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
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
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
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
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
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