of Christ that even by that meanes they may be rich in faith and dependance upon God as Saint Iames spake Having nothing and yet possessing All things Secondly All is ours in regard of Christian liberty though our hands are bound from the possession yet our Consciences are not bound from the use of any Thirdly Though the faithfull have not in the right of their inheritance any monopolie or ingrossement of the Creatures to themselves yet still they have and shall have the service of them All. That is thus If it were possible for any member of Christ to stand absolutely in neede of the use and service of the whole Creation All the Creatures in the world should undoubtedly waite upon him and bee appropriated unto him The Moone should stand still the Sunne goe backe the Lions should stop their mouths the Fire should give over burning the Ravens should bring him meate the Heavens should raine downe bread the Rockes should gush out with water all the Creatures should muster up themselves to defend the Body of Christ. But though no such absolute necessity shall ever be yet ordinarily we must learne to beleeve That those things which God allowes us are best suteable to our particular estate God knowing us better then we doe our selves that as lesse would haply make us repine so more would make us full and lift up our hearts against God and set them on the world so that All is ours not absolutely but subordinately serviceably according to the exigence of our condition to the proportion of our faith and furtherance of our Saluation The third particular inquire into was How we doe by Prayer sanctifie the Creature to our selves This is done in these three courses 1. In procuring them We ought not to set about any of our lawfull and just callings without a particular addressing our selves unto God in Prayer This was the practise of good Eleazer Abrahams servant when he was emploi'd in finding out a wife for his masters sonne O Lord God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and this also was the practise of good Nehemiah in the distresses of his people I prayed unto the God of heaven and then I spake unto the king And surely the very Heathen themselves shall in this point rise up in judgement against many prophane Christians who looke oftner upon their gold then upon their God as Salvian speakes We reade often in their writings that in any generall Calamitie they did joyntly implore the peace and favour of their idolatrous gods that in any matter of consequence they made their entrie upon it by Prayer commending the successe thereof to the power and providence of those deities which they beleeved In so much that we read of Pub. Scipio a great Romane that he ever went to the Capitole before to the Senate and began all the businesses of the Common-wealth with Prayer How much more the◅ ought we to doe it who have not onely the Law and Dictate of nature to guide us who have not deafe and impotent idols to direct our Prayers to as their gods were but have first The Law of Christ requiring it Pray Alwayes Pray without ceasing In every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thankesgiving let your requests be made knowne to God Who have secondly the Example of Christ to enforce it for not onely Morning and Evening was it his Custome to Pray but upon every other solemne occasion Before his Preaching before his Eating before the Election of his Disciples before his Transfiguration in the mount before and in his Passion Who have thirdly from Christ That Legitimate Ordinarie Fundamentall Prayer as Tertullian cals it The Lords Prayer as a Rule and Directorie by him framed to instruct us how to Pray and to bound and confine our extravagant and vast desires Who lastly have also the Altar of Christ to receive the Incense of Christ to perfume the Name and Intercession of Christ to present our Prayers unto God by who have Christ sanctifying and as I may so speake praying our prayers unto hi◅ Father for us as we read of the Angell of the Covenant who had a golden Censer and much incense to offer up the Prayers of the Saints which was nothing else but the mediation of Christ bearing the iniquitie of our holy things as Aaron was appointed to doe nothing but his intercession for us at the right hand of his Father I say how much more reason ◅ave we then any Gentile could have to consecrate all our enterprises with Prayer unto God Humbly to acknowledge how justly he might blast all o◅r businesses and make us labour in the fire that unlesse he keepe the City the watchman watcheth but in vaine that unlesse hee build the house their labour is in vaine that build it that unlesse he give the increase the planting of Paul and the watering of Apollo are but emptie breath that it is onely his blessing on the diligent hand which maketh rich without any sorrow that unlesse he be pleased to favour our attempts neither the plotting of our heads nor the solicitous◅esse of our hearts ◅or the drudgerie of our hands nor the whole cōcurrence of our created strength nor any accessorie assistances which we can procure will be able to bring to passe the otherwise most obvious and feasible Events and therefore to implore his Direction in all our counsels his concurrence with all our Actions his blessing on all our undertakings and his glory as the sole end of all that either we are or doe For by this meanes we doe First acknowledge our dependencie on God as the first cause and give him the glory of his soveraigne Power and Dominion over all second agents in acknowledging that without him we can doe nothing and the power of God is the Ground of Prayer Secondly by this meanes we put God in minde of his Promises and so acknowledge not our dependence on his power only but on his Truth and Goodnesse too And the Promises and Truth of God are the foundation of all our Prayers That which encouraged Daniel to set his face to seeke unto God in Prayer for the restitution of libertie out of Babylon was Gods Promise and Truth revealed by Ieremie the Prophet that hee would accomplish but s◅ventie yeeres in the desolation of Ierusalem That which encouraged Iehosaphat to seeke unto God against the multitude of Moabites which came up against him was his Promise that he would heare and helpe those that did pray towards his house in their affliction That which encouraged David to pray unto God for the stability of his house was the Covenant and Truth of God Thou hast revealed to thy Servant saying I will build thee an house therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this Prayer unto thee And now O Lord thou
momentarie and vanishing First by the Law of their Creation they were made subject to alterations there was an enmitie and reluctancy in their entirest being Secondly this hath been exceedingly improved by the s◅ne of man whose evill being the lord of all Creatures must needs redound to the misery and mortalitie of all his retinue For it was in the greater World as in the administration of a private family the poverty of the Master is felt in the bowels of all the rest his staine and dishonour runnes into all the members of that society As it is in the naturall body some parts may be distempered and ill affected alone others not without contagion on the rest a man may have a dimme eye or a withered arme or a lame foot or an impedite tongue without any danger to the parts adjoyning but a lethargie in the head or an obstruction in the liver or a dyspepsie and indisposition in the stomake diffuseth universall malignity through the body because these are soveraigne and architectonicall parts of man so likewise is it in the great and vast body of the Creation However other Creatures might have kept their evill if any had been in them within their owne bounds yet that evill which man the Lord and head of the whole brought into the world was a spreading and infectious evill which conuey'd poyson into the whole frame of nature and planted the seed of that universall dissolution which shall one day deface with darkenesse and horror the beauty of that glorious frame which wee now admire It is said that when Corah Dathan and Abiram had provoked the Lord by their rebellion against his servants to inflict that fearefull destruction upon them the earth opened her mouth swallowed not only them up but al the houses and men and goods that appertained to them Now in like maner the heaven and earth and al inferior Creatures did at first appertaine to Adam the Lord gave him the free use of them dominion over them when therefore man had committed that notorious rebellion against his maker which was not only to aspire like Corah and his associates to the height and principality of some fellow Creature but even to the absolutenesse wisdome power and independency of God himselfe no marvell if the wrath of God did together with him seize upon his house and all the goods that belongd unto him bringing in that cōfusion and disorder which we even now see doth breake asunder the bonds and ligaments of nature doth unjoynt the confedera◅ies and societies of the dumbe Creatures and turneth the armies of the Almighty into mutinies and commotion which in one word hath so fast manicled the world in the bondag◅ of corruption as that it doth already groane and linger with paine under the sinne of man and the curse of God and will at last breake forth into that universall flame which will melt the very Elements of Nature into their primitive confusion Thus wee see besides the created limitednesse of the creature by which it was utterly unsuteable to the immortall desires of the soule of man the sinne of man hath implanted in them a secret worme and rottennesse which doth set forward their mortalitie and by adding to them confusion enmity disproportion sedition inequalitie all the seeds of corruption hath made them not onely as before they were mortall but which addes one mortalitie to another even momentary and vanishing too When any Creature loseth any of its native and created vigour it is a manifest signe that there is some secret sentence of death gnawing upon it The excellency of the Heavens wee know is their light their beauty their influences upon the lower World and even these hath the sinne of man defaced Wee finde when the Lord pleaseth to reveale his wrath against men for sinne in any terrible manner hee doth it from Heaven There shall be wonders in the Heauen blood and fire and pillars of smoake the Sunne shall be turned into darkenesse and the Moone into blood and the day of the Lord is called a day of darknesse and gloominesse and thicke darknesse How often hath Gods heavy displeasure declared it selfe from Heaven in the confusion of nature in stormes and horrible tempests in thick clouds and darke waters in arrowes of lightning and coales of fire in blacknesse and darkenesse in brimstone on Sodome in a flaming sword over Ierusalem in that fearefull Starre of fire to the Christian World of late yeeres which hath kindled those woful combustions the flames whereof are still so great as that wee our selves if wee looke upon the merits and provocations of our sinnes may have reason to feare that not all the Sea betweene us and our neighbours can bee able to quench till it have scorched and singed us Wee find likewise by plaine experience how languid the seeds of life how faint the vigor either of heavenly influences or of sublunary and inferiour agents are growne when that life of men which was wont to reach to almost a thousand yeeres is esteemed even a miraculous age if it be extended but to the tenth part of that duration We need not examine the inferiour Creatures which we find expressely cursed for the sinne of man with Thornes and Briers the usuall expression of a curse in Scripture If we but open our eyes and looke about us wee shall see what paines Husbandmen take to keepe the earth from giving up the Ghost in opening the veines thereof in applying their Soile and Marle as so many Pills or Salves as so many Cordials and preservatives to keepe it alive in laying it asleepe as it were when it lyeth fallow every second or third yeere that by any meanes they may preserve in it that life which they see plainely approching to its last gaspe Thus you see how besides the originall limitednesse of the Creature there is in a second place a Moth or Canker by the infection of sinne begotten in them which hastens their mortalitie God ordering the second causes so amongst themselves that they exercising enmitie one against another may punish the sinne of man in their contentions as the Lord stirred up the Babylonians against the Egyptians to punish the sinnes of his owne people And therefore wee finde that the times of the Gospell when holinesse was to bee more universall are expressed by such figures as restore perfection and peace to the Creatures The Earth shall be fat and plenteous there shall be upon every high hill Rivers and Streames of water the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And againe the Wolfe shall dwell with the Lambe and the leopard shall lye downe with the kid and a Calfe and a young Lion and a fatling together c. Which places though figuratively to be understood have yet me thinks thus much of the letter in
eyes to apprehend Secondly It is hid in some sort from the faithfull themselves First under the prevalencie of their corruptions and adherencie of concupiscence as Corne under a heape of chaffe or a wall under the Ivie or mettall under the rust which overgrowes it Secondly under the winnowings and temptations of Satan As in sifting of Corne the branne being lightest gets upmost so when Satan disquiets the heart that which is finest and should most comfort will sinke and bee out of sight Thirdly under spirituall desertions and trials as in an Eclipse when the face of the Sunne is intercepted the Moone looseth her light so when God who is our light hideth his Countenance from us no marvell if we can discover no good nor comfort in our selves Secondly the life of glorie is much more obscure and secret for notwithstanding the first fruites and inchoations thereof bee in this life begun in the peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost as in an Eclipse of the Sunne some dimme glimpses doe glance from the edges of the interposed body yet in regard of the plenarie infusion of glorious endowments and those prerogatives of the flesh which belong unto it at the redemption of the bodie it is a hidden mysterie It is a light which is onely sowed for the righteous though we expect a revelation of it yet now it is but as corne in the ground covered over with much darknesse Now we are Sonnes saith Saint Iohn we have Ius ad rem right unto our Life and Crowne already but we are in a farre countrie like the prodigall absent from the Lord and therefore It doth not yet appeare what we shall be we can no more distinctly understand the excellencie of our inheritance by these seales and assurances which ratifie our right thereunto then one who never saw the Sunne could conjecture the light and lustre thereof by the twinckling of a litle starre or the picture thereof in a table Onely this wee know that when he shall appeare wee shall be like unto him not onely in true holynesse for so we are like him now wee are already created after him in righteousnesse and true holynesse but in full holynesse too we shall be filled with all the fulnesse of God as the same Apostle speakes Such a fulnesse as shall satisfie us when I awake I shall bee satisfied with thy likenesse Therefore the last day is by an emphasis called a Day of redemption First in regard of the manifestation and Revelation thereof The Lord shal then appeare and bee revealed from Heaven all those curtens shall bee drawne those vailes betweene us and our Glory those skinnes with which the Arke is overlaid shall be torne and removed our sinnes our earthly condition our manifold afflictions the seeming povertie and foolishnesse of the ordinances shall be all laid aside and then wee shall see our Redeemer not as Iob did from a dunghill nor as Moses through a Cloude but we shall know even as we are knowne Here then wee see one of the maine reasons why wicked men despise religion and abominate the righteous as signes and wonders to bee spoken against They judge of Spiritual things as blind men do of colors These are hidden mysteries to them no marvell if they count it a strange thing and a very madnesse that others runne not to their excesse But our comfort is that our hope is Germen a growing thing a stone full of eyes a hidden Manna sweete though secret a new name which though no other man can know yet he that receiveth it is able to reade And this is the reason too why the Saints themselves are not enough affected with the beautie of Holynesse because it is in great part hidden even from them by corruptions and admixture of earthly lusts Lift up your heads saith our Saviour for your redemption draweth nigh noting unto us that so long as the thoughts and affections of men are downeward their redemption is out of their sight Open thou mine eyes saith David that I may behold the wondrous things out of thy Law I am a stranger on earth O hide not thy Commandements from me When a man makes himselfe a stranger unto earthly things and setteth not any of his choisest affections and desires on them he is then qualified to see those mysteries and wonders which are in the Law If there were no earth there would bee no darknesse for the shadow of the earth is that which makes the night and the bodie of the earth which absenteth the Sunne from our view It is much more certaine in spirituall things the light of Gods Word and Graces would not bee eclipsed if earthly affections did not interpose themselves This is the reason why men goe on in their sinnes and beleeve not the Word because they have a vaile over their eyes which hides the beautie of it from them Who hath beleeved our report or to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed saith the Prophet intimating unto us that the Word will not be beleeved till it bee revealed The Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend unto Pauls preaching As soone as the vaile is taken away by Christ and the Truth Goodnesse and beautie of the Gospell discover'd there is immediately wrought a cleare assent and subscription in the minde an earnest longing and desire in the heart a constant purpose and resolution in the will to forsake all things as dung in comparison of that excellent knowledge As in the discoverie of mathematicall conclusions there is such demonstrative and invincible evidence as would make a man wonder he had not understood them before so in the discoveries of Grace unto the Soule the Spirit doth so throughly convince a man that hee wonders at his former stupiditie which never admired such things before Againe the faithfull are here to be directed in this state of obscuritie how to carry themselves under those corruptions temptations desertions which here hide the brightnesse and beautie of their life from them First above all preserve sinceritie in the heart There is nothing in us so perfect so contrarie to our corruptions as sinceritie that will ever bee to the soule in the midst of darknesse as a chinke in a Dungeon through which it may discerne some glimmerings of light whereas without it all other shewes and pretences are but like windowes fastned upon a thicke wall onely for uniformitie in the building though they seeme specious to the beholder without yet inward they transmit no light at all because they are laid over an opace body Secondly foster not temptations doe not pleade nor promote the Divels cause set not forward thine enemies suggestions Though it bee our dutie to have our sinnes alwayes before us so it bee upon the suggestion and proposall of Gods Spirit yet we must turne our eyes from our very sinnes when Sathan displayes them Christ will be confessed but hee forbids the
covetous practises on Gods owne Day count any time of their life any worke of their hand any sheaffe of their corne any penny of their purse throwne quite away even as so much bloud powr'd out of their veines which is bestow'd on the worship of God and on the service of the Altar but because men thinke that there is indeed more life in their monie and the fruits of their ground then in their God or the promises of his Gospell Else how could it possibly be if men did not in their hearts make God a lier as the Apostle speakes That the Lord should professe so plainely from this day upward since a stone hath beene layed of my house since you have put your selves to any charges for my worship I will surely blesse you and againe Bring all my tithes into my house and prove me if I will not open the windowes of heaven and powre a blessing upon you that there shall not be roome enough to hold it and againe He that hath pitty on the poore lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him againe and againe If thou wilt hearken unto me and obserue to doe all these things then all these blessings shall come on thee and over-take thee blessings in the city and in the field c. If men did in good earnest personally and hypothetically beleeve and embrace these divine truths How could it be that men should grudge Almighty God and his worship every farthing which he requires from them of his owne gifts that they should date let the service and house of God lie dumbe and naked that they should shut up their bowels of compassion against their poore brethren and in them venture to denie Christ himselfe a morsell of bread or a mite of monie that they should neglect the obedience prophane the name word and worship of God use all base and unwarrantable arts of getting and all this out of love of that life and greedinesse of that gaine which yet themselves in their generall subscription to Gods truth have confessed will either never be gotten or at least never blessed by such cursed courses so prodigious a property is there in worldly things to obliterate all notions of God out of the heart of a man and to harden him to any impudent abominations I spake unto thee in thy prosperity saith the Lord but thou saidst I will not heare According to their pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me Take heede lest when thou hast eaten and art full thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God Therefore it is that we reade of the Poorerich in faith and of the Gospell preached to the Poore and revealed unto babes because greatnesse and abundance stops the eare and hardens the heart and makes men stand at defiance with the simplicitie of the Gospell Now then that we may be instructed how to use the Creature as becommeth a dead and impotent thing wee may make use of these few directions First have thine Eye ever upon the Power of God which alone animateth and raiseth the Creature to that pitch of livelihood which is in it and who alone hath infinite wayes to weaken the strongest or to arme the weakest Creature against the stoutest sinner Peradventure thou hast as much lands and possessions as many sheepe and oxen as Iob or Nabal yet thou hast not the lordship of the clouds God can harden the heavens over thee hee can send the mildew and canker into thy corne the rot and murren into thy cattell though thy barnes bee full of corne and thy fats overflow with new wine yet he can breake the staffe of thy bread that the flowre and the winepresse shall not feed thee though thou have a house full of silver and gold he can put holes into every bagge and chinkes into every Cisterne that it shall all sinke away like a winter torrent God can either denie thee a power and will to enjoy it and this is as sore a disease as poverty it selfe or else hee can take away thy strength that thou shalt not relish any of thy choisest delicates he can send a stone or a gowte that shall make thee willing to buy with all thy riches a poore and a dishonorable health and which is yet worst of all he can open thy conscience and let in upon thy Soule that lyon which lies at the dore amaze thee with the sight of thine owne sinnes the historie of thine evill life the experience of his terrours the glimpses and preoccupations of hell the evident presumptions of irreconciliation with him the frenzie of Cain the despaire of Iudas the madnesse of Achitophel the trembling of Felix which will damp all thy delights and make all thy sweetest morsels as the white of an Egge at which pinch however now thou admire and adore thy thicke clay thou wouldest count it the wisest bargaine thou did'st ever make to give all thy goods to the poore to goe bare-foote the whole day with the Prophet Esay to dresse thy meate with the dung of a man as the Lord commanded the Prophet Ezekiel to feede with Micajah in a dungeon on bread of affliction and water of affliction for many yeeres together that by these or any other meanes thou mightest purchase that inestimable peace which the whole earth though changed into a Globe of Gold or Center of Diamond cannot procure So uttterly unable are all the Creatures in the world to give life as that they cannot preserue it intire from forraine or domestique assaults nor remove those dumps and pressures which doe any way disquiet it Secondly to remove this naturall deadnesse of the Creature or rather to recompence it by the accession of a Blessing from God use meanes to reduce it unto its primitive Goodnesse The Apostle shewes us the way Every Creature of God is good being sanctified by the Word of God and by Prayer In which place because it is a text then which there are few places of Scripture that come more into dayly and generall use with all sorts of men it will be needfull to unfold 1. What it meant by the sanctification of the Creature 2. How it is sanctified by the Word 3. How wee are to sanctifie it to our selves by Prayer For the first The Creature is then sanctified when the curse and poison which sin brought upon it is remooved when we can use the Creature with a cleane conscience and with assurance of a renewed and comfortable estate in them It is an Allusion to legall purifications and differences of meates Levit. 11. No Creature is impure of it selfe saith the Apostle in its owne simple created nature But in as much as the sinne of man forfeited all his interest in the Creature because eo ipso a man is legally dead and a condemn'd man is
things but as accessions unto him Otherwise if wee love it either alone or above Christ however it may by Gods providence keepe our breath a while in our nostrils and fatten us against the last day yet impossible it is that it should ever minister the true and solid comforts of life unto us which consisteth not in the abundance of things which a man possesseth as our Saviour speakes Life goes not upward but downeward the inferiour derives it not on the superiour therefore by placing the Creature in our estimation above Christ we deny unto it any influence of livelihood from him whom yet in words we professe to be the fountaine of life But men will object and say This is a needlesse caution not to preferre the Creature before the Creator as if any man were so impious and absurd Surely Saint Paul tells us that men without faith are impious and absurd men who doe in their affections and practises as undoubtedly undervalue Christ as the Gadarens that preferred their Swine before him What else did Esau when for a messe of pottage he sold away his birth-right which was a priviledge that led to Christ What else did the people in the Wildernesse who despised the holy Land which was the type of Christs Kingdome and in their hearts turned backe to Egypt What else did those wicked Israelites who polluted the Table of the Lord and made his Altar contemptible which was a type of Christ What else did Iudas and the Iewes who sold and bought the Lord of glory for the price of a beast What else doe daily those men who make Religion serve turnes and godlinesse waite upon gaine who creepe into houses with a forme of pietie to seduce unstable foules and plucke off their feathers to make themselves a neast The Apostles Rule is generall that sensuall and earthly-minded men are all the enemies of the Crosse of Christ Phil. 3. 18. 19. The third and last disproportion betweene the soule of Man and the Creature arising from the vanitâ—…e thereof is in regard of duration and continuance Man is by nature a provident Creature apt to lay up for the time to come and that disposition should reach beyond the forecast of the Foole in the Gospell for many yeeres even for immortalitie it selfe For certainely there is no man who hath but the generall notions of corrupted reason alive within him who hath not his conscience quite vitiated and his minde putrified with noysome lusts who is not wrapped up in the mud of thicke ignorance and palpable stupiditie but must of necessitie have oftentimes the immediate representations of immortalitie before his eyes Let him never so much smother and suppresse the truth let him with all the Arte he can divert his conceits and entangle his thoughts in secular cares let him shut his eye-lids as close as his naile is to his flesh yet the flashes of immortalitie are of so penetrative and searching a nature that they will undoubtedly get through all the obstacles which a minde not wholly over-dawb'd with worldlinesse and ignorance can put betweene Therefore the Apostle useth that for a strong argument why rich men should not trust in uncertaine riches but in the living God and should be rich in good workes That so saith he they may lay up in store a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life 1. Tim. 6. 17. 19. Wicked men indeed lay up in store but it is not riches but wrath even violence and oppression against the last day But by trusting God and doing good a man layes up durable Riches as the wise Man speakes in which respect he presently addes That the fruit of wisedome is better then Gold For though Gold be of all Mettals the most solid and therefore least subject to decay yet it is not immortall and durable riches for the Apostle tels us that silver and gold are corruptible things and that there is a rust and canker which 〈◊〉 up the gold and silver of wicked men I confesse the hearts of many men are so glewed unto the world especially when they finde all things succeed prosperously with them that they are apt enough to set up their rest and to conceite a kinde of stedfastnesse in the things they possesse Because they haue no changes saith the Prophet David therefore they feare not God But yet I say where the Lord doth not wholly give a man over to heape up treasures unto the last day to be eaten up with the canker of his owne wealth the soule must of necessâ—…y sometime or other happen upon such sad thoughts as these What ailes my foolish heart thus to eate up it selfe with care and to rob mine eyes of their beloved sleepe for such things as to the which the time will come when I must bid an everlasting farewell Am I not a poore mortall Creature brother to the Wormes sister to the Dusâ—… Doe I not carry about with mee a soule full of corruptions a skinne full of diseases Is not my breath in my nostrils where there is roome enough for it to goe out and possibility never to come in again Is my flesh of brasse or my bones of iron that I should thinke to hold out and without interruption to enjoy these earthly things Or if they were yet are not the Creatures themselves subject to period and mortalitie Is there not a Moth in my richest garments a Worme in my tallest Cedars a Canker and rust in my fiâ—…nest Gold to corrupt and eate it out Or if not will there not come a day when the whole frame of Nature shall bee set on fire and the Elements themselves shall melt with heate when that universall flame shall devoure all the bagges and lands and offices and honours and treasures and store houses of worldly men When Heaven and Hell shall divide the World Heaven into which nothing can be admitted which is capable of Moth or rust to corrupt it and Hel into which if any such things could come they would undoubtedly in one instant bee swallowed vp in those violent and unextinguishable flames And shall I be so foolish as to 〈◊〉 my felicity in that which will faile me when I shall stand in greatest neede to heape up treasures into a broken bagge to worke in the fire where all must perish Certainely the soule of a meere worldly man who cannot finde God or Christ in the things hee enjoyes must of necessity be so fâ—…rre from reaping solid or constant comfort from any of these perishable Creatures that it cannot but ake and tremble but be wholly surprized with dismall passions with horrid preapprehensions of its owne wofull estate upon the evidence of the Creatures mortalitie and the unavoideable flashes and conviction of its owne everlastingnesse Now if we consider the various rootes of this corruption in the Creature it will then further appeare unto us that they are not onely mortall but even
spue and rise up no more even that fierce and bitter indignation in the pouring out of which the Lord shall put to his right hand his strong arme not onely the terror of his presence but the glory of his power I say the Lord could let drunkards alone till at last they meet with this Cup which undoubtedly they shall doe if there be either truth in Gods word or power in his right hand if there be either Iustice in heaven or fire in hell till with Belshazzar they meet with dregs and trembling in the bottome of all their Cups but yet oftentimes the Lord smites them with a more sudden blow snatcheth away the Cup from their very mouths and so makes one Curse anticipate and preuent another Though Haman and Achitophel should have liv'd out the whole thred of their life yet at last their honor must have laine downe in the dust with them Though Iudas could have liv'd a thousand yeares and could have improv'd the reward of his Masters bloud to the best advantage that ever Vsurer did yet the rust would at last have seiz'd upon his bags and his monie must have perished with him but now the Lord sets forward his Curse and that which the moth would have been long in doing the gallows dispatcheth with a more swift destruction Thus as the body of a man may have many summons and engagements unto one death may labour at once under many desperate diseases all which by a malignant conâ—…unction must needs hasten a mans end as Cesar was stabd with thirty wounds each one whereof might have serv'd to let out his soule so the Creatures of God labouring under a manifold corruption doe as it were by so many wings post away from the Owners of them and for that reason must needs be utterly disproportionable to the condition of an Immortall Soule Now to make some Application of this particular before wee leave it This doth first discover and shame the folly of wicked worldlings both in their opinions and affections to earthly things Love is blinde and will easily make men beleeve that of any thing which they could wish to bee in it and therefore because wicked men wish with all their hearts for the love they beare to the Creatures that they might continue together for ever the Divell doth at last so deeply delude them as to thinke that they shall continue for ever Indeed in these and in the generall they must needs confesse that one generation commeth and another goeth but in their owne particular they can never assume with any feeling and experimentall assent the truth of that generall to their owne estates And therefore what ever for shame of the world their outward professions may be yet the Prophet David assures us That their inward Thoughts their owne retir'd contrivances and resolutions are that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling places to all generations and upon this Immortality of stones and monuments they resolve to rest But the psalmist concludes this to be but brutish and notorious folly This their way is their folly they like sheepe are laid downe in their graves and death feeds upon them And indeed what a folly is it for men to build upon the sand to erectan Imaginarie fabrick of I know not what Immortality which hath not so much as a constant subsistence in the head that contrives it What man will ever goe about to build a house with much cost and when he hath done to inhabit it himself of such rotten and inconsistent materials as will undoubtedly within a yeere or two after fall upon his head and bury him in the ruines of his owne folly Now then suppose a man were lord of all the World and had his life coextended with it were furnished with wisedome to manage and strength to runne through all the affaires incident to this vast frame in as ample a measure as any one man for the governement of a private family yet the Scripture would assure even such a man that there will come a day in which the heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt up and that there is but one houre to come before all this shall be Behold now is the last houre And what man upon these termes would fix his heart and ground his hopes upon such a tottering bottome as will within a little while crumble into dust and leave the poore soule that rested upon it to sinke into hell But now when we consider that none of us labour for any such inheritance that the extremitie of any mans hopes can be but to purchase some little patch of earth which to the whole World cannot beare so neere a proportion as the smallest molehill to this whole habitable earth that all we toyle for is but to have our loade of a little thicke clay as the Prophet speakes that when wee have gotten it neither wee nor it shall continue till the universall dissolution but in the midst of our dearest embracements we may suddenly be puld asunder and come to a fearefull end it must needs be more then brutish stupidity for a man to weave the Spiders webs to wrappe himselfe up from the consumption determined against the whole earth in a covering that is so infinitely too short and too narrow for him Wee will conclude this particular with the doome given by the Prophet Ieremy As the Partridge sitteth on egges and hatcheth them not shee is either caught by the fowler or her egges are broken so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes and in the end shall bee a foole Secondly this serves to justifie the wisedome and providence of God in his proceedings with men The wicked here provoke God and cry aloud for vengeance on their owne head and the Lord seemes to stop his eares at the cry of sinne and still to loade them with his blessings he maketh their way to prosper they take roote and grow and bring forth fruite they shine like a blazing Comet and threaten ruine to all that looke upon them they carry themselves like some Tyrant in a Tragedy that scatters abroad death with the sparkles of his eyes and darts out threats against the heaven aboue him they are like Agag before Samuel clothed very delicately and presume that there is no bitternesse to come And now the impatiency of man that cannot resolve things into their proper issues that cannot let iniquitie ripen nor reconcile one day and a thousand yeeres together begins to question Gods proceedings and is afraid leâ—…t the World be governed blindfold and blessings and curses throwne confusedly abroad for men as it were to scramble and to scuffie for them But our God who keepeth times and seasons in his owne power who hath given to every Creature under the Sunne limits
consent unto and delight in the Law feele a warre in his members mourne and cry out under the sense of his owne wretchednesse yet for all this he is still an unregenerate man an opinion tending directly to the honour of Pelagianisme and advancement of nature which made Saint Austen in that ingenuous and noble worke of hiâ—… retractations to recant it and in all his writings against the Pelagians in which as in other polemicall workes where the vigilancy of an enemy and feare of advantages makes him more circumspect how he speaks his expositions of Scripture are usually more literall and solid then where he allowes himselfe the scope of his owne conceits He still understandes those passages of the complaints of a regenerate man against his inherent concupiscence We are therefore to resolve that the opposition stands thus Once in my state of unregeneration I was without the law that is without the spirituall sense of the Law but when the Lord began to reveale his mercy to me in my conversion then he gave me eye to understand it in its native and proper compasse The Apostle was never quite without the Law being an Hebrew and bred up at thefeet of Gamaliâ—…l therefore the difference betweene being without the Law and the comming of the Law must be onely in modo exhibendi before he had it in the letter but after it came in its owne spirituall shape And there is some emphasis in the word caâ—…e denoting a vital moving penetrative power which the Law had by the spirit of life and which before it had not as it was a Dead letter Secondly wee must note the opposition betweene the two estates of Saint Paul In the first he was Alive and that in two respects A live in his performances able as he conceiv'd to performe the righteousnesse of the law without blaâ—…e Phil. 3. 6. A live in his Presumptions mispersuasions selfe-justifications conceits of righteousnesse and salvation Act. 26. 9. Phil. 3. 7. In the second estate Sinne revived I found that that was but a sopor a benumdnesse which was in my apprehension a death of sinne and I died had experience of the falsenesse and miseries of my presumptions The life of sinne and the life of a sinner are like the ballances of a paire of scoles when one goes up the other must fall downe when sinne lives the man must dye man and sinne are like Mâ—…entius his couples they are never both alive together Many excellent points and of great consequence to the spirits of men would rise out of these words thus unfolded as First that a man may have the Law in the Church wherein he lives in the letter of it and yet bee without the Law in the power and spirit of it by ignorance misconstructions false glosses and perverse wrestings of it as a covetous man may have the possession of monie and yet be without the vse and comforts of it 2. Cor. 3. 6. 2. Pâ—…t 3. 16. Matth. 5. 21. 22. 27. 28. 31. 32. 33. 38. Which should teach us to beware of Ignorance It makes the things which wee have unusefull to us If any man have the Law indeed hee will labour First to have more acquaintance with it and with God by it The more the Saints know of God and his will the neereâ—… communion doe they desire to have with him Wee see this heavenly affection in Iacob Gen. 32. 26. 29. Gen. 49. 18. in Moses Exod. 33. 12. 18. in David Psal 119. 18. 125. in the Spouse Cant. 1. 2. in Manoah Iud. 13. 17. in Paul 2. Cor. 5. 2. Phil. 3. 13. 14. As the Queene of She ba when shee had heard of the glory of Salomon was not content till she came to see it or as Absolom being restor'd from banishment and tasting some of his Fathers love was impatient till he might see his face so the Saints having something of Gods will and mercy revealed to them are very importunate to enjoy more Secondly to be more conformable unto it to Iudge and measure himselfe the oftner by it Psal. 119. 11. The law is utterly in vaine no dignity no benefit nor priviledge to a people by it if it be not obeyed Thirdly to love and praise God for his goodnesse in it Ioh. 14. 21. Secondly ignorance of the true meaning of the Law and resting upon false grounds doth naturally beget these two things First blinde zeale much active and in appearance unblameable devotion As it did here and elsewhere in Saint Paul Phil. 3. 6. Act. 22. 3. in the honourable women Act. 13. 50. in the Pharises Matth. 23. 15. in false brethren Col. 2. 23. in the Iewes that submitted not themselves to the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 2. 3. In the papists in their contentions for trash rigorous observation of their owne traditions out-sides and superinducements upon the pretious foundation Secondly strong mis-perswasions and selfe-justifications dependant upon our workes and rigid endeavors for salvation at the last Hos. 12. 8. Esai 48. 1. 2. 58. 2. 7. Amos 5. 18. 21. 25. Mic. 3. 11. 12. Zech. 7. 3. 4. 5. 6. Hos. 8. 2. 3. Luk. 18. 11. 12. unregenerat men are often secure men making principles and premises of their owne to build the conclusions of their Salvation upon But beware of it It is a desperate hazard to put eternity upon an adventure to trust in God upon other termes then himselfe hath proposed to be trusted in to lay claime to mercy without any writings or seales or witnesses or patents or acquittance from sinne to have the evidences of hell and yet the presumptions of heaven to be weary of one sabbath here and yet presume upon the expectation of an eternity which shall be nothing else but sabbath In the Civill Law Testes domestici Houshold witnesses who might in reason be presum'd parties are invalid and uneffectuall Surely in matters of Salvation if a man have no witnesse but his owne spirit misinform'd by wrong rules seduc'd by the subtilties of Satan and the deceite of his owne wicked heart carried away with the course of the world and the common prejudices and presumptions of foolish men they will all faile him when it shall be too late God will measure men by his owne line and righteousnesse by his owne plummet and then shall the Haile sweepe away the refuge of lies and waters over-flow the hiding place of those men that made a covenant with death Secondly beware of proud resolutions selfe love reservations wit distinctions evasions to escape the word these are but the weapons of lust but the exaltations of a fleshly minde but submit to the word receive it with meekenesse be willing to count that sense of scripture truest which most restraineth thy corrupt humors and crosseth the imaginations of thy fleshly reason Our owne weapons must be render'd up before the sword of the spirit which is the word of God will be on our
driving to no point nor issue running into no conclusion nor resolutions of further obedience in faith and godlinesse This is that which in thy converse with others mingles so much frowardnesse levitie unprofitablenesse to or from them This is that which in thy calling makes so unmindfull of God and his service aime at nothing but thine own emoluments Where is the man who in all the wayes of his ordinarie calling labours to walke in obedience and feare of God to carry alwayes the affections of a servant as considering that he is doing the Lords worke That consecrates and sanctifies all his courses by prayer that beggeth strength presence concurrence supplies of spirit from God to lead him in the way which he ought to goe and to preserve him against those snares and temptations which in his calling he is most exposed unto that imploreth a blessing from heaven on his hearers in their conversation on his clients in their cause on his patients in their cure on himselfe in his studies on the state in all his servlees That is carefull to redeeme all his pretious time and to make every houre of his life comfortable and beneficiall to himselfe and others Where is the man whose particular calling doth not trench and incroach upon his generall calling the duties which he owes to God That spares sufficient time to humble himselfe to studie Gods will to acquaint himselfe with the Lord to keepe a constant Communion with his God nay that doth not adventure to steale from Gods owne day to speake his owne words to ripen or set forward his owne or his friends advantages In all this take notice of that naughty Inmate in thy bosome set thy selfe against it as thou wouldest do against the Stratagems of a most vigilant enemie or of a perfidious friend Qui inter amplexus strangâ—…lat that like Dalilah never comes alone but with Philistimes too like Iael never comes with Milke and Butter alone but withall with a naile and a hammer to fasten not thy head alone but which is worse thy heart also unto earthly things Fourthly consider the Fruitfulnesse of it It is both male and female as I may so speake within it selfe both the Tempter and the seed and the wombe Suppose wee it possible for a man to be separated from the sight and fellowship from the contagions and allurements of all other wicked men kept out of the reach of Satans suggestions and sollicitations nay to converse in the midst of the most renowned Saints that are yet that man hath enough in himselfe and would quickly discover it to beget to conceive to bring forth to multiply to consummate actuall sinnes The Apostle S. Iames sets forth the birth and progresse of actuall sinne Every man is tempted when he is drawne away and enticed of his owne lust there Lust is the father the adulterer and Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sinne there Lust is the mother too and there is no mention of any seede but the temptation of lust it selfe the stirrings and flatteries and dalliances of the sinfull heart with it selfe Iam. 1. 13 14 15. The same Apostle compares it to Hell which notes the unsatiablenesse of the wombe of sinne that doth enlarge its desires as the grave nay to the fire of Hell nothing so apt to multiply as fire every thing ministers occasion of encrease unto it but then ordinary fire workes out it selfe and dies but. Lust as it is like fire in multiplying so it is like Hell fire in abiding it is not preserv'd by a supply of outward materials to foment and cherish it but it supports its selfe It is like a troubled sea which casteth up mire and dirt a fountaine out of which every day issue Adulteries thefts murthers evill thoughts c It bringeth forth fruite like Summer fruit Who hath heard such a thing who hath seene such things shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day saith the Prophet yet consider how suddenly this sinne brings forth When you see in your children of a span long their sinne shew it selfe before their haire or their teeth vanity pride frowardnesse selfe-love revenge and the like then thinke upon your owne infancie and bewaile Adams image so soone in your selves and yours in your children I have seene saith Saint Austin a sucking infant that was not able to articulate a word looke with a countenance even pale for Envie upon his fellow Suckling that shared with him in the same milke upon which consideration the holy man breakes forth into this pious complaint Ubi Domine quando Domine where ever was the place O Lord when ever was the time O Lord that I have been an Innocent Creature Secondly consider how continually it brings forth even every day Gen. 6. 5. or all the day long as fast as the Sunne begets swarmes of vermine or the fire sparkles Thirdly consider how desperately it breakes forth When thou seest a man wallow like a beast in his owne vomit dart out blasphemies against heaven revile the Gospell of Salvation teare the blessed name of God in pieces with abhorrid and hideous oathes Cain murthering his brother Iudas betraying his master Ananias lying to the Holy Ghost Lucian mocking the Lord Iesus as a crucified Impostor Iulian darting up his bloud against heaven in hatred of Christ the Scribes and Pharises blaspheming the holy spirit then reflect on thy selfe and consider that this is thine owne image that thou hast the same roote of bitternesse in thy selfe if the Grace of God did not hinder and prevent thee As face answereth unto face in water renders the selfe same shape colour lineaments proportion so the Heart of man to man every man may in any other mans hart see the complet image deformities uncleannesse of his owne Suppose we Two Acorns of a most exact and geometricall equality in seminall vertue planted in two severall places of as exact and uniforme a temper of earth needs must they both grow into trees of equall strength and 〈◊〉 unlesse the benignitie and influences of heaven doe come differently upon them Our case is the same we are all naturally cast into one mould all equally partake the selfe same degrees and proportions of originall lusts our harts equally by nature fruitfull in evill If then we proceed not to the same compasse and excesse of riot with other men we must not attribute it to our selues or any thing in our natures as if we had made our selues to differ but onely to the free and blessed influences of the Grace of Christ and his Spirit which bloweth where it listeth Lastly consider how unexpectedly it will breake forth Is thy servant a Dog that hee should doe this great thing To dash children to pieces and rip up women with childe It was the speech of Hazael to Elisha the Prophet As if he should have said I must cease to be a man I must put off all the principles of
the evill spirit against Ahab and his Prophets that hee should goe forth with lying perswasions and should bee beleeved and prevaile according to that of the Apostle that God giveth over those that beleeve not the Truth but have pleasure in unrighteousnesse to strong delusions that they may beleeve a lye and that the God of this world doth blinde the eyes of those which beleeve not Lastly the Punishment of sinne is Eternall That wrath which in the day of the Revelation of Gods righteous Iudgement shall bee powred forth upon ungodly men The Saints are redeemed already in this life and are said to have Eternall Life but yet that great day is by an excellency called the day of Redemption because then that life which is here hid shall be then fully discovered So on the other side though the wrath of God be revealed from Heaven already against all unrighteonsnesse and Abideth vpon those that beleeve not yet after an especiall manner is the last day called a day of wrath because then the heapes treasures stormes and tempests blackenesse and darkenesse of Gods displeasure shall in full force seize upon ungodly men And this wrath of God is of all other most unsupportable First In regard of the Author It comes from God Now we know a little stone if it fall from a high place or a smal dart shot out of a strong bow wil do more hurt then a farre greater that is but gently laid on How wefull then must the case of those be who shall have mountaines and milstones throwne with Gods owne arme from Heaven upon them for though God in this life suffer himselfe to bee wrestled with and even pressed downe yet at last he shall come to shew forth the glory of his Power in the just condemnation of wicked men Secondly in its owne nature because it is most heavie and invincible All conquest over an evill must proceede either from Power which is able to expell it or from Faith and Hope that a man shall be delivered from it by those that have more power then himselfe what ever evill it is which doth either keepe downe Nature that it connot rise or hedge it in that it cannot escape is very intollerable Now Gods wrath hath both these in it First it is so great that it exceedes all the power of the Creature to overcome it heavier then mountaines hotter then fire no chaffe nor stubble shall stand before it and it shall be All within a man folded up in his very substance like the worme in the wood on which it feedes And secondly as it is heavie and so excludes the strength of nature to overcome it so is it infinite too and thus it excludes the hope of nature to escape it The ground of which infinitenesse in punishment is the infinite disproportion betweene the Iustice of God which will punish and the nature of man which must suffer Gods Iustice being Infinite the violation thereof in sinne must needes contract an infinite demerit and debt because in sinning we robbe God of his Glory which we must repay him againe Now the satisfaction of an Infinite debt must needes be Infinite either in degrees which is impossible For first nothing can bee Infinite in Being though it may in duration but onely God And secondly if it could yet a finite vessell were not able to hold an infinite wrath or else in some other infinitenesse which is either infinitenesse of worth in the person satisfying or for defect of that infinitenesse of time to suffer that whith cannot bee suffered in an infinite measure And this is the reason why Christ did not suffer infinitely in time because there was in him a more excellent iâ—…finitenesse of person which raised a finite suffering into the value of an infinite satisfaction though Scotus and from him some learned men have rendered another reason hereof because hee suffered onely for those who were to breake off their sinnes by Repentance Now then to conclude all In as much as sinne is by the Law made exceeding sinfull and death exceeding deadly not to legall but evangelicall purposes not to drive men to blaspheme or despaire but to beleeve not to frighten them from God but to drive them unto him in his Sonne for the Law comes not but in the hand of a mediator And in as much as this is the accepted time and the day of Salvation that now he commandeth All Men every where to repent because he hath appointed a Day in the which he will Iudge the World in righteousnesse whom hee doth now invite and beseech in mercy We should therefore be wise for our selves and being thus pursued and cast in the Court of Law flie to that Heavenly Chancery that Office of Mercie and miâ—…gation which is set up in the Gospell and that while it is yet called to Day before the Percullis bee shut downe before the blacke flagge be hung out before the Talent of Lead seale up the measure of our wickednesse and the Irreversible decree of wrath be gone forth for we must know that God will not alwayes bee despised nor suffer his Gospell to waite ever upon obdurate â—…ners or his Sonne to stand ever at our dores as if he stood in need of our admittance But when there is no remedy but that we judge our selves unworthy of Eternall Life and stand in contempt and rebellion against his Court of Mercie he will dismisse us to the Law againe O Consider what wilt thou doe if thou shouldest bee dragg'd naked to the Tribunall of Christ and not bee able with all thy cries to obtaine so much mercie from any Mountaine as to live for ever under the weight and pressure of it When thou shalt peepe out of thy Grave and see Heaven and Earth on fire about thine eares and Christ comming in the flames of that fire to revenge on thee the quarrell of his Covenant Whither then wilt thou fly from the presence of him that sitteth on the Throne Let us therefore learne to Iudge our selves that wee may not be condemned of the Lord to fly to his Sanctuary before wee be haled to his tribunall Hee requires no great thing of us but onely to relinquish our selues and in humilitie and sincerity to accept of him and receive that redemption by beleeving in him which hee hath wrought by suffering for us this if in truth and spirit we doe all the rest will undoubtedly follow namely the life of our Faith here in an universall obedience and the end of our faith hereafter even the falvation of our Soules THE RAIGNE OF SINNE ROM 6. 12. Let not sinne therefore Raigne in your mortall bodiâ—…s that you should obay it in the lusts thereof AFter the doctrine of the state and guilt of sinne It will be needefull for the further Conviction thereof that sinne may appeare exceeding sinfull to shew in the next place the Power and the Raigne of sinne from which the Apostle in
Hee shall change our vile bodies into the similitude of his Glorious bodie When Hee comes we shall meete him and be ever with him Hee is ascended to his Father and our Father to his God and our God and therefore to his Kingdome and our Kingdome His by personall proprietie and hypostaticall union ours by his purchase and merit and by our mysticall union and fellowship with him He is gone to prepare a place for us In Earth Hee was our suretie to answere the penaltie of our sinnes and in Heaven He is our Advocate to take seifin and possession of that Kingdome for us Our Captaine and Forerunner and high Priest who hath not onely carried our names but hath broken off the vaile of the Sanctuary and given us accesse into the Holyest of all And hee that hath the Sonne hath this life alreadie in three regards First in pâ—…etio he hath the price that procured it esteemed his It was bought with the pretious blood of Christ in his Name and to his use and it was so bought for him that he hath a present right and claime unto it It is not his iâ—… Reversion after an expiration of any others right there are no leaseâ—… nor reversions in Heaven but it is his as an inheritance is the heires after the death of the Ancestor who yet by minoritie of yeeres or distance of place may occupie and possesse it by some other person Secondly Hee hath it in promisso He hath Gods Charter his Assurance sealed with an oath and a double Sacrament to establish his heart in the expectation of it By two immutable things faith the Apostle namely the Word and the Oath of God wherein it was impossible for him to he we have strong consolation and great ground of hope which hope is sure and stedfast and leadeth us unto that place which is within the vaile whither Christ our Forerunner is gone before us Thirdly He hath it in primitijs in the earnest and first fruites and hansell of it in those few clusters of grapes and bunches of figges those Graces of Christs Spirit that peace comfort serenitie which is shed forth into the heart already from that Heavenly Canaan The Holy Spirit of Promise is the earnest of our inheritance untill the Redemption or full fruition and Revelation of our purchased possession to the prayse of his Glory The Graces of the Spirit in the soule are as certaine and infallible evidences of Salvation as the day starre or the morning aurora is of the ensuing day or Sunne-rising For all spirituall things in the Soule are the beginnings of Heaven parcels of that Spirit the fulnesse and residue whereof is in Christs keeping to adorne us with when he shall present us unto his Father But this Doctrine of the Life of Glory is in this life more to be made use of then curiously to bee enquired into O then where the Treasure is let the heart be where the body is let the Eagles resort if wee are already free men of heaven let our thoughts our language our conversation our Trading be for Heaven Let us set our faces towards our home Let us awake out of sleepe considering that now our salvation is neerer then when we first beleeved If wee have a hope to be like him at his comming let us purifie our selves even as hee is pure since there is a price a high calling a crowne before us let us presse forward with all violence of devotion never thinke our selves farre enough but prepare our hearts still and lay hold on every advantage to further our progresse Since there is a rest remaining for the people of God let us labour to enter into it and to hold fast our profession that as well absent as present we may be accepted of him Secondly since we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Let us feele the burden of our fleshly corruptions and groane after our redemption Let us long for the revelation of the Sonnes of God and for his appearing as the Saints under the Altar How long Lord Iesus Holy and Iust. Thirdly let us with enlarg'd and ravish'd affections with all the vigor and activitie of enflamed hearts recount the great love of God who hath not onely delivered us from his wrath but made us Sonnes married his owne infinite Maiestie to our nature in the unitie of his Sonnes person and made us in him Kings Priests and Heires unto God Beloved what manner of Love How unsearchable How bottomlesse how surpassing the apprehensions of Men or Angels is the Love of God to us saith the Apostle that wee should be called the Sonnes of God Lastly if God will glorifie us with his Life hereafter let us labour as much as wee can to glorifie Him in our lives here It was our Saviours argument who might have entered into Glory as his owne without any such way of procurement if his owne voluntarie undertaking the office of Mediator had not concluded him Glorifie me with thy selfe with the glorie which I had with thee before the World was for I have gloryfied thee on Earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest mee to doe If we are indeede perswaded that there is laid up for us a Crowne of righteousnesse we cannot but with Saint Paul resolve to fight a good fight to finish our course to keepe the faith to bring forth much fruite that our Father may be glorified in us And now having unfolded this threefold Life which the faithfull have in Christ wee may further take notice of three attributes or properties of this life both to humble and to secure us and they are all couched in one word of the Apostle your life is hid with Christ in God It is in Christs keeping as in the hands of a faithfull depositary and it is a Life in God a full Life a derivation from the Fountaine of Life where it is surer and sweeter then in any Cisterne Here then are three properties of a Christians Life in Christ first Obscuritie secondly Plentie thirdly safetie or Eternitie First it is an obscure life a secret aâ—d mysterious life so the Apostle calleth Godlynesse a Mysterie As there is a mysterie of iniquitie and the hidden things of uncleannesse so there is a Mysterie of Godlynesse and the hidden man of the heart The Life of Grace first is hidden totally from the wicked A stranger doth not intermeddle with a righteous mans joy The naturall man knoweth not any things of Gods spirit Saint Peter gives the reason because he is blinde and cannot see a farre off Now the things of God are deepe things and high things upward they have too much brightnesse and downeward they have too much darknesse for purblinde