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
she least feares up goes the broom down goes the Spider and web and all and are troden in the dust and there is an end of her pride So it is with the greatest of them that are without Christ when they have seated themselves in the highest roomes the world can afford anon when they least think upon it God sends his broom of death and sweeps them downe into the pit of hell and destruction What was that Lucifer the sonne of the morning Nebuchadnezzar which did advance himselfe above the starres of God and other Potentates of the world Aegyptians Assyrians Chaldeans but as it is said of them of the old world that occasioned the flood great Gyants or as Nimrod is called mighty hunters before the Lord or as the Scripture phraseth them Swords Syths Flayls Axes Hammers Rods wherewith God whipped his children for their disobedience and then cast them into the fire Attila that great scourge of Europe in his time who was wont to boast that the stars did fall from Heaven at his presence and that he made the Earth to tremble wheresoever he came Or Tamberlane the terrour of Asia who led a million of Souldiers against his Enemies what were they but as they stiled themselves the one Flagellum Dei Gods whip the other Ira Dei Gods wrath Neither of the two was Filius Dei a sonne of God Or to speak of present times what is the great Mogor of the Indians or the Cham of the Tartars or Sophi of the Persians or grand Signior of the Turks but Gods hang-men and bondslaves not worthy to lick the dust of the feet of the poorest Christian that endures bondage and miserable captivity under them It s a world to see how many will stand upon their Gentry and busie their braines in deriving themselves from some ancient stock How doth Bonfinius bestir himselfe in deriving Matthias King of Hungarie a man of meane discent if you except his father John Hunniades from the Corvini amongst the old Romans leaning altogether upon improbable conjectures And how do many of no great ranck busie their wits in deriving their discents from the Normans as did Ajax from Jupiter the olde Italians from the Aborigines the Aegyptians from the Earth the Arcadians from the Moone How farre they can climbe this ladder I cannot precisely define Certain it is that the ancientest sirname we have is but of yesterdayes breâ—d in respect of true antiquity and he that is proudest of his Parentage and stands most of the antiquity of his house if he will take pains to climb the line of his discent he may within a few hundreds of yeares run his name out of breath But say that every ordinary Gentleman could derive his Pedigree from the first of his Nation the English from the Saxons or Normans the Spaniard from the Goths or Vandals the French from the Franci or Burgundians c. What were these at their first coming and others which like a generall deluge after the removing of the Emperours seate into the East overflowed these Western parts of the World but godlesse graceless cruel Pagans that usurped other mens rights and reaped where they had not sown Imagine and it s but an imagination thou couldst without interruption derive the line of thy pedigree from Adam what canst thou find there but shame unlesse thou shouldst climbe a degree further as Luke doth in the genealogie of Christ The sonne of Adam the sonne of God What is the ancientest in any Pedigree to him that is called The ancient of dayes Dan. 17. 13 And what is a dead stock unto the living God This this is the specifical Form which gives nomen and esse to a right Gentleman to have God for his Father to have the Almighty the Summum genus and top of his Kinne And without this all Gentry how ancient soever is but losse and drosse and dung and guilded vanity and golden damnation or to give it a milder name it 's but a grace of flesh or as wee commonly call it it s but blood And what is the best blood of it selfe if flesh and bones and nerves and spirits and a soul be not added to make it a perfect man No more is parentage if vertue and grace and religion and other habiliments of body and mind be wanting But now as a sanguine complexion is the fairest and best of all when all the parts and members are correspondent so Gentry when it is adorned and beautified with Religion and other graces from above gives the greatest lustre I may speak of it as Solomon speaks of old age when it is found in the way of godlinesse It 's a Crowne It 's like apples of gold in pictures of silver Quale manus addunt ebori decus aut ubi flavo Argentum pariusve lapis circumdatur auro Like a picture of Ivory curiously set forth by the hand of a skilfull Artificer or like a ring of pure gold beset with a precious Diamond Or like the Kings daughter which was not only outwardly adorned with a vesture of gold but which is better All glorious within Vertue in a meane person is like a Candle under a bushell it gives light to him that hath it but brings little help to others but in a Gentleman it 's like a Taper set up in the midst of a room or like a Beacon upon a hill it gives direction to all that come neer Happy are those Kingdomes Et multos habet Sparta tales Gods name for ever be blessed for it this Kingdome hath many such in whom goodnesse equalizeth greatnesse and like stars of the first and second magnitude as they exceed others in bulk and substance so do they also in light and influence Cato said that the people of Rome were like a flock of sheep let the Shepheard single out one and he will hardly drive it but put them together the greatest will lead the way and the rest will follow Christs Church is a flock of sheep had this poor Country many such Bel-weathers to lead the way it would prove no small case to the Lords Shepheards for driving of the rest into the greene pastures of the Lord that are beside the waters of comfort But if Religion and grace be wanting a man be his parentage never so ancient his Lands and Lord-ships his Honours and Preferments never so great is but like matter without forme like Apuleius his golden Animall or like Polyphemus without an eye And here I cannot choose but censure those for degenerous spirits unworthy the name they bear who think themselves in all points compleat Gentlemen Si venaticam noverint si in alea fuerint damnabilius instituti si corporis vires ingentibus poculis commonstrent c. If they can discourse about Horses Hawks Hounds If they can hunt skilfully and dice damnably and drink profoundly and sweate prophanely and spend riotously and make their recreation their vocation without doing any service to God
Bishoprick in respect of Christ the Bishop of our Soules 1 Pet. 2. 25. The sole oecumenicall and universall President of the whole Church So then as there are many Beames proceeding from the same Sun yet one Sun in which they are United many branches growing from one Tree yet one roote wherein they are conjoyned many Rivers yet one Sea wherein they all meet many lines in a circle but one Center wherein they all concur So the Members of Christs Church though in respect of themselves they be divers yet they have all but one beginning one Spring one roote one Head one Center and in this respect all but one as one in respect of the Head so in respect of the Spirit which animateth every Member thereof This is the soule that informs the whole Church it is that Intellectus agens of which Philosophers have so much dreamed which is Vnas numero in every Member of Christs mysticall Body So that as the integrall Members of mans Body though of themselves they be specifically distinct flesh bones nerves muscles veines arteries c. Every one of them having a peculiar essentiall and specificall form yet being informed with one humane Soule they are but integrall parts of the same man So all Christians in the World though in sex and state and degree and calling and Nation and language they be different yet being regenerated and animated with the same spirit they are but integrall Members of one and the selfe same Church 3. One in respect of Faith and Religion and profession contained in the sacred volume of the Bible the two Brests of the Church out of which Christs Lambs do suck the sincere Milke of the word that they may grow thereby The two Cherubims that with mutuall counterview do face the mercy Seate that is Christ the two great lights that inlighten the World the old like the Moon to rule the night the new like the Sun to rule the day that for the Patriarks this for us the two Pillars to leade us from Egypt to Canaan the old of a Cloud dark and obscure in figures and shadowes the other of fire bright and cleare both of them making one and absolute rule of our faith and profession she is then one because one spirit quickeneth her one because one rule directeth her that is the essentiall form this is the proper passion flowing from this form by which the Church a Posteriori may be demonstrated For they are my Sheep saith Christ which heare my voice John 10. 27. thus then briefly one Spouse one love one Dove one Body one Fleece one Arke on Spirit one Faith one Religion one Head one Shepheard one Flock Here to come to so me application give me leave to use the Apostles protestation I say the truth in Christ Jesus Ilye not my conscience bearing me witnesse in the Holy Ghost that I have great heavinesse and continuall sorrow in my heart and with the Prophet Jeremy could wish that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weepe day and night for the Schismes and divisions that are at this day in the Christian world There was a time there was Woe worth that unhappy Tense there was but Est bene non possum dicere dico fuit I cannot say there is I must needs speak as it is There was a time when the whole Church of God in all places of the world was of one heart and one minde of one accord and of one judgment And howsoever there was and ever will be some difference about some circumstances of no great weight yet was there not the least discrepance amongst them in any one essentiall point of our faith Vna agebat in omnibus membris divini spiritus virtus erat omnibus anima una fidei propositum idem divinitatis celebratio omnibus una Euseb lib. 10. hist Eccl. Chap. 3. in somuch that as when any member of the body is ill affected all the rest do conspire to cure it or when a house is set on fire the whole town will run to quench it So if any heresie happened to spring in any part of the World their common desire was to crush the serpents head to make it like Ionas his gourd of short continuance and to smother it in the birth and make it like the untimely fruit of a Woman which perisheth afore it see the Sun they did conspire to heale the affected member and did concu to stay the flame from further combustion Thus did they from the most parts of the world concur at Nice against Arius at Constantinople against Macedonius at Ephesus against Nestorius at Chalcedon against Entiches Thus was the head of Britaines snake as Prosper Aquitanus tells Pelagius crushed by provinciall Synods in most places of Christendome And long before these times when as yet there was not a Christian Emperour thus they dealt with Montanus in many of their Synods And at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus they met from all Churches under Heaven as it were against a common theife that stole the Sheep out of Christs flock But now O times the one and undivided spouse of Christ is like a Traytor drawn and quattered the North and the South the Orient and the Occident each differ from other in sundry materiall and essentiall points of Faith And here in the West that Church whose faith was once famous through the whole world which was as a Beacon upon an hill a guide for all the Churches round about her a Sanctuary for orthodoxall exiles one of the four Patriarchicall Seas and that in respect of place and order the first the Empresse of the World the Glory of Kingdomes the pride and beauty of Nations the faithfull City is so estranged from the Bridegroomes Voice and hath so depraved the purity of Christian religion both by loosing of her own and the taking in of Forraine water that as one sayd of Athens we may say of Rome thou mayst seeke Rome in Rome and canst not finde it being become like unto one of the old Aegyptian Temples beautifull without and Cats and Ratts and Crocodiles adored within And whereas shee hath no more reason to be called Catholike then the old Mahometans to call themselves Saracens then the Jewes had to call Herod that was ready to be eaten with wormes a God then the Persians that were shortly afterslaine by the Romans to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then Manes had to stile himselfe an Apostle of Jesus Christ then Celsus the Heathen Philosopher to entitle his Books written against Christian Religion the word of truth or Drunkards to be tearmed good fellowes or light housewives honest women having made the rule of her faith like Glaucus the Sea which loosing some part of his Body by beating upon Rocks and shelves hath the same repaired by rocks and sand that cleave to him yet must shee be called the only Catholike Church of
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
the way The third was Lazarus and he was dead stinking in his grave and Christ raised him there Saint Austin doth thus moralize the stories ista tria genera mortuorum sunt tria genera peccatorum c. These three kinds of dead men are three kinds of sinners whom our Saviour doth daily raise from death unto life These are those that be dead in the house these be they that have conceived sinne in their hearts but have not actually committed the same he feare dead in the house for there is no sinne no not the least exorbitant thought of its own nature venial but he that raised Iairus daughter will upon their repentance raise these the second sort are those that are dead in the way these are they that have conceived sins in their souls and actually committed the same these are in the way to be buried in Hell but he that said to the widdows sonne of Naim young man arise is able and willing upon their repentance to raise these The third are those that with Lazarus lye stinking in the grave these are they that have not onely conveyed sinne in their hearts and actually committed the same but by long continuance have got an habit of sinning and continued custome like a great stone is laid upon their graves the case of these men is fearefull but he that said Lazarus come forth is able and readie if they lay as deep as Hell upon their serious repentance to raise these Non haec dico fratres saith he ut qui vivunt vivant sed ut qui mortui sunt revivificant I speak not these thiâ—gs Brethren that those that live in sin may be incouraged to continue therein but that those who are dead in sinne may be revived well then let us be sorry with Judas let us make confessâ—ion with Judas let us make fatisfaction with Judas but let us never despaire with Judas be our sins never so hainous for there is no more proportion between our sins and Christs merits apprehended by faith then there is to use Tullies phrase inter Sillam muriae mare Aegeum between a drop of brine and the Aegean nay the whole Ocean Sea For as Rahab the Harlot was saved by reason of a red thred which was tied to her window when Jericho was destroyed so be thou ten thousand times worse then ever Rahab was if the red thred of Christs bloody passion be tyed to the window of thy heart by faith doubt not but thou shalt be saved though not Iericho but the whole world should be destroyed But without this faith our legal sorrow will availe nothing our confession nothing our satisfaction will profit nothing for as a plaster be it never so excellent if as soone as it is laid upon a sore it be wiped off will not heale the sore and as a potion be it never so precious if as soone as it be drunke it be vomited up again will not 〈◊〉 he inward maladies that are in a mans bodie So the precious plaster of Christs merits will not heal the wounds of our soules if it be wiped off by unbeliefe nor will the Soveraign potion of his merits cure our inward maladies if they be vomited up by incredulitie I have read somewhere of a Lacedemonian who riding on his way hapned to finde a dead man and not knowing perfectly that he was dead he alighted from his horse to trie whether he could make him stand when he could not but the dead fell sometime this way and sometime that he said to himself deâ—st profecto aliquid intus there is something wanting within that should keep him up he said truly for his soul was wanting a man without faith be he never so sorrowfull for his sinnes make he never so ample a confession of them be he pressed even to the mouth of hel with a dolefull remembrance of his iniquities yea though he could say the whole Bible on his fingers ends he is never able to stand in judgement nor to make answer before the Lord in the congregation of the righteous and no marvell for by faith wee stand 2 Cor. 1. 24. and therefore it stands us all upon for the best of as all hath but fidem implicitam I mean a weake and imperfect faith to pray with the Apostles O Lord encrease our faith and with the father of the possessed child Lord I believe help my unbeliefe PSAL. 82. 6 7. I have said ye are Gods but yee shall die like men THere are three sorts of men who if they be faithfull in their places and follow the direction of their books are the chief pillars to support a Christian common-wealth the Physitian the Divine and the Magistrate These three are in the body politick as the three principall parts the liver the heart and the braine are in the body of man The Physitian is the liver the Divine is the heart and the Magistrate is the brain of the common-wealth The liver is called the beginning of the natural faculty it segregateth the humours it ingendreth alimental bloud and by veins sends it into each part of the body whereby the whole is nourished and preserved Like unto it is the Physitian who purgeth the body of man from such noxious humours as whereby it may be endangered and prescribeth such a diet as whereby it may be best nourished and kept in health The heart is called the beginning of the vital faculty it ingendreth the vital spirits and by arteries sendeth them into every particular member To which I compare the Divine For as the heart is the fountain of the vital spirits and the beginning of the vital faculty so is the Divine the fountain and beginning though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of generation nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of radication yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the Physitians terms of the dispensation of the true vital spirit Hee is the means to make thee of a natural man such as the Physitian leaveth thee a spiritual substance The brain which is called the beginning of the animal faculty is the chief commander of the whole it sitteth in the highest room as in a stately palace being compassed about with the pericranium the cranium and the two meninges as so many strong castles and countermures against all forrain invasion It hath the five externall senses as intelligencers to give notice what is done abroad the common sense the phantasie and the understanding as privy counsellers the memory as a book of records But yet it is not idle but is continually busied in tempering the spirits received from the heart which it sendeth by the nerues through the whole body thereby giving sense and motion to every part A fit embleme of a good Magistrate who as he hath his forts and guard and counsellours and records c. so must he remember that he hath not these for his own proper use but for the whole and therefore should bestir himself for benefitting the whole
God of no effect by your traditions So ye shew your selves to be Children of the old Pharises hold on in your courses and fulfill the measure of their wickedness A Sermon preached at the funerall of Dr. Senhouse Bishop of CARLILE Job 14. 14. If a man dy shall he live againe all the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my changing come IF for this lifes sake only the faithfull had hope in Christ they were of all men the most miserable saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 19. For though they be not in distresse yet are they afflicted on every side though not overcome of povertie yet in povertie though they perish not yet they are cast downe though they be not forsaken yet for his sake they are persecuted all the day long and are accounted as sheep appointed to be slain but they know that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up them by Jesus and therefore they faint not knowing that their light affliction which is but for a moment causeth unto them a farre more excellent and eternall weight of glory and that when this earthly house of this Tabernacle is destroyed they have a building given of God that is an house not made with hands but eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. If any man be not fully perswaded hereof I may say to him as Philip did to Nathaniel Come and see Come and behold a lively picture a notable experiment hereof in the speaker of these words who not long before if any men in the world might have taken up Niobe's boast in the Fable Sum foelix quis enim negat hoc foelixque manebo Hoc quoque quis dubitat c. His Garners had been full and plenteous with all manner of store his sheep brought forth thousands and ten thousands in his field his Oxen were strong to labour no leading into captivity and no complaining in his streets his wife was as a fruitfull Vine upon the wals of his house his sonnes grew up as the young plants and his daughters were as the polished corners of the Temple besides this he was so hedged about by Gods providence that the sonne of wickedness could not hurt him And was he not happy that was in such a case But maxima pars est foelicitatis fuisse foelicem the remembrance of a mans felicity past adds to his present miserie For now his Children which were unto him as the Arrows in the hand of a Gyant are taken away by deaths arrow they cannot assist him his goods and cattels the externall complements of his former felicity are violently taken away by the Sabeans his enemies they cannot love him his friends miserable comforters God wot instead of sweet consolations to his distressed soule thunder out such sharp threatnings that they doe increase his calamity and more to grieve him the wife of his own bosome appointed by God as a help for man is now become as Dalilah was to Sampson a snare to him his own flesh like a tinder-box kindling with every sparkle that Sathan doth strike unto it lusts and fights against him yea and God himselfe hath drawn a curtain before his eyes hath his face as though he had quite forsaken him behold now and see if there be any sorrow like his sorrow his Children have left him his goods taken from him his friends revile him his wife entangles him his flesh buffets him God seemeth to forsake him tell me if his hope were only in this life if he were not of all the men in the world the most miserable nothing is left to solace him in this great calamitie but that which the Poet fableth left within the vessels mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some hope remaineth in the crooked and broken vessel which as a helmet keeps him from blows as an anchor holds the ship both sure stedfast that it be not dashed by the winds upon som shelves or rocks as a corke holds up above the waters that he sink not and in a word makes him resolve with himselfe not to be quite dismayed nor utterly discouraged at these calamities which are befallen him being such as are not worthy of the glorie which shall be revealed but with patience to wait when his landlord will come and put him out of this earthly house and cloth him with that house which is from Heaven All the days of my appointed time will I wait til my changing shall come As though he had said the Arrows of the Almighty are in me an the venom thereof doth drink up my spirit and the terours of God fight against mee which makes me I confesse to send forth some unsavourie speeches yet they shall neve◠quite discourage me nor deprive me of my hope which shall be accomplished after this fleshly Tabernacle shall be destroyed for I am sure that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall see him even with these eyes and no other for me and in this hope and confidence I will patiently wait and expect not for a short time but even all the time that my soul shall continue in this Tabernacle which cannot be long for that houre when this body shall be dissolved and the Spirit shall returne unto God that gave it All the dayes c. In which words wee may observe and learne these Lessons 1. That every man hath an appointed time by God which he cannot passe mine appointed time 2. That a mans life is not long before he come to his full period dayes 3. Seeing the time of mans life is limited we ought alwayes to waite and provide our selves for death I will wait 4. We are not to waite some part but all our life long All the dayes 5. That death to the godly and regenerate is but a change or a passage to a better life my changing These shall be handled in their severall order but first I will speake a little of the connexion of this latter part with the precedent part of this verse In the former he proposed this question If a man dye shall he live again not as one denying the resurrection of the body but as I take it as a fleshly man not fully perswaded but somewhat doubting of the truth hereof as in the tenth verse of this chapter man is sick and dyeth and man perisheth and where is he As if he should have said is it impossible that a man shall dye and be turned to dust and eaten up of worms and turned to grasse and goe as it were a progresse through a beasts bodie shall be revived and live againe if a man dy shall he live againe The spirituall man which prevaileth against the flesh makes this reply that though he doe not see any naturall reason for it yet he will believe it and he will defend the conclusion maugre all the premises that can be brought against it All the dayes of mine appointed
dealing holily and hating covetousness and such I hope all are that be here present Now that which I have spoken concerning them that are deceitfull and unconscionable is no more a disgrace unto these and their Calling then it was to Christs Apostles that one of them was a Judas or to the Leviticall Priests that one of them was a Caiphas or to the Sons of God the good Angels Jobâ— that the Prince of darkness the Devil was one of their company Only this one thing let me beseech them to take notice of the better that any thing is the more dangerous it is when it is abused Can there be any thing more necessary then Fire and Water when they keep their proper places displace them remove the fire from the hearth into the house-top and astus incendia volvunt it indangereth the whole Town remove the River out of its Channell into the mowne Meadowes and new grown Corn and Sternit agros sternit sata laeta boumque labores It sweepes away the Câ—râ— and makes havock of all Was there ever Creature that God made more excellent then the Angels and yet those Angels that fell and kept not their first Estate no Creature under Heaven so hurtfull and dangerous as they Come to man is there any calling if ye respect publick peace so necessary as the Magistrate whom God hath set in his own room and stiled with his own name If yee respect the Soule of man so worthy as the Minister if yee respect the health of Body so necessary as the Physitian if yee respect the outward and temporall Estate so requisite as the Lawyer But if these abuse their places if the Magistrate under a colour of executing of Justice practise Tyranny if the Minister for sound Doctrine preach Heresie if the Physitian instead of wholesome Physick minister poyson to his Patients who so pernicious So likewise the Lawyer if in stead of opening and explaining the Lawes and defending the right and standing in the gap that falshood and wrong may not enter he labour to smother the Law and outface the truth and patronize falshood who more hurtfull then he The more you are to be exhorted for you are all but men and no man walke he never so uprightly but he is subject to fall to walke worthy of that excellent vocation whereunto you are called love your Freinds honour the Mighty regard your Clients respect your Fees The labourer is worthy of his hyre But preferr truth and a good conscience before them all and let neither might nor feare nor Client nor Freind nor Fee nor any thing in the World cause you to make shipwrack of a good conscience or to give leave to your tongues which as the Heathen man said should be Oracles of the truth to be Bauds and Brokers for an ill cause remembring that that description which old Cato and Quintilian gave of an Orator as it agreeth to us that are Ministers so to you also that are Lawyers Viz. that he is Vir bonus dicendi peritus and therefore as he must be Dicendi peritus a good Speaker to must he also be Vir bonus a good liver Enough of this To conclude this first generall Point and so to descend unto the second for I will not now trouble you with the other two properties of a Sheep seeing the Dove-like or sheep-like simplicity is a virtue wherwith every Member of Christs Flock must be qualified we are all to be exhorted and let me say unto you with Saint Austine Hortor vos omnes charissimi meque hortor vobiscum I beseech you yea and my selfe with you to avoid hypocrosie and that the rather because it is a sin unto which all Adams Posterity are yea though they be regenerate by the spirit of God in a greater or lesser degree subject To this purpose we are to labour for single hearts because these are the soul of our actions without which well they may have a being yet have they neither life nor moving For as the Body when the Soul is separated from it how comely soever it be in outward form will presently stink and become noysome so all our words and actioâ—s whether they concern Piety or honesty God or our Neighbour if the heart be not joyned with them are but stinking Carrion and filthy Abominations in the Nostrils of Almighty God The second generall Point is the unity of Christs Church she is but as one Flock as the Sheep under one Shepheard though never so many do all concur to the making of one and the same numericall Flock So all Christians though never so dispersed over the Globe of the Earth being fed in the green Pastures of the Lord which are beside the waters of comfort do make but one and the same individuall Church And this the very word it selfe doth imply if we look into his Parentage in the Greek tongue viz. a Congregation or collection of many particulars into one society and city of God for which cause she is called one undefiled Love Cant. 6. 8. one Body Ephe. 4. 4. within which nothing is dead without which nothing is alive as Hugo speaks one Sheepfold John 16 Figured by one fleece of Gideon which was wet with the Dew of Heaven when all the ground beside was dry shadowed by the Arke of Noah wherein eight Persons were saved when all the rest or the World was drowned the Boards of which Arke were conglutinated and pitched together within and without within that she should not loose her own and without Ne admitteret alienam that she should not leake in forrain waters as a Donatist did not unfitly expound it or rather as Austine moralizeth it Vt in compagine unitatis significetur tolerantia charitatis ne scandalis ecclesiam tentantibus sive abâ—ijs quritus abijs sive quae foris sunt cedat fraterna junctura solvatur vinculum pacis August contra Faustum lib. 12. Chap. 14 reason 1. In respect of Christ the Shepheard is one therefore the Flock but one the Bridegroome one therefore the Spouse but one the Head one therefore the Body but one In this respect Cyprian holds the whole Church one Bishoprick not that his meaning is that any one man should be ministeriall head of the whole church in Christs corporal absence that the Bishop of Rome for that were to marry the chast Spouse to two Husbands instead of a faithful Spouse to make her a filthy Harlot Cyprians words wil admit no such Interpretation unus est episcopatus c. And what account he made of the Bishop of Rome which then was a man of better worth then al those Magogs who have possessed that Chaire for a thousand yeares last past it may appeare by this that he contemned his Authority vilipended his Letters opposed his Councell to his his Chaire to his called him a proude man an ignorant man a blinde man and little better then a Schismatick It is then one
with old nor new with new nor new with old nor Schoole Doctor with Schoole Doctor nor Fryar with Fryar nor Priest with Priest nor Jesuite with Jesuite nor Pope with Councill nor Pope with Pope nor one with another nor any with God And therefore as he in Plutarch who when he cast a stone at a Dogg happened to light upon his Step-mother sayd That though it was besides his purpose yet it was not greatly amisse Or as the Printer of a learned Treatise when in stead of Cardinales he Printed Carnales although it was besides the intent of the Author yet was it neither incongruous Latine nor false English So if Bellarmine in setting downe the works and rules of the Catholique Romish Church when he made Vnitas for One if in writing of Vnitas he had over-reached a little with his Pen and added one Vowell more and made it Vanitas though it had been beside his owne intendment yet had it neither been beside nor against the truth this being a proper passion immediately flowing from the principles of that Church and consequently an inseparable mark whereby to discerne her But to leave the Papists and with an exhortation to all to make an end of all Is the whole Church of Christ but one flock then let us all which professe our selves to be members of this Church of what calling and condition soever we be bend all our endeavours nor for our owne particulars but for the peace and good and preservation of the whole even as the members of a mans body which is a fit embleme of Gods Church do not so much tender their owne good as the safety and preservation of the whole and because the bond of this Unity is Peace let it be the care of you that are Magistrates to maintaine peace and of us that are Ministers to Preach peace and of you that are Lawyers to procure peace and of you that are Jurors to conclude peace and let us all with joynt consents pray for the peace of this Jerusalem that plenteousnesse may be within her Pallaces and peace within her Walls peace in matters of opinion and peace in matters of action peace in matters of piety and peace in matters of equity peace with God and peace with our selves and peace with all men remembring that God himselfe is called the God of peace and his Gospell the Gospell of peace and his naturall Son the author of peace and his adopted Sons the children of peace But especially let me intreat yea and as an Embassadour of Jesus Christ charge you that are Magistrates of our Countrey Justices of the peace to make your practice agree with your names I use this exhortation the rather because I may use the same words to you which the Apostle did to the Corinthians It hath been certainely declared unto me that there are contentions among you and one saith I am Pauls another I am Apollos Who is Paul or who is Apollos but the servants of Christ and members with you of the same body let no man so respect one particular member as that he neglect the whole the whole Church militant and so every particular Church is like unto that Ship wherein Paul sayled under the Roman Centurion from Sidon towards Rome Caelum undique undique pontus Shee is amidst a glassie Sea every where beset with dangers Vna Eurusque Notusque ruunt The ayre thunders the winds blow the raine falls the Sea rageth the waves rise and beat upon the Ship Exoritur clamorque virum stridorque rudentum the ropes crack the men cry they are carryed up to the Heaven and downe againe into the deepe so that their soules even melt within them What must be done in this case Every man must shift for himselfe and his freind and leave the Shipp to the mercilesse Seas or as Parnus his Marriners did fall together by the eares about a rotten Shipp-board and hurt and wound and disgrace and displace one another No no but the Centurion must command the Pilot must guide the Compasse Paul must preach the Marriners must row every man in his place all private respects set aside must labour to bring the Ship to Land Let me then with the blessed Apostle beseech you that all injuries forgotten all wrongs forgiven all factions abandoned all contentions and discords buryed yee walke as the Elect of God holy and beloved put on tender mercy kindnesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse long suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrell to another even as God for Christs sake forgave you and above all things put on Love which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in you and the God of peace shall be with you Once againe for conclusion of all let me with the same Apostle exhort you if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any compassion and mercy fulfill my joy my joy nay your owne joy and the joy of all Gods Elect children that yee be like minded having the same love that nothing be done through contention and vaine glory but that in meeknesse of minde every man esteem better of another then of himselfe supporting one another through love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace being of one heart and one soule of one accord and one judgement even as the Church whereof we professe our selves to be members is but one Flock and the Governour of this Flock but one Shepheard and the milke of this Flock one Word and the soule of this Flock one Spirit and the inheritance of this Flock one Kingdome and that I may neither add to nor detract from the Apostles words As there is one hope of our Vocation one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all which is above all and through all and in us all consider what I say and the God of Gods give you wisedome to know and a conscionable endeavour to put in practise that which hath been sayd The second Sermon LVKE 12. 32. Feare not little Flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure c. CYRVS when he went against Babylon falling in his way upon Gyndes a Navigable River for his more speedy dispatch he caused it to be cut into many streames and the event was answerable to his expectation for by that meanes he found a safe and ready passage for his Army and Carriages When I first looked upon this River of God in hope of the like event I did the like but the successe hath proved different for whereas I might in an houres space have swimmed it over going in one Channell having cutt it into two streames and divided either into sundry smaller Rivers it hath proved like Elishaes Cloud ever bigger and bigger or like the waters that flowed out of the Temple in Ezekiels vision ever broader and deeper Caelum
the Fundamentals but differ in the Ceremonies and circumstances of Religion that hold with us the substance but as David did to Saul would pull a lap of our Garment and hew down the carved work of our Temple as it were with Axes and Hammers I never thought it a sound Argument that Ceremonies must be abolished because they have been abused for if the abuse should make the thing unlawfull there is nothing in the world which a tender conscience might not make scruple of the Sun the Moon and all the Hoast of Heaven the Earth which we tread upon the Aire which we breath our Meat and Drink which nourish us our Apparell which cover us the Bells the Pulpit the Font the Church and what cannot have been wickedly abused We abridge the liberty of the Church too much if we think that it may not use any thing which the Pope or others misused saith Peter Martyr in an Epistle written to Hooper Bishop of Gloce â—er there being some cavelling at that time between him and Ridly then Bishop of London about some Ceremonies of the English Church the one seeking to abolish them the other to maintain the lawfull use of them yet were they both so far from Popery that he that stood so stiff for those Ceremonies was as ready as the other in Queen Maries daies to spend his best blood in defence of the Gospell Our Elders if not before the Egge was laid yet before the cockatrice of Popery was hatched were of another opinion when they converted the Temples that were erected to heathenish Gods and the reverence which were due to the Vestall Virgins and Idolatrous Priests to the service of the true God And this is the meetest sense that can be taken in the Judgment of any that is not wedded to his owne conceit to take away the abuse and keep the thing we have no commandement to deale with false Religion as Saul was commanded to do unto Amelek to root out good and all that belonged unto it but rather as Joshuah was instructed to deale with Jericho to destroy the execrable things to reserve the Silver and Gold and Vessels of Brasse and Iron for the Treasury of the Lord. It is a pritty saying of Austine non debet ovis pellem deponere quod lupi aliquando eam jâ—duunt the Sheep must not therefore put off his Skin because Wolves are sometimes cloathed in Sheeep-skins Let no man then take me to be a Pleader for such although I must confesse that I have partly learned Judes Rule to have compassion of some in putting difference such as not out of a spirit of contradiction but out of a tendernesse of conscience choose rather to forgoe all worldly preferment then to have the Eye of their Soules their Consciences troubled with the least mote I cannot chuse but lament their cases as he did the seduced Prophet Alas my Brother 1 King 13. 30. and beâ—one the Churches loss as the Israelites did theirs of the Benjamites because a Tribe was perished out of Israel Judg. 21. 6. But now to return to that from whence for mine own excuse I have somewhat digrest that such as neither make any Donatisticall Separation from our Church neither any Rent in our Church but allow and approve as well the Ceremonies as the fundamentall points of our Religion if they strive to sail against Wind and Weather and to swim against the Stream and as much as humane practise will permit to keep themselves unspotted in the World Should in Streets in Markets in Tavernes on Stages yea in Pulpits and Bookes too be branded for Puritans because by their Lives and Conversations they give Evident Demonstration that they are of this Flock for other Reason I cannot give Quis talia fando temperet a lacrimis This shewes that all they are not Israel which are of Israel but woe unto them that call Good evill If thou abhor that beastly and swinish sinne of Drunkenness and either envy against or refuse to be an ordinary Companion to such Thou art a Puritan if thou canst not indure that blasphemous horrible hellish swearing which is so common almost in all Professions that we may iustly renew St. Austins Complaint Et cum creduntur jurant cum non creduntur jurant horrentibus hominibus jurant plura sunt plerumque juramenta quam verba Thou art but a Puritan if thou exclaim against the Chemarims and Baalites of Rome thou art with Elias a Troubler of Israel inclining to Puritanisme if thou make a Conscience of keeping the Sabboth and call it a Delight to consecrate it as glorious to the Lord as thou art commanded Isa 58. 13. Hic nigrae succus loliginis haec est aerugo mera it is a strong strain of a Puritan Hereupon it falls out that as of old Arius for avoiding of Sabellianisme fell into a more dangerous Heresie and Eutiches for fear of Nestorianisme defended a contrary but worse Errour And Pelagius out of dislike of Manichisme founded a proper heresie of his own So many amongst us verifying Horace his Verse In vitium ducit culpae fuga si caret arte like unskilfull husbandmen who going about to make straite a crooked peice of wood bend it so far the other way that instead of striaightning of it they break it for avoiding of Puritanisme fall into more pernicious Erours then either the old or new Catharists ever maintained to wit Papisme Neutralisme and Libertinisme and Epicurisme and Arminianisme and Atheisme They care not what they be so they be not counted Puritans Hos populus ridet multumque torosa juventus The name is so generally derided they cannot indure it Thus then it hath been thus it is at this day and thus no doubt it will be in times to come they that are in the sight of God the dearest shall commonly in the eyes of men be of little and base account The Reason of this Proposition are cheifly two The first ariseth from the difference of Judgment between the World and the Sons of God The second from the enmity and Antipathie of the Serpents Seed against the Womans For the first Gods Wayes are not as Mans Wayes nor his Thoughts as mans Thoughts The Wisdome of the World is foolishnesse with God and the Wisedome of God to a naturall man seems foolishness The reason is because a naturall man cannot perceive the things of the Spirit of God such knowledge is too wonderfull and excellent for him he cannot attain unto it he wants a Spirituall Eye to discern Spirituall things The Milesians objected to Thales that the Study of Astronomie and other liberall arts was idle and fruitlesse because it commonly fell out that those that study them the most were the poorest and when the same of Aristotle his learning was spread abroad through all the Regions of Greece many desirous to be acquainted with that which they heard by Report from others flocked to Athens to hear him read a
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
my Lords although the one of you is known to me but Ex auditu but being such as John gives of Demetrius I may speak to you both as I concluded my speech to you the last yeare that you may say with that worthy Judge of Israel Whose oxe have we taken and to whom have we wittingly done any wrong or at whose hands have we received any bribe to blind our eyes therewith Now as Plutarch writes of Garlick and Rue that being planted besides Rose-trees they make the Roses smell the sweeter So the corruptions of evill men set by the vertues of the good make them more pleasant in the nostrills of all good men The condemnation of evill is a secret commendation of them The threatning of judgment to the evill implies a promise of reward to them that are good Goe on in the name of God and the Spirit of the Lord even the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of Counsell and fortitude the Spirit of Knowledge and the feare of the Lord rest upon you and guide you in all your Consultations Proceedings and Judgements that Justice and Equity may be advanced Vice suppressed Religion and Piety established Gods name glorified Peace maintained your Duties discharged and your Soules saved through Christ Jesus c. The fourth Sermon LVKE 12. 32. For it is your Fathers good pleasure c. WEe have in it observed four things 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 4. The consideration or cause impulsive and that is nothing in man but the love and will and good pleasure of Almighty God your father is wel pleased The last time I supplied this place I spoke of the first I will now follow the words as they lie in order and leaving that which I noted in the second place to the last as it lies in my Text I will conclude the other two in this one Proposition Our heavenly father bestows upon the members of his little flock eternall life in his Kingdome of glory not for any merit either of Faith or of Works but meerly of his good will and pleasure We do not now dispute whether any being come to yeares of discretion can be saved without faith and new obedience I grant none can these and others be media ad salutem and fruits and effects of predestination to life but the question is which is the Sola causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which internally moves God to do this Here we exclude both faith and works yea predestination in Christ yea and Christ himselfe in whom as in the head this little flock was elected to a Kingdome and ascribe all those to the good pleasure of his will This is the little inward wheel which sets all the rest on work it 's the Primus motor which carries all the inferior orbes Election to Salvation the death and merits of Christ Vocation and the rest with and under it Election to glory is the first link in this golden chain it 's the Primum mobile that carries all the rest with it and for this and so consequently for all the rest we find no praevision either of faith or works or of any other thing for what could he foresee to see in man that is good but what from eternity he decreed to bestow upon him for his prescience in order of nature follows his decree that is he did not decree because he did foresee but he fore-saw because hee decreed things to be thus or thus but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure and will of God And surely this we may see as in a pure glasse as Austin well notes in the very head of the Church Mortal man is conceived of the seed of David by what works by what vertue did this mortall flesh merit that it should be united unto the Divinity that in the very Virgins womb he should be made the head of Angels the glory of the Father the only begotten sonne of God the righteousnesse light and salvation of the world Surely he was not made the Son of God by living righteously but it was the Fathers good pleasure that he should be dignified with this honour that he might make his little flocke partakers of his gifts But because we are now about divine mysteries in which we can know no more then the Lord hath revealed in his word let us follow this word as the Israelites followed the cloud which indeed shews the way to the promised Land and as the Wise men followed the Star which led them to Christ and it will bring us into the Kings chamber as a Father speaks Where are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid that we should be holy c. And all this according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1. 4 5. here almost every word is an argument 1. He hath chosen us From whence did he choose us Out of that masse of corruption in which all mankind was drowned and was become sonnes of wrath and bond-slaves to Satan Well then as there could be no merits in them which he past by for if they had merited they had been elected so neither did wee merit why we should be elected but from his good will and pleasure have we obtained this grace 2. Before the foundation of the world Ergo from eternity Ergo not for works 3. That we should be holy Ergo not because we were holy and so the Apostle speaks of faith God had mercie on me Vt fidelis essem not because I was faithfull 4. According to the good pleasure of his will There is the ground and cause of all Our fathers good pleasure Even so O father because thy good will and pleasure was such Adde unto this that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. He hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace Where to our works hee opposeth Gods purpose and grace And not to trouble you with other places that in Rom. 9. where speaking of Gods free election of some and rejection or if you like the word better praeterition of others he sends us to the prine cause of all the pleasure and will of God 1. He instanceth in Ishmael and Isaac both begotten by faithfull Abraham yet one is elected the other left out but because the Jews might object that there was not the same reason of Ishmael and Isaac the one being begotten of a bond-woman the other of a lawfull wife Sarah to whom he was promised before he was conceived Therefore hee brings another instance in Esau and Jacob who though they were both children of Isaac and discended from faithfull Abraham to whom the promise was made In thy seed c. and were Twins of one Birth and in all things like save that Esau was the Elder