joy 4. Great joy to all people all that are or ever shall be That shall be c. 5. And these all well ushered in witlr an Ecce of admiration and attention Behold These two the message and the magnifying of it are the main parts of this days celebrity and solemnity and therefore they are full and have many branches the other three the Audience their Comfort and the Angel Preacher that gives it are of less importance and so are but single points briefly delivered And the Angel said unto them Fear not But we must begin with these though the lesser as the Text doth and first with the Preacher or publisher of the Nativity an Angel dixit Angelus And the Angel said c. And right and fit it was that an Angel should say it he is an high and excellent creature and his ministry hath ever been justly used in high and excellent actions Now of all the actions and operations external of the divine power the best and the greatest the highest and most excellent the wisest and most wonderful is the Incarnation and birth of the Son of God The other eminent acts of goodness and power manifested either in his life or death resurrection or ascension they do all depend on this which is the ground and foundation of them all therefore questionless as it is the greatest benefit the world ever knew so is it the greatest work that God ever did wherein God is made man and man become God God and man becoming but one person Such a generation as this who shall declare it saith the Prophet Isaiah who shall preach and publish it indeed surely no creature in the world is absolutely fit yet since it must be done by some none so fit as an Angel the best of his Creatures to preach and proclaim the Nativity the best of his works The Angel said and he had no sooner said it but a multitude of Angels receive and applaud it with a hymn of glory Gloria in excelsis Glory be to God on high one Angel preaches and a Quire of Angels sing praises So the whole service of this day both Sermon and Anthem by Angels all So great is the day we now celebrate and the benefit we are now to treat of And it were to be wished it might still be preached by the tongue of that Angel which first published it But yet since it hath pleased God to impose it upon sinful men we must perform it as well as we may but still remembring you that though we do it 't is a theam in it self fitter for an Angel The Angel said illis unto them And what were they in the verses precedent you may see Shepherds they were watching over their Focks What a fall is here The best news the world ever heard the greatest mysterie God ever wrought fit to be uttered by no tonge but an Angel's the highest of his Creatures now in this state to be preached and published to none but Shepherds the lowest and meanest of the people what congruâ—ty is there in this The Custom of the world in case of News great and extraordinary especially tydings of Joy is to post with it to great and extraordinary persons Kings and Princes no mans ear may have a taste till theirs be first possessed with it And surely this if ever any was News fit for a King and the greatest King Why is it then delivered unto Shepherds why is it not sent to Caesar Augustus the Monarch of the Earth now sending forth his Edict for the description of the whole world why doth not the Angel hye him unto Cyrenius his President or to Herod his King of the Jews why goeth he not unto the high Priests to the Scribes and Pharisees that sate in Moses Chair or to some other of the Grandees and Magnificoes of the world why unto none of these why but because men have one Custom and God another they look to the great to the good men respect the high and mighty but God regards the humble and meek Especially in his divine Revelations I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes Luk. x. 21. This is his Custom not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish the weak and the base things of the world to confound the wise and mighty 1 Cor. i. 26. No marvel therefore saith St. Ambrose if in the first publication of the grace of Christ God did rather respect innocence than power and the simplicity of Shepherds than the pride and imperiousness of Kings It was not amiss then that Shepherds they were mean Men Men of an humble Spirit of an innocent and contemplative life it was not amiss I say in this regard if but to shew the use of God whose manner it is ever to resist the proud and shew grace unto the humble but it agreed well too in other respects He that was now born was sent to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel and it was but right that Shepherds were made acquainted with that to shew spiritual Pastors their duty who first receive the Gospel that they may preach it to others and the flocks their obedience not to adhere to their own Revelations but to receive their doctrine ordinarily at the hands of their Teachers for to shew this the Gospel was first justly preached unto Shepherds Besides it was the birth of a Shepherd that he came to tell the Shepherd that was so long ago promised Behold I will raise you up a shepherd Ezek. xxxv 25. he is now born the chief shepherd 1 Pet. v. 4. the great shepherd Heb. xiii 20. the good shepherd that gave his life for his flock John x. II. It was but just then to tell Shepherds of the birth of a Shepherd and the news fitted them well rightly therefore dixit illis he said unto them But still said he not his errand presently they were not in case to receive it The appearing of the Messenger hath so frighted them that they are not capable of the message If he now tell it they may chance not to hear it or if hear not regard it And therefore before he go on with his news he doth first settle their minds for receiving it with a nolite timere fear not Afraid then they were and sure they might well fear It was in the depth of night and the Angel appeared suddenly and in great glory the glory of the Lord shined round about them They were but Shepherds no marvel if such fear at such and so unexpected a sight better men than they and other manner of persons have been troubled at the approach of an Angel though in the day time Zachary though a just person that walked in all the commandments of God without reproof though a Priest though in the Temple and ministring there The Virgin
receive it we shall fall short for want of discerning the body of the Lord. And in this every Man ought to examine himself and many Men others too as well as themselves It is not the proper duty of the Minister of God only to Catechise every Father and Mother of a Family is or ought to be in this regard as a Minister within his own charge It is our part not to be still laying of the Foundations and Principles of the Doctrine of Christ but to lead you on towards perfection Heb. vi 1. As St. Peter the Apostle said of ministring at Tables nay as St. Paul of Baptism it self I was not sent to baptise but to preach So we may much more say of Catechizing We were not sent to Catechise but to preach the Gospel our office is to dispense the Word and Sacraments yours it is properly to prepare yours it is to teach and instruct your Children and Servants that they may be fit and capable to receive both though the sloth and ignorance of these times to your sin and shame hath cast this burden wholly upon our shoulders most Fathers for the want of willingness or knowledge deserving to be Catechised no less than the Children that are under them yea in my understanding much more having lost in their age that little which they learned in their youth The second qualification is Faith without it it is impossible to please God as in any other duties we can exhibite unto him so especially in this of the Sacrament It is the eye of the Soul by which we behold and look upon the hand by which we lay hold and apprehend the very mouth by which we eat and receive the Body and Blood of our Redeemer given and applied unto us in these mystical figures Non dentes sed fidem prepare not therefore thy teeth but thy Faith saith St. Aug. for crede manducasti believe and thou hast eaten And for this duty we suppose there needs little preparation or tryal every Man thinks he can readily assure and acquit himself in the performance but when we come to examination anon we shall find it a harder matter than we imagine to believe aright and as we ought The third of these preparatory qualifications is Repentance which though it be also generally required as precedaneous unto all sacrifices and services which we offer unto God according to that of the Apostle Let him depart front iniquity whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord yet the more holy and sacred the actions are the more especially ought we to cleanse our selves and purge our sins and corruptions before we go about them for I will be sanctified saith the Lord in those that draw near unto me And nearer well we cannot draw unto God or God unto us than in this Sacrament ordained of purpose to joyn and unite both in one But do we think his pure and precious body will vouchsafe to be received and dwell in an unclean and polluted Soul shall this bread panis de Coelo bread from Heaven the Childrens bread as it is in the Gospel and indeed the food of Angels shall it be given do we imagine unto whelps shall these precious Pearls of the Gospel shell'd up in Divine Mysteries be opened and cast unto Swine shall the cup of the Testament be given unto him that hath nothing to do with the Covenant surely no What hast thou to do saith God in the Psalms to take my Covenant in thy mouth so long as thou hatest to be reformed to take it in thy mouth so much as by naming of it how much less hast thou to do to take the blood of the Covenant in thy mouth by receiving it so long as thou refusest to reform thy self by true Repentance This therefore is the main and principal part of our qualification wherein we cannot be too diligent and careful and the other of Love is like unto it Of Love first unto God who hath shewn such marvellous Love unto us and from us should receive all Love and thankfulness again And then unto our brethren that as God hath loved us so should we also shew Love and Mercy unto one another In regard of the first this blessed Sacrament is well termed the Eucharist that is the Sacrament of thanksgiving wherein by the assistance of the blessed Spirit we do in all thankfulness and grateful return of our best affections solemnly commemorate the wonderful Love of the Son that suffered and the infinite goodness and mercy of the Father that gave him to death for the sins of the world In regard of the other the Love of our brethren it is as rightly stiled a Communion that is a common union for so it is doubly a common union of our selves amongst our selves and of all unto our Saviour But first we must be united unto one another before we be united unto him as we drink of one cup and eat of one bread so we must be knit into one body mystical by Love or we shall never be knit unto our head Christ Jesus by Faith What union canst thou expect with him so long as thou art at variance with those for whom he died His blood was shed for us all whilst we were yet enemies and shall we think we may drink it and in it remission of sins to our selves so long as we refuse to remit the sins of another can we hope or expect that mercy from God which we will not shew to our own flesh No no if without this thou thinkest to receive any favour from him or look he should receive or accept any sacrifice from thee thou deceivest thy self It is his rule in the Gospel If when thou comest to offer at his Altar thou remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift there go and first be reconciled to him then come and offer thine oblation Ecce honorem suum despicit dum in proximo charitatem requirit Behold saith Chrysost. how he preferreth thy Charity before his own honour who will not accept of any sacrifice to himself till thou hast shown love to thy neighbour And so here these four Knowledge Faith Repentance and Love are as you see the principal qualifications wherewith due preparation must of necessity adorn and beautifie the Soul they are the several parts whereof that Wedding-garment must be made up wherewith it is to be arrayed and wherein every one must appear that would be held and accepted of God for a worthy Receiver And thus much of the first points the preparation and the necessity of it drawn from the phrase and commanding force of the Text Let a man examine himself for this Let is not permissive let him do it if he will or if he will not let him chuse but mandatory and imperative let him see and be sure that he doth it and that under pain of damnation as it follows in the next verse Proceed we now in
satisfaction He is the eternal wisdom of the Father and indeed none but the Fathers wisdom could have found out a way to shew mercy unto Man and yet give full satisfaction unto his own justice For Justice and Mercy Man offending were as it were at variance either pretending who should have him Justice demands him to be given to her for revenge Mercy opposeth and with all her might pretends for a pardon both strugling in the bowels of the Almighty that dearly affects both Justice proposeth but few only two arguments but they are powerful The first urgeth the Almighty with his own verity and truth Thou hast spoken the word the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death And with thee there is no shadow of change therefore thou must not alter the thing that is gone out of thy lips The second with a precedent drawn from his former actions The Angels sinned and thou didst not spare them why be alike then unto all For why shouldest thou afford earthly men that favour which thou deniedst unto Celestial Spirits of far more excellent Nature But now Mercy on the other side cries out pitifully with that cry in the Psalm wherefore hast thou made all men for nought what though thou hast said the word it was but the word of legislation and thou art Lord of the Law the supream Lawgiver and therefore maist dispense with the Law which thou givest and in doing so thou dost but remit thine own right thou wrongest none other which therefore is without all wrong to thy Justice And for the Angels they were but some of them not all the Angels that sinned and they sinned willingly and wilfully of their own accord and without a Tempter their sin remaining in themselves not propagated to others and therefore they perished worthily in thy wrath and I made no intercession for them But Man was deceived and seduced by the subtlety of the Serpent his sin besides not cleaving to himself alone but passing forth upon all his posterity that pass from him And shall the whole generation and kind who sinned not of their own will but by being in his loins be eternally destroyed for one and that anothers transgression It is sufficient that Justice hath triumphed in those evil Spirits let me have my victory now in these Good reason there should be some regard had of me as well as of her she is thy Daughter indeed yet she is but thy Daughter-in-law I am thy natural it is thy nature and property to have Mercy and compassion Thus these two the very favourites and darlings of the Divinity contend together and who or what wit shall decide the controversy or give both content when they have contrary demands Herein then shines the infinite wisdom of God that in so difficult a case and perplext as Damascen terms it could discover a way find out an issue that should give full satisfaction unto either and not only so but manifest the glory of the rest of his Attributes of his power wisdom goodness and all and all at once and in one action by informing a piece of our clay and contriving himself and his whole Divinity into a trunk of Earth that so one person might be made of both A person on whom Justice might take her full revenge that Mercy afterwards might be shown unto the offender that so both death might be inflicted as the one urged and a pardon granted as the other intreated For being Man he could die and being God his temporary death could satisfy for an eternal And being God and Man he could dye and with conquest having satiated revenge rise again from the dead and proclaim life and grace unto the whole world So by the infinite wisdom of this work all strife ends and both are well pleased Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other Yea so great is the wisdom of it that the blessed Angels themselves desire to pry into it profoundly Sure it exceeds the natural understanding of the wise and subtle Lucifer himself who for all his wit and cunning was clearly deceived and foil'd in this mystery whereby he was drawn on to bite at that heel which he little dreamt would crush his head even whilst he bit it For supposing to swallow the humanity which he saw he was suddenly choaked with the divinity which he could not comprehend So wisely God by Man restored Man and vanquisht Satan in theself-same nature he had conquered before And therefore who shall declare the wisdom of his generation But above all either power or wisdom the wonderful love and goodness of the Lord in this act shown unto the whole world especially unto wretched Man may well drink up admiration and confound the understanding of both Man and Angel For what an astonishing consideration would it be could we consider it as it deserves that such vile worms and wretches as we should receive such high and undeserved favour from that God whom we had so grievously offended and having offended never notwithstanding so much as sought or regarded That he for all this should seek us yea and assume our nature and become as one of us that he might the better find us That instead of hurling such rebellious sinners into the depth of Hell as they well deserved he descended from his own glory in the highest Heavens and took on him the infirmity and baseness of our earth that he might carry it thither and into that glory from whence he descended O the infinite goodness of this God to undergoe the wretchedness of Man that Man might be assumed to the blessedness of God that sinful Man to the blessedness of that God against whom he sinned and delighted only to sin O Lord saith David what is man that thou didst so regard him or the son of man that thou didst so visit him Surely homo est res nihili Man is a thing of nought of no worth no value yet such the eternal Son of God vouchsafed to become that he might advance this thing of nought far above all Principalities and Powers and Crown him with Worship and Glory Neither did he by this act glorify that particular humanity alone which he assumed but the benefit shall redound though not in that manner nor yet so fully yet in a marvellous degree unto all others that shall but glorify him for in him they shall be made partakers too even of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1 4. He was anointed indeed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows not alone then anointed but above and more abundantly than any others As that precious Oyntment which was poured forth on Aarons head so Divine honours and graces by this union descended upon His which it most plentifully drenched but drencht not it alone for of his fulness we have all received and therefore it trickles down upon his beard and all men living that shall adhere unto him and not so only but from
delight which can be no less than a Paradise of pleasure unto them But yet that they now are already in that happy place or in the actual fruition of that full happiness and glory which shall hereafter give them the fulness of their reward this the Scriptures do not seem to teach nor the Eatheâ— to affirmâ— but a great consnt of both may he rather sound to the contrary Of those that departed this life before the coming of Christ our Lord in the flesh or his going away again and ascending into the highest Heavens 〈…〉 as the Apostle speaks unto the Hebrews that of the same Apostle may not be denied All these died and received not the promises but behold them a far off And that very beholding holding was their refreshing it seems in that place of rest where they lay after death as it were at anchor in a calm and quiet Harbour free from those winds and tempests wherewith they were beaten whilst they stood off at Sea in the painful Navigation of this life for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and sinus in the Latine may import and so Theophylact doth expound Abrahams Bay as well as Abrahams Bosome But yet though at rest they as yet saith he received not the promises and he gives his reason for it too God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Which reason too will serve for all others that died since the Ascension of our Saviour For as it was not convenient they should be made perfect without us so neither that we our selves should be made perfect without the rest of our brethren If any were so who sooner than the Souls of those Saints and Martyrs that refused not even death for Christ and his Gospel And yet even these are arrayed only in white Robes as Candidati and ready drest in their wedding apparrel for the marriage of the Lamb but are willed withal to rest a while until their fellow servants and the rest of their brethren to be slain likewise should be fulfilled also That so all might be perfected together and by three degrees according to the three estates of life death and judgment draw on unto the fulness of that perfection as having a good hopâ— in life infallible assurance in death and plenary possession at the resurrection In life here we walk by Faith we see not God In the estate after death we see him but afar off as the Apostle speaks but at the Resurrection face to face Here in this world we lie as cripples in Solomons Porch but cured by the name of Jesus death carrieth us into the body of the Temple where we are leaping for joy exulting and praising God but the day of Christ will draw the Veil lead us into the Holy of Holies where God himself dwells between the Cherubins Lastly now upon earth we are Militant Pugnatoâ—es wrestlers and warriours in death we are declared Victours and Conquerors but in the resurrection triumphant and crowned even with that Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the just Judge will give saith St. Paul in die illo in that day laid up indeed before as he there speaks but not before that day it seems to be given but then it shall for then he shall reward c. The like on the other side may well be conceived of the wicked their Souls asâ— soon as departed enter into sorrows and torments the worm that shall never die begins presently to feed upon them but drench'd it seems as yet they are not in that lake of fire which shall never be quenched and will be the fulness of their reward The Devils themselves are not yet there and therefore are bold to say unto our Saviour Art thou come to torment us aâ—te tempâ—â— before our time A set time sure there is appointed for that In the interim as the Crown is reserved for the Righteous so these and all their Adherents are reserved it seems unto that day which shall give them the full accomplishment of their sorrows So St. Jude Reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day This they all know and cannot without horrour think of it They believe therefore saith St. James and tremble And so likewise all other the Spirits lewd and diabolical people they understand their final and fearful doom already on which their condemning thoughts do perpetually feed not without infinite regret indignation and fury and so though locally seated in Hell yet as yet scalding there and burning only in the flames that arise from their own bosoms But when that great day shall once come and the Son of Man appear in his glory then shall that old Dragon the deceiver with all those apostate people whom he hath deceived and are not written in the Book of the Lamb be thrown into that Lake burning with fire and brimstone Yea death and Hell too shall be cast into that Lake Hell to shew that all they who are now there in custody shall then be thrown into that Lake as into the Center tower-ward and Dungeon of that fearful Prison And death too to signify their immortality there in a perpetual dying life and everlasting living death even for ever and ever And death and Hell were cast into that Lake of fire For now the time of full Retribution is come this is the great day of reward and there is no other To that then let us pass with my Text from the time to the reward it self Then he shall reward c. This word of Reward seems to stick in the Jaws of many men at least to come forth fumbling between their Teeth as if they did not very well like it But whether they like it or no so the Scriptures often speak and accordingly we must be content to receive them The truth is there are extreams in this point as in most others lyable unto dispute and controversy and Verity like Virtue lies in the golden mean between both For some are wholly and totally all for reward and no Grace unless it be a stock of Grace whereby they may condignly merit the reward Others again can away with no Reward at all but will have all of meer Grace when the truth consists in a mixture compounded of both neither totally grace nor meerly reward but merces gratiosa a gracious Reward And that not only in regard of the Grace first given but of the work too it self that is to be rewarded The former take Heaven to be as fully merited by the works of the Righteous as Hell is deserved by the sins of the wicked The latter suppose Heaven to be meerly a free gift and in the consequences of their Positions make Hell as free a Collation as the Kingdom of Heaven Both seem to be equally out and not much unequally to share both truth and errour between them For thus much I conceive is clear and
so the clashing of Truth and Errour indeed truth and truth errour and errour being silenced Righteousness and peace may meet and kiss each other the more freely And that sure will be found the right and best way too at the last For most assuredly when all contestations are terminated when all these Sophismes and subtilties of the Schools Subtilitates ultramundanae plusquam Chrysippeae Subtilties as he said beyond the Moon and such as Chrysippus never dreamt on shall vanish into air leave and forsake us utterly it will be righteousness only that shall do us good in the end this righteousness of God and our faithful endeavour in it that shall be able to give peace and comfort to the Soul in death and through death lead and light it into immortality and life No way in the world no Righteousness thither but this only the good way the way which the Prophet Samuel long since discovered I will shew you the good and the right way fear the Lord and serve him in truth and consider how great things he hath done for you A good and a right and therefore a right good way Not that every way which is good is presently right some may have the zeal of God but not according to knowledge but than undoubtedly it cannot be right unless it be good Whatsoever way it be if it cross or part with goodness it will in the same place certainly part with verity where it leaves rightousness we may be sure it leaves truth the true Doctrine being always as the Apostle testifies of it Doctrinâ— secundum pietatem a doctrine according unto piety I Tim. So Rectum est index sui obliqui That which is right doth both discover it self and other things that are crooked But be the doctrine never so right and righteous yet if the man be not so to what purpose is it Had he all truth and were endued with the knowledge of all mysteries yet if he detain that truth in unrighteousness it should profit him nothing but to augment that wrath of God which saith the Apostle is already revealed from Heaven against him When on the other side did he know nothing else nothing but Christ and him crucified as St. Paul desired to know no more yet walking faithfully in that path of Righteousness which he hath taught and â—rodden out before him his ignorance of other controvertible truths or suspension either I think would hurt him but little For Righteousness naturally doth lead into truth and unless men did first forsake it they could hardly run into dangerous errour For were not the Soul depraved with unrighteous lusts and the judgment of the mind perverted by corrupt affections it could not easily resist apparent truth or not discern manifest falshood But when the will gives it self over to be ruled by the appetite no marvel if the intellect naturally subject unto the willâ— be as easily wrapt in errour Ambition and Avarice and desire of sinning with sting of Conscience having once seized upon the Scribes and Pharisees of old what strange leaven were they soon brought to mingle with the bread of life And how mightily have the same affections since wrought in many more Hence as from the Trojan Horse so many impious but profitable deceits and devices have issued forth upon ignorant people on the one side dispensing with them for their own sins and dispensing to them other mens merits the imaginary treasure of the Church that the Church might be filled with real Hence what strange positions and unto Piety most dangerous have been formed on the other side establishing justification even in the loss of sanctification presumptuously cloathing themselves and their disciples with the righteousness of another even then when they are wilfully unrighteous in themselves And so not content upon repentance to be justified by imputation but have found out even then whilst they sin an imputative indeed a meer putative sanctification that by this means amidst the works of darkness in the paradise of conceit they may still remain Children of light But be not deceived saith St. John he that doth righteousness is righteous All which though spisse and palpable hallucinatious on both parts yet so long as the eye is not single as our Saviour speaks but blear'd with mists of profits and pleasures they may not easily be deceived less easily redressed in either They may term themselves as they please but so long as impure desires are seated in the Soul nothing shall be able to tie them to the purity of that truth which opposeth or withhold them from contending for such falshoods as sute with those desires Itching ears and lusts in the spirits neither will nor can endure sound Doctrine saith the Apostle But rather than fail will raise up unto themselves Teachers after their own lusts and at their own charge raise preserments for them too that so their hired tongues may tickle their ears when they itch smooth or smother their sins In this case who shall prevail or what shall give Men light if in favour of their evil ways they love darkness more than light It is only the search and study of Righteousness that can bring us into the way of truth and dissolve errours and their controversies by taking away their causes by removing those gross and earthly affections that like Foggs at noon darken and benight the judgment The pure and cleansed heart shall see God saith our Saviour see him perfectly hereafter see of him and his truth more clearly in the present as he doth elsewhere assure us If any man doth the will of my Father he shall know of my doctrine But besides the nature of Righteousness leading into truth the protection and providence divine seems specially to assist and direct it The very secrets of the Lord saith King David are upon them that fear him who himself having respect unto the Commandment became wiser than his Teachers But however secrets yet light enough sure shall ever spring up unto the righteous who have undoubted interest in the promise of that Comforter which unto the worlds end shall lead into all truth all that is necessary for the leading of them when this world ends into the glory of a better yea and teach them mildness in truths of less consequence for the present For did we follow righteousness and not pride and passion we should easily learn to enter on mysteries warily and to maintain our opinions soberly And when the strife is peradventure but about a crackt pane in the Window or a loose tyle in the Roof as he said well not to raise such stirs and outcryes as if the Foundation were presently endangered It is only the judgment which Righteousness hath cleared from perturbations that can discern the necessity of points and direct our prosecution accordingly instructing us not to call every problematical question by the name of necessary and infallible truth but agreeing in fundamentals either to leave superedifications to the
deserve thy frequent cogitations and prayers and tears to consider and bewail it thoroughly crying out with him in the Gospel Lord I believe help my unbelief And never think it helped till thou findest it reforming thy affections and lusts not led and ruled by them till thou perceivest it working powerfully in all the thoughts of thy heart and actions of thy hands and the whole course of thy life For this is the true test and tryal and to these marks our Saviour himself sends thee to make full proof of it These are the signs saith he that shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them and when they lay their hands on the sâ—â—k they shall be healed If those signs follow not thy Faith it is vain and thou art yet in thy sins But thou wilt say the time of Miracles is past and these days require them not Neither do I require them as then neither then and in those times were they common unto all Believers But the saying of our Saviour is universal and in the spiritual sence is ever true that these signs follow them and all them that unâ—â—ignedly believe For every Man naturally hath Devils enough within him to be thrown forth and unless thy Faith have power and virtue enough to dispossess and cast out the impure spirits of luxury and avarice of envy wrath malice and hypocrisie and the like foul Fiends wherewith our nature is full unless it be able to give thee a new tongue and a new language and cleansing thy mouth of all oaths and blasphemies of slanders and reproaches of deceit and scurrility can teach thee to speak the words of sobriety and sanctity and of truth every Man unto his Neighbour unless it can embolden thee to take up Serpents to receive and lovingly embrace thy mortal enemies and make treacle of them too drinking up all the deadly venome which their poysoned stomachs can disgorge against thee not only without hurt but even as thy physick that so lifting up pure and innocent hands upon them with prayers and benedictions though they revile and curse they may yet at length be won from it and cured of the malice wherewith they were sick and others also by thy example of their several diseases who seeing thy good works may glorify thy Father which is in Heaven Until I say thy Faith hath power to work these things unless our Saviours signs be false it is never current and effectual If you say these things are too high and hard for us we cannot attain unto them you do withal say and confess that you do not truly believe For true Faith is not dead or droâ—zy but powerful and operative working even wonders unto flesh and blood which St. Paul proves by a full cloud of witnesses in the 11. to the Hebâ— producing a whole Catalogue of the antient Wâ—â—thies who all through Faith aspiring to the promises were mighty and marvellous in their actions overthrowing Kingdoms working righteousness and doing such great things as we cannot consider without admiration And whence all this but because their Faith was stirring and active not lazy and languishing like ours which is only a Carkass of belief without any soul of life and vigor in it otherwise we should soon find in our selves what the same Author elsewhere affirms that nothing is available like Faith when it is working working by love which is ever impatient and restless till it attains what it desires Who then or what power is able to resist it not the power of the whole world this is it that overcometh the world even your faith John v. 3. no nor the power of any thing else credenti omnia sunt possibilia to him that believes all things are possible saith our Saviour And therefore if ever these things be impossible to thee if thy Faâ—th be so weak that it cannot dispossess thee of thy wicked spirits and work those spiritual miracles on thy Soul it is a greater miracle if ever it save thy Soul For true Faith purifies the heart and cleanseth the very reins and is assuredly dead if it do not work powerful effects within us If of unclean and covetous of malitious envious and deceitful persons it doth not make us pure and temperate mild and merciful upright and just in our actions it is unprofitable and shall never justify with God In whose account whatsoever you think none are taken for believers any farther than they are practisers of his word He that says he knows God and hateth his brother is a lyer saith St. John and sure he that says he believes in God and yet forsaketh not his sins lyes as loudly and doth but abuse his own Soul vainly dreaming of Faith when he hath but the shadow of it without truth or substance and will be found at last but in that poor Mans case who dreamt all night of treasure and in the morning when he awoke was not worth a farthing With that Church in the Revelation they have a name that they live and conceit they are rich whenas there it is said they are blind and poor and naked and miserable and shall so understand themselves in the end for however now we please our selves for a while with the vain opinion of our imaginary Faith yet when we have slept our sleep and dreamt our dreams in the morning when we shall all awake from our graves and come unto Judgment it will be found far otherwise than we conceived When the son of man cometh saith our Saviour himself shall he sind faith upon the earth surely yes such as ours for the most part is Faith enough such a speculative fancy that floats only in the brain never affecting the heart such a presumptuous confidence that can seize on mercies neglecting commands lay hold on the passion and death of a Saviour but neither obey his precepts nor imitate his life of such Faith we doubt the Christian world will be then and now is full as it can hold he shall every where find it But of that true and real Faith rooting out sinful affections of that high and mighty Faith inthroned in the very heart of the Soul and from thence commanding all the powers and faculties which it hath of that prevalent and victorious Faith conquering Sin and Satan and treading under foot the glory and vanity of the whole world of this solid and substantial Faith which only deserveth the name of Faith and he only looks for of this he shall then find but little in the world as indeed there is very little now Some scattered sparks of it only there are in a few of our bosoms but raked up in a great deal of embers and if we take not heed like enough to be stifled ere we are aware O preserve and collect them carefully blow upon them with thy
that shall undertake such a debt that in this case shall be content to take up our forfeited bond and put in new security of his own be bound skin for skin body for body and life for life and be content to pay the bond too when the day comes his love sure is full and he brings comfort with him to purpose And even this he did this he undertook and this he performed for us He undertook it at his Circumcision and performed it in his passion Whosoever is Circumcised factus est debitor universae legis he becomes a debter unto the whole Law saith St. Paul Gal. v. 3 At his Circumcision then he undertook the debt he entred bond anew with us and in sign that he so did he then shed a few drops of his blood whereby he signed the bond as it were and gave those few drops as a pledge or earnest that when the fulness of time came he would not fail to shed all the rest And shed it he did what at his Circumcision he undertook at his passion he performed even to the full He bound himself in a bound of death and death he underwent even the death of the Cross the most bitter reproachful cursed death of the Cross so payed all to the uttermost farthing and having paid it delevit Chirographum he cancelled the handwriting the sentece of the Law that till then was of record and stood in full force against us but now that the whole world might know it to be void he hung it up in the same place where it was satisfied he nailed it to the Tree of his Cross Col. ii 14. But yet this is not all the penalty is but one part of the Law and he became debtor universae legis to the whole Law saith the Apostle and the whole Law he payed whatsoever was due In the Law we consider a double force or power it hath a commanding and it hath a condemning power a power directive and a power vindicative it hath precepts which it injoins and it hath punishments which it inflicts by the one it informs us what we are to do by the other what we must suffer if we do it not and he was under both parts that both might be fully discharged for as he satisfied the one at his death so the other in his life In his life he exactly kept and observed all the precepts of the Law to the least tittle and in his death he received the full punishment of the Law to the worst and utmost extremity and so was under both and fulfilled both paid all both principal and forfeiture the principal in keeping the Law himself the forfeiture in suffering the penalty of the Law for others that so others might be freed from both Sure now the Sons humility that humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross is full no less full than the Fathers love The Father sent and sent his Son the Son was made and made of a Woman made of a Woman and made under the Law made under the Law and both parts of the Law that he might be fully made And this is Gods fulness Let us now proceed unto Mans fulness for from this fulness of the Fathers love and the Sons humility we all receive the fulness of our own bliss and happiness contained in our Redemption and Adoption for to these purposes all this was done That he might redeem them c. And these two Redemption and Adoption are the two degrees of our making for without them we had been marred utterly undone and they fully answer unto the two degrees of his making made of a Woman and made under the Law He under the Law that we might be redeemed from under the Law he made the Son of Man that Men might be made the Sons of God So the making of him was his own marring but his marring was our making he twice marred by his making we twice made by his marring He of God made Man and of Man made a sinner we of sinners that is bondslaves to the Law made Freemen and of Freemen Sons Sons of God and Heirs annexed with Christ. And what more is there that we could wish to make it up fuller since our desires can extend no farther than to be rid of all evil and to be endowed with whatsoever good is and by these two Redemption and Adoption we are made partakers of both To be redeemed from under the Law is to be quit of all evil and to be adopted into the state of Children is to be intitled unto all that is good For all evil is in being under the Law from whence we are redeemed and all good in that heavenly inheritance whereunto we are adopted we were created to inherit a glorious Kingdom but through sin we lost our inheritance and not so only but together with it we forfeited our lives a sentence of death and everlasting destruction was passed upon us and from this now we are freed by redemption in that again we are reestated by adoption and what would we more But we must speak a little in particular of both and first of Redemption That he might redeem c. Every deliverance is not Redemption but such only as is obtained by a just and a full price so the word imports and something more Redemption a rebuying or buying back again of something formerly sold or forfeited into the possession of another Ever a former alienation must go before and a valuable satisfaction follow after otherwise there may be a bare emption without the former a reemption without the latter but unless both be precedent it cannot be Redemption And sure such a matter had formerly befallen us A kind of alienation had gone before whereby we had made away our selves sold our inheritance and forfeited our lives A making away indeed rather than a sale it was for such a trifle made away first in Adam for the forbidden fruit a matter of no moment since in our own persons daily made away for some trifling pleasure or profit not much more worth And having thus passed our selves away by this selling our selves under sin the Law seiseth on us whose dreadful doom is death and Hell and everlasting sorrows there with the Prince of Hell So infinite a punishment doth it inflict because in the breach of it an infinite Majesty was offended In this heavy case we lay shut up under the Law as in a Prison Rom. iii. 23. fast bound with the cords of our own sins Prov. v. 22. the sentence passed on us and we waiting but for execution what evil is there not in this estate and on every Soul that is in it Our Faith sure is weak and we do not throughly apprehend what we have only heard of but could we see it with the seeing of the eye as Job speaks were we permitted to stand on the brink and look into that fearful pit of everlasting horror whereunto we are condemned by the Law
what misery and fulness of misery should we then discern or rather what misery should we not discern in our lamentable estate sentenced unto that gulf of sorrow before our eyes with legions of Devils attending at our backs ready to execute the sentence and push us in to suffer that torment which we could not endure to behold Could we but with our fancy place our selves in this case which they are in that are under the Law this point I am sure would be full on our parts even fulness of misery Well then the first degree of our happiness is to be rid to be quit of this miserable estate but by what means may that be done and who shall obtain it for us Prayers and intreaties would not serve turn our pardon may not be had for the begging but sold we were and bought we must be God was wronged and must be righted the Law was broken and must be satisfied and without this ransom the prisoners may not be delivered A matter therefore not of Intercession but of Redemption But now the price of Redemption who shall lay down sure it is not so easily done we sin indeed with great facility but to expiate sin will cost a great deal more he that will do it must resolve to suffer as much punishment as a world of Men can deserve or an offended God in justice inflict and who or what is there amongst the works of the whole creation that may stand under his wrath until it hath taken full revenge and not perish under it for ever Gold and Silver in this case is of no worth the blood of Bulls and Goats of no value Men of as little esteem as either and therefore should they offer the Sons of their loins for the sins of their Souls they could do no good it cost more to redeem them than so therefore they must let that alone for ever Nay should an Angel of Heaven be incarnate to suffer for sin he would become but as an incarnate Devil and must lie in Hell for ever He is though an excellent creature yet but a creature and a creature may not satisfy the Creator when therefore nothing may do it nor mineral nor beast nor man nor Angel nor any thing else created no remedy but God himself must be made Man and the Man God made under the Law ut ille that he may do it that he might redeem them that were under the Law This is the ut the end the first end for which all this ado is kept for which Heaven and Earth are thus troubled for which is all this business this sending and making making over and over again that since there was nothing of sufficient value already created a new person of extraordinary worth and dignity might be made ut ille that he at least might be able to redeem us from under the Law And sure full and able he was every way being Man he might undertake for Man and being God he could give satisfaction to God for as sins against an infinite person are of infinite guilt so suffering in an infinite person must be of as infinite merit from whence it is that a short passion in him is equal to a perpetual punishment in us for what is wanting in the sufferings is abundantly supplied in the dignity of the sufferer whose infinite person suffering finitely carries full proportion with finite persons suffering infinite punishment Able then he was and no less willing than able what he only could do he lovingly did do and did it too to the full Any the least sufferings of his had been enough but that he might be sure to lay down a full price he gave pretiosum sanguinem his precious blood saith St. Peter yea his life blood saith St. Matthew dedit vitam he gave his life a ransom for many Matth. xx 28. he is content to bleed unto death for this little world when the least drop of his blood had been enough for many worlds He was not sparing in his price but as the Psalmist speaks with the Lord is plenteous redemption plenteous indeed every way there is a plenitude and fulness in it he fully made under the Law we fully delivered from under the Law which yet is but part of our fulness but the first degree of our happiness to be rid and quit of the misery under which we lay And yet this had been full enough were there no more but yet this is not all no he left us not there but that the measure might flow over he gave us not over when he had freed us of this wretched estate till he had brought us to the blessed estate himself is in and of prisoners under the Law made us Heirs of that glorious Kingdom promised in the Gospel For so it follows at the last end of all and the fullest too ut nos recipiamus that we might receive the Adoption of Sons that is of Captives condemned become children adopted adopted to the joint fruition of all that he hath which is fully as much as he could give or we could desire To purchase our pardon to free us from death and the Law 's sentence this seemed a small thing to him yet this is lex hominis mans goodness goeth no farther and gracious is the Prince that doth but so much For who ever heard of a condemned Man adopted afterwards or that thought it not enough and enough if he did but scape with his life So far then to exalt his bounty to that fulness as pardon and adopt both non est lex hominis haec no such measure amongst Men. Zelus Domini exercituum but the zeal of the Lord of Hosts was to perform this Isa. ix 7. So full is this on his part that he did not only redeem but adopt purchase us and purchase for us give us our lives but part with us his own Kingdom And full it is I am sure on our parts that are adopted did we fully know the riches of our inheritance which we shall not do till another fulness of time come Many and glorious things are spoken of thee thou City and Kingdom of God but yet when we then come to behold it we shall say of it as the Queen of Sheba did of the wisdom of Solomon when she came to him The report was less than the truth and the one half thereof had not been told us For what tongue may tell us that which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor ever may enter into the heart of Man till Man enter into it till that day when it shall be said unto him intra in gaudium Domini enter into thy Masters joy In the mean time where we cannot conceive what should we speak where the thing is so full that all words are too empty to express it it will be enough to admire in silence or say only with David Sure the lot is fallen unto us in a fair ground and we have a goodly heritage
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
memorable and exemplary couple I may well join them in my speech they were so many ways joined in themselves They were joined in affinity and alliance they were joined in affection and love they were joined in the quality and nature of their Disease and would not be severed till death did it in the time of their sickness they were joined in the comforts of death and now they are joined in the glory of an everlasting life But the formers rites are passed yet they might not be now passed over I cannot but give her a touch she desired it from me and I am sure she deserved it For the latter here now in your sight I shall not speak much because I can hardly speak enough with her former times I have had no acquaintance and therefore can make no relation of it only I assure my self that she who was so patient and penitent in her sickness so devout and cheerful in her death could not but be well and religiously disposed in the course of her life But for the latter part of her days them I have known and in them been an eye-witness of the expression of more goodness than I have often seen or from a Woman of her quality could have expected The things of note which I especially observed in her and shall commend unto you are principally these her willingness to entertain death and her deadness unto the world and worldly affairs her joy in spiritual discourses and her frequency and fervency in devout prayer For the first if we consider the impediments it was much she should do it so cheerfully she was but young and entring upon the prime of her years She had small and tender Infants of her own that went near her she was well bestowed where she found both youth and love and means too wanted nothing nor was likely to want haec sunt quae faciunt homines invitos mori and these are the things that make Men unwilling to die could the Philosopher say Yet notwithstanding all these she gently submitted her self unto it she resolutely went forth to meet it and lest he should miss her she call'd it unto her Come gentle death and even held forth her arms to receive and embrace it For the second I was with her often yet never heard a word of worldly matter or secular affair so much as fall from her tongue Her heart was bent on Heaven which made it delight so much in heavenly contemplations they came down upon her as the Scripture speaks like rain into a fleece of wooll and as a shower upon a thirsty land With what an open and greedy ear did she suck in celestial comforts which she shortly after vented out again in devout supplications wherein the mercy of the Lord did not forsake her even to the last gasp And then at last when her hands forsook her tongue and her tongue had almost forsaken her heart yet her heart did still adhere unto God in uncessant prayer and therefore she intreated others to hold her fainting hands that her tongue failing they at least might testify that her Soul did commune with her Maker It calls to mind the story of Moses having Aaron and Hur to support his arms for whilst he prayed Amalek fled and Joshua conquered Sure I am whilst she did in like manner the true Joshua conquered all the spiritual Amalekites and enemies of her Soul who only could batter down the prison of her body that her spirit being loose and at liberty might freely clear the air and mount up to the desired place of everlasting rest where she now is and where may she still in peace remain till another day shall invest both Body and Soul with unspeakable glory Who can now mourn who can weep for such a Soul if ye do they must be tears of joy not of sorrow at least they must be for your selves not for her You may bewail your own loss you cannot grieve at her death unless you envy her happiness foelix iss a anima imitationem desiderat non planctum that happy Soul is no subject of sorrow but a pattern of imitation And therefore I now leave the dead and conclude to the living that their Spirits may live in death as hers hath shown them the example For this should be the chief endeavour this should be the principal care of a Christian in his whole life that when his life shall end yet the life of his Soul may not end with the death of his body It little matters how it fares with us in the rest of our time so it go well with us here when if wrath overtake us it shall eleave unto us for ever but if peace end our days our days afterwards of peace shall never end For as the tree falleth there it shall lie Wretched Men that can willingly think of any thing save this that infinitely concerns them above all things else that can wish with Balaam let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his but never endeavour themselves in the works of righteousness whereby they may procure it as if they might be like them in their death whom they refused to imitate in their actions But they may wish like Solomons fool till their tongue cleave to their gums for so long as they live the life of Balaam loving the wages of iniquity they shall never die the death of the righteous nor have their last end like his whom they are nothing like in conversation No if the Soul then live it must be as my Text hath it for righteousness sake Set thy self therefore to it seriously and speedily Wise Princes make many days preparation for a field that must be fought in one Beloved let us be wise too and lay up something every day for the last when we shall wrestle with death If we win that skirmish we have enough but where or when or how soon we shall be called to the conflict who can tell be not secure therefore and presume not on the last hour it may come suddenly upon thee flatter not thy self and thy sins and frame not delay unto thine own Soul Send not Religion before thee unto thine old age whither peradventure thou shalt never come or else come hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Give not thy youth and strength unto Satan and then when thou art low drawn and upon the lees think to present God with the dregs of thy life What a folly were it for thee to adventure thy surest thy everlasting weal or wo making or marring on so sandy and sinking a foundation how much better were it for thee to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil day come and thou say I have no delight herein that thy Creator may not forget thee in thine old age when strength faileth and Man returneth to his long home Sure in these great water-floods we shall hardly come nigh him and therefore let
us seek his face while he may be found and make our prayers in an acceptable time So shall our petitions be heard and we in all our tribulations in the hour of death and in the day of judgment as we desire be most assuredly delivered finding comfort in our life and life in our last end And what is all the wealth and honour pomp and glory of the world in comparison of this They may yield discontents enough as being gotten with travel kept with care and lost with grief but can never give any true satisfaction to the Soul especially in that last and perillous time which most requires it Surely every Mans thought is a secret watch unto his own heart let him then ask his own Soul and it will tell him versa reversa in tergum in latera in ventrem dura sunt omnia Christus solus requies muse and forecast toss and turn all the night long from side to side still still no true ease nor true contentment no perfect joy to be found but in the sweet peace of a good Conscience sprinkled and washed with the blood of Jesus Christ the Prince of peace All other things fail us at our death and therefore are unworthy of our care whilst we live No no Thoughts of remorse and joyes of sorrow silent moans and melting tears an heart truly humbled and a Spirit ever setled chearfully to live and willing to die in the loving arms of a gracious Redeemer this is the prize this is the Crown we should contend for and this is the way now to live a Saint on Earth and ever hereafter to injoy an exceeding and an eternal weight of glory in the highest Heavens Which the Lord of all glory grant unto us for and in the meritorious Passion of his Son Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom with the blessed Spirit c. Laus Deo in aeternum Amen FINIS * Antiquitates Univers Oxon L. ii p. 109. * â— x. Instit C. 2. * Better known perhâ—ps by the name of Mercurius Rusticus an 1647. Psal. cxi 2â— Ecclus. i. 16 Ecclus. i. 18 1 Joh. iv 18. Ecclus. i. 12 Psal. xix 10 Rom. viii Matt. x. Job xxxi Psalm xliii Jon. i. Gen. xxxi 53. Deut. vi Matt. iv Isa. viii 12. Rev Matâ— Job xxviii 28. Rom. 8. Matt. 7. 24. Rom. 4. Rom. 8. Gen. viii 4. Exod. xxiv 16. Josh. vi 16. Matt. 25. Heb. 1. Matt. 25. Prov. xxiv 12. Heb. ix 8. Heb. â—i 40. slev vi 10 Verse 6. Jam. iii. Rev. xx 10. Rev. xx 14. 2 Tim. Job xxix Rom. i. Rom. v. â—2 Acts xi 48. Gen. xvii Rom. v. 18. Rom. i. 2 Cor. v. 10. Mat. xxvâ— Aristot. De fide operibus Galat. i. 19. Mark xi 40. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Rom. 6. 2 Sam. 2. Judg. v. 23. James iii. 15. Jam. iii. 16. 2 Tim. iv 3. Matt. V. Gen. iii. 12. verse 14. 1 Cor. xv 55. Ber. de Con. ad Cleric Abbot in praesat Exercitat de gratia perseverant De bono Persev cap. 14. Rom. ix Phil. i. 2. John xv 16 Rom. ix Epist. 103. Aug. Enchirid cap. 98. De sp lit c. 34. Lib. 12. â—â—iâ—it Del cap. 9. Wisd. i. 13. Gen. Lib. 3. contra Julian cap. 13. Aug. lib. de Orat c. 22. Ad Moni lib. 1. c. 22. Suit cap. 61. Lib. advers mort sibi falso imp ad artic 10 Inst. lib. 3. cap. 23. Moral lib. 26. cap. 10. 2 Per. ii 1. Retract lib. 1. cap. 11. Isai. v. Lib. 4. cap. 71. Matt. xxiv Luk. ix 33. 2 Cor. xii 4. Exod. xii 48. xxii 6. Knowledge Faith Repentance Love Jer. xxx 24. 〈◊〉 Gen. xlix 10. Esa. vii 14 Jer. xxiii 5. Dan ix 25. Zaâ— vi 12 Hag. ii 8. Psal. lxxi lvi xxxv
meditating on the miseries of his peregrination on Earth and the joyes of the celestial Jerusalem above and as it were sighing in himself that he was detained so long from praising the name of God and singing hymns of thanksgiving and honour amidst all the company of the righteous there and congregation of the first-born both Saints and Angels he grieves at his absence and groans out the ferventness of his desire in this short Prayer Bring my Soul out of Prison that I may praise thy name A desire which he doth elsewhere often express As the Hart desireth the water-brooks so longeth my Soul after thee O God When shall I appear before the presence of the Lord Blessed be they that dwell in thy house they shall be always praising of thee from generation to generation and that he might be in the midst of them praising his name his desire in this Prayer is here Bring my Soul out of Prison c. And yet if we shall suppose he did not yet others may and no question but many do The Roman Catholicks report not without Joy that their holy St. Francis died with this very sentence in his mouth and this sence of it to be his mind which he had no sooner uttered but Anima à Corpore libera evolavit in coelum his Soul according to his request freed from his body flew away into Heaven And certainly whosoever hath but so much goodness as he can grieve to be detained from Heaven or desires to be freed from the molestations of sin upon Earth cannot but esteem of the body as a Prison which hinders him in both Nay the very Philosophers that knew neither of those respects out of moral regards could both perceive and acknowledge it for such Carcer sepulchrum Animae the Prison and Sepulcher of the Soul And so may we term them too only we must be careful we avoid the error of Origen That our Souls sinned in Heaven and are condemned to bodies but as to Gallies or Prisons where they are to do penance for former transgressions But as St. Austin doth well distinguish it is not the body in it self which was first built for a house of delight though sin committed in it but the corruption of it that makes it a Prison according to that in the Book of Wisdom Corpus corruptibile aggravat animam the corruptible bod◠presseth down the Soul and ceaseth not to fight against it with many noysome lusts in regard whereof the Apostle himself was inforced to cry out as even weary of his Prison quis liberabit who shall deliver me from this body of death why Thanks be unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ this is he that shall deliver us this is the Lord to whom David did and we all must pray that desire this benefit Bring my soul out of Prison O Lord. And yet though we may lawfully make this Prayer in this sence yet it must be as before with submission of our will unto his we must wait the Lords leisure with patience to whom only belong the issues of death and therefore not seek to break through the walls or throw our selves out at the windows but stay till he shall please to open the door and lead us forth in peace for it is Educ animam we may not thrust it out our selves but he must lead it forth or we shall but thrust it out of one prison into another infinitely worse Nay it seems by that word it should be no hasty desire that he himself should do it neither it doth not sound as if we would have him presently break down and demolish the building and so sweep us away in an instant that were Eripe animam pluck forth my Soul out of prison but it is Educ lead it forth and seems to import not so much an anticipation of our time as an humble Petition that when our time is come and this Tabernacle must needs be dissolved that then amidst all the conflicts and terrours of death he would be pleased to be with us to sustain and uphold us with his grace chean up and guide forth our Souls with his comforts for this is educere animam to lead the Soul out of Prison And happy thrice happy are those Souls that are thus led and conducted in this perillous time Every one indeed prays for it but every one shall not obtain it It is Educ animam meam and we must put an accent upon that meam on Davids Soul that faithful and penitent Soul indeed was and all others without fail shall be in their due time thus led and guided out of their Prisons in peace but those that have no part in his penitence they may say if they will but they shall have no part in his Prayer As they neglected God and all his ways in their life so God again will be as far from hearing or keeping them in their death but will rather laugh in their destruction and mock when their fear cometh as it is in the first of Proverbs And then on the otherside how miserable thrice miserable shall he be that must part with his Soul at a venture without any comfort to sustain it or light of grace to lead it through the fearful passages of death Look on him and you shall then see when after all his mirth and revels you shall find him at the last laid on his groaning pillow on the bed of languishing as David speaks O consider well how woful and disconsolate his estate must needs be when after all his former pleasures being worn out with his body the Soul begins to loath the ruinous house of age and sickness when it may not stay and yet knows not whither to go at what time those sad and severe cogitations formerly beaten from him through youth and felicity return to afflict and pay him home for all his vain and wanton delights yea peradventure when the terrours of God shall fight against him and the Arrows of the Almighty stick within him the venom whereof drinks up the spirit as it is in Job In this misery of his wounded in body through sickness and distressed in conscience through sin what shall lead him forth with comfort since God refuseth to do it shall his wife his sons or his friends his honours offices or wealth why the very thought of these and whatsoever else he hath that is good doth but double his afflicton since now he must part with them for ever and may well therefore say unto them as Job did unto his three friends miserable comforters are ye all what then shall he comfort himself as some of the servants of God have done by looking back on the ways of his life why nothing can possibly torment him more he now sees that he hath but wearied himself in the ways of Iniquity and perceives though too late what before he refused to believe that such paths lead down unto the Chambers of death Since then he can
neither comfort himself nor receive any from the rest of the world shall he for his last refuge as thousands of others have done cry Lord Lord be thou my help and comfort and bring my Soul out of Prison But alas unto what purpose and upon what acquaintance He that gave his Soul unto sin and Satan in his life time why should he think God in his death will embrace and entertain it No no Either give up thy Soul unto God when he calls for it in his word in the provocations of his love in the holy motions of his Spirit unto thine or else when thou wouldest give it he will none of it unless as an angry Judge to deliver it over to the tormentor And in these streights what remains but that he either take up the ditty of that dying Emperour heu quae nunc abibis in loca fearfully part with his Soul he knows not whither or else embrace the counsel of Jobs wife desperately curse God and die Either way he comes to his deserved end and he whose whole life was as the way of a snail not a step but leaving filth behind at the last dies like a Candles end in the Socket boyling and burning in the flame of his own distressed and distracted Soul till he go out in a suff and leave an ill savour behind him amongst all good people Such is oftentimes the fearful departure of those whom God for their former wicked lives shall refuse to lead out of their Prisons when they die No this favour belongs not unto them it is reserved for those faithful Souls that with holy David have throughly sorrowed for their sins for they only shall partake of Davids Prayer that imitate Davids repentance And these however he may seem to absent himself for a while and hide his countenance from them yet in that day of need in that last and Fearful time that most requires it they shall be sure of his comforts He will not fail then to discover his face and make the light of his countenance shine into that region of darkness and by the beams thereof chear up his people leading and lighting them through all the dark and winding Alleys of death until they arrive in the glorious Kingdom of immortality and peace Believe not me but behold the holy man of God and see it performed with your Eyes Look upon Jacob the Patriarch and Father of the Patriarchs he that wrestled not only that one time at the River Jabbock but all his life long with the arm of the Almighty continually afflicting him yet in the end all these storms are blown over and he is gathered unto his Fathers in a calm of content and peace But first mark how the Lord gave him strength before he went hence and was no more seen wherewith he collects his fainting Spirits raiseth himself up in his bed calls his Sons about him gives every one his several blessing and benediction in such a high and Prophetical strain as if an Angel had sate on his lips and I think many Angels sate waiting in that door of his body for the coming forth of his Soul which stayed not long after to convey it into the bosom of his Grand-father Abraham there to rest in everlasting peace Look upon Joshua the Captain of Israel after all his Wars and Battles past at length he sits him down and divides the spoil among the Tribes of Jacob and death drawing near see how he summons the whole people together and with such power of speech exhorts them to the fear and service of God which had dealt so mercifully with them that the whole Congregation as if it had but one heart and one tongue and both throughly affected joynt ly cry out unto him God forbid that we should forsake the Lord nay but we will serve him for he is our God Thus out of the flame of his own zeal having kindled a fire in the breast of others this great Worthy was led forth from his Prison in peace See Samuel the Judge of Israel going to his grave as to his bed and in him consider the power and vertue of a good Conscience arising from the memory of a well acted life Whose Oxe or whose Ass have I taken whom have I defrauded or at whose hands have I received a bribe saith he unto the Congregation as all bear him Record saith the Text hoc ducit ad funus sepulturam This is it which accompanies him to his grave and laies him in his rotten Sepulchre Lastly consider St. Paul and his marvellous confidence even before his death that made him bold to deliver up his Soul almost like his Saviour with a consummatum est I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the just Judge shall give me at that day words worthy of a Soul so near unto its Heaven such have been the blessed ends of these holy Men of God and many more famous in their generations and such it is and shall be in all others that faithfully serve him though it be not ever manifest in all And what is there now that can more deeply affect a good heart what can a religious mind so much desire unto it self or behold with so great delight in another as to see a devout and penitent Soul give a peaceful farewel unto Nature and in the midst of death depart full of comforts of immortality and life as those Souls only do whom God shall vouchsafe to lead out of their corruptible prisons with the sweet consolations of his spirit But peradventure far off examples will be left too far off respects Usually those that are nearest do affect us most if so this sad occasion will afford you a worthy one for I have done with her Text and must speak as I promised and you expect of her person that made choice of the Text and by this time you cannot but perceive how justly She delighted in prayer and praise while she lived and she left this behind her written with her own hand that it might testify so much for her even after her death and that by it she might in a sort lest her thankfulness being private should die with her self publickly praise the name of God amidst the company of the righteous the congregation of good men here on earth even then when she her self freed from her prison should be singing honour and glory with Saints and Angels in Heaven Yet this was not all the reason of her choice It sorted well with her condition whilst she was in the body and she knew it would be fully accomplished when she should be led out of it For she had her part of afflictions and they prest sore upon her too even straitned her Soul Her branches she saw were rent away branch after branch and to so loving a nature they could not but go off as limbs from her body What Bernard