It was a custom amongst the Persians Plùs quali animo astimatur quà m quid datur Aelianus None might come to their King or Prince without gifts Syneta a poor husbandman meeting in the field Artaxerxes King of Persia presented unto him an handful of water out of the next river and was rewarded by the King with a Persian garment a Cup of gold and a thousand Darices of silver But what had man wherewith to move God to be favourable to him When Alexander gave a whole City to one of his servants and he out of modesty denied it his speech was He did not dispute what was fit for him to receive but what did beseem him to give The like may be said of Christ the great gift of God and effect of his love and favour to mankind Bernard once preaching upon the Incarnation and Nativity of our Saviour Christ said The shortness of the time constrained him to shorten his Sermon And let none quoth he wonder if my words be short seeing on this day God the Father hath abbreviated his own Word for whereas it filled heaven and earth as the Prophet speaks it was on this day so short that it was laid in a manger Christ easeth us of a threefold burthen 1. Affliction 2. The Law 3. Sin Which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear x Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift 2 Cor. 9.15 But there are also other gifts of God which are mainly of two sorts Dona 1. Aedificantia 2. Sanctificantia The former wicked men may enjoy the Saints have only the latter Paracelsus called the vertue of the Weapon-salve Donum Dei so are the Graces rather of his Spirit There is in Grace 1. Vita originalis habitualis which is from death of sin 2. Vita actualis renovata which is quickning from deadness Again Grace is 1. Inchoata incompleta 2. Perfecta completa consummata Philosophers and Divines say Justa aâ—eudo sumus justi There is an Esse naturale by union of soul and body And an Esse spirituale by union of the soul and Christ The habits of the former Vertues are got by frequent acts but Grace by Divine infusion Grace coming into the soul of man Pembl vind Grat. pag. 7. like Light into the air which before dark is in all parts at once illuminated or as Heat into cold water that spreads it self through the whole substance or as the Soul into the body of Lazarus or the Shunamites child not by degrees but all at once infused and giving life to every part So is our New man born at once though he grow by degrees that is the soul in conversion is at once re-invested with the Image of God in all its faculties so that though the actions of Grace do not presently appear in each one yet the habit the seed the root of all Divine virtues is firmly reimplanted in them and by the strength of this grace given they are constantly disposed to all sanctified operations Well said the Roman Theodosius That living men die is usual and natural But that dead men live again by repentance and grace is the mighty work of God alone Gregory the Great seeing the Merchants of Rome setting forth many beautiful British Boyes to sale sighed and said Alas for grief that such fair faces should be under the power of the Prince of darkness and such beautiful bodies should have their souls void of grace The body is better than food the soul than the body grace than the soul and only Christ than grace Whoso carries this Moli or Herb-of-grace Vlysses-like frustrates all charms Without grace Trees excell us in length of life Beasts in strength and Devils in knowledge Martial reports of a Fly that by a drop of Amber falling upon it grew in such request that a great sum of money was bidden for it so grace makes us esteemed of God Act. Mon. William Tims convented before Bishop Bonner Tims said the Bishop thou hast a good fresh spirit it were well if thou hadst learning to thy spirit Yea my Lord said Tims and it were well also that as you be learned men so ye had a good spirit to your learning A sinner wants grace Non quia Deus non dat sed quia homo non accipit Whereupon it follows in a Schoolmans inference That Gods not giving is not the cause of a sinners not receiving but rather his not receiving is the cause of Gods not giving Which made Ambrose count a sinner worse than a serpent Serpens aliis infundit venenum injustus sibi If thou begin 1 To hate and fly sin 2 If thou feelest thou art displeased with thine infirmities and corruptions 3 If having offended God thou feelest a grief and sorrow for it 4 If thou desirest to abstain from all appearance of evil 5. If thou avoidest the occasion 6 If thou travailest to use thy endeavour 7. If thou prayest to God to give the grace These are so many testimonies and pledges of Grace and the Spirits ruling within thee Furthermore if there be any life in the body at the heart it will beat at the mouth it will breath at the pulse it will be felt So where there is the life of Grace in any Bish Andrews it will appear to himselfe by his good thoughts and holy desires which he hath in his heart and it will appear to others by the gracious words that proceed from his lips and from the good works that proceed from his hands And if it cannot be perceived by any or all these waies then certainly there is no life of Grace in a man It is a good thing that the heart be established with Grace Heb. 13.9 Corruption Corruptio in Physicis opponitur generationi Ames Sicut igitur in generatione forma perfectio rei in generatur Sic in corruptione eadem forma et perfectio de perditur Forma autem et perfectio hominis quae moralis est et spiritualis consistit in conformitate debità ad imaginem voluntatem Dei ad quam in creatione primâ fuimus generati invocatione sumus regenerati Mutatio igitur ab isthâc perfectione ad peccati deformitatem et confusionem rectè ac propriè dicitur corruptio We must distinguish saith Bernard inter morbum mentis et morsum Serpentis inter malum innatum malum seminatum Sathans suggestions and our own corruptions We must with the man in the Gospel cast off our cloak and run after Christ and if we approach to heaven with Moses take off our shoes viz our filthy lusts because the lighter the swifter But this must be in the strength of God Austin striving against corruptions in his own strength heard a voyce In te stas et non stas This Corruption of nature hath a regency and dominion in wicked men and a residency and dwelling in the best and will have Being like a
holds of Sat an erected in the hearts of sinful men disperseth all chaffy cogitations of wickedness and filleth every corner of the soul with heavenly inspiration with transporting thoughts and meditations of an higher than an earthly nature and as fire it inflames the heart with the love of God whence proceeds zeal of Gods glory that fire of heaven and a fixt resolution as in Martyrs to suffer fire and fuggot for the profession of his name By reason or the working thus of his mighty power the Scripture stiles him by the name of the power of the most high Eâ— operante creabatur homo eo operante recreatur As by his working power man was created by the same renewed and born again As by his power he gave life Luk. 1. so he gives newness of life by his power Spiritus est qui vivificat it is the Spirit that quickens us before dead in sins and trespasses He is called a spirit 3. Because he is breathed from the Father and the Son that is he is that person by whom the Father and the Son do immediately work heavenly motions and saving graces in the hearts of the elect Spiritus à spirando wherefore when Christ breathed on his Disciples he said unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost Job 20.22 These I conceive to be the reasons why the third person in Trinity is called a Spirit Now must I shew the reasons why he is called the Spirit of the Son they as I Imagine are these First because he proceeds from the Son by an eternal procession and intelligible emanation the essence of the Son is communicated to him hence coeternal coessential consubâ—antial with the Son he is called the Spirit of Christ Contra Arianos Rom. 8.9 not as one saith by way of allenation nor by way of multiplication of the divine essence which can be but one but by communcating the very same numericall essence wherein the Father and the Son subsist unto him in an incomprehensible manner whence he is term'd also the Spirit of the Father Galat. 3. for the essence of the Father is the essence of the Son and the essence of them both the essence of the Spirit he proceeds from both not simply as from two persons but in that they are one in essence not more principally from the Father lesse principally from the Son as Lombard and the schoolmen of this age affirm but from the person of the Father and the son in the unity of essence without any such distinction for upon the admission of this distinction we may justly infer an inequality of the persons of the Deity a thing without blasphemy not to be admitted the Spirit of holyness equally proceeds from both as from one beginning against the definition of the Greek Church but non voluntate sed natura seu necessitate naturae licet secundum voluntat is modum not by the act of the will but by the act of nature or by the necessity of nature according to the manner of the wills working which I cannot conceive in other terms than these that is God willing it He is called the Spirit of the Son 2. Because he is in the Son and the Son in him as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son to wit by their eternal essence And besides this the Spirit dwelt in him in the dayes of his flesh inriching his humane nature with all fulness of grace And at his baptisme the heavens opening Mat. 3.16 John saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him He is called the Spirit of the Son 3. Because the Son sends him to seal our adoption to us Joh. 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testify of me He sends that which is his and gives it too Joh. 20.22 receive ye the Holy Ghost And not onely the Son but the Father also sends him but in the Sons name whom the Father will send in my name saith Christ Joh. 14.26 Which shall testify of me Royard in Joh. 14. saith he Joh. 18.26 the Father sends him in his Sons name that is saith Royard to the glory of his name in which respect he is term'd the Spirit of the Son He is called the Spirit of the Son 4. Because he receives the wisdom and knowledge of the Son who is the wisdom of the Father and reveals it unto us He guides us into all truth Joh. 16.13 for as it followeth he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he shall shew you things to come Verse 4. He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Verse 15. All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you All saving knowledge and divine graces coming from the Son in whom the hidden treasures of pure wisdom do rest are confer'd upon us the sons of God by adoption by the Spirit of the Son of God by eternal generation From which discourse may be deduced three conclusions 1. That this Spirit of the Son is a Person he proceeds from the Father and the Son not as an accident but as a Person It was the grosse conceit of some heretical mistaken spirits erroneous in their judgments that this Spirit of the Son is only a motion or quality wrought by God in the hearts of his children or some divine inspiration infused from above by divine grace into the soules of them whom God had chosen out of the world to be more eminent than others Those conceits may seem plausible to corrupted reason not discerning the things of God which are spiritually discerned yet they contradict that which by Infallible consequence may be deducted out of the sacred truths of Gods word and right reason Laying therefore these two Gods word and right reason as two sure foundations and uncontrolable Principles which may justly sway our judgments I will presse the truth of this conclusion against all opposites The Spirit of the Son is a person Because he appeared in a visible shape The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon Christ and he appeared like cloven tongues of fire and sate upon each of the disciples and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance What motion what quality what inspiration can appear in such or any visible similitudes or bodily shapes or give utterance to men He is a person because called God When Peter taâ—t Ananiâ—s of his double dealing he told him he had lyed to the Holy Ghost and in lying to the Holy Ghost Act. 5. thou hast said he to him not lyed unto men but unto God The Essence of God is Tota in qualibet personâ Deitatis whole
Day As Night is the time of the Suns absence from our Hemisphere so Day is the time of the Suns presence therein They both contain one whole revolution of the Suns motion to the same point of the Meridian in the twenty four hours Day is Natural Artificial The former consisteth of twenty four houres which is measured most usually Exod. 12.29 with Numb 3.13 from the Sun-rising to the Sun-rising or from the Sun-setting to the Sun-setting The latter is from Morning till Night which is the time of light measured out to twelve houres which were not more nor fewer but longer or shorter according to the different proportion of the Days in Summer and Winter which is measured from the Sun-rising to the Sun-setting Joh. 11.9 Mat. 20. Which division was in use both with the Jews and Romans The Romans divided their Day into six parts viz. Godw. Antiq. 1. Diluculum The break of day 2. Mane The full morning 3. Ad meridiem The forenoon 4. Meridies quasi medidies Mid-day or quasi merus dies perfect day Noon 5. Demeridie Afternoon 6. Solis occasus Sun-set Day hath its name in Hebrew from the noise and hurry that is therein In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle or tâ—me because it is appointed for tame creatures Or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire because it is to be desired In Latine Dies à Deo Zanch. as a divine thing vel à Dio id est Coelo Sole vel à dividendo quod disjungat lucem à tenebris Evening separates by darkness Morning by light So the one disjoyns day from night the other night from day In this vicissitude of Light and Darkness much of Gods wisdom and goodness is to be seen And we ought not to turn the day into night nor night into day without some very special and urgent occasion And God called the light Day Day unto day uttereth speech Gen. 1.5 Psal 19.2 Ps 119.164 and night unto night sheweth knowledge Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments Of the Visible Heavens HEaven is a building of three stories Triplex est coelum cërium sidercum ac aliud his superius invisibile divinum Dam. 1.2 de Orthodox fide The first is the Air and the Clouds up to the Moon The second reacheth all the Planets and Stars The third is called the Heaven of Heavens the place of Gods most glorious residence who filleth Heaven and Earth The Apostle reduceth them to Visible Invisible Col. 1.16 The Visible Heavens are two Starry Airy The Starry Heaven is that vast expanse region where the Stars have their motion Here are the Sun and the Moon those great lights the infinite number of Stars of unconceivable magnitude and motion which we see and we see not This according to the doctrine of Astronomers is distinguished into several Orbs and Spheres in seven of which seven special Stars are said to move and all the rest to be fixed in the eighth The Apostle Jude seems to give a hint of those Planetical Orbs Jud. v. 13. where he justly reproacheth unsetled spirits by the name of wandring stars or planets to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Of this speaks Moses calling it The firmament of the heaven Gen. 1.17 Josh 10.13 Psal 8.3 And in Joshua's time the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven And David When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars whiâ—â— thou hast ordained And again Psal 19.1 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work The Airy heaven is the Air with all her regions reaching up to the Moon herein are Winds Clouds Meteors c. This is called by Job Job 26.7 Super mane quod juxta communâ—tà opinionem intelligi debet Vulgo enim totum spatium à terra â—sque ad coelum vacaun pâ—tatur quum plenum aëre sit Gen. 8.2 Gen. 19.24 Psal 8.8 Mat. 6.26 the empty place He stretcheth out the north over the empty place Not that the Air is indeed empty there is no vacuity no empty place in nature Nature will put it self into strange courses to avoid a vacuity Water will ascend to avoid vacuity and it will not descend to avoid vacuity But though the Air be not empty or void taking emptiness strictly and Philosophically for every place hath its filling yet as emptiness is taken largely and vulgarly so the Air may be called an empty place For as when we come into a room where there is no artificial furniture we say it is an empty room so the space between us and the Heavens in a vulgar sense is an empty plâ—ce Of this speaks Scripture when it sâ—th The windows of heaven the rain from heaven The Lord rained brimstone and fire out of heaven It is very probable from the upper region of the air where Meteors be So the birds of the air are called the fowls of heaven Of the Invisible Heavens The Invisible Heaven Eph. 4.10 is that place whither Christ ascended far above all aspectable Heavens Called the Third Heaven the seat of the blessed Saints of the elect Angels and happy souls which are dead in the Lord also Abrahams bosom Yet this is not the place of Gods Essence or infinite Substance 1 King 8.27 for so the Heaven of heavens is not able to contain him But the place of his presence and glory not to consine or limit his glory in but wherein he will make it appear most glorious as a Prince will have some room to shew his state and magnificence in This Heaven is not every where as the Lutherans and some others falsly assert 1. Because then it is no longer Gods seat but God himself For whatsoever is Omnipresent Jer. 23.24 must needs be God as himself proveth Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord 2. The Scripture speaketh of it as a limited and confined place where Gods glory shineth more than in any other place where Christ promiseth the Thief to be with him in Paradise he denieth him to be in hell or earth Here 's a ground of comfort That such a place is made for our rest and habitation wherein to enjoy fully the blessed and glorious presence of God Let us contemn these houses of clay in comparison and desirously exchange this temporal for an eternal and blessed condition 1. Why should we prefer such base Cottages before so Princely a Court Why should we strive for Earth and lose the third Heaven Why should we grieve to leave a Prison for the Palace of God himself 2. Christ is there to be with whom is best of all Yea let us learn contentation with our present estate whatever it is and hear afflictions patiently We are now unknown in a strange countrey but we shall come home to our own inheritance
where we shall be known and well entertained Paul pronounceth his afflictions light when he weighed them with that weight of Glory and looked on things not seen And let us use the means and hold the way to this blessed place 1. Promoting Gods glory 2. Seeking to please him in all things 3. Beginning heaven upon earth 4. Studying sanctification decking our selves with grace and getting the Wedding-garment for that wedding-Wedding-day for without Holiness none shall see God 1 King 8.27 2 Cor. 11.12 Isa 63.15 Luk. 16.22 Heb. 11.10 Joh. 14.2 2 Cor. 5.1 in that Presence-chamber of his Glory Scripture calls this place The Heaven of heavens The third heaven The habitation of Gods holiness and of his glory Abrahams bosâ—me A city which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God Christs Fathers house in which are many mansions A building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heaven The new Jerusalem The Paradise of God An holy place c. De Angelis ANgels were created it is conceived in the beginning Psal 33.6 when the Heavens were for saith the Psalmist By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth And it is likely before Man Job 38.4 7. by those words Where wast thou when the Morning-stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Angels are Spirits of Heaven resembling their Creator as children do their father both in their substance which is incorporeal and in their excellent properties Life and immortality excellency blessedness and glory They are called 1. Spirits Nomen essentiae 2. Angels Nomen officii For their number they are said to be Thousands and Ten thousand thousands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 7.10 Myriads Heb. 12.22 which because of the vastness of the number we render innumerable They are innumerable to us so are our sins the hairs of our heads the sands of the sea-shore the stars in the firmament not to God The supposed Dionysius the Senator of Athens Niceph. 1.2 cap. 20. ordered the Celestial Hierarchy thus That the first degree is given to the Angels of Love termed Seraphim The second to the Angels of Light termed Cherubim The third and so the following degrees to Thrones Principalities and the rest which are all Angels of power and ministration So that upon this account the Angels of knowledge and illumination are placed before the Angels of office and domination I think such curious brains put all out of order Augustine is of a more modest spirit Quomodo se babeat beatissima illa ac superna Civitas quid inter se distent quatuor illa vocabula Col. 1.16 dicant qui possunt Enchyâ— ad Laurent c. 58. si tamen possunt probare quod dâ—cant Ego me isthaec ignorare consiteor Let the like humility be imitated of us all Let no man presume to understand above that which is written And there their several degrees and dignities are only hinted as well among themselves as in regard of the inferior world and the government thereof The wisdom and knowledge of these Spirits is admirable Aug. Cognitiâ— concâ—eata acquisita Schoolmen The Devils know much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more do the good Angels They have matutinam vespertinam scientiam Their morning-knowledge they have by creation and a continual contemplation of God their evening-knowledge they have by observation from the creatures and a diligent inspection into the Church Their power also is as wonderful Their office is to minister perpetually to God in obeying his will unto Christ as the Head of the Church and are also sent out to minister for the good and salvation of the Saints for Christs sake Not that God needeth them as Princes need the counsel and aid of their subjects But he maketh use of their service about us 1. For the honour of his Majesty and comfort of our infirmity 2. To make out his love unto us by employing such noble creatures for our good 3. To make and maintain love and correspondency between us and Angels till we our selves come to be like unto them The truth is though they excell in strength yet do they Gods commandments Luk. 20.36 hearkening to the voice of his word which they perform chearfully faithfully diligently speedily and constantly ever standing before the face of our heavenly Father and rejoycing more in their names of service than of honour of imployment than preferment to be called Angels that is messengers than Principalities Thrones c. accounting it better to do good than to be great to dispense Gods benefits than to enjoy them Let us imitate these good Spirits chiefly 1. In subjecting our selves to Christ as our Lord and King Phil. 2.9 This is their bowing of the knee and ours too 2. In doing the will of God alway chearfully as they do and therefore are said to have wings thus we pray Mat. 6.10 Laudant Deum Angeli adorant tremunt tremere dicuntur non metu formidinis l. 2. c. 50. de sacr Altar myster cum sint perfectè beati sed administrationis vel obedientiae affectu saith Innocent 3. Wise 2 Sam. 14.20 Psal 103.20 Heb. 1.14 according to the wisdom of an Angel of God Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his commandments hearkening unto the voice of his word Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Of the Celestial Lights Of the Sun Sol quasi solus vâ—l quia solus ex omnibus sideribus est tantus vil quia quum est exortus obscuratis aliis solus appareat Martinius THe Sun is the Prince of Planets coursing about with incredible swiftness so sweet a creature that Eudoxus the Philosopher professed that he would be content to be burnt up with the heat of it so he might be admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it The Sun is as it were a vessel whereinto the Lord gathered the Light which till then was scattered in the whole body of the heavens This David beheld with admiration not adoration Psal 8. Jer. 44. as those Idolaters that worshipped the Queen of heaven For that was a witty speech of Cyril They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists by night who worshipped the Sun and Atheists by day who worshiped the Moon and Stars And well he might for Chrysostom wondreth at this That whereas all fire naturally ascendeth God hath turned the beams of the Sun toward the earth making the light thereof to stream downwards This is the Lords own work and it ought to be wonderful in our eyes The Sun hath his name in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant as being the servant-general of mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while he shines indifferently upon the evil and the good imparting to both light
but full which as we receive from Antiquity caused a great Philosopher to cry out Suidas in vit Dionys Aut Deus patitur aut patienti compatitur 2. And in the degree being universal as some affirm over all the world or as others which makes it more strange that it was onely in the land of Judea all the world besides enjoying the light of the Sun at that time Which miracle stands opposite to that in Egypt which was plagued with darkness when the Israelites in Goshen enjoyed light whereas then Judea where the Israelites dwelt was covered with darkness the rest of the world enjoying light There remains one more dreadful viz. the Eclipse of Christs most glorious Gospel amongst us that this bright Sun should go down at noon over our heads and our earth be darkened in the clear day Amos 8.9 Pray against that dismal day that it may never be said The glory is departed from our Israel He maketh the morning darkness Amos 4.13 Cap. 5.8 Job 9.7 Non oritur sel tantum est non appareat nam ortus so'is apparitio quaedam est Joel 2.30 31. Cap. 3.15 He turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night He commandeth the Sun and it riseth not Lavater in his Comment upon this place reports That in the year 1585. March 12. such a darkness fell upon the earth that the fowls went to roost at Noon as if it had been Sun-setting and all the common people thought the day of Judgment was come I will shew wonders in the heavens The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood The Sun and the Moon shall be darkned Of the Stars Stella est densior pars orbis ideo lucent astra non coeli quia hi diaphani sunt Magir. Phys rari astra autem densa eoque lucem retinentia reflectentia A Star according to Philosophy is the thicker part of its orb or sphere it is thicker than other parts of the heavens for otherwise it could not hold the light so it could not reflect and send forth the light it could not be a vessel for light or a conveyance for light For Light was created the first day Gen. 1.3 but the Lights were created the fourth day Gen. 1.14 that is certain vessels were created to hold the light All these are placed in the heavens by the special designment of God for the use and good of man Some Mathematicians have taken on them to set down the just number of the Stars saying they are but 2200. in all They are beyond their books too presumptuous to go beyond their limits God can number them all and call them by their name which to man is impossible Abraham was a great Astronomer yet he could never do it Gen. 25.4 De Civ Dei l. 16. And yet Aratus and Eudoxus vainly vaunted saith Aug. that they had cast up the stars and could call them all by their names But that to man it is impossible Aristotle maintaineth against those Astronomers that tell us they are a thousand and some hundreds And the wiser sort of Astrologers have rightly distinguished them into numerable and innumerable as to men For to us they are innumerable as the sand of the Sea is Heb. 11.2 with which they are mentioned The power of God is not only seen in stretching out the Heavens but his excellent skill and infinite wisdom is also displayed in adorning decking and beautifying those Heavens which he hath stretched forth The power and wisdom of God shines in every grass that grows out of the ground yea in every clod of earth much more then in the stars of heaven Especially when such as have skill about the course of Nature do consider 1. The greatness of the Stars it is incredible to ordinary reason such vast bodies shew an infinite power in their constitution 2. The multitude of them A multitude of little sands make a huge body then how great a body do a multitude of great bodies make 3. The swiftness of their motion that these mighty bodies should be carried about every day so far and never tire nor wear 4. The exact order of their motion that innumerable stars should move continually in the heavens and yet not one of them move out of course 5. The efficacious vertue in their influence it is a secret vertue and it is a strong irresistable vertue no power in the creature can stop it Hence a right study of the Heavens and Stars is requisite in them the wonderful works of God are seen and a sober knowledge in Nature may be an advantage unto Grace But for those who are insober this way if their eyes be not blinded with Star-gazing Isa 47.13 14. Gualther I only commend unto them that of Gualther on Zeph. 1.5 Observent ista qui hodie Astrologiam judiciariam profitentur Let those amongst us observe this who profess Judiciary Astrology for these worship the Stars no less than did the Heathens of old calling them by the names of those heathenish deities that ought to be abolished and subjecting to them all events of things yea Man himself as touching all his manners and fortunes which the Scripture affirmeth to depend upon the eternal providence of God alone This is intolerable impiety and they that fall into it shall not escape the just judgment of God Some stars are more excellent of greater vertue and name than others 2 Cor. 15.41 The Apostle gives us this clearly One star differeth from another star in glory God hath made difference and degrees in all creatures in the heavenly as well as earthly As The Pleiades or Seven stars in the end of Aries These joyned together in one Constellation help to bring the Spring Orion a Star that ariseth in the beginning of Winter drawing foul weather after him as with bands so that as the Proverb hath it Winter never rotteth in the air Mazaroth the Southern stars that bring in Summer Arcturus with his sons those Northern stars bringing Autumn with his yearly fruits Hierome Of Arcturus Hierom observeth that semper versatur nunquam mergitur This is most true of Christs Church much tossed never drowned But though Stars differ thus one from another yet they envy not one another Which lessons us to be content Note though God make our names less named in the world than the names of many of our brethren though he trust more talents to or put more light in others than into our selves He made the Stars also Gen. 1.16 Psal 8.3 Gen. 15 5. Heb. 11.12 Psal 147.4 Job 38.31 32. The Stars which thou hast ordained Look now towards heaven and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them So many as the Stars of the sky in multitude He telleth the number of the Stars he calleth them all by their names Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades 〈◊〉 or loose the bands
of Orien Canst thou bring forth Mazaroth in his season Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons Seek him that maketh the Seven stars Amos 5.8 Job 9.9 Psal 136.9 and Orien Which maketh Arcturus Orion and Pleiadâ—s and the chambers of the South The Moon and Stars to rule by night Of a Year After God had created the Lights in the Firmament of the Heaven to divide the Day from the Night Gen. 1.14 He commanded also Let them be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and years The Year is a remarkable standard of time consisting of twelve Moneths about the quartering out of which there have passed especially two distinctions 1. The first in frequent use with Astronomers according to the cardinal intersections of the Zodiack that is the two Aequinoctials and both the Solstitial points desining that time to be the Spring of the Year wherein the Sun doth pass from the Aequinox of Aries to the Solstice of Cancer The time between the Solstice and the Aequinox of Libra Summer From thence unto the Solstice of Capricornus Autumn and from thence unto the Aequinox of Aries again Winter 2. A second division is observed by Hippocrates and most of the ancient Greeks establishing the account of Seasons from usual alterations and sensible mutations in the Aire discovered upon the rising and setting of divers Stars Accounting The Spring FRom the Aequinoctial point of Aries This is properly the pleasant Quarter of the Year being the Emblem of Man in his Youth Of this season the Song of Songs gives a most dainty description far past any of the Poets who yet have shewed themselves very witty that way The Winter is past Cant. 2.11 12 13. the rain is over and gone the flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of birds is come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell The Summer From the rising of the Pleiades or the several stars on the back of Taurus This is properly the hottest season in the Year and the Emblem of Man in his full strength Metaphorically it signifies opportunity or fit time to do things in Prov. 6.8 according to that The Ant provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest Autumn From the rising of Arcturus a Star between the thighs of Bootes This is the proper season of gathering in the fruits of the Earth and the Emblem of Man in a declining condition Of this the Psalmist The time that corn and wine are increased Psal 4.7 Winter From the setting of the Pleiades It is a dead season in which the weather is cold ways foul days short and the air muddy the clouds commonly returning after the rain It resembles Old age It is figuratively taken for the doleful and dismal condition of such as are not effectually called by Christ Omnis illis dies hybernus est It is ever Winter with them no Spring of grace no Sun-shine of sound comfort The Day is thine the Night also is thine Psal 74.16 17. thou hast prepared the Light and the Sun Thou hast set all the borders of the earth thou hast made Summer and Winter Of the Lowest Heavens THe Lowest Heaven is distinguished from the Sky by waters as the Sky is from the Coelum Empyreum by the Primum Mobile This is the Air whereon we breathe and wherein birds flie clouds swim c. Fire Est elementum callidissimum siccissimum levissimum permeans per omnia omnia pervadens It is an Element dreadful painful sudden in eruption active mereiless and devouring It hath a strong stomack what will not Fire digest It will digest stones iron c. nay the sublunary world at last for 1 Pet. 3.10 the Elements shall melt with fervent heat Lightning and Thunder Fulgetrum seu corruscatio est splendor flammae emicantis per totum aerem uno momento transcurrens per intervalla vel cum nullo vel parvo sonitu ortus ex modicà tenuique exhalatione in nube accensa splendor est eminus apparens longéque sparsus Tonitru est sonitus in aëre aut exagitatione vaporis calidi sicci in nube frigida humida propter antiperista sui excitatus aut ex ejusdem vaporis è nube violenter fracta eruptione generatus aut etiam noâ—unquam ex nubium cavarum collisione coortus Tonitru à terrendo Thunder is so terrible that it hath forced from the greatest Atheist an acknowledgment of a Deity Caligula who dared his Jove to a duel yet if it thundred or lightned but a little would be ready to hoodwink himself Alladius King of the Latines striving to imitate the Thunder by an Engine made him justly perished by a Thunderbolt from heaven His house also where he attempted so to do was consumed with fire In Thunder and Lightning there is much of God to be seen and heard these being the harbingers as it were and officers to make room for him and to manifest his power which the Saints may take comfort in and the greatest must acknowledge He hath made a way for the lightning of the thunder Job 28.26 Psal 77.18 Psal 29. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven the lightnings lightned the world the earth trembled and shook The voice of the Lord is upon the waters the God of glory thundereth c. Clouds Nubes est corpus velex copioso vapore è locis humentibus in sublime adscendens vel ex maximè humidis partibus aeris in media aeris regione concretum Breviter est vapor humidus adensatus qui in mèdia aëris regione à frigore circumstante constrictus quasi congelatus pendet Vapores enim in sublime elevati vel maximae humidae aëris partes condensatae quae gemina materia est ex qua nubes generantur constant caliginosum aërem efficiunt vapores autem copiosi ex mari adscendune unde aquae maris sunt velut radices nubium Job 36.30 A Cloud is a thick vapour Illiâ— enim fiunt miracu'a magna Vatab. Haec sunt sanè admiranda tremenda Mer. raised up by the heat of the Sun to the middle region of the Air and there by the cold condensed becomes so thick that it stops and intercepteth the Light so that Clouds and Darkness go together How the Clouds are hanged up even in the Air like Archimedes his Pigeon equally poised with their own weight how they are upheld and why they fall here and there and now and then we may well wonder but know not In these God bottleth up the Rain and there keepeth in by main strength though those vessels are as thin and thinner than the liquor that is contained in them Now that God binds up these heavy Vapours and keeps them in the Clouds as a strong man in a cobweb till brought by the Winds
Conscientia non est contra scientiam sed cum scientia else it is a Chimera of mans own Origen Est correptor paedagogus animae Bernard Est inseparabilis gloria vel confusio uniuscujusque The Schoolmen say It is Applicatio scientiae ad factum seu faciendum Our late Writers Est practicus syllogismus hominem excusans aut accusans I conceive it may be thus defined Conscience is a function of the understanding whereby we apply the general knowledge that is in us to our particular thoughts words and actions For it is not a part of the Will but of the Understanding not of that which we call the orical but of that which is termed practical For as a dead man is no man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So a dead Conscience is no Conscience but nomine tenus Therefore it is in work and action Whereupon the Schoolmen contend that it is neither habitus nor potentia but actus His whole work being to apply the general Knowledge engraven in us by the pen of Nature to our particular thoughts words and actions Bernard hath very well observed four sorts of Consciences Viz. A Conscience that is 1. Good but not quiet 2. Quiet but not good 3. Both good and quiet 4. Neither good nor quiet But Scripture makes mention of sundry sorts of Consciences Viz. There is an erring or blind Conscience Joh. 16.2 As was in them that thought they did God good service when they killed the children of God Such a conscience was in Paul before his conversion for the which he was grieved afterwards Hence it is safe to keep to this Conscience is regula regulata but the Word of God is regula regulans A sleeping Conscience A man knows the will of God yet his Conscience being asleep for a time he lies snorting in the bed of sin So did David in his sin of numbring the people 2 Sam. 24. but his conscience awoke at the length and his heart smote him for it A seared Conscience Such as was in them 1 Tim. 4.2 when men are past feeling and hardned in their sins They are so accustomed to such sins that custom becomes another nature they think those to be no sins These are in the ready way to hell An accusing Conscience Which will never suffer a man to be quiet day nor night This may prove a Tragedy both in the end and in the beginning too and it may end with a Comedy in Gods children It may lead some to hell and for others it may be the way to heaven Mordeat nunc ut moriatur An excusing and clearing Conscience When the books are cleared between God and us And as to this though all commanded duties be good things yet these cannot acquit our Consciences from sin but the onely way to come to a quiet and excusing Conscience is the application of Christs merits to our selves Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 5.1 A man sinneth against knowledge and conscience 1. Interpretative when he might know better 2. When he sinneth against the light of nature 3. Upon a doubting conscience It may be a sin for ought he knows 4. If formerly he knew it though now by error he is drawn aside 5. Especially when it is against checks of conscience either in omission or commission The event of such a one is either 1. He hath a brazen face upon sin as the Philistines when they said These are great gods let us fight more stoutly Or 1 Sam. 4. 2. There is excuse for it Or 3. They despair as Judas when he sought Hell with an halter He hath a good Conscience Qui habet in corde puritatem in ore veritatem in actione rectitudinem This is not amiss yet some think it expresseth not the power of a good Conscience Suspicion is an inseparable companion to an evil conscience But Recta conscientia dulcis nutricula vitae Herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence Act. 24.16 toward God and toward man Of mans Genius The blind Painims held that Genius was the natural God or Angel of every thing place or person And that every man is born with two Genii the one whereof encourageth us to do well the other to do evil So that Genius is a God say they in whose government every man doth live so soon as he is born either because he takes care for our begetting or that he is ingendred with us or that he takes care of us when we are begotten So Genius à gignendo Alst quia in nobis tuitionem habet quamprimum simus geniti I take it to be the Spirit of man Nature it self or delectation moved by nature unde Genio indulgere to give himself to pleasure Or lastly by it I understand the natural inclination of men which God hath divided according to the different affairs of the world and varied them according to the variety of actions to be performed therein Which they who consider not rudely rushing upon professions and ways of life unequal to their natures dishonour not only themselves and their professions but pervert the harmony of the whole world For as there are many great Wits to be condemned who have neglected the increment of Arts and the sedulous pursuit of Knowledge so are there not a few very much to be pitied whose industry being not attended with natural parts they have sweat to little purpose and rolled the stone in vain Which chiefly proceedeth from natural incapacity and genial indisposition at least to those particulars whereunto they apply their endeavours And thus many men engage in undertakings for which their heads were never squared or timbred out Whereas if they went on according to Gods ordination and were every one imployed in points concordant to their natures Professional and Arts would rise up of themselves nor need we a lanthorn to find a man in Athens But want of giving heed unto this is one reason as is by some concluded why though Universities be full of Scholars they are oftentimes empty of Learning Ye know not what manner spirit ye are of Luk. 9.55 De Providentiâ Providentia latinè dicitur à videndo at Hebraicè ut Latinè vox à sensu ad intellectum transfertur Rivet It is continuata quaedam creatio Creation gives esse primè Providence esse porrò T. Hist f. 1390. GOD is said in Scripture to regard Three wayes Secundum 1. Cognitionem 2. Gratiam 3. Judiciuns Ipse quià in Coelo rerum Pelagóque geratur Et Tellure videt totum inquirit in orbem He seeth all things and yet is seen of none As it is said of the Turkish Sultan that he hath a window joining to the Divano where he may hear and see any thing and not be seen GOD is 1. Skilful in Dirigendo a perfect Master 2. Pitiful in Corrigendo Not breaking the bruised reed nor quenching the smoking
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 sâ—â— 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 Joâ—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 outsâ—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 extensionâ—â—â— appetitiâ—s naturalis Spâ—i objectum est boâ—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 Sâ—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 babeâ—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
theft John 8.4 whiles the child of a stranger carries away the goods or lands of the family Besides this sin strikes at the very sinew heart and life of the marriage-knot and dissolves it Clytemnestra Agamemnons wife was a notable Adulteresse But nothing like Messalina who said Se inter diem noctem viginti quinque passam concubitus Adulteri sunt ulcera reipublicae The wide womb of the earth can never find a grave to hide their shame Nebuchadnezzar rosted in the fire Zedekiah and Ahab two false Prophets of Judah because they committed Adultery with their neighbours wives Jer. 29.22 23. The Egyptians used to cut off the nose of the Adulteresse the Prophet alluâ—es to this Ezek 23.25 The Athenians Lacedemonians and Romans were very severe against this sin as Plutarch reporteth The old French and Saxons also as Tacitus tels us The Law of God was strict this way and where men have failed to punish God hath done it remarkably In Anno 1583. in London two Citizens committing Adultery on the Lords day were struck dead with fire from heaven in the very act of uncleannesse their bodies being left dead in the place half burnt up sending out a most loathsome savour for a spectacle of Gods controversie against Adultery and Sabbath-breaking God did it effectually on Charles 2. King of Navar who was much addicted to this sin which so wasted his spirits that in his old age he fell into a Lethargy To comfort his benumbed joynts he was bound and sewed up in a sheet sleeped in boiling Aquavitae The Surgeon having made an end of sewing him and wanting a knife to cut off his thread took a wax candle that stood lighted by him But the flame running down by the thread caught hold on the sheet which according to the nature of the Aquavitae burned with that vehemencie that the miserable King ended his dayes in the fire Master Cleaver reports of one that he knew who had committed the act of uncleannesse and in the horror of conscience he hang'd himself But before he wrote in a paper and left in a place to this effect Indeed I acknowledge it sâ—id he to be utterly unlawful for a man to kill himself But I am bound to act the Magistrates part because the punishment of this sin is death This act was not to be justified but it shews what a controversie God hath with Adulterers and what a deep gash that sin makes in the conscience Adultery is 1. Mental 2. Actual What need therefore with Job to make a Covenant with our eyes Lusting is oft the fruit of looking as in Joseph's Mistresse who set her eye upon Joseph and David who saw Bathsheba bathing Lust is quick sighted Sampsons eyes were the first offenders that betrayed him to lust therefore are they first pulled out For this is an heinous crime yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges Job 31.11 Heb. 23.4 Adulterers God will judge 3. Incest In a strict acceptation it signifieth that kind of naughtinesse which is committed between two near of kin Take heed of intemperance Lot in a drunken pang forgets he is father and does that that heaven and earth are afterwards ashamed of Est Venus in venis ignis in igne furit The text saith he neither perceived when either of them lay down Gen. 19.33 nor when they arose Indeed drunkennesse drowns both the understanding sense and conscience for surely he would never have done that abominable act if he had not been overcome with wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might make him forget what was become of his wife and so cause him not to doubt but that she was in his bed Yet it is observed there is a tittle extraordinary in the Hebrew to note that it is a thing incredible Ne nos abeamus in securitatem Coire quempiam necientem Cajetan and Pererius conclude it possible and give reasons for it Calvin saith best that it was not so much his wine as a spirit of slumber sent upon him from God for a scourge of his intemperance Luther adds that we may watch against security It is well observed by our Divines Gen. 19.8 that Lot offended against the chastity of both his daughters in offering them up unto the Sodomites and they now conspire against his chastity so is he punished in the same kind wherein he offended which was just as from God though evil in them God permits him to fall most horribly in the solitary mountain whom the wickednesse of Sodom could not overcome It is ordinary with the Pope to dispence with incestuous marriage Instance in Philip 3. Sands in his Survey of Spain of whom it is said that he might call the Arch-Duke Albert both Brother Cousin Nephew and Son for all this was he unto him either by blood or affinity Being Uncle to himself Cousin-German to his Father Husband to his Sister and Father to his Wife And all by Papal dispensation God suffers such commixtions to take effect whiles he makes more lawful conjunctions fruitless for the greater shame of the fact Abhorr'd filthiness 1 Cor. 5.1 not so much as to be named without detestation 4. Sodomy This soul sin is so called from the men of Sodom It is an abuse of either sex against nature Such may be men in shape but are worse than beasts in their lusts Two ways a thing may be said to be against the nature of man 1. In regard of the constitutive difference of man which is Reason and so all sin is against nature 2. In regard of the Genus of man which is Animal a living creature Now the sin here spoken of is also against mans nature in this last respect For such filthiness is not sound amongst the beasts for God hath ordained that the male and female should couple together and not the female and female nor male and male But in this horrible manner did the Sodomites Romans and other of the Gentiles It is a sin saith Aristotle that is repugnant not only to nature in her greatest depravation but which fighteth with the nature of beasts But it is cleer that when God for sakes men they are ready to do things which the very beasts abhor At this day in the Levant Blunts Voyage Sodomy is held no sin The Turkish Basha's have many wives but which is far more abominable more Catamites This is a sin so against nature that Children natures end and Posterity are utterly lost by it God gave them up to vile affections Rom. 1.26 27. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one towards another men with men working that which is unseemly Adde unto these that of Moses Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death Exod. 22.19 Father Latimer B. of Worcester gave Henry the 8. a
act of the practical understanding whereby it reflects and stayes upon its own intentions and comparing them with the rule it proceeds to lay a command upon the will and affections to put them in execution Without this though a man had all possible knowledge lockt up in his brain and breast it would be but like fire in a flint-stone insensible and unprofitable till beaten out by sound consideration But when consideration hath soundly inlightned a mans mind informed his judgment and determined his will according to rule then it must needs bring forth sound resolutions purposes and practices Solomon got much of his wisedome by this means as appeareth by his Ecclesiastes which some have not unfitly called Solomons Soliloquy Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still Psal 4.4 Study A wise mans tongue runs not before his wit but he weighs his words before he utters them He dippeth his words in his mind as Plutarch saith Phocian did ere men see what colour they are of Such a one was Melanchton who when some hard question was propounded to him would take three dayes deliberation to answer it In some that is verefied Studium partium maxima parâ— studiorum Above all let us study to go to Heaven 1. We have a place to study in enter often into the closet of our own hearts examine whether we be in regia via or not that leadeth to heaven 2. We have a book to study on the book of books the sacred book of holy Scriptures 3. We have a light to study by Gods Spirit who must enlighten our eyes that we may see the wonders of Gods lawes 4. And we have a time to study in from infancy to old age from the cradle to the grave the terme of our life so far as is possible In which study we must use all diligence 2 Pet. 1.10 Aquinas at Lewis the French Kings table was so deep in his study when others were chatting that he forgate himself and smiting upon the table said Jam contra Minichaeos conclusum est When Rainolds friends desired him he would not perdere substantiam propter accidentia his answer was Nec propter vitam vivendi perdere causas One calls Scaliger Portentosi ingenii juvenem of a stupendious wit And it is said of Willet that when he preached in Cambridge he shewed himself to be the man Quem rus non infuscavit Study to shew thy self approved unto God 2 Tim. 2.15 Read Pro. 15.28 Eccl. 12.12 Heb. 4.11 c. Soliloquy A wise man can never want with whom to discourse though he be alone It s good to have our eyes in our head with Solomons wise man yea to have our eyes like the windowes in Solomons Temple broad inward But mens minds are naturally as ill set as their eyes they turn neither of them inward Lamiae-like they are sharp-sighted abroad to discern other mens faults but mole-like blind at home to take notice of their own Corrupt nature shews no sin Men deal with their souls as some do with their bodies who when their beauty is decayed they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses and from others by painting So their sins from themselves by false-glasses and from others by excuses A good mans businesse lyeth much within doors and he taketh the fittest time for the better dispatch of it when he is in secret putting his hand into his bosom and recoiling upon his own heart by self-reflection But as it is a signe that there are great distempers in that family where husband and wife go divers days together and speak not the one to the other So in that soul that flieth from it self and can go long without self-examination Fanne your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea fanne your selves Zeph. 2.1 So Tremel Excutite vos iterumque excutite Read 2 Cor. 13.5 Lam. 3.4 Psal 4.4 Psal 77.6 Confession There is no way to purge the sick soul but upwards Confessio peccati ost vomitus sordium animae But to shew how unwilling men are to confess their sins they are apt saith one to decline sin through every case as In Nominativo per superbiam striving to get them a name In Genitivo per luxuriam In Dativo per symoniam In Accusativo per detractationem In Vocativo per adulationem And in Ablativo per rapinam But yet they will not confesse so much in any case Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei. Homo agnoscit Deus ignoscit Man no sooner confesseth the debt but God crosseth the book Certainly Bellarmine with reverence to his learning missed the cusheon wretchedly when he could not find in all the book of God any Promise made to confession of sin to God If we confesse our sins 1 John 1 9. God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Read 2 Sam. 12.13 Prov. 28.13 Psal 32.5 Contrition The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Great comfort to a soul that is at the next door to despair This comforted Bernard on his death-bed he died with this sentence in his mouth And Austin caused it to be written on the wall over against the bed where he lay sick and died Happy when a man with those converts Act. 2. is so pricked and pierced that he feels the nails wherewith he hath crucified Christ sticking fast in his own heart as so many sharp daggers or stings of Scorpions But it is the Spirit that convinceth of sin These waters flow not till his wind bloweth Neither can a sigh for sin be breathed out untill he imbreath it into us the eye is the instrument both of sight and sorrow What the eye never sees the heart neveâ— ruâ—s Sight of sinne must precede sorrow for sin Let us therefore get our eyes anointed with this eye-salve I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem Zech. 12.10 the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his onely son and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first-born Teares All tears are not pleasing to God There be 1. Lachrymae rancoris indignationis such were the tears of Esau he wept more upon stomack being vexed in his mind that he should be thus defrauded by his brother than for any grief for sin More for the loss than the fault 2. Lachrymae Simulationis such are Crocodiles tears Vt flâ—rent oculos erudiere suos Ovid. and as they say some womens tears that have them at command 3. Lachrymae compunctionis being pricked with sorrow for sin These be good tears which the Angels in heaven rejoyce at Some report of Mary Magdalen that after our Saviours resurrection Adeò ut lachrymae cutem genarum exederint she
Nonne illa omnia fumus ventus the like may be said of all worldly things Sin hath hurled confusion over the world and brought a vanity on the creature This our first parents found and therefore named their second son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conflitutus firmus fixus iâ— hâc vita Trem. Annot. Abel or Vanity And David comes after and confirmes it Psal 144.4 Man is like to vanity yea Omnis Adam est totus Abel every man when he is best underlaid or setled upon his best bottome is altogether vanity When God cursed the ground it was thornes and thistles shall it bring forth to thee Even so there is nothing but pricking vanity and vexation in all worldly enjoyments Vanity hath two things in it whereof the one may seem quite contrary to the other It hath emptinesse in it and it hath fulnesse in it It hath emptinesse of comfort and fulnesse of vexation That is vain 1. Which is unprofitable 2. Which hath no solidity in it 3. Which is alwayes moving varying and unsetled But that 's the right vanity vanity with vexation of spirit There is Vanitas 1. Mutabilitatis Hug. de Sanct. Vict. in Eccl. 2. Curiositatis 3. Mortalitatis Prima vanitas naturalis est apta sive congrua Secunda vanitas culpabilis est quia perversa Tertia vanitas Penalis misera Prima causa est peccati Secunda peccatum tertia pana peccati Vanity is gradual saith one There is vain and a vainer vanity and there is the vaniest vanity according to that Eccles 1.2 upon which Chrysostom faith Hune versiculum si saperent qui in petestate sunt in Parietibus omnibus in vestibus scriberent in foro in domo in januis in ingressibus anâ—â— omnia in conscientiis suis ut semper eum oculis cernerent corde sentirent The things here below Non esuriâ—ntes animas sed esuriem ipsam pascunt animarum Bern. Quemadmodum amygdalae dicuntur inanes non in quibus nibil est sed in quibus id quod inest est inutile c. Clem. Alex Epist Psal 4.2 they do not feed our hungry souls but rather the hunger of our souls They are said to be vain Quia possidentes non ad juvant And vexation of spirit Quia quaerentes affligunt Almonds are said to be empty not because there is nothing in them but because that which is in them is unprofitable and to no use So likewise the things of this world are said to be vanity are said to be nothing because how great soever they may be in their earthly magnitude how glorious soever in their temporary bravery yet they are of no use for the procuring of true good unto man no way profitable for the establishing of mans happinesse I conclude with Bernard Appetitus vanitatis est contemptus veritatis Quid vanius quam deligere vanitatem Quid iniquius quam contemnere veritatem O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing Perfection A man may be said to be perfect 1. Comparatively 2. Conceitedly A man in this life cannot be perfect the flesh will warre against the spirit and we like Jacob all the time of this pilgrimage halt of one legge though there be one member in us mundum there will be another mundandum The Ark of the Covenant was but a cubit and an half high so were likewise the wheels of the Caldron Now we know that a Cubit and an half is but an unperfect measure which shews that no man in this life is perfectly perfect We cannot climb up to the highest stair of perfection in this world we must be climbing all the dayes of our lives Paul was wrapt into the third heaven yet he professeth he was not yet perfect Though with Moses we have been brought up in all the learning of the Egyptians though we be as perfect Scribes in the Law of God as Ezra as eloquent and mighty in Scripture as Apollos though we have as many tongues as Paul who spake with tongues more than they all did yet we are but scholars and must be learning of our part so long as we live we must be carried on still to perfection We must be as travellars that are ever walking and going on never resting till we come unto our journey's end which will not be till death it self come Our Saviour himself as he was man did grow up in wisedome Nazianzen observeth of them that were famous among the Heathen Solonis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nostra siqus â—umilis justitia recta soâ—sitan sed non pura covetousnesse Socratis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loving of boyes Platenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gulosity Diogenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scurrility So we may say of all Christians they have one blemish or another Noah had a stain of drinking Abraham of dissembling Peter of denial of Christ Paul and Barnabas of contention As the Psalmist saith Aug. Contr. duas Epist Pelag. 1.3 c. 7. there is none good no not one so there is none perfect no not one The vertue that is in a just man Hactenus perfecta nominatur ut ad ejus perfectionem pertineat etiam ipsius imperfectionis inveritate agnitio in humilitate confessio There is not the best man or woman on the face of the earth but it is an easy matter to spie an hole in their coat All those worthies cited Hebr. 11 had their blemishes never a one of those Roses but had their pricks Gideon beside many wives had a Concubine he made an Ephod that was an occasion of idolatry and made Israel to sin Barac was a saint-hearted souldier Sampson defiled himself with many strumpets Jepthe was very rash and inconsiderate David was tainted with two horrible sins Samuel as it seemeth was something negligent in looking to his children No Prophet but had some weaknesse being all as James speaks of Elias subject to the same infirmities that we are yet they were faithful men greatly honoured by God Almighty Shew me a garden without weeds and a man without imperfections If ye will have perfect men ye must go to heaven for them there be none to be found upon earth Peter Paul Thomas all the Apostles had their imperfections Yet some profane wretches there be like Cham if they find never so small a slip in a godly man they are ready to laugh at it Scatent ipsi luneribas objiciunt illis Sicatrices Whereas there is not the best man but treadeth his shoe awry We should rather weep than rejoyce at it Therefore when any of the Saints of God are said in Scripture to be perfect Comparate non absoâ—e it is spoken not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not simply and absolutely but comparatively As an old beaten souldier may be said to be a perfect warrier in comparison of a fresh-water souldier Voto conata Or they
that he might the sooner be out of his pain but he half in choler replied that he would not lose the least step of his gate for all the whipping in Paris That which in Christians deserves greatest commendations is an unmoved patience in suffering adversities accompanied with a setled resolution of over-coming themâ— Bishop Hooper seeing a Pardon lying by him to be given him if he would recant Act. Mon. cried to them that stood by If you love my soul away with it His answer to Master Kingston advisinghim to save his life by recanting is worth noting Life indeed is sweet and death bitter But alas consider that the death to come is more bitter and the life to come more sweet Therefore for the desire and love I have to the one and the fear and terror I have of the other I do not so much regard this death nor esteeme this life but have setled my self through the strength of Gods Spirit patienly to passe through the torments and extremities of the fire now prepared for me rather than to deny Gods Word and Truth 'T was resolutely spoken of Bishop Ridley to Latimer at the stake Be of good comfort brother for God will either asswage the fury of the fire or else strengthen us to abide it Newes being brought to John Philpot of his burning the next day he answered undauntedly I am ready God grant me strength a joyful resurrection I might adde abundantly Who puts to Sea for a long Voyage and at a great charge must resolve to hold on his course against all winds and weather or accidents that may offer to stop him So we in Christianity must wrestle with all difficulties rather than quit the enterprise Being once embarqued on we must with a Caesarean confidence and a Spartan resolution to go on with the sword or fall on the sword I am ready not to be bound only Acts 21.13 but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Vox verè Christianorum Martyrdom We must expect persecutions here for how should God wipe away tears from our eyes in heaven if on earth we shed no tears How can Heaven be a place of rest if on earth we find it How could we desire to be at home if in our journey we did find no grief How could we so often call upon God and talk with him if our enemy did sleep all the day long How could we elsewhere be made like unto Christ in joy if in sorrow we sob'd not with him If we will have joy and felicity we must needs feel sorrow and misery If we will go to heaven we must sail by hell If we will embrace Christ in his robes we must not think scorn of him in his rags If we will siâ— at table with Christ in his Kingdom we must first abide with him in his temptations If we drink of his cup of glory forsake not his cup of ignominy Can the head-corner-stone be rejected and the other more base stones in Gods building be in this world set by We are of his living stones be content then to be hewen thereby to be fitted to be joyned to your fellows that suffer We are Gods corn fear not therefore the flail the fan miln-stone nor Oven We are all Christs lambs look to be fleeced and slain Ignatius qui Apostolorum temporibus proximus fuit Quid hoc mali est cujus reus gaudet cujus accusatio votum est cujus poena feli citas Tertul. cum ex Syriâ usque Romam ad bestias duceretur inter alia scribebat O salutares bestiae quae preparantur mihi quando venient quando emittentur quando eis frui licebit carnibus meis De eodem scribit Irenaeus Frumentum Christi sum dentius bestiaerum molor ut mundus Dei panis inveniar King Henry the fourth deposer of King Richard the second was the first of all English Kings that began the unmerciful burning of Christs Saints for standing against the Pope And William Sawtree was the first of all them in Wickliff's time that was burned he suffered Anno Dom. 1400. saith Fox Bishop Hooper in a Letter to Mistris Warcope Dear sister take heed you shall in your journey towards heaven meet with many a monstrous beast Paul fought with some at Ephesus If there be any way saith Bradford to heaven on horse-back 't is Persecution Should we look for fire to quench our thirst Even as soon shall Christs true servants find peace in Antichrists regiment It was likewise his saying At God sent for Elijah in a fiery chariot so sendeth he for me for by fire my dross must be purified that I may be fine gold in his sight Queen Anne wife to King Henry the 8. led to the Tower to be beheaded said The King was constant in his course of advancing her For from a Private Gentlewoman to a Marchioness then to a Queen and when he could no higher then to a Martyr Cansa non poena Martyrem facit ait Cyprian Nam ut dixit Gregor Cum Christo crucem periturus latro suscepit sed quum reatus proprius tenuit pro crucifixo non absolvit Aug. Diverso fine fato Bucholc It is one thing to suffer as a Martyr and another thing to suffer as a Malefactor Ibi erat Christus ubi latrones Similis poena dissimilis causa Sampson died with the Philistins by the fall of the same house but for another end and by a different destiny Martyrdom is the lowest subjection that can be to God but the highest honour It brings death in the one hand and life in the other for while it kills the body it crowns the soul When one said to a certain Martyr Take heed 't is a hard matter to burn Indeed said he it is for him that hath his soul linked to his body as a Thiefs foot is in a pair of fetters And they loved not their lives unto the death Revel 12.11 Spiritual Warfare Our life is compared to a warfare The chief Captain General on the one side is the Mighty Lion of the Tribe of Judah the Prince of Peace the Conqueror of death hell and sin The grand Captain on our enemies part is the great red Dragon the old crafty Serpent the Governor of Darkness The Lieutenants of the fields are Fleshly Sensuality against Spiritual Reason The Serjeants of the Band are the cursed children of Darkness against the faithful children of Light The common souldiers are the Law of our Members warring against the Law of our Mind the effects of the Flesh against the fruits of the Spirit Sathans souldiers handle such like arms as these The Breast-plate of Injury the Girdle of Falshood the Shoos of Discord the Shield of Insidelity the Helmet of Mistrust the piercing Darts of Cruelty the Canon-shot of spightful Reproachâ—s the Arrows of lying Slanders the Sword of the Flesh c. On the contrary Scripture shews us the
discharge their Canon-shot that the roaring of the one may lessen the terror of the other In like sort Satan hangs tinkling cymbals in our ears and delights us with the musick and vanities of this world that we may forget the sonnd of the last Trumpet There is a threefold Judgment saith Aquinas 1. Discussionis 2. Condemnationis 3. Absolutionis It 's good for every man to judge himself in the two first He must examine himself and upon examination condemn himself The certainty of Judgment may teach us not to be too curious or careless It is a kind of sacriledge to pry into Gods holy place his secret Sanctuary Non judicium luti sed figuli To determine who shall be saved and who shall be damned is not belonging to the Clay but the Potter in whose power it is to make of the same lump one vessel of honor another to dishonor Austin desired to see three things especially viz. 1. Rome in her glory 2. Paul in the Pulpit 3. Christ in the flesh So let us desire three things 1. The conversion or else confusion of Rome and Babylon 2. The consolation of Israel and all Gods chosen 3. The coming of Christ not in the flesh but unto Judgment Oh that happy and merry Day Act. Mon. said Robert Samuel Martyr It is called Eternal Judgment Heb. 6.2 Because 1. It is of things eternal Eternal life or eternal death 2. The Sentence of that Judgment is eternal Elect and Reprobate go eternally to the place appointed 3. The Judge is Eternal 4. The persons judged are eternal some to enjoy eternal happiness and some to suffer eternal punishment The Judgment it self is not eternal it lasteth not ever but the fruit and event of it is eternal Oh that the cogitation of this Judgment were deeply fixed in the hearts of us all Momentaneum est quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat What shall the Fornicator get enduring an ocean of torture for a drop or dram of pleasure The total sum is The breach of all the Commandments If these Accounts be not crost in this life we shall never have our Quietus est in the life to come The times of ignorance God winked at Act. 17.30 31. but now commandeth all men every where to repent Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Eternal Life Electra in Senec. movet hanc quaestionem Mortem aliquid ultra est Cui respondet Aegisthus Vita si cupias mori Ethnicus resurrectionem vel saltem vitam aeternam agnoscit Contemnenda est omnis injuria praesentium malorum Cypr. fiduciâ futurorum bonorum We that have received the first-fruits of the Spirit sigh and sob by these waters of Babylon because we cannot sing the Lords song in a strange land but then we shall sit and shine in the Kingdom of Heaven with Albs of innocency on our backs Palms of victory in our hands Crowns of glory on our heads and Songs of triumph in our mouths Then shall we enter into the Holy of holies then shall we celebrate the Sabbath of Sabbaths then shall we sing the Song of songs which none can learn but those that are redeemed from the earth Vita aeterna est vita vera Prima vita primum bonum ultimum malum Secunda vita primum malum ultimum bonum habet Hug◠de sanct vict The first life hath first good and afterwards that which is evil The second life hath first evil and afterwards good This life Christus 1. Promisit Luk. 12.32 2. Promeruit Rom. 6.23 3. Praeparavit Joh. 14.2 4. Inchoat Joh. 6.47 5. Reddet Joh. 11.25 This is the promise that he hath promised us Dav. in Coloss 1 Joh. 2.25 even eternal life Caelum Heaven is three-fold where 1. Fowles are the airy heaven Gen. 1.30 2. Starres are the firmament Gen. 1.17 3. Souls are the glorious or heaven of heavens 1 Kings 18.27 Heaven is not obtained by chance as the Milesian fisherman got the golden tripos Assurance of heaven is to be got three manner of wayes 1. By faith 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls 2. By conformity to Christ Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be made conformable to the image of his Son 3. By the sealing work of the Spirit Ephes 1.13 After that ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise cap. 4.30 unto the day of redemption In the world if a man purchase a Lordship his heart is alwayes there he pulls down he builds he plants Christ hath bought the Kingdom of Heaven for us and hath paid for it at an high rate even with his most precious blood Anselm where he hath prepared mansions for us that are Denisons All our joy therefore should be there Corpore ambulantes in terra corde habitantes in Caelo Nonius chose rather to lose all his honours and fortunes than to quit his Opal Ring to Anthony But a far fairer Jewel is the Kingdom of God so sweet and precious that it deserves the selling of all we have and running into any hazard for it Luther gave his opinion the day before his death that in heaven we shall know one another because Adam knew Eve at first sight Lay up for your selves treasures in heaven Mat. 6.20 where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal Heavens Glory The Christalline walks of that new City are not for muddy feet nor shall lust-infected eyes look within those holy doors Rev. 21.27 There is a room without for such cap. 22.15 a black room for black works God will not set a golden head on earthen feet give the glory of heaven to him that delights in the glory of earth The Angels those Caelestial porters that carry the souls of the Saints as they did the soul of Lazarus to Abrahams bosome have no commission to pull a wicked mans soul to heaven Trajane erected many monuments and buildings insomuch that Constantine the great in emulation was wont to call him Parietaria the Wall-flower because his name was upon so many walls Babels Tower raised an head of Majesty 5164 Heyl. Geog. paces frow the ground having its basis and circumference equal to the height the passage to go up went winding about the outside and was of an exceeding great breadth there being not only roome for horses carts c. to meet and turn but lodgings also for man and beast and as some report grasse and corn-fields for their nourishment Pharos a watch-tower in Egypt was built by Ptolomie Philadelph all of white marble Plin. l. 36. c. 12. The work of those famous Pyramides though it do not appear who were the founders was
stupendious and admirable and is remembred by many ancient writers Yea the seven wonders of the world were wonderfull being made meerly for a name But well did Agathocles who caused his statue to be composed on this manner Caput de auro innuendo regis dignitatem brachia de ebore Plutarch intimando ejus venustatem Caetera linimenta de aere denotando strenuitatem Pedes verò de terra indicando ejus fragilitatem shewing man hath no firmer foundation than mutability here to ground upon Only heaven is a City which hath foundations whose Maker and builder is God Hebr. 11.10 Beautiful for scituation was Jerusalem in the midst of Judea and Judea in the midst of the earth Sananturilli qui illic infirmi conveniunt the very center and navel of the habitable world say the Fathers Moreover in a cold dry and clear air insomuch as they who come thither weak are made well saith Kimchi Called not only the joy of the whole land because thither the Tribes went up three times a year nor only of the East whereof Jerusalem was held and call'd the Queen Vrbium totius Orientis clarissima but also of the whole earth Psal 48.2 Lumen totius orbis as one calleth it But what is this to the heavenly Jerusalem whose pavement is pure gold and her walls garnished with all precious stones Some define the perpendicular altitude of the highest mountains to be four miles others fifteen furlongs Not far from Geneva is the mountain Jura whose top is much above the clouds The Church also is resembled to a mountain Propter 1. Altitudinem 2. Securitatem 3. Ascendendi difficultatem 4. Immobilitatem Mons à movendo by Antiphrasis quia minime movet The Church is as mount Zion that standeth fast for ever and cannot be removed What then is the excellency of the Church triumphant When Saint Peter was on mount Tabor where he saw but a glimmering of the joyes of heaven he was so ravished with it that he cried out Master it is good for us to be here let us here make our Tabernacles When the Emperor Severus souldiers were for greater pomp in a triumph to put on Crowns of Bayes one Christian souldier wore his on his arme refusing to put it on his head and being demanded the reason answered Non decet Christianum in hac vita coronari Upon this occasion Tertullian wrote his book De corona militis Eternal life is called a Crown for its 1. Perpetuity for a Crown hath neither beginning nor ending 2. Plenty as the Crown compasseth on every side so there is nothing wanting in this life 3. Dignity eternal life is a coronation-Coronation-day What a rise is here for dust and ashes to be raised to the glory of heaven As the Disciples said did not our hearts burn Do not your hearts leap to think of a Crown Si tanta If the soul saith Austin be content to suffer so much to enjoy things that are made to perish how much more should we be content to suffer for that that cannot perish If men will suffer so much for the flesh what should we suffer for the immortality of the soul for the gaining of heaven for the Crown That was the Motto of the Emperor when he had one Crown upon the sword and the other Crown was on his head Tertiam in Caelis The Sain's may have the Crown of tribulation here but the other Crown the Crown of life that is for another world Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried Jam. 1.12 he shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Wicked ones may have many times some flashings of joy but when in the height of it they are then big-bellied and ready to travel of some sorrow contrariwise Christs servants have many griefs and qualmes come over their heart but it is then with them as with women near their time of bringing forth they are in travel with some joy And yet our joy will never be full till we come to enjoy the beatifical vision Our joy here is only in hope and expectation nor can it be full till we come to the fruition of what we expect Hence it is that all we have here is but a tast then we shall drink deep of the river of pleasure Now we have only the first-fruits hereafter our joy shall be as the joy of harvest Now the joy of the Lord enters into us but then it is we shall enter into the joy of the Lord and be as it were swallowed up in the boundlesse ocean of that joy The place of Celestial glory in space is most ample in matter most sumptuous in shew most glorious whose foundations are precious stones and the whole City of most pure gold the gates of Smaragds and Saphires the streets of no lesse price and beauty There is no darknesse for the Sun of righteousnesse which knows not to be hid doth ever send his beams into it Now if the fabrick of the earth which it but a stable for beasts an exile and valley of tears hath so much beauty that it strikes him that contemplates it into admiration and astonishment if the Sun the Moon and Starres shine with such brightnesse what shall then our heavenly Country do not the habitation of servants but of sons not of beasts but of blessed souls How amiable are thy dwellings O Lord of hosts There is nothing present that offends nothing absent that delights Quicquid amabitur aderit nihil desiderabitur quod aberlt Bern. In which place or Quier sit Angels Archangels Principalities powers Dominions Vertues Thrones Cherubims and Seraphims whereof there is such a multitude that Daniel saith Thousand thousands serve him ten hundred thousand assist him Where are all the Patriarch Prophets Apostles Martyrs Virgins Innocents so many that John said they could not be numbred Prefer not then the pleasures of this life which are momentany before eternal Bern. What delights us in this world is transitory but the sorrow that shall ensue upon it is to all eternity The mark at which the Saints should shoot is to be configured to Christs transfiguration Tum Deus implebit animam rationalem lute sapientiae concupiscibilem justitiae irascibilem perfectâ tranquilitate Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man 1 Cor. 2.9 the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Gehenna That there is an Hell is not only clear from testimony of Scripture Deut. 32. Psal 9.18 Psal 11.6 Matth. 23.33 2 Pet. 2.3 4. Jude 6. Facilis descensus Averni c. Virgil. Aeneid l. 6. But also of very Heathens themselves who though they could not tell distinctly as never being acquainted with the Word yet by the glimmering light of Nature they had some fancies and apprehensions of this place of the damned Hence they had one called Pluto the chief person in hell
should have been taken from him but left all other thoughts and did cleave to his masters side with an inseparable resolution As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee So must we be to Christ in whom God hath manifested his good will to us and say as Peter did To whom should we go thou hast the words of eternal life Gods Mercy is like Daniels goodly tree Dan. 4. whose height reacheth unto the heavens and the sight thereof to all the earth whose pleasant fruit all mortal men do taste and eat and under the shadow of whose fair leaves they take rest and comfort To the defence and succour of this tree must we run in storms and extremity and not then only but at all times lest with ungrateful Popelings we go about in the fairest sunshine to lop the branches Of pions memory is that last speech uttered with the fierce zeal of a dying Martyr burnt in a Tun in Smithfield in the presence of Henry the Fourth King of England Mercy Lord Jesus Christ mercy And of him that with lifted-up hands and singers flaming with fire cried to the people None but Christ none but Christ for ever Cry then ye braving Merit-mongers and say not with the Laodicean Church We are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing when as your consciences tell you as theirs did Ye are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Learn with the Prophet Jeremy to say It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not Make it the height of your ambition with the Apostle to be found in Christ Lam. 3.22 not having your own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith And since the bowels of Gods compassion and good will to us do yearn upon us and the merits of our blessed Saviour are so effectual as to justifie in his sight let all the world conclude with David Thy loving kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 And with the Angels here acknowledge our salvation to proceed from Gods good will Our Justification thus effected a main work of Gods goodness towards man there follows upon the very neck of it our Sanctification And here we find the Well of Gods Mercy to be like Jacob's deep to which whosoever cometh with a thirsting soul may freely drink of the water of life Since then O God thy Mercy and thy Goodness is of that depth that no Mortal is able to found it and it able to satiate all with thy good Spirit that as by thy Son we are justified in thy sight so by thy Spirit we may be sanctified for Holiness becometh that house wherein thou dwellest O Lord. Know then that by an eternal constitution of Gods predestinating will some were ordained to be vessels of dishonor some of honor Those of dishonor are Reprobates and câ—st-aways who spend their days in prophaneness and end in never-ending pains But those of honor are the Elect who being made to be perpetually glorified among the blessed Angels that kept their first station have here their conversation tanquam in coelo as in heaven and following the conduct of that sanctisying Spirit that makes them holy and acceptable to the most Holy end in never-ending happiness The first are passed in silence our speech must be of the latter whom God by special grace vouchsafes to grace with such endowments as fit them for glory There are none begotten by a natural generation exempted from the contagion of sin neither can any in truth glory of a pious conformity of their wills Papists presume upon a natural ability to gain acceptation at the hands of God and Pelagians have given that goodness to remain in our wills which doth not both which whilst the wheel is turning and the sum of all their misfortunes is cast up sleep supinely in carelesness and boast vainly in security Divine truth hath discovered our nakedness and shame so that the naked truth without all contradiction is that what characters of goodness were imprinted in our nature by the hand of our Creator were by the hand of man that catcht hold of the forbidden fruit quite obliterated and blotted out insomuch that unless the same power take us in hand again and put upon us the stamp of a new creation we shall never alter those crooked and wry dispositions which by our offending disobedience we have contracted The life of a Christian doth challenge an higher parentage than from earth when the beauty thereof is marred and the emoluments departed And here the Lords good will hath not been deficient but superabundant above what we are able to ask or think for out of the plentiful treasures of his grace hath he supplied our defects First he sent his Son and behold now he sends his Spirit His Son to free us from condemnation from which otherwise we cannot be free his Spirit for our regeneration which is an act of Divine power whereby being born of God we are reduced to the obedience of his Name Isa 63.18 1 Pet. 2.9 and made like unto him Holy as he is holy hereby becoming the people of his holiness as saith the Prophet and as that Saint of God the Apostle Peter speaks A chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people What was written upon the plate of the holy Crown of pure gold belonging to the Priest in the Levitical law is by the singer of God engraven in Capital letters in the hearts of his Saints HOLINESS TO THE LORD Exod. 99.30 Which inward holiness makes them zealous of good works that are like to Pearls as one saith found here below but carry a resemblance of Heaven in their brightness and orient colours To which end our Saviour gave this precept Let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorifie your Father which is in heaven Those sacred actions of obedience that have their original dependencie upon the Divine operation of Gods Spirit in the heart please God wonderfully He is glorified by them and in them his soul takes great pleasure Cui prius non beneplacitum erat in hominibus Theophil nunc pro beneficiis refocillationibus hominum habet opera in quibus quietem habet faith Theophilact on these words God who at first was highly offended with men for their apostacy accepts the good deeds of men though himself be the Author of their good for favours and refreshings wherein he is well pleased As I breathe Christians I cannot but admire the good will of God who dwelling in that light unto which there can be no access would vouchsafe to shine upon us who are darkness in the very abstract or would lift up the light of his countenance upon us whom sin had made so contemptible In good earnest I am transported much more
Socer and after banished into France with his wanton Herodias died an Exile The Jews that persecuted Christ and his Apostles what punishments they had their lamentable wars and more lamentable destruction is a sufficient testimony Herod Agrippa that put James John's brother to death was put to death by vermine as his Grandfather was If we take a slight view of the Ten Persecutions Nero who robb'd Peter and paid Paul Peter of his life Paul with death was his own death kill'd himsel Domitian that banished John into Pathmos and crucified Simon Bishop of Jerusalem that put Publius Bishop of Athens to death was killed and his statues and monuments taken quite away Trajan that caused Simeon Bishop of Alexandria to be crucified and Ignatius Bishop of Antioch to be devoured of wild beasts suffered many miseries in his time Tiber overflowed all Rome Pantheon burnt with thunderbolts Cities in Asia shaken with grievous Earthquakes and the whole Empire almost wasted by a most wretched dearth Adrianus in whose Persecution Alexander Bishop of Rome with Hermes his wife children and household to the number of twelve hundred and fifty persons were burnt all in a furnace and Theodorus a Deacon had his tongue cut out of his head his hands and feet cut off afterwards beheaded and was cast to dogs at this time there were ten thousand crucified in Mount Ararat round with thorns and their bodies pierced through with darts at last he died doubting of the life to come Antoninus Verus and his brother Luâ—us persecuted Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna and Justin the Philosopher put to death but in their time there did an unheard of Plague spread over a great part of their Empire Severus a most severe Emperor in persecuting the Christians caused Irenaeus Bishop of Lions and Calixtus Bishop of Rome to be martyred but after he himself was slain and the Roman Empire afflicted with Civil wars Maximinus who martyred Hypolitus Bishop of an head City in Arabia was killed by his soldiers Decius in whose reign another Bishop of Antioch suffered death died miserably in the Scythian war suffocated in a fen In the persecution under Valerian died Cypriun Bishop of Carthage that Caesar of the Christian But he was vanquished by Sapor King of Persia and served instead of a footstool when the Persian took horse I had almost forgot one thing A Judge in the time of Severus condemned one Agapeius a youth of fifteen at whose execution the Judge fell down from his seat and cried his bowels burnt within him and so died Dioclesian and Maximian raised a Persecution which like a flood ran over all the Roman Provinces Syria Tyre Egypt c. But at last Dioclesian in his old days poyson'd himself and Maximian died a dogs death he was hang'd up for a sign of Gods wrath by Constantine Thus in these Ten Persecutions Gods Ministers run through fire and water as the Prophet David speaks of the afflictions of Gods children and were not spared But God spared not to punish those wicked Emperors the raisers of them Then after Julian the Apostate plays the devil but God the Lord of Hosts for the Persian got the honor of the day and Julian wounded sprinkling his blood up toward heaven died blaspheming Vicisti tandem puer Galilee Vulence seduced by the Arrians made havock of the Church but being taken of the Gothes in a Cabin whither he fled was burnt there I could proceed The Mahumetan Persecution I need not insist on Only The Saracens they are vanished Selymus the first Turkish Emperor rooted out of that Nation and the Turks they never are at ease but at continual war whose end by the judgment of the more learned is at hand Neither need I and therefore will not insist on the Persecutions continued under the Popes in Italy Germany Spain France England and in the Eastern tract of the world But who knows not the state of that Church from whom are hidden what deaths many and most of them died Take one for all Boniface the 8. of whom it is reported He came in like a Fox he reigned like a Lion and died like a Dog Let these Examples be as so many arguments to induce Gods Ministers howsoever persecuted to rejoice for Blessed are you when for Christs sake ye suffer persecution for yours is the kingdom of heaven Mat. 5. They that will not receive your crying aloud without sparing shake the dust off your feet against them Sodom and Gomorrah shall be in a better case at the last day than they Mat. 10.14 cap. 11.22 cap. 12.42 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Siaon than for them The Ninevites and the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against them Therefore tell them their own soundly and fear not Though ye be among scorpions as the Lord said to Ezekiel spare not for fear of the ensuing dangers For whosoever spareth incurs his own destruction and the destruction of the people both shall be overwhelmed in the flood of Gods wrath both shall sink into the gulf of everlasting perdition both being as the Prophet Jeremy speaks sifted in the sieve of vanity Yea Press things home to the Conscience and spare not though no hope of amendment of their life appear God bids thee and duty birds thee because God bids thee 1.2 Though ye will not be believed as Jeremy was not where Azariah Johanan and all the proud men said to him Thou speakest falsly Yet cry aloud and spare not leave the event to God Go saith he to Ezekiel and tell this people whether they hear or hear not If they do they shall have life if not judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools Prov. 19. ult For if they heir not you when you cry from God to them God will not hear them when they cry to him or you for them Jer. 7.16 Now God Almighty enable embolden and encourage all his Ministers to cry aloud to those whose minds are wandring that their hearts may turn to God to those that are in pursuit of their own wicked lusts that they may be reclaimed to those that are afar off that they may hear and return homeward to God to those that are asleep in sin that they may awake to righteousness to those that stop their ears that they may open them with gladness to those that hear carelesly that they may hear diligently to those that are dead in sins that they may arise and be quickned with the life of grace to the life of glory Again As we must take heed of our Doctrine so we must take heed of our Lives that we be unspotted of this wicked world Mundamimini qui fertis vasa Domini Ye that carry the vessels of the Lord be clean The Breast-plate of the Priest had this inscription HOLINESS TO THE LORD signifying that we should have Holiness imprest in our hearts Remember the Orders ye have taken they are holy Holy Orders Be
ye not then defiled with the contaminating and for did customs of the world but as ye are separated from all others to an holy emploiment so do not ye degenerate but let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorifie your Father which is in heaven Know that the eys of all men are fixt upon you If covetousness pride luxury drunkenness or any other vice reign in any of you if any of you be of a dissolute life whose conversation is not ruled by the doctrine ye teach ye are but miserable creatures Be assured Pope Innoc. lib. 3. de S. Altar myst that Quisquis sacris indumentis ornatur honestis moribus non 〈◊〉 quanto venerabilior apparet hominibus tanto indignior redditur apud Deum saith one God contemns him and will reward him according to his work For It is not every one that cries Lord Lord that shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but only they that do the will of my Father saith Christ Take heed therefore to your lives If you preach well and live ill you do but build with one hand and pull down with another And thus much for the Caveat as it respects our selves Now of the Caveat briefly as it respects the Church of God Take heed to all the flock c. A Minister hath the custody of many souls and if any perish through his means he is liable to Gods judgments As therefore we come provided with Knowledge so with a resolution to propagate and diffuse it Knowledge in the best of us not communicated to the building up of the Church in holiness is like costly materials prepared for the erecting of some sumptuous building yet to no use the loss whereof is irrecoverable It stands us upon therefore to be instant in season and out of season to be Instructers of the flock committed to our charge both in doctrine and manner of living The reason hereof rendred in my Text is substantial in that we are made Overseers of the flock The word interpreted Overseer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hence saith one Nomen Episcopi plus sonat oneris quà m honoris But I take it here in a larger signification than it is commonly used All Ministers are Overseers of that Flock the charge of whose souls is committed to them They are their Spiritual Tutors unfolding unto them the secret mysteries of Divine knowledge They must inform them if ignorant reform them if erroneous reprove them if dissolute confirm them if weak in the faith They are called Watchmen to watch for their souls salvation that they be not carried away with every wind of dectrine that they run not into absurd enormities but that they hold fast the profession of the faith in holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives They are called Pastors whose calling is to use all diligence to feed their flock and protect them from eminent mischiefs by a careful foresight or present needful power The Symbole of this say some is the Bishops Crosier the Spiritual Shepherds staff which is acutus in fine ad pungendum pigros rectus in medio ad regendum debiles retortus in summo ad colligendum vagos sharp in the end to prick up the slothful and make them nimble right in the midst to govern the weak but crooked in the top like a hook to gather the dispersed or such as go astray They are called Gods Stewards whose office is faithfully to provide all things necessary for his family They are called the Light of the world whose property is to discover things hid in darkness They by their knowledge dispel the clouds of ignorance by their holy conversation the works of darkness All things that are discovered are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light hence they shew the house of Judah their sins Eph. 5 13. and the house of Jacob their thrnsgressions They are called Stars Fixt in the right hand of God tanquam in firmamento suo as in their heaven Stars have their light from the Sun so you not originally from your selves but derivatively from the Sun of Righteousness Your knowledge proceeds from the revelation of Jesus Christ who was in the bosom of the Father and must be communicated to the world And to this end they move perpetually about the world so ought you about the Church that all therein may be partakers of the light of life Wonderful are the effects and powerful the operation that the Celestial bodies have by their influences upon the Elements and upon those things compacted by them So questionless the effects wrought by the powerful preaching of the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation by such whose conversation is in heaven as Divine stars are far superior unto them The operation I am sure more effectual because more spiritual For as the Stars beget life in things void of life and cause vegetation by their heat So they by their precepts beget saith in those that are dead in sins and trespasses which is the soul of the soul by which we live unto God for Faith cometh by hearing and the just lives by his faith Furthermore by the propagation of the Gospel by preaching the Church of God grows and all therein as tender plants and trees of righteousness bring forth the fruits of eternal life Lastly The fixt Stars candem sempet inter 〈…〉 disstantiam they keep the same proportion of distance to each other The like harmony must be among us that all of us together may declare the glory of God They are called Angels to whom God hath given charge over his people to protect them Heb. 1. ult For as they are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation so are Ministers wherefore saith the Prophet How beautiful are the feet of those that bring the glad tidings of peace What shall I say more They are called Fathers All these names import labour in them to whom they are ascribed So that great must be the pains that we must take with the Flock the Church of God over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers A word to the people I beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake 1 Thess 5.13 Apud Graecos majori in honore babebantur Philosophi quà m Oratores Illi enim rectè vivendi c. Lactantius The Grecians gave greater respect to their Philosophers than to their Orators because these taught them how to speak but those how to live well And sâ—ffer the word of exhortation Heb. 13.22 God must send ere man can go And here is Gods care of man his love to man God comes not in his own proper person He speaks not in his own proper voice So great is the Majesty of the one that
shall please God than put unworthy hands to hold it up Nil defensoribus istis indiget Ecclesia 'T is a fearful doom they shall undergo when God shall require the peoples blood at their hands who perish for want of knowledge however these men cannot be denied the benefit of their Clergy if they can but read As for them that cannot preach yet presume their presumption speaketh their folly yet such mâ—lapart audacity is sooner crowned with the Lawrel than a modest ingenuity Upon the first hearing they are nois'd famous when indeed they offer but the sacrifice of fools It was a religious wish of a wise man God forbid that every man that can take unto himself boldnesse to speak an hour together in a Church upon a text should be admitted for a Preacher though he mean never so well A setled brain a good sad temper a studious disposition a well-grounded learning is fittest for this enterprize Therefore we may justly admire the valour of some men that before their studies dare ascend the Pulpit and do there take more pains than they have in their library This makes some to use an inculcation of vain tautologie others as one saith such fugitive Divines that like cowards they run away from their text I say no more of them but wish with all my soul that ere they lookt abroad they had looked well into the perfect law of liberty at home and so I dismisse them As Ministers must look into the Word of God first so must the people after The lips of the Priest preserve knowledge for the peoples use Non libro sacerdotis sed labrâ— non codice sed corde conservatur scientia their blood will be required at his hands if they through his default wander out of the way and perish in their sins if otherwise their blood will be upon their own heads Your practice then dear brethren in looking into the Word must be To hear the Word when preached to hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with joy rejoyceing with David to go into the house of the Lord and to dwell there for ever To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all readinesse of mind 1 Pet. 2.2 and longing after it Psal 119.131 To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all humility like Paul sitting at Gamaliels feet To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with fear and reverence as in Gods presence like Cornelius hearing what God saith To hear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with patience and a retir'd attention like Mary laying aside all cumbersom thoughts of the world that may distract your souls The Romans held their Censors so reverend that they thought him worthy of no small punishment that did but yawne before him and shall not God judge them think you that care not how they hear his Embassadors holding forth the word of reconciliation Heathenish Alexander and Attila that received Jaddus and Leo as the Lord himself and the foolish Galatians that received Saint Paul as an Angel of God even as Christ hiraself shall rise and condemn all perfunctory Auditors of his truth Take heed then how you hear and follow not the steps of that untoward generation of the Jewes in their peevish incredulity shutting their eyes upon the glorious light of saving truth Like that sullen tree in the Indies which they say closeth it self against the beams of the rising Sun and opens only to the dampish shades of the night What a shame will it be to you shall that conceit of a new invention be fulfilled in you Christians had once blind Churches and lightsom hearts but now blind hearts and lightsom Churches It was the complaint of one in his time that the fathers had plowed sowen reaped fan'd the wheat and set the bread upon the table but the children had not a mouth to eat it Let it not be so said of you for if it may for truth in truth you perish your souls everlastingly Solomon confirms me he that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Prov. 13.13 Carefully look then into the Word by hearing so shall ye suredly passe that danger Again your practice must be to read the Law of your God whilest your tongues read your souls hear God speaking The circumspect reading of one Chapter whereof I speak it by experience sets me a thinking more than I can imagine it elevates the soul above it self which rests satisfied without expecting farther Enthusiasms or new Revelations such heavenly doctrine is thereby dropt into the heart as fits the reader to render a reason of his faith Those faithful witnesses of Christ in Bohemia called Thalorites if they had not diligently plyed the Scriptures could not have been so skilful in them as Aeneas Sylvius their profest enemy reporteth them Aeneas Sylvius de dict fact Alphons lib. 2. c. 17. Many hath fame crowned for wise men that read much but none for more wise than those who delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate therein both day and night Which meditation is the souls Perspective-Glasse whereby in her long remove she discerneth God as if he were near at hand Nothing can carry us so near God and heaven as this do but joyn them together and they give up a man to raptures and irradiate the soul with such high apprehensions that all that wisdom which this world hath hereby appears contemptible Now for the better understanding of the mind of God it will not be amisse in reading in meditating to confer Scripture with Scripture As the clouds clashing together in the aire above throw them at the length a most bright lightning so do the Scriptures when parallel'd The reason is strong Ireneus gave it Ireneus Ostentiones quae sunt in Scripturis non possunt aliter ostendi quà m ex Scripturis The demonstrations in Scripture cannot be otherwise made good than by Scripture A good wit invented this allusion the striking of two or three strings together directeth the Musitian for the tuning of his instrument so the comparing of several texts of Sacred Writ leadeth us to the true intention of the Spirit Thus if we read thus if we meditate we shall read we shall meditate with understanding Furthermore your practice must be to confer with the learned dead with the learned living so Christs disciples did with Christ the Eunuch did so with Philip. Hierom highly commends Marcella for the like and Fiabiola for the like zeal With the learned dead in their works breathing instructions are more effectual all grant but these have their operation And being the number is but small as the number of Pearls in comparison of baser stones the want blessed be our God is well provided for by their living monuments which we may use as a traveller doth a Map the better to find out the way or as Joseph did the mans help that advised him to leave Sechem and seek his brethren in Dothan But to what purpose is all this The Patrons
blessed consequences of Christ's Life and Death Pag. 41. Why Christ died Pag. 53 Of the Three Persons in the Deity largely Pag. 67 68 forward Inferences from the Spirits dwelling in our hearts Pag. 76 77 Christian society should be delightful Pag. 92 Songs of Degrees Pag. 113 Doctrine what must be preached Pag. 122 forward E. FRults of Christs Exaltation Pag. 15 16 The malignity of Envy Pag. 35 Ecclesiastical peace Pag. 36 Christ Exalted according to both Natures Pag. 57 forward Six Evidences of the Spirits dwelling in our hearts Pag. 73 74 No easie matter to be a Minister of the Gospel Pag. 92 An Emperors duty Pag. 121 F. WE may come confidently to God us to a Father Pag. 80 Not build Faith on a staggering foundation Pag. 92 The Soul naturally subjected to Fear Pag. 95 96 Several Fears Pag. 96 forward Benefis of holy Fear Pag. 98 forward Two causes of Fear Pag. 99 The uses Pag. 100 forward Foundation of the Church who Pag. 147 forward G. GOD the All-wise and gracious Moderator Pag. 5 Grace for grace how Pag. 10 11 Of Gods Glory at large Pag. 19 20 What Glory due to God from man imports Pag. 20 21 Gods Good-will how superabundant Pag. 43 44 In what particular acts expressed Pag. 45 forw Comfortable inferences thence deduced Pag. 46 The Spirits mission into our hearts a great gift Pag. 68 69 God and the Holy Spirit not unequal ibid. Heart governed by the Spirit Pag. 74 God is Christs Head how Pag. 111 God alone to be invocated Pag. 114 Grace inherent and actual Pag. 139 Concerning Grace at large Pag. 150 forward H. HOw Christ is Holy Pag. 11 12. How Harmless ibid. The benefits of Christ made higher than the Heavens Pag. 17 18 Honour to God wherein it consists Pag. 22 23 24 Heart the Metropolis of the Soul Pag. 34 Humiliation of Christ a work of power mercy justice Pag. 48 forward Wherein it consists Pag. 51 forward Holy Ghost called a Spirit why Pag. 63 64 Spirit of the Son why ibid. Heart principally desired in man Pag. 72 It 's the seat of the Spirit proved Pag. 72 73 Head of the Woman is Man in what respects Pag. 107 Hear the word how Pag. 133 134 I. JEsus a reverend Name Pag. 6 Indignities put upon Christ Pag. 7 8. His intercession Pag. 9. Not for all promiscuously ibid. Fruit of it Pag. 10 Justice and Mercy Pag. 21. Both to be admired Pag. 22 Justification Pag. 41 Illumination of the understanding Pag. 73 A Christian least reason to be idle why Pag. 84 forward Satan gets great advantage by it Pag. 85. Idleness reproved Pag. 87 Vse of it Pag. 88 Insufficient Ministery the evil of it Pag. 132 133 James unde Pag. 145 John what it signifies Pag. 146 K. KIngs their duty Pag. 113 116 117 Four Divinity-Lectures for them Pag. 115 Not exempted from afflictions Pag. 117. To be prayed for Pag. 118 L. LOve God how Pag. 23. Gods love to Mankind Pag. 63 64 Livelihood from the Spirit Pag. 75 76 What love should be betwixt Ministers Pag. 89 Ministers must take heed to their lives how Pag. 126 Gospel why called a Law Pag. 129 130 A perfect Law ibid. A Law of liberty Pag. 130 131 In what language Ministers should deliver their message Pag. 132 M. THe first Man was the first order'd Priest Pag. 3 Mans recovery is by a Mediator Pag. 4 Of Gods Mercy Pag. 39 The Mediator must be both God and Man Pag. 50. forward Mission of the Spirit Pag. 70 Plotters of Mischief Pag. 87 Man is the womans head Pag. 106 forward Ministers improvidence fatal to the Church Pag. 120. Ministery an hard task ibid. Must look to themselves how Pag. 121 Neither spare for love nor fear Pag. 123 124 How called and why Pag. 126 forward Merits confuted Pag. 41 42 N. TO Number our days what Pag. 86 O. THe Offence committed must be purged away by the Nature offending Pag. 5 God added an Oath to the Covenant of grace and peace why Pag. 6 7 Oblation of Christ in the Heavens Pag. 9 Obedience to God internal external largely Pag. 22 23. How qualified Pag. 24 25 Excellency of Order Pag. 103 Offices mutually to be performed by man and wife Pag. 109 forward P. DIgnity of Christ's Priesthood Pag. 7 A double comfort from the purity of our High-Priest Pag. 13 Christ a Pattern for our imitation Pag. 14 Peace fourfold wrought by Christ Jesus Pag. 26 27 How made Pag. 27 28. Peace of a good Conscience amply described Pag. 30 31 32. Peace pressed Pag. 33 34 The Spirit of the Son is a Person why Pag. 66 67 And distinct why ibid. And the third and last Person how ibid. Pilgrimage some kind lawful Pag. 8 Papists false Inferences refuted ibid. forward Apostles are Pillars Pag. 91 Perfection absolute not here Pag. 98 Promises strongest Arguments Pag. 116 Ten Persecutions Pag. 124 125 Perseverance Pag. 135 Practice Pag. 136 Saints estate perfect and imperfect how Pag. 140 forward Protestants whence Pag. 141 Peter the signification Pag. 146 Paul what imports Pag. 151 forward Q. OF Quenching the Spirit Pag. 77 R. ROme's Sacriledge Pag. 10 Righteousness of Christ efficacious to us Pag. 13 14 Resurrection of Christ Arguments proving it Pag. 59. Necessity of it Pag. 60 61. Ends of it Pag. 61 62. The Conclusion Pag. 62 63 Regeneration Pag. 73 Religious hearts in a continual awe of God Pag. 96 Reading and Meditation to be joyned Pag. 134 Remembrance Pag. 135 136 Our Religion how founded Pag. 149 S. THe Son of God must be made the Son of Man Pag. 5 Sufferings of Christ the reason Pag. 8 Christ separate from sinners how Pag. 14. Made sin for us how Pag. 21 22 Benefits by Christs sufferings Pag. 29 Sanctification Pag. 43 None by nature excepted from sins contagion Pag. 43 Sufferings of Christ were incessant Pag. 51 Some specialties Pag. 52. Necessity of them Pag. 53 forward And Effects Pag. 55 forward The Application Pag. 56 Sons of God what Pag. 81 Spirit of truth and of lying Pag. 83 States how guided Pag. 116 Religion the soul of them ibid. Scripture to be compared with Scripture Pag. 134 The Spirit to be supplicated for Pag. 135 Saints two sorts Pag. 138 forward Saul what signifies Pag. 151 T. MYstery of the Trinity Pag. 68 Time an account to be kept of Pag. 84 Precious ibid. Will not be stayed Pag. 85 How we must make account of it ibid. Time must be redeemed Pag. 86 V. CHrist undefiled in the whole course of his life and why Pag. 13 Vbiquity refuted Pag. 17 Vnion with Christ Pag. 73 Vniversality of the Church Pag. 105 Voice of God daunting Pag. 127 128 Vnion must be amongst Ministers Pag. 152 W. CHrist born of a Woman why Pag. 5 6 The Word made flesh how Pag. 13 Divine Worship Pag. 25 26. largely God to be worshipped every where Pag. 90 The merciful project of Gods Eternal Wisdom Pag. 47 Bitterness to Wives discovers it self how Pag. 110 forward Word to be looked into accurately Pag. 131 FINIS