sun in which the same light abideth always which though it may be over-clouded and eclipsed yet not extinguished but so as after such overshadowings shines out in more full brightness as Mr. Peacock after a sad hour of darkness that had been upon his spirit broke out into that Divine expression the sea is not so full of water or the sun of light as God is of goodness in Christ Nay Plenitudo Deitatis the fulness of the God-head Col. 2. 9. of the whole Divine nature and all its properties and Attributes which being infinite cannot but infinitely more than fill up our greatest vacuities and emptiness But this leads me to a more particular view of this fulness of Christ which may be considered either 1. in regard of his person or 2. of his offices 1. For his Person if we consider it either quoad gratiam unionis or gratiam habitualem either the Divine Nature assuming the Humane into the same personal subsistence or that Grace which thereupon is from that Divine Nature communicated to the Humane for its compleat accomplishment there can be no less in one Christ than All fulness and perfection in himself and for all such as are united to him 1. For his Nature The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him and that Bodily Col. 2. 9. i. e. not as in the more empty shadows of the law but substantially personally that the same Person who is Man is God also and that Manhood assumed into the subsistence of the Godhead John 1. 14. The word was made flesh and then we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth that it's God who laid down his own bloud as a price of redemption for us Acts 20. 28. and that every way makes a supply to us And then how full must that needs be He would have us hungry But he is too greedy whom an Alsufficient Christ cannot satisfy That want is more than infinite which an infinite God cannot make up Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord Jer. 23. 24. And cannot he fill thy heart For certain Jesus Christ who is God over all Rom. 9. 5. All in All Col. 3. 11. is able to fill all in all Ephes 1. 23. 2. And this leads to that Fulness of habitual Grace which from the Divine nature flowed into the Humane Not as though the essential properties of one Nature were communicated to the other and so his Humanity were infinite omnipotent or omnipresent as the Vbiquitaries would have it but that the spirit was given to him so above measure John 3. 34. that he became such a Fountain of Grace as was not only full in himself but overflowing to the full supply of all believers And this Grace in him though but a created quality and therefore not properly infinite yet so as not limited to any kind or degree and in that sense in a manner infinite And this grace was full not only in reference to Him and His state and condition for in that sense Mary is said to have been full of grace Luke 1. 28. and Stephen and Barnabas full of the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 55. 11. 24. namely as they were filled so far as was requisite to that condition and service to which God called them But Christ who is said to be full of the Holy Ghost Luke 4. 1. and full of grace and truth John 1. 14. was full also in reference to the Grace it self in that it was in him in the greatest extension both for Kind and Degree which the Blessed Virgin and the perfectest Saint fell short of as not necessary to their place and employment as it was to Christs who as he was in himself God-Man so he was to be Head to all Believers and Fountain and common principle of all Grace in them all which necessarily required it to be a compleat over-flowing fulness And this leads me off from this fulness of Christ in reference to his Person to 2. That in the second place which concerneth his Offices To which as God called him so he fully furnished him that he might as fully execute them and so fulfill all righteousness Matth. 3. 15. as Bezaleel when called by Name was filled with the spirit Exod. 31. â— 3. to prepare all the work of the sanctuory and amongst the â—eâ—t this was one in cutting of stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set them or fill â—â—th V. 9. them as the word signifieth which were therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lapides impletionum Exod. 25. 7. because such preciouâ— stones so set by him did fill up the Pales and Ouches which they were set in Even such a Bezaleel was our Emmanuel compleatly filled with all grace for the rearing up and perfecting of God's Sanctuary and his so many offices were as so many Pales or Ouches of gold in which were set all those most precious graces and abilities of the spirit as so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most precious filling stones by which he most compleatly fulfilled the whole work of his Mediatorship and of all his Offices They you know were three of Prophet Priest and King and he abundantly furnished with suteable Grace perfectly to fulfill them all 1. As Prophet In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2. 3. whereby he is most fully able to enrich our empty Heads and Hearts with that saving wisdom which is able to make us wise unto salvation And if Timothy by being much in Paul's Company came thereby fully to know his Doctrine 2 Tim. 3. 10. how much infinitely more must the Son by being in his Father's bosom come to know his will And as by a faithful John 1. 18. Treasurer what in this kind was laid up by him though hid from others yet is brought forth and imparted by him to his Servants Matth. 13. 11. This full fountain is dispersed abroad as his peoples occasions require And if Paul could say that he had fully Rom. 15. â—â— preached the Gospel how much more fully doth Christ both in his own Ministry and in his Servants both commissionated and enabled by him Oh! None teacheth like him Job 36. 22. None so convincingly clearly inwardly savingly There is an abundant over-flowing fulness in him as our Prophet to fill us even the most empty and ignorant with the saving knowledge of his will How eminently wonderfully have Idiots men of weaker parts and Rom. 1â— 14. Psal 19. 7. Making wise the simple Act. 6. 10. women of the weaker Sex not only been made wise to Salvation but also to silence and confound subtlest and most profound opposers which have not been able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which they spake both Scripture and Church Story fully evidence 2. As Priest according to the Hebrew Phrase his hands were filled in his full consecration to that office which he as fully executed as is fully cleared in the Epistle to the
Ranting Enthusiast-Gnosticks of this and former ages who of all men by reason of their abominable filthiness partake least of God and most of the beast and the Devil make yet greatest pretensions to whilest they give out that they are Godded with God and Christed with Christ such is their blasphemous gibberish Whatever either Fantastical or Diabolical trances such may have and divine illapses unions and communications they may vainly boast of yet I am sure that no evil dwells with an holy God Psal 5. 4. and that Christ is separate from such sinners Heb. 7. 26. What diviner raptures and heavenly ravishments I do not say a Platonick Philosopher in his speculations but an holy humble believing Soul may sometimes have in its holy meditations and devotions I neither envy nor now dispute only say with the Psalmist that it is good for me to draw near to God and that they are happiest who in a spiritual union and communion can get and keep nearest but to pretend to get so near as properly to participate of the essence of God flieth higher than Lucifer's pride Isa 14. 14. and is Antichristian Blasphemy 2 Thes 2. 4. I acknowledge some of the Fathers especially the Greek in their Rhetorical Hyperboles and desiring to express that lively image of God which his children have instamped upon them do indulge themselves a sufficient liberty as * Orat. 4. in Arrium Athanasius in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and †Orat. 42. p. 680. Basil orat 3. de sp Sanct. Nazianzen in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not as though they ever meant any such abolition of our nature and transformation of it into God's or participation of his essence which being in it self infinite is therefore to the finite creature incommunicable if Christs hypostatical union did not confound the natures and their properties much less will this mystical union of God and the soul work any commixtion or tranfusion of it into the Godhead 1. The three consubstantial persons of the Sacred Trinity only in common partaking if I may so call it of the Divine nature essentially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Christs humane nature not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nestorius blasphemed for so we partake of it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and personally which is his alone prerogative 3. It 's our highest honour and happiness that we may be made partakers of it by a participation of Divine Grace and image which is wrought in us by him and by which we are made conformable to him so far as the image of his infinite holiness is expressible in a limited and restrained being as the wax receives the impression of the Seal not the essence and that in a picture is called a face or hand which hath the likeness of it as he well expresseth it and as truly addeth that he who raiseth it Dr. Spurstow upon the Text. any higher must have swelling and lofty thoughts of the creature and low and most unworthy and dishonourable thoughts of God Thus Divines say we partake of the Divine nature accidentaliter per donum gratiae sanctificantis as we have Divine Grace wrought in us by the spirit of God which makes us like God But as for Cornel à Lapide's substantialiter which he adds as we are partakers of In Textum the spirit of God himself we shall speak of that by and by we are now dealing with Enthusiasts who as the Manichees of old held that by nature we are ex traduce Dei orti drops and And so as Caelestius said without Sin as God is Augustin de gestis Pelagii cap. ult beams and particles of the Deity so they conceit that in the way of their high attainments they are partakers of the very Godhead Godded with God and Christed with Christ as their blasphemous gibberish blunders it But how much more soberly and piously doth Cyprian express it Nostra ipsius conjunctio nec miscet personas nec unit substantias sed affectus consociat confoederat voluntates This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Divine nature is not the Divine Essence as they conceit it I acknowledge that * Tractat. de foedere in Gangraenâ doctrinae Anabaptisticae Clopenburgh and de †In Textum Dieu after him conceive otherwise and that as Jam. 3. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of beasts signifieth Beasts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of man a man so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine nature or nature of God may Oâ—thodoxally enough be taken to signify God as considered in his own nature and being but then that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or partakers is not here meant a transfusion or communication of They understand Communion rather than Communication the Divine Essence that in that sense we should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partakers of the Deity but only as Heathen Idolaters 1 Cor. 10. 20. are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have fellowship with Devils so true believers have not only a real communication of Divine Grace infused into them but also a true and blessed Communion with God himself and truly our fellowship is with the Father and the Son as the Apostle asserts it John 1. 3. Nor hath this exposition any thing in it which is contrary to piety or sound doctrine but yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sound a more inward and inherent communication of something and not only a bare communion and fellowship as one friend hath with another though that be included and of it some good Interpreters expound it 2. Others therefore interpret these words in reference to Christ as Ambrose and Oecumenius of his incarnation in which his humane Epist 38. nature was made partaker of the Divine because hypostatically united to it But 1. Therein the Son of God did more properly take part of our humane nature as is expresly said he did Heb. 2. 14. than we of the Divine 2. Besides that partaking was already in act ever since our Saviour's Cyprian saith divinae naturae communicamus per spiritum humanae per corpus de Nativitate Christi sect 7. birth and conception whereas this which the Apostle here speaks of was in part yet to be accomplished to believers in their several successions and further participation 3. And withall Thus all that have an humane nature might be said to be partakers of the divine which the Apostle here restrains to believers only 4. And therefore Cyril although he interpret it also with reference Catechis to Christ yet of our Symbolical partaking of him and so of God in the Eucharist This the Papists greedily swallow down as making they think for their Transubstantiation by which as they say they come to eat the very
material Body of Christ and so become Christiferi and Christo concorporei Christ being concorporated with them as the food is with the body for so they will expound those words of our Saviour John 6. 56. He that cateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him But although in the due receiving of that Sacrament we spiritually by faith are made partakers of whole Christ and so far as saving grace is conveyed to us in the use of it we may be truly said by it as by other Ordinances to be made partakers of that which the Apostle here calleth the Divine Nature yet 1. He speaketh more generally of it here than to be restrained to the effect only of that Sacrament 2. And more spiritually than to understand any such gross absurd and blasphemous commixture and concorporation of Christ's Body with ours so as to be this partaking of the Divine nature 3. Others therefore more rightly and properly interpret it in reference to the Holy Ghost and so C. à Lapide saith we are made partakers of the Divine nature not only accidentaliter as we are by the spirit of God and the work of his grace indued with Divine Qualities and Graces wherein especially the image of God consists and so by those Divine Lineaments drawn by the finger of God which are a shadowy representation of his glorious being and holiness we are made conformable to him and as Children like unto our Heavenly Father But he would have it also understood substantialiter that we Bonavent 1. Sent. dist 14. a. 2. q. 1. Thom. p. 1. q. 43. ar 3. 6. Vasquez Valent Suarez de Deo c. l. 12. c. 5. n. 11 12. are substantially also made partakers of the Divine nature in that the very person of the Holy Ghost is united to us and dwelleth in us as in his Temple substantially and personally novo modo and so in a manner deifieth us This he proveth out of others of their Authors Nor do I deny but that some of our own * Mr. Downham Mr. Cotton Vt in perfectis sima amicitiâ necessaria est amici praesentia Divines though I know none of them that expounds this Text of it do yet hold that not only the grace but even the person of the Holy Ghost is in an especial manner in Believers who is therefore as they conceive said to be given to them 1 John 3. 24. 4. 13. Rom. 5. 5. to be and to dwell and to abide in them John 14. 16 17. 1 Cor. 6. 19. and such like But although I fully believe these Scriptures and therefore subscribe to what Lombard lib. 1. dist 14. proveth out of Antiquity that the Holy Ghost himself is given to and dwelleth in believers yet as concerning that novus modus which they speak of I must confess my own ignorance as not knowing how the Holy Ghost being God and so in his Essence substance and person alike every where should in that respect be more present in believers than elsewhere but only in a more gracious and glorious presence of manifestation of himself to them and operation in them unless they would have the third person hypostatically united to believers as Christ's humanity was to the second person which Lapide's words seem something to sound like to when he saith that the Holy Ghost personally dwells in the righteous Soul which I suppose he meant not of a personal union but only an union of persons of the person of the Holy Ghost dwelling there not as though it were so personally that the spirit and the believing Soul were one person as it was with Christ's humanity in its hypostatical union with the second person of the Blessed Trinity which yet he there compareth this to and to my apprehension doth but nicely distinguish it from it whilst in that personal Union in Christ of the second person with the humanity he makes the bond and tye to be modus substantialis but in this personal Union of the third person with a believer the tie is grace as a quality But I leave these niceties which many a gracious Soul in which the Holy Ghost dwells by his grace cannot conceive and therefore troubleth not it self with It 's sufficient for my present purpose that he confesseth this grace of the spirit to be the medium vinculum causa of this personal indwelling of the spirit in us and therefore it is that as the spirit by his grace dwelleth in us we are made partakers of the Divine nature And this fitly leads me to that which undoubtedly and if not only yet is most fully and properly intended and held out by this Expression Partakers therefore we are of the Divine Nature See Forbes of justification Cap. 8. p. 23 24 25. Id praestant Christi beneficia illud maximè quod sumus filii Dei See Bellarmin de justific l. 2. c. 5. Quomodo autem c. 1. In and by the grace of Adoption and Sonship for by Adoption being called to the fellowship of Christ in his Sonship what he is by nature we are made by grace viz. the Sons of God and so Christs father is our father and his spirit our spirit and consequently the nature of all three being but one is in this relative sense communicated to us we as Sons having our subsistence from the Son who is one with the Father and we in our manner and measure one with them both even the Children of God and so partakers of the Divine Nature So Athanasius * Orat. 4. contr Arrium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by being partakers of the Son of God members of his body of his flesh and of his bones as the Apostle expresseth it Ephes 5. 30. we become thereby partakers of God and of this he addeth this Text is to be understood But as we are the Sons of God upon a double Title both of Adoption and Regeneration for whom he adopts to be Sons John 1. 12. he begets as Sons v. 13. so we are made partakers of the Divine nature upon a double interest as relative in adoption so 2. Positive and inherent in Regeneration and it carried on in sanctification and this I conceive here especially understood So Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 4â— Deiformes effecti Cyprian de singul Cleric Deiformi conversatione Idem de unctione Chrismatis S. 3 Deifico studio Idem de aleatoribus S. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Tom. 1. de lib. arbitrio Vt in his nos filios ejus veréque Deos praestemus Bucer in Rom. 2. Concil 2. pag. 120. Calvin Beza Piscator Lapide Amesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are made partakers of the Divine nature by partaking of the Holy Spirit as Athanasius in another place expressâ—th it de S. Trinit dialog Tom. 2. p. 164. whilest by the operation of the Divine Spirit in heart and life we are made like God in the one bearing his image
life yet as when among all the other creatures there was not a fit help for Adam he gave him Gen. 2. 20. a wiâ—e so when all the world and the riches and glory of it the greatest boon that the Devil could offer to Christ are not worth giving or taking to be a Christians portion the great God giveth himself to be that to his children It was the high honour that God put upon Adam that in regard of his rational being and dominion over his creatures which was one part of his image stampt upon him he made him like him and this was as the ground upon which that other part of his image was drawn which as the honour of our nature is in part yet continued in which sense the Apostle approved the Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for we are his off spring Act. 17. 28. not as though we were his natural sons and as creatures made of his essence as the Manichees and other Hereticks of old and Weigelius and other Fanatick Crocii Antiweigel parte 1. c. 2. q 1 2. c. 17. q. 4. Enthusiasts of late have blasphemed for so we are by way of creation not of generation which is his essential sons property this prerogative of our nature I acknowledge is our great honour and privâ—lege as we are reasonable men and of this St. Ambrose sometimes expounds my Text Dedit enim de cognatione suà rationabilis scilicet naturae but were this all we might be base and miserable enough for of such as were in this sense God's off spring our Saviour said they were the Children of the Devil John 8. 44. Adam in innocency had aâ— higher honour put upon him and a far nobler part of God's image stampt on him which was in righteousness and true holiness this by our sin and fall in him we have Ephes 4. 24. defaced and lost But oh the infinite condescending Philanthropy and love of God to mankind especially to Believers that to recover it and us he hath sent his only begotten Son into the World Cogitandum enim est unde nos Deus in tantum honoris culmen evehat Scimus quà m abjecta sit naturae nostrae conditio Quòd ergo Deus ità se nostrum facit c. Calvin in Textum Disp privat Thes 45 n. 8. C. à Lapide for him to be made partakers of our humane nature and â—hich next to it is the greatest gift that he â—ould bestow his own spirit into our hearts that we thereby might be made partakers of the Divine Nature What cannot omnipotent mercy do that makes these meet Consider we but seriously how infinitely glorioâ—â— and holy God is and how wofully base and sinful we are and we shall not be able but in an holy ecstasie with the Apostle to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O height and depth well might Arminius say that it 's Relatio disquiparantiae cujus fundamentum Christus nullâ re indigens terminus fidelis omnium egens that on God's part it is the lowest condescension and on our part the highest exaltation imaginable truly above all that we could ask or can think adeò sublimis est ut omnium Angelorum naturam superet nec altiùs assurgere potest homo as he speaks of it Man can be raised no higher and the Angelical nature of it self cannot rise so high Well might they in the words foregoing the Text be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding great superlatively great and most precious promises if by them we may be made partakers of the Divine Nature We so vile and filthy by nature Children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. to be made partakers of that Divine nature which is Hebr. 7. 26. Matth. 8. 8. so glorious and holy and separate from Sinners If the Centurion thought himself unworthy for Christ in his estate of humiliation to come under his roof how infinitely more unworthy we that the God of Glory should come into our Souls That he should ever draw so nigh to us and take us so near to himself to be Friends Sons Heirs not only to be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints but also of himself and his own nature is as much as God could give and infinitely more than the heart of man could think that he should ever receive and can we then do less than adore and bless him nay give up our selves to him who hath given his Son himself to us and be willing to be partakers of his sufferings 1 Pet. 4. 13. who hath made us partakers of his nature and happiness if we find it in our selves But what shall we do then when we meet with it in others but Vse 2 take heed that 1. We do not malign hate oppose and wrong it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest haply we be found to fight against God as Gamaliel warned the Council Act. 5. 39. It 's not haply but most certainly we shall so do in so doing for we hear that the faithful are partakers of the Divine nature and therefore hate them as such and you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God Rom. 1. 30. fight against them and you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fighters against God you persecute not them so much as Christ Act. 9. 5. you touch the apple of Gods eye Zech. 2. 8. whatever good or evil we have done unto them he takes as done unto himself Matth. 25. 40 45. As at that last day he will be glorified in his Saints 2 Thess 1. 10. so now he is opposed and persecuted in his Saints and this not only consequenter interpretativè but propriè formaliter It is the face and appearance of God in the Saints which the malice of ungodly Enemies directly strikes at and would wound him through their sides as David said the reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen upon me Psal 69. 9. Their natures are oftentimes so sweet and amiable that otherwise they could not but love them but it 's the Divine nature in them the bright lustre whereof angers their sore eyes and shames their filthy nakedness and that 's the reason why they so hate them Cajus Sejus was otherwise a good man but only evil in evil mens eyes because he was a Christian Had only an austere John Baptist lost his head or were they only harshly dealt with whose natural tempers and converse were more rigid and harsh we might think the cause of it were only in them but when Paul loseth his head too who even in Porphyries eyes was a man so full of worth and desireable when David was so cruelly persecuted who was so amiable when Christ himself who was sweetness it self was so bitterly hated and at last crucified and to this day when we shall see that Christians though otherwise in their carriage and temper never so sweet and pleasing yet if zealous and eminent in holding forth Gods truth and grace against other mens errors
〈◊〉 may ever have the upper hand Prefer Jerusalem above our chief joy Psal 137. 6. Love all men as men as the Prophet saith Hide not thy self from thine own flesh Isa 58. 7. but yet so as to love them most with whom we have one and the same spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. Honour all men but especially Love the brotherhood 1 Pet. 2. 17. Let at least humanity prevail with us to esteem and love all that with us partake of humane nature for so far we love our selves but so as to put more abundant honour on them who are made partakers of the divine nature for so we shall love God in them SERMON XVIII ON 2 PET. 1. 4. BUT that We may have this honour and love it will be Preacht at St. Maries June 21. 1657. Vse 3. required that we examine our selves whether we have attained to this true ground of it this truly honourable state of being made partakers of the divine nature Wherein that consists hath already in the general been declared in the former doctrinal explication the main of it was that divine grace was this divine nature Pelagius heretically called humane nature grace we may piously and truly call saving grace divine nature to be Godly is to be God like God is holy just wise good spiritual heavenly and it is his very nature to be so And he that is of such an heavenly spirit and carriage although nil humani à se alienum putat yet totus divinitatem spirat though otherwise he be a poor weak man subject to humane infirmities yet by this his conformity to God he is raised to divine perfection As the eye of faith under all that bloud and spittle saw on our Saviours face his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth John 1. 14. so the same eye under the mean outside of him who hath filled out of Christs fulness his measure of grace and holiness even grace for grace beholdeth with awful reverence and complacential love bright rayes and reflexions of divinity In his heavenly discourse it saith Non vox hominem sonat there is more than a man God speaks in him as Junius thought In ejus vitâ of that poor godly man who was one means of turning him from his Atheism And when it beholds his holy and heavenly conversation though it do not say with the Lycaonians Acts 14. 11. that Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men yet though but an Idiot he will report that God is in him of a truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. But enough of this in general Let us rather for our better direction consider some particular properties of this Divine Nature by which it may be discovered and manifested some from that it 's called Nature and some from that it 's stiled a Divine Nature 1. Nature is an inward inbred principle In natural bodies it 's ordinarily defined to be principium motûs quietis and so this Principium motûs intrinsecum Aquin. 1. 2 ae q. 10. a. 1. corp divine nature in a gracious spirit is an inward principle of power and act the spring that in this divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sets all the wheeles a going like the spirit of the living creatures in the wheels Ezek. 1. 20. In this sense our Saviour saith that the water which he giveth to the thirsty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it shall be in him but what a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4. 14. not a Cistern which hath all its water from without put into it It is so indeed as it hath all from God but in regard of outward supplies such a well it is that hath such a spring in it as from it self is continually bubbling and springing up to everlasting life It 's no artificial engine to spout out that water which it had not of its own but a true natural fountain that poureth out of what springeth up in it self Jer. 6. 7. as in the creation the herb brought forth seed and the tree fruit after its kind Gen. 1. 12. from its innate seminal vertue its inward natural temperament and constitution and the stone moveth down to the center and the sparks fly upward from their Job 5. 7. natural propension nature being that ingenita rei vis potentia quâ ipsa à seipsá movetur so in this new creation where there is a Divine Nature there is something within not only a blaze in the lamp but also oyl in the vessel Matth. 25. 4. an inward principle which sets the soul in motion to God and heaven these divine sparks naturally fly upward as it 's said of Timothy Philip. 2. 20. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did genuinely and naturally care for the things of God and his Church and Job said of himself that the root of the matter was in him Job 19. 28. contrary to what is said of the stony-ground hearer that he had not root in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 13. 21. which is the broad difference between a true born child of God and a formal hypocrite the one flutters and makes a great stir in the things of God but God knows and he himself knows and feels there is no inward vital principle that sets him on work nothing from within unless vain-glory or other finister â—imes and intentions which are only corrupt nature but usually all is from without either the applause or frowns of men and the one as the wind drives about the millsails which else would stand still and the other as those Trochlerâ— or water-works force the water upwards which else would lie below or fall downward But O friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he laid of Plutarch the dead statue which he could not make stand by it self there must be something within that goes to a divine nature an inward principle of Divine life and love which without these pullies and plummets sets the wheels of the soul on going God-ward Doth not even nature it self teach you saith the Apostle in that case 1 Cor. 11. 14. and doth not the Divine nature it self where-ever it is in truth from an inward principle and pondus animae prompt and incite and carry you out towards God in communion with him and obedience to him as Act. 18. 5. it 's said of Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was pressed in spirit occasioned by the Jews obstinacy but there was a spirit within him that pressed him to it But here take a double caution when I speak of this inward principle it is not with our Enthusiasts so to cry up a Christ within them as to cry down a Christ without them indeed without them because never truly in them Christ indeed dwells in our hearts but it is by faith Ephes 3. 17. and that is both brâ—d and fed by his word and ordinances Rom. 10.
of their recoveries The Sheep may fall in the dirt but it 's the unclean Swine that continueth to lie and wallow in it The seed of God may sometimes be 1 Joh. 3. 9. under-ground but if it abide in us as the Apostle speaks it will at last get up and out again As there is hope of a tree though when cut down the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground that through the scent of water it will sprout again and bud and bring forth boughs as a plant as Job speaks cap. 14. 7 8 9. So even a plant of righteousness may sometimes be so nipt and blasted that all may seem to be dead but being planted by the river implanted into Christ by the scent of water from this Divine nature and supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ after such a nipping Winter doth recover again its verdure in the spring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle of his Philippians Cap. 4. 10. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care hath flourished again Not like Jude's trees twice dead and pluckt up by Vers 12. the roots and so even dead without possibility of after-growth Till Nature be quite spent and extinct which the Divine Nature never can be it hath an inward natural Balsam in it which helps on its cure and recovery and as long as there is any breathing of the Divine Spirit it will at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up that 2 Tim. 1. 6. grace which seemed to be raked up under the dead ashes and blow it up into a brighter flame And therefore after such falls and stumbles labour we to express this Divine nature by these happy As corrupt nature breeds these decayes so let this Divine nature work these recoveries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. advers Colot as Cyprian Ep. 2. ad Donatum Quod sentitur antequam discitur after recoveries Nor doth it only play such after-games but is much discovered by its forehand quickness Grace is preventing as well as subsequent And this adds A seventh particular Nature hath its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sympathies antipathies its hints instincts and impetus which antevert the Acts of Reason prevent discourse and deliberation At the first blush the heart closeth with this thing or person before it can think why and riseth up in abhorrency and loathing of that other when it cannot tell wherefore Non amo te Volusi nec possum dicere quare It 's so with the Divine Nature It doth abstain and on the sudden start back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very first appearance of evil 1 Thess 5. 22. quicquid malè fuerit coloratum as Bernard phraseth it Some expound it of matters of Doctrine De Considerat lib. 3. and so the good Womans Spirit rose against false Doctrine preached though she could not say it was so some understand it of practice and so the chast Soul hates even the garment spotted with the flesh Jude v. 23. is troubled sweats and faints at the first appearance of it as some naturally do at the presence of that against which they have a secret Antipathy On the contrary at first sight or speech by an unio animarum closeth with persons of the same spirit and things that are as it were connatural before it hath time or leisure to give a rational account of it I know the word of God must be the standing rule both of our Faith and practice and am far from indulging the wild phansies and the sudden violent impetus of rash inconsiderate men and yet in some cases give much to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and propendency as also to the aversation of the spirits of sober godly men especially if of all or most as having in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something of the workings of this Divine Nature in them which anticipates their discourse and as John out-ran John 20. 4. Peter is got out before they can come to any deliberate resolution By its nature the Lamb dreads the Wolf when so young that it cannot discern him and we should discover more of this Divine Nature if by the divine instinct of it we can loath sin when we are otherwise so weak or surprized that we have not time or Nature doth act always as high as it can and then how high should this Divine Nature carry us ability to make a deliberate judgment of it 8. As Nature sometimes anticipates Reason so this Divine Nature always exceeds and goeth beyond that which is only humane Divinity is above Humanity Grace above Nature A Christian is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare man but more than a man And therefore to have or express no more than what Nature can work or natural men by other helps can attain to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk as men with the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 3. terminus minuens or as Cap. 6. 7. he calls the like it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a defect in which we fall much short of and below that which a man or God that is made partaker of the Divine Nature should arrive at and come up to For as man by nature and kind is and acts above other creatures so a Christian man should even above himself as a man and above other men that want that Divine Principle The widwives once said that the Hebrew women were not as the Egyptian women Exod. 1. 19. And truly the men of God should not be as other men I mean not more proud and froward and worldly but more holy and humble and unblameable than other men Samson the Nazarite became then only like another man when his locks were shaved off and the Spirit of God departed from him Judg. 16. 17 20. But as long as the sanctifying Spirit acts and abides in us we are true Nazarites as by our holy Vows separated to God so we should be though not wholly separated yet very much distinguished from other ordinary men Christ expects from us a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where much is given much is required and more than a Divine Nature could not be given therefore there he requires most Mat. 5. 47. something singular eminent and transcendent a proportionable distance from others in our lives which may answer that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we expect to be fixed between them and us after our deaths Luc. 16. 26. Contarenus de Justificat makes the comparison of the manners of a Rustick and of a Citizen or Courtier and a like difference he saith there is between the carriage of an earth-born sinner and a Saint made partaker of the Divine Nature The Sons of Princes should not be in the garb of Peasants children but that comparison is too low Between Nature and Grace there should be a more vast distance A Child of God should be as much above a natural man as heaven is above the
earth and as much above a fouler sinner as heaven is above hell But how then cometh it to pass that the roof of hell should be so nigh as I may so speak to the floor of heaven that there should be so little difference between the Apogaeum and highest of moral Heathens or other natural men and the Epigaeum or lowest of a collapsed or go-by-ground Christian Doth not this puff up proud Nature and if not debase the Divine yet make our Philosophical Christians think low and meanly of it Make it in these mens esteem but a name a thin fine notion and them that are partakers of it some Eutopian fancies which Preachers talk of but the world seeth little of SERMON XIX ON 2 PET. 1. 4. AND therefore that we may either prevent or refute these Preacht at St. Maries Jan. 17. 165â— their misprisions and blasphemies and convince them that this we speak of is a very reality be we exhorted to 3. things 1. To aspire and indeavour really to attain to this high dignity Vse 4 of being indeed partakers of this divine nature 2. Then to walk answerably to it and worthy of it 3. Because both will be here imperfect to long for heaven where both will be in their full perfection 1. First I say let us with our whole might aspire to this highest dignity and not rest till we arrive at this Divine Prerogative of being the Sons of God and so partakers of the divine nature John 1. 1â— And to quicken us hereto consider 1. How studious and ambitious men have alwayes been of nearness to great Princes and for that purpose of an imitation Camerar med cent 1. cap. 66. Eunomius cum impeditae linguae erat hoc facundiam fuisse dixit Philostorgius Niceph. lib. 12. cap. 29. Epist ad Laetam and likeness of their deportment fashions gestures and oftentimes even of their both moral yea and natural vices and deformities Poppea's yellow locks a beauty in the Court Leonides his gate and manners Alexander could not forbear to imitate as his Courtiers did many things in him A wry neck or a long hooked nose much doted on because it looked like an Emperours And for the minds complexion Hierom from experience could say Quorum virtutes assequi nequeas citò imitaris vitia when we cannot reach their vertues we are very prone to take up in imitating their vices like foolish wanton children when we cannot stride their steps in fair way we will follow them through the dirty puddle Exempla exemplaria so that the imitation As Lactantius observes lib. 5. c. 6. mores ac vitia regis imitari genus obsequii judicatur of their manners and vices their subjects account to be a piece of the homage they owe to them which therefore made Tully say that plus exemplo quam peccato nocent 3 de legibus they do more mischief by their example than by their sin Great mens examples I say are Laws and holy mens tempers and carriages have a kind of necessitating cogency in them to imitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Paul to Peter Why compellest thou the Gentiles to Judaize Gal. 2. 14. So like do we desire to be to good at least to great men but how much rather should we aspire and endeavour to be like to him who is Optimus Maximus to the great King and most holy God even God blessed for ever whose nature is most holy whose works are truth and his ways judgment Dan. 4. 37. in whose Divine Beauty is no deformity And therefore as our Saviour said to his Dâ—sciples Ye believe in God believe also John 14. 1. in me I may well say to all Do you imitate man shall we not imitate God and Christ rather If foolish men glory in an Apish symbolizing with men like themselves and that in their humane infirmities how glorious and therefore desirable should it be to us to partake with God in his Divine Nature and perfections 2. And this the rather because this high honour and happiness Obj. But you will say heaven is high and we cannot reach it God infinitely higher and therefore no possibility of imitation is attainable The happy event puts it out of question Many in all Ages of the Church have arrived at this height who have shewn forth the vertues of God who hath called them 1 Pet. 2. 9. who by emanations of Divine Grace in heart and life have expressed a participation of the Divine Nature and what in this kind hath been in some by the same Grace may be in others Ab esse posse c. did we but put forth the strength and activity of Pauls faith who could be and do all things through Christ strengthning him Phil. 4. 13. The Text in hand had we nothing else doth sufficiently clear this possibility for it doth not only say that precious promises were given to them that they may be partakers of the Divine Nature and Gospel-promises do at least assure us of a possibility and when by faith laid hold on of a certainty of their accomplishment but withal adds the happy event in their having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust In which this actual participation of this Divine Nature in part consisteth and by which according to the true sense and intention of the Apostle in his adding of those words it is evidenced Well then it 's hence plain that such a participation of the Divine Nature may be had and truly then such a may-be of such a mercy should be enough to any awaekned spirit to imploy and improve its utmost endeavours for the attaining of it It encouraged the Widow of Tekoah to make a great petition to David because she said in her self It may be the King will grant it 2 Sam. 14. 15. And It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction said David himself and upon that ground patiently endured it 2 Sam. 16. 12. Who knoweth saith the Prophet Joel 2. 14. and Who can tell said the people of Nineveh Jonah 3. 9. whether God will turn and repent and so the more seriously they set upon their duty that he might Truly Gods may-be's are better than mans shall-be's A may-be of salvation is one of the first casts of faiths eye to justification In matters of outward estate we much value even our possibilities and they set the whole world upon busie action What crowds of poor where a doal may be had What trâ—dging over sea and land for a may-be of profit And if such an height of honour or place may be got up to what creeping up though upon hands and feet as Jonathan 1 Sam. 14. 4 13. V. 6. between sharp rocks to come at it upon this very ground it may be the Lord will work for us As it was enough for Jacob to hear that there was corn in Egypt to be had though he was not assured to have any of it to
spirit of God could effect it for so that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As by the spirit of the Lord signifieth causam congruam dignam tantae transformationis as C. à Lapide rightly observeth All cometh to this and all fully to my present purpose That now when God is in Christ so fully as I may say exhibited and exposed to our view and in the Gospel so clearly manifested and held forth to us He expecteth and where grace prevaileth he thereby effecteth such a change and transformation that we are not like our former selves but are molded into his likeness and having laid aside our corrupt nature we are made partakers of his Divine Nature This is or should be according to Paul's doctrine there the effect of the Gospel and as Calvin observeth upon my Text according to Peter's doctrine here when he saith that the exceeding great and precious Gospel-promises are given to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by them we should be partakers of the Divine Nature He telleth us this is the end of the Gospel Notemus hunc esse Evangelii finem ut aliquando Deo conformes reddamur id verò est quasi Deificari that at last we may be conformable to God which is as it were to be Deified or as our Apostle phraseth it to be made partakers of the Divine Nature Which whilst we are so plentifully partakers of the Gospel we should be exceedingly ashamed of that we so far fall short of it which yet the very Heathens so much aspired to who fell so short of us as thus in pattern so 2. In principle for as our pattern is more clear so our principle is more high This conformity to God in true Christians you heard from 2 Cor. 3. 18 is from the spirit of the Lord whilst by the spirit of Christ inlightning and regenerating we are renewed after the Image of God Col. 3. 10. As also from faith in Christ laying hold of thâ—se exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel and on Christ in them from whose fulness alone God would have us receive grace for grace grace in us answerable and conformable to grace in him and so to be partakers of the Divine Nature Now this faith these promises this Christ and this spirit of Christ those Heathens and their most â—â—â—limate Philosophers were utter strangers to him they knew not to him by faith they went not nay out of themselves they went not but to their Philosophical moral considerations and their purgative vertues to which they ever joyned their heathenish idolatries and superstitious lustrations and sacrifices With Porphyrie to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 charms and sorceries as utterly inconsistent with the Divine nature as the true God is contrary to a vain idol and therefore it is no wonder that it was so wofully deformed a deiformity which they arrived at how trimly soever their admirers do trim it up and turkess it And therefore when there is so much more light and power in the Gospel when our both pattern and principle so far every way exceed theirs Surely God cannot but expect that it should be another-kins likeness to him that we should attain to than what they arrived at And on the contrary let us sadly think what a shame it is to us and to the Gospel too that when there is so much of God in it there should be so little in us who profess it That when we read David's Psalms and the other Prophets writings in the old Testament we should find so much light and life that they both breath and express so much of God in them and we so little so that in truth although as Eusebius observeth they were not called yet indeed they were the true Christians and many of us are really as much without God as we are strangers from that Commonwealth of Israel Especially that even Heathens should herein exceed us that they should so honourably speak of that God whom we so blaspheme that they should express more of God by the twilight of nature than we in the sun-shine of the Gospel that Erasmus should so hardly forbear to pray to Socrates as a Saint whilst many who are named Christians may without breach of charity be called Atheists that any of us should have upon us such black marks of the Devil when on many of them we may discover though ruder yet very lovely characters and lineaments by the help only of their natural Divinity of the Divine nature which we who have better means in all reason should be more possessed of SERMON XX. ON 2 PET. 1. 4. AND should it be here asked what those means are which Quest we should make use of whereby to attain to this high honour and happiness I must answer that all that we of our selves can do as to any Ans inward worth or efficacy operative of so great an effect is just nothing We that can do nothing to make our selves men surely can do as little to make our selves men of God can less concur to the producing of this Divine nature than we did to our humane both are a Creation and therefore the work of God only but yet so as we are to make our addresses to him for the one now that we have a natural being which we could not for the other when he had none And here as the Divine nature essentially considered in God is common to all thâ—â—hree persons so this communicated symbolical Divine nature in us is the common work of them all and therefore to them all we are to make our applications for it 1. To God the Father who as he is Fons Deitatis and communicates Means that Divine nature to the Son and the spirit so he is Fons Gratiae and through the Son by the Spirit imparts this Divine nature to all his children It was his breath that breathed into Adam at first that soul in which especially was his image and it must be his breathing still that must breath into our hearts that divine grace in which consists that his image renewed and this Divine nature God our Creatour is the Author of this new Creature And here the means of it on our parts is by humble and earnest prayer to breath after him for it as the dying man gaspeth for breath that is going away or rather as the dry earth gapeth for heavens rain and influence which it wanteth and so in this systole and diastole upon the out-breathing of our souls and desires followeth in God's way the breathing in of this Divine breath of life the quickning spirit by which we are made spiritual living souls In this case it was said of Saul Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. For although it be true that the prayers of the wicked whilst they purpose to go on in sin are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28. 9. And as true that the prayer
FORTY SERMONS UPON Several Occasions By the Late REVEREND and LEARNED Anthony Tuckney D. D. Sometimes Master of Emmanuel and St John's Colledge successively and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of CAMBRIDGE Published according to his own Copies By his Son JONATHAN TVCKNEY M. A. Sometimes Fellow of St John's Coll. in Cambridge LONDON Printed by J. M. for Jonathan Robinson and Brabazon Aylmer at the Golden Lyon in St Pauls Church-Yard and at the three Pigeons in Cornhill MDCLXXVI TO THE READER Christian Reader THat thou art here presented with the ensuing Sermons is from the same desire and design that acted the Reverend Author in the preaching of them viz. of recommending the Truth and Grace of God to whomsoever they shall come And having been with approbation and acceptance entertain'd in those publick Auditories where they were delivered It is to be hoped that being now exposed to publick view from the Press they will no less both profit and delight The matter and contexture of them will easily induce any who knew the Author to believe them to be his But that none may think themselves imposed upon they may be assured that they have all been carefully and faithfully transcribed out of his own Notes which he left behind him And though some of them may be more peculiar in their use to some sort of persons according to the Auditories whereto they were preached yet even in them there is handled matter of universal Christian knowledge That therefore the great end of all Preaching Writing and Reading namely Knowing Loving and Living to God in Christ may hereby be promoted God Himself of His mercy grant who teacheth his to profit And so neither shall the Publisher to whom the Author's memory ought to be ever precious nor the Reader have cause to repent them Decemb. 6. 1675. Jonathan Tuckney THE TEXTS OF THE Several Sermons 12 SErmons on Phil. 3. 8. and on 5 and 6 Verses viz. V. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. V. 5. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the Tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the Law a Pharisee V. 6. Concerning zeal persecuting the Church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless Sermon 13 14 15 and 16. on Prov. 8. 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their Treasures Sermon 17 18 19 and 20. on 2 Pet. 1. 4. That by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature Sermon 21. on Philip. 1. 27. Only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ Sermon 22 and 23. on Psalm 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfections but thy Commandment is exceeding broad Sermon 24. on Exodus 28. 36. Holiness to the Lord Sermon 25. on Matth. 5. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt have lost his savour wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under-foot of men Sermon 26 and 27. on Isa 32. 1 2. V. 1. Behold a King shall reign in righteousness and Princes shall rule in Judgment V. 2. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the Tempest as rivers of water in a dry place and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Sermon 28. on John 5. 14. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple and said unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Sermon 29 30 31. on Psalm 73. 28. But it is good for me to draw near to God Sermon 32 33. on Luke 21. 19. In your patience possess ye your Souls Sermon 34 35 and 36. on Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. Sermon 37 and 38. on Matth. 24. 45 and 46. Who then is a faithful and wise Servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his Houshold to give them meat in due season Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Sermon 39 and 40. on Philip. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain SERMON I. PHILIPPIANS 3. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. THE Creature at best is but finite so that we may At St. Maries in Cambridge July ..... 1646. very easily look round about it and as it is Psal 119. 96. see an end of all the perfection of it and withal so empty and defective that the nearer Sermon I we come to it the more we discover the blemishes of it and oftentimes our own folly also in overvaluing it Fuit manè ecee fuit Leah But Infinitum Gen. 29. 25. non potest transiri the infinite perfection and fulness of Christ is such that as none knows it but he that enjoys it so he that knows and enjoys it most sees further cause to account him more than all and all besides him nothing As the longer the eye looks upon the body of the Sun the more it 's blinded from seeing other things below whilst it is more and more dazled with its light and brightness It was so here with our Blessed Apostle whilst he by an eye of faith was looking up to the Sun of righteousness there was heighth and depth length and breadth which he could not comprehend Divine Beauty more ravishing at the second view a growing excellency and worth as sometimes of the Sibylls Books at every after prizing rising to a higher rate And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 latter thoughts proved the better that as time was when Christ in himself grew and increased in favour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jacturam feci C. à lapide similitud◠est sampta à navigantibus Calvin in locum both with God and man Luke 2. 52. So he is a rising Sun still in S. Paul's increasing admiration and love of him and that even when he had lost all for him To which purpose in these 7th and 8th Verses which we may call Paul's Bill of Rates there are two things very observable 1. How he doubles his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all three words twice used and if you will take in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 7th verse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 8th you have them thrice in two verses To express as the strength of his affection so the setledness of his judgment that what he said non excidit imprudenti was not a rash inconsiderate brag which afterward upon better thoughts he ate up again but what with his whole heart and most deliberate resolution he would stand to Nor is this all But consider as first how he doubles and trebles his words so 2. Secondly ut crescit surgit oratio how his speech riseth 1. From an 〈◊〉
Grace It 's Christ the Everlasting Father who in this sense of his own good will begets us James 1. 18. P. Martyr conceiveth that for the Godly Parents sake God may do much to their Children at least in a tendency hereto ut ad fidem adducantur donis spiritûs i◠Rom. 11. 16. Minimè sanctitatem ur à cum semine transfundi◠imò potius peccatum naturae vitium instruantur And I deny it not but yet so as that he there confesseth that they do not propagate grace with nature but sin rather Such a propagation of holiness had been by the first Covenant in the first Adam if he had stood but in the second Covenant it 's not so derived by Parents but infused by Christ the second Adam immediately from himself So that although it be sometimes called the holy seed yet that 's meant of federal holiness or of the Mal. 2. 15. Isa 6. 13. former advantages to true holiness not of any necessary or constant bestowing much less of any natural propagating it to their posterity Though the mother was an elect Lady yet it was only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 John 1 4. not all but well that some of her Children walked in the truth For 3. Very often good mens Sons prove as bad as others indeed sometimes very good and it was Jacob's preheminence above his Gen. 49. 26. Progenitors that all his Children were taken into the Church But Josiah was a very good man too and yet whereas he had but four Sons 1 Chron. 3. 15. they all proved stark naught A just man Of three of them See 2 Chron. 36. of the fourth See Jer. 22 Anonym Annot. Cantabrigiae begets a robber and shedder of blood Ezek. 18. 10. as we read Judg. 20. 16. there were seven hundred men left-handed of Benjamin who had his name from the right hand Upon which one not more argutely than truly and piously Ità non rarò scaevolae nascuntur à Benjamin dextrae filio and imitate them rather in their deformities and sins than in their graces and beauties 4. Nay too often best mens Sons prove the very worst Adam had a Cain Noah a Cham Abraham an Ishmael Isaac an Esau 1 Sam. 2. 12. Hezekiah a Manasseh Elies Sons the Sons of Belial Many of Davids Sons proved notoriously wicked and the unworthy base Nabal is 1 Sam. 25. 3. registred to have been of the most noble and generous Caleb's posterity The Jews who claimed Abraham for their father John 8. 33 39. our Saviour Matth. 3. 7. calls a generation of vipers and saith they were of their father the Devil V. 44. Nati de amico Dei Abraham vitio suo facti sunt quasi filii Cham as Hierom saith on Jer. 2. 14. A sad truth so notoriousl known that it came to be a Proverb both with the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acetum vini proles Wine begets Vinegar and with the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heroum filii noxae And I wish that our sad experience here in the University of many promising blossoms cankered in the bud of very many godly mens Sons if not wofully debauched yet much degenerated did not prove this too true and that the Papists had not such occasion to condemn our Ministers marriages by reason of the frequent abominable miscarriages of their Children as of old the seven Sons of Sceva the chief of the Priests proved Vagabond Exorcists Acts 19. 13 14. Thus Corruptio optimi est pessima and best mens Sons prove oft the worst of Sinners whilst pinning their faith on their Parents Sleeves they do not only thereupon not accept of Christ as the Jews upon this account rejected him because they were Abraham's Seed John 8. 33. but also think it will bear them out in their grossest impieties 5. And as thus they are often most enormously sinful so of all most extreamly miserable 1. For a Godly Parents Covenant will not in this secure and exempt their ungodly Children when by their degenerateness they cut off the entail of those mercies which would otherwise follow upon it Not from temporal Judgments here Sad is that word of such that they that found them devoured them and that because they Jer. 50. 7. had sinned against the Lord the hope of their fathers Because God had been the hope of their Godly Fathers therefore it made their wicked Childrens Case desperate So that as Ezekiel adds even Noah Daniel and Job three men eminent for piety and for protracting or diverting of God's judgments from others should not be able to deliver either Sons or Daughters Ezek. 14. 16 20. Nor from eternal at the last day And here Consider 1. With what face wilt thou then look upon thy godly Parent A sad last meeting who wilst remember what Prayers he made for thee what counsel and admonitions he gave thee and what care every way he took about thee to keep thee from that place of torment and all in vain It was a piercing word of that man of God on his Death-Bed Mr. R. Bolton which he charged his Children standing about him that they should not dare then to appear before him much less before Christ in an unregenerate Condition 2. Again think what sinking over-whelming grief and confusion A sadder last parting it will be then as our Saviour said to see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and so your godly Parents and Friends in the Luke 13. 28. Kingdom of heaven and your selves thrust out and so vast a gulf set between them that were by nature so nearly united Parting of friends though but for a time and for necessary and good occasions do now oft-times occasion tears and at parting at death or by some heavy outward judgment very sad ones when one is taken and the other left Luke 17. 34. though they be taken away to heaven whither we have hope to follow after them But such a sad parting as this is when we shall go away into everlasting punishment and our godly Parents into life eternal never never Matth. 25. 46. never to enjoy or see them more unless it should be as the Rich man that saw Abraham afar off he himself being in torment The Luke 16. 23. thoughts of this should sink into our hearts now else it will sink us into the very lowest depths of despair and Hell then Unless 3. This prove yet a lower that those Godly Parents of thine And the close of all saddest of all who whilest they did not know whether God would have mercy on thee as David for his sick Child 2 Sam. 12. 22. fasted and prayed and wept over thee when they see the issue and the good will of God accomplisht upon thee they will then quietly acquiesce in it Nay as then God will laugh at thy destruction and mock when Prov. 1. 26. thy fears then are come so that godly Woman when she had used all
not be very highly prized and much loved for it I pray let our love be real to him who is substance constant to him who is an everlasting inheritance and full to him who here undertakes to fill our Treasures Even so Amen Lord Jesus SERMON XVII ON 2 PET. 1. 4. Preacht at St. Maries Cambridg March 8. 1656 7. That by these you * Efficiamini vulg fieretis Calv. might be partakers of the †Godly Prior. Translatio Tyndal Estius contra Pindar Olymp. Od. 6. Divine Nature * Should Genev THis Verse most Interpreters take to be part of the Apostles Preface to his Epistle wherein according to the old Rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a skilful architect prefaceth a magnificent Palace with a stately Porch and Front so he his after discourse with a glorious Entrance It being the manner of the Apostles in the Proems of their Epistles to put together a Summary of the Gospels Mysteries so Paul usually in his and so our Apostle Peter in the entrance into his former Epistle and the same course he takes in the four first Verses of this in which the various readings are so many and both the words and connexions of sentences so dubious that it makes the sense difficult which Camerarius observes to be more in this Epistle than in most other Apostolical Writings However it 's plain that being in the sequel of the Epistle to exhort to true piety and a Vt neque breviùs nec diviniùs poterit Christi officium omnisque nostra salus per partes explicari in vers 3. gracious conversation he doth in this Preface lay down and Beza saith it could not be more briefly and divinely as a foundation of it the true causes of our Salvation and as Beza noteth especially of Sanctification As in particular 1. For the causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first original cause it 's free grace by lot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 1. and gift 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 3. and to make sure of it the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is again repeated v. 4. 2. The procuring meriting cause is made the righteousness of Jesus Christ as our God and Saviour v. 1. 3. The immediate working cause is assigned to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine power v. 3. working in us a communication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an answerable Divine nature v. 4. namely in our effectual vocation wherein we are called to glory and vertue or rather because the words in the original are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Camerarius by glory and vertue that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most gloriously and powerfully so that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the vulgar it's likely found it and therefore rendred it by his own proper glory and vertue v. 3. 4. For the instrumental cause we have it twice expressed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knowledge or acknowledgment of Jesus Christ v. 2 3. which is nothing else but that precious faith v. 1. which layeth hold on precious promises in this verse or the word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which here signifieth promissa rather than prómissiones the benefits or things promised rather than promises and therefore are said here to be given whereas promises are rather said to be made so 1 John 2. 25. This is the promise which he Promissa vel promissiones i. e. pretiosa maxima beneficia quae per Prophetus olim se daturum promiserat c. Estius in locum See also Bellarmin de justif lib. 2. cap. 5. sect Quomodo autem c. hath promised even eternal life though with reference to the promises the promises as moral causes alluring and attracting us to all Divine Purity Dr. Hammond and the things promised faith repentance holiness grace glory mean by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all those things which pertain to life and godliness in the beginning of the third verse and as some conceive Piscator Beza and our Translatours that glory and vertue in the end of it All these great and precious things promised as proper and Physical causes do formally make us partakers of the Divine Nature And that is the Truth expresly laid down in the words of the Text and more particularly to be made out in our handling of them That they who are effectually called are by the divine power Doct. made partakers of the Divine Nature The subject persons are such as are called to the faith and acknowledgement of Jesus Christ v. 3. The effecting cause is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most divine power in the same third verse And the most happy and blessed effect is answerably a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine nature in this verse It 's neither what nature in its utmost energy can produce nor what any mere natural man or Philosopher as such whatever they talk of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest Apogaeum of their most sublime attainments can arise up to It 's only a Divine Power that can produce this Divine Nature and precious faith in Christ which alone instates the Christian believer in this most precious promise or promised mercy of being made partaker of it In the handling whereof two things I shall especially intend 1. Explication by endeavouring to shew what is meant by it and contained in it 2. Application and what improvement we are to make of it For the first what is meant by this Divine Nature and our communicating Explication or being made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partakers of it diverse men according to their different apprehensions and perswasions determine diversly They may be reduced to these three They interpret it either 1. to God simply 2. or to Christ 3. or to the Holy Ghost 1. They who are most corrupt understand it of a real participation of the Divine Essence as Osiander will have us justified by Gods and Christs essential justice and Scruetus to his very death Beza in Text. Epist. ad Barthol Carthusiensem maintained that the essential Godhead is transfused into the Godly as the Soul is into the body by which it is animated and inacted and Gerson's Contemplativi and some high flown Platonists of our times take but a little lower flight whilst they with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2. 18. say that by their divine contemplations they are abstracted from their own dark personality their humanity annihilated and they swallowed up Miro incognito modo à Deo rapitur in Deo suscipitur tota Deo plena fit tota in Deum transfunditur ita ut essentia Dei ejus essentiae substantiae intimè absque ullo modo creato uniatur Vide Casaub Enthusiasm pag. 113. Mores 2. lash of Alazon pag. 43. Psal 73. 28. in the profound abyss of the Divinity into which they are wholly transported Which also the even
Ephes 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. and in the other shewing forth his vertues and graces 1 Pet. 2. 9. made one spirit with him 1 Cor. 6. 17. not by any Partnership of his Essence and substance but of excellent graces holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. pure as he is pure 1 John 3. 3. merciful as he is merciful Luke 6. 36. perfect as he is perfect Matth. 5. 48. grace for grace John 1. 16. as the Child to the Father member for member or in the Wax to the Seal stamp for stamp or in the glass face to face being changed from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Câ—r 3. 18. This likeness to God and imitation of him in hatred of sin in holiness righteousness and all other graces is as a transcript of what is in God originally and infinitely A new Creature is this Divine nature when from an inward Divine Principle and energy as in the Glossary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Ingenium in word and deed we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 express God as well as our selves and in many things God and not our selves or God more than our selves we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ignatius and others Deo pleni So gratia habitualis est Divina natura participata Aquin. 12. q. 110. See Gibicuf lib. 1. cap. 17. pag. 108. of old were stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like God and as Adam at first having God's image in holiness and righteousness stampt upon him was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God Gen. 3. so a true Saint having this image renewed in him is as God vir Divinus which is even the highest Title which the Socinians will vouchsafe the second Adam our blessed Saviour In a word when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hierocles expresseth it or as Calvin quantum modulus noster feret sumus unum cum Deo as far as our measure reacheth we are like God one with God we are here said to be partakers of the Divine nature Which is evident from the words foregoing and following 1. The Text that you might be partakers of the Divine Nature and immediately follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust added on purpose by way of exposition to tell us what it is in and by which we are made partakers of the divine nature not of God's divine essence so as to Hoc ipsum indicat cum definit naturae divinae participem fieri idem esse ac mundi corruptionem effugisse Beza be Godded with his Godhead for whosoever should ascribe to it the escaping of pollution would thereby most unworthily and blasphemously disparage his infinite and essential holiness but only a participation of his heavenly grace whereby in a way and frame of sanctification we escape worldly pollutions 2. Again immediately before the words of the Text it 's said there are given to us exceeding great and precious promises whereby we are made partakers of the Divine nature It seemeth theâ—â—fore we have it by promise so hath not God it being his essence and nature nor should we if we had his very nature of which there is no one promise made us in the whole book of God unless that of the Devils ye shall be like God Gen. 3. but of Divine grace and sanctification very many 3. And lastly that which in the Text is called a giving to us that whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature in the foregoing verse is called the divine powers giving to us all things that pertain to life and Godness and as many expound that which followeth a calling of us to glory and vertue The divine nature then is in that which pertains to godliness and vertue here in an estate and way of grace and to life and glory in the other world which leads to the 3. Third and last particular of our being partakers of the Divine Nature and that is the perfecting of grace in glory when God Beza Diodat Estius Lapide and so Calvin expounds this place Instit lib. 3. cap. 11. sect 10. shewing himself face to face shall so fill us with his light and life that then we shall be most fully Deopleni most perfectly like him when we shall see him as he is 1 John 3. 2. And if by beholding him in the glass of the Gospel in the face of Christ we are here transformed from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord into a most divine and heavenly conformity 2 Cor. 3. 18. what a far greater tranâ—figuration will it at last be when we shall be once got up into the holy mount and there see God and Christ face to face Oh how shall we then be changed from glory to glory when made 2 Thes 2. 14. partakers of the glory of Christ John 17. 22 24. and the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. when we shall as much as we are capable of Rom. 15. 7. transire in Deum be transformed into his likeness in the immediate fruition of himself there where all old things and whatever See Calvin in Psychopannuch pag. 558. we were before more unlike to God in shall pass away and God only shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. Thus at last in these particulars we have seen what it is to be made partakers of the divine nature and in the explication of them there hath gone along with it a sufficient proof that true believers are so and by truly being God-like do make good their name while they are called Godly And because the main thing I intended in the choice of this argumeâ—â— was the due improvement of it in heart and life Let us first with all humble reverence and thankfulness to God Vse 1 in Christ admire and adore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this his On bended knees with hands and hearts lifted up to God let us say now thanks be to God for this unspeakable gift unspeakable gift inenarrable that cannot be uttered or declared sufficiently The Apostle 2 Cor. 9. 15. used that phrase of God's makâ—ng the Corinthians willing and ready to communicate of their outward and temporal goods to the Saints but by how much greater right may we apply it to Gods giving himself and in the sense before explained communicating of his own nature to sinneâ—s The poor Scholar when he had nothing else he gave himself to his master and the great God as having nothing greater sweareth by himself Heb. 6. 13. so having nothing better he giveth himself to his servants It was Peters poverty that made him say to the Cripple silver and gold have I none but such Act. 3. 6. as I have give I thee But it is the unsearchable unvaluable riches of Gods grace who though he could say the silver and gold is Psal 50. mine Hag. 2. 8. when all the silver and gold in the world is his to bestow upon the heirs of
and lusts are therefore cried out against as austere and rigid and sowr and accordingly sowrly dealt with as sometimes the frost is very sharp when the day is still and serene the case is plain that whatever is pretended persecution is raised for the words sake Matth. 13. 21. For thy sake are we slain all the day long could they say Psal 44. 22. and to this day may others say it 's for Gods truth and holiness sake that some are so maligned and opposed by Strangers and Enemies whose dislike of them is truly grounded on this that they are more God-like than they would have them It would therefore be very well that such would think what they do and what at last will be the issue of it for certainly he that will spit against the wind will spit in his own face and he that dasheth against the Rock will be dashed in pieces Matth. 21. 44. If it be the Divine nature in them which thou opposest it 's but Devilish malice that proves the Satan the adversary It will be wisdom therefore here to forbear Take heed thou speak not to Gen. 31. 24. Acts 5. 38. Matth. 27. 19. 2 Chron. 25. 19. them good nor bad Refrain from these men and let them alone Have nothing to do with those just men For as Joash said to Amaziah Why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt Iron of it self may be handled and if you will roughly but if it have fire in it touch it and it will burn your Fingers In themselves they are poor men and you may do your pleasure with them but if God be in them take heed touch not mine anointed Psal 105. 15. as Esther 6. 13. Haman's Wife told him that if Mordecai were of the seed of the Jews he should not prevail against him so if they be the seed of God in fighting against God either in himself or his Children thou wilt never prosper If it be the Divine nature that is in them be never so either unnatural or ungracious as to hate despise or oppose it But 2. On the contrary let us own love and honour it whereever we find it Let us own God and his image in his poorest servants Let it be evident to us that we our selves are partakers of the divine nature when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even naturally and from a divine natural instinct and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sympathy we close and clasp with it love and honour and cherish it in others both it and them for it how mean and abject and despised soever they may be otherwise That the dunghill-cock should preter the barly-corn before the Gem that a stranger should ask the spouse what is her beloved above another beloved is no wonder no more is it for an ignorant Cant. 5. 9. carnal worldling who knoweth not the spiritual worth of the things of God to undervalue the children of God or to account 1 Cor. 2. 14. them the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things 1 Cor. 4. 13. But for professed Christians to think goodly of him that hath a gold ring on and gay apparel and mean while to tread under James 2. 2 3 4 5. their foot-stool a Saint rich in faith as a child of God partaker of the divine nature and heir of the Kingdom because of his poor raiment and mean outside is most unworthy Let me ever value a diamond though in the dirt above a pibble or clott of earth though set in gold a poor Christian all glorious within though with them Hâ—b 11. 37. clad with sheep skins and goat skins above all the Sattins and Velvets and â—uffling gayeties of other bug men who have little or nothing of God in them Introite nam bîe Dii sunt Any appearance of God is glorious but this of saving grace in his Saints which rendreth them most precious and honourable next after that which appeared in Christ is most glorious as Christ of John Baptist What went you out to see a man cloathed in soft raiment or a Prophet Yea I say unto you more than Matth. 11. 8 9. In Ignatii martyrio a Prophet more than a bare man one that hath much of God in him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ignatius explained it to Trajan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as we read of those Christians in Justin Martyr which had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even God himself may I say inshrined in their souls and consciences and what is then due to them No divine worship as would be if Weigelius and other Enthusiasts conceipts of our being of the very essence of God were true and which some of our Blasphemers have of late given and received which an Angel refused and therefore it is Luciferian Devilish pride to entertain though the godly be partakers of the Revel 19. 10. divine nature yet they may not be of divine worship But yet upon this ground there is due to them 1. Great Honour and reverence for if we ought so to reverence the image of God looking out in Magistrates and Superiours who are therefore called Gods Psal 82. 6. in regard of their greatness is there none due to the Saints who resemble him in his holiness and goodness The hollow of a Paphnutius eye put out for Christs sake is worthy of the kiss of an Emperour 2. Singular and transcendent love and this in the fruits and effects of it in bounty if they need for if they be partakers of the divine nature what we give to them we lend to the Lord. However in most ardent affection let this divine nature inkindle this divine flame and more to them than to other men and to them most in whom most of God appears Good is to be done unto all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but especially unto them which are of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. Be reconciled as your phrase is to the whole creation and let your love be as universal as you can to all mankind to brotherly kindness we must add love 2 Pet. 1. 7. Be we not so prodigal of our love to the Saints that we prove so niggardly that we have none for others but yet on the contrary although our love should be universal yet it should not be equal extended to all but yet so as more intensely set on such whom he bestows his peculiar love upon and ours should imitate his be discriminant as his is The Arminians in their doctrine so enlarge Gods saving love to all that they lessen it to those whom God will have the greatest sharers in it and so whilst they divide the river into more channels make it more shallow where he will have it run in a more full stream Let not us be Arminians in our practice so to love all as in a manner to love all alike Let a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of mankind go always along with us but so as this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
17. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 2. Nor is it to strike down such poor Christians as are already sinking by reason of inward faintness I acknowledge that in the new-born babe through weakness of nature this pulse may be weak and in the grown Christian through accidental corruptions and temptations there may be obstructions and interruptions but then the man is the more sick for it and nature thus oppressed if it be Divine struggles and groans the more under it when the man of God cannot do the good that he would he cryeth out of himself as a wretched miserable man for it Rom. 7. 18 24. though the root of the matter be in him as it was in Job yet sometimes it may be under-ground and as seed sown under a great weight of earth that keeps it under but it works and works and at last peeps out and then sprouts and springs apace such an inward principle there is in nature and such also in the soul that is made partaker of the divine nature in its outgoings to that which grace hath made connatural to it 2. Hence in the second place from this inward principle natural motion of it self is ready and free not forced or violent With what inward freedom doth my heart go out to him whom I naturally love and with what a free source doth the fountain cast out or as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the active form signifieth empty her waters that naturally flow from it And A free spirit Psa 51. 12. how willing a people are God's in the day of his power Psal 110. 3. and our Saviour sheweth that as free a current floweth from this fountain of life when in the place before quoted he John 4. 14. saith that his Spirit and Grace shall be as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well of water so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aquae salientis of water springing freely fully spouting yea leaping up to everlasting life No need of pumping and pulling How naturally doth such a Soul fall into thoughts of God and desires after him O! never more free than when it can run in this Channel most freely Or if at any time as too often it is this current be hindred or dammed up what a complaining murmur may you hear though without murmuring against God and how may you see it though not rising and swelling in discontent and pride yet running over in tears of true repentance And therefore for trial know that a constant As Hos 11. 7. bent to backsliding from God and total averseness from God and the things of God speaks plainly either a Devilish temper or at best corrupt nature And although as in some cases in a mans body there may be listlesness where there is life so an auk backwardness may and often doth consist with the Divine Nature yet it 's but as life in such a weak sick body in which nature is oppressed Grace is but weak or weakned the man of God in such a case stands in great need of cure and relief that his Soul may freely breath and go out to God as Davids did naturally to his Son Absalom 2 Sam. 13. 39. 3. As natural actions and motions are free so thereupon they are not irksome and grievous but pleasing and delightful How merrily doth the wheel run down the Hill from its natural propension And with what delight doth the Scholar plod even on those harder studies to which he is naturally affected The generous Wine with a kind of jollity and tripudium mantles and sparkles upward when in Solomon's phrase it moves it self Pro. 23. 31. Psal 19. 5. Psal 119. 32. aright and the Sun in its natural course rejoiceth as a mighty man to run his race but not so much as the man of God when his heart is enlarged to run the ways of Gods Commandments The generous spiritual Christian never thinks he mounts so right or with more delight than when he sparkleth and moveth upward How merrily doth this sweet Bird sing when it moves upward and soars aloft in Divine Meditations Prayers praises and such like more pleasing uninterrupted outgoings of the Soul to God! yea what melody in the heart doth it make both to God and it self in its sweet sad notes whilest it is tugging in the snare below 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have a complacency and take pleasure in infirmities reproaches persecutions distresses for Christs sake saith Paul 2 Cor. 12. 10. it's the same word that God the Father said of his Son when he said he was well pleased in him Matth. 3. 17. as though with the like natural complacency that the Father embraced Christ the same doth his servant from the instinct of this Divine nature welcom even heaviest sufferings for Christ With what delight doth this Scholar in Christs School who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read these hard Chapters with which he is so naturally taken for all delight and pleasure ariseth from the sutableness of the faculty and the object and therefore where a law of commands without doth so naturally suit with a law of love within us how doth it hug and embrace Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I consent and approve for my judgment Rom. 7. 16. and for my affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 22. I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man and when it is so within the heart then I delight to do thy will O my God Psal 40. 8. then it 's meat and drink to do the will of God Matth. 11. 30. 1 John 5. 3. John 4. 34. the yoke is easie and the burden light and no command grievous no task but a recreation no distastful Medicine but pleasing food which the palate relisheth and the stomach naturally closeth with I confess the Child is weak and may not be so well able for the time to digest so strong meat and the man of God may be sick and then it may not go down with so much delight Weakness or distemper may sometimes weaken and hinder this actual complacential rejoicing as sickness or a cut finger may take off the Musician from actual playing on his instrument wherein yet he habitually much delighteth but then that sickness maketh him more sick to think of it Where there is habitual delight such actual indisposition causeth actual and hearty grief for it and so this grief for the presence of the contrary impediment proclaims aloud what love he bears and what delight he hath in that from which he is hindred And this sufficiently enough distinguisheth in this Case the true Divine Nature from a counterfeit form of Godliness the one saith with them Mal. 1. 13. Behold what a weariness is it But the other cryeth out oh how weary am I A genuine Child of God crieth out of himself and his own uncomfortable weariness in that which he so naturally loveth and delighteth in bewails his being so weakned and hindred as the
sweet Bird mourns when it hath such a stone hung at its leg which keeps it from being upon the wing to which it hath such a natural propensity But the hireling thinks much at the work it self which he hath no inward delight or complacency in and that when not otherwise hindred but by his own wilful averseness and hence it is and from want of an heaven-born inward principle which might naturally mount him thitherward whilst for fear or shame or natural conscience or the like extrinsecal motive he is forced to it all is up the hill and then as weak and unsound bodies climbing up the mountain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they so he pants and blows fast but gets up very slowly and untowardly till at last he tumbles down headlong into deepest gulfs of sin which naturally he delights to swim in and so with Judas goes into his own place Acts 1. 25. 4. From this freedom and delight in natural agents proceeds frequency in their operations That which I delight to do I do often and what is natural is frequent How reiteratedly doth the heart and pulse beat the fountain bubble and one wave in the Sea come on in the neck of another Nature is no slug but like the good housewife is up every morning and afresh resumes her task and perpetuis vicibus turns about her wheel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. James calls it So the sun doth not like Jam. 3. 6. the Persian King or great Mogul to keep state appear abroad but seldom on some high dayes or great Festivals but every morning as the bridegroome cometh out of his chamber and every day Psa 19. 5. repeats his race and for the wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Solomon Eccles 1. 6. most elegantly expresseth it it whirleth about continually and returneth again according to his circuits or as Broughton rendreth it the wind whirleth whirleth walketh and into his circuits returneth the wind Nor are the breathings of the Divine spirit less restless and uncessant where he breaths freely God in his own nature is a pure act and therefore continually acting My Father worketh hitherto and I work saith our Saviour John 5. 17. and so doth his spirit too The Divine Nature is continually acting in the government of the world nor is it less operative in the believers heart being in the place before cited a well of water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present tense expressing a continued act of springing and bubbling up and so working out sin as the troubled fountain doth defilement The Divine Nature is continually offering up a judge sacrificium a daily sacrifice to God David morning and evening and at noon Psal 55. 17. even seven times a day Psal 119. 164. Paul had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no rest or relaxation or intermission either in his flesh or spirit 2 Cor. 2. 13. but would spend and be spent in the service of God and his people 2 Cor. 12. As of Baruch Nehem. 3. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 15. There was much of God and of an heavenly Divine Nature in those worthies who as the heavens were in a perpetual motion And although this height and degree many that are truly godly according to their lower attainments and less participation do not it may be shall not here rise up to till they arrive there where they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy c. yet whereever this Divine life is the man is breathing Rev. 4. 8. and the pulse beating though in some sick fits sometimes too slowly and very weakly even when asleep the heart is waking and Cant. 5. 2. silently working But if on the contrary instead of this frequency such intermitting pulses and Syncope's be frequent the case is very dangerous but if always stone-still or but very seldom and only in some few good moods at a Sacrament or a searching Judgment on our selves or others we faintly move God ward here is dead nature no quickning spirit an ominous Comet that sometimes in an Age appeareth to be gazed on and forebodes some evil no Sun of Righteousness here which ariseth every morning to run his daily course like a mighty man that faints not Which leads to 5. The fifth Particular For Nature as it is frequent and instant in its work so it is also constant nay groweth stronger and quicker towards the end of its motion The stone in its natural motion downward if not hindred stayeth not till it come to its centre and the nearer it cometh to it it moveth the faster This Divine Nature is heavenly and therefore moves amain heaven-ward up the hill and yet finally stops not is a spring of water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 springing or leaping up and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to everlasting life in the place now so often mentioned and which hath helped us in most of these Particulars I deny not but this well by earthly cares and other occasions may for a time be stopped that it floweth not so fully out as the Philistims stopped Abrahams wells with earth but that it did not so dry them up but when Isaac digged them again they gave out their water as formerly Gen. 26. 18. Hindrances and stops from within and without the man of God may have in the way of God but no total intercisions no final Apostasies but when at liberty he mounts up with wings Isa 40. â—1 as an Eagle runneth and is not weary walks and doth not faint And therefore for trial as the clock which for a while goeth right but when weights are taken off stands still and moves not sheweth that it 's not natural but an artificial piece of workmanship so seem we to move never so fast in the ways of God if when outward compulsion and motives cease we stand still or go backward it plainly sheweth that all was but an artifice and nothing of this Divine Nature which as in God is eternal and unchangeable so as it is in his Children as the seed it is begotten of 1 Pet. 1. 23. is incorruptible and immortal But yet in us it may have its stops for a while and partial intermissions as when there is life yet in sickness and fainting fits the puâ—se may be very weak and sometimes intermitted But even in that Case 6. In Nature there is a principle of recovery as Eutychus though Principium as constitutionm so restitutivum taken up dead yet because life was in him came again to himself Act. 20. 9 10 11. The Seed though corrupted under-ground yet at last sprouts out again and the live-spring though for the present defiled with filth cast into it yet by little and little is still working out that pollution and rests not till it hath wrought it self into its former clearness Such falls and defilements may a live Christian a Saint sometimes fall into as David Peter and others but as you read of their falls so
say to his sons Why do you look one upon another get you down and buy for us that we may live and not dye Gen. 42. 1 2. And why then should we look here and there and like fools have our eyes in the ends of the earth to find out other vanities when Pro. 17. 24. did we but lift up our eyes and hearts to heaven we might both see and get that which will make us like the God of heaven I say not therefore as Jacob there of Egypt Get you down thither but get we up hither though it be with Jonathan and his Armour-bearer on our hands and keens with humblest prayers and earnestest endeavours though as with them up sharpest rocks through greatest difficulties and dangers But is it possible that a child of wrath by nature may become a Son of God and by Grace be partaker of the Divine Nature One in himself so much the Beast and the Devil be made like the blessed God And so I that am so vile and sinful may I become holy as he is holy perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect Then sure the happiness of it would not be more inconceivable than our neglect of it unexcusable Let us therefore up and be doing 1 Chron. 22. 16. 3. And this yet the rather upon consideration of what others even Heathens have attempted in this kind and when they have been so mantling the wing this way let them shame us if we take not a further and an higher flight How doth Plato up and down define the chiefest good of man to consist in a full conformity to God! and what a noise do they make with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their being God-like whilest they lived and Deifiâ—d when dead Oh that what we read in their Books we might find in our hearts and others may see in our lives that we might really be and do what they talked of At least for shame let us exceed what they did or could attain to whilst we do so much exceed them both for pattern and principle 1. Our pattern is more fair and our Copy far more clearly and legibly written before us in the word of truth than theirs in the dim light of nature It did more darkly discover to them the footsteps of God that by following him therein they might grope after an Vnknown God and so they fumbled about a poor conformity Act. 17. 23 27. 2 Pet. 1. 19. to him But upon us the day hath dawned and the day-star is risen in our hearts and the Sun of righteousness shineth forth which hath more fully discovered to us the image and nature of God in the face of Jesus Christ unvailed and clearly discovered to us in the glass and bright beams of the Gospel the Deity in its nature persons and properties evidently manifested nor ever could the holiness justice power truth and mercy of God be more fully declared than they are by Christ and as they are held forth in the Gospel In Christ God is manifested in the flâ—sh He being 1 Tim. 3. 16. Heb. 1. 3. â—ol 2. 9. the Brightness of His Father's glory and the express Image of his Person in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily and all grace which is this Divine nature in the Text emâ—nently and without measure for our participation imitation So that our better Abimelech our King and Father in his grace and life saith to us all as the other Abimelech did to his followers Judg. 9. 48. What ye have seen me do make haste and do like me The word was made flesh and dwelt among us that we might at a nearer John 1. 14. view behold his glory full of grace and truth and walkt among us on purpose that we should follow his steps In a word he being 1 Pet. 2. 21. God took upon him the nature and was made in the likeness of man that the like mind might be in us and that whilst Phil. 2. 7. 5. we have such a perfect pattern so near our eye according to our measure in likeness and conformity we might be made partakers of the divine nature And if the rich man thought that one coming from the dead would work so great matters with his brethren Luke 16. 30. what a transformation in our hearts and lives should Christ make who for this very purpose came down from heaven Our pattern in Christ is very fair And it very openly and clearly held out to us in the Gospel Whether by Christs own ministry he being the only begotten Son in his Fathers bosom could best declare him John 1. 18. And should we only consider his sermon on the Mount in the 5 6 7. Chapters of S. Matthew we may understand so much of God's nature and will that were our hearts and lives answerable we should therein very much partake of the Divine nature and in our measure be perfect as our Father who is in heaven is perfect as our Saviour there speaks Matth. 5. 48. Or should we consider the Gospel of Christ as dispensed in the writings or preachings of his Apostles or other servants Paul in the general speaks very full to our purpose 2 Cor. 3. 18. that we all with open face as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. In which Text every clause is very strong and emphatical We all not only Apostles and Ministers as some would expound it but all true Christians for they are not only such as we call Divines that are made partakers of the Divine nature With open face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not through Moses his darker veils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beholding the glory of God that is the glorious nature wisdom justice and mercy of God most fully and perfectly expressed and exposed and manifested in Christ And accordingly most clearly reflected and held forth in the glass and most clear mirrour of the Gospel This ex parte objecti medii But what ex parte subjecti is or should be the effect of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are or at least God expecteth that we should be changed into the very same image not only there to see and behold him but so as to represent him in speculo repraesentantes as Erasmus translateth it and so are transfigured into the same likeness tanquam secundariae quaedam imagines as Beza well expresseth it And that from glory to glory that is not only from one degree of glorious grace to another as most interpreters expound Beza Lapide it but as some add from the glory that is in God and Christ from this reflexion of it to a proportionable glory according to our manner and measure communicated to us by it And all this as by the spirit of the Lord that is so really and gloriously that nothing but the all powerful
of any in an estate of corrupt nature as it cometh from such is so defiled that in regard of any worth in it instead of meriting an answer it justly deserveth a denial Whereupon our Antinomians and others do wickedly forbid such to pray Yet in such sinners that lie under the burden of sin and misery and are looking out for help and mercy to look up to God in prayer for it A it is the homage which is due from the creature to its Creatour and so to be tendred to him So it is the way ordained by God in and by which the creature in want and misery may come to receive mercy Which therefore God commands and that to a Simon Magus and that upon only a Perhaps to receive mercy Act. 8. 22. pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee And which therefore in obedience to such a command to perform is both in God's intention and ordination on his part and as to the happy success and event on â—ur parts the direct sutable and successful means of our obtaining as all other mercies so of this which is one of the chief of all of being made partakers of the Divine nature and that upon a double account 1. As in a way of moral causality it prevaileth with God and through his indulgence procureth of him the grant of this inestimable gift of the new creature this divine nature as Manasseh in this case by his prayer prevailed with God for his return both from his sin and captivity together 2 Chron. 33. 12 13. and so still the child is born crying 2. So also in a kind of physical efficiency as I may call it In the very act of praying we so nearly converse with God that by looking up to him we are made like him as the stung Israelite by looking to the Brazen Serpent was healed and Moses by near approaches to God and communing with him on the Mount had irradiations of his glory reflected on him so in near and frequent addresses to God by prayer there is much communication of God by such close communion with him Papists are wont to picture their Saints praying with a Glory on their head but true Saints that are much with God have much of God and his glorious grace on their hearts and none more than those that come into his presence oftnest get nearest and keep closest Our Saviour when he was praying in the Mount was transfigured Luke 9. 29. Nor are we ever more transformed into the image of God and Christ than when we have got up our hearts highest and nearest in that duty Be much therefore with God our Father in prayer for this mercy 2. Make nearest applications to Christ the Son and our Saviour by faith in his promises for By the promises we read in the Text we come to be partakers of the divine nature which when sealed to us there is an impress of Christ stamped on us And Christ is wrapt up in those promises who as in his Incarnation was made partaker of our nature so by him and his grace alone we are made partakers of his And faith is the eye and hand which seeth and taketh hold of Christ in the promises and so by beholding him in that glass as intellectus fit idem cum objecto we come to be changed as we heard into the same image from glory to glory There is an image of the thing seen in the eye that looks on it and we by faith wistly eying of Christ have his image so imprinted on us that we prove no longer like our selves As the wise men Matth. 2. when they had seen him turn'd back another way v. 12. So they that by him are made wise to Salvation never savingly saw him but went away with another heart not their former selves but changed into another that is to say this divine nature To these promises and Christ in them apply we our selves for it 's from his fulness as before we heard that we must only receive grace for grace grace in us answerable to the grace in him And content we not our selves with moral and Philosophical considerations as able to work such a change Gehazi may lay 2 King 4. 31. the staff on the child's face and no life come the water will not rise higher than from whence it descended Nature in its highest elevations will not be able of it self to rise up to saving grace nor will any moral speculations or qualifications lift us up to a divine nature Christ is the fountain-head He came down from heaven to work it and therefore to him in heaven by faith must we rise up if ever we would have it wrought in us 3. And to the spirit of Christ for this changing into the same image as we also heard is by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. It was this spirit that breathed the image of God into us in Gen. 2. 7. our first creation and it must be the same spirit that must breath into us this new life the finger of this spirit that only can draw upon us these fair and lovely characters and lineaments of this Divine image the spirit of regeneration that must beget us to this new nature And therefore here again rest not in highest either natural or moral considerations they are but airy and their birth will be answerable prove abortions or like that of the Spanish mares which they say conceive by breathing in the South-wind but their Foals they say too presently languish and die and so at last to be sure will all such births of our own begetting Especially take heed of grieving and resisting the spirit in these his Divine workings If the child would be born if it cannot further it s own birth let it not hinder it by working backward because it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do let us Phil. 2. 12 13. not marr his work but in and by his strength work out our own salvation by not being flints to God but as wax to yield to and to receive his Divine impressions Thus applying our selves to God this happy work may and will be wrought and rather than fail God can make even afflictions a means to effect it that what are in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common to men may further this Divine 1 Cor. 10. 13. nature and as the ball struck down to the earth in the rebound rise as high as heaven So by them we are made partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. and that is no less than to be partakers of the divine nature and whilst we so suffer Peter saith the spirit of glory yea and of God resteth upon us and so most happy participations of the divine glory and nature are communicated to us Never was more of God seen in any than in the Martyrs by the light of the fires they were consumed in Thus upon these considerations and in
the use of these and the like means our first duty is to endeavour to come to be partakers of this divine nature 2. And then secondly walk worthy of it and answerable to it that we shew forth the vertues of God as our Apostle exhorted chap. 2. v. 9. of the former Epistle that in our spirits and carriages more of God may appear than of our selves as in red-hot iron there is more fire seen than iron Otherwise whilst the As every thing in the first Creation brought forth fruit according to its kind Gen. 1. 11 12. so in this new Creation let us in our kind And as thorns bring not forth grapes nor thistles figs corrupt nature nothing that is good so let not the good fig-tree bring forth bad figs or the vine soure grapes but such as becomes its kind and Gods planting Sons of God walk like other children of men express as much corruption and as little grace whilst according to the Text we say and preach that they are partakers of the divine nature men will be ready to think that the Citizens of Zion and of Plato's Commonwealth are much a-kin if not the same but Ideas and fancies and like as the Painters pictures of Angels and the Papists of the Virgin Mary in which they intend not to make them like but only brave and beautiful so we say rather what they should be than what they are but it may be the quite contrary as Polydor Virgil observes that their Popes had usually names given them which were quite contrary to their temper and practice but although Art may paint yet Nature is real and therefore if thou sayest that thou art partaker of this divine Nature loquere ut videam say and then do and be what may really and substantially prove and manifest it otherwise an Ape will be an Ape though with a childs coat put upon it and as it is in the story will shew as much when almonds are cast before it Naturam expellas furcâ licèt c. Nature may be disguised and dissembled for a while and for ends and upon design thou maist mask and keep it in but it will out so will corrupt nature and so will the Divine too which we should labour what we can to exert and manifest and that so evidently and fully that both our selves and others may be convinced that what we are or do can proceed from no lower a principle By wallowing in sensual lusts and pleasures we take part with the beast to be proud envious blasphemous and malicious is to partake of the Devil that is brutish this devilish to be kind and courteous is indeed humanity but if there be no more it falleth exceeding short of the Divine Nature and our walking up to it and worthy of it That in general is a more full imitation of God and Christ and Imitatores Divinae bonitatis nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vox ad Dei proprietates pertinet Grotius in Textum of his more peculiar properties When the same mind is in us as was in Christ Philip. 2. 5. When humble and meek as he was when spiritual and holy as God who hath called us is holy Christianismus est imitatio Divinae Naturae Nyssen adv Ennomium Christianity in its proper formality is nothing but the imitation of the Divine Nature and fully to imitate God and Christ is in the general both to be partakers of it and to walk worthy of it In particular I name only three things 1. Abound in those fruits of the spirit Love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness c. Gal. 5. 22 23. for whereas the Apostle 1 John 4. 16. saith that God is love it telleth us that love is of his nature and that therefore he that abounds in love doth abundantly partake of it even dwelleth in God and God in him What they use to say of forma augusta of a goodly Majestick Personage is much more true of a loving heart and carriage multum de coelo trahit it hath much of Heaven in it and partakes much of God's Divine Nature and Majesty whereas on the contrary wrath strife envy and malice though sometimes miscalled ingenious the Apostle James assureth us if it be wisdom it is earthly sensual and devilish Chap. 3. 14 15 16. instead of Heavens serene light hath much of Hells smothered fire in it much of the Devil who since his fall is of all other of Gods Creatures the most troubled and discontented himself and is so mischievous thereupon that his main endeavour is to make others like him and in nothing more than in these hellish heats and these devilish sour distempers Have therefore and express much of this grace of love if we would evidence that we partake of the nature of God the God of love 2. Labour to get and keep above the World for Heaven is high above the Earth and God above the Creature were we aloft in Heaven what a poor little point would the Earth be in our eye To God it 's less than nothing and vanity Isa 40. 17. and were we more like God the World would have less both room and esteem in our heart and the greatest and goodliest enjoyments of it especially in compare with God in Christ would be exilia vilia poor little worthless nothings as he saith upon the Text Qui C. à Lapide semel se in Divinitatem immersit animus non nisi Deo Divinis pascitur Were we once as it were swallowed up in God we should not be so immersed in these miry puddles below if fed with this Heavenly Manna we should not surfeit on these Leeks and Onions of Egypt This one Meditation saith Calvin on the Text would abundantly suffice ut mundo renunciantes toti in coelum feramur to make us overlook and despise the World and to have eye and heart up to God and Heaven Were we partakers of the Divine Nature and so up in Heaven with God we should be far above the Earth and Worldly contentments 3. But far higher above Hell in sinful defilements which is the third particular of our worthy deportment answerable to so high a grandeur and exaltation This the words immediately following the Text hold out to us when having said that we are made partakers of the Divine Nature presently telling you wherein that consists and appears he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cum aufugeritis or as Pagnin rendreth it si refugeritis when you have escaped or if you shall flie from the corruption that is in the World through lust with the like speed and earnestness that you would fly from fire sword or pestilence as the word imports it and some interpret it Sin is strong and we are weak and therefore our safety is by flying That is one strong argument for us to fly but this we Fugiendo Victoria Estins now speak of is stronger Are we made partakers of the Divine Nature and
what Communion then hath light with darkness or 2 Cor. 6. 14 15. Christ with Belial or God or those that are godly with the Devil Sin makes us like the Beast or Devil and I would not that you should have fellowship with Devils saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 20. Sinful lusts are sensual low base filthy but God is a most pure and holy spirit and truly therefore those that profess themselves to be partakers of his spirit and nature should in this labour to be like him Otherwise Either with Enthusiasts to pretend not only to Divinity but even to a Deity and yet to wallow in all loathsome filthiness with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnosticks and our abominable Ranters what is it else but a piece of Atheistical non-sense and blasphemous contradiction to make Gods of incarnate Devils and men believe what he Psal 50. 21. thought that God is like us whom in such a way we so far pretend to Or as others sometimes do when they have no mind to leave their sins to plead that they are but flesh and blood not Saints and Angels to be able to abstain from such lusts or to be so holy as you would have them be is also in a proportionable measure alike vain and senseless and to such I only say that if they be but flâ—sh Ex ore tuo serve nequam out of thine own mâ—uth will I condemn thee and blood they are not as yet partakers of the Divine nature for that is not carnal and if they continue such the Apostle tells them they shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 15. 50. where the holy God is If thou beest so far from the grace of an holy Saint thou art much farther off from the nature of an holy God and if thou canst contentedly say that thou canst not perform such duties or abstain from such sins it 's but little it 's nothing that thou partakest of this honour and happiness for where there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine Nature as in the Text there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the foregoing-verse a Divine Power whereby through Christ with Paul thou wilt be able to do all things Philip. 4. 13. in his strength to grapple with Sin and Satan and the World and through him to prove at last more than Conquerour Rom. 8. 37. De Nat. Serm. 1. Depâ—â—amus veterem hâ—minem cum actibus suis adepti participationem generationis Christi carnis renunciemus operibus Leo ibid. Confiderent peccatores quantum gratiae bonum ob vilem voluptatent amiserint Chrysostom And therefore here let me make use of Leo's words Agnosce dignitatem tuam O Christiane Divinae consors factus naturae noli in veterem vilitatem degeneri conversatione redire Heaven born Christian but art thou indeed made partaker of the Divine Nature walk then answerable to thy birth and breeding and best nature and by a sinful life do not degenerate into thy former baseness When tempted to sin Divine Nature should look at the first blush of it as from a natural instinct with an holy Antipathy and abhorrency Aâ— least when thou thinkest of it reason it out of countenance with such thoughts as these shall such a man as I do this with Nehemiah Cap. 6. 11. Shall I that in my kind and measure partake of the nature of God do the Devils work Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot 1 Cor. 6. 15. Nay this Nature of God in me formally forbids it Doth not even nature it self teach you So Paul argued against mens wearing of long hair 1 Cor. 11. 14. and doth not this Divine Nature much rather teach men to abstain from more foul deformities Sins against common nature were the abominations of the Heathens Rom. 1. 26. and therefore sins against this Divine Nature should be esteemed more unnatural and abominable to Christians Thus let the consideration of this Divine Nature antidote and prevent sin that it infect not But if through our carelesness it have let it however strengthen the heart to expel and eject it that it kill not How will nature till it be overcome be sick of bad humours and thrust out corruption as a fountain works out pollution Nature I said is a principle of recovery and so will this Divine Nature be also from those peccant humours which it 's sometimes oppressed with But because as long as we live here that will be too much and 3. Vide Calvini Instit l. 3. cap. 25. S. 10. ità sanè ut in hâc vitâ quantuscunque profectus sit longè absit ab illâ perfectione similitudinis quae idonea erit ad videndum Deum sicut dicit Apostolus facie ad faciem Augustin Epist 6. Quam majorem dignitatem accipere poterit adopt atus quà m ut sit ubi est amicus non aequalis factus Divinitati sed consociatus aeternitati Augustin Tractat 51. in Johan id ipsum innuit Petrus c. too often this should make us weary of the World and sigh and breath after Heaven for it will not be till we get thither that this will be made perfect Blessed be God that we have any tasts and beginnings of it here that in any degree and measure we partake of God in grace and holiness are any whit like to God but alas all that 's done here is but first rude draughts poor imperfect lineaments of that Divine Image and they too often and too too much blotted out by our sins it 's not till we come in Heaven to see God as he is that we shall be most fully like him 1 John 3. 2. it will not be to the life till we live with him in glory How ugly in our own eyes mean while should our present disconformities to God be How weary should we be of them oh how happy will that day be and how earnestly should we breath after it when we shall be fully transformed into Christs Image most perfectly be made like God and as far as our finite nature is capable of become partakers of the Divine Nature when God shall be all in all Lord Jesus come quickly Amen Salus non aliter consistere potest nisi illi qui salutem consequuntur Dei fiant Deificatio antem est Dei quoad ejus fieri potest imitatio cum eo commixtio ut ità dicam unitio Dionys de coelest hierarch Cap. 1. SERMON XXI PHILIP 1. 27. Only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ MInisters of the Gospel Gregor Nyssen compareth to March 19. 1625 6. Schoolmasters who as they have different natures and tempers to deal with so they should have Wisdome to observe it and accommodate themselves accordingly Sure our blessed Apostle had and therefore knew when to comfort and encourage and on the contrary when he had just occasion durst both chide and strike So
29. 2. yea a Majesty and that 's more Thus by Faith the Elders received a good Report Heb. 11. 2. And by true saving Wisdome Solomon assureth us we shall receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint a Crown of Glory as ours read it Prov. 4. 9. Every particular Grace is part of a Christians Beauty But as they use to say Pulchritudo non est partis sed compositi so the perfection of Beauty ariseth from all Graces and a Perfetion in all Which though we cannot here attain to yet if we strive after it what we can we shall surely procure either love or reverence If the Amiableness of Holiness will not allure the Majesty of it will daunt the proudest Scorner and why may it not allure the most obstinate seeing it wins Grace in God's Eyes and therefore may justly challenge it in ours And here now I might open such a Cabinet of precious Jewels I mean so many several Graces as were they put on and worn by us would so beautify every part of a Christian that you should not see a Mordecai riding on Ahasuerus Horse with his Imperial Robes and Crown or another Joseph with Pharaoh's Ring on his Hand and a Chain of Gold about his Neck with the People bowing the Knee and crying Abrek but a Man of God partaker of the Divine Nature and well-nigh already glorified and so both himself and his profession glorious in the Eyes of God and Angels But all these curious pieces I have not now leisure to view many of them you may in the following Chapters of this Epistle I shall content my self with two which the Apostle unfolds in the latter part of this Verse in which he useth a Metaphor taken from an Army in which two things are required for the comeliness and safeguard of it Unity amongst themselves and Valour in beating back the adversary Proportionable to which two things he telleth us will become us in our warfare 1. Mutual Love that you stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind 2. Constancy and perseverance in the Profession of the Truth striving together for the Faith of the Gospel In the first place therefore for Love and Unity How well it sutes with the Gospel we may conceive in that it 's called the Gospel of Peace Ephes 6. 15. And therefore agreeth not with our Heart-burnings and Dissensions Brings us glad tidings of our reconciliation with God and therefore as Joseph to his Brethren bids us take heed we fall not out by the way Thus we see it fits well and would it not be as comely as fitting Yes surely And therefore our Saviour makes one part of his Spouses Beauty that her Teeth are like a Flock of Sheep whereof every one beareth Twins as well to express Love as Fruitfulness And was it not this true-hearted Love in having all things common in continuing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one accord in the Temple in eating their Meat with gladness and in singleness of Heart and the like which made those first Christians Acts 2. 46 47 have favour with all the people that because the multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and one Soul therefore great Grace was upon them all Acts 4. 32 33 And the same believe it would be upon us all if we as they according to the Apostle's Exhortation here would now stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one Spirit that is having one and the same spirit of Grace dwelling in us and thence with one Mind Will and Affection or in one Spirit as some expound it in one Judgment not one Paul and another Apollos not some Lutherans and others Calvinists not some Remonstrants and others Contra-Remonstrants but all of one mind in Christ for as they use to say of an unnatural Birth that hath two Heads if it have but one Heart though it be to be taken for one Man yet it is a Monster So as long as we have one Heart and agreeing in the main we may grow up into one Man yet if as many Heads there be so many Opinions and Judgments it will be if not unnatural and monstrous yet I am sure ungracious and unseemly For we should stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one Soul and loving affection to each other without hatred and variance and strife and seditions in the Bowels of Mercy and meekness and tender affection forbearing and forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us which if we did and were thus knit together in Judgment and Affection how much it would adorn and advantage the Gospel I say not because I cannot sufficiently Yet this I can that however bodily and outward comliness may be called as it is Concors discordia amica inimicitia yet in this inward and spiritual Beauty Plato's Divinity is again true that makes Vnum and Pulchrum the same a chief part of it consisting in this Holy Unity and Uniformity 2. Which adds strength likewise to that other Grace of constancy and Perseverance in the Profession of the Truth when we do not only stand together but stand fast and fight for the Faith of the Gospel as our Apostle addeth Which how answerable it is likewise to the Gospel this only were sufficient to manifest in that it shews what Christ endured for us and therefore may justly call on us to indure something for him and truly if it bring to us the sure mercies of David we should not be answerable to it if we should prove Flinchers If it be an everlasting Gospel Revel 14. 6. It would be very unfit that we should be like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 13. 21. which for a while believe and in time of tentation fall away Nor can we more dishonour the Gospel than if by falling off in harder times we proclaim to the World that we find not so much good in it as at first we thought for as on the contrary we cannot otherwise bring more credit to it than whilst we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take part and happy afflictions in which we have such a blessed Partner with the Gospel in its afflictions as the Apostle's phrase is 2 Tim. 1. 8. we let all Men know that we indeed account it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good News which we will willingly dye for This is that for which Justin Martyr and Eusebius for the honour of Christ set him before the chiefest of the Heathen Philosophers that he had so many thousands ambitious of shedding their Blood in the defence of his Cause and Gospel which none of them could say of their followers Yea this Glory reflects upon our selves likewise So Peter assures us that if we be reproached for the Name of Christ a Spirit of Glory remains upon us 1 Pet. 4. 14. yea though we dye for it yet Stephens Face will even then shine as an Angel's So that however some indeed like our nice Dames that would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
tota plena te saith holy Augustin Confess l. 10. c. 28. There 's no grief in him when he is all in God he hath a lively life of it when he can sit so near the Fountain of Life as to be filled with the blessed inflowes of it If David cannot tell how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity you had Psal 133. 1. need of the tongue of an Angel and not mine to tell the unutterableness of that delight and Joy when Children and Father Spouse and Husband Head and Members cleave together in closest Union And if Honour use to go in the first rank of the World's excellencies Honorificum then he that 's nearest to God must needs herein have the upper hand Our blessed Saviour is exalted to highest Honour in that he is at the right hand of God and then sure that soul is no base one that lies nearest to the heart of Christ Seemeth it a small thing to you said Moses to Korah that the God of Israel hath brought you near to himself in the Ministry of the Tabernacle Numb 16. 9. in which respect Nazianzen highly extolls the now despised Ministry and Chrysostom lifts it up above Crowns and Scepters but how much more honourable is it to draw near to God in saving Grace than in that Sacred Office which sometimes they that are most unworthy climb up to They were the Grandees of Persia who sat next to the King and saw his face Esth 1. 14. May I never affect greater Grandure in this World than in nearest approaches to see the face of God in Christ though the great ones of the World set me under their footstool I might add a word of Beauty which according to the Hebrew Honestum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 24. 16. phrase hath a kind of goodness in its comeliness But even that is when the parts of the body are joyn'd together amongst themselves and all united to the head which if parted or dislocated occasion horror rather than delight But O the ravishing Beauty of Christ mystical when from him and with him the whole body is fitly joyned together Ephes 4. 16. when met together to meet with Christ they are the Beauty of Holiness Psal 110. 3. This made Moses's face shine when he talked with God Exod. 34. 29. This encompasseth the Saints in their approaches to Christ with rayes of Divine lustre that they need not be beholden to the Limner or Painter for a painted glory Though the Moon be at the full of her light and beauty when she is in furthest opposition to the Sun yet our Full is in our nearest Vnion with the Sun of Righteousness I forbear further instances But that you may further see how good it is to draw near to God give me leave to propound these two convincing Arguments That 's indeed good and good to me that makes me better but so Argument 1 do not the profits pleasures honours and the rest of those things which the World calls good A man may be extremely bad with them and too often whilst they prostitute his body and debase his mind is made the worse by them But was it ever so by our humble drawing near to God Doth it not elevate the mind The soul is then in Apogaeo 2 Cor. 3. 18. enlarge the heart innoble spiritualize and by a Divine Metamorphosis transform the soul into the Image of Christ in its nearer approaches and interviews Intellectus fit idem cum objecto The understanding is made one with him in its Divine Contemplations and love makes him one with it in its cordial embraces not in H. N. his mad phrase Godded with God but yet in the Apostles 2 Pâ—t 1. 4. divine expression made partakers of the Divine Nature Here 's cure by coming near and touching Luke 8. 44. Healing under his wings Mal. 4. 2. Life and Joy in his Presence Psal 16. 11. The Prodigal dare not be so bad as he would be unless he run far from his Father's house And that tells you the good child is better Luke 15. 13. for keeping in his Father's presence When we keep near to God Heaven is not only near to us but Heaven is in us we then have not only heavenly Joyes but also heavenly Hearts and is it not good to be there and therefore to draw nearer And again good to draw near because best when nearest and Argument 2 worst when farthest off 1. First best when nearest Angels and Men by nature the best of God's Creatures because in nature they are nearest to him and most resemble him and are capable of communion with him Of Angels they are the good ones that continually behold him Maâ—th 18. 10. and they the best that are nearest and therefore the chief of them are wont to be called Assistentes Of Men as first when was Adam best when now created and enjoyed converse with God or when fallen and then run away from him Of all Men the Saints that are most honoured by him are a people near unto him Psal 148. 14. their first beginning to be well being when at first in conversion they begin to turn towards him and how well are they never better than when in the exercise of Grace performance of service in Meditation Prayer Word Sacrament in doing nay though it be in suffering they can get nearest to him let it be upon the Canon's mouth saith the soul that is truly touched if I may but so make my approaches to my Lam. 3. 25 26 27. God Let my Father whip me if whilst he so doth he takes me into his Arms. The Child is not afraid in the dark if then he have his Father by the hand nor is David in the valley of the shadow of death if his good Shepherd be with him Psal 23. 4. The whole World is not worth a Dungeon's light and a Prison's inlargement when Christ shines in and his Spirit sets the soul at liberty to go out to him The Martyr is not bound when tyed to the stake his soul is upon the wing to take her flight to her Saviour It seems then that it is so good to draw near to God that in so doing the Serpent hath lost it's sting the Lion is become a Lamb the Gridiron a bed of Roses Darkness is no Darkness Psal 139. 12. the worst evils are not themselves It s good to be afflicted tormented to suffer to dye good to be to do to suffer any thing if thereby we â—e set nearer to Christ who is all in all But how good then when in a better conditon when once come nearest in Heaven's full vision and perfect communion there and so to be with Christ what saith Paul of it he wants words and yet multiplies them it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multò magis melius Comparative upon Comparative which riseth higher than a Superlative It 's much more better even
Study of the Creature is a toilsome task Eccles 1. 18. It 's in the near Vision of God which the understanding of a Man doth fully acquiesce in and so Intellectus est in quiete And as he is of a Capacious Apprehension which nothing but this Primum Verum can fill So he is of a large heart and vast desires which nothing but this Summum bonum can satisfie God only being El Shaddai Exod. 6. 3. Gen. 17. 1. The God All-sufficient either to his own or our Happiness Whence it is that when the Soul is once put off from him Per devia errans like the evil Spirit in the Gospel Mat. 12. 43. goes through dry Places seeking rest and finds none till with the Psalmist he looks Home-ward to God and saith Return unto thy rest O my Soul Psal 116. 7. Sometimes as Solomon in Ecclesiastes he seeks and searcheth for what may satisfie him in the Creature and what content it can afford and as there was no Nation and Kingdom in which Ahab did not hunt for Elijah 1. Kings 18. 10. and yet he could not be found So there is no Creature in or under Heaven which in this busie search is not as it were unlapt and ransacked if possibly by the Profit or Pleasure of it content may be found lapt up in it This busie Bee sits and sucks on every Flower and like a Chymist makes Extractions of all sorts out of all things if from any from all he might gain such an Elixir as may serve his turn But the deep saith it is not in me In all the inferiour Creatures Adam could not find a Meet-help Gen. 2. 20. It 's pity that in any he should meet with his Happiness Solomon when tired out with this wild and eager pursuit is glad at last to turn in to God Let 's hear the conclusion of the whole Matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Eccles 12. 13. all one with this in the Text It 's good for me to draw near to God But before that when vain Man hath been wearied out in seeking that in the Creature which will not be found before he will draw near to God with Saul he will rather apply himself to Satan and dig as deep as Hell to find it trying whether that may be overtaken in a way of sin which could not be met with in the lawful Content of the Creature and here he runs counteramain Hell-ward till he hath quite wearied himself in that Course Isa 57. 10. adds Drunkenness to Thirst and Thirst to Drunkenness when he hath been most drunk yet thirsts the more and the more he drinks the more he thirsts most unhappy in that he seeks the Living amongst the Dead mistakes Misery for Happiness and Hell for Heaven But it 's this Good that he looks and gropes for though now Blind-folded and turned off from God he goes a quite contrary way But yet as Austin well observes Mali propterea sunt mali ut sint In Psal 118. 1. boni nempe beati The wickedest Men do ill that they might fare well It 's a Goodness and Happiness that they make after It 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which they Sacrifice a Deity which they serve unhappy in this that they grasp the Cloud for Juno in their Hunting after the vain Creature and worship the Devil instead of the true God 1 Cor. 10. 20. in their thus questing with open Mouth after sinful Contentments but yet whilst misled with these fowl Errors they bear witness to this Fundamental Truth that whilst they so eagerly but in vain pursue such false Goods they plainly say that it 's good to draw near to the True so that the Man hath lost himself when he hath lost this Principle is rather a Beast or a Devil than a Man that in Profession and Conversation will not say that it 's good to draw near to God Especially if we consider that new Nature which God works Reas 4 in the new Creature the holy frame of a Godly heart As those Men whose hearts God had touched followed Saul the Lords Anointed 1 Sam. 10. 26. So those blessed Souls which Christ that true Loadstone hath indeed touched whilst it draws they run after him Cant. 1. 4. Such Divine Sparks must needs move upward to their proper Element as the Virgula Divina bends that way that the Mine lieth And this 1. Partly from the inward Instinct of that Divine Nature which they partake of which makes them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle's 2 Pet. 1. 4. word is Phil. 2. 20. even naturally care for the things of God and propend towards him which appears by this that whilst with others Trahit sua quemque voluptas Ad unum omnes All of them though of never such different Ages Parts Conditions nay though of quite contrary Tempers and Dispositions otherwise yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one joynt consent look and according to their several abilities draw towards God as near as they can The Swallow doth not more naturally flie to the Saladine when hurt or the Chicken run to the Hen when in danger than a Right-born Heir of Heaven to God his Father The new-born Babe crys and the dying Christian now breathing out his Soul gasps and breaths after him The one in the beginning of his Race thinks it long till he comes at him the other almost at the end of his with Paul Phil. 3. 13 14. the further he goes makes the more haste to him in several Paths but all in one Road God-ward the one though he hath not yet had such experience of him yet thinks how good it were if he could get near him the other upon his long experience thinks it best to keep close to him when in Affliction he accounts his Presence more than all other things that he wants and when in Prosperity he values the same Presence above all else that he enjoys I might Instance in many other Particulars But these may suffice to shew that amongst never so many Discords they yet altogether make up this Harmony and from the general Instinct of that new Nature all cry out with the Psalmist in the Text It 's good for every one of us severally for all of us the whole Chorus joyntly to draw near and keep close to God 2. But especially upon their deliberate Resolutions upon long trial and experience they thereby come more fully to know what they have found good to apply themselves to they cannot but conclude that it 's best to draw near to God At their first Conversion they were sufficiently convinced of Hos 2. 6 7. Jer. 3. 22 23. the Vanity and oft-times of the Mischief of all other Applications of the Creatures utter Insufficiency for any saving Good to them John Baptist that made way for Christ in their hearts cried All flesh is grass Isa 40. 6. The first saving Breath that breathed Life into
unhappy days gives too sad Examples of many who have indeed got as far from God as they think they are above Ordinances but till we gain Heaven where we shall at the next hand see and enjoy God without such mediums let all sober-hearted Christians ever keep close to them as they would ever draw near to him 1. To the Ministry of the Word in which if the Minister do not so much jingle in the Ear as labour to fasten Nails and Goads in the Heart Eccles 12. 11. that it come to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 34. 1. 58. 2. an ingrafted Word Jam. 1. 21. It then and God in it comes very near to us as we do to him as Scholars sitting down at his feet to hear his Instructions Deut. 33. 3. or as Servants standing Ezek. 33. 31. before him to receive his Commands as Children and Friends from his gracious Promises to carry away intimations of his Love and his Threats prick our hearts Acts 2. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 4. 20. fastning the Eye and putting the Ear to his Mouth as it was said of our Saviour's Auditors Luke 19. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hung upon him to hear him By these mutual out-goings of the Soul to God and God to it they come in this Ordinance to an happy meeting and then are very near 2. As likewise in the Sacraments it 's very near that we either do or may draw on to Christ In our Liturgy we say well Draw near c. not so much to the Minister as to God He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him and as I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me John 6. 56 57. Though no Popish corporal Transubstantiation yet there is a very near spiritual union set out by three very strong and almost strange Expressions Of a kind of Concorporation as of the Meat and the Body that is fed by it in that Metaphor of eating and drinking Of a mutual cohabitation or coinhabitation in that other of his dwelling in us and we in him Nay of a more divine coalition into the same Nature as in that third expression of our living by Christ as he by the Father In it with the Elders of Israel we go up to God in the Mount Exod. 24. 11. And it 's mercy that as it 's there said he doth not lay his hand upon us but that we may eat and drink draw so near as Children to sit down at our Father's Table with John to lean on our Saviour's Brest and with Thomas be bid reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing John 20. 27. It was our sin that when we more frequently enjoyed Sacraments we drew no nearer to Christ in them and therefore it 's deservedly our misery that we are cut short of such opportunities of these blessed Approaches now in our too much want of them 3. In the Communion of Saints if rightly improved we may enjoy very near and full communion with God and therefore the Apostle when he had said Let us draw near with a true heart to God Heb. 10. 22. he adds not forsaking the assembling of our selves together Thither God comes down to us Matth. 18. 20. and thereby our mutual help as upon one another's shoulders our hearts are gotten nearer up to him The Saints are a People near to him Psal 148. 14. and therefore they that keep close to them are not far from him as they that dwell in the Court are near to the King 4 I add Prayer for Petitioners use to draw near when they tender their Petitions Numb 32. 16. and so do God's Suppliants when they present him with their Prayers 1 Sam. 14. 37. In Prayer we seek him fall down at his footstool come into his presence We speak to him we lift up our Eyes Hands and Souls to him we wrestle with him These and such-like Expressions of it we meet with in Scripture and they all speak drawing near to him according to Jamblichus his description of it that it 's Copula quâ homines cum Deo conjunguntur Clavis quâ Dei penetralia aperiuntur the Soul's Wing by which it mounts up to Heaven and the Key that opens the Gate of Heaven and lets us into the presence of the everlasting King How deep doth it thrust both Petition and Petitioner into its Saviour's Bosom And how often doth the loving Father with a sweet kiss take up the weeping Child from his knees into his Arms How near doth he bow the Ear and how low doth he reach down his hand to take us by ours when it 's lifted up to him O the blessed interviews in this Duty when God's and our Eye meet Thou drewest near in the day when I called upon thee said Psal 145. 18. the lamenting Church Lament 3. 57. When for any other relief she could say The Comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me Chap. 1. 16. In Prayer God draweth near to the Soul and the Soul to God and one of his main Suits as Esther's first was for the King's company and the second for it Esther 5. 7 8. again the second time so it is that God would both draw nearer himself and draw it also nearer Draw nigh to my Soul Psal 69. 18. and draw my Soul nearer to thee unite my heart Psal 86. 11. With holy Austin Redde mihi te Deus meus redde Confess l. 13. c. 8. te mihi ut currat vita mea in amplexus tuos O convert me and I shall be converted Jer. 31. 18. Draw me and we shall run after thee Cant. 1. 4. as well knowing that we cannot draw near to him till he draw near to us first We cannot come till the Father draw John 6. 44. and therefore the Child reacheth out the hand in Prayer and layeth hold on the Father that he may draw and thereby it also may draw nearer And thus we see how by these and the like Ordinances as by means appointed and sanctified by God we do or at least may draw near unto him Which saith these things to us 1. First therefore use them and carefully attend on them as ever we would draw near to God who for that very end hath appointed them and as we would not with the Pharisees Luk. 7. 30. reject the Counsel of God against our selves it 's there said they did it in refusing one Ordinance of Baptism Too many now reject not only that but all Ordinances else But do they get the nearer to God by it No The Autumn's witherings tell us that the Sun is withdrawn backward and the woful decays of fome of their both Professions and Practises saith that the Sun of Righteousness instead of drawing nearer is got further off Ordinances are sanctified Means of our approach
Father Guilt of sin lying on the Conscience is like a Mist that keeps Friends from seeing and coming near one the other as the Pillar of Cloud kept the Israelites and Egyptians asunder But the Son of Righteousness arising and shining out in bright Beams of Assurance and Joy sheweth us our Friend and imboldens us ruere in Amplexus When the Spouse can say my Beloved he is then as a bundle of Myrrh lying all the night between her Breasts Cant. 1. 13. And that is very near her Heart 7. I might here add Hope which though in nature it 's of an object absent yet as a Grace it hath God very present And so the Apostle calls it a better Hope by which we draw nigh to God Heb. 7. 19. 8. And Sincerity which being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dare draw nigh to the Light whilst the painted Hypocrite is like the Man John 3. 21. cloathed with a kind of course Stuff which they called stand further off cares not for so near a view of so piercing an Eye But I shall not Insist on any more Particulars 9. But lastly add in general That a course of sincere Obedience in the practice of all Saving Graces is in Scripture-phrase a Walking with God and that implieth very near Communion Gen. 5. 22. 6. 9. Every particular Grace in us is part of the Divine Nature and so Allieth us to God But in the general exercise of them all God is ours not only in surest Covenant but also in closest Communion It was the want of such a Wedding-Garment that cast the Guest in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into utter Darkness Mat. 22. 13. which signifieth the utmost distance from God and Heaven that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that impassable Gulf Luke 16. 26. being between But whilst we are here in a gracious Course we have the best Stand and Prospect for the fullest and nearest view of God Thou meetest him Psal 17. 15. that rejoyeeth and worketh Righteousness Isa 64. 5. And to him that ordereth his Conversation aright I will shew the Salvation of God Psal 50. 23. But when once Grace is made Perfect and the Bride all over Cloathed and fully made Ready then shall be the Marriage of the Lamb when Christ shall come from Heaven to us and we shall be caught up in the Clouds to meet with him and so for ever shall be with the Lord when the whole Quire of Heaven every one in his own Part and all together shall sing aloud this sweet Note of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is good for me to draw near to God and to keep close to him for ever Even so Amen Lord Jesus SERMON XXXII LUKE 21. 19. I. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries May 13. 1649. In your Patience possess ye your Souls OUr Saviour in the beginning of this Chapter is foretelling Jerusalem's destruction vers 6. but as a forerunner of it he foretells also his Servants Persecution that they shall be persecuted by Enemies v. 12. betrayed by Friends v. 16. and hated by all v. 17. As when the Ship Acts 27. 42. was ready to be wracked they would first have killed Paul who alone kept them from drowning A foolish mistake of a mad World to do the Godly most hurt when they should most stand them in stead when the Night is putting in to put out the Candle which should give them light and when the House is falling to make sure of it they will needs pull down the Pillars that uphold it the Holy Seed being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 statumen eorum Isa 6. 13. So sottish is the World's malice which otherwhile useth to be too ingenious in doing mischief to the Godly as it were on purpose to undoe themselves But although they be such Enemies to themselves yet Christ is a better Friend to his Servants and therefore as he encourageth them telling them That not an hair of their head shall perish v. 18. so he directs them in this 19th Verse In your Patience possess ye your Souls In which words we have three Particulars which according to the Metaphor here used we may call 1. The Freehold and that 's their Souls 2. The Seisin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are to be kept in possession Possess ye your Souls 3. The Tenure and that is the Tenure of Patience and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In your Patience possess ye your Souls 1. For a little opening of the words and first for Patience it 's duplex Activa Passiva The one forbears the other bears both suffer though in a different way Active so called in reference to acting but improperly a minime agendo because it acts not when Passion 's Fingers itch and would fain be doing and so it 's defined quae malum non infert that even when provoked doth no evil which the Greeks express by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or long suffering This is eminently and essentially in God who when we provoke him is yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long-suffering Exod. 34. 6. even a God of Patience But Patience Passive is that quae malum fert that quietly suffers evil from others which is more properly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text not properly falling upon God who simply is impassible but is that which by his Grace he works in his suffering Servants when in an humble submission to his Will out of Faith in his Promise in hope of his assistance and deliverance they neither sink in despondency under the burden nor rise up in rage against him or the Instrument he strikes with but willingly submit and quietly wait for the Salvation of God Lament 3. 26 27. If you will have Tully's description of it Patientia est honestatis utilitatis let us add Religionis causâ rerum arduarum ac difficilium voluntaria ac diuturna perpessio Or if rather you would have Bede's Patientia vera est aliena mala aequanimiter perpeti contra eum quoque qui mala irrogat nullo dolore moveri This is properly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text by which when dispossessed of all things else we are even then able to possess our Souls 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Possess ye so it 's usually read and so it holds forth a Command though some read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye may or so ye shall possess and so it contains a Promise I shall make use of both and here only add that this word in the Greek answerable to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew signifieth both acquirere and conservare both to procure and preserve and Patience doth F. Illyricu◠both 3. For the last word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I need not tell you that although it most properly signifie the Soul yet oft in Scripture is put for Mat. 16. 26. the †Gen. 46. 15. Levit. 4. 2. whole Man and sometime for our * 1 Sam. 26. 21.
live to our selves but to think and designe how we may live and be subservient therein to Christ His Interest should direct determine subordinate and qualify all As the Box smells of the Musk that is in it so should all our designs and undertakings of Christ and as the Artery goeth along with the Vein so should Christ with whatever our warmest Life-Bloud runneth in and therefore our thoughts should run much in this Channel Jacob said to Laban thou knowest how I have served thee but when shall I provide for my own House Gen. 30. 29 30. I have lived thus long and thus much to my self but how much mean while to Christ By all these Employments and Attainments I have exalted my self but have they been as so many under-steps to lift up Christ the more and me nearer to him I have other ways gained so much and so much but how much or rather how little have I gained to my Lord and Master by them This were a right Anagogical Sense and Interpretation of our Lives and Actions And thus to live were Christ whilst we reduce and subordinate all to him 3. And this if with all diligence and seriousness earnestness and liveliness for we do not loiter it when we labour for Life Then Skin for Skin and all that a Man hath will be give for it Job 2. 4. And so when Moses told Israel that their obedience to God's Commands was not a vain thing but it was their Life as much as their Life was worth he thinks he hath cause to bid them set their hearts to it with all seriousness Deut. 32. 46 47. and indeed Life is active and lively I am sure a Christian 's should be so if Christ be his Life for 〈◊〉 was not idle but still in his Fathers business ever going up and down doing good and Paul who Act. 10. 38. laboured as he said that the Life of Christ might be manifested in him how active and serious and unweariable was he in Christ's 2 Cor. 4. 11. service He in another sense said to the Corinthians so then Death worketh in us but Life in you but it was Ironically for v. 12. he was very far from being a dead-hearted Servant No the Life of Christ was excedingly operative in him according to that Colos 1. 29. in which almost every word hath a quick Emphasis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereunto I also labour and the word signifieth a cutting labour striving against Dangers and difficulties as the Actors in the Olympick Games with all contention and earnestness yea this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum efficacem illam vim according to the Energy and most effectual power and efficacy and that of Christ which wrought in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potenter mightily I thus to live was Christ when Christ and his Spirit thus effectually and mightily lived and wrought in him and the like he called for in others not to be slothful in service but fervent in Spirit whilst they served the Lord Rom. 12. 11. For on the contrary nothing almost is so unlike yea and contrary to Life especially the Life of Christ than a dull listless Dead-heartedness a cold benummed Frozenness or an indifferent Lukewarmness in service unworthy and falling short of that animi presentia and vigour of Spirit which was found in Heathen Worthies as in him who said se malle mortuum esse quam Curius Dentatatus non vivere that he had rather dye out-right and be dead than to be dull and rather not to live at all than not to be lively for which Drones and Dullards the Pythagoreans would have prepared a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore how much more unworthy is it for Christians who pretend to the Life of Christ whilst they say Christ is their Life to be either all amort Nabal-like through Dejections or to be dull and dead through the Lethargy of Spiritual Sloth Listlesness and Negligence to be as the Scripture speaketh either dull of hearing Heb. 5. 11. when we should be swift to hear James 1. 19. slow of heart to believe Luk. 24. 25. when we should receive the Word as they Act. 2. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gladly or as the more noble-spirited Bereans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all readiness of mind Acts 17. 11. when the work of Christ is a weariness to us and we puff at it as Matth. 11. 30. 1 John 5. 3. under a burden Mal. 1. 13. when Christ's Yoke should be easy to us and his Burden light and no command of his grievous In a word when what is said of the wanton Widow in regard of her 1 Tim. 5. 6. wantonness may be said of us for our sloth and negligence that we are dead whilst we live But is not this to seek the living among the dead Or is the Life of Christ in this deadness whilst we thus present God with dead Hearts dead Prayers and Services Is this as the Apostle requireth to offer to him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 1. living Sacrifice Thus to live is it Christ Or expresseth it any thing of the Life of Christ whom the Scripture calls a quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit not only at the last day to raise up our dead Bodies but now also by his Grace and Spirit to enliven our dead Hearts Is this any partaking of the Divine Nature which is a pure Act to be thus restive Sure those that come nearer to it give another kind of resemblance of it The Heavens in their unwearied motion and the Sun that like a mighty Man rejoyceth to run his Psal 19. 5. Race the glorious Cherubims whose pictures God would have made in his Temple delighting in them as Stella observeth as Emblems maximae velocitatis of greatest swiftness and chearfulness in his Service as also the Seraphims of burning Zeal who in Isaiah's Vision are described to have six Wings to shew saith Isa 6. 2. Cornelius a Lapide that vere obediens est totus alatus and are there said both to stand and fly to signify as he addeth that Deo adstare volare est that to stand before God as his Servants is speedily and chearfully to fly at his Commands But to come lower to them in a lower Orb who dwell in dull and heavier Houses of Clay yet if the Spirit and Life of Christ dwell there especially if with some more freedom Paul often expresses his Course by the metaphor of running which expresseth speed and earnestness and David 2 Sam. 6. 14. 16. danceth before 1 Cor. 9. 26. Gal. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 7. the Ark which manifesteth his chearfulness but the words in the Hebrew are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words not so usual and one of them in formâ duplicatâ to hold forth David's extraordinary and double vigour in that Service and which signify intense strength and seriousness and therefore translated Saltabat