stench and worms and rottenness then any dead body whatsoever full of infamous and stinking sins worms of conscience and worms of concupiscence rotten resolutions and performances continuance in sin is the sleep of death Holy purposes and resolutions are the rising out of it Walking thenceforward in the ways of righteousness is going into the holy City and the letting our righteousness so shine before men that God may be glorified is the appearing unto many And the order is as like our justification or spiritual Resurrection well resembled by it God first for the merits of Christs Death and Passion breaks ope the stony heart looses the fetters of our sins and lusts all worldly corruptible affections in us opens the mouth of it to confess its sins then the soul rises as it were out of its sleep by the favour of Gods exciting grace and comes out of sin by holy purposes and resolutions resolves presently to amend its courses then next it goes into the holy City by holy action endeavour and performance so goes and manifests its reconcilement to the Church of God and at last makes its Resurrection repentance and amendment evident and apparent to the world to as many as it any where converses with that all may bear witness to it that it is truly risen with Christ now lives with him This the order this the manner of our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of Grace Our second Resurrection to the life of Glory is but this very Resurrection in the Text acted over again As soon as the consummatum est is pronounced upon the world as soon as Christ shall say as he did upon the Cross all is finished the end is come the Arch-Angel shall blow his Trumpet the Graves open the earth and Sea give forth their dead and the dead in Christ shall rise first then they that be alive at his coming For if we believe that Iesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Iesus shall God bring with him 1 Thess iv 14. and they shall come out of their Graves and go into the Holy City the new Ierusalem that is above and there appear and shine like stars for ever Indeed the ungodly and the wicked shall arise too and appear before the great Tribunal but not like these Saints for into the holy City they shall not come Rise and come forth they shall but go away into some place of horror some gloomy valley of eternal sorrow some dark dungeon of everlasting night some den of Dragons and Devils never to appear before God but be for ever hid in the arms of confusion and damnation As for the godly the holy City is prepared for them for us if we be like them Saints and Angels are the inhabitants of this holy City no room there for any other if our bodies then be the bodies of holy Saints then into the holy City with them and not else no part in the new Ierusalem if no part in the old no portion above if none below no place there with Angels if no communion here with Saints no happiness in heaven if no holiness on earth They are the bodies of the Saints you hear that go into the holy City they that rise from the sleep of sin and awake to righteousness that rise from the dust of death to the rays of glory And this now may hint us of our duty to close with them for the close of all It has been shewed before what is the first Resurrection without which there is no second namely a life of holiness a dying to sin and a living unto God And this is a Resurrection we are not meerly passive in as in the other We must do somewhat here towards our own Resurrection at least to finish it We must open our mouths which are too often what David stiles the wicked mans throat even open Sepulchres and by confession send out our dead our dead works confessing our iniquities we must awake out of our sins and arise and stand up by holy vows and resolutions rear up our heads and eyes and hearts and hands to heaven seek those things that are above if we be risen with Christ get up upon our feet and be walking the way of Gods commandments walking to him get us into the holy City to the holy place make our humble appearance there express the power of Christs Resurrection in our life attend him through all the parts of it all our life long This the great business we are now going to requires of us more particularly to come to it like new rais'd bodies that had now shaken off all their dust all dusty earthly thoughts laid aside their Grave-cloths all corrupt affections that any way involv'd them and stood up all new all fitly composed for the holy City drest up in holiness and newness of life thus come forth to meet our new risen Saviour and appear before him This the way to meet the benefits of his Passion and Resurrection for coming so with these Saints out of their Graves Christs Grave also shall open and give him to us the Cup and Patine wherein his body lies as in a kind of Grave shall display themselves and give him to us the Spirit of Christ shall raise and and advance the holy Elements into lively Symbols which shall effectually present him to us and he will come forth from under those sacred shadows into our Cities our Souls and Bodies if they be holy and his grace and sweetness shall appear to many of us to all of us that come in the habit of the Resurrection in white Robes with pure and holy hearts Here indeed of all places and this way above all ways we are likeliest to meet our Lord now he is risen and gone before us this the chief way to be made partakers of his Resurrection and the fittest to declare both his Death and Resurrection the power of them till his coming again And to declare and speak of them is the very duty of the day the very Grave this day with open mouth professes Christ is risen and gives praise for it that it is no longer a land of darkness but has let in light no longer a bier of death but a bed of sleep But shall thy loving kindness O Lord be known in the dark or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee yes holy Prophet they shall they did to day and if his loving kindness shall not be known in the dark the dark places shall become light now the sun of righteousness has risen upon them But shall the dead rise up again and praise him and shall not we shall the graves open and shall not our hearts be opened to receive him nor our mouths to praise him for it Was it the business of the dead Saints to day to rise to wait upon their Lord and shall not the living rise to bear them company shall the whole City ring of it out
encouraged and confirmed him in it 4. His profession at it Behold said he I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God In those words he professed his faith and proclaimed his vision of it By this manner of considering it we shall do St. Stephen right and Christmas no wrong remember St. Stephens Martyrdom and yet not forget Christs being at it celebrate St. Stephens memory and yet no way omit Christs He being here to be lookt on as encourager of St. Stephens Martyrdom as much as St. Stephen for his Professor and Martyr By all together we shall fully understand the requisites of a Martyr what is required to make one such to be full of the Holy Ghost to look up stedfastly into heaven to look upon Christ as there and as boldly to profess it to be full of Grace and Spirit full of Piety and Devotion full of Faith and Hope full of Courage and Resolution all proportionably requisite to the spiritual Martyrdom of dying to the world and leaving all for Christ requisite too all of them in some measure to dye well at any time the very sum of the Text to be learn'd hence and practis'd by us If I add all requisite to keep Christmas too as it should be kept with Grace and Devotion with Faith and courage also against all that shall oppose it that our Christmas business be to be filled with the Spirit and not with meats and drinks to look up to Heaven to look up to Iesus and never to be afraid or ashamed to profess it there is nothing then in the Text to make it the least unseasonable I go on therefore to handle it part by part The first is St. Stephens accommodation to his Martyrdom how he stands fitted for it And surely he could not be better Full of the Holy Ghost Ghost is Spirit and what more necessary to a Martyr then a spirit The dreaming sluggish temper is not fit to make a Martyr he must have Spirit that dares look Death soberly in the face Yet every Spirit neither will not make a Martyr there are mad spirits in the world they call them brave ones though I know not why that rush headily upon the points of Swords and Rapiers yet bring these gallant fellows to a Scaffold or a Gibbet the common reward of their foolish rashness which they mis-reckon'd valour and you shall see how sheepishly they die how distractedly they look how without spirit The spirit that will bear out a shameful or painful death without change of countenance or inward horrour must be holy Where the Spirit is holy the Conscience pure the Soul clean the man dies with life and spirit in his looks as if he were either going to his bed or to a better place 'T is a holy life that fits men to be Martyrs But spirit and a holy Spirit is not enough to make a Martyr neither though the Martyrs spirit must be a holy one yet to dispose for martyrdom the holy Spirit must come himself with a peculiar power send an impulse and motion into the soul and spirit that shall even drive it to the stake And every degree of power will not do it it must be a full gale of holy wind that can cool the fiery Furnace into a pleasing walk that can make death and torments seem soft and easie Full of the Holy Ghost it is that Stephen is said to be e're we hear him promoted to the glory of a Martyr The Spirit of holiness will make a man die holily and the holy Spirit make him die comfortably but the fulness of him is required to make him die couragiously without fear of death or torment cruelty or rage By this you may now guess at Martys who they are not they that die for their folly and their humour not they 2. that die without holiness not every one 3. that dies as we say with valour and spirit not they that die upon the motion of any spirit but the holy one that one holy Spirit not they that die in Schism and Faction against the unity of this Holy Spirit the peace of his Holy Church none of these die Martyrs die Souldiers or valiant Heathen or men of spirit they may but men of the holy Spirit Martyrs they die not They only die such that have lived holily die in holy Cause in a holy Faith and in the peace of holy Church as in the Faith of one Holy Spirit ruling and directing it into unity upon good ground and warrant and a strong impulsion so to do without seeking for or voluntarily and unnecessarily thrusting themselves into the mouth of death And yet there are strange impulses I must tell you of the spirit of Martyrdom which ordinary souls or common pieties cannot understand Only we must know that the spirit of Martyrdom is the spirit of Love the very height of love to God which how that can consist with the spirit of Schism whereby we break the unity of Brethren or how a man can so highly love God as to dye for him and hate his Spouse the Church or his Brethren is inimaginable Some other engines there may be as vain-glory an obstinate humour of seeming constant to a false principle an ignorant and self-willed zeal which may sometimes draw a man to die but if the fulness of peace and charity does not appear there is no fulness of the Holy Ghost and they make themselves and their deaths but Martyrs that is witnesses of their own folly He that pretends to be a Martyr must have more then a pretence to the Spirit of charity II. And not to charity only but to devotion too He must 2. prepare himself for it stedfastly look up to Heaven nay into Heaven too fill his Spirit with divine and heavenly provision for it with St. Stephen here Who 1. looks up to Heaven as to his Country whither he was a going He longs earnestly to be there His soul with holy David's has a desire and longing to enter thither He that looks but seriously up to Heaven and beholds that glorious Building those starry Spangles those azure Curtains those lustrous bodies of the Sun and Moon that vast and splendid circumference of these glistering dwellings cannot but thirst vehemently to be there soul and flesh thirst for it O how brave a place is Heaven how brave even but to look on But if he can look as here it seems St. Stephen did into heaven too and contemplate the happy Choirs of blessed Saints and Angels the ineffable beauty of those inward Courts the ravishing Melody and Musick they make the quiet peace and happiness that pleasure joy and fulness of satisfaction and contentment there the majestick presence and blessed sight of God himself with all the store-houses of blessedness and glory full about him his very soul will be even ready to start with violence out of his body to fly up thither He that looks thus stedfastly looks
way is an inconquerable difficulty a Lion when the souls business is to be gone about Hear but St. Austin chide you as once he chid himself Tu non poteris quod istae istae istae What says he canst not thou do that which so many weak and tender Women so many little Children so many of all sexes ages and conditions have so often done before thee and thought so easie 'T is a shame to say so But suppose thou art infirm indeed and canst not do so much as perhaps thou would'st do else canst thou do nothing If thou canst not watch canst thou not fast sometimes If thou canst not fast canst thou not endure a little hunger thirst or cold or pains for Heaven neither If all these seem hard canst thou not be temperate neither canst thou not bring thy self to it by degrees by exercise and practice neither Or if thou canst not watch a night canst thou not watch an hour do somewhat towards it if thou canst not fast from all kind of meat canst thou not abstain at least from some from dainties and delicates If not often canst thou not at such a time as this when all Christians ever used to do it Sure he that cannot fast a meal may yet feed upon courser fare He that cannot do any of these long may do all of them some time may exercise himself in a little time to the hardest of them all Let 's then however set a doing somewhat for God's sake let 's be Christians a little at the least let 's do somewhat that is a kin to the antient piety watch or fast or somewhat in some degree or other that the world may believe that we are Christians Why should we be castaways from the profession too But indeed he that will do nothing for fear of being a castaway in the Text I despair he should do any thing upon any other concernment He that ualues his body above his soul his ease and pleasure above Heaven his temporal satisfaction above his eternal salvation there is no more to be said of him if St. Paul say true he must be a castaway I am too long but I must not end with so sad a word All that has been said or preacht is not that any should be but that not any should be cast-away only lest they should 'T is in our own hands to hinder it 'T is but a few hours taken from our sleep and employedon Heaven 'T is but a little taken from our full Dishes and groaning Tables and gorged Stomachs taken from our own bodies and bestowed upon the poors 'T is but a little strictness to our bodies that sets all strait 'T is but the keeping the body under and the soul in awe and all is safe The keeping down the body now shall raise up both soul and body at the last the holy fear of being castaways shall keep you safe from ever being so the bringing the body into subjection here shall bring it hereafter into a Kingdom where all our fears shall be turned into joys our feasting into fasting our watching into rest all our hardships into ease and pleasure and these very corruptible bodies here kept under shall be there exalted into incorruption where we shall meet the full reward of all our pains and labours we of our preaching you of your hearing all of us of all the good works we have done all the sufferings that we shall suffer the everlasting Crown of Righteousness the incorruptible and eternal Crown of Glory Which he give us at that day who expects such things from us in these days to approve us at that God the Father Son and Holy Spirit To whom be all glory c. A SERMON ON THE Third Sunday in Lent ROM viii 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death THose things were sins and sinful courses These words an Argument to disswade from them St. Pauls great Argument to disswade from sin and the service of it An Argument then which there can be no greater nothing be said more or more home against it Nothing more against it than that nothing comes of it but shame and ruine nothing more home than that which comes home to our own bosoms makes our selves the Judges our own consciences and experiences the Umpires of the business What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed says our Apostle Ye your selves tell me if you can What had ye then says he to the Romans here What have ye now say I to you ye who ere you are still or what had ye ever any of you who have at any time given up your members to uncleanness or to any iniquity What have ye gotten by it Bring in your Accompt set down the Income reckon up the gains sum up the Expences and Receipts and tell me truly what it is Or if you be ashamed to tell it give the Apostle leave to do it Fruit ye had none of it that 's certain Shame ye have by it that 's too sure and death you shall have if you go on in it nothing surer for the end of those things is death What reason then to commit or continue in them That 's St. Pauls meaning by the question as if he had said Ye have no reason in the world at all to pursue a course so fruitless so dishonourable so desperate as your selves have found and will still find your sins to be Thus the Text you see is a disswasive from sin and all unrighteousness drawn here from these four Particulars 1. The fruitlesness and unprofitableness 2. The shame and dishonour 3. The mischief and damage of it And 4. our own experience of them all The unprofitableness in the enjoyment the shame in the remembrance the damage in the conclusion of every sin and our own experience call'd in to witness to it The unprofitableness 1. without fruit What fruit had ye That is no fruit had ye none at all There 's the fruitlesness of sin none for the time past None 2. for the present nothing but what ye are now ashamed of there 's the shame and dishonour of sin None 3. for the future neither unless it be death there 's the damage of sin no fruit past present or to come but shame and death And all this Ye know says St. Paul as well as I. I appeal to your selves and your own experience What fruit had ye I dare stand to your own confessions I dare make your selves the judges Now sum up the Argument and thus it runs Were there any profit O ye Romans in your trade of sin I might perhaps be thought too hard to press so much upon you to perswade you from it Or though there were no profit yet 2. if there were some credit in it something perhaps might be said for your continuance in it Or though there were neither profit nor credit for the
it with the highest hand and needs not fear a contradiction or a power to controul or punish him why he varnishes over his wickedness with false colours and glosses all his actions either with the name of Piety and Religion Reformation and Purity Justice and Integrity Conscience and I know not what Why he sometimes excuses it with necessity sometimes extenuates it with infirmity sometimes pleads ignorance false information or mistake sometimes makes one pretence sometimes another Does he not evidently and plainly tell you by so doing he is even asham'd of the things that he has done though he bear it out with all the confidence he can He cannot utterly cast off shame though he has done shamefac'dness We may confidently say to him Those very things thou even seem'st to glory in thou art really no other than asham'd of Now there is a three-fold shame a natural a vertuous and a penal shame a shame that naturally and even against our wills attends every unhandsome action A godly shame 2. that should always follow upon it And 3. a shame that will else e're long pursue it The first or natural is that which through the modesty of nature not yet habituated to the impudence of wickedness rises e're we are aware from the guilt and foulness of sin either discovered or feared to be so That 's the reason that the eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twi-light Job xxiv 15. to hide his reproach That the Drunkard us'd in former times though now grown gallant on it to be drunk in the night 1 Thess. v. 7. being asham'd as civility went then to be seen so disguised in the day That the Heretick and Schismatick us'd in the Apostles times though now grown confident to come creeping into Widows houses and hide themselves behind Curtains and Aprons asham'd of their Schisms and new Doctrines at the first 2 Tim. iii. 6. That still the Thief by night and the sly Cheat and covetous Extortioner by underhand dealing in the day strive to conceal the designs and practices which only night and darkness are thought fit to cover or give a tolerable shadow too Even our vanities within a while make us asham'd of them We are within a few days in a huge confusion to be seen in our finest Clothes and newest Fashions we were the other day so proud of rather naked than in a fashion that has another grown upon it Indeed when any of our sins great or little take hold upon us then as the Prophet David professes we are not able to look up Psal. xl 15. so asham'd they make us None but Absolom none but the wickedest sons of Rebellion sin upon the house top at noon day all the people looking on Yet even for all that there must be a Tent even for such as he some thin Veil or other some Silk or linen Scarf or Curtain to cover his wickedness in the upshot 2 Sam. xvi 22. So natural a fruit and companion is shame to any sin or sinner Sin is more than sin when shame is gone when that is lost 2. Yet if so be this kind of modest shame should be laid asleep a while through the custom and habit of a sin there is a second sort of shame that must be thought on the shame that accompanies repentance Sin must have repentance and repentance will have shame Yea what shame what or how great I cannot tell you but shame it must work if it be true Shame of our ingratitude to God shame of our unhandsomness to men shame of the disparagement we have done our nature shame of the dishonour we have done our selves in committing things so foul so brutish so unreasonable this the properest of the three shames we mentioned to this place which it seems the Romans were here come to and is a business we are obliged to to repent us and be ashamed of our sins to be ashamed and blush with Ezra to lift up our faces because our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses grown up into the Heavens Ezra ix 6. 3. And if this we be not there is another-gates shame will overtake us shame 3. and confusion of face if we be not ashamed of our sins we shall e're long be ashamed for them come to shame and dishonour by them such a kind of shame as the Prophet Isaiah speaks of Isa. i. 29. Ye shall be ashamed of the Oaks which ye have desired and ye shall be confounded for the gardens which ye have chosen your very enemies shall laugh you to scorn the very Oaks and Trees shake their heads at you in derision your Gardens bring you forth no other fruit All that pass by shall wag their heads and hiss at you Ier. xix 8. Ye shall be a curse and an astonishment and an hissing and a reproach to all Nations Ier. xxix 18. and a shameful spewing shall be on your glory Hab. ii 16. To this our ill courses will bring us at the last and yet to worse even to death too For the end of those things is death that 's the third Particular the third Argument against sin the mischief and damage of it in the end and comes next to be consider'd III. A sad end truly and but sorry wages for all the pains and drudgry that sins put us to St. Paul here thinks it not worth the name of fruit Yet what fruit sin brings if you will call it fruit 't is unto death Rom. vii 5. But if there were any other death so nigh at heels would devour it all Sin when it is finished when 't is at the height compleat and perfected it bringeth forth death says St. Iames i. 15. that 's the end God knows And a threefold death it brings a temporal a spiritual and an eternal death For the first Thou shalt die the death was threatned to it before it came into the world Gen. ii 17. And no sooner came it but death came by it death by sin Rom. v. 12. And it past thence upon all men too All men ever since have been subjected to it All have died and all must die for that one sin Ever after that first sinful morsel all are become like the beasts that perish Psal. xlix 12. So that the wisest of men had much ado to distinguish between their ends Eccles. iii. 19 20. As the one dieth says he so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that a man hath no preheminence above a beast All go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again Only indeed a little after ver 21. he perceives a kind of glimmering as it were of the humane Spirits going upward yet with this lessening for all that of who knoweth it who can certainly demonstrate and distinguish and define the difference so deeply has sin engaged us unto death that there is no escaping and the shadows of it are so great that there is no discovering of differences in the
to wait upon their Lord that had now set them at liberty from the Grave and divulge the greatness and glory of his Resurrection When Moses and Elias appeared upon the holy Mount at Christs transfiguration talking with him St. Luke tells us they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem St. Luke ix 31. And 't is highly credible the discourse of these Saints with those to whom they appeared was of his Resurrection Their going into the City was not meerly to shew themselves nor their appearance meerly to appear but to appear Witnesses and Companions of their Saviours Resurrection Nor is it probable that the Saints whose business is to sing praise and glory to their Lord should be silent at this point of time of any thing that might make to the advancement of his glory Yet you may do well to take notice that it is not to all but to many only that they appeared to such as St. Peter tells us of Christs own appearance after his Resurrection as were chosen before of God witnesses chosen for that purpose Acts x. 41. that we may learn indeed to prize Gods favours yet not all to look for particular revelations and appearances 'T is sufficient for us to know so many Saints that slept arose to tell it that so many Saints that are now asleep St. Peter and the Twelve St. Paul and five hundred brethren at once all saw him after he was risen so many millions have faln asleep in this holy Faith so many slept and died for it that it is thus abundantly testified both by the dead and living both by life and death even standing up and dying for it and a Church raised upon this faith through all the corners of the earth and to the very ends of the world But to know the truth of it is not enough unless we know the benefits of Christs Resurrection they come next to be considered and there is in the words evidence sufficient of four sorts of them 1. The victory over sin and death both the Graves were opened 2. The Resurrection of the soul and body the one in this life the other at the end of it many dead bodies that slept arose 3. The sanctification and glorification of our souls and bodies the dead bodies that arose out of the graves went into the holy City 4. The establishing us both in grace and glory they appeared unto many All these says the Text after his Resurrection by the force and vertue of it Indeed it seems the graves were opened death almost vanquished and the grave near overcome whilst he yet hung upon the Cross before he was taken thence deaths sting taken out by the death of Christ and all the victories of the grave now at an end that it could no longer be a perpetual prison yet for all that the victory was not complete all the Regions of the Grave not fully ransackt nor the forces of it utterly vanquisht and disarm'd nor its Prisoners set at liberty and it self taken and led captive till the Resurrection 'T is upon this Point St. Paul pitches the victory and calls in the Prophets testimony 1 Cor. xv 54. upon this 't is he proclaims the triumph ver 55. O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory even upon the Resurrection of Iesus Christ which he has been proving and proclaiming the whole Chapter through with all its benefits and concludes it with his thanks for this great victory ver 57. So it is likewise for the death and grave of sin the chains of sin were loosed the dominion of it shaken off the Grave somewhat opened that we might see some light of grace through the cranies of it by Christs Passion but we are not wholly set at liberty not quite let out of it the Grave-stone not perfectly removed from the mouth of it till the Angel at the Resurrection or rather the Angel of the Covenant by his Resurrection remove it thence remove our sins and iniquities clean from us 2. Then indeed 2. the dead soul arises then appears the second benefit of his Resurrection then we rise to righteousness and live 1 Pet. ii 24. then we awake to righteousness and sin no more So St. Paul infers it That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father even so should we also walk in newness of life Rom 6. 4. This Resurrection one of the ends of his our righteousness attributed to that as our Redemption to his death From it it comes that our dead bodies arise too Upon that Iob grounds it his Resurrection upon his Redeemers Iob xix 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth well What then Why I know too therefore that though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God The Apostle interweaves our Resurrection with Christs and Christs with ours his as the cause of ours ours as the effect of his a good part of 1 Cor. 15. If Christ be risen then we if we then he if not he not we if not we not he And in the Text 't is evident no rising from the dead how open soever the graves be till after his Resurrection that we may know to what Article of our faith we owe both our deliverance from death and our deliverance into life here in soul and hereafter in our bodies by what with holy Iob to uphold our drooping spirits our mangled martyr'd crazy bodies by the faith of the Resurrection that day the day of the Gospel of good tidings to be remembred for ever 3. So much the rather in that 't is a Day yet of greater joy a messenger of all fulness of grace and glory to us of the means of our sanctification 3. of our rising Saints living the lives of Saints holy lives and of our glorification our rising unto glory both doors opened to us now and not till now liberty and power given us to go into the holy City both this below and that above now after his Resurrection and through it He rose again says St. Paul for our justification Rom. iv 25. to regenerate us to a lively hope blessed be God for it says St. Pet. i. 3. that we might be planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection says St. Paul Rom. vi 5. grow up like him in righteousness and true holiness and when the day of the general Resurrection comes rise then also after his likeness be conformed to his Image bear his Image who is the heavenly as we have born the Image of the earthly our vile body chang'd and fashioned like his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. iii. 21. whereby in the day of his Resurrection he subdued death and grave and sin and all things to him 4. And to shew the power of his Resurrection to the full there is an appearing purchast to us by it an appearing here in the fulness
sinneth not 1 John v. 18. He is able with Simeon to break all the cords of it to smite all such Philistims before him when this Spirit comes upon him Nor Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature can overcome him Rom. viii 38. Over all these he is more than Conquerour Those things which before we were regenerate seem'd impossible when we are once born again are light and easie we can do any thing then through his Spirit that dwelleth in us Stablish us once with this free Spirit and 't is not cold or nakedness hunger or thirst wearisome journeys or dangerous shipwracks stripes or imprisonments racks or gibbets fire or faggot that can force us from our hold or over-power us This very Spirit upholds us in all our pains and at length blows away every thing that troubles or offends us Nor is this Spirit only a Spirit of Power but 2. of Liberty also and where the Spirit is there there is Liberty says St. Paul 2. Cor. 3. 17. that is he that has it is free too Free he is 1. from the bondage of Moses Law redeem'd from under that Gal. iv 5 6. Free 2. though not from the Obligations yet from the Rigours of the Moral Law Gal. iii. 13. Rom. vii 6. Free 3. from Sin made free from that Rom. vi 18. from the Dominion of it Free 4. from the Captivity of the Devil recovered out of his snares 2 Tim. ii 26. Free lastly from the Dominion of Death the sting of it is lost the victory of it gone 1 Cor. xv 55. So is every one free that is born of the Spirit Well may now his fame go out into all the World and his name into all the corners of the earth And indeed it does so in the next words in the next Point of the similitude Thou hearest the sound thereof Evident it is and evident it is to any heard it may be and any one may hear it Thou and Thou and Thou every Thou that will Evident it is first The Spirit is not a fancy nor are the Operations of it so neither The Spirit though it cannot be seen it self yet something there is of it that may be heard heard somewhat of it by the hearing of the ear the effects not always in the understanding only these very ears we carry are oft refresht with the sound of it our very senses sensible of the strength and power of it And he that tells us of grace or Religion all within of so serving God in the Spirit that neither our own nor other bodies are the better for it or shew any signs of it has turn'd his Religion and Devotion into air and imagination and not to Spirit By his fruits you shall know as well the spiritual man as the Prophet Nor has he secondly one peculiar ear-mark one tone and canting Dialect to discern him by He that is born of the Spirit is a free and noble and generous Spirit uses a Language that every body may understand 'T is not the Mystery of the Spirit but the Mystery of Iniquity that thus invelops it self in a private and affected Phrase which sounds 't is to be fear'd the Spirit of Schism Singularity and Rebellion and not of Love and Peace And yet as plain a sound as the Spirits is it is not lastly without some obscurity but that is not of the sound that 's plain and open but of the motion and course of which we may have leave to be ignorant and in many things can be no other That 's the last point wherein the Spirit and spiritual man are like Thou canst no more tell whence or whither those great things the regenerate man acts are than whence the wind or Spirit comes or whither it goes 4. But that so it is the amazements and doubts that this Day possessed those who were the witnesses of the wonders of this days work and their several judgments and conjectures concerning the Apostles this day filled with this holy Spirit will make it without question Some said What meaneth this Others said mocking these men are full of new wine All were amazed and in doubt Acts ii 12 13. The Apostles seem'd such strange things to them now since the Holy Ghost had faln upon them that they knew not new what to make of them or of any thing they did In the progress afterward of their lives and courses they were as little understood as much misconstrued by the world They were thought fools and mad-men when most wise and sober Acts xxvi 24. condemn'd for wicked when they were most innocent reckon'd the scum and off-scouring of the world 1 Cor. iv 13. when they were the Treasures and Jewels of it judg'd as dying when they only truly liv'd accounted sorrowful yet were always rejoycing esteemed poor yet so far from being so that they made many rich thought to have nothing and yet possessed all things 2 Cor. vi 9 10. So it was then so it always was so it ever will be The World will never never can conceive the nature and way of him that is born of the Spirit 1 Cor. ii 14. We know not what to make even of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text whether to read it born or begotten for 't is both and how he should be both by the same Spirit or how the same Spirit should be both Father and Mother to him we cannot tell How he is begotten by the Spirit how he is new born the ways of his brith the ways of his life the way of his death how he is wrought and form'd and moulded out of his old stiff stubborn temper into mildness and softness how the old man is mortified in all his members how the new man rises and grows in all his parts how he resists so many strong temptations how he can so chearfully renounce the World how he can so wholly deny himself how he can so merrily pursue a troublesome and despised vertue why he should do all this when there appears nothing but trouble sorrow and disadvantage by it are all mysteries so obscure and dark that night it self is mid-day to them Nor is it less to see with what calmness and contentedness he passes hence through pains and tortures nor can we conceive the glory and happiness that attends him Thus is the spiritual Heroe's life and death a mystery so far above the apprehension of dull-ey'd earth that it knows no more of its course or motion than it does of the winds neither what it is nor whence it comes nor whither it goes But after all these mysteries I end in plainness 'T is a Day indeed as well as a Text of mysteries and wonders but both Day and Text and Wind and Spirit will be all satisfied if they can leave these plain Lestons upon our Spirits That 1. we now get us up with Elijâ—h 1 King xix
First-born he will be ever should be of all our thoughts will be acknowledged so whensoever born primogenitus one before whom none for that only is the sense of First-born here not referring to any after but to none before Col. i. 14. begotten before any creature in honour above all creatures endued with all the rights of primogeniture even as man also Now three things belonged to the First-born Son the Priesthood the preheminence or regal Dignity and a double or larger portion He is the High-Priest of our profession Heb. iii. 1. The great High-Priest of the Christian Profession and Religion He 2. the Head of his Church Col. i. 18. To whom all power is given in heaven and earth S. Mat. xxviii 18. He 3. also anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal. xlv 8. A portion of grace far above others S. Iohn i. 16. That in all things he might have the preheminence being the First-born as well of the dead as of the living says S. Paul Col. i. 18. All these mysteries we have wrapt up in the title of the First-born that by it he is intimated to be our Prince our Priest our elder Brother one in whom all fulness who should be therefore so acknowledg'd and us'd be first entertain'd in our affections be the first birth our souls should travel with and our affections and actions bring forth But there are more wrapt up in his being wrapt in Swadling-clothes then can readily be exprest All the benefits that came by him were wrapt up and not understood till the Clothes both of the Manger and the Grave were unwrapt by his Resurrection He seem'd not what he was shewed not what he came for until then All the while before nothing but folds and things folded up the Cross made up or involved in his Cratch for of the form of a Cross the Cratch some say was made mans salvation in Gods Incarnation the Churches growth in the Virgins bringing forth many brethren in the First-born among them His Glory 2. that was wrapt up in those Clothes his God-head in the Man-hood the Word in Flesh Eternity in days Righteousness in a body like to a body of Sin Wisdom in the infancy of a Child Abundance in Poverty Glory in disrespect the Fountain of Grace in a dry barren dusty Land eternal light in Clouds and everlasting life in the very image of death will you see the Clothes that hid this treasure not from men only but from Devils The espousals of just Ioseph and holy Mary hid Christs Conception of a Virgin The crying of an Infant in a Cradle the bringing forth without sorrow The Purification her entire Virginity The Circumcision his extraordinary Generation without any sin His flight conceal'd his Power his Baptism his unspotted Innocence His open Prayers to his Father his infinite Authority and Equality with him His sad sufferings obscur'd his perfect Righteousness The poverty and meanness of his life the height and greatness of his Birth and the ignominy of his Death the immensity of his Glory His Gospel 3. that was wrapt up in Clothes that seeing we might see and not presently understand a mystery kept secret since the world began his Doctrine wrapt in parables his Grace covered in the Sacraments the inward Grace in the outward Elements his great Apostolick Function in poor simple Fishermen his Vniversal Church in a few obscur'd Disciples of Iudea the height of his knowledge in the simplicity of Faith the excellency of his Precepts in the plainness of his Speech and the Glory of the end they drive to in the humility of the way they lead well may the Prophet exclaim Vere tu es Deus absconditus Psal. lv 15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour Well may we admire thy folds and wrappings up O God and not strive to pry into thy secrets thy goings out and thy comings in and all thy counsels are past finding out to thee only it belongs to know them to us to obey and submit to them and adore them Yet 4. he was thus wrapt up to shew us our condition that the beauty and sweetness of Christianity as well as Christ of Christians as well as Christ appears not outwardly or but in rags We cannot see the Christians strength for the weaknesses that surround him nor his joy for the afflictions that encompass him nor his happiness for the worldly calamities that oppress him nor his wisdom for the foolishness of Preaching that so much delights him nor his riches for the poor condition he is sometimes brought to nor his honour for the scoffs and reproaches of the world he often labours under He seems unknown when he is well known dying when he only lives kill'd when he is but chastned sorrowful though always rejoycing poor yet making rich as having nothing and possessing all things 2 Cor. vi 9 10. Thus the Christian you see is wrapt up as soon as he is born nay and his very life also is wrapt up with Christ in God Col. iii. 3. Nay lastly our practice and duty is wrapt up with him He is wrapt up in poor Clothes that we might be wrapt up in stolâ primâ the best Robe his Robe of Righteousness that we might put on the white Linen of the Saints Wrapt up again 2. he was his hands and feet bound up like a Childs that by the vertue of it our hands and feet might be loosed to do the works of Christ and run the way of peace he is made a Child that we might be perfect men in him he brought forth that we might bring forth the fruits of good works and godly living The next mysteries lie coucht with him in the Manger where in a strait and narrow compass he lies that he may open Heaven wide to all believers all that keep a strait and strict watch over their ways and actions Where 2. uses to lie the Beasts provender there lies he also who is the bread that came down from Heaven to feed us who are often more unreasonable than the Beasts they know their owner the Oxe and Ass does so says God but my people do not theirs they will but satisfie nature we burthen it they will but eat and drink to satisfie men are grown so sensual they cannot be satisfied We have made our selves fit for the Manger which made Christ lie there to see if he could fill us seeing nothing can 3. In the Manger among the Beasts that we might sadly consider what we have made our selves and change our sensual lives now he is come into the Stable to call us out 4. There he lies in a place without any furniture or trimming up that we might by the place be instructed that the beauty of Christ wants no external setting out that 2. his beauty is omnis ab intus all within and his Spouse is all glorious within Psal. xlv That 3. our eyes might not be diverted from him by
and therein his own with all his Offices besides 2. Iesus is his name that signifies a Saviour and that speaks him God Ego sun◠praeter me non est Isa. xliii 11. None can be truly so but He. But his coming into the world that shewed us he was man There 's both his natures And 3. In the title of Sinners there 's our own that tells us what we poor things are poor wretched sinners that want a Saviour Lastly his coming into the world is but a short expression of all he did and suffered in it and to save sinners is to take thence a Church unto himself to purifie and cleanse them from their sins to raise them first from the death of Sin here to the life of Righteousness to the communion of Saints and to raise them at last from the death of the Grave unto the life of Glory yea the communion of Saints hereafter This is the sum of the Christian Faith and 't is all summ'd up here all the Articles of the Creed nay the whole Gospel it self in this one single period Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners A saying which is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now not only faithful but the full Faith it self Faithful it is 4. in another acception Fidelis est qui nunquam fallet not like those Aquae infideles that the Prophet Ieremiah complains of Ier. xv 18. those faithless streams those shallow brooks that fail and dry away when we most need them When all other waters fail us this Fountain that was set open for Iudah and Ierusalem Ezek. xiii 1. will run still When all other comforts are dried up and gone this of Christ Jesus coming will be coming still When all other sayings put together will not heal our wounds nor refresh our weariness nor cool our heat nor quench our drowth this will do all When all things else desert and leave us and nor Friends nor Fortunes nor Wit nor Eloquence nor Strength nor Policy will help us this will be faithful to us this Christ Jesus will stand to us No such well-spring of life in the world as he and nothing can come so bad to us in the world but his coming makes good a world of good of Nay this very saying that he came into the world to save sinners and the chiefest not excepted well laid to will stick close to us in all distresses disperse the terrors of our sins defeat the devices of the Devil to disturb and fright us this will support us in our weaknesses sustain us in our faintings raise us out of our despairs relieve us in our sicknesses ease us in our pains refresh us in our agonies comfort us on our death-beds revive us when we are even dead go with us out of the world and never leave us till it has brought and laid us at his feet who came to save us and is not willing that any should perish says S. Peter ii 3 9. No not the greatest sinner not any first or last 5. Well may this saying 5. pass for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now as St. Ambrose and St. Augustine seem to have read it as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be stiled humanus or jucundus sermo a sweet and pleasant saying as well as faithful Pleasing and joyful news it is to hear that such a person as this speaks of is come among us for all the while we were without this Christ we were says St. Paul without God too in the world Ephes. ii 12. From his coming only it is that we can say with St. Peter Bonum est esse hic that 't is good being here that the world is worth the staying in It were not without him no company worth being with till he came no pleasure in it till he brought it with him For this it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes no mistake the saying may be said pleasant without an error Indeed what more pleasant if to save sinners be his coming liberty and health and life and salvation are pleasing news liberty to the Captives health to the Sick life to the Dying salvation to the lost and perishing and to save sinners is to give all of them to them all Such a saying to them must needs please them all And upon this we must needs allow it lastly to be faithful in another sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fide dignus a saying worthy of our faith worth our believing All true and certain and profitable nay and pleasing sayings are not so No matter whether some of them believed or no. This is a truth of so great concernment and so truly all that St. Paul himself that great Doctor of the world is content nay determin'd to know nothing else nothing but Iesus Christ and him Crucified 1 Cor. ii 2. Him crucified is him come into the world to save sinners for by his Cross he sav'd them and upon his Cradle the foot of it was rear'd and from his coming into a cross and peevish world he began to be crucified and bear it All other knowledges are not worth the knowing all other truths not worth the believing the Law of Moses is but an A B C learning to this knowledge All the Iewish Kabala all the wise sentences of the wisest Rabbies all the wisdom of the Heathen world of all the world all that is without Christ Jesus in it but meer fables endless genealogies to no end or purpose all of them but to fill the head with empty notion and the heart with vexation and the tongue with strife all meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. iii. 8. Very dross and dung in respect of the knowledge of Christ Iesus coming into the world to save sinners Yet after all this were there not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them all were either not the chiefest sinners in or might not the chiefest of them make a particular application of it to himself were Christs coming only to a few and all the rest excluded by some inevitable decree there would be but a starv'd kind of comfort in it at the best nor could it well command our faith seeing it might so command us to believe a lye and cheat our selves To make the saying either worth the saying or the believing it must be applicable to the chiefest sinners and so 't is here and the greatest sinner among us may lay hold upon it And now it being a saying so faithful and true in it self faithful both to our Fathers and to us the fulfilling of their Faith and the ground of ours and the sum of it too a saying that will never fail us in any exigence and distress but bear up our spirits at every turn and stick firm to us upon all occasions a saying so pleasing so worthy of our Faith and so close to every one of us 't is worthy sure lastly of all acceptation all the best entertainment we can give it
by a Fire Here it was first he visited in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but a looking down from heaven till now a looking on us at a distance and that was a blessing too that he would any way look upon such poor worms as we it could not be construed visiting properly till this day came Now first it is so without a figure Yet is not good old Zachary too quick Does he not cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too soon our blessed Saviour was not yet born how says he then the Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Answer we might the good old man here prophesied 't is said so just the verse before and after the manner of Prophets speaks of things to come as done already But we need not this strain to help us out Christ was already really come down from heaven had been now three months incarnate had begun his visit had beheld the lowliness of his handmaid says his Blessed Mother ver 48. The Angel had told her twelve weeks since Her Lord was with her ver 28. of this Chapter Blessed Zachary understood it then no less than his Wife Elizabeth that proclaimed it ver 43. though he could not speak it As soon as he could he does and breaks out into a Song of Praise that was his prophesying for this new made Visit this new rais'd Salvation That word slipt e're I was aware comes in before the time But 't is well it did you might else perhaps have mistaken visiting for punishing so it went commonliest in Scripture till to day It does not here This business has alter'd it from its old acception And yet punishing sometimes is a blessing too 'T is a mercy we oft stand in need of to bring us home to God But it is infinitely a greater when he comes himself to fetch us home as now he does Shall I shew you how great it is Why then 1. It is a visit of Grace and honour that he made us here he visited us as great and noble persons do their inferiours to do them honour Hence Whence it is to me says St. Eliz. that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me c. ver 43. She good soul knew not how to value such an honour nor whence it was Whence then is this O Lord that the Lord of that Blessed Mother my Lord himself should come unto me That 's a far higher honour and no reason of it to be given but that so it shall be done to those whom this great King of Heaven and Earth delighteth thus to honour 'T is a blessing first this that we speak of by which God owns and honours us 2. It was a visit of Charity He visited his people as charitable men do the poor mans house to seek some occasion to bestow an Alms. He went about doing good says S. Peter Acts x. 38. As poor as he was and the Apostle tells us poor he was he had a bag for the poor S. Iohn xii 6. and for our sakes it was he became poor says S. Paul 2 Cor. viii 9. emptied bag and himself and all to make us rich His visit now 2. is a blessing that makes us rich 3. It was a visit of Service too He visited us as the Physician does his Patient to serve his necessity to cure and recover him The innumerable multitudes of the sick and lame and blind and deaf and dumb and Lepers and possessed that he daily healed and cured will sufficiently evince he visited them also as a Physician So 't was a blessing 3. that cures all diseases makes all sound and whole again 4. His visit 4. was a visit of brotherly love and kindness He visited us as David did his Brethren to supply their wants carry them provision and take their pledge 1 Sam. xvii 17. He did so and much more becomes himself by this visit our Provision makes his Body our meat and his Blood our drink and himself our pledge supplies all our defects and wants and enters himself body for body and soul for soul to make all good This a visiting no brother could do more no brother so much 5. His visit 5. was not of petty kindnesses but great mercies abundant mercies too He visited us as holy David says he does the earth Psal. lxv 9 11. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it thou makest it very plenteous Thou waterest her furrows thou sendest rain into the little Vallies thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it He not only furnishes our necessities but replenishes us with abundances makes us soft and plump and fat and fruitful by his heavenly dews and showers This 5. a visit of abundant superabundant mercies 6. His visit 6. was a visit of Friendship and that 's more yet He visited us as blessed Mary did her Cousin Elizabeth came to us to rejoyce and be merry with us So acquainted has he now made himself with us by this visit that he now vouchsafes to call us friends S. Iohn xv 15. he eats and drinks and dwells and tarries with us makes it his delight to be among the sons of men This is a visit I know not a name good enough to give it And yet lastly his visit was not of a common and ordinary friendship neither but of a friendship that holds to death He visited us as the Priest or Confessor does the dying man When health and strength and mirth and Physicians and Friends have all given us over he stands by and comforts us and leaves us not till he has fitted us wholly to his own bosom A visit of everlasting friendship or an everlasting visit was this visit in the Text. Thus I have shewed you a seven-fold visit that our Lord has made us made Gods first blessing into seven A visit of Honour a visit of Charity a visit of Service a visit of Kindness a visit of Mercy a visit of Friendship and a visit of everlasting Love All these ways he visited his people and still visits them all the ways he can imagine to bless them and do them good And yet I should have thought I had forgot one if it did not fall in with the blessing we are to consider next Redeeming For he visited us also as he is said to do the children of Israel Gen. l. 24. to bring us out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage He visited us to redeem us or visited and redeemed 2. Now if redeem'd Captives it seems we were And so we were under a fourfold Captivity To the World to Sin to Death and to the Devil The World 1. that had ensnared and fettered us so wholly taken us that it had taken away our names and we were called by the name of the World instead of that of Men as if we were grown such worldlings that we had even lost our natures and our names even the best of us the Elect are sometimes called
rude barbarisms had exempted them from the number of civil Common-wealths who did not deserve the name of people not of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without either Article or Adjective such as no body could point at with an Article or construe with an Adjective such as seem here to be excluded out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that yet one would think includes all Such as if you were to number up all the world you would leave out them to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to uncover and shew 'um to the world and out of their thick darkness to light them the way unto salvation Which brings me to the benefits together with the parties Light and Glory Light to the Gentiles Glory to Israel A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel I keep Gods method Fiat Lux begin with light Gen. i. 2. I need not tell you 't is a benefit Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is says the Preacher Eccles. xi 7. and Mordecai joyns light and gladness together Hest. viii 16. So salutare letificans it is salvation that brings joy and gladness with it 2. Light of all motions has the most sudden it even prevents the subtilest sense And was it not so with this salvation When all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course thine Almighty word leapt down from heaven out of thy Royal Throne Wisdom xviii 14. Salutare praeveniens vota Salvation that prevents our dreams and awakes our slumbering consciences 3. And when our eye-lids are past those slumbers then Lighten mine eyes O Lord that I sleep not in death Those dark chambers have no lights A light to lighten them a light to shew my self to my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reveal my inmost thoughts to shew me the ugly deformity of my sins will be a blessing Lumen revelans tenebras no dark-lanthorn light a light to shew us the darkness we are in our Salutare dispergens tenebras salvation that dispels the horrid darkness 4. And to do that the enlightning of the medium is not sufficient In conspectu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just before us it may be and the windows of our eyes damm'd up against it A light then to pierce the Organ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into it it must be Lumen penetrans oculum salvation not only presented to the eye but to the sight the eye fitly disposed to behold it 5. Every enlightning will not do that It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light of revelation No other will serve the turn not the light of nature not the dictates of reason not the light of moral vertues or acquired habits but something from above something infused such as comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine inspiration What light else no remedy but buried we must be in everlasting night Scriptures or revealed truth the revelation of Iesus Christ must save whoever shall be saved No man can come to me except the Father draw him St. John vi 44. No man lay hold upon the Name of Iesus or salvation but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Lumen divine revelationis salvation by the glorious light of Divine Revelation 6. There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet wants an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Revelation that wants a Revelation such as St. Iohns a dark one This an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lightsome one such as Revelations are when Prophesies are fulfilled of things past not things to come Lumen Revelationis revelatae a light of salvation as clear as day 'T is time now to ask whither it is this light and revelation lead us I shall answer you out of Zacharies Benedictus S. Luke i. 79. They guide our feet into the way of peace Send forth thy light and thy truth and they shall guide me Psal. xliii 3. So David guide me whither Psal. lvi 13. To walk before God in the light of the living One light to another the light of grace to the light of glory So Lumen dirigens or salutare pertingens ad coelum salvation leading up to heaven Sum up all Salvation to make us glad a light a light to comfort not a lightning to terrifie The lightnings shone upon the ground the earth trembled and was afraid no such no lightning Nor St. Paul's light a light to blind but to give light nor to play about the medium only but to open and dispose the weak dim eye Not by a weak glimmering of nature nor by a dusky twi-light but by a clear Revelation not an ignis fatuus to misguide us out of the way into bogs and quagmires but to guide us to peace and to salvation Lastly not a light to any to see only that they are inexcusable ut essent inexcusabiles that seeing they might see and not understand a light to light 'um down to Hell that they might see the way down through those gloomy shades with more ease horrour and confusion that 's the event indeed sometimes the end never but thither upward from whence it comes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the beginning of the Text to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end And can your thoughts prompt to your desires any greater benefits can you wish more And yet if we but consider in what plight the parties were upon whom the rays of this light shone the salvation will seem more beneficial They were in darkness and could any thing be more welcome to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death then a light to lighten That was the miserable case the Gentiles now were in Neither have the Heathen knowledge of his laws 't was so in Davids time and so continued on till this days rising Sun scattered the Clouds and now the case is altered Dedi te in lucem gentium fulfilled in his time The Gentiles now enlightned Enlightned what 's that Those that are baptized are said to be enlightned Heb. x. So the Gentiles enlightned will be in effect the Gentiles baptized Baptized they may be with water and they had need of some such cleansing element to wash their black dark sullied souls but there is another Baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire fire that 's light so to be baptized with light will be with the Holy Ghost 'T was heavy midnight through the world Iudea was the only Goshen the land of light till he that was born this day breaking down the partition that divided Palestine from the nations gave way for the light which before shone only there to disperse its saving beams quite through the world Then did they whose habitations were pitcht in the region of death whose dwellings in the suburbs of Hell see a marvellous great light spring up that 's salus personis accommodata salvation fitted to the parties Fitted and tempestively too to them
' um For our viderunt must not end when the Eucharist is past when we depart this sacred place I will take the cup of salvation says the Psalmist there it is do that here But I will rejoyce in thy salvation do so both here and at home Et exultabo and let me see you do so Let not your joy be stifled in your narrow bosoms but break out into expression into your lips into your hands Not in idle sports excess of diet or vain pomp of apparel not that joy the joy of the world but the joy of the Holy Ghost It is salvation that you have heard and seen and are yet to see to day what 's our duty now If it be salvation let us work it out with fear and trembling It is salvation to be seen some eminent work let us then confess we have seen strange things to day A most certain sure salvation it is let not a sacrilegious doubtful thought cast a mist upon it It is prepared let us accept it prepared for all let us thank God for so fair a compass and not uncharitably exclude our selves or others God has enlarg'd the bowels of his mercy let us not streighten ' um It is a light let us arise and walk after it It is a glory let us admire and adore it Was our Saviour seen so should we be every day in the Congregation was he prepared to day let us be always shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Does he enlighten us O let us never extinguish or hide that light till this light be swallowed up by the light of the Lamb till this day-spring from on high prove mid-day till Gentium and Israelis be friendly united in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no darkness to distinguish them no difference between light and glory till the beginning and end of the Text meet together in the circle of eternity till viderunt oculi meet with gloriam till our eyes may behold that light which is inaccessible that light and glory which know no other limits but infinite nor measure but eternity To which he bring us who this day put off his glory to put on salvation that by his salvation we might at length lift up our heads in glory whither he is again ascended and now sits together with his Father and the Holy Ghost To which three Persons and one God be given all praise and power and thanks and honour and salvation and glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON St. Stephens Day ACTS vii 55 56. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God And said Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God YEsterdays Child is to day you see become a man He that yesterday could neither stand nor go knew not the right hand from the left lay helpless as it were in the bosom of his Mother is to day presented to us standing at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father he whom earth yesterday entertained so poorly and obscurely heaven here this day openly glories in Now the horn of our salvation is raised up indeed the Church thus shewing us plainly to day what yesterday we could not see for the rags and stable that it was not a meer silly creature a poor child or man only that came to visit us but the Lord of Glory so making him some recompence as we may say to day for the poor case she shew'd him in yesterday But that 's not the business Yesterday was Christs Birth-day to day St. Stephens for Natalitia Martyrum the Birth-days of the Martys were their death-days call'd they then first said to be born when they were born to execution A day plac'd here so near to Christs that we might see as clear as day how dear and near the Martyrs are to him they lie even in his bosom the first visit he makes after his own death was to them to encourage them to theirs The first appearance of him in heaven after his return up was to take one of them thither And yet this is not all Christs Birth and the Martyrs Death are set so near to intimate how near death and persecution are to Christs Disciples how close they often follow the Faith of Christ so thereby to arm us against the fear of any thing that shall betide us even Death it self seeing it places us so near him seeing there are so fine visions in it and before it so fair glories after it as St. Stephen's here will tell you And if I add that Death is a good memento at a Feast a good way to keep us within our bounds in the days of mirth and jollity of what sort soever it may pass for somewhat like a reason why St. Stephen's death is thus serv'd in so soon at the first course as the second dish of our Christmas-Feast Nor is it for all that any disturbance to Christmas Joys The glorious prospect of St. Stephens Martyrdom which gives us here the opening of Heaven and the appearance then of Gods glory and of Christ in glory may go instead of those costly Masques of imagin'd Heavens and designed Gods and Goddesses which have been often presented in former times to solemnize the Feast We may see in that infinitely far more ravishing and pleasing sights than these which all the rarity of invention and vast charges could ever shew us Here 's enough in the Text to make us dance and leap for joy as if we would leap into the arms of him in Heaven who stands there as it were ready to receive us as he was to day presented to St. Stephen I may now I hope both to season and exalt our Christmas-Feast bring in St. Stephens story that part of it especially which I have chosen so full of Christ so full of glad and joyful sights and objects that it must needs add instead of diminishing our joy and gladness And yet if I season it a little now and then with the mention of Death it will do no hurt I must do so that you may not forget St. Stephens Martyrdom in the midst of the contemplation of the glory that preceded it That must not be for the day is appointed to remember it And though we shall not designedly come so far to decipher it having no more then the praeludium of his death before us we will not so far forget it but that we will take it into the division of the Text in which we shall consider these four particulars 1. His accommodation to his Death His being full of the Holy Ghost that fitted and disposed him to it 2. His preparation for it He looked up stedfastly into Heaven so that he prepared himself for it 3. His confirmation to it He saw the glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God that
born for Christ how happily are they all born to whom it is given to die for him Augustus was deceived very fouly out when he cried it was better to be Herods Hog then Herods Child that Child surely which died among these Innocents whatever his other were was born to a Throne of Glory to the only Crown and Kingdom Enough this to dry up Rachels tears to stop the tenderest Mothers moans at any time when she but thinks she hath brought forth a Child to Christ and placed him so soon in innocence and glory After the thoughts of this it cannot be grievous if I now tell you of their Martyrdom or Murther that as young and innocent and many as they were Herod sent forth and slew them all V. You must not look that I should give you here the several ways and modes of this bloody slaughter the various arts of this horrid murther the diverse schemes of barbarous cruelty the cunning sleights of those inhumane Butchers to delude the tender Mothers and train the innocent Infants to their deaths You must not expect I should decipher to you the horrible fury of that grand massacre the terrible countenance of the savage murtherers the gastly faces of the astonisht Parents the affrighted postures of the amazed Kindred and Allies the frights and flights of the little Children into holes and crannies the sad lamentations of weeping Mothers their dishevel'd hair their wringing hands their torn breasts and garments their wild frantick garbs their fights and struglings to preserve their babes the horrible screechings of the dying children the moans and sighs and groans that filled all the corners of the streets the cries and roarings and yellings that even rent the Heavens You must not think that I can tell you how those tender sucklings were some of them in a wanton cruelty danc'd upon the tops of Pikes and Spears others dasht savagely against the Walls some thrust through with Swords others stabb'd with Poniards some trampled to death upon the ground some strangled in their Cradles some stifled in their Mothers arms and others torn in pieces to get them thence You cannot imagine I should express the tears the blood the wounds the barbarousness the cruelties the confusions the consternations the terrors the horrors of that day I am not skill'd in the tracts of cruelty nor so good an Orator to express it Nor were it perhaps a Rhetorick for Christmas Only I can tell you what the Text does me that slain they were all the children that were in Bethlehem and the coasts about from two years old and under and Herod did it Not himself I confess There are sins we are asham'd to commit our selves as well as sins we cannot commit without company to help us And such was this so horrid he was asham'd to stand by to own it so great he could not act it but by involving almost an host of men in the guilt and mischief A murther which neither the greatness of the one nor the multitude of the other neither his jealousies nor their obedience neither his command nor their trade of life shall be ever able to excuse nor any Rhetorick ever find a plea for VI. But though I cannot be exact in the relation I must needs say in the last place Herod was in the transaction so exact that 1. Bethlehem he thought too narrow a Stage for this new Tragedy he takes in all the coasts about though the Prophet had plainly cold Christ should be born in Bethlehem and the Sâ—nhedrim had so resov'd it to him and his main business was to murther him yet to make all sure he stretches out his fury to the neighbouring towns By the way give me leave to observe Great Cities are sometimes ill neighbours they too often destroy our children by the contagion of their mischiefs and ruine the young heirs of the Towns and Mannâ—rs that are near them by the company that the infernal Herod sends out thither daily to that purpose But I retreat and tell you 2. Herod was so exact in the designs of cruelty that he extends the time as well as the place beyond what he had learn'd of the Wise men Christ was now but a year old at most and more probably not so much Herod stretches out his design for two What 's the reason why the bloody man and the unjust possessor never think they are safe till they are beyond all reason For if Christ was now about two years old why are the Children of but two days slain if but two months or thereabouts as some place this business not long after his being presented in the Temple why are the children of two years old demanded to the slaughter At least 3. how comes his own Son into the number so Macrobius relates the story and Augustus alluded to it in his witty speech This too to shew us how exactly wicked some men are that spare neither Kindred nor Children to fix themselves And to give you Herods cruelty here full According to the time he had diligently enquired of the Wise men it was also says the Text. Very inquisitive about it he had been it seems and he miss'd not a point of it so whether Christ was born when first the Star appeared or whether he was then only first incarnate and conceived in the Womb he would be sure he thought to have him a year under or â—ver would be sure to reach him so nice and punctual is the cruel and ambitious nature to defend its own interest and greatness that it cannot rest till it have stopt all avenues and cranies of fear and satisfied them to a nicety and it boggles not at any age or time or relation or diligence or inquisitiveness to effect it But 't is time now to look home Yet if any now should be so inquisitive to ask a reason why God should thus suffer these innocent Infants thus to be cruelly massacred though we are not his counsellors yet we may say it might be to shew the absoluteness of his Dominion that he is Lord of life and death gives and disposes them as he will It may be 2. to teach us that innocence it self is not always a fence against death or violence It may be 3. to instruct us what they must look for from the first that have any relation to Christ at all It may be 4. it was that by this strange accident and occasion the Birth of Christ might be proclaimed through the world And yet fifthly add but the consideration that they were the Children of Bethlehem where Christ could get no lodging where he was fain to make the Stable his Chamber and the Manger his Cradle and it will not seem unreasonable that God should thus punish the Fathers in their Children for it and leave some of them scarce a Child for their houses who would not leave him a house for his Child But lastly God's thus advancing the deaths of these little Infants into a
the lowest Hell This last we have ver 22. and that we will take first 'T is better ending with the t' other For this 't is a place whence joy is ever banish'd and where no good is where nothing but sorrow and sadness and horror dwells where the wicked lie wrapt in flames and Sulphur covered with worms and stench and darkness All the racks and tortures that the wit of cruelty ever found out here are beds of Down and Roses to those horrid lodgings Here in the bitterest pains there is some part or other well or somewhat or other always to be found to give us ease The light will chear us or the night refresh us or sleep give us rest Company will divert the anguish or custom lighten it or hope lessen it or time wear it out But in that place of torment so Dives called and felt it nor soul nor body nor faculty nor member free The conscience of former sins that terrifies them the memories of former happiness that distracts them the understanding now what they have forfeited and might have had that above all infinitely torments them The tongue burns and the teeth gnash and the heart trembles and the eyes weep and the hands wail and the ears are filled with continual screeches and everlasting howlings and every member is intolerably tortured with the punishment of its own sins and yet not so much there as a drop of water to refresh 'um not a gleam of light to comfort 'um no rest day nor night The company of Devils and damned spirits the only company there and amongst them perhaps their dearest friends or Wives or Children infinitely increase their hell and all is augmented by continuance for no such thing as hope to be heard of there 'T is the Kingdom of despairs and terrors The worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched all the miseries are everlasting everlasting This the latter end of all the people that forget God says holy David that forget him in their prosperities into Hell they shall be turned Psal. ix 17. Nor is this the melancholy mans dream or the contrivance of the Politician or the Priests cheat to keep men in awe If a cheat it be 't is God has cheated you and Christ has cheated you and the Prophets have cheated you and the Apostles have cheated you for they all say the same thing And would the rantingest of those brave fellows that scoff at it sit down a little and consider which I am sure they never do or should the tremblings of death begin to seize them when their understandings are about them which are not always and open the windows into another world then these would be the words of truth and soberness then men and brethren what shall we do when commonly 't is too late How shall we do with these everlasting burnings we will do any thing suffer any thing to avoid them Then Heaven too the end we reserved for our last that will begin to be thought on too and how to get in there There where is joy without any sad look to shadow it pleasure without any tang to stain it peace without disturbance plenty without fatiety continual health without infirmity nor grief nor fear nor hazzard to impair our happiness or fully it Glorious all glorious things are spoken of thee Thou City of God Gold and Pearls and Diamonds and all precious Stones Kingdoms and Thrones and Crovvns and Scepters torrents of Joy rivers of Pleasure vvell-springs of Life dvvellings of Glory seats of blessedness and blessed company the Throne of God all are said of thee thou glorious place And yet vvhen all is said vve must conclude vvith the Apostle that neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things prepared there or if they had it seems it is not lavvful for a man to utter them 2 Cor. xii 4. So I must needs leave them to you to consider them And truly 't is time novv to tell you vvhat considering is 1. 'T is to sit dovvn and lay your ends together and think upon them Consider then seriously 1. vvhether you vvould have your foundations once more unsetled your houses plundered your estates sequestred they are scurvy vvords pray pardon them your glories once again trod to dirt Whether 't is good making ventures trying Gods severities the second time For let them smite you but once more and as Abisha said to David so say I to you they vvill not smite you the second time Consider again 2. vvhether seeing hovvever you must leave all these enjoyments within so short a span of time as death is off us and vve may be fetcht off the stage e're vve are avvare ill provided for it it be vvisdom to lay up all our treasure and provision here either so hoard up here as if it vvere for ever or so lavish here as if it vvere to accompt for never And seeing to that accompt vve must come at last consider 3. vvhether such Imprimis's and Items as the long impertinent Bills of sins and pleasures vvill bring in vvill pass current at the last Audit vvhether so much in purple and fine linen so much in living sumptuously every day so little time in the assemblies of devotion and so much in those of vanity whether Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry the living in all liberty and licenciousness the being hateful and the hating one another will pass for a rewarding the Almighty for his mercies when Come ye blessed go ye cursed come in to conclude the day And if they will not pass so as no doubt they will not consider 4. what will be next the end you come to and remember but half that I have told you of those eternal fires and I have told you nothing in comparison and then tell me again whether the strictest attendances of piety the largest expences of charity the trouble now and then of doing well the beggarliness of honesty the restraints of temperance the niceness of chastity the very hardships of repentance watching fasting weeping even the greatest penances of Religion as high as the rigours and austerities of Hermits and Anchorets be not far easier to be endured and whether we can be thought wise any way if we omit any way to prevent those flames Or if you had rather be led with hopes and glory as all ingenuous and noble natures had consider 5. whether all the glories ye have liv'd in all the satisfaction ye have met with all the delights ye have ever here enjoyed or ever can be worth one minute of those eternal fulnesses in Gods presence in the Heavens when even they that counted the Religious mans life but madness Wisdom v. 4. and laught piety and honesty out of doors were so amaz'd at the glory and strangeness of the righteous mans salvation so far beyond all that they looked for ver 2. that they even groan'd for anguish of spirit and
and studies from the first of those tedious days and broken nights of studies of our exhausted spirits and neglected fortunes and preferments to attend our work to no purpose at all Thus besides those common miseries of a hopeless life with other Christians We have most vile dishonour and a whole lost life and a whole vain course of labour added to encrease our misery A third addition we have by the same Pen in this Epistle Chap. iv v. 9. and so forward to augment our misery beyond a Parallel We are men appointed unto death made a spectacle unto the World unto Angels unto Men fools for Christs sake weak and despised hungry and thirsty and naked and buffetted and without any certain dwelling place outed at any bodies pleasure labouring day and night reviled persecuted defamed by every tongue made the filth and off-scouring of the world and of all things even to this day ver 13. hated and envied of all kind of men the world hateth you says our Master for whose sake it does so S. Iohn xv 19. hated of all men said I yea hated of God too if our preaching be vain and there be no hope in Christ but here Miserable fools sure no such fools in the world again as we to endure all this in vain to place or keep our selves in so slavish so dishonourable so troublesom so afflictive so contemptible a condition when with the same or easier pains less cost fewer broken sleeps more worldly content larger liberties fuller friendships freer entertainments greater hopes we might take many several ways and courses of life more profitable more pleasurable more honourable Nor can we be so ignorant of our selves and parts many of us nor find we else any other reason to distrust but that we might in any other way promise to our selves as much power to mannage other means of thriving then Books and Papers as any others if we would apply our selves to the same ways and undertakings with them And had we no other hope but here you should quickly find we could do so were we not confident we serve a Master the Lord Christ whose service as it is perfect freedom so it is perfect honour whatever the world imagine it or please to call it were it not for the hope of a Resurrection when we shall find a sufficient recompence for all the affronts contempts and ill usages we suffer here where these ragged blacks shall be guilded over with the bright beams of glory where we whose office it is to turn many unto righteousness whatever be the success if we do our duty shall shine like Stars for ever and ever Dan. xii 3. So now you see the scene of the Text is altered quite there is evidence enough by our willingly and knowingly subjecting our selves to all these fore-mentioned sufferings that our hope in Christ is not only here and we no longer never miserable All before but a Supposition this the Truth which I told you should be the Second General though only summarily and exceeding briefly that Our hope the true Christians hope is not in Christ for this life only and therefore whoever is he to be sure is not miserable That our Hope is not only here is evident by so many signs that I shall only need but shew and name them as I pass We willingly suffer hardships bear restraints deny our freedoms debar our selves many lawful liberties lay by our hopes of worldly honour think not of the most profitable and probable preferments we contend to rigours and austerities we watch our paths we mark our steps we make scruples where the world makes none we accept restrictions in our lives that the worldling and gallant laugh at the whole business of our life is to be accepted of Christ our Saviour we remember his benefits we observe his days we believe his Resurrection and keep this Feast upon it we solemnize the memory of all his other glorious actions sufferings and mercies with all holy reverence and godly fear with thankfulness and love we hear his Word and study it we strive to do his will and fulfil his Commandements at every point passing by the satisfactions of our own inclinations and desires we receive his Sacraments and believe their power we by this days solemnity confess his rising and profess our own we leave all worldly interests for his bid adieu to all contentations which stand not with that which is in him we suffer any thing gladly for his sake to be counted fools and mad-men despised and trampled on revil'd and persecuted exil'd and tortur'd and slain for his sake for our hope in him for that we fear to displease him to lose his reward These are full manifesto's of the true Christians hope what it is he looks for what he means For who now can think by the very naming of these doings and sufferings truly acted and willingly undergone that our hope is either not in Christ or not in him beyond this life who so easily contemn this all the glories and pleasures of it and choose with deliberation and full consent that only in it which the world counts misery or affliction Especially if he but consider that we are not crazed men that do so but have our senses perfect our understanding clear clearer many of us than the greatest part even of understanding men the same passions with other men as sensible of any evils or afflictions naturally as any others and yet notwithstanding choose all this for our hopes sake in Christ only And when all these shall be new heapt and more imbittered to the Ministers of the Gospel above others through the spite of the world and the malice of the Devil on purpose to drive them from their hope and they daily see and know it are they such miserable fools and mad-men think you not only to perswade others to these courses but themselves also so readily to undergo them when they might enjoy all liberties and pleasures at an easier rate as well as others did they not verily believe and hope and even see and feel already by evident testimonies both within and without an abundant recompence hovering over them laid up for them superabundant in a Resurrection World now do thy worst against us thou canst not make us miserable do all thou canst not miserable at all We scorn thy spite We contemn thy malice We shall have another world when thou art none we shall out-live thy malice thy self Whilst tâ—ou art in thy greatest pride and glory Lo we trample on thee and when thou thinkest thou hast laid both us and all our honour in the dust we are above thee thou art made our foot-stool and thou thy self as scornfully as now thou look'st upon us shalt be one day forc'd to vomit up those morsels of us which thou hast â—wallowed and will 't thou nill't thou bring all our scatterâ—d aâ—â—es aâ—d least atomes of our meanest parts together and humbly offer
can trace their steps or track their way or over-take them in their lodging at night or tell us where it is Ask Philosophy and let that answer you Whence is it that the winds arise It answers you from a thin and airy vapour drawn up out of the earth towards the middle Region of the Air but repercust or beaten back by the grossness of some intervening cloud which drives it down obliquely with that violence we hear and feel This or something as obscure is all the knowledge we can get of it For ask now where that vapour rose It cannot tell Which way it went It know sit not In what part of heaven it first became a wind It cannot point it out What is become of it now 't is gone It resolves you not Into what part of the world it is retir'd when all is still It cannot answer you We use to say from the East or from the West from the North or from the South yet so uncertain must we needs confess the first point of their motion and so many points do they vary ere they come at us and so quickly are they gone by us that the wisest of us all cannot tell exactly either whence they were or whither they will But yet again if it be no more than such a kind of wind as is in the Text not Ventus but Spiritus a meer breath of wind or air that undoubtedly we know not whence it comes or whither it goes And yet the ways of the Spirit are more unsearchable We know not any thing at all of his eternal Procession it was before any time we can imagine We know nothing of his course or motion all that infinite while before the World began We understand nothing distinctly of it ever since His motions are so intricate so various and so infinite we cannot comprehend them The dispositions the gifts the graces he works daily in us we know not how they rise or how they spread or how they vanish Descend we a little to particulars We are sometimes mov'd we feel by the words of the Preacher by the reading of a Chapter by a devout Book or a godly Story and yet we know not why more now than at another time why at this time by a little touch and not before by long perswasions why sometimes by weak and slender at other times not by any means why to vertue oft-times contrary to our former natures and dispositions without any occasion given all sensible interests and motives clear against it whilst to another more easie and kindly to us we cannot be wrought Nor know we what becomes of any of those holy motions when they depart or we thrust them from us But if we should go about to dive into those hidden secrets of his Counsel why he should blow upon us and not upon others as good as we why upon the Iews so fully upon all the world besides so sparingly why he should take this woman from the Mill and not the other that works by her why of two in the same bed he should refuse the one and choose the other why he should by the same words and motions to two several men of the same tempers and education and at that time as near as can be conjectured in the same way and disposition breath effectually upon the one and not the other save this man presently and leave the other to himself we are here wholly at a loss they are mysteries of which we can say neither whence it is nor whither it tends but only to the glory of his grace and because it so pleases thee O blessed Spirit And seeing now we have told you all we can of Sic Spiritus of the first similitude the similitude betwixt the Wind and the Spirit let 's now see what we can make of Sic Spiritu natus of the second similitude betwixt the Spirit and every one that is born of it So is every c. II. General That He that is born of the Spirit should be some way like it is no wonder because he that is begotten may well be like him him that begets he that is born like her that bore him But how he comes either to be so begotten or born or be so like that may easily put us to a stand yet that too will come in as one part of the similitude For four Points of likeness we shall observe between the Spirit and him that is born of it as we did before between the Wind and the Spirit it self Like they are in their Natures in their Operations in their Sounds and in their Motions in the Evidence of those and the Obscurity of these 1. They are like in Nature first The Spirit spiritual and heavenly and so is he that is born of it He breaths nothing but heaven speaks nothing else lives there his Conversation wholly there Phil. iii. 20. his affections all upon things above his fashion not according to this World at all his face his eyes his hands his feet his ways look thither all He is so like him that he is now perfectly another thing than what he was before new soul new understanding new will new affections new all body and all that fram'd into new obedience quickned to a new life a meer new creature every way nothing of earth or flesh but all Spirit now You shall see the likeness of his nature plainer in the second Resemblance the likeness of his Actions and Operations to those of the Spirit 2. The Operations of the Spirit we told you 1. were calm and peaceable and so are His who is born of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance these are the fruits of the Spirit Gal. v. 22. and he that has the Spirit has all these He that has not is none of his The Effects 2. of the Spirit are purifying refreshing and quickning And he that has this Spirit as well as he that has this hope the Apostle speaks of 1. purifies himself from all uncleanness both of flesh and Spirit Then 2. refreshes and comforts others all that need it And 3. brings forth also all good fruits is fruitful in good works they mistake sadly that think themselves or others spiritual men without them And yet the strangest Operation is behind The Spirit bloweth where it listeth And can we make the Spirit and spiritual man agree here too Let 's try a little Two things there are in it A power and a liberty of blowing 'T is evident there must be power to do any thing every where and as evident there must be liberty to do every thing any where And both in power and liberty we shall find them like and first in power The Spirit is a Spirit of power he that is born of it is a man of power An host of men cannot so much as make him affraid Psal. xxvii 2. Sin it self cannot overcome him He that is born of the Spirit he
to God Then it befals us as it fell out to Iob xlii 5 6. I have heard thee by the hearing of the ear but that was nothing now mine eye seeth thee Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes Hither it is always that the sight of God depresses us to think humbly of our selves that we profess our just deserts to be no other then to be deprived of his presence There are like expressions of humble minds towards our Superiours too in holy Writ When Rebeccah saw Isaac coming towards her she lighted down from her Camel and covered her self with her vail as if either her humility or her modesty would not suffer her suddenly to look upon his face who was presently to be her Lord Gen. xxiv 65. But Abigail's complemental humility surpasses 1 Sam. xxv 41. When David sent to take her to him to wife she arose and bowed her self to the â—arth and said behold let thine hand-maid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord And Mephibosheth though not so courtly yet as deeply undervalues himself in the sight of his Lord and King when he thus answer's David's profer'd kindness 2 Sam. ix 8. What is thy servant that thou should'st look upon such a dead Dog as I am Now if Rebeccah descend from her Camel and veil her face at the sight of her designed husband if Abigail term her self the servant of the servants of David even to the meanest office to wash their feet if Mephibosheth count himself a Dog in the presence of King David each of these thus expressing their humility it is no wonder if St. Peter at the presence of his Saviour it is but just that we in the presence of our God and Saviour descend from our Camels from our Chairs of State from our seats of ease from the stools whereon we sit and bow down our eyes our hearts and bodies in all humility as unworthy to look up to Heaven to look him in the face whom we have so offended willing to wash the feet of his poorest servants to serve him in any thing in the poorest meanest way or office ready to profess our selves amongst the vilest of his creatures who cannot so much as expect a good look from him You may surely guess by the frame of speech though nature and sin may sometimes use some of the same words that the tenor of them altogether is no other then the expression of St. Peter's humble acknowledgment of his own vileness He confesses plainly he is a sinful man how could he more depress himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man that was nothing but a sinner a very sinner Thence it is that he thinks himself unworthy that he should stay with him therefore desires him to quit his ship but much more his company as far unfit to receive him or be near about him And 3. whilst he thus confesses himself to be a sinful man he speaks somewhat doubtfully at least to him as if he conceived him to be the Lord his God thus much however he acknowledges so great a disproportion between himself and Christ that whilst he knows what to call himself he knows not well what to style him to be sure knows not how to speak speaks indeed but knows not what he says whilst humbly desiring him to depart he unwittingly parts with his own happiness not knowing what he desires or does in this distraction These three an acknowledgment of our own wretchedness a sensible apprehension of our our own unworthiness and Christ's greatness And 3. a kind of troubled expression of them without art or study are the signs and effects of true humility and are here caus'd by the consideration of Gods miraculous dealing with us which commonly shews us Gods Goodness and Grace his Glory and Majesty our own weakness sinfulness and misery and by so setting them so suddenly together render us unable to express either In some perverse natures there arises we must confess sometimes a pride upon the receipt of divine favours so that we may say St. Peter's behaviour after so great a miracle shewed towards him makes his humility the more commendable A great and wonderful draught of fish he had taken and he had laboured hard for it some body would have given at least part of the glory of so good success to his own labour or at least triumpht and gloried highly in it as if he had been the only favourite of Heaven the only Saint for his good success but St. Peter saw by his lost labour all the by-past night an the uncouth multitude of fishes now against hope taken up that his labour did but little here there was one with him in the boat he saw at whose command the fish came to it in such number So that now he sees little by himself or his own endeavour but that he was not fit company for the Lord that was with him neither worthy of that miracle nor of that Master Thus good men are humbled even in their prosperous successes whilst nothing but miraculous miscarriages can humble the ungodly and not then neither to think ere a whit the worse of themselves or the better of others or understand but that God himself is notwithstanding bound still to tarry with them before all the World besides He is truly humble whom prosperity humbles who in the midst of his accomplished desires casts himself below all acknowledging he is less than the least of Gods mercies or gracious looks towards him any ways There is yet a way that perfect souls souls elevated above the height of ordinary goodness have spoke these words There is sometimes a rapture in heroick souls over-born as it were with the torrent of the contemplations of the divine beauty and the delights flowing in abundance from it that some glorious Saints in their several times have been heard to say sometimes Depart from us O Lord We have enough We have enough oppress us not with pleasure which our earthen Vessels are not able to bear There have been those that have died with excess of joy but it was temporal joy spiritual joy is not so violent to rent the body yet it even sometimes oppresses the soul into a kind of death and wraps it beyond it self into an extasie and after that it is in danger to be strein'd into another excess of pride or vain-glory St. Paul was near it least I should be exalted above measure it seems there was great fear of it there was given him something to humble him to bring him down from so dangerous a height It is necessary it seems sometimes if not such a desire yet such a condition to the most perfect souls that Christ should depart from them now and then least they should be puff'd up with the multitude of those Revelations by which Christ reveals his presence in them and his favour towards them There are delights in heavenly joys which these old bottles are not yet