shall manumit and set free our soules from the prison of the body there shal be a second meeting Many haue come from east from west farre remote in place and haue met with Abraham and Isaac and the holy Patriarches which liued long before them in this world in the kingdome of heauen So already in Mount Sion are the Spirits of iust men made perfect The purer part is then glorified and meets with the triumphant Church in blisse This meeting exceeds the former in comfort 1. In respect that our miseries are past our conflict is ended teares are wiped from our eyes The very release from calamitie is not a litle felicitie So Austin meditates of this place negatiuely Non est ibi mors non luctus c. There is no death nor dearth no pining nor repining no sorrow nor sadnes neither teares nor feares defect nor lothing No glory is had on earth without grudging emulation in this place there is no enuie Non erit aliqua inuidia disparis claritatis quum regnabit in omnibus vnitas charitatis None sâ—…all malice anothers glorious clearnesse when in all shall be one gratious dearenesse God shall then giue rest to our desires In our first meeting we haue Desiderium quietis in this second Quietem desiderij Here we haue a desire of rest there we shall haue rest of desire 2. In regard that we shall see God behold him whose glory filleth all in all This is great happinesse for in his presence is the fullnesse of ioy at his right hand are pleasures for euer We shall not only meete with the spirits of iust men made perfect but also with him that made them iust and perfect Iesus the mediatour of the new couenant euen God himselfe 3 Our last meeting which is called the Generall assembly and Church of the first borne written in heauen is the great meeting at the end of the world When our re-vnited bodies soules shall possesse perfect glory and raigne with our Sauiour for euer When as no mountayne or rocke shall shelter the wicked from doome terrour so no corruption detayne one bone or dust of vs from glory We shal be caught vp together in the cloudes to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shall we be euer with the Lord. Who We. There is a time when the elect shall meete in one vniuersalitie Though now weare scattered all ouer the broad face of the earth dispersed and distressed yet we shall meet There is now a Communion of Saints 1. As of all the members with the Head all haue interest in Christ. For he is not a garden flower priuate to few but the Rose of Sharon and the Lillie of the valleys common to the reach of all faythfull hands So Iude calls this our common saluation 2. So of one member with another euen of the Church triumphant with this militant They sing Hosanna's for vs we Halleluia's for them they pray to God for vs we prayse God for them For the excellent graces they had on earth and for their present glory in heauen We meete now in our affections to solace one another and serue our God there is a mutuall sympathie betweene the parts If one member suffer all suffer with it But this meeting shal be voyd of passion and therfore needlesse of compassion though loue shall remaine for euer This Instruction is full of comfort We part here with our parents children kinred friends death breakes off our societie yet there shall be a day of meeting Comfort one another with these wordes Hast thou lost a wife brother child you shall one day meete though not with a carnall distinction of sexe or corrupt relation which earth afforded No man carries earth to heauen with him the same body but transfigured purified glorified There shall be loue hereafter not the offals of it A wife shall be knowne not as a wife there is no marriage but the Lambes Thou shalt reioyce in thy glorified brother not as thy brother according to the flesh but as glorified It is enough that this meeting shall affoord more ioy then we haue knowledge to expresse This giues thee consolation dying with griefe thou leauest those thou dearely louest Yet first thou art going to one whose loue is greater then Ionathans that gaue his life to redeeme thee And well pondering the matter thou art content to forsake all to desire a dissolution that thou mayest be with Christ. Yet this is not all thou shalt againe meet those whom thou now departest from and that with greater ioy then thou hast left in present sorow This comforts vs all if it be a pleasure for friends to meet on earth where Satan is still scattering his troubles of dissention what is it to meete in heauen where our peace is free from distraction from destruction where if there be any memorie of past things meminisse iunabit it shall rather delight vs to thinke of the miseries gone and without feare of returning It is some delight to the merchant to sitte by a quiet fire and discourse the escaped perills of wrackes and stormes Remoue then your eyes from this earth whether you be rich for whom it is more hard or poore for whom it is easier and know it is better liuing in heauen together then on earth together So then run your race that in the end you may meet with this blessed societie the Congregation of Saints in glory We yea All we In this world we must neuer looke to see an vniuersall Church but at that generall day we shall All meete In heauen there are none but good in hell none but bad on earth both good and bad mingled together I confesse that the Church militant is the Suburbes of heauen yea called the Kingdome of heauen because the King of heauen gouernes it by his celestiall lawes but still it is but heauen vpon earth In Gods floore there is chaffe mixed with the wheat in his field cockle with corne in his net rubbish with fish in his house vessells of wrath with those of honour The Church is like the moone somtimes increasing somtimes decreasing but when it is at the full not without some spottes Now this mixture of the vngodly is suffred for two causes either that themselues may be conuerted or that others by them may be excercised Omnis malus aut ideo viuit vt corrigatur aut ideo vt per illum bonus excerceatur 1. For their owne emendation that they may be conuerted to embrace that good which they haue hated So Saul a persecutor becomes Paul a professor Mary Magdalen turpissima meretrix fit sanctissima mulier a putrified sinner a purified Saint Zacheus that had made many rich men poore will now make many poore men rich when he had payed euery man his owne and that now he iudged their owne which he had fraudulently got from them Behold halfe my goods
are not ordained to liue in corners vnobserued but are set on a Mountaine as examples of goodnesse to all A Citie that is set on a hill cannot be hid God meant you notable take heed you become not notorious As Mount Sion is the ioy of the whole earth so it is the light of the whole earth If that light become darknesse how great how greatly to be condemned is that darknesse This was that great exception God tooke against Israel that through them his Name which should haue beene honoured was blasphemed among the Gentiles You are founded on a Mountaine therefore haue your conuersation honest among men that by your good works which they behold they may glorifie God in the day of visitation 2. The felicitie that comes by Christ insinuated by Sion which was a place of blessednes This is either Praemissa or Promissa already sent into our hearts or certainely obiected by promise to our faiths It is either assumed or assured Inre or in spe either that we haue or that we shall haue The happinesse wee haue already by this Mount Sion consists in three priuiledges the Fauour of God Ioy of the holy Ghost and peace of Conscience 1. In the Fauour of GOD which is to Sion as the light was once to Goshen shining there and no vvhere else Or as to Gedeon the Fleece on the Mountaine is wet with the dew of Heauen when all the earth is dry besides This Lux vultus tui the light of thy Countenance which puts more gladnes into our hearts then the aboundance of earthly fruites reioyce the couetous The wicked shall neuer see it vnlesse so much as may encrease their anguish when they must depart from it for euer 2. In the ioy of the Spirit which is hilaris cum pondere virtus a gladnes that can neither be suppressed nor expressed Sentire est cordis dicere non est oris The heart doth feele it the tongue cannot tell it It is that Stone with the new Name written in it which no man knoweth sauing be that receiueth it There is much reioycing in the world but the matter of it is mutable These lower delights are more sensitiue but more fluid They sooner cloy vs Magna foelicitas est à foelicitate non vinci It is a great happinesse not to be ouercome of happinesse Corporall delights work in vs a great hunger till they are attained But Spirituall Cùm non habentur sunt in fastidio cùm habentur in desiderio Whiles we haue them not we care not for them but when we haue them wee more eagerly desire them There is no hunger of it till we taste it In illis appetitus generat saturitatem saturitas fastidium In istis appetitus parat fruitioneâ—… fruitio parit appetitum In carnall pleasures appetite begets fulnesse fulnesse lothing in spirituall desire prepares fruition fruition begets desiring Voluptuous pleasure is like a blister it beginnes first with an itching but at last it swells breakes forth in anguish and putrid corruption There are two obseruations able to keepe vs from ouer-affecting the ioyes of this world and from vilipending the ioyes of Sion 1. First resolue euery carnall delight in the first matter and principle of it and there will be more likelihood of despising then danger of much desiring The Couetous makes gold his hope and sayes to the Wedge Thou art my confidence and what are those precious metals hee so worshippeth but veines of the earth better coloured Tâ—… Ambitious builder that erects a Babel for the honour of his owne Maiesty thinkes all eyes standamazed at his magnificence And what are those sumptuous monuments wherein hee so glorieth but monumentall witnesses of his folly a little hewne tymber some burnt and hardned earth The Adulterer admires the beauty of his harlot kneeles to a pledge of her memory by wanton sonnets Idolises her turnes his soule to an Elephant and worships this Sun Now what is that stately building of a humane lumpe but the same earth his foote treads vpon better tempered because painted worse when it wants the guest the soule that quickens it worst of all The proud dotes on his costly robes centers his eye vpon himselfe as if no second obiect was worth looking on the Tailors hand hath made him a man and his purse makes the Taylor a Gentleman And what are those curious ragges but such are giuen of wormes and consumed of mothes Consider the materials of your lower ioyes if you will persist in their dotage you shall doe it without our enuy 2. Obserue their Conclusion looke from their beginning to their end Delectatio vulnerat transit infoelicem reddidit reliquit Pleasure like an Irish man wounds with her dart and is sodainly gone it makes a man miserable and so leaues him Mors in ollâ behold laughter concluded in teares The protasis delights the apodosis wounds The Conscience receiues a long vexation for a transient delectation for an vnperfect content perfect torment This is a hard penniworth so little pleasure for so much repentance He that for a little ioy giues that Christ bought with so much paine Stultum Christum reputat mercatorem thinkes Christ a foolish buyer but the euent proues him a foolish seller Esau bitterly repented this bargaine This for the world but now the ioyes of Mount Sion are for matter spirituall for substance reall for vse vniuersall for continuance eternall 3. In the peace of Conscience There is little outward peace in the world wee haue eyther an Esau with his hand or an Ismael with his tongue bent against vs. As then he that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the Spirit euen so it is now So it is and so it will be to the end of the world This is the difference betwixt Mount Sion militant and Mount Sion triumphant In heauen are all comforts without any crosses in hell are all crosses without any comforts on earth comforts and crosses ioy and griefe peace and trouble misery and mercy are blended together We may say of a Christian as Lorinus the Iesuite writes of an Archbishop of Toledo who weighing the much disputed coÌ„trouersie whether Salomon was saued or damned and not being satisfied with the arguments of eyther side caused Salomon to be painted on the walls of his Chappell halfe in Heauen and halfe in hell So the Christian in respect of his outward calamities seemes to be halfe in hell but in respect of his inward comforts he is the better halfe in heauen Howsoeuer Being iustified by Faith wee haue peace with God And wheresoeuer wee are dispersed or howsoeuer distressed the Peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding and surpasseth all commending preserueth our hearts in Iesus Christ euermore But all this in Possesso we haue already there is something more in Promisso which we shall haue Wee are now the sonnes
of a beast was entered in the roome But this is a friuolous conceit indeed God had bereft him of coÌ„mon reason yet he had still the soule of a man Doe not many among vs that haue the soules of men liue like debauched beasts The lustfull like a goate the couetous like a vvolfe the drunkard like a hogge the Politician like a foxe the rayler like a barking curre Others think that the soule neither dieth nor sleepeth nor passeth out of one body into another but wandreth vp and downe here on earth among men and often appeareth to this man ofteÌ„ to that whence came that fabulous opinion that dead men walke For this purpose they alleage the Witch of Endor who made Samuel appeare to Saul and answere him But the truth is that was not Samuel indeed but an apparition the meere counterset of him For not all the Witches in the world nor all the Diuels in hell can disquiet the soules of the faithfull for they are in Gods keeping Dying their soules are immediatly translated to blessednesse there are the spirits of iust men made perfect and there to abide vntill the generall Resurrection shall restore them to their owne bodies For the soules of the Reprobates departing in their sinnes they goe directly to hell and are kept there as in a sure prison Let this instruct all such as haue a Christian hope to let their soules depart with comfort Emittuntur non amittuntur death doth not lose them but loosen them set them free from the bondage of corruption Howle and lament if thou thinke thy soule perisheth There are some that feare not so much to die as to be dead they know the pang is bitter but it is short it is the comfortlesse estate of the dead that is their dread They could well resolue for the act of their passage if they were sure to liue afterwards Animula vagula blandula Whither goest thou said that Heathen Emperour on his death-bed lamenting the doubtful condition of his soule after the parture Very not beeing is abhorred of nature if death had nothing else to make it feareful It is vvofull to lie rotting in the silent graue neither seeing nor seene Heere the Christian lifts vp his head of comfort Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit I lose it not because thou hast it thou wilt keepe it in peace and gâ—…ue it mee backe againe in eternall ioy Of iust men Iustice is ascribed to a Christian tvvo waies There is 1. Passiua iustitia a passiue iustice Christs righteousnesse imputed to him and heereby hee stands perfectly iust before God This the Apostle calls The righteousnesse of GOD which is by faith of Iesus Christ vnto all Christ is made vnto vs righteousnesse This iustice is attained by faith Noah became heire of the righteousnesse which is by faith Abraham belieued GOD and it was counted vnto him for righteousnesse Without this no spirit shall appeare iust before God in heauen Our owne righteousnesse is a couering too short to hide our nakednesse Christs garment is a long robe that couers all 2. Actiua iustitia actiue righteousnesse an effect of the former which is indeed a testimonie that wee are iustified by Christ. Let no man deceiue you hee that doth righteousnesse is righteous Therefore saith Iames A man is iustified by his works if his meaning had beene that our owne works simply acquit vs before GOD it could neuer be reconciled to that of his master when vvee haue done all we can we must call our selues vnprofitable seruants Nor to that of his fellow I see a law in my members warring against the law of my minde nor to that of himselfe In many things wee sinne all Now this iustice effectiue from God actiue in vs is taken two waies Latè and Strictè In a larger sense it is taken for all Pietie and so iustice and holinesse are all one Properly taken Iustification is imputed Sanctification inherent but vnderstanding our iustnesse an effect of Christs iustice imputed to vs so Iustus and Sanctus are conuertible termes They are Iust spirits that is they are Saints Now if we desire to come ad Sanctos to the Saints wee must liue sanctè a holy life God by telling vs who are in heauen teacheth vs who shall come to heauen none but Saints They are set before vs as examples Vt eorum sequamur gratiam et consequamur gloriam that steering their course wee might come to their Hauen The Scripture teacheth vs Quid agendum what is to be done the Saints Quo modo how it is to be done Uita sanctorum interpretatio scripturarum The liues of holy men is a kind of Commentary or interpretation of the holy writ Let vs as we doe by good copies not onely lay them before vs and looke on them but write after them For it is not sufficient Legere sed degere vitam sanctorum not to read but to lead the liues of Saints Papists in this goe too farre as euil men come too short Good men imitate the Saints but doe not worship them Papists worship the Saints but doe not imitate them lewd men doe neither Perhaps they will imitate their infirmities as if onely for that they liked them for which onely God misliked them The Saints are to bee held as Patternes not as Patrones of our life But the Papists praise not God in his Saints nor the Saints for God but as God Onely let vs reuerently walke in their grace that we may ioyfully come to their place In a stricter sense it is taken for that morall vertue which giues to euery man his owne This vertue hath beene highly commended in the heathen but one saith truly Iustitia ethnic orum miranda potius quà m laudanda their Iustice deserued more admiration then commendation they wanted him that should make them iust They so affected this iustice that they tooke Sirnames from it Aristides was called Iustus Scipio Iustus Fabius Iustus Their iustice was no vertue but a shadow of vertue They neyther knew the Lord Deum virtutis nec Christum virtutem Dei the God of vertue nor Christ the vertue of God Onely Iesus is Iustus Christ suffered for sinnes the iust for the vniust Ye denyed the Holy one and the Iust. There was another Iesus called Iustus a helper of the Apostles but Christ is Dominus Iustitia nostra The Lord our Righteousnesse By him we are onely made iust In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be iustified and glory Being thus iustified let vs be iust not doing that to others which we would not haue others do to vs and doing that to others which wee desire to bee done to our selues Some are iust in small matters so the Pharises pay tithe of mint annise and cummine but omit waightier things This is Pharisaica Iustitia a Puritane righteousnesse not to endure an houres recreation on the Sunday yet to robbe
aduise thy sicke soule who after a desperate and inueterate wound lookest for a suddaine cure by repentance it is better to make this thy dyet then thy physicke Repent euery day that thou maist haue remission one day Melior medicus qui excludit morbos quà m qui curat He is a better Physician that keeps diseases off vs then he that cures them beeing on vs. Preuention is so much better then healing because it saues the labour of being sicke Thou allowest not a Surgion vnnecessarily to breake thy head to try his skill and the vertue of his plaister Sprindges were better taken away quae non prosunt because they doe no good then the setting of watchmen by them to warn trauellers ne noceant that they be not hurt by them Take away thy lusts quite this is the way to be sure for repentance may be like Baal so fast asleepe that all thy cryes are not able to waken her To conclude hee that will weare a crowne in heauen must be all his life on earth preparing the gold to make it Not that thy owne vertues crowne thee but that GOD without thy vertues will neuer crowne thee The robe of glory that is worne there must be spun and wouen heere spun out of the side of Christ by faith and embroydered with our good workes That eternall light ariseth from this internall life Lay vp in store for your selues a good foundation against the time to come that you may lay hold on eternall life The ground worke of saluation is made here that high Tower of glory that is built for thee in heauen hath the foundation of it laid vpon earth How should a man be Perfectus that was neuer factus well begun I wonder what perfection a wine-bibber lookes for sure to be a perfect drunkard What perfection expects the luxurious prodigall sure to bee a perfect begger What perfection hopes the couetous Churle that allowes himselfe a race of fourescore yeares and sets God at the latter end of it and he hath that place too with this condition that hee trouble not his minde about it till the last day comes Surely to liue vnblessed and to die vnpittied but that some now blesse God hee 's gone and other say it 's pitty he died no sooner All his proiections haue aimed at this perfection to make himselfe a perfect slaue What perfection dreames the Iesuite to himselfe but to become a perfect traitor What perfection is likely to the incontinent adulterer but to bee a perfect Lazar. What the malicious but a perfect villaine what the proud but a perfect foole what the blasphemer but a perfect Deuill They say earely holinesse proues ripe corruption but I am sure habituated prophanesse proues ranke damnation Alas how should they make an end that neuer begin This man began to build saith Christ but could not make an end how should they finish that neuer began you that spend your dayes in a lazie forgetfulnesse of religion examine your owne consciences do you euer think to be perfect Are you content still to be abortiue and shall you be perfected in the womb of the graue God hath giuen you time and meanes he did not say Sumite consumite take it and spend it at your pleasure O begin that you may continue and end heare to learne learne to doe doe to continue continue to be perfect Begin betimes lest Gods end come before your beginning Enter into the way of Piety and follow it striuing with all your powers to grow vp to a perfect man vnto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. And to Iesus the Mediator of the new Couenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel We haue considered the glory of the Citie the felicity of the Citizens we are lastly come to the Mediator who brings both these together and without whom they had beene euerlastingly asunder We are all by nature belonging not to Mount Sion but to the valley of Hinnon not to the celestiall Ierusalem but to the infernall Babylon not to the society of glorious Angels but of afflicting Deuils not to the Church of the first borne but to the assembly of abortiue reprobates wee had no reference to God as a kinde Father but as a seuere Iudge not to iust spirits made perfect from sinne but to lost spirits made perfect in sinne Thus were wee by nature but Iesus hath brought vs to Mount Sion c. How blessed a thing will it be to come vnto this Iesus It was Saint Augustines speciall wish to haue seene Christ in the flesh If there were such cōfort in seeing Christ humbled if such admiration in seeing him transfigured what ioy is it to behold him in heauen glorified How glorious a matter do some thinke it to stand in the Court of an earthly Prince to receiue a gracious looke to heare a royall word or to bee commanded some honourable seruice what is it then to stand in the Court of heauen to haue the King of Kings speake peaceably to vs to behold our Lord Iesus crowned with that immortall Diadem to sing his prayses as free from flattery as from inconstancy and to liue in that Paradise for euer Vbicunque fueris Domine Iesu wheresoeuer thou art O blessed Sauiour giue vs no more happinesse then to be with thee If thou be in the earth wee will trauell day and night to come to thee if on the sea with Peter we will swimme to thee if on the Crosse we will stand weeping by thee if riding in triumph we will sing Hosanna to thee if transfigured on Tabor we will bee rauished with thee but if sitting in thy heauenly Throne how blessed euen to looke vpon thee It is his will that we should be with him where he is and behold his glory Wee are now come to him by a coniunction mysticall wee shall then haue a vicinity locall and eternall The Mediator not a Mediator but The That Mediator that onely one For there is one God and one Mediator betweene God and men the man Christ Iesus God was angry man was guiltie Christ is the Mediator betwixt them who being God could satisfie God and beeing man could suffer for man We are lost and desire something to recouer vs what shall that be Mercy No God is iust he that hath offended must be punished Shall it be Iustice No we haue need of mercy that he who hath offended might be spared Here to be so merciful as not to wrong his iustice to be so iust as not to forget his mercy there must be a Mediator This must not be the world that was Gods owne before he made it not Angels for they are engaged for their owne creation and being finite cannot satisfie an infinite Maiestie by infinite punishment for infinite sinnes Gods Sonne must doe it now if hee come to satisfie for pride he must put on humilitie if for rebellion he must
vpon good cause for who but he can so well plead his own righteousnes whereby he hath iustified vs Therefore the Apostle calls him there our Propitiation he that wil be our Aduocate must also be our Propitiation no Saints or Angels can be a Propitiation for vs therefore no Saints or Angels can be our Aduocates Augustine sayes that if S. Iohn had offered himselfe to this office he had not been Apostolus sed Antichristus We obiect further Christs promise Whatsoeuer you shall aske the Father in my Name he will giue it you Not in Maries or Peters but in my Name Bellarmine answers that there may be a Mediator between disagreeing parties three waies 1. By declaring who hath the wrong and so there is no controuersie for all agree that GOD is the party grieued 2. By paying the Creditor for the Debter so Christ is alone Mediator 3. By desiring the Creditor to forgiue the Debter and in this sense he saies Angels and Saints are Mediators But this distinction is no other then Bellarmines mincing who indeed seemes to be ashamed of the blasphemous phrases in their Missals As Maria mater gratiae Sancte Petre miserere mei salua me c. These saith he are our words but not our meanings that Mary or Peter should conferre grace on vs in this life or glory in the life to come Yet both their Schoole and Practice speakes more For Aquin sayes our prayers are effectuall by the merits of Saints that Christs intercession is gotten by the patronage of Apostles by the interuention of Martyrs by the bloud of Becket and merits of all Saints And the practice of the people is to hold Angels and Saints immediate Mediators able to satisfie and saue But as one hath well obserued if euery Saint in the Popes Calender be receiued as a Mediator we shall worship vnknowne men as the Athenians did vnknown gods For the best Papists doubt whether there were euer any S. George or S. Christopher But say they The Virgin is a knowne Saint she can and may by the right of a Mother command her Sonne Christ. Their whole Church sings O foelix puerpera nostra pâ—…ans scelera inre matris impera And Maria consolatio infirmorum redemptio captiuorum liberatio damnatorum salus uniuersorum They haue giuen so much to the Mother that they haue left nothing for the Sonne Ozorius the Iesuite saies Caput gratiae Christus Maria colluÌ„ Christ is the Head of grace but Mary is the Neck no grace can come from the head but it must passe through the necke They inuocate her their Aduocate but of Christs mediation the medium or better halfe is taken from him as if he were still a child in subiection to his Mother But as he is Mariae filius so he is Mariae Dominus the Sonne and the Lord of his Mother Therefore the first words that we read Christ euer spake to his Parents were rough and by way of reproofe According to Saint Luke these were his first How is it that yee sought mee Wist yee not that I must be about my Fathers busines According to Saint Iohn more sharply Woman vvhat haue I to doe vvith thee Quanquà m locuta est iure matris tamen duriter respondet Where was then their Monstra te esse Matrem Though at the commaund of his Mother he spake yet hee spake roughly Whereas Gods kingdome consists of his Iustice and Mercy the Papists attribute the greatest part which is his Mercy to Mary making her as one noted the Lady high Chancelour Christ as it were the Lord chiefe Iustice. As we appeale from the Kings-Bench barre to the Chancerie so a Papist may appeale from the Tribunall of God to the Court of our Lady So they make her Domina fac totum when one flatteringly wrote of Pope Adrian Traiectum plantauit Louanium rigauit Caesar autem incrementum dedit Traiectum planted Louaine watered but the Pope gaue the increase one wittily vnderwrites Deus interim nihil fecit God did nothing the while So if Mary be the comfort of the weake the redeemer of captiues the deliuerer of the damned the saluation of all the Aduocate of the poore the Patronesse of the rich then sure Christ hath nothing to doe No beloued Abraham is ignorant of vs the blessed Virgin knowes vs not but the Lord Iesus is our Redeemer Prayer is not a labour of the lippes onely but an inward groning of the spirit a powring out of the soule before God Now Saints and Angels vnderstand not the heart it is the righteous God that tryeth the heart and the reynes Christ is the master of all Requests in the Court of Heauen there needs no porter nor waiter It is but praying Lord Iesus come vnto me and he presently answeres I am with thee Heare mee O Christ for it is easie to thy power and vsuall to thy mercie and agreèable to thy promise O blessed Mediator of the new Couenant heare vs. To the bloud of sprinkling Aspersionis Hebraico more pro asperso Two things are implyed in the two words Sacrificium and Beneficium Bloud there is the sacrifice of Sprinkling there is the benefite To the bloud To speake properly it is the death of Christ that satisfies the Iustice of God for our sinnes and that is the true materiall cause of our redemption Yet is this frequently ascribed to his bloud The bloud of Christ purgeth the Conscience from dead works Out of his pierced side came forth bloud and water As God wrote nothing in vaine so what he hath often repeated hee would haue seriously considered Non leuiter praetereat lectura nostra quod tam frequenter insculpsit Scriptura sacra There are some reasons why our saluation is ascribed to CHRISTS bloud 1. Because in the bloud is the life Flesh with the bloud therof which is the life therof you shall not eat Leu. 17. 14. The soule of a beast is in the bloud and in the bloud is the life of euery reasonable creature on earth The effusion thereof doth exhaust the vitall spirits and death followes In Christs bloud was his life the shedding of that was his death that death by the losse of that bloud is our redemption 2. Because this bloud answeres to the types of the legall sacrifices This our Apostle exemplifies in a large conference The first Testament was not dedicated without bloud Moses sprinkling the booke and all the people sayd This is the bloud of the Testament Almost all things are by the Law purged by bloud and without shedding of bloud is no remission No reconciliation no remission without bloud All directed vs to this Lambe of GOD whose bloud onely vindicates vs from eternall condemnation Not that the bloud of a meere man could thus merite but of that man who is also God therefore it is called the Bloud of God 3. Because bloud is fitter for applyment to the heart of man who