God no man all spirit no body And besides it argues an impossibility for no creature can be changed into the Creatonr no finite body into an infinite and eternal substance It sufficeth us to know that Christ's soul and body were conditioned according to the description given when he entred into his glory And thus much of the person exalted Christ who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despising the shame Hebr. 12.2 and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God We are next to consider Christ's exaltation the degrees of which are threefold the first degree is his Resurrection answering to the first degree of his humiliation which was his death The second degree is his ascension answering the second of his humiliation which was his burying The third degree which is the height of his exaltation is his sitting at the right hand of God opposed to the lowest of his humiliation which was his descâ—nt into hell his remaining in the state of the dead By these degrees Christ entred into his glory My text limits me to the first degree of his exaltation which is his Resurrection from the dead It was a cruel conflict that Christ had upon the crosse he had his own Father against him taking vengeance upon him for the sins of the world he had Satan against him who out of a malicious disposition plotted and attempted his ruine he had the world against him in bruing their hands and their hearts in his blood his blood be upon us and our children say the Jewes The chief Priests the Scribes the common people the souldiers bandied themselves together against the Lord and against his annointed So close was their pursuing of him that indeed he received the foile they pierced his hands and his feet with nailes and his sides with a speare in the end they ended his dayes the height of their malice But not long after he reviv'd for the third day he rose again which he did for his own greater glory for his and our enemies more shamefull overthrow and for his disciples firmer consolation This was foretold by himself this was testified by men and Angels and is beleeved that he rose the third day Our faith in this is underpropt not only by the testimony of Angels and men Luk. 24.46 but also by Scripture and Arguments Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day By Arguments containing manifest demonstrations of the truth of his resurrection drawn from 1. His body 2. His soulâ— In that which is drawn from his dody Christ doth declare three things 1. That his body was a true real substantial and sollid dody And not framed onely in the imagination or compos'd all of an airy substance Feele and see saith he a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 2. That his body was a humane body by shewing how that he had the true and perfect effigies and expressions or a man to be seen by the eye 3. That it was the very same numerical body which he hâ—d before by laying open to the view the grievous wounds which he suffered in his body Behold my hands and my feet that it is my self The wounds in his body discover the naked truth of his resurrection In the Argument which is deducted from his soul reunited to his body his resurrection is proved and that by the operations and works of the threefold life proceeding from the soul whereof man is partaker 1. By the works of the nutritive life in that he did eat and drink with them 2. By the works of the sensitive life his answers to his disciples giving evidences of his hearing his discerning them from others of his seeing 3. By the works of the intellective life in his discourses and explications of the profound mystery of the crosse Moreover the time when he rose was the third day He lay not dead in the grave three compleat dayes under the dominion of death for then he should not have risen till the fourth day So that he was but one day and two pieces of two dayes in the grave for he was buried in the evening before the Sabbath and rose in the morning the next day after the Sabbath The Friday evening he was buried the sunday morning he rose again which was the first day of the week and is now our Sabbath observed in memory of his glorious rising who is the Sun of Righteousness from death unto life And as in the first Day of the first World Light was commanded to shine out of darkness upon the deeps So in the first Day of this new World made new by Christ this glorious Sun after its Eclipse come to its period appeared in the brightness of his glory and gives light for ever to those that sit in darkness and dispels those clouds of obscurity that were under the Old Testament from the Christian world So long he rested in the grave as three days yet not full for a demonstraiton of the truth of his death And no longer that his body might not see corruption For had he risen presently we might doubt of the truth of his death Had he remained longer in the grave or unto the end of the world his body would according to the course of nature be corrupted and we might doubt of the truth of his Divinity which required for the manifestation of his power a quick resurrection of his body and a reuniting of the soul thereunto To confirm therefore our faith in both He rose the third day from the dead to enter into his glory As for the power by which he was raised it was not by any other than his own Though this act be attributed to the Father Act. 2.24 yet it is his power too For whatsoever is the Father's is his because He and the Father are one It was the power of his Divinity Superas evadere ad auras Hic labor hoc opus est that effected this great work Destroy this temple and within three days I will raise it again Joh. 2.19 I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again cap. 10.18 Secundum Divinitatis virtutem corpus resumpsit animam quam deposuerat anima corpus resumpsit quod dimiserat sic Christus propriâ virtute resurrexit saith Aquinas According to the mighty working of the Godhead his body reassumed the soul which it did resigne and the soul that body out of which it parted and thus Christ by his own proper power did rise from the dead For indeed it was not possible that he should be holden of it Act. 2.24 for then should he not enter into his glory Here come two points occasioned by these words to be treated of Viz. 1. The Necessity of Christ's Resurrection 2. The Ends thereof Of the Necessity of his Resurrection As it was necessary that Christ should
the ordinance of God for He did all things well Wherefore to shew that God keeps his word and that the truth of his promises is infallible He rose again from the dead In regard of us the end of his Rising is threefold Viz. 1. For our Example 2. For our Justification 3. For our Faith c. First for our Example tending to the information of us in the ways of righteousness in the paths of life That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life that the body of sin might be destroyed Resurectione Domini configuratur vita quae hic geritur and that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6.4.6 The Resurrection of Christ from the dead should be a pattern for us wherein there is some effective vigor to raise us from the death of sin to a gracious life The power of effecting both is in God A Dâ—o est quod unima vivat per gratiam corpus per Animam That the soul lives by grace and the body by the soul comes from God Aquinas who is the Author of life And saith Ames Christ rising from death is tum demonstratio quam initiatio as well a demonstration as the initiation or beginning of our Rusurrection by whom we pass from death unto life Secondly for our Justification They are the express words of the Apostle He was raised again for our justification Rom. 4. ult For now that he hath gotten the victory over death by reviving he applies by the vertue thereof all the benefits of the Gospel unto us to the exceeding great consolation of our souls Lastly for the establishment of our faith concerning the obtaining of life everlasting For indeed if the Head be risen the members may be sure to rise too and if the Head receive life and glory doubtless the members which have their proper dependunce of him shall receive the like perfection for a glorified Head cannot be without a glorified body Now Christ is the head of the body the Church Col. 1.18 who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he may have the preheminence Of the fulness of whose glory in the day of our perfect redemption we shall all receive a full measure For a Conclusion Communi naturae lege moriuntur homines The sons of men composed of dust and ashes die by the common law of nature Eternity is proper to another world not to this to this Inconstancie The Son of the most High himself when he became the Son of man was subjected to Mortality He pleaded no Prerogative royal to be exempted from that end which God setled in the course of nature Our times upon the Earth may be said to be lasting but not everlasting though in the hands of God Heaven decreed a period to our Lives which we cannot prevent and to which Christ at the appointed houre did submit himself with all obedience not able to avoid it Necessity was laid upon him to pay the dubt to Nature which might serve for a payment of our debt to God yet not respectu peccuti Wâ—ems Protralcture of Gods image in man pag. 43. but respectis poenae this necessity was not in respect of sin He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot but in respect of that punishmenâ— which he did oblige himself to undergo for the sins of men Est illata necessiaâ— Adamò innata necessit as nobis assumpta necessitas in Christo Necessity of death was laid upon Adam for his sin necessity of death is imbred in us and by a voluntary assumption there was a necessity of death in Christ A man willingly gives his word for such a summe for his friend but when he hath willingly given it he must of necessity pay it So Christ willingly took this debt upon him and in the fulness of time when 't was exacted paid it down even his life to God and nature But albeit he thus parted from the world yet God hath raised him up Etiam animalula quaedam typâ— Resurrectionis sunt Lavat in Job 14.12 having loos'd the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it So though the hand of fate by Natures unconfused order reduce us to our first principles yet shall we rise again by the mighty power of our eternal Maker The Judge of all the word hath appointed a day wherein to judge the world to which all must rise And as all must die and after death come to judgment so Christ was once offered to bear the â—ius of many and unto them that look for him shall be appear the second time without sin unto salvation THE BLESSED AMBASSADOR OR THE Best sent into the Basest GALATH. 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father GODS love wherewith he hath embrac'd the sons of men in his onely Son is of such large extent as cannot be limited as cannot be measured the breadth and length and depth and height thereof Eph. 3.18 19. doth passe our knowledge Doth passe our finding out The length the breadth the depth of the earth the sea the heavens Mathematicians by their speculations do conjecture but the love of God the most ingenious and judicious cannot it so exceeds so much as conjecture much lesse perfectly know because infinite Would a man part with his only son and alone darling and he content he should die a most ignoble and ignominious death to ransome his servants his cantives his slaves rebels that would cut his throat I cannot be perswaded the world affords such a man such a Phenix there was but one in all the world Abraham found willing to slay his son to rip up his bowels that spruug out of his own when God commanded it Yet the Lord of heaven and earth whose mercies are over all his works sent his only Son to save sinners to dye that by his death we may live Though servants Cantives slaves rebels yet by his Son made Kings Priests Prophets sons and heirs of an eternal inheritance O the depth the height and length and breadth of Gods love He sent his Son forth from him to bring us to him he freely gave him to redeem us from the insulting power of Sathan from the captivity and dominion of sin from the oppressing tyranny of the world to bring us into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God This liberty this sonship is obtained by faith for to as many as beleeve in his name hath he given power to become the Sons of God All ye then that beleeve are no more servants but sons not sons of wrath but sons of God not sons by nature but sons by grace And because sons behold the Lords bounty is enâ—arged toward you the treasures of his graces are open for you the store-house of his riches is
sinful and diseased parts of the Soul for as in Original sin there is the seed plot of all evil so in Regeneration there is the Root of all actual Graces Therefore who ever will have the comfort of Sanctification must look that they have not only illumination in their minds but also renovation of their hearts It s no advantage with the Toad to have a Pearl in the Head and poyson all over the body Gods children are called Temples of God and of the Holy Ghost now as the Temple consisted of three parts viz. Sanctuarium sanctum and sanctum sanctorum so doth man the body is as the outer Court the Soul as the holy place and the Spirit as the most holy and Sanctification as a golden vein must run thorow all these When we fall into Sin we are like unto a man which falls upon a heap of stones and into the mire such a one may be quickly washed but not so soon healed even so Justification is at once but Sanctification comes on gradually For it is with man as it was with the house wherein was the fretting and spreading Leprosie mentioned Levit. 14.41 c. For though that House might be scraped round about and much rubbish and corrupt materialls be removed yet the Leprosie did not cease till the house with the stones and timber and morter of it were all broken down So 't is with man Grace may do much and alter many things that were amiss in him and make him leave many sins to which he was formerly given but to have Sin wholly cast out and left that is not to be expected These reliquiâ—â— vetustatis as Austin calls them remain till this earthly Tabernacle of his body be by death pulled down and dissolved There is an outward and an inward Sanctification he is not a Jew which is one outwardly Judas seemed to be a Saint yet he was a Devil Let us intreat the Lord to sanctifie our hearts as well as our hands our Souls and Consciences as well as our tongues That is true Sanctification that begineth at the heart and from thence floweth to all the parts What should we do with a fair and beautiful Apple if the core be rotten A straw for an outward glorious Profession if there be no truth in the inward parts Libanius the Sophister reports that a Painter being one day desirous to paint Apollo upon a Laurel board the colours would not stick but were rejected out of which his Fancy found out this extraction that the chaste Daphne concerning whom the Poets feign that flying from Apollo En peragit cursus sarda Diana snos who attempted to ravish her she was turned into a Laurel Tree could not endure him even in painting and rejected him after the loss of her sensitive powers Indeed good Souls do even to death resent the least image and offer of impurity The very God of peace sanctifie you wholly 1 Thess 5.23 But ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.11 but ye are sanctified by the Spirit of our God To receive an inheritance among all them who are sanctified Act. 20 32. Adoption A child of God is two wayes By 1. Nature 2. Grace The child of God by nature Adoptio est gratuita assumptio personae non habentis jus in haereditate ad participationem hereditatis So the Civilians define it is Christ as he is the eternal Son of God A child by grace is three ways 1. By creation thus Adam before his fall and the good Angels are the children of God 2. By personal union thus Christ as he is man is the Child of God 3. By the grace of Adoption thus are all true believers In this grace of adoption there be two acts of God One is Acceptation whereby God accepts men for his children The other is Regeneration whereby men are born of God when the Image of God is restored in them in righteousness and true holiness The excellency of this benefit is great every way for Titulo redemptitionis adoptionis 1. He which is the child of God is heir and fellow-heir with Christ and that of the kingdom of heaven Rom. 8.17 And of all things in heaven and earth 1 Cor. 3.22 He hath title in this life and shall have possession in the life to come All Gods sons are heirs not so the sons of earthly Princes Gods children are all higher than the Kings of the earth 2. Again He who is Gods child hath the Angels of God to attend on him and to minister unto him for his good and salvation Heb. 1.14 If Jacob was at such pains and patience to become son-in-law to Laban if David held it so great a matter to be son-in-law to the King what is it then to be sons and daughters to the Lord Almighty As many as received him John 1.12 to them gave he priviledge to become the sons of God Behold 1 John 3.1 what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God Consolation The Devil is mans Accuser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in full opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Spirit is his Comforter whose office it is to make intercession in our hearts to God for us and upon our true repentance to make our apology to comfort us by discovering our graces and pleading our evidences which they who refuse to read over and rest upon they do help Satan the accuser taking his part against themselves As it is not meet for a Judge to ride in his own circuit so nor for a doubting Christian to judge in his own case It 's storied that a Minister once could have no rest in his spirit until he went to visit a certain man to whose house coming late in the night and all being in bed except the man alone Truly said the Minister here I am but I know not to what end Yes said the other but God knoweth for I have made away so many childrens portions and here 's the rope in my pocket with which I was going to hang my self But how saith the Minister if I can tell you of one that made away more and yet was saved Who was that saith the man I pray Adam who being a publique person and intrusted with all for his posterity fell and so lost all Thus it is God that shines through the creature and comforteth by the means The soul is apt to seek the living amongst the dead to hang her comforts on every hedge But as air lights not without the sun and as fuel heats not without fire so neither can any thing soundly comfort us without God God who comforteth us in all our tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 that we may be able to comfort them which be in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God Grace GRace is twofold 1. Active in God his free favour 2. Passive from God grace wrought in man
said You may throw my body from this steep hill yet will my soul mount upward again Your blasphemies more offend my soul than your torments do my body Fabrianus said That every drop of his blood should preach Christ and set foâ—th his praise Doctor Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury said Act. â—on Forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to the heart my hand shall be punished therefore for may I come to the fire it shall first be burned Which accordingly he did and held his right hand so stedfast and unmoveable saving that once with it he wiped his face that all men might see his hand burned before it touched his body It is the Evening that crowns the Day and the last Act that commends the Scene Be thou faithful unto death Apoc. 2.10 and I will give thee a crown of life Inconstancy The unconstant man treadeth upon a moving earth and keeps no place He hath not patience to consult with reason but determines meerly upon fancy No man so hot in the pursuit of what he liketh no man sooner weary He is fiery in his passions his Heart is the Inne of all good Motions wherein if they lodge for a night it is well by morning they are gone and if they come again he entertains them as guests not as friends He is good to make an Enemy of ill to make a Friend In an unconstant man Senec. lib. de Tranquil there is first Nusquam residentis animi voluntatio uncertain rollings of spirit and then vita pendens a doubtful and suspensive life For our actions do oft bear the image and resemblance of our thoughts A double-minded man is unstable in all his wayes Jam. 1.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perseverance God's elect child cannot fall finally Because he is held up by God's immutable will God's constant love and will is ever to be look'd upon as the onely cause of our safety which keeps our wills by grace against these over-mighty enemies And wretched were we if our wills were put to keep themselves by grace saith one For if Adam without sin resisted not the Principalities c. that opposed him how much less we that are burdened with a body of sin Because he hath an established faith his salvation is certain because saith is the evidence of things not seen Because there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus He is free from the law of sin and death If a son then no more a servant How dares flesh and blood say if a son yet again a servant Once a son and no more a servant once a son and a son for ever If a son then an heir A son saith Christ abides in the house for ever Aug. He that makes men good makes men to persevere in goodness Gods grace in his children is winning infallibly holding inseparably and leading indeclinably Dr. Field Perseverance in good beginneth not in the will but in Gods protecting grace that upholds the will from desisting Hence to every new work the will needs a new grace as Organs give sound no longer than while the bellows are blowing them Predestination gives a sure perseverance for none shall pluck Christs sheep out of his hand And though they may fall their slips are not final Sin reigns not in them wholly Or say they are punished it is a temporal Hell not eternal They are scourged that they may not be damned There are drops of displeasure for small sins and there is hot wrath for great sins but no whole displeasure without a whole reign of sin which cannot be We persevere in grace because built on the Rock Christ the Rock keeps us we keep not the rock yea the Rock keeps us that we keep the Rock For if it did not so the Rock did not keep us for if our keeping of the Rock were not kept by the Rock we should never keep it nor be kept But the Scripture saith we are kept from falling because we are grounded on the Rock and therefore the Rock doth keep us even from falling from the Rock faith a certain Author in his Ground of Arminianism Natural and Politick We should be like the Sun till Noon ever rising But there be many like Hezekiah's Sun that go back many degrees whose beginnings are like Nero's five first years full of hope and peace Or like the first moneth of a new servant Or like to the four Ages first golden then silver brasen iron Or to Nebuchadnezzars image begin gloriously but end basely Look to your selves this is a fearful sight a fearful condition Can he be ever rich that grows every day poorer Can he ever reach the goal that goes every day a step backward from it Alas how then shall he ever reach the goal of Glory that goes every day a step backward in Grace Successivorum non sâ—mul est esse perfectio saith Aquinas which accords to that of Tertullian Perfectio ordine posthumat But Multorum est incipere finire paucorum The Galatians began well so do many but Paul finished his course so do few Like the Diurnal-river in Peru so called because it falleth with a mighty current in the day but in the night is dry because it is not fed with a Spring but caused meerly by the melting of the Snow which lieth on the mountains thereabouts De Origine scribit Erasmus in vita ejus p. 1. Animum ejus plusquam adamantinum fuisse inde Adamantius dictus quem nec vitae austeritas nec perpetui labores nec dura paupertaâ— nec aemulorum improbitas nec suppliciorum terror nec ulla mortis facies à sancto instituto vel tantillum dimovere potuit Antiochus mustering all his Army in the presence of Hannibal much of their furniture being of glittering gold asked him If all this were not enough for the Romans meaning to overcome them Hannibal answered Enough were they the most covetous men in the world meaning to animate good souldiers Certainly Per finalem perseverantiam pertingitur ad praemium Innocent 3. l. 2. de sacr Altar Myst c. 41. Luk. 9.62 qui perseveraverit usque ad finem hic salvus erit No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God He that endureth to the end shall be saved Mat. 10.22 Gal. 6.9 Therefore let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Apostacy The just man falls seven times a day but he riseth again Ille propriâ— est aâ—ostata qui fidem veram antea professus ab eâ in totum recedit Apostata idem sonat quod desertor transfaga If a man fall on the bridge he may rise again if he fall besides it he is drowned All falling after knowledge is not the unpardonable sin Noah fell Lot David Solomon c. It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The
that he might the sooner be out of his pain but he half in choler replied that he would not lose the least step of his gate for all the whipping in Paris That which in Christians deserves greatest commendations is an unmoved patience in suffering adversities accompanied with a setled resolution of over-coming themâ— Bishop Hooper seeing a Pardon lying by him to be given him if he would recant Act. Mon. cried to them that stood by If you love my soul away with it His answer to Master Kingston advisinghim to save his life by recanting is worth noting Life indeed is sweet and death bitter But alas consider that the death to come is more bitter and the life to come more sweet Therefore for the desire and love I have to the one and the fear and terror I have of the other I do not so much regard this death nor esteeme this life but have setled my self through the strength of Gods Spirit patienly to passe through the torments and extremities of the fire now prepared for me rather than to deny Gods Word and Truth 'T was resolutely spoken of Bishop Ridley to Latimer at the stake Be of good comfort brother for God will either asswage the fury of the fire or else strengthen us to abide it Newes being brought to John Philpot of his burning the next day he answered undauntedly I am ready God grant me strength a joyful resurrection I might adde abundantly Who puts to Sea for a long Voyage and at a great charge must resolve to hold on his course against all winds and weather or accidents that may offer to stop him So we in Christianity must wrestle with all difficulties rather than quit the enterprise Being once embarqued on we must with a Caesarean confidence and a Spartan resolution to go on with the sword or fall on the sword I am ready not to be bound only Acts 21.13 but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Vox verè Christianorum Martyrdom We must expect persecutions here for how should God wipe away tears from our eyes in heaven if on earth we shed no tears How can Heaven be a place of rest if on earth we find it How could we desire to be at home if in our journey we did find no grief How could we so often call upon God and talk with him if our enemy did sleep all the day long How could we elsewhere be made like unto Christ in joy if in sorrow we sob'd not with him If we will have joy and felicity we must needs feel sorrow and misery If we will go to heaven we must sail by hell If we will embrace Christ in his robes we must not think scorn of him in his rags If we will siâ— at table with Christ in his Kingdom we must first abide with him in his temptations If we drink of his cup of glory forsake not his cup of ignominy Can the head-corner-stone be rejected and the other more base stones in Gods building be in this world set by We are of his living stones be content then to be hewen thereby to be fitted to be joyned to your fellows that suffer We are Gods corn fear not therefore the flail the fan miln-stone nor Oven We are all Christs lambs look to be fleeced and slain Ignatius qui Apostolorum temporibus proximus fuit Quid hoc mali est cujus reus gaudet cujus accusatio votum est cujus poena feli citas Tertul. cum ex Syriâ usque Romam ad bestias duceretur inter alia scribebat O salutares bestiae quae preparantur mihi quando venient quando emittentur quando eis frui licebit carnibus meis De eodem scribit Irenaeus Frumentum Christi sum dentius bestiaerum molor ut mundus Dei panis inveniar King Henry the fourth deposer of King Richard the second was the first of all English Kings that began the unmerciful burning of Christs Saints for standing against the Pope And William Sawtree was the first of all them in Wickliff's time that was burned he suffered Anno Dom. 1400. saith Fox Bishop Hooper in a Letter to Mistris Warcope Dear sister take heed you shall in your journey towards heaven meet with many a monstrous beast Paul fought with some at Ephesus If there be any way saith Bradford to heaven on horse-back 't is Persecution Should we look for fire to quench our thirst Even as soon shall Christs true servants find peace in Antichrists regiment It was likewise his saying At God sent for Elijah in a fiery chariot so sendeth he for me for by fire my dross must be purified that I may be fine gold in his sight Queen Anne wife to King Henry the 8. led to the Tower to be beheaded said The King was constant in his course of advancing her For from a Private Gentlewoman to a Marchioness then to a Queen and when he could no higher then to a Martyr Cansa non poena Martyrem facit ait Cyprian Nam ut dixit Gregor Cum Christo crucem periturus latro suscepit sed quum reatus proprius tenuit pro crucifixo non absolvit Aug. Diverso fine fato Bucholc It is one thing to suffer as a Martyr and another thing to suffer as a Malefactor Ibi erat Christus ubi latrones Similis poena dissimilis causa Sampson died with the Philistins by the fall of the same house but for another end and by a different destiny Martyrdom is the lowest subjection that can be to God but the highest honour It brings death in the one hand and life in the other for while it kills the body it crowns the soul When one said to a certain Martyr Take heed 't is a hard matter to burn Indeed said he it is for him that hath his soul linked to his body as a Thiefs foot is in a pair of fetters And they loved not their lives unto the death Revel 12.11 Spiritual Warfare Our life is compared to a warfare The chief Captain General on the one side is the Mighty Lion of the Tribe of Judah the Prince of Peace the Conqueror of death hell and sin The grand Captain on our enemies part is the great red Dragon the old crafty Serpent the Governor of Darkness The Lieutenants of the fields are Fleshly Sensuality against Spiritual Reason The Serjeants of the Band are the cursed children of Darkness against the faithful children of Light The common souldiers are the Law of our Members warring against the Law of our Mind the effects of the Flesh against the fruits of the Spirit Sathans souldiers handle such like arms as these The Breast-plate of Injury the Girdle of Falshood the Shoos of Discord the Shield of Insidelity the Helmet of Mistrust the piercing Darts of Cruelty the Canon-shot of spightful Reproachâ—s the Arrows of lying Slanders the Sword of the Flesh c. On the contrary Scripture shews us the
natural desire shrinks and pulls back the hand because Nature seeks the preservation of it self But the reasonable desire saith rather than the whole body shall be consumed he will command the Chyrurgeon to cut off the hand Here is no repugnancie betwixt the natural and reasonable desire but a subordination Again A Martyr is carried to the stake to be burnt the natural desire shrinks but yet it submits it self to the spiritual desire which cometh on and saith Rather than dishonor God go to the fire and be burnt The Schoolmen say Nam pereunte uno desiderio suceedit alterum that Desires are not actually infinite because Nature tends always to some finite thing for no man desireth infinite meat Yet his desires are infinite by succession because these bodily things which we desire are not permanent Thus one desire being gone another comes in place of it It is better to moderate Desire at the first than afterwards to prescribe it a measure Let Desire be conversant about right objects He that pants after the dust of the earth shall always be indigent crying continually with the two daughters of the Horse-leech Give give But he that truly desires after Righteousness shall be satisfied Whosoever shall drink of this water John 4.13 14. shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Desertion It 's said of the Lioness that she seems to leave her young ones till they have almost killed themselves with roaring and howling but at last gasp she relieves them whereby they become the more couragious And Mothers use to leave their children or turn their backs upon them till they mourn and make moan after them Even so the Lord withdraws sometimes from his people and goes from them that with the Prodigal they may come to themselves and seems to forget them that they may remember themselves In Christs desertion there was not Divulsio unionis but Suspensio visionis He cried not out of Men or Devils why they did so and so unto him But My God my God why hast thou for saken me Oh! that came neer his heart In such a forlorne condition as this a poor Soul for regaining of his God can do no more than 1. Bewail the want of Gods gracious presence As Reuben for Joseph Heu quid agam I cannot find my God and I whither shall I go 2. Cry after him in fervent prayer As Elisha after Elijah My father my father Return O Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servant 3. Wait his leisure if he please to hold off longer Sustaining himself with cordial places of Scripture Isa 50.10 cap. 64.4 cap. 30.18 In which estate should he be taken away by death his condition is like to be comfortable because the Spirit of Truth saith Blessed are all they that wait for him Epiphanius telleth of a bird Charadius But what joy at the breaking forth of the Sun after an Eclipse that being brought into the room where a man lieth sick if he look with a steady and fixed eye upon the sick man he recovereth Certainly in Gods favour is life but Aversio vultus Dei the turning away of Gods pleased countenance is the cause of all sorrow and sadness When he hideth his face Job 34.29 who then can behold him Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Psal 30.7 Calamity It was an easie thing said Bishop Hooper to hold with Christ Calamitaâ— virtutis occasio est whiles the Prince and the World held with him but now the World hateth him it is the true trial who be his Let us not then run away when it is most time to fight Remember none are crowned but they that fight manfully You must now turn all your cogitations from the peril you see and mark the felicity that followeth the peril either victory of your enemies in this world or else a surrender for ever of your right in the inheritance to come He calls the World the Miln and Kitchin Idem to grind and boil the flesh of Gods people in till they atchieve their perfection in the World to come The World saith one is not a Paradise but a Purgatory to the Saints It may be compared to the straits of Magellan which is said to be a place of that nature Heyl. Geogr. that which way soever a man bend his course he shall be sure to have the wind against him They may not here dream of a delicacy In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer Joh. 16.33 I have overcome the world Quatuor Novissima Mors. DEath Judgment Heaven and Hell are the Quatuor Novissima Discrimen inter beatos post resurrectionem primos parentes in statu innocentiae homines in statunaturae lapsae in quo nunc sumus est Quòd beati nunquam mori poterunt primi parentes poterant nunquam meri hemines in statu nature lapsae non possunt non mori The decree is out Fortâ—sse in omnibus si mè rebus bumanis sâ—d non in morte locum habet Bellarm. Resistitur ignibus undis serro resistitur regibus imperiâ—s venit una mâ—rs quis eiresistit Aug. Non torquate genus non te sacundia non te restituet pietas Horat. l. 4. Lex universa jubet nâ—sâ—i mori Senec. All must die Belshazzar's Emblem is upon every wall Mene mene tekel upharsin Yea this impress is upon all flesh Numeravit appendit divisit God hath numbred thy days he hath laid thee on the ballance and thou art found wanting thy Kingdom is divided Say Princes say Pesants say all Corruption thou art my father Worms ye are my sisters Grave thou are my bed Sheet thou art my shrine Earth thou art my cover Green grass thou art my carpet Death demand thy due and thou Gatheringhost-Dan come last and sweep all away Epictetus went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her Pitcher of earth that was broken and went forth the next day and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead and thereupon said Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie vidi mortalem mori Life is but a sleep a shadow a bubble a vapour and as a tale that is told Aristotle spake these words at his death I rejoyce that I go out of the World which is compounded of contraries Because each of the four Elements is contrary to other therefore how can this Body compounded of them long endure Plato treating of the Souls of men could say The merciful Father made them soluble and mortal bands meaning indeed they should not always be held with the miseries of this life Death reigned from Adam to Moses And though Death shall not reign yet it shall live fight and prevail from Moses to the end of the world for then and not till then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written Death is swallowed
up in victory We may easily perceive Mille modis laethi miseros mors una fatigat Et tum quo que cum crescimus vita decrescit Sencc how all this our Contexture is built of weak and decaying pieces Tully writeth of Hortensius that after his Consulship he decayed in his rare faculty of Eloquence though not so sensibly that every auditor might perceive it yet in such sort that a cunning Artist might observe that he drew not so clear a stroke in his pieces nor cast on them so rich and lively colours as before Mors hominis pecudum differt In pecudibus perit anima cum corpore redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil Non verò ita homines anima rationalis non perit cum corpore sed corpori tandem adjungetur anima unde domicilium templum aeternum Dei erit Death Serpent-like meddles with nothing but a godly mans dust When death takes hold of the Body as Potipher's wife did of Joseph's cloak the Soul leaves it as he did that and flies to God One reason of dying is God will have our Bodies to be new cast and come out beautiful and bright This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Under the Law persons were unclean till the evening so are we till death because we shall never utterly lay by our body of corruption till we lay aside our earthly body Omega nostrorum mors est Owen Epigram Nec dignus est in morte accipere solatium qui se non câ—gitavit esse moriturum Cypr. mors alpha malorum is true of wicked men And sad it is for any to say at death Omnia fui nihil sum Yet as the Vipers flesh is made a preservative against her poyson so from the bitter cup of Death ariseth to a child of God health joy salvation Who is afraid to die said Bradford but such as hope not to live eternally Death once a curse is now turned into a blessing as Levi's curse of being scattered better fitted them to teach the Tribes in every City The godly Cautator Cygnus Funcris ipse sui at their death knowing that out of their labour they must receive a plentiful harvest they rejoyce to see the troops of Angels and are so much the more ravished with joy as they draw nearer to their death by which they are delivered from the prison of the flesh the floods of misery and the deceits of the Devil drawing nearer to the Crown of glory and fruition of eternal rest and felicity with the Saints of God Bolton said on his death-bed He hoped none of his Children durst meet him at the great Tribunal of Christ in an unregenerate estate Satan tempts forest at death The Coward when we are at weakest when entring into Heaven though he cannot hinder us yet he will be treading upon our heels and troubling us But be of good comfort Serpens nunquam nisi moriens in longum est Meeting two Boats on the water we think the other moves ours stands still Even so we are usually more mindful of the mortality of others than our own But there are two rules never to be forgotten That the Son of God died for thee And that thou thy self though thou livest long must die nay art shortly to die Nihil sic revocat hominem à peccato quà m frequens meditatio mortis Aug. If thou shouldest live in the utmost part of Ethiopia where men so long live as are called Macrobians yet die thou must nor canst thou know where when or how The death of the Son of God who did acquit thee from eternal death and thy own death being so certain must be as two spurs of love to drive thee through the short race of this momentany life unto the goal of eternal happiness Consider 1. The time we have to live is less than a Geometrical point 2. How wicked the Enemy is who promiseth us the Kingdom of this World that he might take from us a better 3. How false Pleasures are which only embrace us to strangle us 4. How deceitful Honors are which lift us up to cast us down It is the sublimity of wisdom to do those things living Hic est apex summae sapientiae ea viventem facere quae morienti essent appetenda which are to be desired and chosen by dying persons Let every man in the address to his actions consider whether he would not be infinitely troubled that death should surprise him in the present dispositions and then let him proceed accordingly Austin with his mother Monica was led one day by a Roman Practor to see the Tomb of Caesar Himself thus describes the Corps It looked of a blue mould the bone of the nose laid bare the flesh of the nether lip quite fallen off his mouth full of worms and in his eye-pits two hungry toads feasting upon the remanent porâ—ion of flesh and moisture and so he dwelt in his house of darkness This meditation might be a means to allay our sinful appetites make our spirits more sober and desires obedient But some are as unwilling to meditate of Death as a child to look into the dark If they make their Will they think they are nearer to it But let us acquaint our selves with Death as when a horse boggles we ride him up to the object Yea as Christ said when the Disciples were afraid let us handle it and see Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum And let us always be ready in what corner soever we are that when God calls we may with Abraham say Behold my Lord here I am Death like the stream of Jordan between us and our Canaan runs furiously but stands still when the Ark comes Blessed is the death of those that have part in the death of Christ Death every where expecteth us If thou therefore be wise Mors. ubique nos expectâ—â— tu fi saplens cris ubique illam expectabis Senec. Heb. 9.27 do thou expect Death every where To this end remember Austins admonition Be afraid to live in such an estate as thou art afraid to die in It is appointed unto men once to die Purgatory Lo say some quoting Heb. 9.8 Heaven was not opened in the time of the Law till the passion of our Saviour Christ therefore the Patriarchs and others that died then went not to Heaven but were in a place of Rest distinct from Heaven This is their Limbus Patrum which they have forged But quickly to stop their mouths It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A gate in the Kings Pallace may be opened though not known The way to the Holiest of all that is to Heaven prefigured by their Sanctum Sanctorum was not yet manifested it was obscured under Types and Figures darkly revealed to them That one place of Scripture following puts out the very Fire of Purgatory For if
according as the Apostle writes Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Being thus lifted up in the very gall of bitterness there was given him gall and vinegar to drink his last that so the second Adam might bear the punishment of the first Adams offence in tasting the juice of the forbidden fruit Neither did the malice of men fix it self here till they fixed both his hands and his feet to the Cross with nails which assures us of the blotting out of the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us both of the dissolution of all Ceremonial pactions and of the full cancelling of the Bond Moral for so much as concerns the forfeiting that lay upon us This did not satiate their cursed humours Col. 2.14 but a spear must be thrust through his side that we might find an open passage to the Heavenly Jerusalem for our selves cleansed with his blood that cleanseth from all sin and washt away with the water of Regeneration flowing from him as from a bottomless Fountain of eternal life Thus was our Saviour roughly handled in his last gasp till he gave up the ghost Therefore did he come That mundus ex mundo that he might minister and give his life a ransom for many Mat. 20.28 A ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 To be a Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.2 even of them that deny him who bought them and bring justly on themselves swift destruction 2 Pet. 2.1 And such an High-Priest became us When this Oblation was finish'd 2. He made another of the same Body revived and raised from death but sprinkled with his blood This he did in the Heavens in the glorious presence of the Divine Majesty to be a perpetual remembrance and token of the payment of our Ransom of the impetration of our Redemption For Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.11 12. So that he offered up himself first here below after above The first being done ceased For in that he died he died once to sin Rom. 6.10 The second is perpetuated Because he continueth for ever he hath an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 7.24 He accomplish'd the first ut Agnus mactandus as a Lamb to be slain This he doth always at Agnus mactatus as a Lamb slain but quickned again by the Spirit That was consummated in the state of his Humiliation this continueth in the state of his Exaltation both prosecuted in the height of his love for the glory of God and the benefit of man For the first He was sanctified with the unction of the Spirit For the last He was consecrated by his manifold passions anointed with his own blood So that upon Earth he provided himself by the first to do the last in the Heavens being made higher than the Heavens And certainly such an High-Priest became us As this our High-Priest made himself an Offering for sin 1 Tim. 2.5 so made he also and ever makes intercession for transgressors Isa 53.12 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.2 S. Paul calleth him the Mediator betwixt God and man who speaks a good word for us that we might be where he is and as he is free from condemnation Rom. 3.34 Tam recens mâ—bâ— nuâ—c Christus est acsi â—âc borâ fudiffet sanguinem Luth. For saith he Who shall condemn It is Christ which is dead yea or rather which is risen again who is also at the right hand of God making intercession for us and to that end ever liveth Hence will he never fail to do it in all ages because consecrated to iâ— for evermore All accusations are here hereby nonsuited and removed which either men or devils may make against us But lest some should vainly surmise that Christ intercedes for all promiscuously To prevent all such misconception remember what he saith I pray not for the world Joh. 27.9 but for them which thou hast given me Unbelievers and disobedient are excluded from the benefit of his Intercession as well as the merits of his Passion only the Elect faithful that are constant to the death and continue to the end shall be partakers of both And this is the second part of his Priesthood practised by him in the execution of it which is not done in the anguish of his soul or humbly bending of the knee or kissing of the hand as if he were prostrate at the feet of his Father but in confidence of his blood-shed which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel which he presents to his Fathers aspect as a never to be forgotten spectacle of a cursed death voluntarily suffered for the sins of men upon the value and worth whereof depends the whole efficacie of his function by which we have admittance to the Throne of grace and entrance into the place of the blessed Heb. 10.19 Hence Gods favour is established upon us and he not provoked against us Gods compassion is vouchsafed us in the times of distress the Devils power is restrained that he cannot hurt us our faith kept that it may not fail us our sins forgiven he pleading for us protection granted us against the worlds hatred our supplications and suits obtained our imperfections by degrees abolisht our hope of the heavenly glory within the vail made sure unto us needful blessings in the interim confer'd upon us for the Father alwayes heareth the Son and resteth well-pleased in him and through him in us I could wish the men of Rome would rest well pleased in him with whom the Father is well pleased would hear of no other meriting Intercessor but of him whom the Father heareth alwayes nor of any other Redeemer than of him only whom the Father appointed to bring us to him But such is their Sacrilegious bounty that in that office which is bestowed only on the Kings Son they most injuriously would employ the Kings servants A greater blurr cannot be put upon our Saviour to disparage him nor any thing sound more harsh in the ears of well-informed Christians they may not think they may put this off with honour with allowing him to be the only Mediatour of redemption but not of intercession their practice contradicts their speeches for they do not only beg the prayers of the Saints but their merits too to purge away their sins and supply their wants So they part the whole mediation betwixt God and man betwixt Christ and the Saints the Son of God and the sons of men But
the Christ the Son of God is most forward to deny him his former protestations were forgotten his present commodity only thought upon And when the rascal multitude came forth with swords and staves and brought him to the Council all his friends forsook him the Shepherd smitten the sheep were scattered Friends and foes Jews and Gentiles men and women high and low rich and poor Prince and people added something to his Passion to augment his woe The Kings of the earth took counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed The Elders of the people the chief Priests and the Scribes beat their brains together to take away his life They send him to Pilate Pilate sends him to Herod Herod sends him to Pilate again and Pilate sends him to his death Thus was he tossed from post to pillar In all these places he suffered in his good name by blasphemous speeches uttered against him in numbring him amongst transgressors placing him betwixt two thieves In his honor and glory by opprobrious terms and scandalous irrisions and mockings In his substance in that they took away his garment In his soul he suffered sorrow and anguish and great fear surprised his heart In his body he suffered wounds and stripes Insomuch that it may be said Was ever any sorrow like his sorrow Were you present to behold the whole passage of his Passion you might see his head compassed about with a crown of sharp thorns instead of a crown of pure gold you might see his glorious Visage which the very Angels admired contemptuously spitted upon and his cheeks smitten with the palms of their hands You might see his hands and feet fast nailed to the Cross which he himself did carry and his sides thrust thorow with a spear You might see his blood trickling down to the ground and himself through the pangs of death and apprehension of the Fathers wrath lighting upon him for our sins crying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Hereupon saith Bernard O bone Jesu quid tibi est nos peccavimus tu luis opus sine exemplo gratia sine merito charitas sine imo O blessed Saviour what ails thee We sinned and thou by thy blood dost expiate our sins here is a work without example grace without merit and love beyond all measure He felt the wrath of God upon his soul he felt the hand of a sin revenging Judge taking vengeance for the sins of the world upon him then taking away the sin of the world Where you might see also no sense free from passion As for his Touch he was smitten and nails thrust through his flesh as for his Taste he drank unpleasant vinegar and gall as for his Smell he was in an infectuous place the place of dead mens skuls as for his Hearing he was vexed with the uproars and hideous blasphemies of those that blasphemed and derided him as for his Seeing he beheld with grief his Mother and the Disciple that loved him shedding tears for him and observed no noubt in the anguish of his spirit the madness of the actors of his death Hence proceeded that heavenly prayer Father forgive them they now not what they do This was the lamentable case he was in until he gave up his Ghost They gave him no rest no rest in his body nor in his soul until his soul departed Thus he suffered and thus in suffering he died died the most ignominious and cursed death 2 Cor. 5. ult God made him to be sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for cursed it every one that hungeth on a tree Gal. 3.13 Nothing could appease the wrath of the Father but the death of his Son Who died First to satisfie the justice of God for the sin of mankind for he once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 being put to death in the flesh 2. To manifest the truth and reality of the nature assumed to wit his manhood that he was true man and no phantasme 3. That by his death he might free us from the fear of death Forasmuch then as we are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage 4. That by dying corporally for sin and unto sin he might give us an example of dying spiritually to sin for in that he died he died unto sin once Heb. 2.14 15. but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6.10 11. Crux pendent is Cathedra docentis Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow is steps 1 Pet. 2.21.5 That by rising from the dead he might make known the power whereby he overcame death and give unto us a lively hope of our resurrection from the dead And thus much for the sufferings of Christ generally exprest and specially implied The next point is the necessity of the sufferings and death of Christ Christ must needs have suffered It was necessary that Christ should suffer and in suffering die Necessitate decreti by the necessity of Gods Decree and infallible prescience Truly Luke 22.22 the Son of man goeth as it was determined Which determination is more plainly exprest Acts 2.23 Him that is Christ being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain In which respect it was inevitable And albeit he prayed Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me yet he submit shiâ— will to the will of his Father in saying yet not my will but thy will be done It was the eternal will of God and his unchangeable Decree that Christ should suffer for us it was foreordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 And although his will was that that cup might passe over him that so his life might be prolonged yet consider this vitam appetit ut homo saith Theophilact Theophil in Luke 22.42 he desired life as he was man yet as an obedient child ever correspondent to his Fathers desire adds this withal not my will but thy will be done which is not seperate from my divine will saith the same Father It was necessary necessitate obligationis by the necessity of a promise whereby God was obliged and bound to see it actually performed Promises are a due debt Promissa cadunt in debitum That God promised this it is apparant by that speech of his the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head and
speaking unto Abraham he saith That in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed It was necessary necessitate praecepti by the necessity of precept Hitherto are referred the Types of Christ which were significant intimations of his succeeding passion As Abrahams offering up his son Isaac the brazen Serpent erected in the Wildernesse according to that John 3.14 As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wildernesse even so must the Son of man be lifted up The Paschal Lamb was a type hereof for Christ is called the Lamb of God John 1.29 that takes away the sins of the world Besides this the Prophets did precisely foretel the particulars of his suffering how his familiar friend should betray him Psal 41.9 What price he was sold at for thirty pieces of silver Zech. 11.12 What became of these thirty pieces ver 13. What time he should suffer Daniel How his Disciples forsooke him and Peter denied him Psal 38.11 Zech. 13.7 It was foretold that he should be falsely accused Psal 41. That the great ones of the world should plot his fall Psal 2. His silence is noted Isa 53. So are the spittles wherewith they defiled his face Isa 50. And the buffettings and smitings that he suffered at their hands Isa 53. The Reed in his hand the mockings and reproaches the Vinegar and Gall the parting of his rayment the piercing of his hands and feet and sides the staring upon him and wagging their heads his crucifying betwixt two thieves and his last parting with the very words he used then were precisely revealed by God to the Prophets and set down by them in Scripture Our Saviour himself saith Luk. 9.22 that the Son of man that is himself must suffer many things and be rejected of the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and be slain Caiphas being high Priest prophesied as much John 11.50 That it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not And as the Poet speaks Vnum pro multis dabitur caput It was necessary necessitate indigentiae by the necessity of our want We stood in need of his sufferings without which we could not be saved for without the shedding of blood Hebr. 9.22 there is no remission It was the ordinance of God from eternity that by blood we should be redeemed and no otherwise Not that he could not redeem us otherwise but that he would not otherwise deeming this way the most convenient And therefore lastly It was necessary necessitate commoditatis by the necessity of commodiousness and conveniencie There was no better away to free us from sin to work our salvation to reconcile us to God than by the sufferings and death of the Son of God I doubt not but God in his infinite wisdom might have used another means for the saving of our souls besides this but lest we disparage Gods judgment we cannot say but this was the most convenient and best because it was the determination of his will before all time Which was the reason that Saint Cyprian aver'd this Non reconciliare Deo potuerit exules damnatos quaelibet oblatio nisi sanguinis hujus singulare sacrificium not every oblation could reconcile such unto God as are banished from the presence of God and worthy of condemnation but only the peculiar and only propitiatory sacrifice of the blood of Christ The necessity of this conveniencie consists in these respects beside freedome from sin and reconciliation to God 1. In that it serves for the manifestation of the love of God to us according to that Rom. 5.8 God commended his love toward us in that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for us And herein is the love of Christ also commended greater love can no man shew than to lay down his life for his friends but Christ did his for his foes Now it was necessary for us to have assurance of the favor of God which is given us by the death of his Son 2. In that it serves for an example to us of obedience to the pleasure of our heavenly Father Of humility of constancie of righteousnesse and of other vertues and graces manifested in his Passion 1 Pet. 2.21 Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps 3. In that it served to procure for us with a great deale more conveniencie Hebr. 10.20 justifying grace and eternal glory by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh 4. In that there is brought upon man a greater necessity of keeping himself free from sin being that he understands that he is redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 6.20 The Apostle saith that ye are bought with a price therefore glorifle God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods The consideration of Christ's death should be a means to deteine us from transgressing the Divine Ordinances and to keep us within the compasse of his Law Passe the time of your sojurning hear in fear for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from year vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.17 18 19. 5. In that it serves for the greater dignity of man That as man was deceived seduced and overcome of Satan So Satan might be overcome by a man And as man deserved death so death might be overcome by a man the man Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be to God saith the Apostle which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus much of the necessity of the sufferings of Christ of the necessity of Gods Decree of his Promise of precept of our want and of conveniencie Here is no coactive necessity whether he would or not to suffer for he saith I lay down my life for my sheep He did suffer willingly yet his sufferings were not so voluntary as that they became arbitrary in his choise that is he might choose to suffer or not to suffer for Amâ—s Si Christi passiones nullâ fuissent lege impositae nihil pertinerent ad satisfactionem Now listen to the effects that these sufferings of his wrought for us By them we are freed from sin For He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Rev. 1.5 And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 And from the power of Satan We meritted to be delivered up unto Satan the justice of God did so require it The Devil himself endeavoured to stop from us the way to life but the death of Christ opened the way for us and did exceed that power that was given to Satan of God by the righteousnesse of Christ he was overthrown Now saith our Saviour shall the Prince of this world be cast out And
spue you out of his mouth like the luke-warm Laodiceans Hierom. Non Hierosolymis fuisse fed Hierosolymis bene vixisse laudandum est saith Hierom Not to live in Hierusalem but to live well in Hierusalem is praise-worthy We must not live in the Church amongst the Saints but we must be Saints of the Church Thus the Saints of God by renovation have in them inherent and actual sanctity which in respect of their twofold state is twofold imperfect and perfect imperfect in their state militant and perfect in their state triumphant First then There was never Saint found nor ever shall be found Saint so journing on this earth during the days of his pilgrimage indued with absolute or compleat sanctity Their righteousness is but inchoative begun here yet true but not perfect until the day of our full and perfect redemption until our absolute translation from death to life until our better change out of this life of mortality into the life of immortal glory Aug. Nullus sanctus caret peccato nec tamen ex hoc desinit esse sanctus cùm affectu teneat sanctitatem saith Austin No Saint wants sin yet doth he not hereby cease to be a Saint being his affection is possest of holiness The desires of his soul have embraced grace for which God graciously embraceth his soul This impersection of the Saints appears by the Apostle complaining of a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind and so leading him captive to the law of sin in his members whereby the good that he would do he did not Of this he speaketh 2 Cor. 7.1 when he saith Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting or finishing holiness in the fear of God Where the word finishing importeth the imperfection of the most perfect meer man under which he still groaneth in this life and for which Paul he still cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death until the day wherein he shall finish his course and sanctification in Gods fear We hear the Saints praised for the strictness of their holy life and not undeserved their goodness is applauded of the good and honored of the best Ambrâ—s Yet saith Ambrose Cognascamus sanctos non naturae praestantioris fuisse fed observantiae majoris nec vitia nescisse fed emendasse Let us know that the Saints had not a more excellent nature than we but had a greater observance and respect to God neither were they void of sin but were always on the mending hand They were ever inclining to that perfection which they had not yet obtained and declining that evil which makes men incapable of perfection Do ye so likewise for be assured that they that live in the world without sanctity and amendment of life live without the true God of the world which whosoever doth Hierom. shall not live out of this world with God world without end Non nisi sanctes Coelestis aula suscipiet saith Hierom The Court of Heaven entertains no Courtiers but Saints and holy men There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Rev. 21.27 or worketh abomination but they which are written in the book of life Where their imperfection is turned to perfection and their incompleat grace to perfect glory Secondly So that albeit the Saints are not perfect in their state militant yet are compleat in their state triumphant Though not throughly holy in the state of grace yet their sanctification accomplished in the state of glory where no foe can oppress them no sin infect them no devil pervert them ubi una placida fida tranquiâ—itas una sollida perpetua securit as saith Cyprian Cypr. where there is onely pleasing and faithful tranquillity where onely is solid and perpetual security Without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murtherers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Onely the blessed that do his commandment Rev. 22.14 15. enter into the city the new Hierusalem Who are like Absolom in another sense from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head without blemish and not like Isaiah's sinners from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot no whole part This happy perfection and perfect happiness let it be as annexed to the glory of God the highest point of your ambitious thoughts and the But to which you shoot all the arrows of obedience Then shall ye being with the Saints righteous by imputation and renovation by grace inherent and actual here imperfect but perfect registred and placed with the Saints shall be like the Sun in the firmament of heaven And so much concerning the Subject of this Text Gods Saints whom I leave in their proper sphere having brought them to their long home where I trust we shall all meet them in glory everlasting The second part of the Text is the Attribute of special honour proper to the Saints This honour What is imported by this honour is exprest in the foregoing verses and in the first part of the Text. To be brief 't is this An absolute victory over all People Nations Kings and Potentates that fight against the Saints But being we cannot conceive a Conquest before a Conflict I will by Divine assistance treat a little of the Saints Conflict and their honorable Conquest Gods children and Saints are here in a continual warfare Afflictions saith one are perpendicular to his graces in them Vertue never yet wanted opposites Tendit ad astra per aspera virtus The way to Heaven as one observes is strewed with briars like that which Jonathan and his Armour-bearer passed betwixt two rocks Bozez and Seneh that is foul and thorny Grievous and many are the Massacres of the Saints The French proverb of Sicknesses is true of the Churches persecutions and conflicts They come on horse-back but go away on foot And Rest and Pleasure like Oxen come slow and heavily and go away like Post-horses on the spur The Kings of the earth assemble themselves against the Lord and his anointed ones To omit others Have not France Germany Spain Italy who not been up in arms against the Professors of the Truth to send them through the Red sea of Tribulation into the land of Canaan And do not those bitter enemies exercise all manner of cruelty that barbarous rage can invent Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it is cruel As for torments and kinds of death Phalaris and his fellow-tyrants come short of those Bloodhounds of the Spanish Inquisition whom I may compare to the women of Vlna in India Heyl. Geogr. who black their teeth because dogs teeth are white so these black their souls with the works of darkness because the souls of the Saints are white with innocency But yet as the malignant fury of inveterable men in authority did not terrifie the
under correction Alexander forgave many sharp swords but never any sharp tongues Moreover God hath bedged in this unruly evil with a double hedge of lips and teeth And it is placed on purpose in the midst betwixt the brain and the heart that it might take the advice of both It is also tied fast by the root There is much need you see of reforming and polishing this member Death and life saith Solomon are in the power of the tongue Upon the right or ill using of it a mans safety doth depend And lest you should think the Scripture only intendeth temporal safety or ruine Our Saviour saith By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words condemned One of the prime things that shalt be brought forth to judgment are your words Again He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction The wise man intimateth a similitude of a City besieged to open the gates betrayeth the safety of it all watch and ward is about the gate So the tongue is the gate or door of the Soul by which it goeth out in converse and communication to keep it open and loose guarded letteth in an enemy which proveth the death of the Soul Face The Face is the table of beauty or comelinesse and when that is abused it is made the seat of shame hence spitting in the face is such an act of reproach And cocovering the face as in Haman the mark of a condemned man It is reported of Malcotius as also of Augustus that the majesty of his countenance Turk Hist fol. 415. with the resplendant beams issuing out of his eyes as it bad been the rayes of the Sun were of such piercing brightnesse that no man was able with immoved and fixed eye long to behold the same Likewise in the description of Tamerlane amongst the rest Fol. 235. in his eyes sate such a rare majesty as a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing of his own And many in talking with him and often beholding of him became dumb which caused him oftentimes with a comely modesty to abstain from looking too earnestly upon such as spake unto him or discoursed with him En quam difficile est animum non prodere vultu The face varieth as the mind varieth Index animi valâ—us That is seen in the face which is out of sight Four things are chiefly seen in the face 1. Pride Psal 10.4 2. Fear Dan. 5.6 3. Envie and Discontent Gen. 31.2 5. 4. Guilt and shame Gen. 4.7 Thus the evidences of the heart are read there and we may take the copy of a mans spirit in his countenance Dugge God hath placed the womans Dugge saith Weemse in her breast Duplex est causa Physica moralis and not in her belly as in beasts and that for two causes 1. Physical 2. Moral The Physical cause God hath placed them so near the liver that the milk might be the better concocted and the more wholesome for the child The Moral cause that the woman might impart her affection and love more to her child by giving it suck with hen dugge which is so near the heart Hence the giving of suck was one of the greatest obligations of old betwixt the mother and the children Hand Amongst the several outward members of the body the Hand is of great use Fox 1. By the Hand we promise and threaten Hence the right hand of fellowship Turk Hist fol. 1392. â—he left hand is the most honourable amongst the Turks 2. We reckon by it the Ancients reckoned upon their left hand untill they came to an hundred years Prev 3.16 and then they began to reckon upon their right hand Hence Solomon Wisdom cometh with length of dayes upon the right hand meaning that Wisdom should make a man to live a long age 3. We worship with the hand Idolaters used to kisse their Idols but because they could not reach to the Moon to Kisse her they kissed their hand in homage before her To this practice Job seems to bear reference when he saith My mouth hath not kissed my hand Cap. 31.27 The Ancients do understand all that which is from the shoulder to the fingers ends to be the hands subdivided into three parts bracbiums cubitum extremam manum purging himself of this kind of Idolatry as some conceive In a word it is the Organ of Action and the special Providence of God is to be marked that he hath made man to take his meat with his hand and hath not left him to gather it up with his lips as the Beasts do for if a man did so his lips would become so thick that he could not speak distinctly as we see by experience by those that have so Heart The Jewes compare the heart of Man for the excellency of it to three things 1. To the Holiest of all where the Lord gave his answers so the Lord gives his answers first out of the heart 2. To Solomons Throne as the stateliest place where the King sits so the Lord dwells in the heart of man as in his Throne 3. To Moses Tables in which he wrote the Law so God promiseth to write his Law in mans heart Three things God holdeth in his own hand 1. Revenge 2. Future Events 3. Searching of mens hearts Principale animae non secundùm Platonem in cerebro sed juxta Christum in corde 'T is not the eye that seeth but the heart not the ear that heareth but the heart not the tongue that speaketh but the heart Yea there is in the heart both 1. Talking Psal 14.1 and 2. Walking Ezek. 11.21 In Gods account Quicquid con non facit non fit The heart is the first mover of all the actions of man for as the first mover carrieth all the spheres of Heaven with it so doth the heart of man carry all the members of the body with it In natural Generation the heart is first framed and in supernatural Regeneration it is first reformed The heart is primum vivens ultimum moriens So the spiritual life of grace begins in the heart first and is last felt there Hence it is that Michael the Archangel and the Devil strove no faster about the body of Moses than they do about the heart of man Liver Next to the heart in man is the Liver and from hence it hath in latine the name jecur quasi juxta cor as it were placed near unto the heart This is the shop of sanguification or fountain of blood from whence by the channels of the * Especially vens sorta and vena cava veins it is carried over the several Provinces of mans body God hath fenced the noblest parts as the brain with Pia mater and Duramater the heart with Pericardia so the liver is enclosed by a Net called Roticulum Lungs The Lungs are the bellows of the voyce and are seated near the heart to
and Physician to their unavoidable ruine Exempla hujus Peccati Saul Judas Arrius item Julianus Apostata But it is indeed difficult to judge of this sin Sine rarishmis inspirationiâ—us Beâ— because now in this Age of the Church the spirit of discerning is not so distributed as of old Manasses for many years furiously persecuted the Word of God erected abominable Idols and shed much innocent blood in Jerusalem whereby this sin was incoated but not consummate because at last he came to have Repentance given him Take heed of three things principally 1. Of every beginning of evil of denying Christ though but through infirmity so far Peter was in a dangerous way and it was time for Christ to look at him Satan teacheth his children first to go and then to run 2. Of acting wilfully and willingly against the known Truth of the Gospel there are sins of frailty through impotency and of simplicity through ignorance but take heed of sins of malignity through envy this is Giant-like to war against God 3. Of continuing to sin against conscience A man may sin till it be as impossible for him to repent as to come out of Hell being once plunged there Most justly may it be said of the man committing this sin what once most unjustly by Paul Away with him from the earth its pity that such a one should live There is a sin unto death 1 John 5.16 All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him Mat. 12.31 32. but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this World neither in the World to come Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins Psal 19 13. let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression Sinners By one man sin entred into the World Non intelligendum hoc de exemplo imitationis sed de contagio propagationis Johan Polyand praefat ad Com. Nemo mundus à peccato coram te nèc infans cujus est unius diei vita super terram Aug. Imbecillitas enim infantilium innocens est non animus infantium God at the first created men with their faces as it were turned towards himself that is doing his Will But now they are like him whom a wicked spirit is said to have caught by the pate and wrested his neck about that his face stood behind his back Fixa mutari nescia nam quis Peccandi finem posuit sibi quando recepit Ejectum semel attritâ de fronte pudorem Quisuam hominum est quem tu contentum videris uno Flagitio The three sorts of dead raised by our Saviour aptly resemble saith Augustine three sorts of sinners viz. 1. A sinner is dead in the house like Jairu's Daughter when he doth imagine mischief in his mind 2. Perseverare in malo Diabolicum digni sunt perire cum illo quicunque in similitudine ejus permanent in peccaâ—o Bern. A sinner is carried out in the Coffin like the Widows son of Naim when he brings forth ungodliness both in word and in deed 3. But then is he stinking in the Grave like Lazarus if he sin habitually without any remorse drawing iniquity with cords of vanity and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath One said wittily That the angry man made himself the Judge and God the Executioner there is no sinner that doth not the like The Glutton makes God his Eater and himself his Guest and his belly his God especially in the new-found Feasts of this Age in which profuseness and profaness strive for the Tables end The lascivious man makes himself the lover and as Vives said of Mahomet God the Pandor The covetous man makes himself the Usurer and God the Broker The ambitious man makes God his state and honour his God Of every sinner God may say justly as once by the Prophet Servire me fecisti Isa 43.24 Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins yea with the Salvages of Calecutt they place Satan in the Throne and God on the Footstool If Zions Daughter converse with sinners she ties her self to the bondage of iniquity Deaths Garden brings forth no other flowers but death The Rose of pride buds forth vanity envies wormwood is but bitterness the fair lilly of luxuriousness is but sorrow and contrition the stinging Nettle of careful avarice is but dolouâ— and affliction There is the soul the Daughter of Deity like a Bond-slave led into captivity from danger to danger vice to vice sin to sin thought to thought from thought to consent from consent to delight from delight to custom from custom to hardness of heart from thence to an evil death and from an evil death to damnation We may say of every sinner as Salust said of Catiline Magnâ vi animi fecit sed ingenio malo pravóque Sinners resemble those Monsters that are half like men and half like beasts Sinners may think they see God to favour them but 't is but imaginary as we read of Brutus that he saw his own Angel They are like mad men who imagine many things which indeed are not Wickedness overthroweth the sinner Prov. 13.6 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged It shall not be well with him neither shall he prolong his dayes which are as a shadow Eccl 8.12 13. because he feareth not before God The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed Isa 65.20 Guilt of sin The priviledge of greatness neither must nor will be any subterfuge for guiltiness Guilt of sin increaseth as sin is propagated therefore the sorrow of sin comes with much and daily addition For as he is an happy man who can be a beginner in good things having a share in all the good that follows the beginning even when he is gone So cannot he but be a most unhappy man who is a Ring-leader in evil for as it is easie to set fire on an house but not so easie to quench it so he hath begun mischief and all the sins and evils of that unhappy spark committed many Generations after him shall be upheaped on him to his greater condemnation Men may communicate in other mens sins divers wayes By counsel and advice when though another is the hand yet thou art the head and adviser Absalom committed the incest but by the counsel of Achitophel And the daughter of Herodias is the mouth that said Give me John Baptists head but it was by the counsel of her mother By commandment 1. Whether by word Doeg murdered the Priests of the Lord but it was Saul's fact who commanded him The high Priests servants struck Paul but their stroak was their Masters for he commanded it and Paul deals
fountain near Monacris in Arcadia Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 103. of which whosoever drinks presently falls down dead the name of the fountain is Styx so called because it was of all men abhorred So should we be affected to the evil of sin as to a thing that brings present death Man drinks iniquity like water but every draught slayes the soul as the water of Styx the body As thou wouldest not drink poyson so beware of it The Poets have feigned a river to be in hell called by the same name Rom. 12.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sometime is taken for hell it self Art thou afraid of hell be also as much afraid of evil Pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est pati Thinks the sinner a small punishment may serve for a great offence But if God do punish the punishment shall have the same proportion with the offence God proportions the punishment of man with his sin and that two manner of wayes 1. In the quality and manner of it 2. In the quantity or degree of it The justice of God is visible in both Adonibezek was and so have many others been punished in the same manner that he had sinned But all shall be punished in the same degree that they have sinned 〈◊〉 abyssus 〈◊〉 a invocat When the iniquity of the Amorite is full he shall have his fill of wrath When God is pressed with sin as a cart with sheaves then he layes on load in judgment If sin be great so shall the punishment of it be Gods judgments against sinners are feathered from themselves as a fowl shot with an arrow feathered from her own body Which is according to Julians Motto Propriis pennis perire grave est No sooner had man sinned but the earth was cursed for his sake It was never beautiful nor chearful since and lookes to be burnt up shortly with her workes But yet the Punishment of sin may come long after the comitting of sin The one is a seed-time the other a reaping-time betwixt which there is a distance of time Job 4.8 The seeds of sin may lye many years under the furrowes A man may commit a sin in his youth and not find the harvest of it till old age The strongest sinner shall not escape punishment There are no sons of Zerviah too hard for God God desires in a special manner to be dealing with these for they in the pride of their spirits think themselves a match for God though indeed their strength is but weaknesse and their wisdom foolishness hence like Pharoah they send defiance to Heaven and say who is the Lord When God sees the hearts of men swoln to this height of insolent madnesse he delights to shew himself and grapple with them that the pride of man may be abased and every one that is exalted may be laid low that he onely may be exalted and his name set up in that day Behold Numb 32.23 ye have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out Evill shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him Psal 140.11 Evil pursueth sinners Pro. 13.21 The wicked is driven away in his wickednesse Cap. 14.32 Thine owne wickednesse shall correct thee Jer. 2.19 and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of hosts Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee Cap. 4.18 this is thy wickednesse because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart If thou doest not well Gen. 4.7 sin lieth at the door Supplicium imminet idâ— proximum et presentissinium saith Junius there Then when lust hath conceived Jam. 1.15 it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death What fruit had ye then in those things Rom. 6.21 Whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death For the wages of sin is death vâ—s 23. Free-will THere are a generation of men The Motto Mâ—hi solâ—d beo that will needs hammer out their own happiness like the Spider climbing by a thread of her owne weaving But Sub laudibus naturae latent inimicigratiae saith Aug. The friends of free-will are enemies to free-grace But whoever doth well weigh Auâ— observes our Saviour saith not pâ—rfâ—â—re but facere John 6.44 with cap. 15.5 and other places of Scripture must needs conclude that down goes the Dagon of free-will with all that vitreum acumen of all the Patrons thereof whether Pagans or Papagans Pelagians or Semipelagians c. Pareus in Revel 22.17 Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely glosseth thus He saith whosoever will he saith not that it is in the power of free-will but requires the will to receive it The will is ours but the will of receiving is not in us it is the gift of grace For what have we that are have not received 1 Cor. 4.7 Mind but the case of Paul Act. 9. and of Lydia cap. 16. and it will be clear that God comes into the heart while the doors of it are shut The Arminians and Papists as to that great and special truth which the Orthodox maintain against them will grant an irresistable work of light from God upon the understanding they will grant also a potent work upon the affections but this they will not yield that God makes the will to will that is so boweth and changeth the heart that it readily imbraceth what once it abhorred yet in all that are converted this power so efficacious must needs be acknowledged for will not experience witnesse that every mans will before converting grace came was as opposite to God and as averse to all holinesse as any natural mans in the world Simpliciter velle hominis est malè velle corruptae naturae Bern. bene velle supernaturalis gratiae Quem trahit Deus volentem trahit saith Chrysostom Vbi non est Spiritus Domini non est libertas arbitrii Aug. To which August Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus qui operatur in nobis velle Therefore he addes Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Cyrus had this written upon his Tomb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I could do all things as Arrianus reports So could Paul too but it was through Christ strengthening him Phil. 4.13 To which the same Apostle addes elsewhere Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3.5 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him Joh. 6.44 For without me ye can do nothing Cap. 15.5 For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13
threatening this sendeth forth a warm gale a South-wind of Promise The office of the Law is to accuse and terrifie of the Gospel to heal and comfort Finally the Law is a killing Letter but the Gospel a quickning Spirit Great and many are the blessings brought upon the world even upon the heads of those who unfainedly believe the Gospel Viz. 1. Reconciliation with God not only of God unto us but of us unto God which is the staying or taking away that enmity against God and those hard thoughts of him which lay burning and working in our inward parts together with kindling of a spirit of love towards him and the raising of an honourable opinion in us of him in the stead thereof 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Rom. 5.10 Col. 1.21 2. Justification or righteous-making in the sight of God setting us free from all guilt demerit and imputation of sin whatsoever Act. 13.38 39. Rom. 3.21 22. 5.9 3. Adoption or relation of Son-ship John 1.12 13. Rom. 8.14 15. Gal. 3.26 4.6 7 c. 4. Mortification of the body of sin and death which is in us The Gospel ministers wisdom and strength to do it Rom. 6.3 4 5. Col. 3.3 5. 1 Pet. 4.1 5. Our vivification to a more excellent life an inspiration of a new principle of vital motions and actions far more honourable and august than our former Rom. 6.4 Jam 1.18 Eph. 2. 6. Peace with God that of Conscience also Rom. 5.1 Act. 10.36 Rom. 10.15 Eph. 3.17 7. Redemption and deliverance from the wrath and vengeance to come 1 Cor. 1.30 Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 1 Thes 1.10 8. The Gospel lifts not up the world with the hope and expectation of a Redemption or deliverance from the wrath which is to come but of an investiture and possession also of the glory which is to come Yea it carries on them who believe so far in the ways of righteousness and peace until they be ready to enter into the city of the great King Col. 1.12 Act. 20.32 Hence the Gospel must needs be a doctrine of â—oy Many of the Jews whom the thunders of Sinai the terrours of the Law moved not John Baptist wins with the Songs of Sion To which put pose S. Cyril mystically interpreting those words of the Prophet Micah 4.4 That every man should sit under his vine and under his fig-tree observeth that Wine is an emblem of joy the Fig-tree of sweetness and by both is shadowed that joy which the Evangelical doctrine should produce in those who sit under the preaching of it Indeed those doctrines which reveal God and Christ can only give solid comfort unto the soul and these doctrines are no where made known but in holy Writ and they are most clearly delivered in the Gospel The Gospel holds forth the New Covenant that constellation of Promises so called not simply but in respect of the discovery of it as we call some places the New world Unto this Covenant the Sacraments are the Broad-seal and the Spirit is the Privy-seal This Covenant was a great chearer to Davids heart 2 Sam. 23.5 He hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure Which is all my salvation and all my desire Also Christs Testament and last Will And this is the comfort of Gods elect that Heaven is conveyed unto them by legacy All that God requires of us is to take hold of his Covenant and to receive his gift of righteousness And this also he hath promised to cause us to do writing his law in our hearts c. And truly the Gospel is chiefly promissory yea it is a Promise and that such as hath many Promises in the womb of it and those as the Apostle Peter calls them 2 Pet. 1.4 exceeding great and precious not of temporals but spirituals nay eternals Fellowship with God remission adoption eternal life what not are the choise and precious benefits which the Gospel revealeth and offereth to us So that it is a treasury of divine riches a storehouse of the souls provision a Cabinet of heavenly pearls all things truly good and justly desireable being contained in and conveyed to us by it Besides the preaching of the Gospel is the bell whereby we are called to eternal glory As by the sound of a trumpet the people were called together in the time of the Law so this is the Silver-trumpet sounding in our ears whereby we are called to the Kingdom of Heaven The common opinion is and the most antient Copies say as much that Matthew wrote his Gospel eight years after Christ Mark ten Luke fifteen and John forty two Plato when ready to die blessed God for three things 1. That he made him a Man 2. That he was born in Greece 3. That he lived in the time of Socrates David Chytraus also blessed God for three things 1. That he had made him a Man and not a Beast 2. That he had made him a Christian and not a Pagan 3. That he had his education under those excellent Lights Luther and Melancthon Austin wished but to have seen three fights 1. Romam in flore Rome in the flourish 2. Paulum in ore Paul in the Pulpit 3. Christum in corpore Christ in the flesh But greater is our happiness in enjoying the Gospel Vers 17. Mat. 13.16 Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear For verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things whiâ—h ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them We have the Turtles voice the joyful sound the lively Oracles The Sea ab out the Altar was brazen and what eyes could pierce thorow that Now our Sea about the Throne is glassie like to Chrystal cleerly conveying the light and sight of God to our eyes All Gods Ordinances are now so cleer that we may see Christs face in them and be transformed into the image and similitude of Christ Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace Luk. 2.10 Rom. 10.15 and bring glad tidings of good things Repeâ—t ye Mark 1.15 and believe the Gospel Christs Humiliation Incarnation The Scripture tells us how that man comes four ways into the world Aug. Serm. 20. de Temp. 1. By the help of man and woman so all are usually born 2. Without any man or woman and so the first man was created 3. Of a man without a woman and so was Eve made 4. Of a woman without a man and so was Christ born So that Christ birth differs from the birth of others He that was more excellent than Angels became less than Angels Vt nos aquaret Angelis minoratus est ab Angelis He that laid the foundation of the earth and made the world was himself now made Factor terra factus
in terrâ Creator coeli creatus sub coelo being the Child of Mary sine quo pater nunquam fuit sine quo mater nunquam fuisset So that as David sang This is the day which the Lord hath made we may say This is the day wherein the Lord was made we will rejoyce and be glad in it This was that Holy that Stone cut out of the mountain without hands that Flower of the field growing without mans labour When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman Gal. 4 4. Joh. 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us God was manifesi in the flesh Passion It was a great kindness which Abraham shewed unto Lot when he hazarded his own life and the lives of his family to recover him out of the hands of Chedarlaomer But not comparable to that kindness which our Kinsman the Lord Jesus shewed us when he gave his life to deliver us from the hand of our enemies Mortuum Caesarem quis metuat Sed morte Christi quid efficacius If Caesar he once dead who will â—ear Christ even when dead is terrible to his enemies Nothing more effectual than his death By suffering death he destroyed him who had the power of death When he was condemned of man he condemned sin that it should not condemn man Passus est ut infirmus operatus ut fortis Aug. He suffered as a weak man but wrought as a strong one As the Serpent without life erected in the wilderness overcame the living serpents that stung Israel So the Lord Jesus by suffering death slew that Serpent that living in us had stung us to death Sanguis ejus effunditur Patre ordinante filio volente Spiritu sancto dante Gorran Judâ tradente Judaea procurante Pilato judicante Gentili exequente The High Priest under the Law as he was a type of Christ in sundry respects so likewise in his death He who killed a man negligently fled to the City of refuge and stayed there until the death of the High Priest and then he was free Jesus Christ by his death frees us and sets us at liberty One saith Christ continued in his torment twenty hours at the least Others say Sedul Homâ— â— that he was so long on the Cross as Adam was in Paradise in pleasure Origen de morte magni Regis The Theeves fared better on their Crosses than Christ on his for they had no â—rrision no superscription no taunts no insultations they had nothing but pain to encounter but death to grapple with but he death and scorn Pro servis dominus moritur pro sontibus insons Pro aegroto medicus pro grege pastor obit Pro populo rex mactatur pro milite ductor Pro opere ipse opifex pro homine ipse Deus As Eve came out of Adams side sleeping so the Church is taken out of Christs side bleeding Vt effundatur sanguis Christi ne confundatur anima Christiani A flux of blood in the head is stanched by opening a vein in the foot But here to save all his members from bleeding to death blood must be drawn from the head Which of Christs senses was not a window to let in sorrow He sees the tears of his Mother hears the blasphemy of the multitude is put to death in a noisom place to his scent his touch felt the nails and his taste the gall a reed for reproach is put into his hand a diadem in scorn is set upon his head his head harrowed with thorns his face of whom it was said Thou art fairer than the children of men is all besmeared with the filthy spettle of the Jews those eyes clearer than the sun are darkned with the shadow of death those lips which spake as never man spake are now drenched in gall and vinegar Nam cum mortis aculcum non possit accipere natura deitatis noscendo tamen sâ—scepit de nobis quod pati posset pro nobis Leo. Serm. 8. de Pas Hoc primum tormentum magnum mysterium quod passibilis factus est Hillar de Trin. l. 10. Christi humilitas est nostra sublimitas Christi crux nostra victoria Christi patibulum noster triumphus Orig. Hom 8. L. 9. and those feet that trampled on the Powers of darkness are now nailed to the footstool of the Cross Though Christ were both God and Man yet he suffered not in his Divine but in his Humane nature which may be thus illustrated 1. A Man we know consisteth both of soul and body and yet when he is dead we do not understand it of his soul for that cannot die but his body only 2. Thus The Sun shines on a Tree the Carpenter cuts down the Tree but wounds not the Sun 3. Or as the two Goats mentioned Levit. 16. the one is slain but the other escapes so of Christ in his two natures God the Creator suffers in the flesh that the flesh of the creature should not suffer for ever God himself reconciled the world unto himself God himself became Mediator God himself redeemed Mankind with his own blood He who was offered assumes the flesh of the creature and becomes Reconciliator We may say of Christs bloody sweat what the Poet Lucan having his veins cut dying said Sanguis erant lachrymae quaecunque foramina novit Humor ab his largus manat cruor ora redundunt Et patulae nares sudor rubet omnia plenis Membra fluunt venis totum est pro vulnere corpus Englished by D.T. His blood were tears and what pores sweat did know Blood in great plenty did spring forth and flow Through 's mouth and nose his sweat was red each lim Swet with full veins all 's but one wound in him Read Isa 53. all along His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.14 that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed Is it nothing to you 1. am 1.12 all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Descensio Christi ad Inferos Sepultura Christi est requies Christiani Ambros Buried our Saviour was 1. That none might doubt of his death 2. That our sins might be buried with him 3. That our graves might be prepared and perfumed for us as so many beds of roses or delicious dormitories Isa 57.2 If Christ did descend personally into Hell he must either descend in body or in soul Now his body could not go into hell for that was laid in the grave that very night by Joseph of Arimathea And for his soul that could not be in hell for Christ said to the Thief upon the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And how could that be if his soul did then go
fretting leprosie in our cottages of clay though the walls be well scraped yet it will never utterly out till the house be demolished O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quâ—si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amabilis Some think it is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à Marte vel bello quia in bello maxime opus est virtute vel quia in bello precipuè virtutis vis conconspiciatur Some derive it à verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tollo quia attollit mentem ad summa ardua virtus bellica Others à verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyeth to make a free choice of some excellent thing upon mature deliberation Virtus à viro à vi ut alii alii vero dicunt quasi viri status Non est virtus virtuti contraria Senec. There is magnitudo 1. Molis et 2. Virtutis Splendidior virtutis usus erga alium quà m erga seipsum Eximia vertus est impios rapit in admirationem ei amorem sui Erasm in vit Origenis The Poets pictured vertue with a vermilian blush and as it is truly said that Rubor est virtutis color so it may be said that paupertas est virtutis fortuna Yet wise men honour vertue even in their enemies as King Philip in Demosthenes Vertus laudatuâ— in hoste when as he said If any Athenian living in Athens doth say that he preferreth me before his countrey him verily would I buy with much money but not think him worthy my friendship But if any for his countrey-sake shall hate me him will I oppugne as a castle a strong wall or a bulwarke and yet admire his vertue and reckon the City happy in having such a man The very Heathens made their passage to the Temple of honour thorow the Temple of vertue to shew that as glory is the end so vertue is the meanes The way to be famous is first to do worthily Ruth 4.11 Adde to your faith 2 Pet. 1.5 Phil. 4.8 vertue Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things Vice Vitium ut est negatiè habitus privative opponitur habitui ut est habitus vel act us malus opponitur habitui bono contrariè There is saith one a certain list of vices committed in all ages and declaimed against by all Authors which will last as long as humane nature or digested into common places may serve for any Theme and never be out of date untill Doomesday Uice at best is but a diseased harlot all whose commendations is that she is painted Uices road is paved with ice inviting by the eye but tripping up the heele to the hazard of a wound or drowning One vice doth blemish many vertues Yet no vertue but beset with vices or extreames on both hands And this is evident not onely in morall vertues but also in naturall habits whether they be outward or inward For all the severall jemmes in vertue vice hath counterfeit stones wherewith she gulls the ignorant It is said of Mahomet the great Turk Hist fol. 433. that he had many lovely vertues but these good parts were in him obscured with most horrible and notorious vices In so much that craft covetousnes and dissimulation were in him accounted for tollerable faults in comparison of his greater vices Heliogabulus was generally hated for his insatiable lust and least pitied in that ebb of his frailty his miserable death when men use most to be pitied being attended at his funeralls with military reproaches Here go we to bury a dog of distempered lusts Sejanus was shaken with an unexpected end and made miserable in his best fortunes interred with dry eyes but who will pity the fall of ambition Herostratus memorable for nothing but villany purchased by his fame an infamous end Bloody Perillus expert in the invention of cruel projects punished with the torture of his invention And frequently it comes to pass the fleering Parasite circumvents himself with his own policy Naaman 2 Kings 4.1 Captaine of the host of the King of Syria was a great man with his Master and honourable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria He was also a mighty man in valour but he was a leper Repentance Publicanus percussit pectus Innocent 3. p. l. 2. c. 13. De sacr Alt. Myst in percussione tria not anda jctus sonus tactus per quae signantur illa tria quae sunt in vera paenitentia necessaria viz. 1. Cordis contritio 2. Oris confessio 3. Operis satisfactio Nam sicut tribus modis peccamus scil Corde cogitando ore loquendo opere perpetrando ita tribus modis paenitere debemus scil Corde per dolorem ore per pudorem opere per laborem Yea four things are required in true repentance 1. Contrition 2. Confession 3. Satisfaction in case of oppression 4. Faith For without all our repentance is but Judas-like for he had contrition in that he repented himselfe when he saw Jesus condemned and he confessed his sin in that he said I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood And he made satisfaction and restitution so soon as he could in bringing again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests Furthermore Vbi metus nullus emandatio inde nulla ubi emandatio nulla Eertul ibi paenitentia necessariovana For well said Luther Optima paenitentia est nova vita 'T is not many but some reigning sin that undoeth us as there is more matter of one chain that is fast than of many if loosned and of one leak open in the ship than of many stopped Therefore as in India by reason of scarcity of iron they keep Prisoners in golden chaines so some Sathan keeps in chaines of iron and others as it were in chaines of gold Tribunal judicis eterni securus aspiciet quisquis reatus sui conscius Greg. dignâ eum nunc paenitentiâ placare contendit Bradford being at the stake casting up his countenance to heaven said Act. Mon. O England England repent thee of thy sins repent thee of thy sins c. Aut paenitendum aut pereundum The Hart if wounded will make use of meanes to get the arrow out the swallow if blinded of her feathers to restore her sight Tertul. And shall not man use the ordained meanes to be cured of the wound of sin and sting of death Quem paenitet peccásse penè est innocens Senec. Trag. If we have filled Gods bag with our sins we had need to fill his bottle with our teares Pigeat sanè peccare rursus sed rursus paenitere non pigeat Tertul. pigeat iterum periclitare sed non iterum liberari
shall never end but in a full enjoyment of him in heaven But the latter is accompanied with the neglect of good meanes and with a presumption of a good end Security is a life led sine curâ it abandoneth the fear of God chaseth a way faith ripeneth sin and hasteneth judgements For it willingly sleepeth in sin as unwilling to be awakened blesseth it self in iniquity and therefore the curse must needs be neer For a man to become so secure as not to have any feeling of the danger wherewith he is inclosed such a one seemeth to be strangely metamorphosed into a man of iron When Callipolis was taken by the Turks Turk Hist fol. 186. and the newes thereof brought to Constantinople such was the madnesse of the Greeks that they made small account thereof and to extenuate the matter when they had any talk thereof in jesting-wise commonly they said That the Turks had but taken from them a pottle of wine But for that it proved a right great losse and much concerned the State as the issue made to appear For the manner of the taking of Babylon Heredotus reports that upon one of their great Holy-dayes when all the City were in their dancing and disports Ex inopinato eis Persae astiterunt Chron. 35. on a sudden the Persians came upon them they came into the City and took a part of it when the other part sung out their song and danced on and knew not that the enemy had surprized them To shake us out of security consider 1. Our whole life is a Temptation 2. A godly man is never without a treasure and a thief to steale it 3. No place admitteth security 4. The further sin goeth the more deadly it is 5. No wise man contenteth himself with present â—ase nor liveth by things present but providently forecasteth for after times A man is never lesse safe Bern. si vis securus esse time securitatem fortuna quem nimiùm fovet stultum fâ—cit than when he seemes furthest from danger fear of security being the guard of safety great fortunes being the recks of ruine If thou wouldest be secure then fear security for whomsoever fortune too much cherisheth she makes a fool Which the wisest King expresseth thus Pro. 10.2 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing Herein not much unlike to Merchants who having had good successe at Sea adventure for more and so lose all So that it is too true that as much light hurts the eyes so too much felicity clouds the understanding making the conceit of a safety the cause of sorrow Hence is that golden rule of Solomon Pro. 28.14 Beatus est home qui semper est pavidus In the dayes of Noe Mat. 24.38.39 that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage untill the day that Noe entred into the Ark and know not untill the flood came and took them all away When they shall say peace and safety 1 Thes 5.3 then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaâ—l upon a woman with child and they shall not escape Fortitude He that will not strive against the wind will not reach the Port it becomes men as well to oppose misfortunes as children to cry over them A valiant man undertakes without rashness and performs without fear he seeks not for dangers but when they find him he beares them with courage and success he hath oftimes looked death in the face and passed by with a smile and when he sees he must yield he both welcomes and contemns it he forecasts the worst of all events and encounters them before they come in a secret and mental warre he is the master of himself and subdues his passions to reason and by this inward victory works his own peace he is afraid of nothing but the displeasure of the highest and runs away from nothing but sin he looks not how strong he is but how innocens his sword is to him the last of his trials and he draws still as defendant not as challenger where no man better manageth it with more safety with more favour be had rather have his blood seen than his back and disdains life upon base conditions he had rather smother an in jury than revenge himself of the impotent and it is a question whether he more detests cowardliness or cruelty he talks little and brags lesse he lyes ever armed with wise resolution he is neither prodigal of blood to mis-spend it idely Posse et nolle nobile nor niggardly to grudge it when either God calls for it or his countrey his power is limited by his will and he holds it the noblestrevenge that he might hurt and doth not he is so ballasted with wisdome that he floats safely in the midst of all tempests When Modestus the Praefect would have wonne Basil to that heresy first he gave him fair speeches Alas Sir saith he this language is fit to catch little children Know you not saith the Praefect who we are that command it No body saith â—asil whilest you command such things Your goods shall be confiscated Answ He needs not fear confiscation that hath nothing to lose nor banishment to whom heaven is his onely countrey nor torments when his body will be dasht with one blow nor death the onely way to set him at liberty You are mad said the Praefect Opto me in aternum sic delivare said Basil I have torne garments and a few books and so I live in the world as one that is always ready to leave it As for my body it is so weak one blow will make it insensible of grief and tormments Ignis crux bestiarum conflictationes said Ignatius yea let all the torment men and Devils can invent fall upon me so I may enjoy my Lord Jesus Christ And again Frumentum dei sum Lyons teeth are but like a Milne which bruiseth but wasteth not the good wheat onely makes it fit to be good bread Polycarp being bidden by the Proconsul to defie Christ and he should be safe answered Octoginta sex annos illi jam inservivi c. Rather dy a thousand deaths than deny my Lord Jesus Contemptus à me est Romanus favor furor said Luther Again Mallem vivere cum Christo quam regnare cum Caesare And again in the cause of God he was content Totius mundi odium impetum sustinere He said to God concerning outward things Valdè protestatus sum me nolle sic satiari ab eo Sr. Anthony Kingston coming to Hooper and telling him life was sweet Act. and Mon. and death bitter His answer was The death to come is more bitter and the life to come more sweet The Earl of Murray said by John Knox a Scottish divine when interred here lyes the body of him who in his life time never feared the face of any man Thou therefore endure hardness as a good souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2 3. Fear
the Philosophers Animalia gloriae popular is aurâ— mancipia you shall find it in the Church-windows A bare head in the street doth him more good than a meals-meat He picks his teeth when his stomack is empty and calls for Pheasants at a common Inne You shall find him prizing rich Jewels when his purse yields not money to pay for earnest He is ever on the stage and acts still a glorious part abroad He is a Spanish Soldier on an Italian Theatre a Bladder full of wind a Skin full of words a Fools wonder and a Wise mans fool I know none more vain-glorious than the Pope for he Simon Magus-like gives himself out to be some great thing even the Church-virtual And that in his breast as in Noah's Ark is comprehended all wisdom and worth The like do his Janizaries the Jesuites who will needs be taken for the onely Scholars Laus proprio sordâ—scit in ore Politicians and Orators of the world The Church say they is the soul of the world the Clergy of the Church and we of the Clergy Many are apt to over-value and over-rate their own abilities as if they had engrossed all Knowledge and had the Monopoly of Wisdom in their own breasts as if all must borrow or buy of their store and light their candle at their torch But no man is a greater stranger to true Knowledge than he who boasts he hath more than his neighbours It is the emptiness of Knowledge not a fulness of it which makes so great a sound Socrates made no distinction between Wisdom and Sobriety We shall be sober Coplav 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non distinguebat if we take not that upon us that we have not nor brag of that which we have Let us not be desirous of Vain-glory. Gal. 5.26 Chastity It is an abstinence and forbearing not from Marriage Castitas à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 orno quia praecipuum est hominis ornamentum River but from all strange and roving lusts about the desire of that Sexe Christians must have chaste desires not indulging to themselves a liberty of looser thoughts keeping the threshold of their Temples pure that the Holy Ghost may observe nothing unclean in the entry of his habitation For he that lusts after a woman wants nothing to the consummation of the act Incesta etiam est sine stupro quae stuprum quaerit Seneca but some convenient circumstances which because they are not in our power the act is impeded but nothing of the malice abated The chaste Tragedian Sophocles being demanded whether he ever applied his mind to sensual affections replied Dii meliora Heaven forefend a Strumpet should put on a Tragick buskin This may reduce a mans stragling motion to a more retired harbour Origen mistaking those words There be Eunuchs which have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heavens sake gelded himself But that person is truly chaste that hath liberty and opportunity to sin Jerom. and will not So severe in this was our blessed Saviour that he commanded us rather to put our eyes out than to suffer them to become an offence to us that is an inlet to sin or an invitation or transmission of impurity Meaning the extinction of all incentives of lust the rejection of all opportunities and occasions the quitting of all conditions of advantage which minister fuel to this Hell-fire Now the beginnings temptations likenesses and insinuations of lust and impurity to be forbidden to Christians Such are all morose delectations in vanity wanton words gestures revellings luxurious diet garish and lascivious dressings and trimmings of the body In a word all making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it all lust of concupiscence and all lust of the eye and all lust of the hand unclean contacts are to be rescinded all lust of the tongue and palate all surfeiting and drunkenness For it is impossible to keep the spirit pure if it be exposed to all the entertainment of enemies And if Christ forbad the wanton eye and placed it under the prohibition of adultery Archeselaus Philos apud Plutarch it is certain whatsoever ministers to that vice and invites to it is within the same restraint it is the eye or the hand or the foot that is to be cut off Nihil refert quibus membris adu Iteraveris For this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication 1 Thess 4.3 4 5. that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God Vncleanness He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption This metaphor of sowing sheweth well what it is to live after the flesh For Sowing hath these four things required viz. 1. Praeparatio terrae 2. Praeparatio seminis 3. Manuum injectio 4. Seminis multitudo And to those four do answer 1. Suggestion which prepares our hearts to receive the bad seed 2. Consent which seeks for and provides the seed 3. The act of sinning which is like the hand casting the seed into the ground 4. The continuance in sinning which answereth the multitude of grains Fornication is a complex word comprehending all manner of bodily uncleanness with women And when Adultery is forbidden there is not only a prohibition of the violation of the rights of Marriage but it is also extended to signifie all mixtures not matrimonial As 1. Whoredom Which is in a strict sense that uncleanness which is committed with a Maid or Widow It is soluti cum soluta Hophni and Phineas by their wicked life made men abhor the offering of the Lord. They were guilty of the four Cardinal vices or rather as Peter Martyr wittily of the four vices of the Cardinals 1. Of Imprudence for they were ignorant of their function 2. Of Injustice for they lived of rapine 3. Of Effeminateness for they would not stay for their dinner 4. Of Intemperance for they stained themselves with whoredom This is a grievous sin Because 1. It stains the body with a peculiar kind of filth 2. Such a one is guilty of Sacralidge for that our bodies are consecrated to God as his Temples 3. Because we are not our own to give our bodies to any other much lesse to Satan and the flesh seeing that God himself hath bought us and that with a great price to the end that both in body and soul we should serve him Whoremongers Heb. 13.4 God will judge 2. Adultery Which is properly folly committed with a strangers wife Adulterium quasi ad alterius torum It was to be punished with death even by the law of Nature because the society and purity of posterity could not otherwise continue amongst men It is a capital crime there is great theft in it as the word imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the very
Andronicus the old Emperour of Greece in his speech to his young Nephew said Forasmuch as I next unto God have been the Author of thy nativity and increase give me my life Turk Hist fol. 172. spare thy fathers head with violent weapon spill not that blood from which thou thy self hast taken the fountain of life Man truly beholdeth heaven and earth and heaven and earth behold mens actions Wherfore make not the heaven and the earth beholders of so wicked an outrage as never man ever committed If brothers blood long ago cryed out unto the Lord against Cain how much lowder shall the fathers blood cry unto the Lord and declare so great a wickednesse unto the earth the sun and starres and make it abhorred of all the Princes of the world Regard my miserable old age which of it self promiseth unto me shortly death Reverence the hands which have oftentimes most lovingly embraced thee yet crying in thy swathing clouts Reverence those lips which have oftentimes most lovingly kissed thee and called thee my other soul c. Charles the ninth of France Author of the bloody Massacre of Paris died of exceeding bleeding Richard the third of this Kingdome and Q. Mary had the shortest raigns of any since the conquest Absolom and Achitophel came to tragical and unhappy ends So did all the Primitive persecutors according to that Psal 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes Phidias painted the image of Minerva with his own that none could deface the one but both So hath God imprinted his own image upon man And though its true by the fall it is defaced and abolished yet are there some reliques thereof still abiding which God will not have destroyed Consider if hatred be so damnable what is murder It is the destruction of Gods image of a member of Christ for whom Christ died and a Temple of the Holy Ghost The land is polluted by it and cannot be expiated but by blood If Dives be in Hell for not saving life how shall they escape Hell that destroy it Whose sheddeth mans blood Gen. 9.6 by man shall his blood be shed for in the imagâ— of God made he man The Law is made for the lawlesse and disobedient for murderers of fathers 1 Tim. 1.9 and murderers of mothers Deliver me from blood-guiltiness Psal 51.14 O God Ingratitude Omne dixeris maledictum cum ingratum hominem dixeris To render good for evil is divine to render good for good is humane to render evil for evil is bruitish but to render evil for good is devillish While I hold up his chin to save him from drowning he with his heel should kick me under water Lycurgus the Lacedemonian law-giver would make no law against such Quod prodigiosares esset beneficium non rependere because it could not be imagined that any would be so unworthy as not to recompence one kindnesse with another And the old Romanes decreed that such as were found guilty of this fault should be cast alive to the Cormorant to be pulled in pieces and devoured Ingrato quod donatur deperditur saith Seneca And Amare non redamentem Ille non dignus est dandis qui ingratus est de datis Speed est amoris impendia perdere saith Hierom All 's lost that is laid out upon an unthankful person He buries benefits as the barren earth doth the seed He is as once was said of the Pope like a Mouse in a satchel or a Snake in ones bosom who do but ill repay their Hostess for their lodging An unthankful man is a naughty man nay he is an ugly man Therefore our Saviour fitly yokes them together To the unthankful and to the evil Luk. 6 35. Injury Qui nescit ferri injurias vivere nescit Socrates when one gave him a box on the eâ—r in the market-place said Quà m molestum est nescire homines quando prodire debeant cum gratiâ What an odd thing it is to go abroad without an head-piece Pestifera vis est valere ad nocendum saith Seneca And yet again bars revenge Hydrae uno capite resecto septem alia repullala bant Vnde Proverbium Hydram secaâ— For saith he Quemadmodum praecisae arboâ—es plurimis ramis repullulant ita crudelitas auget inimicorum numerum tollendo For it engageth all their relations against us in the quarrel In a matter of strise saith Basil he hath the worse that carries it And Aristotle himself yieldeth That of the twain it is better to suffer the greatest wrong than to do the least But how many have we like the angry Bee that care not to sting another though it be to the loss of their own lives Whiles we are thus busie in breaking those darts that men shoot from afar against us we are oppressed by the Devil near hand us Nay in thus resisting evil we give place to the Devil whom if by patience and forbearance we could resist he would flie from us Not rendring evil for evil 1 Pet. 3.9 Innocency After that Bajazet and his four sons were made away Turk Hist. fol. 782. at the command of Solyman the Magnificent there remained the youngest but new-born and at nurse who was now upon the death of his father commanded by his said Grandfather to be strangled also The Eunuch sent by Solyman to have done the deed and loth to do it himself took with him one of the Porters of the Court a desperate and otherwise an hard-hearted Ruffian a man thought fit to have performed any villany He coming into the chamber where the Child lay and fitting the bow-string to the Childs neck to have strangled him the innocent Babe smiled upon him and lifting up it self as well as it could with open arms offered to have embraced the Villain about the neck and kissed him Which guiltless simplicity so wounded the stony-hearted man that he was not able to perform the intended butchery of the poor simple Child but fell down in a swoun and there lay for dead Such is the rare force of Innocency Yet we must neither be Foxes nor Asses The Romane rule was Neâ— fugere nâ—â— soqui He that makes himself too much a Sheep shall scarce escape worrying with Dogs Columbine simplicity doth well when it is mixed with Serpentine subtilty A Serpents eye saith one in a Doves head is an excellent ornament Be wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves Mat. 10.16 Contentation Pirrhus being demanded of Cyneas What he intended after he had won his many great intended Victories answered Live merrily To whom he replied So he might do already would he but be content with his own It is not the great Cage that maketh the Bird sing Nor the great Estate that brings inward joy and cordial contentment As a Bird with a little eye and the advantage of a wing to soar with may see far wider than an Oxe with a greater so the Righteous
lives Sadduces Never a barrel better herring These were a brutish sect and sort of the Jews that held monstrous opinions some of them are set down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erasm Adag Act. 23.8 divers others more grosse may be read of in Josephus Amongst other they held that all the reward that righteous men are to look for is here in this world The occasion is said to be this when Antigonus taught R. Nathan that we must not serve God for wages his scholars understood him as if he had utterly denied all future rewards or recompence attending a godly life And thence framed their heresie denying the Resurrection world to come c. Herodians They were such as were of Herods Religion as one would say of the Kings Religion because they followed the Decrees and examples of the Emperors Some will have it they were a sect of people who said Sic Tertul. Epiphan Chrysost Theophylact. Hieron uno ore affirmant Herod was the Messias because by the Decree of the Roman Senate when the Scepter departed from Judah he was declared King Nicolaitans They were a sect of Hereticks which sprung up about fifty years after Christ Many think they arose of Nicolas one of the seven Deacons Perhaps of some other Nicolas or at most that under that name they vented their damnable and poisonful doctrine These held all bodily lusts lawful a promiscuous use of women and with their bodily whoredom they maintained spiritual In a word they taught and practised such beastly filthiness Aug. as is not to be named Rev. 2.14 15. Pelagians From a Monk of Bangor Morgan by name Hence Aug. Quid eo Pelago vult mergi Pelagius unde per petram liberatus est Petrus who travelling beyond sea to spread his heresie called himself Pelagius by a Greek word of the same signification because it sounded better in the ears of forraign Nations Vbiquitarians This fiction began about the time of Berengarius was fostered and furthered by Gerson Chancellor of Paris But this being cast out of France Luther brought back into the Churches of Germany c. But well said that good woman who being asked by the Bishops Dost thou believe that the body of Christ is really and substantially in the Sacrament Act. and Mon. I believe said she that that is a real and substantiallie Arminians The followers of Arminius maintaining a propitiation made or a sacrifice offered by Christ for all And leaving the death of Christ in the hand of mans free-will assisted onely by general grace to make it effectual to himself or not Antinomians Istebius Agricola was the first who with his followers held unsound opinions That the Law and works belong onely to Rome That St. Peter understood not Christian liberty Sentiunt Christianis non ampliùs lege Dei morali opus esse nec Decalogum in Ecclesiâ Christianá praedicandum quia fideles sunt per spiritum renati when he wrote Make your calling and election sure That good works were Perniciosa ad salutem c. with such trash All which he afterwards condemned and recanted in a publick Auditory but relapsed after Luthers death into the same error He hath at this day many followers holding the like and other strange opinions That God is never displeased with his people though they fall into adultery or the like sin no not with a fatherly displeasure That God never chastiseth his people for any sin no not with a fatherly chastisement That God seeth no sin in his Elect that the very being of sin is abolished out of Gods sight that they cannot sin and if they do it is not they but sin that dwelleth in them which was once an answer of a female Antinomian Mr. â—ey his light for smoke when demanded by her Mistresse how stollen linnens and other things came into her chest although at first stifly denied Millenaries They are not content to affirm that after the fall of Antichrist the Jews all have a glorious conversion and the whole Church such an happy Halcion as never before But also that the Martyrs shall then have their first resurrection and shall with Christ raigne upon earth a thousand years in all worldly delights Homo Ingenii pertenuis c. which seems an addition to the text they ground it upon Rev. 20.4 Or at least such an earthly raign cannot be inferred This is as ancient as Corinthus the heretick and Papias Scholar to Saint John a man much reverenced for opinion of his holinesse but saith Eusebius not oppressed with wit Anabaptists Quo hominum genere Rhenan in Ep. ante opera Origen nihil inanius nihil pestilentius nihil exitialius hic orbis vidit unquam One of late saith Anabaptists play the Devils part in accusing their own children and disputing them out of the Church and Covenant of Christ affirming them to be no disciples no servants of God nor holy when God saith the contrary 1 Cor. 7.14 Ranters Speaking great swelling words of vanity they assure through the lusts of the flesh Joh. Manl. loc com 322. 490. As the Arrians Negunt fiâ—ium de essentiâ patris genitum coaeternum ceaequalem secundum personam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patri And many moe through much wantonnesse those that were clean for a little or a while as some read escaped from them who live in errour Heâ—serus and Monetarius corrupted many matrons whom they had drawn to their side David George a ring-leader amongst them was so far from accounting adulteries fornication incest c. to be sins that he did recommend them to his most perfect scholars as acts of grace and mortification And are not our Ranters as they call themselves come up to him and gone beyond him in their most prodigious opinions and practices I might be infinite but enough of that which is worse than nothing I being as weary of mentioning them as Rebecca was of conversing with the daughters of Heth. All these can conspire against the truth though they cannot consent among themselves Dr. Featly But as mettal upon mettal is no good Heraldry so error upon error is no good Divinity Errors are best discerned when most incurable Ye therefore 2 Pet. 3.17 beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse Heresie The best of men may erre from the truth James 5.19 what Saint is recorded in the Word of God whose failings and errours are not recorded Tho Elect may be sometimes led aside Haereticum hominem faciunt haec tria conjuncta Error evictio conâ—â—acta yet not totally nor finally and very hardly into grosse errours Mat. 24.24 Heresie saith one Est impugnare Dei veritati cum perseverantiâ Another there must be in it Error in ratione pertinatio in voluntate Best of all thus An errour strictly and properly taken is
all can though full of shifts tell handsomely how to elude this Argument Here their unbloody sacrifice hath a deadly wound There can be no oblation of Christ without the suffering of Christ Dr. Thomas Taylor in his Caveat against offences affirms No Protestant ought to be present with his body at Popish Mass with pretence of keeping his heart to God nor can without scandal 1. For the Pretence 2. For the Presence it self For the Pretence No man can give his heart to God at that time he gives his body to an Idol For 1. Body and soul make but one man and one man can have but one faith one Lord and Master one God one Worship 2. God requires not the whole heart onely but the whole man and strength and he that created both body and soul requires them both to be glorified in 1 Cor. 6.20 3. She is no chast wife that gives any other man the use of her body with Protestation she keeps her heart to her husband 4. God will have no such heart reserved for him he will have no part of a divided man He is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and truth not in spirit and falshood For the Presence A number of scandals are infolded 1. Here is a denial of Christ and of the faith which were it in the heart it would be confessed in the mouth Here 's a dastardly joyning with the enemy against Christ For he that is not with him is against him And what union between Christ and an Idol 2. A scandal in his own conscience allowing himself in that which he condemneth Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 14.22 His bodie allowes what his heart condemnes He is a man damned in himself His body and soul are at fight one with another and both at fight with faith and truth 3. A scandal to others an occasion by such wicked example to draw others into the snare and so far as he can to destroy such as for whom Christ hath died Rom. 14.15 Let none object Naaman the Syrian craving leave to bow in the temple of Rimmon and the Prophet bade him go in peace 2 King 5. For among many answers The text shews 1. That Naaman confessed it a sin And how then can any hence prove it to be none 2. That he prayed twice against it And what thou prayest thou must do 3. He professeth he will never worship any now but the true God 4. He craves the Prophets prayers that he may never be drawn contrary to his purpose To which part the Prophet saith Go in peace not giving him leave to bow before Rimmon but promising his prayers he bids him farewel 5. Naaman might have pleaded a calling yet that would not serve nor satisfie his conscience How much less theirs that plead only for new-fangledness and a rash running out of their way so sinning without a cause Nor let any say Those were Heathen Idols the Mass is not so bad it hath some good things in it concerning God and Christ For the Mass is as gross Idolatry as ever the Heathens committed who never worshipped a baser thing than a piece of Bread And let them tell us a difference between bodily fornication of Heathens and Christians and we will conceive the same in the spiritual whoredom of Pagans and Papists But let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Come out from amongst them and touch no unclean thing I wish Travellers in forein Nations would observe this Experience shews how alluring the Antichristian Harlot is how many are daily won to her Idolatry Many that have frequented their Masses conceiving it no great harm to be present there if they can pretend to keep their heart to God proving Neutrals Samaritans and Cakes half-baked have had their hearts given up to horrible delusion infection and final destruction Have not they now kept their hearts well to God think we We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Heb. 10.10 once for all Acceptance Sincerity cannot fail of Divine acceptance where endeavours are vigorous The poor Widows mite was above the rich mens magnificence Willingness of mind contributes much to the worthiness of the work Hiparchian was graced as well as Musaeus though the best of his measures was but piping to the Muses God as the Philosopher said in his Apology accepts of our few ears Senâ—e Epist 29. ad Lucillum being scattered with a good mind into his Garner since we are not able to bring handfuls into his barn Sic minimo capitur thuris honore Deus For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath 2 Cor. 8.12 and not according to that he hath not Tabernacle By it was signified the Body of Christ As the High-Priest came into the first Tabernacle and by it passed into the Holy place so the Deity of our Saviour Christ came into his sacred Humanity and by it entred into heaven It was a Type not only of Christ who dwelt among us full of graces and truth Joh. 1.14 but of the Church built by Christ 1 Cor. 3.9 and also of every true Christian Eph. 2.10 The Curtains were coupled with Loops so should Christians by Love Exod. 26. The Taches made them one Tabernacle so should we hold the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace It was Goats hair without and Gold within God hid his Son under the Carpenters son and the Kings daughter is all glorious within Rams-skins covered the Ark from the violence of wind and weather shadowing out Gods protection to his his people The Vail was made with Cherubims to note the special presence and attendance of the holy Angels in the Assemblies of the Saints And the Hanging for the door of the Tent shadowed him that said of himself I am the door It is observable that the Holy place in this Tabernacle hath an Epithite to abase it withall Heb. 9.1 The Apostle calls it a Worldly Sanctuary 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because it was made after the manner of the world For as God stretched the Firmament as a vail and curtain to separate the things above from them beneath so the Sanctuary had a vail that made a separation between the first and second Tabernacle 2. Because it was made of worldly matter as of hair silk c. 3. Because it was not eternal as our Sanctuary of Heaven is there our High-Priest appeareth for us before God But a frail brittle and mortal Sanctuary as the world is Which was a figure for the time then present Heb. 9.9 c. Noah's Ark. By the description set down Gen. 6. the Ark in shape was like to a Coffin for a mans body six times so long as it was broad and ten times so long as it was high And so fit to figure out Christs death and burial and ours with him by mortification of the old man
watcheth stands sits upon thorns while he is here O mihi â—am longè mantâ—at pars ultima vitae because he panteth and desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ We may desire life upon a threefold account To 1. Bring more glory to God 2. Get more grace 3. Do more good to others Epaminondas saith aptly We may salute Young men with Good morrow or welcom into the world Old men with Good night because they be leaving the world Only those of middle age with Good day Our pilgrimage on earth is called a Day for 1. The shortness of this life 2. That after this our day is spent we shall no longer work Magna vitae pars elabitur malè Senec. Epist. 1. agentibus maxima nihil agentibus tota aliud agentibus Similis an ancient man who lived seven years well caused this to be written on his tomb-stone Hîc jacet Similis cujus aetas Multorum annorum fuit Diu vixi diu peccavi ipse Septem duntaxat annos vixit Many and great are the miseries of this life Cogita unde veneris et crubesce ubi sis et ingemisce quò vadis et contremisce A mans life when it declines casts of the lees Qui bene latuit bene vixit Vivere est bene valere Non anto â—illam fortunam rudeâ—â—viâ—â— aptam Aurum sitisti aurum bibe Bernard speaking unto man saith Think from whence thou camest and be ashamed where thou art and sign for sorrow whither thou goest and themble with anguish Like unto him saith Austin Intelligas ergo in quantum sit ingressus tuâ—â— flebilis progressin tune debilis egress◠〈◊〉 horribilis The meer natural mans life is comforted in three things especially 1. Quiet rest 2. Liberal diet 3. Good apparel When one brag'd unto Lacon of the multitude of his ships and shipping he answered he little esteemed that felicity that hanged upon ropes and depended on cables But such is all mundane prosperity Crassus that so greedily hunted after the Paâ—â—â—â—ans gold perishing miserably had his head cast into a vessel of gold with this inscription or Motto Thou that hast thirsted after gold now drink thy fill Tertullian reports of the Indians and Ethiopians that they made no more account of gold than dirt Wise Solomon saith there is a time to be born and a time to die you do not hear him say a time to live Death borders upon our birth and our cradle stands in our grave We lament the losse of our Parents how soone shall our 〈◊〉 bewaâ—le ours Out of those words of Job c. 1.21 Nâ—ked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither It plainly appears the life of man is nothing else but a coming and a returning here is nothing said of staying or â—â—â—ding We have here no continuing City while we are here we can hardly be said to continue here and after a few dayes we shall not be here at all It is but a coming and going Natura hic nobis diversorium commorandi dedit But this riddle passeth the worlding as the fisher mans did Homer Quae cepimuâ— reliquâ—mus quae non cepimus nobiscum portamus Mat. 10.39 Conâ—es â— Vita isâ—a in corpore umbra est vitae et imagâ— non veritas Ambr. in Psal 118. Jam. 4.14 it is but a â—â—oud and an ebbe and then we are carried into the Ocean of eternity It were well if the world were as our Tent yea as our Inne if not to lodge yet to bait in What shall a wicked man say when death comes fiercely and pulls him by the throat and summons him to hell Who can but tremble the messenger being terrible but the message worse Then the raging despairs of an evil conscience finding no peace within lesse without Contrariwise the gracious soul hath no leisure to care for sufferings that beholds her crown which if she were enjoyned to fetch it thorow the flames of hell her faith would not stick at the condition Austin doubted whether to call it a dying life or a living death Nescio an â—icenda sit vita morâ—alis an vitalis mors The whole course of life is but a flying shadow a little spot of time between two eternities So that it is improper to ask when we shall die but rather when we shall make an end of dying for first the infancy dieth then the childhood then the youth then age and then we make an end of dying This life in the body is a shadow and an image of life not the truth of it What is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Age of Man De dinturnitaâ—e vitae humanae bifariam loquiâ— possumus Viz. 1. Ante Diluviam Zanard de gen et corrup cap. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disceptabis â—rem 2. Post Diluvium Loquendo de eâ ante diluvium notum est multos per multa secula vixisse ut sacra nos docent historia At loquendo de vita humana post diluvium jam audivimus dominum dicentem non permaâ—abit spiritus meus in homine quicaâ—o est suntque dies hominis centum viginti annorum But since then Scripture makes mention of seventy years So Solon in Lacresus and to the same sense speaketh Macrobius also saying Septiâ—s dein Anni 〈◊〉 Physicis creditur meta vivendi hoc vitae humanae perfectuâ—â— spaoium termiâ— natur c. The Fathers lived longer but as mans wickednesse increased so their dayes decreased and now their lives are daily shortned the generations dispatcht away that the world may sooner come to an end Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is Psal 39 4. that I may know how fraile I am Old age This once come saith the Philosopher youth is no more to be expected as when once winter is come no more of the past summer As in an house Stillicidiâ— praecedunt râ—inam so in a man gray haires sore-signify deaâ—lâ— Therefore when the Palm-tree is full of blomes the map of age is figured in the forehead and the Calenders of death appear in the furrowes of the face then it is high time for a man to be think himself of death Annus octogessimus me admonor ut sarcenas colligam said Varre It is high time for me to pack up and to be gone out of this life Cleanthes was wont sometimes to chide himself Ariston wondering â—hereat Qui canos quiâ—â—â— habet sed mentem non habet asked him whom chidest thou Cleanthes laughed and answered I chide an old fellow who hath gray haires in deed but wants understanding and prudence worthy of them Such are sick of Ephraims disease Hos 7.9 Quò magis senâ—scunt cò maâ—is stultâ—sâ—unt Or of our neer neighbours disease if that of Erasmus who conversed among them be true The elder they are the foolisher they are
no good edge When he giveth quietnesse who then can make trouble Job 34.29 and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man onely Peace Epiphanius used to say that he never let his adversary sleep not that he disturbed him but agreed with him presently not suffering the Sun to go down upon his wrath There is peace 1. External 2. Internal 3. Eternal of the 1. World 2. Minde 3. God Or more plainly peace between 1. Man and man 2. Man and himself 3. God and man Christ both procures us peace by his blood and keeps peace by his intercession He both makes and maintains peace Pax nostra bellum contra satanam For as Aulius Fulvius when he took his son in the conspiracy with Catiline said Ego te non Catalinae sed Patriae so God hath not begotten us in Christ that we should follow the arch-traitour Satan but serve him in holinesse Est pax peccatorum pax justorum pax temporis pax eternitatis Pax temporis interdum conceditur bonis malis sed pax eternitatis nunquam dabitur nisi bonis quia non est pax impiis De pace peccatorum inquit Psal Nalla salus bello pacem nos possumus omnes Drances Zelavi in peccatoribus pacem peccatorum videns De hac dicit Christus non veni mittere pacem sed gladium De pace justorum dicit Apostolus fructus spiritus est Charitas gaudium pax paientia hanc reliquit Christus Apostolis pacem relinquo vobis De pace temporis inquit Propheta Orietur in diebus ejus justitia Innocens 3. l. 3. De sacr Alt. myst c. 11. abundantia pacis Hanc incessanter petit Ecclesia Da pacem in diâ—bus nostris De pace aeternitatis Dominus dixit Apostolis pacem meam dâ— vobis non quomodo mundus dat Ego do vobis De hac inquit David In pace dormiam c. Dona nobis pacem ut de pace temporis per pacem pectoris transeamus ad pacem aeternitatis It is observable that amongst these seventeen sins Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florens which are called works of the flesh Gal. 5. eight of them are of the adverse party to peace and that all the nine fruits of the spirit there reckoned up are peace and the assistants thereof Which sheweth what a concourse of evils is in strife Pausanias in Atticis p. 13. and that all good things which we can expect from the Spirit are in peace Hence even the heathens feigned Eirene Peace to be the nurse of Pluto their god of riches The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse Isa 32.17 quletnesse and assurance for ever Tamerlane after a great battel with and victory over the Muscovit Turk Hist fol. 212. beholding so many thousands of men there dead upon the ground was so far from rejoycing thereat that turning himself to one of his familiars he lamented the condition of such as commanded over great armies commending his fathers quiet course of life who being now well stricken in years and weary of the world delivered up unto him the government of his Kingdome retiring himself into a solitary life the more at quiet to serve God and so to end his days in peace Accounting him happy in seeking for rest and the other most unhappy which by the destruction of their own kind sought to procure their own glory Protesting himself even from his heart to be grieved to see such sad tokens of his victory Yea Fol. 216. the stern Bajazet marching with his great army against Tamerlane and by the way hearing a countrey shepheard merrily reposing himself with his homely Pipe as he sate by the side of a mountain feeding his poor flock standing still a great while listning unto him to the great admiration of many at last fetching a deep sigh brake forth into these words O happy shepheard which hadst neither Orthobulos nor Sebastia to lose bewraying therein his own discontentment And yet withal shewing that worldly blisse consisteth not so much in enjoying of much subject unto danger as enjoying in a little contentment devoid of fear Better is an handful with quietnesse Eccles 4.6 than both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit Famine It is the want of bread and bread is the stay and staffe of life When this stay is gone our lives fall quickly when this staffe is broken the thread of life breaks too Famine within hath fought more eagerly than sword without Xenophon reports of one Anaxalaus accused in the Spartane judgement for delivering up the City of Bizantium to the enemy when he saw many die with famine he answered he knew difference between warring with an enemy and Nature It is numbred among the sore judgements of God if it be not the sorest 1. Causing faintnesse and madnesse Gen. 47.13 2. Hunger burneth Deut. 32.24 3. It causeth pining and languishment Lam. 4.9 4. Shame and howling Joel 1.11 5. Rage and cursing Isa 8.21 6. It breaks all the bonds of nature Deut. 28.53 54. Lam. 4.10 Isa 9.20 But yet this famine of the body is a light judgement to a famine of the Word which drieth up the soul and bringeth with it eternal death Amos 8.11 12. Miserable was the famine amongst the Jews in Jerusalem besieged by the Romanes some chewing the graines of raw wheat wives snatching the meat from their husbands â—useb l. 3. c. 6. children from their parents and that which was most miserable the mothers from the infants mouths c. Many seeing no way but one went and and laid them down upon the Beers to welcome death So miserable was the sight that Titus himself sorrowed and sighed and stretching forth his hands called God to witnesse Turk Hist fol. 1â—09 that he was not the cause of this calamity In Transilvania they ate up all the dogs cats mice and rats that they could get dead horses loathsome carrion of other hunger-starved beasts One man did eat another A woman having six children did among them eat one another until they were at length all six devoured yna thieves and malefactors hanged for their villanies were by the poor and miserably hungry people cut down from the Gallows and devoured At Athens the father and son fought for a dead mouse which dropped down betwen them from the top of the house God can cause a famine either by immoderate drought Joel 1.10 Or by immoderate moisture vers 17. These are usually the natural causes of famine but 't is good to enquire after the supernatural as Jacob enquired who stood on the top of the ladder and sent the Angels to and fro Gen. 28.13 I behold and low a black horse Pestilence The word in the Hebrew Ezek. 14.19 comes from another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loqui which signifieth to speak And
and Charon the ferry-man of hell And Aetua which they fancied to be hell Saxum ingens volvunt alii And hell it self to be a continual rowling of stones upon dead bodies with many other fancies Inque tuo sedisti Sisyphe saxo Ovid. Metam l. 10. But to let them passe such a woful place there must needs be 1. That so the wicked may receive proportionable punishment both in soul and body That of Jerom was not true Infernum nihil esse nisi conscientiae horr orem to the sins they committed here upon earth 2. Therefore of necessity there must be an hell to keep men to all eternity that by their everlasting torments Gods justice might be satisfied which otherwise it could not be 2 Thes 1.5 3. The very tetrors of conscience that are in wicked men at least when they are dying declare there is a hell a place of torment provided for them There are many words in Scripture by which hell is exprest 1. Sheol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we lye buried there in a second death 2. Abaddon all are there in a perishing state 3. Tsalmaveth or the shadow of death death never triumphs so much in its strength as it doth in hell It s the strength and power of death 4 Etachtithrets signifying both the lowest and most inferior earth whence hell is called the bottomlesse pit And also it imports fear vexation and trembling hell is a land of trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a land of fear 5. Bor shachath that is the pit of corruption though the wicked shall be raised immortal yet filthinesse shall be upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. Erets Nesciah the land of forgetfulnesse God will remember them no more to do them any good but to their torment and confusion he will remember them for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. Erets choscec a land of darknesse Darknesse was their choyce in this life and it shall be their curse in the next 8. Gehinnom whence the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the valley of Hinnom in which the Idolatrous Israelites did sacrifice their children with horrible cruelty There are other terms which set out Hell this place of the damned As Unquenchable sire Dicitur stagnum quia ut lapis mari ita animae illue immerguatur Anselm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Kings 23.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 3.17 A Furnace of sire Matth. 13.42 A Lake of fire Rev. 19.20 Eternal fire Jude 7. Utter darknesse Matth. 22.13 The blacknesse of darknesse Jude 13. Chains of darknesse 2 Pet. 2.4 Damnation Mat. 23.33 A place of torment Luke 16.28 Wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 A Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Tophet Isa 30.33 A bottomlesse pit Rev. 9.1 The second death Rev. 2.11 Destruction Matth. 7.14 Everlasting punishment Matth. 25 46. Corruption Gal. 6.8 So that Hell is a place of torment ordained by God for Devils and reprobate sinners wherein by his justice they are deprived of his favour and confined to everlasting punishment both in soul and body If any ask whether Hell were created of God I answer Consider Hell as a place simply And it is very probable that Angels falling hell making was both together it was created at first by God when he distinguished all places but as it is Hell a place of torment it was not so by creation Satan and mans sin brought that name and use unto it And thus Tophet may be said to be prepared of old as a punishment for sin and a place for justice to be inflicted upon sin committed against God For the locality of Hell all agree in this that there is such a place only where that place of the damned should be Omnia entia sinita necesse est in aliquo ubi there are variety of opinions about it Gregory Nyssen and his followers hold it is in the air groundlesly grounding on Ephes 2.2 and cap. 6.12 Isidore but nothing probable will have it under the Globe of the earth A third confutable enough in the valley of Jehoshaphat from Joel 3.12 A fourth opinion owned of many learned men but without foundation from the Word is that Hell is in the very center of the earth Others with Keckerman that Hell is in the bottome of the Sea this they build upon that phrase Matth. 8.29 Luke 8.31 Aug. lib. 2. Retract c. 24. This indeed seems to carry some show of reason but cannot be the sense of the place Those that write with most sobriety say only in general Gehennam esse locum subterranenm The truth is Scripture doth not relate the very particular place where Hell is and perhaps it is concealed to prevent curiosity in many to keep faith in use and exercise as also to rouze men from security and to make them fearful of sin in every place yet there is warrant enough for the belief of two things in general 1. That there is such a place as Hell that is a place distinct from Heaven 2. That this place wherever it is it must be below Heaven Prov. 15.24 Luke 8.13 Rev. 14.11 Job 11.8 Deut. 32.22 Psal 55.15 If any should aske any farther I answer in anothers words Vbi sit sentient qui curiosiùs quaerunt where it is they shall find one day who over-curiously enquire At least I may say as Socrates did I was never there my self nor spoke with any that came from thence Let us labour more to avoid Hell than endeavour to find out the place where it is else Hell where-ever it is will find us out Though we know not the place for certain yet we may certainly know this that sin is the very high road to Hell and the direct way thither Prov. 7.26 And let us take heed of sin in every place seeing we know not where the particular place of Hell is Hell follows sin at the heels If we sin against God God knows how near Hell we are A guilty and galled conscience joyned with a profane wicked life is the lively picture of Hell it selfe Gebenuâ nihil grovius sed ejus meâ—â— nibil uâ—â—lius Hell is called by the Latins Infernus ab inferendo from the Devils continually carrying in souls to that place of torment I conclude with Chrysostom There is nothing more grievous than Hell but nothing more profitable than the fear of it Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared Isa 30.33 he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Hells Torments We silly fishes see one another jerked out of the pond of life by the hand of death but we see not the frying-pan and the fire that they are cast into that die in their sins and refuse to be reformed Cast they are into utter darknesse Vtinam ubique
and frequently iterated purified not the conscience did not abolish trespasses merited not celestial blessings But the Word of the Oath after the Law Heb. 10.14 did constitute Christ for ever a Priest to purifie the conscience to abolish trespasses to merit celestial blessings For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified As one therefore said to David Thou art worth ten thousand of us so we may say of Christ our High-Priest because God did swear Thou art worth ten thousand worlds of the other And such an High-Priest became us Thus much for the manner of Christs taking the holy order of Priesthood which was by Covenant by Oath both binders His executing of this place is in the next place to be considered which as the former deserves our most reverend regard Fidelity and assiduity both commend the undertakers of a weighty matter and both are met in Christ for the important work of our Redemption by grace All his force was ever bent that way to ruine our adversaries and raise us In the administration of his Priestly office he practised it offerendo intercedendo by Sacrisicing by Interceding which were the two things that held most of that Order in continual imployment He stood our friend without the least flinching usque ad aras to the very death when we stood in opposition to God to him to our selves Before he presented himself an Oblation to the Father of Spirits he prepared himself for it by a most submissive humiliation a most sincere obedience by most zealous supplications and a most exquisite sense of humane infirmities all which out-stretch the limits of all thoughts of man He suffered the brightness of that glory which he had with the Father before the world was for a time to suffer an eclipse He was without form and comeliness and when men saw him Isa 53.2 there was no beauty that they should desire him His entertainment in the world was but discourteous and poor At his first entrance he was laid in a manger and after though he was Lord of Heaven and earth yet had be not whereon to lay his head Necessity forc'd him to fly and oft to hide himself because his hour was not yet come to save his life Uncivil language slanderous reports extream indignities were heapt upon him These were the several stiles wherewith the wicked world was pleased to honour him A Samaritan a Glutton a Wine-bibber a Seducer a Traitor a Friend to Publicans sinners a Devil at least one possest of a Devil yet all this made him not tread one step awry from the hallowed paths of a filial obedience for notwithstanding he was a Son Heb. 5.8 Schola crucis schola lucis yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered He suffered the first part of his Passion in a Garden for sin where sin was first committed where he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he was raised up by the unresisted power of his Almighty working Soon after was he betrayed apprehended bound and forsaken Betrayed to expiate our treason in Adam Apprehended to restore us Captives unto liberty bound to dissolve the chains of our sins Forsaken to perform the work of satisfaction and redemption all alone by himself He was arraigned condemned whipped and crowned with thorns Arraigned by Jew and Gentile He stood there for both their sakes to exempt them from the Tribunal of the Judge of all the world Condemned to justifie us in the sight of God by his incomparable innocence Whipped to deliver us from the spiritual corporal and eternal scourge which we deserved Crowned with thorns to 1. Signifie his pacification of God for our ambition in Adam 2. His meriting for us an eternal crown 3. His collecting a Kingly people out of the most thorny and burtful nations which as a crown should compass God about in serving and honoring of him 4. His bearing of our thorny cares that we might quietly repose our trust in him He was clothed with a Purple garment and in his hand was there put a Reed both intimating he was a King though both done in derision Isa 63. The first shews he was that Warriour forespoken by the Prophet Who is this that comes from Edom with red garments The other that he was he that should break the Serpents head For 't is the observation of some learned that a Reed is most mortal to a Serpent and therewith were men used to kill them Besides that by it as by a Pen he did obliterate the hand-writing in the Lords Debt-book that was against us He suffered in Golgotha and naked too in Golgotha a place of dead mens bones where malefactors suffered to raise up the banner of righteousness and salvation even in the place of death and condemnation But he suffered there naked too to satisfie for our first parents transgression who were spoiled of the garment of Innocency and perhaps to shew how we should enter into Heaven as Adam into Paradise naked in body but clad in soul with innocency with immortality In a word 't was to expiate our shameful nakedness to which our first sin exposed us And this is the naked truth of the Truth This done all was not done for which Christ came into the world for 't was but preambulatory to a greater work ensuing what was hitherto done for hereby was he compleatly sitted to give himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 There did therefore succeed this 1. The offering up of his Body by the effusion of his precious Blood upon the high Altar of the Cross where he suffered the loss of his life the price of our Redemption without blood there being no remission Heb. 9.22 View him there and he is just as the Prophet did describe him Isa 53. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Here he was lifted up to answer the elevation of the Sacrifices of the Old Law all types of him Isaac represented him in umbra in the shadow when the substance followed even in this point so did the Brasen Serpent they are the words of our Saviour As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness There it was Vide vive here Crede vive even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Joh. 3.14 He was lifted up in the air that he might overcome the Prince of the air and the Spiritual wickednesses in high places triumphing over them in it He was lifted up in the air to hang on a tree that as death by a tree entred into the world so on a tree it should be destroyed and life brought back again and besides that he might bear the curse of the Law Col. 2.15 being made a curse for us
received more in the second Adam than we lost in the first Where sin abounded grace did much more abound Rom 5.20 In Adam we lost our native innocency in Christ we receive absolute perfection and integrity in Adam we lost Paradise on earth in Christ we receive the Kingdom of heaven the true Paradise of God at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore How then can that infinite mercy repel us from him when we come unto him being now made partakers of his nature much rather being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 And this is called the glory of his grace whereby we are made accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Eph. 1.6 7. Gods goodness appears in his justice worthy of admiration for the God of mercy as he was inclined so was he content to pardon sinners if it might stand with the unblemisht reputation of his exactest justice That therefore his justice might not suffer his mercy brought to passe the incarnation of his Son thereby to satisfy his justice and appease his wrath Rom. 3.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past hence he is said to dy for us that is in our stead which taketh away condemnation Cap. 8.34 and bringeth peace to undoubted salvation Cap 5.10 Here is plenary satisfaction to God for us and a peaceful reconciliation betwixt God and us Hence 't is said that he was made sin for us that is a sinner 2 Cor. 5.21 which cannot be but either interna pollutione by an inward infection which was impossible to him vel externâ reputatione by an outward repute and estimate which was no otherwise than by undergoing the punishment due to us which he hath done as was meet by which Gods justice is everlastingly immutably and fully satisfied and we perfectly saved Hence he is said to bear our iniquities Isa 53.4 which is not tollerantia patientiae the bearing of patience though he did bear them patiently but by bearing them he took them away behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world neither is it sola poestas auferendi peccata 1 Pet. 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely an authentick power or authority of taking away our sins but which is far more he actually bare our sins in his one body on the tree that is submitting himself to divine censure and justice did suffer the punishments of our offences by which we passe from death to life for by his stripes we are healed by his death we are saved Hence he is said to have paid for us the price of our Redemption we are bought with a price faith the Apostle whereby is intimated our captivity and subjection unto the just vengeance of the Almighty We were debters unto him and were broke like bankrupts upon the matter despoil'd of all good we had and disenabled to pay the price of our redemption which the Son of God undertaking saith of himself Mat. 20 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 2.6 that he came to give his life a ransome for many whereof the Apostle making use saith that Christ our Mediatour gave himself a ransome for all The Apostles All are those Many mentioned by the Evangelist Hence he is said to be an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Such a one as hath wrought a perfect reconciliation and an eternal peace betwixt God and us his justice satisfied our sins pardoned our souls saved Such a one as all sacrifices before him were but his shadows and for any to be after him is but needless and most unlawful for he after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God and by that one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Thus to satisfie the justice of God and secure us Heb. 10.12.14 the Sonne of God is sent from God into the world and went stitch-through with the work of our redemption So that it is compleat and cannot admit the least exception nothing in it being defective nothing superfluous To close up this point admire the wonderful temper of Gods mercy and justice which no creature could find out before God did manifest it and none now it is made manifest can fully apprehend it In sending us a Saviour God was merciful that he might be just and just that he might be merciful For in his mercy he sent him he gave him to us in his justice he made him a curse he punished him with death for us which he triumphantly overcame he made him sin for us that knew no sinne to the end that through his mercy again we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Cor. 5.22 Wherefore with holy David unto thee O God do we give thanks unto thee do we give thanks for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare Psal 75.1 The works of thy mercy the works of thy justice are exceeding wonderful in our reparation Thy Name thy nature is near unto us in thy Son Nomen i.c. Numâ—n who being the true IMMANVEL God with us hath wrought and accomplished our deliverance Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name give the glory Tibi gloria nobis lucrum let the glory be thine now the gain is ours Glory be to God on high Thus much concerning the first thing imported in this Glory which is a pious admiration of Gods infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness The second thing imported in this Glory is a religious honour due to God which is evermore the necessary consequent of pious admiration We honour our Benefactors the best we may as the benefit bestowed and the love of the Benefactor doth require and the greater the benefit the greater is the Benefactors love and the greater his love the greater honour is due to him from the receiver Great out of doubt is the Gift God sent to us freely confer'd upon us it is a Gift of an heavenly nature of the highest vaine his own only begotten Son him hath God given that aâ— many as believe in hiâ— should not perish but have everlasting life Seeing then that he graciously vouchsafed to honour us so highly so lovingly we cannot in modesty in honesty in piety but highly honour him again who is the highest Being then upon the point of honour I must fixe upon those two points wherein this honour doth consist which are 1. Obedience not fained but real 2. Divine worship or adoration of him First then because God hath sent a Saviour into the world to visit us his people from on high and to redeem us from below the nethermost hell we are to render all sincere obedience to him
that soul alone that hath Christ it hath the Spirit of Christ Happy that soul alone that hath the Spirit of Christ it hath God Happy that soul alone that hath God it hath all things The sins of true Believers and all their imperfections do like the Morning-dew at the Suns approach vanish away and dissolve into nothing by the beams of the Sun of Righteousness by whom we have access by faith into his grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Here 's a remedy to stanch a bleeding heart here is rest for a troubled spirit here is a Cordial restorative for a Christian soul that aforetimes did surfeit with the luscious bewitching pleasures of a sinful life and after trembled at the killing fears of the pangs of Hell To say something more how our peace with God was wrought which is worthy of all observation Know the condition of the Obligation of the first Covenant was this Do this and thou shalt live the transgression whereof by necessary consequence must have brought death To reduce us then into grace with God again after our desertion Doing and Suffering was requisite the one serving to give us life the other to save from death both for expiation of our offences and satisfaction of the offended Justice Our peace then is made by Christ's 1. Doing 2. Suffering By Christ's doing For if by our ill doing we undid our peace our peace must be mâ—de up by well doing which we being unsufficient for Christ whose grace is abundantly sufficient for us performed in our stead His conversation iâ— the days of his flesh besides his unspotted and pure Conception was unblemished He came to fulfill all righteousness and did so In the volume of the book it is written of me Heb. 10.9 saith our Saviour Lo I come to do thy will O God I can quickly impannel a sufficient Jury out of the three Kingdoms the Kingdom of this World the Kingdom of Grace and the Kingdom of Glory some friends others foes by their just verdict given up already to justifie the Innocency of our Blessed Redeemer An Angel in the 9. of Daniel calls him The most Holy And the same Angel tells his Virgin Mother that That Holy thing which should be born of her should be called the Son of God The Prophet Isaiah by Divine inspiration saith That he did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth S. Peter saith He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot The Apostle to the Hebrews describes him to be Holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners S. John insorms us that We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous He is said by the Spouse in the Cantieles to be white and ruddy Ruddy in respect of his bloody Passion and whire in regard of his unstained Innocence Pilate though Christs enemy ingenuously professeth that he could find no fault in him Traiterous Judas when the fact was done confesseth that he did betray the innocent blood Habemus consitentem reum There was Herod's action in causing him to be arrayed in a gorgeous white robe as an implicite testimony of his innocence Pilate's wife bids her husband sitting on the seat of Judgment to have nothing to do with that Just man The Thief upon the Cross condemning himself and his fellow makes this his last and his best confession This man hath done nothing amiss The Centurion when he saw what fell out upon the death of Christ concluded with himself Verily this was the Son of God Luk. 4.34 or as S. Luke hath it Of a truth this was a just man The Devil too I know thee who thou art the Holy one of God For more evidence I can produce from heaven a cloud and innumerable company of witnesses as that Rev. 15.3 Part of the Saints heavenly song is Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Lastly take with us the sentence of the just Judge of all the world uttered from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased I need to say no more in it 't is a plain case here 's a threefold cord Vox Dei vox populi vox populi Dei The voice of God the voice of the people the voice of the people of God Now for our comfort know thus much Christ's active righteousness was meritorious for our salvation for our peace wherefore Christ is said to be made to us of God righteousness and sanctification and that he knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him By Adam's fatal disobedience the peace was broken by Christs perfect and absolute obedience the peace is renewed As by the disobedience of one man the first Adam many were made sinners and so enemies to God so by the obedience of one man the Man Christ Jesus the second Adam many are made righteous and so reconciled to God Our peace then is made by Christs doing in fulfilling the Law in every point which in every point we did unrighteously violate He did work upon the Earth to work our peace in Heaven Which in like manner he did by suffering as well as doing Which I will by Divine assistance also briefly prosecute Were we not sinners Christ had no need to suffer Had he not now suffered we should not be saved because sinners All our deaths could not have wiped away one sin much less all our sins and therefore not made our peace Eternity of torments is satisfaction indeed to Gods Justice but then what hope of mercy of peace of life What we therefore could not do by suffering eternally Christ hath effected for us by a timely death Rom. 5.10 Act. 20.28 1 Joh. 1.7 We being sinners Christ died for us and being enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Hence he is said to have purchased his Church that is the peace of his Church with his own blood and his blood to cleanse us from all sin Divine Truth terms him The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world The sin of the world that takes away the world from God the removing where of out of the way makes way for grace and so for peace for a world of men Princeps vitae est interfectus ut nos ad vitam restitueret Dominus gloriae crucifixus est ut nos ad gloriam exaltaret The Prince of life was put to death to restore us from death of life The Lord of glory was ignominiously crucified to exalt us unto glory He was content to be for saken of his Father and to bear his indignation to make peace for us through the blood of his cross to reconcile us who were sometimes aliens and enemies in the body of his flesh through death to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight Col. 1.21 22. Eph. 5.2 For this very purpose he became a Peace-offering for us Christ loved us and hath
8.36 For Christ hath freed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us If the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed And liberty from the bondage of sin Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin saith our Saviour Joh. 8.34 But he that hath the peace of a good conscience is not in subjection to the dominion of sin but is servant to righteousness having obtained the liberty proper to the sons of God to which he is called Liberty from the burden of humane traditions and superstitious inventions of men either crept into the Church through the subtilty of Satan or neglect of the Pastors or impiously imposed by the Antichristian Hierarchy under the shew of piety and Religion 1 Cor. 7.23 Ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men Liberty from the fear of Tyrants in matters concerning the solemn worship of God or fear of danger in matters indifferent The conscience of a man rightly informed and guided by discretion is apt to undertake all that may make for Gods glory the Churches good and his own salvation Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a kingdom The last effect of this peace is Joy and it is called Joy unspeakable in the Holy Ghost such an excess of joy as we want utterance to express it A good conscience that is a pacified conscience saith Solomon is a continual feast it frollicks and merries the heart in the very prease of adversity it encourages a man to alacrity of spirit and a certain hope of victory and it admits no bitter invective to be cast out against us to deject us nor produceth any clamorous accusation to ruine us Amâ—s but being calm and quiet excusat absolvit consolatur saith Amesius it pleads our excuse it frees us from condemnation it brings in an ebullition or a springtide-like overflow of all soveraign comforts Balaam did wish that he might die the death of the righteous I for my part wish to live the life of the righteous None under heaven can live a more truly jocund life or at greater hearts ease than he that hath an upright conscience towards God and towards man His soul in the midst of tribulation is full ballasted with rejoicing which the world cannot take away Hab. 3.18 It was Habbakkuk's resolution that notwithstanding all misery he would rejoice in the Lord he would joy in the God of his salvation But is it so with the wicked can they participate of saving consolation It cannot be Yet my charity forceth this good wish for them I would they did for then would they bid adieu to all sinful courses which in the end prove dismal I am sure I have seen the wicked rejoice in their wickedness yet that rejoicing as it is like crackling of thorns under a pot of short continuance so it is never hearty And wot you why surely because their conscience can never be at rest There is no peace Isa 57.21 saith my God unto the wicked For their consciences tell them that the Lord hath a quarrel unto them for their sins they see their condemnation printed in their soul as it were with red letters in an Almanack How can it be otherwise Where there is no zealous reluctation to evil but a constant gliding into mischief and study to transgress when sinners confident in the imagination of their giddy heads like Tumblers that stand upon their heads kick against Heaven what expectation of peace or joy or what hope of Divine solace can they have On the contrary They that war against the flesh and will not admit any composition th Satan they that spend themselves to please God and to be in league with heaven It cannot be but being that all your aims bend at peace Isa 57.2 you shall end in peace and rest in joy and glory everlasting Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever There remains yet two other kinds of peace to be treated of peace with one another and with the creatures Sin the cause of all confusion hath so distempered the whole fabrick of man and bred such malignant humors in our nature that unlesse the God of order take us in hand we are apt upon the least occasion to lay violent hands one upon another or else by secret contrivances to work one anothers downfal If unbridled passions once get but an head in man nothing unlesse Gods restringent grace stop him shall hold him from breaking out into outragious disorders Wherefore to cure this malady this running sore it seemed good to the God of peace to send his beloved Son the Prince of peace into the world Part of whose function was not to put men together by the eares Sacrosancta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nobis committitur non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to combine their hearts together by a loving union He came and preached peace to you that were afar off and to them that were nigh My peace saith Christ I give unto you And this is my commandment saith love it self that ye love one another Ephes 2.17 John 14.27 cap. 15.12 17. History reports that the Temple of Janus in Rome Paynim at the time of Christs Nativity had all the gates thereof laid open Histor Rom. which was interpreted to be a manifest intimation of a general peace over all the world And out of doubt in whom the Spirit of Christ beareth rule they are ever addicted to a peaceful life for peace whereof the turbulent spirit makes no reckoning is reckoned among the fruits of the blessed spirit Seeing then that Christ brought it preacht it gives it commands it I shall therefore briefly presse it This kind of peace is twofold Civil and Ecclesiastical As Religion is the King upon which the Government of the Political State depends and moves so Peace is the Raile that keeps both close together Truth hath aver'd it that Kingdoms Cities and houses divided against themselves cannot stand Factious spirits in the Commonwealth and schismatical hot-brains in the Church by their unhappy divisions lay a gap open for destruction to enter in by For the preventing whereof be ever observant of the Apostles wholsome advice which is 1 Thes 4.11 5.13 to study to be quiet and to be at peace among your selves We must not let loose the raines to precipitate passion or let flie distastful language unbeseeming the professors of the Gospel of Christ but ever by a sanctified discretion moderate our minds in love and keep our selves within the precise circuit of Piety and Religion Reason it self pleadeth for a civil behaviour towards all which in reason cannot be denied
of such difficulty that if he withdraw the supporting assistance of his active Spirit from us we cannot hold out Do we preach 't is as the Spirits gives us utterance do we pray the Spirit helpeth our infirmities do we beleeve he increaseth our faith and helps our unbelief do we live the life of grace Christ liveth in us by his Spirit Are we constant in our profession and holy exercises of Religion that constancy cometh from above by the effectual working of the divine power In all these his grace is sufficient for us and in doing them his Spirit worketh with us Thus much concerning Gods good will towards men expressed in spiritual matters As for his good will in temporal it is as clear as the sun we need no demonstration But because the extraordinary favours of God may not slip out of our memories think upon our deliverance from that intended invasion in eighty eight how that part of the invaders became as weak as water and part were over whelmed in the depths of the sea alive like Pharaoh and his host Think upon that horrid work of darkness the Gunpowder plot how vain the conspiratours were in their imaginations The Lords stretched out arme overcame the one his all-seeing eye discovered the other See thy RegÃna Dierum and by his Providence were both brought to nothing Think upon the Stupendious works of Divine Providence in the wonderful safegarding and happy restoring of our gracious King to which I have abundantly spoken upon occasion Without doubt all these and infinite more are sensible tokens of Gods good will in Christ toward us Wherefore 1. We may with comfort confidently approach to the throne of grace where we may receive of the Father whatsoever we ask in his Sons name for for his sake he will deny us no good thing seeing that in him he beares good will toward us Thus much the occasion of this text may assure us of which is the incarnation and birth of our Saviour It being the foundation of all our joyes and all good things we enjoy By it God comforts Adam the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head Jacob is comforted by the vision of a ladder reaching from heaven to earth and the Angels ascending and descending by it the mystery whereof may be this The ladder is Christ the foot of it on earth noteth his humanity man of the substance of his mother born in the world the top reaching to heaven noteth his divinity Job 19.25 God of the substance of his Father begotten before all worlds perfect God and perfect man by which union of natures he hath joined earth and heaven together that is God and man The going up and down of Angels by the ladder sheweth how by Christ the service of Angels is purchased unto us all which accordeth with that in Joh. 1.51 Verily verily I say unto you faith our Saviour hereafter ye shall see the heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man Job again comforts himself in this that his Redeemer of his own flesh as the word signifieth liveth In the Old Testament they which sought to God came to the Ark or Propitiatory and there were they heard and received Gods blessing Now Christ God and man is instead thereof his Godhead being the fountain of all good things and his flesh or Manhood a pipe or conduit to conveigh the fame unto us Wherefore let us rejoyce in God our Saviour and comfort our selves in his good will towards men Moreover 2. We may the better bear temptations and afflictions and slight the assaults of the world That which in Spaniards deserveth the greatest commendations is an unmoved patience in suffering adversity accompanied with a settled resolution of overcoming them This if we attain unto in Christianity will shield us from despair and distrust for we may be well assured that God to his distressed servants is the neerest when he seemeth furthest then sweetest when he seemeth sowrest and then up in wrath to revenge our wrongs when the world doth think he hath forgot us For still he beares goad will towards us Lastly we must acknowledge Gods good will through Christ to be the sole cause of all our happiness It is a true Maxime in Divinity Publisht in Austins time Vniversa salus nostra Aug. Ned. Cap. 34. magna miserecordia tua Our safety on earth our salvation in heaven proceed from thy abundant mercies O Lord. Thus the Father the Son and the holy Ghost do all join together in one immutable resolution to prove their good will towards men The issue whereof cannot be but exceeding good For as Astronomers do well observe that when three of the superiour lights do meet in conjunction it bringeth forth some admirable effects So now seeing that these three infinite lights of the world three persons of the Deity are met together in one good-will towards men this benevolous aspect produceth this admirable effect that all true beleevers shall be hereby exalted into glory For which with thankful hearts we ought ever to pay the tribute of obedience And in assurance whereof to rest in Gods promises which can never faile In his name I end as I did begin To whom as the Angels did before us and duty ever binds us be rendred all honour and glory both now and for ever Amen The Necessity of CHRISTS PASSION AND Resurrection ACTS 17.3 Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead I Am induced by these words to relate the greatest wonder of the world wherein is comprehended the profoundest Mystery of our salvation That the Son of God should become the Son of man that the Lord of glory should come in the forme of an humble and dejected servant that the Sun of righteousnesse should be deprived of light and then that the sole Author of our life should be put to death Weigh but the reason and the wonder is the greater It was for our redemption all this was effected and can there be a greater wonder then that he that knew no sin would putting on mortality suffer unutterable tortures both in soul and body and be content to die to save those that knew nothing but sin certainly there cannot be a greater wonder The most professed enemy to sinners herein did become to sinners the most professed friend He is ready to save who might be more ready to destroy But mercy binds the hands of justice and justice is overcome of mercy The eternal wisdome beholding from above with the gracious eye of pay the forlorne estate of mankind after their apostasy and treacherous violation of the sacred Covenant contrived a project not to be contrived by the Art of man whereby our Redemption should be wrought and liberty obtained Gods love to us did exceed our sins Our sins are not so great are not so many but his love can cover them and his mercy pardon them And where men come
nature he had made ours by grace And here we may be as bold as to conclude we are the sons of God because the natural Son of God assumed body of our body flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones that he might be the same with us and we the same with him Thus he became our Kinsman to whom of property by the old Law it did belong to redeem his brethren Which that he might effect he did conquer Death and who could do this but he who is our Life He did vanquish Sin and who could do this but Righteousness it self He did bring into his subjection the Forces of the world and the Powers that rule in the air and who could do this but he that is the Power of God And who is this Life this Righteousness this Power of God but Jesus Christ very God of very God and yet the Son of Man Christ was God and Man Man that sin might be punished in the nature offending yet Man without sin to fulfill that Righteousness which none of us sold under sin can fulfill He was Man that as by the disobedience of the first Adam sin entred into the world so by the obedience of him who is the second Adam righteousness should bring justification to life And as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous By the righteousness of his obedience Active and Passive Active in perfecting all the duties injoined by the Law Passive in suffering the wrath of God the punishment of our disobedience Thus our confusion is taken away and life and righteousness are restored unto us And he was God withal that the Justice of God might receive compleat satisfaction by a punishment that should be infinite or equal to infinite which none but God could give And therefore Christ is said as God to have purchased his Church with his own blood Act. 20. 1 Joh. 3.16 and to lay down his life for us And though his punishment was not so infinite but that it was finite yet it was only finite for time but was for value as it ought to be infinite Thus the Son of True God did bear the burden of his Fathers wrath in our nature which no other Nature ought to do but the soul that sinned which no other but God could do because God is a consuming fire and his wrath unquenchable by any creature Forasmuch as God alone could not die because not subject to passion nor Man alone overcome death because too weak It was requisite that our Redeemer who should die for our sins should be both that by the weakness of the one nature he might submit himself to the power of death thereby to undergo punishment due to sin and by the strength of the other he should by sustaining the Manhood make good his part against death and swallow it up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory But thanks be to God Sarcasmo conflat hostili derisione quâ mors ridenda propinatur saith one that hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus much of the Person humbled which is Christ God and Man The next point to be discuss'd is Wherein his Humiliation did consist that is in general He suffered From the time of his nativity to the very hour of his death was he not free from suffering He was no sooner born but Herod sought his life He was subject to the infirmities of our nature sin excepted He was hungry and thirsty weary and faint sorrowful and discontented his poverty was extream though Lord of all and Possessor of heaven and earth he had not so much as whereon to lay his head Grievous was the temptation he suffered by Satans onset infinite were the injuries that were offered him by the cursed brats of Satan both in word and deed In word by false calumnies and forged accusations by contumelious detractions and cursed blasphemies In deed by framing of projects and laying of plots how to take away his life He was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrowes and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him Isa 53. He was despised and we esteemed him not surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrowes Yet we esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted His whole life was a perpetual passion He was never let alone until upon the Cross he gave himself a ransom for all and his enemies never ceased until they drew out his hearts blood which he for our redemption in his loving kindness was willing to part withall He had power in his own hand to lay down his life and he had power to assume it again For albeit his life lay at the stake yet could he were he so disposed command legions of Angels beside his own power which was alsufficient to deliver him either by putting his enemies to flight or by repressing their violence that either they would not or they should not hurt him or by utterly subverting them But being that he came into the world to the end to suffer to compass for us a world without all end he withdrew not his neck from the yoke but set himself forward to bear the iniquity of us all laid upon him Thus Christ was subject to passion but not according to his divine but humane nature For as he is God he is Actus purissimus and cannot suffer but yet he being God suffered in the nature assumed which was capable of suffering that is in his Manhood So that here we have the highest Person and the lowest Humiliation met together Wherefore in this suffering of our Lord there are three things according to Bernards observation specially noted Bernard Opus modus causa In opere patientia in modo humilitat in causa charitas commendatur Patientia singularis humilitas admirabilis sed charitas inestimabilis There are the work the manner of performing and the cause In the work which is suffering his patience is commended in the manner his humility in the cause his charity for charity moved him to suffer with patience and humility His patience is singular none like it his humility admirable none ever came never shall come near it his charity inestimable for it is incomparable All which may appear unto you by presenting to your view his special sufferings immediately preceding his death In these sufferings of our Saviour you may see the foulest act of Treason that ever was committed the greatest Cruelty that was ever heard of both hatcht in the pit of hell Judas his familiar friend comes and betrays him with a false-hearted complement a Kiss his love was only from the teeth outward deceit was in his heart and the poison of asps under his lips but no wonder the Devil was in him Peter his Disciple than whom none more forward in times past to confess him to be
John 12.31 1 John 3.8 for this purpose the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil The works of the Devil are sin and death for by him came sin into the world and death by sin Again we are hereby freed from the punishment of sin which is death He did bear our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53. He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his striper we are healed He poured out â—is soul to death and bare the sin of many Now we are freed from the punishment of sin two wayes 1. Directly because his passion was a sufficient and superabundant satisfaction for the sins of the whole world Wherefore Thomas-Aquin Exhibita satisfactionâ— sufficienti tollitur reatus paenae saith Aquinas upon the exhibition of a sufficient satisfaction the punishment is quite taken away So that God cannot punish that again in his servant that he hath already punisht in his Son 2. Indirectly Ambros super Beati immacalati in as much as the passion of Christ is the cause of the Redemption of sin which is the cause of punishment Ille suscepit mortis servitutem ut tibi tribueret aternae vitae libertatem Moreover by the sufferings of Christ our reconciliation with God is wrought and our peace is made with him for ever We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 and that two wayes 1. By removing of sin whereby we were made his enemies Ephes 5.2 2. By offering up himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Lastly hereby the gate of heaven is open for us We have boldness to enter into the holyest by the blood of Jesus Hebr. 10.19 for he went before us to prepare a place for us that where he is we might be also So that now he hath obtained for us eternal salvation By way of desert he hath deserved that by him we should be saved By way of satisfaction for the greatness of his love out of which he suffered for the dignity of his life which he laid down for us it was the life of God and man and for the generality and weight of sorrows and paines that he suffered for us hence he is a sufficient satisfaction called the Propitiation for our sins Heb. 9.26 Verse 15. At Paris ut vivat regnetque beatus cogi posse negat Hor. Epist 1. 1 Joh. 2.2 By way of sacrifice which was meritorious deserving life for whom he suffered death In the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And by way of redemption for he was engaged for us and paid the utmost farthing for which end he was sent into the world God sent not his Son into the world to condemne the world but that the world through him might be saved Joh. 3.17 Saved from sin from the power of Satan from death Hence called our Redemption and we come to be at peace with God and in that peace we enter into heaven to be partakers of those joyes that are at Gods right hand for evermore Having waded thus farre I seale up this discourse with a pathetical conclusion in way of application O how far is the love of God extended to us miserable sinners He was provident before our fall to find out away whereby to be saved after we fell His Son must die to save us from death He must fall into the hands of sinners that we may not fall into the hands of Satan And if he have thus given us his Son how shall he not with him give unto us all things We may conclude for certain we shall want nothing for the furtherance of our salvation since that he with-held not his onely Son from us Let this love of God to us extract love from us to God As he bought us dear with the losse of his Son so must we think nothing too deare to part withal to gain our God We must be content to lose our life and all than to lose our God who is all in all for the gaining of life and all Seeing that Christ ought to have suffered for our sins we may well grieve that we should be the authors of his death and yet rejoyce that we have escaped Gods fearful vengeance by his sufferings Grieve then my beloved for your sins for which Christ died Royard in Postill and go and sin no more And let your soules magnify the Lord and rejoyce in God your Saviour Non gaudere ingratitudinis est non dolere crudelitatis saith Royard not to be glad for Gods mercy and Christ's love in redeeming us is a point of ingratitude not to grieve that we gave occasion of his death is a point of the greatest cruelty Let us then grieve together with him that we may reigne and rejoyce together with him Gods decree is unutterable he ordained that Christ should die and Christ did die He promist it and 't is fulfill'd He revealed it and 't is so come to passe He is as good as his word Heaven and earth shall passe away but not the least tittle of his word shall go unfulfilled What therefore soever God hath determined concerning any one shall certainly fall out so there is no avoidance What he hath denounced against sinners let them expect it for they shall surely have it Our God is a God of truth You may collect out of this discourse that Christ is a perfect and sufficient Redeemer Heb 10.14 on whom alone dependeth our salvation For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified As Moses said to the children of Israel the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace So I may say that Christ onely fought for us we did nothing whereby to acquire a life that is endless Wherefore if we will be perfectly saved rely upon the Redeemer of Israel for he is onely the Captain of our salvation Look up as sometimes the Israelites on the brazen serpent upon him stretched out upon the crosse where he is ready to receive all that come unto him and beleeve in his name Caput Christi inclinatum ad osculandum cor apertum ad diligendum brachia extensa ad amplexandum totum corpus expositum ad redimendum August lib. de virginit he hath his head bended down to kisse you his heart opened to love and affect you his armes stretched forth to embrace you his whole body exposed to redeem you Consider of what great consequences these things are that Christ hath done for your soules weigh them in the ballance of your hearts Vt totus vobis figatur in corde qui totus pro vobis fixus fuit in cruce that he may be wholly fastned to you in your hearts who was wholly fastned for you on the crosse Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp bearing his reproach for here we have no continuing City Heb. 13.13 14 15. but we seek one to come by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name who is the Author and finisher of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour glory power and dominion in heaven and in earth by men and Angels both now and for ever world without end Amen The Necessity of CHRISTS PASSION AND Resurrection ACTS 17.3 Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead GLory which is the proper scope of a noble disposition and the intended end of honourable intents did Christ make to be the necessary consequence of his fore-running passion His life seem'd to the worlds eye inglorious in that he affected not popularity so did his death to those that knew not the mystery of our Redemption By general judgment he was reputed the most unhappy breathing he was rejected and despised of men Yet in this his rejected and contemptible condition was sowen his immortal happiness which indeed was sowen in weakness but was raised in power sowen in dishonor but raised in glory For as by the eternal constitution of the Almighty he ought to have been brought to the lowest degree of misery by suffering divers and fearful punishments so ought he not perpetually to abide in that state but at length to be elevated thence to the highest pitch of glory In order to which as Christ must needs have suffered so also must he rise again from the dead The point now by divine assistance to be discust is part of Christs exaltation a theame of an high nature And herein first of the person exalted Christ Christ was exalted according to both natures 1. In regard of his Godhead 2. In regard of his Manhood The exaltation of the Godhead of Christ was the manifestation of the Godhead in the Manhood mightily declaring therein that he was the Son of God Which manifestation was altogether active no way passive the effects produced by him having no other proper agent but God For who could overcome Satan death the world the grave but God And albeit the Divine nature be thus exalted yet it is without all manner of alteration For to speak properly in it self it cannot be made the subject of exaltation but as it is considered joined with the Manhood into the unity of one person For albeit Christ from the very time of the assumption of our nature whereby he was incarnate was both God and man and his Godhead all the time he liv'd dwelt in his Manhood yet from the hour of his Nativity unto the hour of giving up the Ghost and a while after the Godhead did little shew it self The glorious majesty of his Deity whiles he was in the for me and low state of a servant lay hid under the vaile of his flesh as the soul doth in the body when a man is sleeping And in the time of his passion the brightness of the glory of the sun of righteousnesse was obscured as the sun running in the height of heaven oftimes over clouded or eclipsed by a darker body thereby in 〈◊〉 humane nature to undergo the curse of the law and perfect the work of our redemption in subjecting himself to the death even the cursed death of the crosse But as soone as this work was finished and happily accomplished he began by degrees to make known the power of his Godhead in his Manhood And so to rise again Secondly Christ was exalted in regard of his Manhood which consisteth in these two things In depositione servilis suaâ—conditionis in laying down and quitting himself from all the infirmities that 〈◊〉 mans nature which he submitted himself unto except sin so long as he remained in the state of a servant he was subject to weariness to hunger to thirst to fear to death from all which in this state of exaltation he is perfectly delivered his natural body is a glorious body those wounds and stripes which in his body he suffered for our sins remain not in him as testimonies of that compleat conquest to be obtained over his and our enemies But are rather quite abolished because they were a part of that ignominious condition wherein our Saviour was upon the crosse whereof in his glorified state he is not to be partaker Yet if they still remain as some think they do they are no deformity to the glorious body of the Lord but are in him in some unspeakable and to us unknown manner glorified In susceptione donoxum in receiving such graces and qualities of glory as bring with them ornament beauty perfection happiness exceeding the or 〈◊〉 beauty perfection and happiness of any other creature in heaven or earth 〈◊〉 to his soul and body As for his soul look upon the intellectuall part you shall find a mind enrich with as much knowledge and understanding as well in respect of the act as the habit as a creature can possibly be capable of the measure of it being more than all men and Angels put together have Look upon his will and affections you shall find them furnished with the fulness of grace and compleatly adorned with the invaluable riches and incomparable gifts of Gods holy Spirit As for his body it is not now subject to dissolution from being natural it is become spiritual not by the destruction of the essence but by the alteration of the qualities Aquinas Est ejusdem naturae sed alterius gloriae said Thomas for God would not suffer his holy one to see corruption The nature and essential proprietles of a true body as length breadth thickness locality still remain in him the addition of glory and brightness not changing the nature of it so that it is free from all bodily imperfections and made bright and glorious a resemblance whereof was his transiguration on the mount Matth. 17. where his face did shine as the sun and his rayment was as white as the light the purity whereof is unblemished the agility whereof such as is indifferent to move upward or downward the brightness thereof cannot be obscured nor the strength thereof match't by any creature For by his power he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Hhil 3.21 according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself These gifts of glory in Christ's body are not infinite but bounded within limits because his humane nature being but a creature and therefore finite could not receive infinite graces and gifts of glory To make then infiniteness ubiquity and omnipotency incommunicable attributes of God attributes of Christ's glorified body is to destroy the nature of a body and say that the body of Christ is transformed into the Deity or Deified and that he is all
exceeded the capacity of Nicoâ— Cum primum nascimur in omni continuo pravitate versamur Tully though a Master in Israel to become like him did not he mould out hearts anew and fill them with the invaluable riches of his mercy and the treasures of his graces we had been of all creatures the most miserable Sinful was our conception sinful was our birth and striful is all our life Nature makes us sons of wrath being deprived of the life of grace as soone as we are sons of nature Damnatus homo antequam natus Aug. there is none that doth good no not one All are sold under sin whence the Apostile upon his own experience averreth that in him that is in his flesh or natural estate dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. We are born dead as soone as we come into the world alive spiritually dead naturally alive Now in whom no good thing dwelleth by nature they are by nature void of grace and who by nature are void of grace do not by nature participate of spiritual life whereof whosoever is not partaker is by nature spiritually dead and who by nature are spiritually dead are destitute of the Spirit of grace who is the sole Author of life and finisher of our salvation All saving graces and heavenly benedictions flow from him in whom the fulnesse of all graces dwells and all return to him again as rivers come from the sea and to the sea return Uâ—lesse therefore God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to sanctifie 〈◊〉 to cleanse us to put new spirit and life into us which is a work of the highest power to which nature can never actain we shall come short of performing the least act that may be any wayes advantageous for our falvation A dead manâ—s not in action hath no living motion neither is there in his power any possibility of regaining life a so is every one spiritually whose heart is not quickened and moved by the holy Ghost to whom it is alone possible to raise from the death of sinne whose property it is to infuse grace and make the hearts and souls of men beautified with the richest furniture and most precious 〈◊〉 of divine 〈…〉 Tomles for himself to dwell in And thus the passage is clear and open for another observation grounded on these words which is this That the heart of the child of God is the seat or dwelling place of the holy Ghost Of all things in man God desireth the heart of man My son give me thine heart for as naturally evil actions proceed from it so must all good being first set awork by the first mover unto all good the good Spirit of God It is in man by nature according to the dictates of natural Philosophy Primum vivens the first in man that lives and divine Philosophy informs us that it is so in grace too For the convernon of the whole man depends upon the conversion of the heart to God there new life is begun Nature gives it a vital faculty distributing to all parts the vital spirits whereby they are embled to work and so doth grace for in what good soever any part of the body is imployed the power of effecting it is derived from the heart which as it is called Principium vitae in the body of man so it is made by the grace of God the original of a holy life and the first subject of grace without which all our best services are but glittering sins for with the heart we beleeve and with the heart we work out our salvation The Chymicks compare the heart to the Sun call'd by them Cor mundi the Sun is in the midst of the great world this in the midst of the little world man The Sun is the sountain of heat in this wherewith all sublunary creatures are cherished and quickened so from the heart to apply things otherwise than they do wholly taken up with the sanctifying Spirit doth proceed such a heat and fervent zeal as that every part is made nimble in the execution of what God commands us It makes the feet swift in running to the house of prayer the hands pliable to minister to the necessities of the poor the tongue voluble in uttering the praises of Almighty God â— 1. 〈◊〉 the eares ready to hear with joy the Gospel of peace preached the eyes to be busied in looking up to heaven from whence cometh our salvation the whole man to be wholly taken up in heavenly contemplations of God and his works and holy exercises of devotion Hence the heart may challenge a principality over all the members of the body all are at its service and it exerciseth dominion over them all Arist in lib. de gederatione tanquam rex in regno as King in his Kingdom saith the Philosopher and it is ruled by the Spirit say Divines Naturalists raise a large discourse and ample dispute upon this Argument and as yet the controversie lies undetermined but this one principle of Divinity alotting the heart to the holy Ghost for his chief mansion in man doth end the controversie for in what part of man the holy Ghost doth principally reside and on what part of man mans conversion doth principally depend must of necessity be the principal part of man But to return more particularly to the rule hitherto amplified that the heart of man is the seat of the Spirit my discourse shall be limited 1. To the proof here of by Scripture 2. To a declaration of those circumstances whereby the being of the Spirit in our hearts may be discovered and by necessary consequence without all peradventure coucluded It is the general voice of the Scripture which is without exception that the Spirit dwelleth in the elect Rom. 8.9 Ye are not in the flesh but iâ— the spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you And in ver 11. it is thus written That if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you The Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.16 propounds this question the ignorance whereof is reputed grosse absurdity Know ye not that ye aâ—d the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you It is part of Pauls divine prayer for the Ephesians in Ephes 3.17 that Christ may dwell in their hearts by saith that is that Christ may possesse their hearts and the whole man by his Spirit working saving faith in them This dwelling is an admirable good expression of the being of the Spirit in us which is not in regard of substance which the heaven of heavens cannot contain being infinite much lesse can the body or soul of man bounded within strait limits comprize but in regard of a special operation out of the reach of a created power It carries with it an intimation of the holy Ghost abiding
The company that were invited to a feast were otherwise imployed but that excused them not No pleasure no business should keep us from performing what God requires When God bids us do one thing what have we to do to do another He will come upon us as he did on the Jewes with a Quis rogavis Isa 1. Who required this at your hands Do what God bids and what is done at Gods bidding cannot be done amiss There is another sort to be reprehended Those that do nothing but plot mischief that watch their opportunity to catch men napping These are the limbs of the Devil scholars of his own bringing up They take time but 't is to do evil They watch but never pray to God They are always doing but 't is iniquity No more of these Gains who are all upon the point of eternal condemnation Others are to be condemned who softer and cocker up themselves in Idleness that do not so much as the Israelites in Egypt as pick straws God breathes into men the breath of life Idle men Prodigi temporis unthristy husbands of Time make a shift to breathe it out again and care not how God gives life so that life is the gift of God and he that spends not his life well shall answer well for it God allows them no mear that labour not for it He that laboureth not shall not eat First sweat then eat But many call daily for daily bread who seek not how to deserve it And here I come to our selves It is not for us to sit all day long in our Studies like Diogenes in his Tub for fashion sake to keep up our credits and to get unto our selves the name of painful Students except we apply our studies in good earnest They that use that trick do not so much keep their Studies as their Studies keep them Our brains should sweat in contemplation our hands in action and not like the sluggard hand over head or under A little more sleep expecting the good time of the day to be told them by the Bell. I may say more truly of them than Pharaoh said of the Israelites They are idle they are idle It is as great folly in them who because they cannot be idle at home they will gad abroad like Dinah and there he idle and lose their virginity I mean the flower of their youth and so for a Six days something they will bring you home a Six days nothing except it be a full belly and an empty brain like Epicures as for the Seventh day they may rest by Law I speak no more but their case is miserable They may know and know much but this is all they can attain to know to know that they know nothing And for this improficiencie God will say as it was said of Judas Let another take his place I speak in way of prevention Dii talem nobit avertiâ—â— pestem Here I may tax such Ministers as neglect their function They are content to take a place in the land of the living but never labour to build up the Israel of God That take Duties but never do their Duties If they preach four times in a year or now and then they think that fair whether they be there or no any other time it makes no matter When they should be present among them always teaching by their own Example as by dumb Sermons Or if they get others to supply their turns all is husht up as if all were well But Paul preached as it is probable three years in Arabia and Damascus and lived there all that while Be ye beloved Brethren O be ye when God calls you unto that Calling abroad followers of him as he was of Christ Jesus I may tax more sin but this is enough for a taste of so four sauce As for you that count Time precious Comfort ye comfort ye my people You that number and redeem your days and years with S. Paul here I do say you are happy for making use of your time in searching out your sins and repenting for them when you have done God considered his created Light and saw that it was good to teach us to consider our offensive Darkness and see that it is naught We must search every corner of our hearts narrowly as God is said to search Jerusalem with a candle All that I have hitherto spoken tends to this To teach us to forsake our sins and to give our selves to the works of our Vocation Rom. 12.21 Not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord that we may work out our salvation with fear and trembling Therefore we need not to trouble our selves with things unneedful as to be prying into Gods secrets to study to find flaws in the Patent of our salvation Gods Will and Testament Syrach Eccl. 19.24 They may be exquisite subtilties quirks of wit but unrighteous But to apply our selves to sound doctrine and to avoid vain bablings as the Apostle exhorts us Suffer therefore Ye sons of Light the words of exhortation I doubt not but some are troubled with the question Viri fratrésque quid faciemus Men and brethren what shall we do Number and redeem your four years your seven years time all your time more or less that none may find holes in your coat Do something every day go from one point to another and stand not upon points with others Run with the Time Apelles like Nulla dies sine linea Let no day pass thy head without some line Let the line of thy Calling run parallel along with the line of the Day Thus may you learn line upon line precept upon precept until you be perfect men in Christ Jesus This remedy will cure the symptoms of ignorance and sin My life for yours Idleness is the worst thing of a thousand Inficit interficit Affect it not lest it infect you it kill you God set Adam to dress the Garden not allowing man Idleness in Innocency how much less in the state of corruption Honest minds will not seek for that now which was unlawful then I need press this no further but take example by Pauls preaching three years that ye may give the like account of your time with a safe conscience Do as S. Hierom's Matrons were used to do contend who should get most Scripture by heart Again Satan we know will besiege us therefore as we victual our selves twice a day or oftner to gather strength against bodily death the least we can is twice if not oftner the oftner the better to victual our selves against our spiritual enemies that threaten death to our souls This is our comfort that we know the best of our defences God and the worst of our enemies power Satan's Let us not therefore fear the worst of our enemies power Satan's while we know the best of our defences God Let us so carry our selves that none carry us away Quid statis otiosi said the Lord of the Vineyard Why
another end the supream which will be acquired Gods glory and their salvation The head and the members agree in continuity So man and wife single themselves out from all the world and by an indissoluble conjunction until death according to the Divine Ordinance of God the first instituter of this Order are made one one in body one in affection by a loving consent on both sides Ephes 5.3 They two shall be one flesh saith Saint Paul and he that hateth his wife hateth his own soul which in nature is most monstrous No earthly unity is comparable to this Where whom God doth thus joyn together let none attempt to put asunder it was never the intention of the prime efficient of this sacred Ordinance that who were lawfully knit together hand-fasted and heart-fasted should be ever parted or really dis-joyned but should continue one and the same unto their dying day Ephes 5.23 Sic equidem ab initio so I am sure it was from the beginning Thus the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church And thus much for the first point in what respects the man is the head of the woman The second part of my discourse shall be concerning the Offices mutually to be performed by man and wife I will begin with the wife it is the Apostles exhortation unto them Wives submit your selves to your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Colos 3.18 Ephes 5.24 And in another place as the Church is subject unto Christ so let wives be to their own husbands in every thing This submission this subjection doth import three things 1. An internal act of the heart conceiving and acknowledging their inferiority to their husbands albeit for nobility of birth and honourable descent for riches or vertue or prudence they may perhaps excel Hence doth proceed as from its proper fountain outward subjection which cannot be without the former but either forced or feigned This disposition of the heart discovered by outward expressions the Apostles speech seems to reflect upon And the wife see that she reverence her husband For wives to be in subjection to their own husbands Ephes 5. last was the fashion in the old world thus Sara obeyed Abraham calling him Lord 1 Pet. 3.6 Let it O let it ye that are the daughters of pious Sara as long as ye do well be the fashion now So shall not the resolute combination of your faithful hearts admit an interruption nor your hearty harmony the least jarring 2. This subjection of wives imports an endeavour of conforming themselves to their husbands humours in all lawful and different matters It is indeed a difficult task but so much the more laudable when the work consummated An ingenuous nature will quickly effect it Hence saith the Apostle She that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband The principal way to attain present felicity and undisturb'd contentation in this life for a woman is 1 Cor. 7.34 to be industrious in framing her disposition and composing her affections in that manner as that her actions may be correspondent to her good mans desires When the rib whereof Eve was made was taken out of Adam Adam was in a deep sleep free from perturbation or pain intimating as one wittily observes that women must be neither troublesome nor painful unto their husbands but ever good and pleasing 3. This subjection hath this importance that the love wives ought to bare their husbands ought to be entire The care of their estates and children perpetual their bearing with their infirmities patient their application of comfort in every condition Sicut in ligno vermis ita perdit virwn suum uâ—or malefica Hierom. constant And if any husband be of dissolute behaviour it is the part of a pious Matron by prayer and sweet conversation to endeavour a reformation A woman thus vertuous is a crown unto her husband Prov. 12.4 Contrariwise she that maketh ashamed is as rottennesse in his bones Wherein the wise man expresseth the mischief of an evil wife by an apt similitude And that of Hierom is not much behind it As the worm eats into the heart of the tree and destroys it so doth a naughty wife her husband Now secondly ye men whom God hath blest with the happinesse of a wife and ye that intend this holy estate observe your duties also It is an Apostolical Edict dictated by the Spirit of Truth husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them A twofold Precept the one commanding love the other prohibiting bitternesse Your love must be pure and upright according to the example of our Saviour urged by the Apostle Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lov'd the Church there 's the affection of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gave himself for it there 's the effect of that affection First then you must love and bestow your hearts upon them and because that the demonstration of your love doth consist in the exhibition of effects there must be secondly an expression of the inward affection in outward acts which may be reduced to these three A joyful and contented cohabitation with your Consorts your presence unlesse necessity force your absence is much desired Christ promised that He would be with his Church unto the end of the world Inter utrunque ardor amoris summus ut Opianus de cervis agens scribit Prov. 5.18 19. So be ye with your espoused wives until death shall work a seperation Rejoyce saith Solomon with the wife of thy youth let her be as the loving Hind and pleasant Roe let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and be thou ravisht with her love Velut extra sis rerum aliarum obliviscare saith Mercer An instruction of them in all things that tend either to the procuring of temporal felicity in this life or the compassing of eternal glory in the suture If they learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home 1 Cor. 14.35 You are their Tutors and Supervisors whose directions are not limitted to secular affairs wherein they are your co-partners but extend also to religious employments and the divine matters of a more glorious and everlasting Kingdom Vxoris vitium aut tollendo aut tollerando Varro whereof with you they are co-heirs Dwell with them saith Saint Peter according to knowledge giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 There is for further expression of love in man required a careful and sollicitous provision of all things necessary for their wives He that provides not for those of his houshold is worse than an infidel Our Saviour supplies his Church which is his Spouse with what conduceth to the happinesse thereof So do
Socer and after banished into France with his wanton Herodias died an Exile The Jews that persecuted Christ and his Apostles what punishments they had their lamentable wars and more lamentable destruction is a sufficient testimony Herod Agrippa that put James John's brother to death was put to death by vermine as his Grandfather was If we take a slight view of the Ten Persecutions Nero who robb'd Peter and paid Paul Peter of his life Paul with death was his own death kill'd himsel Domitian that banished John into Pathmos and crucified Simon Bishop of Jerusalem that put Publius Bishop of Athens to death was killed and his statues and monuments taken quite away Trajan that caused Simeon Bishop of Alexandria to be crucified and Ignatius Bishop of Antioch to be devoured of wild beasts suffered many miseries in his time Tiber overflowed all Rome Pantheon burnt with thunderbolts Cities in Asia shaken with grievous Earthquakes and the whole Empire almost wasted by a most wretched dearth Adrianus in whose Persecution Alexander Bishop of Rome with Hermes his wife children and household to the number of twelve hundred and fifty persons were burnt all in a furnace and Theodorus a Deacon had his tongue cut out of his head his hands and feet cut off afterwards beheaded and was cast to dogs at this time there were ten thousand crucified in Mount Ararat round with thorns and their bodies pierced through with darts at last he died doubting of the life to come Antoninus Verus and his brother Luâ—us persecuted Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna and Justin the Philosopher put to death but in their time there did an unheard of Plague spread over a great part of their Empire Severus a most severe Emperor in persecuting the Christians caused Irenaeus Bishop of Lions and Calixtus Bishop of Rome to be martyred but after he himself was slain and the Roman Empire afflicted with Civil wars Maximinus who martyred Hypolitus Bishop of an head City in Arabia was killed by his soldiers Decius in whose reign another Bishop of Antioch suffered death died miserably in the Scythian war suffocated in a fen In the persecution under Valerian died Cypriun Bishop of Carthage that Caesar of the Christian But he was vanquished by Sapor King of Persia and served instead of a footstool when the Persian took horse I had almost forgot one thing A Judge in the time of Severus condemned one Agapeius a youth of fifteen at whose execution the Judge fell down from his seat and cried his bowels burnt within him and so died Dioclesian and Maximian raised a Persecution which like a flood ran over all the Roman Provinces Syria Tyre Egypt c. But at last Dioclesian in his old days poyson'd himself and Maximian died a dogs death he was hang'd up for a sign of Gods wrath by Constantine Thus in these Ten Persecutions Gods Ministers run through fire and water as the Prophet David speaks of the afflictions of Gods children and were not spared But God spared not to punish those wicked Emperors the raisers of them Then after Julian the Apostate plays the devil but God the Lord of Hosts for the Persian got the honor of the day and Julian wounded sprinkling his blood up toward heaven died blaspheming Vicisti tandem puer Galilee Vulence seduced by the Arrians made havock of the Church but being taken of the Gothes in a Cabin whither he fled was burnt there I could proceed The Mahumetan Persecution I need not insist on Only The Saracens they are vanished Selymus the first Turkish Emperor rooted out of that Nation and the Turks they never are at ease but at continual war whose end by the judgment of the more learned is at hand Neither need I and therefore will not insist on the Persecutions continued under the Popes in Italy Germany Spain France England and in the Eastern tract of the world But who knows not the state of that Church from whom are hidden what deaths many and most of them died Take one for all Boniface the 8. of whom it is reported He came in like a Fox he reigned like a Lion and died like a Dog Let these Examples be as so many arguments to induce Gods Ministers howsoever persecuted to rejoice for Blessed are you when for Christs sake ye suffer persecution for yours is the kingdom of heaven Mat. 5. They that will not receive your crying aloud without sparing shake the dust off your feet against them Sodom and Gomorrah shall be in a better case at the last day than they Mat. 10.14 cap. 11.22 cap. 12.42 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Siaon than for them The Ninevites and the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against them Therefore tell them their own soundly and fear not Though ye be among scorpions as the Lord said to Ezekiel spare not for fear of the ensuing dangers For whosoever spareth incurs his own destruction and the destruction of the people both shall be overwhelmed in the flood of Gods wrath both shall sink into the gulf of everlasting perdition both being as the Prophet Jeremy speaks sifted in the sieve of vanity Yea Press things home to the Conscience and spare not though no hope of amendment of their life appear God bids thee and duty birds thee because God bids thee 1.2 Though ye will not be believed as Jeremy was not where Azariah Johanan and all the proud men said to him Thou speakest falsly Yet cry aloud and spare not leave the event to God Go saith he to Ezekiel and tell this people whether they hear or hear not If they do they shall have life if not judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools Prov. 19. ult For if they heir not you when you cry from God to them God will not hear them when they cry to him or you for them Jer. 7.16 Now God Almighty enable embolden and encourage all his Ministers to cry aloud to those whose minds are wandring that their hearts may turn to God to those that are in pursuit of their own wicked lusts that they may be reclaimed to those that are afar off that they may hear and return homeward to God to those that are asleep in sin that they may awake to righteousness to those that stop their ears that they may open them with gladness to those that hear carelesly that they may hear diligently to those that are dead in sins that they may arise and be quickned with the life of grace to the life of glory Again As we must take heed of our Doctrine so we must take heed of our Lives that we be unspotted of this wicked world Mundamimini qui fertis vasa Domini Ye that carry the vessels of the Lord be clean The Breast-plate of the Priest had this inscription HOLINESS TO THE LORD signifying that we should have Holiness imprest in our hearts Remember the Orders ye have taken they are holy Holy Orders Be
obitum faelicem Which Cyrus understanding delivers him saying Et ea quoque mihi evenire possunt This was also a vertue for which Q. Camd. Eliz. Elizabeth was said to be famous Next to the holy Scripture she preferred as the best piece Seneca's book of clemency In a word Mercy is an excellent and divine vertue it draweth near to the nature of God who is the Father of mercies Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5.7 Be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful Yea Luke 6.36 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies Col. 3.12 Cruelty Crudelitas est atrocitas animi in paenis exigendis Cruelty hath usually something to cover its deformity It is one of the companions of ambition and covetousnesse If Ahab have a desire to Naboths vineyard either Naboth must part with it or his life There is a manifold cruelty 1. Mr. Marburie Cruelty of combination when we make our selves strong in a faction to oppose and oppresse all that go not our way 2. Cruelty of the eye when we can be content to behold our brethrens miseries without any compassion 3. Cruelty of heart when we make our selves merry with their afflictions 4. Cruelty of tongue when we insult over them and brand them with taunts 5. Cruelty of the hands When we 1. Either persecute their persons with molestation 2. Or touch their liberty with unjust restraint 3. Or rob them of their goods by cruel direprions 4. Or hinder the course of justice that should do them right 5. Or procure their death So that they are not all innocent of this great offence that keep themselves from shedding of blood They that invade the meanes or maintenance of life that pinch the labourer in his wages or make the hireling work for nothing or let their hire sleep in their custody whilst he pineth for want of things necessary are all guilty of it Tacitus saith of the Germanes out of whom our Saxons that they were so given to Mars that they thought it no better than sloathful to get that by sweat which they might have by blood It 's storied of Nero he fell into such a sucking vaine of slaughter Euseb l. 2. c. 25. that he abstained not from his most dear and familiar friends Yea he tormented with divers kinds of death his own mother his brethren his wife Strabo saith that the ancient Irish were so savage that they fed upon mans flesh Grimst p. 34. Solinus addes more that when they were victors they rubbed their faces with the blood of them that were slain in the fight after they had drunk some Exemplum de populis habitantibus in minori Asià circa pontum habemus qui crudis humanis carnibus vescuntur proprios suos liberos coquunt amicis inter epulas proponunt Exemplum etiam de quodam Phalaride qui dicitur filium suum comedisse The Turks are a most barbarous people having Christians in their hands Turk Hist fol. 756. some they have put quick into the ground to the wast and there for their pleasure shot at them with arrows others have they stripped their skins over their eares and others miserably empailed And no lesse famous rather infamous for inhumanity are the Spaniards Sr. Fr. Drakes travels Of some they have squeezed out their brains Others they have rosted till their eyes dropt out And think they shew the innocent Indians great favour when they do not for their pleasure whip them with cords scratch them with thornes and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon Another Author addes In India you may find more cursed prodigies than ever the Sun beheld in any Map of misery where the Roman Apostles did exceed Cain or if possible Judas where they ravished and then murthered Queenes tore infants in peices cast men to mastives cut children in collops to feed dogs men never did the like Devils could do no more The Romans descended from Edom say the Jewes Edom had a name of blood Mount-Seir was their possession Usually Hereticks are exceeding cruel witness the Sadduces of old Anabaptists of later times Eusâ—b l. c. 3.23 the hill of blood Acheldama their purchase the field of blood Our English when they grow Romish against the nature of our Nation become bloody which is imputed to the scituation of the English Colledge in Rome which is founded in the ruines of bloody Neroes house Of all the stories of Christians of Heathens of all the bloody Tragedies plotted in hell or acted under heaven never any so horrid as the bloody baptisme of India by the Jesuites They have long intended to have the second part of this Tragedy to be acted here The courtesie that Polyphemus promised Vlisses was that he should be the last that he would devour The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Pro. 12.10 It was said of our K. Edward the fourth that he had made the white rose flourish as long as Henry the fourth the red if he had not made it change colour with too much blood Q. Tomiris having overcome Cyrus and taken him cut off his head and casting it into a boll of blood said Satia te sanguine Those who are the lovers of other mens miseries usually misery finds them out Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations Gen. 49.5 6 7. O my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united for in their anger they slew a man and in their self-will they digged down a wall Cursed be their anger for iâ— was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Revenge Some have been heard to say Proniâ—â—eres ad vindictam sumus quà m gratiam Bodin O how sweet is revenge What a pleasent draught is a draught of blood Spightful spirits hunger and thirst for the downfall and misery of those who stand in their way nor will any thing satisfie hatred but the ruine of those who are hated Yea some men though themselves be mortal yet their wrath may seem to be immortal As was Hanibals against the Romanes and our Edward the first against the Scots Dan. Hist fol. 201. Adjuring his Son and Nobles if he died not to bury his corps till they had absolutely subdued the countrey Bodinus relates a most tragical story An Italian was at deadly feud with one once his familiar friend Bodin lib. de Repub. cap. 6. pag. 951. and for ten years sought occasion to satisfy his wicked revenge but being frustrated of his hope pretended reconciliation and having one time an advantage sets on the man overcometh him and is going to kill him The miserable men desired him to spare his life The revengeful man said he would do it on condition he would renounce God and all the benefits of his soul Though this was hard to the poor man yet fear of death makes
him renounce God and Salvation upon which that wretched malicious enemy killeth him with this boast Now he had satisfied his revenge for he had not onely killed his body but damned his soul It is a great depravity in our natures and surely an affection that savoureth of hell to comfort our selves in the sufferings of others But to procure the miseries of others in those extremities wherein we hold an hope to have no society ourselves is methinks a strain above Lucifer and a project beyond the primary seduction of hell Revenge Indignus Casaris irâ— 1. It is an effeminate passion the generous mind disdaineth it as not daining to debase himself These are the worst spirits that are possest with thoughts of revenge Quippe minuti Semper infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas Vltio Hail Vero magni est animi quasdam injurias negligere nec ad quorundam convicia habere vel aures vel linluam Erasm thunder lightning hurt not superiour bodies but inferiour so childish quarrels hurt not great and high minds 2. It is a biting passion like a worm it gnaweth the heart of him that is infected with it 3. It is full of injustice it tormenteth the innocent 4. The execution is not onely painful but dangerous he doth that he wisheth to be undone the fear of justice tormenteth him and the care to hide him those that love him 5. To kill his enemy is not revenge for he feeleth not the power of his wrath which is the end of revenge In true revenge the revenger takes some pleasure and he upon whom he is revenged must feel the weight of his displeasure and repent which he that is killed cannot do Besides to kill is cowardly for though it makes an end of the quarrel yet it wounds the reputation It is a trick of precaution not of courage the way to proceed safely not honourably A wise man will neglect injuries Momus in Lucian tels Jupiter It is in thy power whether any one shall vex or wrong thee One having made a long and idle discourse before Aristotle concluded it thus I doubt I have been too tedious unto you Sr. Philosopher with my many words In good sooth said Aristotle you have not been tedious to me for I gave no heed to any thing you said The manlier any man is the milder and more merciful as David 2 Sam. 1.12 And Julius Caesar who when he had Pompey's head presented to him wept and said Non mihi placet vindicta sed victoria I seek not revenge but victory True it is that private revenge is utterly unlawful unlesse it be in a mans own necessary defence where the case is so sudden that a man cannot call in the help of the Magistrate but must either kill or be killed Otherwise that of Lactantius holdeth true Non minus mali est injuriam referre quà m inferre And that of Seneca Immane verbum est ultio revenge is a cruel word I will conclude this in the words of Ambrose O domine Comment in Luk. l. 10. in illa verba lucae cur emere me jubes gladium qui ferire me prohibes Cur haberi precipis quem vetas promi nisi forte ut sit parata defensio non ultio ut videar potuisse vindicare sed noluisse Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath Rom. 12.19 for it is written Vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. Murder It is reported of the Bees that aegrotante unâ lamentantur emnes when one is sick Homicidium est injustâ homin is occisio Ames they all mourn And of sheep that if one be faint the rest will stand betwixt it and the sun till it be revived Onely man to man is most pernicious We know that a bird yea a bird of prey once fed a man in the wildernesse that a beast Homo solus sibi inimicus yea a beast of fierce cruelty spared a man in his den Whereupon saith a learned Father Ferae parcunt aves pasount homines saeviunt hence also we may conclude with Solomon Pro. 17.12 Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man Cypr. serm 6. rather than a fool in his folly Surely if others sins have a woe hanging at their heeles according to that of Job Cap. 10.15 bloody men shall have a woe with a witnesse Nahum 3.1 as those that walk in the way of Cain â—ude 11. The blood of one Abel had so wany tongues as drops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. Caryl and every drop a voice to cry for vengeance True neither did the blood nor the earth speak formally the blood had no voice and the ground was silent blood hath no more voice of its own than water hath or than a fish that lives in the water hath but the Lord speakes thus to shew that he will certainly bring bloody sins chiefly the sin of blood to light The justice of God in all ages hath sent out his writ of enquiry after bloody men and for the blood of the innocent Yea God will as it were give a tongue to the earth he will make speechless creatures speak rather than blood shall be concealed Blood may be concealed a long time but blood shall not alwayes be concealed Murder is a crying sin for which God makes inquisition and strangely brings it to light Wonderful are the instances how murderers have met with the hand of revenge some immediately from God others from the civil sword of the Magistrate some from the hand of murderers like themselves and many have done violence to their own lives being haunted and hunted by the furies of their own consciences It was a saying of K. James that if God did leave him to kill a man he would think God did not love him The blood of man violently spilt doth not bring sorth hony-bees to sting hands and face but the monstrous beast called revenge which hath destroyed whole kingdomes The blood of a wicked man Mr. Needlars Expos Not. if innocently shed cryes If Abel had murdered Cain Cains blood would have cryed and called upon God for justice against Abel But Abels blood cryes according to the worth of the person for Abel was a Saint c. Psal 72.14 Psal 116.15 Blood-guiltiness made not onely Cain restlesse Clamitat in coelum vox sanguinis Sodomorum vox oppressorum merces retenta laborum but how terrible also was the voice of it in Judas conscience It did need no tongue no voice no witnesse to accuse it but his own No man accused Judas but in case of blood Judas must accuse himself Mat. 27.3 The burden of it lyes so heavy on the conscience and how strangely doth the Lord bring forth blood by the persons themselves The busy brood of Romes factors are called Jesuites but they may more fitly be called Jehuites Jesus was as meek as a Lamb but Jehu was a man of blood so be they