exceeded the capacity of Nicoâ— Cum primum nascimur in omni continuo pravitate versamur Tully though a Master in Israel to become like him did not he mould out hearts anew and fill them with the invaluable riches of his mercy and the treasures of his graces we had been of all creatures the most miserable Sinful was our conception sinful was our birth and striful is all our life Nature makes us sons of wrath being deprived of the life of grace as soone as we are sons of nature Damnatus homo antequam natus Aug. there is none that doth good no not one All are sold under sin whence the Apostile upon his own experience averreth that in him that is in his flesh or natural estate dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. We are born dead as soone as we come into the world alive spiritually dead naturally alive Now in whom no good thing dwelleth by nature they are by nature void of grace and who by nature are void of grace do not by nature participate of spiritual life whereof whosoever is not partaker is by nature spiritually dead and who by nature are spiritually dead are destitute of the Spirit of grace who is the sole Author of life and finisher of our salvation All saving graces and heavenly benedictions flow from him in whom the fulnesse of all graces dwells and all return to him again as rivers come from the sea and to the sea return Uâ—lesse therefore God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to sanctifie 〈◊〉 to cleanse us to put new spirit and life into us which is a work of the highest power to which nature can never actain we shall come short of performing the least act that may be any wayes advantageous for our falvation A dead manâ—s not in action hath no living motion neither is there in his power any possibility of regaining life a so is every one spiritually whose heart is not quickened and moved by the holy Ghost to whom it is alone possible to raise from the death of sinne whose property it is to infuse grace and make the hearts and souls of men beautified with the richest furniture and most precious 〈◊〉 of divine 〈…〉 Tomles for himself to dwell in And thus the passage is clear and open for another observation grounded on these words which is this That the heart of the child of God is the seat or dwelling place of the holy Ghost Of all things in man God desireth the heart of man My son give me thine heart for as naturally evil actions proceed from it so must all good being first set awork by the first mover unto all good the good Spirit of God It is in man by nature according to the dictates of natural Philosophy Primum vivens the first in man that lives and divine Philosophy informs us that it is so in grace too For the convernon of the whole man depends upon the conversion of the heart to God there new life is begun Nature gives it a vital faculty distributing to all parts the vital spirits whereby they are embled to work and so doth grace for in what good soever any part of the body is imployed the power of effecting it is derived from the heart which as it is called Principium vitae in the body of man so it is made by the grace of God the original of a holy life and the first subject of grace without which all our best services are but glittering sins for with the heart we beleeve and with the heart we work out our salvation The Chymicks compare the heart to the Sun call'd by them Cor mundi the Sun is in the midst of the great world this in the midst of the little world man The Sun is the sountain of heat in this wherewith all sublunary creatures are cherished and quickened so from the heart to apply things otherwise than they do wholly taken up with the sanctifying Spirit doth proceed such a heat and fervent zeal as that every part is made nimble in the execution of what God commands us It makes the feet swift in running to the house of prayer the hands pliable to minister to the necessities of the poor the tongue voluble in uttering the praises of Almighty God â— 1. 〈◊〉 the eares ready to hear with joy the Gospel of peace preached the eyes to be busied in looking up to heaven from whence cometh our salvation the whole man to be wholly taken up in heavenly contemplations of God and his works and holy exercises of devotion Hence the heart may challenge a principality over all the members of the body all are at its service and it exerciseth dominion over them all Arist in lib. de gederatione tanquam rex in regno as King in his Kingdom saith the Philosopher and it is ruled by the Spirit say Divines Naturalists raise a large discourse and ample dispute upon this Argument and as yet the controversie lies undetermined but this one principle of Divinity alotting the heart to the holy Ghost for his chief mansion in man doth end the controversie for in what part of man the holy Ghost doth principally reside and on what part of man mans conversion doth principally depend must of necessity be the principal part of man But to return more particularly to the rule hitherto amplified that the heart of man is the seat of the Spirit my discourse shall be limited 1. To the proof here of by Scripture 2. To a declaration of those circumstances whereby the being of the Spirit in our hearts may be discovered and by necessary consequence without all peradventure coucluded It is the general voice of the Scripture which is without exception that the Spirit dwelleth in the elect Rom. 8.9 Ye are not in the flesh but iâ— the spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you And in ver 11. it is thus written That if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you The Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.16 propounds this question the ignorance whereof is reputed grosse absurdity Know ye not that ye aâ—d the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you It is part of Pauls divine prayer for the Ephesians in Ephes 3.17 that Christ may dwell in their hearts by saith that is that Christ may possesse their hearts and the whole man by his Spirit working saving faith in them This dwelling is an admirable good expression of the being of the Spirit in us which is not in regard of substance which the heaven of heavens cannot contain being infinite much lesse can the body or soul of man bounded within strait limits comprize but in regard of a special operation out of the reach of a created power It carries with it an intimation of the holy Ghost abiding
with the Master for the injury And Ahab sets his Judges on work by a course of Law to condemn Naboth for his Vineyard but the Law sound him guilty for the Text saith Hast thou slain and got possession Or 2. By writing Naboth died by Jezabels letters and Vriah was slain by Davids which so nearly concerned him that by the Lords righteous sentence the Sword never departed from his house by which sentence it is observed good Josiah fell by the Sword many hundred years after By permission as Governours of Kingdoms Countries Cities Corporations Families Qui non pâ—ohibâ—i malum cum potest facit which hinder not the evil they may and ought Eli hindred not his sons from running into reproach and therefore he fell with them Pilate though he wash his hands never so often if he hinder not the death of Christ he remains guilty By provocation Gal. 5.26 Ahab was most wicked whom Jezabel provoked therefore take the Apostles Rule Provoke not one another neither to sin by perswasion nor to wrath by rash and scandâ—lous speeches nor to revenge to right thine own wrongs But rather provoke one another to love and to good works By consent and countenancing sinful actions Vitia alioâ—um si feras faeis tua Saul when Stephen was stoned kept the cloaths and this was a consent and communication Hitherto refer all participation in the action as receiving stoln goods silence and concealment connivance and too much indulgence c. It was a proud saying of Isidore the Monk Non habeo Domine quod mihi ignoscas Rom. 7. I have nothing Lord for thee to pardon When St. Paul himself that had been in the third heaven complains of his inward impurities O what need is here of a Saviour sith guilty culpable souls are such as cannot plead their own cause without an Advocate If I wash my self with snow-water Job 9 30 31. and make my hands never so clean yet shalt thou plunge me in the Ditch Psal 130.3 and mine own Cloaths shall abhor me If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand Every mouth must be stopped Rom. 3.19 and all the World must become guilty before God I know nothing by my self 1 Cor. 4.4 1 Tim. 5.22 yet am I not hereby justified Be not partaker of other mens sins Punishment of sin Sinners imagine not their last act will be Tragical Callecius in orbem Sapâ— latet molii coluber sâ—b graminis umbâ—â Mant. Culpa habet plus de ratione mali quà m paena Aquin. because their former Scenes have all been Comical the end is so far off that they see not those stabbing shames that await them in a killing ambush When Seneca asked the question Quid est homini inimissimum he answered alter homo Our enemies studies are the plots of our ruine but more truly in sin who slily makes us work our own overthrow when we know not of it and endure our own damage when we see it not Elementum in loco non ponderat saith the Philosopher and it is true of sin But how light soever it seemeth in the committing it will one day lie full heavy even as a Talent of lead Zeeh. 5.7 or as an huge Mountain Hebr. 12.1 When once we come to a sight and sense of it when Gods wrath and mans sin shall face one another Sin before it be committed is blandus amicus in committing dulce venenum But after committed Scorpio pungens like those Locusts that had effeminate faces but stings in their tails Rev. 9. Sin and punishment are knit together with Chains of Adamant Raâ—ò antecedentem seclest um deseruit pâ— de poena clauds Horace Flagitium flagellum sicut Acus filum Punishment follows sin even as the soul of Remus as is reported did his brother Romulus Where iniquity breaks-fast calamity will be sure to dine to sup where it dines and lodge where it sups Sin hath venome in it appear it never so fair as Pope Alexander poysoned the Turks brother in candid Suckets Sin is like those Lamiae certain shapes of Devils which taking on them the shew of beautiful women devoured children and young men allured unto them with sweet enticements A cerain Gentleman of Rome being infinitely in debt and yet sleeping securely When the was dead Augustus the Emperour sent to buy his bed saying it seemed to be a wonderful one Even so we may well wonder to see men sleep securely in sin when we consider that their damnation slumbreth not 2 Pet. 2.3 Though the Lord speak not instantly to every sinner as he did to Abimelech Gen. 20.3 Behold thou art but a dead man yet 't is true of every sin Cheys when it is finished it brings forth death So soon as Jonah entred into the Sea the storm rose to teach us that ubi peccatum ibi procella where there is sin especially committed with rebellion there will inevitably arise a storm of divine wrath When men will not hear then there is no remedy but they must feel For when God laies siege to the soul he hath both warning-pieces and murdering-pieces if the one will not reclaim sinners the other shall ruine them The sinner therefore is blinder than Balaam that walks on in an evil course and sees not the sword of Gods vengeance before him I have read in the History of Scotland that a Lady had a room hanged with curious Arras behind which were placed certain Cross-bows ready bent and charged and in the midst of the room there was a goodly brazen image resembling the King holding in the one hand a fair golden Apple set richly with Smaragds Jacincts Saphiers Topazes Rubies Turkasses and such like precious stones which the King viewing demanded whom the image did represent to whom she answered him and said she provided it as a gift for him and therefore desired him to accept it though not worthy so high a dignity wherein the King delighting removed the Apple the better to advise it whereupon the Cross-bows discharged so directly upon him that striking him through in sundry places he fell down stark dead and lay flat on the ground Even so the poor sinner is not aware Prov. 7.23 till a Dart strike through his liver It is storied that in the inmost part of Affrick are certain wild beasts having the countenance of a woman which in like manner are called Lamiae as before And my Author saith that they have their paps and all the rest of their breast so fair as any Painters wits can devise by which being uncovered they deceitfully allure men unto them and when they have taken them they do forthwith devour them So doth sin making a man cry out at last wo is me now Jer. 4 31. for my soul is wearied because of murderers It is best of all therefore not to sin and next to that to amend upon punishment Pliny makes mention of a
in terrâ Creator coeli creatus sub coelo being the Child of Mary sine quo pater nunquam fuit sine quo mater nunquam fuisset So that as David sang This is the day which the Lord hath made we may say This is the day wherein the Lord was made we will rejoyce and be glad in it This was that Holy that Stone cut out of the mountain without hands that Flower of the field growing without mans labour When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman Gal. 4 4. Joh. 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us God was manifesi in the flesh Passion It was a great kindness which Abraham shewed unto Lot when he hazarded his own life and the lives of his family to recover him out of the hands of Chedarlaomer But not comparable to that kindness which our Kinsman the Lord Jesus shewed us when he gave his life to deliver us from the hand of our enemies Mortuum Caesarem quis metuat Sed morte Christi quid efficacius If Caesar he once dead who will â—ear Christ even when dead is terrible to his enemies Nothing more effectual than his death By suffering death he destroyed him who had the power of death When he was condemned of man he condemned sin that it should not condemn man Passus est ut infirmus operatus ut fortis Aug. He suffered as a weak man but wrought as a strong one As the Serpent without life erected in the wilderness overcame the living serpents that stung Israel So the Lord Jesus by suffering death slew that Serpent that living in us had stung us to death Sanguis ejus effunditur Patre ordinante filio volente Spiritu sancto dante Gorran Judâ tradente Judaea procurante Pilato judicante Gentili exequente The High Priest under the Law as he was a type of Christ in sundry respects so likewise in his death He who killed a man negligently fled to the City of refuge and stayed there until the death of the High Priest and then he was free Jesus Christ by his death frees us and sets us at liberty One saith Christ continued in his torment twenty hours at the least Others say Sedul Homâ— â— that he was so long on the Cross as Adam was in Paradise in pleasure Origen de morte magni Regis The Theeves fared better on their Crosses than Christ on his for they had no â—rrision no superscription no taunts no insultations they had nothing but pain to encounter but death to grapple with but he death and scorn Pro servis dominus moritur pro sontibus insons Pro aegroto medicus pro grege pastor obit Pro populo rex mactatur pro milite ductor Pro opere ipse opifex pro homine ipse Deus As Eve came out of Adams side sleeping so the Church is taken out of Christs side bleeding Vt effundatur sanguis Christi ne confundatur anima Christiani A flux of blood in the head is stanched by opening a vein in the foot But here to save all his members from bleeding to death blood must be drawn from the head Which of Christs senses was not a window to let in sorrow He sees the tears of his Mother hears the blasphemy of the multitude is put to death in a noisom place to his scent his touch felt the nails and his taste the gall a reed for reproach is put into his hand a diadem in scorn is set upon his head his head harrowed with thorns his face of whom it was said Thou art fairer than the children of men is all besmeared with the filthy spettle of the Jews those eyes clearer than the sun are darkned with the shadow of death those lips which spake as never man spake are now drenched in gall and vinegar Nam cum mortis aculcum non possit accipere natura deitatis noscendo tamen sâ—scepit de nobis quod pati posset pro nobis Leo. Serm. 8. de Pas Hoc primum tormentum magnum mysterium quod passibilis factus est Hillar de Trin. l. 10. Christi humilitas est nostra sublimitas Christi crux nostra victoria Christi patibulum noster triumphus Orig. Hom 8. L. 9. and those feet that trampled on the Powers of darkness are now nailed to the footstool of the Cross Though Christ were both God and Man yet he suffered not in his Divine but in his Humane nature which may be thus illustrated 1. A Man we know consisteth both of soul and body and yet when he is dead we do not understand it of his soul for that cannot die but his body only 2. Thus The Sun shines on a Tree the Carpenter cuts down the Tree but wounds not the Sun 3. Or as the two Goats mentioned Levit. 16. the one is slain but the other escapes so of Christ in his two natures God the Creator suffers in the flesh that the flesh of the creature should not suffer for ever God himself reconciled the world unto himself God himself became Mediator God himself redeemed Mankind with his own blood He who was offered assumes the flesh of the creature and becomes Reconciliator We may say of Christs bloody sweat what the Poet Lucan having his veins cut dying said Sanguis erant lachrymae quaecunque foramina novit Humor ab his largus manat cruor ora redundunt Et patulae nares sudor rubet omnia plenis Membra fluunt venis totum est pro vulnere corpus Englished by D.T. His blood were tears and what pores sweat did know Blood in great plenty did spring forth and flow Through 's mouth and nose his sweat was red each lim Swet with full veins all 's but one wound in him Read Isa 53. all along His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.14 that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed Is it nothing to you 1. am 1.12 all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Descensio Christi ad Inferos Sepultura Christi est requies Christiani Ambros Buried our Saviour was 1. That none might doubt of his death 2. That our sins might be buried with him 3. That our graves might be prepared and perfumed for us as so many beds of roses or delicious dormitories Isa 57.2 If Christ did descend personally into Hell he must either descend in body or in soul Now his body could not go into hell for that was laid in the grave that very night by Joseph of Arimathea And for his soul that could not be in hell for Christ said to the Thief upon the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And how could that be if his soul did then go
number the mercies of God to me in particular saith he were to number the drops of water which are in the Ocean the sands on the shore the stars in the sky Mirrour of Martyrs This one act of his good will his Sons mission exceeds the capacity of a whole world of men to give it a due value He would not destroy us being his enemies when he might in justice destroy us but to save us inglorious miscreants sent his Son from glory and did as Abraham would have done with Isaac his onely and beloved darling offer him up to death to redeem us from it As King Solomon said to Abiathar the Priest Thou art worthy of death but I will not at this time put thee to death So said the Soveraign of Soveraigns to us His Son is destined to what we deserved to make us partakers of his deserts Salvator noster natus est nobis crucifixus mortuus est pro nobis ut morte suâ mortem nostram destrueret Aug. Man cap. 27. saith an uncertain Author Our Saviour is born to us crucified and dead for us that by his death lie might destroy our death for ever Wherefore the Lord Jesus upon the Cross giving the foil to our malicious enemies Sin Satan and Death Sin Satan and Death have lost the day to our endless comfort and the glorious manifestation of Gods good-will towards men I may not smother in thankless silence the blessed consequences of my Saviours life and death tendred for our restauration how happily they took effect with the Father in our behalf and accorded in every point of his decree with the good pleasure of his will For first there followed the imputation of Christs righteousness for the remission of our sins And then the Sanctification of us by his Spirit sent into our hearts for the suppressing of the dominion of sin in us Both which shew as speaks the Apostle the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness to us Ephes 2.7 through Christ Jesus First it pleased the Father that the fulness of the Spirit should dwell in him and that of his fulness we should all receive His righteousness then is made over unto us by the goodness of a righteous God whose purity as it admits no mixture of imperfection so neither without Christs perfection any justification of a sinner For none are justified but such to whom God imputes no sin and such are they only to whom God imputeth righteousness without works Which righteousness Rom. 4.6 7. being without our works and imputed must proceed not from our selves full of the soul stains of ugly sins but from another even from him alone in whom dwell all perfections Jesus Christ the righteous Thus and thus alone is God in his Son the Author and finisher of our salvation not imputing our sins unto us but reconciling us unto himself by the imputed righteousness of his Son by whom we have access unto the Father and are no more counted strangers forreiners and exiles but are reimpatriated and made fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Whereupon it is that by the grace of God to use the Apostles speech we are what we are And if by the grace and good will of God then surely not of debt not of merit for grace excludeth both To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace Rom. 4.4 Cap. 11.6 but of debt And here I could wish with all my soul that this and other infallible Oracles of highest Truth could heat our adversaries from Humane Merits and bring them to the Divine Mercies from Free-will and Possibilities of Nature to the Grace and Good-will of God To merit Heaven by all we can do is a fetch beyond all power of Nature and to aver it a strain as of excessive pride so beyond all true Divinity Merits in us are no such props to our faith as Mercies in God The first grounded upon self-conceit and fond opinion the last upon the demonstration of the Spirit The first all of the Romish faction receive for Orthodoxal truth which we reject for false the last they reject for false which we embrace for truth That Italian-Priest who Achan-like troubles all Israel the festered Head of an infected Body hath so distempered the world with this plausible assertion as that all his Abettors from the most learned Dogmatist to the meanest Papist stand rather to their own strength for their Justification than fly to Gods mercy as having more confidence in their own abilities and pretended merits than in the alsufficiency of Christs Mediation and Redemption or at least as much Who whilst they stand thus affected what do they but detracting both from the Lord and from his Anointed ascribe the honour of the day and glory of our salvation as well to the Free-will of Man Saunders his Petition as Good-will of God But O my soul come not thou within their secrets neither be partaker of their defections Chuse rather than combine with them ever to pray with that zealous Martyr in this wise O my heavenly Father look upon me in the face of Christ or else I shall not be able to abide thy countenance such is my filthiness The best of us may confess with the leprous person We are unclean we are unclean and therefore without him no blessedness to be obtained by the best of us Joh. 14.6 No man cometh to the Father but by me saith Christ And no man cometh unto me saith Christ again except the Father draw him Thus betwixt the Father and the Son we are well provided for without whom who thinks to be saved Plaut Merca. doth take his mark amiss Vbicunque putant vivere runnt maximè as the Comedian speaks Where they think to live most happily they die most wretchedly Wherefore for us to repose any confidence in our own imperfect works or to seek a shelter under the Merits of Saints recorded in the Pope's Kalendar or wheresoever else is utterly to renounce the Merits of Christ and the good-will of God Neque enim qui habet virtutem amplius opus habet neque qui valet viribus Clem. Alex. eget instauratione saith Clement of Alexandria For he that is perfect needs not to be beholding to another neither needeth he any reparation his proper strength is already compleat They that are whole need not the Physician but they that are sick saith the Physician of souls Let then the swolne Pharisees of the Roman Court in humility of spirit learn here to check their insolent boasting of their natural goodness and meritorious actions referring all to the goodness of the Chiefest Good Let them march under Christs colours as the Captain of their salvation Let them set up their rest in him as the securest Sanctuary for distressed souls O worthy Elizeus how affectionate were thine Obsequies You may remember that he could neither be perswaded nor beguiled nor forced from Elijah when he
the ordinance of God for He did all things well Wherefore to shew that God keeps his word and that the truth of his promises is infallible He rose again from the dead In regard of us the end of his Rising is threefold Viz. 1. For our Example 2. For our Justification 3. For our Faith c. First for our Example tending to the information of us in the ways of righteousness in the paths of life That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life that the body of sin might be destroyed Resurectione Domini configuratur vita quae hic geritur and that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6.4.6 The Resurrection of Christ from the dead should be a pattern for us wherein there is some effective vigor to raise us from the death of sin to a gracious life The power of effecting both is in God A Dâ—o est quod unima vivat per gratiam corpus per Animam That the soul lives by grace and the body by the soul comes from God Aquinas who is the Author of life And saith Ames Christ rising from death is tum demonstratio quam initiatio as well a demonstration as the initiation or beginning of our Rusurrection by whom we pass from death unto life Secondly for our Justification They are the express words of the Apostle He was raised again for our justification Rom. 4. ult For now that he hath gotten the victory over death by reviving he applies by the vertue thereof all the benefits of the Gospel unto us to the exceeding great consolation of our souls Lastly for the establishment of our faith concerning the obtaining of life everlasting For indeed if the Head be risen the members may be sure to rise too and if the Head receive life and glory doubtless the members which have their proper dependunce of him shall receive the like perfection for a glorified Head cannot be without a glorified body Now Christ is the head of the body the Church Col. 1.18 who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he may have the preheminence Of the fulness of whose glory in the day of our perfect redemption we shall all receive a full measure For a Conclusion Communi naturae lege moriuntur homines The sons of men composed of dust and ashes die by the common law of nature Eternity is proper to another world not to this to this Inconstancie The Son of the most High himself when he became the Son of man was subjected to Mortality He pleaded no Prerogative royal to be exempted from that end which God setled in the course of nature Our times upon the Earth may be said to be lasting but not everlasting though in the hands of God Heaven decreed a period to our Lives which we cannot prevent and to which Christ at the appointed houre did submit himself with all obedience not able to avoid it Necessity was laid upon him to pay the dubt to Nature which might serve for a payment of our debt to God yet not respectu peccuti Wâ—ems Protralcture of Gods image in man pag. 43. but respectis poenae this necessity was not in respect of sin He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot but in respect of that punishmenâ— which he did oblige himself to undergo for the sins of men Est illata necessiaâ— Adamò innata necessit as nobis assumpta necessitas in Christo Necessity of death was laid upon Adam for his sin necessity of death is imbred in us and by a voluntary assumption there was a necessity of death in Christ A man willingly gives his word for such a summe for his friend but when he hath willingly given it he must of necessity pay it So Christ willingly took this debt upon him and in the fulness of time when 't was exacted paid it down even his life to God and nature But albeit he thus parted from the world yet God hath raised him up Etiam animalula quaedam typâ— Resurrectionis sunt Lavat in Job 14.12 having loos'd the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it So though the hand of fate by Natures unconfused order reduce us to our first principles yet shall we rise again by the mighty power of our eternal Maker The Judge of all the word hath appointed a day wherein to judge the world to which all must rise And as all must die and after death come to judgment so Christ was once offered to bear the â—ius of many and unto them that look for him shall be appear the second time without sin unto salvation THE BLESSED AMBASSADOR OR THE Best sent into the Basest GALATH. 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father GODS love wherewith he hath embrac'd the sons of men in his onely Son is of such large extent as cannot be limited as cannot be measured the breadth and length and depth and height thereof Eph. 3.18 19. doth passe our knowledge Doth passe our finding out The length the breadth the depth of the earth the sea the heavens Mathematicians by their speculations do conjecture but the love of God the most ingenious and judicious cannot it so exceeds so much as conjecture much lesse perfectly know because infinite Would a man part with his only son and alone darling and he content he should die a most ignoble and ignominious death to ransome his servants his cantives his slaves rebels that would cut his throat I cannot be perswaded the world affords such a man such a Phenix there was but one in all the world Abraham found willing to slay his son to rip up his bowels that spruug out of his own when God commanded it Yet the Lord of heaven and earth whose mercies are over all his works sent his only Son to save sinners to dye that by his death we may live Though servants Cantives slaves rebels yet by his Son made Kings Priests Prophets sons and heirs of an eternal inheritance O the depth the height and length and breadth of Gods love He sent his Son forth from him to bring us to him he freely gave him to redeem us from the insulting power of Sathan from the captivity and dominion of sin from the oppressing tyranny of the world to bring us into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God This liberty this sonship is obtained by faith for to as many as beleeve in his name hath he given power to become the Sons of God All ye then that beleeve are no more servants but sons not sons of wrath but sons of God not sons by nature but sons by grace And because sons behold the Lords bounty is enâ—arged toward you the treasures of his graces are open for you the store-house of his riches is
in us not for a time but for ever for the Word dwelling noteth a perpetuity and is opposed to sojourning And also that he hath the full disposition and absolute command of the heart as a man of that house whereof he is Lord. Which disposition consists in these six notable benefits which are sure evidences of the Spirits being and dwelling in our hearts every one whereof is worthy our serious speculation The first is the illumination of our understandings with a certain knowledge of our reconciliation to God in Christ Jesus This is obtained by the special information of the Spirit he shall teach you all things he shall guide you into all truth John 14.26 16.13 saith the Saviour of the world This knowledge is not of Generals but of particulars that God is our Father Christ our Redeemer the holy Ghost our Sanctifier the Spirit of God faith the Apostle Rom. 8.16 Beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the sons of God Worketh in us a sure knowledge of the remission of our sinnes of our reconciliation and peace with God of our adoption into the liberty of the sons of God and faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.12 now have we received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are given to us of God that is the righteousnesse of Christ assuredly It is not in man to know assuredly what great things God hath done for his soul without the special instruction of the Spirit called the Spirit of truth And the Spirit of wisdom and understanding Isa 11.2 the Spirit of knowledge The second benefit of the Spirit which discovers his being in our hearts is regeneration wherby our hearts are renewed by receiving newnesse of life and grace The coruptions of our nature are expell'd by the Spirits infusion of supernatural qualities into us whereby we are made new creatures and of the servants of sin and limbs of Satan are made the members of Christ and sons of God Hence he is called the Spirit of life Except a man be born again by water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven saith our Saviour Ezek. 36.25 and Ezekiel doth Prophecy that God would sprinkle clean water upon them and they should be clean and from all their filthinesse would he cleanse them It is the Spirit that doth regenerate us who is here compared to clean water for these two causes 1. As water mollifies dry wood and puts sap into dry trees so doth the Spirit supple and mollifie our hard hearts and put sap of grace into them whereby we are made trees of righteousnesse and bring forth fruits of eternal life Christ saith John 7.38 39. that he that believeth in him as the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water this saith the text spake he of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive 2. As water doth purifie the body from all filth so doth the holy Ghost wash away our sins and our natural corruptions John 4.14 hence called a Well of living water springing up to everlasting life Again John the Baptist saith that Christ baptizeth with the holy Ghost and with fire where the Spirit is by consent of Interpreters compared to fire and that 1. As fire doth warm the body being benum'd with cold so doth the spirits our hearts frozen in sin and though dead in sins and trespasses yet by his reviving heat he quickens our hearts and brings us to life again 2. As fire doth purge and take out the dross from the good mettal so doth the holy Ghost separate and eat out the putrifying corruptions of sin out the canker'd and drossie heart of man And thus regeneration is wrought by the Spirit and therefore said to be born of God The third benefit of the Spirit in them to whom he is sent is an union or conjunction with Christ whereby we are made his members Hine baptismus dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 members of his body of his flesh and of his bones and partake of his benefits hereby his graces are in a plentiful manner and an abundant measure distill'd upon us which were in him above all measure hence it is compared to effusion Joel 2.1 John 3.24 I will pour out my Spirit hereby we know saith Saint John that we dwell in him and he in us because he hathi given us of his Spirit The Spirit is the bond of our conjunction descending from Christ the Head to all his members and begetting Faith that extraordinary vertue whereby Christ is apprehended and made our own by special application The fourth benefit whereby the Spirit is known to be sent of God into our hearts is the Spirits governing of our hearts For in whom he is be is Master ordering and disposing the understanding the will the memory the affections and all parts of the body according to his good pleasure for as many as are the sons of God Sam 8.14 Certum est nos facere quod sacimus sed illi 〈◊〉 ut faciamus are led by the Spirit The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal 37.23 in token whereof they that are of the Spirit do savor the things of the Spirit Rom. 8.5 that is they affect and prosecute those things that are good And this called spiritual regiment it consists in two things 1. In repressing all evil motions arising either from within as from evil concupiscence corruption of our nature or from without us by the inâ—icement of the world or suggestion of Satan 2. In stirring up good affections and holy motions upon every occasion hereto belong those excellent titles given to the holy Ghost the Spirit of the Lord Isa 11.2 the Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and of strength the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord he hath these several attributes because he stirs up in the godly these good motions of wisdom of knowledge of strength of understanding of counsel and of fear of the Lord. In Galat. 5.22 the fruits of the Spirit are recorded there to to be love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance where oever these be the Author which is the holy Gost of necessity must be As for love whose object is God and man God for himself man for God it is a testimony of the Spirits presence in us and rule of us he is sent into our hearts saith Lombard when he is so in us as that he makes us to love God and our neighbour whereby we remain in God and God in us As for joy it is a main work of the Spirit making us to rejoyce for the good of others as for our selves whereas carnal men pine away and grieve expressively for others prosperity As for peace it is that concord which must be kept in an holy manner Immane verbum est ultio Senec. with all men
Socer and after banished into France with his wanton Herodias died an Exile The Jews that persecuted Christ and his Apostles what punishments they had their lamentable wars and more lamentable destruction is a sufficient testimony Herod Agrippa that put James John's brother to death was put to death by vermine as his Grandfather was If we take a slight view of the Ten Persecutions Nero who robb'd Peter and paid Paul Peter of his life Paul with death was his own death kill'd himsel Domitian that banished John into Pathmos and crucified Simon Bishop of Jerusalem that put Publius Bishop of Athens to death was killed and his statues and monuments taken quite away Trajan that caused Simeon Bishop of Alexandria to be crucified and Ignatius Bishop of Antioch to be devoured of wild beasts suffered many miseries in his time Tiber overflowed all Rome Pantheon burnt with thunderbolts Cities in Asia shaken with grievous Earthquakes and the whole Empire almost wasted by a most wretched dearth Adrianus in whose Persecution Alexander Bishop of Rome with Hermes his wife children and household to the number of twelve hundred and fifty persons were burnt all in a furnace and Theodorus a Deacon had his tongue cut out of his head his hands and feet cut off afterwards beheaded and was cast to dogs at this time there were ten thousand crucified in Mount Ararat round with thorns and their bodies pierced through with darts at last he died doubting of the life to come Antoninus Verus and his brother Luâ—us persecuted Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna and Justin the Philosopher put to death but in their time there did an unheard of Plague spread over a great part of their Empire Severus a most severe Emperor in persecuting the Christians caused Irenaeus Bishop of Lions and Calixtus Bishop of Rome to be martyred but after he himself was slain and the Roman Empire afflicted with Civil wars Maximinus who martyred Hypolitus Bishop of an head City in Arabia was killed by his soldiers Decius in whose reign another Bishop of Antioch suffered death died miserably in the Scythian war suffocated in a fen In the persecution under Valerian died Cypriun Bishop of Carthage that Caesar of the Christian But he was vanquished by Sapor King of Persia and served instead of a footstool when the Persian took horse I had almost forgot one thing A Judge in the time of Severus condemned one Agapeius a youth of fifteen at whose execution the Judge fell down from his seat and cried his bowels burnt within him and so died Dioclesian and Maximian raised a Persecution which like a flood ran over all the Roman Provinces Syria Tyre Egypt c. But at last Dioclesian in his old days poyson'd himself and Maximian died a dogs death he was hang'd up for a sign of Gods wrath by Constantine Thus in these Ten Persecutions Gods Ministers run through fire and water as the Prophet David speaks of the afflictions of Gods children and were not spared But God spared not to punish those wicked Emperors the raisers of them Then after Julian the Apostate plays the devil but God the Lord of Hosts for the Persian got the honor of the day and Julian wounded sprinkling his blood up toward heaven died blaspheming Vicisti tandem puer Galilee Vulence seduced by the Arrians made havock of the Church but being taken of the Gothes in a Cabin whither he fled was burnt there I could proceed The Mahumetan Persecution I need not insist on Only The Saracens they are vanished Selymus the first Turkish Emperor rooted out of that Nation and the Turks they never are at ease but at continual war whose end by the judgment of the more learned is at hand Neither need I and therefore will not insist on the Persecutions continued under the Popes in Italy Germany Spain France England and in the Eastern tract of the world But who knows not the state of that Church from whom are hidden what deaths many and most of them died Take one for all Boniface the 8. of whom it is reported He came in like a Fox he reigned like a Lion and died like a Dog Let these Examples be as so many arguments to induce Gods Ministers howsoever persecuted to rejoice for Blessed are you when for Christs sake ye suffer persecution for yours is the kingdom of heaven Mat. 5. They that will not receive your crying aloud without sparing shake the dust off your feet against them Sodom and Gomorrah shall be in a better case at the last day than they Mat. 10.14 cap. 11.22 cap. 12.42 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Siaon than for them The Ninevites and the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against them Therefore tell them their own soundly and fear not Though ye be among scorpions as the Lord said to Ezekiel spare not for fear of the ensuing dangers For whosoever spareth incurs his own destruction and the destruction of the people both shall be overwhelmed in the flood of Gods wrath both shall sink into the gulf of everlasting perdition both being as the Prophet Jeremy speaks sifted in the sieve of vanity Yea Press things home to the Conscience and spare not though no hope of amendment of their life appear God bids thee and duty birds thee because God bids thee 1.2 Though ye will not be believed as Jeremy was not where Azariah Johanan and all the proud men said to him Thou speakest falsly Yet cry aloud and spare not leave the event to God Go saith he to Ezekiel and tell this people whether they hear or hear not If they do they shall have life if not judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools Prov. 19. ult For if they heir not you when you cry from God to them God will not hear them when they cry to him or you for them Jer. 7.16 Now God Almighty enable embolden and encourage all his Ministers to cry aloud to those whose minds are wandring that their hearts may turn to God to those that are in pursuit of their own wicked lusts that they may be reclaimed to those that are afar off that they may hear and return homeward to God to those that are asleep in sin that they may awake to righteousness to those that stop their ears that they may open them with gladness to those that hear carelesly that they may hear diligently to those that are dead in sins that they may arise and be quickned with the life of grace to the life of glory Again As we must take heed of our Doctrine so we must take heed of our Lives that we be unspotted of this wicked world Mundamimini qui fertis vasa Domini Ye that carry the vessels of the Lord be clean The Breast-plate of the Priest had this inscription HOLINESS TO THE LORD signifying that we should have Holiness imprest in our hearts Remember the Orders ye have taken they are holy Holy Orders Be
consolat Abite malâ— cupiditates ego vos mergam ne ipse mergar à vobis But it was indeed for a name as Hierom rightly judgeth calling him therefore Gloria animal popular is aurae vile mancipium a vain-glorious fool However let us make God our chief treasure A friend of Cyrus being asked Where his treasure was Answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Cyrus is my friend Let us answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where God is my friend Whoever hath the Lord for his portion the lines are fallen unto him in pleasant places he hath a goodly heritage He will be all that heart can wish or need require Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for the gold Job 28.1 2. Psa 17.14 Job 22.25 where they find it Iron is taken out of the earth and brass is molten out of the stone Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure The Almighty shall be thy gold Fountains and Rivers Aristotle assigns this as the cause of the perennity of them â— of their Beginning and Original viz. That the Air thickned in the earth by reason of cold doth resolve and turn into water c. But a greater than Aristotle notwithstanding Averroes his excessive commendation of him Solom viz. That there was no errour in his Writings c. gives us his opinion as it was likewise the opinion of the Ancient Philosophers viz. That they come from the Sea through the Pores and passages of the earth where they leave their saliness behind them Thus God doth by certain issues or vents send forth the waters of the Sea which here and there break out in springs that men and other earthly creatures might have that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pindarus stileth it for the satisfying of their thirst Rona à tergo formosissima and for other necessary uses A great mercy the want would more shew the worth All the Rivers run into the Sea Eccl. 1.7 yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again Ad locum unde excunt flumina Psa 104.10 11 revertuntur ut iterum fluant Vulg. He sendeth the springs into the Valleys Which run among the hills They give drink to every Beast of the Field the Wild Asses quench their thirst Fruits Alma Parens tell us Quaelibet herba Dâ—â—m affords all things necessary for man and beast Ad esum ad usum both for food and Physick and both these before either man or beast was created Sing we Hoc mihi pro certo quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum Green herbs was a great dish with the Ancients Aristippus told his Fellowphilosopher who fed upon them If you can please Dionysius you need not eat green herbs He presently replied If you can eat green herbs you need not please Dionysius These are called precious fruits Deut. 33.14 and Jam. 5.7 both because they cost hard labour to the husbandman for that is required as well as rain and dew promised And because they are choyce blessings of God for the sustentation of life Diogenes justly taxed the folly of his Countreymen quòd res pretiosas minimo emerent venderentque vilissimas plurimo because they bought precious things as Corn very cheap but sold the basest things as pictures statues c. extream dear for the life of man had no need of the one but could not subsist without the other Let us take heed of undervaluing the food of life and spending money for that which is not bread Isa 55.2 And God said Gen. 1.11 12. Let the earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind Whose seed is in it self upon the earth Cap. 1.29 30. and it was so And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind and God saw that it was good And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be given for meat And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat and it was so He causeth the grass to grow for the cattel Psa 104.14 and herb for the service of man that he may bring forth food out of the earth Worms In the earth are worms housed A worm is one of the meanest creatures and therefore to shew what a poor thing man is he is twice in one place compared to a worm Job 25.6 Thus Christ also bespeaks himself when he took our nature Psal 22.6 Man may be said to be a worm in several respects Look upon him 1. In his original and constitution he is from the earth as the worm is 2. In his natural state and condition he liveth upon the earth and earthly things as worms do 3. Because subject to danger every foot may crush him 4. Because unable to resist or make defence unless the Lord be his shield and a defence to him round about 5. Because he must shortly return into the earth and when he comes to the grave it will be worm to worm Mihi experto credite saith Aug. Believe me who have made trial of it Open a grave and upon the dead mans head you shall find toads leaping begotten of his brains upon his loins serpents crawling begotten of his raynes in his belly worms abounding arising out of his entrails Behold what we now are and what we shortly shall be Behold the Original and filthiness of sin The best are but worms-meat the worms shall cover them who haply were once covered with costliest cloathing Mark 9.44 But take heed of that Worm which never dieth for as out of the corruption of our bodies worms breed which consume the flesh so out of the corruption of our souls this never-dying worm This worm say Divines is a continual remorse and furious reflection of the soul upon its own wilful folly and now woful misery Oh consider this before thy friends be scrambling for thy goods worms for thy body and Devils for thy soul Go not Dancing to Hell in thy Bolts rejoyce not in thy Bondage as many do to whom the preaching of Hell is but as the painting of a toad which men can look on and handle without affrightment I have said to corruption Thou art my father to the worm Thou art my mother Job 17.14 and my sister Mandrakes Before I had passed plants I should have mentioned one strange one in Scripture called Mandrake of which here a word It is a kind of herb whose root hath the likeness of a man The fruit of the root called Mandrake Apples have
fountain near Monacris in Arcadia Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 103. of which whosoever drinks presently falls down dead the name of the fountain is Styx so called because it was of all men abhorred So should we be affected to the evil of sin as to a thing that brings present death Man drinks iniquity like water but every draught slayes the soul as the water of Styx the body As thou wouldest not drink poyson so beware of it The Poets have feigned a river to be in hell called by the same name Rom. 12.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sometime is taken for hell it self Art thou afraid of hell be also as much afraid of evil Pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est pati Thinks the sinner a small punishment may serve for a great offence But if God do punish the punishment shall have the same proportion with the offence God proportions the punishment of man with his sin and that two manner of wayes 1. In the quality and manner of it 2. In the quantity or degree of it The justice of God is visible in both Adonibezek was and so have many others been punished in the same manner that he had sinned But all shall be punished in the same degree that they have sinned 〈◊〉 abyssus 〈◊〉 a invocat When the iniquity of the Amorite is full he shall have his fill of wrath When God is pressed with sin as a cart with sheaves then he layes on load in judgment If sin be great so shall the punishment of it be Gods judgments against sinners are feathered from themselves as a fowl shot with an arrow feathered from her own body Which is according to Julians Motto Propriis pennis perire grave est No sooner had man sinned but the earth was cursed for his sake It was never beautiful nor chearful since and lookes to be burnt up shortly with her workes But yet the Punishment of sin may come long after the comitting of sin The one is a seed-time the other a reaping-time betwixt which there is a distance of time Job 4.8 The seeds of sin may lye many years under the furrowes A man may commit a sin in his youth and not find the harvest of it till old age The strongest sinner shall not escape punishment There are no sons of Zerviah too hard for God God desires in a special manner to be dealing with these for they in the pride of their spirits think themselves a match for God though indeed their strength is but weaknesse and their wisdom foolishness hence like Pharoah they send defiance to Heaven and say who is the Lord When God sees the hearts of men swoln to this height of insolent madnesse he delights to shew himself and grapple with them that the pride of man may be abased and every one that is exalted may be laid low that he onely may be exalted and his name set up in that day Behold Numb 32.23 ye have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out Evill shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him Psal 140.11 Evil pursueth sinners Pro. 13.21 The wicked is driven away in his wickednesse Cap. 14.32 Thine owne wickednesse shall correct thee Jer. 2.19 and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of hosts Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee Cap. 4.18 this is thy wickednesse because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart If thou doest not well Gen. 4.7 sin lieth at the door Supplicium imminet idâ— proximum et presentissinium saith Junius there Then when lust hath conceived Jam. 1.15 it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death What fruit had ye then in those things Rom. 6.21 Whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death For the wages of sin is death vâ—s 23. Free-will THere are a generation of men The Motto Mâ—hi solâ—d beo that will needs hammer out their own happiness like the Spider climbing by a thread of her owne weaving But Sub laudibus naturae latent inimicigratiae saith Aug. The friends of free-will are enemies to free-grace But whoever doth well weigh Auâ— observes our Saviour saith not pâ—rfâ—â—re but facere John 6.44 with cap. 15.5 and other places of Scripture must needs conclude that down goes the Dagon of free-will with all that vitreum acumen of all the Patrons thereof whether Pagans or Papagans Pelagians or Semipelagians c. Pareus in Revel 22.17 Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely glosseth thus He saith whosoever will he saith not that it is in the power of free-will but requires the will to receive it The will is ours but the will of receiving is not in us it is the gift of grace For what have we that are have not received 1 Cor. 4.7 Mind but the case of Paul Act. 9. and of Lydia cap. 16. and it will be clear that God comes into the heart while the doors of it are shut The Arminians and Papists as to that great and special truth which the Orthodox maintain against them will grant an irresistable work of light from God upon the understanding they will grant also a potent work upon the affections but this they will not yield that God makes the will to will that is so boweth and changeth the heart that it readily imbraceth what once it abhorred yet in all that are converted this power so efficacious must needs be acknowledged for will not experience witnesse that every mans will before converting grace came was as opposite to God and as averse to all holinesse as any natural mans in the world Simpliciter velle hominis est malè velle corruptae naturae Bern. bene velle supernaturalis gratiae Quem trahit Deus volentem trahit saith Chrysostom Vbi non est Spiritus Domini non est libertas arbitrii Aug. To which August Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus qui operatur in nobis velle Therefore he addes Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Cyrus had this written upon his Tomb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I could do all things as Arrianus reports So could Paul too but it was through Christ strengthening him Phil. 4.13 To which the same Apostle addes elsewhere Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3.5 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him Joh. 6.44 For without me ye can do nothing Cap. 15.5 For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13
covetous oppressors as Zacheus was to call us out of our oppression and make us new creatures in Christ Jesus Excellently saith a Divine of our time There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seemliness appertaining to each calling so here We must walk nobly and comfortably as becometh the heirs of God and Co-heirs of Christ Scipio when a Harlot was offered him answered Vellem si non essem Imperator I would if I were not General of the Army Antigonus being invited to a place where a notable Harlot was to be present asked counsel of Menedemus what he should do He bade him only remember that he was a Kings son So let men remember their high and heavenly calling and do nothing unworthy of it Luther counsels men to answer all temptations of Satan with this only Christianus sum I am a Christian They were wont to say of Cowards in Rome There is nothing Roman in them Luth. in Gen. Of many Christians we may say There is nothing Christian in them It is not amiss before we be serviceable for the world to put Alexanders question to his followers that perswaded him to run at the Olympick games Do Kings use to run at the Olympicks Every believer is Gods first-born and so higher than the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 He must therefore carry himself accordingly and not stain his high blood Many be called but few chosen God hath saved us and called us with an holy yea heavenly calling Mat. 20.16 2 Tim. 1.9 Heb. 3.1 Eph. 4.1 I beseech you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called Conviction It is said that Frogs will leave croaking if but a Light be hanged over the lake wherein they are A cleer discovery of the Truth is a powerful means to muzzle the mouths of Hereticks God smiteth the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips doth he slay the wicked By his word he telleth a man as he did the Samaritaness all that ever he did Yea the Word is a most curious Critick judging exactly and disclosing the words which he speaks in his very bed-chamber that is in the most secret retirements of his heart Conscience alone hath but a weak light and that light is partial but a serious application of the Word discovereth wickedness when our blind Consciences do not I was alive without the law once Rom. 7.5 but when the commandment came sin revived and I died Conversion This is the main end of the Gospels ministery to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan unto God We our selves may challenge no more than S. Austin in his child Adeodatus Nihil agnosco meum nisi peccatum I own nothing in our Conversion but the faults and defects Bernard for a certain time after his conversion remained as it were deprived of his senses by the excessive consolations he had from God Cyprian confesseth to Donatus his friend that before his conversion he thought it was impossible for him to change his manners and to find such comfort as now he did in a Christian life Accipe quod sentitur antequam discitur And so he goes on Austin saith the like of himself And the Eunuch after conversion went on his way rejoycing Divines say The infallible evidence of conversion is when a man hath changed his first principles and his last ends Cyprian called Caecilius that converted him Novae vitae parentem And doubtless it 's an high honour to have any hand in such a work He which converteth a sinner from the error of his way Jam. 5.20 shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins I cannot here omit a passage of a very grave Divine Mr. Ley his Pattern of Piety 145. I have known saith he a person who neither by education or affection was disposed to Popery who having the ill hap when his Conscience was perplext to fall into the hands of a Popish Priest upon this reason because as the Priest suggested that Religion afforded more comfort because it had and exercised a power to pardon sin which our Ministers neither did nor durst assume unto themselves he became a Papist Job 33.24 But it is honour enough to Ministers and may be comfort enough to their hearers that God gives them commission to deliver a Penitent man from Hell not as the means for that is Christ alone but as instruments 1. To apply Christ crucified or rather risen again unto him 2. To pronounce his safety and salvation upon the due use of that means And this is the greatest honour that ever was done to any meer creature Angels had never such a commission They indeed are Ministers for the good of those that shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 But Ministers are called Saviours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obad. 21. Take heed unto thy self 1 Tim. 4.16 and unto the doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Regeneration There are two parts in this work of grace 1. The one is Qua regeneramur by which we are begotten 2. The other is Qua renascimur by which we are born again The one is Gods act purely the other implieth the manifestation of life in our selves A distinction that serveth to clear some controversies in Religion The Word of God is the instrument of our Regeneration being made prolifical and generative by the Spirit The Father is the original cause Jam. 1.18 The Son is the meritorious and effective And the Holy Ghost consummates and applies it 1 Pet. 1.3 through faith wrought and increased in us by the Word and Sacraments So that here is God the Father's will God the Son's merit and God the Spirit 's efficacy Tit. 3.5 6. By his overshadowing the soul is the new creature hatched and brought forth When the Donatists upbraided Austin with the impurity of his former life he answered How much more they blame my former fault by so much the more I praise and commend my Physitian Miratúrque novas frondes non sua poma saith the Poet Virg. Georg. 2◠speaking of a graffed tree So may Regenerate persons themselves and all that behold them wonder at the change which is wrought in them Every man by his first birth is still-born dead in sin by his new birth he becometh alive to God As the Father said of the Prodigal This my son was dead and is alive And surely what difference was between Lazary lying dead in the grave and Lazarus standing alive on his feet the same is between a natural and a regenerate man Yea look what alteration there is in the same Air by the arising of the Sun the like is in the same person by the infusion of holiness Paracelsus in his second book De vita longa saith that Lepra curatur per regenerationem Chymically it is to be
theft John 8.4 whiles the child of a stranger carries away the goods or lands of the family Besides this sin strikes at the very sinew heart and life of the marriage-knot and dissolves it Clytemnestra Agamemnons wife was a notable Adulteresse But nothing like Messalina who said Se inter diem noctem viginti quinque passam concubitus Adulteri sunt ulcera reipublicae The wide womb of the earth can never find a grave to hide their shame Nebuchadnezzar rosted in the fire Zedekiah and Ahab two false Prophets of Judah because they committed Adultery with their neighbours wives Jer. 29.22 23. The Egyptians used to cut off the nose of the Adulteresse the Prophet alluâ—es to this Ezek 23.25 The Athenians Lacedemonians and Romans were very severe against this sin as Plutarch reporteth The old French and Saxons also as Tacitus tels us The Law of God was strict this way and where men have failed to punish God hath done it remarkably In Anno 1583. in London two Citizens committing Adultery on the Lords day were struck dead with fire from heaven in the very act of uncleannesse their bodies being left dead in the place half burnt up sending out a most loathsome savour for a spectacle of Gods controversie against Adultery and Sabbath-breaking God did it effectually on Charles 2. King of Navar who was much addicted to this sin which so wasted his spirits that in his old age he fell into a Lethargy To comfort his benumbed joynts he was bound and sewed up in a sheet sleeped in boiling Aquavitae The Surgeon having made an end of sewing him and wanting a knife to cut off his thread took a wax candle that stood lighted by him But the flame running down by the thread caught hold on the sheet which according to the nature of the Aquavitae burned with that vehemencie that the miserable King ended his dayes in the fire Master Cleaver reports of one that he knew who had committed the act of uncleannesse and in the horror of conscience he hang'd himself But before he wrote in a paper and left in a place to this effect Indeed I acknowledge it sâ—id he to be utterly unlawful for a man to kill himself But I am bound to act the Magistrates part because the punishment of this sin is death This act was not to be justified but it shews what a controversie God hath with Adulterers and what a deep gash that sin makes in the conscience Adultery is 1. Mental 2. Actual What need therefore with Job to make a Covenant with our eyes Lusting is oft the fruit of looking as in Joseph's Mistresse who set her eye upon Joseph and David who saw Bathsheba bathing Lust is quick sighted Sampsons eyes were the first offenders that betrayed him to lust therefore are they first pulled out For this is an heinous crime yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges Job 31.11 Heb. 23.4 Adulterers God will judge 3. Incest In a strict acceptation it signifieth that kind of naughtinesse which is committed between two near of kin Take heed of intemperance Lot in a drunken pang forgets he is father and does that that heaven and earth are afterwards ashamed of Est Venus in venis ignis in igne furit The text saith he neither perceived when either of them lay down Gen. 19.33 nor when they arose Indeed drunkennesse drowns both the understanding sense and conscience for surely he would never have done that abominable act if he had not been overcome with wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might make him forget what was become of his wife and so cause him not to doubt but that she was in his bed Yet it is observed there is a tittle extraordinary in the Hebrew to note that it is a thing incredible Ne nos abeamus in securitatem Coire quempiam necientem Cajetan and Pererius conclude it possible and give reasons for it Calvin saith best that it was not so much his wine as a spirit of slumber sent upon him from God for a scourge of his intemperance Luther adds that we may watch against security It is well observed by our Divines Gen. 19.8 that Lot offended against the chastity of both his daughters in offering them up unto the Sodomites and they now conspire against his chastity so is he punished in the same kind wherein he offended which was just as from God though evil in them God permits him to fall most horribly in the solitary mountain whom the wickednesse of Sodom could not overcome It is ordinary with the Pope to dispence with incestuous marriage Instance in Philip 3. Sands in his Survey of Spain of whom it is said that he might call the Arch-Duke Albert both Brother Cousin Nephew and Son for all this was he unto him either by blood or affinity Being Uncle to himself Cousin-German to his Father Husband to his Sister and Father to his Wife And all by Papal dispensation God suffers such commixtions to take effect whiles he makes more lawful conjunctions fruitless for the greater shame of the fact Abhorr'd filthiness 1 Cor. 5.1 not so much as to be named without detestation 4. Sodomy This soul sin is so called from the men of Sodom It is an abuse of either sex against nature Such may be men in shape but are worse than beasts in their lusts Two ways a thing may be said to be against the nature of man 1. In regard of the constitutive difference of man which is Reason and so all sin is against nature 2. In regard of the Genus of man which is Animal a living creature Now the sin here spoken of is also against mans nature in this last respect For such filthiness is not sound amongst the beasts for God hath ordained that the male and female should couple together and not the female and female nor male and male But in this horrible manner did the Sodomites Romans and other of the Gentiles It is a sin saith Aristotle that is repugnant not only to nature in her greatest depravation but which fighteth with the nature of beasts But it is cleer that when God for sakes men they are ready to do things which the very beasts abhor At this day in the Levant Blunts Voyage Sodomy is held no sin The Turkish Basha's have many wives but which is far more abominable more Catamites This is a sin so against nature that Children natures end and Posterity are utterly lost by it God gave them up to vile affections Rom. 1.26 27. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one towards another men with men working that which is unseemly Adde unto these that of Moses Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death Exod. 22.19 Father Latimer B. of Worcester gave Henry the 8. a
by the assistance of the Holy Ghost yet it was not meritorious It was the power of the Deity that made Christs blood meritorious That gave both value and vertue to it both to satisfy and to sanctify And so we come to have a double benefit by the blood of Christ justification and sanctification from sins which are dead works The blood of Christ may be considered two wayes in the work of redemption 1. As the price of our Redemption Eph. 1.7 2. As it carries the right of Redemption Blood implies neernesse of relation Act. 17.26 As the blood of Adam runs in the veines of all his posterity and so there is a natural relation among all mankind So God hath made Christ and us of one blood Heb. 2.14 Christ as God had power to redeem us but as being Immanuel God with us he had also a right to redeem us The Pelican with her blood both feeds her young and cureth them being sâ—ung with serpents This is applicable to Christ in a spiritual sence The Idolaters offered the blood of their sons and daughters to their Idols but they would not offer their own But Christ gave not any blood but his own by his own blood he made a way into Heaven for us Constantine being told that nothing would cure his Leprosie but the blood of Infants would rather dye But Christ was content his blood should be shed to cure us A mother brings up her child with her owne milke but Christ his children with his owne blood Is not this the water said David 2 Sam. 23.17 for the which three worthy men ventured their lives he would not drink of it though very thirsty Our swearing drunkenness c. these cost the blood of the Son of God We are washed from them in the blood of Christ and shall we wollow in them When we are provoked to sin let us reason with our selves Indeed the water of these sins is sweet but did it not cost the blood of Christ We think sin to be nothing yet all the Martyrs on the earth and all the Angels in heaven could not have freed us from 〈◊〉 Christs blood is the price of our redemption the Son of God must shed his blood for it Therefore let the consideration hereof be a perpetual bridle to restrain us from sin Without shedding of blood is no remission Hebr. 9.22 Mass A certain Sorbonist finding it written in the end of St. Paul's Epistles Missa est Buxto f. c. bragged he had found the Mass in the Bible And another in reading in Joh. 1.41 Invenimus Messiam made the same conclusion Some of them as Bellarmine for one would fain ground it on Malac. 1.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Others fetch the Missa from an Hebrew word which signifyes tribute coming of another which signifies to melt because it many times melteth away mens estates Rectè quidem Rivet per Missam scilicet piet as omnis liquefacta dissoluta Upon these words Heb. 7.18 Reprobatio quidem fit praecedentis mandatâ— c. Here the Jesuites shew themselves very acute their wit mounteth above the Moon The old Mandate say they is gone viz. the Levitical Priesthood with the sacrifices thereof And the new Mandate is come in the room thereof that is the Gospel with the sacrifice thereof the Mass Whereof Maunday Thursday 〈◊〉 his name quasi Mandat Thursday because then the old Mandate of the â—ascal Lambe was abolished and the new Mandate of the sacrifice of the Mass was ordained in the supper Indeed Dr. Jones well observes it was once called Shear-Thursday because the Priests did shear their hair and shave their crownes on that dayâ— Afterwards it had the name of Maunday Thursday not of the Latine word Mandâtum that is far fetched but rather of the English word Maund or basket because the People brought their provision for feasting on that day in such To love one another is called the new Mandate but the supper hath never that name But here the Jesuites it may be make this note rather to shew their wit than Divinity Object In the time of the Law there was many sacrifycing Priests but now in the time of the Gospel there is but one sacrificing Priest and that is our Saviour Christ which offered one sacrifice once for the sins of the world Indeed spiritually we are all Priests to offer spiritual sacrifices to God but there is no Priest to offer an external sacrifice for sin but Christ This is firm there is but one sacrifice of the New Testament whereby the daily sacrifice of the Mass is over thrown There is but one bloody sacrifice which was once offered on the crosse but there is an unbloody sacrifice which Christ instituted at his last Supper Cum faciam vitulâ pro fâ—â—gibus ipse venito where the body and blood of Christ are offered under the similitudes of bread and wine which is a commemoration and an applification of his sacrifice on the crosse to usâ— for Christ said to his Disciples Hoc facite that is sacrificate As the Poets say Answ But where do they read in any Author the Hoc facite with an Accusative case doth signifie to sacrifice The Poet doth not say facere vitulam Besides Christ then ordained no Propitiatory sacrifice which was to be offered every day he instituted a Sacrament not such a sacrifice Moreover 1. In every sacrifice there is sensibile quiddam as Bellarmine confesseth and they also say it is an eternal thing and they call it Visibile sacrifiolum But in this imaginary sacrifice there is no outward sensible thing that may be discerned by the senses They say that the body and blood of Christ are there invisible under the shape of bread and wine therefore by their own Position it is no sacrifice 2. They confesse it to be an unbloody sacrifice and then no Propitiatory for the quick and dead Sacrificium incruentum as they will have it For without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins There is no blood shed therefore no remission of sins Then a Mass is worth nothing but a Phantastical dream of their own The Papists were used to say the sacrifice of the Mass that it was propitiatory for the quick and the dead but being forced to it by the light of Scripture they let go that hold and affirm that it is onely representativum commemorativum applicativum of the sacrifice on the crosse But however they minse it all the sacrifices instituted by God must cease after the oblation of that sacrifice whereby eternal redemption is obtained for us And then this new forged sacrifice is but a bird of their own hatching and must cease Besides if Christ be offered up in the sacrifice of the Mass then he suffers at every Mass for there can be no offering of Christ without suffering but he suffers not even in the judgment of the Papists Neither Bellarmine nor any of them
in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world Divine Worship The Serpents Grammar first taught Deum pluraliter declinare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eritis siâ—ut Dii Ye shall be as Gods And here is the first broaching of plurality of Gods which since this time hath multiplied to an innumerable rabble of false gods Of Divine powers adored by the heathens Hesiod reckons up thirty thousand that were in his time What an Army may we think there were of them in after ages It is said that in China are no fewer than an hundred thousand Idols See Mr. Fullers Pantheon But all religious service done to any but God is manifestly condemned as impious Be the gods of the Heathens good fellows the true God is a jealous God and will not share his glory with another Read 1 Cor. 8.5 6. Worship is either 1. Civil Or 2. Divine The former may be given to men and it is twofold 1. A civil worship of duty from inferiours to their Superiors as from children to their Parents from servants to their Masters from subjects to their Magistrates 2. A civil worship of curtesie which is from equals when one equal will bow to another or when a Superior bows down to his inferiour But the latter is Gods peculiar For nothing but God or that which we make a God is or can be worshipped Either he is a God whom we worship or as much as in us lies we make him one Whatever creature shares in this honour this honour ipso facto sets it up above and makes it more than a creature The very Heathens thought every thing below a God below worship Indeed Papists have worship for creatures and they have distinction for it but no Scripture for it They tell us of their Latria worship onely proper to God and Dulia which is for Saints and Huperdulia which is for the Virgin Mary and for the signe of the Crosse Thus they make vain distinctions which God and the Scripture make not They that invent a worship must invent a doctrine to maintain it by And indeed vain distinctions are good enough to maintain vain superstitions This divine worship of God is twofold 1. Internal and 2. External The former is to love God fear God and trust upon him These are acts of inward worship The latter is nothing else but the serving of the Lord according to his own institution Dâ—o serviendum ell non ex arbitrio sed ex imperio Tert. in those several wayes wherein God will be honoured and served by humble adoration supplication c. God requireth both and there is a necessity of joyning both together but internal worship is the chief External worship honours God most but internal worship pleases God most The external worship may be compleat in it self but is never pleasing to God without the internal Internal is compleat in it self and pleasing unto God without the external But in both we must be zealous The Lacedemonians though sore assailed by the Peâ—sians would not resist till their sacrifices to their gods were fully ended God is a Spirit John 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth To these we oppose the profane person he hath no gods at all in matters of Religion his heart is a piece of dead flesh without feeling of love of fear of care or of paines from the deep strokes of a revenging conscience custom of sin hath wrought his senselesness which hath been so long entertained that it pleads habitation we are born sinful but have made our selves profane at the first he sinned and cares not now he sins and knows not appetite is his Lord and reason his servant when ought succeedeth to him he sacrificeth to his nets and thank either his fortune or his wit and will rather make a false god than acknowledge the true His conscience would fain speak with him but he will not hear it and when it cries aloud in his ear for audience he drowns it with good fellowship He never names God but in his oaths never thinks of him but in extremity The inevitable necessity of Gods decree makes him desperately carelesse so with good food he poysons himself his usuallest Theme is the boast of his young sins which he can still joy in though he cannot commit He cannot think of death without terrour which he fears worse than Hell because this he is sure of the other he but doubts of He comes to the Church as to the Theatre but not so willingly for company custome recreation perhaps for sleep He is hated of God as much as he hateth goodnesse and differs little from a Devil but that he hath a body The Law is made for the unholy and profane 1 Tim. 1.9 Look diligently lest there be any profane person as Esau Heb. 12.16 Servant of men There is a service due from man to man but comparatively to our service of God we must not be the servants of men We ought to serve men heartily but we must serve none but God with all our hearts He is a servant of men in the Apostles sense 1 Cor. 7.23 that subjects himself to their lusts either for hope or fear labouring to please men though it be with sinning against and provoking God That Rule holds good in Rhetorick but not in Divinity Cicero Non ad veritatem solùm sed etiam ad opinionem corum qui andiunt accommodanda est oratio This was a Principle held very fast by the Heathens Magis ob temperandum est Diis apud quos diutius manendum erit quà m hominibus Witnesse Antigoua in Sophacles quibuscum admodum brevi tempore vivendum est Better obey God with whom we must ever live than men with whom we have but a while to continue Men-pleasers that curry favour with all they lose a friend of God neither do they long hold in with those whom for present they do so much please Whether it be right in the sight of God Acts 4.19 to hearken unto men more than unto God judge ye Servant of sin Every man till regenerate is a servant to sin and overcome by it Quot vitis tot domiâ—i till the grace of regeneration do renue him and set him at liberty All unregenerate men have put their neck into sins yoke and are unwilling to have it taken off again Sin may have a twofold prevalency or dominion over a man 1. Either with a full and plenary consent 2. Or else unwillingly with reluctancy and contradiction As Josephus saith of Herod that he raigned over the Jews for many year by meer force they opposing and resisting of him but afterwards they willingly consented to him By this distinction Divines use to resolve that case of conscience whether a godly man may be said to be under a reigning sinne for as we understand the word reigning as aforesaid so it is true or false c.
swearing for he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it He takes away the corrupt glosses of the Pharisees but not the use of an Oath as may appeare in all the other precepts there reformed but not abolished Again as Christ said Ne juretis omnino so he said Ne resistatis malo yet the Magistrate may resist evil There were two glosses of the Pharisees in this 1. If any sware by the Name of God or by those things that did appertaine immediately to the worship of God as by the gold offered to God in the Temple or by the sacrifice on the Altar he sinned But if he did sweare by other creatures by heaven earth Jerusalem the Altar it was no sinne 2. That the breach of the first Oath was damnable but not of the second These Christ reformeth Moreover the Pharisees meant onely of private Oaths in the ordinary speech of men for in publick judgement they did swear onely by God alone Besides if it were unlawful to swear how shall Christ be justified that addes to his speech Amen Amen Indeed for reformation of this vice of blasphemy and ordinary swearing whereby as Chrysostom saith Christ is continually crucified again it were to be wished that that Law made by Ludovicus King of France were universally established That whosoever sweareth vainly should be burned in the mouth with an hot iron An Oath saith Tully is affirmatio religiosa It is lex naturae Heb. 6.16 and Jus Gentium The use of it is mainly to settle minds and end controversies It is the end of all contradiction there is no more litigation when one hath sworn all are to be as mute as fishes We must have a reverend estimation of an Oath Assumere Deum in testem dicitur jurare quia quasi pro jure introductum est ut quod sub invocatione divini testimonii dicitur pro vâ—re habeatur Aquin. and these conditions must be observed in it viz. Vt sit in 1. Veritate Jer. 4.2 2. Judicio Jer. 4.2 3. Justitiâ Jer. 4.2 It must be 1. For the confirmation of a truth not of a falsehood It is a most vile thing to make God who is truth it self the witnesse of a lie 2. In judgement with wisdome and discretion upon great and weighty causes When the glory of God and the good of our brethren requires it When the truth cannot otherwise he known 3. For just and lawful matters not for things that are unjust and unlawful we must not swear to kill to take a purse or the like Unto the first of these are opposed false Oaths to the second rash to the third unjust The depravation of our Nature hath abused the lawful act of an Oath by equivocations and mental reservations making it like the Gipsies knot fast or loose at pleasure No scruple in a cauteriz'd conscience passing the bounds of Religion But as the wasp falls into the honey that after drowns her so man into the hands of delightful sin that after kills him Therefore the sacred and solemn obligation of an Oath is to be interpreted not by him that takes it but by him that takes his assurance by it He that sweareth Eccl. 9.2 and he that feareth an oath Perjury It is a sin of an high nature Perjurij paena divina Exitium humana dedecus condemned by the light of nature and punished by the Heathens God punisheth Perjury with destruction Men with disgrace This was one of the Laws of the twelve Tables in Rome A man forswears himself Lombard Ex Aug. when he swears that which 1. Is false and knows it to be false 2. Is true but thought it to be false 3. Is false but held it to be true At least the two first kinds are abominable Antiochus muros Hierosolumitanos obsessus Judaeis pacem denunciat libertatemque vivendi legibus illi verò libenter haec audientes fide acceptâ jurejurando interposito Joseph de Bello Judiac lib. 1. c. 15. è Templo exiverunt at Antiochus cùm ingressus vidisset locum egregiè munitum violato sacramento jussit suum exercitum ut solo aequaret murum quo Templum septum fucrat hoc facto reversus est Antiochiam secum ducens Oniam Pontificem qui Menelaus alio nomine dicitur who was slain in Syria by the suggestion of Lycias to Antiochus But for this cruel tyranny and perjury he had a cruel death and doom unexpected Michael Paleologus Emperor of Constantinople made the Greek Church acknowledge the Pope's supremacy and did many other things contrary to his oath And therefore lieth obscurely buried saith the Historian shrouded in the sheet of defame Rodulphus Duke of Sweveland who by the Pope's instigation brake his oath of allegiance to Henry the Emperor by the cutting off of his faithless right hand lost his life Vladislaus King of Hungary for his perjurious setting upon the Great Turk at the battel of Varna Turk Hist fol. 297. was deservedly defeated Mind Amurath's prayer unto Christ Behold thou crucified Christ this is the League thy Christians in thy name made with me which they have without any cause violated Now if thou be a God as they say thou art and as we dream revenge the wrong now done unto thy name and me and shew thy power upon thy perfidious people who in their deeds deny thee their God A Turk causing a Christian to pay a summ of money most unjustly twice over by taking an oath before the Judge where the matter was examined to the contrary fol. 1310. April 16 1611. that he had not paid it The Christian withall prayed God to shew some publique signe which of them had done the wrong And thereupon the Turk going forth to repair home to his own house fell down dead in the street Perjury is a sin which violates the name of God exceedingly and evidences that men have no fear of God in them that they make an Idol of him to serve their own turns That such men are neither for God nor man to trust not only Religion but even common honesty suffers by them No marvel ten if the Lord recompence such sins upon mens heads Thou shalt not forswear thy self Mat. 5.35 Read Zech. 5.4 5. Mal. 3.5 c. Remembrance Seneca brings in Hercules In Traged lamenting and saying Tot feras vici horridas reges tyrannos non vultus meos in astra torsi Oblivio Jovis erat causa miseriae Fulnesse breeds forgetfulnesse saturity security Many in their low estate could serve God but now resemble the moon which never suffers Eclipse but at her full and that is by the earths interposition between the sun and her self at which time also she gets furthest off from the Sun It s the saying of one that Solomons wealth did more hurt than his wisdom did him good it was his abundance that drew out his spirits and dissolved him and brought him to so low an ebbe in grace
hath seen 2. External an outward way of walking That speech of God to Abraham takes in both Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou perfect Thus if we speak metaphorically that 's not onely a way which we tread with our feet but that 's also a way which we tread with our actions A right course of life is a right way Go here saith God it is a way of holinesse go there it is the way of justice Come hither this is the way of truth Thus God beckens and invites man into his way And surely there 's no safety out of Gods way many have died in Christs way but no man ever perished in it God knoweth the way that I take Job 23.10 Quality Worth is valued by the quality not by the greatnesse of a thing Pro. 30.25 26. Some feeble creatures have a notable forecast And others what they want in strength they have in wisedome The least measure of true faith if exerted and exercised will bring a man to heaven though he have not this or that faith to rely upon God without failing without feeling as resolving that neverthelesse God will hear him in that very thing that he prayes for Verily I say unto you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed Mat. 17.20 ye shall Experience The requisites for a City or Incorporation are One to judge a law to rule power to defend wisedome to order and riches to communicate Man the City of God at his creation had these will for the King reason for the law free-will for power for wisedome knowledge for riches obedience and cogitations for Inhabitants But man triumphed gloriously in a chariot of glasse which was broken with an Apple And now man is deceived by Satan infected with sin banished from Paradise sweating in labour living in sorrow continuing in warre and fearful of death I have read of a monster having a head like a man teeth like a Lion wings like an Eagle tail and nails like a Dragon and breathed fire like a Devil The wicked man hath reason for his head presumption for his wings stiffnesse in wickednesse for his teeth temptation for his nails and envy for his breath Some sparks of the Deity were created in man in the beginning which he striving to blow into a flame blew them out And now what gets man in the Devils service but death what comfort in his conscience but horrours eyes flaming nostrils fuming eares glowing hands burning and heart trembling As the body of Cerberus supports three heads so the stem of sin sends forth three armes The concupiscence of flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life Delilah deceives Sumpson and the Philistines pull out his eyes Delilah is the flesh the Philistines bind him when reason yeilds to sensuality and pull out his eyes when sin perswades him to iniquity Fas est ab hoste doceri Lay thine hand upon him Job 41.8 remember the battel do no more Aeconomical Order Natura AS Galaton painted Homer vomiting Reliquos verò Poems â—a quae ipsâ—â—â—muisset haurientes To signifie saith Aelian that he was the first Poet and all the other as well Greek as Latine but his Apes In like manner Moses is called Oceanus Theologus from whom all other Writers as Armes are derived Aristotle was called Vltimus conatus naturk Nature the common mother breedeth divers effects according to the constitution of each body Many times by events and accidents divers deformities and blemishes appear which by nature were not decreed to be There is greatest cold in the bosome of the earth when the Sun with greatest vehemency shines on it to heat it even so our corrupt nature doth never shew it self more rebellious and stubborn than when the Law of God begins to rectifie it as an unruly and untamed horse the more he is spurred forward the faster he runs backward Rom. 7. so the perverse nature of man is so far from being reformed by the Law that by the contrary sin that was dead without the Law is revived by the Law and takes occasion to obey its concupiscence When we speak of sins against nature our meaning is against the light of nature not against the corruption of nature Naturally Homo est inversus Decalogus whole evil is in man and whole man in evil And there is never a better of us Therefore Christ came to dissolve the old frame and to drive out the Prince of darknesse who hath there entrencht himself We were by nature the children of wrath Eph. 2.3 even as others Marriage It is called In scripturis 〈◊〉 conjugalis 〈◊〉 tur Conjugium à conjungendo i.e. à jugo communi qâ—o vir 〈◊〉 simul in unam carnem veluti in unum hóminem junguntur Matrimoniam quasimatrem monens nam à matre dictum est Conubium numero plurali Nuptiae à nubendâ— i. e. tegends vel obtegendo quia sicut coelum interdum nubibus obtegitur sic untiquitus virgines dum ad vires dactbantur Gâ—dw Antiâ— belamine tegebantur idque ad testandum 1. Pudorâ—m verecundiâ—m 2. Subjectionem obedientiam sen alterius potestatem in se Some honour marriage too much as the Papists that make a Sacrament of it Sacramentum hoc magnum est Ephes 5.32 yet the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if every mystery should be a Sacrament there should not be seven but seventy Sacraments and more Neither doth he speak of marriage but of the conjunction of Christ and his Church in that place A number there be also that have exceedingly disgraced it So Epiphanius recordeth oâ— him Marâ—â—on called Matrimony Inventionem diaboli Saturnius and Basilides blushed not to affirme that Nubere generare were à Satana And Hierom with Tertullian wrest some sentences of St. Paul to the disgrace of marriage But let them all say what they will The very first work God did after the very first creation was his marrying of man to woman and one of the first Miracles Christ wrought was in honour of marriage Here Bellurmine also toyes with a triple distinction such as that in his Treatise for Purgatory where Peter Martyr non-plust him A great scholar but were he as great as his great-Grandfather that came to our Saviour with scriptum est his greatnesse were nothing because it is against God who onely is great without quantity Great is Diana of the Ephesians yet nothing because an Idol Before marriage let us begin with God as Abrahams servant did Dos non Deus makes such marriages Forma bonum fragile est 〈◊〉 Res est forma fugaâ— Senec. send me good speed this day And make a Christian choice let not red angels and ruddy cheeks be the loadstones though the one is not wholly to be contemned and the other is an ornament much to be commended But rather grace and vertue remembring what the wise man saith Prov. 31.30 Favour is deceitful
out of their bellies For which cause also the Hebrews called them Oboth or bottles because the bellies of those women that were thus made use of by the Devil were swelled as big as bottles In the year of Grace 1536. a certain Damsel at Frankfort in Germany being possessed with a Devil and stark mad swallowed down pieces of money with much gnashing of her teeth which monies were presently wrung out of her hands and kept by divers Bucholc Chr. Luther's advice being requested it was this To pray hard for her Vrbanus Regius in a Sermon of his at Wittenberg made mention of a certain Maid possessed by the Devil and when she should have been prayed for in the Congregation the Devil made as if he had been departed out of her But before the next publike meeting Satan returned and drove the Maid into a deep water where she presently perished Melanchton tells a story of an Aunt of his that had her hand burnt to a coal by the Devil appearing to her in the likeness of her deceased husband And Pareus relates an example of a Bakers daughter in their countrey possest and pent up in a Cave she had digg'd as in a grave to her dying day Much like unto that poor creature mentioned Mat. 8.28 It is to be feared the Devil that was cast out of the Demoniacks bodies is got into many mens hearts oft casting them into the fire of Lust and water of Drunkenuess Athanasius had a conceit that the Devil may be driven out of a body by repeating the 68. Psalm Possessed with Devils Mat. 4.24 and lunatick Sorrow Secundum Deum 2 Cor. 7.10 Mundum 2 Cor. 7.10 For the first Sin bred sorrow and sorrow being right destroyeth sin as the worm that breeds in the wood eats into it and devours it So that of this sorrow according to God we may say as the Romans did of Pompey the Great Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is the fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother But the sorrow of the world is that which carnal men conceive Act. Mon. fol. 1901. either for the want or loss of good or for the sense or fear of evil Thus Queen Mary who died as some supposed by her much sighing before her death of thought and sorrow either for the departure of King Philip or the loss of Calice or both Thus Nabal sorrowed To these may be added a third An hellish sorrow a desperate grief for sin Virtus nolentium nulla est as was that of Judas Fained or forced grief is nothing worth He grieved and yet miscarried It was squeezed out of him as verjuice out of crabs But Peter went forth to weep bitterly Gods people are commanded to afflict themselves with voluntary sorrow Some shadow of it we have in Epaminondas the Theban General who the next day after the Victory and Triumph went drooping and hanging down his head And being asked why he did so He answered Blur. Yesterday I found my self too much tickled with vainglory therefore I correst my self for it to day But we have a better example in holy David whose heart smote him and made him smart inwardly saith the text 2 Sam. 24.10 after he had numbred the people The soundness and sincerity of sorrow is shewed by the secrecy of it Ille dolet verâ— qui sine teste dolet He grieves with a witness that grieves without a witness Zech. 12.12 Sorrow is a breaker It breaks no bones but it breaks the heart Worldly sorrow breaks the heart to death Godly sorrow breaks the heart to life Sorrow shortneth the spirit of man that is Sorrow over-acted weakens the whole man and leaves him unable to put himself forth in action Joy is the dilatation or widening of the heart much joy makes the spirit free to act So sorrow is a straitner of it it makes a man narrow-hearted and narrow-handed it stops him in his actings or stays him from acting We commonly say Sorrow is dry 'T is so because it is a drier A broken spirit drieth the bones Pro. 17.22 Aristotle in his book of Long and short Life assignes Grief for a chief cause of death All immoderations saith Hippocrates are great enemies to health We have heard of some whose hearts being filled with vexing cares Quia spiritus tristis exiceat â—ssa have filled their heads with gray hairs in a very short time As some have an art to ripen fruits before nature ripens them so the Lord hath a power to hasten old age before nature makes us old Many troubles in one year may make a man as old as many years Grief is like Lead to the soul heavy and cold It sinks downward and carries the soul with it Mans Mind is like the stone Tyrrhenus which so long as it is whole swimmeth but being once broke sinketh David was decrepit with much grief at seventy years of age Jacob attained not to the days of the years of the life of his fathers as being a man of many sorrows And this some think was the reason our Saviour Christ at little past thirty was reckoned to be towards fifty Lam. 3.1 Joh. 8.57 He was the man that had seen affliction Mention is made of a German Captain at the Siege of Buda Anno 1541. Turk Hist. who seeing the dead body of his unfortunate but valiant Son presented to him a sudden and inward grief did so surprise him and strike to his heart that after he had stood a while speechless with his eyes set in his head he suddenly fell down dead The Casuists and Schoolmen affirm sorrow for sin to be the greatest of all sorrows In 1. Conatu 2. Extensione 3. Appreciatione 4. Intensione Though other Mourning coming down hill having Nature to work with it and nothing to hinder it make more noise Mine eye is consumed because of grief Psal 6.7 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12.25 When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me c. Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am in trouble Mine eye is consumed with grief Psal 42.4 yea my soul and my belly For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing My strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed Psal 31.9 10. Desire It is a passion which we have to attain to a good thing which we enjoy not Est voluntarius affectus ut res quae bona existimatur deâ—st vel existat vel possideatur that we may imagine is fitting for us There is a threefold desire 1. Natural 2. Reasonable 3. Spiritual And every one of these by their order are subordinate to another and there is no repugnancie amongst them In Fevers we desire to drink and yet we will not And so in Apoplexies to sleep and yet we will not A mans hand is gangren'd a Chyrurgeon comes to cut it off The
according as the Apostle writes Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Being thus lifted up in the very gall of bitterness there was given him gall and vinegar to drink his last that so the second Adam might bear the punishment of the first Adams offence in tasting the juice of the forbidden fruit Neither did the malice of men fix it self here till they fixed both his hands and his feet to the Cross with nails which assures us of the blotting out of the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us both of the dissolution of all Ceremonial pactions and of the full cancelling of the Bond Moral for so much as concerns the forfeiting that lay upon us This did not satiate their cursed humours Col. 2.14 but a spear must be thrust through his side that we might find an open passage to the Heavenly Jerusalem for our selves cleansed with his blood that cleanseth from all sin and washt away with the water of Regeneration flowing from him as from a bottomless Fountain of eternal life Thus was our Saviour roughly handled in his last gasp till he gave up the ghost Therefore did he come That mundus ex mundo that he might minister and give his life a ransom for many Mat. 20.28 A ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 To be a Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.2 even of them that deny him who bought them and bring justly on themselves swift destruction 2 Pet. 2.1 And such an High-Priest became us When this Oblation was finish'd 2. He made another of the same Body revived and raised from death but sprinkled with his blood This he did in the Heavens in the glorious presence of the Divine Majesty to be a perpetual remembrance and token of the payment of our Ransom of the impetration of our Redemption For Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.11 12. So that he offered up himself first here below after above The first being done ceased For in that he died he died once to sin Rom. 6.10 The second is perpetuated Because he continueth for ever he hath an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 7.24 He accomplish'd the first ut Agnus mactandus as a Lamb to be slain This he doth always at Agnus mactatus as a Lamb slain but quickned again by the Spirit That was consummated in the state of his Humiliation this continueth in the state of his Exaltation both prosecuted in the height of his love for the glory of God and the benefit of man For the first He was sanctified with the unction of the Spirit For the last He was consecrated by his manifold passions anointed with his own blood So that upon Earth he provided himself by the first to do the last in the Heavens being made higher than the Heavens And certainly such an High-Priest became us As this our High-Priest made himself an Offering for sin 1 Tim. 2.5 so made he also and ever makes intercession for transgressors Isa 53.12 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.2 S. Paul calleth him the Mediator betwixt God and man who speaks a good word for us that we might be where he is and as he is free from condemnation Rom. 3.34 Tam recens mâ—bâ— nuâ—c Christus est acsi â—âc borâ fudiffet sanguinem Luth. For saith he Who shall condemn It is Christ which is dead yea or rather which is risen again who is also at the right hand of God making intercession for us and to that end ever liveth Hence will he never fail to do it in all ages because consecrated to iâ— for evermore All accusations are here hereby nonsuited and removed which either men or devils may make against us But lest some should vainly surmise that Christ intercedes for all promiscuously To prevent all such misconception remember what he saith I pray not for the world Joh. 27.9 but for them which thou hast given me Unbelievers and disobedient are excluded from the benefit of his Intercession as well as the merits of his Passion only the Elect faithful that are constant to the death and continue to the end shall be partakers of both And this is the second part of his Priesthood practised by him in the execution of it which is not done in the anguish of his soul or humbly bending of the knee or kissing of the hand as if he were prostrate at the feet of his Father but in confidence of his blood-shed which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel which he presents to his Fathers aspect as a never to be forgotten spectacle of a cursed death voluntarily suffered for the sins of men upon the value and worth whereof depends the whole efficacie of his function by which we have admittance to the Throne of grace and entrance into the place of the blessed Heb. 10.19 Hence Gods favour is established upon us and he not provoked against us Gods compassion is vouchsafed us in the times of distress the Devils power is restrained that he cannot hurt us our faith kept that it may not fail us our sins forgiven he pleading for us protection granted us against the worlds hatred our supplications and suits obtained our imperfections by degrees abolisht our hope of the heavenly glory within the vail made sure unto us needful blessings in the interim confer'd upon us for the Father alwayes heareth the Son and resteth well-pleased in him and through him in us I could wish the men of Rome would rest well pleased in him with whom the Father is well pleased would hear of no other meriting Intercessor but of him whom the Father heareth alwayes nor of any other Redeemer than of him only whom the Father appointed to bring us to him But such is their Sacrilegious bounty that in that office which is bestowed only on the Kings Son they most injuriously would employ the Kings servants A greater blurr cannot be put upon our Saviour to disparage him nor any thing sound more harsh in the ears of well-informed Christians they may not think they may put this off with honour with allowing him to be the only Mediatour of redemption but not of intercession their practice contradicts their speeches for they do not only beg the prayers of the Saints but their merits too to purge away their sins and supply their wants So they part the whole mediation betwixt God and man betwixt Christ and the Saints the Son of God and the sons of men But
again is twofold 1. Essential 2. Personall Gods essential glory is that infinite majesty which is common to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the unity of the divine essence This glory is no other than God himself which the most profound or delicious Oratory of men or Angels cannot sufficiently express Which Moses earnestly desirous to behold but a thing impossible directed his suite unto God in these words I beseech thee shew me thy glory The Personal glory of God Exod. 33 1â— is that which is proper to each person of the Deity For example It is the Fathers glory to be from no other to beget a Son from eternity which is Jesus Christ the Righteous It is the Sons glory that he is coessential with the Father coeternal with the ancient of dayes without beginning without ending that he assumed our humanity to make us partakers of his divinity It is the glory of the holy Ghost that he proceeds from the Father and the Son that his majesty is equal with theirs that he is the sanctifier of the elect that he is the sole supporter and comforter of afflicted soulâ— and that he is with the Father and the Son one and the same God over all blessed for ever Amen The humane glory of God I call that which is ascribed and rendred to him by men with a strong concurrence of all the powers and faculties of soul and body and especially on this ground as a Saviour to sinners a Physician to the sick a Redeemer to the Captives a perfect way to wanderers a Pastour to the lost sheep of the house of Israel life to them that were dead and salvation to them that were condemned was sent from heaven in compassion of our wretched condition appointed the Son of God to be all these unto us For as many saviours were sent from God to save the Israelites from bodily oppression so was Christ from his Father to ease us of the unsupportable burden of our inquities wherewith we were heavily laden As the Prophet was sent with a bunch of figs Physician-like to cure Hezekiah's malady Isa 61. so was Christ with the comfortable ointment of his ever blessed Spirit to mollify our bruises to close our wounds to cleanse our putrifying sores to bind up our broken hearts and with his saving righteousness to heal all our mortal infirmities As Moses was sent from God to deliver the children of Isr ael from the Aegyptian bondage so Christ from his Father to proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to them that are bound and with his stretched out arme to redeem mankind from Satans servitude As the Lord made a way thorow the red sea to bring his People to the land of Canaan so hath he appointed Christ to be the living way through the red sea of whose blood we that wandred in the labrinth of our own wicked imaginations must passe into the land of the living As God sent David to be a shepheard to his people of Israel so did he Christ the Son of David to be that good shepheard that should lay down his life for his sheep the Israel of God As Elisha was sent of God as an instrument to put life into the Shunamites dead child so Christ came to be our life through whom by faith we who were doâ—d in sins and trespasses shall live everlastingly As Jonas was the Lords messenger of Ninevies salvation if they did repent though condemned So Christ the Angel of the Covenant is Gods messenger of eternal salvation to mankind condemned for sin if we believe in him All which the Angels knowing and men obtaining the Angels sung and men may prosecute what they have begun Glory be to God on high If we return not glory to the highest for this unparallel'd and incomparable love of his we may be justly censured for ingrateful miscreants and for ever debar'd of the grace of God and deservedly shut out of the Court of heaven Hazard not therefore your Christian reputation and hopes of glory through neglect of God but be as the glorious Angels making melody in your hearts and giving glory to God on high This glory due to God by man imports two things 1. Pious admiration 2. Religious honour The sending of the Son of God to be manifested in the flesh for our redemption must work in us an admiration of the infinite wisdom of God of his infinite power and of his infinite goodness Admire 1. Gods infinite wisdom who could find out a means to work our salvation when men and Angels saw none it came not into the apprehension of mans shallow brain to contrive how possibly an infinite satisfaction due to God by man Ephes 1.8 could by man be given unto the infinite justice of God Yet his unsearchable wisdom hath brought it about wherein according to the Apostolical verdict he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence For saith Anselm God was made man that both he which had sinned might satisfie and he which was infinite might pay an infinite price Admire 2. Gods infinite power who of two things the divine and humane natures most distant and different in themselves could make one so nearly that one and the same should be God and man Others may admire our Creation but let us admire our Redemption though both acts of infinite power It is admirable that our flesh and our bones were formed of God but yet 't is more admirable that God would become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones It is a mystery out-reaching our capacities wherein is contained the greatest sublimity and the greatest humlity the greatest power and the greatest infirmity the greatest majesty and the greatest frailty What is higher than God lower than man more powerfull than God weaker than man more glorious than God more frail than man Yet God by his alsufficient omnipotency hath conjoyned them together that we might be conjoyn'd to God for ever Admire 3. Gods infinite goodnesse in promising a Saviour to us when in Adam we had lost all goodness And in performing his promise in the fulness of time without the least shadow of variation when yet we were enemies God was then manifested in the flesh See see God himself whose pure eyes cannot indure to behold iniquity did descend to us because we by reason of the weight of our ponderous sins could not ascend to him In which extraordinary act he made an exact demonstration of his unlimited goodness 1. In his mercy 2. In his Justice In his mercy The Creator that was offended assumed the flesh of the creature offending Man had forsaken God and turned to Satan and yet God that was forsaken makes diligent search after the forsaker is not this infinite mercy far exceeding the limits of the finite understanding and thought of man Our nature is become more glorious by Christ in the union than it was deformed by Adam in the transgression We have
the Christ the Son of God is most forward to deny him his former protestations were forgotten his present commodity only thought upon And when the rascal multitude came forth with swords and staves and brought him to the Council all his friends forsook him the Shepherd smitten the sheep were scattered Friends and foes Jews and Gentiles men and women high and low rich and poor Prince and people added something to his Passion to augment his woe The Kings of the earth took counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed The Elders of the people the chief Priests and the Scribes beat their brains together to take away his life They send him to Pilate Pilate sends him to Herod Herod sends him to Pilate again and Pilate sends him to his death Thus was he tossed from post to pillar In all these places he suffered in his good name by blasphemous speeches uttered against him in numbring him amongst transgressors placing him betwixt two thieves In his honor and glory by opprobrious terms and scandalous irrisions and mockings In his substance in that they took away his garment In his soul he suffered sorrow and anguish and great fear surprised his heart In his body he suffered wounds and stripes Insomuch that it may be said Was ever any sorrow like his sorrow Were you present to behold the whole passage of his Passion you might see his head compassed about with a crown of sharp thorns instead of a crown of pure gold you might see his glorious Visage which the very Angels admired contemptuously spitted upon and his cheeks smitten with the palms of their hands You might see his hands and feet fast nailed to the Cross which he himself did carry and his sides thrust thorow with a spear You might see his blood trickling down to the ground and himself through the pangs of death and apprehension of the Fathers wrath lighting upon him for our sins crying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Hereupon saith Bernard O bone Jesu quid tibi est nos peccavimus tu luis opus sine exemplo gratia sine merito charitas sine imo O blessed Saviour what ails thee We sinned and thou by thy blood dost expiate our sins here is a work without example grace without merit and love beyond all measure He felt the wrath of God upon his soul he felt the hand of a sin revenging Judge taking vengeance for the sins of the world upon him then taking away the sin of the world Where you might see also no sense free from passion As for his Touch he was smitten and nails thrust through his flesh as for his Taste he drank unpleasant vinegar and gall as for his Smell he was in an infectuous place the place of dead mens skuls as for his Hearing he was vexed with the uproars and hideous blasphemies of those that blasphemed and derided him as for his Seeing he beheld with grief his Mother and the Disciple that loved him shedding tears for him and observed no noubt in the anguish of his spirit the madness of the actors of his death Hence proceeded that heavenly prayer Father forgive them they now not what they do This was the lamentable case he was in until he gave up his Ghost They gave him no rest no rest in his body nor in his soul until his soul departed Thus he suffered and thus in suffering he died died the most ignominious and cursed death 2 Cor. 5. ult God made him to be sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for cursed it every one that hungeth on a tree Gal. 3.13 Nothing could appease the wrath of the Father but the death of his Son Who died First to satisfie the justice of God for the sin of mankind for he once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 being put to death in the flesh 2. To manifest the truth and reality of the nature assumed to wit his manhood that he was true man and no phantasme 3. That by his death he might free us from the fear of death Forasmuch then as we are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage 4. That by dying corporally for sin and unto sin he might give us an example of dying spiritually to sin for in that he died he died unto sin once Heb. 2.14 15. but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6.10 11. Crux pendent is Cathedra docentis Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow is steps 1 Pet. 2.21.5 That by rising from the dead he might make known the power whereby he overcame death and give unto us a lively hope of our resurrection from the dead And thus much for the sufferings of Christ generally exprest and specially implied The next point is the necessity of the sufferings and death of Christ Christ must needs have suffered It was necessary that Christ should suffer and in suffering die Necessitate decreti by the necessity of Gods Decree and infallible prescience Truly Luke 22.22 the Son of man goeth as it was determined Which determination is more plainly exprest Acts 2.23 Him that is Christ being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain In which respect it was inevitable And albeit he prayed Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me yet he submit shiâ— will to the will of his Father in saying yet not my will but thy will be done It was the eternal will of God and his unchangeable Decree that Christ should suffer for us it was foreordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 And although his will was that that cup might passe over him that so his life might be prolonged yet consider this vitam appetit ut homo saith Theophilact Theophil in Luke 22.42 he desired life as he was man yet as an obedient child ever correspondent to his Fathers desire adds this withal not my will but thy will be done which is not seperate from my divine will saith the same Father It was necessary necessitate obligationis by the necessity of a promise whereby God was obliged and bound to see it actually performed Promises are a due debt Promissa cadunt in debitum That God promised this it is apparant by that speech of his the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head and
God no man all spirit no body And besides it argues an impossibility for no creature can be changed into the Creatonr no finite body into an infinite and eternal substance It sufficeth us to know that Christ's soul and body were conditioned according to the description given when he entred into his glory And thus much of the person exalted Christ who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despising the shame Hebr. 12.2 and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God We are next to consider Christ's exaltation the degrees of which are threefold the first degree is his Resurrection answering to the first degree of his humiliation which was his death The second degree is his ascension answering the second of his humiliation which was his burying The third degree which is the height of his exaltation is his sitting at the right hand of God opposed to the lowest of his humiliation which was his descâ—nt into hell his remaining in the state of the dead By these degrees Christ entred into his glory My text limits me to the first degree of his exaltation which is his Resurrection from the dead It was a cruel conflict that Christ had upon the crosse he had his own Father against him taking vengeance upon him for the sins of the world he had Satan against him who out of a malicious disposition plotted and attempted his ruine he had the world against him in bruing their hands and their hearts in his blood his blood be upon us and our children say the Jewes The chief Priests the Scribes the common people the souldiers bandied themselves together against the Lord and against his annointed So close was their pursuing of him that indeed he received the foile they pierced his hands and his feet with nailes and his sides with a speare in the end they ended his dayes the height of their malice But not long after he reviv'd for the third day he rose again which he did for his own greater glory for his and our enemies more shamefull overthrow and for his disciples firmer consolation This was foretold by himself this was testified by men and Angels and is beleeved that he rose the third day Our faith in this is underpropt not only by the testimony of Angels and men Luk. 24.46 but also by Scripture and Arguments Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day By Arguments containing manifest demonstrations of the truth of his resurrection drawn from 1. His body 2. His soulâ— In that which is drawn from his dody Christ doth declare three things 1. That his body was a true real substantial and sollid dody And not framed onely in the imagination or compos'd all of an airy substance Feele and see saith he a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 2. That his body was a humane body by shewing how that he had the true and perfect effigies and expressions or a man to be seen by the eye 3. That it was the very same numerical body which he hâ—d before by laying open to the view the grievous wounds which he suffered in his body Behold my hands and my feet that it is my self The wounds in his body discover the naked truth of his resurrection In the Argument which is deducted from his soul reunited to his body his resurrection is proved and that by the operations and works of the threefold life proceeding from the soul whereof man is partaker 1. By the works of the nutritive life in that he did eat and drink with them 2. By the works of the sensitive life his answers to his disciples giving evidences of his hearing his discerning them from others of his seeing 3. By the works of the intellective life in his discourses and explications of the profound mystery of the crosse Moreover the time when he rose was the third day He lay not dead in the grave three compleat dayes under the dominion of death for then he should not have risen till the fourth day So that he was but one day and two pieces of two dayes in the grave for he was buried in the evening before the Sabbath and rose in the morning the next day after the Sabbath The Friday evening he was buried the sunday morning he rose again which was the first day of the week and is now our Sabbath observed in memory of his glorious rising who is the Sun of Righteousness from death unto life And as in the first Day of the first World Light was commanded to shine out of darkness upon the deeps So in the first Day of this new World made new by Christ this glorious Sun after its Eclipse come to its period appeared in the brightness of his glory and gives light for ever to those that sit in darkness and dispels those clouds of obscurity that were under the Old Testament from the Christian world So long he rested in the grave as three days yet not full for a demonstraiton of the truth of his death And no longer that his body might not see corruption For had he risen presently we might doubt of the truth of his death Had he remained longer in the grave or unto the end of the world his body would according to the course of nature be corrupted and we might doubt of the truth of his Divinity which required for the manifestation of his power a quick resurrection of his body and a reuniting of the soul thereunto To confirm therefore our faith in both He rose the third day from the dead to enter into his glory As for the power by which he was raised it was not by any other than his own Though this act be attributed to the Father Act. 2.24 yet it is his power too For whatsoever is the Father's is his because He and the Father are one It was the power of his Divinity Superas evadere ad auras Hic labor hoc opus est that effected this great work Destroy this temple and within three days I will raise it again Joh. 2.19 I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again cap. 10.18 Secundum Divinitatis virtutem corpus resumpsit animam quam deposuerat anima corpus resumpsit quod dimiserat sic Christus propriâ virtute resurrexit saith Aquinas According to the mighty working of the Godhead his body reassumed the soul which it did resigne and the soul that body out of which it parted and thus Christ by his own proper power did rise from the dead For indeed it was not possible that he should be holden of it Act. 2.24 for then should he not enter into his glory Here come two points occasioned by these words to be treated of Viz. 1. The Necessity of Christ's Resurrection 2. The Ends thereof Of the Necessity of his Resurrection As it was necessary that Christ should
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 Eâ— 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 consubâ—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 taâ—t Ananiâ—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
Idolatry For whatsoever is undertaken for Religion sake as an honor unto God beside the command of God is plain Idolatry therefore altogether unlawful Again All religious distinction of place is taken away once Christ is come The Veil of the Temple is rent in the midst Worship God in holiness and 't is now no matter where we worship God Paul and Silas prayed and praised God at midnight in the prison 1 Tim. 2.8 Act. 16. I will therefore that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting Pray every where for every where where thou prayest God is present by his grace He is over thee he is under thee he is before thee and behind thee he is on every side of thee We cannot say now as once Jacob said Surely God is in this place and I knew it not but Surely God is in this place and every place and I know it and I know that therefore I must worship God in this and every place He that thinks otherwise is procul à Jove far from God Where two or three are gathered together in my name there will I be in the midst of them saith our Saviour In medio virtus The power of the most High will stand in the centre of them that are gathered in his name be where it will God will not contend for place Bring him a good heart any where and it 's all he requires at our hands My son give me thy heart It is likewise unlawful in the End because going to the earthly Jerusalem or Rome or other places ordained for the like Superstition by Antichrist they think to merit the Heavenly Jerusalem But I am assured they are never the neerer it by going thither or any other the like place These Vagabonds for so I may term them that run from place to place in that manner steal from Christ to adde to Superstition Life eternal is in the hands of Christ and therefore his gift And they going another way to foot out their salvation foot it the wrong way for Christ is the onely way Joh. 14.6 I am the way the truth and the life Furthermore It is unlawful because it is done to the Reliques and Images of dead men They think to live by the dead they shall have but a dead life on 't Thus while they go to do homage unto the dead they rob the living God of his honor by the way For they expect a remission of their sins by the intercession and merits of those dead whose Reliques or Images they trudge so to adore And whereas they run to the custom of the Church it is very false the true Church of God never used it For Pilgrimage undertaken to the Reliques of the Dead was not used in the Primitive Church until three hundred years after Christ and that unto Images six hundred years only by some but both condemned for dead services Lastly It is unlawful because it is profitable neither to body or soul neither of them that wander thus with aking heels nor others it tends no way to Christian edification there is no goodness in it Therefore such fruitless trees are to be rooted out of Gods growing Temple And thus much for the false doctrine of Papists grounded on these words but falsly but idly I went up to Hierusalem Their other doctrine is That Peter had the Supremacie of Paul because the Text saith he went to see Peter Here we may observe the absurd dealing of the Adversary who to patch up their ragged coat of Popery do fain quidlibet ex quolibet as if to be visited doth argue a Primacie And here the Rhemists as one calls them Gagling Geese make a distinction of Visitation He went not up say they to see him in a vulgar manner but for respect and honor of his person and of duty and as Chrysostom noteth the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to import to behold him as men behold a thing or person of name excellency or majesty Chrysost These are their very words Indeed that he came of honor and reverence to him may be easily granted but every reverence argues not a superiority for reverence saving their reverences may be done to equals They say again he did it as his duty but there is no such matter This can be as soon denied as affirmed He came about his office and authority in preaching For he was equal in honor unto him saith a Father and again saith the same Chrysost That blessed man went not to learn any thing of him nor to receive any correction but only to see him and honour him with his presence Ambrose tells us Ambros he went to see Peter for affection of Apostleship that Peter might know that the same licence was given unto him that he himself had received and hence he is called his Fellow-Apostle and had a Fellowship in the Colledge of the Apostles as well as Peter As for that place so often quoted by them Mat. 16. Thou art Peter and upon this rock c. It proves not a superiority in another above the rest of the Apostles For as one saith of that place All the Logicians in the world cannot conclude in lawful Syllogism out of the words of that Chapter That any greater authority was granted to Peter than to every one of the Apostles A primacie of order and promptness of faith cannot be denied him but none of dignity And here the Rhemists again play upon the name Peter signifying a Rock a Stone hence they make him to be the Foundation of the Church and therefore the Principal Apostle If they mean his Person they are far deceived If his Confession Thou art Christ the Son of the everliving God we agree Hence saith one on these words Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church calling a Rock as I think saith he the unmoveable Faith of the Disciple Again If they say that he is the whole Foundation away with that blasphemy they take away Christ the onely Foundation for stedfastness I say for stedfastness for this Foundation Peter did shake fearfully when he denied Christ and he had been ground to powder and fifted as wheat had not Christ prayed for him and make the rest stand for cyphers The Apostles are pillars of the Church and what dignity hath one pillar in a Church more than another Not onely Peter but James and John were called pillars of the Church Gal. 2.9 And when James Cephas that is Peter and John who seemed to be pillars Again the twelve are called twelve foundations Rev. 21.14 Speaking of the new Hierusalem the wall of the City had twelve foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Hence saith Tertullian Tertul. all the Apostles were stones So might Papists say were they not stones Thus we see that Peter had not a Monarchical preheminence of honour above the Apostles Therefore not above Paul
ye not then defiled with the contaminating and for did customs of the world but as ye are separated from all others to an holy emploiment so do not ye degenerate but let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorifie your Father which is in heaven Know that the eys of all men are fixt upon you If covetousness pride luxury drunkenness or any other vice reign in any of you if any of you be of a dissolute life whose conversation is not ruled by the doctrine ye teach ye are but miserable creatures Be assured Pope Innoc. lib. 3. de S. Altar myst that Quisquis sacris indumentis ornatur honestis moribus non 〈◊〉 quanto venerabilior apparet hominibus tanto indignior redditur apud Deum saith one God contemns him and will reward him according to his work For It is not every one that cries Lord Lord that shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but only they that do the will of my Father saith Christ Take heed therefore to your lives If you preach well and live ill you do but build with one hand and pull down with another And thus much for the Caveat as it respects our selves Now of the Caveat briefly as it respects the Church of God Take heed to all the flock c. A Minister hath the custody of many souls and if any perish through his means he is liable to Gods judgments As therefore we come provided with Knowledge so with a resolution to propagate and diffuse it Knowledge in the best of us not communicated to the building up of the Church in holiness is like costly materials prepared for the erecting of some sumptuous building yet to no use the loss whereof is irrecoverable It stands us upon therefore to be instant in season and out of season to be Instructers of the flock committed to our charge both in doctrine and manner of living The reason hereof rendred in my Text is substantial in that we are made Overseers of the flock The word interpreted Overseer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hence saith one Nomen Episcopi plus sonat oneris quà m honoris But I take it here in a larger signification than it is commonly used All Ministers are Overseers of that Flock the charge of whose souls is committed to them They are their Spiritual Tutors unfolding unto them the secret mysteries of Divine knowledge They must inform them if ignorant reform them if erroneous reprove them if dissolute confirm them if weak in the faith They are called Watchmen to watch for their souls salvation that they be not carried away with every wind of dectrine that they run not into absurd enormities but that they hold fast the profession of the faith in holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives They are called Pastors whose calling is to use all diligence to feed their flock and protect them from eminent mischiefs by a careful foresight or present needful power The Symbole of this say some is the Bishops Crosier the Spiritual Shepherds staff which is acutus in fine ad pungendum pigros rectus in medio ad regendum debiles retortus in summo ad colligendum vagos sharp in the end to prick up the slothful and make them nimble right in the midst to govern the weak but crooked in the top like a hook to gather the dispersed or such as go astray They are called Gods Stewards whose office is faithfully to provide all things necessary for his family They are called the Light of the world whose property is to discover things hid in darkness They by their knowledge dispel the clouds of ignorance by their holy conversation the works of darkness All things that are discovered are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light hence they shew the house of Judah their sins Eph. 5 13. and the house of Jacob their thrnsgressions They are called Stars Fixt in the right hand of God tanquam in firmamento suo as in their heaven Stars have their light from the Sun so you not originally from your selves but derivatively from the Sun of Righteousness Your knowledge proceeds from the revelation of Jesus Christ who was in the bosom of the Father and must be communicated to the world And to this end they move perpetually about the world so ought you about the Church that all therein may be partakers of the light of life Wonderful are the effects and powerful the operation that the Celestial bodies have by their influences upon the Elements and upon those things compacted by them So questionless the effects wrought by the powerful preaching of the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation by such whose conversation is in heaven as Divine stars are far superior unto them The operation I am sure more effectual because more spiritual For as the Stars beget life in things void of life and cause vegetation by their heat So they by their precepts beget saith in those that are dead in sins and trespasses which is the soul of the soul by which we live unto God for Faith cometh by hearing and the just lives by his faith Furthermore by the propagation of the Gospel by preaching the Church of God grows and all therein as tender plants and trees of righteousness bring forth the fruits of eternal life Lastly The fixt Stars candem sempet inter 〈…〉 disstantiam they keep the same proportion of distance to each other The like harmony must be among us that all of us together may declare the glory of God They are called Angels to whom God hath given charge over his people to protect them Heb. 1. ult For as they are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation so are Ministers wherefore saith the Prophet How beautiful are the feet of those that bring the glad tidings of peace What shall I say more They are called Fathers All these names import labour in them to whom they are ascribed So that great must be the pains that we must take with the Flock the Church of God over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers A word to the people I beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake 1 Thess 5.13 Apud Graecos majori in honore babebantur Philosophi quà m Oratores Illi enim rectè vivendi c. Lactantius The Grecians gave greater respect to their Philosophers than to their Orators because these taught them how to speak but those how to live well And sâ—ffer the word of exhortation Heb. 13.22 God must send ere man can go And here is Gods care of man his love to man God comes not in his own proper person He speaks not in his own proper voice So great is the Majesty of the one that