is to be done to us and no other matter more heavie and more worthy of tears then the sinnes and impenitencie of men If it came to mind so often unto a man that he should die and that he was to plead his cause before God as often as he in a pensive manner Cause of mourning discusses the matter with himselfe of the helps of this life surely he would be more sad and more diligent in the amendment of his life and of repentance And if the same man should call to mind the eternall torments he could not but despise the world and in comparison of them think all the afflictions of this world pleasant From which opinion and fervency of devotion we are the more distant because we are so much inveagled with the inticements of the flesh In brief it behoveth The life of the flesh is the death of the spirit a Christian most firmly to perswade himselfe that if it goe well with his body and that he flow in pleasures of this world that his spirit is dead but that hee liveth if hee crucifie his flesh with his desires and concupiscences for the one is the death of the other if the spirit live it must needs be the body shall spiritually die and be offered a living sacrifice Rom. 12. Which way of life all the Saints from the beginning of the world did observe eating and drinking with thanksgiving the bread and cup of The bread of tears tears according to that of David Psalm 80. Thou shalt feed us with the bread of tears and thou shalt give us drink of teares by measure And Psalm 41. My teares were unto me my bread both day and night And this bread of teares faith by a wonderfull sweetnes doth mix and temper and the drink of teares is pressed from the tender grapes of devout hearts by true repentance and sorrow which worketh to stedfast salvation As The fruit of worldly sorrow contrariwise the sorrow of this world bringeth forth death witnesse St. Paul the losse of honour temporall and frail goods and it is often so sharp and bitter and impatient that men catch themselves in a net or bring themselves to their own death by divers wayes of which there be many examples in the histories of the Ethnicks for which it were better to be more moderate and shew themselves better Christians who know it to be far unworthy their profession for the loss of frail goods to lose their souls which the whole world will not recompence Far be it from us that for temporall goods we should not mourn or thirst after eternall seeing the use of them is most short ends with death When a man departeth saith the Psalm 49. he taketh not all neither doth his glory descend with him which law is equally spoken to all no lesse to the King then to the meanest Begger the dead body putrifieth and so a living Dogge is better then a dead Lion as saith Solomon Eccles 9. yet the Lord will set the death at all times and the face of them that are in bonds among all people and he wipeth the the teares from every face as it is written Isa 25. Therefore remember to carry moderatly the losse of earthly things and that the whole world is not worth one soul for The love of the world bringeth sorrow which Christ vouchsafed to die But if thou prosecutest not these frail things with so unruly a love thou shalt be lesse troubled with the losse of them seeing this that it is the condition of things beloved that things lost are more desired and so the labour of fools afflicteth them which are the From whence the pertur bations of the mind words of Eccles 10. The sons of this age doe gather goods with great labour with no lesse fear doe they possesse them and with greatest griefe forgoe them which is the sorrow of the world begetting death Apoc. 10. we read of those that followed adored the Beast had no rest to whom all these are like that adore the goodly Beast of earthly wealth and avaritious desires thereof a kind of men most wretched unquiet and full of sorrows whom perhaps we shall shall not evilly compare to Camels or Mules for as they by rockes and steep hils carrying Silken Garments Pearls Aromatick Spices and generous Wines on their backs doe draw many servants with them for security sake and so at evening coming to their stables their pretious ornaments and painted cloathes and garments are taken from them and now being weary and stripped nothing but the prints of stripes foul marks of blows are to be seen So those which in this world did shine in Gold and Silkes the day of their death being come have nothing but the prints and skars of sinnes through the abuse of riches committed unto them Learn then O learn to leave the world The world in the world iâ— to be left before it leave thee with most bitter pains which he who doth and first separateth his soul from the world to this man it is easie to be separate in body from it neither doth he grieve for the losse of it For as the Israelites even now being about to leave Egypt were daily pressed with greater burdens by Pharaoh going about utterly to overthrow their whole progeny or stock so We carry nothing out of the world the infernall Pharaoh envying our eternall salvation when we are neer to death so much greater care and rapacious desire of earthly things is hee wont to infest our soules withall which blindnesse is the more remarkable because we cannot carry the least dust with us of all those heaps of mony which we have gotten into the Kingdome of heaven because that way is so strait as all earthly things and of the body doe exceedingly hinder the passage of the soule The way is strait which leadeth to heaven and few there be that find it Matth. 7. As the Husband-man on the Barn-floore separateth the Wheat from the Chaffe so death setteth free the seed of the faithfull souls from the chaffe of the world neither are they any other thing else indeed but chaffe carried hither and thither with the wind Psalm 1. Therefore do that with all thy might and let not that depart out of thy mind which we brought before out of St. Paul The sorrow which is according to God worketh repentance to a firm salvation but the sorrow of the world bringeth death CHAP. XXI What is true divine Worship Levit. 10. The sonnes of Aaron did offer to the Lord strange fire and there went fire from the Lord and devoured them THis fire is said to be strange fire because it was other then that which burned perpetually on the Altar and which by the commaandement of God did burn the Offering and it is a type of the false divine The false worship of God worship The sonnes of Aaron did deserve to be burned with the
not with praiers onely but promised also the spirit of new birth I say by whom we live and are quickened in Christ to a new spirituall and heavenly way of living and out of whose eternall and quickning power all Christian vertues doe flourish and the just man doth increase as a Palm-tree and a Cedar of Lebanon which the Lords right hand hath planted Whereupon it followeth that a man must first be inwardly renewed in the spirit of his mind after the Image of God so as his desires and affections be conformed to Christ and his outward life proceed from the inward A Christian ought to bee within as he is without or seemeth to be feeling of the heart and be most like to them And seeing that God searcheth the heart and reins as it is Psalm 7. it is most right and equall that a man should have more in the inwards and in the bottome then outwardly and in the porch And because it cannot come to passe that our inwards can obtain the purity and cleannesse The cleannesse righteousnesse of Christians of Angels yet it is convenient to aspire to it seeing God accepteth of the votes of our spirits and sighes and approveth of them the holy Spirit helping our infirmitie and intreating for us with mourning unexpressible Rom. 8. yea Christs bloud purging us by faith so that we are without spot or wrinkle Ephes 5. Neither now shall our purity be Angelicall and our holinesse and righteousnesse so but of Ghrist yea Christ himselfe 1 Cor. 1. Jer. 33. Which free holiness and righteousness is to be preferred before the purity innocency of Angels it behoveth us to renew our soules and spirits and to lead a working holy life in us that as the Palm tree flourisheth continually groweth and increaseth so we through Christian Discipline in our selves may become more and more perfect in Christ and so much every one in Christ doth flourish and profit as he groweth in faith holy vertues and Christian life and so much as he amendeth daily in himself and lastly so much as Christ himselfe liveth in him And this is to flourish like the Palmtree and as that continually Christian like a palm tree groweth upward daily to be renewed alwayes repeating his purpose to his holy Name to be pleased no otherwise then as if it were the first day of thy entrance into Christianity or didst receive the Sacraments nor to have any other thing in thy desire then that thy life workes should br answerable to thy profession and discipline And as those that are chosen to some office are wont to prefer nothing before the study be it never so difficult that The calling of Christians belongeth to his vocation so must we doe that are called to Christ we are called to a holy calling to whom we shall never be like unlesse we hold this purpose and this opinion and it be a most firm Antidote or prevention to us for this holy purpose not stablished nor confirmed we be not carefull of amendment neither do we increase and profit in Christ nay rather we be altogether without Christ Because this purpose of living well is the work of the holy Ghost and that preventing grace which The wisdom of God calleth us allureth all men inviteth them and driveth them on Then happy is he who hath eares and a mind at leasure and entertaineth the Wisdome of God crying in the streets understanding all things we behold to be the monuments and remembrances by which he inviteth and in it selfe goeth about to allure us which touch and motion so soon as we perceive forthwith we must put our hands to the worke and assent and take hold of this point of time without impediment which being negligently lost perhaps many dayes shall succeed in which we cannot heare speak doe or think a good thought which the Procrastinâ—tioÌ„ iâ— to be esâ—â—ewed eternall wisdome knowing it calleth us in all places lest we neglect time and occasion and be like to the tree in the open aire and without cover which expecteth the benigne aspect of an immoveable Sunne and propitious heaven And we are daily nourished The grace of God is every where present by the grace of God heavenly influence and there remaineth no more but that all impediments of the world being shaken off we admit of them and draw them unto us with all our heart O mortall men let us call to minde the brevity of time how many opportunities of Christian The brevitie of our life vertues we have neglected that we have spent much of our lives in sleep and cares of the body and that we are to die by and by and that we have scarcely begun to lead a better life As every one wisheth to die the death of the righteous so it is needfull so to live And if thou abhorrest to die an evill death live godly if thou desirest to goe out of the world like a Christian How it behoves a Christian to live here in thy actions and life labour to be a Christian and he liveth like a Christian who liveth so as if he should every day die well knowing it is the part of a good servant to be ready at every call of his master and God calleth us by Death as his Apparitor or Sumner Happy is that servant whom his master shall find watchfull verily he will make him Steward over all his goods But who doth watch Onely he who suffereth not himselfe to be seduced of the world and the lovers thereof Therefore let us flie it and such lovers of the world such water-bearers are unprofitable with which the good tree growing wild it is hindered to flourish and becometh fruitlesse CHAP. XXIII He that will grow in Christ and profit in him must flie worldly friendship Psalm 84. How delightfull are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my soule fainteth and faileth in the Court of the Lord my heart and my flesh were exalted in the living Lord. FRequent familiarity with worldly men is to be eschewed by thee because as we are no where so well fitted or well pleased as when we are at home so it is never better with the soul then when it is in its own house that is resting in God whose off-spring sith it is it must needs return to him again if it desireth to be quiet For this is the condition of all creatures that the same place is to them both of beginning and rest for Fishes the sea to Birds the aire to plants the earth and to the soul God according to the Psalm 84. The Sparrow hath found a house and the Turtle a nest wherein to put her young For even as he begetteth evill to himselfe that suffereth his sonnes and daughters to wander abroad so he begetteth evill to himselfe that suffereth his tongue and thoughts to be conversant amongst many men he shall decline many scandals if he keep them within the circle and
way of the Devil when true faith and the works thereof doe not leave us empty or void of knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. Now seeing that a man having the Light and Life of Christ dwelleth in him for all these things hee is himselfe therefore according to the saying of the Prophet Esay chap. 11. upon such and no otherwise then upon Christ himselfe do rest the gifts of the holy Ghost that is to say the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of counsell and fortitude the Spirit of knowledge piety and the feare of the Lord. Wherefore Saint Peter in the second of the Acts speaketh thus to the Jewes Repent and you shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost as if he should say The Spirit of God of which you have had experience and which is the Illuminator of the heart sendeth not it self into other minds then those that are faithful and repent Goe to then O mortals which desire to bee freed from the blindnesse of heart and everlasting darknesse and lastly from the Devil himselfe imitate Christ in faith and true conversation and amendment being sure that the neerer you are to Christ the neerer you are to Eternall Light and by how much morâ— unfaithful you are so much neerer you aâ—â— to Darknesse and the Devill For as Faith Christ and all vertues are knit together so in like manner incredulity the Devil and all vices doe cleave together Behold with me the Apostles imitating Christ in faith contemning the world denying themselves renouncing their possessions and living in eternity by which things they attained to this that they might be heavenly illuminated and might bee indued with the holy Ghost To whom was most unlike the young man that was so rich whilst hee studied himselfe and thought himselfe something Luke 18. Therefore hee remained in the darknesse of the world neither was he inlightned to eternall life For hee that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him And blessed John professeth plainly That he which loveth not remaineth in darknesse and knoweth not whither hee goeth because darknesse hath blinded his eyes To whom agreeth Taulerus who in all his Sermons every where sheweth and admonisheth without serious exercise of faith without mortification and selfe-denial without inward turning himselfe to his heart and lastly without the inward Sabbath of the soule no man can receive the divine Light or perceive it in himselfe In brief as much as in the condition after conversion the works of darknes by the spirit of God in man are destroied so much is he illuminated and by how much more more powerfully on the other side our corrupt nature as the flesh the world in man do beare rule so much lesse Grace Light Spirit of God and Christ is in him Therefore it remaineth without daily coÌ„tinual repentance no man can be illuminated when as he hath not resisted one â—ice nor The further froÌ„ the life of Christ the further from the true light rooted out one and exerciseth innumerable others bringeth forth out of himselfe continually with more increase then people are wont to doe And as darknesse is thicker in it selfe and more cloudy by how much the Sunne goeth back from us by so much we are unlike to the life of Christ so much more plentiful are wee in sinne and darknesse groweth the thicker in us till they become eternal night On the contrary hee which by the grace of God entereth the Chariot of virtue with a good courage and firm hope this man cannot but profit in them daily one following another as rings be linked one to another in a golden chain Which connexion blessed Peter expresseth The knowledge of Christ in love faith and the fruits thereof is to grow in Christ profit in him writing in the second Epistle cha 1. And you ought to have care and to use diligence ministring in your faith virtue and in your virtue knowledge in knowledge abstinence in abstinence patience in patience piety in piety brotherly love in brotherly love charity And if yee doe these things and abound therein you shall not be found empty nor without fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ As if he should say he that shall not addict himselfe wholly to the study and exercise of these virtues he knoweth not Christ but he that by faith profiteth in them he groweth in Christ all other as proud ones wrathfull ones covetous ones impatient ones profit not in Christ but in the Devil And it is left us Christians in precept that as a child by little and little and in time is made a man so we may grow in faith and in the study of virtue to perfect The fruit of the death of Christ in us men to the measure of full age in Christ Ephes 4. Coloss 1. But to whom these things are not ready or at hand saith Saint Peter 2. Epist 1. he is blind and hand-bound forgetfull of the purging of his old sinnes As if he should say It is for certain that Christ by his death and bloud took and did beare all our sinnes but in the mean time we must beware that we addict not our selves to sin hereafter but rather the death of Christ fructifying in us we die to the world and live in Christ which whosoever doth not care to doe to this man it is plain that the purging of his old sins profiteth nothing Whereupon it followeth if wee desire to have the sinnes of our former life remitted and pardoned we must forbeare â—â— sin we must repent and beleeve in Christ which if we doe not then we retain all those sinnes of our former life and they are to be lamented by us to all eternity without all hope of expiation or forgivenesse so that it is possible that even for wrath alone a man may be damned which if he had by Christian lowliness corrected then in truth he had obtained pardon for all his other sins which because he neglected to do therfore according to the words of Saint Peter He is blind being forgetfull of the purging of his old sinnes Whereby it is given to understand The necessity of repentance how necessary a thing repentance is and the changing to a betternesse For although Christ died for our sins blotting them out and abolishing them with the incomparable price of his bloud yet we doe not participate of that merit unlesse we repent it profiteth nothing And howsoever every man is promised pardon for his sins for the merit of Christ yet that promise pertaineth nothing to thee to the unbeleever nor the impenitent but to those alone which doe amend their lives when it is most meet that those sinnes be remitted which we goe not about to remember but those onely which we were heartily grieved for And to this pertaineth that which is spoken Matth. 11. The poore receive the Gospel that is obtain the remission of sinnes Now
them saith the Lord Jer. 31. For then the death of Christ is effectuall and cometh to perfection or bringeth forth his fruits and therefore the Angels of God in heaven rejoyce because the bloud of Christ is become profitable to sinners for whom it was shed CHAP. IX The Antichristian life of men of this time doth deny Christ and the true faith 2 Timoth. 3. They have a certain form of godlinesse but doe deny the vertue thereof BEcause no man doth boast himself that he is no Christian although he doe no part of a Christian it followeth that by Christ is derided by a wicked life those manners he denieth Christ or Christ is denied contemned derided blasphemed whipt crucified slain and buried according to the Apostle who saith that certain men crucified the Sonne of God again and doe boast thereof and also according to Daniel who in the twelfth chapter foretelleth that Christ shall be pulled up by the roots which Prophesie is vulgarly expounded of Christ crucified at Jerusalem by the Jewes crying Away with him Away with him crucifie him which exposition I would to God it were true and that Christ were not yet daily by the Antichristian life taken from amongst us so that his life truly holy and excellent at this day is no where Where the life of Christ is not there is no Christ to be found for what darest thou speak of thy faith and doctrine where the life of Christ is banished there is no Christ that is more true then may be doubted or what is faith without a Christian life even a barren tree without fruit according to blessed Jude who calleth the false Apostles Summer trees without fruit twice dead of which sort the world is full That which Christ foretold would come to passe Luke 18. When the Sonne of Man commeth doe you True faith think he shall find faith upon the earth He speaketh of faith not this faith of which the world is full and which we professe in our mouthes and deny the same in our workes as if it consisted in this to love Christ in words and not in deeds and truth but the new man is another man regeneration a good tree with his fruits a man renewed by faith in whom Christ liveth and dwelleth by faith This is the faith that our Saviour meant which according to his prophesie is almost no where to be found at this day For where true faith is there Christ and his life must needs be even so contrariwise whosoever doth not imitate the life of Christ by faith in him is neither faith nor Christ The words of our Saviour are Luk. 12. He that shall deny me before men I will deny him before the Angels of God This deniall Deniall of Christ is not onely done in words or by the mouth as when we renounce our faith and Christ but much more and more powerfully when in deeds and life we resist Christ and the holy Ghost voluntarily that which St. Paul calleth deniall in workes and deeds For it is most certain that Christ is no lesse denied by a wicked and Diabolicall life then if he were denied openly by open words even so it is with hypocrisie with a specious and verball holinesse as if it were by doctrine to which purpose the Parable is extant Matth. 21. of two sons to one of which his father said My sonne goe worke to day in my vineyard but be answered and said I will not yet afterwards he repented him and did goe And coming to the other sonne he said in like manner to him who answered I goe Lord and went not which of these two did the will of his father They said The first who denied to goe yet afterwards did goe and labour But the other that said he would and lied or deceived did not he The greatest contempt of God is in or by a wicked life mock and deny his father And so there are many at this day of our false Christians crying So so Lord Lord the worst of all others not any of them doing the commandement of the Father And to this belongeth the saying of Saint Paul They have indeed a shew of godlinesse but denie the power thereof And what else is it to deny the power of godlinesse then to betray False Christians and violate their faith towards Christ and to play the Ethnick under the name of a Christian whom therefore St. Paul rightly calleth Infidels the children of infidelity having no faith Lastly those that usurp a Christians name and doe nothing and therefore Christ saith Depart from me yee accursed because I know you not And worthy it is that I should deny you who first durst and did deny me CHAP. X. The moderne life of worldly men is against Christ and is false Christianity Matth. 12. He that is not with me is against me IF any will examine the life and manners The life of the worldly of these times after the square of the life and doctrine delivered by Christ shall not he find the life of most men to be Antichristians because they have no other thing more then covetousnesse the study of getting usury concupiscence of the flesh and of the eyes pride of life ambition pomp hunting after fame and glory disobedience wrath strife warre disorder displeasure thirsting after revenge secret hatred envie implacability unrighteousnesse uncleannesse falsenesse frauds and backbitings In briefe we are all for the most part selfe-lovers seekers of the world greedy The life of Christ Christians affecters of honours and our own proper gain when contrariwise the life of Christ is nothing but the most pure and sincere love of God and man courtesie mildnesse humility patience obedience to death mercy righteousnesse truth chastity holinesse contempt of the world of honours wealth and pleasures deniall of our selves to beare the crosse continually trouble and affliction daily study and thirst after the Kingdome of God and lastly an unexpressible desire to fulfil the divine will seeing Christ saith He that is not with me is He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is Antichrist Antichrist But the modern life of worldly men hath no community with Christ but most men are at discord with Christ and dissent with their whole heart will mind and spirit from Christ Paul 1 Cor. 2. commanding another thing But we have the will of Christ and to the Phil. 2. Have yee the same manners with Christ it is agreeable that all worldly men should be adverse to Christ what every one doth this is Antichrist not in doctrine but in manner of life which being so in what place shall we find true Christians Seeing then this flock should be lowly in their own eyes Luke 12. to whom the Prophet Isaias agreeth who compareth the faithfull assembly and true Church to a little Cottage in a Vineyard The paucity of true Christians and a Watch-tower in a garden of Cucumbers and to a wasted
boldly and willingly to sinne is nothing else then to live in the Devill In whom therefore the life of Christ is not this man is without repentance neither is a true Christian nor the sonne of God nay Christ knoweth him not He who will rightly know him as a Saviour and example of life it is meet he know him to be meere love meere courtesie patience and humility which vertues of Christ it behoveth thee to have and love them from the bottome of thy heart and fasten them to thy self As a plant by its favour and smel that it sendeth forth bewrayes its own nature so thou oughtest to know Christ and by experience be certain that he is a certain most fragrant The true knowledge of Christ stock from whence thy soule doth draw and obtain admirable strength and new vitall spirits as also singular joy and solace And after this manner is tasted how sweet the Lord is so is the truth known so is the chiefe and eternall good perceived and then doth he know certainly that nothing is better then the life of Christ nothing more pleasant sweet pretious or more full of tranquillity And lastly nothing can be more likened or be compared to life eternall And do we doubt that because it is better then all it should be more desireable for in whom the life of Christ is not this man cannot know what the peace and tranquillity of eternall life is nor what the chiefe good is nor everlasting truth nor what is true peace and joy the true light and true charity seeing Christ is all these himselfe whereupon John Ep. 1. chap. 4. saith Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God he that loveth not knoweth not God because God is love Whereby the fruits of the new birth which is of God appeareth and also life and a new creature not to be words and an externall forme but a substance but the Queen of vertues and which is God himselfe that is to say Charity for of whomsoever any is born it is meet he should have the same properties and he that saith he is born of God let him shew that by charity because God is charity In like manner the knowledge of God resteth not in words and shadowed or vain knowledge but in lively amiable pleasant and most sincere pleasure which ought to flow into the bottome of our heart and mind and there to dwell when we taste by faith inwardly in our hearts the sweetnesse of God This I say this is the true lively and efficacious knowledge of God of which David in Psalm 84. speaketh saying My heart and my flesh rejoyceth in the living God and Psalm 63. How pleasant is thy mercies over our lives where it is presently manifested the joy and sweetnesse of the knowledge divine which is infused into the faithfull heart and so at length the man liveth in God and God in him so is truth known and so the same truth knoweth man CHAP. XII The being of a Christian man is to die to himselfe and the world and to live unto Christ 2 Corinth 5. Christ died for all men that those which live might not now live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again OVer and above this that this sentence is full of consolation whilst it is manifested that Christ died for all men as also it containeth a most wholsome doctrine concerning the way of a Christian life how we ought to live that is to say not to our He that wil live in Christ must dy to the world selves onely but to him who died for our cause but this by no means can be done unlesse first we die to our selves and the world Therefore if thou hast purposed to live in Christ necessarily thou must die to worldly concupiscence but if thou mind to live to thy selfe and the world it will profit nothing to be with Christ But there be 3. kinds of death one spirituall when the Death is three fold man daily dieth to himselfe that is to the concupiscence of his flesh covetousnesse pride voluptuousnesse wrath such like the second naturall the third everlasting of the second speaketh Paul to the Philippians châ—p 1. To live to my selfe it is Christ and to die it is gain as if he should say To a Christian desiring to die Christ is his life and death gaine for when he changeth this short and miserable life for a better life and this earthly and fraile goods for stable and eternal goods this is a most gainful exchange and he who shall be well pleased with this saying and fit himselfe to the first sort of death in my judgement he shall not erre For that soule is thrice and foure The life of Christ times happy to whom to live is Christ that is wherein Christ liveth or that hath the life of Christ that is followeth his humility and lowlinesse But alas most men The life of the Devill at this day have taken upon them the life of the Devill and their life is the Divell As for example covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath blasphemy for this is the life of the Devill But thou O man walk carefully and look about thee again and again and see who liveth in thee and thou What it is to die to themselves and the world shalt be most happy if thou canst truly say To me to live is Christ not in the other life only but also in this present life so truly it is needfull also in this present life now that for thee to live is Christ gain to die For is there any thing more profitable then to die in this condition to covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath and hatred that Christ by that means may live in thee For how much every one dieth to the world so much Christ liveth in him Goe to them let Christ live in thee in time that thou in like manner maist live with him in From whence be the perturbations of the mind eternity But seeing that the mind distracted with divers worldly concupiscences is not capable of true tranquillity and peace it followeth that those that doe die before they begin to live in Christ that which our Sarah the type of the new birth great God hath taught us in divers figures in the old Testament for Sarah when by reason of her age she was unfit to bring children and dead to marriage bed did conceive in her womb and brought forth Isaac which word signifieth Laughter So then unlesse thou root out of thy mind worldly love thou shalt not be able to feel and receive the joy of the Spirit The promise was not made unto Abraham of Christ Abraham is a type of the abnegation of the world and the covenant of circumcision annexed before he left his proper habitation and his own inheritance it is no otherwise with man so long as he hath his mind fixed to the world it is
kingdome of God and is called carnall and to be wise according to the flesh is death Therefore according to the rule of either of them the man obtaineth his name in Scripture according as the carnall man or the spirituall man speaketh But if the concupiscence with his strength be overcome it will be argument of the strength which the spirit hath in the inward man and if it faint it is a signe of the weaknesse of the faith and spirit because these two are one thing according to that of 2 Cor. 4. having the same spirit The spirit and faith are suteable of faith for which we speak Moreover when one hath himselfe and his proper lusts tamed and keepeth them in their duties he is stronger then he that overcometh a most strong Tower according to the holy Proverb Chap. 14. The patient man is better then a strong man and he that ruleth over The greatest victory to overcome himself his mind then he that gaineth a Citie If therefore thou hast a desire and settest thy heart upon the greatest victory and to obtain it then conquer thy selfe thy privat wrath pride covetousnesse and evill concupiscence What it is to overcom the kingdome of the Devlll and thou hast overturned the kingdome of the Devill which ruleth in the world by such things and means of which sort of victors and conquerers there be very few to be found and there be many The victory of the soul keepeth the whole man conquerers of Cities Here consult with me and advise if thou pamper the flesh overmuch thou slayest thy soul but it is better to overcome the soule that the body therewith may be preserved then that this overcomming it with the soule doth perish for our Saviour Christ once said John 12. He that loveth his own life loseth it and he that hateth his own life in this world keepeth it to eternall life But howsoever this strife may have in it sharp things to bee born yet it bringeth forth in the end a famous victory and most beautifull Crown Be thou faithfull unto death saith the Sonne of God Apoc. 2. and I will give thee a crown of life And 1 John 5. This is the victory which overcommeth the world even our What it is to overcom the world faith that is to say the world within us and in the inwards of our hearts which being overcome we become more stronger then our selves What if some should say unto me Shall I then be damned if sinne sometimes subject me unwilling to it therfore to be put out of the number of the sonnes of God according to that of 1 Joh. 3. He that sinneth is of the Devill God defend For if thou finde a conflict of the spirit and a strife with the flesh that thou dost those things that thou wouldst not which are the words of S. Paul it is a manifestation of a faithfull heart and that the faith or the spirit is averse to the flesh for St. Paul by his own example teacheth that this strife is to be found in good and faithfull The strife of faith souls when he professeth plainly that he perceived another law in his members resisting the law of his mind which is the new creature the new and inward man and taking him captive in the law of sinne causing him to do the things he would not and to will is present with him but to finish that which is good he could not for he could not do the good that he would but to do the evil he would not that was present Therefore most lamentably he exclaimeth Vnhappy man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Like unto which is that which Christ pronounceth Matth. 14. The spirit truly is ready but the flesh is Sinne reigning not dwelling doth damne weak Therfore sinne doth not rule in man so long as this strife is perceived in him neither is it to be said that sinne exerciseth his dominion over him against which he daily fighteth and that which doth not rule the spirit resisting it that consequently cannot damne a man It is the equall condition of all Saints to have sinnes according to that of Paul I know because it dwelleth not in me that is in my flesh good dwelleth not Also that of blessed John Epist 1. Chap. 1. If we say wee have no sinne wee deceive our selves which vulgarly we call Sinne dwelling in us to distinguish it from sinne reigning whose property it is onely to condemne for that sinne we contend with and doe not consent unto that is not imputed unto us Paul speaking to the Rom. 8. Now then there is no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus who live not after the flesh that is they doe not suffer it to beare rule But as many as are not exercised in this daily strife these are not born again having sinne reigning and therefore overcome and servants of Sinne and Satan and damned so long as they suffer sinne to rule over them This strife is shadowed unto us in the type of the Canaanites Josh 13. 15. whose remainder in the promised rest was suffered to dwell amongst the children of Israel but Mystical Canaanite not to rule over them even so the holy men of God every one of them feele and suffer their imperfections remaining who in the mean time suffer them not to rule over them as becommeth the new man I say a true Israelite and Champion of God as contrariwise it is fitting the old Adam should be subdued and brought under Therefore the daily strife against the old man sheweth the new man and argueth it plainly strength and victory sheweth a true Israelite and a new born man Lastly the warfare approveth him to be a Christian for the Land of Canaan is conversant The spirit ought to look lest the flesh do rule long and occupied in warfare but if it happen sometimes the flesh or the Canaanites doe invade the territories it is the part of Israel and the new man not to suffer a tyrant long but having gathered his new strength and aid by the grace of God in Christ and by serious repentance and remission of sinnes to arise from his fall and implore and intreat the true Iosua to give him victory even that true Prince of his people to lend him aid to overcome the Canaanites which being done first the sinne is covered blotted out of mind and pardoned and the man is again renewed to life and transplanted into Christ Wherefore they who feele many imperfections in their flesh and cannot doe and perform all things according to their mind let me perswade them again and again as true converts and true repentants to impute them upon the merits of Jesus The imputation of the merits of Christ is onely belonging to the penitent Christ effectually and intreat him to hide their spots under his most perfect obedience This I say is the meanes and this
is the way and lawfull appointment of the imputation of the merits of Jesus Christ when daily repentance goeth before and alwayes ariseth from his fall Which when the impenitent doe not cockering and pleasing the flesh in every thing and sitting at rest under sin reigning therefore such as these cannot challenge the merit of Christ to belong unto them for the bloud of Christ troden under foot can be no medicine CHAP. XVII The Inheritance and goods of Christians are not of this world therefore they must use them as strangers 1 Timoth. 6. We brought nothing into this world neither shall we carry any thing out of it having therefore meat and raiment let us be content therewith SEeing that God Almighty created temporall goods to that end did bestow All things are to be used for necessity onely with feare them on man as certain helps and necessary furtherances it is meet that they should not be otherwise converted but to be used and taken from our most loving God with thanksgiving and feare trembling and whatsoever is more then necessary Riches are trials and proofs of men abound and are superfluous as are gold and silver meat and drink and raiments these are left to man as a triall by God for to try man that by these things it may be seen how his mind standeth between these terrene things and God himselfe that is whether he cleave onely to him alone rest in him alone and seek onely after celestiall and invisible goods or contrariwise sucking in and feeding on the inticement of earthly things addict himselfe to this temporall life and preferre this earthly paradise before that of heaven Therefore God Almighty by reason Man is unexcusable of temporall things and in them only gave unto man his election and choice whom by riches honours graces and goodly gifts it might be manifested in some sort whether he did cleave unto God respect him live in him or being seduced with their splendor and false shewes turn his mind from God and live without him and contrary to him After which manner every one by his owne sentence and triall is declared and remaineth inexcuseable according to that of Moses Deut. 30. Consider what I have propounded this day before thee Life and Goodnesse and on the contrary Death and Evill Superfluous things are proofs of the feare of God that thou mightest chuse life and thou mightest blesse thy selfe All things therefore in this world are exposed to our eyes not for the cause of deliciousnesse and pleasure but as proofs and trials in which the fall is easie when we fall from God and this is that forbidden tree with the fruits thereof the eating whereof is so forbidden lest our mind resting in them doe take delight and play the adulterer after the manner of men now who know no other pleasure but what is taken and received from earthly things abusing thereby the creatures of God meat drink and apparell to the pleasures of the flesh and vain delights wherewith most men at this day are drawn from God But it is the part of a true Christian to think that they be strangers or Pilgrims A Christian is not delighted in worldly things whose necessity these earthly things should serve not for delicatenesse and that they should not set all their delight and pleasure in the world but should place it in God alone but if they doe otherwise they intangle themselves in sinne and being seduced with wicked concupiscence being womanly wanton and effeminate no true Israelites with Eva they eat of the forbidden fruit Therefore Christians do not desire curiously deliciously dainty meats so that they may gormondize them but they hunger after meat which corrupteth not they follow not the pomp of apparell that is earthly but otherwise they aspire to the cloathing of divine light glorified bodies In briefe to true Christians all Worldly things are a crosse to a Christian things whatsoever in this world doe please others are nothing but a crosse temptation allurements of sinne gall and venome and rightly indeed for whatsoever a man to obey his concupiscence and pamper the flesh usurpeth without the feare of God that cannot but be venome or poyson to the soule howsoever to the body it may seem healthfull But such is the indocibility of man no man layeth to heart to know the forbidden tree but every man most intemperatly A Chrstian doth use the creatures with feare is fed with the concupiscence of the flesh the fruit I say of the forhidden tree but a Christian which useth all things with the feare of God and as a stranger using diligence and having great care that he offend not his heavenly Father in meat drink cloathing houses or any fraile good thing by his intemperance or his table-friends taking heed of all abuses most diligently and with the eyes of faith he beholdeth future good things in like manner for what profiteth it the body by by to be eaten with worms if in this world it swell in all kind of pleasure Naked saith Job came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return againe that is to say naked infirme and brickle body we bring into the world as an unprofitable burden we bring it into the world which as the spoyle of death when we goe out of the world we carry it out again and in truth poorer then when we entred for being born we have body and life and things not yet ripe are at hand cloath cloathing The bread of Christistians is the bread of grief meat and drink all which being dead we leave behind and so now whatsoever we had even from our birth to the houre of death in this world the solace of miserable necessity yea the bread of mercy and griefe they were whose use and possession in a moment death hath interdicted and taken away therefore nothing is more wretched then a dead man and especially he who is not rich in God Goe to then O yee mortals because we are strangers and Pilgrims in this world and because we must leave all these things when we die will we nill we let us leave at least to be grievous to our souls in such things In death all are alike riches covetousnes is a kind of madnesse and let us acknowledge it to be a kind of madnesse to gather wealth with great labour for a brickle and fraile body which it cannot carry out of the world especially seeing there is another world and another body and another life Call these things I say O yee mortals to mind to you I speak who in truth are strangers and Pilgrims before the eyes of God as it is in the Psalmes although very few of you doe testifie that you think so by your deeds and if we be straugers in this world it followeth that our countrey is elswhere that which is manifest to man of it selfe if we conferre or compare time with
state of innocencie to love God with all his heart with all his soule and all his strength and his neighbour as himselfe Hereupon it is that when Almighty God requireth the heart of man the whole man as concerning body soule and all his strength is to be understood In which sense the name of heart in Scripture is understood every where so that with it doe come all the strength of the soul and â—â— it were the nerves the understanding memory affections and desires Neither is it for other reasons when God requireth the soule understanding by that denomination the whole man so much as in him is which indeed is to bee conformed to Iustice righteousnesse and ioy cleave together him to bee renewed in Christ and that he ought to walk in spirit or in a new and spirituall life But the perfection of most sincere joy doth accompany the perfection of holinesse righteousnesse and love in the man wherewith he was most sincerely affected God so disposing it that where divine holinesse is there also should be divine joy which two as they cannot be separated so they make the Image of God But we who in this life doe attain to onely an unperfect and begun righteousnesse of God and his holinesse for these beginnings of the righteousnesse of Christ living in all the faithfull if we be devout if we be exercised in the Kingdome of God we shal do participate thereof in this world and have the fruits thereof even the first fruits of that heavenly joy Therefore how much every Christian profiteth in love so much divine pleasure and joy hee doth find in himselfe Which holy and divine love because in that day it shal receive the last hand and its perfection therefore also our joy shall be then perfect Christ bearing witnesse John 16. For charity or love is life and joy as contrariwise where love is not there is neither life nor joy but death it The greatest ioy for the love of God selfe wherein the Devil and wicked impenitent men shall remain to all eternity This love maketh the father of the son the bridegroome of the bride draw an incredible delight yet it is a far greater love that is perceived from the love of the Creator which most lovingly kisseth us with the kisses of his mouth that is in Christ and in him by the charity or love of the holy Ghost cometh upon us and taketh up his dwelling with us And of this image of God the Image of God differ God which consisteth in similitude with God when wee make mention of it we doe not mean that a man should be every way like God in justice righteousnesse and holinesse and become like God himselfe for God is incomprehensible and he is immense as concerning his essence virtue and properties but onely to carry about the image of God as is declared in divers places of this book Where what wee have commented of the Image of God those are no conjectures but things indeed neither can it be denied of the most perverse that Almighty God created man that he might be his most cleare looking-glasse so that if one were desirous to know the nature of God he might look back to himselfe and counsell with himselfe contemplate God in himselfe as in a glasse might see his Image within and in his heart as his life and happinesse But the Devil beholding this Image The acts of the Devil to abolish the Image of God of God in man with wicked envious eyes laid in wait with many deceits and machinations until at last through disobedience and an hostile mind conceived against God hee overthrew that Image and destroyed it which he hath attained unto with such craft as never any thing was attained unto or shall be Neither was it an obscure thing unto him if the man had remained in that state he had been his Pride the original of all sin Lord but so soon as he fell from him hee became a tyrant to him Therefore when all his forces of malice and craft displayed hee found nothing more fit to perfect his cogitations then that sinne by which hee was bewitched and pulled from God hee began to insinuate into our mother the affectation of the divine Majesty by sweet and flattering speeches with the help of the Serpent that old and deceitful Parasite and the atchiever of so great The fall of Adam a wickednesse which proud thought once entied into the heart and admitted there followed Apostasie disobedience and transgression of the precept concerning the Tree of knowledge not to bee touched Hereby came the image of God to be overthrown the holy Ghost to fly away and the image of the Devil to bee set up in the place of the divine Majesty and both of them to become the bondslaves of the Devil and he their Lord to handle their souls most cruelly and as a Giant handleth a child to blind the understanding to turn the will from God to accompany all the powers of the whole heart against God and intoxicate them with Satanicall malice to overthrow all the image of God in man to plant his own in the roome to infect them with the contagion of his own nature to beget after his own image children not now of God but his own to fulfill all kind of sinne and enmity against God and lastly to slay them with eternal death For even as in the image of God life eternall and the happinesse of man was contained so death and condemnation did follow its losse This death those doe best understand which fall and are cast into most grievous spirituall temptations being exposed to the tyranny of the Devill by infesting the miserable soule of them most cruelly with the custome of sinning Spiritual death and eternall by the fall of Adam under which crosse being depressed and troden down only unlesse the holy Ghost doe under-prop him and comfort him then the Devil doth fasten his death upon them and tormenteth their soules with pains grief infernal whereupon it must needs be that all the powers of the body doe faile the heart waxeth dry and the marrow to be consumed Psal 6. and the Spirituall temptation 38. and the word of God if any go about to be without life with juice and with all devotion and spirituall life Into which Spiritual death state when the businesse is to bee brought then the man is converted in the agonie of a true spirituall death esteeming nothing of the holinesse of all men righteousnesse dignity strength power glory honour arts and wisdome of all men without doubt this man shall perish unlesse the grace of God doe prevent him Therefore learn of me O man that Originall sin is the most terrible of terrible sinnes that is the losse of the hereditary righteousnesse of God and contrariwise the hereditary unrighteousnesse What our originall sin is of the Devil and man planted in the place for which the