in their spirituall riots they will play away the saluation of their soules O the cheap damnation of sinners With how seely baytes their soules are angled into eternall perdition A messe of pottage will buy away Esaus birth-right A small vineyard will make Ahab sell himself to worke sinne and forfeit his kingdome and all his posterity to the wrath of God A fayre-look'd apple pleasant to taste will hooke into the Lake of brimstone a whole world of beguiled soules The Harlots beggerly bread and water Prou. 9. 17. will get more followers then Wisedomes costly banquet choicest wines though the bread bee stollen and the waters hid If GOD should liue amongst vs thirty pence would buy him A cup of fornication is enough to make all the Kings of the Earth wait vpon the Whore the Beast And can it can it be Sathan should hyre vs to bee the seruants of sinne with such small wages and God with a Kingdome should not moue vs to be his sonnes O let not Nature in wicked and prophane vnreasonable Creatures go beyond Grace in profest Christians Balaam the Sorcerer would dye the death of the righteous the naturall good will hee bore himselfe taught him to wish it And it is the obseruation of the Philospher That all Creatures naturally desire to draw and assemble themselues as close to the diuine Being as possibly they can which hee makes to bee the Reason why there is in them all so vehement a desire which hee calls of all other the most naturall of begetting another like vnto themselues because not being able in their owne bodies to be euerliuing they deriue themselues to eternity by their issues thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee sayes partaker of the Diuine being as farre as they are able This is therefore the reason why there is sowne in our Nature Tantus amor prolis generandi gloria but this naturall and lawfull ambition of glory in the Creature is most liuelie exprest in the eight to the Romans of which I spake in the former section Let vs therefore if the wicked desire the death endeuor to obtaine the life of the righteous if the whole creation grone and sigh and trauel to be deliuer'd from the corruption whereunto our sinne hath imbondaged it into the glorious liberty of the children of God at least as S. Paul speakes in the same chapter groan with them and within our selues to bee deliuered from our owne sinne and to bee made partakers of that glory which God diuides among his saints Let vs set before our eyes those Noble examples which the Scripture hath lighted vp for vs to looke vpon For this is that heauenly Countrie which Gods soiourners and Pilgrims heere on earth seeing a farre off sweetly saluted Heb. 11. 13. and trauelling as strangers thorough the world esteemed onely worthy of their ambition Thus Enoch walked with God before his death and therfore without death was translated to him being as S. Iude speakes the seuenth from Adam whom God happily sanctified to himselfe with eternall rest because he was the Sabbaoth of Men. Thus Moses preferred the naked and solitary wildernesse before the delights and treasures of Pharaohs Court and was not this the cause because he looked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the great recompence of the Reward by Faith seeing him who is inuisible Heb. 11. 27. This made Daniel esteeme the Lions Denne better then Darius Palace and the three children aduenture to meete heauen in hell God in the middest of a furnace infernally heated This made not valiant men onely but weak women fearefull by nature but resolute by faith in the midst of all their tortures not accept deliuerance but making their way through all the cruel mockings scourgings and bonds and prisons and stones and sawes swoords of wilde persecuting Tyrants passe on to the Land of promise without desire of liuing or feare of dying Heb. 11. 36. This made the olde Auncient-bearer of Valens the Emperour and elder Souldior of Christ Saint Basil in his Oration of him so much admires that signal Martyr Goelius tell the raging and menacing Prince that he knew his reward shold be greater then his torment and when the Emperour promised him very great matters to aske him smiling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether hee had any thing to giue him more worth then the Kingdome of heauen In a word this carried the heart of olde Simeon into such a holy extasie of religious delight that earth could hold him no longer but he must needs as it were breake prison and leape out of his olde body into heauen O what a desire of departure to it doth a true sight of this saluation kindle Lord saies he now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace c. for mine eyes bane seene thy saluation As if he should say Lord now the child is borne let the olde man die now thy son is come let thy seruant depart now I haue seene thy saluation O let mee goe to enioy it Now I haue beheld the humanity of thy sonne what is worth the looking vpon but the diuinity of such a person which is able to make my young Lord heere euen proud of his Humilitie For so great a ioy of spirit can neuer be thrust vp into so small a Vessell as an olde shrunke-vp body of earth is Since therefore I haue testified of thy Christ since I haue made an end of my dying note and sung thee my Christmasse song since I haue seene thee O thou holy one of Israell whom no flesh can see liue what haue I to do to liue O Lord What should I weare this olde garment of flesh any more Thou hast left thy fatnesse off O thou faire Oliue Tree and the oyle of it hath made mee haue a cheerefull countenance thou hast forsaken thy sweetnesse O thou beautifull Vine and thy fruit hath warm'd thine olde Seruant at the very hart Now therfore being thou hast powred thy new wine into this old vessell O giue the olde bottle leaue to breake O let me depart in peace for I haue enough I haue seen mine eyes haue seene thy saluation These are high-wing'd ambitious indeed whose thoughts creep not vpon the earth nor whose Honours shall be euer layed in the dust but that flye among the Starres and Angells of GOD that boast of their kinred with the Almighty and call themselues the Sonnes of God Wisd 2. whom our Sauiour hath made the fauourites of Heauen companions for his Angels co-heyres with himselfe Temples for his Spirit Parts of his Bodily and partakers of his Diuine Nature whose kingdomes end not with their liues but begin with their deaths whose pleasures vnlike to Ionathans hony kil not with tasting whose gains haue no fire-brands like Sampsons Foxes no hell in their tales whose celestiall banquets are like the feastes of Cana where their water is turned into wine al their teares into ioy not like faire Absolons a Type
all And this was Caiphas the High-priests blind argument to proue our Sauiour the Messias It is expedient that one man should dye for the people Iohn 11. 50. In a word his Buriall in the graue of rich Ioseph is foretould by Isay 53. He shall make his graue with the rich and his Resurrection by Dauid Psal 16. 10. Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy one to see corruption For God before had made his soule an offring for sinne as Esay tells vs 53. 10. And this was the great argument of the two great Apostles wherewith they conuerted both Iewe and Gentil to the faith of Christ Acts. 2. and 13. Chapters 800. at two sermons I will not adde to these Diuine Attestations the propheticall Acrostique of Sebyd Erythcaea cited by Constantin in his oration which he intitled ad Caetuâ—â— sanctorum the 18. Chapter and translated as he sayes by Tully before our Sauiour was borne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who I doubt not not but might Prophesie of Christ as Balaam did Nor the Aegyptian crosse which among their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diuine Hieroglyphicks signified Saluation as the heathen themselues confest out of Socrates in the 5. booke of his Ecclesiasticall story the 17. Chapter Nor th' illustrious report of Iosephus in th' 18. of his Antiquities both of our Sauiour and Iohn the Baptist which the Iewes ignorantly slaunder as inserted by the Christians mistaking this Iosephus the sonne Matathias who writ in Greeke for another Iosephus of theirs who writ in Hebrew the sonne of Gorion in whom indeed there is no such report Nor the wirtie but not so weighty Arguments of some of the Fathers As of Iustin Martyr who would needs perswade Trypho and his two fellowes that the holding of Moses Armes in the figure of a crosse and the spitting of the Paschalll Lambe with the two shoulders passant prefigur'd the crucifying of our Lord or of Irenaeus speaking of the incredulous Iew who should see our Sauiour the life of the world hang before his eyes and yet obstinate his heart in vnbeleefe out of the eight and twenty of Deut. Et erit vica â—ua pendens ante oculos tuos non credes vitae tuae lib. 4. aduersus Haereses cap. 23. But if any would lay the foundation of his faith wider and hope to himselfe more Arguments to ground his beleefe vpon Let him but aduisedly thinke with himselfe how it became the Sauiour of the world to liue and what other witnesses to beare him testimony of him and then let him adde to the prophesies of his death the innocence of his life For neuer any man liued as he liu'd which of you sayes our Sauiour as to all our enemies can accuse me of sinne And to the innocence of his life the Authoritie of his Doctrine Neuer man spake as this man does say the emissary scouts sent to apprehend him And to the Authoritie of his Doctrine the power of his miracles Wee neuer saw such things in Israel say all the people and to the miracles that hee wrought the miseries that he suffered Behold and see if there were euer griefe like my griefe may our Sauiour truely say of himselfe And to the miseries that he suffered himselfe the constancy of his Appostles and Primitiue Martyres that suffered for him Who who euer had such witnesses as to kindle other men into the same faith with them would set themselues on a light fire of zeale till they were consumed for the honour of their Lord So that the first Imperious Persecutour of the Christians Nero that in humane lumpe of crueltie whom Nature for hast might seeme onely to haue curded vp into a knot of bloud guest not much amisse when anoynting their bodies of the Christians he set them burning in euery street of Rome like so many Torches to giue light to the Cittie as Tacitus reportes in the 15. of his Annales For they gaue light indeed not for awhile onely to that heathenish Cittie but to the whole Christian world for euer after Neuer was there day kindled with halfe so many beames as that night was sure neuer was there night though all the Starres in Heauen should flame out in it to make it glorious that shone halfe so brightly as did this when to meet their Bridegrome in the first watch and morning of their Gospell so many early Virgins had lighted their Lampes And to these liuing Martyres let him adde two dead witnesses the voyce of the Sonne from heauen at his exspiration when the whole world lost the day at Noone the voyce of the Earth at his Resurrection when her mouth opened and let abroad so many Saintly bodies that awakned and leapt out of their graues to tell it in Ierusalem that Christ was risen O the Diuine vertue of this celesticall body If it die heauen that enlightens all extinguishes it selfe if it reuiue the dead worke of the Graue that receiues the dying excludes the liuing and like the barren wombe of Sarah is alust to bring forth the Children of promise in testimonie of the secret influence of life it felt after Christ had layen with her And thus it became the Sauiour of the world to liue thus to be borne thus to die againe these witnesses became him these Miracles And therfore giue me leaue to vse first IIII. A free Reprehension of all fashionable Aggrippaes in faith and farther motiues to winne them to become through beleeuers AFter the voyce of so many Prophesies witnesses art thou yet an Infidell O that there were not in Christs militant Church as there were in Othoes military Campe so many men so few Soldiers so many professors so few Christians Let me but aske thee as St. Paul did Agrippa Beleeuest thou the Prophets and I would I could say as he does I know thou beleeuest but I feare I may better say as the Prophesie it selfe speakes Who hath beleeued our report And what might the reason be of so much infidelitie among so many beleeuers of vs that so many with the Roman Soldiers should kneele downe to Christ and by an open professioÌ„ of their mouthes say to him Hayle King of the Iewes with the smooth voyce of Iacob and yet with their practise and rough hands of Esau smite him on the head face and crucifie him Is it not because they liue neither as iust men by Faith nor as wisemen by reason but wholy by sence so ignorant are they like bruit Beasts before God beleeuing only what they see quae sunt ante pedes as the Oratour speakes what they must needes stumble vpon with their eyes and no more Well hast thou both thine eyes out of Faith and Reason giue me thy hand O thou reasonable Beast and follow me with that one blind eye of Sence that thou hast left thee Thou wilt not beleeue in Christ because thou didst not see the former Prophesies foretoulde of him fulfilled by
to another Creature So the water will soake thorow another body and vnite it selfe into euerie part of it by insinuating his supple ioynts into euery empty place and ouerture of the body vpon which it is infus'd that it will seeme to make but one body with it as in a vessell full of ashes which earth being a grosser body cannot doe Againe the Fire being a more subtill and refined body then the water will vnite it selfe to the most churlish and impenetrable body after a very close and peruious manner as to a stone yron steele or golde which the water being a more condensed and lesse fine body can neuer pierce or soake into Againe a spirituall substance will yet more closely vnite it selfe to a body then this finest and most subtill of corporeal beings And therfore wee may remember that Satan tells our Sauiour that a Legion of them that is six thousand eight hundred and thirty for the Romane Legion consisted of 6100. foote and 730. horse though heere I thinke not this precise number but a great multitude is meant did all couche and lodge together in one poore possessed man Wherefore as wee see if a hundred candles were lighted vp in a roome all the beames of them would be in the same place vnited together at least locally though not essentially which those that are skilfull in the Opticks demonstrate by the seuerall irradiations of Light wherewith each of them vnconfusedly passe thorough one another so it is with spirits a thousand of them may be locally vnited together without any consequent absurditie because their follows no penetration of dimensions and therfore filling no place at all they cannot exclude one another from the same place they are in as bodies doe Againe it must needes bee confest that the Diuine Nature of our Lord God may yet more nerely close with his creature in a strayter vnion then any other because his essence is not onely more good so more communicatiue of it selfe but incomparably more immixt and pure then any creatures besides himselfe can be This being the prerogatiue royall of Diuinity to cōsist not of Act and Power or to be something after which before it was not as longer liu'd or wiser or better or more glorious but to be Actus Purus All Act and Essence without any reference of time or difference of qualitie That is God is not as Man or an Angell may be good and true and wise and liuing but hee is wisedome it selfe truth it selfe selfe-goodnesse and selfe-life Now wee know in formall Vnions that is alwaies the closest that is most communicable of it selfe and of which the subiect whereunto it is vnited is most capable And therefore it must needs bee that God who is Truth may vnite himselfe to the vnderstanding more closelie then a thing that is true because the proper obiect of the vnderstanding is Truth not a true thing and so to the will because hee is goodnesse it selfe and life it selfe the will is a more proper subiect of life and goodnesse then it is of a thing that is good and liuing This is a retruse and hidden but in truth a very diuine motion of the gracious and formal vnion whereby God pleases to impart his Diuinity to his Creature For looke as wee see in the eye of a man the liuely Image form of the thing it sees which makes me cal this a formall vnion shining euidently in it without which the eye could neuer see the thing so it is in the jntellectuall part of the soule The thing which is vnderstood must haue the jmage of it as cleerely represented and vnited to the vnderstanding as the visible object is to the eye and therefore it is a Truth famous in the Shooles Intellectus est omnia The vnderstanding is all things Not all things by the Essence of it but by the similitude it hath with it in the act of intellection And this is the very reason why in spirituall things as long as wee liue in our Bodies our vnderstanding is so childish and Infant-like because in this blinde and corporeall world all Spirituall Essences are represented to it forma tantum disparata in some desperate that is vnlike and different forme shape to that which indeed and in truth they are of as if a Painter should expresse the Sunne by a spot of guilt and should draw the Starres with a little yellow Oakre in his draught of the heauenly body we cannot see their owne faces nor get the true jmage of themselues into the eye of our vnderstanding It was Gods speech to Moses who had better eyes then any that euer liued after him Thou canst not see my face For there shall no man see mee and liue Exo. 33. 20. Isay 64. And therefore as when the Angells of the Lord haue beene seene among vs they appeared sometimes like beautifull young men as to Lot and the Sodomites sometimes like Chariots of fire as to Elishaes seruant somtime with countenāces shooting like lightning Mat. 28. 3. so when God himselfe pleased to descend vpon Mount Sinai or vpon our Sauiour his sonne his spirituall Essence could neuer be seene but himselfe came riding downe in the similitude of a Doue himselfe came down so clowded and guarded about with fire that neyther the persons nor the eyes of the Israelites could come neere him But when the morning of glory shall arise wherein our soules shall awaken from the heauy eye-lid of our flesh and the veyle of our body shall first be remoued and after being depur'd from his drosse be refined into a bright and spirituall body wee shall then see God as he is wee shall see him face to face we shall know him as wee are knowne of him Which nathelesse is not to be vnderstood extensiuely as if we should comprehend God in the whole extent of his Diuinity but distinctly onely and truely as when wee see the Sea we see so much of it as can fall into our sight truely and know it distinctly from al other bodies to be the sea but we cannot see all the Sea at once because the obiect is of too large a breadth and extension This whole discourse driues only to this issue There is a vnion of bloud between Parents Children and this is a remote and very separable vnion And there is an vnion of one flesh betweene Man and Wife and this vnion is of a short continuāce and is soone parted by death And there is an vnion of Place and thus Spirits may be locally vnited who yet may be at extreame oddes and difference one with another And there is an vnion of affection this Friends are vnited with and it is alas too soone alterable vpon the change of eyther And beside all these there is a mysticall or virtuall Vnion of the members with the head and this the Church is vnited to Christ by from whom it receiues the diuine influences of all grace and fauour