meditating on the miseries of his peregrination on Earth and the joyes of the celestial Jerusalem above and as it were sighing in himself that he was detained so long from praising the name of God and singing hymns of thanksgiving and honour amidst all the company of the righteous there and congregation of the first-born both Saints and Angels he grieves at his absence and groans out the ferventness of his desire in this short Prayer Bring my Soul out of Prison that I may praise thy name A desire which he doth elsewhere often express As the Hart desireth the water-brooks so longeth my Soul after thee O God When shall I appear before the presence of the Lord Blessed be they that dwell in thy house they shall be always praising of thee from generation to generation and that he might be in the midst of them praising his name his desire in this Prayer is here Bring my Soul out of Prison c. And yet if we shall suppose he did not yet others may and no question but many do The Roman Catholicks report not without Joy that their holy St. Francis died with this very sentence in his mouth and this sence of it to be his mind which he had no sooner uttered but Anima à Corpore libera evolavit in coelum his Soul according to his request freed from his body flew away into Heaven And certainly whosoever hath but so much goodness as he can grieve to be detained from Heaven or desires to be freed from the molestations of sin upon Earth cannot but esteem of the body as a Prison which hinders him in both Nay the very Philosophers that knew neither of those respects out of moral regards could both perceive and acknowledge it for such Carcer sepulchrum Animae the Prison and Sepulcher of the Soul And so may we term them too only we must be careful we avoid the error of Origen That our Souls sinned in Heaven and are condemned to bodies but as to Gallies or Prisons where they are to do penance for former transgressions But as St. Austin doth well distinguish it is not the body in it self which was first built for a house of delight though sin committed in it but the corruption of it that makes it a Prison according to that in the Book of Wisdom Corpus corruptibile aggravat animam the corruptible bod◠presseth down the Soul and ceaseth not to fight against it with many noysome lusts in regard whereof the Apostle himself was inforced to cry out as even weary of his Prison quis liberabit who shall deliver me from this body of death why Thanks be unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ this is he that shall deliver us this is the Lord to whom David did and we all must pray that desire this benefit Bring my soul out of Prison O Lord. And yet though we may lawfully make this Prayer in this sence yet it must be as before with submission of our will unto his we must wait the Lords leisure with patience to whom only belong the issues of death and therefore not seek to break through the walls or throw our selves out at the windows but stay till he shall please to open the door and lead us forth in peace for it is Educ animam we may not thrust it out our selves but he must lead it forth or we shall but thrust it out of one prison into another infinitely worse Nay it seems by that word it should be no hasty desire that he himself should do it neither it doth not sound as if we would have him presently break down and demolish the building and so sweep us away in an instant that were Eripe animam pluck forth my Soul out of prison but it is Educ lead it forth and seems to import not so much an anticipation of our time as an humble Petition that when our time is come and this Tabernacle must needs be dissolved that then amidst all the conflicts and terrours of death he would be pleased to be with us to sustain and uphold us with his grace chean up and guide forth our Souls with his comforts for this is educere animam to lead the Soul out of Prison And happy thrice happy are those Souls that are thus led and conducted in this perillous time Every one indeed prays for it but every one shall not obtain it It is Educ animam meam and we must put an accent upon that meam on Davids Soul that faithful and penitent Soul indeed was and all others without fail shall be in their due time thus led and guided out of their Prisons in peace but those that have no part in his penitence they may say if they will but they shall have no part in his Prayer As they neglected God and all his ways in their life so God again will be as far from hearing or keeping them in their death but will rather laugh in their destruction and mock when their fear cometh as it is in the first of Proverbs And then on the otherside how miserable thrice miserable shall he be that must part with his Soul at a venture without any comfort to sustain it or light of grace to lead it through the fearful passages of death Look on him and you shall then see when after all his mirth and revels you shall find him at the last laid on his groaning pillow on the bed of languishing as David speaks O consider well how woful and disconsolate his estate must needs be when after all his former pleasures being worn out with his body the Soul begins to loath the ruinous house of age and sickness when it may not stay and yet knows not whither to go at what time those sad and severe cogitations formerly beaten from him through youth and felicity return to afflict and pay him home for all his vain and wanton delights yea peradventure when the terrours of God shall fight against him and the Arrows of the Almighty stick within him the venom whereof drinks up the spirit as it is in Job In this misery of his wounded in body through sickness and distressed in conscience through sin what shall lead him forth with comfort since God refuseth to do it shall his wife his sons or his friends his honours offices or wealth why the very thought of these and whatsoever else he hath that is good doth but double his afflicton since now he must part with them for ever and may well therefore say unto them as Job did unto his three friends miserable comforters are ye all what then shall he comfort himself as some of the servants of God have done by looking back on the ways of his life why nothing can possibly torment him more he now sees that he hath but wearied himself in the ways of Iniquity and perceives though too late what before he refused to believe that such paths lead down unto the Chambers of death Since then he can
neither comfort himself nor receive any from the rest of the world shall he for his last refuge as thousands of others have done cry Lord Lord be thou my help and comfort and bring my Soul out of Prison But alas unto what purpose and upon what acquaintance He that gave his Soul unto sin and Satan in his life time why should he think God in his death will embrace and entertain it No no Either give up thy Soul unto God when he calls for it in his word in the provocations of his love in the holy motions of his Spirit unto thine or else when thou wouldest give it he will none of it unless as an angry Judge to deliver it over to the tormentor And in these streights what remains but that he either take up the ditty of that dying Emperour heu quae nunc abibis in loca fearfully part with his Soul he knows not whither or else embrace the counsel of Jobs wife desperately curse God and die Either way he comes to his deserved end and he whose whole life was as the way of a snail not a step but leaving filth behind at the last dies like a Candles end in the Socket boyling and burning in the flame of his own distressed and distracted Soul till he go out in a suff and leave an ill savour behind him amongst all good people Such is oftentimes the fearful departure of those whom God for their former wicked lives shall refuse to lead out of their Prisons when they die No this favour belongs not unto them it is reserved for those faithful Souls that with holy David have throughly sorrowed for their sins for they only shall partake of Davids Prayer that imitate Davids repentance And these however he may seem to absent himself for a while and hide his countenance from them yet in that day of need in that last and Fearful time that 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 shine into that region of darkness and by the beams thereof chear up his people leading and lighting them through all the dark and winding Alleys of death until they arrive in the glorious Kingdom of immortality and peace Believe not me but behold the holy man of God and see it performed with your Eyes Look upon Jacob the Patriarch and Father of the Patriarchs he that wrestled not only that one time at the River Jabbock but all his life long with the arm of the Almighty continually afflicting him yet in the end all these storms are blown over and he is gathered unto his Fathers in a calm of content and 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 up in his bed calls his Sons about him gives every one his several blessing and benediction in such a high and Prophetical strain as if an Angel had sate on his lips and I think many Angels sate waiting in that door of his body for the coming forth of his Soul which stayed not long after to convey it into the bosom of his Grand-father Abraham there to rest in everlasting peace Look upon Joshua the Captain of Israel after all his Wars and Battles past at length he sits him down and divides the spoil among the Tribes of Jacob and death drawing near see how he summons the whole people together and with such power of speech exhorts them to the fear and service of God which had dealt so mercifully with them that the whole Congregation as if it had but one heart and one tongue and both throughly affected joynt ly cry out unto him God forbid that we should forsake the Lord nay but we will serve him for he is our God Thus out of the flame of his own zeal having kindled a fire in the breast of others this great Worthy was led forth from his Prison in peace See 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 Oxe or whose Ass have I taken whom have I defrauded or at whose hands have I received a bribe saith he unto the Congregation as all bear him Record saith the Text hoc ducit ad funus sepulturam This is it which accompanies him to his grave and laies him in his rotten Sepulchre Lastly consider St. Paul and his marvellous confidence even before his death that made him bold to deliver up his Soul almost like his Saviour with 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 at that day words worthy of a Soul so near unto its Heaven such have been the blessed ends of these holy Men of God and many more famous in their generations and such it is and shall be in all others that faithfully serve him though it be not ever manifest in all And what is there now that can more deeply affect a good heart what can a religious mind so much desire unto it self or behold with so great delight in another as to see a devout and penitent Soul give a peaceful farewel unto Nature and in the midst of death depart full of comforts of immortality and life as those Souls only do whom God shall vouchsafe to lead out of their corruptible prisons with the sweet consolations of his spirit But peradventure far off examples will be left too far off respects Usually those that are nearest do affect us most if so this sad occasion will afford you a worthy one for I have done with her Text and must speak as I promised and you expect of her person that made choice of the Text and by this time you cannot but perceive how justly She delighted in prayer and praise while she lived and she left this behind her written with her own hand that it might testify so much for her even after her death and that by it she might in a sort lest her thankfulness being private should die with her self publickly praise the name of God amidst the company of the righteous the congregation of good men here on earth even then when she her self freed from her prison should be singing honour and glory with Saints and Angels in Heaven Yet this was not all the reason of her choice It sorted well with her condition whilst she was in the body and she knew it would be fully accomplished when she should be led out of it For she had her part of afflictions and they prest sore upon her too even straitned her Soul Her branches she saw were rent away branch after branch and to so loving a nature they could not but go off as limbs from her body What Bernard
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
the abuse that makes it evil for that it is both lawful and good in it self in its own nature and kind is evident if we consider either the original from whence it springs or the end for which it was ordained The original is from Faith and a faith of the knowledge omniscience and power of God for it is grounded upon a persuasion that God understands and knows whether we speak the Truth and is able to take revenge of us it we speak otherwise an oath being nothing else but the calling of God for a witness of our speech and a Judge against us if we speak untruly for a further Confirmation of such things as have no other humane witnesses or proofs And the End is no less profitable than the Original Religious for it is ordained to no other purpose but to give an assurance of the Truth in question and so to determine dissentions and controversies among men as the Author to the Hebrews testifies for an Oath saith he is an end of all strife Heb. vi 16. For which reasons especially the first it is that an Oath wherein God is confessed and acknowledged as an immutable and infallible Truth in himself so a Judge and revenger of falsehood in others as being the only searcher of the heart that alone can bring to light the secrets that lie hid in the Closets thereof for this cause I say it is that an Oath if rightly performed both is and in Scripture is often accounted as a part of the very service and worship of God And therefore in the vi of Deut. 13. it is set down side by side with the fear and service of the Lord wherewith it is made but one Commandment Thou shalt fear the Lord and serve him and swear by his Name So Esay prophesying of the Vocations of the Assyrians and Egyptians unto the same Covenant and worship of God with Israel expresseth it in these terms They shall all speak the language of Canaan and swear in the Name of the Lord as if the swearing in his Name were a sufficient professing of the Religion he commands Esa. xix 18. yea the very Heathen themselves did acknowledge it an honour due only unto the Gods Praesens Divus habebitur Augustus c. we honour thee Augustus when thou art present as a God erecting Altars whereon we swear by thy Name So that an Oath is not only good in it self but a special Act of Religion and therefore cannot be evil unless irreligiously used And though this religious use be more evident and solemn in Oaths that are publick yet it may be no less truly though not so manifestly in others that are private if performed with a due respect unto God and out of a Charity to our Neighbour which is then done when reverent respect unto God in him that makes the Oath and the utility of him whose infirmity requires it do meet together And though the other have a stronger foundation by precept yet this wants not evidence in Scripture and frequency of example for if the Oath between Abraham and Abimeleck were publick as is pretended and is likely yet that between Jacob and Laban was certainly private Boas was a private man and yet he confirms the promise of Marriage unto Ruth with an Oath Ruth iii. 13. Obadiah was a private man yet a just man and one that feared the Lord as the Text hath it yet he spared not to strengthen his speech even unto the great Prophet Elias with an Oath As thy Soul liveth c. 1 King xviii 10. Again in the 2 King v. 16. the holy Prophet Elisha himself swears in the 1 Cor. xv and in divers other places the holy Apostle St. Paul swears In the x. Apoc. an Angel of heaven swears yea and in many places God himself swears and yet none of them required unto it by a Superior that had authority over them And it hath as well evidence in Scripture as example For there is no sufficient reason why that testimony of St. Paul unto the Hebrews should be restrained unto publick Oaths And it cannot be but that my Text must extend it self unto such as are private and if it did not yet that in the xv Psalm is without question where he that swears unto his Neighbour and disappoints him not is said to be the man that shall dwell in the Tabernacle of God which no man can doubt to be spoken of a private oath But leaving those that acknowledge publick Oaths and deny private let us come unto those that condemn both both publick and private the use whereof they confess was tolerated under the Law which now they conceive as wholly abolished by the coming of the Gospel The foundation and only strength of which opinion is grounded wholly upon that speech of our Saviour Matth. v. You have heard it hath been said by them of old Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oath But I say unto you swear not at all neither by Heaven for it is Gods throne neither by the Earth for it is his footstool c. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of Evil from whence they infer a double Argument the one from the Inhibition the other from the reason of it The inhibition is general Non jurabis omnino swear not at all and the reason is as universal laying the stain of evil upon all others equally without difference or distinction of any for whatsoever is more than yea and nay cometh of evil The place seems to be very strong for them and sure is not without some difficulty from which that we may the easilier free it we must speak something of both But first of the Inhibition and then of the reason And first we are to consider that there are many passages of Scripture set down in general and universal terms which notwithstanding have not simply and absolutely an universal sence but universal in a certain kind What can be more generally pronounced than that in the Psalms God looked down from Heaven upon the Sons of men to see if there were any that would seek after him and behold they were all gone astray they were altogether become abominable there was none that did good no not one And yet notwithstanding in the same Psalm we find another sort of people clean opposite unto these whom God terms his own people because they faithfully served him a people therefore whom those wicked ones could not endure but sought to destroy and utterly devour eating up my people as it were bread So that the former passage cannot be understood simply of all the Sons of men whatsoever but only of all in a certain kind of all the Sons of men who were only the sons of men and not by the spirit of Regeneration become also the Sons of God In which sence the Apostle St. Paul in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans ere
out of the hands of corruption into liberty which is glorious Justice because he hath offered up himself a Sacrifice for sin but Sanctification because he hath given us his Spirit Christ therefore unto us is all these but yet not all these by imputation for then his Wisdom should be imputed too yea and even the redemption of our bodies from the grave imputative also Indeed we can dream willingly of nothing but imputation All seems nothing worth unless Christ did so do all for us as we may not have any thing to do for our selves I doubt we may come in time to conceive that he did believe and repent for us too for these are his Commandments and so believe only this that neither Faith nor Repentance are in our persons necessary For if Christ as a surety hath absolutely undertaken any thing for us we like the scape-Goat must go free upon his performance The same debt may not with justice be required of the surety and principal too if so then do what we list all things are done to our hands already O this were to be a gracious Saviour to purpose if we might take our pleasure ryot in Intemperance and Luxury and withal have his Abstinence and Moderation imputed to us be beheld of God at the time as no less Temperate and Chaste than Christ himself Were it not glad tidings a Gospel indeed that we might be Feasting Carousing Swearing Drinking and yet under the eye of God at the same instant as if we were Watching Fasting Praying Weeping even with Christ himself in the Garden As though God beheld Men through Christ as Men do other things by a perspective which representeth them to the Eye not in their own colours but in the colour of the glass they pass through No God is not deceived with shadows neither doth Christ cast any such He takes not good for evil nor yet evil no not for Christs sake ever for good And let not us be deceived with vain shews neither The truth is it is well that upon our Repentance we are justified by imputation we shall be too putative if we conceipt an imputed sanctification too for two such imputations will not well agree together one of them will be needless ever or impossible for justification that is remission of sins is it self sufficient without imputation of farther sanctity because as St. Austin hath it Omnia ut fact a deputantur quando quod factum non est ignoscitur And perfect sanctification imputed on the other side will leave no room for remission or imputative justification so Christs death might have been spared since we should then be saved by his life for what use may there be of his blood for Remission so long as beheld in his righteousness that never sinned If no sinner he needs no pardon if he need a pardon he must of necessity be beheld as a sinner and therefore Remission of sins and perfect Righteousness are opposite forms that cannot at the same time possibly be imputed unto the same person for they expel and shut out one another Let it suffice then that our blessed Lord vouchsafed to shed his blood for our sins let us not therefore suppose that we are not bound to forsake them ourselves that were to shed his blood afresh and crucifie him again as the Apostle speaks But as he did that for us which if we neglect it not will prove our justification so we through his assistance must do this for our selves otherwise we shall want our sanctification and wanting it want the other also That indeed is the meer act of God but on those that are qualified for it This proceeds from God and his grace but is the true duty of man and which gives him his qualification and in man therefore it must inhere for the righteousness of justification is perfect but not inherent but the righteousness of sanctification now inherent but not perfect hereafter in that glory whither it leads us it will be both perfect and inherent yea inherent perfect and perpetual also Rightly therefore to conclude all this righteousness of the Commandments the duty of man still and since Faith is included in it as being now commanded as rightly the whole duty of man That duty which doth accomplish his election for if any man purge him self from these things he shall be a vessel unto honour fulfils the end of his Creation created unto good works that we might walk therein makes effectual the Divine Vocation for we are called unto holiness is it self our sanctification for the Commandment is holy and just and good procures our justification they wrought righteousness and gained the promises and lastly leads into Glory for they that have their fruit in holiness have their end everlasting life That fruit here this blessed end hereafter the God of Glory grant unto us all in his Kingdom even for Jesus Christ his sake the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit c. Amen A SERMON OF CHRIST'S Coming to JUDGMENT SERMON III. Upon MATT. XVi. 27. For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels And then he shall reward every man according to his works I Left untouched in my former Text the second reason wherewith Solomon ends his Book and confirms his Conclusion of Fear God and keep his Commandments which is this For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And now for variety sake I have chosen to prosecute the same subject not in Solomons words but in our Saviour's for these are infer'd unto the same end and much too after the same manner In the verses precedent What shall it profit a man saith Christ to gain the whole world and lose his own sâ—ulâ— or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul As if he had said Gain any man what he list or what he can be it never so much for the world indeed runs all after gain and never enough yet if by this means he come at last to lose his own Soul there is no profit in it He will still be a loser by his gain Or on the other side lose in this life whatsoever he hath or may lose Pleasures Profits Honours or any thing else even Life it self yet if in the loss of all other things he may preserve and gain his own Soul he will be a winner even in his losings To keep his Soul he can part with nothing that is too dear or if he would part with his Soul he can receive nothing that is dear enough for what can either way be of sufficient value to make a just exchange for the Soul But yet so it is small things are given in exchange for great and according to the momentany works and behaviour of men here so shall their Souls be gained or lost eternally hereafter For the son of man c. The words deliver
hope I may have good leave so to order it setting the first last and the last first as in Nature and dignity they deserve And therefore reserving the second place and ending of this discourse unto the destruction of the wicked that shall never end we will begin through the help of God with that help and salvation which the Elect receive of God by a Decree that never had beginning but is as Eternal as he himself who for this respect here saies In me is thy help At the feet of whose Divine Majesty I now cast my self humbly beseeching and imploring his aid and assistance unto my Heart and Tongue in these high and secret Mysteries that I may speak nothing but what is agreeable unto his holy word and that with such reverence as becomes his Majesty and this Sacred Place Since this whole sentence as I said is appliable unto either sort of people it followeth that before we speak of this special help of the Elect we say something of that destruction whereunto this help doth relate wherein notwithstanding we shall not need to spend much time for that the Elect of God have destroyed themselves that is were and are in themselves worthy of destruction none I think do either doubt or deny Only concerning the order and precedence question hath been made some giving the priority unto Election affirming that they were first elected who afterwards through sin came to deserve destruction as thinking it impossible that the merit of destruction as being a temporal Act should preceed the free mercy of God established by an eternal Decree and thereby which is the cause of no few errours inverting and perverting both the order of my Text and the nature of the things strangely presupposing help or salvation without supposing any former destruction which such relative terms must of necessity respect As strange a contradiction as if they should say that punishing Justice did precede the fault which it doth punish or acts of mercy might be extended on those that never were in misery For since the decrees of Election and Reprobation are made and ordained by the same properties in God whereby men are punished or saved it follows that as Reprobation must needs be an act of punishing Justice so Election an effect of contrary Mercy And herein doth consist the special difference between the Predestination of Men and Angels For their Election was a mercy preserving them from falling into the pit of destruction But ours a mercy raising us up and drawing us out of that destruction whereinto we were faln Theirs may better be termed Goodness than Mercy because it is not opposite unto Justice as ours is and therefore is not goodness but strictly and properly the mercy of God now Misericordiae propria sedes miseria est the proper seat or object of Mercy is misery saith St. Bernard And therefore Qui non ponit primò miseriam in lapsâ— hominis ponere ill misericordiam in Electione non potest He that first grants not misery in the fall can never place mercy in the Election of man said a late worthy Bishop both agreeing with that of Esdras after his confession unto God But because of us senners thou shalt be called merciful To make this yet more manifest by the definition of Election It is saith St. Austin Praeparatio benoficiorum Dei quâ—bus certissimè liberantur quieunque liberantur A preparation of those benefits of God whereby they are certainly saved whosoever are saved And what are these benefits but a new heart and a new Spirit begotten through effectual grace and a powerful vocation unto sincere repentance and to lively faith in the death and blood of the Son of God Now what have any of these to do with Innocency To whom else may they belong but a sinner but to one subjected and devoted unto that destruction from whence he could not be delivered but by the mercy of such a Redeemer As for the reason drawn from the time of sin and the Decree of Salvation before all time the deceit and errour of that doth apparently consist in a wrong comparing of an external Act of mans with an internal Act of Gods when the comparison should have been if rightly made between two internal acts of God for mans work is here to be considered not as it was done by him but as it was foreseen by God and then if thus taken you shall easily find the temporary sin of man to be no less eternal in Gods prescience than the deliverance from it or punishment for it could be in his Decree For as Gods Electing doth in order of necessity presuppose the foresight of their being that are elected though they be elected before they be quia objectum prius est in se quà m objiciatur actus in ipsum tendenti So for the same reason that it doth presuppose this positive foresight of their being it must also the permissive of their being miserable because Election is from mercy and mercy as is said doth always presuppose its object which is misery It follows therefore to conclude this point that the very Elect of God acknowledge to the praise of the riches of his exceeding free compassion that when he in his secret determination set it down Those shall live and not die they lay as ugly spectacles before him as Lepers covered with dung and mire as Ulcers putrified in their Fathers Loins miserable and worthy of nothing but to be had in detestation In the proof whereof I have made the longer stay partly because it opens a passage for some things that must follow anon but especially that the truth of St. Austins opinion might more clearly appear affirming that in the search of Election and Reprobation no mans wit should presume to ascend above the miserable mass of corruption Mans Nature at first was by Creation Gold but Sin was the poysonous menstruum the aqua regis more than Chymical that dissolved it and drew off the purer parts leaving unto us nothing but this earth and these faeces of that Gold Thus was his fall a great fall indeed from the purity of Gold to the vility of Clay and this Clay is that impure lump meant by St. Austin over which he grants with the Apostle that the Potter hath power thereout to frame Vessels either to dishonour or honour as it pleaseth him best The one being their desert the other his own mercy Huic fit misericordia tibi nou fit injuria saith the same Father God chuseth one he refuseth another to him he sheweth mercy to thee he doth no injury since the one doth receive but what all do deserve But enough of the desert of destruction now of the undeserved help For Man might fall of himself but rise again he could not without the help of another nor of any other but him who here saith In me is thy help And that we have help from God and that we need so to
it could be the intuition of no other Riches but these that could make King David a Prince of such mighty wealth as the Treasure he left behind can at this day hardly be calculated yet amidst them all to cry out Ego vero pauper egenus but I am poor and needy but the Lord careth for me See where his Riches lay in that God which may not be enjoyed but in this Kingdom 4. The last things of moment attending on the Kingdoms of this world are Pleasures and delights whereof indeed they afford great variety but wherein little satisfaction For as their Gold hath much dross so their little pleasure is mixed with travel and trouble not a little Only the Kingdom of God the Paradise of true delight is it that hath liquid pleasures and pure from all mixtures of sorrow Revelâ— iiiâ— 3. We that are immersed drowned in flesh and blood can hardly think there are any other pleasures but these of the body though our own Reason if consulted cannot but inform us that this corâ—â—ptible earth is not more inferiour unto the immortal Spirit that informs it than the delights of that Spirit are excellent and Divine above all the gross and brute pleasures of the perishing body Though here are all and all sorts of delights all that are immixed and pure from imperfection both for body and Soul The senses of the one the powers and faculties of the other shall be all satisfied to the full and satiated with their highest and diviness objectâ— with their 〈◊〉 and closest 〈◊〉 with them to the utmost of their enlarged and glorified 〈◊〉 cities It is the Feast of the great King wherein he means to set forth all his magnificence like Ahasuerus unto his Princes The marriage-feast of the Lamb and write saith the Angel Blessed are they that are invited to the supper of the Lambs Marriage Revel xix How blessed then are they that shall at that time be married themselves unto the Lamb The Body indeed is invited to the feast but the Soul is it that shall be married unto the great King as it is in the Prophet Hosea I will marry thee to my self in everlasting kindness Quales Thalami illius amplexus Who can possibly conceive the joys then of the Bride-chamber or the pleasures of the Bride-grooms embracement when God and the Soul shall be so closely knit and closed together as they become but one Spirit as by this marriage here two are made one flesh 1 Cor. vi 17. A strange and marvellous union that as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father so all blessed Spirits shall be in both and all but one in both as both they are but one A true marriage this and a through on all sides Souls knit unto Souls and all unto God A union divine like the union of God the effect of it therefore a joy divine no less like the joy of God So like as in Scripture it is said to be the same Intra in gaudium Domini Enter into the joy of thy Lord even into that joy wherewith the Lord himself rejoyceth and is everlastingly blessed who perfectly apprehending his own infinite worth and goodness doth as perfectly enjoy it in himself And such shall be your joy who shall not only pierce the inmost verity of all other things and clearly know the truth of whatsoever is doubtfully disputed here but shall be enabled to behold and contemplate with open face all the excellence and beauty of the Divinity it self by the understanding and enjoy it too by embracing and cleaving unto it with the will and affections though not comprehensibly and commensurably as God doth yet fully every one according to his capacity and as a Creature may Totum Dei but not totaliter seeing and enjoying all of God though not in that alsufficient and supereminent manner as God doth This is intrare in gaudium Domini to enter into the joy of the Lord and that is to be filled as the Apostle speaks with all the fulness of God which since it is the most we can it shall be the last we will at this time say of it only adding thus much that though we may put an end to the speech of it there shall be no end of the joy At his right hand are pleasures for evermore A Kingdom then it is and in all respects the Kingdom of God In regard and so seeing be made like unto him and that is participation of the glory of God In regard of wealth and riches we shall be Rulers over all his goods and that is a full possession of the Treasures of God And lastly in regard of pleasures and delights we shall enter into the Lords joy and that is no other than the joy of God Joy Wealth Honour Dominion all Divine and a Kingdom of all and therefore the Kingdom of God that is an everlasting Kingdom for Regni ejus non erit finis of his Kingdom there shall be no end Luk. iii But we must end the point wherein if I have stayed the longer you may please to remember what St. Peter said when he saw but a shadow of it Bonum est esse hîc it is good to be here A subject so pleasing that once entred a man can hardly be drawn off with that Apostle from building Tabernacles there and dwelling on it for ever But yet we are not so to contemplate the happiness of this Kingdom as we forget to consider what we are to do that we may attain unto it for something is to be done though not much seek it we must at least if we mean to have it the second Point Seek the Kingdom of God 2. And sure it is little worth that is not worth the seeking not any thing not so much as our daily bread but must be sought and that in sudore vultûs in the sweat of thy brow And shall the Kingdom of Heaven so far above all things be valued at a lower rate than any thing else for there is not any thing but misery on earth and Hell beneath it the just reward of sloth that may be purchased without travel Those idle people in the Market-place whom our Saviour questions in the Parable with a quid hîc statis otiosi had yet some rational plea for their idleness no man hath hired us we have none such see a Kingdom even the everlasting Kingdom of God is your hire He that is now idle is idle without pretence and let him be miserable without pity And yet two sorts of Men there are that trespass in this particular The one seeks but without all respect of the Kingdom the other would gladly be invested in the Kingdom but will by no means seek it he scorns to work for hire this no hire can set a work that relies too much on divine attraction this aims too much at supposed perfection but seek the Kingdom of God convinceth both The first to touch first on
receive it we shall fall short for want of discerning the body of the Lord. And in this every Man ought to examine himself and many Men others too as well as themselves It is not the proper duty of the Minister of God only to Catechise every Father and Mother of a Family is or ought to be in this regard as a Minister within his own charge It is our part not to be still laying of the Foundations and Principles of the Doctrine of Christ but to lead you on towards perfection Heb. vi 1. As St. Peter the Apostle said of ministring at Tables nay as St. Paul of Baptism it self I was not sent to baptise but to preach So we may much more say of Catechizing We were not sent to Catechise but to preach the Gospel our office is to dispense the Word and Sacraments yours it is properly to prepare yours it is to teach and instruct your Children and Servants that they may be fit and capable to receive both though the sloth and ignorance of these times to your sin and shame hath cast this burden wholly upon our shoulders most Fathers for the want of willingness or knowledge deserving to be Catechised no less than the Children that are under them yea in my understanding much more having lost in their age that little which they learned in their youth The second qualification is Faith without it it is impossible to please God as in any other duties we can exhibite unto him so especially in this of the Sacrament It is the eye of the Soul by which we behold and look upon the hand by which we lay hold and apprehend the very mouth by which we eat and receive the Body and Blood of our Redeemer given and applied unto us in these mystical figures Non dentes sed fidem prepare not therefore thy teeth but thy Faith saith St. Aug. for crede manducasti believe and thou hast eaten And for this duty we suppose there needs little preparation or tryal every Man thinks he can readily assure and acquit himself in the performance but when we come to examination anon we shall find it a harder matter than we imagine to believe aright and as we ought The third of these preparatory qualifications is Repentance which though it be also generally required as precedaneous unto all sacrifices and services which we offer unto God according to that of the Apostle Let him depart front iniquity whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord yet the more holy and sacred the actions are the more especially ought we to cleanse our selves and purge our sins and corruptions before we go about them for I will be sanctified saith the Lord in those that draw near unto me And nearer well we cannot draw unto God or God unto us than in this Sacrament ordained of purpose to joyn and unite both in one But do we think his pure and precious body will vouchsafe to be received and dwell in an unclean and polluted Soul shall this bread panis de Coelo bread from Heaven the Childrens bread as it is in the Gospel and indeed the food of Angels shall it be given do we imagine unto whelps shall these precious Pearls of the Gospel shell'd up in Divine Mysteries be opened and cast unto Swine shall the cup of the Testament be given unto him that hath nothing to do with the Covenant surely no What hast thou to do saith God in the Psalms to take my Covenant in thy mouth so long as thou hatest to be reformed to take it in thy mouth so much as by naming of it how much less hast thou to do to take the blood of the Covenant in thy mouth by receiving it so long as thou refusest to reform thy self by true Repentance This therefore is the main and principal part of our qualification wherein we cannot be too diligent and careful and the other of Love is like unto it Of Love first unto God who hath shewn such marvellous Love unto us and from us should receive all Love and thankfulness again And then unto our brethren that as God hath loved us so should we also shew Love and Mercy unto one another In regard of the first this blessed Sacrament is well termed the Eucharist that is the Sacrament of thanksgiving wherein by the assistance of the blessed Spirit we do in all thankfulness and grateful return of our best affections solemnly commemorate the wonderful Love of the Son that suffered and the infinite goodness and mercy of the Father that gave him to death for the sins of the world In regard of the other the Love of our brethren it is as rightly stiled a Communion that is a common union for so it is doubly a common union of our selves amongst our selves and of all unto our Saviour But first we must be united unto one another before we be united unto him as we drink of one cup and eat of one bread so we must be knit into one body mystical by Love or we shall never be knit unto our head Christ Jesus by Faith What union canst thou expect with him so long as thou art at variance with those for whom he died His blood was shed for us all whilst we were yet enemies and shall we think we may drink it and in it remission of sins to our selves so long as we refuse to remit the sins of another can we hope or expect that mercy from God which we will not shew to our own flesh No no if without this thou thinkest to receive any favour from him or look he should receive or accept any sacrifice from thee thou deceivest thy self It is his rule in the Gospel If when thou comest to offer at his Altar thou remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift there go and first be reconciled to him then come and offer thine oblation Ecce honorem suum despicit dum in proximo charitatem requirit Behold saith Chrysost. how he preferreth thy Charity before his own honour who will not accept of any sacrifice to himself till thou hast shown love to thy neighbour And so here these four Knowledge Faith Repentance and Love are as you see the principal qualifications wherewith due preparation must of necessity adorn and beautifie the Soul they are the several parts whereof that Wedding-garment must be made up wherewith it is to be arrayed and wherein every one must appear that would be held and accepted of God for a worthy Receiver And thus much of the first points the preparation and the necessity of it drawn from the phrase and commanding force of the Text Let a man examine himself for this Let is not permissive let him do it if he will or if he will not let him chuse but mandatory and imperative let him see and be sure that he doth it and that under pain of damnation as it follows in the next verse Proceed we now in
in usilitatem nostram de salvatore salutem operari imploy or make use of him for our best behoof draw his proper extract from him and work salvation out of this our Saviour But how may that be done sure no way better than as God in his infinite mercy this day gave him so we this day again in all thankfulness receive him otherwise we shall but evacuate the gift and dishonour the giver but abuse his goodness and lose our own benefit For it is not so ours but by our own neglect it may be lost For though all be ours because given us yet nothing shall be ours if not accepted Ours indeed he and all his are already by right and interest but they are never throughly ours till they be ours by possession and then they are ours indeed Possession then let us take but how or which way shall we take it no way so well as in the blessed Sacrament in the holy Mysteries instituted of purpose and ordained to no other end but for pledges to assure us and conduits to convey unto us this blessed Saviour and all his benefits There and there only we may be seised and possessed of both for there and there only are both to be received Thither then let us approach with all reverence and due regard to claim our interest in them and then be assured it shall never be denied He himself will presently meet and answer us with an Accipite Here take this is my body by the offering whereof ye are sanctified Take this is my blood by the shedding whereof ye are saved Take and receive them both and with them all the joyes and blessings they both have purchased or this Text doth afford for now after this all are yours in right and yours in possession none can bereave you of them You have the Author of all safe enough and fast enough with you nay within you It is no longer now Natus vobis to you is born a Saviour but in vobis in you he is born and in you he lives and will live for ever Ye may henceforth say with St. Paul jam non ego vivo fed vivit in me Christus it is not I now that live but Christ liveth in me and if he live in us now we shall live in him for ever hereafter For if whilst ye live ye do not live but Christ liveth in you why when ye die ye shall not dye but live in Christ in Christ the Lord of life and glory and joy and with Christ be made coheirs and Lords of them all and whatsoever other blessedness wherewith he himself is everlastingly Blessed Which the Lord God Almighty vouchsafe unto us for this our Saviour Christ the Lords sake who this day came to purchase them for us and to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit three Persons c. be rendred all c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum THE SECOND SERMON ON CHRISTMAS Day SERMON X. Upon GAL. iv 4 5. When the fullness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law That he might redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons THE Text begins with the fulness of time but we may well begin with the fulness of the Text for it hath both fulness of time and fulness of matter the love of the Father the humility of the Son and the happiness of man arising from both are here at the full First the fulness of the Fathers love who so loved the world as he gave his only begotten Son When the fulness c. God sent his Son c. Secondly the fulness of the Sons humility not only vouchsafing to take on him our nature made of a Woman but also our miserable condition undertaking to satisfy the Law unto whose condemnation we were subject made under the Law c. Thirdly and lastly the fulness of our bliss and happiness arising from both as being now ransomed from the death of everlasting sorrow which the Law did threaten that he might redeem c. and not so only but adopted also unto that immortal life of glory which the Gospel doth promise that we might c. by the one we are freed from all evil by the other invested with whatsoever is good and both must needs make up the fulness of happiness That he c. So these three are here at the full and in the fulness of them doth consist the fulness of the whole Gospel whose foundation is wholly built upon the Son of God sent into the world of whom there is little to be known and by whom there was little performed and fulfilled which is not even in these verses fully expressed For you have here both foundation and roof both substance of the work and all the circumstances that belong unto it and you may see in it not only that he was a Saviour sent into the world which is the main but also who it was that was sent and by whom and in what manner to what end and in what time which are necessary adjuncts If you demand of it who it was that was sent it tells you the Son of God if by whom it answers by God his Father God sent his Son if in what manner it replies in a twofold made and made again twice made factum ex factum sub made of and made under made of a Woman and made under the Law If to what purpose all this it gives you a double end which is the comfort of all Redemption and Adoption unto men To them that were c. That we might c. Lastly if when it was performed you have it clearly and fully in the first words in plenitudine temporis in the fulness of time When the fulness c. So have you the sending and whatsoever may seem to belong unto it who was sent and by whom how and why and when not one the least circumstance is omitted but you have all so full it is and yet you have not all the fullness For should we inquire more particularly into the nature and person of this Saviour here they are all three one person and two natures or two natures in one person he is the Son of God see his Divinity but of a Woman see his humanity made of a Woman see their union in one person for God cannot be made Man but by making himself one person with Man This for his incarnation will you now inquire for the birth or nativity of the person so incarnate it's here too for as he was made so was he sent as made of a Woman so sent into the world made of a Woman by incarnation and sent into the world by birth and nativity God sent his son made of a woman Should we yet proceed a step or two farther after his incarnation and birth would you behold his life or contemplate his death see what he did in the one or
consider what he suffered in the other that you may do also factus sub lege will give you both For what were the actions of his life but the keeping of the Law in himself or what was the passion of his death but the satisfying of the Law for others that had broken it and in regard of either made under the law under the law to fulfil the precepts which it commands and under the Law to satisfy the penalty which it injoins So by this time I think it is full filled with the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ whose natures person actions passion whose incarnation birth life and death it fully contains verè verbum abbreviatum it may well be termed and abbreviated word a viol of Spirits a very extract and quintessence drawn from four Evangelists and clapt up in two verses by an Apostle Two verses which as I said have but two general parts fulness of time and fulness of matter both tend to declare the greatness of the Fathers love the depth of the Son's humility and the height of mans happiness The Fathers love is full and grows unto its fulness by two degrees He sent and he sent his Son The Sons humility is full and it ariseth unto its fulness by two degrees made of a woman and made under the law Mans happiness is full and it cometh to its fulness also by two degrees Redemption and Adoption that he might or that we might c. If then the greatest thing the Father could send the Son or the worst thing the Son could suffer the malediction of the Law or the best thing men could receive or wish for adoption of Sons can make it full it is full indeed and to purpose for it is filled with all these And of this fulness we will now draw out unto you as much as the short time will permit beginning first with the fulness of the time When the fulness of time was come c. All the works of God saith the Wise man are done in number weight and measure and therefore questionless in a just and opportune time For time it is that doth both number and measure all his works yea and gives weight unto them too his weightiest works and greatest would be something the lighter and lesser were they not designed unto the fullest and fittest times This then as it exceeds all other in the greatness of the work so was it fit to receive an answerable fulness of the season And sure the season must needs be full when so great a work was poured into it when he came to fill it in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily True but yet the Text doth not so much derive the fulness of the time from his coming as apply his coming unto the fulness of the time as being full and fit to receive him Again the time appointed by the Father as it is a little before and foretold by his Prophets was now full come and expired this then must needs be the fulness of time True also they argue the fulness of time but short as we make it for had there not been a fulness and fitness in the time it self it had never been either appointed by the one or foretold by the other though without his appointment it came not to this fulness neither True it is that the wit of Man is too narrow a vessel fully to receive and comprehend all the reasons of this fulness yet sure in that which it doth apprehend it hath reason enough to admire the wisdom of the Lord in the fitness of his appointment not without special convenience chusing out neither the first beginning of the world nor the last end of it but a mid time as it were between both when the world should arrive at his just age Not a time of war but a time of universal peace Not the time of a Common-weal but the time of a general Monarchy not of the AEquinox but the Solstice not in the Summer but the Winter not in the day but in the night for all these may be comprehended within this fulness as not wanting their convenient fitness First then upon great reason the Lord chose not the first ages of the young world but deferred it for some thousands of years that being first shadowed in types and figures and promised by many and antient prophecies and predictions his coming might be the more desired and expected of Men and himself the better received and with less doubt entertained when he should come So great a mystery is the Incarnation of the Son of God that unless his person and actions his birth death and resurrection with all the particulars of either had been clearly and frequently for many ages foretold by the Prophets his forerunners we should have little means either to perswade it to others or at this day to believe it our selves And again upon as good reason he chose not the end and last age of the decrepit world lest all eyes should fail and hope faint in too long expectation with Where is the promise of his coming Rightly therefore in a point and period of time between both these neither when the world was too old and doting nor whilst it was too young and under tutorage as it is two verses before but when it came to full age and strength in the sight of him that made it Secondly he chose not a troublous time of war but of calm and settled peace as being the true Solomon and Prince of peace that came to no other end but to make and establish an everlasting peace between Heaven and Earth God and Man Man and his own Soul Thirdly he chose not a time of Republick neither of Aristocracy wherein few nor Democracy wherein the people have the chief power but a time of Monarchy when one Man Augustus Caesar had obtained the Dominion did sway the Scepter command and give law unto the whole world to shew that the universal Monarch of all Nations the Supream head of all Churches the Catholick Bishop and Pastor of all Souls was now born into the world Fourthly he chose not the AEquinox but the Solstice not the Summer Solstice when the Sun runs at his highest but the Winter Solstice when the days are at shortest because then the Sun first begins to return and the days to increase as in light so afterwards in heat So in like manner he chose the Meridian time not the diurnal Meridian when the Sun by his presence makes light more but the nocturnal when by his absence he makes the deep noon of night because at that time the Sun is in the furthest point he can go from us and first begins to ascend towards the morning And both to shew the true Son of Righteousness was now approaching and drawing near unto us by his comfortable presence to give new light unto our minds and divine heat unto our affections to unthaw our benum'd and frozen consciences and to
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
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
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
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
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