shall ever perish Thou art a Souldier in that Camp whereof the weakest in the end shall be a Conquerour Feare not the Lord is with thee thou valiant man Neither tribulation nor anguish nor nakednesse nor sword nor death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus He whose name is Amen the faithfull and true Witnesse and therefore cannot goe back with his word hath promised to his whole Flocke his divine protection and assistance in his Kingdome of grace and will at length bring us to everlasting happinesse in his Kingdome of glory Feare not little Flocke for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome The Third Sermon LVKE 12. 32. For it is your Fathers good pleasure c. HAving finished the former branch the Doctrine we are now to come to the second part the Reason and herein observe 1. The granter your Father 2. The thing granted a Kingdome 3. The grantees Not all Adams sons but the Sheep of this little Flock you 4. The consideration or cause impulsive and that is nothing in Man but the love and good pleasure of Almighty God your Father is well pleased At this time only of the first the Grantor your Father He who hath one only naturall sonne God begotten from everlasting of the same substance with himselfe and in all things equall to himselfe and one only begotten sonne by grace of Conception Man made of the seed and substance of a Woman both which concur to the making of one and the same individuall person of Immanuel the Messiah is if you take the word not personally but essentially 1. A Father of all his Creatures Similitudine vestigij because there is not the meanest creature in the world wherein he hath not imprinted some characters and foot-steps of himselfe in which respect Job calls the Worm his sister and mother Job 17. 14. 2. A Father of the Angels Similitudine gloriae So they are called The sonnes of God John 1. 6. 3. A Father of all Man-kind Similitudine imaginis wherein man was created Gen. 1. 27. 4. Not of all mankind but only of a certain number whom he before the foundation of the world was laid not for any goodnesse either of faith or works which he did foresee for what did he foresee but what he decreed to bestow upon them of his free grace and love pick'd and cull'd out of that masse of corruption into which by Adams sin they were to come and in the fulnesse of time effectually calleth that is separateth from the world and admits into his houshold and familie and makes them Who by nature were dead in sinnes and trespasses living members of Christs mysticall bodie Thus he is a Father of all believers I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 6. 18. The spirit of adoption beareth witnesse that we are his children and bids us cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 16. In this sense our Saviour bids us Call no man father on earth because we have but one Father which is God Matth. 23. 9 and sends us in our prayers to our Father which is in Heaven Matth 6. 9. Thus is he a Father of his little flock And well may he be called Father for what doth a natural parent to his child which the Father of Spirits doth not in an infinite larger and better measure to his 1. An earthly father begets his child and is the cause of his naturall being 2. He gives him a name 3. He feeds him 4. He cloatheth him 5. He protects him from wrongs 6. He corrects him for his faults 7. According to his meanes he provides an inheritance or a portion for him God doth all these to his sonnes the Sheep of this little flock 1. He begets us Jam. 1. 18. For which cause he is styled the father of spirits Heb. 12. 9. This is a meer work of God to which the power of free-will doth no more concurre then a child is a Coadjutor to his father at his natural generation I grant that as in substantial mutations before a forme be corrupted and another educed e potentia materia there are certaine alterations or previal dispositions for making way to this change So in this supernatural mutation when a sonne of Adam is to be made a son of God God ordinarily useth certain previal dispositions The Law and the Gospel are preached the heart of man is shaken with the terrors of the law and cast down to the ground as Paul was at his conversion and touched with feare of punishment sorrow for sinne desire and hope of pardon c. But as those previal alterations are no essential parts of natural generation though preparatives thereunto Nor is there in the Matter any more then a meer passive power for receiving the substantial form so neither are these previal dispositions any essential part of our supernatural regeneration Nor is there in the wil any active but a mere passive power for receiving this supernatural being which is only wrought by the finger of God The Apostles evidences are strong for this point let us heare them we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus meaning that there is no more power in a naturall man for begetting himselfe a new then there was in that dry dust whereof Adam was made for assisting God in the creation of man A naturall man is dead in sinne Can a dead man revive himselfe Could Lazarus when he had been three dayes stinking in the grave move hand or foot till Christ had put his soule into him No more can a natural man so much as move himselfe to a supernatural and spirituall work till God regenerate him and as it were create him anew and infuse into the powers and faculties of his soule a quickning spirit He hath a heart of stone I will take the stonie heart out of their bodies a heart of stone not a heart of iron for though iron be hard yet the heate of the fire will mollifie it and the stroak of the hammer will turne it into a new forme but no heat will mollifie a stone no hammer can beate it out or bring it into a new shape but by breaking it So our hearts are by nature such that they cannot be softned or turned to that which is right till they be broken in pieces and cast in a new mould And again as no water can be drawn out of a stone so no goodnesse can be educed out of a natural mans heart We are by nature evill trees and an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit The Apostle tels us That of our selves we cannot so much as think a good thought That it is God that giveth both the will and the deed And our great Master whom we are
Protestants such carnal Gospellers prove themselves to be sonnes of God when they are matched and out-stripped by the sonnes of Satan when they are matched with Simon Magus in their baptisme and with Judas in receiving the Lords Supper and Pharaoh in hearing the word preached and with the Devill in believing and with Pagans and Infidels in the practise of civill and morall duties Nay when Judas goes beyond them in repentance and Ahab in sorrow and humiliation and Herod in delight in the Word and reverence of the Preacher and amendment of life and Jehu in zeale of Gods glory and Pharaoh in desiring the prayers of the godly and Foelix and the Devill in trembling at Gods judgements Oh pittiful If you should live I speak to them that are such and I doubt there are too many in this place the hearts of most are like this Country climate where they live cold and their brains more subject to Lethargies then Phrenfies If you should live amongst the Turks or Tartars where the sound of the Gospel is scarce heard if you had lived and dyed in those dayes when God gave his lawes to Jacob his statutes and Ordinances unto Israel and dealt not so with any Nation Or if you should live in Spain or Italie where the heavenly treasure is locked up from ignorant men in the closet of an unknown tongue and where no more is required of a sonne of the Church for that 's a term they are better acquainted with then a sonne of God then to be baptized to say his prayers in Latine to hear and see a Masse to keepe fasting dayes and to believe as the Collier told the Devill as the Church believeth you might have some excuse for your selves But now that you live where the judgments of the Law are denounced and the sweet promises of the Gospel proposed now that the Sun doth shine and no better blossoms of righteousnesse appeare in you how can you escape the hatchet of Gods wrath How can you call God your Father or Christ your Brother Shall Judas be sorrowfull and make confession of his sinnes and will not you Shall Ahab and the Ninivites be humbled and manifest their humiliation by fasting and sacke-cloath and tears and will not you be humbled for your sins Shall Herod amend many faults at the preaching of John Baptist and will not you reform your lives Shall the Devill believe and tremble and will not you believe with him Or if you believe with him will ye noâ— tremble with him Shall all these I have named be damned to hell and look you for the reward promised to Gods children the Kingdome of Heaven No assuredly no. I deliver unto you that which I have received from the Lord Except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of all these you cannot enter into thâ— Kingdome of heaven The spirit of adoption is not severed from the spirit of sanctification it 's one and the same individual spirit Holinesse becometh Gods house for ever It 's written over Heaven gates as it was over Plato's School door Let no man that is not a Geometrician enter this roome Let no man that hath not measured his life by the line of the Law that hath not this Motto written on the Table of his heart Holinesse to the Lord presume to come into Gods Tabernacle or rest upon his holy Hill That for the first duty we owe unto God as he is our Father and we his children The second is to our Neighbour For if God be our Father then all we which make profession of that faith which was once given to the Saints are brethren and should live as brethren and love as brethren And how brethren should be affected one to another we see in the members of our bodies our two feet are as it were two brethren one to support another two armes two eyes two ears one to help another the utmost part of the hand divided into five fingers one for assisting and strengthening another No otherwise even by the judgement of naturall men should one brother be affectioned to another Hence in Poets came the fable of Briareus with one bodie and 100. hands and of Geryon with one bodie and three heads by the first was meant fiftie by the second three brethren so linked together in the bands of brotherly love as if they had all been members of one and the fame individuall bodie And he that for his owne particular benefit seeks the losse and hurt of a brother doth as if one foot should supplant and trip up another or as if the fingers of the hand should fall out and one wrest another out of joynt Nay further a brother that forsakes his brother and joynes himselfe into society with a stranger saith Plutarch doth as if a man should cut off one of his owne legs and take a wooden leg in the room of it As their love is the greatest so their hatred if they fall out is noted to be the greatest so that of all others they are hardest to be reconciled For as those things that are glued together if they goe asunder may easily be reunited but a bodie that is all of one peece if it be broken cannot be so fastned againe but you may discern where the breach was When friends who by affections are joyned together if they dissent may easily be reconciled but brethre who are as it were one by nature can hardly be so united but there will remaine some scarre behind for which cause it concerns them to avoid the least occasions of disagreement Now that I may bring that which I have spoken home to my purpose grace is a stronger bond then nature If then naturall brethren should be thus affected one to another how much more brethren in Christ begotten by one father God bred in one womb the Church fed with one milke the Word animated by the same spirit justified by the same faith And this love must shew it selfe chiefly in two things 1. In pardoning wrongs without private revenge If the injury be little forget it if great yet must thou not be Judge in thine owne cause but as children say when they are wronged I will tell my Father so do thou All malice and private revenge lay aside out of a zeale of justice make thy complaint to those who are the Ministers of God to take vengeance on them that do evill 2. In supporting and relieving such as stand in need of thy help As the great stones that are laid in the bottome of a building beare the weight of the lesse that are laid above them or as a bundle of rods bound together to use Seleucus his comparison do one strengthen another Or as when a faggot of grove sticks is laid on the fire and warms and kindles another and that which he hath be ready to communicate to such as want those that are learned to instruct others that are ignorant those that be strong to support them that are
is wronged make complaint rather then to his Father and to whom shall a man have recourse for redress of injuries done to him but to them who are Gods Deputies Fathers of their Countries and living Laws to give every man his owne And if every wrong should be put up with patience it would imbolden such as we speak of to multiply their abuses and with greater impudency to goe on in their lewd courses Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam whereupon the Ephori amongst the Lacedemonians did punish a man that had put up many injuries and never made complaint Nam si primum vel alterum accusasset vel jure vindicasset cateri abstinissent But yet it 's not fit that Fathers of great Families such as our reverend Judges should be molested with the petty complaints of every peevish Boy that is in the house In this case there is utterly a weaknesse of mind amongst men especially in these parts so remote from the chief Coures of Justice that they go to Law one with another As for the Wrangler of whom I was last speaking who makes the Law sometimes a Sword to revenge himself of his Brother sometimes a Coak to cover his theft Surely if that law of Pittacus was good that he who committed a fault when he was drunk should suffer a double punishment one for the offence the other for being drunk then this deserves a double one one for abusing the Law the other for wronging his Neighbour to whom he should perform all duties of brotherly love But I leave him and will end this branch with a generall exhortation As we all professe our selves to be children of one father so let us be affectioned to love one another with brotherly love Rom. 12. 10. Now then as the elect of God children of one father holy and beloved put on the bowels of mercie kindnesse meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrell against another even as God for Christs sake forgave you And let the peace of God rule in your hearts and the God of peace shall be with you O holy Father sanctifie them whom thou hast given unto thy Christ the sheepe of thy little flock keep them in thy name pour into their hearts the spirit of peace and unity That they may be all one as thou thy sonne are one Last of all Is Almighty God the great Judge of the World Is he a Father to his little flocke Here then Judges and Magistrates and the great ones of this World and all those whom the great God of Heaven and Earth hath set over others and stiled with his owne name are to be exhorted to imitate him whose person they beare in this relation of Paternity remembring bring that as they are called Gods so are they also named Fathers so Job a Judge or as some think a King is stiled Job 29. 16. And David speaks to his Subjects as unto children Psal 34. Come ye children Naamans servants call their Master father 2 King 5. 13. And Joseph when he was made ruler over Aegypt was called Abroch that is tender Father and the Philistims called their Kings Abimilech as who should say the King my Father So amongst the old Romans the worthiest of their Senators were called Fathers as Juvenall speaks of Tullie Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit They must then as Jer. exhorts not only abstain from violence and shedding of innocent blood but after Gods example deliver the oppressed from the hands of the Oppressor as much as in them lies shew themselves fathers and protectors of the righteous This God requires at their hands and those that purposely neglect it shall one day hold up their hands and answer for it when the Judge of the world shall sit on the Bench. And this they are the rather to look too because the more eminent their places are the more conspicuous will their faults be if they neglect their duties As a blaine on the eye beseems worse then a wart on the face and a wart on the face worse then a wenne on the back or other part that is not seen That which others may doe great men and those that are in authority may not Quibus omnia licent propter hoc ipsum multa non licent saith Seneca other men may looke out at a window and observe passengers in the streets Sophocles when he is on the bench may not Praetorem decet non manus solum sed oculos habere abstinentes another man may stoop and take up something that lies in his way Themistocles may not Others may weare Sycionian Pantophles but they become not Socrates though fit for his feet Magistrates play Gods part and a Fathers on the stage and therefore have need to remember Jehosaphats rule Take heed what ye doe They walk upon the top of a steep Rock they have need to tread warily And if their places and their names put them in mind of their duties especially of protecting the innocent after Gods example a shame befall those Courts and Magistrates and Advocates too who by the greatnesse of their places think to manage and inlaw the foulest enormities Vbi is qui sedet crimina vindicaturus admittit as Cyprian complains Or as Aeneas Sylvjus once said of the Court of Rome where Justice is made the lure Suiters the fowls Attorneyes and Solliciters the drivers Pleaders the fowlers the Law the net and he that should sit in the gate to protect the cause of the Innocent sits lurking in the theivish corners of the streets that hee may ravish the poore and such as he gets into his net It was a bold but a true Speech of Diomedes a Pirate to Alexander the Great when he was convented before him for Piracy I who robb with one poor Pinace am called a Pirate and thou that dost it with an invincible Navy art called a Monarch I because I robb one private man am called a Theife and thou because thou robbest and wastest whole Kingdomes to which thou hast no right art called an Emperour I by the misery of a few have purchased a name of disgrace and thou by the misery of a great part of the World hast got the Sirname of Magnus If I had thy Navy by Sea and thy Forces by Land to command I should be saluted Emperour if thou wert alone and a poor prisoner as I am the whole World would condemne thee for a notable Theife For in the cause we differ nothing save that he is the worse who doth more manifestly forsake Justice and more notoriously impugne the Laws those whom I flee thou persecutest whom I after a sort reverence thou scornest it was the iniquity of Fortune and want of necessaries that made me it 's intollerable pride and insatiable avarice that made thee a Theife had I more I would be better thou the more thou hast the worse
spirituall weapons I end seeing the Church is like unto the Moon sometimes in a glorious splendour sometimes clouded with Schism and sometime so darkned with the shadow of heresie and superstition and persecution that the eyes of Linceus can scarce behold her Seeing that the Papists at this day cannot compare neither with the number of Christians taking the name generally for all such as professe the name of Jesus nor with the Protestant Churches if we take an account onely of such as understand the Principles of their Religion I see no reason why Bellarmine should make multitude a Note of the true Church or if it were why the Papists should challenge it themsemselves and therefore he may be well censured with a hic magister non tenetur or not a quod haec nota nihil notat it was onely to make up the number of notes that he may number one note Nam cum non prosunt singula multa juvant though they be of little force being severally considered yet if they be all joyntly taken they will prove like Seleucus his roddes or like a threefold cord which is not easily broken Indeed he had need to be stronger then Hercules that could cut oft all the heads of Hydra at one blow but a simple warricuâ— taking one by one may make an end of them before he be wearied for they are like to the tail of Sertorius his horse which a valiant Souldier taking it altogether could not pull off but a poore Skull pulling one hayre after an other had quickly made it bare Secondly doth Gods flock sometimes consist of a very small number then it behoveth thee beloved Christian with greater diligence to trie and examine thy self whether thou be comprehended in this number for as in that universall deluge of waters all were drowned that were not in Noahs Arke so in the great floud of fire which shall be at the end of the world all shall be swept away with a river of brimstone which are not of this flock it is a common saying he shall never have God for his father which hath not the Church for his mother and he shall never be a member of the Church triumphant which is not first of the Church Militant first then thou art to enquire whether thou be of the true visible Church and this thou shalt know by two marks by the true preaching of the word by the right use of the Sacraments for where these two are performed according to the prescript of Gods word there must needs be a true church this is somewhat but it is not all for what did it availe Judas to be numbred amongst the twelve he was in hell before any of the rest came at heaven all that are in the Church be not of the Church there are both good and bad fish in this net there is wheat and tares in this field Sheep and Goats in this fold thou must goe further and examine whether thou be one of that Company which God from eternity elected unto life and in time effectually calleth by his holy Spirit and makes true Members of his Sonne Jesus Christ which is the head of this body whether thou be of that flock which Christ calleth his garden his sister his spouse his love his doue his undefiled which the pillar and ground of truth 1. Tim. 3. 13. the body of Christ Eph. 1. 23. the temple of the Lord Eph. 2. 21 which the gates of hell shall never prevaile against Matth. 16. 18. Here thou must exercise thy wits this must be thy care to finde thy selfe in this little number but how may this be knowne by the cause that is the will and good pleasure of Gods which dwelleth in light that none can approach unto This is a bottomlesse depth who can sound it Never man looked into this Arke and lived busie thy braines about it and when thou hast done all thou canst thou art but like a flie about a Candle which playeth so long with the flame that at length she burnes her wings and fals downe and good reason it should be so for it is enough for wretched man to be of Gods Couâ—t and it is too much to be of his Privie Councell Thou must therefore doe as Theseus die with the Labyrinth thou must catch hold of the threeds end that hangs without the doore and so by winding steps come at length to the first cause Seeing thou canst not know it a â—riori by the cause thou must know it a posteriori by the effect one effect of Gods immutable decree and an undoubted marke to let all others passe of Gods child is Sanctification for as on the one side it is certainly true that without holinesse of life no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. So it is as true on the other side that hee which walketh not after the flesh but after the Spirit is ingrafted into Christ and shall never be condemned So then holines of life is the true touchstone to trie whether thou be of this number but here deceive not thy selfe for there is a verball holinesse and a Pharisaical holinesse and a Herods holines and a Popish holines and an Anabaptisticall holines The verball holines is of such as draw neere unto God with their lips but with their hearts are farre from him as the Prophet speakes the Pharisaical holines is of those which devoure widowes houses under colour of long prayers and such as will not leave a mote on the outside of their cup but never care how filâ—hy it be within The Herods holinesse is of them which will quench the fire on the harth and leave it burning in the top of the Chimney will mend their least faults and let their worst bee marring The Popish holinesse is in observing humane traditions and treading under foot the law of God The Anabaptisticall holinesse is of such as are well perswaded of themselves though without all reason but can never have a charitable opinion of any others they are troubled with a Noli me tangere touch me not come not neare me for I am holier then thou but I say unto thee except thy righteous exceed the righteousnes of all these men thou shalt not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven it is another kinde of holines which thou must have if thou wilt assure thy soule that thou art one of Christs flock it is indeed in the tongue but it proceedeth from another fountaine the heart and makes a man say with David thy words have I hid within my heart that I might not sinne against thee It makes a man have a care to approve by outward actions unto men but much more to approve the cogitations of his heart unto God it strives not to breake off some branches of sin such as may be best forgon reserving the rest but it is most severe against those sinnes which are the sweetest to man because such
must live with the Cananites with the Spouse in the Canticles thou must be as an apple tree amongst the wild trees of the forrest or as a lilie amongst the thornes Let not these wild trees which are moved with every blast of winde by the shaking of their boughes beate downe thy fruit and though the thornes pricke thee yet keepe still a lilies beautie Thou must touch pitch but beware of being defiled with it Thou must walk upon coales beware of burning thy feet though thou lie among the pots among the washpots of the Lord as Moab is called among the vessels of dishonour that are kept for the day of wrath yet must thou be as the wingr of a dove that is covered with silver wings and her feathers like gold Be not like the Apothecarie that carryeth the smell of his shop about him nor like the River Jordan which looseth his sweet waters in the lake Asphalites But like the fish in the salt sea which still retaine their freshnesse passe through the brinish Ocean of this world as Arethusa doth under the Sicilian sea Doris amara suâ—â—â— non intermiseat undam In a word though thou canst not wholy separate thy selfe from the workers of darknesse yet have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknesse but even reprove them rather Nay from such works as much as thou mayest lawfully separate thy selfe for thou wilt in time joy in the latter if thou long enjoy the former it is a matter of some difficulty to be continually handling pitch and birdlime and to have none cleave to thy hands Aristotle noteth it of his master Plato that conversing long with the Pythagorians he learned from them many erronious opinions which afterward he stifly maintained Alexander by conversing with the effeminate Persians and Annibal by living in Capua did abate so much of their former valour that it was doubted whether they were the same men they had been before Julian in profession sometimes a Christian by conversing with Libanius and Maximus became an Apostata To go no further with the examples of heathen men you know that Joseph living in Pharaohs Court began to swear by the life of Pharaoh And the Hebrewes dwelling among the Idolatrous Egyptians which worshipped an oxe did meetly well imitate them for they worshipped a calfe And pitching for a time in the plain of Moab they sacrificed to Baal Peor and ate the offerings of the dead An infected sheep will sooner spoile a whole flock then a whole flock will cure an infected sheep It is no hard matter to change wine into vineger but to turn vineger or to change water into wine Hoc opus hic labor est This is such a miracle as will never be wrought unlesse Jesus be at the feast It is an easie matter to be infected with the plague of sinne If thou remove out of the fresh ayre into the company of contagious persons And though thou be regenerate and the old man hath got his deadly wound yet is there a sympathy between thee and the wicked Thy affections are like tinder ready to kindle with every sparkle that the wicked shall strike in them And sinne once kindled is like wilde-fire it will not be quenched with every kinde of water This poison perhaps will not be perceived at the first yet like the biting of a madde dogge it will never cease infecting thy blood till it come at thy heart Beware then of dogs Avoid as much as is possible such contagious places as are dangerous to infect and keep thy selfe in the fresh ayre where the spirit that quickneth doth blow But whereas thou canst not wholly avoid the company of sinners for as before was said the good and bad fish swim together in Gods net avoid their sinnes hearken unto Solomon My sonne if sinners intice thee consent thou not My sonne walk not thou in the way with them refraine thy foot from their path but contrariwise when they entice thee to evil perswade them unto that which is good Be to them as Noah was to the old world a preacher of righteousnesse as Lot was to the Sodomites who dwelling amongst them vexed his soul with their unlawful deeds as Christ was to the woman of Samaria who by desiring of the water of Iacobs well to quench his thirst brought her to desire the water of life whereof whosoever drinketh shall never more thirst and as he was with Publicans and sinners who refused not to go to their corporall banquets that he might feed them with spirituall food as Iohn was with the Pharisees and Saducees who preached unto them faith and repentance and as Paul was amongst the Idolatrous Athenians who went with them through their idolatrous temples and read the titles and inscriptions written upon their altars but to this end to take a text and argument thence to perswade them to the worship of the true God So much of the person delivering The action followeth deliver 13. Treason is a sinne so odious that even the heathen which were guided but with a glimpse of natures light howsoever sometimes for their own advantage they approved the fact yet they could never away with the author of it It was Augustus his saying of Rimotalchus the King of Thrace which vanted himself for the betraying of Antonie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I may love the treason but I hate the traitour And it was the saying of Antigonus Proditores tantisper amo dum produnt ast ubi prodiderint odi I love a traitour when hee commits the treason but when he hath done it I detest him These speeches though plausible at the first argue corruption in the speakers For if the traitour be evil surely the treason cannot be good The old Romanes could abide neither For when Pyrrhus his physitian seeking to gratifie the Romanes promised to give his master poyson the Romanes made Pyrrhus acquainted with it and willed him to look unto himselfe And when the schoolmaster of the Phalascides children offered to betray those which were committed to him to Camillus his hand Camillus sent them bak again and made his own schollers to beat him This fact of it selfe so hainous is further aggravated by the person betrayed If Judas had betrayed one of his fellowes the sinne had been horrible but he makes it farre worse he betrayeth his master He goes yet further for behold whither man doth fall if the spirit of God do not direct his steps he delivereth him into the hands of his hatefull enemies who came to deliver us from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us He delivereth him to death who came to restore us that were dead in our sinnes to life who to satisfie for our hunting after vanities was himselfe hunted like a Pelican in the wildernesse to satisfie for our carnal and sensual pleasures left the bosome of his
and their knees to smite one against another But to leave these and to make an end of this point Seeing that sinne is such a burden unto our consciences let us take head that we do not load them too much if we were fully perswaded that such and such meats would cause an ague we would willingly abstain from them Now sinne causeth a greater sicknesse unto our soules then is an ague unto our bodies viz a troubled conscience and a wounded spirit who can bear how then dare wee commit it when Rebecca felt the strugling of Esau and Jacob in her wombe she wished she had been barren and said if it be so why am I thus Sinne may be pleasant in getting but it is bitter in bearing better we were barren then feel the pains and throwes before we be delivered of it And if it be so why are we thus Turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur alter Better to give this guest no entertainment at all then discredit our selves with God for harbouring it Therefore before thou do any thing consider with thy selfe whether it be a sinne or no examine it by the law of God if it be a sinne see thou do it not lest afterward thou feel the pain when it shall come into thy bowels like water and like oyle into thy bones When the remembrance of it shall burn within thee like fire and gnaw like a worm upon thy heart perchance thy conscience is so heardned that thou canst not feel nor call to remembrance thy sinnes which if it be so miserable and wretched art thou for without a feeling of sinne and repentance for the same there is no remission to be expectedyet there will a day come when God knowes but certainly it will come when thou shalt find them to be heavier then lead upon thine heart When thy master shall call thee to a reckoning and the day of thy departing cometh then will the book of thy conscience be laid open and thou shalt read such a Catalogue of thy sinnes therein that even then thou sha't plainiy perceive the never dying worm to gnaw upon thy soule and the unquenchable fire to beginne to burn within thee unlesse the Lord in merey shall give thee grace to repent that so thou mayest be saved therefore strive alwayes to hav a good conscience and if thou wilt be carefull that thine eye because it is the most tender and precious part of thy body be not troubled with the least mote Be much more careful of thy conscience the eye of thy soul that it be not troubled with beams of great and horrible sinnes Wilt thou never be sad live well this is the best means to gain the joy and peace of conscience Happy is that man who when his fatal hour approacheth can say with Paul I have in all good conscience served God until this day Verily this will more availe him then if he should conquer the whole world and have all the Monarchs of the earth to cast down their scepters before his footstoole Thus much of the first point his condemnation I proceed to the second his mortification or imperfect repentance He repented himself c. THis repentance was an extreme grief of heart arising from the curses of the law and apprehension of Gods wrath which as it was in Judas so was it in Pharaoh and Ahab and the Ninevites and many of the heathen Orestes and Nero when they had killed their Mothers were exceedingly troubled and wished to be clensed and Hercules in the Tragedy when he had kill'd his wife and children runnes up and down like a madman and cries out that if the whole sea should runne through his hands it would not wash him from that bloudy fact So that this is no part of true mortification yet it is a preparative thereunto The wheat must be threshed with the flayle before it be fanned from the chaffe with the wind and a natural man must be as it were threshed with the terrours of the law before he be fanned from his corruptions with the wind of the Spirit In natural mutations before a substantial forme be corrupted andan other educed è potentiâ materiae certain alterations or previal dispositions are required as necessary for hastning of this change So in a Supernatural mutation when a sonne of wrath is to be made a sonne of God the terrours of the law are required as necessary precedents for hastning this change The law like the shoomakers elson pricks the heart legal sorrowes and fears like the bristle come after and true mortification like the thread comes in the last place Take the elson and the bristle from the shoomaker and he cannot use his thread take legal sorrow and compunction of heart from a natural man and he cannot be brought to true repentance So that Judas goes well thus farre he goes yet further he makes confession of his fault first in general I have sinned then in particular I have been a traytour I have betrayed and which is worst of all I have betrayed the innocent blood If Judas this repentance notwithstanding be damned to hell merciful God what shall become of thousands amongst us which go under the name of Christians and come short of Judas in repentance They are seldome touched with any sorrow for their sinnes but say they be surely not half of that sorrow that Judas was in admit they be come they to the next step do they make confession admit this too come they to a third do they make satisfaction doth the sacrilegious Church-robber bring back again that which he hath wrongfully taken from the sonnes of Levi and say I have sinned doth the bloud-sucking Usurer restore that which he hath wrongfully taken from the poor by sundry practises of covetousnesse and say I have sinned is there any who after that he hath done wrong is sorry for it and confesses his fault and is ready to make amends and say thus and thus have I done thus and thus have I sinned all these are necessary to salvation but these are not all that are necessary to salvation We must go thus farre with Judas but we must not here stay with Iudas Iudas by stepping a foot short got a break-neck fall and is tumbled into the pit of hell We must go a step further and fasten our feet upon the corner stone by a true and saving faith and then our sinnes be they never so many never so grievous shal not bring us to condemnation but though they be as Crimson they shall be made white as snow though they be red like scarlet they shall be as wool We read in the Gospel of 3 whom our Saviour rased from death to life the first was Iairus his daughter she was dead in the house and Christ raised her in the house The second was the widowes sonne of Naein he was dead in the way they were carrying him to the place of burial and Christ raised him in
needs fall and when the Pilot is removed from the Ship the Ship will be dashed upon rocks and shelves and at length sink even so when the Lord substracteth his graces from them they presently fall and plunge themselves headlong into the gulfe of perdition Hitherto may be added that those who have once been dispossessed of Sathan and have begun to imbrace the truth shall of all others be most assaulted by Sathan and to be inflamed with his fierie darts then he entreth in and keepeth possession more strongly then he did before When the uncleane spirit is gone from a man saith our Saviour Christ he walketh through drie places seeking rest and when he findeth none then he saith I willreturne into my house from whence I came which if he find empty swept and garnished ready to receive him then goeth he and taketh seven other spirits worse then himselfe and they enter in and dwell there and the latter end of that man is worse then the beginning Thinke upon this whosoever thou art which hast begun to leave the world and professe thy selfe a scholler in Christs school beware of backsliding all downfals are dangerous be not wearie of well-doing but with the blessed Apostle forget that which is behind and strive to obtain that which is before remember Lots wife when she turned her eyes back towards Sodome she became a Pillar of salt this came upon her for an ensample and is writen to admonish thee that when thou art fled out of the Sodome of sinne which is ready every moment to call for fire and brimstone from heaven thou shouldst not with her looke back but with Lot hasten unto the hils The Poet fableth of Orpheus that with his melodious harmony he brought his wife out of hell but when by the way he looked back towards the place whence she was brought he lost her In vain doth Orpheus I mean the Minister of Gods word by warbling upon the ten stringed harp of the law bring thee home from hell if in the midst of the way thou turne back againe it is to no purpose for Moses to lead thee through the Wilderness towards the promised Land if thou long after the flesh pots of Goshen and account more of the stinking garlick and onions of Aegypt then of the milke and honey of Canaan it is a trick of the most uncleane beasts to returne to their filthiness the dog taketh up his vomit after he hath once cast it up the Sow returneth to the mierie puddle after she hath been once washed The Spouse in the Canticles is of another humour I have washed my feet how shall I defile them I have put off my coat how shall I put it on she is married unto Christ how shall she play the whore with others and so forsake her first love It is not for a Christian to imitate Demas first to make profession of Christs Gospel and afterwards to revolt from it and imbrace the present world or with the Galathians to begin with the Spirit and end in the flesh or to be like King Joash who did uprightly in the sight of the Lord al the days of Iehoida the Priest and repaired the house of the Lord but afterwards becam an Idolatour and slew the Prophet Zacharias Iehoida's son or to be like Hercules in the Poet who when he was a young child overcame a Serpent which set upon him in his cradle when he was come to mans estate he overcame a Lyon and sundrie other Monsters but in his old age he became slave unto Iole a drab who had him at her command whereupon his wife doth thus complain Coepisti melius quam desinis ultima primis cedunt dissimile hic vir llle puer we must not in our young yeares be able to kill a Serpent that wily Serpent who deceived our old Grand-mother and afterward a Lyon that roaring Lyon who goes about seeking whom he may devoure and in the end fall in love with a Iole the world Sathans Concubine whereby he seekes to intangle us as the Philistins by Dalilah beguiled Sampson Nebuchadnezzars image is no good picture of a true Christian to have a head of gold and feet of clay a good beginning and a bad ending such sacrifices offered unto Juno are little accepted with Iehovah the first year he offered a golden sheep the next yeare he sacrificed one of silver and the third year one of brasse Such Mandrabuli there are too too many now a dayes of whom the old proverb may be verified young Saints and old Devils like those 2 Tim. 3. 13. which waxe worse and worse deceiving and being deceived first professors and then persecutors first Apostles and then Apostates Trie and examin thine own soul in this point and be not partiall in this examination hast thou sometime loathed the world and the vanities thereof and counted them but losse and drosse and dung that thou mayest win Christ hast thou once abhorred such sinnes as thy corrupt nature is most inclined unto and canst thou find in thine heart to fall in love with them againe To instance in some particulars doest thou delight in swearing and blaspheming the name of God a sinne which thou hast sometime detested hast thou sometime had a longing and hungring desire after the word of God and dost thou now not greatly thirst after it nor esteeme more of his Ministers then of other men doest thou now take pleasure in dallying and wantonness in gluttony and drunkenness in envie and maliciousness in oppression and covetousness or in any other vice which thou hast once forsaken Thy case is dangerous this is a spirituall relapse it had been as good nay better for thee never to have trodden in the path that leadeth to heaven then thus to turne out of the way the more heedfull must thou be in looking to thy steps and in persevering in that godly course which thou once hast begun and not with the Israelites to start aside like a broken bow in the time of temptation nor to be like the children of Ephraim which being harnished and carrying bows turned themselves back in the day of battel Every block that satan can cast in the way of Hypocrites will make them run out of the way as did Balaams asse when the Angel stood before him with a drawne sword in his hand Is the Gospell of Christ ready to be persecuted then there is a Lyon in the way they will walk no further is not the profession of the Gospell like a ladder whereby they may climbe unto some preferment then they will bid it adiew Discede pietas religion be gon haec non successit alia tentanda est via this way proved not so well as was hoped another course must be taken in hand worldly pleasures on the right hand and on the left are sufficient motives to draw them aside they must needs divert out of their course to gather a poesie of these flowers though by that meanes they
time will I waite till my changeing shall come Whence this note doth naturally arise That in this life in the regenerate man there is a combat and conflict betwixt the flesh and the spirit A naturall man of himselfe is like a heavie bodie which in a well disposed medium moveth downwards of it self without resistance he goes downwards without violence nay praecipitat non descendit he throwes himselfe downe as Sathan would have perswaded Christ to cast himself downe from the Pinacle of the Temple and doth not descend downe by staires but a regenerate and spirituall man as he cannot easily fall downe being holden up with the two wings of saith and hope so can he not easily ascend being pressed down by a weighty burthen too heavie for him to beare he is like to the Gyant under Sicily Nititur ille quidem pugnatque resurgere saepe Dextrae sed Ausonio manus est subjectae Peloro Laeva Pachine tibi Lylibaeo crura premuntur Aetna caput Upon his right hand lye presumptuous sins upon his left honour and feare upon his feet and thighs the lusts and affections of the flesh upon his head blindness and ignorance doubting and unbeliefe so that oftentimes the good which he would that he cannot doe but the evill which he would not that he doth or he may be compared to a man that swims against the stream with much ado he gets upward but if he misse the stroke the streame carryeth him back again or to one which ascendeth up to the top of a Hill with a but then on his back much panting and sweating hath he before he can get up and if his foot chance to slip so heavie is the load on his back that he will hardly recover himself without a fall the spirit strives against the streame to swim up to the fountaine of goodnesse and the flesh strives to beat him back and as it were with an easie tyde to carrie him down into the Ocean of sin and iniquitie the spirit strives to creep up the hil upon hand and foot as Jonathan and his armour bearer did between the two rocks Bozez and Seneh when they went against the Philistims but the flesh striveth to beate him backward and to tumble him down like Nebuchadnezzars stone from the top of the mountain so that it fareth with a regenerate man as it did with Rebecca when she was with Child the flesh and the spirit fight and strugle one with another as the Children did in her womb so saith the Apostle Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another so that wee cannot doe the thing which we would which is not so to be understood as though the body fought against the soule or that these two the flesh and the spirit were locally separated for as the flesh is partly spirituall so the spirit is partly carnall these two are mingled and joyned in both body and soule and in every part and facultie thereof In the understanding there is knowledge mixed with ignorance and blindness there is spirit mixed with flesh in the Will there is a willing and a nilling in the affections there is a desiring and forsaking of that which is good as Medea in the Poet had between naturall reason and carnall appetite Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor The reason is manifest For as a Child becomes not a perfect man in an instant but groweth by little and little So after our regeneration when we are new born of water and the spirit wee become not presently strong men in Christ Jesus but wee grow dayly in perfection wee ascend as it were up Iacobs ladder wee climb from one degree or staire of perfection to another till all imperfections be removed from us For howsoever justification be actus individum simul totus as judicious writer truly aver-Justification is an individuall act and admits of no degrees yet sanctification comes by parts and degrees for it fareth with him as it doth with cold water when it is made hot by fire as the cold is by degrees expelled so is the heate brought in by degrees omnis remissio est per admissionem contrarii In like manner as the old man which like the earth is cold perisheth so the new man heated by the fire of the spirit quickneth and reviveth and again as there is a strugling and mutuall conflict and encountring betwixt the the contrary qualities Frigida cum calidis pugnant humentia siccis One indeavouring to captivate and destroy the other so it is betwixt these two the spirit indeavoureth to conquer the flesh but like a naturall agent agendo repatitur it suffereth blows of the flesh which rebelleth against it and leadeth it captive to the law of sinne only here is the difference that two contrary qualities may be so tempered as that a mean consisting of both and not specifically distinguished from both may be produced of them but the flesh and the spirit will never make one and therefore the spirit saith to the flesh as Alexander did to Darius who offered him half of his kingdome so that he might quietly enjoy the other half but as one world cannot have two suns so one kingdom must not have two kings and therefore 't wil endeavour utterly to dispossesse the flesh and depose it from its estate which it holdeth in man as Alexander did to depose Darius from his kingdom it can no more live in agreement with the flesh then Sarah could with Hagar and her sonne and therefore it saith as she did to Abraham Cast out this bond-woman and her sonne for the sonne of the bond-woman may not be heire with my sonne Isaac Of heate and cold may be made one individuall quality which wee call luke-warme but the flesh and the spirit cannot be mixed no Christian may be luke-warm for such will Christ spue out of his mouth Thus you see that so long as a Christian remaineth in this world so long there is a contention betwixt the regenerate and carnall part the flesh which like a Zopyrus keeps within the wals of the City is ever ready to betray him unto his enemies hands it is to him as the Canaanites were to the Israelites thorns in their eys and pricks in their sides so that a Christian may say of it as David did of Absalom Even my sonne which comes out of my bowels seeks my life or take up that complaint which the Prophet doth elswhere it is not my open enemie that doth me this dishonour for then peradventure I could have borne it neither was it mine adversarie that did magnifie himselfe against me for then peradventure I could have hid my selfe from him but it is thou my guide and mine own familiar friend my flesh which eatest my bread that liftest up thy heele against me on the other side the spirit seeks to root out the earthy affections
and lusts of the flesh as the Hebrews by little and little rooted out the Cananites it seeketh to represse this rebellion as David did the plots of his son Absalom Experience we have in the main pillars of the spirituall Temple David a man after Gods owne heart so moved at the prosperity of the wicked that he begins to say that certainly he hath cleansed his heart in vain and washed his hands in innocencie there is a carnall David which make his feet almost to goe and his steps well-nigh to slip but when he goeth in the Sanctuarie of God then he understandeth the end of these men there is spirituall David which makes him condemn his former thoughts and speeches so foolish was I and ignorant even as it were of a Beast before thee Peter who sometime was so confident as to continue true unto his Master that he made protestation that if all should deny him yet he would never doe it presently after he begins to follow afarre off and anon after the rock of Peters faith is so shaken with the voice of a damosel that he begins to curse and sweare that he never knew him but presently again at the crowing of a Cock the spirit is awakened and goes about to take some avengement of the flesh he went out and wept bitterly who more strong in the spirit then Paul was in zeale fervent in labours abundant in nothing inferiour to the chief Apostles and yet he hath given him a prick in the flesh the Messenger of Sathan to buffet him which makes him say when he would doe good evill is present with him and that he finds a Law in his Members rebelling against the law of the mind and carrying him captive to the law of sinne and good reason it should be so for if the spirit should so domineer over the flesh then there were no resistance and reluctation then would we not have an earnest and longing desire to be out of this world we would not with the faithfully say Come Lord Jesus come quickly we would not desire to be cloathed with our house which is from Heaven but would say as Peter did Master it is good for us to be here To end then that wee should long after our future perfection when corruption shall put on incorruption and mortallity shall be swallowed up of immortallity we find this conflict in our own bowels that we may be wearie of this present state and say as Rebecca did when Esau and Iacob strugled in her womb if it be so why am I thus Only here is our comfort that though the flesh be still lusting against the spirit and we have more flesh then spirit for flesh is like to Goliath the spirit is like to little David yet the spirit shall be in the end sure to prevaile as David prevailed against Goliath for though it be little in quantity yet it is fuller of activity as a little fire hath more action though lesse resistance then much earth for it fareth with these two as with the house of Saul and David the spirit like the house of David waxeth stronger and stronger but the flesh like the house of Saul waxeth weaker and weaker it is with them as it was with John Baptist and Christ I must decrease saith John but he must increase the flesh which like John is before it must decrease but the spirit which like Christ comes after whose shoe latchet the flesh is not worthy to loose it must grow and increase and this is plain and of this place for whereas the flesh objecteth that man is sick and perisheth and where is he and again If a man dye shall he live again the Spirit replyeth and puts the flesh to silence All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my changing shall come Is it true beloved Christians That the Children of God yea even in such as have obtained the greatest perfection that a meer man hath obtained in this life there is reluctation between the flesh and the spirit Oh then let as many of us as long after life and desire to see good daies even life everlasting and daies which never shall have an end Let us I say labour to subdue this Rebel and bring it into subjection to the Spirit for it is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh will profit nothing The flesh is like Caligula who as Tacitus saith of him was a good servant but an ill master It will be a good servant if we keep it in subjection to the spirit but it will be an exceeding bad master if it once get the upper hand and it will use the spirit as the Scythians servants dealt with their masters who when their masters had for many years warred in the Southern parts of Europe and Asia in the mean time married their wives and got possession of whatsoever they had and therefore we must use it as these Scythians used their servants who when they could not prevail against them with open war at length handled them like servants and slaves took rods and beat them and so recovered their ancient possessions We must not proceed against the flesh as against an equal enemy but we must use rods and scourges we must chasten and correct it and so bring it again in subjection to its lawful commander It is like the dumb divel which could not be cast out but by prayer and fasting we must implore the assistance of Gods spirit being of our selves unable that we may be strengthened and enabled to overcome it we must by fasting withdraw its food wherewith it is nourished I do not mean only our meat and drink but all worldly delight and enticing allurements to sin wanton and idle spectacles they be food of our carnal eyes these we must withdraw away and with Job Make a covenant with our eyes that we will not look upon wantonness foolish and undecent speeches be the delight of the tongue those we must remove away and pray with David Set a watch O Lord before our mouthes and keep the dore of our lips In a word whatsoever will be an incitement to sin and is like to strike fire in the tinder of our corrupt affections that must be debarred and kept from them Let us then use the flesh as the enemy useth a besieged City observe and watch the by-wayes that there be no intercourse or secret compact between it and Sathan that there be no provision carried by Sathan and his vassals into it that so it may be inforced to yeild it self or as the Hunters use Mole and Foxes in the earth stop the passages that through hunger it may be at last inforced to come out and leave its habitation otherwise if by excessive eating and drinking we nourish it if by gorgeous and costly attire wee deck it if by epicureous and voluptuous delights wee pamper it what doe we but arme our enemies against us and