motion in all the Interim between the day of their dissolution and the last day By the Resurrection they shall not only recover life sense and motion but the life which they get shall be indowed with Immortalitie the bodies shall be clothed with Glory This change of our mortal bodies into immortal is much greater then the most plentifull increase which any seed doth yield One seed or grain may in some soils bring forth thirty in others sixtie in others a hundred but immortality added to the life of the body is an increase in respect of this mortal life which now we lead inexpressible by any number The life of Methuselah is not comparable to it albeit the years which he lived on earth were multiplied by the dayes contained in them and both multiplied again by all the minutes and scruples conteined in the dayes and years which he lived And yet after this increase of life our bodies shall be the same they were for nature and essence but not the same for qualities or capacities whether of joyes or pains In these respects they shall differ far more then any corn growing doth from the seed from which it springs And this difference of qualities between the bodies which die and shall be raised again was all that our Apostle sought or intended to illustrate or set forth by that similitude which he useth Thou sowest not the corn which shall be that is not the same corn for quantitie for qualitie for vigour of life nor shall mens bodies be raised again to such a life only as they formerly had or to such a corruptible estate as that wherein death did apprehend them but to a life truly immortal 8. The second question proposed by the Corinthian Naturalist was with what bodies shall the dead come forth or appear And the direct Answer to this Question is included in the former similitude so much insisted on before as that it needs not to be repeated here the Effect of it is This That they shall come forth with bodies much more excellent then those with which they descended into the grave And of this general Answer included in the similitude of the Corn or Seed sown all the Exemplifications following unto verse 45. are native Branches 39. All flesh is not the same flesh but there is one kind of flesh of men another flesh of beasts another of fishes and another of birds 40. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial but the glory of the celestial is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another in glory 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption 43. It is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power 44. It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body c. Thus much of the Positive Force of our Apostles Argument drawn from the similitude of the Corn which by the Law of Nature must die before it be quickned and receive increase 9. But of this similitude it is no native branch or part whether the corn which dies being sown do rise again the next year for vital substance or life the same which it was whilst it was contained in the blade or ear the year before certainly it is not the same for Corpulencie for matter or quantitie But whether the seeds of life or spirit of corn do not remain the same by continuation though in divers bodies or matter our Apostle disputes not nor do I dispute This is a curiositie which cannot be determined in the Pulpit without appeal unto the Schools The vital spirit or essence of the Corn may be so far the same in the corn which is sown and which is reaped that if we should for disputation sake suppose or imagine what some have dogmatically affirmed to wit That the corn sown were endowed with sense or feeling were capable of pleasure or pain the pleasure which it formerly enjoyed might be renewed increased or multiplied with increase or multiplication of its bodily substance so might the pain which it had felt before it was sown be renewed and increased after it were quickned again if any sort of corn were appointed as some men are to torture and punishment Now albeit we must believe that mens bodies after the Resurrection shall be the very same for substance which they were before death yet are we not bound to believe that they shall be any further the same then that every man which died in his sins may in his bodie feel an infinite increase of those miseries which he had deserved and in some sort felt whilst he lived on earth Or that every man at the last day may reap an infinite increase of those joyes and comforts of which in this life he had some tasts or pledges whilst he sowed unto the spirit For as the Apostle elsewhere speaks he that soweth unto the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption a full crop of all the miseries incident to mortalitie but miseries more then mortal miseries everlasting and never dying And he that in this life soweth unto the spirit shall at the Resurrection of the spirit reap life but a life immortal without end without annoyance or interruption of joy Again they extend the former similitude too far which from it would gather that as there is a natural force or previal disposition in the corn sown by which as by a secondary cause or instrumental mean it is quickned and increased So there be natural seeds of life in the putrified reliques of mens bodies or remnants of the matter dissolved out of which life immortal shall so spring as the blade doth out of the seed which is sown only by the sustentative or operative power of God by which all things are supported or enabled to produce their natural effects For although it be true that the works which we ascribe to nature are wrought by God or by continuation of the same power by which they were first created and set a working yet the Resurrection of mens bodies shall not be wrought by the mere continuation of This Power There must be more then a conservation of their matter more then an usual co-operation with the Elements out of which they are raised there must be even a new creation of their bodies yet not a Creation of them out of nothing but out of the scattered fragments of their matter such a creation as the works of the fifth and sixth day were when God commanded the sea or water to bring forth fishes in their kind and the earth to bring forth trees or plants in their kinde These were not effects of nature or of that power only by which the Sea and earth were from
the first day preserved but here was a new creation out of that which Philosophers properly term The mater that is the common mother of generation or corruption And thus God at the last day shall command not the earth only but the Sea also with the other Elements to give up their dead Rev. 20. 13. Lastly they extended this similitude too far which hence imagined that as the corn often dies and is often quickned and dies again So by the doctrine of Christians there should be a death after the Resurrection and a Resurrection after death or such a continual vicissitude between life and death as is between light and darkness This objection is punctually resolved by Tertullian in the 48. Chapt. of his Apologie The sum of his answer is That so it might be if the Omnipotent Creator had so appointed for he is able to work this continual interchange or vicissitude of life and death as well in mens bodies as in the bodies of corn sown or reaped or as he doth the perpetual vicissitude of light and darkness in the two Hemispheres of the world but he hath revealed his Will to the contrary And the reason is not the same but rather contrary in Gods crop or harvest as it is in the crops or harvests of mortal men As men in this life are mortal so is their food or nutriment and for this reason their nutriment must be supplied by continual sowing and reaping But God is immortal and so shall the crop of his harvest be Our Resurrection from the dead is his general crop or harvest and this needs to be no more then One because our bodies being once raised up to life again shall never die but enjoy immortalitie in his presence Heaven is his Granary and what is gathered into it cannot perish or consume 10. The general use of this Doctrine is punctually made to our hands by our Apostle in the last verse of this Chapt. Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. And more particulary 1 Thessal 4. 13. c. I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them which are a sleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope c. The Apostle there doth not forbid all mourning for the dead but the manner of mourning only that they mourn not as they which have no hope no expectation of any Resurrection after death Nature will teach us as it did these Thessalonians to mourn for the death of our friends and kindred And our belief of this Article will give us the true mean and prescribe the due manner or measure of mourning Our sorrow though natural and just yet if it be truly Christian and seasoned with Grace will still be mingled with comfort and supported by hope To be either impatient towards God or immoderatly dejected for the death of our dearest friends whose bodies God hath in mercy committed to the custody of the earth of the sea or other Elements is but A Symptome of heathenish ignorance or infidelity of this Article A Barbarism in Christianitie If we of this Land should live amongst Barbarians whom we had taught to make bread of Corn and accustomed to the tast of this bread as unknown to their forefathers as Manna at first appearance was to the Israelites but not acquainted them with the mystery of sowing and reaping they would be as ready in their hunger or scarcitie of bread to stone us as the Israelites were to stone Moses in their thirst if they should see us offer to bury that corn in the earth with which their bowels might be comforted yet if they were but so far capable of reason as to be perswaded or we so capable of trust or credit with them as to perswade them that there were no possibilitie left either to have bread without supply of corn or for corn to increase and multiply unless it did first die and putrifie in the ground hope of a more plentiful crop or harvest would naturally incline them to brook the present scarcity w th patience and to be thankfull towards such as would so carefully provide for them Now besides that the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God the committing of their bodies to the grave is but as a solemn preparation of seed for a future crop or harvest If in these premisses we do rely and trust in God our sorrow and heaviness for the dead though it may endure for a while will be swallowed up in comfort our mournfull tears and weeping will be still accompanied with praises and thanksgiving unto him that hath so well provided for them that live in his fear and die in his favour 11. But as this Doctrine administreth plentie of comfort in respect of friends deceased so it should move us to make choice of such only for our dearest friends as we see inclined to live in the fear of the Lord. Or if we have prevented our selves and this advice in making such choice yet let us never be prevented by others for making the main and principal end of our friendship or delight in any mans company to be this A serious study and endevour to prepare others and to be prepared by them to live and die in the Lord. As there is no greater comfort in this life then a faithfull and hearty friend So can no greater grief befall a man at the hour of death then to have had a friend trusty and hearty in other offices and services but negligent and backward in cherishing the seeds of faith of love or fear of the Lord or other provision of our way-fare towards the life to come No practise of the most malicious or most inveterate or most provoked foe can breed half so much danger to any man as the affectionate intentions of a carnal friend always officious to entertain him with pleasant impertinences which will draw his mind from the fear and love of God and either divert or effeminat his cogitations from resolute pitching upon the means and hopes of a joyfull Resurrection to everlasting life Even to minds and affections already sweetned with sure hope of that life to come what grief must it needs breed in this life if he be a loving husband to think he shall be by death eternally divorced from the companie of his dearest consort Or if he be an affectionate friend to consider that the league of mutual amitie in this life never interrupted but secured from danger of impairment whilst their pilgramage lasts here on earth should be everlastingly dissolved after the one hath taken up his lodging in the dust that all former dearest kindness should not only be forgotten but be further estranged from performance of any common courtesie then any Christian in this life can be in regard of any Jew or Turk or any Jew or
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
is shameful 3. It is mortiferous Two Motives to engage us in Gods service 1. Present and sweet fruit unto holiness 2. Future happiness p 3469 18. Of the fruitlesnesse of sin Of the shame that followes and dogs sin as the shadow doth the body what shame is whence it ariseth and what use may be made thereof Of fame praise and honor Satans stales false shame and false honor The character of both in Greek and Latin Of Pudor which is alwayes Male Facti of Verecundia which may sometimes be de modo recte Facti Periit vir cui pudor periit Erubuit salva res est p. 3477 19. We are many wayes engaged to serve God rather then to serve sin though sin could afford us as much fruit reward as God doth But there is no proportion no ground of comparison between the fruits of sin the Gift of God The case stated betwixt the voluptuous sensual life and the life truly christian Satans Method and Gods Method A complaint of the neglect of grace p. 3484 20. The first and second Death both literally meant The wages of sin Both described both compared and shewed how and wherein the second Death exceeds the first The greater deprivation of good the worse and more unwelcom death is Every member of the bodie every faculty of the soul the seat and subject of the second death A Map and scale the surface and solidity of the second Death Pain improved by enlarging the capacity of the patient and by intending or advancing the Activitie of the Agent Three dimensions of the second death 1. Intensiveness 2. Duration 3. Unintermitting continuation of Torment Poena damni sensus terms co-incident Pains of the Damned Essential and Accidental Just to punish momentany sin with pain eternal The reflection and Revolution of thoughts upon the sinners folly the Worm of conscience p. 3490 21. Eternal life compared with this present life the several tenures of both The method proposed The instability of this present life The contentments of it short and the capacities of men to enjoy such contentments as this life affords narrower In the life to come the capacitie of every faculty shall be enlarged Some senses shal receive their former contentments only eminentèr as if one should receive the weight in Gold for dross Some formalitèr Of Joy Essential and Joy Accidental p. 3500 22. Of the Accidental Joys of the life to come A particular Terrar or Map of the Kingdom prepared for the blessed Ones in a Paraphrase upon the 8 Beatitudes or the Blessedness promised to the 8 qualifications set down in the 5. Matth. Eternal life the strongest obligation to all duties Satans two usual wayes of tempting us either per Blanda or per Aspera p. 3510 23. The Philosophers Precept Sustine Abstine though good in its kind and in some degree useful yet insufficient True belief of the Article of everlasting life and death is able to effect both Abstinence from doing evil and sufferance of evil for well-doing The sad Effects of the misbelief or unbelief of this Article of Life and Death Eternal The true belief of it includes a taste of both Direction how to take a taste of death eternal without danger Turkish Principles produce Effects to the shame of Christians Though hell fire be material it may pain the soul The Story of Biblis The Bodie of the second death fully adequate to the Body of sin Parisiensis his Story A General and useful Rule p. 3519. 24. The Bodie of Death being proportioned to the bodie of sin Christian Meditation must apply part to part but by Rule and in Season The dregs and relicks of sin be the sting of Conscience and this is a prognostick of the worm of Conscience which is a chief part of the second death Directions how to make right use of the fear of the second death without falling into despere and of the hope of life eternal without mounting into presumption viz. 1. Beware of immature perswasions of certainty of salvation 2. Of this Opinion That all men be at all times either in the estate of the Elect or Reprobates 3. Of the irrespective Decree of Absolute Reprobation The use of the taste of death and pleasures The Turkish use of both How Christians may get a relish of Joy eternal by peace of Conscience joy in the Holy Ghost and works of Righteousnesse Affliction useful to that purpose p. 3529 25. The coldness of our hope of Eternal Life causeth Deviation from the wayes of righteousness and is caused by our no-taste or spiritual disrelish of that life The work of the Ministry is to plant this taste and to preserve it in Gods people Two objects of this Taste 1. Peace of Conscience 2. Joy in the Holy Ghost That Peace may best be shadowed out unto us in the known sweetness of temporal peace The passions of the natural man are in a continual mutiny To men that as yet have no experience of it the nature of joy in the Holy Ghost may best be exemplified by that chearful gladness of heart which is the fruit of Civil Peace It is the prerogative of man to enjoy himself and to possess his own soul In the knowledg of any truth there is joy but true joy is only in the knowledg of Jesus Christ and of saving truths The difference between Joy and Gladnesse in English Greek and Latin p. 3538. 26. Whether the taste 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 taste either by way of Efficiencie or Demerit The Advantages discovered by which a lesser good gets the better of a greater p. 3547. 27. About the merit of good Works The Romanists Allegations from the force of the word Mereri among the Antients and for the thing it self out of the holy Scriptures the Answers to them all respectively Some prove Aut nihil aut nimium The different value and importance of Causal Particles For Because c. A Difference between Not worthy and unworthy Christs sufferings though in time finite yet of value infinite Pleasure of sin short yet deserves infinite punishment Bad Works have the title of Wages and Desert to Death but so have not Good Works to Life Eternal p. 3558. 28. Whether Charismata Divina that is The Impressions of Gods Eternal Favour may be merited by us Or whether the second third and fourth Grace and Life Eternal it self may be so About Revival of Merits The Text Hebr. 6. 10. God is not unjust c. expounded The Questions about Merits and Justification have the same Issue The Romish Doctrin of Merits derogates from Christs merits The Question in order to Practise or Application stated betwixt God and our own souls Confidence in Merits and too hasty perswasions that we be the Favourites of God two Rocks God in punishing
John 6. 56. Of Communion in one Kind and receiving Christs Blood per Concomitantiam Tollet's Exposition of Christs words Except ye eat And drink by Disjunction turning And into Or Confuted And Rules given for Better Expounding like places How Christ dwels in us and we in him The Application All which be seasonable Meditations upon the Lords Supper John 6. 56. He that eateth my Flesh and Drinketh my Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him Or abideth in me and I in him 1. SEeing these words contain the Grand Mystery of godliness not only of God manifested in the Flesh but of God still with us yea dwelling in us and seeing they are withal the Conclusion or Centre of our Saviours long dispute with the murmuring Jews It will be necessarie to unfold the chief Contents of this Chapter At the tenth verse you may read how our Saviour had satisfied five thousand hungry souls with five barley loves and two fishes and filled twelve baskets with the fragments upon the Experience of this strange wonder this great multitude sought to make him their King A good Project I must confesse if we value it onely by the usual measure or aime of popular Elections What people would not be willing to have such an one for their King as were able to feed a whole Armie without Contribution Tax or Toll from them without any further toil and care either on their part or his then giving of thanks and distribution of extemporarie provision by his Ministers But besides this politick motive they had a Prenotion that their expected Messias or King should enter upon his Kingdom at the Feast of the Passover a little before which time this Miracle was wrought And it was a received Opinion as Tacitus telleth us that there should a great King about this time arise in Judah Nor did this people err much in the circumstance of time wherein their Messias should be enthron'd in the Kingdom of David for so he was at or soon after the Passover following But they utterly mistook the nature of his Kingdom and the manner of his Reign Yet in that they sought to make this man for so and no more then so they conceived him to be their King it is more then probable that they took him for their expected Messias And indeed upon sight of the Miracle which he had wrought they expressly confesse so much ver 14. This is of a truth That Prophet which should come into the world But seeing neither his Kingdome was of this world nor was he to be instated in it by the voyces and suffrages of men he who knew all times and seasons knew this was not the time of his Coronation and therfore when he perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a King he departed again into a mountain himself alone ver 15. And his Disciples being for the present discharged of their attendance crost the sea without him to Capernaum which was the place of his and their abode ver 16 17. The people which had been more then eye-witnesses of the former miracle having observed that he could not come to Capernaum where the next day they found him by ship or boat demand of him ver 25. Rabbi when camest thou hither The strange manner of his coming thither before them did it seems no lesse affect them then the former miracle though neither did affect them as was fitting for so our Saviour plainly tells them ver 26. Verily verily I say unto you ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled These were the same men which saw the miracle but in seeing it they did not see it that is they did not in heart consider that he had fed their bodies with corporal bread to no other end save only to stir up the appetite of their souls after celestial food So our Saviour testifies unto them ver 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed that is he was to be a King of Gods appointing not of theirs 2. Now albeit the former miracle of five loaves and two fishes had extorted that confession from them before mentioned Of a truth this is that Prophet which should come into the world yet this reproof of our Saviour's provokes them to question the validitie of their former verdict for they demand a further sign of him before they will acknowledge that he was indeed the Great Prophet or one whom they might believe was sent from God for so they say ver 30 31. What sign shewest thou then that we may see and believe thee What dost thou work our Fathers did eate Manna in the desert as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eate The question at last comes to this issue Whether the Manna which their Fathers did eate in the wildernesse were the true bread of life or bread from heaven better then which they were not to expect Our Saviour maintaines the negative ver 32 33. Verily Verily I say unto you Moses gave you not that bread from heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world All this they can well brook in Thesi or General for so they reply ver 34. Lord evermore give us this bread But when our Saviour comes from the Thesis to the Hypothesis or from the general Doctrine which they so well approved to make this particular Application I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst ver 35. They leave their questioning and fall to murmuring taking a sudden occasion or strange hint of offence at his person or Parentage Whereas before they were forward to make him their King they now reply Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know How is it then that he saith I came down from heaven vers 42. 3. Thus their fathers had murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wildernesse one while for want of bread Exod. 16. 2. accounting their estate in Egypt much better than their present condition in the wildernesse Another while they murmur for water Exod. 15. 24. And again Exod. 17. 3. Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our Children and Cattle with thirst Thus they murmured against Moses whom they had seen to work so mightie wonders And thus their foolish posteritie murmured against Him whom for the former miracle they had acknowledged the great Prophet whom God had promised to raise up unto them like unto Moses in all things and therefore like unto him in this in that he endured their murmurings against him with greater patience
and meekenesse than Moses did albeit they had no such occasion of murmuring as their forefathers had For their Fathers murmured in their hunger or thirst whereas this great Prophet had prevented this occasion of murmuring by feeding them plenteously before they had sought to him for food That which Moses saith unto the murmuring Israelites Exod. 16. 8. was now exactly fullfilled The Lord saith he heareth your murmurings which you murmur against him and what are wee Your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord. These Jewes murmur against the son as they suppose of Joseph and Mary lesse weening that in murmuring against him they did personally murmur against the Son of God then their Fathers did when they murmured against Moses that they had murmured against their God But the same Lord which heard their murmurings then by the mediate presence or infinite knowledge of his God head heares them now with the eares of man as immediately and as sensibly as Moses heard their Fathers murmur Now as God in the wildernesse though he heard their Fathers murmurings did yet grant them their desire at evening ye shall eat flesh in the morning ye shall be filled with bread and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God Exod. 16. 12 So the same Lord now albeit this foolish people murmur against him to his face not for denying but for proffering them the true food of life is so farre from chiding them as Moses did that he presseth them to make try all of his bountie and to accept his proffer with greater vehemency of words yet with more meeknesse of language than Moses did at any time use Murmur not saith he amongst your selves ver 43. c. I am that bread of life your fathers did eat Manna in the wildernesse and are dead This is the bread which cometh downe from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye I am the living bread that came downe from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh w ch I will give for the life of the world 48 49 50 51. And here again they increase their murmuring for they strove among themselves saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat v. 52. Thus as their Fathers tempted God in their hearts by asking meat for their Lust Ps 78. 18. so have their posteritie They fought him out that they might have their bellye 's filled with corporal bread and yet when he had given them this in great abundance by meanes miraculous they will not beleive that he is able to give them what he promiseth bread from heaven or his flesh to eate which is the bread or staff of life So incredulous their Fathers had been that after the sight of many miracles in Egypt they would not trust him in the wildernesse after the experience of one miracle in the wildern esse they would not trust him for a second They Spake against God they said can God furnish a table in the wildernesse Behold he smote the Rock that the waters gushed out and the streames over-flowed but can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth so a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger came up against Israel because they beleived not in God and trusted not in his salvation But now this Salvation of God even God himself made their Jesus or Salvation for all is one is come neerer unto this later people and yet they will not beleeve him they will not trust in him Yet his anger is not presently kindled against them for not beleiving The more they doubt the more they question the more they murmur or strive the more he presseth the necessitie of eating his flesh upon them first Negatively verily verily I say unto you except yee eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood yee have no life in you then Affirmatively Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day vers 53 54. And lastly he gives the reason as well of the negative as of the affirmative For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed vers 55. So that in him these Jewes were to expect the fulnesse of the body of all those contentments for whose shadowes their Fathers so greedily longed in the wildernesse and for want of which they so murmured against Moses as these men now do against the Lord which appeared to Moses for giving them assurance of them 4. In what sense Christs flesh is said to be truely meate and his blood to be truely drink I have shewd elswhere The summe was this His flesh is meat indeed his blood is drink indeed non Formaliter sed Eminenter meat indeed and drink indeed not in respect of the natural qualities of corporal meat and drink for these must be swallowed concocted digested and finally converted into our bodily substance That Christs flesh according to these qualities is truely meat or his blood truely drink the Romish Church doth not avouch For if his body should be concocted or digested or converted into our bodily substance it should suffer corruption And to be swallowed only and not concocted is no propertie of meat or drink Christs Flesh then is said truly meat and his blood drink indeed in respect of the End whereto all manner of food is destinated The best End of all bodily food is to preserve or continue bodily life And that is the best food or diet which most effectually procureth this End Howbeit bodily life cannot be first given or implanted by the best bodily meat that is but only continuated or preserved But Christs Flesh was given not only to continue life but to give life unto the world it is the root of life as well as the food of life If we speak of life spiritual or Everlasting which onely is life indeed And in as much as his flesh and blood are the rootes and fountaines of this kind of life the one is most truely said to be meat indeed the other most truely drink indeed That is meat and drink more effectuall and more necessary for the attainement of everlasting life than bodily food is for life temporal Again Temporal or bodily life cannot be continued or preserved otherwise than by the corruption or destruction of the bodily meate which preserves it But Christs flesh and blood preserve life spiritual or our soules and bodies unto everlasting life because they are incorruptible and cannot be changed be not so much as subject to alteration Now if all other meat besides this must suffer corruption and lose its nature before it can become a cause or meanes of preserving bodily life Such meat cannot be truely said to remain in us much lesse can wee be said to remain or abide in it But of Christs flesh and
blood he himselfe here saith it He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him and for this reason his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed the onely meat and the onely drink which men should hunger and thirst after Other meates and drinks should be sought for yea life bodily it self should be desired onely to this End that by the prolonging of it wee might be partakers in greater measure of this meat and drink which preserves the Bodie and soul unto everlasting life 5. The Questions then to be discussed are Two First What it is to eat Christs flesh and drink his Blood Secondly What it is for Christ to Dwell or abide in us and us to dwell or abide in Him All agree that there is A Twofold eating of Christs Bodie and A Twofold drinking of his Blood One meerly Sacramental and another Spiritual Which agreement notwithstanding There ariseth A Third Question viz. What manner of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Blood is in this place either onely or principally meant For the Resolution of this Question we are breifly to explicate each member of this Division viz. 1. What it is to eat Christs Bodie and drink his Blood Sacramentally onely 2. What it is to eat his Bodie and Drink his Blood Spiritually First then All that are partakers of this Sacrament eat Christs Bodie and Drink his Blood sacramentally that is they eat that Bread which Sacramentally is his Bodie and drink that Cup which Sacramentally is his Blood whether they eat or drink faithfully or unfaithfully For All the Israelites 1 Cor. 10. Drank of the same Spiritual Rock which was Christ Sacramentally All of them were partakers of his presence when Moses smote the Rock Yet with many of them God was not well pleased because they did not faithfully either Drink or participate of his presence And more displeased he is with such as eat Christs Bodie and Drink his blood unworthily though they eat and drink them Sacramentally For eating and drinking so onely that is without faith or due respect they eat and drink to their own Condemnation because they do not Discern or rightly esteem Christs Bodie or presence in the H. Sacrament May we say then that Christ is Really present in the Sacrament as well to the unworthy as to the faithful receivers Yes this we must grant yet must we add withal that he is really present with them in a quite contrary manner really present he is because virtually present to both because the operation or efficacie of his Bodie and blood is not metaphorical but real in both Thus the bodily Sun though locally distant for its substance is really present by its heat and light as well to sore eyes as to clear sights but really present to both by a contrarie real operation and by the like contrary operation it is really present to clay and to wax it really hardneth the one and really softeneth the other So doth Christs Bodie and Blood by its invisible but real influence mollifie the hearts of such as come to the Sacrament with due preparation but harden such as unworthily receive the consecrated Elements If he that will hear the word must take heed how he hears much more must he which means to receive the Sacrament of Christs bodie and blood be careful how he receives He that will present himself at this great Marriage Feast of the Lamb without a wedding garment had better be absent It was alwayes safer not to approach the presence of God manifested or exhibited in extraordinarie manner as in his Sanctuarie or in the Ark then to make appearance before it in an unhallowed manner or without due preparation Now when we say that Christ is really present in the Sacrament our meaning is that as God he is present in an extraordinarie manner after such a manner as he was present before his incarnation in his Sanctuarie in the Ark of his Covenant and by the Power of his God-head thus extraordinarilie present he diffuseth the vertue or operation of his Humane Nature either to the vivification or hardning of their hearts who receive the Sacramental Pledges So then a man by eating Christs bodie meerly Sacramentally may be hardned may be excluded from his gracious presence But no man hath Christ dwelling in him by this manner of eating his flesh and drinking his blood unlesse withal he eate the one and drink the other Spiritually The Eating then of Christs bodie and drinking his blood meerly Sacramentally is not the eating and drinking here meant 6. They are said to eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Spiritually which rightly apprehend his Death and Passion which by Faith meditate and ruminate upon them making application to themselves aswel of the great danger which may ensue upon the neglect of such great benefits as he hath purchased for them as of the inestimable good which alwayes accompanies the right esteeme or contemplation of his Bodie which was given for them and of his Blood which was shed for them He which thus eateth Christs Flesh and drinketh his Blood by Faith although he do not for the time present eat his Bodie or drink his blood Sacramentally hath a true interest in this promise He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him so he do not neglect to eat his Bodie and drink his Blood Sacramentally when occasion requires and opportunitie serves So that Spiritual eating and drinking Christ by Faith is the true preparative for the worthy receiving of his bodie and blood Sacramentally He that doth not so prepare himself for the receiving of his body and blood doth receive him unworthily whilest he receives him Sacramentally The main Question is Whether Christs words be to be understood at all of Sacramental eating and drinking or of Spiritual eating and drinking onely 7. Many there were and yet are in Reformed Churches which deny this place to be meant of Sacramental Eating But as Beza amongst others well observes they which deny this place to be meant at all of Sacramental eating err no lesse then they do which restrain it only to Sacramental eating Their error which deny it to be meant at all of Sacramental eating is so much the worse because it gave advantage to our Adversaries of the Romish Church which want no wit to work upon all advantages given To omit others Jansenius and Dr. Hessels two of the most exquisite expositors of Scriptures and most Judicious Divines which the Romish Church had after the Reformation was begun by Luther and Zuinglius and prosecuted by Calvin expressely deny our Saviours dispute in this Chapter with the Jews to be meant at all of Sacramental eating or drinking The Reason which enforced these two great Divines to slight the authoritie of most writers in their own Church and to wave the authoritie of most ancient Fathers which it is evident do understand this
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
sins whereof as St. Iude intimates the supream Iudge will take special notice in that day and the harborers of it without repentance shall have a large portion of the wo or curse denounced by Enoch There is no sin for its quality more opposite to Iustice or that can more provoke a just gracious Iudge then intrusion into his Office without Warrant or Commission and yet so they all do that without warrant will become Magistrates or Censurers or Judges of others Such as affect the name of Zealous Professors in our times cannot more directly impeach themselves of gross Hypocrisie then by nursing this censuring humor in themselves orr applauding it in others whilest they profess to believe this Article of appearing before the Judgement seat of Christ The Belief whereof were it true or sound would not suffer this censorious humour of all others whatsoever to lodge in the same brest with it as being most directly opposite unto it most incompatible with it Nor did our Apostle St. Paul himself know any other Medicine or possible cure of this Malady then the pressing this Article upon such as were tainted with it Who art thou saith he Rom. 14. 4. that judgest another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth What more would you have said or have left un-said to such as take upon them to judge or censure their lawful Magistrates and Pastors And again ver 10. Why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at nought thy brother seeing we shall all stand before the Iudgement seat of Christ and ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God As for the Magistrate or such as have taken the charge of souls upon them they must give an account to God not of themselves onely but of others committed to their charge but their flock or inferiors are not bound to give account of them and for this reason should in conscience be more ready to be directed or censured by them then to direct or judge their Actions 8. The former Point might pass without further Addition or Annotation were it not that a late Divine of deserved note seems to deny the place avouched Dan. 7. 13. to be literally meant of a final Judgement of which if it were not literally meant our Saviors Allegation of it was not concludent nor should the conviction of the High Priest for giving wrong Judgement upon our Savior be so notorious and manifest as we suppose it to be and at the last day it will appear The prejudice of one modern Divines authority in a Negative of this nature cannot be great especially seeing this Negation is grounded onely upon an inconsiderate or careless Inference This place of Daniel saith he is literally meant of Christs ascending to his Father and of his investiture in the Kingdom of Heaven This no man denies And necessary it was that he should ascend into Heaven and be established in his Throne before he came to the accomplishment of Jurisdiction Royal such is the exercise or execution of final Judgement The Argument then will hold much better Affirmatively then Negatively The forecited place of Daniel is literally meant of Christs Ascension and Enthronization Ergo it is principally meant of the execution of final Judgement of such a Judgement as is to reverse or rectifie whatsoever hath been wrongfully done or adjudged by the most potent Monarchs or supream Tribunals of the earth So it is expresly foretold Dan. 2. 44 45. That this Kingdom whereof the Son of Man did take possession should destroy or break in pieces the Babylonian the Persian the Macedonian and the Roman Monarchy with all their appurtenances and attendances or reliques And in the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it brake in pieces the Iron the brass the clay the silver and gold the great God hath made known to the King what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure To omit all Question how Christs Kingdom here foretold being not erected till the Roman Monarchy was at the height should destroy the Babylonian the Persian or the Macedonian Monarchy all which three were in the wane before the Roman was Crescent Certain it is that the Roman Monarchy being at the height when Christ ascended was to be destroyed by him yet not destroyed at his Ascension The Case then is clear that the forementioned Prophecie of Daniel cannot be terminated by the time of our Saviours Ascension but is to be extended to all succeding ages yea after time shall be no more If the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession be for duration everlasting for power most Soveraign so absolute and independent that all other Kingdoms which have been are or shal be depend on it and are responsible to it the execution of all Judgement whether past or to come whether temporal or eternal must either be ratified or reverst or immediately awarded by This everlasting King Polanus himself the principal Author or Abettor of the former Opinion viz. That the place of Dan. 7. 13. is not literally meant of Christs coming to Judgement grants That the Kingdom whereof Christ at his Ascension took possession shall be consummate in the life to come and not before And in granting thus much he is concluded to grant withal that the former places are principally or consummatly meant of Christs coming to Iudge the World and to translate the Kingdom of God begun here on earth into the Heaven of Heavens in which so translated all shall be Kings all shall be Judges all shall be perpetual Laws unto themselves there shall be no place for after Judgement especially for any sentence of condemnation 9. To let the former mis-interpretation of the Prophet Daniel pass as a private error or oversight rather which wants the general consent as well of the Roman Church as of the Reformed it is now God be praised on all hands agreed on and acknowledged by the best learned of both Churches that many places of the Old Testament are literally and truly meant both of Christs first coming in humility to be judged of men and of his second coming in glory to give Iudgement upon the world And not of these two Periods of times onely but of all the times intermediate or interjacent Howbeit of these times onely Inchoativè consummately finally or punctually of the life to come which takes beginning from the last Iudgement That this place of Dan. 7. is Inchoativè meant of Christs first coming that is that it first began literally to be verified then but shall not be consummated or
fulfilled until the last Judgement or in the life to come is acknowledged and well observed by a late learned Jesuit And this Interpretation being proffered by a man of that profession I entertain the rather because it affords us a facile and commodious interpretation of all or most of those places whether in the Old Testament or in the New which the Romish Church the Iesuits in special insist upon for the glorious Prerogatives of the visible Church and of the visible Roman Church above all Churches visible How many instances soever or places they bring whether general for the visible or militant Church or for the glory of the Roman Church in special this One Answer will give satisfaction to all They are meant of the visible or militant Church Inchoativè but of the Church triumphant Consummativè They are meant of the visible or militant Church indefinitely that is some particular members of the visible Church have undoubted pledges or earnests of those glorious promises in this life which notwithstanding shall not be either universally punctually or solidly accomplished save onely in the members of the Church triumphant Christs Church whether we consider it as militant or triumphant is an essential or integral part of his Kingdom and as his Kingdom so his Church hath its first plantation or beginning here on earth Both have a right or interest in the glorious promises made to the Church universal neither Church nor Kingdom here on earth can have entire possession of the blessings or prerogatives promised until it be given them by the Great King at the day of Final Judgment Of this rank is that prophecie Jer. 31. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more This Place no man denies was literally verified in the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon our Saviours Ascension But shall not be punctually and solidly fulfilled until the day of Judgment be past Then the true members of Christs Church shall neither need Tradition nor the written Word they shall be all immediately taught of God and have his Laws most perfectly and indeliblely written in their hearts The gates of hell shall not then in any wise prevail against them not so far as to annoy their bodies or interrupt their peace and happiness Of this intire happiness and perfection the Church Militant had a pledge or earnest in the effusion of the Holy Ghost and all that be true Members of Christs Church have a superficial draught or picture of this entire happiness in their hearts But Christ at his Ascension was so far from annulling the use of preaching or teaching one another that as the Apostle tels us Eph. 4. 11 12 13. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers more extraordinary then any had been during the time of the Law for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith c. 10. Thus to interpret the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Church indefinitely taken can be no Paradox seeing the predictions of our Saviour himself concerning his Kingdom must of necessity be thus interpreted witness that Prediction to omit others Matth. 16. 27 28. The Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Verily I say unto you there be some standing here that shall not tast of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom The later part of this Prediction or the Experiment answering unto it was exemplified in Peter Iames and John within seven dayes after For these Three were Spectators of his Transfiguration in the Mount And his transfiguration was but a representation or exemplification of that glory wherein he shall appear in the day of Judgment when he shall give these Apostles and all that shall obey his precepts full possession of the Kingdom of God prepared for them But albeit these three Apostles had not onely their eyes but their ears true witnesses of his glory as of the glory of the onely begotten Son of God for so it is said Matth. 17. 2. His face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light and ver 5. A bright cloud over shadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear him Yet miserable men had they been for all this if their hopes or expectations had been terminated or accomplished with this transient glorious spectacle or voice Both the voice and the spectacle were but earnests or pledges of that everlasting joy or happiness which they were to expect in the perpetual fruition of the like sights or sounds in the life to come Of this sort or rank is that Prophecie of Esay 2. 4. And he shall judge among the Nations and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into Plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more There was at the birth of this great Judge a glimps exhibited of this Universal Peace which shall not be universally established before the last and final Judgement All the Nations of the Earth were quiet and free from any noise of War when he came first into the World For Janus his Temple was then shut And after he shall be revealed again unto the World from Heaven there shall be neither Death nor Famine nor the Sword Howbeit even the dearest of his Saints which have lived since his first Birth were to endure a perpetual War in their Pilgrimage here on earth and the end of their War is to make them capable of this everlasting peace 11. Another Prediction of his coming to Judgement there is which must be interpreted according to the former Rule that is Inchoativè or in part of his first coming to visit us in humility and to instruct the World but Completivè or fully of his second coming to Judge the World Mal. 3. 2 3. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner or purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness So certain and so general is the former Rule of interpretation that not this prediction of Malachi's onely and the like of other Prophets but the fulfilling of them related by the Evangelists cannot rightly be interpreted without the
indeed would directly follow He that is able to make men live again that have been dead for a thousand years is also able to quicken the corn in the next month which died the last month This kind of Argument would be as clear as if you should say That he that is able to make ready payment of a thousand pounds may soon and easily pay an hundred But you would take it as an impertinent or indiscreet allegation to say I know this man is able to pay you an hundred pounds therefore I would perswade you to take his bond for a thousand But our Apostles Argument in this place may seem less probable and it is at least to appearance but Thus God dayly raiseth up corn within a year after it is sowen Ergo he shall raise up Adams body which was consumed to dust five thousand years ago 6. To frame the Apostles Argument which is an Argument of Proportion aright you must take his Principles or grounds into your consideration Now he first supposeth and takes it as all good Christians ought to do for granted that God doth give that body unto every seed with which it ariseth or cometh out of the ground The increase of things sown or planted is not in his Language or Philosophie the meer Effect or gift of Nature For even Nature her self or whatsoever she hath to bestow is the gift of God That which Philosophers call Nature is in true Divinity nothing else but The Law which God hath set to things natural or subject to change or motion Now he which made this Law whether for guiding bodies sublunary or celestial can dispense with it at his pleasure He sometimes inhibits the ordinary course of the Law of Nature by substraction as it were of his Royal Assent or by suspending the concurrence of his Operative Power And sometimes again he advanceth the state of things natural by creating or making a New Law unto the manner of their Being or of their Operations that is he changeth their Qualities though not their Natures or Essences Thus much presupposed or premised our Apostles Inference is as firm and strong as it is Emphatical Stulte Tu quod Seminas O Fool that which THOU sowest is not quickened except it die c. The force or Emphasis may be gathered thus If God doth give a body unto that seed which thou sowest for thine own use and benefit much more will the same God give a body to The Seed which He Himself doth sow much more will he quicken it after it hath been dead seeing the End why he sowes it is not thy temporal benefit or commodity but His Own immortal glory When God did enact that severe Law from which death natural takes its original Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return the Intent or purport of that Law was not that man by returning to dust should utterly or finally perish and be for ever as if he never had been What then was the intent or purport of this Law That mans body should be committed unto the earth as seed is committed to the ground that as the corn which springs out of the earth returns to earth again and is still raised up with advantage and increase unto the Sower So the bodies of men after that by the first mans folly they became corruptible and certain to suffer corruption whether in the earth in the air or in the Sea might be raised again but not to corruption that God may receive the seed which is sown with increase of Glory to himself this increase of Glorie being rooted in the increase of their happiness by whose immortalitie he is immediately glorified Thus much of the former difficulty to wit how our Apostles Instance or experiment in the work of nature doth infer his intended Conclusion to wit the future Resurrection from the dead And from the Solution of this Former the Second may easily be assoyled 7. The second Difficulty was How this Instance or Experiment of the Corn dying and being quickened again can fit or parallel the Resurrection of the body seeing the Corn which is quickened or springeth up is not The same body which was sown Whereas it is a Point of our Belief that the same numerical bodies which die and return to dust or are resolved into ashes or into the Elements of which they consist shall be raised up at the last day For if The Body raised up were not the self same that died the Body which died should not be parttaker either of pain or joy everlasting but another Bodie should be tormented or glorified instead of the Body which died Every man should not receive reward or punishment according to that which he had done in the body or at least this reward or punishment should not be received in the same Body in whhic he had done ill or well Aquinas a Great School-man in his time labours to assoyl the proposed Difficultie by framing the Apostles Argument Thus. If Nature can repair that which dies Idem Specie that is If Nature can make it to be of the same Kind it was though not the same numerical body it was as he that sows Wheat reaps Wheat not Rie or Barley though not the self same grains of Wheat which he sows Then The God of nature and Creator of all things shall raise up the bodies of men which are his seed and proper husbandry the very self same which they were not the self same for kind or specifical Unity but the same Individuals Of all the bodies which have died not one shall miscarry not so much as a hair of any mans head or any least part of his body shall finally perish But though all this be True yet is it Impertinent it fals not within the compass of our Apostles Inference in this place who neither affirms nor denies nor took it so much as into his consideration whether the Corn which springs up be the same Individual Nature or substance which did putrifie and die in the ground The utmost Circumference of his considerations or thoughts extends no further then thus That the Body which God doth give to every seed is not for qualitie the same which was sown for it was sown Bare Corn without blade husk or ear and loseth that corpulencie or quantitie which it had But it springs not up bare Corn. The new life which it gets in the womb of the earth is cloathed with a fresh body capable of nourishment and growth of both which it was uncapable whilst it was severed from the ear wherein it grew or after the stalk was cut down And This Change or alteration in the Corn sown and springing up doth well fit the Change or alteration which shall be wrought in our Bodies at the Resurrection or last day Our bodies by death become more uncapable of nourishment then the corn severed from the ear or cut down for they are utterly deprived of life of sense of
at the last day the same it was when he died by Recollecting or putting together the self same material parts whereof his soul was possest at her departure from the body is not impossible That the bodies of all men should at the Resurrection become the same they were by this means not by Creation of new bodies or by new creation of any bodily substance or new matter out of nothing the Heathens it seems did conceive to be the Opinion of the ancient Christians when the Gospel of Christ concerning the Resurrection of the body begun to be prest and preached among them For to disprove Christians Belief of this Article or at least to defeat Christians of their hopes of a bodily Resurrection to a better life their heathen persecutors did burn their bodies unto ashes and afterwards sow their ashes some in the waters some in the air or expose them to the blasts of boysterous winds hoping by these practises to find the God of these Christians a cumbersome work before he could accomplish what they profest he had promised unto them concerning the Resurrection of the same bodies and of rendring to every soul the same material portions whereof it was sometimes seized But whether the malicious heathens did punctually oppose these practises unto the assertions of the Christians as if from their mouths they had heard that the Resurrection of the body should be accomplished by Recollection of all the particles into which it had been resolved through what Elements soever they had been in long tract of time dispersed or whether these Heathens did thus practise upon the Christians bodies out of their own imaginations as not conceiving any other means possible by which every man might arise with his own body I find not upon Record Some of the Antient Fathers in their Arguments against the Heathen or in their Apologies for This Article of our Faith suppose the Resurrection of the body shall be accomplished by the Recollection of the Reliques or Fragments into which each ones bodie hath been dissolved And to this purpose use divers Similitudes or illustrations drawn from Gold-smiths or Refiners of Metals who by their Art or Mysterie can extract the fragments of Gold or Silver out of any other metal or body with which they are mingled Howbeit other of the Fathers and sometimes the same Fathers which use these Similitudes or illustrations principally rely upon Gods Creative Power by which he made all things out of Nothing or by which he multiplieth or advanceth things that have some actual Being unto a more excellent and more plentiful kind of Being It was an exercise of the Creative Power to turn Water in an Instant into Wine to multiply five loaves and two fishes unto the sustentation of more then five thousand men besides the fragments remaining which were ten times more then the provision it self And in thus resolving the possibility of every mans Rising with his own Bodie into the Power of God whereby he is able either to make all things out of nothing or to make one thing out of another by means miraculous and far surmounting all force of natural Agents the antient Fathers did wisely For admitting what no Christian can denie that Gods Skill or knowledge to recollect all the several parcels of every mans bodie which way soever dispersed doth infinitely exceed the most exquisite Skill of any Mineralist or Refiner in severing one metal from another and in wedding and uniting every parcel fragment or remnant of what kind soever with others of it own kind Yet this Infinite Skill or knowledge in Recollecting or uniting the several parts of mens bodies which have been dissolved by death could not suffice to the supportance of that truth which in this Article we all believe against the assaults of the Atheists unless this infinite Skill or knowledge were seconded with an infinite Creative Power 4. Against the Recollection of all the Reliques or fragments of mens bodies the Atheist or subtil Naturalist would thus Object All Christians do not die a natural death all come not to the Sepulchres of their Fathers many perish in the Sea and the bodies of many which thus perish are quite devoured by fishes Sea-monsters or other inhabitants of the Sea and the fishes which thus devour even Christian men are again devoured by other men and those men again which have sed on fishes which devoured men become a prey unto other fishes and these fishes are taken again and eaten by men The men that eat these fishes may saies He and we may suppose they do become a prey unto the Canibals a barbarous and monstrous people which feed as greedily upon mans flesh as any Sea-monster or ravenous land Creature would feed on theirs Now the matter or bodily substance of every man that is devoured by fishes or other inhabitants of the Sea is turned into the matter or bodily substance of the devourer The matter again of every fish that is eaten by man is converted or changed into the matter or substance of that man which eats it The Canibal would not so greedily feed upon mans flesh as he doth unless he were truly nourished by it and nourishment is the conversion of the matter or substance eaten into the matter or substance of him that eateth it Now if the Resurrection of every man with his own body with the same body from which his soul was by death divorced did only or principally consist in the Recollection or re-union of the same material parts or reliques which were dissolved by death it would be a hard point to resolve or satisfie the Atheist or incredulous Naturalist how it were possible that every man should have the self same Bodie that he had at the hour of death To twist the difficultie harder according to the Atheists suppositions which are not impossible nor in ordinary conjecture improbable From what creature shall the first mans body which the fish devoured be challenged Or what creature shall the Almighty injoyn to make restitution of his intire matter Shall the Almighty injoyn the fishes of the Sea to cast up the morsels of mans flesh which they have eaten as the Whale did Jonas But it is supposed that the bodily substance or matter of the man was converted into the substance or bodies of the fishes which did eat him for God did not preserve either the life or bodily matter of men devoured by fishes as he did preserve Ionas Shall the mans bodie then be repaired out of the matter or bodily substance of the fishes which did eat him But that as the Atheists suppose and is not in it self improbable other men have eaten and turned it into the matter and substance of their bodies And these men again have been eaten by other fishes or by such Land-monsters as the Canibals Shall the first then or second mens bodies be repaired out of the bodily substance or matter of these later men which have eaten
all the Benefits which God for his Deaths sake bestows upon us by believing only in his death But even This benefit of our Iustification we receive more immediately by our Belief of his Resurrection from the dead This is the doctrine of our Apostle even in that place wherein he handles the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone or by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness Ex Professe as Rom. 4. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake to wit Abrahams alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we beleive on him that raised up Iesus from the dead And he gives the Reason why our Belief of this Article should be imputed unto us in the next words Seeing he was delivered to death for our offences and raised again for our Justification Howbeit even This Belief of His Resurrection is a Grace or Blessing of God which Christ did merit by His Death yet a Grace conveihed unto us by the vertue of His Resurrection or by Christ himself by his Resurrection exalted unto glory in his human nature We were Justified by his Death in as much as The Pardon for our sins was by it purchased and the hand writing or obligation against us cancelled If Christ then had only dyed for us and not risen again we might by Belief in his Death have escaped the Second Death or everlasting pains of hell We should notwithstanding as our Apostle here supposeth have been detained perpetual prisoners in the grave Our bodily or corporal being should have been utterly consumed by the first Death without hope of recovery or restitution And so far as the first Death had dominion over men so far had these Corinthians remained in their sins So long as the first Death remains unconquered sin remains Now if Christ had not been raised from the dead the first Death or death of the body had remained unconquered Belief in Christs death could not utterly have freed them from all the wages of sin For death of the body is in us part of the wages of sin and it was to Christ part of the burden of our sin But in as much as Christ is risen from the dead and raised to an immortal life over which bodily death hath no Rule or dominion but must be put in absolute subjection to Him all that truly believe such a Resurrection are justified not only from the eternal guilt of sin nor only freed from everlasting death but are made heirs by adoption unto a life over which death shall have no power So then by Christs Death we are freed from the everlasting Curse by his Resurrection we are made free Denisons of the heavenly Jerusalem heirs by promise of an everlasting and most blessed life And thus far all that are partakers of the Word and Sacraments are said to be justified by his Resurrection that is they are bound to believe that as He died for their Sins to redeem them from the second death so he rose again for their further Justification to free them from the death of the bodie He therefore rose from the dead that we by believing this Article might receive the Adoption of the Sons of God But yet there is a further degree of Justification that is an Actual Absolution from the Reign or Dominion of sin in our Bodies which is never obtained without some measure of Faith or Sanctifying Grace inherent albeit the true use and end of such Grace and Faith inherent be to sue out the Pardon for our sins in particular not by our works or merits which are none but meerly and solely by the Free-Grace and Favour of God in Christ True it is that even This Gift of Faith by which we must sue out our Pardon in particular and supplicate for the Adoption of the Sons of God was purchased by Christs death nor may we sue for it under any other Stile or Form then propter merita Christi for the merits of Christ Yet after this plea made we may not expect to receive this blessing otherwise then per Jesum Christum through or by Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead This Grace this Faith and whatsoever other blessing of God which Christ by his death hath merited for us whatsoever is any way conducent to our full and final Redemption descends immediately from the Son of God exalted in his human nature as from its proper Fountain He was consecrated by his death and his Consecration was accomplished by his Resurrection to be an inexhaustible fountain of life and salvation to all that truly believe in his death and Resurrection from the dead Thus we are fallen into the Affirmative Inference If Christ be risen from the dead then such as die in Christ shall be raised from death to immortal Glory The same Almighty Power by which Christ was raised unto glorie shall be manifested even in these our mortal bodies But now is Christ risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that slept 9. The Inference or implication is That seeing Christ whose mortalitie was clearly testified by his death was raised up to an endless and immortal life Therefore such as die in Christ whatsoever in the mean time become of their bodies shall be raised up to the like life against which death shall never be able to make any attempt or approach For as the Apostle saith Rom. 11. 16. If the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches But we are to remember that there were Two sorts of First fruits appointed by the Law the One of the first corn that was reaped being ground and made up into loaves which were offered at the feast of Pentecost And unto this sort of First fruits the Apostle Rom. 11. 16. hath Reference The other was the offering of green corn when it first begun to bud or ear And unto this sort of First fruits our Apostle here in the twentieth verse hath Reference Christ then is the root and we are the branches he is the First fruits and we are the after-crop and harvest Now as the offering of the First fruits that is of the green corn was the hallowing of the whole crop So the Resurrection of Christ from the grave was the hallowing or consecration of these our mortal bodies unto that glory and immortalitie which shall be at the finall Resurrection If God did accept the offering of the First fruits it was a pledge unto his people that he would extraordinarily bless the after-crop with large increase his people might with confidence expect a joyfull harvest To manifest the meaning or fulfilling of this Type or legal Ceremonie in our Saviour He was raised up from the dead upon that very day in the morning wherein the first fruits of green corn were by the priests of the Law offered unto God His resurrection as was said before was the accomplishment of his
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.
It is my Iudgement That had this learned Author left none other These Thirteen Treatises put together would make a very Excellent Compend of Christian Instruction CHAP. XVII ROMANS 6. Ver. 21 22 23. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is Death 22. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life 23. For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Connexion of the fifth and sixth Chapters A Paraphrase upon this Sixth 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 St. Paul writes did so in Baptism profess 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 and Medicine against the deadly infection of Sin as a strengthening to make us victorious over sin Three Motives to deter us from the Service of Sin 1. It is fruitless 2. It is Shameful 3. It is Mortiferous Two Motives to engage us in Gods Service 1. Present and sweet Fruit unto Holiness 2. Future Happiness THese three verses being the Close or binding of all the rest in this Chapter or as the Solid Angle in which there is a punctual and full Coincidence of all the former Lines I must be inforced to exhibit unto the Reader A Model or Abstract of the Whole before I can shew him the true Connexion or References between these later and the foregoing verses And the Model or Abstract of the whole Chapter is This. Our Apostle had given up this Conclusion as the main Aphorism or Resultance of the fifth Chapter verse 20 21. Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound That as sin had raigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now whether it were to check that preposterous Inference which some had alreadie made of this Doctrine when first it was delivered unto them for it was delivered before he wrote this Epistle or whether it were to prevent the making of it upon the reading of the former Chapter our Apostle propounds that Objection which either had been or might be made against the former Doctrine in the begining of this Sixth Chapter and he propounds it by way of Interrogation What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound And he gives the Answer unto it in the second verse by an Absit God forbid That is far be it from us far be it from every Christian thus to resolve thus to infer say or think And to shew the absurditie of that inference he adds this Reason How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein But this Refutation may seem to participate more of Rhetorical Passion or indignation then of sound and Logical Reason an artificial Evasion rather then a concludent Proof For these Romans might have demanded of him what just fear is there that we shall what possibilitie that we can live any longer in sin if as you suppose we be already dead unto it Only prove what you suppose or take as granted that we are already dead to sin or that sin is dead in us and we shall make just proof that we neither do nor can live any longer in it that it doth not neither shall it live in us 2. All the Question then is and a Great Question it is upon whose true resolution the resolution of all the questions or difficulties which are emergent out of this and other Chapters depends In what sense every true Christian is said to be dead to sin as St. Paul supposeth all these Romans were which were true members of the true visible Church Of death there be but two sorts or kinds usually known or acknowledged The one a Natural the other a Civil Death He that is dead according to a Natural Death is utterly deprived of all sense or motion he cannot feel he cannot taste he cannot smell see or hear his heart pants not his lungs cease to send forth any breath And according to this kind of death Saint Paul himself could not be accompted dead to sin Sin was not so fully mortified or put to death in him but that it had its Motions in his inward parts and these Motions he by experience felt But there is a civil as well as a natural death and many are said to be civilly dead whose natural life is yet sound and entire Thus men which are condemned or sentenced to die are said to be dead in Law albeit the execution or taking away of their natural life be a long time deferred The like we say of men which have been free born but afterwards fall into slaverie or bondage Both these sorts of men are said to be dead in Law or to be subject to civil death because they cannot do or make any legal act either to the benefit of their friends or posteritie or to the prejudice of their enemies Of any civil contract or legal deed they are as uncapable as he that is naturally dead is of breathing sense or motion And according to this acception or importance of death Every one in whom the reign or dominion of sin is broken in whom the flesh is made subject to the spirit is truely said to be dead to sin that is in every man thus qualified sin is put unto a civil though not unto a natural death But neither is this civil death the death here punctually meant by Saint Paul when he saith How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein For he speaks not of such a death to sin as was peculiar to himself or to some few but of such a death as was common to all these Romans and to every true member of the visible Church He doth not suppose nor was it imaginable that all of them to whom he wrote were thus actually dead to sin or that sin did not or could not raign in some of them at least it may and doth to this day raign in many which have by baptisme been admitted into the visible Church whereas Our Apostles Reason equally concerns all that are baptized All and every one of them are in his sense and meaning in this place dead to sin and yet are not all of them dead to sin or sin dead to them or in them either by a natural or civil death In all of them sin retains some life or being in many of them it still retains its Soveraigntie or Dominion how then are all of them how are all of us that have been baptized dead to sin Thus
21. verse I speak saith he ver 19. after the manner of men because of the infirmitie of the flesh for as ye have yeilded your members servants unto uncleanness and to iniquitie unto iniquitie even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness For when ye were the servants of sin ye were free to righteousness that is you did acknowledge no service due unto it The implication which he expresseth not is this Being now become the servants of righteousness do as little service unto sin as when you were its servants ye did to righteousness acknowledge none to it for none is due to it especially from you 10. But in the 21. verse if you mark his placing of the words well he puts the case home What fruit had ye then of those things whereof ye are now ashamed What fruit had ye then at that time when ye did them with greediness If the service of sin at any time were fruitful it is questionless then whilst it is a doing For this Dalilah hath the trick to wipe off all shame from her Lovers faces whilst sin is in the action or motion But our Apostle proves this service of sin to be fruitless even then because now when these motions were past it makes them ashamed Nor is the service of sin fruitless only because it bringeth forth shame but therefore more then shamefull full of danger and dread because the shame which it bringeth forth is alwayes the Harbinger or fore-runner of death For so the Apostles adds For the end of those things is death These are the best fruits of their service to sin and sin it self is more then fruitles because the best fruits which it seems to bring are poisonous But now these Romans are called unto the service of a far better master one from whom they have somewhat in re but much more in spe a bountiful earnest for the present of an invaluable recompence and future reward ver 22. But now being free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holines and the end everlasting life And finally he binds all his former Exhortations with this undoubted Assertion For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus you have seen The dutie whereunto we stand bound by our Baptisme And it is twofold 1. To forsake the Divel the world and the flesh and secondly to betake our selves to the service of God The motives to withdraw us from this service of sin are three The service of it first is fruitless 2. it is shamefull 3. it causeth death to wit a most shamefull bitter and endless death The motives to draw us unto the service of God are Two 1. The present fruit which it yieldeth viz. the peace of conscience or that righteousness which is the flour and Blossom unto Holiness 2. The Final Reward which is a most blessed life without end The First three Motives to withdraw us from the service of sin are as it were linked or mortized one into another The very Fruitlesness of Sins service shuts up into shame and the shame arresting or seazing upon the sinner is no other then the very Harbinger Fore-runner or Serjeant of Death CHAP. XVIII Rom. 6. 21. What Fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death c. Of the fruitlesnes of Sin Of the shame That follows and dogs sin as the shadow doth the Body What shame is Whence it ariseth and what Use may be made thereof Of Fame praise and Honour Satans Stales False shame and False Honour The Character of both in Greek and Latine Of Pudor which is alwayes malè Facti of Verecundia which may somtimes be de modo rectè Facti Perijt vir cui Pudor Perijt Erubuit salva res est 1. WE are here to speak somwhat to The First Point which was the fruitlesness of Sin of which more afterwards It was an Ancient saying of a good Writer praestat otiosum esse quam nihil agere it were better to sit still and do nothing then to busie and wearie our selves to no purpose A shame it is in it self but commonly the beginning of a far greater shame to spend our time without any fruit And if we could perswade a man that for the present he labours in vain that for the future he can expect nothing but wearisom trouble for his long pains it would be enough to make him if he have any wit ashamed of what he hath done more then enough unlesse he be impudent to make him give over what he hath begun Yea he is not a wise man that doth not forecast some probable hopes or gainfull issues of his labours before he begin them So our Saviour tels us Luke 14. 28. For which of you intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Lest haply after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all that behold it begin to mock him saying This man began to build and was not able to finish If want of forecast to go through with a work which in the beginning promised fruit be a shame or expose men to scorn or mockerie what is it to begin and continue those works whose accomplishing or finishing is more fruitless then the first beginning So that the service of sin is in this respect shamefull because it is Fruitless But if you observe our Apostle well he doth not infer that the works of sin are shamefull because they are Fruitless but that they are Fruitless because they are shamefull Shame and that A positive shame is the natural fruit or issue of all service to sin and not every kinde of positive shame but a shame accompanied or seconded with death That the Apostles Argument may have its full weight or sway upon our souls we are in the First place to examine What shame properly is Secondly What manner of death it is which is the wages of sin 2. Shame is a fear of some evil to ensue Or an impression of some evil present the fear of whose continuance is more greivous than any present smart But though all Shame be a Fear or sense of evil yet every fear or sense of evil doth not cause shame Men naturally fear the loss of goods but as our Saviour intimates Mat. 6. 25. most naturally the loss of their lives Yet if our goods be taken from us by violence we are not ashamed of it the Expectation or sufferance of this evil causeth only sorrow or grief to us it causeth Shame to him that doth it There is no man almost but feareth a violent and undeserved death yet if such a death be set before him it causeth only Sorrow or heaviness of heart a dejection of spirit no Shame or confusion of face Such as die guiltlesse are rather comforted then
seek to hide our souls from the view of others albeit we cannot discern the inward stain or filth of sin but are rather in love with her painted pleasures But when he shall appear that knew no sin in himself and yet knows all the secrets of mans heart it is no vail of flesh no die of nature no covering of the visage with bloud that will avail such as continue to do those things whereof they are or ought to be ashamed or which they are afraid that others should see or know They shall then desire the Hils for a vail and the Rocks and Mountains for a covering to their shame but in vain for perpetual darkness shall be their habitation and their present shame and confusion of face shall then appear to be the harbinger or fore-runner of death CHAP. XIX ROMANS 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed c. We are many wayes ingaged to serve God rather then to serve sin though sin could afford us as much fruit and reward as God doth But there is no proportion no ground of Comparison betwixt the fruits of sin and the Gift of God The Case stated betwixt the voluptuous sensual life and the life truly Christian Satans method And Gods method A Complaint of the neglect of Grace 1. THe Scope of our Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter is to deter us from the service of sin and by the help of Super-abounding Grace and Hope of an exceeding great Reward both to encourage and engage our best Endeavors unto the service of God His Motion or Argument was reasonable albeit sin or he that is the Author of sin were able to afford us as much fruit or as full a recompence as the service of God doth There is no man amongst us of this Church I presume but doth abhor the Heresie of the Manichees which was in part this that we were beholding to another God for our bodies then unto Him which made our souls Yet if their abominable doctrine were for disputation sake supposed as true We could not be by any right so ingaged unto the service of this imaginary god as unto the service of the True God which made our souls and doth purifie them by his Word and Sacraments For we are not debters to the flesh but unto the God of the Spirits of all Flesh we are Debtors indeed unto the only God which made both our bodies and souls and spirits He may challenge our service by double right First by the right of Creation which we had shamefully violated by alienating our Allegeance unto his Enemy Secondly by right of Redemption for he that made us all hath redeemed us all and if we continue servants unto sin we do not only violate that antient or former Bond which we owed unto him by right of Creation but that second Bond whereby we stand bound unto him by right of redemption And transgressors we should be and most unthankful wretches if we did not cheerfully and sincerely betake our selves unto his service albeit the reward or recompence which he hath promised and will perform were but equal to the fruits or pleasures of sin But the truth is that so far they are from all equalitie that there is No Proportion between them The wages of sin are lesse then nothing compared to the reward of righteousnesse which is more then all things else that can befal us For not to Be at all never to have had any Being were better then to suffer the death here meant So that death and life especially everlasting death and everlasting life cannot come into any Ballance That which is worse then nothing or not Being so is everlasting death cannot be compared with any thing that is Good much less with the perfection of goodness such is everlasting life which containeth all goodness whereof we can imagine our nature to be capable 2. The only Comparison then must be between the service of sin and the service of righteousness in respect of our present estate or during the time of this mortal life And so if you mark it our Apostle hath Two Motives to withdraw us from the service of sin and Two to draw us to the service of righteousness The first Motive to withdraw us from the service of sin is that it is fruitless and shameful for the present The First Motive again to sway us unto the service of righteousness is the present fruit which we have unto Holiness and between these two there may be some Comparison if we sequester them from the other two to wit from life and death everlasting To sequester the service of righteousness altogether from the hope of everlasting life or the service of sin altogether from the fear of everlasting death is a thing if not impossible yet not warrantable as was shewed before in the tenth Chapter For those things which God hath conjoyned man may not sever Yet we may so far sever them as God permitted them to be severed in the wiser Heathen The very Heathens felt a kind of Compunction or sting of conscience upon the commission of grossers sins which did suggest a kind of tacit fear but of what evil to come they expresly knew not They had again a kind of joy or Grateful Testimonie or congratulation of spirit or conscience upon the practise of things honest and comely And this joy did kindle a secret hope or incouragement to go forwards in those courses but it burst not out into a flame it wanted the light or guidance of divine truth For both this fear and this hope they had without any express hope of everlasting life or express fear of everlasting death However the wiser or more moderate sort of them did prefer the practise of vertue or such pietie as they knew before the wonted pleasures of this life Yet this their greatest Philosophers did not do without the Contradiction of such as were given over to bodily pleasures And this opposition of sensual men may seem to have some Ground of Reason even from the Rule of Faith it self if we had no more express hopes of everlasting life or more distinct fear of everlasting death then they had For shall we not think that the estate of Dives was much better then the estate of Lazarus in this life wherein Dives received pleasure and Lazarus pain Now pleasure is much better then pain And if such a life as Dives here led afforded pleasure how was it Fruitless specially in respect of Lazarus his life which was full of pain Indeed in respect of a life so charged with pain as Lazarus's was or with such vexations and dangers as the life of Saint Paul and other more eminent Saints of God in the primitive Church were That Saying of our Apostle is most true 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this life onely we have hope in Christ then are we of all men most miserable His meaning is That if bodily
habit or custome of it because it is implanted in us by nature But that which one wittily said of good Arts or learning is most true of the service of righteousness Radices amarae fructus dulces The root or beginning of it is commonly unpleasant because it cannot be ingrafted into our corrupted nature but as it were by incision but the growth of it is pleasant and the fruits to such as are exercised therein most sweet and wholsome This is in effect the very same that Siracides saith perhaps himself had experimented Ecclus. 4. 17. At the first wisdom will walk with a man by crooked wayes and bring fear and dread upon him and torment him with her discipline untill she may trust his soul and try him by her Laws Then will she return the straight way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets For planting a firm Resolution in us to endeavor the performance of those duties whereto our Apostle in this place exhorts us It is an Excellent motive which another Heathen Philosopher Musonius a Greek as I take it commended to his Scholars and Cato urged the same to his Souldiers at Numantia If saith he you bestow your pains in the studie of virtue and goodnesse the pains will go away as fast as they come but the vertue or goodnesse will abide with you But if you take delight or pleasure in that which is evil the pleasure will vanish the evill will habituate it self and incorporate it self in your nature from which it may be more easily repelled then ejected after it hath taken possession Now to review honest pains or labors past is a thing grateful to our memorie a good fruit in it self of labors past if they were not otherwise fruitful But the regretting remembrance of time mis-spent in the pursuit of fruitless or unlawful pleasures is irksome is tedious is loathsome even to corrupted nature Thus far and further some of the Heathens did run parallel with our Apostle in this place What manner of men then may we think these Philosophers would have proved as well in practise as speculation if their speculations had been seasoned or ballanced as ours are either with the certain hope of everlasting life by perseverance in well-doing or with fear of an everlasting death for continuance in doing evill And yet we say that even the best works the best endeavors and speculations of these Heathens were but splendida peccata more neat and handsome sins God grant that most of our own works or speculations may prove much better 6. Whilest I compare the industrie of these Heathen Philosophers in imploying those poor Talents which were bestowed upon them with the sluggish and decrepit temper of this age wherein the plentiful revelation of Divine truth to them unknown becomes but barren methinks the Epigrammatists Case might be a fit Emblem for the world as it stood affected whilest civilitie and good literature were but young and as it is now disposed whilest it hath all experience and helps of former ages The Tenor of the Epigrammatist's complaint was thus Pauper eram juvenis senio confectus inerti Sum locuples miserè sorte in utraque miser Whilest I was young and able to enjoy the contentments which wealth affords my fortunes were mean and my estate but poor But now wealth is fallen upon me when I have one foot in the grave and know no use of it So that in both ages in both Fortunes I am a miserable man But why the revelations of Divine Truth are so plentiful in this dull this old and sleepie age of the world which will not make right use of them when as they were so rare and scant in those times and Nations which in all humane probabilitie would have used them much better this is a depth or Abyssus which may not be dived into Only this we are bound to believe in General that the only wise immortal God whose Judgments are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out hath reasons in themselves most iust though known to himself alone why he thus dispenseth his blessings and such reasons as shall appear not only most just but most admirable unto us when we shall know as we are known 7. If in the mean time our Consciences tell us that we our selves or common report informs us that many of our brethren fall short not of our calling only but even of those Heathers in the knowledge or practise of many moral duties required of both let us not make the final Resolution of this defect into the Eternal and Irresistible Decree or into the want of means of Grace for doing either better or less amiss then we do For even those Heathens which had not half the ordinary means nor any portion of these special gifts which we have received did much better then most of us do Oh say not oh think not That even this want of Grace or neglect or ill imployment of those talents which God hath given us are to be imputed either to Adam's Fall or our pollution in him Adam's Fall indeed was the only Cause why we stood in need of Grace or means extraordinary for our recovery but neither His Fall nor any Preterition of our persons or individuals which have fallen in him are either the only or the principal cause why we are destitute of that measure of Grace which is not but should be in us or of our present unbelief or misbelief The true Cause of all these is Our non-imployment or misimployment of our Talent which we have received in Baptism or our abuse of that favour or mercie which God for his part in Baptism sincerely hath plighted unto us But now that we have not only shamefully broke but almost perpetually broken That Vow which we made to God in Baptism are we in the same estate that Adam was Or is this Covenant no better then that which God made with him Yes He had no promise of being renewed by repentance if he should fall from His first estate The first Covenant being once broken was not to be renewed but a second to come in its place And into this Covenant we entred by Baptism And though the Sacrament of Baptism or the visible sign of it may not be iterated yet the Astipulation or answer of a good conscience to God may and ought to be renewed and at no time more fitly or opportunely then at the receiving of the Sacrament of Christs body and blood One special Use of this Sacrament in the primitive Church in the times of persecution was to resume or ratifie the Vow made in Baptism as appears by Plinie the second who had the Christians in Bithynia in examination upon the meaning or intent of this Sacrament For the very name of it was suspitious to the Roman State And that very Preparation which is required of all which mean to be partakers of the Sacrament may be reduced to these Three Heads First To
presence is of the two the worse And certain it is that it cannot be less seeing that Everlasting Life which is The Gift of God and Crown of holiness is at the least so much better as the second death or pains of hell are worse then this mortal life But if I mistake not the Members of this Distinction concerning the punishment of losse and the punishment of sense by pain are not altogether Opposite but Co-incident The very conceit or remembrance of this infinite loss and of their folly in procuring it cannot but breed an insufferable measure of grief and sorrow unto the damned which will be fully equivalent to all their bodily pain And this fretting remembrance and perpetual reflection upon the folly of their former wayes is as I take it That Worm of Conscience that never dies But of this hereafter The miserable estate of the damned or such as shall suffer the second death may be reduced to these two Heads to Punishment Essential or to Punishment Accidental or concomitant The Essential Punishment comprehends both Poena damni and Poena sensus The positive pains of that brimstone Lake and the Worm of Conscience which gnaweth upon their souls The Punishment Accidental or concomitant is that Loathsomnesse of the Region or place wherein they are tormented and of their Companions in these torments In this life that Saying is generally true Solamen miseris Socios habuisse doloris it is alwayes some comfort to have Consorts in our pain or distress But this Saying is out of date in the Region of death the more there be that suffer these pains the less comfort there is to every one in particular For there is no concord or consort but perpetual discord which is alwayes so much greater by how much the parties discording are more in number And to live in continual discord though with but some few is a kind of Hell on earth And thus much in brief of the second death wherein it exceeds the First 10. If any one that shall read this should but suspect or fear that God had inevitably ordained him unto this death or created him to no better end then to the day of wrath This very cogitation could not but much abate his love towards God Whom no man can truly love unless he be first perswaded That God is good and loving not towards his Elect only but toward all men towards himself in particular But this opinion of Absolute Reprobation or ordination to the day of wrath I pray may never enter into any mans brains But flesh and blood though not polluted with this Opinion will if not repine and murmur yet perhaps demur a while upon another Point more questionable to wit How it may stand with the Justice of the most righteous Judge to recompence the pleasures of sin in this life which is but short with such exquisite and everlasting torments in the life to come Specially seeing the pleasures of sin are but transient neither enjoyed nor pursued but by interposed Fits whereas the torments of that Lake are uncessantly perpetual and admit no intermission The usual Answer to this Quaere is That every sin deserves a punishment infinite as being committed against an infinite Majestie But seeing this answer hath no Ground or warrant from the Rule of Faith in which neither the Maxim it self is expresly contained nor can it be deduced thence by any good Consequence we may examine it by the Rule of Reason Now by the Rule of Reason and proportion the punishment due to offences as committed against an infinite Majestie should not be punishment infinite for time and duration but infinite for qualitie or extremitie of pain whiles it continues If every minute of sinful pleasures in this world should be recompenced with a thousand years of Hell-pains this might seem rigorous and harsh to be conceived of him that is as infinite in Goodness as in Greatness as full of Mercie as of Majestie But whatsoever our thoughts or wayes be his wayes we know are equal and just most equal not in themselves only but even unto such as in sobrietie of spirit consider them But wherein doth the equalitie of his wayes or justice appear when he recompenceth the momentany pleasures of sin with such unspeakable everlasting torments It appears in this That he sentenceth no creatures unto such endlesse pains but only such as he had first ordained unto an endlesse life so much better at least then this bodily and mortal life as the second death is worse then it Adam had an immortal life as a pledge or earnest of an eternal life in possession and had not lost it either for himself or us if he had not wilfully declined unto the wayes of death of which the righteous Judge had fore-warned him Now when life and death are so set before us as that Hold is given us of life to recompence the wilful choice of death with death it self this is most equal and just And if the righteous Lord had sentenced our first Parents unto the second death immediately upon their first transgression his sentence had been but just and equal their destruction had been from themselves Yet as all this had been no more then just so it had been less then justice moderated or rather over-ruled by mercie Now instead of executing justice upon our first Parents the righteous Lord did immediately promise a gratious redemption and as one of the Antients said Foelix peccatum quod talem meruit Redemptorem it was a happy sin which gave occasion of the promise of such a Redeemer 11. But did this extraordinary mercy promised to Adam extend it self to all or to Adam only or to some few that should proceed from him Our publick Liturgie our Articles of Religion and other Acts of our Church extend it to Adam and to all that came after him But how the Nations whom God as yet hath not called unto the light of his Gospel or whose fore-elders he did not call unto the knowledge of his Laws given unto Israel how either Fathers or Children came to forsake the mercies wherein the whole humane nature in our first Parents was interested is A Secret known to God and not fit to be disputed in particular This we are sure of in the General That God did not forsake them till they had forsaken their own mercies But for our selves All of us have been by Baptism re-ordained unto a better estate then Adam lost Now if upon our first second third or fourth open breach or wilful contempt of our Vow in Baptism the Lord had sentenced us unto everlasting death or given Satan a Commission or warrant to pay us the wages of sin this had been but just and right his wayes in this had been equal because our wayes were so unequal But now he hath so long time spared us and given us so large a time of repentance seeking to win us unto his love by many blessings and
favours bestowed upon us This as the Apostle speakes is the riches of his bountie certainly exceeding great mercy much greater then justice even mercy triumphing against judgment Now if after all this we shall continue to provoke him and defer our repentance turning his Grace into wantonness making the plentifulness of his word the nurse and fuel of Schism and faction no judgement can be too great no pain too grievous either for Qualitie or for Continuance 12. The Doctrine of such Catechists as would perswade or occasion men to suspect that God hath not yet mercy in store or that there is no possibilitie for all that hear the word to repent to beleive and be saved whatsoever it do to the Authors and followers of it in this life it shall in the life to come appear even to such as perish to have been erroneons For one special branch of their punishment and that wherein the punishment of such as hear the word and repent not doth specially exceed the punishment of the Heathen or infidels shall be their continual cogitation how possible it was for them to have repented How possible for them how much more possible for them then for infidels to have been saved The bodily pains of Hell fire shall be as is probable equal to all but the worm of Conscience which is no other then the reflection of their thoughts upon their madness in following the pleasures of sin and neglecting the promises of Grace shall be more grievous to impenitent Christians A true Scale or scantling of these torments we may take from the consideration how apt we are to grieve at our extraordinarie folly or Retchlesness in this life whether that have turned to the prejudice of our temporal estate of our health or bodily life of our credit or good name There is not a man on earth but if he would enter into his own heart might find that he had many times committed greater folly then Esau did when he sold his Birth-right for a messe of pottage He set his Birth-right that is his Interest in the Land of Canaan on sale without the hazard of that inheritance which God had elswhere provided for him for he became Lord of Mount Seir. He did not contract for his own imprisonment or captivitie but we daily set Heaven to sale and hazard our everlasting exclusion from Gods presence for toyes less worth at least less necessarie for us then bodily meat was for Esau in his hunger And yet by such foolish bargains we enter a Covenant with death and contract though not expressly yet implicitely for an everlasting inheritance in Hell Now unto such as thus live and die without repentance the most cruell torments that can be imagined cannot be so grievous as the continual cogitation how they did bind themselves without any necessitie laid upon them to receive the wages of sin by receiving such base earnest as in this life was given them 13. A more exact Scale of the reward for this their folly we have in Two Fictions of the Heathen The one is That of Sisyphus his uncessant labour in rolling a huge stone which still turns upon him with greater force The other is of Prometheus whose Liver as they imagined was continually gnawen upon by a vultur or Cormorant without wasting the substance of it or deading its capacitie of pain The continuall reflection of such as perish upon their former folly is as the rolling of Sisyphus's stone a grievous labour a perpetual torment still resumed by them but still more and more in vain for no sorrow bringeth forth repentance there And every such Reflection or Revolution of their thoughts upon their former wayes is The gnawing of the worm of Conscience more grievous by much unto their souls then if a vultur should so continually gnaw their hearts CHAP. XXI ROMANS 6. 22. 23. But now ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting life The Gift of God is Eternall Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal Life Compared with this present Life The several Tenures of Both. The method proposed The instabilitie of this present Life The contentments of it short and the capacities of man to injoy such contentments as this life affords narrower In the life to come the capacitie of every facultie shall be inlarged some senses shall receive their former contentments only Eminenter as if one should receive the weight in Gold for dross Some Formaliter Joy Essential and Joy Accidental 1. THe Point remaining is that This Eternal Life which is the Crown of Holiness is so much better then this present life and its best contentments as the second death is worse then this present life however taken at the best or worst Now both sorts of life and death may be compared either in respect of their proper qualitie or of their Duration That in respect of Duration or continuance this good and happy life which is the Crown of Holiness and that miserable death which is the wages of sin are equall no Christian may deny may suspect for both are endless That this life was endless that such as are once possessed of it shall never be dispossessed of it even Origen and his followers did never question who not withstanding did deny that this death which was opposed unto it was absolutely endless though in Scripture often said to be everlasting For That in their interpretation was no more then to be of exceeding long continuance But this Heresie hath been long buried in the Church and his sin be upon him that shall seek to revive it The Method then which we mean to observe is this First to set forth the excellencie of everlasting life in respect of this life present Secondly to unfold the Reasons why neither the hope of everlasting life nor the fear of an endless miserable death do sway so much with most Christians as in reason they ought either for deterring them from the fruitless service of sin or for incouraging them to proceed in holy and godly courses whose end is everlasting life In this later we shall take occasion to unfold the Fallacies or Sophisms which Satan in his temptations puts upon us with some brief rules or directions how to avoid them A work questionless of much use and fruit though handled by a few either so seriously or so largely as the matter requires In comparing this life with the life to come we are in the first place to set forth the different Tenures of them Secondly to compare the several joys or contentments 2. This present life even at the best is in comparison but a kind of death For as the Heathen Philosopher had observed it is alwayes in fluxu like a stream or current it runs as fast from us as it comes unto us That part of our life which is past saith Seneca is as it were resigned up to death That part which is yet to come is not yet ours nor can we make any sure
reckoning of it That part which we account as present is equally divided between death and us Not unconsonantly to that of David Psalm 103. 15. The dayes of man are but as grasse He flourisheth as a Flour of the Field As soon as the wind goeth over it it is gone c. Or to that of Job Man that is born of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble he cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not The Addition or Comment upon this in our Liturgie is That in the midst of life we be in death that is we die as fast as we live The first part of our life is the beginning of our death and death it self differs from life but as the Point doth from the Line which it terminates or as the line doth from the surface or the surface from the body whose surface it is Mors ultima line a rerum est The whole course of our life is full of interpunctions or Commaes death is but the Period or full point Take it at the very best it is in respect of true life or stedfast Being but as the Reflex or Image of a star in a flowing stream The seat or subject of life doth not continue the same it was no not for a moment it is but one by continuation or fresh supply of the like As an Army is said to be the same which consists of the like number of men though most of the Commanders and Souldiers of the first levie be slain So Darius the Persian had a Legion which they called Immortal because it was continually supplied with the like number of new Souldiers when the old ones failed For the same reason some have compared the life of man unto a Lamp which burneth so long as it hath supply of oyl but is presently extinguished when the oyl doth fail And indeed as the oyl and light is to the Lamp wherein the one is contained the other shineth so is the natural heat and moisture unto the soul especially as to life sensitive But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption our souls shall then be in our glorified bodies as light is in the stars in their proper sphere Our life shall be one and the same not by continuation or succession of bodily parts So as this first life and that other life which we expect differ for their Tenure and manner as the representation or figure of the Sun in the water and the Sun in its sphere The Tenure of the one is fluent and transitory The Tenure of the other is solid and permanent And proportionable to this difference of their Tenures or durations are the different joyes or contentments If all the possible contentments in this life suppose they were far more in number then they are were put together they could not equalize the Contentments of one minute in the life to come 3. Our desires in this life are vast and our capacities to enjoy the good of what we desire but narrow and slender They consort no better than a decrepit gluttons eye or appetite with his digestive facultie Now it is a miserie to have vast or strong desires and not to be able to give them satisfaction most miserable to take those courses which exclude them from possibilitie of satisfaction Hence an Heathen Philosopher took the want or Emptinesse of this miserie to be the compleat Sphere of true happinesse and out of this conceit defined a happy man briefly this Beatus est qui vivit ut vult He is happy or blessed which hath all the contentments that he desires or wishes But St. Austine tells us that another Heathen whom he names not but whose saying he often applauds corrected this Definition thus Beatus est qui vivit ut vult modo nihil velit quod non debet He is a happy man that hath all that he desireth so he desire nothing but what he ought to desire And certain it is that the former Definition without this Correction comes far short of that true happiness which is contained in everlasting life or which all men by nature confusedly desire For a man in this life may have every thing which in this life his heart desires and yet not have his hearts desire This no man can have in this life nor doth the meer natural man find the way or entrance to it See Christs Answer to Johns Disciples pag. 17. Solomon had tried as great varietie of particular contentments as any man living can project unto himself and yet after long experience of every particular that he could propose unto himself gives up this general verdict Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of mind Yet is this vanitie seated in the unsetled and fluctuant desires of man not in the things themselves which he desires for these have their right Use so they be referred to their proper End which is no other then true happiness and no man can have his hearts desire until his heart do pitch and settle on this as its Center Hence some would Define True happiness to be Plenitudo desideriorum the full satisfaction of our desires This all seek after without cessation and some print some Sent or rellish of it we find in most desires of it Somewhat there is in the right use of every Creature which would lead us the right way unto it did we not run Counter striving to make up a full measure of joy by the abundant fruition of these materials wherein we delight Whereas the delight and contentment which we find in any Creatures should turn our thoughts from them unto the inexhaustible fountain whence all the goodness that we find in them or in our selves is derived The neerer we draw to him the neerer we are to true happiness truly happy we cannot be until we enjoy his presence Irrequietum est cor nostrum ad te Domine donec quiescat in te Our hearts are restless in the pursuit of happiness until they rest in thee O Lord. 4. The first step to happiness which we can make is to be perswaded That true happinesse cannot in this life be obtained Our Senses are uncapable of the Accidental joyes or concomitant glory which attend this happiness And our Reasonable Soul how magnificently soever Philosophers speak of its nature is more uncapable of Essential joy and happiness That consists in the Fruition or enjoyment of the Divine Nature which is Happiness it self All the Contentments of this life will serve to no other use then to be as a Foyl to set forth the happinesse of the life to come All the Contentments possible of this life are entertained either by our bodily Senses or by the internal faculties of our Souls Now by the discovery of the imperfections of such Contentments we may ascend by degrees to some competent Scale or view for discovering the perfection of Joyes in the Life to come
were changeable The life it self and the light of the world was in the Son of God John 13. And now dwelleth bodily in Christ who is God and man and when he shall appear the life which is in him shall be imprinted on us we shall be partakers of the life which is unchangeable And as is life he so is he light it self light unchangeable And when we shall see him as he is our knowledge shall from this vision be as He is without possibilitie of change without decay or diminution God saith the Apostle is Love and when we shall see him as he is we shall become like him in this Attribute also that is as his Love to us was everlasting without beginning so our love to him shall be uncessant unchangeable without ending And what expression of true happiness can be more full then to be everlastingly beloved of him who is Love it self and to love him everlastingly The fruition of all things which we desire or love cannot be so much as the the fruition of him who as he is all things else so is he love it self And as was said before although we have all things else which our hearts desire yet till we enjoy his presence we cannot have our hearts desire we cannot have the accomplishment of our love untill we enjoy his presence who is love it self But some will ask What shall we do that we may enjoy the comfort of his everlasting love and presence The Psalmist hath told us in few words Psal 37. 4. Delight thou in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire But how shall we delight in him whom we have not seen or how should we love him whom we know not We must take notice of our love to God who is invisible from the experience of our love unto our brethren whom we have seen we cannot assure our selves that we delight in him unlesse we delight in his Saints that are on earth This is the Importance of Saint Johns words He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hoth not seen 12. These are the usual Marks or Tokens whereby we are taught to know the truth of Our love towards God and of Our Allegeance to Christ But many there be who call themselves Brethren which have no other bond of brotherhood then Simeon and Levi had Many there be which boast in the Communion of Saints which have no other Union then such as Corah Dathan and Abiram had an Union in Conspiracie against Moses and Aaron against the visible Church and her Governors The Papists will tell you that the Communion of Saints is amongst them in their Church So will the Brownists and other Separatists So will such as live amongst us and yet complain of the burthen of Ceremonies in our Church And how shall men the unlearned specially know which of all these or whether any of these are the true Brethren of Christ or the Saints in which we are bound to delight This as will be replied you may know by their delight in hearing the word for he that loveth God loveth his word he that delights in God delighteth in his word Yea but many delight in the outward letter of the word only or in the word as it is interpreted by Teachers of their own Faction or after their own Fancie men either not able to discern the Evidence of truth or not willing to have it manifested unto them And how then shall any man know whether he love the Lord whether he delight in the Lord by delighting in any of their Societies which pretend themselves to be Christs Brethren to be Gods Saints Surely there is a better way then all these to delight aright in the Lord and to know that we delight in him and yet a way made known unto us by Gods Word A way A direct and plain way which we can not follow but by sincerely delighting in his Word The Word of God doth tell us and all sorts or Sects of men confess it that God is love that he is righteousnesse that he is holinesse that he is the God of all peace that he is good to all that he is merciful and long-suffering Now he that in these things doth imitate God he that is charitable and loving to all he that is merciful and beneficial to all so farre as his means will suffer him he that deals justly and truly with his neighbor he that doth delight in so doing he doth truly delight in the Lord and the Lord in his good time shall give him his hearts desire As there is a sinceritie of Conversation required towards men so likewise there is a Puritie of heart and Conscience towards God and he that delights in this or seeks after this doth delight in the Lord and he only shall truly know that he delights in the Lord or that his hope is stedfast For every one as Saint John saith that hath this hope to wit of seeing God as he is doth purifie his heart as he is pure And our Saviour saith as a blessing to the pure in heart that they shall see God They shall see him in this Life in his Word and in his works and in the life to come they shall see him as he is and be partakers of everlasting life which is the Crown of puritie and holiness CHAP. XXII ROMANS 6. 22 23. But now ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life The Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Of the Accidental Joyes of the Life to come A particular Terrar or Map of the Kingdom prepared for the Blessed Ones in a Paraphrase upon the Eight Beatitudes or the Blessedness promised to the Eight Qualifications set down in St. Matthew Chapter 5. Eternal Life the strongest obligation to all Duties Satans Two usual wayes of Tempting us Either Per Blanda or per Aspera 1. BUt if in the next life we enjoy His Presence who is Life it self who is Love it self who is All in All at whose right hand is Fulness of pleasures for evermore What need is there of any Access of Accidental or Concomitant Joyes It is true There is no need of them for so they should not be Accidental Therefore are they called Accidental because such as enjoy Gods Presence might be fully happy without them So God himself is most happy in himself he is Happinesse it self Yet even in this that he is Goodnesse it self that he is Happinesse it self he communicates both Goodness and Happiness to his Creatures so far as they are capable of them not by any Necessitie but Freely And when it is said that when we shall see him as he is we shall be like him part of this likeness doth herein consist that we shall communicate this Goodness and happiness to others so far as they are capable of it So that the Accidental or Concomitant Joyes of the life to come whose Essence
when occasion or exigences of time require it should be This Qualification includes somewhat more or somewhat besides Poornesse in spirit or humility or patience in mourning Meeknesse is a moderation of anger in some special Cases such a Temper as our Saviour requires in his Followers when he commands them to turn the right cheek to him that smites them on the left and to be willing to redeem their peace with a troublesome neighbor that would take away the coat though it be with the losse of the cloak also Now this kind of Temper exposeth men to many kinds of Inconveniences hard to be digested by flesh and blood Many otherwise humble and ingenuous when they are toucht as we say in their Coppp-hold or in their inheritance will take courage and boldness sometimes more then were fitting though necessarie if they be resolved to defend their own without respect to the occasions or exigences of time For facies hominis in causa propriatanquam facies Leonis A mans face or presence in his own cause is as the face of a Lyon And he that cannot take his own part in his own cause and set the best Foot forwards may easily be turned out of house and home And yet there is no true Disciple of Christ but must expect to have his patience exercised in this kind to be injuriously vexed and molested by Others for that which is not Theirs Now he that in this Case will not vex or molest others again nor himself he is truly meek and unto men thus qualified or to encourage all to be thus qualified the Blessednesse of the life to come is promised not under the Title of a Kingdom or of Comfort but under the Title most contrary to the course and custom of this world wherein Meeknesse is commonly Accursed with loss of their own possession But Blessed saith our Saviour are the meek for they shall inherit or possesse the earth or the Land even that good Land where there is no Ejection no dis-inheriting of such as are possessed of it and therefore are the meek blessed because Meeknesse or quietnesse is the Way or Title to get Possession thereof 9. But the poor in spirit may have more honor then they can desire so may such as mourn have as much Comfort and the meek as large and durable an Inheritance as their hearts could wish But if this were all they could not be satisfied Every one of these have in this life their several Thirsts or Longings As he that mourns thirsts after Comfort the poor in spirit and the meek hunger and thirst after their Contentment in some kind or other But without all hope of satisfaction unlesse they hunger and thirst after somewhat else besides these particular contentments Man in his first estate was created righteous and unlesse there be a longing after that Righteousnesse which our first Parents lost whatsoever we gain or get besides cannot satisfie our desire either In Re or In Spe. Hence saith our Savior in the Fourth place Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall be satisfied There is a thirst after honor preferment and ease and there is Auri sacra fames an unquenchable hunger after gold and Pelf but this cannot be satisfied all these are tortures to the soul wherein they harbour For though honour be Gods though gold and silver as the Prophet speaks be his yet he is not these these are not the same that He is but as we said lately God is righteousness He is Peace He is Love He is mercy and therefore whosoever delights in these he truely delights in the Lord and shall assuredly have his hearts desire he only shall be satisfied 10. But no man in this life doth or can delight in these works as he ought the most righteous man that ever lived on earth if God should enter into Judgement with him could not be absolved from the sentence of the Law and so long as he stands unabsolved or uncertain of his Absolution he cannot be satisfied he cannot have his hearts desire he alwayes stands in need of mercy And mercy he shall have that is merciful For it is Remarkable that this qualification of mercifulness is the only qualification or condition which is rewarded in kind in this we most perfectly resemble the goodness of God Hence saith our Saviour Blessed are the merciful But why are they blessed Not because they shall receive a Kingdom not because they shall possesse the Land not because they shall be satisfied but because they shall obtain mercy Without the exceeding mercy of God no man can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven neither into the Kingdom of Grace in this life nor into the Kingdom of Glory in the life to come and he that means to enter in at the Gate of mercy must bring his Ticket or rather his * Counter-part indented with him he must be merciful as his heavenly Father is mercifull otherwise he shall be excluded Righteousness towards God if it were possible to be severed from mercy towards man could not suffice 11. But that which comes nearest to true blesledness it self is Puritie of heart This contains the Root whereof Holiness is the fruit that Holiness whose End is Everlasting life Now he that desires to keep this puritie of heart must deprive his eyes of many pleasant sights and his ears of many delightful sounds and every sense of those particular contentments wherein the world most delighteth But in lieu of this loss he hath A blessing promised not only of this life but of the life to come In the life to come he shall see God as he is face to face and in this life he shall see him as through a glass and so he shall see him in his Word and in his Attributes And the best knowledge that in this life can be had The knowledge of God and of his Attributes without transforming the Divine nature into the similitude of our corrupt affections is To see his righteousnes and Justice without derogation from his Mercy or Goodness or to see him to be goodness it self and mercy it self without any diminution of his Justice To see his gracious and peculiar favour towards some without suspition or imagination of rigour or crueltie towards others To know him to be love it self without admixture of hatred towards any thing that he hath made 12. It is this sight of God or this apprehension of this uniformity be-between his Attributes which must transform us into such a similitude of his divine nature as in this life can be had that is such as may make us the children of peace This is the immediat fruit of purity of heart And unto men thus disposed to preserve peace as for their own particulars and to make peace between such as are at variance the blessedness of the life to come could not be promised under a more grateful Title then under the style
first ayme and intentions desires to be disobedient seditious or factious to be an Adulterer or murtherer a fornicator a thief or perjur'd man or to look upon his neighbours conveniences with an envious or malicious eye The means by which Satan tempts us or by which our natural affections sway us to do these things in particular as to be disobedient seditious factious or servants to other lewdness are generally Two Per blanda aut per aspera by proposing some things unto us which respectively either promise some contentment to our senses or threaten some loss some pain or vexation This visible world and the things which we see or know by sensible experiment are as Satans Chess-board which way soever we look or turn our thoughts he hath somewhat or other still ready at hand to give our weak and untrained desires the Check and to hazard the losing of our souls and bodies But Faith as the Apostle speakes is the evidence of things not seen And the things that are not seen as the Apostle saith are eternal and these are for number so many and for worth so great that if we be as vigilant and careful to play our own game as he is to play his for every Check which he can give us we may give him the Check-mate And this advantage we have of him that whereas he usually tempts us but one way at one and the same time that is either by hopes of some sensual contentment or by fear of some temporal vexation loss or pain we may at the same time resist his temptations Two wayes both by proposal of some spiritual good or reward much greater then the particular sensible contentment and by representation of some spiritual loss or fear much more dangerous then any evil wherewith he can threaten or deter us from performance of our duty 19. If he tempt us to excesse in meat and drink which is commonly the root whence other branches of Luxury or sensuality spring we may counterpoize this temptation First with that hanger and thirst and other torments incident to this appetite of sense in the life to come And in the second place by our hopes of our celestial food or full satisfaction of our hunger and thirst so we will but hunger and thirst after righteousness And so again if he tempt us to other unclean pleasures of the flesh we may give our inclinations the check by proposing unto them our assured hope of enjoying the society of immaculate Angels and of our espousall to the immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus in this life and of enjoying his presence in the life to come And again we may controule our natural inclination to this branch of lewdness by serious meditation on that Divine Oracle Adulterers and Whoremongers God will Judge and judging condemn them to everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 20. If Satan shall tempt us to an immoderate desire of riches the counterpoize to this temptation is likewise two-fold First There is a promise of treasure in Heaven to such as seek after it more then earthly treasure and this is a treasure not chargeable with the like carking care in getting it nor subject to the like inconveniences after it be gotten for there neither rust nor moth doth corrupt nor do theeves break through and steal Besides the heaps of riches even in this life are fruitless for as our Saviour saith in another place though a man have riches in great abundance yet his life doth not consist in them Ten thousand talents cannot adde one minute to the length of his dayes whereas the heavenly treasures are the crown of life Or if the hope of these heavenly treasures cannot oversway mens thirst or longing after earthly treasures you may joyn to this the weight of Saint James his Wo against this sin Chap. 5. 1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you your riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankred and the rust of them shall be a witness against you But if this were all a rich worldling would reply that he would keep his gold and silver from rust This he may do perhaps whilst he is alive but more then he can undertake after it once come unto Plutus his custody Therefore Saint James adds the rust of it shall eat your flesh as fire or if this be but a Metaphor he speakes no Parables but plainly in the words following ye have heaped treasure together for the last dayes Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth 21. Again if Satan tempt us to do those things which we ought not to do for the favour Or to leave those things undone which we ought to do for the fear of great ones the sacred Armorie affords us weapons sufficient to repell Both temptations The First is that pithy sentence of Saint Paul ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men The Second is that of our Saviour Fear not them who after they have killed the body can do no more but I will tell you whom ye shall fear one that can destroy both body and soul in hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Briefly in all assaults Satan hath only Weapons Offensive as fiery darts he hath none Defensive But if the word of God as our Apostle speakes dwell plentifully in us we have both the shield and buckler to repell his darts and the sword of the spirit to chase him away but this word must plentifully dwell in us we must entertain it in our hearts and consciences not only in our lips and tongues nor let it run out of our mouthes faster then it comes into our ears CHAP. XXIII ROMANS 6. 23. For the wages of sin is death but the Gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Philosophers Precept Sustine Abstine though good in its kinde and in some degree useful yet insufficient True belief of The Article of the everlasting life and death is able to effect both abstinence from evil-doing and sufferance of evil for well-doing The sad effects of the Misbelief or Unbelief of this Article of life and death eternal The true belief of it includes A Tast of both Direction how to take A Tast of death eternal without danger Turkish Principles produce effects to the shame of Christians Though Hell fire be material it may pain the soul The story of Biblis The Body of the second death fully adequate to the Body of sin Parisiensis his Story A general and useful Rule 1. THe heathen Philosopher which knew no temper besides himself no temptation but such as the dayly occurences of what he heard or saw or by some sense of the body had
experience of did acknowledge as much as hath been formerly delivered out of Gods word to wit That men are usually misdrawn to do those things in particular which in general they desired not to do and to leave those things undone which in the calm of composed affections they desired to do either by the hope of some bodily pleasures or by fear of some bodily pain And unto this two-fold inconvenience he prescribed this brief Receipt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That men in youth especially should accustome themselves to abstinence and sufferance to abstinence from evil and to sufferance of evil that is unto abstinence from unlawful pleasures which we call Malum culpae or Evil of Sin and to endure with patience malum poenae the evil of pain or of some loss rather then hazard The quiet of Conscience by doing that which is evil or unlawful or by not doing that which is good specially when we are thereto required But this brief receipt or diet of the Soul without some other addition will rather serve to condemn us Christians then enable us to live a true and Christian life The Receipt though is good in the General but defective in these Particulars First Unless he knew more of Gods Will or of the mysteries of Christian Religion then we know any means by which he could possibly know either being an Heathen he was ignorant of many evils from which he was bound to abstain and altogether as ignorant what those good things were for whose love he was to suffer malum poenae the evil of pain loss or grievance rather then disclaim them Secondly Albeit he had known what was to be done what to be left undone yet being ignorant of this main Article of Christianity to wit of A Life everlasting which is the reward of well-doing the Crown of Holiness and of an everlasting Death which is the wages of sin and issue of unlawful pleasures His Receipt of Sustine Abstine was altogether as fruitless and vain as if a Physician should prescribe a Dosis or Recipe to his Patient of such Simples or compounded Medicines as cannot be had in this part of the world but must be sought for at the East or West-Indies or at the Antipodes whence there is no hope they can be brought before the Patient be laid in his Grave The Medicine which he prescribes is no where to be found but in the Word of God The Simples whereof it is compounded can grow from no other root or branch then from The Articles of everlasting Life and everlasting death The Belief of the One is the root of Abstinence from sinful or unlawful Pleasures The Belief of the other is the root of Patience or sufferance of malum Poenae or of sufferance for well-doing Howbeit to speak exactly both parts of his Receipt may be had from the Belief either of Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death but most compleatly from the belief of both The manner how thence they may be gathered is expressed by our Apostle St. Paul Rom. 8. 16. c. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ if we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together for I reckon that the suffrings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us c. 2. If all the sufferings of this life be not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed in us as the Rule of Faith teacheth us then conscience and reason it self bindes us to suffer all the Persecutions or Grievances which can be laid upon us rather then hazard our hopes or forfeit our Interests in the Glory that shall be revealed in all such as with patience suffer persecution or other temporal loss or detriment for the truths sake And this hope of Glory is as the Root whence Christian patience or sufferance must grow So is the fear of everlasting Death the root of our abstinence from evil or of repentance for former want of this abstinence This is the same Apostles Doctrine 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 Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men To what doth he perswade men To do those things which are good and which being done shall be rewarded not in Judgement but in mercy and loving kindness Those things by which we shall be reconciled unto God But were not these Corinthians reconciled to God before our Apostle thus perswaded them Yes so saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 18. God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ And when our Apostle and those to whom he wrote were reconciled unto God through Jesus Christ we that are now living were by the same means reconciled unto God For God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself Now if the world that is not this or that man not this or that generation of men but all generations the world of mankind were reconciled unto God when our Apostle wrote this Epistle yea when Christ offered himself upon the Crosse what need is there of any further reconciliation For that which God doth he doth most perfectly most compleatly 3. It is true Our reconciliation was most perfectly most compleatly wrought on Gods part by Christs death upon the Crosse he payed the full price of our Redemption of our reconciliation nothing may or can be added thereto Yet A Reconciliation there is to be wrought on our parts though wrought it cannot be but by the spirit of God and wrought it is not ordinarily but by the ministry of men as Gods Deputies or Embassadors So the Apostle adds ver 19. God hath committed to us to wit his Ministers the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though Christ did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God So then God hath reconciled us all unto himself from the hour of Christs death and yet every one of us for his own particular must be reconciled to God by the Ministry of his Embassadors And the efficacy of their Ministry is demonstrated by working true repentance in us The means again by which they work this true repentance must be by representing the Terrour of the Lord or as our Apostle saith Act. 17. 30. by putting them in mind of the last and dreadful day The times of this ignorance to wit of the old world before Christs death God winked at but now 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 assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Thus
you see how the terrour of the last day or fear of everlasting death must work in us an Abstinence from evil or repentance for evil past as the Hope of Everlasting Life doth work patience and constancie in persecution Yet both parts of that brief Receipt Sustine et Abstine may be effected by our serious meditation upon either branch of our belief concerning life and death everlasting For if all the sufferings of this life be not worthy of or equivalent unto the glory which shall be revealed in us we must needs be worthy of and obnoxious to everlasting death if we do not with patience suffer persecution in this life rather then hazard our hopes of Life Eternal Again if the sufferance of everlasting death be much worse then the suffering of all persecutions possible in this life our not repentance at the Terrour of it doth make us uncapable of everlasting life Our hopes of avoiding it by repentance if they be sound and firm will animate and in a manner impell us to follow the wayes of life to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance 4. Seeing then we are thus invironed on the right hand and on the left having the hopes of Eternal Life set before us to encourage us to constancy and resolution and are so strongly beset with inevitable fear of everlasting death if like faint hearted souldiers we should retreat or revoke our vow in Baptisme may not the Lord in Justice take up that complaint against us which sometimes he did against Jerusalem and Judah What could I have done more for my vineyard that I have not done unto it Other means to make men either good men or good Citizens the old world knew none nor could the wit of the wisest Law-givers devise any besides poena et praemium Reward and punishment Now what Kingdom or Common-wealth had either so bountiful Rewards or so dreadful punishments proposed unto them as we Christians have What then is the reason why we of all others are more defective in good duties most fruitful in evil lesse observant or more desperate transgressors of our Princes Lawes then the subjects or Citizens of any other well governed Kingdoms ever were how often do we pawn our hopes of everlasting life upon less occasions then Esau did his birth-right and set Christ our acknowledged Lord and Redeemer to sale at a lower price then Judas did The original of this our desperate neglect or contempt must either be misbelief or unbelief of the Reward promised to well doing or of the Punishment threatned to evil doers And it would be a point very hard to determine Whether of such as make any conscience of their wayes especially since the reformation of Religion more have miscarried through misbelief or through unbelief of this Great Article of our Creed Everlasting life and everlasting death Our Misbelief for the most part concerns the Article of everlasting life Of everlasting death we are rather unbelievers then misbelievers Misbelief alwayes includes a strong belief but the stronger our belief the more dangerous it is if it be wrested or misplaced and the worst way we can misplace our belief of heavenly joyes is when we make our selves certain of our salvation before our time or ranke our selves amongst the elect or heirs not disinheritable of the heavenly kingdom before we have made our Election sure 5. As the absolute infallibilitie of the present Romish Church doth make up the measure of heathenish Idolatry or iniquity So the immature belief of our own salvation or Election doth make up the measure of Jewish or Pharisaical Hypocrisie The manner how it doth so is this If no covetous if no sacrilegious person if no slanderer of his brethren or reviler of his betters can enter into the Kingdom of heaven as it is certain they cannot untill they repent then no man which is certain of his salvation can perswade himself or be perswaded that he is a covetous or sacrilegious person that he is a slanderer of his brethren or a reviler of his betters and hence the Conclusion arising from the Premisses is inevitable that albeit such men as presume of their Election or salvation before their time before they be throughly sanctified do all that covetous or sacrilegious men do be continual slanderers or malicious revilers of their brethren yet it is impossible that they should suspect much less condemn themselves of these crimes until they correct their former errours and rectifie their misbelief or presumption of their immutable estate in grace Yea their errour not being corrected makes them confident in these wicked practises and causes them to mistake hatred to mens persons or envy to others good parts for zeal to Religion and stubbornness in Schisme and faction for Christian charitie or good affection unto truth And if any man of better insight in the Stratagems of Satan shall go about to detect their error or convince them by strength of Reason grounded upon Scripture that their mis-perswasions do branch into Blasphemie and can bring forth no better fruit then Pharisaical hypocrisie yet they usually requite his pains as that young Spanish spark did the Physician which had well nigh cured him of a desperate Phrensie no sooner had he brought him to know what he was indeed no more then a Page though to a great Duke or Grandee of Spain but the Youth instead of a Fee or thankful acknowledgement began to revile and curse the Physician for bringing him out of a pleasant dream of golden mountains much richer then the King of Spain had any it seemed as a kind of hell unto him to see himself to be but a Page who in his raving fits had taken upon him to create Dukes and Earls and to exercise the Acts of Royal Authoritie Very much like him in Horace Epistol Libr. 2. Ep. 2. Fuit haud ignobilis Argis Qui se credebat miros audire Tragoedos In vacuo laetus sessor plausorque Theatro Hic ubi cognatorum opibus curisque refectus Expulit helleboro morbum bilemque meraco Et redit ad sese pol me occidistis amici Non servastis ait cui sic extorta voluptas Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus Error But with the Originals of Mis-belief besides what is said in our Fifth Book of Comments upon the Creed in this particular we shall have fitter occasion to meet hereafter And the greater part of men amongst us I am perswaded offend more in Unbelief then in Mis-belief 6. And by Unbelief lest we should be mistaken we understand somewhat less then the lowest degree of Infidelity Now of Infidels there be two degrees or ranks Infideles Contradictionis and Infideles purae Negationis He is an Infidel in the former sense that contradicts or opposeth the truth of Scriptures especially concerning Everlasting Life and Everlasting Death and such Infidels I presume there are none amongst us He is an Infidel in the Later Sense that doth not believe the
truth of Scriptures or cannot give a Reason of his Faith or one that neither thinks of Heaven or Hell and such Infidels there be almost in every Congregation But an Unbeliever a man may be although in the General he believe whatsoever the Scripture saith concerning the Resurrection of the Body or Life and Death everlasting unless withall he lay this his Belief to heart unless he have a true estimate as well of the reward proposed to good deeds as of the punishment proposed to evil doers It was a wise Saying of one that was not the wisest Doctor in his time Tractare res humanas norunt plurimi aestimare pauci Many there be that have skill enough in humane affairs that want no wit to atchieve the ends which they propose to themselves and yet but a few which know how to esteem or prize the ends at which they aym aright And of all our Errors and Defects there be but Two General Roots The first An overprizing of secular ends or contentments The second An undervaluing of matters Heavenly specially of Life and Death everlasting The true Reason why many who can discourse well of Heavenly matters and can give a reason of their belief sufficient to convince the Gainsayers of the truth which they believe are not so able to take or give the true Estimate of the things believed is much what the same with that which Philosophers assign Why yong men are no fit Auditors of moral Philosophy or why they prove not so good Proficients in this study as in other Arts and Sciences To learn the Mathematicks as Arithmetick or Geometry yong men or children are as apt as men of mature age And in natural Philosophy they finde no difficulty save onely want of Experience which is never attained unto in just and full measure without length of time or competent number of years Howbeit in the former Studies though all their life time were youth men might attain to the same measure of experience in the same course of time or number of years that they could if all their life were mature age But so it is not in moral Philosophy What is the reason The Philosopher tells us It is because yong men or men whose affections are unsetled can have no taste of moral Goodness or of the sweetness of true vertue And as his Master before him had observed Omnis vita gustu quodam ducitur We must have a Taste or Relish of good or evil or else we shall neither follow the one nor eschew the other with that constancy with that life and courage which is required to Vertue or Morality We may do many good things which a good Christian ought to do and yet not live a Christian life As Herod did Mark 6. 20. who feared and observed Saint John Baptist as a holy Just Man and heard him gladly and when he heard him did many things yet cut off his head 7. To lead a Christian life is more then to be a meer Moral Man although it always includes Morality in it And whatsoever is required to a moral life That and more is necessarily required to a Christian and Godly life And seeing the framing of a true Christian Life depends very much upon the true belief of this Article of Everlasting Life and Everlasting Death the most effectual Method which Gods Ambassadors can use to this end must be to exhibit a true taste or relish of the Goodness contained in the one and of the Evil comprized in the other And this is the Method which by Gods assistance I mean to follow First To set down directions whence or by what means we may take a Tast or Rellish without danger to our souls of Everlasting Death And Secondly How the like Tast or Rellish may be had of Everlasting Life or at the least how we may frame unto our selves a true though a short measure by which we may by diligent meditation take a better Estimate of Both then most men do I will begin with The means how to estimate everlasting Death because it is much easier to have some Tast or Rellish of it then of everlasting Life There is no evil which a man in this life doth suffer no pain or grief but may in some sort serve a diligent meditator to take a view or estimate of the horrors of the second death But alwayes the greater the evil is which we have suffered or have experience of the more fit measure it is for calculating the endless miseries of the Second Death And The very cogitation or remembrance of such particular evils as we have actually suffered or have experience of will be more effectual to withdraw us from those means or practises which procure them then the representation or contemplation of evils in their nature far greater but of which we have had no Tast or experience 8. A Memorable Experiment in this kind we have recorded by Justine and other good Writers of those Scythians which had waged war so long in Asia that their Wives growing weary of their absence did marry with their slaves or bond-men And their slaves being willing to defend the possessions which they had usurpt took arms against their Masters at their return But were quickly routed without stroke of Sword or dint of Lance or other usual weapon of war In stead of these their Masters charged them on horseback with whips in their hands with success according to their own fore-cast or expectation Of hurts or wounds made by Sword or Lance as they wisely did forecast their slaves had formerly had no experience they never had felt the smart or grief of either But their backs had been accustomed to the scourge or lash and the very sight of these weapons reviving the memory of their former smart more affrighted them on a suddain then any terror of war besides could have done To have tried their courage or fortunes either by push of Pike or dint of Sword they would have been more forward then wiser men Dulce bellum inexpertis Want of experience in this kind would have made them for the first brunt at least more insolent and fool-hardy whereas the very sight and noise of the whip whereof they had so often tasted did presently dant them and make them seek their security from it by confused flight The Historical Truth of this Relation and good success of their Stratagem is sealed unto us in the Publick Coin of that Country whose stamp to this day is a man on Horse-back with a whip in his hand 9. It would be a great comfort to us that are Gods Embassadors if we could but perswade men to be as afraid to wrong or deface the monuments of men deceased as the modern Turks are to offer the least indignity unto ordinary papers scattered in the streets or to be as careful in preserving the Goods of the Church as these Infidels are to preserve the least scrap of paper that would otherwise
perish What is the reason why they are so careful in these Toyes and we so negligent in matters of such moment and the like They have a Tradition whether received from Mahomet himself or from his Successors their Mufties I know not but a Tradition they have which they strongly believe That before they can enter into such a heaven as they dream of they must pass over a long iron grate red hot without any other fence to save their naked feet from scorching save only so much paper as they shall preserve from perishing Now of the pains or tortures which the violent heat of Iron produceth in naked bodies they have a kind of feeling or experience The conceit or Notion of this pain is fresh and lively and works more strongly upon their affections then the dread of hell fire doth upon many Christians albeit there is no Christian which doth not believe the fire of hell to be everlasting whereas the Turk thinks this his supposed Purgatory to be but temporary and between pains temporary and pains everlasting there is no proportion How then comes it to pass that this superstitious fear of pains but temporary should so far exceed our true fear or belief of pains uncessant and everlasting Many which truly believe there is a Hell whose fire never goeth out yet conceive this fire to be an immaterial fire a fire of whose heat or violence they have no sense or feeling in this life a fire altogether unknown unto them And as no man much desireth that good which he knoweth not how great soever it be so no man much feareth that evil whereof he hath no sense or feeling no experimental knowledge whereby to measure the greatness of it but only believes it confusedly or in gross and hence it is that the acknowledgment or belief of such a fire how great soever it may seem to be in the General abstract conceit is but like a spacious Mathematical body which hath neither weight nor motion which can produce no real effects in the soul or affections of man For this reason I have alwayes held it a fruitless pains or a needless curiosity to dispute the Question Whether the fire of hell be a material fire or no that is such a fire as may be felt by bodily senses seeing most men conceive no otherwise of things immaterial or spiritual then as of Abstract Notions or of Mathematical Magnitudes As the determination of this Question were it possible in this life to be determined would be fruitless So the chief reason which some have brought to prove the Negative to wit That it is not a material fire is of no force in true Philosophie much less in Divinitie 10. Their chief Reason is This That if hell fire were a material or bodily fire it could not immediately work upon the soul which is an immaterial or spiritual substance But let them tell us how it is possible That the soul of man which is an immortal substance should be truly wedded to the body or material substance and I shall as easily answer them That it is as possible for the same soul to be as really wrought upon by a material fire As possible it is for material fire to propagate death without End to both body and soul as it is for the immaterial or immortal soul to communicate life without end to the material substance of the body For the bodies of the damned shall never cease to be material substances and they shall live to everlasting pains by a life communicated unto them from their immaterial and immortal souls And as the bodies do live continually by reason of their continual union with their living immaterial souls so the soul may die the second death continually by its union with or imprisonment in material but everlasting fire Or if any man be of opinion that hell fire is no material fire or hath no resemblance of that fire which we see and know yet let him believe that it is a great deal worse and that the greatest torture which in this life can come by fire is though a true yet but an imperfect scantling of the torments of the life to come and the danger will be less Of this opinion were the Antients and this conceit or notion of hell fire did in some bring forth very good effects So Eusebius in his Fifth Book and first Chapter of his Ecclesiastical Story tels of one Biblis a woman which had professed Christianity but was so danted with the cruel persecutions of Christians that she renounced her profession and was brought unto the place where the Christians were executed with purpose to withdraw others from constancie in their profession by her expected blasphemie against Christ and reproachful aspersions upon Christians But the very sight of those flames wherein the Martyrs were tortured did throughly awake her out of her former slumber her very fear or rather conceit of such torments which they for the time suffered did afford her a measure or scantling to calculate the incomparable torments of hell fire which being now awaked she began to bethink her self that she must suffer them without hope of release if she should deny Christ or renounce her calling and thus expelling the lesser fear by the greater she resolutely professed her self to be a true Christian in heart and so contrary to the expectation of the persecutors and her own former resolution increased the number of the glorious Martyrs and incouraged others after her to endure the Cross 11. But albeit the Scripture usually describes the horrour of the second death by a fire which never goeth out or by a lake of fire and brimstone and so describes it either because that fire is of such nature and quality as these descriptions literally and without Metaphor import or because these are the most obvious and most conspicuous representations of the pains and horrours of hell which flesh and blood are generally most acquainted with most afraid of yet many other branches of pains and tortures there be besides those which fire of what kind soever can inflict and of these several pains most men respectively may have as true a rellish or sensible representation as they can have of hell fire You have read before that as there is in this life A body of sin which hath as many members as there be several senses or several faculties of the soul So there is a body of the second death every way proportionable to the body of sin The extreamitie or deadliness of all the pains discontents or grievances which are incident to any bodily sense or facultie of the soul in this life are contained either Formaliter that is as we say in kind in the body of the second death or Eminenter that is either in a worse kind or in a greater measure then in this life they could be endured though but for a minute and yet must be endured everlastingly in the life to come
in the instruments of the same senses and so it shall be in every other particular sense or faculty wherein sin hath lodged or exercised his dominion The hint of this general Rule or doctrine is given unto us by our Saviour in the Parable of the rich Glutton the principal crime wherewith he is expresly taxed was his too much pampering of the sense of tast without compassion of his poor brother whom he suffered to die for hunger And the only punishment which is expressed by our Saviour is the scorching heat of his tongue which is the Instrument of taste and his unquenchable thirst without so much hope of comfort as a drop of cold water could afford him though this comfort were earnestly begged at the hands or rather at the finger of Abraham who in his life time had been open-handed unto the poor a man full of bounty mercie and pitie But these are works which follow such as practise them here on earth into heaven they extend not themselves unto such as are shut up in that everlasting prison which is under the earth CHAP. XXIV ROMANS 6. 23. The wages of Sin is Death But the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Iesus Christ our Lord. The Body of Death being proportioned to the Body of Sin Christian meditation must applie part to part but by Rule and in Season The Dregs or Reliques of Sin be The sting of Conscience and This is a Prognostick of the Worm of Conscience which is chief part of the Second Death Directions how to make right use of The fear of the Second Death without falling into despere and of the Hope of Life eternal without mounting into presumption viz. Beware 1. Of immature perswasions of Certaintie in Salvation 2. Of this Opinion That all men be at all times either in the Estate of the Elect or Reprobates 3. Of the Irrespective Decree of Absolute Reprobation The use of the Tast of Death and pleasures The Turkish use of Both. How Christians may get a Relish of Joy Eternal by peace of Conscience Joy in the Holy Ghost and works of Righteousness Affliction useful to that purpose 1. SEeing the Body of the Second Death is in every part proportionable to the Body of Sin which not mortified doth procure it The Art of Meditation upon the one branch of this Great Article viz. Everlasting Death must be thus assisted or deduced First By right fitting or suiting the several members or branches of the Second Death unto the several members of the Body of sin The force or efficacie of this Medicine depends especially upon the right Application of it And the right Application consists in counterpoizing our hopes or desires of unlawful pleasures with the just fear of sutable Evils Now as the fear of those evils whereof we have a distinct or comprehensive notion hath more weight or force upon our affections then the fear of evils far greater in themselves but of which we have only an indistinct confused or general notion such as a man blind from his birth may have of colours which in the general he knows to be sensible qualities but what kind of qualities in the particular he cannot know So of those evils whereof we have a specifical or distinct notion those have the greatest sway upon our several corrupt affections which are most directly contrary to our particular delights or pleasures which accompany the exercise or motions of the same affections So as the chief if not the only means to mortifie the several members of the old man or body of sin is to plant the fear of those particular evils in the same sense or faculty by whose peculiar delights or pleasures we find our selves to be most usually withdrawn from the wayes of life For the fear of any evil distinctly known though in it self more weighty doth not so directly or fully countersway any delight or pleasure unless it be seated in the same particular subject with it and move upon the same Center Curiosity of the eye is not so easily tamed with any other fear as with fear of blindness Lust or delight in the pleasures of the flesh are not so forcibly restrained by any other fear as by fear of some loathsome disease or grievous pain incident to the Instruments or Organs of such pleasures Pride and Ambition stand not in so much awe of any other punishment as of shame dis-grace or dis-respect 2. But how good soever the Medicine be it is either dangerous or unuseful unless it be applied in due season The same Physick hath contrary effects upon a full and a fasting stomack And as a great part of the Art of Husbandry consists in the observation of times and seasons wherein to sow or plant So a great part of this divine Art of Meditation depends upon our knowledge or observance of opportunities best fitting the plantation of this fear of particular evils which must countersway our inclinations to particular pleasures This must be attempted as we say in cold blood and in the Calm of our affections or in the absence of strong temptations which scarce admit of any other Medicine or restraint save only flying to the Force of Prayer It was a wise Caveat of an heathen that as often as well call those pleasures or delights of the body or sense whereof we have had any former experience to mind we should not look upon them as they did present themselves or came towards us for their face or countenance is pleasant and inticing But if we diligently observe them in their passage from us they are ugly and loathsom and alwayes leave their sting behind them And as the several delightful Objects of every particular outward sense meet in the internal Common sense or Phantasie So the dregs or Reliques which every unlawful pleasure at his departure leaves in the sense or faculty wherein it harboured do all concur to make up the Sting of Conscience And the Sting of Conscience unless we wittingly stifle the working of it doth give the truest representation of the Second Death and makes the deepest impression of hell pains that in this life can generally be had 3. There is no man unless he be given over by God to a reprobate sense whose heart will not smite him either in the consciousness of grosser sins unto which he hath in a lower degree been accustomed or of usual sins though for the quality not so gross Now if men would suffer their Cogitations to reflect upon the regretings which alwayes accompany the accomplishments of unlawful desires as frequently and seriously as they in a manner impel them to reflect upon those inticing Objects which inflame their brests with such desires these cogitations would awake the natural Sting of Conscience and This being awakned or quickned would not suffer them to sleep any longer in their sins For the smart or feeling of the Sting of Conscience is as sensible and lively a Prognostick of the Worm which
never dieth which is the chief part of the second Death as heaviness of spirit or grudgings are of Fevers or other diseases which without preventing Physick or diet do alwayes follow them 4. But this Prognostick of the second death or this fear of hell pains which the Sting of Conscience alwayes exhibits must be warily taken and weighed with Judgment The right observance of them as every other good quality or habit is beset with Two contrary extremes The one in defect The other in excess The defect is Carelesnesse The excesse Despere or too much dejection of mind The intimations or Prognosticks which the Sting of Conscience exhibits of death spiritual are often mistaken for the effects of bodily melancholy and the best medicine for melancholy is pleasant society or mirth Out of this mistaking most men prevent that Compassion which is due to their own souls after such a manner as Jewish parents did prevent their natural pity towards their children when they sacrificed them unto Molech by filling their ears with the loud sound of wind Instruments lest the shrikes of the Infants whom they inclosed in an Image of hot glowing brass by entring in at their ears might move their Jewish hearts to pity And most men lest they should be stung with grief of spirit or conscience seek to stifle their first murmurings and repinings either with unhallowed or unseasonable mirth Others by seeking to avoid this common extreme often fall into the contrary which is of the Two the worse to wit dispere or too much dejection of spirit That which the Heathen observed of grief in General is most true of this Particular the grief of a Wounded Spirit Dolori si fraena remitt as nulla materia non est maxima If we let loose the reins to grief or sorrow the least matter or occasion of either will be more weighty then we can well bear Mans unbridled fancie is as a multiplying Glasse which represents every thing as well matter of sorrow as of pleasure in a far greater quantity then it really hath And unless our Cogitations or sad remembrances of sins past be moderated with Judgment and discretion they will appear to our fancies like Cains transgression greater then can be forgiven or then we can hope that the God of mercy will forgive For holding the right mean betwixt these Extrems Carelesnesse and despere there is no means so effectual as to be rightly instructed in the hope of everlasting Life and Fear of everlasting death Immature or unripe hopes of the One ingendereth carelesnesse or presumption so doth erroneous fear of the other bring forth despere He that is perswaded that every one always is in the Estate of the Elect or of the Reprobate cannot avoid the one or other extreme And the only remedy to prevent despere or being swallowed up with grief either in the consciousnes of grosser sins lately committed or whiles we reflect upon sins past is to purge our selves of that Erroneous Opinion concerning Absolute Reprobation or irreversible ordination to death before we were born or from the time of our second birth by baptisme 5 To purge our brain or fancie of this opinion let us take the form and Tenor of the Final sentence into consideration which we may do without digression or diversion Both branches of this sentence we have Mat. 25. The first branch ver 34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world he doth not say before all worlds though this in a good sense is true most true if we speak of Gods designe or Act for all his Acts or designes are as he is Eternal without beginning so are not the things designed or enacted by him they take their beginning in time or with time The Kingdom prepared for Gods people was prepared when the world was made not before so good and gracious was our God that he did not make man or Angel untill he had prepared a place convenient for them take them as they were his creatures or workmanship and they were all ordained to a life of bliss Paradise was made for man and it may be after man was made but the Heaven of Heavens was prepared for man before he was made and made for the Angels if not before they were made yet when they were made But the Sentence of death ver 41. runs in another Tenor Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire he doth not say prepared for you from the foundation of the world but prepared for the Divel and his angels Those immortal spirits which now are divels were sometime Angels God made them so They made themselves divels Now hell fire was not prepared for them whilst they were Angels not from the foundation of the world but from the time wherein of Angels they became Divels Nor are men at all ordained to it untill of men they become Satans angels And as Satan and his angels the spirits which fell with him continue the self same individual substances which they were when God first created them yet are no way the same but quite contrary for qualitie and disposition so the place whereto they are confined may be for substance space and dimension the same it was at the first creation but not the same for quality it became a prison or place of torment when Satan and other spirits which fell with him of Angels made themselves Divels Satan as some think brought that fire wherein he and his Angels shall be tormented into the bowels of the earth when he fell like lightning from heaven However if the Angels had not sinned there had been no hell no tormenting fire and unless men become the Divels Angels they shall not be cast into hell fire God doth not ordain men to be Satans angels but men continuing his sons or servants God ordaines them to take their portion with him So that if we remove the opinion of Absolute-Reprobation or of irreversible ordination of mens persons unto death before they were baptized or born or if men would be confirmed in faith that no such Sentence or Decree is gone out against them whilst they have either will desire or opportunitie to call upon God through Jesus Christ for remission of sins whether by confession of them or by absolution from them upon such confession or by receiving the Sacrament of Christs body and blood no danger can accrue from the frequent meditation of everlasting death or from such representations of the horrours of it as the often reflecting upon our sins past and the working of the Sting of Conscience upon such reflections will present unto us 6. Another excellent Use and that a Positive One there is of these meditations For no man ordinarily can have a true Tast or rellish of Eternal Life but he which hath had some Tast or grudging of everlasting
or pledges of our heavenly Fathers providence and loving care over us Hence saith our Apostle Heb. 12. 7. If you endure chastisement God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the Father chastiseth not Surely no gracious or beloved son so the same Apostle had said ver 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Sons then he hath whom he doth not receive because they will not endure chastisement or receive correction from him with submission and patience These he gives over as degenerate and lost sons And there is not a more fearful signe of Gods displeasure toward men then his long-suffering of them without chastisement If ye be without chastisement saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 8. whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons But if all be partakers of it how can any be without it Yes they are without chastisement which will not patiently suffer it which will not embrace it as a pledge of their heavenly Fathers love and these are bastards What is that A bastard is a son but in the language of men unlawfully begotten Hath God any such sons or children God forbid All are his sons all are his children by right of Creation and by right of Redemption and both these are lawful titles of Father-hood and dominion over us Bastards then they are who refuse chastisement in this sense only that they are stubborn and disobedient or misaffected towards the Father of mankind They imagine him not to be so kind and loving to all his sons not to themselves in particular as earthly parents are to their lawfully begotten children This is that imputation which our Apostle seeks to avert from God or rather that suspition which he seeks to remove from all who call him their Father and that by an Argument as the Schools speak a Fortiore ver 9 10. Furthermore we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live For they verily for a few dayes chastened us as seemed good unto them sometime perhaps without actual intendment or express fore-sight of any good unto us but he to wit our heavenly Father chastiseth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness 12. The End of his chastisement is alwayes This That we may serve him in Righteousness and have our fruit unto Holiness whose End is everlasting Life And One chief part of our Righteousness consists in the patient submission of our selves unto his chastisements The first part of Righteousness in respect of what Law soever is not to transgress the Law The second is to submit our selves unto the penalty which the Law inflicts in case we transgress it To plead the former part of this Righteousness in respect of Gods Law we cannot To perform the second part of it we are bound upon pain of losing our right of sons The penalty of disobedience to it or refusal of chastisements in this life is The woful estate of bastards or of Sons disinherited The sum of that which hath been said concerning our meditation of the second death especially as this Meditation is A Preparative to the works of Righteousness or of Holiness is excellently comprized by our Apostle Heb. 12. 11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby The burnt child as we say dreads the fire and he is more then a child a very Infant or witless child which will not avoid the scorching flames of it by the experience which he hath of its heat Now there is no chastisement no correction that is grievous for the present but ought to be as a Gentle Remembrancer unto us of hell pains or such a fair Caveat for avoiding them as the experienced heat of visible and known fire unto him that stands neer it is of the harms which it would procure if he should be cast into it And if we would make this or the like use of all the crosses and afflictions of all the bodily pains and grievances of all the perplexities of mind or conscience which in this life we suffer we should be more careful then we are to avoid the temptations by which Satan seeks to draw us into that everlasting fire which is prepared for him and his angels This abstinence from evil is the First branch of our patience in affliction The second is the fruit of righteousness But I suppose the Reader will desire a further Tast First Of the peace of Conscience Secondly Of that joy in the holy Ghost wherein the Kingdom of heaven consists And the Explication of these Two great Points follows in the next Chapter In the Interim the best Use which can be made of the Doctrine hitherto delivered is made unto our hands by our Apostle himself Heb. 12. 12 13 14. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Lest there be any Fornicator or prophane person as Esau who for one morsell of meat sold his birthright For ye know that after when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears CHAP. XXV ROMANS 6. 22. But now ye have your fruits unto Holinesse and the end everlasting Life c. The Coldness of our Hope of Life Eternal causeth deviation from the wayes of Righteousness and is caused by our No-Tast or spiritual disrelish of that Life The work of the Ministery is to plant this Tast and to preserve it in Gods people Two Objects of this Tast 1. Peace of Conscience 2. Joy in the Holy Ghost That Peace may best be shadowed out unto us in the known sweetness of Temporal Peace The Passions of the natural man are in a continual mutinie To men that yet have no experience of it The nature of Joy in the Holy Ghost may be best exemplified by that chearful gladnesse of Heart which is the fruit of Civil Peace It is the Prerogative of man to Enjoy himself and to possesse his own soul In the knowledge of any Truth there is Joy But True Joy is only in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and of saving Truthes The Difference betwixt Joy and Gladnesse in English Greek and Latin 1. THe very Hope of Life Eternal would be of it self sufficient to counterpoize all the pleasures and all the grievances incident to this mortal life by the one or other of which our
one with another nor with their own Consciences which should command in chief may be safe or free from any present evil from any wound as yet given by this adversary But no man living can be secure from future danger or misery until he be thus far at least entred into the Kingdom of God as that he hath some impression or rellish of that Peace His soul and spirit must be brought in subjection to the Spirit of God so must his affections or desires be subject to his reasonable soul or spirit before he can know this Peace by experience or taste the fruit of it which is Ioy in the Holy Ghost 7. But Wherein doth this Ioy in the Holy Ghost consist Seeing it is the issue or fruit of Spiritual Peace The nature of it cannot be better exemplified specially to such as know it not by experience then by that known joy of heart or gladness which is the fruit of civil or temporal Peace And the fruits of this Peace are pithily described by the Prophet When every man may sit under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree that is to give you the importance of this Proverbial speech in plain English When every man may reap the fruits of his own labors or imployments or of the labors imployments or increase of other Creatures which God hath put in subjection to him when he may so reap them without molestation without danger of annoyance It is not the Possession of Lands of Wares or other good things whatsoever we are lawfully entitled unto but the quiet Fruition or enjoying of them which fills our hearts with gladness To have a full Flock and to be deprived of the milk and of the increase of it to have a goodly Vineyard and to be debarred from gathering the grapes of it is matter of sorrow and grief A principal calamity of War But to enjoy these and the like commodities without danger or molestation is a special Comfort of temporal or civil Peace And in as much as no man can truly injoy those good things which he possesseth or hath right unto but in time of civil Peace Hence it is that under the name of this Peace all good things Temporal are contained for without Peace we cannot enjoy them And this is the Prerogative of man above all visible Creatures that the fruit which other such Creatures do bring forth they do not bring it forth unto themselves but unto man and for his use either mediately or immediately The Fields yearly bring forth grass or other wilde herbs for the food of other living Creatures but even those Creatures with their fruits or increase serve for the use of man Quicquid acquirunt acquirunt Domino The Sheep being nourished by the grass of the Field yields his yearly fleece not so much for his own use as for the use of Man The Bees in Summer gather honey but Man is principal partaker of the sweetness of it These and other like sensitive Creatures how much soever they multiply and increase are never their own but their owners that is some one or other Mans yet not their Owners unless it be in time of Civil Peace Contention whether it be by open Hostility of War or by course of Law always deprives men of the fruition or enjoyment of those good things which are their own though not always of the possession of them By Peace onely we enjoy those things which are our own by right of Title and Possession so that Civil or temporal Peace is the onely noursing Mother of civil or temporal joy or gladness 8. But albeit every one the meanest amongst us could not only quietly possesse but peaceably enjoy this whole visible world such as it is or another as great as this is and all the good things contained in them yet as our Saviour tels us Our life doth not consist in these And what gain or profit could there be in possessing the whole world in enjoying all the good things contained in it if we should lose the enjoyment or possession of our own souls To possesse and enjoy the fruit of all other creatures labours is the Prerogative of man the only remainder of that Dominion which the Lord gave him over all other creatures in his first creation But to enjoy himself is mans peculiar and is the effect of his reconciliation to his God and the well spring of true Joy Other creatures may by mans permission reap the fruits of their own labours as the Bee in winter may eat the honey which it makes in the Summer though perhaps not so sweet unto it self as it is unto man for whose use and service he unwittingly makes it But no visible creature besides man can possibly enjoy it self or its own soul and faculties Sense and feeling many other creatures besides man have Sed non sentiunt se sentire The fowls of the Air the fishes of the Sea the Beasts of the field and the Bee which best resembles man as he is A sociable creature do respectively at least hear and see feel and tast but yet have no true sense or estimate of their own senses as wherein they exceed Grasse Trees or vegetables or wherein they come short of man So that man only is capable of enjoying himself and his own soul and faculties and yet not qualified for injoying himself and his own faculties until the former Peace the peace of conscience be in some measure wrought in his heart His sensitive affections desires and passions must be first subjected to Reason and Conscience his reason his conscience and spirit must be subjected unto the spirit of God before he can possesse his soul in patience and he must possesse his soul with patience before he can Tast of that joy which is in the Holy Ghost before he can bring forth the fruit of holinesse whose End is everlasting Life The Tast of this fruit or Joy is the only pledge or assurance of that endless Joy which is prepared for such as love God in heaven 9. The Vine bringeth forth much pleasant fruit So do the trees of the Garden but they enjoy it not when it is ripe it falleth from them or their owners reap it But this Joy which amounts from the quiet or peaceable possession of our own souls it growes within us it ripeneth within us it multiplieth and it sweetneth within us no man can and God will not take this joy from us How fruitful soever we may be yet we are but unprofitable servants less profitable to our Lord and Owner then the Trees of the Garden or Forrest are to us yet how unprofitable soever we are to him he continues most gracious unto us and permits us to reap and enjoy the fruits of all these good things which he himself alone doth sow and plant doth water and cherish and give encrease unto within our hearts and souls Were it possible for the husbandman or Vine-dresser so to infuse the life
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
Kingdom to give it countenance And whilst either the Church or Lawes of the Kingdom do enjoyn you to do these things which in themselves are not unlawful in obeying them you obey Gods Law which commands obedience in disobeying them you disobey the Lawes of God which forbid disobedience to the higher powers If then you will obey the Lawes specially where they command fasting or abstinence or devotion in publick God will blesse your private devotions and your use of meat and drink the better CHAP. XXVII ROMANS 6. 23. For the wages of sin is Death but the Gift of God is Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. About the Merit of Good Works The Romanists Allegations from the force of The word Mereri amongst the Ancients and for the Thing it self out of Holy Scriptures The Answers to them all respectively Some prove Aut nihil aut nimium The different value and importance of Causal particles For Because c. A difference between Not worthie and Unworthie Christs sufferings though in Time finite of value infinite Pleasure of sin short yet deserves infinite punishment Bad works have the Title of Wages and Desert to Death But so have not good works to Life Eternal 1. DEath as was expressed in the 21. verse is the End of sin and Life Eternal as you have it verse the 22. is the End of Holinesse or of the service of God The Proof of both Assertions you have in this 23. verse because Death is the wages of sin and Life Eternal the Gift of God the last and best Gift wherewith he crowneth such as serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse Now the final recompence or reward whether that be good or bad is the End or Period of all our wayes or works Herein then doth Life and death everlasting only agree that as well the One as the Other is the End or issue of mens several wayes or courses here on earth Yet these Ends are Contrary the one to the other and so are the wayes which lead unto them The only way to the One is Righteousness and holiness the ready way unto the other is sin and wickedness But however sin be injustice and the author of sin be most unjust yet herein they both observe the Rule of Justice that they pay their servants their wages to a mite and unlesse the righteous Judge did moderate their cruelty they would pay their servants more then is their due But doth not the Just Judge deal so with his servants Yes he payes them more then is their due yet this he doth without injustice for he rewardeth them not according to the Rule of Justice but according to his Mercy and Bountie To punish men beyond their desert is injustice But to Reward men above their deserts is no way contrary to Justice but an Act of mercy triumphing over Justice But hath Justice no hand no finger in distribution of the Final Reward of Holinesse This is or should be the brief issue of that great Controversie between the Romanists and Reformed Churches An bona opera renatorum mereantur vitam aeternam Whether the Good Works of men regenerate do deserve or merit eternal life And it is a very Good Rule which a Great Champion of Reformed Churches hath given us To reduce all Controversies to those places of Scripture wherein they are properly seated and out of whose sense or meaning they are emergent To handle them especially in Pulpit upon other occasions or to go out of our way to meet with them is but to nurse Contention And of all the places in Scripture which are brought either Pro or Con for the Merit of Works none is more pertinent none more fit to be discussed then this 23. verse of Rom. 6. Those Answers which are often given by Romanists unto other places of Scripture alleadged by our Writers will appear impertinent if they be rightly examined by our Apostles Conclusion in this Chapter Our Method in handling this Controversie shall be this First To set down the Arguments brought by the Romanist for establishing the Merit of Works Secondly To press the sense and meaning of our Apostle in this 23. ver of Rom. 6. against them Thirdly To joyn issue with them or to set down The true State of the Question not only betwixt us and them but between the just Judge and our own souls and Consciences 2. First They alledge That the word Merit is frequent in the Antient Fathers of the Church and that albeit the same Word be not so frequent in the Scripture yet the matter it self which the Fathers expresse by the word mereri is often intimated or necessarily implyed in Terms Equivalent And if we agree upon the Matter it is but a vanity to wrangle about Words Both points of their Allegation deserve the scanning To the First Concerning the word mereri or to merit in the Latine Fathers we reply that as Coyns or metals instamped so Words do change their value or importance in different Ages and in several Nations Custom hath as great authority in the one Case as Soveraign power hath in the other Mereri to merit imports as much in the antient secular Roman or Latine Writers as to deserve that which we sue for or attain unto or to have a just Title unto it So a Souldier is said to merit his pay a servant his wages and good States-men or Commanders in warre their honours But unto this pitch or scantling the Ecclesiastick Writers as St. Austine St. Jerome or later as St. Bernard do not extend the word Merit Mereri according to their meanings is no more then Assequi that is to attain or get that which men desire So Turonensis brings in a blind man supplicating to an Holy Man of his time in this form Ut possim per preces tuas mereri visum that I may merit my sight through your prayers In which words the word Mereri to merit can imply no more either in the poor mans meaning or in this Historians then Assequi to get or obtain For no man can merit any thing by anothers prayers If these could properly merit or deserve any thing at Gods hand the merit should be his whose prayers God vouchsafed to hear not his for whom he prayed The same word Mereri with some Writers doth not import so much as to obtain or get any thing at Gods hands by vertue of our own or others prayers but only to be an Occasion or Condition without which that which befals us though not desired by us should not have befallen us So as we said before one speaks of Adams sin Felix peccatum quod talem meruit redemptorem O happy sin which merited such a Redeemer Now there is nothing in the world which could less deserve any benefit at Gods hand then sin which yet was the Occasion or Condition without which the Son of God had not been incarnate at least had not been Consecrated through Affliction
final sentence is the true cause why the wicked are excluded from all benefit of it The performance of the same works as feeding of the hungry visitation of the sick c. is the Instrumental cause or means subordinate to the Principal cause why Christs sheep are suffered or admitted to enjoy the benefit of the same free Pardon but no cause at all why the Pardon was proclaimed or why the Kingdom of Heaven was prepared for them For that was prepared for them from the Foundation of the world before they had any Actual Being before they could merit any thing at the hands of men much lesse at the hand of God either de Congruo or de Condigno For all merit supposeth some precedent work and every work or operation presupposeth Actual Being 7. But how freely soever the General pardon be issued out or the Kingdom of Heaven be either promised or really bestowed and it is as freely bestowd or given as it is promised the free gift or bestowing of it is so far from excluding all Qualifications in the parties on whom it is freely bestowed that it necessarily requires a sincere performance of those good duties which are specified in the Final sentence Come ye blessed of my Father for I was an hungry and you gave me meat c. Now if to suffer stub born malefactors to enjoy the benefit of a gracious Pardon cannot stand with the Majestie of an earthly Prince much lesse can it stand with the infinite Majestie of the Eternal Judge to permit impenitent sinners to enjoy the benefit and the full redemption purchased by Christ or to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven Both because no unclean thing can enter there and because as the Redemption is a Redemption from the service of sin to the service of righteousness so the Pardon is only a Pardon to such as repent and forsake the Sin Pardoned This answer to their later Topick or Frame of Arguments for our Admission into Eternal Life drawn from the Causal Form of speech will bring forth a punctual Answer to the other General Head or Root of Arguments taken from those places of Scripture wherein is said that We are accounted worthy of Eternal Life For in all the places alledged by them This Phrase or form of speech To be worthy includes no more then then to be so qualified as we shall not be accounted Unworthy of Gods mercy or free Pardon through Jesus Christ All that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven must be such as Deus dignabitur that is such as God shall vouchsafe or deign to accept in mercy or not accompt altogether Unworthy of his Free Pardon purchased by the merits of Christ or of the benefits of it which are alwayes actually bestowed not only For Christs merits but in Christ and through Christ that is as freely bestowed without any merits of ours as they were first promised The Greek writers especially their Ecclesiastick writers who most accurately follow the true sense and Character of the New Testament which was first written in Greek accurately distinguish betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this purpose there is an Ecclesiastick Canon in the Greek Church which commends the ingenuity of such as shall acknowledge themselves be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as we say not worthy of the dignities whereto they are preferred But if any man should say he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Unworthy of such preferment the Canon takes it as a presumption that he is not to be admitted unto it or as a part of Conviction that he deserves to be deprived of it Now to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the language of the Holy Ghost is somewhat more then to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to be in no wise worthy of the preferment which he seekes for or enjoyes This is the phrase which Paul and Barnabas use unto the stubborn Jews Acts 13. 46. But seeing you put the word of God from you and Judge your selves to be Unworthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of eternal life Lo we turn unto the Gentiles These Jews then to whom they spake were unworthy that is altogether Uncapable of Eternal Life whereof the Gentiles were in this sense thus far Worthy that they were not altogether Uncapable of that free mercy and Pardon which was first tendred to the Jews And this exclusion of the Jews and admission of the Gentiles unto everlasting life or unto the means or pledges of it was but the accomplishment of our Saviours Parable Matth. 22. ver 8. Then saith He to his servants the wedding is ready but they which were bidden were not Worthy And it is worth your nothing that in Two of Cardinal Bellarmines forecited Allegations the One Luke 20. ver 25. The Other 2 Thess 1. 4. is said not such as are Worthy but such as shall be or are accompted Worthy of everlasting life that is such as shall be so accompted or accepted not for their own sake or for their merits but so accompted and accepted for and through the merits of Christ or for his imputed righteousness for to say That Christs righteousness is imputed to us is all one as to say his righteousnesse shall go upon our accompt or that we shall not be uncapable of his Merits For the word to Impute is as much in strict propriety of speech as to be admitted upon an accompt Thus much of the Objections made by the Romish Church and of the Answers unto them which was the First General proposed 8. The Second was The Confirmation of the Doctrine joyntly maintained by all reformed Churches which for the present we shall confirm from One place of Scripture only besides the Words of the Text Rom. 6. 23. and that is Rom. 8 18. I reckon saith the Apostle or I give it up as upon an account that the sufferings of this present time are Not Worthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us If any Works of men Regenerate were Meritorious or Worthy of Eternal Life These by our adversaries confession should be the sufferings of Holy Martyrs specially of such Glorious Martyrs as St. Paul was Yet These he saith are not Worthy to be compared unto or are of no Worth in respect of the glory that shall be revealed in us But if the precious names of those in Sardis that is the Saints there were to walk with God Because they were Worthy how shall the sufferings of St Paul or of St. Peter be held Unworthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise Worthy or most unworthy of the glory which was to be revealed in them For this includes as much if not somewhat more then to walk with Christ The Answer is ready The Sufferings of the Saints were not Unworthy in respect of Gods Free Grace or Mercie not Unworthy of enjoying the benefit of his
free Pardon for all shall be excluded from it that are Unworthy of it But the grievous and most patient sufferings of the Apostles themselves are here adjudged by our Apostle to be altogether Unworthy of the Glory that shall be revealed in respect of Gods Justice Or if he should enter into Judgment with them after these three branches of Grace Faith Hope and Charity had fructified in them But have they no Answer to this Objection Yes Cardinal Bellarmine the only man which ever that Church had for traversing the Testimonie or verdict of Scriptures alleadged by our Writers hath Two in store or rather two branches of one and the same answer His answer in General is this That our Apostle in this place Rom. 8. 18. doth speak of the Substance of works done by just and holy men not of the absolute Proportion between them and the glory which shall be revealed If we respect the Substance of their works they are not equal for the one is momentany or temporal and the other eternal to the reward or gift of God which is eternal life or glory yet saith he there is a true or just Proportion between them 9. To put a Colour upon this Distinction he gives Instance First in the sufferings of our Saviour which were but temporary and no way comparable for duration of time with the everlasting pains of hell which without his sufferings we all should have suffered and yet his temporary sufferings did make a full and just satisfaction for the sins of men which deserved everlasting torments For what was wanting to the duration or continuance of his sufferings was supplyed by the dignity of his person which suffered them In like sort as he would have it the worth or dignitie of that charity from which the sufferings of Martyrs or other good works of just and holy men do proceed may make up that defect which they apparently have in respect of their short duration or continuance His Second Instance is that the pleasures or contentments of sin are in no wise comparable to the everlasting torments of hell which yet these momentary pleasures justly deserve for the contempt of God and his commandements and thus as he would have us believe the good works of Saints though but few and short may through the vertue of Grace or Charity as justly deserve eternal glory 10. But as his Answer in General is Sophistical so the Instances which he brings to prove it are most impertinent and if they be well scanned most pregnant for Us against him To the First we reply as all Divines agree That Christs sufferings though but temporary for duration and for quality not infinite did make a full satisfaction for the sins of mankind because the Person of the sufferer was truly and absolutely infinite his satisfaction or the value of his sufferings were truly infinite Non quia passus est infinita sed quia passus est infinitus Not because he suffered infinite pains but because He who suffered those grievous and unknown pains was truly infinite But neither the persons of the Saints which suffered martyrdom nor any pains which they suffered or good works which they did had any just Proportion to Infinity and therefore could not be Meritorious of eternal Glory which is for duration infinite either in respect of their persons or of their charity which questionless was much less then Christs love and charity towards us as man though this was not so absolutely Infinite as the love and charity of his Godhead So that this Instance is not only impertinent but altogether unadvised and the Reader may well wonder how such gross and somnolent incogitancie could possibly surprize so wary a man so great a Scholar as Cardinal Bellarmine was His Second Instance though it include no such gross incogitancie as the former nevertheless it is involved in an error too common not only to the Romanist but to many in reformed Churches For the pleasures of sin though but temporary deserve eternal death betwixt which and them in themselves considered there is no just proportion But the True Reason why they justly deserve this death is because men by continuing in sin and by following the pleasures of it do reject or put from them the promises of Eternal Life betwixt which and everlasting death there is a just proportion And when Life and Death everlasting are proposed unto us the One out of Mercie the other out of Justice it is most Just dealing with God to give such as chuse the pleasures of sin before the Fruits of Holiness the native issue of their choice But it could not have stood with the Justice of God to have punished our first Parents transgression with everlasting death unless out of his Free Bounty and liberality he had made them capable not of a temporal only but of an everlasting life But now that Adam hath sinned and made himself and his posterity subject unto everlasting death doth not this Original Sin or every Actual Sin which issueth from it deserve everlasting death Yes they do and would inevitably bring death upon all without intervention of Gods Mercy or Free Pardon made in Christ But this free Pardon being presupposed and being proclaimed unto the world it is not Sin Original or the Positive sins of men in themselves considered which bring everlasting death upon them but their wilful neglect or slighting of Gods mercy promised in Christ or of the means which God affords them for attaining this mercy which leaves them without Excuse or Apology or which makes up the full measure of their iniquity This is our Saviours Doctrine John 3. 17. God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved From what original then doth the condemnation of the world proceed Our Saviour tels us ver 19. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse more then light because their deeds were evil It is not then the works of darkness in themselves considered but considered with mens love unto them or delight in them that doth induce a neglect or hate of light which brings condemnation upon the world Now if the works of darkness or pleasures of sin which are but momentany do not in themselves procure everlasting death albeit they proceed from Sin Original much lesse shall the good Works of Gods Saints albeit they proceed from Grace procure or deserve everlasting life For the Grace by which we do them is from God not from our selves but the evil works which we do are our own God hath no share in them So that the Height or Accomplishment of sin consists in the neglect or contempt of Eternal Life and the neglect hereof could not be so heynous if this life could be deserved by us or if it were awarded to us out of Justice not out of meer Mercie and Grace 11. This difference betwixt the Title
which Bad works have to Death and the Want of Title which the Best works have to Life Everlasting is most significantly exprest by St. Paul Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death saith He and wages are merited are never detained without some interruption of the course justice But Eternal Life is not the wages of holiness but the Gift of God And if in any sort it might be deserved or merited the Apostle questionless would have said it had been if not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wages yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reward of Holinesse But in as much as this word Reward sometimes includes Rationem dati something given as well as taken not alwayes a Reward of meer bounty therefore the Apostle doth not say it is the Reward of Holinesse or the Reward of God Nor doth he say it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies A Gift for Gifts though freely given in kindness and not by Covenant may be mutual and may include a kind of merit de congruo as we say One Kindnesse requires another like but our Apostle to prevent this conceit of Merit useth a word which in its true and proper signification is incompatible with the conceit of Merit he calleth life eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as the vulgar Latine renders it Gratia Del the Grace of God CHAP. XXVIII ROMANS 6. 23. But the Gift of God or The Grace of God is Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whether Charismata Divina that is The Impressions of Gods Eternal Favor may he merited by us Or whether the Second Third Fourth Grace Life Eternal it self may be so About Revival of Merits The Text Heb. 6. 10. God is not unjust c. expounded The Questions about Merits about Justification have the same Issue The Romish Doctrine of Merit derogates from Christs Merits The Question in order to practise or Application stated betwixt God and our own souls Confidence in merit and too Hasty perswasion that we be The Favorites of God Two Rocks God in punishing Godly men respects their former Good Works 1. THe Gift or Grace of God This word Grace is sometimes taken for The Favour of God which in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes it implyes the Stamp or Impression of this Favour in us and this in the Greek is exprest by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used here by St. Paul That The Favour of God cannot be merite by any works of man is out of Question For it was the Favor or Free Grace of God which gave our First Parents Being which continues their posterity here on earth And neither our first Parents nor any of their posterity could deserve or merit their Being This Favour of God is as he is without Beginning without Change But so is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Impression or Effect of this Eternal Favour in us It hath no Being in us before we Be And after it be inherent in us it admits of Alteration or Change in us The Question then is Whether the Effects or Impressions of Gods eternal Favour to us may be deserved or merited by us Or seeing the Degrees or Parts of Grace inherent be many it is Controversed between the Romish Church and us Whether any parts of this Grace can be deserved or merited by us That the First Grace that is The first stamp or impression of Gods Favour towards us cannot be merited by us They grant For the First Grace as some of them say is Fundamentum meriti The Foundation or ground-work of all Merits Et fundamentum meriti non cadit sub merito Every Merit is precedent to the thing merited But there can be no Merit-precedent to the First Grace which is the Root the Ground or Original of all Merits But the Second Third or Fourth Grace or Degrees of Grace may in their divinity be merited through the Virtue or Excellencie of the First Grace or First Degree of Grace so we use that as we should Between the First Degree or Seed of Grace sowen in our hearts by the finger of God and the Full Growth or increase of it there is as Cardinal Bellarmine alleadgeth a True proportion though no Equalitie And therefore there may be some Ground of Merit for the increase of Grace though not for the first beginning of it Indeed if Grace did grow in us as trees or plants do from the first seed without any great care or operation of him that plants them and if it did thus grow without any interruption or default on our parts there might be some pretence for merit or some probabilitie at least that the fruits of Grace so growing should be Ours or so far Ours as we are our selves because we are the soil wherein the first seeds of Grace were sowen But if it be God not we our selves that gives the increase if it be God that sends Paul to plant and Apollos to water the seeds which he hath sowen in us if it be He that made us and not we our selves All the fruits of Grace are his by proprietie not Ours but only so far as he shall suffer us to enjoy them by continuance of the same Gracious Undeserved favour by which he hath made us and by which he sowes the first seeds of Grace in us 2. But Grace being sowen or planted in us by his immediate hand without any Co-operation on our parts non Crescit ecculto velut arbor aevo doth not grow up in us as wel-thriving plants out of their proper seed without ceasing or interruption though by degrees unsensible for sometimes it decreaseth oft-times it suffers many interruptions in its growth by our default or negligence And is it possible that we should deserve or merit the increase or fruits of that Grace whose growth in spring is oft-times blasted or hindred through our negligence or wilfull default This They do not say This in congruity of Reason They cannot say Who deny that Grace once implanted in us cannot be displanted can admit no intercision in its substance or Being however it may admit interruptions in its growth or some decay or waning But the Romish Church with her Advocates willingly grant That Grace truly inherent in men and inherent in such perfect measure as inables them to fulfill the moral Law of God may be utterly lost may be expelled by mortal or deadly sin and yet may be recovered again but lost or expelled it cannot be without the default or negligence without some mortal default or negligence of him who had it in his custody And yet being so lost they hold the like Grace may be gotten again and the Grace so gotten and recovered they call The second Grace and if it be twice lost and so recovered it is The third Grace The Question then is How the second third and fourth Grace is or may be recovered by us whether by way of Merit or
desert or only of Gods free Mercy and favour The first Grace being lost though lost it cannot be without their default that had it the second Grace in their Divinity may be merited de Congruo in congruity And this is A strange Tenet that seeing the First Grace cannot be merited by any works of ours either de Condigno or de Congruo that is either out of the true worth of our works or out of any Congruitie or proportion which is between them and Grace the second Grace should be at all merited when the Grace which is the Foundation of this merit is utterly lost this is all one as if they should say The fruit may be good or fair when the Root or Tree which bears it is dead or that the Roof may stand when the foundation is taken from it or that any Accident may remain without a substance Yet thus to hold they are inforced if they wil speak consequently to their other Tenets or Positions concerning the merit of works done out of Grace or charitie For many of their Arguments which they bring for confirmation of their merits in General do either conclude That the Second Grace may be merited or awarded by the course of Gods justice not of mercie only or that the Apostasie into which they should otherwise fall may be prevented by the vertue or efficacie of their former works of charity or else they conclude nothing at all for any merit 3. The Especial or as some think the Only place of Scripture which can with probability be alledged for the Revival of Merits after the Grace from which these merits did spring is utterly extinguished is that Heb. 6. 9 10. But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak In the formet verses the Apostle had threatned them with the danger of that Irremissible sin which they call The sin against the Holy Ghost into which no man can fall but by forsaking the works of his First Love What then is the Reason that our Apostle doth hope so well of these back-sliding Hebrews He grounds his hopes as the Advocates for the Romish Church contend not so much upon Gods Free mercie or Favour by which only the First Grace was bestowed upon them as upon Gods Justice And if his hopes be grounded upon Gods Justice more then upon his Free Mereie or Favour Then the Recovery of their former estate or the prevention of that Apostasie into which they were falling was more from the merit of their former works then from Gods Free Mercie or Grace Now That the Apostle did ground his hopes of their Recovery upon Gods Justice they take it as proved from the tenth verse For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister These words seem to import That if God at this time should have cast them off He had not been just and right in his Judgements and if it had been any injustice in God at this time utterly to have forsaken them Then their perseverance in such Grace as was left them for the Recovery of such Grace as they had lost was out of merit or desert and perhaps meritorious of the Recoverie For every man doth deserve or properly merit that which without injustice or unrighteousness cannot be detained from him This is the most plausible argument which they bring for the Revival of Merits after Grace be lost or decayed and if merits may revive after Grace be lost then questionless Whiles Grace continues without interruption or intercision men may merit more degrees or increase of the same Grace and so Finally Everlasting Life which is here said to be the Grace of God I have been bold to put this Argument drawn from our Apostle Heb. 6. as far home as any Advocate for the Romish Church hath done or can do Because the true and punctual Answer unto it will easily reach all other Arguments which they can draw from the like Head or Topick as when it is said God shall reward us in righteousnesse or as a righteous Judge c. 4. To this Place I Answer That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek or Justitia in Latine doth sometimes import strict or legal Justice as it is opposed to mercie favour or loving kindness Sometimes again it imports universal Goodness or all the branches of Goodness So the heathen had observed that Justitia in sese virtutes continet omnes that Justice universally taken did comprehend all vertues in it And in this sense A loving or friendly man is said to be A Just or righteous man So the holy Ghost speaks of Joseph the betrothed Husband of the Blessed Virgin that being a Just man he was not willing to make her an example but was minded to put her away privily though he found her with child between the time of her Espousal and the time appointed for her marriage yet not with child by himself Now so long as he was ignorant that she had conceived by virtue of the Holy Ghost it had been no injustice but rather a branch of Legal Justice to have made her an example to have had her severely punished for so the Law of God in this Case as he yet understood the Case did not only permit but seemed to require And to present a fact punishable by the Law of God is alwayes lawful and just Yet this was no part of that Justice or righteousness which the Holy Ghost commends in Joseph when he saith he was a just man To be Iust then in his Dialect in this Case was to be A loving a friendly and favourable man And if the Romish Church would take Righteousnesse in the same sense in those places wherein it is said that he shall reward the Saints as a righteous Iudge and crown them with Glory their Conceit of merit could find no supportance from those Testimonies of Scriptures which they most alledge for it But To the former place in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is further to be noted That our Apostle doth not say there though it be most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The God you have to deal withall you cannot say is not just but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is not unjust As there is a great difference between not worthy and unworthy so is there betwixt not Iust and unjust When our Apostle denies God to be unjust this Negative is Infinite and doth include all other branches of Gods Goodness besides that Justice by which he renders to every man his due It specially importeth in our Apostles meaning his favour or loving kindnesse or his unwillingness to take the advantages of Law or strict Justice against these Hebrews or a willingness not so much to remember their present misdeeds or back-slidings in his Justice as to remember their former works which
of them are but Unprofitable servants 2. It was free then for God to create or not to create man but as it was his pleasure to create him so it was necessary that man being created by him he should be created good and righteous Suppose then the First man had continued in his First Estate that is righteous and good his righteousness could have merited nothing of God much lesse Eternal Life It was as free to God to have annihilated him or to have resolved him into nothing as it was to make him of nothing Indeed to have punished him with everlasting death unlesse he had wilfully and through his own default lost his Orginal righteousness could not have stood with the righteousness or goodness of God There was a morall necessity that his Creator should not punish him with everlasting death unlesse he had transgressed his Law and made himself unworthy of everlasting life But the First Man did wilfully and freely that is without any necessity transgresse the Law of his God and make himself and his posteritie unworthy of eternal life That God upon this transgression did not instantly punish him with everlasting death this was An Act of the Free Grace and mercy of God thus he might have done without any impeachment to his Justice without any disparagement to his Goodnesse That unto man thus ill deserving he made A Promise of Redemption and of Restitution to a better Estate then he lost this was An Act of his Mercie and gracious goodness a more Free Act then his first Creation For that was not deserved and therefore Free But not so Free as the Promise of his Redemption after he had justly deserved the contrary to wit condemnation unto everlasting death But this Promise of Redemption through the Womans Seed being freely made is not the performance of it on Gods part necessary Is he not bound by promise to bestow his Grace on all them to whom he promised Redemption Though he be Debter unto no man yet he is Faithful in himself and cannot deny himself or not perform what he hath promised It is true if the parties to whom he promiseth do so demean themselves as they should or as by the Second Covenant they stand bound But who is he can make this Plea with God Who is he that can truly say there was any necessity at that time when the promise was made to our first Parents in the Womans Seed that he should be begotten or born or that he was such a child of promise from the time of Adams Fall as Isaac was And if there were no necessity then that he should be born what necessity is there that he should be partaker of Grace after he is born Or what necessity is there that after the Grace of Baptism received he should come to be of the number of the Elect No man can plead any worth or merit in himself for the receiving of Grace or any necessity whereby God is tyed by promise or otherwise to bestow Grace or perseverance in Grace upon him in particular These and the like Favours must still be sought for by the Prayer of Faith that is by unfeigned acknowledgement of our own unworthinesse and of Gods Free Mercie not only in making the First Decree concerning mans Redemption but in continual dispensing the Effects of the same Decree or the means of our Salvation This is the only way To lay hold upon the General Promise 3. It was no Contradiction in Cardinal Bellarmine as some conceive it after he had strongly disputed for Merit of Works thus to conclude Tutissimum est It is the safest way to place our Confidence in the Merits of Christ This Resolution of his will truly inferre that albeit the Question concerning Merits were doubtful yet we Protestants take the more useful and safer way and the way which Cardinal Bellarmine himself in his Devotions and as I hope on his death bed did take Yet admit his Doctrine concerning Merits had been true indefinitely taken There had been no Contradiction between his Premisses and Conclusion For many things which are unquestionable in Thesi or in the General are doubtful or vncertain in Hypothesi when we come to make particular Application This Doctrine is most true in Thesi That God is faithful in all his promises that he cannot deny himself or falsifie his promise Yet is it not safe for Thee or Me thus to infer that God cannot deny eternal life to us in particular because he hath promised it as sincerely to Thee or Me as to any others The absolute and unchangeable Fidelity of God will not inferre how strongly soever we believe it That either Thou or I are faithful for the present or shall continue faithfull unto the End or until our finall victory over the divel the world and the flesh which is the True Importance of this Phrase To the End in many places of Scripture Now Gods promise of eternal Life is not immediately terminated To any mans Person or Individual Entity but unto such as continue faithful unto the End or unto such as overcome as you may observe in many places of Scripture especially in the second and third Chapters of The Revelation of St. John Now it is a great deal more easie for a man to assure himself that he is faithful for the present or victorious in respect of instant temptations then to assure himself that he shall continue victorious in respect of temptations that may befal him And yet in respect of the deceitfulness of our own hearts it is not safe for most men to make it as an Article of their Faith or point of Absolute Belief that they are so faithful for the present as that God cannot deny Eternal Life unto them though not in respect of their Merits yet in respect of his Promise if they should instantly depart this life So that such as have as full and perfect Interest in the Promises of God as others have may forfeit their Interest as well by Immature Perswasions or Presumptions that they are of the number of the Elect as by conceit of Merit or Confidence in works Both perswasions are dangerous because both prejudice the Free Mercie and Grace of God in bestowing eternal Life or in dispensing the means required unto it The Romish Church saith it was Free for God to give us Grace or ability to do the works of Grace or not to give it but this Grace being Freely given and the works performed it is not Free but Necessary in respect of Gods Justice to give eternal Life as the Reward of Works Others opposite enough to the Papists say that it was Free for God to Elect or not to Elect us unto eternal Life but being Elected it is not Free for God to deny eternal Life unto us For this in their language were to deny himself or falsifie his promise Yet by their leave If we were thus Elected from Eternity it was never Free
must in this Case exceed little children must be out of the consciousness of this our Impotencie or infirmitie to frame our Petitions unto God with the Prophet Psal 51. 2. Wash me throughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin And again ver 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me Again Little Children though they be set upon their feet after their Fall they are not able to stand upright although they adventure not to go unless they be supported by their nurses or other helper and it is our Apostles advice unto such as stand to take heedlest they fall But is this circumspection in their power after Grace received No no more then it is in the power of Little Children to keep themselves from falling To what end then doth this Admonition serve To make us more careful by the knowledge of this our infirmitie continually to use that or the like prayer Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy gracious favour and further us with thy continual help If we truly acknowledge our selves to be but Little Children we cannot but know that without his preventing Grace we must still wallow in our natural filthiness and uncleanness that without his Concomitant Grace we cannot stand and that without his Subsequent Grace we can make no progress towards eternal Life All our doings must be begun must be continued and ended in him by his Grace otherwise we shall fail of the end here proposed unto us by our Apostle Again Little Children are sensible of hunger or want of Food yet cannot provide it cannot be their own carvers of it cannot take it unless it be reached unto them We then become in some degree the children of God when we feel a want of spiritual Food or when we hunger and thirst after righteousness But power we have none after Grace received to give satisfaction to this hunger and thirst after good things The best knowledge that in this Case we have is To Beg Food Convenient at our heavenly Fathers hands in that or the like Form of Prayer Give us this day our daily bread And thus to beg it out of full assurance that he is more ready to hear our requests then any earthly Father is to give his children bread or any earthly Mother to give her sucking Infants milk when they cry for it For some Mothers are unnatural others may forget their children but so will not God forget his so they be children in malice not in the Knowledge of his Goodness Little Children again if they be exposed to cold or heat or any other danger that may accrew from hostile or ravenous creatures have no power or strength to defend themselves all that they can do is but to cry for help from others Now the spiritual and Ghostly enemies of every Child of God and the dangers whereto they daily expose themselves are more in number then the bodily dangers whereof little Children are capable Lesse able we are though endowed with some measure of Grace to resist the Devil who goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour then a sucking child to withstand a Bear or Wolf that should come upon him To what end then doth God bestow his Grace upon us if with this we cannot defend our selves as with a weapon Only to this end that we should daily pray for his special protection as his Son hath taught us Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil specially from the Author of evil for thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory Thou only art able to subdue and conquer the Prince of this world and to destroy him who hath the power of death Lastly albeit we must exceed Little Children in the acknowledgment of our infirmities and though our capacities to conceive these and the like forms of prayer be greater then theirs yet in respect of most particulars we are in this too like Little Children that we know not how to pray or ask those things which for the present we stand most in need of And in this point our Knowledge must exceed theirs that we must have a knowledge of this infirmity and out of the consciousness of it pray more fervently unto our heavenly Father that he would teach us how to pray or hear the supplications of his Spirit for us whose language we perfectly understand not and not to indent with him for other particulars but only to grant us what he knows to be best for us and most available though not for our present occasions yet for the attainment of Everlasting life Until we learn this lesson of Humility and meekness which The Son of God himself so often commends unto us by his own example by Precept and Instances we shall find no true Rest unto our souls we shall not have that Full Assurance of hope unto the end whereof our Apostle speaks Heb. 6. 9. But is this Qualification of becoming like Little Children alone sufficient No he that saith Whosoever receiveth not the Kingdom of heaven as a little child shall not enter therein hath also said Matth. 5. 20. Except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Doth he Instance in them as in the most wicked men that were So his Instance should not have been so pertinent at least his Admonition not so peremptory The Scribes and Pharisees if they had not thought so of themselves were the most righteous men then living they were the only Precisians of those times and observed many Rules of righteousness more exactly then most men now living do any Wherein then did they come short of the promise By making Extraordinary Conscience of some necessary duties and little or none at all of others The old Serpent deceived them as he doth many Christians to this day by that Fallacie or Sophism which we call A Dicto secundum quid ad simpliciter that is in using their known zealous observance of some good duties as an Argument that they were simply and absolutely more righteous then other men specially then those whom they saw gross transgressors of some Commandements which they made conscience of They did acknowledge that they had received many Graces from God for which they thanked him but yet they gloried as if they had not received them and this polluted all their works A good man saith Solomon is merciful unto his beast This property of Good men is in the Turks for they are more compassionate towards their dogs more careful for begging them benevolence of strangers and passengers for feeding them in the open streets then most Christians are for the relief of their poor brethren yet is that property of wicked men which Salomon in the same place describes more remarkable in them Their mercies are
cruel for out of this compassionate affection towards dumb creatures they will be ready to kill a Christian man if he chance to wrong or harm them It is a good thing then to be zealous of good works but unless this zeal be uniform that is unless it proportionably if not equally respect good works of every kind partial or deformed zeal will bring forth compleat Hypocrisie 10. But it is an easie matter to tell men that their zeal must be uniform and unpartial the point wherein satisfaction will be desired is this How this uniformity of zeal in good works must be wrought and planted in men This men must learn from that fundamental Rule of our Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you so do to them for this the Law and the Prophets All of Us desire or wish that not this or that man only but that every man should deal justly friendly and kindly with us should think or speak well of us whilst we do or intend well should Judge charitably of us when they know nothing to the contrary and censure us charitably if we chance to do amisse The Rule of practise then in brief is this that we make payment by the same measure by which we borrow that is do good as occasions or abilities serve to every man as he is a man or our fellow creature though in more abundant measure unto such as are our Christian brethren and of the same Church and Religion To be charitable in word indeed in thought towards all even towards such as deserve punishment or censure Another branch of the same Rule is this If any have really shewed themselves kind unto us to do unto them as they have done If any have dealt rigidly or unkindly with us not to do as they have done but as we desired they should have done unto us for our desires to be well dealt withall are just but so were not their dealings with us And why should we make other mens unjust dealing with us rather then our own just desires of being friendly dealt withall the Rule of our future actions or dealings with the same men For God will judge us by the former Rule the Tenour whereof is this not to do as we have been done unto specially if we have been unjustly dealt withall but to do to every man as we desire they should have done unto us The same Rule may be yet further extended thus we must do to every man not only as we desire that every man should do to us but as we desire that God should do to us or for us So when we pray that God would forgive us our trespasses we must be ready to forgive them that have trespassed against us If we desire that God would relieve us in distress comfort us in sorrow or succour us in need we must be ready to relieve our neighbors in their distress to succour and comfort them as we are able in time of need not thus in some good measure qualified we do not pray in faith our prayers are not truly religious For as St. James tels us Chap. 1. verse the last Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world CHAP. XXX MATTH 25. 34 c. 41. c. Then shall the King say unto them on his Right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world FOR I was an hungred and you gave me meat c. Then shall he say also to them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed FOR I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirstie and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger sick and in prison c. Two General Heads of the Discourse 1. A Sentence 2. The Execution thereof Controversies about the Sentence Three Conclusions in order to the Decision of those Controversies 1. The Sentence of Life is awarded Secundum Opera not excluding Faith 2. Good works are necessary to Salvation necessitate praecepti Medij And to Iustification too as some say quoad praesentiam non quoad efficientiam The Third Handled in the next Chapter Good works though necessarie are not Causes of but the Way to the Kingdom Damnation awarded for Omissions St. Augustines saying Bona Opera sequuntur Justificatum c. expounded St. James 2. 10. He that keeps the whole Law and yet offends in one Point c. expounded Why Christ in the final Doom instances only in works of Charitie not of pietie and sanctitie An Exhortation to do good to the poor and miserable and the rather because some of those Duties may be done by the meanest of men 1. THis portion of Scripture is divided by our Saviour himself into These two Generals the first A Sentence which for the matter is Two-fold Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you verse 34. c. And again ver 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But many Sentences are given which are not put in Execution Yet this being the Final Sentence that shall be given upon all men and upon all their works there is no question but it shall be put in Execution If reason grounded upon Scripture be not sufficient to inforce our belief as well concerning the Execution of the Sentence as the Equitie thereof we have an Expresse Testimonie of the Judge himself for the certaintie of this Execution ver 46. And these to wit the Goats which were placed on his left hand that is all workers of iniquitie or fruitless hearers of the word of life shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal The Sentence it self hath by the perversness of mans will or by the curiositie of some wits been made the matter of many controversies especially in latter times Of which we shall deliver our Opinion as it shall fall out in the prosecution of the Positive Truth which we are bound to believe The Positive Truthes which I would commend unto the Readers meditation are Three The First That Life everlasting shall be awarded Secundum opera or that all men shall receive their final doom according to their works The second which will necessarily follow upon this That good Works are necessarie to salvation or to the inheritance of this Kingdom here promised The third That good works are necessarie to our admission into this kingdom Non tanqnam Causa regnandi sed quia Via ad regnum not as meritorious Causes for which this kingdom is by right due to us or to any but as the necessarie Way or path by which all such as seek to enter into this Kingdom must passe To begin with the First Point That the Final reward or retribution shall be Secundum opera according to mens works
he is likewise rewarded according to his Faith We may extend that Saying of our Saviour though spoken then but to one man unto all and every man According to their faith so shall it be done unto them And our Saviour in the Parable next before This Sentence expresly avoucheth that the Final Award or retribution shall be according to Faith Matth. 25. 23. Well done thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. No man shall be rewarded for any Works unless they were the Works of Faith or done in Faith To speak properly it is the Fidelity of our Works or our Fidelity in Working which shall be rewarded As for those Hypocrites against whom St James disputes and from whose Notion or Conceit of Faith the Romish School-men for the most part take their Description of Faith they had altogether as little of Abrahams Faith as they had of Abrahams Works For if they had been partakers of Abrahams faith then as our Apostle infers Gal. 3. 7 They had been the sons of Abraham and if they had been the sons of Abraham they would by our Saviours Inference have done the works of Abraham Such faith as they made brags of could not justifie them because it was a dead and fruitlesse faith devoid of works Such works as the Romish Church doth magnifie in opposition to faith can neither justifie nor receive any Reward because they are no faithful Works but rather like seeming fruits without any Root They put their works upon their faith as we do sweet flowers upon dead Corpses Neither can give life or perfection to others The best Censure that Christian Faith or Charity will permit us to give of their doctrine Concerning the nature of faith and works is This That albeit they all profess to believe that which their Church believes yet the most of them do neither believe nor practise as the Church in these points teacheth Their ignorance in this particular is much better then their knowledge of most of the rest But to conclude the first Position Because some of our Writers exclude all works from the work of Justification some Roman Writers I dare not say all sought to be even with them by excluding faith from sharing with works in the Final Award or retribution For besides this Eagerness of extream Opposition or desire to be contrary unto us it is not imaginable what could move any learned Writer amongst them to Affirm that this final Retribution shall be according to VVorks and Deny it According to Faith 4. About the Second Position there is no Controversie betwixt us and the Romish Church we hold Good works to be as necessary to salvation as they do As necessary according to both Branches of Necessity Necessarie they are Necessitate praecepti and necessarie likewise Necessitate medii necessarie by Precept or duty for God hath commanded us to do them he hath redeemed us to the end that we should serve him in righteousness and holiness But many things which are in this sense necessary in that their Omission doth necessarily include a breach of Gods Commandement and by consequent a sin do not alwayes induce or argue a Forfeiture of our Estate in Grace or utter exclusion from the' Kingdom of heaven For this Reason we say That Good works are necessary not only Necessitate praecepti by way of Command but Necessitate medii as the way and means so necessary to salvation that without the practise of them no man can be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven Through the Omission of Good works many do forfeit that Interest which they truly had in the promises of everlasting Life In the promise it self all that are partakers of the Word and Sacrament all that acknowledge the Word revealed to be the way unto everlasting life have A true Interest Of the pledge or earnest of the blessing promised that is of justifying or sanctifying Grace none are partakers but such as are fruitful in Good works according to the means or abilities which God hath bestowed upon them Whether it be possible for such as are once estated in Grace to give over the Practise of Good works that here we leave to such as desire to exercise their wits in the controversies about Falling from Grace and the rather because we have spoke a word of that Point in the 26. Chapter of this Book Let them determine of the Categorical Affirmative or Negative as they please This Conditional is most certain If it be possible for him that hath Grace or Faith in what measure soever inherent to give over the practise of Good Works he shall thereby forfeit his present estate in Gods promises and defeat his hopes of inheriting the Kingdom of God Whosoever saith our Saviour shall break one of these Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven For I say unto you that except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 20. Yet did these Scribes and Pharisees many Good Works and made conscience of many Duties which many Precise Ones in our dayes do not trouble their Consciences withal This notwithstanding These Scribes and Pharisees did exclude themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven as here established on earth by leaving other Good Works altogether or for the most part undone which the Law of God did no lesse require at their hands Even the Good Works which they did were not well done by them because they were not done in Faith they never came so near unto the Kingdom of Heaven as to acknowledge Christ for their Lord much lesse to be partakers of those Gifts and Graces of the Spirit which after his Ascension were bestowed on men Nor shall all they which were partakers of those Gifts and which did still acknowledge him for their Lord enter into the Kingdom which is here prepared for such as continue in well doing So saith our Saviour Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom but he that doth c. Many will then say Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out divels and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquitie Matth. 7. 21 22. 5. But in this place We see the Sentence is not awarded for Positive Works of iniquitie but for Omission of the duties of charitie He saith not Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Because ye have oppressed the poor and stranger or for that ye have robbed the Fatherless and made a prey of
the widdow These indeed are works of iniquity and deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven But is it a Work of iniquity not to work at all As not to give meat unto the hungry Not to give drink unto the thirstie Not to cloath the naked or lodge the harbourless Yes even these Omissions deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven Either by their connexion with sins of oppression because it is scarce possible that any which hear Christs promises should be barren of good Works unless they were too fruitful in the works of impietie and oppression or rather because as our Saviour elsewhere infers that Not to save mens lives when means and opportunitie is offered is to kill Not to feed the hungrie is a bloody sin Not to cloath the naked is as the sin of Oppression The Doing of some Good Works cannot excuse men for the Omission of others which be as necessary To prophesie in Christs name is a Gracious Work to cast out Divels is a Work of Greater Charity and comfort to the possessed then to visit the prisoners and yet such as have done these and many other wonderful Works shall not be admitted at the Last Day Besides the Goodness of the Works which we are bound to do there must be an Uniformitie in them Otherwise they are not done in Faith Now the same Faith and belief which inclines our hearts to works of one kind will incline them to the practise of every kind which we know or believe to be required at our hands by our Lord and Master That even the best Works of mercy or most beneficial unto others are not acceptable unto God unless they be done out of Faith obedience to our Masters Will is clear from our Apostles Verdict of Enoch Heb. 11. 5. Before his translation saith our Apostle he had this testimonie that he pleased God For so it is said Gen. 5. 24. that he walked with God the way by which he walked was his Good Works and Conversation but The Guide of this way and his works was his Faith So the Apostle infers without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ver 6. As God is the Author of goodness yea goodness it self so we cannot come unto him by any other way then by doing good to others yet that which must make even our best Works pleasing to him must be our Belief in him and in his goodness and that he is A bountiful Rewarder of all that do good The good Works even of the Heathen and of such as knew neither him nor his Providence of such as in stead of him worshipped false gods were rewarded by him but with rewards and blessings only Temporal He was their Rewarder but not himself their Reward This was the Peculiar of Abraham his friend and of Abrahams children that is of all such as do the works of Abraham out of the Faith of Abraham that is out of a lively apprehension and true esteem of his goodness Unto all such he himself shall be merces magna nimis or valdè magna Their exceeding great Reward Unto men thus qualified and only unto them it shall be said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world This Kingdom shall be a Kingdom of everlasting bliss and yet the greatest blessedness of this Kingdom shall consist in the fruition or enjoying of the presence of this Everlasting King who is goodness it self the participation of whose goodness is the very Life and Essence of that happiness which all desire but none shall attain besides such as do His Will by well doing To be separated for ever from his presence is the source of all the miserie which shall befall the damned or accursed But from this place of our Apostle Heb. 11. 6. The Romanist alwayes ready like the spider to suck poison from such flowers in this garden of God as naturally afford honey to such as seek God labours to infer as he doth out of the words of the text That the Everlasting Kingdom here promised is the just Reward of our good works and is as properly merited as everlasting death is by the Omission of the works here mentioned or by the Positive Works of inquitie So that I should here according to my proposed method proceed unto the third point That these good works how necessary soever they be are necessary only Tanquam via ad regnum non tanquam causa regnandi only as the Way and Means which lead unto this Kingdom not as the causes of its preparation for us or of our admission unto it But for the present I chuse rather to make some use or Application of what hath been said concerning the necessity of Good Works then to dispute of their Efficacie or Causality for attaining this Kingdom intending to touch that a little more in the next Chapter though with reference to what I have spoken in the 27. and 28. Chapters 6. You see that Good Works done in faith or which is all one a Working Faith are absolutely necessarie unto salvation But are they as necessary to Justification If they be how is it said by St. Austine and approved by the Articles of the Church of England Bona opera sequuntur hominem justificatum non praecedunt in homine justificando Good works follow Justification they do not go before it This Orthodoxal Truth only imports thus much That no man can do those works which are capable of the promises before he be inabled by God to do them and that this ability to do them is from the Gift of Justifying Faith Now every one that hath this Faith in his heart is said to be Justified that is absolved from the Guilt of sins past and freed from the Tyranny and Dominion of sin by receiving this pledge or earnest of Gods mercie and in this sense is Justification taken by St. James when he saith a man is justified by works that is He is not to be accounted the Son of faithful Abraham nor may he presume upon his own Actual Justification or estate in Grace until he be qualified and enabled to do the Works of Abraham In the same sense is Justification taken by St. John Rev. 22. 11 Qui justus est justificetur ad huc Let him that is righteous be righteous still or more justified And in this sort Children or Infants are said to be Justified by the Infusion of Faith The practise of Good Works is not required to their Justification before they come to the knowledge of good and evil But neither is the apprehension or actual Belief of Gods mercies in Christ required of them Though they be justified and saved for the Merits of Christ and through his blood as we are Yet is not the Rule for Application of these Merits the same in them and
All is to be ascribed to the mercie of God that no man ought to glorie in himself or in his works The other That this Doctrine of merit is taught by the Holy Ghost as either by Christ himself by his Prophets or Apostles for so it must be taught if it be imposed as an Article of Faith although we could not convince it to contradict the Former or any other Article of Faith First then of the state of the Question or Point of Difference betwixt us Secondly Of the Refutation of their Opinions Thirdly The answer to the Objection which they frame out of the Causal Particles in this Text Math. 25. 34 41. 3. That the Doctrine of Merits doth not contradict the Catholick Doctrine which ascribes our salvation wholly to the mercie of God Jansenius seeks to justifie by this One Reason For that the Romish Church doth acknowledge those Good Works wherein she placeth Merits to proceed from the Mercie of God But this speech of his Habemus bona opera a miscricordia Dei By or from the mercies of God we have our Good Works is Indefinite that is It is uncertain how far this man himself or any of his profession do acknowledge Good Works to proceed from the Mercie of God If he had said that All our Good Works are wholly from God this had agreed well with both branches of his Former Conclusion As First That All were to be given to the mercie of God And Secondly That no man might glorie in himself or in his works But if his Speech had been thus farre extended it would have left no room for merits whereas the Doctrine of Merits must have place in all the writings that come from the Roman Press albeit perhaps the Writer himself had assigned them none But if either All our Good Works be not from God or if All of them be from God Quoad Originem only as they are in the Root but not as they are in their Growth and perfection Then there may perhaps some place be left for Merit So much of them as proceeds from our selves and not from God might be accounted our own but yet being ours there is no necessity that God should reward them with everlasting life For the clearer understanding of our adversaries meaning and the State of the Question betwixt us and them we may consider First the Root or Faculty Secondly the Stemme or Habit of meritorious works Thirdly the Fruit or works themselves or the exercise or practise of or according to their Habit. The Root or Facultie whence works truly good do spring as most of the Romish Church now acknowledge is Grace infused And this Infusion of Grace by which men in their Divinity are first justified they acknowledge to be wholly from God And in that they acknowledge the First Grace or Root of Good Works to be wholly from Gods mercie they consequently deny that it can be merited 'T is a Maxim in their modern Schools as we shewed before that Fundamentum meriti non cadit sub merito The Foundation of merits cannot be merited And this Foundation of merits is the First Grace by which man is first justified But after this Grace be once infused the Use of it depends upon mans Free-will He that useth this Talent well or not amiss shall have more given him This Overplus the Romish Church ascribes to the Merit of Works And by the habitual and constant use of Grace and Free-will Life Eternal it self by their Doctrine may be properly merited We acknowledge that whosoever doth not hide the Talent of Grace but imploys it aright shall certainly receive increase of Grace from God and be partaker of joy according to the measure of his Works though not For his Works sake or for his right use of Grace 4. We say the Increase of Grace is no more from any Works or Merits of Works then the First Grace it self is The inheritance of Eternal Life can no more be purchased by the fullest measure of Grace or greatest perfection of Works that in this life can be attained unto then the First Grace can be purchased by Works That the First Grace is not given for our Works is not procured by them the Romish Church now acknowledgeth This beginning of Grace or foundation of merits they confesse that they receive from the sole blessing or Predestination of God And so say we All increase of Grace the Preparation of this Kingdom for us our Preparation to be capable of it our admission into it are the Effects likewise of Gods Predestination and the Fruits of his mercy Yet not so as that his Mercie or Predestination doth impose any necessity upon the men for whom this Kingdom is prepared We deny not a Freedom of will in this Preparation but the Merit of our Free-will A Freedom of will we have to neglect or despise the ordinary means by which Grace is bestowed A Freedom likewise to hide or not imploy those Talents or blessings which God hath already bestowed upon us If we do evil or imploy these Talents amiss the evil is wholly our own the miscarriage is wholly our own If we do well or imploy them aright This is Gods Work and not ours or not so ours as that we may hence challenge any Reward as due unto us No man can do well unless he be enabled first by God to do well and the more he is enabled by Gods Gifts and Graces bestowed upon him the more he is bound to God Nor can we ever in this life be so thankful unto God for Gifts already received as we ought to be The least increase of Grace after the First Grace given exceeds the greatest measure of our service or thankfulness if we could impartially esteem or rate them by their proper worth or weight So that the more Grace we receive from God or the better our Works are the more still we are indebted to him that inables us to work and as our debt to him increaseth so our Title to Merit any thing at his hands questionlesse decreaseth To conclude then That which creates a new Title of bond or debt unto God from us cannot possibly be the Ground-title of merits that is Of any debts or dues from God to us But Grace not the First Grace only but all increase of Grace doth still create or found a new Title of Debt from us to God Therefore Neither the First Grace nor any increase of Grace can be Fundamentum meriti any Foundation or Ground-title unto merits But rather seeing Merits include a Debt or due from God to us he that most aboundeth in Grace which is the Free Gift of God will be most ready to disclaim all Merits 6. But if Works it may be some of the Romish Church will say cannot deserve Everlasting Life in themselves or as they are wrought by us yet may they deserve it in as much as God hath promised Life eternal to all
hungred c. The Form of it is Causal and it necessarily imports some Cause as either the Cause of the Preparation of the Kingdom or of the righteous their Admission into it Otherwise the same form of speech ver 41. FOR I was an hungred and you gave me no meat should not import the true Cause why the wicked are sentenced to hell But the Protestants say they generally grant that this Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FOR ver 41. doth import that the true Cause why the wicked are condemned to hell is The Omission of these works and hence they inferre that the true Cause why the righteous are admitted into heaven is the performance of those Works which the wicked neglected and that our Saviour did note out this Cause unto us in the manner of his speech Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you FOR I was hungry and you gave me meat I was naked and ye cloathed me Hence saith Jansenius The righteous do merit eternal life by their Good works as the wicked do everlasting punishment by their bad works This is his Note upon the words and the only Ground or Reason of this Inference is Because the Form of our Saviours Speech is One and the same in both Sentences as well in the Sentence of Life as in the Sentence of Death But though the Phrase or manner of speech be the same will Jansenius therefore stand to the Inference or Observation which he makes upon them viz. That the Good works of the righteous are altogether as true Causes of inheriting the Kingdom of heaven as the bad works of the wicked or their Omission of good works are of their damnation to hell That this was his meaning any honest plain dealing man that should read him only upon those words of this Text would easily be perswaded howbeit in the Process or Sentence against the wicked ver 41. he expresly unsayes the most part of that which he here seems to say being thereto inforced by the Real circumstances of the Text. He ingeniously acknowledgeth what Origen and Chrysostom had observed before him That our Saviour saith unto those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father but unto those on his left hand though he say Depart ye Cursed yet he saith not Ye cursed of my Father This implyes as Jansenius acknowledgeth That God the Father is the Author and Donour of everlasting bliss but every one that doth wickedly is the Author of his own Wo or cursed estate God then not our works is the Cause of our Bliss or Salvation Mens evil works not God is the Cause of damnation Again in the other Sentence of Condemnation our Saviour doth not say That the everlasting punishment is prepared for unrighteous men but for the Devil and his Angels What doth this in the Judgment of Jansenius imply First That the condemnation of men is not so to be ascribed unto the Ordinance of God as mens salvation is For God created no man to the end that he should perish but men by their Free-will or Wilfulness in sin do make themselves liable or obnoxious to those torments which principally were prepared for the Divel and his Angels For this Reason saith the same Jansenius Christ doth not say that the Kingdom unto which he cals the righteous was prepared for the Good Angels as the fire is prepared for the Divel and bad Angels lest we should hence collect that men might by Good works deserve or merit the societie of Good Angels after the same manner that they do merit the company or fellowship of evil Angels or Divels For as he adds The merits or Good Works of men do not depend only upon our Free will but they issue from the Grace and bountie of God And our Saviour as this Author concludes in saying That this Kingdom was prepared for the righteous since or from the foundation of the world and in saying hell was not prepared for wicked men but for the Divel and his Angels doth hereby give us to understand That the salvation of the righteous is to be ascribed unto the mercie of God and the condemnation of the unjust not unto God but unto their own iniquity 10. But doth not this plainly contradict his Former Assertion upon the Text when he saith Justi suis operibus merentur vitam aeternam sicut impijsuis operibus aeternum merentur supplicium That the righteous deserve eternal Life by their works as well or after the same manner that the wicked by their works deserve hell All that can be said for him or for his Acquital from contradicting himself is that he put no set Quantity to his First Proposition but leaves it Indefinite a fault common to the Romanists that they may have some excuse for their palpable Contradictions To say That Good Works deserve Heaven even as bad Works deserve Hell and to deny That the one deserves Heaven as well as the other deserves Hell seems to imply a Contradiction Yet if any man should press Janfenius too farre upon these Terms he hath this Evasion Non omnino similiter merentur The one doth not merit Heaven altogether by the same manner that the other doth merit Hell because mens Good Works or Merits do not depend only upon the Freedom of Will But this favourable construction being permitted or allowed him yet to say as he doth That the best works of men how much or how little soever they depend upon mans Free-will do in any sort either in whole or in part merit the Kingdom of Heaven this directly contradicts his former Assertion that Totum deputandum est misericordiae Dei That all is to be imputed to the Mercie of God Quod totum est a Deo non potest vel in parte ascribi meritis nostris That which is wholly from Gods mercie cannot so much as in part or at all be ascribed unto our merits For what is the Reason why the First Grace cannot in their doctrine be Merited is it not because it is wholly from the mercy of God now if this Kingdom of heaven or mans salvation be wholly from the mercy of God it can no more be Merited by any increase of Grace or Good Works then the First Grace it self can be Merited 11. But what shall we punctually answer to the Grammatical Inference drawn from the form of our Saviours speech Inherit the Kingdom c. FOR I was an hungred and you gave me c. The usual Answer is that this Conjunction or Illative For Because and the like do not alwayes denote the Cause of the thing it self but sometimes only the Consequence of what is spoken But seeing the Form of this speech is as Grammarians speak Causal to say that a Conjunction Causal doth not alwayes import some Cause were to deny Principles and affirm that the Grammar Rule were to be corrected But admitting that this Conjunction doth always import some Cause it will not hence follow that it alwayes
he be hungry we should give him meat if thirstie drink as the Apostle commands In sum we must feed Him but seek to starve his Humor by substracting all occasions of exasperating his mind and seeking occasions to do him good so the heat of his malice having nothing to work upon will by little and little die as fire goes out when the fewel fails 16. For a Friends sake that has indeared us to him for many of whom we yet expect more kindnesses we think it good manners to tolerate many things which otherwise we would not And shall not Christian Faith and true Religion teach us much more to remit all for Gods sake of whom we have received our selves our very bodies and souls and all that we have of whom we yet expect much more then we have received even everlasting life and immortal bodies to be crowned with Glory What if our Enemies have sought to take away this miserable and mortal life God freely gave it us who likewise at his pleasure may justly challenge it And if we cannot justly complain if he should take it from us is it an hard Precept that he wills us not to revenge yea not to complain by way of revenge of such as would but could not take it from us The Lord may as justly command us to forbear all desire of revenge all complaint of such as would take away our Life as he himself can take it That they would so have done was their own That they could not do so unto us is the Lords doing to whom we owe all thankfulness for preserving it and this may be the best occasion of shewing our thankfulness if we for his sake forgive such as sought to take away our Lives Nay if we would but examine this Precept by exact Reason passion set aside in as much as God hath freely given us life he might most Justly command us not to murmur against such as should take it from us For who can appoint him his Time or who can refuse any for his Executioner whom the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth shall permit But in as much as God hath preserved our lives which our Enemies sought he may justly command and we must obey him so commanding to do any good unto them that sought our evil God is a a more Absolute Lord over the lives of Kings and Princes then they are over their Lands or goods he hath a more absolute interest in all mens actions and affections then any man hath in his own goods or fruits of his ground Now what Lord or Master is there that would indure such a servant as would not bestow his goods or benevolence on whomsoever it pleased him to appoint albeit he were his servants enemie If this we refuse and yet acknowledge our selves to be Gods servants may not God justly say unto us Ex tuo ipsius ore judicaberis If any refuse to set his affections on whomsoever God shall appoint him to employ his actions for whose good it pleaseth him albeit he be our open enemie How much more ought we to do it if we consider the Hope of reward in the life to come 17. Thus you see The First ground of this precept drawn from The equalitie of all men by nature improved and fortified by the Doctrine of Faith that is by The acknowledgement of One Father and Creator and yet may it be further confirmed if we consider what Affinitie nay what Consanguinitie we all have in Christ and what he hath done for us We are saith the Apostle if we be Christs flesh of his Flesh and bone of his Bone Our conjunction with him if we be or would be conjoyned with Him although it be spiritual and mystical yet is it a True a real and lively conjunction He is a True and lively Head we are true and lively members of him and one of another And must have as true a fellow feeling one of anothers harms or sorrows as one part of our own body hath of the pain of another No body Politick ever on earth not the most united in place in Lawes customes or any other Bond of Civil Societie whatsoever had or can have the like union or so near conjunction as all that are members of Christs mystical Bodie truly have as all that professe themselves members thereof should in practise testifie that they have otherwise as the Lawyers say Protestatio non valet contra factum It is in vain to professe thou art a Christian in vain to protest thou art a true professor or Protestant if thy deeds and resolution if thy practice do not seal the truth of thy profession or Protestation for not doing this as the Apostle saith thou shalt confesse Christ and Christianitie with thy lips but deny both Him and it in thy deeds and in thy practise and so thou shalt be judged not according to thy sayings but according to thy works and resolution or omissions of working Would you know then what some of the Heathen have thought of the duties of every member in a body Politick Plato in his fifth Book De Republica hath a comparison to this purpose If a man receive a wound in any part as in his foot or hand or have but some pain or grief in his finger we will not say That his hand or foot is wounded or that his finger feels pain But The man himself hath suffered a wound in his hand or foot That he himself hath a great pain c. For albeit the pain or grief spring first from this or that part yet it overflowes and affects the whole bodie The branches of it spread throughout all parts and every part is worse because one part is so ill Yea every part forbears its natural function or recreation in some measure for the ease of this The head wants its sleep other parts their rest by reason of the spirits recourse thither as so many comforters sent from them to visit their sick friend or fellow member In like manner Plato thought it meet that in every City or Common-weal as often as any good or harm did happen to any Citizen or Free denizon thereof it should not be counted that mans good or harm only but the good or harm of the whole City and every member thereof should be alike affected If this the Heathens by meer light of nature could discern to be the dutie of the meer natural man what tongue of man or Angel can expresse in Terms befitting so high A mysterie what Brotherhood what fellowship what Sympathie and what affection should be between the members of Christs Body for no society like this no fellowship like to that in Him This union exceeds all other much more then the union of one part of our heart with another doth the union of the heart with the foot Doubtless our Saviour spake according to the duty if not according to the custome of honest hartie neighbours in the good old world in the Parable
wanton motions and mimick gestures into wailing and gnashing of teeth And as for you Reverend Fathers or you my much Respected Brethren to whom any charge of others either private or publick is committed Consider I beseech you what places you bear in these Houses of God All of you in your several Charges sustain the place of righteous Job in his Familie for your fatherly care over inferiors Whilest then your Sons thus banquet in their houses every one his day and send and call their friends to eat and drink with them Be you sure the Lord will require at your hands that you be so much more vigilant in your Callings not only in punishing the Chief Offendors in this kind as some of you have begun though this no doubt will be an acceptable sacrifice unto God but even in offering up your evening and morning sacrifice for them according to the number of their transgressions For doubtless your Sons have grievously offended and blasphemed God in their hearts And therefore you must be so much the more diligent to offer up the sweet incense every day For all of us Beloved in our Lord and Saviour see the dayes wherein we live are extraordinary evil and the time must be redeemed by our extraordinary vigilancie sobriety and sanctitie As others double and treble the sins of this present in respect of former times so must we in like proportion increase our industry and diligence fervent prayer good exhortation charitable deeds and sacred functions Thus would you Reverend Fathers go before us in these duties as you do in dignitie God would restore your lost sons to you again and besides Jobs Restitution in this life you shall certainly be partakers of Daniels Blessing in the life to come For thus turning others unto righteousness by your good Examples you shall shine like Starrs for ever God grant you Governors wise hearts thus to rule And all inferiors Grace to follow your good Examples and Advice Amen The Later Sermon upon this Text. CHAP. XXXVI JEREM. 45. v. 5. For Behold I will bring a Plague or evil upon All Flesh saith the Lord but thy life will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest The Second Doctrine propounded Chap. 35. Sect. 4. handled 1. In Thesi Touching the natural esteem of life in general 2. In Hypothesi Of the Donative of Life to Baruch as the Case then stood That men be not of the same Judgment About the price of Life when they be in heat Action and prosperitie which they be of in dejection of spirit and adversitie proved by instances Petrus Strozius Alvarez De Sande Gods wrath sharpens the Instruments and increases the Terror of Death Life was a Blessing to Baruch though it shewed him all those evils from sight of which God took away good King Josiah in favour to him Baruch as man did sympathize with the miseries of his people As a faithful man and a Prophet of the Lord He conformed to the just will of God The Application 1. OF the Two Aphorisms deduced out of the Text The later left before untouched comes now to be handled And it is This. In times of publick Calamitie or desolation the bare Donative of life and liberty is a priviledge more to be esteemed then the Prerogative of Princes Or in other Terms thus Exemption from General Plagues is more then a full recompence for all the Grievances which attend our ministerial charge or service in denouncing them Of this by Gods Assistance I shall treat without further Division or Method more accurate then that Usual One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First Of the Natural Esteem of Life or Exemption from common Plagues in General Secondly Of it as the Case here stands with Baruch Vox populi etiam vox Dei est It is the voice of Nature uttering only what is engraven by the Creators Finger in the heart of man and of creatures otherwise dumb Life is sweet and would be so esteemed of all could we resolve to live at home endeavouring rather to improve those seeds of happiness which grace or Nature have sown in us then to encompass large or vast materials of forreign Contentments But unto men whose desires are once diverted from the true End of life unto the remote Meanes destinated for its procurement unto such men as have set their thoughts such Roving Progresses as Pyrrhus did or with the fool in the Gospel are not able to give their souls their Acquietances until they have enlarged their store-houses and laid up goods for many years the attaining of such particulars as for the present they most seek after doth rather whet then satiate their appetite of the like Hence life attended with mean appurtenances becomes either loathsom or little set by because the provision of necessaries actually enjoyed is as nothing in respect of those impertinencies which they have swallowed in hope or have in continual chase The want of these latter unto men wedded unto vast desires is more irksom then the possession of them can be pleasant so that to live without them seems a kind of loss Me-thinks Plinies Hyperbolical or Fabulous Narration of the greedy wild-goose which plucks so eagerly at the roots of what plants I now remember not but so fixt to the ground that she oft-times leaves her neck behind her may be a true Emblem of such mens intemperate pettish hopes usually so fastened to the matters which they much desire that sooner may their souls be drawn out of their bodies then weaned from these Wounds though deep and grievous are scarce felt to smart whilst the blood is hot or the body in motion No marvel then if in the fervent pursuit of honour gain or pleasure men sometimes suffer their souls to escape out of their prison before the flight be discerned In fine as young Gallants for speedy supplies of luxurious expences usually morgage their Lands ere they know their worth So life it self is oftentimes hazarded upon light termes by such as know not what it is to live We have heard of a Souldier so forward to take the advantage which Chance of War had given that he cried out unto his Captain Follow and we shall have a day of them whereas a perpetual night was taking possession of his eyes his entrals being let out whilst he uttered these words I can more easily believe this of an English spirit though not in print because it is upon Authentick Record that Petrus Strozius a famous Italian Commander being shot with a bullet of a larger size under the left pap fell down dead to the ground leaving these words behind him in the air The French King hath lost a true and faithful servant It seems his heart had been too full fraught with swelling Conceits of his own worth I could instance in many did the time permit which have either encountred death with such und antedness or suffered life to be taken from them with so
entertained with battel invade the borders of any Nation In such a Case t is held a point of politick husbandry to waste the Country round about them least it might maintain their Armies But heretofore I have had and elsewhere shall have occasion to decypher all the symptoms of a dying State either set down by the Word of God or observed by the expert Anatomists of former dead bodies politick 14. My message unto you my Brethren the Sons of Levi is briefly this Add not Gods anger to our Countries Curse which at this day whether just or no is bitter and rife against us as if we were all or most of us like the companions of Jesus the son of Josedech persons Prodigious but in a worse sense then they were Persons that had procured her much and did yet portend her greater sorrow partly by our Dastardly silence in good causes but especially by our prophesying for Rewards and humoring the great Dispensers of those dignities on which our unsatiable desires are now unseasonably set It was a saying amongst the Ancient Romans Qui Beneficium accipit libertatem vendit It is thus far improved in true modern English He that will purchase preferments Ecclesiastick especially must adventure to lay his soul to pawn What remedie Only this to make a virtue of necessitie For so must every one do that means to live as a Christian ought Let us not look so much upon the sinister intentions of corrupt minds as upon the purpose of our God even in mens most wicked projects And who knowes whether The Lord by acquainting us with mens bad dealings in dispensing Ecclesiastical honour do not lay the same restraint upon us his children which he did upon Baruch Without all question he absolutely forbids us to seek afer great matters in this age in that he hath cut off all hopes of attaining them by means lawfull and honest And all this he doth for our good that using Baruchs freedom or Jeremies Resolution in our ambassage we may be partakers of their Priviledge in the Great day of visitation wherein such as in the mean time crush and keep us under by their greatness will be ready to give their wealth for our poverty and change their honor for our disgrace upon condition they might but enjoy life with such libertie and contentments as we do Or in Case they shorten our dayes by vexation or oppression yet faithfully discharging our duties whether we live or die we are the Lords And though they out live us an hundred years yet shall they be willing to give a thousand yea ten thousand lives if so many they had so they might be but like us for one hour in the day of death We need not search forain Chronicles nor look far back into ancient Annales The registers of our own memories and our fathers relations may afford examples of some sons of Levi men if we rightly value their admirable worth of place and fortunes mean in respect of our selves which after their death hastned perhaps by hard usage have fild both this and forrain Lands with their good name as with a perfume sweet and precious in the nostrils of God and man whilst those great lights of state so they seemed whilst parasitical breath did blaze their fame which had condemned them to privacie and obscuritie were suddenly put out but with an everlasting Stinch God grant their successors better successe that a precious well deserved fame may long survive them For our selves Beloved as we all consort in earnest desires and hearty prayers that the Lord would renew his Covenant made with Levi his Covenant of life and peace so let us joyn hearts in this meditation The only way to derive this blessing from this our father unto us his sons must be by arraying our selves with Phineas our eldest brothers integritie by putting on his zeal and courage to walk with the Lord our God in peace and equitie and to turn many away from iniquitie And now remember them O my God that defile their Priesthood and break the Covenant of the Priesthood and of Levi Smite them through their loyns that make a prey of his possessions and grinde their heads as thou didst Abimelechs with broken milstones from the wals or with the reliques from the ruinated houses yea grinde all their heads O Lord to powder that grinde the faces of his poor and needy children But peace be upon all such as walk according to this Rule here set to Baruch and upon all those that Love God To this God The Father The Son and the holy Ghost be ascribed all honour and glory now and ever Amen Imprimatur Ric. Baylie Vicecan Oxon. The Publisher To the Readers of these two last Sermons WHo may see That this great Author was not affraid Most aculâ—atly to reprove the sins of his own Time nor is The Advertiser ashamed to set his seal to the justnesse of them by a full and true Publishing his Reproofes Let the Lord be glorified though with our shame and justified when he speaketh Judgement And to Gods glory be it spoken This word hath prospered in the thing where unto God sent it in some of the Gentrie and Clergie Yet can it not be denied but there is still too great store of matter of Reproof in the same kinde Many whose estates are sore diminished have minds still set upon Great Things what ever they have lost they find pleasure Had The Author lived to this day I am perswaded he would have gone on with The Holy Bishops complaints Perdidere tot calamitatum utilitates Pacem et divitias priorum Temporum non habent Omnia aut ablata aut imminuta sunt sola tantum vitia creverunt nihil de Prosperitate pristina reliquum nisi peccata quae prosperitatem non esse fecerunt c. These are wracks indeed To Misse the Good which may be got by suffering evil is the worst of evils To lose that gain which should be gotten by losses is of losses the greatest But to grow worse with suffering evil is perdition it self Now if any one of Prosperous condition when he reads this shall triumph and bless himself in his heart saying We have not sinned in devouring these men I beg his Pardon and beseech him to read on if he saw our faults in the last he may perhaps see his own in the next And humbly desire leave to say 1. A man may punish sin and yet inter puniendum Commit a sin greater then that be punisheth 2. In these times and among the persons promising Reformation there hath been Greater seeking after great things and that with greater Inordination too then was in former Times Our Author complained that the Baruchs of his Time sought great things by the Art of Philip of Macedon Would God my Clergy Brethren so I do esteem such and none but such as were begotten to our mother by the R. R. Fathers of the Church had not used
members of the same Church without dissension And of all the Points in Divinity this day controverted in any Church or betwixt the members of any Church there is no one that doth naturally better brook diversitie of Opinions or acurate sifting without hazard of breaking the bond of Christian peace and charitie then the Controversie about the Certaintie of Salvation or of Perseverance in the state of Grace For Christian charity would presume that every man which hath his senses exercised in these or the like Points is desirous to be as certain of his own Salvation or estate in Grace as with safety of conscience his own understanding or rule of reason will permit him or can make him Such as know their own Estate in Grace by experience or otherwise stand bound in equity in Christian charity and in humanity rather to pity then to exasperate their brethrens weakness which have not the skill or like Experience to conclude for themselves so well as they do or which doubt whether the doctrine in Thesi in the General be true or false And yet we see by woful experience that the Contentions about these Points have been so bitter and so uncivil that no Papist or other Adversary shall ever be able to say more against the Certaintie of Salvation or mens Irreversible Estate in Grace then many such as have written for it have said against themselves For if by the Grace which they hold impossible for men to fall from they mean the Spirit of wisdom or understanding in matters spiritual or the Spirit of meekness of sobrietie and Christian charitie every man that hath any branch of the Spirit of Grace implanted in him may conclude without sin that many which contend most earnestly for Absolute perseverance in it either never had this Grace or else are totally fallen from it 11. The Third Point proposed was the Golden Mean which the Church of England mainteins as opposite to these Contrary Extremes but most consonant to the Evangelical Truth First Our Church doth acknowledge That Fides is Fiducia That the very nature of that Faith which differenceth a Believer from an Infidel or a Christian from a meer natural man doth necessarily include a Certaintie or full Assurance in it It must be without wavering without distrust or Doubt The only Question is About the right or orderly placing of this Certaintie of Faith or full Assurance Or What be the Points whereon it first must be pitched These questionless must be Points Fundamental and such is that That the Son of God did die for us that he did fully pay the price of our Redemption This every man is firmly to beleive otherwise he builds without a Foundation This Certainty of Faith or full assurance you shall find continually prest upon all hearers in the Book of Homilies and other Acts of the Church But how shall every private man be fully assured that Christ did die for him and that he fully paid the price of his redemption Sure no man can have a right or full assurance of this Particular unless he first assuredly believe that the Son of God did die for all men that he hath redeemed all mankind He that firmly and constantly believes this Proposition in some respect universal The Son of God did die for all men can never doubt or waver in Faith whether he died for him or whether he hath paid the full Price of his Redemption He which believes the General by an Historical or Moral Faith cannot chuse but believe the particular by the same Faith He that believes the General by a spiritual and true Christian Faith must believe the particular by the same Faith If the first Proposition Christ died for All men be De Fide The Second likewise Christ died for me must be De Fide too But how any man should have Assurance of Faith That Christ did die for him or hath redeemed him unless he be first assured by Certaintie of Faith That Christ did die for all men This I confess is a Point which I could never be assured of nor be satisfied in by any that plead for Special Faith 12. Sure I am that the Church our Mother doth teach us to begin our Faith or Assurance from the General Christ died for All men he hath redeemed all mankind And this General She grounds upon that Saying of our Saviour John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Application or Use of this place you may find pithily prest in the third Part of the Homily Upon the Death and Passion of our Saviour To whom saith the Author of the Homily did he give his Son To the whole world that is to say to Adam and to all that come after him He was not given to Adam nor to such as come after him until Adam and all that came after him were lost until mankind were become his enemies And this is that which sets forth The wonderful love of God unto the world that he would give his only Son whom he loved for all of us which were his enemies Scarcely for a righteous man will one die saith the Apostle Rom. 5. 7. yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners he died for us 13. But when we are taught to beleive that Christ died as well for every one of us as he died for any we are bound to beleive not only that he shed as much blood for every one of us as he did for St. Peter or St. Paul but that he shed as much blood for every one of us as he did for all men That he paid as great a price for my redemption as he paid for the Redemption of all mankind It was not the Quantitie of his blood shed but the infinite Value of each drop which he shed that did pay the price of our Redemption Had the whole stream of his blood been much greater then it was if it had been of value less then infinite it could not have payed the price of one mans redemption and of price more then infinite his blood what-ever quantitie had been shed could not be for all So that he did as much for thee as he did for both thee and me as much for either of us as he did for the whole world His deservings of every one of us are infinite Were this apprehension or belief of the infinite and undivided love of God in Christ toward all and every man rightly planted in mans heart it would bring forth the fruits of Love he which is thus perswaded of Christs love towards him in particular would love Christ and would keep his Commandements would trust in Christ and in all temptations rely upon him 14. To conclude all concerning The right ordering or placing of that Certaintie or full
place it where he list But if the inordinate desire of gain do mis-sway men by profession Christians to use deceit in bargaining to over-reach their Neighbors or to work their own advantage out of their brethrens miseries or necessities they transgresse the second great Commandement as grievously as the Heathen did the sum whereof you know is to love our Neighbors as our selves to do to all as we desire to be done unto And by the manner and measure of transgressing these two great Commandements on which the whole Law and Prophets hang the true measure as of Idolatry so of all other sins must be taken 10. If we should take an unpartial survey of all the several sorts or conditions of men throughout this Land and of their demeanors in their several callings What root or branch of goodness is there wherein we can be imagined to overtop many Heathen Nations unless it be in point of Faith and Opinion But these we know without correspondencie in practise of good life will be so farre from justifying us in respect of the Heathens or Infidels that they will more deeply condemn us Covetousness deceit and violences were not more rife amongst private Heathens then they are with us If opportunity serve Homo homini fit lupus every one is as a snare or gin unto his neighbor The Remedy which God hath appointed for this enormitie are publick Laws and Courts of Justice And yet if the greivances which private men suffer from one another were put in one scale and the greivances which befal them from the corruptions of Courts appointed to do them right whether these be Civil or Ecclesiastick were put in the contrary Scale it would be hard to determine whether sort of greivances would overpoize others And if the remedie prove worse then the disease what hope of health As for drunkenness ryot and other prophaneness these were not so rife in many Heathen Nations as they are now in most Christian States because for the most part more severely punished amongst them then they are with us and yet I pray God that the sins of the Pulpit and of the Printing-house may be found much lighter then the sins of the Play-house or the Tavern c. when the great Moderator of Heaven and Earth shall weigh them in the Balance of his un-erring Justice This is certain that notorious delinquents almost in every other kind are ashamed to justifie themselves when their facts come to light their very Consorts will not be their Advocates when they are proved against them Whereas many popular Sermons and Treatises albeit ful stuft with Characters of more then Heathenish pride hatred malice sedition and scurrilitie pass for currant amongst the factions Consorts as containing rare expressions of fervent zeal in Gods cause and of sincere love to true Religion And if the light of the body be dark how great must the darkness of that body be 11. In drunkenness in gluttony in wantonness and other branches of licentiousness some Heathen Nations in former ages haply have exceeded us But in this publick and farre spreading licentiousness of tongues and pens in bitter invectives against their brethren in audacious libelling against lawful Superiors no Age before the Art of Printing was invented could no State or Nation since the invention of that Art hath exceeded or may compare with those times wherein and those people with whom we live But admit the faults or delinquencies of our time were but equal to the delinquencies of the Heathen yet as that ancient and religious Writer Salvianus well observes Though the vices of the Heathens and the Christians were but equal yet the same vices are more criminous and scandalous in Christians then they can be in the Heathen If the Heathens were prophane were covetous were dissolute licentious or disobedient what great matter is it they never heard of A Redemption from this vain conversation to be purchased at so high a rate as with the pretious blood of the only Son of God They never were called solemnly to vow integrity of life and conversation as a service due unto that Lord which had redeemed them All this we have done and yet have left our Masters will which we vowed to do altogether undone yea continue to do the will of his Enemie with as great alacrity and fidelity as the Infidels or Heathens do Again the Heathens had no expectation of any gratious immortal reward for well-doing they feared no dreadful doom or sentence after death for the errors or mis-doings of this mortal life But we ever since we learned the ten Commandements and our Creed have been hedged in on the right hand and on the left on the right hand with hopes of a most blessed everlasting life on the left hand with fear of an endless and never-dying death and yet have transgressed these bounds have on both hands out-rayed as licentiously as the Heathens did Surely one special reason why after so long so much good preaching there is so little practice of good life so much licentiousness in the wayes of death is because we Preachers do not maintain that double hedge which Christ hath set us for keeping us in order that is we do not press the fear of death and hope of life everlasting so forcibly and seasonably as we ought and might Now these meditations of everlasting life and everlasting death are the points whereunto these discussions upon this Text have been praemised God grant you docile hearts and me the Spirit of Grace and Understanding for rectifying your hopes and fears of your final reward in that last and dreadful Day CHAP. XLI 2 CHRON. 24. 22. The Lord look upon it and require it 1. THe Sayings of men in perfect health of mind are then most pithy and their Testifications most valid when their bodily limbs and senses are at the weakest pitch And the Admonitions or Presages of wise Governors whether Temporal or Ecclesiastick sink deeper into sober hearts being uttered upon their death-beds then if they were delivered upon the Bench or Throne These few words amount unto an higher Point of Consideration then these Generalities import For They are the last words of a great High-Priest and a great Prophet of the Lord of a Prophet not by General Calling only but uttered by him whilest the Spirit of Prophesie did rest upon him They are the words of Zechariah the Son and lawful Successor to that Heroical High-Priest Jehoiada who had been the chief Protector of the Kingdom of Judah A Foster-Father unto the present King The Restorer of Davids Line when it did hang but by one slender thred unto its Antient Strength and Dignity 2. The Points most considerable in the survey of this Text are Three First The Plain and Literal sense which wholly depends upon the Historical Circumstances as well precedent as subsequent Second The Emblematical Portendment of that prodigious fact which did provoke this dying Priest and Prophet of the
Prophets Wise men and Apostles to reclaim them if they would have hearkned to him or his Messengers Admonitions S. Luke puts this out of Controversie for repeating part of this story he saith expresly Therefore also said the Wisdom of God I will send them Prophets c. And Christ is styled The Wisdom of God not as man but as God and Consequently He spake these words not as man only but as God The same compassion and burning Love the same thirst and longing after Jerusalems safety which we see here manifested by a manner comprehensible to flesh and blood in these words of our Saviour in my Text or the like uttered by him Luke 19 with tears and sobs we must believe to be as truly as really and unfeignedly in the Divine Nature though by a manner incomprehensible to flesh and blood How any such flagrant desire of their welfare which finally perish should be in God we cannot conceive because our minds are more dazeled with that inaccessible Light which he inhabits then the eyes of Batts and Owles are by gazing on the Sun To qualifie this Incomprehensible Glorie of the Deitie the Wisdom of God was made Flesh that we might safely behold the true module or proportion of Divine Goodness in our Nature as the eye which cannot look upon the Sun in his strength or as it shines in the Firmament may without offence behold it in the water being an Element homogeneal to its own substance Thus should all Christs Prayers desires or pathetical wishes of mans safetie be to us as so many visible pledges or sensible Evidences of Gods Invisible and Incomprehensible Love and so he concludes his last Invitation of the Jewes I have not spoken of my selfe but the Father which sent me he gave me Commandment what I should say and what I should speak And I know that his Commandment is everlasting life whatsoever I spake therefore even as the Father said unto me so I spake Joh. 12. ver 49 50. And what saith our Saviour more in his own then the Prophet had done in the Name and Person of his God Isai 49. v. 14. Sion complained the Lord hath for saken me and my Lord hath forgotten me But he answered Can a woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palmes of my hands c. These and the like Places of the Prophets compared with our Saviours speech here in my Text give us plainly to understand That whatsoever Love any mother can bear to the fruit of her womb unto whom her bowels of compassion are more tender then the fathers can be or whatsoever affection any dumb Creature can afford unto their tender brood the like but greater doth God bear unto his children Unto the Elect most will grant But is his Love so tender towards such as perish Yes the Lord carried the whole Hoste of Israel even the stubborne and most disobedient as the Eagle doth her young ones upon her wings Exod. 19. 4. Earthly Parents will not vouchsafe to wait perpetually upon their children The Hen continueth not her Call from morning to night nor can she endure to hold out her wings all day for a shelter to her young ones as they grow great and refuse to come she gives over to invite them But saith the Lord by his Prophet I have spred out my hand all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face that sacrificeth in gardens and burneth incense upon Altars of bricks which remain among the graves and lodg in the monuments which eat Swines flesh and broth of abominable things is in their vessels which say adding hypocrisie unto filthinesse and Idolatry stand by thy self come not neer unto me for I am holier then thou Isai 65. ver 2 3 4. Such they were and so conceited of our Saviour with whom he had in his life time oft to deal and for whose safetie he prayed with teares before his Passion These and many like passages of Scripture are pathetically set forth by the Spirit to assure us That there is no desire like unto the Almighties desire of sinful mans Repentance no Longing to his Longing after our Salvation If Gods Love to Iudah comen to the height of rebellion had beene lesse then mans or other Creatures Love to what they affect most dearely If the Meanes he used to reclaim her had been fewer or lesse probable then any others had attempted for obtaining their most wished End his Demand to which the Prophet thought no possible Answer could be given might easily have been put off by these incredulous Jewes unto whom he had not referred the judgment in their own Cause if they could have instanced in man or other Creature more willing to do what possibly they could do either for themselves or others then he was to do whatsoever was possible to be done for them And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judg I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard what could more have been done to my vineyard that I have not done to it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes Isa 5. v. 3 4. 6. But the greater we make the Truth and Extent of Gods Love the more we increase the difficultie of the Second Point proposed For amongst women many there be that would amongst dumb Creatures scarce any that would not redeeme their sucklings from death by dying themselves Yet what is it that they can do which they would not do to save their owne lives And did not God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son for it Yes for the world of the Elect I see not why any should be excluded from the number But to let that passe Gods desire of their repentance which perish is undoubtedly such as hath been said Yet should we say that he hath done all that could be done for them How chanceth it that all are not saved Was the Vineyard more barren then Sarah the fruit of whose womb he made like the Stars of the sky or as the sands by the Sea shore innumerable Was it a matter more hard to make the impenitent Jew bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance then to make a Virgin conceive and beare a son If it were not how chanceth it the Word of the Lord and that but a short one should bring the One to joyful Issue whilst the other the repentance of the Jewes and other ungodly men after so many exhortations and threatnings after so many promises of comfort and so many denunciations of woes as the Prophets the Apostles and their Successors have used is not to this day nor ever will be accomplished If repentance of men born and brought up in
death The sense or Tast or Overture of the second death doth make the least rellish of the second resurrection unto Life to seem more sweet and pleasant Now it is the rellish or secret intimation of Celestial joyes which must animate and incourage us to undertake all the dangers or discontents wherewith the way unto the heavenly Canaan the land of promise and of our rest is beset The most forcible Reasons which the Divinest Orator can use or the best words wherewith he can apparel his reasons or perswasions are but vain unless he can with them or by them instill this secret tast or rellish into mens souls All the descriptions which the Leaders of the Gaules could make of the pleasures or Commodities of Italy all the newes or reports which they could devise or cause to be made in their publique meetings as it were upon our Royal Exchange could not so much animate their followers to adventure upon the strait and difficult passages over the Alpes as did the tast of the Italian Grape And that which did especially aggravate the Israelites Dastardy for not undertaking that sacred warre whereunto God had called them against the Canaanites the Amorites and the Hittites c. was the sight of those Grapes which such as were sent to discover that good Land had brought from Eschol Their unusual greatness which all the host might have seen and their extraordinary rellish which many did or might have tasted was a pledge or assurance of the truth of Gods promises concerning the fertility or pleasantness of that Land For as we say Ex ungue Leonem The terrour of the Lion which we never saw may be taken from his paw Or as Pythagoras did take the just quantity of Hercules his body by the print of his foot so might the Israelites have taken the true estimate of the Land of Canaan from the unusual quality and extraordinary quantitie of that bunch of grapes which their mutinous spies or Intelligencers could not deny to be the native fruit of that soil But of the Israelites disobedience and dastardy and what both these and the slanderous reports which their spies or intelligencers did raise of that good Land mystically import we shall take occasion if God permit hereafter to handle 7. Such a pledge as these Israelites had of Gods promises concerning the Land of Canaan we may have and must have of the pleasures of the Celestial Canaan before we become valorous in our undertakings for it And if we once attain to a true Tast or rellish of its goodness the least portion of it will serve as a true measure to notifie the incomparable excess of those joyes in comparison of any earthly pleasures or annoyances the one or other of which and nothing besides them can occasion our diversion from the wayes which lead unto them The force or efficacie which experienced pleasures or contentments have upon mens souls or affections Mahomet and his successors too well foresaw and so by a known representation of a counterfeit heaven and by a reall and experienced tast of imaginary or feigned pleasures in the life to come did make their followers more zealous and confident in propagating their Empire and Religion then either Christian Preachers or Magistrates can make their Christian people The obedience of Turkish children to their parents of their greatest Nobles to their Soveraign of their souldiers to their Commanders of inferiour Commanders to their Superiors or Generals far exceeds any obedience which we Christians usually perform to our Superiours in what kind soever One Erroneous principle notwithstanding they have That all things are so decreed by God as nothing can fall out otherwise then it doth and from this prejudicate conceipt when opportunitie suggests fair hopes unto the son of obtaining his fathers Crown they account it no sin but a religious Act for the Son to depose the Father as presuming it is Gods Will thus to have it whensoever he offers opportunity But when there is no hope to gain a Crown by rebellion no intimation given by the signes of the time that God will prosper their attempts against their Superiors there is no subject in any Christian Kingdom that will accept the greatest dignity whereto his Soveraign Lord can advance him with such Loyal respect and submission as the sons or grand-children of their Emperours will imbrace the sentence of death though no way deserved only in obedience to his designes and pleasure There is no malefactor amongst us though openly convicted of capital crimes that will submit himself to the sentence of the Law with that cheerfulness of mind or unregreting affections as their inferiour Commanders or common souldiers will surrender their lives into their Superiors hands be the service whereunto they appoint them never so dreadful or desperate 8. Now the great motives by which Turkish Priests or their Magistrates work this absolute submission and compleat obedience in inferiors is either fear of Hell or torments after this life in case they shall disobey or hopes of Heaven if they continue loyal and obedient and yet the hell which they fear is no way so terrible as that Hell with whose torments we dayly threaten the disobedient Their hopes of heaven are nothing so glorious as those hopes which God promiseth and we professe we believe them to be the reward of our obedience to our God to our Prince and to his just Lawes whether Ecclesiastick or Civil Whence then doth this great difference or odds arise between their obedience and ours From no other root then this They propose unto their followers such an heaven such contentments after this life as they may have a true tast or rellish of in this life by whose multiplication the incomparable excesse of future contentments in respect of present may by ordinary capacities be easily taken There is no delight or pleasure which men in this world can take in the dayes of plenty security and peace no pleasures of the outward senses of touch or tast which they do not hope to enjoy in far greater measure in heaven without annoyance interruption or disturbance then their Emperour or Grand-Segnior in this life can do The meanest amongst them perswades himself he shal have more consorts or concubines then their Luxurious Emperors have all more beautiful then any earthly creatures can be There is no delight again in War or feats of arms which their Common souldiers hope not to enjoy without danger or defatigation of their bodies in far greater measure then the greatest Commanders or Generals of their Armies do And being thus possessed with this Two fold perswasion First That Obedience to Superiors doth merit heaven Secondly That the joyes of heaven are for nature and quality the same with such earthly pleasures and contentments which they have tasted but infinitly exceed them for quantity and duration To perswade them to lay down this life in hope of attaining the life to come by obedience to their