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
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
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
gone along with them in their election It came to the Poll Those of my Nomination carried it The Parliament begun After some hard tugging there returning home upon a recess I was met on the way and cheerfully wellcom'd with some hundreds In no worse terms I left that my once dear Diocess when returning to Westminister I was soon call'd by his Majesty who was then in the North to a remove to Norwich but how I took the Tower in my way and how I have been dealt with since my repair hither I could be Lavish in the sad report ever desiring my Good God to enlarge my heart in Thankfulness to him for the sensible experience I have had of his fatherly hand over me in the deepest of all my Afflictions and to strengthen me for whatsoever other tryalls he shall be pleased to call me unto That being found faithfull unto the Death I may obtain that Crown of life which he hath Ordained for all those that Overcome Bishop HALL'S HARD MEASURE NOthing could be more plain then that upon the Call of this Parliament and before there was a general Plot and Resolution of the Faction to alter the Government of the Church especially the height and insolency of some Church-governours as was conceived and the ungrounded imposition of some Innovations upon the Churches both of Scotland and England gave a fit Hint to the Project In the vacancy therefore before the Summons and immediately after it there was great working secretly for the Designation and Election as of Knights and Burgesses so especially beyond all former use of the Clerks of Convocation when now the Clergy were stirred up to contest with and oppose their Diocesans for the choice of such men as were most inclined to the favour of an Alteration The Parliament was no sooner sate then many vehement Speeches were made against established Church-government and enforcement of extirpation both root and branch And because it was not fit to set upon all at once the resolution was to begin with those Bishops which had subscribed to the Canons then lately published upon the shutting up of the former Parliament whom they would first have had accused of Treason but that not appearing feisible they thought best to indite them of very high crimes and offences against the King the Parliament and Kingdom which was prosecuted with great earnestness by some prime Lawyers in the House of Commons and entertained with like fervency by some zealous Lords in the House of Peers every of those particular Canons being pressed to the most envious and dangerous height that was possible The Arch-bishop of York was designed for the report aggravating Mr. Maynards criminations to the utmost not without some Interspersions of his own The Counsel of the accused Bishops gave in such a demurring Answer as stopt the mouth of that heinous Indictment when this prevailed not it was contrived to draw Petitions accusatory from many parts of the Kingdom against Episcopal Government and the Promoters of the petitions were entertained with great respects whereas the many petitions of the opposite part though subscribed with many thousand hands were sleighted and disregarded VVithall the Rabble of London after their petitions cunningly and upon other pretences procured were stirred up to come to the Houses personally to crave justice both against the Earl of Strafford first and then against the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and lastly against the whole Order of Bishops which coming at first unarm'd were checked by some well-willers and easily perswaded to gird on their rusty Swords and so accoutred came by thousands to the Houses filling all the outer rooms offering soul abuses to the Bishops as they passed crying out No Bishops No Bishops and at last after divers dayes assembling grown to that height of fury that many of them whereof Sir Richard Wiseman professed though to his cost to be Captain came with resolution of some violent courses in so much that many Swords were drawn hereupon at Westminster and the Rout did not stick openly to profess that they would pull the Bishops in pieces Messages were sent down to them from the Lords they still held firm both to the place and their bloody resolutions It now grew to be Torch-light one of the Lords the Marquesse of Hartford came up to the Bishops Form told us that we were in great danger advised us to take some course for our own safety being desired to tell us what he thought was the best way counselled us to continue in the Parliament House all that night for saith he these people Vow they will watch you at your going out and will search every Coach for you with Torches so as you cannot escape Hereupon the House of Lords was moved for some Order for the preventing their mutinous and riotous meetings Messages were sent down to the House of Commons to this purpose more then once nothing was effected but for the present for so much as all the danger was at the â—iâ—ising of the House it was earnestly desired of the Lords that some care might be taken of our safety The motion was received by some Lords with a smile some other Lords as the Earl of Manchester undertook the protection of the Arch-bishop of York and his company whose shelter I went under to their lodgings the rest some of them by their long stay others by secret and far-fetch't passages escaped home It was not for us to venture any more to the House without some better assurance upon our resolved forbearance therefore the Arch-bishop of York sent for us to his lodging at Westminster layes before us the perillous condition we were in advises for remedy except we meant utterly to abandon our Right and to desert our Station in Parliament to petition both his Majesty and the Parliament that since we were legally call'd by his Majesties writ to give our Attendance in Parliament we might be secured in the performance of our Duty and Service against those Dangers that threatned us and withall to protest against any such Acts as should be made during the time of our forced Absence for which he assured us there were many Presidents in former Parliaments and which if we did not we should betray the Trust committed to us by his Majestie and shamefully betray and abdicate the due right both of our selves and Successours To this purpose in our presence he drew up the said petition and protestation avowing it to be legall just and Agreeable to all former Proceedings and being fair written sent it to our severall Lodgings for our Hands which we accordingly subscribed intending yet to have had some further Consultation concerning the delivering and whole carriage of it But ere we could suppose it to be in any hand but his own the first Newes we heard was that there were Messingers addressed to fetch us in to the Parliament upon an Accusation of high Treason For whereas this Paper was to have been delivered first to his Majesties
scorne Many are dreadful and call upon our best thoughts for their preventation or resistance The World is apt to make an ill use of multitude On the one side arguing the better part by the greater on the other side arguing mischief tolerable because it is abetted by many The former of these is the Paralogisme of fond Romanists The other of time-serving Politicians There cannot be a worse nor more dangerous Sophistry then in both these If the first should hold Paganisme would carry it from Christianity for it is at least by just computation five to one Folly from Wisdome for surely for every wise man the World hath many fools Outward calling should carry it from election for many are called few are chosen Hell from Heaven For strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evill saith God But if any have a mind to do so and shall please himself with company in sinning let him consider what abatement of torment it will once be to him to be condemned with many wo is me that shall rather aggravate his misery the rich glutton in hell would have his brethren sent to that his torment might not be encreased with the accession of theirs If the latter should take place that which heightens evills should plead for their immunity so none but weak mischiefs should receive opposition Strong thieves should live only some poor pettylarçons and pilferers should come to execution Nothing should make room for justice but inbecellity of offence Away with this base pusillanimity Rather contrarily by how much more head wickednesse hath gotten so much more need it had to be topped A true Herculean Justice in Governours and States is for Gyants and Monsters A right Sampson is for a whole host of Philistims The Mountains must be touch't till they smoak yea till they be level'd Set your faces ye that are men in authority against a whole faction of vice and if ye finde many opposites the greater is the exercise of your fortitude and the greater shall be the glory of your victory It was St. Pauls encouragment that which would have disheartned some other a large door and effectuall is opened to me and there are many adversaries 1 Cor 16.9 And if these Divels can say My Name is Legion for we are many let your powerfull commands cast them out and send them with the swine into the deep and thence into their chaines These many sit not still but walk they are still in motion Motion whether natural or voluntary Natural so walking is living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus we walk even while we sit or lye still Every minute is a new pace neither can any thing stop our passage whether we do something or nothing we move on by insensible steps toward our long home we can no more stand still then the Heavens then time Oh that we could be ever looking to the house of our age and so walk on in this vale of tears that we may once rest for ever Voluntary so the wicked ones walk like their setter the Devil who came from compassing the Earth Job 1. Wickedness is seldom other then active It is with evill as with the contagion of Pestilence those that are tainted long to infect others False Teachers make no spare of their Travails by Sea or Land to make a Proselite Could Sin or Heresie be conjured into a circle there were the lesse danger now they are so much more mischievous as they are more Erraticall How happy should it be since they will needs be walking that by the holy Vigilancie of power and authority they may be sent to walk their own rounds in the regions of darkness Yet further walking implies an ordinary trade of life It is not a step or one pace that can make a walk but a proceeding on with many shiftings of our feet It is no judging of a man by some one action Alas the best man that is may perhaps step aside by the importunity of a temptation and be mis-carried into some odious act Can you have more pregnant instances then David the man after Gods own heart and Peter the prime Disciple of our Saviour But this was not the walk of either It was but a side-step their walk was in the wayes of Gods commandement holy and gracious No look what the course of mens lives are what their usuall practise and according to that judge of them If they be ordinary Swearers profane Scoffers Drunkards Debauch't persons their Walk is in an ill way to a most fearfull end Pitty them labour to reclaim them and to stop them that they fall not into the precipice of Hell but if their course of life be generally holy and conscionable it is not a particular mis-carriage that can be a just ground of the censure of an inordinate walking which our Apostle passes here upon these mis-living Philippians Many walk This for their Motion their Quality followes Enemies to the crosse of Christ What an unusuall expression is this Who can but hate every thing that concurs to the death of a Friend whether Agents or Instruments And what was the Crosse but the Engine of the Death of him whom if we love not best we love not at all surely We love thee not O Saviour if we can look with any other then angry eyes at Judas Pilate the Crosse Nayles Speare or what ever else was any way necessary to thy murder They were thine enemies that raised thee to the Crosse how can they be other then thy Friends that are enemies to that thy most cruell and indigne crucifixion When we consider these things in themselves as Wood and Metall we know they are harmlesse but if from what they are in themselves we look at them with respect to men to thee we soon finde why to hate why to love them We hate them as they were employed by men against thee we love them as they were improved by thee for man as the instruments of mens malice and cruelty against thee we hate them we love them as they were made by thee the instruments of our redemption Thy Crosse was thy death It is thy death that gives us life so as therefore we cannot be at once enemies of the Crosse and friends of thee crucified As Christ himself so the Crosse of Christ hath many false friends and even those are no other then enemies unjust favours are no less injurious then derogations he that should deify a Saint should wrong him as much as he that should Divellize him Our Romanists exceed this way in their devotions to the Crosse both in overmultiplying and in over-magnifying of it Had the wood of the Crosse grown from the day that it was first set in the Earth till now and borne crosses that which Simon of Cyrene once bore could not have filled so many carts so many ships as that which is now in several parts of Christendom given
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
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
perfect Mediator betwixt God and man To proclaime the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesse Esa 61.2.3 So as all Gods faithfull ones may cheerfully expect the performance of that cordiall promise which the God of truth hath made to his Israel Their soul shall be as a watred Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both young men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoyce from their sorrow Jerem. â—1 12 13. But if the justice of God have been so highly provoked by the sinnes of a particular Nation as that there is no remedy but the threatned judgments must proceed against them remember what charge Ezekiel tells you was given to the man clothed in linnen that had the writers inkhorne by his side The Lord said unto him go through the midst of the City through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the forheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof Ezek. 9.3 4. Lo these marked Jewes owe their life to their tears if they had not wept for their fellowes they had bled with their fellowes If their sighs could not save their people from slaughter yet they have saved themselves their charitable mourning is recompensed with their own preservation Oh then my brethren as we desire the joyes of another World and as we tender our own comfort and safty in this let us not be sparing of our tears let them flow freely out for our own sins first and then for the sins of our people let not our mourning be perfunctory and fashionable but serious hearty and zealous so as that we may furrow our cheekes with our teares Let our devotions that accompany our mourning be fervent and importunate as those that would offer a kind of holy force to Heaven wrestling with the Angel of the covenant for a blessing Let our amendment which should be the effect of our mourning be really conspicuous to the eyes both of God and men And finally that our mourning may be constant and effectuall let us resolve to make it our business and for that purpose let us solemnly vow to set apart some time of each day for this sad but needfull task and which is the main of all since the publique is most concerned in this duty Oh that the trumpet might be blown in Zion fasts sanctified solemn assemblies called that the Ministers of the Lord as the chief mourners might weep aloud in Gods sanctuary Joel 2. â—5 and say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach wherefore should the enemies of thy Church say among the people where is their God This were the way to reconcile our offended God to divert his dreadfull judgments to restore us to the blessings of peace and to cause the voice of joy and gladness to be once again heard in our land ON EASTER-DAY AT HIGHAM 1648. 1 COR. 5.7 For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us keep the feast THe feast that is the passover of the Jewes then expiring or the Christians Easter then succeeding indeed I know not whether both be not alluded to for this Epistle is conceived to have been written by the Apostle some 24. Years after our Saviours passion ere which time it is more then probable that the feast of Christs resurrection was solemnly celebrated by the Christian Church this I am sure of that no record in all history mentions the time when it began to be kept and therefore it is most likely according to Augustines received rule to be deduced from the observation of the Apostles There were ancient and eager quarrels betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches about the day whereon it should be kept but whether it should be kept or no there was never yet any question since Christianity look't forth into the World and as that Pasche so this Easter is justly the feast for the eminency of it above the rest for if we do with joy and thankfulnesse according to the Angels message solemnize the day wherein the Son of God our blessed Redeemer being born entred the life of humane nature how much more should we celebrate that day wherein having conquered all the powers of death and Hell he was as it were born again to the life of a glorious immortality But to leave the time and come to the Text. This for that leads it in is both a relative and an illative referring to what he had said in the foregoing words and inferring a necessary consequence of the one clause upon the other Purge out the old leaven for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us The whole Text is Allegoricall alluding to the charge and duty of Gods ancient people the Jewes in the observation of their passover who upon no lesse pain then cutting off from the Congregation of Israel must admit of no leavened bread to be eaten or found in their houses during the whole seven dayes of this celebrity as you may see Exod. 12.17.18 c. As therefore the ceremoniall passover would admit of no materiall leaven So the spirituall passover may not abide any leaven of wickednesse Purge therefore out the old leaven For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us The first work then that we have to do is to cast back our eyes to the ground of this institution and to enquire why no leaven might consist with the Jewish passover And we shall find that there was not the same reason of the first observation of this ceremony and of the following The first was Necessity Devotion was the ground of the rest Necessity first for in that suddain departure which they were put upon there could be no leasure to leaven their dough as you may see Exod. 12.39 Devotion afterward in a gratefull recognition both of their own servile condition and of the gracious providence of God In the former they were called to look back upon their old Egyptian servitude by their unleavned bread for this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of affliction as we turn it or the bread of the poor as the word signifies which they must now eat to put them in mind of their hard and poor condition in Egypt under their evill task masters all their lives after as Deut. 16.3 to the same purpose it was that they must eat the Lamb not with sowre herbes as it had wont to be turned for a sharp kind of sowrenesse in sawces is esteemed pleasing and tastfull but with bitter herbes yea as the word is in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum amaritudinibus with bitternesses In the latter they were minded of 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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By good works The vulgar reads it thus and the Council of Trent cites it thus and some of ours so the text runs thus Give diligence that by good works ye may make your calling and election sure I inquire not how duly but certainly there is no cause that we should fear or dislike this reading good works are a notable confirmation to the soul of the truth of our calling and election Though Cardinal Bellarmine makes ill use of the place striving hereupon to inferre that our certitude is therefore but conjectural because it is of works For the solution whereof justly may we wonder to hear of a conjectural certitude Certainly we may as well hear of a false-truth what a plain implication is here of a palpable contradiction Those things which we conjecture at are only probable and there can be no certainty in probability Away with these blinde peradventures had our Apostle said and he knew how to speak guesse at your calling and election by good works his game here had been fair but now when he saies By good works indeavour to make your calling and election sure how clearly doth he disclaim a dubious hit I-misse-I and implies a fecible certainty And indeed what hinders the connection of this assurance Our works make good the truth of our faith our faith makes good our effectual calling our calling makes good our election therefore even by good works we make our election sure Neither can it hurt us that the Cardinal saith we hold this certainty to be before our good works not after them and therefore that is not caused by our good works We stand not nicely to distinguish how things stand in the order of nature surely this certainty is both before and after our works before in the act of our faith after in our works confirming our faith neither do we say this certainty is caused by our good works but confirmed by them neither doth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply alwaies a thing before uncertain as learned Chamier well but the completing and making up of a thing sure before To which also must be added that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good works must be taken in the largest latitude so as to fetch in not only the outward good offices that fall from us in the way whether of our charity justice or devotion but the very inmost inclinations and actions of the soul tending towards God our believing in him our loving of him our dreading of his infinite Majesty our mortification of our corrupt affections our joy in the holy Ghost whatsoever else may argue or make us holy These are the means by which we may and must endeavor to make our calling election sure But to let this clause passe as litigious the undoubted words of the text goe no less If ye do these things ye shall never fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things are the vertues precedently mentioned and not falling is equivalent to ascertaining our calling and election Not to instance then and urge those many graces which are here specified I shall content my self with those three Theological vertues singled out from the rest faith hope charity for the makeing sure our calling and election For faith how clear is that of our Saviour He that believes in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life Joh. 5.24 This is the grace by which Christ dwels in our hearts Ephes 3.17 and whereby we have communion with Christ and an assured testimony of and from him For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 John 5.10 And what witness is that This is the record that God hath given us eternall life and this life is in his Son verse 11. He that hath the Son hath life verse 12. See what a connection here is Eternal life first this life eternal is in and by Christ Jesus this Jesus is ours by faith This Faith witnesseth to our souls our assurance of Life Eternall Our hope is next which is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thrusting out of the head to look for the performing of that which our faith apprehends and this is so sure a grace as that it is called by the name of that glory which it expecteth Colos 1.5 For the hope sake which is laid up for you in heaven that is for the glory we hope for Now both faith and hope are of a cleansing nature both agree in this Purifying their hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Every one that hath this hope purifyeth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 The Devil is an unclean Spirit he foules wheresoever he comes and all sin is nasty and beastly Faith and hope like as neat huswives when they come into a foul and sluttish house cleanse all the roomes of the soul and make it a fit habitation for the Spirit of God Are our hearts lifted up then in a comfortable expectation of the performance of Gods merciful promises and are they together with our lives swept and cleansed from the wonted corruptions of our nature and pollutitions of our sin this is an undoubted evidence of our calling and election Charity is the last which comprehends our love both to God and man for from the reflection of Gods love to us there ariseth a love from us to God again The beloved Disciple can say We love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 And from both these resulteth our love to our brethren which is so full an evidence that our Apostle tells us we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 For the love of the Father is inseparable from the love of the Son he that loves him that begets loves him that is begotten of him Shortly then think not of a ladder to clâ—mbe up into heaven to search the books of God First look into your own lives those are most open we need no locks or keyes to them the Psalmist in his fifthteenth will tell you who is for that blisseful Sion are your lives innocent are your works good and holy do ye abound in the fruites of piety justice Christian compassion Let these be your first tryall it is a flat and plain word of the divine Apostle whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God 1 John 3.10 Look secondly into your own bosomes open to none but your own eyes If ye find there a true and lively faith in the Son of God by whose blood ye are cleansed from all your sins by vertue whereof ye can cry Abba Father a sure hope in Christ purifying your souls from your corruptions a true and unfained love to your God and Saviour who hath done so much for your soules so as you dare say with that fervent Apostle Lord thou knowest that I love thee and in him and for his sake a sincere love to his
carnal he threats with death If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye Those which are regenerate contrary to the wicked paradox of those men he assures of life If ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit ye shall live How doth he exclude the Spirit of bondage to fear which these good guides would lead in again how confidently doth he averr the inward testimony of Gods Spirit to ours and ascribes that voice to it which bars all doubt and disappointment and tels us by the powerful assurance of this Abba we are sons and if sons heirs coheirs with Christ Let them now go and say that God may disinherit his own son that he may cast off his adopted But say they to the same regenerate persons he applyes these two clauses and saith at once ye have received the Spirit of adoption and yet if ye walk after the flesh ye shall die what followes of this commination any assertion of the possibility of Apostasy in the regenerate Nothing lesse These threats are to make us take better hold and to walk more warily as a father that hath set his little son on horseback it is Zanchies comparison bids him hold fast or else he shall fall though he uphold him the while that both he may cause him hereby to sit fast and call the more earnestly for his supportation But the scope of the place plainly extorts a division of carnal men and regenerate the threats are propounded to the one the promises and assurance to the other and therefore no touch from hence of our uncertainty in a confessed estate of renovation For that Mat. 12.43 The Apodosis or inference of the parable might well have stop't the mouthes of these Cavillers for you shall finde in the end of it so shall it be with this wicked generation I suppose no man will be so absurd as to say these Jewes had formerly received true justifying faith How should they when they rejected the Messias And yet of them is this parable spoken by our Saviours own explication Maldonate himself a learned and spightful Jesuite can interpret it no otherwise Ideo Christus hoc dixit ut doceret pejores esse Judaeos quam si nunquam Dei legem cognitionem accepissent and to this purpose he cites Hilary Hierom Beda and this sence is so clear that unlesse the seven Devils had found harbour in the dry hearts of these men they could not so grosly pervert it Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5. will never prove a final or total extinction of saving grace the Spirit is quenched when the degrees of it are abated when the good motions thereof are by our security let fall we grant the Spirit may be quenched in tanto not in toto Or if we should so take it as they desire I remember Austin parallels this place with that other to Timothy Let no man despise thy youth Not saith he that the Spirit can be quenched or that contempt can be avoided but that in the one we may not indeavour to do that which may tend towards this wrong to the Spirit and in the other that we should be careful not to do that which may procure contempt The place I remember not directly but numeros teneo si verba tenerem But in all likelyhood that place sounds quite another way as may appear by the connexion of it with those two sentences following As if he should have said discourage not the graces that you finde in any of your Teachers despise not their preaching trye their doctrines And now what is this to the falling from Grace Which of us do not teach the necessity of perseverance He only that indures to the end shall be saved Be faithful to the death and c. But he that hath ordained we shall be saved hath ordained our perseverance as a mean to this salvation and hath appointed these sharp advises as the means and motives of our perseverance So as he that shall be saved shall also indure to the end Because no man plucks them out of my hand saith Christ How evidently doth the Spirit of God proclaime our certainty against these doubt-mongers Every where is he as full of assurance as these men of discomfort He that is borne of God sinneth not neither can sin because he is born of God and the seed of God remaines in them what an invincible 1 Jo. 3.3 and irrefragable consolation is this The seed of life is sown in the hearts of the elect though they could be dead to themselves yet to God they cannot And what a supposition is that of Christ that if it were possible the very elect should be deceived Desponsabo te mihi in perpetuum Mat. 24. Hos 2. and a thousand of this strain which your exercise in those holy leaves hath I doubt not abundantly furnisht you withal hold fast then my dear friend this sure anchor of our undeceivable hope and spit in the face of men or Devils that shall go about to slacken your hand Let these vain Spirits sing despair to themselves for us we know whom we have believed Thus hath my pen run it self out of breath in this so important a demand and much a do have I had to restrain it neither would I give you one houres intermission to my answer which I know your love cannot but accept as that which proceeds from aâ— heart zealous both of God and you Reverendissimo Viro D o. Marco Antonio DE DOMINIS Archiep. SPALATENSI Epistola DISCESSUS SUI Ad ROMAM dissuas NOli gravate ferre Reverendissime Praesul candidam hanc animi calami devotissimi tibi utriusque libertatem sane expressit mihi vel renitenti verba haec prius sincerus quidam religionis zelus tui Fama est te discessum a nobis meditari neque tam loco cedere velle quam fide strenua profecto suspicione non caret hoc ipsum proficisci neque enim cujusquam subire mentem potest hominem senem velle animi causa peregrinari deferbuit procul dubio jam diu juvenilis ille ardor relictas pridem oras curiose revisendi nec ita crassi sumus insulares ut credere possimus coelum te mutare velle nisi animum prius quadam-tenus mutare decrevisses multo vero minus septem illos invisos coelo totiesque tuo fulmine ictos colles repetere novimus nos sat bene ingenium Romae ecquem latere potest nedum hominem cordatum quam infida sit illa statio superbae Hierarchiae expugnatori Moneat te olim vester Fulgentius quam nihil ita tutum sit Pontificiae Majestatis tantillo violatori etiam post fidem si qua famae fides sancte datam post promissa munera post benignissimae invitationis blanditias Viderit tua prudentia ut te vel propudiosissima Palinodia tactaeque quas de jerasti prius arae liberaverint O tuam si quem modo profiteris sanus
warfares to God should not intangle himself with this world it is a sufficient and just conviction of those who would divide themselves betwixt God and the World and bestow any main part of their time upon secular affairs but it hath no operation at all upon this tenet which we have in hand that a man dedicate to God may not so much as when he is required cast a glance of his eye or some minutes of time or some motions of his tongue upon the publick business of his King and Countrey Those that expect this from us may as well and upon the same reason hold that a minister must have no family at all or if he have one must not care for it yea that he must have no body to tend but be all Spirit My Lords we are men of the same composition with others and our breeding hath been accordingly we cannot have lived in the World but we have seen it and observed it too and our long experience and conversation both in Men and in books cannot but have put something into us for the good of others and now having a double capacity qua cives qua Ecclesiastici as members of the common wealth as Ministers and Governours of the Church we are ready to do our best service in both one of them is no way incompatible with the other yea the subjects of them both are so united with the Church and Commonwealth that they cannot be severed yea so as that not the one is in the other but one is the other is both so as the services which we do upon these occasions to the Comonwealth are inseparable from our good offices to the Church so as upon this ground there is no reason of our exclusion If ye say that our sitting in Parliament takes up much time which we might have imployed in our studies or pulpits consider I beseech you that whiles you have a Parliament we must have a convocation and that our attendance upon that will call for the same expense of time which we afford to this service so as herein we have neither got nor lost But I fear it is not on some hands the tender regard of the full scope to our calling that is so much here stood upon as the conceit of too much honour that is done us in taking up the room of Peers and voting in this high Court for surely those that are averse from our votes yet could be content we should have place upon the wool-sacks and could alow us ears but not tongues If this be the matter I beseech your Lordships to consider that this honour is not done to us but our profession which what ever we be in our several persons can not easily be capable of too much respect from your Lordships Non tibi sed Isidi as he said of old Neither is this any new grace that is put upon our calling which if it were now to begin might perhaps be justly grudged to our unworthyness but it is an antient right and inheritance inherent in our station No less ancient then these walls wherein we sit yea more before ever there were Parliaments in the Magna Consilia of the Kingdome we had our places and as for my predecessors ever since the Conquerours time I can show your Lordships a just catalogue of them that have sat before me here and truely though I have just cause to be mean in mine own eyes yet why or wherein there should be more unworthiness in me then the rest that I should be stript of that priviledg which they so long injoyed though there were no law to hold me here I cannot see or confesse What respects of honour have been put upon the prime Clergy of old both by Pagans and Jewes and Christians and what are still both within Christendom and vvithout I shall not need to urge it is enough to say this of ours is not meerly arbitrary but stands so firmely established by law and custome that I hope it neither will nor can be removed except you will shake those foundations which I believe you desire to hold firme and inviolable Shortly then my Lords the church craves no new honour from you and justly hopes you will not be guilty of pulling down the old as you are the eldest sons and next under his Majesty the honourable patrons of the Church so she expects and beseeches you to receive her into your tenderest care so to order her affairs that ye leave her to posterity in no worse case then you found her It is a true word of Damasus Uti vilescit nomen episcopi omnis statua perturbatur Ecclesiae If this be suffered the misery will be the Churches the dishonour blurre of the act in future ages will be yours To shut up therefore let us be taken off from all ordinary trade of secular imployments and if you please abridge us of intermeddling with matters of common justice but leave us possessed of those places and priviledges in Parliament which our predecessors have so long and peaceably injoyed ANTHEMES FOR THE CATHEDRAL OF EXCETER LOrd what am I A worm dust vapor nothing What is my life A dream a daily dying What is my flesh My souls uneasie clothing What is my time A minute ever flying My time my flesh my life and I What are we Lord but vanity Where am I Lord downe in a vale of death What is my trade sin my dear God offending My sport sin too my stay a puffe of breath What end of sin hells horrour never ending My way my trade sport stay and place help up to make up my dolefull case Lord what art thou pure life power beauty bliss Where dwell'st thou up above in perfect light What is thy time eternity it is What state attendance of each glorious sp'rit Thy self thy place thy dayes thy state Pass all the thoughts of powers create How shall I reach thee Lord Oh soar above Ambitious soul but which way should I flie Thou Lord art way and end what wings have I Aspiring thoughts of faith of hope of love Oh let these wings that way alone Present me to thy blissfull throne ANTHEME FOR Christmas Day IMmortall babe who this dear day Didst change thine Heaven for our clay And didst with flesh thy Godhead vail Eternal Son of God All-hail Shine happy star ye Angels sing Glory on high to Heavens King Run Shepherds leave your nightly watch See Heaven come down to Bethleems cratch Worship ye Sages of the East The King of Gods in meanness drest O blessed maid smile and adore The God thy womb and armes have bore Star Angels Shepherds and wise sages Thou Virgin glory of all ages Restored frame of Heaven and Earth Joy in your dear Redeemers Birth LEave O my soul this baser World below O leave this dolefull dungeon of wo And soare aloft to that supernal rest That maketh all the Saints and Angels blest Lo there the God-heads radiant throne Like to ten thousand Suns in one Lo there thy Saviour dear in glory dight Ador'd of all the powers of Heavens bright Lo where that head that bled with thorny wound Shines ever with celestial honor crownd That hand that held the scornfull reed Makes all the fiends infernall dread That back and side that ran with bloody streams Daunt Angels eyes with their majestick beames Those feet once fastened to the cursed tree Trample on death and hell in glorious glee Those lips once drench't with gall do make With their dread doom the world to quake Behold those joyes thou never canst behold Those precious gates of pearl those Streets of gold Those streams of Life those trees of Paradise That never can be seen by mortal eyes And when thou seest this state divine Think that it is or shall be thine See there the happy troups of purest sprights That live above in endless true delights And see where once thy self shalt ranged be And look and long for immortalitie And now before-hand help to sing Allelujahs to Heavens King FINIS BOOKS printed for and to be sold by John Crook at the Sign of the Ship in St Pauls Church-yard ANnales veteris novi Testamenti Aviro Reverend Jacob Usserio Archiepisco Armachano Folio The Annals of the Old and New Testament with the Synchronismus of Heathen story to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans by James Usher D.D. Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland Folio The Antiquities of Warwikcshire illustrated beautified with Maps prospects and pourtractures by William Dugdale Folio Hymens Preludia or Loves Master piece being the 9th and 10th parts of Cleopatra Folio The History of this Iâ—on Age wherein is set down the Original of all the wars and commotions that have happened from the year of God 1500. Illustrated with the figures of the most Renowned persons of this Time Folio The History of the great and renowned Monarchy of China Fol. The holy History containing excellent observations on the Remarkable passages of the old Testament written Originally in French by N. Caussin S.I. and now rendred into English by a Person of Honour 4. Ejusdem de textus hebraici Veteris Testamenti variantibus Lectionibus ad Lodovicum Capellum Epistola Quarto Usserii de 70. Interpretum versione syntagma Quarto Montagues Miscellanea Spiritualâ—ia 4. second part A Treatise of Gavelkind both name and thing shewing the true Etymology and derivation of the one the nature antiquity and Original of the other by William Sonner Quarto The Holy Life of Mounsier de Renty a late noble man of France 8. Certain discourses viz. of Babylon the present See of Rome of laying on of hands of the old forme of words in Ordination of a set forme of prayer being the judgment of the Late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland by N. Bernard D. D. Octavo The Character of England with reflections upon Gallus Castratus 12. The French Gardiner instructing how to cultivate all sorts of Fruit-trees with directions to dry and conserve them in their natural An accomplished peice illustrated with sculpture By whom also all manner of Books are to be sold brought from beyond the Seas