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A43607 Syntagma theologicum, or, A treatise wherein is concisely comprehended, the body of divinity, and the fundamentals of religion orderly discussed whereunto are added certain divine discourses, wherein are handled these following heads, viz. 1. The express character of Christ our redeemer, 2. Gloria in altissimis, or the angelical anthem, 3. The necessity of Christ's passion and resurrection, 4. The blessed ambassador, or, The best sent into the basest, 5. S. Paul's apology, 6. Holy fear, the fence of the soul, 7. Ordini quisque suo, or, The excellent order, 8. The royal remembrancer, or, Promises put in suit, 9. The watchman's watch-word, 10. Scala Jacobi, or, S. James his ladder, 11. Decus sanctorum, or, The saints dignity, 12. Warrantable separation, without breach of union / by Henry Hibbert ... Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678.; Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678. Exercitationes theologiae. 1662 (1662) Wing H1793; ESTC R2845 709,920 522

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nourished by the man though given to the woman for a covering Under the Law the cutting of both off did signifie casting away transgressions D●ut 21.12 and paring off superflu●●ies by the constant practice of mortification Braine Cerebrum Minsh quasi cárabrum the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eaput There is an assertion that man proportionally hath the largest brain of any creature Some have found upon observation that they have weighed four pound and sometime five and a half Hist Animal lib. 1. Scaliger saith that the head of a man is the fifteenth part of his body Beside the brain-pan there is the Pia-mater compassing the brain like a swaching-cloth or inner rind of a tree Eye God who at first drew light out of darknesse doth by an admirable work draw the light of the body Matth. 6.21 out of the black apple of the eye which Philosophers call the chrystalline humour The Eye is kept most diligently being a tender part and strongly guarded by nature with tunicles Oculus s●ma non patiuntur jocos There are five in number to keep it from hurt 1. Aranea tuneca like a spiders webbe 2. Retiformis woven like a net 3. Vvea like a berry 4. Cornea like a horn 5. Adnata tunica the cover of the eye or the eye-lids Psal 17.8 Hence David to expresse the special care that God hath over his Saints saith Keep me as the apple of the eye The Eye before the fall was the window to let in good instructions to the soul but since the fall it is proxenata peccati the broker that goeth betwixt the heart and the object to make up the sinful bargain And because it is now the most sinful sense God hath placed tears in it which are the tokens of repentance Eare. The Eare is a very honourable part of the body therefore of old they did hang ear-rings and jewels in their eares Weem as a sign of honour And when men were disgraced their eare was boared in token of infamy Philosophers call the eare sensum disciplinae it i● so necessary a part for instruction It is also an excellent sense for delight Solomon calls the eares the daughters of musick And it is the most excellent member for grace for faith comes by hearing Besides there is not a member that the Devil envieth more than the eare because it is Janua vitae the gate of life as we see in the man possessed with the deaf Devil He possessed that sense as the most excellent to hinder him from hearing The Dragon they say biteth the Elephants eare and chence sucketh his blood because he knoweth that to be the only place which he cannot reach with his trunck to defend So satan that red Dragon if he find no other way endeavours to infuse ill counsel at our ears Mouth Of this member saith one Man before his fall was content with little but since he laboureth not to fill a mouth but a gulf as it were the mouth of the Leviathan See Belly pag. 134. Teeth The Teeth both in Greek and Latin have their name from eating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so dentes quasi edentes The teeth are the hardest of the bones if that they be bones Aristotle is at least doubtful whether he should reckon them to be bones or no. There are no other bones so solid and hard as they are neither come they much short of the hardnesse of stones if they do not equal stones in the edges of them Neverthelesse they wear by daily use and therefore they do continue to grow as long as mans life continueth but only so much after they are come to their full growth as they are worn away The seat of the teeth are the jaws where they have their several sockets into which they are mortised Galen tearmeth their comely order in their places the seemly dance of nature But in old men they stand wetshod in slimy humour or are hollow falling out one after another The grinders cease Bccl. 12.3 because they are few Tongue The Tongue of man is a most honourable member called his glory because it is the instrument to glorifie God Before the fall the Tongue of man was like a swift writer and uttered those things which his heart indited and he spake but with one tongue But since the fall it is a world of iniquity and he is bilinguis double tongu'd yea trilinguis for a backbiter is a man with a threefold tongue or a tongue which hath three stings We have an example of it in Doeg who killed three at once with his evil report Saul the Priests and himself There are but five vertues of the tongue reckoned by Philosophers but there are many sins of the tongue some have reckoned up as many as there be letters in the Alphabet Moreover it is observable that when the Apostle gives us the Anatomy of wickednesse in all the members of the body he stayeth longest on the Organs of speech and goeth over them all Rom. 3.13 14. And Saint James spends almost a whole Chapter upon it Cap 3. The Tongue is made in the shape of a sword and David felt it as a sword in his bones it is sharp as a Rasor which instead of shaving the hair cutteth the throat It is of a flame colour and setteth on fire the course of nature Master Trapp recites a story out of Camerarius concerning two brethren walking forth in a star-light night Saith one of the brethren would I had a pasture as larg as this element And saith the other would I had as many Oxen as there be Stars Saith the other again where would you feed those Oxen in your pasture replied he What whether I would or no yea said he whether you would or no What in spite of me yes said he And thus it went on from words till at length each sheathed his sword in anothers bowels Behold how great a matter a little kindleth And the tongue is a fire No man can so change himself Plutarch but his heart may sometime be seen at his tongues end For well said one Man is like a Bell and his tongue like the Clapper so long as this standeth still he may be thought to be without any great flaw craze or crack in him but let it once stir and then he discovers himself presently For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak Matth. 12.34 Therefore good is the Arabian Proverb Cave non feriat lingua tua collum tuum Take heed thy tongue cut not thy throat A man hath two ears and but one tongue to teach him to be swift to hear and slow to speak Robert Smith Ma●tyr lest 15 sentences to his wife one of of which Remember that God hath hedged in your tongue with the teeth and lips that it might speak
the twelve Tribes of Israel He went into the Sanctum Sanctorum once a year and offered up the prayers of the people Besides him there were a great number of Priests and Levites throughout all the towns and Cities of Israel they offered the sacrifices of the people and made attonement for them before the Lord they taught the people and instructed them in the ways of the Lord. Yet all these are nothing to our Saviour Christ he excells them as much as the Sun doth the Starres or the body the shadow They were all but shadows of him he is the true high-Priest They were but men he is God and man they sinful he without sin they mortal he immortal their sacrifices were but figures of his sacrifice the blood of Lambs Goats offered by them took away no sin his blood purgeth us from all sin they received tithes of their brethren but they themselves paid tithes to Christ they prayed for the people in the Temple Christ prayes for us in heaven Wherein we may behold the supereminent dignity of Christ his Priest-hood It cannot be denied but that Aarons Priest-hood was most glorious As the Psalmist speaketh of the Church many glorious things are recorded of it There was a costly Tabernacle a sumptuous Temple the wonder of the world there was an admirable Altar many oblations and sacrifices there were sundry Sabbaths and new Moons divers festival days the feast of unleavened bread of the blowing of Trumpets of Tabernacles of Dedication c. Which were kept with wonderful solemnity there were many washings and purgings for the clensing of the people Therefore let us magnifie God for this our high-priest by whom we have an entrance into the Kingdom of heaven The high Priest went into the Holy of Holies himself but he carried none of the people with him they stood without Our high-Priest is not only gone into heaven himself but he hath also brought us thither That high-priest offered Bulls Calves Lambs for the sins of the people this high-priest offered himself for us all Therefore let us honour and reverence this our high-priest yea let us subject our selves to him in all things which hath made us Kings and Priests to God his Father that we may reign with him for ever and ever The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever Psal 110.4 after the order of Melchisedeck For such an high-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens Hebr. 7.26 27. Who needeth not daily as those high-Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the peoples for this he did once when he offered up himself Seeing then that we have a great high-Priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Heb. 4.14 16. And let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Of Christs Prophetical Office Christ is said to be a Prophet like unto Moses that is both in the Participation of nature and of office A true man and a true Mediatour Similes they are but not Pares Christ being worthy of more glory than Moses Christ is a Prophet and more than a Prophet the Arch-Prophet to whom Moses and all must vail bonnet Let our mind then be wholly fixed on Christ consider that in him all the treasures of wisdom lie hid he is a rich and plentiful store-house in whom we may find all the pearls and jewels of wholesome doctrine In him there is salvation and in no other therefore all other teachers set aside listen to him When the Judge of an Assizes gives the charge all that be present especially they of the grand Inquest consider seriously what is spoken Christ Jesus the Judge of the whole world gives a charge by his Ministery When the King makes a Speech in Parliament the whole House considers earnestly what he sayes Christ Jesus the King of kings speaks to us in the Ministery of the Word The Queen of Sheba observed Solomon well Behold here is a greater than Solomon therefore let us diligently consider him Besides the matters which this great Prophet declareth are of great moment touching the eternal salvation of our souls If one should talk to us of gold or silver we would be attentive Christ speaks to us of that which surpasseth all the riches in the world what mad-men are we that regard him no more But alas since the Fall every man hath Principium lasum his brain-pan crackt as to heavenly things neither can he recover till Christ open his eyes and give him light Moses truly said unto the Fathers Act 3.22 Quinque dicuntur de Deo Paternitas in nascibilitas filiatio proc ssio communis spiratio Aug. Paternitas innascibilitas conveniunt solum modò Patri Filiatio tantum modò Filio Spi●it●i verò Sancto processio Communis Spira●io Patri filio respectu Spiritus Sancti A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever I shall say unto you De Spiritu Sancto THE Holy Ghost is the third Person in Trinity proceeding from the Father and the Son being himself most holy and the worker of holiness in all Angels and good men He is distinct from the Father and the Son equal unto the Father and the Son and the same God in Nature and Essence with the Father and the Son though not the same person He is called The Spirit The Holy Spirit A Spirit because he is that essential vertue proceeding and as it were spired or breathed from the Father and the Son Or from his effect who blowing where he listeth inspireth holy motions and graces into the hearts of the Elect. Or because he is a spiritual invisible and incorporeal essence And Holy Spirit 1. For distinction sake for Gods Spirit is holy that is it hath all holiness and it hath it in it self not by illumination from any higher cause and so are not the spirits of Men or Angels holy mens spirits have sin in them on earth And the Angels and blessed souls in heaven have no holiness but what they received 2. Gods Spirit is holy by effect for it is his proper work to sanctifie the Elect and so to work holiness upon the spirits of men by spiritual regeneration The Holy Ghost is oft-times in Scripture signified by Fire Water We shall find it according to the nature of fire 1. To illighten us 1. Mat. 3.11 Isa 4.4 as the least spark of fire lightens it self at least and may be seen in the greatest darkness 2. To enliven and revive us fire is the most active of all other elements as having much form little matter so whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit that is nimble and active full of life and motion
faith were alone Tanquam sponsus cum sponsà in Thalamo howbeit it is such a faith as works by love 3. He that can rightly distinguish betwixt Law and Gospel let him praise God for his skill and know himself to be a good Divine For ever O Lord thy Word is setled in heaven Ideo moralis lex vocatur quia de moribus●est omni beminum generi semper communis Zanch. The Moral Law it is eternal and albeit some special duties of certain commandments shall cease when we come to heaven yet the substance of every one remaineth We live by the same Law in effect as the Saints above do and do Gods Will on earth as they in heaven The ministerials of this Law shall pass away together with this life the substantials shall pass into our glorified natures and shine therein as in a Mirrour for ever Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets Mat. 5.17 Ne minima quidem litera Luth. Rom. 3.31 I am not come to destroy but to fulfill For verily I say unto you It is easier for Heaven and earth to pass than one title of the Law to fail Do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law For the Law is holy and just Cap. 7.12 and good Lex Talionis Lex Talionis A●●st quand● quis idem patitur quod alteri fecit Vocatur à Graecis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi recipro●● mutua passio à verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est vicissim patior A Latinis Talio jus talionis quia talia tribuuntur qualia quis f●cit Aulus G●llius in Histor aut alteri praestitit Vnde apud Gellium dicitur retaliare quasi talia retribuere qualia alter secit De hoc jure etiam in sacris literis extat preceptum Moses exigit vitam pro animo oculum pro oculo Christus in Evangeli● inquit qu● mensur● metieritis remetietur vebis Et Propheta Esaias vae tibi qui spolias alterum quoniam ipse sp●liaberis What wouldest thou have done with me said Tamerlane to the fierce Bajazet Turk hist fol. 220. then his prisoner had it been my fortune to have fallen into thy hands as thou art now in mine I would said Bajazet have inclosed thee in a Cage of Iron and so in triumph have carried thee up and down my Kingdom Even so said Tamerlane shalt thou be served One Perillus gave to Phalaris King of Cicile Necenim ●ex justor ●lla est Quamn●cis artisic●s arte p●ri●● s●● an hollow or brazen Bull wherein to scortch and torment men by fire praising the device with this commendation That the noise of the tormented would be like the bellowing of a Bull. But there was a due reward unto the inventour for the first trial was made of himself God usually retaliates and dealeth with men according to the manner and way of their wickedness The sin and suffering oft meet in some remarkable circumstance Babylon hath blood for blood Jacob cometh as the elder to Isaac and Leah cometh as the younger to Jac●b He that denied a crumb wanted a drop Asa that set the Prophet in the stocks had a disease in his seet Sodom sinned in fulness of bread and it is expresly noted that their victuals were taken from them by the four Kings Their eyes were full of uncleanness and they were smitten with blindness They burned with lust and were burned with fire They sinned against nature and against the course of nature fire descends and consumes them Sisera annoy's Gods People with his Iron Charets and is slain by a nail of Iron Jesabels bra●s that devised mischief against the innocent are strew'd upon the stones By a Letter sent from Jezreel she shed the blood of Naboth and by a Letter from Jezreel the blood of her sons is shed Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomons Temple the seven years work of so many thousands therefore he is turned a grazing and seven seasons pass over him The blasphemers in the Revelations gnaw their tongues through pain and Dives was tormented in that part chiefly Cyprian yielding the reason of it Quia lingua plus peccaverat Thus God delights to give men their own to pay them home in their own coyn to remete them their own measure to beat them with their own weapons to over-shoot them in their own bows and to shape their estates according to their own patterns When it is thus know the sin by the judgement and silence murmuring Adonibezek an Heathen observed As I have done God hath done to me With what judgement ye judge Mat 7.2 ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again The Gospel THE word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of to b●●e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nuntius 〈◊〉 unutium Evangelium signifieth glad-tidings that is the proper notation of the Original word And the same may our English word Gospel admit for Spel in ancient signified speech Gespel then is a good speech Or quasi Gods-spell Gods power or charm to call us to be Christians as Romans 1.16 The Gospel is the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth It is sometimes taken for the Sacrifice which the Heathen offered to their gods It is so used in Xenophon Homer Odyss for joyful news And sometimes for the reward which is given to him who bringeth glad-ridings In Scripture it is taken for glad-tidings in general For the history of Christ But by an excellency it is restrained to signifie The most joyful message of salvation And sometimes for the publishing of the Doctrine of Christ Consider the Gospels 1. Antiquity 2. Excellency It is at least as old as Moses which was the first writer that we read of The Athenians thought it to be a new Doctrine Yet it is as ancient as Moses nay as Adam for the Doctrine of the Gospel was in Paradise The Law was before the Gospel yet the Gospel is more worthy than it darkness went before the light the night before the day yet the day is more glorious than the night All creatures were made before man yet man excelleth them all The Sword-bearer goes before the Major yet he is not greater than the Major All things are not to be esteemed by their precedency and priority in the world There cometh one after me said John yet in honour and dignity he is before me So the Gospel cometh after the Law yet it is more excellent than the Law In the Law there is nothing but matter of fear in the Gospel of love in the Law God is against us in the Gospel he is Emanuel God with us The Law curseth the Gospel blesseth The Law is a denunciation of wrath of a curse against us because of transgression only the Gospel is an annunciation of mercy and forgiveness That breatheth forth only a cold blast a North-wind of
the two Altars in Solomons Temple in the outer Court whereof beasts were sacrificed in the inner Court an Altar of Incense The first representing mortification or slaying of our beastly appetites The second the offering up our prayers Without our spirits be mortified we neither can love to pray nor God love to hear us It was Bishop Hoopers speech before a Christian can be brought to perfection Sic mihi res eadem vulnus opemque feret Ovid. he must first be brought to nothing Unmortified men and women are no creatures fit for God Origen through a grosse mistake made himself an Eunuch Demosthenes put out his own eyes Crates cast his money into the Sea And Thracius cut down his own vines Peccata sepae raduntur sed non eradicantur Sin hath a strong heart and is not easily brought down It is the hardest task in all Christianity yet must be none or we are undone Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication c. Colos 3.5 Solitude A solitary condition is a sad condition a sorrowful condition Indeed there is a solitarinesse which is the sweetest part of our lives when we retire awhile from the world from the throng of men and businesse that we may be more intimate with Christ and take our fill in communion with him This is to go alone that we may meet with God in heaven upon earth But to be so left alone that we cannot meet with men is one of the greatest afflictions upon the earth Such solitary times are sad times There is an elective alonenesse or retirednesse at sometimes very useful for contemplation and prayer and thus we are never lesse alone than when we are alone for then God is more specially with us and we with him It is said Gen. 32.24 Jacob was left alone that is he stayed alone purposely that he might have freer communion with God in that recesse and retirement from the creature So the Church gets her into the clefts of the roks Cant. 2.14 Sed quid prodest solitudo corporis si non sit solitudo cerdis Greg. Isaac into the fields Daniel to the rivers side Christ into the Mount Peter up to the leads or house top that they might pour out their prayers and solace themselves with God in secret Thus it is good for man to be alone from the company of man that he may enjoy more fully the presence of God It 's a desirable solitarinesse to talk with God and with our selves Yet solitarinesse is to be well and carefully managed for Satan is readiest to assault when none is by to assist Neither is there a greater tye to constancy than the society of the Saints This the Heathen Persecutors perceived and therefore banished and confined the confessors to Isles and Mines where they could not come together for mutual edification Communion of Saints is to be accounted a point of practice as well as an Article of belief All solitarinesse therefore is not to be affected because it is the hour of temptation I watch Psal 102.7 and am as a Sparrow alone upon the house top Society God is for society he is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints Psal 89.7 Christ sent out his Disciples by two and two Mark 6.7 He himself came from heaven to converse with us therefore we may not like Stoicks stye up our selves A mild affablenesse and amicable conversation is to be preferred before a stern froward austerity or wild retirednesse Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher a sociable creature or Natures good-fellow A●ist Polit. 1. He that loves to be alone is either a beast or a God Yea one subordinate end of mans creation is that man might live with man in holy society and communion Let two cold flints be smitten together and fire will come forth so let two dul Christians conferre and communicate their soul-secrets and they shall find the benefit of it We see saith a late writer that God will have the sweetest works in nature to be performed with natural help Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades Saith God to Job Chap. 38.21 These Pleiades be the seven starres that have all one name because they all help one another in their work which is to bring on the spring and like seven sisters so are they joined together in one constellation and in one company Now the best time of the year the sweetest warmth cometh with those Pleiades And the best time of our life cometh when we keep together in true love and fellowship Optimum solatium sodalitium There is great comfort in good company Quid sit vera amicitia nondum novit qui vult alium esse mercedem quam ipsam saith Austin Lib de Amicitia What true friendship is he doth not as yet know who desireth any other reward than it self No sooner had the Philippians received the Gospel but they were in fellowship to a day Cap. 1.5 Noscitur ex socio qui non dignoscitur exse As sincerity is the life of Religion so is society the life of sincerity Besides Vis unita fortior Jonathan will not go without his Armer-bearer Christ when to begin his passion in the garden took Peter James and John with him for the benifit of their prayers and company though they served him but sorrily Christs Dove is but one Jerusalem is a City compact together The Church is terrible as an Army with banners the gates of hell cannot prevail against her Unity hath victory but division breeds dissolution Quanto plures boni in amicitia constituti sunt tanto status corum melioratur The more they are that unite so they be good the better it is with them We lose much of our strength in the losse of friends our Cable is as it were untwisted Hence David so much bemoans the losse of Jonathan and Paul counts it a special mercy to him that Epaphroditus recovered 2 Sam. 1. Phil. 1.27 I conclude then It s not so much perfection to live immur'd in a cell as to converse with the world and yet live abstracted from it and dead to it for so did Christ Two are better than one Eccl. 4.9 Way Domine sequemur te per te ad te te quia veritas per te quia via ad te quia vita saith Bernard Christ hath paved us a new and living way to God with his own meritorious blood Heb. 10.20 And his flesh stands as a skreen betwixt us and those everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 There are the wayes of Gods 1. Counsel and Decrees past finding out Rom. 11.33 2. Providence and outward administration Psal 145.17 Psal 77.19 3. Commandments or rules of life of two sorts Ways of 1. Worship 1. Practice Furthermore the way of a man in his walking with God is twofold 1. Internal there is a secret path which the soul treads in converse with God which no eye
natural desire shrinks and pulls back the hand because Nature seeks the preservation of it self But the reasonable desire saith rather than the whole body shall be consumed he will command the Chyrurgeon to cut off the hand Here is no repugnancie betwixt the natural and reasonable desire but a subordination Again A Martyr is carried to the stake to be burnt the natural desire shrinks but yet it submits it self to the spiritual desire which cometh on and saith Rather than dishonor God go to the fire and be burnt The Schoolmen say Nam pereunte uno desiderio suceedit alterum that Desires are not actually infinite because Nature tends always to some finite thing for no man desireth infinite meat Yet his desires are infinite by succession because these bodily things which we desire are not permanent Thus one desire being gone another comes in place of it It is better to moderate Desire at the first than afterwards to prescribe it a measure Let Desire be conversant about right objects He that pants after the dust of the earth shall always be indigent crying continually with the two daughters of the Horse-leech Give give But he that truly desires after Righteousness shall be satisfied Whosoever shall drink of this water John 4.13 14. shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Desertion It 's said of the Lioness that she seems to leave her young ones till they have almost killed themselves with roaring and howling but at last gasp she relieves them whereby they become the more couragious And Mothers use to leave their children or turn their backs upon them till they mourn and make moan after them Even so the Lord withdraws sometimes from his people and goes from them that with the Prodigal they may come to themselves and seems to forget them that they may remember themselves In Christs desertion there was not Divulsio unionis but Suspensio visionis He cried not out of Men or Devils why they did so and so unto him But My God my God why hast thou for saken me Oh! that came neer his heart In such a forlorne condition as this a poor Soul for regaining of his God can do no more than 1. Bewail the want of Gods gracious presence As Reuben for Joseph Heu quid agam I cannot find my God and I whither shall I go 2. Cry after him in fervent prayer As Elisha after Elijah My father my father Return O Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servant 3. Wait his leisure if he please to hold off longer Sustaining himself with cordial places of Scripture Isa 50.10 cap. 64.4 cap. 30.18 In which estate should he be taken away by death his condition is like to be comfortable because the Spirit of Truth saith Blessed are all they that wait for him Epiphanius telleth of a bird Charadius But what joy at the breaking forth of the Sun after an Eclipse that being brought into the room where a man lieth sick if he look with a steady and fixed eye upon the sick man he recovereth Certainly in Gods favour is life but Aversio vultus Dei the turning away of Gods pleased countenance is the cause of all sorrow and sadness When he hideth his face Job 34.29 who then can behold him Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Psal 30.7 Calamity It was an easie thing said Bishop Hooper to hold with Christ Calamita● virtutis occasio est whiles the Prince and the World held with him but now the World hateth him it is the true trial who be his Let us not then run away when it is most time to fight Remember none are crowned but they that fight manfully You must now turn all your cogitations from the peril you see and mark the felicity that followeth the peril either victory of your enemies in this world or else a surrender for ever of your right in the inheritance to come He calls the World the Miln and Kitchin Idem to grind and boil the flesh of Gods people in till they atchieve their perfection in the World to come The World saith one is not a Paradise but a Purgatory to the Saints It may be compared to the straits of Magellan which is said to be a place of that nature Heyl. Geogr. that which way soever a man bend his course he shall be sure to have the wind against him They may not here dream of a delicacy In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer Joh. 16.33 I have overcome the world Quatuor Novissima Mors. DEath Judgment Heaven and Hell are the Quatuor Novissima Discrimen inter beatos post resurrectionem primos parentes in statu innocentiae homines in statunaturae lapsae in quo nunc sumus est Quòd beati nunquam mori poterunt primi parentes poterant nunquam meri hemines in statu nature lapsae non possunt non mori The decree is out Fort●sse in omnibus si mè rebus bumanis s●d non in morte locum habet Bellarm. Resistitur ignibus undis serro resistitur regibus imperi●s venit una m●rs quis eiresistit Aug. Non torquate genus non te sacundia non te restituet pietas Horat. l. 4. Lex universa jubet n●s●i mori Senec. All must die Belshazzar's Emblem is upon every wall Mene mene tekel upharsin Yea this impress is upon all flesh Numeravit appendit divisit God hath numbred thy days he hath laid thee on the ballance and thou art found wanting thy Kingdom is divided Say Princes say Pesants say all Corruption thou art my father Worms ye are my sisters Grave thou are my bed Sheet thou art my shrine Earth thou art my cover Green grass thou art my carpet Death demand thy due and thou Gatheringhost-Dan come last and sweep all away Epictetus went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her Pitcher of earth that was broken and went forth the next day and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead and thereupon said Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie vidi mortalem mori Life is but a sleep a shadow a bubble a vapour and as a tale that is told Aristotle spake these words at his death I rejoyce that I go out of the World which is compounded of contraries Because each of the four Elements is contrary to other therefore how can this Body compounded of them long endure Plato treating of the Souls of men could say The merciful Father made them soluble and mortal bands meaning indeed they should not always be held with the miseries of this life Death reigned from Adam to Moses And though Death shall not reign yet it shall live fight and prevail from Moses to the end of the world for then and not till then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written Death is swallowed
the Ghost in Jeronimo cry for revenge they shall haunt you and set no colour before you but red and crimson yea and throw bowles of blood upon your faces never leaving you till they have brought you from a dying life to a violent and cursed death like the poor fish that feeling the heat of the water thinks to mend her self and leaps into the fire Would not our hearts bleed within us to see an army of men marching against the mouth of a Canon to be wounded discomfited some groaning and crying out some slain out-right and cut off by the middle some crawling on the ground with their lungs peeping out through their sides some stooping with their bowels in their hands some sliced down their legs some cloven down the chin some their brains dasht out and besprinkled on the drumme All these and thousands such are but as fleebitings to that horrid slaughter and horrible blood-shed of the damned in hell fire And when all is done we must dye A grave onely remaines to receive us Three cubits are allotted to us None telluris tres tantum cabiti te expectant A little quantity of ground hath nature proportioned though sometime thou didst possesse as much as ever the tempter shewed Christ The remainder of mighty Hercules will scarce fill a little pitcher When certain Philosophers intentively beheld the tom be of Alexander Heri fecit ex aurò thesaurum hodie aurum ex eo facit thesaurum yesterday the world did not content him to day three cubits contain him Alcibiades bragging of his lands Socrates carried him to the Map of the world and bid him demonstrate them but he could not find them for alas Athens it self was not discernable This earth would serve the wicked still had they not better lye in rottennesse than combustion were not a cold grave more welcome than a hot furnace Now they beg not a city though a little one a Zoar nor a house though poor and bleak as Codrus nor an open aire though sharp and irksome scortched with the Indian sun or frozen with a Russian cold for of such favours there is now no hope Give them but a mountain to fall on them or rock to hide them and they are pleased Here is a strange alteration for the wicked when they shall go from a glorious mansion to a loathsom dungeon from a table of surfeit to a table of vengeance from fawning observants to afflicting spirits from a bed of down to a bed of fire they that commanded all the earth cannot now command a piece of earth to do them service God will wound the hairy scalp of him that goeth still in his wickednesse there remaineth for impenitent sinners a worme that knaweth the conscience and there is prepared for the wicked a fire which never goeth out where is horrour terrour weeping wailing wringing of hands gnashing of teeth continual death yet those that are there never dye Tantalus his Apples Sisyphus his stone and those ravening Harpies whereof the Poets do speak are nothing in respect of those torments whereof the wicked shall tast unlesse in this world they do repent and cast their accounts a fresh The pains of Hell as a reverend father of the Church observes make a four-fold impression in the soules of men 1. A carefull fear that declineth them 2. A doubtfull fear that conflicteth them 3. A desperate fear that shrinketh them 4. A damned fear that suffereth them Then the will shall be a hell in it self the memory shall be continually troubled with a fixed recordation of things passed which it once possessed the understanding shall be darkned with innumerable waves of imaginations the light shall be affirighted with ugly Devils and darknesse the hearing with odious and hideous out-cries the smelling with noisome stinkes the tast with raging thirst and ravishing hunger the feeling afflicted in every part with intollerable paines in comparison whereof our earthly fires are no more but painted flames Depart from me is a cursed condemnation viz. from my Quire of glorious Angels from the communion of blessed Saints Apostles Martyrs and Confessors from me from my holy hill Well may the wretched soul Esau like weep and howle To be secluded from the presence of God is of all miseries the greatest in so much that a father on Matthew saith Many do abhorre hell but I esteem the fall from that glory to be a greater punishment than hell it self Better to endure ten thousand thunderclaps than be deptived of the beatifical vision O the madnesse of most that will rather lose God and Christ and heaven and all than lose a lust Lysimachus King of Lacedemonia being forced to surrender himself his Army and his Kingdome into his enemies hands for a draught of water they being all ready to die for thirst when he had drunk his water he breaks out O how short a pleasure is this that for one draught of water I have lost a glorious Kingdome Truly infinite greater cause will the damned have to complain of their losse Something 's do perfect a good feast viz. Good company good chear good place and good time But all those good things are awanting Varro apud Gelljum at the black banquet in the nethermost hell At other feasts the more the merrier but that 's a sorry supper where the more the more miserable Oh! do not do not run the hazard of these eternal torments for enjoying the pleasure of sin for a season He that playes the thief is a very fool it may be he may not be an hour in stealing the commodity and yet he may lye a whole year in the Goal for it and have hanging when all is done But oh how many greater fools are there than these that will haply for an hours pleasure or at the most for a lifes-time lye in the Goal and prison of hell not for a year but to all eternity Suppose that by your unjust gain you increase your estate and get large revenews if you lose God what get you if you lose a soul what gain you if you lose Christ what advantageth it you We read of a certain salt in Sicilia Aug. de civit the which if it be put into the fire swims as water and being put into water crackles as fire Among the Garamantes a people dwellidg in the middle of Lybia we read of a fountain the which in a cold night is hot and in the hot day so cold that none can endure to drink it And we read of a stone in Archadia the which being once made hot can never be cooled Certainly the fire into which the damned souls are cast Cupient mori et mors fugit ab illis and tormented is without all intermission of time or punishment They shall desire to dy and death shall she from them Rev. 9.6 Propound to thy self a bottomlesse gulfe hideous to behold in darknesse dungeon-like in torments horrible to the smell most odious breathing out
nature he had made ours by grace And here we may be as bold as to conclude we are the sons of God because the natural Son of God assumed body of our body flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones that he might be the same with us and we the same with him Thus he became our Kinsman to whom of property by the old Law it did belong to redeem his brethren Which that he might effect he did conquer Death and who could do this but he who is our Life He did vanquish Sin and who could do this but Righteousness it self He did bring into his subjection the Forces of the world and the Powers that rule in the air and who could do this but he that is the Power of God And who is this Life this Righteousness this Power of God but Jesus Christ very God of very God and yet the Son of Man Christ was God and Man Man that sin might be punished in the nature offending yet Man without sin to fulfill that Righteousness which none of us sold under sin can fulfill He was Man that as by the disobedience of the first Adam sin entred into the world so by the obedience of him who is the second Adam righteousness should bring justification to life And as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous By the righteousness of his obedience Active and Passive Active in perfecting all the duties injoined by the Law Passive in suffering the wrath of God the punishment of our disobedience Thus our confusion is taken away and life and righteousness are restored unto us And he was God withal that the Justice of God might receive compleat satisfaction by a punishment that should be infinite or equal to infinite which none but God could give And therefore Christ is said as God to have purchased his Church with his own blood Act. 20. 1 Joh. 3.16 and to lay down his life for us And though his punishment was not so infinite but that it was finite yet it was only finite for time but was for value as it ought to be infinite Thus the Son of True God did bear the burden of his Fathers wrath in our nature which no other Nature ought to do but the soul that sinned which no other but God could do because God is a consuming fire and his wrath unquenchable by any creature Forasmuch as God alone could not die because not subject to passion nor Man alone overcome death because too weak It was requisite that our Redeemer who should die for our sins should be both that by the weakness of the one nature he might submit himself to the power of death thereby to undergo punishment due to sin and by the strength of the other he should by sustaining the Manhood make good his part against death and swallow it up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory But thanks be to God Sarcasmo conflat hostili derisione quâ mors ridenda propinatur saith one that hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus much of the Person humbled which is Christ God and Man The next point to be discuss'd is Wherein his Humiliation did consist that is in general He suffered From the time of his nativity to the very hour of his death was he not free from suffering He was no sooner born but Herod sought his life He was subject to the infirmities of our nature sin excepted He was hungry and thirsty weary and faint sorrowful and discontented his poverty was extream though Lord of all and Possessor of heaven and earth he had not so much as whereon to lay his head Grievous was the temptation he suffered by Satans onset infinite were the injuries that were offered him by the cursed brats of Satan both in word and deed In word by false calumnies and forged accusations by contumelious detractions and cursed blasphemies In deed by framing of projects and laying of plots how to take away his life He was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrowes and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him Isa 53. He was despised and we esteemed him not surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrowes Yet we esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted His whole life was a perpetual passion He was never let alone until upon the Cross he gave himself a ransom for all and his enemies never ceased until they drew out his hearts blood which he for our redemption in his loving kindness was willing to part withall He had power in his own hand to lay down his life and he had power to assume it again For albeit his life lay at the stake yet could he were he so disposed command legions of Angels beside his own power which was alsufficient to deliver him either by putting his enemies to flight or by repressing their violence that either they would not or they should not hurt him or by utterly subverting them But being that he came into the world to the end to suffer to compass for us a world without all end he withdrew not his neck from the yoke but set himself forward to bear the iniquity of us all laid upon him Thus Christ was subject to passion but not according to his divine but humane nature For as he is God he is Actus purissimus and cannot suffer but yet he being God suffered in the nature assumed which was capable of suffering that is in his Manhood So that here we have the highest Person and the lowest Humiliation met together Wherefore in this suffering of our Lord there are three things according to Bernards observation specially noted Bernard Opus modus causa In opere patientia in modo humilitat in causa charitas commendatur Patientia singularis humilitas admirabilis sed charitas inestimabilis There are the work the manner of performing and the cause In the work which is suffering his patience is commended in the manner his humility in the cause his charity for charity moved him to suffer with patience and humility His patience is singular none like it his humility admirable none ever came never shall come near it his charity inestimable for it is incomparable All which may appear unto you by presenting to your view his special sufferings immediately preceding his death In these sufferings of our Saviour you may see the foulest act of Treason that ever was committed the greatest Cruelty that was ever heard of both hatcht in the pit of hell Judas his familiar friend comes and betrays him with a false-hearted complement a Kiss his love was only from the teeth outward deceit was in his heart and the poison of asps under his lips but no wonder the Devil was in him Peter his Disciple than whom none more forward in times past to confess him to be
him that the Supreme Majesty would hold him in such reputation as so friendly to reveal himself to him or to make such large promises of grace as he did which his best endeavours could never compass to merit I think Jacob thought not the news to be too good to be true God told him but too great for a sinful creature to receive from a spotless Creator However beside the glory and largeness of the Promise the rarity of the Apparition did put him into a religious extasie being unacquainted with the Lords designs or with his manner of working But soft a while Should not Jacob the Almighty thus freely opening his heart unto him rather rejoyce than be afraid Is it fit he should be muffled up in a pitchy cloud of dejecting fear who ought to be clothed with the bright garment of refreshing joy Surely did the dead ashes of this grave Father revive his reply I believe would be to no other purpose Paraeus in lot than that of that famous German Divine whom the best learned honour in the dust Sancti quidem laetantur patefactionibus Dei sed cum timore tremore The Saints indeed rejoyce at the gracious presence of the Lord of glory but 't is with fear with trembling When the Majesty of God who is a consuming fire approacheth neer although his mercy raise up their spirits to an height of joy yet the experience of their unworthiness and the exquisite sense of their manifold infirmities beget in them a shivering fear and that fear humility Cicero Cicero Pagan Rome's chiefest Orator averred as much of that fear Nature did possess him of And by the best Divine France ever bred the fear bred by Religion Calv. in loc is entituled Piae submissionis magister the master of a pious lowliness Neither is it without reason God makes his servants to rejoice as the Prophet speaks with trembling but that in an obedient subjection and denial of themselves Psal 63.3 they might embrace and depend upon his favour better as King David saith than life it self Thus having vindicated good Jacobs credit from the unjust taxe or hard censure of the severest Criticks I may make this Application To the Perverse Malefactor Penitent Delinquent Setled Christian Perverse Malefactors must efther fear or perish Necessity is laid upon them to perform the one or undergo the other If through a careless security they shake off all fear of God I see not how they can decline Divine vengeance Wherefore as the Spirit of God terms them children of disobedience because of their obstinate rebellion so because thereby they make themselves liable to his eternal indignation Ephes 2.3 are they called by the same Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of wrath whereupon the Lord challengeth vengeance unto himself Nemo crimen gerit in pectore qui non idem Nemesin in tergo Nemesis dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vengeance ●elongeth unto me and I will recompence As sure as he is in heaven if sinners will not filially fear him for his mercies he will for his justice make them slavishly fear him with a vengeance Look then to your tacklings ye that without fear or wit hurry into manifold impieties Ye heap up wrath against the day of wrath when not a glimpse of comfort shall be vouchsafed you Let the loose Epicure glory in his joyous voluptuousness let the licentious Libertine exult in his ungodly courses let the miserable Wordling rejoyce in his Idol-god of Gold let the luxurious Adulterer whose wandring eye sparkles at the sight of a fond Beauty prostrate himself at the shrine of his bewitching goddess let the revelling Drunkard beset his soul with continual exhausting of intemperate Cups let the light-finger'd Pilferer and deceitful Tradesman with sleight of hand in false weights of measures inrich himself to the impoverishing of others let the debaucht Blasphemer who with execrable oaths tears God and the Son of God in a thousand pieces triumph in his unrighteous dealing let the sacrilegious Sabbath-breaker who makes that day the onely day of his repast and unlawful dalliances cheer up his heart the best he may let the irreligious Prophaner of the sacred Temple of the Lord who buyes and fells within the holy limits cheer up himself with his ungodly gain let the griping Officers whose unjust exactions had wont to creep in under the modest cloke of voluntary courtesie or fair consideration of a befriended expedition now come like Eli's sons Nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force Hall in conscion in Act. 2.37 1 Sam. 2.16 In a word I should be infinite should I insist upon particulars Let the legal Thefts of professed Usurers the crafty Compacts of slie Oppressors the conniv'd at Idolatry of superstitious Papists dare throw down the gantlet to Justice and insolent disobediences do so to Authority without the fear of God yet for all this shall these come to judgment when base fear shall so seise upon their confounded souls that they shall in vain cry to the hills to hide them to the mountains to cover them from the presence of the Lord. Jeer not at this ye obdurate sinners Ask not in derision the Disciples question in a worse sense Domine quando fient haec Master when shall these things be Believe Christians the time 's at hand when all impenitent offenders and flie fellows void of Jacob's fear shall receive their doom to be sent as into utter darkness so into unquenchable fire Next Penitent sinners must fear the Almighty hence a token of their conversion but not despair Whose fear albeit it be somewhat servile at first the nature of it is changed into a better condition or abolished They are led saith one by the Spirit from the fear of Slaves through the fear of Penitents Chrysoft to the fear of Sons Hence faith Chrysostom doubtless upon this gradation Geheunae timor Regni nobis adfert coronam The fear of Hell which is servile brings us at length a Diadem of glory Be not ye therefore in a melancholy mood dismaid ye afflicted souls humbled in the sight of God for sin The true fear of God it advanceth you to perfection Doubt not to be encountred by a strong opposition yet fear none but that God that can cast both soul and body into hell A truly Noble spirit reported That who feareth the most High feareth neither flesh nor blood principalities nor powers the rulers of the darkness of this world nor spiritual wickedness in high places Origen gives the reason Origen Non corporis robore sed fidei virtute pugnatur non jaculis ferreis sed orationum telis victoria quaeritur We fight not by the strength of body but of faith we conquer not with darts of steel but of prayer Let not your heart be troubled neither let is be afraid said Christ to his Disciples say I to
ye use the best means by an honest vocation to acquire what may be communicated to your wives necessity And thus much for the precept commanding love As love is enjoyned so is bitternesse prohibited The obligation that women have on men in wedlock is that they are bound to good-behaviour towards them Their conversation and society must be ever sweetned with the best delights that pious souls and affectionate hearts can afford This bitternesse that is to be abandoned doth discover it self in the 1. Affections 2. Speeches 3. Actions In the affections when men grounding an advantage on trifling matters take occasion to grow exasperate and harsh to the weaker vessels which frequently ends either in a deadly hatred or in a languishing and remisse love whereas our love ought to be the same still rather more than lesse like Christs love to his Church ever nourishing and cherishing it In speeches when mens words aim at the reproach and contumely of their wives A thing repugnant to peaceful content and wounds a tender nature worse than a sword and strikes deeper into the heart than poisoned arrowes to which reproachful language is by the Psalmist compared Rather than be of another temper moderate your passions and your tongues Pleasing words best befit those lips that often greet one another with an holy kisse Good words if there be but the least spark of grace extant in the heart will make them pliable to the utmost of your desires and their loves reciprocal In action there is a discovery of bitterness And that is when men shall bear an heavy and tyrannical hand over to their wives either by removing them from their oeconomical government or subjecting them unto their vassals or withdrawing from them what their necessity pleads for or the support of their dignity requires These are symptomes of no candid dealing And yet there is a worse expression of bitterness than all this which is when men through impatience shall lay violent hands upon them But for a man to use her discourteously with blowes whom he hath selected out of all the world to be his familiar causing her to forsake all friends for his sake is flat opposite to reason to amity to nature to civility To beat her is to beat himself than which there cannot be a more unreasonable unfriendly unnatural uncivil part Beside Eve was not made of the foot of man to be troden under but of the rib of man that he might hold her as dear as himself Right dear therefore unto you ought to be your wives upon whom the principal part of your temporal felicity hath certain dependance Love your wives and be not bitter unto them And thus much for the second head the head of the woman which is the man Having thus run over the reciprocal duties of man and wife a word and but a word of the third head And the head of Christ is God God is the head of Christ in regard of his 1. Divinity 2. Humanity In regard of his Divinity and that by eternal generation because he is the generative principle of the Son according to that nature he is God of very God being consubstantial and coessential with the Father So that here is a kind of subjection whence the Arrians assume an inequality of essence whose assumption is most blasphemously untrue for here is only a subjection in regard of order which imports no inequality of nature as the woman is not inferiour unto man in nature which is the same in both but in order only by divine constitution so neither Christ to God God is the head of Christ in regard of his humanity and that foure wayes 1. In respect of perfection the perfection of God is infinite the perfection of Christ as man proceeding from the Father is finite 2. In respect of eminency so God is above Christ as man as the Creator above the creature 3. In respect of influence all the divine graces in the humane nature of Christ were originally derived from God from whom every good and perfect gift doth descend 4. In respect of government for he was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellowes whereby with the more alacrity he did the will of him that sent him He was fill'd full with the Holy Ghost and so fulfilled all righteousness And thus much concerning these three heads the head of the woman which is man the head of man which is Christ and the head of Christ which is God THE ROYAL REMEMBRANGER OR PROMISES Put in Suit PSAL. 132.1 Lord remember David and all his afflictions AS for the Penman of this Psalme who he should be Expositors a●e at variance notwithstanding we may with them are soundest safely Father it on the Father or the Son David or Solomon If on David as Lyra doth the Son put the Fathers work to the Fathers use Faelicis faelix filius ille patris if on Solomon he was thereby his own Fathers Son following his steps happy father happy son David loved God 1 King 2.3 so did Solomon David had a care to instruct his son in the wayes of God Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statutes of his father A president for Kings and their sons For Kings to bring up their sons in the fear of God 1 King 3.3 for Kings sons in the fear of God to obey the King their father Few Kings and few Kings sons are now adayes of this nature happy therefore are these Kingdomes of great Britaine and Ireland that have such a King the son of such a King witnesse daily experience God grant us to make good use of it Well then whether it be David or Solomon the father or the son which was the Author of this Psalm it matters not he was a King and inspired by God yet it seemes rather to be Solomon As for the title of this Psalme it is called Shir Hamagnoloth a song of degrees There is a new song Psal 33.3 there is a song of triumph or thanksgiving for deliverance past such as Moses song after the Israelites had passed through the red sea Exod. 15. Such a song was Deborah's and Baraks after they had delivered Israel from Jabin and Sisera Judg. 5. There is a song of mourning Such a song was Davids for Saul's death 2 Sam. 1. Such a song if we may call it a song is Jeremies Lamentation There is a song of loves whereof we may read Ezek. 33.32 there is a song of joyes such was Hannah's 1 Sam. 2. Such was Elizabeth's John's Mother such was Maries the Mother of Christ such was Zacharies Luk. 1. such was the Angels to the shepheards in the field such was old Simeons Luk. 2. There is Shir Hashirim 1 King 4.32 a song of songs which is Solomons Cant 1. this is but one of a thousand and five which he composed So here is Shir Hamagnaloth a song of degrees Here are fifteen songs of degrees following one the other which are so named
not shut against you his fatherly providence is tendred to you he withholds no good thing from you he sent first his Son and now that his Son is ascended to him he sends the Spirit of his Son to you into your hearts that by that meanes he may abide with you for ever But why compared ● the love of God to the love of man mans love in respect of Gods not being so much as a grain of mustard-seed to the whole earth or the whole earth to the vast heavens or the smallest drop of water to the whole Ocean I answer for my 〈◊〉 thus that by the marvellons defect and straitness of the one you may in some though in the smallest measure conceive survey you cannot the infinite greatness of the other He sent his Son but his Son return'd in his presence was joy in his absence griefe wherefore God bereaving us of his Sons bodily presence in his tender love sent the Spirit of his Son to raise our dead spirits to comfort us without him comfortless he adopted us sons being his enemies by his Sons coming now for farther confirmation and stronger assurance he signs it he seals it by sending the Spirit of his Son into our hearts Because sons Not natural but elected adopted sons such as many justly challenge the prerogatives and liberty of sons God That is the Father Hath sent forth As Kings do their Ambassadours to signify their pleasure and desires they neither adde nor diminish from their Commission so the Holy Ghost what he receives from the Father shows to them to whom the Father sends him he speaks not of himself but what he hears he speaks what he receives he delivers The Spirit That is John 16.13 14 the Holy Ghost the third person in Trinity Of his Son To wit of the natural Son of God Jesus Christ Gods Son begotten by eternal generation time out of mind 〈◊〉 your bear ts● Into your 〈◊〉 Crying Making you with confidence and assurance to cry the Spirit properly cryes not for then it should cry and pray to it selfe Sic ipse Spiritus postulat i.c. ad postulandum cos quos replevit inslammat but it is said to cry when it works that effect in us according to that Rom. 8.15 Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abb● Father We are said to cry by the Spirit as a man to see by the eye Abba Father Abba it is an Hebrew word derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyes to be willing here it is translated Father and the reason of that name is rendred to be because of the propensity of the will and desire of a father towards his children being their chiefest wel-willers and wel-wishers The intention then of the words is this The adoption and free election thorough Jesus Christ into the right and liberty of sons pertains not to the Jews alone but to the Gentiles also to the Galatians by the redemption wrought by the Son of God for this purpose annointed by the Father ye receive the adoption of sons God thus making you sons sent his Spirit to you his Spirit sent to you dwells in your hearts and dwelling in your hearts makes you cry with an assurance of his good will Abba Father Of the words there are these parts 1. A person sent the Spirit of the Son 2. A person sending God 3. The sending it self sent 4. The place whither God sends the Spirit of his Son into your hearts 5. The office or effect of the Spirit Crying Abba Father 6. The reason moving and prevailing with God to send his Sons Spirit into your hearts because sons Of the first the person sent the Spirit of the Son the Holy Ghost It will be judg'd in me to be but a labour in vain to endeavour to prove that there is such a Spirit except there be some as I hope there are none so grosly ignorant as those disciples spoken of in the 19. of Acts who profest they did not so much as hear whether there were an Holy Ghest or no. This is a Principle of Religion to be taken of all for granted not to be call'd in question not to be proved to spend words and time in the demonstration hereof is to no more purpose than to prove 't is day when the sun shines this being sufficiently manifest in the works of nature that sufficiently apparent in the effects of grace Divine truth contained in the sacred Word of God stops all gainsaying proceedings in this point None but who will oppose God will oppose it if any man teach otherwise or doubt of the verity hereof he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words he is a man of a corrupt mind and destitute of the truth carried away with the spirit of giddiness and of error I will therefore spare my pains in convicting such rude and giddy-headed spirits for I direct my lines to Christians well instructed in this Article of our faith not to Turks and Mahumetans and by Gods assistance teach and write what shall be more fit all things well weigh'd for them to learn and me to deliver 1. Why the Holy Ghost is called a Spirit 2. Why he is called the Spirit of the Son The third person is called a Spirit because 1. He is a spiritual incorporeal and invisible essence whose being is not like that of Angels though spirits they are but ministring spirits of Almighty God finite but he is infinite whom the world cannot contain whom the most piercing eye cannot see whom the most sublime wit cannot conceive The re●ulgene glory of those heavenly spirits dazzles our understanding in our meditations and discourses of them our imaginations cannot reach their transcendent and Metaphysical nature far distant from our spheare much more are we unable to fix our bodily or intellectual eye upon that spiritual being whose being and glory is absolutely in comprehensible dwelling in that light to which there can be no accesse and in that height to which no created nature can aspire He is called a Spirit 2. Nescis torda m●li ●●ina gratiá Spiritus Sancti Ambros In regard of the mighty power and unresistible efficacy it hath in operation implyed in the rushing wind on the day of Pentecost and the fiery tongues His wonderful activity is made sufficiently manifest by the creation of the world and well known in the hearts of sinners by their conversion and new creation a work not of small importance Act. 2. a concurrence of all the powers of nature cannot effect it Men and Angels can do much but not so much let men of the rarest parts most eminent endowments and of the best quality laying grace aside do what they may say what they will they shall find themselves scanted of ability to begin much lesse to go thorough with so great a work The wind blowes strong and fire is very active so the Holy Spirit blows down the strong
holds of Sat an erected in the hearts of sinful men disperseth all chaffy cogitations of wickedness and filleth every corner of the soul with heavenly inspiration with transporting thoughts and meditations of an higher than an earthly nature and as fire it inflames the heart with the love of God whence proceeds zeal of Gods glory that fire of heaven and a fixt resolution as in Martyrs to suffer fire and fuggot for the profession of his name By reason or the working thus of his mighty power the Scripture stiles him by the name of the power of the most high E● operante creabatur homo eo operante recreatur As by his working power man was created by the same renewed and born again As by his power he gave life Luk. 1. so he gives newness of life by his power Spiritus est qui vivificat it is the Spirit that quickens us before dead in sins and trespasses He is called a spirit 3. Because he is breathed from the Father and the Son that is he is that person by whom the Father and the Son do immediately work heavenly motions and saving graces in the hearts of the elect Spiritus à spirando wherefore when Christ breathed on his Disciples he said unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost Job 20.22 These I conceive to be the reasons why the third person in Trinity is called a Spirit Now must I shew the reasons why he is called the Spirit of the Son they as I Imagine are these First because he proceeds from the Son by an eternal procession and intelligible emanation the essence of the Son is communicated to him hence coeternal coessential consub●antial with the Son he is called the Spirit of Christ Contra Arianos Rom. 8.9 not as one saith by way of allenation nor by way of multiplication of the divine essence which can be but one but by communcating the very same numericall essence wherein the Father and the Son subsist unto him in an incomprehensible manner whence he is term'd also the Spirit of the Father Galat. 3. for the essence of the Father is the essence of the Son and the essence of them both the essence of the Spirit he proceeds from both not simply as from two persons but in that they are one in essence not more principally from the Father lesse principally from the Son as Lombard and the schoolmen of this age affirm but from the person of the Father and the son in the unity of essence without any such distinction for upon the admission of this distinction we may justly infer an inequality of the persons of the Deity a thing without blasphemy not to be admitted the Spirit of holyness equally proceeds from both as from one beginning against the definition of the Greek Church but non voluntate sed natura seu necessitate naturae licet secundum voluntat is modum not by the act of the will but by the act of nature or by the necessity of nature according to the manner of the wills working which I cannot conceive in other terms than these that is God willing it He is called the Spirit of the Son 2. Because he is in the Son and the Son in him as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son to wit by their eternal essence And besides this the Spirit dwelt in him in the dayes of his flesh inriching his humane nature with all fulness of grace And at his baptisme the heavens opening Mat. 3.16 John saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him He is called the Spirit of the Son 3. Because the Son sends him to seal our adoption to us Joh. 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testify of me He sends that which is his and gives it too Joh. 20.22 receive ye the Holy Ghost And not onely the Son but the Father also sends him but in the Sons name whom the Father will send in my name saith Christ Joh. 14.26 Which shall testify of me Royard in Joh. 14. saith he Joh. 18.26 the Father sends him in his Sons name that is saith Royard to the glory of his name in which respect he is term'd the Spirit of the Son He is called the Spirit of the Son 4. Because he receives the wisdom and knowledge of the Son who is the wisdom of the Father and reveals it unto us He guides us into all truth Joh. 16.13 for as it followeth he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he shall shew you things to come Verse 4. He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Verse 15. All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you All saving knowledge and divine graces coming from the Son in whom the hidden treasures of pure wisdom do rest are confer'd upon us the sons of God by adoption by the Spirit of the Son of God by eternal generation From which discourse may be deduced three conclusions 1. That this Spirit of the Son is a Person he proceeds from the Father and the Son not as an accident but as a Person It was the grosse conceit of some heretical mistaken spirits erroneous in their judgments that this Spirit of the Son is only a motion or quality wrought by God in the hearts of his children or some divine inspiration infused from above by divine grace into the soules of them whom God had chosen out of the world to be more eminent than others Those conceits may seem plausible to corrupted reason not discerning the things of God which are spiritually discerned yet they contradict that which by Infallible consequence may be deducted out of the sacred truths of Gods word and right reason Laying therefore these two Gods word and right reason as two sure foundations and uncontrolable Principles which may justly sway our judgments I will presse the truth of this conclusion against all opposites The Spirit of the Son is a person Because he appeared in a visible shape The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon Christ and he appeared like cloven tongues of fire and sate upon each of the disciples and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance What motion what quality what inspiration can appear in such or any visible similitudes or bodily shapes or give utterance to men He is a person because called God When Peter ta●t Anani●s of his double dealing he told him he had lyed to the Holy Ghost and in lying to the Holy Ghost Act. 5. thou hast said he to him not lyed unto men but unto God The Essence of God is Tota in qualibet personâ Deitatis whole