found no where heere And where are they but at the right hand of God only Psalm 16. 11. In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand are pleasures for euermore the first takes away all defect In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy and the second admits of no end at thy right hand are pleasures for euer And this is the first fulnesse or saturity of the soule the second is of the body And the naturall desires of the body are life health and beautie Now where can we finde life but in that Country which is the land of the liuing whether no death is suffered to approach or whether should we go to meet with indeflowrishing and vnattainted health but where there is no sorrow no paine no sicknesse at all And that is no where but onely in the Holy City which S. Iohn calls the new Hierusalem Reuel 21. 4. There shall be no more death neyther sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine but as the two glories of the Old and New Testaments Dauid and S. Paul speake God shall deck his Saints with health and wee shall put on incorruption and immortality in those Courts of Honour And thus as the soule and body haue their natural desires so the whole person of man desires naturally as close an vnion with the Diuine being as it is possibly capable of secondly it desires glorie and honour being one of the beames of GODS countenance which hee casts vpon his most noble creatures For there is a sparke of Diuinity in Glory which makes all men I had almost said all creatures naturally appetent of it according to the size they haue measured them out by God to vessell it vp in Cupido gloriae nouissimè exuitur etiam a sapiente sayes the wise Historian many to giue life to their Honor hauing lost their owne And this holy Ambition as it deriues it selfe to another world so it is in man both a naturall and lawfull desire within the expectation of which the whole creature stretching out the neck of it as S. Paul most significantly speakes waites for and sighes for and like a woman is in a dolorous trauaile for to be deliuered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the free libertie of glory granted to the sonnes of God The last hunger both of soule and body as they are vnited is of diuine societie and friendship and therefore as the Philosopher calls man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable Creature so the Apostle would haue vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to associate our selues at least in our trauelling thoughts with the Citizens of Heauen who as for number they are infinitely more so for nature are farre more illustrious and blessed then our vnder companions that liue here below centred with our selfs in this little point of earth are For God himselfe being a Diuine Spirit and those Palaces of glory being farre more extensiue and spacious then our narrow regions how can there but be as Dauid and Daniel both witnesse ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand thousands of ministring Spirits to wait vpon their high and transcendent Soueraigne the King of Spirits Royal and therefore S. Paul reckoning vp our heauenly companions Hebr. 12. 22. begins with an innumerable cōpany of Angels so that this desire shall aboundantly be satiated and content But of heauen we that are on earth cannot say much For though Satan took our Sauiour vp into a high mountaine and thence shewed him all the Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them in a moment of time Luk. 4. 5. which shewes of how small moment they are that in one short instant and article of time could sodainelie giue a blaze and so vanish yet there is no mountaine high enough nor any time long enough but eternity to vnuaile the glory of the Kingdome of Heauen which God purposely no doubt hath concealed that he might know who would loue him for himselfe because all men could not but loue him for his glory if he should let it fall vpon our eyes and display it selfe in the diuine beames of it Yet as farre as the eye of right reason guided like the wise men in the search of our Sauiour by the heauenly starres of light that shine euery where in Gods word may discouer this holy land let vs not wrong our sacred hunger of knowledge as blindely to wrap vp all in a cloud and to denye it this iust satisfaction which especially consists in a threefold glorious vnion wherewith God hath promised in his Word to vnite the persons of the Elect to himselfe which close with the Diuine Being I mentioned before to be the most ardent and naturall desire of our whole person and that wherwith the whole man is most delighted satisfied and filled First therefore wee are vnited vnto Christ as vnto our Head and so wee make but one body with him and this is a closer vnion then eyther children can be vnited to Parents for they are diuided parts from their Father but wee are vnited parts to Christ our Lord or married couples can be vnited each to other For they being diuerse bodies are vnited but into one flesh but wee to Christ are vnited into one body and one flesh as the Apostle speaks we are all set into his body and are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee with a most significant elegancy speakes in the 4. and 6. to the Ephesians And this is the first vnion of our persons with God by his Son Iesus Christ which makes vs way and entrance to the two remanent The second vnion is whereby our persons are spiritually vnited to God by the very Diuine and Holy Spirit of God him selfe so that this infinite and glorious and euer-liuing Spirit diffusing it selfe through euery member of Christs mysticall body makes vs of one spirit and one soule as it were with the Diuine being not by the vnion of essence and information but of inhabitance and participation The last vnion is that whereby the Diuinity of God dwelling in vs after an vnspeakeable gracious manner vnites himselfe whole although not wholly to vs far beyond the possibility of any other creature in the World For other creatures haue no power of vniting themselues so as God hath The reason is cause they are of so grosse and if not corporeall yet materiall being that it is impossible for them to make vs partakers of their Essences which haue all of them certaine Characteristicall and indiuiduall differences whereby they are incommunicable in their Natures to any other beside themselues But wee are made as S. Peter tells vs partakers of the Diuine Nature after an eminent manner which though it cannot be plenarily exprest yet it may bee shadowed by some weak resemblances The Rule whereby we may conceiue of this vnion is that Euery thing the more subtill and pure and immateriall it is the more closelie it may vnite it selfe
to another Creature So the water will soake thorow another body and vnite it selfe into euerie part of it by insinuating his supple ioynts into euery empty place and ouerture of the body vpon which it is infus'd that it will seeme to make but one body with it as in a vessell full of ashes which earth being a grosser body cannot doe Againe the Fire being a more subtill and refined body then the water will vnite it selfe to the most churlish and impenetrable body after a very close and peruious manner as to a stone yron steele or golde which the water being a more condensed and lesse fine body can neuer pierce or soake into Againe a spirituall substance will yet more closely vnite it selfe to a body then this finest and most subtill of corporeal beings And therfore wee may remember that Satan tells our Sauiour that a Legion of them that is six thousand eight hundred and thirty for the Romane Legion consisted of 6100. foote and 730. horse though heere I thinke not this precise number but a great multitude is meant did all couche and lodge together in one poore possessed man Wherefore as wee see if a hundred candles were lighted vp in a roome all the beames of them would be in the same place vnited together at least locally though not essentially which those that are skilfull in the Opticks demonstrate by the seuerall irradiations of Light wherewith each of them vnconfusedly passe thorough one another so it is with spirits a thousand of them may be locally vnited together without any consequent absurditie because their follows no penetration of dimensions and therfore filling no place at all they cannot exclude one another from the same place they are in as bodies doe Againe it must needes bee confest that the Diuine Nature of our Lord God may yet more nerely close with his creature in a strayter vnion then any other because his essence is not onely more good so more communicatiue of it selfe but incomparably more immixt and pure then any creatures besides himselfe can be This being the prerogatiue royall of Diuinity to cōsist not of Act and Power or to be something after which before it was not as longer liu'd or wiser or better or more glorious but to be Actus Purus All Act and Essence without any reference of time or difference of qualitie That is God is not as Man or an Angell may be good and true and wise and liuing but hee is wisedome it selfe truth it selfe selfe-goodnesse and selfe-life Now wee know in formall Vnions that is alwaies the closest that is most communicable of it selfe and of which the subiect whereunto it is vnited is most capable And therefore it must needs bee that God who is Truth may vnite himselfe to the vnderstanding more closelie then a thing that is true because the proper obiect of the vnderstanding is Truth not a true thing and so to the will because hee is goodnesse it selfe and life it selfe the will is a more proper subiect of life and goodnesse then it is of a thing that is good and liuing This is a retruse and hidden but in truth a very diuine motion of the gracious and formal vnion whereby God pleases to impart his Diuinity to his Creature For looke as wee see in the eye of a man the liuely Image form of the thing it sees which makes me cal this a formall vnion shining euidently in it without which the eye could neuer see the thing so it is in the jntellectuall part of the soule The thing which is vnderstood must haue the jmage of it as cleerely represented and vnited to the vnderstanding as the visible object is to the eye and therefore it is a Truth famous in the Shooles Intellectus est omnia The vnderstanding is all things Not all things by the Essence of it but by the similitude it hath with it in the act of intellection And this is the very reason why in spirituall things as long as wee liue in our Bodies our vnderstanding is so childish and Infant-like because in this blinde and corporeall world all Spirituall Essences are represented to it forma tantum disparata in some desperate that is vnlike and different forme shape to that which indeed and in truth they are of as if a Painter should expresse the Sunne by a spot of guilt and should draw the Starres with a little yellow Oakre in his draught of the heauenly body we cannot see their owne faces nor get the true jmage of themselues into the eye of our vnderstanding It was Gods speech to Moses who had better eyes then any that euer liued after him Thou canst not see my face For there shall no man see mee and liue Exo. 33. 20. Isay 64. And therefore as when the Angells of the Lord haue beene seene among vs they appeared sometimes like beautifull young men as to Lot and the Sodomites sometimes like Chariots of fire as to Elishaes seruant somtime with countenāces shooting like lightning Mat. 28. 3. so when God himselfe pleased to descend vpon Mount Sinai or vpon our Sauiour his sonne his spirituall Essence could neuer be seene but himselfe came riding downe in the similitude of a Doue himselfe came down so clowded and guarded about with fire that neyther the persons nor the eyes of the Israelites could come neere him But when the morning of glory shall arise wherein our soules shall awaken from the heauy eye-lid of our flesh and the veyle of our body shall first be remoued and after being depur'd from his drosse be refined into a bright and spirituall body wee shall then see God as he is wee shall see him face to face we shall know him as wee are knowne of him Which nathelesse is not to be vnderstood extensiuely as if we should comprehend God in the whole extent of his Diuinity but distinctly onely and truely as when wee see the Sea we see so much of it as can fall into our sight truely and know it distinctly from al other bodies to be the sea but we cannot see all the Sea at once because the obiect is of too large a breadth and extension This whole discourse driues only to this issue There is a vnion of bloud between Parents Children and this is a remote and very separable vnion And there is an vnion of one flesh betweene Man and Wife and this vnion is of a short continuāce and is soone parted by death And there is an vnion of Place and thus Spirits may be locally vnited who yet may be at extreame oddes and difference one with another And there is an vnion of affection this Friends are vnited with and it is alas too soone alterable vpon the change of eyther And beside all these there is a mysticall or virtuall Vnion of the members with the head and this the Church is vnited to Christ by from whom it receiues the diuine influences of all grace and fauour
of the Lord or changed into the same Image from glory to glory euen as of the spirit of the Lord. So that as the Moon and the Starres that hauing no in-borne or inherent Light streaming from themselues and yet gathering together into their burning faces the beames of the Sun freely sent abroad and bestowed amongst them appear like so many little images of the great Lampe of day So all the Holy Lamps of Heauen made for Gods seruice haue onely the Light of Gods countenance to kindle themselues with which he out of his bounty casts abroad amongst them and they according to their seuerall capacities to fill vp their measures of glory most ambitiously vessell vp This being the Royalty of the Diuine Nature who is the spiritual sonne of eternall Essences that he beyond all other is most emissiue and communicatiue of himselfe For as Light is more visible then any colour and sends out in the eradition of it a more full and luminous species of it selfe then any other thing because it is as the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the colour of all colours so God who is the Light of all Lights must needs in himselfe bee most visible though neither it to the eye of an Owle nor God to the sight of our vnderstanding yet beetle-browed can so appeare But when as Dauid sings our soules shall awaken and the youth of our bodies shall be renewed as the Eagles both they with the Diuinity and these with the Diuine humanity shall be transformed into the same image of glory which they shall behold in him And though now they blinke at Sunne-shine yet then where the body of glory is thither shall the spirituall Eagles be all gathered together and there feede and fill the righteous hunger and thirst of theirs And this is the fulnesse of glory our Sauiour meanes to satisfie them in heauen with who on earth nourish in themselues the righteous hunger after Grace When the vnderstanding shall be filled with truth in which is no shadow of error the will with goodnesse in which is no mixture of euill the affections with ioy and delight in which shall be neyther defect nor end when the body shall be satisfied with Life that knowes no dying shall be quickned with health that feares no sickenesse shall be imbrightned with beautie that can neyther bee impayred with disease nor impalled by death when the whole person shall be crowned with honour glory shall be leagued in friendship with Angells and Saints shall bee vnited to Christ in body to the holy Ghost in Spirit to God in a bright similitude and likenesse of his Diuine nature in a word when they shall enioy which this world is out of hope of honor without ambition beauty without pollution glory without pride power without iniury riches without oppression all good without any end of possessing feare of losing or sinne in spending Let vs therefore quicken our drowsie spirits with IIII. A short incitement to the heauenly ambition of Gods Saints IT was a speech of the most ambitious Spirit in the world in the excuse of his high swelling thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a man would do iniurie it should bee for a Kingdome piety was to be obserued in lesse matters as hee thought but the truth is hee needed not haue supposed it to bee such a difficult thing to be perswaded to doe iniury For as the Philosopher speakes Nothing is more easie then to doe another man wrong and he giueth the Reason why Iustice although it be so beautifull a Light in the world that as he sayes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither the morning nor the euening starre is halfe so Oriently beautiful yet so few men are in loue with it because it is the good of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee are all naturally engrossers of goods for our selues but wee are loth though iustly to diuide or part them with any other and therefore with more reason the religious man who is the most ambitious creature vnder heauen may whet and edge his flaming desires to goe through all the sweat and labour of righteousnesse with the same speech inuerted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a Kingdome be the reward of Piety who would not be religious But it is a myracle in reason to see that when there are three sorts of ambitious in the world Sinfull Naturall and Religious how many and those of the choicest wits offer their harts and sacrifice themselues as whole burnt offerings to the ambition of sinne and how few set their thoughts on fire with the holy ambition of Gods Saints And yet there is no difference betweene sinfull and sainâ—ly ambition for both would be like God but that the first would be like him without dependance and would be proud in being so affecting a diuine similitude beside the right meanes and beyond the due measure and the other is content to climbe by the valley of Christs humility to this mountaine of holinesse The sinfully ambitious would haue Gods glory but not his goodnes his power but not his iustice the Maiesty of his Kingdome but not the manner of his gouernment And therefore all those Angelicall stars of Light whom God in the Morning of his Works made Heauen shine with are now become through this sinfull ambition wandring Starres to whom is reserued the blackenesse of darkenesse for euer And this was it that smote not onely so many stars out of heauen but would haue struck into hel the whole posterity of Adam had not our Sauiour snatch'd vp some few of vs into heauen with him and yet how many soules still scorche themselues in these flames It was the imperious speech of the Assyrian Tyrian and Romane Princes I will be like the most high I will ascend into Heauen I will exalt my throne aboue the starres of God Esay 14. I am God Ezech 28. I sit a Queen mening as the Lady and Commandresse of the whole World and shall see no sorrow c. Alas how high this sinfull ambition would climbe in thought and indeed how low doth it fall It aspires to the sides of the North Esay 14. 13. verse And verse the 15. it is cast downe into the sides of the pit It would ascend into Heauen verse the 14. and in the next it is brought downe to hell It fancies to it selfe a high flight among the starres and Angells of God And loe the shadows of darknesse are moued from beneath to meet it and the dead ghosts are stirred vp to salute it with this derisory taunt Art thou become like vnto vs How art thou fallen from Heauen O Lucifer sonne of the Morning And these perhaps great princely and honourable Diuels of Ambition may seeme in comparison of the lesser to delude their followers with a kinde of bâ—aue and royall misery But in very truth it is a sight full of wonder to obserue the children of this generation at how small game
all were beholding to him for restoring him the tenth part of his owne To conclude long prayers and building the sepulchres of the prophets which of all other were their most colourable virtues were they not indeed crying sinnes in the sight of God when they were I say not onely vtterd arrogantly in euery corner of the street that they might bee seene of men and not closeted vp for GOD alone to see them but when vnder pretence of long prayers they deuour'd widowes houses and vnder colour of building the tombes of the Prophets which were dead they had no other intent but with the more safety and lesse suspition to slay the sonne of God who was then aliue among them the Prince of the Prophets Looke then as beautifull and fayre fruit to see too yet if it be rotten at the core when the outside is par'd off hath no such goodlynesse within as outwardly appear'd but very rottennesse at the heart or to vse a more proper similitude As a piece of smooth and rotten wood if it bee set in the darke and seene onely in the night makes a great blaze and showes to bee a very lightsome body but assoone as the day rises it forfeits the flame and the rottennes of it is plainely discouered so was it with these appearing truths which the Pharisees obtruded and thrust vpon the darke vnderstandings of the common people for most heauenly lights lamps full of glory they were all but vizards of truth rotten opinions lies with painted faces And as these were the false-lights that dazeled the eyes of the wiser sort of people so there were beside these certaine coÌ„mon errors which went abroad as most receiued and graunted positions verities which all men beleeu'd as That they had good cause to reioyce who had euery mans good word for them and many friends in the world whom they might trust to That rich men were happy For they liued at hearts ease That they liued the most comfortable liues in the world that were alwayes merry hearted and were euer laughing To name no more That it was a most wretched estate not to haue sufficient meate and drinke but to liue alwayes as in a famine in hunger and thirst But our Sauiour as before hee extinguisht their false and pharisaical lights so in these hee opposed himselfe against their popular and common errors And therefore he sayes not as they Reioyce because ye haue many and great friends in the world and because you haue euery mans good word for you but the playne contrary Reioyce and bee exceeding glad what when you haue many friends that speake well of you and do you good no but when you haue many enemies that shall reuile you and persecute you and say all manner of euill against you falsely for my names sake verses the 10. 11. And blessed are who the rich in estate no but the poore in spirit ver the 3. And not they who were merry hearted alwaies laughing had the most comfortable liues but blessed are they that mourne verse the 4. For they shal be comforted In a word to land my self at home vpon the present words That not they which abounded with all things and could say to their soule as Diues did Luke the 12. Soule eate drinke aud bee merry for thou hast much goods layed vp for many yeares were blessed but blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnes For they shall bee satisfied For the truth is It was a most absurd improper soloecisme of speech when the riche foole so our Sauiour cals him and therefore I doe him no wrong bid his soule eate and drinke those goods that hee had layed vp for his body to eat drinke For the soule with such food could neuer haue beene satisfied but those soules onely shal be replenished and filled that hunger after the kingdome of Heauen and the righteousnesse thereof For as righteousnes here so the Kingdome of God hereafter as grace here so glory hereafter are the onely repaste to banquet a Soule with First therfore let vs see II. How Righteousnesse and Grace are the food of our Soules THat is properly called the food of any thing whereby it is inwardly preserued from consumption corruption and death And therfore as the Body hath something to preserue it for a time which is bodily food so must the Soule haue some spirituall repast to perpetuat and preserue it for euer For nothing beside a diuine nature can bee of it selfe aye during Let vs therfore because this paradox to a naturall man will seeme strange goe with him to his owne arte the arte of nature There we shall find these two Sanctions publisht as receiued trueths of all first â—isdem alimur ex quibus constamus Euery nature is nourished by that whereof it is first made and the second is Simile nutritur a simile Like is nourisht of like Now it is a speech of our Sauiour which it may bee euery man remembers but few men marke when after fourty dayes fast in the wildernesse he was tempted to satisfie his hunger by making bread of stones he answered That Man liu'd not by bread onely but by euery word that proceeded out of the mouth of God Which speech though a prophane Ignorant will perhaps derisonly scoffe at as thinking it impossible to liue by words yet such words as proceed out of the mouth of God haue more vitall sweetenesse and nourishable sap in them than all his corne and oyle and wine haue Was not the whole world made by the word of God Was not the soule of euery reasonable creature made by the same word and so imbreathed into the body of the first father of our humane nature and is now still infused into euery one of our bodies when they are perfectly instrumented and made fit for the soule to dwell â— This a naturall man cannot deny in reason because they of his owne â—ribe Socrates Plato Aristoâ—le and all wise men euer confest it not only to vse â—heir owne words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as some of â—hem speakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foris ingredi â—aelitus aduenire But proue it by necessary demonstration I will vse â—ut one argument beâ—ore I proceed to euidence it because religion shall not be beholding to a naturall man for her ground worke which Iustin Martyr one of the first penmen of God after the time of the blessed Apostles who was called by all men for his depth of Learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vses to euiâ—ce the opposers of this truth in his time All things sayes he arose first eyther out of the power of nature or fortune of God Out of a power of nature they could not For tell mee sayes the father whom could nature by her power first bring forth Could the fruits of the earth or the foules of heauen or the trees of the forrest or the beasts of the field or the Cittizen of the world man issue
And there is a Spirituall Vnion whereby all th' Elect soules and bodies are not onely inspired and I may so speake Spirited with the Holy Ghost who rules and swayes all the thoughts and actions of the soule as the soule doth all the parts and affections of the body And last of all there is a gracious and admirable Vnion of similitude whereby wee are made whollie conformable and alike to the Diuine being which is the most desireable accumulate blessednesse of our Nature So that looke as you see the very bright image of the Sunne so reflected vpō the water somtimes that the dull Element seemes to haue caught downe the very glorious body it selfe to paint her watry face with and lookes more like a part of heauen then like it selfe who in the absence of the Sunne is all fabled with blacknesse and darknesse and sad obscurity but vpon the first beames of the heauenly body is glazed with a most noble illustrious brightnesse so is it with our whole man For when God shall thus imprint and strike himselfe into our darke being O how beautifull shall the feet of Gods Saints bee Esay 52. 7. What a Diadem of stars shall crowne their glorious heads Reuelat. 12. How shall their amiable bodies shine in Sun-like Maiesty Mat. 13. 4. Neither let it bee thought a vaine audacity of speech to say that the countenance and face of Gods children shall break forth into beames of more celestiall glory then the mid-day sunne euer yet sent abroad into the World For as S. Paule tells vs they shall be conform'd to the Image of his glorious body so he tels Agrippa Acts 26. 13. At mid-day O King I saw in the way a light from heauen aboue the brightnes of the Sunne shining round about me which was no other then the Light of the countenance of our Lord Iesus which sight as it struck blindnesse into the face and thicke scales into the eies of persecuting Saul so it dressed the whole countenance of suffering Stephen with a most Diuine and Angelical glory and had not the Light in reason beene greater then the Suns it would haue beene like the Moon and Starres at mid-day wholly extinguisht and inuisible Neyther let any man amaze his vnderstanding with the manner how a Spirituall substance can so sparkle and be as it were visible in the body Saint Austins comparison hath life in it in the expression of that point Life in it selfe is inuisible and cannot be seene yet it so freshes the countenance and beautifies the eyes that when the body wants it and is dead nothing lookes more dreary and ghastly then a Corps doth We see not life in it selfe sayes the Father but wee see it shining in the brightnesse of the eyes and smiling in the liuelihood and cheerefulnesse of the countenance And so it is with a glorious body God is Life and like Life cannot bee seene in himselfe by any ocular aspect but as Life in a Naturall so God in a glorious body is most apparant and plainely visible and conspicuous euen vnto our eyes But some perhaps will thinke this discourse of spirituall satiety I call it spirituall not excluding the Body but because our Bodies themselues shall be then spirituall as now our very spirits are in a manner carnall to be fetch'd rather out of the schooles of Reason then of Gods Word and to haue more ground in Philosophy then Faith For where in Scripture shall we read of any such image of God to satisfie our Natures with If we turne to the 17. Psalme and the 15. verse we shal there finde the portion of the righteous excellently described by Dauid who hauing before set out the men of this world who haue their portion in this life their dimensum which is their belly full of Treasures abundance of Children and their happinesse to leaue their substance to their Babes verse 14. hee reflects his thoughts into his owne brest and sings As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall bee satisfied when I awake with thy Image This made Dauids heart pant after the sight of Gods face for so the words originally signifie Psalm 42. 1. This made him pray Lighten mine eyes that I sleepe not in death and needes must the eyes of the righteous be lightened and then awaken when the wicked shall haue theirs shut vp in eternall darkenesse when they shall behold the face of God and shall satisfie with his Image their euigilant soules Wee shall finde in Scripture besides this Image of God that for aye blesses the soules of the righteous two other Images of the wicked world and of wicked men wherewith the wicked striue to satisfie their soules but as S. Paul 〈◊〉 vs the image of the world does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loose continually his forme and fashion so Dauid tells vs Psalme the 73. the 20. that when God awakes he shal despise their image The image of God satisfies the righteous when they awake to their reward because there is substance and truth and goodnesse in it but when God awakes to the punishment of the wicked their image is so far from bringing with it any satisfaction of glory that in the iudgment of God himselfe who cannot but iudge most vprightly it is full of shame most ignoble and worthy to be despised hauing no substance but onely shadow no truth but onely appearance no ground but onely opinion to paint it selfe with and therefore looke what difference of things there is in the sound iudgment of one waking and the skipping and dauncing phansies of a dreaming braine so much more is there betweene the swelling images of secular glory and the diuine image of God when wee shall awaken from those dreams which the world as long as shee can keepe vs in the cradle of our flesh rocks and pleasantly sings vs a-sleep in And therefore Dauid hauing spoken of the death of the wicked in the former verse of the fore-cited Psalme O how suddenly doe they consume and perish and come to a fearefull end presently annexes As a dreame when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image But let vs leaue this golden Image with all the dreaming World with Nebuchadnezar is troubled with in their sleepe and is angry with all that will not fall down to worship it and returne to that Image that deludes not dreaming but satisfies our awaking spirits As Dauid speaks of his owne so S. Paul speakes of all the Elect soules of God Rom. 8. 29. that they were predestinated to be conform'd to this Diuine image and therefore in the 2. to the Corinthians the 3. 13. 14. c. he makes his difference betweene the obstinate Iew and the beleeuing Christian that their hearts was stil veild and blinded with their olde Mosaicall shadows and ceremonies but wee all saies the Apostle hauing the veyle done away in Christ with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory
in their spirituall riots they will play away the saluation of their soules O the cheap damnation of sinners With how seely baytes their soules are angled into eternall perdition A messe of pottage will buy away Esaus birth-right A small vineyard will make Ahab sell himself to worke sinne and forfeit his kingdome and all his posterity to the wrath of God A fayre-look'd apple pleasant to taste will hooke into the Lake of brimstone a whole world of beguiled soules The Harlots beggerly bread and water Prou. 9. 17. will get more followers then Wisedomes costly banquet choicest wines though the bread bee stollen and the waters hid If GOD should liue amongst vs thirty pence would buy him A cup of fornication is enough to make all the Kings of the Earth wait vpon the Whore the Beast And can it can it be Sathan should hyre vs to bee the seruants of sinne with such small wages and God with a Kingdome should not moue vs to be his sonnes O let not Nature in wicked and prophane vnreasonable Creatures go beyond Grace in profest Christians Balaam the Sorcerer would dye the death of the righteous the naturall good will hee bore himselfe taught him to wish it And it is the obseruation of the Philospher That all Creatures naturally desire to draw and assemble themselues as close to the diuine Being as possibly they can which hee makes to bee the Reason why there is in them all so vehement a desire which hee calls of all other the most naturall of begetting another like vnto themselues because not being able in their owne bodies to be euerliuing they deriue themselues to eternity by their issues thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee sayes partaker of the Diuine being as farre as they are able This is therefore the reason why there is sowne in our Nature Tantus amor prolis generandi gloria but this naturall and lawfull ambition of glory in the Creature is most liuelie exprest in the eight to the Romans of which I spake in the former section Let vs therefore if the wicked desire the death endeuor to obtaine the life of the righteous if the whole creation grone and sigh and trauel to be deliuer'd from the corruption whereunto our sinne hath imbondaged it into the glorious liberty of the children of God at least as S. Paul speakes in the same chapter groan with them and within our selues to bee deliuered from our owne sinne and to bee made partakers of that glory which God diuides among his saints Let vs set before our eyes those Noble examples which the Scripture hath lighted vp for vs to looke vpon For this is that heauenly Countrie which Gods soiourners and Pilgrims heere on earth seeing a farre off sweetly saluted Heb. 11. 13. and trauelling as strangers thorough the world esteemed onely worthy of their ambition Thus Enoch walked with God before his death and therfore without death was translated to him being as S. Iude speakes the seuenth from Adam whom God happily sanctified to himselfe with eternall rest because he was the Sabbaoth of Men. Thus Moses preferred the naked and solitary wildernesse before the delights and treasures of Pharaohs Court and was not this the cause because he looked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the great recompence of the Reward by Faith seeing him who is inuisible Heb. 11. 27. This made Daniel esteeme the Lions Denne better then Darius Palace and the three children aduenture to meete heauen in hell God in the middest of a furnace infernally heated This made not valiant men onely but weak women fearefull by nature but resolute by faith in the midst of all their tortures not accept deliuerance but making their way through all the cruel mockings scourgings and bonds and prisons and stones and sawes swoords of wilde persecuting Tyrants passe on to the Land of promise without desire of liuing or feare of dying Heb. 11. 36. This made the olde Auncient-bearer of Valens the Emperour and elder Souldior of Christ Saint Basil in his Oration of him so much admires that signal Martyr Goelius tell the raging and menacing Prince that he knew his reward shold be greater then his torment and when the Emperour promised him very great matters to aske him smiling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether hee had any thing to giue him more worth then the Kingdome of heauen In a word this carried the heart of olde Simeon into such a holy extasie of religious delight that earth could hold him no longer but he must needs as it were breake prison and leape out of his olde body into heauen O what a desire of departure to it doth a true sight of this saluation kindle Lord saies he now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace c. for mine eyes bane seene thy saluation As if he should say Lord now the child is borne let the olde man die now thy son is come let thy seruant depart now I haue seene thy saluation O let mee goe to enioy it Now I haue beheld the humanity of thy sonne what is worth the looking vpon but the diuinity of such a person which is able to make my young Lord heere euen proud of his Humilitie For so great a ioy of spirit can neuer be thrust vp into so small a Vessell as an olde shrunke-vp body of earth is Since therefore I haue testified of thy Christ since I haue made an end of my dying note and sung thee my Christmasse song since I haue seene thee O thou holy one of Israell whom no flesh can see liue what haue I to do to liue O Lord What should I weare this olde garment of flesh any more Thou hast left thy fatnesse off O thou faire Oliue Tree and the oyle of it hath made mee haue a cheerefull countenance thou hast forsaken thy sweetnesse O thou beautifull Vine and thy fruit hath warm'd thine olde Seruant at the very hart Now therfore being thou hast powred thy new wine into this old vessell O giue the olde bottle leaue to breake O let me depart in peace for I haue enough I haue seen mine eyes haue seene thy saluation These are high-wing'd ambitious indeed whose thoughts creep not vpon the earth nor whose Honours shall be euer layed in the dust but that flye among the Starres and Angells of GOD that boast of their kinred with the Almighty and call themselues the Sonnes of God Wisd 2. whom our Sauiour hath made the fauourites of Heauen companions for his Angels co-heyres with himselfe Temples for his Spirit Parts of his Bodily and partakers of his Diuine Nature whose kingdomes end not with their liues but begin with their deaths whose pleasures vnlike to Ionathans hony kil not with tasting whose gains haue no fire-brands like Sampsons Foxes no hell in their tales whose celestiall banquets are like the feastes of Cana where their water is turned into wine al their teares into ioy not like faire Absolons a Type
THE REVVARD of the Faithfull MATH 5. 6. They shall be satisfied THE LABOVR OF the Faithfull GENES 26. 12. Then Isaac sowed in that Land THE GROVNDS of our Faith ACTS 10. 43. To him giue all the Prophets witnesse At London printed by B. A. for Beniamin Fisher and are to be sold at the signe of the Talbot in Pater-noster row 1623. To the right Honorable and Religious Sir Roger Townshend Knight Baronet all grace and peace Honorable Sir BENEFITS they say are alwayes best giuen when they are most concealed but thanks when they are made most knowne Giue my priuate estate leaue therefore to borrow the Art of the Printer which is the publike Tongue of the learned to expresse my selfe though with no other learning then what your kinde respects haue taught mee most gratefull vnto you who indeed am bound though principally yet not onely to your Honoured selfe but totj Gentj tuae to the worthy Lady your mother the religious Knight Sir Nathaniel your second Father without thought not beyond my desire to your most noble learned Vncle the Right Honorable Francis Lord Verulam Viscount Saint Albones my free and very Honourable Benefactor whose Gift as it was worthy his bestowing so was it speedily sent and not tediously sued for Honourably giuen not bought with shame to one whom he neuer knew or saw but onely heard kindly slaundered with a good report of others and opinion conceiued by himselfe of sufficiencie and worth For by your Fauours I confesse my estate is something but the sence of my pouertie much more increased For if we may beleeue Neros wise Maister and Martyr There is none so poore as he who cannot requite a benefit but I am glad your Estates will be alwayes beyond any retaliating kindnesses of mine who could not indeed with out doing you much iniury wish my selfe able to make you amends As therefore Aristippus came to Dionysius so doe I to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hauing receiued what I wanted to returne what I had Though in trueth this small pâ—esent may bee better sayed to bee giuen by you to others then by my self to you who thought it worthy of more mens reading then your owne which I pray God it may be Surely if there be any worth in it it is in the dignitie of the matter and the fitnesse of it for our nature and times The matters are the Grounds Exercise and Reward of the faithfull Heauenly Light Bodily labour Spirituall rest The first of which brings with it light for our Soules the second Health for our bodies and the third for them both eternall Blessednesse But in our times there is three Vertues are so great strangers in which there are so many euill heartes of vnbeliefe all standing ready to depart from the liuing God that wee had need to offer a holy violence to our nature and to fall out with our times that fall so fast away from God or else it is to be feared least the tide and streame of them both carry vs not into the riuers of Paradise there to bee landed vpon the mountaines of our saluation but into the riuers of Brimstone whether all are wasted that depart from GOD as himselfe telleth vs Depart from mee yee cursed into euerlasting fire And so much the more need had wee that liue in this last Age of the world to looke to the infirmitie of our natures and diseases of the time because natural infirmities are alwayes greatest Tyrants in our Age and it is no otherwise in this old world then in old persons If we were borne weake sighted it is a venture but in age a great dimnesse if not a totall blindnesse doe not befall vs. If a lame hand by nature hath disabled the actions of our youth the hand which in youth could doe little will doe nothing in our age if we haue traduced a personal inclination from our parents to any vice it is a grace if that inclination grow not to an affection in our youth and in our age to a habite So fast grow the ill weedes of Nature when Nature it selfe decayes in vs. Now wee cannot bee ignorant that in the very Spring of nature these three strong infirmities were seeded in vs. The first vpon the effacing of Gods Image a dimme eye-sight or darknesse in our soule the second a lame hand or idlenesse in the body which grew when Mortalitie first broke in vpon vs and left our nature consumed of that first-borne strength it then flowrished with bringing in vpon our labour an accursed sweat vpon our sweat wearinesse and consequently faynting and languishing the whole body with vnrest and disease The third vpon the losse of our heauenly inheritance an inclination and affection of the whole man to such a happinesse as wee cannot build for our selues out of the beautie and delights lights of this world which Salomon happily alluded vnto Eccles. 3. 11. where speaking of Humane happinesse to reioyce and doe good that is to eate and to drinke and to enioy the good of all our Labour verse 13 Which questionlesse is therefore lawfull because it is there sayd to bee the gift of GOD hee telleth vs that God hath made euery thing beautifull in his season and hath set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coelum the worlde as it is translated or the desire of perpetuitie in their heartes so that no man can finde out the worke that God maketh from the beginning to the end Whereas it seemes to me Salomon allowing vs this Humane felicitie as good in it selfe yet secretly accuseth it by reason of the immoderate affection and desire of perpetuitie wee cast after it for blinding the eye of our consideration so farre as thereby wee cannot finde out the worke that God maketh from the beginning to the end which doublesse can bee no other then his worke of our Redemption purposed from all eternitie in CHRIST our Lord who therefore as himself is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first borne of all creatures so his day is cald Nouissimus Dierum the last of all dayes he onely being as himselfe witnesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Frst and the Last the beginning of all things and the ende of all things Colos 11. and in this worke onely consists the knowledge of our perfit happines wherein is both perpetuitie and sufficiency which work of Gods most men therefore cannot finde out because they acquiet their desires with this humane felicitie and lie downe vnder Issachars blessing which indeed is but a cursory and viatorie happinesse seruing vs onely for the time and by the way These then are the three great diseases of our soules bodies and persons Blindnesse of Spirit Idlenesse of Body Loue and rest in the world which the beginning of the world made by corruption naturall and the Age of the world by the second nature and of custome hath made delight full to vs. And truely if our owne
experience did not teach vs how most men in our daies placed themselues in these infirmities and with what delight wee are ignorant idle and enamored of the world yet the Oracles of GOD would plainely euidence it vnto vs wherein wee shall finde it prophecied of this last tempest of the world that it should bee full of seducing Spirits to infidelitie of idle busie bodyes of louers of pleasures more then louers of GOD To cure which three great diseased of our natures and our times I haue sent abroade by your perswasion and therefore haue burdened you with the Patronage of it this short Praescript which I pray GOD may worke by the power of his Spirit soundnesse in vs. To the riches of whose grace I most entirely commend you and rest Your Worships in all hearty affection and Christian seruice GILES FLETSHER THE SEVERALL ARGVMENTS I. THE difference of our Sauiours opinion concerning good and happy men from the wiser and vulgar sort of people among whom hee liued 1 How Righteousnesse and Grace are the food of our soules 17 What is the fulnes where with those soules that hunger and thirst after Righteousnesse shall bee satisfied 46 A short enticement to the Heauenly ambition of Gods Saints 95 II. EVery Creature that would bee preserued by the blesing of GOD in his Calling must labour for it 130 A faithfull Minister is a great Labourer 155 The seuerall Heades of obseruation arising from Isaacs Labour 163 It is good Husbandry to be a Religious man and one of the châ—ldren of Abraham 176 Why the godly are manie â—imes poore and how the wicked are often rich in this world 198 God will haue his Children though neuer so reliâ—ious and rich vse the â—eane as wel as other men 〈◊〉 obtaine his blessings 〈◊〉 227 God neuer bestowes vpon 〈◊〉 the rest of glory that take no paines to make it sure to themselues by the meanes of Grace 247 Husbandry hath alwaies beene an ancient and commendable meanes of life 258 A iust reprehension of euill husbands who either straggle out of their Callings or haue vnlawfull vnprofitable or no Callings at all 281 III. The wisest of the Heathen and all Creatures are Gods witnesses 303 How wee may infallibly finde out the true Word of God which may leade vs to the knowledge of him our selues and our owne supreame happinesse 320 The seuerall Prophesies concerning the birth life death and Resurrection of the Sauiour of the world 337 A free Reprehension of all fashionable Agrippaes in Faith and farther motiues to make them become thorough Beleeuers 371 A iust inuectiue against all false blinde and dumbe Prophets who are indeede no true Witnesses of the Lord. 389 THE REVVARD of the Faithfull MATTH 5. 6. They shall be satisfied I. The difference of our Sauiours opinion concerning good and happie men from the wiser and vulgar sort of people among whom he liued OVr Sauiour when he came to be the true Light of the World had a hard taske to make his Light shine in the darke vnderstanding of such eyther grossely or affectedly ignorant men amongst whom hee liued who eyther hold many common errors for vnquestionable truths or if they were of the wiser sort many false lights appearing truths for certaine Rules and vnerring principles of their belief The false lights which had a fayre shine of truth to varnish them ouer with were these and such like That hee was a right honest religious man that offered no man wrong That was kinde and louing to those that deserued well of him That would neuer forsweare himselfe eyther to benefit his owne estate or to hurt another mans That if hee were affected to a maried woman kept himselfe from Adulterie with her If he were neuer so angry yet brideled in his rage that it broke not out into murder That when his Parents were in want honoured them with maintenance That made long Praiers gaue great Almes fasted often payed the Tythes duely and so farre honored the very ashes of the Prophets that hee built their Tombs being dead to keepe aliue their memories and names This was the Pharisies Starre-light Al which the common People who liued in the shadow of those ceremonious times and night of their owne ignorance held for great beautifull lights truths most credible and worthy to be beleeued and followed of all but when the Sunne arose this star-light soone dis-appeared and our Sauiour makes it plaine in this and the sequent Chapters That al those were but the outsides of truth which an hypocrite might disguise himselfe and face it with as well as an honest man nay that all of them except they were circumstanc't with those times and places and done after that manner forme they ought were for all their faire lookes but shining faults Or rather as nothing is more deformed in the sight of man than such a defectiue monster in Nature who should want halfe of his parts imagine one abortiuely cast out with one legge one eye halfe a nose c. so in the sight of God who lookes to the inner man this semihonesty which wants the better halfe and in-side of it selfe cannot but appeare most prodigious and mis-shapen For our Sauior counts that no Christian vertue Not to offer wrong For so they which returne wrong for wrong offer no wrong they doe but vim vi repellere strike blow for blow but the Vertue was to suffer wrong with patience not only to abstain from offering wrong with violence So to loue those that are desertfull hath no vertue in it for not to doe so were to do them iniury but to loue the ill-deseruing to loue our enemies to loue our persecutors this indeed is the grace of a Christian And what if our estates allow our poore Parents the honour of maintenance If our harts withdraw from them the honour of obedience of holie imitation of filiall reuerence doe we think we haue performed a sonne-like part to them or the duty of a Childe Againe it is no Vertue to keep a mans selfe from periury for he that neuer forsweares himselfe may yet bee a common swearer but to set a Watch before his lips that they should neuer vnaduisedly sweare at all that was the Vertue Besides what was it to keepe himselfe from Adultery and Murder if he had adultery in his eyes lust in his hart if he were enraged with anger and had dipt and stained his thoughts in bloud God who is a Spirit lookes to the issues of the Spirit if thou desirest reuenge if thou lustest after a woman thou art before God guiltie both of adultery and of bloud And so much almes and often fasting due payment of tithes what goodnesse haue they if the almes must bee trumpeted abroad and the fast must set a sowre face vpon the matter and the tithes must bee boasted of and layed as it were in Gods dish when he comes to pray before him in the Temple as though God who giues him
first from the wombe of nature but where I pray should nature find seed 〈◊〉 some the earth but from the fruites of the earth before growing where should shee seeke for egges to breed her â—owles with but from â—owles already bred whither should she goe to gather her akrons but vnder the oake before flourishing what neede â—nfinite knotts It is not in the power of nature to bring forth a man but he must first be borne a child and of whom should that child bee borne had not there been already in nature both man and woman nature then we see could not by any power in her produce the least creature but shee must needs haue her semniall causes and whence are they seeded but from things already beeing Much lesse could chance for what is fortune but onely something in nature wherof we know not the cause If a man digging in a field find a mine we cal this fortune but a mine must bee first there by nature before any can finde it there by fortune And therefore fortune that comes alwayes after nature cannot bee the cause of nature It followes then that the whole world and the soules of men proceeded neither from nature nor chance but from the power and wisedome of God himselfe who is as much more powerfull then nature to call out his worke perfect in his kind at first as he is more wise then fortune to adorne his worke with the most graceful order with out any chaunceable or blind confusion This then being either graunted or extorted from a naturall man what followes hence Truely this That the soule of man doth consist by the word of God Secondly That the soule of man beeing onely able of all creatures visibly in heauen or earth to conceiue and vnderstand a diuine beeing which our experience teaches vs must needs be a spirituall substance like God himselfe and created after his image For this in reason and nature is a selfe-credible truth That no Creator can rayse the power of his action beyond the sphaere of his owne actiuity A stone cannot liue A plant cannot see A beast cannot vnderstand a diuine nature because it hath no such receptiuity no such actiue and diuine power in it as to take into it an insensible obiect For then it should work extra sphaeraÌ„ beyond the pitch of a sensible being man therfore onely who hath such an eye of vnderstanding in him whereby he is able to liue as it is sayd of Moses Heb. 11. 27. as seeing him who is inuisible must needs be fashioned and form'd in the similitude of the inuisible God For what creature worships a diuine power sanctifies holy dayes and Sabaoths obserues solemne feasts and assemblies offers sacrifices of prayer praise to God but man onely Vpon whose soule doth the law of God naturally reflect it selfe in the knowledge of that which is good and the conscience of that which is euill but onely vpon man's What nature in earth obserues the different motions of the heauenly bodies and admires the methodicall Wisedome of God in them or thinkes vpon his couenant of mercy when he sees the token of it shining in the waterie cloud sweetly abusing the same waters to bee a token of his mercy which before were the instrument of his iust reuenge but only man's whose eye lookes beyond the bright hilles of time and there beholds eternity or sees a spirituall world beyond this body esteeming that farre discoasted region his natiue countey but onely man Which diuine thought wee shall not find in the hearts alone of the children of light that haue the starres of heauen shining thicke in them Hebr. 11. 16. but in the minds of heathen men that lay shadowed in their owne naturall wisedome out of which the banisht Consul of Rome Boetius could sing Haec dices memini patria est mihi Hinc ortus hic sistam gradum O this my country is thy soule shall say Hence was my birth here shall be my stay And of which Anaxagoras liuing a stranger among the Athenian Philosophers and being chid for regarding so little his natiue soile by one that asked him why he minded no more his owne country answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ô sayes he pointing vp to heauen I am exceeding mindfull of my natiue countrie Now to apply all this discourse home man we haue prou'd was created by the word of God man only was form'd in Gods image and similitude And who then is the word of God but the Sonne of God who the expresse image of the Father but the Sonne Ioh. 1. 1. Heb. 1. 3. Since therefore our soules consist by the Word Christ and euery thing is preseru'd of that it consists as Nature it selfe teaches since our soules are made after the image and similitude of Christ and euery thing is most agreeably nourished by that it is most assimilated vnto is it not euen in reason an irrepugnable Truth that our soules must needs be nourished and preserued by the power of our Lord CHRIST who is Gods Essentiall Word and Image And heere by the way but I speake of it onely incidentally as it falls into discourse wee may see as the high dignity so the causall differeÌ„ce between the reasonable soule of man and the liuing souls of bruit beasts For doe but looke into the booke of the generatioÌ„ of creatures and you shall see there Mans soule was immediately breathed into his body by God himselfe and was created after his Diuine image but the Liuing Soules of bruit beasts were educ't out of their elementarie wombes those bodies which were most like theÌ„selues For so sayes our Lord God Let the Earth bring forth euery liuing thing according to his kind and it was so so the sea was commaÌ„ded to bring foorth issue according to his kind and so it was which is the reason the liuing souls of beasts fal again into the same matter out of which they were first taken and of whose kinde likeness they are as our corruptible bodies doe Dust thou art and into dust thou shalt returne but the diuine and reasonable Spirit of man returns to God that gaue it as Salomon speakes Eccles 12. 7. being immediately created by him of his owne similitude and kinde so breath'd into the body which is indeede the true prime cause of the immortality of our souls So that they being created immediately by the Word breath of God out of nothing and not arising from any praeexistent matter caÌ„not possibly be corrupted into any other nature or annihilated by any other word except we childishly suppose some word more powerful then the Word of God himselfe I haue now prou'd that our soules all consisting by the word of the Father which is Christ and being imag'd most like vnto him they must needs as euery thing else is by their like be preserued and nourisht by Christ whose image they are and who may therefore with greater truth and reason be called
the food of our soules then our earthy diet can bee the food of our bodies because hee is euery way both in respect of himselfe and vs more preseruatiue then to bodies any bodily sustenance can be For that makes vs continue by being destroyed it selfe and destroyes vs too if it be taken in excesse though it be neuer so often vsed yet soone after we shall hunger againe and thirst againe neither can it repaire our nature in the headlong ruines of age so fast but that we must euery day forfeite a little spoile to mortality which it can no way possibly recouer and in conclusion vnable to hold out any longer it must yeeld vp the whole body as a pray to death But we cannot drinke too much of our spirituall rocke nor eate too much of our heauenly Manna which after we haue feasted our hearts with we shall find noe more hunger or thirst feele noe more iniuries of age or time feare noe more spoiles of mortality or death Neither is the soule nourished by this diuine food as the body is by wasting that whereby it selfe is preserued and consuming that to maintaine it selfe whereby it selfe is kept from corruption but as the sight of al eyes is preserued and perfected by the light of the Sunne whose beames can neuer be exhaust so our spirituall life is nourished by the participation of the life of Christ which is indeede 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annona cali the flower of heauen neuer engrost by possessing nor lost by vsing nor wasted by nourishing nor spent by enioying but hath that heauenly and vnconsumable nature in it being to nourish immortall soules that it preserues all without decaying it selfe it diuides it selfe to al without losse or diminution of it selfe it is imparted to all and not impayred by any of those replenished soules that banquet vpon it Now if the quaere be made how our soules are thus by Christ preserued from their owne corruption and beyond their owne natural life to a life Celestiall diuine there can be no other answere giuen but by beeing implanted into the life of righteousnes which fontally is in him As if the branches of a wild oliue being cut off from the reall stocke where it grew naturally should be kept from withering and corruption by ingrassing it into the stocke of a sweet and flourishing Oliue-tree So our soules beeing created in naturall righteousnesse and holylinesse by God and being soone after by our fall cut off from that life and so remayning in the state of corruption and decay would soone wither and dye totally were they not eftsoons reymbark't and stock't againe into the Tree of life from whence they sucke a more diuine life of righteousnes then that they were created or now liue in For the natural righteousnes thogh it were in the kind of it perfect yet it was of a short continuance as nature left to it selfe alwayes is and our habituall righteousnesse though it continue for euer yet it is very imperfect like the twilight of an euening or the first breake of day in which the shadows of earth and the light of heauen are confused and therfore the soule of man vnable to liue perpetually by any of these liues which were defectiue could haue no way bene preseru'd from his owne corruption but by the participation of this diuine Righteousnesse of Christ which is infinitely more durable then Adams naturall and more perfect then our poore habituall righteousnes either is or euer could haue bin Neyther let it seeme strange to any that the Soule which dies by vnrighteousnes and sinne should be sayd by grace onely and righteousnesse to receyue againe life and preseruation Hence are those scripture phrases so frequent You are dead in your sinnes ye are strangers from the life of God of the wanton and sinfull widow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she was dead being aliue that is dead to God and the righteousnesse of Christ and aliue onely to nature and the corruption of it Hence againe on the contrary the Iust man is sayd to liue by the righteousnes of faith Hab. 2. 4. Heb. 10. 37. and therfore this life which we could not acquire by our nature because it is eternall God is said in he first Epistle of Sa. Iohn 5. 11. to haue giuen it to vs and least wee should trouble our selues to know where this life was found out for vs it is added in the same place And this life is in his Sonne Thus Saint Paul speakes Col. 3. 3. that â—ur life is hid in Christ and that it was no more he that liued but Christ that liued in him Galat. 2. 20. thus hee tells the Corinthians that wee were made the Righteousnesse of God in Christ 2. Cor. 5. 21. and 1 Cor. the 1. the 30. that Christ was made of God vnto vs Wisedome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and therefore twice the Prophet Ieremy tells vs that This is his name wherby he shall be called IEHOVAH tsidkenu THE LORD OVR RIGHTEOVSNESSE Ie. 23. 6. and 33. 16. For as verily as our sinnes tooke away his life so assuredly shall his righteousnesse preserue ours in which because wee haue a double state one in our apprehension of it by faith the other in our comprehension of it by vision and intuition therefore here the Saints of god are sayd to be blessed onely in their hunger but hereafter they shal be happy in their fulnes here God onely feeds them with a sufficiency of grace there he fills them with such a satietie of glory in which their soules with the greatest excesse without the least surfet shall bee feasted for euer For God is not like old Isaac that hath but one blessing for his sonnes and therefore as wee must learne of S. Paul with our sufficiency to bee content My grace is sufficient for thee so let vs with him striue at least in our most heauenly thoughts get awing and rauisht into the third heauen then to behold III. What is the fulnesse wherewith those Soules that hunger after Righteousnesse shal be satisfied THE fulnesse heere meant is nothing else but a perfect expletion of all the naturall desires of Soule Body and Person according to the vttermost receptiuity of them all which their owne proper and most agreeable obiects wherein euery desire rests it self wholly acquited and filled For instance nothing can arrest the vnderstanding of man but that which is absolutely true or rather Truth it selfe For that is the most proper and agreeable obiect to our vnderstanding and who is that but Christ our Lord I am the Truth saies our Sauiour Nothing can satisfie the reasonable will of man but onely that which is perfectly good or rather goodnesse it selfe and who is that but onely God For as our Sauior speakes there is none good but God nothing can fill the restlesse affections of man but onely those fountaines of pleasure that haue in them neither defect nor end such as can be