ways it is true that the obligation of a promissory Oath is naturally dissoved which otherwise in all other cases when the thing sworn is just and good in it self and possible unto him that swears it and accepted and required by him to whom it is sworn though it be unto his own damage and then too though won from him by fraud or enforced by violence it is notwithstanding religiously and inevitably to be observed The example unto this purpose of Joshua and the Gibeonites is most remarkable for though Joshua had a Commission from the Lord to root out and destroy all the Nations that bordered upon the Land of Canaan and to give their Cities and possessions unto the Children of Israel yet having sworn a League with the Gibeonites a neighbour Nation who counterfeiting themselves a strange People that came from far deceived him and by this subtilty obtained Peace he feared for all that ever to violate the Oath which himself and the Princes of the Congregation had made with them And though all the people murmured at the League for the Gibeonites had fair Cities yet he never sought unto the high Priest for Absolution or Dispensation those high Mysteries of Iniquity were not then known neither yet did he plead that Treacherous Axiom That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and Infidels which were by the Council of Constance against all Faith both Humane and Divine shamefully decided and with the blood of Innocents more barbarously confirmed Such subtilties were too acute for the dull simplicity and honesty of those better times But without all shifts and devices both himself and all the Princes that had taken the Oath resolutely answer the mutinous Congregation We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel now therefore we may not touch them Josh. ix 19. And that you may perceive how precious in Gods sight such sacred Attestations be that are made in his holy Name do but consider with what severity and bitter revenge the Lord persecuted the breach though long time after in the days of Saul even of this very Oath which though it was at the first obtained by the Gibeonites with fraud and imposture and confirmed by Joshua besides if not contrary to his Commission and that without ever consulting the Lord as the Text doth especially mention and at length violated by Saul not without a good and zealous intent for Saul fought to slay them saith the story in his zeal unto the house of Israel and Judah yet for all that because the thing was not unjust in it self so highly did the breach displease and offend the Lord that for this very cause even after the death of Saul in the days of David he sent three years famine upon the whole Land for which no attonement might be made until this sin were particularly revenged and seven of Sauls Sons hung up before the Lord in Gibeon and then the famine ceased as you may read 2. of Sam. xxi In which Chapter there is one thing more observable unto this purpose for it leaves us a double example recording at once unto posterity as Sauls impious breach of this Oath with the Gibeonites so Davids religious observance of his Oath with Jonathan for when he delivered up the posterity of Saul unto the revenge of the Gibeonites he spared Mephibosheth the Grandchild of Saul and Son of Jonathan because saith the Text of the Lords Oath that was between them between David and Jonathan the Son of Saul v. 7. of the same Chapter for Jonathan and David had sworn as you know a league of friendship and though Jonathan were dead and gone yet faithful David far unlike the falseness of this world remembers it in his posterity and fails not to shew that love and kindness to the Son which he had formerly vowed and sworn unto the Father And whence it is also more remarkable that this Oath is not termed Davids Oath or Jonathans Oath but the Lords Oath the Lords Oath that was between David and Jonathan to shew and signify that the Lord is interested in the performance of an Oath wherein his name is assumed and that his truth is dishonoured in the breach unless the falshood be revenged by his justice whereof he will never fail either here or hereafter sometimes yea and often here but ever and for ever hereafter And therefore either make no Oaths or else perform the Oaths which you make either make them in Righteousness or make them not at all and being righteously made be sure they be not unrighteously broken for there is as righteousness in the making so also a righteousness in the observance and if either be wanting God will not fail to shew his righteousness in the avenging of both And so I leave Righteousness and come to Judgment Jurabis in Judicio Thou shalt swear as in truth and righteousness so also in judgment For though we may sometimes affirm a truth and sometimes confirm a lawful and just promise with an Oath yet notwithstanding we may not swear promiscuously every Truth nor yet bind every such promise with the attestation of God whose name is holy and in ordinary and trivial occasions cannot be used without profanation And therefore besides Truth and Righteousness in the thing sworn there is required also judgement and discretion in the swearer that he may discern between cases and causes of moment and not unadvisedly temerate this sacred name when neither the weight of the business nor our brothers weakness doth make it necessary for as St. Austin hath it lib. 1. de Serm. Dom. Qui intelligit non in bonis sed necessariis jurationem esse habendam refraenet se quantum potest nè ea utatur nisi necessitate He that knows that an Oath is not food but physick not to be desired for it self but to be used for anothers necessity let him refrain from swearing till that necessity doth require it and when that is the next immediate words will shew us cum videt pigros esse homines ad credendum quod iis utile est credere nisi juratione firmetur when he sees men otherwise unwilling to believe what he knows is behoofeful for them to believe But Mr. Calvin who doth also allow of a necessary Oath lest we should enlarge the cases of this necessity at our own pleasure gives a fuller rule to prevent it Non alia praetendi potest necessit as quà m ubi vel religioni velcharitati est serviendum We may never pretend necessity saith he but when we may do some good service to Religion or Charity that is to God or our Neighbour So that as the two former properties do restrain us from untrue and unrighteous so this latter from unnecessary swearing They forbid us that we swear not falsly and unjustly and this that we swear not rashly and vainly the one thing specially intended And when the egregious licentiousness of these times doth require a principal labour in
hard man as that lazy fellow in the Gospel would make him to reap where he did not sow or else like Pharaoh requiring his Brick where he doth not afford Straw for the making Not therefore according to the Faith which they knew not but according to the good and evil which they knew so shall all be judged by him who now comes to reward every man according to his works From the opera now if we come to the sua remove the Accent thither we shall but remove from one difficulty to another For some there are that have no works of their own How many that die as soon as born and not a few before and both before they have done either good or evil for which they may be rewarded It may be said peradventure that yet even these have one work of their own for being all in Adams loins when he sinned his Sin by virtue of the first Covenant becomes theirs and theirs therefore by St. Paul it is expresly termed in quo omnes peccâ—verunt in whom all have sinned This is right and hath nothing but truth in it if we consider only the Nature of the first Covenant and go no farther than so But farther I suppose we are to go for since there is a second Covenant passed and the second as the Apostle to the Hebrews and reason it self will tell us must disanul the fâ—rst A second strucken even with the same Adam and in him we all were at the transaction of the one as well as of the other and reputed in his loyns when he was restored as well as when he fell for that is the perpetual nature of Gods Covenants Vobis liberis vestris Deus tuus seminis tui And sure if we make our stay in the old Testament the Father must have come in his own glory the Son of man could never have come in the glory of the Father to render unto every man his own works for had he not first been our Mediatour he had never been our Judge Now therefore we are to look up unto him contemplate the person before whose seat of Judgment we are to appear even Christ our blessed Lord that innocent Lamb that was slain from the beginning that Lamb of God which by his blood being slain took away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sin of the world in the singular and other such singular sin of the world but there was not any And for this cause is rightly termed Adam secundus a second Adam a second through whom all receive justification unto life that became lyable unto death and condemnation in the first This is our Judge even the Author of the second Covenant who therefore will not sentence men as those Apostate Angels strictly after the Law of the first but as St. Paul speaks secundùm Evangelium meum according to my or rather his own Gospel Before this Judge when St. Paul cites every man he assures us no man shall answer but for what himself hath done or be rewarded with punishment but as my text hath it secundùm opera sua according to his own works and those his own not because acted in the loyns of another but because done in his own body for so saith St. Paul expresly and purposely it seems to prevent the interpretation we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things done in his body or rather not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some of the best Copies read and ancient Fathers cite and the vulgar doth render propria Corporis the proper things done in the body This therefore will not satisfy the doubt and were it admitted would yet satisfy but on one part the part that perish still the difficulty would remain how those on the other side that are saved by Sacrament should be rewarded with heaven secundum opera sua according to their own works But not to meddle any farther in this matter the truth is and it is the fullest answer I can give it That we may not measure such ignorant Innocents either always by the common rules of doctrine or at any time by the general precepts of duty For those the Scriptures are usually spoken of and these perpetually directed unto none but the full-grown and adult as they that alone are capable of them The not observing whereof is the chief cause I conceive of the great variety of opinions and intricate difficulties which this point of Infants hath begotten Some excluding them utterly from this day and seat of judgment because without Works either good or bad to be then discussed Others admitting of their presence there but yet neither among those on the right hand or yet on the left and so not liable to either of these two grand Sentences which shall then be pronounced A third sort subjecting them unto a Sentence and of these some unto such a Sentence as shall carry them to beatitude but in a Paradise apart others conveying them thence directly to heaven A fourth sort even to Hell and a fifth unto a middle state a condition between both But yet among all these varieties this is remarkable not any one of the Antients was ever so severe unto any of these whether baptized or otherwise as to cast them into that nethermost Hell and those torments which he suffers there of whom our Saviour said it had been better for him if he had never been born No not that learned and holy man who was esteemed durus Infantum Pater of all others a hard Father unto infants for even he though he placed them in a Region of Hell yet in such a tolerable condition therein as it were better for them to be even there than not to be at all August lib. 4. cont Julian cap. 8. But for my part I determine nothing amidst so many doubts and distractions 't were best leave them to stand or fall to their own Master especially since my Text which speaks of works rewardable like other general Scriptures doth not as I said concern impotent and ignorant Infants but grown Men knowing and operative for whoever of such receives the Kingdom of Heaven must receive it meerly as an Inheritance without any respect of works They are exempted from such common rules and so not included in this every man here that shall now be rewarded secundùm opera sua according to his own works And now in the last place let us come to this secundùm the first of the words and then sure we shall find our selves in no less streights than any of the former yea ut unda undam so one doubt and difficulty seems here to drive on another For first since the good shall now be rewarded ultra meritum beyond their merit and the evil citra condignum short of their desert which is a Maxime in Divinity they may well be rewarded for but not
Israel words of great compassion and learn to condemn our selves and our own sins in the evil we suffer when it doth strike Thou hast destroyed thy self And to bless and adore God for all the good we either do or receive when in special mercy it doth not strike but in me is thy help O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but c. But Israel is a word that wants not ambiguities for all are not Israel that are of Israel There are Israelites of the seed and Israelites of the Faith of Abraham There are Sons of flesh and Sons of the promise and Israel is the Church of God the womb that conceives and bears both Duoe Gentes in utero It is Rebekahs womb in which Jacob and Esau and in them two mighty Nations do contend and strive It is the Net in the Gospel that contains things both good and bad The Fold that hath Sheep and Goats The Field that hath Tares and Wheat The Barn-floor that hath Wheat and Chaff So then to collect the sum and substance of those points which this Scripture doth especially present unto consideration Here are first two sorts of people the Good and the Bad Elect and Reprobate implied in Israel Secondly the two several Ends of those two sorts Life and Death Destruction and Salvation for the help here may be none other than help from destruction and that can be nothing else than Salvation and so some Translations render it And lastly the two several causes of those ends God and Man God of life Man of death God the cause of Salvation unto the Elect and the Reprobate the cause of destruction unto themselves whereby neither those that are saved may sacrifice unto their own Nets nor they which perish lay any blame on his decrees these being no less deprived of all excuse than those bereaved of all boasting O Israel thou hast c. That these words may have a true and litteral understanding of Calamities and Deliverances incident unto this present life that which immediately goes before in the precedent verse I will meet them as a Bear bereaved of her whelps c. will not suffer any Man to doubt But that they are only and principally meant of such and not of eternal destruction and Salvation in them that which follows will permit no man to believe I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plague O grave I will be thy destruction words that do not carry a sound of momentany affliction And therefore this illustrious promise or Prophecy or both by the Apostle to the Corinthians is repeated and worthily appropriated unto him who is the Saviour of Body and Soul and hath redeemed us from first and second both Corporal and Eternal death The more deservedly is Pâ—scator otherwise a Learned and Industrious Pastor to be blamed who in a late and negligent tract of Predestination having so ordered the state of Reprobation as he saw God thereby must needs become the first Author and Procurer of his Creatures endless destruction lest this place here Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thy self should cross his intent or hinder his building replies that it is meant of such destruction only as pertains unto the present World as if there were not one and the same cause of destruction in both nay as if it were more prejudicial unto God and his Justice to be the absolute cause of slight and short troubles here than of perpetual and everlasting sorrows in Hell hereafter It is strange he should rather seek an answer than acknowledge the truth of so excellent a sentence A sentence that is indeed the very line and level whereby himself and every one else must direct and square all his propositions that concern those eternal appointments and decrees of a just and merciful God It is the best if not the only Star and Card and Compass too on which the weak age of reason must continually fix it self whilst it Steers in this dangerous Navigation in this immense and bottomless Sea of Predestination in which Abyssus Abyssum invocat one Deep calls upon another Deep upon Deep and Rock upon Rock so thick that in seeking to avoid the one unless this Golden Rule be our direction we shall be sure to strike and split upon the other as many that have sailed before us have done whose Bark and burthen should never have perished had this notable Saying sate Pilot at the Helm by whose shipwrack we may learn wisdom to beware For some of the first and best Reformers of the Roman Superstition justly displeased at the Pelagian freedom of the Papist whereby Man is made the first mover unto his own good striving with all their might to bear up from this Charybdis fell foul upon Sylla on the other side and instead of Pelagian liberty brought in more than Manichean necessity whereby God is as far intitled unto Mans ill Both in extreams and both extreamly to be blamed the former being not able fully to say In thee is our Salvation unto God the latter Thou hast destroyed thy self unto Man Arminius of late an Acute Dutchman steps forth to reform these Reformers whose main Errour notwithstanding which he should have condemned especially he is found especially to imitate fleying where he should but sheer and flying from one extream to another when the truth lies between both For as they upon a worthy dislike of a conditional Election upon foreseen merits through heat or ignorance come to maintain an absolute Reprobation so he out of his as worthy dislike of this Iron and Adamantine decree of absolute Reprobation without demerits fell back again unto conditional Election In both both of them equally erring the truth lying equally distant from both so as it is not easie to judge Election upon good works being derogatory to the freeness of Gods mercy and Reprobation without evil unto the Truth of his Justice whether contains the greater impiety The one gives too much unto Man in the work of Salvation The other too much unto God in the means of damnation My Text convinceth both the former in the latter part and the latter in the former O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help And as in Errours so are their portions not much unequal in Truth For Arminius election upon foresight and his Adversaries absolute reprobation are not more false than their absolute Election and his Reprobation upon foresight are as I conceive it apparently true which is not the least reason that they which are brethren and friends in all other points sweetly conspiring against the common Enemy should with such violent affections enter into this Civil War amongst themselves For there is no stronger nourishment unto mutual perswasion than when either side shall behold some demonstrative truths in his own and as gross and palpable errours in the others opinion It can hardly chuse but beget prejudice and
shedding of it which was purposely shed to cleanse them from the guilt of their sins if instead of sealing salvation to their own Souls they do but eat damnation to themselves for not discerning the body of their Lord. For did they discern it did they understand and conceive it to be there they could not but approach unto it with greater reverence with much more heed and awful regard When it was at the worst and lowest estate the malicious Jews could bring it to bereaved of all form and beauty yea and of that blessed Soul which dwelt within it and now remained only a dead and crucified Carkase all over gaping with wounds and gored with blood yet even then with what care and reverent respect was it handled by the good Arimathean It was wrapt up in fine and clean Linnen imbalmed with sweet Oyntmens and perfumes and laid in a new Sepulcher hewen out of the Rock How then and with what high esteem should we we that are to be made not Sepulchers but Shrines and Temples not of his ignominious but glorified body not of his body only but of his whole person of his body and blood and Soul and Divinity and all how I say and with what diligent preparation should we see that all things be pure and clean and sweet and new where such a guest is to be entertained where he is not to be lodged for a night or two but to inhabit where he is not to lye a while as in the grave but to dwell and live for ever This were something to the purpose and we should then shew we discerned the Lords body which now we seem not at all to regard eating and drinking of his flesh and blood with no more reverence and respect than if we were at an ordinary Table of Bread and Wine Nay I assure my self many of us make more preparation being but to dine with some Neighbour than they do to come to the great Kings supper They can with all diligence apparel and trim up the outward man against every ordinary feast in the mean time neglecting the inward man of the Soul little regarding how foul and slovenly that comes to the holy Banquet But let such careless men in time take heed the wrath of the Lord hath never shown it self more terribly than on the profaners of holy things especially his own holy presence Many and fearful are the examples in this kind The great King of Babel no sooner polluted the Sanctified Vessels but even whilst he is carrouzing in the bowls of the Temple a strange hand from heaven writes his doom on the wall before him the terror whereof looseth the joints of his loyns and makes his knees knock one against another which was but a forerunner of his ruine who that night lost at once both his Kingdom and his life But how dreadful was that judgment in the 1 of Sam. vi where fifty thousand Souls are suddenly struck dead for but looking irreverently into the holy Ark and Uzzah instantly smitten with the like vengeance for but touching it with profane hands though with a good intent to hold it up when in his judgment it was like to fall And shall we who are permitted I say not to touch or to look into the moveable but to walk into the standing Ark the Temple of the Lord yea to enter in within the Vail and approach up even to the Mercy-seat and eat of the holy shew bread that stands before the Lord if we continue to pollute that sacred place and banquet with our unwasht feet unclean and impure affections shall we think to escape alone without wrath from Heaven Let no Soul flatter it self with such a bold and mad presumption The divine indignation that in former times was wont ever almost to follow such profanations at the heels though in these later ages the great day of final accounts drawing on it seem to slacken the pace yet it will certainly overtake them one time or other if not here in this world yet infallibly in that other hereafter though oftentimes even in this also Even at this instant when the Apostle wrote this very Chapter the Lord had sent a fearful sickness amongst the Corinthians and that for this very cause their profaning of the Sacrament as you may read the words immediately following my Text. For this cause saith he some are even now sick others weak and many amongst you fallen asleep that is taken away by bodily death But however it go with us now yet at that day when the great King shall come to take a particular view of his guests he will not fail to find out all those careless people that have presumed to sit down at his table without their wedding garments and pronounce upon them that heavy doom in the Gospel take them bind them hand and foot and cast them into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth So necessary is this duty of reverent preparation and so great the necessity urged upon the high terms of no less than plagues and punishments here and destruction for ever hereafter So true is that of our Apostle he that eateth unworthily doth but eat judgment unto himself so the word imports judgment temporal though he repent and without repentance damnation eternal and that in so heinous a manner as if he were guilty of the very body and blood of the Lord no less than the cruel Jews that shed the one and crucified the other or treacherous Judas that betrayed both Well then necessary it is and highly But to come to the second point let us now see what the preparation is that is so necessary wherein it consists and how far it extends that must denominate and make a worthy Receiver Surely though no Man living be absolute worthy in himself or can by any means attain unto that entire and compleat worth which is fully answerable unto the dignity and holiness of those sacred mysteries yet it pleaseth God of his grace to accept of him for a worthy Receiver of them that doth truly and faithfully endeavour to receive them with a competent measure of that reverence and those qualifications which he hath prescribed in his word amongst which Knowledge Faith Repentance Love and Charity Love to God and Charity to our Brethren I suppose are the chief if not all And these sure at least are simply necessary by them we must examine and with them we must prepare our selves whosoever will be worthy Receivers First with Knowledge an honest degree of knowledge what the mysteries are what they signifie and exhibite for what purpose they were ordained of God and are received by our selves Thus much seems requisite in the meanest capacity for so long as we are ignorant of the substantial parts and fundamental doctrine of the Sacrament so long as we neither know nor consider the main ends and purposes for which it was instituted how can we possibly prepare our selves worthily to
glory unto him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for evermore Who now shall mourn who shall weep for such a Soul none can sorrow for her unless they envy her happiness foelix illa anima imitationem desiderat nâ—n planctum that blessed Soul is no subject of grief but a pattern for imitation And therefore if any weep in her death they must be tears of joy not of sorrow and if they be of sorrow they must not be for her but for our selves and our own loss This indeed is great and invaluable and when you think on it weep a Gods name Quis natum in funere matris flere vetat he were barbarous that would forbid it you yet you shall not have all to your selves we 'll bear you company for she was a publick loss Such a Wife such a Mother such a Friend such a Mistriss such a Neighbour such and so good a Woman and so great an example of Virtue cannot should not go to the grave with dry eyes in whose loss so many have interest I would praise her if I could to make you weep more but she is beyond my commendations A Woman of her Wisdom and Judgment of her Wit and discourse so free and liberal and yet so prudent and provident withal for she was so in her self though misfortunes befel her so sweet so kind so mild so loving and respective to all and withal so charitable to the poor a Chirurgeon to the hurt and a Physician to the sick she eat not her morsels alone and their loins were warmed with her wooll as Job speaks such a Woman so well born and bred and of such a strain beyond ordinary as she seemed with the blood to inherit too the virtues of all her Ancestors so upright and clear and innocent in her whole course that the eye of envy nay were all the malice of the world infused into one eye it could not find any just stain to fasten on her such a one so every way compleat surely no Man unless he had her own or the wit and tongue of an Angel can sufficiently commend neither can we if we regard our own loss sufficiently bewail But the truth is she is not lost non amissa sed praemissa sent before she is lost she is not And therefore you whom it most concerns though you mourn mourn not as those without hope It is but a short separation and the time will come when you shall see her again though not with these earthly affections Pay the due tribute unto nature but then shut up the sluces for graces sake And the God of all grace give you comfort the Holy Ghost the Comforter himself replenish your heart with consolations And the blood of Jesus Christ wash us all from all our sins and strengthen us with the power of his might that we may so live whilst we remain here in this Prison of the Body that when it shall be dissolved we may obtain mercy from him to lead forth our Souls To lead them with his grace and then as he hath done to this blessed Saint receive them unto glory There with her and all the company of righteous spirits that are gone before us to sing praise and honour unto his holy name for evermore To this God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost c. Laus Deo in aeternum THE Second FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE DAUGHTER SERMON XIII Upon ROM viii 10. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness MAN of all Gods Creatures is the strangest compounded the most marvellous mixture that ever was a very fardel of contrarieties wonderfully united and wrapt up in one bundle Heaven and Earth light and darkness Christ and Belial may seem to dwell together and man the house of their habitation what can be more directly opposite than Flesh and Spirit Life and Death Sin and Righteousness and lo all of them united here in one verse nay in one man For the Text is but the Anatomy of man and must therefore be composed of and divided into the same parts man himself is As his body is composed of contrary Elements heat and cold fire and water So his person is composed of contrary Natures Corporal and Spiritual Body and Soul His Natures again of contrary qualities Life and Death the Body is dead the Soul lives and lastly these qualities issuing from contrary causes sin and righteousness death from sin and life from righteousness The Body c. And though the sin by which the body dies is our own yet that we may know that the righteousness whereby the Soul lives is not of our selves but received from our Saviour there is a caution given in the entrance of the verse If Christ be in you So then here are three couples a Body and a Soul Sin and Righteousness Life and Death The body with her two attendants sin and death the Soul with her two endowments righteousness and life The former is universal and common to all the Sons of Adam according to the flesh the latter particular and proper only to the Children of the second Adam begotten by the Spirit If Christ c. I begin with the first part which is a meditation of death and our chief Christian comforts against death But yet before the Apostle brings in his consolations he premises a conditon If Christ be in you To teach us that the comforts of God belong not indifferently to all men He that is a stranger from Christ hath nothing to do with them What hast thou to do to take my Covenant into thy mouth so long as thou hatest to be reformed saith God in the Psalm I. When our Saviour commanded his Disciples to proclaim peace unto every house they came to he foretold them it should rest only on the Sons of peace He forbad them in like manner to give those things which were holy unto doggs or to cast pearls before Swine This stands a perpetual Law to all his messengers that they presume not to proclaim peace to the impenitent and unbelieving but as Jehu said unto Jehoram's horsman what hast thou to do with peace so are we to tell the wicked who walk on still in their sins that they have nothing to do with the peace or promises or priviledges of the Gospel If Christ be in you c. Secondly if we compare the verse immediately precedent or that which is subsequent with this between both you shall easily perceive after what manner Christ dwells in his Children Sometimes we are said to be in Christ and sometimes Christ is said again to be in us and both in effect come to one we are in Christ by faith and Christ is in us by his Spirit For so it follows If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies It is
habet all our time that is past death hath seised on it and so much of our life is consumed Let me then warn you and stir up your meditations of your mortality in the words of Moses Deut. xxxii 29. O that men were wise then would they understand this then would they consider their latter end Sure we are unwise that we consider not the things past the evil we have committed the good we have omitted the benefits of God we have abused the time we have mispent and yet we grieve not because we think not yet whether we shall die More unwise are we not to consider the things present the deadness of our Body and uncertainty of our death the difficulty of Salvation and the small number of such as shall be saved and yet we shame not because we think we shall not yet die But most unwise are we that we consider not the things to come Death Judgment Hell all to come and yet we fear not because we think we shall never die But O that we were wise then should we understand then should we consider our latter end and considering it we should both prepare for it now and more cheerfully entertain it when it comes memorare novissims remember thy end saith the Wiseman in aeternum non peccabis and thou shalt never offend never do amiss Ecclus vii 36. So universal is the goodness of this consideration and therefore I have stayed the longer on it But now I pass from mortality to the cause of it from death to sin that first brought it into the world The body is dead because of sin Sin it is and only sin which is as the cause of all our dolours and calamities so of death it self that follows them without this there never had been there never could have been any death in the world Death were not death had it not a sting to kill but the sting of death is sin as the strength of sin is the law saith our Apostle The cursed apple of disobedience which our first Parents would needs eat sticks still in all our teeth it was poyson unto his nature and infected his blood and he hath derived the contagion to all his posterity who still continuing to feed on forbidden fruit as he did do perpetually strengthen the original Disease and draw death upon themselves more hastily and violently than either that sin procured or the prime corruption of nature for it doth inforce Hence then we may perceive first how foolish they are who living still in sin yet never consider that they are the Butchers and Murtherers of themselves according to that of the Psalmist The malice of the wicked shall slay themselves xxxiv 21 his own sin which he hath conceived brought forth and nourished shall be his destruction Every Man judgeth Saul miserable that died upon his own Sword but what better are other wretched Men whose sins and iniquities are the cruel instruments of death wherewith they slay themselves Souls and Bodies too Thus are they twice miserable first that they must die and secondly that they are guilty of their own death O the lamentable blindness of Men who albeit in their life they fear nothing more than death yet do they entertain nothing more willingly than sin which causeth their death In bodily diseases Men are content to abstain even from ordinary food when they are informed it will but nourish their sickness and this they do to eschew death only herein they are so ignorant that notwithstanding they abhor death yet they take pleasure in unrighteousness that brings it upon them And secondly which shall be the last use we will make of this point Since sin it is that did first bring and doth still hasten on death upon wicked Men what marvel is it if in these last and worst days the Lord strike the bodies of Men with sundry sorts of diseases and sundry kinds of death seeing Man by sundry sorts of sins doth not cease to provoke him unto anger He frameth his Judgments proportionable to our iniquities if ye walk stubbornly against me and will not obey me I will then bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins Levit. xxvi 25. He hath a famine to punish intemperance and the abuse of his creatures if the memory of our own corrupt and putrifying bodies cannot do it he hath a devouring sword to bring down the pride of our hearts If we have fiery and unclean affections he doth not need burning Fevers and loathsome diseases to punish them And now if the Lord after that he hath stricken us with such a dreadful pestilence shall renew his Plague amongst us or go on to finish that former destruction with the Sword of our enemies what shall we say but the despising of his former fatherly corrections or our stubborn walking against the Lord our God hath procured it justly unto our selves Quid mirum in poenas generis humani crescere ir am Dei cùm crescat quotidie quod puniatur what marvel that the wrath of God increase every day to punish Man when that doth daily increase which deserves that God should punish it But enough of this part it is now time to pass on to the second and most worthy part as of Man so of my Text from the Body to the Soul from the memory of death to the comforts against death for though the body be dead yet it is but the body the spirit which is the highest consolation of a Christian is yet alive Mans life it self But the spirit is life I cannot now stand to discourse of the excellent Nature of Mans Spirit and the wonderful union of it with flesh and blood for Man you see is no simple creature but compounded of both both a Body and a Spirit He is the abstract and brief compendium of all the creatures of God The world was corporeal the Angels spiritual and both were united in Man and made as it were into one creature A creature which hath being with the elements life with plants sense with beasts reason and spiritual existence with Angels that so the Almighty God first uniting all his creatures in Man and then uniting Man unto himself in the person of Christ might in some sort through Man communicate himself to all his creatures Worthily therefore did the Naturalists term him a little world and as worthily did St. Austin say of him that of all the miracles that were ever wrought amongst Men Man himself is the greatest miracle and that not only in regard of his two substances but especially in regard of their marvellous union that a mass of clay should be quickened by a spirit of life and both united into one person That as God himself hath diverse persons in one Nature so man hath diverse and those contrary natures in one person Commonly says Bernard the honourable agrees not with the ignoble the strong overgoes the weak the living and the dead dwell not together