〈◊〉 or Word which since hath been made flesh as all unbelievers and disobedient men since hee was made flesh Now to fortifie this inference he addeth ver 12. Vivus est sermo Dei The Word or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom wee are to render an accompt is quick and power full more piercing then any two edged sword So farre from winking at the ignorance of these times that all things are naked and open unto his eyes His countenance as saint John saith was as the Sun shineth in his strength Rev. 1. 16. and his eyes as a flame of fire vers 14. unto his eyes thus opened when the Judgment shall be set the bookes as Daniel saith were opened Dan. 7. 10. And this prophecie is unfolded by St. John Rev. 20. 12. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 17. This is the next part of the Process and by the Books which are opened the best Interpreters Ancient and Modern understand the Books of Conscience which until that day shall not be unfolded or become fully legible no not unto them which keep these Books though every man have one of them or at least an exact Copie or Exemplification of them For it may be that the Authentick Copie or Register of every mans Conscience is treasured up in this Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Copies shall become legible by his appearance Many actual sins many secret thoughts or evil words have been daily practised or entertained by us w ch leave no print or impression in our Phantasies of their passage The memorie of many gross sins which for the present make deep impression daily wears out or decayes to our apprehensions their print or Character in some being defac'd or obliterated by new ones more gross as if a man should write in Capital Letters upon a paper already written in a smaller Character and more obscure In others the Records of Conscience though in themselves legible so they would look into them are wrapt up in multiplicitie of business But when the Judge shall appear in his Glorie the Book shall be fully opened the Character or impression of every sinful thought or action shall then become legible not a syllable of what we have spoken to our selves shall be lost and every letter and every syllable which hath not been washt away or purified by the Blood of the Lamb shall be as a stigma or brand to the Soul and Conscience wherein it is found and shall fret as an incurable Gangren or Canker Every seed of corruption whether propagated from our first parents or sown by our selves which seemed to lie dead without all motion unlesse they be truly mortified by the spirit shall at the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness begin to quicken and grow ripe in a moment And albeit these seeds be as many in number as the sand though our whole flesh or bodily man be more full of them then any fishes ventricle is full of Spawn yet the least of them shall grow for its malignant quality into a Serpent and sting the soul and body wherein it bred like an Adder These are the best fruits which they that daily sow unto the flesh shall then reap of the flesh even corruption sorrow and torments incorruptible and unsufferable yet perpetually to be suffered by them But of the quality and perpetuity of these pains hereafter by Gods assistance when we come to the Award or Sentence 18. Now to conclude Albeit this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Eternal Word of God before whose Judgment Seat we must appear and to whom we are to render our final accompt were made flesh to the end and purpose that the very words of God immediately uttered by himself which formerly so uttered did sound nothing but death and destruction to flesh and blood might become the very food of life being thus distilled and uttered by an Organ of flesh yet such they are only unto such as receive him and are purified in soul and conscience by them To such as received him saith S. John he gave this priviledge to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. But every man saith the same S. John 1 Epist cap. 3. ver 3. that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure As for the disobedient and such as wallow in filthiness the presence or voice of God though he appear or speak unto us in our nature shall not be less dreadful to them then it was before the word was made flesh but rather his appearance in our nature shall add terror and dread to his voice and presence And therefore it is remarkably added by S. John Rev. 6. 16. that the disobedient shall say unto the Mountains and Rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For though the wisdome of the flesh did alwayes include an Enmitie unto the puritie of the Divine Nature yet this Enmitie or Antipathie is most directly against the innocencie and integritie of the Lamb It is under the same Kind with the Enmitie of the womans seede and the Serpents nor shall the malignitie of it fully appear or come unto a perfect Crisis until the Lamb appear in Judgment He is now a Lamb mild and gentle and easy to be intreated by all such as seek to become like him in innocencie and puritie of life but shall in that day manifest himself to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to execute vengeance upon all such as have abused his patience and long suffering by continuance in beastlines or enmitie to Lamb-like innocency and purity He shall then appear an inflexible Judge but yet continues a mercifull and loving High-priest to make intercession for us Seeing then saith St. Paul Heb. 4. 14. c. and it is his Conclusion of his former description of him as our Omnipotent Alseeing Judge that we have a great High-priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God this is a Title more mild and comfortable then the former of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word of God Let us hold fast our profession For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need This Time of need is the day of judgment or time of death But whereby shall we make just proof and trial whether we hold our profession fast or no By no other means then by the preserving the integritie and puritie of our Conscience For we do not truly acknowledge or believe him to
And I beseech the Infinite Mercie to pardon these and all others as fully freely and upon the same termes I desire pardon for mine own I have but Two Things more to say and the One concernes the Vulgar Reader 1. That this Book seems no way lyable to the Objection of Obscurity which hath been sometimes made against some other parts of this Authors Writings the Style here being more easie and Popular as first prepared for His Charge at Newcastle Though to say the truth The Darkness was most-what in the Readers Eye and not in the Object or Authors Writings 2. That the longer the world lasts the more seasonable every day then other will this Book be yea so it must needs be the Essential parts thereof treating of and proving Christs Coming to Judgement The Resurrection and Life Everlasting If any One shall either by reading the Book or the Preface be any thing bettered I beseech him make his Return in Prayers for the Church of England once the Envie and Fear now by the folly of her own children made the scorn of her Aemula That the Lord would so build up her walls set up her Gates and erect her Towers That Her Militancie in his strength may be victorious for His Truth and at last changed into a Triumph in His Glory Which shall be the earnest Request of Her most Unworthy Son and the Readers Humble Servant in the Lord Jesus B. O. ERRATA In the Tenth Book Fol. 3137. lin 16. read some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of R. In this Book Fol. 3327. lin 26. read Fifth Chapt. Fol. 3789. lin 16. read Cui à nobis reddenda A TABLE Of the Principal Arguments of the several Sections and Chapters contained in this BOOK SECT I. Of Christs Sitting at the Right Hand of God Of the Grammatical sense of the Words and of the Real Dignity answering thereto CHAP. I. Of the Grammatical sense of the words Heb. 10. 12. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice c. and whether they be meerly Metaphorical pag. 3307 2. Of the Real Dignitie contained in this Article viz. The Exaltation of Christ That Christ was exalted both as the Son of God and the son of David p. 3311 3. In what sense Christs humane Nature may in what sense it may not be said to be infinitely exalted The Question concerning the Ubiquity of Christs Bodie handled p. 3317 4. A Paraphrase upon the sixth of S. John In what sense Christs flesh is said to be truly meat c. What it is To eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Of Eating and Drinking Spiritual and Sacramental and whether of them is meant John 6. 56. Of Communion in one kind and Receiving Christs Blood per Concomitantiam Tollets Exposition of Except ye Eat And Drink by disjunction turning And into Or confuted and Rules given for better expounding like Cases How Christ dwells in Us and We in Him The Application All which be seasonable Meditations upon the Lords Supper p. 3328 5. The Great Attribute of Christ His being the Chief Corner stone handled in the foregoing Chapter prosecuted more amply in this Christ is the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets How Christians being built upon this Foundation do grow into an Holy Temple p. 3348 SECT II. Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Phil. 2. 11. That every tongue should confess c. p. 3358 CHAP. 6. What it is to be a Lord. Though there be many called Lords yet there is but One Absolute Lord. ibid. 7. In what Respects or upon what Grounds Christ by peculiar Title is called The Lord. And first of the Title it self Secondly of the Real Grounds unto this Title 3362 8. What our confession of Christ to be The Lord importeth and how it redoundeth to the glory of God the Father SECT III. Of Christs Coming to Judgment CHAP. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 10. insisted upon p. 3375 10. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to those Notions of a final Judgment 3377 11. By what Authority of Scripture this exercise of the final Judgment is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ p 3390 12 The manner of Christs coming to Judgment which was the third General proposed in the ninth Chapter p. 3401 SECT IV. Of the Resurrection of the Dead CHAP. 13. The Belief of the Article of the Resurrection of high concernment malignantly impugned by Satan and his Agents needs and deserves our best Fortification The Heathens had Implicite notions of a Resurrection The obstacle of impossibility removed by proof of this Conclusion That though all things were annihilated yet God is able to retrieve or recover The Numerical same p. 3422 14. This Argument drawn from Seed sown 1 Cor. 15. 36. c. is a concludent proof of the resurrection of the Bodie p 3434 15. The Objections of the Atheist and the Exceptions of the Naturalist both put fully home and as fully answered The falsitie of the Supposals and Paradoxes rather then Principles of the Atheist discovered and made even palpable by ocular demonstration and by Instances in Bodies Vegetant and Sensitive A Scruple that might trouble some pious mind after all this satisfied A short Application of the Doctrin contained in the whole Chapter p 3444 16 The Apostles method 1 Cor. 15. 16 17 20. in proving the Resurrection peculiar and yet Artificial His way of Natural or reciprocal Infeference both Negative and Assertive justified and shewed That both these Inferences naturally arise and may concludently be gathered from the Text and from the Principles of Christian Belief Wherein the witness false upon supposition ver 14 15. should consist That Philosophical Principle Deus et Natura nihil faciunt frustra divinely improved Gods special and Admirable works have ever a Correspondent that is some extraordinary end How sin is taken away by Christs Death How by his Resurrection How we are justified by Christs Resurrection How we may try our selves and know whether we rightly believe this Article of the Resurrection or no. p 3455 SECT V. Of the Article of Everlasting Life CHAP. XVII Rom. 6. 21 22 23. What fruit had ye then of those things c. The Connexion of the fifth and sixth Chapters to the Romans A Paraphrase upon the sixth chapter The importance of the phrase Dead to sin No Christians in this life so dead to sin as to come up to the Resemblance of Death natural True Christians dead to sin in a proportion to civil death All Christians at least all the Romans to whom S. Paul writes did so in Baptism professe themselves dead to sin and vow death to sin by a true Mortification thereof All have in Baptism or may have a Talent of Grace as an Antidote or Medicine against the deadly Infection of sin as a strengthning to make us victorious over sin Three Motives to deter us from the service of sin 1. It is fruitless 2. It
weighing this place alone For so far hath the misapprehended Doctrine of Predestination and Certaintie of their own Estate in Salvation misswaded some as they have not been affraid to affirm That the Angels are in some sort inferiour to themselves because They minister to them as they are Heires of Salvation Ministers they are indeed yet not to us but to God or Christ though for our good So is every Magistrate so is every Pastor in his place yet God forbid that inferiours should hence collect That their Magistrates and Pastors should be Inferiour to all them for whose good they are Ministers 3. The next Point to be examined is the Extent of this our High Priests Exaltation about the Bounds or limits whereof the Controversies are more then any difficulties in the Rule of Faith do minister but not so many as men of rash or audacious understandings make and the most of them prosecuted with greater vehemencie of contention then the spirit of sobrietie which should be in every good Christian will approve The Questions of more profitable Use are generally Two The First concerns the Logical Subject of Christs Exaltation comprehended in this Title of Sitting at the Right-hand of God and the like And the Issue is this Whether Christ be exalted only as he is the Son of David or as he is the Son of God or according to both his natures as well Divine as humane The second Quaerie is about the Extent or Limits of the Exaltation of his humane Nature The one Question as Logicians speak is about the Extent or limit of the Subject The other about the Extent or limit of the Attribute That Christ was exalted according to his Humane Nature or as he was the Son of David all Christians agree But that he should be exalted as God or according to his Divine Nature which is absolutely Infinite may well seem impossible for the matter and for the Phrase very harsh Howbeit this is avouched by many Orthodoxal and worthy Divines And if Christ be as most Protestants avouch our Mediator Secundum utr amque naturam according to Both Natures why may he not be said to be Exalted according to Both Natures Yet a Difference there is which will disjoynt this Consequence For to be a Mediator betwixt two doth not necessarily include any Defect or inequalitie in the partie mediating in respect of the parties between whom he is a Mediator Whereas to be Exalted doth necessarily include or presuppose some Lower degree from which he is Exalted to an higher And if Christ according to his Divine Nature be alwayes equal to God the Father he was and is and shall be Absolutely Infinite And Absolute Infinitie cannot admit of any Degrees specially of Exaltation This necessarily argues that Christs Divine Nature could in it self receive no Degree of Diminution or Exaltation If then according to his Divine Nature he was exalted this Exaltation was not by any Real Addition of Dignitie to his Nature but only quoad nos in respect of us And it is perhaps one thing to say that Christ was Exalted according to his Divine Nature Another to say That Christ was Exalted as he was the Son of God However thus much we are bound to believe and thus much we may safely say That Christ as God was exalted in the same Sense and manner that he was Humbled as God Now that the Son of God who was as truly God as God the Father truly equal to God the Father did truly humble himself unto death even to the death of the Cross was in the first Chapter of our Eighth Book deduced out of the second to the Philippians Nor did he humble himself only according to his Humane Nature for he humbled himself not only by his life and death here on earth but by taking the Humane Nature in which he was humbled The Humane Nature could not be humbled by being united to his Divine Nature but rather Exalted So that the first and Prime Subject of his humiliation was if not his Divine Nature yet his Divine Person The Person of the Son of God was humbled by his Incarnation or Conception by his Birth by his Life by his Death and Passion And for every degree of his humiliation there is a correspondent degree of his Exaltation by his Resurrection by his Ascension into heaven and by his Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father In what Sense our Apostle saith He was humbled according to his Divine Person hath been discussed at large before The sum was this If he that thought it no robberie to be equal with God had been at any time pleased to have assumed a body or created substance into the unitie of his Infinite Person such Glorie and honour was unto that his bodie or created substance due as exceeds the Glorie and honour of all other bodies or created substances infinitely more then any creature can possibly exceed another And yet we know that the Son of God who was from Eternitie equal to his Father did in the Fulnesse of Time assume into the unitie of his Divine Person a Bodie and Soul subject to all the infirmites sin only excepted that humane nature is capable of And by assuming such a bodie and by exposing it to all the miseries of mortalitie the Son of God was truly said to be humbled and the Degrees of his humiliation were as many and large as are the Degrees by which his immortal glorified Bodie doth exceed his mortal Bodie as many and large as are the Degrees of Honour and Excellencie betwixt that Royal Priesthood which now he exerciseth and the Form of a Servant wherein he appeared So that not only the Humane Nature of the Son of God but the Son of God in his Humane Nature is truly exalted according to all the Degrees of his former Humiliation But is this all that we are bound to believe or may safely acknowledge concerning the Exaltation of Christ both as he was the Son of God and as he was the Son of David 4. If this were all then his Exaltation as the Son of God should meerly consist in the Abdication or putting off the Form of a Servant It could not include or presuppose any positive Ground of any new and Real Attribute but only a Relation to his former humiliation Some good Divines as well Ancient as modern suppose that albeit man had never sinned yet should the Son of God have been incarnate that is have taken our nature upon him yet our nature not humbled or obnoxious to death but alwaies clothed with glorie and immortalitie For Illustration or Example sake Suppose the Son of God had taken an humane bodie altogether as glorious as now it is from the very first moment of its assumption into the unitie of his Divine Glorious Person Could the assumption of such a bodie how glorious soever or how perpetual soever its glorie had been have added any least degree of Exaltation unto the Son of
and Dignity of Lord and to put on The Affection of a Priest perpetually to make intercession on our behalf for Remission of sins past Rom. 3. 26. and for Grace whereby for the future we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Seeing then we have so great an High Priest Let us hold fast our Profession And let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Worthy is THE LAMB that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing Revel 5. 12. And THE LAMB shall overcome them for He is LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS Rev. 17. 14. SECTION III. Of Christs coming to Judgement 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ That every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Acts 17. 30. But now God commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given all men assurance in that he raised him from the dead Daniel 7. 9. Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living We shal All stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Revel 20. 12. CHAP. IX THe First Words contain an undoubted Maxim or principal Article of our Faith yea such a Plurality of Articles of Christian Belief that I could not choose fitter for continuation of my former Argument concerning Christs Lordship or Dominion And His Dominion as was said before was A Dominion both of Property and of Jurisdiction We are his servants not our own Men as we say we may not dispose of our own souls or bodies much less of our bodily imployments or endeavours as We please but as He pleases Or in case we wrong him by alienating the imployments of our bodies or of our souls from his service who hath the full Dominion of Propertie we cannot exempt our selves from his Dominion of Jurisdiction to which all flesh is lyable without Appeal Now of his Dominion of Jurisdiction or of his Royal Power over us the Exercise of Final Judgment is the Principal Part And of this Judgment the general Sum or Abstract is contained in 2 Cor. 5. 10. Before I enter upon the Particulars therein contained I am in General to advertise That albeit the Scripture be such A Compleat Rule of Christian Faith That neither those which are appointed to interpret the Scriptures ought to propose or commend any point or doctrine as an Article of Faith unto others nor are others bound to believe any thing as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly contained in the Scriptures or may out of the express testimonies of them be deduced by infallible Rules of Reason and Art Yet in the things believed because contained in Scripture there is a Difference to be observed Some things we believe without any Ground at all besides the meer Authority of Scriptures Other things we beleive from the Authority of Scriptures too yet so as we have the truth which the Scriptures teach concerning them ensealed unto us by Experiments answering to the Rules of Scriptures And these Experiments be of two sorts Either Observable in the general Book of Nature and course of times or Observable in our selves Of this later rank are the Articles of the Godhead of the Creation of Divine Providence of Original Sin of Final judgment and of Life and Death everlasting The Being of a Godhead or Divine Power the very Heathens which knew not Scriptures did in some sort believe of Gods Providence and of Judgment after this life the Heathens likewise had divers Notions which were as rude materials or stuffe unwrought The frame or fashioning of which Notions into true and Christian Belief cannot otherwise be effected then by the Rules of Scripture which are The Lines by which the structure or edifice of Faith must be squared or wrought Now whatsoever the Heathens without the help of Scriptures or Divine Revelations did believe or conceive concerning the Points mentioned Every Christian man which doth believe the Scriptures though but by an historical Faith may much better believe and conceive by the help of Scriptures albeit his affections be not as yet sanctified by the Spirit of Grace although he be but in the Estate of a meer Moral or Natural man so he be not delivered up unto a Reprobate sense The Branches then of my Meditations concerning this Grand Article of Christs coming to Judgment shall be in general These First Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and which every natural man so his Conscience be not seared may have Experienced in himself of a Final Judgment after this life or of a Recompence according to his wayes or works The Second By what Authoritie of Scriptures the Exercise of this Final Iudgment is appropriated to Christ The Third The manner of Christs coming to Iudgment The Fourth The parties that are to be Iudged to wit the Quick and the Dead The Fifth The Sentence or Award of this great Iudge and that is Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death Thus you see Three Principal Articles of Our Creed to wit This of Christs coming to Iudge the quick and the dead and the Two last viz. The Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting are so link't together that they cannot be so commodiously explained in several as they may be in this proposed Link or Chain CHAP. X. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to these Notions of a Final Judgment 1. THe Notions which the Heathens had of a Iudgment to passe upon them after this life were of Two Sorts Either Implicite and Indirect such â—s give better Testimony to us then they made of it to themselves or Direct and Express though indefinite and imperfect and mingled for the most part with some errour And these Later are most frequent in the ancient heathen Poets Many of whose Testimonies to this purpose are so Express and direct that they may well seem to have been taken from some scattered Traditions of that truth which God had revealed unto the Patriarchs before the Law was written or from the written Law it self which it is probable Plato with some other Philosophers and Poets had read at the least received at the second hand However unless the truth concerning this point delivered in Scriptures had been imperfectly implanted in mens hearts by nature these meer natural men could not have submitted their Assent or Opinions unto it That not the ancient Poets onely but the ancient Philosophers had an
work let us still call to mind that it now is in Executione Officii and its Office is to be our Remembrancer of that which our Apostle admonisheth us 1 Cor. 11. 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged In this Judgment or examination of our selves Nature her self would teach us thus much so we would be observant of the Process That seeing Conscience is not onely the Lamp of the Lord but also a part of our selves a principal Ray or beam of our souls it could not be so suspitious of our actions or so inquisitive after every circumstance that may make against us when we do evil unless it were deputed by a supreme Judge to bring us to a Judgment and either in this life to acquit us by perswading us to judge our selves or in that last day to accuse and condemn us It would teach us again That albeit there be a General day for final Judgment appointed wherein Christ himself shall sit as Judge yet he every day holds or cals A private Sessions within our brests wherein Conscience sits his Atturney or Deputy Again let us still remember that albeit the work of the Law be written in our hearts so it was in the hearts of the very heathens that albeit we give Conscience full Audience and leave to examine us by the Law of God whether written in our hearts or in the sacred Book yet is it but a small part of our accounts which we shall be able to read in the Register of our own Consciences in respect of what is to be found written in that Book or Scrowl which shall be opened and unfolded in the day of final Iudgement Rev. 20. 12. Howbeit even so much as every man which will diligently hearken to his own Conscience shall in this life be able to read and hear distinctly will make deep impression in his heart and wound his very spirit And as Solomon speaks a wounded Spirit who can bear rather who can heal it None but he that shall be our Judge Yet may we not look that when he shall come to judge all he will vouchsafe to heal any He healeth all our infirmities as he is our High-Priest not as he is our Judge And so healed by him our Consciences must be in this life otherwise the wound will prove deadly and incurable in that last day Nothing besides the wounds of Christ can cure the wounds and sores of our spirits and consciences Therefore was he smitten and bruised therefore was he wounded unto death that his blood poured forth might be as a Fountain of Oyl or Balm to cure and heal the broken hearted For The broken hearted onely are his true Patients All of us one time or other must feel the sting of Serpents more fiery then such as stung the Israelites in the wilderness even the sting of death and of that old Serpent which in our first Parents envenomed our nature before we can thirst after this fountain of life with that fervencie of spirit which he requireth in his Patients without this thirst thus occasioned by this sting of conscience and poyson of sin in some measure apprehended by us we cannot drink the water of life or suck in the balm of health and salvation which issued out of Christs wounds in such a plentiful measure as may cure the festered wounds of our souls and consciences and purge us from that corruption which we and our Fathers have sucked from our first Parents or contracted by the incessant overflow of our actual and daily sins 10. Yet is not this apprehension of our actual and daily sins or the smart or sting of conscience so perpetually uncessant in any one of us but that we may feel or perceive some interposed gleams of joy and comfort some Gratulations of our Consciences for businesses sincerely managed by us or for those particular actions or good deeds which in respect of some one or other circumstance we have done amiss but for their substance well and with a good intention and without a sinister respect to our own private temporal ends or to the prejudice of others with whom we live So that no man unless he be much wanting to himself can want undoubted Experiments in himself of a future and Final Judgement or of the Two-fold sentence which in it shall be awarded to all according to the diversity of their ways As often then as any of us shall feel the sting or perceive the check of our consciences for the evils we have done let us take this irksomness or indisposition of our minds and souls not for a meer effect of natural Melancholie though that perhaps may concur as a cause to increase our heaviness but rather take all together as a Crisis of that disease growing upon our souls which unless it be cured by our heavenly Physician in this life will prove incurable in that last and dreadful day and will bring upon us perpetual weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If our Consciences again at any time shall Congratulate us for well doing we may take these Congratulations or Applauses of our souls and spirits as so many undoubted pledges or earnests of that unspeakable and uncessant joy which the supream Iudge shall award to all that by constancy in well-doing acknowledge him for their Soveraign Lord and expect him as their supream Iudge If we cease not to continue these good actions or performances he will not cease to renew the undoubted pledges or earnests of eternal Joy unto us daily For so S. Paul saith He will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortalitie eternal life But unto them that are contentious indignation and wrath tribulation anguish c. 11. The best use which the Heathens as meer Heathens made of such Notions as nature had implanted in them of a future Judgement or rather their misapplications of what nature did rightly suggest unto them to this purpose cannot better be resembled then by the use or applications which men naturally make of Dreams Now of Dreams some are vain and idle as arising onely from the Garboils of the Phantasie most frequent in men sick or distempered or from such thoughts discourses or speeches as we have entertained by day or been entertained with for some short time before Of these Dreams and of their serious observation that of The Son of Sirach Eccl. 34. 1 2 3. is most true The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and false and dreams lift up fools Who so regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow and followeth after the wind The vision of dreams is like the resemblance of one thing to another even as the likeness of a face to a face Howbeit even such Dreams may be resolved into some natural Causes precedent Nor do men fail in the apprehension of particulars represented
felicity or in his application of those good Lessons which Nature did suggest unto him he found himself tyed by bond of Conscience to observe the Law of Nature The Original of his positive error was an ignorance or blindness common to him and most Heathen in some degree or other in not being able to discern the corruption of nature from Nature her self or to distinguish between the suggestions or intimations of Nature as it sometimes was and universally might have continued and the particular suggestions or longings of Nature as it was corrupted or tainted in himself or others more or less in all It was a Principle of his Doctrine as Seneca tells us That Nature which he profest to follow as his guide did abhor all vice or wickedness It seems he held those courses or habits of life onely vicious which we Christians account unnatural or prodigious vices as Tyranny Cruelty or excessive Luxury And such vices as these the most Heathens whom corruption of Nature did lead blindfold into many grievous sins and cast such a mist before their eyes as made unlawful pleasures appear unto them as parts of true happiness did by the light of Nature detest as contrary to the unapprehended Remnants or Reliques of Gods Image yet inherent in them though mingled with Corruption or much defaced with the Image of Satan But from what Grounds of Nature or Experiments did this Author or first Founder of the Sect of Epicures collect that Nature did detest all wickedness Thus he did reason and collect Quia sceleratis etiam inter tuta timor est Because he saw such as had polluted their Consciences with wicked and prodigious practises to live in fear even whilest they seemed to have safety her self for their guard against all external Occurrences whose probable assaults or annoyances humane Policy could possibly forecast And none more subject to this slavish fear which their Consciences did inwardly suggest then such as for their greatness and confidence in Tyranny and Cruelty were most terrible to others What was it then which these men did so much fear No other men nor any revenge that man could attempt upon them What then The company of themselves or solitary conference with their own Consciences Yet no mans conscience can make his heart afraid unless the conscience it self be first affrighted What is it then which the consciences of supream earthly Judges or Monarchs absolute by right of Conquest can so much fear in the height of their temporal security The Censure doubtless or check of some superior Judge If this fear had been vain or but a speculative Phansie it could not have been uinversal or general in all or most wicked men specially in such as were by nature terrible and stout and wary withal to prevent all probabilities of danger from men Yet was this check of Conscience or this unknown Doom or Censure which Conscience whilest it checkt the hearts of wicked men did so much fear so universal and constant that Epicurus a man of no scrupulous Conscience did observe it to be implanted by nature in all and upon this observation did ground his former general Principle That nature her self did abhor or detest wickedness The suggestion then or intimation of a future Judgement was natural but the apprehension or construction which Epicurus made of these suggestions was but such as ordinary men make of representations in natural Dreams before they be throughly awaked or before they consult the Philosopher or Physician The Christian Truth which nature in these Heathens being in respect of any supernatural use or end of her own suggestions altogether dumb did seek by these signs or intimations to express was that Lesson which the Author of nature great Physician of our souls hath expresly taught us Fear not them which after they have killed the body can do no more but fear him who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Matth. 10. 28. Luke 12. 4. 14. As the wicked amongst the Heathens could not by any earthly Guard or greatness exempt themselves from that Dread or Fear which their corrupt Consciences did internally suggest So that confident Boldness which the integrity of conscience doth naturally suggest unto every man in his laudable actions was sometimes represented by the more civil and sober sort of Heathens after a manner more magnificent and in a measure more ample then it usually is by most Christians Their expressions or conceipts of such confidence as integrity of conscience doth arm men withal did as far exceed our ordinary apprehensions of it as the representations of natural Causes working within us which are made unto us in sleep or dreams do our waking apprehensions of the like workings or suggestions of nature Si Fractus illabatur orbis saith Horace a profest Disciple of Epicurus Carm. Lib. 3. Ode 3. impavidum ferient ruinae Albeit the Heavens should rend assunder above his head and this inferior world break in pieces about his ears yet a man of an intire and sound conscience would stand unmoved unaffrighted like a pillar of brass or marble when the roof which it supporteth were blown away or fallen from it This Hyperbolical expression of that Confidence which integrity of Conscience in some measure always affords was in this Heathen if he had been put upon the tryal but as the representation of a mans bodily estate made in a Dream whose true cause is unknown unto the Dreamer As in men that dream so in this Heathen Poet the apprehension of that which Nature did truly and really suggest is most full and lively but full and lively in both without Judgement without true use or right application That Confidence then is the companion of a good Conscience is a truth implanted by Nature and freely acknowledged by the oppugners of Divine Providence But from what original or fountain this truth should issue or to what comfortable Use it might serve were points which Nature could not distinctly teach or points at least which the meer natural man without help of Scriptures or instructions from those Heavenly Physicians of the soul whom God hath appointed Interpreters of this Book of life could not learn But we Christians know and believe that when the Heavens shall be gathered as a Scroul when the Elements shall melt with heat and when the earth shall be removed out of his place that even in the midst of these terrible spectacles such as have their Consciences purified by Faith shall lift up their heads for joy as knowing these and the like to be undoubted Prognosticks or fore-running signs of their Redemption drawing nigh unto them A Crisis rather a kinde of First-fruits of this Holy Confidence was most remarkably attested to have been in the Primitive Christians So Antoninus the Emperor as in our 1. Book chap. 24. out of Eusebius his 4. Book of Hist Eccles chap. 13. we did
observe did report of Them to the Asiaticks who slandered and persecuted them Take notice saith he of the late and daily Earthquakes compare our estate with theirs They he means Christians have more confidence to God-ward then you have 15. This was The solid Truth whose liveless Lineaments or obscure Picture nature had drawn unto the Heathen in the former indefinite Notions or Suggestions The best fruits of a good conscience the principal end why we are to study and labor for the preservation of our Consciences void of offence towards God and man throughout the whole course of our life is that we may be enabled in that last day to stand without horror or confusion before the Son of Man As peace of conscience breedeth confidence so the onely Fountain whence this peace of conscience can issue must be our reconciliation to that supreme Judge whose doom or Censure the Consciences of meer natural men implicitly or by instinct of Nature dread albeit they cannot apprehend the express manner of the Judgement to come or who it is that shall be Judge Both these and all like points which are necessary unto true Christian Faith must be learned out of the Book of Life Thus much of the First General viz. Heathen Notions of a Judgement to come c. we proceed to the second according to the method proposed in the 9 th Chapter CHAP. XI By what authority of Scripture the Exercise of this Final Judgement is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ 1. THat there was to be a Judgement general to all but most terrible to the wicked and ungodly was a Truth revealed before any part of the sacred Books now extant were written But if it be a Revelation more ancient then the written Canon what warrant can we have to believe it besides Tradition Is then Tradition a sufficient warrant for us to believe unwritten verities or Revelations made to Gods Saints for many thousand years ago It is not unless the Tradition be expresly avouched by some Canonical Writer But then it or rather the Vouchers authority concerning the truth of the Tradition is to be believed So that our Belief in this Point must be resolved into a written verity or a parcel of Canonical Scripture The Revelation concerning the final Judgement whereof we now speak was made to Enoch before the Flood The Avoucher of this Revelation is St. Jude ver 14 15. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Besides the authority of St. Jude which makes this Tradition to be no more a meer Tradition but Canonical Scripture we have other more special Grounds to believe that Enoch did thus Prophesie then we have to believe any other pretended Revelations which are not contained in Scripture The truth and certainty of this Judgment denounced by Enoch was so publickly and notoriously known that the Hebrew Church before our Saviours incarnation did begin the Writ or Instrument of their Great and terrible Excommunication with the first words of Enochs Prophesie Dominus veniet the Lord shall come As if they meant to bind the party whom they excommunicated besides all other punishments or infamies over to this Grand Assize But is there in this Prophecie any particular character of Christ Any pregnant intimation that this Great Judge of the world should be the Second Person in the Trinity rather then The First In the words themselves there is no peculiar Character of Christ save only in The Title LORD which as we said before is peculiar to Christ whether it be in the Original exprest by the word Jehovah or Adonai whensoever Judgment or visible exercise of Jurisdiction Regal is the subject or matter of the prophetical discourse as in this Prophecy of Enoch it is Besides this Character in the words of the prophecie the Prophet himself Enoch was a lively Type of Christ the great Prophet in the very ground of his Title to Lordship and Jurisdiction Enoch was translated that he should not see death but before his translation had this testimony that he Pleased God Hebr. 11. 5. Before his Translation he denounced this Wo or Curse against all that continue in ungodliness fore warning the world withal that the Lord himself whose Embassador he was should come to put his Embassage in execution The congruity of the Fact or Type with the Body fore-shadowed implies that this Propheeie was then to be fulfilled after the Prince of Prophets had been translated as Enoch was from earth but in a higher degree then Enoch was into heaven it self And albeit before his translation he had a more ample Testimony then Enoch had this is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased yet was he not made Lord and King and Judge till after his Resurrection and Translation From that time the Angels and Principalities and Powers even all the Hoast of Heaven intimated by Enoch became by that Title subject unto him That Christ is that very Lord against whom those ungodly men whom Enoch mentions did speak such bitter words our Apostle St. Paul though obscurely yet fully implies in the conclusion of his first Epistle to the Corinthians chapt 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let him be accursed or excommunicated with that Great and terrible Excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Lord shall come for so they call their Excommunication as we do Writs by the first words of the Writ or Instrument and these were the first words of Enochs Prophecie Veniet Dominus The Lord shall come The full meaning or implication of the Apostle is That whosoever doth not love the Lord Jesus shall be liable to all the Iudgments or Woes denounced by Enoch against the hard speeches of ungodly Sinners which they have spoken against their Lord and Iudge 2. That God is Judge of all the Earth that there shall be a final Judgment generally awarded to all the Inhabitants of the Earth by God himself the places of the old Testament are infinite I shall only touch the principal or more pregnant testimonies to this purpose To begin with the First Gen. 18. 22. When the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom Abraham stood yet before The Lord and drawing neer he said wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked ver 23. And again ver 25. To slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee Shall not The Judge of all the Earth do right Thus he spake in the case of Sodom whose Judgment this Lord and Judge of all the earth was then
and new matter come into their places Augmentation and growth in vegetables necessarily supposeth nutrition and nutrition includes a dayly decay of nutriment gotten or of the matter whereof the body consists and a new supply or reparation of the matter or substance lost or wasted by preparation of some new nutriment A Raven likewise is the self same Fowl when it is ready to die for age that it was when it was first hatched but the matter of it cannot possibly be the self same it is not conceivable that so much as an inch of the same matter which it had when it was first hatched should continue in it the same till death For its natural heat doth perpetually consume or wast some part of its matter or substance and its blood without perpetual nourishment by new food or matter prepared would be dried up by its natural heat For life consists in calido et humido in heat and moisture and cannot be continued in any live creature without continual nutriment more then the fire or flame can be preserved without fewel Nor could the life or natural heat wherein life specially consists stand in such perpetual need of nutrition or new mater whereon to feed unless there were a continual dissolution of some material parts which vanish or expire out of the body though not so visibly yet as certainly as fume or smoak doth out of the fewel wherewith the fire or flame is fed Unless there were some precedent diminution or wasting of the material parts in mans body there could be no proper growth or augmentation of the whole body or of every part For if every least particle did remain the same it was as well for quantitie as for qualitie the whole body could not be augmented in every part but it must be as great again as it was before after every such growth or Augmentation For there can be no Augmentation or growth in any part otherwise then by addition of some sensible nutriment Now if every least part be augmented by addition of some new or sensible matter or substance the addition which is made unto every least part would be as great as the part to which it is added For it is supposed that every least part is augmented and augmented it cannot be but by addition of some other sensible body which cannot be less then the least part sensible of a body or of a sensible body 7. But if we grant as the truth is that the material parts of the body augmented remain not the self same to day which they were yesterday or a week ago but are still fluent and wasting other material parts coming into their place with some addition of quantitie so as the addition in bodies growing by dayly nutriment be still greater then the wast or diminution The manner of natural growth or augmentation may be easily conceived And it was a truth of nature excellently expressed by the great Philosopher Aucto toto augetur quaelibet pars etiam minutissima Whensoever the whole body is augmented every least part is augmented As if the whole body in the space of a year be augmented by the quantitie of a palm or a span the thousandth part of the body must be augmented by the thousandth part of a palm or span But thus the whole body as the same Philosopher observes is in every part augmented non quoad formam sed quoad materiam And his reason is qua materia est in perpetuo fluxu because the material parts of mans body are perpetually fluent alwayes decaying and alwayes repaired It is a maxim again of the same Philosopher that Auctum manet idem numero that every vegetable body being augmented how long soever the growth or augmentation lasts is numerically the same it was The case then is clear out of the Book of Nature by which the Atheist or infidel will only be tryed That the body or bodily life of man how long soever he live remains one and the same from his birth unto his death albeit the matter of which his body is composed and wherein his life is seated do not remain the same As the face or image of the Sun remains the same in a water or river albeit the parts of the water in which it is imprinted do not continue the same but as one portion of water slideth away another comes in its place altogether as apt to take the impression or picture of the Sun as the former Or as the light continues one and the same in a lamp albeit the oil which preserves its light do continually wast For one drop or portion of the same oyl or of new oyl poured in is as apt to continue the light as the former drops were which are wasted The light then remains the self same albeit the oyl continually wast So that unto numerical Identitie of the same light the numerical unitie or Identitie or the same portion of oil is not required cannot possibly be had It sufficeth that the oyl or matter which feeds the lamp be the same by Equivalencie By these and many like unquestionable instances in nature the Atheists or infidels supposition is altogether false to wit That unto the Resurrection of the same body or unto the restauration of the same bodily life the Identitie of matter or of material parts which it formerly had is necessarily required I adde that This Identitie or unitie of matter is less needfull unto the numerical unitie or Identitie of mans body because the soul of man amongst all other vegetables is only immortal and remaineth the same it was after it be severed from the body 8. Taking then the first supposition of the Atheists as True Suppose the bodily matter of some men to have been altogether or intirely transubstantiatea or changed into the bodily substance of some other men and that two or three of such men might have the whole bodily substance of some other man or child in their bodies when they died it is no probable Argument or forcible Objection to say This man or child whose bodily substance is supposed to be converted into the substance of other men cannot arise again with the same body which he had because he cannot have the same matter which he had unless the other lose some part of the matter which they had in them when they died Suppose the material parts of every man were utterly annihilated when they died yet their bodies may be made the self same again which they were not only by Creation of new matter out of nothing but out of any matter or Elements prae-existent so prepared and proportioned to their individual nature or bodily life as the former was For the numerical unitie or individual entitie of every nature consists in the unitie or proportioned correspondencie to that modell whereto the Almighty Creator did frame it To conclude then seeing the Resurrection of the same bodies wherein we die must be wrought by the Power of God
it is fitting that we refer the particular manner how our bodies shall be intirely restored unto God himself We will not dispute whether the Resurrection of every man in his own body shall be wrought de facto by recollecting of the dust into which men are turned or of the same material parts which every man had when he died or whether it shall be wrought by Creation of some new matter or only by preparing some other Elementary matter prae-existent and working it into the same individual temper or constitution into which our bodily food or nutriment was wrought whilst we lived It sufficeth to have shewed that every man may arise with his own body by any of the former wayes or partly by one partly by another Lastly the Recollection of the same material fragments or reliques into which our bodies are dissolved is no more necessary by the Principles of nature or true Philosophie unto the constitution of the same bodies at the day of the Resurrection which before have been then the recollection or regresse of the same matter or nutriment whereof our blood or flesh was made or by which our life was preserved in childhood is unto the continuance or constitution of the same life flesh or blood in old age The life of every man in old age is the same the body the same the flesh the same the blood the same which it was it childhood albeit the blood or greatest part of our bodies in childhood was made of one kind of nutriment and the blood which we have in mature or old age be made of another much different nutriment Yea albeit we alter our food or diet every year yet our bodies remain still the same every finger the same whilst it continues in the body and whilst this bodily life continues For albeit the nutriment be of divers kinds yet nature or the digestive facultie works all into one temper and this temper continues the same in divers portions of the matter which is continually fluent and the same only by Equivalencie Now if nature by Gods appointment and co-operation can work divers kinds of food or nutriment into the same form or constitution it will be no improbable supposall to say that The God of nature can work any part of the Element of water of ayre or of earth any fragment or relique of Adams body into the same individual form or mould wherein the bodily life of the man that shall be last dead before Christs coming to Judgement did consist Yet will it be no hard thing for God to make Adam the self same body wherein he died out of the reliques of this mans body To work this mutual exchange between the material parts of several mens bodies without any hinderance or impeachment to the numerical Identity of any mans body or without any prejudice to this truth That every man shall arise with his own body which we Christians believe is impossible to nature or to any natural causes they can be no Agents in this work yet it is no wayes impossible for it implyeth no contradiction for nature thus to be wrought and fashioned by the Creator and preserver of mankind In avouching thus much we say no more then some I take it meer Philosophers have delivered in other Termes Quicquid potest prima causa per secundam idem potest per se sola Whatsoever the first cause doth by the instrumental Agencie or service of second causes the same he may do by his sole Power without the service of any instrumental or second cause Now God by the heart by the Liver and by the digestive facultie as by causes instrumental or secondary doth change the substance of herbs of fruits of fish of roots into the very substance of mans body without dissolving the unitie of his bodily life and therefore if it please him may change the material parts of one man into another mans body or substance without the help or instrumental service of the nutritive or digestive faculty or any other instrumental cause All this he may do immediatly by His sole Power But whether it be His Will so to do or no at the last day be it ever reserved with all reverence and submission to his infinite wisdom alone 9. One scruple more there is wherewith ingenuous minds and well affected may be sometimes touched The doubt may be framed Thus. Although it be most true and evident from the Book of nature that the natural or digestive faculty of man doth preserve the unitie of bodily life entire by diversitie of mater or nutriment yet the living body so preserved is one and the same by continuation of existence or duration His dayes whilst natural life continues are not cut off by death he doth not for a moment cease to be what he was But when we speak of Resurrection from death when we say the dead shall arise with their own bodies here is a manifest interruption of bodily life or of mans duration in bodily life His body ceaseth to be a living body as it was And therefore if he must live again in the body the body to which his soul shall be united at his Resurrection may be called his own body because it shall be inhabited or possessed with his immortal soul but how shall it be The same body which he formerly had seeing the existence or duration of him or of his soul in the body is divided by death and division destroyeth unitie This leaf or paper is one yet if we divide it in the middle it is no more one but two papers The question then comes to this short and perspicuous issue Whether the uninterrupted continuance of duration or existence or unitie of time wherewith the duration of mans life is measured be as necessary to the Unitie or Identity of his bodily Nature or Being as Unitie or Continuation of Quantitie is unto the Unitie of Bodies divisible or quantitative The determination or Judgment is easie The Book of Nature being Judge it is evident That Unitie of Time or continuation of mans life without interruption is but Accidental to the unitie of bodily nature or being It is a circumstance only no such part of the Essence or nature as continuation or unitie of quantitie is of the unitie of bodies divisible for time and quantitie are by nature divisible whereas the nature of man or other things that exist in time is indivisible It is true Division makes a pluralitie in things that are by nature divisible but not in natures indivisible Every thing that is divisible though it be unum actu yet it is plura in potentiâ In that it may be divided it is not purely simply or altogether one but may be made two or more And whilst it remains one it is one by conjunction of parts The entire substance of any natural bodie as it is divisible or subject to dimension cannot be contained under one part of quantitie but part of it is
wrath malice blasphemie silthy communication out of your mouth Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds All of us have put off the old man by profession and Solemn Vow at our Baptism and a double Wo or Curse shall befal us unless we put him off in practise and resolution and labour to put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him The particular Limbs of this New man are set forth unto us by our Apostle verse 13 14. Forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectnesse The particular Duties required of men and women according to their several conditions or states of life as of Wives to Husbands and of Husbands to Wives as of Children to Parents and of Parents to Children of Servants to Masters and of Masters to Servants are set down by the same Apostle in the verses following unto the end of the Chapter Now we must be altogether as certain that we do truely sincerely and constantly perform these duties which are by our Apostle in this place required whether as General to all Christians or such as concern particular estates of life as we are of This general That whosoever doth truly mortifie the deeds of the body and perform the other duties here required shall be undoubted partaker of the Resurrection unto Glory before we can be certain certitudine fidei by certaintie of faith of our salvation or Resurrection unto glory in particular 12. Doth any amongst us upon the examination required before the receiving of the Sacrament find himself extreamly negligent or generally defective in performance of these duties Let not such a one take his negligence past as any sign or undoubted mark of reprobation yet would I withall advise him not to approach the Lords Table without a wedding garment without a sincere and hearty sorrow for his negligences past without a sincere hearty desire of doing better hereafter If consciousness of former negligence in these duties or of practises contrary unto them be seasoned with sorrow and hearty desire of amendment the point whereon I would advise such a man for the present to pitch his faith shall not be his own Election nor the Certaintie of his present and future estate in Grace or Real and infallible Interest in Christ his Resurrection But upon that Character or description of our Saviour given by the Evangelical Prophet Esay 42. 3. and experienced upon Record by the Evangelist St. Matthew Matth. 12. 20. That he quencheth not smoaking flax that he will not shake the bruised Reed Remember that as the Second Resurrection unto glorie must be wrought by vertue of Christs Resurrection from the dead so the first Resurrection from the dead works of sin unto newness of life must be wrought by the participation of his Body which was given and of his Blood which was shed for us Remember that by his death and passion he became not only the Ransom but the Soveraign Medicine for all our sins A Medicine for our sins of wilfulness and commission to make us more wary not to offend A Medicine for our sins of negligence and omission to make us more diligent in the works of pietie And the time and place appointed for the receiving of the body and blood of Christ is the time and place appointed by Him for our cure Heal us then O Lord and we shall be healed Thou O Lord who hast abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel Enliven and enlighten our hearts by thy Spirit and in them thus enlightned kindle a love of doing thy Will bring good intentions to good desires and good desires to firm resolutions and confirm our Resolutions with constancie and perseverance in thy service Amen ALmighty God which hast given thine only Son to die for our Sins and to rise again for our Justification mercifully grant that we both follow the example of his patience and be made partakers of his Resurrection through the same Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Almighty God give us Grace so to cast away the works of Darknesse and put on the Armour of light now in the Time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humilitie that at the last day when he shall come again in his Glorious Majestie to judge both the Quick and the Dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holie Ghost now and ever Amen The End of the fourth Section SECTION V. Of the Article of Everlasting life A Transition of the Publishers VVE are now by the Good hand of God upon the Work arrived at The fifth Section A very Considerable Part of this Eleventh Book The Subject matter of this Section according to what was cut out by the Method proposed in the oft mentioned Ninth Chapter is The Final Doom Award or Sentence of Life and Death which The King of Glorie our most worthy Judge Eternal shall respectively pronounce and pass upon all at that Dreadful and yet Ioyful Day of Iudgment when he shall deal and distribute Palms and Prizes Crowns and a Kingdom to the little or in Comparison the less Flock or Sheep set at his Right hand for whom such good things were prepared from the Foundation of the world But utter Extermination to the goats on the Left hand whom he will send accursed into Everlasting Prisons there to be tormented in that fire which was first prepared not for them but for their Tempter and tormentors the Divel and his Angels I confess our Great Author closes not with the Point of Everlasting life till he come to the Twentieth Chapter But I thought my self bound here to insert the Three next Chapters viz. the 17 18 and 19 for these reasons following 1. Because they be Three and the First Three of Thirteen Excellent and most Elaborate Tracts all in order composed upon The sixth Chapter to the Romans and pity it was to sever them from the Other with which they so well consort and sure 2. If I had left out These Three I should not onely have done prejudice to the Author and his work but to the Reader and his Content or benefit who will find that these Three Chapters are as comely and as useful Introductions to his Rich Discourses about the Domus Aeternitatis the two several long Homes of all mankind as any Propylaea or Areae can possibly be to any two Houses of this Worlds Building 3. The Doctrine delivered in these Three Next Chapters is so promotive and incentive of Christian Pietie and some of it so Homogeneal to the ensuing Tracts that they could not be more fitly placed then before the Discourses about the Final Award or Sentence 4.
to sin and being so planted in his death to be partakers of his Resurrection unto life As the implanted graft which loseth leaf and sap and to outward view life also in winter with the Branch or stock into which it was planted doth recover all again when the root sends back the sap at the Spring or the Resurrection of the year 8. This is that which our Saviour himself had said John 15. 4 5. As the branch cannot bear fruit in it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the Vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing That is ye have no root in your selves and therefore no life but as you are planted in me the Vine Now this Vine was opened in his death upon the Crosse and planted in his burial and from him so planted That of the Psalmist Ps 85. 11. was fulfilled Righteousness did grow out of the earth and we being ingrafted or inoculated into him thus planted become true branches of the same Vine Branches we are but without root in our selves all the life we can hope for must be derived from His root And the very sum and proper effect of our beleif in his death and Resurrection is set down by our Apostle ver 8. 9 10 11. Now if we be dead with Christ we beleive that we shall also live with him Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon your selves also to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then if all which are baptized are dead to sin by solemn vow every one must know it to be his duty to mortifie his earthly members but none are bound to beleive that they are already actually dead to sin because they are baptized The sum of our Apostles exhortation in the twelfth verse is Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodie that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yeild ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yeild your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God The height of our hopes in this life is to put sin unto a civil death that is to bring the flesh in subjection to the spirit And this we may and ought to hope for So saith the Apostle v. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under grace And Grace is able to give us that victory over sin which the Law could not if we will submit our selves unto the regiment of Grace and not presume of Gods favour in consciousness of sin This is that which the Apostle rejects with the like indignation v. 15. as he had done the former imagination of continuing in sin that grace might abound What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace God forbid Know ye not that unto whom ye yeild your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness His meaning is that albeit they were by baptism translated from the regiment of the Law unto the regiment of grace yet if by presuming upon Gods Grace or favour they continue in sin they shall cease to be Gods servants and become again the servants of sin 9. It is the Observation of Prosper an Ancient writer upon this place That as no man can serve two masters So every man must serve one of these two either sin or righteousness God or Satan and he that is a servant to the one is exempted from the service of the other He that is a servant of righteousness is freed from sin and he that is a servant unto sin is rather exempted then freed from the service of righteousness Both are avouched by our Apostle but with this difference that being made free from sin they were made the servants of righteousness but when they were the servants of sin they were free not from righteousness but to righteousness that is they did righteousness no service de facto but used their freedom rather to wrong it But God be thanked saith our Apostle ver 17. that ye were the servants of sin A strange kinde of speech The Pharisee indeed did thank God that he was no extortioner no covetous person nor tainted with such sins as he thought the Publican was but we never read that any Pharisee Publican or other did thank God that he was an extortioner or that he was a grievous sinner nor would God questionless accept of such thanks For he expects no thanks but for the good which he doth unto the Children of men Now to be a covetous person to be an extortioner to be a servant to sin are things which have no goodness in them therefore no works of God no part of his doings How then doth the Apostle so solemnly thank God on these Romanes behalf that they were the servants of sin or is this his thanksgiving to be referred onely to the later part of that 17. verse But ye have obeyed from the heart that Form of doctrine which was delivered you This indeed was worthy of thanks yet not this alone The form of thanksgiving refers as properly and punctually to the first part of the verse God be thanked that you were the servants of sin as it doth to the later part But you have obeyed the form of doctrine which was delivered unto you And in the first place it refers to their former servitude unto sin For though God were not the Author of their servitude to sin as he was of their obedience to the Doctrine of life Yet his goodness did turn their former servitude to sin the very worst deed which they had done unto their good For take them as now they were it was better for them that they had been the servants of sin than not to have been so God you must consider at this time required the service of righteousness at their hands And he that hath been a diligent servant to an hard and cruel master from whom he could not in reason expect any recompence worth his toil is thereby well enapted and trained to be diligent and faithful in the service of a gentle loving and bountiful Master Such was the case and state of these Romans They had don extraordinary kindness for a long time unto sin and this their service was not only lost in respect of times past but very dangerous in the future Upon this known case or experiment among men doth our Apostle ground those forcible exhortations in the verses precedent which he most strongly concludes with the words of the
of a Rect-Angled Triangle did offer up presently a Magnificent sacrifice to the Gods or divine powers from whom he conceived this revelation came unto him Another having after long search discovered how much pure Gold the Gold-smith had taken out of the King of Scicilies Crown and made up the weight of it with silver cunningly mixed was so over wrought with joy that he ran instantly out of the Bath naked as he was forgetting his clothes crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it I have found it out 12. And such as at their vacant times are able but to try the conclusions which these men have found out or to contemplate the truth and use of those unfailing principles in the Mathematicks or in Naturall Philosophy which they have discovered may hence reap more pure delight and sincere joy then the enjoyment of all things temporal without such contemplation can afford Yet the most admirable principles or surest conclusions of humane Sciences are not so good at best no better then meer shadows of those solid Truthes which are contained in the Mystery of godliness Even the Law it self which God gave unto his people by Moses is but a picture of that intire truth which is contained in the knowledge of God and of his Christ Hence saith our Evangelist John 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ What shall we say then was there no truth in the Law which was given by Moses God forbid It was a Law most true Yet the truth of it was but a Picture of that live substance of Truth which is contained in the Gospel or rather in the knowledge of Christ If we did only desire that Ioy or delight which naturally ariseth from the contemplation of the agreement between the principles and conclusions in the same Art or Science The whole world besides though we had the perfect knowledge of it could not yeeld that plenty of pleasant speculations which the Harmonie or consent between the Types or Figures of the old Testament and the live substances answering unto them in the New or which the known accomplishments of the Prophetical predictions exhibit in Christ to all that will seriously meditate on them What madness is it then to be in love or to dote either on shadowes in the book of nature or in the pictures of the Law and to neglect the live Feature of that substantial truth which presents it self unto our view in the Gospel of Christ The most exact knowledge that can be had in the book of nature or in humane Sciences doth alwayes end in contemplation it is but like musick which vanisheth with the motion it leaves no permanent mirth behind it Whereas the contemplation of the mystery of godliness so it be frequent and serious doth alwayes imprint and instill the sweet influence of life and joy into our souls The knowledge of humane Sciences as it may be comprehended by the wit of man So it is terminated with this life But the knowledge of Christ or rather Christ himself who is the subject of divine knowledge is an inexhaustible fountain of truth whose Current still even in this life increaseth as our capacities to receive it increase and so shall increase in the world to come without stint or restraint For the fruit or issue of it as you heard before is everlasting life and that is a life which hath a beginning here on earth but shall have no end in heaven An Advertisement to the Reader THough it was told the Reader before Book 10. Fol. 3068. That it was the Practise of this Great Author First To deliver in Sermons that matter which he intended afterwards to weave or form into the Body of his printed Discourses Yet the Tenor of the last precedent and the next following chapter seems to require that the Reader be re-minded of The Same here again And withall it be signified That The Epocha or Commencement of These Tracts must be pitched thirtie or more years Retro as may be Collected out of a Passage in the twenty fifth Chapter And lastly that the Place where these Tracts when they were Meer Sermons were preached was The Famous Town of Newcastle upon Tine where our Author was A most Exemplarie Careful and Pious Vicar but how prosperous or successful God only knows for divers years together CHAP. XXVI ROMANS 6. 22. But now ye have your fruits unto holinesse and the end everlasting Life c. Whether the Tast of Eternal Life once had may be lost Concerning Sin against the Holy Ghost How temporal Contentments and the pleasures of sin coming in competition prevail so as to extinguish and utterly dead The Heavenly Tast both by way of Efficiencie and Demerit The Advantages discovered by which a Lesser Good gets the Better of a Greater 1. THe Fruits of Holinesse as hath been said are Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and in the Fruition of this Peace and Joy consists that Tast of Eternal Life which in this world can be had And this Tast must be perfected and established by the Knowledge of Christ and him crucified Which Knowledge hath been the Main Subject both of my private Meditations and of my labors published in the seventh book of Commentaries upon the Creed We are now to inquire how this Tast of Eternal Life must be preserved The Rule is most true in the General That it must be preserved and perfected by the same means by which it was first planted and that is by the Knowledge of Christ So that it is but One Question how the knowledge of Christ may be perfected in us and how this Tast of eternal life may be preserved The next Particular subordinate unto this General is by what means such as either have or might have had the Tast of Eternal Life come to be deprived of it A great Question not impertinent to this inquiry hath been of late Whether Faith or Grace being once had may be lost or whether lost only for a time or for ever But as I have often told you there is more Contention about this Point amongst modern Writers then Contradiction between their Opinions if they would calmly and distinctly express their meaning That from some Degree of Faith or from some kind of Grace a man may fall no man denies That no man can fall from the Grace of Election or Predestination I do not question And further then This it is not safe for any to be peremptory in any Positive Assertion nor fit to dispute without or beyond these Lists As for such as take upon them to dispute this or the like Question in these Terms Whether a man may fall from saving Grace they bring it in the end to an issue untriable in this life at least on their parts For admit it for a truth which some do question that a man may be certain Certitudine Fidei by the
picture of that Great Shepheards death was a greater honour then if the shadow in the Dial of Ahaz had returned backward ten degrees in token of prolonging his dayes as long as Hezekiah's had been specially if we consider that the Saying fulfilled in the Great Prophet was verified in him Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none Though he were slain yet his Army returned home safe and he went to his grave in peace being buried in his own Sepulcher by his Servants 7. But alas Baruch lives in an Age super-annuated for any such Grace or Favour as Hezekiah or Iosias found in a City in which though Noah Iob and Daniel lived together yet as I live saith the Lord God they shall deliver neither son nor daughter they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness And shall not the Word of the Lord which Ieremy hath spoken unto Baruch be good For is it not good that when the Lord hath determined to send his four sore judgments upon Ierusalem the Sword and the Famine and the noysom Beast and the Pestilence to cut off from it man and beast yet his life shall be a prey not unto these but to himself Yes this is much better considering the season then if he had been sole heir to Hezekiah or Iosias Three or four of whose Successors all in their turns Kings of Judah he lived to see led bound in chains and their Nobles linkt in fetters of Iron For Baruch with reference unto these mens persons and present calamity to have such an ample safe Conduct as no Monarch living could have granted him License to travel whither he listed with full assurance of life was An Honour peculiar to Gods Saints A Reward wherein at this time my Prophet Ieremy and Ebedmelech which had received Ieremy in the name of a Prophet ministring bread and water c. unto his necessities were to be his only partners 8. But though they had liberty to travell whither they please will they be as careless passengers without all regard of their mothers sorrows wherewith the Lord had afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger Jeremie doubtless would have endured all the tortures cruel Babylon could have devised upon condition Jerusalem and Judah might still have dwelt in saftie The Galatians were not more affectionate towards Paul then Jeremy was to the meanest branch that sprang from good Josias willingly would he have pluckt out his own to have redeemed Zedekiah's eyes or to have prevented that lamentable Farewel which they were to take of sight the barbarous massacre of his dearest children And how then can this short prolongation of life be sweet to Jeremy the Aged or unto Baruch the Scribe being now to see such miserie fall upon their native Country King and people as they might justly wish their mothers wombs had been their graves rather then they should have been brought forth to behold it A thousand lives had been well spent upon condition such calamity had never been seen in Jury and yet the prorogation of Baruchs and Ieremies life though certain to see the execution of all the plagues here threatned these becoming now at length without any fault or negligence in them but rather by others neglect of their forewarnings altogether Fatal and inevitable is much better then a thousand years spent in mirth and jollity But would they not sorrow day and night for the slain of the daughter of their people The Book of the Lamentations will witness tears not sweet wine to have been the drink of him that wrote them And shall life though it have continuall sorrow for its sauce be sweet whose heart among us would not be sad even full of sorrow whose eyes would not overflow with tears at the Tragical representation of their disasters and calamities whose living persons we had alwayes honoured whose memory and never dying Fame we reverence And yet to minds deckt with more polite literature or mollified with the Muses songs the secret delight which in this Case ariseth from the Poets Art and contrivance much more from our Observation of the strange concurrence of real causes conspiring to work designes worthy of God whether for mercy or for vengeance is infinitely more sweet and pleasant then the profuse mirth of lascivious Comedies on any other positive delight whereof humane senses whether external on internal are capable And if with Reverence any may be thereto compared This secret placid delight which is thus accompanied with sighes and composed sadnesse most perfectly resembles the internal comfort of the spirit alwayes rejoycing in tribulation Such truly was the joy and comfort which Ieremy and Baruch found who had now been admitted spectators twentie years and more of a true unfained Tragedy whose Catastrophe was to contain the most doleful spectacle the great eye of the world since it first rolled in his sphere untill this time had ever beheld Had they lookt upon the several parts of this Tragedy the last Scene especially with natural eyes the gastly sight had doubtless inspired them with some desperate Romane Resolution to have acted the like crueltie upon themselves as the Babylonians had done upon their brethren to have set a full and Capital Period to all the woes which they had written against this people with their own blood spilt in the ruines of the Temple or mingled with the ashes of the Altar But now that The Lord hath enlightned their hearts to discern the sweet disposition of his all-seeing Providence still counterplotting the subtle Projects of man and making the Politicians which had accounted his Prophets silly fools unexperienced Idiots or raving Bedlames more curiously cunning then the spider to weave the net which he had ordained to spread upon them the more they sorrowed to see the desolation of their country the greater still was their solace in contemplating the justice power and wisdom of their God in accomplishing his indignation contrary to Prince and peoples expectation but agreeable to their predictions Finally as men compacted of flesh and blood they could not but sympathize with miserable men even their brethren their flesh and bones As faithfull men they could not but be in mind and affection conformable to The Lord their God by whose good spirit their hearts were toucht and their souls illuminated to fore-see the contrivance of his designes upon these his disobedient children which had so often refused the wayes of peace which he would have led them in but they would not follow 9. From this Double Aspect the One of Nature the other of Grace and this Twofold Sympathie thence arising the one with their Creator the other with their fellow-Creatures doth the Lord frame this Pathetical and forcible Charge vnto Baruch Behold that which I have built will I break down and that which I have planted will I pluck up even this whole Land and seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not The Exegesis or Implication fully unfolded
assurance which is conteined in our belief of Christs Death and Passion The first branch of it is That God by giving his only Son for us did give us an inestimable pledge of his love to us in particular This we must believe Certitudine Fidei by Certaintie of Faith Upon this Foundation or Assurance of Faith our Apostle builds another Rom. 5. 9 10. Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were Enemies we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled to God we shall be saved by his life And again Chap. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things These are the Prime Seeds of true Christian Faith and must be undoubtedly planted in every mans heart before he can be a fit Hearer much less a Disputer in other Points of Divinitie as of Election Reprobation c. Whilest we labour to plough up your hearts for the fit receiving of this Seed of Faith we must not baulk that saying of St. John 1 Ep. 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure If your perswasions of your assured Estate in Grace grow up together with this Purification of your hearts then are they Perswasions of Faith not Presumptions CHAP. XXXX The Fourth Sermon upon this Text. ROMANS 2. 1. Therefore Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that Judgest c. The Author Chapt. 38. propounded Three Points He handled The First in the 38 and 39. Chapt. The Second viz. How Papists and Protestants judging the Jew condemn themselves he omitteth having other-where spoken to that Point and Particularly Fol. 3342 3688. of this Book He proceeds here to The Third Point viz. How Jews Papists Protestants evidently condemn themselves vvhilst they Judge the Idolatrie of the Heathen 1. THe very worst that the Jew or Christian can object unto the Heathen as Heathen is the acknowledgement of many gods or the adoring of stocks of stones or as Daniel enstiles them gods of gold of silver brasse iron wood and stone How beit even this Imagination of many gods or the worshipping of many imaginary gods was but a Transfiguration or Transformation of the True and Only God into the similitude of those creatures or visible substances which they represented by the images which they worshipped This was the very height of heathenish Idolatry as our Apostle instructs us Rom. 1. 23. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God that is of the only God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things Of what things soever the images were which they did worship they changed the glory of God into the similitude of that thing whose Image they worshipped And by this means as the Apostle inferres ver 25. they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever So then the Transformation of the Divine Nature into unfit similitudes is it which must give us the True Scale or Scantling for measuring the haynousness of that sin which we call Idolatry He that most grosly transforms mis-pictures or changes the nature of the true and only God is the most gross Idolater be he by profession a Jew a Turk an Heathen or a Christian And it was observed and excellently prosecuted by a Great Prelate a most Reverend and Learned Bishop in this Land That the worshipping of Images and the worshipping of Imaginations so the Imaginations and the Images be alike monstrous or unfitting come both to one Passe 2. In the worshipping of Images the Romish Church and the Heathens do at least for the outward Act too well agree And in this respect the Jew and Mahumetan are more averse from the ancient Heathens then the best in the Romish Church are And if the sinceritie of Gods worship did consist in Negatives as in not worshipping the Images of any living thing the Mahumetan or Jew might have the precedency of Reformed Churches So farre are they from worshipping Images that they do not allow the making of Pictures though for historical use A Painter or Picture-maker is as execrable a creature amongst them as a professed Jew a Turk or Sarazen or worshipper of Idols is amongst us Yet are the Jews and Mahumetans notorious Idolaters in that other main Branch or rather Essential Root of Idolatry that is in worshipping their own Imaginations or in observing the Fables or Traditions of their Ancestors To omit then that Branch of Idolatry which consists in the worshipping of Images we must examine ourselves I mean we Christians whether Papists or Protestants By our adherence to the Root of Idolatry that is the worshipping of Imaginations or the Transformation of the Divine Nature into the similitude of our corrupt desires or affections This is that which gave life and Being to the multiplicitie of imaginary gods amongst the Heathens And the Poyson of this Idolatry may be more malignant in others then it was or is in them for want of vent or issue 3. We of Reformed Churches rightly censure it as a Branch of heathenish Idolatry in the Romish Church in that they teach the people to make solemn supplication unto Saints deceased for their Intercession or mediation with God or Christ And under this Censure fall all their prayers which they make in this or the like form Sancta Maria Sancte Petre c. Ora pro nobis Into this branch of Formal Idolatry they could not possibly slide but through the other which properly consists in the Transformation or changing of the Divine Nature into the similitude of corruptible mans corrupt affections Now how deeply that very Church is tainted with this Idolatry Her own Plea for practising the former Branch in praying unto Saints will give evidence against them For the best warrant which her Sons can pretend unto to mis-perswade the multitude or vulgar is this That God is a Great King the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and therefore good manners requires that we do not preferre our Petitions immediately unto him but use the mediation or intercession of deceased Saints which are in greater favour with him then we wretched sinners are Now by this very Imagination or Conceit they transform the glorious Majestie of the invisible God and of his Christ into the similitude of mortal men of men though greater in power and Majestie then other men are yet for the most part not so good as they themselves are great not so inclinable to poor mens Peritions nor so compassionate of their miseries as meaner men are Or if by nature breeding or civil education these great Potentates of the world be more affable or compassionate then other men are yet are they not able to give dispatch to
Meridian and runs away out of their Hemisphere And in his stead a Comet ariseth out of Egyptian exhalations which portends nothing but war and blood This is Jehoiakim whom Pharaoh Nechoh which slew his father hath now appointed to be King over this people for his purpose the successe of whose Raign in general the people might well prognosticate by his life and manners the Epitome of which Iosephus lib. 10. cap. 5. hath given very pithily in two words He was neither religious towards God nor just towards men And yet besides this his natural disposition was particularly incensed against this people for preferring his younger brother to the Crown and so more ready to wreak his spite by reason of his dependance upon the Egyptian out of whose Country he had the Prophet Uriah brought to satiate his thirst of blood Jer. 26. 23. which bloodie Fact of his and the like with their like successe is the train I have pursued in these present Meditations I will conclude them with that of Solomon Prov. 28. 2. For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof And of Iudah never a good one after Iosiah such they were as might serve to scourge this people until they were cast like Vagabonds and unprofitable Members out of that City and Land which had bred them 10. Thus you see Gods largest Promises have their limits greatest prosperity hath a period and mightiest Kingdomes have their fall You have likewise seen how for the uncircumcised hearts of this people is he slain by uncircumcised hands who had so throughly cleansed Ierusalem and Iudah from all the abominations of the Heathen The Heroical attempts of whose Princely resolution and zeal in restoring the true worship of God unto this people needs not mine it hath the commendations of Gods Spirit who hath been curious in calculating his particular good deeds throughout this Chapter to have been matchless in Davids Race and how then possible to be parallell'd in any other Princes Line And what If through the religious care and industrie of some one or two Princes whom the Lord in mercie had raised up as Lights unto this Land the foggie mists of Superstition Heresie and Idolatry be driven hence This is an Infallible testimonie of Gods former love unto our forefathers no sure Document of our continuance in his favour if yet this Land and People may be taken in the very manner of those capital Crimes which did condemn Iudah his first-born amongst the Nations in the dayes of good Iosiah even whilest it was acquitted from profession of Idolatrie and Superstition What shall it avail us that those forrain hungrie Hell-hounds which brought Commissions of Charter Warrant for hunting out the good things of this Land and made this people a prey for maintenance of the many-headed beast have been long time prohibited to continue their wanted raunge if the Princes which are left within her be as roaring Lions and her Judges as wolves in the evening which leave not the bones until the morrow What availes it that the secular Priests and Jesuite are would God they were transported out of this Land if her owne Prophets be light and wicked persons and her Priests pollute the Sanctuary and wrest the Law Or what shall it avail us that the Light of the Gospel doth shine amongst us if the just Lord be in the midst of us and every morning bring forth judgment unto light and fail not and yet the wicked will not learn to be ashamed Or what avails it that we have cast off all blind obedience to the Sea of Antichrist if we will not suffer Gods providence to be a Rule and Christs word a Light unto our paths but walk on still in the wayes of the heathens making secular observations our chief confidence and worldly policie our greatest trust Or what avails it to have purged our hearts from all conceit of merit if we pollute our hands with bribes Or what availes it to give God the glory in all good actions and yet daily dishonor his name with bad dealings I will speak more plainly What advantageth it us to object unto the Papists that they seek to merit heaven by their works and share with God in the honour of good deeds if they can truly reply upon us That the free Almes of Papists Founders have been by Protestants set on sale unto their brethren Or that secular Appendices and Alliance of Spiritual men devour a great part of that liberal maintenance which was allotted only for Prophets and Prophets children 11. Beloved in our Lord were we our selves without sin without these enormous sins which I have mentioned all of us might freely attempt to stone that filthy Whore and all her foul Adulterers unto death But such of us as seek most to purge the Land of them and seek not withal to cleanse our own hearts of those sins which have procured Gods wrath against it may justly dread lest we find no better success then good Josiah did to provoke the enemie to do more mischief then haply they meant Mistake me not I beseech you as though I misliked such as sollicite severitie against that Nation yet cannot I hope but some will be as jealous of me as these Iews of Iosiah's and Jehoiakim's dayes were alwayes of the Prophet Jeremy whose footsteps I have resolved to follow through good and bad report Give me leave to explain my meaning thus As from my heart I reverence their religious labors who have of late so effectually stirred up our Sovereignes heart to this purpose and earnestly request your heartie prayers unto Almighty God that his Holy Spirit may continually enflame his royal heart with those good motions which have been kindled in it of late so do I desire from the very centre of my soul both that men of place Authoritie Gravitie Learning and Integritie of life may prosecute it and that young Divines whether young in years or manners it skills not would oftentimes even for Sions sake hold their peace or at least be wary where and when they open their mouths in this argument For he that looks into the temper of this present people with a discreet religious not with a turbulent factious eye may easily discerne that many ill tempered and extravagant invectives against Papists made by men whose Persons wanting Authoritie as much as their speeches do Reason do nothing else but set an edge upon our Adversaries sword whilst the light behaviour and bad example of the Inveighers life infuseth courage to their hearts and addeth strength unto their armes In one word Many of our words in this place increase the wrath and many of our lives out of this place increase the number of that Faction 12. Though all of us by Profession are Christs Soldiers yet every Soldier is not fit for any service Albeit I discourage no man I only advise that every man that means to be a valiant Soldier in Christ and would do his
Questions St. Pauls first Answer to both Questions An Objection against the Answer in point of Charitie The Answer to that Objection A second objection in point of sufficiencie The Answer to this objection Exceptions against the Proof The Exceptions answered Works truly miraculous may have a less share of Gods Power then usual works of nature See this Authors Sermons printed at Oxon. Anno 1637. pag. 39 40. The 2 d Difficultie urged Aquinas his Solution true but impertinent The Authors Solution of the former Difficultie The Corinthian Naturalists second Question The answer to this Question See Book 10. Fol. 3113. The general use of this Doctrine ☜ ☜ Christians should chuse such friends as have share in the First and hopes of the second Resurrection The Atheist's Exception The Naturalist his Demand See Book 10. Fol. 3113. The Naturalist's Objections framed into a Bodie See Chap. 13. §. 11. It is the very nature of the Matter not to be unum idem The Answer to the Naturalist his Objections * See the Epistle of the Churches of Vienna and Lyons to the Brethren of Asia and Phrygia in Euseb Hist 5. book 1. chap. ad finem There is much good moralitie to be learned from the contemplating the mixtures and separation of metals The Atheists wilie but not wise Objection against the possibilitie of a Resurrection by Recollection of Reliques The same Objection re-inforced The Atheists Objection answered It hath Two Loops First Loop The Second Loop of the Atheists Objection An Ocular Demonstration that the Atheists principles or supposals be False ☜ The scruple incident into an ingenuous minde Vide Glossam Hugonem in hunc Locum How S. Pauls inferences may be collected A Philosophical Maxim advanced and much improved ☞ ☜ See Chap. 4. §. 12. Christs death said to take away sin in a Twofold Sense The First The second Sense The Benefits punctually arising from Christs Death and from His Resurrection Had Christ only died and not risen again Though we had not come in Hell yet we had never come out of the Grave Two sorts of First fruits appointed by the Law ☞ See Paragraph the 7th How we may try our selves See Book 10. Chapt. 28. 30. The Model or Scope of the whole Chapter Of death to sin A natural and a civil death Death to sin is vowed by us in Baptism Meanes also of dying to sin received in baptisme Of baptismall Grace Difference betwixt the Elect and the Elect people of God ☞ In Baptism there is a mutual Astipulation or promise between God and man Ceremonies used at Baptism and the meaning thereof The Regiment of the Law of Grace Prospers Observation ☜ Of shame what it is and whence arising See Aristotle Rhet. l. 2. cap. 6 Ethic. Nic. lib. 4. cap. 15. Satan's Stales false honor and false shame Shame and Modesty ☞ ☜ Our service is due to God upon several Titles ☞ The service of sin and Righteousness compared in regard of this present Life See Chapter the tenth The emptiness and vanitie of sinful pleasures ☞ Gods Method and Satans practise ☞ Holiness bitter in the root or beginning but sweet in the Fruit. See A. Gellius lib. 16. cap. 1. ☞ Our fruitlesness in Holiness to be imputed only to our own ill use of the Talent of Grace given us Plin Epist lib. 10. Ep. 97. Three Heads of preparation to the holy Sacrament Of Bodily Death or the First Death ☜ Desire of death or self Homicide ☜ Of the second Death wherein it exceeds the First ☞ A double Reason of the vehemency of pain or torment in the second death ☞ The duration or Eternity of the second death and pains of it See M Mede on Pro. 21. 16 of the valley of Rephaim Poena damni Sensus Terms subordinate ☜ See Chap. 4 § 15 And Attrib 1 part p 219. 2 part p 27. See Chapt 4 § 12. Possibilitie repentance Worm of conscience Coel Rodigin lib. 8. cap. 2. lib. 25. cap. 1 The unsatisfaction of our desires in the Contentments of this present life See Book 10. Chap. 17. The hearts desire is True Happiness The Full satisfaction of all senses and Faculties in the Life to come Hippocrates See Book 10. Chap. 9 Accidental joyes The Beauteous Place The Holy Companie First in regard of the Place or Seat of the blessed ☜ In regard of the Company there The Eight Beatitudes Matth. 5. The first Beatitude Poor in Spirit ☜ Second Beatitude for Mourners The third Beatitude to the meek spirited ones See chapt 11. §. 7. The fourth Beatitude to Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness 5. Beatitude to the merciful See Master Medes notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Psal 112. 6. 6. Beatitude to the Pure in heart 7. Beatitude to the Peace-makers Patience and resolution in suffering for righteousness Eternal life the strongest motive and obligation to all duty ☜ See Chapt. 10. Section 7. 1 Cor. 10. See Book 10. Chap. 21. The motives Satan uses to to withdraw us ☞ ☜ The Philosophical Precept Sustine et abstine imperfectly good Belief of this Article will work obedience Of reconciliation Active or Grammatically passive only reconciliation really passive See Book 10. Fol. 3267 and 3278. ☞ Infidels of two sorts Cardanus◠Two Roots of Errors ☞ Unbelief of this Article cause of unchristian careless life ☜ The Story of Biblis ☞ See the Chapt. 20. Motives from meditation of eternal death according to general or more particular tasts of it Parisiensis his storie ☜ ☞ A seasonable lesson collected out of Job 21. Isai 14. Ecclus. 19. Rev. 18. 5 6 7. Meditations of the second death to be fitted to several parts of the body of sin for the mortifying of it ☞ Aristotle ☞ See Chap. 10. § 9 10. ☜ Avoid here the presumptuous perswasion of certain salvation and the conceit of Absolute reprobation See Book 10. Chap. 37. 51. ☞ Purge our Braines of The Erroneous Opinion of the Irrespective Decree Meditations or a Tast of Eternal death here fits us better for a tast of eternal life hereafter The force which the Tast of experienced pleasures hath upon mens souls See Book 10. fol. 3181. The Tast or true rellish of eternal joys how gained The use of affliction to that purpose That Tast is the peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost to which the working of righteousness is necessary The work of righteousness universal obedience The use of affliction or chastisement to that purpose ☞ ☜ How the Peace of God passeth all understanding This was written thirtie years ago or more The Tumult and discord of Passions in a natural man See Book 10. Fol. 3056. See Hor. Serm. Lib. 2. Sat. 7. See Pers Sat. 5. Of joy in the Holy Ghost No man can truly enjoy himself until he be reconciled to God The Difference betwixt Joy and gladness True knowledge of God in Christ necessary to this joy A joy in the knowledge of any sort
of Truthes The Philosophers Rapt with Joy in Contemplation and Invention * The former of the Two Philosophers was Pythagoras The later was Archimedes Of both see Plutarch in his Book intituled Non posse hominem suaviter vivere secundum Epicurum Much more Joy in the knowledge of saving truths How this tast'd of eternal life is preserved Of questions touching falling from Grace See the Authors Opinion more fully about Sin against the Holy Ghost Book 8. Chap. 3. which Book though published 21. years since I suppose was written after This. They only enjoy and keep this Tast that diligently seek after it and truly prize it The danger of seeking to enjoy worldly Contentments together with this heavenly Tast See this Fallacie in Aristotles Rhetor. Tast of unlawful pleasures deads and looseth the heavenly Tast Unlawful pleasures and sinful acts destroy the heavenly tast both by Efficiency and Demerit How worldly pleasures and temporal contentments come to prevail against the tast of Eternal life Faculties natural and Grace Two Scales Moderating of worldly desires and natural affections necessary for gaining and preserving the heavenly tast ☜ ☜ Seneca Watchfulness and sobrietie also are necessary Sobrietie consists not only in temperance of meat and drink but in Ruling our thoughts and words The final Recompence of our doings Good or bad Chemnitius's Rule The Romanists Allegation from the force of the word merit Hor. de Arte. The Romanists second proof of Merit The Answer The Rom-third Argument Bellarmine his Reasons The Causal Particles For Because and the like imply not merit of Works And see more of them Book 8. Chap. 15. The Freenesse of the Pardon excludes not all qualification but rather requires sincere performance of good Duties Works not properly meritorious but indeed Unworthy of eternal life How Christs temporal sufferings were of infinite merit Why the pleasures of sin though temporary deserve eternal punishment See this Book Fol. 3498. Of the word Gift or Grace Whether the Grace of God or the Effects of his Eternal Favour can be merited by us See Book 10. Fol. 3285. Gods Justice and righteousness in rewarding us does not imply the merit of our works The divers acceptions of Justice or righteousness Should such a thing be our meriting derogates from Christs merits See the fourth Book Chap. 11 16. c. About merit and justification The place perhaps related to in the next paragraph Of Justification the doctrin whereof is corrupted by the doctrin of Merit ☞ How works are excluded from Justification Two rocks to be avoide here Confid in merit of Works and Praemature conceit or presumption of our Election ☞ Eternal life a most Free Gift of God Gods infinite Freedom The true way of laying hold on General Promises It follows not God cannot deny himself ergo I am in and shall persevere in the state of Salvation Equally dangerous to confide in Merit and to presume of Election See Book 10. Chap. 42. Fol. 3228. The Free Gift of eternal life excludes not due Qualifications in the receiver * This was preached at Newcastle upon Tine For whom was the Kingdom of heaven prepared See the 10. Book Chapt. 42. Fol. 3236. c. Humilitie a necessary qualification The third Point The Qualification for receiving this Free Gift Why Christ instanceth in the Scribes and Pharisees Turkish mercie See the discourses following upon that precept Do as you would be done to Two Generals 1. A sentence and that Twofold 2 The Execution thereof Controversies about the Sentence Three Positive verities or Conclusions See The Fathers cited by this Author in his fourth Book Chap. 11. c. about the inseparableness of Faith and works Good works necessary to Salvation Omission of Good Works forfeit our interest in the promises Damnation awarded for Omissions The Romanists wresting Hebr. 11. 6. to maintain merit of Works The third Positive truth mentioned §. 1. handled Chap. 31. ☞ See this Authors Treatise of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. See this Authors Treatise Of Justifying Faith or fourth Book Chap. 15. A Sinister exposition of Saint James 2. 10. ☞ Why Christ instances in works of Charitie rather then of Pietie ☞ ☞ * About Newcastle upon Tine where these were preached The worse the poor be the more we may be charitable unto them All neglect of the poor is sin This spiritual neglect is a sin exceeding sinful Jansenius his Observation A Catholick verity The Definition of merit The state of the Question Consider three things Increase of Grace no more merited then the First Grace About Free-will See an elaborate Treatise Book X. Chap. 24. c. A Syllogism If there be not Ratio Dati Accepti A promise is no Ground of merit How the Papists and Pharisee agree in this point rather how they exceed him The Objection drawn from the Causal Particle For in the text framed and answered Jansenius his Argument The Author his Answer See the 27th Chapter of this Book where this Argument is most fully answered and that with some variation of what is here The miserie and mistakes of man The short or summe of mans Dutie The Coherence The Authors Method Severus Two Grounds of this Rule or Law of Nature Cyrus Scipio Exceptions against these two Rules The Answer to the former Exceptions ☞ More exceptions against that Rule and Answers to them This Rule must be understood of a 〈◊〉 Will. Rigid censuring a Pronostick of falling Q. If nature alone binde men to do good to their enemies How Christ fulfilled the Law * See §. 8. Rom. 12. 20. The Application ☜ Ps 35. 13 Esai 22. 12. Ezek. 21. 10. How this Precept Do as you c containeth all the Second Table So Christ said to St. Peters Lovest thou me Feed my sheep So David said to God Psal 16 My goodness extendeth not to thee But to the Saints that are in earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight See St. Aug De Civit. Dei Lib. 10. Cap 4. and 15. Cap. 22. and Lud. vives's Comment An Objection against this precept thus improved and expounded An Answer to the Objection A Second Objection Mens affections are right balanced when they be as ready to do as to receive good A double oversight ☞ Good things are only pleasant whilst they rellish of Gods Goodness ☞ Pro. 16. 8. See the 6. Book 2 part chapt 11. page 95. Titus 2. 11 A Dutie semblable to every desire See §. 13. ☜ See St. Basil de 40. Martyr * See the Sermons upon that Text. Chapt. 35 36. The bestmeans to put the dutie in practise Keep an exact Register or Calendar of our Good and evil dayes Deu. 24. 19 ☞ ☞ Ecclus. 11. 25. 27. Psal 41. 1. Beatus qui intelligit super pauperem ☞ Two great inconveniences of wealth and greatness unduly sought See Fol. 3586. ☞ Such mixt deeds are like a Linsy-wolsey Garment or plowing with an Ox and an Ass yoked or lowing miscellan See Chap.
29 § 9. Fol. 3586. I suppose this was preached at St. Ma. in Oxon. Nothing is called Little or great but in Comparison with other things Lev. 23. 27. ☜ The occasion of Baruchs complaint Two Doctrines or two Propositions A Corollarie added to the former Things indifferent yea lawful things by Circumstances become unlawful He means some man that had turned to the Church of Rome Good men are and ought to be most religious in worst Times Sympathie planted in Bruites See the Sermons upon this Text. Fol. 3610. ☞ ☜ Apathie a Symptom of a graceless obdurate mind Numb 32. 6. 2 Sam. 11. Uriah Godfrey of Bulloign Argia in Statius Of Portia see Plutarch in vita Bruti The Author omits the Second Doctrine to be handled in the next Sermon and passeth to the Corollarie which he proves by Instance A Great Warning and a Greater Truth Libro 6. de providentia Dei See more Instances of Stupidity in the end of the Attributes Salvian This was preached in Oxon after the visitation by the Plague A Forward Souldier Petrus Strozius See Val. Maximus de Cupiditate Uiae Epist Lib. 1. Epist 22. See Lanoue Paradox second Page 204. Thuanus Lib. 26. pag. 543. colum 1. See Busbequius his fourth epist De Rebus Turc Lament 4. 10. Zephaniah 2. 3. The Doctrine handled in Hypothesi An Objection 1 King 21. 2 Kings 22. 18. 19 20. The Objection pressed home The Answer to the former Objection 2 Chron. 32. 25 26. 2 King 23. 30. 2 Chron. 35. 21 24. Ezek. 14. 20 21. From a double Aspect A twofold Sympathie ariseth See Chap. 14. §. 6. Fol. 3439. Quaere whether he mean his Sermons upon Jer. 26. and other Texts printed 1637. Or Pharaohs Hardning See Book 10. Fol. 3222. ☞ See the following Sermon upon Matthew 23. 37. ☜ I suppose he means His Treatise of Prodigies or divine Fore-warnings betokening Blood which was lost in his life time and cannot yet be found Salvian in his 6. 7. Books de Gubern Matth. 7. 1. Rom. 14. 4. The Text is A Conclusion Q. From what Premisses inferred The Limitation of the Conclusion The Extent of the Conclusion Another Limitation ☞ Two Instances in Ahab and David who by judging others did condemn themselves See Book 10. Fol. 3018. and 3099. The Minor of the foregoing Syllogism ☞ ☜ See Book 4. or justifying Faith Sect. 2. The composition of Hypocrisie Pharisaical Two special sins of the Ancient Jews The Antient Jews sins The later Jews Reformation See a following Sermon upon that Fact Christs true Exposition of the Negative part of the fourth Commandement Take we heed of condemning our selves by judging the later Jews See the fourth chapter of this Book Fol. 3342. See Book 8. ☜ ☜ ☞ A Romish error requiring Reformation An Error of the Contraire extreme disparaging The Reformation A Factious Schismatical Book modestly Censured Apostolical and Episcopal Power under heathen Princes and after Princes were Christianed The Antient Heathens gave and Turks give more to their Priests then some professing Christianity do to theirs both for Power and Maintenance A Precept will be in force when pretences will be out of date The main Error of the Romish Church Infallibilitie both in expounding holy Scripture and in attesting Traditions See the second and third Books The Two former Romish Errors well Reformed The Temper Bounds of the Right and Rigid Reformer The Cure of the Error by the Right Mean The Error extreamly Contrary to the Romish Error ☞ In his Sermon before the King upon Jer. 26. pag. 32. he saith divide the sins of 40. years last past into ten parts the sins of the Pulpit and the Presse would be a large Tenth See signes of the Times pag. 57. 58. Three Points purposed A Romish Eror causing Doubt of Salvation viz The intention of the Priest c. A Romish Priest may damn an Infant through neglect or malice by the Doctrine of that Church See Soto in 4. Senten dis 1. Q. 5. Art 8. Romish Priests have a strange Negative voice The Second Point The Remedie of the Contrarii as bad as the Diease About This Point See Book 4. and Book 10. cha 51 52 53. and Serm. on Jer. 26. pag. 13. and signs of the Times p. 62. Upon this Text See Book 7. Chap. 18 19. See Book 10. Fol. 3274. Where this Author sayes 300. Bellarmines 300 Valentiaes could not do the Protestant Religion so much harm as Dr. Hessels did taking advantage of this Doctrine Of this Division see Lib. 10. Fol. 3153 3275. See Book 10. Fol. 3262 and signes of the Time p. 63. The Third Point How Fides is Fiducia see Book 10. cap. 52. See Chapt. 4. Fol. 3338. Idolatry transforms the Divine Nature into unfit similitudes The late R. R. Bishop of Winchester B. Andrews in his Sermon on that Theme The Worshipping of Imaginations the root of Idolatry See the fifth Book ☜ Some Writers not Papists transform the Divine Nature Paraeus See Book 10. Fol. 3012. ☜ See Book the Fifth The Sayings of dying men remarkable Three points considerable The Circumstance of time Observations and Uses out of the story and circumstances Touching Retaliation see the 6. Book or Treatise of Gods Attributes 2 part §. 4. chap. 31. page 343. A Cluster of Deadly Sins in the Horrible murther of Zechariah the High-Priest Levit. 17. 13. See the next Sermon upon this Text. Gen. 19. 9. Pto. 28. 4. Wisd 2. 12. 1 Joh. 3. 12. Of Pharisaical Hypocrisie See Book 4. and second Sermon on Jer. 26. See the Sermen upon that Text immediately precedent The Former Sermon on 2 Chron. 24. 22 I suppose was preached at Court This at Oxford Of the Jews Calamities see Book 1. chap. 23. and 27. The first Question Who this Zechariah was This punctually agrees with the Copy The Temple and the Altar Why Zachariah called the son of Barachiah See Dr. Hammonds Notes on Matth. 23. fol. 125. where he cites Josephus Lib. 4. cap. 19. for another Zacharias killed by the Zelots immediately before the Seige which puts a short end to this Question The Second Question Why our Saviour instanceth in Zechariah Zachariah the only Prophet that dyed with an Imprecation See Fol. 3721. ☞ The Third Question A Paraphrase or Exegesis of Christs loving and threatning expressions A Paraphrase or Exegesis of our Saviours meaning or Implication How Christs death was A Cause of the Jews Calamities The Son of God in a peculiar manner to the Jews King of Old Psa 74. 10 Luke 4 6. Ezek. 7. 21 24. Dan. 4. 17. See fol. 3729. where this was the 4 Question propounded From Abels to Zachariahs death were 3000. years from Zach. to these words spoken were 00. or 900. See a following Sermon on 2 Kings 23. 26. A Generation contains thirty years betwixt Manasseh's and Iosiahs death were about thirty three years The Objection is hardened by taking in Abels Blood Zechariah was slain 900. years Abel 3800. years before Christ spoke