Titius his liver devoured by vultures of the continual turning of Ixions wheel and the rolling of Sisiphus his stone or of those infernal Furies ready to torment those whom Charon should waft over and Ridentem dicere verum quis vetat even these mythological expressions hold some proportion with the truth But I will draw my water out of a purer fountain surely it must needs be an ill-favoured brat that is born of two such hideous Monsters the Devil the father and corrupt nature the mother it must needs be terrible that is the wages for such work so contrary to God and goodnesse Death is nothing but a privation of life and a subjecting the creature to those miseries which are contrary to the comforts of life And by life we do not onely understand the conjunction of soul and body but all that perfection and blisse which was either actually conferred unto man or to be communicated to him so that in this monosyllable is contained the whole world hell with all the torments of that earth with all the miseries therein But is there any death in heaven Surely it is a death to lose heaven and it contains that also so that look how variously sin reflects on God so do his judgments on us that we may read our sin in the judgment But that I may proceed orderly I will borrow a distinction of Philo Lib. leg alleg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a death of the man and a death of the soul the first is a separation of soul and body the second a deserting of vertue and assuming of sin But all misery is called by the name of death because of all death is most unavoidable most bitter Death in regard of the kind is either corporal or spiritual Death Corporal Sen. which kinds are to be considered in degrees inchoation In regard of inchoation and perfection both which kinds are to be considered in regard of losse and pain You shall dye that is a corporal death in regard of inchoation for in this we are mistaken that we look forward upon death whereas a great part of it is already past in hoc enim fallimur quod mortem prospicimus magna pars ejus jam praeteriit Death is behind us a great part of it the life of to day is the death of yesterday We dye daily Every little publick or personal crosse is a petty death and a harbenger sent by that insatiable enemy of humane nature to take possession of his right Thus you shall lose the good temperature of body inwardly and outwardly all those comforts of nature whereby life is maintained in a word true dominion over the creatures that in regard of losse Either you shall lose the world or have it with a curse your table shall become a snare and so some even dye with laughing with a pleasant gale of wind are carried upon rocks and sands pampered in fat pastures for destruction and carried down the pleasant River Jordan into the Dead Sea In regard of sense inwardly ye shall be perplexed with grief and sorrow and wearinesse outwardly with famine pestilence sword both wayes with ten thousand calamities as waves of the Sea coming in the neck one of another which as they be vexatious in themselves so certainly shall they be unto you insomuch that your life shall be an hard apprentiship groaning daily under the iron yoke of bondage Ye shall dye And Consummation that is a natural death in regard of consummation This inexorable Sergeant that rides on the pale horse will ere long knock at your door and by violence pull your soul out of that Tabernacle of clay when the soul shall be kept in chaines of darknesse till the judgment of that great day and the body in the grave as in a loathsome dung-hill till that general Assize In regard of losse here is a deprivation of life and all that supports it meat drink apparel society and all the comforts of nature and though there be no poena sensûs in the body which is kept in that hideous prison yet there is in the soul Luk. 16.25 for the glutton cryes Crucior in hac flamma nay and it may be this accursed corporal death will take you away in the acting of your sin with Zimri and Cosbi so that you shall not live out half your dayes but be haled to execution as soon as your crimes are committed and it may be before you go feel the very flames of hell in your soules as Cain and Judas did But this natural death of the body though horrid unto nature Death spiritual in regard of inchoation yet it 's nothing to the spiritual death of the soul that being a more excellent creature and having a more eminent life To proceed then that is spiritually in regard of inchoation God shall be separated from your soul the light of his countenance shall not shine upon you the understanding being full of darknesse the heart of uncleannesse the conscience void of serenity the whole soul out of order full of confusion destitute of true comfort In regard of sense a servitude and subjection of the soul to your spiritual enemies and the powers of darknesse made a vassal unto Satan who worketh effectually in such a slave to the world which is the devils slave yea unto sin which is worse then the world or the devil In which regard it comes to passe though a man retain that natural liberty of his will which is essential to it and cannot be lost yet that liberty which pertaineth to the perfection of humane nature to exercise acts spiritually good and so savingly acceptable unto God this is utterly lost man being dead in sins and trespasses and the uncircumcision of his heart But all these are but the beginnings of sorrowes And of consummation or eternall death that which is here principally meant is the consummation of spiritual death And now had I but the keyes of hell and death to shew unto your bodily eyes a glimpse of that infernal fire and those hideous monsters that dwell in those horrid vaults I should either lose my auditory or it may be so prevail with some that they would beware how they came into that place of torment But I desire that my speech may work in you such fear of those paines that you never feel them and that you may be terrified so now that hereafter you may be secure consider what Abraham saito to the rich glutton Son remember We likely remember it not till it be too late and therefore smart for it because we do not remember it You shall dye then that is first immediately when your soul and body are parted your soules shall be haled by the Devil into that place of torment St. August speaking of the rich glutton saith The soul likewise grieves when separate from the body for verily the rich man grieved in hell when he said I am tormented in this
year to shed a tear the debt in time would be discharged And though this be an unconceivable time yet it would comfort a little if then there might be an end or a mitigation of the torment but here the worm dieth not the fire never goes out here death ever lives want knows not how to be desective the end ever beginneth and death which we now so fear as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most fearful of all other fearful things for it is indeed the king of fears will they then desire as a Paradise but it will fly from them and that second death will feed on them as grasse which suffers a continual death being cropt by the cattel and yet still lives in the root If God preserve the three children in the flames that they be not burnt if mount Aetna sends forth flashes continually and it is not consumed It s St. Aug. argument If the Salamander live perpetually in the fire why cannot he by his power support their nature to live for ever that they may ever dye Oh how much better were it for them that they had never been or as they had lived like beasts so they might die like beasts to be no more So we see the consolations of the flesh are the desolations of the soul Carnis consolationes sunt animi desolationes Hell never restores those whom it once receives Infernus quos semel recipit nunquam restituit saith Cassiod So Aug. sins are bound and loosed here in the world to come is nothing but remuneration and condemnation Hic ligantur solvuntur peccata in futuro seculo nihil est nisi remuneratio condemnatio no end no ease no intermission And thus you have heard the reward of the wicked and the fearful doome o them that live after the flesh This is the cause why the man is deprived of comfort and filled with sorrow in this world why the soul is deprived of God in spiritual death and the body of the soul in corporal this is the reason why the soul is deprived both of God and the world from the natural death to the resurrection and why both soul and body are deprived of the vision and fruition of God to all eternity Nor must you think this to be a meer fable or Poetical fiction or that we make the matter worse then indeed it is the singular purity of God cannot abide sin therefore it must be purged by blood or fire God will have his justice magnified therefore will not spare an onely Son he will have truth maintained who often hath declared this in his Word it s an irrevocable decree that they who live after the flesh shall dye In the first decree he said to Adam Moriemini but his goodnesse reversed it to Nineveh Ye shall be destroyed but yet upon their repentance spared and so may these else know this is a branch of the second Covenant which shall not be abrogated For what can God give better then his Son on his part or upon what easier termes can he capitulate with us His wisdome hath thought meet that there should be som bounds to his mercy else he should seem prodigal of it and be thought to have absolute need of his creature and therefore notwithstanding Christ his satisfaction to declare his justice against contemners of his grace and haters of purity he hath said and sworn that unbelievers shall not enter into his rest and hath peremptorily decreed without hope of repeal or mitigation of the censure that If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye It 's not finis operantis but operis for they would live after the flesh and not dye they would live like Devils and dye like Saints the life of Balaam but the death of the righteous But he that sins voluntarily must suffer involuntarily there is a connexion of these ab ordine justitiae divinae He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption Let not man then separate what God hath joyned and though he assay it he shall never be able to do it If they will live after the flesh they shall dye But as St. Gregory upon the Parable of the rich man Recordatione magis eget versus iste quam expositione so I may say of this therefore we will draw hence some Corollaries which may be for our Spiritual direction First then will sin cousen us thus The Use for Information who would have suspected that such beginings that promised such delight would have ended thus that so glorious a Sun-shine morning would have closed with such gloomy blasts with such thunder and lightning stormes and tempests then let no child of God envy the wicked their delight in sin not grudge at his delicious fare Silkes and Sattins Much good may do Nabal with his good chear and Haman with his preferment I envy not the whole world to Alexander upon such hard terms there is poyson in their delicates and clothes are fafcinated their advancement prefers them to the gibbet their very life is but a continual death and how bitter shall be the death of these men Rather let me have Jacobs pillow and Canopy so I may have his dream let me have John Baptists hair-cloth so I may have his conscience No I admire those worthies of old that would choose to do or suffer any thing rather then split themselves upon these rocks Oh happy confessors and thrice blessed Martyrs that passed thorow fire and water and refused no torment no death that they might be delivered from the second death Let me passe under Esayes saw and endure Jeremies showres of stormes let me not refuse Zacharies sword nor the Lyons den with Daniel let me be beheaded with St. Paul or crucified with Andrew and Peter let me be flayed with Bartholomew or my braines dasht out with St. James let me be put into a vessel of scalding liquor with St. John or broyled on the Gridiron with Laurence let me suffer abstinence affliction persecution exile imprisonment with those holy Fathers of old Chrysostome Athanasius Ambrose Hierom let me be given to the wilde beasts with Polycarpus and Ignatius yea if it were possible let all these meet and the tormentots prompted by the Devil himself see if they can invent any torment more exquisite let me suffer in this world what humane nature is capable of rather then be forsaken by God and dye ever Oh blessed Christians that would offer your selves rather to your persecutors in the dayes of Tertullian Ego sum Christianus Christianus et ego I shall ever subscribe to that of holy St. Aug. Domine hic ure hic seca ut in aeternum parcas and again Do de me poenas ut ille parcat I had rather suffer Gods chastisement then his punishment And I would to God this might be an advertisement to us all how we live after the flesh though it be pleasing and profitable for a while yet the event should deter wise men
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfruitful works Of Elements none so fruitful as water stinking puddles bring forth most troops of vermine Some grounds yield two crops every year some trees bear fruit twice this all the year some creatures breed every moneth this every moment and these brats are even conceived and born at once How many kinds are there of sins and how many millions of each kind Gal. 5.21 There is some of the progeny it is progenies viperarum all those irregular thoughts affections words and actions that passe from a man come from hence Now this body hath its activenesse from the parents the father is the devil a compasser the soul the mother in perpetual motion and agitation Now his own will enticeth him to these deeds and he that is wilfully bent upon a thing who can stay him The Devil continually spurs him on and he must needs go whom the Devil drives he is further provoked by the world by the men of the world their perswasion as Solomon their threats as Nebuchadnezzar their promises as Balaam their example as Jeroboam by the things of the world there is at least a seeming lustre in the object that doth allure Bathsheba's beauty the rich wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment When the Vessel sailes with the tide and the sailes blown with such a gale it must needs go apace There are deeds of the body which are natural to eat drink sleep voluntary to walk c. but these are motus opera carnis peccatricis these are they that must be mortified that is the second thing in the duty Mortifie The body of death must be slain that we may live What it is to mortifie Thus if we will become wise we must first be fooles if rich and have a Kingdome poor in spirit if free put our necks under Christs yoke if save our life first lose it if have a true being old men must be born again if have the life of grace here and glory hereafter first kill our sinful selves To mortifie is a Metaphor taken from Chirurgeons that use to mortifie that part they mean to cut off so we must mortifie sin that it may not live or if it live such a life as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off or as in those that have an Epilepsie Rom. 4.19 or as in old Abrahams body which was as good as dead unfit for generation The efficacy and power of these lusts must be slain that they produce not new Monsters and so bring forth fruit unto death that is as Cajetan tells us insur gentes compescendo ne insurgant domando so mortifie them that they make no rebellion or if they do make insurrection beat them down that they domineer not So much for the second thing the act I come now to the causes The efficient cause principal the Spirit The principal is the Spirit By the Spirit here to omit other acceptations we understand either the grace of the Spirit or the Spirit of grace If the former then so far forth as it is enlivened and actuated by the latter The Spirit dwells in all creatures by a general influence in Christ by hypostatical union in some men by creating in them extraordinary gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the elect by effectual operation And if the essence of the Spirit be in us it is in us not as an essential part that were to deify man nor united personally unto us for then should the third person be incarnate as well as the second but dwelling in Christ as the head in an unspeakable manner diffused unto us Thus the devil dwells in the children of disobedience not by communicating his essence to them for then they should be incarnate devills but taking possession of them as his vassals blinding their minds hardening their hearts infusing malice into their wills leading them captive till at the last he bring them to the pit of destruction But hath man the command of the Spirit But the Spirit and Gods Ordinances are not separated unlesse for our fault But is the Spirit our instrument No but we the Spirits for God infuseth into us this supernatural principle whereby we are inabled to work and then quickeneth it up by moral perswasion But how doth the Spirit mortifie It 's that light that doth detect those deeds of the body it 's contrary to them and stirs up hatred against them it 's the Spirit of grace which makes us pray against them it 's our remembrance that brings to our mind the Scripture that declares the odiousnesse and danger of them it 's the mighty power of God that crusheth these brats in pieces it 's that which doth co-operate with the Word and prayer and tears and affliction and fasting whereby the flesh is beaten down That the Spirit worketh we evidently feel but how we cannot certainly define for if the operation of the wind the framing of the body in the womb be so strange much more that of the Spirit The lesse-principal cause We. The lesse-principal We. The Spirit quickens us being dead and being quickened we must act by the Spirit In the receiving the first grace man is a meer passive habet se ut materia in the second partly active partly passive active we must mortify passive for it must be by the Spirit and as St. Aug. Gratia non credit non resipiscit non sperat non obtemperat Deo sed homo per gratiam Grace believes not repents not hopes not obeys not God but man by grace So we say Spiritus non mortificat sed homo per Spiritum The Spirit mortifies not but man by the Spirit that we might not be proud or self confident not we but the Spirit that we might not be slothful or negligent we must do it by the Spirit that we might avoid all straines of Popery and Pelagianism it is the Spirit which quickens us at the first and doth continually send us fresh supplies against the flesh that we might not be taken with the idle fancies or doting dreames and crotchets of the Familists we must mortifie by the Spirit As we cannot mortifie without the Spirit so the Spirit will not without us Ye shall live Having now done with the duty What life here meant we come to the reward and what is better then life God is pleased to be stiled a living God This is that which every eye looks at every heart breaths after in which the vastest desire is satisfied beyond which the mind knowes nothing nor the will desires any thing that might make it happy By life here we do not understand the uncreated life of God but the created life of man which is twofold corporal the union of the soul with the body spiritual the union of God with the soul Indeed there is a natural life of the soul like that of Angels in which sense damned spirits may be said to live this was the eternity the
for denying thy Lord. Make a bath of tears with Mary for entertaining so many Devils in thine heart for get a while to eate thy bread by fasting and abstinence be revenged on thy selfe for sin past and keep under thy body for time to come It 's one of the nailes that crucifies the flesh and a meanes to take down the ranknesse of this fertile field singulare putatis aratrum But if thou canst not weep and command tears at least get that dolorem appretiativum Value your sins at such a rate that they deserve tears of blood Wish that thy head were a fountaine and thine eyes as Conduit-pipes Intreat God to accept the desire for the deed and the blood and tears of Christ for all But men now adayes can mortifie without renting the heart fasting a day shedding a tear But withall remember to mortifie too else thy tears will be no better then Esaus thy fasting like Ahabs Purge not that thou mayest surfeit repent not that thou mayest sin returne not like the dog to the vomit if thou do thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning But blessed is the man that sorrows after a godly manner for this works repentance never to be repented of Blessed are they that mourne now that sowe in teares for they shall reape in joy they shall finde triumph in torment joy in tribulation refreshing in fasting life in death Bern. Filii hujus seculi vident cruces nostras non consolationes The sons of this world see our crosses but not our comforts If any thing were better then life God would not deny it you he accounts you Martyrs in manner Mortificare opera carnis genus Martyrii est horrore quidem mitius sed diuturnitate molestius To mortifie the deeds of the body is a kinde of martyrdome milder indeed in its horrour but more troublesome in its long continuance Certainly they that keep such a Lent shall have a glorious Easter at the day of their resurrection when all teares shall be wiped from their eyes and they shall remaine and raigne with God in blisse for ever And thus I have travelled through these Propositions in their absolute consideration We considered these words in their opposition Here are two contrary wayes that tend to two contrary ends They cousin themselves that think to fare as well as the best The word considered in their opposition and yet sin as bad as the worst and they fill themselves with unnecessary fears that live strictly and carefully and yet comfort not themselves in Gods promises 1. It doth no whit prejudice the godly in their comfort that God is so severe against the wicked Cains profanenesse doth not hurt Abel he is accepted Though Judas be a devil the rest fare not the worse So at the last day while the wicked wish the hils and mountains to cover them the godly lift up their heads Abraham and Moses make use of their interest with God even when he is provoked against Sodom and Jasrel 2. The wicked are not priviledged by Gods mercies on the godly as we see in the Wise and Foolish Virgins Gods mercies Christs merits the precious promises and priviledges of the Gospel availe them nothing Gods mercies are limited to certaine conditions therefore let not wicked men boulster up themselves in these heed not lying vanities We consider them in their coherence Therefore we should mortifie sin 3 And in their coherence because if we live after the flesh we shall die It 's not absurd to propound life and death as Motives to obedience God did so to Adam in Paradise Yea to men already converted our Saviour doth so Feare not him that can kill the body c. So the Father at banquets would talke of hell to keep men from security So the Apostle here to men already converted If ye live c. The meditation of death is not unprofitable for them They are not out of danger of Gun-shot though they are in a Cittadel or strong Tower yet they have some flesh and are subject to spiritual security presumption or prophanenesse The Tower cannot be demolished but they may looke out at the windowes and battlements and be wounded Hence we may conclude that a Christian may take comfort in an holy life Here is an Antidote against Presumption and Despaire None can presume but they that mortifie and that is not presumption but hope none can despaire but such as live after the flesh and that is a feare upon good grounds And now to draw to a conclusion The agreement 'twixt Armin. and their adversaries in the rules of practise How happily might these two Propositions put an end to our unhappy controversies were men of peaceable spirits The Areopagites in Athens in a doubtful case wherein they were loath to passe sentence differred it in diem longissimum it may be for an hundred years I would to God we could do so in these that I am sure are doubtful but this is to suspend men in a Neutrality to beleeve nothing S. Augustine answers some well that would not beleeve unlesse all objections were cleared Sunt innumerabiles objectiones quae non sunt finiendae ante fidem ne finiatur vita sine fide There are innumerable objections which must not be dispatched and answered before faith c. Moderation in these mysteries is to be shewen if any where Neutram partem affirmantes sive destrueren tes sed tantummodo ab audaci affirmandi praesumptione revocantes Affirming or denying neither of the two but onely restraining us from bold presumption in taking either part But now every novice can determine in these things when the wisest men demurre and can as exactly chalke out Gods secret wayes as if with S. Paul they had been rapt up into the third heaven and taken a transcript of the book of life Either side is confident and it may be in conclusion it will prove neither so nor so and so it comes to passe that religion is turned into nicities and disputation bearing things certaine and fastening upon uncertaine like Zeuxes that pictured an old woman so to the life that he laughed to death at the veiw of her So I thinke our gracious Soveraigne hath taken a Religious and Wise course to silence these controversies more fit for Schooles then Pulpits or rather fitter for heavens perfection then for earthly frailty to determine Et Elias quum venerit solvet haec dubia If I should enter upon the controversies I should contradict authority or if I might I would not so far presume upon mine own weaknesse or if I had ability and liberty I durst not so far abuse your patience Onely let me advise all especially the unlearned which with much study cannot so much as attaine the stating of the questions to turne their cavilling about the Theory into Practice Surely there is no such vast difference in the points as they are handled by moderate men on both sides whatsoever
THE WAY To Life and Death LAID Down in a SERMON 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being By N. Waker M. A. late Minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire Now published for the reasonablenesse of the advice therein given touching the five Controverted points viz. Predestination general Redemption Freewill Conversion and Perseverance of the Saints Directing a safe way for the Practice of private Christians as confessed by the disputants on both sides The text Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. LONDON Printed by J. L. for Phil. Stephens at the gilded Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO The Reader WHat entertainment this sermon will find in the World I can easily foresee Some I hope it will both profit and delight If it displeaseth some others I have what I looked for To the pious charitable and ingenious it cannot I think be unacceptable sure I am unseasonable 't will never be so long as the world is so full of walkers after the flesh the sharpest reproof comes not amisse Of the Authour my near relation forbids me to expresse what I might justly make known to the world In the eyes of some he will be in dislike as being in their opinion too mild and moderate in the Controversies about Predestination General Redemption Perseverance c. Touching which Points he layeth down the Rules for Christian practice according to Godlinesse which are confessed to be so by the Disputants on both sides Live here we must as if infallibly chosen to life eternall and yet never cease to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure implore the speciall ayd and assistance of his holy Spirit who worketh in us both to will and do even all our works in us and for us not forgetting in the meantime to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Further we have here a portraiture of LIFE and DEATH the life of the spiritual with the death of the carnal both of them pictured and set forth in most lively colours upon which is grounded a pious and patheticall Exhortation to fasting and mourning a duty as well now as then yea now if ever needful A Plat-form we have drawn to our hands by the Learned and most eminently holy Bishop HALL In a Book entituled The Holy Order and Fraternity of Mourners in Sion Let none be ashamed to follow so worthy a guide and have we not just cause our sins and Gods Judgments the confusion of our Land the ruines of a fair and flourishing Church will not all this open the flood gates of our teares yea let it at last till then there is no hope of mercy wring from us bitter cryes and lamentations Let us all with holy David set our faces unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes nor let us ever cease till our God at length overcome with our importunity shew mercy unto us bind up the wounds of this bleeding Island hear the prayers of those that stand in the Gap and be favourable unto us All which that he would for his Sons sake hear and grant is the uncessant prayer of him who professeth himself one of that Holy Fraternity of Spirituall Mourners Even yours in the Common Saviour John Waker THE Way to Life and Death Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live THis whole Universe may not unfitly be divided into three principall Kingdomes The Preface or introduction the first in Heaven where God reigneth the second in hell where Beelzebub domineereth and the third on Earth which God hath given to the children of men In the first is nothing but holinesse and happinesse in the second nothing but sin and misery in the third a mixture of all in the first is light without darknesse in the second darknesse without light in the third both light and darknesse In the first are Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory and blisse in the second the Devil and his angels tormented in flames and here are men of a middle condition placed on earth for the tryal of their obedience and accordingly as they shall demean themselves in this world so shall their doom be hereafter either to live with God who is the fountain of life or dye that second death with the damned spirits Here then we are in a center from hence are drawen two long lines the one reaching to heaven the other to hell in this world God hath shewed us the way of both the one that we might avoid it the other that we might walk in it nay he hath given us a taste of both of hell in the miseries of the world of heaven in the comforts of it of this that we might long for the fruition of the harvest of that that so we might ever take heed how we come into that place of torment So then there are but two conditions after this life the one of joy the other of torment the one of life the other of death and there are but two estates of life in this world as meanes tending thereunto one evil another good some live after the flesh and some after the Spirit and they that live after the flesh shall dye but they that by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live So that here the Apostle describes two contrary waies and two contrary ends unto which they lead the first is the broad way that leadeth to destruction a way of pleasure but it endeth in woe The voluptuous man now fares deliciously anon cannot get a drop of water now cloathed in fcarlet anon tormented in flames now accompanied with Nobles anon haled by devils the other sowes in teares but reaps in joy now full of sores with Lazarus anon with him full of pleasures now among the dogs anon among Angels now on the dung-hill anon in Abrahams bosome verè stupendae vices the former of these wayes is through the fairest street in the City but it leads to the place of execution the other through a narrow dirty Lane but it brings to the Kings Palace where is prepared a costly banquet the first is a way pleasing to flesh and blood strewed with Roses over flowery meadows having all the delights that nature or art can afford but it leads at last to the dead Sea it tends to the chambers of death the other is beset with briars and thornes haunted with wild beasts theeves and robbers over craggy Rocks and steep Mountaines where if a man cannot find a way for few tread that path he must make it as he did over the Alpes but this way leads to the new Jerusalem to the Celestial Paradise Non quà sed quò must be the wise mans quaery not which way we go but whither so that here you have our Saviours
two men in the field two women grinding the one taken the other left you have his broad way that leadeth to destruction the way of the flesh and many there be that walk that way the other the narrow way that leads to life to mortifie the deeds of the body and few there be that find it For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. Which words to avoid needlesse curiosity admit of a threefold consideration The words variously considered 1. We may consider them absolutely and so they contain two conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely the one a Commination If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye the second a Consolation If ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 2. We may note them in their antithesis or opposition 2 In their antithesis Though the wicked be destroyed yet it shall go well with the righteous intimated in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but and though the wicked perish as dung yee it shall go well with the righteous and contrà there is and ever will be an opposition 3. In their coherence intimated in the illation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which briefly lyeth thus 3 In their coherence There are two things which molest a Christian that is justified the reliques of sin which he thinks cannot stand with Justification and Sanctification and the afflictions of this life which seem repugnant both to the mercy and Justice of God The Apostle in this Chapter prescribeth an antidote for both giveth both comfort and counsel for afflictions the comfort is that they shall work our good here augment our glory hereafter and the counsel inferred therefore to be patient under them and make good use of them for sin though it do remain yet it shall not condemn unlesse it raign that is the comfort and his counsel and therefore let it not raign but mortifie it and in this verse he layes down a twofold Argument to incite Christians to embrace that counsel For if ye live after the flesh c. The first is taken from the pernicious consequent of a carnal life the second from a sweet effect of a spiritual For if ye live after the flesh c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. First then to handle the words absolutely as two distinct conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely considered and 〈…〉 two parts a Comminâ—tâ—on and Câ—nâ—olâ—tion If ye live c. and here perversum aliquid videtur docere divinus sermo Strange paradoxes to some Nicodemus divine riddles like that of Sampson If we laugh now we must weep hereafter but if we sowe in teares we shall reap in joy the way to death is to live in pleasure the way to life is here to dye He that will save the life of his sin shall lose the life of his soul but he that mortifies himself his most beloved self he shall live for ever In the Commination 1. Proponit modum culpae he layes down the kind of sin to live after the flesh 2. Ostendit stipendium miseriae he declares the horrour of their punishment Moriemini Ye shall dye In the Consolation 1. Proponit officium he prescribes a duty that is by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body 2. Promittit mercedem he promiseth a reward Ye shall live And first to begin with the Commination where are laid down two estates of the wicked the one present 1 Th 〈…〉 mmination the other future the one of pleasure the other of pain neither of which the Apostle directly chargeth on the Romans but shews that by admitting the former voluntarily they involuntarily plunge themselves into the latter If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye where is the description of the disposition and condition hereafter of every Epicure yea every unregenerate man like that prodigal he receives his portion from his father he feeds his eye his ear his palate but with him never returnes to his father any more but rather like the rich glutton he goes clad in purple and Scarlet and fares deliciously every day but at last he dies and that death is but the beginning of death when his friends leave him the fiends take him and carry him to the place of torment But before we can improve this for your spiritual advantage we must explicate the two things propounded what the sinne is and what the punishment The sinne is to live after the flesh where two things offer themselves to our view 1. The rule though a crooked one that is the flesh 2. The conformity to this rule which is nothing but irregularity to live after the flesh of which briefly First for the rule The flesh and the Spirit are two captaines under whose banners all men in this world are combatants these have divers lawes and weapons constant and continual opposition and a several reward As for unregenerate men they have the flesh for their guide now what this flesh is you shall see Sometimes it is taken for a substance so it 1. Signifieth the nature of man or all mankind Flesh what it signifieth Gen. 6.12 All flesh had corrupted his way in this sense it is no enemy nor must we Timon-like be haters of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for humane nature Is 40.6 sometimes more strictly it signifieth the body as opposed to the soul 2 Cor. 7.1 in this sense we must not proclaim enmity against our selves nor like those foolish Baalites hate or hurt our own flesh or most strictly for that solid and similary part of the body contradistinguished to the blood bones nerves and sine wes Psal 79.2 the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth It is inhumane and barbarons for another to abuse this but unnatural for a man to do it himself therefore this is not the meaning 2. It 's sometimes taken accidentally sometimes in the better part Ezek. 11.19 2 Cor. 3. more usually in the worse so it Signifieth the frailty of humane nature an effect of sin 1 Cor. 15.50 in this sense Christians are in the flesh 2 Cor. 10.2 3 4. in this sense it is no potent enemy but a weak friend not to be opposed with weapons but comforted with cordials or most usually for sinne which is the cause of this frailty that Leprosie which overspreads the whole nature mind will memory senses affections body and all disabling a man from that which is truly and savingly good and inclining him to every thing that is evil the unhappy off-spring of our first Parents the mother and nurse of all those vipers that daily breed in our own bosomes and that hereditary disease which we derive unto all our posterity By the way we must note that not the body alone as the Manichees dreamed or the inferiour faculties onely as our adversaries of Rome some of them suppose are termed flesh for we read of a mind that is carnal Rom. 8. the purest part
blandum quicquid oculis delectabile quicquid corpori suo jocundum exercet sequitur qualiter vult quando vult qui omnia licita illicita carnaliter vult he that makes himself his fancy his lust the rule in his actions that goes whither he lists that sleepes when he will and as long as he will that laughs and sports talkes scurrilously or obscenely at any time in any company and gives the raines to his lust to please his sensual appetite in all things that desires things both good and bad according to the corruption of his own heart And if this be to live after the flesh we may see by the flesh of many what it is they live after In civil actions that make their lust a law In civil actions that Magistrate that useth his sword or any Superiour his authority for his own private ends in distributive justice in inferiours when they desire dignities eat and drink and curse Abimelech walkers after the flesh when they are full they deny God much more his Ministers anarchy is that they affect that every man might do that which is right yea sometimes wrong in his own eyes and if the Magistrates proceedings parallel not with their fancies their tongue is their own who is Lord over them Jude 8. Michael durst not revile the Devil they speak evil of the gods in commutative justice oppresse defraud and grind the faces of the poor so they can carry it smoothly care not what they do and so there be too too many that cast off all obedience in Political Ecclesiastical Occonomical Societies In spiritual actions many live after the flesh Matth. 23. In spiritual actions for not onely Epicures are guilty here but an abstemious Pharisee that fasts twice a week that placeth the power of godlinesse in outward formalities so our adversaries of Rome when they most abstain from flesh live after the flesh preferring sometimes their own traditions to Gods oracles and sometimes circumstantial parts of his worship to substantial macerating their bodies while they mortifie not their sin Nor can all amongst our selves exempt themselves here right Formalists I would they could see this beam in their eye pray over beads many do so some preach and most hear rather by tole then weight Others placing their Religion in nice speculations zealously striving for they know not what Once it was a character of a Christian almost among some to be repugnant to Church-Government or at least to disobey with the heart and deride with the tongue what the hand had subscribed to But now that spirit is well laid they have a new Creed which they are no lesse hot for though they understand it lesse and they are out of charity with that man and will censure him for an Apostate that is not to an haires breadth of their conceit when it is indeed but a meer conceit Others undertake acts of Religion with a carnal mind and a corrupt conscience for base ends that preach for lucre so did Judas and pray for credit so the Pharisees that read for profit like Diana's Chaplaines and communicate for applanse and hear for all ends do all for custome rather then conscience and were it not for his own ends would never longer serve that God which he cares not for Of all walkers after the flesh the hypocrite is sure to dye for hell was chiefly prepared for him and others are said to have their portion with him Now that in any of these kinds a man live after the flesh it is required That there be an habitual pursuit of sin Carnem tanquam ducem sequi or as Salmer Imperio legibus carnis desideriis subesse A man may sometimes be drawn aside by the flesh and yet not live after the flesh as Noah in his drunkennesse Lot in his incest David in his adultery as on the contrary you may see Cain sacrificing Saul among the Prophets Herod hearing John Baptist gladly and still living after the flesh as a passenger sometimes wanders out of the way and a thief sometimes steps into it To live according to the flesh intimates a constant course of mans life that makes the law of sin the rule of his obedience they act this with most vigour as from an inward principle A wicked mans education company c. may sometimes restrain from sin violence of temptation drives a good man upon it but this is not their rule Hieron Omne quod loquimur agimus cogitamus duobus seminatur agris carne et spiritu Let us then examine the habitual course of our life that is it which denominates and if we live after the flesh we must dye It were as possible to number the stars to count the dust as to particularize the many lusts of the flesh mens conversations give us too many instances I passe then from the sinne to the punishment Ye shall dye We see what it is to live after the flesh and is not this a merry life to go clad in purple in scarlet and fare deliciously every day to neglect God in heaven and contemne Lazarus on earth to forget our selves whence we are or whither we go Yes but hear what followes The bell toles for this voluptuous Epicure the earth that insatiable grave longs for his corpulent carcase to feed wormes and the devills stand waiting more eagerly for his soul The Spirit of God hath written his doom in letters of blood which with Belshazzar might make his heart ake and joynts tremble Ye shall die His pleasure is gone his guilt remains and his damnation sleepeth not God wills not yet he threatens death Non vult mortem Deus et minatur mortem and therefore doth threaten it because he doth not desire it as willing to be prevented You shall die What is here meant by death and what is that How should that be defined which is onely a privation or if it had a positive being how should I describe it who never conversed in those Cells of darknesse or with any that brought news from those Cimmerian regions or how can that distinctly be known which contains in it nothing but confusion and contradiction fire without light burning and no consuming labour in continual idlenesse living and yet ever dying for they live for nothing else but that they may continually dye If I should procure you a painter to decipher the first death he would shew you a grim anatomy with a lean body a pale face a wanne countenance c. that which hath devoured the whole world so many times over like Pharaohs lean kine is as lean as ever And had you a Poet to describe unto you the second death he would tell you of that triceps Cerberus devouring the flesh of the wicked he would tell you of the two Rivers Cocitus and Phlegethon the one overflowing with tears and the other boyling with brimstone they would make a narration of that palus Stygia of Tantalus his apples and
former and latter rain and now judge thou who art a party whether there hath any thing been wanting on Gods part to make thee happy but thou wilt needs dye not because thou lovest death but sin which is the cause of it And let us all remember that our worst enemy is within us Bern. Ipsi gestamus laqueum nobiscum circumferimus inimicum We carry a snare about with us our own enemy is within us We are beaten like Judah with our own staffe and manacled with our own bracelets yea with Saul we slay our selves with our own sword It 's a Serpent in our own bosome that stings us Inimici hominis sunt ejus domestici A mans foes are those of his own house He that dips with us in the dish is it that betrayes us Blame not Satan or his instruments these could not kill us but that this Traytour opens the doors their temptations else would fall like a spark of fire in the Sea much lesse let us murmur against God though he be the inflicting cause yet sin is the meritorious Take heed of this enemy so much the rather for it 's a potent and politick enemy being an old man that receives influence from the Devil it 's worse then the Devil who hath some natural goodnesse wisdome and power which in themselves are good though by him abused But in the flesh dwells no good thing it fills the whole man full of impiety as the mind with wicked thoughts making it like a dark filthy Dungeon full of Snakes and Adders destitute of heavenly light and heat the imaginations of it onely evil continually and if the best part be so what is the worst It 's a store-house or a common sewer of abominations fills the eye full of Adultery the countenance of wrath makes the throat an open sepulchre the tongue a world of wickednesse if a world in that little member how many worlds in this little world of ours fills the hand with extortion makes the feet swift to shed blood in a word all the Devils brats are warmed conceived and bred in that wombe it 's an enemy to all Spiritual undertakings what is wisdome to the Spirit is foolishnesse to the flesh what the one willeth the other nilleth what the one endeavours the other crosseth it breakes all Lawes both of God and man and makes unreasonable Lawes of its own of sin and death Rom. 7.23.8.2 Of sinne therefore dishonourable to live after them for it gives unreasonable command He that obeyeth hath Chams curse to be a servant of servants But the service is dangerous in that rewarded with such wages for the wages of sin is death worse then for a man to serve at the Gallies all day and be hanged at night Therefore of all enemies let us take most heed of our selves these lusts within us fight agaist us 1 Pet. 2.11 they hunt for the precious life and if we yeeld to them we dye He that soweth the wind shall reape the whirlwind If we sowe to the flesh we shall of the flesh reape corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live But if ye by the Spirit The Conolation c. Now I am fallen on the second Proposition the Consolation Hitherto I have tyred your patience with a discourse of the works of darknesse and a sad narration of death the reward of such works give me leave now to entertain your ears with a more pleasing discourse of life and of the narrow way that leads thither If ye by the Spirit c. The flesh like a potent King domineers in a natural man and makes him yeeld obedience to it in the lusts thereof yea in a regenerate man it remains though weakned and wounded like the Canaanites if it cannot dwell in the City it will lodge in the subburbs though it raign not like a King it will rebel like a Traytor sometimes assaulting by open violence sometimes by secret ambushments and hidden stratagems undermining so that while he dwells in this tabernacle of flesh the flesh will continue in him his labour shall not end so long as his life doth continue while we live then we shall find work enough to keep under this rebel and to encourage us herein God hath given us such an help as will effect it his Spirit and propounded such a motive as may spur on the dullest Laodicean Ye shall live Here the Apostle doth these two things Divided 1. Proponit officium If ye c. 2. Promittit mercedem First the work then the wages first we must do the will of God then receive the promise first God must be glorified by us and then he will glorifie us the hardest that is first and that we must look to to mortifie the sweetest comes last and that God will care for Ye shall live In the first we note these particulars Subdivided 1. Octjectum deeds of the body 2. Actionem circa objectum Ye must mortifie the deeds of the body 3. Causas hujus acticnis principalem the Spirit minus principalem we First The deeds of the body what for the object about which mortification is conversant the deeds of the body Here we must explicate both the fountain and streams Some understand a metonymie in this word body so by it understand the natural body because sin is acted by the body Others understand it metaphorically of that old man and masse of corruption that is in every man called the body of sin Rom. 6.6 7.24 Col. 2.11 for as the body is a totum integrum consisting of many members so is sin Col. 3.4 the head of sin vain imaginations the heart of sin corrupt affections the tongue of sin rotten communication the forehead of sin impudent avouching the hands and feet of sinne wicked executions Again as the body hath its dimensions so hath sin it reacheth to heaven and burneth to the lowest hell is's of as great a latitude as Gods Commandments which are exceeding broad 3. As the body is knit together by joynts and ligaments so is sin If the foot of sin do but stirre the whole body moves as we see in the sin of Adam He that offends in one is guilty of all he sins against the general equity of the Law and righteousnesse of the Law-giver As the body compasseth us about so doth sin it 's peccatum circumstans that for the first by the body we mean the body of sin Secondly For the deeds of the body This old man though old yet is very stirring and operative When men grow old their apprehension is weak their memory dull the strong men bow the whole man is feeble but it is not so in the body of sin the older it is the more vigorous and lusty Nothing in the world so fruitful though these are but 〈◊〉