Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	word_n	world_n	worse_a	41	3	7.9563	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43607	Syntagma theologicum, or, A treatise wherein is concisely comprehended, the body of divinity, and the fundamentals of religion orderly discussed whereunto are added certain divine discourses, wherein are handled these following heads, viz. 1. The express character of Christ our redeemer, 2. Gloria in altissimis, or the angelical anthem, 3. The necessity of Christ's passion and resurrection, 4. The blessed ambassador, or, The best sent into the basest, 5. S. Paul's apology, 6. Holy fear, the fence of the soul, 7. Ordini quisque suo, or, The excellent order, 8. The royal remembrancer, or, Promises put in suit, 9. The watchman's watch-word, 10. Scala Jacobi, or, S. James his ladder, 11. Decus sanctorum, or, The saints dignity, 12. Warrantable separation, without breach of union / by Henry Hibbert ...	Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678.; Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678. Exercitationes theologiae.	1662 (1662)	Wing H1793; ESTC R2845	709,920	522

eo complacentiam ad redimendum reconciliandum genus humanum As the salt waters of the Sea when they are straitned thorow the earth they are sweet in the rivers so saith one the waters of Majesty and justice in God though terrible yet being strained and derived through Christ they are sweet and delightful In many things we offend all who then can be saved Our sins for number exceed the sands of the sea and the least sin is sufficient to throw us into hell without Christ But by Christ we are reconciled to the father and have peace with him Hence we may have a blessed calme lodged in our consciences as when Jonah was cast over board there followed a tranquility Let the meditation of this Eph. 4.32 cause a reconciliation amongst Christians forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake forgave you Consider 1. God himself offers reconciliation to us Jer. 3.1 and shall we be so hard-hearted as not to be reconciled one to another Let us be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful 2. All we do is abominable in the sight of God without it Mat. 5.23 24. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother Thou shouldst have done it before yet better late than never First seek the Kingdome of God God should be first served yet he will have his own service to stay till thou beest reconciled to thy brother If I speake with the tongues of men and Augels if I come to Church and heare never so many sermons talk never so gloriously of Religion c. and dwel in hatred be not reconciled I am but a tinkling cymbal 1 Cor. 13.1 3. We can have no assurance of our reconciliation to God without it Mat. 18.35 As the King dealt with his servant so God will cast such into the Prison of hell for ever This should make us all to quake 4 We have no certainty of our lives This night may our souls be taken from us Jovinian the Emperour supped plentifully went to bed merrily yet was taken up dead in the morning And if death take us before we take one another by the hand as a token of hearty reconciliation what shall become of us We should not suffer the sun to go down upon our wrath Johannes Eleemosynarius Arch-Bishop of Alexandria Eph. 4.26 Soc est in occasu vir maximè honorande being angry in the day with Nicetus a Senator towards night sends this message to him My honourable brother the Sun is in setting let there be a setting of our anger too If we do it not within the compass of a day yet let us do it within the compass of our lives Aculeus apis not Ataleus serpentis Let not our anger be like the fire of the Temple that went not out day nor night Let us not say with Jonah I do well to be angry even unto death Cap. 3.9 Let our anger be the sting of a Bee that is soon gone not the sting of a Serpent that tarries long and it may be proves lethall Christ is a merciful and faithful High-Priest Hebr. 2.17 in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people He hath made peace through the blood of his Cross Colos 1.20 God hath reconciled us to himself by Jefus Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation viz. that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God If when we were enemies Rom. 5.10 we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Glorie to God in the Highest Luke 2.14 and on earth peace good will towards men General Calling It is the estate and condition of Christianity For herein we are called to the service of God in all parts of holiness with promise of eternal reward through the merits of Christ So it is termed because the means by which God worketh upon us ordinarily is his Word or the voice of his servants calling upon us for amendment And because through the mighty working of the Spirit of Christ the voice of Gods servants speaking out of the Word is directed unto us in particular with such power and life and our dead hearts are so revived that the doctrine is as if God did speak to us in particular we receiving the word of the Minister as the very voice or word of Christ Thus the dead hear the voice of the Son of God and live As also because God would hereby note unto us the easiness of the work he can do it with a word As he made the world and calleth up the generations of men as the Prophet sheaketh so can he in an instant with a word convert a sinner He said Let there be light and there was light So if he say Let there be 〈◊〉 grace there is presently true grace There is a twofold calling 1. External that general invitation which by the preaching of the Gospel is made unto men to invite them to come in unto Jesus Christ most in the world are thus called both good and bad 2. Internal when the Spirit of God accompanies the outward administration of the Word to call a man from ignorance to knowledge and from a state of nature to a state of grace So that the first is alone by the outward sound of the Word But the other not by the trumpet of the Word alone ringing in the ear but by the voice of the Spirit also perswading the heart and moving us to go to Christ Of this calling spake our Saviour Christ No man cometh to me Inanis est serm● docentis nisi intus sit qui docet except the Father draw him namely by his Spirit as well as by his Word Judas was called He was not a Professor alone but a Preacher of the Gospel Simon Magus was called he believed and was baptized Herod w●s called He heard John Baptist sweetly and did many things that he willed him Sundry at this day come to Church hear Sermons talk of Religion that do not answer Gods call Therefore let us intreat the Lord to call us effectually by his blessed Spirit out of our sins to holiness and newness of life If we be thus called we shall receive the eternal inheritance which Christ hath purchased for us Let us be suiters to God that he would make us partakers of this calling that makes an alteration of us 1 Cor. 6.9 11. If we were Idolaters as Manasseh to call us out of our superstition and idolatry If persecutors as Paul to call us out of our persecuting If we are Adulterers as David to call us out of our uncleanness If Drunkards out of our d●unkenness If

natural desire shrinks and pulls back the hand because Nature seeks the preservation of it self But the reasonable desire saith rather than the whole body shall be consumed he will command the Chyrurgeon to cut off the hand Here is no repugnancie betwixt the natural and reasonable desire but a subordination Again A Martyr is carried to the stake to be burnt the natural desire shrinks but yet it submits it self to the spiritual desire which cometh on and saith Rather than dishonor God go to the fire and be burnt The Schoolmen say Nam pereunte uno desiderio suceedit alterum that Desires are not actually infinite because Nature tends always to some finite thing for no man desireth infinite meat Yet his desires are infinite by succession because these bodily things which we desire are not permanent Thus one desire being gone another comes in place of it It is better to moderate Desire at the first than afterwards to prescribe it a measure Let Desire be conversant about right objects He that pants after the dust of the earth shall always be indigent crying continually with the two daughters of the Horse-leech Give give But he that truly desires after Righteousness shall be satisfied Whosoever shall drink of this water John 4.13 14. shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Desertion It 's said of the Lioness that she seems to leave her young ones till they have almost killed themselves with roaring and howling but at last gasp she relieves them whereby they become the more couragious And Mothers use to leave their children or turn their backs upon them till they mourn and make moan after them Even so the Lord withdraws sometimes from his people and goes from them that with the Prodigal they may come to themselves and seems to forget them that they may remember themselves In Christs desertion there was not Divulsio unionis but Suspensio visionis He cried not out of Men or Devils why they did so and so unto him But My God my God why hast thou for saken me Oh! that came neer his heart In such a forlorne condition as this a poor Soul for regaining of his God can do no more than 1. Bewail the want of Gods gracious presence As Reuben for Joseph Heu quid agam I cannot find my God and I whither shall I go 2. Cry after him in fervent prayer As Elisha after Elijah My father my father Return O Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servant 3. Wait his leisure if he please to hold off longer Sustaining himself with cordial places of Scripture Isa 50.10 cap. 64.4 cap. 30.18 In which estate should he be taken away by death his condition is like to be comfortable because the Spirit of Truth saith Blessed are all they that wait for him Epiphanius telleth of a bird Charadius But what joy at the breaking forth of the Sun after an Eclipse that being brought into the room where a man lieth sick if he look with a steady and fixed eye upon the sick man he recovereth Certainly in Gods favour is life but Aversio vultus Dei the turning away of Gods pleased countenance is the cause of all sorrow and sadness When he hideth his face Job 34.29 who then can behold him Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Psal 30.7 Calamity It was an easie thing said Bishop Hooper to hold with Christ Calamita● virtutis occasio est whiles the Prince and the World held with him but now the World hateth him it is the true trial who be his Let us not then run away when it is most time to fight Remember none are crowned but they that fight manfully You must now turn all your cogitations from the peril you see and mark the felicity that followeth the peril either victory of your enemies in this world or else a surrender for ever of your right in the inheritance to come He calls the World the Miln and Kitchin Idem to grind and boil the flesh of Gods people in till they atchieve their perfection in the World to come The World saith one is not a Paradise but a Purgatory to the Saints It may be compared to the straits of Magellan which is said to be a place of that nature Heyl. Geogr. that which way soever a man bend his course he shall be sure to have the wind against him They may not here dream of a delicacy In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer Joh. 16.33 I have overcome the world Quatuor Novissima Mors. DEath Judgment Heaven and Hell are the Quatuor Novissima Discrimen inter beatos post resurrectionem primos parentes in statu innocentiae homines in statunaturae lapsae in quo nunc sumus est Quòd beati nunquam mori poterunt primi parentes poterant nunquam meri hemines in statu nature lapsae non possunt non mori The decree is out Fort●sse in omnibus si mè rebus bumanis s●d non in morte locum habet Bellarm. Resistitur ignibus undis serro resistitur regibus imperi●s venit una m●rs quis eiresistit Aug. Non torquate genus non te sacundia non te restituet pietas Horat. l. 4. Lex universa jubet n●s●i mori Senec. All must die Belshazzar's Emblem is upon every wall Mene mene tekel upharsin Yea this impress is upon all flesh Numeravit appendit divisit God hath numbred thy days he hath laid thee on the ballance and thou art found wanting thy Kingdom is divided Say Princes say Pesants say all Corruption thou art my father Worms ye are my sisters Grave thou are my bed Sheet thou art my shrine Earth thou art my cover Green grass thou art my carpet Death demand thy due and thou Gatheringhost-Dan come last and sweep all away Epictetus went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her Pitcher of earth that was broken and went forth the next day and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead and thereupon said Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie vidi mortalem mori Life is but a sleep a shadow a bubble a vapour and as a tale that is told Aristotle spake these words at his death I rejoyce that I go out of the World which is compounded of contraries Because each of the four Elements is contrary to other therefore how can this Body compounded of them long endure Plato treating of the Souls of men could say The merciful Father made them soluble and mortal bands meaning indeed they should not always be held with the miseries of this life Death reigned from Adam to Moses And though Death shall not reign yet it shall live fight and prevail from Moses to the end of the world for then and not till then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written Death is swallowed

the ordinance of God for He did all things well Wherefore to shew that God keeps his word and that the truth of his promises is infallible He rose again from the dead In regard of us the end of his Rising is threefold Viz. 1. For our Example 2. For our Justification 3. For our Faith c. First for our Example tending to the information of us in the ways of righteousness in the paths of life That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life that the body of sin might be destroyed Resurectione Domini configuratur vita quae hic geritur and that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6.4.6 The Resurrection of Christ from the dead should be a pattern for us wherein there is some effective vigor to raise us from the death of sin to a gracious life The power of effecting both is in God A D●o est quod unima vivat per gratiam corpus per Animam That the soul lives by grace and the body by the soul comes from God Aquinas who is the Author of life And saith Ames Christ rising from death is tum demonstratio quam initiatio as well a demonstration as the initiation or beginning of our Rusurrection by whom we pass from death unto life Secondly for our Justification They are the express words of the Apostle He was raised again for our justification Rom. 4. ult For now that he hath gotten the victory over death by reviving he applies by the vertue thereof all the benefits of the Gospel unto us to the exceeding great consolation of our souls Lastly for the establishment of our faith concerning the obtaining of life everlasting For indeed if the Head be risen the members may be sure to rise too and if the Head receive life and glory doubtless the members which have their proper dependunce of him shall receive the like perfection for a glorified Head cannot be without a glorified body Now Christ is the head of the body the Church Col. 1.18 who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he may have the preheminence Of the fulness of whose glory in the day of our perfect redemption we shall all receive a full measure For a Conclusion Communi naturae lege moriuntur homines The sons of men composed of dust and ashes die by the common law of nature Eternity is proper to another world not to this to this Inconstancie The Son of the most High himself when he became the Son of man was subjected to Mortality He pleaded no Prerogative royal to be exempted from that end which God setled in the course of nature Our times upon the Earth may be said to be lasting but not everlasting though in the hands of God Heaven decreed a period to our Lives which we cannot prevent and to which Christ at the appointed houre did submit himself with all obedience not able to avoid it Necessity was laid upon him to pay the dubt to Nature which might serve for a payment of our debt to God yet not respectu peccuti W●ems Protralcture of Gods image in man pag. 43. but respectis poenae this necessity was not in respect of sin He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot but in respect of that punishmen● which he did oblige himself to undergo for the sins of men Est illata necessia● Adamò innata necessit as nobis assumpta necessitas in Christo Necessity of death was laid upon Adam for his sin necessity of death is imbred in us and by a voluntary assumption there was a necessity of death in Christ A man willingly gives his word for such a summe for his friend but when he hath willingly given it he must of necessity pay it So Christ willingly took this debt upon him and in the fulness of time when 't was exacted paid it down even his life to God and nature But albeit he thus parted from the world yet God hath raised him up Etiam animalula quaedam typ● Resurrectionis sunt Lavat in Job 14.12 having loos'd the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it So though the hand of fate by Natures unconfused order reduce us to our first principles yet shall we rise again by the mighty power of our eternal Maker The Judge of all the word hath appointed a day wherein to judge the world to which all must rise And as all must die and after death come to judgment so Christ was once offered to bear the ●ius of many and unto them that look for him shall be appear the second time without sin unto salvation THE BLESSED AMBASSADOR OR THE Best sent into the Basest GALATH. 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father GODS love wherewith he hath embrac'd the sons of men in his onely Son is of such large extent as cannot be limited as cannot be measured the breadth and length and depth and height thereof Eph. 3.18 19. doth passe our knowledge Doth passe our finding out The length the breadth the depth of the earth the sea the heavens Mathematicians by their speculations do conjecture but the love of God the most ingenious and judicious cannot it so exceeds so much as conjecture much lesse perfectly know because infinite Would a man part with his only son and alone darling and he content he should die a most ignoble and ignominious death to ransome his servants his cantives his slaves rebels that would cut his throat I cannot be perswaded the world affords such a man such a Phenix there was but one in all the world Abraham found willing to slay his son to rip up his bowels that spruug out of his own when God commanded it Yet the Lord of heaven and earth whose mercies are over all his works sent his only Son to save sinners to dye that by his death we may live Though servants Cantives slaves rebels yet by his Son made Kings Priests Prophets sons and heirs of an eternal inheritance O the depth the height and length and breadth of Gods love He sent his Son forth from him to bring us to him he freely gave him to redeem us from the insulting power of Sathan from the captivity and dominion of sin from the oppressing tyranny of the world to bring us into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God This liberty this sonship is obtained by faith for to as many as beleeve in his name hath he given power to become the Sons of God All ye then that beleeve are no more servants but sons not sons of wrath but sons of God not sons by nature but sons by grace And because sons behold the Lords bounty is en●arged toward you the treasures of his graces are open for you the store-house of his riches is

things hoped for and alwayes goes before Hope follows after 4. Lastly Faith is our Logick to conceive what we must believe Hope our Rhetorick to perswade us in tribulation unto patience In a word the difference between Faith and Hope in Divinity Sodullus Minorit is the same as is between Fortitude and Prudence in Policy Fortitude not guided by Prudence is rashnesse and Prudence not joyned with Fortitude is vain Perfectionem legis habet qucredit in Christum Ambr. in Rom. 10.4 Chrysologue so Faith without Hope is nothing and without Faith Hope is meer presumption Whosoever touched the consecrated things that belonged unto the Tabernacle was holy so is he that toucheth Christ by faith Accedere ad Christum est credere qui credit accedit qui negat recedit Vertues seperated are annihilated Neither in the flint alone nor in the steel alone any fire is to be seen but extracted by conjunction and collision Faith is so well eyed and so sharp sighted that as the Eagles eye being aloft in the clouds can notwithstanding espye s●● frutice 〈◊〉 sub 〈◊〉 piscem so faith here on earth can notwithstanding search into the deep things of God in heaven most perfectly seeing those things which humane sense can no way perceive So heaven by joyning faith and good works together Herein a faithful man exceeds all other that to him there is nothing impossible he walks every day with his Maker and talks with him familiarly he lives in heaven though be be seen on earth when he goes in to converse with God he wears not his owne cloathes but takes them still out of the rich ward-robe of his Redeemer and then dares boldly prease in and challenge a blessing The Celestial Spirits not scorn his company yea his service he deals in wordly affaires as a stranger and hath his heart ever at home his war is perpetual without truce without intermission his victory is certain he meets with the infernal powers and tramples them under feet the shield that he bears before him can neither be missed nor pierced if his hand be wounded his heart is safe he is often tripped never foiled and if sometimes foiled yet never vanquished iniquity hath oft craved entertainment but with a repulse if sin of force will be his tenant his Lord he cannot be his faults are few and those he hath God will not see he is set so high that he dare call God Father his Saviour Brother heaven his Patrimony and thinkes it no presumption to trust to the attendance of any else There is no more love in his heart than liberty in his tongue what he knowes he dare confess if torments stand between him and Christ he contemns them banishment he doth not esteem for he seeth the Evangelist in Pathmos cutting in pieces Esay under the saw Jo●as drowning in the gulf the three chrildren in the furnace Daniel in the lyons den Stephen stoning the Baptists neck bleeding in Herodias platter he emulates their paine their strength their glory he knows whither death can lead him and outs●ceth death with his resurrection Abels faith is a never-dying Preacher Perkins on Heb. 11. Oportet in fide stare in side ambulare in fide perseverare Orig. Invoco te tanquam languidâ imbecillà fide Cruciger sed fide tamen Lawrence Saunders a Martyr in a letter to his wife wrote thus Fain would this flesh make strange Act. Mon. of that which the Spirit doth embrace O Lord how loth is this loytering sluggard to passe forth into Gods path were it not for the force of faith which pulleth it forwards by the reines of Gods most sweet promise and hope which prickes on behind great adventure there would be of fainting by the way Aristotle said Anxius vixi dubius morior nescio quo vado But Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Terra fremit regna asta crepant ruat ortus orcus Si modò firma fides nuilae ruina nocet The just shall live by faith Heb. 10.38 Vnbeleif Infidelity is a grievous sin As faith is the greatest vertue so infidelity is the greatest vice It is a barre to keep out Gods blessings Christ could do nothing among his own brethren for their unbelief sake As wine a strong remedy against hem-lock yet mingled with it doubleth the force of the poison so it is with the Word when mingled with unbelief Unbelief rejects the remedy frustrates the meanes holds a man in an universal pollution and leaves him under a double condemnation One from the law wherein Christ found him and another from the Gospel for refusing the remedy In a word it shuts a man up close Prisoner in the lawes dark dungeon till death come with a writ of Habeas Corpus and hell with a writ of Habeas animam Yea this leads the ring-dance of the rout of reprobates Therefore let us labour to pluck up this bitter root out of the hearts of us all Take heed brethren Heb. 3.12 lest there be in any of you an evil hert of unbelief Hope Philosophers call it extension●●● appetiti●s naturalis Sp●i objectum est bo●um futurum arduum possibile adipisci Aquinas The object of Faith is verbum Dei of Hope res verbi Alsted Hope is a grace of God whereby we expect good to come patiently abiding till it come As joy is an affection whereby we take delight in the good that is present Spes in humanis incerti nomen boni spes in divinis nomenest certissimi as proceeding from faith unfained which can beleeve God upon his bare word and that against sense in things invisible and against reason in things incredible Hope makes absent joyes present wants plenitudes and beguiles calamity as good company doth the time This life would be little better than hell saith Bernard if it were not for the hopes of heaven S●d superest sperare selutem and this holds head above water this keepes the heart aloft all flouds and afflictions as the cork doth the line or bladders do the dody in swimming It 's the grace of Hope that sets a man in heaven when he is on earth A Christian could not go to heaven on earth Dr. Holdsworth and take a spiritual slight but for hope The promise brings down heaven to the heart it inverts that speech of St. Paul he saith while we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. But hope turns it and makes it while we are in the body it teacheth us how to be present in heaven Here is the benefit of hope Alexander an Heathen had such a notion about an earthly hope Juvenes multum babe●t de futuro parum de praeterito ideo quia memoria est praeteriti spes autem futuri parum habent de memoriâ sed multùm vivunt in spe Idem which had no ground neither but the great things his owne

marred all therefore she must teach no longer Some women indeed have been servants of the Church but they were Deaconisses to minister to the sick Dr. Bastwick against Indepen and such like Not Praedicantisses to preach or have Peters Keyes at their girdles Requiritur in Praedicatore Audacia Preces Labor diligentia Jeremiah was not timerous when the Priests the people the Kings resisted his words but he was bould even unto death and you see that which at first they despised at the second preaching they willingly embraced Vid. Cap. 26.8 11 16. A preacher also must not onely instruct his people but also pray for them neither must he be so bold as to take Gods glory from him by saying so or so shall it happen but if the Word of the Lord be with him he will intreat And withal he must be diligent and laborious Ministers must not be married to their Livings as our Church had man and wife married for ever hereafter to hold their peace Too many notwithstanding there were if not still are who like Elocution a Romish god will never hold their peace till they have a Temple dedicated to them but after they have obtained seldome or never are heard to speak again Praedicat vivà voce qui predicat vita voce he doth preach most that lives best As it was said of John Baptist Cum miraculum nullum fecerit perpetuum fuit ipse miraculum A good man doth alwayes preach though he never come in the Pulpit whereas such a Minister as is no where a Minister but in the Church is like Achitophel who set his house in order and then hanged himselfe The Word preached is like Aarons rod if in the preachers hand it is comely but if he cast it from him it will prove a serpent But if the Preacher be a wicked man Vvam carpe spinam cave Consider what he saith not what he doth Hear him as long as he sits in Moses chaire but meddle not with him sitting in the seat of the scornful De scriptis Gentilium libenter assumit Ecclesia Innocent 3. l. 4. De sacr Alt. myst c. 4. siquid in ●eis probe dictum vel factum agnoscit tanquam mulieris captiva resecat ungues pilosque superfluos ut ab alienâ superstuitate mundata thalamumque veritatis digna sit introire Thomas the Apostle converted the Indians as Vesputius witnesseth Whose text was always Mat. 10.34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth I came not to send peace but a sword He and his company preached so powerfully that the hearers have wept and bled and died for hearing their doctrine Of Chrysostome in his preaching it is said he was used not Aures titillare but corda pungere not to tickle mens eares but to prick their hearts He stoutly told Eudoxia the Empresse that for her covetousnesse she would be called a second Jesabel and to her threatning message he answered go tell her Nil nisi peccatum timeo I am affraid of nothing but sin He so took with hearts that when he should have been silenced the people cryed out Satius est ut sol non luceat quàm non doceat Chrysostom●s It were better the sun should not shine than that Crysostome should not teach Austin wished when Christ came he might find him Aut precantem aut praedicantem It s storied of Bonaventure his words were not inflantia but inflammantia Of Wallaus that when he left Middleborough it seemed rather the children were to part with their father than people with their Pastor Dionisius Areopagita begged these two things of God 1. That he might know the truth himself 2. And that he might preach it as he ought to others A congregation or multitude of several tempers and conditions said Greg. Naz. is like an Harp of many strings hard to give every one a touch in preaching especially as may please all and offend none Many will hear the Preacher for a little as the People did Jeremy but if he please them not Populus expetant placentia please them not they will even go so far in malice as they will rise up against him and seek his life But they who find fault with the Ministers for preaching damnation to the wicked come somewhat neer that Blasphemy of Alphonsus King of Spain who said That if he had been at the Creation he would have made things better than now they are He found fault with Gods works these with his word If they had penned the Scriptures I suppose it would have been without damnation A Bucket either above or beside the cock gets no water and people that are either above or withdraw from the Ordinances Ruth 2. get no benefit If Ruth will glean eares of corn she must keep in Boaz field and close by his servants Cry aloud Isa 58.1 spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins Preach the word 2 Tim. 4.2 be instant in season out of season Necessity is laid upon me 1 Cor. 9.16 yea wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel Eloquence There is the vein of speaking and there is vain speaking It is reported of Cyneas that he conquered more Cities by his Eloquence than his Master Pyrrhus did by his puissance Jerome stiled Eusebius Romani Eloquii tubam Paul's speech and preaching was not with wisedome of words nor with entising words of mans wisedome Floridè potius q●àm solidè Ut placeret quàm ut doceret Sanctè magis quàm scit● but in demonstration of the spirit and of power And truely it is not good to put the sword of the Spirit into a velvet scabbard that it cannot pierce More to tickle the ear than to affect the heart It repented Austin as well it might that when he was young he had preached more to please than to profit The window must not be so painted as to keep out the light Gods holy things must be handled with fear and reverence rather than with wit and dalliance Yet there is a lawful use of Rhetorick in Sermons so it be free from ostentation Let Ministers set out the Word of God as skilfully and adornedly as they can so as they still aym at the winning of souls Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci. It 's excellent at once both to please and profit both to tickle the ear and take the heart The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words Eccles 12.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verba deside●i Contempt Judaeis primum erat apud Deum gratia sed illi negligentes indisciplinati superbi postmedum facti fiducia patrum inslati dum divina praecepta contemnunt datam sibi gratiam perdiderunt Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia Good turns aggravate unkindnesses and mens offences are encreased by their obligations Ideò deteriores sumus saith Salvian

in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world Divine Worship The Serpents Grammar first taught Deum pluraliter declinare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eritis si●ut Dii Ye shall be as Gods And here is the first broaching of plurality of Gods which since this time hath multiplied to an innumerable rabble of false gods Of Divine powers adored by the heathens Hesiod reckons up thirty thousand that were in his time What an Army may we think there were of them in after ages It is said that in China are no fewer than an hundred thousand Idols See Mr. Fullers Pantheon But all religious service done to any but God is manifestly condemned as impious Be the gods of the Heathens good fellows the true God is a jealous God and will not share his glory with another Read 1 Cor. 8.5 6. Worship is either 1. Civil Or 2. Divine The former may be given to men and it is twofold 1. A civil worship of duty from inferiours to their Superiors as from children to their Parents from servants to their Masters from subjects to their Magistrates 2. A civil worship of curtesie which is from equals when one equal will bow to another or when a Superior bows down to his inferiour But the latter is Gods peculiar For nothing but God or that which we make a God is or can be worshipped Either he is a God whom we worship or as much as in us lies we make him one Whatever creature shares in this honour this honour ipso facto sets it up above and makes it more than a creature The very Heathens thought every thing below a God below worship Indeed Papists have worship for creatures and they have distinction for it but no Scripture for it They tell us of their Latria worship onely proper to God and Dulia which is for Saints and Huperdulia which is for the Virgin Mary and for the signe of the Crosse Thus they make vain distinctions which God and the Scripture make not They that invent a worship must invent a doctrine to maintain it by And indeed vain distinctions are good enough to maintain vain superstitions This divine worship of God is twofold 1. Internal and 2. External The former is to love God fear God and trust upon him These are acts of inward worship The latter is nothing else but the serving of the Lord according to his own institution D●o serviendum ell non ex arbitrio sed ex imperio Tert. in those several wayes wherein God will be honoured and served by humble adoration supplication c. God requireth both and there is a necessity of joyning both together but internal worship is the chief External worship honours God most but internal worship pleases God most The external worship may be compleat in it self but is never pleasing to God without the internal Internal is compleat in it self and pleasing unto God without the external But in both we must be zealous The Lacedemonians though sore assailed by the Pe●sians would not resist till their sacrifices to their gods were fully ended God is a Spirit John 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth To these we oppose the profane person he hath no gods at all in matters of Religion his heart is a piece of dead flesh without feeling of love of fear of care or of paines from the deep strokes of a revenging conscience custom of sin hath wrought his senselesness which hath been so long entertained that it pleads habitation we are born sinful but have made our selves profane at the first he sinned and cares not now he sins and knows not appetite is his Lord and reason his servant when ought succeedeth to him he sacrificeth to his nets and thank either his fortune or his wit and will rather make a false god than acknowledge the true His conscience would fain speak with him but he will not hear it and when it cries aloud in his ear for audience he drowns it with good fellowship He never names God but in his oaths never thinks of him but in extremity The inevitable necessity of Gods decree makes him desperately carelesse so with good food he poysons himself his usuallest Theme is the boast of his young sins which he can still joy in though he cannot commit He cannot think of death without terrour which he fears worse than Hell because this he is sure of the other he but doubts of He comes to the Church as to the Theatre but not so willingly for company custome recreation perhaps for sleep He is hated of God as much as he hateth goodnesse and differs little from a Devil but that he hath a body The Law is made for the unholy and profane 1 Tim. 1.9 Look diligently lest there be any profane person as Esau Heb. 12.16 Servant of men There is a service due from man to man but comparatively to our service of God we must not be the servants of men We ought to serve men heartily but we must serve none but God with all our hearts He is a servant of men in the Apostles sense 1 Cor. 7.23 that subjects himself to their lusts either for hope or fear labouring to please men though it be with sinning against and provoking God That Rule holds good in Rhetorick but not in Divinity Cicero Non ad veritatem solùm sed etiam ad opinionem corum qui andiunt accommodanda est oratio This was a Principle held very fast by the Heathens Magis ob temperandum est Diis apud quos diutius manendum erit quàm hominibus Witnesse Antigoua in Sophacles quibuscum admodum brevi tempore vivendum est Better obey God with whom we must ever live than men with whom we have but a while to continue Men-pleasers that curry favour with all they lose a friend of God neither do they long hold in with those whom for present they do so much please Whether it be right in the sight of God Acts 4.19 to hearken unto men more than unto God judge ye Servant of sin Every man till regenerate is a servant to sin and overcome by it Quot vitis tot domi●i till the grace of regeneration do renue him and set him at liberty All unregenerate men have put their neck into sins yoke and are unwilling to have it taken off again Sin may have a twofold prevalency or dominion over a man 1. Either with a full and plenary consent 2. Or else unwillingly with reluctancy and contradiction As Josephus saith of Herod that he raigned over the Jews for many year by meer force they opposing and resisting of him but afterwards they willingly consented to him By this distinction Divines use to resolve that case of conscience whether a godly man may be said to be under a reigning sinne for as we understand the word reigning as aforesaid so it is true or false c.

no good edge When he giveth quietnesse who then can make trouble Job 34.29 and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man onely Peace Epiphanius used to say that he never let his adversary sleep not that he disturbed him but agreed with him presently not suffering the Sun to go down upon his wrath There is peace 1. External 2. Internal 3. Eternal of the 1. World 2. Minde 3. God Or more plainly peace between 1. Man and man 2. Man and himself 3. God and man Christ both procures us peace by his blood and keeps peace by his intercession He both makes and maintains peace Pax nostra bellum contra satanam For as Aulius Fulvius when he took his son in the conspiracy with Catiline said Ego te non Catalinae sed Patriae so God hath not begotten us in Christ that we should follow the arch-traitour Satan but serve him in holinesse Est pax peccatorum pax justorum pax temporis pax eternitatis Pax temporis interdum conceditur bonis malis sed pax eternitatis nunquam dabitur nisi bonis quia non est pax impiis De pace peccatorum inquit Psal Nalla salus bello pacem nos possumus omnes Drances Zelavi in peccatoribus pacem peccatorum videns De hac dicit Christus non veni mittere pacem sed gladium De pace justorum dicit Apostolus fructus spiritus est Charitas gaudium pax paientia hanc reliquit Christus Apostolis pacem relinquo vobis De pace temporis inquit Propheta Orietur in diebus ejus justitia Innocens 3. l. 3. De sacr Alt. myst c. 11. abundantia pacis Hanc incessanter petit Ecclesia Da pacem in di●bus nostris De pace aeternitatis Dominus dixit Apostolis pacem meam d● vobis non quomodo mundus dat Ego do vobis De hac inquit David In pace dormiam c. Dona nobis pacem ut de pace temporis per pacem pectoris transeamus ad pacem aeternitatis It is observable that amongst these seventeen sins Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florens which are called works of the flesh Gal. 5. eight of them are of the adverse party to peace and that all the nine fruits of the spirit there reckoned up are peace and the assistants thereof Which sheweth what a concourse of evils is in strife Pausanias in Atticis p. 13. and that all good things which we can expect from the Spirit are in peace Hence even the heathens feigned Eirene Peace to be the nurse of Pluto their god of riches The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse Isa 32.17 quletnesse and assurance for ever Tamerlane after a great battel with and victory over the Muscovit Turk Hist fol. 212. beholding so many thousands of men there dead upon the ground was so far from rejoycing thereat that turning himself to one of his familiars he lamented the condition of such as commanded over great armies commending his fathers quiet course of life who being now well stricken in years and weary of the world delivered up unto him the government of his Kingdome retiring himself into a solitary life the more at quiet to serve God and so to end his days in peace Accounting him happy in seeking for rest and the other most unhappy which by the destruction of their own kind sought to procure their own glory Protesting himself even from his heart to be grieved to see such sad tokens of his victory Yea Fol. 216. the stern Bajazet marching with his great army against Tamerlane and by the way hearing a countrey shepheard merrily reposing himself with his homely Pipe as he sate by the side of a mountain feeding his poor flock standing still a great while listning unto him to the great admiration of many at last fetching a deep sigh brake forth into these words O happy shepheard which hadst neither Orthobulos nor Sebastia to lose bewraying therein his own discontentment And yet withal shewing that worldly blisse consisteth not so much in enjoying of much subject unto danger as enjoying in a little contentment devoid of fear Better is an handful with quietnesse Eccles 4.6 than both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit Famine It is the want of bread and bread is the stay and staffe of life When this stay is gone our lives fall quickly when this staffe is broken the thread of life breaks too Famine within hath fought more eagerly than sword without Xenophon reports of one Anaxalaus accused in the Spartane judgement for delivering up the City of Bizantium to the enemy when he saw many die with famine he answered he knew difference between warring with an enemy and Nature It is numbred among the sore judgements of God if it be not the sorest 1. Causing faintnesse and madnesse Gen. 47.13 2. Hunger burneth Deut. 32.24 3. It causeth pining and languishment Lam. 4.9 4. Shame and howling Joel 1.11 5. Rage and cursing Isa 8.21 6. It breaks all the bonds of nature Deut. 28.53 54. Lam. 4.10 Isa 9.20 But yet this famine of the body is a light judgement to a famine of the Word which drieth up the soul and bringeth with it eternal death Amos 8.11 12. Miserable was the famine amongst the Jews in Jerusalem besieged by the Romanes some chewing the graines of raw wheat wives snatching the meat from their husbands ●useb l. 3. c. 6. children from their parents and that which was most miserable the mothers from the infants mouths c. Many seeing no way but one went and and laid them down upon the Beers to welcome death So miserable was the sight that Titus himself sorrowed and sighed and stretching forth his hands called God to witnesse Turk Hist fol. 1●09 that he was not the cause of this calamity In Transilvania they ate up all the dogs cats mice and rats that they could get dead horses loathsome carrion of other hunger-starved beasts One man did eat another A woman having six children did among them eat one another until they were at length all six devoured yna thieves and malefactors hanged for their villanies were by the poor and miserably hungry people cut down from the Gallows and devoured At Athens the father and son fought for a dead mouse which dropped down betwen them from the top of the house God can cause a famine either by immoderate drought Joel 1.10 Or by immoderate moisture vers 17. These are usually the natural causes of famine but 't is good to enquire after the supernatural as Jacob enquired who stood on the top of the ladder and sent the Angels to and fro Gen. 28.13 I behold and low a black horse Pestilence The word in the Hebrew Ezek. 14.19 comes from another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loqui which signifieth to speak And

Paraclete Cursed Mahomet called the dead fits of his falling-sicknesse his extasie and ravishment at the appearance of the Angel Gabriel and his Dove inured to fetch food out of his ear is pretended no lesse than the Holy Ghost sent whisperingly to intimate what he should enact for the people Heathenish Politicians had like pretences to win credit to their lawes Numa Pompilius receives his from the goddesse Aegeria Lycurgus his from Apollo And how many have we now adayes our Modern Enthusiasts that dream their Midianitish dreames and then tell it for Gospel to their neighbours as wise as themselves leading men into the lyons mouth that roaring lyon under pretence of a Revelation as that old Impostour did the young Prophet 1 King 13. This we may be sure of that many illusions have come in the likenesse of visions and absurd fancies under pretence of raptures and what some have called the spirit of Prophecy hath been the spirit of lying and contemplation hath been nothing but Melancholy and unnatural lengths and stilnesse of prayer hath been a meer dream and hypochondriacal devotion and hath ended in pride or despair or some sottish and dangerous temptation Much like unto Heron the Monk of whom it is reported that having lived a retired and mortified life together for many years at last the Devil taking advantage of the weakness of his Melancholy and unsetled spirit gave him a transportantion and an extasie in which he fancied himself to have attained so great perfection that Angels would be his security so dear he was to God though he threw himself into the bottome of a well he obeyed his fancy and temptation did so bruised himself to death and died possessed with a perswasion of the verity of that extasie and transportation It is more healthful and nutritive to dig the earth and eat of her fruits than to stare upon the greatest glories of the Heavens and live upon the beams of the sun So though all violencies and extravagancies of a religious fancy are not illusions yet they are all unnatural little secure little reasonable little consisting with humility and so unsatisfying to the soul that they often distract the faculties seldom advantage piety and are full of danger in their greatest lustre Be not soon shaken in mind 2 Thes 2.2 neither by spirit Apparition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to appear or seem It is that which either a man seeth or vainly imagineth that he seeth If any say how hath a spirit a form or an image or how can that be seen Answ It is not a Spirit abstracted or naked in it self but a Spirit joyned with a form and a shape that is seen So Angels or Spirits did usually appear to the Ancients taking a body or some form upon them and those Apparitions when a body was assumed were called spirits When therefore it is said that the Disciples beholding Jesus after his resurrection standing in the midst of them they were terrified and affrighted supposing that they had seen a spirit Luk. 24.36 37. Know the Apostles were not so absurd as to beleeve a spirit in it self a spirit abstracted could be seen but they called it a spirit because they thought it onely the representation of Christs body and not the true body So a spirit may assume some outward shape in which it is clothed to the eye Some observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec vox significat sic aliquid praete●irae ut ●tiam mutetur Schind that the motions of spirits clothed with bodies in their Apparitions is not like the motion of men who move lifting up their feet one after another but it is a passing as a ship moveth with a gale of wind rather a gliding than a going Job 4.15 Among the Heathen this was made the chief difference to distinguish a Numen or spirit coming in any shape from a natural body The steddinesse of their eyes was one Pedes vestis desluxit ad imos Et vera incesses patuit Dea. Virg. l. 1. Aen. the not transposing their feet was another and a cleerer evidence So saith Heliodor Numina venientia ad nos in homines se transformant Ex oculis autem notari possunt cum continuo obtuitu intueantur palbebras nunquam concludant Et magis ex incessus qui non ex dimotione pedum neque ex transpositione existit Sed quodam impetu ●●rio vi expedita findentium magis auras quam transeuntium Quamobrem statuas quoque Deorum Egyptii ponunt conjungentes illis pedes quasi unientes In Aethiopicis l. 3. A spirit passed before my face Jo●● 12.13 14 15 16. Witch Witchcraft in general signifyes all curious arts wrought by the operation of the Devil The ground is a league or compact with him Either 1. Open when men invocate the Devil in expresse words or otherwise make any manifest covenant with him Or 2. Secret when men use means which they know have no force but by the operation of the Devil Of Witchcraft there are three kinds 1. Superstitious Divination of which before 2. Jugling to work feats beyond the order of nature as did the Magicians of Egypt 3. Charming or inchanting which is by the pronouncing of words to procure speedy hurt or speedy help A Witch is one that wittingly and willingly useth the assistance of the Devil himself for the revealing of secrets working of some mischief or effecting of some strange cure There are indeed other superstitious persons who use charming and by it do many cures perswading themselves that the words which they use have force in them or that God hath given them to do strange things Such in a natural honesty may detest all known society with the Devil and in that respect are not the Witches which the Scripture adjudgeth to death yet are they at the next door to them and are to be admonished to relinquish their superstitious practices Because 1. The efficacy of things that comes by any other means than the ordinance of God which efficacy was either put into the thing in the Creation or since by some new institution in the Word is by Satanical operation 2. Charms Inchantments and Spells have no force unless we believe they can do us good which faith is false and the service of the Devil for we must believe hope do nothing without or against the Word of God To discover a Witch is very hard for they do their feats in close manner not only by soul and open cursing but also by fair speaking and by praising of things Nevertheless there are five special things for discovery Viz. 1. Free confession of the accused and suspected 2. Confestion of the associates with the suspected 3. Invocation of the Devil for that is to renounce Baptism 4. Evidence of entertaining a Familiar spirit 5. Evidence of any action or actions that necessarily presuppose a league made with the Devil There are besides these other signs

and Charon the ferry-man of hell And Aetua which they fancied to be hell Saxum ingens volvunt alii And hell it self to be a continual rowling of stones upon dead bodies with many other fancies Inque tuo sedisti Sisyphe saxo Ovid. Metam l. 10. But to let them passe such a woful place there must needs be 1. That so the wicked may receive proportionable punishment both in soul and body That of Jerom was not true Infernum nihil esse nisi conscientiae horr orem to the sins they committed here upon earth 2. Therefore of necessity there must be an hell to keep men to all eternity that by their everlasting torments Gods justice might be satisfied which otherwise it could not be 2 Thes 1.5 3. The very tetrors of conscience that are in wicked men at least when they are dying declare there is a hell a place of torment provided for them There are many words in Scripture by which hell is exprest 1. Sheol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we lye buried there in a second death 2. Abaddon all are there in a perishing state 3. Tsalmaveth or the shadow of death death never triumphs so much in its strength as it doth in hell It s the strength and power of death 4 Etachtithrets signifying both the lowest and most inferior earth whence hell is called the bottomlesse pit And also it imports fear vexation and trembling hell is a land of trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a land of fear 5. Bor shachath that is the pit of corruption though the wicked shall be raised immortal yet filthinesse shall be upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. Erets Nesciah the land of forgetfulnesse God will remember them no more to do them any good but to their torment and confusion he will remember them for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. Erets choscec a land of darknesse Darknesse was their choyce in this life and it shall be their curse in the next 8. Gehinnom whence the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the valley of Hinnom in which the Idolatrous Israelites did sacrifice their children with horrible cruelty There are other terms which set out Hell this place of the damned As Unquenchable sire Dicitur stagnum quia ut lapis mari ita animae illue immerguatur Anselm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Kings 23.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 3.17 A Furnace of sire Matth. 13.42 A Lake of fire Rev. 19.20 Eternal fire Jude 7. Utter darknesse Matth. 22.13 The blacknesse of darknesse Jude 13. Chains of darknesse 2 Pet. 2.4 Damnation Mat. 23.33 A place of torment Luke 16.28 Wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 A Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Tophet Isa 30.33 A bottomlesse pit Rev. 9.1 The second death Rev. 2.11 Destruction Matth. 7.14 Everlasting punishment Matth. 25 46. Corruption Gal. 6.8 So that Hell is a place of torment ordained by God for Devils and reprobate sinners wherein by his justice they are deprived of his favour and confined to everlasting punishment both in soul and body If any ask whether Hell were created of God I answer Consider Hell as a place simply And it is very probable that Angels falling hell making was both together it was created at first by God when he distinguished all places but as it is Hell a place of torment it was not so by creation Satan and mans sin brought that name and use unto it And thus Tophet may be said to be prepared of old as a punishment for sin and a place for justice to be inflicted upon sin committed against God For the locality of Hell all agree in this that there is such a place only where that place of the damned should be Omnia entia sinita necesse est in aliquo ubi there are variety of opinions about it Gregory Nyssen and his followers hold it is in the air groundlesly grounding on Ephes 2.2 and cap. 6.12 Isidore but nothing probable will have it under the Globe of the earth A third confutable enough in the valley of Jehoshaphat from Joel 3.12 A fourth opinion owned of many learned men but without foundation from the Word is that Hell is in the very center of the earth Others with Keckerman that Hell is in the bottome of the Sea this they build upon that phrase Matth. 8.29 Luke 8.31 Aug. lib. 2. Retract c. 24. This indeed seems to carry some show of reason but cannot be the sense of the place Those that write with most sobriety say only in general Gehennam esse locum subterranenm The truth is Scripture doth not relate the very particular place where Hell is and perhaps it is concealed to prevent curiosity in many to keep faith in use and exercise as also to rouze men from security and to make them fearful of sin in every place yet there is warrant enough for the belief of two things in general 1. That there is such a place as Hell that is a place distinct from Heaven 2. That this place wherever it is it must be below Heaven Prov. 15.24 Luke 8.13 Rev. 14.11 Job 11.8 Deut. 32.22 Psal 55.15 If any should aske any farther I answer in anothers words Vbi sit sentient qui curiosiùs quaerunt where it is they shall find one day who over-curiously enquire At least I may say as Socrates did I was never there my self nor spoke with any that came from thence Let us labour more to avoid Hell than endeavour to find out the place where it is else Hell where-ever it is will find us out Though we know not the place for certain yet we may certainly know this that sin is the very high road to Hell and the direct way thither Prov. 7.26 And let us take heed of sin in every place seeing we know not where the particular place of Hell is Hell follows sin at the heels If we sin against God God knows how near Hell we are A guilty and galled conscience joyned with a profane wicked life is the lively picture of Hell it selfe Gebenuâ nihil grovius sed ejus me●● nibil u●●lius Hell is called by the Latins Infernus ab inferendo from the Devils continually carrying in souls to that place of torment I conclude with Chrysostom There is nothing more grievous than Hell but nothing more profitable than the fear of it Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared Isa 30.33 he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Hells Torments We silly fishes see one another jerked out of the pond of life by the hand of death but we see not the frying-pan and the fire that they are cast into that die in their sins and refuse to be reformed Cast they are into utter darknesse Vtinam ubique

became us For our better assurance of our High-Priests original and actual righteousness whereby he was harmless and undefiled he was being planted in a noble height seperate from sinners not but that he did communicate of the same common nature with all men but not of their guilt which is a necessary consequent of the violation of the heavenly law for where there is no transgression there is no guilt which is a binding over the offendor to receive a deserved puishment 'T is true One of those natural notions the Devil could never blot out of mans mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment due to sinners was transfer'd to him but by his own voluntary submission thereunto as not for any sin of his own committing so without any guilt of his own contracting for had he been guilty before God the just Judge of all the world he could never be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world he could never satisfie the provoked justice of the Almighty thereby to appease his wrath and effect an eternal reconciliation betwixt him and us he could never obtain the free remission of our sins whereby to bring us into grace again neither were his intercession for transgressors any way available being subject to the same condemnation As he could not give a sufficient ransome for the redemption of mankind by the sacrificing of himself were he conscious of those crimes whereof sinners are So neither would his supplications prevail to benefit us for we know that God heareth not sinners Joh. 9.31 Wherefore to remove all rubs out of the way that might hinder his faithful execution of the Priestly function in all its parts and that there might no question be made of an absolute impetration and procurement of salvation to be confer'd upon as many as do beleave in him and obey him to the end he was as in respect of sin so in respect of guilt seperate from sinners This seperation was not local or in regard of place he dwelt among us and came to call sinners to repentance but vertuall in relation to his unstained condition and those divine qualities where with be was replemisht and whereof sinful men during their abode in the flesh are altogether uncapable By this means all his moral actions done in obedience to the supream authority which were infallible tokens of his inwrad pureness were meritorious for us Such is their unparalell'd worth that though them for the Authors lake the father is become propitions unto men Insomuch as for our everlasting comfort I may speak it Christ Jesus our high-Priest is able to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him Now there remaines no more but that with David we betake our selves to him q. d. abseis ergo ut de isl●s quisquiliis sim anxius Beza with the words of the same King Now Lord what wait we for our hope it even in thee Psal 39.7 Our hope is in thee to take off from us the weight of our sins our hope is in thee to suppresse the dominion of death our hope is in thee to deliver us from the Tyranny of the Prince of darknesse and to bring us reconcil'd into the highest place where thy honour dwelleth where thou are made higher than the heavens Thus am I happily devolved to the speculation of the dignity to which our high-Priest as became both him and us is above all heavens advanced After our Saviours humiliation there followed his exaltation for as he descended from heaven to earth so when he had finisht what he came for he ascended from earth to heaven returning to the place whence he came Albeit he endured many a fierce combate here yet having at length obtained the victory be went in triumph leading captivity captive to the place of his glory Ascendit ad Calo● Ruffin in Symbol Apostel non ubi verbum Deus anté non fuerat sed ubi verbum care factum ante non sederas Saith Ruffinus he went up into heaven not where the Word that was made God never was before but where the Word made flesh never sate before Something was to be done above by the man Christ Jesus when glorified as well as here below when humbled This was the place for oblation specially but that for perpetuall intercession Here he died for our sins but rose again for our justification Ephes 4.10 and ascending up on high fitteth in Majestie at the right hand of God making intercession for us that so he might fulfil all things all things requisite for the salvation of man that were to be expected from a Mediatour So that now he is declared mightily not onely to be the onely Son of God but to be our High-Priest for ever In being made higher than the heavens Earth which is his foot-stoole was no fit place for his glorious presence but his throne which is heaven For had he taken up his rest here for ever then had he not entred into the holyest of all not of this building but eternal in the heavens Now that he entred but once for all unto this whereas the Priests of Aarons order entred once annually into the sepond Tabernacle which was within the vaile called the most holy place 't is an argument of the perfection of his Priesthood of the imperfection of theirs for as it is Heb. 9.24 Christ is not entred into the holy place made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for us having obtained eternal redemption What Priest of what order soever beside him ever came to this height Who as he hath done ever paid such a price as the eternal redemption of the wicked is worth Or by their own power passed into heaven to appear as an Advocate to plead in the be half of sinners we find none but this we find First that hereby the world sin death the grave and hell are past peradventure overcome he remained not under their dominion but when brought to the lowest ●●be of a wretched estate up he gets again and gets all power both in heaven and earth Mat. 2.18 to be given to him So that better may this King of Kings say than the King of Spain Sol mihi semper lucet for he is Catholick Monarch Secondly hereby he hath opened the gates of heaven for all beleevers and made way for them to God wherein he hath shewed himself to be our Priest abundantly for if the were on earth he should not be a Priest saith the Authour to the Hebrewes Cap. 8.4 for if he had not gone before us it is impossible sin lying so heavily upon us we should have admission into his presence in which there is fullness of joy fo● evermore but now he is there to prepare immortal mansions for them that come to him whereby they may dwell with him in happiness There saith Anselme Infirmitas Anselm de similitudin bus

spue you out of his mouth like the luke-warm Laodiceans Hierom. Non Hierosolymis fuisse fed Hierosolymis bene vixisse laudandum est saith Hierom Not to live in Hierusalem but to live well in Hierusalem is praise-worthy We must not live in the Church amongst the Saints but we must be Saints of the Church Thus the Saints of God by renovation have in them inherent and actual sanctity which in respect of their twofold state is twofold imperfect and perfect imperfect in their state militant and perfect in their state triumphant First then There was never Saint found nor ever shall be found Saint so journing on this earth during the days of his pilgrimage indued with absolute or compleat sanctity Their righteousness is but inchoative begun here yet true but not perfect until the day of our full and perfect redemption until our absolute translation from death to life until our better change out of this life of mortality into the life of immortal glory Aug. Nullus sanctus caret peccato nec tamen ex hoc desinit esse sanctus cùm affectu teneat sanctitatem saith Austin No Saint wants sin yet doth he not hereby cease to be a Saint being his affection is possest of holiness The desires of his soul have embraced grace for which God graciously embraceth his soul This impersection of the Saints appears by the Apostle complaining of a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind and so leading him captive to the law of sin in his members whereby the good that he would do he did not Of this he speaketh 2 Cor. 7.1 when he saith Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting or finishing holiness in the fear of God Where the word finishing importeth the imperfection of the most perfect meer man under which he still groaneth in this life and for which Paul he still cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death until the day wherein he shall finish his course and sanctification in Gods fear We hear the Saints praised for the strictness of their holy life and not undeserved their goodness is applauded of the good and honored of the best Ambr●s Yet saith Ambrose Cognascamus sanctos non naturae praestantioris fuisse fed observantiae majoris nec vitia nescisse fed emendasse Let us know that the Saints had not a more excellent nature than we but had a greater observance and respect to God neither were they void of sin but were always on the mending hand They were ever inclining to that perfection which they had not yet obtained and declining that evil which makes men incapable of perfection Do ye so likewise for be assured that they that live in the world without sanctity and amendment of life live without the true God of the world which whosoever doth Hierom. shall not live out of this world with God world without end Non nisi sanctes Coelestis aula suscipiet saith Hierom The Court of Heaven entertains no Courtiers but Saints and holy men There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Rev. 21.27 or worketh abomination but they which are written in the book of life Where their imperfection is turned to perfection and their incompleat grace to perfect glory Secondly So that albeit the Saints are not perfect in their state militant yet are compleat in their state triumphant Though not throughly holy in the state of grace yet their sanctification accomplished in the state of glory where no foe can oppress them no sin infect them no devil pervert them ubi una placida fida tranqui●itas una sollida perpetua securit as saith Cyprian Cypr. where there is onely pleasing and faithful tranquillity where onely is solid and perpetual security Without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murtherers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Onely the blessed that do his commandment Rev. 22.14 15. enter into the city the new Hierusalem Who are like Absolom in another sense from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head without blemish and not like Isaiah's sinners from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot no whole part This happy perfection and perfect happiness let it be as annexed to the glory of God the highest point of your ambitious thoughts and the But to which you shoot all the arrows of obedience Then shall ye being with the Saints righteous by imputation and renovation by grace inherent and actual here imperfect but perfect registred and placed with the Saints shall be like the Sun in the firmament of heaven And so much concerning the Subject of this Text Gods Saints whom I leave in their proper sphere having brought them to their long home where I trust we shall all meet them in glory everlasting The second part of the Text is the Attribute of special honour proper to the Saints This honour What is imported by this honour is exprest in the foregoing verses and in the first part of the Text. To be brief 't is this An absolute victory over all People Nations Kings and Potentates that fight against the Saints But being we cannot conceive a Conquest before a Conflict I will by Divine assistance treat a little of the Saints Conflict and their honorable Conquest Gods children and Saints are here in a continual warfare Afflictions saith one are perpendicular to his graces in them Vertue never yet wanted opposites Tendit ad astra per aspera virtus The way to Heaven as one observes is strewed with briars like that which Jonathan and his Armour-bearer passed betwixt two rocks Bozez and Seneh that is foul and thorny Grievous and many are the Massacres of the Saints The French proverb of Sicknesses is true of the Churches persecutions and conflicts They come on horse-back but go away on foot And Rest and Pleasure like Oxen come slow and heavily and go away like Post-horses on the spur The Kings of the earth assemble themselves against the Lord and his anointed ones To omit others Have not France Germany Spain Italy who not been up in arms against the Professors of the Truth to send them through the Red sea of Tribulation into the land of Canaan And do not those bitter enemies exercise all manner of cruelty that barbarous rage can invent Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it is cruel As for torments and kinds of death Phalaris and his fellow-tyrants come short of those Bloodhounds of the Spanish Inquisition whom I may compare to the women of Vlna in India Heyl. Geogr. who black their teeth because dogs teeth are white so these black their souls with the works of darkness because the souls of the Saints are white with innocency But yet as the malignant fury of inveterable men in authority did not terrifie the

Divine the Trinity that Paul should be an Apostle of Jesus Christ Three such whose same for the eminency of their spiritual endowments spread far and wide Three such whose wisdom by reason they were more familiar with Christ than the rest was haply of an higher straine These were the three disciples which he cul'd from the rest to go with him up into the mountain where he was transfigured Q. Elizabeths Motto was Video Tacco Cambd. Eliz. to whom at his coming down he said see ye tell to no man the vision until the Son of man rise from the dead Mat. 17. These are the three that attended on him when he restored the dead maid to life Luk. 8.51 And two of these Cephas and John were with him in the extremity of his agony when he said my soul is sorrowful even unto death Mat. 26.38 Now severally of each name a little more than naming them First James James of Jacob which imports a supplanter of him I may say Judg. 8. as Zeba and Zalmunnah said of Gideou as is the man so is his strength Strong in faith vindicating the truth from the blowes of the adversary Hence rightly named Justus doing justice a work of righteousness towards God towards the man of God Towards God while like a good King he seconds a defender of the faith towards the man of God Paul whilst he acknowledging Paul's gifts to be the gifts of God protects him as himself from the rage of false brethren and giving the definitive sentence on his side like a Patron of truth A true testimony of his love to Christ This was he that was called the Lords brother tyed unto him with a true-loves-knot indissoluble by force of either man or Angel good or bad And here you find him maintaining his brothers right against these white devils hypocrites false brethren Let me exhort you then to be followers of him as he was of Christ Jesus Supplant sin Satan the wicked enemies of God of man and ye shall be Israels prevalent with God Cephas followes this was Simon Peter Joh. 1.42 thou art Simon the son of Jonah Difference between Cephas and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt be called Cephas by interpretation a stone And Mat. 16. blessed are thou Simon Barjonah I say also unto thee thou art Peter and hence proceeds the Papists paradox that Peter is the head of the Church but there is no such matter Christ is the onely head Christ is the onely foundation Christ is the onely head Quantum inter stellas ●una minores Ephes 5.23 for God hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 Hence he is compared to an husband as the husband is the head of the wife so Christ is the head of the Church Christ is the onely foundation for no other foundation can any man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 3.11 This subtle invention of the Papists was thrust in among the other false heads of their Religion to make that stumbling-block unto us I mean the Pope head of the Church without sense without reason but since he is a stumbling-block unto the true professors of Christ the Captain of our salvation Heb. 2. and a dead head I will grace him onely with the title of a block-head being spel'd and put together Here all the nimble chop Jesuites more in words than in substance labour in vain to prove Peter prince of the Apostles let them put on their considering caps and weigh these things in the balance of the Sanctuary the Word of God I would send them no farther than to the two verses before the text together with the text where we find Paul for gifts of the Spirit to be equal with Peter and the rest where James is prefer'd before Peter where James Cephas and John are called Pillars equally where Paul's territory doth extend farther than Peters as the Gentiles the Jewes And thus I give them a Mittimus to the Pope with a flea in their eare Thus much by the way I will prosecute it no farther leaving it to those more parts who as Jael did by Sisera can hit the naile in the head down to the ground Judg. 4. This name must have his note Cephas or Peter it signifies a rock or a stone as rocks or hard stones are wont to be laid in the foundation of any building so the faith of Peter and of the whole Church doth stay upon Christ the firm and unmoveable rock upon whom the whole Church is bullded As he is Cephas a stone so Simon one that is attentive one that is obedient both fruits of faith by it he walked on the sea and sunk not like a stone by it he confessed Christ to be the Son of the living God after the resurrection he was demanded of Christ thrice to feed his sheep to feed them with the Word and Sacraments thrice bidden because haply to be done in the name of three the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost he fed Christs flock for at one Sermon he converted three thousand hearers he healed the man that was lame from his mothers womb be killed by the power of the Word two scab'd sheep Ananias and Saphira his wise for lying unto the holy Ghost he healed Aeneas sick of the palsie he raiseà Tabitha from death to life he convinc't Simon Magus of his Sorcery And as the best were and are not without their faults no more was he without his Three times together denied he Christ wherein rather than in any thing else the Pope succeeds him and therefore Antichrist But Peter wept bitterly for his lapsus linguae 2 Sam. 25. Antichrist is not touched with grief but rejoyceth in what he doth therefore as Abigail said of Nabal so Lof him As his name is so is he These things being known because as Paul speaks of other things they were not done in a corner made him wonderful in the eyes and eares of all and therefore counted a grand Pillar of the Church Here we find him receiving Paul into his fellowship with heart and hand with the rest of the Apostles Now give me leave to exhort you to be followers of him as he was of Christ Jesus Herein shall you shew your selves to be attentive and obedient to the heavenly voice and hereby you are made precious stones knit to the rock Christ Jesus in the new Hierusalem now here and above hereafter in glory Now I come to John Luke 1. which is as much as gracious to whom I may apply that salutation of the Angel to the Virgin Mary haile thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women So haile thou that art highly favoured or graciously accepted or much graced the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among the sons of men for thou hast found favour with God thou