Titius his liver devoured by vultures of the continual turning of Ixions wheel and the rolling of Sisiphus his stone or of those infernal Furies ready to torment those whom Charon should waft over and Ridentem dicere verum quis vetat even these mythological expressions hold some proportion with the truth But I will draw my water out of a purer fountain surely it must needs be an ill-favoured brat that is born of two such hideous Monsters the Devil the father and corrupt nature the mother it must needs be terrible that is the wages for such work so contrary to God and goodnesse Death is nothing but a privation of life and a subjecting the creature to those miseries which are contrary to the comforts of life And by life we do not onely understand the conjunction of soul and body but all that perfection and blisse which was either actually conferred unto man or to be communicated to him so that in this monosyllable is contained the whole world hell with all the torments of that earth with all the miseries therein But is there any death in heaven Surely it is a death to lose heaven and it contains that also so that look how variously sin reflects on God so do his judgments on us that we may read our sin in the judgment But that I may proceed orderly I will borrow a distinction of Philo Lib. leg alleg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a death of the man and a death of the soul the first is a separation of soul and body the second a deserting of vertue and assuming of sin But all misery is called by the name of death because of all death is most unavoidable most bitter Death in regard of the kind is either corporal or spiritual Death Corporal Sen. which kinds are to be considered in degrees inchoation In regard of inchoation and perfection both which kinds are to be considered in regard of losse and pain You shall dye that is a corporal death in regard of inchoation for in this we are mistaken that we look forward upon death whereas a great part of it is already past in hoc enim fallimur quod mortem prospicimus magna pars ejus jam praeteriit Death is behind us a great part of it the life of to day is the death of yesterday We dye daily Every little publick or personal crosse is a petty death and a harbenger sent by that insatiable enemy of humane nature to take possession of his right Thus you shall lose the good temperature of body inwardly and outwardly all those comforts of nature whereby life is maintained in a word true dominion over the creatures that in regard of losse Either you shall lose the world or have it with a curse your table shall become a snare and so some even dye with laughing with a pleasant gale of wind are carried upon rocks and sands pampered in fat pastures for destruction and carried down the pleasant River Jordan into the Dead Sea In regard of sense inwardly ye shall be perplexed with grief and sorrow and wearinesse outwardly with famine pestilence sword both wayes with ten thousand calamities as waves of the Sea coming in the neck one of another which as they be vexatious in themselves so certainly shall they be unto you insomuch that your life shall be an hard apprentiship groaning daily under the iron yoke of bondage Ye shall dye And Consummation that is a natural death in regard of consummation This inexorable Sergeant that rides on the pale horse will ere long knock at your door and by violence pull your soul out of that Tabernacle of clay when the soul shall be kept in chaines of darknesse till the judgment of that great day and the body in the grave as in a loathsome dung-hill till that general Assize In regard of losse here is a deprivation of life and all that supports it meat drink apparel society and all the comforts of nature and though there be no poena sensûs in the body which is kept in that hideous prison yet there is in the soul Luk. 16.25 for the glutton cryes Crucior in hac flamma nay and it may be this accursed corporal death will take you away in the acting of your sin with Zimri and Cosbi so that you shall not live out half your dayes but be haled to execution as soon as your crimes are committed and it may be before you go feel the very flames of hell in your soules as Cain and Judas did But this natural death of the body though horrid unto nature Death spiritual in regard of inchoation yet it 's nothing to the spiritual death of the soul that being a more excellent creature and having a more eminent life To proceed then that is spiritually in regard of inchoation God shall be separated from your soul the light of his countenance shall not shine upon you the understanding being full of darknesse the heart of uncleannesse the conscience void of serenity the whole soul out of order full of confusion destitute of true comfort In regard of sense a servitude and subjection of the soul to your spiritual enemies and the powers of darknesse made a vassal unto Satan who worketh effectually in such a slave to the world which is the devils slave yea unto sin which is worse then the world or the devil In which regard it comes to passe though a man retain that natural liberty of his will which is essential to it and cannot be lost yet that liberty which pertaineth to the perfection of humane nature to exercise acts spiritually good and so savingly acceptable unto God this is utterly lost man being dead in sins and trespasses and the uncircumcision of his heart But all these are but the beginnings of sorrowes And of consummation or eternall death that which is here principally meant is the consummation of spiritual death And now had I but the keyes of hell and death to shew unto your bodily eyes a glimpse of that infernal fire and those hideous monsters that dwell in those horrid vaults I should either lose my auditory or it may be so prevail with some that they would beware how they came into that place of torment But I desire that my speech may work in you such fear of those paines that you never feel them and that you may be terrified so now that hereafter you may be secure consider what Abraham saito to the rich glutton Son remember We likely remember it not till it be too late and therefore smart for it because we do not remember it You shall dye then that is first immediately when your soul and body are parted your soules shall be haled by the Devil into that place of torment St. August speaking of the rich glutton saith The soul likewise grieves when separate from the body for verily the rich man grieved in hell when he said I am tormented in this
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfruitful works Of Elements none so fruitful as water stinking puddles bring forth most troops of vermine Some grounds yield two crops every year some trees bear fruit twice this all the year some creatures breed every moneth this every moment and these brats are even conceived and born at once How many kinds are there of sins and how many millions of each kind Gal. 5.21 There is some of the progeny it is progenies viperarum all those irregular thoughts affections words and actions that passe from a man come from hence Now this body hath its activenesse from the parents the father is the devil a compasser the soul the mother in perpetual motion and agitation Now his own will enticeth him to these deeds and he that is wilfully bent upon a thing who can stay him The Devil continually spurs him on and he must needs go whom the Devil drives he is further provoked by the world by the men of the world their perswasion as Solomon their threats as Nebuchadnezzar their promises as Balaam their example as Jeroboam by the things of the world there is at least a seeming lustre in the object that doth allure Bathsheba's beauty the rich wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment When the Vessel sailes with the tide and the sailes blown with such a gale it must needs go apace There are deeds of the body which are natural to eat drink sleep voluntary to walk c. but these are motus opera carnis peccatricis these are they that must be mortified that is the second thing in the duty Mortifie The body of death must be slain that we may live What it is to mortifie Thus if we will become wise we must first be fooles if rich and have a Kingdome poor in spirit if free put our necks under Christs yoke if save our life first lose it if have a true being old men must be born again if have the life of grace here and glory hereafter first kill our sinful selves To mortifie is a Metaphor taken from Chirurgeons that use to mortifie that part they mean to cut off so we must mortifie sin that it may not live or if it live such a life as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off or as in those that have an Epilepsie Rom. 4.19 or as in old Abrahams body which was as good as dead unfit for generation The efficacy and power of these lusts must be slain that they produce not new Monsters and so bring forth fruit unto death that is as Cajetan tells us insur gentes compescendo ne insurgant domando so mortifie them that they make no rebellion or if they do make insurrection beat them down that they domineer not So much for the second thing the act I come now to the causes The efficient cause principal the Spirit The principal is the Spirit By the Spirit here to omit other acceptations we understand either the grace of the Spirit or the Spirit of grace If the former then so far forth as it is enlivened and actuated by the latter The Spirit dwells in all creatures by a general influence in Christ by hypostatical union in some men by creating in them extraordinary gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the elect by effectual operation And if the essence of the Spirit be in us it is in us not as an essential part that were to deify man nor united personally unto us for then should the third person be incarnate as well as the second but dwelling in Christ as the head in an unspeakable manner diffused unto us Thus the devil dwells in the children of disobedience not by communicating his essence to them for then they should be incarnate devills but taking possession of them as his vassals blinding their minds hardening their hearts infusing malice into their wills leading them captive till at the last he bring them to the pit of destruction But hath man the command of the Spirit But the Spirit and Gods Ordinances are not separated unlesse for our fault But is the Spirit our instrument No but we the Spirits for God infuseth into us this supernatural principle whereby we are inabled to work and then quickeneth it up by moral perswasion But how doth the Spirit mortifie It 's that light that doth detect those deeds of the body it 's contrary to them and stirs up hatred against them it 's the Spirit of grace which makes us pray against them it 's our remembrance that brings to our mind the Scripture that declares the odiousnesse and danger of them it 's the mighty power of God that crusheth these brats in pieces it 's that which doth co-operate with the Word and prayer and tears and affliction and fasting whereby the flesh is beaten down That the Spirit worketh we evidently feel but how we cannot certainly define for if the operation of the wind the framing of the body in the womb be so strange much more that of the Spirit The lesse-principal cause We. The lesse-principal We. The Spirit quickens us being dead and being quickened we must act by the Spirit In the receiving the first grace man is a meer passive habet se ut materia in the second partly active partly passive active we must mortify passive for it must be by the Spirit and as St. Aug. Gratia non credit non resipiscit non sperat non obtemperat Deo sed homo per gratiam Grace believes not repents not hopes not obeys not God but man by grace So we say Spiritus non mortificat sed homo per Spiritum The Spirit mortifies not but man by the Spirit that we might not be proud or self confident not we but the Spirit that we might not be slothful or negligent we must do it by the Spirit that we might avoid all straines of Popery and Pelagianism it is the Spirit which quickens us at the first and doth continually send us fresh supplies against the flesh that we might not be taken with the idle fancies or doting dreames and crotchets of the Familists we must mortifie by the Spirit As we cannot mortifie without the Spirit so the Spirit will not without us Ye shall live Having now done with the duty What life here meant we come to the reward and what is better then life God is pleased to be stiled a living God This is that which every eye looks at every heart breaths after in which the vastest desire is satisfied beyond which the mind knowes nothing nor the will desires any thing that might make it happy By life here we do not understand the uncreated life of God but the created life of man which is twofold corporal the union of the soul with the body spiritual the union of God with the soul Indeed there is a natural life of the soul like that of Angels in which sense damned spirits may be said to live this was the eternity the
Philosophers knew of So Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. de an c. 5. this being concreated with the soul cannot be taken away but by annihilating of it The soul considered spiritually may be dead while it thus lives if it be separated from God in regard of holinesse and happinesse We will briefly see what this includes Ye shall live that is ye shall not dye and how happy would the damned spirits think themselves if they might not dye though they might not live that indeed they might not be at all rather then so miserable Ye shall live That is a happy life here Natural a natural life full of joy and comfort Godlinesse which includes mortification hath the promise of this life our cloathes shall warm us our food nonrish us Though men out of Covenant have a right to these if they come by them lawfully yet a sanctified use they have not but by vertue of the Covenant as our cloaths receive heat from us and then warm us You shall live when you die and death shall be as the port after all the tossings and tumults of this life the Physician that cures all diseases the point that puts a period to all our labours it 's the reward of piety at the least an entrance into that reward and the birth-day of eternity the end of our sorrow the way to our Countrey the beginning of glory a general antidote for all aggrievances God is their God while they live in the grave and hath engaged his Word to restore them at the last day Joh. 11. He that believeth in me shall live though he dye and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never dye Vitam non eripit sed intermittit But the spiritual life of a Christian is that which is most excellent Spiritual of grace and that flowes from the union of God with the soul distinguished into degrees the first from conversion to the time of death when God by his Spirit breathes on the dead lump of sin and clay and makes it a glorious creature after his own Image Joh. 5.24 This is called the life of God Eph. 4.18 because it comes from God as the fountain insomuch that he doth live in them and if God be at all the life and soul of the world as the Platonists say it is meant of Christians principally The entrance into this life is through the gate of regeneration this parallells that vitam plantae and that first degree of natural life in the womb Ye shall live That is the life of grace Secondly Ye shall live Of glory the life of glory in the first degree from the death of the body to the resurrection of it When the body sleepeth in the grave sweetned by Christs burial the soul shall be carried by the ministery of Angels into Abrahams bosome Luk. 16.22 Though there be not in this estate a plenary consummation of happinesse 1 Tim. 4.8 Apcc. 6.9 yet the Spirit returnes to God Eccles 12.7 to Christ Phil. 1.23 it rests from labour is in comfort so it was said of Lazarus Luk. 16.25 to Paradise so to the thief Matth. 24.32 Luk. 23.43 Without doubt with great solemnity and joy do the holy Saints and Angels receive the soul into heaven into this degree we enter by the gate of death and it parallels the life of an animal and the second degree of natural life in men from the birth till they come to the use of reason In the second degree you shall live the life of glory in regard of the consummation of it from the day of the resurrection to all eternity enjoying the full vision and fruition of God where you shall see God sitting on his throne in inaccessible light and Jesus Christ sitting on his right hand with an innumerable company of Saints and Angels attending on him all shining as the Sun in the Firmament where all sorrow ceaseth for ever and a confluence of all desirable happinesse It may be some will enquire what our conversation shall be there for your meat and drinke there is Angels food a tree of life for your apparel long white robes of righteousnesse for your musicke a quire of Angels riches and glory are in this place the house is made of gold and the pavements of precious stones As for honour every man shall be a king and reigne in blisse and for delight at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore for knowledge we shall see face to face and for liberty the body shall be made spiritual Siquidem ubi volet spiritus ibi erit corpus In a word they shall enjoy God in whom is eminently contained all persection and glory If a little earthly glory amaze as it did Herod what will that above do If there be such glory in Gods footstoole what is there in his throne Si tanta nobis tribuis in carcere quid dabis in patria Si tanta tribuis inimicis quid amicis If O Lord thou givest us so much in the land of our pilgrimage what wilt thou give us in our own countrey if so much to thine enemies what wilt thou give to thy friends The Hebrews report how truely I know not that when Joseph had gathered much corne in Aegypt he threw the chaffe into the river Nilus that so floating to the neighbour-Cities and Nations they might know what abundance was laid up not for themselves alone but for their neighbours also so God to make us know what glory is in heaven hath thrown some huskes to us here that so tasting the sweetnesse of these things we might asspire to his bounty above And surely if the outward pavement of the base Court doth so glitter with stars what is there within Though we cannot measure the content of the soule by the outside of the house no more then you can measure the comforts of a Christian by the gay outside of a Church If I should undertake a full relation of this my muddy expressions would cloud it from you more then declare it therefore I leave it to your apprehension as a thing beyond expression yea beyond conceit while we dwell in these houses of clay If Moses his face did shine with conversing with God if the Disciples were so ravished in the transfiguratiou if S. Paul that saw not all saw more then he could utter and if the soules of Gods people are filled with unspeakable joy and satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse that see and enjoy God but in part here obscurely there is somthing transcendent in the perfect vision and fruition of God These little baites serve to stay our stomacks till we come to that glorious repast Aug. l. 4. de civil Dâ—â— Aug. Quod Deus praepara vit diligentibus fide non accipitur spe non attingitur charitate non comprehenditur acquiri potest aestimari non potest Faith cannot comprehend hope cannot reach charity cannot fathome what God hath prepared for those that love
yet he may set up his sailes and turn them into the wind When we have received the Spirir we are the instruments of the Spirit yet not passive ones but as servants that work by the direction of their Masters as the body works being enabled by the soul We are not saved altogether as we were created He made us not we our selves so he saveth us not we our selves that is as of our selves but being enabled by his Spirit and thus though it be true that he works in us both the will and the deed yet it is as true that we must work out our own salvation A silly Countrey-fellow once bought Orpheus his harp and thought it would make melody of it self without the touch of a skilful hand so do these men think of the Spirit that it will work in them though they be idle resist or quench the Spirit and turn the grace of God into wantonnesse thus making God the cause of their sins if not an efficient at least a deficient and they think they have done as much good and omitted as much evil as God by his grace enabled them I must tell our superstitious Baalites that this mortification Non fit per disciplinam Monasticam aut Baaliticam lanienam corporis sed per Spiritum resistentem operibus carnis is not done by Monastical discipline or by Baalitical cutting of the body but by the Spirit opposing and resisting the deeds of the body Though a man fast till he faint and dye cover himself with sackcloth day and night though he beat himself black and blue endure heat and cold as much as the body will bear not suffer their eyes to sleep or eye-lids to slumber it 's not their solitary caves or tedious pilgrimages many that do so nourish pride vain-glory self-confidence but it 's the Spirit of God and yet the Spirit useth other instruments The Word of God as a two edged-sword cuts the throat of our corruptions in prayer we lay them open to God presse him with his promise and get grace and assistance from him in voluntary chastning our selves ordinarily by sobriety in meat drink apparel recreation extraordinarily by prayer fasting weeping we do as it were with Gods plough soften our hard hearts and so extinguish this fire by withholding combustible matter or by those that are imposed by God In the former we take up our crosse in this it 's laid upon us In the one we turn without in this with a bridle in our jawes But the Spirit must diffuse it self through all these to make them effectual and without it these bodily exercises profit little the flesh will still recalcitrare therefore Monasticks and Anchorites have found corruption as strong in the Cloyster as in the Court in the Cell as in the City He that will not humble his body cannot will not humble his soul but he that humbleth his body without the soul loseth his labour Yea For Exhortation with your good leave I must tell the best man here that it is not enough that he hath begun well but he must go on So the Apostle writes to converted Romans so we speak to converted Christians you have done it Sacramentally make good your vow you have done it in profession let your practice be answerable you have done it really but it 's but in part continue in well-doing A good progresse and conclusion is necessary to life as a good beginning Take heed of beginning in the Spirit and ending in the flesh They that think they are mortified enough must mortifie that proud conceit or perhaps they will come short of life And for Catharists that boast of absolute perfection their reward shall be they lead themselves into a fools Paradise By all this which hath been said we may verifie that of our Saviour Matth. 6.14 Heaven it spued out the Angels that sinned and will not lick up the Devils vomit again But though it be difficult yet not impossible therefore I would not discourage any It 's easie to a spiritual man and me thinks the benefit should take away the difficulty Look unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith But alas these joyes are farre off and serve but little or else the taste of the world spoiles our relish Our teeth are so set on edge with these apples of Sodom that we cannot taste the fruit of the tree of life See what there is in the Text to encourage us 1. It 's but the deeds of the body to be mortified those which we may well spare God commands us not to destroy any faculty of the soul either to hurt the understanding or dull the apprehension or overload the memory or clog the conscience not to kill the body or consume the spirits by a dull austere melancholy not to destroy the forme or feature of it Religion it depriveth us of nothing that brings true pleasure or profit Adam in innocency glorified Saints and Angels God himself hath transcendent happinesse to which nothing can be added yet it 's the unhappinesse of some to think they cannot be merry unlesse they are mad nor happy except sinful that mortification abridgeth them of true delight Again these must but be mortified not utterly abolished We cannot abolish them to have no being but onely mortifie them that they do not reign so that while sin doth not prevail but thou groanest under the reliques of corruption God will accept thee and that thou mayest do this he gives thee his own Spirit to enable thee to the work offers thee a Crown of glory at the end of thy labour Surely if he had commanded thee a greater matter upon such termes wouldst thou not have done it What remaineth then but that we set about the work chearfully I exhort you all to be happy The fulnesse of glory will answer all the difficulties I can say no more Mortifie and you shall live If you will not kill you must be killed God hath proclaimed these deeds Traytors they have shed the blood of Christ done all the mischief in the world and in a word will undo our soules How can we but with indignation see strumpets more carefull to adorne their bodies then we our soules St. Augustine mournes to see Arius take more paines to go to hell then he could do to go to heaven How can we endure to see a Papist take more paines to scourge his body an earth-worme macerate himselfe to get wealth an adulterer dance attendance to fulfil his lust and yet in the mean time we do nothing to get to heaven Go home then with shame in thy countenance fasting weeping and mourning with anger indignation and holy revenge looke on that heart of thine that hath offered such indignity to heaven by an holy Anathema deliver that flesh of thine to Satan smite on thy thigh with Ephraim on thy breast with the Publican weep with David rivers of tears because others keep not Gods Law and weep bitterly with Peter
some say that either know not what they speak or will not know But howsoever it is in the Theory unlesse I much mistake both sides meet in the Practice If any man should aske me concerning the decree of election and reprobation Predestination here is a counterpane of it in my text I will not say this is Gods whole decree I dare say no secret decree contradicts it We need not climbe up into heaven then to see whether God smile or frowne nor wrest open his Cabinet to see what secrets are there Things revealed belong to us if our names be written here then infallibly are they there If we finde them not here certainely they are not there I say then leave disputing about election and labour to make your calling and election sure Begin at the bottome of the ladder and adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. Thus our Saviour stifles such a controversie Master shall many be saved Strive to enter in at the strait gate But what shall this man do Follow thou me Let no man comfort himselfe with any illusion or affright himselfe with any fatall destiny If ye live after c. This is Gods Word and by this we must be judged at the last day For the second Controversie Whether Redemption be universal I say to that man Though Christ died for all men as one side affirm yet if thou live after the flesh thou shalt dye notwithstanding the purchase of so precious a redemption sufficient in it self though not effectual unto thee through thine own perversenesse or if but for some few as the other side affirm if thou mortify the deeds of the body thou art one that shall surely live For the third and fourth The manner of receiving grace the manner of receiving grace One side say it doth infallibly and necessarily work at such a time and not before the other that through our perversenesse we may turn the grace of God into wantonnesse Both agree in this that a man may be saved grace must be received and improved The Spirit is the principal cause but we must co-operate We are not able of our selves to think a good thought our sufficiency is from him Hence St. Paul I live yet that he might not seem to usurp any of the honour checks himself yet not I. So we say We must mortify yet not we but the Spirit not we as the principal cause but the Spirit not the Spirit as the solitary cause but we by the Spirit let us look to it that the work be done and then we shall not miscarry For the last which is perseverance one side saith we shall infalliblly stand Perseverance and as possible for Christ to fall out of heaven as a Saint from Christ the other side that God will not forsake us unlesse we forsake him and gives us grace sufficient that we may not fall but doth not so infallibly hold us up but we may fall Both sides affirm perseverance to be necessary unto life and the conscionable use of means to perseverance Take heed then that there be not in any of you at any time an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God and that this may never befal thee put on the whole armour of God that thou mayest stand in the evil day Thus the Prophet Ezek. 18. justifies God in his proceedings and makes the people wary So the Apostle writing here to Saints and if any of you whom in charity I judge to be converted would hear any thing from me concerning perseverance I will answer you in the words of my text If ye live after c. Thus if a man in a modest humility receive the known truth in the love of it and so love it as to practise it his end shall certainly be blessed And now behold Deut. 30.15 The Conclusion this day I have set before you life and death good and evil blessing and cursing There are but two estates in this life and two after proportionably Some here walk after the flesh but they shall dye the delight is present but momentany the pain is future but eternal some here by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body and they shall live hereaftes The task here is sharp and present but momentany the reward future but glorious and eternal Were it not for that which followes Ye shall dye it were a brave thing to live after the flesh were it not for that which followes Ye shall live nothing more tedious then to mortify the deeds of the body Wisdome now will soon deride the controversie and pitch upon her choice and inheritance so glorious so durable though it be future and the entrance so difficult is to be preferred to a life of sinne though it had in it never so much pleasure or profit being momentany and seconded with eternal wo. It 's the fools voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me to day take to morrow to thy self But if notwithstanding what hath been said he shall still walk in the waies of his own heart all the curses in Gods book shall fall on him God will blot out his name from under heaven and in heaven out of the book of life so that in no place he shall be found but in hell But every man here seems to choose life in that he comes to hear that Gospel which is the Word of life Oh they make it not the savor of death to death Labour then by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body so shall you live many Halcion daies here upon earth and when you dye the Angels shall carry your soules into Paradise while your bodies repose themselves in their graves as a bed of down till the Lord of Glory shall return to judg both quick and dead where the body being raised and reunited to the soul both soul and body shall live in the perpetual vision and fruition of God To which glory he for his mercy bring us who hath so dearly bought us even Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed all honour glory praise thanksgiving and obedience from this time forth and for evermore FINIS
two men in the field two women grinding the one taken the other left you have his broad way that leadeth to destruction the way of the flesh and many there be that walk that way the other the narrow way that leads to life to mortifie the deeds of the body and few there be that find it For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. Which words to avoid needlesse curiosity admit of a threefold consideration The words variously considered 1. We may consider them absolutely and so they contain two conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely the one a Commination If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye the second a Consolation If ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 2. We may note them in their antithesis or opposition 2 In their antithesis Though the wicked be destroyed yet it shall go well with the righteous intimated in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but and though the wicked perish as dung yee it shall go well with the righteous and contrà there is and ever will be an opposition 3. In their coherence intimated in the illation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which briefly lyeth thus 3 In their coherence There are two things which molest a Christian that is justified the reliques of sin which he thinks cannot stand with Justification and Sanctification and the afflictions of this life which seem repugnant both to the mercy and Justice of God The Apostle in this Chapter prescribeth an antidote for both giveth both comfort and counsel for afflictions the comfort is that they shall work our good here augment our glory hereafter and the counsel inferred therefore to be patient under them and make good use of them for sin though it do remain yet it shall not condemn unlesse it raign that is the comfort and his counsel and therefore let it not raign but mortifie it and in this verse he layes down a twofold Argument to incite Christians to embrace that counsel For if ye live after the flesh c. The first is taken from the pernicious consequent of a carnal life the second from a sweet effect of a spiritual For if ye live after the flesh c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. First then to handle the words absolutely as two distinct conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely considered and 〈…〉 two parts a Comminâ—tâ—on and Câ—nâ—olâ—tion If ye live c. and here perversum aliquid videtur docere divinus sermo Strange paradoxes to some Nicodemus divine riddles like that of Sampson If we laugh now we must weep hereafter but if we sowe in teares we shall reap in joy the way to death is to live in pleasure the way to life is here to dye He that will save the life of his sin shall lose the life of his soul but he that mortifies himself his most beloved self he shall live for ever In the Commination 1. Proponit modum culpae he layes down the kind of sin to live after the flesh 2. Ostendit stipendium miseriae he declares the horrour of their punishment Moriemini Ye shall dye In the Consolation 1. Proponit officium he prescribes a duty that is by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body 2. Promittit mercedem he promiseth a reward Ye shall live And first to begin with the Commination where are laid down two estates of the wicked the one present 1 Th 〈…〉 mmination the other future the one of pleasure the other of pain neither of which the Apostle directly chargeth on the Romans but shews that by admitting the former voluntarily they involuntarily plunge themselves into the latter If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye where is the description of the disposition and condition hereafter of every Epicure yea every unregenerate man like that prodigal he receives his portion from his father he feeds his eye his ear his palate but with him never returnes to his father any more but rather like the rich glutton he goes clad in purple and Scarlet and fares deliciously every day but at last he dies and that death is but the beginning of death when his friends leave him the fiends take him and carry him to the place of torment But before we can improve this for your spiritual advantage we must explicate the two things propounded what the sinne is and what the punishment The sinne is to live after the flesh where two things offer themselves to our view 1. The rule though a crooked one that is the flesh 2. The conformity to this rule which is nothing but irregularity to live after the flesh of which briefly First for the rule The flesh and the Spirit are two captaines under whose banners all men in this world are combatants these have divers lawes and weapons constant and continual opposition and a several reward As for unregenerate men they have the flesh for their guide now what this flesh is you shall see Sometimes it is taken for a substance so it 1. Signifieth the nature of man or all mankind Flesh what it signifieth Gen. 6.12 All flesh had corrupted his way in this sense it is no enemy nor must we Timon-like be haters of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for humane nature Is 40.6 sometimes more strictly it signifieth the body as opposed to the soul 2 Cor. 7.1 in this sense we must not proclaim enmity against our selves nor like those foolish Baalites hate or hurt our own flesh or most strictly for that solid and similary part of the body contradistinguished to the blood bones nerves and sine wes Psal 79.2 the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth It is inhumane and barbarons for another to abuse this but unnatural for a man to do it himself therefore this is not the meaning 2. It 's sometimes taken accidentally sometimes in the better part Ezek. 11.19 2 Cor. 3. more usually in the worse so it Signifieth the frailty of humane nature an effect of sin 1 Cor. 15.50 in this sense Christians are in the flesh 2 Cor. 10.2 3 4. in this sense it is no potent enemy but a weak friend not to be opposed with weapons but comforted with cordials or most usually for sinne which is the cause of this frailty that Leprosie which overspreads the whole nature mind will memory senses affections body and all disabling a man from that which is truly and savingly good and inclining him to every thing that is evil the unhappy off-spring of our first Parents the mother and nurse of all those vipers that daily breed in our own bosomes and that hereditary disease which we derive unto all our posterity By the way we must note that not the body alone as the Manichees dreamed or the inferiour faculties onely as our adversaries of Rome some of them suppose are termed flesh for we read of a mind that is carnal Rom. 8. the purest part
flame Dolet etiam anima non in corpore constituta nam utique dolebat dives ille apud inferos quando dicebat Crucior in hac flamma And not onely with present torment but with fear and expectation of future his case is like to a condemned malefactors who is adjudged to live two or three years under the place of execution the gallowes and all those instruments of death continually in his eye in the mean time he is bound with chains whipped with Scorpions fed with the bread of affliction Thus he is most exquisitely tormented with pain of the present and horrour of that future vengeance that is likely to fall upon him So the divels cry out Torment us not before the time But this is not all The dregs of this cup of vengeance are yet behind You shall dye that is your bodies at that dreadful day with the sound of the Trumpet shall be awaked like a Traytor to be brought before the Judge and shall hear that doleful doom Ite maledicti c. Go ye cursed Now the losse here shall be unspeakable In regard of losse He shall lose God and that losse is infinite because he is an infinite good not in regard of his power for that will be ever present to torment him but in regard of the light of his countenance that shall never more comfort him Mat. 25.41 here is a total desertion and a final exclusion from his presence Chrys Should any one suppose 1000 hells it will not be so much as to be driven from the happinesse of this beatifical glory Si mille aliquis ponat gehennas nihil tale dicturus est quale est à beatae illius gloriae honore repelli Oh what Tophet is not a Paradise what flames are not a bed of down to this that that God who is the comfort of our soules that wisheth and intreateth us now to be reconciled shall then shut up his tender mercies in eternal displeasure Ite maledicti c. Go ye cursed Again there shall be a total privation of all the gifts of the Spirit charity peace wisdome piety mercy and all the meanes that tend thereunto Word Sacraments c. But it may be they will like the losse of these In the next place there shall be a losse of the world and all the pleasure of that therefore St. Aug. notes that Abraham speaks to the rich man of good things past Omnia dicit de praeterito Dives erat epulabatur recepisti No meat nor drink cloathing company houses not so much as a drop of water to cool thy tongue Nay which is strange their very sins they shall lose some of them those sins which delighted them they cannot commit no adultery or lasciviousnesse no drunkennesse gluttony and revellings no Play-houses or brothel-houses there but those sins which shall torment them they shall be suffered to commit if God withdraw the light of his countenance Wicked men can comfort themselves with the creature now or if the creature deny them solace Gods people can encourage themselves in God but when both God and the creature are lost what comfort can there be You shall dye In regard of sense in hell In regard of sense a total and eternal bondage of the whole man when soul and body being re-united both shall be cast into that Lake of fire and brimstone where the body shall be terrified in all the senses in all the parts outer darknesse to the eye for there are flames but no light heat but no comfort to the ear howling of tormented spirits weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth to the smell a stench of brimstone the very dregs of Gods wrath to the feeling exquisite pain by fire There shall be teares in the eyes for there is weeping and wailing horrour in the eares cursing and complaining brimstone to torment the tongue hands and feet bound with chains fire to torment the whole body but Oh forlorn wretch hear more terror yet But the most exquisite pain shall be in the soul because that is the fountain of sin which being infinitely abhorred by God in his wisdome he will find out and by his power execute some grievous punishment on it and this is termed fire a fire proportionable to a Spiritual essence if not in the nature of it yet by the supernatural power of the revenging Judge exalted to a height of transcendent efficacy and the soul though in the nature of it immaterial yet made passible by the power of a revenging Judge that noble celestial substance for subjecting it self willingly to brutish sensuality shall be unwillingly subjected to a sensual pain this pain is the more exquisite being principally in the soul that disease tormenteth most which seaseth upon the spirits Cain that felt but one spark of this fire was a perpetual vagabond Judas so tortured as to hang himself when he did but taste of this cup. Oh what will their torment be that drink the very dregs of this cup and live in the midst of these flames Now the intellect shall be perplexed with the continual meditation of this mourning that happinesse is lost through her own default and gnashing the teeth that others have it and the soul shall not chuse but reflect upon it self and behold her deformity and torment and shall have nothing to drive away this meditation The intellect shall represent this unto the will which shall hate it self and curse God that doth cause it to be captivated in those chaines of darknesse so that the soul shall for ever be a burthen to it self desire that it were annihilated and hate God that supports her in being the memory which is the souls storehouse shall continually reflect unto the conscience the cause of all this misery with a Fili recordare which shall be as a worm continually gnawing so that the soul shall hate God who cast it into that place and the Devil that torments it in that place and all the infernal spirits which add unto its torment and the blessed Saints and Angels which are in a better place as an unthrift lookes out at prison-grate upon men at liberty and the body as a companion of sin and wo and it self who through her own default is brought unto that place and by all shall be brought to those exigences which no tongue of man or Angel is able to relate But that which makes all compleat this shall be eternal heaven and all comfort are irrecoverably lost and the worme dieth not though this punishment cannot be infinite intensively for then it would annihilate the creature being finite yet in regard of duration it 's infinite that so satisfaction may be made to an infinite justice If the lives of all creatures were added together and spun out into one and at the expiration of that there might be an end of their torment it were some comfort Were they to expiate their sins with an Ocean of tears and yet but every thousand
year to shed a tear the debt in time would be discharged And though this be an unconceivable time yet it would comfort a little if then there might be an end or a mitigation of the torment but here the worm dieth not the fire never goes out here death ever lives want knows not how to be desective the end ever beginneth and death which we now so fear as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most fearful of all other fearful things for it is indeed the king of fears will they then desire as a Paradise but it will fly from them and that second death will feed on them as grasse which suffers a continual death being cropt by the cattel and yet still lives in the root If God preserve the three children in the flames that they be not burnt if mount Aetna sends forth flashes continually and it is not consumed It s St. Aug. argument If the Salamander live perpetually in the fire why cannot he by his power support their nature to live for ever that they may ever dye Oh how much better were it for them that they had never been or as they had lived like beasts so they might die like beasts to be no more So we see the consolations of the flesh are the desolations of the soul Carnis consolationes sunt animi desolationes Hell never restores those whom it once receives Infernus quos semel recipit nunquam restituit saith Cassiod So Aug. sins are bound and loosed here in the world to come is nothing but remuneration and condemnation Hic ligantur solvuntur peccata in futuro seculo nihil est nisi remuneratio condemnatio no end no ease no intermission And thus you have heard the reward of the wicked and the fearful doome o them that live after the flesh This is the cause why the man is deprived of comfort and filled with sorrow in this world why the soul is deprived of God in spiritual death and the body of the soul in corporal this is the reason why the soul is deprived both of God and the world from the natural death to the resurrection and why both soul and body are deprived of the vision and fruition of God to all eternity Nor must you think this to be a meer fable or Poetical fiction or that we make the matter worse then indeed it is the singular purity of God cannot abide sin therefore it must be purged by blood or fire God will have his justice magnified therefore will not spare an onely Son he will have truth maintained who often hath declared this in his Word it s an irrevocable decree that they who live after the flesh shall dye In the first decree he said to Adam Moriemini but his goodnesse reversed it to Nineveh Ye shall be destroyed but yet upon their repentance spared and so may these else know this is a branch of the second Covenant which shall not be abrogated For what can God give better then his Son on his part or upon what easier termes can he capitulate with us His wisdome hath thought meet that there should be som bounds to his mercy else he should seem prodigal of it and be thought to have absolute need of his creature and therefore notwithstanding Christ his satisfaction to declare his justice against contemners of his grace and haters of purity he hath said and sworn that unbelievers shall not enter into his rest and hath peremptorily decreed without hope of repeal or mitigation of the censure that If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye It 's not finis operantis but operis for they would live after the flesh and not dye they would live like Devils and dye like Saints the life of Balaam but the death of the righteous But he that sins voluntarily must suffer involuntarily there is a connexion of these ab ordine justitiae divinae He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption Let not man then separate what God hath joyned and though he assay it he shall never be able to do it If they will live after the flesh they shall dye But as St. Gregory upon the Parable of the rich man Recordatione magis eget versus iste quam expositione so I may say of this therefore we will draw hence some Corollaries which may be for our Spiritual direction First then will sin cousen us thus The Use for Information who would have suspected that such beginings that promised such delight would have ended thus that so glorious a Sun-shine morning would have closed with such gloomy blasts with such thunder and lightning stormes and tempests then let no child of God envy the wicked their delight in sin not grudge at his delicious fare Silkes and Sattins Much good may do Nabal with his good chear and Haman with his preferment I envy not the whole world to Alexander upon such hard terms there is poyson in their delicates and clothes are fafcinated their advancement prefers them to the gibbet their very life is but a continual death and how bitter shall be the death of these men Rather let me have Jacobs pillow and Canopy so I may have his dream let me have John Baptists hair-cloth so I may have his conscience No I admire those worthies of old that would choose to do or suffer any thing rather then split themselves upon these rocks Oh happy confessors and thrice blessed Martyrs that passed thorow fire and water and refused no torment no death that they might be delivered from the second death Let me passe under Esayes saw and endure Jeremies showres of stormes let me not refuse Zacharies sword nor the Lyons den with Daniel let me be beheaded with St. Paul or crucified with Andrew and Peter let me be flayed with Bartholomew or my braines dasht out with St. James let me be put into a vessel of scalding liquor with St. John or broyled on the Gridiron with Laurence let me suffer abstinence affliction persecution exile imprisonment with those holy Fathers of old Chrysostome Athanasius Ambrose Hierom let me be given to the wilde beasts with Polycarpus and Ignatius yea if it were possible let all these meet and the tormentots prompted by the Devil himself see if they can invent any torment more exquisite let me suffer in this world what humane nature is capable of rather then be forsaken by God and dye ever Oh blessed Christians that would offer your selves rather to your persecutors in the dayes of Tertullian Ego sum Christianus Christianus et ego I shall ever subscribe to that of holy St. Aug. Domine hic ure hic seca ut in aeternum parcas and again Do de me poenas ut ille parcat I had rather suffer Gods chastisement then his punishment And I would to God this might be an advertisement to us all how we live after the flesh though it be pleasing and profitable for a while yet the event should deter wise men
St. Gregories memento to keep him from walking after the flesh was this Wo to them that are at ease in Sion St. Hierom's that last trump Surgite mortui St. Augustines Not in surfeiting and drunkennesse and this may be the Christians Moriemini And why will ye dye God delights not in your destruction He hath given you this Memento that you might not walk after the flesh Needs must you feel this if you will not now fear it Remember this you riotous eaters of flesh you that follow wine and strong drink till you are inflamed you that inflame your soules with lust and drown your bodies with a dropsie that forget God and the operation of his hands the Church and the afflictions thereof your selves and your latter end But now the question is what it is to be a drunkard and it must be a fair print that the drunkard can read and with Anaxagoras they will put us to prove that the snow is white Surely he is a drunkard and glutton and so lives after the flesh that eats and drinks inordinately immoderately unseasonably Inordinately that directs not these to Gods glory so that he is unfit to pray read hear on Gods day or do the works of his calling on other dayes Let them think of this that are so good forenoones men but so bad afternoons Or immoderately which immoderation is to be estimated according to divers particulars not alone when it is more then the stomach can bear but when it is more then their estate calling businesse or Religion will allow Or unseasonably and when that is nature it self as a Reverend Prelate of our own hath observed will direct us When any of these four passions are predominant we refuse sustenance anger fear grief desire 1. For anger you see Ahab refused his meat when he was vexed 1 King 21.4 When our stomacks are big with indignation against our selves for sin it is unseasonable to pamper the flesh 2. In fear so Paul and his companions in the ship cannot eat Act. 27. So if we have just cause of fear in regard of publick calamities let wise men judge Is 22.12 If there be fear of losing the soul much more in the Plague David in War Jehosaphat in Famine Joel If destruction be impendent Hester and the Ninevites will fast and whether it be not seasonable for us to fast now let wise men judge 3. In grief fasting and mourning are joyned together Psal 102.4 My heart is smitten and withered like grasse so that I forget to eat my bread So David 2 Sam. 12.15 Much more when we have cause to grieve for the abominations of our Land the desolations of our Neighbour-Countrey the jeopardy of our own soules and lives the losse of God 4. In desire 1 Sam. 14.24 So Esau in hunting in regard of better performance of some duty or to obtain some special favour it will feather our prayers and put life into them In a word when God by his Judgments or his Substitutes by their Edicts call us to fasting they that eat and drink but moderately live after the flesh Nay I will go one step further I see no reason but that the looking upon Wine with a lustful eye should be accounted drunkennesse as well as hatred and envy murther covetousnesse theft or a wanton lustful eye adultery and if this be to live after the flesh how many embarked in that dangerous Voyage of eternal death Many like Dionysius lying at a siege would be sick if they might not surfeit and be drunk now and then How doth our Land abound with such monstrous hell-hounds now swearing and scoffing anon railing and blaspheming disclosing secrets of State or Family Will you have the portraiture of it Like Circe it turns men into all shapes Go into Bedlam where some rave some sing some whoop and hollow some cry or if you will view some filthy puddle where swine tumble and wallow themselves toads and frogs lie croaking or if you will launch out into the deep and view the Sea-Monsters An hospital hath not so many Lazars nor a dung-hill so many ill sents as you shall see and smell in their meetings Nay suppose all these together it s not a sufficient expression you would think devils were come down in the likenesse of men and entred into the swine that drives them headlong into the Sea of Gods wrath Oh this is a dainty life thinks the Jovial companion but remember what followes Thou must dye and come to Judgment Hear thy doom written in letters of blood Wo to drunkards saith Esay Wo saith Habakkuk Wo saith Solomon Howl saith Joel Weep saith St. James Ye shall dye saith our Apostle scarce a Prophet or an Apostle but hath thrown a stone at him Look ere long to have a head full of wind legs swollen with water cheeks blown with ayr a face red with fire ever blushing though past grace eyes running though not a tear of remorse trembling in the joynts though no fear of Gods Judgments Needs must he dye for this drawes the heart from God and makes a man break all Gods Commandments makes his belly his God blasphemes his Name profanes his day despiseth dominion and dignity I have often with indignation seen his Majesties portraiture hang'd up for a sign and that sacred name of Majestie used in an health when the frothy mouth and stammering tongue can scarcely speak a distinct word it kills more then the sword fills more full of prodigious and Sodomitical lusts robs God and Church poor family a mans self he is a railer a reviler a slanderer he hardens his heart against God believes nothing lives licentiously and the more likely to dye there is so little hope of amendment he despiseth the Magistrate that doth correct him and for the Minister that reproves him he is the drunkards song How can he repent that cannot confesse and how can he confesse that forgets when he is sober what he did when he was drunk If he be of a more melting disposition it is his liquor that doth facilitate his teares but he returnes like the dog to his vomit shamelesse and fearlesse Remember this ye furious hot-spurres For Exhortation if anger command you 'l kill and slay hence so much blood You shall dye hereafter and it's pity you should live here Oh remember this ye debauched swearers foul-mouthed hell-hounds that fall upon the sacred body of Christ and tear him in pieces swear him all over from head to foot that pull his precious body from his soul his blood from his body that rake in his wounds and crucifie him afresh The curse shall ere long enter into your houses and hearts and never leave you till it bring you to ruine Remember this ye ambitious Nimrods aspiring Hamans that to attain your ends swear forswear falter c. and climb up this craggy rock though with never so much difficulty c. Consider this ye insatiable stallions that neigh after your neighbours Wives
but retired to the inner closet of the soul wanting opportunity to axpresse it self outwardly and in this case it is damnable for lusting is adultery Matth. 5.28 hatred is murther 1 John 3.15 and he that will inhabit heaven must have both clean hands and a pure heart Ps 24.4 and the tree is not dead though it want leaves and fruit and this conquest if there be any is to be attributed to the weaknesse of nature rather then the strength of grace or else here is a Metempsychosis of sinne whereas a sinne of youth prevailed before now a sin of age domineereth Thus a man oft-times changeth his favourites No man in every estate and condition is prone to act the same sins I must tell our civil Justitiaries and painted hypocrites It 's not enough to take sin prisoner and a little to curbe and restrain it as Eli did his sons or to cry out as Pharaoh did when he was upon the rack and soon return like the dog to the vomit we must not onely fight but overcome if we mean to be crowned judge condemne and mortifie this old man with his deeds I must tell our luke-warme Laodiceans that are half perswaded to be Christians with Agrippa it will not serve their turn If they will almost be religious they shall be almost saved but altogether damned To spare some fat sins as Saul the cattel for sacrifice to make ex rapina holocaustum to rob the Church and build an Hospital or maintain a Free-Schoole to cast away some sin which to them hath neither profit nor pleasure in it and if it were commanded would sin in omitting it this is no mortification It will not avail you to abhorre Idols so long as you commit sacriledge that can endure John Baptist till he come to touch the apple of your eye this is but to pair the nayles or clip the hair of this old man not to mortifie the body with his deeds A Penknife may cut a mans throat one leake sink a ship one sparkle burn an house one sin slay the soul I must tell those that would be accounted professours that this word doth not sufficiently expresse the condition of a good Christian they must be practisers It is not enough to say The Temple of the Lord the rich man was a son of Abraham yet in hell to hear a multitude and variety of Sermons the devil heares more Though they could hear men of Seraphical spirits the Capernaites heard Christ and notwithstanding this they were thrown down to hell You must mortify I cannot but with indignation complain to see at least the outward form of Godlinesse changed from what it was in the primitive times and I am perswaded should one of our forefathers rise from the dead he would as much wonder at the alteration of the fashion in Religion as apparel The devotion of the Church of old was to joyn in publique prayer this is accounted but Idolatrous Superstition by many and cold devotion by the most Of old it was Religion to keep the body under by fasting and discipline this practice is not known now of many practised by few they will lose their birth-rights rather then pottage either they are troubled with wind or some infirmity or other they cannot fast The truth is they are like Dionysius an epicure who when he lay at a siege and was forced to keep a diet fell sick because he might not surfeit Of old charity and good workes were in fashion but now he is almost accounted a Popeling that will preach for charity and God help us an enemy to the State that exhorteth to peace I condemn not all but the religion of too many consists onely in hearing such men and the height of their practice to abstain from some sinnes which are cryed down I honour the publique preaching of Gods Word in season and out of season and he that opposeth it is an enemy to Christ and his king dome but if he that preacheth unto others may be a reprobate unlesse he do beat down his body and mortifie his sinne then he that heareth others much more I must tell our curious Correctors of things indifferent that it is not the eager censuring and condemning they know not what nor their envying against Bishops and Ceremonies and in the mean time to harbour pride and passion and uncharitablenesse the matter is not what thou canst say or censure in other men but what thou hast mortified of thine own Nor will the keeping of outward orders serve the turn at the best if they go no further they are no better then Scribes and Pharisees that tithe Mint and Cummin and Anise and leave the weighty matters of the Law undone I must tell our Solifidans that boast of strange speculations of faith without sanctity For ought I know there are a great many Orthodox men in Hell and while they live in lying pride and profanenesse their faith without works will not save them I must tell our refined wits and great Clerks It will not avail though they know the abstrusest mysteries that are yea all things knowable as some say of Berengarius Knowledge without charity profits nothing there is neither true piety nor charity so long as men live after the flesh while they continue desolate I never knew such a way to heaven as from bed to board from hoard to play c. I must tell our Popish and Pelagian Doctors advancers of free-will that they cannot mortifie themselves by any power of the flesh for corrupt nature agreeeth well enough with it self but walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.6 not by any Moral or gentle perswasion or by any violent restraint They that deny grace or call grace by the name of nature or say that it is profitable not necessary or necessary for our entrance not our continuance in the wayes of God Here we see that as by preventing grace we are made Saints so by subsequent and cooperating grace we are enabled to work like Saints and it 's the Spirit that doth inchoate continue consummate all good in us whence our Saviour saith Without me ye can do nothing upon which words St. Austin glosseth thus Non dicit Sine me parum potestis facere nec dicit Ardui aliquid Sine me non potestis facere vel Difficulter sine me potestis facere sed Nihil sine me potestis Nec dicit Sine me non potestis perficere sed Nihil potestis facere sine me He doth not say we can do but little or no great matter or very difficultly without Christ He doth not say we can perfect nothing without him but simply do nothing without him I must tell our Famelistical dreamers that we must mortifie by the Spirit they must not think to have these showres of grace and glory fall into their laps while they sit still with a soulded hand For the getting of the Spirit we must attend on God in his Ordinances Though the Miller cannot make a wind
of the soul yea the quintessence of that part the intellectus agens as some will have it the Spirit of the mind as the Apostle calls it Rom. 12.1 that must be renewed therefore it signifieth that sinful disposition that is in the whole man Therefore you must not here with the Manichees accuse the nature of the flesh for he which praiseth the nature of the soul as the chiefest good and accuseth the nature of the flesh as an evil thing loves the soul carnally and carnally flies the flesh St. August Lib. 14. de civit Dei cap. 5. Nam qui velut summum bonum laudat animae naturam et tanqùam malum naturam carnis accusat profecto animam carnaliter appetit et carnem carnaliter fugit and as he saith elsewhere The flesh is not naturally repugnant to reason but as vicious Caro non repugnat naturaliter rationi sed ex vitio and again The corruptible flesh makes not the soul sinful but the sinful soul makes the flesh corruptible Caro corruptibilis non facit animam peceatricem sed anima peccatrix fecit esse corruptibilem carnem Now sin is called by the name of flesh Sin why called flesh rather then any other part of man it may be to cast ignominy upon sin because this is one of the grossest parts where is most earth that is predominant the basest element to shew the dissimilitude and distance betwixt corruption and the Spirit he denominates it from that substance which is most unlike the Spirit or because many motions of it arise from the flesh are fomented by the flesh and tend to the pleasing of the flesh and acted and perfected by the flesh the flesh is that oft-times which offers the bait to the soul as the stomach or spleen being troubled with oppilation send fumes to the brain or to shew how near corruption is unto us as it were incorporated nay transformed into us and we into it and so much the more dangerous because it is a viper bred in our own flesh and harboured in our own bosome or because the soul in committing of sin doth give over it self to fleshly delights The soul while and when it still hankereth after fleshly things is called flesh Anima verò dum carnalia bona adhuc appetit caro nominatur and so in the perpetrating of sinne the soul is made subject to the flesh and as it were transformed into flesh St. Aug. renders another Ser. 48. de verbis Domini because flesh was a sacrifice for sinne as Christ that knew no sin is said to be made sin that is a sacrifice for sin whether in some or in all these regards sin is called by the nameof flesh I will not further dispute You see what is meant by this name and thereason of the denomination And so much for the rule the flesh I come now to the conformity of this rule What it is to live after the flesh which is indeed meer deformity which is to live after the flesh it is called a life though indeed he that thus lives is dead while he lives and because flesh as we heard is diffused thorow the whole man we wil consider it both in soul and body what it is to live after the flesh In the mind and understanding to walk according to the flesh is to give consent to fleshly desires In the mind and understanding Secundum carnem ambulare est carnalibus concupiscentiis consentire Aug. When the fancy runs in a muze of sinfull objects with delight and takes thought for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts of it to search out mysteries of iniquity and prove wise to do evil that in their judgement esteem a sinful life to be happy and account it wisdome with profane Esau to sell their eternal birth-right to purchase this messe of pottage There are in the mind of man a world of false principles to harbour these and to live after them is to live after the flesh The flesh is sometimes a Devil to it self sometimes provoked by the Devil his instruments and outward objects as these and the like are the fleshes Creed That Religion is but a matter of policy or a bare profession of it serves the turn or some Ceremonies and formalities or to rest in some duties or avoid some sins that it is lawful to commit smaller sins to avoid great or imminent danger that it is too much precisenesse to make conscience of smaller sins it is no sin to abuse liberty in things indifferent to extenuate or hide sin that we may deferre our repentance because God is merciful it perswades that Christian duties are tedious and not necessary therefore not to do them at all or else not presently or else not constantly or else unseasonably igrantly or heartlessely or else to rest in the work done and grow proud of it In holy Scripture there is a kind of wisdome attributed to the flesh called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it prudence prudentiam others understanding intelligentiam others affection or desire affectum others sense sensum Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a habit of acting according to right reason in all things that are good or evil to man est habitus agendi secundum rectam rationem circa universa bona vel mala homini but this is carnal wisdome and our Saviour speaks of some that in their generation are wiser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they do meditate on earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chuse according to the flesh the world rather then grace or heaven fly the smoke and fall into the fire chuse sin rather then labour or sorrow get earthly things rathen heavenly carnal rather then Spiritual temporal rather then eternal This is foolishnesse with God and they live after the flesh that hearken to this counsel In the will they live according to the slesh In the will and affections that are ruled by that perverse enmity which it bears to God and his Law in the memory that make it a treasurie of wickednesse in their affections that set them upon wrong objects or inordinately and immoderately on the right that love sinful delights constantly if they are absent desire them and greeve for them if present rejoyce and delight in them In their lives and actions In natural actions men live after the flesh that eat drink sleep c. not for necessity but to satisfie lust unseasonably immoderately thus in natural actions So St. Aug. De docu Salut He lives according to the flesh who so lives according to himself c. Secundum carnem vivit qui secundum seipsum vivit pergit quò vult dormit quando vult quamdiu vult loquitur quae vult cui vult manducat bibit quando vult quantum vult ridet jocundatur turpiter inter quos vult quando vult postremò quicquid naribus suave est quaerit quicquid tactui
him obtained it may be but never to its worth valued and esteemed And elsewhere Facilius possumus dicere quid ibi non sit quam quid sit non est ibi mors non est luctus c. We can more easily say what there is not there then what there is there is no death no mourning c. Let us labour to walke in the way then we shall experimentally feel it and then even laugh at our scanty expressions when the soule being filled with admiration shall cry out How full of glory art thou O Lord and this heavenly Paradise of thine I have heard of thee by thy Prophets and Apostles but the one halfe hath not been resolved Oh blessed is the man that heareth thy wisdome seeth and enjoyeth thy glory But by the way note here that life is referred to mortification not as the proper cause He that lives after the flesh shall dye by his own merit but he that lives after the Spirit shall live by Gods mercy and the merit of Christ for he that lives after the flesh acts by a principle of his own but he that by the Spirit from an hgher principle and that imperfectly So Rom. 6. ult the Apostle sheweth death is an effect of sin life a consequent of righteousnesse in a different manner death followeth sin as a just reward of it as a debt The wages of sin is death but righteousnesse produceth life as a consequent not of debt but of grace The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that as he attributes nothing to man in the latter so he wholly cleareth God in the former But ever remember what the good Father saith Acquiri potest aestimari non potest It may be gotten but cannot be valued It 's possible for to attaine it but it will cost thee deare thou must enter in through many tribulations Vnicus qui introivit sine peccato non exivit sine flagello thou must deny the world and be crucified to that hate father mother life thine own life but that is not all thou must mortifie the deeds of the body Now if any desire to enter into life I must first aske him whether he can drinke of this cup and be baptized with this Baptisme he must mortifie this body this old man corruption is strong for it 's a man politique for an old man a man that is naturalized in us and pleads prescription The old man with all his members pull out the right eye cut off the right hand teare and reâ—t the heart asunder crowne the head with thornes pierce the hands feet with nailes and the side with a speare the face must be spit upon buffetted The body and all the deeds of it Put off the old man with his deeds Col. 3. and here mortifie the deeds of the body and the deeds of the body are manifest Never tell me of a good heart if the actions are naught as the understanding blind the will obstinate the affections disordered the life dissolute this man is out of the way to life What! a good Christian and a drunkard a swearer a scoffer at the good wayes of God It 's impossible Is the tree good that is fruitlesse Do you call that a good ground that bears nothing but briars and brambles The body with the deeds all the deeds must be mortified Away then with that sweet morsel under the tongue if thou willingly entertaine but one sin constantly suppose contemplative adultery thou art an unmortified man Againe these must be mortified not trifle or deale more gently with them pull up these weeds by the very roots therefore it must be with paine and shame and constant for it is an act of the whole life prescribed here to the Romans so to the Colossians It may be their acquaintance will reproach thee and thy best friends forsake thee And all this we must do in our persons not buy it out or do it by our deputies we by the Spirit and there is no other way but this to life Nor do I make the way straiter or the gate narrower then Christ and his Apostles have done Nor do I here dishearten any but require them sedulously to set about the worke better know it now then hereafter when it is too late Eternall life is the gift of God that the Scripture shews and reason manifests that it is in the power of the donor to prescribe what conditions he will to the receiver but the wretchednesse of the world is such they desire the blessing without the condition like Ruths kinsman that would have the land without the woman like that man in the Gospel would have eternal life but the condition is too strict therefore go a way sorrowful Thus how contrary are we to our selves how unreasonable to God In the former we would do the work but not have wages live after the flesh but not die and in the latter we will not do the labour yet hope for the reward as Balaam will follow the wages of iniquity yet die the death of the righteous But if we do the one the other will follow And surely had we made our own termes how could we in modesty have made them more easie God could do no lesse then demonstrate his purity love of vertue hatred of sin God delights not to make us sad without cause Certainly he cannot require any thing lesse then mortification without the impeachment of his honour therefore we cannot perform lesse without the endangering of our happinesse So then I must tell our debauched sinners Vse For Repr that suffer all manner of abominations to raign not to be named among Christians and are so far from crucifying them that they harbour and keep them close extenuate defend them are careful to satisfy their lusts and blow them up to a greater flame that will be ready to give the stab to those that crosse and contradict them in their waies there is a thing in Religion called Mortifying the deeds of the body which they were never acquainted withal without which there is no life I must tell our plausible Atheists that are enemies to the power of godlinesse that have no grace and vertue but what was born and bred with them it is not their plausible carriage will do it there is a mortifying crucifying watching fasting striving denying thy self or no entrance into life I must tell our carelesse procrastinators of repentance It 's not enough to dislike sin and so let it alone in time to dye it self and therefore they will not task themselves with such an unpleasing torment but you must mortifie it The filthy adulterer resolves when he hath no more marrow in his bones nor vigour in his body to leave his adultery the drunkard his company when his patrimony is spent the oppressour his extortion when his covetousnesse is satiated Sinne though it be left in regard of the outward act yet in this case it is not mortified