I shall say no more but most vehemently beseech you as you will answer it in the day of Judgment when you shall be proceeded with by that man whom God hath appointed to judg Act. 17. 31. the World according to your works not according to your opinions that your lives and conversations in the World be agreable to your knowledge and that if you know the tenour of the new Covenant you would observe your parts of it that you would give just and but just respects to Truth knowing that the peace of God is more worth than notion knowledge or understanding Eph. 4. 3. And that together with the verity you would consider the necessity of every Proposition it being in the judgement of the learnedst of our Kings together with his excellent Amanuensis and of all Royal and Majestick K. Jaâ—â—â—s Is Casaubon minds not barely the best but the only expedient to preserve the unity of the Spirit i. e. Church which is a spiritual body in the bond of peace That you would seclude neither your selves nor others out of the Communion of the Church but for such causes as you have very full rational assurance will shut them or your selves out of the Kingdom of Heaven Excommunication if the Churches proceedings be clave non errante being summum futuri judicii praejudicium a vehement presumption of succeeding condemnation That in your daily reading of the holy Scriptures whose perfection and perspicuity in all necessary Articles I have been wont to inculcate to you you would carefully collect all the instances of your duty towards God your Neighbour your selves in all your relations to the Civil and Sacred Societies whereof you are constituent parts and that you would acquaint your selves with the arguments and motives with which our Lord and Master Christ together with the blessed Apostles and Evangelists do endeavour to induce you to the observation of them And then remember that not every one who Mat. 7. 21. shall say Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of the Father which is in Heaven All Controversies in Religion I would wish you to decline by reason of the great damage which has thereby accrued to Religion through the weak mesnagery and defence of it and to Religionists by leavening their spirits with pride peevishness and passions and so that which was designed by God to serve the noblest ends of man Is by that old deceiver's subtile play Made the chief party in its own decay And meets that Eagles destiny whose breast Felt the same shaft which his own feathers drest As the matchless Orinda sings Consider much the magnificent Commendations and Characters which St. Paul gives to Charity 1 Cor. 13. Let it be conspicuous in all the actions of your lives I shall summ up all I shall now say to you in these 12. Rules of an holy Life laid down by a worthy Dr. Jer. Taylor Prelat 1. Believe all the Articles of that Faith whereinto you were Baptized 2. Worship God constantly with Natural Religion i. e. Prayers Praises and Thanksgiving 3. Take all opportunities to Commemorate the Death of Christ by the participation of his Body and Blood 4. Live Chastely 5. Be Merciful 6. So use the World as that it always give place to Duty 7. Be Just in your Dealings 8. Be Humble in your Spirits 9. Be Obedient to Government 10. Be Content in your Fortunes and Employments 11. Let the Love of God inflame you to your Duty 12. And if you shall be afflicted be Patient and prepared to suffer for the Cause of God These are twelve signs of Grace and the man upon whom they are found is the son of God as surely as he is his Creature And now my Friends let me assure you that it is some trouble to me that the first present I should make you in this manner should be a bundle of Cypress But so our wise God would have it I move you not now to follow her with Crowns and Hymns nor do I understand how nor designe to prepare the incombustible Oil of the Antients with which I might supply a Lamp consacrated to her memory which might burn so long as that found some while since in the Appian 1500 years Pancerol Licetus Mancinus Way in the Sepulchre of Tulliola the Daughter of Cicero But all that I design all that I desire is that that which was prepared for her Herse may adorn your Closets Yea that you would look upon her and learn to live and learn to die In the ensuing Papers you have the Rule of our Religion and you have an Example too Follow her so far as she followed Christ and it is hard to say where she step'd aside where she stay'd behind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 20. So often as you see the Armories of her Parentage or your left Hands remind you of her Funerals Call to mind a great Example of Vertue and Goodness so Illustrious and Conspicuous that there remain'd no doubt but only whether the Universality or Sincerity of her Obedience was the greatest VALE ET SALVE ANIMA O ANNAE FELICISS NOS EO ORDINE QUO NATURA PERMISERIT TE SEQUEMUR S. T. T. L. Rom. 8. 2. For the Law of the Spirit of life hath made me free from the Law of sin and death THat Mortality was an original condition of Humane Nature will appear to him who shall consider these seven Observations following 1. That before Adam sinned the procreation of man was designed whereas such as shall partake of the Resurrection of the dead marry not because they do not die 2. That he hungred and was provided of meat whereas Immortality needs neither meats nor the belly God will destroy both it and them 3. That his Body was animal which St. Paul makes all one with vile corruptible and mortal 4. That Christ Jesus who hath taken away sin all its force and punishment hath yet left his dearest Saints liable unto death 5. That the first man was of the earth earthy and we forasmuch as we die and corrupt are said to bear his Image 1 Cor. 15. 6. That God planted a Tree of Life in the Garden which needed not if man had been created not liable unto death 7. That all the causes of natural mortality within us or without us did exist as well before as after Man had sinned Yet notwithstanding sin was the way to actual death and that the wages of it It being usual with God to do that upon occasion which he hath power absolutely to do i. e. to make use of the instances of his Dominion to serve other designs of his Providence which help us to understand that first threatning In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death i. e. Thy strength supported by the tree of life shall begin to languish and fail Thy Oyl at length shall be exhausted and thy Lamp shall
be extinguished Now Death of its own nature being eternal there being naturally no return from the privation to the habit therein must man have been detain'd for ever if our merciful God had not found out an expedient to deliver us from it which is by his Son Jesus whom Acts 2. 36. he hath made both Lord and Christ and hath exalted to be a Prince and a Acts. 5. 31. Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins and by consequence deliverance from death This being that very thing which St. Paul saith The Law of the Spirit of Life hath made me free from the Law of sin and death Which words are a reason or rather a clearer explication of what he had said before viz. That there is no condemnation to them who in Christ Jesus that is by Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but walk after the Spirit i. e. who for the most part do not in their actions follow the duct and guidance of their sinful appetites but walk according to that Gospel which the Spirit hath consigned to us or that Vertuous habit of mind which that Spirit hath ingenerated in us there is no condemnation to such This Law of the spirit of life i. e. of the quickning Spirit having delivered us from the Law of sin Paraphrase of the words and death That Spirit which our Lord is about to give which leads to Eternal life hath made me i. e. every Christian free first from all customary and habitual sins then from eternal death which necessarily follows all sinful habits and customs By sins St. Paul understands consulted Strom. 2. p. 387. and deliberated sins So Clemens after a long discourse to that purpose concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only are matters So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in St. John 3. 6 10. which God will damn When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ had triumphed over Death and the Grave had ascended on high and was vested with all power in heaven and earth then he gave gifts unto men but no donative did so excel as that effusion of the Spirit in the day of Pentecost the chief and last effects and events whereof were the deliverance of all Believers from the double tyranny of sin and death Hath made me free from the Law of sin and death In the words then we have a deliverance from Sin the cause of Death Death the fruit and consequent of Sin There is a victory over and a deliverance from all habitual customary consulted and deliberate sins to be obtained in this life which is that true Evangelical righteousness which gives us at present a title to and hereafter will actually invest us with a blessed Immortality For our more distinct perception of which notion we may consider that Real Evangelical Righteousness admits of various degrees 1. The first and lowest whereof is of them who for the most part yield obedience to the Precepts of Christ and abstain from sin but yet not without grievous conflicts and great difficulties because that although the Spirit be superiour to the flesh yet the carnal part is not altogether subdued nor a habit of Vertue taken in a more perfect acceptation entirely acquired for which cause their lapses are frequent either for that the Appetite is assisted too strongly from external incitement or too often surprised by error or incogitancy 2. The second degree is of them who have acquired a perfect habit of Righteousness and have so subdued the flesh that they find either none at all or very little difficulty in acting in the ways of God thence consequently are more steady and uniform in the waies of Vertue and holiness and such was St. Paul as may be gathered from divers passages of his writings and others such like there may be as appears both from the sacred Book and also from Experience it self which will yet be more manifest if we shall demonstrate as by and by we shall That there remains possible an higher degree of holiness than that we have yet spoken of although there needs no farther proof than those plain words of our Lord My yoke is easie and my burthen is light i. e. to all them who are supported with a firm hope of a life after death and a blessed immortality And those words of St. John This is the love of God i. e. Metonymically the manifestation of our love towards God that we keep his commandements and his commandements are not grievous These overcome the World and that too by their Faith which inspires strength into them And he that overcomes i. e. all such things as the World objects to him to affright and call him off from righteousness sive prospera sive aspera whether smiles or frowns to him it is easie to keep the commands of God to him I say that yoke is easie that burthen is light The third degree and that the highest is of such who being most cheerfully incumbent on the study of Vertue have proceeded so far as that for some competent space of time they sin not at all against any Precept of Christ To this degree ought all Christians who are going heaven-wards always to aspire which state St. Paul seems mystically to call the Resurrection from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12. the dead and was the mark whereto he pressed Not that I have already attained neither am already perfect This then is the third degree whereunto if Christians do not attain 't is simply necessary they should reach the second or the first 'T is praise worthy in Priâ—ra sequentem hoâ—stum est in secâ—nd is out tertiâ—s consistere Tully him that endeavours to excell to be found in the second or the third degree of Vertue Yet all who would find mercy in the day of Christ must endeavour to attain this highest degree For all acknowledge 't is never permitted to a Christian to sin consultatively for that is to sin malitiously Now unless a man shall labour to shun every sinful act which is to aspire to this supreme degree of Piety he sins consultatively i. e. malitiously which no Christian will defend Sin becomes exceeding sinful exceeding heavy with its own weight if done malitiously or with deliberation And God sometimes remits greater sins if fallen into through frailty or ignorance sooner than lesser sins malitiously committed Again that great study diligence vigilance and labour so exactly required of us in all our Christian Conversation points us out our Mark and Scope which is to eschew every sin and so to aspire to this highest degree of Piety Are we not every where all up and down the sacred Books called upon to imitate God and Christ to be holy as God is holy to be perfect as our Father is perfect to walk in the light as God is in the light to walk as Christ walked and to follow him He that observes these Precepts doth no
that is in them because of the hardness of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness 2. The other is of them who indulge their Lust with little or no conflict but have contracted a perfect habit of one or more vices in reference to which they have extinguished all sense of Conscience though in other instances not all out so wicked 3. A third is of such who for the most part do the things that are evil and are overcome of the flesh but not without strivings of Appetite and Reason alive at once to the Law and Sin the conviction of the one and the power and love of the other both these strugling together within the bowels of the Soul checking and comptrolling one another This is the man St. Paul describes by a Metaschematismus under his own person in that famous Paragraph to the Romans of which I will give a succinct but evident demonstration Rom. 7. 1 In this man sin wrought all manner of concupiscence v. 8. 1 The regenerat man has crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. 2 Sin revived in him deceiv'd him slew him v. 9 10 11. 2 He is dead to sin the body of sin is destroy'd he serves not sin sin reigns not nor does he obey it Rom. 6. 2 12 14. 3. He was carnal v. 14. 3 Is not in the flesh Rom. 8. 8 9. 4 Sold under sin v. 14. 4 Is free from sin Rom. 6. 18 22. 5 The good he would he did not but the evil which he would not that he did v. 19. 5 Walks not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 1 4. 6. Was taken captive to the Law of sin v. 23. 6. Is freed from the Law of sin Rom. 8. 2. 7 Detain'd by the body of death from which the poor wretch desir'd to be deliver'd v. 24. 7 Is freed from the law of death Rom. 8. 2. Where you have seven Characters of each as contrary to one another as light to darkness to know better and to do worse is so far from alleviating the evil that 't is the greatest aggravation of it 'T is the most bruitish unreasonable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and wretched condition for a man that knows what is best to be led by incontinency and effeminacy from it And therefore saith the Philosopher that we ought not only to think right and to be affected accordingly But to conform our works to our right opinions He that sins and accuses himself is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth but begin to learn Symplic 67. and hath not yet come to the knowledg of the truth 2. Another is of them who deceive themselves whilst they expect some other 's inherent Righteousness to be made over so compleatly to them as if they themselves had been really and perfectly righteous and this upon the sole Condition or qualification of meer Faith scrupulously prescinded from all Obedience Now this Hony-comb of Antinomianism is but a branch of old Gnosticism antidoted by St. John Little Children let 1. 3. 7. no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth And all the promises Christ makes to the Asian Churches are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that overcomes And thus am I arriv'd at the other Atchievement of this vivifying Spirit our deliverance from Death the fruit and consequence of Sin The ruin of Death follows that of Sin sicut Varasequitur Vibiam Sin is the sting of death 't is its Scepter the ensign of its soveraignty deprived of that it loseth its antient nature ceaseth to be King of Terrors and differs not from a gentle sleep an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an easie transitus to a blessed immortality 'T is but the dissolution of an old ruinous and cadaverous Building to raise a fair and fresh a stately and magnificent Structure in the place thereof For we know that if our earthly house 2 Cor. 3. of this Tabernacle were dissolv'd we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens i. e. a celestial glorious and a spiritual Body St. Paul doth lively describe the difference between these mortal and those immortal Bodies with which we shall be cloathed in the Resurrection 'T is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption 't is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory 't is sown in weakness it is raised in power 't is sown an animal body 't is raised a spiritual body Where the Apostle compares man in respect of hie body to a fruitful grain of Wheat which is sown in the earth and somewhile after spring up in a more excellent and very different form And that which thou sowest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non gignendum corpus seris is not the body that shall be but bare and naked grain Whence is that body that is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own body And all this relishes well to him that knows that the most contrary modifications of matter imaginable do constitute no specifical change according to the last and best Philosophy Nor can he be offended who holds the principle of individuation is the form only and that the matter and suppositum is individuated from it So then our Apostle institutes a fourfold collation of these our bodies with those we shall have hereafter 1. It is sown in Corruption but shall rise in Incorruption i. e. The body which we bring into this World with us is subject and obnoxious to corruption and change here we dwell in houses of Clay Job 4. 19. whose foundation is in the dust and may truly say to corruption Thou art my 17. 14. father and to the Worm thou art my mother and my sister There we shall die no more but be as the Angels the sons of God being the Children of the Resurrection Luk. 20. 36. 2. 'T is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory when we come into the World we bring bodies some of whose parts and members seem to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncomely and less honourable besides the rugae and maculae the wrinkles spots and blemishes which age sickness and other casualities do imprint upon us But then in the destitution of these deformities our bodies shal be more resplendent than the Sun and brighter than the golden light of Aurora The glories of Mount Tabor were but shades and darkness compar'd to that refulgent light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far exceeding the brightness of the Sun septuplùm saith St. Ephrem wherewith Acts. 26. 13. now our Lord is cloathed and yet shall he change our Vile bodies until he hath made them like his Glorious body 3.
Peace and Holiness IN THREE SERMONS Upon Several Occasions By Ignatius Fuller LONDON Printed by Evan Tyler and Ralph Holt for R. Royston Book-Seller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty 1672. Imprimatur Sam. Parker Novemb. 2. 1671. A SERMON AT THE Funerals Of Mrs ANNE NORTON Widow and Relict of W. Norton late of Sherrington in the County of Bucks Esq July 12. 1671. St. Paul But thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symplicius By Ignatius Fuller LONDON Printed by E. T. and R. H. for R Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty 1672. BRETTO NORTONO Armigero MARGARETAe THO. DUNCOMBI Armigeri UXORI Unicae Proli ANNAe NORTONAe Nuper Vitâ Functae I. F. Hoc quale quale Munusculum Benevolentiae Gratitudinis Ergô L. M. D. D. D. To the Worshipful and well beloved the Inhabitants of SHERINGTON in the County of BUCKS Grace and Peace My Dear Friends AFter more than twenty years Conversation with you in the same Relation which as yet I hold Divine Providence hath at length given me a fair occasion to let you know how much I value you It cannot be very long before a silent and a senseless night overtake me and that I make my bed in the dust That there may be some remembrance not of me for who or what am I But of that Doctrine which I have advanced among you or endeavoured so to do begun already to be misreported by some which is no other than universal Goodness or Vertue a Righteousness in the lives of men or to use St. Paul ' s words to Titus The denial of all ungodliness 2. 12. and worldly lusts and a Sober Righteous or Godly life in this present World the scope and design of that sovereign Goodness of God which hath appeared unto us in the Gospel of hiâ— Son A distribution of our Dâ—â—y comprehending all the Conâ—â—tions on our part in that Covenant mediated and transacted between God and Man by the Man Christ Jesus well expressed by a late Person of The truly Noble Lord Viscount Faukland in his Reply to Mr. Tho. White Honour replying to that objection That Christian Doctrine is not a Speculative knowledge instituted for delight but it is an Art of living a Rule of attaining Everlasting bliss wonders to hear that learned Gentleman say so whose Religion consists of so many points no ways reducible into practice and then confesseth nay contends That Christian Religion is a Covenant between God and Man by the entermise of Christ that we Christians are properly concern'd but in the knowledge of what are the Conditions and Rewards proposed and promised what we are to observe and what to hope for and so far forth to understand the Nature and Attributes of the Maker and Messenger of that Covenant as may make us fully assured of the truths of the Threats and Promises contained therein So that Noble Authour Now because there are some imaginations which do vehemently impede and hinder this Piety and dereliction of all habitual and customary sinâ— scarcely permitting him that retains and understands them entirely to forsake them I have often endeavoured to remove such stumbling stones out of the way of your Christian race Such are their mistakes concerning God's Decrees Liberty of humane minds our Justification before God and some others And what Christian incumbent on the study of Vertue and seriously contending for a blessed Immortality but may perceive great ease in his understanding and great incouragement in his said endeavours from a clear and distinct explication and defence of the Truth in the Articles before mentioned If God's Decrees be irrespective then is all endeavour and sollicitude superfluous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Bus Tom. 1. p. 343. Deus possibilta mandavit hoc nulli dubium est St. Hieron adv Polag l. 3. If Christ died only for a few 't is no duty upon all to believe in him If men have no Wills they can have no sins for want of a Subject If Christ's Precepts be impossible they are unnecessary If to live in sins against conviction of Conscience be the measure of Regeneration 't is very easie to be born again If the Elect cannot fall away and the rest never stood all discourse against Apostacy is idle and useless If apprehension of Christ's Merits in the last moments of our lives and sorrow for sin against God doth forthwith translate us into the Kingdom of his dear Son No man needs disserve here or inhabit hereafter the Kingdom of Darkness What Doctrine more grateful to flesh and blood to the Sensualist that embraces an Herodias or a Dalilah to the Mammonist who has purloined the Babylonish Garment or the Golden Wedge to the Airy Cameleon which feeds on the foul and infectious breath of the Populacy to the idle Sluggard who frights himself with the thoughts of a Bear or a Lion in the way Who sees not how such surmises do not only evacuate the force and vertue but quite frustrate the use of the Ministery of the Word rendering it incapable of converting the Infidel correcting of the Carnal quickening of the Slothfull and of comforting the tempted and afflicted As you may see it piously and ingeniously amplified and demonstrated in the Examination of Tilenus So that you may perceive it was no wantonness of wit or parts as some will have it but very important yea indispensable necessity if I would adorn that conduct and guidance of Souls which I have undertaken that did constrain me to remove those impediments out of the way of our Christian obedience If I be told that such who have swallowed whole the Doctrine of Dort and Geneva live good lives and comport with the Laws of the Holy Jesus I answer peradventure it may be so Although Deaths and Exiles so cruelly inflicted upon excellent men may entitle them to the Character of loving God and hating their Neighbour with all their heart Who doth not observe the partiality of their obedience that the Factions have their Vertues and their Vices Yea if some duller heads live better lives than their Principles oblige them to yet others who are wicked and witty too defie all discourse to reform them and refuse to forsake these Altars where they have taken Sanctuary Our daily experience assures us that the follies and debaucheries of men are ascribed to Fate and divine Decrees Nor can I conceive how many men of competent understandings without the help of these so useful Engins of sin and folly can reconcile in themselves great immortalities with great professions of Religion No no let 's not add to the difficulties from within and from without these needless these foolish obstructions of our pursuit of a blessed Immortality But I say not these things my Friends for your sakes so much as for theirs who neither knowing what I teach nor you learn uncharitably think all manner of evil