and fault withall and a Feare which feares no punishment at all I know Aquinas puts a difference between servile feare and the servility of feare as if he would take the soul from Socrates and yet leave him a man Senec ep These are niceties more subtill then solid in quibus ludit animus magis quam proficit which may occasion discourse but not instruct our understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As neer as we can let us take things as they are in themselves and not as they are beat out and fashion'd by the work and business of our witts and then it will be plaine that though we be sonnes yet we may feare feare that Evill which the Father presents before us to fright us from it that we may make the feare of Death an Argument to Turne us and a strong motive to confirme us in the course of our Obedience that it is no servility to perform some part of Christs service upon those termes which he himself allows and hath prescribed to us Leet us call it by what name we please for indeed we have miscalled it and brought it in as slavish and servile and so branded the command of Christ himself yet we shall find it a blessed Instrument to safeguard and improve our Piety we shall find that the best way to escape the Judgements of God is to draw them neere even to our Eyes For Hell is a part of our Creed as well as Heaven his threatnings are as loud as his promises and could we once feare Hell as we should we should not feare it For I ask may we serve God sub intuitu mercedis with respect unto the reward it is agreed upon on all sides that we may for Moses had respect unto the recompence of the reward and Christ himself did look upon the Joy that was set before him Heb. 11.26 Heb. 12.2 why then not sub intuitu vindictae upopn the fear of punishment will God accept that service which is begun and wrought out by the virtue and influence of the reward and will he cast off that servant which had an eye upon his hand and observed him as a Lord why then hath God propounded both these both reward and punishment and bid us work on in his Vineyard with an eye on them both if we may not as well feare him when he threatens as run to meet him when he comes towards us and his reward with him let us then have recourse to his Mercy-seat but let us tremble also and fall downe before his Tribunal and behold his Glory and Majesty in both But it may be said and some have thought it their duty to say it that this belongs to the wicked to the Goates to feare but when Christ speaks to his Disciples to his Flock the language is Nolite timere feare not little flock Luke 12.32 for it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome 'T is true it is your Fathers will to give it you and you have no reason to feare or mistrust him but this doth not exclude the feare of the wrath of God nor the use of those meanes which the Father himself hath put into our hands not that Feare which may be one help and Advance towards that violence which must take it For our Saviour doth not argue thus It is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome Therefore persevere not for any fear of punishment but the Feare which Christ forbids is the Feare of distrustfulness when we feare as Peter did upon the Waters when he was ready to sinke and had therefore a check and Rebuke from our Saviour why fearest thou oh thou of little Faith so that fear not little Flock is nothing else but a disswasion from infidelity A Souldier that puts no Confidence in himself yet may in his Captaine if he be a Hannibal or a Caesar for an Army of Harts may conquer said Iphicrates if a Lion be the leader so though we may something doubt and mistrust because we may see much wanting to the perefection of our Actions yet we must raise our diffidence with this perswasion that the promise is most certaine and that the power of Heaven and Hell cannot infringe or null it We may mistrust our selves for of our selves we are Nothing but not the Promises of CHRIST for they are yea and Amen But they are ready to reply that the Apostle St. Paul is yet more plaine Rom. 8.15 where he tells us That we have not received the spirit of Bondage to feare again but the Spirit of Adoption by which we cry Abba Father And it is most true that we have not received that Spirit for we are not under the Law but under Grace we are not Jews but Christians nor doe we feare againe as the Jews feared whose eye was upon the basket and the sword who were curb'd and restrain'd by the fear of present punishment and whose greatest motives to Obedience were drawn from Temporall respects and Interests who did feare the Plague Captivity the Philistim the Catterpillar ad Palmerworme and so did many times forbeare that which their lusts 2 Cor. 4.18 and irregular Appetites were ready to joyn with we have not received such a spirit for the Gospel directs our look not to those things which are seene but to those things which are not seen and shews us yet a more excellent way But we have received the Spirit of Adoption we are received into that Family where little care is taken for the meat that perisheth where the world is made an Enemy where we must leave the morrow to care for it self and work out our Salvation with feare and trembling where we must not feare what man but what God can doe unto us observe his hand as that hand which can raise us up as high as Heaven and throw us down to the lowest Pit love him as a Father and feare to offend him love and kisse the Sonne lest he be angry serve him without feare of any evill that can befall us here in our way of any Enemy that can hurt us and yet feare him as our Lord and King for in this his grant of liberty he did not let us loose against himself nor put off his Majesty that we should be so bold with him as not to serve but to disobey him without feare nor doth this cut off our Filiation our relation to him for a good sonne may feare the wrath of God and yet cry Abba Father But then againe we are told in Saint Iohn In caritate non est timor that there is no feare in love 1 John 4.18 but perfect love casteth out all feare and when he saith All feare he excepteth none no not the feare of punishment l. de fugâ in persecutione I know Tertullian Interpreting this Text makes this feare to be nothing else but that lazy Feare which is begot by a vain and unnecessary contemplation of Difficulties the feare of
attributes he hath he is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace of Love of Joy of Zeale for where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coale from the Altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge he makes no shadowes but substances no pictures but realities no appearances but truths a Grace that makes us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith full and unspeakable Love ready to spend it self and zeal to consume us of a true existence being from the spirit of God who alone truly is but here the spirit of Truth yet the same spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begets our Faith cilates our Love works our Joy kindles our Zeal and adopts us in Regiam familiam into the Royall Family of the first-born in Heaven but now the spirit of Truth was more proper for to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and sometimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but Omnis veritas all truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and have the vayle taken from it and be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this spirit of Truth as he thus presents and tenders himself unto us as he stands in opposition to two great enemies to Truth as 1. Dissimulation 2. Flattery and then as he is true in the lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he comes And first dissemble he doth not he cannot for dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us it brings in the Divel in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend it speakes the language of the Priest at Delphos playes in ambiguities promises life As to King 〈◊〉 who a 〈…〉 slew when death is neerest and bids us beware of a chariot when it means a sword No this spirit is an enemy to this because a spirit of truth and hates these in volucra dissimulationis this folding and involvednesse these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others and they by whom he speaks are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftinesse not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully 2 Cor. 4.2 Eph. 4.14 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the slight of men throwing a Die what cast you would have them noting their Doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of Heaven Wisdom 1.5 when their thoughts are in their purse This holy spirit of Truth flies all such deceit and removes himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words there is nothing of the Divels method nothing of the Die or hand no windings nor turnings in what he teacheth but verus vera dicit being a spirit of truth he speaks the truth and nothing but he truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot the inseparable mark and character of the evill spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smiles upon us that he may rage against us lifts us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foiles whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds for flattery is as a glasse for a fool to look upon and so become more fool than before it is the fools eccho by which he hears himself at the rebound and thinks the wiseman spoke unto him and it proceeds from the father of lies not from the spirit of truth who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever who reproves drunkennesse though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter and layes our sins in order before us his precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement he calls Adam from behind the bush strikes Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit deprives him of his own Thy excuse to him is a libell thy pretence fouler than thy sin thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godlinesse open impiety and where he enters the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removes it self heaves and pants to go out knocks at our breast and runs down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becomes our torment In a word he is a spirit of truth and neither dissembles to decieve us nor flatters that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being truth it self tells us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by-paths of errour and misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appears is visible in those lessons and precepts which he gives which are so harmonious so consonant so agreeing with themselves and so consonant and agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repaire it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion measure like unto him that made it for this spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Feare in confidence nor shake our confidence when he bids us feare doth not set up meeknesse to abate our zeale nor kindles zeale to consume our meeknesse doth not teach Christian liberty to shake off obedience to Government nor prescribes obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian liberty This spirit is a spirit of truth and never different from himself never contradicts himself but is equall in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and that which thou runnâ—st from in that which will rayse thy spirit and that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who
talk so much of the spirit doe fall into grosse and pernicious errors is from hence that they will not be like the spirit in this equall and like unto themselves in all their wayes that they lay claime to him in that Text which seemeth to comply with their humour but discharge and leave him in that which should purge it that upon the beck as it were of some place of Scripture which upon the first face and appearance looks favourably upon their present inclinations they run violently on this side animated and posted on by that which was not in the Text but in their lusts and fancy and never look back upon other testimonies of divine Authority that Army of evidences as Tertullian speaks which are openly prest out and marshall'd against them which might well put them to a halt and deliberation which might stay and drive back their intention and settle them at last in the truth which consists in a moderation betwixt two extremes For we may be zealous and not cruell we may be devout and not superstitious we may hate Idolatry and not commit Sacriledge we may stand fast in our Christian liberty and not make it a cloak of maliciousnesse if we did follow the spirit in all his wayes who in all his wayes is a Spirit of truth for he commandeth zeale and forbids Rage he commends devotion and forbids superstition he condemns Idolatry yea and condemns sacriledge he preacheth liberty and preacheth obedience to superiours and in all is he same spirit And this spirit did come His Advent and Christ did send him and in the next place to this end he came to be our leader to guide us in the wayes of truth to help our infirmities to be our conduct to carry us on to the end which is nomen officii the name of his office and Administration which one would think were but a low office for the spirit of God and yet these are magnalia spiriûts the wonderfull things of the spirit and doe no lesse proclaime his divinity then the Creation of the world we wonder the blind should see the lame goe the deaf heare the dead be raysed up but doth it not follow pauperes Evangelizantur Mat. 11.5 the poore receive that Gospel weigh it well and in the Ballance of the fanctuary as great a miracle as the former And this his Advent and coming was free and voluntary and though he was sent from the Father and the sonne yet sponte venit he came of his own accord and he not onely comes but sends himself say the schooles as he dayly works those changes and alterations in his creature These words to be sent and to come and the like Dicit Mittam ut propriam autoritatem oftendat Tum denique veniet quo verbo spiritûs potestas indicatur Naz. Or. 37. are not words of diminution or disparagement He came in no servile manner but as a Lord as a friend from a friend as in a letter the very mind of him that sent it which shewes an agreement and concord with him that sent him but implyes no inferiority no degree of servility or subjection Yet some there have been who have stumbled at the shadow which this word hath cast or indeed at their own and for this made him no more then a Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a supernumerary God brought in to serve and minister and no distinct person of the blessed Trinity But what a grosse error what foule ingratitude is this to call his goodnesse servility his coming to us submission and obedience and count him not a God because by his gracious operation he is pleased to dwell in men and make them his Tabernacle why may we not as warrantably conceive so of either person For God with reverence to so high a Majesty serves us more then we doe him who are nothing but by his breath and power he serves us every day nay he Feedeth they young Ravens that call upon him He knocks at our doores he intreats waits suffers commands us to serve one another commands his Angels to serve minister unto us res rationesque nostras curat he keeps our Accounts numbers our teares watcheth our prayers in our misery in the deepest dungeon he is with us And these are no disparagements but Arguments of his excellency and infinite goodnesse and faire lessons to us not to be wanting to our selves and our brethren who have God himself thus carefully waiting upon us and to remember us that to serve our brethren is to exalt and advance and rayse us up to be like unto him When we wash our brethrens feet when we bind up their wounds when we sit down in the dust with them when we visit them in prison and minister to them on their bed of sicknesse we may think we debase our selves and doe decrease as it were but it is our honour our Crown our conformity to him who was the servant of God and our servant and made himself like unto us that he might serve us in his flesh and doth so to the end of the world invisibly by his spirit T is the spirits honour to be sent to be a leader a conduct and though sent he be yet he is as free an Agent as the sonne and the sonne as the Father Tertullian calls him Christi vicarium Christs vicar here on earth to supply his place but that argues no inequality for then the sonne too must be unequall to the Father for his Angel his Messenger he was and went about his fathers businesse And to conclude this in a farr remote and more qualifyed sense we are his vicars his deputies his Steward 's here on earth and 't is no servility 't is our honour and glory to doe his business to serve one another in love to be Servants to be Angels I had almost said to be holy Ghosts one to another John 20.21 As my Father sent me saith our Saviour to his Disciples so send I you and he sends us too who are Haereditarii Christi Discipuli Christs Disciples by inheritance and succession that every one as he is endowed from above should serve him by serving one another and though our serving him cannot deserve that name yet is he pleased to call it helping him that we should help him to feed the hungry to guide the blind and teach the ignorant and so be the Spirits Vicars as he is Christs that Christ may fill us more and more with his spirit which may guide and conduct us through the manifold errors of this life through darkness and confusion into that truth which may lead us to bliss The Spirits lesson For as he is a spirit of Truth so in the next place the lesson which he teacheth is Truth even that truth which is an Art Saint Austin calls it so and a law to direct and confine all other Arts quâ praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus which goes before us in our
we suffer our selves to be over-swayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never doe what we know well enough and are otherwise enabled to Now to walk in Christ takes in all these Faculty Power Will Knowledge Love Then you see a Christian in his walk rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the Counsellor and points out This is the way walk in it and the will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the understanding bows it self and as a Queen drawes with in those inferior faculties the senses and Affections when it opens my eye to the wonders of Gods Law and shutts it up by covenant to the vanity of the world when it bounds my touch and tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing when it makes the senses as windows to let in life not death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the world and the Devill and lifting up their Heads to let the King of Glory in when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a Peace and Harmony setting our love to piety our anger to sinne our feare to Gods wrath our hope to things not seen our sorrow to what is done amisse and so frameth in us nunc modulos Temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as Saint Ambrose speakes now the even measures of Temperance now a Psalm of piety now the Threnody of a broken heart even those Songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven and God himself delight in and all these are vitually included in this one word to walk in Christ and if any of these be wanting what proffers soever we make what fancies soever we entertaine what empty conceptions soever we foster yet flesh and blood cannot raise it self on these wings of wind nor can we be more said to walk then they who have been dead long agoe For so farre is the bare knowledge of the way from advancing us in our walke that it is a thing supposed and no where under the command as it is meerly speculative and ends in it self no more then to see or feele or heare and so essentiall is this motion of walking to a Christian that in the language of the Spirit wee are never truely said to know till wee walke and that made imperfect knowledge which receives those things which concern our peace no otherwise then the eye doth colours or the eare sounds never being once named or mentioned in the Scripture but with disgrace If any man say I know him and keep not his Commandements he is a lyar 1 Joh. 2.4 so that to define our walking by Knowledge and speculation is a kind of Heresy which rather deserves an Anathema and should be drove out of the Church with more zeal and earnestness then many though grosse yet silly impertinent errors which pâ—sse abroad about the world but under that name For 1. this speculative knowledge is but a naked assent and to more and hath nothing of the will and the understanding is not an arbitrary faculty but necessarily apprehends objects in that shape and form they represent themselves nor is it deceived even when it is deceived I mean in things which concern our walk for the bill and accusation against us is not that we doe not but that we will not understand nolumus intelligere ne cogamur facere saith Aug. we wilnot know our way for no other reason but because we are most unwilling to take the paines and walk in it And therefore in every Christian peripatetique there must be something of the Seraphin and something of the Cherubin there must be heat as well as light love as well as knowledge for love is active and will pace on Hugo de Sancto vict where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze Amor intrat ubi cognitio foris stat love is active and will make a battery and forcible entrance and take the Kingdom of heaven by violence whilst Speculation stands without and looks upon it as in a Map What talke we of knowledge and speculation It is but a look a cast of the mindes eye and no more and doth but place us as God did Moses once upon mount Nebo to see that spirituall Canaan which we shall never enjoy and then what comfort is it to know what Justification is and to want that hand of a quick and active faith which alone can lay hold on Christ to talke of Election and never make it sure to dispute of Paradice and have no title to it to speak of nothing more then Heaven and be an heire of Damnation And then what a fruitlesse mock-knowledge is that which sets God a walking whilst we sleep and dreame makes the Master of the Vineyard work and sweat and stands idle it self all the day long which hath a full view of what God hath done before all Time and no power at all to move us to do any thing in this our day when we are well seen in the Decrees of God and little move in our own Duties when we can follow God in all his ways and tell how he worketh in us and are afraid of that feare and trembling with which we should work out our Salvation can speak largely of the Power of Gods Grace and resist it of perseverance and fall more then seven times a day This knowledge I say is but a bare assent and so far from being enjoyn'd us that as the case now stands ignorance were the safer choice and rather then thus to know him we may say with the Apostle Let him that is ignorant 1 Cer. 14.38 be ignorant still For in the second place as we use it it workes in us at the most but a weake purpose â—f minde a faint velleity a forc'd involuntary approbation which we would shake off if we could as we do a friend which speaks what we would not hear and calls that poyson which is as Honey to our tast For who can see such sights and not in some degree be taken with them Who can look upon the Temple and not ask what Buildings are these who can see the way to life and not approve it but you know I may purpose to rise and yet fold my hands to sleep I may commend the way and not walke in it Nay how often do we pray Give us ever of this Bread of life and yet labour most for this bread that perisheth which we at once revile and embrace and speak evill of it because we love it when heaven is but as a Picture which we look upon and wonder and refuse and hath no better place of reception then that common Inne of all wild and loose imaginations the fancy Christ is the way it is in every mans Creed and if this would make us walkers what a multitude of Sectaries what a Herd of Epicures what an assembly of Atheists what a congregation of fools I had almost said what a Legion of Devills might goe under that
to win our love and allure and draw us and if it draw us we must up and be stirring and walke on to meet it Climachus what that devout Writer saith of his Monk is true of the Christian he is assidua naturae violentia his whole life is a constant continued violence against himself against his corrupt nature which as a weight hangs upon him and cloggs and fetters him which having once shaken off he not onely walks but runns the wayes of Gods Commandements Conclus 1. Secondly let us walke honestly as in the Day walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becommeth Christians in our severall stations and conditions of life and not think Christ dishonoured if we mingle him with the common Actions of our life For we never dishonour him more then when we take him not in and use him not as our guide and rule even in those Actions which for the grosnesse of the subject and matter they work on may seem to have no favour or rellish of that which we call Religion Be not deceived Maâ—um Rempturb â—i quam comam â—…ec he that thus takeâ—… him in is a Priest a King the most honorable person in the world Behold the profane Gallant who walks and talks away his lâ—…e who divides himself between the combe and the glass and had rather the Common-wealth should flie in pieces then one hair or his Periwig should be out of its place to whom we bow and cringe to and sail down to as to a Golden Calf I tell you the meaness Artizan that works with his hands even he that grindes at the Mill is more honourable then hee Take the speculative Phantastique Zealot the Christian Pharisee that shuts himself up between the eare and tongue between hearing much and speaking more and doing contrary the worst Anchoret in the world being full of Oppression deceit and bitterness I may be hold to say The vilest person he that sits with the doggs of your Flock is more Honorable more righteous then hee and of such as these Saint Paul spake often Philip. 3.18 and he spake it weeping that they did walk but walke as Enemies to the Cross of Christ Let then Every man move in his owne Sphere orderly abide in the Calling wherein he is called and in the last place That we may move with the first mover Christ the beginner and Author of our walke Let us take him along with us in all our waies Hearken what Christ Jesus the Lord will say That we may walk before him with Reverence and Godly feare not sicut vidimus Heb. 11.28 as we have seen but look upon one another as the two Cherubims 1 King 6. touching and moving one another but with the Ark of the Testimony in the midst betwixt us and by that either inciting or correcting one another in our walk Secondly not sicut visum suerit not as it shall seem good in our own eyes for nothing can be more deceitfull then our own thoughts nor sicut visum spiritui not as every spirit may move us which wee call Holy for it may be a lying spirit and lead us out of our way into those evills which grieve that Blessed Spirit whose Name we have thus presumtuously taken in vain But let us walk as we have received him let us joyn example with the word it will be no more as a meteor to mislead us but a bright morning Starr to direct us to Christ correct our fancy by the rule and it will be sanctum cogitatorium a Lymbeck an holy elaboratory of such thoughts which may fly as the Doves to the windows of heaven and last of all try the Spirit by the word for the word is nothing else but the breathing and voice of the Spirit and then thou shalt be baptized with the Spirit and fire the Spirit shal enlighten thee and the spirit shall purge and cleanse thee and lead the into all truth shall breath comfort and strength into thee in this thy walk and pilgrimage and thou shalt walk from strength to strength from virtue to virtue even till thou come to thy journeys end to thy Fathers house to that Sabbath rest which remains to the Children of God THE FOURTH SERMON JOHN 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him THese words are our Saviours and it was usuall with this our good Master by those things which were visible to the eye to lift up his hearers minds and thoughts to spiritual and Heavenly things to draw his discourse from some present occasion or businesse in hand He curseth the fig-tree Math. 21.19 Sterilitas nostra in Ficu Luke 11. which had nothing but leaves to correct our sterility and unfruitfulnesse at the table of a Pharisee upon the sight of the clean outside of his cup he discovers his inward parts full of ravening and wicknesse At Jacobs well Iohn 4. he powreth forth to the woman of Samaria the water of life After he had supped with his disciples he takes the cup and calls the wine his Blood John 15. and himself the true Vine Thus did Wisdom publish it self in every place upon every occasion The well the Table the High-way side every place was a Pulpit every occasion a Text and every good lesson a Sermon To draw down this to our present purpose In the beginning of this Chapter he worketh a miracle multiplyes the loaves and the fishes that the remainder was more then the whole a miracle of it self able to have made the power of god visible in him and something indeed it wrought with them for behold at the 24. v. they seek him they follow him over the Sea They ask him Rabbi when camest thou hither at the next verse but our Saviour knowing their hypocricy answers them not to what they ask but instructs them in that they never thought on Verily verily you seek me not for the miracle but the loaves v. 26. But behold I shew you yet a more excellent way I shew you bread better then those loaves better then Moses his manna behold I am the bread of life v. 48 and my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed v. 55. and he commends it unto them by three Virtues or effects 1. That it fills and satisfies which neither the loaves nor Moses his manna could do For he that cometh to me that devoteth himself to me shall never hunger and he that beleeveth in me shall never thirst v. 35. 2. It is a living bread v. 51. a bread that gives life which Moses manna could not do but was destroyed with them that ate it in the wildernesse v. 49. 3. That it was bread which had power to incorporate them to embody them to make them one and give them union and communion with the Lord of life in the words of my Text He that cateth my flesh and drinketh my blood that is as Christ himself
〈◊〉 a reason invincible unanswerable For this very expostulation is an Evidence faire and plaine enough that he would not have us die and then 't is as plaine That if we die we have killed and destroyed our selves against his will Of these two then in their order and first of the exhortation and Duty in which we shall passe by these steps or degrees 1. Look up upon the Author consider whose exhortation it is 2ly The Duty itself and in the last place pugnacem calorem that lively and forcible heat of Iteration and Ingemination Convertimini Convertimini Turne ye Turne ye the very life and soul of Exhortation Turne ye Turne ye saith the Lord. And first we aske Quis who is he that is thus urgent and earnest and as we read it is Ezekiel the Prophet and of Prophets Saint Peter tells us that they spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 1.21 as they were moved by the Spirit of God and they received the word non auribus sed animis not by the hearing of the eare but by inspiration and immediate Revelation by a divine Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Isai vis 1. and impression made in their soules so that this Exhortation to Repentance will prove to be an Oracle from Heaven to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Divine and Celestiall remedy to be the prescript of Wisedome it self and to have been written with the finger of God And indeed we shal find that this duty of Turning the true nature of Repentance was never taught in the School of Nature never found in its true effigies and Image in all its lines and Dimensions in the books of the Heathen The Aristotelians had their Expiations the Platonicks their purgations The Pithagoreans their Erinnys but not in relation to God or his Divine Goodnesse and Providence Tert. de poenit Et à ratione ejus tantum absuit quantum à rationus autore and were as farre to seek of the true reason and Nature of Repentance as they were of the God of reason himself many usefull lessons they have given us and some imperfect descriptions of it but those did rise no higher then the spring from whence they did flow from the Treasure of Nature and therefore could not lift them up to the sight of that peace and rest which is eternall They were as waters to refresh them and they that tasted deepest of them had most ease and by living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the directions of Nature gain'd that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Peace and composedness of minde which they call'd their Happinesse and was all they could attain to Tully and Cato had not such divided distracted souls as Cataline and Cethegus Seneca and hadnot those ictus laniatus Aristot l. 1. Eth. c. 13. those Gashes and Rents in his heart as Nero had even their Dreames were more sweet and pleasant then those of other men as being the resultancies and Eccho's of those virtuous Actions which they drew out in themselves by no other hand then that of Nature which lookt not beyond that frailty which she might easily discover in her self and so measur'd out their happinesse but by the Span by this present life or if she did see a glimpse and faint shew of a future estate she did but see and guesse at it and knew no more Reason it self did Teach them thus much that sin was unreasonable Tert. de poenit Nature it self had set a mark upon it omne malum aut timore aut pudore suffudit had either struck vice pale or died it in a blush did either loose their joynts or change their Countenance and put them in mind of their deviation from her rules by the shame of the fact and the feare they had to be taken in it which two made up that fraenum naturae that bridle of Nature to give them a checque and Turne but not unto the Lord. For were there ther Heaven nor Hell neither reward nor punishment yet whilst we carry about with us this ligh tof Reason sinne must needs have a soule face being so unlike unto Reason and if we would suffer her to come in to rescue when our loose affections are so violent we should not receive so many foiles as we doe a naturâ sequitur ut meliora probantes Quint. l. 6. c. 6. peiorum poeniteat Not to sinne to forsake sinne Nature it self teacheth but Nature never pointed out to this board this planck of Repentance to bring a shipwrackt soul to that haven of rest which is like it self and for which it was made Immortall Turne ye turne ye is dictum Domini a Doctrine which came down from Heaven and was brought down from thence by him who brought life and Immortality to light For it was impossible that it should ever have fallen within the conceit of any reasonable creature to set down and determine what satisfaction was to be made for an offence committed against a God of Infinite Majesty what fit recompence could God receive from the hand of Dust and Ashes what way could they find out to redeem themselves who were sold under sinne Ten thousand Worlds were too little to pay downe for the least of those sinnes which we drink down as an Oxe doth water The Occan would not wash off the least spot that defiles us all the beasts of the Mountains will not make a sacrifice spiritus fractus sacrificia Dei Psal 51. Naz Or. 3. other Sacrifices have been the Inventions of men of the Chaldeans and Cyprians and but occasionally and upon a kind of Necessity providently enjoyn'd by God but a relenting Turning Heart Naz. Or. 15. is his Sacrifice nay his Sacrifices instar omnium worth all the Sacrifices in the world his owne Invention his own Injunction his owne dictum his own command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath but one Sacrifice and that is the sacrifice of purgation a clensed purged Contrite heart a new Creature For when the Inventions of men were at a stand when discourse and reason were posed and cold make no progresse at all in the wayes of Happinesse not so farre as to see our want and need of it when the Earth was barren and could not bring forth this feed of Repentance Deus eam sevit saith Tert. Lib. de poenit God himself sow'd it in the world made it publici juris known to all the world That he would accept of a Turne of true Repentance as the onely means to wash away the guilt of sinne and reconcile the Creature to his Maker so that as Theodoret called the Redemption of mankind the fairest and most eminent part of Gods Providence and Wisdome so may we too give Repentance a Place and share as without which the former in respect of any benefit which can arise to us is frust rate of no effect Quod fieri posse Cicero non putavit
and will not turn yet upon a bold and strange presumption that though we grieve his spirit though we resist and blaspheme his spirit yet after all these Scorns and contempts after all these injuries and contumelies he will yet look after us and sue unto us and offer himself and meet and receive us at any time we shall point out as most convenient to turn in It is most true God hath declared himself and as it were became his own Herald and proclaimed it to all the world Exod. 34.6,7 the Lord Merciful and Gracious and abundant in Goodnesse and Truth keeping Mercy for Thousands for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most lovingly affected to man the chief and Prince of his creatures he longs after him he wooes him he waites on him His Glory and mans Salvation meet and kisse each other for it is his Glory to crown him Nor doth he at any time turn from us himself till we doat on the world and sensuality and divorce him from us till we have made our Heaven below chosen other gods which we make our selves and think him not worth the turning to He is alwayes a God at hand never goes from us till we sorce him away by violence How many murmurings and rebellions how many contradictions of sinners hath he stood out and yet looked towards them how hath he been prest as a Cart under sheaves Amos 2.13 and yet look't towards them how hath he been shaken off and defied and yet lookt towards them he receives David after his Adustery and murder after that complication of sins the least of which was of force enough to cast him out of Gods presence for ever he receives Peter after his denial and would have received Judas after his Treason he received Manasses when he could not live long and he received the Theef on the Crosse when he could live no longer All this is true His Mercy is infinite and his Mercy is everlasting and is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Ter. de pudicit c. 10. But as Tertullian sayes well non potest non irasci contumeliis misericordiae suae God must needs wax angry at the contumelies and reproaches which by our dalliance and delay we fling upon his mercy which is so ready to cover our sinnes For how can he suffer this Queen of his Attributes to be thus prostituted by our lusts to see men bring sinne into the world under the shadow of that Mercy which should take it away to see men advance the Kingdome of Darknesse and to fight under the devils banner with this inscription and motto lifted up the Lord is mercifull what hope of that Souldier that flings away his buckler or that condemned person that tears his pardon or that sick man that loves his disease and counts his Physick poyson and the Prophet here in my Text where he calls upon us with that earnestness Turn ye turn ye gives us a fair intimation that if we thus delay and delay and never begin a time may come when we shall not be able to turn It may seem indeed a harsh and hard saying a Doctrine not sutable with the lenity and gentlenesse of the Gospel which breaths nothing but mercy to conclude that such a time may come that any part of time that the last moment of our time may not make a now to turn in that whilest we breath our condition should be as desperate as if we were dead that whilst we are men our estate should be as irrevocable as that of the damned spirits with this difference onely that we are not yet in the place of torment which neverthelesse is prepared for us and will as certainly receive us as it doth now the Devil and his Angels It is harsh indeed but may be very profitable and advantageous for us so to think that such a time may be which may be our last for grace though not our last for life that we may live and yet be dead eternally a time Heb. 10.26 when there will remain no more sacrifice for sin I cannot say we should make it an article of our Creed and yet I know no danger in beleeving it and it may prove fatal to us to disbeleeve it or look upon it as such an errour which deserves to be placed in the Catalogue of Heresies And therefore though you subscribe not yet there is no reason you should Anathematize it because we may finde some parts of Scripture which look this way and so far seem to enforce it that we have rather reason to fear that there may be some truth in it since our wilful delayes are but as the degrees to it as the ready way to that gulph out of which it will be impossible to lift up our selves at least impossible in the Lawiers sense impossible as those things which may be but seldom come to passe It is a part of wisdome to fear the worst nor can we be too scrupulous in the businesse of our Salvation In the 15. of Genesis and the 16. v. God tells Abraham that he will judge the Amorites but he will stay to the fourth generation till their iniquity be full and when it is full then he will strike At 23. of Matt. Our Saviour thus bespeaks the Pharisees v. 23. Fill you up the measure of your forefathers which is not a command but a prediction that they should fill up the measure of their sin and then be ripe for punishment For when men have run out the full length of their line then it is Gods time to draw it in and give them a check to pull them on their backs there to be buried in ruine for ever When our Saviour beheld Jerusalem the Text tells us he wept over it wept over it as at its funeral as if he now saw the enemy cast a trench round about it as if he saw it Luk. 29.43 lie level with the ground Will you hear this Epicedium or his Funeral speech which he uttered with great passion and tears running down his cheeks Oh that thou hadst known the things that belong to thy peace in hac die tuâ even in this thy day A day then they had but when this day was shut in then follows nunc autem but now they are hid from thine eyes which ushers in that blacknesse of darknesse for ever Oh that thou hadst then was liberty of choice but Now thou art bound and fettered under a sad impossibility for ever And that we may be thus bound hand and foot before we be cast into utter darknesse Saint Paul doth more then intimate when he tells us of the Gentiles Rom. 1. That as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge to retain him as a merciful God retain his love and favour by the true worship of him he also gave them over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a reprobate minde he left them in that gall of bitternes in which they
if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a Tempest we have rais'd it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it we force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas Accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father his goodnesse is Naturall his severity in respect of its Act Accidentall for God may be severe and yet not punish for he strikes not till we provoke him his Justice and severity are the same as everlasting as himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams Bosome yet were he Good if there were neither Angel nor men he were still the Lord blessed for evermore in a word he had been just though he had never been Angry he had been mercifull though man had not been miscrable he had been the same God just and good and mercifull though sin had not entred in by Adam nor Death by sinne God is active in Good and not in Evill he cannot doe what he doth detest and hate he cannot Decree Ordaine or further that which is most contrary to him he doth not kill me before all time and then in time aske me why I will die He doth not Condemne me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my Candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his Exhortations and Expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he comes to punish Isai 28.21 sacit opus non suum saith the Prophet doth not his owne worke doth a strange work a strange Act an Act that is forced from him a worke which he would not doe And as he doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to manifest his Glory in it which as our Death proceeds from his secondary and occasion'd will For God saith Aquinas seeks not the manifestation of his Glory Aquin. 2.2 q. 132. art 1. for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternall as himself no Quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphin and Cherubin in the midst of all the Blasphemies of men and Devills is still the same and his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it strives in the perfection of Beauty rather then when it is decay'd and defaced rather then in a Damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit and so to receive his Glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on Earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest Heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde admortem sed ante ad vitam The sentence of Death was pronounced against man almost as soon as he was man but he was first created to life we are punished for being evill but we were first commanded to be good his first will is That we glorify him in our Bodies and in our soules but if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his Glory out of that which dishonor'd him and write it with our blood In the multitude of the People Prov. 14.28 is the Glory of a King saith the wisest of Kings and more Glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebell and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man fills his place then where the Prisons are filled with Theeves and Traytors and men of Belial and though the Justice and wisedome of the King may be seen in these yet 't is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more Power then the sword In Heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is in it to see it in the Church of the First-borne and in the soules of just men made perfect it is now indeed his will which primarily was not his will to see it in the Divel and his Angels For God is best pleased to see his Creature man to answer to that patteâ—e which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended And as every Artificer glories in his work when he sees it finish't according to the rule and that Idea which he had drawne in his minde and as we use to look upon the work of our hands or witts with that favour and complacency we doe upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon man when he appeares in that shape and forme of Obedience which he prescrib'd for then the Glory of God is carried along in the continued streame and course of all our Actions breaks forth and is seen in every worke of our Hands is the Eccho of every word we speak the result of every Thought that begat that word and it is Musick in his eares which he had rather heare then the weeping and howling of the Damned which he will now heare though the time was when he us'd all fitting meanes to prevent it even the same meanes by which he raised those who now glorify him in the Highest Heaven God then is no way willing we should die not by his Naturall will which is his prime and antecedent will for Death cannot issue from the Fountaine of Life and by this will was the Creature made in the beginning and by this preserved ever since by this are administred all the meanes to bring it to that perfection and happiness for which it was first made for the goodness of God it was which first gave a being to man and then adopted him in speâ—… regâ—…i design'd him for immortality and gave him a Law by the fulfilling of which he might have a Tast of that Joy and Happinesse which he from all Eternity possest And therefore secondly not voluntate praecepti not by his will exprest in his command in his precepts and Laws For under Christ this will of his is the onely destroyer of Death and being kept and observ'd swallows it up in victory for how can Death touch him who is made like unto the living Lord or how should Hell receive him whose conversation is in heaven Ezek. 16. â—1 13.21 If we do them we shall even live in them saith the Prophet and he repeats it often as if Life were as inseparable from them as it is from the living God himself by which as he is life in himself so to man whom he had made he brought life and immortality to light
and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our fancy have no worth nor price but what our lusts and desires set upon them luxuria his pretium fecit 't is our luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My covetousnesse makes that which is but earth a God my ambition makes that which is but aire as heaven and my wantonnesse walks in the midst of pleasures as in a Paradise there is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction there are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a King in his tub when great Alexander was but a Slave in the world which he conquered how many heroick persons lie in chains whilest folly and basenesse walk at large and no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out riches and the things of this world from the summe for with Christ they are something and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away for it is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift by his power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing for if wee look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the rich mans bosom In the night there is no difference to the eye between a Pearl and a Pibble-stone between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulnesse of riches and the glory of affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or glory where it is not to be found but when the light of Christs countenance shines upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulnesse in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compasse large enough to take in the whole world but then it is the world transformed altered the world conquered by Faith the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christs for there is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation for the earth is the Lords and he hath given it to the sons of men and there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to his glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it he did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places such a Messias did the Jewes look for and such a Messias doe some Christians worse than the Jewes frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they fancy themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile and they are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore every ship every house every Lordship is theirs and indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of Heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember in 2 Corinth 4.4 S. Paul calls the Divel the God of this world and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world for as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the Crosse for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape for thus they conceive him giving gifts unto men not spirituall but temporall not the Graces of the Spirit Humility Meeknesse and Contentednesse but Silver and Gold dividing Inheritances removing of Land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheths land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth and thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth that all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ a Doctrine which brings with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and gives men power to defraud or spoyle whom they please and to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his charter larger than it is and in the Gospel we finde none of such an extent which may reach to every man to every corner of the earth which may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in for Christ never drew any such conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings but when labour and industry have brought them in sets a seal imprints a blessing on them sanctifies them unto us by the Word and by Prayer and so makes them ours our servants to minister unto and our friends to promote and lift us forward into everlasting habitations Our Charter is large enough and we need not interline it with those Glosses which the Flesh and the love of the World will soon suggest with Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was delivered we have his commands which are the pledges of his love for he gave us them that he might give us more that he might give us a Crown we have his promises of immortality and eternall life Faciet hoc nam qui promisit est potens he shall do it for he is able to perform it with him every word shall stand he hath given us faith for that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive them and hope to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us that is scarce looked upon as a gift but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us and he hath given us his Spirit fills us
with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things we have with Christ and the Apostle doth not onely tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt puts up a quomodo non challenges as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him give us all things And this question addes energy and weight and emphasis and makes the position more positive the affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should more possible for a City upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or Hell to raise it self up to his Mercy-seat than for him to with-hold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome Naz. Or. 36. his Justice his Goodnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his will to deny us any thing In brief if the Earth be not as Iron the Heavens cannot be as Brasse God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable and when he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive when he descends Mercy descends with him in a ful shower of Blessings to make our Souls as the Paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouze up our Hope and in this Light in this Assurance in this Heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the question against all Doubts all Feares all Temptations that may assault us He that sparede not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things The Conclusion And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the Crosse and from thence he looks down and speaks to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit Cathedra docentis the Crosse on which he suffered was the Chaire of his profession and from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience and perfect Obedience an exact art and method of living well drawn out in severall lines so that what was ambitiously said of Homer that if all Sciences were lost they may be found in him may most truly be said of his Crosse and Passion that if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World yet now nailed to the Crosse Let us then with Love and Reverence look upon him whothus looks upon us put on our Crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrys every Vertue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord and draw the picture of a Crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth for Gods Glory and our Salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thred are linked together in the same bond of Peace I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runs and it runs on evenly in a stream of love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of Glory may come in If you seek Salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your Salvation Thou may'st cry loe here it is or loe there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily exercise the Zelot in the Fire and in the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the profane Libertine in Hell it self Then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the glory of God which shines most gloriously in a Crucified Christ and an Obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the markes of the LORD JESUS To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him that is Believe in his name that is be faithfull to him that is love him and keep his Commandements which is our conformity to his Death and then he will give us what will he give us he will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive him take in Christ take him in his Shame in his Sorrow in his Agony take him hanging on the Crosse take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our Teares with his Blood drag our Sin to the Bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its Face at the fairest presentment it can make and then naile it to the Crosse that it may languish and faint by degrees and give up the Ghost and die in us and then lye down in peace in his Grave and expect a glorious Resurrection to eternall life where we shall receive Christ not in Humility but in Glory and with him all his Riches and Abundance all his glorious Promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternall life HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask of whom speaketh S. John this or who is he that speaks it for we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meanes the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse tells us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God Leâ— 26.11,12 that they might be his people Will ye see his Robes