mention'd and carries along with it this inward and real not acted courteousness Not to insist on it now it gains at all hands with God and with Men receives much Grace from God and kills envy and commands respect and good will from Men. Those showers of grace that slide off from the lofty Mountains rest on the Valleys and make them fruitful He giveth grace loves to bestow it wherethere is most room to receive it and most return of ingenuous and entire praises upon the receipt and such is the humble Heart and truly as much humility gains much grace so it grows by it 1. 'T is one of the Worlds reproaches against those that go beyond their size in Religion that they are proud and self conceited Christians beware there be nothing in you justifying this sure they that have most true grace are least guilty of it common knowledge and gifts may puff up but grace does not He whom the Lord loads most with his richest gifts stoops lowest as pressed down with the weight of them the Free Love of God humbles the Heart most to which it is most manifested And towards Men it graces all Grace and all gifts and glorifies God and teaches others so to do It is the preserver of Graces sometimes seems to wrong them by hiding them but indeed it is their safety Hezekiah by a vain shewing of his jewels and treasures forfeited them all Verse 9. 9 Not rendring evil for evil or railing ofr railing but contrary wise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing OPposition helps Grace both to more strength and more lustre when Christian Charity is not encounter'd with the Worlds malignance it hath an easier task but assaulted and overcoming it shines the brighter and rises higher and thus it is when it renders not evil for evil To repay good with evil is amongst Men the top of iniquity yet this is our universal guiltiness towards God he multiplying mercies and we vying with multiply'd sins as the Lord complains of Israel as they were increased so they sinned The lowest step of good mutual amongst Men is not to be bent to provoke others with injuries and being unoffended to offend none but this not to repay offences nor render evil for evil is a Christians rule and yet further to return good for evil and blessing for cursing is not only counsell'd as some vainly distinguish but commanded It is true the most have no ambition for this degree of goodness aspire no further but to do or say no evil unprovoked and think themselves sufficiently just and equitable if they keep in that but this is lame is but half the rule Thou thinkest injury obliges thee or if not so yet excuses thee to revenge or at least disobliges thee unties thy engagement of wishing and doing good but these are all gross practical errours For 1st The second injury done by way of revenge differs from the first that provoked it little or nothing but only in point of time and certainly no one Man's sin can procure priviledge to another to sin in that or the like kind If another hath broken the bonds of his allegiance and Obedience to God and of charity to thee yet thou art not the less ty'd by the same Bonds still 2dly By revenge of injuries thou usurpest upon God's prerogative who is the Avenger as the Apostle teaches Rom. 12. this doth not forbid either the Magistrats Sword for just punishment of Offenders or the Souldiers Sword in a just War but such revenges as without authority or a lawfull call the pride and perversness of Men do multiply one against another In which is involv'd a presumptuous contempt of God and his supreme authority or at least the unbelief and neglect of it 3dly It cannot be genuine upright goodness that hath its dependance upon the goodness of others that are about us that as they say of the vain glorious Man his vertue lyeth in the beholders eye if thy Meekness and Charity be such as lyeth in the good and mild carriage of others towards thee in their Hand and Tongues thou art not owner of it intrinsecally such quiet and calm if none provoke thee is but an accidental uncertain cessation of thy turbulent Spirit unstirr'd but move it and it acts it self according to it self sends up that Mind that lay at the bottom but true Grace doth then most manifest what it is when those things that are most contrary surround and assault it it cannot correspond and hold game with injuries and raylings hath no faculty for that for answering evil with evil a Tongue enur'd to graciousness and mild Speeches and Blessings and a heart stor'd so within can vent no other try it and stir it as you will A Christian acts and speaks not according to what others are towards him but according to what he is through the grace and Spirit of God in him as they say quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis the same things are differently received and work differently as the Nature and way is of that which receives them A sparkle blows up one of a sulphureous temper and many Coals greater injuries and reproaches are quench'd and loose their force being thrown at another of a Cool Spirit Prov. 17. 27. They that have malice and bitterness and cursings within though these sleep it may be yet awake them with the like and the Provision comes forth out of the abundance of the heart give them an ill word and they have another or two for one in readiness for you where the Soul is furnished with spiritual blessings there blessings come forth even in answer to reproaches and indignities the mouth of the Wise is a Tree of Life says Solomon can bear no other fruit but according to its kind and the Nature of the root an honest spiritual heart pluck at it who will they can pull no other fruit but such fruit Love and Meekness lodge there and therefore whosoever knocks these make the answer Let the World account it a despicable simplicity seek you still more of that Dove-like Spirit the Spirit of meekness and blessing a poor glory to vie railings and contest in that faculty or any kind of vindictive returns of evil the most abject creatures have of that great Spirit as follish poor Spirited persons account it but it is the glory of Man to pass by a transgression the noblest victory and as we mention'd the highest example God is our Pattern in Love and Compassions we are well warranted to do 't in this Men esteem much more of some other vertues that make more shew and trample upon these Love and Compassion and Meekness but though these violetâ— grow low and are of a dark colour yet they are of a very sweet and diffusive smell odoriferous Graces and the Lord propounds himself our example in them Matth. 5. 't is to be truly the Children of your Father your
main subject and scope in the foregoing Discourse that death was before called a suffering in the flesh which is in effect the same and therefore though the words may be drawn another way yet its strange that Interpreters have been so far wide of this their genuine and agreeable sense and almost all of them taken in some other intendment To be judged in the flesh In the present sense is to die to sin or that sin die in us and it s thus exprest 1. Suitably tably to the nature of it it is to the flesh a violent death and it is according to a Sentence judicially put against it that guilty and miserable life of sin is in the Gospel adjudged to death there that arrest and sentence is clear and full Rom. 6. 6 c. 8. 13. That sin must die that the Soul may live it must be crucified in us and we to it that we may partake of the Life of Christ and Happiness in him And this is called to be judged in the flesh to have this sentence executed 2. The thing is the rather spoke here under the term of being judged in counter-ballance of that Judgment mentioned immediately before v. 5. The last Judgment of quick and dead wherein they that would not be thus judged but mockt and despised those that were shall fall under a far more terrible Judgment and the sentence of a heavy death indeed everlasting death though they think they shall escape and enjoy liberty in living in sin And that to be judged according to men is I conceive added to signifie the connaturalness of the life of sin to man 's now corrupt nature That men do judge it a death indeed to be severed and pulled from their sins and that a cruel death and the Sentence of it in the Gospel a heavy Sentence a hard Saying to a carnal Heart that he must give up with all his sinful delights must die indeed in self-denial must be separated from himself which is to die if he will be joyned with Christ and live in him Thus men judge that they are judged to a painful death by the Sentence of the Gospel although it is that they may truely and happily live yet they understand it not so They see the death the parting with sin and all its pleasures but the life they see not nor can any know it till partaking of it it is known to him in whom it is it is hid with Christ in God And therefore the opposition here is very fiâ—ly thus represented that the death is according to men in the flesh but the life is according to God in the Spirit As the Christian is adjudged to this death in the flesh by the Gospel so he is lookt on and accounted by carnal men as dead for that he enjoyes not with them what they esteem their life and think they could not live without it one that cannot carrouse and swear with prophane Men is a silly dead Creature good for nothing and he that can bear wrongs and love him that injured him is a poor spiritless fool hath no mettal nor life in him in the World's account thus is he judged according to men in the flesh he is as a dead man but lives according to God in the Spirit dead to men and alive to God as ver 2. Now if this life be in thee it will act all life is in motion and is called an act but most of all active is this most excellent and as I may call it most lively life it will be moving towards God often seeking to him making still towards him as its principle and fountain holy and affectionate thoughts of him sometimes on one of his sweet attributes sometimes on another as the Bee amongst the Flowers And as it will thus act within so outwardly laying hold on all occasions yea seeking out ways and opportunities to be serviceable to thy Lord employing all for him commending and extolling his goodness doing and suffering chearfully for him laying out the strength of desires and parts and means in thy station to gain him Glory If thou be alone then not alone but with him seeking to know more of him and be made more like him if in company then casting about how to bring his name in esteem and to draw others to a love of Religion and Holiness by Speeches as it may be â—it and most by the true behaviour of thy carriage Tender over the Souls of others to do them good to thy utmost thinking each day an hour lost when thou art not busie for the honour and advantage of him to whom thou now livest thinking in the Morning now what may I do this day for my God How may I most please and glorifie him and use my strength and wit and my whole self as not mine but his and then in the evening reflecting O Lord have I seconded these thoughts in reality what glory hath he had by me this day whither went my thoughts and endeavours what busied them most have I been much with God have I adorned the Gospel in my converse with others And if finding any thing done this way to bless and acknowledge him the spring and worker of it If any step aside were it but to an appearance of evil or if any fit season of good hath escapt thee unprofitably to check thy self and to be grieved for thy sloth and coldness and see if more love would not beget more diligence Try it by sympathy and antipathy which follows the nature of things as we see in some Plants and Creatures that cannot grow cannot agree together and others that do favour and benefit mutually If thy Soul hath an aversion and reluctancy against holiness this is an evidence of this new Nature and Life Thy heart rises against wicked ways and speeches oaths and cursings and rotten communication yea thou canst not endure unworthy discourses wherein most spend their time findest no relish in the unsavory societies of such as know not God canst not sit with vain persons but findest a delight in those that have the image of God upon them such as partake of that Divine Life and carry the evidences of it in their carriage David did not disdain the fellowship of the Saints and that was no disparagement to him he implies in the name he gives them Psal. 16. The excellent ones the Magnifick or Noble and that word is taken from one that signifies a robe or noble Garment so he thought them Nobles and Kings as well as he and had robes royal and therefore Companions of Kings A spiritual eye looks on spiritual dignity and esteems and loves them that are born of God how low soever be their natural birth and breeding The Sons of God have of his Spirit in them and are born to the same inheritance where all shall have enough and they are tending homewards by the conduct of the same Spirit that is in them so that there must be amongst them a
IMPRIMATUR Novemb. 25. 1693. Guil. Lancaster R. P. D. Henrico Epis. Lond. Ã Sacris Domesticis A Practical COMMENTARY UPON THE First Epistle General of St. Peter VOL. II. Containing the Third Fourth and Fifth CHAPTERS By the Most Reverend ROBERT LEIGHTON D. D. Some-time Archbishop of Glasgow Published after his death at the request of his Friends LONDON Printed by B. G. for Sam. Keble at the Great Turks-head in Fleet-street over-against Felter-lane MDCXCIV TO THE Christian Reader THE following Discourses of our most Reverend Author contain his judicious and pious Thoughts upon the Third Chapter to the end of the First Epistle of St. Peter which together with the Commentary on the First and Second Chapters published the last year make a compleat and useful Explication of that whole Epistle They might have been all of one Impression and so have come into thy hands at the same time and in one Volume had not some prudent considerations oblig'd us to change the Printer However we have taken care so to print this Second Part that it may conveniently be bound up with the first and there is little loss by the delay but that of time which perhaps is not so much neither but that it may with more profit to thee be happily redeemed I know that some do not relish the phrase and contexture of such Discourses but I am on the other hand assured by others very able and competent judges of such performances that they are highly valuable in their whole scope and tendency for they think that they not only contain the purity of Doctrine according to Scripture but also the life and spirit of Christian Morals and that they happily cement together and bear in upon the heart right notions of God and Religion with solid Piety In a word that as they are written by a Primitive Spirit and in a plain Stile so they may through Gods grace sow the Seeds of Primitive Devotion which is too much worn out in this Age the seat whereof is more in the Heart than in the Head If they serve in any measure those great ends our labour is highly rewarded Let such then as shall reap this benefit by these well designed Papers be pleased to know that it is not so much to me as to the Pious Zeal and Care of our Great and now Blessed Authors surviving Relations that they owe this Happy Enjoyment whose Virtue and Piety afford matter enough for a large Preface if their Modesty did not so awfully restrain my too forward inclinations that I must content my self to say that they now live like him whom they tenderly loved whilst he was amongst them and that as he did so they make it their business to do good without letting the World know of it It has been at their charge and pressing desire that all those papers that are already printed have been copied out prepared for the press and published They neither proposed to themselves nor expect any other advantage but thy Edification and therein the glory of God rich returns indeed and which nothing can rob them of but meerly thy inproficiency and if that happen which God forbid the loss shall be more thine than theirs I was not willing that such good ends should be obstructed by my declining any part of the trouble that fell to my share on the contrary I considered it a Duty I owed first to God and then to the memory of the excellent Author whose divine converse and wonderful example gave me early and powerful Resolutions to dedicate my self to God and the Service of his Church In my performance I have done my best tho short of what I wished to serve thee there remains in our Hands some brief but lively Discourses upon the Epistle to the Ephesians upon the Decalogue the Creed and the Lord's Prayer which possibly may be made publick in a convenient time When this is done I think we have ended all we intend to publish at present Let us therefore set about the reformation of our Lives in the use of these means depending upon God for the success and that he by his free Grace and good Spirit may enable thee and me by this and all other helps which this Age affords to make greater and greater Advances towards Heaven and so to finish our Course with Ioy is and shall be the hearty Prayer of Thy Servant in the Lord I. FALL York March 13 th 1694. Books written by the most Reverend Father in God Robert Leighton D. D. sometimes Archbishop of Glasgow Printed for and are to be Sold by Sam. Keble at the Great Turk's-Head in Fleet-street EIghteen Sermons Printed in 1691 8 o. A Practical Commentary upon the First and Second Chapters of St. Peter by the most Reverend Robert Leighton D. D. sometime Archbishop of Glasgow 1693. 4 o. R mi. D. D. Roberti Leightoni Praelectiones Theologicae in Auditorio publico Academiae Edinburgenae dum Professoris primarii munere ibi fungeretur habitae Vna cum Paraenesibus in Comitiis Academicis ad gradus Magistralis in artibus Candidatos Quibus adjiciuntur Meditationes Ethico Criticae in Psalmos IV. XXXII CXXX 1693. 4 o. A Practical Commentary upon the First Epistle General of St. Peter Vol. II. containing the Third Fourth and Fifth Chapters by the most Reverend Robert Leighton D D. sometime Archbishop of Glasgow 1694. 4 o. ERRATA PAg 16. on the margin for nulla read multa p. 22. l. 22. far very read very far p. 51. l 5. mind read mud p. 61. l. 10. be read the. p. 81. l. 2. re read respect p. 211. l. 1. not be read not to be p. 219. l. 25. caties read Calamities p. 243. l. 16. point it thus we were all sealed to God in Baptism p. 245. l. 1. yea read ye p. 254. l. 20. dele where he reigns p. 261. l. 31. bear read bore p. 277. l. 10. he read the ib. penult it hatest read hatest it p. 281. l. 29. point it thus not to equal that which it were so reasonable c. p. 262 l. 32. their read the. p. 357. l. 21. before you read before you p. 416. l. 14. of the way teaching read the way of teaching p. 441. l. 30 some read foam p. 448. l. 15. turn read turned 1 Ep. St. Peter Chap. III. Ver. 1. Likewise ye Wives be in subjection to your own Husbands that if any one obey not the word they also without the word may be won by the Conversation of the Wives THE Tabernacle of the Sun Psal. 19 is set high in the Heavens but 't is that it may have influence below upon the Earth And the Word of God that is spoke of there immediately after as being many wayes like it holds resemblance in this particular 't is a sublime heavenly Light and yet descends in its use to the Lives of Men in the variety of their Stations to warm and to enlighten to regulate their affections and actions in whatsoever course of
Ierusalems Wallâ— than for the binding up and healing of it self and in that Psal. that seem's to be the expression of his joy being exalted to the Throne and sitting peaceably on it yet he still thus prays for the peace of Ierusalem And the Penman of that 137. Psalm makes it an execrable oversight to forget Ierusalem ver 5. or to remember it coldly or secundarily no less will serve him than to prefer it to his chief joy Whatsoever else is top or head of his joy as the word is Ierusalems wellfare shall be its Crown shall be set above it And the Prophet whoever it was that wrote that poured out that Prayer from an afflicted Soul comforts himself in this that Zion shall be favoured my bones are consum'd c. But it matters not what becomes of me let me languish and wither away provided Sion flourish tho' I feel nothing but pains and troubles yet thou wilt arise and shew mercy to Sion I am content that satisfies me But where is now this Spirit of high sympathy with the Church sure if there were of it in us 't is now a fit time to act it If we be not altogether dead sure we will be stirr'd with the voice of those late stroaks of Gods hand and be driven to more humble and earnest prayer by it Men will change their poor base grumblings about their privacy Oh! what shall I do c. into strong cries for the Church of God and the publick deliverance of all these Kingdomes from the raging Sword but vile selfishness undoes us the most looking no further if themselves and theirs might be secur'd would regard little what became of the rest as one said when I am dead let the World be fir'd but the Christian mind is of a larger Sphere looks not only upon more than it self in present but even to after Times and Ages and can rejoyce in the good to come when it self shall not be here to partake of it is more dilated and liker unto God and to our head Iesus Christ. The Lord says the Prophet Esay in all his peoples affliction was afflicted himself and Jesus Christ accounts the sufferings of his Body the Church his own Saul Saul why persecutest thou me the heel was trod upon on earth and the head cryeth from Heaven as sensible of it and this in all our evils especially our spiritual Griefs is a high point of comfort to us that our Lord Jesus is not insensible of them This emboldens us to complain our selves and to put in our petitions for help to the Throne of Grace through his hand knowing that when he presents he will speak his own sense of our condition and move for us as it were for himself as we have it sweetly express'd Heb. 4. 15. 16. Now as it is our comfort so it is our pattern Love as Brethren Hence springs this feeling we speak oâ— Love is the cause of union and union the cause of sympathy and of that unanimity before they that have the same spirit uniting and animating them cannot but have the same Mind and the same feelings And this Spirit is derived from that head Christ in whom Christians live and move and have their being their new and excellent being and so in living in him they love him and are one in him they are Brethren as here the word is their fraternity holds in him he is head of it the first born among many Brethren Men are Brethren in two natural respects their Bodies of the same earth and their Souls breathed from the same God but this third fraternity that is founded in Christ is far more excellent and more firm than the other two for being one in him they have there taken in the other two for that in him is our whole Nature he is the Man Christ Iesus but to the advantage and 't is an infinite one being one in him we are united by the Divine Nature in him who is God blessed for ever and this is the highest certainly and the strongest union that can be imagin'd Now this is a great Mystery indeed as the Apostle says speaking of this same point the union of Christ and his Church whence their union and Communion one with another that make up that Body the Church is deriv'd In Christ every believer is born of God is his Son and so they are not only Brethren one with another that are so born but Christ himself own 's them as his Brethren both he which sanctifies and they who are sanctifiâ—d are all of one for which cause he is not asham'd to call them Brethren Sin broke all to pieces Man from God and one from another Christ's work in the World was Vnion to make up these breaches he came down and begun the union which was his work in the wonderful union made in his Person that was to work it made God and Man one and as the Nature of Man was reconciled so by what he performed the Persons of Men are united to God Faith makes them one with him and he makes them one with the Father and from these results this oneness amongst themselves concentring and meeting in Jesus Christ and in the Father through him they are made one together And that this was his great work we may read in his Prayer where it is the burden and main strain the great request he so iterates that they may be one as we are one ver 11. a high comparison such as Man durst not name but after him that so warrants us and again ver 21. that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us and so on So that certainly where this is it is the ground work of another kind of Friendship and love than the World is acquainted with or is able to judge of and hath more worth in one drachme of it than all the quintessence of civil or natural assection can amount to The friendship of the World the best of them are but tyed with chains of glass but this fraternal love of Christians is a Golden chain both more precious and more strong and lasting the other are worthless and brittle The Christian ows and pays a General Charity and good will to all but peculiar and intimate friendship he cannot have but with such as come within the compass of this fraternal love Which after a special manner flows from God and returns to him and abides in him and shall remain unto eternity Where this love is and abounds it will banish far away all those dissentions and bitternesses and those â—rivolous mistakings that are so frequent amongst the most it will teach wisely and gently to admonish one another where it is needful but further than that it will pass by many offences and failings and cover a multitude of sins and will very much sweeten Society and make it truly profitable therefore the Psalmist calls it both
may hold firm You may be free chose it rather not to stand to the courtesie of any thing about you nor of any Man whether enemy or friend for the tenure of your happiness lay it higher and surer and if you be wise provide such a peace as will remain untouch'd in the hottest flame such a light as will shine in the deepest dungeon and such a life as is safe even in death it self that life that is hid with Christ in God But if in other sufferings even the worst and saddest the Believer is still a happy Man then more especially in those that are the best kind suffering for righteousness not only do they not detract from his happiness but 2dly They concur and give accession to it he is happy even by so suffering As will appear from the following considerations 1. 'T is the happiness of a Christian until he attain perfection to be advancing towards it to be daily resining from sin and growing richer and stronger in the graces that make up a Christian a new creature to attain a higher degree of patience and meekness and humility to have the heart more weaned from the Earth and fixed on Heaven now as other afflictions of the Saints do help them in those their sufferings for righteousness the unrighteous and injurious dealing of the World with them have a particular fitness for this purpose those trials that come immediately from God's own hand seem to bind to a patient and humble compliance with more authority and I may say necessity There is no plea no place for so much as a word unless it be directly and expresly against the Lord's own dealing but unjust suffering at the hands of Men requires that respect unto God without whose hand they cannot move that for his sake and for reverence and love to him a Christian can go through those with that mild evenness of Spirit that overcomes even in suffering And there is nothing outward more fit to perswade a Man to give up with the World and its Friendship than to feel much of its enmity and malice and that directly acting it self against Religion making that the very quarrel which is of all things dearest to a Christian and in highest esteem with him If the World should caress them and smile on them they might be ready to forget their home or at least to abate in the frequent thoughts and fervent desires of it and turn into some familiarity with the World and favourable thoughts of it and thus let out somwhat of their hearts after it and thus grace would grow faint by the diversion and calling forth of the Spirits as in Summer in the hottest and fairest weather 't is with the body 'T is a confirm'd observation by the experience of all Ages that when the Church flourish'd most in outward peace and wealth it abated most of its spiritual lustre which is its genuine and true beauty and when it seem'd most miserable by persecutions and sufferings 't was most happy in sincerity and zeal and vigour of grace when the Moon shines brightest towards the Earth 't is dark Heavenwards and on the contrary when it appears not is nearest the Sun and clear towards Heaven 2dly Happy in acting and evidencing by those sufferings for God their love to him Love delights in difficulties and grows in them the more a Christian suffers for Christ the more he loves Christ accounts him the dearer and the more he loves him still the more can he suffer for him 3dly Happy as in testifying love to him and glorifying him so in conformity with him which is loves ambition affects likeness and harmony at any rate a Believer would readily take it as an affront that the World should be kind to him that was so harsh and cruel to his beloved Lord and Master Canst thou expect or wouldst thou wish smooth language from that World that revil'd thy Jesus that called him Beelzebub couldst thou own and accept friendship at its hands that buffetted him and shed his blood or art thou rather most willing to share with him and of S. Paul's mind God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ whereby the World is crucified to me and I unto the World 4. The rich supplies of spiritual comfort and joy that in those times of suffering are usual that as sufferings for Christ do abound consolations in him abound much more as the Apostle testifies God speaking most peace to the Soul when the World speaks most War and enmity against it and this compenses abundantly when the Christian lays the greatest sufferings Men can inflict in the one ballance and the least glances of God's countenance in the other it says 't is worth all the enduring of these to enjoy this says with David let them curse but bless thou let them frown but smile thou And thus he usually doth refreshes such as are prisoners for him with visits that they would buy again with the hardest restraint and debaring of nearest friends The World cannot but misjudge the state of suffering Christians it sees their Crosses but not their anointings Was not St. Stephen think you in a happy posture even in his enemies hands was he afraid of the Showre of Stones coming about his ears that saw the Heavens opened and Jesus standing on the Father's right hand so little troubled with the stoning him that as the Text hath it in the midst of them he fell a sleep 5. If those sufferings be so small weigh'd down even with present comforts and so the Christian happy in them in that regard how much more doth the weight of Glory surpass that follows these sufferings they are not worthy to come in comparison they are as nothing to that glory that shall be revealed in the Apostle's Arithmetick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I have cast up the sum of the sufferings of this present time this instant this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they amount to just nothing in respect of that glory Now these sufferings happy because the way to this happiness and pledges of it and if any thing do they raise the very degree of it however 't is an exceeding excellent weight of glory the Hebrew word that signifies glory signifies weight yet the glories that are here are all too light except in weight of cares and sorrows that attend them but that hath the weight of compleat blessedness speak not of all the sufferings nor of all the prosperities of this poor life nor of any thing in it as worthy of a thought when that glory is named yea let not this life be called life when we mention that other life that our Lord by his death hath purchas'd for us Be not afraid of their terrour No time nor place in the World so favourable to Religion that it is not still needful to arm a Christian mind against the outward oppositions and discouragements he shall meet with all
sealed it that then the Grave had indeed shut her mouth upon him it appeared a done business to them and lookt very compleat-like in his Enemies eyes and very desperate like to his Friends his poor Disciples and Followers were they not near the point of giving over when they said This is the third day c. And we thought this had been he that should have delivered Israel And yet he was then with them who was indeed the Deliverer and Salvation of Israel that rolling of the Stone to the Grave was as if they had rolled it towards the East in the night to stop the rising of the Sun the next Morning much further above all their Watches and power was this Sun of Righteousness in his rising again That body that was enâ—omb'd was united to the Spring of Life the Divine Spirit of the Godhead that quickened it Obs. 1. Thus the Church which is likewise his Body when it seems undone is brought to the lowest Posture yet by vertue of that mystical Union with Jesus Christ as his Natural Body by personal Union with his Deity shall be preserved from destruction and shall be delivered and raised in due time Yet as he was nearest his exaltation in the lowest step of his Humiliation so is it with his Church when things are brought to the most hopeless appearance then shall light arise out of darkness Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses Therefore as we ought to seek more humble Sense of Sions distress so withal not to let go this hope that her mighty Lord will in the end be glorious in her deliverance and all her sufferings and low estate shall be as a dark Soil to set off the lusture of her restorement when the Lord shall visit her with Salvation As in the rising of Jesus Christ his Almighty Power and Deity was more manifested than if he had not died and therefore we may say confidently with the Psalmist to his Lord Psal. 71. Thou which hast shewed me greâ—t and sore troubles shall quicken me again and shall bring 〈◊〉 up from the depths of the Earth thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side Yea the Church comes more beautiful out of the deepest distress let it be oâ—erwhelmed with waves yet it sinks not but rises up as only washt And in this confidence we ought to rejoyce even in the midst of our sorrows and though we live not to see them yet even in beholding afar off to be gladed with the great things the Lord will do for his Church in these later times he will certainly make bare his holy Arm in the Eyes of the Nations and all the ends of the Earth shall see the Salvation of our God His King that he hath set on his holy Hill shall grow in his Conquests and Glory and all that rise against him shall he break with a Rod of Iron He was humbled once but his glory shall be for ever as many were astonished at him his Visage being mar'd more than any Man they shall be as much astonished at his Beauty and Glory so shall he sprinkle many Nations and Kings shall shut their mouths at him According as here we find that remarkable evidence of his Divine Power in rising from the dead put to death in the Flesh but quickened by the Spirit 2. Thus a believing Soul at the lowest when to its own sense it is given over unto death and swallowed up of it as it were in the Belly of Hell yet look up to this Divine Power him whose Soul was not left there will not leave thine there Yea when thou art most sunk in thy sad apprehensions and far off to thy thinking then is he nearest to raise and comfort thee as sometimes it grows darkest immediately before day Rest on his power and goodness which never failed any that did so It is he as David says that lifts up the Soul from the Gates of Death 3. Would any of you be cured of that common Disease the fear of Death look this way and you shall find more than you seek you shall be taught not only not to fear but to love it Consider 1. His Death He died by that thou that receivest him as thy life maist be sure of this that thou art by that his death freed from the second death and that 's the great Point let that have the name which was given to the other the most terrible of all terrible things and as the second death is removed this death that thou art to pass through is I may say beautified and sweetned the ugly Visage of it becomes amiable when ye look on 't in Christ and in his death that puts such a pleasing comeliness upon it that whereas others fly from it with affrightment the Believer cannot chuse but embrace it longs to lie down in that Bed of Rest since his Lord lay in it and hath warmed that cold Bed and purified it with his fragrant Body 2. But especially looking forward to his return thence quickened by the Spirit this being to those that are in him the certain pledge yea the effectual Cause of that blessed Reâ—urrection that is in their hopes there is that Union betwixt them that they shall rise by the communication and vertue of his rising not simply by his Power so the wicked to their grief shall be raised but they by his life as theirs Therefore is it so often re-iterated Io. 6. where he speaks of himself as living and Life-giving Bread to Belivers adds I will raise them up at the last day This comfort we have even for the house of Clay we lay down and for our more considerable part our immortal Souls this his death and rising hath provided for them at their dislodging entring into that Glory where he is Now if these things were lively apprehended and laid hold on Christ made ours and the first Resurrection manifest in us quickened by his spirit to newness of life certainly there would not be a more wellcome and refreshing thought nor a sweeter discourse to us than that of death and no matter for the kind of it were it a violent death so was his Were it that we account most judgement like amongst diseases the plague was not his death very painful and was it not an accursed death and by that curse endured by him in his is not the Curse taken away to the Believer Oh! how wellcome shall that day be that day of Deliverance to be out of this woâ—ful Prison I regard not at what Door I go out at being at once freed from so many deaths and set in to enjoy him who is my life Verses 19 20 21. 19. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison 20. Which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water 21. The like figure
fruitful 2. By this Spirit it s said here he preacht not only did he so in the Days of his abode on Earth but in all times both before and after never left his Church altogether destitute of saving light which he dispenced himself and conveyed by the hands of his Servants therefore it s said he preacht that this be no excuse for times after he is ascended into Heaven no nor for times before he descended to the Earth in humane flesh though he preached not then nor does now in his flesh yet by his Spirit he then preacht and still doth so according to what was chief in him he was still present with his Church and preaching in it and is so to the end of the World This his infinite Spirit being every where yet 't is said here by it he went and preached signifying the remarkable clearness of his Administration that way as when he appears eminently in any work of his own or taking notice of our works God is said to come down so to those Cities Gen. 11. Let us go down So Exod. 3. 8. Thus here so clearly did he admonish them by Noah coming as it were himself on purpose to declare his Mind to them And this word I conceive is the rather used to shew what equality there is in this He came indeed visibly and dwelt amongst Men when he became flesh yet before that he visited by his Spirit he went by that and preached And so in after times himself being ascended and not having come visibly in his flesh to all but to the Jews only yet in the preaching of the Apostles to the Gentiles as the great Apostle says of him in this expression Eph. 2. 17. He came and preached to you which were asar off and this he continues to do in the ministry of his word and therefore says he he that despiseth you despiseth me c. Were this considered it could not but procure far more respect to the word and more acceptance of it Would you think that in his word Christ speaks by his eternal Spirit yea he comes and preaches addresses himself particularly to you in it could you slight him thus and turn him off with daily refusals or delays at least Think it is too long you have so unworthily used so great a Lord that brings unto you so great Salvation that came once in so wonderful a way to work that Salvation for us in his flesh and is still coming to offer it unto us by his Spirit does himself preach to us tells us what he undertook on our behalf and how he hath performed all and now nothing rests but that we receive him and believe on him and all is ours But alas from the most the return is that we have here disobedience Sometimes disobedient Two things in the hearers by which they are charactared their present condition in the time the Apostle was speaking of them and this by-past disposition when the Spirit of Christ was preaching to them this latter went first in time and was the cause of the other Therefore of it first If you look to their visible subordinate Preacher a holy Man and an able and diligent Preacher of righteousness both in his Doctrine and in the tract of his life which is the powerfullest preaching it seems strange that he prevailed so little But much more if we look higher this hight as the Apostle points to us to look to that Almighty Spirit of Christ that preacht to them and yet they were disobedient The word is they were not perswaded and it signifies both unbelief and disobedience and that very fitly unbelief being in it self the grand disobedience the mind not yielding to Divine Truth and so the spring of all disobedience in affection and action And this root of bitterness this unbelief is deep â—aâ—â—ened in our natural hearts and without a change in them a taking them to pieces they cannot be good it is as a Tree firm rooted cannot be pluckt up without loosening the ground round about it and this accursed root brings forth fruit unto death because the Word is not believed the threats of the Law and promises of the Gospel therefore Men cleave unto their sins and speak peace unto themselves while they are under the Curse It may seâ—m very strange that the Gospel is so fruitless amongst us yea that neither word nor rod both preaching aloud to us the Doctrine of Humiliation and Repentance yet perswades any Man to return or so much to turn inward and question himself to say what have I done But thus it will be till the Spirit be poured from on high to open and soften hearts It is to be desired as much wanting in the Ministery of the Word but were it there that would not serve unless it were by a concurrent work within the Heart meeting the Word and making the impressions of it there for here we find the Spirit went and preacht and yet the Spirits of the Hearers still unbelieving and disobedient it s a combined work of this Spirit in the Preacher and Hearers that makes it successful otherwise it is but shouting in a dead man's ear there must be something within as one said in a like case To the Spirits in Prison That 's now their Posture and because he speaks of them as in that Posture he calls them Spirits for it s their Spirits that are in that Prison As likewise calls them Spirits that the Spirit of Christ preacht to because it is indeed that that the preaching of the Word aims at it hath to do with the Spirits of Men is not content to be at their ear with a sound but works on their Minds and Spirits some way either to believe and receive or to be hardened and sealed up to Judgement by it which is for Rebels If disobedience follow on the preaching of that word the prison follows on that disobedâ—ence and that Word which they would not be bound by to obedience binds them over to that Prison whence they shall never escape nor be released for ever Take notice of it and know that you are warned you will not receive Salvation offering pressing it self upon you You are every day in that way of disobedience hastening to this perpetual Imprisonment Consider you now sit and hear this Word so did these that are here spoken of they had their time on Earth and much patience used towards them and though not to be swept away by a flood of Waters yet daily carried on by the flood of â—imes 90 Psal. and mortality And how soon you shall be on the other side set into Eternity you know not I beseech you be yet wise hearken to the offers yet made you for in his name I yet once again make a tender of Jesus Christ and Salvation in him to all that will let go their sins to lay hold on him Oh! do not destroy your selves you are in Prison he proclaims you Liberty Christ is still following
Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt And besides many other things to animate this that is here exprest Oh! how full is it They shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead And this in readiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the day set and it shall surely come though you think it far off Though the wicked themselves forget them and the Christian slight them and let them pass they pass not so they are all registred and the great Court-day shall call them to account for all these riots and excesses and withal for all their reproaches of the godly that would not run with them in these ways Tremble then you despisers and mockers of Holiness though you come not near it What will you do when these you reviled shall appear glorious in your sight and their King the King of Saints here much more glorious and his glory their joy and all terror to you Oh! then all faces that could look out disdainfully upon Religion and the Professors of it shall gather blackness and be bathed with shame and the more the despised Saints of God shall shout for joy You that would rejoyce then in the appearing of that holy Lord and Judge of the World let your way be now in holiness avoid and hate the common ways of the wicked World they live in their foolish opinion and that shall quickly end But the Sentence of that day shall stand for ever Verse 6. 6. For for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the Spirit IT is a thing of prime concernment for a Christian to be rightly inform'd and frequently remembred what is the true estate and nature of a Christian for this the Multitude of those that bear that name either knows not or commonly forgets and so is carried away with the vain fancies and mistakes of the World The Apostle hath charactered Christianity very clearly to us in this place by that which is the very nature of it conformity with Christ and that which is necessarily consequent upon that disconformity with the World And as the nature and natural properties of things hold universally thus it is in those that in all ages are effectually called by the Gospel are moulded and framed thus by it thus it was says the Apostle with your Brethren that are now at rest as many as received the Gospel and for this end was it preacht to them that they might be judg'd according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the Spirit We have first here the preaching of the Gospel or suitable means to a certain end 2. The express Nature of that end 1. For this Cause There is a particular end and that very important which the preaching of the Gospel is aimed at this end many consider not hearing it as if it were to no end not propounding a fixed determined end in our hearing This therefore is to be considered by those that preach this Gospel that they aim right in it at this end and no other no self end The legal Priests not to be squint eyed nor evangelical Ministers thus squinting to base gain vain applause and also that they make it their study to find in themselves this work this living to God otherwise they cannot skillfully nor faithfully apply their gifts to this effect on their hearers and therefore acquaintance with God most necessary How sounds it to many of us at the least but as a well couched story whose use is to amuse us and possibly delight us a little and there is an end and indeed no end and turns the most serious and most glorious of all Messages unto an empty sound and if we awake and give it hearing it is much but for any thing further how few deeply before hand consider I have a dead heart therefore will I go unto the word of Life that it may be quickened it is frozen I will go and lay it before the warm Beams of that Sun that shines in the Gospel my corruptions mighty and strong and grace if any exceeding weak there is in the Gospel a power to weaken and to kill sin and to strengthen grace and this being the intent of my wise God in appointing it it shall be my desire and purpose in resorting to it to find it to me according to his gracious intendment to have faith in my Christ the Fountain of my Life more enabled and more active in drawing from him to have my heart more refined and spiritualized and to have the Sluse of Repentance opened and my Affections to Divine things enlarged more hatred of sin and more love of God and communion with him Ask your selves concerning former times and to take your selves even now enquire within why came I hither this day what had I in mine eye and desires this morning ere I came forth and in my way as I was coming did I seriously propound an end or no and what was my end Nor doth the meer custome of mentioning this in prayer satisfie the question for this as other such things usually do in our hand may turn to a lifeless form and have no heat of spiritual affection none of David's panting and breathing after God in his ordinances such desires as will not be still'd without a measure of attainment as the Childs desire of the breast as our Apostle resembles it chap. 2. And then again being returned home reflect on your hearts much hath been heard but is there any thing done by it have I gained my point it was not to pass a little time simply that I went or to pass it with delight in hearing rejoycing in that light as they did in S. Iohn Baptists for a season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as long as the hour lasts it was not to have my earpleased but my heart changed not to learn some new notions and carry them cold in my head but to be quickened and purified and renewed in the Spirit of my mind is this done think I now more esteemingly of Christ and the life of faith and the happiness of a Christian and are such thoughts solid and abiding with me what sin have I left behind what Grace of the Spirit have I brought home or what new degree or at least new desire of it a living desire that will follow its point Oh! this were good repetition A strange folly of multitudes of us to set our selves no mark to propound no end in the hearing of the Gospel The Merchant sails not only that he may sail but for traffick and trafficks that he may be rich The Husband Man plows not only to keep himself busie with no further end but plows that he may sow and sows that he may reap with advantage and shall we do the most excellent and fruitful work fruitlesly hear only to hear and look no
further This is indeed a a great vanity and a great misery to lose that labour and gain nothing by it which duly used would be of all others most advantageous and gainful and yet all meetings are full of this Now when you come this is not simply to hear a discourse and relish or dislike it in hearing But a matter of life and death of eternal death and eternal life and the spiritual life begot and nourisht by the word is the beginning of that eternal life Follows To them that are dead By which I conceive he intends such as had heard and believed the Gospel when it came to them and now were dead And this I think he doth to strengthen these brethren to whom he writes to commend the Gospel to this intent and not to think the condition and end of it hard As our Saviour mollifies the matter of outward sufferings thus so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you And the Apostle afterwards in this Chapter uses the same reason in that same subject so here that they might not judge the point of mortification he presses so grievous as naturally Men will do he tells them it is the constant end of the Gospel and they that have been saved by it went that same way he points out to them They that are dead before you died this way that I press on you before they died and the Gospel was preached to them for that very end Men pass away and others succeed but the Gospel is still the same hath the same tenour and substance and the same ends As Solomon speaks of the Heaven's and Earth that remain the same while one Generation passes and another cometh the Gospel surpasses both in its stability as our Saviour testifies they shall pass away but not one Iot of this Word And indeed they wear and wax old as the Apostle teaches us but the Gospel is from one Age to another of most unalterable integrity hath still the same vigour and powerful influence as at the first They that formerly received the Gospel it was upon these terms therefore think them not hard and they are now dead all the difficulty of that work of dying to sin is now over with them if they had not died to their sins by the Gospel they had died in them after a while and so died eternally it is therefore a wise prevention to have sin judged and put to death in us before we die if we die in them and with them we and our sin perish together if we will not part but if it die first before us then we live for ever And what think you of thy carnal will and all the delights of sin What is the longest term of its life uncertain it is but most certainly very short thou and these pleasures must be severed and parted within a little time however thou must dye and then they dye and you never meet again Now were it not the wisest course to part a little sooner with them and let them dye before thee that thou mayest inherit eternal life and eternal delights in it pleasures for evermore It s the only bargain and let us delay it no longer This is our season of enjoying the sweetness of the Gospel others heard it before us in our rooms that now we fill and now they are removed and remove we must shortly and leave this same room to others to speak and hear in It is high time we were considering what we do here to what end we speak and hear and to lay hold on that Salvation that is held forth unto us and that we lay hold on it let go our hold of sin and those perishing things that we hold so firm and cleave so fast to do they that are dead who heard and obeyed the Gospel now repent their repentance and mortifying the flesh or do they not think ten thousand times more pains were it for many Ages all to little for a moment of that which now they enjoy and shall enjoy to eternity And they that are dead who heard the Gospel and slighted it if such a thing might be what would they give for one of these opportunities that now we daily have and daily lose and have no fruit nor esteem of them You have lately seen many of you and you that shifted the sight have heard of numbers cut off in a little time whole families swept away by the late stroke of God's hand many of which did think no other but that they might have still been with you here in this place and exercise at this time and many years after this and yet who hath laid to heart the lengthning out of their day and considered it more as an opportunity of that higher and happier life than as a little protracting of this wretched life which is hastening to an end Oh! therefore be intreated to day while it is day not to harden your hearts though the Pestilence doth not now affright you so yet that standing mortality and the decay of these earthen lodges tells us that shortly we shall cease to preach and hear this Gospel Did we consider it would excite us to more earnest search after our evidences of that eternal life that is set before us in the Gospel and we would seek it in the characters of that spiritual life which is the beginning of it within us and is wroâ—ght by the Gospel in all the heirs of Salvation Think therefore wisely of these things 1. What 's the proper end of the Gospel 2. Of the approaching end of thy days and let thy certainty of this drive thee to seek more certainty of the other that thou maist partake of it and then this again will make the thoughts of the other sweet to thee that visage of death that is so terrible to unchanged sinners shall be amiable to thine eye having found a Liâ—e in the Gospel as happy and lasting as this is miserable and vanishing and seeing the perfection of that life on the other side of death will long for the passage Be more serious in this matter of daily hearing the Gospel why it is sent to thee and what it brings and think it is too long I have flighted its Message and many that have done so are cut off and shall hear it no more I have it once more inviting me and it may be this may be the last to me and in these thoughts ere you come bow your knee to the Father of Spirits that this one thing may be granted you that your Souls may find at length the lively and mighty power of his Spirit upon yours in the hearing of this Gospel that you may be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the Spirit Thus is the particular nature of that end exprest and without the noise of various senses intends I conceive no other but the dying to the World and sin and living unto God which is the Apostle's
of a ready memory nor rich invention acting it self in the performance these may draw a neat picture of it but still the life is wanting The motion of the Heart Godwards holy and divine affection makes prayer real and lively and acceptable to the Living God to whom it is presented the pouring out of thy heart to him that made it and therefore hears it and understands what it speaks and how it s moved and affected in calling on him It is not the guilded Paper and good writing of a Petition that prevailes with a Man but the moving Sense of it and to the King that discerns the heart heart sense is the sense of all and that which he alone regards listens what that speaks and takes all as nothing where that is silent all other excellence iâ— prayer is but the outside and fashion of it that is the life of it Though Prayer precisely taken is only petition yet in its â—uller and usual sense it comprises the vent of our humble sense of vileness and sin in the sincere confession and the extolling withal and praising the holy name of our God his excellency and goodness and thankful acknowledgment of received mercies Of these sweet ingredient perfumes is the incense of prayer composed and by the divine fire of love ascends unto God the Heart and all with it and when the Hearts of the Saints unite in joynt prayer the Pillar of sweet smoke goes up the greater and fuller Thus says that Song of the Spouse going up from the Wilderness as Pillars of smoak perfumed with Myrrh and Frankincense and all the Powders of the Merchant and as the word there signifies streight Pillars like the tallest streightest kind of trees Indeed the sincerity and unfeignedness of prayer makes it go up as a streight Pillar no crookedness in it tending streight towards Heaven and bowing to no side by the way Oh! the single and fixed viewing of God as in other ways it is the thing makes all holy and sweet so particularly in this Divine Work of Prayer It is true we have to deal with a God who of himself needs not this our pains either to inform or excite him he fully knows our thoughts before we express them and our wants before we feel them or think of them Nor doth his affection and gracious bent to do his Children good wax remiss or admit the least abate and forgetfulness of them But instead of necessity on God's part which cannot be imagined we shall find that Equity and that singular Dignity and Utility of it on our part which cannot be denied 1. Equity that thus the Creaturesignifie his homage to and dependance on his Creator for his being and well-being takes all the good he enjoys or expects from that Sovereign Good declaring himself unworthy waiting for all upon the terms of free goodness and acknowledging all from that Spring 2. Dignity Man was made for communion with God his Maker 't is the Excellency of his Nature to be capable of this end the happiness of it to be raised to enjoy it Now in nothing more in this Life is this communion actually and highly enjoyed than in the exercise of prayer that he may freely impart his affairs and estate and wants to God as the faithfullest and powerfullest Friend the richest and lovingest Father may use the liberty of a Child telling his Father what he stands in need of and desires and communing with him with humble confidence admitted to so frequent presence with so great a King 3. The Vtility of it 1. Easing the Soul in times of strait when it is prest with griefs and fears giving the vent and that in so advantageous a way emptying them into the bosom of God The very vent were it but into the Air gives ease or speak it to a Statue rather than smother it much more ease poured forth into the lap of a Confident and sympathising Friend though unable to help yet much more of one that can and of all Friends our God the surest and most affectionate and most powerful so Isa. 63. 9. both compassion and effectual salvation exprest In all their affliction he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old And so resting on his Love Power and gracious Promises quiets it self in God upon this assurance that it s not vain to seek him and that he despiseth not the sighing of the poor 2. The Soul is more spiritually affected with its own condition by opening it up before the Lord more deeply sensible of sin and ashamed in his sight in confessing it before him more dilated and enlarged to receive the mercies suited for as the opening wide of the mouth of the soul that it may be filled more disposed to observe the Lord in answering and to bless him and trust on him upon the renewed experiences of his regard to their distresses and desires 3. All the Graces of the Spirit in Prayer are stirr'd and acted and by acting strengthned and increased Faith in applying the Divine Promises which are the very Ground that the Soul goes upon to God and Hope looking out to their performance and Love particularly expressing it self in that sweet converse and delighting in it as love doth in the company of the Person loved thinks all hours too short in speaking with him Oh how the Soul is refresht with freedom of Speech with its beloved Lord and as it delights in that so it is continually advanced and grows by each meeting and conference beholding the excellency of God and relishing the pure and sublime pleasures that is in near communion with him looking upon the Father in the face of Christ and using him as a mediator in prayer as still it must is drawn to further admiration of that bottomless love that found that way of agreement that new and living way of our access when all was shut up and we to have been shut out for ever And then the affectionate expressions of that reflex love to find that vent in prayer do kindle higher as it were â—ann'd and blown up rise to a greater and higher and purer flame and so tend upwards the more strongly David as he doth profess his love to God in Prayer in his Psalms so no doubt it grew in the expressing I will love thee O Lord my strength Psal 18. and Psal. 116. doth raise an incentive of love out of this very consideration of the correspondence of prayers I love the Lord because he hath heard and resolves thereafter upon persistence in that course therefore will I call upon him as long as I live And as the Graces of the Spirit are advanced in prayer by their actings so for this reason further because prayer sets the soul particularly near unto God in Jesus Christ 't is then in his presence and being much with God in this way it is
cannot consist with the love of God as St. Iohn tells us drunk with the inordinate unlawful love even of their lawful calling and the lawful gain they pursue by it their hearts going after it and so reeling to and fro never fixed on God and heavenly Things but either hurried up and down with uncessant business or if sometimes at ease it is as the ease of a drunken man not compos'd to better and wiser thoughts but falling into a dead sleep contrary to the watching here joyned with sobriety Watch. There is a Christian Rule to be observed in the very moderating of bodily sleep and that particularly for the interest of Prayer but Watching as Sobriety here is chiefly the spiritual circumspectness and vigilancy of the mind in a wary walking posture that it be not surprized by the assaults or slights of Satan by the World nor its nearest and most deceiving enemy the corruption that dwells within that being so near doth most readily watch unperceived advantages and easily circumvents us Heb. 12. 1. The Soul of a Christian being surrounded with enemies of so great both power and wrath and so watchâ—ul to undoe it should it not be watchful for its own safety and live in a military vigilancy continually keeping constant watch and sentinel and suffering nothing to pass that may carry the least suspicion of danger to be distrustful and jealous of all the motions of his own Heart and the smilings of the World and in relation to these it will be a wise course to take that word as a good caveat be watchful and remember to mistrust Under the Garment of some harmless pleasure or some lawful liberties may be conveyed into thy Soul some thief or traytor that will either betray thee to the enemy or at least pilser and steal of the preciousest things thou hast Do we not by experience find how easily our foolish hearts are seduc'd and deceived and so apt to deceive themselves and by things that seem to have no evil in them yet are drawn from the height of affection to our highest good and from our Communion with God and study to please him which should not be intermitted for then it will abate but ought still be growing 2. Now the Relation of these is clear they are inseparably link't together each of them assistant and helpful to the other in their nature as they are here in the words Sobriety the friend of watchfulness and prayer of both Intemperance doth of necessity draw on sleep excessive eating or drinking sending up too many and so gross vapours surcharge the brain and when the body is thus deaded how unfit is it for any active imployment Thus the mind by a surcharge of delights or desires or cares of earth is made so heavy and dull that it cannot awake hath not spiritual activeness and clearness that spiritual exercises particularly Prayer do require Yea as bodily insobriety full feeding and drinking not only for the time indisposes to action but by custome of it brings the body to so gross and heavy a temper that the very natural spirits cannot stir to and fro in it with freedom but are clog'd and stick as the Wheels of a Coach in a deep miry way Thus is it with the Soul glutted with earthly things the affections bemir'd with them make it resist and unactive in spiritual things and the motions of the spirit heavy and obscured in it grows carnally secure and sleepy prayer comes heavily off But when the affections are soberly acted and even in lawful things that they have not liberty with the reins laid on their Necks to follow the World and carnal projects and delight when the unavoidable affairs of this life are done with a spiritual mind a heart kept free and disingaged Then is the Soul more nimble for spiritual things for Divine Meditation and Prayer it can watch and continue in these things and spend it self in that excellent way with more alacrity Again as the Sobriety and the watchful temper attending it enables for Prayer so Prayer preserves these it winds up the Soul from the Earth raises it above these things that intemperance feeds on acquaints it with the transcending sweetness of Divine Comforts the love and the loveliness of Jesus Christ and these most powerfully wean the Soul from these low creeping pleasures that the World gapes after and swallows with such greediness He that is admitted to nearest intimacy with the King and is called daily to his presence not only in the view and company of others but likewse in secret will he be so mad as to sit down and drink with the kitchin boys or the common guards so far below what he may enjoy surely no. Prayer being our near Communion with the great God certainly it sublimates the Soul and makes it look down upon the base ways of the World with disdain and despise the truly besotting pleasures of it Yea the Lord doth sometime fill these Souls that converse much with him with such beautiful delights such inebriating sweetness as I may call it that 't is in a happy manner drunk with those and the more of this the more is the Soul above base intemperâ—nce in the delights of the World as common drunkenness makes a Man less than a Man this makes him more that throws him below himself makes him a beast this raises him above makes him an Angel Would you as sure you ought have much faculty for Prayer and be frequent in 〈◊〉 and find much the pure sweetness of it then 〈…〉 selves more the muddy pleasures and sweetness of the World if you would pray much and with much advantage then be sober and watch unto prayer 〈…〉 your hearts to long so after ease and wealth 〈◊〉 esteem in the World these will make your hearts if they mix with them become like them and take 〈◊〉 quality will make them gross and earthly and unable to mount up will clog the wings of prayâ—r and you shall find the loss when your Soul is heavy and drowsie and falls off from delighting in God and your Communion with him Will such things as those you follow be able to countervail your damage can they speak you peace and uphold you in a day of darkness and distress or may it not be such now as will make them all a burden and vexation to you But on the otherside the more you abate and let go of these and come empty and hungry to God in prayer the more room shall you have for his consolations and therefore the more plentifully will he pour in of them and enrich your Soul with them the more the less you take in of the other 2. Would you have your selves raised to and continued and advanced in a spiritual heavenly temper free from the surfeits of earth and awake and active for heaven be uncessant in prayer But thou wilt say I find nothing but heavy indisposedness in it nothing but roving and vanity of
is hid with Christ in God The World sees here nothing of his Glory and beauty and his own not much have but a little glimmering of him and their own happiness in him know little of their own high condition and what they are born to But in that bright day he shall shine forth in his royal dignity and all eyes shall see him and be overcome with his splendour terrible shall it be to those that formerly despised him and his Saints but to them the gladest day that ever arose upon them and that shall never set or be benighted The day they so much longed and lookt out for the full accomplishment of all their hopes and desires Oh! how dark were all our days without the hope of this day Theâ— says the Apostle ye shall rejoyce with exceeding joy and to the end you may not fall short of that Joy in the participance of Glory fall not back from a cheerful progress in the Communion of these sufferings that are so close linked with it and will so sure lead unto it and end it For in this the Apostles expression this Glory and Joy is set before them as the great matter of their desires and hopes and the certain end of their present sufferings Now upon these grounds the motion will appear reasonable and not too great a demand to rejoyce even in the sufferings It is true that passage in the Epistle to the Heb. opposes present Affliction to Joy But 1. If you mark it is but in the appearance or outward visage it seemeth not to be matter of joy but of grief To look to it it hath not a smiling countenance yet joy may be under it 2. And though to the flesh it is what it seems grief and not joy yet there may be under it spiritual joy yea the affliction it self may help and advance that joy 3. Through the natural sense of it there will be some allay or mixture of grief so that the joy cannot be pure and compleat but yet there may be joy even in it Thus the Apostle here clearly gives rejoyce now in suffering that you may rejoyce exceedingly after it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaping for joy doubtles this joy at present is but a little parcel a drop of that Sea of joy Now 't is joy but more reserved then they shall leap Yet In present rejoyce even in trial yea in fiery trial This may be the Children of God are not called to so sad a life as the World imagines besides what is laid up they have even here their rejoycings and Songs in their distresses as those Prisoners had their Psalms even at midnight after their stripes in their chains before they knew of a sudden deliverance true there may be a darkness within clouding all the matter of their joy but even that darkness is the feed time of after joy and light is sown in that darkness and shall spring up and not only shall they have a rich crop at full harvest but even some first fruits of it here in pledge of the harvest And this they ought to expect and seek after with humble submissive minds for the measure and time of it that they may be partakers of spiritual joy and may by it be enabled to go patiently yea cheerfully through the tribulations and tentations that be in their way homeward and for this endeavour after a more clear discerning of their interest in Christ that they may know they partake of him and so in suffering are partakers of his sufferings and shall be partakers of his Glory Many afflictions will not cloud and obstruct this so much as one sin therefore if ye would walk cheerfully be most careful to walk holily All the winds about make not an earthquake but that within Now this joy is grounded on this Communion 1. Sufferings then 2. In Glory 1. In suffering even in themselves it is a sweet joyful thing to be a sharer with Christ in any thing all enjoyments wherein he is not are bitter to a Soul that loves him and all sufferings with him sweet The worst things of Christ more â—â—uly delightful than the best things of the World his afflictions sweeter than their pleasures his reproaches more glorious than their honours and more rich than their treasures as Moses accompted them Heb. 11. Love delights in likeness and Communion not only in things otherwise pleasant but in the hardest and harshest things that have not any thing in them desireable but only that likeness so that this is very sweet to a heart possest with this love what does the World in hatreds and persecutions and revilings for Christ but make me more like him give me a greater share with him in that which he did so willingly undergo for me When he was sought to be a King he escaped but when he was sought to the Cross he freely yielded himself And shall I shrink and creep back from what he calls me to for his sake yea even all my other troubles and sufferings I will desire to have stampt thus with this conformity to the sufferings of Christ in the humble obedient cheerful endurance of them and giving up my will to my fathers The following of Christ makes any way pleasant his faithful followers refuse no march after him be it through deserts and Mountains and Storms and hazards that will affright self-pleasing easie Spirits hearts kindled and acted with the Spirit of Christ will follow him wheresoever he goeth As he speaks it for warnings if they persecuted me they will persecute you so he speaks it for comforting them and it is sufficiently so if they hate you they hated me before you 2. Then add the other see whether it tends he shall be revealed in his Glory and ye shall be filled even over with joy in the partâ—king of that Glory Therefore rejoyce now in the midst of all your sufferings stand upon the advanced ground of the promises and covenant of grace and by faith overlook this moment and all that is in it to that day wherein everlasting joy shall be upon your heads a Crown of it and sorrow and mourning shall flie away believe this day and the victory is won Oh! that blessed hope well fixed and acted would give other manner of Spirits what zeal for God what invincible courage against all encounters How soon will this pageant of the World vanish that Men are gazing on these pictures and fancies of false stiled pleasures and honours and give place to the real glory of the Sons of God this blessed Son that is God appearing in full Majesty and all his Brethren in glory with him all cloathed in their robes And if you ask who are they why these are they that came out of great tribulation and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Verses 14 15 16. 14. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you on
their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified 15. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil-doer or as a busie body in other Mens matters 16. Yet if any Man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf THE Word is the Christians magazine both of instructions and encouragements for doing or suffering and this Epistle is rich in both here what the Apostle said in suffering he specifies in particular suffering of reproaches but this seems not to come up to the height of that expression he hath used he spoke of fiery trial but that of reproach seems rather fit to be called an airy trial the blast of vanishing words Yet upon trial it will be found to be as here it is accounted a very sharp a fiery trial first then of this particular kind of suffering 2. Of the comfort and advice furnisht against it If we consider both the nature of the thing and the strain of the Scriptures we will find that reproaches are amongst the sharpest sort of sufferings and are indeed fiery trials the tongue is a fire says St. Iames and reproaches are the flashes of that fire they are a a subtile kind of flame like that lightening that they say crusheth the bones and yet breaks not the flesh they wound not the body as tortures and whips but through a whole skin they reach the spirit of a Man and cut it so Psal. 42. 10. The fire of reproaches preys upon and dryes up the precious oyntment of a good name as Solomon compares it A good name is in it self a good a prime outward good and take us according to our natural temper and apprehensions according to which we feel things most Men are and some more excessively too tender and delicate in it Although truly I take this rather to be a weakness than true greatness of spirit as they fancy it to depend much on the opinion of others and feel it deep yet I say considering it to be commonly thus with Men and the remâ—ins of this as other frailties in the Children of God it cannot well be but reproaches will ordinarily much afflict Men and to some kind of Spirits possibly be more grievous than some bodily pain or suffering And as they are thus the Scripture accounts them so and very usually reckons them amongst sufferings and readily names them more than any other kind of suffering and that 〈◊〉 good reason not only for their piercing nature as it s â—â—id but withal for their frequency and multitude and some things we suffer do as flies more trouble by their number than by their weight Now there is no 〈◊〉 kind of suffering of such constancy and commonness and abundance as reproaches are When other periecutions cease yet those continue when all other Martyr fires are put out these burn still in all times and places the malignant World ready to revile Religion not only avowed enemies of it but the greatest part even of those that make a vulgar profession of it they that outwardly receive the form of Religion yet are many of them inwardly haters of the power of it and Christians so called will scorn and reproach these that are so indeed And this is done with such ease by every one that these arrows fly thick every one that hath a tongue can shoot them even base Abjects Psal. 35. And the drunkards make songs as Ieremy complains the meanest sort can reach this point of persecution and be active in it against the Children of God they that cannot or dare not offer them any other injury will not fear nor spare to let fly a taunt or bitter word so that whereas other sufferings are rarer these meet them daily Psalm 42 10. While they say daily unto me where is thy God We see how justly reproaches are often mentioned amongst and beyond other trials and accounted persecution Matth. 5. 10 11. Blessed are ye when Men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Gal. 4. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now And in the History all we find is he mockt him And thus are they amongst the sufferings of Christ in the Gospel and not as the least the raylings and mockings darted at him fixed to the cross more than the very nails that fixed him And Heb. 12. 2. The shame of the cross though he was above it and despised it yet that shame of it was much of the burden so ver 3. Contradiction of sinners Now the other thing is that this is the lot of Christians as it was of Christ and why should they they look for more kindness and better usage and think to find acclamations and applauses from the World that so vilisy'd their Lord. Oh no The vain heart must be weaned from these to follow Christ if we will indeed follow him it must be tamed to share with him in this point of suffering not only mistakes and misconstructions but bitter scoffings and reproaches Why should not our minds ply and fold to this upon that very reason he so reasonably presses again and again on his Disciples The servant is not greater than his master and in this very thing if they called the Master Beelzebub how much more will they speak so of the servants Ins. 1. Seeing its thus I shall first press upon the followers of Christ the Apostles rule here to keep their sufferings spotless that it may not be comfortless resolve for it but that it be innocent suffering suffer not as evil doers ver 15. Besides that ways of wickedness are most unsuiting our holy calling look to the enmity about you and gain even out of that evil this great good of the more circumspect and holy walking know who you are and where you are your own weakness and the Worlds wickedness This our Saviour represents and upon it gives that sutable rule Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be ye therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves Know you not what exact eyes of others are upon you will you not thence learn exactly to eye your selves and all your ways and seek of God with David to be led in righteousness because of your enemies your observers This is the rule here ver 16. suâ—â—er as Christians holily and blamelessly that the enemy may not know where to fasten his hold as the wrestlers anointed their bodies that the hands of their party might not fasten thus truly they that walk and suffer as Christians anointed with the Spirit of Christ their enemies cannot well fasten hold I recommend therefore to you that love the Lord Jesus this especially to be careful that all your reproaches may be indeed for Christ and not for any thing in you unlike
life of a Christian to be daily outstripping himself to be spiritually wiser holier more heavenly minded to day than yesterday and to morrow if it be added to his life than to day every day loving the World less and Christ more than the former and gaining every day some further victory over his secret corruptions his passions more subdued and mortified his desires in all temporal things more cool and indifferent and in Spiritual things more ardent that miserable lightness of Spirit cured and his heart more solided and fixed upon God aspiring to more near Communion with him particular graces made more lively and strong by often acting and stiring them up faith more confirmed and stayed love more enflamed composed meekness making more deep humility Oh! this were a worthy ambition indeed you would have your Estates growing and your credit growing how much rather should you seek to have your graces growing and not be content with any thing you have attained to 2. Obs. But all our endeavours and diligence in this will be vain unless we look for our perfecting and establishing from the right hand without which we do nothing thither the Apostle moves his desires for his Brethren and so teaches them the same addrâ—ss for themselves the God of all Grace c. This prayer is grounded as all prayer of faith must be on the promise and covenant of God He is our Rock and his work is perfect he doth not begin a building and then leave it off none of his designs break in the middle or fall short of their end he will perfect that good work which he hath begun to the day of Iesus Christ Phil. 1. And how often is he called the strength of those that trust on him Psal. 18. 30. Their Buckler and his way perfect Hence is the stability of grace and perseverance of the Saints 't is founded upon his unchangeableness not that they are so though truly sanctified if they and their graces were left to their own manage No 't is he that not only gives that rich portion to those he adopts to be his Children but keeps it for them and them in the possession of it he maintains the lot of our Inheritance And to build that perswasion of perseverance upon his truth and power engag'd in it is no presumption yea 't is high dishonour to him to question But when Nature is set to Judge of Grace it must speak according to it self and therefore very unsuitably to that which it speaks of Natural wits apprehend not the spiritual tenour of the Covenant of Grace but model it to their own principles and quite disguise it and they think of nothing but their resolves and moral purposes or if they take a Notion of Grace confused they imagine it put into their own hands to keep or lose it and will not stoop to a continual dependance on the strength of another rather chuse that game of hazard and it is certain loss and undoing to do for themselves But the humble Believer is otherwise schoolâ—d he hath not so learned Christ he sees himself 〈◊〉 with enemies without and buckled to a treacherous heart within that will betray him to them and he dare no more trust himself to himself than to his most pâ—oâ—essed enemies Thus it ought to be and the more the heart is brought to this humble suiting of that ability and strengthning and perâ—ecting from God the more shall it find both stability and peace from the assurance of that stability Inf. Certainly the more the Christian is acquainted with himself the more will he go out of himself for his perfecting and establishing finds that when he thinks to go forward he is driven backward and 〈◊〉 gets hold of him oftentimes when he thought to have smitten it and finds that miserable inconstancy of his heart in spiritual things the vanishing of his purposes and breaking off of his thoughts that they usuallâ— die â—re they be brought forth that when he hath thought I will pray more reverently and set my self to behold God when I speak to him and watch more over my heart that it fly not out and leave me possibly the first time he sets to it thinking to be 〈◊〉 of his intention he finds himself more scatterâ—d and disorder'd and dead than at any time before when he hath conceived thoughts of humility and self abusement and thinks now I am down and laid low within my self to rise and look big no more yet some vain fancy creeps in anon and encourages him and raises him up to his old estate so that in this plight had he not higher strength to look at he would sit down and give over all as a thing wholly hopeless ever to attain his joâ—rneys end But when he considers whose work that is within him even these small beginings of desires he is encouraged by the greatness of the Work not to despise and despair of the small appearance of the work in its beginning the day of small things and knows that it is not by any power nor might but by his Spirit that it shall be accomplisht lavs hold on that word though thy beginning be small yet thy latter end shall greatly increase Looks to Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12. 2. looks oft from all oppositions and difficulties looks above them to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith Author and therefore Finisher this that royal dignity interested in the maintenance and compleating of what he hath wrought notwithstanding of all thy imperfections and the strength of sin he can and will subdue it notwithstanding thy loose light condition that wer't easily blown away with the least wind of tentation yet he shall hold thee in his right hand and there thou shall be firm as the Earth that is so settled by his hand that though it hangs on nothing yet nothing can remove it though thou art weak he is strong and he that strengthens thee and renews thy strength when it seems to be gone and out spent he makes it fresh and greater than ever before The word Isa 40. renew change they shall have for their own his strength a weak Believer and his strong Saviour too hard for all that can rise against them Hominem cum â—asi metiri is here fit no taking right measure of a Christian but that way And though thou art indeed expos'd to great Storms and Tempests yet he builds thee on himself makes thee by believing to found on him and so though the winds blow and the rain fall yet thou standest being built on him thy rock And this indeed is our safety the more we cleave to our rock and fasten on him this is the only thing establishes us and perfects and strengthens us therefore well is that word added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found you or settle you on your foundation This is the firmness of the Church against the Gates of Hell he is a strong foundation for establishment and
passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Iesâ—s Christ. Amen FINIS Naz. Eâ—â—les 1. â— 1. Me male amando me perdidi te solum quaerendâ— pure amando me te pariter inveni â Kemp. Magnus qui fictilibus utitur tanquam argentis nec ille minâ—r qui argento tanquam fictilibus Sen. Non bis pueri sed semper Nulla nos â—ffendunt quae nâ—â—â—â—dunt Omne infirmum naturâ querelum Stipato agmine Deum obâ—â—dentes Tertull. Fama est junctas fortiuâ— ire preces Matth. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nil tam spiritualem virum indicat quam peccati alieni tractatio â—sal 122. Heb. 2. 11. Ioh. 17. Is. 54. 7 8. Hos. 11. 8. Emolliâ— mores nec sinit esse feros Ille est qui superbire nescit cui Deus ostendit misericordiam suam Conservatriae vâ—tâ—tum Prâ—dendâ— perdidit Caputartis est decere quod facias Qui thesaurum tuum alieno in ore constituis ignoras quod arca ista non clauditur Si haec sunt â—estra tollite eavobiscum S. â—ern Ps. 34 13 14. Furor â—arma ministrat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ier. 9. 4. Obtrectatio livor primis auribus accipiuntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aeschyl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 1. Stater in lagena â—is bis clamat Is. 44. 20. 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nâ—b 12. 1. Heb. 12. 2. Kovit se saepe vicisse post sanguiâ—em Sen. Ezek 8. 18. Is. 1. Is. 29. 15. Verba sensus connotâ—â— affectâ—â— Ver. 4. Ver. 5. Ver. 6. Ver. 7. Velut e palude suâ vilis ranuncula Bern. Ecel 5. 2. Schechinah Ps. 55. 17. Si non ad voluntatem ad utilitatâ—m Clavis diâ—i sera â—â—ctis Consilium faturum expraeterito venit Sen. Splendida miserla 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pyth. Matt. 10. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Si violandum est jus regnandi causa violandum Opibus major virtuâ—ibus minor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vident cruces nostraâ— unctiones non vident S. Bern. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec inter dubii vivimus mâ—rimur Dâ—n 3. 16. Spreta vileâ—cerent Spes est nomen boni incerti Sen. Acts. 23. Matth. 6. Ex alienâ— nvninis jactura gâ—adum sibi ficiunt ad gloriam Sal. De verbo 〈◊〉 moâ—daci Bern. Magna â—â—natu magâ—as negas Malo sentare â—â—â—panctiâ—â—â—â— quam 〈◊〉 ejus desâ—â—â—inem Non vacant bonae mâ—nti Acts. 24. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Surdo verbere caedit Juv. Ferre quam sortem patiuntur â—â—nes Velut unda pellitur unda Greatness of the Example 1 The person Vbi se humiliavit majestas vermiculus infletur intumescat Bern. 2 The Sufferings Isaiah The fitness of the example Exemplum domesticum The advantage Enimvero non sentient sua qui illius vulnera intuetur Bern. in Cant. Serm. 61. Rom. 5. 1 2 3. Sheol Acts 2. Isa. 52. Psal. 2. Isa. 52. Descendiâ— huc vita nostra tulit mortem nostram ocâ—idit eam de abundantiâ— vitae suae c. Aug. * Thus I then thought But do now apprehend another sense as probable if not more even that so much rejected by most Interpreters The mission of the Spirit and Preaching of the Gospel by it after his Resurrection Preaching to sinners and converting them according to the Propheâ—y which he first fulfilled in Person and after more aâ—ply in his Apostles That Prophecy I mean Isa. 60. 1. The Spirit upon him and it was sent from him on his Apostles to preach to Spirits in Prison to preach liberty to those Captives Captive Spirits and therefore called Spirits in Prison to illustrate the thing the more by opposition to that Spirit of Christ the Spirit of liberty setting them free and this to shew the greater efficacy of Christs preaching than of Noahs tho â—e a signal preacher of righteousness yet only himself and his Family eight Persons saved by him but multitudes of all Nations by the Spirit and preaching of Christ in the Gospel and that by the Seal of Baptism and the Resurrection of Christ represented in the return from the water and our dying with him by immersion and that figure of Baptism like their Ark. Vtilis lectio utilis eruditio sed magis unctio necessaria quippe quae sola docet de omnibus Bern Clamans dictis factis morte â—ita descensâ— ascensu â—lamans ut redeamus ad eum Aug. Gen. 6. Eccles. 8. Nemo decoquit huic â—reditori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 17. 27. Semen sanctum statumen terrâ— Heb. 11. Isa. 26. 19. Vbi caput meum regnat ibi me regnare credo Summa religionis imitari quem colis Pyth. Corporis negotium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnisque potestas impatiens consâ—rtis Plus illi ad vanitatem quam nos ad veritatem Luk. 21. 34. Incontinentes vere vâ—luâ— tatis ignari Frist Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquae propter ardorem libidinis ignis propter teporem charitatis * The Psalmist's Word for the boly Psal. 139. Nolo auream ubi Christus spineam Ioh. 15. 20. Mat. 10. 24. Bern. Prudens simplicitas Papulus me sibâ—lat at 〈◊〉 plaud Ps. 5. 2 Tim. 1. 12. Isa. 30. 20. Deut. 32. Satius soleâ— non Incâ—re quam Chrysostomum non docere Peregrinus in terris nulla est jucundior recordatio quam suae civitatis Aug in Psal. 145. The duty Bern. Advent Serm. 3. Epictec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 The due qualification of the duty Timothy careth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not artificially but naturally Phil. 21. 20. 2 Cor. 5◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 1 Tim. 4. 12. 3 The advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ps. 92. 12 13. Rom. 12. Ad super vacuâ— sudatur Luc. 12. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is. 26. 12. Is. 43. 2. Is. 35. Is. 45. 24. Is. 40. 29. Is. 40. 11. Rom. 8. 28. Phil. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in Vita Marâ—el Sâ—avissima 〈◊〉 est indies sentire 〈◊〉 meiâ—â—rem Isaâ— 59. 1â— Non magna relinquo magna sequo r. Dan 5 Direct 1. Direct 2. Direct 3.