the will of God 2. The second follows and 't is this That it is not enough to doe the will of God Opere operato but they must doe it as it should be done or els it will never reach to the Satis est in the Text Now this Satis est hath respect to two things in doing the will of God First The manner of doing it Secondly The extent of it The first requires that it be done well The second that it be done home they both are included in the Word Zealous I have been Zealous for the Lord God of Hosts Zeale is a vehement affection composed of Love and Anger and Actions flowing from these two are ever done in earnest they are done home and throughly and so ought we to doe all things that we doe for God The Opus operatum the work done will not serve the turne but it must be rightly qualified in all the circumstances of it and done in a right manner If we love the Lord our God we must love him with all our heart with all our soule with all our mind and with all our strength If we serve him we must serve him with reverence and godly seare If we worship him we must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Luther said well That God loves Advers rather then Verbs the manner of doing more then the work done the will more then the deed the mind more then the matter we must not serve God negligently nor we must not serve him by halves either of these make our obedience fall short of Elijah's Satis est in the Text To say we beleeve in God we love God and we feare God and not to obey him to shew our faith by our works and our fear by our worship Non satis est it is not enough but to our faith to joyne our obedience and to our fear to joyne our worship and to our love our care to keep his Commandements Satis est it is enough To profess that we know God to confess his Name to draw neer unto him with our lips and in all outward deportment to have a forme of godliness Non satis est it is not enough but to know God in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe to draw neer unto him with our hearts and dearest affections and with the forme of godliness to shew forth the power of it Satis est it is enough To cry Lord Lord as in the Gospel and Templum Domini Templum Domini The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as the Jews did in Jeremy Non satis est it is not enough but to doe the will of our Father which is in Heaven and in his Temple to speak of his Honour and to worship him aright Satis est it is enough To make our boast of God and of his Law to heare every day a Sermon to know the Mistery of the Gospel to have a mouth full of Scripture ready at all times to throw at an adversary in dispute or discourse Non satis est it is not enough but to know the truth as it is in Jesus to receive the truth with the love of the truth to answer the end of the Evangelicall Law which is Love out of a pure heart a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned Satis est it is enough To bring multitudes of sacrifices and oblations unto the Lord to stretch out our hands before him and to make many Prayers Non satis est it is not enough but to wash us to make us cleane to take away the evill of our works from before his eyes to cease to doe evill and learne to doe well Satis est it is enough To come before the Lord with thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle to give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soule Micha 6.6.7 Non satis est it is not enough but to doe Judgement to love Mercy and to walk humbly before the Lord Satis est it is enough To conclude this point to be admitted into the visible Church to be matriculated into it by Baptisme to live in a professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ to come to Church to heare Sermons to sit out the Service and at the appointed times to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper though this be more then we can gaine of many among you Non satis est it is not enough but to make it our care all the dayes of our life to make good the Covenant which we made in our Baptisme to become Members of the invisible Church incorporated into it and united unto it by the bonds of faith and of the spirit to express the power of the Word Sacraments and Spirit working by them in a constant holy walking before the Lord as becomes the Members of that holy Society Satis est it is enough And so we have made good the second Inference drawn out of Elijah's third Satis est in reference to what he had done Satis Feci I have done enough But stay a little before we take our leave of this Satis est it is necessary we should answer an Objection that lyes in our way and must be removed before we can proceed any further Obj. Quid audio What is that I heare Satis feci I have done enough Who can say so be he a Prophet be he an Apostle an Evangelist be he the holiest of Saints that ever lived can he say of himselfe Satis feci I have done enough Is there a Satis in our obedience unto which we may arrive and then say It is enough Our Saviour tells us That when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants How then can any say It is enough or I have done enough Sol. To this I answer by a double distinction First thus There is a Satis ad Justificationem and there is a Satis ad Testificationem there is a Satis as to Justification and there is a Satis as to Testification As to the former there is no man can say He hath done enough Enter not into judgement with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143.2 But as to the later there is a Satis ad testificationem to testification that is To testifie the truth of our faith the sincerity of our obedience and the uprightness of our hearts in the Service of God When Abraham was so ready upon Gods command to offer up his Sonne Isaac in sacrifice to him as to bring him to Mount Moriah there to build an Altar to lay the Wood in order upon it and binde his Sonne to the Wood to take the Knife in his hand and to stretch forth his hand to Slay him God staies his hand bids him hold his hand proceed no further Satis est It is enough for now I know that thou lovest me seeing thou hast not refused to offer up thine onely Sonne in sacrifice to me at my
command Gen. 22. Here 's a Satis ad testificationem enough to testifie his love and obedience and so though none of Gods Saints and servants can reach to a Satis in reference to justification yet as to the testification of the soundness of their faith the sincerity of their obedience and the uprightness of their hearts in his Service there is a Satis which they may reach to and of which God himselfe will testifie and say Satis est It is enough The second distinction in Answer to this Objection is this There is another two-fold Satis First Satis ad perfectionem Secondly Satis ad acceptationem First enough In reference to perfection And Secondly enough In reference to acceptation As to the former Nunquam satis est we can never arrive enough as to perfection Our Saviour hath set us a Coppy that we can never come neer Mat 6. Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Alas our highest perfection is to acknowledge our imperfection and the best of us all when we have done our best to acknowledge We are unprofitable servants To confess with the Centurion Domine non sum dignus O Lord I am not worthy the least of thy mercies and with the Publican to pray Lord be mercifull to me a sinner so that if we look at perfection Nunquam satis est we shall never arrive to that degree or height of obedience as to say Nunc satis est It is now enough But if we look at acceptation blessed be God there is a Satis whereunto the Saints and servants of Almighty God may and doe arrive even in this life through the mercy of God and the indulgence of our Heavenly Father which where he sees a willing mind accepts of the will for the deed and of what we can doe instead of what we should doe which accepts according that a man hath and not according to that he hath not And so this rubb being removed we pass to the third Inference which is this That thus to have so done the will of God will be our greatest comfort in an evill day when we shall stand in most need of it Hezekiah found it so when the Message came to him by the Prophet Isay from the Lord That he should set his house in order for he must dye O Lord remember I have walked before thee with an upright and a perfect heart and have done that which was good in thy sight Isay 38.1 3. Nehemiah found it so who having done worthily for the people of God in obteining Commission from the King of Persia for the redeeming of the Jews out of the Babylonish Captivity and building the Walls of Jerusalem often comforts himselfe with the remembrance of it Nehemiah 13.14 Remember me O my God in this and blot not out the kindness that I have shewed to thy house And verse the 22. Remember me O my God concerning this also and pardon me according to thy great mercy And again verse 31. Remember me O my God in goodness Indeed he needed not have put God in mind to remember him the Lord would have remembred him and his kindness shewed to his people though he should forget it God is not unfaithfull that he should forget the labour and love shewed unto his Saints We see in Matthew 25 how he did remember it when they had forgotten it that shewed it ver 42.43 When I was hungry you gave me to eate when I was thirsty you gave me to drink when I was naked you cloathed me sick and in prison you visited me and ministred unto me this they had forgotten and therefore asked Lord when saw we thee hungrty or thirsty or naked or sick and in prison and ministred unto thee he remembred it when they had forgotten it and doth not onely remember it but reward it too and now they finde the comfort of it With such a remembrance doth Saint Paul comforts himselfe 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is layd up for me a crowne of righteousness He was not afraid to sing out his Cupio dissolvi I desire to be dissolved Nor our Prophet in the Text to make it his suite to the Lord To take away his soule when he remembred how zealous he had been for the Lord God of Hosts while he was in the body The very Heathens were sensible of this and it was a great incitement to them to justice and honesty and all morall vertue Conscientia benè acta vitae multorumque benefactorum recordatio jucundissima est The Conscience of a life well spent and the remembrance of much good done in his life time O what a Cordiall it is to an old man a dying man And so is the contrary the remembrance of a life ill spent and of much evill done in a mans life time as great a corrasive at such a time Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my youth saith Jâ—b cap. 12.25 and he none of the worst of men Beloved there will come a time when Conscience awakened and enlightened will be serious with us in calling us to account for things done in our life time how we have spent our life our time and our Talents what good we have done with them ever since we came into the world And what a sad account is this when a man can give no better account to God nor his own Conscience but thus That he hath lived upon earth forty or fifty or sixty or seventy years or more to doe nothing but eate and drink and sleep and play or worse and spent his life Aut nihil agendo in doing nothing Aut aliud agendo in doing things impertinent which is as good as nothing Aut malè agendo or in doing evill which is worse then nothing and now is going out of the world before ever he hath thought of his errand wherefore he came into it If this be not to be an unprofitable servant what is and what his doome is we have heard and may reade Matthew 25. Beloved Let this Meditation teach us wisedom so to lay out our selves while we live in this world so to improve our time and our Talents as that we may be able to give some account of them to God and to our own Consciences so to live that we need not be afraid to dye to be doing some good here in our life time the remembrance whereof may yeeld us comfort in our sickness and hope in our death so to lay out our selves in this world that we may have somewhat to take to in the other world when we shall leave this and all that we have in it and so shall we be great gainers by the change And so we have done with this third Inference also deduc'd out of the Prophets third Satis est It is enough spoken in reference to what he had done Satis feci I
true dost thou not Judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth And long white robes were given to every one and it was said unto them that they should rest for a little season untill their fellow servants and their brethren that should be killed even as they were were fulfilled This Scripture makes for our purpose all along For first Who are they that here complain the Text sayes They were Martyrs and those are Saints of the first lift and if their souls were not received into the fulness of joy and happiness at their dissolution what souls are But that they were not it appears First By their complaint How Long Lord how long Secondly By the answer given unto them perswading still to waite for a season and to possess their souls with patience til the rest of the number of their brethren were accomplished without whom they could not be made perfect and that could not be till the Resurrection and the Generall Judgement at the great day Aquinas doth excellently describe Summum bonum or the highest felicity to be Quies Mentis or Acquiescentia Mentis in ultimo fine the rest or acquiescence of the mind in the last end beyond which nothing can be desired to make it more happy But those souls which yet cry How long Lord how long doe declare That they have not yet attained their ultimate end and therefore they doe not perfectly acquiesce but are in expectation of a farther degree of fuller happiness yet to be given unto them And thus I have made good this Proposition in both the Parts That the souls separated from the body by Death are not in the same state from the time of their separation to the time of their re-union again at the day of Judgement that they shall be in after that day to all eternity But then me thinks I heare you ask me In what state are they then during that time Where are they Or what becomes of them And to this Quaerie I shall endeavour to satisfie you too and that Ad partes to both the parts of it both as it concerns the souls of the just and the souls of the unjust and wicked men And first as to the souls of wicked men If you ask me where or in what state they are I answer They are in the same state and in the same places that the evill Angells are in and what that was you heard even now out of Jude 6. they are secured in prison they are with them reserved in chains unto the judgement of the great day For proofe of this take these two Scriptures the first in 1 Pet. 3.19 The second in Luke 12.20 In the first St. Peter speaking of the death of Christ saith thus ver 18. Christ also suffered for sinners the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God who was put to death as concerning the flesh but was quickned in the Spirit By which spirit also he went and Preach't to the spirits in prison v. 19. If ye ask What spirits he tells you ver 20. Those spirits which in time past were disobedient In what time In the times of Noah and before the Flood for so it followeth When once the long suffering of God abode in the dayes of Noah while the Ark was preparing wherein few that is eight persons were saved from perishing in the waters There you have St. Peter plainly interpreting himselfe that the spirits here mentioned are the spirits of the sinners of the old world which perished in the Flood but their spirits perished not neither were they presently sent to the Lake of everlasting Burnings but they are secured in Prison as the evill Angels are and so reserved unto the Judgement of the great day That place in St Luke speaks the same thing where the Voyce is heard speaking to the secure Epicure singing a requiem to his own soule Soule take thine ease eate drink and be merry thou hast goods layd up for many years Alas he dreams of many years when he hath not many hours to live Stulte hac nocte Thou foole this night shall they fetch away thy soule then whose shall these things be Nay Whose shalt thou be This night shall they fetch away thy soule Which they The evill Angels When good men dye the good Angells are ready to receive their souls as they did the soule of Lazarus Luke 16. and carry them into Abraham's bosome But when wicked men dye the evill Angells fetch away their souls Thou foole this night shall they fetch away thy soule And whither think you were they to carry it but to their own Quarters to those Prisons in which themselves are secur'd as in chains unto the judgement of the great day But then here ariseth another Question What those Prisons are Or Where it is that they are secured unto that day And to this I Answer There are three vast large and spacious Prisons in which the evill Angells are secured and with them the souls of wicked men unto the Judgement of the great day And they are 1. The Aire 2. The Earth 3. The Sea First The Aire with all the severall Regions of it into which the Apostate Angells were banished When for their rebellion against their Creator they were expell'd out of Heaven For this see St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians cap. 6.12 You wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and spirituall wickednesses in high places And what or who are those spirituall wickednesses but those evill spirits And what are those high places but the Regions of the Aire And therfore is the Principall of the Devills called The Prince that ruleth in the Aire for even amongst them there is Order and subordination We reade of a Prince among Devills Ephes 2.2 The second of those Prisons is The Earth and therein first The vast and howling Wildernesses and Places uninhabited where no foot doth tread but where Ostriches doe dwell where Ziim doth boade and the Satyres dance Secondly The vast caverns and concavities within the earth amongst which the hollow mountains of Aetna Vesuuius and in Ireland that hollow vault called Saint Patriarchs Purgatory famous in story But in America many such and more evident dens of Daemons But above all these the vast hollowness in the very heart and Center of the Earth for who knows what vast and spatious receptacles there may be for such spirits It is not unreasonable nor against any Article of Faith or of Scripture to conceive That there is in the very heart and Center of the Earth such a vast hollowness both for a fit receptacle for such spirits and by which that vast and weighty body is buoy'd up that it sink not any way towards the Circumference on any side though no way supported neither by Poasts nor Pillars What is it that sustains the vast and weighty Ships in the Sea with all the Anchors Ordnance and Fraught in them but the