not then a Carnal presence but a Spiritual that doth link and associate unto Christ. To make up our union with him it is not needful that his humane nature should be drawn down from Heaven or that his body should be every where present on Earth as the Ubiquitaries affirm or that the Bread in the Sacrament should be transubstantiate into his body as the Papists imagin His dwelling in us is by his Spirit and his union with us is spiritual So himself in the same place where he speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood doth interpret himself the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak are spirit and life And his Spirit it is not his body that shall give life unto the Spirit when the body shall perish If Christ c. This touch shall suffice for the condition I proceed to the substance of the Text. The Body is dead It contains as I said an admonition of our frailty corruption and death and comforts against death It is but the body that is dead the Spirit is life First of our corruption and frailry The body is dead That we all tend unto death we all know but the Apostle's speech is more remarkable he says not the body is subject to death but by a more significant phrase of speech he presseth it homer The body is dead There is a difference between a mortal body and a dead body Adams body before the fall was mortal in some sort that is subject to a possibility of dying but now after the fall our bodies are so mortal as they are subject to a necessity of dying yea if we'll here with the Apostle esteem of death by the beginning and seisure of it they are dead already The forerunners and harbingers of death dolours infirmities and heavy diseases have seised already on our bodies and marked them out as lodgings which shortly must be the habitation of their Master But how near this manner of speech draws unto true propriety they best conceive who best understand how that malediction of God and curse of the Law The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death was fulfilled If God spared not the Angels when they waxed proud will he spare thee who art but a putrifying worm Ille intumuit in coelo erga in sterquilinio he was puft up in Heaven and therefore was cast down from the place of his habitation and if I wax proud lying on a dunghil shall I not be cast down into Hell So often therefore as corrupt nature stirreth up the heart to pride because of youth and health beauty and strength and the like perfections of the body let this consideration humble thee that though these are fair and beauti ful flowers yet they cannot but suddenly wither because the root from whence they sprung is corrupt and rotten and even dead already Neither is it more available to the cutting down of arrogance and pride than to teach us Temperance and sobriety What availeth it to pamper that Carcase of thine with excess of delicate feeding which is possessed by death already If Men took the tenth part of that care to present their spirit holy and without blame unto the Lord which they take to make their bodies fair and beautiful in the eyes of Men they might in short time make a greater improvement in Religion and Virtue than they have done But herein is their folly they make fat the flesh with precious things which within few days the worms shall devour but never care to beautify the Soul with holy and virtuous actions which shortly is to be presented to God Let us therefore refrain from the immoderate cherishing this proud and dead flesh meats are ordained for the belly and the belly for meats but God will destroy them both 1 Cor. vi 13. I might inlarge this point almost infinitely for the benefit of this consideration is not confined unto Humility Sobriety and Temperance or any particular virtues but it 's universal restraining from all evil and inciting powerfully unto all virtue and goodness Nihil sic revocat bominem à peccato quà m frequens mortis meditatio saith St. Aug. nothing can so recall a Man from his evil ways as the frequent meditation of death especially if he consider as the certainty of death so the uncertain time of his death and the unchangeable estate of everlasting misery if he die in his sins Would to God we were wise thoroughly to apprehend and apply this unto our own Souls It is strange that there is nothing so well known nothing of greater benefit and yet nothing so little regarded What a Prodigy is it that sinful Men should carry about their death in their bosoms and in every vein of their Bodies and yet scarce admit a thought of their mortality into their minds but live here as if they verily thought they should never die If we had no Religion yet reason would teach us that our strength is not the strength of stones and yet them even the drops of water weareth nor our sinews of Brass and Iron as Job speaks and yet these the rust and canker consumeth but a vapour but a smoak which the Sun soon drieth or the wind driveth away It was wittily said of Epictetus the Philosopher who going forth one day and seeing a Woman weeping that had broken her Pitcher and the next day meeting another Woman that had lost her Son Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie video mortalem mori Yesterday saith he I saw a brittle thing broken and to day I see a mortal Man die And what difference of frailty between these two surely none unless Man be the frailer of the two For as St. Austin hath it Take the brittlest veslel of earth or glass and keep it safe from outward violence and it may last many thousand of years but take a Man of the most pure complexion of the strongest constitution and keep him as safe as thou canst he hath that within his own bowels and bones that will bring him to his end Nay I hear some say saith the same Father that such a one hath the Plague or the Pleurisie and therefore sure he will die but we may rather say such a one liveth and therefore sure he will die for diverse have had these Diseases and did not die of them but never any Man lived that did not die The Consumption of the Liver is the messenger of Death the Consumption of the Lungs the Minister of Death the Consumption of the marrow and moisture the very Mother of Death and yet many have had these Diseases and not died of them But there is another kind of Consumption which could never yet be cured it is the Consumption of the days the common Disease of all Mankind David saw it and spake of it when he said my days are consumed like smoke Psal. cii yea the Philosopher saw it and could say of it quicquid praeteritum est temporis mors
Non sic in opere tuo domine non sic in commixtione tua not so in thy work O Lord not so in thy commixtion here the living and the dead dwell both together The body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life Here then are the high consolations of a Christian against death briefly comprised and they are three That his death is neither total nor final but his life is perpetual His death is not total it is only of the body for the spirit lives it is not final for the spirit is not said only to live but that it is life and that in two respects first because it shall give life again unto the body and that secondly an everlasting life and therefore it is not barely the spirit shall live but in the abstract the spirit is life So you may perceive the reason why the Apostle varies his manner of speech he said not the body is death as he says the spirit is life neither saith he the spirit is alive as he said the body is dead but the body is dead and the spirit is life the body is dead and not death because it shall live again and the spirit is not alive but life because by the virtue of the spirit it is that it shall live and live for ever The spirit c. So our life is perpetuate our death but short and not total Amidst these comforts what hath death in it that shall greatly trouble or distress the faithful Soul why should it not stand erect in the midst of all the panick terrors thereof so long as there is begun in us a life which no death shall ever be able to extinguish Albeit death invade the natural and vital powers of our bodies and suppress them one after another yea though at the length he break in upon this lodging of clay and demolish it to the ground yet the inner Man and spiritual that dwells in the body shall escape with his life The Tabernacle is cast down that 's the most our enemy can do but he who dwells in it removes unto a better The dissolving of the body to him is but the breaking up of the prison wherein he hath been so long detained that he may thenceforth be delivered into a glorious liberty For as the Bird escapes out of the snare of the Fowler so the Soul in death mounts up and flies away wiâ— joy into the rest of her Maker The Apostle knew this well and therefore desired to be dissolved that he might be with Christ. As in the battle between our Saviour and Satan Satans head was bruised but he did no more than tread on our Saviours heel so shall it be in the conflict of all his members with Satan by the power of our Lord Jesus we shall be more than conquerors For the God of peace shall tread him under our feet Rom. xvi While he is there let him nibble about the feet it is no great matter yet 't is all he can do and let him do it Manducet terram meam dentem carni infigat let him bite the dust saith Ambrose it was his original curse let him eat that part of me which is earth let him bruise my body all this is still but to tread upon my heel my comfort is there is a seed of immortal life in my Soul which no power of the enemy is able to approach much less to overcome and extinguish for the spirit doth not only live but is life life eternal The spirit is life c. But yet that we may more fully understand to whom these consolations belong and what spirits they are that can live in death and injoy the comforts of life when their bodies can live no longer it is added because of righteousness The spirit is life because of righteousness or for righteousness sake The righteous then these are they to whom it belongs these only are the holy Spirits that shall revive in the midst of life and live in death as they died while they lived whilst the body lived they died unto sin and when the body dies they shall live unto God For as the life of the Soul is the comfort of the heart so the spirit of righteousness is the life of the Soul And therefore deceive not thy self in a matter of such moment in the business of thine everlasting welfare but be most assured that so far forth thou dost live as thou art sanctified and no farther As health is to the body so is holiness to the spirit A body without health falls out of one pain into another till it die and a Soul without holiness is polluted with one lust after another till it perish eternally As the Moon hath light more or less as it is in aspect with the Sun so the Soul enjoys life less or more as it is turned or averted to or from the Lord of life whose righteousness only can give life as this life peace and joy unto the Soul Miserable are those wicked ones that want both they are as St. Jude speaks bis mortui twice dead that is dead both in body and Soul Their Souls indeed do live and shall live eternally a natural life but there is a life of Grace as well as of Nature by the one the Soul lives for ever by the other it lives for ever in happiness This life they do not they shall not ever live and as for the natural the Spirit of God accounts that but a death whilst they live in the body he saith they are dead in sins and when they go out of the body though they live yet he calls their life and justly an eternal death Immortality seems to be added rather to their sorrow than to their Souls Since their Souls are only kept immortal that their punishment might be everlasting It is true that so long as Men enjoy this natural life in health of body and prosperity of fortune the loss that comes by want of the spiritual life is not so safely discerned no more than the defects of a ruinous house are known in time of fair weather but when the storm of affliction when the tempest of death shall come pouring down upon him then the decaies and breaches will manifest themselves How woful then must his condition needs be that hath now no other life but a natural and must now part with that and he knows not whither In this estate he cannot but die either uncertain of comfort or rather most certain of Condemnation And therefore it is not much to be marvelled they are so loth to think or so much as to hear of that final and fatal time O death how bitter is thy remembrance unto such saith the Wiseman How doth the only apprehension thereof even chill the blood in his veins kill the very marrow in his bones Belshazzar's doom is no sooner written upon the wall but the joints of his loins are loosed and his knees smite one against
another How did that one word of the Witch strike Saul thorough and thorough leaving him tumbling on the earth in a swoon To morrow by this time thou and thy sons shall be with me so bitter indeed is the remembrance even of bodily death unto those that have no spiritual life in their Souls But what misery may we think will there be in the enduring and suffering of that whose only expectation is so fearful Sad and fearful is the departure of the wicked though it outwardly appear not in all the comforts of my Text belong not to them as their Spirits were dead whilest they lived so they shall not live when they die Where there is no righteousness there can be no life For the Spirit c. No the righteous the righteous that is the faithful and penitent Souls these are they who as they have the true spiritual life in present so in death they shall have the true comforts of the blessed life which is to come for however God at other times brings trouble heaviness and afflictions on his best servants yet at that hour he never fails to assist them and in the midst of death to make the life of their Souls appear more clearly for righteousness sake He may seem to absent himself from them and to hide his counâ—◠〈◊〉 but then in that day of need in that last and fearful time which most requires it they shall be sure of his comforts he will not fail then to discover his face and make the light of his countenance to shine into that region of darkness and by the gracious beams thereof to chear up his people lighting and guiding their feet through that obscure Valley and shadow of death into the blessed ways of immortality and peace Believe not me look upon the holy men of God a little and see it perfomed with your Eyes Behold the Patriarch Jacob the Father of the Patriarchs he who wrestled not only that one time at the River Jabbock but all his life long with the arme of the Almighty continually afflicting him But see how contrary it fell out in the end when all the clouds of affliction being blown over a calm of contentment follows and he is gathered unto his Fathers in peace but first mark how the Lord gave him strength before he went hence and was no more seen wherewith he collects his fainting Spirits raiseth himself in his bed calls his Sons about him tells them of things to come great things to come for many generations and with an inspired Spirit ready to expire gives every one his several blessing and benediction in such a prophetical so high and Heavenly a strain and stile as if an Angel had sate on his lip and I doubt not but many Angels sate waiting in that door of the body for the coming forth of his Soul which stayed not long after to receive and convey it into the bosom of his Grand-father Abraham there to rest in everlasting peace Look upon Joshua that valiant Captain who having spent his life in travail and more than Herculean labours warring against Gyants and the Sons of Aâ—ak yet at last you may see him sitting down in peace and dividing the spoil among the Children of Jacob And in the end death drawing near see how he summons the Tribes of Israel together and in a sweet Oration recounts unto them all the mercies of God which had followed them from Terab the Father of Abraham that dwelt beyond the flood to Cheusem that had now gotten possession of the promised land within Jordan And being full of the spirit and spiritual life with such power of speech he exhorts them to the fear and service of this merciful God that the whole Congregation as if they had had but one heart and one Soul and both throughly affected joyntly cry out God forbid that we should forsake the Lord nay he is our God and we will serve him Josh the last After this manner from the flame of his own zeal having kindled a fire in the hearts of others this great Worthy and worthy Servant of the Lord lived in his death and dyed in peace See holy Samuel the Judge of Israel going to his grave as to his bed and in him consider the power and vertue of a good conscience arising from the memory of a well acted life Whose Ox or whose Ass have I taken whom have I defrauded or opprest or at whose hands have I received a bribe saith he in the publick assembly and all the people bare witness unto him saith the Text. Hoc ducit ad fâ—nus sepulturam this is it that accompanies him to his Grave and layes him in his rotten Sepulcher The like blessed savour of rest did this peace of conscience send forth in the blessed Apostle S. Paul who in that wonderful confidence was bold to deliver up his Soul in the breath of the same words as it were his Saviour had done before him a Consummatum est I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the just Judge shall give me in that day words worthy of a Soul so near its Heaven Lastly view the Protomartyr Steven blessed with peace in the midst of a cruel death for all torments are easy if they have answerable comforts The obstinate Jews threw the stones of death at him but he filled with the Holy Ghost looks stedfastly into Heaven where he beholds his Saviour standing at the right hand of God to whom now dying he speaks as he had done before to his Father in manus tuas into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit Such have been the blessed ends of these holy men of God and of many others famous in their Generations and such it shall be in all others that faithfully serve him though peradventure it is not manifest in all Their bodies are buried in the Earth but they have left a name behind them and a memory sweeter than the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary as was spoken of the good King Josiah And what is there now that can more deeply affect an honest and a good heart what can a religious mind either so much desire unto it self or behold with so great joy in another as to see a devout and penitent Soul give a peaceful farewel unto Nature and in the depth of death depart full of the comforts of immortality and life But it may be far off examples will be left too far off respects for likely those that are nearest do affect us better if so you want them not neither two among the rest more remarkable you have had of late The one not long since the other now before your eyes The Mother and the Daughter of both whom I may truly say in the words of my Text their bodies were dead while they lived and their Souls lived in the death of their bodies for righteousness sake A
memorable and exemplary couple I may well join them in my speech they were so many ways joined in themselves They were joined in affinity and alliance they were joined in affection and love they were joined in the quality and nature of their Disease and would not be severed till death did it in the time of their sickness they were joined in the comforts of death and now they are joined in the glory of an everlasting life But the formers rites are passed yet they might not be now passed over I cannot but give her a touch she desired it from me and I am sure she deserved it For the latter here now in your sight I shall not speak much because I can hardly speak enough with her former times I have had no acquaintance and therefore can make no relation of it only I assure my self that she who was so patient and penitent in her sickness so devout and cheerful in her death could not but be well and religiously disposed in the course of her life But for the latter part of her days them I have known and in them been an eye-witness of the expression of more goodness than I have often seen or from a Woman of her quality could have expected The things of note which I especially observed in her and shall commend unto you are principally these her willingness to entertain death and her deadness unto the world and worldly affairs her joy in spiritual discourses and her frequency and fervency in devout prayer For the first if we consider the impediments it was much she should do it so cheerfully she was but young and entring upon the prime of her years She had small and tender Infants of her own that went near her she was well bestowed where she found both youth and love and means too wanted nothing nor was likely to want haec sunt quae faciunt homines invitos mori and these are the things that make Men unwilling to die could the Philosopher say Yet notwithstanding all these she gently submitted her self unto it she resolutely went forth to meet it and lest he should miss her she call'd it unto her Come gentle death and even held forth her arms to receive and embrace it For the second I was with her often yet never heard a word of worldly matter or secular affair so much as fall from her tongue Her heart was bent on Heaven which made it delight so much in heavenly contemplations they came down upon her as the Scripture speaks like rain into a fleece of wooll and as a shower upon a thirsty land With what an open and greedy ear did she suck in celestial comforts which she shortly after vented out again in devout supplications wherein the mercy of the Lord did not forsake her even to the last gasp And then at last when her hands forsook her tongue and her tongue had almost forsaken her heart yet her heart did still adhere unto God in uncessant prayer and therefore she intreated others to hold her fainting hands that her tongue failing they at least might testify that her Soul did commune with her Maker It calls to mind the story of Moses having Aaron and Hur to support his arms for whilst he prayed Amalek fled and Joshua conquered Sure I am whilst she did in like manner the true Joshua conquered all the spiritual Amalekites and enemies of her Soul who only could batter down the prison of her body that her spirit being loose and at liberty might freely clear the air and mount up to the desired place of everlasting rest where she now is and where may she still in peace remain till another day shall invest both Body and Soul with unspeakable glory Who can now mourn who can weep for such a Soul if ye do they must be tears of joy not of sorrow at least they must be for your selves not for her You may bewail your own loss you cannot grieve at her death unless you envy her happiness foelix iss a anima imitationem desiderat non planctum that happy Soul is no subject of sorrow but a pattern of imitation And therefore I now leave the dead and conclude to the living that their Spirits may live in death as hers hath shown them the example For this should be the chief endeavour this should be the principal care of a Christian in his whole life that when his life shall end yet the life of his Soul may not end with the death of his body It little matters how it fares with us in the rest of our time so it go well with us here when if wrath overtake us it shall eleave unto us for ever but if peace end our days our days afterwards of peace shall never end For as the tree falleth there it shall lie Wretched Men that can willingly think of any thing save this that infinitely concerns them above all things else that can wish with Balaam let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his but never endeavour themselves in the works of righteousness whereby they may procure it as if they might be like them in their death whom they refused to imitate in their actions But they may wish like Solomons fool till their tongue cleave to their gums for so long as they live the life of Balaam loving the wages of iniquity they shall never die the death of the righteous nor have their last end like his whom they are nothing like in conversation No if the Soul then live it must be as my Text hath it for righteousness sake Set thy self therefore to it seriously and speedily Wise Princes make many days preparation for a field that must be fought in one Beloved let us be wise too and lay up something every day for the last when we shall wrestle with death If we win that skirmish we have enough but where or when or how soon we shall be called to the conflict who can tell be not secure therefore and presume not on the last hour it may come suddenly upon thee flatter not thy self and thy sins and frame not delay unto thine own Soul Send not Religion before thee unto thine old age whither peradventure thou shalt never come or else come hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Give not thy youth and strength unto Satan and then when thou art low drawn and upon the lees think to present God with the dregs of thy life What a folly were it for thee to adventure thy surest thy everlasting weal or wo making or marring on so sandy and sinking a foundation how much better were it for thee to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil day come and thou say I have no delight herein that thy Creator may not forget thee in thine old age when strength faileth and Man returneth to his long home Sure in these great water-floods we shall hardly come nigh him and therefore let
reproof as being a sin that like a deluge hath overrun the whole World and covered the face of the whole Earth as a flood which is so much the more intolerable saith Calvin quod assuetudine ipsa pro delicto imput ari desiit That the frequent use and custom hath taken away the sense and apprehension of the sin and though there be little hope in this case of redress for as Seneca says well desinet esse remedio locus ubi quae fuerunt vitia mores sunt there is no place left for remedy when those things which were made to be vices are now become fashions and manners yet not despairing of Gods goodness and mercy unto any both for our own sakes and yours we are at least to shew you the peril and danger of so great a sin and leave the success unto him And sure there were danger enough in it though it were no sin and did we never transgress so long as we swear frequently for as St. Austin hath it Use runs into facility into custom and from the custom of swearing we easily fall into the detestable sin of Perjury and forswearing And indeed it is almost impossible that he which swears daily and hourly and almost perpetually should not sometimes swear deceitfully and falsly Neither do I think there is any if he impartially examine and observe himself that doth familiarly use the one but he will find that he hath often and easily slipt into the other for the Conscience that dares to play with the sacred name of God and continually to use it with irreverence and contempt it is likely will not stick now and then to abuse it by perjury And therefore the Counsel of the same Father is good Epist. 89 ad Hil. 2. Abstain from swearing as much as is possible melius quippe nec verum juratur quam jurandi consuetudine in perjurium saepe caditur semper perjurio propinquatur For it were better not to swear any truth than that by a custom of swearing we should often forswear our selves and ever endanger it Excellently therefore to the same purpose he concludes in another place Falsa juratio exitiosa est Vera juratio periculo sa at nulla juratio secura False swearing is damnable and exitious true swearing is dangerous but no swearing is secure which is the reason that under the name of swearing is included oftentimes perjury and forswearing the Scripture for this cause knitting and linking them both together as in the sin so in the punishment Since no Man can be subject unto that but he will be found also often guilty of this And therefore there were danger enough as I said in this unadvised custom if it were no sin but how much more then when it doth not only lead and conduce unto sin and the greatest almost of sins but also is little less sinful in self I am sure is more expresly forbidden in the Commandment which says not Thou shalt not swear falsly though that be included but thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain that is lightly and idly and David gives the reason for saith he holy and reverend is his name Now that which is holy if it be brought into common use it is prophaned And that which is reverend if it be irrespectfully handled is contemned So that it is not only a bare sin but a threefold a trebble sin and terrible compounded of irrâ—vâ—rence profanation and presumptuous contempt The least whereof were enough to plunge a rebellious Soul in the depth of eternal sorrow whereof he is now thrice worthy as being guilty of all three For what indignity must it needs be unto the Divine Majesty and how unsufferable with idle and empty supervacuous and unnecessary Oaths every moment and in causes of no moment irreligiously and contemptuously to toss and bandy if not tear in pieces that sacred name which should never be thought on but with trembling nor ever be uttered without religious adoration That Name vererable above all names so excellent and admirable in all the world how excellent is thy name in all the world saith David by way of question and none can answer it That Name which the Jews thought so sacred as they never durst utter it nor was lawful for any but the high Priest ever to carry it about him Exod xxviii so much as written who was commanded to wear it on his forehead in a leaf of Gold the very sight whereof made the greatest Monarch of the World even proud Alexander that would needs be a God himself yet to stoop and do his reverence Lastly that Name which the very Devils in Hell and spirits of darkness cannot hear without horror no nor Powers and Principalities Cherubin and Seraphin the blessed Angels of God ever mention without glory and great worship What dishonour must it needs receive to be at length thus shamefully contemned by dust and ashes thus hourly and idly to be belched out from the foul mouth of a sinful man without all esteem or respect yea or so much as ever thinking of it Rather consider those glorifyed Spirits and tremble I saw God saith the Prophet Isaiah Chap. vi sitting on his Throne high and exalted and the Cherubins and Seraphins standing round about it crying and calling unto one another and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Behold saith Chrysostom with what fear and horror with what redoubling of praise and glory they make mention of his holy name I may say thrice holy that is most sacred Name And shall the Sons of men presume contemptuously to violate that which the Angels themselves when they mention do with Reverence adore Why if we say saith the same Father of one of our selves if of extraordinary vertue and worth Os lava wash or wipe your mouth before you name him And if a servant will not mention his Lord nor a subject his Prince without Titles of Respect and Honour with what fear and reverence should the name of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings the God both of men and Angels be warily pronounced Our mouths here had more need of fire than water not to be washed but with Isaias Cole from the Altar inflamed with a religious zeal when we dare to mention it Judge therefore in your selves how great is his Sin that can assume boldness not only with unhallowed and polluted lips to mention but even with idle nay rhetorical and wanton Oaths fearfully to prophane and lacerate that Name which some mens Reverence never durst utter and no Angels without terms of praise and glory will ever pronounce Now if our light trival and customary Oaths are so derogatory unto the honour of God what then may we think of intemperate passionate and cholerick Oaths the Oaths of Gamesters and others wedded unto other sports who if a Die or Dog run not to their liking or a Kite fly where they
it hath not wanted manuring and culture sepsi elapidavi I enclosed hedged it in and threw the stones and weeds out after all I built a Tower and a Vine-press therein expecting Grapes fecit mibi labrùscas and it brought forth wild grapes now judge I pray you Quid amplius debui facere vineae meae what I ought more to have done unto my Vine This was enough to convince them but these times are more acute Had some Men of our Israel been made Judges they would quickly have stopt the mouth of this Plantiff Why you have withheld the first and the latter rain the dew of Grace and the influence of Heaven no marvel if your Plants thrive not if you would needs plainly know this you ought not to have done if you would have expected grapes Give but that blessing and your earth will bring forth its encrease As if in the enumeration of some few particulars those that these speak of and whatsoever else is simply necessary for this rational Vine were not virtually included Surely the Lords Vineyard was not planted upon those cursed Mountains of Gilboa on which there fell neither dew nor rain for certainly the influence of Heaven hath not been restrained the Sun of righteousness hath risen and shined upon this Vine but it hath loved darkness more than light the dew of Divine Grace was not wanting to the branches thereof but they have turned his grace into wantonness quenching and grieving his holy Spirit And therefore a little before the utter rooting up and casting out these degenerate Plants St. Stephen frames the Inditement unto their just destruction why ye are a stiff-necked people and a stubborn generation as your Fathers did so do ye ye have always resisted the Holy Ghost And this leads us unto the third and last point That God reprobates none but after the often abuse of his grace for as they were cut and cast off so are all other also rejected and reprobated for first rejecting and resisting the same Holy Ghost My people would not bearken unto my voice and Israel would none of me saith the Lord So I gave them up unto their own hearts lufts and they walked in their own counsels Psal. 81. 11. And this is the first external act of Reprobation when God gives Men up unto a Reprobate sense withdrawing his abused Grace and leaving them unto the counsels and lusts of their own hearts A Judgment never denounced in Scripture but for contempt of Mercy Now by the external act Man must judge of the internal and eternal decree for what God in time doth that before all time he did decree to do for they that imagine that difference between the decree and the execution of the decree that the one hath respect unto Sin but the other none must either make a decree that is never executed or an execution that varies from the decree as if God did ordain one thing and do another And therefore if he doth now give up and reject a people for their obstinate sins for the same cause in his Eternal Reprobation he did order so to reject them And as it is in rejection from Grace so it fares in exclusion from Glory from which no Man is irrecoverably abdicated but for long and wilful grieving of that God who would have brought them to it Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and then I sware they should not enter into my rest Than which I know no sentence that doth so clearly represent and express the true nature of Reprobation for what is it but Gods eternal oath of rejecting wicked Men from his Glory into that destruction they have deserved And this he doth not suddenly in a passion of choler upon every light occasion but in his wrath his wrath urged and provoked by a long Rebellion even forty years long was he grieved and then he sware in his wrath he resolutely determined they should not enter into his rest A decree that seems not to proceed but when by extremity of injury it is as it were violently extorted so loth and unwilling he is to be brought unto it as he doth not so much as think or speak of it without passionate interjections of sorrow O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self And upon these exhibitions of Gods mercies and goodness unto the Reprobate depends the verity and truth and justice of this complaint against them for they that never received any means of Salvation can by no means ever be termed the authors of their destruction But now since God and his favours have not been wanting unto them but they unto God since they have wilfully forsaken his mercy they can rightly blame none but themselves for their own misery for as the antient Father Irenaeus hath it Judicium justum recipient quoniam non sunt operati bonum cum possent operari illud The judgment of God is just which they shall receive because they did not do well when they might have done it Whereunto Clemens Alexandrinus doth agree All impenitents saith he shall be judged aliqui quidem quod cum possent noluerunt Deo credere alii vero quod cum vellent non elaboraverunt ut fierent fideles Some because when they might believe they would not others because when they would yet they did not labour truly to become what they desired And it were easie that no man might conceive the Doctrine to be new to shew the like out of the Fathers yea generally out of all both before the Pelagian heresy and after but left the time should fail me to those already mentioned I will only add the Judgment of the third Synod of Arles assemblged for the defining of these very questions wherein what you have now heard is not only affirmed but a Curse and an Anathema laid upon those that shall think the contrary Anathema illi qui dixerit quòd Christus non pro omnibus mortius sit Cursed be he that says that Christ died not for all And Anathema illi qui dixerit illum qui periit non accepisse ut salvus esse posset Cursed be he that says he that perished did not receive means whereby he might be saved But unto this and whatsoever else in this kind may be said that in the ix to the Romans of Jacob and Esau before ever they had done good or evil that the purpose of God might stand according to Election it was said The elder shall serve the younger according to that of the Prophet I have loved Jacob but Esau have I hated like Medusa's head is ever objected though seldome or never understood But that it may be besides theirs of absolute Reprobation I will first shew you the several interpretations of others The ancient Fathers both Greek and Latin before St. Austin yea and St. Austin for a while until the Pelagian heresy arose interpret these words of the Election of some unto salvation upon prevision of their future faith and
tryal of that fire which will prove whether they are Gold or Stubble or else dispure them so calmly as neither peace be disturbed nor charity destroyed according si non sententiis saltem animis if not in opinion yet in love and affection And for these regards and many more indeed any but that of imputation is justly termed his Righteousness the Righteousness of God It is that Image of the Father the chief lineaments of that similitude of God wherein we were at the first formed and whereunto we are still created Created unto good works that we might walk in them Eph. ii 10. It is the end and purpose of the Sons Redemption That we being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives The intent and effect of the Spirits vocation for we are called not to uncleanness but to holiness and that not outwardly only by the word but inwardly by the power of the Holy Ghost cleansing from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit that he may purge unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works yea it is I say not the form that doth justify in it self but the quality that only can qualifie for justification and entitle unto it as it is taken for remission of sins in Christ. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right unto the tree of life Revel xxii That tree of life is Christ in whom without Righteousness no Man hath any right who came by water and blood saith the same St. John elsewhere first cleansing and then pardoning For as he doth sanctifie as well as justifie so I take it he doth first sanctifie before he justifie and no longer justifie than he doth sanctifie Lastly it is the direct and unavoidable means though not merit of glorification without holiness no man shall see God nor any enter into the Kingdom of God So many ways is it the Righteousness of God and so many ways no less necessary for Man as being indeed All in All the fulness of the Law the full effect of the Gospel the substance of Gods revealed will in both This is the will of God even your sanctification But what then becomes of Faith for this seems to be altogether work Is that nothing unto the way that leads unto the Kingdome Surely yes much every way but yet without Righteousness not any thing For Faith is not opposite to Righteousness but a part of it the very fountain or root from whence it is immediately derived For true Faith is ever that of the Heart not of the Brain and with the heart man believeth unto righteousness It is neither Faith nor Works apart and severed that can do us good but Fides operans a working faith faith working by love and love is the fulfilling of the law saith the Apostle This is that active Faith so much magnified in the xi to the Hebrews by the power whereof those Worthies there of whom the world was nor worthy besides many other great things especially wrought righteousness and gained the promises v. 33. And to these and the like Worthies it is that that Angel points in the Revel Hi sunt These are they that keep the Commandments of God and the faith of Iesus To shew that none keep his faith as they should that do not keep his Commandments Revel xiv 12. Indeed it is the keeping not the believing of the Faith that is available I have kept the faith saith St. Paul henceforth is laid up for me Corona Justitiae a Crown of righteousness Faith kept is Righteousness and such faithful righteousness only it is that shall be crowned at last Righteousness therefore the only way unto the Kingdom and so by all those that would come thither of all things else and in all regards most especially to be sought for with their best strength and utmost endeavour For it is not quaerite but primum quaerite not seek only but seek ye first The last point but must be briefly handled though indeed it hath two points As First hath a double signification for it either respects time or earnestness of intention And in both regards for time and intention of travel we are to seek and first to seek the righteousness of God if we desire to enter the Kingdom of God The actions of Piety and Righteousness are the highest and noblest operations of the Soul and therefore of more worth They run cross and counter to the bent of our corrupt affections and so of more difficulty than may be lightly and easily archieved Indeed facilis descensus averni it is a descent down the hill the swing of our own corruptions can carry us headlong thither but the way of life is on high said King Solomon Virtue must upwards and hale the heavy body after it climb Hills and craggy Mountains hic labor hoc opus this is not without sweat and difficulty But notwithstanding all difficulties virtus aut inveniet aut faciet viam The spirit of God by the power of that almighty faith to which all things are possible will and must break through them all To do good and suffer evil to deny our selveâ— and take up the Cross to â—ubdue lusts and root out affections and the like till it come to that point these are justitiae culmina the heights and steps of righteousness and up we must though like Ionathan and his Armoâ—bearer we creep on all four hands and knees for it on the knees of humble and fervent prayer but using the hands too faithful and diligent endeavour And therefore it is not every cold and careless seeking that will be sufficient The way is narrow and the gate strait contendite intrare strive saith our Saviour for many shall seek seek negligently and shall not be able to enter Nay more than strive and struggle too I press hard saith the Apostle for the price of the high calling which is in Christ Iesus He well knew that though no Man be Crowned unless he strive for it yet that every striving doth not presently gain the Crown nisi legitimè certaverit unless he strive as he ought And therefore he fought not as those that beat the air but as he that means to conquer for even this Kingdom is not gained but by conquest The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force In this point we need not fear offending in excess Modus amandi Deum est sine modo amare the measure of loving God is to love him without measure In opinions indeed and disputes that have their extreams moderation may be good and commendable disputants in heat and passion supposing they are never far enough asunder till both be equally sundred from the truth and then in this case to halt as they say between two opinions may be to walk most uprightly but no such here to halt between two Masters between God and Mammon God and
dispel the darkness of errour that covered our Souls by the beams of his gracious countenance without which a Winter of perpetual coldness and an everlasting night of ignorance would for ever hang upon this little world of Man So fit every way and full was this time A time when the world was at full age and fulness of peace was spread upon it when a full Monarchy had general dominion and the Sun the measure of time arrived at his full period on the Solstice the fulness of the annual and on the Meridian the fulness of the diurnal revolution the one making the depth of Winter the other of night A time therefore every way full but fuller yet by that which it now received even him that was filled with all the fulness of God and from whose fulness we all receive whatsoever grace or goodness we have who was the substance of all those shadows the body of all those figures the accomplishment of all prophecies and the fulfilling or filling full of all the promises that belong unto our happiness and in this regard it is tempus plenitudinis a time of fulness as in the other respects it is plenitudo temporis the fulness of time And the fulness of time it is and so the very institution of this feast doth shew it to be for look how many months there are in the year so many days we have given to the feast for every month a several day that as the year is a full abridgment of all time so this time a full recapitulation of the whole year that as it is in it self so in our own observance we might acknowledge it to be the fulness of time But it is time to pass from this fulness to another from the fulness of time to the fulness of the Fathers love that was now shown in it who now not only sent as at other times but sent his Son when the fulness of time c. And sure as it is the first so it is not the least degree of his love that he vouchsafed to send at all Do but consider what he is that sent or what we are to whom he sent and we shall soon with our shame acknowledge it For what is he but the Lord of glory what we but vile worms of the earth he a gracious Creator emptying forth his goodness upon us we his Creatures and yet rebelling against him by pride and disobedience In this case for him to have sate still in the Throne of his Majesty and suffered himself to be sent and sued unto by us had been a great favour and happy we if our humble requests might be but received at his hands But now when he a person so infinitely above us and so mightily provoked and offended by us not once so much as looked after but still neglected with the same pride by which he was at the first contemned That he now instead of hurling down upon our heads deserved vengeance and destruction should condescend so low as to send and sue unto us for peace and reconciliation must needs argue an infinite love and bowels filled with yearning compassion on our miserable estate Erubescat ergo confundatur humana superbia O how should the pride of Mans heart blush and be confounded when the offended God first seeks unto sinful Men and yet wretched Men stand upon terms one with another think themselves dishonoured in seeking peace and chuse rather to die in enmity than admit of reconciliation unless first sued unto and not always then neither But God you see doth otherwise and thinks it no disparagement neither to send and send first first and first unto us Mark well I pray you what one of his Messengers says We are Embassadors for Christ Jesus and in his stead obsecramus vos we beseech you to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor.v. God esteemed it no dishonour to send Embassadors unto Men with terms of begging and beseeching reconciliation at their hands and yet perverse Man holds himself dishonoured any way to seek it at the hands of his Brother Our cogitations sure are carnal and worldly and our selves full of secular arrogance otherwise we should esteem it our chiefest honour to imitate the love of our heavenly Father and to prevent others rather than be prevented in virtue and goodness So then a love there is in it and a love that hath fulness far beyond the empty affection of the insolent world even in the very sending that such a sender should once send unto such persons an offended Creator unto offending creatures this love hath fulness but in that which follows is the fulness of love for he not only sent but he sent his Son When the fulness of time was come God sent his Son The Lord had many times heretofore sent unto the sinful world sometimes by the ministry of Patriarchs and Prophets sometimes by the ministring Spirits the holy Angels of Heaven yet both are but his ordinary Messengers and therefore declare no more than his ordinary love But now he sent one that was never sent before one infinitely above either Prophet or Angel or whatsoever creature else is or may be an unusual and extraordinary person And therefore if we rightly estimate as we should do the love of the sender by the excellency of that which is sent especially being sent not as the former only in a message but as a gift unto the world then since there is nothing so great and excellent as his Son his only begotten and only beloved Son in whom is the fulness of his own Godhead and brightness of his own glory As in sending him he sent the greatest the best and the fullest thing he had so it must needs argue the greatest the best the fullest affection that may be imagined There is not a sending of his but hath ecce charâ—tas in it behold the love of God but this ecce quantam charitatem ostendit Deus behold how great love God hath shown unto us 1 Iohn iii. 1. In every one of the other sendings there is a dilexit Deus God loved the world but now it is sic Deus dilexit God so loved the world as he gave his only begotten Son It was not therefore any thing but love and no empty love neither that he sent at any time and by the ministry of any to such as we but now sure it is full and the fulness of love when he sent unto us him whom he most loved his only beloved Son And sure it is well for us that he sent such a Messenger no other that had been but a meer creature could have been sent in his errand or at least if he had been sent could ever have returned with his dispatch Were there nothing in his business more than the conquest of Satan I doubt not some other creature strengthened by God and the power of his might might easily have been enabled to tread down that evil spirit under our feet
been man alone he could never have made an end of suffering God only could not die nor man only rise again from the dead rightly therefore was he both both the Son of God neither made nor created but begotten of the Father and the Son of a man not begotton by any Father but made and created of the substance of a woman Made of a woman c. And even unto this his love brought him for our sakes for whatsoever else he had been made it would have done us little good In this then was the fullness of his love as before of his Fathers that he would be made and was made not what was fittest for him but what was best for us not what was most for his glory but what was most for our benefit and behoof But yet this is but the first step of his fulness he was made once more for our sakes made of a woman and made under the Law too made under the Law It was a marvellous descent and humiliation that the only begotten of the Father should vouchsafe to be born of a woman that the Son of the everliving God should be content to lay aside his own Majesty and glory and cloath himself with the raggs of our mortality to leave his habitation in the highest heavens and dwell in a Tabernacle of Clay whose foundation is in the dust as Job speaks Surely were man turned into a beast into a worm into dust into nothing it were not so great a disparagement as that the Son of God should be made man This making cannot but make his humility and with it his love unto us deep and full but this next making made under the law makes it deeper and fuller still For in that he only took on him our nature but in this our condition First our nature as Man now our condition as sinful men men under the law as it follows that is subject unto the heavy malediction wherewith the Law threatens the breakers of it This was our condition and this he undertook which was much more than to take our nature by that he was made man but by this he that knew no sin was made sin 2 Cor. v. that is made a sacrifice for sin was contented to be handled as a sinner and to endure whatsoever the Law could lay upon sinners and this is factum sub lege made unden the Law indeed under the Law he was and freely was so and it must needs add some fulness to his love that 〈◊〉 was meerly voluntary and free from necessity We indeed though we willingly sin yet we would not willingly lie under the Law but we are either born under it through corruption of nature or cast under it for our corrupt actions whether we will or no but for him who neither knew original soil nor actual sins who though he took on him our flesh yet not that flesh which lusteth against the spirit though born of a woman yet of a woman only without mixture of fleshly generation of a woman but a woman overshadowed by the Holy Ghost and therefore pure in his conception And as conceived by the Holy Ghost so he was united to the Son whereby he became uncapable of voluntary transgression and therefore no less pure in his actions than in his conception but clear and innocent in both just so he was born so just he lived for him I say if he come under the Law it must be Love and not necessity that shall bring him lex justo non est posita no Law for the just no Law could touch him The Law was added because of transgressions saith the Apostle 1 Tim. i. 9. but no transgression was found in him who could convince him of sin and therefore quid illi legi what had he to do with the Law or the Law with him He might indeed well be Dominus legis Lord of the Law as he said he was Lord of the Sabbath but sub lege under the Law or subditus legi subject to the Law to the pain and penalty of the Law no Law in the world could make him had he not of his own accord made himself so And therefore it is not natus but factus not born under the Law no nor fallen under it neither that 's our condition but made under the Law to shew that it was not laid upon him either by natural necessity or through voluntary breach but meerly by his own free undertaking was made that which naturally he was not and in justice ought not to be Made therefore not by any other but by himself who of his own accord and out of his own love unto us freely undertook and pay'd that debt which he owed not otherwise no power of Law no malice of Devils no nor the wrath of the Father could ever have seised on an innocent person had he not of grace and great compassion unto men taken on him the person of sinners and in their stead put himself under the Law that they might be freed from the punishment Freely therefore and of his own accord without all constraint without any necessity of meer love and compassion factum sub lege made under the Law And now the doctrine begins to be comfortable indeed comfort there was in it and not a little in his first making ex muliere when he was made of a woman for made of women we are all so there was an alliance and consanguinity between us in that besides the flesh and blood which the Divinity assumed must needs be advanced to great glory so there is honour in it also to our nature But yet if this were all if there were no more in it than so his alliance with us and the honour of our nature in him would prove but a cold comfort God knows for what good is it to us that our nature is exalted in anothers person though to the height of Heaven if we our selves be thrown down and perish in the depth of Hell in our own persons or what were we the better to have a kinsman great and wealthy if notwithstanding we lye in prison under the Law for our own debts Sure his wealth is little unto us unless he relieve us with his wealth But if he please to become our surety to enter into bond and put himself under the Law for us then he shews the part of a true kinsman and there is real comfort in that Such and far worse was our case and estate such and infinitely beyond it was his love and compassion We were debters indeed by virtue of a handwriting that was against us Colos. ii 14. a handwriting of ordinances which was our bond for we were bound to keep and perform them but we brake the covenants and so forfeited our bond and in it forfeited no less than our lives The condition of our obligation was no money matter it was not pecuniary but capital and the debt of a capital obligation is death Now he
demonstration of the intrinsick goodness that is holiness of the Lord that vouchsafed it For if the detestation of evil be an argument of goodness how full of goodness is he who that we might know how utterly he hates and abhors all sin and wickeness rather than it should escape unrevenged would incarnate the Divinity it self that so he might punish it and severely too even in his own Son which doth not only manifest his goodness but his Justice also and together with both the greatness and grievousness of our sins How far were our Souls gone and how deadly our Iniquities that must either draw God from Heaven yea dragg him to the Cross or plunge us in an everlasting Hell And unto that our blessed Lord vouchsafed to be brought that we might be delivered from this Who then shall declare either the heinous guilt of our sin or the infinite power the manifest wisdom or infinite both goodness and justice declared in his generations Especially his goodness unto us miserable sinners which we must ever especially think on but never hope to utter O what mind what speech shall utter say or conceive the great honour he hath this day done unto our nature how many and marvellous benefits he hath in it confer'd on our persons freeing us from all that is evil sin sorrow death and Hell and investing us with whatsoever is good Grace Joy and Glory everlasting in Heaven Say we then all with Pelergus Age O Christe Dei Verbum Sapientia Well then O dear Jesus the word and wisdom of the Father what shall we poor miserable Creatures return unto thee for all thy favours Tuae enim omnia à nobis nihil cupis nisi salvari for thou hast done all things for us and requirest nothing of us again but that we would suffer our selves to be saved nay thou givest us salvation and takest it kindly at our hands yea as a benefit unto thy self if we will but receive it O infinite goodness and that we may laud and praise and worship thee worthily for it add one more mercy unto all that is past and as thou wast pleased to be born in our nature so vouchsafe to be born again by thy holy Spirit in our Persons that we may once more say Quis enarrabit c. So we pass unto our last point from his Divine birth of the Father and his Humane from the womb of the blessed Virgin unto his spiritual in the Souls of all the faithful For it is not enough that the Son of God was born for us or in our nature unless he be also born within â—us and in our particular spirits by his grace that so as he was made the Son of Man by being united unto our flesh we might become the Sons of God by being united again unto him in the spirit By wihch spiritual union and mystical are conveyed and applyed unto us all the benefits and graces purchased by the personal And it is not the meriting of Mercy but the actual conferring of it that must do us good which is never fully done until he that was born for us be reborn again in and within us till he live in our hearts by Faith and his life revive in our conversation till his patience be stamped upon our Spirits and the rest of his Divine Vertues ingraven and formed on our Souls For so speaks St. Paul of this Spiritual Generation My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you Gal. iv 19. And formed then he is in us not before when we can shape and form our hearts in some good measure according to the pattern and precedent he hath left us truly saying with the same St. Paul Vivo jam non ego sed Christus vivit in me I live now and yet not I but Christ liveth in me A birth and formation so full of marvel and miracle as we may no less say of it than of those other Quis enarrabit c For in the first indeed God is born of God in the second God is born of a Woman but in the third many Men and Women at once both bear and are born of God because Gods formation in Man is Mans reformation unto the image of God his generation in us our regeneration in him And so by the same act in which God is born in Man in the self-same both act and instant Man is born of God as St. John speaks And that by the insensible and unsearchable working of the Spirit which works so secretly as Man himself cannot observe and discern it though it work within himself and even in his own spirit The child is not more inobservably conceived in the womb of the Mother than Christ Jesus in the Soul of the Christian. And therefore the kingdom of heaven cometh not by observation saith our Saviour that it is come we find but how it came we perceive not and what we cannot discern how should we express who then shall declare c. Neither is it more secret than strange and powerful there being nothing of greater admiration than the wonderful work of God in the conversion of a sinner How marvellous is it that the hearts of wicked Men that were for so many years before domicilia Daemonum the habitation of Devils wherein the Foxes had holes and the fowls of the air their nests that is deceipt and ambition roosted and with them Luxury and Avarice Envy Wrath and Malice Prophaneness Falshood and all manner of filthiness until it became a den of beasts a cage of unclean birds and indeed a very Hell of impure spirits that such a Stable of filth Augeaâ—'s Stable should suddenly be cleansed and a Tenent of Grace Jesus as in that of Bethlem be born in it in an instant That so dark vaults of lusts and uncleanness should presently be transformed into Temples of the Holy Ghost That so impotent and inthralled Souls should be indued with power from above and inspired with such an Almighty and miraculous Faith as is able in a moment to cast out all those Devils To teach the prophane to speak with a new tongue the wrathful and vindictive with patience to suck up all the poysoned malice venemous stomachs can disgorge against them without hurt and not only to be good in themselves but by laying their hands on the sick by their charitable works unto the distressed not only relieve them but with their very example recover others that were sick of sin unto death Who can behold such a change such and so sudden a mutation and not say with David This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Sure it is digitus Dei the finger of God indeed the very power of his Spirit nay no other than another incarnation and spiritual birth of the Son of God in such a Soul And quis enarrabit A generation performed with so secret and yet so powerful an operation Which yet we
these four Afflictions the World or worldly cares sin and this body of sin and death And under any of these we may say and pray with David here Bring my Soul out of prison The first to take them in order are afflictions sorrows and distresses and that these imprison the Soul and are here specially meant and intended there is no question all agree tribulatio angustia are inseparable companions Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that hath done evil saith the Apostle and Anguish is nothing else but the English of Angustia for streights and pressure there are in all tribulations Prosperity and Joy do dilate the spirits and draw forth the Soul but stricken with grief and sorrow like a prickt Snail she shrinks into her shell and is instantly straitned But yet of all the Prisons this is the most necessary It is the Bridewel of the world and without it we should quickly grow Bedlam and run mad in excess and wanton delights For all sins are frenzies and such sinners seldom recover their wits any where else The wild Prodigal whilst free and in prosperity runs on in his course and never perceives his own distraction till shut up here and well whipt a while redit ad se then he comes to himself and can say surgam ibo ad patrem I will arise and go unto my Father For tribulatio id habet proprium ut hominem revocet reducat ad se it is the very nature and property of affliction to call home and reduce Men again unto their senses Neither doth it only give them their wits but sets them on work affording them matter whereon they may exercise themselves and all the Christian virtues Faith Hope Patience Meekness Humility and the rest which otherwise would languish and vitiate if not exhale for want of imployment This Prison therefore is of excellent use But why then if it be so profitable should we pray to be freed of it why absolutely we do not but with limitation if God shall think it expedient for us who when the cure is perfected it may be will dismiss us or if he keep us there longer he will make us large recompence for it hereafter Our Saviours Prayer is our rule in this point because all afflictions are grievous for the present we may say with him if it be possible transeat calix ista let this cup pass but still with submission to his good pleasure not mine but thy will be done And thus much though not always exprest is ever reserved and understood whensoever in this case we shall say here with David Bring my Soul out of prison The second is the world or rather worldly cares that â—log and fetter the Souls of most Men nailing them fast unto the Earth that they cannot stir a foot nor move a thought towards Heaven and heavenly meditations This is a large prison wherein every one hath seen restraint more or less as they have learnt that high precept of the Apostle to use the world as if they used it not but satisfying nature only account the rest that belongs to pomp and superfluity nothing near at that high rate as they are bought and sold for in this Market of Fools quanti venduntur emuntur in nundinis stultorum These indeed have some freedom and though they are in a sort prisoners yet they are prisoners at large and have liberty as large as the Prison wherein they have elbow room enough not to be straitned But those miserable wretches that admiring the wealth and honour of the present world have inthralled and wrapt their Souls in terrene and base solitudes how close are they shut up and how miserable a servitude do they indure No Gally-slave can be tied in stronger chains than the Ambitious and Covetous Man like those condemned to the Mines he digs under earth and sweats for Ore all his life long and when he dies hath his mouth stopt only with a handful of gravel And here every one may freely pray and without any restriction at all Out of this Prison O Lord deliver my Soul The Third of these Prisons and worst of all is Sin the Third indeed it is in order but first in time that gives power and strength unto both the other Had not that in the beginning seised on our Souls and fast bound them to their hands they could never have touched us The world instead of a Prison had been a Paradise and the men in it subject neither to Cares nor afflictions But now being fast tyed by this we have a thousand Chains cast on us besides and are become prisoners almost to every thing else This therefore is the head and fountain of our misery and as the first so the worst straitest and closest prison of all other a common Jayl indeed rather than a Prison and the very hole of the Jayl wherein millions of men lie fast bound indeed in misery and Iron putrifying and stinking in their corruption like Lazarus in his Grave the very emblem both of the Prison and Prisoners And unless that Son of God who came down himself from Heaven to open this Prison and preach liberty unto the Captives unless he graciously call unto us yea cry aloud as in the Gospel he did even groaning in his Spirit to shew how difficult a thing it is to dissolve these bonds wherewith custom and habit hath tyed us as with cords unless he I say by the power of his holy voice cry unto us all as lie did unto him Lazare veni foras Lazarus come forth we shall all perish in our captivity for ever and never see light For this sink of sin wherein the longer we lie the deeper indeed we sink doth at length empty it self into Hell the bottomless Pit and Prison of everlasting sorrow But blessed be his name the barrs are smitten asunder and the doors thrown open by his death And he still calls unto us by the voice of his Ministers yea and Spirit too to come forth and unless we be enamoured of our own misery and like Beasts delight to lie in our own filth till we perish in that nethermost Gulf let us hearken unto his calls and rouse up our selves betimes answering his voice with another call of our own calling and crying with all our might and without ever ceasing all of us From this Prison good Lord deliver our Souls But yet call and cry as long and as loud as we can our Souls shall never be clearly freed either from this Prison of sin or those others of Cares and Sorrows so long as they are still inclosed in this of the corruptible body Which is the Fourth and last Prison of the Soul and here intended by David according to the exposition of many Fathers whose words I cannot now stand to recite And therefore Laurentius Justinianus said well of this Prayer Verba sunt peregrinationis suae miserias meditantis c they are the words saith he of one
said in the loss of his friend is most true in her case Her bowels were pluckt from her and she could not but feel the wound and therefore if for nought else but her sorrow and afflictions sake she might well pray educ animam c. But other troubles she had besides and distractions in the world that often called her meditations from Heaven where they delighted wholly to converse especially in her later time wherein she so inured her Soul unto blessed contemplation as she had almost freed her self from this prison ere she was freed from the body that indeed was still in the world but her mind and affections were usually with her Maker So that those earthy cares which hang at the heels of other mens Souls like talents of lead hung at hers only but as a line that usually gave her leave to soar aloft only humane necessity that held the end of it had power now and then to draw her down to the grief and sorrow of her heart I am a witness of her complaint and of her tears too that any worldly occasions though never so necessary should trouble and interrupt her spiritual devotions and therefore I am sure in this regard it was her frequent prayer Bring my Soul out of prison And besides afflictions and cares sins she had too no question for what Soul is without them but yet so few and so far from habit as I think no man can easily tell what they were Infirmities and omissions it may be though for my part I know them not yet this I know that her goodness esteemed them as the greatest sins and bewailed them with sorrow enough to suffice one that had murdered his Father or betrayed his Country never ceasing to send forth her fervent supplications in this behalf unto the last gasp Her tongue her hands her heart all prayed this prayer her tongue as long as it could move and when that failed her hand spake and when both were gone yet questionless her heart cried this cry deliver my soul out of this prison the prison of sin But yet until the body be severed from the Soul the Soul can never utterly be severed either from sin or care or sorrow of affliction And a body she had it is now you see a carkase but sometimes was a goodly frame a well built and comeâ—y maniâ—on and even cut out of an antient Quarry but unto her whose thoughts were on another habitation above as it was in it self by reason of the corruption whereunto it was subject so she esteem'd it but a prison unto her Soul and that did at last trouble her peace with pains and delay her from those joys that are pure and know no mixture of sorrow No marvel therefore if in the desire of these she could make that her prayer which others tremble to think on deliverance from her Prison But yet there needed no earnest Prayer for this death comes fast enough on of it self without hastning it more concerns us to die well and with the comforts of God in our bosomes that may shield us from our spiritual enemies that are then busiest and guide and conduct us through the dark valley of death that is terrible in it self And therefore in this respect I rather conceive she that was so careful of her Soul could not but make it her humblest and heartiest prayer that when the time should come the Lord of his mercy would be pleased to lead it out of Prison So fit was it every way and in many regards so good a choice did she make of her prayer whilst she lived and the Lord from his holy habitation heard her cry and at last accomplisht and fulfilled it all in her death Though before he pleased to lay sorrows enough upon her yet now in the midst of them all his comforts did refresh her Soul Now he comes to it in his dearest loving kindness and leads it forth indeed with his choicest consolations and graces to make her a full recompence for all her former afflictions How doth it now rejoice others about her even in the depth of their sorrow to see her full of the Spirit and out of the abundance of it sometimes pouring down blessings on her children and childrens children and every one his several blessings like Jacob sometimes stirring up and exhorting to the fear and service of the Lord with holy Joshuâ— sometimes again solacing her self in the sweet peace of a good Conscience as blessed Samuel and lastly sometimes venting out her strong hope and stedfast confidence with St. Paul but in the words of Job I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall see him with these eyes as she often repeated But what may be said enough of her fervent praying she was ever pious and frequent in this holy exercise through the whole course of her life thrice a day at the least at morning at noon and at night besides her times of publick prayer so five times a day she prayed and I doubt not but instantly too But now when her prison began to ruine and death to appear within ken how assiduous is she now it is not Davids seven nor twice seven times a day that can suffice but she plies it as if she had meant to fulfil the Apostles precept pray continually I told you but now her heart tongue and hand prayed to the last gasp and I think that gasp was a prayer too when her understanding failed and she could neither hear nor see others yet others might see and perceive that she prayed So perfectly had she taught her tongue to pray that when her senses were locked up it could run of it self And if such a Soul as this be not whose shall ever be led forth with comfort and peace But yet before her leading forth being remembred of it she willingly made confession of her Faith acknowledging all the Articles of her Belief and adhering only unto the blood of Christ Jesus for her hope in these she had lived and in them she would die but die in charity too forgiving and desiring to be forgiven of the whole world as at other times she did not refuse to ask it even of her own Servants when she had but uttered a word with a little more earnestness than ordinary And this solemn profession made that she might farther yet fulfil all rights she gladly makes her Son her Father and receives his absolution And not long after the God of all mercies on whom she continually called answered her gently and opening the Prison eduxit animam led forth her blessed Soul full of gracious comforts unto everlasting glory for with this all the other prisons are utterly dissolved No more afflictions now nor sin nor death for ever all tears are wiped from her eyes and sorrow from her heart all pain from her Body and sin from her Soul which now in the highest Heavens compassed about with the righteous sings the songs of praise and honour and
glory unto him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for evermore Who now shall mourn who shall weep for such a Soul none can sorrow for her unless they envy her happiness foelix illa anima imitationem desiderat nâ—n planctum that blessed Soul is no subject of grief but a pattern for imitation And therefore if any weep in her death they must be tears of joy not of sorrow and if they be of sorrow they must not be for her but for our selves and our own loss This indeed is great and invaluable and when you think on it weep a Gods name Quis natum in funere matris flere vetat he were barbarous that would forbid it you yet you shall not have all to your selves we 'll bear you company for she was a publick loss Such a Wife such a Mother such a Friend such a Mistriss such a Neighbour such and so good a Woman and so great an example of Virtue cannot should not go to the grave with dry eyes in whose loss so many have interest I would praise her if I could to make you weep more but she is beyond my commendations A Woman of her Wisdom and Judgment of her Wit and discourse so free and liberal and yet so prudent and provident withal for she was so in her self though misfortunes befel her so sweet so kind so mild so loving and respective to all and withal so charitable to the poor a Chirurgeon to the hurt and a Physician to the sick she eat not her morsels alone and their loins were warmed with her wooll as Job speaks such a Woman so well born and bred and of such a strain beyond ordinary as she seemed with the blood to inherit too the virtues of all her Ancestors so upright and clear and innocent in her whole course that the eye of envy nay were all the malice of the world infused into one eye it could not find any just stain to fasten on her such a one so every way compleat surely no Man unless he had her own or the wit and tongue of an Angel can sufficiently commend neither can we if we regard our own loss sufficiently bewail But the truth is she is not lost non amissa sed praemissa sent before she is lost she is not And therefore you whom it most concerns though you mourn mourn not as those without hope It is but a short separation and the time will come when you shall see her again though not with these earthly affections Pay the due tribute unto nature but then shut up the sluces for graces sake And the God of all grace give you comfort the Holy Ghost the Comforter himself replenish your heart with consolations And the blood of Jesus Christ wash us all from all our sins and strengthen us with the power of his might that we may so live whilst we remain here in this Prison of the Body that when it shall be dissolved we may obtain mercy from him to lead forth our Souls To lead them with his grace and then as he hath done to this blessed Saint receive them unto glory There with her and all the company of righteous spirits that are gone before us to sing praise and honour unto his holy name for evermore To this God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost c. Laus Deo in aeternum THE Second FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE DAUGHTER SERMON XIII Upon ROM viii 10. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness MAN of all Gods Creatures is the strangest compounded the most marvellous mixture that ever was a very fardel of contrarieties wonderfully united and wrapt up in one bundle Heaven and Earth light and darkness Christ and Belial may seem to dwell together and man the house of their habitation what can be more directly opposite than Flesh and Spirit Life and Death Sin and Righteousness and lo all of them united here in one verse nay in one man For the Text is but the Anatomy of man and must therefore be composed of and divided into the same parts man himself is As his body is composed of contrary Elements heat and cold fire and water So his person is composed of contrary Natures Corporal and Spiritual Body and Soul His Natures again of contrary qualities Life and Death the Body is dead the Soul lives and lastly these qualities issuing from contrary causes sin and righteousness death from sin and life from righteousness The Body c. And though the sin by which the body dies is our own yet that we may know that the righteousness whereby the Soul lives is not of our selves but received from our Saviour there is a caution given in the entrance of the verse If Christ be in you So then here are three couples a Body and a Soul Sin and Righteousness Life and Death The body with her two attendants sin and death the Soul with her two endowments righteousness and life The former is universal and common to all the Sons of Adam according to the flesh the latter particular and proper only to the Children of the second Adam begotten by the Spirit If Christ c. I begin with the first part which is a meditation of death and our chief Christian comforts against death But yet before the Apostle brings in his consolations he premises a conditon If Christ be in you To teach us that the comforts of God belong not indifferently to all men He that is a stranger from Christ hath nothing to do with them What hast thou to do to take my Covenant into thy mouth so long as thou hatest to be reformed saith God in the Psalm I. When our Saviour commanded his Disciples to proclaim peace unto every house they came to he foretold them it should rest only on the Sons of peace He forbad them in like manner to give those things which were holy unto doggs or to cast pearls before Swine This stands a perpetual Law to all his messengers that they presume not to proclaim peace to the impenitent and unbelieving but as Jehu said unto Jehoram's horsman what hast thou to do with peace so are we to tell the wicked who walk on still in their sins that they have nothing to do with the peace or promises or priviledges of the Gospel If Christ be in you c. Secondly if we compare the verse immediately precedent or that which is subsequent with this between both you shall easily perceive after what manner Christ dwells in his Children Sometimes we are said to be in Christ and sometimes Christ is said again to be in us and both in effect come to one we are in Christ by faith and Christ is in us by his Spirit For so it follows If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies It is
desire and intention of a farther renting to animate our mutinous contenders and egg on their contentions that look that way I hope there are no such crafty Interlopers as he terms them that put in their stock among the brawling Bankers help to trouble the Waters supposing in time to make another good fishing for themselves Though it is to be feared some Consciences there may be in the world extensive enough and patent to swallow even a Cathedral on the top of an Abby and never trouble the Stomach of it much with the digestion neither It little matters for Sacriledge they abhor Idols and that is sufficient But this appertains not so properly unto Ambition as unto Avarice the second of these earthly affections but no less contentious and turbulent than the former The Apostle well terms it radix omnium malorum the root of all evil and especially so it is by being the root of dissention for where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work This therefore a second Parent and Nurse too of this viperous brood of errour and contention For what a multitude of erroneous but gainful pardons and dispensations purgations and expiations of sin what indulgences to commit or else to continue in manifest wickedness what translation of other mens merits on those that want of their own and the like hath this affection conceived and brought into the world and that not for morsels of bread or handfuls of barley only as that Prophet but all like Judas for pieces of Silver Such Silverlings what are they indeed but Judas's quaestui habentes pietatem saith St. Paul to Timothy that make other mens goodness their own gain yea and their wickedness too Both are equally the Churches Treasure that may not be dispensed nor these purged without money So that Purgatory is but a Subterraneous Vault digged only to come at a Mine and that ignis fatuus though it be but fantastical and imaginary yet it serves turn to melt Bullion into his Holinesses Mint more abundantly than any Princes fire else that is real And therefore it is not to be wondred at if much stir be made and many bellows ever blowing to keep it from going out On the other side are there not others to whom the Apostle long since prophesied that speak perverse things to draw Disciples after them out of whom they suck no small advantage such as can lead silly women Captive laden with sins and divers lusts that like their fore-Fathers the old Pharisees can creep into Widows houses and devour too under pretence of long Prayers that can teach the Son of a profelyte to say unto the Father or rather the Wife Corban unto the Husband if not a proselyte as themselves Nay until they become such that neither the one nor the other hath any just title unto his own goods which therefore may be purloyned from them with a good Conscience if it be to supply the necessity of the Saints the right owners of them Is not this likewise as the same Apostle Veritatem cauponari to make merchandise of the Gospel of truth or rather of their own fancies and falshood Against all which questuous errours of such sheepskin'd Wolves on either side when the true and faithful sheepheard shall oppose himself when these Flints and this Steel begin to knock and collide together out fly the sparks of dissention that inflame presently and set the world in combustion Hence Luther stoutly opposing the Marts and Markets of the Roman Indulgencies and whipping those buyers and sellers out of the Temple first began that battery which since we see hath made such a wide breach in the very Towers of their Babel But these wars and contentions are sensual saith St. James as well as earthly and sure pleasure is of little less power with us than profit And whether we take it strictly for the concupiscence of carnal things or more generally for a desire of sinning freely and without sting of Conscience hath her part in these Tragedies and brings not a little oyle unto the flames of contention For this affection finding the doctrine of the Cross grievous unto it whose chief desire it is to injoy the delights of this life and from them to pass into the joys of a better hath for this purpose sought out Doctors such as may comply with her desires and it seems hath found them too and that by heaps so saith the Apostle they heap up unto themselves Teachers after their own Lusts. I confess I should not a little admire why the Romanist that is so strict in discipline should yet in life be as loose as any whence it should be that pressing the necessity of good works so vehemently in their Doctrine few men yet seem to want them or commit the contrary with less trouble to their Conscience did not their enormous dispensing with Oaths of fidelity and horrible Incests their supplying of some mens empty Lamps with other mens Oyl their enlarging of Veâ—al Sins and their easiness of Absolution in such as are Mortal and serving others the like take off that admiration Not that I dislike the distinction of Mortal Sins and Venial rightly stated or yet the use of dispensation in the Church much less of Absolution but only the abuse of these things which yet I think are more abused by particular Persons sensual Priests and presumptuous people than by the general Doctrine of that Church though so abused also And I would we had no abuses tending that way at home For some there are so strict in profession and yet withal so dissolute in their Doctrine and the unavoidable inferences of it as would make a man admire on the other side why they should not either teach as they profess or else profess plainly as they teach such as can distinguish also of Venial and Mortal Sins but in another manner not from the Nature of the Sin but the Condition of the Person The best works they can do are deadly unto some whilst the deadliest iniquities they commit shall be but Venial in the mean time unto themselves as not making any breach between God and their Souls even then when they commit them yea as pardoned with a non obstante before they are committed such as having no part of true righteousness in themselves yet even then by Faith and Faith alone may have the Merits imputed and Righteousness too of another such as can actually commit Mortal iniquities and yet at the same time remain still habitually Righteous such as can exclude good works from the gaining of their justification and when they have gained it can lose it no more by any works that are evil such as need not care what sins their flesh committeth so long as they act them not without some reluctancy of the spirit For so sin the godly and since no Reprobates have any commerce with the internal motions of the Spirit as being altogether flesh they can even from
the enormity of their sins grieving the Holy Ghost conclude the very certainty of their Salvation as no way else more certain that the Holy Ghost is within them No marvel sure if these and many other their sweet and comfortable positions have easily found such multitudes of Disciples in the world or that they contend so eagerly and strive for them tanquam pro aris focis as for the main points of their Religion and Faith or whatsoever else is dear unto them And less marvel it is that these Disciples should be so free and open-handed unto their Teachers when their Teachers understanding their desires are so favourable unto their Disciples For certainly next unto that of the Alcoran I know not any Doctrine else in these days so kind and courteous unto flesh and blood or in the Genius and just consequences more impure and dissolute than that of those who of all others most profess strictness and purity But so it is fit such corrupt people and their hired Priests should claw one another but scratch and lacerate every Man else You have seen the earthly and sensual affections of Love the love of Honour Profit and Pleasure blowing the coals of dissention there is one blast of Hatred behind and that will shew it to be Devilish also For there are not wanting instruments of Satan most like himself malignant Spirits that without the help of these respects can find in their hearts meerly out of the hatred of Peace and Truth too some of them to raise Cavils and Contentions in the World such as those of whom Salust speaks Quibus quiet a movere magna merces videbatâ—r who take it for a sufficient hire to set them a work â— if they may but disturb things quiet and establishedâ— Est enim quoddam hominum genus quod sine hoste vivere non potest for there is as he well saith a Nation of People that cannot endure to live without an Enemy such as Trogus pronounceth the old Spaniard adeo infensum concordiae ut puro illius odio inimicitias suscipiat Fishes that cannot live but in Flood-hatches Salamanders that die but in the flames of Contention But some of these are of an higher pitch and have their aim even at Truth it self and though for the most part but Table and Trencher Mates for buffoonery yet besides their scurrilous prophaneness they can sometimes be bold to argueâ— and it is marvellous to consider what scruples of difficulty they move what knots of Sophistry they knit what accusations on all sides these Scepticks frame and this to no other purpose but to puzle the World in the already difficult search of verity hoping that others upon despair of finding out the true Religion may come at length to conceipt as themselves in favour of their Epicurism do that there may be no truth in any for this can be no other beast than that which we term an Atheist something worse than Devilish For the Devil doth believe and tremble And such are the true causes of those Wars from whence proceed all the wounds and breaches that are or have been made in the Church Other prejudices and partialities there are arising from them that keep these wounds open and will not permit them to close again but this may suffice for the present to verifie the answer of St. James in this his responsive demand For are they not hence Now the intent of all this search into the beginnings and first Fountains of Dissention and War is but to lead us in the end into the way of Reconciliation and Peace This was the purpose of St. James's enquiry and it should be ours Shall we then for conclusion of all change the question let go unde bella and demand now at last clean contrary unde Pax From whence comes Peace from whence amidst all these stirs may that be procured If we do so An non hinc is at hand comes it not hence even from removing those Lusts and corrupt affections that are the causes of War Many good means and medicines indeed have been sought out and applied to cool the burning heat of these Feavors of Dissention and yet all but Empirical palliations for a time peradventure affording some ease but hope of health or recovery there is not any untill the putrid humours shall be purged out that cause and feed the distemper All other remedies of decision or ways of pacification which Men can either propose or practise without this are too feeble and weak for the purpose For what are the Fathers they that may give end to these differences There is a reverence belonging unto them and let them have it but how should they finish the broils of after times that could not pacify the stirs of their own Shall the antecedent Councils give the definitive Sentence But what if they handle not all the controversies among themselves How if a good Cause found ill Pleaders and so fell not through its own weakness but fearful silence or unskilful defence None of these are impossible yea some say that all of them have fallen out Shall then a present Council clear all doubts There is little hopes of any such that shall be Oecumenical and were there any such less hope but that it would be carried by Faction Or else is the Bishop of Rome the Man on whose peremptory definitions we must all rely But this is one of the points of controversie the mainest one and in such he may not be his own Judge It is not any of these nor indeed any thing else that may restore us our peace Not that device of an implicite and infolded Faith for these Controversies are between great Clerks that belongs only to the ignorant and simple Not that Law of the Muscovite which forbids all disputes in point of Religion though in impertinent curiosities of excellent use and whilst Spirits are inraged in others too that are material for so every Man may teach dogmatically what he list and be sure to be controled by no Man Not that position of the Alcoran that every one may be saved in his own Religion for it is impious though peradventure true enough if his own be the Christian Religion yet not of force enough to allay Contentions for we are to consider what is likely as well as what is possible and Errours that are dangerous must be oppugned as well as such as are absolutely deadly No not the decision by Miracles for we are forewarned against them Antichrist must come with all false signs and lying wonders able to seduce if it were possible the very Elect of God Nor yet that brief and compendious way of ending controversies by killing those that gainsay them a Remedy as â—ain as wicked For the true Church like the lopt Tree Per damna per caedes ab ipso Ducit opes animumque ferro hath ever thrived under the Axe and gained by the lopping But peradventure what the Hangman cannot do nor any
so now we are come to the true fulness indeed and we may not go farther not farther in our discourse it must needs stay where all words fail and every tongue of necessity is speechless Nay no farther in our desires this Adoption is the fulness of our option nay a fulness beyond our wish since we could not possibly conceive so great happiness to wish for it By this time then it is full Sea and all the banks are filled on every side It is now as Ezekiels waters that he saw flow from under the threshold of the Temple that took him first to the Ankles then to the Knees after to the Loins at last so high risen there was more no passage Ezek. iv 7. for just so it fareth here with the Text that by the like degrees runs on till at length it rise to an immensity of fulness not to be forded First from the fulness of his compassion God sent to release us Secondly from the fulness of his love he sent his Son who in the fulness of humility was content to be made and to make a full union with our nature made of a Woman and to make the union fuller yet with our sinful condition be made under the Law that we might receive a full deliverance from all evil by being redeemed and a full estate of all the joy and glory of his heavenly inheritance by being adopted Lo here is fulness of all hands And sure amidst all this fulness it were much unfit that we only should be empty for whom all was done If there be fulness of compassion in the Father if fulness of love in the Son to purchase benefits and blessings for us full above measure sure there should be in some measure at least a fulness of duty in us again to return unto them Otherwise if we neglect so great Salvation we may and shall notwithstanding this Redemption or Adoption either depart as empty of mercy as we are of goodness The Catholick Redemption is not so absolute but that many may perish for whom Christ died as the Apostle speaks The general and probationary Adoption is not so peremptory but that upon misbehaviour divers may be disinherited again Filii Regni ejicientur foras even the Sons of the Kingdom shall be cast forth saith our Saviour himself If thou then wouldst be a firm and constant partaker of these benefits being thus set free by so noble a Redeemer and at so high a price stand upon thine own worth value thy Soul at the same rate it was ransomed at do not again basely sell it and thy birthright for the poor pleasures of this world like Esau for a mess of pottage But as God is full of compassion full of mercy full of love so be thou full of Duty full of Piety full of Repentance and then Redemption and Adoption both shall be fully thine and thine for ever But yet these are but the general duties of our whole life if we would make it up full indeed we are to consider those that are special and proper to this time in particular and they are principally two Joy and Thanks that as the persons are two the Father and the Son and the benefits two Redemption and Adoption so that both might be fully answered the duties are two joyfulness and thankfulness unto the Authors from whence they proceed So these two will make up all full especially if they be in those full degrees if they be full in us in our selves And that so they shold be their very names do teach us Joyfulness and Thankfulness both ending in Fulness to shew that they may not be remiss but that we should be full and abound in them as at all other times so chiefly in this which is the fulness of time or the time of fulness chuse you whether And a time of fulness I am sure it will be in one sense of fulness of bread and fulness of bravery of fulness of mirth and pastime and so it may be and so it hath ever been a joyful time even in outward appearance only we must be careful that this outward joy eat not up evacuate not our spiritual joy proper to the feast Which then is truly spiritual when our spirits shall rejoyce not so much in external sports with the multitude as with the blessed Virgin in Domino salvatore in God our Saviour God our Redeemer as it is here And sure a Redeemer brings joy with him indeed we our selves acknowledge it in other matters if it concern the redeeming of our goods or of our momentany lives Tell an undone Man of one that will redeem his mortgaged and forfeited Land tell a lost Man cast and condemned under the Law of the Kingdom of a Redeemer that will purchase his pardon it is a welcom message the joyfullest news that ever he heard Shall those transitory things affect us thus and shall spiritual things and eternal affect us nothing Are our earthly estates so dear unto us and is the recovery of a celestial inheritance in a Kingdom of everlasting glory not worth the thinking on Are our animal and perishing lives so precious and shall the redemption of our Souls cast and condemned to the sorrow of eternal torment not be regarded Sure did we worthily conceive of it such a Redeemer would be welcomed with our best and fullest joy But however it go with us now when the destruction is not near enough to affect us sure I am the time will come when it shall In noviâ—â—imo intelligetis plane in the latter end ye shall fully understand saith the Wise-man At that day that fearful day when tribulation and anguish shall be upon every Soul that hath done evil when they shall vainly cry unto the Rocks and Mountains to cover them from the presence of the Lord then indeed ye shall understand and know that there is no joy in the world to the joy of such a Redeemer but alas then of a gracious Redeemer he will become a terrible and inflexible Judge And therefore beatus populus qui scit jubilationem blessed the people that now know how and wherein to rejoice And as we are to rejoice for the benefits we receive so we may not be unmindful of them from whence we receive them That were like swine that fat themselves on the mast but never look up to the hand that beats them down And therefore after our joyfulness or fulness of joy our fulness of thanks or thankfulness is to ensue We must sing both parts in the Christmas Carol of that blessed Woman of whom he was this day made My soul doth magnify the Lord as well as my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour To render our thanks then and to remember to do it fully to forget none to him that was sent and to him that sent sent his Son in this the Spirit of his Son in the next verse the one to procure the other to seal and assure unto us both
these benefits To all three therefore to the Father that sent to the Son that came to the Holy Ghost that made him at his coming for by him he was conceived to the Father for his mission to the Son for his redemption to the Holy Ghost for his adoption for by him it is wrought he that made him the Son of man doth likewise regenerate us to the state of the Sons of God worthily therefore to all three is all thanks and praise and honour to be rendred for evermore But yet this thankfulness is but verbal and therefore not yet full for fulness of thanks would surely be exprest in something more than words and in what may that better be than in the holy Eucharist the Sacrament of thankfulness and is by interpretation thanksgiving it self When Davids zeal throughly warmed with the consideration of Gods mercies brake forth into that fiery demand quid retribuam Domino what shall I return unto the Lord for all his benefits he could find our nothing so full as this accipiam Calicem salutis I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Surely if our hearts be hot within us as his was and we meditate a return as he did Ecce calix salutis behold the Cup of salvation let us take it and with it in our hands call upon him render him our true Eucharist or real thanksgiving indeed The Cup of Salvation cannot but do well in the day of salvation In it is the blood of the Covenant the price upon Covenant to be laid down for us and therefore the Cup of Redemption In it is the blood of the Testament wherein our glorious inheritance is by way of legacy conveyed unto us and therefore the Cup of Adoption So that our freeing from under the Law and our investiture into our new adopted estate are not full nor fully consummate without it And yet this may not be all No when this is done there is an allowance of twelve days more for this fulness of time that we shrink not up our duty into this day alone but continue it throughout the whole Sure every good heart in this solemn commemoration of our Redemption and Adoption will himself remember to redeem some part of the time to adopt too some hour in the day at the least to think on him a little and bethink himself of the duty the time calls on him for That so no day be empty quite empty in this fulness of time but that fulness of time fulness of mercy and fulness of duty may all meet together and make a full union That as the time is filled with the compassion of the Father and the love of the Son so we may be filled with the grace of the Holy Ghost Then shall we be sure to pass on from one fulness to another from this here to another which is behind from the fulness of Grace to the fulness of Glory For all this is but the fulness of time that is the fulness of eternity when time shall be run out and his glass empty and tempus non erit amplius and shall be no more which will be at his next sending for yet once more shall God send him and he come again At which coming we shall then indeed receive the fulness of our Redemption not from the Law that we have already but from corruption to which our bodies are yet subject and receive the full fruition of the inheritance whereunto we are here but adopted And then it will be perfect compleat absolute fulness indeed when we shall all be filled with the fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. i. 23. that is with the fulness of God himself For Deus erit omnia in omnibus God it is that shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15. and then sure all will be throughly full indeed To this we aspire and in the fulness appointed of every one of our times Almighty God bring us by him and for his sake that in this fulness of time was sent to work it for us in his person and work it in us by the operation of his blessed Spirit To whom with the Father and the Son be rendred all thanks c. Laus Deo in aeternum THE THIRD SERMON ON CHRISTMAS Day SERMON XI Upon ESAY liii 8. And who shall declare his Generation OF whom speaketh the Prophet this of himself or of some other man said the Queen Candace's Treasurer unto Philip and Philip saith the Text began at that scripture and preached unto him Jesus Act. viii And this is that self-same Scripture at least part of it which that Ethiopian Eunuch then read and Philip that we be not ignorant whom it concerns of Christ Jesus expounded And though he who was a stranger unto the Common-wealth of Israel and the Oracles of God could not understand it without a Teacher yet unto us that are conversant in the mystery of Christ it is manifest in it self there being no clearer nor more illustrious Prophecy of it than this whole Chapter wherein his birth passion death and resurrection are so fully and evidently described as it may well be termed an Evangel a Gospel rather than a Prophecy It begins first with his first birth and beginning He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground v. 2. It goes on to his sorrows and sufferings and for whom he endured them He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief c. He suffers then and for us he suffers but he must suffer unto death and of that it will assure you too He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter c. But though he be mean slain and slaughtered yet he may not abide under death though judgment be passed on him and executed too and he imprisoned in the grave and jaws of the pit yet all the bands and cords of death cannot hold him he must up in despight of them all And therefore it follows he was taken from prison and from judgment which was verified in his resurrection from the dead wherein the judgment and sentence of death was disannulled and the Prison of the Grave broken up In contemplation of which high argument of his Divinity that could so arise the Prophet breaks forth into this admiration of his Celestial descent and off-spring Who shall declare his generation So then it is manifest not only by Philip's interpretation but by the Prophecies own clearness and fullness that the Prophet spake not this of himself but of some other man and that other man to be none other than Christ Jesus the Eternal Son of God whose Incarnation birth or generation we this day with all joy and thankfulness publickly Celebrate and are now as well as we can to discourse of yet not as thinking to express it but only to shew you how inexpressible it is for Generationem ejus c. Now