in raiment white garments as the Angel does ver 3. or a long white garment as St. Marks Angel Chap. xvi 5. That 's neither a fashion nor a colour to be afraid of for any that seek Iesus which was crucified or hope to see the face and enjoy the company of Holy Angels though some now a days are much scar'd with such a garment when the Angels or Messengers of the Churches appear in it But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear it not 'T is but an innocent Robe no more hurt in it than in the Angels that wore it 'T is the Robe of Innocence and the Resurrection No reason to fear it Fear not ye not this bright appearance No nor 2. that black one neither of the ghastly countenances of the amazed Souldiers They alass are run and gone There was no looking for them upon him they had crucified They indeed had reason to be afraid that the earth that trembled under them should gape and swallow them that the grave they kept being now miraculously opened might presently devour them that he whom they had crucified now coming forth with power and splendour might send them down immediately into eternal darkness for their villany Nay the very innocent brightness and whites in which the Angel then appear'd might easily strike into them a sad reflection and terror of their own guilt and confound them with it and I am afraid when the Angels long white Garment does so still 't is to such guilty Souls and Consciences as these Souldiers that it does so such who either betrayed their Lord to death or were set to keep him there Such I confess may fear even the Garments of Innocence that others wear But they that seek Christ crucified may be as bold as Lions Non timent Mauri jacula nec arcus nec venenatis gravidas sagittis Christe pharetras Thy Discirage ples O B. Iesu now thou art risen will fear nothing nor Darts nor Spears nor Bows nor Arrows nor any force or terror any face or power of man whatever And ye good innocent souls ye good women fear not ye your own innocence will guard you these Souldiers shall do you no hurt their shaking hands cannot wield their weapons nor dare they stand by it they are running away with all speed to save themselves So 2. Fear not them Nor fear 3. the quaking earth that seems ready either to sink them or sinks under them 't is now even setling upon its foundation The Lord of the whole earth has now once again set his foot upon it and it is quiet and the meek such as seek Christ they shall now inherit it But though the earth were mov'd and though the hills were carried into the midst of the Sea yet God is our hope the Lord is our strength and we will not therefore fear says David Psal. xlvi 1 2. No though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same do earth what it can to fright us God is a present help in trouble Why then should ye be afraid Fear not No not lastly the very grave it self that King of Terrors That is now no longer so to you Though Tyrants should now tear your bodies into a thousand pieces grind your bones to power scatter your ashes in the air and disperse your dissolved atomes through all the winds no matter this Angel and his company are set to wait upon your dust and will one day come again and gather it together into Heaven Nothing can keep us thence nothing separate us nor life nor death says the Apostle Rom. viii 38. Fear nothing then at all Not ye however For ye seek Iesus which was crucified that 's an irrefragable argument why you should not fear And such give me leave to make it before I handle it as an encouragement of our endeavours an encouragement 1. against our fears before I consider it as an encouragement to our work And indeed Ye who dare seek Iesus that was crucified amidst Swords and Spears and Graves of what can you be afraid He that dreads not death needs fear nothing He that slights the torments of the Cross and despises the shame of it He that loves his Lord better than his life that dares own a crucified Saviour and a profession that is like to produce him nothing but scorn and danger and ruine He cannot fear Illum si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae The World it self though it should fall upon him cannot astonish him Nothing so undaunted as a good Christian as he that truly seeks Iesus that was crucified And there 's good reason for it He that does so is about a work that will justifie it self He needs not fear that He whom he seeks is Iesus one who came to save him from his sins he needs not fear them This Iesus being crucified has by his dying conquer'd death O death where is thy sting He needs not fear that And though die we must yet the Grave will not always hold us no more than it did him He is not here nor shall we be always here not always lie in dust and darkness no need to fear that Nay he is risen again and we by that so far from fear that we know we shall one day rise also For the Chambers of Death ever since the time that Christ lay in them lie open for a return are but places of retreat frome noise and trouble places for the Pilgrims of the earth to visit only to see where the Lord lay Thus is every Comma in the Text an Argument against all fears that shall at any time stop our course in seeking Jesus that was crucified And having thus out of the words vanquisht your fears I am now next to encourage your endeavours For I know ye seek Iesus c. I know it says the Angel That is I would not only not have you be afraid of what you are about as if you were doing ill but I commend you for it for 't is well that you seek Iesus which was crucified you need not be afraid you do well to do it Yea but how dost thou know it Thou fair Son of light that they seek him Alas 't is easie to be known by men and womens outward deportment whom they seek Let us but examine how these women sought and we shall see 1. The come here to his Sepulchre they not only follow'd him to his grave a day or two ago the common office we pay to a departed friend but to day they come again to renew their duties and repeat their tears Nor do they do it slightly or of course They 2. do it early very early St. Mar. xvi 2. as if they were not could not be well till they had done it So early that it was scarce light nay while it was yet dark says St. Iohn they thought they could not be too soon with him they loved They 3. came on with courage
in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Godhead in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his manhood 2. the unity of his person in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. His Offices in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His eternal generation in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his temporal in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly of our way to behold him and our duty when we see him How to obtain this glorious sight of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of salvation and how to entertain it Of which that I may speak with reverence and you hear with profit Let us pray c. I begin with that which we all desire and hope to end Salvation and first with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give me leave to do so in the sense of Prophane Authors It will fit the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were dies salutares Festivals for some famous deliverances among them And may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then be this great Festival of the Nativity of Salvation this happy day which come about by the circling of the year expects now the solemnities of our joys and thanksgivings You see the day it self is in the Text and now we have seen that let 's look into the occasion of it what 't is that makes it Holy-day Something seen or done upon it what 's that Salutare tuum says the Text a Saviour seen and a salvation wrought nay this seen too for viderunt oculi to both if they be two There is but one word for both and it may be they may be but one However distinguish them we will for a while though we unite them in the upshot Salvation Simeon might with as much ease have call'd him Saviour but that he thought too little You would have blam'd his eye-fight had he seen no more Saviours there have been many Moses and Ioshua and Ieptha and Samson I cannot tell you how many and they have brought salvation in their times and sav'd their people but none of all was ever made salvation but this days Saviour who is made unto us righteousness and salvation Made to us is that all nay is it in himself Other Saviours when they have saved others themselves they could not save They themselves did still stand in need of being sav'd Christ needs none other but himself He is Salvation no Saviour so but he And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither Salvation neither for male only nor female only but both of the Neuter gender Neither male nor female but all one in Christ Iesus 2. Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Feminine not a weak Feminine Salvation but a strong firm one the mighty strength of his right hand 3. Not a Feminine Salvation not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest we should fondly look for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Virgin Mother Not she but the Virgins Son the Holy Ghost as I may say afraid of Salvatrix mea Salve Redemptrix before ever Christianity dreamt of that Sacriledge But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is yet more salvation with an Emphasis with an Article This Salvation Many Saviours and Salvations too without doubt had aged Simeon seen in the large circuit of his years without a Nunc dimittis but no sooner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no sooner this but he grows weary of the world his life grows tedious to him he would be going What means this hasting to his Grave when he folds salvation in his arms Why this it is that gives it a pre-eminence above all beside Death now it self is conquer'd and now first to die is to be saved Salvation not only from Death but from the terrours of it Salvation is a deliverance a deliverance is from some evil of sin or punishment To be deliver'd from punishment be it but the loss of goods of liberty or health is a kind of Salvation and if the loss be great we are deliver'd from the salvation great but if the punishment stretch it self beyond the limits of fading time if it be to be extended through eternity the deliverance then great without question well deserves the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be deliver'd from punishment and eternal punishment is no small matter beyond all humane power yet from sin is far beyond it If we be not sav'd from that 't is but an incomplete a partial salvation from the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salvum facere to make all whole again to heal the wounds of sin by the plasters of mercy to restore a man to his lost health his lapsed justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 integrum facere to give him health Thy saving health O Lord. Adam lost it in him we all and every day we lose it still We confess as much morning and evening There is no health in us And what is it we gain then by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we so soon are at a loss yes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is salvum conservare too to keep us well when we are so Good God in what need stand we of thy salvation We sin we are punisht we are freed we rise again we slip and fail and fall again to deliver us to restore us to preserve us as it requires so it makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an emphatical an exceeding great salvation Nor is this all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy salvation from sickness or imprisonment or poverty or death man may sometime save us yet not so but that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 's too God by man But deliver us from the lowest prisons from a Hell of miseries sin and its attendants and keep us upright and entire 't is only God-man can do it That 's Gods peculiar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His wonderful salvation His by propriety It had no other power but the strength of his own right arm to bring this mighty thing to pass It had no other motive then his own immense love and goodness to effect it We were in no case to deserve it profest enemies we had nothing in us to make it ours but that it might be wholly his Thy salvation Yet thy salvation why so What can God be saved Thy salvation our salvation rather yes both Thine actively ours passively Thou savest we saved And may it not be His passively too Thy salvation Thou thy self saved Thy Promises thy Truth which is thy self thy Mercy which is thy self thy Iustice which is thy self sav'd from the censure of unjust man by preparing him a Saviour Man had almost thought God had broke his word now that 's sav'd Some still will not let his mercy be sav'd but destroy it with justice and in destroying that turn justice into gall and wormwood ruine that too by denying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal Saviour It was time high time to tell us from Heaven
it with the highest hand and needs not fear a contradiction or a power to controul or punish him why he varnishes over his wickedness with false colours and glosses all his actions either with the name of Piety and Religion Reformation and Purity Justice and Integrity Conscience and I know not what Why he sometimes excuses it with necessity sometimes extenuates it with infirmity sometimes pleads ignorance false information or mistake sometimes makes one pretence sometimes another Does he not evidently and plainly tell you by so doing he is even asham'd of the things that he has done though he bear it out with all the confidence he can He cannot utterly cast off shame though he has done shamefac'dness We may confidently say to him Those very things thou even seem'st to glory in thou art really no other than asham'd of Now there is a three-fold shame a natural a vertuous and a penal shame a shame that naturally and even against our wills attends every unhandsome action A godly shame 2. that should always follow upon it And 3. a shame that will else e're long pursue it The first or natural is that which through the modesty of nature not yet habituated to the impudence of wickedness rises e're we are aware from the guilt and foulness of sin either discovered or feared to be so That 's the reason that the eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twi-light Job xxiv 15. to hide his reproach That the Drunkard us'd in former times though now grown gallant on it to be drunk in the night 1 Thess. v. 7. being asham'd as civility went then to be seen so disguised in the day That the Heretick and Schismatick us'd in the Apostles times though now grown confident to come creeping into Widows houses and hide themselves behind Curtains and Aprons asham'd of their Schisms and new Doctrines at the first 2 Tim. iii. 6. That still the Thief by night and the sly Cheat and covetous Extortioner by underhand dealing in the day strive to conceal the designs and practices which only night and darkness are thought fit to cover or give a tolerable shadow too Even our vanities within a while make us asham'd of them We are within a few days in a huge confusion to be seen in our finest Clothes and newest Fashions we were the other day so proud of rather naked than in a fashion that has another grown upon it Indeed when any of our sins great or little take hold upon us then as the Prophet David professes we are not able to look up Psal. xl 15. so asham'd they make us None but Absolom none but the wickedest sons of Rebellion sin upon the house top at noon day all the people looking on Yet even for all that there must be a Tent even for such as he some thin Veil or other some Silk or linen Scarf or Curtain to cover his wickedness in the upshot 2 Sam. xvi 22. So natural a fruit and companion is shame to any sin or sinner Sin is more than sin when shame is gone when that is lost 2. Yet if so be this kind of modest shame should be laid asleep a while through the custom and habit of a sin there is a second sort of shame that must be thought on the shame that accompanies repentance Sin must have repentance and repentance will have shame Yea what shame what or how great I cannot tell you but shame it must work if it be true Shame of our ingratitude to God shame of our unhandsomness to men shame of the disparagement we have done our nature shame of the dishonour we have done our selves in committing things so foul so brutish so unreasonable this the properest of the three shames we mentioned to this place which it seems the Romans were here come to and is a business we are obliged to to repent us and be ashamed of our sins to be ashamed and blush with Ezra to lift up our faces because our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses grown up into the Heavens Ezra ix 6. 3. And if this we be not there is another-gates shame will overtake us shame 3. and confusion of face if we be not ashamed of our sins we shall e're long be ashamed for them come to shame and dishonour by them such a kind of shame as the Prophet Isaiah speaks of Isa. i. 29. Ye shall be ashamed of the Oaks which ye have desired and ye shall be confounded for the gardens which ye have chosen your very enemies shall laugh you to scorn the very Oaks and Trees shake their heads at you in derision your Gardens bring you forth no other fruit All that pass by shall wag their heads and hiss at you Ier. xix 8. Ye shall be a curse and an astonishment and an hissing and a reproach to all Nations Ier. xxix 18. and a shameful spewing shall be on your glory Hab. ii 16. To this our ill courses will bring us at the last and yet to worse even to death too For the end of those things is death that 's the third Particular the third Argument against sin the mischief and damage of it in the end and comes next to be consider'd III. A sad end truly and but sorry wages for all the pains and drudgry that sins put us to St. Paul here thinks it not worth the name of fruit Yet what fruit sin brings if you will call it fruit 't is unto death Rom. vii 5. But if there were any other death so nigh at heels would devour it all Sin when it is finished when 't is at the height compleat and perfected it bringeth forth death says St. Iames i. 15. that 's the end God knows And a threefold death it brings a temporal a spiritual and an eternal death For the first Thou shalt die the death was threatned to it before it came into the world Gen. ii 17. And no sooner came it but death came by it death by sin Rom. v. 12. And it past thence upon all men too All men ever since have been subjected to it All have died and all must die for that one sin Ever after that first sinful morsel all are become like the beasts that perish Psal. xlix 12. So that the wisest of men had much ado to distinguish between their ends Eccles. iii. 19 20. As the one dieth says he so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that a man hath no preheminence above a beast All go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again Only indeed a little after ver 21. he perceives a kind of glimmering as it were of the humane Spirits going upward yet with this lessening for all that of who knoweth it who can certainly demonstrate and distinguish and define the difference so deeply has sin engaged us unto death that there is no escaping and the shadows of it are so great that there is no discovering of differences in the
Grave between the ashes of a man and of a Beast 2. But there is 2. a death before this a death of the soul before the death of the body and the much worser of the twain The teeth of Sin says the Son of Syrach are as the teeth of a Lion slaying the souls of men Ecclus. xxi 2. the very souls The separation of the body from the soul which is the temporal death is but a trifle to the separation of the soul from God which is the spiritual This sin brings upon the soul in the very act if it rather be not it it self the very act of sin commits the murther and slays the soul whilst it is in doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Apostle of the voluptuous Widow that lives in sin or pleasure she is dead whilst she is alive 1 Tim. v. 6. A meer walking carkase a sinner is a meer motion and engine without life and spirit when Gods Spirit and Grace as by sin it does is departed from him The fall of the body into the dust of the Grave is nothing so bad as the fall of the soul into the dirt of sin When our souls are but once deprived of Grace and Goodness Gods presence so taken from us they do but wither and dwindle and die away and we only walk like so many Ghosts among the Graves in the shades of night and darkness Did we but consider or understand how miserably the soul crawls along in this condition when the eternal Spirit is departed from it seal'd up as it were by her transgressions in the grave of a customary wickedness adding still one iniquity to another wholly insensible of any good as the dead body we would say the natural death were nothing like it the Grave but a bed of rest and sleep whilst sin were the very torments of death it self Nay the very pangs and horrors of death that make way to it but little flea-bitings to the stings and terrors of Conscience that often follow upon our sins upon the loss of Gods favour and presence And yet there is a third death worse than both these eternal Death from the two former we may rise again The dust will one day breath again and the soul after the departure of Gods Spirit may again retrive it and recover but once within the regions of eternal death and there for ever Body lost and Soul lost and God lost for ever An end indeed without an end an end of good but no end of evil where the worm is ever dying yet ever gnawing the fire dark as the most dismal night yet ever burning the body eternally separated from all the comforts of the soul yet the soul ever in it the soul for all eternity cast out of the land of the living separated irreconcilably from Gods presence the only fountain of joy and life and being and yet continually and everlastingly feeling the horrors of this intolerable parting from him Go ye cursed into everlasting fires is the sentence long since past upon the ungodly and the sinner by our Blessed Saviour St. Matth. xxv 41. The very Heathen notwithstanding the ignorance they were in they were not ignorant of this that they that commit such things are worthy of death so says the Apostle Rom. i. 32. And be the sinner who it will and be his way never so plain and easie never so specious yet at the end thereof is the pit of Hell says the son of Syrach Eâ—clus xxi 10. He that now promises himself any better end of his sins or sinful courses he that flatters and feeds himself with any other end of his Ambition or his Treason of his Faction or his Sedition of his Covetousness or his Sacriledge of his uncleanness or his unjustice or any other sin I name no more for I leave every one to reckon up his own he that flatters himself I say with any other end of any of them to make himself forget this does but deceive himself and fool away his soul beyond recovery Here 's all the fruit he is like to get the only end he will certainly find at last everlasting Death an end without an end without any thing in life to sweeten the approaches of death without any thing in death fruit or leaves to garnish up the Chambers of the Grave or any bud of hope to allay the misery and sadness of it And we need no other witness of all this neither of the little or no fruit nor of the great and horrid shame nor of the vast and miserable ruine that comes of sin but our own selves What had ye says our Apostle ye can shew no fruit ye are now asham'd and ye cannot be ignorant that death is coming on I here refer it to you say what you can in the behalf of it I desire none other witnesses nor judges than your selves What fruit had ye then in those things whereof you are now asham'd tell me if you can IV. Indeed there is none can tell so well as the sinner can himself what he has gotten by his sin whether we consider him as one reflecting upon his ways only as a person of reason should or else as a Christian will For 1. let any of us as men of reason lay together the weary steps the hard adventures the vexatious troubles the ordinary disappointments the impertinent visits the thoughtful nights the busie days the tumultuous uproars of our fears our jealousies our hopes our despairs the unworthy condiscentions the base disparagements the dishonourable enterprizes that a lust that a humour that a vanity puts us to or puts upon us and then compare them with the lightness the shortness the unprofitableness the unsatisfactoriness the eternal shame and confusion we yet after all purchase with all that toil and we must both needs confess that we have done brutishly and unreasonably and cannot but be asham'd we have so unman'd our selves and betrayed the very essence and glory of our nature not done like men But 2. let us renew the same reflections and view them over again by the light of Grace look upon our selves as Christians thus wretchedly betraying our God for a Lust Christ for an Interest our Religion for a Fancy our obedience for a Humour our Charity for a Ceremony our Peace for a Punctilio our duty to God and man for a little vain applause of peradventure ungodly men our Innocence for Dirt and Pleasure our eternal Glory and Salvation for Toys and Trifles and will we not without more ado confess we are asham'd infinitely asham'd of it Hear but those brave ranting blades those gallant sinners Wisdom v. 8. what they say themselves What hath pride profited us say they or what good have riches with our vaunting brought us as if in sum they had said what have all our sins procured us Why all those are passed away like a shadow ver 9. and we are consumed in our own wickedness ver 13. Now indeed though
there too late they begin to talk like men to speak reason The Christian penitent after he has run the course of sin and is now returning talks somewhat higher calls it a Prison the Stocks the Dungeon the very nethermost Hell thinks no words bad enough to stile it by We need not put any such upon the rack for this confession they go mourning and sighing it all the day long they tell you sensibly by their tears and blushes by their sad countenances and down-cast looks by their voluntary confessions their willing restraints now put upon themselves their pining punishing afflicting of their souls and bodies their wards and watches now over every step lest they should fall again that never were any poor souls so gull'd into a course so vain so unprofitable so dishonourable so full of perplexities so fruitful of anxieties so bitter so unpleasant as sin has been nor any thing whereof they are so much asham'd No fruit of all you see even our selves being judges And yet I will not send you away without some fruit or other somewhat after all this that may do you good For methinks if sin have no better fruits if wickedness come no better off we may first learn to be asham'd and blush to think of it be ashamed of sin We may 2. learn to beat it off thus at its first assaults What thou sin thou lust what fruit shall I have in thee what good shall I reap of thee Do I not see shame attend thee and death behind thee I am asham'd already to think upon thee away away thou impudent solicitress I love no such fruit I love no such end And if 3. we be so unhappy as to be at any time unawares engaged in any sin let us strike off presently upon the arguments of the Text. For why should we be so simple to take a course that will not profit to take pains to weave a web that will not cover us to plant trees that will yield no fruit to range after fruit that has no pleasure to court that which has no loveliness If we can expect nothing from our sins as you have heard we cannot why do we sweat about them if they bring home nought but shame why are we not at first asham'd to commit them if they end in death why will ye die O foolish people and unwise Lastly you that have led a course of sin and are yet perhaps still in it sit down and reckon every one of you with himself what you have gotten Imprimis So much cost and charges Item so much pains and labour so much care and trouble so much loss and damage so much unrest and disquiet so much hatred and ill-will so much disparagement and discredit so many anxieties and perplexities so many weary walks so much waiting and attendance so many disappointments and discouragements so many griefs and aches so many infirmities and diseases so many watches and broken sleeps so many dangers and distresses so many bitter throbs and sharp stings and fiery scorchings of a wounded Conscience so much and so much and so much misery all for a few minutes of pleasure for a little white and yellow dirt for a feather or a fly a buzze of honour or applause a fansie or a humour for a place of business or vexation sum'd up all in air and wind and dust and nothing Learn thus to make a daily reflection upon your selves and sins But after all these remember lastly 't is Death eternal Death everlasting misery Hell and damnation without end that is the end of sin that all this everlasting is for a thing that 's never lasting a thing that vanishes often in its doing all this death for that only which is the very shame of life and even turns it into death and surely you will no longer yield your members your souls and bodies to iniquity unto iniquity but unto righteousness unto holiness So shall ye happily comply with the Apostles argument in the Text and draw it as he would have you to the head do what he intends and aims at by it and by so doing attain that which he desires you should make your selves the greatest gainers can be imagined gain good out of evil glory out of shame life out of death all things out of nothing eternal life everlasting glory Which c. A SERMON ON THE Fourth Sunday in Lent I COR. ix 24. So run that you may obtain THat Christianity is a Race and Heaven the Goal and we all of us they that are to run is an ordinary Allegory in Scripture and Sermons which you have none of you but heard And that in this Race all that run do not obtain no more than they do that run in other Races every one sees and every one can tell you Not every one we told you the last day not they that run only with their tongues run they Lord Lord never so fast not many others that run further than so you will hear anon and too common experience can inform you But how so to run as to obtain is not a piece of so common knowledge Hic labor hoc opus est This is the Apostles business a business ordinary Christians are not sufficiently skill'd in 't is to be fear'd or if sufficiently skill'd in not so practised in but that they want a voice both behind and before them to tell them this is the way they are to walk in This is the way walk in it so and so run that you may obtain Were we to run in those Olympick Games which St. Paul here seems to allude to they who were practised in those sports and exercises were fittest to instruct us how so to run as to be conquerours there But being now to run the true Olympick that is the heavenly Race the true Race to heaven that true Olympus which that Poetical did but shadow this our Apostle that great wrastler not against flesh and bloud though in another sense against that too but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness whose whole life was nothing else but a continual exercise of all the hardships in the Christian course who so gloriously fought the good fight and finished his course can best teach us how to do so too With this Prerogative too above the cunningest of those Olympick Masters that they cannot so instruct their Schollars that they shall be sure of the prize they run for though they run never so accurately to their Rules many there running and but one obtaining but here by St. Paul's direction we may all run and all obtain For to that purpose only we are invited and directed to run that we may obtain Yet true it is as we may all obtain so we may not and it will be but a spur to us to fear it one spur to hasten and quicken us in our course St. Paul had such a one now and then to make him run He had run
and joyful Resurrection But Christs grave 2. or Sepulchre has more in it than any else There sit Angels to instruct and comfort us there lie cloths to bind up our wounds there lies a napkin to wrap up our aking heads there is the fine linnen of the Saints to make us bright white garments for the Resurrection You may now descend into the grave with confidence it will not hurt you Christs body lying in it has taken away the stench and filth and horrour of it 'T is but an easie quiet bed to sleep on now and they that die in Christ do but sleep in him says St. Paul 1 Thes. ix 14. and rest there from their labours says St. Iohn Revel xiv 13. Come then and see the place and take the dimensions of your own graves thence Learn there how to lie down in death and learn there also how to rise again to die with Christ and to rise with him T is the principal Moral of the Text and the whole business of the day In other words to die to sin and live to righteousness that when we must lie down our selves we may lie down in peace and rise in glory I have thus run through all the Parts of the Text. And now I hope I may say with the Angel I know ye also seek Iesus that was crucified and are come hither to that purpose But I must not say with the Angel He is not here He is here in his Word Here in his Sacraments Here in his poor members Ye see him go before you when ye see those poor ghosts walk you hear him when you hear his Word or read or preacht You even feel him in the blessed Sacraments when you receive them worthily The eyes and ears and hands of your bodies do not cannot but your souls may find see and him in them all Some of you I know are come hither even to seek his body too to pour out your souls upon it and at you holy Sepulchre revive the remembrance of the crucified Iesus yet take heed you there seek him as you ought Not the living among the dead I hope Not the dead elements only or them so as if they were corporally himself No He is risen and gone quite off the earth as to his corporal presence All now is spirit though Spirit and Truth too truly there though not corporally He is risen and our thoughts must rise up after him and think higher of him now then so and yet beleive truly he is there So that I may speak the last words of the Text with greater advantage then they are here Come see the place where the Lord lies And come see the place too where he lay go into the grave though not seek him there Go into the grave and weep there that our sins they were that brought him thither Go into the grave and die there die with him that died for us breath out your souls in love for him who out of love died so for us Go into his grave and bury all our sins and vanities in that holy dust â— Go we into the grave and dwell there for ever rather than come out and sin again and be content if he see it fit to lie down there for him who there lay down for us Fill your daily meditations but now especially with his death and passion his agony and bloudy sweat his stripes and wounds and griefs and pains But dwell not always among the Tombes You come to seek him seek him then 1. where you may find him and that is says the Apostle at the right hand of God He is risen and gone thither And seek him 2. so as you may be sure find him Not to run out of the story seek him as these pious women did 1. Get early up about it hence forward watch and pray a little better he that seeks hâ—m early shall be sure to find him Seek him 2. couragiously be not afraid of a guard of Souldiers be not frighted at a grave nor fear though the earth it self shake and totter under you Go on with courage do your work be not afraid of a crucified Lord nor of any office not to be crucified for his service Seek him 3. with your holy balms and spices the sweet odours of holy purposes and the perfume of strong Resolutions the bitter Aloes of Repentance the Myrrhe of a patient and constant Faith the Oil of Charity the spicie perfumes of Prayers and Praises bring not so much as the scent of earth or of an unrepented sin about you seek him so as men may know you seek him know by your eyes and know by your hands and know by your knees and feet and all your postures and demeanors that you seek Iesus that was crucified let there be nothing vain or light or loose about you nothing but what becomes his Faith and Religion whom you seek nothing but what will adorn the Gospel of Christ. You that thus seek Iesus which was crucified shall not want an Angel at every turn to meet you to stand by support and comfort you in all your fears and sorrows nor to encourage your endeavours nor to assist you in your good works nor to preserve you from errors nor to inform you in truths nor to advance your hopes nor to confirm your faiths nor to do any thing you would desire You shall be sure to find him too whom your souls seek and He who this day rose from his own Sepulchre shall also raise up you from the death of sin first to the life of righteousness and from the life of righteousness one day to the life of glory when the Angel shall no longer guide us into the grave but out of it out of our Graves and Sepulchres into Heaven where we shall meet whole Choires of Angels to welcome and conduct us into the place where the Lord is where we shall behold even with the eyes of our bodies Iesus that was crucified sitting at the right hand of God and sit down there with him together in the glory of the Father To which He bring us who this day rose again to raise us thither Iesus which was crucified To whom though crucified to whom for that he was crucified and this day rose again to lift us up out of the graves of sins and miseries and griefs be all honour and power praise and glory both by Angels and Men this day henceforward and for ever Amen THE FIFTH SERMON UPON Easter Day 1 COR. xv 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable ANd if this Day had not been we had been so Miserable indeed and without hope of being other If Christ had not risen there had been no Resurrection and if no Resurrection no hope but here then most miserable we Christians to be sure who were sure to find nothing but hard usage here tribulation in this World and could expect no other or no better
Isa. i. 21. Et quà m facta est desolata How is she become desolate Remember that What becomes of her for it I have done with the Rechabites obedience and Gods dicit to it I come nearer home and I cannot tell you but I must change my phrase into dicit homo Men talk abroad there 's no such matter here If it be otherwise you have the better on 't And I shall say no more than what Iotham Iudg. ix 19 20. to the men of Shechem when they had made Abimelech King If you have then dealt truly and sincerly with Jerubbaal and with his house this day then rejoyce you in Abimelech and let him rejoyce in you But if not let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and the house of Millo and devour Abimelech I will not say so much with an imprecation but thus If you have now dealt truly and sincerely with King and Church in setting up your own profits priviledges and humours to reign over you by preferring them before their Precepts then rejoyce you in them and may they prosper with you But if not fire will come out of them those very Priviledges and profits and devour you and fire will come out from you to devour and ruine them as sure as you thought once to be happy by them 'T is true and I think I may justly quit some of you before God and man say for you You have obeyed but as it is enough for the whole man to be thought guilty when only one part sins so it is enough for a punishment upon a Kingdom that there be among us those though hands and feet that disobey Though make no doubt of it you who have obeyed but however the world look on you as certainly it looks but scurvily upon such God from above will one day see it and reward it give you the blessing of the Text. His word is past go on and believe there shall not want a man of your seed to stand before him for ever You are not all then of the same practices I shall but mind you therefore of my Text in a double sense as it implies the punishment of Disobedience as it expresses the reward of obedience and I have done The Rechabites that obeyed shall want no length of days no posterity nor they no heavenly grace or honour You will thence infer They that do not shall want all And have they not so in all generations What got Iannes and Iambres by withstanding Moses but non precedent ultra they should proceed no further neither in their Projects nor in their Posterity 1 Tim. iii. 8. What got Korah and his company by rising up against Moses and Aaron but a death that amazes us to read of They and their wives and their children went down quick into hell The grave was not low enough nor could they die soon enough to receive their punishment What got Absalom by his rebellion but an ignominious cruel death in the heat and fervor of his sin and no Posterity to survive him What got the Ten Tribes by their discession in matter of Taxes but the loss of their Religion and their God a perpetual successive Idolatry and a thousand calamities No in conspectu meo left them that Gods presence taken from them for ever Lastly What got Iudas that rose in the days of the Tribute all upon fair pretences you see with the people but Ipse periit omnes dispersi he perish'd the rest made rogues and runnagates upon the face of the earth And can we after all this look for better success either in Church or State when we rise up against them both Any thing but an utter desolation Lay it home Non deficiet in the Text will prove deficiet here nor Posterity nor Honour nor Government nor Religion continue with you The very setting light by our Superiours has brought a doom somewhat like it Michol scoffing at King David had no child for ever lost vir de stirpe The little Children that did but taunt the Prophet as he passed by were at deficiet streight in their childhood could go no farther The very savage Bears out of the wilderness rebuked the incivility of the children If children found so sharp a punishment what may men expect In a word God the God of mercies who holds out beyond our hopes or thoughts could hold out no longer when they came once to despise his Ministers 2 Chron. xxxvi 16. And let me tell you too You shall find it home in your own bosoms be paid in kind in your children and servants For with what face can you expect obedience from your children who disobey by your example How can you but expect rebellion from them who see you in all your actions resolute to disobey Where should they learn it From your example Alas they cannot You obey nor spiritual nor temporal Fathers From your words They will not because your actions contradict them From Gods commandments Why do not you Thus while you study by disobedient practices to stand you and yours fall down for ever But I dwell too long upon so harsh a Theme I shall lead you to Obedience by sweeter thoughts by Example by Reward By Example shall these Rechabites their wives and children give aside at no inconvenience and must we Christians startle at every thing that is not just as we would have it Shall they hear and hearken and submit and rest upon their Fathers will and must we alway prefer our own scarce read or mind a command which we first prescribe not Shall they fail in nothing not a circumstance do according unto all And are not we ashamed to question all so long till we do nothing I appeal to your selves Would you be so used in your own houses Have your commands disputed questioned denied done by parts and pieces by your children and servants With what conscience then can you deal so with your Superiours Do as you would be done by is the Law of Nature Out of this only Principle 't is probable the Rechabites at first obeyed in one man the Carnal Spiritual Temporal Authority and does our Christianity serve us to no better use than to contemn them If Example will not will Reward prevail 'T is a Reward to be approved by God But he rewards us not with words What would you have Your City your Companies your own Families cannot subsist without obedience and can you desire it of others when you will not pay it your selves This the way to keep your City from destruction You labour for succession this is Gods way to obtain it You travel for Lands and riches this is his means to gain and keep them You desire honours thus you may have for you and your Posterities You strive for Priviledges they are surest obtain'd and held by Obedience You endeavour all for perpetuities here
and therein his own with all his Offices besides 2. Iesus is his name that signifies a Saviour and that speaks him God Ego sun◠praeter me non est Isa. xliii 11. None can be truly so but He. But his coming into the world that shewed us he was man There 's both his natures And 3. In the title of Sinners there 's our own that tells us what we poor things are poor wretched sinners that want a Saviour Lastly his coming into the world is but a short expression of all he did and suffered in it and to save sinners is to take thence a Church unto himself to purifie and cleanse them from their sins to raise them first from the death of Sin here to the life of Righteousness to the communion of Saints and to raise them at last from the death of the Grave unto the life of Glory yea the communion of Saints hereafter This is the sum of the Christian Faith and 't is all summ'd up here all the Articles of the Creed nay the whole Gospel it self in this one single period Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners A saying which is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now not only faithful but the full Faith it self Faithful it is 4. in another acception Fidelis est qui nunquam fallet not like those Aquae infideles that the Prophet Ieremiah complains of Ier. xv 18. those faithless streams those shallow brooks that fail and dry away when we most need them When all other waters fail us this Fountain that was set open for Iudah and Ierusalem Ezek. xiii 1. will run still When all other comforts are dried up and gone this of Christ Jesus coming will be coming still When all other sayings put together will not heal our wounds nor refresh our weariness nor cool our heat nor quench our drowth this will do all When all things else desert and leave us and nor Friends nor Fortunes nor Wit nor Eloquence nor Strength nor Policy will help us this will be faithful to us this Christ Jesus will stand to us No such well-spring of life in the world as he and nothing can come so bad to us in the world but his coming makes good a world of good of Nay this very saying that he came into the world to save sinners and the chiefest not excepted well laid to will stick close to us in all distresses disperse the terrors of our sins defeat the devices of the Devil to disturb and fright us this will support us in our weaknesses sustain us in our faintings raise us out of our despairs relieve us in our sicknesses ease us in our pains refresh us in our agonies comfort us on our death-beds revive us when we are even dead go with us out of the world and never leave us till it has brought and laid us at his feet who came to save us and is not willing that any should perish says S. Peter ii 3 9. No not the greatest sinner not any first or last 5. Well may this saying 5. pass for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now as St. Ambrose and St. Augustine seem to have read it as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be stiled humanus or jucundus sermo a sweet and pleasant saying as well as faithful Pleasing and joyful news it is to hear that such a person as this speaks of is come among us for all the while we were without this Christ we were says St. Paul without God too in the world Ephes. ii 12. From his coming only it is that we can say with St. Peter Bonum est esse hic that 't is good being here that the world is worth the staying in It were not without him no company worth being with till he came no pleasure in it till he brought it with him For this it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes no mistake the saying may be said pleasant without an error Indeed what more pleasant if to save sinners be his coming liberty and health and life and salvation are pleasing news liberty to the Captives health to the Sick life to the Dying salvation to the lost and perishing and to save sinners is to give all of them to them all Such a saying to them must needs please them all And upon this we must needs allow it lastly to be faithful in another sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fide dignus a saying worthy of our faith worth our believing All true and certain and profitable nay and pleasing sayings are not so No matter whether some of them believed or no. This is a truth of so great concernment and so truly all that St. Paul himself that great Doctor of the world is content nay determin'd to know nothing else nothing but Iesus Christ and him Crucified 1 Cor. ii 2. Him crucified is him come into the world to save sinners for by his Cross he sav'd them and upon his Cradle the foot of it was rear'd and from his coming into a cross and peevish world he began to be crucified and bear it All other knowledges are not worth the knowing all other truths not worth the believing the Law of Moses is but an A B C learning to this knowledge All the Iewish Kabala all the wise sentences of the wisest Rabbies all the wisdom of the Heathen world of all the world all that is without Christ Jesus in it but meer fables endless genealogies to no end or purpose all of them but to fill the head with empty notion and the heart with vexation and the tongue with strife all meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. iii. 8. Very dross and dung in respect of the knowledge of Christ Iesus coming into the world to save sinners Yet after all this were there not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them all were either not the chiefest sinners in or might not the chiefest of them make a particular application of it to himself were Christs coming only to a few and all the rest excluded by some inevitable decree there would be but a starv'd kind of comfort in it at the best nor could it well command our faith seeing it might so command us to believe a lye and cheat our selves To make the saying either worth the saying or the believing it must be applicable to the chiefest sinners and so 't is here and the greatest sinner among us may lay hold upon it And now it being a saying so faithful and true in it self faithful both to our Fathers and to us the fulfilling of their Faith and the ground of ours and the sum of it too a saying that will never fail us in any exigence and distress but bear up our spirits at every turn and stick firm to us upon all occasions a saying so pleasing so worthy of our Faith and so close to every one of us 't is worthy sure lastly of all acceptation all the best entertainment we can give it
so God hath blessed thee for ever Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and blessed be our Lord Iesus Christ for all this grace for all this blessing If our Spouse so fair then we sure should be faithful if his lips so full of grace our lips as full of thanks if he blessed of God we again bless God and him for so great a blessing so great blessings so continually descending upon us so lasting so everlasting never sufficiently answered but by all our ways of blessing and so blessing him always all our days whilst we live for ever We to sing our parts and praise him in the Song sing or say Thou art fairer thou O Christ art fairer c. For this is the sum and whole meaning of the Text to give us a view of Christs Beauty and the Christians Duty both together so to shew and set forth to us the lustre and splendour of Christs incomparable Beauty and the overflowing fulness of his Grace as to make us really in love with him to ravish our 〈◊〉 and tongues and hands to his Service and praise that we may to 〈◊〉 and every day serve and praise and magnifie him all the day long 〈…〉 way to blessedness for ever I begin with his Beauty for that 's 〈…〉 attractive to him When I shall be lift up shall draw all men to me says he himself S. Iohn xii 32. That lifting up was upon the Cross and if that be so attractive if he be so powerful in his humiliation when his face is clouded with darkness his eyes with sadness his heart with sorrow when his body is so mangled with wounds deform'd with stripes besmear'd with blood and sweat and dust that will draw all men to him how infinitely prevalent then must he needs be when we see him in his excellence smooth and even and entire in all the parts of his soul and body For in both fair he is formosus fair formosus prae very fair formosus prae filiis fairer then the fairest and sweetest child in whom commonly is the sweetest beauty prae filiis hominum than the children of men when they come to their full strength and manly beauty By these degrees we shall arrive to the perfection of his beauty fair he is very fair fairer than the sweetest fairer than the perfectest beauty of the sons of men so in both his body and his soul. In his Body first And fair and comely sure must that Body be which was immediately and miraculously fram'd by the Holy Ghost pure flesh and blood that was stirred together by that pure Spirit out of the purest Blood and Spirits of the purest Virgin of the world The shadows of that face must needs be beautiful that were drawn by the very finger and shaddowing of the Holy Ghost those eyes must needs have quid sidereum as St. Ierome some star-like splendor in them which were so immediately of the heavenly making The whole frame of that body must needs be excellent which was made on purpose by God himself for the supreme excellence to dwell in to reside in to be united to so united by the union hypostatical A body without sin must needs be purely fair a body without concupiscence must needs be sweet without defect must needs be lovely without vacuity must needs be complete without superfluity must needs be so far handsom without inordination must needs be perfect without death must needs be firm without dust must needs be singular without corruption must needs be curious and delicate without any of them must needs be excellent And all these were Christs body without sin without concupisence without defect without vacuity without superfluity without inordination death and dust and corruption could not get the least dominion over it thou shalt not suffer my flesh to see corruption saies the Psalm he did not suffer it to see it saies the Gospel rais'd incorruptible it quickly was went down into the grave but staid not there came not into the dust at all into any corruption at all had none all the while it was upon the earth had none under it Fair he was in his conception conceived in purity and a fair Angel brought the news Fair 2. in his Nativity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word in the Septuagint tempestivus in time that is all things are beautiful in their time Eccl. v. 11. And in the fulness of time it was that he was born and a fair star pointed to him Fair 3. in his childhood he grew up in grace and favour St. Luke ii 52. The Doctors were much taken with him 4. Fair in his manhood had he not been so says S. Ierome had there not been something admirable in his countenance and presence some heavenly beauty Nunque secuturi essent Apostoli c. The Apostles and the whole world as the Pharisees themselves confess would not so suddenly have gone after him Fair 5. in his Transfiguration white as the light or as the snow his face glittering as the Sun S. Mat. xvii 2. even to the ravishing the very soul of S. Peter that he knew not what he said could let his eyes dwell upon taht face for ever and never come down the Mount again 6. Fair in his Passion Nihil indecorum no uncomeliness in his nakedness his very wounds and the bloody prints of the whips and scourges drew an ecce from the mouth of Pilate Behold the man the sweetness of his countenance and carriage in the midst of filth and spittle whips and buffets his very comeliness upon the Cross and his giving up the Ghost made the Centurion cry out he was the Son of God there appeared so sweet a Majesty so heavenly a lustre in him through that very darkness that encompass'd him 7. Fair in his Resurrection so subtile a beauty that mortal eyes even the eyes of his own Disciples were not able to see or apprehend it but when he veil'd it for them 8. Fair in his Ascension made his Disciples stand gazing after him so long as if they never could look long enough upon him till an Angel is sent from Heaven to rebuke them to look home Acts i. 11. If you ask Eusebius Evagrius Nicephorus Damascen and some others how fair he was they will tell you so fair that the Painter sent from Agbarus King of Edessa to draw his Picture could not look so stedfastly upon him as to do it for the rays that darted from his face and though the Scripture mention no such thing 't is no greater wonder to believe then what we read of Moses his face which shone so glorious that the Children of Israel could not behold it 2 Cor. iii. 7. Lentulus the Roman President his Epistle to the Emperour Antonius describes him of very comely colour shape and figure and so do others Not such a beauty yet as that which darts from it wanton rays or warms the blood or stirs the spirits to vain desires
so too To redeem our honours and us thence God sent his Son says S. Iohn iii. 17. and he chose us out of it St. Iohn xv 19. Sin 2. that had made us Captives too chain'd us up so fast that the best of us cannot but cry out sometimes O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me Rom. 7. 24. And none but this visitour could or can God through Iesus Christ so S. Paul presently adds upon it and would have us thank and bless him for it Death that had also got dominion over us for no more dominion Rom. vi 9. signifies it had it once and kept us shrewdly under Rom. v. 17. But Christ Iesus by his appearing they are the Apostles words has abolish'd death 2 Tim. i. 10. Made us free from sin and death Rom. viii 2. The Devil 4. he took us captive also at his will 2 Tim. ii 26. But for this purpose was the Son of God manifested says S. Iohn that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 S. John iii. 8. And as high as the Fiend carries it he will bruise him under our feet Rom. xvi 20. Now to be delivered from such masters as these is a blessing without question All the question is how either Zachary could say so long before our Saviour's Birth or we so presently upon it he hath redeemed when S. Paul says 't was by his Blood Col. i. 22. S. Peter through his death 1 S. Peter i. 19. Why very well both the one and the other At his Birth was this Redemption first begun the foundation laid at his Death 't was finished In his Incarnation and Nativity he took the flesh that died and the blood he shed and we might truly have been said to be redeemed by his Blood though he had not shed it and by his Death though he had not died because he had already taken on our flesh and blood and from that very moment became mortal and began to dye or to speak a little plainer He brought the price of our Redemption with him at his Birth He paid it down for us at his Death The Writings as it were and Covenants between God and Him about it were agreed on at his Birth were engrossing all his Life and seal'd by him at his Death So 't is as true to day as any day He redeemed And had not this day been first in the business the other could not have been at all or first or last O Blessed Day that hast thus laid the foundation of all our good ones O ever Blessed Lord who hast thus visited and redeemed us what shall we do unto thee how shall we bless thee 3. Nay and yet 3. thou hast sav'd us too That 's the next blessing to be considered And 't is worth considering For redeem'd indeed we might be and yet not saved Redeem'd and yet fall again into the same bad hands or into worse redeem'd from evils past and yet perish by some to come 'T is this salvation that makes all safe Where 1. we are saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us ver 71. every thing that may hereafter hurt us as well as we were redeemed from all that did Nor life nor death nor height nor depth nor any thing can separate us now from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. viii 39. all things shall continually work for good ver 28. all work henceforward for our salvation Especially seeing he saves us 2. from our sins as the Angel tells us S. Mat. i. 21. Does not redeem us only from the slavery of our former sins and the punishments we lay sadly under for them but preserves and saves us from slipping back into the old and from falling into new ones 'T is a continual salvation Nay 3. 'T is an eternal one too he saves us with He the Author of eternal salvation Heb. v. 9. There we shall be safe indeed All salvations here may have some clouds to darken them some winds to shake them something sometimes to interrupt them somewhat or other to tarnish or soil their glory New enemies may be daily raised up to us Sin will be always bustling with us here we had need to be sav'd and sav'd again daily and hourly sav'd but with this salvation once sav'd and sav'd for ever Well may we pray with holy David Psal. cvi 4. O visit us with this salvation And well may we term it now as our Translation does a mighty salvation 4. And mighty sure we may justly stile it For it required a mighty Power a mighty Person a mighty Price and mighty Works to bring such mighty things to pass And it had them all 1. A mighty Power Almighty too No created Power could do it Horse and man and all things else but vain things to save a man to deliver his soul from the hand of Hell Psal. xxxiii 17. lxxxix 47. 2. A mighty Person the very God of might I the Saviour and besides me none Isa. xliii 11. No other person able to effect it 3. A mighty price it cost No corruptible things says S. Peter 1 Pet. i. 18. Nothing but the blood of the Son of God the precious Blood of Iesus Christ no less could compass it 4. Mighty works lastly and mighty workings to work things about Miracles and wonders good store it cost to accomplish the work of our salvation such as he only who was mighty before God and all the people St. Luke xxiv 19. could bring to pass And this adds much to the glory of this salvation that it was done by such great hands and ways as these But not the works only that wrought it but the works it wrought speak the salvation mighty too Mighty for certain which neither the unworthiness of our persons nor the weaknesses of our natures nor the habits of our sins nor the imperfections of our works nor the malice of our enemies nor any power or strength or subtilty of men or Devils were able to hinder or controul but that maugre all it spread it self to the very ends of the earth carried all before it A salvation we may trust to we need not fear in this mercy of the most highest we shall not miscarry 5. For 5. we have here gotten a good Horn to hold by A horn of salvation the original gives it a salvation not only strong but sure Salvation that is a Saviour too one that we may confidently lay hold on one that neither can nor will deceive or fail us For 1. He is a King so the Horn signifies in the Prophetick phrase Dan. vii 8. The four and seven and ten Horns there so many Kings and it stands not with the honour of a King to deceive or disappoint us 2. And he is not a King without a Kingdom He hath a Kingdom 2. and power to help us The Horn signifies that too in the stile of Prophesie because in the Horn lies the strength and power and dominion
rude barbarisms had exempted them from the number of civil Common-wealths who did not deserve the name of people not of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without either Article or Adjective such as no body could point at with an Article or construe with an Adjective such as seem here to be excluded out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that yet one would think includes all Such as if you were to number up all the world you would leave out them to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to uncover and shew 'um to the world and out of their thick darkness to light them the way unto salvation Which brings me to the benefits together with the parties Light and Glory Light to the Gentiles Glory to Israel A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel I keep Gods method Fiat Lux begin with light Gen. i. 2. I need not tell you 't is a benefit Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is says the Preacher Eccles. xi 7. and Mordecai joyns light and gladness together Hest. viii 16. So salutare letificans it is salvation that brings joy and gladness with it 2. Light of all motions has the most sudden it even prevents the subtilest sense And was it not so with this salvation When all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course thine Almighty word leapt down from heaven out of thy Royal Throne Wisdom xviii 14. Salutare praeveniens vota Salvation that prevents our dreams and awakes our slumbering consciences 3. And when our eye-lids are past those slumbers then Lighten mine eyes O Lord that I sleep not in death Those dark chambers have no lights A light to lighten them a light to shew my self to my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reveal my inmost thoughts to shew me the ugly deformity of my sins will be a blessing Lumen revelans tenebras no dark-lanthorn light a light to shew us the darkness we are in our Salutare dispergens tenebras salvation that dispels the horrid darkness 4. And to do that the enlightning of the medium is not sufficient In conspectu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just before us it may be and the windows of our eyes damm'd up against it A light then to pierce the Organ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into it it must be Lumen penetrans oculum salvation not only presented to the eye but to the sight the eye fitly disposed to behold it 5. Every enlightning will not do that It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light of revelation No other will serve the turn not the light of nature not the dictates of reason not the light of moral vertues or acquired habits but something from above something infused such as comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine inspiration What light else no remedy but buried we must be in everlasting night Scriptures or revealed truth the revelation of Iesus Christ must save whoever shall be saved No man can come to me except the Father draw him St. John vi 44. No man lay hold upon the Name of Iesus or salvation but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Lumen divine revelationis salvation by the glorious light of Divine Revelation 6. There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet wants an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Revelation that wants a Revelation such as St. Iohns a dark one This an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lightsome one such as Revelations are when Prophesies are fulfilled of things past not things to come Lumen Revelationis revelatae a light of salvation as clear as day 'T is time now to ask whither it is this light and revelation lead us I shall answer you out of Zacharies Benedictus S. Luke i. 79. They guide our feet into the way of peace Send forth thy light and thy truth and they shall guide me Psal. xliii 3. So David guide me whither Psal. lvi 13. To walk before God in the light of the living One light to another the light of grace to the light of glory So Lumen dirigens or salutare pertingens ad coelum salvation leading up to heaven Sum up all Salvation to make us glad a light a light to comfort not a lightning to terrifie The lightnings shone upon the ground the earth trembled and was afraid no such no lightning Nor St. Paul's light a light to blind but to give light nor to play about the medium only but to open and dispose the weak dim eye Not by a weak glimmering of nature nor by a dusky twi-light but by a clear Revelation not an ignis fatuus to misguide us out of the way into bogs and quagmires but to guide us to peace and to salvation Lastly not a light to any to see only that they are inexcusable ut essent inexcusabiles that seeing they might see and not understand a light to light 'um down to Hell that they might see the way down through those gloomy shades with more ease horrour and confusion that 's the event indeed sometimes the end never but thither upward from whence it comes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the beginning of the Text to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end And can your thoughts prompt to your desires any greater benefits can you wish more And yet if we but consider in what plight the parties were upon whom the rays of this light shone the salvation will seem more beneficial They were in darkness and could any thing be more welcome to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death then a light to lighten That was the miserable case the Gentiles now were in Neither have the Heathen knowledge of his laws 't was so in Davids time and so continued on till this days rising Sun scattered the Clouds and now the case is altered Dedi te in lucem gentium fulfilled in his time The Gentiles now enlightned Enlightned what 's that Those that are baptized are said to be enlightned Heb. x. So the Gentiles enlightned will be in effect the Gentiles baptized Baptized they may be with water and they had need of some such cleansing element to wash their black dark sullied souls but there is another Baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire fire that 's light so to be baptized with light will be with the Holy Ghost 'T was heavy midnight through the world Iudea was the only Goshen the land of light till he that was born this day breaking down the partition that divided Palestine from the nations gave way for the light which before shone only there to disperse its saving beams quite through the world Then did they whose habitations were pitcht in the region of death whose dwellings in the suburbs of Hell see a marvellous great light spring up that 's salus personis accommodata salvation fitted to the parties Fitted and tempestively too to them
who for ought I know must needs perish with them and perish for them for thus destroying them Were we but kind to our own souls we would be to theirs But to fill up the measure we play the Herods and act the murtherers lastly upon our selves We daily stifle those heavenly births of good desires and thoughts that are at any time begotten in us by the Holy Spirit and walk on confidently to death and darkness But we have acted Herods part too long and I fear I have been too long upon it To be short now let 's turn our slaughtering hands upon our sins and vices kill them mortifie them and henceforward act the part of the blessed Innocents set our selves from this day to better practices study the two grand lessons of the day Innocence and Patience Innocence in our lives and Patience in our deaths or rather patience in them both Study them our selves teach them our Children and continually preserve them in those happy ways that when we shall have serv'd our several generations and go hence we may all meet at last Fathers and Mothers and Children at the great Supper of the Lamb and together with these blessed Innocents in the Text follow the Lamb for evermore Who c. THE FIRST SERMON ON THE Circumcision 2 COR. v. 17. Old things are past away behold all things are become new AS face in water answers face so does the face of the Text the face of the Church in the times we live in where old things are past away all things become new But as where the faces are like the minds often are not so so the sense of the Text and the sense of the Times are as unlike as may be however like the words be to them Old legal Ceremonies and old corruptions past in the Text Old corruptions and old heresies and errors renewed in the Times The glorious Gospel of Christ newly appearing with affections answerable to it in the Text A Gospel I know not whose not of Peace but of War not of Love and Unity but of Faction and Schism with affections and courses according in the times New things such as belong to the new Man righteousness and true holiness passed over as unnecessary or unprofitable all good order antiquated and out of date cast away as old things all good things quite ruin'd and decay'd It were to be wish'd but 't is but meerly to be wish'd scarce hop'd I fear that the sense as well as the words might fit us that the new things in the Text were the new ones of the Times that the old ones here were the old ones there That the new year but lately entred might bring us this news But however I may wish and hope too I hope that we in particular will take occasion from it to renew our hearts with the year and begin it in newness of life and conversation to live the new year like new men better than of old And though the new times as now they are will not agree with the Text no more than these new men of the times their Sermons do in words only at the most yet because I love to speak seasonably as well as soberly a Text in season if I may have leave to fit the Text to the old time of Christmas there can be nothing more suitable to both the words and meaning of the Text than this holy Feast and the meaning of it From this Feast from Christs birth it was that all old legal ceremonies had their pass to pass away from hence all things both in Heaven and earth are reconciled by him all things made new by him the old man abolished and the new man created in us the old Law abrogated the new Law come in place the old Law of Works anulled the new Law of Faith established all old things past away all things become new through his coming into the world And the use and moral of the whole Feast and the three solemn great days in it is no more than that we would let old things pass old worldly affections die lay off the old and become new men all Be 1. regenerate in our spirits and new born with him upon Christmas-day Have our old man 2. circumcised our old fleshly members mortified upon Circumcision-day and be wholly renewed in all our parts upon the same as New-years-day Begin 3. the publick profession of our renovation and new service with the Wise men worshipping adoring and presenting him our gifts upon the Epiphany or Twelfth so changing our old Master and the service of sin for our new Master and his service forgetting the old and pressing on to the new Thus you have a perfect Christmas Text and more evidently a New-years one yet both both in words and sense I have given you the whole sense of it from the Feasts of Christmas and both told you their meaning and the Texts what the several days of the Feast teach you and what all the parts of the Text would have you learn of which this is the sum That through Christ all old things the old Law the Law of Moses the old corruptions of Nature the law of sin are past away done away and abolished and a new law established new grace brought to us new affections created in us all through him and by his coming and that whosoever is in Christ in whom he is come in him old things are past away all things are become new he is a new creature quite in the words that usher in the Text so the parts of it will be two 1. What since Christs coming is become of all things What is the state of the Gospel And 2. What upon that is become of those that are in him For to understand the Text fully we are to consider it 1. as a general proposition concerning the state of the Gospel of Christ that old things in general are past away and all things altogether become new through it and him 2. As a particular application made to any man that is in Christ it is truly in that state that in him old things are past away all things become new 1. Now in the general old things are past away that 's become of them of all old things since Christs coming and all things else are become new that 's become of them or so are they become 2. In particular this is become of them in whom Christ is or who are in him true sons of the Gospel old things are past with them and all things in them become new I shall add a third as the proper Use both of Text and time of the old days and the new year what is most becoming us for whom also Christ came to whom still he daily comes even to cast away all old corruptions and in all things to become new I begin with the Text as it may be applied to the general state and condition of the Gospel where we shall consider it first respectively then
natures his God-head by the Incense his Manhood by the Myrrhe 2. His Offices his Kingly Office by the Gold the very matter of the Crown that makes him King His Priestly Office by Incense the Priests Office being to offer Incense S. Luke i. 9. Levit. xvi 13. His Prophetical Office by the Myrrhe representing the bitter and mortified life of a Prophet 3. Here 's his Birth his Life his Death and Resurrection all acknowledged His Birth fitly resembled unto gold the purest metal his birth the purest without any sin at all of a Virgin pure as the most refined Gold his Life well represented by the Incense being nothing but a continual service of God and a perpetual doing of his Fathers business His Death the very manner of it evidently pointed at by the Myrrhe which in his Passion was given him in Wine to drink the usual draught of those that died upon the Cross. And his Resurrection easily enough understood by the same Myrrhe whose chief use is to preserve the dead body from Corruption out of an hope of a Resurrection and was even litterally done unto him by Nicodemus who brought a mixture of Myrrhe and Aloes to embalm him St. John xix 39. So now we see what it is to present Gold Francincense and Myrrhe to Christ even no less than to believe him to be God and Man our King and Priest and Prophet born of a Virgin without stain of sin living in all holiness without blame and dying for us yet not seeing Corruption but rising again to Incorruption This is the Faith we are to offer up this triple Faith Fear we not any adversaries or calamities he is our King to protect us King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. vi 15. Despair we not though we be grievous sinners he is our Priest our High-Priest to offer for us and reconcile us Let not even Death affright us by his death Death hath lost its sting the Myrrhe of his embalming will preserve us and by his Resurrection he will revive and raise us up Let us thus think of Christ and trust upon him and we still offer this same offering of Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe This is the Allegory the Moral is behind and in the moral sense we offer Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe who present God with those vertues that resemble them First He offers Gold who patiently and constantly suffers for his Faith which is far more precious says St. Peter than of Gold that perisheth though it be tried with the fire 1 Pet. i. 7. The Martyrs flames are brighter than Gold and the constant Faith will endure the fire better than the Gold it self He 2. offers Gold who sets himself to keep Gods Commandments which in the Psalmists account Psal. xix 10. are more desirable than Gold yea than the finest Gold He 3. offers Gold who disperses it abroad and gives it to the poor he that gives Alms properly offers Gold to the poor indeed he gives it but to God it is he offers it an offering of a sweet savour to him 2. He offers Frankincense who offers Prayers whose Prayers ascend like Incense 'T is holy David's expression Prayers set forth as Incense Psal. â—xli 2. no Incense so sweet so acceptable to God as the devout Prayers of his servants He 2. presents Incense whose hope is only in the Lord his God whose desires and hopes are always ascending upward He 3. presents Incense who presents humility and obedience the nature of Frankincense is binding and restringent well imitated by obedience and humility the best binders and restrainers of our wills and passions 3. And lastly he offers Myrrhe who mortifies his affections which are upon the earth Myrrhe is a mortifier One quality of Myrrhe is to kill Worms he that kills these worms of our inordinate desires that come crawling on us those covetous desires that lie gnawing us those wrigling motions of any lusts that are ever tickling disturbing us he offers Myrrhe 2. He presents Myrrhe that presents his body chaste and pure Iudith that chaste Matron is said to wash her body and anoint it with Myrrhe Judith 10. as it were a preservative against lust and the Spouse in the Canticles so fair so pure so undefiled is much delighted with bundles of Myrrhe her very hands drop sweet smelling Myrrhe It is so great an Antidote against all impurity and corruption 3. He presents Myrrhe who though he hath not perhaps altogether kept his body pure or his affections in order yet begins now at last to take his Wine a little mingled with Myrrhe that takes of the bitter potion of repentance who in the bitterness of his soul repents him of his sins You know now how you may still offer Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe a constant Faith a regular Life Charity and Alms is as good as Gold devout Prayer a lively Hope an humble Obedience will pass for Incense a chaste body mortified affections and true repentance will be accepted instead of Myrrhe See we to it then that we have them always ready to present to Christ. Yet there is one mystery more to be observed when they had opened their treasures says the Text and it says it that we may know we are to open our treasures as well as offer them Now to open them before him is as it were to say take what he will we are content A voluntary resignation of our selves and all that is ours to his choice order and disposing to deny and renounce our selves and all that is ours our own desires our goods our good deeds our merits or to leave all to follow him if he so will have it is the most perfect of all our offerings and the perfection of them all It is both the beginning and end of Christianity so we begin our Christianity with the same resignedness we must continue it to the end And we may yet observe how to offer here as well as what to offer Open we our treasures first do it freely that we do all our treasures 2. Do it plentifully and largely Dorcas-like full of good works and alms-deeds let our good works and graces glitter like the refined Gold 3. Do them pure and sincerely 4. That they may ascend like Incense do them religiously and devoutly 5. Let them be wrapt up in Myrrhe to keep them from corouption 6. Let them all be like sweet smelling Myrrhe of good odour and report 7. Let them also be imbittered with Myrrhe with the bitter tears of repentance that we have presented God so little good and the tears of sorrow that we can present no better 8. Let them be done in order our incense in the middle our prayers wing'd on the one hand with the golden wing of Faith on the other with purity white as is says Pliny the purest Myrrhe a faithful heart and pure hands encompassed on the one side with Alms on the other with Mortification and Fasting First believe then pray then practise First believe
whoever shall take him shall take us too We will not part no not in death we will live and die and sleep and rise again together He that will have him shall have us whether he will or no He is in our arms there we will keep him Yet in lieu of parting with him we will part with our selves and offer our selves for him if that will do it yes and that will do it Duo minuta habeo Domine corpus animam says the devout Father I have two mites O Lord I have two mites to offer to give thee for thy Son to offer thee for him my soul and my body Them thou shalt have willingly I am content to part with them so I may keep him and they will content him Offer them up then a living reasonable sacrifice for it will be an acceptable service too an acceptable blessing of him Yet as we offer up our selves we must now lastly offer up Christ too He gave him to us to be an offering for us to sanctifie all our offerings for a blessing to us to bless all our blessings And for the imperfection of all our righteousness offerings and sacrifices prayers and praises and blessings to make them accepted which in themselves and their weak performances no way deserve he was given us to offer His perfection will make amends for our imperfections his purity for our impurities his strength for our weakness and for them when we have done all we can to be accepted we must offer him or have all rejected We must when we begin to bless turn our selves with old Iacob to this Caput lectuli this beds-head whereon only the soul can rest or leaning upon the top of this Staff as the Apostle renders it the only staff wherein old Israel trusts the only staff whereon we rely for mercy and acceptance This is the name of the Angel in whom only we are to bless in whom only we are blest in whom either God blesses us or we him This is the sum he the chief of all our oblations all our blessings by oblation and the blessing both of our resolutions and endeavours all without whom we can do neither the one nor other neither resolve good nor practice it He therefore is to be offered with all thankfulness to God by us his merits only to be pleaded by us and the form of all our blessing thus to run Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy holy Son the Child Iesus give the praise It was not our own arm that helped us to him 't is not our own arms that can hold him 't is not our own strength that can keep him 't is not our own hands that can present any offering worthy of the least acceptance To God only therefore be the praise to Chrìst only the merit of all our blessings Thus are we lastly to pray too that God would accept us and our blessing Bless him with our petitions 1. That he would please to pardon all our sins or pass by all our weaknesses in this days in every days performance our neglects our coldnesses our drinesses our wearinesses and all the issues of our infirmities any ways That 2. he would accept our offerings and be pleased with us in his Son accept us in his beloved That 3. he would grant us the benefit of that holy Sacrament which we have this day received all the benefits of his Death and Passion the full remission of all our sins and the fulness of all his graces signified and conveyed by those dreadful mysteries That 4. he would particularly arm us every one of us against their particular corruptions with strength and grace proportionable to every one and effectual to us all For proper and particular petitions rising from the sense of our several necessities are this day proper to be askt and as easie to be obtained whilst it is his own day in which he invited us to him and will deny us nothing that we shall earnestly faithfully and devoutly ask him For this also to pray to petition is benedicere and it is a way of blessing God to offer up our prayers thereby acknowledging and confessing his power and goodness which is no less in other words than to praise and bless him He that offers praise honours him and he that presents prayers professes and proclaims him Almighty Father gracious and good and glorious God at the very first dash God blessed for evermore Light up now your Candles at this evening Service for the glory of your morning Sacrifice 't is Candlemas Become we all burning and shining lights to do honour to this day and the blessed armful of it Let your souls shine bright with grace your hands with good works Let God see it and let man see it so bless we God Walk we as Children of the light as so many walking lights and offer we our selves up like so many holy Candles to the Father of light But be sure we light all our lights at this babes eyes that lies so enfolded in our arms and neither use nor acknowledge any other light for better than darkness that proceeds from any other but this eternal light upon whom all our best thoughts and words and works must humbly now attend like so many petty sparks or rays or glimmerings darted from and perpetually reflecting thankfully to that glorious light from this day beginning our blessing God the only lightsome kind of life till we come to the land of light there to offer up continual praises sing endless Benedicite's and Allelujahs no longer according to the Laws or Customs upon earth but after the manner of Heaven and in the Choire of Angels with holy Simeon and Anna and Mary and Ioseph all the Saints in light and glory everlasting Amen Amen He of his mercy bring us thither who is the light to conduct us thither he lead us by the hand who this day came to lie in our arms he make all our offerings accepted who was at this Feast presented for us he bless all our blessings who this day so blessed us with his presence that we might bless him again and he one day in our several due times receive our spirits into his hands our souls into his arms our bodies into his rest who this day was taken corporally into Simeons arms has this day vouchsafed to be spiritually taken into ours Iesus the holy Child the eternal Son of God the Father To whom with the holy Spirit be all honour and praise and glory and blessing from henceforth for evermore Amen A SERMON ON THE First Sunday in Lent 2 COR. vi 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation ANd truly such a time is worth beholding For the business of it here being of no less concernment than Gods reconciling us to himself ver 18 19. of the former Chapter the committing the word and office of this reconciliation to his Ministers ver 20. of the
way is an inconquerable difficulty a Lion when the souls business is to be gone about Hear but St. Austin chide you as once he chid himself Tu non poteris quod istae istae istae What says he canst not thou do that which so many weak and tender Women so many little Children so many of all sexes ages and conditions have so often done before thee and thought so easie 'T is a shame to say so But suppose thou art infirm indeed and canst not do so much as perhaps thou would'st do else canst thou do nothing If thou canst not watch canst thou not fast sometimes If thou canst not fast canst thou not endure a little hunger thirst or cold or pains for Heaven neither If all these seem hard canst thou not be temperate neither canst thou not bring thy self to it by degrees by exercise and practice neither Or if thou canst not watch a night canst thou not watch an hour do somewhat towards it if thou canst not fast from all kind of meat canst thou not abstain at least from some from dainties and delicates If not often canst thou not at such a time as this when all Christians ever used to do it Sure he that cannot fast a meal may yet feed upon courser fare He that cannot do any of these long may do all of them some time may exercise himself in a little time to the hardest of them all Let 's then however set a doing somewhat for God's sake let 's be Christians a little at the least let 's do somewhat that is a kin to the antient piety watch or fast or somewhat in some degree or other that the world may believe that we are Christians Why should we be castaways from the profession too But indeed he that will do nothing for fear of being a castaway in the Text I despair he should do any thing upon any other concernment He that ualues his body above his soul his ease and pleasure above Heaven his temporal satisfaction above his eternal salvation there is no more to be said of him if St. Paul say true he must be a castaway I am too long but I must not end with so sad a word All that has been said or preacht is not that any should be but that not any should be cast-away only lest they should 'T is in our own hands to hinder it 'T is but a few hours taken from our sleep and employedon Heaven 'T is but a little taken from our full Dishes and groaning Tables and gorged Stomachs taken from our own bodies and bestowed upon the poors 'T is but a little strictness to our bodies that sets all strait 'T is but the keeping the body under and the soul in awe and all is safe The keeping down the body now shall raise up both soul and body at the last the holy fear of being castaways shall keep you safe from ever being so the bringing the body into subjection here shall bring it hereafter into a Kingdom where all our fears shall be turned into joys our feasting into fasting our watching into rest all our hardships into ease and pleasure and these very corruptible bodies here kept under shall be there exalted into incorruption where we shall meet the full reward of all our pains and labours we of our preaching you of your hearing all of us of all the good works we have done all the sufferings that we shall suffer the everlasting Crown of Righteousness the incorruptible and eternal Crown of Glory Which he give us at that day who expects such things from us in these days to approve us at that God the Father Son and Holy Spirit To whom be all glory c. A SERMON ON THE Third Sunday in Lent ROM viii 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death THose things were sins and sinful courses These words an Argument to disswade from them St. Pauls great Argument to disswade from sin and the service of it An Argument then which there can be no greater nothing be said more or more home against it Nothing more against it than that nothing comes of it but shame and ruine nothing more home than that which comes home to our own bosoms makes our selves the Judges our own consciences and experiences the Umpires of the business What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed says our Apostle Ye your selves tell me if you can What had ye then says he to the Romans here What have ye now say I to you ye who ere you are still or what had ye ever any of you who have at any time given up your members to uncleanness or to any iniquity What have ye gotten by it Bring in your Accompt set down the Income reckon up the gains sum up the Expences and Receipts and tell me truly what it is Or if you be ashamed to tell it give the Apostle leave to do it Fruit ye had none of it that 's certain Shame ye have by it that 's too sure and death you shall have if you go on in it nothing surer for the end of those things is death What reason then to commit or continue in them That 's St. Pauls meaning by the question as if he had said Ye have no reason in the world at all to pursue a course so fruitless so dishonourable so desperate as your selves have found and will still find your sins to be Thus the Text you see is a disswasive from sin and all unrighteousness drawn here from these four Particulars 1. The fruitlesness and unprofitableness 2. The shame and dishonour 3. The mischief and damage of it And 4. our own experience of them all The unprofitableness in the enjoyment the shame in the remembrance the damage in the conclusion of every sin and our own experience call'd in to witness to it The unprofitableness 1. without fruit What fruit had ye That is no fruit had ye none at all There 's the fruitlesness of sin none for the time past None 2. for the present nothing but what ye are now ashamed of there 's the shame and dishonour of sin None 3. for the future neither unless it be death there 's the damage of sin no fruit past present or to come but shame and death And all this Ye know says St. Paul as well as I. I appeal to your selves and your own experience What fruit had ye I dare stand to your own confessions I dare make your selves the judges Now sum up the Argument and thus it runs Were there any profit O ye Romans in your trade of sin I might perhaps be thought too hard to press so much upon you to perswade you from it Or though there were no profit yet 2. if there were some credit in it something perhaps might be said for your continuance in it Or though there were neither profit nor credit for the
present yet if 3. there were some good might issue from it for the future or at least the issue not so bad as death somewhat peradventure might be pleaded in the case Or if this 4. were all only in other mens opinions and ye found it otherwise your selves ye might perchance have some excuse at least to go on in sin but to sin when there is neither profit nor credit nor hope nothing good at any time in it neither when 't is past nor while 't is present nor any yet to come but all contrary and we our selves can witness it by sad experience for to our own souls and consciences the Apostle here refers it that so it is when we can shew no good of what we have done are but ashamed of that which can be shewn and can see nothing but death and destruction at our heels after all this to sin still to sin again any sin again we have as little wit one would think in it as fruit of it as much senselesness as shame and are like to make but a sad end when all is done It would be otherwise would we sit down and think upon it Ye are set already set but your thoughts and hearts to ponder and consider what is here set before you the fruitlesness the shame the damage of sin and your own experiences of them all and I shall not doubt but you will make the Application St. Paul would have you of the Text no longer yield your selves servants unto unrighteousness or commit those things whereof ye cannot but presently be ashamed and be next door to be confounded Consider we then first the fruitlesness or unprofitableness of sin see what that will work upon us What fruit had ye then c. What fruit That is no fruit for so such kind of Questions commonly are resolved into the strongest Negatives No fruit then St. Paul means can be shew'd of sin For all fruit is either profitable for use or pleasurable to the taste or ot least delightful to the sight But sin is none of these Nothing so unprofitable so distasteful so ugly and unseemly as sin is so nothing so fruitless For profitable fruit 1. there is none in sin Let 's call those profitable and advantageous sins as men imagine them of fraud covetousness and sacriledge to a reckoning and see what comes in by them Our common Proverb tells us Covetousness brings nothing home The poor and the deceitful man meet together says the sacred Proverb Prov. xxix 13. Even in this sense true that the Deceiver cheats himself and grows poor by his own deceit they meet together thus The Prophet Haggai says 't is but put into a bag with holes that is taken or kept back or but spar'd from the House of God Hag. i. 6. Says Solomon too 'T is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy things dedicated to Gods service Prov. xx 25. And is all the fruit of it all the fruit of Sacriledge come to that to a snare or to a halter Little got by that But whether to that or no to a curse it comes Mal. iii. 9. Ye are cursed with a curse even no less than a whole Nation by it grown tatter'd and poor upon it so far are they from a blessing or enriching by it because 't is Gods blessing only that truly makes us rich Prov. x. 22. and all that is called riches but a curse without it But suppose this sin or any other got what it could desire even the whole World as wide and full and glorious as it is yet What shall it profit a man though says Christ St. Mark viii 36. What fruit has he of it all Less far than He that shall sell all he has or hopes for the point of a Pin or the leg of a Spider He shall not so much as rost that which he has got with all his hunting is as true of him as of the slothful man Prov. xii 27. Of all the fruit that he has gathered he has not it seems so much as to fill his belly But if he should eat of it till his guts crackt he would not thrive upon it no thriving for body or estate when the soul is lost for that thriving is worse than nothing Well yet if there be no profitable fruit of sin is there 2. no pleasurable neither Just as little Examine we the most sensual and delightful sins and they it must be if any yet not they Drunkenness that great voluptuous sin will you behold the goodly fruit it brings For profit it brings none let the Wise man satisfie you Prov. xxiii 29. Who hath woe Who hath sorrow Who hath contentions Who hath babling Who hath wounds without cause Who hath redness of eyes They that tarry long says he at the Wine they that go to seek mixt wine Woe and sorrow and contentions and reproach and wounds and sad mourning eyes at last are the fair fruits and issues of this rare pleasurable wickedness and sure there 's no pleasure in any of these Nay even what it pretends to most it misses The very wine as sweet as it relishes at the first bites at last says Solomon like a Serpent and stings like an Adder ver 32. little pleasure of all its former sweetnesses And as little in any other of those sins of sense which claim most to it The fruit of Gluttony what is it but dulness and unwieldiness gripings vomitings and collicks surfets aches and diseases Of Lust what but rottenness in the very bones and marrow Our very vanities tire and clog us and make us peevish at every trifle Spiritual wickednesses have less pleasure Envy and malice are their own tormentors Pride cannot so much as please it self Ambition is rackt with fears distracted with visits and crucified daily with its own greatness that little-inconsiderable point they intitle pleasure in any of these is no sooner nam'd than it is gone and seldom is where the name is given it But where at the highest so intermixt it is with bitterness and sorrow that you cannot discern it or so quickly follow'd with them that 't is forgotten in a moment Nay that sin which seems now adays to have all the profit pleasure and beauty in it Schism and Division upon the examination will find none They that make Divisions among you says St. Paul they do but serve their own belly Rom. xvi 18. And God shall destroy both it and them 1 Cor. vi 13. What 's gotten then Whatever it is the Kingdom of Heaven is lost by it Gal. v. 21. where 's then the profit pleasure or beauty of it But though there be neither profit nor pleasure no such fruits is there 3. no beauty neither no fair fruits in sin to look upon Are there not so much as the fruits of Sodom they tell us of goodly and and fair to see to without though dust and ashes all within No not so much as such Look again upon the
to wait upon their Lord that had now set them at liberty from the Grave and divulge the greatness and glory of his Resurrection When Moses and Elias appeared upon the holy Mount at Christs transfiguration talking with him St. Luke tells us they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem St. Luke ix 31. And 't is highly credible the discourse of these Saints with those to whom they appeared was of his Resurrection Their going into the City was not meerly to shew themselves nor their appearance meerly to appear but to appear Witnesses and Companions of their Saviours Resurrection Nor is it probable that the Saints whose business is to sing praise and glory to their Lord should be silent at this point of time of any thing that might make to the advancement of his glory Yet you may do well to take notice that it is not to all but to many only that they appeared to such as St. Peter tells us of Christs own appearance after his Resurrection as were chosen before of God witnesses chosen for that purpose Acts x. 41. that we may learn indeed to prize Gods favours yet not all to look for particular revelations and appearances 'T is sufficient for us to know so many Saints that slept arose to tell it that so many Saints that are now asleep St. Peter and the Twelve St. Paul and five hundred brethren at once all saw him after he was risen so many millions have faln asleep in this holy Faith so many slept and died for it that it is thus abundantly testified both by the dead and living both by life and death even standing up and dying for it and a Church raised upon this faith through all the corners of the earth and to the very ends of the world But to know the truth of it is not enough unless we know the benefits of Christs Resurrection they come next to be considered and there is in the words evidence sufficient of four sorts of them 1. The victory over sin and death both the Graves were opened 2. The Resurrection of the soul and body the one in this life the other at the end of it many dead bodies that slept arose 3. The sanctification and glorification of our souls and bodies the dead bodies that arose out of the graves went into the holy City 4. The establishing us both in grace and glory they appeared unto many All these says the Text after his Resurrection by the force and vertue of it Indeed it seems the graves were opened death almost vanquished and the grave near overcome whilst he yet hung upon the Cross before he was taken thence deaths sting taken out by the death of Christ and all the victories of the grave now at an end that it could no longer be a perpetual prison yet for all that the victory was not complete all the Regions of the Grave not fully ransackt nor the forces of it utterly vanquisht and disarm'd nor its Prisoners set at liberty and it self taken and led captive till the Resurrection 'T is upon this Point St. Paul pitches the victory and calls in the Prophets testimony 1 Cor. xv 54. upon this 't is he proclaims the triumph ver 55. O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory even upon the Resurrection of Iesus Christ which he has been proving and proclaiming the whole Chapter through with all its benefits and concludes it with his thanks for this great victory ver 57. So it is likewise for the death and grave of sin the chains of sin were loosed the dominion of it shaken off the Grave somewhat opened that we might see some light of grace through the cranies of it by Christs Passion but we are not wholly set at liberty not quite let out of it the Grave-stone not perfectly removed from the mouth of it till the Angel at the Resurrection or rather the Angel of the Covenant by his Resurrection remove it thence remove our sins and iniquities clean from us 2. Then indeed 2. the dead soul arises then appears the second benefit of his Resurrection then we rise to righteousness and live 1 Pet. ii 24. then we awake to righteousness and sin no more So St. Paul infers it That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father even so should we also walk in newness of life Rom 6. 4. This Resurrection one of the ends of his our righteousness attributed to that as our Redemption to his death From it it comes that our dead bodies arise too Upon that Iob grounds it his Resurrection upon his Redeemers Iob xix 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth well What then Why I know too therefore that though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God The Apostle interweaves our Resurrection with Christs and Christs with ours his as the cause of ours ours as the effect of his a good part of 1 Cor. 15. If Christ be risen then we if we then he if not he not we if not we not he And in the Text 't is evident no rising from the dead how open soever the graves be till after his Resurrection that we may know to what Article of our faith we owe both our deliverance from death and our deliverance into life here in soul and hereafter in our bodies by what with holy Iob to uphold our drooping spirits our mangled martyr'd crazy bodies by the faith of the Resurrection that day the day of the Gospel of good tidings to be remembred for ever 3. So much the rather in that 't is a Day yet of greater joy a messenger of all fulness of grace and glory to us of the means of our sanctification 3. of our rising Saints living the lives of Saints holy lives and of our glorification our rising unto glory both doors opened to us now and not till now liberty and power given us to go into the holy City both this below and that above now after his Resurrection and through it He rose again says St. Paul for our justification Rom. iv 25. to regenerate us to a lively hope blessed be God for it says St. Pet. i. 3. that we might be planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection says St. Paul Rom. vi 5. grow up like him in righteousness and true holiness and when the day of the general Resurrection comes rise then also after his likeness be conformed to his Image bear his Image who is the heavenly as we have born the Image of the earthly our vile body chang'd and fashioned like his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. iii. 21. whereby in the day of his Resurrection he subdued death and grave and sin and all things to him 4. And to shew the power of his Resurrection to the full there is an appearing purchast to us by it an appearing here in the fulness
stench and worms and rottenness then any dead body whatsoever full of infamous and stinking sins worms of conscience and worms of concupiscence rotten resolutions and performances continuance in sin is the sleep of death Holy purposes and resolutions are the rising out of it Walking thenceforward in the ways of righteousness is going into the holy City and the letting our righteousness so shine before men that God may be glorified is the appearing unto many And the order is as like our justification or spiritual Resurrection well resembled by it God first for the merits of Christs Death and Passion breaks ope the stony heart looses the fetters of our sins and lusts all worldly corruptible affections in us opens the mouth of it to confess its sins then the soul rises as it were out of its sleep by the favour of Gods exciting grace and comes out of sin by holy purposes and resolutions resolves presently to amend its courses then next it goes into the holy City by holy action endeavour and performance so goes and manifests its reconcilement to the Church of God and at last makes its Resurrection repentance and amendment evident and apparent to the world to as many as it any where converses with that all may bear witness to it that it is truly risen with Christ now lives with him This the order this the manner of our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of Grace Our second Resurrection to the life of Glory is but this very Resurrection in the Text acted over again As soon as the consummatum est is pronounced upon the world as soon as Christ shall say as he did upon the Cross all is finished the end is come the Arch-Angel shall blow his Trumpet the Graves open the earth and Sea give forth their dead and the dead in Christ shall rise first then they that be alive at his coming For if we believe that Iesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Iesus shall God bring with him 1 Thess iv 14. and they shall come out of their Graves and go into the Holy City the new Ierusalem that is above and there appear and shine like stars for ever Indeed the ungodly and the wicked shall arise too and appear before the great Tribunal but not like these Saints for into the holy City they shall not come Rise and come forth they shall but go away into some place of horror some gloomy valley of eternal sorrow some dark dungeon of everlasting night some den of Dragons and Devils never to appear before God but be for ever hid in the arms of confusion and damnation As for the godly the holy City is prepared for them for us if we be like them Saints and Angels are the inhabitants of this holy City no room there for any other if our bodies then be the bodies of holy Saints then into the holy City with them and not else no part in the new Ierusalem if no part in the old no portion above if none below no place there with Angels if no communion here with Saints no happiness in heaven if no holiness on earth They are the bodies of the Saints you hear that go into the holy City they that rise from the sleep of sin and awake to righteousness that rise from the dust of death to the rays of glory And this now may hint us of our duty to close with them for the close of all It has been shewed before what is the first Resurrection without which there is no second namely a life of holiness a dying to sin and a living unto God And this is a Resurrection we are not meerly passive in as in the other We must do somewhat here towards our own Resurrection at least to finish it We must open our mouths which are too often what David stiles the wicked mans throat even open Sepulchres and by confession send out our dead our dead works confessing our iniquities we must awake out of our sins and arise and stand up by holy vows and resolutions rear up our heads and eyes and hearts and hands to heaven seek those things that are above if we be risen with Christ get up upon our feet and be walking the way of Gods commandments walking to him get us into the holy City to the holy place make our humble appearance there express the power of Christs Resurrection in our life attend him through all the parts of it all our life long This the great business we are now going to requires of us more particularly to come to it like new rais'd bodies that had now shaken off all their dust all dusty earthly thoughts laid aside their Grave-cloths all corrupt affections that any way involv'd them and stood up all new all fitly composed for the holy City drest up in holiness and newness of life thus come forth to meet our new risen Saviour and appear before him This the way to meet the benefits of his Passion and Resurrection for coming so with these Saints out of their Graves Christs Grave also shall open and give him to us the Cup and Patine wherein his body lies as in a kind of Grave shall display themselves and give him to us the Spirit of Christ shall raise and and advance the holy Elements into lively Symbols which shall effectually present him to us and he will come forth from under those sacred shadows into our Cities our Souls and Bodies if they be holy and his grace and sweetness shall appear to many of us to all of us that come in the habit of the Resurrection in white Robes with pure and holy hearts Here indeed of all places and this way above all ways we are likeliest to meet our Lord now he is risen and gone before us this the chief way to be made partakers of his Resurrection and the fittest to declare both his Death and Resurrection the power of them till his coming again And to declare and speak of them is the very duty of the day the very Grave this day with open mouth professes Christ is risen and gives praise for it that it is no longer a land of darkness but has let in light no longer a bier of death but a bed of sleep But shall thy loving kindness O Lord be known in the dark or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee yes holy Prophet they shall they did to day and if his loving kindness shall not be known in the dark the dark places shall become light now the sun of righteousness has risen upon them But shall the dead rise up again and praise him and shall not we shall the graves open and shall not our hearts be opened to receive him nor our mouths to praise him for it Was it the business of the dead Saints to day to rise to wait upon their Lord and shall not the living rise to bear them company shall the whole City ring of it out
of dead mens mouths and shall not our Cities and Temples resound of it shall they tell the wonders of the day and we neither mind the day nor wonders of it surely some evil will befal us as said the Lepers at the Gates of Samaria if we hold our peace 'T is a day of good of glorious tidings and we must not lest the Grave in indignation shut her mouth upon us and the holy City bar us out Open we then our mouths to day and sing praises to him who made the day made it a joyful day indeed the very seal of happiness unto us Open we our mouths and take the cup of salvation as the Prophet calls it the cup of thanksgiving the Apostle stiles it and call upon the name of the Lord. Open our mouths now as the grave and he will fill them Open our mouths as the grave and be not satisfied give not over our prayers until he do Raise we all our thoughts and desires and endeavours to entertain him go which way he shall send us appear what he would have us attend him whither soever he shall lead us and when he himself shall appear he will lead our souls out of the death of sin to the life of righteousness our bodies out of the dust of death into the land of life both souls and bodies into the holy City the new Ierusalem where there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying nor any more pain but all tears shall be wip'd away all joys come into our hearts and eyes and we sing merrily and joyfully all honour and glory be unto him that hath redeemed us from death and raised us to life by the power and vertue of his Resurrection All blessing and glory and praise and honour and power be unto him with the Father and Holy Spirit for ever and ever THE THIRD SERMON UPON Easter Day PSAL. CXViii 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made We will rejoyce and be glad in it THis is the day which the Lord hath made And if ever day made to rejoyce and be glad in this is the day And the Lord made it made it to rejoyce in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as holy Ignatius a day of days not only a high day as the Iewish Easter St. Ioh. xix 31. but the highest of high days highest of them all A Day in which the Sun it self rejoyced to shine came forth like a Bridegroom in the robes and face of joy and rejoyced like a Giant with the strength and violence of joy exultavit leapt and skipt for joy to run his course Psal. xix 5. as if he never had seen day before only a little day spring from on high as old Zachary saw and sung never full and perfect day the Kingdom and power of darkness never fully and wholly vanquished till this morning light till this day-star or this day's Sun arose till Christ rose from the grave as the Sun from his Eastern bed to give us light the light of grace and the light of glory light everlasting And this Suns rising this Resurrection of our Lord and Master entitles it peculiarly the Lords making This day of the week from this day of our Lords Resurrection stil'd Lords Day ever since And of this day of the Resurrection the Fathers the Church the Scriptures understand it Not one of the Fathers says that devout and learned Bishop Andrews that he had read and he had read many but interpret it of Easter day The Church picks out this Psalm to day as a piece of service proper to it This very verse in particular was anciently used every day in Easter week evidence enough how she understood it And for the Scriptures The two verses just before The stone which the builders refused the same is become the head of the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes to which this day comes in presently and refers applied both of them by Christ himself unto himself in three several places St. Mat. xxi 42. St. Mar. xii 10. St. Luk. xx 17 rejected by the builders in his Passion made 〈◊〉 head of the corner in his Resurrection the first of the verses applied again twice by St. Peter Acts iv 10. and 1 Pet. ii 7. to the Resurrection For these doings these marvelous doings a day was made made to remember it and rejoyce in it as in the chiefest of his marvelous works And being such let us do it Let not the Jews out-do us let not them here rejoyce more in the figure than we in the substance they in the shadow than we in the Sun 'T is now properly Sunday this day ever since a day lighted upon on purpose for us by the Sun himself to see wonderful things in and as wonderfully to rejoyce in Abraham saw this day of Christs as well as Christmas St. Ioh. viii 56. saw it in Isaacs rising from under his hand from death as in a figure says the Apostle Heb. xi 19. saw it and was glad to see it exceeding glad as much at least to see Christ and Isaac delivered from death as delivered in to life Abrahams children all the faithful will be so too to see the day when ere it comes It now is come by the circle of the year let us rejoyce and be glad in it I require no more of you than is plainly in the Text to confess the day and express the joy Both are here as clear as day Dies Gaudii Gaudium Diei A day of joy the joy of the day Easter day and Easter joy A day made and joy made on it A day ordained and joy appointed God making the day we making the joy upon it Or if you please Ordo Diei Officium Diei An Order for the day and an Office for the day The Order for the day This is the day which the Lord hath made order'd and ordain'd The Office for it We will or let us rejoyce and be glad in it Exultemus laetemur An office of thanksgiving and joy ordained and taken up upon it The first is Gods doings the second ours And ours order'd to follow his our duty his day the Lords day requires sure the Servants duty Both together Gods day and mans duty make up the Text and must the Sermon But I take my rise from the days rising The Lords order for the day This is the day which the Lord hath made Wherein we have 1. The Day design'd 2. The Institution made 3. the Preeminence given it 4. The Institutor exprest 5. The ground intimated 6. The End annext This is designs the day Gods making that institutes it The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the The gives it the Preeminence the Lord is the institutor The ground is understood in the This this day when that was done that went before ver 22. and the End by the annexing joy and gladness to it Of these particularly and in order then of the
sinneth not 1 John v. 18. He is able with Simeon to break all the cords of it to smite all such Philistims before him when this Spirit comes upon him Nor Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature can overcome him Rom. viii 38. Over all these he is more than Conquerour Those things which before we were regenerate seem'd impossible when we are once born again are light and easie we can do any thing then through his Spirit that dwelleth in us Stablish us once with this free Spirit and 't is not cold or nakedness hunger or thirst wearisome journeys or dangerous shipwracks stripes or imprisonments racks or gibbets fire or faggot that can force us from our hold or over-power us This very Spirit upholds us in all our pains and at length blows away every thing that troubles or offends us Nor is this Spirit only a Spirit of Power but 2. of Liberty also and where the Spirit is there there is Liberty says St. Paul 2. Cor. 3. 17. that is he that has it is free too Free he is 1. from the bondage of Moses Law redeem'd from under that Gal. iv 5 6. Free 2. though not from the Obligations yet from the Rigours of the Moral Law Gal. iii. 13. Rom. vii 6. Free 3. from Sin made free from that Rom. vi 18. from the Dominion of it Free 4. from the Captivity of the Devil recovered out of his snares 2 Tim. ii 26. Free lastly from the Dominion of Death the sting of it is lost the victory of it gone 1 Cor. xv 55. So is every one free that is born of the Spirit Well may now his fame go out into all the World and his name into all the corners of the earth And indeed it does so in the next words in the next Point of the similitude Thou hearest the sound thereof Evident it is and evident it is to any heard it may be and any one may hear it Thou and Thou and Thou every Thou that will Evident it is first The Spirit is not a fancy nor are the Operations of it so neither The Spirit though it cannot be seen it self yet something there is of it that may be heard heard somewhat of it by the hearing of the ear the effects not always in the understanding only these very ears we carry are oft refresht with the sound of it our very senses sensible of the strength and power of it And he that tells us of grace or Religion all within of so serving God in the Spirit that neither our own nor other bodies are the better for it or shew any signs of it has turn'd his Religion and Devotion into air and imagination and not to Spirit By his fruits you shall know as well the spiritual man as the Prophet Nor has he secondly one peculiar ear-mark one tone and canting Dialect to discern him by He that is born of the Spirit is a free and noble and generous Spirit uses a Language that every body may understand 'T is not the Mystery of the Spirit but the Mystery of Iniquity that thus invelops it self in a private and affected Phrase which sounds 't is to be fear'd the Spirit of Schism Singularity and Rebellion and not of Love and Peace And yet as plain a sound as the Spirits is it is not lastly without some obscurity but that is not of the sound that 's plain and open but of the motion and course of which we may have leave to be ignorant and in many things can be no other That 's the last point wherein the Spirit and spiritual man are like Thou canst no more tell whence or whither those great things the regenerate man acts are than whence the wind or Spirit comes or whither it goes 4. But that so it is the amazements and doubts that this Day possessed those who were the witnesses of the wonders of this days work and their several judgments and conjectures concerning the Apostles this day filled with this holy Spirit will make it without question Some said What meaneth this Others said mocking these men are full of new wine All were amazed and in doubt Acts ii 12 13. The Apostles seem'd such strange things to them now since the Holy Ghost had faln upon them that they knew not new what to make of them or of any thing they did In the progress afterward of their lives and courses they were as little understood as much misconstrued by the world They were thought fools and mad-men when most wise and sober Acts xxvi 24. condemn'd for wicked when they were most innocent reckon'd the scum and off-scouring of the world 1 Cor. iv 13. when they were the Treasures and Jewels of it judg'd as dying when they only truly liv'd accounted sorrowful yet were always rejoycing esteemed poor yet so far from being so that they made many rich thought to have nothing and yet possessed all things 2 Cor. vi 9 10. So it was then so it always was so it ever will be The World will never never can conceive the nature and way of him that is born of the Spirit 1 Cor. ii 14. We know not what to make even of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text whether to read it born or begotten for 't is both and how he should be both by the same Spirit or how the same Spirit should be both Father and Mother to him we cannot tell How he is begotten by the Spirit how he is new born the ways of his brith the ways of his life the way of his death how he is wrought and form'd and moulded out of his old stiff stubborn temper into mildness and softness how the old man is mortified in all his members how the new man rises and grows in all his parts how he resists so many strong temptations how he can so chearfully renounce the World how he can so wholly deny himself how he can so merrily pursue a troublesome and despised vertue why he should do all this when there appears nothing but trouble sorrow and disadvantage by it are all mysteries so obscure and dark that night it self is mid-day to them Nor is it less to see with what calmness and contentedness he passes hence through pains and tortures nor can we conceive the glory and happiness that attends him Thus is the spiritual Heroe's life and death a mystery so far above the apprehension of dull-ey'd earth that it knows no more of its course or motion than it does of the winds neither what it is nor whence it comes nor whither it goes But after all these mysteries I end in plainness 'T is a Day indeed as well as a Text of mysteries and wonders but both Day and Text and Wind and Spirit will be all satisfied if they can leave these plain Lestons upon our Spirits That 1. we now get us up with Elijâ—h 1 King xix