in us Implying that so doth our mouth and stomach receive the bread and wine as that in the mean time our souls receive the flesh and the blood of Christ now the soul is not capable of receiving flesh and blood but by the power of that grace of faith which appropriates it But that we may clearly apprehend how these Sacramental acts and objects are both distinguished and united so as there may be no danger of either separation or confusion that which followeth in the consecratory prayer is most evident Hear us O merciful father we beseech thee and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christs holy institution in remembrance of his death and passion may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his disciples saying Take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me What more can be said what come we to receive outwardly The Creatures of bread and wine To what use In remembrance of Christs death and passion what do we the whiles receive inwardly we are thereby made partakers of his most blessed body and blood by what means doth this come about By virtue of our Saviours holy institution still it is bread and wine in respect of the nature and essence of it but so that in the spiritual use of it it conveyes to the faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand Christ is tendred to my soul Which yet is more fully if possibly it may be expressed in the form of words prescribed in the delivery of the bread and wine to the communicant The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body soul into everlasting life and take and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving c. No gloss in the world can make the words more full and perspicuous So do we in remembrance of Christs death take and eat the sacramental bread with our mouths as that our hearts do feed upon the body of Christ by our faith And what is this feeding upon Christ but a comfortable application of Christ and his benefits to our souls Which is as the prayer next following expresses it Then do we feed on Christ when by the blessed merits and death of our blessed Saviour and through faith in his blood we do obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of his passion and are fulfilled with his grace and heavenly benediction Or if we desire a more ample commentary upon this sacramental repast and the nourishment thereby received the prayer ensuing offers it unto us in these words We most heartily thank thee for that thou hast vouchsafed to feed us which have duely received these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards uâ— and that we be very members incorporate in thy mystical body which is the blessed company of all faithful people and be also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdome by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy dear Son This then is to feed upon Christ Lo the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual whiles the elements be bodily and sensible which the allowed homilies of the Church also have laboured in most significant termes to set forth Thou must carefully search and know saith the first sermon concerning the sacrament Tome 2. what dignities are provided for thy soul whither thou art come not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption but thy inward man to immortality and life nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth For this table is not saith Chrysostome for chattering jayes but for Eagles who fly thither where the dead body lieth And afterwards to omit some other passages most pregnantly thus It is well known the meat we seek for in this supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our soul a Heavenly refection and not earthly an invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal so that to think without faith we may enjoy the eating drinking thereof or that that is the fruition of it is but to dream a gross carnal feeding basely abjecting and binding our selves to the elements and creatures whereas by the advice of the council of Nice we ought to lift up our minds by faith and leaving these inferiour and earthly things there seek it where the son of righteousness ever shineth Take this lesson O thou that art desirous of this table of Emissenus a godly father That when thou goest to the reverend communion to be satisfyed with spiritual meats thou look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with the inward Man Thus that homily in the voice of the Church of England Who now shall make doubt to say that in the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner so as nothing is objected to our senses but the Elements nothing but Christ to our faith and therefore that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary and even foot as those that must tread in the midst betwixt profaneness and superstition not affixing a deity upon the Elements on the one side nor on the other sleighting them with a common regard not adoring the Creatures not basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God whom they do really exhibit to us Let us not then think it any boldness either to inquire or to determine of the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament and confidently to say that his body is locally in Heaven spiritually offered to and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon Earth True it is that in our Saviours speech Joh. 6. to believe in Christ is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood even besides out of the act of this Eucharistical supper so as whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith makes a private meal of his Saviour but the holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ for now over and above our spiritual eating of him we do here eat him Sacramentally also every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ but here by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviours institution hath made betwixt the signe and the thing signified the faithfull communicant doth partake of Christ in a
in this place when it is said Christ our passover is sacrificed for us So as here is a trope or figure twice told First the lamb is the passover Secondly Christ is that paschal Lamb. You would think this now far-fetched here was a double passing over The Angels passing over the Israelites the Israelites passing out of Egypt both were acts the one of God the other of men as for the lamb it is an animal substance Yet this Lamb represents this passover This is no newes in sacramental speeches The thing signed is usually put for the sign it self My covenant shall be in your flesh that is circumcision the sign of my covenant the rock that followed them was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 that is Christ was represented by that rock This cup is the new testament So here Christ our passover Gen. 17.13 that is Christ represented by the Paschal-lamb What an infatuation is upon the Romish party that rather then they will admit of any other then a grosse literall capernaiticall sence in the words of our Saviours sacramental supper This is my body will confound Heaven and Earth together and either by a too forceable consequence endeavour to overthrow the truth of Christs humanity or turne him into a monster a wafer a crum a nothing Whenas St. Austin hath told us plainly sacramentaliter intellectum vivificabit Take it in a sacramental sence there is infinite comfort and spiritual life in it As for his body St. Peter hath told us the heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things Acts 3.21 Yea when our Saviour himself hath told us the words that I speak are spirit and life Jo. 6. Now what a marvellous mercy was this of God to Israel thus to passe over them when he slew the first-borne of Egypt There was not an house in all Egypt wherein there was not mourning and lamentation no roof but coverd a suddainly made carcasse what an unlook't for consternation was here in every Egyptian Family Only the Israelites that dwelt amongst them were free to applaud this judgment that was inflicted upon their tyrannous persecutors and for their very cause inflicted for this mercy are they beholden under God to the blood of their Paschal-lamb sprinkled upon their door-posts Surely had they eaten the lamb and not sprinkled the blood they had not escaped the stroak of the destroying Angel This was in figure In reality it is so It is by and from the blood of our redeemer sprinkled upon our souls that we are freed from the vengeance of the Almighty Had not he dyed for us were not the benefit of his precious blood applyed to us we should lye open to all the fearful judgments of God and as to the upshot of all eternall death of body and soul As then the Israelites were never to eat the Paschal-lamb but they were recalled to the memory of that saving preterition of the Angel and Gods merciful deliverance from the fiery furnaces of the Egyptians so neither may we ever behold this sacramental representation of the death of our blessed Saviour but we should bethink our selves of the infinite mercy of our good God in saving us from everlasting death and rescuing us from the power of hell This is the first figure That the Lamb is the Passover The se-second followes That Christ is that Paschal-Lamb Christ then being the end of the Law it is no marvell if all the ceremonies of the Law served to prefigure and set him forth to Gods people but none did so clearly and fully resemble him as this of the paschal Lambe whether we regard 1. the choyce 2. the preparation 3. the eating of it The choice whether in respect of the nature or the quality of it the nature ye know this creature is noted for innocent meek gentle profitable such was Christ our Saviour His fore-runner pointed at him under this stile Behold the Lamb of God what perfect innocence was here No guile found in his mouth Hell it self could finde nothing ro quarrel at in so absolute integrity What admirable meekness He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so opened be not his mouth Esay 53.7 Doth his own treacherous servant betray him to the death Friend wherefore art thou come Mat. 26.50 Do the cruel tormentors tenter out his pretious limmes and nail his hands and feet to the tree of shame and curse Father forgive them for they know not what they do Oh patience and meeknesse incident into none but an infinite sufferer 2ly The quality Every Lamb would not serve the turne it must be agnus immaculatus A lamb without blemish that must be paschal Exod. 12.5 Neither doth it hinder ought that leave is there given to a promiscuous use either of lamb or kid for the sacramental supper of the passover For that was only allowed in a case of necessity as Theodoret rightly and as learned Junius well in the confusion of that first institution wherein certainly a lamb could not be gotten on the suddain by every Israelitish house-keeper to serve six hundred thousand men and so many there were Exod. 12.37 This liberty then was only for the first turne as divers other of those ceremonious circumstances of the passover were namely the four daies preparation the sprinkling of the blood upon the door-cheeks eating with girded loines and staves in their hands which were not afterward required or practised The lamb then must represent a most holy and perfectly sin-less Saviour could he have been capable of the least sin even in thought he had been so far from ransoming the World that he could not have saved himself Now his exquisite holinesse is such as that by the perfection of his merits he can and doth present his whole Church to himself glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing as holy and without blemish Ephes 5.27 Canst thou therefore accuse thy self for a sinful wretch a soul blemished with many foul imperfections Look up man lo thou hast a Saviour that hath holinesse enough for himself and thee and all the World of beleevers close with him and thou art holy and happy Behold the immaculate lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world thine Therefore if thou canst lay hold on him by a lively faith and make him thine This for the choice the preparation followes so Christ is the paschal lamb in a threefold respect in resemblance of his killing sprinkling his blood and roasting 1. This Lamb to make a true passover must be slain So was there a necessity that our Jesus should dye for us The two Disciples in their walk to Emaus hear this not without a round reproof from the mouth of their risen Saviour Oh fooles and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Luc. 24.26 Ought not there is
necessity the doom was in paradise upon mans disobedience morte morieris thou shalt dye the death Man sinned man must die The first Adam sinned and we in him the second Adam must by death expiate the sin Had not Christ dyed mankind must had not he dyed the first death we had all dyed both the first and second without shedding of blood there is no remission Heb. 9.22 Hereby therefore are we freed from the sence of the second death and the sting of the first to the unfailing comfort of our soules hereupon it is that our Saviour is so carefull to have his death and passion so fully represented to us in both his sacraments the water is his blood in the first Sacrament the Wine is his blood in the second In this he is sensiby crucify'd before our eyes the bread that is his body broken the wine his blood poured out And if these acts and objects do not carry our hearts to a lively apprehension of Christ our true passover we shall offer to him no other then the sacrifice of fools Lo here then a soveraign antidote against the first death and a preservative against the second the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World why should we be discomforted with the expectation of that death which Christ hath suffered why should we be dismayed with the fear of that death which our all-sufficient Redeemer hath fully expiated 2ly In the first institution of this passover The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled upon the posts and lintells of the doores of every Israelite so if ever we look for any benefit from Christ our Passover there must be a particular application of his blood to the believing soul even very Papists can say that unless our merits or holy actions be dyed or tinctured in the blood of Christ they can avail us nothing but this consideration will meet with us more seasonably upon the fourth head 3ly This passover must be roasted home not stewed not parboild So did the true paschall lamb undergo the flames of his Fathers wrath for our sins here was not a scorching and blistering but a vehement and full torrefaction It was an ardent heat that could fetch drops of blood from him in the garden but it was the hottest of flames that he felt upon the cross when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh who can without horrour and amazement hear so wosull a word fall from the mouth of the Son of God Had he not said My Father this strain had sunk us into utter despair but now in this very torment is comfort He knew he could not be forsaken of him of whom he saith I and my Father are one he could not be forsaken by a sublation of union though he seemed so by a substraction of vision as Leo well the sense of comfort was clouded for a while from his humanity his deity was ever glorious his faith firme and supplyed that strong consolation which his present sense failed of and therefore you soon hear him in a full concurrence of all Heavenly and victorious powers of a confident Saviour say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit In the mean while even in the height of this suffering there is our ease for certainly the more the Son of God indured for us the more sure we are of an happy acquittance from the Tribunall of Heaven the justice of God never punished the same sin twise over By his stripes we are healed by his payment we are discharged by his torments we are assured of peace and glory Thus much of the preparation The eating of it followes in the appendances the manner the persons The appendances It must be eaten with unleavned bread and with sour or bitter herbs Of the unleavened bread we have spoken enough before For the herbs that nothing might be wanting the same God that appointed meat appointed the sauce too and that was a sallad of not pleasing but bitter herbs herein providing not so much for the palate of the body as of the soul to teach us that we may not hope to partake of Christ without sensible disrelishes of nature without outward afflictions without a true contrition of Spirit It is the condition that our Saviour makes with us in admitting us to the profession of Christianity he shall receive an 100. fold with persecutions those to boot that for his sake and the Gospells forsake all Mark 10.30 Sit down therefore O man and count what it will cost thee to be a true Christian through many tribulations c. Neither can we receive this evangelicall passover without a true contrition of soul for our sins past think not my beloved that there is nothing but jollity to be look't for at Gods table Ye may frolick it ye that feast with the World but if ye will sit with Christ and feed on him ye must eat him with bitter herbs here must be a sound compunction of heart after a due self examination for all our sins wherewith we have offended our good God Thou wouldst be eating the paschal lamb but with sugar-sops or some pleasing sauce it may not be so here must be a bitternesse of soul or no passover It is true that there is a kind of holy mixture of affections in all our holy services a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce in him with trembling saith the Psalmist It is and should be our joy that we have this lamb of God to be ours but it is our just sorrow to finde our own wretched unworthiness of so great a mercy Godly sorrow must make way for solid joy and comfort if there be any of you therefore that harbours in your breast a secret love of and complacency in your known and resolved sins procul O procul let him keep off from this holy Table let him bewail his sinfull mis-disposition and not dare to put forth his hand to this passover till he have gathered the bitter herbs of a sorrowful remorse for his hated offences And where should he gather these but in the low grounds of the Law there they grow plenteously lay the law then home to thy soul that shall show thee thy sins and thy judgment School thee Yea dear Christians how can any of us see the body of our blessed Saviour broken and his blood poured out and withall think and know that his own sins are guilty of this tort offered to the son of God the Lord of life and not feel his heart touched with a sad and passionate apprehension of his own vilenesse and an indignation at his own wickednesse that hath deserved and done this these are the bitter herbs wherewith if we shall eat this passover we shall finde it most wholesome and nourishable unto us to eternall life The manner of the eating of it followes in three particulars 1. The whole lamb must be eaten not a part of it 2. Not a bone of it must be broken 3. In
IOSEPHI HALL NORVIC EPISCOPI VERA EFFIGIES REVERENDI DO NI The Shaking of the Olive-Tree THE Remaining Works Of that Incomparable PRELATE JOSEPH HALL D. D. Late LORD BISHOP of NORWICH WITH SOME SPECIALTIES OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN HIS LIFE Noted by His own Hand Together with His HARD MEASURE VVritten also by Himself Heb. 11.38 Of whom the World was not worthy John 6.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Cadwel for J. Crooke at the Ship in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1660 CHRISTIAN READER WE present thee here with some scattered Reliques of a departed Saint void of the superstition of those of Rome as those of Rome are void of their divine operation These few drops of Inke from the Authors pen will work saving miracles when the pretended blood of the Baptist so shrined and adored at Naples shall blush at its weaknesse That account which thou hast here of the Life of the Reverend Author from his own hand is exceedingly too short and modest yet durst we not presume to make any additions to it for many reasons Our Relation to him would but impair the credit of our most sincere relations of him as too partial and flattering and indeed the attempt is too hard and high for us where his own accurate pencil hath begun a draught of himself to continue it with the same Elegancy and Decorum And besides where this meek Moses hath drawn a vail over his own shining face in his pourtraict of himself It seems to us undecent to take it away though to discover more of his splendour especially to the weak and prejudiced eyes of this Age and Generation who cannot indure innocency it self when habited in a Rochet We remember what Seneca saith and it is in his De Ira too they are affecti oculi quos candida vestis obturbat happy is it for him that the blackest Stigma that can be fastned upon him is that his robes were whiter then his Brethrens that only the coat of our Joseph hath drawn their envy upon him the Man Dr. Hall was not the object of their distast but the Bishop To satisfy these tender eyes they have here this great Aaron stripped of all his Priestly Ornaments and laid open to them only in these few winding sheets spunne and woven with his own hand In the narrative of his life his pen breaks off with his outward pressures wherein all the Losses and indignities he suffered did so little trouble him as to some eminent Commissioners who desired to know his suffering condition and made fair overtures of some little reparation he replyed that of Seneca Qui se habet nihil perdidit God had no sooner withdrawn his hand from visiting him with those outward tryals then he began to exercise him by sore afflictions of the body in his continually increasing paines of the stone and strangury which for many years held him and pursued him to the death yet could not these great impediments take him off from being active both in Presse and Pulpit His intellectuals and sences continued strong and fresh to the last his head continued Gold and his heart of refined Silver when all the rest of his body was half clay His sence of the sad and divided condition of the Church was to his end passionatly tender professing all willingness to live though in the midst of his exceeding pains and torments so he might be any way instrumental to the making up of the breaches of it and putting it in due frame and order But since all his endeavours with men so little prevailed he never ceased wrestling with God to this purpose setting apart one day in every weak through the Year for fasting and humiliation with his Family not that he sought his own Interests to be restored to that Episcopal height and greatness of which he had been divested All those who truely knew him can witness with us his abundant contentment in his retreat to a private life as not a misery but a blessing to him We know when in the height of all his honors he was ready enough to such a secession could he fairly and handsomly have retired And now that impetuous storme which beat him off from the course of his publick employments though it batter'd his vessel and tore his sailes yet it did but drive him to the quiet haven where he would be justly could he take up the words of holy Nazianzen in this and many other things his parallel who when hotly opposed and thrust from his See of Constantinople could say A retired life everwas and now is dearly affected by me though they drive me from my chair they cannot drive me from my God Among many worthy men who received Ordinaon to the Ministry from his hands we cannot but mention one in whome he take great comfort as being a notable precedent for the rest of our learned religious Gentry to follow It was Mr. Gipson Lucas an Esq of good estate a great Commissioner and Justice of Peace in the County of Suffolk who found his Spirit and Conscience so wrought upon as after good deliberation and consultation with others he came to this Reverend Father for Ordination as refusing to take it from any hands where his did not precede which he received good proof being given of his abilities according to his desire and he who entred Nayoth before this aged Samuel like Saul in his scarlet for that was his habit returned from him a Sackcloth Prophet continuing a diligent and zealous preacher of the Gospel To returne to the Reverend Author his retreat from the World though he were hotly and constantly charged with furious onsets of his sharp diseases yet was it answerable to his life solemn and staid with a composed and heavenly temper of spirit The stream was deep which could run clear calmly through so craggy crooked a Channel without a murmure After his prevailing infirmities had wasted all the strengths of nature and the Arts of his learned and excellent Physician D. Brown of Norwich to whom under God we and the whole Church are ingaged for many Years preserving his life as a blessing to us after his Fatherly reception of many persons of Honour Learning and Piety who came to crave his dyeing prayers and benediction One of which A Noble person he saluted with the words of an ancient Votary Vides hominem mox pulverem futurum after many holy prayers exhortations and discourses he rouzed up his dying Spirits to a heavenly Confession of his Faith which ere he could finish his speech was taken from him so that we cannot here insert it After some struglings of nature with the agonies of death he quietly gradually and even insensibly gave up his last breath And now how can we forbear to cry sadly after him O our Father our Father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof Theodorets Lamentation over Chrysostome may be taken up over Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though ye have
and feet the blasphemer wounds him to the heart wo is me what an heavy case are these men in we cannot but think those that offered this bodily violence to the Son of God were highly impious Oh thou sayest I would not have been one of them that should have done such a fact for all the world but O man know thou that if thou be a wilfull sinner against God in these kindes thou art worse then they He that prayed for his first crucifiers curseth his second they crucified him in his weaknesse these in his glory they fetcht him from the garden to his crosse these pull him out of heaven surely they cannot be more enemies to the crosse of Christ then Christ is to them who by him shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thessal 1.9 as it also followes in my Text whose end is destruction A wofull condition beyond all thoughts like unto that Hell wherein it is accomplished whereof there is no bottom had the Apostle said only whose end is death the doom had been heavy but that is the common point whereat all creatures touch in their last passage either way and is indeed the easiest piece of this vengeance it were well for wilful sinners if they might dye or if they might but dye Even earthly distresses send men to sue for death how much more the infernal there are those that have smiled in death never any but gnashed in torments that distinction is very remarkable which our Saviour makes betwixt killing and destroying Matth. 10.28 Killing the body destroying body and soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men may kill God only can destroy there are gradations even in the last act of execution expressed in the Greek which our language doth not so fully distinguish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to kill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyes violence in killing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cruelty in that violence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absoluteness and eternity of torment Killing is nothing to destroying the body is but meer rubbish to the soul and therefore to put these together killing the body is nothing to destruction of the soul Alas here is every circumstance that may add horrour and misery to a condition suddainnesse of seizure degree of extremity impossibility of release suddainness They shall soon be cut down as the grasse saith David Ps 37.2 yea yet sooner then so as the fire licks up the straw Esa 5.24 and more suddainly yet as the Whrilewind passeth so is the wicked no more Prov. 10.25 Shortly they are brought to desolation in a moment Psal 73.19 As for the degree of extremity it is far beyond all expressions all conceptions of the creature the wrath of God is as himself infinite as the glory of his Saints is such as St. Paul that saw it tells us that it transcends all conceit and cannot come out of the mouth cannot enter into the heart so the vengeance prepared for his enemies is equally incomprehensible the Rack the Wheel the Gibbet the Fire are fearfull things but these fall within our thoughts wo unto that soul that must suffer what it is not capable to conceive Even what we men can devise and do apprehend is terrible those very torments that men prepare for men are such as we shrink at the mention of tearing fleying broaching broyling c. what shall those be which an angry God hath prepared for his enemies But though the torment were extream for the time yet if at last it might have an end there were some possibility of comfort alas we shrug at the thought of burning though in a quick fire but to think of mans being a whole hour in the flame we abhorr to imagine but to be a whole day in that state how horrible doth it seem Oh then what shall we say to those everlasting burnings To be not dayes or moneths or years but thousands of millions of years and millions of millions after that and after that for all eternity still in the height of these unconceivable tortures without intermission without relaxation Oh the grosse Atheisme of carnall men that do not believe these dreadful vengeances Oh the desperate security of those men who profess to believe them and yet dare run into those sins which may and will plunge them into this damnation Is sin sweet Yea but is it so sweet as Hell fire is grievous Is it profitable But can it countervail the loss of the beatifical vision of God Oh mad sinners that for a little momentany contentment cast themselves into everlasting perdition let the drink be never so delicate and well-spiced yet if we hear there is poyson in it we hold off let Gold be offered us yet if we hear it is red hot we draw back our hands and touch it not Oh then why will we be so desperately foolish as when a little poor unsatisfying pleasure is offered us though sauced with a woful damnation for ever and ever we should dare to entertain it at so dear a rate Have mercy upon your own souls my dear brethren and when the motions of evill are made to you check them with the danger of this fearfull damnation from which the God of all mercies graciously deliver us all for the sake of the dear Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous to whom c. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY Laid forth in a SERMON Preacht to his late MAJESTY at WHITE-HALL In the time of the Parliament holden anno 1628. By JOS. B. of EXON Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free AS if my tongue and your ears could not easily be diswonted from our late Parliamentary language you have here in this text Liberty Prerogative the maintenance of both Liberty of Subjects that are freed Prerogative of the King of glory that hath freed them maintenance of that liberty which the power of that great prerogative hath atchieved Christian liberty Christs liberation our persistence Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free Liberty is a sweet word the thing it self is much sweeter and mens apprehensions make it yet sweeter then it is Certainly if liberty and life were competitors it is a great question whether would carry it sure I am if there be a life without it yet it is not vital Man restrained is like a wild bird shut up in a cage that offers at every of the grates to get out and growes sullen when it can finde no evasion and till stark famine urge it will not so much as feed for anger to be confined Neither is the word more sweet then large There are as many liberties as restraints and as many restraints as there are limitations of superiour commands and there are so many limits of commands as there are either duties to be done or sentences to be undergone There is a liberty of
free man neither hath any man free-will to good but he Be ambitious of this happy condition O all ye noble and generous spirits and do not think ye live till ye have attained to this true liberty The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free So from the liberty we descend to the perogative Christs liberation Here is the glorious prerogative of the Son of God to be the deliverer or redeemer of his people They could not free themselves the Angels of heaven might pitty could not redeem them yea alas who could or who did redeem those of their rank which of lightsome celestiall spirits are become foul Devils Only Christ could free us whose ransome was infinite only Christ did free us whose love is infinite and how hath he wrought our liberty By force by purchase By force in that he hath conquer'd him whose captives we were by purchase in that he hath pay'd the full price of our ransom to that supream hand whereto we were forfeited I have heard Lawers say there are in civill Corporations three wayes of freedom by Birth by Service by Redemption By Birth as St. Paul was free of Rome by Service as Apprentises upon expiration of their years by Redemption as the the Centurion with a great sum purchased I this freedom Two of these are barred from all utter possibility in our spiritual freedom for by Birth we are the sons of wrath by service we are naturally the vassals of Satan It is only the precious redemption of the Son of God that hath freed us Whereas freedom then hath respect to bondage there are seven Egyptian Masters from whose slavery Christ hath freed us Sin an accusing Conscience danger of Gods wrath tyranny of Satan the curse of the Law Mosaicall Ceremenies humane Ordinances see our servitude to and our freedom from all these by the powerfull liberation of Christ 1. It was a true word of that Pythagorean Quot vitia tot domini sin is an hard master A master Yea a tyrant let not sin reign in your mortall bodies Rom. 6 14. and so the sinner is not only servus corruptitiae a drudge of corruptions 2 Pet. 2.19 but a very slave sold under sin Rom. 7.14 So necessitated to evill by his own inward corruption that he cannot but grind in this Mill he cannot but row in this Gally For as posse peccare is the condition of the greatest Saint upon earth and Non posse peccare is the condition of the least Saint above so non posse non peccare is the condition of the least sinful unregenerate as the prisoner may shift his feet but not his fetters or as the snail cannot but leave a slime track behind it which way soever it goes Here is our bondage where is our liberty Ubi spriritus domini ibi libertas where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.7 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank my God through Jesus Christ So then Christ hath freed us from the bondage of sin An accusing conscience is a true task-master of Egypt it will be sure to whip us for what we have done for what we have not done Horrour of sin like a sleeping Mastive lyes at our door Gen. 4.7 when it awakes it will fly on our throat No closer doth the shaddow follow the body then the revenge of self-accusation followes sin walk Eastward in the morning the shadow starts behind thee soon after it is upon thy left side at noon it is under thy feet lye down it coucheth under thee towards even it leaps before thee thou canst not be rid of it whiles thou hast a body and the Sun light no more can thy soul quit the conscience of evil This is to thee instead of an Hell of Fiends that shall ever be shaking fire brands at thee ever torturing thee with affrights of more paines then thy nature can comprehend Soeva conturbata conscientia Wisd 17.11 If thou look to the punishment of loss it shall say as Lysimachus did how much felicity have I lost for how little pleasure If to the punishment of sense it shall say to thee as the Tyrant dream'd his heart said to him out of the boiling caldron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the cause of all this misery Here is our bondage where is the liberty Having our hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience Heb. 10.22 Sprinkled with what Even with the blood of Jesus vers 19. This this only is it that can free us It is with the unquiet heart as with the troubled Sea of Tiberias the Winds rise the Waters swell the billowes roar the ship is tossed Heaven and Earth threat to meet Christ doth but speak the word all is calme so Christ hath freed us Secondly from the bondage of an accusing conscience The conscience is but Gods Bayliff It is the displeasure of the Lord of Heaven and Earth that is the utmost of all terribles the fear of Gods wrath is that strong winde that stirrs these billowes from the bottom set aside the danger of divine displeasure and the clamoâ—rs of conscience were harmless this alone makes an Hell in the bosome The aversion of Gods face is confusion the least bending of his brow is perdition Ps 2. ult but his totus aestus his whole fury as Ps 78.38 is the utter absorption of the creature excandescentia ejus funditur sicut ignis His wrath is poured out like fire the rocks are rent before it Nahum 1.6 whence there is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fearfull expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10.27 Here is the bondage where is the liberty Being just fyed by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then Christ hath freed us thridly from the bondage of the wrath of God As every wicked man is a Tyrant according to the Philosophers position and every Tirant is a Devil among men so the Devil is the Arch-tyrant of the creatures he makes all his Subjects errand vassals yea chained slaves 2 Tim. 2. ult That they may recover themselves from the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will lo here is will snares captivity perfect tyranny Nahash the Ammonite was a notable Tyrant he would have the right eyes of the Israelites put out as an eminent mark of servitude so doth this infernal Nahash blind the right eye of our understanding yea with the spightful Philistim he puts out both the eyes of our apprehension and judgment that he may gyre us about in the Mill of unprofitable wickednesse and cruelly insult upon our remedilesse misery And when he hath done the fairest end is death yea death without end Oh the impotency of earthly tyranny to this the greatest blood-suckers could but kill and livor post fata as the old word is but here is an homicida ab initio and a fine
the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the Lord where I will meet you to speak there with thee Lo God meets us in the holy Assemblies Meets us yea stayes with us there Zach. 2.10 The prophet speaking of the dayes of the Gospell Sing and rejoyce saith he O Daughter of Sion for Lo I come and will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord Contrarily when he withdrawes from any people the ordinary means of salvation he is truly said to depart from them but this perhaps not at once but by degrees as in Ezekiels vision he removes first to the threshold and from thence to the door of the East-gate and this I would have you know to be done not only in a meer silence but in a corruption of doctrine not only when faithfull mouths are stopped but when mens mouths are lawlesly opened to the venting whether of popish fancies or satyricall invectives against authority for you may not think that all discourses are preaching or all preaching Gospell when men preach themselves and not Christ when they utter their own impetuous fury and not the glad tidings of peace how shall we call this the message of God No God was not in the winde he was not in the fire he was in the soft voice And he that walks betwixt the golden Candlesticks doth not go away only when the light is quite out but when the snuff burns unsavourily in the socket Shortly where the sincere milk of the Gospell is given to Gods babes and the solid meat of true Orthodox and saving doctrine is set before the stronger men there God visits his people in mercy and is drawn nigh to them in his holy Ordinance Secondly in his audience we use to say out of sight out of mind and those that are out of distance what noise so ever they make are not heard The ravished Virgin in the field saith God cryed out and there was none to save her Deut. 22.27 but when we come neer the least groan and sigh is heard Thus God who is never but with us is said to come neer us when he gives proof to us that he comes not only within the ken of our necessities but within the hearing of the softest whisperings of our prayers So David every where The Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will hear my prayer Ps 6. The Lord will hear me when I call upon him The tender mother is never away from the bed-side of her sick child but if she perceive the disease to grow dangerous now she is more attentive and layes her ear to the mouth of it and listens to every breathing that it fetcheth so doth our heavenly father to us The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him saith the Psalmist Nigh them indeed for he puts into them those holy desires which he graciously hears and answers Contrarily when that sweet singer of Israel findes some stop made of his audience he is then in another tune Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and our oppression Psal 44.24 still measuring Gods nearnesse to us by his regard and as it were re-ecchoing to our prayers A third and yet nearer and happier approach of God to us is in his Grace and favour in the other two as in his word and in our prayers he may come near us little to our availe He speaks to many in his word that hear him not or that hear him to their further judgment Our gospell is howsoever a sweet savour to God yet a savour of death unto death to many a soul wo be to thee Chorazin wo be to thee Bethsaida He hears many speak to him in their prayers but for their own punishment and sometimes will not hear in mercy to the petitioner the Devill sues to enter into the Swine and is heard Paul sues to be freed from the buffets of the messenger of Satan and is mercifully not heard the Israelites have Quailes according to their desires but sauced to them with a vengeance But this third appropinquation of God is never other then cordiall and beneficiall It is a sweet word I will dwell amongst the Children of Israell and will be their God Exod. 29.45 Yea this is true happinesse indeed that God will so dwell with us as to be ours St. Paul told the Athenians most truely non longe ab unoquoque he is not far from every one of us how should he when in him we live and move and are but little are we the better for these generall favours which are common to all his creatures if we do not finde in our selves a speciall interest in the presence of his Spirit If he only call on us as a passenger or lodge with us as a stranger or sojourne with us as a guest this can be small comfort to us nor any thing lesse then his so dwelling with us as that he dwell in us and that not as an inmate but as an owner Know ye not that Christ dwells in you saith St. Paul unlesse ye be Reprobates Know ye not that ye are the Temples of the living God his Temples for a perpetuall inhabitation of which he hath said Here shall be my rest for ever Whereupon there will be sure to follow the fourth degree of his appropinquation which is our aid and sweet experience of his mercifull deliverance It was out of a full sense of Gods goodnesse that holy David breaks out into that heavenly Epiphonema The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite Spirit many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all Psal 34.18 19. His salvation is nigh to them that fear him that glory may dwell in our Land Psal 85.9 So then the sum of all is this that if we draw nigh unto God he will be sure to draw nigh to us in his Ordinances in his Audience in his Graces in his Aid But what shall we say to the order of these two approaches One would have thought he should have said God drawes near to you therefore draw you near to God For surely his approach to us is the cause that we come near to him and not our approach to him causeth him to come near to us Do not think that God and man strain courtesie who shall begin or that man hath any power to draw to God but from God The true order of our regeneration is that Cantic 1.4 Draw me and I shall run after thee There have been contrary heresies in the Church concerning this point The Manichees held man in all things dragged by a necessity of destiny The Pelagians held man led altogether by his will so as that can alone enable him to do good and to feoffe him in blessednesse And our Semipelagian Papists go not much lesse save that they suppose some help given to the will which it can thus improve The Orthodox Church still hath
we finde the face of God clouded from us let our souls refuse comfort till we have recovered his favour which is better then life do we find our selves upon our sound repentance received to grace and favour of the Almighty and that he is well pleased with our persons and with our poor obediences and that he smiles upon us in Heaven courage dear Brethren in spight of all the frowns and menaces of the World we are safe and shall be happy here is comfort for us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 with that chosen vessel we are troubled on every side yet not distressed â—e are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken 2. Cor. 4.8 cast down but not destroyed for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish 16. yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us 18. a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory to the full possession whereof the God that hath ordained us graciously bring us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost three persons and one glorious God be given all praise honour glory and dominion now and for evermore A Second SERMON In prosecution of the same Text PREACHT AT St. GREGORIES CHURCH IN NORWICH July 21. 1644. By JOS. B. of N. EPHES. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption WE have done with the Dehortation it self and therein with the Act forbidden Grieve not and with the title of the Subject the Holy Spirit of God We descend to the inforcement of the Dehortation by the great merit of the Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption Those that are great and good we would not willingly offend though meer strangers to us but if they be besides our great friends and liberal Benefactors men that have deserved highly of us we justly hold it a foul shame and abominable ingratitude wilfully to do ought that might affront them It is therefore added for a strong disswasive from Grieving the Spirit of God that by him we are sealed to the day of redemption All the world shall in vain strive to do for us what our great Friend in Heaven hath done our loathness therefore to grieve him must be according to the depth of our obligation to him Cast your eyes then a little upon the wonderful Benefit here specified and see First what this day of Redemption is Secondly what is the sealing of us to this day and Thirdly why the sealing of us to this day should be a sufficient motive to withhold us from grieving the Holy Spirit of God These three must be the limits of my Speech and your Atrention Redemption signifies as much as a Ransome A Ransome implies a Captivity or Servitude There is a threefold Captivity from which we are freed Of Sin of Misery of Death For the first We are sold under sin saith our Apostle No Slave in Argier is more truly sold in the Market under a Turkish Pyrate then we are naturally sold under the Tyranny of sin by whom we are bound hand and foot and can stir neither of them towards God and dungeon'd up in the darkness of our ignorance without any Glimpse of the vision of God For the second the very name of Captivity implyes Misery enough what outward evil is incident into a man which bondage doth not bring with it Wo is me there was never so much captivity in this land since it was a Nation nor so woful a Captivity as this of brethren to brethren Complaints there are good store on both sides of restraint want ill-lodging hard and scant diet Irons insultations scornes and extremities of ill usage of all kindes and what other is to be found in the whole course of this wretched life of ours the best whereof is vanity and the worst infinite vexations But Thirdly if some men have been so externally happy as to avoid some of these miseries for all men smart not alike yet never man did or can avoid the third which is obnoxiousness to death By the offence of one saith the Apostle judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 Sin hath raigned unto death Ps 21. It is more then an Ordinance a statute law in Heaven Statutum est c. It is enacted to all men once to dye Heb. 9.27 This then is our bondage or captivity now comes our redemption from all these at once when upon our happy dissolution we are freed from sin from misery from death and enter into the possession of glory thus our Saviour Lift up your heads for the day of your redemption draweth nigh thus saith St. Paul The creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 It is the same condition of the members of Christ which was of the head that they overcome death by dying when therefore the bands of death are loosed and we are fully freed from the dominion of the first death and danger of the second and therein from all the capacity not only of the rule and power of sin but of the life and in-dwelling of it and from all the miseries both bodily and spirituall that attend it and when in the same instant our soul takes possession of that glory which shall once in the consociation of it's glorious partner the body be perfectly consummated Then and not till then is the day of our redemption Is there any of us therefore that complaines of his sad and hard condition here in the world paines of body grief of mind agonies of soul crosses in estate discontentments in his families suffering in his good name let him bethink himself where he is this is the time of his captivity and what other can be expected in this case Can we think there is no difference betwixt liberty bondage Can the slave think to be as free as his Patron Ease rest liberty must be lookt for elsewhere but whiles we are here we must make no account of other then these varieties of misery our redemption shall free us from them all But now perhaps some of you are ready to say of the Redemption as they did of the Resurrection that it is past already and so indeed it is one way in respect of the price laid out by the Son of God the invaluable price of his blood for the redemption of man but so that it must be taken out by and applied to every soul inparticular if we will have the benefit redound to us It is his Redemption before it is now only our Redemption when it is brought home to us Oh then the dear and happy day of this our finall redemption wherein we shall be absolutely freed from all the miserable sorrowes paines cares fears
vexations which we meet withall here below and which is yet more from all the danger of sinning which now every day adds to the fearfulness of our account and lastly from the wofull wages of sin Death bodily spirituall eternall here is a redemption worth our longing for worth our joying in when Joseph was fetcht out of Pharaohs Gaol and changed the nasty rags of his prison for pure linnen vestures and his Iron fetters for a chain of Gold and his wooden stocks for Pharaohs second Charet Gen. 41.42 do we not think he must needs be joyfully affected with it When Peter was called up from betwixt his Leopards as that Father termes them and had his shackles shaken off and was brought through the Iron gates into the free and open street or when Daniel was called out of the lyons den to the embracements of Darius could he choose but rejoyce in the change when Lazarus was called after three dayes entombing out of his grave and saluted his mourning sisters and walk't home with his friends could there be ought but the voice of joy and gladnesse among them But alas all these are but sleight resemblances of the blessed Redemption which is purchased for us who are thus ransomed from sin and death Rather if we could imagine the soul of a Trajan fetcht out of hell by the prayers of Gregory or of a Falconella by Tecla according to the bold legends of lying fablers and now freed from those intolerable and unconceiveable torments we might apprehend in some measure what it is that is wrought for our souls in this mercifull redemption and what is the favour of that deliverance which we must long to have fully perfected But alas what shall I say to us We are enslaved and fettered and we are loath to be free we are in love with our bonds with our miseries with our sins and when death comes like a good Ebed-molech to drag us up out of our dungeon we are unwilling to put the rags under our arme-pits and to lay hold of that our sure and happy conveyance to the light and liberty of the Saints Oh our wretched unbelief that is guilty of this slackness of our desires whereas if we were what we profess our selves we would think the time long till it be accomplished and say Come Lord Jesus come quickly even so come Lord Jesus come quickly and make up our full redemption from misery from sin from death and bring us into that glorious liberty of the Sons of God This for the day of our redemption now Secondly let us see what this sealing is to the day of Redemption I find in Gods book three uses of a seal 1. For secrecy 2. For peculiar designation 3. For certainty and assurance For secrecy first So God speaking of the condition of Israel Deut. 32.34 Is not this laid up in store and sealed up among my treasures So Esay speaking of a vision of his It shall be as the letter of a book sealed whereof one shall say Read this the other shall answer I cannot for it is sealed Esa 29.11 Yea this sealing argues a long reservation and closenesse Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end Dan. 12.9 and thereupon it is that John is forbidden to seale up the book of his prophesie Revel 22.10 for the time is â—igh at hand so we are wont to do in ordinary practise that Closet which we would have no body go into we seal up that bag which we would not have opened and that letter which we would not have seen by others we seal up and think it a great violation of civility to have it opened Hence is that sigillum confessionis the seale of confession amongst the Romish Casuists held so sacred that it may not in any case whatsoever be broken up Insomuch as their great Doctour Martinus Alphonsus Vivaldus goes so farr as to say Si penderet salus vel liberatio totius mundi ex revelatione unius peccati non esset revelandum etiamsi totus mundus esset perdendus That if the safety of the whole World should depend upon the revealing of one sin it is not to be revealed though all the World should be destroyed and adds Imo propter liberationem omnium animarum totius mundi non est revelandum Though it were for the freeing of all the souls of the whole World it is not to be revealed in his Candelabrum aureum De sigillo number the 11th A strange height of expression to give the World assurance of the close carriage of their auricular Confession and that not without need for were it not for this perswasion their hearths might cool and men would keep their own counsell and surely not to meddle with their tyrannicall impositions upon the conscience in their forced confessions which we do justly call carnificinam conscientiae I should hold and profess that if a man should come in the anguish of his soul for some sin to unload his heart secretly to the bosom of his Minister of whom he looks for counsell and comfort if in such a case that Minister should reveale that sin to any other whosoever no death were torment enough for such a spirituall perfidiousnesse all secrets are at the least sub sigillo fidei under the seal of fidelity and therefore not to be revealed For peculiar designation thus our blessed Saviour speaking of himself the Son of man adds For him hath God the Father sealed Joh. 6.27 that is hath designed him to the speciall office of his Mediatorship So Revelation 7.5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand and so the name of the number of the severall tribes to the whole sum of an hundred fourty four thousand were designed to Salvation But the chief use of the seale is for certainty and assurance so Jezebel to make sure work with the Elders of Jezreel for the dispatch of Naboth sealed it with Ahabs seale 1 Kings 21. so the Jewish Princes Priests and Levites when they had made their covenant sealed it with their seales Nehem. 9. the last verse Hence Hamans Order for the destruction of the Jewes was sealed with the Kings seale Esth 3.12 and the countermand for their preservation so sealed also Esth 8.8 so Jeremy for his land at Anathoth wrote and sealed Jerem. 32.9 so the gravestone of Christs Tomb was sealed Matth. 27.66 And still this is our practise that which we would make sure and past all question we give not under our hand onely but our seal also In all these three regards of secrecy peculiar designation and certainty the Church is sons obsignatus a well sealed up Cant. 4.12 and she justly prayes Set me as a Seal upon thine heart and a Seal upon thine arme Cant. 8.6 Let us take them severally into our thoughts and first for the Secrecy It is a sure word which the Spirit of God hath 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God remaineth
all Religion is expressed by the name of fear and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by Timoratus indeed where this fear is there can be no other then a gracious heart for this will be sure to work in a man true humility the Mother of vertues when he shall compare his dust and ashes with the glorious Majesty of God when he sees such an Heaven roling over his head such an Earth and Sea under him how can he but say Lord what is man this will make him think himself happy that he may be allowed to love such a God that such a worme as he may be admitted to have any interest in so infinite a Majesty this will render him carefully conscionable in all his wayes that he would not for a World do any thing that might offend such a God yea it will make him no lesse fearfull of sin then of Hell see Gods own connexion when he gives a Character of his Servant Job A perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evill Job 1.8 Lo he that fears God will therefore eschew evill will not dare to sin if Satan shall lay all the Treasures of the World at his feer he will say in an holy scorn Thy Gold and thy Silver perish with thee if all the philtrâ—s and wanton allurements of a great and beautifull mistress shall lay seige to him he will say with good Joseph Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God But O God who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Is there such a thing as the fear of the Lord amongst men Can we think that the common sins of the times can stand with the least scruple of the fear of the Almighty wo is me what rending and tearing of the sacred name of God in pieces with oaths and blasphemies do we meet with every where what contempt of his holy Ordinances and Ministers What abominable sacriledges what foul perjuries what brutish and odious drunkenness and epicurean excess what fraud and cozenage in trading what shamefull uncleanness what merciless and bloody oppressions Oh where then where is the fear of a God to be found the while yea to such an height of atheous boldnesse and obduration are the russians of our time grown that they boast of it as their greatest glory to fear nothing Neither God nor Devil they feast without fear they fight without fear they sin without fear But hear this ye carelesse and profane epicures that say Tush doth God see it Is there knowledg in the most high Hear this ye formall hypocrites that can fashionably bow to him whose face you can be content to spit upon and whom ye can abide to crucifie again by your wicked lives Hear this ye Godlesse and swaggering roarers that dare say with Pharaoh Who is the Lord You that now bid defiance to fear shall in spight of you learn the way to fear yea to tremble yea to be confounded at the terrors of the Almighty Those knees that are now so stiff that they will not bow to God shall once knock together those teeth through which your blasphemies have passed shall gnash those hands that were lift up against Heaven shall shake and languish If ye were as strong as Mountaines before his presence the Mountaines fled and the hills were moved If as firme as rocks who can stand before his wrath His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken before him Nahum 1.6 If as the whole Earth whose title is That cannot be moved The Earth trembled and quaked because he was angry saith the Psalmist yea if as wicked as Devils even they believe and tremble and if when he doth but thunder in his clouds the stoutest Atheist turnes pale and is ready to creep into a bench-hole what shall become of them when he shall put forth the utmost of his fury and revenge upon his enemies Lo then ye that now laugh at fear shall yell and houle like hell-hounds in eternall torments and God shall laugh when your fear commeth ye that would not now so much as with Faelix quake at the newes of a judgment shall irrecoverably shiver in the midst of those flames that can never be quenched But for us dear and beloved Christians far be it from us to be of that iron-disposition that we should never bow but with the fire no we have other more kindly grounds of our fear Great is thy mercy saith the Psalmist that thou maist be feared Lo it is the amiableness of merits that must attract our fear it is a thing that mainly concernes us to look where and how fears are placed Far be it from us to bring upon our selves the curse of wicked ones To fear where no fear is as this is the common condition of men Alas we are apt to fear the censures and displeasure of vain greatness whereas that may be a means to ingratiate us with God shame of the World whereas that may be a means to save us from everlasting confusion poverty whereas that may possess us of a better wealth death whereas to the faithfull soul that proves the necessary harbinger to eternall rest and glory in the mean time the same men are no whit afraid of the displeasure of God and their own perdition wherein they are like to foolish children who run away from their parents and best friends if they have but a maske or scarfe over their faces but are no whit afraid of fire or water Away with all these and the like weak misprisions and if we tender our own safety let it be our main care to set our fears right which shall be done if we place them upon our infinitely great and glorious God in that relation both of mercy and goodness wherein he is here recommended to us as our Father and that awfull apprehension of Justice wherein he is set forth to us as an unpartiall judge of us and all our actions Consider then that from the duty we may descend to the motive that this fear is of a Father and therefore a loving fear but this Father is a judge and therefore it must be an awfull love how will these two go together a Father and a Judge the one a stile of love and mercy the other of justice What ever God is he is all that he is all love and mercy He is all justice That which God is in the pure simplicity of his essence we must imitate in our compositions namely to unite both these in one heart He is not so a judg that he will wave the title and affection of a Father he is not so a Father that he will remit ought of his infinite justice in any of his proceedings upon both these must we fasten our eyes at once we must see the love of a Father to uphold and chear us we must look upon the Justice of a Judge that we may tremble and
in hand without which there can be no firm peace no constant and solid comfort to the Soul of Man Three things then call us to the indeavor of this assurance our duty our advantage our danger We must do it out of duty because our God bids us Gods commands like the Prerogatives of Princes must not be too strictly scanned should he require ought that might be losse-full or prejudiciall to us our blindfold obedience must undertake it with cherefulnesse how much more then when he calls for that from us then which nothing can be imagined of more or equall behoof to the Soul It is enough therefore that God by his Apostle commands us to Give diligence to make our calling and election sure Our Heavenly Father bids us what sons are we if we obey him not Our blessed Master bids us what Servants are we if we set not our selves to observe his charge our glorious and immortall King bids us what subjects are we if we stick at his injunction out of mere duty therefore we must indeavour to make our calling and election sure Even where we owe no duty oftentimes advantage drawes us on yea many times across those duties which we owe to God and Man how much more where our duty is seconded with such an advantage as is not parallelable in all the World beside What lesse what other followes upon this assurance truly attained but peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost in one word the begining of Heaven in the soul What a contentment doth the heart of Man find in the securing of any whatsoever good what a coyle do mony-Masters keep for security of the summes they put forth and when that is taken to their mind are ready to say with the rich Man in the Gospel Soul take thy ease Great venturers at Sea how willingly do they part with no small part of their hoped gain to be assured of the rest How well was Ezekiah appaid when he was assured but of fifteene years added to his life How doth Babylon applaud her own happiness to her self when she can say I sit as a Queen I shall not be a widdow I shall know no sorrow It must needs follow therefore that in the best things assured there must be the greatest of all possible contentments And surely if the heart have once attained to this that upon good grounds it can resolve God is my Father Christ Jesus is my Elder Brother the Angels are my Guardians Heaven is my undoubted patrimony how must it needs be lift up and filled with a joy unspeakable and glorious What bold defiances can it bid to all the troupes of worldly evils to all the powers of Hell with what unconceiveable sweetness must it needs injoy God and it self how comfortably and resolutely must it needs welcome death with that triumphant champion of Christ I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith and now from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness c. 2. Tim. 4.7 8. Out of the just advantage therefore of this assurance we must endeavour to make our calling and election sure Neither is the advantage more in the performance hereof then there is danger in the neglect In all uncertainties there is a kinde of afflictive fear and troublesome mis-doubt Let a man walk in the dark because he cannot be confident where safely to set his steps he is troubled with a continual suspicion of a suddain mis-cariage and therefore goes in pain what can there be but discomfort in that soul which knowes not in what termes it stands with God Yet whiles there is life there may be hope of better But if that soul be surprised with an unexpected death and hurried away with some suddain judgment in this state of irresolution in how deplored a condition is it beyond all expression I cannot but therefore lament the woful plight of those poor souls that live die under the Roman discipline who when they have most need of comfort in the very act of their dissolution are left pitifully disconsolate and given up by their teachers to either horror or suspence Even the most Saint-like of them except his soul fly up in Martyrdom like Gedeons Angel in the Smoke of his incense may not make account of a speedy ascent to heaven insomuch as Cardinal Bellarmine himself of whom our Coffin dares write that his life was not stayned with mortal sin pag. 27. He that could call heaven Casamia and whose canonization the Cardinals thought fit to be talked of in his sickness when Cardinal Aldobrandino desired him that when he came to heaven he would pray for him answered To go to heaven so soon is a matter too great for me men do not use to come thither in such hast and for me I shall think it no small favour to be sure of purgatory and there to remain a good while pag. 42. which yet himself can say differs not much for the time in respect of the extremity of it from hell it self and to be a good while there O terror past all reach of our thoughts And if the righteous be thus saved where shall the sinners appear For ought they can or may know hell may but purgatory must be their portion heaven may not be thought of without too high presumption Certainly if many despair under those uncomfortable hands I wonder that no more since they are bidden to doubt and beaten off from any possibility of the confidence of rest and happinesse But whiles I urge this danger of utter discomfort in our irresolution I hear our adversaries talke of a double danger of the contrary certitude A danger of pride and a danger of sloth The supposed certainty of our graces breeds pride saith their Cardinal The assurance of our election sloth saith their Alphonsus a Castro out of Gregory And indeed if this cordial doctrine be not well given well taken well digested it may through our pravity and heedlesness turne to both these noxious humors as the highest feeding soonest causeth a dangerous Plethory in the body How have we heard some bold ungrounded Christians brag of their assurance of glory as if they had carried the keyes of heaven at their Girdle How have we seen even sensual men flatter themselves with a confident opinion of their undoubted safety unfailable right to happiness How have we known presumptuous Spirits that have thought themselves carried with a plerophory of faith when their sailes have been swelled only with the winde of their own self-love how many ignorant soules from the mis-prision of Gods infallible election have argued the needlessnesse of their indeavours and the safety of their ease and neg-lect As ye love your selves sail warily betwixt these rocks and sands on either side But if these mischiefs follow upon the abuse of a sound and wholsome doctrine God forbid they should be imputed to the truth it self as if that God who