Titius his liver devoured by vultures of the continual turning of Ixions wheel and the rolling of Sisiphus his stone or of those infernal Furies ready to torment those whom Charon should waft over and Ridentem dicere verum quis vetat even these mythological expressions hold some proportion with the truth But I will draw my water out of a purer fountain surely it must needs be an ill-favoured brat that is born of two such hideous Monsters the Devil the father and corrupt nature the mother it must needs be terrible that is the wages for such work so contrary to God and goodnesse Death is nothing but a privation of life and a subjecting the creature to those miseries which are contrary to the comforts of life And by life we do not onely understand the conjunction of soul and body but all that perfection and blisse which was either actually conferred unto man or to be communicated to him so that in this monosyllable is contained the whole world hell with all the torments of that earth with all the miseries therein But is there any death in heaven Surely it is a death to lose heaven and it contains that also so that look how variously sin reflects on God so do his judgments on us that we may read our sin in the judgment But that I may proceed orderly I will borrow a distinction of Philo Lib. leg alleg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a death of the man and a death of the soul the first is a separation of soul and body the second a deserting of vertue and assuming of sin But all misery is called by the name of death because of all death is most unavoidable most bitter Death in regard of the kind is either corporal or spiritual Death Corporal Sen. which kinds are to be considered in degrees inchoation In regard of inchoation and perfection both which kinds are to be considered in regard of losse and pain You shall dye that is a corporal death in regard of inchoation for in this we are mistaken that we look forward upon death whereas a great part of it is already past in hoc enim fallimur quod mortem prospicimus magna pars ejus jam praeteriit Death is behind us a great part of it the life of to day is the death of yesterday We dye daily Every little publick or personal crosse is a petty death and a harbenger sent by that insatiable enemy of humane nature to take possession of his right Thus you shall lose the good temperature of body inwardly and outwardly all those comforts of nature whereby life is maintained in a word true dominion over the creatures that in regard of losse Either you shall lose the world or have it with a curse your table shall become a snare and so some even dye with laughing with a pleasant gale of wind are carried upon rocks and sands pampered in fat pastures for destruction and carried down the pleasant River Jordan into the Dead Sea In regard of sense inwardly ye shall be perplexed with grief and sorrow and wearinesse outwardly with famine pestilence sword both wayes with ten thousand calamities as waves of the Sea coming in the neck one of another which as they be vexatious in themselves so certainly shall they be unto you insomuch that your life shall be an hard apprentiship groaning daily under the iron yoke of bondage Ye shall dye And Consummation that is a natural death in regard of consummation This inexorable Sergeant that rides on the pale horse will ere long knock at your door and by violence pull your soul out of that Tabernacle of clay when the soul shall be kept in chaines of darknesse till the judgment of that great day and the body in the grave as in a loathsome dung-hill till that general Assize In regard of losse here is a deprivation of life and all that supports it meat drink apparel society and all the comforts of nature and though there be no poena sensûs in the body which is kept in that hideous prison yet there is in the soul Luk. 16.25 for the glutton cryes Crucior in hac flamma nay and it may be this accursed corporal death will take you away in the acting of your sin with Zimri and Cosbi so that you shall not live out half your dayes but be haled to execution as soon as your crimes are committed and it may be before you go feel the very flames of hell in your soules as Cain and Judas did But this natural death of the body though horrid unto nature Death spiritual in regard of inchoation yet it 's nothing to the spiritual death of the soul that being a more excellent creature and having a more eminent life To proceed then that is spiritually in regard of inchoation God shall be separated from your soul the light of his countenance shall not shine upon you the understanding being full of darknesse the heart of uncleannesse the conscience void of serenity the whole soul out of order full of confusion destitute of true comfort In regard of sense a servitude and subjection of the soul to your spiritual enemies and the powers of darknesse made a vassal unto Satan who worketh effectually in such a slave to the world which is the devils slave yea unto sin which is worse then the world or the devil In which regard it comes to passe though a man retain that natural liberty of his will which is essential to it and cannot be lost yet that liberty which pertaineth to the perfection of humane nature to exercise acts spiritually good and so savingly acceptable unto God this is utterly lost man being dead in sins and trespasses and the uncircumcision of his heart But all these are but the beginnings of sorrowes And of consummation or eternall death that which is here principally meant is the consummation of spiritual death And now had I but the keyes of hell and death to shew unto your bodily eyes a glimpse of that infernal fire and those hideous monsters that dwell in those horrid vaults I should either lose my auditory or it may be so prevail with some that they would beware how they came into that place of torment But I desire that my speech may work in you such fear of those paines that you never feel them and that you may be terrified so now that hereafter you may be secure consider what Abraham saito to the rich glutton Son remember We likely remember it not till it be too late and therefore smart for it because we do not remember it You shall dye then that is first immediately when your soul and body are parted your soules shall be haled by the Devil into that place of torment St. August speaking of the rich glutton saith The soul likewise grieves when separate from the body for verily the rich man grieved in hell when he said I am tormented in this
year to shed a tear the debt in time would be discharged And though this be an unconceivable time yet it would comfort a little if then there might be an end or a mitigation of the torment but here the worm dieth not the fire never goes out here death ever lives want knows not how to be desective the end ever beginneth and death which we now so fear as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most fearful of all other fearful things for it is indeed the king of fears will they then desire as a Paradise but it will fly from them and that second death will feed on them as grasse which suffers a continual death being cropt by the cattel and yet still lives in the root If God preserve the three children in the flames that they be not burnt if mount Aetna sends forth flashes continually and it is not consumed It s St. Aug. argument If the Salamander live perpetually in the fire why cannot he by his power support their nature to live for ever that they may ever dye Oh how much better were it for them that they had never been or as they had lived like beasts so they might die like beasts to be no more So we see the consolations of the flesh are the desolations of the soul Carnis consolationes sunt animi desolationes Hell never restores those whom it once receives Infernus quos semel recipit nunquam restituit saith Cassiod So Aug. sins are bound and loosed here in the world to come is nothing but remuneration and condemnation Hic ligantur solvuntur peccata in futuro seculo nihil est nisi remuneratio condemnatio no end no ease no intermission And thus you have heard the reward of the wicked and the fearful doome o them that live after the flesh This is the cause why the man is deprived of comfort and filled with sorrow in this world why the soul is deprived of God in spiritual death and the body of the soul in corporal this is the reason why the soul is deprived both of God and the world from the natural death to the resurrection and why both soul and body are deprived of the vision and fruition of God to all eternity Nor must you think this to be a meer fable or Poetical fiction or that we make the matter worse then indeed it is the singular purity of God cannot abide sin therefore it must be purged by blood or fire God will have his justice magnified therefore will not spare an onely Son he will have truth maintained who often hath declared this in his Word it s an irrevocable decree that they who live after the flesh shall dye In the first decree he said to Adam Moriemini but his goodnesse reversed it to Nineveh Ye shall be destroyed but yet upon their repentance spared and so may these else know this is a branch of the second Covenant which shall not be abrogated For what can God give better then his Son on his part or upon what easier termes can he capitulate with us His wisdome hath thought meet that there should be som bounds to his mercy else he should seem prodigal of it and be thought to have absolute need of his creature and therefore notwithstanding Christ his satisfaction to declare his justice against contemners of his grace and haters of purity he hath said and sworn that unbelievers shall not enter into his rest and hath peremptorily decreed without hope of repeal or mitigation of the censure that If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye It 's not finis operantis but operis for they would live after the flesh and not dye they would live like Devils and dye like Saints the life of Balaam but the death of the righteous But he that sins voluntarily must suffer involuntarily there is a connexion of these ab ordine justitiae divinae He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption Let not man then separate what God hath joyned and though he assay it he shall never be able to do it If they will live after the flesh they shall dye But as St. Gregory upon the Parable of the rich man Recordatione magis eget versus iste quam expositione so I may say of this therefore we will draw hence some Corollaries which may be for our Spiritual direction First then will sin cousen us thus The Use for Information who would have suspected that such beginings that promised such delight would have ended thus that so glorious a Sun-shine morning would have closed with such gloomy blasts with such thunder and lightning stormes and tempests then let no child of God envy the wicked their delight in sin not grudge at his delicious fare Silkes and Sattins Much good may do Nabal with his good chear and Haman with his preferment I envy not the whole world to Alexander upon such hard terms there is poyson in their delicates and clothes are fafcinated their advancement prefers them to the gibbet their very life is but a continual death and how bitter shall be the death of these men Rather let me have Jacobs pillow and Canopy so I may have his dream let me have John Baptists hair-cloth so I may have his conscience No I admire those worthies of old that would choose to do or suffer any thing rather then split themselves upon these rocks Oh happy confessors and thrice blessed Martyrs that passed thorow fire and water and refused no torment no death that they might be delivered from the second death Let me passe under Esayes saw and endure Jeremies showres of stormes let me not refuse Zacharies sword nor the Lyons den with Daniel let me be beheaded with St. Paul or crucified with Andrew and Peter let me be flayed with Bartholomew or my braines dasht out with St. James let me be put into a vessel of scalding liquor with St. John or broyled on the Gridiron with Laurence let me suffer abstinence affliction persecution exile imprisonment with those holy Fathers of old Chrysostome Athanasius Ambrose Hierom let me be given to the wilde beasts with Polycarpus and Ignatius yea if it were possible let all these meet and the tormentots prompted by the Devil himself see if they can invent any torment more exquisite let me suffer in this world what humane nature is capable of rather then be forsaken by God and dye ever Oh blessed Christians that would offer your selves rather to your persecutors in the dayes of Tertullian Ego sum Christianus Christianus et ego I shall ever subscribe to that of holy St. Aug. Domine hic ure hic seca ut in aeternum parcas and again Do de me poenas ut ille parcat I had rather suffer Gods chastisement then his punishment And I would to God this might be an advertisement to us all how we live after the flesh though it be pleasing and profitable for a while yet the event should deter wise men
blandum quicquid oculis delectabile quicquid corpori suo jocundum exercet sequitur qualiter vult quando vult qui omnia licita illicita carnaliter vult he that makes himself his fancy his lust the rule in his actions that goes whither he lists that sleepes when he will and as long as he will that laughs and sports talkes scurrilously or obscenely at any time in any company and gives the raines to his lust to please his sensual appetite in all things that desires things both good and bad according to the corruption of his own heart And if this be to live after the flesh we may see by the flesh of many what it is they live after In civil actions that make their lust a law In civil actions that Magistrate that useth his sword or any Superiour his authority for his own private ends in distributive justice in inferiours when they desire dignities eat and drink and curse Abimelech walkers after the flesh when they are full they deny God much more his Ministers anarchy is that they affect that every man might do that which is right yea sometimes wrong in his own eyes and if the Magistrates proceedings parallel not with their fancies their tongue is their own who is Lord over them Jude 8. Michael durst not revile the Devil they speak evil of the gods in commutative justice oppresse defraud and grind the faces of the poor so they can carry it smoothly care not what they do and so there be too too many that cast off all obedience in Political Ecclesiastical Occonomical Societies In spiritual actions many live after the flesh Matth. 23. In spiritual actions for not onely Epicures are guilty here but an abstemious Pharisee that fasts twice a week that placeth the power of godlinesse in outward formalities so our adversaries of Rome when they most abstain from flesh live after the flesh preferring sometimes their own traditions to Gods oracles and sometimes circumstantial parts of his worship to substantial macerating their bodies while they mortifie not their sin Nor can all amongst our selves exempt themselves here right Formalists I would they could see this beam in their eye pray over beads many do so some preach and most hear rather by tole then weight Others placing their Religion in nice speculations zealously striving for they know not what Once it was a character of a Christian almost among some to be repugnant to Church-Government or at least to disobey with the heart and deride with the tongue what the hand had subscribed to But now that spirit is well laid they have a new Creed which they are no lesse hot for though they understand it lesse and they are out of charity with that man and will censure him for an Apostate that is not to an haires breadth of their conceit when it is indeed but a meer conceit Others undertake acts of Religion with a carnal mind and a corrupt conscience for base ends that preach for lucre so did Judas and pray for credit so the Pharisees that read for profit like Diana's Chaplaines and communicate for applanse and hear for all ends do all for custome rather then conscience and were it not for his own ends would never longer serve that God which he cares not for Of all walkers after the flesh the hypocrite is sure to dye for hell was chiefly prepared for him and others are said to have their portion with him Now that in any of these kinds a man live after the flesh it is required That there be an habitual pursuit of sin Carnem tanquam ducem sequi or as Salmer Imperio legibus carnis desideriis subesse A man may sometimes be drawn aside by the flesh and yet not live after the flesh as Noah in his drunkennesse Lot in his incest David in his adultery as on the contrary you may see Cain sacrificing Saul among the Prophets Herod hearing John Baptist gladly and still living after the flesh as a passenger sometimes wanders out of the way and a thief sometimes steps into it To live according to the flesh intimates a constant course of mans life that makes the law of sin the rule of his obedience they act this with most vigour as from an inward principle A wicked mans education company c. may sometimes restrain from sin violence of temptation drives a good man upon it but this is not their rule Hieron Omne quod loquimur agimus cogitamus duobus seminatur agris carne et spiritu Let us then examine the habitual course of our life that is it which denominates and if we live after the flesh we must dye It were as possible to number the stars to count the dust as to particularize the many lusts of the flesh mens conversations give us too many instances I passe then from the sinne to the punishment Ye shall dye We see what it is to live after the flesh and is not this a merry life to go clad in purple in scarlet and fare deliciously every day to neglect God in heaven and contemne Lazarus on earth to forget our selves whence we are or whither we go Yes but hear what followes The bell toles for this voluptuous Epicure the earth that insatiable grave longs for his corpulent carcase to feed wormes and the devills stand waiting more eagerly for his soul The Spirit of God hath written his doom in letters of blood which with Belshazzar might make his heart ake and joynts tremble Ye shall die His pleasure is gone his guilt remains and his damnation sleepeth not God wills not yet he threatens death Non vult mortem Deus et minatur mortem and therefore doth threaten it because he doth not desire it as willing to be prevented You shall die What is here meant by death and what is that How should that be defined which is onely a privation or if it had a positive being how should I describe it who never conversed in those Cells of darknesse or with any that brought news from those Cimmerian regions or how can that distinctly be known which contains in it nothing but confusion and contradiction fire without light burning and no consuming labour in continual idlenesse living and yet ever dying for they live for nothing else but that they may continually dye If I should procure you a painter to decipher the first death he would shew you a grim anatomy with a lean body a pale face a wanne countenance c. that which hath devoured the whole world so many times over like Pharaohs lean kine is as lean as ever And had you a Poet to describe unto you the second death he would tell you of that triceps Cerberus devouring the flesh of the wicked he would tell you of the two Rivers Cocitus and Phlegethon the one overflowing with tears and the other boyling with brimstone they would make a narration of that palus Stygia of Tantalus his apples and
flame Dolet etiam anima non in corpore constituta nam utique dolebat dives ille apud inferos quando dicebat Crucior in hac flamma And not onely with present torment but with fear and expectation of future his case is like to a condemned malefactors who is adjudged to live two or three years under the place of execution the gallowes and all those instruments of death continually in his eye in the mean time he is bound with chains whipped with Scorpions fed with the bread of affliction Thus he is most exquisitely tormented with pain of the present and horrour of that future vengeance that is likely to fall upon him So the divels cry out Torment us not before the time But this is not all The dregs of this cup of vengeance are yet behind You shall dye that is your bodies at that dreadful day with the sound of the Trumpet shall be awaked like a Traytor to be brought before the Judge and shall hear that doleful doom Ite maledicti c. Go ye cursed Now the losse here shall be unspeakable In regard of losse He shall lose God and that losse is infinite because he is an infinite good not in regard of his power for that will be ever present to torment him but in regard of the light of his countenance that shall never more comfort him Mat. 25.41 here is a total desertion and a final exclusion from his presence Chrys Should any one suppose 1000 hells it will not be so much as to be driven from the happinesse of this beatifical glory Si mille aliquis ponat gehennas nihil tale dicturus est quale est à beatae illius gloriae honore repelli Oh what Tophet is not a Paradise what flames are not a bed of down to this that that God who is the comfort of our soules that wisheth and intreateth us now to be reconciled shall then shut up his tender mercies in eternal displeasure Ite maledicti c. Go ye cursed Again there shall be a total privation of all the gifts of the Spirit charity peace wisdome piety mercy and all the meanes that tend thereunto Word Sacraments c. But it may be they will like the losse of these In the next place there shall be a losse of the world and all the pleasure of that therefore St. Aug. notes that Abraham speaks to the rich man of good things past Omnia dicit de praeterito Dives erat epulabatur recepisti No meat nor drink cloathing company houses not so much as a drop of water to cool thy tongue Nay which is strange their very sins they shall lose some of them those sins which delighted them they cannot commit no adultery or lasciviousnesse no drunkennesse gluttony and revellings no Play-houses or brothel-houses there but those sins which shall torment them they shall be suffered to commit if God withdraw the light of his countenance Wicked men can comfort themselves with the creature now or if the creature deny them solace Gods people can encourage themselves in God but when both God and the creature are lost what comfort can there be You shall dye In regard of sense in hell In regard of sense a total and eternal bondage of the whole man when soul and body being re-united both shall be cast into that Lake of fire and brimstone where the body shall be terrified in all the senses in all the parts outer darknesse to the eye for there are flames but no light heat but no comfort to the ear howling of tormented spirits weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth to the smell a stench of brimstone the very dregs of Gods wrath to the feeling exquisite pain by fire There shall be teares in the eyes for there is weeping and wailing horrour in the eares cursing and complaining brimstone to torment the tongue hands and feet bound with chains fire to torment the whole body but Oh forlorn wretch hear more terror yet But the most exquisite pain shall be in the soul because that is the fountain of sin which being infinitely abhorred by God in his wisdome he will find out and by his power execute some grievous punishment on it and this is termed fire a fire proportionable to a Spiritual essence if not in the nature of it yet by the supernatural power of the revenging Judge exalted to a height of transcendent efficacy and the soul though in the nature of it immaterial yet made passible by the power of a revenging Judge that noble celestial substance for subjecting it self willingly to brutish sensuality shall be unwillingly subjected to a sensual pain this pain is the more exquisite being principally in the soul that disease tormenteth most which seaseth upon the spirits Cain that felt but one spark of this fire was a perpetual vagabond Judas so tortured as to hang himself when he did but taste of this cup. Oh what will their torment be that drink the very dregs of this cup and live in the midst of these flames Now the intellect shall be perplexed with the continual meditation of this mourning that happinesse is lost through her own default and gnashing the teeth that others have it and the soul shall not chuse but reflect upon it self and behold her deformity and torment and shall have nothing to drive away this meditation The intellect shall represent this unto the will which shall hate it self and curse God that doth cause it to be captivated in those chaines of darknesse so that the soul shall for ever be a burthen to it self desire that it were annihilated and hate God that supports her in being the memory which is the souls storehouse shall continually reflect unto the conscience the cause of all this misery with a Fili recordare which shall be as a worm continually gnawing so that the soul shall hate God who cast it into that place and the Devil that torments it in that place and all the infernal spirits which add unto its torment and the blessed Saints and Angels which are in a better place as an unthrift lookes out at prison-grate upon men at liberty and the body as a companion of sin and wo and it self who through her own default is brought unto that place and by all shall be brought to those exigences which no tongue of man or Angel is able to relate But that which makes all compleat this shall be eternal heaven and all comfort are irrecoverably lost and the worme dieth not though this punishment cannot be infinite intensively for then it would annihilate the creature being finite yet in regard of duration it 's infinite that so satisfaction may be made to an infinite justice If the lives of all creatures were added together and spun out into one and at the expiration of that there might be an end of their torment it were some comfort Were they to expiate their sins with an Ocean of tears and yet but every thousand
former and latter rain and now judge thou who art a party whether there hath any thing been wanting on Gods part to make thee happy but thou wilt needs dye not because thou lovest death but sin which is the cause of it And let us all remember that our worst enemy is within us Bern. Ipsi gestamus laqueum nobiscum circumferimus inimicum We carry a snare about with us our own enemy is within us We are beaten like Judah with our own staffe and manacled with our own bracelets yea with Saul we slay our selves with our own sword It 's a Serpent in our own bosome that stings us Inimici hominis sunt ejus domestici A mans foes are those of his own house He that dips with us in the dish is it that betrayes us Blame not Satan or his instruments these could not kill us but that this Traytour opens the doors their temptations else would fall like a spark of fire in the Sea much lesse let us murmur against God though he be the inflicting cause yet sin is the meritorious Take heed of this enemy so much the rather for it 's a potent and politick enemy being an old man that receives influence from the Devil it 's worse then the Devil who hath some natural goodnesse wisdome and power which in themselves are good though by him abused But in the flesh dwells no good thing it fills the whole man full of impiety as the mind with wicked thoughts making it like a dark filthy Dungeon full of Snakes and Adders destitute of heavenly light and heat the imaginations of it onely evil continually and if the best part be so what is the worst It 's a store-house or a common sewer of abominations fills the eye full of Adultery the countenance of wrath makes the throat an open sepulchre the tongue a world of wickednesse if a world in that little member how many worlds in this little world of ours fills the hand with extortion makes the feet swift to shed blood in a word all the Devils brats are warmed conceived and bred in that wombe it 's an enemy to all Spiritual undertakings what is wisdome to the Spirit is foolishnesse to the flesh what the one willeth the other nilleth what the one endeavours the other crosseth it breakes all Lawes both of God and man and makes unreasonable Lawes of its own of sin and death Rom. 7.23.8.2 Of sinne therefore dishonourable to live after them for it gives unreasonable command He that obeyeth hath Chams curse to be a servant of servants But the service is dangerous in that rewarded with such wages for the wages of sin is death worse then for a man to serve at the Gallies all day and be hanged at night Therefore of all enemies let us take most heed of our selves these lusts within us fight agaist us 1 Pet. 2.11 they hunt for the precious life and if we yeeld to them we dye He that soweth the wind shall reape the whirlwind If we sowe to the flesh we shall of the flesh reape corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live But if ye by the Spirit The Conolation c. Now I am fallen on the second Proposition the Consolation Hitherto I have tyred your patience with a discourse of the works of darknesse and a sad narration of death the reward of such works give me leave now to entertain your ears with a more pleasing discourse of life and of the narrow way that leads thither If ye by the Spirit c. The flesh like a potent King domineers in a natural man and makes him yeeld obedience to it in the lusts thereof yea in a regenerate man it remains though weakned and wounded like the Canaanites if it cannot dwell in the City it will lodge in the subburbs though it raign not like a King it will rebel like a Traytor sometimes assaulting by open violence sometimes by secret ambushments and hidden stratagems undermining so that while he dwells in this tabernacle of flesh the flesh will continue in him his labour shall not end so long as his life doth continue while we live then we shall find work enough to keep under this rebel and to encourage us herein God hath given us such an help as will effect it his Spirit and propounded such a motive as may spur on the dullest Laodicean Ye shall live Here the Apostle doth these two things Divided 1. Proponit officium If ye c. 2. Promittit mercedem First the work then the wages first we must do the will of God then receive the promise first God must be glorified by us and then he will glorifie us the hardest that is first and that we must look to to mortifie the sweetest comes last and that God will care for Ye shall live In the first we note these particulars Subdivided 1. Octjectum deeds of the body 2. Actionem circa objectum Ye must mortifie the deeds of the body 3. Causas hujus acticnis principalem the Spirit minus principalem we First The deeds of the body what for the object about which mortification is conversant the deeds of the body Here we must explicate both the fountain and streams Some understand a metonymie in this word body so by it understand the natural body because sin is acted by the body Others understand it metaphorically of that old man and masse of corruption that is in every man called the body of sin Rom. 6.6 7.24 Col. 2.11 for as the body is a totum integrum consisting of many members so is sin Col. 3.4 the head of sin vain imaginations the heart of sin corrupt affections the tongue of sin rotten communication the forehead of sin impudent avouching the hands and feet of sinne wicked executions Again as the body hath its dimensions so hath sin it reacheth to heaven and burneth to the lowest hell is's of as great a latitude as Gods Commandments which are exceeding broad 3. As the body is knit together by joynts and ligaments so is sin If the foot of sin do but stirre the whole body moves as we see in the sin of Adam He that offends in one is guilty of all he sins against the general equity of the Law and righteousnesse of the Law-giver As the body compasseth us about so doth sin it 's peccatum circumstans that for the first by the body we mean the body of sin Secondly For the deeds of the body This old man though old yet is very stirring and operative When men grow old their apprehension is weak their memory dull the strong men bow the whole man is feeble but it is not so in the body of sin the older it is the more vigorous and lusty Nothing in the world so fruitful though these are but 〈◊〉
him obtained it may be but never to its worth valued and esteemed And elsewhere Facilius possumus dicere quid ibi non sit quam quid sit non est ibi mors non est luctus c. We can more easily say what there is not there then what there is there is no death no mourning c. Let us labour to walke in the way then we shall experimentally feel it and then even laugh at our scanty expressions when the soule being filled with admiration shall cry out How full of glory art thou O Lord and this heavenly Paradise of thine I have heard of thee by thy Prophets and Apostles but the one halfe hath not been resolved Oh blessed is the man that heareth thy wisdome seeth and enjoyeth thy glory But by the way note here that life is referred to mortification not as the proper cause He that lives after the flesh shall dye by his own merit but he that lives after the Spirit shall live by Gods mercy and the merit of Christ for he that lives after the flesh acts by a principle of his own but he that by the Spirit from an hgher principle and that imperfectly So Rom. 6. ult the Apostle sheweth death is an effect of sin life a consequent of righteousnesse in a different manner death followeth sin as a just reward of it as a debt The wages of sin is death but righteousnesse produceth life as a consequent not of debt but of grace The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that as he attributes nothing to man in the latter so he wholly cleareth God in the former But ever remember what the good Father saith Acquiri potest aestimari non potest It may be gotten but cannot be valued It 's possible for to attaine it but it will cost thee deare thou must enter in through many tribulations Vnicus qui introivit sine peccato non exivit sine flagello thou must deny the world and be crucified to that hate father mother life thine own life but that is not all thou must mortifie the deeds of the body Now if any desire to enter into life I must first aske him whether he can drinke of this cup and be baptized with this Baptisme he must mortifie this body this old man corruption is strong for it 's a man politique for an old man a man that is naturalized in us and pleads prescription The old man with all his members pull out the right eye cut off the right hand teare and reâ—t the heart asunder crowne the head with thornes pierce the hands feet with nailes and the side with a speare the face must be spit upon buffetted The body and all the deeds of it Put off the old man with his deeds Col. 3. and here mortifie the deeds of the body and the deeds of the body are manifest Never tell me of a good heart if the actions are naught as the understanding blind the will obstinate the affections disordered the life dissolute this man is out of the way to life What! a good Christian and a drunkard a swearer a scoffer at the good wayes of God It 's impossible Is the tree good that is fruitlesse Do you call that a good ground that bears nothing but briars and brambles The body with the deeds all the deeds must be mortified Away then with that sweet morsel under the tongue if thou willingly entertaine but one sin constantly suppose contemplative adultery thou art an unmortified man Againe these must be mortified not trifle or deale more gently with them pull up these weeds by the very roots therefore it must be with paine and shame and constant for it is an act of the whole life prescribed here to the Romans so to the Colossians It may be their acquaintance will reproach thee and thy best friends forsake thee And all this we must do in our persons not buy it out or do it by our deputies we by the Spirit and there is no other way but this to life Nor do I make the way straiter or the gate narrower then Christ and his Apostles have done Nor do I here dishearten any but require them sedulously to set about the worke better know it now then hereafter when it is too late Eternall life is the gift of God that the Scripture shews and reason manifests that it is in the power of the donor to prescribe what conditions he will to the receiver but the wretchednesse of the world is such they desire the blessing without the condition like Ruths kinsman that would have the land without the woman like that man in the Gospel would have eternal life but the condition is too strict therefore go a way sorrowful Thus how contrary are we to our selves how unreasonable to God In the former we would do the work but not have wages live after the flesh but not die and in the latter we will not do the labour yet hope for the reward as Balaam will follow the wages of iniquity yet die the death of the righteous But if we do the one the other will follow And surely had we made our own termes how could we in modesty have made them more easie God could do no lesse then demonstrate his purity love of vertue hatred of sin God delights not to make us sad without cause Certainly he cannot require any thing lesse then mortification without the impeachment of his honour therefore we cannot perform lesse without the endangering of our happinesse So then I must tell our debauched sinners Vse For Repr that suffer all manner of abominations to raign not to be named among Christians and are so far from crucifying them that they harbour and keep them close extenuate defend them are careful to satisfy their lusts and blow them up to a greater flame that will be ready to give the stab to those that crosse and contradict them in their waies there is a thing in Religion called Mortifying the deeds of the body which they were never acquainted withal without which there is no life I must tell our plausible Atheists that are enemies to the power of godlinesse that have no grace and vertue but what was born and bred with them it is not their plausible carriage will do it there is a mortifying crucifying watching fasting striving denying thy self or no entrance into life I must tell our carelesse procrastinators of repentance It 's not enough to dislike sin and so let it alone in time to dye it self and therefore they will not task themselves with such an unpleasing torment but you must mortifie it The filthy adulterer resolves when he hath no more marrow in his bones nor vigour in his body to leave his adultery the drunkard his company when his patrimony is spent the oppressour his extortion when his covetousnesse is satiated Sinne though it be left in regard of the outward act yet in this case it is not mortified
but retired to the inner closet of the soul wanting opportunity to axpresse it self outwardly and in this case it is damnable for lusting is adultery Matth. 5.28 hatred is murther 1 John 3.15 and he that will inhabit heaven must have both clean hands and a pure heart Ps 24.4 and the tree is not dead though it want leaves and fruit and this conquest if there be any is to be attributed to the weaknesse of nature rather then the strength of grace or else here is a Metempsychosis of sinne whereas a sinne of youth prevailed before now a sin of age domineereth Thus a man oft-times changeth his favourites No man in every estate and condition is prone to act the same sins I must tell our civil Justitiaries and painted hypocrites It 's not enough to take sin prisoner and a little to curbe and restrain it as Eli did his sons or to cry out as Pharaoh did when he was upon the rack and soon return like the dog to the vomit we must not onely fight but overcome if we mean to be crowned judge condemne and mortifie this old man with his deeds I must tell our luke-warme Laodiceans that are half perswaded to be Christians with Agrippa it will not serve their turn If they will almost be religious they shall be almost saved but altogether damned To spare some fat sins as Saul the cattel for sacrifice to make ex rapina holocaustum to rob the Church and build an Hospital or maintain a Free-Schoole to cast away some sin which to them hath neither profit nor pleasure in it and if it were commanded would sin in omitting it this is no mortification It will not avail you to abhorre Idols so long as you commit sacriledge that can endure John Baptist till he come to touch the apple of your eye this is but to pair the nayles or clip the hair of this old man not to mortifie the body with his deeds A Penknife may cut a mans throat one leake sink a ship one sparkle burn an house one sin slay the soul I must tell those that would be accounted professours that this word doth not sufficiently expresse the condition of a good Christian they must be practisers It is not enough to say The Temple of the Lord the rich man was a son of Abraham yet in hell to hear a multitude and variety of Sermons the devil heares more Though they could hear men of Seraphical spirits the Capernaites heard Christ and notwithstanding this they were thrown down to hell You must mortify I cannot but with indignation complain to see at least the outward form of Godlinesse changed from what it was in the primitive times and I am perswaded should one of our forefathers rise from the dead he would as much wonder at the alteration of the fashion in Religion as apparel The devotion of the Church of old was to joyn in publique prayer this is accounted but Idolatrous Superstition by many and cold devotion by the most Of old it was Religion to keep the body under by fasting and discipline this practice is not known now of many practised by few they will lose their birth-rights rather then pottage either they are troubled with wind or some infirmity or other they cannot fast The truth is they are like Dionysius an epicure who when he lay at a siege and was forced to keep a diet fell sick because he might not surfeit Of old charity and good workes were in fashion but now he is almost accounted a Popeling that will preach for charity and God help us an enemy to the State that exhorteth to peace I condemn not all but the religion of too many consists onely in hearing such men and the height of their practice to abstain from some sinnes which are cryed down I honour the publique preaching of Gods Word in season and out of season and he that opposeth it is an enemy to Christ and his king dome but if he that preacheth unto others may be a reprobate unlesse he do beat down his body and mortifie his sinne then he that heareth others much more I must tell our curious Correctors of things indifferent that it is not the eager censuring and condemning they know not what nor their envying against Bishops and Ceremonies and in the mean time to harbour pride and passion and uncharitablenesse the matter is not what thou canst say or censure in other men but what thou hast mortified of thine own Nor will the keeping of outward orders serve the turn at the best if they go no further they are no better then Scribes and Pharisees that tithe Mint and Cummin and Anise and leave the weighty matters of the Law undone I must tell our Solifidans that boast of strange speculations of faith without sanctity For ought I know there are a great many Orthodox men in Hell and while they live in lying pride and profanenesse their faith without works will not save them I must tell our refined wits and great Clerks It will not avail though they know the abstrusest mysteries that are yea all things knowable as some say of Berengarius Knowledge without charity profits nothing there is neither true piety nor charity so long as men live after the flesh while they continue desolate I never knew such a way to heaven as from bed to board from hoard to play c. I must tell our Popish and Pelagian Doctors advancers of free-will that they cannot mortifie themselves by any power of the flesh for corrupt nature agreeeth well enough with it self but walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.6 not by any Moral or gentle perswasion or by any violent restraint They that deny grace or call grace by the name of nature or say that it is profitable not necessary or necessary for our entrance not our continuance in the wayes of God Here we see that as by preventing grace we are made Saints so by subsequent and cooperating grace we are enabled to work like Saints and it 's the Spirit that doth inchoate continue consummate all good in us whence our Saviour saith Without me ye can do nothing upon which words St. Austin glosseth thus Non dicit Sine me parum potestis facere nec dicit Ardui aliquid Sine me non potestis facere vel Difficulter sine me potestis facere sed Nihil sine me potestis Nec dicit Sine me non potestis perficere sed Nihil potestis facere sine me He doth not say we can do but little or no great matter or very difficultly without Christ He doth not say we can perfect nothing without him but simply do nothing without him I must tell our Famelistical dreamers that we must mortifie by the Spirit they must not think to have these showres of grace and glory fall into their laps while they sit still with a soulded hand For the getting of the Spirit we must attend on God in his Ordinances Though the Miller cannot make a wind
for denying thy Lord. Make a bath of tears with Mary for entertaining so many Devils in thine heart for get a while to eate thy bread by fasting and abstinence be revenged on thy selfe for sin past and keep under thy body for time to come It 's one of the nailes that crucifies the flesh and a meanes to take down the ranknesse of this fertile field singulare putatis aratrum But if thou canst not weep and command tears at least get that dolorem appretiativum Value your sins at such a rate that they deserve tears of blood Wish that thy head were a fountaine and thine eyes as Conduit-pipes Intreat God to accept the desire for the deed and the blood and tears of Christ for all But men now adayes can mortifie without renting the heart fasting a day shedding a tear But withall remember to mortifie too else thy tears will be no better then Esaus thy fasting like Ahabs Purge not that thou mayest surfeit repent not that thou mayest sin returne not like the dog to the vomit if thou do thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning But blessed is the man that sorrows after a godly manner for this works repentance never to be repented of Blessed are they that mourne now that sowe in teares for they shall reape in joy they shall finde triumph in torment joy in tribulation refreshing in fasting life in death Bern. Filii hujus seculi vident cruces nostras non consolationes The sons of this world see our crosses but not our comforts If any thing were better then life God would not deny it you he accounts you Martyrs in manner Mortificare opera carnis genus Martyrii est horrore quidem mitius sed diuturnitate molestius To mortifie the deeds of the body is a kinde of martyrdome milder indeed in its horrour but more troublesome in its long continuance Certainly they that keep such a Lent shall have a glorious Easter at the day of their resurrection when all teares shall be wiped from their eyes and they shall remaine and raigne with God in blisse for ever And thus I have travelled through these Propositions in their absolute consideration We considered these words in their opposition Here are two contrary wayes that tend to two contrary ends They cousin themselves that think to fare as well as the best The word considered in their opposition and yet sin as bad as the worst and they fill themselves with unnecessary fears that live strictly and carefully and yet comfort not themselves in Gods promises 1. It doth no whit prejudice the godly in their comfort that God is so severe against the wicked Cains profanenesse doth not hurt Abel he is accepted Though Judas be a devil the rest fare not the worse So at the last day while the wicked wish the hils and mountains to cover them the godly lift up their heads Abraham and Moses make use of their interest with God even when he is provoked against Sodom and Jasrel 2. The wicked are not priviledged by Gods mercies on the godly as we see in the Wise and Foolish Virgins Gods mercies Christs merits the precious promises and priviledges of the Gospel availe them nothing Gods mercies are limited to certaine conditions therefore let not wicked men boulster up themselves in these heed not lying vanities We consider them in their coherence Therefore we should mortifie sin 3 And in their coherence because if we live after the flesh we shall die It 's not absurd to propound life and death as Motives to obedience God did so to Adam in Paradise Yea to men already converted our Saviour doth so Feare not him that can kill the body c. So the Father at banquets would talke of hell to keep men from security So the Apostle here to men already converted If ye live c. The meditation of death is not unprofitable for them They are not out of danger of Gun-shot though they are in a Cittadel or strong Tower yet they have some flesh and are subject to spiritual security presumption or prophanenesse The Tower cannot be demolished but they may looke out at the windowes and battlements and be wounded Hence we may conclude that a Christian may take comfort in an holy life Here is an Antidote against Presumption and Despaire None can presume but they that mortifie and that is not presumption but hope none can despaire but such as live after the flesh and that is a feare upon good grounds And now to draw to a conclusion The agreement 'twixt Armin. and their adversaries in the rules of practise How happily might these two Propositions put an end to our unhappy controversies were men of peaceable spirits The Areopagites in Athens in a doubtful case wherein they were loath to passe sentence differred it in diem longissimum it may be for an hundred years I would to God we could do so in these that I am sure are doubtful but this is to suspend men in a Neutrality to beleeve nothing S. Augustine answers some well that would not beleeve unlesse all objections were cleared Sunt innumerabiles objectiones quae non sunt finiendae ante fidem ne finiatur vita sine fide There are innumerable objections which must not be dispatched and answered before faith c. Moderation in these mysteries is to be shewen if any where Neutram partem affirmantes sive destrueren tes sed tantummodo ab audaci affirmandi praesumptione revocantes Affirming or denying neither of the two but onely restraining us from bold presumption in taking either part But now every novice can determine in these things when the wisest men demurre and can as exactly chalke out Gods secret wayes as if with S. Paul they had been rapt up into the third heaven and taken a transcript of the book of life Either side is confident and it may be in conclusion it will prove neither so nor so and so it comes to passe that religion is turned into nicities and disputation bearing things certaine and fastening upon uncertaine like Zeuxes that pictured an old woman so to the life that he laughed to death at the veiw of her So I thinke our gracious Soveraigne hath taken a Religious and Wise course to silence these controversies more fit for Schooles then Pulpits or rather fitter for heavens perfection then for earthly frailty to determine Et Elias quum venerit solvet haec dubia If I should enter upon the controversies I should contradict authority or if I might I would not so far presume upon mine own weaknesse or if I had ability and liberty I durst not so far abuse your patience Onely let me advise all especially the unlearned which with much study cannot so much as attaine the stating of the questions to turne their cavilling about the Theory into Practice Surely there is no such vast difference in the points as they are handled by moderate men on both sides whatsoever
some say that either know not what they speak or will not know But howsoever it is in the Theory unlesse I much mistake both sides meet in the Practice If any man should aske me concerning the decree of election and reprobation Predestination here is a counterpane of it in my text I will not say this is Gods whole decree I dare say no secret decree contradicts it We need not climbe up into heaven then to see whether God smile or frowne nor wrest open his Cabinet to see what secrets are there Things revealed belong to us if our names be written here then infallibly are they there If we finde them not here certainely they are not there I say then leave disputing about election and labour to make your calling and election sure Begin at the bottome of the ladder and adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. Thus our Saviour stifles such a controversie Master shall many be saved Strive to enter in at the strait gate But what shall this man do Follow thou me Let no man comfort himselfe with any illusion or affright himselfe with any fatall destiny If ye live after c. This is Gods Word and by this we must be judged at the last day For the second Controversie Whether Redemption be universal I say to that man Though Christ died for all men as one side affirm yet if thou live after the flesh thou shalt dye notwithstanding the purchase of so precious a redemption sufficient in it self though not effectual unto thee through thine own perversenesse or if but for some few as the other side affirm if thou mortify the deeds of the body thou art one that shall surely live For the third and fourth The manner of receiving grace the manner of receiving grace One side say it doth infallibly and necessarily work at such a time and not before the other that through our perversenesse we may turn the grace of God into wantonnesse Both agree in this that a man may be saved grace must be received and improved The Spirit is the principal cause but we must co-operate We are not able of our selves to think a good thought our sufficiency is from him Hence St. Paul I live yet that he might not seem to usurp any of the honour checks himself yet not I. So we say We must mortify yet not we but the Spirit not we as the principal cause but the Spirit not the Spirit as the solitary cause but we by the Spirit let us look to it that the work be done and then we shall not miscarry For the last which is perseverance one side saith we shall infalliblly stand Perseverance and as possible for Christ to fall out of heaven as a Saint from Christ the other side that God will not forsake us unlesse we forsake him and gives us grace sufficient that we may not fall but doth not so infallibly hold us up but we may fall Both sides affirm perseverance to be necessary unto life and the conscionable use of means to perseverance Take heed then that there be not in any of you at any time an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God and that this may never befal thee put on the whole armour of God that thou mayest stand in the evil day Thus the Prophet Ezek. 18. justifies God in his proceedings and makes the people wary So the Apostle writing here to Saints and if any of you whom in charity I judge to be converted would hear any thing from me concerning perseverance I will answer you in the words of my text If ye live after c. Thus if a man in a modest humility receive the known truth in the love of it and so love it as to practise it his end shall certainly be blessed And now behold Deut. 30.15 The Conclusion this day I have set before you life and death good and evil blessing and cursing There are but two estates in this life and two after proportionably Some here walk after the flesh but they shall dye the delight is present but momentany the pain is future but eternal some here by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body and they shall live hereaftes The task here is sharp and present but momentany the reward future but glorious and eternal Were it not for that which followes Ye shall dye it were a brave thing to live after the flesh were it not for that which followes Ye shall live nothing more tedious then to mortify the deeds of the body Wisdome now will soon deride the controversie and pitch upon her choice and inheritance so glorious so durable though it be future and the entrance so difficult is to be preferred to a life of sinne though it had in it never so much pleasure or profit being momentany and seconded with eternal wo. It 's the fools voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me to day take to morrow to thy self But if notwithstanding what hath been said he shall still walk in the waies of his own heart all the curses in Gods book shall fall on him God will blot out his name from under heaven and in heaven out of the book of life so that in no place he shall be found but in hell But every man here seems to choose life in that he comes to hear that Gospel which is the Word of life Oh they make it not the savor of death to death Labour then by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body so shall you live many Halcion daies here upon earth and when you dye the Angels shall carry your soules into Paradise while your bodies repose themselves in their graves as a bed of down till the Lord of Glory shall return to judg both quick and dead where the body being raised and reunited to the soul both soul and body shall live in the perpetual vision and fruition of God To which glory he for his mercy bring us who hath so dearly bought us even Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed all honour glory praise thanksgiving and obedience from this time forth and for evermore FINIS