Glory where we shall have the palms of victory put into our hands crowns upon our heads and in our mouths the songs of the blessed where we shall sit with the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs when we enter the City of Peace and of everlasting Rest in the New Jerusalem How can we but sigh and groan for our deliverance from our present Bondage When shall we be set at liberty from Corruption and Vanity and satisfi'd with his Divine Likness when we shall for ever solemnize the Nuptials of the Lamb and behold God face to face and shall be changed unto his Glorious Image when we are admitted to the Company of those Seraphims that fly round about the Throne and sing to all Ages of Eternity Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Does not the view of this Glory overcome our Spirits and disengage us from the Earth Why should the trifling interests of vanity ingross our thoughts and the little apparitions and dreams of the Earth enchant us O Christians think more frequently of your Country and of the incomprehensible Love of God that sent his Son to redeem you of the whole tendency of that excellent Religion of the excellency of our own Souls and the light of his Countenance that is better than Life Let us steal frequently out of the hurry and noise and impertinence of our little business unto those Regions of Light and Peace and Purity unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general assembly and Church of the first born to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise Power and Dominion for ever and ever Amen FINIS * Sr. Thomas Kennedy Mat. 6.23 Lord Verulam Rom. 1. Psal 19. Psal 8.3 The inconceivable distance between original Purity and Perfection and humane Misery De Nat. Deor. â—in Foelix p. mihi 135. Nihil in homine membrorum quod non necessitatis causa sit decoris quod magis mirum est eadem figura omnibus sed quaedam unicuique lineamenta deflexa sic similes universi videmur inter se singuli dissimiles invenimur 2 Cor. 5.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15.41 Joh. 5.28 Psal 8.5 L. 3. Off. Rom. 8. Cap. ult 1 Joh. 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John Matth. Galat. 5. Psal 119. v. 34. Psal 137. Heb. 11. Psal 120. v. 5. Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia Coloss 3.2 Cor. Mat. 5.11 Heb. Psal 144.1 Est Deus in nobis agitante calescicimus illo Psalm 56. Maxim Tyr. Heb 12.14 Mat. 5.8 Phil. Acts. Isa 40.13 v. 22. v. 13. Ps 1â— 44. Isa 28.29 Jer. 39.19 Mal. 1.8 Psal 139. Ephes Psal 13.5 6. Matth. Psal 119. Psal Psal 19. Psal 69.9 Psal 119.111 Psal v. 127 Psal 40.1 Psal 4. 1 Cor. 16.13 Eph. 6.11 Eccl. 9.10 St. John Tit. 3.3 2 Cor. 7.11 Proverbs Jeremiah Luke 9.62 1 Cor. 9.24 1 John 2. Coloss 3.1 Vid. Grot. in alterquae dicitur Sancti Petri Epist 1 Epist S. John * Isa 48. v. 8. †Psal 51. * Rom. 11 †Eph. 2.1 Job 15.14 v. 15. Rom. 1. Isa 1.18 Jer. 2.5 v. 10 11. Ezek. 18.25 Jer. 13.27 Vid. Orig. cont Cels Mat. 22.5 Psalm Psalm Acts 26.18 2 Thess 1.7 8. Heb. 11. 1 John 2.14 Coloss 3. 1 John 2. 1 Joh. 3.2 Heb. 11.13 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Joh. 3.3 Matth. 5. Heb. 4.1 Psal 106.12 13 c Hoseah Heb. 1.3 Phil. 2.6 7 8. Matth. Heb. 2.3 Heb. 10.28 29. Rev. 5.18 1 Pet. 1.18 Heb. 9.13 14. Jer. 31.35 36. Rom. 9. Heb. 6.17 18 19. 1 John 2.25 1 Pet. 1.3 4. 2 Cor. 5.1 Hierocl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.12 ver 13. 1 Joh. 3.1 Matth. 10.37 v. 38. Heb. 12.14 1 Joh. 3.3 Isa 1.11 v. 17. James Ezek. 18.21 Mic. 6.8 Mat. 3.8 Mat. 7.21 2 Tim. 2.19 Vid. Alcibiad Plat. Matthew Psal 18.1 2. 1 Phil. 2.15 †Rom. 3.13 * 2 Pet. 2.20 Matth. 5.44 45 46. 1 John Dilherus Isa 35.6 Gen. 27.28 29. Hosea 14. Romans Pope Pius IV. his Creed 2 Tim. 2.25 Rom. 11.33 Psalm 2. Isaiah 2 Cor. 4.4 Dilherus Virg. Psal 45. Corinth * Jacob. Vitriac apud Carolum Maria Du Viel Dâ—n Non donum sed donantis animus Psal 136. Rom. 9.3 Exod. Psal 14.2 3 4. Luke 15. Psal 51.1 Dan. 9.19 Phil. 2.1 Heb. 2.3 Chap. 10.28 29. Joh. 3.19 Cor. Luke 20.13 †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lactant. Hic verus est cultus in quo mens colentis seipsam Deo victimam immaculatam sistit John 4.23 24. John 4. Psalm 50.12 13 14. Isa 66.1 2 3. Isa 1.11 16. Micah 6.6 7 8. Rev. 1 5. Psalm 4. Res severa est verum gandium Psal 119. Jerem. 7.22 Joh. 4.21 22 23 24. Lev. 2.13 Mar. 9.49 1 Pet. 2.1 John 1.47 Mat. 5.23 24 25. Isa 11.6 7 8 9. v. 9. Col. 4.6 Mal. 1.8 Phil. 2.15 Eccl. 5.1 Lev. 2.11 Mat. 16.6 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Isa 65.5 Psal 139.7 8 9 10. v. 11. Heb. 4.12 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Ham. in loc Psal 139.23 24. Vid. Valer Maxim L. 1. De Relig. Cornel. Cetheg Claud. Flaminio abire jussi sunt propter exta parum curiose Deorum immortalium aris admota Philo de Animal Sacrific pur Col. 3.1 2. Psal 130.6 Lev. 22.8 2 Pet. 15 6 7. Rom. 6.4 Vid. Mr. Mede 's Discourse on Hallowed be thy Name †2 Cor. 6.17 Verse 16. Dan. 5.3 4. 1 Cor. 6.15 1 John 2.15 1 Pet. 2.9 Vid. Spencer de Legib. Hebâ—aeor 1 Cor. 10.14.15 c. Verse 21. Heb. 10.23 Cant. 1.7 Psal 112.1 Psal 137.6 Psal 42.1 2. Heb. 11.4 1 John 4. * The Murder of the Arch-Bishop of Saint Andrews Clem. Alexandr Arnob. Orig. contr Cels Lact. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 1. Gen. 1. Illic Postquam se lumine vero Implevit stellasque vagas miratur astra Fixa polis vidit quanta sub nocte jaceret Nostra dies risitque sui ludibria trunci * Luc Tull. de Nat Deor. Nulla Gens tam barbara c. * Caesar de Bello Gallico Vid. Grot. ad Matth. c. 20. v. 22. * Isay 53. †Heb. 13. Lam. 1. v. 12. Psal 129. v. 3. Matth. 26.39 Matth. 26.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 16.13 14 15 16 17. v. 16. Psal 22. Seneca Psal 40.7 * Cic. de offic Nam negligere quid de se quisque sentiat non solum arrogantis est sed omnino dissoluti Facinus est vincire civem Romanum scelus est verberare prope parricidium necare quid dicam in crucem tollere Verbo quidem satis digno tam nefaria res appellari nullo modo potest Psal 22.6 7 8. Psal 22.17 Chap. 23. Heb. 12.4 Phil. 2.6 7 8. Heb. 9 25 26 28. * 1 Pet. 2.24 * Liturg. Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
and love Might we from thence clearly see the irreconcilable opposition between Christ and the World in their rewards But Fourthly THIS appears in the manner by which the World acts its malice against Christ and his Disciples 1. It acts this malice by slander and calumny Our Saviour told his Disciples that reproach and infamy must needs be their patrimony if they zealously adhered to the doctrine and discipline of the Cross nay 't is made so essential to Christianity that to be reproached for the name of Jesus makes up one of its great Beatitudes Blessed are you when all men speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake He tells them plainly in another place that they ought not to be discouraged with the calumnies and reproaches of the world for if they call the Master of the house Beelzebub the disciples should not think themselves above their Master THERE is nothing in human Nature more tender and delicate than the sense of honour God hath planted it in our Nature to be a spur to virtuous and great atchievments The first Christians did sacrifice even this to the love of Jesus So S. Paul tells us that the Apostles were made the off scouring of all things and our Saviour intimates in S. Matthew that it was impossible for Christ and his doctrine to appear but he must needs meet with slanders libels and reproaches John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking and yet he is said to have a Devil Our Saviour came eating and drinking went to their feasts and entertainments to teach them that are engaged in such meetings the highest innocence and purity yet he is represented a friend of publicans and sinners THE Spirit of the World is so perverse and humoursom that it finds faults with the Christians at every turn for every thing that affronts their wickedness WE are to persist as S. Peter exhorts in well doing and by it to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men Let us live like the Disciples of Jesus leaving our reputation and what else is dear to us to his disposal for we shall one day be vindicated from the foolish and impertinent censures of Men in the view of Angels and Companies of just Men made perfect The hope of this bore up the Spirit of S. Paul as an invincible Rock against the most violent storms Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again from the dead Secondly THE World manifests its hatred by violent persecutions of the persons and interests of the Christians Did not the whole World arm it self with rage and indignation against the light of the Gospel when it began first to shine and the Noble Army of Martyrs forced their way to Heaven by patience and invincible magnanimity How undaunted and fearless did they stand out against the powers of darkness even when they appeared above ground in their blackest and most terrible dress They withstood their fury like so many Walls of Brass resisting unto blood and striving against Sin How inveterate is the malice of the Serpent against the seed of the Woman The Spirit of Persecution smoaks from the bottomless pit and our Saviour told his Disciples no less than that they were to be driven from their Synagogues that they were to be brought before Judges that they should be hated of all men for his sake And this is not so peculiar to the first Ages of Christianity but that all good men have their share of it in all Ages For S. Paul tells us that they must suffer persecution But this is not the only way that the World discovers its opposition to Christianity But Thirdly By its Tentations by its soft sly insinuations by which frequently it trips up the heels of the greatest Saints it lays snares for us in every circumstance of our life what it cannot do by open force it ventures to compass by subtilty and artifice The World is one great Trap and how great a Miracle is it that we should escape the flatteries and allurements of it Since its most plausible offers beat constantly upon our Senses and we lye open to all its assaults on all quarters we are so near a kin to the Earth that it makes easily impressions on us unless we are assured of the victory how could we encounter so formidable an enemy such Armies of Tentations on the right and left hand WE had need to listen to the Apostles exhortation Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Our ground is so slippery our weaknesses so many our strength so small our enemies so active and malicious and the insinuations of Sense so deceitful From what is said we shall clearly see the opposition between the World and the Spirit of Christianity and therefore let us shortly improve this Meditation for our practice First ARE they so opposite one to the other then let us not love the world Rom. 12.2 Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed in the Spirit of your mind Let us not be moulded into the frame and fashion of this World but let us remember we have a more heavenly calling higher nature a more Seraphick Discipline in a word we are to steer our course against the tyde and current of the wicked practices of this World for even in this sense the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Secondly ARE they so opposite the one to the other Let us remember that no man can serve two Masters you cannot serve God and Mammon If you are the servants of Christ you must renounce the World for it is a part of our Baptismal Engagement to do so Where the heart is there the treasure is also if it be glued to the World you must bid farewel to that inheritance incorruptible undefiled eternal in the heavens Thirdly IS the World so opposite to the designs of our Religion Let us fly beyond it in our thoughts and meditations Let us frequently steal out of the noise and hurry of its incumbrances and confusions and dwell in those Regions where there is nothing but peace and harmony where the Celestial Choiristers tune their Harps and run divisions in the joyful Praises of their Maker and to be sure nothing hath a greater tendency to make us victorious over the World than the frequent flights from its noise and cares And this leads me to the Second Particular that I design to speak to which is That the Saints shall certainly overcome the World notwithstanding of its bitterness and oppositions against them and this I will make good if we consider 1. The Promise of God for our conduct and direction 2. The Victory and Triumph of Jesus Christ as our Head and Mediator 3. The Strength and Energy of the Divine Nature 1. THE Promise of God for our Conduct and Assistance He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake
should be the instruments of unrighteousness To this purpose the Apostle exhorts Rom. 10 v. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And again 1 Cor. 6. v. 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ How clear and solid is the Consquence v. 20. You are bought with a price wherefore glorifie God in your bodies and in your spirits which are Gods It was on this Consideration again that he exhorts the Thessalonians 1 Epist 4. v. 4. That every one should know how to possess his vessel the Tabernacle where the Soul dwells in sanctification and honour THE Nimbleness and strength of the body is not to be prostituted to Sloath Idleness and Luxury those Vices thwart the design of God cross the purposes of our Creator baffle and affront the kindness of our great Benefactor Therefore we are taught by the curious Fabrick of our Bodies to remember that God takes special notice how we employ them Psal 494.9 Vnderstand O ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise he that planted the ear shall he not hear and he that formed the eye shall he not see LET me add to this that God is to be worshipped with the Body as with the Mind For he made both redeemed both and will glorifie both I need not prove this it were a reflection on the Gravity of my Hearers to offer at any proof of that nature But there are amongst us who have banished the Worship of the Body out of our Churches to bow their knees or to stand upright at some of the more solemn pieces of Worship is thought Superstition and they measure the Purity of Religion by its Rusticities and Undecencies and think that they are never got far enough from Rome unless they oppose all the decent Customs of the civilized World As if the Eternal Majesty of Heaven were to be approached contrary to the Custom of all Nations the Devotion of all Churches and the common Sense of all Mankind THE Devotion of such resembles the Superstition of those Pagans that Strabo mentions that offered none of the Flesh of their sacrifices unto their Gods but affirmed that the Gods were contented with the Blood only as if they had no regard to the Externals of their Worship The behaviour of some of us in the time of God's worship would not become us in the presence of our Governours But customary and universal Faults are not so easily reformed and some of them the more they are reproved the more incurable they become Secondly IS the Body so curiously framed Is this brittle and mortal Edifice so artificially reared Are there such prints of the Finger of God on this Tabernacle even whilst we are here then judge what it will be when it is raised from the dust when it shakes of the dishonours of the grave and appears with its Robes of Light when this unwieldy clog of Flesh and Blood is made pure and aerial nimble enough to vie with the swiftest Angels and fly with ease in the regions of Glory when we shall be all Life Light Spirit and Wing fellow sharers of Angelical Pleasure Now the earthly Tabernacle drags and pulls down the Soul to low and despicable Enjoyments then the Body is made strong and refined to comply with the highest Capacities and Inclinations of the Mind WE shall mount aloft from the Earth unto the Air where his imperial Throne is erected We shall shine ass the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever when we are got loose from the Prisons of the Grave and the Fetters of Corruption knockt off but now in our present state how hard is it for us to raise our thoughts to the Liberties of the Sons of God! WHEN we have our feet upon the top of Mount Zion when we see the Glories and Empires of this little Globe below us and we our selves beyond Danger and Temptation far above its frowns and flatteries How will our Souls be transported to find their Garments lighter and our selves encircled in the arms of Divine Love and instead of this lumpish Clay this load that damps and depresses our Spirits the weight that holds them in fetters and captivity we shall then be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and the shackles of our bondage broken to pieces THE very thoughts of this pure and Angelick state if they dwelt seriously upon our spirits might crack the strings that tie our Souls to our Bodies to think that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is WE cannot express the glory of the Body after the Resurrection better than in the language of the Scriptures There is one glory of the sun another of the moon and another glory of the stars so also is the Resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption raised in incorruption 't is sown in dishonour raised in glory 't is sown in weakness raised in power 't is sown a natural body raised a spiritual body Thus we are told by the same Apostle to the Philippians that he shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like his glorious body by the power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself With what confidence then may we lay them down in their grave since we are sure to receive them again pure and incorruptible beyond the Weaknesses and Indispositions of their former Captivity The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice we may triumphantly apply to our selves that place in the book of Job 19.25 I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Thirdly ARE our Bodies such curious Representations of his Wisdom and Skill then we should treat them honourably and decently after the Soul is departed The first Christians had a great care that the poorest of their number should be handsomly interr'd and many times did they dress the bodies of the meanest Christians with costly Ointments and odoriferous Spices that they might do honour to the human Nature and testifie their hope of the Resurrection that the dear Companions of the Soul might be decently treated and laid in their graves as in their safe repositories until the general summons of the Arch-Angel awakened them WHEN their Enemies observed their great care of the Bodies of the Martyrs to do the Christians despite they burnt the Bodies of their dead and scatter'd their Ashes in the Sea lest the Christians might have the satisfaction of doing the common offices of humanity to their deceas'd Relations Certainly the Bodies of the dead should be preserved from all rude Affronts and