the great Syrian that stirred up the sluggish and awakened the sleepers and comforted the afflicted and brought the young men to discipline the Looking-glass of the Religious the Captain of the Penitents the destruction of Heresies the receptacle of Graces the habitation of the Holy Ghost These were the men that prevailed against Errour because they lived according to Truth and whoever shall oppose you and the Truth you walk by may better be confuted by your Lives than by your Disputations Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you and then you will best silence them For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow it deceived none but Beasts and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent them that love a Lie and live according to it But if ye become burning and shining lights if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrines will be true and that Truth will prevail But if ye live wickedly and scandalously every little Schismatick shall put you to shame and draw Disciples after him and abuse your Flocks and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the Chairs appointed for your Religion I pray God give you all Grace to follow this Wisdom to study this Learning to labour for the understanding of Godliness so your Time and your Studies your Persons and your Labours will be holy and useful sanctified and blessed beneficial to men and pleasing to God through him who is the Wisdom of the Father who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption To whom with the Father c. FINIS A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the Most Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland WITH A Succinct Narrative of His whole Life The fourth Edition enlarged By the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1666. A Funeral Sermon SERM. VII 1 Cor. XV. 23. But every Man in his own Order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ's at his coming THE Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed so relative and imperfect that the best things he does he does weakly and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution I need not tell how little it is that we know the greatest indication of this is That we can never tell how many things we know not and we may soon span our own Knowledge but our Ignorance we can never fathom Our very Will in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial is a direct state of imperfection and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us not to make us proud but to make us humble for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God or if we had such love to God as he deserves and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services we could no more Deliberate For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point it wavers as long as it is free and is at rest when it can chuse no more And truly what is the hope of man It is indeed the Resurrection of of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures and like the Twilight to the Day and the Harbinger of joy but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities and proclaims our present calamity only because it is uneasie here it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground with her portion and share of Adam's Curse lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air and opens the junctures of her imperfect body and curles her little rings into knots and combinations drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature and dwell and sleep upon the dust So are the hopes of a mortal man he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance and shuts them again with weakness because they are too glorious to behold and the Man rejoices because he hopes fine things are staying for him but his heart akes because he knows there are a thousand ways to fail and miss of those glories and though he hopes yet he enjoys not he longs but he possesses not and must be content with his portion of dust and being a worm and no man must lie down in this portion before he can receive the end of his hopes the salvation of his Soul in the Resurrection of the dead For as Death is the end of our lives so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes and as we dye daily so we daily hope but Death which is the end of our life is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty from uncertain fears to certain expectations from the death of the Body to the life of the Soul that is to partake of the light and life of Christ to rise to life as he did for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours He dyed for us alone not for himself but he rose again for himself and us too So that if he did rise so shall we the Resurrection shall be universal good and bad all shall rise but not altogether First Christ then we that are Christs and yet there is a third Resurrection though not spoken of here but thus it shall be The dead of Christ shall rise first that is next to Christ and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in my Text Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushroom or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the Regions of the Earth the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no whether we are to live good lives or no or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the Daughters of Rapine and Ambition whether there be any such thing as sin any judicatory for Consciences any rewards of Piety any difference of Good and Bad any rewards after this life This is the design of these words by proper interpretation for if men shall dye like Dogs and Sheep they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes but he that believes the Article of the
Resurrection that is from sin to grace from the death of vitious habits to the vigour life and efficacy of an habitual righteousness For as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned to them I say in the literal sense Blessed are they that have part in the first Resurrection upon them the second death shall have no power meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again were holy and blessed souls and such who were written in the book of God and that this grace hapned to no wicked and vitious person so it is most true in the spiritual and intended sense You only that serve God in a holy life you who are not dead in trespasses and sins you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry and a holy Religion you and you only shall come to life eternal you only shall be called from death to life the rest of mankind shall never live again but pass from death to death from one â—eath to another to a worse from the death of the body to the eterâ—al death of body and soul and therefore in the Apostles Creed there â—s no mention made of the Resurrection of wicked persons but of the Resurrection of the body to everlasting life The wicked indeed shall be haâ—eâ— forth from their graves from their everlasting prisons where in chains â—f â—arkness they are kept unto the judgment of the great day but this â—â—â—â—efore cannot be called in sensu favoris a Resurrection but the soâ—â—â—â—ities of the eternal death It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again such a dying as cannot signifie rest but where death means nothing but an intollerable and never ceasing calamity and therefore these words of my Text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked otherwise of the godly The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again no not in the gatherings of eternity They shall be put into Vessels of wrath and set upon the flames of hell but that is not a gathering but a scattering from the face and presence of God But the godly also come under the sense of these words They descend into their Graves and shall no more be reckoned among the living they have no concernment in all that is done under the Sun Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks Armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned than had the Hippocentaur who never had a being and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendom than we have to do with his boasted discovery of Catilines Conspiracy What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gauls and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us These things that now happen concern the living and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively and when our Wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion It is true they envy not and they lie in a bosom where there can be no murmur and they that are consigned to Kingdoms and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb the glorious and eternal Bridegroom of holy Souls they cannot think our Marriages here our lighter laughings and vain rejoicings considerable as to them And yet there is a relation continued still Aristotle said that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind And the Church hath taught in general that they pray for us they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us and S. Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus that he should do for him in the other world he gave it him I say when he was dying not when he was dead And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions yet it is not less but much more than ever it was it is greater in degree and of another kind But then we should do well also to remember that in this world we are something besides flesh and bloud that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations but preserve the affections we bore to our dead when they were alive We must not so live as if they were perished but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints And we also have some ways to express this relation and to bear a part in this communion by actions of intercourse with them aud yet proper to our state such as are strictly performing the will of the dead providing for and tenderly and wisely educating their children paying their debts imitating their good example preserving their memories privately and publickly keeping their memorials and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyful Resurrection and a merciful Judgment for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus that God would shew them mercy in that day that fearful and yet much to be desired day in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity and shall find it Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations yet I do not find they have liberty to cast off the old as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls Remember that we shall converse together again let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered and that we shall meet again in the presence of God In the mean time God watcheth concerning all their interest and he will in his time both discover and recompense For though as to us they are like water spilt yet to God they are as water fallen in the Sea safe and united in his comprehension and inclosures But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence This descending to the grave is the lot of all men neither doth God respect the person of any man The rich is not protected for favour nor the poor for pity the old man is not reverenced for his age nor the Infant regarded for his tenderness youth and beauty learning and prudence wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the Grave All men and all natures and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death and strive to preserve a miserable and unpleasant life and yet they all sink down and die For so have
loves noblier and desires purer and hopes stronger than it can do here But if these arguments should fail yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail For suppose the Body to be a necessary Instrument but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger by accident and chance by defect and imperfections yet that it is better than none at all and that if the Soul works imperfectly with an imperfect Body that then she works not at all when she hath none And suppose also that the Soul should be as much without sense or perception in death as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him For 2. God will restore the Soul to the Body and raise the Body to such a perfection that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon it shall be made spiritual to minister to the Soul when the Soul is turned into a Spirit then the Soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed from her rest in Christs holy Bosom and be made perfect in her being and in all her operations And this shall first appear by that perfection which the Soul shall receive as instrumental to the last Judgment for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this World all the Register of her own Memory For all that we did in this life is laid up in our Memories and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them yet when God shall lift us from our dust then shall appear clearly all that we have done written in the Tables of our Conscience which is the Souls Memory We see many times and in many instances that a great Memory is hindred and put out and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a Curtain we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction or proper consequence And all those famous Memories of Simonides and Theodactes of Hortensius and Seneca of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus are only the Records better kept and less disturbed by accident and disease For even the Memory of Herods son of Athens of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great and by God made so sure a Record of all that ever he did that as soon as ever God shall but tune our Instrument and draw the Curtains and but light up the Candle of Immortality there we shall find it all there we shall see all and the whole world shall see all then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits we shall be like to Angels In the mean time although upon the perswasion of the former Discourse it be highly probable that the Souls of Gods Servants do live in a state of present blessedness and in the exceeding joys of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord and the coming of Jesus yet it will concern us only to secure our state by holy living and leave the event to God that as St. Paul said whether present or absent whether sleeping or waking whether perceiving or perceiving not we may be accepted of him that when we are banished this World and from the light of the Sun we may not be expelled from God and from the light of his countenance but that from our beds of sorrows our Souls may pass into the Bosom of Christ and from thence to his right hand in the day of Sentence For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and then if we have done well in the Body we shall never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God but be Domesticks of his Family and Heirs of his Kingdom and Partakers of his Glory Amen I Have now done with my Text but yet am to make you another Sermon I have told you the necessity and the state of death it may be too largely for such a sad story I shall therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain Narative of a Life which if you imitate and write after the Copy it will make that death shall not be an evil but a thing to be desired and to be reckoned among the purchases and advantages of your Fortune When Martha and Mary went to weep over the Grave of their Brother Christ met them there and preached a Funeral Sermon discoursing of the Resurrection and applying to the purposes of Faith and confession of Christ and glorification of God We have no other we can have no better precedent to follow and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister this rare Personage we cannot chuse but have many virtues to learn many to imitate and some to exercise I chuse not to declare her Extraction and Genealogy it was indeed fair and honourable but having the blessing to be descended from Worthy and Honour'd Ancestors and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble Family yet she felt such outward Appendages to be none of hers because not of her choice but the purchase of the Virtues of others which although they did engage her to do noble things yet they would upbraid all degenerate and less honourable Lives than were those which began and encreased the honour of the Families She did not love her Fortune for making her noble but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue a Nobleness and Excellency of Virtue fit to be owned by Persons relating to such Ancestors It is fit for us all to honour the Nobleness of a Family but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it and to establish their Honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things and suffering in good causes and despising dishonourable actions and in communicating good things to others For this is the rule in Nature Those Creatures are most honourable which have the greatest power and do the greatest good And accordingly my self have been witness of it how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair Appendage and exteriour Honour which decked her Person and her Fortune and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own that she might only be esteemed honourable according to that which is the Honour of a Christian and a wise Person 2. She had a strict and severe education and it was one of Gods Graces and Favours to her For being the Heiress of a great Fortune and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations that is in that part of the Kingdom where Greatness is too often express'd in great follies and great vices God had provided a severe and angry Education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young Spirit and a fair Fortune that she might for ever be so far distant from
of his perfect obedience and purest holiness and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience and the same perfect holiness prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection But upon no other terms So said our blessed Lord himself Ye which have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon Thrones judging the Tribes of Israel For as it was with Christ the first Fruits so it shall be with all Christians in their own order as with the Head so it shall be with the Members He was the Son of God by love and obedience and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal and so shall we but we cannot be so in any other way To them that are Christ's and to none else shall this be given For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life As God brought Christ to glory so he will bring us but by no other method He first obeyed the will of God and patiently suffered the will of God he dyed and rose again and entred into glory and so must we Thus Christ is made Via Veritas Vita the Way the Truth and the Life that is the true way to Eternal life He first trode this Wine-press and we must insist in the same steps or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner and we by him by his merit and by his grace and by his example but other than this there is no way of Salvation for us That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order 4. But there is one thing more in it yet Every man in his own order First Christ and then they that are Christ's But what shall become of them that are not Christs why there is an order for them too First they that are Christs and then they that are not his * Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life The dead in Christ shall rise first Now blessed are they that have their portion here for upon these the second death shall have no power As for the recalling the wicked from their Graves it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection than taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of Liberty When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile but when the fire began to approach and the heat to warm the body he revived and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames called out aloud to his friends to rescue not the dead but the living Aviola from that horrid burning But it could not be he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment Just so shall the wicked live again they shall receive their Souls that they may be a portion for Devils they shall receive their bodies that they may feel the everlasting burning they shall see Christ that they may look on him whom they have pierced and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence they shall come from their Graves that they may go into Hell and live again that they may die for ever So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep till he hath forgotten his groans and laid aside his deep sighings but on a sudden comes the Messenger of death and unbinds the Poppy Garland scatters the heavy Cloud that incircled his miserable head and makes him return to acts of life that he may quickly descend into death and be no more So is every Sinner that lies down in shame and makes his grave with the wicked he shall indeed rise again and be call'd upon by the voice of the Archangel but then he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the patience of a man weeping and shrieking louder than the groans of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnom These indeed are sad stories but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the Holy Jesus They are Gods Words and Gods Decrees and I wish that all who profess the belief of these would consider sadly what they mean If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body whether it be good or bad It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed for if we glorifie God in our bodies God shall make our bodies glorious It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure or eat nothing but bitter herbs the body that lies in dust and ashes that goes stooping and feeble that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline shall be feasted at the eternal Supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this That beastly pleasures and lying lips and a deceitful tongue and a heart that sendeth forth proud things are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of dissolution for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of Glory which God designs the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light and shall become like unto God They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious For if it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death let us not be dead in trespasses and sins for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believed and harder to be effected But if any of you have lost the life of Grace and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory betake your selves to an early and an entire Piety that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves For if it be possible that the Spirit when it is dead in sin can arise to a life of Righteousness much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again And this is a consequent of St. Paul's Argument Rom. 5. 10. If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life plainly declaring that it
I seen the Pillars of a Building assisted with artificial props bending under the pressure of a roof and pertinaciously resisting the infallible and prepared ruine Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium Till the determin'd day comes and then the burden sunk upon the pillars and disordered the aids and auxiliary rafters into a common ruine and a ruder grave so are the desires and weak arts of man with little aids and assistances of care and Physick we strive to support our decaying bodies and to put off the evil day but quickly that day will come and then neither Angels nor men can rescue us from our grave but the roof sinks down upon the walls and the walls descend to the foundation and the beauty of the face and the dishonours of the belly the discerning head and the servile feet the thinking heart and the working hand the eyes and the guts together shall be crushed into the confusion of a heap and dwell with Creatures of an equivocal production with worms and serpents the sons and daughters of our own bones in a house of dirt and darkness Let not us think to be excepted or deferred If beauty or wit or youth or nobleness or wealth or vertue could have been a defence and an excuse from the Grave we had not met here to day to mourn upon the Hearse of an Excellent Lady and God only knows for which of us next the Mourners shall go about the streets or weep in houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have lived so many years and every day and every minute we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and deaths that encompass us round about and such escapings we must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune and therefore that it cannot last long Vain are the thoughts of Man who when he is young or healthful thinks he hath a long thread of life to run over and that it is violent and strange for young persons to die and natural and proper only for the aged It is as natural for a man to die by drowning as by a Fever And what greater violence or more unnatural thing is it that the Horse threw his Rider into the River than that a drunken meeting cast him into a Fever and the strengths of youth are as soon broken by the strong sicknesses of youth and the stronger intemperance as the weakness of old age by a Cough or an Asthma or a continual Rheum Nay it is more natural for young Men and Women to die than for old because that is more natural which hath more natural causes and that is more natural which is most common but to die with age is an extreme rare thing and there are more persons carried forth to burial before the five and thirtieth year of their age than after it And therefore let no vain confidence make you hope for long life If you have lived but little and are still in youth remember that now you are in your biggest throng of dangers both of body and soul and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely and without consideration are also the proper and immediate instruments of death But if you be old you have escaped long and wonderfully and the time of your escaping is out you must not for ever think to live upon wonders or that God will work miracles to satisfie your longing follies and unreasonable desires of living longer to sin and to the world Go home and think to die and what you would choose to be doing when you die that do daily for you will all come to that pass to rejoice that you did so or wish that you had that will be the condition of every one of us for God regardeth no mans person Well but all this you will think is but a sad story What we must die and go to darkness and dishonour and we must die quickly and we must quit all our delights and all our sins or do worse infinitely worse and this is the condition of us all from which none can be excepted every man shall be spilt and fall into the ground and be gathered up no more Is there no comfort after all this shall we go from hence and be no more seen and have no recompense Miser ô miser aiunt omnia ademit Vna die infansta mihi tot praemia vitae Shall we exchange our fair Dwellings for a Coffin our softer Beds for the moistned and weeping Turf and our pretty Children for Worms and is there no allay to this huge calamity yes there is There is a yet in the Text For all this yet doth God devise means that his banished be not expelled from him All this sorrow and trouble is but a phantasm and receives its account and degrees from our present conceptions and the proportion to our relishes and gust When Pompey saw the Ghost of his first Lady Julia who vexed his rest and his conscience for superinducing Cornelia upon her bed within the ten months of mourning he presently fancied it either to be an illusion or else that death could be no very great evil Aut nihil est sensus animis in morte relictum Aut mors ipsa nihil Either my dead Wife knows not of my unhandsome marriage and forgetfulness of her or if she does then the dead live longae canitis si cognita vitae Mors media est Death is nothing but the middle point between two lives between this and another concerning which comfortable mystery the holy Scripture instructs our Faith and entertains our hope in these words God is still the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob for all do live to him and the Souls of Saints are with Christ I desire to be dissolved saith St. Paul and to be with Christ for that is much better and Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord they rest from their labours and their works follow them For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolv'd we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and this state of separation St. Paul calls a being absent from the Body and being present with the Lord This is one of Gods means which he hath devised that although our Dead are like persons banished from this world yet they are not expelled from God They are in the hands of Christ they are in his presence they are or shall be clothed with a house of Gods making they rest from all their labours all tears are wiped from their eyes and all discontents from their spirits and in the state of separation before the Soul be re-invested with her new house the Spirits of all persons are with God so secur'd and so blessed and so sealed up for glory that this state of interval and imperfection is in respect of its certain event and end infinitely more desirable
than all the Riches and all the Pleasures and all the Vanities and all the Kingdoms of this world I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the abode of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings and yet possibly that might be easier than to tell what or how the Soul is and works in this world where it is in the Body tanquam in alienâ domo as in a prison in fetters and restraints for here the Soul is discomposed and hindred it is not as it shall be as it ought to be as it was intended to be it is not permitted to its own freedom and proper operation so that all that we can understand of it here is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line in just and equal propositions or if it could yet because we are to understand the Soul by the Soul it becomes not only a troubled and abused object but a crooked instrument and we here can consider it just as a weak eye can behold a staff thrust into the waters of a troubled River the very water makes a refraction and the storm doubles the refraction and the water of the eye doubles the species and there is nothing right in the thing the object is out of its just place and the medium is troubled and the organ is impotent At cum exierit in liberum coelum quasi in dontum suam venerit when the Soul is entred into her own house into the free regions of the rest and the neighbourhood of heavenly Joys then its operations are more spiritual proper and proportion'd to its being and though we cannot see at such a distance yet the object is more fitted if we had a capable Understanding it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition Certain it is that the Body does hinder many actions of the Soul It is an imperfect Body and a diseased Brain or a violent passion that makes Fools No man hath a foolish Soul and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees by reason of the Bodies constitution Among Beasts which have no Reason there is a greater likeness than between Men who have And as by Faces it is easier to know a Man from a Man than a Sparrow from a Sparrow or a Squirrel from a Squirrel so the difference is very great in our Souls which difference because it is not originally in the Soul and indeed cannot be in simple or spiritual substances of the same species or kind it must needs derive wholly from the Body from its accidents and circumstances from whence it follows that because the Body casts fetters and restraints hinderances and impediments upon the Soul that the Soul is much freer in the state of separation and if it hath any act of life it is much more noble and expedite That the Soul is alive after our death St. Paul affirms Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Now it were strange that we should be alive and live with Christ and yet do no act of life The Body when it is asleep does many and if the Soul does none the Principle is less active than the Instrument but if it does any act at all in separation it must necessarily be an act or effect of Understanding there is nothing else it can do but this it can For it is but a weak and an unlearned Proposition to say That the Soul can do nothing of it self nothing without the phantasms and provisions of the Body For 1. In this life the Soul hath one principle clearly separate abstracted and immaterial I mean the Spirit of Grace which is a principle of life and action and in many instances does not at all communicate with matter as in the infusion superinduction and creation of spiritual Graces 2. As nutrition generation eating and drinking are actions proper to the Body and its state so extasies visions raptures intuitive knowledg and consideration of its self acts of volition and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the Soul 3. And therefore it is observable that St. Paul said that he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out of the body for by that we see his judgment of the thing that one was as likely as the other neither of them impossible or unreasonable and therefore that the Soul is as capable of action alone as in conjunction 4. If in the state of Blessedness there are some actions of the Soul which do not pass through the Body such as contemplation of God and conversing with Spirits and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the Holy and Mysterious Trinity make up the Crown of Glory it follows that the necessity of the Bodies ministery is but during the state of this life and as long as it converses with fire and water and lives with corn and flesh and is fed by the satisfaction of material appetites which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases it can be no longer necessary for the Soul to be served by phantasms and material representations 5. And therefore when the Body shall be re-united it shall be so ordered that then the Body shall confess it gives not any thing but receives all its being and operation its manner and abode from the Soul and that then it comes not to serve a necessity but to partake a Glory For as the operations of the Soul in this life begin in the Body and by it the object is transmitted to the Soul so then they shall begin in the Soul and pass to the Body And as the operations of the Soul by reason of its dependence on the Body are animal natural and material so in the resurrection the body shall be spiritual by reason of the preeminence influence and prime operation of the Soul Now between these two states stands the state of separation in which the operations of the Soul are of a middle nature that is not so spiritual as in the resurrection and not so animal and natural as in the state of conjunction To all which I add this consideration That our Souls have the same condition that Christs Soul had in the state of separation because he took on him all our Nature and all our Condition and it is certain Christs Soul in the three days of his separation did exercise acts of life of joy and triumph and did not sleep but visited the Souls of the Fathers trampled upon the pride of Devils and satisfied those longing Souls which were Prisoners of hope And from all this we may conclude That the Souls of all the Servants of Christ are alive and therefore do the actions of life and proper to their state and therefore it is highly probable that the Soul works clearer and understands brighter and discourses wiser and rejoyces louder and
God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God preached in which because I had sometimes the honour to minister to her I can give this certain testimony that she was a diligent watchful and attentive hearer and to this had so excellent a judgment that if ever I saw a woman whose judgment was to be revered it was hers alone and I have sometimes thought that the eminency of her discerning faculties did reward a pious discourse and placed it in the regions of honour and usefulness and gathered it up from the ground where commonly such Homilies are spilt or scattered in neglect and inconsideration But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what was useful to her soul she was also a constant Reader of Sermons and seldom missed to read one every day and that she might be full of instruction and holy principles she had lately designed to have a large Book in which she purposed to have a stock of Religion transcribed in such assistances as she would chuse that she might be readily furnished and instructed to every good work But God prevented that and hath filled her desires not out of Cisterns and little Aquaeducts but hath carried her to the Fountain where she drinks of the pleasures of the River and is full of God 9. She always lived a life of much innocence free from the violences of great sins her person her breeding her modesty her honour her Religion her early marriage the Guide of her soul and the Guide of her youth were as so many fountains of restraining grace to her to keep her from the dishonours of a crime Bonum est portare jugum ab adolescentiâ it is good to bear the yoke of the Lord from our youth and though she did so being guarded by a mighty providence and a great favour and grace of God from staining her fair soul with the spots of hell yet she had strange fears and early cares upon her but these were not only for her self but in order to others to her neerest Relatives For she was so great a lover of this Honourable Family of which now she was a Mother that she desired to become a channel of great blessings to it unto future ages and was extremely jealous lest any thing should be done or lest any thing had been done though an Age or two since which should intail a curse upon the innocent posterity and therefore although I do not know that ever she was tempted with an offer of the crime yet she did infinitely remove all sacriledge from her thoughts and delighted to see her estate of a clear and dis-intangled interest she would have no mingled rights with it she would not receive any thing from the Church but Religion and a Blessing and she never thought a curse and a sin far enough off but would desire it to be infinitely distant and that as to this Family God had given much honour and a wise head to govern it so he would also for ever give many more blessings and because she knew the sins of Parents descend upon Children she endeavoured by justice and religion by charity and honour to secure that her channel should convey nothing but health and a fair example and a blessing 10. And though her accounts to God were made up of nothing but small parcels little passions and angry words and trifling discontents which are the allays of the piety of the most holy persons yet she was early at her repentance and toward the latter end of her days grew so fast in Religion as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time her discourses more full of religion her prayers more frequent her charity increasing her forgiveness more forward her friendships more communicative her passion more under discipline and so she trimmed her lamp not thinking her night was so neer but that it might shine also in the day time in the Temple and before the Altar of Incense But in this course of hers there were some circumstances and some appendages of substance which were highly remarkable 1. In all her Religion and in all her actions of relation towards God she had a strange evenness and untroubled passage sliding toward her Ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent motion So have I seen a River deep and smooth passing with a still foot and a sober face and paying to the Fiscus the great Exchequer of the Sea the Prince of all the watry bodies a tribute large and full and hard by it a little brook skipping and making a noise upon its unequal and neighbour bottom and after all its talking and bragged motion it payed to its common Audit no more than the Revenues of a little cloud or a contemptible vessel So have I sometimes compared the issues of her Religion to the solemnities and famed outsides of anothers piety It dwelt upon her spirit and was incorporated with the periodical work of every day she did not believe that Religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation but to pardon of sins to the pleasure of God and the salvation of souls For Religion is like the breath of Heaven if it goes abroad into the open air it scatters and dissolves like Camphyre but if it enters into a secret hollowness into a close conveyance it is strong and mighty and comes forth with vigour and great effect at the other end at the other side of this life in the days of death and judgment 2. The other appendage of her Religion which also was a great ornament to all the parts of her life was a rare modesty and humility of spirit a confident despising and undervaluing of her self For though she had the greatest judgment and the greatest experience of things and persons that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth and sex and circumstances yet as if she knew nothing of it she had the meanest opinion of her self and like a fair taper when she shined to all the room yet round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a cloud and she shined to every body but her self But the perfectness of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid and all her humility and arts of concealment made the vertues more amiable and illustrious For as pride sullies the beauty of the fairest vertues and makes our understanding but like the craft and learning of a Devil so humility is the greatest eminency and art of publication in the whole world and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things was but like one that hideth the wind and covers the oyntment of her right hand I know not by what instrument it happened but when death drew neer before it made any show upon her body or revealed it self by a natural signification it was conveyed to her spirit she had a strange secret perswasion that the
bringing this child should be her last scene of life and we have known that the soul when she is about to disrobe her self of her upper garment sometimes speaks rarely Magnifica verba mors propè admota excutit sometimes it is Prophetical sometimes God by a superinduced perswasion wrought by instruments or accidents of his own serves the ends of his own providence and the salvation of the soul But so it was that the thought of death dwelt long with her and grew from the first steps of fancy and fear to a consent from thence to a strange credulity and expectation of it and without the violence of sickness she dyed as if she had done it voluntarily and by design and for fear her expectation should have been deceived or that she should seem to have had an unreasonable fear or apprehension or rather as one said of Cato sic abiit è vitâ ut causam moriendi nactam se esse gauderet she dyed as if she had been glad of the opportunity And in this I cannot but adore the providence and admire the wisdom and infinite mercies of God For having a tender and soft a delicate and fine constitution and breeding she was tender to pain and apprehensive of it as a childs shoulder is of a load and burden Grave est tenerae cervici jugum and in her often discourses of death which she wonld renew willingly and frequently she would tell that she feared not death but she feared the sharp pains of death Emori nolo me esse mortuam non curo The being dead and being freed from the troubles and dangers of this world she hoped would be for her advantage and therefore that was no part of her fear But she believing the pangs of death were great and the use and aids of reason little had reason to fear lost they should do violence to her spirit and the decency of her resolution But God that knew her fears and her jealousie concerning her self fitted her with a death so easie so harmless so painless that it did not put her patience to a severe trial It was not in all appearance of so much trouble as two fits of a common ague so careful was God to remonstrate to all that stood in that sad attendance that this soul was dear to him and that since she had done so much of her duty towards it he that began would also finish her redemption by an act of a rare providence and a singular mercy Blessed be that goodness of God who does so careful actions of mercy for the ease and security of his servants But this one instance was a great demonstration that the apprehension of death is worse than the pains of death and that God loves to reprove the unreasonableness of our fears by the mightiness and by the arts of his mercy She had in her sickness if I may so call it or rather in the solemnities and graver preparations towards death some curious and well-becoming fears concerning the final state of her soul But from thence she passed into a deliquium or a kind of trance and as soon as she came forth of it as if it had been a vision or that she had conversed with an Angel and from his hand had received a labell or scroll of the Book of Life and there seen her name enrolled she cryed out aloud Glory be to God on high Now I am sure I shall be saved Concerning which manner of discoursing we are wholly ignorant what judgment can be made but certainly there are strange things in the other world and so there are in all the immediate preparations to it and a little glimpse of heaven a minutes conversing with an Angel any ray of God any communication extraordinary from the Spirit of comfort which God gives to his servants in strange and unknown manners are infinitely far from illusions and they shall then be understood by us when we feel them and when our new and strange needs shall be refreshed by such unusual visitations But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbreviature in the enumerating those things in which this rare Personage was dear to God and to all her Relatives If we consider her Person she was in the flower of her age Jucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret of a temperate plain and natural diet without curiosity or an intemperate palate she spent less time in dressing than many servants her recreations were little and seldom her prayers often her reading much she was of a most noble and charitable soul a great lover of honourable actions and as great a despiser of base things hugely loving to oblige others and very unwilling to be in arrear to any upon the stock of courtesies and liberality so free in all acts of favour that she would not stay to hear her self thanked as being unwilling that what good went from her to a needful or an obliged person should ever return to her again she was an excellent friend and hugely dear to very many especially to the best and most discerning persons to all that conversed with her and could understand her great worth and sweetness she was of an honourable a nice and tender reputation and of the pleasures of this world which were laid before her in heaps she took a very small and inconsiderable share as not loving to glut her self with vanity or take her portion of good things here below If we look on her as a Wife she was chast and loving fruitful and discreet humble and pleasant witty and complyant rich and fair and wanted nothing to the making her a principal and precedent to the best Wives of the World but a long life and a full age If we remember her as a Mother she was kind and severe careful and prudent very tender and not at all fond a greater Lover of her Childrens Souls than of their Bodies and one that would value them more by the strict rules of honour and proper worth than by their relation to her self Her Servants found her prudent and fit to govern and yet open-handed and apt to reward a just Exactor of their duty and a great Rewarder of their diligence She was in her house a Comfort to her dearest Lord a Guide to her Children a Rule to her Servants an Example to all But as she related to God in the offices of Religion she was even and constant silent and devout prudent and material she loved what she now enjoys and she feared what she never felt and God did for her what she never did expect her fears went beyond all her evil and yet the good which she hath received was and is and ever shall be beyond all her hopes She lived as we all should live and she died as I fain would die Et cum supremos Lachesis perneverit annos Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos I pray God I may feel those mercies on my Death-bed that she felt
of whom S. Paul speaks here tell you plainly who it is that is in this state of sad things and then do ye make your resolutions according as you shall find it necessary for the saving of your souls which I am sure ought to be the end of all preaching 1. The man S. Paul speaks of is one that is dead v. 9. one that was deceived and slain v. 11. one in whom sin was exceeding sinful v. 13. that is highly imputed greatly malicious infinitely destructive he is one who is carnal and sold under sin v. 14. he is one that sins against his conscience and his reason v. 16. he is one in whom sin dwells but the Spirit of God does not dwell for no good thing dwells in him v. 18. he is one who is brought into captivity to the law of sin he is a servant of uncleanness with his flesh and members serving the law of sin v. 25. Now if this be a state of Regeneration I wonder what is or can be a state of Reprobation for though this be the state of Nature yet it cannot be the state of one redeemed by the Spirit of Christ and therefore flatter not your selves any more that it is enough for you to have good desires and bad performances never think that any sin can reign in you and yet you be servants of God that sin can dwell in you and at the same time the Spirit of God can dwell in you too or that life and death can abide together The sum of affairs is this 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 but not else upon any terms whatsoever My Text is one of the hard places of S. Paul which as S. Peter says the ignorant and the unstable wrest to their own damnation But because in this case the danger is so imminent and the deception would be so intolerable S. Paul immediately after this Chapter in which under his own person as was usual with him to do he describes the state of a natural man advanced no further than Moses Law and not redeemed by the blood of Christ or inlightned by the Spirit of God and taught by the wiser Lessons and Sermons of the Gospel immediately spends the next Chapter in opposing the Evangelical state to the Legal the Spiritual to the Carnal the Christian to the Natural and tells us plainly he that is redeemed by the blood of Christ is redeemed from the power of sin he that is Christs freed man is not a slave of sin not captive to the Devil at his will he that is in the flesh cannot please God but every servant of Christ is freed from sin and is a servant of righteousness and redeemed from all his vain conversation for this is the end of Christs coming and cannot be in vain unless we make it so He came to bless us by turning every one of us from our iniquities Now concerning this besides the evidence of the thing it self that S. Paul does not speak these words of himself but by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under his own borrowed person he describes the state of a carnal unredeemed unregenerate person is expresly affirmed by S. Irenaeus and Origen by Tertullian and S. Basil by Theodoret and S. Chrysostom by S. Jerom and sometimes by S. Austin by S. Ambrose and S. Cyril by Macarius and Theophylact and is indeed that true sense and meaning of these words of S. Paul which words none can abuse or misunderstand but to the great prejudice of a holy life and the Patronage of all iniquity But for the stating of this great case of Conscience I shall first in short describe to you what are the proper causes which place men and keep them in this state of a necessity of sinning and 2. I shall prove the absolute necessity of coming out of this condition and quitting all our sin 3. In what degree this is to be affected 4. By what Instruments this is to be done and all these being practical will of themselves be sufficient use to the Doctrines and need no other applicatory but a plain exhortation 1. What are the causes of this evil by which we are first placed and so long kept in a necessity of sinning so that we cannot do what good we would nor avoid the evil that we hate The first is the evil state of our Nature And indeed he that considers the daily experiment of his own weak Nature the ignorance and inconstancy of his soul being like a sick mans legs or the knees of Infants reeling and unstable by disease or by infirmity and the perpetual leaven and germinations the thrustings forth and swelling of his senses running out like new wine into vapours and intoxicating activities will readily confess that though even in Nature there may be many good inclinations to many instances of the Divine Commandments yet it can go no further than this velleity this desiring to do good but is not able And it is upon this account that Lactantius brings in the Pagan or natural man complaining Volo equidem non peccare sed vincor indutus enim sum carne fragili imbecillâ This is very true and I add only this caution There is not in the corruption of our nature so much as will save us harmless or make us excusable if we sin against God Natural corruption can make us criminal but not innocent for though by him that willingly abides in the state of meer Nature sin cannot be avoided yet no man is in that state longer than he loves to be so for the Grace of God came to rescue us from this evil portion and is alwayes present to give us a new Nature and create us over again and therefore though sin is made necessary to the Natural man by his impotency and fond loves that is by his unregenerate Nature yet in the whole constitution of affairs God hath more than made it up by his Grace if we will make use of it In pueris elucet spes plurimorum quae ubi emoritur aetate manifestum est non deficisse naturam sed curam said Quintilian We cannot tell what we are or what we think in our infancy and when we can know our thoughts we can easily observe that we have learned evil things by evil examples and the corrupt manners of an evil conversation ubi per socordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxêer naturae infirmitas accusatur that indeed is too true we grow lazy and wanton and we lose our time and abuse our parts and do ugly things and lay the fault wholly upon our Natural infirmities but we must remember that by this time it is a state of Nature a state of flesh and blood which cannot enter into Heaven The natural man and the natural child are not the same thing in true Divinity The Natural child indeed can do no good but the
it at all Remember that the Snail out-went the Eagle and won the goal because she set out betimes To sum up all every good man is a new Creature and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit which if we heartily pray for and endeavour to obtain we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the Heavens which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies and subtilly insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls Life and motion and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing so it is in the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God and the grace of God which S. John calls the seed of God it is a Law of Righteousness and it is a Law of the Spirit of Life and changes Nature into Grace and dulness into zeal and fear into love and sinful habits into innocence and passes on from grace to grace till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God so that we shall no more say The evil that I would not that I do but we shall hate what God hates and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do not because we are strong of our selves but because Christ is our strength and he is in us and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness and his grace will be sufficient for us and he will of his own good pleasure work in us not only to will but also to do velle perficere saith the Apostle to will and to do it throughly and fully being sanctified throughout to the glory of his Holy name and the eternal salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father c. FIDES FORMATA OR Faith working by Love SERM. III. JAMES II. 24. You see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only THat we are justified by Faith S. Paul tells us That we are also justified by Works we are told in my Text and both may be true But that this Justification is wrought by Faith without Works to him that worketh not but believeth saith S. Paul That this is not wrought without Works S. James is as express for his Negative as S. Paul was for his Affirmative and how both these should be true is something harder to unriddle But affirmanti incumbit probatio he that affirms must prove and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham to whom Faith was imputed for Righteousness and therefore not by Works And what can be answered to this Nothing but this That S. James uses the very same Argument to prove that our Justification is by Works also For our Father Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his Son Isaac Now which of these says true Certainly both of them but neither of them have been well understood insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful but one party relies on Faith to the disparagement of Good Life and the other makes Works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence and consequently to exclude the efficacy of Faith The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive Institution and the other a bold presumption on our selves while the first tempts us to live like Heathens and the other recalls us to live the life of Jews while one says I am of Paul and another I am of S. James and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ one looking on Christ only as a Law-giver and the other only as a Saviour The effects of these are very sad and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit My purpose is not with subtle Arts to reconcile them that never disagreed the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit and to the same last design though to differing intermedial purposes But because the great end of Faith the design the definition the state the oeconomy of it is that all Believers should not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Before I fall to the close handling of the Text I shall premise some preliminary Considerations to prepare the way of holiness to explicate the differing sences of the Apostles to understand the Question and the Duty by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article and then proceed to the main Inquiry 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words spoken in mystery with alegorical expressions to secret senses wrapt up in a cloud such as are Faith and Justification and Imputation and Righteousness and Works be pleased to consider That the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous insomuch that in the Latine Concordances of S. Hierom's Bible published by Robert Stephens you may see no less then twenty two several senses and accceptations of of the word Faith set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them to which if out of my own own observation I could add no more yet these are an abundant demonstration That whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification is not to be taken in such a sence as will weaken the necessity and our carefulness of good life when the word may in so many other sences be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul of Justification by Faith so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience 2. As it is in the word Faith so it is in Works for by Works is meant sometimes the thing done sometimes the labour of doing sometimes the good will it is sometimes taken for a state of good life sometimes for the Covenant of Works it sometimes means the Works of the Law sometimes the Works of the Gospel sometimes it is taken for a perfect actual unsinning Obedience sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the Reward as of Debt sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to receive the favour and the grace of God Now since our good Works can be but of one kind for ours cannot be meritorious ours cannot be without sin all our life they cannot be such as need no repentance it is no wonder if we must be justified without Works in this sence for by such Works no man living can be justified And these S. Paul calls the Works of the Law and sometimes he calls them our righteousness and these are the Covenant of Works But because we came into the World to serve God and God will be obeyed and Jesus Christ came into the World to save us from sin and
that could not be deceived themselves in a matter so notorious and so proved and so seen and if this be not sufficient credibility in a matter of fact as this was then we can have no story credibly transmitted to us no Records kept no Acts of Courts no Narratives of the dayes of old no Traditions of our Fathers no memorials of them in the third Generation Nay if from these we have not sufficient causes and arguments of Faith how shall we be able to know the will of Heaven upon Earth unless God do not only tell it once but always and not only always to some men but always to all men for if some men must believe others they can never do it in any thing more reasonably than in this and if we may not trust them in this then without a perpetual miracle no man could have Faith for Faith could never come by hearing by nothing but by seeing But if there be any use of History any Faith in men any honesty in manners any truth in humane entercourse if there be any use of Apostles or Teachers of Ambassadors or Letters of ears or hearing if there be any such thing as the Grace of Faith that is less than demonstration or intuition then we may be as sure that Christ the first Fruits is already risen as all these credibilities can make us But let us take heed as God hates a a lie so he hates incredulity an obstinate a foolish and pertinacious understanding What we do every minute of our lives in matters of title and great concernment if we refuse to do it in Religion which yet is to be conducted as all humane affairs are by humane instruments and arguments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing it is an obstinacy as cross to humane reason as it is to Divine Faith But this Article was so clearly proved that presently it came to pass that men were no longer ashamed of the Cross but it was worn upon breasts printed in the air drawn upon foreheads carried upon Banners put upon Crowns Imperial presently it came to pass that the Religion of the despised Jesus did infinitely prevail a Religion that taught men to be meek and humble apt to receive injuries but unapt to do any a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful in a time when riches were adored and ambition and pleasure had possessed the heart of all mankind a Religion that would change the face of things and the hearts of men and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel that such a Religion in such a time by the Sermons and conduct of Fishermen men of mean breeding and illiberal Arts should so speedily triumph over the Philosophy of the world and the arguments of the subtle and the Sermons of the Eloquent the Power of Princes and the Interests of States the inclinations of nature and the blindness of zeal the force of custom and the sollicitation of passions the pleasures of sin and the busie Arts of the Devil that is against Wit and Power Superstition and Wilfulness Fame and Money Nature and Empire which are all the causes in this World that can make a thing impossible this this is to be ascribed to the power of God and is the great demonstration of the Resurrection of Jesus Every thing was an Argument for it and improved it no Objection could hinder it no Enemies destroy it whatsoever was for them it made the Religion to encrease whatsoever was against them made it to encrease Sun-shine and Storms fair Weather or foul it was all one as to the event of things for they were instruments in the hands of God who could make what himself should chuse to be the product of any cause so that if the Christians had peace they went abroad and brought in Converts if they had no peace but persecution the Converts came in to them In prosperity they allured and enticed the World by the beauty of holiness in affliction and trouble they amazed all men with the splendour of their Innocence and the glories of their patience and quickly it was that the World became Disciple to the glorious Nazarene and men could no longer doubt of the Resurrection of Jesus when it became so demonstrated by the certainty of them that saw it and the courage of them that dyed for it and the multitude of them that believed it who by their Sermons and their Actions by their publick Offices and Discourses by Festivals and Eucharists by Arguments of Experience and Sense by Reason and Religion by perswading rational Men and establishing believing Christians by their living in the obedience of Jesus and dying for the testimony of Jesus have greatly advanced his Kingdom and his Power and his Glory into which he entred after his Resurrection from the dead For he is the first Fruits and if we hope to rise through him we must confess that himself is first risen from the dead That 's the first particular 2. There is an order for us also We also shall rise again Combustúsque senex tumulo procedit adultus Consumens dat membra rogus The ashes of old Camillus shall stand up spritely from his Urn and the Funeral fires shall produce a new warmth to the dead bones of all those who dyed under the arms of all the Enemies of the Roman greatness This is a less wonder than the former for admonetur omnis aetas jam fieri posse quod aliquando factum est If it was done once it may be done again for since it could never have been done but by a power that is infinite that infinite must also be eternal and indeficient By the same Almighty power which restored life to the dead body of our living Lord we may all be restored to a new life in the Resurrection of the dead When Man was not what power what causes made him to be whatsoever it was it did then as great a work as to raise his body to the same being again and because we know not the method of Natures secret changes and how we can be fashioned beneath in secreto terrae and cannot handle and discern the possibilities and seminal powers in the ashes of dissolved bones must our ignorance in Philosophy be put in balance against the Articles of Religion the hopes of Mankind the Faith of Nations and the truth of God and are our opinions of the power of God so low that our understanding must be his measure and he shall be confessed to do nothing unless it be made plain in our Philosophy Certainly we have a low opinion of God unless we believe he can do more things than we can understand But let us hear S. Paul's demonstration If the Corn dies and lives again if it lays its body down suffers alteration dissolution and death but at the Spring rises again in the verdure of a leaf in the fulness of the ear in the kidneys of Wheat if it proceeds from
Reward of pregnant Wits and hard Study he was remov'd into York-shire where first in the City of York he was an assiduous Preacher but by the disposition of the Divine Providence he hapned to be engaged at North-Alerton in Disputation with three pragmatical Romish Priests of the Jesuits Order whom he so much worsted in the Conference and so shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of Truth represented wisely and learnedly that the famous Primate of York Archbishop Matthews a learned and an excellent Prelate and a most worthy Preacher hearing of that Triumph sent for him and made him his Chaplain in whose Service he continued till the death of the Primate but in that time had given so much testimony of his dexterity in the conduct of Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs that he grew dear to his Master In that Imployment he was made Prebendary of York and then of Rippon the Dean of which Church having made him his Sub-Dean he managed the Affairs of that Church so well that he soon acquired a greater fame and entred into the possession of many hearts and admiration to those many more that knew him There and at his Parsonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good Preacher and by his Wisdom Eloquence and Deportment so gain'd the affections of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of that Country that as at his return thither upon the blessed Restauration of His most Sacred Majesty he knew himself oblig'd enough and was so kind as to give them a Visit so they by their coming in great numbers to meet him their joyful Reception of him their great Caressing of him when he was there their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop their trouble at his Departure their unwillingness to let him go away gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust or Lucius Quinctius at the Plough his low Fortune cover'd a most valuable person till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York whom we all knew for his great Excellencies and his great but glorious Misfortunes This rare Person espied the great Abilities of Doctor Bramhall and made him his Chaplain and brought him into Ireland as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit Instrument to serve in that design which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved the Reformation of Religion and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church The Complaints were many the Abuses great the Causes of the Church vastly numerous but as fast as they were brought in so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall who by his indefatigable Pains great Sagacity perpetual Watchfulness daily and hourly Consultations reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition than they had been left in by the schismatical Principles of some and the unjust Prepossessions of others for many years before For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform and did so that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church which by pretended Offices false Informations Fee-farms at contemptible Rents and ungodly Alienations were made low as Poverty it self and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar or the noblest purposes of Religion For Hospitality decayed and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would and they complained but for a long time had no helper till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests and as admirable Abilities as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vice-gerents and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his Skill was great for the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious Memory it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of Derry which he not only adorned with an excellent Spirit and a wise Government but did more than double the Revenue not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands But his care was beyond his Diocese and his zeal broke out to warm all his Brethren and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King James the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate then Bishop of Derry by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct brought in divers Impropriations cancelled many unjust Alienations and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable I say much more tolerable for though he raised them above contempt yet they were not near to envy but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity so Judas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment and so Dionysius told the Priest when himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo and gave him one of Arcadian home-spun that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer And for ever since the Church by Gods blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes and Pious Nobility hath been endowed with fair Revenues inim icus homo the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away Gods portion from the Church as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and God was their King and Moses his Lieutenant and things were of his management he was pleased by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever That Men as they love God at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests For when himself did it he not only gave the 48 Cities with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way and yet the whole Country was but 140 miles long or thereabouts from Dan to Beersheba but beside this they had the Tithe of all encrease the first Fruits Offerings Vows Redemptions and in short they had 24 sorts of Dues as Buxtorf relates and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble or else as the nature of the thing required brought to the Temple the first to make it more profitable and the second to declare that they received it not from the people but from God not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi which was not the 40th part of the People as the Scripture computes them
hand he therefore espying this put his house in order and had lately visited his Diocese and done what he then could to put his Charge in order for he had a good while since received the sentence of death within himself and knew he was shortly to render an account of his stewardship he therefore upon a brisk alarm of death which God sent him the last January made his Will in which besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his Estate and provisions for his Descendants at midnight and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death still kept a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of His Majesty and the Church of England confessed his Faith to be the same as ever gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion and prayed to God and hoped he should die in the Communion of this Church which he declar'd to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole World He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities relied upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ and with a singular sweetness resigned up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer But God who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death was not pleased then to draw the Curtains there was an Epilogue to his Life yet to be acted and spoken He returned to actions and life and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church complained of some disorders which he purposed to redress girt himself to the work but though his spirit was willing yet his flesh was weak and as the Apostles in the Vespers of Christs Passion so he in the eye of his own Dissolution was heavy not to sleep but heavy unto death and looked for the last warning which seized on him in the midst of business and though it was sudden yet it could not be unexpected or unprovided by surprize and therefore could be no other than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus used to wish unto himself a civil and well-natured death without the amazement of troublesome circumstances or the great cracks of a falling house or the convulsions of impatience Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu si tamen esset habere aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii He hoped that the pains of the last Dissolution were little or none or if they were it was full of comfort that they could be but short It happened so to this excellent man his Passive Fortitude had been abundantly tried before and therefore there was the less need of it now his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did and therefore his last scene was not so laborious but God called him away something after the manner of Moses which the Jews express by Osculum oris Dei the Kiss of Gods mouth that is a death indeed fore-signified but gentle and serene and without temptation To sum up all He was a wise Prelate a learned Doctor a just Man a true Friend a great Benefactor to others a thankful Beneficiary where he was obliged himself He was a faithful Servant to his Masters a Loyal Subject to the King a zealous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on one side and Fanaticism on the other The practice of his Religion was not so much in Forms and exteriour Ministries though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministries of the Church as it was in doing good for others He was like Myson whom the Scythian Anarchasis so greatly praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he governed his Family well he gave to all their due of maintenance and duty he did great benefit to mankind he had the fate of the Apostle S. Paul he passed through evil report and good report as a deceiver and yet true He was a man of great business and great resort Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo as the Corinthians said There was always somebody in Cydons house He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he divided his life into labour and his book he took care of his Churches when he was alive and even after his death having left 500 l. for the Repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and S. Peters Church in Drogheda He was an excellent Scholar and rarely well accomplished first instructed to great excellency by natural parts and then consummated by study and experience Melanchthon was used to say that himself was a Logician Pomeranus a Grammarian Justus Jonas an Orator but that Luther was all these It was greatly true of him that the single perfections which make many men eminent were united in this Primate and made him illustrious At at Quintilium perpetuus sopor Vrget cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem It will be hard to find his Equal in all things Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur that I may use the words of Seneca nec est mirum ex intervallo magna generari mediocria in turbam nascentia saepe fortuna producit eximia vero ipsa raritate commendat For in him was visible the great lines of Hooker's Judiciousness of Jewel's Learning of the acuteness of Bishop Andrews He was skilled in more great things than one and as one said of Phidias he could not only make excellent Statues of Ivory but he could work in Stone and Brass He shewed his Equanimity in Poverty and his Justice in Riches he was useful in his Country and profitable in his Banishment for as Paraeus was at Anvilla Luther at Wittenburg S. Athanasius and S. Chrysostom in their Banishment S. Hierom in his retirement at Bethlehem they were Oracles to them that needed it so was he in Holland and France where he was abroad and beside the particular endearments which his friends received from him for he did do relief to his brethren that wanted and supplied the Souldiers out of his store in Yorkshire when himself could but ill spare it but he received publick thanks from the Convocation of which he was President and publick Justification from the Parliament where he was Speaker so that although as one said Miraculi instar vitae iter si longum sine offensione percurrere yet no man had greater Enemies and no man had greater justifications But God hath taken our Elijah from our heads this day I pray God that at least his Mantle may be left behind and that his Spirit may be doubled upon his Successor and that we may all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb where every man shall receive according
natural and therefore health and life was to descend upon him from Heaven and he was to suck life from a Tree on Earth himself being but ingraffed into a Tree of Life and adopted into the condition of an immortal Nature But he that in the best of his days was but a Cien of this Tree of Life by his sin was cut off from thence quickly and planted upon Thorns and his portion was for ever after among the Flowers which to day spring and look like health and beauty and in the evening they are sick and at night are dead and the oven is their grave And as before oven from our first spring from the dust on earth we might have died if we had not been preserved by the continual flux of a rare providence so now that we are reduced to the Laws of our own Nature we must needs die It is natural and therefore necessary It is become a punishment to us and therefore it is unavoidable and God hath bound the evil upon us by bands of natural and inseparable propriety and by a supervening unalterable Decree of Heaven and we are fallen from our privilege and are returned to the condition of Beasts and Buildings and common things And we see Temples defiled unto the ground and they die by Sacrilege and great Empires die by their own plenty and ease full Humours and factious Subjects and huge Buildings fall by their own weight and the violence of many Winters eating and consuming the Cement which is the marrow of their bones and Princes die like the meanest of their Servants and every thing finds a Grave and a Tomb and the very Tomb it self dies by the bigness of its pompousness and luxury Phario nutantia pondera saxo Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor and becomes as friable and uncombined dust as the ashes of the Sinner or the Saint that lay under it and is now forgotten in his bed of darkness And to this Catalogue of mortality Man is inrolled with a Statutum est It is appointed for all men to once die and after death comes judgment And if a Man can be stronger than Nature or can wrestle with a Decree of Heaven or can escape from a divine punishment by his own arts so that neither the Power nor the Providence of God nor the Laws of Nature nor the Bands of eternal Predestination can hold him then he may live beyond the fate and period of Flesh and last longer than a Flower But if all these can hold us and tie us to conditions then we must lay our heads down upon a turf and entertain creeping things in the cells and little chambers of our eyes and dwell with worms till time and death shall be no more We must needs die That 's our Sentence But that 's not all We are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again Stay 1. We are as water weak and of no consistence always descending abiding in no certain place unless where we are detained with violence and every little breath of wind makes us rough and tempestuous and troubles our faces every trifling accident discomposes us and as the face of the waters wafting in a storm so wrinkles it self that it makes upon its forehead furrows deep and hollow like a grave so do our great and little cares and trifles first make the wrinkles of old age and then they dig a grave for us And there is in Nature nothing so contemptible but it may meet with us in such circumstances that it may be too hard for us in our weaknesses and the sting of a Bee is a weapon sharp enough to pierce the finger of a child or the lip of a Man and those Creatures which Nature hath left without weapons yet they are armed sufficiently to vex those parts of men which are left defenceless and obnoxious to a Sun-beam to the roughness of a sowre Grape to the unevenness of a Gravel-stone to the dust of a Wheel or the unwholsom breath of a Star looking awry upon a sinner 2. But besides the weaknesses and natural decayings of our bodies if chances and contingencies be innumerable then no man can reckon our dangers and the praeternatural causes of our deaths So that he is a vain person whose hopes of life are too confidently encreas'd by reason of his health and he is too unreasonably timerous who thinks his hopes at an end when he dwels in sickness For men die without rule and with and without occasions and no man suspecting or foreseeing any of deaths addresses and no man in his whole condition is weaker than another A man in a long Consumption is fallen under one of the solemnities and preparations to death but at the same instant the most healthful person is as neer death upon a more fatal and a more sudden but a less discerned cause There are but few persons upon whose foreheads every man can read the sentence of death written in the lines of a lingring sickness but they sometimes hear the passing-bell ring for stronger men even long before their own knell calls at the house of their mother to open her womb make a bed for them No man is surer of to morrow than the weakest of his brethren and when Lepidus and Aufidius stumbled at the threshold of the Senate and fell down and dyed the blow came from Heaven in a cloud but it struck more suddenly than upon the poor slave that made sport upon the Theatre with a praemeditated and fore-described death Quod quisque vitet nunquam homini satis cautum est in horas There are sicknesses that walk in darkness and there are exterminating Angels that fly wrapt up in the curtains of immateriality and an uncommunicating nature whom we cannot see but we feel their force and sink under their Sword and from Heaven the vail descends that wraps our heads in the fatal sentence There is no age of man but it hath proper to it self some posterns and outlets for death besides those infinite and open ports out of which myriads of men and women every day pass into the dark and the land of forgetfulness Infancy hath life but in effigie or like a spark dwelling in a pile of wood the candle is so newly lighted that every little shaking of the taper and every ruder breath of air puts it out and it dies Childhood is so tender and yet so unwary so soft to all the impressions of Chance and yet so forward to run into them that God knew there could be no security without the care and vigilance of an Angel-keeper and the eyes of Parents and the arms of Nurses the provisions of art and all the effects of Humane love and Providence are not sufficient to keep one child from horrid mischiefs from strange and early calamities and deaths unless a messenger be sent from Heaven to stand sentinel and watch the very playings and sleepings the eatings and drinkings of the Children
that is from all affection to it is supposed in the Christians life denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and being cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and having escaped from all corruption that is in the world through lust this is not so much commanded as supposed without this nothing can be done nothing can be hoped this is but the foundation of the Christian who is intended to be a habitation of God a member of Christ a temple of the holy Spirit of God the building follows 2. All Christians must acquire all the graces of the holy Spirit of God S. Peter gives the Catalogue Faith and Vertue and Knowledge and Temperance and Patience and Godliness and Brotherly kindness and Charity and that you may see what is the spirit of a Christian what an activity and brisk principle is required to the acquisition of these things the Apostle gives this percept that for the acquiring these things we should give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all diligence no lazy worker is a good Christian he must be diligent and not every diligence nor every degree of good diligence but it must be all omnem omniuo diligentiam give all diligence 3. There is yet another degree to be added here too It is not enough for a Christian to be free from corruption and to have these graces and g. to be diligent very diligent to obtain them but they must be in us and abound N. B. they must be in us these graces and this righteousness must be inherent it is not enough for us that Christ had them for us for it is true if he had not had them we should never have received those or any thing else that is good but he had them that we might have them and follow his steps who knew no sin and fulfilled all righteousness They must be in us saith S. Peter and not only so they must also abound in us that 's the end of Christ's death that 's the fruit of his Spirit they must be plentiful like a full Vintage or like Euphrates in the time of ripe Fruits they must swell over the banks for when they are but in gradu virtutis in the lowest step of sincerity they may fall from the tree like unripe fruit and be fit for nothing but for Prodigals and Swine they must be in their season and period great and excellent and eminent they must take up all our faculties fill up all our time spend all our powers satisfie the will and be adequate to all the powers of our choice that is as S. Peter adds they must be so that we make our calling and election sure so as that we shall never any more depart from God well thus far you see how severe and sacred a thing it is to be a Christian. 4. But there are yet three steps more beyond this God requires of us perseverance a thrusting all this forward even unto the end without peace and holiness no man shall see God saith the Author to the Hebrews but that 's not all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow after peace and holiness with all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which following of peace and holiness that is unless we endure all contradiction of sinners and objections without following it close and home to the utmost issue to the end of all righteousness tending even to comprehension to consummation and perfection no man shall see God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is good and great to dwell in holiness but that 's not enough it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too we must still pursue it and that unto the end for he that endureth unto the end shall be saved 5. And what more yes there is something yet For besides this extension of duration there must be intensio graduum for nondum comprehendimus nondum perfecti sumus we have not yet comprehended we are not yet made perfect but that must be aimed at Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect be ye meek as Christ is be ye holy as God is holy pure as your Father in Heaven is pure and who can be so no man can be so in degree but so in kind every man must desire and every man must contend to be and g. it is possible else it had never been required 6. And now after all this one thing more is to be done you must be so for your selves and you must be so for others you must be so as to please God and you must be so to edifie your Brethren Let your light so shine before men that they may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven let it be so eminent and conspicuous that all that see your conversation and all that come into your Congregations may be convinced and falling down and worshipping may say of a truth the Spirit of the Lord is in you And g. our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount which is the summary of a Christians life at the end of the eight beatitudes tells all his Followers and Disciples ye are the salt of the world ye are the light of the world and g. the Kingdom of Heaven or the Gospel is compared to a woman that hid in three measures of meal the Jews the Turks the Heathen Idolaters her Leaven till all was leavened our Light must be so shining our Conversation so exemplar as to draw all the world after us that they that will not may be ashamed and they that wil lmay be allured by the beauty of the flame These are the proportions and measures of every Christian for from the days of John the Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force that although John the Baptist was the greatest that ever was born of woman yet he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven the meanest of the Laity may be greater than he This is a great height and these things I have premised not only to describe the duty of all that are here present even of all Christians whatsoever that you may not depart without your portion of a blessing but also as a foundation of the ensuing periods which I shall address to you my Brethren of the Clergy the Fathers of the people for I speak in a School of the Prophets Prophets and Prophets Sons to you who are or intend to be so For God hath made a separation of you even beyond this separation he hath separated you yet again he hath put you anew into the Chrysoble he hath made you to pass through the fire seven times more For it is true that the whole community of the People is the Church Ecclesia sancta est communio sanctorum the holy Catholick Church is the communion of Saints but yet by the voice and consent of all Christendom you are the Church by way of propriety and