And in how many places hath he shut up these doors of his true worship within these three or foure yeers Quod citaris huc That thou art brought hither within distance of his voyce within reach of his food intra sphaeram Activitatis within the spheare and latitude of his ordinary working that is into his house into his Church this is a citation a calling answerable to Iohn Baptists first calling from his fathers dead loins and his mothers barren wombe and his second citation was before he was borne in his mothers wombe When Mary came to visit Elizabeth the childe sprang in her belly as soone as Maries voice sounded in her eares And though naturally upon excesse of joy in the mother the childe may spring in her yet the Evangelist meanes to tell an extraordinary and supernaturall thing and whether it were an anticipation of reason in the childe some of the Fathers think so though St. Augustine do not that the childe understood what he did or that this were a fulfilling of that prophecy That he should be filled with the holy Ghost from his mothers wombe all agree that this was an exciting of him to this attestation of his Saviours presence whether he had any sense of it or no. Exultatio significat sayes St. Augustine This springing declared that his mother whose forerunner that childe should be was come And so both Origen and St. Cyrill refer that commendation which our Saviour gives him Inter natos Mulierum Among those that were born of women there was not a greater Prophet that is none that prophecyed before he was borne but he And such a citation beloved thou mayest have in this place and at this time A man may upon the hearing of something that strikes him that affects him feel this springing this exultation this melting and colliquation of the inwardest bowels of his soule a new affection a new passion beyond the joy ordinarily conceived upon earthly happinesses which though no naturall Philosopher can call it by a name no Anatomist assigne the place where it lyes yet I doubt not through Christ jesus but that many of you who are here now feele it and understand it this minute Citaris huc thou wast cited to come hither whether by a collaterall and oblique and occasionall motion or otherwise hither God hath brought thee and Citaris hîc here thou art cited to come neerer to him Now both these citations were before Iohn Baptist was borne both these affections to come to this place and to be affected with a delight here may be before thy regeneration which is thy spirituall birth a man is not borne not borne againe because he is at Church nor because he likes the Sermon Iohn Baptist had and thou must have a third citation which was in him from the desert into the publique into the world from contemplation to practice This was that mission that citation which most properly belongs to this Text when the word came to the voyce The word of God came to Iohn in the wildernesse and he came into all the Countrey preaching the Baptisme of repentance To that we must come to practise For in this respect an Vniversity is but a wildernesse though we gather our learning there our private meditation is but a wildernesse though we contemplate God there nay our being here is but a wildernesse though we serve God here if our service end so if we do not proceed to action and glorifie God in the publique And therefore Citaris huc thou art cited hither here thou must be and Citaris hîc thou art cited here to lay hold upon that grace which God offers in his Ordinance and Citaris hinc thou art cited from hence to embrace a calling in the world He that undertakes no course no vocation he is no part no member no limbe of the body of this world no eye to give light to others no eare to receive profit by others If he think it enough to be excrementall nayles to scratch and gripe others by his lazy usury and extortion or excrementall hayre made onely for ornament or delight of others by his wit or mirth or delightfull conversation these men have not yet felt this third citation by which they are called to glorifie God and so to witnesse for him in such publique actions as Gods cause for the present requires and comports with their calling And then Iohn Baptist had a fourth citation to bear witnesse for Christ by laying down his life for the Truth and this was that that made him a witnesse in the highest sense a Martyr God hath not served this citation upon us nor doth he threaten us with any approches towards it in the feare of persecution for religion But remember that Iohn Baptists Martyrdome was not for the fundamentall rock the body of the Christian religion but for a morall truth for matter of manners A man may be bound to suffer much for a lesse matter then the utter overthrow of the whole frame and body of religion But leaving this consideration for what causes a man is bound to lay downe his life consider we now but this that a man lays downe his life for Christ and beares witnesse of him even in death when he prefers Christ before this world when he desires to be dissolved and be with him and obeyes cheerefully that citation by the hand of death whensoever it comes and that citation must certainly be served upon you all whether this night in your beds or this houre at the doore no man knowes You who were cited hither to heare and cited here to consider and cited hence to worke in a calling in the world must be cited from thence too from the face to the bosome of the earth from treading upon other mens to a lying downe in your owne graves And yet that is not your last citation there is fifth In the grave Iohn Baptist does and we must attend a fifth citation from the grave to a Iudgement The first citation hither to Church was served by Example of other men you saw them come and came The second citation here in the Church was served by the Preacher you heard him and beleeved The third from hence is served by the law and by the Magistrate they binde you to embrace a profession and a calling and you do so The fourth which is from thence from this to the next world is served by nature in death he touches you and you sinke This fifth to Iudgement shall be by an Angell by an Archangell by the Lord himself The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Archangell and with
are circumcised with them which are not circumcised If we circumcise in part leave some sinnes and cleave to others we shall be in the sight of God altogether uncircumcised Adam was not the lesse naked in Gods sight for his Figge-leafe halfe-repentances are no repentances either we are in a privation or in a habit covered over with righteousnesse or naked When therefore the Lord and his Spirit cals thee to this spirituall Circumcision remember that Abraham did not say when he was call'd Lord I have followed thy voyce in leaving my Country Lord I have built thee an Altar what needs more demonstration of my obedience Say not thou Lord I have built an Hospitall Lord I have fed the poore at Christmas Lord I have made peace amongst thy people at home I have endowed an Almes-house but persevere in doing good still for God takes not the Tree where it growes but where it fals for the most part the death of a man is such as his life was but certainly the life of a man that is his everlasting life is such as his death is Againe Abraham did not say of this that it was a Commandement in a flight and frivolous and uncivill matter doe not thou say that it is an impertinent thing in this spirituall Circumcision to watch thy eating and drinking and all such indifferent actions and to see that all they be done to the glory of God for as the Apostle saies That the foolishnesse of God is wiser then the wisdome of man so we may piously say that the levity of God is graver then the gravity of all the Philosophers and Doctors of the world as we may see in all his Ceremontall Lawes where the matter seemes very light in many places but yet the signification very important and therefore apply this Circumcision even in thy least and most familiar action So also Abraham was not diverted from obeying God by the inconvenience of having all his family diseas'd at once he did not say I am content to circumcise my Sonne but would spare my Servants yet for necessary uses doe not thou say thou art content to circumcise thine eldest Sonne to abate somewhat of that sinne which thou beganst with in thy youth but wouldst faine spare some serviceable and profitable sinnes for a time and circumcise them hereafter To pursue this example Abraham did not say Cras Domine Lord I will doe all this to morrow but as the Commandement was given in that phrase of expedition Circumcidendo circumcides In Circumcising thou shalt circumcise which denoted a diligent and a present dispatch so Abraham did dispatch it diligently and presently that day Doe not thou say Cras Domine to morrow some other day in the day of mine age or of my Death or of affliction and tribulation I will circumcise all for age and sicknesse and tâ—ibulations are Circumcisions of themselves a Feaver circumcises thee then or an Apoplexy and not thy Devotion and incapacity of sinning is not sanctification If any man put off his Repentance till death Fateor non negamus quod petit saies Saint Augustine I dare not deny that man whatsoever God may be pleased to grant him Sed non presumimus quod bene erit I dare not presume to say that that man died well Non presumo non vas fallo non presumo saies that Father with some vehemency I dare not warrant him let me not deceive you with saying that I dare for I dare not And Beloved that is but a suspicious state in any man in which another Christian hath just reason to doubt of his salvation as Saint Augustine doth shrewdly doubt of these late Repenters Sicut ejus damnatio inoerta it a remissio dubia As I am not sure he is damned so I am not sure he is saved no more sure of one then of the other It is true we have the example of the Crucified Thiefe but it is but a hard case when a Thiefe must guide us and be our Example we suspect wills that are made of temporall goods in that state at the last gaspe and shall we think a Man to be compos mentis of a perfect understanding for the bequeathing of his Soule at his last gaspe non presumo non nos fallo non presumo I should deceive you if I should say it I dare not say it sayes that Father Come therefore to this Circumcision betimes come to it this Day come this Minute This Day thy Savior was Circumcised in the flesh for thee this Day Circumcise thy heart to him and all thy senses and all thy affections It is not an utter destroying of thy senses and of thy affections that is enjoyned thee but as when a Man had taken a beautifull Woman captive in the warres he was not bound to kill her but he must shave her head and pare her nailes and change her garments before he might marry her so captivate subdue change thy affections and that 's the Destruction which makes up this Circumcision change thy choler into Zeale change thy amorousnesse into devotion change thy wastfulnesse into Almes to the poore and then thou hast circumcised thy affections and mayest retaine them and mayest confidently say with the Apostle we are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Iesus and have no confidence in the flesh Doe this to day as God this day gives thee a New yeare and hath not surpriz'd thee nor taken thee away in the sinnes of last yeare as he gives thee a new yeare doe thou give him a New-years-gift Cor novum a new and a Circumcised heart and Canticum novum a new Song a delight to magnifie his name and speak of his glory and declare his wondrous works to the Sonnes of men and be assured that whether I or any other of the same Ministry shall speake to you from this place this day twelve month and shall aske your consciences then whether those things which you heard now have brought you to this Circumcision and made you better this yeare than you were the last and find you under the same uncircumcision still be assured that God will not God cannot be mocked but as he wil receive us with an Euge bone serve Well done my good and faithfull Servant so he will say to you Perditio tua ex te Your destruction is from your selves Enough hath been done for you by me enough hath been said to you by my Servants Quare moriemini Why will you die ô house of Israel And after a long despising of his graces he will come to a finall separation you shall come to say Nolumus hunc regnare we will not have Christ Jesus to reigne over us and Christ Jesus shall come to say Nescio vos I know you not nor whence you are Hodie si vocem ejus If you wil heare his voice this day Hodie eritis This day you shall be with him in Paradise and dwell in